Answer: to respond to criticisms of earlier editions

Context: In the sixth edition Darwin inserted a new chapter VII (renumbering the subsequent chapters) to respond to criticisms of earlier editions, including the objection that many features of organisms were not adaptive and could not have been produced by natural selection. He said some such features could have been by-products of adaptive changes to other features, and that often features seemed non-adaptive because their function was unknown, as shown by his book on Fertilisation of Orchids that explained how their elaborate structures facilitated pollination by insects. Much of the chapter responds to George Jackson Mivart's criticisms, including his claim that features such as baleen filters in whales, flatfish with both eyes on one side and the camouflage of stick insects could not have evolved through natural selection because intermediate stages would not have been adaptive. Darwin proposed scenarios for the incremental evolution of each feature.

Question: Why did Darwin introduce a new chapter in On the Origin of Species in the sixth edition?


Answer: that many features of organisms were not adaptive and could not have been produced by natural selection

Question: What was one of the objections that Darwin addressed in his new chapter in On the Origin of Species?


Answer: Fertilisation of Orchids

Question: Which of Darwin's books featured a plant whose elaborate structure aided with fertilization by insects?


Answer: George Jackson Mivart

Question: Which scientist was addressed the most often in the new chapter of On the Origin of Species?


Answer: Darwin proposed scenarios for the incremental evolution of each feature.

Question: What was Darwin's response to the claims that certain animals could not have evolved through natural selection?


Answer: Charles Lyell

Context: Chapter IX deals with the fact that the geologic record appears to show forms of life suddenly arising, without the innumerable transitional fossils expected from gradual changes. Darwin borrowed Charles Lyell's argument in Principles of Geology that the record is extremely imperfect as fossilisation is a very rare occurrence, spread over vast periods of time; since few areas had been geologically explored, there could only be fragmentary knowledge of geological formations, and fossil collections were very poor. Evolved local varieties which migrated into a wider area would seem to be the sudden appearance of a new species. Darwin did not expect to be able to reconstruct evolutionary history, but continuing discoveries gave him well founded hope that new finds would occasionally reveal transitional forms. To show that there had been enough time for natural selection to work slowly, he again cited Principles of Geology and other observations based on sedimentation and erosion, including an estimate that erosion of The Weald had taken 300 million years. The initial appearance of entire groups of well developed organisms in the oldest fossil-bearing layers, now known as the Cambrian explosion, posed a problem. Darwin had no doubt that earlier seas had swarmed with living creatures, but stated that he had no satisfactory explanation for the lack of fossils. Fossil evidence of pre-Cambrian life has since been found, extending the history of life back for billions of years.

Question: Whose argument did Darwin borrow that geological record is very imperfect, because fossilization is rare?


Answer: Principles of Geology

Question: Which book written by Charles Lyell contains the argument that fossils are too rare to be used as proof of life suddenly arising?


Answer: that new finds would occasionally reveal transitional forms

Question: What did Darwin hope to find as he continued to explore new geologic discoveries?


Answer: 300 million years

Question: How long did Darwin estimate the erosion of the Weald to be?


Answer: the Cambrian explosion

Question: What is the name of the group of well-developed organisms that were discovered within fossil-bearing layers?


Answer: slowly, but not at the same rate

Context: Chapter X examines whether patterns in the fossil record are better explained by common descent and branching evolution through natural selection, than by the individual creation of fixed species. Darwin expected species to change slowly, but not at the same rate – some organisms such as Lingula were unchanged since the earliest fossils. The pace of natural selection would depend on variability and change in the environment. This distanced his theory from Lamarckian laws of inevitable progress. It has been argued that this anticipated the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis, but other scholars have preferred to emphasise Darwin's commitment to gradualism. He cited Richard Owen's findings that the earliest members of a class were a few simple and generalised species with characteristics intermediate between modern forms, and were followed by increasingly diverse and specialised forms, matching the branching of common descent from an ancestor. Patterns of extinction matched his theory, with related groups of species having a continued existence until extinction, then not reappearing. Recently extinct species were more similar to living species than those from earlier eras, and as he had seen in South America, and William Clift had shown in Australia, fossils from recent geological periods resembled species still living in the same area.

Question: How did Darwin expect species to change and evolve?


Answer: variability and change in the environment

Question: What did Darwin believe were the key things needed for variation of species to form?


Answer: Richard Owen

Question: Which scientist theorized that the earliest members of a class in a species were simple and generalized?


Answer: Recently extinct species were more similar to living species than those from earlier eras

Question: What did Darwin discover about more recently extinct species?


Answer: South America, Africa, and Australia all have regions with similar climates at similar latitudes, but those regions have very different plants and animals

Context: Chapter XI deals with evidence from biogeography, starting with the observation that differences in flora and fauna from separate regions cannot be explained by environmental differences alone; South America, Africa, and Australia all have regions with similar climates at similar latitudes, but those regions have very different plants and animals. The species found in one area of a continent are more closely allied with species found in other regions of that same continent than to species found on other continents. Darwin noted that barriers to migration played an important role in the differences between the species of different regions. The coastal sea life of the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Central America had almost no species in common even though the Isthmus of Panama was only a few miles wide. His explanation was a combination of migration and descent with modification. He went on to say: "On this principle of inheritance with modification, we can understand how it is that sections of genera, whole genera, and even families are confined to the same areas, as is so commonly and notoriously the case." Darwin explained how a volcanic island formed a few hundred miles from a continent might be colonised by a few species from that continent. These species would become modified over time, but would still be related to species found on the continent, and Darwin observed that this was a common pattern. Darwin discussed ways that species could be dispersed across oceans to colonise islands, many of which he had investigated experimentally.

Question: Why couldn't differences in flora and fauna be explained by differences in regions alone?


Answer: barriers to migration played an important role in the differences between the species of different regions.

Question: What did Darwin consider that could explain why different regions could have such different species when they are close together?


Answer: His explanation was a combination of migration and descent with modification.

Question: What was the combination of effects that Darwin considered the most important in determining the differences in species that evolved separately in similar environments?


Answer: morphology

Context: Darwin discusses morphology, including the importance of homologous structures. He says, "What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?" He notes that animals of the same class often have extremely similar embryos. Darwin discusses rudimentary organs, such as the wings of flightless birds and the rudiments of pelvis and leg bones found in some snakes. He remarks that some rudimentary organs, such as teeth in baleen whales, are found only in embryonic stages.

Question: What theory does Darwin discuss that is related to the importance of homologous structures?


Answer: the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat

Question: What are some examples that Darwin gives of species whose basic form of limbs is similar, but who have vastly different uses for them?


Answer: animals of the same class often have extremely similar embryos

Question: What does Darwin note about the embryos of many different species in the same class?


Answer: e wings of flightless birds and the rudiments of pelvis and leg bones found in some snakes

Question: What are some examples of rudimentary organs that Darwin discusses in the chapter?


Answer: that his theory might produce revolutionary changes

Context: The final chapter reviews points from earlier chapters, and Darwin concludes by hoping that his theory might produce revolutionary changes in many fields of natural history. Although he avoids the controversial topic of human origins in the rest of the book so as not to prejudice readers against his theory, here he ventures a cautious hint that psychology would be put on a new foundation and that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man". Darwin ends with a passage that became well known and much quoted:

Question: What hopes does Darwin have for his theory in the natural history fields?


Answer: so as not to prejudice readers against his theory

Question: Why did Darwin avoid the topic of the origins of humans in most of his book?


Answer: that psychology would be put on a new foundation and that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man"

Question: What does Darwin allude to hoping in the final chapter of On the Origin of Species about humans?


Answer: to show that species had not been separately created, and to show that natural selection had been the chief agent of change

Context: Darwin's aims were twofold: to show that species had not been separately created, and to show that natural selection had been the chief agent of change. He knew that his readers were already familiar with the concept of transmutation of species from Vestiges, and his introduction ridicules that work as failing to provide a viable mechanism. Therefore, the first four chapters lay out his case that selection in nature, caused by the struggle for existence, is analogous to the selection of variations under domestication, and that the accumulation of adaptive variations provides a scientifically testable mechanism for evolutionary speciation.

Question: What were Darwin's two important aims about evolution?


Answer: the concept of transmutation of species

Question: What did heknow his readers were already familiar with from Vestiges?


Answer: his introduction ridicules that work as failing to provide a viable mechanism.

Question: How did Darwin view Vestiges in the introduction to On the Origin of Species?


Answer: the accumulation of adaptive variations provides a scientifically testable mechanism for evolutionary speciation.

Question: What is Darwin's belief about the accumulation of adaptive variations?


Answer: Darwin presents supporting facts drawn from many disciplines

Context: Later chapters provide evidence that evolution has occurred, supporting the idea of branching, adaptive evolution without directly proving that selection is the mechanism. Darwin presents supporting facts drawn from many disciplines, showing that his theory could explain a myriad of observations from many fields of natural history that were inexplicable under the alternate concept that species had been individually created. The structure of Darwin's argument showed the influence of John Herschel, whose philosophy of science maintained that a mechanism could be called a vera causa (true cause) if three things could be demonstrated: its existence in nature, its ability to produce the effects of interest, and its ability to explain a wide range of observations.

Question: What does Darwin do to show that his theory can support many theories that could not be explained by individual creation of species?


Answer: John Herschel

Question: Whose scientific philosophy argued that a mechanism could be called a vera causa if three things could be shown as true?


Answer: its existence in nature, its ability to produce the effects of interest, and its ability to explain a wide range of observations

Question: What are the three things John Herschel maintains need to be shown to allow for a mechanism be called a true cause?


