ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September, 1939. It was during the early stages of World War II. After Nazi Germany had invaded Poland from the west on September 1. The Soviet Union invaded from the east and ended on 6 October 1939. Germany and the Soviet Union divided the whole of the Second Polish Republic. In early 1939, the Soviet Union asked the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Romania to make an alliance against Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union wanted Poland and Romania to let Soviet troops go through their territory, but Poland and Romania refused. The Soviet Union made a secret deal with Nazi Germany on 23 August. They planned to divide Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet lands. One week later, German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast to wait for French and British support. The Soviet Red Army invaded the eastern Polish region of Kresy on 17 September. The Soviet government used the excuse that it was acting to protect the Ukrainians and Belarusians, who lived in the eastern part of Poland. The Soviet government took pver the area. In November 1939, it made the 13.5 million formerly-Polish citizens become Soviet citizens. The Soviets sent hundreds of thousands of people from the region to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union. Soviet forces stayed in eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when the German Army invaded Operation Barbarossa. The area was under Nazi occupation until the Red Army reconquered it in the summer of 1944. An agreement at the Yalta Conference let the Soviet Union keep almost all of what it had occupied in the Second Polish Republic. The People's Republic of Poland got the southern half of East Prussia and lands east of the Oder-Neisse Line. The Soviet Union put those areas into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR or Soviet Ukraine was in the southwestern part of the Soviet Union. It had the second largest population of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union. This lasted from 1922 to 1991. The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations. It did not really have much power because it was tightly controlled by central all-Soviet Union authorities. When the Soviet Union broke apart, the Ukrainian SSR became Ukraine. During its 72-year history, the republic's borders changed many times. The eastern city of Kharkiv was the republic's first capital. However, in 1934, it was moved to the city of Kyiv. Kyiv is still the capital of Ukraine. Among other largest cities there were Odesa, Dnipro, Donetsk (named Stalino before 1961), Lviv, Zaporizhia. History. Ukrainian SSR was one of 4 first republics of USSR. In 1939 some lands of Western Ukraine was incorporated in Ukrainian SSR. It was occupied by Poland in 1921 and had cities Lviv, Ternopil, Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), Rivne. In 1940 was taken from Romania Nortern Bukovina (Chernivtsy oblast) and part of Bessarabia. During the WWIV all of its territory was occupied. There was large partisan movements.  Kyiv and Odesa became hero cities. In 1953 former head of Communist party of Ukraine Nikita Khrushchev became the General Secretary of the CPSU. In 1964 he was removed by Ukrainian Leonid Brezhnev who was in office before his death in 1982. In 1954 Crimea was incorporated in Ukrainian SSR. In 1986 there was Chernobyl atomic station catastrophe. Demographic. In the republic there were about 29 mln people in 1926, 47.1 mln in 1970, 49.6 mln in 1979, 51.7 mln in 1989. In 1989 5 cities had
The Linear Pottery culture was an important culture in the Neolithic (later Stone Age) of Europe. It was from 5500–4500 BC. It is abbreviated as LBK and is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Incised Ware culture. The most evidence for the culture is in Central Europe. It is important evidence for early farming in Europe. The pottery after which it was named has simple cups, bowls, vases and jugs, without handles. They were made as kitchen dishes, or for carrying food and drink. The pots had line patterns on them. Farming. The LBK people lived over a period of 1000 years, long before the Bronze Age and farmed crops like wheat, lentils and peas. They also kept cows and dogs, and sometimes hunted in the forests around them for other animals, like deer. Food and health. Their diet probably didn't contain enough energy (like carbohydrates), as they often did not grow as tall as the people who came before them, or as people do now. This might have also been because of disease, which can spread more easily in a village than it can when people are moving about a lot and not seeing many other people, as people did before the Neolithic. People in the LBK culture probably died quite young, in their twenties or thirties, and many of their children would die before they grew up.  If a person was very sick and in a lot of pain, the LBK people might have had access to opium which took away the pain. They probably knew how to make some illnesses better by using wild herbs as medicine. Religion. The LBK people probably worshiped a mother goddess, who represented the fertility of the land they farmed. Tools. Because this was before the Bronze or Iron Ages, there were no metal tools, and everything the LBK people had was made from either stone, wood and plants (such as flax which could be made into clothing, and things that could be got from animals (like leather or fur). They even had sickles, which are used for cutting down grass and are half-moon shaped blades with a handle coming off
The Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient horse-riding nomads of Iranic origin. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Cimmerians lived in the north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC. They lived in what is now Ukraine and Russia. Others have said there is no evidence of Cimmerians in the southern parts of Russia. Most experts assess Cimmerians belong to the Iranian speaking group. A recent DNA analysis (Oct. 2018) of three Cimmerians indicate "the appearance of East Asian haplogroups in the steppe populations might be associated with the Iron Age nomads, starting with the Cimmerians." The authors found it "noteworthy that the oldest of the Cimmerians studied here (cim357) carried almost equal proportions of Asian and West Eurasian components, resembling the Pazyryks, Aldy-Bel, and Iron Age individuals from Russia and Kazakhstan. The second oldest Cimmerian (cim358) was also the only one with both uniparental markers pointing toward East Asia. The Q1* Y chromosome sublineage of Q-M242 is widespread among Asians and Native Americans and is thought to have originated in the Altai Mountains. It has previously been identified in numerous ancient samples from Siberia, the Americas, and in representatives of the Siberian Bronze Age and nomadic populations. This is the first indication that Cimmerians did not originate in the PCS region but were nomads tracing their origin to the Far East." A new study in July 2019 revealed that 2 other Cimmerians were of haplogroup R1a-Z645 and R1a2c-B111.
