romikgosai/squad_modified_2 huggingface dataset:
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.

Q1: What branching common descent theory has become the most unifying one of the life sciences?
A1: Darwin's theory of evolution
Q2: What does the theory of evolution explain about living organisms?
A2: The theory explains the diversity of living organisms and their adaptation to the environment.
Q3: In what fields has Darwin's theory of evolution become particularly essential?
A3: medicine and agriculture
Q4: What kind of controversy has begun within school systems about Darwin's theory?
A4: a religion-based political controversy
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".

Q1: What kinds of things have been done by scholars interested in Darwin's work?
A1: scholars have generated an extensive literature, the Darwin Industry, about his life and work.
Q2: What has been created in 1959 and filled with information about changes in every edition of On the Origin of Species?
A2: a variorum
Q3: What was done on the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species?
A3: Worldwide commemorations
Q4: What were the celebrants honoring with their commemorations?
A4: They celebrated the ideas which "over the last 150 years have revolutionised our understanding of nature and our place within it".
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.

Q1: On what date did the Soviet Union dissolve?
A1: December 26, 1991
Q2: What entity was created in place of the Soviet Union?
A2: Commonwealth of Independent States
Q3: Who was president of the Soviet Union when it came to an end?
A3: Mikhail Gorbachev,
Q4: Who became president of Russia after Gorbachev left office?
A4: Boris Yeltsin
Q5: Which flag replaced the Soviet flag at the Kremlin?
A5: pre-revolutionary Russian flag.
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.

Q1: Who was General Secretary prior to Mikhail Gorbachev?
A1: Konstantin Chernenko
Q2: What caused Chernenko to leave office?
A2: death
Q3: How old was Gorbachev when he was elected as the General Secretary?
A3: 54
Q4: What entity was responsible for Gorbachev's being elected?
A4: Politburo
Q5: To which two people did Gorbachev grant membership into the Politburo for his own reasons?
A5: Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov,
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).

Q1: What party did Gorbachev belong to?
A1: Communist Party
Q2: What was the name of the legislative body that was brought into existance in 1989?
A2: Congress of People's Deputies
Q3: When were opposition parties first allowed in the Soviet Union?
A3: 1990
Q4: In which country did Warsaw Pact regime remain in place?
A4: Romania
Q5: What were some of the downsides of the more liberal Soviet Union?
A5: nationalist movements and ethnic disputes
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.

Q1: When was Gorbachev's speech addressing alcohol abuse?
A1: May 1985
Q2: Other than increasing pricing what was another measure that was introduced to decrease alcohol consumption?
A2: rationing
Q3: What was censored?
A3: drinking scenes from old movies
Q4: Whose anti-alcohol program did Gorbachev's remind people of?
A4: Tsar Nicholas II
Q5: When did Tsar Nicholas II ban alcohol?
A5: during World War I,
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.

Q1: When did Eduard Shevardnadze gain full membership in the Politburo?
A1: July 1, 1985
Q2: Who was responsible for Shevardnadze's membership?
A2: Gorbachev
Q3: Who was minister of foreign affairs prior to Shevardnadze?
A3: Andrei Gromyko
Q4: What was Gromyko's western nickname?
A4: "Mr Nyet"
Q5: Which person did Gorbachev kick out of the Politburo on the first of July?
A5: Grigory Romanov
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.

Q1: Who became Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1985?
A1: Nikolai Ryzhkov
Q2: Who was Chairman of the Council of Ministers prior to Ryzhkov?
A2: Nikolai Tikhonov
Q3: How old was Tikhonov when he stopped being Chairman?
A3: 79-year-old
Q4: Who was the new chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1985?
A4: Nikolai Talyzin
Q5: What is an analogous office to Chairman of the Council of Ministers?
A5: chairman of the State Planning Committee
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]

Q1: What party was Helsinki-86 in disagreement with?
A1: Communist
Q2: What group was the first to oppose the Soviet government publicly?
A2: Helsinki-86
Q3: Who created the CTAG?
A3: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss.
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.

