title: Sina Weibo

text: The Sina Weibo financial report in February 2013 showed that its total revenue was approximately US$66 million and that the number of registered users had exceeded the 500 million mark.


title: Sina Weibo

text: In April 2013, Sina officially announced that Sina Weibo had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Alibaba. The two sides conducted in-depth cooperation in areas such as user account interoperability, data exchange, online payment, and internet marketing. At the same time, Sina announced that Alibaba, through its wholly owned subsidiary, had purchased the preferred shares and common shares issued by Sina Weibo Company for US$586 million, which accounted for approximately 18% of Weibo's fully diluted and diluted total shares.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 9 April 2013, Alibaba Group announced that it would acquire 18% of Sina Weibo for US$586 million, with the option to buy up to 30% in the future. Alibaba exercised this option when Weibo was listed on NASDAQ in April 2014.


title: Sina Weibo

text: According to iResearch's report on 30 March 2011, Sina Weibo had 56.5% of China's microblogging market based on active users and 86.6% based on browsing time over competitors such as Tencent Weibo and Baidu. The top 100 users had over 485 million followers combined. More than 5,000 companies and 2,700 media organizations in China use Sina Weibo. The site is maintained by a growing microblogging department of 200 employees responsible for technology, design, operations, and marketing.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Sina executives invited and persuaded many Chinese celebrities to join the platform. Users now include Asian celebrities, movie stars, singers, famous business and media figures, athletes, scholars, artists, organizations, religious figures, government departments, and officials from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Macau, as well as some famous foreign individuals and organizations, including Kevin Rudd, Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Narendra Modi, Toshiba, and the German national football team. Like Twitter, Sina Weibo has a verification program for known people and organizations. Once an account is verified, a verification badge is added beside the account name.


title: Sina Weibo

text: According to research by Sina Corporation, the number of active users reached over 400 million by Q1 2018, making Sina Weibo the 7th platform with at least 400 million active users, and daily usage increased by 21%.


title: Sina Weibo

text: In June 2020, Weibo was among 58 other Chinese apps that were banned by the Government of India. Following this, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi's account was deactivated.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Many of Sina Weibo's features resemble those of Twitter. A user may post with a 140-character limit (increased to 2,000 as of January 2016 with the exception of reposts and comments), mention or talk to other people using "@UserName" formatting, add hashtags, follow other users to make their posts appear in one's own timeline, re-post with "//@UserName" similar to Twitter's retweet function "RT @UserName", select posts for one's favorites list, and verify the account if the user is a celebrity, brand, business or otherwise of public interest. URLs are automatically shortened using the domain name t.cn, akin to Twitter's t.co. Official and third-party applications can access Sina Weibo from other websites or platforms.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Since a recent update you can now add images and this has made Sina Weibo more similar to Instagram in its function as a social media platform (also an app) in China. Users may:


title: Sina Weibo

text: Hashtags differ slightly between Sina Weibo and Twitter, using the double-hashtag "#HashName#" format (the lack of spacing between Chinese characters necessitates a closing tag). Users can own a hashtag by requesting hashtag monitoring; the company reviews these requests and responds within one to three days. Once a user owns a hashtag, they have access to a wide variety of functions available only to them on the condition that they remain active (less than 1 post per calendar week revokes these privileges).


title: Sina Weibo

text: Additionally, users are allowed to insert graphical emoticons or attach their own images, music and/or video files in every post. Comments appear as a list below each post. A commenter can also choose to re-post the comment, quoting the whole original post, to their own page.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Unregistered users can only browse a few posts by verified accounts. Neither unverified account pages nor comments to posts by verified accounts are accessible to unregistered users.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Although often described as a Chinese version of Twitter, Sina Weibo combines elements of Twitter, Facebook, and Medium, along with other social media platforms. Sina Weibo users interact more than Twitter users do, and while many topics that go viral on Weibo also originate from the platform itself, Twitter topics often come from outside news or events.


title: Sina Weibo

text: During the outbreak of the COVID-19, Weibo was also a data collecting station to collect and detect the spread of the coronavirus.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Sina Weibo's "trending topics" is a list of current popular topics based partly on tracking user participation and partly on the preference of Weibo staff. Once a topic is trending, it often becomes a heated issue and can have wide-ranging social influence. As such, the list has reshaped how Chinese people relate to the news media.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Sina Weibo has a verification policy, much like Twitter's account verification, for confirming the identity of a user (celebrities, organizations etc.). Once a user is verified, a colorful V is appended to their username; individuals receive an orange V, while organizations and companies receive a blue V. A graph and declaration certifying the verification appear on verified user pages. There are several kinds of verifications: personal, college, organization, verification for official accounts (government departments, social media platforms and famous companies), and Weibo Master (linked with phone numbers and followers).


title: Sina Weibo

text: To protect the rights and interests of celebrities, Sina Weibo has launched a celebrity authentication system. The celebrity authentication logo is a gold "V" logo after the verified user's name. The certified figures are mainly stars of various industries, business executives and important news parties. From 22:00 on June 12, 2020, users who post comments must follow the blogger for more than 7 days, except for those who have set "people I follow" to comment on themselves. This adjustment will last for 7 days.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Legal to have independent domain name and site certification qualification official website account authentication. Requirements: Weibo nickname and profile picture reflect the website name and LOGO, corporate official website and Weibo website are not within the scope of authentication. Weibo media certification to use their real names, and is known to the public and the media for the most features the name of the account can apply for sina certification


title: Sina Weibo

text: Sina produces mobile applications for various platforms to access Sina Weibo, including Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone and HarmonyOS. Sina has also released a desktop client for Microsoft Windows under the product name Weibo Desktop.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Sina Weibo is available in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters. The site also has versions that cater to users from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2011, Weibo developed an international edition in English and other languages. On 9 January 2018, the company ran a week-long public test of its English edition.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Weibo International supports existing Weibo accounts and allows Facebook accounts to link to the platform; users can also use their mobile phone number (including international mobile phone numbers) to register new accounts.


title: Sina Weibo

text: One of the most recent features of Weibo is Stories. "Weibo's stories" is a video function allowing users to record a video and save them in a separate "Story" menu in their profile page.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Weibo has also launched a new "Vlog" function. Now, every video with a hashtag VLOG will be available in the main search page under "VLOG" sub-menu.


title: Sina Weibo

text: A centralised approach to information in the form of a topic. Users can post and discuss within the super-hashtags. It is different from regular hashtags, users can apply to be the host and having the authorities to audit and shield the posts. Once the user choose to subscribe the super-hashtag, they will become a member of that community. Their level of membership will increase depend on the sacrifice to the degree of discussion of the super-hashtags (such as signing in, posting, commenting).


title: Sina Weibo

text: After publishing a post, you can choose to increase the exposure of the post by paying for it and promoting the content to a wider potential audience.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Weilingdi (微领地, literally, "micro fief") is another service bundled with Weibo. Similar to Foursquare, Weilingdi is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices; the site grew out of Sina's 2011 joint venture with GeoSentric's GyPSii. Sina's Tuding (图钉) photo-sharing service, similar to Instagram, is also produced by the same joint venture. Sina Lady Weibo (新浪女性微博) specializes in women's interests. Weibo Data Center enables users to access data analysis about a topic of their choice, Sina Weibo's official data, and demographic information. Sina Weibo has also recently released a desktop version available for free download at its website.


title: Sina Weibo

text: In cooperation with internet censorship in China, Sina sets strict controls over the posts on its services. Posts with links using some URL shortening services (including Google's goo.gl), or containing blacklisted keywords, are not allowed on Sina Weibo. Posts on politically sensitive topics are deleted after manual checking. Users with few followers may be able to post on censored topics with relative freedom until they reach a critical mass of followers, which triggers enforced content supervision.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Sina Weibo is believed to employ a distributed, heterogeneous strategy for censorship that has a great amount of defense-in-depth, which ranges from keyword list filtering to individual user monitoring. Nearly 30% of the total deletion events occur within 5–30 minutes, and nearly 90% of the deletions happen within the first 24 hours.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 9 March 2010, the posts by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei at Sina Weibo to appeal for information on the 2008 Sichuan earthquake going public were deleted and his account was closed by the site administrator. Attempts to register accounts with usernames alluding to Ai Weiwei were blocked. On 30 March 2010, Hong Kong singer Gigi Leung blogged about the jailed Zhao Lianhai, an activist and father to a 2008 Chinese milk scandal victim; that post was also deleted by an administrator shortly thereafter.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Starting on 31 March 2012, the comment function of Sina Weibo was shut down for three days, along with Tencent QQ.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 4 June 2013, Sina Weibo blocked the terms "Today," "Tonight," "June 4," and "Big Yellow Duck." If a user searched using these terms, a message would appear stating that according to relevant laws, statutes and policies, the results of the search couldn't be shown. This censorship was implemented because a photoshopped version of Tank Man which swapped all tanks in the photo with the sculpture Rubber Duck had been circulating on Twitter.


title: Sina Weibo

text: According to a BBC News report, the decreasing number of users since 2014 can be attributed both to the crackdown by the Chinese government on the use of aliases to create accounts and to the rising threat from competitor WeChat.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 8 September 2017, Weibo gave an ultimatum to its users to verify their accounts with their real names by 15 September. The platform announced that same month that it would hire 1000 "supervisors" from among its users to engage in censorship. These supervisors were supposed to report at least 200 content pieces per month, with those with the best results being rewarded with special prizes, including iPhones and notebooks.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 18 February 2018, Sina Weibo provided a "Comment moderation" function for both head users and official members. Comments received after opening this feature will not be displayed immediately, instead of requiring approval from moderators. Users can utilize this feature to avoid illegal content appearing in their comment section.


title: Sina Weibo

text: In April 2018, Weibo began a crackdown on anime, games, and short videos depicting "pornography, gore, violence and homosexuality". Surprisingly, the CCP criticized Weibo's move, following which the company decided to exclude homosexual content from the purge.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 11 June 2020, the Cybersecurity Administration of China ordered Weibo to suspend its "trending topics" page for a week. The CAC accused Weibo of "dissemination of illegal information".


