title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: Between 1991 and 1994, Nabiullina worked at the USSR Science and Industry Union and its successor, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. In 1994, she moved to the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade, where she rose to the level of deputy minister by 1997; she left the ministry in 1998. She spent the next two years with Sberbank as its chief executive and with former Economic Development and Trade Minister Herman Gref's non-governmental think tank, the Center for Strategic Development, before returning to the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade as first deputy in 2000. Between 2003 and her September 2007 appointment as minister, she chaired the Center for Strategic Development as well as an advisory committee preparing for Russia's 2006 presidency of the G8.


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: Russian President Putin appointed Nabiullina to the post of minister of economic development and trade on 24 September 2007, replacing Gref. She found working with then-deputy premier and finance minister Alexei Kudrin "difficult but always interesting" and remained in that position until 21 May 2012. In 2012 she was one of six senior government figures to accompany Putin back to the Kremlin administration after Putin was elected president of Russia for a third term. From May 2012 to June 2013, she served as Assistant to President Putin for Economic Affairs.


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: Succeeding Sergey Ignatyev in 2013, Nabiullina was appointed head of the Central Bank of Russia, becoming the second woman after to hold that position, and thus the first Russian woman in the G8. In May 2014 she was named one of the world's most powerful women by Forbes, which noted that she "has been given the difficult task of managing the ruble exchange rate during Russian military operation in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea and facilitating growth for an economy trying to avoid a recession". In an effort to stop the ruble's slide, the Central Bank of Russia, under her leadership, hiked interest rates, free-floated the exchange rate, and kept a cap on inflation, thus stabilizing the financial system and boosting foreign-investor confidence. Euromoney magazine named her their 2015 Central Bank Governor of the Year.


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: On 28 February 2022, she gave a speech announcing a number of measures to combat the 2022 Russian financial crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including that the Central Bank of Russia's interest rate would rise to 20%, that the stock market be closed, and that capital controls would be instituted. In March 2022, it was reported that she had attempted to resign her position, only to be ordered to stay in post by Putin. In September 2022, the United States Treasury Department sanctioned Nabiullina.


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: There is a belief in the Russian media that the head of the Central Bank uses brooches at public events to signal the state of the economy and the regulator's plans. In 2020, Nabiullina appeared at press conferences with a brooch of a blue wave, a dot, a tumbler, a stork. In March 2021, when the increase in the refinancing rate was announced for the first time in three years, she appeared with a hawk.


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: In September 2021, Nabiullina revealed the meaning of the brooches, which represent her own way of communication, an alternate language to "give the market a chance to reflect". Meanwhile, according to Nabiullina, the exact significance of any brooch should remain mysterious and is with rare exceptions ambiguous.


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: In her speech on 28 February 2022 announcing measures to try and alleviate the 2022 Russian financial crisis, several analysts noted that she wore no brooch. Sergei Guriev of Sciences Po speculated that it "should not be read as she disagreed with Putin’s policy, but as a sign that it is time to bury normal monetary policy," while adding that "I am sure she was not part of the narrow circle making the decision on going to war."


title: Elvira Nabiullina

text: In the late 1980s while studying at the graduate school of Moscow State University, Nabiullina married a lecturer there, Yaroslav Kuzminov. Kuzminov became rector of National Research University Higher School of Economics (1994-2021), since July 2021 the academic supervisor of the HSE. They have a son, Vasiliy (born 13 August 1988), at present a Research Fellow at the HSE.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The Worst Witch is a series of children's books written and illustrated by Jill Murphy. The series are primarily about a girl who attends a witch school and fantasy stories, with eight books published. The first, "The Worst Witch", was published in 1974 by Allison & Busby, and the most recent, "First Prize for the Worst Witch", was published in 2018 by Puffin Books, the current publisher of the series. The books have become some of the most successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than 5 million copies.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In 1986, the first book in the series was made into a television film of the same name. A TV series based on the book aired from 1998 to 2001, and has inspired two spin-offs, "Weirdsister College", aired in 2001, and "The New Worst Witch", aired in 2005. A new adaptation, co-production of CBBC, ZDF, and Netflix premiered in 2017.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The author Jill Murphy began writing "The Worst Witch" at the age of 15, while still at school, and based many points of the stories on her own school experiences at Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon, England, with Singing becoming Chanting, Chemistry becoming Potions and so on. Recalling how the story was initially inspired by her own school experiences, she said in an interview: "My two friends and I used to come home in our dark uniforms, looking very scruffy at the end of the day – my dark plaits sprouting tufts, with lost hair ribbons. My Mum used to say 'Look at you all. You look like the three witches!' and it gave me the idea for a witch's school – so that it was exactly like my school, but with a subtle touch of magic. All the characters are based on my school friends (and enemies) and teachers."


title: The Worst Witch

text: Murphy concluded the first book at the age of 18, but it was rejected by many publishers (on the grounds that children would find a book about a school for witches too "scary"), so she "put it in a drawer" and concentrated on other things, including working as a nanny and in a children's home, and for a time living in West Africa, where her first husband was studying.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Publication of "The Worst Witch" by finally came about, as Jill Murphy recalled, "thanks to a series of coincidences involving me spending time in Ghana, and a friend meeting Margaret Busby (Ghanaian herself, and considering starting a children's list for her imprint) at a publishers' party in London". "The Worst Witch" was finally published in 1974, when Murphy was 24, by the small independent company Allison and Busby.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The books in the series all focus on Mildred Hubble, a young witch who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a school of magic. Although well-intentioned, Mildred's clumsy personality leads the girl to disastrous situations, and she is thus considered the worst student in the school. The benevolent headmistress, Miss Cackle, is generally understanding, whereas Mildred's form teacher Miss Hardbroom thinks she just isn't trying hard enough. Mildred's friends include Maud Spellbody, a rotund, sensible girl who is always trying to avoid confusion, and Enid Nightshade, a practical joker who is more likely than Mildred to get them all into trouble. The three girls have a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow, a high-born, snobbish and vindictive classmate.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Each book covers one term at the school. There are two terms each year: the Winter term, from September to January, and the Summer term, from March to July. In "First Prize for the Worst Witch", the most recent book, Mildred is in the Summer term of her fourth year.


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch" was first published in 1974 by Allison & Busby, and proved to be an immediate success, selling out within two months.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The novel begins with Mildred Hubble and the upcoming traditional assembly where all of the first-years are given their own black cats that they will teach to ride on their broomsticks with them. Unlike the other girls, who receive black kittens, Mildred receives a tabby cat, which she simply calls Tabby. The kitten is unable to sit on a broomstick, so Mildred carries Tabby in her bag. Miss Hardbroom disapproves and Mildred has to stop. Afterwards, another witch called Ethel Hallow teases Mildred about it, and dares her to turn her into a frog. Mildred loses her temper and turns Ethel into a pig instead.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In the next chapter, Mildred and Maud inadvertently make an invisibility potion instead of a laughing potion in their class test.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In the following chapter, the girls are practising for a broomstick display for Halloween. Ethel lends Mildred her spare broom, on which she has secretly put a spell. During the Halloween festival, Mildred's broom starts bucking, causing all the girls to fall from their broomsticks. The Chief Magician denounces the academy, and Mildred is summoned to a meeting with Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom the next morning. Mildred, fearing expulsion, decides to run away with Tabby.


title: The Worst Witch

text: When walking through the forests near the academy, Mildred hears voices through the trees and comes across a group of witches, headed by one who looks like Miss Cackle. After hearing their plot to turn every teacher and student witch in the academy into frogs, Mildred turns the group into snails, packs them into cardboard boxes and takes them back to the academy. At first, Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom refuse to believe her, but when Mildred describes the leader, Miss Cackle realises she sounds like her identical twin sister, Agatha. They turn Agatha and the rest of the group back into humans, and for saving the school, Mildred's interview is cancelled. Later that morning, Ethel is exposed as the cause of Mildred's broomstick mishap, and Mildred is vindicated and praised as a hero to the rest of the academy.


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch Strikes Again" was first published in 1980 by Allison & Busby and features a new character, Enid Nightshade.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred Hubble returns to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches for the Summer Term of her first year. Miss Cackle has trusted Mildred to look after new girl Enid Nightshade and help her settle in. Because Mildred has to spend a lot of time with Enid, Maud becomes angry and jealous and breaks off their friendship, siding with Ethel in retaliation.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred starts showing Enid around the academy, only to discover that Enid has smuggled a monkey into school with her. During the assembly that follows, Miss Cackle announces her birthday celebration. During a chanting lesson with Miss Bat after assembly, Enid deliberately sings awkwardly and out of tune, causing Mildred to burst into hysterical laughter. Mildred is sent to Miss Cackle's office. When going up to her room, Mildred checks on Enid's monkey, causing it to escape. Mildred chases it down the stairs and bumps into Miss Hardbroom, who sends her to the library to study.


title: The Worst Witch

text: After spotting the monkey on top of one of the castle towers Mildred jumps onto her broomstick. Miss Hardbroom turns the monkey into its original form, a normal regulation black cat. Enid secretly reveals to Mildred that she turned the cat into a monkey for fun.


title: The Worst Witch

text: On Sports Day, Mildred and Enid become partners. Enid places a spell on Mildred's pole, so in the pole-vaulting contest, Mildred springs high into the air and lands into Miss Hardbroom's study via the window. Moments later, Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom, and Miss Drill arrive and Miss Cackle angrily says that if there is any more bother from Mildred that term, she will be expelled.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Determined to avoid expulsion for the rest of the term, Mildred refuses every daring suggestion Enid makes. Enid decides to skip Miss Cackle's boring birthday celebration and hides in a store cupboard, pulling Mildred in with her. Seeing an opportunity to get Mildred expelled, Ethel Hallow spitefully locks the door behind them.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Inside the cupboard, the two girls find an old broomstick that they use to fly out of a slit-window leading into the assembly hall. As luck has it, Maud is on stage, having been chosen to recite the first years' contribution to the recital. Having long regretted her jealous behaviour, Maud introduces Mildred and Enid as a surprise broomstick display item. The display doesn't go especially well, but Miss Cackle decides it is the thought and effort that counts, and praises them highly. The three girls become friends, and are delighted when the end-of-term bell rings with Mildred still a pupil at the academy.


title: The Worst Witch

text: "A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch" () was published in 1982. It features Ethel Hallow's little sister, Sybil Hallow, and her friend Clarice Crow.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred Hubble returns to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches for her second year, determined to lose her embarrassing reputation as "the worst witch in the school". After Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade arrive, the three bump into two first-years (one of whom reminds Mildred very strongly of someone, the other with ginger frizzy hair in bunches). The one who seems familiar bursts into tears and clings onto Mildred when she hears that many of the teachers (including Miss Hardbroom) are quite strict. Mildred also accidentally slips a made-up story about Miss Hardbroom turning a student into a frog when she was just two seconds late for a lesson. To the girls' horror, they also learn that they have Miss Hardbroom for another year.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The next morning, a fire bell rings. Mildred scrambles into her clothes but notices outside her window Miss Hardbroom standing in the playground surrounded by hazy purple smoke. Thinking she is in a state of shock, Mildred tries to douse her in freezing cold water but the bucket slips off her broomstick and lands with a clang on Miss Hardbroom's head. After witnessing the incident, Ethel Hallow confronts Mildred at lunchtime, saying that the girl she told the frog story to was her younger sister, Sybil. After much provocation, Mildred loses her temper and insults Ethel's family ("All you Hallows are weeds, weeds, weeds!").


title: The Worst Witch

text: After an unfortunate flying lesson, where Tabby makes another terrified attempt to avoid sitting on the end of the broomstick, Miss Hardbroom sends Mildred to her room to calm down. When sitting in her bed, however, Mildred accidentally falls asleep and does not hear Ethel creeping into her room.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred is awoken by her bedroom door shutting, only to find that everything looks giant-sized, even Tabby. Peeking in the mirror, she finds that somebody has turned her into a frog. When jumping onto her bed, the frog-Mildred notices a tatty handful of weeds on her pillow, no doubt left by Ethel as a reference to her family's insult and why she turned her into the frog.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Panicking, Mildred squeezes under the gap under her bedroom door and hops off to a potions lesson, where everyone has noticed her disappearance. Miss Hardbroom, however, discovers her and puts her in a jar. During the lesson, Mildred manages to escape from the jar and hops over to Ethel's desk, where she drinks an invisibility potion. Taking advantage of her invisibility, the frog-Mildred hops out of the academy and lands in the lily pond on the castle grounds.


title: The Worst Witch

text: There, Mildred meets another frog who also was once a human, called Algernon Rowan-Webb (though he has been a frog for so long he can barely remember his surname). Algernon reveals that, rather like Mildred, he was turned into a frog by a fellow magician after an argument, and can only be turned back into a human by another magician. Algernon also reveals that the one thing he craves is to have a proper humans' tea again, with buttered toast and crumpets with honey.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Promising to return for him, Mildred hops back up to the academy. Maud and Enid, who have been worrying about their friends' disappearance, suddenly realise what has happened when Tabby shows affection towards the frog-Mildred, and take her to Ethel, who reluctantly turns her back into a human. Miss Hardbroom comes by and Ethel tells her that she caught Maud, Enid, and Mildred sneaking around the school. Mildred furiously attempts to tell the truth, and the disbelieving Miss Hardbroom is about to give her a punishment, when she notices that Mildred's feet are still invisible. Mildred realises that this proves her story, and tells Miss Hardbroom what happened in the potion lab. Miss Hardbroom tells Mildred and Ethel to report to her office the next day.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In the morning, Miss Hardbroom reprimands both Mildred and Ethel for their ongoing feud, and they are both punished with lines – Ethel for turning Mildred into a frog and attempting to lie her way out of trouble, and Mildred for upsetting Ethel's sister. The two girls are also banned from attending the Halloween ceremonies – the only chance Mildred would have had to find a magician who could turn Algernon back into a human. Mildred feels she has no choice but to kidnap somebody who is going to the Halloween festival. She tricks a third-year witch, Griselda Blackwood, into looking under her bed for an imaginary beetle before tying her up and taking her cat.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Later, Ethel discovers Griselda being held captive in Mildred's room and the two fly off to the festival to turn Mildred in. When exposed, Mildred takes the plunge and strides up to chief magician Mr Hellibore, handing him the box that contains Algernon. As luck would have it, Mr Hellibore was one of Algernon's fellow magicians at the time of his transformation, and he immediately turns him back to his human form.


title: The Worst Witch

text: As a last request from Mildred, Mr Hellibore magics up a pot of tea and a plate of toast, crumpets and butter. Algernon himself then conjures a pot of honey for the crumpets, and the three head off to enjoy the supper.


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch All at Sea" () was published in 1993. It is the only book in the series not set in Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, but by the sea instead.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred Hubble returns to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches for the Summer Term of her second year. Instead of the usual black-and-grey-checked dresses, Miss Hardbroom persuaded Miss Cackle to change them to plain black. After crash-landing in a pile of snow and meeting up with her best friends, Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade, Ethel Hallow appears and tells Mildred that Miss Cackle wants to see her.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Miss Cackle suggests to Mildred that she replaces Tabby. Last term, a third-year witch, Fenella Feverfew, transferred to Miss Pentangle's Academy several mountaintops away and left behind her sleek black cat, Ebony, since they have owls at Miss Pentangle's instead of black cats. Down in the kitchens, Mildred reluctantly hands over Tabby to Miss Tapioca (to catch mice), who gives her Ebony in return. Mildred is too upset to tell either Maud or Enid about it until after assembly.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Miss Hardbroom announces that Mr Rowan-Webb, the frog-magician whom Mildred saved from the lily pond the previous term, has invited all the second-years to spend a week's holiday at his castle, Gloom Castle at Grim Cove.


title: The Worst Witch

text: On the morning of departure, unable to bear the thought of a week without Tabby, Mildred sneaks down into the school kitchens, lets Ebony out of his cage and instead hides Tabby inside.


title: The Worst Witch

text: When they reach Gloom Castle, they find that it is falling apart: the armchairs have springs and stuffing sticking out and there are no proper beds (apart from one, which Ethel Hallow immediately claims) other than old sleeping-bags, piles of pillows, and what appear to be hospital trolleys. Mildred gets an old sleeping-bag under the window, and realises she must divert attention away from Tabby.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred spots a boat attached to a breakwater and decides to hide Tabby in the cabin of the boat. After a wonderful day on the beach, Mildred tries to sneak some kippers to Tabby, but Ethel catches Mildred, who pretends to be looking for some mythical treasure on Cat's Head Rock in front of the cove in the boat on the breakwater. As the two head back up the cliff stairs, they witness Miss Hardbroom flying down to the beach on her broomstick with her own black cat, Morgana. Morgana runs to the boat and feeds on the kippers that were meant for Tabby. Miss Hardbroom spots both Tabby in the cabin and Morgana eating the fish. Stepping on board to investigate, she slips on a kipper, hits her head and falls unconscious.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Sneaking out to feed Tabby again, Mildred is confronted by Ethel, who snidely tells her that she has untied the boat and let it drift out to sea. Mildred uses a broomstick that she finds on the beach (not realising it is Miss Hardbroom's) to fly out to the drifting boat, where she discovers not only Tabby, but the comatose Miss Hardbroom. Minutes after, they bump into Cat's Head Rock. Mildred ties the boat onto an odd-looking chunk of rock and falls asleep.


title: The Worst Witch

text: When she awakens, she finds that Maud and Enid have discovered them. Mildred tells them that there is something strange about the rock the boat is tied to. They pull at it and find that it is the mythical treasure chest.


title: The Worst Witch

text: When they get back, Miss Hardbroom has revived and her injured head is bandaged. The contents of the treasure chest are used both to repair Gloom Castle and to refurbish Cackle's Academy, and Mildred is permitted to keep Tabby again as a reward.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred enjoys the rest of her holiday, feeling like "the luckiest girl in the world instead of the worst witch in the school".


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch Saves the Day" () was published in 2005. It features Agatha Cackle disguised as new teacher Miss Granite.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred Hubble is returning to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches on the first day of her third year. After meeting up with her friends, Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade, Mildred sees that Maud's hair is curly (she borrowed a hairstyling brush from her aunt) and they also learn that they will have a new form-teacher this year other than Miss Hardbroom.


title: The Worst Witch

text: They see in assembly that their new form-teacher will be Miss Granite (who was hired by Miss Cackle after Miss Gribble failed to show discipline and against Miss Hardbroom's advice). Miss Granite is described as being very strange-looking and having "a huge cloud of orange curls" and also wearing "enormous purple-tinted glasses and a short cape with a collar turned up so high that you couldn't see much of her face at all". Miss Granite speaks in a very high-pitched, squeaky voice that shocks everyone including Ethel Hallow.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred unravels her pigtails to try out Maud's styling brush. Maud and Enid find her with her hair loose and a chunk of her hair tangled up with the brush in a huge mess. Ethel comes in and volunteers to help. However, the "help" amounts to taking a pair of scissors and chopping off both the styling brush and the messy hair.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Ethel later offers to help Mildred again in her hair predicament. She formulates a potion that she claims will restore Mildred's hair to its rightful length. Mildred applies the potion that night and just when she is dropping off to sleep, her hair starts growing longer and longer by the minute, engulfing the whole school. Miss Hardbroom comes to investigate, states that Mildred is having "a bad hair day", manages to stop the hair growing and cuts it to its rightful length and vapourises the swathes of hair that had engulfed the whole school.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In a flying lesson, Ethel steals Tabby (who has been suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of the hair incident) and hides him on the roof in front of Miss Granite's study's window.


title: The Worst Witch

text: That night, when trying to recover Tabby, Mildred is locked in a cupboard by someone who seems to be Miss Cackle but is actually Miss Cackle's identical twin Agatha Cackle, who sneaked into the school disguised as Miss Granite. Agatha is trying to turn all the teachers and pupils into snails. Mildred manages to turn herself into an ant, sneaks out of the cupboard and goes to Maud's room, where she tries unsuccessfully to wake her. Fortunately, she is able to attract Maud and Enid's attention by using ink-blots to write two notes – "HELP NOT ANT" attracting their attention to her and "FORGOT SPEL" clarifying her dilemma – and Maud and Enid turn her back into a human. Mildred tells them what is going on and, just as Agatha is about to turn Miss Cackle into a snail, Mildred turns her into a snail herself. They also bump into Miss Hardbroom, who had been away.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Miss Hardbroom suggests that Miss Cackle poses as Agatha and invites Agatha's rebellious coven in, whereupon Mildred and the others will turn them all into snails, which happens. As Mildred, Maud, and Enid go back to bed, they realise that they miss Miss Hardbroom as their form-teacher. She suddenly appears in front of them and is friendly for a brief moment, admitting she has missed them too, before strictly telling them to get back to bed with no candles on.


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch to the Rescue" () was published in 2007 and features Ethel Hallow's only friend, Drusilla Paddock, in a largely increased role since her brief cameo in "The Worst Witch All at Sea".


title: The Worst Witch

text: Ethel Hallow is returning to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches for the Summer Term of her third year. Miss Hardbroom had previously set them a holiday project, but Ethel is doing exactly what Miss Hardbroom told them not to do: trying to think up a project in five minutes flat on the way back to school. Ethel spots Mildred Hubble crash-landed in a tree and manages to help her steady herself. Mildred explains to Ethel her project: a spell that can make animals talk, though it can only work on animals that fit into 25 centimetres and only lasts for two weeks. When helping Mildred out of the tree, Ethel knocks Mildred's luggage out of the tree. While Mildred tries to get Tabby, who had scampered up the tree, Ethel scoops up Mildred's project folder and art bag and her 30 coloured pencils.


title: The Worst Witch

text: On the way there, Mildred finds her friends Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade. When Mildred tells them about Ethel being nice for a change, Enid suggests she may have taken a "niceness course" during the holidays. Maud and Enid become suspicious when they catch Mildred talking to someone or something in her cat basket.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The girls find that their new form mistress is called Miss Mould, who has a "soft and kindly" voice and "short mousy hair parted in the middle and pulled into a ponytail at her neck". She is a great relief from the horrifically strict Miss Hardbroom and the extremely weird Miss Granite whom they had had the previous term. Mildred sits next to Drusilla Paddock, who swaps places with Ethel after Miss Mould tells Ethel her coils are too short. Minutes later, a maraca-like noise echoes through the classroom. Mildred finds that her coils have turned into five rattlesnakes. Miss Mould gets the whole class outside while Ethel stays inside and evaporates the rattlesnakes. Just then, Miss Hardbroom appears and Miss Mould explains what happened. Miss Hardbroom sends Mildred to her room and bans her from art lessons for the rest of the term. Mildred runs to her room where she figures out it must have been Ethel who turned her pot and coils into the snakes out of jealousy.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The next day, in a lesson with Miss Hardbroom, the girls are presenting their projects to the class. Ethel goes first but her project is the same as Mildred's. Mildred shouts to Miss Hardbroom that Ethel had stolen her project. Miss Hardbroom opens Mildred's project folder but finds only many sheets of paper with smiley faces drawn on them in different colours. Miss Hardbroom "transfers" Mildred to her room.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Later, Mildred finds that the creature inside her cat basket, a tortoise called Speedy whom she had used her spell on, can still speak. She renames him Einstein, and he tells her about overhearing her conversation with Ethel inside the tree. After Mildred runs to tell Maud and Enid the good news, Mildred accidentally leaves her bedroom door open and Einstein escapes. While plodding along the corridor he is discovered by Drusilla Paddock, who takes him to Ethel's room. While Ethel and Drusilla talk, it is revealed that Ethel did indeed take Mildred's project and had also "tried out" a snake spell on Mildred's pot and coils in art. Einstein overhears everything.


title: The Worst Witch

text: When they are taking Einstein back to Mildred, Ethel eavesdrops on what Mildred is telling Maud and Enid. After discovering that Einstein can still speak and had overheard the conversation between Ethel and Mildred about the project, and that Einstein only has one more day before the spell wears off and he becomes mute forever, Ethel orders Drusilla to hide Einstein in the hollow pine tree outside the school gates. Einstein is put into a cardboard box that also contains a small green frog called Cyril, the animal whom Ethel had used in her demonstration. Cyril escapes and hops to Mildred's room. Cyril tells Mildred that Drusilla hid Einstein in the hollow pine tree outside the school gates and that he overheard several conversations about stealing projects and turning pots into snakes.


title: The Worst Witch

text: After releasing Cyril into the woods, Mildred gets on her broomstick and, during a violent thunderstorm, finds and rescues Einstein. On landing she is confronted by Miss Hardbroom, who takes Mildred and Einstein inside and, after hearing part of the incidents from Mildred, sets an interview with Mildred and Ethel the next morning.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The next morning, Mildred goes to Miss Cackle's office where Einstein, resting in Miss Cackle's overflowing in-tray, awakes and tells Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom that he overheard the conversation between Ethel and Mildred in the tree. He also says that he heard Ethel telling Drusilla that she had tried out a snake spell on Mildred's coils and had taken Mildred's project, copied it out in her own writing, and then thrown it in the kitchen bins. Ethel sifts through the rubbish and eventually finds Mildred's tea-stained project. Miss Hardbroom makes Ethel apologise to Mildred in assembly in front of the whole year as an alternative to being expelled for cheating as well as for her actions that put herself and Mildred in great danger.


title: The Worst Witch

text: During a broomstick-flying lesson, Mildred reveals to Maud and Enid that Miss Cackle had provided Miss Mould's classroom with a proper kiln and craft room and she also got to keep Einstein as a pet. As the clock strikes midday, Mildred sprints into her room and hears Einstein speak for the last time in his raspy little voice ("I'm glad I belong to you"), before munching on his carrot and going silent forever.


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star" (Scholastic UK, ; another(?), ) was released by Scholastic UK on 3 October 2013.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Returning from the holidays in stormy weather Mildred, Maud and Enid arrive to be told by Miss Drill that there will be a talent-displaying competition between Miss Cackle's Academy, Moonridge and Pentangle's school to win a swimming-pool as the award for the best talent.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Mildred, much to her disappointment, has been chosen to work lantern monitor along with Drusilla and Ethel. On that first night Maud spots a shooting star and Mildred makes a wish followed by Miss Hardbroom who does the same reluctantly. On the first lantern monitor shift Mildred is given a holdall containing safety objects in it. When she reaches the gates to finish the job Mildred spots a stray dog, who she names Star, she takes him to her bedroom as a secret pet, much to the disapproval of Tabby.


title: The Worst Witch

text: During the weeks that follow Mildred, realising that Star is well behaved and calm on a broomstick, trains him to do various tricks with her. Maud and Enid, who realise Mildred isn't spending much time with them, soon discover about Star and are amazed by the tricks Mildred has taught him. Ethel, suspicious about Mildred hiding something in her holdall, reaches into it to discover Star was hidden in it and the both of them collapse into the lanterns igniting the costumes Form Five have made for the talent competition.


title: The Worst Witch

text: Miss Hardbroom, furious, sends Ethel and Mildred along with Star on a lead to Miss Cackle's office for what they had done. Maud and Enid then explain about Star's tricks on the broom. Miss Cackle accepts the replacing talent and the next day the competition took place with the schools showing their talents. When it's Mildred's turn she amazes the judges with Star's tricks and wins the competition and the swimming-pool. When the pupils go back to their school Miss Cackle allows Mildred to keep Star as her broomstick companion as a special privilege. Mildred later explains to Miss Hardbroom that she wished for Star on the shooting star at the beginning of term which doesn't annoy her as she wished on the star for them to win the competition. The story concludes with the teachers celebrating their victory and at the same time Miss Hardbroom's birthday.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The book is set in the summer term of 4th year, where Mildred is competing with Ethel for who will be Head Girl in 5th year. Its writing was delayed when Murphy underwent cancer treatment.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The stories mainly take place within the walls of Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a girls-only boarding magic school that is described in the books as a stone castle on top of a mountain, surrounded by pine forest.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The school year is divided into two terms: the Winter term (September–January) and the Summer term (March–July), with a month's holiday between them. Students starts at Cackle's at the age of 12, and finish at the age of 17, for a total of five school years. The students arrive at the start of the term by flying broomsticks, except for the new first years, who walk through walker's gate as they can't fly yet. Halfway through the first term, the first years are each presented with a black kitten – Mildred receives a grey-and-black tabby cat as they apparently ran out of purely black cats – which they teach to ride the broomstick. The first book postulates that the cats weren't for any practical purpose except to keep tradition going, and in "Wishing Star", a group of elder witches note that there is no restriction on what animal a witch must have as her flight companion, with cats only being traditional as they are discreet and easy to care for, which leads to Mildred being permitted to fly with her dog, Star, after he shows greater broom aptitude than her cat Tabby. At the end of the first year, each pupil receives a copy of "The Popular Book of Spells", a three-inch thick volume bound in black leather. This was not really to be used, as they already had paperback editions for the classroom, but like the cats, it's another piece of tradition. At the end of the fifth and final year, students sit the exams for the W.H.C. (Witches' Higher Certificate), and most pupils were awarded with the certificate.


title: The Worst Witch

text: The first book says that the school winter uniform is composed of "black gymslips, black stockings, black hob-nailed boots, grey shirts and black-and-grey ties". The first book also postulates that "the only touches of colour [on the uniforms] were the sashes round their gymslips – a different colour for each house, although the houses are not named – and the school badge, which was a black cat sitting on a yellow moon". In the summer term, originally the girls wore grey-and-black checked dresses, but this was changed from "Worst Witch All At Sea" onwards to a simple black dress as Ms Hardbroom felt that the original design was too frivolous.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In 1986, the first book in the series was converted to a made-for-television film on ITV starring Fairuza Balk, Tim Curry, Diana Rigg, and Charlotte Rae. Though a British film, it also aired in the USA on HBO. The film followed the plot of the first book of the series, portraying the incidents of Mildred turning herself invisible and turning Ethel into a pig, Miss Cackle's evil twin sister Agatha plotting to take over the school, and the Grand Wizard viewing the Halloween Broomstick formation (sabotaged by Ethel's faulty broom she lent to Mildred). It was shot at St. Michael's College in Tenbury Wells. This holiday special later aired on the Disney Channel every year for Halloween until the late 1990s. Its opening song, "Growing Up Isn't Easy", was sung by Bonnie Langford; its music was composed by Charles Strouse and its lyrics were written by Don Black. Their other musical number was "Anything Can Happen on Halloween", sung by Tim Curry. Denis King composed its incidental music score. He also wrote the song "My Little School".


title: The Worst Witch

text: "The Worst Witch", a TV series based on the books, starring Georgina Sherrington and Felicity Jones as Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow respectively, was broadcast from 1998 to 2001. It was shot in Montreal, London and Cardiff. The series is mostly shot in studio in London, with some episodes filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The exteriors of Cackle's Academy used Castell Coch, a castle located near Cardiff. The courtyard was filmed at Loseley Park, near Guildford. Inside the school (Great Hall, classrooms etc.) was filmed at Twickenham Studios.


title: The Worst Witch

text: When it was no longer realistic that Mildred would still be at school, the series relocated her to a magical university in Cambridge and was retitled "Weirdsister College: The Further Adventures of the Worst Witch" and saw the return of Felicity Jones as a reinvented Ethel Hallow.


title: The Worst Witch

text: In 2004, a new series based on the 1998 series was made, entitled "The New Worst Witch". It centred on the adventures of Mildred's equally bungling cousin, Henrietta "Hettie" Hubble, played by Alice Connor, also set at Cackle's Academy.


title: The Worst Witch

text: A new version of "The Worst Witch" TV series began in 2017 airing on CBBC and concluded on April 20, 2020, this one starring Bella Ramsey as Mildred Hubble (replaced by Lydia Page in the fourth season so that Ramsey could focus on personal issues), Claire Higgins as Miss Cackle, and Raquel Cassidy as Miss Hardbroom.


title: The Worst Witch

text: A musical stage production called "The Worst Witch Live", adapted by Emma Reeves from Murphy's original books, was shown at the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton from 27 November to 30 December 2018. In February 2019, the show began to tour the UK across 16 different venues. "The Worst Witch Live" by Kenny Wax Family Entertainment was shown at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End from 24 July to 8 September 2019. This version is presented as a publicity play written by Mildred and acted out by the students and staff playing themselves, initially recreating Mildred's first year at school, although the second half takes on a metafictional angle as Agatha Cackle "infiltrates" the play and attempts to stage a coup of the magical government. The stage production received a 2020 Olivier Award for best family show.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: The Mercedes-Benz 500 E (W124.036) is a high-performance version of the W124 sold by Mercedes-Benz from 1990 to 1995. The 500 E was created in close cooperation with Porsche. With its engineering department being fully occupied with the development of the new S-Class, Mercedes-Benz commissioned Porsche in 1989 to redesign the W124 chassis to fit the 5.0L V8 used in the SL into it, along with the necessary changes on the suspension system and drive train. When the car was ready, it was found that its widened wings didn't fit through the W124 assembly line in Sindelfingen in three places. Hence Porsche was also commissioned to assemble the car. As a side-effect this arrangement provided workload for Porsche's plant, as the company was in crisis at the time, and its factory capacity was underutilized.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: During production Mercedes-Benz delivered parts to Porsche's "Reutter-Bau" plant in Zuffenhausen (an urban district of Stuttgart) where the 500 E chassis were hand-assembled. When finished the chassis were transported by truck to the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Sindelfingen to be painted. As soon as the paint was dry the varnished chassis were then shipped back to Porsche's "Rössle-Bau" in Zuffenhausen where the engine was put in and the car completed. For final inspection and delivery the vehicles again were transported to Sindelfingen. This process took a full 18 days per car.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: Design began in 1989. Called '500 E' through to model year 1993, for model year 1994 it was face-lifted along with the rest of the range and renamed to 'E 500'. The chassis constructed by Porsche was also used to produce the 400 E (W124.034), that was technically identical to its big brother, save its 4.2L V8 also used in the S-Class and some other minor changes. The 400 E (later renamed 'E 420') was produced in Sindelfingen, since it lacked the widened wings and thus was perfectly understated as it looked like one of its lesser siblings.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: In Germany, the 500 E first came on sale in late 1990, making its first appearance in the Mercedes-Benz October 1, 1990 pricelist, with a retail price of DM134,520. By January 2, 1993, the price had risen to DM145,590, and would stay at it until the car went off the market in late 1994, it was last available in the August 1, 1994 pricelist. In the United States, the car first became available as a 1992 model with a retail price of $81,800 and was available until MY 1994.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: The 500 E had a naturally aspirated 5.0L V8 engine derived from the 500 SL (R129) roadster. Sports car braking performance also came from SL components: front SL 500 300 mm disks with 4-piston callipers came installed on the 1992 and early 1993 cars. The later 1993, and all 1994 cars came with the upgraded 320 mm set taken from the 600 SL. Rear brakes on all years were 278 mm brakes from the 500 SL. In the USA, the 500 E came fully equipped, with the only options available to the buyer being a dealer-installed CD changer and an integrated cellular telephone. The 500 E only came in left hand drive, and had four leather sport seats supplied by Recaro (the front seats were generally heated).


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: Called the "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" by the press, performance tests of the day yielded results that were widely considered impressive: 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) times of 5.5 to 6.0 seconds and acceleration through the quarter-mile (0.4 km) in 14.1 seconds at 163 km/h (101 mph). The top speed was electronically limited to 250 km/h (155.3 mph). It was rated at 16.8 L/100 km (14 mpg) in the city and 13.8 L/100 km (17 mpg) on the highway.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: With its aggressive stance due to a 38mm wider track, 23mm lower profile, flared wings, side skirts, front air-dam and wide tyres, the 500 E is easily distinguished from its lesser brethren. Because of its appearance, limited numbers, hand-built construction, and unique pedigree, the 500 E is already considered a "modern classic", even within Mercedes-Benz.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: 1528 of the "super" sports sedans were imported into the USA between late 1991 and late 1994, or roughly 500 cars per year of importation.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: It is little-known, but 120 cars were produced between January and May 1995, as last-request cars for special customers before the series ceased production. These last cars were produced in Porsche's Rössle building alongside Audi RS2 sport wagons, as that production contract went into full swing with the same work-staff that built the 500E and E500.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: The 500 E/E 500 underwent few significant changes during its three-year production run. Models from 1992 and 1993 are virtually indistinguishable from each other on the exterior, with the most notable change being a slightly less powerful (-7 HP) engine in the 1993 and 1994 model for USA. The 1994 E 500 model is more easily identified because of the cosmetic changes that affected all E-Class cars that year (updated headlights, grille, and trunk-lid; the bumper scuff bars were painted the same color as the car). The engine, however, remained unchanged from the 1993 500 E. 1994 models carried an upgraded sound system made by Becker or Alpine, replacing the two-piece Becker 1432 unit used in model year 1992 and 1993 cars. Significantly, 1994 models had larger front and rear brakes than 1992 and 1993 models, courtesy of the R129 SL600 roadster. Numerous running changes were made to the car's mechanical systems during its production life. All 500 E and E 500 models imported to the United States and Canada were compliant with the more stringent California emissions (a so-called "50-state car", legal for sale in all 50 states).<br>The 500E and E500 were known by Porsche as Type 2758 in that company's official nomenclature. As of June 2011, an example of a 1995 E500 Limited is on display in the new Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Germany.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: Common performance improvements include wheel and tire replacement, aftermarket exhaust kits, and replacement or reprogramming of the Electronic Control Unit, which removes the 250 km/h (~155 mph) speed governor. To boost acceleration times, some owners disable the car's slip reduction feature and program the automatic transmission to start in first gear instead of the normal second gear. Numerous other modifications exist for the car, including increased displacement up to and including 6.5 liters, nitrous-oxide systems and a few custom supercharger systems to boost output to well over 400 HP.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: During the 1994 model year, Mercedes-Benz introduced the E 500 Limited variant. Originally intended as a limited edition trim package, with 500 copies to be produced, Mercedes-Benz ended up producing 951 of these models during 1994 and into 1995. The E 500 Limited was designated by code "958" on the data card. It consisted of trim upgrades, including a mottled, colored leather pattern on the center inserts of the front and rear seats, steering wheel, and gear shift lever; exclusive "bird's-eye maple" interior wood on the dashboard, doors, and front and rear center consoles; 17" EVO-II alloy wheels; a slight drop in ride height over regular E 500 models, specially edged and color-coded floor mats; and an owner's manual package with leather cover matching the seat leather inserts. The seat insert leather was available in three color choices, specified by the buyer: gray, green and red. The E 500 Limited could be combined with the E 60 AMG option mentioned below, and these cars are considered among the rarest and most prized varants available, with only 45 cars containing the "957" and "958" codes on the data cards. It is possible that additional E 500 Limited models were later converted to E 60 AMG specification after purchase. E 500 Limited models could also be ordered with the standard E 500 burl walnut interior wood, if desired by the purchaser.


title: Mercedes-Benz 500 E

text: There was also a specialised E 60 AMG model built in very limited numbers from 1994 to 1995 which had the 6.0L V8 engine. The vehicle made 381bhp and can reach 0-60 mph in 5.3 seconds. The vehicle was equipped with the "Limited" sports interior, 17" EVO-II alloys together with uprated AMG sports suspension and AMG twin outlet exhaust system. Otherwise, the brakes and body remained the same. The E500 and E 60 AMG both came with the flared front and rear wheel arches with larger front bumpers and front foglights. The "957" AMG Technology Package in the VIN of the vehicle almost guarantees the vehicle is an original E 60 as left the factory. A number of E500s have also been converted to E 60s by replacing the engine with a 6.0L V8, but do not carry the "957" code on their MB factory data cards. Another giveaway is the AMG engine is stamped "M 119 E 60" together with "AMG" written along the airbox, instead of "Mercedes-Benz".


title: Authority

text: In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, "authority" is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.


title: Authority

text: In the exercise of governance, the terms "authority" and "power" are inaccurate synonyms. The term "authority" identifies the political legitimacy, which grants and justifies the ruler's right to exercise the power of government; and the term "power" identifies the ability to accomplish an authorized goal, either by compliance or by obedience; hence, "authority" is the "power" to make decisions and the legitimacy to make such legal decisions and order their execution.


title: Authority

text: Ancient understandings of authority trace back to Rome and draw later from Catholic (Thomistic) thought and other traditional understandings. In more modern terms, forms of authority include transitional authority (exhibited in, for example, Cambodia), public authority in the form of popular power, and, in more administrative terms, bureaucratic or managerial techniques. In terms of bureaucratic governance, one limitation of the governmental agents of the executive branch, as outlined by George A. Krause, is that they are not as close to the popular will as elected representatives are. The claims of authority can extend to national or individual sovereignty, which is broadly or provisionally understood as a claim to political authority that is legitimated.


title: Authority

text: Historical applications of authority in political terms include the formation of the city-state of Geneva, and experimental treatises involving the topic of authority in relation to education include "Emile, or On Education" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. As David Laitin defines, authority is a key concept to be defined in determining the range and role of political theory, science and inquiry. The relevance of a grounded understanding of authority includes the basic foundation and formation of political, civil and/or ecclesiastical institutions or representatives. In recent years, however, authority in political contexts has been challenged or questioned.


title: Authority

text: There have been several contributions to the debate of political authority. Among others, Hannah Arendt, Carl Joachim Friedrich, Thomas Hobbes, Alexandre Kojève and Carl Schmitt have provided some of the most influential texts.


title: Authority

text: In European political philosophy, the jurisdiction of political authority, the location of sovereignty, the balancing of notions of freedom and authority, and the requirements of political obligations have been core questions from the time of Plato and Aristotle to the present. Most democratic societies are engaged in an ongoing discussion regarding the legitimate extent of the exercise of governmental authority. In the United States, for instance, there is a prevailing belief that the political system as instituted by the Founding Fathers should accord the populace as much freedom as reasonable; that government should limit its authority accordingly, known as limited government.


title: Authority

text: Political anarchism is a philosophy which rejects the legitimacy of political authority and adherence to any form of sovereign rule or autonomy of a nation-state. An argument for political anarchy is made by Michael Huemer in his book "The Problem of Political Authority". On the other side, one of the main arguments for the legitimacy of the state is some form of the social contract theory developed by Thomas Hobbes in his 1668 book, "Leviathan", or by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his political writings on the social contract.


title: Authority

text: Since the emergence of the social sciences, authority has become a subject of research in a variety of empirical settings: the family (parental authority), small groups (informal authority of leadership), intermediate organizations such as schools, churches, armies, industries and bureaucracies (organizational and bureaucratic authority), and society-wide or inclusive organizations, ranging from the most primitive tribal society to the modern nation-state and intermediate organization (political authority).


title: Authority

text: The definition of authority in contemporary social science remains a matter of debate. Max Weber in his essay "Politics as a Vocation" (1919) divided legitimate authority into three types. Others, like Howard Bloom, suggest a parallel between authority and respect/reverence for ancestors.


title: Authority

text: The political authority in the British context can be traced to James VI and I of Scotland who wrote two political treatises called "Basilikon Doron" and "The True Law of Free Monarchies: Or, The Reciprocal and Mutual Duty Between a Free King and His Natural Subjects" which advocated his right to rule on the basis of the concept of the divine right of kings, a theological concept that has a basis in multiple religions, but in this case, Christianity, tracing this right to the apostolic succession.


title: Authority

text: Sovereign kings and queens in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms are considered the foundations of judicial, legislative and executive authority.


title: Authority

text: The understanding of political authority and the exercise of political powers in the American context traces back to the writings of the Founding Fathers, including the arguments put forward in "The Federalist Papers" by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and the first chief justice of the United States John Jay, and later speeches by the 16th president of the United States Abraham Lincoln. "Our government rests in public opinion," Lincoln said in 1856. In his 1854 speech at Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln espoused the proposition “that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own," a principle existing "at the foundation of the sense of justice." This sense of personal ownership and stewardship was integral to the practice of self-government as Lincoln saw it by a Republican nation and its people. This was because, as Lincoln also declared, "No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent."


title: Authority

text: The U.S. president is called to give account to the legislature for the conduct of the whole government, including that of regulatory agencies. The president influences the appointments, the budgeting process and has the right and capacity to review regulatory rules on a case-by-case basis. Since the time of the Reagan administration the president was informed with a cost–benefit analysis of the regulation. The creation of a regulatory agency requires an Act of Congress which specifies its jurisdiction, the related authority and delegated powers. Regulatory authorities can be qualified as independent agencies or executive branch agencies, a choice which is the reason of struggle between congress and the president as well as with the American courts. The latter's role is limited by the authorities' power to regulate property rights without the due process rights mandatorily applied by the courts.


title: Gerbilling

text: Gerbilling, also known as gerbil stuffing or gerbil shooting, is purported a sexual practice of inserting small live animals (usually gerbils but also mice, hamsters, rats and various other rodents) into one's rectum to obtain stimulation. Some variations of reports suggest that the rodent be covered in a psychoactive substance such as heroin prior to being inserted. Yet there are few documents on how this was achieved or enjoyed as all rodents have long nails and teeth for digging or burrowing and naturally try to burrow out of any small spaces.


title: Gerbilling

text: According to folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand, accounts of gerbilling were first recorded in 1984 and initially were said to involve a mouse and an unidentified man. In subsequent versions of the story, the animal was a gerbil and the story applied to several male celebrities. Rumors surrounding various male celebrities engaging in gerbilling have become persistent urban legends. A common version of the story involves the actor Richard Gere, and is referenced in various media properties such as "Scream, The Simpsons," and "The Vicar of Dibley".


title: Gerbilling

text: As of the mid-1980s, there were no reports in peer-reviewed medical literature describing gerbilling among the variety of rectal foreign objects removed from people's bodies.


title: Gerbilling

text: Mike Walker, a "National Enquirer" gossip columnist, spent months attempting to verify the gerbilling rumors about a celebrity. "I've never worked harder on a story in my life," Walker told the "Palm Beach Post" in 1995. After much investigation, he was unable to find any evidence that a gerbilling incident ever happened: "I'm convinced that it's nothing more than an urban legend."


title: Gerbilling

text: Dan Savage, a sex-advice columnist who frequently discusses unusual sexual practices, stated in 2013 that he has never received a first-hand or even a second-hand account of the practice.


title: Gerbilling

text: M Jenny Edwards, an attorney who specialises in "sexual offenses relating to bestiality, zoophilia and zoosexuality", connects the folkloric practise of 'gerbiling' to "formicophilia". She defines this as "a form of bestiality, which essentially deals with things crawling on your or in you". However, she acknowledges that she hasn't "personally dealt with a gerbil case, nor read about them".


title: Gerbilling

text: Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has an entire episode (“The Bat Mitzvah”) where he is rumored to practice gerbilling.


title: Gerbilling

text: In Season 4 of "The Sopranos," Ralph Cifaretto makes a prank call to Paulie Gualtieri's mother, alleging that Paulie was arrested for participating in this practice, along with other offenses.


title: Gerbilling

text: In the song "Fack" from his 2005 album "", rapper Eminem recites a verse about gerbilling. "Now see that gerbil, grab that tube / stick it up my butt / let that little rascal nibble on my asshole".


title: Gerbilling

text: "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989) includes a scene where the character Eddie tells his wife: "Don't forget the rubber sheets and gerbils."


title: Gerbilling

text: A February 2015 episode of "Family Feud" featured a woman who immediately answered "a gerbil" when host Steve Harvey asked "Name something a doctor would pull out of a person." The response produced prolonged laughter from the audience and a stunned silence from Harvey; even the other contestant at the podium burst out laughing over her response. The clip of the scene from the episode quickly went viral.


title: Gerbilling

text: In the "South Park" Season 6 episode "The Death Camp of Tolerance", Mr. Garrison inserts the class gerbil Lemmiwinks into Mr. Slave's anus during class. This starts the episode's B-plot, where Lemmiwinks must make his way through Mr. Slave's intestines and reach his mouth to escape, which he does at the end of the episode.


title: Gerbilling

text: In their song "Ich Tu Dir Weh" from the album "Liebe ist für Alle Da", the German metal band Rammstein refers to this practice: "Wünsch' dir was ich sag' nicht nein / Und führ' dir Nagetiere ein", which translates into "Wish for something, I won't say no / And insert rodents into yourself". Furthermore, while performing on stage, the band's singer Till Lindemann occasionally resorts to suggestive gestures that make the meaning of the lyrics quite explicit.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Prussia (Old Prussian: "Prūsa"; ; ; ; , "/Prussia/Borussia") is a historical region in Europe on the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, that ranges from the Vistula delta in the west to the end of the Curonian Spit in the east and extends inland as far as Masuria. Tacitus's "Germania" (98 AD) is the oldest known record of an eyewitness account on the territory and its inhabitants. Pliny the Elder had already confirmed that the Romans had navigated into the waters beyond the "Cimbric peninsula" (Jutland). Suiones, Sitones, Goths and other Germanic people had temporarily settled to the east and west of the Vistula River during the Migration Period, adjacent to the Aesti, who lived further to the east.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The region's inhabitants of the Middle Ages have first been called "Bruzi" in the brief text of the Bavarian Geographer and since been referred to as Old Prussians, who, beginning in 997 AD, repeatedly defended themselves against conquest attempts by the newly created Duchy of the Polans. The territories of the Old Prussians and the neighboring Curonians and Livonians were politically unified in the 1230s under the State of the Teutonic Order. The former kingdom and later state of Prussia (1701–1947) derived its name from the region.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Teutonic Knights invaded and annexed the region of Pomerelia from Poland into their monastic state, which already included historical Prussia, located east of the region. After the acquisition of Pomerelia in 1308–1310, the meaning of the term "Prussia" was widened in the German terminology to include areas west of the Vistula, including Vistula/Eastern Pomerania, although it was never inhabited by Baltic Prussians but by the Slavic Poles. After the area was reintegrated with Poland in 1466 both names were in use: "Pomerania" was used when referring to the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Gdańsk Pomerania) and the Chełmno Voivodeship, while Royal Prussia was used as the name of the wider province, which, however, also included the Malbork Voivodeship and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, covering the Prussian historical areas of Pomesania, Pogesania and Warmia, the only actual Prussian territories of the province, while the rump Teutonic state, called the Monastic Prussia thereafter, formed a Polish–Lithuanian fief, finally secularised in 1525 to become the Lutheran Ducal Prussia.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Ducal Prussia emancipated in 1660, taking advantage of the Russo-Swedish Deluge, and merged with the Electorate of Brandenburg to form Brandenburg-Prussia, shortly thereafter becoming the Kingdom of Prussia. Subsequently, it entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories of Royal Prussia, annexing and dividing it, with its bulk (including Pomerelia and the Malbork Land comprising northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania) forming (along with the northern part of Greater Poland detached from the Grand Duchy of Posen) the Province of West Prussia, while Warmia was assigned to East Prussia, with both West and East Prussia remaining outside the German Confederation. In contrast, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land was annexed in 1777 immediately into the Province of Pomerania, but remained outside the Holy Roman Empire and its successor, the German Confederation, and continued to be a part of the Diocese of Chełmno .


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Province of East Prussia (the original Prussia) and the annexed Polish territories turned into the Province of West Prussia were merged in 1829 to form a single Province of Prussia, a part of the kingdom remaining outside of Germany until the creation of the North German Confederation in 1866 during the unification of Germany. The merged territory was, however, again split into East and West Prussia in 1878.


title: Prussia (region)

text: East Prussia, West Prussia, the Province of Posen, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Starostwo of Draheim were annexed by Germany upon the formation of North German Confederation in 1866 and became a target of aggressive Germanization, German settlement, anti-Catholic campaigns (Kulturkampf), as well as disfranchisement and expropriations of Poles.


title: Prussia (region)

text: After the Treaty of Versailles, only the predominantly German-speaking western and eastern rim of the former West Prussia remained a part of Germany, forming part of the rump province of Posen-West Prussia (except for the Lauenburg and Bütow Land remaining a part of the Province of Pomerania, as well as the "Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen" which was made part of East Prussia), while its bulk was awarded to the recreated Polish state.


title: Prussia (region)

text: On the other hand, only minor part of East Prussia around Soldau was transferred to Poland, the Klaipėda Region formed a free city supervised by the League of Nations, annexed following the Klaipėda Revolt by Lithuania but reclaimed by Germany in 1938, while the bulk (including entire Warmia and Masuria) remained within the Free State of Prussia, a successor of the Kingdom of Prussia and a constituent part of the German Weimar Republic, following the 1920 East Prussian plebiscite.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Since its conquest by the Soviet Army with evacuation and expulsion of the German-speaking inhabitants in 1945, East Prussia remains divided between northern Poland (most of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and the four counties of Pomeranian Voivodeship east of Vistula), Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, and southwestern Lithuania (Klaipėda Region).


title: Prussia (region)

text: Indo-European settlers first arrived in the region during the 4th millennium BC, which in the Baltic would diversify into the satem Balto-Slavic branch which would ultimately give rise to the Balts as the speakers of the Baltic languages. The Balts would have become differentiated into Western and Eastern Balts in the late 1st millennium BC. The region was inhabited by ancestors of Western Balts – Old Prussians, Sudovians/Jotvingians, Scalvians, Nadruvians, and Curonians while the eastern Balts settled in what is now Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Greek explorer Pytheas (4th century BC) may have referred to the territory as "Mentenomon" and to the inhabitants as "Guttones" (neighbours of the "Teutones", probably referring to the Goths). A river to the east of the Vistula was called the "Guttalus", perhaps corresponding to the Nemunas, the Łyna, or the Pregola. In AD 98 Tacitus described one of the tribes living near the Baltic Sea () as "Aestiorum gentes" and amber-gatherers.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Vikings started to penetrate the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea in the 7th and 8th centuries. The largest trade centres of the Prussians, such as Truso and Kaup, seem to have absorbed a number of Norse people. Prussians used the Baltic Sea as a trading route, frequently travelling from Truso to Birka (in present-day Sweden).


title: Prussia (region)

text: At the end of the Viking Age, the sons of Danish kings Harald Bluetooth and Cnut the Great launched several expeditions against the Prussians. They destroyed many areas in Prussia, including Truso and Kaup, but failed to dominate the population totally. A Viking (Varangian) presence in the area was "less than dominant and very much less than imperial."


title: Prussia (region)

text: According to a legend, recorded by Simon Grunau, the name "Prussia" is derived from Pruteno (or Bruteno), the chief priest of Prussia and brother of the legendary king Widewuto, who lived in the 6th century. The regions of Prussia and the corresponding tribes are said to bear the names of Widewuto's sons — for example, Sudovia is named after Widewuto's son Sudo.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Old Prussians spoke a variety of languages, with Old Prussian belonging to the Western branch of the Baltic language group. Old Prussian, or related Western Baltic dialects, may have been spoken as far southeast as Masovia and even Belarus in the early medieval period, but these populations would probably have undergone Slavicization before the 10th century.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The territory was identified as "Brus" in the 8th-century map of the Bavarian Geographer and "Bruzze/Pruzze/Przze" in the "Dagome iudex". Adam of Bremen mentions Prussians as "Prusos/Pruzzi" in 1072., while Gallus Anonymous mentions "Prussia" in his "Gesta principum Polonorum" in 1113. In the first half of the 13th century, Bishop Christian of Prussia recorded the history of a much earlier era. In New Latin the area is called "Borussia" and its inhabitants "Borussi".


title: Prussia (region)

text: After the Christianisations of the West Slavs in the 10th century, the state of the Polans was established and there were first attempts at conquering and baptizing the Baltic peoples. Bolesław I Chrobry sent Adalbert of Prague in 997 on a military and Christianizing mission. Adalbert, accompanied by armed guards, attempted to convert the Prussians to Christianity. He was killed by a Prussian pagan priest in 997.


title: Prussia (region)

text: In 1015, Bolesław sent soldiers again, with some short-lived success, gaining regular paid tribute from some Prussians in the border regions, but it did not last. Polish rulers sent invasions to the territory in 1147, 1161–1166, and a number of times in the early 13th century. While these were repelled by the Prussians, the Chełmno Land became exposed to their frequent raids.


title: Prussia (region)

text: At that time, Pomerelia belonged to the diocese of Włocławek. Chełmno Land (including Michałów Land and later Lubawa Land) belonged in turn to the diocese of Płock, since 1223 governed in the name of the Bishop of Płock by Christian of Oliva, a missionary bishop appointed for Prussia in 1216.


title: Prussia (region)

text: In the beginning of the 13th century, Konrad of Mazovia had called for Crusades and tried unsuccessfully to conquer Prussia for years. Bishop Christian of Oliva established the Order of Dobrzyń in order to defend Masovia against the raids of Old Prussians. However, the rather innumerous order (initially 15 knights, with 35 knights at its highest) did not prove effective in countering Prussians in batlles. Christian achieved subjugation and conversion of Prussians only in the Lubawa Land. Therefore, the pope set up further crusades.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Duke finally invited the Teutonic Knights in 1226, expelled by force of arms by King Andrew II of Hungary in the previous year following their attempts to build their own state within Transylvania. The Knights were expected to fight the inhabitants of Prussia in exchange for a fief of Chełmno Land. Prussia was conquered by the Teutonic Knights during the Prussian Crusade and administered within their State of the Teutonic Order, which begins the process of Germanization in the area. Bishop Christian had to deal with the constant cut-back of his autonomy by the Knights and asked the Roman Curia for mediation. In 1243, the Papal legate William of Modena divided the Prussian lands of the Order's State into four dioceses, whereby the bishops retained the secular rule over about on third of the diocesan territory:


title: Prussia (region)

text: all suffragan dioceses under the Archbishopric of Riga. Christian was supposed to choose one of them, but did not agree to the division. He possibly retired to the Cistercians Abbey in Sulejów, where he died before the conflict was solved.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The city of Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) was founded in 1255, and joined the Hanseatic League in 1340, thus connecting Prussia to the European trade network spanning via the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. In 1492, a life of Saint Dorothea of Montau, published in Marienburg (Malbork), became the first printed publication in Prussia.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Teutonic Knights soon turned against their Polish benefactors in the same way, as they earlier did in Hungary.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Polish region of Pomerelia (including Gdańsk Pomerania and the city of Gdańsk as its parts) which was never inhabited by the Old Prussians, and which was called ('Pomerania') in Polish language since the Early Middle Ages, was forcibly occupied by the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in 1308, following an invasion of Poland under the pretext of aiding the King Władysław I Łokietek to quell a rebellion against him, incited by a conspiracy of the Margraviate of Brandenburg with the local Swienca family. Teutonic atrocities against the Polish population followed, such as the Slaughter of Gdańsk. The Teutonic Knights took control of the region from Poland, integrating it into the their monastic state, which already included historical Prussia, located east of the region. After the acquisition of Pomerelia in 1308–1310, the meaning of the term "Prussia" was widened in the German terminology to include areas west of the Vistula, including Vistula/Eastern Pomerania, although it was never inhabited by Baltic Prussians but by the Slavic Poles. The possession of Danzig and Pomerelia by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Władysław I and Casimir the Great in legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Both times, as well as in 1339, the Teutonic Knights were ordered by the Pope to return Pomerelia and other lands back to Poland, but did not comply. The conquered Danzig (Gdańsk) joined the Hanseatic League in 1361. These events resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. Under the Teutonic rule, an influx of western, mainly German-speaking farmers, traders and craftsmen was encouraged. Subsequent rebellions organized by the local population against the Teutonic state, initially by the Lizard Union and later by the Prussian Confederation, both pledging allegiance to the Polish king, caused the Thirteen Years' War which ultimately led to the Second Peace of Thorn, when most of the region and was reclaimed by Poland and henceforth formed the bulk of Royal Prussia.


title: Prussia (region)

text: With the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), the territory of the Monastic State was divided into eastern and western parts. The western part became the province of Royal Prussia of the Kingdom of Poland, while the eastern part of the monastic state became a fief of the Polish kingdom, initially called "Monastic Prussia" or "Teutonic Prussia", secularised in 1525 to become Ducal Prussia. At the same time, the Polish monarchs assumed the title of the King of Prussia.


title: Prussia (region)

text: After Pomerelia was reintegrated with Poland in 1466, the designation "Pomerania" was restored and used when referring to the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Gdańsk Pomerania) and the Chełmno Voivodeship, while the entire territory conquered by the Kingdom of Poland from the Teutonic Order was known as "Royal Prussia". The latter also included, however, also the truly Prussian historical areas of Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, as well as the Malbork Land comprising northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania. These were the only actual Prussian territories of Royal Prussia. Initially enjoying broad autonomy including an own local legislature, the Prussian Estates, and maintaining its own laws, customs and rights, Royal Prussia was ultimately re-absorbed directly into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, following the Union of Lublin in 1569. The locally spoken language differed among social classes, with the aristocracy and urban burghers initially highly Germanised a as a result of earlier Teutonic policies, but gradually shifting towards Polish in the later years, while the peasantry continued as predominantly Kashubian- and Polish-speaking West of Vistula; the part East of Vistula was predominantly German-speaking, with decreasing number of Old Prussian and increasing number of Polish minorities. A small area in the west of Pomerelia, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land, was granted to the rulers of the Duchy of Pomerania as a Polish fief before it was reintegrated with Poland in 1637, and later again transformed into a Polish fief, which it remained along the Starostwo of Draheim until the First Partition of Poland.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The realm of the King in Prussia established in 1701 from the former Ducal Prussia subsequently entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories of Royal Prussia. In the First Partition of Poland, the King in Prussia gained majority of the territory of Royal Prussia including the Lauenburg and Bütow Land (but excluding Danzig and Toruń which were captured along with the region of Greater Poland in the Second Partition of Poland), as well as the Starostwo of Draheim. The former Royal Prussia was divided in 1773. Its bulk which included the historically Prussian Malbork Land (northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania) but also the historically Polish Pomerelia (Vistula Ponerania) formed the newly established province of West Prussia, while the name "Pomerania/Pomerelia" was avoided by Prussian and later German authorities in relation to this region, aiming to eradicate its usage completely. The historically Prussian Warmiawas in turn integrated into East Prussia. In contrast, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Starostwo of Draheim were annexed in 1777 immediately into the Province of Pomerania. The annexation of Royal Prussia allowed the Prussian king to assume the title of "King of Prussia" thereafter. Further attempts to expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia was undertaken following the Second Partition of Poland, when Greater Poland and Northern Masovia were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and renamed South Prussia, and the Third Partition of Poland, when Prussia annexed parts Masovia, Podlaskie, Trakai voivodeship and Žemaitija under the name of New East Prussia. Both invented names were eventually abandoned, following the Napoleonic Wars. All the annexed Polish lands remained outside of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806.


title: Prussia (region)

text: During the Napoleonic era the Greater Polish territories and the Chełmno Land formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw following the Treaties of Tilsit, and Danzig was granted a status of a Free City. However, after the Congress of Vienna, the Polish duchy was again partitioned between Russia and Prussia, with Prussia annexing the Free City and the Chełmno Land into the reconstituted West Prussia. The annexation was associated with another attempt to artificially expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia by transferring the northern part of Netze District, a fragment of Greater Poland detached from its bulk (the Grand Duchy of Posen), to West Prussia, while the district's easternmost fragment was awarded to the Russian-ruled Congress Poland.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Though the Kingdom of Prussia was a member of the German Confederation established by the Congress of Vienna as a replacement for the dissolved Holy Roman Empire from 1815 to 1866, only those of the territories of the kingdom which were previously included in the HRE became part of the Confederation, while the Grand Duchy of Posen (later demoted to an ordinary Province of Posen following the failed Greater Poland uprising (1848)), the Provinces of West Prussia and East Prussia (merged in the years 1829 to 1878 to form a single Province of Prussia), as well as the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Starostwo of Draheim (both integrated into the Province of Ponerania) remained outside of the German Confederation (thus of Germany) until the creation of the North German Confederation in 1866 at the start of the unification of Germany.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Outside of the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany, Pomerelia was termed Polish Pomerania () since at least the 18th century to distinguish it from Hither and Farther Pomerania, territories long outside of Polish rule. In the late 19th century this term was used in order to underline Polish claims to that area that was then ruled by the German Kingdom of Prussia. The designation of Polish Pomerania became obsolete since Farther Pomerania and a small part of Hither Pomerania were also transferred to Poland as part of the territories recovered from Germany, following World War II.


title: Prussia (region)

text: As agreed upon in the Treaty of Versailles, most of the Pomerelian part of the Province of West Prussia that had belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire since the Partitions of Poland was retroceded to the Second Polish Republic, becoming its Pomeranian Voivodeship, the (originally Prussian) territory of Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen east of Vistula remained with Germany as a part of East Prussia, while the western rim of Pomerelia became part of the German province of Posen-West Prussia, named so in spite of containing no originally Prussian territory. Danzig became a free city under the protection of the League of Nations.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The area was occupied and illegally annexed by the Nazi Germany during the invasion of Poland in 1939, as well as renamed Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen, with numerous German atrocities against the local population. Nazi Germany also undertook another attempt to artificially expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia, this time by enlarging the territory of the province of East Prussia through annexation into it of parts of Northern Masovia under the name of Regierungsbezirk Zichenau, as well as of the Suwałki Region, both referred to as South East Prussia, in relation to the New East Prussia of the times of Polish Partitions (see above). At the same time, the Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen was separated from East Prussia and integrated into Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen. In the aftermath of the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, a further German attempt to expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia was undertaken, when the westernmost portion of Soviet Belarus (which, until 1939, belonged to the Polish state), was placed under the German Civilian Administration ("Zivilverwaltungsgebiet") as the Bialystok District, an entity in association with (but not part of) East Prussia, nevertheless it was also denoted on some Nazi maps as South East Prussia, with both territories remaining under common management and leadership of Erich Koch, a war criminal sentenced after the war by a Polish court to death, albeit with his penalty later commuted to life imprisonment.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Following the example of earlier German policies, there was a short-lived initiative in the Polish post-World War II government to rename the newly acquired original Prussia to an invented name of "Masovian Pomerania"; it was, however, quickly abandoned.


title: Prussia (region)

text: In 1995, the governments of Berlin and Brandenburg proposed to merge the states in order to form a new state with the name of "Berlin-Brandenburg", though some suggested calling the proposed new state "Prussia", in spite of the territories being located far away from the region of Prussia. The merger was rejected in a plebiscite in 1996 – while West Berliners voted for a merger, East Berliners and Brandenburgers voted against it.


title: Prussia (region)

text: In 1525, the last Grand Master reigning in the State of the Teutonic Order, Albert of Brandenburg, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, adopted the Lutheran faith, resigned his position, and assumed the title of "Duke of Prussia". In a deal partially brokered by Martin Luther, the Duchy of Prussia became the first Protestant state and a vassal of Poland. The ducal capital of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, became a centre of learning and printing through the establishment of the Albertina University in 1544 for not only the dominant German culture, but also the thriving Polish and Lithuanian communities as well. It was in Königsberg that the first Lutheran books in Polish, Lithuanian, and Prussian languages were published.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Rulership of Ducal Prussia passed to the senior Hohenzollern branch, the ruling Margraves of Brandenburg, in 1618, and Polish sovereignty over the duchy ended in 1657 with the Treaty of Wehlau. Taking advantage of the fact that Ducal Prussia lay outside of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick I achieved the elevation of the duchy to a kingdom in 1701, styling himself "King in Prussia", because his kingdom included only part of historic Prussia, and the title "King of Prussia" was still held by the Polish monarchs. Lithuanian culture thrived in the part of the region known as Lithuania Minor, while the Kursenieki lived along the coast in the vicinity of the Curonian and Vistula Spits.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Old Prussian language had mostly disappeared by 1700. The last speakers may have died in the plague and famine that ravaged Prussia in 1709 to 1711.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The Province of East Prussia (the original Prussia) and the annexed Polish territories turned into the Province of West Prussia were merged in 1829 to form a single Province of Prussia, a part of the kingdom remaining outside of Germany until the creation of the North German Confederation in 1866 during the unification of Germany. The merged territory was, however, again split into East and West Prussia in 1878.


