title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Discipline was harsh and men could be executed, for desertion and ordering a retreat without orders. To maintain morale, the men were often entertained with films shown on outdoor screens, together with musical troupes performing music, singing and dancing. The "balalaika"regarded as a Russian "national instrument"often featured as part of the entertainment. The Soviet regime held the position that essentially sex did not exist, and no official publications made any references to matters sexual. After the Germans hanged the 18-year old partisan heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (29 November 1941), the photo of her corpse caused a sensation when published in early 1942 as she was topless, which ensured that the photo attracted much prurient interest. Unlike the German and French armies, the Red Army had no system of field brothels and the "frontoviki" were not issued condoms as men in the British and American armies were. Venereal diseases were a major problem and those soldiers afflicted were harshly punished if discovered. The widespread rapes committed by the Red Army when entering Germany had little to do with sexual desire, but were instead acts of power, in the words of Rottman "the basest form of revenge and humiliation the soldiers could inflict on the Germans". It was a common practice for officers to take "campaign wives" or PPZh (). Women serving in the Red Army Sometimes were told that they were now the mistresses of the officers, regardless of what they felt about the matter. The "campaign wives" were often nurses, signalers and clerks who wore a black beret. Despite being forced to become the concubines of the officers, they were widely hated by the "frontoviki", who saw the "campaign wives" as trading sex for more favorable positions. The writer Vasily Grossman recorded typical remarks about the "campaign wives" in 1942: "Where's the general?" [someone asks]. "Sleeping with his whore." And these girls had once wanted to be 'Tanya', or Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The "frontoviki" had to live, fight and die in small circular foxholes dug into the earth with enough room for one or two men. Slit trenches connected what the Germans called "Russian holes". The soldiers were usually not issued blankets or sleeping bags, even in the winter. Instead, the "frontoviki" slept in their coats and shelter-capes, usually on pine, evergreen needles, fir boughs, piled leaves or straw. In the winter, the temperature could drop as low as -60 °F (-50 °C), making "General Moroz" (General Frost) as much an enemy as the Germans. Spring started in April and with it came rains and snowmelt, turning the battlefields into a muddy quagmire. Summers were dusty and hot while with the fall came the "rasputitsa" (time without roads) as heavy autumn rains once again turned the battlefields into muddy quagmires that made the spring rains look tame by comparison.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The Soviet Union encompassed over 150 different languages and dialects but Russians comprised the majority of the Red Army and Russian was the language of command. The Red Army had very few ethnic units, as the policy was one of "sliianie" () in which men from the non-Russian groups were assigned to units with Russian majorities. The few exceptions to this rule included the Cossack units and the troops from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who however were few in number. The experience of combat tended to bind the men together regardless of their language or ethnicity, with one Soviet veteran recalling: "We were all bleeding the same blood.". Despite a history of anti-Semitism in Russia, Jewish veterans serving in the "frontovik" units described anti-Semitism as rare, instead recalling a sense of belonging. During the first six months of Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht and the SS had a policy of shooting all of the commissars. Jews serving in the Red Army who were taken prisoner by German forces also received short shrift. During the war, the Soviet authorities toned down pro-atheist propaganda, and Eastern Orthodox priests blessed units going into battle, though chaplains were not allowed. Muslims from Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Volga and the Crimea were allowed to practice their religion discreetly, though—as with Eastern Orthodox—no chaplains were allowed. Most soldiers carried lucky talismans. Despite official Soviet atheism, many soldiers wore crosses around their necks and crossed themselves in the traditional Eastern Orthodox manner before going into battle, though the British historian Catherine Merridale interprets these actions as more "totemic" gestures meant to ensure good luck rather than expressions of "real" faith. One of the most popular talismans was the poem "Wait for Me" by Konstantin Simonov, which he wrote in October 1941 for his fiancée Valentina Serova. The popularity of "Wait for Me" was such that almost all ethnic Russians in the Red Army knew the poem by heart, and carried a copy of the poem—together with photographs of their girlfriends or wives back home—to reflect their desire to return to their loved ones.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: "Political work" done by "politruks" and "kommissars" took much of the soldiers' spare time, as at least one hour every day was given to political indoctrination into Communism for soldiers not engaged in combat. The term "Nazi" was never used to describe the enemy, as the term was an acronym for "National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" (National Socialist German Workers' Party) and the "politruks" and "kommissars" found explaining why the enemy called themselves "National Socialists" to be too confusing for the "frontoviki". The preferred terms for the enemy were "fascists", "Gitlertsy" (Hitlerites), "Germanskie" and "nemetskiye" (—a derogatory Russian term for Germans). The commissars had the duty of monitoring Red Army officers for any sign of disloyalty, and maintained a network of informers known as "seksots" (—secret collaborators) within the ranks. In October 1942 the system of dual command, which dated back to the Russian Civil War, and in which the officers shared authority with the commissars, was abolished—thenceforward only officers had the power of command. Many commissars after the Stalin's Decree 307 of 9 October 1942 were shocked to find how much the officers and men hated them. The commissars now become the "politruks" or deputy commanders for political affairs. The "politruks" no longer had the power of command, but still evaluated both officers and men for their political loyalty, carried out political indoctrination and had the power to order summary executions of anyone suspected of cowardice or treason. Such executions were known as "devyat gram" (nine grams—a reference to the weight of a bullet), "pustit v rakhod" (to expend someone) or "vyshka" (a shortened form of "vysshaya mera nakazanija"—extreme penalty). Despite these fearsome powers, many of the "frontoviki" were often openly contemptuous of the "politruks" if subjected to excessively long boring lectures on the finer points of Marxism–Leninism, and officers tended to win conflicts with the "poltitruks" as military merit started to count more in the Great Patriotic War than did political zeal. Relations between the officers and men were usually good, with junior officers in particular being seen as "soratniki" (comrades in arms) as they lived under the same conditions and faced the same dangers as the "frontoviki". Officers usually had only a high-school educationvery few had gone to universityand coming from the same social milieu as their men ensured that they could relate to them. The "frontoviki" usually addressed their company commanders as "Batya" (father).


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The Soviets repulsed the important German strategic southern campaign and, although 2.5 million Soviet casualties were suffered in that effort, it permitted the Soviets to take the offensive for most of the rest of the war on the Eastern Front.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Stalin personally told a Polish general requesting information about missing Polish officers that all of the Poles were freed, and that not all could be accounted because the Soviets "lost track" of them in Manchuria. After Polish railroad workers found the mass grave, the Nazis used the massacre to attempt to drive a wedge between Stalin and the other Allies, including bringing in a European commission of investigators from twelve countries to examine the graves. In 1943, as the Soviets prepared to retake Poland, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels correctly guessed that Stalin would attempt to falsely claim that the Germans massacred the victims. As Goebbels predicted, the Soviets had a "commission" investigate the matter, falsely concluding that the Germans had killed the PoWs. The Soviets did not admit responsibility until 1990.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In 1943, Stalin ceded to his generals' call for the Soviet Union to take a defensive stance because of disappointing losses after Stalingrad, a lack of reserves for offensive measures and a prediction that the Germans would likely next attack a bulge in the Soviet front at Kursk such that defensive preparations there would more efficiently use resources. The Germans did attempt an encirclement attack at Kursk, which was successfully repulsed by the Soviets after Hitler cancelled the offensive, in part, because of the Allied invasion of Sicily, though the Soviets suffered over 800,000 casualties. Kursk also marked the beginning of a period where Stalin became more willing to listen to the advice of his generals.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: By the end of 1943, the Soviets occupied half of the territory taken by the Germans from 1941 to 1942. Soviet military industrial output also had increased substantially from late 1941 to early 1943 after Stalin had moved factories well to the East of the front, safe from German invasion and air attack. The strategy paid off, as such industrial increases were able to occur even while the Germans in late 1942 occupied more than half of European Russia, including 40 percent (80 million) of its population, and approximately of Soviet territory. The Soviets had also prepared for war for more than a decade, including preparing 14 million civilians with some military training. Accordingly, while almost all of the original 5 million men of the Soviet army had been wiped out by the end of 1941, the Soviet military had swelled to 8 million members by the end of that year. Despite substantial losses in 1942 far in excess of German losses, Red Army size grew even further, to 11 million. While there is substantial debate whether Stalin helped or hindered these industrial and manpower efforts, Stalin left most economic wartime management decisions in the hands of his economic experts. While some scholars claim that evidence suggests that Stalin considered, and even attempted, negotiating peace with Germany in 1941 and 1942, others find this evidence unconvincing and even fabricated.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In November 1943, Stalin met with Churchill and Roosevelt in Tehran. Roosevelt told Stalin that he hoped that Britain and America opening a second front against Germany could initially draw 30–40 German division from the Eastern Front. Stalin and Roosevelt, in effect, ganged up on Churchill by emphasizing the importance of a cross-channel invasion of German-held northern France, while Churchill had always felt that Germany was more vulnerable in the "soft underbelly" of Italy (which the Allies had already invaded) and the Balkans. The parties later agreed that Britain and America would launch a cross-channel invasion of France in May 1944, along with a separate invasion of Southern France. Stalin insisted that, after the war, the Soviet Union should incorporate the portions of Poland it occupied pursuant to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany, which Churchill tabled.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In 1944, the Soviet Union made significant advances across Eastern Europe toward Germany, including Operation Bagration, a massive offensive in Belarus against the German Army Group Centre. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill closely coordinated, such that Bagration occurred at roughly the same time as American and British forces initiation of the invasion of German held Western Europe on France's northern coast. The operation resulted in the Soviets retaking Belarus and western Ukraine, along with the successful effective destruction of the Army Group Center and 300,000 German casualties, though at the cost of more than 750,000 Soviet casualties.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Successes at Operation Bagration and in the year that followed were, in large part, due to an operational improved of battle-hardened Red Army, which has learned painful lessons from previous years battling the powerful Wehrmacht: better planning of offensives, efficient use of artillery, better handling of time and space during attacks in contradiction to Stalin's order "not a step back". To a lesser degree, the success of Bagration was due to a weakened Wehrmacht that lacked the fuel and armament they needed to operate effectively, growing Soviet advantages in manpower and materials, and the attacks of Allies on the Western Front. In his 1944 May Day speech, Stalin praised the Western Allies for diverting German resources in the Italian Campaign, Tass published detailed lists of the large numbers of supplies coming from Western Allies, and Stalin made a speech in November 1944 stating that Allied efforts in the West had already quickly drawn 75 German divisions to defend that region, without which, the Red Army could not yet have driven the Wehrmacht from Soviet territories. The weakened Wehrmacht also helped Soviet offensives because no effective German counter-offensive could be launched,