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 22 February 2022, Horizon News accidentally posted on its Weibo page its instructions not to post anti-Russia content related to the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.


title: Sina Weibo

text: Average organic post view is around 10% – 15% on Weibo. To attract more followers, there are 3 types of paid ads options available:


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 8 June 2011, Tianjin Airlines unveiled an Embraer E-190 jet in special Sina Weibo livery and named it "Sina Weibo plane" (新浪微博号). It is the first commercial airplane to be named after a website in China.


title: Sina Weibo

text: In January 2012, Sina Weibo also announced that they would be sponsoring Spanish football club Villarreal CF for its match against FC Barcelona, to increase its fanbase in China.


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 5 February 2018, Weibo officially announced that it will become the exclusive partner of the New Media Social Platform of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2018 to attract more Chinese people worldwide to use Weibo.


title: Sina Weibo

text: As of 19 April 2019, the following ten individuals managed the most popular accounts (name handle in parentheses) and the number of followers:


title: Sina Weibo

text: On 13 September 2013, the unverified handle "veggieg" (widely believed to be Faye Wong) posted a message suggesting that she had divorced her husband. The message was commented and re-posted more than a million times in four hours. The record was broken on 31 March 2014 by Wen Zhang, who posted a long apology admitting an extramarital affair when his wife Ma Yili was pregnant with their second child. This message was commented and re-posted more than 2.5 million times in 10 hours. (Ma's response generated 2.18 million responses in 12 hours.) On 22 June 2014, TFBOYS member Wang Junkai was awarded a Guinness World Record title for a Weibo post that was reposted 42,776,438 times. Luhan holds the Guinness World Record for most comments.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or ) or simply Zaporozhians () were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids, the land also known historically as the Wild Fields in what is today central and eastern Ukraine. Much of this territory is now flooded by the waters of the Kakhovka Reservoir.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Zaporozhian Sich grew rapidly in the 15th century from serfs fleeing the more controlled parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It became established as a well-respected political entity with a parliamentary system of government. During the course of the 16th, 17th and well into the 18th century, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were a strong political and military force that challenged the authority of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsardom of Russia, and the Crimean Khanate.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The host went through a series of conflicts and alliances involving the three powers, including supporting an uprising in the 18th century. Their leader signed a treaty with the Russians. This group was forcibly disbanded in the late 18th century by the Russian Empire, with much of the population relocated to the Kuban region on the south edge of the Russian Empire, while others founded cities in southern Ukraine and eventually became state peasants. The Cossacks served a valuable role of conquering the Caucasian tribes and in return enjoyed considerable freedom granted by the Tsars.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The name comes from the location of their fortress, the Sich, in "land beyond the rapids", from Ukrainian "beyond" and "rapids".


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: It is not clear when the first Cossack communities on the Lower Dnieper began to form. There are signs and stories of similar people living in the Eurasian Steppe as early as the 12th century. At that time they were not called Cossacks, since "cossack" is a Turkic word meaning a "free man" which shares its etymology with the ethnic name "Kazakh". It later became a Ukrainian and Russian word for "freebooter." The steppes to the north of the Black Sea were inhabited by nomadic tribes such as the Cumans, Pechenegs and Khazars. The role of these tribes in the ethnogenesis of the Cossacks is disputed, although later Cossack sources claimed a Slavicised Khazar ancestry.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: There were also groups of people who fled into these wild steppes from the cultivated lands of Kyivan Rus' in order to escape oppression or criminal pursuit. Their lifestyle largely resembled that of the people now called Cossacks. They survived chiefly from hunting and fishing and raiding the Asiatic tribes for horses and food. In the 16th century, a great organizer, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, a Ukrainian noble, united these different groups into a strong military organization.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Zaporozhian Cossacks had various social and ethnic origins but were predominantly made up of escaped serfs who preferred the dangerous freedom of the wild steppes, rather than life under the rule of Polish aristocrats. However, townspeople, lesser noblemen and even Crimean Tatars also became part of the Cossack host. They had to accept Eastern Orthodoxy as their religion and adopt its rituals and prayers.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The nomadic hypothesis was that the Cossacks came from one or more nomadic peoples who at different times lived in the territory of the Northern Black Sea. According to this hypothesis the Cossacks' ancestors were the Scythians, Sarmatians, Khazars, Polovtsy (Cumans), Circassians (Adygs), Tatars, and others. The nomadic hypothesis of the origin of the Cossacks was formed under the influence of the Polish historical school of the 16th-17th centuries and was connected with the theory of the Sarmatian origin of the gentry. According to the tradition of deriving the origin of the state or people from a certain people of antiquity, the Cossack chroniclers of the 18th century advocated the Khazar origin of the Cossacks. With the expansion of the source base and the formation of historical science, nomadic hypotheses were rejected by official historiography. For the first time, Alexander Rigelman pointed out the imperfection of the hypothesis. In the 20th century, the Russian scientist Gumilyov was an apologist for the Polovtsian origin of the Cossacks.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: In the 16th century, with the dominance of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as their subjects. Registered Cossacks were a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Around the end of the 16th century, relations between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, which were not cordial to begin with, were further strained by increasing Cossack aggression. From the second part of the 16th century, the Cossacks started raiding Ottoman territories. The Polish government could not control the fiercely independent Cossacks but, since they were nominally subjects of the Commonwealth, it was held responsible for raids by their victims. Reciprocally, the Tatars living under the Ottoman rule launched raids in the Commonwealth, mostly in the sparsely inhabited south-east territories of the Ukraine. Cossacks, however, were raiding wealthy merchant port cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, which were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the Dnieper River.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: By 1615 and 1625, Cossacks had managed to raze townships on the outskirts of Constantinople, forcing the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV to flee his palace. His nephew, Sultan Mehmed IV, fared little better as the recipient of the legendary Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, a ribald response to Mehmed's insistence that the Cossacks submit to his authority. Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for both parties to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but enforcement was almost non-existent on both sides. In internal agreements, forced by the Poles, the Cossacks agreed to burn their boats and stop raiding. However, boats could be rebuilt quickly, and the Cossack lifestyle glorified raids and looting.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: During this time, the Habsburg monarchy sometimes covertly employed Cossack raiders to ease Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars shared an animosity towards each other due to the damage done by raids from both sides. Cossack raids followed by Tatar retaliation, or Tatar raids followed by Cossack retaliation, were an almost regular occurrence. The ensuing chaos and string of conflicts often turned the entire south-eastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone and led to an escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars to the Battle of Cecora (1620) and wars in 1633–34.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Cossack numbers expanded, with Ukrainian peasants running from serfdom in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into serfs eroded the Cossacks' once fairly strong loyalty towards the Commonwealth. Cossack ambitions to be recognised as equal to the szlachta were constantly rebuffed, and plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian Two-Nations Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth (with the Ukrainian Cossack people) made little progress, owing to the Cossacks' unpopularity. The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church put them at odds with the Catholic-dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to the suppression of the Orthodox church, making the Cossacks strongly anti-Catholic, which at that time was synonymous with anti-Polish.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The waning loyalty of the Cossacks and the szlachta's arrogance towards them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to bow to the Cossacks' demand to expand the Cossack Registry was the last straw that prompted the largest and most successful of these: the Khmelnytsky Uprising, which started in 1648. The uprising became one of a series of catastrophic events known as the Deluge, which greatly weakened the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration one hundred years later. Even though Poland probably had the best cavalry in Europe, their infantry was inferior. However, Ukrainian Cossacks possessed the best infantry during the middle 17th century. Since Poland recruited most of its infantry from the Ukraine, once this became free from Polish rule, the army of the Commonwealth suffered greatly.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Zaporozhian Host as a military political establishment developed based upon unique traditions and customs, called the Cossack Code, which was formed mostly among the cossacks of Zaporozhian Host over decades. The host had its own military and territorially administrative division: 38 kurins (sotnia) and five to eight "palanka"s (territorial districts) as well as an original system of administration with three levels: military leaders, military officials, leaders of march and palankas. All officership (military starshyna) was elected by the General Military Council for a year on January 1. Based on the same customs and traditions the rights and duties of officers were explicitly codified. The Zaporozhian Host developed an original judicial system, at the base of which lay the customary Cossack Code. The norms of the code were affirmed by those social relations that have developed among cossacks. Some sources refer to the Zaporozhian Sich as a "cossack republic", as the highest power in it belonged to the assembly of all its members, and because its leaders ("starshina") were elected.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Officially the leader of Zaporozhian Host never carried the title of hetman, while all leaders of cossacks formations were unofficially referred to as one. The highest body of administration in the Zaporozhian Host was the "Sich Rada" (council). The council was the highest legislative, administrative, and judicial body of the Zaporozhian Host. Decisions of the council were considered the opinion of the whole host and obligated to its execution each member of the cossack comradeship. At Sich Rada were reviewed issues of internal and foreign policies, conducted elections of military "starshina", division of assigned land, punishment of criminals who committed the worst crimes etc.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Zaporozhian Host, while being closely associated with the Cossack Hetmanate, had its own administration and orders. For military operations, cossacks of the host organized into "Kish". Kish is an old term for a reinforced camp that was used in 11th-16th centuries and later adopted by cossacks. Kish was the central body of government in Sich under jurisdiction of which were administrative, military, financial, legal, and other affairs. Kish was elected on annual bases at the Sich Rada (Black Rada). Black Rada was a council of all cossacks. Kish election were taken place either on January 1, October 1 (Intercession of the Theotokos holiday - Pokrova), or on the 2nd-3rd day of Easter.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: There was a cossack military court, which severely punished violence and stealing among compatriots, bringing women to the Sich, consumption of alcohol in periods of conflict, etc. There were also churches and schools, providing religious services and basic education. Principally, the Eastern Orthodox Church was preferred and was a part of the national identity.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: In times of peace, Cossacks were engaged in their occupations, living with their families, studying strategy, languages and educating recruits. As opposed to other armies, Cossacks were free to choose their preferred weapon. Wealthy Cossacks preferred to wear heavy armour, while infantrymen preferred to wear simple clothes, although they also occasionally wore mail.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: At that time, the Cossacks were one of the finest military organizations in Europe, and were employed by Russian, Polish, and French empires.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The most important items of the host were the Cossack "Kleinody" (always in plural; related to Imperial Regalia) that consisted of valuable military distinctions, regalia, and attributes of the Ukrainian Cossacks and were used until the 19th century. Kleinody were awarded to Zaporozhian Cossacks by the Polish king Stephen Báthory on 20 August 1576 to Bohdan Ruzhynsky, among which were khoruhva, bunchuk, bulawa "mace" and a seal with a coat of arms on which was depicted a cossack with a "samopal" "rifle". The kleinody were assigned to hetman's assistants for safekeeping, thus there have appeared such ranks as "chorąży" ("flag-bearer"), "bunchuzhny" ("staff-keeper"), etc. Later part of Cossack kleinody became pernaches, timpani ("lytavry"), kurin banners (badges), batons, and others.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The highest symbol of power was the "bulawa" or mace carried by hetmans and kish-otamans. For example, Bohdan Khmelnytsky already from 1648 carried a silver gold-covered bulawa decorated with pearls and other valuable gem stones. The cossack colonels had pernachs ("shestoper"s) - smaller ribbed bulawas which were carried behind a belt.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The seal of the Zaporozhian Host was produced in a round form out of silver with a depiction of cossack in a gabled cap on a head, in kaftan with buttons on a chest, with a sabre ("shablya"), powder flask on a side, and a self-made rifle ("samopal") on the left shoulder. Around the seal was an inscription «Печать славного Війська Запорізького Низового» ("Seal of the glorious Zaporozhian Host"). Palanka's and kurin's seals were either round or rectangular with images of lions, deers, horses, moon, stars, crowns, lances, sabers, and bows.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Khoruhva was mostly of a crimson color embroidered with coats of arms, saints, crosses, and others. It was always carried in front of the army next to the hetman or otaman. A badge ("znachok") was a name for a kurin's or company's (sotnia) banners. There was a tradition when the newly elected colonel was required at his own expense prepare palanka's banner. One of the banners was preserved until 1845 in Kuban and was made out of tissue in two colors: yellow and blue. Kettledrums (lytavry) were large copper boilers that were fitted with a leather which served for transmission of various signals (calling cossacks to a council, raising an alarm etc.).


