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Something completely different.

Today 100 years ago : 3 March1918 : the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
The peace treaty between the recently created Communist Russian state, and the Central Powers, that ended the war on the Eastern Front.
After the October Revolution in 1917, Russia had concluded an armistice with the Central Powers.
Germany needed this treaty, so it could bring its troops to the Western Front. These reinforcements were needed, because soon, the first US troops would arrive in France. Germany wanted to make a decisive breakthrough on the Western Front before the US Army could take part to the war.
Russia wanted to get out of the war, but the new government disagreed on the terms. Some wanted to continue a guerilla war against the Central Powers, others wanted to gain time, hoping that the Revolution would spread quickly over Europe. So, they tried to prolong the armistice and delay the peace negotiations.
The Central Powers also wanted to enforce grain supplies from Ukraine to their starving cities.
In February 1918, Germany became impatient about the delay. Their armies started marching east again. For the Communists, it became clear that the Revolution was not spreading around at all, so the priority shifted to securing their own Revolution in Russia. When they agreed on the terms of the treaty, the Germans had conquered 200 more kilometers.
A harsh point for Russia to accept were the territorial claims of Germany : they wanted to annex parts of Russia and create the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine as independent countries, or rather, client states to Germany. They also wanted to keep as much of the territories they had occupied in February. For Russia it meant giving up one third of its population and of its arable land, half of its industrial capacity and nine tenths of its coal mines.
The war was officially over on the Eastern Front, but the treaty had not brought peace. Bolsheviks kept stirring unrest and revolt in the region. At the end, the Brest-Litovsk Peace would be a pyrrhic victory for Germany. Six months later, its Western Front would collapse. It had a lot to blame for that on itself. Because of its excessive territorial eagerness in the Brest-Litovsk negotiations. Germany needed none less than one million of troops to occupy and protect their newly acquired territories in the east. One million men that could not be deployed on the Western Front, during the planned spring offensive, although they were desperately needed to make it succeed. A costly blunder.
The Brest-Litovsk Treaty was canceled by the Versailles Treaty in 1919.
 
Something completely different.

Today 100 years ago : 3 March1918 : the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
The peace treaty between the recently created Communist Russian state, and the Central Powers, that ended the war on the Eastern Front.
After the October Revolution in 1917, Russia had concluded an armistice with the Central Powers.
Germany needed this treaty, so it could bring its troops to the Western Front. These reinforcements were needed, because soon, the first US troops would arrive in France. Germany wanted to make a decisive breakthrough on the Western Front before the US Army could take part to the war.
Russia wanted to get out of the war, but the new government disagreed on the terms. Some wanted to continue a guerilla war against the Central Powers, others wanted to gain time, hoping that the Revolution would spread quickly over Europe. So, they tried to prolong the armistice and delay the peace negotiations.
The Central Powers also wanted to enforce grain supplies from Ukraine to their starving cities.
In February 1918, Germany became impatient about the delay. Their armies started marching east again. For the Communists, it became clear that the Revolution was not spreading around at all, so the priority shifted to securing their own Revolution in Russia. When they agreed on the terms of the treaty, the Germans had conquered 200 more kilometers.
A harsh point for Russia to accept were the territorial claims of Germany : they wanted to annex parts of Russia and create the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine as independent countries, or rather, client states to Germany. They also wanted to keep as much of the territories they had occupied in February. For Russia it meant giving up one third of its population and of its arable land, half of its industrial capacity and nine tenths of its coal mines.
The war was officially over on the Eastern Front, but the treaty had not brought peace. Bolsheviks kept stirring unrest and revolt in the region. At the end, the Brest-Litovsk Peace would be a pyrrhic victory for Germany. Six months later, its Western Front would collapse. It had a lot to blame for that on itself. Because of its excessive territorial eagerness in the Brest-Litovsk negotiations. Germany needed none less than one million of troops to occupy and protect their newly acquired territories in the east. One million men that could not be deployed on the Western Front, during the planned spring offensive, although they were desperately needed to make it succeed. A costly blunder.
The Brest-Litovsk Treaty was canceled by the Versailles Treaty in 1919.

