title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker's second election to Parliament, in 1989, saw him gain prominence within the European Union; Juncker chaired the Council of Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN), during Luxembourg's 1991 presidency of the Council of the European Communities, becoming a key architect of the Maastricht Treaty. Juncker was largely responsible for clauses on Economic and Monetary Union, the process that would eventually give rise to the euro, as well as in particular is credited with devising the "opt-out" principle for the UK to assuage its concerns. Juncker was himself a signatory to the Treaty in 1992, having, by that time taken over as parliamentary leader of the Christian Social People's Party.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker was re-elected to the Chamber in 1994, maintaining his ministerial role. With Santer ready to be nominated as the next President of the European Commission, it was only six months later that Grand Duke Jean approved the appointment of Juncker as Prime Minister on 20 January 1995, as part of a coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party. Juncker relinquished his post at the World Bank at this time, but maintained his position as Minister for Finance.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker's first term as Prime Minister was focused on an economic platform of international bilateral ties to improve Luxembourg's profile abroad, which included a number of official visits abroad. During one such visit, to Dublin in December 1996, Juncker successfully mediated a dispute over his own EU Economic and Monetary Union policy between French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The press dubbed Juncker the "Hero of Dublin" for achieving an unlikely consensus between the two.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: 1997 brought the rotating Presidency of the European Council to Luxembourg, during which time Juncker championed the cause of social integration in Europe, along with constituting the so-called "Luxembourg Process" for integrated European policy against unemployment. He also instigated the "Euro 11", an informal group of European finance ministers for matters regarding his Economic and Monetary Union ideals. For all of these initiatives, he was honoured with the Vision for Europe Award in 1998.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker succeeded in winning another term as Prime Minister in the 1999 election, although the coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party was broken in favour of one with the Democratic Party. After the 2004 election, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party became the second largest party again, and Juncker again formed a coalition with them.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In 2005, Juncker inherited a second term as President of the European Council. Shortly after the expiration of his term came Luxembourg's referendum on ratification, and Juncker staked his political career on its success, promising to resign if the referendum failed. The final result was a 56.5% Yes vote on an 88% turnout. His continued allegiance to European ideals earned him the 2006 Karlspreis. In 2009, he denounced the lifting of the excommunication of controversial Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker supported the 2011 military intervention in Libya. Juncker added that he wanted NATO to take control of coalition military efforts in Libya as soon as possible.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: On 19 November 2012, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg aired a story alleging that the former head of the State Intelligence Service (SREL), Marco Mille, had used a wristwatch to covertly record a confidential conversation with Juncker in 2008. According to the report, although Juncker had later found out about the recording, he took no action against Mille and allowed him to leave the service in 2010 for a position with Siemens. A transcript of the conversation was published by "D'Lëtzebuerger Land", which highlighted the disorganised state of the secret service, mentioned links between Grand Duke Henri and MI6 and referred to the "Bommeleeër" scandal. On 4 December 2012, the Chamber of Deputies voted to set up a Parliamentary Inquiry into allegations of SREL misconduct including the illegal bugging of politicians, purchase of cars for private use and allegations of taking payments and favours in exchange for access to officials. The inquiry heard from witnesses who claimed that SREL had conducted six or seven illegal wiretapping operations between 2007 and 2009, as well as covert operations in Iraq, Cuba and Libya. The report concluded that Juncker had to bear political responsibility for SREL's activities, that he had been deficient in his control over the service and that he had failed to report all of the service's irregularities to the enquiry commission. Juncker himself denied wrongdoing.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: After a seven-hour debate in the Chamber of Deputies on 10 July, the withdrawal of support from the Christian Social People's Party's coalition partner, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), forced Juncker to agree to new elections. Alex Bodry, President of LSAP and Chair of the Parliamentary Inquiry into SREL, declared his lack of confidence in Juncker, saying: "We invite the prime minister to take full political responsibility in this context and ask the government to intervene with the head of state to clear the path for new elections." Juncker tendered his resignation to the Grand Duke on 11 July. After the election, Juncker was succeeded on 4 December 2013 by Xavier Bettel.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In 2004, the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers decided to replace the rotating chairmanship with a permanent president. Juncker was appointed as the first permanent president and assumed the chair on 1 January 2005. He was re-appointed for a second term in September 2006. Under the Lisbon Treaty, this system was formalised and Juncker was confirmed for another term. Juncker stepped down on 21 January 2013, when he was succeeded by Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: During his period as "Mr. Euro", the group was instrumental in negotiating and supervising bailout packages for the countries that faced bankruptcy: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker was also an outspoken proponent of enhanced internal co-operation and increased international representation of the group.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In a debate in 2011, during the height of the eurozone crisis, Juncker responded to a conference-goer's suggestion to increase the openness of the strategy discussions in the eurogroup, by stating: "When it becomes serious you have to lie". Scholars of financial markets have remarked that the quote is often taken out of context by critics; best practice amongst monetary policy committees in most states is to keep negotiations on decisions confidential to prevent markets from betting against troubled countries until they are finalised. This need is complicated by the Eurozone's arrangements, in which policy negotiations are held in high-profile international summits of eurozone finance ministers, where leaks of ongoing negotiations may potentially put "millions of people at risk". Indeed, the quote continues;


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: He further stated that when asked by a journalist to comment on those meetings he had had to lie, making clear it went against his personal moral conviction as a Catholic.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: For the first time in 2014, the President of the European Commission was appointed under the new provisions established with the Treaty of Lisbon, which had entered into force after the 2009 Elections to the European Parliament, on 1 December 2009. Juncker's aide Martin Selmayr played a central role in his campaign and later during his presidency as Juncker's campaign director, head of Juncker's transition team and finally as Juncker's head of cabinet (chief of staff).


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Almost all major European political parties, put forward a lead candidate, or "spitzenkandidat" for their respective election campaign. At the election Congress of the European People's Party (EPP), held in Dublin on 6–7 March, Jean-Claude Juncker was elected the party's lead candidate for President of the commission, defeating Michel Barnier. The congress also adopted the EPP election manifesto, which was used by Juncker during his campaign.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In the main debate between the candidates, transmitted live throughout Europe on 16 May via the European Broadcasting Union, all candidates agreed that it would be unacceptable if the European Council would propose someone as Commission President who had not publicly campaigned for the position ahead of the election.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In the elections, held 22–25 May, the EPP won the most parliamentary seats of all parties (221 of 751), but short of a majority in its own right.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: On 27 May, the leaders of five of the seven political groups of the parliament issued a statement that Jean-Claude Juncker, being the lead candidate of the party which won a plurality of the seats, should be given the first attempt to form the required majority to be elected Commission President. Only the ECR and EFD disagreed to this process.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Later on 27 May, the European Council gave its president, Herman van Rompuy, the mandate to start consultations with the group leaders in the European Parliament to identify the best possible candidate. Having less influence over the appointment than under pre-Lisbon law, the Council instead made use of its right to set the strategic priorities, and included discussions with Parliament leaders and Council members alike for a strategic agenda for the upcoming period in Rompuy's mandate.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: During the consultations, Juncker and the EPP agreed to cooperation with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group in the new parliament, as well as secured the backing of all but two member state leaders. In return for their support, the centre-left group and state leaders secured promises of a shift in focus away from austerity towards growth and job creation for the coming period, as well as promises of some of the top jobs.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: The European Council officially proposed Juncker to Parliament as candidate for the Presidency on 27 June, together with a strategic agenda setting out policy priorities for the upcoming Commission mandate period.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: For the first time the nomination was not by consensus, but the European Council voted 26–2 to propose Juncker for the position. Voting against were British PM David Cameron (Conservative Party / AECR) and Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán (Fidesz / EPP), both of whom had frequently opposed Juncker during the election process. Prior to the vote, various media had reported the heads of government of Sweden, Netherlands and Germany were also having similar concerns regarding either the candidate himself, or the way the nomination process was conducted. This was however never confirmed by the politicians in question.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Once Juncker had been nominated by the Council he started visiting all of the political groups of the European Parliament in order to explain his visions as well as gain their support in order to get appointed as Commission President. The purpose was also to show that he had understood some criticism levelled by Eurosceptics in Brussels. This was demonstrated when the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg told the ECR lawmakers that "[d]espite what you may read in the British press, I do not want a United States of Europe," as well as "I do not believe that Europe can be constructed against the nation state."


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: On 15 July, Juncker presented his political programme to the European Parliament in plenary. Following a debate, the MEPs appointed Juncker to the position of Commission President with 422 votes in favour, well over the 376 required, and 250 votes against.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In early November 2014, just days after becoming head of the commission, Juncker was hit by media disclosures—derived from a document leak known as LuxLeaks—that Luxembourg under his premiership had turned into a major European centre of corporate tax avoidance. With the aid of the Luxembourg government, companies transferred tax liability for many billions of euros to Luxembourg, where the income was taxed at a fraction of 1%. Juncker, who in a speech in Brussels in July 2014 promised to "try to put some morality, some ethics, into the European tax landscape", was sharply criticised following the leaks. A subsequent motion of censure in the European Parliament was brought against Juncker over his role in the tax avoidance schemes. The motion was defeated by a large majority. During his tenure, Juncker also oversaw the 2014 opening of the Luxembourg Freeport, which former German Member of European Parliament Wolf Klinz dubbed "fertile ground for money laundering and tax evasion". In March 2015, Juncker called for the formation of a European army, because "a common army among the Europeans would convey to Russia that we are serious about defending the values of the European Union".


