title: National Firearms Act

text: Individuals or companies seeking to market large-bore firearms may apply to ATF for a "sporting clause exception". If granted, ATF acknowledges that the firearm has a legitimate sporting use and is therefore not a destructive device. Certain large safari rifle calibers, such as .585 Nyati and .577 Tyrannosaur, have such exceptions.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The phrase "all NFA rules apply" is commonplace. This disclaimer is usually posted in bold print from firearm dealers holding an FFL license.


title: National Firearms Act

text: It is a common misconception that an individual must have a "Class 3" license in order to own an NFA weapon. A Federal Firearms License (FFL) is not required to be an individual owner, although it is required as a prerequisite to become a Special Occupation Taxpayer (SOT, see Special Occupational Taxpayers): Class 1 importer, Class 2 manufacturer-dealer or Class 3 dealer in NFA weapons. There are generally three ways to own an NFA weapon: as an individual, through a gun trust, or as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Legal possession of an NFA firearm by an individual requires transfer of registration within the NFA registry. An individual owner does not need to be an NFA dealer to buy Title II weapons. The sale and purchase of an NFA weapon is, however, taxed and regulated, as follows:


title: National Firearms Act

text: All NFA items must be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Private owners wishing to purchase an NFA item must obtain approval from the ATF, pass an extensive background check to include submitting a photograph and fingerprints, fully register the firearm, receive ATF written permission before moving the firearm across state lines, and pay a tax. The request to transfer ownership of an NFA item is made on an ATF Form 4. There have been several unfavorable lawsuits where plaintiffs have been denied NFA approval for a transfer. These lawsuits include: "Lomont v. O'Neill", "Westfall v. Miller", and "Steele v. National Branch".


title: National Firearms Act

text: NFA items may also be transferred to corporations (or other legal entities such as a trust). When the paperwork to request transfer of an NFA item is initiated by an officer of a corporation, fingerprint cards and photographs of the official need to be submitted with the transfer request. This method has downsides, since it is the corporation (and not the principal) that owns the firearm. Thus, if the corporation dissolves, it must transfer its NFA weapon to the owners. This event would be considered a new transfer and would be subject to a new transfer tax.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The tax for privately manufacturing any NFA firearm (other than machine guns, which are illegal for individuals to manufacture) is $200. Transferring requires a $200 tax for all NFA weapons except AOWs, for which the transfer tax is $5 (although the manufacturing tax remains $200).


title: National Firearms Act

text: All NFA weapons made by individuals must be legal in the State or municipality where the individual lives. The payment of a $200 "making tax" prior to manufacture of the weapon, although a subsequent transfer of AOWs after they are legally "made" is only $5. Only a Class-II manufacturer (a FFL holder licensed as a "Manufacture of Firearms" or Type-07 license that has paid a Special Occupational Tax Stamp or SOT) can manufacture NFA firearms (other than destructive devices) tax free, but they pay a larger annual tax which ranges from $500 to $1000 to cover manufacturing.


title: National Firearms Act

text: A Destructive Device manufacturing license (Type-10 FFL) holder can manufacture destructive devices tax-free. However a type-07 license costs $150 for three years –– whereas a Type-10 destructive manufacturing license costs $3000 for three years. Both licenses still require the payment of the $500 (reduced-rate) Special Occupational Tax Stamp or SOT, (or the $1000 full tax) per year to conduct manufacturing of NFA weapons that they are respectively qualified to manufacturer. The SOT "reduced rate" applies to a business whose sales are less than $500,000 per year.


title: National Firearms Act

text: Transferable machine guns made or registered before May 19, 1986, are worth far more than their original, pre-1986 value and items like registered "auto-sears", "lightning-links", trigger-packs, trunnions, and other "combination of parts" registered as machine guns before the aforementioned date are often worth nearly as much as a full registered machine gun. For instance, as of September 2008, a transferable M16 rifle costs approximately $11,000 to $18,000, while a transferable "lightning-link" for the AR-15 can sell for $8,000 to $10,000. New manufacture M-16s sell to law enforcement and the military for around $600 to $1000.


title: National Firearms Act

text: Upon the request of any ATF agent or investigator, or the Attorney General, the registered owner must provide proof of registration of the firearm.


title: National Firearms Act

text: In a number of situations, an NFA item may be transferred without a transfer tax. These include sales to government agencies, temporary transfers of an NFA firearm to a gunsmith for repairs, and transfer of an NFA firearm to a lawful heir after the death of its owner. A permanent transfer, even if tax-free, must be approved by ATF. The proper form should be submitted to ATF before the transfer occurs. For example, lawful heirs must submit a Form 5 and wait for approval before taking possession of any NFA item willed to them. Temporary transfers, such as those to a gunsmith or to the original manufacturer for repair, are not subject to ATF approval since they are not legally considered transfers. ATF does, however, recommend filing tax-free transfer paperwork on all such temporary transfers, to confer an extra layer of legal protection on both the owner and the gunsmith.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The Act makes certain conduct a criminal offense, in relation to engaging in business as a manufacturer, importer, or dealer with respect to (NFA) firearms without having registered or paid a Special Occupational Tax (SOT); receiving or possessing a firearm transferred to oneself in violation of the NFA; receiving or possessing a firearm made in violation of the NFA; receiving or possessing a firearm not registered to oneself in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record; transferring or making a firearm in violation of the NFA; or obliterating, removing, changing, or altering the serial number of the firearm.


title: National Firearms Act

text: Violations of the Act are punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison and forfeiture of all devices or firearms in violation, and the individual's right to own or possess firearms in the future. The Act provides for a penalty of $10,000 for certain violations. A willful attempt to evade or defeat a tax imposed by the Act is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine ($500,000 in the case of a corporation or trust), under the general tax evasion statute. For an individual, the felony fine of $100,000 for tax evasion could be increased to $250,000.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The United States Supreme Court has ruled in "Haynes v. United States" that the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution exempts felons—and, by extrapolation, all other prohibited possessors—from the registration requirements of the Act. The prohibited person who violates the possession prohibition can, however, be convicted under the Gun Control Act of 1968 for being a prohibited person in possession of a (any) firearm.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 was amended in 2005 and includes a provision (42 U.S.C. § 2201a) to allow Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensees and authorized contractors to possess machine guns for the purpose of providing security.


title: National Firearms Act

text: Importation of NFA firearms was banned by the 1968 Gun Control Act which implemented a "sporting" clause. Only firearms judged by ATF to have feasible sporting applications can be imported for civilian use. Licensed manufacturers of NFA firearms may still, with the proper paperwork, import foreign NFA firearms for research and development purposes, or for government use.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The domestic manufacture of new machine guns that civilians could purchase was effectively banned by language in the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 (also known as "McClure-Volkmer"). The language was added in an amendment from William J. Hughes and referred to as the Hughes Amendment. Machine guns legally registered prior to the date of enactment (i.e. May 1986) are still legal for possession by and transfer among civilians where permitted by state law. The static and relatively small number of transferable machine guns has caused their price to rise, often over $10,000, although transferable Mac-10 and Mac-11 submachine guns can still be purchased for around $8,000. Machine guns manufactured after the FOPA's enactment can be sold only to law enforcement and government agencies, exported, or held as inventory or "dealer samples" by licensed manufacturers and dealers. Machine guns made after 1986 for law enforcement but not transferable to civilian registration are usually priced only a few hundred dollars more than their semi-automatic counterparts, whereas a pre-Hughes Amendment registered machine gun that can be legally transferred commands a huge premium.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The Hughes Amendment affected only machine guns. All other NFA firearms are still legal for manufacture and registration by civilians under Form 1, and transfer of registration to civilians via Form 4 (though some states have their own laws governing which NFA firearms are legal to own there). Silencers and Short Barreled Rifles are generally the most popular NFA firearms among civilians, followed by Short Barrel Shotguns, Destructive Devices, and "Any Other Weapons". While most NFA firearms are bought from manufacturers and transferred to civilians through a dealer, many are made by the civilians themselves after filing a Form 1 and paying the $200 tax. Some types of NFA firearms can be relatively simple to make, such as making a Short Barreled Rifle (by swapping out the upper receiver for one containing a short barrel) or a Short Barreled Shotgun by using a pipe cutter to shorten the barrel length, while making other NFA firearms, such as suppressors require more technical skill.


title: National Firearms Act

text: An NFA trust (also known as a gun trust, Title II trust, ATF trust, or Class 3 trust) is a legal trust that is used in the United States to register and own NFA firearms. Under regulations, use of a trust allows prospective purchasers of NFA items to avoid some of the federal transfer requirements that would otherwise be imposed on an individual. Like other trusts, it allows for estate planning in inheriting firearms. In 2013, ATF proposed new rules, often referred to as ATF Proposed Rule 41p, which, if adopted, would require all "responsible persons" of an entity being used to purchase NFA items to comply with the same procedures as individuals in obtaining NFA items. In an NFA trust, a responsible person is defined as "any grantor, trustee, beneficiary, ... who possesses, directly or indirectly, the power or authority under any trust instrument, ... to receive, possess, ship, transport, deliver, transfer, or otherwise dispose of a firearm for, or on behalf of, the entity." ATF finalized the rule on January 15, 2016, to become effective 180 days later. The previous requirement for "chief law enforcement officer" approval was eliminated, while all responsible people for a trust must now comply with the same restrictions as individual owners.