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Beginning in the summer of 1944, a reinforced German Army Centre Group did prevent the Soviets from advancing in around Warsaw for nearly half a year. Some historians claim that the Soviets' failure to advance was a purposeful Soviet stall to allow the Wehrmacht to slaughter members of a Warsaw Uprising by the Polish home army in August 1944 that occurred as the Red Army approached, though others dispute the claim and cite sizable unsuccessful Red Army efforts to attempt to defeat the Wehrmacht in that region. Earlier in 1944, Stalin had insisted that the Soviets would annex the portions of Poland it divided with Germany in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Polish government in exile, which the British insisted must be involved in postwar Poland, demanded that the Polish border be restored to prewar locations. The rift further highlighted Stalin's blatant hostility toward the anti-communist Polish government in exile and their Polish home army, which Stalin felt threatened his plans to create a post-war Poland friendly to the Soviet Union. Further exacerbating the rift was Stalin's refusal to resupply the Polish home army, and his refusal to allow American supply planes to use the necessary Soviet air bases to ferry supplies to the Polish home army, which Stalin referred to in a letter to Roosevelt and Churchill as "power-seeking criminals". Worried about the possible repercussions of those actions, Stalin later began a Soviet supply airdrop to Polish rebels, though most of the supplies ended up in the hands of the Germans. The uprising ended in disaster with 20,000 Polish rebels and up to 200,000 civilians killed by German forces, with Soviet forces entering the city in January 1945.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Other important advances occurred in late 1944, such as the invasion of Romania in August and Bulgaria. The Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria in September 1944 and invaded the country, installing a communist government. Following the invasion of these Balkan countries, Stalin and Churchill met in the autumn of 1944, where they agreed upon various percentages for "spheres of influence" in several Balkan states, though the diplomats for neither leader knew what the term actually meant. The Red Army also expelled German forces from Lithuania and Estonia in late 1944 at the cost of 260,000 Soviet casualties.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In late 1944, Soviet forces battled fiercely to capture Hungary in the Budapest Offensive, but could not take it, which became a topic so sensitive to Stalin that he refused to allow his commanders to speak of it. The Germans held out in the subsequent Battle of Budapest until February 1945, when the remaining Hungarians signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. Victory at Budapest permitted the Red Army to launch the Vienna Offensive in April 1945. To the northeast, the taking of Belarus and western Ukraine permitted the Soviets to launch the massive Vistula–Oder Offensive, where German intelligence had incorrectly guessed the Soviets would have a 3-to-1 numerical superiority advantage that was actually 5-to-1 (over 2 million Red Army personnel attacking 450,000 German defenders), the successful culmination of which resulted in the Red Army advancing from the Vistula River in Poland to the German Oder River in Eastern Germany.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Stalin's shortcomings as a strategist are frequently noted regarding the massive Soviet loss of life and early Soviet defeats. An example of it is the summer offensive of 1942, which led to even more losses by the Red Army and the recapture of initiative by the Germans. Stalin eventually recognized his lack of know-how and relied on his professional generals to conduct the war.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Additionally, Stalin was well aware that other European armies had utterly disintegrated when faced with Nazi military efficacy and responded effectively by subjecting his army to galvanizing terror and nationalist appeals to patriotism. He also appealed to the Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: By April 1945 Nazi Germany faced its last days, with 1.9 million German soldiers in the East fighting 6.4 million Red Army soldiers while 1 million German soldiers in the West battled 4 million Western Allied soldiers. While initial talk postulated a race to Berlin by the Allies, after Stalin successfully lobbied for Eastern Germany to fall within the Soviet "sphere of influence" at Yalta in February 1945, the Western Allies made no plans to seize the city by a ground operation. Stalin remained suspicious that western Allied forces holding at the Elbe River might move on the German capital and, even in the last days, that the Americans might employ their two airborne divisions to capture the city.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Stalin directed the Red Army to move rapidly in a broad front into Germany because he did not believe the Western Allies would hand over territory they occupied, while he made capturing Berlin the overriding objective. After successfully capturing Eastern Prussia, three Red Army fronts converged on the heart of eastern Germany, and the Battle of the Oder-Neisse put the Soviets at the virtual gates of Berlin. By April 24 elements of two Soviet fronts had encircled Berlin. On April 20 Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had begun a massive shelling of Berlin that would not end until the city's surrender. On 30 April 1945 Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide, after which Soviet forces found their remains, which had been burned at Hitler's directive. Remaining German forces officially surrendered unconditionally on 7 May 1945. Some historians argue that Stalin delayed the last final push for Berlin by two months in order to capture other areas for political reasons, which they argue gave the Wehrmacht time to prepare and increased Soviet casualties (which exceeded 400,000); other historians contest this account.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Despite the Soviets' possession of Hitler's remains, Stalin did not believe that his old nemesis was actually dead, a belief that persisted for years after the war. Stalin later directed aides to spend years researching and writing a secret book about Hitler's life for his own private reading.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Fending off the German invasion and pressing to victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War required a tremendous sacrifice by the Soviet Union (more than by any other country in human history). Soviet casualties totaled around 27 million. Although figures vary, the Soviet civilian death toll probably reached 18 million. Millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians disappeared into German detention camps and slave-labor factories, while millions more suffered permanent physical and mental damage. Soviet economic losses, including losses in resources and manufacturing capacity in western Russia and Ukraine, were also catastrophic. The war resulted in the destruction of approximately 70,000 Soviet cities, towns and villages - 6 million houses, 98,000 farms, 32,000 factories, 82,000 schools, 43,000 libraries, 6,000 hospitals and thousands of kilometers of roads and railway track.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: On 9 August 1945 the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-controlled Manchukuo and declared war on Japan. Battle-hardened Soviet troops and their experienced commanders rapidly conquered Japanese-held territories in Manchuria, southern Sakhalin (11-25 August 1945), the Kuril Islands (18 August to 1 September 1945) and parts of Korea (14 August 1945 to 24 August 1945). The Imperial Japanese government, vacillating following the bombing of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945), but faced with Soviet forces fast approaching the core Japanese homeland, announced its effective surrender to the Allies on 15 August 1945 and formally capitulated on 2 September 1945.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In June 1945 the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union conferred on Stalin for his role in the Soviet victory the newly invented rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union, which became the country's highest military rank (superior to Marshal). Stalin's "cult of personality" emphasised his personal military leadership after the enumeration of "Stalin's ten victories" - extracted from Stalin's 6 November 1944 speech "27th anniversary of the Great October socialist revolution" () during the 1944 meeting of the Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: On 16 August 1941, in attempts to revive a disorganized Soviet defense system, Stalin issued Order No. 270, demanding any commanders or commissars "tearing away their insignia and deserting or surrendering" to be considered malicious deserters. The order required superiors to shoot these deserters on the spot. Their family members were subjected to arrest. The second provision of the order directed all units fighting in encirclements to use every possibility to fight. The order also required division commanders to demote and, if necessary, even to shoot on the spot those commanders who failed to command the battle directly in the battlefield. Thereafter, Stalin also conducted a purge of several military commanders that were shot for "cowardice" without a trial.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In June 1941, weeks after the German invasion began, Stalin directed that the retreating Red Army also sought to deny resources to the enemy through a scorched earth policy of destroying the infrastructure and food supplies of areas before the Germans could seize them, and that partisans were to be set up in evacuated areas. This, along with abuse by German troops, caused starvation and suffering among the civilian population that was left behind. Stalin feared that Hitler would use disgruntled Soviet citizens to fight his regime, particularly people imprisoned in the Gulags. He thus ordered the NKVD to handle the situation. They responded by murdering approximately 100,000 political prisoners throughout the western parts of the Soviet Union, with methods that included bayoneting people to death and tossing grenades into crowded cells. Many others were simply deported east.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In July 1942, Stalin issued Order No. 227, directing that any commander or commissar of a regiment, battalion or army, who allowed retreat without permission from his superiors was subject to military tribunal. The order called for soldiers found guilty of disciplinary infractions to be forced into "penal battalions", which were sent to the most dangerous sections of the front lines. From 1942 to 1945, 427,910 soldiers were assigned to penal battalions. The order also directed "blocking detachments" to shoot fleeing panicked troops at the rear. In the first three months following the order 1,000 penal troops were shot by "blocking detachments, and sent 24,933 troops to penal battalions. Despite having some effect initially, this measure proved to have a deteriorating effect on the troops' morale, so by October 1942 the idea of regular blocking detachments was quietly dropped By 29 "October" 1944 the blocking detachments were officially disbanded.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Soviet POWs and forced labourers who survived German captivity were sent to special "transit" or "filtration" camps meant to determine which were potential traitors. Of the approximately 4 million to be repatriated, 2,660,013 were civilians and 1,539,475 were former POWs. Of the total, 2,427,906 were sent home, 801,152 were reconscripted into the armed forces, 608,095 were enrolled in the work battalions of the defence ministry, 226,127 were transferred to the authority of the NKVD for punishment, which meant a transfer to the Gulag system and 89,468 remained in the transit camps as reception personnel until the repatriation process was finally wound up in the early 1950s.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Soviet troops reportedly raped German women and girls, with total victim estimates ranging from tens of thousands to two million. During and after the occupation of Budapest, (Hungary), an estimated 50,000 women and girls were raped. Regarding rapes that took place in Yugoslavia, Stalin responded to a Yugoslav partisan leader's complaints saying, "Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?"