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In January 2017, leaked diplomatic cables show Juncker, as Luxembourg's prime minister from 1995 until the end of 2013, blocked EU efforts to fight tax avoidance by multinational corporations. Luxembourg agreed to multinational businesses on an individualised deal basis, often at an effective rate of less than 1%.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: In July 2017, Juncker described the European Parliament as "ridiculous" after only a few dozen MEPs came to attend a debate dedicated to evaluating Malta's time holding the 6-month term rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, accusing MEPs of showing a lack of respect for smaller EU countries. Although rebuked for his remark by the Parliament's president, Antonio Tajani, Juncker responded, "I will never again attend a meeting of this kind." Jaume Duch Guillot, chief spokesman for the Parliament, later said on Twitter that Juncker "regretted" the incident and that Tajani considered the case closed. However, it is not known whether Juncker apologised for his outburst.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Juncker suffers from sciatica attacks following a 1989 car accident, which cause him occasional unsteadiness while walking. A video of Juncker stumbling and receiving assistance from several EU politicians at a NATO leaders' event in July 2018 prompted comments about his health, though his spokesman dismissed the concerns.


title: Jean-Claude Juncker

text: Speculations about alcoholism surrounded Juncker for several years and have been discussed by several high-profile EU politicians. In 2014, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, at the time Dutch Minister of Finance, described Juncker in an interview as a "heavy smoker and drinker", but later apologized for his comments. Juncker himself has always denied these allegations in interviews.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: Burnout Paradise is a 2008 open world racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It was also released on the PlayStation Store and via Xbox Live Marketplace's Games on Demand. It was later added to the libraries of Greatest Hits and Platinum Hits titles and was made backward compatible with the Xbox One in November 2016. It is the first game in the "Burnout" series to be released on Microsoft Windows.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Paradise"s gameplay is set in the fictional "Paradise City", an open world in which players can compete in several types of races. Players can also compete online, which includes additional game modes, such as "Cops and Robbers". Several free game updates introduce new features such as a time-of-day cycle and motorcycles. The game also features paid downloadable content in the form of new cars and the fictional "Big Surf Island".


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The game was very well received upon release, with aggregate score sites GameRankings reporting an average score of 88% and Metacritic reporting an average score of 88 out of 100. The game won several awards in 2008, with Spike TV, GameTrailers and GameSpot all awarding it Best Driving Game. Reviewers felt the game had an excellent sense of speed, and praised the open world gameplay, a first for the "Burnout" series. "Burnout Paradise" is considered by some to be one of the greatest video games ever made.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: A remastered version, titled Burnout Paradise Remastered, which includes all downloadable content (except the Time Savers Pack) and support for higher-resolution displays, was released on 16 March 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on 21 August for Windows via EA's Origin platform. The online service for the original version of the game was permanently discontinued in August 2019. The remastered version for Nintendo Switch with refreshed online servers was released on 19 June 2020.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Burnout Paradise" is set in an open-world environment. Players have the opportunity to progress at their own pace and level; the game, unlike others, is not actually set to a rigid gameplay framework. According to Alex Ward, creative director of the game at developer Criterion Games, this game is a "complete reinvention" of the "Burnout" series. He also said that "to create truly next-generation gameplay, they needed to create a truly next-generation game from the ground up". Initially day and night cycles were not included in the game but a software update entitled "Davis" added this element to the game. For the first time in the series, records are now kept on a player's drivers license, including statistics such as fastest time and biggest crash for every street in the game. Completing events raises the driver rank, which unlocks access to new cars.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: In previous "Burnout" games, "Crash Mode", was a dedicated mode in which players were given multiple scenarios in which to cause the biggest crash. In "Burnout Paradise", "Crash Mode", now called "Showtime", can be initiated at any time and place in the game. Showtime does differ from the previous incarnation of Crash Mode being that instead of crashing into a busy intersection and watching a crash play out, Showtime has bouncing the vehicle around for as long as possible to gain points. During a race players may now take any route to get to the destination. Races and other events are started by simply stopping at any of the traffic lights and applying the accelerator and brake at the same time. The game features the ability to customize race settings, such as traffic, race routes, and including/excluding cars based on their boost types.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Paradise"s damage system has also been reworked. There are now two different types of crashes based on the car's condition after the crash. If the player's car manages to retain all four wheels and does not break its chassis, the player can drive out of the crash and continue playing; this is called a "driveaway". If a player's car loses any wheels, the engine is damaged too much from an impact, the car lands on its side or roof or lands outside of the game's map, the car is in a "wrecked" state and the player will have to wait until their car is reset. Cars dynamically compress and deform around objects they crash into.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: Cars now have manufacturer and model names, which are loosely based on real-world cars. Cars may not be "tuned up" or customized apart from color changes, which may be done in real-time by driving through the forecourt of a paint shop, or by selecting the color during vehicle selection. Other real-time changes include driving through the forecourt of a gas station to automatically refill the vehicle's boost meter, and driving through the forecourt of a repair shop to automatically repair the vehicle.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The online lobby system used by most video games has been replaced by a streamlined system known as "Easy Drive". While driving, players simply hit right on the D-pad and the 'Easy Drive' menu appears in the corner of their screen. From there, players are able to invite other players from their friends list. Once friends have joined the game, the host can select the event to play. A "Mugshots" camera feature is available for the PC via webcam, PlayStation 3 via a PS3-compatible webcam, Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Vision, PlayStation 4 via PlayStation Camera, and Xbox One via Kinect. When a player is taken down, their photo, or 'Mugshot', is shown to the aggressor, and vice versa. These photos can then be saved to the PC or console's storage device.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The concept of "Burnout Paradise" came from director Alex Ward's experience playing open world games, specifically "Crackdown", "Test Drive Unlimited" and "". Ward found that with a title like "Mercenaries" the game's world provided more entertainment than the developers likely planned and gave him a sense of freedom in playing around with inconsequential elements of the game. He wanted to take this idea into "Burnout Paradise": "My philosophy was that if me and you both played it for three hours, we’d both do different things". By focusing on discovery and exploration, the game ended up being a racing game without any defined tracks, a novel element at the time, which has since influenced several other racing game developers in their approaches. Ward also wanted to develop the game as a social platform, leading to some of its design choices for multiplayer formats.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: Ward, in an interview in 2018, noted the difficulty he had in convincing Electronic Arts to follow his vision. The "Burnout" series at the time was already seen as a less lucrative property compared to the "Need for Speed" series by EA, and further, Ward found that EA was not amendable to the open world idea he presented. Ward took steps that he could to make "Burnout Paradise" a desirable game prior to its release to show his superiors that his ideas were sound, which proved out when the game sold more than one million copies within the first three months of release.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Burnout Paradise" has undergone significant changes since its initial release. These have been implemented through several free patches and downloadable packs. In 2008, the first major update, codenamed "Bogart", fixed several glitches and was scheduled to be released on 24 April. It was made available to Xbox 360 users on 18 April and to PlayStation 3 users on the originally scheduled date of 24 April, but this prevented store exclusive cars from being obtainable.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The "Cagney" update was released on schedule on 10 July for PlayStation 3 and on 4 August for the Xbox 360. The update introduced three new Freeburn multiplayer modes: "Online Stunt Run", "Marked Man" and "Road Rage". Online Stunt Run involves up to 8 players who simultaneously compete for the highest stunt score within 2 minutes. Road Rage features two teams; one must race to a checkpoint while the other tries to stop them through takedowns. Marked Man is like a game of tag, with one player as the Marked Man who cannot see the other players and has no boost. In addition there are 70 new online challenges. These new challenges are different from Free Burn challenges, being timed. Timed challenges start once all players gather at a point of interest. The players then must all complete an objective within a certain time, such as jumping a ramp. "Cagney" also brought custom soundtracks and 1080i support to the PlayStation 3 version.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: An update in which involved motorbikes and night-day cycles appear in the Bikes Pack (originally codenamed the "Davis" update), along with tailored locations, challenges and game modes. The update featured a new dynamic weather system, two starter bikes in the player's junkyard, 70 new bike-only challenges, and special "Midnight Rides" challenges that appear only at night. The Bikes pack was released on 18 September on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: On 25 September another update was made available which introduced support for the PlayStation 3 trophies system. Criterion Games originally stated that the trophies could be awarded retroactively to players who had already made certain achievements, but when the update was released they said that this had proved to be impossible and that users would have to start a new game in order to achieve some of the goals. Later on February 5, 2009, Criterion released the free 1.6 update, which included the addition of an in-game browser for the PC and PlayStation 3 versions, which gave users access to the "Criterion Games Network". An in-game store was also added to all versions which allowed users to purchase content from within the game. Tweaks were also made to the vehicles (not including the freeburn exclusives) to steer the game more toward beginners and casual players. The stats of all of the cars were lowered, and the beginning cars were changed specifically to make them control better, and harder to crash. Events were also made easier to compensate for the vehicle changes.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Burnout Paradise" is the first game in the "Burnout" series to be released for the PC. Criterion made use of existing graphics technology and introduced enhanced visuals and the ability to play the game across multiple monitors to enhance widescreen playing. Players can link three 4:3 monitors to play in a Polyvision aspect ratio. PC users are also able to download a trial version of the game for free. It includes the entire map and three cars but will expire after thirty minutes. All saved data will be carried over if the user decides to purchase the full game.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: A demo was made available on 13 December 2007 for both PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Store and Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Marketplace. From January 4 through 14, Criterion raised the maximum number of players for the online Freeburn in the "Paradise" demo to 8 players (online play for the demo has since been shut down completely). With it, a total of 13 new Freeburn challenges were made available for players to play. In 2008, "Paradise" was made available for download on the PlayStation Store. Upon installation and first execution, all updates are downloaded and installed, which allows the player to have the latest version of "Burnout Paradise".