Answer: Darwin making concessions and adding details to address his critics

Context: While the book was readable enough to sell, its dryness ensured that it was seen as aimed at specialist scientists and could not be dismissed as mere journalism or imaginative fiction. Unlike the still-popular Vestiges, it avoided the narrative style of the historical novel and cosmological speculation, though the closing sentence clearly hinted at cosmic progression. Darwin had long been immersed in the literary forms and practices of specialist science, and made effective use of his skills in structuring arguments. David Quammen has described the book as written in everyday language for a wide audience, but noted that Darwin's literary style was uneven: in some places he used convoluted sentences that are difficult to read, while in other places his writing was beautiful. Quammen advised that later editions were weakened by Darwin making concessions and adding details to address his critics, and recommended the first edition. James T. Costa said that because the book was an abstract produced in haste in response to Wallace's essay, it was more approachable than the big book on natural selection Darwin had been working on, which would have been encumbered by scholarly footnotes and much more technical detail. He added that some parts of Origin are dense, but other parts are almost lyrical, and the case studies and observations are presented in a narrative style unusual in serious scientific books, which broadened its audience.

Question: What reason did David Quammen believe that On the Origin of Species was weakened in later editions?


Answer: because the book was an abstract produced in haste in response to Wallace's essay

Question: Why did James T. Costa think that On the Origin of Species was more likely to draw interest than a larger book that Darwin had been working on?


Answer: it avoided the narrative style of the historical novel and cosmological speculation

Question: What did On Origin of Species avoid in order to raise its chance of being taken seriously?


Answer: its dryness ensured that it was seen as aimed at specialist scientists and could not be dismissed as mere journalism or imaginative fiction.

Question: What element of On the Origin of Species ensured that the book would be taken seriously by scientists?


Answer: would have been encumbered by scholarly footnotes and much more technical detail

Question: Why did James T. Costa think the larger, abandoned book would not have been as successful?


Answer: no sharp line between scientific issues and ideological, social and religious implications

Context: The book aroused international interest and a widespread debate, with no sharp line between scientific issues and ideological, social and religious implications. Much of the initial reaction was hostile, but Darwin had to be taken seriously as a prominent and respected name in science. There was much less controversy than had greeted the 1844 publication Vestiges of Creation, which had been rejected by scientists, but had influenced a wide public readership into believing that nature and human society were governed by natural laws. The Origin of Species as a book of wide general interest became associated with ideas of social reform. Its proponents made full use of a surge in the publication of review journals, and it was given more popular attention than almost any other scientific work, though it failed to match the continuing sales of Vestiges. Darwin's book legitimised scientific discussion of evolutionary mechanisms, and the newly coined term Darwinism was used to cover the whole range of evolutionism, not just his own ideas. By the mid-1870s, evolutionism was triumphant.

Question: Why did On the Origin of Species likely raise so much interest and debate?


Answer: Darwin had to be taken seriously as a prominent and respected name in science

Question: Why was the book taken seriously even though much of the response was hostile?


Answer: social reform

Question: What field of ideas latched onto On the Origin of Species when it became a widespread success?


Answer: Darwin's book legitimised scientific discussion of evolutionary mechanisms

Question: What did Darwin's book do for the field of scientific study of evolution?


Answer: Darwinism

Question: What was the term used to not only describe Darwin's theories, but the whole spectrum of evolution-ism after his book met with success?


Answer: the transmutational ideas of Lamarck and the vague "law of development" of Vestiges had not found scientific favour

Context: Scientific readers were already aware of arguments that species changed through processes that were subject to laws of nature, but the transmutational ideas of Lamarck and the vague "law of development" of Vestiges had not found scientific favour. Darwin presented natural selection as a scientifically testable mechanism while accepting that other mechanisms such as inheritance of acquired characters were possible. His strategy established that evolution through natural laws was worthy of scientific study, and by 1875, most scientists accepted that evolution occurred but few thought natural selection was significant. Darwin's scientific method was also disputed, with his proponents favouring the empiricism of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic, while opponents held to the idealist school of William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, in which investigation could begin with the intuitive truth that species were fixed objects created by design. Early support for Darwin's ideas came from the findings of field naturalists studying biogeography and ecology, including Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1860, and Asa Gray in 1862. Henry Walter Bates presented research in 1861 that explained insect mimicry using natural selection. Alfred Russel Wallace discussed evidence from his Malay archipelago research, including an 1864 paper with an evolutionary explanation for the Wallace line.

Question: What was the general response from scientific readers to Lamarck's written work?


Answer: natural selection as a scientifically testable mechanism while accepting that other mechanisms such as inheritance of acquired characters were possible.

Question: What was the likely reason that Darwin's ideas were accepted more readily than Lamarck's?


Answer: the idealist school of William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences

Question: Which school did opponents to Darwin's method support?


Answer: the findings of field naturalists studying biogeography and ecology, including Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1860, and Asa Gray in 1862

Question: Where did early support for Darwin's findings come from?


Answer: Henry Walter Bates

Question: Who authored research supporting insect mimicry using natural selection?


Answer: Thomas Henry Huxley

Context: Evolution had less obvious applications to anatomy and morphology, and at first had little impact on the research of the anatomist Thomas Henry Huxley. Despite this, Huxley strongly supported Darwin on evolution; though he called for experiments to show whether natural selection could form new species, and questioned if Darwin's gradualism was sufficient without sudden leaps to cause speciation. Huxley wanted science to be secular, without religious interference, and his article in the April 1860 Westminster Review promoted scientific naturalism over natural theology, praising Darwin for "extending the domination of Science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated" and coining the term "Darwinism" as part of his efforts to secularise and professionalise science. Huxley gained influence, and initiated the X Club, which used the journal Nature to promote evolution and naturalism, shaping much of late Victorian science. Later, the German morphologist Ernst Haeckel would convince Huxley that comparative anatomy and palaeontology could be used to reconstruct evolutionary genealogies.

Question: Who supported Darwin's theories on evolution despite it having little impact on his own research?


Answer: scientific naturalism over natural theology

Question: What did Huxley's 1860 article in the Westminster Review promote?


Answer: as part of his efforts to secularise and professionalise science

Question: Why did Huxley coin the name "Darwinism?"


Answer: that comparative anatomy and palaeontology could be used to reconstruct evolutionary genealogies

Question: What did the morphologist Ernst Haeckel convince Huxley of about comparative anatomy and paleontology?


Answer: Richard Owen,

Context: The leading naturalist in Britain was the anatomist Richard Owen, an idealist who had shifted to the view in the 1850s that the history of life was the gradual unfolding of a divine plan. Owen's review of the Origin in the April 1860 Edinburgh Review bitterly attacked Huxley, Hooker and Darwin, but also signalled acceptance of a kind of evolution as a teleological plan in a continuous "ordained becoming", with new species appearing by natural birth. Others that rejected natural selection, but supported "creation by birth", included the Duke of Argyll who explained beauty in plumage by design. Since 1858, Huxley had emphasised anatomical similarities between apes and humans, contesting Owen's view that humans were a separate sub-class. Their disagreement over human origins came to the fore at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting featuring the legendary 1860 Oxford evolution debate. In two years of acrimonious public dispute that Charles Kingsley satirised as the "Great Hippocampus Question" and parodied in The Water-Babies as the "great hippopotamus test", Huxley showed that Owen was incorrect in asserting that ape brains lacked a structure present in human brains. Others, including Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace, thought that humans shared a common ancestor with apes, but higher mental faculties could not have evolved through a purely material process. Darwin published his own explanation in the Descent of Man (1871).

Question: Who was the leading naturalist in Britain?


Answer: bitterly attacked Huxley, Hooker and Darwin, but also signalled acceptance of a kind of evolution as a teleological plan in a continuous "ordained becoming"

Question: How did Owen respond to On the Origin of Species with his review?


Answer: Huxley had emphasised anatomical similarities between apes and humans, contesting Owen's view that humans were a separate sub-class

Question: What was the debate between Huxley and Owen concerning humans and apes?


Answer: legendary 1860 Oxford evolution debate

Question: What was the primary debate at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting of 1860?


Answer: Darwin published his own explanation in the Descent of Man (1871)

Question: When did Darwin publish his own explanation of the question of the evolution of man and ape?


Answer: natural selection

Context: Evolutionary ideas, although not natural selection, were accepted by German biologists accustomed to ideas of homology in morphology from Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants and from their long tradition of comparative anatomy. Bronn's alterations in his German translation added to the misgivings of conservatives, but enthused political radicals. Ernst Haeckel was particularly ardent, aiming to synthesise Darwin's ideas with those of Lamarck and Goethe while still reflecting the spirit of Naturphilosophie. Their ambitious programme to reconstruct the evolutionary history of life was joined by Huxley and supported by discoveries in palaeontology. Haeckel used embryology extensively in his recapitulation theory, which embodied a progressive, almost linear model of evolution. Darwin was cautious about such histories, and had already noted that von Baer's laws of embryology supported his idea of complex branching.

Question: While evolutionary ideas were accepted by German biologists, what was not?


Answer: Bronn's alterations in his German translation added to the misgivings of conservatives

Question: What led to more misgivings of conservative scientists when Bronn's German translation of On the Origin of Species was published?


Answer: political radicals

Question: Which group of people was excited by the German translation of On the Origin of Species?