I know less than I would like about the war on the Eastern Front in World War I. I do know that Germany had counted on Austria to contain the Russians, but in the end had to commit troops to deal with both Serbia and the Russians. Tannenberg at the beginning of the war was a German "Hail Mary pass"--a risky gamble on what was supposed to be a quiescent sector.
I also know that Pershing insisted that the American Army fight as a unit, and not as reinforcements for other Allied troops. This irritated everyone, and made the German 1918 offensive easier because it limited Allied reserves.
The real question is whether the Germans could have won under any circumstances in 1918. I tend to doubt it. The blockade was really hurting them. American industry and agriculture were basically a massive expansion of Allied resources. Instead of the strategy of letting the British and French batter themselves to pieces against dug-in German troops they had been pursuing (with the exception of Verdun), it was now the Germans who had to advance on Allied trenches. Attacking is always very costly, especially against the new tanks.
There had been French mutinies, but the German army and the German nation were also just on the edge. Green as the Americans were (someone said that equipment wise and tactically it was a 19th century army, it was poorly trained, and it would be able to function competently only with experience, which the French, British, and Canadians now had in abundance by then--the Americans were more like Sir John French's troops in 1914), they would probably ultimately have tipped the balance.

Everybody in 1914 was thinking about 1870. Nobody had absorbed the lessons of the American Civil War, and nobody understood how technology had changed the world. Everybody always fights the last war.

This was the prelude to World War II (after the "long weekend"). The dynamic only stopped with the atomic bomb.
 
I know less than I would like about the war on the Eastern Front in World War I. I do know that Germany had counted on Austria to contain the Russians, but in the end had to commit troops to deal with both Serbia and the Russians. Tannenberg at the beginning of the war was a German "Hail Mary pass"--a risky gamble on what was supposed to be a quiescent sector.
I also know that Pershing insisted that the American Army fight as a unit, and not as reinforcements for other Allied troops. This irritated everyone, and made the German 1918 offensive easier because it limited Allied reserves.
The real question is whether the Germans could have won under any circumstances in 1918. I tend to doubt it. The blockade was really hurting them. American industry and agriculture were basically a massive expansion of Allied resources. Instead of the strategy of letting the British and French batter themselves to pieces against dug-in German troops they had been pursuing (with the exception of Verdun), it was now the Germans who had to advance on Allied trenches. Attacking is always very costly, especially against the new tanks.
There had been French mutinies, but the German army and the German nation were also just on the edge. Green as the Americans were (someone said that equipment wise and tactically it was a 19th century army, it was poorly trained, and it would be able to function competently only with experience, which the French, British, and Canadians now had in abundance by then--the Americans were more like Sir John French's troops in 1914), they would probably ultimately have tipped the balance.

Everybody in 1914 was thinking about 1870. Nobody had absorbed the lessons of the American Civil War, and nobody understood how technology had changed the world. Everybody always fights the last war.

This was the prelude to World War II (after the "long weekend"). The dynamic only stopped with the atomic bomb.
As Marshal Foch said about the Treaty of Versailles "This is not peace. It is a twenty year armistice."
 
President Pierre Nkurunziza of the African country of Burundi, has yesterday been named 'Eternal Supreme Guide', by his party.

Although Nkurunziza is doing a third presidential term already (against Burundi's constitution), and he is planning to submit a reform of that constitution, that would allow him to stay in power at least until 2034, the party has stated that the naming does not mean there will be created such 'excesses' as in North-Korea.

let's just hope it does not bring others to ideas.
 