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Burnout Paradise" features in-game advertisements for a number of brands, including Burger King, JL Audio, Nvidia, Gillette, Vizio, CompUSA and EVGA. From 6 October 2008, in-game billboards featured ads for the then United States Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. Electronic Arts confirmed that the Obama campaign paid for the advertisements, marking the first time that a United States presidential candidate has bought in-game advertising. The Obama campaign ran only on the Xbox 360 version of the game.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The Xbox 360 version of "Burnout Paradise" was made available for backward compatibility with the Xbox One in November 2016. On 16 December, it was made available to Xbox Live Gold members for free until 31 December.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: A remastered version of "Burnout Paradise" was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles on 16 March 2018; a version for Windows was released for Origin Access subscribers on 16 August and was fully released on 21 August via Origin platform.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The remaster contains all the previously released downloadable content, except for the Time Savers Pack (a DLC pack that unlocks all vehicles in the game without the need to progress through single-player), and support for higher-resolution monitors (up to 4K resolutions) with 60 frames per second support. A version for Nintendo Switch was released on 19 June 2020. Unlike the original, the Remastered version does not have real life in-game advertisements and are instead replaced by fictional ones.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: In addition to the free updates, Criterion has released several optional, premium packs that add content like new cars, areas and modes. The first update was the "Burnout Party Pack" and launched on 5 February 2009 in North America and the United Kingdom. It focuses on hotseat multiplayer gameplay, which offers a Freeburn Challenge-like setting but for players on the same console, who pass a single controller between players to complete challenges. The challenges are split into 'Speed', 'Stunt' and 'Skill' with up to 8 rounds and up to 8 players can play at once. Criterion in addition also announced the combo pack "Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box" that launched around the same time which contains the original game, plus the Cagney, Bikes, Party pack and Update pack all in the same package which contained "a mountain of new refinements".


title: Burnout Paradise

text: In 2008 Criterion announced the first premium content pack called "Legendary Cars". The pack features four cars inspired by famous vehicles from film and television: the Jansen P12 88 Special (based on the DeLorean from the "Back to the Future" films), the Hunter Manhattan Spirit (based on the Ecto-1 from the "Ghostbusters" films) the Carson GT Nighthawk (based on KITT from the television series, "Knight Rider"), and the Hunter Cavalry Bootlegger (based on The General Lee from the TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard"). The Legendary Cars pack was released on 19 February 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, and later in 2009 for the PC.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The second one is "Toy Cars" pack. It features a collection of new vehicles designed with a "toy car" aesthetic, although modelled as full-size cars. The Toy Cars pack has been released in three packs. The full pack offers all toy cars along with the Nakamura Firehawk; a toy motorcycle, while the others split the content into two parts, minus the Firehawk.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: On 12 March 2009, the "Boost Specials" pack was released. It featured two cars: the Carson Extreme Hotrod and the Montgomery Hawker Mech. The Carson was described as the fastest car in the game and featured a 'locked' boost; the car continues to boost until it is brought to a stop in any manner. The vehicle dynamics system were rewired so that the Carson performs more realistically than any other car in the game. The Montgomery Hawker Mech also featured a unique boost system, which allows the player to willingly switch between the three different boost types at the touch of a button.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: In 2009, via the Criterion Games Network, Criterion announced the "Cops & Robbers" pack, which was released on 30 April for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The content does not involve AI Police patrol cars but instead borrows from the Pursuit modes of older "Burnout" games, notably "". Players are split into teams, the Cops and the Robbers. Teams attempt to return gold bars to their respective bases to score points. Every Paradise car (except Carbon and Premium DLC cars) receives a Police livery with the content.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: Originally announced as the ""Eastwood" pack coming in Fall 2008", the expansion known as "Big Surf Island" was released 11 June 2009. Design for the island was guided by the principle of "if you can see it, you can drive it". The island puts emphasis on the playground aspect of "Burnout". The developers mentioned that in their telemetry they noticed that players congregate in areas of Paradise City that lend themselves to stunt-driving, and so the idea was to create an entire island to accommodate player desire. Big Surf Island also features new vehicles, which includes the Carson Dust Storm buggy, a car tailor-made for stunts. In addition to the Dust Storm buggy two specially featured cars, the Hunter Olympus "Governor" and the Carson Annihilator Street Rod are also included. The unlockable cars also include toy versions of all four "Legendary Cars" pack vehicles and a special Jansen P12 Diamond awarded once all 500 freeburn challenges were completed. It features several new events, billboards, smash gates, and mega jumps. New Trophies and Achievements were also added along with a new 'Big Surf Island License' to obtain.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: Upon release, "Burnout Paradise" was met with very positive reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: Reviewers praised the game's open world, stating ""Burnout Paradise" is an amazing open-world racing game that stays true to the "Burnout" legacy", but that the large world may "feel a little daunting at first". New gameplay mechanics such as gas stations and body repair shops were also praised which "mitigate potential frustration when the heat is on". "Hyper"s Daniel Wilks commends the game for its "great sense of speed and things that go boom". IGN's Chris Roper praised the vehicle unlock system, which gives the player a new vehicle with each license, and also gives the player the opportunity to "take down" certain vehicles, which earns the player a reward if completed. He further lauded the game as "controlled chaos". The Guardian's Keith Stuart added that the game "feels incredibly good to drive".


title: Burnout Paradise

text: However, some reviewers were disappointed that there was no option to restart a race or event. Instead the player had to either fail the event, or cancel the race by bringing the vehicle to a stop for a few seconds, and then return to the specific place on the map to try that particular race or event again. Criterion responded to this criticism by stating that they don't feel that this is a problem and that adding a "retry" option would introduce loading screens, which they "hate with a passion". Despite this, the option to restart an event was later added to the game via a free software update. "Eurogamer" found DJ Atomika, the game's guide, to be "instantly dislikeable".


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The "Remastered" release was met with similarly positive reviews, albeit slightly less than the original release. Metacritic gave the PlayStation 4 version a score of 82 out of 100, and the Xbox One version a score of 79 out of 100.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: "Paradise" won several awards in 2008, with Spike TV, GameTrailers and GameSpot all awarding it Best Driving Game. Additionally, "Paradise" won GameSpot's award for Best Downloadable Content in 2008.


title: Burnout Paradise

text: The game has been the subject of several academic papers investigating a range of fields, often connected to the title's intensity and need for fast reaction time. These include studies on gamer cardiology, phenomenological correspondence and control abstraction and computer game pedagogy.