title: National Firearms Act

text: In 1938, the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas ruled the statute unconstitutional in "United States v. Miller". The defendant Miller had been arrested for possession of an unregistered short double-barreled shotgun, and for "unlawfully ... transporting [it] in interstate commerce from Claremore, Oklahoma to Siloam Springs, Arkansas" which perfected the crime. The government's argument was that the short barreled shotgun was not a military-type weapon and thus not a "militia" weapon protected by the Second Amendment, from federal infringement. The District Court agreed with Miller's argument that the shotgun was legal under the Second Amendment.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The District Court ruling was overturned on a direct appeal to the United States Supreme Court (see "United States v. Miller"). No brief was filed on behalf of the defendants, and the defendants themselves did not appear before the Supreme Court. Miller himself had been murdered one month prior to the Supreme Court's decision. No evidence that such a firearm was "ordinary military equipment" had been presented at the trial court (apparently because the case had been thrown out—at the defendants' request—before evidence could be presented), although two Supreme Court justices at the time had been United States Army officers during World War I and may have had personal knowledge of the use of such weapons in combat. The Supreme Court indicated it could not take judicial notice of such a contention.


title: National Firearms Act

text: The Supreme Court reversed the District Court and held that the NFA provision (criminalizing possession of certain firearms) was not in violation of the Second Amendment's restriction and therefore was constitutional.


title: National Firearms Act

text: Subsequent rulings have been allowed to stand, indicating that short-barreled shotguns are generally recognized as ordinary military equipment if briefs are filed (e.g., see: "Cases v. United States"), describing use of short-barreled shotguns in specialized military units.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava (, ; ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does not belong to the raion. It has a population of


title: Poltava

text: It is still unknown when Poltava was founded, although the town was not attested before 1174. However, for reasons unknown, municipal authorities chose to celebrate the city's 1100th anniversary in 1999. The settlement is indeed an old one, as archeologists unearthed a Paleolithic dwelling as well as Scythian remains within the city limits.


title: Poltava

text: The present name of the city is traditionally connected to the settlement Ltava which is mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle in 1174. According to the chronicle, on Saint Peter's Day (12 July) of 1182, Igor Sviatoslavich, chasing hordes of the Cuman khans Konchak and Kobiak, crossed the Vorskla River near "Ltava" and moved towards Pereiaslav), where Igor's army was victorious over the Cumans. During the Mongol invasion of Rus' in 1238–39 many cities of the middle Dnipro region were destroyed, possibly including Ltava.


title: Poltava

text: In the mid-14th century the region was part of the Duchy of Kyiv, which was a vassal of the Algirdas' Grand Duchy of Lithuania. According to the Russian historian Aleksandr Shennikov, the region around modern Poltava was a Cuman Duchy belonging to Mansur, who was a son of Mamai. Shennikov also claims that the Mansur Duchy joined the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an associated state rather than a vassal state, and that the city of Poltava already existed at that time. In 1399, Mansur's army assisted the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army in the battle of the Vorskla River, while a legend says that after the battle, the Cossack Mamay helped Vytautas to escape his death.


title: Poltava

text: The city is mentioned for the first time under the name of Poltava no later than 1430. Supposedly, in 1430 the Lithuanian duke Vytautas gave the city, along with Glinsk (today a village near the city of Romny) and Glinitsa, to Murza Olexa (Loxada Mansurxanovich), who moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Golden Horde. In 1430 Murza Olexa was baptized as Alexander Glinsky, who was a progenitor of the Glinsky family. According to Shenninkov, Alexander Glinsky must have been baptized in 1390 by Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kyiv, who had just regained his title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Russia (rather than the Metropolitan of Russia Minor and Lithuania) and on 6 March 1390 permanently moved to Muscovy.


title: Poltava

text: In 1537 Ografena Vasylivna Glinska (Baibuza) passed Poltava to her son-in-law Mykhailo Ivanovych Hrybunov-Baibuza.


title: Poltava

text: After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the territory around Poltava became part of the Crown of Poland. In 1630 Poltava was passed to a Polish magnate, Bartholomew Obalkowski. In 1641 it changed ownership again, to Alexander Koniecpolski. In 1646 Poltava became part of Wiśniowiecki Ordynatsia (a large Wiśniowiecki estate in Left-bank Ukraine centered in Lubny), governed by the Ruthenian-Polish magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (1612–51).


title: Poltava

text: In 1648, the city became the base of a distinguished regiment of Ukrainian Cossacks, and served as a Cossack stronghold during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. In 1650, to commemorate a victory of the Cossack Host over the Polish army at the Poltavka River, the Metropolitan of Kyiv, Sylvester Kossov, ordered the establishment of the monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross in Poltava. The project was financed by a number of prominent local residents, including Martyn Pushkar, Ivan Iskra, Ivan Kramar and many others.


title: Poltava

text: During the 1654 Pereyaslav Council, the Poltava city delegates pledged their allegiance to the Czar of Muscovy, after which stolnik Andrei Spasitelev arrived in Poltava and recorded 1,335 residents who had pledged their allegiance. In 1658 Poltava became a center of anti-government revolt led by Martyn Pushkar, who contested the legitimacy of Ivan Vyhovsky's election to the post of Hetman of Zaporizhian Host. The uprising was extinguished with the help of Crimean Tatars.


title: Poltava

text: On the issue boyar Vasily Borisovich Sheremetev wrote to Alexei Mikhailovich on 8 June 1658: "... the "Cherkas" [Cossack] city of Poltava is ravaged and burned to the ground and only if the Great Sovereign orders to rebuilt on the Tatar Sokma (pathway) of and protect many his sovereign cities from Tatar visits. And if the Great Sovereign allows to place a voivode in the city and rebuilt the city until the fall that in Plotava "Cherkasy" [Cossacks] and residents built their houses and stock-piled their food". With the signing of the 1667 truce of Andrusovo, the city was finally subjected to the Tsardom of Muscovy, while remaining part of the Cossack Hetmanate.


title: Poltava

text: The city suffered from the Great Turkish War when in 1695 Petro Ivanenko led an anti-Muscovite uprising with the help of Crimean Tatars, who ravaged the local monastery. The same year the Poltava Regiment actively participated in the Azov campaigns which resulted in the taking of the Turkish fortress of Kyzy-Kermen (today the city of Beryslav, Kherson Oblast). On 8 July (New Style) or 27 June (Old Style) 1709 the Battle of Poltava took place near the city during the Great Northern War. The battle ended in a decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces and had great historical importance for the Russians. In 1710 there was a plague in the city and its surrounding area. In the mid-18th century the Kolomak Woods near Poltava became a base of haidamaks (Cossack paramilitary bands).


title: Poltava

text: By 1770, Poltava had several brick factories, a regimental doctor, and a pharmacy; that same year the city conducted four fairs. In 1775 it became a city of Novorossiysk Governorate, guarded by the 8th Company of the Dnieper Pike Regiment headquartered in Kobeliaky. In 1775 Poltava's Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross (, "Krestovozdvizhensky Monastyr") became the seat of bishops of the newly created Eparchy (Diocese) of Slaviansk and Kherson. This large new diocese included the lands of the Novorossiya Governorate and the Azov Governorate north of the Black Sea.


title: Poltava

text: Since much of that area had only recently been seized from the Ottoman Empire by Russia, and a large number of Orthodox Greek settlers had been invited to settle in the region, the imperial government selected a renowned Greek scholar, Eugenios Voulgaris, to preside over the new diocese. After his retirement in 1779, he was replaced by another Greek theologian, Nikephoros Theotokis.


title: Poltava

text: In 1779 the city established the Poltava county school, which became its first secular educational institution. In 1787 Catherine the Great stopped in Poltava on the way from Crimea, escorted by Grigori Potemkin, Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov. In Poltava, on 7 June 1787, before another Russo-Turkish War, Potemkin received his title "Prince of Taurida", while Suvorov received a snuffbox with monogram. In 1802 the city became the seat of the newly established Poltava Governorate. The city's population in 1802 consisted of some 8,000 residents. That same year Poltava opened a government-funded hospital of 20 beds.


title: Poltava

text: On 2 February 1808, the Poltava Male Gymnasium was established. On 20 June 1808 some 54 families of craftsmen were invited to the city from German principalities and settled in the newly established German Sloboda neighborhood with about 50 clay-made houses. In 1810 there were 8,328 people living in Poltava; that same year, the city's first theater was built. In August 1812, on orders of Little Russia Governor General Lobanov-Rostovsky, the famed Ukrainian writer and statesman Ivan Kotlyarevsky formed the 5th Poltava Cavalry Cossack Regiment.


title: Poltava

text: By 1860, Poltava had around 30,000 inhabitants, a district school, a gymnasium, an Institute for Noble Maidens, a spiritual academy, a cadet corps, a library and a number of schools. In 1870 a railway station was opened, leading to rapid economic growth in the region. However, by 1914 the Population of Poltava (around 60,000) was mostly working in small enterprises. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Poltava became an important cultural centre, where many representatives of Ukrainian national revival were active.


title: Poltava

text: During the events of 1917–1920, Poltava was under the rule of a number of governments, including the Central Rada, Hetmanate, Ukrainian People's Republic, White Movement and Bolsheviks. From 1918 to 1919 there was Occupation of Poltava by the Bolsheviks. After becoming a part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Poltava experienced accelerated industrial growth, and its population increased to 130,000 by 1939.


title: Poltava

text: In World War II, the Nazi "Wehrmacht" occupied Poltava from 18 September 1941 until 23 September 1943, when it was retaken during the Chernigov-Poltava Strategic Offensive of the Battle of the Dnieper. During the Nazi occupation the Jewish population (9.9% of the total population in 1939) was imprisoned in a ghetto before being murdered during mass executions perpetrated by an Einsatzgruppe and buried in mass graves in the area.


title: Poltava

text: By the summer of 1944, the United States Army Air Forces conducted a number of shuttle bombing raids against Nazi Germany under the name of Operation Frantic. Poltava Air Base, as well as Myrhorod Air Base, were used as eastern locations for landing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers involved in those operations.