title: Prussia (region)

text: As agreed upon in the Treaty of Versailles, East Prussia, minus the Memelland, expanded by addition of the Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen (the only part of former West Prussia containing originally Prussian territory) remained within the Free State of Prussia, a successor of the Kingdom of Prussia and a constituent part of the German Weimar Republic, following the 1920 East Prussian plebiscite. The democratic government of the Free State was removed as a result the 1932 Prussian coup d'état which also facilitated the Nazi takeover of government. In the March 1933 German federal election, the last pre-war German elections, the local population of East Prussia voted overwhelmingly for the Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party.


title: Prussia (region)

text: After the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, the Klaipėda region was integrated again into East Prussia. During World War II, the Polish ethnic minorities of Catholic Warmians and Powiślans, as well as Lutheran Masurians were persecuted by the Nazi German government, which wanted to erase all aspects of Polish culture and Polish language in Warmia and Masuria The Jews who remained in East Prussia in 1942 were shipped to concentration camps, including Theresienstadt in occupied Czechoslovakia, Kaiserwald in occupied Latvia, and camps in Minsk in occupied Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Beginning in 1944 with the East Prussian offensive of Soviet troops, the German-speaking population was evacuated.


title: Prussia (region)

text: The province of East Prussia ceased to exist in 1945, following the Potsdam Agreement, when it was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, with the latter dividing its part further between the Lithuanian SSR and the Russian SFSR. The part assigned to Poland was organized as the provisional "Masurian District", later reduced by transferring its westernmost counties to Gdańsk Voivodeship, and finally transformed into Olsztyn Voivodeship in 1946. The Klaipėda Region was returned to the Lithuaniam SRR, while the remaining territory, annexed by the Russian FSSR, was in turn named the Kaliningrad Oblast in 1946. The inhabitants not evacuated during the war were expelled, with the exception of Polish minorities of Powiślans, Warmians and Masurians, considered to be of Polish descent. The situation was different, however, for the Prussian Lithuanians in Lithuania Minor, a part of the Soviet share of the former East Prussia. The government of the Lithuanian SSR followed Soviet policy and viewed the Prussian Lithuanians as Germans. About 8,000 persons were repatriated from DP camps during 1945–50. However, their homes and farms were not returned as either Russians or Lithuanians had already occupied their property. Prussians who remained in the former Memel (Klaipėda) territory were fired from their jobs and otherwise discriminated against. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some Prussian Lithuanians and their descendants did not regain lost property in the Klaipėda region.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Prussia as a political entity was abolished on 25 February 1947 by decree of the Allied Control Council. The decree declared that Prussia from early days had been a bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany.


title: Prussia (region)

text: In line with this assessment and the ideological justification of "Recoverred Territories", the use of Prussia as a geographic designation was discouraged by the postwar authorities of Poland and the Soviet Union. The Polish region of Pomerelia (Gdansk Pomerania and the Chełmno Land) reverted to its original name already prior to World War II, as the name West Prussia was always regarded in Poland as an artificial German invention. In the case of East Prussia (the original Prussia), Polish authorities promoted using the designations of Powiśle in the case of Pomesania and Pogesania, approximately translated in , Warmia in the case of the former Prince-Bishopric of Warmia and Masuria in the case of the remainder of Polish share of the former East Prussia. The designation of Kaliningrad Oblast was promoted by the Soviet authorities in the case of the Russian part of the territory, instead. The policy was embraced by the Polish population who had hardly any sympathy for the legacy of Prussia, partially due to numerous attempts throughout history to annex various Polish territories with their subsequent artificial renaming as another part of Prussia in order to imply their originally Prussian history (see above), while the State of Prussia was perceived as a primary driving force for the Partitions of Poland with subsequent persecution and attempted Germanization of Poles, politically dominated by the Prussian Junkers with strong anti-Polish sentiment, and finally, the German Province of East Prussia was regarded as an area of persecutions against Polish-speaking minority (Warmians, Masurians, Powiślans), but most importantly as a Nazi political stronghold whose existence as an exclave resulted in German irredentist demands towards Poland, blamed as one of the primary causes of the calamity of World War II and the ensuing German atrocities. An important factor was also West Germany's rejection of the validity of the postwar Polish Western border on the Oder–Neisse line (until 1972 total, 1972-1991 "de iure") rendering any attempts of Poles to remind or maintain the Prussian regional identity an easy target for the Polish authorities, interpreted as undermining future security and territorial integrity of Poland. The policy achieved its goals, and the name Prussia is nowadays used in Polish official documents and colloquial language almost exclusively in historical context, when referring to Royal Prussia, the Free State of Prussia and its preceding entities (the (post-1466) Monastic Prussia, the Duchy of Prussia, Brandenburg-Prussia and the Kingdom of Prussia), the former Province of East Prussia, or to the territory of Old Prussians, but almost never when referring to contemporary geographic region. Since 1991, the name Prussia has, however, been re-acknowledged among Polish historians as the proper designation for the historic region, understood as defined by its original borders (excluding Pomerelia with Gdańsk Pomerania, the Chełmno and the Michałów Lands, as well as sometimes the Lubawa Land), resulting in its increasing usage in this context in the Polish scientific historical publications.


title: Prussia (region)

text: Powiśle, Warmia and Masuria are now in Poland (most of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and the four counties of Pomeranian Voivodeship east of Vistula), the former Memelland or Klaipėda region is now divided between the Klaipėda and Tauragė counties of Lithuania, while the rest of the northern Prussia forms the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave of the Russian Federation. Only the latter part remains outside of the European Union.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; ; , ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreographer cited as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Born in Kiev to Polish parents, Nijinsky grew up in Imperial Russia but considered himself to be Polish. He was celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could dance "en pointe", a rare skill among male dancers at the time, and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: Nijinsky was introduced to dance by his parents, who were senior dancers with the travelling Setov opera company, and his early childhood was spent touring with the company. His elder brother Stanislav and younger sister Bronislava "Bronia" Nijinska also became dancers; Bronia also became a choreographer, working closely with him for much of his career.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: At age nine Nijinsky was accepted at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, the pre-eminent ballet school in the world. In 1907 he graduated and became a member of the Imperial Ballet, starting in the rank of coryphée instead of in the corps de ballet, and already taking starring roles.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: In 1909 he joined the Ballets Russes, a new ballet company started by Sergei Diaghilev. The impresario took the Russian ballets to Paris, where high-quality productions such as those of the Imperial Ballet were not known. Nijinsky became the company's star male dancer, causing an enormous stir amongst audiences whenever he performed. In ordinary life he appeared unremarkable and was withdrawn in conversation. Diaghilev and Nijinsky became lovers; the Ballets Russes gave Nijinsky the chance to expand his art and experiment with dance and choreography; he created new directions for male dancers while becoming internationally famous.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: In 1912 Nijinsky began choreographing original ballets, including "L'après-midi d'un faune" (1912) to music by Claude Debussy, "Le Sacre du Printemps" (1913) to music by Igor Stravinsky, "Jeux" (1913), and "Till Eulenspiegel" (1916). "Faune," considered one of the first modern ballets, caused controversy because of its sexually suggestive final scene. At the premiere of "Le Sacre du Printemps" fights broke out in the audience between those who loved and hated this startling new style of ballet and music. Nijinsky originally conceived "Jeux" as a flirtatious interaction among three males, although Diaghilev insisted it be danced by one male and two females.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: In 1913, Nijinsky married Hungarian Romola de Pulszky while on tour with the company in South America. The marriage caused a break with Diaghilev, who soon dismissed Nijinsky from the company. The couple had two daughters together, Kyra and Tamara Nijinska.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: With no alternative employer available, Nijinsky tried to form his own company, but this was not a success. He was interned in Budapest, Hungary, during World War I, under house arrest until 1916. After intervention by Diaghilev and several international leaders, he was allowed to go to New York for an American tour with the Ballets Russes. Nijinsky became increasingly mentally unstable with the stresses of having to manage tours himself and deprived of opportunities to dance. After a tour of South America in 1917, and due to travel difficulties imposed by the war, the family settled in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His mental condition deteriorated; he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919 and committed to a mental asylum. For the next 30 years he was in and out of institutions, never dancing in public again.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: Vaslav Nijinsky was born in 1889 or 1890 in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), as Wacław Niżyński, to ethnic Polish parents, touring dancers Tomasz Niżyński (b. 7 March 1862) and Eleonora Bereda (b. 28 December 1856). Nijinsky was christened in Warsaw. He identified himself as Polish although he grew up in the interior of Russia with his parents and he had difficulty speaking Polish.


title: Vaslav Nijinsky

text: Eleanora, along with her two brothers and two sisters, was orphaned while still a child. She started to earn a living as an extra in Warsaw's Grand Theatre Ballet (Polish: "Teatr Wielki"), becoming a full member of the company at age thirteen. In 1868 her talent was spotted and she moved to Kiev as a solo dancer. Tomasz Niżyński also attended the Wielki Theatre school, becoming a soloist there. At age 18 he accepted a soloist contract with the Odessa Theatre. The two met, married in May 1884 and settled into a career with the traveling Setov opera company. Tomasz was "premier danseur", and Eleanora a soloist. Eleanora continued to tour and dance while having three children, sons Stanislav (b. 29 December 1886 in Tiflis) and Vaslav; and daughter Bronislava ('Bronia', b. 8 January 1891 in Minsk). She had depression, which may have been a genetic vulnerability shared in a different form by her son Vaslav. Both boys received training from their father and appeared in an amateur "Hopak" production in Odessa in 1894.