Q1: What is the English translation of the word Jeltoqsan?
A1: December
Q2: Who was fired by Gorbachev causing riots?
A2: Dinmukhamed Konayev
Q3: What position did Konayev hold in Kazakhstan prior to his removal?
A3: First Secretary of the Communist Party
Q4: Who took the place of Konayev?
A4: Gennady Kolbin
Q5: When were the first demonstrations in Kazakhstan to protest the removal and replacement of Konayev?
A5: December 17, 1986
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.

Q1: Who was demonstrating?
A1: Kazakh students
Q2: How many people were estimated by authorities to have attended the riots?
A2: 3,000
Q3: How did the Kazakh SSR government say the two protesters were killed?
A3: blows to the head
Q4: What were the attendance estimates from non governmental groups?
A4: 30,000 to 40,000
Q5: Who wrote about the KGB officer's testimony?
A5: Mukhtar Shakhanov
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.

Q1: Whose support did Gorbachev seek in order to increase liberties?
A1: the people's
Q2: What party was Gorbachev in charge of?
A2: Communist
Q3: What group wanted to stop reforms?
A3: "conservatives."
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.

Q1: When were the prisoners set free?
A1: February 7, 1987,
Q2: Who released the prisoners in the 1950s?
A2: Khrushchev's
Q3: What sort of prisoners were released?
A3: political
Q4: Who demonstrated close to the Kremlin in July of 1978?
A4: Crimean Tatars
Q5: Prior to 1987 when was the last large release of prisoners?
A5: mid-1950s.
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.

Q1: Who disagreed vocally about the demonstrations being permitted?
A1: Yegor Ligachev
Q2: Who resigned in September of 1987?
A2: Boris Yeltsin
Q3: What was Gorbachev's reaction to Yeltsin's resignation?
A3: stunned
Q4: What did Yeltsin dislike about the reforms?
A4: slow pace
Q5: Who took Yeltsin's side?
A5: No one
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.

Q1: Where did the demonstrators meet in June of 1987?
A1: Freedom Monument
Q2: Where is Freedom Monument?
A2: Riga
Q3: What did the protesters do?
A3: laid flowers
Q4: Where did further protests take place?
A4: Baltic States
Q5: Who were the protesters remembering?
A5: Latvians
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.

Q1: What was being protested in Estonia?
A1: new phosphate mines
Q2: When did the phosphate mine protests begin?
A2: spring 1987
Q3: What group was started by ex-political prisoners?
A3: MRP-AEG group
Q4: Who was in charge of the MRP-AEG group?
A4: Tiit Madisson
Q5: What was requested for Estonia in the proposal printed by the Edasi newspaper in 1987?
A5: autonomy
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.

Q1: When was the Yerevan demonstration?
A1: October 17, 1987
Q2: How many people demonstrated?
A2: about 3,000
Q3: What was the demonstrators' nationality?
A3: Armenians
Q4: The protesters were unhappy with the pollution in what body of water?
A4: Lake Sevan
Q5: Where did the protest march start?
A5: Opera Plaza
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.

Q1: What ws the final day of the 19th Party Conference?
A1: July 1, 1988
Q2: What did Gorbachev hope to create?
A2: new supreme legislative body
Q3: What was Gorbachev trying to separate?
A3: party and state
Q4: What was the proposed legislative body called?
A4: Congress of People's Deputies
Q5: What was the ideology of Gorbachev's opponents?
A5: conservative
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.

Q1: Whose laws would take precedence according to the declaration of national sovereignty?
A1: Estonian
Q2: Who claimed Estonia's national resources?
A2: Estonia's parliament
Q3: What was the name of the group that made its platform known on October 2?
A3: the Popular Front
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.

Q1: How many Azerbaijanis died in the Askeran clash?
A1: two
Q2: When was the Askeran clash?
A2: February 22, 1988
Q3: Who killed the two Azerbaijanis?
A3: Karabakh police.
Q4: What was triggered by the radio broadcast of the deaths?
A4: Sumgait Pogrom
Q5: How many were killed in the ensuing riots?
A5: 32