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Each item of kleinody was granted to a clearly assigned member of cossack "starshina" (officership). For example, in the Zaporozhian Host, the bulawa was given to the otaman; the khoruhva - to the whole host although carried by a khorunzhy; the bunchuk also was given to otaman, but carried by a bunchuzhny or bunchuk comrade; the seal was preserved by a military judge, while the seals of the kurin - to the kurin otaman, and the seals of the palanka - to the colonel of a certain palanka; the kettledrums were in possession of a dovbysh (drummer); the staffs - to a military osavul; the badges were given to all the 38 kurins in possession to the assigned badge comrades. All kleinody items (except for the kettledrum sticks) were stored in the Sich's Pokrova church treasury and were taken out only on a special order of kish otaman. The kettledrum sticks were kept in the kurin with the assigned dovbysh. Sometimes, part of kleidony was considered a great silver inkwell ("kalamar"), an attribute of a military scribe ("pysar") of the Zaporozhian Host. Similar kleinods had the officership of the Cossack Hetmanate, cossacks of Kuban, Danube, and other cossack societies.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Upon the destruction of the Sich and liquidation of Ukrainian Cossacks the kleinody were gathered and given away for storage in Hermitage and Transfiguration Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Kremlin Armoury in Moscow as well as other places of storage. By the end of 19th century the Hermitage stored 17 kurin banners and one khoruhva, the Transfiguration Cathedral contained 20 kurin banners, three bunchuks, one silver bulawa, and one silver gold-covered baton. Today the fate of those national treasures of Ukrainian people is unknown. After the February Revolution in 1917 the Russian Provisional Government adopted the decisions of returning them to Ukraine, however, due to the events of the October Revolution of the same year the decision was not executed. With the proclamation of independence, the Ukrainian government has raised the issue of returning the national cultural valuables before the leadership of Russia; no specific agreements have ever been reached, however.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: After the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, the Zaporozhian Host became a suzerainty under the protection of the tsar of Russia, although for a considerable period of time it enjoyed nearly complete autonomy. After the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1657, his successor Ivan Vyhovsky initiated a turn towards Poland, alarmed by the growing Russian interference in the affairs of the Hetmanate. An attempt was made to return to the three-constituent Commonwealth of nations with the Zaporozhian cossacks joining the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by signing the Treaty of Hadiach (1658). The treaty was ratified by the Sejm but was rejected at the Hermanivka Rada by the Cossack rank and file, who would not accept a union with Catholic Poland, which they perceived as an oppressor of Orthodox Christianity. The angered cossacks executed "Polkovniks" Prokip Vereshchaka and Stepan Sulyma, Vyhovsky's associates at the Sejm, and Vyhovsky himself narrowly escaped death.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Zaporozhians maintained a largely separate government from the Hetmanate. The Zaporozhians elected their own leaders, known as Kosh otaman, for one-year terms. In this period, friction between the cossacks of the Hetmanate and the Zaporozhians escalated.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Cossacks had fought in the past for independence from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and they were later involved in several uprisings against the tsar, in fear of losing their privileges and autonomy. In 1709, for example, the Zaporozhian Host led by Kost Hordiienko joined Hetman Ivan Mazepa against Russia. Mazepa was previously a trusted adviser and close friend to Tsar Peter the Great but allied himself with Charles XII of Sweden against Peter I. After the defeat at the Battle of Poltava Peter ordered a retaliatory destruction of the Sich.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: With the death of Mazepa in Bessarabia in 1709, his council elected his former general chancellor, Pylyp Orlyk, as his successor. Orlyk issued the project of the Constitution, where he promised to limit the authority of the Hetman, preserve the privileged position of the Zaporozhians, take measures towards achieving social equality among them, and steps towards the separation of the Zaporizhian Host from the Russian State—should he manage to obtain power in the Cossack Hetmanate. With the support of Charles XII, Orlyk made an alliance with the Crimean Tatars and Ottomans against Russia, but following the early successes of their 1711 attack on Russia, their campaign was defeated, and Orlyk returned into exile. The Zaporozhians built a new Sich under Ottoman protection, the Oleshky Sich on the lower Dnieper.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Although some of the Zaporozhian cossacks returned to Moscow's protection, their popular leader Kost Hordiienko was resolute in his anti-Russian attitude and no rapprochement was possible until his death in 1733.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Over the years the friction between the Cossacks and the Russian tsarist government lessened, and privileges were traded for a reduction in Cossack autonomy. The Ukrainian Cossacks who did not side with Mazepa elected as Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky, one of the "anti-Mazepist" polkovniks. While advocating for the preservation for the Hetmanate autonomy and privileges of the starshina, Skoropadsky was careful to avoid open confrontation and remained loyal to the union with Russia. To accommodate Russian military needs, Skoropadsky allowed for stationing of ten Russian regiments in the territory of the Hetmanate. At the same time, Cossacks took part in construction, fortification and channel development projects in Saint Petersburg, as part of the effort by Peter the Great to establish the new Russian capital. Many did not return, and it is often stated that St. Peterburg "was built on bones".