Answer: aiming to synthesise Darwin's ideas with those of Lamarck and Goethe while still reflecting the spirit of Naturphilosophie

Question: Why were political radicals such as Ernst Haekel so interested in On the Origin of Species?


Answer: Darwin's ideas had little impact in France, where any scientists supporting evolutionary ideas opted for a form of Lamarckism

Context: French-speaking naturalists in several countries showed appreciation of the much modified French translation by Clémence Royer, but Darwin's ideas had little impact in France, where any scientists supporting evolutionary ideas opted for a form of Lamarckism. The intelligentsia in Russia had accepted the general phenomenon of evolution for several years before Darwin had published his theory, and scientists were quick to take it into account, although the Malthusian aspects were felt to be relatively unimportant. The political economy of struggle was criticised as a British stereotype by Karl Marx and by Leo Tolstoy, who had the character Levin in his novel Anna Karenina voice sharp criticism of the morality of Darwin's views.

Question: What was the general feeling toward Darwin's ideas in France?


Answer: The intelligentsia in Russia

Question: What people in what country had embraced the idea of evolution for many years before Darwin published his theory?


Answer: the Malthusian aspects

Question: Which aspects of evolution theory were thought to be unimportant by many who read Darwin's work?


Answer: Leo Tolstoy

Question: Which author voiced his displeasure of the morality of Darwin's views in a novel?


Answer: insistence that a trivial characteristic with no adaptive advantage could not be developed by selection

Context: There were serious scientific objections to the process of natural selection as the key mechanism of evolution, including Karl von Nägeli's insistence that a trivial characteristic with no adaptive advantage could not be developed by selection. Darwin conceded that these could be linked to adaptive characteristics. His estimate that the age of the Earth allowed gradual evolution was disputed by William Thomson (later awarded the title Lord Kelvin), who calculated that it had cooled in less than 100 million years. Darwin accepted blending inheritance, but Fleeming Jenkin calculated that as it mixed traits, natural selection could not accumulate useful traits. Darwin tried to meet these objections in the 5th edition. Mivart supported directed evolution, and compiled scientific and religious objections to natural selection. In response, Darwin made considerable changes to the sixth edition. The problems of the age of the Earth and heredity were only resolved in the 20th century.

Question: What justification for his objections to the process of natural selection did Karl von Nägel give?


Answer: Darwin conceded that these could be linked to adaptive characteristics

Question: What was Darwin's concession to Karl von Nägel's objections?


Answer: William Thomson

Question: Who disputed Darwin's estimate that the age of the earth allowed gradual evolution of species?


Answer: calculated that it had cooled in less than 100 million years

Question: What were William Thomson's reasons for disputing Darwin's estimate?


Answer: in the 20th century

Question: When were the problems of the earth and heredity resolved?


Answer: they believed evolution was purposeful and progressive.

Context: By the mid-1870s, most scientists accepted evolution, but relegated natural selection to a minor role as they believed evolution was purposeful and progressive. The range of evolutionary theories during "the eclipse of Darwinism" included forms of "saltationism" in which new species were thought to arise through "jumps" rather than gradual adaptation, forms of orthogenesis claiming that species had an inherent tendency to change in a particular direction, and forms of neo-Lamarckism in which inheritance of acquired characteristics led to progress. The minority view of August Weismann, that natural selection was the only mechanism, was called neo-Darwinism. It was thought that the rediscovery of Mendelian inheritance invalidated Darwin's views.

Question: Why did most scientists accept the validity of evolution by the 1870s, but considered natural selection a minor part of it?


Answer: new species were thought to arise through "jumps" rather than gradual adaptation

Question: What was meant by the term saltationism?


Answer: orthogenesis

Question: What is the term for the belief that species have a tendency to change and adapt in a certain direction?


Answer: neo-Darwinism

Question: What was the minority view on evolution that was believed by August Weismann?


Answer: Mendelian inheritance

Question: What rediscovered inheritance was thought to invalidate Darwin's views on evolution?


Answer: Alfred Russel Wallace

Context: While some, like Spencer, used analogy from natural selection as an argument against government intervention in the economy to benefit the poor, others, including Alfred Russel Wallace, argued that action was needed to correct social and economic inequities to level the playing field before natural selection could improve humanity further. Some political commentaries, including Walter Bagehot's Physics and Politics (1872), attempted to extend the idea of natural selection to competition between nations and between human races. Such ideas were incorporated into what was already an ongoing effort by some working in anthropology to provide scientific evidence for the superiority of Caucasians over non white races and justify European imperialism. Historians write that most such political and economic commentators had only a superficial understanding of Darwin's scientific theory, and were as strongly influenced by other concepts about social progress and evolution, such as the Lamarckian ideas of Spencer and Haeckel, as they were by Darwin's work. Darwin objected to his ideas being used to justify military aggression and unethical business practices as he believed morality was part of fitness in humans, and he opposed polygenism, the idea that human races were fundamentally distinct and did not share a recent common ancestry.

Question: Who believed that action needed to be taken to level out the social and economic playing field before natural selection could occur to improve humanity?


Answer: Walter Bagehot's Physics and Politics (1872)

Question: Which political commentary attempted to widen the idea of natural selection to include competition between different races of people and countries?


Answer: to provide scientific evidence for the superiority of Caucasians over non white races and justify European imperialism

Question: Why were some political commentaries attempting to attach natural selection to human races?


Answer: to justify military aggression and unethical business practices

Question: What uses of his ideology did Darwin object to being used?


Answer: he opposed polygenism, the idea that human races were fundamentally distinct and did not share a recent common ancestry.

Question: What theory about humanity did Darwin oppose?


Answer: strongly opposed to the ideas in the book

Context: Natural theology was not a unified doctrine, and while some such as Louis Agassiz were strongly opposed to the ideas in the book, others sought a reconciliation in which evolution was seen as purposeful. In the Church of England, some liberal clergymen interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design, with the cleric Charles Kingsley seeing it as "just as noble a conception of Deity". In the second edition of January 1860, Darwin quoted Kingsley as "a celebrated cleric", and added the phrase "by the Creator" to the closing sentence, which from then on read "life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one". While some commentators have taken this as a concession to religion that Darwin later regretted, Darwin's view at the time was of God creating life through the laws of nature, and even in the first edition there are several references to "creation".

Question: What view did Louis Agassiz have of On the Origin of Species?


Answer: interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design

Question: What view did some clergymen in the Church of England take of the theory of natural selection?


Answer: Darwin quoted Kingsley as "a celebrated cleric", and added the phrase "by the Creator" to the closing sentence,

Question: What did Darwin do to show that he admired the cleric Charles Kingsley?


Answer: some commentators have taken this as a concession to religion that Darwin later regretted

Question: What did some commentators think about Darwin changing the phrasing in his book?


Answer: Darwin's view at the time was of God creating life through the laws of nature

Question: What were Darwin's views on the part of God in his theory?


Answer: Baden Powell praised "Mr Darwin's masterly volume [supporting] the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature"

Context: Baden Powell praised "Mr Darwin's masterly volume [supporting] the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature". In America, Asa Gray argued that evolution is the secondary effect, or modus operandi, of the first cause, design, and published a pamphlet defending the book in terms of theistic evolution, Natural Selection is not inconsistent with Natural Theology. Theistic evolution became a popular compromise, and St. George Jackson Mivart was among those accepting evolution but attacking Darwin's naturalistic mechanism. Eventually it was realised that supernatural intervention could not be a scientific explanation, and naturalistic mechanisms such as neo-Lamarckism were favoured over natural selection as being more compatible with purpose.

Question: What was Baden Powell's opinion of On the Origin of Species?


Answer: defending the book in terms of theistic evolution, Natural Selection is not inconsistent with Natural Theology.

Question: What did the pamphlet that Asa Gray published defend?


Answer: Theistic evolution became a popular compromise

Question: What was a way that theologians compromised with the information in Darwin's book?


Answer: supernatural intervention could not be a scientific explanation

Question: What was later realized that caused naturalistic mechanisms such as neo-Lamarckism to be embraced?


Answer: by supposing there was some supernatural intervention on the path leading to humans

Context: Even though the book had barely hinted at human evolution, it quickly became central to the debate as mental and moral qualities were seen as spiritual aspects of the immaterial soul, and it was believed that animals did not have spiritual qualities. This conflict could be reconciled by supposing there was some supernatural intervention on the path leading to humans, or viewing evolution as a purposeful and progressive ascent to mankind's position at the head of nature. While many conservative theologians accepted evolution, Charles Hodge argued in his 1874 critique "What is Darwinism?" that "Darwinism", defined narrowly as including rejection of design, was atheism though he accepted that Asa Gray did not reject design. Asa Gray responded that this charge misrepresented Darwin's text. By the early 20th century, four noted authors of The Fundamentals were explicitly open to the possibility that God created through evolution, but fundamentalism inspired the American creation–evolution controversy that began in the 1920s. Some conservative Roman Catholic writers and influential Jesuits opposed evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century, but other Catholic writers, starting with Mivart, pointed out that early Church Fathers had not interpreted Genesis literally in this area. The Vatican stated its official position in a 1950 papal encyclical, which held that evolution was not inconsistent with Catholic teaching.

Question: How did people attempt to rationalize or reconcile the concept of natural selection?


Answer: Charles Hodge

Question: Which scientist argued that Darwinism was atheism?


Answer: the American creation–evolution controversy

Question: What controversy around Darwin's book began in the 1920s?


Answer: The Vatican stated its official position in a 1950 papal encyclical, which held that evolution was not inconsistent with Catholic teaching.