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: In former Axis countries, such as Germany, Romania and Hungary, Red Army officers generally viewed cities, villages and farms as being open to pillaging and looting. For example, Red Army soldiers and NKVD members frequently looted transport trains in 1944 and 1945 in Poland and Soviet soldiers set fire to the city centre of Demmin while preventing the inhabitants from extinguishing the blaze, which, along with multiple rapes, played a part in causing over 900 citizens of the city to commit suicide. In the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, when members of the SED reported to Stalin that looting and rapes by Soviet soldiers could result in negative consequences for the future of socialism in post-war East Germany, Stalin reacted angrily: "I shall not tolerate anybody dragging the honour of the Red Army through the mud." Accordingly, all evidence of looting, rapes and destruction by the Red Army was deleted from archives in the Soviet occupation zone.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: According to recent figures, of an estimated 4 million POWs taken by the Russians, including Germans, Japanese, Hungarians, Romanians and others, some 580,000 never returned, presumably victims of privation or the Gulags, compared with 3.5 million Soviet POW who died in German camps out of the 5.6 million taken.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Nazi propaganda had told Wehrmacht's soldiers the invasion of the Soviet Union was a war of extermination.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: British historian Ian Kershaw concludes that the Wehrmacht's duty was to ensure that the people who met Hitler's requirements of being part of the Aryan "Herrenvolk" ("Aryan master race") had living space. He wrote that:


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The Nazi revolution was broader than just the Holocaust. Its second goal was to eliminate Slavs from central and eastern Europe and to create a "Lebensraum" for Aryans. ... As Bartov ("The Eastern Front; Hitler's Army") shows, it barbarised the German armies on the eastern front. Most of their three million men, from generals to ordinary soldiers, helped exterminate captured Slav soldiers and civilians. This was sometimes cold and deliberate murder of individuals (as with Jews), sometimes generalised brutality and neglect. ... German soldiers' letters and memoirs reveal their terrible reasoning: Slavs were 'the Asiatic-Bolshevik' horde, an inferior but threatening race


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: During the rapid German advances in the early months of the war, nearly reaching the cities of Moscow and Leningrad, the bulk of Soviet industry which could not be evacuated was either destroyed or lost due to German occupation. Agricultural production was interrupted, with grain harvests left standing in the fields that would later cause hunger reminiscent of the early 1930s. In one of the greatest feats of war logistics, factories were evacuated on an enormous scale, with 1523 factories dismantled and shipped eastwards along four principal routes to the Caucasus, Central Asian, Ural, and Siberian regions. In general, the tools, dies and production technology were moved, along with the blueprints and their management, engineering staffs and skilled labor.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The whole of the Soviet Union became dedicated to the war effort. The population of the Soviet Union was probably better prepared than any other nation involved in the fighting of World War II to endure the material hardships of the war. This is primarily because the Soviets were so used to shortages and coping with economic crisis in the past, especially during wartime—World War I brought similar restrictions on food. Still, conditions were severe. World War II was especially devastating to Soviet citizens because it was fought on their territory and caused massive destruction. In Leningrad, under German siege, over one million people died of starvation and disease. Many factory workers were teenagers, women and the elderly. The government implemented rationing in 1941 and first applied it to bread, flour, cereal, pasta, butter, margarine, vegetable oil, meat, fish, sugar, and confectionery all across the country. The rations remained largely stable in other places during the war. Additional rations were often so expensive that they could not add substantially to a citizen's food supply unless that person was especially well-paid. Peasants received no rations and had to make do with local resources that they farmed themselves. Most rural peasants struggled and lived in unbearable poverty, but others sold any surplus they had at a high price and a few became rouble millionaires, until a currency reform two years after the end of the war wiped out their wealth.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Despite harsh conditions, the war led to a spike in Soviet nationalism and unity. Soviet propaganda toned down extreme Communist rhetoric of the past as the people now rallied by a belief of protecting their Motherland against the evils of German invaders. Ethnic minorities thought to be collaborators were forced into exile. Religion, which was previously shunned, became a part of Communist Party propaganda campaign in the Soviet society in order to mobilize the religious elements.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The social composition of Soviet society changed drastically during the war. There was a burst of marriages in June and July 1941 between people about to be separated by the war and in the next few years the marriage rate dropped off steeply, with the birth rate following shortly thereafter to only about half of what it would have been in peacetime. For this reason mothers with several children during the war received substantial honours and money benefits if they had a sufficient number of children—mothers could earn around 1,300 roubles for having their fourth child and earn up to 5,000 roubles for their 10th.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: German soldiers used to brand the bodies of captured partisan women – and other women as well – with the words "Whore for Hitler's troops" and rape them. Following their capture some German soldiers vividly bragged about committing rape and rape-homicide. Susan Brownmiller argues that rape played a pivotal role in Nazi aim to conquer and destroy people they considered inferior, such as Jews, Russians, and Poles. An extensive list of rapes committed by German soldiers was compiled in the so-called "Molotov Note" in 1942. Brownmiller points out that Nazis used rape as a weapon of terror.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Smolensk: German command opened a brothel for officers in which hundreds of women and girls were driven by force, often by arms and hair.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Lviv: 32 women working in a garment factory were raped and murdered by German soldiers, in a public park. A priest trying to stop the atrocity was murdered.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The city of Leningrad endured more suffering and hardships than any other city in the Soviet Union during the war, as it was under siege for 872 days, from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944. Hunger, malnutrition, disease, starvation, and even cannibalism became common during the siege of Leningrad; civilians lost weight, grew weaker, and became more vulnerable to diseases. Citizens of Leningrad managed to survive through a number of methods with varying degrees of success. Since only 400,000 people were evacuated before the siege began, this left 2.5 million in Leningrad, including 400,000 children. More managed to escape the city; this was most successful when Lake Ladoga froze over and people could walk over the ice road—or "Road of Life"—to safety.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Most survival strategies during the siege, though, involved staying within the city and facing the problems through resourcefulness or luck. One way to do this was by securing factory employment because many factories became autonomous and possessed more of the tools of survival during the winter, such as food and heat. Workers got larger rations than regular civilians and factories were likely to have electricity if they produced crucial goods. Factories also served as mutual-support centers and had clinics and other services like cleaning crews and teams of women who would sew and repair clothes. Factory employees were still driven to desperation on occasion and people resorted to eating glue or horses in factories where food was scarce, but factory employment was the most consistently successful method of survival, and at some food production plants not a single person died.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Survival opportunities open to the larger Soviet community included bartering and farming on private land. Black markets thrived as private barter and trade became more common, especially between soldiers and civilians. Soldiers, who had more food to spare, were eager to trade with Soviet citizens that had extra warm clothes to trade. Planting vegetable gardens in the spring became popular, primarily because citizens got to keep everything grown on their own plots. The campaign also had a potent psychological effect and boosted morale, a survival component almost as crucial as bread.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Some of the most desperate Soviet citizens turned to crime as a way to support themselves in trying times. Most common was the theft of food and of ration cards, which could prove fatal for a malnourished person if their card was stolen more than a day or two before a new card was issued. For these reasons, the stealing of food was severely punished and a person could be shot for as little as stealing a loaf of bread. More serious crimes, such as murder and cannibalism, also occurred, and special police squads were set up to combat these crimes, though by the end of the siege, roughly 1,500 had been arrested for cannibalism.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Even though it won the conflict, the war had a profound and devastating long-term effect in the Soviet Union. The financial burden was catastrophic: by one estimate, the Soviet Union spent $192 billion. The US sent around $11 billion in Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviet Union during the war.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: American experts estimate that the Soviet Union lost almost all the wealth it gained from the industrialization efforts during the 1930s. Its economy also shrank by 20% between 1941 and 1945 and did not recover its pre-war levels all until the 1960s. British historian Clive Ponting estimates that the war damages amounted to 25 years of the Soviet Gross National Product. Forty percent of the Soviet housing was damaged or destroyed. Out of 2.5 million housing dwellings in the German occupied territories, over a million were destroyed. This rendered some 25 million Soviet citizens homeless. The German occupation encompassed around 85 million Soviet citizens, or almost 45% of the entire Soviet population. At least 12 million Soviets fled towards the east, away from the invading German army. The Soviet sources claim that the Axis powers destroyed 1,710 towns and 70,000 villages, as well as 65,000 km of railroad tracks.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The post-Soviet government of Russia puts the Soviet war 'losses' at 26.6 million, on the basis of the 1993 study by the Russian Academy of Sciences, including people dying as a result of battle and war related exposure. This includes 8,668,400 military deaths as calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defense.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: The figures published by the Russian Ministry of Defense have been accepted by the majority of historians and academics, some historians and academics give different estimates.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: Bruce Robellet Kuniholm, professor of public policy and history, estimates that the Soviet side suffered 11,000,000 military deaths and additional 7,000,000 civilian deaths, thus amounting to a total of 18 million fatalities. American military historian Earl F. Ziemke gives a figure of 12 million dead Soviet soldiers and further seven million dead civilians—a total of 19 million dead. He also notes that from autumn 1941 until autumn 1943 the front was never less than long. German professor Beate Fieseler estimates that 2.6 million people, or 7.46 percent of the Soviet Army, were left disabled after the war.