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: In 1734, as Russia was preparing for a new war against the Ottoman Empire, an agreement was made between Russia and the Zaporozhian cossacks, the Treaty of Lubny. The Zaporozhian Cossacks regained all of their former lands, privileges, laws and customs in exchange for serving under the command of a Russian Army stationed in Kiev. A new "sich" ("Nova Sich") was built to replace the one that had been destroyed by Peter the Great. Concerned about the possibility of Russian interference in Zaporozhia's internal affairs, the Cossacks began to settle their lands with Ukrainian peasants fleeing serfdom in Poland and Russia proper. By 1762, 33,700 Cossacks and over 150,000 peasants populated Zaporozhia.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: By the late 18th century, much of the Cossack officer class in Ukraine was incorporated into the Russian nobility, but many of the rank and file Cossacks, including a substantial portion of the old Zaporozhians, were reduced to peasant status. They were able to maintain their freedom and continued to provide refuge for those fleeing serfdom in Russia and Poland, including followers of the Russian Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev, which aroused the anger of Russian Empress Catherine II. As a result, by 1775 the number of runaway serfs from the Hetmanate and Polish-ruled Ukraine to Zaporizhiya rose to 100,000.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) annexed the Crimean Khanate into Russia, so the need for further southern frontier defence (which the Zaporozhians carried out) no longer existed. Colonisation of Novorossiya began; one of the colonies, located just next to the lands of the Zaporozhian Sich, was New Serbia. This escalated conflicts over land ownership with the Cossacks, which often turned violent.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The decision to disband the Sich was adopted at the court council of Catherine the Great on 7 May 1775. General Peter Tekeli received orders to occupy and liquidate the main Zaporozhian fortress, the Sich. The plan was kept secret and regiments returning from the Russo-Turkish war, in which Cossacks also participated, were mobilized for the operation. They included 31 regiments (65,000 men in total). The attack took place on May 15 and continued to June 8. The order was given by Grigory Potemkin, who had formally become an honorary Zaporozhian Cossack under the name of Hrytsko Nechesa a few years prior. Potemkin was given a direct order from Empress Catherine II, which she explained in her Decree of 8 August 1775:


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: On June 5, 1775, General Tekeli's forces divided into five detachments and surrounded the Sich with artillery and infantry. The lack of southern borders and enemies in the past years had a profound effect on the combat-ability of the Cossacks, who realised the Russian infantry would destroy them after they were surrounded. To trick the Cossacks, a rumour was spread that the army was crossing Cossack lands en route to guard the borders. The surprise encirclement was a devastating blow to the morale of the Cossacks.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Petro Kalnyshevsky was given two hours to decide on the Empress's ultimatum. Under the guidance of a "starshyna" Lyakh, behind Kalnyshevky's back a conspiracy was formed with a group of 50 Cossacks to go fishing in the river Inhul next to the Southern Bug in Ottoman provinces. The pretext was enough to allow the Russians to let the Cossacks out of the siege, who were joined by five thousand others. The fleeing Cossacks traveled to the Danube Delta, where they formed the new Danubian Sich, under the protectorate of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: When Tekeli became aware of the escape, there was little left to do for the remaining 12,000 Cossacks. The Sich was razed to the ground. The Cossacks were disarmed in a mostly bloodless operation, while their treasury and archives were confiscated. Kalnyshevsky was arrested and exiled to the Solovki, where he lived in confinement to 112 years of age. Most upper level Cossack Council members, such as Pavlo Holovaty and Ivan Hloba, were repressed and exiled as well, although lower level commanders and rank and file Cossacks were allowed to join the Russian hussar and dragoon regiments.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The destruction of the Sich created difficulties for the Russian Empire. Supporting the increase in the privileges gained by the higher ranking leadership put a strain in the budget, whilst the stricter regulations of the regular Russian Army prevented many other Cossacks from integrating. The existence of the Danubian Sich, which would support the Ottoman Empire in the next war, was also troublesome for the Russians. In 1784 Potemkin formed the "Host of the Loyal Zaporozhians" (Войско верных Запорожцев) and settled them between the Southern Bug and Dniester rivers. For their invaluable service during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92), they were rewarded with the Kuban land and migrated there in 1792.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: In 1828, the Danubian Sich ceased to exist after it was pardoned by Emperor Nicholas I, and under amnesty its members settled on the shores of the Northern Azov between Berdyansk and Mariupol, forming the Azov Cossack Host. Finally in 1862 they too migrated to the Kuban and merged with the Kuban Cossacks. The Kuban Cossacks served Russia's interests right up to the October Revolution, and their descendants are now undergoing active regeneration both culturally and militarily. The 30,000 descendants of those Cossacks who refused to return to Russia in 1828 still live in the Danube delta region of Ukraine and Romania, where they pursue the traditional Cossack lifestyle of hunting and fishing and are known as "Rusnaks".


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Although in 1775 the Zaporozhian Host formally ceased to exist, it left a profound cultural, political and military legacy on Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Turkey and other states that came in contact with it. The shifting alliances of the Cossacks have generated controversy, especially during the 20th century. For Russians, the Treaty of Pereyaslav gave the Tsardom of Russia and later Russian Empire the impulse to take over the Ruthenian lands, claim rights as the sole successor of the Kievan Rus', and for the Russian Tsar to be declared the protector of all Russias, culminating in the Pan-Slavism movement of the 19th century.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Today, most of the Kuban Cossacks, modern descendants of the Zaporozhians, remain loyal towards Russia. Many fought in the local conflicts following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and today, just like before the revolution when they made up the private guard of the Emperor, the majority of the Kremlin Presidential Regiment is made up of Kuban Cossacks.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: For the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Khmelnytsky Uprising and the fall of the Zaporozhian Cossacks effectively marked the beginning of its end with the Deluge, which led to the gradual demise of the Commonwealth ending with the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. A similar fate awaited both the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire; having endured numerous raids and attacks from them both, the Zaporozhian Cossacks aided the Russian Army in ending Turkey's ambitions of expanding into northern and Central Europe, and like Poland, after the loss of Crimea, the Ottoman Empire began to decline.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: The historical legacy of the Zaporozhian Cossacks shaped and influenced an idea of Ukrainian nationalism in the latter half of the 19th century. Ukrainian historians, such as Adrian Kashchenko (1858–1921), Olena Apanovich and others suggest that the final abolishment of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775 was the demise of a historic Ukrainian stronghold. This movement claimed a distinct Ukrainian nationality and attempted to lay claim to the Zaporozhian Cossacks as progenitors. During the Soviet era, the nationalist aspect was (officially) de-emphasised in order to quell the rise of nationalist sentiment; the celebration of Zaporozhian Cossack's historical role of defending Muscovy from Turks was emphasised. This is sometimes described by Ukrainophiles as Russophilia.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Zaporozhian attire, songs, and music found their way into official state dance and music ensembles, and influenced the image of Ukraine in the years to come. Since the Independence of Ukraine in 1991, attempts at restoring the Cossack lifestyle have concentrated on politics, horsemanship and cultural endeavours. In November, 2016, Cossack's songs of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast were inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.


title: Zaporozhian Cossacks

text: Currently the Zaporozhian Cossack stronghold Khortytsia is perceived to be a symbol of Ukrainian statehood.


title: Luca Brasi

text: Luca Brasi is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel "The Godfather", as well as its 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he was portrayed by Lenny Montana, an ex-wrestler and former bodyguard for the Colombo crime family.


title: Luca Brasi

text: Luca Brasi is Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcer, and the only man Vito himself fears. Brasi is fiercely loyal and has a reputation as a savage and remorseless killer. He once murdered six men single-handedly to protect Don Corleone; only when Vito himself ordered him to stop did Brasi end his rampage, which contributed significantly to ending the "Olive Oil War." Brasi's loyalty to Don Corleone and the Corleone family is unquestioned; he is said to have killed a Corleone soldier just for making the family look bad. Brasi reportedly said he would sooner kill himself than betray the Godfather.


title: Luca Brasi

text: In a notable incident, Brasi intercepted two hitmen sent by Al Capone to assassinate Don Corleone as a favor for one of Corleone's rivals. Brasi subdued both men with his bare hands before binding and gagging them with towels. Watching as Brasi brutally dismembered and butchered his partner with an axe, the other man became terrified and choked to death on the towel.


title: Luca Brasi

text: An old Sicilian woman who had once worked as the neighborhood midwife once told Vito's youngest son Michael that, years earlier, she attended a young Irish girl as she gave birth to Brasi's child. Brasi forced the midwife to throw the crying infant into a burning furnace, saying he wanted none of "that race" to live (she does not know whether he referred to his own blood or the woman's) and a few days later murdered the girl. The distraught midwife, fearing she would be next, sought Vito Corleone's help. Don Corleone intervened, protecting the woman while covering up Brasi's crime and bringing him into his family, thus gaining his undying service and loyalty.


title: Luca Brasi

text: Brasi was surprised to be invited to Connie Corleone's wedding. To show his respect and gratitude, he personally presented the Don with a large cash gift for his daughter's bridal purse, which Brasi intended to be the largest sum given, in addition to a pledge of loyalty to the daughter and future grandchildren. This scene also exposes another aspect of Luca: while ruthless and loyal, he is not particularly intelligent or articulate, and he struggles to deliver the speech accompanying the gift. During the reception, Michael's girlfriend Kay Adams asked him about Brasi. Michael relates the story of how his father once helped his godson, Johnny Fontane, back when Fontane's career was just starting to take off. Don Corleone had offered bandleader Les Halley $10,000 to release Fontane from his contract when he learned that Halley was unfairly exploiting his godson's fame. His offer refused, Vito returned the next day accompanied by Brasi and his then-consigliere Genco Abbandando. He then repeated his offer to Halley at gunpoint, this time telling him that either his signature or his brains would wind up on the contract. Halley agreed, accepting Corleone's payment of $10,000 (in the movie, only $1,000)


title: Luca Brasi

text: Suspicious of drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo and his dealings with the Tattaglia family, Don Corleone orders Brasi to feign dissatisfaction working for the Corleones and convince Sollozzo that he is willing to work for him as a means of gathering information. Don Philip Tattaglia then arranges a meeting between Brasi and Sollozzo. Sollozzo, not fooled by the ruse, has Brasi strangled to death with piano wire. Sometime later, the Corleone family receives a package containing Brasi's custom-made bulletproof vest wrapped around a dead fish, an old Sicilian message that indicates Brasi "sleeps with the fishes."