Question: What official position did the Vatican take on the subject of evolution in 1950?


Answer: Darwin's theory of evolution

Context: Modern evolutionary theory continues to develop. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, with its tree-like model of branching common descent, has become the unifying theory of the life sciences. The theory explains the diversity of living organisms and their adaptation to the environment. It makes sense of the geologic record, biogeography, parallels in embryonic development, biological homologies, vestigiality, cladistics, phylogenetics and other fields, with unrivalled explanatory power; it has also become essential to applied sciences such as medicine and agriculture. Despite the scientific consensus, a religion-based political controversy has developed over how evolution is taught in schools, especially in the United States.

Question: What branching common descent theory has become the most unifying one of the life sciences?


Answer: The theory explains the diversity of living organisms and their adaptation to the environment.

Question: What does the theory of evolution explain about living organisms?


Answer: medicine and agriculture

Question: In what fields has Darwin's theory of evolution become particularly essential?


Answer: a religion-based political controversy

Question: What kind of controversy has begun within school systems about Darwin's theory?


Answer: scholars have generated an extensive literature, the Darwin Industry, about his life and work.

Context: Interest in Darwin's writings continues, and scholars have generated an extensive literature, the Darwin Industry, about his life and work. The text of Origin itself has been subject to much analysis including a variorum, detailing the changes made in every edition, first published in 1959, and a concordance, an exhaustive external index published in 1981. Worldwide commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the bicentenary of Darwin's birth were scheduled for 2009. They celebrated the ideas which "over the last 150 years have revolutionised our understanding of nature and our place within it".

Question: What kinds of things have been done by scholars interested in Darwin's work?


Answer: a variorum

Question: What has been created in 1959 and filled with information about changes in every edition of On the Origin of Species?


Answer: Worldwide commemorations

Question: What was done on the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species?


Answer: They celebrated the ideas which "over the last 150 years have revolutionised our understanding of nature and our place within it".

Question: What were the celebrants honoring with their commemorations?


Answer: December 26, 1991

Context: The dissolution of the Soviet Union was formally enacted on December 26, 1991, as a result of the declaration no. 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although five of the signatories ratified it much later or not at all. On the previous day, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its powers – including control of the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes – to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That evening at 7:32 p.m., the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag.

Question: On what date did the Soviet Union dissolve?


Answer: Commonwealth of Independent States

Question: What entity was created in place of the Soviet Union?


Answer: Mikhail Gorbachev,

Question: Who was president of the Soviet Union when it came to an end?


Answer: Boris Yeltsin

Question: Who became president of Russia after Gorbachev left office?


Answer: pre-revolutionary Russian flag.

Question: Which flag replaced the Soviet flag at the Kremlin?


Answer: Konstantin Chernenko

Context: Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11, 1985, three hours after predecessor Konstantin Chernenko's death at age 73. Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, and he realized that doing so would require reforming underlying political and social structures. The reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On April 23, 1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the "power" ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and appointing Minister of Defence Marshal Sergei Sokolov as a Politburo candidate.

Question: Who was General Secretary prior to Mikhail Gorbachev?


Answer: death

Question: What caused Chernenko to leave office?


Answer: 54

Question: How old was Gorbachev when he was elected as the General Secretary?


Answer: Politburo

Question: What entity was responsible for Gorbachev's being elected?


Answer: Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov,

Question: To which two people did Gorbachev grant membership into the Politburo for his own reasons?


Answer: Communist Party

Context: This liberalization, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. It also led indirectly to the revolutions of 1989, in which Soviet-imposed communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact were peacefully toppled (Romania excepted), which in turn increased pressure on Gorbachev to introduce greater democracy and autonomy for the Soviet Union's constituent republics. Under Gorbachev's leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, the Congress of People's Deputies (although the ban on other political parties was not lifted until 1990).

Question: What party did Gorbachev belong to?


Answer: Congress of People's Deputies

Question: What was the name of the legislative body that was brought into existance in 1989?


Answer: 1990

Question: When were opposition parties first allowed in the Soviet Union?


Answer: Romania

Question: In which country did Warsaw Pact regime remain in place?


Answer: nationalist movements and ethnic disputes

Question: What were some of the downsides of the more liberal Soviet Union?


Answer: May 1985

Context: In May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices on vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, and the introduction of rationing. Unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachev's plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, and to censor drinking scenes from old movies. Although this program was not a direct copycat of Tsar Nicholas II's outright prohibition during World War I, Gorbachev faced the same adverse economic reaction as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a serious blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev, who noted annual collections of alcohol taxes decreased by 100 billion rubles. Alcohol production migrated to the black market, or through moonshining as some made "bathtub vodka" with homegrown potatoes. Poorer, less educated Russians resorted to drinking unhealthy substitutes such as nail polish, rubbing alcohol or men's cologne, which only served to be an additional burden on Russia's healthcare sector due to the subsequent poisoning cases. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the existing centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms, which tended toward market socialism.

Question: When was Gorbachev's speech addressing alcohol abuse?


Answer: rationing

Question: Other than increasing pricing what was another measure that was introduced to decrease alcohol consumption?


Answer: drinking scenes from old movies

Question: What was censored?


Answer: Tsar Nicholas II

Question: Whose anti-alcohol program did Gorbachev's remind people of?


Answer: during World War I,

Question: When did Tsar Nicholas II ban alcohol?


Answer: July 1, 1985

Context: On July 1, 1985, Gorbachev promoted Eduard Shevardnadze, First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party, to full member of the Politburo, and the following day appointed him minister of foreign affairs, replacing longtime Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. The latter, disparaged as "Mr Nyet" in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (officially Soviet Head of State), as he was considered an "old thinker." Also on July 1, Gorbachev took the opportunity to dispose of his main rival by removing Grigory Romanov from the Politburo, and brought Boris Yeltsin and Lev Zaikov into the CPSU Central Committee Secretariat.

Question: When did Eduard Shevardnadze gain full membership in the Politburo?


Answer: Gorbachev

Question: Who was responsible for Shevardnadze's membership?


Answer: Andrei Gromyko

Question: Who was minister of foreign affairs prior to Shevardnadze?


Answer: "Mr Nyet"

Question: What was Gromyko's western nickname?


Answer: Grigory Romanov

Question: Which person did Gorbachev kick out of the Politburo on the first of July?


Answer: Nikolai Ryzhkov

Context: In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger and more energetic men into government. On September 27, Nikolai Ryzhkov replaced 79-year-old Nikolai Tikhonov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, effectively the Soviet prime minister, and on October 14, Nikolai Talyzin replaced Nikolai Baibakov as chairman of the State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN). At the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23, 1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin.

Question: Who became Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1985?


Answer: Nikolai Tikhonov

Question: Who was Chairman of the Council of Ministers prior to Ryzhkov?


Answer: 79-year-old

Question: How old was Tikhonov when he stopped being Chairman?


Answer: Nikolai Talyzin

Question: Who was the new chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1985?


Answer: chairman of the State Planning Committee

Question: What is an analogous office to Chairman of the Council of Ministers?


Answer: Communist

Context: The CTAG (Latvian: Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa, Human Rights Defense Group) Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss. Its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki-86 was the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime, setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements.[citation needed]

Question: What party was Helsinki-86 in disagreement with?


Answer: Helsinki-86

Question: What group was the first to oppose the Soviet government publicly?


Answer: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss.

Question: Who created the CTAG?


Answer: December

Context: The "Jeltoqsan" (Kazakh for "December") of 1986 were riots in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, sparked by Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Konayev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and an ethnic Kazakh, who was replaced with Gennady Kolbin, an outsider from the Russian SFSR. Demonstrations started in the morning of December 17, 1986, with 200 to 300 students in front of the Central Committee building on Brezhnev Square protesting Konayev's dismissal and replacement by a Russian. Protesters swelled to 1,000 to 5,000 as other students joined the crowd. The CPK Central Committee ordered troops from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, druzhiniki (volunteers), cadets, policemen, and the KGB to cordon the square and videotape the participants. The situation escalated around 5 p.m., as troops were ordered to disperse the protesters. Clashes between the security forces and the demonstrators continued throughout the night in Almaty.

Question: What is the English translation of the word Jeltoqsan?


Answer: Dinmukhamed Konayev

Question: Who was fired by Gorbachev causing riots?


Answer: First Secretary of the Communist Party

Question: What position did Konayev hold in Kazakhstan prior to his removal?


Answer: Gennady Kolbin

Question: Who took the place of Konayev?


Answer: December 17, 1986

Question: When were the first demonstrations in Kazakhstan to protest the removal and replacement of Konayev?


Answer: Kazakh students

Context: On the next day, December 18, protests turned into civil unrest as clashes between troops, volunteers, militia units, and Kazakh students turned into a wide-scale confrontation. The clashes could only be controlled on the third day. The Almaty events were followed by smaller protests and demonstrations in Shymkent, Pavlodar, Karaganda, and Taldykorgan. Reports from Kazakh SSR authorities estimated that the riots drew 3,000 people. Other estimates are of at least 30,000 to 40,000 protestors with 5,000 arrested and jailed, and an unknown number of casualties. Jeltoqsan leaders say over 60,000 Kazakhs participated in the protests. According to the Kazakh SSR government, there were two deaths during the riots, including a volunteer police worker and a student. Both of them had died due to blows to the head. About 100 others were detained and several others were sentenced to terms in labor camps. Sources cited by the Library of Congress claimed that at least 200 people died or were summarily executed soon thereafter; some accounts estimate casualties at more than 1,000. The writer Mukhtar Shakhanov claimed that a KGB officer testified that 168 protesters were killed, but that figure remains unconfirmed.