title: Soviet Union in World War II

text: A poll conducted by YouGov in 2015 found that only 11% of Americans, 15% of French, 15% of Britons, and 27% of Germans believed that the Soviet Union contributed most to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. In contrast, the survey conducted in May 1945 found that 57% of the French public believed the Soviet Union contributed most.


title: Tango in the Night

text: Tango in the Night is the fourteenth studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 13 April 1987. It is the fifth and final studio album from the band's most successful lineup of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Stevie Nicks following Buckingham's departure later that year, though the band's 2003 album, "Say You Will", includes limited contributions from Christine.


title: Tango in the Night

text: Produced by Buckingham with Richard Dashut, "Tango in the Night" began as one of Buckingham's solo projects, but by 1985, the production had morphed into Fleetwood Mac's next record. It contains several hit singles, including four US top 20 hits: "Big Love" ( 5), "Seven Wonders" (No. 19), "Little Lies" (No. 4), and "Everywhere" (No. 14). Two additional songs, "Family Man" (No. 90) and "Isn't It Midnight", were released as singles to lower chart success. "Tango in the Night" has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. In March 2017, remastered deluxe editions of "Tango in the Night" were released, the first a double-CD set and the second a 3CD/1DVD/1-LP boxset.


title: Tango in the Night

text: The cover art for the album is a painting by Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong that was hanging in Buckingham's home. The painting is an homage to the 19th-century French painter Henri Rousseau, emulating his colourful jungle theme works such as "The Snake Charmer" and "The Repast of the Lion". The painting was also used as the cover art for "Big Love", the album's lead single.


title: Tango in the Night

text: After the completion of the Mirage Tour in 1982, four members of Fleetwood Mac released five solo albums, with varying degrees of success. Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham each released one, while Stevie Nicks issued two.


title: Tango in the Night

text: In 1985, Christine McVie was called to record a cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" for the soundtrack of the movie "A Fine Mess". McVie brought Richard Dashut, who had engineered and produced "Rumours", "Tusk", and "Mirage", on board to assist with the album's production. Buckingham, Fleetwood, and John McVie were enlisted to supply the instrumentation. Greg Droman, a relatively new producer at the time, was also brought in to participate. Droman had recently relocated to Los Angeles at the suggestion of Joe Walsh. Dashut and Droman bumped into each other at a recording studio owned by Captain & Tennille and "just hit it off". A few weeks later, Droman worked with Buckingham on "Time Bomb Town" for the "Back to the Future" film soundtrack. Buckingham retained Droman to engineer what was intended to be his third solo album, although the project eventually morphed into a Fleetwood Mac album once other members got involved.


title: Tango in the Night

text: Dashut and Droman recalled that the album's recording sessions were particularly tedious, even by Fleetwood Mac standards. At one point, they experimented with slowing down songs in order to find suitable textures. Sometimes, this would double the song duration, which made for "a brutal ten minutes to listen to", according to Droman. By tripling and quadrupling these mixes, they managed to make each song sound "open and airy".


title: Tango in the Night

text: Although the record took eighteen months to complete, Stevie Nicks spent a total of two weeks in the studio with the band, as she was promoting her third solo record, "Rock a Little", throughout this period. Nicks sent demos of her songs to the band, recorded while she was on tour, for them to work on in her absence. "Welcome to the Room... Sara" was inspired by her thirty-day stay at the Betty Ford Center to overcome her cocaine addiction in October 1986 (Nicks used the pseudonym "Sara Anderson" when she checked into the facility).


title: Tango in the Night

text: When Nicks did go to the studio, she often felt unmotivated: "I can remember going up there and not being happy to even be there... I didn't go very often". With vocal sessions taking place in Buckingham's master bedroom, Nicks recorded her parts for Buckingham and McVie's songs intoxicated; Buckingham deleted most of Nicks' vocals after she left the studio.


title: Tango in the Night

text: Buckingham recorded some of the vocals using a Fairlight, an early sampling synthesizer. On "When I See You Again", he re-assembled separately recorded takes of Nicks, explaining, "I had to pull performances out of words and lines and make parts that sounded like her that weren't her". "That was in my estimation when everybody in the band was personally at their worst. By the time we did "Tango in the Night", everybody was leading their lives in a way that they would not be too proud of today".


title: Tango in the Night

text: With pressure on Buckingham to keep the project focused and moving forward, things came to a head shortly after the release of "Tango in the Night". At a band meeting at Christine McVie's house to discuss the accompanying tour, he announced his departure, which infuriated Nicks. The two ex-lovers then had to be restrained after an ensuing argument turned into a physical altercation. "The album was well received", noted Mick Fleetwood. He continued, "Somewhat sadly, the kudos of that was never really fully attributed to Lindsey because he wasn't present... He was coerced and persuaded to do that album—mainly by me. And, to his credit, he put aside everything that he'd dreamt of doing, including making his own album, for Fleetwood Mac, but then realised that he'd made a mistake... Lindsey was not being heard. We just didn't get it".


title: Tango in the Night

text: Following Buckingham's sudden departure, guitarists Rick Vito and Billy Burnette were hired to replace him on the subsequent tour and remained as full members of the band until the 1990s.


title: Tango in the Night

text: "Tango in the Night" is the band's second-biggest-selling studio album after the phenomenally successful "Rumours", which was released ten years earlier. The intervening albums, "Tusk" (1979) and "Mirage" (1982), although big sellers in key territories, had not matched their predecessor's huge success. "Tango in the Night" was a worldwide hit, with several singles becoming popular all over the world. Christine McVie's "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" in particular appear on several 1980s compilation albums.


title: Tango in the Night

text: The album was a success in the United States, where it peaked at no. 7 for three weeks, spending more than seven months within the top 20 and more than ten months within the top 40. It was certified 3× Platinum in October 2000 for selling three million copies in the US. Four singles from the album reached the "Billboard" top 20: "Big Love" (No. 5), "Little Lies" (No. 4), "Everywhere" (No. 14), and "Seven Wonders" (No. 19). The album was particularly successful in the UK, where it reached no. 1 three times during 1987–88 for a total of five weeks and spent more than eight months within the top 10 of the UK albums chart. It is the seventh-biggest-selling album of the 1980s in the UK, being certified 8× Platinum (2.4 million copies), and it is still currently one of the UK's top 100 best-selling albums of all time. Three singles were top 10 hits in Britain: "Big Love" (No. 9), "Little Lies" (No. 5), and "Everywhere" (No. 4). A total of six singles were eventually taken from the album over a period of fifteen months. The album spent 115 weeks in the top 75 of the UK Albums Chart.


title: Tango in the Night

text: "Big Love", "Seven Wonders", "Little Lies", "Family Man", and "Everywhere" were all released as extended 12" remixes in most territories.


title: Tango in the Night

text: Four songs from the "Tango in the Night" sessions did not make the final album cut and subsequently became B-sides. "You and I (Part I)" was the B-side to the single release of "Big Love". "Seven Wonders" was released with the Stevie Nicks-penned instrumental track "Book of Miracles" as its B-side. This eventually became the song "Juliet" on Nicks' 1989 solo album, "The Other Side of the Mirror". McVie's "Ricky" was the B-side to "Little Lies" and Lindsey Buckingham's "Down Endless Street" was issued as the B-side to "Family Man". Nicks also contributed two additional songs that failed to make the final cut. "Ooh My Love", like "Juliet", eventually made its way onto Nicks' solo album, while "Joan of Arc" remains unreleased. "I still want to record it", she explained. "The song has its really good moments but it's not good enough to go out as that version".


title: Tango in the Night

text: Two additional tracks, both co-written by McVie and Buckingham, also failed to appear on the final product: "Where We Belong", which incorporates Buckingham's "folksy fingerpicking" and McVie's "brilliant pop simplicity" was written as a duet, but never truly developed. The other, "Special Kind of Love", features more polished production and fleshed out lyrics. Both tracks subsequently appeared on the deluxe edition of "Tango in the Night".


title: Tango in the Night

text: An alternate mix of "Isn't It Midnight" was issued on the 1992 four-disc box set, "25 Years – The Chain", and is substantially different from the version included on the album. It has different backing vocals and a lack of guitar effects, which were eventually added by Buckingham in the final mix of the song.