title: Luca Brasi

text: When Michael succeeds his father as Don of the Corleone family, Brasi's role as personal enforcer/bodyguard is filled by Al Neri, whom Michael "has ma[d]e...his Luca Brasi."


title: Luca Brasi

text: Luca Brasi plays a major role in the prequel novel "The Family Corleone" by Ed Falco. During the Great Depression, Luca Brasi is the leader of a small but feared street gang with ties to Sonny Corleone, who uses them as muscle to aid his family. The younger Brasi is described as a psychopath who has his own newborn child murdered by forcing an old woman to throw it alive into a burning furnace, lets its mother, Irish-American prostitute Kelly O'Rourke, die a savage death at his hands, and regularly abuses drugs. He also plans to kill Corleone associate Tom Hagen for having a one-night stand with Kelly, a feud that Vito settles by paying Brasi off. Brasi spends the money on more drugs; the resulting overdose causes him to suffer a complete mental breakdown that makes him even more unstable and dangerous. Although Vito dislikes and fears Brasi, he eventually recruits the brutal thug into his crime family, knowing that Brasi's formidable reputation would intimidate the Corleone family's enemies.


title: Luca Brasi

text: Brasi has a larger role in "". At his daughter's wedding, Vito accepts Brasi's gift and instructs him to track down the protagonist, Aldo Trapani, who has fallen in with a local gang. Brasi finds Aldo getting beaten up and intervenes, acting as a "trainer" for players by teaching them how to fight and defend themselves. He also trains players in the use of firearms and weapons, and explains how to manage rackets, use safehouses, and deal with the other Mafia families. Later in the game, the player is sent to accompany Brasi to his fateful meeting with Virgil Sollozzo on Tattaglia family turf; after witnessing Brasi's murder, the player has to escape and inform the family of his death.


title: Luca Brasi

text: Brasi inspired Baton Rouge rapper Kevin Gates to create his 2013 mixtape, "The Luca Brasi Story", and its sequel, "Luca Brasi 2", hosted by DJ Drama and released on December 15, 2014.


title: Luca Brasi

text: According to film historian Laurent Bouzereau, the strangling death at the hands of Leia Organa of crime boss Jabba the Hutt's in "Return of the Jedi" was suggested by script writer Lawrence Kasdan. George Lucas approved the idea, which was said to be inspired by Brasi's death scene from "The Godfather".


title: Luca Brasi

text: Luca Brasi is mentioned in the chorus of "I Am The Mob" by Catatonia and in "Click...off...gone" by Sleeper.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman and investor. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, cars, photography, television, camping supplies, security, gaming, jewelry, banks, and comic book publishing. Perelman holds significant shares in companies such as Deluxe Entertainment, Revlon, SIGA Technologies, RetailMeNot, Merisant, Scantron, Scientific Games Corporation, Valassis, vTv Therapeutics and Harland Clarke. He previously owned a majority of shares in AM General, but in 2020 sold the majority of his shares in AM General along with significant works of art, in light of the impact of the economy on the high debt burdens many of his companies have from leveraged buyouts. In early 2020, Revlon, acquired by Perelman in the 1980s, undertook a debt deal.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on January 1, 1943, the son of Ruth (née Caplan) and Raymond G. Perelman. He was raised in a Jewish family in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, and is the grandson of Litvak immigrants. With family members he managed the American Paper Products Corporation. Raymond eventually left the company and bought Belmont Iron Works, a manufacturer of structural steel.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: From his father, Perelman learned the fundamentals of business. By the time Ronald turned eleven years old he regularly sat in on board meetings of his father's company. A 2006 article published in the Forbes 400 discusses their rough relationship in detail.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman first attended the Villanova School of Business for one semester before transferring to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in business. He earned his MBA from Wharton in 1966.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In September 2017, "Forbes" magazine named Perelman as one of the "100 Greatest Living Business Minds."