Question: Who was demonstrating?


Answer: 3,000

Question: How many people were estimated by authorities to have attended the riots?


Answer: blows to the head

Question: How did the Kazakh SSR government say the two protesters were killed?


Answer: 30,000 to 40,000

Question: What were the attendance estimates from non governmental groups?


Answer: Mukhtar Shakhanov

Question: Who wrote about the KGB officer's testimony?


Answer: the people's

Context: Gorbachev also radically expanded the scope of Glasnost, stating that no subject was off-limits for open discussion in the media. Even so, the cautious Soviet intelligentsia took almost a year to begin pushing the boundaries to see if he meant what he said. For the first time, the Communist Party leader had appealed over the heads of Central Committee members for the people's support in exchange for expansion of liberties. The tactic proved successful: Within two years political reform could no longer be sidetracked by Party "conservatives." An unintended consequence was that having saved reform, Gorbachev's move ultimately killed the very system it was designed to save.

Question: Whose support did Gorbachev seek in order to increase liberties?


Answer: Communist

Question: What party was Gorbachev in charge of?


Answer: "conservatives."

Question: What group wanted to stop reforms?


Answer: February 7, 1987,

Context: On February 7, 1987, dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since Khrushchev's "thaw" in the mid-1950s. On May 6, 1987, Pamyat, a Russian nationalist group, held an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow. The authorities did not break up the demonstration and even kept traffic out of the demonstrators' way while they marched to an impromptu meeting with Boris Yeltsin, head of the Moscow Communist Party and at the time one of Gorbachev's closest allies. On July 25, 1987, 300 Crimean Tatars staged a noisy demonstration near the Kremlin Wall for several hours, calling for the right to return to their homeland, from which they were deported in 1944; police and soldiers merely looked on.

Question: When were the prisoners set free?


Answer: Khrushchev's

Question: Who released the prisoners in the 1950s?


Answer: political

Question: What sort of prisoners were released?


Answer: Crimean Tatars

Question: Who demonstrated close to the Kremlin in July of 1978?


Answer: mid-1950s.

Question: Prior to 1987 when was the last large release of prisoners?


Answer: Yegor Ligachev

Context: On September 10, 1987, after a lecture from hardliner Yegor Ligachev at the Politburo for allowing these two unsanctioned demonstrations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev, who had been holidaying on the Black Sea. Gorbachev was stunned – no one had ever voluntarily resigned from the Politburo. At the October 27, 1987, plenary meeting of the Central Committee, Yeltsin, frustrated that Gorbachev had not addressed any of the issues outlined in his resignation letter, criticized the slow pace of reform, servility to the general secretary, and opposition from Ligachev that had led to his (Yeltsin's) resignation. No one had ever addressed the Party leader so brazenly in front of the Central Committee since Leon Trotsky in the 1920s. In his reply, Gorbachev accused Yeltsin of "political immaturity" and "absolute irresponsibility." No one backed Yeltsin.

Question: Who disagreed vocally about the demonstrations being permitted?


Answer: Boris Yeltsin

Question: Who resigned in September of 1987?


Answer: stunned

Question: What was Gorbachev's reaction to Yeltsin's resignation?


Answer: slow pace

Question: What did Yeltsin dislike about the reforms?


Answer: No one

Question: Who took Yeltsin's side?


Answer: Freedom Monument

Context: On June 14, 1987, about 5,000 people gathered again at Freedom Monument in Riga, and laid flowers to commemorate the anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation of Latvians in 1941. This was the first large demonstration in the Baltic republics to commemorate the anniversary of an event contrary to official Soviet history. The authorities did not crack down on demonstrators, which encouraged more and larger demonstrations throughout the Baltic States. The next major anniversary after the August 23 Molotov Pact demonstration was on November 18, the date of Latvia’s independence in 1918. On November 18, 1987, hundreds of police and civilian militiamen cordoned off the central square to prevent any demonstration at Freedom Monument, but thousands lined the streets of Riga in silent protest regardless.

Question: Where did the demonstrators meet in June of 1987?


Answer: Riga

Question: Where is Freedom Monument?


Answer: laid flowers

Question: What did the protesters do?


Answer: Baltic States

Question: Where did further protests take place?


Answer: Latvians

Question: Who were the protesters remembering?


Answer: new phosphate mines

Context: In spring 1987, a protest movement arose against new phosphate mines in Estonia. Signatures were collected in Tartu, and students assembled in the university's main hall to express lack of confidence in the government. At a demonstration on May 1, 1987, young people showed up with banners and slogans despite an official ban. On August 15, 1987, former political prisoners formed the MRP-AEG group (Estonians for the Public Disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), which was headed by Tiit Madisson. In September 1987, the Edasi newspaper published a proposal by Edgar Savisaar, Siim Kallas, Tiit Made, and Mikk Titma calling for Estonia's transition to autonomy. Initially geared toward economic independence, then toward a certain amount of political autonomy, the project, Isemajandav Eesti ("A Self-Managing Estonia") became known according to its Estonian acronym, IME, which means "miracle". On October 21, a demonstration dedicated to those who gave their lives in the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence took place in Võru, which culminated in a conflict with the militia. For the first time in years, the blue, black, and white national tricolor was publicly displayed.

Question: What was being protested in Estonia?


Answer: spring 1987

Question: When did the phosphate mine protests begin?


Answer: MRP-AEG group

Question: What group was started by ex-political prisoners?


Answer: Tiit Madisson

Question: Who was in charge of the MRP-AEG group?


Answer: autonomy

Question: What was requested for Estonia in the proposal printed by the Edasi newspaper in 1987?


Answer: October 17, 1987

Context: On October 17, 1987, about 3,000 Armenians demonstrated in Yerevan complaining about the condition of Lake Sevan, the Nairit chemicals plant, and the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, and air pollution in Yerevan. Police tried to prevent the protest but took no action to stop it once the march was underway. The demonstration was led by Armenian writers such as Silva Kaputikian, Zori Balayan, and Maro Margarian and leaders from the National Survival organization. The march originated at the Opera Plaza after speakers, mainly intellectuals, addressed the crowd.

Question: When was the Yerevan demonstration?


Answer: about 3,000

Question: How many people demonstrated?


Answer: Armenians

Question: What was the demonstrators' nationality?


Answer: Lake Sevan

Question: The protesters were unhappy with the pollution in what body of water?


Answer: Opera Plaza

Question: Where did the protest march start?


Answer: July 1, 1988

Context: On July 1, 1988, the fourth and last day of a bruising 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the tired delegates for his last-minute proposal to create a new supreme legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies. Frustrated by the old guard's resistance, Gorbachev embarked on a set of constitutional changes to try to separate party and state, and thereby isolate his conservative Party opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies were published on October 2, 1988, and to enable the creation of the new legislature the Supreme Soviet, during its November 29–December 1, 1988, session, implemented amendments to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, enacted a law on electoral reform, and set the date of the election for March 26, 1989.

Question: What ws the final day of the 19th Party Conference?


Answer: new supreme legislative body

Question: What did Gorbachev hope to create?


Answer: party and state

Question: What was Gorbachev trying to separate?


Answer: Congress of People's Deputies

Question: What was the proposed legislative body called?


Answer: conservative

Question: What was the ideology of Gorbachev's opponents?


Answer: Estonian

Context: On October 2, the Popular Front formally launched its political platform at a two-day congress. Väljas attended, gambling that the front could help Estonia become a model of economic and political revival, while moderating separatist and other radical tendencies. On November 16, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted a declaration of national sovereignty under which Estonian laws would take precedence over those of the Soviet Union. Estonia's parliament also laid claim to the republic's natural resources including land, inland waters, forests, mineral deposits, and to the means of industrial production, agriculture, construction, state banks, transportation, and municipal services within the territory of Estonia's borders.

Question: Whose laws would take precedence according to the declaration of national sovereignty?


Answer: Estonia's parliament

Question: Who claimed Estonia's national resources?


Answer: the Popular Front

Question: What was the name of the group that made its platform known on October 2?


Answer: two

Context: In February 20, 1988, after a week of growing demonstrations in Stepanakert, capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (the Armenian majority area within Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic), the Regional Soviet voted to secede and join with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. This local vote in a small, remote part of the Soviet Union made headlines around the world; it was an unprecedented defiance of republic and national authorities. On February 22, 1988, in what became known as the "Askeran clash", two Azerbaijanis were killed by Karabakh police. These deaths, announced on state radio, led to the Sumgait Pogrom. Between February 26 and March 1, the city of Sumgait (Azerbaijan) saw violent anti-Armenian rioting during which 32 people were killed. The authorities totally lost control and occupied the city with paratroopers and tanks; nearly all of the 14,000 Armenian residents of Sumgait fled.

Question: How many Azerbaijanis died in the Askeran clash?


Answer: February 22, 1988

Question: When was the Askeran clash?


Answer: Karabakh police.

Question: Who killed the two Azerbaijanis?


Answer: Sumgait Pogrom

Question: What was triggered by the radio broadcast of the deaths?


Answer: 32

Question: How many were killed in the ensuing riots?