title: Tango in the Night

text: A deluxe remaster of "Tango in the Night" was issued in 2017. The bonus disc includes both halves of "You and I", released and combined for the first time, as well as the majority of the tracks mentioned above. Although long-awaited, the re-release received some criticism for its lack of content. Disc 2 had an extra twenty minutes' worth of space that was not filled, and the live concert DVD was not included. Music videos on the DVD were not taken from their original master and 5.1 surround sound was not issued either.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The is a mid-size car built by Japanese automobile manufacturer Subaru since 1989. The maker's flagship car, it is unique in its class for offering all-wheel drive as a standard feature, and Subaru's traditional boxer engine. The Legacy was sold as the Liberty in Australia out of deference to Legacy Australia, an organisation dedicated to caring for the families of military service veterans.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In 1996, a variant of the Legacy with heightened suspension called the Legacy Outback was introduced to compete in the burgeoning sport-utility vehicle class and proved to be a sales success for Subaru. The Outback line was split into its own model in 2008, known as the Subaru Outback.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Production of the Legacy ended in Japan in June 2020, with the sixth-generation Legacy being last model being produced and marketed in Japan.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Legacy was introduced in 1989 to provide Subaru a vehicle to compete in the lucrative North American mid-size market against the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Mazda 626, and Nissan Stanza. It was an all-new model, and positioned above the Leone, XT, Justy, and kei cars Rex and Sambar in Subaru's model range at the time. The Legacy also introduced an entirely new flat-4 engine series, called the EJ engine, which was quieter and more powerful than the previous EA engine.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Legacy began with a 5-door wagon or 4-door sedan body styles with FWD and an optional full-time AWD package, and was introduced in North America, the UK, Germany, the Benelux region of Northern Europe, Japan and Australia (where it was called Liberty because the name Legacy conflicted with Legacy Australia). Options included 4-channel ABS, licensed from Bosch and air suspension height control, which lowered the vehicle at speeds above , and also allowed the driver to increase the vehicle's ground clearance for off-road conditions. It was formally released January 23, 1989 in Japan, with an introductory price of ¥2,550,000 for the turbocharged RS (approx. USD $18,800 at 1989 yen exchange rate). The first Legacy was available at Japanese dealerships on February 1, 1989, with worldwide distribution starting in 1990.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The US-spec included the "passive restraints" (motorized seat belts) through the 1994 model year with exception to the right hand drive Postal model which was only available with conventional seat belts. Driver's side airbags were an option midway through the 1992 model year and became standard in 1993. Passenger airbags weren't available until the 2nd generation arrived in 1995.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The US models included the Legacy Sport Sedan, from 1991 to 1994 and Legacy LE Touring Wagon from 1992 to 1994. Both were turbocharged with the EJ22T closed-deck block engine. Unique to the US market, it was SOHC, with different pistons, oil squirters, oil cooler on the '91 model year, and other enhancements. Although it had the same displacement as the non-turbo/naturally aspirated (NA) EJ22E engine used throughout all other Legacy models, it was not simply a turbocharged version of the EJ22E. (As a side-note, the 1994 Legacy GT trim used the non-turbo EJ22E.)


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The sedan was available with strengthened 4EAT Automatic transmission or a stronger 5-speed manual transmission. The wagon came equipped with only the 4EAT on the international market, while Japan received the 5 speed manual and also a high/low ratio levered 5 speed manual for more demanding conditions. (citation needed, there are many manual, AWD, dual range wagons in Australia)