title: Korean profanity

text: Profanity in the Korean language is referred to as 욕/辱 ("yok", insults or swearing). Several of these words have linguistic and historical significance. Various words have different origins. The Korean term for dog, 'gae', for example, can be used in everyday speech with no offensive connotation. When applied to a person, however, 'gae' and its variants (including 개새끼 'Gaesaekki', literally 'son of a dog', and 'son of a bitch' in English) become strong curse words that would not be appropriate for formal or polite conversation.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The military ranks of the Soviet Union were those introduced after the October Revolution of 1917. At that time the Imperial Russian Table of Ranks was abolished, as were the privileges of the pre-Soviet Russian nobility.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Immediately after the Revolution, personal military ranks were abandoned in favour of a system of "positional ranks", which were acronyms of the full position names. For example, "KomKor" was an acronym of "Corps Commander", "KomDiv" was an acronym of "Division Commander", "KomBrig" stood for "Brigade Commander", "KomBat" stood for "Battalion Commander", and so forth. These acronyms have survived as informal position names to the present day.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Personal ranks were reintroduced in 1935, and general officer ranks were restored in May 1940. Although they underwent some modifications, the ranks were based on those of the Russian Empire. Modified Imperial-style rank insignia were reintroduced in 1943.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The Soviet ranks ceased to be used after the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the military ranks and insignia of the modern Russian Federation and Ukraine have been largely adopted from the Soviet system.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The early Red Army abandoned the institution of a professional officer corps as a "heritage of tsarism" in the course of the Revolution. In particular, the Bolsheviks condemned the use of the word "officer" and used the word "commander" instead. The Red Army abandoned epaulettes and ranks, using purely functional titles such as "Division Commander", "Corps Commander", and similar titles. In 1924 it supplemented this system with "service categories", from K-1 (lowest) to K-14 (highest). The service categories essentially operated as ranks in disguise: they indicated the experience and qualifications of a commander. The insignia now denoted the category, not the position of a commander. However, one still had to use functional titles to address commanders, which could become as awkward as "comrade deputy head-of-staff of corps". If one did not know a commander's position, one used one of the possible positions - for example: "Regiment Commander" for K-9. This rank system stayed on for a decade.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: On September 22, 1935, the Red Army abandoned service categories and introduced personal ranks. These ranks, however, used a unique mix of functional titles and traditional ranks. For example, the ranks included "Lieutenant" and "Comdiv" (Комдив, Division Commander). Further complications ensued from the functional and categorical ranks for political officers (e.g., "Brigade Commissar", "Army Commissar 2nd Rank"), for technical corps (e.g., "Engineer 3rd Rank", "Division Engineer"), for administrative, medical and other non-combatant branches. Rank insignia then used both upside-down chevrons on the sleeve and collar marks. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was also introduced.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: On May 7, 1940, further modifications to the system took place. The ranks of "General" or "Admiral" replaced the senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm; the other senior functional ranks ("Division Commissar", "Division Engineer", etc.) remained unaffected. The Arm or Service distinctions remained (e.g. General of Cavalry, Marshal of Armoured Troops). On November 2, 1940, the system underwent further modification with the abolition of functional ranks for NCOs and the reintroduction of the Podpolkovnik (sub-colonel) rank. For the most part the new system restored that used by the Imperial Russian Army after its participation in World War I.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In early 1942 all the functional ranks in technical and administrative corps became regularized ranks (e.g., "Engineer Major", "Engineer Colonel", "Captain Intendant Service", etc.). On October 9, 1942, the authorities abolished the system of military commissars, together with the commissar ranks, and they were completely integrated into the regular officer corps. The functional ranks remained only in the medical, veterinary, and legislative corps, and Private became the basic rank for the enlisted and NCOs.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In early 1943 a unification of the system saw the abolition of all the remaining functional ranks. The word "officer" became officially endorsed, together with the epaulettes that superseded the previous rank insignia, styled like the Imperial Russian Army before, and Marshal and Chief Marshal ranks created for the various arms and branch commands of the Red Army and the Red Army Air Forces save for the infantry (even through the Artillery branch was the first to have one in 1942) with all Marshal and Chief Marshal ranks being equal to General of the Army.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The ranks and insignia of 1943 did not change much until the last days of the USSR; the contemporary Russian Ground Forces uses largely the same system. The old functional ranks of Combat (Battalion or Battery Commander), Combrig (Brigade Commander) and Comdiv (Division Commander) continue in informal use.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: After the war, the rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union was proposed to Joseph Stalin in his role as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, however, he refused the proposal of the rank several times. The rank insignia featured the USSR arms above a large Marshal's Star surrounded by a wreath.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In 1970 all Starshinas became full-time senior non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel and the new NCO rank of Praporshchik became a Warrant Officer rank, with a new rank of Senior Praporshchik created for senior rank holders later in 1981. And in 1974, Generals of the Army had one star on their shoulder epaulets rather than four with surrounding wreaths. The final rank structure from these reforms stayed well until the Union's dissolution and is the basis for the current ranks of the Russian Ground Forces.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: These ranks also became the basic ranks for the Soviet Air Forces in 1918 and the Soviet Air Defense Forces (from 1932 to 1949 part of the Soviet Air Force and the Red Army, 1949 independent branch, and from 1954 a full-service arm of the Soviet Armed Forces), and from 1991 onward became the basis for the present ranks of the Russian Air Force (including the Air Defense Forces from 1998 onward) and from 2001, the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (Formerly the Space Forces). The only exceptions were the use of the ranks of Marshal of Aviation and Chief Marshal of Aviation, which replaced the rank of General of the Army until the latter became the highest officer rank in 1993.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In 1918, the Soviet Navy was raised from the pro-Bolshevik sailors and officers of the Imperial Russian Navy as the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet by a decree by the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. The ranks and rates were, just like in their counterparts in the Army, personal positions for officers, Petty Officers, and seaman rates. The former officers of the IRN who joined the ranks of this new navy retained their ranks with the abbreviation "b." meaning "former" while the new officers were addressed by their positional ranks. They stayed that way until 1925 when new ranks and rates were created. The rank insignia for the 1918–25 ranks were on the sleeve and cuff.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Most of the officer ranks were revived in 1935, save for the high-ranking officers, and the new PO rank of Squad Commander. The PO rank of Starshina was retained, however.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In 1939 all flag officer ranks were reinstated and Midshipman became the highest enlisted rating in the Navy, and in the course of the Great Patriotic War, all Redfleetmen became Seamen in another rank change. In 1943 all naval rank insignia became uniform in the fleet and ground forces. Uniquely, the ranks of the Soviet Naval Infantry, Soviet Naval Aviation, and the other ground services remained army-styled similar to their Red Army counterparts but the rank insignia became uniform. The Admiral of the Fleet rank was also created by then. The rank insignia was now also seen on epaulettes: black on-duty dresses and dark blue and gold on all full and ceremonial dresses for the fleet forces, with air force blue borders for the aviation branch and red borders for the coastal defense and naval infantry branch. In 1952 the senior enlisted rating's insignia (until 1972, Midshipman and from then on, Chief Ship Petty Officer) changed to its final design.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: 1955 saw the renaming of the Admiral of the Fleet rank into that of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union and was now equivalent to that of a Marshal of the Soviet Union. The shoulder insignia for fleet admirals and all officers' sleeve insignia changed in the following decade as the Admiral of the Fleet rank was revived, now between Admirals and Admirals of the Fleet of the Soviet Union.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: 1972 saw Midshipmen's status raised to warrant officers with Chief Ship Petty Officers replacing their former roles as the highest enlisted ratings.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The Red Army abolished all personal officer and general ranks, retaining only personal positions. Thus, a (platoon commander) was a position for an officer who would typically hold a lieutenant or senior lieutenant rank, (battalion commander) was an equivalent of captain or major, and was an equivalent of lieutenant colonel or colonel.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Even though traditional personal ranks for Red Army officers were re-established in 1935, general ranks were not introduced until 1940, probably because they were associated with the White Army movement. So, in 1935–1940 the personal rank system in the Red Army consisted of the following General-grade ranks:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: When the Marshal of the Soviet Union was introduced later in 1935, it became the highest rank in the Red Army, extending an already complex rank system.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: However, when personal General ranks were introduced in 1940, the updated rank system did not feature a Brigadier-grade rank, mirroring a situation in the Russian Imperial Russian army where the Brigadier rank ceased to exist in the early 19th century. Most of the officers holding the "kombrig" rank were demoted to Colonels, and only a few were promoted to major general.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Another peculiarity of this new system was the absence of a full General rank, which until the 19th century was called General-en-Chef in the Russian Imperial army, and then was renamed General of the Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery. Curiously, the initial draft of the new rank system submitted by People's Commissar of Defence Marshal Voroshilov was more in line with Russian military tradition. In a memorandum submitted on 17 March 1940 to the Politburo and Sovnarkom, Voroshilov made the following proposal:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: However, in the final document, the two komandarm ranks were replaced with Colonel General and General of the Army, with the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union on top of them. In the end, the number of General-grade ranks did not reduce at all even with the abolition of the Brigadier-grade kombrig rank, contrary to the initial proposal by Voroshilov.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: After the introduction of this new system, most existing kombrigs were ranked as colonel, although some were ranked as general; existing komdivs were mostly ranked as major general, komcors and Army Commanders 2nd rank was mostly ranked Lieutenant General, and Army Commanders 1st rank were ranked as Colonel General or General of the Army (a notable exception is Georgy Zhukov who was promoted to General of the Army directly from komcor rank). Later in 1943, the ranks of Marshal and Chief Marshal of a service branch were introduced in aviation, artillery, communications troops, and armored troops; both equivalent to General of the Army.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Eventually, the Soviet system of general ranks included commonplace Major General, Lieutenant General, however, the position between Lieutenant General and General of the Army was occupied by the Colonel General, which in the Soviet system is the equivalent of a full General rank in other nations.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: This unusual rank structure makes rank comparisons difficult; Marshal of the Soviet Union is arguably not the equivalent to NATO five-star general ranks such as British Field Marshal or American General of the Army, but is instead an honorary rank analogous to the Marshal of France, although without associated state functions.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In the Soviet Navy before 1935 the ranks were personal positions. Since that year the general officer rank structure became as follows:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: In 1943, the rank structure slightly changed into the final rank formation which remained until the dissolution of the Navy in 1991 with more changes in 1955 and 1962:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Ranks in the shore services mirrored the changes in the Red Army save that Colonel-General became the highest rank for troops in those services.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The Russian Navy still uses this, except that Marshal of the Russian Federation is the highest rank of precedence, and the rank below that, Admiral of the Fleet, is the highest deck rank for officers.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: From 1924 to 1934, the rank insignia have two colours. The colour of collar patch and the colour of collar patch's edge indicating the corps:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: From 1935 to 1942, the rank insignia have two colours. The colour of collar patch and colour of collar patch's edge indicating the corps:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: From 1943 to 1955, the rank insignia have two colours. Colour of shoulder board and edge colour indicating the corps:


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Besides the official rank system in the armed forces, another system was developed and established within the military culture. The military culture of the Soviet Union was driven by a "seniors" (, Dyedovshchina). The concept of "Dyedovshchina" usually pertains to soldiers in their first two-year obligatory tour in the armed forces, particularly in the Army.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The Soviet ranks and insignia (post-1943) are based on the ranks of Imperial Russia, which influenced the rank systems in imperial Japan, Thailand, Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria. While the first three later took their course of development, the Bulgarians remain under the influence of the Russian and the (post-)Soviet tradition until recently.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The rank systems in the pro-Soviet states of Mongolia and Tuva developed under the Soviet influence, following the pattern change in 1943.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: The Soviet influence on the rank and insignia of other countries reached the apex after WW2 when most countries of East Europe changed their traditional insignia to the Soviet design. Yugoslavia abandoned the Soviet-style insignia in 1951, following the breakaway from Stalin's block; other countries quickly reverted to previous designs shortly after Stalin's death (1956–1958). Only Poland and East Germany remained loyal to the pre-war uniform and ranks style out of the Warsaw block countries. Albania kept the Soviet-based system until 1966 when ranks and insignia were abolished completely. Romania retained the Soviet-based system of ranks until the 1989 revolution.