On 17 March Chametovic Rudolf Nureyev, born in Irkutsk, Russia's central Siberian city, would have turned 80 years old.
When the Ballet was still considered an elite discipline a bit dusty, he transformed it into pop attraction.
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If the dancer-myth of the twentieth century Rudolf Nureyev was alive, he would be celebrating his 80th birthday right now.
He certainly was the most free, magnetic and talented classical dancer of the century. Today there is no authentic heir.
Rudolf, in his day, knew how to make Ballet a pop territory: drew crowds in theaters, aroused enthusiasm for an art that seemed rétro, excited the curiosity of reporters with his magnificent pride. Without his enthusiasm as a warrior, the Ballet was a dusty and elitist art.
With Nureyev Ballet discovered the power of theater, unveiled an allure that took away the graziosismi obsolete and opened cracks unpublished on the actor. Even just walking, entering the scene subdued, or resting on the shoulder the flap of a cloak "looked like a Panther", the scowling and Regal Rudolf delivered a lively sense of being on stage. He never stopped on the question "recite dancing": what the Ballet had to prissy or obvious, with him came to Eclipse. Enough with princelings, figures acquired the mushy complex psychologies.
 
It happened today 17 March

Events and characters that have made history on March 17

180 A.D. – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor Dies.
1229 – Frederick II enters Jerusalem, of which he will receive the Crown through the marriage with Isabella of Brienne, ending the sixth crusade.
1776 – the last British ships leaving the port of Boston to come to Halifax (Canada). It is remembered as one of the precursors of the end of the American Revolutionary War.
1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed King of the new Kingdom of Italy in Milan.
1959 – After the riots broke out in Lhasa on March 10, 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, fled Tibet in India.
1985 – After nine months was born in Venice the l'bogo.
1992 – South Africa shall vote in favour of the abolition of apartheid with 68.7% of the vote.
2011 – It's adopted UN Security Council resolution on the crisis in Libya.
2013 – Pope delivers his first angelus after his election.
 
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It happened today 17 March

Events and characters that have made history on March 17

180 A.D. – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor Dies.
1229 – Frederick II enters Jerusalem, of which he will receive the Crown through the marriage with Isabella of Brienne, ending the sixth crusade.
1776 – the last British ships leaving the port of Boston to come to Halifax (Canada). It is remembered as one of the precursors of the end of the American Revolutionary War.
1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed King of the new Kingdom of Italy in Milan.
1959 – After the riots broke out in Lhasa on March 10, 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, fled Tibet in India.
1985 – After nine months was born in Venice the l'bogo.
1992 – South Africa shall vote in favour of the abolition of apartheid with 68.7% of the vote.
2011 – It's adopted UN Security Council resolution on the crisis in Libya.
2013 – Pope delivers his first angelus after his election.
Happy Birthday! :partyhat:
 
It happened today 17 March

Events and characters that have made history on March 17

180 A.D. – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor Dies.
1229 – Frederick II enters Jerusalem, of which he will receive the Crown through the marriage with Isabella of Brienne, ending the sixth crusade.
1776 – the last British ships leaving the port of Boston to come to Halifax (Canada). It is remembered as one of the precursors of the end of the American Revolutionary War.
1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed King of the new Kingdom of Italy in Milan.
1959 – After the riots broke out in Lhasa on March 10, 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, fled Tibet in India.
1985 – After nine months was born in Venice the l'bogo.
1992 – South Africa shall vote in favour of the abolition of apartheid with 68.7% of the vote.
2011 – It's adopted UN Security Council resolution on the crisis in Libya.
2013 – Pope delivers his first angelus after his election.
Buon compleanno, l'bogo! flower1
On 17 March Chametovic Rudolf Nureyev, born in Irkutsk, Russia's central Siberian city, would have turned 80 years old.
When the Ballet was still considered an elite discipline a bit dusty, he transformed it into pop attraction.
If the dancer-myth of the twentieth century Rudolf Nureyev was alive, he would be celebrating his 80th birthday right now.
He certainly was the most free, magnetic and talented classical dancer of the century. Today there is no authentic heir.
Rudolf, in his day, knew how to make Ballet a pop territory: drew crowds in theaters, aroused enthusiasm for an art that seemed rétro, excited the curiosity of reporters with his magnificent pride. Without his enthusiasm as a warrior, the Ballet was a dusty and elitist art.
With Nureyev Ballet discovered the power of theater, unveiled an allure that took away the graziosismi obsolete and opened cracks unpublished on the actor. Even just walking, entering the scene subdued, or resting on the shoulder the flap of a cloak "looked like a Panther", the scowling and Regal Rudolf delivered a lively sense of being on stage. He never stopped on the question "recite dancing": what the Ballet had to prissy or obvious, with him came to Eclipse. Enough with princelings, figures acquired the mushy complex psychologies.