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman's first major business deal took place in 1961 during his Freshman year at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He and his father bought the Esslinger Brewery for $800,000, then sold it three years later for a $1 million profit.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Throughout Perelman's tenure at the Belmont Iron Works (later renamed Belmont Industries) he assisted his father on other deals. Their general strategy was to purchase a company, sell off superfluous divisions to reduce debt and generate profit, bring the company back to its core business, and either sell it or hang onto it for cash flow. In 1978, twelve years after Perelman formally joined Belmont Industries, he was the vice president but he still strove for more power and influence in the company. His father Raymond told him that he had no intention of stepping down anytime soon. Perelman resigned and moved to New York. The two barely spoke to one another for the next six years.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: He orchestrated the purchase of Cohen-Hatfield Jewelers in 1978, his first deal as an independent investor free of his father's influence and took a loan from his wife, Faith Golding. Within a year, Perelman had sold all of the company's retail locations and reduced the company to its lucrative wholesale jewelry division, earning him $15 million.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman acquired MacAndrews & Forbes, a distributor of licorice extract and chocolate. He faced resistance from the management and investors who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to prevent the acquisition, but Perelman prevailed. In 1983, Perelman started selling bonds to acquire the remaining 66% stake in MacAndrews & Forbes Group Inc. to take MacAndrews & Forbes Group Inc. private.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Also in 1983, MacAndrews had acquired Technicolor Inc. Despite the bond debt, in 1984, MacAndrews & Forbes purchased Consolidated Cigar Holdings Ltd. from Gulf & Western Industries, in addition to Video Corporation of America. The Technicolor Inc. divisions were sold off and, in 1988, its core business was sold to Carlton Communications for 6.5 times the purchase price. Using the proceeds from the Technicolor division sell off, MacAndrews & Forbes purchased a 20 percent stake in Compact Video Inc., a television and film syndication company. Ronald Perelman's controlling buyout of Compact Video was in 1986.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In 1989, Perelman acquired New World Entertainment, with David Charnay's Four Star Television becoming a unit of Ronald Perelman's Compact Video, later that year. Ownership of Compact Video Inc. was increased to 40% in 1989 after the buyout of Four Star International. After Compact shut down, its remaining assets, including Four Star, were folded into MacAndrews and Forbes Incorporated. In 1989, Perelman also acquired New World Entertainment with Four Star becoming a division of New World as part of the transaction. Four Star International was purchased through a golden parachute deal that was negotiated with David Charnay by Ronald Perelman after Charnay was notified of stock purchases made by Perelman in 1989. By the end of 1989, MacAndrews refinanced the Holding companies' junk bonds for standard bank loans. The bulk of New World's film and home video holdings were sold in January 1990 to Trans-Atlantic Pictures, a newly formed production company founded by a consortium of former New World executives.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: His company MacAndrews & Forbes became a holding company with interests in a diversified portfolio of public and private companies and was still wholly owned by Perelman, who served as its chairman and chief executive officer. In 1989, one of the company's holdings was Marvel Comics, which under Perelman's watch declared bankruptcy; he sold off Marvel in 1997. MacAndrews & Forbes's current holdings include Deluxe, Revlon, SIGA Technologies, VTV, and as of late 2019, 39% of Scientific Games. However, as of Q3 2019, the company had hired Goldman Sachs to help review strategic alternatives for Revlon.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: He has also done deals with Revlon Corporation, thrifts for $315 million and renamed it First Gibraltar Bank, Coleman Company, Sunbeam Products, and New World Entertainment.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: On February 17, 2005, Perelman filed a lawsuit against Morgan Stanley. Two facts were at issue: did Morgan Stanley know about the problems with Sunbeam, and was Perelman misled? During the discovery phase, the judge became exasperated with what she perceived as deliberate stonewalling on the part of Morgan Stanley and ordered the jury to assume Morgan Stanley deliberately and knowingly defrauded Perelman. Hobbled, Morgan Stanley had no choice but to argue that Perelman was too savvy an investor to have fallen for their transparent tricks. After a five-week trial, the jury deliberated for two days, found in favor of Perelman, and awarded him $1.45 billion. The damages stung particularly because Morgan Stanley passed up Perelman's offer to settle the case for $20 million. Morgan Stanley maintained that the court case was improperly decided, citing the judge's decision to use Florida law over New York law and her decision to order the jury to consider Morgan Stanley guilty before the trial began. In 2007, the courts of appeal reversed the judgement. The judges declared Perelman hadn't provided any evidence showing he'd suffered any actual damage as a result of Morgan Stanley's actions. Perelman appealed, but found himself shot down by the Florida Supreme Court who dismissed it in a 5–0 decision. Undeterred even after that setback, Perelman went back to the trial court and asked for the case to be reopened because the hiding of email evidence was "a classic example of fraud on the court". The trial court rejected his arguments, but as of January 2009, he is beseeching Florida's 4th Circuit to reopen the case.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: "Bloomberg" reported on September 18, 2020 that Perelman had sold his Gulfstream 650, as well as his 257-foot yacht.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman was a funder of the election campaign of Donald Trump, giving US$125,000 to Trump Victory in September 2017. In 2015, Perelman donated $500,000 each to Super PACs supporting the presidential candidacies of Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In 1995, Perelman donated to Princeton University to create the Ronald O. Perelman Institute for Judaic Studies. Other notable donations include $20 million to the University of Pennsylvania for naming rights to the quadrangle, $10 million to New York University to create the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology, $4.7 million to Princeton University to create the Ronald Perelman Institute for Jewish Studies, and $20 million to the Guggenheim Museum. From 2006 through 2008, Perelman donated $63.5 million to causes including, but not limited to: Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), World Trade Center Memorial Fund and Ford's Theatre, Carnegie Hall and the World Trade Center Memorial. In February 2008, Perelman made a $50 million donation to the New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center to create the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute, and to provide vital financial aid to the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman also gave a total of $16 million to 581 nonprofit organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, in Philadelphia; the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, in New York; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in Baltimore; the Rainforest Foundation U.S., in New York; and other arts, education, Jewish, medical research, and women's-health groups. Perelman serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Police Athletic League of New York City, a nonprofit youth development agency serving inner-city children and teenagers. On June 3, 2011, Perelman was honored for his charitable contributions at the New York Police Foundation's 40th Anniversary Gala at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City—an event that raised $2.3 million for charity.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Since 2013, Perelman donated $50 million to the NYU Langone Medical Center to create the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Emergency Services., $25 million to the University of Pennsylvania to create a new Center for its Economics and Political Science Departments, $100 million to the Columbia Business School, the graduate business school of Columbia University. The gift will be used to support the construction of new facilities in Manhattanville, including the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation. and donated $75 million to revive plans to build a performing arts center at the World Trade Center site.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In May 2015, Perelman succeeded Sanford I. Weill as Chairman of Carnegie Hall. and since 2010 he has also hosted annual benefits for the Apollo Theater, raising millions of dollars annually for the legendary venue.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In August 2021, Princeton University announced that it would no longer name a newly constructed student dormitory for Perelman after the family foundation failed to make payments on a pledged $65 million donation.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In the late 1980s, Perelman was accused of engaging in greenmail. "Greenmail" occurs when someone buys a large block of a company's stock and threatens to take over the company unless he is paid a substantial premium over his purchase price. In the case of someone with a reputation as a corporate raider, the mere act of buying up shares could send a company into a panic and investors into a buying frenzy. Perelman insists he seriously intended to buy every corporation he bought into.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: He was first accused of greenmail in late 1986 during a run at CPC International when he bought 8.2% of CPC at around $75 a share and indirectly sold it back to CPC through Salomon Brothers a month later at $88.5 a share for a $40 million profit. Both CPC and Perelman denied it was greenmail despite appearances to the contrary, including what looked like an artificial price increase by Salomon shortly before they sold Perelman's shares.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Another accusation of greenmailing levied against him was the best-known and stemmed from his attempt to purchase Gillette in November 1986. Perelman opened negotiations with a bid of $4.12 billion. Gillette responded with an unsuccessful lawsuit and public insinuations of insider trading. Perelman accumulated 13.8% of Gillette before he made what he would later call the worst decision he ever made and sold his stake to Gillette later that month for a $34 million profit. Gillette had put word out that Ralston Purina had agreed to buy a 20% block of stock, making any attempt by Perelman to buy Gillette much more difficult. Perelman decided to sell his share to Ralston Purina, but before he did so Gillette's executives called him up, asking if he'd sell his shares to them and they'd sell the shares to Ralston Purina. He sold his shares to Gillette and Ralston backed out of the deal.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: In April 2001, M&F Worldwide bought Perelman's 83% stake in Panavision for $128 million. This would be unremarkable except that Perelman controlled M&F Worldwide and the price paid for his stake was four times market value. At the time, M&F Worldwide was a healthy company with an excellent balance sheet while Panavision was bleeding red ink. M&F Worldwide's other shareholders cried foul, alleging the only person who stood to benefit from the deal was Perelman and took their complaints to the courts. Perelman insisted the deal was an excellent one and in the best interest of the shareholders because Panavision was well-positioned to profit from the move to digital cinematography. The share price tumbled from six to three after the deal and reflected M&F Worldwide shareholders' lack of confidence. Perelman tried to pacify M&F Worldwide's shareholders with a $15 million settlement, but the judge rejected it as grossly inadequate. Ultimately, Perelman agreed to undo the deal.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman hired Fred Tepperman as his CFO after Tepperman left Warner Communications in 1985. Starting with Pantry Pride, Tepperman worked on every single business deal Perelman orchestrated throughout Tepperman's seven-year stint at MacAndrews & Forbes. Tepperman's tenure came to an abrupt end just after Christmas in 1991 when Perelman fired him for being derelict in his duties. Tepperman had been distracted, he claimed, by caring for his Alzheimer's-afflicted wife of 30 years. A clause in Tepperman's contract entitled him to a large portion of his salary and benefits in the event of an injury that prevented him from being able to work; Tepperman claimed he had suffered such an injury, albeit psychologically, as a result of the effect his wife's condition had on him. His demands totaled $30 million. That number stems partially from Tepperman's salary, which started at $275,000 and rose to $1.2 million in 1990 and partially from his large benefits package. Perelman was quick to file a countersuit for fraud, claiming that Tepperman had sneakily changed the company's retirement plan in such a way that Tepperman would personally gain millions of dollars. It took over three years for the case to make it to court. The case ended with a sealed settlement.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman has been married five times. He married Sterling Bank heiress Faith Golding in 1965 and they divorced in 1984. His marriage to gossip columnist Claudia Cohen lasted from 1985 to 1994. He married socialite Patricia Duff in 1995 and divorced in 1996. He was married to actress Ellen Barkin from 2000 to 2006. On October 13, 2010, Perelman married Dr. Anna Chapman, a Harvard University-educated psychiatrist.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman met his first wife, Faith Golding, in 1965 on a cruise to Israel. As the heir to a real-estate and banking fortune, she controlled personal wealth of around $100 million at the time of their marriage. After they had adopted three children—Steven, Josh, and Hope—Faith gave birth to their fourth child, Debra. Their marriage lasted until 1984, when Faith discovered Perelman's ongoing affair with a local florist after a bill for a Bulgari bracelet arrived at their home, instead of Perelman's office. She further declared he had defrauded the owners of First Sterling Corporation (i.e. herself) by diverting thousands of dollars of company money into gifts for the florist. Faith made a very public spectacle of the divorce. Perelman responded by hiring Roy Cohn and flatly denying all her allegations. The pair quickly settled the divorce with an estimated payout to Faith in excess of $8 million.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman met his second wife, Claudia Cohen, in 1984 at Le Cirque. They had one daughter together, Samantha, in 1990. In August 1993, Ron filed for divorce. Claudia left the marriage with well over $80 million. In 2007, Claudia died after a secret seven-year battle with ovarian cancer. Perelman revealed in his eulogy at her funeral that he had known about her cancer from the beginning and privately commissioned a vaccine in his efforts to cure her. He donated $20 million to the University of Pennsylvania to remodel what is now Perelman Quadrangle and, as part of that donation, had the option of renaming Logan Hall. His decision to change it to Cohen Hall dismayed some Penn faculty, alumni, and students.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Patricia Duff was Perelman's third wife. The pair first met in a Paris hotel lobby when both were still married: Perelman to Cohen, and Duff to Mike Medavoy. After Duff divorced Medavoy, Duff converted to Judaism and married Perelman, on January 25, 1995. She gave birth to his fourth daughter, Caleigh Sophia, before the wedding took place. When the marriage between Duff and Perelman disintegrated in 1996, custody over Caleigh became a major issue. Both Perelman and Duff wanted full custody and their prenuptial agreement did not address the subject of child support. Initially private, the divorce proceedings were opened to the public at the request of Duff. Neither party emerged with their reputations unscathed. The court psychiatrist found Duff to be paranoid and narcissistic and Perelman to have serious anger management issues, Perelman caught a great deal of flak for testifying that it cost about $3 a day to feed his daughter, and both sides alleged physical abuse by the other party. The judge's sealed decision means the public will never know the exact results of the case, but it's known that neither party actually won. Perelman is Caleigh's legal guardian, but Patricia has extensive visitation rights.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman met his fourth wife, actress Ellen Barkin, at a "Vanity Fair" Oscar after-party in 1999. After slightly more than a year of courtship, the two married in June 2000. All accounts indicate their five-year marriage was a stormy one. Much of the friction arose due to Barkin's acting career and her attendant travel schedule. Perelman filed and obtained a divorce in early 2006. The press soundly mocked Perelman for his actions, the speed and timing of which suggested his real motivation was to avoid a clause in his prenuptial that would raise the amount in alimony he owed Barkin if he waited a few days longer. Depending on the source used, Barkin's yearly alimony ranges from $2 million to $3 million, and the total payout ranged from $20 million to $65 million. In late 2007, the pair exchanged lawsuits. Part of the divorce settlement required Perelman to invest several million dollars in a film production company Barkin and her brother George (an aspiring screenwriter) had started. Perelman made only one of the payments, claiming that there was no evidence the two were actually producing films. Barkin sued for her money while Perelman counter-sued, alleging Barkin and her brother had looted the film company for themselves. Four years later the lawsuits ended in a confidential settlement.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman began dating psychiatrist Dr. Anna Chapman, in mid-2006. In August 2010, they announced they were expecting a baby – her first, his seventh – via a surrogate. In October 2010, they were married. Chapman is a convert to Judaism. In late November 2010, the couple celebrated the birth of their son, Oscar. The couple later had a second child, Ike, in May 2012.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Judaism has had a strong influence on Perelman's life. He grew up in a Conservative household. The temple he went to growing up was a Reconstructionist temple, and his father donated millions to Conservative causes. He had a religious reawakening at the age of eighteen while on a family trip to Israel:


title: Ronald Perelman

text: I felt not just this enormous pride at being a Jew; I felt this enormous void at not being a "better" Jew. So I decided then to begin being a better Jew. As soon as I got married, we kept a kosher house, we became much more observant. We moved to New York shortly thereafter and joined an Orthodox synagogue and the kids grew up with much more Judaism surrounding them than I ever did.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Today, he strictly observes the Jewish Sabbath, spends three hours every Saturday in prayer, keeps a kosher home, and donates millions to Jewish groups and causes, particularly the Chabad-Lubavitch sect. He does not consider himself to be a member of Lubavitch. He supports them because he thinks they are Judaism's best chance for surviving and thriving in modern society.