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Second generation sales in Japan began October 7, 1993, with an introductory price of ¥2,753,000 for the twin turbo GT (approx US$25,250 at 1993 yen exchange rate), and an introduction for model year 1995 in North America with a full body and chassis revision. The exterior was designed by Olivier Boulay, who was hired by Subaru on a short-term basis. The tail light appearance on both the sedan and wagon was influenced by the taillights on the SVX. In 1996, Subaru decided to make AWD standard equipment in all vehicles produced for the North American market, which would be the case until 2012. Subaru still offered a choice between FWD and AWD for its domestic market vehicles for this generation. The Outback was introduced with this generation in 1995 as a trim package, then with increased ground clearance and raised roof line in 1996. Only AWD was offered internationally, and the air suspension with height control was no longer offered.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: US-spec GT models, first offered in 1990 as a turbocharged sedan or wagon in Japan, and as a trim package for the US version in 1994, became a top level model upgrade in 1996, using the new EJ25D DOHC 2.5 L naturally aspirated engine. "Limited" trim level editions were introduced, offering heated leather, or cloth, seats and trim and a tinted, glass moonroof. The term "Limited" appeared on the "GT", known as the "GT Limited" in 1998. The term "Limited" was used by itself on the Outback in 1998. Driver and front passenger airbags were added with the redesigned interior as standard equipment in accordance with US Federal Government regulations. 1999 marked the 30th anniversary of Subaru in America, and the last of the second generation in North America. There was a special 30th Anniversary Edition offered in the US with upgraded interior and sunroof, spoiler, alloy wheels on the "L" trim level cars. The US-spec "Brighton" trim level also carried over from the facelifted first generation version that was priced below the "L" trim option.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In Japan, the GT/B-Spec was introduced in 1994 with lowered and stiffened suspension and a higher performance rear differential. The next generation of the GT-B was introduced June 1996, with the front and rear struts supplied by Bilstein, with the upgrade also available on the RS. The "B" designation stood for Bilstein. Turbocharged versions continued to be available in markets that used right-hand-drive configurations. Specialty touring and racing versions were available in Japan, as well as the DOHC 2-liter twin sequential turbocharged EJ20H version on both the Legacy GT sedan and wagon with an automatic transmission and the RS sedan and GT-B wagon with the EJ20R and a manual transmission and a slightly higher horsepower rating, both identified as "Boxer 2-stage Twin Turbo" on the engine cover shroud.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In 1998 the special edition "Bilstein Edition RX" was offered. It could be identified by a Bilstein badge on the right rear boot lid and a lower stance due to front and rear Bilstein struts. It also featured Leather seats and door inserts along with a MOMO sports leather steering wheel and 16 in BBS alloy wheels as standard equipment.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: With the introduction of the Legacy second generation in Israel, the Legacy name was replaced by the B4 brand.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Subaru launched the third generation Japanese and world-market Legacy in June 1998, while the North American model started production in May 1999 as a 2000 model, also known as the BE for sedan models and BH for wagons. European-market and Japanese models ranged from a normally aspirated 2.0 L flat-4 to the EZ30 flat-6 in the 3.0R model (European and Japanese trim level designation), with the twin turbo that was offered in the previous generation still offered on performance models. In the US market the third generation Legacy went on sale with the 2.5 L EJ251 Engine standard. In 2001 the EZ30, a newly designed 3.0 L H6 was offered in the Outbacks. The engine now met California's LEV emission standard.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Flat roof wagons were no longer manufactured worldwide, and instead the raised roof is used for both the Legacy wagon and Legacy Outback. Daytime running lamps were introduced on US models starting with the 2000 model year. Cabin air filters were available starting with 2001 models installed underneath and behind the glove compartment door.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Japanese-spec vehicles with the twin turbo had a choice of manual or semi-automatic transmission called SportShift, that allowed the driver to push the automatic gearshift selector to the left, and then allow the driver to shift the automatic like a manual transmission.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: On May 23, 2003, Fuji Heavy Industries debuted the redesigned Legacy, known as the BL for sedan models and BP for wagons. It was released worldwide in 2004, with Subaru Indiana Automotive commencing production in February 2004 for the North American markets for 2005 model year. The Legacy was presented the 2003–2004 Japan Car of the Year, Subaru's first win for the award after fighting off stiff competition from Toyota Prius and Mazda RX-8. When sales began in the US market, the Lafayette Factory built Legacy won 2005 International Car of the Year for Most Dependable/Sedan from Road & Travel Magazine, 2005 Automobile All-Stars for All-Star Family Car from Automobile Magazine and The 2006 International Engine of the Year Award in the 2.0-litre to 2.5-litre category for EJ255 engine. Lance Armstrong was used as a spokesman for both the sedan and wagon, and Sheryl Crow sang her 1996 hit "Everyday Is a Winding Road" in US market commercials.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The chassis was redesigned and made stiffer, and it marked the return of a turbocharged engine to North American Legacy, featuring a 2.5-liter unit derived from that of the North American Impreza WRX STI. Due to advancements in turbocharger technology and tightening emission standards, the twin-turbo setup was dropped from the lineup. Turbocharged models and the H6 offered Subaru's first 5-speed automatic transmission, featuring SportShift technology licensed from Prodrive, Ltd.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The 2005 model year Legacy for the US market was offered in 2.5i, 2.5i Limited, 2.5GT, and 2.5GT Limited. All trim levels were available as Sedan and Wagon. For 2006, the regular GT was dropped, and the 2.5i Special Edition was added into the line up.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Japanese market Legacy GT featured 2 litre turbocharged EJ20X and EJ20Y engines developing power and torque figures of 276 bhp (280 PS/206 kW) at 6400 rpm and 343 N·m (253 lb·ft/35 kgm) at 2400 rpm respectively. The GT Spec B had an optional 6 speed transmission. Both models featured Bilstein suspension as standard. Both wagon and sedan received a facelift in 2006 receiving new bumpers and trim, the IHI VF38 twin scroll turbo was replaced with later models receiving a VF44 (auto) or VF45 (manual) turbo.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: On May 10, 2008, the Japanese-spec Legacy can be fitted with a new collision avoidance feature, called EyeSight. It consists of twin CCD cameras, one on each side of the rear view mirror, that use human-like stereoscopic vision to judge distances and generally keep tabs on the driver. The system can help maintain a safe distance on the highway, a lane departure warning system, a driver alert warning for various safety situations, and even keeps an eye out for pedestrians. SI-Cruise has been integrated into the EyeSight feature as a driver safety aid.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Subaru EE flat-4 diesel engine, the world's first to be fitted to a passenger car, is offered in both the Legacy and Outback sedans and wagons, identified as the Subaru Legacy 2.0D. The vehicle was released in the European Union starting March 2008, and is offered with a 5-speed manual transmission only. The official introduction of the Legacy and Outback diesel was at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2008.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In 2009, a Subaru Legacy concept was designed to commemorate 20th anniversary of the model, reported to be the basis of the production version of the then upcoming fifth generation Subaru Legacy. The concept vehicle was unveiled at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Production of the fifth generation 2010 Subaru Legacy began the last week of May 2009 at the Indiana location, and was unveiled at the 2009 New York Auto Show. According to the Subaru website in Japan, the Legacy was introduced in Japan on May 20, 2009. The Legacy B4 2.5GT tS tuned by STi was introduced to Japan June 12, 2010.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In May 2010, the EyeSight collision avoidance feature introduced on the previous generation Legacy was re-introduced on the Japan-spec Touring Wagon and Outback, and was awarded the "Best Technology" award from the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame at the Japan Museum of Nature and Science. For the 2014 model year, the EyeSight driver safety aid has been installed optionally on all international Legacy and Outback vehicles.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The new for this generation Lineartronic continuously variable transmission is used internationally on the EJ25 2.5 L flat-4 engine and the EJ20 in some markets, with a 6-speed manual transmission also offered only in North America and Australia. The 2.5GT uses a turbocharger with a 6-speed manual transmission used exclusively in Japan and North America with Australia being able to choose between the 6-speed manual or 5-speed automatic transmission; vehicles identified as "3.6R" use the EZ36 flat-6 engine with a 5-speed SportShift conventional automatic transmission. The Lineartronic CVT transmission is also shared with the JDM-spec Subaru Exiga on AWD models. The North American PZEV Legacy 2.5i continues to be available in all 50 states, unlike other manufacturers who only sell PZEV certified vehicles in states that have adopted California emission standards.Internationally, the EZ36 flat-6 engine is used in the Outback only, but is also available in the Legacy sedan in both North America and Australia. The Japan-spec vehicle has discontinued using the EJ25 engine which increases vehicle tax liability for Japanese buyers, offering the EJ20 in both turbo and non-turbo versions. "SI-Drive" is standard equipment on all Japanese-spec vehicles, and both the Australian 2.5GT and the 3.6R sedan, but not in North America. SI-Drive is standard on the international Outback with the EZ36 except North America. The Legacy wagon is only available as an Outback in North America, whereas both a Legacy and Outback wagon are available in Japan, the UK, Australia, and Europe. In the UK, only the wagon is offered, with engine choices limited to the Subaru EE20 turbodiesel or the EJ25. The EZ36 engine was available in the UK in 2010 MY Outbacks only. In Europe and certain Asian countries, the EJ20 is still offered in both the sedan and a wagon, alongside the EE20 turbodiesel and the EJ25. The EE20 turbodiesel is available in Australia in the Outback. The European and UK Legacy EE20 diesel, the EJ20 and the EJ25 gasoline engines are Euro5 emission standard compliant.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: This is the ninth Subaru vehicle to offer a CVT transmission; the first was the Subaru Justy (1987–1994), followed by the Subaru Rex (1987–1992), the Subaru Vivio (1992–1998), the Subaru Pleo (1998–current), the Subaru R1 coupe (2004–2010), the Subaru R2 5-door hatchback (2003–2010), the Subaru Sambar (1990–1995 only), and the Subaru Exiga starting September 2009.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The sixth generation of the Subaru Legacy made its debut at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show, and went into production for the 2015 model year.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: and a 3.6-liter flat-six EZ36D are carried over from the fifth-generation model. Output is slightly increased on the four-cylinder model to . The six-cylinder model remains unchanged from the 3.6-litre engine.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Legacy still uniquely offers standard all-wheel drive and horizontally opposed engine layouts, but discontinues the manual transmission for the US market in favor of the Lineartronic CVT on both engine configurations. The US market 2016 Legacy achieves a notable 36 highway MPG when equipped with the 2.5-liter flat-four.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The seventh-generation Legacy made its debut at the 2019 Chicago Auto Show on February 7, 2019, to be sold at United States and Canadian dealerships starting in the third quarter of 2019. Unlike the previous generations, the seventh generation Legacy will not be sold in Japan and Australia because of disappointing sales from its predecessor. The 2020 model year Legacy was moved to the Subaru Global Platform (SGP), which is torsionally stiffer compared to the previous generation Legacy. Its exterior styling is similar to the previous generation model, but the headlights and the taillights are slightly restyled. The newly redesigned interior now features an 11.6 inch touchscreen on all trims except the base model, which has two 7 inch displays.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Notable mechanical changes include an updated base engine, the FB25 now featuring direct injection, and a turbocharged 2.4 liter FA24 flat four engine from the Ascent for higher trim levels which replaces the outgoing 3.6 liter EZ36 flat six engine. 90% of the components in the new FB25 are new compared to its predecessor.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In terms of safety, there is a new optional facial recognition system which uses cameras to warn the driver if the system detects that they are distracted or fatigued.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In 1990, the Legacy was declared the number-one-selling 4-wheel drive car in the US by R.L. Polk & Company, based on registration statistics for CYE 1989. According to AutoFacts Inc. AutoGuide, dated June 28, 1990, the Legacy was the least expensive Sedan or Wagon offering both 4-wheel drive and ABS. The Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) voted the Legacy "1990's Best New Sedan". In 2007, the Legacy Outback was named Top Gear Car Of The Year along with the Ford Mondeo.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The EZ series of flat-6-cylinder engines, used in current Legacy products, replaced the EG series found in the Subaru SVX. Subaru has produced high-performance versions of the Legacy with a Bilstein suspension and tuned turbocharged engines equivalent to the homologated rally version WRX STI (generating 205 kW (275 hp) on manufacturer's figures for the 2.0 L equivalent engine with manual transmission). Recent 3.0 L engines move close to the 2.0 L turbo output and share the Bilstein suspension. 2.0 L-engined turbocharged models with the Bilstein suspension were named either the "GT-B" (for wagons), or "Spec B", or "B4-RSK" (for sedans). The new 2003 model moved many models to simply "B4" or even "GT" in some countries. In Australia, the 2.5GT (SatNav) marks the top of the pile for the Legacy/Liberty range.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: In North America, early sporty models were known simply as the Sport Sedan and Touring Wagon. Later models were given the GT and GT Limited nomenclature. The 2006 Legacy model brought forth a limited run of 500 Spec B models. Starting in 2007 the Spec B became a regular production model (albeit a somewhat limited run). All Spec B models feature an improved suspension system by Bilstein, navigation system (making the Spec. B the sole pre-2010 MT Legacy to get one), exclusive (to the Spec B) interior, 18" wheels, and additional aesthetic modifications. 2006 Spec B models have a 5-speed manual transmission while 2007-on models have a 6-speed manual transmission.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Legacy was campaigned by the Subaru World Rally Team in the World Rally Championship and British Rally Championship, with the help of Prodrive, beginning in 1990. It wasn't considered a truly competitive model at first, but showed promise under the command of Markku Alen, who in 1991 managed a third-place finish at the Swedish Rally. 1992 debuted the combination of experienced Group B, Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, and WRC driver Ari Vatanen, paired with the up-and-coming Scottish driver Colin McRae for Subaru's WRC effort. Two second-place finishes, one by each driver, strengthened the commitment of Subaru to the World Rally Championship, the Legacy, and their drivers. The Legacy's primary competitor, with a turbocharged engine and AWD, was the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: 1993 became a breakout year for Subaru as Colin McRae and Ari Vatanen pushed the Legacy to a third-place finish at the Swedish Rally and a one-two placing after the first leg of the Acropolis Rally. Prodrive boss David Garraway was eager to prove the potential of the new Impreza WRC car, but was charged with gaining a victory in the Legacy before the Impreza could debut. At the round eight Rally New Zealand, Subaru finally struck gold when McRae managed to hold back François Delecour in his Ford Escort RS Cosworth for the win. This was the last WRC year for the Legacy, as the Impreza debuted at the following event, where it placed second in the hands of Vatanen.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Richard Burns was successful in numerous events with the car during 1992 before joining the World Rally team to drive the Impreza in 1993. Alister McRae, Per Eklund, Possum Bourne and Hannu Mikkola also competed in the Legacy during its WRC participation.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Legacy remains an ever-present competitor in rallies around the world. SCCA ProRally and Rally America participation from many teams has been impressive. The Legacy and the Impreza have many interchangeable parts which makes for a very competent and reliable entry.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The Legacy, and its Outback stablemate, has won the Alcan Winter Rally several times; the first win was in 1990 followed by another win in 1992, 2002 and 2006.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: A 1990 Legacy was the first Group N car to ever finish the WRC Safari Rally. This rally is considered the world's most gruelling rally under the World Rally Championship. In 1990 the 38th Safari Rally had 59 competitors total, only 10 of which were able to reach the finish. The Legacy was the only Group N car able to reach the finish and was in 8th place overall.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Similar to the Impreza that Team Cusco ran in previous years until 2008, a Legacy grand tourer car based on the fifth generation model has been built by R&D Sport for the Japanese Super GT series (GT300 class). It features a boxer-4 turbo charged engine. The car had also featured all-wheel-drive in the first season but the layout was replaced with an FR layout in 2010, which that season they got their first win in 39th Pokka Summer Special.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: On April 23, 1998, a Generation III Subaru Legacy set a new world speed record for mass-produced turbocharged station wagons with small engines (1,600 cc-2,000 cc class), clocking 270.532 km/h (168.101 mph) over one kilometer on Highway 10 in La Junta, Colorado. This record was previously set by a Generation II Subaru Legacy in 1993 at .


title: Subaru Legacy

text: The original Legacy speed record was set between January 2 and January 21, 1989, with three Japanese-spec turbocharged RS sedans at the Arizona Test Center outside of Phoenix, Arizona. It broke the 100,000 km FIA World Land Endurance Record by maintaining an average speed of 138.780 mph (223.345 km/h) for 447 hours, 44 minutes and 9.887 seconds, or 18.5 days. Pit stops were made every two hours with a driver change and refueling, while tire changes were made at 96‑hour intervals, or every 13,400 miles (21,600 km) driven.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: Models have typically been released into Japan and selected World markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Chile in advance of the Continental European and North American markets, with the first three being right-hand drive and traditional strong markets for Subaru.