 
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Hundred years ago. On April 1st 1918, Britain's Royal Air Force was founded. It was the first independent air force to be created (previously the British military air force, the Royal Flying Corps had been part of the Army). Soon, other countries also created their independent air force, e.g. Italy (1923), France (1934) and Germany (1935). Curiously, in the US, the USAF has only been created after World War II, in 1947. Until then, aereal operations (apart from the Navy's), had been a US Army matter.

Some claim that the real first independent air force was actually the Finnish Air Force, founded on March 6th 1918, three weeks earlier. However the strenght only counted 2 (two) planes, which had been acquired by private donation. Furthermore, that 2 planes strong 'Finnish Air Force' did not participate as a combat unit in the Finnish civil war in 1918.
 
Also 100 years ago today, one of the finest of the WWI poets was killed:
Isaac Rosenberg

Break of Day in the Trenches

The darkness crumbles away.
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
A queer sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet’s poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver—what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe—
Just a little white with the dust.


more about him and his poems:
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/isaac-rosenberg
 
Also 100 years ago today, one of the finest of the WWI poets was killed:
Isaac Rosenberg

Break of Day in the Trenches

The darkness crumbles away.
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
A queer sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet’s poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver—what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe—
Just a little white with the dust.


more about him and his poems:
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/isaac-rosenberg
What a story his life was! And the tragedy of all he could have written, had he lived. I did not know of him and his writing. Thanks for bringing this to our attention,
 
Today is/was Friday the Thirteenth. I hope you all made it through the day unscathed. I took the day off; not because I'm superstitious, but there are no scheduled days off work until the end of May.
While I don't believe in luck - good or bad - here are 13 bad things that happened on Friday the 13th:

1) Friday 13, November 1829. Daredevil Sam Patch, who successfully dove from Niagara Falls earlier, dove 125 feet from Genesee Falls in New York. He did not survive.
2) Friday 13, October 1972. A charter plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andres. Twelve people were killed in the crash and eight more in an avalanche. The remaining 27 had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive .
3) Friday 13 October 1972. The same day as the Andes crash, a Russian plane crashed on landing in Moscow killing 174 people.
4) Friday 13 October 1989. The stock market fell 6.91 points, the second largest one day drop in history.
5) Friday 13, January 2012. The Costa Concordia ran aground and nearly capsized off the coast of Italy killing 32 people.
6) Friday 13 November 1970. A cyclone hit Bangladesh killing an estimated 500,000 people. Resulting loss of livestock and crops led to more deaths from malnutrition.
7) Friday 13 September 1940. Five German bombs strike Buckingham Palace. Only one person was killed and the damage was minor, still, it was Buckingham Palace!
8) Friday 13, January 1939. Brush fire sweeps through the state of Victoria, Australia burning 75% of the state - nearly 5 million acres - and killing 75 people; the worst brush fire in history.
9) Friday 13, September 1996. Tupac Shakur dies following a still unsolved shooting in Las Vegas.
10) Friday 13 January 1989. The Friday the 13th virus causes thousands of computers in Britain to crash in the first major virus attack in history.
11) Friday 13 March 1964. Kitty Genovese is murdered outside her apartment in NYC. Newspaper reports claimed at least 30 people heard or saw the murder but refused to get involved causing worldwide outrage. It has since been reveled that these reports were exaggerated and inaccurate.
12) Friday 13 June 1952. A Swedish Air Force DC-3 with an eight man crew disappeared over the Baltic. Two palnes sent to look for it were shot down by the Russians. In the 1990s it was reveled that the plane was on a spy mission and was shot down by the Russians.
13) Friday 13 July 1821. Nathan Bedford Forrest was born. As a Confederate General, he ordered the Fort Pillow Massacre in which over 200 mostly black Union troops were slaughtered. After the war, he founded the KKK.

And, on Friday 13 April 2029 Asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass within 18,000 miles of the Earth, closer than most satellites.
 
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