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Outside the Warsaw Alliance, the Soviet system of ranks and insignia influenced those in the following countries: China (before 1958 and after 1988), East Turkestan (unrecognized, part of China), North Korea, Vietnam (with stripes horizontal rather than vertical), Laos (senior officers have a thick stripe instead of two thin stripes), Kampuchea (1979–1993), Afghanistan (senior officers have horizontal stripes instead of vertical), South Yemen (1985–1990), Mongolia, and Cuba (the latter two countries slightly changed designs in the post-Soviet times, but the Soviet patterns are still easy to recognize). In Africa, pro-Soviet regimes in Burkina Faso (under Thomas Sankara) and Mozambique (under Samora Machel) used Soviet-style insignia but abandoned them when political trends changed. Currently, Congo, Ethiopia, and Eritrea still retain the Soviet-based system of ranks with slightly changed designs (officers have horizontal stripes rather than vertical).


title: Military ranks of the Soviet Union

text: Post-Soviet countries mostly retained the Soviet-based system of ranks and insignia, except for the Baltic States (they restored their pre-Soviet rank systems), Azerbaijan (which wanted to make its uniforms and ranks prominently different from Armenian), Georgia, and Ukraine (Soviet-style designs were used before 2003 and 2016 in both Georgia and Ukraine respectively).


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The 1959 Tibetan uprising (also known by other names) began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and in a context of confusion, as Tibetan protestors feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fuelled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism. At first, the uprising consisted of mostly peaceful protests, but clashes quickly erupted and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) eventually used force to put down the protestors, some of whom had captured arms. The last stages of the uprising included heavy fighting, with high civilian and military losses. The 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, while the city was fully retaken by Chinese security forces on 23 March 1959. Thousands were killed during the 1959 uprising, although the exact number is disputed.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Earlier in 1956, armed conflict between Tibetan guerillas and the PLA started in the Kham and Amdo regions, which had been subjected to socialist reform. The guerrilla warfare later spread to other areas of Tibet and lasted through 1962. Some regard the Xunhua Incident in 1958 as a precursor of the Tibetan uprising.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The annual 10 March anniversary of the uprising is observed by exiled Tibetans as Tibetan Uprising Day and Women's Uprising Day. On 19 January 2009, The PRC-controlled legislature in the Tibetan Autonomous Region chose 28 March as the national anniversary of Serfs Emancipation Day. According to Warren W. Smith, this move was a "counter-propaganda" celebration following the 10 March 2008 unrest in Tibet.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: In 1951, an agreement between the People's Republic of China and representatives of the Dalai Lama was put into effect. Socialist reforms such as redistribution of land were delayed in Tibet proper. However, eastern Kham and Amdo (western Sichuan/Xikang and Qinghai provinces in the Chinese administrative hierarchy) were outside the administration of the Tibetan government in Lhasa, and were thus treated more like other Chinese provinces, with land redistribution implemented in full. The Khampas and nomads of Amdo traditionally owned their own land. Armed resistance broke out in Amdo and eastern Kham in June 1956.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Prior to the PLA invasion, relations between Lhasa and the Khampa chieftains had deteriorated, although the Khampa remained spiritually loyal to the Dalai Lama throughout. Because of these strained relations, the Khampa had actually assisted the Chinese in their initial invasion, before becoming the guerrilla resistance they are now known for. Pandatsang Rapga, a pro Kuomintang and pro Republic of China revolutionary Khampa leader, offered the governor of Chamdo, Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, some Khampa fighters in exchange for the Tibetan government recognizing the independence of Kham. Ngabo refused the offer. After the defeat of the Tibetan Army in Chamdo, Rapga started mediating in negotiations between the PLA and Tibetan rebels.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Rapga and Topgay engaged in negotiations with the Chinese during their assault on Chamdo. Khampas either defected to the Chinese PLA forces or did not fight at all. The PLA attack succeeded.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: By 1957, Kham was in chaos. Resistance fighters' attacks and People's Liberation Army reprisals against Khampa resistance groups such as the Chushi Gangdruk became increasingly brutal. Kham's monastic networks came to be used by guerilla forces to relay messages and hide rebels. Punitive strikes were carried out by the Chinese government against Tibetan villages and monasteries. Tibetan exiles assert that threats to bomb the Potala Palace and the Dalai Lama were made by Chinese military commanders in an attempt to intimidate the guerrilla forces into submission.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Lhasa continued to abide by the seventeen-point agreement and sent a delegation to Kham to quell the rebellion. After speaking with the rebel leaders, the delegation instead joined the rebellion. Kham leaders contacted the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but the CIA under President Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted it required an official request from Lhasa to support the rebels. Lhasa did not act. Eventually the CIA began to provide covert support for the rebellion without word from Lhasa. By then the rebellion had spread to Lhasa which had filled with refugees from Amdo and Kham. Opposition to the Chinese presence in Tibet grew within the city of Lhasa.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: In mid-February 1959 the CCP Central Committee's Administrative Office circulated the Xinhua News Agency internal report on how "the revolts in the Tibetan region have gathered pace and developed into a nearly full-scale rebellion." in a "situation report" for top CCP leaders.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The next day, the Chinese leader saw a report from the PLA General Staff's Operations Department describing rebellions by Tibetans in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Qinghai. He again stressed that "rebellions like these are extremely favorable for us because they will benefit us in helping to train our troops, train the people, and provide a sufficient reason to crush the rebellion and carry out comprehensive reforms in the future."


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The PLA used Hui soldiers, who formerly had served under Ma Bufang to crush the Tibetan revolt in Amdo. Hui cavalry were stationed in Southern Kham. The situation in all of Tibet became increasingly tense, as a growing number of Tibetans began to support the Khampa uprising, while "anti-Chinese communist agitation" spread among the Tibetans. The regional government in Lhasa neither wanted to back a rebellion nor publicly oppose it. Dissatisfied, the Chinese Communist Party put pressure on the Dalai Lama's government to join the operations against the rebels, and made it increasingly clear that a spread of the insurgency would lead to "all-out repression" in Tibet. In this unstable situation, the Chinese generals resident in Lhasa was summoned back to mainland China, leaving the inexperienced PLA commander Tan Guansen in charge, just as the date of the Monlam Prayer Festival approached. This festival had previously been used by participants to voice "anti-Chinese sentiments".


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: According to historian Tsering Shakya, the Chinese government was pressuring the Dalai Lama to attend the National People's Congress in April 1959, in order to repair China's image in relation to ethnic minorities after the Khampa rebellion. On 7 February 1959, a significant day on the Tibetan calendar, the Dalai Lama attended a religious dance, after which the acting representative in Tibet, Tan Guansan, offered the Dalai Lama a chance to see a performance from a dance troupe native to Lhasa at the Norbulingka to celebrate the Dalai Lama's completion of his lharampa geshe degree. According to the Dalai Lama's memoirs, the invitation came from Chinese General Zhang Jingwu, who proposed that the performance be held at the Chinese military headquarters; the Dalai Lama states that he agreed. However, tibetologist Sam van Schaik stated that the Dalai Lama was the one who proposed that the dance should take place in the military headquarters as the Norbulingka was too small. Both parties did not yet agree on a date, and the Dalai Lama seemed to put the event "out of his mind", focusing instead on his ongoing examinations for his Geshe degree as well as the Monlam Prayer Festival.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Besides Tan and the Dalai Lama, nobody was seemingly informed of the plans for the dance. As a result, planned performance date was only finalized 5 or 3 days beforehand when Tan reminded the Dalai Lama of the dance who suggested 10 March. The decision was seemingly concluded on a whim. Neither the Kashag nor the Dalai Lama's bodyguards were informed of the Dalai Lama's plans until Chinese officials briefed them on 9 March, one day before the performance was scheduled, and insisted that they would handle the Dalai Lama's security. The Dalai Lama's memoirs state that on 9 March the Chinese told his chief bodyguard that they wanted the Dalai Lama's excursion to watch the production conducted "in absolute secrecy" and without any armed Tibetan bodyguards, which "all seemed strange requests and there was much discussion" amongst the Dalai Lama's advisors. Some members of the Kashag were alarmed and concerned that the Dalai Lama might be abducted, recalling a prophecy that told that the Dalai Lama should not exit his palace.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: According to historian Tsering Shakya, some Tibetan government officials feared that plans were being laid for a Chinese abduction of the Dalai Lama, and spread word to that effect amongst the inhabitants of Lhasa. On 10 March, several thousand Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama's palace to prevent him from leaving or being removed. The huge crowd had gathered in response to a rumor that the Chinese were planning to arrest the Dalai Lama when he went to a cultural performance at the PLA's headquarters. This marked the beginning of the uprising in Lhasa, though Chinese forces had skirmished with guerrillas outside the city in December of the previous year. The protestors publicly pleaded that the Dalai Lama should not attend the meeting with the Chinese officials, claiming that he would be kidnapped. Although CCP officials insisted that the "reactionary upper stratum" in Lhasa was responsible for the rumor, there is no way to identify the precise source. At first, the violence was directed at Tibetan officials perceived not to have protected the Dalai Lama or to be pro-Chinese; attacks on Chinese started later. One of the first casualties of mob was a senior lama, Pagbalha Soinam Gyamco, who worked with the PRC as a member of the Preparatory Committee of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, who was killed and his body dragged by a horse in front of the crowd for . The protestors also began to use openly anti-Chinese slogans such as "The Chinese must go, leave Tibet to Tibetans".