The Varangians or Varyags was the name given by Greeks and East Slavs to Vikings. Between the 9th and the 11th centuries they ruled the medieval state of Rus'. They were the personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperors, and formed the Byzantine Varangian Guard. A group of Varangians known as the Rus' settled in Novgorod in 864, under the leadership of Rurik. Rurik's relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882. He made the state of Kievan Rus', which was later ruled by Ruriks descendants. The name of the Rus' is the origin of the name Russia. Varangians did trade, piracy and mercenary activities. They move around using the river systems and portages of Gardariki. The Gardariki was the areas north of the Black Sea. They had trade routes that connected Dark Age Europe with rich Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire. Wanting the riches of Constantinople, Rus' Varangians started a number of Rus'-Byzantine Wars. Most of them, both in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from paganism into Orthodox Christianity. Most scientific experts, including the ethnic Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian people themselves, confirm the modern-day East Slavic ethnic group to be the direct, ancestral descendants of the Rus'.
Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus', known as Yaroslav the Wise (c. 978 – February 20, 1054) was Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kyiv. He brought together the two principalities for a time under his rule. A son of the Varangian (Viking) Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father’s death in 1015. His oldest surviving brother, Svyatopolk the Accursed, killed three of his other brothers and took power in Kyiv. Yaroslav, with the support of the Novgorodians and the help of Varangian mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk. He became the Grand Prince of Kyiv in 1019. Yaroslav started to write down the legal customs. This served as the basis for a law code called the Russkaya Pravda ("Russian Justice"). During his long reign, Rus' reached the height of its cultural flowering and military power.
The Belarusian People's Republic, historically called the White Ruthenian Democratic Republic, was a self-declared independent Belarusian state. They said they were independent in 1918. It is also called the "Belarusian Democratic Republic" or the "Belarusian National Republic". This is to be separate from the Communist People's Republics. The BNR was recognized by several Central Powers and former Russian countries. It was not recognized by most of the international community. They country ended when Belarus went under Soviet control. The Belorussian SSR was founded in 1919. The leaders of the government went into exile. They still say the Belarusian People's Republic is a country.  Presidents. Chairmans of the Council of BNR:
William Clark Haines (1810–3 February 1866) was the first Premier of Victoria. He served two terms as premier, the first from 30 November 1855 to 25 August 1856, and a second term from 29 April 1857 to 10 March 1858. Born in London, Haines attended Charterhouse school, and then Cambridge University where he studied surgery. He moved to Victoria in 1842, and started farming around Geelong. After selling the farms in the 1850's he became a magistrate and was appointed to Victoria's Legislative Council. He helped to write the Victorian Constitution. In December 1854 he became the Colonial Secretary, and assisted the Governor of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham.  The British government passed the Victorian Constitution Act in 1855. Hotham was convinced to hand his power over as soon as possible. Haines and three other council members were made government ministers with the job of organizing the change to self-government. Haines was appointed by Hotham to be the Chief Secretary of Victoria and act as Premier until the elections could be orgaized. He resigned when several of the ministers wanted the elections by secret ballot. He thought this would increase corruption and bribery. He was reappointed when the Council decided that it, not the ministers should make the decision. He was the Chief Secretary until the first election in November 1856. After the election, as a member of the new Legislative Assembly, Haines became Premier until his government was defeated in 1857 by a group led by Sir John O'Shanassy. The O'Shanassy government was soon defeated and Haines again became Premier. In 1858 he was defeated during arguments about how the electorates should be divided.  Haines traveled to the USA and Europe. On his return to Victoria in October 1860, he was again elected to the parliament, and became Treasurer in O'Shanassey's government. After losing his seat in 1863, he was appointed to the Legislative Council.
