GagauziaGagauzia or Gagauz-Yeri, officially the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (ATUG), is an autonomous territorial unit of Moldova. Its autonomy is ethnically motivated by the predominance in the region of the Gagauz people, who are primarily Orthodox Turkic-speaking people. At the end of World War I, all of the territory of Gagauzia became part of the Kingdom of Romania, before being carved up into the Soviet Union in June 1940. From 1941 to 1944 it was again part of Romania, after which it was incorporated into the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
MinskMinsk (Мінск, mjinsk; Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region and Minsk District. As of 2023, it has a population of two million, making Minsk the 11th-most populous city in Europe. Minsk is one of the administrative capitals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
TiraspolTiraspol (Moldovan Cyrillic: Тираспол), occasionally also known in Romanian as Tirișpolea, is the de facto capital of Transnistria, a breakaway state of Moldova, where it is the third largest city. The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a regional hub of light industry, such as furniture and electrical goods production. The modern city of Tiraspol was founded by the Russian generalissimo Alexander Suvorov in 1792, although the area had been inhabited for thousands of years by varying ethnic groups.
First Chechen WarHistory of Chechnya Chechen resistance against Russian imperialism has its origins from 1785 during the time of Sheikh Mansur, the first imam (leader) of the Caucasian peoples. He united various North-Caucasian nations under his command to resist Russian invasions and expansion. Following long local resistance during the 1817–1864 Caucasian War, Imperial Russian forces defeated the Chechens and annexed their lands and deported thousands to the Middle East in the latter part of the 19th century.
SukhumiSukhumi or Sukhum (Суху́м(и), sʊˈxum(jɪ)), also known by its Georgian name Sokhumi (სოხუმი, ˈsɔχumi) or Abkhaz name Aqwa (Аҟәа, Aqwa), is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the capital and largest city of the Republic of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state widely recognized as a part of Georgia. The city has been controlled by Abkhazia since the Abkhazian war in 1992–93. The city, which has an airport, is a port, major rail junction and a holiday resort because of its beaches, sanatoriums, mineral-water spas and semitropical climate.
Culture of RussiaRussian culture () has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and both Eastern and Western influence. Russian writers and philosophers have played an important role in the development of European thought. The Russians have also greatly influenced classical music, ballet, sport, painting, and cinema. The nation has also made pioneering contributions to science and technology and space exploration.
Donetsk'Donetsk (UKdɒnˈjɛtsk , USdən-; Донецьк doˈnɛt͡sjk; Донецк dɐˈnjetsk), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin' and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast. The population was estimated at in the city core, with over 2 million in the metropolitan area (2011). According to the 2001 census, Donetsk was the fifth-largest city in Ukraine.
Enlargement of the European UnionThe European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993), which require a stable democratic government that respects the rule of law, and its corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state and the European Parliament must agree to any enlargement.
Colour revolutionColour revolution (sometimes coloured revolution) is a term used since early 2000s primarily to describe a series of nonviolent protests and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government that took place in post-Soviet states (particularly Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan) and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The aim of the colour revolutions was to establish Western-style liberal democracy in those countries and eliminate corruption. They were primarily triggered by the election results widely viewed as falsified.
KolkhozA kolkhoz (колхо́з) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to emerge in Soviet agriculture after the October Revolution of 1917, as an antithesis both to the feudal structure of impoverished serfdom and aristocratic landlords and to individual or family farming. The 1920s were characterized by spontaneous emergence of collective farms, under influence of traveling propaganda workers.