Answer: Abdulrahman Vezirov

Context: Gorbachev refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. He instead sacked the Communist Party Leaders in both Republics – on May 21, 1988, Kamran Baghirov was replaced by Abdulrahman Vezirov as First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. From July 23 to September 1988, a group of Azerbaijani intellectuals began working for a new organization called the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, loosely based on the Estonian Popular Front. On September 17, when gun battles broke out between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis near Stepanakert, two soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured. This led to almost tit-for-tat ethnic polarization in Nagorno-Karabakh's two main towns: The Azerbaijani minority was expelled from Stepanakert, and the Armenian minority was expelled from Shusha. On November 17, 1988, in response to the exodus of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, a series of mass demonstrations began in Baku's Lenin Square, lasting 18 days and attracting half a million demonstrators. On December 5, 1988, the Soviet militia finally moved in, cleared the square by force, and imposed a curfew that lasted ten months.

Question: Who did Gorbachev make First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party in 1988?


Answer: Kamran Baghirov

Question: Who was First Secretary prior to Vezirov?


Answer: two

Question: How many soldiers died on September 17?


Answer: Armenian

Question: People of what ethnicity were thrown out of Shusha?


Answer: 18 days

Question: How long did the Lenin Square protest last?


Answer: Yerevan

Context: The rebellion of fellow Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh had an immediate effect in Armenia itself. Daily demonstrations, which began in the Armenian capital Yerevan on February 18, initially attracted few people, but each day the Nagorno-Karabakh issue became increasingly prominent and numbers swelled. On February 20, a 30,000-strong crowd demonstrated in Theater Square, by February 22, there were 100,000, the next day 300,000, and a transport strike was declared, by February 25, there were close to 1 million demonstrators – about a quarter of Armenia's population. This was the first of the large, peaceful public demonstrations that would become a feature of communism's overthrow in Prague, Berlin, and, ultimately, Moscow. Leading Armenian intellectuals and nationalists, including future first President of independent Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian, formed the eleven-member Karabakh Committee to lead and organize the new movement.

Question: Where were the first demonstrations in Armenia?


Answer: Yerevan

Question: What is the capitol of Armenia?


Answer: 300,000,

Question: How many people protested on February 23?


Answer: transport

Question: What sort of strike was called?


Answer: about a quarter

Question: What percentage of Armenia's total population protested on February 25?


Answer: Nationalists

Context: Gorbachev again refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. Instead he sacked both Republics' Communist Party Leaders: On May 21, 1988, Karen Demirchian was replaced by Suren Harutyunyan as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia. However, Harutyunyan quickly decided to run before the nationalist wind and on May 28, allowed Armenians to unfurl the red-blue-gold First Armenian Republic flag for the first time in almost 70 years. On June 15, 1988, the Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution formally approving the idea of Nagorno Karabakh joining Armenia. Armenia, formerly one of the most loyal Republics, had suddenly turned into the leading rebel republic. On July 5, 1988, when a contingent of troops was sent in to remove demonstrators by force from Yerevan's Zvartnots International Airport, shots were fired and one student protester was killed. In September, further large demonstrations in Yerevan led to the deployment of armored vehicles. In the autumn of 1988 almost all the 200,000 Azerbaijani minority in Armenia was expelled by Armenian Nationalists, with over 100 killed in the process – this, after the Sumgait pogrom earlier that year carried out by Azerbaijanis against ethnic Armenians and subsequent expulsion of all Armenians from Azerbaijan. On November 25, 1988, a military commandant took control of Yerevan as the Soviet government moved to prevent further ethnic violence.

Question: Who banned the Azerbaijani people from Armenia?


Answer: one

Question: How many protesters died in the airport violence?


Answer: Armenians

Question: Who had been previously removed from Azerbaijan?


Answer: a military commandant

Question: Who took charge of Yerevan in November of 1988?


Answer: February 1988

Context: Beginning in February 1988, the Democratic Movement of Moldova (formerly Moldavia) organized public meetings, demonstrations, and song festivals, which gradually grew in size and intensity. In the streets, the center of public manifestations was the Stephen the Great Monument in Chişinău, and the adjacent park harboring Aleea Clasicilor (The "Alee of the Classics [of the Literature]"). On January 15, 1988, in a tribute to Mihai Eminescu at his bust on the Aleea Clasicilor, Anatol Şalaru submitted a proposal to continue the meetings. In the public discourse, the movement called for national awakening, freedom of speech, revival of Moldavian traditions, and for attainment of official status for the Romanian language and return to the Latin alphabet. The transition from "movement" (an informal association) to "front" (a formal association) was seen as a natural "upgrade" once a movement gained momentum with the public, and the Soviet authorities no longer dared to crack down on it.

Question: When did the Democratic Movement of Moldova start operating?


Answer: Stephen the Great Monument

Question: Which monument was a popular meeting place?


Answer: Chişinău

Question: Where was the Stephen the Great Monument located?


Answer: Romanian

Question: What did the movement seek to make the official language of Moldova?


Answer: Moldavia

Question: What was Moldova's previous name?


Answer: Ukrainian Cultural Club

Context: On April 26, 1988, about 500 people participated in a march organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Club on Kiev's Khreschatyk Street to mark the second anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, carrying placards with slogans like "Openness and Democracy to the End." Between May and June 1988, Ukrainian Catholics in western Ukraine celebrated the Millennium of Christianity in Kievan Rus' in secret by holding services in the forests of Buniv, Kalush, Hoshiv, and Zarvanytsia. On June 5, 1988, as the official celebrations of the Millennium were held in Moscow, the Ukrainian Cultural Club hosted its own observances in Kiev at the monument to St. Volodymyr the Great, the grand prince of Kievan Rus'.

Question: What group was responsible for the April 25, 1988 protest?


Answer: Kiev's Khreschatyk Street

Question: Where did the march happen?


Answer: Chernobyl nuclear disaster,

Question: What did the marchers wish to commemorate?


Answer: Ukrainian Catholics

Question: Which group held secret Milleneum of Christianity celebrations?


Answer: Kiev

Question: In what city did the Ukrainian Cultural Club have its Millennium celebration?


Answer: 50,000

Context: On June 16, 1988, 6,000 to 8,000 people gathered in Lviv to hear speakers declare no confidence in the local list of delegates to the 19th Communist Party conference, to begin on June 29. On June 21, a rally in Lviv attracted 50,000 people who had heard about a revised delegate list. Authorities attempted to disperse the rally in front of Druzhba Stadium. On July 7, 10,000 to 20,000 people witnessed the launch of the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. On July 17, a group of 10,000 gathered in the village Zarvanytsia for Millennium services celebrated by Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk. The militia tried to disperse attendees, but it turned out to be the largest gathering of Ukrainian Catholics since Stalin outlawed the Church in 1946. On August 4, which came to be known as "Bloody Thursday," local authorities violently suppressed a demonstration organized by the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. Forty-one people were detained, fined, or sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. On September 1, local authorities violently displaced 5,000 students at a public meeting lacking official permission at Ivan Franko State University.

Question: How many people attended the Lviv rally?


Answer: in front of Druzhba Stadium

Question: Where was the dispersal attempt made?


Answer: Authorities

Question: Who tried to stop the rally?


Answer: Pavlo Vasylyk

Question: Who led the Millennium celebration in Zarvanytsia?


Answer: militia

Question: Who wanted to break up the celebration?


Answer: Green World

Context: On November 13, 1988, approximately 10,000 people attended an officially sanctioned meeting organized by the cultural heritage organization Spadschyna, the Kyiv University student club Hromada, and the environmental groups Zelenyi Svit ("Green World") and Noosfera, to focus on ecological issues. From November 14–18, 15 Ukrainian activists were among the 100 human-, national- and religious-rights advocates invited to discuss human rights with Soviet officials and a visiting delegation of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Commission). On December 10, hundreds gathered in Kiev to observe International Human Rights Day at a rally organized by the Democratic Union. The unauthorized gathering resulted in the detention of local activists.

Question: What is the English translation of Zelenyi Svit?


Answer: ecological

Question: What sort of issues were Zenlenyi Svit and Noosfera concerned with?


Answer: cultural heritage

Question: What sort of organization is Spadschnyna?


Answer: International Human Rights Day

Question: What did people gather to observe on December 10th?


Answer: 1988

Context: The Partyja BPF (Belarusian Popular Front) was established in 1988 as a political party and cultural movement for democracy and independence, à la the Baltic republics’ popular fronts. The discovery of mass graves in Kurapaty outside Minsk by historian Zianon Pazniak, the Belarusian Popular Front’s first leader, gave additional momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus. It claimed that the NKVD performed secret killings in Kurapaty. Initially the Front had significant visibility because its numerous public actions almost always ended in clashes with the police and the KGB.

Question: When did The Partyja BDF start?


Answer: Zianon Pazniak

Question: Who found mass graves?


Answer: historian

Question: What is Pazniak's occupation?


Answer: Kurapaty

Question: Where were the graves found?


Answer: KGB

Question: In addition to the police who did the BDF often have conflicts with?


Answer: new Congress of People's Deputies

Context: Spring 1989 saw the people of the Soviet Union exercising a democratic choice, albeit limited, for the first time since 1917, when they elected the new Congress of People's Deputies. Just as important was the uncensored live TV coverage of the legislature's deliberations, where people witnessed the previously feared Communist leadership being questioned and held accountable. This example fueled a limited experiment with democracy in Poland, which quickly led to the toppling of the Communist government in Warsaw that summer – which in turn sparked uprisings that overthrew communism in the other five Warsaw Pact countries before the end of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. These events showed that the people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union did not support Gorbachev's drive to modernize Communism; rather, they preferred to abandon it altogether.

Question: What was elected in 1989?


Answer: Communist leadership

Question: Who was questioned on live TV?


Answer: Warsaw

Question: Where was the Communist government overthrown first?


Answer: 1989

Question: When did the Berlin Wall get torn down?


Answer: abandon it

Question: What did Eastern European people want to do with communism?


Answer: 89.8%

Context: In the March 26 general elections, voter participation was an impressive 89.8%, and 1,958 (including 1,225 district seats) of the 2,250 CPD seats were filled. In district races, run-off elections were held in 76 constituencies on April 2 and 9 and fresh elections were organized on April 20 and 14 to May 23, in the 199 remaining constituencies where the required absolute majority was not attained. While most CPSU-endorsed candidates were elected, more than 300 lost to independent candidates such as Yeltsin, physicist Andrei Sakharov and lawyer Anatoly Sobchak.

Question: What percentage of people voted on March 26?


Answer: 76

Question: How many constituencies had run-off elections?


Answer: more than 300

Question: How many CPSU endorsement having candidates lost to independents?


Answer: reformers

Context: In the first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies, from May 25 to June 9, hardliners retained control but reformers used the legislature as a platform for debate and criticism – which was broadcast live and uncensored. This transfixed the population; nothing like this freewheeling debate had ever been witnessed in the U.S.S.R. On May 29, Yeltsin managed to secure a seat on the Supreme Soviet, and in the summer he formed the first opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group, composed of Russian nationalists and liberals. Composing the final legislative group in the Soviet Union, those elected in 1989 played a vital part in reforms and the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union during the next two years.

Question: Who used the legislative session to debate and criticize?


Answer: Russian nationalists and liberals.

Question: Who made up the Inter-Regional Deputies Group?


Answer: May 29

Question: When did Yeltsin acquire a seat on the Supreme Soviet?


Answer: special seats

Context: On October 25, 1989, the Supreme Soviet voted to eliminate special seats for the Communist Party and other official organizations in national and local elections, responding to sharp popular criticism that such reserved slots were undemocratic. After vigorous debate, the 542-member Supreme Soviet passed the measure 254-85 (with 36 abstentions). The decision required a constitutional amendment, ratified by the full congress, which met December 12–25. It also passed measures that would allow direct elections for presidents of each of the 15 constituent republics. Gorbachev strongly opposed such a move during debate but was defeated.

Question: What did the Communist Party lose on October 25, 1989 with regards to elections?


Answer: the Supreme Soviet

Question: Who voted to get rid of the special seats?


Answer: December 12–25

Question: When did congress meet to ratify the amendment to remove special election seats?


Answer: 1968

Context: The six Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe, while nominally independent, were widely recognized in the international community as the Soviet satellite states. All had been occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, had Soviet-style socialist states imposed upon them, and had very restricted freedom of action in either domestic or international affairs. Any moves towards real independence were suppressed by military force – in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968. Gorbachev abandoned the oppressive and expensive Brezhnev Doctrine, which mandated intervention in the Warsaw Pact states, in favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of allies – jokingly termed the Sinatra Doctrine in a reference to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way".

Question: What year did the Prague Spring take place?


Answer: suppressed by military force

Question: What happened to Prague and Hungary's attempts at independence?


Answer: Brezhnev Doctrine

Question: Under what doctrine was the Soviet Union required to intervene in the Warsaw Pact states?


Answer: oppressive

Question: Other than being expensive what was wrong with the Brezhnev Doctrine?


Answer: Sinatra Doctrine

Question: What is the nickname for Gorbachev's new doctrine?


Answer: estimated 2 million

Context: The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain (also Chain of Freedom Estonian: Balti kett, Latvian: Baltijas ceļš, Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias, Russian: Балтийский путь) was a peaceful political demonstration on August 23, 1989. An estimated 2 million people joined hands to form a human chain extending 600 kilometres (370 mi) across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which had been forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944. The colossal demonstration marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940.

Question: How many people were involved in the Baltic Chain?


Answer: 600 kilometres

Question: How long was the chain?


Answer: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Question: What states did the chain extend over?


Answer: 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Question: What anniversary did the chain take place on?


Answer: Eastern

Question: What part of Europe was split up by the pact?


Answer: Algirdas Brazauskas

Context: On December 7, 1989, the Communist Party of Lithuania under the leadership of Algirdas Brazauskas, split from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and abandoned its claim to have a constitutional "leading role" in politics. A smaller loyalist faction of the Communist Party, headed by hardliner Mykolas Burokevičius, was established and remained affiliated with the CPSU. However, Lithuania’s governing Communist Party was formally independent from Moscow's control – a first for Soviet Republics and a political earthquake that prompted Gorbachev to arrange a visit to Lithuania the following month in a futile attempt to bring the local party back under control.

Question: Who was in charge of Lithuania's Communist Party in 1989


Answer: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Question: What party did Lithuania's Communist Party break apart from?


Answer: Mykolas Burokevičius,

Question: Who was in charge of the loyalist faction?


Answer: Moscow's

Question: What place's control was the Communist Party of Lithuania out from under after the split?


Answer: Gorbachev

Question: Who visited with the hope of bringing back the Communist Party of Lithuania to the Soviet Party?


Answer: July 16, 1989

Context: On July 16, 1989, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan held its first congress and elected Abulfaz Elchibey, who would become President, as its Chairman. On August 19, 600,000 protesters jammed Baku’s Lenin Square (now Azadliq Square) to demand the release of political prisoners. In the second half of 1989, weapons were handed out in Nagorno-Karabakh. When Karabakhis got hold of small arms to replace hunting rifles and crossbows, casualties began to mount; bridges were blown up, roads were blockaded, and hostages were taken.

Question: When was Abulfaz Elchibey elected to Chairman of the Popular Front?


Answer: 600,000

Question: How many protesters filled Lenin Square on August 19th?


Answer: release of political prisoners

Question: What did the protesters want?


Answer: blockade

Context: In a new and effective tactic, the Popular Front launched a rail blockade of Armenia, which caused petrol and food shortages because 85 percent of Armenia's freight came from Azerbaijan. Under pressure from the Popular Front the Communist authorities in Azerbaijan started making concessions. On September 25, they passed a sovereignty law that gave precedence to Azerbaijani law, and on October 4, the Popular Front was permitted to register as a legal organization as long as it lifted the blockade. Transport communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia never fully recovered. Tensions continued to escalate and on December 29, Popular Front activists seized local party offices in Jalilabad, wounding dozens.

Question: What did the Popular Front do to Armenian railways?


Answer: petrol and food

Question: What shortages were caused by the blockade?


Answer: 85 percent

Question: How much freight into Armenia originated in Azerbaijan?


Answer: September 25

Question: When was the sovereignty law passed?


Answer: local party offices

Question: What in Jalilibad was taken over by the Popular Front?


Answer: Soviet Union

Context: On April 7, 1989, Soviet troops and armored personnel carriers were sent to Tbilisi after more than 100,000 people protested in front of Communist Party headquarters with banners calling for Georgia to secede from the Soviet Union and for Abkhazia to be fully integrated into Georgia. On April 9, 1989, troops attacked the demonstrators; some 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. This event radicalized Georgian politics, prompting many to conclude that independence was preferable to continued Soviet rule. On April 14, Gorbachev removed Jumber Patiashvili as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party and replaced him with former Georgian KGB chief Givi Gumbaridze.

Question: What did the protesters want Georgia to leave?


Answer: Abkhazia

Question: What did the protesters hope to see become a part of Georgia?


Answer: troops

Question: Who attacked the protest?


Answer: 20

Question: How many people died in the April 9 attack?


Answer: radicalized

Question: What happened to Georgian politics as a result of the attack?


Answer: Ukrainian Independence Day

Context: In Ukraine, Lviv and Kiev celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22, 1989. Thousands gathered in Lviv for an unauthorized moleben (religious service) in front of St. George's Cathedral. In Kiev, 60 activists met in a Kiev apartment to commemorate the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918. On February 11–12, 1989, the Ukrainian Language Society held its founding congress. On February 15, 1989, the formation of the Initiative Committee for the Renewal of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was announced. The program and statutes of the movement were proposed by the Writers Association of Ukraine and were published in the journal Literaturna Ukraina on February 16, 1989. The organization heralded Ukrainian dissidents such as Vyacheslav Chornovil.

Question: What is commemorated on January 22 in Ukraine?


Answer: religious service

Question: What is a moleben?


Answer: in front of St. George's Cathedral.

Question: Where was the moleben held?


Answer: election laws

Context: In late February, large public rallies took place in Kiev to protest the election laws, on the eve of the March 26 elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies, and to call for the resignation of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Scherbytsky, lampooned as "the mastodon of stagnation." The demonstrations coincided with a visit to Ukraine by Soviet President Gorbachev. On February 26, 1989, between 20,000 and 30,000 people participated in an unsanctioned ecumenical memorial service in Lviv, marking the anniversary of the death of 19th Century Ukrainian artist and nationalist Taras Shevchenko.

Question: What were people protesting in Kiev during the last part of February?


Answer: Volodymyr Scherbytsky

Question: Who did the protesters want to resign?


Answer: the mastodon of stagnation

Question: What was Scherbytsky's nickname?


Answer: Gorbachev

Question: Who visited the Ukraine while the protests were taking place?


Answer: between 20,000 and 30,000

Question: How many people attended the service in Lviv?


Answer: Stalinism

Context: On March 4, 1989, the Memorial Society, committed to honoring the victims of Stalinism and cleansing society of Soviet practices, was founded in Kiev. A public rally was held the next day. On March 12, A pre-election meeting organized in Lviv by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and the Marian Society Myloserdia (Compassion) was violently dispersed, and nearly 300 people were detained. On March 26, elections were held to the union Congress of People's Deputies; by-elections were held on April 9, May 14, and May 21. Among the 225 Ukrainian deputies, most were conservatives, though a handful of progressives made the cut.

Question: What ideology's victims were being honored by the Memorial Society?


Answer: nearly 300

Question: How many people from the pre-election meeting in Lviv were detained?


Answer: conservatives

Question: Members of what ideology were more heavily elected to the union Congress of People's Deputies?


Answer: 225

Question: How many deputies were elected?


Answer: 25,000

Context: From April 20–23, 1989, pre-election meetings were held in Lviv for four consecutive days, drawing crowds of up to 25,000. The action included an one-hour warning strike at eight local factories and institutions. It was the first labor strike in Lviv since 1944. On May 3, a pre-election rally attracted 30,000 in Lviv. On May 7, The Memorial Society organized a mass meeting at Bykivnia, site of a mass grave of Ukrainian and Polish victims of Stalinist terror. After a march from Kiev to the site, a memorial service was staged.

Question: How many people attended the Lviv pre-election meetings?


Answer: one-hour

Question: How long did the warning strike last?


Answer: eight local factories and institutions

Question: Where did the strike take place?


Answer: 1944

Question: Prior to the warning strike when was the last labor strike in Lviv?


Answer: mass grave

Question: At what sight was the Bykivnia meeting held?


Answer: plight of their Church.

Context: From mid-May to September 1989, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic hunger strikers staged protests on Moscow's Arbat to call attention to the plight of their Church. They were especially active during the July session of the World Council of Churches held in Moscow. The protest ended with the arrests of the group on September 18. On May 27, 1989, the founding conference of the Lviv regional Memorial Society was held. On June 18, 1989, an estimated 100,000 faithful participated in public religious services in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, responding to Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky's call for an international day of prayer.

Question: What were the hunger strikers hoping to draw attention to?


Answer: May 27, 1989

Question: When did the Lviv regional Memorial Society have its first conference?


Answer: an estimated 100,000

Question: How many people attended the services in western Ukraine?


Answer: draft election law

Context: On August 19, 1989, the Russian Orthodox Parish of Saints Peter and Paul announced it would be switching to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On September 2, 1989, tens of thousands across Ukraine protested a draft election law that reserved special seats for the Communist Party and for other official organizations: 50,000 in Lviv, 40,000 in Kiev, 10,000 in Zhytomyr, 5,000 each in Dniprodzerzhynsk and Chervonohrad, and 2,000 in Kharkiv. From September 8–10, 1989, writer Ivan Drach was elected to head Rukh, the People's Movement of Ukraine, at its founding congress in Kiev. On September 17, between 150,000 and 200,000 people marched in Lviv, demanding the legalization of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. On September 21, 1989, exhumation of a mass grave begins in Demianiv Laz, a nature preserve south of Ivano-Frankivsk. On September 28, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a holdover from the Brezhnev era, was replaced by Vladimir Ivashko.

Question: What were the protesters on September 2 demonstrating against?


Answer: 50,000

Question: How many protesters were there in Lviv?


Answer: Ivan Drach

Question: Who was put in charge of the People's Movement of Ukraine?


Answer: Kiev

Question: Where did the People's Movement hold its founding congress?


Answer: 10,000 to 15,000

Context: On October 1, 1989, a peaceful demonstration of 10,000 to 15,000 people was violently dispersed by the militia in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium, where a concert celebrating the Soviet "reunification" of Ukrainian lands was being held. On October 10, Ivano-Frankivsk was the site of a pre-election protest attended by 30,000 people. On October 15, several thousand people gathered in Chervonohrad, Chernivtsi, Rivne, and Zhytomyr; 500 in Dnipropetrovsk; and 30,000 in Lviv to protest the election law. On October 20, faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church participated in a synod in Lviv, the first since its forced liquidation in the 1930s.

Question: How many people demonstrated on October 1?


Answer: militia

Question: Who attacked the protest?


Answer: in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium

Question: Where did the attack occur?


Answer: concert

Question: What was happening in the stadium at the time?


Answer: 1930s

Question: Prior to the October 20 synod, when was the last one held in Lviv?


Answer: Lviv

Context: On October 24, the union Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating special seats for Communist Party and other official organizations' representatives. On October 26, twenty factories in Lviv held strikes and meetings to protest the police brutality of October 1 and the authorities' unwillingness to prosecute those responsible. From October 26–28, the Zelenyi Svit (Friends of the Earth – Ukraine) environmental association held its founding congress, and on October 27 the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating the special status of party and other official organizations.

Question: Where were the strikes?


Answer: police brutality

Question: What were the strikes in protest against?


Answer: twenty

Question: How many factories had strikes on October 26?


Answer: Ukrainian

Context: On October 28, 1989, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet decreed that effective January 1, 1990, Ukrainian would be the official language of Ukraine, while Russian would be used for communication between ethnic groups. On the same day The Congregation of the Church of the Transfiguration in Lviv left the Russian Orthodox Church and proclaimed itself the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The following day, thousands attended a memorial service at Demianiv Laz, and a temporary marker was placed to indicate that a monument to the "victims of the repressions of 1939–1941" soon would be erected.

Question: What was made Ukraine's official language in 1990?


Answer: Ukrainian Supreme Soviet

Question: Who decided Ukraine's official language?


Answer: communication between ethnic groups

Question: For what reason would the Russian be spoken?


Answer: Demianiv Laz

Question: Where was the January 2 memorial service?


Answer: mid-November

Context: In mid-November The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society was officially registered. On November 19, 1989, a public gathering in Kiev attracted thousands of mourners, friends and family to the reburial in Ukraine of three inmates of the infamous Gulag Camp No. 36 in Perm in the Ural Mountains: human-rights activists Vasyl Stus, Oleksiy Tykhy, and Yuriy Lytvyn. Their remains were reinterred in Baikove Cemetery. On November 26, 1989, a day of prayer and fasting was proclaimed by Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, thousands of faithful in western Ukraine participated in religious services on the eve of a meeting between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Gorbachev. On November 28, 1989, the Ukrainian SSR's Council for Religious Affairs issued a decree allowing Ukrainian Catholic congregations to register as legal organizations. The decree was proclaimed on December 1, coinciding with a meeting at the Vatican between the pope and the Soviet president.

Question: When was The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society made official?


Answer: Gulag Camp No. 36

Question: The three human rights activists reburied November 19th were prisoners where?


Answer: Perm in the Ural Mountains

Question: Where was Gulag Camp No. 36 located?


Answer: Baikove Cemetery.

Question: Where were the activists reburied?


Answer: Pope John Paul II

Question: Who met with Gorbachev on November 22?


Answer: Chernobyl disaster site

Context: On September 30, 1989, thousands of Belorussians, denouncing local leaders, marched through Minsk to demand additional cleanup of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster site in Ukraine. Up to 15,000 protesters wearing armbands bearing radioactivity symbols and carrying the banned red-and-white Belorussian national flag filed through torrential rain in defiance of a ban by local authorities. Later, they gathered in the city center near the government's headquarters, where speakers demanded resignation of Yefrem Sokolov, the republic's Communist Party leader, and called for the evacuation of half a million people from the contaminated zones.

Question: What did the Belorussians wish to be cleaned up?


Answer: Ukraine

Question: Where did the Chernobyl Disaster occur?


Answer: 1986

Question: When did the Chernobyl disaster happen?


Answer: radioactivity symbols

Question: What symbol did the protesters wear on their arms?


Answer: torrential rain

Question: How was the weather during the protest?


Answer: Soviet troops

Context: Thousands of Soviet troops were sent to the Fergana Valley, southeast of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, to re-establish order after clashes in which local Uzbeks hunted down members of the Meskhetian minority in several days of rioting between June 4–11, 1989; about 100 people were killed. On June 23, 1989, Gorbachev removed Rafiq Nishonov as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR and replaced him with Karimov, who went on to lead Uzbekistan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state.

Question: Who went to the Fergana Valley to restore order?


Answer: southeast of the Uzbek capital

Question: Where is the Fergana Valley located?


Answer: members of the Meskhetian minority

Question: Who were targeted by the local Uzbeks?


Answer: Rafiq Nishonov

Question: Who was fired from First Secretary position by Gorbachev?


Answer: Karimov

Question: Who replaced Nishonov?


Answer: Zhanaozen

Context: In Kazakhstan on June 19, 1989, young men carrying guns, firebombs, iron bars and stones rioted in Zhanaozen, causing a number of deaths. The youths tried to seize a police station and a water-supply station. They brought public transportation to a halt and shut down various shops and industries. By June 25, the rioting had spread to five other towns near the Caspian Sea. A mob of about 150 people armed with sticks, stones and metal rods attacked the police station in Mangishlak, about 90 miles from Zhanaozen, before they were dispersed by government troops flown in by helicopters. Mobs of young people also rampaged through Yeraliev, Shepke, Fort-Shevchenko and Kulsary, where they poured flammable liquid on trains housing temporary workers and set them on fire.

Question: Where was the fatal June 19th riots?


Answer: young men

Question: Who were the rioters?


Answer: police station and a water-supply station

Question: What did the rioters try to take over?


Answer: five

Question: How many towns had riots of their own following the initial riots?


Answer: police station

Question: What was attacked in Mangishlak?