The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921) was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic. It was for control of what is now Ukraine and part of Belarus. A formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga, was signed on 18 March 1921. It divided the land between Poland and Soviet Russia. Much of the land that was given to Poland became part of the Soviet Union after World War II.
West Belarus is the name used to mean to the land of modern Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic between 1919 and 1939. The land is Hrodna and Brest voblasts. It is also parts of today's Minsk and Vitsebsk oblasts. The historical population of West Belarus included Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, and Russians.
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas is a major Eastern European river. It starts in Belarus and flows through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches. It also very briefly forms part of the border between Lithuania and Belarus. It is the largest river in Lithuania and the 3rd largest in Belarus. People are able to travel on it for most of its 900-kilometer length. Its depth varies from one meter to five meters. The Neman tributaries. The Neman tributaries are: the rivers Neris (Viliya), the Shchara, and the Šešupė, Svisloch, Nevėžis River, Dubysa, Jūra, Minija, Western Berezina, Zelvyanka, Molchad, Roś, Servech, Losha, Gorodnichanka and others. Biological communities. The following fish have been found in the Neman: perch, pike, zander, roach, tench, bream, rudd, ruffe, and bleak. Its tributaries also contain stone loach, the three-spined stickleback, minnows, trout, sculpins, gudgeon, dace and chub. Atlantic salmon used to migrate upstream to spawn. The dams on the river made there be less. The dam at Kaunas does not provide fish ladders.
The Pripyat River or Prypiat River is a river in Eastern Europe. It is about long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again. It drains into the Dnieper. The Pripyat passes through the zone of alienation around the Chernobyl reactor, site of the nuclear disaster. It is polluted with radionuclides. The amount of caesium-137 in river sediments continues to go up. The city of Prypiat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster.
Jalan Damai Secondary School or simply SMK Jalan Damai, is a national secondary school located in Kampung Baru, Penang, Malaysia. It has about 2370 students and 120 teachers. SMK Jalan Damai, Bukit Mertajam was founded on 5th January 1970. At that time, it was known as Sekolah Menengah Rendah, Bukit Mertajam (the Lower Secondary School, Bukit Mertajam) with a total of 717 students and 29 teachers (including a religious teacher and a principal Mr. A. Gopala Krishnan).During that time, the official buildings were still under construction, so the students had to share facilities and spaces with Sekolah Tinggi Bukit Mertajam (Bukit Mertajam High School) in the afternoon session. At the end of 1973, the new buildings (14 classrooms, 3 science labs, 2 domestic science rooms, industrial arts workshop and canteen) were completed on Jalan Damai, Bukit Mertajam. On the 7th of January 1974, 602 students moved to the new buildings. In December 2020, SMK Jalan Damai has changed principle again. The new principle's name is Dr. Ooi Yek Hwa. He succeeded the job from Mr Lee Cheah Kuen. Mr Lee Cheak Kuen retired on December 2020. ..
The Governor of Victoria represents the head of state, Charles III in the Australian state of Victoria. The Governor performs the same tasks at the state level as the Governor-General of Australia at the national level. The Governor's office and official residence is Government House in central Melbourne. The current Governor of Victoria is Margaret Gardner. Powers. In a Westminster system of parliamentary government, the Governor nearly always acts on the advice of the head of the elected government, the Premier of Victoria. However, the Governor retains the reserve powers of the Crown, and has the right to dismiss the Premier. Related offices. There is also a Lieutenant-Governor and an Administrator. The Chief Justice of Victoria is the Administrator, unless he or she is the Lieutenant-Governor, in which case, the next most senior judge is the Administrator. The Lieutenant-Governor takes on the job of the Governor when that post is vacant, when the Governor is out of the State, or is unable to act. The Administrator takes on those duties if both the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are unable to act.  Australian-born governors. The first Australian (and Victorian) born Governor of Victoria was Sir Henry Winneke (appointed 1974). Apart from Dr Davis McCaughey (b. Ireland), Professor David de Kretser (born in Ceylon) and Alex Chernov (born in Lithuania), all governors since 1974 have been born in Australia. List of governors of Victoria. Lieutenant-governors. Before 1855, the Governor-General of New South Wales appointed Lieutenant-Governors to Victoria.