title: Subaru Legacy

text: North America usually releases its models one to one and a half calendar years after Japan does, due to the fact that all current Legacies for the North American market have been built at Subaru of Indiana located in Lafayette, Indiana since 2004. Previously, all US Legacies were built at either the Indiana plant or the Ōta, Gunma plant in Japan starting in 1989. Notably, production of the fifth generation Legacy at SIA started roughly the same time it did in Gunma.


title: BMW N54

text: The BMW N54 is a twin-turbocharged straight-six petrol engine that was produced from 2006 to 2016. It is BMW's first mass-produced turbocharged petrol engine and BMW's first turbocharged petrol engine since the limited-production BMW M106 was discontinued in 1986. The N54 debuted at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show and was launched in the 335i model of the E90/E91/E92/E93 3 Series range.


title: BMW N54

text: Following the introduction of its BMW N55 successor in 2009, the N54 began to be phased out. The final model powered by the N54 is the E89 Z4 roadster, which was produced until 2016.


title: BMW N54

text: The N54 has won six straight International Engine of the Year awards and three straight Ward's 10 Best Engines awards.


title: BMW N54

text: There is no BMW M version of the N54, however a high-output version of the N54 is used in the 1 Series M Coupe, 135iS, Z4 35iS and 335iS models.


title: BMW N54

text: The N54 was produced alongside the naturally aspirated BMW N53 engine; both engines have direct injection, double-VANOS (variable valve timing), an open-deck engine block and an electric water pump. Since the N54 is based on the older BMW M54 engine, it has an aluminium engine block (instead of the magnesium alloy used by the N53), a displacement of and does not have valvetronic (variable valve lift).


title: BMW N54

text: Turbocharging is a key difference between the N54 and BMW's previous straight-six engines. The N54 has two small low-pressure turbochargers to minimise turbo lag. BMW's marketed the twin-turbo as "TwinPower Turbo", although the term has since been used for engines which have a single twin-scroll turbocharger.


title: BMW N54

text: The N54's direct injection system (called "High Precision Injection" by BMW) uses piezo injectors. Its N55 successor uses solenoid-type injectors, because the piezo injectors are more expensive and not reaching their full potential to obtain the "lean burn" benefit.


title: BMW N54

text: All versions have a bore of , a stroke of , a compression ratio of 10.2:1 and the redline is 7000 rpm.


title: BMW N54

text: The initial version of the N54 is officially rated at and 400 N·m. However, these figures are considered to be under-rated, and independent testing has resulted in estimates of and .


title: BMW N54

text: A variant of the N54B30 with higher peak power and torque is used in the 2008-2012 740i and E92 335is.


title: BMW N54

text: The most powerful version of the N54 is found in the E82 1 Series M Coupe and the E89 Z4 sDrive 35is.


title: BMW N54

text: Biturbo engine by Alpina based on the N54B30, with upgrades including the engine control unit, oil cooler and pistons.


title: BMW N54

text: Car & Driver noted the N54 had minimal turbo lag and ""in feel and sound the twin-turbo could pass for naturally aspirated"". The N54-engined F01 740i was also praised for its linear power delivery.


title: BMW N54

text: Comparing the N54-engined E60 535i with the 550i (using a 4.8–litre naturally aspirated V8), one reviewer noted that the V8 model had more torque but was "only marginally quicker than the 535i" and that the additional weight of the V8 engine was noticeable on twisty mountain roads.


title: BMW N54

text: In the United States, some N54 engines experienced failures of the High Pressure Fuel Pump (HPFP), resulting a class action lawsuit, a voluntary recall and an extended warranty for the HPFP.


title: BMW N54

text: Failure of the HPFP can cause the engine to suddenly stop functioning, which has caused several near-misses on highways. BMW was aware of HPFP problems, describing them in internal Technical Service Bulletins as "driveability problems".


title: BMW N54

text: In April 2009, a class action suit was filed against BMW in connection with HPFP failures. BMW settled the suit in June 2010. On 26 October 2010, following an ABC News story about HPFP failures, BMW announced a recall of vehicles with the pump in question from manufacturing years 2007–2010. The recall was applied to 130,000 cars, resulting in the replacement of the HPFP in approximately 40,000 of these cars.


title: BMW N54

text: On some cars, the HPFP was replaced multiple times without resolving the issue, potentially leading to the car being refunded under the Lemon Laws in some states.


title: BMW N54

text: The High Pressure Fuel Pump issue caused BMW North America to extend the warranty for this pump to 10 years or .


title: BMW N54

text: The warranty period for the fuel injectors was also increased, to 10 years or . An updated design for the fuel injectors was also introduced.


title: BMW N54

text: Due to problems with rattling wastegates caused by premature bushing wear, BMW extended the warranty period for wastegate-related issues to 8 years or .


title: Market segmentation

text: In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as "segments") based on some type of shared characteristics.


title: Market segmentation

text: In dividing or segmenting markets, researchers typically look for common characteristics such as shared needs, common interests, similar lifestyles, or even similar demographic profiles. The overall aim of segmentation is to identify "high yield segments" – that is, those segments that are likely to be the most profitable or that have growth potential – so that these can be selected for special attention (i.e. become target markets). Many different ways to segment a market have been identified. Business-to-business (B2B) sellers might segment the market into different types of businesses or countries, while business-to-consumer (B2C) sellers might segment the market into demographic segments, such as lifestyle, behavior, or socioeconomic status.


title: Market segmentation

text: Market segmentation assumes that different market segments require different marketing programs – that is, different offers, prices, promotion, distribution, or some combination of marketing variables. Market segmentation is not only designed to identify the most profitable segments, but also to develop profiles of key segments in order to better understand their needs and purchase motivations. Insights from segmentation analysis are subsequently used to support marketing strategy development and planning. Many marketers use the "S-T-P approach;" Segmentation → Targeting → Positioning to provide the framework for marketing planning objectives. That is, a market is segmented, one or more segments are selected for targeting, and products or services are positioned in a way that resonates with the selected target market or markets.


title: Market segmentation

text: Market segmentation is the process of dividing up mass markets into groups with similar needs and wants. The rationale for market segmentation is that in order to achieve competitive advantage and superior performance, firms should: "(1) identify segments of industry demand, (2) target specific segments of demand, and (3) develop specific 'marketing mixes' for each targeted market segment. " From an economic perspective, segmentation is built on the assumption that heterogeneity in demand allows for demand to be disaggregated into segments with distinct demand functions.


title: Market segmentation

text: The business historian, Richard S. Tedlow, identifies four stages in the evolution of market segmentation:


title: Market segmentation

text: The practice of market segmentation emerged well before marketers thought about it at a theoretical level. Archaeological evidence suggests that Bronze Age traders segmented trade routes according to geographical circuits. Other evidence suggests that the practice of modern market segmentation was developed incrementally from the 16th century onwards. Retailers, operating outside the major metropolitan cities, could not afford to serve one type of clientele exclusively, yet retailers needed to find ways to separate the wealthier clientele from the "riff raff". One simple technique was to have a window opening out onto the street from which customers could be served. This allowed the sale of goods to the common people, without encouraging them to come inside. Another solution, that came into vogue from the late sixteenth century, was to invite favored customers into a back-room of the store, where goods were permanently on display. Yet another technique that emerged around the same time was to hold a showcase of goods in the shopkeeper's private home for the benefit of wealthier clients. Samuel Pepys, for example, writing in 1660, describes being invited to the home of a retailer to view a wooden jack. The eighteenth-century English entrepreneurs, Josiah Wedgewood and Matthew Boulton, both staged expansive showcases of their wares in their private residences or in rented halls to which only the upper classes were invited while Wedgewood used a team of itinerant salesmen to sell wares to the masses.


title: Market segmentation

text: Evidence of early marketing segmentation has also been noted elsewhere in Europe. A study of the German book trade found examples of both product differentiation and market segmentation in the 1820s. From the 1880s, German toy manufacturers were producing models of tin toys for specific geographic markets; London omnibuses and ambulances destined for the British market; French postal delivery vans for Continental Europe and American locomotives intended for sale in America. Such activities suggest that basic forms of market segmentation have been practiced since the 17th century and possibly earlier.


title: Market segmentation

text: Contemporary market segmentation emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century as marketers responded to two pressing issues. Demographic and purchasing data were available for groups but rarely for individuals and secondly, advertising and distribution channels were available for groups, but rarely for single consumers. Between 1902 and 1910, George B Waldron, working at Mahin's Advertising Agency in the United States used tax registers, city directories, and census data to show advertisers the proportion of educated vs illiterate consumers and the earning capacity of different occupations, etc. in a very early example of simple market segmentation. In 1924 Paul Cherington developed the 'ABCD' household typology; the first socio-demographic segmentation tool. By the 1930s, market researchers such as Ernest Dichter recognized that demographics alone were insufficient to explain different marketing behaviours and began exploring the use of lifestyles, attitudes, values, beliefs and culture to segment markets. With access to group-level data only, brand marketers approached the task from a tactical viewpoint. Thus, segmentation was essentially a brand-driven process.


title: Market segmentation

text: Wendell R. Smith is generally credited with being the first to introduce the concept of market segmentation into the marketing literature in 1956 with the publication of his article, "Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies." Smith's article makes it clear that he had observed "many examples of segmentation" emerging and to a certain extent saw this as a "natural force" in the market that would "not be denied." As Schwarzkopf points out, Smith was codifying implicit knowledge that had been used in advertising and brand management since at least the 1920s.