title: Poltava

text: The post-war restoration of Poltava continued in the 1950s and 1960s. The city became an important centre of military education in the Soviet Union, where missile and communications officers were prepared, and was also home to a Soviet Air Force division of heavy bombers.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: "Dfb"), with four distinct seasons, it is one of the coldest cities in Ukraine. The annual precipitation is fairly evenly distributed, with the highest concentration in summer, and which falls as snow in winter.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast (province) as well as of the Poltava Raion housed within the city. However, Poltava is a city of oblast subordinance, thus being subject directly to the oblast authorities rather to the raion administration housed in the city itself.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava's government consists of the 50-member Poltava City Council () which is headed by the Secretary (currently Oleksandr Kozub). The city's current mayor is Oleksandr Mamay, who was sworn in on 4 November 2010 after being elected with more than 61 percent of the vote. In 2015 he was re-elected as a candidate of Conscience of Ukraine with 62.9% in a second round of Mayoral election.


title: Poltava

text: The village of Rozsoshentsi, Scherbani, Tereshky, Kopyly and Suprunivka are officially considered to be outside the city, but constitute part of the Poltava agglomeration.


title: Poltava

text: The centre of the old city is a semicircular Neoclassical square with the Tuscan column of cast iron (1805–11), commemorating the centenary of the Battle of Poltava and featuring 18 Swedish cannons captured in that battle. As Peter the Great celebrated his victory in the Saviour church, this 17th-century wooden shrine was carefully preserved to this day. The five-domed city cathedral, dedicated to the Exaltation of the Cross, is a superb monument of Cossack Baroque, built between 1699 and 1709. As a whole, the cathedral presents a unity which even the Neoclassical belltower has failed to mar. Another frothy Baroque church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, was destroyed in 1934 and rebuilt in the 1990s.


title: Poltava

text: A minor planet 2983 Poltava discovered in 1981 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after the city.


title: Poltava

text: The most popular sport is football (soccer). Two professional football teams are based in the city: Vorskla Poltava in the Ukrainian Premier League and FC Poltava in the Second League.


title: Poltava

text: There are 3 stadiums in Poltava: Butovsky Vorskla Stadium (main city stadium), Dynamo Stadium are situated in the city centre and Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Podil district.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava's transportation infrastructure consists of two major train stations with railway links to Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kremenchuk. Poltava's Kyiv line is electrified and is used by the Poltava Express. The electrification of the Poltava-Kharkiv line was completed in August 2008.


title: Poltava

text: The Avtovokzal serves as the city's intercity bus station. Buses for local municipal routes depart from "AC-2" (autostation No. 2 – along Shevchenko street) and "AC-3" (Zinkivska street). Local municipal routes are parked along the Taras Shevchenko Street. Marshrutka minibuses serve areas where regular bus access is unavailable; however, they are privately owned and cost more per ride. In addition, a 10-route trolleybus network of runs throughout the city. On the routes of the city go more than 50 units of trolleybuses.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava is also served by an International Airport, situated outside the city limits near the village of Ivashky. The international highway M03, linking Poltava with Kyiv and Kharkiv, passes through the southern outskirts of the city. There is also a regional highway P-17 crossing Poltava and linking it with Kremenchuk and Sumy.


title: Poltava

text: Poltava has always been one of the most important science and education centres in Ukraine. Major universities and institutions of higher education include the following:


title: Synthetic fiber

text: Synthetic fibers or synthetic fibres (in British English; see spelling differences) are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms, such as plants (like cotton) or fur from animals. They are the result of extensive research by scientists to replicate naturally occurring animal and plant fibers. In general, synthetic fibers are created by extruding fiber-forming materials through spinnerets, forming a fiber. These are called synthetic or artificial fibers. The word polymer comes from a Greek prefix "poly" which means "many" and suffix "mer" which means "single units". (Note: each single unit of a polymer is called a monomer).


title: Synthetic fiber

text: The first fully synthetic fiber was glass. Joseph Swan invented one of the first artificial fibers in the early 1880s; today it would be called semisynthetic in precise usage. His fiber was drawn from a cellulose liquid, formed by chemically modifying the fiber contained in tree bark. The synthetic fiber produced through this process was chemically similar in its potential applications to the carbon filament Swan had developed for his incandescent light bulb, but Swan soon realized the potential of the fiber to revolutionize textile manufacturing. In 1885, he unveiled fabrics he had manufactured from his synthetic material at the International Inventions Exhibition in London.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: The next step was taken by Hilaire de Chardonnet, a French engineer and industrialist, who invented the first artificial silk, which he called "Chardonnet silk". In the late 1870s, Chardonnet was working with Louis Pasteur on a remedy to the epidemic that was destroying French silkworms. Failure to clean up a spill in the darkroom resulted in Chardonnet's discovery of nitrocellulose as a potential replacement for real silk. Realizing the value of such a discovery, Chardonnet began to develop his new product, which he displayed at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. Chardonnet's material was extremely flammable, and subsequently replaced with other, more stable materials.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: The first successful process was developed in 1894 by English chemist Charles Frederick Cross, and his collaborators Edward John Bevan and Clayton Beadle. They named the fiber "viscose", because the reaction product of carbon disulfide and cellulose in basic conditions gave a highly viscous solution of xanthate. The first commercial viscose rayon was produced by the UK company Courtaulds in 1905. The name "rayon" was adopted in 1924, with "viscose" being used for the viscous organic liquid used to make both rayon and cellophane. A similar product known as cellulose acetate was discovered in 1865. Rayon and acetate are both artificial fibers, but not truly synthetic, being made from wood.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: Nylon, the first synthetic fiber in the "fully synthetic" sense of that term, was developed by Wallace Carothers, an American researcher at the chemical firm DuPont in the 1930s. It soon made its debut in the United States as a replacement for silk, just in time for the introduction of rationing during World War II. Its novel use as a material for women's stockings overshadowed more practical uses, such as a replacement for the silk in parachutes and other military uses like ropes.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: The first polyester fiber was patented in Britain in 1928 by the International General Electric company. It was also produced by British chemists working at the Calico Printers' Association, John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant Dickson, in 1941. They produced and patented one of the first polyester fibers which they named Terylene, also known as Dacron, equal to or surpassing nylon in toughness and resilience. ICI and DuPont went on to produce their own versions of the fiber.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: Synthetic fibers account for about half of all fiber usage, with applications in every field of fiber and textile technology. Although many classes of fibers based on synthetic polymers have been evaluated as potentially valuable commercial products, four of them - nylon, polyester, acrylic and polyolefin - dominate the market. These four account for approximately 98 percent by volume of synthetic fiber production, with polyester alone accounting for around 60 percent.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: Synthetic fibers are more durable than most natural fibers and will readily pick-up different dyes. In addition, many synthetic fibers offer consumer-friendly functions such as stretching, waterproofing and stain resistance. Sunlight, moisture, and oils from human skin cause all fibers to break down and wear away. Natural fibers tend to be much more sensitive than synthetic blends. This is mainly because natural products are biodegradable. Natural fibers are susceptible to larval insect infestation; synthetic fibers are not a good food source for fabric-damaging insects.


title: Synthetic fiber

text: Compared to natural fibers, many synthetic fibers are more water-resistant and stain-resistant. Some are even specially enhanced to withstand damage from water or stains.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Rachel Ashley Platten (born May 20, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and author. After releasing two albums independently in 2003 and 2011, she signed with Columbia Records in 2015 and released her mainstream debut single, "Fight Song", which peaked at number 6 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the United States, topped charts in the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of multiple charts worldwide. Platten won a Daytime Emmy Award for a live performance of the song on "Good Morning America". Her major-label debut studio album, "Wildfire" (2016), was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and featured the follow-up singles "Stand by You" and "Better Place". Her second major-label album, "Waves (2017)", followed a year later.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten has done several other things outside of music. Platten appeared as a model in clothing brand Aerie's advertising campaign in photos that have not been retouched. She appeared on the cover of "The Improper Bostonian" magazine's May 2018 issue.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten has supported numerous charities, including, Music Unites, Ryan Seacrest Foundation, Autism Speaks, Los Angeles LGBT Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, BuildOn, and Live Below the Line. She has worked with Musicians on Call since the early 2000s, and is part of a program where she sings bedside to hospital patients. Platten has volunteered for over 50 Musicians On Call programs. The organization honored Platten for her volunteer work with Music Heals Award at a benefit event on December 1, 2015. Platten performed at Global Down Syndrome Foundation's virtual fashion show on November 14, 2020.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten was born on May 20, 1981, in New York City to Paul and Pamela Platten, but grew up in Newton Centre, Massachusetts and attended the Mason-Rice Elementary School. Her mother is a therapist. She was raised Jewish. She has a younger sister, Melanie. Platten studied classical piano from the age of 5 and then took up guitar in high school. She attended Buckingham Browne and Nichols high school, where she sang in the school's singing group. At Trinity College, she was a member of the Trinity College Trinitones, the college's first all-female a cappella group.


title: Rachel Platten

text: As a part of a study abroad program, she went to Trinidad to do an internship at a diplomat's office and at a record label. While she was there, she sang backup for a friend's band in front of over 80,000 people at the International Soca Monarch finals in 2002. According to Platten, from that moment on she knew she had to pursue music full-time.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten graduated from Trinity College with a degree in political science in 2003. She moved to New York City's Greenwich Village, recorded demos, and performed in a Prince and Sly and the Family Stone cover band called Dayz of Wild. She worked several jobs, including as a waitress, a jingle writer, and an Estée Lauder salesperson. She performed her solo music around the Village and eventually began touring the country.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Her first album, "Be Here", was released from Rock Ridge Music in April 2011. The single "1,000 Ships" peaked at number 24 on the US "Billboard" Adult Top 40 chart, also playing at various radio stations. An earlier song, "Seven Weeks", was used for the film "The Good Guy". The theme song for ABC Family's "Jane by Design", "Work of Art", was performed by Platten on hire. Her song "Begin Again" was used in Freeform's teen drama television series "Pretty Little Liars'" 100th episode, "Miss Me x 100". Her songs "Don't Care What Time It Is" was used in VH1's "Basketball Wives" and "You're Safe" was used in MTV's "Finding Carter" in September 2014. On June 27, 2014, Platten debuted "Fight Song" on the social networking website We Heart It as part of an artist spotlight.


title: Rachel Platten

text: On February 19, 2015, Platten released "Fight Song" from "Wildfire". The song reached number six on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, number two on the Australian Singles Chart, number six in Ireland, number eight in New Zealand, number nine on the "Billboard" Canadian Hot 100, and number one on the UK Singles Chart. In June 2015, Platten performed "Fight Song" with Taylor Swift in front of 50,000 people in Philadelphia during Swift's The 1989 World Tour. "Fight Song" has quintuple platinum sales in the US. Platten's 2015 "Fight Song EP" reached number 20 on the "Billboard" 200, and it was the official anthem for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten served as a support act on Alex & Sierra's and Andy Grammer's "The Good Guys & A Girl Tour" in early 2015. She then toured with Colbie Caillat and Christina Perri on their "Girls Night Out, Boys Can Come Too Tour" throughout the summer of 2015. On September 11, 2015, Platten released second single named "Stand by You" from "Wildfire". It peaked in the top 10 on charts in Canada and the United States, and has peaked in the top 20 on charts in Australia and Poland. The song has since been certified Platinum in the United States.


title: Rachel Platten

text: After the Orlando nightclub shooting, Platten announced that proceeds from the new acoustic version of her "Fight Song" will benefit the National Compassion Fund, working to support the needs of people impacted by the event.


title: Rachel Platten

text: In October 2016, Platten sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" prior to Game 1 of the 2016 World Series. On New Year's Eve 2016, Platten co-headlined the Times Square Ball festivities in New York City's Times Square alongside Gavin DeGraw performing "Fight Song", "Stand by You", "Beating Me Up", and John Lennon's "Imagine".


title: Rachel Platten

text: In 2017, Platten served as an opening act for two Los Angeles shows and one Las Vegas show on Faith Hill and Tim McGraw’s .


title: Rachel Platten

text: "Broken Glass", the lead single from her fourth studio album, "Waves", was released on August 18, 2017. The album was released on October 27, 2017.


title: Rachel Platten

text: In 2018, Platten was the main musical attraction at the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Along with performing her singles "Stand By You", "Better Place", and "Fight Song", she also reminisced about her childhood in Boston.


title: Rachel Platten

text: From May to July 2019, Platten toured with a capella group Pentatonix as the opening act for their shows in North America. She wrote a children's book titled "You Belong", named after her 2018 single; the book was released on March 31, 2020. In 2022, she performed "Stand By You" at "A Capitol Fourth" Independence Day concert in Washington, D.C., which aired on PBS on July 4, 2022.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten worked for nearly a decade playing cover performances and recording songs before gaining mainstream recognition as an artist. Platten's story and "Fight Song" has served as an inspiration for people around the world, who have used it as a motivation not to lose hope, when experiencing difficulties in life such as cancer, postpartum depression, and unemployment. In 2017, she was presented with Gracies Impact Award, which is given to an artist who has made a positive impact on society through their music. She wrote "Fight Song" at a low point, saying:In January 2018, Platten appeared as a model in clothing brand Aerie's advertising campaign in photos that have not been retouched. She appeared on the cover of "The Improper Bostonian" magazine's May 2018 issue.


title: Rachel Platten

text: Platten has supported numerous charities, including, Music Unites, Ryan Seacrest Foundation, Autism Speaks, Los Angeles LGBT Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, BuildOn, and Live Below the Line.


title: Rachel Platten

text: She has worked with Musicians on Call since the early 2000s, and is part of a program where she sings bedside to hospital patients. Platten has volunteered for over 50 Musicians On Call programs. The organization honored Platten for her volunteer work with Music Heals Award at a benefit event on December 1, 2015. She performed "Fight Song" and walked the runway at the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Red Dress Collection 2017 fashion show presented by Macy’s at New York Fashion Week on February 9, 2017.


title: Rachel Platten

text: On July 31, 2010, Platten married Kevin Lazan in a Jewish ceremony. Their wedding pictures were featured in "Southern New England Weddings" magazine in 2010. They have two daughters: Violet Skye, born on January 26, 2019, and Sophie Jo, born on September 9, 2021. She has openly discussed experiencing postpartum anxiety after the births of her daughters.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for their association with Neil Young. Beginning in 1968 and continuing to the present day, they have been co-credited on a number of Young's albums, with 12 studio albums and numerous live albums being billed as by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. They have also released six studio albums of their own, issued between 1971 and 2009.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums) have been the only consistent members of the band. On four of Crazy Horse's studio albums, Talbot and Molina serve as the rhythm section to entirely different sets of musicians. Except for two notable intervals, Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (rhythm guitar) regularly performed with the group from 1975 until 2014.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: The band's origins date to 1963 and the Los Angeles-based a cappella doo-wop group Danny & the Memories, which consisted of lead singer Danny Whitten and supporting vocalists Lou Bisbal (soon to be replaced by Bengiamino Rocco, the husband of actress Lorna Maitland), Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Sly Stone produced a single for the group (by then re-christened the Psyrcle) in San Francisco on Lorna Records (a subsidiary of Autumn Records) ; however, it did not sell very well either regionally or nationally.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Back in Los Angeles, the group evolved over the course of several years into the Rockets, a psychedelic pop/folk rock ensemble that juxtaposed the rudimentary instrumental abilities of Whitten (rhythm guitar), Talbot (bass) and Molina (drums) against the more accomplished Bobby Notkoff (violin) and Leon Whitsell (lead guitar). After leaving the group as sessions for their first album commenced, the mercurial and reclusive Whitsell was promptly replaced by his younger brother George, a R&B-influenced guitarist also respected in the band's social circle. After Leon petitioned to return, it was decided that both Whitsells would remain in the group.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: This sextet recorded the Rockets' only album, a self-titled set released in 1968 on White Whale Records. Whitten and Leon Whitsell contributed four songs apiece, with one song credited to Talbot and Molina and another ("Pill's Blues," the group's unofficial anthem) to George Whitsell. Whitten's "Let Me Go" was prominently covered by Three Dog Night on their 1968 debut; during this period, vocalist Danny Hutton considered recruiting Whitten for that band.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Although their album sold only about 5,000 copies, the Rockets soon re-connected with Neil Young, whom they had met two years earlier during the early days of Buffalo Springfield. In August 1968, three months after Buffalo Springfield dissolved, Young jammed with the group during a Rockets performance at the Whisky a Go Go; Molina would later recall that Young's idiosyncratically distinctive guitar style "blew George Whitsell's away. He was kind of overshadowed."


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Shortly thereafter, Young enlisted Whitten, Talbot, and Molina to back him on his second solo album. Although all parties initially envisaged the Rockets continuing as a separate concern, the older band soon folded due to Young's insistence on having his new backing trio keep to a strict practice schedule. According to George Whitsell, "My understanding was Neil was gonna use the guys for a record and a quick tour, bring 'em back and help us produce the next Rockets album. It took me a year and a half to realize that my band had been taken."


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Credited to Neil Young with Crazy Horse, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" was released in May 1969. A sleeper hit that peaked at No. 34 in the United States in August 1970 during a ninety-eight week chart stay, it included the American No. 55 pop hit "Cinnamon Girl" and the extended guitar workouts "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" alongside country and folk-influenced songs such as "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)," a tribute to the defunct band featuring a guest appearance by Notkoff.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Crazy Horse toured with Young throughout the first half of 1969 and, with the addition of frequent Young collaborator Jack Nitzsche on electric piano, in early 1970. That year's tour was showcased on the 2006 album "Live at the Fillmore East". Young would later opine that "[on] some of the stuff, Nitzsche was in the way, tonally... Crazy Horse was so good with the two guitars, bass and drums it didn't "need" anything else." Although Nitzsche openly disdained the rhythm section of Talbot and Molina, he retrospectively lauded Whitten (who was of Scotch-Irish American ancestry) as "the only black man in the band."


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Shortly after beginning work on his third solo album with Crazy Horse in 1969 (including an unreleased take of Whitten's "Look at All the Things" and a performance of Young's "Helpless" that failed to make it to tape due to an engineering error), Young joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a full fourth member, recording an album and touring with the ensemble in 1969 and 1970. When Young returned to his solo album in 1970, Crazy Horse found its participation more limited. Aside from overdubbed backing vocals, the group as a whole appears on just three of the eleven tracks on "After the Gold Rush": "When You Dance I Can Really Love" (recorded toward the end of the album's recording sessions, the majority of which included Ralph Molina in a semi-acoustic quartet with erstwhile CSNY bassist Greg Reeves and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren) plus a cover of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "I Believe In You" from the 1969 sessions. Young "fired" the group in the aftermath of the 1970 tour due to Whitten's escalating heroin abuse (partially attributable to the rhythm guitarist's severe rheumatoid arthritis) following an incapacitated performance at one of the Fillmore East performances; according to Molina, Whitten also felt that Young was "holdin' him back" as a guitarist and songwriter.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Crazy Horse capitalized on its newfound exposure and recorded its eponymous debut album for Reprise Records that year. The band retained Nitzsche (who co-produced the album with Bruce Botnick) and added Lofgren as a second guitarist; singer-songwriter and guitarist Ry Cooder also sat in on three tracks at the behest of Nitzsche to deputize for the ailing Whitten. Although the album peaked at only No. 84 on the "Billboard" 200 chart in 1971, Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It" would later be covered by a wide range of artists, including Geoff Muldaur, the Indigo Girls, Pegi Young and Rod Stewart. Stewart would record the song three times and score a hit with it on the same number of occasions, most notably as a UK No. 1 double A-side in 1977 with Cat Stevens's "The First Cut Is the Deepest." In 1988, the song would become a Top Ten hit in the UK again, this time a No. 3 for Everything but the Girl. Two songs from the album were covered by Scottish hard rock band Nazareth: Lofgren's "Beggar's Day" appeared on "Hair of the Dog" (1975), while Nitzsche's "Gone Dead Train" is the second track on "Expect No Mercy" (1977).


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Following the commercial failure of "Crazy Horse", Lofgren and Nitzsche left the group to pursue solo careers; meanwhile, Whitten's drug problems pushed Talbot and Molina to dismiss him and turn to outside musicians. The band released two albums on different labels ("Loose" and "At Crooked Lake") to critical and commercial indifference in 1972; along with Talbot and Molina, guitarist/singer-songwriter Greg Leroy was the only musician to appear on both albums. While the former saw Rockets guitarist George Whitsell briefly return to the fold, fronting the band in conjunction with Leroy and keyboardist John Blanton, the latter was dominated by the roots rock stylings of Rick and Mike Curtis, formerly of These Vizitors and best known for their later work as the Curtis Brothers.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Concurrently, Young placed Whitten on retainer in the fall of 1972 with a view toward including the guitarist in his new touring band, the Stray Gators. However, following his poor performance in rehearsals at Dress Review Sound Studio in Hollywood, the band pressured Young to dismiss him. Although Young let Whitten live on his ranch near Woodside, California and worked with him one-on-one during off-hours in an unsuccessful effort to keep him in the group, Whitten died several hours after returning to Los Angeles, his death attributed to a fatal overdose of alcohol and Valium.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: After Whitten's death and the tepid reception accorded to both albums, Talbot and Molina were the only full-fledged members of the band. They let the Crazy Horse name go unused while resolving not to retire it altogether. In mid-1973, Young brought together a band comprising Talbot, Molina, Lofgren, and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith to record "Tonight's the Night", the majority of which eventually saw release in bowdlerized form with additional material added in 1975. In the autumn of 1973, that ensemble (initially billed as Crazy Horse for the inaugural concerts at the Roxy in September 1973) toured Canada, Great Britain, and the United States as the Santa Monica Flyers. Molina and Whitsell would subsequently contribute percussion and guitar (respectively) to Young's "On the Beach" in 1974.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Shortly after aborted Young sessions involving Talbot, Molina and Keith at Chicago's Chess Studios in late 1974, the band spontaneously reconvened (sans the pedal steel guitarist) at Talbot's Echo Park home in 1975. These jam sessions cemented the role of rhythm guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, a friend of Talbot who began to play with the group (to the initial chagrin of Molina) during the Chicago excursion and proved to be just the right person to help resurrect Crazy Horse. "It was great," Talbot would say of the gathering and the chemistry it evoked. "We were all soaring. Neil loved it. We all loved it. It was the first time we heard the Horse since Danny Whitten died." After a five-year hiatus Neil Young and Crazy Horse was born again, and Young marked the occasion by finishing off the lyrics to "Powderfinger", soon to become one of the new line-up's signature songs.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: With Sampedro and producer David Briggs in tow, Young and Crazy Horse quickly recorded "Zuma" later that year in the basement of Briggs' rented house in Malibu, initiating their most prolific period of collaboration. Sampedro's lack of technical proficiency at the time ("Neil kept writin' simpler songs so I could play them") and desire to see Young "rockin' and having fun and seeing chicks' asses swaying in the audience" would greatly inform the tenor of the record.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Following a warmup tour of unannounced engagements at various San Francisco Bay Area bars (ironically dubbed the Rolling Zuma Revue in contrast to Bob Dylan's contemporaneous Rolling Thunder Revue) in December 1975, Young and the band toured Japan and Europe in March–April 1976. However, they were shut out of a proposed summer stadium tour when Young re-kindled his collaboration with Stephen Stills. They toured America that autumn when Young was forced to make up a series of canceled concert dates after walking out midway through the tour with Stills. From late 1975 to 1977, Young recorded feverishly in various solo and group configurations; Crazy Horse appears on all but two songs of 1977's country-inflected "American Stars 'n Bars" (with many tracks featuring an augmented line-up that included Ben Keith, Carole Mayedo, Linda Ronstadt, and Nicolette Larson), while "Comes a Time" features two performances with Crazy Horse: "Look Out for My Love" and the Fleetwood Mac-inspired "Lotta Love".


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: In 1978, Crazy Horse released "Crazy Moon", their fourth original album. It features instrumental contributions from Young, Bobby Notkoff, Greg Leroy and Michael Curtis. Later that year, they joined Young on the tour that led to the successful "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Live Rust", both credited to Neil Young and Crazy Horse.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: As Young spent much of the eighties working in genres mostly outside the band's idiom, Crazy Horse recorded with him more sporadically, appearing only on "Re·ac·tor", an unspecified portion of "Trans", and "Life". Sessions for a planned 1984 album with the band ended after they were "spooked" by the addition of a professional horn section, although a bootleg of a performance at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz containing many of the intended songs remains an enduring fan favorite.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Several years later, Young included all three members of Crazy Horse in another horn-driven ensemble, the Bluenotes. But when Talbot and Molina proved ill-suited to a blues-oriented approach, Young reluctantly replaced the Crazy Horse bassist and drummer while retaining Sampedro, who would remain with Young in various band permutations over the next two years. Immediately thereafter, Talbot and Molina hired former Rain Parade lead guitarist Matt Piucci and recruited Sonny Mone from Hanover, Massachusetts to provide lead vocals and rhythm guitar. With seven songs by Mone, this incarnation of the band recorded the pointedly-titled "Left for Dead" (1989) and filmed a music video for "Child of War".


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: The split with Sampedro and Young proved relatively short-lived, as the duo reunited with Talbot and Molina under the Crazy Horse imprimatur in 1990 for the acclaimed album "Ragged Glory" and for a tour in 1991 that generated the live album "Weld". Over the next 12 years, Crazy Horse would steadily collaborate with Young once more, joining the singer for "Sleeps with Angels" (1994), "Broken Arrow" (1996), the live "Year of the Horse" (1997), "Goin' Home" on "Are You Passionate?" (2002), and "Greendale" (2003). Sampedro agreed to sit out the recording of "Greendale", as Young felt the material called for only one guitar; he joined the band on guitar and organ for the ensuing tours of 2003 and 2004.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: According to Jimmy McDonough, Crazy Horse had begun a sixth album of its own in the mid-1990s, but left the project unfinished when Young called upon the group to join him for some secret club dates in California (for which the quartet billed themselves as the Echoes), leading to the recording of "Broken Arrow". Young and Crazy Horse attempted to record for three months in San Francisco in 2000; few takes were finished to the band's satisfaction, and Young re-recorded most of the material with Booker T. & the M.G.'s for "Are You Passionate?". "Toast", an album culled from the San Francisco sessions, was announced for imminent release in 2008 as part of Young's Archives series; it appeared in 2022.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Crazy Horse remained on hiatus for eight years following the "Greendale" tour. Although Sampedro was employed as a full-time assistant to Kevin Eubanks on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" from 1992 to 2010, the band continued to rehearse several times a year and more intermittently with Young during this period. "Trick Horse"—a collection of hitherto unreleased non-Young recordings possibly derived from older Sampedro-funded sessions where session musicians were hired to play the instrumental parts, enabling the band to focus on their vocal performances—was released on iTunes in 2009. According to Young in a 2011 interview with "American Songwriter", "They have to be together before I can be together with them. They haven't been doing anything together, so they need to be able to do it. I don't have the time to support things. I have to go with things that are going to support me. But I think they can do it."


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: Shortly thereafter, Neil Young and Crazy Horse convened to release two albums in 2012. "Americana" was composed almost entirely of covers of American folk music revival songs and singer-songwriter standards, while "Psychedelic Pill" featured original Neil Young songs written for the band. Neil Young and Crazy Horse toured throughout 2012 and 2013 in support of both albums, traveling to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: In 2013, Talbot, Molina, George Whitsell and lead vocalist/guitarist Ryan James Holzer formed Wolves. They released their first recording, "Wolves EP", on February 16, 2014.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: With the addition of background singers Dorene Carter and YaDonna West, Young and Crazy Horse also embarked on a summer 2014 European tour following a solo Young American tour spanning the winter and spring. For the tour, longtime Young collaborator Rick Rosas stood in for Talbot, who was recovering from a minor stroke. Rosas died from pulmonary hypertension with cardiac arrest on November 8, less than three months after the tour concluded.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: In May 2018, Lofgren joined Young, Talbot and Molina for a series of five "open rehearsal" concerts in Fresno, California and Bakersfield, California. Initially billed as Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the group (characterized by Young as the "Horse of a Different Color") ultimately performed at these engagements as NYCH. According to Young, "Life is an unfolding saga [...] Poncho is unable to join us right now but we all hope he will be back." In 2021, Sampedro confirmed that he has retired from music due to complications from arthritis in both wrists and a 2013 finger injury: "It became painful for me to be on the road. When we were on that last tour [in 2014], I was rolling down the road with both of my hands in ice buckets and one foot in an ice bucket, every night. That’s really not that much fun. Then I got my finger slammed in the door [on the 2013 European tour]. There were too many signs saying it was over for me. It wasn't for any other reason. [...] I was messing things up on the last tour during the early songs in the set. I just couldn’t slide my fingers the way I used to when I played those lines."


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: In February 2019, the Lofgren-era line-up performed two shows in Winnipeg. Its first album, "Colorado", was credited to Neil Young and Crazy Horse and released in October 2019. A second album, "Barn", was released on December 10, 2021, and a third, "World Record", released on November 18, 2022.


title: Crazy Horse (band)

text: The self-titled debut album was re-issued on CD in 1994. In 2005, Rhino Records' Handmade division released the two-disc set, "Scratchy: The Complete Reprise Recordings", in a limited edition of 2,500 copies. It included re-mastered versions of the debut album and their second, "Loose" in their entirety on the first disc, with the second disc containing nine rarities and out-takes (including both sides of a 1962 single by Danny and the Memories). The original set is currently out of print, but was re-issued on Rhino in England and Wounded Bird in the United States. "Loose" was also re-issued as a stand-alone CD by Wounded Bird in 2006. The Australian re-issue specialty label Raven Records put out "Crazy Moon" in 1999 with seven rare bonus tracks, as well as a 20-track retrospective in 2005, "Gone Dead Train: The Best of Crazy Horse 1971–1989", featuring material from each of the group's five albums, with the exception of its second one, "Loose". "Left for Dead" was released in 1995 on the Sisapa/Curb label, and "Crazy Moon" was re-issued on CD again as a BMG import in 2005. "At Crooked Lake" was re-issued in 2013 on the Floating World label.


Child pornography laws in the United States specify that child pornography is illegal under federal law and in all states and is punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment or a fine of $5000. The Supreme Court of the United States has found child pornography to be outside the protections of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Federal sentencing guidelines on child pornography differentiate between production, distribution, and purchasing/receiving, and also include variations in severity based on the age of the child involved in the materials, with significant increases in penalties when the offense involves a prepubescent child or a child under the age of 12. U.S. law distinguishes between pornographic images of an actual minor, realistic images that are not of an actual minor, and non-realistic images such as drawings. The latter two categories are legally protected unless found to be obscene, whereas the first does not require a finding of obscenity.


title: Child pornography laws in the United States

text: Child pornography under federal law is defined as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (someone under 18 years of age). Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor, and images created, adapted, or modified, but appear to depict an identifiable, actual minor. Undeveloped film, undeveloped videotape, and electronically stored data that can be converted into a visual image of child pornography are also deemed illegal visual depictions under federal law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that images created by superimposing the face of a child on sexually explicit photographs of legal adults is not protected speech under the First Amendment. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "virtual child pornography" was constitutionally protected speech.


text: Notably, the age of consent for sexual activity in a given state is irrelevant; any depiction of a minor under 18 years of age engaging in sexually explicit conduct is illegal. Federal prosecutors have secured convictions carrying mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years of imprisonment for producing visual depictions of individuals above the legal age of consent but under the age of 18, even when there was no intent to distribute such content. The legal definition of sexually explicit conduct does not require that an image depict a child engaging in sexual activity. A picture of a naked child may constitute illegal child pornography if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive.


text: Federal law prohibits the production, distribution, reception, and possession of an image of child pornography using or affecting any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce (18 U.S.C. § 2251; 18 U.S.C. § 2252; 18 U.S.C. § 2252A). Specifically, Section 2251 makes it illegal to persuade, induce, entice, or coerce a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for purposes of producing visual depictions of that conduct. Any individual who attempts or conspires to commit a child pornography offense is also subject to prosecution under federal law.


text: Federal jurisdiction is implicated if the child pornography offense occurred in interstate or foreign commerce. This includes, for example, using the U.S. Mails or common carriers to transport child pornography across state or international borders. Federal jurisdiction almost always applies when the Internet is used to commit a child pornography violation. Even if the child pornography image itself did not travel across state or international borders, federal law may be implicated if the materials, such as the computer used to download the image or the CD-ROM used to store the image, originated or previously traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.


text: In addition, Section 2251A of Title 18, United States Code, specifically prohibits any parent, legal guardian, or other person in custody or control of a minor under the age of 18, to buy, sell, or transfer custody of that minor for purposes of producing child pornography.


text: Lastly, Section 2260 of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits any persons outside of the United States to knowingly produce, receive, transport, ship, or distribute child pornography with intent to import or transmit the visual depiction into the United States.


text: Under federal law, finding of guilt on most child pornography related offenses carry severe consequences, such as mandatory minimum sentences of several years and registration as a sex offender.


text: A first time offender convicted of producing child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2251, face fines and a statutory minimum of 15 years to 30 years maximum in prison.


text: Child pornography offenses for transportation (including mailing or shipping), receipt, distribution, and possession with the intent to distribute or sell child pornography offenses each carry a mandatory minimum term of 5 years of imprisonment and a maximum term of 20 years.


text: Simple possession of child pornography is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison, and does not carry a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment. If a defendant has a prior federal or state conviction for one or more enumerated sex offenses, the penalty ranges are enhanced.


text: Federal sentencing guidelines provide for higher sentences based on the number of images possessed or distributed, whether the victims were 12 years of age or younger, whether the material is "sadistic," and other factors.


text: Under the Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA), 46 codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3771, federal law enforcement officials must notify a child pornography victim (or his or her guardian if the victim is still a minor) each time the officials charge an offender with a child pornography offense related to an image depicting the victim. Such notifications can be emotionally traumatic.


text: In the United States, pornography is considered a form of personal expression governed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Pornography is generally protected speech, unless it is obscene, as the Supreme Court of the United States held in 1973 in "Miller v. California".


text: Child pornography is also not protected by the First Amendment, but importantly, for different reasons. In 1982 the Supreme Court held in "New York v. Ferber" that child pornography, even if not obscene, is not protected speech. The court gave a number of justifications why child pornography should not be protected, including that the government has a compelling interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of minors.


text: The initial iteration of , first passed in 1988, mandated that producers of pornographic media keep records of the age and identity of performers and affix statements as to the location of the records to depictions. However, rather than penalties for noncompliance, the statute created a rebuttable presumption that the performer was a minor. Pub. L. 100-690. This version was struck down as unconstitutional under the First Amendment in "American Library Association v. Thornburgh", 713 F. Supp. 469 (D.D.C. 1989), "vacated as moot", 956 F.2d 1178 (D.C. Cir. 1992).


text: After Thornburgh, Congress amended 2257 to impose direct criminal penalties for noncompliance with the record-keeping requirements. The same plaintiffs challenged the amended statute and accompanying regulations, but the new version was upheld in "American Library Association v. Reno", 33 F.3d 78 (D.C. Cir. 1994).


text: In "Sundance Association, Inc. v. Reno", 139 F.3d 804 (10th Cir. 1998), the Tenth Circuit rejected the regulation's distinction between primary and secondary producers and entirely exempted from the record-keeping requirements those who merely distribute or those whose activity "does not involve hiring, contracting for, managing, or otherwise arranging for the participation of the performers depicted". 18 U.S.C. § 2257(h)(3).


text: However, after 2257 was amended in 2006 by the Adam Walsh Act, the court ruled that Sundance's restrictions no longer applied to the amended statute and generally ruled in the government's favor on its motion for summary judgment. "Free Speech Coalition v. Gonzales", 483 F. Supp. 2d 1069 (D. Colo. 2006).


text: Simulated child pornography was made illegal with the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA). The CPPA was short-lived. In 2002, the Supreme Court of the United States in "Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition" held that the relevant portions of the CPPA were unconstitutional because they prevented lawful speech. Referring to "Ferber", the court stated that "the CPPA prohibits speech that records no crime and creates no victims by its production. Virtual child pornography is not 'intrinsically related' to the sexual abuse of children".


text: In response to the demise of the CPPA, on April 30, 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the PROTECT Act of 2003 (also known as the "Amber Alert Law").


text: The law enacted , which criminalizes material that has "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture or painting" that "depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is obscene" or "depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in ... sexual intercourse ... and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". By its own terms, the law does not make all simulated child pornography illegal, only that found to be obscene or lacking in serious value.


text: In November 2005 in Richmond, Virginia, Dwight Whorley was convicted under 18 U.S.C. sec. 1466A for using a Virginia Employment Commission computer to receive "obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in genital-genital and oral-genital intercourse with adult males". He was also convicted of possessing child pornography involving real children. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.


text: On December 18, 2008, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. The court stated that "it is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually ". Attorneys for Mr. Whorley have said that they will appeal to the Supreme Court.


text: The request for "en banc" rehearing of "United States v. Whorley" from the Court of Appeals was denied on June 15, 2009. A petition for writ of certiorari was filed with the Supreme Court on September 14, 2009, and denied on January 11, 2010, without comment.


text: The PROTECT Act also amended , which was part of the original CPPA. The amendment added paragraph (a)(3), which criminalizes knowingly advertising or distributing "an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct". The law draws a distinction between obscene depiction of "any" minor, and mere depiction of an "actual" minor.


text: The bill addresses various aspects of child abuse, prohibiting some illustrations and computer-generated images depicting children in a pornographic manner. Provisions against virtual child pornography in the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 on the grounds that the restrictions on speech were not justified by a compelling government interest (such as protecting real children). The provisions of the PROTECT Act instead prohibit such material if it qualifies as obscene as defined by the Miller test; the Supreme Court has ruled that such material is not protected by the First Amendment.


text: In May 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the 2003 federal law Section 2252A(a)(3)(B) of Title 18, United States Code that criminalizes the pandering and solicitation of child pornography, in a 7–2 ruling penned by Justice Antonin Scalia. The court ruling dismissed the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit's finding the law unconstitutionally vague. Attorney James R. Marsh, founder of the "Children's Law Center" in Washington, D.C., wrote that although the Supreme Court's decision has been criticized by some, he believes it correctly enables legal personnel to fight crime networks where child pornography is made and sold.


text: In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled in "United States v. Knox" that the federal statute contains no requirement that genitals be visible or discernible. The court ruled that non-nude visual depictions can qualify as lascivious exhibitions and that this construction does not render the statute unconstitutionally overbroad.


text: In 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts found that certain photos of nude children, culled from ethnographic and nudist publications, were not lascivious exhibitions and hence were not pornographic; the court ordered dropping of charges against a prisoner who had been found in possession of the photos.


text: In at least one instance, in North Carolina, teenagers in the United States have been prosecuted as adults for possession of images of themselves.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Brooks Wackerman (born February 15, 1977) is an American musician. He is the current drummer of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, which he joined in 2015. His first album with Avenged Sevenfold was "The Stage" (2016). He is most known as the former and longest-standing drummer of American punk rock band Bad Religion (2001 to 2015).


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Wackerman has also performed, either as a member or a session or touring member, with Blink 182, Bad4Good, Infectious Grooves, Glenn Tipton, Mass Mental, Suicidal Tendencies, The Vandals, Avril Lavigne, Korn, Kidneys (in which he sang and played guitar, releasing two albums), Fear and the Nervous System, Tenacious D, Farmikos, Tom Delonge, and Big Talk. His brothers, Chad Wackerman, and John Wackerman, are also drummers.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Wackerman's father Chuck, also a drummer, starting teaching him how to play drums as early as 5 years-old and was also his Jazz Band teacher at Los Alamitos High School, winning Most Outstanding Musician at the Reno Jazz Festival in 1993. He started his musical career as a teen with a group called Bad4Good in 1991. Under Steve Vai's guidance, the band released one album in 1992 called "Refugee", produced by Vai himself.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: From 1993 to 2000, Wackerman was a member of Infectious Grooves, playing drums on the albums "Groove Family Cyco" in 1994 and "Mas Borracho" in 2000 as well as touring with the band. He returned to the band when they resumed activities and did a show in Brazil in November 2019.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Wackerman was a member of Suicidal Tendencies from 1996 to 2001, playing drums on "Six the Hard Way" in 1998, "Freedumb" in 1999, and "Free Your Soul and Save My Mind" in 2000. He left the band to join Bad Religion in 2001.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: In 2001, he became the drummer for Bad Religion by replacing Bobby Schayer, who left the band due to a shoulder injury. He appeared on five albums with them ("The Process of Belief", "The Empire Strikes First", "New Maps of Hell", "The Dissent of Man" and "True North") as well as their 2013 EP "Christmas Songs". On October 27, 2015, Brooks left Bad Religion after deciding it was time to pursue another path. At the time of his departure, Wackerman was Bad Religion's all-time longest standing drummer, surpassing Bobby Schayer, who was in the band for ten years. He was also the youngest member of the band, with all of the other members being at least ten years his senior. Wackerman was replaced by Jamie Miller.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: In 2006, for The Pick of Destiny tour, Wackerman was selected to feature as the drummer for Tenacious D due to his previous work on the Vandals' "Look What I Almost Stepped In..." album, which both Jack Black and Kyle Gass cameo on. He would go on to play for Tenacious D at various festivals as well as support act and benefit concerts throughout 2008 to 2011. in 2012, Wackerman played with Tenacious D again on their Rize of the Fenix tour where he got the nickname "Thunderskin" from Jack Black for comical remark, making appearances on the "Late Show with David Letterman", "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". They also performed at the 2012 Festival. Wackerman also appeared in the music videos for their songs "Roadie" and "Rize of the Fenix". He would perform on their 2012 EP "Tenacious D Jazz" and their 2015 live album "Tenacious D Live".


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: On November 4, 2015, it was revealed that Wackerman was the new drummer for Avenged Sevenfold. Brooks was working with the band one year prior to the official announcement because the band wanted to "fit in" with the new drummer. Like the previous drummer Arin Ilejay, but unlike the rest of the band members, he currently does not have a stage name. His first full-length album with the band was their October 2016 release "The Stage", which showcased his progressive metal style of drumming, often using fast double kicks and blast beats.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Alongside Terry Bozzio, Wackerman contributed drums and percussion for Korn's untitled album. He is the frontman for Hot Potty. Wackerman is also the drummer for the Innocent, a thrash metal band featuring bassist Ryan Sinn (formerly of Angels & Airwaves and the Distillers), vocalist Brandan Schieppati (Bleeding Through), and guitarist Dave Nassie (No Use for a Name). In March 2008, Wackerman joined Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer's newest solo project, experimental industrial rock band Fear and the Nervous System, alongside vocalist Steve Krolikowski (Repeater), Billy Gould (Faith No More), Leopold Ross (Error), and Zac Baird (Korn, Billy Goat). Brooks also played drums for Avril Lavigne. Brooks filled in for Travis Barker during Blink-182's 2013 tour of Australia in the Soundwave festival as well as their sideshows. Brooks was hired to record drums on former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge's debut solo album "To the Stars", appearing on the track "New World".


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Wackerman formerly fronted Kidneys alongside fellow Tenacious D band member John Spiker. Initially, his brother, John Wackerman played with Kidneys, but he would later be replaced by Todd Hennig (Death By Stereo). A full-length self-titled album was released in 2007, and another album in 2012, entitled "Hold Your Fire", is available for digital download. The band parted ways in 2012.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: He appeared in the music video for The Suicide Machines’ single “S.O.S.” in place of usual drummer Derek Grant, due to the fact that he refused to appear in any photos or videos.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Wackerman currently endorses Drum Workshop drums, Remo drumheads and also uses Innovative Percussion drumsticks. Additionally, in 2021, after many years of using and endorsing Zildjian cymbals Wackerman officially signed on as an Istanbul Agop artist. He also once had a signature line of drumsticks manufactured by Zildjian as well.


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Drum setup circa 2015 (Avenged Sevenfold tour): Drum Workshop drums, Evans drumheads and Zildjian cymbals and sticks:


title: Brooks Wackerman

text: Drum setup 2021 (current): Drum Workshop drums, Remo drumheads, Innovative Percussion drumsticks and Istanbul Agop cymbals:


title: Era of Stagnation

text: The "Era of Stagnation" (, or ) is a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev in order to describe the negative way in which he viewed the economic, political, and social policies of the Soviet Union that began during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev (1964–1982) and continued under Yuri Andropov (1982–1984) and Konstantin Chernenko (1984–1985). It is sometimes called the "Brezhnevian Stagnation" in English.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: During the period of Brezhnev's leadership, the term "Era of Stagnation" was not used. Instead Brezhnev used the term "period of developed socialism" (Russian: период развито́го социализма) for the period that started in 1971. This term stemmed from Khrushchev's promise in 1961 of reaching communism in 20 years. It was in the 1980s that the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev coined the term "Era of Stagnation" to describe the economic difficulties that developed when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982. Scholars have subsequently disagreed on the dates, significance and causes of the stagnation. Supporters of Gorbachev have criticised Brezhnev, and the Brezhnev administration in general, for being too conservative and failing to change with the times.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: After the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953 a program of policy change was begun, later known as de-Stalinization. Nikita Khrushchev, who succeeded Stalin's brief successor Georgy Malenkov as Soviet leader, introduced relatively liberal reforms during the period known as the Khrushchev Thaw. This period also brought an economic increase that topped at 6%. However the Manege Affair of 1962, during which Khrushchev publicly criticised an exhibition of Soviet art, led to the reassertion of Communist Party control over the arts and marked the beginning of the end of the Cultural Thaw.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev as Soviet leader in 1964. The Brezhnev Era (1964–1982) began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but gradually significant problems in social, political, and economic areas accumulated. Social stagnation began following Brezhnev's rise to power, when he revoked several of Khrushchev's reforms and partially rehabilitated Stalinist policies. Some commentators regard the start of social stagnation as being the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1966, which marked the end of the Khrushchev Thaw, while others place it at the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968. The period's political stagnation is associated with the establishment of gerontocracy, which came into being as part of the policy of stability.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: The majority of scholars set the starting year for economic stagnation at 1975, although some claim that it began as early as the 1960s. Industrial growth rates declined during the 1970s as heavy industry and the arms industry were prioritized while Soviet consumer goods were neglected. The value of all consumer goods manufactured in 1972 in retail prices was about 118 billion roubles. Historians, scholars, and specialists are uncertain what caused the stagnation, with some arguing that the command economy suffered from systemic flaws that inhibited growth. Others have argued that the lack of reform, or the high expenditures on the military, led to stagnation.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Brezhnev has been criticised posthumously for doing too little to improve the economic situation. Throughout his rule, no major reforms were initiated and the few proposed reforms were either very modest or opposed by the majority of the Soviet leadership. The reform-minded Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Government), Alexei Kosygin, introduced two modest reforms in the 1970s after the failure of his more radical 1965 reform, and attempted to reverse the trend of declining growth. By the 1970s, Brezhnev had consolidated enough power to stop any "radical" reform-minded attempts by Kosygin.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: After the death of Brezhnev in November 1982, Yuri Andropov succeeded him as Soviet leader. Brezhnev's legacy was a Soviet Union that was much less dynamic than it had been when he assumed power in 1964. During Andropov's short rule, modest reforms were introduced; he died little more than a year later in February 1984. Konstantin Chernenko, his successor, continued much of Andropov's policies. The economic problems that began under Brezhnev persisted into these short administrations and scholars still debate whether the reform policies that were followed improved the economic situation in the country.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: The Era of Stagnation ended with Gorbachev's rise to power during which political and social life was democratised even though the economy was still stagnating. Under Gorbachev's leadership the Communist Party began efforts to accelerate development in 1985 through massive injections of finance into heavy industry "(Uskoreniye)". When these failed, the Communist Party restructured "(perestroika)" the Soviet economy and government by introducing quasi-capitalist "(Khozraschyot)" and democratic "(demokratizatsiya)" reforms. These were intended to re-energize the Soviet Union but inadvertently led to its dissolution in 1991.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Robert Service, author of the "History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century", claims that with mounting economic problems worker discipline decreased, which the government could not counter effectively because of the full employment policy. According to Service, this policy led to government industries, such as factories, mines and offices, being staffed by undisciplined and unproductive personnel ultimately leading to a "work-shy workforce" among Soviet workers and administrators. While the Soviet Union under Brezhnev had the "second greatest industrial capacity" after the United States, and produced more "steel, oil, pig-iron, cement and ... tractors" than any other country in the world, Service treats the problems of agriculture during the Brezhnev era as proof of the need for de-collectivization. In short, Service considers the Soviet economy to have become "static" during this time period, and Brezhnev's policy of stability was a "recipe for political disaster".


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Richard Sakwa, author of the book "The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917–1991", takes a dimmer view of the Brezhnev era by claiming that growth rates fell "inexorably" from the 1950s until they stopped completely in the 1980s. His reasoning for this stagnation was the growing demand for unskilled workers resulted in a decline of productivity and labour discipline. Sakwa believes that stability itself led to stagnation and claimed that without strong leadership "Soviet socialism had a tendency to relapse into stagnation."


title: Era of Stagnation

text: According to Edwin Bacon and Mark Sandle, authors of "Brezhnev Reconsidered", the economy under Brezhnev was as dynamic as the economy presided over by Nikita Khrushchev, but this dynamism had stalled by the time Yuri Andropov, and subsequently Konstantin Chernenko, became General Secretary. Mark Harrison claims that the economic performance of the Brezhnev era has not been looked at objectively as analysis of the period sometimes used lower estimates. Harrison further claims that in the period between 1928 and 1973 the Soviet economy grew in a phase that would surpass the United States "one day". During the international oil crisis, growth in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc halted abruptly and stalled for a longer period than in the West causing the economy to begin stagnating. One explanation, according to Harrison, is that the Soviet economy could not sustain its extensive growth patterns. Other explanations include: the lack of Soviet, and communist bloc, transparency with other nations hindering globalisation and misinterpretation of a "permanent" post–World War II economic boom leading to faulty economic decisions. He claims that the economic policies of Andropov, and Chernenko, had improved the economic situation in the country and Mikhail Gorbachev inherited a more dynamic and vibrant economy in a "pre-crisis situation" where the economy was still growing with low internal and external debts, compared to the economy that Andropov and Chernenko inherited.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Archie Brown, author of "The Rise and Fall of Communism", claims in his book that the term Era of Stagnation "was in many ways a fitting description, for this was a period of declining growth", but noted it could be misleading in non-economic spheres. Brown states there were high growth rates in the mid-to-late 1960s (during the Eighth Five-Year Plan) claiming that the Soviet economy "enjoyed stronger growth in the second half of the 1960s than it ever did thereafter". The link between these growth rates and the Kosygin reform is, according to Brown, "tenuous", but says that "From the point of view of communist rulers, the Brezhnev era was in many ways successful". The Soviet Unions natural resources provided a strong economic foundation, which bore fruit during the 1973 oil crisis and "turned out to be an energy bonanza". On the other hand, Brown states it was a sign of weakness that the Soviet Union grew so dependent on her natural resources, as she did in the 1970s.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Philip Hanson, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Soviet economy: an Economic History of the USSR from 1945", claims that the label stagnation is not "entirely unfair". Brezhnev, according to Hanson, did preside over a period of slowdown in economic growth, but claims that the era started with good growth that was at a higher rate than during the end of Khrushchev's rule. Economic slowdown began in 1973 "when even the official estimates began to show Soviet per capita production no longer closing the gap with the US." Before 1973, there was a reform period launched by Alexei Kosygin, which many believed would become as radical as those in the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia and the previous reform attempts in Hungary. According to Hanson, many assumed that growth during the Brezhnev era did not stop but started to stagnate. Not everything stagnated, however, as per capita consumption grew by 1.9% during the 1970s, which is a "highly respectable rate" of growth. Another point that Hanson makes is that, in contrast to the repressive policies of Joseph Stalin and instability-inducing policies of Khrushchev, the Brezhnev era was stable and a "period of (comparative) plenty".


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Robert Vincent Daniels in his book, "Russia's Transformation: Snapshots of a Crumbling System", claimed that the hallmark of the Brezhnev era was the "status quo", which in turn led to the development of a great paradox; "the contradictions of what it was and what it could be became obvious". Net growth, in excess of 50% and as high as two thirds, was primarily in the urban sector resulting in high population growth and urban growth higher than that of the United States. Industrial development continued to grow rapidly, and in certain sectors surpassed the United States. As an example, coal production in the Soviet Union increased from 85 million metric tons in 1964 to 149 million metric tons in 1981 while in the United States it grew from 100 million to 130 million metric tons in the same period. The Soviet Union became the largest exporter of petroleum in the world and by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (1976–1981) the Soviet GNP "reached about 60% of the American level, and the net current investment was actually greater in absolute terms". The failure then, according to Daniels, was that the Soviet economy was not able to deliver in certain sectors; agriculture is a sector where this failure occurred. Throughout Soviet history, deficiencies in agriculture and consumer goods always existed. During Brezhnev's reign, the Soviet Union became the largest producer of wheat in the world but was unable to produce meat in sufficient quantities. According to Daniels, the economy began to stagnate in 1975 rather than 1973 and that the following period contradicted the previous one "in almost every way".


title: Era of Stagnation

text: The research in second economy in the Soviet Union, pioneered by Gregory Grossman, indicated that during 1970s-1980s the effects of the central planning were progressively distorted due to the rapid growth of the shadow economy. It is suggested that failure to account for it by Gosplan contributed to the stagnation, and ultimately to the collapse of the Soviet economy.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: One of the suggested causes of stagnation was the increased military expenditure over consumer goods and other economic spheres. Andrei Sakharov, the veteran dissident, claimed in a 1980 letter to Brezhnev that the increasing expenditure on the armed forces was stalling economic growth. David Michael Kotz and Fred Weir, authors of "Revolution from Above: The Demise of the Soviet System", argue that militarisation cannot be the prime cause for the economic stagnation, as military spending had historically been high (17% of GNP in 1950) and had increased on par with economic growth without previously destabilising the economy.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: During the Nixon Shock and the 1973 oil crisis, economic growth in the rest of the world plummeted but the Soviet hard currency earnings grew as a result of oil exports. Following the crisis, overall economic activity decreased markedly in the Soviet Union, the Western Bloc and Japan, but in the Soviet Union it was much more pronounced. Kotz and Weir argued that ultimately, economic stagnation in the Soviet Union could only have been caused by internal problems rather than external.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Some Marxist–Leninist writers have argued that economic stagnation was a result of revisionism in Soviet economic policy during Khrushchev's leadership. According to authors like Harpal Brar, Khrushchev's de-Stalinization program was also used to implement economic reforms that would move the USSR away from central planning and towards market socialism.


title: Era of Stagnation

text: One of the main causes for Khrushchev's dismissal from power was the relatively poor economic growth during the early 1960s. Overall economic growth was 6% from 1951 to 1955 but had fallen to 5.8% in the subsequent 5 years and to 5% from 1961 to 1965. Labour productivity, which had grown 4.7% from the 1950s to 1962, had declined to 4% by the early 1960s. Growth, capital out and investments were all showing signs of steady decline. Another problem was Khrushchev's unrealistic promises such as committing to reach communism in 20 years, a near impossibility with the then-current economic indicators. Ultimately, as a result of his failure to deliver on his promises and the problems engendered, Khrushchev was dismissed in October 1964 by a collective leadership led by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin. To counter Khrushchev's promise of reaching communism, the Soviet leadership created the term developed socialism, which meant that the Soviet Union had developed to a sufficiently advanced stage that the country would move "naturally" to communism (in an unspecified amount of time).


title: Era of Stagnation

text: Khrushchev's dismissal led to the establishment of a more conservative Politburo; Kosygin, Nikolai Podgorny and Andrei Kirilenko were the most liberal members, Brezhnev and Arvīds Pelše belonged to the moderate faction while Mikhail Suslov retained his leadership of the party's hardliners. Kosygin and Brezhnev strongly disagreed over economic policy; Kosygin wanted to increase investments in consumer goods and light industry whereas Brezhnev wanted to increase investment in heavy industry, agriculture and defence. In 1965, Kosygin introduced an economic reform, widely referred to as the "Kosygin reform", which aimed to reform the planned economy within a socialist framework. In a bid to improve the Soviet economy Kosygin copied some of the measures used in the Western Bloc, such as profit making, which Brezhnev agreed to as the Soviet economy was entering a period of low growth. Kosygin's reforms on agriculture gave considerable autonomy to the collective farms, giving them the right to the contents of private farming. As a result, during the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1966–1970), large-scale land reclamation programmes, construction of irrigation channels, and other measures, were enacted. Overall, the reform failed and links to any high growth rates during the Eighth Five-Year Plan are considered to be "tenuous".


title: Era of Stagnation

text: The Brezhnev era, which had begun with high growth, began to stagnate some time in the early 1970s. Kosygin's "radical" reform attempts were halted in 1971 and his second reform was more modest. The second reform was halted because of the 1973 oil crisis, when an international increase in oil price prompted economic growth based on selling oil. Another reform was implemented in 1979 but this, too, failed as by this time the Soviet economy had become "addicted" to high oil prices.