title: Health belief model

text: Health-related behaviors are also a function of perceived barriers to taking action. Perceived barriers refer to an individual's assessment of the obstacles to behavior change. Even if an individual perceives a health condition as threatening and believes that a particular action will effectively reduce the threat, barriers may prevent engagement in the health-promoting behavior. In other words, the perceived benefits must outweigh the perceived barriers in order for behavior change to occur. Perceived barriers to taking action include the perceived inconvenience, expense, danger (e.g., side effects of a medical procedure) and discomfort (e.g., pain, emotional upset) involved in engaging in the behavior. For instance, lack of access to affordable health care and the perception that a flu vaccine shot will cause significant pain may act as barriers to receiving the flu vaccine. In a study about the breast and cervical cancer screening among Hispanic women, perceived barriers, like fear of cancer, embarrassment, fatalistic views of cancer and language, was proved to impede screening.


title: Health belief model

text: Individual characteristics, including demographic, psychosocial, and structural variables, can affect perceptions (i.e., perceived seriousness, susceptibility, benefits, and barriers) of health-related behaviors. Demographic variables include age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education, among others. Psychosocial variables include personality, social class, and peer and reference group pressure, among others. Structural variables include knowledge about a given disease and prior contact with the disease, among other factors. The HBM suggests that modifying variables affect health-related behaviors indirectly by affecting perceived seriousness, susceptibility, benefits, and barriers.


title: Health belief model

text: The HBM posits that a cue, or trigger, is necessary for prompting engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Cues to action can be internal or external. Physiological cues (e.g., pain, symptoms) are an example of internal cues to action. External cues include events or information from close others, the media, or health care providers promoting engagement in health-related behaviors. Examples of cues to action include a reminder postcard from a dentist, the illness of a friend or family member, mass media campaigns on health issues, and product health warning labels. The intensity of cues needed to prompt action varies between individuals by perceived susceptibility, seriousness, benefits, and barriers. For example, individuals who believe they are at high risk for a serious illness and who have an established relationship with a primary care doctor may be easily persuaded to get screened for the illness after seeing a public service announcement, whereas individuals who believe they are at low risk for the same illness and also do not have reliable access to health care may require more intense external cues in order to get screened.


title: Health belief model

text: Self-efficacy was added to the four components of the HBM (i.e., perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers) in 1988. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's perception of his or her competence to successfully perform a behavior. Self-efficacy was added to the HBM in an attempt to better explain individual differences in health behaviors. The model was originally developed in order to explain engagement in one-time health-related behaviors such as being screened for cancer or receiving an immunization. Eventually, the HBM was applied to more substantial, long-term behavior change such as diet modification, exercise, and smoking. Developers of the model recognized that confidence in one's ability to effect change in outcomes (i.e., self-efficacy) was a key component of health behavior change. For example, Schmiege et al. found that when dealing with calcium consumption and weight-bearing exercises, self-efficacy was a more powerful predictors than beliefs about future negative health outcomes.


title: Health belief model

text: Rosenstock "et al." argued that self-efficacy could be added to the other HBM constructs without elaboration of the model's theoretical structure. However, this was considered short-sighted because related studies indicated that key HBM constructs have indirect effects on behavior as a result of their effect on perceived control and intention, which might be regarded as more proximal factors of action.


title: Health belief model

text: The HBM has gained substantial empirical support since its development in the 1950s. It remains one of the most widely used and well-tested models for explaining and predicting health-related behavior. A 1984 review of 18 prospective and 28 retrospective studies suggests that the evidence for each component of the HBMl is strong. The review reports that empirical support for the HBM is particularly notable given the diverse populations, health conditions, and health-related behaviors examined and the various study designs and assessment strategies used to evaluate the model. A more recent meta-analysis found strong support for perceived benefits and perceived barriers predicting health-related behaviors, but weak evidence for the predictive power of perceived seriousness and perceived susceptibility. The authors of the meta-analysis suggest that examination of potential moderated and mediated relationships between components of the model is warranted.


title: Health belief model

text: Several studies have provided empirical support from the chronic illness perspective. Becker "et al." used the model to predict and explain a mother's adherence to a diet prescribed for their obese children. Cerkoney "et al." interviewed insulin-treated diabetic individuals after diabetic classes at a community hospital. It empirically tested the HBM's association with the compliance levels of persons chronically ill with diabetes mellitus.


title: Health belief model

text: The HBM has been used to develop effective interventions to change health-related behaviors by targeting various aspects of the model's key constructs. Interventions based on the HBM may aim to increase perceived susceptibility to and perceived seriousness of a health condition by providing education about prevalence and incidence of disease, individualized estimates of risk, and information about the consequences of disease (e.g., medical, financial, and social consequences). Interventions may also aim to alter the cost-benefit analysis of engaging in a health-promoting behavior (i.e., increasing perceived benefits and decreasing perceived barriers) by providing information about the efficacy of various behaviors to reduce risk of disease, identifying common perceived barriers, providing incentives to engage in health-promoting behaviors, and engaging social support or other resources to encourage health-promoting behaviors. Furthermore, interventions based on the HBM may provide cues to action to remind and encourage individuals to engage in health-promoting behaviors. Interventions may also aim to boost self-efficacy by providing training in specific health-promoting behaviors, particularly for complex lifestyle changes (e.g., changing diet or physical activity, adhering to a complicated medication regimen). Interventions can be aimed at the individual level (i.e., working one-on-one with individuals to increase engagement in health-related behaviors) or the societal level (e.g., through legislation, changes to the physical environment, mass media campaigns).


title: Health belief model

text: Multiple studies have used the Health Belief Model to understand an individual's intention to change a particular behavior and the factors that influence their ability to do so. Researchers analyzed the correlation between young adult women's intention to stop smoking and their perceived factors in the construction of HBM. The 58 participants were active adult women smokers between 16 and 30 years of age. Table 1 provides more background information while Table 2 shows the correlation between the participants perceived variables and the intention to stop smoking.


title: Health belief model

text: Table 2 shows that all variables besides perceived barriers had a weak positive correlation. In regards to perceived susceptibility, the respondents agreed that they were vulnerable to the health and social consequences associated to women smokers; however, they did not fully believe that smoking would trigger such severe health concerns or social consequences therefore they had a low desire to stop smoking. Similarly, with perceived severity the respondents did not view their habits as having a severe consequence therefore they had a low desire to quit. Additionally, the perceived benefits had a weak positive correlation meaning that the individuals saw that the adoption of healthy behaviors would have a beneficial impact on their overall lifestyle. Perceived barriers showed a weak negative correlation meaning that the more barriers the individual associated with stopping smoking then the less likely they were to quit. Lastly, the perceived self-efficacy of respondents were low and this led to a low desire to quit smoking.


title: Health belief model

text: The intention to stop smoking among young adult women had a significant correlation with the perceived factors of the Health Belief Model.


title: Health belief model

text: Another use of the HBM was in 2016 in a study that was interested in examining the factors associated with physical activity among people with mental illness (PMI) in Hong Kong (Mo et al., 2016). The study used the HBM model because it was one of the most frequently used models to explain health behaviors and the HBM was used as a framework to understand the PMI physical activity levels. The study had 443 PMI complete the survey with the mean age being 45 years old. The survey found that among the HBM variables, perceived barriers were significant in predicting physical activity. Additionally, the research demonstrated that self-efficacy had a positive correlation for physical activity among PMI. These findings support previous literature that self-efficacy and perceived barriers plays a significant role in physical activity and it should be included in interventions. The study also stated that the participants acknowledged that most of their attention is focused on their psychiatric conditions with little focus on their physical health needs.


title: Health belief model

text: This study is important to note in regards to the HBM because it illustrates how culture can play a role in this model. The Chinese culture holds different health beliefs than the United States, placing a greater emphasis on fate and the balance of spiritual harmony than on their physical fitness. Since the HBM does not consider these outside variables it highlights a limitation associated with the model and how multiple factors can impact health decisions, not just the ones noted in the model.


title: Health belief model

text: Movements such as the #MeToo movements and current political tensions surrounding abortion laws have moved women's rights and violence against women to the forefront of topical conversation. Additionally, many organizations, such as Women On Guard, have begun to place emphasize on trying to educate women on what measures to take in order to increase their safety when walking alone at night. The murder of Sarah Everard on March 3, 2021, has placed further attention on the need for women to protect themselves and stay vigilant when walking alone at night. Everard was kidnapped and murdered while walking home from work in South London, England. The health belief model can provide insight into the steps that need to be taken in order to reach more women and convince them to take the necessary steps to increase safety when walking alone.


title: Health belief model

text: As stated, perceived susceptibility refers to how susceptible an individual perceives themselves to be to any given risk. In the case of encountering violence while walking along, research shows that many women have high amounts of perceived susceptibility in regards to how susceptible they believe themselves to be to the risk of being attacked while walking along. Studies show that around 50% of women feel unsafe when walking alone at night Since women may already have increased perceive susceptibility to night-violence, according to the health belief model, they may be more apt to engage in behavior changes to help them increase their safety/ defend themselves.


title: Health belief model

text: As the statistics on perceived susceptibility demonstrate, many women feel they are at risk for encountering night-violence. Thus, women also have a higher perception of the severity of the violence as stories such as the tragic death of Sarah Everard demonstrate that night-violence attacks can be not only severe, but fatal.


title: Health belief model

text: As the health belief model states, individuals must consider the potential benefits of adopting the change in behavior that is being suggested to them. In the case of night-violence against women organizations that seek to prevent it do so by using advertising to demonstrate to women that tools such as pocket knives, pepper spray, self-defense classes, alarm systems, and traveling with a "buddy" can outweigh barriers such as the cost, time, and other inconveniences that pursuing these changes in behavior may require. The benefit to implementing these behaviors would be that women could feel more safe when walking alone at night.


title: Health belief model

text: It is not surprise that the modifying variable of sex plays a large role in applying the health belief model to women's safety agendas/ movements. While studies show that around 50% of women feel unsafe walking at night, they also show that fewer than one fifth of men feel the same fear and discomfort Thus, it is evident that the modifying variable of gender plays a large role in how night-time violence is perceived. According to the model, women may be more likely to change their behavior toward preventing night-time violence than men.


title: Health belief model

text: Cues to action are perhaps the most powerful part of the health belief model and of getting individual to change their behavior. In regards to preventing night-time violence against women, stories of the horrific violent acts committed against women while they are walking at night serve as external cues to action that can spur individuals to take the necessary precautions and make the necessary change to their behavior in order to reduce the likelihood of them encountering night-time violence. Cues to action further factor into increased perceived susceptibility and severity of the given risk.


title: Health belief model

text: Self efficacy is another important factor both in the health belief model and in behavior change in general. When people believe that they actually have the power to prevent the given risk, then they are more likely to take the appropriate measures to do so. When individuals believe that they cannot change their behavior or prevent the risk no matter what they do, then they are less likely to engage in behavior to stop the risk. This concept factors greatly into initiatives to help women defend themselves against night violence because, based on the statistics, many women do feel that if they carry items such as tasers, pepper spray, or alarms they will be able to defend themselves against attackers. Self-defense classes are also things that organizations offer in order to teach individuals that they have the power to learn how to defend themselves and acquire the proper skills to do so. These classes can help to increase self efficacy. Organizations such as community centers may offer classes along these lines.


title: Health belief model

text: The issues of night violence against women is an issue of safety and wellness which makes it applicable to a health belief model approach. Defense and preparation for night violence can require behavioral changes on behalf of women if they feel that doing so will help them protect themselves should they ever be attacked.


title: Health belief model

text: The HBM attempts to predict health-related behaviors by accounting for individual differences in beliefs and attitudes. However, it does not account for other factors that influence health behaviors. For instance, habitual health-related behaviors (e.g., smoking, seatbelt buckling) may become relatively independent of conscious health-related decision-making processes. Additionally, individuals engage in some health-related behaviors for reasons unrelated to health (e.g., exercising for aesthetic reasons). Environmental factors outside an individual's control may prevent engagement in desired behaviors. For example, an individual living in a dangerous neighborhood may be unable to go for a jog outdoors due to safety concerns. Furthermore, the HBM does not consider the impact of emotions on health-related behavior. Evidence suggests that fear may be a key factor in predicting health-related behavior.


title: Health belief model

text: Alternative factors may predict health behavior, such as outcome expectancy (i.e., whether the person feels they will be healthier as a result of their behavior) and self-efficacy (i.e., the person's belief in their ability to carry out preventive behavior).


title: Health belief model

text: The theoretical constructs that constitute the HBM are broadly defined. Furthermore, the HBM does not specify how constructs of the model interact with one another. Therefore, different operationalizations of the theoretical constructs may not be strictly comparable across studies.


title: Health belief model

text: Research assessing the contribution of cues to action in predicting health-related behaviors is limited. Cues to action are often difficult to assess, limiting research in this area. For instance, individuals may not accurately report cues that prompted behavior change. Cues such as a public service announcement on television or on a billboard may be fleeting and individuals may not be aware of their significance in prompting them to engage in a health-related behavior. Interpersonal influences are also particularly difficult to measure as cues.


title: Health belief model

text: Another reason why research does not always support the HBM is that factors other than health beliefs also heavily influence health behavior practices. These factors may include: special influences, cultural factors, socioeconomic status, and previous experiences.


title: Health belief model

text: Scholars extend the HBM by adding four more variables (self-identity, perceived importance, consideration of future consequences and concern for appearance) as possible determinants of healthy behavior. They prove that consideration of future consequences, self-identity, concern for appearance, perceived importance, self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility are significant determinants of healthy eating behavior that can be manipulated by healthy eating intervention design.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Jonesboro is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 78,576 and is the fifth-largest city in Arkansas. In 2020, the Jonesboro metropolitan area had a population of 133,860 and a population of 179,932 in the Jonesboro-Paragould Combined Statistical Area.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Jonesboro is the home of Arkansas State University and is the cultural and economic center of Northeast Arkansas.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The Jonesboro area was first inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, historic tribes included the Osage, the Caddo, and the Quapaw. The name of the state of Arkansas comes from the Quapaw language. French and Spanish traders and trappers had relations with these groups.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: After the United States acquired this territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, American settlers eventually made their way to the area where Jonesboro is located. They began exploring, hunting, trapping, and trading with the local Indian tribes. A permanent settlement of Jonesboro was set up shortly after 1859. When Craighead County was established.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: In 1859, land was taken from nearby Greene, Mississippi, and Poinsett counties and was used to form Craighead County. Jonesboro was designated as the original county seat. As the population increased in the west of the county, Lake City was named as the second seat. Jonesboro had 150 residents in 1859. It was named after State Senator William A. Jones in recognition of his support for the formation of Craighead County. Originally spelled "Jonesborough", the city name was later shortened to its present-day spelling.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The Jonesboro Lynching of 1881 took place at midnight on March 12. The "Decatur Daily Republican" reported that four black men—Green Harris (sometimes referred to as Hawes), Giles Peck, John Woods (sometimes referred to as Jud Woods), and Burt Hoskins (sometimes referred to as Haskins)—had been arrested and tried before magistrates Jackson and Akers at New Haven Church, eight miles north of Jonesboro. The hearing, which found that the men were guilty, was attended by several hundred people. According to this and several other reports, the accused made a complete confession. The magistrates bound them over to the grand jury, and they were ordered taken to the jail in Jonesboro. The hour being late, however, it was decided to hold them overnight in the church under a strong guard. The large crowd gradually dispersed, "muttering threats of vengeance." Around midnight, between 200 and 300 masked men surrounded the church, overpowered the guards, and broke in the doors and windows. They seized the accused, dragged them to a tree about 200 yards away, and hanged them. Once again, the crowd dispersed, "leaving the bodies of their victims dangling in the air and presenting a horrible spectacle in the moonlight." According to the "Republican", "The crime and punishment form one of the blackest pages in the annals of the state."


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: During the late 19th century, the city tried to develop its court system and downtown infrastructure. Shortly after the city was named county seat, the highest point in Jonesboro was identified and a courthouse was planned for construction. This was delayed for several years, for the locals did not want to ruin their deer hunting. The first courthouse was finally completed but was destroyed by a fire in 1869. A store across from this site was rented and used as a courthouse. It was destroyed in an 1876 fire. Another building was constructed on the same site, but it fell to a fire in 1878, a major one that destroyed most of downtown Jonesboro. Soon afterward, another courthouse was constructed; it was replaced by the present courthouse in 1934.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The St. Louis Southwestern Railway, known as the Cotton Belt Railroad was constructed through Jonesboro, with its tracks passing just north of the center of the city. During the first train's journey, it became stuck and supplies had to be carried into town. It connected St. Louis to points in Arkansas and Texas. Other major railways began to construct tracks to and from Jonesboro, including the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway and Missouri Pacific Railroad. Some of the rail companies still own and use the tracks that run through Jonesboro.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The city set up the Jonesboro School District in 1899. In 1900, St. Bernard's Regional Medical Center was established by the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters. The Grand Leader Department Store, the first department store in the city, was opened in 1900. Woodland College and two schools within the Jonesboro School District were opened in 1904. Arkansas State College (now Arkansas State University) was established in 1909, a year in which the first horseless carriages were driven in the city. There is a recording on a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map dating back to March 1897 of a Presbyterian Church existing at the corner of Church St. and Monroe, and a Christian church located at the corner of Union and Huntington Ave. Other early churches of the city were started in the 1910s. First Baptist Church was founded in 1911, and First Methodist Church in 1916.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Wade Thomas was lynched on December 26, 1920, in downtown Jonesboro. A large white mob seized Thomas after he allegedly shot local Patrolman Elmer Ragland during a Christmas Day raid on a local dice game. He was paraded through the town and then hanged and his body riddled with bullets.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: On September 10, 1931, Governor Harvey Parnell authorized the Arkansas National Guard to be deployed in Jonesboro to quell the Church War, a clash between the followers of Joe Jeffers and Dow H. Heard, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jonesboro. Jeffers' supporters also attacked the mayor and police chief, resulting in front-page coverage of the incident in "The New York Times".


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: On May 15, 1968 an F4 tornado struck Jonesboro, destroying 164 homes. At least 34 people died and more than 350 people were injured as a result of the tornado which struck the town without warning at 10:00pm that night.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The Westside School shooting occurred on March 24, 1998. Two young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fired upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. They killed four students and one teacher, and injured 10 persons.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: In the 2007–2008 school year the Jonesboro Public School District elementary schools were reclassified as magnet schools.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: A "large, destructive" EF3 tornado struck Jonesboro on March 28, 2020, causing severe damage to a shopping mall and at least twenty minor injuries, and two severe injuries.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.72%, is water.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 78,576 people, 29,688 households, and 19,637 families residing in the city.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: As of the census of 2013, there were 71,551 people, 26,111 households, and 16,637 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 28,321 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 74.7% White, 18.4% Black, 0.4% Native American, 1.5% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.0% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races. 5.2% of the population were Hispanic.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: There were 26,111 households, out of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.9% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.4% were non-families. There are 878 unmarried partner households: 776 heterosexual, 50 same-sex male, and 52 same-sex female households. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.93.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.9% under the age of 18, 16.6% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.8 males.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The median income for a household in the city was $32,196, and the median income for a family was $42,082. Males had a median income of $21,633 versus $31,633 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,884. About 12.9% of families and 23.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.4% of those under age 18 and 12.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The Mall at Turtle Creek, opened in 2006, was the largest mall in northeast Arkansas and was the only enclosed mall constructed in the country that year. The mall closed in 2020 due to tornado damage; currently, the only stores in operation at Turtle Creek are Dillard's, JCPenney, and Target. Before The Mall at Turtle Creek opened, Indian Mall, named for the former mascot of Arkansas State University, was the primary shopping destination in northeast Arkansas. The Indian Mall was demolished in 2012.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: In 2012, "Kiplinger's Personal Finance" ranked Jonesboro ninth of the "10 Best Cities for Cheapskates".


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Craighead Forest Park is a city-owned park located on Crowley's Ridge featuring a 60-acre fishing lake, camping facilities, hiking/biking trails, nature areas, picnic sites and recreational fields.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Crowley's Ridge Parkway runs through Jonesboro. It was designated one of Arkansas' Scenic Byways in 1997, and it was designated Arkansas' first National Scenic Byway in 1998.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: In 2004 the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission opened the 160-acre Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center in south Jonesboro, adjacent to Craighead Forest Park. The center includes exhibits on the origins and history of the Ridge, wildlife, educational models and displays, land and water features, hiking trails, an observation tower and an auditorium.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Located on the ASU campus, the Arkansas State University Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and features 21,000 square feet of historic, archaeological, and natural history exhibits. The museum focuses on the history and cultural heritage of Northeast Arkansas and the Mississippi River Delta region.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Arkansas State University is located in Jonesboro. New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine maintains a second location on Arkansas State University's campus in Wilson Hall.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: Prior to School integration in the United States, a separate set of schools was maintained for White and Black children. Jonesboro was a leader in educating African-American Children, providing education for Black children from surrounding areas under contract at Booker T. Washington High School until the schools were finally integrated.


title: Jonesboro, Arkansas

text: The city is served by the Jonesboro Economic Transit System (JETS). As of 2011, JETS operates three fixed routes, as well as para-transit service for disabled persons.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Stephen Walters (born 22 May 1973) is an English actor. A regular in British television and film, he has played a wide range and variety of character roles in both drama and comedy. Walters is most commonly associated with unpredictable, complex figures. He was nominated for a Royal Television Society Best Actor award in 2013 for his role in the Sky Arts drama "Ragged".


title: Stephen Walters

text: In 1989, whilst at St. Wilfrids secondary school, Walters was cast in ITV's British Children's anthology series "Dramarama" where he portrayed Corporal Tomkins in the series seven episode entitled "Ghost Story". Walters' second professional role was in season five of another anthology series, BBC's drama "Screenplay." He was featured in Jimmy McGovern's episode "Needle" (1990), which was based upon the needle exchange programme and heroin epidemic in 1980s Liverpool.


title: Stephen Walters

text: After obtaining of a BTEC in Performing arts at Southport College (1990–1992), Walters went on to gain a place at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (1994–1996). In 1994 he starred as Joey Jackson, a poetic soul searching for the meaning of life, in Jim Morris' television film "Blood on the Dole," part of the "Alan Bleasdale Presents" series for Channel 4. The performance garnered critical acclaim for Walters and on the advice of Bleasdale he decided to apply for drama school.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Upon completion of drama school Walters appeared as Ian Glover in Jimmy McGovern's acclaimed television drama "Hillsborough" (1996), based upon the Hillsborough disaster at the 1989 FA Cup Semi-finals. "Hillsborough" went on to win a BAFTA for best drama. His next performance was the role of Jamie Johnson on ITV's drama series "Springhill" (1996), though Walters did not return for the second series. In 1997 he would once again work with "Ghost Story" director Julian Jarrold in ITV's police drama "Touching Evil." Walters would portray lead guest character Jack McCaffrey, a slippery cockney, in the two-part series one finale written by Paul Abbott.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Between 1998 and 2000 Walters appeared in several episodic performances such as BBC's "Pie in the Sky", opposite the late Richard Griffiths, Mikey Sullivan in Jimmy McGovern's crime drama "Liverpool 1", Technician Fifth Grade John McGrath in HBO's WWII miniseries "Band of Brothers" (based upon historian Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 book of the same name), and Scott in the BBC drama "Nice Guy Eddie".


title: Stephen Walters

text: In 2001, Walters starred as Knockoff in the BBC television production of writer Jim Cartwright's comedy "Strumpet," opposite Christopher Eccleston. Directed by Danny Boyle, the film was a contrast to the dramatic work Walters had done to date. He was then cast as a series lead, in the role of prison psychiatrist Nick Vaughan, alongside Lennie James in the eight-part drama series "Buried" (2002). The Channel 4 series, from producer Tony Garner, was awarded the BAFTA for Best Drama.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Walters would go on to portray the guest starring role of Dylan Forbes in the premiere episode of ITV's drama "Murder City" (2004)"," directed by Sam Miller, before a turn as Lord Gilbert Gifford in the BBC's 2005 dramatic mini-series "The Virgin Queen". After a two-year hiatus from television, Walters featured in BBC 3's six-part comedy series "The Visit" (2007), which was set in a prison waiting room. Walters portrayed Splodge Costello, a troublesome yet likeable inmate. Later that same year he played the memorable character Maddison Twatter (AKA Mad Twatter) in a three-episode stint for E4's cult smash "Skins". In 2008's two-part series six finale of ITV's crime drama "Wire in the Blood", Walters played serial-killer-on-the-loose James Williams. It was the second time Walters had worked with series star Robson Green, the first being ITV's 1997 drama "Touching Evil". These episodes were directed by Philip John who would later direct Walters in "Outlander" (2014–2016). Walters would go on to play gangster Callum Rose, opposite fellow actor Stephen Graham, in BBC's 2012 production "Good Cop." The series, written by Stephen Butchard and directed by Sam Miller, won the RTS award for Best Drama in 2013, though it only ran for one season.


title: Stephen Walters

text: In the spring of 2013, Walters starred as real-life actor and activist Ricky Tomlinson in "Ragged", a one-off drama for the "Sky Arts Presents" series, directed by comedian Johnny Vegas. The role dealt with Tomlinson's incarceration during the 1970s builders' strike. Walters was nominated for an RTS Award as Best Actor in a single drama – and garnered praise from Tomlinson – for his performance. 2013 also brought Walters lead roles in two television series. First was the comedy "Great Night Out", from Jimmy Mulville's Hat Trick Productions, where Walters played Daz Taylor. Second was "The Village," where he portrayed Crispin Ingham, a sadistic teacher from Derbyshire. Though a second series of "The Village" was commissioned, Walters was unable to reprise his role due to a scheduling conflict with filming "Outlander" (2014–2016). Walters also reunited with previous co-star Sean Bean in "Tracie's Story", a critically acclaimed episode of 2013's "The Accused", penned by Jimmy McGovern.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Walters worked extensively with director Brian Kelly in 2014. He filmed three episodes of NBC's dramatic series "Dracula", opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers, as Hungarian detective Hackett. In a departure from the novel, the series was set in Victorian England, though it was filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Kelly then cast Walters as Simon the Sorcerer in NBC's series "AD the Bible Continues", a sequel to Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's miniseries "The Bible" (2015). The series was filmed in Morocco to preserve authenticity.


title: Stephen Walters

text: From 2014 to 2016, opposite Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe and Graham McTavish, Walters portrayed the featured role of Angus Mhor in the television adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's best-selling Scottish time travel novel "Outlander". The expansion of Walters' Angus and Grant O'Rourke's Rupert MacKenzie is a favourite of Gabaldon's, who has described the television characters as "the 1800s' version of Laurel and Hardy". Between seasons one and two of "Outlander," Walters was featured in two stylistically different shows for the BBC. The first was an appearance in two episodes of "Dickensian" (2015), a drama based upon the concept that author Charles Dickens' notable characters lived in the same Victorian neighbourhood. He was featured, opposite Stephen Rea's Inspector Bucket, as accused murderer Manning. Second, Walters guest starred as Borel in an episode of "The Musketeers" (2015), a retelling of Alexandre Dumas' classic French novel "The Three Musketeers". Set in seventeenth century Paris, the series was filmed in Prague.


title: Stephen Walters

text: In early 2017, Walters appeared in two episodes of AMC's post-apocalyptic original series "Into the Badlands" as The Engineer, an American warlord, opposite Daniel Wu and Nick Frost. He also appeared as DCI Mark Guinness in RTS Award-winning "Little Boy Blue," a four-part factual drama that was based on the murder of Rhys Jones and written for ITV by Jeff Pope. Summer 2017 saw Walters portray the role of failed rock star Johnny in Rowan Joffe's "Tin Star." Already an accomplished musician, he was featured in the series both singing and playing the guitar. The production, filmed in Canada and starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks, has been described as a contemporary western.


title: Stephen Walters

text: During the first quarter of 2018 Walters featured as lead guest in series four of the BAFTA winning BBC crime drama "Shetland." He portrayed Thomas Malone, a convicted murderer, who has his sentence overturned after twenty-three years behind bars. 2020 saw Walters return to BBC's crime pathology serial "Silent Witness." The two-part episode, entitled "Seven Times" (a reference to the average number of times a woman returns to an abusive partner), focused on the pervasiveness of domestic abuse.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Filmed in late summer 2018 and released in early 2022, Walters appeared as Steve Williams in ITV's four-part factual drama, "Anne," alongside actress Maxine Peake. From filmmakers World Productions, the drama, written by Liverpool author Kevin Sampson ("Hillsborough Voices"), centered on Anne Williams' crusade for justice after the death of her son Kevin in the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. Walters will also feature as Zeppo in Apple T+'s upcoming "Slow Horses", a spy series led by Gary Oldman, which was adapted for television from novelist Mick Herron's Slough House series.


title: Stephen Walters

text: Walters' first feature film was director Jake Scott's 1999 anachronistic comedy "Plukett & Macleane", where he played the role of Dennis opposite Robert Carlyle. Two years later Walters would feature in several films. He would portray Kick Box Stevie in the darkly comedic film "Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang"), writer/director Stuart Suggs sophomore feature. From there he featured in producer Matthew Vaughn's film "Mean Machine" (2001), a remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds classic starring Vinnie Jones, as unpredictable bomb expert Nitro. He then played the role of Nazi skinhead Blowfish in Ronny Yu's film "The 51st State" (AKA-"Formula 51") opposite Samuel L Jackson and Robert Carlyle. Both characters showcased the more unpredictable, dangerous type of characters that Walters often portrays.


title: Stephen Walters

text: In 2004, Walters was directed by Matthew Vaughn in the supporting role of Shanks, opposite Daniel Craig, in the feature film "Layer Cake". Vaughn, who had produced Barry Scholnick's "Mean Machine", offered Walters the role. His next project was Guy Richie's 2005 crime thriller "Revolver" where, opposite Jason Statham, he portrayed Irish Joe. That same year saw a cameo appearance, as an Arkham Lunatic, in Christopher Nolan's acclaimed feature "Batman Begins." 2007's feature film "Hannibal Rising", the final installment of the "Hannibal" series, explored the origins of Hannibal Lecter and was Walter's next film role. He portrayed Zigmas Milko, a man of Eastern European origin, and one of Hannibal's main victims. The next year Walters appeared in science-fiction/noir film "Franklyn", director Gerald McMorrow's debut, which premiered at the London Film Festival. His dual role as Bill Wasnik/Wormsnake was played opposite Bernard Hill and Ryan Philippe respectively.


title: Stephen Walters

text: For "Splintered", a horror movie released to cinemas in 2010, Walters played dual roles as brothers Vincent and Gavin. This was particularly demanding as scenes with both characters were shot and edited without the use of digital effects. "Powder" (2011), based on Kevin Sampson's novel of the same name, featured Walters in the role of Johnny Winegums, a music journalist following an aspiring POP music group's rise to fame. The film was partially shot on location at the V festival in Suffolk. Later that year Walters featured in "Age of Heroes" alongside Sean Bean. The WWII drama, directed by Adrian Vitoria, highlighted the story of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando Unit who were assigned to infiltrate behind enemy lines in the Nazi controlled snowy mountains of Norway.


title: Stephen Walters

text: In 2012, Walters portrayed Gaz in the drama "Kelly + Victor," based upon Niall Griffith's 2002 novel of the same name"." 2018 saw the announcement that Walters would be starring in "Outlander" alumni Graham McTavish's directorial debut "This Guest of Summer," along with Duncan Lacroix and McTavish's fellow "The Hobbit" alumni Adam Brown and Dean O'Gorman. The film, which tells the story of three actor friends who end up in a creepy town together, was partially funded via IndieGoGo, an online crowdfunding platform.


title: Stephen Walters

text: In addition to his acting credits, Walters is an accomplished musician and has written/directed several short films. The first, a drama entitled "Danny Boy", follows a man who must come to terms with his mother's Alzheimer's disease. Second, in conjunction with James Roach and Tom Lox, is a short film entitled "I'm Not Here," which explores Charles Manson and features Walters in the lead role. Walters recently completed short film "Humpty Fu*king Dumpty", an in-depth look at Merseybeat musician Tommy Quickly, which he wrote and directed. The project was funded through Kickstarter, a widely used crowdfunding platform.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Contemporary philosophy is the present period in the history of Western philosophy beginning at the early 20th century with the increasing professionalization of the discipline and the rise of analytic and continental philosophy.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The phrase "contemporary philosophy" is a piece of technical terminology in philosophy that refers to a specific period in the history of Western philosophy (namely the philosophy of the 20th and 21st centuries). However, the phrase is often confused with modern philosophy (which refers to an earlier period in Western philosophy), postmodern philosophy (which refers to some philosophers' criticisms of modern philosophy), and with a non-technical use of the phrase referring to any recent philosophic work.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Professionalization is the social process by which any trade or occupation establishes the group norms of conduct, acceptable qualifications for membership of the profession, a professional body or association to oversee the conduct of members of the profession, and some degree of demarcation of the qualified from unqualified amateurs. The transformation into a profession brings about many subtle changes to a field of inquiry, but one more readily identifiable component of professionalization is the increasing irrelevance of "the book" to the field: "research communiqués will begin to change in ways [...] whose modern end products are obvious to all and oppressive to many. No longer will [a member's] researches usually be embodied in books addressed [...] to anyone who might be interested in the subject matter of the field. Instead they will usually appear as brief articles addressed only to professional colleagues, the men whose knowledge of a shared paradigm can be assumed and who prove to be the only one able to read the papers addressed to them." Philosophy underwent this process toward the end of the 19th century, and it is one of the key distinguishing features of the contemporary philosophy era in Western philosophy.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Germany was the first country to professionalize philosophy. At the end of 1817, Hegel was the first philosopher to be appointed professor by the State, namely by the Prussian Minister of Education, as an effect of Napoleonic reform in Prussia. In the United States, the professionalisation grew out of reforms to the American higher-education system largely based on the German model. James Campbell describes the professionalisation of philosophy in America as follows:


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Professionalization in England was similarly tied to developments in higher-education. In his work on T.H. Green, Denys Leighton discusses these changes in British philosophy and Green's claim to the title of Britain's first professional academic philosopher:


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The end result of professionalization for philosophy has meant that work being done in the field is now almost exclusively done by university professors holding a doctorate in the field publishing in highly technical, peer-reviewed journals. While it remains common among the population at large for a person to have a set of religious, political or philosophical views that they consider their "philosophy", these views are rarely informed or connected to the work being done in professional philosophy today. Furthermore, unlike many of the sciences for which there has come to be a healthy industry of books, magazines, and television shows meant to popularize science and communicate the technical results of a scientific field to the general populace, works by professional philosophers directed at an audience outside the profession remain rare. Philosopher Michael Sandel's book "Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?" and Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" are examples of works that hold the uncommon distinction of having been written by professional philosophers but directed at and ultimately popular among a broader audience of non-philosophers. Both works became New York Times best sellers.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Not long after their formation, the Western Philosophical Association and portions of the American Psychological Association merged with the American Philosophical Association to create what is today the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States: the American Philosophical Association. The association has three divisions: Pacific, Central and Eastern. Each division organises a large annual conference. The biggest of these is the Eastern Division Meeting, which usually attracts around 2,000 philosophers and takes place in a different east coast city each December. The Eastern Division Meeting is also the USA's largest recruitment event for philosophy jobs, with numerous universities sending teams to interview candidates for academic posts. Among its many other tasks, the association is responsible for administering many of the profession's top honors. For example, the Presidency of a Division of the American Philosophical Association is considered to be a professional honor and the American Philosophical Association Book Prize is one of the oldest prizes in philosophy. The largest academic organization devoted to specifically furthering the study of continental philosophy is the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Concerning professional journals today, a 2018 survey of professional philosophers asked them to rank the highest quality "general" philosophy journals in English, yielding the following top 20:


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Concerning continental philosophy specifically, a 2012 survey of mostly professional philosophers asked them to rank the highest quality "continental tradition" philosophy journals in English. Listing the survey's top 6 results:


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The Philosophy Documentation Center publishes a well-known "Directory of American Philosophers" which is the standard reference work for information about philosophical activity in the United States and Canada. The directory is published every two years, alternating with its companion volume, the "International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers" (the only edited source for extensive information on philosophical activity in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and Latin America).


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Since the start of the 21st century, philosophers have also seen the growing utilization of blogs as a means of professional exchange. A few notable milestones in this development include an informal listing of philosophy blogs begun by philosopher David Chalmers which has since become a widely used resource by the profession, the establishment of a partnership between ethics blog PEA Soup and the prominent journal Ethics to post featured articles for online discussion on the blog, and the role of blogs like What is it Like to be a Woman in Philosophy? in bringing attention to the experience of women in the profession.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Contemporary continental philosophy began with the work of Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Adolf Reinach, and Martin Heidegger and the development of the philosophical method of phenomenology. This development was roughly contemporaneous with work by Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell inaugurating a new philosophical method based on the analysis of language via modern logic (hence the term "analytic philosophy").


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Analytic philosophy dominates in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the English speaking world. Continental philosophy prevails in Europe, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and parts of the United States.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Some philosophers, such as Richard Rorty and Simon Glendinning, argue that this "analytic–continental" divide is inimical to the discipline as a whole. Others, such as John Searle, claim that continental philosophy, especially post-structuralist continental philosophy, should be expunged, on grounds that it is obscurantist and nebulous.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Analytic and continental philosophy share a common Western philosophical tradition up to Immanuel Kant. Afterwards, analytic and continental philosophers differ on the importance and influence of subsequent philosophers on their respective traditions. For instance, the German idealism school developed out of the work of Kant in the 1780s and 1790s and culminated in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who is viewed highly by many continental philosophers. Conversely, Hegel is viewed as a relatively minor figure for the work of analytic philosophers.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The analytic program in philosophy is ordinarily dated to the work of English philosophers Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore in the early 20th century, building on the work of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege. They turned away from then-dominant forms of Hegelianism (objecting in particular to its idealism and purported obscurity) and began to develop a new sort of conceptual analysis based on recent developments in logic. The most prominent example of this new method of conceptual analysis is Russell's 1905 paper "On Denoting", a paper that is widely seen to be the exemplar of the analytic program in philosophy.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Although contemporary philosophers who self-identify as "analytic" have widely divergent interests, assumptions, and methods—and have often rejected the fundamental premises that defined the analytic movement between 1900 and 1960—analytic philosophy, in its contemporary state, is usually taken to be defined by a particular style characterized by precision and thoroughness about a narrow topic, and resistance to "imprecise or cavalier discussions of broad topics."


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Some analytic philosophers at the end of the 20th century, such as Richard Rorty, have called for a major overhaul of the analytic philosophic tradition. In particular, Rorty has argued that analytic philosophers must learn important lessons from the work of continental philosophers. Some authors, such as Paul M. Livingston and Shaun Gallagher contend that there exist valuable insights common to both traditions while others, such as Timothy Williamson, have called for even stricter adherence to the methodological ideals of analytic philosophy:


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The "crude stereotypes" that Williamson refers to in the above passage are these: that analytic philosophers produce carefully argued and rigorous analyses of trivially small philosophic puzzles, while continental philosophers produce profound and substantial results but only by deducing them from broad philosophical systems which themselves lack supporting arguments or clarity in their expression. Williamson himself seems to here distance himself from these stereotypes, but does accuse analytic philosophers of too often fitting the critical stereotype of continental philosophers by moving "too fast" to reach substantial results via poor arguments.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The history of continental philosophy is taken to begin in the early 1900s because its institutional roots descend directly from those of phenomenology. As a result, Edmund Husserl has often been credited as the founding figure in continental philosophy. Although, since analytic and continental philosophy have such starkly different views of philosophy after Kant, continental philosophy is also often understood in an extended sense to include any post-Kant philosophers or movements important to continental philosophy but not analytic philosophy.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: The term "continental philosophy", like "analytic philosophy", marks a broad range of philosophical views and approaches not easily captured in a definition. It has even been suggested that the term may be more pejorative than descriptive, functioning as a label for types of western philosophy rejected or disliked by analytic philosophers. Nonetheless, certain descriptive rather than merely pejorative features have been seen to typically characterize continental philosophy:


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: Another approach to approximating a definition of continental philosophy is by listing some of the philosophical movements that are or have been central in continental philosophy: German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism (and its antecedents, such as the thought of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche), hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, French feminism, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and some other branches of Western Marxism.


title: Contemporary philosophy

text: An increasing number of contemporary philosophers have contested the value and plausibility of distinguishing analytic and continental philosophy. Some philosophers, like Richard J. Bernstein and A. W. Moore have explicitly attempted to reconcile these traditions, taking as a point of departure certain themes shared by notable scholars in each tradition.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a hack-and-slash action-adventure video game based on the film "". The game release coincided with the release of the film on May 1, 2009, for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. A version of the game was also released for mobile phones. The game was developed primarily by Raven Software through the use of Unreal Engine technology. The standard version was released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii (which is rated T) and for Nintendo DS (which is rated E10+), while the Uncaged Edition is for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows (which is rated M for more violence).


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: Following the expiration of Activision's licensing deal with Marvel, the game was de-listed and removed from all digital storefronts on January 1, 2014. It was the final "Wolverine" game published by Activision before the license expired in 2014. It was also the last standalone Wolverine video game to be released until the announcement of "Marvel's Wolverine", currently being developed by Insomniac Games and to be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 5.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: "X-Men Origins" takes influences from games such as "God of War" and "Devil May Cry" with a third person perspective. The "Uncaged" "Edition" also features a large amount of blood and gore. Enemies can be slain in several ways in addition to the graphic display of Wolverine's healing factor.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: Combat relies on three options - light attacks, heavy attacks, and grabs. Another form of attack is the lunge, which allows Wolverine to quickly close the distance to an enemy. Wolverine can also use the environment to his advantage, such as by impaling foes on spikes. During combat, Wolverine's rage meter builds up, and when full allows him to use more devastating attacks, like the claw spin and a berserker mode, which increases Wolverine's claw strength until his Rage Meter empties. Experience (XP) is collected from defeating enemies, destroying elements and accumulating collectibles. The XP is used to level up, and each new level results in gaining skill points, which are used to purchase upgrades.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions are less graphic, with less language and slightly different combat. Feral senses are still obtained, which can detect doors, traps, enemies and sentinel observers, and lunges must be performed at closer distances.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: The story is a combination of the Wolverine backstory explored in the and an original plot created by Raven Software, which was influenced by major events in the X-Men comic series.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: In the prologue, set in a bleak urban environment, Wolverine kills a group of soldiers sent to kill him. His thoughts drift to a forgotten past.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: The game begins in Angola, Africa, chronicling the final mission of Team X, led by Col. Stryker and his soldiers: James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine, Logan's brother Victor Creed/Sabretooth, Wade Wilson, John Wraith, and Nord, to locate a village that holds the secret to a valuable mineral deposit (implied to be adamantium). Travelling through the jungle and ancient temples, they come across and slaughter numerous mercenaries and mutants attempting to stop them. When Raven, their CIA liaison, objects to Stryker harming innocent civilians, Stryker orders her terminated and Wraith seemingly kills her. Eventually, Team X locates the village but the villagers refuse to cooperate and Stryker threatens their lives. Logan turns on his teammates but he is subdued and knocked out before he can prevent the massacre of the villagers.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: Three years later, Team X has mostly disbanded. Logan has settled in Canada with his girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox, when Creed surprises Logan at a bar and engages him in battle. Creed emerges victorious, breaks Logan's bone claws and knocks him unconscious. Logan awakens to find Kayla dead. Stryker arrives, telling Logan that Creed is killing his former comrades in revenge for Stryker firing him. He offers Logan a chance at revenge, via a procedure to bond the indestructible metal adamantium to his skeleton. Logan accepts, but when the procedure ends, he overhears Stryker order him to be terminated. He breaks out of the Alkali Lake facility in a rage, killing many of Stryker's men attempting to stop him, including Nord, and vowing to kill Stryker and Creed.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: Searching for Wraith, Logan travels to "Project: Wideawake", a secret government facility producing mutant hunting Sentinel robots. There, he comes across Raven, who is also searching for Wraith and is revealed to be a mutant shapeshifter; she explains to Logan that Wraith helped fake her death three years prior and the two have been in a relationship ever since. Raven leads Logan through the facility, where he encounters the Sentinels' mutant-hating inventor, Bolivar Trask. After cutting off Trask's hand to access Wraith's prison with his handprint, Logan rescues Wraith and destroys a large prototype Sentinel.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: Wraith leads Logan to Fred Dukes, a former team member, who, after being bested by Logan in a fight, tells him of "The Island", a prison for mutants Creed captures on Stryker's behalf, and the location of Remy Lebeau, the island's sole mutant escapee, who is currently residing at a casino in New Orleans. Remy flees when Logan questions him, thinking he is one of Stryker's agents, while Sabretooth surprises and kills Wraith. After battling Logan, Remy is convinced he is not with Stryker and takes him to the Stryker's island base.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: There, Logan confronts Stryker and discovers Kayla is not only alive but a mutant who seduced Logan with her persuasion ability. Her "death" was an elaborate ruse to trick Logan into volunteering for Weapon X to acquire his DNA. Stryker's true plan is to complete the transformation of Wade into "Weapon XI": grafting onto him the powers of various mutants (including Wraith and Logan) to create the ultimate mutant-killing supersoldier. Devastated by the truth, Logan accepts Stryker's offer to erase his memory, but changes his mind after Creed takes Kayla hostage. Logan bests Creed this time, but spares him at Kayla's pleadings. While Kayla leaves to rescue her sister whom Stryker kidnapped to force her cooperation, Weapon XI is sent to kill Logan. Despite Weapon XI's capabilities, he dies by Logan's hand in the ensuing battle. Creed recovers and amicably parts ways with Logan but intends to remind his brother that they are both killers at heart.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: Logan finds Kayla wounded and near death; Stryker takes the opportunity to shoot him in the head with an adamantium bullet, erasing all of his memories. Kayla persuades Stryker to walk "until [his] feet bleed", says a tearful goodbye to the unconscious Logan, and drowns herself in a lake. Logan heals from the gunshot but awakens aimless and alone.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: The epilogue takes place in the same time period as the prologue: Trask has taken Logan hostage and replaced his severed hand with a lifelike robotic prosthesis. Logan breaks free of his chains and Trask flees. As an army of Sentinels ravages a ruined city in the distance, Logan quips "This world may be broken, but I've got the tools to fix it".


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: In May 2009, Raven Software set up a developers blog. Blur Studio, who also worked with Raven on "" and "", provided all of the CGI cutscenes for the game. From January to March, the developers published a large number of 3D screenshots. The music for the game was composed by Paul Haslinger. Raven worked with publisher Activision to provide easter eggs from other games to be found, such as the Lich King's sword from "" and the cake mentioned in the game "Portal".


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: In June 2009, Activision released downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, featuring Custom Combat Arena, Ladder Challenge, and Environmental Simulator.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: The "Uncaged Edition" version received generally positive reviews, whereas other versions of the game attained mostly mixed to negative reviews. In general, strong points has been identified in the violence consistent with the comic version of the character and the aesthetic value, whereas the shortness of the campaign, the lack of replay value and the repetitiveness of action have been criticized.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: "IGN"s Greg Miller stated the "Uncaged Edition" version of the game is an "awesome guilty pleasure", despite criticisms of fights repetitiveness. Miller appreciated the cinematic of the game, as well its bloody sights. Overall, the visuals received a mixed review from "IGN", stating "the game looks great sometimes and shoddy other times". Miller further criticized that the only noteworthy sounds are Hugh Jackman's voice and the claws sound. Whilst the game was marked with an overall 7.8/10 ('good'), the PS2 and Wii were marked respectively 4.5 ('bad') and 4.8 ('poor'). The shortcomings of the two ports lay, among others, in the general lack of music during fights, poor controls and bad textures.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: The different reception based on the game port was confirmed by the review aggregators GameRankings and Metacritic. While the ranking for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on both aggregators was around 75/100, the Nintendo DS' and Wii's rankings stood significantly behind, with the PSP port ranked around the middle.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: "GameSpot" gave the game a 7/10, praising the variety of enemies, the brutal action and the representation of Wolverine's power, yet criticizing the poor replay value and the disappointing boss fights. Overall, the game was defined as "one of the better movie tie-ins released recently". "Destructoid"s review, which gave the game a 7.5/10, focused on similar points, by finding fault with boss fights, poor replay value and sloppy plot and identifying as strong points the quality of the aesthetic and the brutal action.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: "Eurogamer" gave the game a 5/10, by stating: ""X-Men Origins" may be unapologetically violent, but it's also unapologetically repetitive, and it's the one apology that needs to be made". "Game Informer", even though disapproved the repetitiveness, stated that the "game is nearly impossible to put down". "GamePro" stated that "its repetitive gameplay, mundane puzzle design and eye-twitching platforming segments really cuts into "Origins" fun and yet, for fans of the franchise, it's a solid title that's worth playing through".


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video game)

text: In the ScrewAttack "Top 10 Movie-Based Games", the "Uncaged Edition" of this game came in sixth. At the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards, the game was awarded the "Best Cast" award as well as Hugh Jackman receiving the 'Best Performance By A Human Male' award as Wolverine. In "IGN"s 'Top 5 Favorite Wolverine Games', the "Uncaged Edition" of the game came in first. In "GameSpy"s "Top 10 Best Superhero PC Games", the "Uncaged Edition" of the game came in tenth.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: The early life of Joseph Stalin covers the period from Stalin's birth, on 18 December 1878 (6 December according to the Old Style), until the October Revolution on 7 November 1917 (25 October). Born Ioseb Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia, to a cobbler and a house cleaner, he grew up in the city and attended school there before moving to Tiflis (modern-day Tbilisi) to join the Tiflis Seminary. While a student at the seminary he embraced Marxism and became an avid follower of Vladimir Lenin, and left the seminary to become a revolutionary. After being marked by Russian secret police for his activities, he became a full-time revolutionary and outlaw. He became one of the Bolsheviks' chief operatives in the Caucasus, organizing paramilitaries, spreading propaganda, raising money through bank robberies, and kidnappings and extortion. Stalin was captured and exiled to Siberia numerous times, but often escaped. He became one of Lenin's closest associates, which helped him rise to the heights of power after the Russian Revolution. In 1913 Stalin was exiled to Siberia for the final time, and remained in exile until the February Revolution of 1917 led to the overthrow of the Russian Empire.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin was born Ioseb Jughashvili on in the town of Gori, in what is today the country of Georgia. He was baptised on and christened Ioseb, and known by the diminutive "Soso"


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: His parents were Ekaterine (Keke) and Besarion Jughashvili (Beso). He was their third child; the first two, Mikheil and Giorgi, had died in infancy.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin's father, Besarion, was a shoemaker and owned a workshop that at one point employed as many as ten people, but which slid into ruin as Stalin grew up. Beso had specialised in producing traditional Georgian footwear and did not produce the European-style shoes that were becoming increasingly fashionable. This, combined with the deaths of his previous two infant sons, precipitated his decline into alcoholism. The family found themselves living in poverty. The couple had to leave their home and moved into nine different rented rooms over ten years.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Besarion also became violent towards his family. To escape the abusive relationship, Keke took Stalin and moved into the house of a family friend, Father Christopher Charkviani. She worked as a house cleaner and launderer for several local families who were sympathetic to her plight. Keke was a strict but affectionate mother to Stalin. She was a devout Christian, and both she and her son regularly attended church services. In 1884, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him with facial pock marks for the rest of his life.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Charkviani's teenaged sons taught Stalin the Russian language. Keke was determined to send her son to school, something that none of the family had previously achieved. In late 1888, when Stalin was ten, he enrolled at the Gori Church School. This was normally reserved for the children of clergy, but Charkviani ensured that Stalin received a place by claiming that the boy was the son of a deacon. This may be the reason why—in 1934—Stalin claimed to have been the son of a priest. There were many local rumours that Beso was not Stalin's real father, which in later life Stalin himself encouraged. Stalin biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore nonetheless thought it likely that Beso was the father, in part due to the strong physical resemblance that they shared. Beso eventually attacked a policeman while drunk which resulted in the authorities ejecting him from Gori. He moved to Tiflis, where he worked at the Adelkhanov shoe factory.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Although Keke was poor, she ensured that her son was well dressed when he went to school, likely through the financial support of family friends. As a child, Stalin exhibited a number of idiosyncrasies; when happy, he would for instance jump around on one leg while clicking his fingers and yelling aloud.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: He excelled academically, and also displayed talent in painting and drama classes. He began writing poetry, and was a fan of the work of Georgian nationalist writer Raphael Eristavi. He was also a choirboy, singing both in church and at local weddings.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: A childhood friend of Stalin's later recalled that he "was the best but also the naughtiest pupil" in the class. He and his friends formed a gang, and often fought with other local children. He caused mischief; in one incident, he ignited explosive cartridges in a shop, and in another he tied a pan to the tail of a woman's pet cat.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: When Stalin was twelve, he was seriously injured after having been hit by a phaeton. He was hospitalised in Tiflis for several months, and sustained a lifelong disability to his left arm. His father subsequently kidnapped him and enrolled him as an apprentice cobbler in the factory; this would be Stalin's only experience as a worker. According to Stalin's biographer Robert Service, this was Stalin's "first experience with capitalism", and it was "raw, harsh and dispiriting". Several priests from Gori retrieved the boy, after which Beso cut all contact with his wife and son. In February 1892, Stalin's school teachers took him and the other pupils to witness the public hanging of several peasant bandits; Stalin and his friends sympathised with the condemned. The event left a deep and lasting impression on him. Stalin had decided that he wanted to become a local administrator so that he could deal with the problems of poverty that affected the population around Gori. Despite his Christian upbringing, he had become an atheist after contemplating the problem of evil and learning about evolution through Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species".


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In July 1893, Stalin passed his exams and his teachers recommended him to the Tiflis Seminary. Keke took him to the city, where they rented a room. Stalin applied for a scholarship to enable him to attend the school; they accepted him as a half-boarder, meaning that he was required to pay a reduced fee of 40 roubles a year. This was still a substantial sum for his mother, and he was likely financially assisted once more by family friends. He officially enrolled at the school in August 1894. Here he joined 600 trainee priests, who boarded in dormitories containing between twenty and thirty beds. Stalin was set apart by being three years older than most of the other first year students, although a number of his fellow students had also attended the Gori Church School. At Tiflis, Stalin was again an academically successful pupil, gaining high grades in his subjects. Among the subjects taught at the seminary were Russian literature; secular history; mathematics; Latin; Greek; Church Slavonic singing; Georgian Imeretian singing; and Holy Scripture. As students progressed they were taught more concentrated theological subjects such as ecclesiastical history; liturgy; homiletics; comparative theology; moral theology; practical pastoral work; didactics; and church singing. To earn money, he sang in a choir, with his father sometimes asking him for his earnings. During the holidays he would return to Gori to spend time with his mother.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Tiflis was a multi-ethnic city in which Georgians were a minority. The Seminary was controlled by the Georgian Orthodox Church, which was part of the Russian Orthodox Church and subordinate to the ecclesiastical authorities in St. Petersburg. The priests employed to work there were largely reactionary, anti-semitic, Russian nationalists. They banned the speaking of Georgian by pupils, insisting that Russian be used at all times. Stalin was however proud to be Georgian.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: He continued writing poetry, and took several of his poems to the office of the newspaper "Iveria" ("Georgia"). There, they were read by Ilia Chavchavadze, who liked them and ensured that five were published in the newspaper. Each was published under the pseudonym of "Soselo". Thematically, they dealt with topics like nature, land, and patriotism. According to Montefiore, they became "minor Georgian classics", and were included in various anthologies of Georgian poetry over the coming years. Montefiore was of the view that "their romantic imagery was derivative but their beauty lay in the delicacy and purity of rhythm and language". Similarly, Service felt that in the original Georgian language these poems had "a linguistic purity recognised by all".


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Over his years at the Seminary, Stalin lost interest in many of his studies and his grades began to drop. He grew his hair long in an act of rebellion against the school's rules. Seminary records contain complaints that he declared himself an atheist, chatted in class, was late for meals, and refused to doff his hat to monks. He was repeatedly confined to a cell for his rebellious behaviour. He had joined a forbidden book club, the Cheap Library, which was active at the school. Among the authors whom he read in this period were Émile Zola, Nikolay Nekrasov, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Friedrich Schiller, Guy de Maupassant, Honoré de Balzac, and William Makepeace Thackeray. Particularly influential was Nikolay Chernyshevsky's 1863 pro-revolutionary novel "What Is To Be Done?". Another influential text was Alexander Kazbegi's "The Patricide", with Stalin adopting the nickname "Koba" from that of the book's bandit protagonist. These works of fiction were supplemented with the writings of Plato and books on Russian and French history.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: He also read "", the 1867 book by German sociological theorist Karl Marx, and tried learning German so that he could read the works of Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels in the language in which they were originally written. He had soon devoted himself to Marxism, the socio-political theory that Marx and Engels had developed. Marxism provided him with a new way of interpreting the world. The ideology was on the rise in Georgia, one of various forms of socialism then developing in opposition to the governing Tsarist authorities. At night, he attended secret meetings of local workers, most of whom were Russian. He was introduced to Silibistro "Silva" Jibladze, the Marxist founder of Mesame Dasi ('Third Group'), a Georgian socialist group. One of his poems was published in the group's newspaper, "Kvali".


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin found many socialists active in the Russian Empire to be too moderate, but was attracted by the writings of a Marxist who used the pseudonym of "Tulin"; this was Vladimir Lenin. It is also possible that he had pursued romantic and sexual relationships with women in Tiflis. Years later, there was some suggestion that he might have fathered a girl named Praskovia "Pasha" Mikhailovskaya around this period.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In April 1899, Stalin left the seminary at the end of term and never returned, although the school encouraged him to come back. Through his years of attendance, he had received a classical education but had not qualified as a priest. In later years, he sought to glamourize his leaving, claiming that he had been expelled from the seminary for his revolutionary activities.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin next worked as a tutor for middle class children, but earned a meager living. In October 1899, Stalin began work as a meteorologist at the Tiflis Meteorological Observatory, where his school-friend Vano Ketskhoveli was already employed. In this position, he worked during the night for a wage of twenty roubles a month. The position entailed little work, and allowed him to read while on duty. According to Robert Service, this was Stalin's "only period of sustained employment until after the October Revolution". In the early weeks of 1900, Stalin was arrested and held in Metekhi Fortress. The official explanation given was that Beso had not paid his taxes and that Stalin was responsible for ensuring that they were paid, although it may be that this was a "cryptic warning" from the police, who were aware of Stalin's Marxist revolutionary activities. As soon as she learned of the arrest, Keke came to Tiflis, while some of Stalin's wealthier friends helped to pay the taxes and get him out of prison.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin had attracted a group of radical young men around him, giving classes in socialist theory in a flat on Sololaki Street.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin was involved in organising a secret nocturnal mass meeting for May Day 1900, in which around 500 workers met in the hills outside the city. There, Stalin gave his first major public speech, in which he called for strike action, something that the Mesame Dasi opposed. Following his prompting, the workers at the railway depos and Adelkhanov's show factory went on strike.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: By this point, the Tsarist secret police—the Okhrana—were aware of Stalin's activities within Tiflis' revolutionary milieu. On the night of 21–22 March 1901, the Okhrana arrested a number of Marxist leaders in the city. Stalin himself escaped arrest; he was traveling toward the observatory aboard a tram when he recognised plain-clothes police around the building. He decided to remain on the tram and get off at a later stop. He did not return to the observatory, and henceforth lived off of donations given by political sympathisers and friends.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin next helped plan a large May Day demonstration for 1901, in which 3000 workers and leftists marched from Soldiers Bazaar to Yerevan Square. Demonstrators clashed with Cossack troops, resulting in 14 protesters being seriously wounded and 50 arrested. After this event, Stalin escaped several further attempts to arrest him. To evade detection, he slept in at least six different apartments and used the alias of "David". Soon after, one of Stalin's associates, Stepan Shaumian, organised the assassination of the railway boss director who resisted the strikers.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In November 1901, Stalin attended a meeting of the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, where he was elected one of the eight Committee members.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: He identified an Okhrana infiltrator who was trying to gain access to the Batumi Marxist circles, and they were subsequently killed. According to Montefiore, this was "probably [Stalin's] first murder". In Batumi, Stalin moved around different flats, and it is likely that he had a relationship with Natasha Kirtava, whom he stayed with in Barskhana. Stalin's rhetoric proved divisive among the city's Marxists. His Batumi supporters became known as "Sosoists" while he was criticised by those regarded as "legals". Some of the "legals" suspected that Stalin might be an "agent provocateur" sent by the Tsarist authorities to infiltrate and discredit the movement.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In Batumi, Stalin gained employment at Rothschild refinery storehouse. On 4 January 1902, the warehouse where he worked was set alight. The company's workers helped to put out the blaze, and insisted that they be paid a bonus for doing so. When the company refused, Stalin called a strike. He encouraged revolutionary fervour among workers through a number of leaflets that he had printed in both Georgian and Armenian. On 17 February, the Rothschild company agreed to the strikers' demands, which included a 30% pay rise. On 23 February, they then dismissed 389 workers whom they regarded as troublemakers. In response to this latter act, Stalin called for another strike.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Many of the strike leaders were arrested by police. Stalin helped to organise a public demonstration outside the prison which was joined by much of the town. The demonstrators stormed the prison in an attempt to free the imprisoned strike leaders, but were fired upon by Cossack troops. 13 protesters were killed and 54 wounded. Stalin escaped with a wounded man. This event, known as the Batumi Massacre, gained national attention. Stalin then helped to organise a further demonstration for 12 March, the day on which the dead were buried. Around 7000 people took part in the march, which was heavily policed. By this point, the Okhrana had become aware of Stalin's significant role in the demonstrations. On 5 April, they arrested him at the house of one of his fellow revolutionaries.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin was initially interned in Batumi Prison. He soon established himself as a powerful and respected figure within the prison, and retained contacts with the outside world. On two occasions his mother visited him.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: The state prosecutor subsequently ruled that there was insufficient evidence for Stalin being behind the Batumi disturbances, but he was instead indicted for his involvement in revolutionary activities in Tiflis. In April 1903, Stalin led a prison protest against the visit of the Exarch of the Georgian Church. As punishment, he was restricted to solitary confinement before being moved to the stricter Kutaisi Prison. There, he gave lectures and encouraged inmates to read revolutionary literature. He organised a protest to ensure that many of those imprisoned for political activities were housed together.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: On 9 July 1903, the Justice Minister recommended that Stalin be sentenced to three years of exile in eastern Siberia. Stalin began his journey east in October, when he boarded a prison steamship at Batumi harbour and travelled via Novorossiysk and Rostov to Irkutsk. He then travelled, by foot and coach, to Novaya Uda, arriving at the small settlement on 26 November. In the town, Stalin lived in the two-room house of a local peasant, sleeping in the building's larder. There were many other exiled leftist intellectuals in the town but Stalin eschewed them and preferred drinking alcohol with the petty criminals that had been exiled there. While Stalin was in exile, a split had developed in the RSDLP, between the Bolsheviks who backed Lenin and the Mensheviks who backed Julius Martov.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin had several attempts to escape Novaya Uda. On the first attempt he made it to Balagansk, but suffered from frostbite to his face and was forced to return. On the second attempt, he escaped Siberia and returned to Tiflis. It was while he was in the city that the Russo-Japanese War broke out. In Tiflis, Stalin again lived in the homes of various friends, and also attended a Marxist circle led by Lev Kamenev. A number of local Marxists called for Stalin's expulsion from the RSDLP because of his calls for the establishment of a separate Georgian Marxist movement. They saw this as a betrayal of Marxist internationalism and compared it to the views of the Jewish Bundists. Some referred to him as the "Georgian Bundist". Stalin was defended by the first Georgian Marxist to officially declare himself a Bolshevik, Mikha Tskhakaya, although the latter made the young man publicly renounce his views. He aligned himself with the Bolsheviks, growing to detest many of the Georgian Mensheviks. Menshevism was however the dominant revolutionary force in the Southern Caucuses, leaving the Bolsheviks as a minority. Stalin was able to establish a local Bolshevik stronghold in the mining town of Chiatura.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: At workers' meetings around Georgia, Stalin frequently debated against the Mensheviks. He called for an opposition to inter-ethnic violence, an alliance between the proletariat and peasantry, and—in contrast to the Mensheviks—insisted that there could be no compromise with the middle-classes in the struggle to overthrow the Tsar. With Philip Makharadze, Stalin began editing a Georgian Marxist newspaper, "Proletariatis Brdzola" ("Proletarian Struggle"). He spent time in Batumi and Gori, before Tskhakaya sent him to Kutaisi to establish a Committee for the province of Imeretia and Mingrelia in July. On New Year's Eve 1904, Stalin led a gang of workers who disrupted a party being held by a bourgeois liberal group.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In January 1905, a massacre of protesters took place in St Petersburg that came to be known as Bloody Sunday. Unrest soon spread across the Russian Empire in what came to be known as the Revolution of 1905. Along with Poland, Georgia was one of the regions particularly affected. In February, Stalin was in Baku when a spate of ethnic violence broke out between Armenians and Azeris; at least 2,000 were killed. Stalin formed a Bolshevik Battle Squad which he ordered to try and keep the warring ethnic factions apart, also using the unrest to steal printing equipment. He proceeded to Tiflis, where he organised a demonstration of ethnic reconciliation. Amid the growing violence, Stalin formed his own armed Red Battle Squads, with the Mensheviks doing the same. These armed revolutionary groups disarmed local police and troops, and gained further weaponry by raiding government arsenals. They raised funds through a protection racket on large local businesses and mines. Stalin's militia launched attacks on the government's Cossack troops and Black Hundreds. After Cossacks opened fire on a student meeting, killing sixty of those assembled, Stalin retaliated in September by launching nine simultaneous attacks on the Cossacks. In October, Stalin's militia agreed to co-operate many of its attacks with the local Menshevik militia.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: On 26 November 1905, the Georgian Bolsheviks elected Stalin and two others as their delegates to a Bolshevik conference due to be held in St. Petersburg. Using the alias of "Ivanovitch", Stalin set off by train in early December, and on arrival met with Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, who informed them that the venue had been moved to Tammerfors in the Grand Duchy of Finland.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Although Stalin held Lenin in deep respect, he was vocal in his disagreement with Lenin's view that the Bolsheviks should field candidates for the forthcoming election to the State Duma.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In Stalin's absence, General Fyodor Griiazanov had crushed the Tiflis rebels. Stalin's Battle Squads had to go into hiding and operate from the underground. When Stalin returned to the city, he co-organised the assassination of Griiazanov with local Mensheviks. Stalin also established a small group which he called the Bolshevik Expropriators Club, although it would more widely be known as the Group or Outfit. Containing about ten members, three of whom were women, the group procured arms, facilitated prison escapes, raided banks, and executed traitors. They utilised protection rackets to further finance their activities. During 1906, they carried out a series of bank robberies and hold-ups of stage coaches transporting money. The money collected was then divided; much of it was sent to Lenin while the rest was used to finance "Proletariatis Brdzola". Stalin had continued to edit this newspaper, and also contributed articles to it using the pseudonyms "Koba" and "Besoshvili".


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In early April 1906, Stalin left Georgia to attend the RSDLP Fourth Congress in Stockholm. He travelled via St Petersburg and the Finnish port of Hangö. This would be the first time that he had left the Russian Empire. The ship on which Stalin travelled, the "Oihonna", was shipwrecked; Stalin and the other passengers had to wait to be rescued. At the Congress, Stalin was one of 16 Georgians, but he was the only one who was a Bolshevik. There, the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks disagreed over the so-called "agrarian question". Both agreed that the land should be expropriated from the gentry, but whereas Lenin believed that it should be nationalised under state ownership, the Mensheviks called for it to be municipalised under the ownership of local districts. Stalin disagreed with both, arguing that peasants should be allowed to take control of the land themselves; in his view, this would strengthen the alliance between the peasantry and the proletariat. At the conference, the RSDLP—then led by its Menshevik majority—agreed that it would not raise funds using armed robbery. Lenin and Stalin disagreed with this decision.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: For some time, Stalin had been living in a central Tiflis apartment owned by the Alliluyev family. He and one of the members of this family, Kato Svanidze, gradually developed a romantic connection. They married in July 1906; despite his atheism, he agreed to her wish for a church wedding. The ceremony took place in a church at Tskhakaya on the night of 15–16 July. In September, Stalin then attended an RSDLP conference in Tiflis; of the 42 delegates, only 6 were Bolshevik, with Stalin openly expressing his contempt of the Mensheviks. On 20 September, his gang boarded the "Tsarevich Giorgi" steamship as it passed Cape Kodori and stole the money aboard. Stalin was possibly among those who carried out this operation.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Svanidze was subsequently arrested for her revolutionary connections, and shortly after her release—on 18 March 1907—she gave birth to Stalin's son, Yakov. Stalin nicknamed his new-born son "Patsana".


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: Stalin travelled to the Fifth RSDLP Congress, held in London in May–June 1907, via St Petersburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. While in Denmark, he made a detour to Berlin for a secret meeting with Lenin to discuss the robberies. Stalin arrived in England and Harwich and took the train to London. There, he rented a room in Stepney, part of the city's East End that housed a substantial Jewish émigré community from the Russian Empire. The congress took place at a church in Islington. He remained in London for about three weeks, helping to nurse Tskhahaya after the latter fell ill. He returned to Tiflis via Paris.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: After returning to Tiflis, Stalin organized the robbing of a large delivery of money to the Imperial Bank on 26 June 1907. His gang ambushed the armed convoy in Yerevan Square with gunfire and homemade bombs. Around 40 people were killed, but all of Jughashvili's gang managed to escape alive.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: It is possible that Stalin hired a number of Socialist Revolutionaries to help him in the heist. Around 250,000 roubles were stolen. Service described it as "their greatest coup".


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: After the heist, Stalin took his wife and son away from Tiflis, settling in Baku. There, Mensheviks confronted Stalin about the robbery but he denied any involvement. These Mensheviks then voted to expel him from the RSDLP, but Stalin took no notice of them.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: In Baku, he moved his family into a seafront house just outside the city. There, he edited two Bolshevik newspapers, "Bakinsky Proletary" and "Gudok" ("Whistle"). In August 1907, he travelled to Germany to attend the Seventh Congress of the Second International, which took place in Stuttgart. He had returned to Baku in September, where the city was undergoing another spate of ethnic violence. In the city, he helped to secure Bolshevik domination of the local RSDLP branch. While devoting himself to revolutionary activity, Stalin had been neglecting his wife and child. Kato fell ill with typhus, and so he took her back to Tiflis to be with her family. There, she died in his arms on 22 November 1907. Fearing that he would commit suicide, Stalin's friends confiscated his revolver. The funeral took place on 25 November at Kulubanskaya Church before her body was buried at St Nina's Church in Kukia. During the funeral, Stalin threw himself onto the coffin in grief; he then had to escape the churchyard when he saw Okhrana members approaching. He then left his son with his late wife's family in Tiflis.


title: Early life of Joseph Stalin

text: There, Stalin reassembled the Outfit and began publicly calling for more workers' strikes. The Outfit continued to attack Black Hundreds, and raised finances by running protection rackets, counterfeiting currency, and carrying out robberies. One of the robberies carried out in this period was of a ship, the "Nicholas I", as it docked in Baku harbour. Not long after, the Outfit carried out a raid on Baku's naval arsenal, during which several guards were killed. They also kidnapped the children of several wealthy figures in order to extract ransom money. He also co-operated with Hummat, the Muslim Bolshevik group, and was involved in assisting the arming of the Persian Revolution against Shah Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar. At some point in 1908 he travelled to the Swiss city of Geneva to meet with Lenin; he also met the Russian Marxist Georgi Plekhanov, who exasperated him.