title: Market segmentation

text: Until relatively recently, most segmentation approaches have retained a tactical perspective in that they address immediate short-term decisions; such as describing the current “market served” and are concerned with informing marketing mix decisions. However, with the advent of digital communications and mass data storage, it has been possible for marketers to conceive of segmenting at the level of the individual consumer. Extensive data is now available to support segmentation in very narrow groups or even for a single customer, allowing marketers to devise a customised offer with an individual price that can be disseminated via real-time communications. Some scholars have argued that the fragmentation of markets has rendered traditional approaches to market segmentation less useful.


title: Market segmentation

text: The limitations of conventional segmentation have been well documented in the literature. Perennial criticisms include:


title: Market segmentation

text: Market segmentation has many critics. But in spite of its limitations, market segmentation remains one of the enduring concepts in marketing and continues to be widely used in practice. One American study, for example, suggested that almost 60 percent of senior executives had used market segmentation in the past two years.


title: Market segmentation

text: A key consideration for marketers is whether to segment or not to segment. Depending on company philosophy, resources, product type, or market characteristics, a business may develop an undifferentiated approach or "differentiated approach". In an undifferentiated approach, the marketer ignores segmentation and develops a product that meets the needs of the largest number of buyers. In a differentiated approach the firm targets one or more market segments, and develops separate offers for each segment.


title: Market segmentation

text: In consumer marketing, it is difficult to find examples of undifferentiated approaches. Even goods such as salt and sugar, which were once treated as commodities, are now highly differentiated. Consumers can purchase a variety of salt products; cooking salt, table salt, sea salt, rock salt, kosher salt, mineral salt, herbal or vegetable salts, iodized salt, salt substitutes, and many more. Sugar also comes in many different types - cane sugar, beet sugar, raw sugar, white refined sugar, brown sugar, caster sugar, sugar lumps, icing sugar (also known as milled sugar), sugar syrup, invert sugar, and a plethora of sugar substitutes including "smart sugar" which is essentially a blend of pure sugar and a sugar substitute. Each of these product types is designed to meet the needs of specific market segments. Invert sugar and sugar syrups, for example, are marketed to food manufacturers where they are used in the production of conserves, chocolate, and baked goods. Sugars marketed to consumers appeal to different usage segments – refined sugar is primarily for use on the table, while caster sugar and icing sugar are primarily designed for use in home-baked goods.


title: Market segmentation

text: The process of segmenting the market is deceptively simple. Seven basic steps describe the entire process including segmentation, targeting, and positioning. In practice, however, the task can be very laborious since it involves poring over voluminous data, and requires a great deal of skill in analysis, interpretation, and some judgment. Although a great deal of analysis needs to be undertaken, and many decisions need to be made, marketers tend to use the so-called S-T-P process, that is Segmentation→ Targeting → Positioning, as a broad framework for simplifying the process. Segmentation comprises identifying the market to be segmented; identification, selection, and application of bases to be used in that segmentation; and development of profiles. Targeting comprises an evaluation of each segment's attractiveness and selection of the segments to be targeted. Positioning comprises the identification of optimal positions and the development of the marketing program.


title: Market segmentation

text: Perhaps the most important marketing decision a firm makes is the selection of one or more market segments on which to focus. A market segment is a portion of a larger market whose needs differ somewhat from the larger market. Since a market segment has unique needs, a firm that develops a total product focused solely on the needs of that segment will be able to meet the segment's desires better than a firm whose product or service attempts to meet the needs of multiple segments.


title: Market segmentation

text: Current research shows that, in practice, firms apply three variations of the S-T-P framework: ad-hoc segmentation, syndicated segmentation, and feral segmentation.


title: Market segmentation

text: The market for any given product or service is known as the "market potential" or the "total addressable market (TAM)." Given that this is the market to be segmented, the market analyst should begin by identifying the size of the potential market. For existing products and services, estimating the size and value of the market potential is relatively straightforward. However, estimating the market potential can be very challenging when a product or service is totally new to the market and no historical data on which to base forecasts exists.


title: Market segmentation

text: A basic approach is to first assess the size of the broad population, then estimate the percentage likely to use the product or service, and finally to estimate the revenue potential.


title: Market segmentation

text: Another approach is to use a historical analogy. For example, the manufacturer of HDTV might assume that the number of consumers willing to adopt high-definition TV will be similar to the adoption rate for color TV. To support this type of analysis, data for household penetration of TV, Radio, PCs, and other communications technologies is readily available from government statistics departments. Finding useful analogies can be challenging because every market is unique. However, analogous product adoption and growth rates can provide the analyst with benchmark estimates, and can be used to cross-validate other methods that might be used to forecast sales or market size.


title: Market segmentation

text: A more robust technique for estimating the market potential is known as the Bass diffusion model, the equation for which follows:


title: Market segmentation

text: The major challenge with the Bass model is estimating the parameters for "p" and "q". However, the Bass model has been so widely used in empirical studies that the values of "p" and "q" for more than 50 consumer and industrial categories have been determined and are widely published in tables. The average value for "p" is 0.037 and for "q" is 0.327.


title: Market segmentation

text: A major step in the segmentation process is the selection of a suitable base. In this step, marketers are looking for a means of achieving internal homogeneity (similarity within the segments), and external heterogeneity (differences between segments). In other words, they are searching for a process that minimizes differences between members of a segment and maximizes differences between each segment. In addition, the segmentation approach must yield segments that are meaningful for the specific marketing problem or situation. For example, a person's hair color may be a relevant base for a shampoo manufacturer, but it would not be relevant for a seller of financial services. Selecting the right base requires a good deal of thought and a basic understanding of the market to be segmented.


title: Market segmentation

text: In reality, marketers can segment the market using any base or variable provided that it is identifiable, substantial, responsive, actionable, and stable.


title: Market segmentation

text: For example, although dress size is not a standard base for segmenting a market, some fashion houses have successfully segmented the market using women's dress size as a variable. However, the most common bases for segmenting consumer markets include: geographics, demographics, psychographics, and behaviour. Marketers normally select a single base for the segmentation analysis, although, some bases can be combined into a single segmentation with care. Combining bases is the foundation of an emerging form of segmentation known as ‘Hybrid Segmentation’ (see ). This approach seeks to deliver a single segmentation that is equally useful across multiple marketing functions such as brand positioning, product and service innovation and eCRM.


title: Market segmentation

text: The following sections provide a detailed description of the most common forms of consumer market segmentation.


title: Market segmentation

text: Geographic segmentation divides markets according to geographic criteria. In practice, markets can be segmented as broadly as continents and as narrowly as neighborhoods or postal codes. Typical geographic variables include:


title: Market segmentation

text: The geo-cluster approach (also called "geodemographic segmentation") combines demographic data with geographic data to create richer, more detailed profiles. Geo-cluster approaches are a consumer classification system designed for market segmentation and consumer profiling purposes. They classify residential regions or postcodes on the basis of census and lifestyle characteristics obtained from a wide range of sources. This allows the segmentation of a population into smaller groups defined by individual characteristics such as demographic, socio-economic, or other shared socio-demographic characteristics.


title: Market segmentation

text: Geographic segmentation may be considered the first step in international marketing, where marketers must decide whether to adapt their existing products and marketing programs for the unique needs of distinct geographic markets. Tourism Marketing Boards often segment international visitors based on their country of origin.


title: Market segmentation

text: A number of proprietary geo-demographic packages are available for commercial use. Geographic segmentation is widely used in direct marketing campaigns to identify areas that are potential candidates for personal selling, letter-box distribution, or direct mail. Geo-cluster segmentation is widely used by Governments and public sector departments such as urban planning, health authorities, police, criminal justice departments, telecommunications, and public utility organizations such as water boards.


title: Market segmentation

text: Segmentation according to demography is based on consumer- demographic variables such as age, income, family size, socio-economic status, etc.


title: Market segmentation

text: Demographic segmentation assumes that consumers with similar demographic profiles will exhibit similar purchasing patterns, motivations, interests, and lifestyles and that these characteristics will translate into similar product/brand preferences. In practice, demographic segmentation can potentially employ any variable that is used by the nation's census collectors. Typical demographic variables and their descriptors are as follows:


title: Market segmentation

text: The use of multiple segmentation variables normally requires analysis of databases using sophisticated statistical techniques such as cluster analysis or principal components analysis. These types of analysis require very large sample sizes. However, data collection is expensive for individual firms. For this reason, many companies purchase data from commercial market research firms, many of whom develop proprietary software to interrogate the data.


title: Market segmentation

text: The labels applied to some of the more popular demographic segments began to enter the popular lexicon in the 1980s. These include the following:


title: Market segmentation

text: Psychographic segmentation, which is sometimes called psychometric or lifestyle segmentation, is measured by studying the activities, interests, and opinions (AIOs) of customers. It considers how people spend their leisure, and which external influences they are most responsive to and influenced by. Psychographics is a very widely used basis for segmentation because it enables marketers to identify tightly defined market segments and better understand consumer motivations for product or brand choice.


title: Market segmentation

text: While many of these proprietary psychographic segmentation analyses are well-known, the majority of studies based on psychographics are custom designed. That is, the segments are developed for individual products at a specific time. One common thread among psychographic segmentation studies is that they use quirky names to describe the segments.


title: Market segmentation

text: Behavioural segmentation divides consumers into groups according to their observed behaviours. Many marketers believe that behavioural variables are superior to demographics and geographics for building market segments and some analysts have suggested that behavioural segmentation is killing off demographics. Typical behavioural variables and their descriptors include: