title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: The Summit of the Gods () is a 2021 French-language animated film based on the Japanese manga series of the same name by Jiro Taniguchi. The film was directed by Patrick Imbert; it was first shown at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in July 2021 before a full theatrical release in September 2021.


title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: In 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to climb Mount Everest and were never seen again. Seventy years later, Makoto Fukamachi, a young Japanese reporter, encounters a mysterious mountain climber named Habu Joji, in whose hands Fukamachi thinks he sees Mallory's camera, which might reveal if Mallory and his companion really were the first to climb Everest.


title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: Fukamachi tries to find more information on Habu as he revisits his past and the people involved in his life. Gradually as he becomes more involved with Habu, to the extent that he ultimately finds himself joining him on Everest to record Habu's own attempt to reach the peak. After braving the harsh conditions and worsening health conditions, Fukamachi returns to the base without Habu, who carries on with his journey. As Habu summits the peak, it is shown that Fukamachi waits for him for days at the base but he never returns. After days of waiting and still no sign of Habu, he returns from the base but not before Habu's companion gives him Mallory's camera that he had been looking for.


title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: In the end, Fukamachi develops the camera film and ultimately understands why Habu or any other mountaineer keeps going back to the mountains. The last scene shows him summiting one of the peaks, just like Habu.


title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: The film is based on a manga series of the same name, written and illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi, which was itself based on a 1998 novel by Baku Yumemakura. In January 2015, a French-language CG animation film adaptation of the manga was announced. It was originally set to be produced by Julianne Films, Walking The Dog, and Mélusine Productions, with direction from Éric Valli and Jean-Christophe Roger. In June 2020, it was announced the film would instead be directed by Patrick Imbert, with scripts by Imbert, Magali Pouzol, and Jean-Charles Ostorero, and music composed by Amine Bouhafa. It was also announced the film would be distributed by Diaphana Distribution in France and Wild Bunch internationally. The film was first shown at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on July 15, 2021, before a full theatrical release in France starting on September 22, 2021.


title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: Internationally, Netflix released the film in theaters in the United States starting on November 24, 2021, and in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2021. The film was made available for streaming on November 30, 2021.


title: The Summit of the Gods (film)

text: Carlos Aguilar from "TheWrap" praised the film for its plot and animation. Michael Nordine from "Variety" also praised the plot and animation, specifically for being realistic. Benjamin Benoit from "IGN" also gave the film praise for being a great adaptation of the original source material.


title: Project Riese

text: Riese (; German for "giant") was the code name for a construction project of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1945. It consisted of seven underground structures in the Owl Mountains and Książ Castle in Lower Silesia, which was then Nazi Germany and is now Poland.


title: Project Riese

text: None of them were finished, and all are in different states of completion with only eleven per cent reinforced by concrete.


title: Project Riese

text: The purpose of the project remains uncertain because of the lack of documentation. Some sources suggest that all the structures were part of the "Führer" Headquarters; according to others, it was a combination of headquarters (HQ) and arms industry but comparison to similar facilities can indicate that only the castle was adapted as an HQ or other official residence and the tunnels in the Owl Mountains were planned as a network of underground factories.


title: Project Riese

text: The construction work was done by forced labourers, prisoners of war (POWs), and prisoners of concentration camps, and many lost their lives, mostly as a result of disease and malnutrition.


title: Project Riese

text: Due to increasing Allied air raids, Nazi Germany relocated a large part of its strategic armaments production into safer regions including Province of Lower Silesia. Plans to protect critical infrastructure also involved transfer of the arms factories to underground bunkers and construction of air-raid shelters for government officials.


title: Project Riese

text: In September 1943, Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer and the senior management of Organisation Todt started talks on Project Riese. As a result, the Industriegemeinschaft Schlesien (Silesian Industrial Company) was created to conduct construction work. In November, collective camps ("Gemeinschaftslager") were established for forced labourers, mainly from the Soviet Union and Poland, POWs from Italy, the Soviet Union, and later Poland as an aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising (List of camps).


title: Project Riese

text: A network of roads, bridges, and narrow gauge railways was created to connect excavation sites with the nearby railway stations. Prisoners were reloading building materials, cutting trees, digging reservoirs and drainage ditches. Small dams were built across streams to create water supplies and sewage systems. Later the rocks of the mountains were drilled and blasted with explosives and the resulting caverns were reinforced by concrete and steel. For this purpose mining specialists were employed, mostly Germans, Italians, Ukrainians and Czechs, but the most dangerous and exhausting work was done by prisoners.


title: Project Riese

text: The progress of digging tunnels was slow because the structure of the Owl Mountains consists of hard gneiss. Most of the similar facilities were bored in soft sandstone but harder, more stable rocks gave the advantage of total protection from Allied air raids and the possibility of building 12 m high underground halls with a volume of 6,000 m.


title: Project Riese

text: In December 1943, a typhus epidemic occurred amongst the prisoners. They were held in unhygienic conditions, exhausted and starving. As a result, construction slowed down significantly. There were at least five collective camps and an unknown number of forced labourers and POWs worked for the project, some until the end of the war. It is also undetermined how many prisoners lost their lives.


title: Project Riese

text: In April 1944, dissatisfied with the progress of the project, Adolf Hitler decided to hand over the supervision of construction to the Organisation Todt and assign prisoners of concentration camps to work. They were deployed in thirteen labour camps ("Arbeitslager, AL"), some in the vicinity of the tunnels. The network of these camps has been named Arbeitslager Riese (List of camps) and was part of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. The administration of AL Riese and the camp commander, "SS-Hauptsturmführer" Albert Lütkemeyer, were located in AL Wüstegiersdorf. From December 1944 to January 1945 the prisoners were guarded by 853 SS troops.


title: Project Riese

text: According to incomplete data, at least 13,000 prisoners worked for the project. Most of them were transferred from the Auschwitz concentration camp. The documents allow identification of 8,995 prisoners. All of them were Jews, about seventy per cent from Hungary, the rest from Poland, Greece, Romania, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Mortality was very high because of disease, malnutrition, exhaustion, dangerous underground works, and the treatment of prisoners by German guards. Many exhausted prisoners were sent back to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The deportation of 857 prisoners is documented as well as 14 executions after failed escape attempts. An estimated total of 5,000 victims lost their lives.


title: Project Riese

text: At the end of 1944, another typhus epidemic occurred amongst the prisoners. Because the front line of the war was approaching, evacuation of the camps began in February 1945, however in a few places work might have been conducted even at the end of April. Some prisoners were left behind, mostly badly ill, until the Red Army arrived in the area in May 1945. Project Riese was abandoned at the initial stage of construction and only 9 km (25,000 m, 100,000 m) of tunnels were dug out.


title: Project Riese

text: German code names of individual structures of the project are unknown because of the lack of documentation. Polish names were created after the war.


title: Project Riese

text: Książ Castle (German: Fürstenstein) is located in the city of Wałbrzych (German: Waldenburg) . Its last owner in the inter-war period was the Hochberg family, one of the wealthiest and most influential European dynasties, Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless and his English wife, Mary-Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West (Princess Daisy). As a result of their extravagant lifestyle and the global economic crisis they fell into debt.


title: Project Riese

text: In 1941, the castle and the lands were seized by the Nazi government, partly to pay taxes, partly as punishment for the perceived treason of their sons. At that time one of them served in the British Army, another in the Polish Armed Forces in the West. The castle, under the leadership of architect Hermann Giesler, was first adapted to accommodate the management of the state-owned railways (Deutsche Reichsbahn) but in 1944 it became part of Project Riese. In 1941–1944, it was also a place where parts of the collection of the Prussian State Library had been hidden.


title: Project Riese

text: The works in the castle were extensive and led to the destruction of many decorative elements. New staircase and elevator shafts were built to improve emergency evacuation routes. The most serious work however took place below the castle. There are two levels of tunnels. The first is 15 m underground and was accessible from the fourth floor of the castle by a lift and a staircase from the cellar and also by an entrance from the gardens. The tunnel (80 m, 180 m, 400 m) is reinforced by concrete and leads to an elevator shaft hidden 15 m under the courtyard, a connection between the first and the second level of the underground. The shaft (35 m) has not been explored because it is filled with rubble. A provisional, short tunnel from the gardens was bored to assist in its excavation.


title: Project Riese

text: The second level of underground (950 m, 3,200 m, 13,000 m) is 53 m under the courtyard. Four tunnels were bored into the base of the hill: 1. (88 m), 2. (42 m), 3. (85 m), 4. (70 m). The complex contains large tunnels (5 m high and 5.6 m wide) and four chambers. Seventy-five per cent is reinforced by concrete. There are two additional shafts leading to the surface, one with dimensions 3.5 m x 3.5 m (45 m) and one with diameter 0.5 m (40 m), presently used to supply electricity.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of buildings and machinery, two reservoirs of water, a pumping station, and remains of a sewage treatment plant. In 1975–1976 four bunkers Ringstand 58c, and a guardroom were demolished. The narrow gauge railway connecting the tunnels with the railway siding in the village of Lubiechów (German: Liebichau) was dismantled after the war.


title: Project Riese

text: In May 1944, AL Fürstenstein was established in the vicinity of the castle . Between 700 and 1,000 concentration camp prisoners lived in barracks. They were Jews, citizens of Hungary, Poland, and Greece. Evacuation of the camp took place in February 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: Today the castle and the undergrounds are open to the public. The second level also contains seismological and geodesical measuring equipment belonging to the Polish Academy of Sciences.


title: Project Riese

text: The complex is located on a borderline between the villages of Rzeczka (German: Dorfbach) and Walim (German: Wüstewaltersdorf), inside Ostra Mountain (German: Spitzenberg) . Drilling work began in March 1944. Three tunnels were bored into the base of the mountain. The structure contains a nearly completed guardroom and large underground halls, up to 10 m in height. The total length of the tunnels is 500 m (2,500 m, 14,000 m). Eleven per cent is reinforced by concrete.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of machinery and a concrete bridge. The second bridge was damaged and replaced by a footbridge. A narrow-gauge railway, used for transportation of spoil to a nearby heap, was dismantled after the war. In 1995 the underground was opened to the public and in 2001 transformed into a museum.


title: Project Riese

text: In November 1943, Gemeinschaftslager I Wüstewaltersdorf was established in textile factory Websky, Hartmann & Wiesen AG . Its prisoners were forced labourers, mainly from the Soviet Union, Poland and POWs from Italy, captured by the German army after the Italian armistice and switching sides. The most numerous group consisted of POWs from the Soviet Union. They were detained in the part of the camp subordinate to Stalag VIII-A Görlitz. It was liberated in May 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: In April 1944, AL Wüstewaltersdorf was created in the same location for prisoners of concentration camps, mostly Jews from Greece. Some sources suggest the camp might have been located on the slopes of Chłopska Mountain (German: Stenzelberg); according to others, its existence is doubtful.


title: Project Riese

text: The complex is located inside Włodarz Mountain (German: Wolfsberg) . It is a grid of tunnels (3,100 m, 10,700 m, 42,000 m) and large underground halls, up to 12 m in height. Less than one per cent is reinforced by concrete. It was accessible by four tunnels bored into the base of the mountain with chambers for guardrooms. There is a shaft leading to the surface with diameter 4 m (40 m). Some tunnels have higher, second levels connected by small shafts. This is a stage of building underground halls. Two tunnels were bored, one over the other and then the ceiling was collapsed to create a large space. Some parts of the complex are flooded but accessible by boat. From 2004 it is open to visitors.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of machinery, numerous unfinished or destroyed buildings, a bunker, two reservoirs of water, and depots of building materials including thousands of fossilized bags of cement. The network of narrow gauge railways, connecting the tunnels with the railway siding in the village of Olszyniec (German: Erlenbusch), was disassembled and scrapped after the war.


title: Project Riese

text: In May 1944, AL Wolfsberg was established , probably by taking over an existing camp from the Organization Schmelt. About 3,000 concentration camp prisoners lived in tents made of plywood, 3 m in diameter, 20 people in each one and several barracks. They were Jews, mainly from Hungary and Poland, but also from Greece, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Romania. The ruins of concrete barracks for SS guards can still be found in the vicinity of the camp. Evacuation of the prisoners started in February 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: The complex is located inside Osówka Mountain (German: Säuferhöhen) . It is accessible by tunnel number 1 (120 m) with chambers for guardrooms and tunnel number 2 (456 m), bored 10 m below the level of the main underground, with guardrooms close to completion. Behind them there is a connection of two levels created by the collapse of the ceiling.


title: Project Riese

text: The structure is a grid of tunnels (1,750 m, 6,700 m, 30,000 m) and underground halls, up to 8 m in height. Only 6.9% is reinforced by concrete. There is a shaft leading to the surface with a diameter of 6 m (48 m). Tunnel number 3 (107 m) is not connected to the complex. It is 500 m away and 45 m below the main underground. It contains two dams and hydraulic equipment of an unknown purpose.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of buildings, machinery, a ramp for transportation of mine cars to different levels, a reservoir of water and depots, some with systems of heating up building materials in winter. The largest structure is a single-storey, concrete building (680 m, 2,300 m) with walls 0.5 m thick and roof adapted for camouflage by vegetation (0.6 m). A utility tunnel (1.25 m x 1.95 m, 30 m) was under construction to connect it with the shaft. Another structure of unknown purpose is a concrete monolith (30.9 m x 29.8 m) with tens of pipes, drains and culverts, buried into the rock at least 4.5 m. A narrow gauge railway network connected the tunnels with the railway station in the village of Głuszyca Górna (German: Oberwüstegiersdorf). Since 1996, the complex is open to the public.


title: Project Riese

text: In August 1944, AL Säuferwasser was established for prisoners of concentration camps . They were Jews, citizens of Poland, Hungary, and Greece. The remains of the camp can still be found in the vicinity of the tunnel number 3. Its evacuation took place in February 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: The complex is located near the village of Sokolec (German: Falkenberg), inside Gontowa Mountain (German: Schindelberg). It consists of two underground structures on different levels. Tunnels number 1 and 2, with chambers for guardrooms, lead to the underground up to 5 m in height . It is collapsed in many places because the complex was bored in soft sandstone.


title: Project Riese

text: In 2011 excavation of tunnel number 3 (145 m) has begun, inaccessible since the end of war because of its collapsed entrance. It is 600 m away and 60 m below tunnels number 1 and 2 . Tunnel number 4 (100 m) was opened in 1994, one of only two short tunnels which were found with mining equipment from 1945. It is located 250 m from tunnel number 3, on the same level but not connected. The total length of the complex is 1,090 m (3,025 m, 7,562 m). It is not reinforced by concrete.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of buildings, machinery and two ramps for transportation of mine cars to different levels. A retaining wall (47 m) was built to secure a new road. A narrow gauge railway connected the tunnels with the railway siding in the village of Ludwikowice Kłodzkie (German: Ludwigsdorf).


title: Project Riese

text: In April 1944, AL Falkenberg was established in the hamlet of Sowina (German: Eule) for prisoners of concentration camps . It was inhabited by 1,500 men of Jewish origin from Poland, Hungary, and Greece. Evacuation of the camp took place in February 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: The complex is located in the village of Jugowice (Jawornik) (German: Hausdorf (Jauering)), inside Dział Jawornicki Mountain (German: Mittelberg) . Tunnels number 2 (109 m) and 4 lead to a small underground level. There is a shaft with a diameter of 0.5 m – 0.6 m (16 m) in the vicinity of the complex but not connected to it. Tunnel number 6 is collapsed 37 m from the entrance and has not been explored yet. It was closed by two steel doors 7 m apart. The rest of the tunnels are in the initial stage of construction: 1. (10 m), 3. (15 m), 5. (3 m), 7. (24.5 m). The total length of the structure is 460 m (1,360 m, 4,200 m). Less than one per cent is reinforced by concrete.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of buildings, machinery, a pumping station, and a reservoir of water. A narrow gauge railway connected the tunnels with the railway siding in the village of Olszyniec (German: Erlenbusch) where AL Erlenbusch was established in May 1944 . Between 500 and 700 concentration camp prisoners lived in five barracks. They were Jews, citizens of Hungary and Poland. The camp was liberated in May 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: The complex is located inside Soboń Mountain (German: Ramenberg) and is accessible by tunnels number 1 (216 m) and 2 (170 m). Tunnel number 3 is not connected to the main underground. It is collapsed in its initial part on the length of 83 m. In 2013 it was explored when a shaft was dug from above, revealing 86 m of tunnel with mining equipment from 1945. The total length of the complex is 700 m (1,900 m, 4,000 m). Less than one per cent is reinforced by concrete.


title: Project Riese

text: Above ground are foundations of machinery and a pumping station, a reservoir of water, depots of building materials, numerous unfinished or destroyed buildings, a bunker, and earthworks carried out on a massive scale. A narrow gauge railway network connected the tunnels with the railway station in the village of Głuszyca Górna (German: Oberwüstegiersdorf). In October–December 1944, AL Lärche was established for prisoners of concentration camps, mostly Jews from Poland and Greece. They lived in twelve barracks made of plywood in the vicinity of the tunnel number 3 . Evacuation of the camp took place in February 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: The palace is located in the village of Jedlinka (German: Tannhausen) . In 1943, it was purchased by the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (National Socialist People's Welfare) from the Böhm family as a result of their financial problems. At the beginning of 1944 the plans to transform it into a hospital were disrupted because the building was confiscated by military authorities and adapted as headquarters for the Industriegemeinschaft Schlesien (Silesian Industrial Company) which, until then, occupied Haus Hermannshöhe in the nearby town of Bad Charlottenbrunn (Polish: Jedlina-Zdrój).


title: Project Riese

text: An air-raid shelter was created in the cellar with armoured, gasproof doors. The corporation was responsible for construction work and supervising all companies and local businesses taking part in the project on behalf of the Main Building Commission of the Ministry of Arms. (List of companies) Most companies used forced labour.


title: Project Riese

text: In April 1944, the Industriegemeinschaft Schlesien was deemed too inefficient and replaced by the Organisation Todt (OT). The Oberbauleitung Riese (OBL Riese) (Site management Riese) was established under supervision of Ministerial Director Franz Xaver Dorsch and Hans Meyer, Chief of OBL Riese and the whole area of Lower Silesia. Construction Office, located in Haus Mohaupt in the town of Wüstewaltersdorf (Polish: Walim), was supervised by senior construction managers Leo Müller and Fritz Leonhardt. In July 1944, 30,788 people worked for OBL Riese.


title: Project Riese

text: In February 1945, because the front line of the war was approaching, OBL Riese evolved into headquarters of Front-OT X Brigade. The task of the new formation was the reconstruction of damaged communication systems. The palace was occupied by the OT until May 1945. Presently it is open to the public.


title: Project Riese

text: The town of Głuszyca (German: Wüstegiersdorf) and its vicinity was the location of many labour camps connected to Project Riese. From October 1943 to March 1945 manufacturing plants of Friedrich Krupp AG were relocated here from Essen. They took over two textile factories belonging to Meyer-Kauffmann Textilwerke AG and adapted them to armaments production. An air-raid shelter was built inside a nearby hill . It consists of two tunnels, sixty per cent reinforced by concrete and bricks (240 m, 600 m, 1,800 m).


title: Project Riese

text: In November 1943, Gemeinschaftslager III Wüstegiersdorf was established for forced labourers from the Soviet Union in textile factory of Kammgarnspinnerei Stöhr & Co. AG and existed until the end of the war. In April 1944, AL Wüstegiersdorf was created in the same location for prisoners of concentration camps, between 700 and 1,000 Jews from Hungary and Poland. It was also a main storehouse of food and clothes, administration center, and headquarters for the commander of AL Riese. Evacuation of the camp took place in February 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: In November 1943, Gemeinschaftslager II Dörnhau was established in the village of Kolce (German: Dörnhau). The camp occupied a closed textile factory of brothers Giersch and was inhabited by forced labourers from Poland and the Soviet Union. In June 1944, AL Dörnhau was created in the same location for prisoners of concentration camps from Hungary, Poland, and Greece of Jewish origin. Several barracks were added. That autumn, the camp was also designated as a central infirmary for severely ill with no prospects of recovery. Twenty-five local mass graves have been excavated after the war with 1,943 victims. The camps were liberated in May 1945.


title: Project Riese

text: In November 1943, Gemeinschaftslager IV Oberwüstegiersdorf was established in the village of Głuszyca Górna (German: Oberwüstegiersdorf) . The camp was located in the building of closed textile factory and existed until the end of the war. Its prisoners were forced labourers and POWs. In April–May 1944, AL Schotterwerk was created in the same village near the railway station for prisoners of concentration camps . Between 1,200 and 1,300 Jews from Hungary, Poland, and Greece lived in 8–11 wooden barracks. Part of prisoners joined the evacuation column in February 1945. The others were freed in May.


title: Project Riese

text: In March 1944, Gemeinschaftslager V Tannhausen was established in the village of Jedlinka (German: Tannhausen) for forced labourers and POWs in textile factory of Websky, Hartmann & Wiesen AG . In April–May 1944, AL Tannhausen was created in the same location for prisoners of concentration camps. It was inhabited by 1,200 men of Jewish origin from Hungary, Poland, Greece, and other European countries. Next to the camp, Zentralrevier Tannhausen, central infirmary was set up in November 1944 . It was reserved for patients with good chance of recovery. They were housed in four brick barracks. Those prisoners, who were able to walk, were evacuated in February 1945. In the camp only the sick were left, who were liberated in May.


title: Project Riese

text: In August 1944, AL Kaltwasser was established in the village of Zimna Woda (German: Kaltwasser) . Concentration camp prisoners of Jewish origin from Poland lived in five barracks. The camp was closed in December 1944 and the prisoners were transferred to AL Lärche.


title: Project Riese

text: In April–June 1944, AL Märzbachtal was established in the valley of Potok Marcowy Duży (German: Grosser Märzbachtal) for prisoners of concentration camps. Between 700 and 800 Jews, mainly from Hungary and Poland, lived in barracks of which remnants can still be seen today. Evacuation of the camp took place in February 1945.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: "Cardigan" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released as the lead single of her eighth studio album, "Folklore" (2020), on July 27, 2020, via Republic Records. Written by Swift and its producer Aaron Dessner, "Cardigan" is a slow-burning, folk, soft rock, and indie rock ballad, with a stripped-down arrangement of a tender piano, clopping drums, and melancholic violins.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: The song's lyrics discuss a comforting romance lost in memories, from the perspective of a female narrator named Betty, one of the several fictitious characters narrated in "Folklore". An accompanying music video for the song, written, directed, and styled by Swift, was released alongside the album launch. The video has been described as following a dreamy, cottagecore aesthetic, featuring Swift in three different settings: a "cozy cabin" in the woods, a moss-covered forest, and a dark stormy sea, which represents the concept of the different phases in relationships. "Cardigan" was praised by music critics for its poetic songwriting and laid-back sound. It received nominations for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. An acoustic version of the song, branded "Cabin in Candlelight", was also released.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: Commercially, "Cardigan" debuted atop the global Spotify songs chart with over 7.742 million streams, which was, at that time, the biggest opening day for a song on the platform in 2020. With the song's debut at the number-one spot of the "Billboard" Hot 100 as well, Swift scored the sixth U.S. number-one single of her career. Along with "Folklore" debut atop the "Billboard" 200 the same week, she became the first artist ever to simultaneously debut atop the Hot 100 and "Billboard" 200. "Cardigan" further topped the Hot Alternative Songs, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts, making Swift the first act in history to garner twenty chart-toppers on the latter. It reached number one in Australia, the top ten in Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, and the top 20 in Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania and Scotland.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: "Cardigan" was written by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner, and was produced by Dessner. The song is a wistful, slow-burning, folk, soft rock and indie rock song driven by a stripped-down arrangement of a tender piano and a clopping drum sample, over a moody atmosphere. It is written in the key of E♭ major and has a moderately fast tempo of 130 beats per minute. Swift's vocal range in the song spans from E to A. The lyrics display confidence, but are also "slightly embittered". Swift told her fans that "Cardigan" is about "a lost romance and why young love is often fixed so permanently within our memories". It is one of the three of the tracks on the album that depict the same love triangle from three different perspectives at different times in their lives, the other two being "August" and "Betty".


title: Cardigan (song)

text: In the song, Swift sings from the perspective of a fictional character named Betty, who recalls the separation and enduring optimism of a relationship with someone named James. While promoting the limited edition version of the single, Swift told fans that she sent the original songwriting voice memo to Aaron Dessner on April 27, 2020, after hearing the instrumental tracks he created. Dessner said "Cardigan" was the first song written in their collaboration, and was the first song written from the album altogether. Dessner said Swift wrote the lyrics to his instrumental track in around five hours. Roisin O'Connor of "The Independent" compared the song to "Call It What You Want" from Swift's sixth studio album, "Reputation" (2017), while "Spin" Bobby Olivier compared it to "Wildest Dreams" from her fifth studio album, "1989" (2014).


title: Cardigan (song)

text: Callie Ahlgrim of Insider Inc. dubbed the lyrics of "Cardigan" as an "effective way to evoke young love and innocence lost", describing them as simple, sharp and extremely poignant. "Pitchfork"'s Jillian Mapes wrote that the song's "overlapping details and central framing device—of a cardigan forgotten and found without a second thought—are pure Swift". Courteney Larocca of Insider Inc. opined that the song has cues of Lana Del Rey. Laura Snapes of "The Guardian" described the song as "cavernous and shimmering as a rock pool in a cave". Jill Gutowitz of Vulture.com characterized "Cardigan" as "adorable, and yet, again, hurtful".


title: Cardigan (song)

text: "NME" writer Hannah Mylrea defined the song as a "swirling amalgam" of gleaming production, swooning strings, flickering piano, and lyrics that exude pain from young love, and praised Swift's songwriting for "stunningly" conveying complex mixed emotions of hurt, jealousy and heartbreak in a "gorgeous" folk tune. Mylrea placed "Cardigan" at number four on her September 2020 list ranking all of Swift's 161 songs back then. Caragh Medlicott of "Wales Arts Review" deemed the song as "a resurgence of self-worth discovered, somewhat ironically, through the love of another". "Uproxx"'s Philip Cosores stated that "Cardigan" is "rooted in the vivid details and melodic warmth that characterizes much of [Swift's] music". "Entertainment Weekly'"s Maura Johnston felt the song's lyrics are "confident" but "slightly embittered", which he thought "pay off at the album's end". "Billboard", on their list of 100 Best Songs of 2020, placed "Cardigan" at number 11, calling it "a lead single unlike anything Swift had released before." Emphasizing its "finest" storytelling, "The Plain Dealer" ranked the song number 6 on its list of best songs of 2020. "Complex" listed the song at number 21 on its ranking of best songs of 2020, highlighting Swift's evolved songwriting.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: On Spotify, "Cardigan" debuted with over 7.742 million streams, garnering the biggest opening day for any song in 2020. It remained atop of the chart for four consecutive days, as of July 27, 2020. Following the inauguration of "Billboard" Global 200 chart seven weeks after the release of "Folklore", "Cardigan" appeared at number 77 on the chart, dated September 19, 2020.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: On the US "Billboard" Hot 100, "Cardigan" debuted at number one, earned Swift her sixth number-one single in the country and second number-one debut following "Shake It Off" (2014). This made Swift the first artist ever to debut at number-one on both the Hot 100 and "Billboard" 200 charts in the same week. The single was joined in the top-10 by fellow "Folklore" tracks "The 1" and "Exile", and increased Swift's number of top-10 songs to 28. Moreover, it extended her record as the woman with the most top-10 debuts to 18. In its opening week, "Cardigan" earned 34 million US streams, 12.7 million radio impressions and sold 71,000 digital downloads, debuting atop the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts dated August 8, 2020, further extending Swift's all-time record as the artist with the most number-ones on the Digital Song Sales chart to 20. In its second week on the Hot 100, "Cardigan" descended to number eight. Furthermore, the song also topped the Alternative Streaming Songs, Alternative Digital Song Sales, Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: In Australia, "Cardigan" debuted at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart, becoming Swift's sixth chart-topping single in the country, and her first chart-topping single since "Look What You Made Me Do" (2017). It was one of five songs that debuted in the top 10 in the country, making "Folklore" the album with the most top-10 songs of 2020 in the country. It also debuted at number two on New Zealand's Top 40 Singles chart, along with "The 1" and "Exile" in the top 10.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: On the Canadian Hot 100, "Cardigan" peaked at number three, while in Ireland, the song debuted at number four on the Irish Singles Chart, accompanied by "Exile" and "The 1" in the top 10, bringing Swift's total Irish top-10 songs to 15. In the United Kingdom, the song entered at number six on the Official Singles Chart, opening with over 35,000 units. "Exile" and "The 1" also debuted in the top 10, taking Swift's total UK top-10s to sixteen, while making her the sixth woman in UK history to have three top-10 songs simultaneously.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: "Cardigan" also charted in Austria (number 46), Belgium (2), Croatia (27), the Czech Republic (29), Denmark (19), Estonia (15), France (138), Germany (67), Hungary (29), Iceland (26), Japan (94), Lithuania (17), Malaysia (2), the Netherlands (1), Norway (27), Portugal (26), Scotland (16), Singapore (2), Slovakia (45), Spain (66), Sweden (31), and Switzerland (51).


title: Cardigan (song)

text: An official music video for "Cardigan"—written, directed, and styled by Swift—was released alongside the album on July 24, 2020. The "homespun" and "dreamlike" video starts out with Swift sitting in a candlelit cottage in the woods, wearing a nightgown and playing a vintage upright piano. This scene also features a photograph of Swift's grandfather, Dean, who fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and a painting that she painted during the first week of COVID-19 isolation. When the soundboard starts glowing, she climbs into it and is magically transported to a moss-covered forest, where she plays the song on a grand piano producing a waterfall.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: The piano bench starts to glow and she climbs into it. She gets transported to a dark stormy sea, where she holds on to a floating piano. The piano soundboard glows and she climbs in, and she returns to the cottage, where she dons a cardigan. According to a video posted to her Vevo account, the forest scene "represents the evergreen beginning of a relationship where everything seems magical and full of beauty", while the ocean scene "represents the isolation and fear involved while a relationship is breaking down." The video also states the ending scene "signifies returning to a sense of self after experiencing love loss", discovering one's true self; Swift's soaking-wet nightgown signifies how the relationship changes the individual. The music video is characterized by a prairie, cottagecore aesthetic.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: The music video was inspired by the period and fantasy films that Swift watched in isolation during the COVID-19 lockdown. She contacted cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto in early July to work on the video; Prieto had previously worked on the music video for "The Man". As the director, Swift worked with assistant director Joe Osborne and set designer Ethan Tobman. Swift developed the concept for the video, which Prieto described as "more ambiguous", "more personal", and "more of a fantasy" than "The Man". Ahead of filming, Swift drafted a shot list of the video, detailing the video's scenes with specific time sequences in the song, and sent visual references to Prieto and Tobman to communicate her vision of the video.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges to filming, and extensive safety standards were enacted. All crew members underwent COVID-19 testing, wore masks at all times, and practiced social distancing as much as possible. An onsite medical inspector supervised COVID-19 health and safety guidelines. As Swift had to remain unmasked for large amounts of time while filming, crew members wore color-coded wristbands to denote those allowed to come within close contact with her. Additionally, the entire video was filmed from a camera mounted to a robotic arm controlled by a remote operator, a technique usually reserved for crane shots and establishing shots.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: Aside from directing and acting, Swift also did her own makeup, hair, and styling for the video. To keep the song from being leaked, Swift wore an earpiece and lip-synced to the song. The video was filmed indoors over a day and-a-half. Swift and the video's editor, Chancler Haynes, "worked simultaneously from two separate locations on set in order to edit the video on time".


title: Cardigan (song)

text: Accompanying the release of "Folklore" and "Cardigan", Swift sold "folklore cardigans", the replicas of the cardigan she wears in the song's music video—a cream-colored cable knit, with silver embroidered stars on the sleeves' chunky elbows, and navy blue piping and buttons—on her website. Swift also mailed the cardigans to celebrity friends and well-wishers. American fashion magazine "W" thought that the cardigan was the pièce de résistance of the album's cottagecore-centred merchandise. "Teen Vogue" said the cardigan aids in making "the perfect framework for understanding the role clothing plays in our lives", which gives a different perspective in understanding fashion, tracing back to fashion's "sentimental value". Refinery29 stated Swift returns to her "truest self", both musically and stylistically", bolstered by the merch cardigan and prairie dresses, and found the singer's looks in the music video similar to that of a classic "English rose". "Irish Independent" described the cardigan as a bulky, "Clancy Brothers-style" Aran sweater, and added that Swift "at this rate, [will] be playing a bodhrán and belting out 'The Auld Triangle' on Hill 16". Irish national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann thanked Swift for putting cardigans "back on the map once more", following James Thomas Brudenell, Coco Chanel, Kurt Cobain and Elizabeth II. The cottagecore aesthetic was met with resurgence on internet following the release of the video and the album.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: "Cardigan" has received three awards and 14 nominations. The song won Favorite Music Video at the American Music Awards of 2020, and contended for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, marking Swift's fifth song to be nominated for Song of the Year and the fourth in Best Pop Solo Performance.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: Swift performed "Cardigan" in her 2020 concert documentary film, "", alongside all of the other tracks on "Folklore". She performed a shortened version of "Cardigan" at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, as part of a medley with "August" and "Willow" (2020), in a cottagecore setting featuring a moss-covered cabin inside a forest, accompanied by collaborators Dessner and Jack Antonoff. "Pitchfork" Cat Zhang named the performance as one of the show's best moments. She praised Swift's vocals and the enchanted forest theme of the staging, and dubbed Swift's look for the performance as a "benevolent fairy princess in a kingdom of dwarves". "The Washington Post" listed Swift's performance as the sixth best of the show, highlighting its "Folklore"-inspired special effects, such as "woodsy, mystical aesthetic" and "haunted-looking trees and glittering gold lights". "Billboard" critic Heran Mamo called it a ""Lord of the Rings"-meets-"Twilight" fantasy", and ranked it the fourth best performance of the evening. "Rolling Stone" Rob Sheffield ranked Swift's performance as the foremost reason "we loved the 2021 Grammys", and listed it as one of the top-five greatest Grammy performances of all time.


title: Cardigan (song)

text: In October 2020, English singer-songwriter Yungblud covered "Cardigan" as part of his segment for BBC Radio 1's annual Live Lounge month. He mashed-up the song with Avril Lavigne's "I'm with You" (2002), accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, joined by a cellist and two violinists, resulting in a cheerful, strings-laden performance. Swift responded to the medley affirmatively. In July 2021, Australian alternative rock band Something for Kate covered "Cardigan" as well, for a segment called Like a Version on Australian national radio station Triple J. The band stayed true to the song's original arrangement.


title: Kyalami

text: Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit (from "Khaya lami", "My home" in Zulu) is a motor racing circuit located in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa, just north of Johannesburg. The circuit has been used for Grand Prix and Formula One races and has hosted the South African Grand Prix twenty times. Among the Formula One races held at the track the 1977 South African Grand Prix stands out, as it is principally remembered for the fatal accident that claimed the lives of race marshal Frederick Jansen van Vuuren and driver Tom Pryce. In recent years, the area surrounding the circuit has developed into a residential and commercial suburb of Johannesburg. More recently, Kyalami has played host to five rounds of the Superbike World Championship from 1998 to 2002 and later in 2009 and 2010, the season finale of the Superstars Series in 2009 and 2010, and the South African round of the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season. International racing returned to the circuit in November 2019, when it hosted the 2019 Kyalami 9 Hours, serving as the season finale of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge.


title: Kyalami

text: The original, sweeping circuit was in use from 1961 until political sanctions (due to apartheid policies) eliminated the Grand Prix after the 1985 race. When the circuit was rebuilt in the early 1990s as part of a commercial development, Leeukop Bend, the Kink, Pit lane, the start/finish straight, Crowthorne Corner and Barbeque Bend were all eliminated. Jukskei Sweep was heavily modified to create the entrance into the bend before the then newly built Pit lane and start/finish straight. The remaining part of the old fast circuit, modified to a lesser degree were Sunset Bend, Clubhouse Bend and the Esses still incorporated into the current configuration, with the result that the circuit became a narrow, twisty ribbon rather than one of the fastest circuits on the calendar. Formula One abandoned the rebuilt circuit in 1993 after just two races on the new layout, caused by a bankruptcy on the part of the promoter.


title: Kyalami

text: Kyalami was changed again with the building of the current pit lane and start/finish straight and later again changes were made, with the addition of a chicane which in turn was removed again for the 2009 World Superbike race. Kyalami came under new management and 2008 saw the 50th anniversary of the 9-hour revival being held at Kyalami with golden oldies like David Piper and others. On 6 June 2014, it was announced that Kyalami would be auctioned off on 24 July without reserve. On 24 July 2014, it was auctioned off for R205 million. The winning bidder was Toby Venter, owner of Porsche South Africa. R100 million was invested to upgrade the circuit, allowing it to successfully obtain an FIA Grade 2 status.


title: Kyalami

text: On 12 December 2019, the provisional calendar for the 2020–21 FIA World Endurance Championship was announced, containing a six-hour race at Kyalami scheduled for 6 February 2021. However, after the calendar was revised due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyalami was removed.


title: Kyalami

text: A few hundred metres after the start/finish line, the first corner The Kink, a full throttle right handed kink, awaits. Barrelling further down the straight at full throttle, the second corner, named Crowthorne awaits. The typical braking point is around the 100-metre board. A second gear left-handed corner, it tightens before opening up on exit, setting the driver up for turns 3 and 4. The Jukskei Sweep as these corners were dubbed after the re-design, are a flat-out right-hander followed by a flat-out left handed kink throwing the driver into the braking zone for turn 5. Barbeque is a second gear left-handed corner which takes the driver onto the line of the classic circuit layout. Utilising the kerb on the exit of Barbeque is necessary as the driver has a short straight to prepare for turn 6. The driver would wait until after the 50-metre board before lifting off the throttle and dipping on the brakes through the quick right-hander known as Sunset, one of only four corners left as they were in the first layout. A short burst of throttle is followed by braking at the 50-metre board for turn 7, Clubhouse, a slow left-hander typically taken in second gear. Once again utilising the exit kerb, the driver barrels down a short straight before braking, again at the 50-metre board, for turn 8. Turns 8 and 9, known as The Esses, are the final corners left over from the first layout. 8 is a medium-speed left hander typically taken in third gear, dipping the driver downhill before the car is flicked right into turn 9. Acceleration is key as the driver rejoins the new layout, going uphill before having to brake roughly 50 metres for the blind tenth corner, known as Leeukop. The driver typically decelerates and shifts down the gears to second or first gear, meeting the apex of the corner before accelerating through turn 11. The back straight lasts for a few hundred metres before the driver approaches turn 12, a flat-out left hander known as Mineshaft. Spotting a braking point for turn 13, the first corner of The Crocodiles, can be hard, as it is an off-camber right handed turn which can be taken with several different lines. Turn 14 is little more than the full throttle exit of turn 13, and sets the driver up for turn 15. Cheetah is a tight right hander which the driver typically only needs to lift off the throttle for. It's important to carry speed through it, before spotting a braking point for the final corner. Ingwe is a slow left-hander which sends the driver back onto the start–finish straight to complete the lap.


title: Kyalami

text: From 1967 to 1993, Kyalami hosted 21 editions of the South African Grand Prix. Perhaps the most infamous of these was the 1982 edition, when the Grand Prix Drivers' Association staged a strike in protest of new superlicence conditions imposed by FISA.


title: Kyalami

text: Niki Lauda became the most successful driver at Kyalami, taking his third victory at the circuit in 1984. Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Jackie Stewart are the joint second-most successful drivers at the circuit, with two wins each. Jody Scheckter became the first and only South African driver to win their home race during the 1975 edition. Ferrari and Williams are the most successful constructors at the circuit, with four wins each.


title: Kyalami

text: In June 2022 it was reported that Stefano Domenicali, the President of Formula One, had flown to South Africa to meet representatives of the circuit about a possible return for F1 in 2023, but was not included in the 2023 provisional calendar.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: The earliest record of a Sumerian creation myth, called The Eridu Genesis by historian Thorkild Jacobsen, is found on a single fragmentary tablet excavated in Nippur by the Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania in 1893, and first recognized by Arno Poebel in 1912. It is written in the Sumerian language and dated to around 1600 BCE. Other Sumerian creation myths from around this date are called the Barton Cylinder, the Debate between sheep and grain and the Debate between Winter and Summer, also found at Nippur.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: The beginning of the tablet is lost, but the surviving portion begins by recounting how the gods An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursanga created the Sumerians and comfortable conditions for the animals to live and procreate. Kingship then descends from heaven, and the first cities are founded: Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: After a missing section, we learn that the gods have decided not to save mankind from an impending flood. Zi-ud-sura, the king and "gudug" priest, learns of this. In the later Akkadian version recorded in the "Atra-Hasis Epic", Ea (Sumerian Enki), the god of the waters, warns the hero (Akkadian Atrahasis) and gives him instructions for building an ark. This is missing in the Sumerian fragment, but a mention of Enki taking counsel with himself suggests similar instructions in the Sumerian version.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: Before the missing section, the gods have decided to send a flood to destroy mankind. Enki, god of the underworld sea of fresh water and equivalent of Babylonian Ea, warns Ziusudra, the ruler of Shuruppak, to build a large boat, though the directions for the boat are also lost.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: When the tablet resumes, it describes the flood. A terrible storm rages for seven days and nights. "The huge boat had been tossed about on the great waters." Then Utu (Sun) appears and Ziusudra opens a window, prostrates himself, and sacrifices an ox and a sheep.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: After another break, the text resumes with the flood apparently over, and Ziusudra prostrating himself before An (Sky) and Enlil (Lordbreath), who give him "breath eternal" for "preserving the animals and the seed of mankind". The remainder is lost.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: The Epic of Ziusudra adds an element at lines 258–261 not found in other versions, that after the river flood "king Ziusudra ... they caused to dwell in the land of the country of Dilmun, the place where the sun rises". In this version of the story, Ziusudra's boat floats down the Euphrates river into the Persian Gulf (rather than up onto a mountain, or up-stream to Kish). The Sumerian word "KUR" in line 140 of the Gilgamesh flood myth was interpreted to mean "mountain" in Akkadian, although in Sumerian, KUR means "mountain" but also "land", especially a foreign country, as well as "the Underworld".


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: Some modern scholars believe the Sumerian deluge story corresponds to localized river flooding at Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq) and various other cities as far north as Kish, as revealed by a layer of riverine sediments, radiocarbon dated to c. 2900 BCE, which interrupt the continuity of settlement. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3000–2900 BCE) was discovered immediately below this Shuruppak flood stratum. None of the predynastic antediluvian rulers have been verified as historical by archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions or otherwise, but the Sumerians purported them to have lived in the mythical era before the great deluge.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: A Sumerian document known as the "Instructions of Shuruppak", dated by Kramer to about 2600 BCE, refers in a later version to Ziusudra. Kramer stated Ziusudra had become a "venerable figure in literary tradition" by the 3rd millennium BCE. Yi Samuel Chen argues that the earliest references to Ziusudra can be dated to the Old Babylonian Period.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: Other flood myths with many similarities to the Sumerian story are the story of the Dravida king Manu in the Matsya Purana, the Utnapishtim episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis flood narrative in the Bible. The ancient Greeks and Romans had two similar myths from a later date: the Deucalion story and Zeus' world flood in Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses.


title: Sumerian creation myth

text: In both of the late-dated king lists cited above, the name Zi-ud-sura was inserted immediately before a flood event included in some versions of the "Sumerian king list". However, no other king list mentions Zi-ud-sura.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a motion-based dark ride located in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-themed areas of Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida; Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California; Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, Japan; and Universal Studios Beijing in Beijing, China. The ride takes guests through scenes and environments in and around Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter series of books and films. Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative, described the ride as an in-depth look at the world of Harry Potter, which utilizes never-before-seen technology which transforms "the theme park experience as you know it". The ride first opened at Islands of Adventure with "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" on June 18, 2010; subsequent versions opened at Universal Studios Japan on July 15, 2014, at Universal Studios Hollywood on April 7, 2016, and at Universal Studios Beijing on September 20, 2021.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey uses KUKA robocoaster technology, which allows the seats to pivot while being held above the track by a robotic arm. However, the ride is not a roller coaster but a scenic dark ride. The experience includes a flight around Hogwarts castle, an encounter with the Whomping Willow and a horde of Dementors, and a Quidditch match. The ride drops, spins around, twists and turns, but does not turn upside down, though passengers sometimes lie flat on their backs. Over-the-shoulder bars are used to secure guests in their seats, and a single parabolic metal bar is used as a hand grip. At the conclusion of the ride, guests exit into Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods gift shop.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: To enter the ride, guests walk through the gates of Hogwarts and begin their journey in the dungeons where they see items featured in the movies and books. Passengers enter through the castle doors, go to the lockers, queue outside in the green house and then enter the back castle doors. Objects recognizable from the series include the Mirror of Erised, the Hogwarts House Jewels, and talking portraits, which feature the founders of Hogwarts. As guests proceed throughout the hallways, they encounter replicas of the rooms of Hogwarts castle, including the Headmaster's office, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and the Gryffindor common room. In the Headmaster's office, Professor Dumbledore extends a warm welcome to all Muggles, informing them that Professor Binns is hosting a lecture on the history of the school. In the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, Harry, Ron, and Hermione appear from under the Invisibility Cloak, urging guests to meet them in the Room of Requirement in order to sneak everyone down to a Quidditch match. Ron tries to cast a spell, which goes wrong, and one of several special effects, such as falling snow, is triggered. Before continuing on, visitors receive a safety reminder from the Sorting Hat and several paintings in the next two rooms.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: Next, riders board an enchanted Omnimover-style bench inside the Room of Requirement, which lifts off the ground and through the Floo Network for a journey with Harry. The ride combines real sets and animatronics with segments that use wrap-around projection screens.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: The ride begins with a dousing of Floo Powder from Hermione Granger, who asks the guests to say, "Observatory" in order to transport them to their desired location, and the enchanted bench flies off through the Floo Network to the Astronomy Tower. The guests leave the room of requirement through its fireplace and enter the Observatory, where they look out through the open arches to the hills and lake outside Hogwarts' boundary. As the guests fly out of one of the Observatory's arches, the ride smoothly switches to a wrap-around projection screen and they follow Harry Potter and Ron Weasley around Hogwarts' buildings and towers to a Quidditch match. As Harry and Ron travel under a bridge, Hagrid hails the riders and asks them if they have seen a dragon. As Harry redirects the riders' attentions back to their journey, Hagrid's pet Hungarian Horntail dragon begins to chase the riders. The bench flies out of the projection screen and into a set of the uneven bridge that crosses the valley behind Hogwarts and, after falling out of a hole in the floor of the bridge, they encounter an animatronic dragon, which breathes pressurized water mist with red lighting pointed to it to make it resemble fire.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: The riders descend into a set of the Forbidden Forest where they encounter a figure of Aragog, a large, sentient spider who spits water at them. As Hermione tries to help the riders away from Aragog and towards the castle, encountering many spiders on the way, they encounter an animatronic Whomping Willow which swipes at them, knocking them into the Quidditch pitch. The ride returns to a projection screen as the riders become caught up in Harry's and Ron's game of Quidditch. As Slytherin scores into Gryffindor's goal, Dementors arrive at the Quidditch pitch and Harry attempts to lead the riders away through the structure of the pitch and back to the school, but their bench falls into the long-abandoned Chamber of Secrets through a cave entrance in a cliff which Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fawkes, and Gilderoy Lockhart departed through from the Chamber in the second Harry Potter installment. The riders return to a real set as the Dementors appear from the pipelines and chase them. The skeleton of the long-deceased Basilisk lies on the floor of the Chamber, and expels Lord Voldemort's Dark Mark into the air as the benches are drawn into the mouth of Salazar Slytherin's statue.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: Dozens of Dementors emerge from the darkness while one descends and attempts to suck out the riders' souls. This effect is achieved by projecting the riders' faces onto a cloud of fog in front of the Dementor, blasting cold air towards the riders, and using a heartbeat-like sound played through the sub-woofers built into the benches. (Though the fog effect is not present in the Hollywood version and is instead replaced with dozens of dementors surrounding the guests) After shaking the riders out of the trance, Harry causes the Dementors to flee with a protective Patronus Charm. After the final Dementor, and while Harry uses his Patronus, the riders enter the final video dome segment, where the cliffs outside the Chamber of Secrets cave in. They fly over the Black Lake, back into Hogwarts and through the Main Hall and Grand Staircase, where they are shouting wildly on by a series of onscreen characters from the movies who appear three-dimensional. Professor Dumbledore sends everyone back through the Floo Network to the Room of Requirement, where they exit their bench.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: While everyone may walk through the queue, all riders must be at least tall. The ride has no maximum weight limit, and riders can test whether the attraction accommodates their size using test seats at the queue entrance and again at the end of the queue, which are equipped with red, yellow, and green lights that indicate whether the rider can be accommodated. Persons requiring modified seating on other rides may have difficulty closing the ride's over-the-shoulder harness. If passengers are unable to secure the harness, they are not permitted to ride the attraction. In an attempt to alleviate this problem, Universal has modified the restraint system on some of the seats to accommodate larger guests. These modifications will not affect the size of the seat nor create a dangerous situation for smaller guests. Guests who receive a yellow light on the test seats may sit in modified seating. Modified seating is not available on the Hollywood version of the ride.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: According to the Universal Orlando Resort Rider's Guide, both legs must protrude from under the restraint and form a lap. In practice, above-knee amputees will not be permitted to ride unless their residual natural limb reaches the edge of the seat (or at least includes a knee), even if the lock-bar appears to successfully engage the limb. Lower-limb prosthetics will not offset this requirement since they must be removed prior to boarding the ride. These particular restrictions are not clearly posted at the ride or on the website, which lists the height requirement only. The lower limb prosthetic removal requirement can be found at the "Accessibility Information" page under "Guests with Prosthetic Limbs." The residual limb length requirement is not listed there but will be enforced at the ride prior to boarding. Wheelchair users who are able to transfer directly to the ride vehicle may do so at a separate area, which does not contain the introductory theming of the Floo Network. Instead, wheelchair users pass through a series of unthemed elevators and corridors to arrive at the accessible loading area. Only one accessible ride vehicle is available, and each party must wait for the previous group to return before they may enter the loading area.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: In January 2007, rumors arose about the possibility of a Harry Potter-themed island at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park. This was followed by further rumors that part of the project was codenamed "Strong Arm" in reference to the KUKA robotic arm technology it would utilize. On May 31, 2007, Universal, in partnership with Warner Bros., officially announced that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter would be coming to Islands of Adventure. Preparation of the site for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter began in late October 2007, and the construction of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey began in February 2008. Construction ended in the first half of 2010. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey began operating on June 1, 2010, and officially opened to the public on June 18, 2010. The ride was upgraded to 4K 120 FPS on June 4, 2018.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: On May 5, 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported that Universal Studios Japan would also be receiving a "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter", with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey confirmed as one of the attractions. The Japanese ride opened on July 15, 2014. It had 3D effects added on May 21, 2015 and was upgraded to 4K 120 FPS on January 18, 2018. The 3D effects were removed on March 16, 2018.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: On December 6, 2011, Universal Parks & Resorts announced that it would open The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2016, and that one of the attractions would be Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. On April 7, 2016, "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade" opened at Universal Studios Hollywood with rides Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey and Flight of The Hippogriff debuting with the new section. Unlike its Florida counterpart, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey featured 3D HD Technology, in which guests wore 3D "Quidditch" goggles. Although the 3D effects were removed only eight months later on December 4, 2016, the ride was updated with 4K 120 FPS on March 28, 2017.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey features a RoboCoaster G2 ride system provided by Dynamic Structures, KUKA and RoboCoaster. The first generation RoboCoaster system featured KUKA robotic arm technology anchored to a stationary platform, while the second-generation G2 system mounted the arms on a busbar track. The system was first publicly disclosed at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Trade Show in 2003. At around the same time, rumors began circulating about the possibility of Islands of Adventure adding a Van Helsing-themed ride using this technology. These plans were later scrapped with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ultimately using the same technology and opening on the same plot of land proposed for the Van Helsing ride. The ride's seats are mounted on robotic arms which are in turn mounted on a track. This allows the arms to travel through the attraction while performing their movements in synchronization with the ride's show elements (animated props, projection surfaces, etc.). This concept first appeared in the 2004 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Trade Show. The disadvantage of this intricate machinery is that if the ride breaks down, some guests are stranded in uncomfortable positions, such as being tilted backwards in dark enclosed spaces.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: For the three sections of the ride where wrap-around projection is used, each robotic arm continues its steady movement on the track but is met by its own individual parabolic projection screen and projector traveling at exactly the same pace. Each projection section uses a huge turntable with six of these enormous screens mounted facing outwards - one for each robotic arm as they pass by - and each screen is large enough that when in front of each ride bench its edges cannot be seen. The screens appear and disappear behind the edges of the physical sets. The robotic arms can then freely dive, turn and pivot each ride bench within the curved area, giving the illusion of extreme movement when synchronized with the projection, whilst the base of the arm on the track simply follows the slow circular path that each screen takes as it revolves. This is why each projection section of the ride is approximately the same length, as each ride arm must follow each identically-sized projection screen turntable for a set period of time.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: The attraction was designed by Universal Creative in association with Warner Bros. Recreation Group. Thierry Coup, who worked on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Shrek 4-D and Revenge of the Mummy, was the Creative Director for the ride.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" features many of the main characters of the film series, which were reprised by their respective actors:


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has been widely lauded for its innovation and theming. Arthur Levine of About.com stated that he felt he "had been taken to a truly magical place. For a few glorious moments, the Floo Network, flying benches, and willows that whomp seemed not just possible, but actual." He gave the ride a rating of 5 stars out of 5, and wrote that the ride was the best of its kind. Robert Niles of Theme Park Insider commended Universal Creative for its attention to detail on the ride. Niles wrote that the company had set its expectations almost impossibly high, and that the ride is "the most advanced and engaging attraction in theme park industry history". Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic described the ride as a "jaw-dropping journey that no one should miss", but criticized the lack of continuity with the story.


title: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

text: In "Amusement Today" annual Golden Ticket Awards, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey debuted as the best new ride of 2010. It went on to win the Best Dark Ride category for five consecutive years from 2011 to 2015, falling to second (behind The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror) in 2016 and 2017.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Khorloogiin Choibalsan (, spelled "Koroloogiin Çoibalsan" before 1941; 8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was the leader of Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic) and Marshal (general chief commander) of the Mongolian People's Army from the 1930s until his death in 1952. His rule marked the first and last time in modern Mongolian history that an individual had complete political power. Sometimes referred to as the "Stalin of Mongolia", Choibalsan oversaw purges in the late 1930s that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Mongolians. Most of the victims were Buddhist clergy, intelligentsia, political dissidents, ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs, and others perceived as "enemies of the revolution."


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: While Choibalsan's alliance with Joseph Stalin helped preserve his country's fledgling independence during the early years of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR), it also brought Mongolia closer to the Soviet Union. Throughout his rule, Mongolia's economic, political, and military ties to the Soviet Union deepened, infrastructure and literacy rates improved, and international recognition of Mongolia's independence expanded, especially after World War II.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Choibalsan was born on 8 February 1895 in Achit Beysiyn, near present-day Choibalsan, Dornod Province. He was the youngest of four children born to a poor unmarried herdswoman named Khorloo (the name Khorloogiin is a matronymic). His father was likely a Barga tribes man, Daur Mongol from Inner Mongolia called Jamsu, but Choibalsan claimed to be unaware of his identity. Named Dugar at birth, he assumed the religious name Choibalsan at age 13 after entering the local Buddhist monastery of San Beysiyn Khüree where he trained to be a Lamaist monk. Five years later he fled to Khüree (also known as Urga—present-day Ulaanbaatar) with another novice where he worked odd jobs. In part to prevent him from being returned to the monastery, a sympathetic Buryat teacher named Nikolai Danchinov had him enrolled in the Russian consulate's Russian-Mongolian Translators' School. A year later he was sent on at public expense to study at a gymnasium in Irkutsk, Russia from 1914 to 1917.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Choibalsan and fellow Mongolian students in Russia were called back to Khüree by the Bogd Khaan government following the 1917 October Revolution. Exposed to Bolshevism while living among Irkutsk's radicalized student population, Choibalsan joined the revolutionary Consular Hill or Konsulyn Denj ("Консулын дэнж") group, heavily influenced by Bolshevist philosophy and established to resist the Chinese occupation of Outer Mongolia after 1919. Original members of the group also included Dambyn Chagdarjav and Darizavyn Losol. Dogsomyn Bodoo, the group's leader, was a former teacher and mentor of Choibalsan's at the Russian-Mongolian School for Translators. With his serviceable Russian, Choibalsan served as the group's translator with contacts at the Russian Consulate. Those contacts later encouraged Konsulyn Denj to join forces with the more nationalist-oriented resistance group Züün Khüree (East Khüree), which counted Soliin Danzan, Dansrabilegiin Dogsom, and Damdin Sükhbaatar among its members. On 25 June 1920, the new body adopted the name Mongolian People's Party (MPP). In 1924 the party renamed itself the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party or MPRP after the death of the Bogd Khaan and the formal proclamation of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR).


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In late June 1920, Choibalsan and Danzan embarked for Irkutsk (they were later joined by Losol, Chagdarjav, Dogsom, L. Dendev, and Sükhbaatar—the famous "First Seven") to establish contacts with the Soviets and seek assistance in their struggle for independence. Choibalsan and Sükhbaatar remained together in Irkutsk for several months raising awareness of Mongolia's plight and receiving military training. During this period Sükhbaatar gradually became a second mentor to Choibalsan.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: While the group of seven continued their lobbying efforts in Soviet Russia, forces commanded by the anti-Bolshevik Russian warlord Roman von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia from the east and ejected occupying Chinese garrisons from Khüree in February 1921. No longer faced with directly confronting the Chinese in Mongolia, the Soviets finally threw their backing behind the Mongolian revolutionaries. Choibalsan and Sükhbaatar relocated to Troitskosavsk (modern-day Kyakhta on the Russian-Mongolian border) to coordinate revolutionary activities and recruit Mongolian fighters. Choibalsan secretly ventured as far as Khüree to consult with MPP supporters, enlist fighters, and spirit members of Sükhbaatar's family back to Troitskosavsk.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: At a Soviet-organized MPP conference held secretly in Troitskosavsk from 1 to 3 March 1921 (subsequently regarded as the first congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party), Choibalsan was elected a member of the provisional revolutionary government. He was also appointed Political Commissar (Deputy Chief and chief propagandist) of the "Mongol Ardyn Huv'sgalt Tsereg" (Mongolian: "Монгол Ардын Хувьсгалт Цэрэг"), or the Mongolian People's Army, commanded by Sükhbaatar.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Within days, Sükhbaatar's Mongolian partisan army (now numbering 400 men) defeated the larger but demoralized Chinese garrison that had fled to Kyakhta Maimaicheng (modern-day Altanbulag). Joint Mongol and Red Army forces directly confronted Ungern's troops in a series of battles near Troitskosavsk from late May to mid-June. Choibalsan took command of a Mongolian detachment based in Tariat, in modern-day Arkhangai province and, together with the Russian forces commanded by Petr Efimovich Shchetinkin, fought right guard actions in western Mongolia in support of the main Russian-Mongolia advance through modern-day Selenge and Töv provinces. After small skirmishes with Ungern's remaining guard units, the joint Russian-Mongol force entered Khüree unchallenged on 6 July 1921. Choibalsan pursued remnants of Ungern's army and was likely on hand at Ungern's capture by Shchetinkin on 22 August 1921.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: After the revolution, Choibalsan remained Deputy Chief of the Mongolian People's Army while also being elected Chairman of the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League (MRYL). Despite his credentials as one of the MPP's founding members, he failed to advance beyond second-tier government posts throughout the 1920s. His heavy drinking, womanizing, and violent temperament alienated him from party leaders and at one point in the early 1930s he was temporarily demoted from being Minister of Foreign Affairs to the role of simple Museum Director. While he often gravitated towards the leftist faction of the party, he was suspected of being a rightist in what little mention is made of him in Soviet and Mongolian reports of the era. Choibalsan himself did not include many of his own speeches from this period in his collected works, indicating his role during this period was not a prominent one. It was not until members of the Soviet security apparatus such as Soviet Commissar for Defense Kliment Voroshilov took note of Choibalsan's political usefulness in the late 1920s and early 1930s that his career prospects began to improve.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In late 1921, Choibalsan's MRYL foot soldiers carried out Prime Minister Bodoo's modernization campaign of forcibly cutting off "feudal" ornaments from Mongolian clothing (large cuffs, women's jewelry, long hair etc.). The angry public backlash led to Bodoo's purge and eventual execution in August 1922 while Choibalsan was stripped of both full party membership and his position of as deputy commander of the Mongolian military. Only Sükhbaatar's intervention saved him from Bodoo's fate. Choibalsan was sent to a Moscow Russian Military Academy after Sükhbaatar's death in 1923 and when he returned to Ulaanbaatar a year later was offered his old mentor's former position as Commander in Chief of the People's Revolutionary Troops. He also held positions as a member of the Presidium of the State Great Hural from 1924 to 1928 and as a member of the MPRP Central Committee.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: At the Third Party Congress in 1924, Choibalsan sided with the leftist leader Rinchingiin Elbegdorj as left and right-wing factions of the MPRP called for the arrest and execution of moderate party leader Danzan, who was accused of protecting bourgeois interests and engaging in business with Chinese firms. Following Danzan's death, Choibalsan and Rinchino's political influence diminished as the party's right-wing, led by Tseren-Ochiryn Dambadorj, assumed control and, during a period later referred to as the "Right Opportunism" (1925-1928), promoted rightist policies mirroring Lenin's New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: The rise of Josef Stalin and termination of Lenin's New Economic Policy influenced political developments in the MPR with the 1928 MPRP Seventh Party Congress ushering in the "Leftist Period." Soviet advisors arranged for Choibalsan to be "kicked upstairs" to be Chairman of the Little Hural (i.e. titular head of state) from where, in 1929 and 1930, he supported implementation of Soviet-backed leftist policies of more rapid collectivization, land expropriation, and persecution of the Buddhist faith.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: At the Eighth Party Congress in 1930 Choibalsan contributed to a ramping up leftist socialist reforms when again encouraged by Soviet agents, he introduced personally formulated decrees that intensified land confiscation and forced collectivization measures. His appointment in 1931 as Minister of Livestock and Agriculture (a position he held until 1935) gave him even greater authority to enforce the policies. Traditional herders were forced off the steppe and into badly managed collective farms, destroying one third of Mongolian livestock. Over 800 properties belonging to the nobility and the Buddhist faith were confiscated and over 700 head of mostly noble households were executed.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: The government's aggressive measures ultimately lead to brutal armed uprisings in Khövsgöl, Arkhangai, Övörkhangai, and Zavkhan provinces in 1932. In reaction, Moscow ordered a temporary curtailment of economic centralization efforts. Comintern agents counted on Choibalsan to be a strong advocate for its New Turn policy to correct the "excesses" of "the Left Deviation" when it was introduced in an extraordinary plenum of the MPRP Central Committee in June 1932. Later MPR histories would credit Choibalsan with being the first to criticize the leftist period and propose reforms, but these were mere fabrications meant to build up Choibalsan's cult of personality.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In the summer of 1934, Choibalsan's name surfaced during interrogations of party members arrested as part of the "Lkhümbe Affair," a manufactured conspiracy in which MPRP General Secretary Jambyn Lkhümbe and other MPRP elements, particularly Buryat-Mongols, were falsely accused of conspiring with Japanese spies. The invasion of neighboring Manchuria by Japanese forces in 1931 had raised fears in Ulaanbaatar and Moscow alike of possible Japanese military expansion into Mongolia and the Soviet Far East. Over 1,500 people were implicated in the purge and 56 were executed. Choibalsan was called to Moscow where he was arrested and interrogated regarding his possible involvement. Within days, however, he was cooperating with the NKVD in the interrogation and torture of fellow Mongolians. Satisfied with his loyalty, Stalin ordered Mongolia's Prime Minister Peljidiin Genden to appoint Choibalsan as deputy prime minister. Genden vigorously objected, but to no avail. As relations between Genden and Stalin soured, Choibalsan's influence with Moscow increased. In 1935, as a public sign of his favor, Stalin gifted Choibalsan 20 GAZ automobiles which he distributed among Mongolian power players to increase his prestige.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In 1936 Choibalsan and Gelegdorjiin Demid were appointed Marshals of the Armed Forces while Choibalsan also became head of the newly elevated Ministry of Internal Affairs, 26 percent of whose staff were NKVD agents. Acting under Moscow's directive, Choibalsan then had Genden purged in March 1936 for sabotaging Mongol-Soviet relations by rejecting Stalin's demand that he eliminate the country's Buddhist clergy. Genden was removed from his offices of the prime minister and foreign minister, arrested, and sent to Moscow, where he was executed a year later. Anandyn Amar became Prime Minister in his place.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Over the next three years, Soviet mentors in the Ministry of Internal Affairs guided Choibalsan in planning and carrying out the "Great Terror". Possibly advised by a Soviet Official, Chopyak, Choibalsan had Internal Affairs Committee rules amended in May 1936 to facilitate the detention of high ranking politicians without first consulting political superiors. Soon thereafter 23 high ranking lamas were arrested for participating in a "counter revolutionary centre." Following a yearlong trial, they were publicly executed in early October 1937. When Mongolia's Procurator General protested the lamas' prosecution, he too was arrested and then shot.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In August 1937, the 36-year-old Marshal Demid, whose popularity Choibalsan had always resented, died under suspicious circumstances resulting in Choibalsan's promotion to the dual role of sole Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian military and Minister of Defense. The following day Choibalsan, as Interior Minister, issued Order 366 which declared that many in Mongolia "had fallen under the influence of Japanese spies and provocateurs." That same month Stalin, alarmed by Japanese military movements in Manchuria ordered the stationing of 30,000 Red Army troops in Mongolia and had dispatched a large Soviet delegation to Ulaanbaatar under Soviet Deputy NKVD Commissar Mikhail Frinovsky. Frinovsky was charged with setting in motion the violent purges that he had so effectively carried out in the Soviet Union under NKVD Chief Nikolai Yezhov. Working through Soviet advisers already embedded within the Ministry of Interior and with a willing Choibalsan providing symbolic cover, Frinovsky built the purge framework from behind the scenes; producing arrest lists and creating an NKVD style Troika (headed by Choibalsan) to try suspects.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: The arrest of 65 high ranking government officials and intelligentsia on the night of 10 September 1937, signaled the launch of the purges in earnest. All were accused of spying for Japan as part of a Genden-Demid plot and most confessed under intense torture. The first show trial was staged at the Central Theatre from 18 to 20 October 1937. Thirteen of the 14 persons accused were sentenced to death.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In a spasm of violence that lasted nearly 18 months, Choibalsan's troika approved and carried out the execution of over 17,000 counterrevolutionary lamas. Monks that were not executed were forcibly laicized while 746 of the country's monasteries were liquidated. Thousands more dissident intellectuals, political and government officials labelled "enemies of the revolution," as well as ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs were also rounded up and killed. Twenty-five persons from top positions in the party and government were executed, 187 from the military leadership, 36 of the 51 members of the Central Committee. Following the Russian model, Choibalsan opened gulags in the countryside to imprison dissidents. While the NKVD effectively managed the purge by staging show trials and carrying out executions, a frequently intoxicated Choibalsan was sometimes present during torture and interrogations of suspected counterrevolutionaries, including old friends and comrades. Choibalsan rubber-stamped NKVD execution orders and at times personally directed executions. He also added names of political enemies to NKVD arrest lists simply to settle old scores.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Racked with stress, Choibalsan spent six months (August 1938 – January 1939) recuperating and consulting with Voroshilov, Yezhov, and Stalin in Moscow and Sochi while NKVD agents and Interior Ministry officials carried on purge operations from Ulaanbaatar. When he returned to Mongolia, Choibalsan followed Soviet directives and had the highly popular Prime Minister Amar purged. Choibalsan claimed he "had helped anti-government plotters, opposed their arrest, and neglected the defense of the borders. He betrayed his own country and was a traitor to the revolution." After a coordinated propaganda campaign, Amar was arrested on 7 March 1939 and sent to the USSR, where he was later tried by a Soviet Troika and executed.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: With Amar's removal, Choibalsan became Mongolia's uncontested leader, simultaneously holding the office Prime Minister, Minister for Internal Affairs, Minister of War, and Commander in Chief of the Mongolian armed forces. Secured in his position, Choibalsan brought the terror to an end in April 1939 by declaring that the excesses of the purges had been conducted by overzealous party officials while he was away in the USSR, but that he had overseen the arrests of the real criminals. Official blame for the purges fell on the deputy minister of internal affairs Nasantogtoh, and his former Soviet handler Kichikov. Later, other henchmen of the purge were arrested and executed, including Luvsansharav, Bayasgalan, Dashtseveg, and Luvsandorj. Dogsom and Losol, the last two living members (besides Choibalsan himself) of the original seven founding members of the MPRP, were also arrested. Dogsom was executed in 1941. Losol died in a Soviet prison before his case came to trial.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In the spring of 1939, Japanese Kwantung Army military leaders moved to test the resolve of the Soviet and Mongolian militaries to protect disputed territory along Mongolia's southeast border with Japanese occupied Manchuria. Over the course of three battles (May – September 1939) a heavily armoured Soviet military force commanded by Georgy Zhukov decisively defeated the Japanese advance near the village of Nomonhan. There were nearly 8,000 casualties for both the Soviet and Japanese forces. Nevertheless, the victory, which took place close to his birthplace, helped cement Choibalsan's growing cult of personality which portrayed him as a staunch defender of Mongolian independence against imperialist Japanese aggression.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Choibalsan proclaimed his country's unwavering support for the Soviet Union after Germany's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, although Mongolia never officially declared war against Germany and waited until August 1945 to declare war against Japan. As early as 1939, Stalin had pushed Choibalsan to increase Mongolia's livestock population to 200 million as a source of raw materials for the Soviet Union in the event of war in Europe. Throughout the conflict, the MPR's economy was re-calibrated to provide material support to the Soviet Union in the form of livestock, raw materials, money, food, military clothing, meat, sheepskin, felt boots, fur-lined coats, and funding for several Soviet military units. Choibalsan and the newly elected Secretary General of the MPRP Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal traveled to the front near Moscow to distribute gifts to Red Army troops. Stalin awarded Choibalsan the Order of Lenin for his outstanding effort in organizing Mongolian people for the delivery of aid in goods to Red Army in July 1944.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Despite the privations of wartime, Choibalsan and party leaders pressed on with what limited social progress they could manage while delivering much of the country's economic output to the Soviets. Choibalsan consistently sought Moscow's assent before making key policy decisions, even in minor matters and made efforts to curry Moscow's favour whenever possible. At the Tenth Party Congress in March to April 1940, Choibalsan arranged the purge of MPRP Secretary-General Baasanjav and had him replaced with a new favorite of Stalin's, 24-year-old Minister of Finance Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal. Although he relinquished leadership of the MPRP, Choibalsan continued to be the predominant force in Mongolian politics and pushed through reforms of the Mongolian constitution more in line with the 1936 USSR Constitution that effectively ended the influence and power of Buddhist church. Between 1941 and 1946 the country adopted Cyrillic script in place of the traditional Mongolian script. On 5 October 1942 Choibalsan University in Ulaanbaatar opened financed largely by the Soviets and with courses taught in Russian.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: An ardent Mongolian nationalist, Choibalsan never gave up a hope of uniting all of the Mongols under the auspices of the Mongolian People's Republic. Until 1945 he had encouraged an ethnic insurgency in Eastern Xinjiang (with Stalin's support), looking to strengthening the MPR's influence in the region and possibly beyond to Gansu and Qinghai. He saw the impending defeat of Japan as an opportunity to realize his long-held dream of a "Great Mongolia", the uniting of Outer and Inner Mongolia, and he fully expected Stalin's backing as a reward for Mongolia's steadfast support of the Soviets during the war. On 10 August 1945, Mongolia declared war on Japan two days after the Soviet Union and both armies joined forces to attack Japanese strongholds in northern China during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. At the same time, Choibalsan unleashed a brief wave of pan-Mongolist nationalism through the press, calling for unification and encouraging a grassroots pan-Mongolist movement in Inner Mongolia. When Choibalsan ordered Mongolian troops to move south of the Great Wall as far as Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Batu-Khaalga, he was ordered by an angry Stalin to call them back. Conversely, it also marked greater Mongolia's permanent division into an independent Mongolian People's Republic and a neighboring Inner Mongolia.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: With the end of the war, Mongolia embarked on a policy of "construction of the foundations of socialism." Proclaiming it "necessary to exterminate the concept of property," Choibalsan looked to modernize the country based on the Soviet model while expanding the communal agriculture sector. Funded largely through Soviet aid, the country's first five-year plan (1948–1952) focused on economic development, infrastructure construction, and doubling the country's livestock. Initiatives also were taken to redevelop the agrarian, industrial, transportation sectors. Under his government the Nalaikh coal mine, the electric grid, Züün Bayan petroleum factory, other metal and mineral factories, the Naushk-Ulaanbaatar railway and other transportation systems were developed along with communications sectors, to establish modern mining, and improve education and health services. In addition to establishing the country's first major university, Choibalsan initiated policies to increase literacy rate and developed the 10 year elementary, middle and high school system. The 1949 Communist victory in China eliminated, at least temporarily, the threat on Mongolia's southern border, allowing the MPR to begin reducing its 80,000-strong army. Defense expenditures dropped from 33 percent of the total budget in 1948 to 15 percent in 1952.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Although Choibalsan maintained a policy of stronger ties with the Soviet Union (in February 1946 he renewed the 1936 Protocol Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance for another ten years and concluded the first bilateral agreement on economic and cultural cooperation), he nonetheless understood the importance solidifying Mongolia's independence through international recognition. In 1948 the MPR established diplomatic relations with the DPRK (North Korea) and then with the People's Republic of China in 1949 (Mongolia was the first country to recognize the PRC). In 1950 the Eastern Bloc Communist states of East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia all established formal relations with the MPR.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: While never reaching the frenzied levels of 1937–1939, arrests and executions of dissidents persisted until Choibalsan's death in 1952. Repressions were initiated in 1940, 1941, and 1942. In 1947, a political scandal known as "Port-Arthur" was fabricated around a fictitious plot to assassinate Choibalsan; eighty people were arrested, 42 of whom were executed. The MPRP Central Committee issued proclamations to fight increased anti-revolutionary sentiment and Interior Ministry secret police cells sprouted throughout the country. Party allegiance was strengthened by growing membership in the MPRP. Membership doubled from 1940 to 1947, reaching nearly 28,000.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Throughout his remaining years of life, Choibalsan continued to hold out hope of a united Mongolia especially after the victory of Chinese communists in 1949. When it became clear that Stalin would never back unification, he grew increasingly disillusioned with his former hero. Personal relations between the two leaders deteriorated to the point that by 1949 Choibalsan refused to attend Stalin's 70th-birthday celebration in Moscow, sending Tsedenbal in his place. When in 1950 Tsedenbal and other protégés urged Choibalsan to have Mongolia follow the example of Tuva and petition Moscow to be permitted to join the Soviet Union, Choibalsan severely rebuked them.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: In late 1951 Choibalsan traveled to Moscow to receive treatment for kidney cancer. According to some sources, this was at the insistence of the Soviets due to the lack of equipment in Mongolia to treat the illness. He was taken by train to the hospital for a week and he died there on 26 January 1952, soon after he had arrived. Due to the falling out between himself and Stalin that preceded his stay in Moscow, it is often suspected that Choibalsan was killed by MGB agents.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Choibalsan's body was returned by a special train to Mongolia with full military honors and was given a state funeral in the capital which was attended by Mongolian and Soviet officials alike. Many days of mourning were declared throughout the country. He was originally buried at the Altan Ulgii cemetery in Ulaanbaatar. In July 1954 his body was moved to the newly built Mausoleum for Sükhbaatar in front of Government House on the north side of Sükhbaatar Square, where the two lay until after the 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia. The Mausoleum was torn down in 2005 and the corpses of both rulers were ritually cremated under the supervision of the Buddhist clergy, and the ashes entombed again at Altan Ulgii cemetery.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Choibalsan married a devout Buddhist seamstress named Borotologai in 1921 and the two remained married until 1935 despite his womanizing. In 1929 he began an affair with the actress Diwa (Dewee), after which Borotologai requested a divorce in 1935. Choibalsan then married a modern woman named B. Gündegmaa. He had no children with either of his wives. In 1937 Choibalsan adopted the son of one of his Interior Ministry subordinates, although rumors claimed that the boy was, in fact, Choibalsan's illegitimate child. Later Gündegmaa adopted a girl, Suwd.


title: Khorloogiin Choibalsan

text: Choibalsan's image in modern Mongolia remains mixed. At the time of his death, he was widely mourned as a hero, a patriot, and ultimately a martyr for the cause of Mongolian independence. Remnants of his strong personality cult, as well as successful efforts by his successor Tsendenbal to obstruct "de-Stalinization" efforts that could have shed light on Choibalsan's actions during the purges, helped solidify the positive regard many Mongolians held of their former leader. Official criticisms of Choibalsan in 1956 and 1969, which blamed him for "crude violations of the revolutionary law [that] led to many people perishing," and even the MPRP Central Committee's 1962 decision, in lock-step with Khrushchev's anti-Stalinization policies, to take "decisive measures to ensure complete liquidation of the harmful consequences of Kh. Choibalsan's cult of personality in all spheres of life," failed to generate serious public discourse on the matter.