title: Ronald Perelman

text: Perelman is the owner of "Près Choisis" (now called "The Creeks"), a 40-room Mediterranean-style villa on Georgica Pond in East Hampton, Long Island. It was built in 1899 by the artists Adele and Albert Herter. In October 2018 a fire spread from the attic and burned for several hours. Insurers paid around $141 million for fire damage, but rejected claims of damage to five paintings insured for a total of $410 million. , Perelman's suit against the insurers is before the New York Supreme Court.


title: Rhineland

text: The Rhineland (; ; ; ; Latinised name: "Rhenania") is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.


title: Rhineland

text: Historically, the Rhinelands refers (physically speaking) to a loosely defined region embracing the land on the banks of the Rhine in Central Europe, which were settled by Ripuarian and Salian Franks and became part of Frankish Austrasia. In the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the former stem duchy of Lotharingia, without developing any common political or cultural identity.


title: Rhineland

text: A "Rhineland" conceptualization can be traced to the period of the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth until the eighteenth centuries when the Empire's Imperial Estates (territories) were grouped into regional districts in charge of defence and judicial execution, known as Imperial Circles. Three of the ten circles through which the Rhine flowed referred to the river in their names: the Upper Rhenish Circle, the Electoral Rhenish Circle and the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle (very roughly equivalent to the present-day German federal state of North Rhine Westphalia). In the twilight period of the Empire, after the War of the First Coalition, a short-lived Cisrhenian Republic was established (1797–1802). The term covered the whole French conquered territory west of the Rhine (German: '), but also including a small portion of the bridgeheads on the eastern banks. After the collapse of the French empire, the regions of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and Lower Rhine were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province ("Rheinprovinz", also known as Rhenish Prussia), a tradition that continued in the naming of the current German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.


title: Rhineland

text: Following the First World War, the western part of Rhineland was occupied by Entente forces, then demilitarized under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and then the 1925 Locarno Treaties. German forces remilitarized the territory in 1936, as part of a diplomatic test of will, three years before the outbreak of the Second World War.


title: Rhineland

text: To the west the area stretches to the borders with Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands; on the eastern side it encompasses the towns and cities along the river and the Bergisches Land area up to the Westphalian (Siegerland) and Hessian regions. Stretching down to the North Palatine Uplands in the south, this area, except for the Saarland, more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term.


title: Rhineland

text: The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country (Westerwald, Hunsrück, Siebengebirge, Taunus and Eifel), cut by river valleys, principally the Middle Rhine up to Bingen (or very rarely between the confluence with the Neckar and Cologne) and its Ahr, Moselle and Nahe tributaries. The border of the North German plain is marked by the lower Ruhr. In the south, the river cuts the Rhenish Massif.


title: Rhineland

text: The area encompasses the western part of the Ruhr industrial region and the Cologne Lowland. Some of the larger cities in the Rhineland are Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Koblenz, Krefeld, Leverkusen, Mainz, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Remscheid, Solingen, Trier and Wuppertal.


title: Rhineland

text: Toponyms as well as local family names often trace back to the Frankish heritage. The lands on the western shore of the Rhine are strongly characterized by Roman influence, including viticulture. In the core territories, large parts of the population are members of the Catholic Church.


title: Rhineland

text: At the earliest historical period, the territories between the Ardennes and the Rhine were occupied by the Treveri, the Eburones and other Celtic tribes, who, however, were all more or less modified and influenced by their Germanic neighbors. On the East bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri.


title: Rhineland

text: Julius Caesar conquered the Celtic tribes on the West bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine, but the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the East bank. As the power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence. By the 8th century, the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germania and northern Gaul.


title: Rhineland

text: On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part of the province to the east of the river fell to East Francia, while that to the west remained with the kingdom of Lotharingia.


title: Rhineland

text: By the time of Emperor Otto I (d. 973) both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire, and in 959 the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine, on the Mosel, and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse.


title: Rhineland

text: As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland disintegrated into numerous small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes and special chronicles. The old Lotharingian divisions became obsolete, and while the Lower Lorraine lands were referred to as the Low Countries, the name of Lorraine became restricted to the region on the upper Moselle that still bears it. After the Imperial Reform of 1500/12, the territory was part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Upper Rhenish, and Electoral Rhenish Circles. Notable Rhenish Imperial States included:


title: Rhineland

text: In spite of its dismembered condition and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbors in various periods of warfare, the Rhenish territory prospered greatly and stood in the foremost rank of German culture and progress. Aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine played a large role in German history.


title: Rhineland

text: At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in numerous small states. In 1806, the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine, a puppet of Napoleon. France took direct control of the Rhineland until 1814 and radically and permanently liberalized the government, society and economy. The Coalition of France's enemies made repeated efforts to retake the region, but France repelled all the attempts.


title: Rhineland

text: The French swept away centuries worth of outmoded restrictions and introduced unprecedented levels of efficiency. The chaos and barriers in a land divided and subdivided among many different petty principalities gave way to a rational, simplified, centralized system controlled by Paris and run by Napoleon's relatives. The most important impact came from the abolition of all feudal privileges and historic taxes, the introduction of legal reforms of the Napoleonic Code, and the reorganization of the judicial and local administrative systems. The economic integration of the Rhineland with France increased prosperity, especially in industrial production, while business accelerated with the new efficiency and lowered trade barriers. The Jews were liberated from the ghetto. There was limited resistance; most Germans welcomed the new regime, especially the urban elites, but one sour point was the hostility of the French officials toward the Roman Catholic Church, the choice of most of the residents. The reforms were permanent. Decades later workers and peasants in the Rhineland often appealed to Jacobinism to oppose unpopular government programs, while the intelligentsia demanded the maintenance of the Napoleonic Code (which was stayed in effect for a century).


title: Rhineland

text: A Prussian influence began on a small scale in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves. A century later, Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. The Congress of Vienna expelled the French and assigned the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia, who left them in undisturbed possession of the liberal institutions to which they had become accustomed under the French. The Rhine Province remained part of Prussia after Germany was unified in 1871.


title: Rhineland

text: The occupation of the Rhineland took place following the Armistice with Germany of 11 November 1918. The occupying armies consisted of American, Belgian, British and French forces. Under the Treaty of Versailles, German troops were banned from all territory west of the Rhine and within 50 kilometers east of the Rhine.


title: Rhineland

text: In 1920, under massive French pressure, the Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and administered by the League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to Germany. At the same time, in 1920, the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium (see German-Speaking Community of Belgium).


title: Rhineland

text: Shortly after, France completely occupied the Rhineland, strictly controlling all important industrial areas. The Germans responded with passive resistance and hyperinflation; the French gained very little of the reparations they wanted. French troops did not leave the Rhineland until 1925.


title: Rhineland

text: On 7 March 1936, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, German troops marched into the Rhineland and other regions along the Rhine. German territory west of the Rhine had been off-limits to the German military.


title: Rhineland

text: In 1945, the Rhineland was the scene of major fighting as the Allied invaders overwhelmed the German defenders.


title: Rhineland

text: In 1946, the Rhineland was divided into the newly founded states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the prime German industrial areas, containing significant mineral deposits, (coal, lead, lignite, magnesium, oil, and uranium) and water transport. In Rhineland-Palatinate agriculture is more important, including the vineyards in the Ahr, Mittelrhein, and Mosel regions.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: USS "Pueblo" (AGER-2) is a , attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship, which was attacked and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what was later known as the "Pueblo" incident" or alternatively, as the "Pueblo" crisis".


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: The seizure of the U.S. Navy ship and her 83 crew members, one of whom was killed in the attack, came less than a week after President Lyndon B. Johnson's State of the Union address to the United States Congress, a week before the start of the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and three days after 31 men of North Korea's KPA Unit 124 had crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and killed 26 South Koreans in an attempt to attack the South Korean Blue House (executive mansion) in the capital Seoul. The taking of "Pueblo" and the abuse and torture of her crew during the subsequent eleven months became a major Cold War incident, raising tensions between western and eastern powers.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: North Korea stated that "Pueblo" deliberately entered their territorial waters away from Ryo Island, and that the logbook shows that they intruded several times. However, the United States maintains that the vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident and that any purported evidence supplied by North Korea to support its statements was fabricated. "Pueblo", still held by North Korea today, officially remains a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: Since early 2013, the ship has been moored along the Pothonggang Canal in Pyongyang and used there as a museum ship at the Victorious War Museum. "Pueblo" is the only ship of the U.S. Navy still on the commissioned roster currently being held captive.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: The ship was launched at the Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, on 16 April 1944, as the United States Army Freight and Passenger (FP) "FP-344". The Army later redesignated the FP vessels as Freight and Supply changing the designation to "FS-344". The ship, commissioned at New Orleans on 7 April 1945, served as a Coast Guard–manned Army vessel used for training civilians for the Army. Her first commanding officer was Lt. J. R. Choate, USCGR, succeeded by Lt. J.G. Marvin B. Barker, USCGR, on 12 September 1945. "FS-344" was placed out of service in 1954.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: In 1964 the Department of Defense became interested in having smaller, less expensive, more flexible and responsive signals intelligence collection vessels than the existing AGTR and T-AG vessels. The mothballed light cargo ships were the most suitable existing DOD ships, and one was converted to in 1964 and began operations in 1965. "Banner's" mission was to surveil high-frequency electronic emissions with line-of-sight propagation requiring operating closer to shore than previous intelligence gathering missions. "Banner" was unarmed, but the crew were issued five M1911 pistols and three M1 Garand rifles. "Banner" was confronted by Soviet Navy ships while operating off the Pacific coast of the Soviet Union. These ships would sometimes display international signal flags meaning: "Heave to or I will fire," but "Banner" kept steaming with scrupulous attention to International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. Soviet recognition of possible American reciprocity against Soviet ships on similar missions discouraged attacks.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: "FS-344" was transferred to the United States Navy on 12 April 1966 and was renamed USS "Pueblo" (AKL-44) after Pueblo and Pueblo County, Colorado on 18 June. Initially, she was classified as a light cargo ship for basic refitting at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard during 1966. As "Pueblo" was prepared under a non-secret cover as a light cargo ship, the general crew staffing and training was on this basis, with 44% having never been to sea when first assigned. Installation of signals intelligence equipment, at a cost of $1.5 million, was delayed to 1967 for budgetary reasons, resuming service as what is colloquially known as a "spy ship" and redesignated "AGER-2" on 13 May 1967. The limited budget for conversion caused disapproval of several improvements requested by the prospective commanding officer, Lloyd Bucher. Requested engine overhaul was denied despite "Banner's" experience of drifting for two days unable to communicate following failure of both engines on patrol. A requested emergency scuttling system was denied, and Bucher was subsequently unable to obtain explosives for demolition charges. Replacement of burn barrels with a fuel-fed incinerator to allow speedy destruction of classified documents was denied. After Bucher's subsequent request to reduce the ship's library of classified publications was similarly denied, he was able to purchase a less capable incinerator using some discretionary funds intended for crew comfort. Following the USS "Liberty" incident on 8 June, Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) Horacio Rivero Jr. ordered that no Navy ship would operate without adequate means of defending itself. VCNO staff directed the shipyard to install a 3-inch/50-caliber gun on "Pueblo's" main deck with provisions for ammunition storage, but Bucher successfully argued against such installation because of reduced ship stability by addition of weight above the main deck. After testing and deficiency rework "Pueblo" sailed from the shipyard on 11 September 1967 to San Diego for shake-down training.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: When the unarmed "Pueblo" reached the U.S. Navy base at Yokosuka, Japan, the commander of United States Naval Forces Japan directed the ship to take two M2 Browning .50 caliber machine guns as a substitute for the missing deck gun. In the limited time available for training, ten of the ship's crew fired five rounds each. Bucher opted to mount these guns in exposed positions on the bow and stern to keep them as far as possible from his position on the bridge. These positions eliminated possible use of the ship's superstructure to protect the gunners and conceal the guns and ammunition service lockers. The exposed guns, with no nearby ammunition supply, were disguised under canvas covers which became rigid with frozen spray.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: On 5 January 1968, "Pueblo" left Yokosuka in transit to the U.S. naval base at Sasebo, Japan; from there she left on 11 January 1968, headed northward through the Tsushima Strait into the Sea of Japan. She left with specific orders to intercept and conduct surveillance of Soviet Navy activity in the Tsushima Strait and to gather signal and electronic intelligence from North Korea. Mission planners failed to recognize that the absence of similar North Korean missions around the United States would free North Korea from the possibility of retribution in kind which had restrained Soviet response. The declassified SIGAD for the National Security Agency (NSA) Direct Support Unit (DSU) from the Naval Security Group (NSG) on "Pueblo" during the patrol involved in the incident was USN-467Y. AGER (Auxiliary General Environmental Research) denoted a joint Naval and National Security Agency (NSA) program. Aboard were the ship's crew of five officers and 38 enlisted men, one officer and 37 enlisted men of the NSG, and two civilian oceanographers to provide a cover story.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: On 16 January 1968, "Pueblo" arrived at the 42°N parallel in preparation for the patrol, which was to transit down the North Korean coast from 41°N to 39°N, and then back, without getting closer than from the North Korean coast, at night moving out to a distance of . This was challenging as only two sailors had good navigational experience, with the captain later reporting, "I did not have a highly professional group of seamen to do my navigational chores for me."


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: At 17:30 on 20 January 1968, a North Korean modified SO-1 class Soviet style submarine chaser passed within of "Pueblo", which was about southeast of Mayang-do at a position 39°47'N and 128°28.5'E.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: In the afternoon of 22 January 1968, the two North Korean fishing trawlers "Rice Paddy 1" and "Rice Paddy 2" passed within of "Pueblo". That day, a North Korean KPA Special Operations Force unit made an assassination attempt at the Blue House executive mansion against South Korean president Park Chung-hee, but the crew of "Pueblo" was not informed.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: According to the American account, the following day, 23 January, "Pueblo" was approached by a submarine chaser and her nationality was challenged; "Pueblo" responded by raising the U.S. flag and directing the civilian oceanographers to commence water sampling procedures with their deck winch. The North Korean vessel then ordered "Pueblo" to stand down or be fired upon. "Pueblo" attempted to maneuver away, but was considerably slower than the submarine chaser. Several warning shots were fired. Additionally, three torpedo boats appeared on the horizon and then joined in the chase and subsequent attack.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: The attackers were soon joined by two Korean People's Air Force MiG-21 fighters. A fourth torpedo boat and a second submarine chaser appeared on the horizon a short time later. The ammunition on "Pueblo" was stored below decks, and her machine guns were wrapped in cold-weather tarpaulins. The machine guns were unmanned, and no attempt was made to man them. An NSA report quotes the sailing order:


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: U.S. Navy authorities and the crew of "Pueblo" insist that before the capture, "Pueblo" was miles outside North Korean territorial waters. North Korea claims that the vessel was well within North Korean territory. The "Pueblo"s mission statement allowed her to approach within a nautical mile (1,852 m) of that limit. However, North Korea describes a sea boundary even though international standards were at the time.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: The North Korean vessels attempted to board "Pueblo", but she was maneuvered to prevent this for over two hours. The submarine chaser then opened fire with a 57 mm cannon and the smaller vessels fired machine guns, injuring Signalman Leach in his left calf and upper right side. Captain Bucher, too, received slight shrapnel wounds, but they were not incapacitating. The crew of "Pueblo" then began destroying sensitive material. The volume of material on board was so great that it was impossible to destroy it all. An NSA report quotes Lieutenant Steve Harris, the officer in charge of "Pueblo"s Naval Security Group Command detachment:


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: Radio contact between "Pueblo" and the Naval Security Group in Kamiseya, Japan had been ongoing during the incident. As a result, Seventh Fleet command was fully aware of "Pueblo"s situation. Air cover was promised but never arrived. The Fifth Air Force had no aircraft on strip alert, and estimated a two-to-three-hour delay in launching aircraft. was located south of "Pueblo", yet her four F-4B aircraft on alert were not equipped for an air-to-surface engagement. "Enterprise"s captain estimated that 1.5 hours (90 minutes) were required to get the converted aircraft into the air.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: Eventually the shelling forced "Pueblo" to stop, signal compliance and follow the North Korean vessels as ordered. "Pueblo" stopped again immediately outside North Korean waters in an attempt to obtain more time for destroying sensitive material, but was immediately fired upon by the submarine chaser, and a sailor, fireman Duane Hodges, was killed, after which "Pueblo" resumed following the North Korean vessels. The ship was finally boarded at 05:55 UTC (2:55 pm local) by men from a torpedo boat and the submarine chaser. Crew members had their hands tied and were blindfolded, beaten, and prodded with bayonets. Once "Pueblo" was in North Korean territorial waters, she was boarded again, this time by high-ranking North Korean officials.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: The first official confirmation that the ship was in North Korean hands came five days later, 28 January 1968. Two days earlier, a flight by a CIA A-12 Oxcart aircraft from the Project Black Shield squadron at Kadena, Okinawa, flown by pilot Jack Weeks, made three high-altitude, high-speed flights over North Korea. When the aircraft's films were processed in the United States, they showed "Pueblo" to be in the Wonsan harbor area surrounded by two North Korean vessels.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: There was dissent among government officials in the United States regarding the nation's response to the situation. Congressman Mendel Rivers suggested that President Johnson issue an ultimatum for the return of "Pueblo" under penalty of nuclear attack, while Senator Gale McGee said that the United States should wait for more information and not make "spasmodic response[s] to aggravating incidents." According to Horace Busby, Special Assistant to President Johnson, the president's "reaction to the hostage taking was to work very hard here to keep down any demands for retaliation or any other attacks upon North Koreans", worried that rhetoric might result in the hostages being killed.


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: On Wednesday, 24 January 1968, the day following the incident, after extensive cabinet meetings Washington decided that its initial response should be to:


title: USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

text: The Johnson Administration also considered a blockade of North Korean ports, air strikes on military targets and an attack across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.