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: As protests and violence spread, the Dalai Lama informed the protestors that he would stay at the palace, yet this was no longer enough for the growing crowd. Protestors began to demand Tibetan independence, and urged the Dalai Lama's government to publicly endorse their actions. Barricades went up on the streets of Lhasa, and Chinese and Tibetan rebel forces began to fortify positions within and around Lhasa in preparation for conflict. A petition of support for the armed rebels outside the city was taken up, and an appeal for assistance was made to the Indian consul. Chinese and Tibetan troops continued moving into position over the next several days, with Chinese artillery pieces being deployed within range of the Dalai Lama's summer palace, the Norbulingka.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: On 12 March thousands of women gathered in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa on the ground called Dri-bu-Yul-Khai Thang. The leader of this nonviolent demonstration was Pamo Kusang. This demonstration, now known as Women's Uprising Day, started the Tibetan women's movement for independence. On 14 March at the same location thousands of women assembled in a protest led by "Gurteng Kunsang, a member of the aristocratic Kundeling family and mother of six who was later arrested by the Chinese and executed by firing squad."


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: After consulting the state oracle and concluding that the situation had become too unstable, the Dalai Lama and his close confidants opted to flee Lhasa. On 15 March, preparations for the Dalai Lama's evacuation from the city were set in motion, with Tibetan troops being employed to secure an escape route from Lhasa. On 17 March, two artillery shells landed near the Dalai Lama's palace, triggering his flight into exile. The Dalai Lama secretly left the palace the following night and slipped out of Lhasa with his family and a small number of officials. The Chinese had not strongly guarded the Potala, as they did not believe it likely that the Dalai Lama would try to flee. After reaching Lhoka, the Dalai Lama linked up with Kham rebels who began protecting him, and when reaching Lhotse at the Indian border, he proclaimed the restoration of Tibet's independence.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Rumours about the Dalai Lama's disappearance began to spread rapidly on the next day, though most still believed that he was in the palace. Meanwhile, the situation in the city became increasingly tense, as protestors had seized a number of machine guns. At this point, ex-soldiers of the Tibetan Army had joined the protestors' ranks. On 20 March, the Chinese army responded by shelling the Norbulingka to disperse the crowd, and placed its troops at a barricade that divided the city into a northern and southern part in the following night. The battle began early on the following day, and even though the Tibetan rebels were outnumbered and poorly armed, the street fighting proved to be "bloody". The last Tibetan resistance was centered on the Jokhang, where Khampa refugees had set up machine guns, while a large number of Tibetans circumambulated the temple in reverence. The PLA started to attack the Jokhang on 23 March, and a hard-fought, three hours-long battle with many casualties on both sides ensued. The Chinese eventually managed to break through using a tank, whereupon they raised the flag of China on the temple, ending the uprising. Lhasa's streets were reportedly littered with corpses, and at least 4,000 people were arrested.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Two British writers, Stuart and Roma Gelder, visited the Chensel Phodrang palace in the Norbulingka in 1962 and "found its contents meticulously preserved".


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Pandatsang Rapga, a pro-Kuomintang and pro-Republic of China revolutionary Khampa leader, was instrumental in the revolt against the Communists. The Kuomintang had a history of using Khampa fighters to oppose both the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government, and battle the Communist Red Army.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Rapga continued to cooperate with the ROC Kuomintang government after it fled to Taiwan; they provided training to Khampa rebels against the Communist PLA forces.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The Republic of China on Taiwan disputed with America whether Tibet would be independent, since the ROC claimed Tibet as part of its territory. Rapga agreed to a plan in which the revolt against the Communists would include anti feudalism, land reform, a modern government, and to give power to the people.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The Republic of China continued to claim Tibet as an integral part of its territory in accordance with its constitution, contrary to the claims of the Dalai Lama's Central Tibetan Administration which claimed Tibetan independence.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: After the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion, Chiang Kai-shek announced in his Letter to Tibetan Compatriots () that the ROC's policy would be to help the Tibetan diaspora overthrow the People's Republic of China's rule in Tibet. The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission sent secret agents to India to disseminate pro-Kuomintang (KMT) and anti-Communist propaganda among Tibetan exiles. From 1971 to 1978, the MTAC also recruited ethnic Tibetan children from India and Nepal to study in Taiwan, with the expectation that they would work for a ROC government that returned to the mainland. In 1994, the veterans' association for the Tibetan guerrilla group Chushi Gangdruk met with the MTAC and agreed to the KMT's One China Principle. In response, the Dalai Lama's Central Tibetan Administration forbade all exiled Tibetans from contact with the MTAC. Tibetans in Taiwan, who are mostly of Kham origin, support the Republic of China's position that Tibet is part of the ROC, and are against both the Tibetan exile community in India who live under the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGE) and the Communists in mainland China. The Taiwanese Tibetans are considered traitors by the TGE for their position.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Colin Mackerras states, "There was a major rebellion against Chinese rule in Tibet in March 1959, which was put down with the cost of much bloodshed and lasting bitterness on the part of the Tibetans." The Tibetan government-in-exile (TGIE) reports variously, 85,000, 86,000, and 87,000 deaths for Tibetans during the rebellion, attributed to "secret Chinese documents captured by guerrillas". Tibetologist Tom Grunfeld said "the veracity of such a claim is difficult to verify." Warren W. Smith, a writer with Radio Free Asia, writes that the "secret documents" came from a 1960 PLA report captured by guerrillas in 1966, with the figures first published by the TGIE in India in 1990. Smith states that the documents said that 87,000 "enemies were eliminated", but he does not take "eliminated" to mean "killed", as the TGIE does. A TGIE official surnamed Samdup released a report for Asia Watch after three fact-finding missions from 1979 to 1981, stating that a speech by premier Zhou Enlai, published in "Beijing Review" in 1980, confirmed the 87,000 figure. Demographer Yan Hao could find no reference to any such figure in the published speech, and he concluded, "If these TGIE sources are not reluctant to fabricate Chinese sources in open publications, how can they expect people to believe in their citations of so-called Chinese secret internal documents and speeches that are never available in originals to independent researchers?"


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Lhasa's three major monasteries—Sera, Ganden, and Drepung—were seriously damaged by shelling, with Sera and Drepung being damaged nearly beyond repair. According to the TGIE, members of the Dalai Lama's bodyguard who were remaining in Lhasa were disarmed and publicly executed, along with Tibetans who were found to be harbouring weapons in their homes. Thousands of Tibetan monks were executed or arrested, and monasteries and temples around the city were looted or destroyed.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: After the 12 March Women's Uprising demonstration, many of the women who were involved in it were imprisoned, including the leader of the demonstration, Pamo Kusang. "Some of them were tortured, died in prison, or were executed." Known as Women's Uprising Day, this demonstration started the Tibetan women's movement for independence.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: The CIA officer, Bruce Walker, who oversaw the operations of CIA-trained Tibetan agents, was troubled by the hostility which the Tibetans showed towards his agents: "the radio teams were experiencing major resistance from the population inside Tibet". The CIA trained Tibetans from 1957 to 1972, in the United States, and parachuted them back into Tibet to organise rebellions against the PLA. In one incident, one agent was immediately reported by his own brother and all three agents on the team were arrested. They were not mistreated. After less than a month of propaganda sessions, they were escorted to the Indian border and released.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: In April 1959, the 19-year-old Panchen Lama, the second ranking spiritual leader in Tibet, residing in Shigatse, called on Tibetans to support the Chinese government. However, after a tour through Tibet in May 1962, he wrote a document which is known as the 70,000 Character Petition. The document was addressed to Zhou Enlai and in it, he criticized Chinese abuses in Tibet. Shortly afterward, he met with Zhou in order to have a discussion about the document. The outlined petition dealt with the brutal suppression of the Tibetan people both during and after the PLA's invasion of Tibet and the sufferings of the people in The Great Leap Forward. In this document, he criticized the suppression that the Chinese authorities had conducted in retaliation for the 1959 Tibetan uprising. But in October 1962, the PRC authorities who were dealing with the population criticized the petition. Chairman Mao called the petition "...a poisoned arrow shot at the Party by reactionary feudal overlords." In 1967, the Panchen Lama was formally arrested and imprisoned until his release in 1977.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: In June 1959, the Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso was arrested for demonstrating during the March uprising by Chinese officials. He spent the next 33 years in Chinese prisons and laogai or "reform through labor" camps, the longest term of any Tibetan political prisoner. ""He was forced to participate in barbarous re-education classes and He was tortured by various methods, which included being beaten with a club ridden with nails, shocked by an electric probe, which scarred his tongue and caused his teeth to fall out, whipped while being forced to pull an iron plow, and starved."" leading to irreversible physical damage. Released in 1992, he escaped to Dharamsala in India, home of the Tibetan government in exile and became an internationally acclaimed activist for the Tibetan independence cause.


title: 1959 Tibetan uprising

text: Chinese authorities have interpreted the uprising as a revolt by the Tibetan elite against Communist reforms that were improving the lives of Tibetan serfs. Tibetan and third-party sources, on the other hand, have usually interpreted it as a popular uprising against the alien Chinese presence. Historian Tsering Shakya has argued that it was a popular revolt against both the Chinese and the Lhasa government, which was perceived as failing to protect the authority and safety of the Dalai Lama from the Chinese.


title: Herman Munster

text: Herman Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom "The Munsters", originally played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is one of Frankenstein’s monsters, created in a lab in Germany in the nineteenth century.


title: Herman Munster

text: In the context of the series, Herman was created in 1815 at the University of Heidelberg by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Work on him was finally completed around 1850 (neither Lily nor Grandpa is quite sure when) along with his twin brother Charlie. Leaving (Germany) for Great Britain at a young age, Herman was adopted by the Munsters of Munster Hall, a noble family living in the fictitious Shroudshire, England.


title: Herman Munster

text: At some point Herman moved to Transylvania (a region in Romania), where he met Lily Dracula. In 1865 (technically at the age of 15, but physically older) Herman married Lily, and eventually the couple and Grandpa (Lily's father) moved to America, where Herman joined the U.S. Army, fighting in World War II. In episode 34, Grandpa says that it was thanks to Herman that he was able to leave Transylvania and have a better life in America.


title: Herman Munster

text: In "The Munsters Today", he, as now portrayed by John Schuck, is given a younger brother named Frank. And in the 1995 movie "Here Come the Munsters" he is given a sister named Elsa who resembles the Bride of Frankenstein. She is also married to Mr. Hyde, who transforms into Dr. Jekyll.


title: Herman Munster

text: Herman is employed by Gateman, Goodbury and Graves, a funeral home in Mockingbird Heights, having started out as a "box boy c. 1953." Herman's co-workers sometimes remark on his height and strength, but otherwise do not appear to find his appearance and color (green) out of the ordinary. Occasionally, Herman is picked up by "the company car" (a hearse), which he climbs into via the back door and rides as if he were a body being delivered.


title: Herman Munster

text: Herman is a lovable, good-natured, and clumsy buffoon. Despite having been alive for over a century, he behaves rather childishly, often throwing temper tantrums, punctuated with thundering animalish roaring. In spite of his childish behaviors, he is a caring father figure to his son Eddie and a loving, devoted husband. He is very kind to everyone, but he is also very naive, often misunderstanding situations or falling for various schemes. He occasionally has problems recognizing when someone has malicious or dishonest intentions towards him. Most people, however, flee in terror on seeing Herman's monstrous visage, which he always attributes to something else. In some instances, his presence has caused inanimate objects or artwork to come to life and flee in terror: such as a statue of Daniel Boone in a park, a stuffed gorilla in a museum, and a graffiti drawing of a face in a jail cell starting out smiling and the facial expression changes to terror.


title: Herman Munster

text: Herman is incredibly strong, once lifting a solid metal demolition ball casually with one hand. He is almost immovable; a number of times, cars have run into him without causing him injury. A safe fell on his head ("John Doe Munster") and gave him amnesia, although it did not hurt him. When asked how much he weighs, Herman says: "Three spins", meaning the dial on the scale goes around three times. In the episode "Herman's Lawsuit", his driver's license gives his weight as , height as , and eyes as brown. (On the other hand, in the episode "All-Star Munster," Herman, when asked his height, states "seven-foot three" but when asked how tall he is in his stocking feet, he replies, "Seven foot four – I wear very thick socks.") In the episode "Munster the Magnificent", his shoe size is said to be 26. Herman considers himself handsome (as does the rest of his family) even though he can crack a mirror by looking at it, once even cracking a shiny frying pan he looked into. In one episode, Herman is struck by lightning, reverting to a "hideous" form (actually Fred Gwynne without any make-up). He tries to hide his appearance from all those around him until two more lightning strikes make him a woman first and then the second one reverts him back to "handsome" Herman. In earlier episodes, Herman has hair on the back of his hands (only seen in closeups). And a common joke is that when he shakes hands with a blind neighbour of his, they believe that they are holding a dog's paw.


title: Herman Munster

text: When frustrated (often), he tends to stamp like a child having a tantrum causing plaster to shower down from the ceiling. His strength is especially useful around "the Parlor" – he can lift occupied caskets unassisted. Herman has a very distinctive laugh;... a loud braying bellow. Occasionally he is shown grunting and making guttural sounds (similar to Boris Karloff's Frankenstein's monster), usually when he's hungry, impatient or getting annoyed over a minor problem (such as finding his Sunday newspaper).


title: Herman Munster

text: In keeping with his childlike personality, Herman loves balloons, candy, and especially his wife Lily's pancakes. He plays with toys, such as his son Eddie's cowboy hat and cap pistols (in "Herman's Happy Valley"). He loves to read comic books despite Lily's annoyance at such childish behavior.


title: Herman Munster

text: Despite being of German origin and having been raised in England, Herman speaks with a cultured American accent. He does however read German newspapers, which is subtly shown in at least one episode: He is reading a paper, conversing about an unrelated topic, and as the camera gets close enough to his face, it can be seen for a fraction of a second that it is "Die Zeit". In episode "My Fair Munster", he reads "Die Welt".


title: Herman Munster

text: In 1964 Mattel released a Herman Munster doll that featured Gwynne's voice and spoke ten phrases at random with the pull of its "Chatty Ring" cord. This was a spin-off of their highly successful Chatty Cathy doll, for whom the talking mechanism had been invented.


title: Data integrity

text: Data integrity is the maintenance of, and the assurance of, data accuracy and consistency over its entire life-cycle and is a critical aspect to the design, implementation, and usage of any system that stores, processes, or retrieves data. The term is broad in scope and may have widely different meanings depending on the specific context even under the same general umbrella of computing. It is at times used as a proxy term for data quality, while data validation is a prerequisite for data integrity.


title: Data integrity

text: Data integrity is the opposite of data corruption. The overall intent of any data integrity technique is the same: ensure data is recorded exactly as intended (such as a database correctly rejecting mutually exclusive possibilities). Moreover, upon later retrieval, ensure the data is the same as when it was originally recorded. In short, data integrity aims to prevent unintentional changes to information. Data integrity is not to be confused with data security, the discipline of protecting data from unauthorized parties.


title: Data integrity

text: Any unintended changes to data as the result of a storage, retrieval or processing operation, including malicious intent, unexpected hardware failure, and human error, is failure of data integrity. If the changes are the result of unauthorized access, it may also be a failure of data security. Depending on the data involved this could manifest itself as benign as a single pixel in an image appearing a different color than was originally recorded, to the loss of vacation pictures or a business-critical database, to even catastrophic loss of human life in a life-critical system.


title: Data integrity

text: Physical integrity deals with challenges which are associated with correctly storing and fetching the data itself. Challenges with physical integrity may include electromechanical faults, design flaws, material fatigue, corrosion, power outages, natural disasters, and other special environmental hazards such as ionizing radiation, extreme temperatures, pressures and g-forces. Ensuring physical integrity includes methods such as redundant hardware, an uninterruptible power supply, certain types of RAID arrays, radiation hardened chips, error-correcting memory, use of a clustered file system, using file systems that employ block level checksums such as ZFS, storage arrays that compute parity calculations such as exclusive or or use a cryptographic hash function and even having a watchdog timer on critical subsystems.


title: Data integrity

text: Physical integrity often makes extensive use of error detecting algorithms known as error-correcting codes. Human-induced data integrity errors are often detected through the use of simpler checks and algorithms, such as the Damm algorithm or Luhn algorithm. These are used to maintain data integrity after manual transcription from one computer system to another by a human intermediary (e.g. credit card or bank routing numbers). Computer-induced transcription errors can be detected through hash functions.


title: Data integrity

text: In production systems, these techniques are used together to ensure various degrees of data integrity. For example, a computer file system may be configured on a fault-tolerant RAID array, but might not provide block-level checksums to detect and prevent silent data corruption. As another example, a database management system might be compliant with the ACID properties, but the RAID controller or hard disk drive's internal write cache might not be.


title: Data integrity

text: This type of integrity is concerned with the correctness or rationality of a piece of data, given a particular context. This includes topics such as referential integrity and entity integrity in a relational database or correctly ignoring impossible sensor data in robotic systems. These concerns involve ensuring that the data "makes sense" given its environment. Challenges include software bugs, design flaws, and human errors. Common methods of ensuring logical integrity include things such as check constraints, foreign key constraints, program assertions, and other run-time sanity checks.


title: Data integrity

text: Both physical and logical integrity often share many common challenges such as human errors and design flaws, and both must appropriately deal with concurrent requests to record and retrieve data, the latter of which is entirely a subject on its own.


title: Data integrity

text: If a data sector only has a logical error, it can be reused by overwriting it with new data. In case of a physical error, the affected data sector is permanently unusable.


title: Data integrity

text: Data integrity contains guidelines for data retention, specifying or guaranteeing the length of time data can be retained in a particular database. To achieve data integrity, these rules are consistently and routinely applied to all data entering the system, and any relaxation of enforcement could cause errors in the data. Implementing checks on the data as close as possible to the source of input (such as human data entry), causes less erroneous data to enter the system. Strict enforcement of data integrity rules results in lower error rates, and time saved troubleshooting and tracing erroneous data and the errors it causes to algorithms.


title: Data integrity

text: Data integrity also includes rules defining the relations a piece of data can have to other pieces of data, such as a "Customer" record being allowed to link to purchased "Products", but not to unrelated data such as "Corporate Assets". Data integrity often includes checks and correction for invalid data, based on a fixed schema or a predefined set of rules. An example being textual data entered where a date-time value is required. Rules for data derivation are also applicable, specifying how a data value is derived based on algorithm, contributors and conditions. It also specifies the conditions on how the data value could be re-derived.


title: Data integrity

text: Data integrity is normally enforced in a database system by a series of integrity constraints or rules. Three types of integrity constraints are an inherent part of the relational data model: entity integrity, referential integrity and domain integrity.


title: Data integrity

text: If a database supports these features, it is the responsibility of the database to ensure data integrity as well as the consistency model for the data storage and retrieval. If a database does not support these features, it is the responsibility of the applications to ensure data integrity while the database supports the consistency model for the data storage and retrieval.


title: Data integrity

text: Modern databases support these features (see Comparison of relational database management systems), and it has become the de facto responsibility of the database to ensure data integrity. Companies, and indeed many database systems, offer products and services to migrate legacy systems to modern databases.


title: Data integrity

text: An example of a data-integrity mechanism is the parent-and-child relationship of related records. If a parent record owns one or more related child records all of the referential integrity processes are handled by the database itself, which automatically ensures the accuracy and integrity of the data so that no child record can exist without a parent (also called being orphaned) and that no parent loses their child records. It also ensures that no parent record can be deleted while the parent record owns any child records. All of this is handled at the database level and does not require coding integrity checks into each application.


title: Data integrity

text: Various research results show that neither widespread filesystems (including UFS, Ext, XFS, JFS and NTFS) nor hardware RAID solutions provide sufficient protection against data integrity problems.


title: Data integrity

text: Some filesystems (including Btrfs and ZFS) provide internal data and metadata checksumming that is used for detecting silent data corruption and improving data integrity. If a corruption is detected that way and internal RAID mechanisms provided by those filesystems are also used, such filesystems can additionally reconstruct corrupted data in a transparent way. This approach allows improved data integrity protection covering the entire data paths, which is usually known as end-to-end data protection.


title: IS-2

text: The IS-2 (, sometimes romanized as JS-2) is a Soviet heavy tank, the first of the IS tank series named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. It was developed and saw combat during World War II, and saw service in other Soviet allied countries after the war.


title: IS-2

text: The KV-1 was criticized by its crews for its poor mobility and the lack of a larger caliber gun than the T-34 medium tank. It was much more expensive than the T-34, without having greater combat performance. Moscow ordered some KV-1 assembly lines to shift to T-34 production, leading to fears that KV-1 production would be halted and the SKB-2 design bureau, led by Kotin, closed. In 1942, this problem was partially addressed by the KV-1S tank, which had thinner armor than the original, making it lighter and faster. It was competitive with the T-34 but at the cost of no longer having the heavier armor. Production of the KV-1S was gradually replaced by the SU-152 and ended in April 1943.


title: IS-2

text: The capture of a German Tiger tank in January 1943 led to a decision to develop a new heavy tank, which was given the codename Object 237. Before Object 237 had time to mature, intense tank fighting in the summer of 1943 demanded a response. Dukhov's team was instructed to create a stopgap KV tank, the KV-85, which was armed with the 52-K-derivative gun of the SU-85, the 85 mm D-5T, that proved capable of penetrating the Tiger I from . The KV-85 was created by mounting an Object 237 turret on a KV-1S hull. To accommodate the Object 237 turret, the KV-1S hull was modified, increasing the diameter of the turret ring with fillets on the sides of the hull. The radio operator was replaced with an ammunition rack for the larger 85 mm ammunition. The hull MG was then moved to the opposite side of the driver and fixed in place to be operated by the driver. From September to October 1943, a total of 130 KV-85s were produced, before the assembly lines began to shift over. Like the KV-1S, the KV-85 served in dwindling numbers and was quickly overshadowed by the superior IS series.


title: IS-2

text: The Object 237 prototype, a version of the cancelled KV-13, was accepted for production as the IS-85 heavy tank. First deliveries were made in October 1943, and the tanks went immediately into service. Production ended in January 1944. Its designation was simplified to IS-1 after the introduction of the IS-122, later renamed as IS-2 for security purposes.


title: IS-2

text: By 1943, engineers had succeeded in mounting the 85 mm gun to the T-34 medium tank, making it as well-armed as the KV-85 heavy tank. Efforts to up-gun the IS-85 began in late 1943. Two candidate weapons were the D-25 122 mm tank gun, the ballistic characteristics of which were identical to the A-19 122 mm gun, and the D-10 100 mm gun, which was based on a dual-purpose naval gun. The D-10 had been designed for anti-tank fire and had better armor penetration than the A-19, but the smaller caliber meant it had a less useful high explosive round. Also, the D-10 was a relatively new weapon in short supply, while there was excess production capacity for the A-19 and its ammunition. Compared to the older F-34 76.2 mm tank gun, the D-25 delivered 5.37 times the muzzle energy.


title: IS-2

text: After testing both the D-25 and D-10 on the IS-122, the former was selected as the main armament of the new tank. The D-25 used a separate shell and powder charge, resulting in a lower rate of fire compared to the single-piece ammunition used in most tanks, a serious disadvantage in tank-to-tank engagements. Soviet proving-ground tests showed that the D-25 could penetrate the front armor of the German Panther at while the D-10 could do so at a maximum range of . It was therefore considered an adequate anti-tank gun. First deliveries of IS-122s mounted with this gun were in December 1943.


title: IS-2

text: A "Wa Pruef 1" Report dated 5 October 1944 has data on the penetration ranges of the 122 mm A-19 gun against a Panther tank angled at 30 degrees; this estimated that the A-19 gun was unable to penetrate the upper glacis plate of the Panther from any distance, could penetrate the lower glacis plate from , could penetrate the mantlet from and could penetrate the front turret from . The side armour of the Panther was comparatively weaker and could be pentrated at according to the same report. Testing with captured Tiger I tanks in Kubinka showed that the 122 mm D-25T was capable of penetrating the Tiger's turret from and the weld joint or edges of the front hull plates at ranges of . In 1944, the BR-471 was the sole armor-piercing round available. An improved version, the BR-471B () was developed in spring 1945, but was available in quantity only after World War II ended.


title: IS-2

text: According to the same Wa Pruef 1 report, it was estimated that at 30 degree obliquity the hull armor of the Soviet IS-2 model 1943 would be defeated by a Tiger I between at the driver's front plate and nose, while the IS-2's 122 mm gun would penetrate the Tiger's front armor from between . A Panther had to close to to guarantee penetration of the IS-2's frontal armor (The Panther's 75 mm gun could penetrate the IS-2 model 1943's mantlet from , front turret from , and driver's front plate from ), while the IS-2 could penetrate the Panther at ranges of . However, in the summer of 1944, the Germans experienced a shortage of manganese and had to switch to using high-carbon steel alloyed with nickel, which made armor very brittle, especially at the seam welds. The performance of the 122 mm AP shells of the IS-2 against the Panther improved considerably. The reports from the front described cases where the BR-471 APHE round 122 mm projectile fired from ricocheted off the front armor of a Panther, leaving huge breaches in it. According to Steven Zaloga, the IS-2 and Tiger I could knock each other out in normal combat distances below . At any range, the performance of each tank against each other was dependent on the crew and combat situation.


title: IS-2

text: The large 122 mm HE shell was its main asset, proving highly useful and destructive as an infantry-killer. In extremis, the IS-2 engaged enemy heavy armor with OF-471 () high explosive projectiles. These shells weighed , a muzzle velocity of , and were equipped with a TNT charge. The explosive power could blow off an enemy tank turret, drive sprocket and tread off the heaviest German tank even if it could not penetrate the armor. Mechanical shock and explosion was often enough to knock out enemy heavy tanks.


title: IS-2

text: The most recognizable disadvantage of the D-25T gun was its slow rate of fire due to the large size and weight of the shells; only one to one and a half rounds per minute could be fired, initially. After some design improvements, including a semi-automatic drop breech over the previously manual screw breech, the rate of fire increased to 2–3 rounds per minute. According to other sources, the increase may have amounted to 3–4 rounds per minute. Another limitation imposed by the size of its ammunition in a relatively small vehicle was the ammunition stowage: only 28 rounds could be carried inside the tank, with a complement of 20 HE rounds and 8 AP rounds the norm.


title: IS-2

text: The IS-2's armour was primarily composed from casting, which involves pouring molten metal into a mold and letting it cool. This method was done to reduce production costs and thus increase the number of vehicles that could be built (in contrast to its contemporary the Tiger II, which required significant machining in its construction). Casting also made it easier to vary the shape and thickness of the armour, which also reduced the exterior surface relative to tank volume. However casting had to account for the metal shrinking as it cooled (becoming denser) and with limitations on Soviet casting technology, IS-2 armour thickness could vary even when produced from the same mold. Lower-quality alloys had to sometimes be used, substituting manganese for nickel, meaning that while the armour had high hardness and resisted penetration better than steel, it was also quite brittle and thus at risk of shattering.