Alex Chernov AC QC (born 12 May 1938) was the Governor of Victoria from 2011 through 2015. Early life. Chernov was born in Lithuania to Russian parents, and moved with his family to Salzburg, Austria where he started school. In 1949 his family moved to Australia and he completed his schooling at Melbourne High School. He studied commerce (business) and law at the University of Melbourne during the 1960s. Career. Chernov became a barrister in 1968, practising mostly in commercial law and equity. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1980. He was Chairman of the Victorian Bar 1985–86, Vice-President of the Australian Bar Association 1986–87 and President of the Law Council of Australia 1990–91. He was Vice President of LawAsia 1995–1997. He wrote a book with Robert Brooking AO, "Tenancy Law and Practice: Victoria" (1972) and edited the second edition (1980). In May 1997 he was appointed to the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Victoria, and in October 1998 to the Court of Appeal. He retired in February 2008. He was elected the 20th Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in January 2009, serving in that office until he resigned to become Governor of Victoria. Vice-regal office. On 21 February 2011, it was announced that he would become the 28th Governor of Victoria. He took officee on 8 April 2011. Personal life. Chernov is married with three children. Honours. Chernov was appointed Queen's Counsel in and for the State of Victoria in 1980. Chernov was created an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list for service to the law and education. On 26 January 2011, Chernov was named a Companion of the Order of Australia.
The yellow-billed magpie ("Pica nuttalli") is a species of magpie, a type of songbird. It is a medium-sized member of the crow family with glossy black and white plumage and a yellow beak. The yellow-billed magpie lives only in California where it can be found in dry and warm oak savannah and shady valleys along the Central Valley. It is an omnivorous species: Insects and seeds are its main food, but it also takes carrion, small vertebrates and eggs. The breeding season of the yellow-billed magpie starts in April and it takes until the end of June for all chicks to fledge. The birds breed in loose colonies of 3−30 nests and they feed in flocks of several dozens. John James Audubon was the first person to formally describe the yellow-billed magpie. He named it "Corvus nuttalli" to honor the naturalist Thomas Nuttall. Within the genus "Pica", the species is closest to the North American black-billed magpie ("P. hudsonia"). Both species share a common ancestor that migrated from Kamtchatka to Alaska some time in the Pleistocene. Black-billed and yellow-billed magpie diverged as a result of the glaciation of the Rocky Mountains. The yellow-billed yagpie became isolated in the warm climate of California and adapted to it. The species' population was hit hard by the outbreak of the West Nile Virus after 1999. It is currently not considered as endangered, but the virus and the degradation of its habitat pose a serious threat to some populations.
Heathrow Terminals 2 &amp; 3 is a station of the London Underground. It is at Heathrow Airport and serves terminals 2 and 3 of the airport. The station used to be called Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3 until January 2016 when Heathrow Terminal 1 closed. Although the station has been renamed, the signage and announcements on the train and platform do not use the new name. It is on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly Line.
William Hogarth (10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist.  He is said to have started Western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraits to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". His work is so well known that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Moral series art. Harlot's Progress. In 1731, he completed a series of moral works which made him recognised as a great and original genius. This was "A Harlot's Progress". It was first done as paintings, which are now lost. Then the series was published as engravings. In the six scenes, the fate of a country girl who became a prostitute in town is traced out. At the start, the girl meets a bawd, a woman who persuades her to take up prostitution. At her shameful end, the girl dies of venereal disease and there follows a merciless funeral ceremony. The engraving show vivid scenes of drunken and loose behaviour. The series was an immediate success. Rake's Progress. "A Rake's Progress" showed in eight pictures the reckless life of Tom Rakewell, the son of a rich merchant. Tom wastes all his money on luxurious living, whoring, and gambling, and dies in Bedlam. The original paintings of "A Rake's Progress" is displayed in the gallery room at Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Marriage à-la-mode. In 1743–1745 Hogarth painted the six pictures of "Marriage à-la-mode" (National Gallery, London), a pointed skewering of upper class 18th century society. This moralistic warning shows the miserable tragedy of an ill-considered marriage for money. This is regarded by many as his finest project and may be among his best planned story serials. Marital ethics were the topic of much debate in 18th century Britain. Marriages of convenience, and their unhappiness, came in for particular criticism. The series shows the story of the fashionable marriage of the son of bankrupt
Sir Andrew Huxley OM FRS (Andrew Fielding Huxley, 22 November 1917 – 30 May 2012) was an English physiologist and biophysicist. Huxley was born in Hampstead, London. He was the youngest son of writer and editor Leonard Huxley by his second wife Rosalind Bruce. He was the half-brother of writer Aldous Huxley and fellow biologist Julian Huxley, and grandson of biologist T H. Huxley. He studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge. Huxley won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alan Hodgkin and John Eccles for his experimental and mathematical work with Alan Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials. These are the electrical impulses that make nerve fibres work, and so the whole central nervous system. Hodgkin and Huxley shared the prize that year with Sir John Eccles, who was cited for research on nerve synapses. Hodgkin and Huxley's findings led the pair to suggest the existence of ion channels, which were found only decades later. Huxley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 17 March 1955. He was President of the Royal Society from 1980 to 1985, and Master of Trinity from 1984–1990. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on 12 November 1974, and appointed to the Order of Merit on 11 November 1983. He was elected a member of the Academia Europaea in 1989.