title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25 has a conventional aerodynamic layout with a shoulder-mounted trapezoidal wing and a traditional tailplane and rudder. Several metals are used in the construction of the airframe: 60% aluminium, 19% steel, 13.5% titanium, 2% magnesium alloy and 5.5% other materials.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: All versions of the Su-25 have a metal cantilever wing, of moderate sweep, high aspect ratio and equipped with high-lift devices. The wing consists of two cantilever sections attached to a central torsion box, forming a single unit with the fuselage. The air brakes are housed in fairings at the tip of each wing. Each wing has five hardpoints for weapons carriage, with the attachment points mounted on load-bearing ribs and spars. Each wing also features a five-section leading edge slat, a two-section flap and an aileron.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The flaps are mounted by steel sliders and rollers, attached to brackets on the rear spar. The trapezoidal ailerons are near the wingtips. The fuselage of the Su-25 has an ellipsoidal section and is of semi-monocoque, stressed-skin construction, arranged as a longitudinal load-bearing framework of longerons, beams and stringers, with a transverse load-bearing assembly of frames. The one-piece horizontal tailplane is attached to the load-bearing frame at two mounting points.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Early versions of the Su-25 were equipped with two R-95Sh non-afterburning turbojets, in compartments on either side of the rear fuselage. The engines, sub-assemblies and surrounding fuselage are cooled by air provided by the cold air intakes on top of the engine nacelles. A drainage system collects oil, hydraulic fluid residues and fuel from the engines after flight or after an unsuccessful start. The engine control systems allows independent operation of each engine. The latest versions (Su-25T and TM) are equipped with improved R-195 engines.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The autocannon is in a compartment beneath the cockpit, mounted on a load-bearing beam attached to the cockpit floor and the forward fuselage support structure. The nose is fitted with distinctive twin pitot probes and hinges up for service access.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The pilot flies the aircraft by means of a centre stick and left hand throttles. The pilot sits on a Zvezda K-36 ejection seat (similar to the Sukhoi Su-27) and has standard flight instruments. At the rear of the cockpit is a steel headrest, mounted on the rear bulkhead. The cockpit has a bathtub-shaped armoured enclosure of welded titanium sheets, with transit ports in the walls. Guide rails for the ejection seat are mounted on the rear wall of the cockpit.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The canopy hinges open to the right and the pilot enters using the flip-down ladder. Once inside, the pilot sits low in the cockpit, protected by the bathtub assembly, which makes for a cramped cockpit. Visibility from the cockpit is limited, being a trade-off for improved pilot protection. Rearwards visibility is poor and a periscope is fitted on top of the canopy to compensate.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: A folding ladder built into the left fuselage provides access to the cockpit as well as to the top of the aircraft.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The base model Su-25 incorporates a number of key avionics systems. It has no TV guidance but includes a distinctive nose-mounted laser rangefinder, that is thought to provide for laser-based target finding. A DISS-7 doppler radar is used for navigation; the Su-25 can fly at night, in visual and instrument meteorological conditions.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25 often has radios installed for air-to-ground and air-to-air communications, including an SO-69 identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) transponder. The aircraft's self-defence suite includes various measures, such as flare and chaff dispensers capable of launching up to 250 flares and dipole chaff. Hostile radar uses are guarded against via an SPO-15 radar warning receiver.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The newer Su-25TM and Su-25SM models have an upgraded avionics and weapons suite, resulting in improved survivability and combat capability.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The first Soviet Air Forces Su-25 unit was the 80th Assault Aviation Regiment, formed in February 1981 based at Sitalcay air base in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The first eleven aircraft arrived at Sitalchay in May 1981. The 200th Independent Assault Aviation Squadron was then formed within the regiment to go to Afghanistan.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 19 July 1981, the 200th Independent Attack Squadron was reassigned to Shindand Airbase in western Afghanistan, becoming the first Su-25 unit deployed to that country. Its main task was to conduct air strikes against mountain military positions and structures controlled by the Afghan rebels. Another Soviet Su-25 unit was the 368th Assault Aviation Regiment, which was formed on 12 July 1984, at Zhovtneve in Ukraine. It was soon also moved east to conduct operations over Afghanistan.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Over the course of the Soviet–Afghan War, Su-25s launched 139 guided missiles of all types against Mujahideen


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: positions. On average, each aircraft performed 360 sorties a year, a total considerably higher than that of any other combat aircraft in Afghanistan. By the end of the war, nearly 50 Su-25s were deployed at Afghan airbases, carrying out a total of 60,000 sorties. Between the first deployment in 1981 and the end of the war in 1989, 21–23 aircraft were lost in combat operations, with up to nine destroyed on the ground while parked.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25 also saw combat during the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–88. The first Su-25s were commissioned by the Iraqi Air Force in 1987 and performed approximately 900 combat sorties towards the end of the war, carrying out the bulk of Iraqi air attack missions. During the most intense combat of the war, Iraqi Su-25s performed up to 15 sorties per day, each. In one recorded incident, an Iraqi Su-25 was shot down by an Iranian, Hawk surface-to-air missile, but the pilot managed to eject. This was the only confirmed, successful Iranian shootdown of an Iraqi Su-25. After the war, Saddam Hussein decorated all of the Iraqi Air Force's Su-25 pilots with the country's highest military decoration.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: During the Gulf War of 1991, the air superiority of the coalition forces was so great that the majority of Iraqi Su-25s did not even manage to get airborne. On 25 January 1991, seven Iraqi Air Force Su-25s fled from Iraq and landed in Iran.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On the evening of 6 February 1991, two US Air Force F-15C Eagle fighters of the 53rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, operating from Al Kharj Air Base in Saudi Arabia, intercepted a pair of Iraqi MiG-21s and a pair of Su-25s. All four Iraqi aircraft were shot down, with both Su-25s coming down in the desert not far from the Iraqi border with Iran. This was the Iraqi Su-25s' only air combat of the war.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Georgian government used Su-25s in 1992–93 against Abkhaz separatists during the First Abkhazian War. A Georgian Air Force Su-25 was shot down over Nizhnaya Eshera on 4 July 1993 by an 9K34 Strela-3 MANPADS. Another Georgian Su-25 was shot down on 13 July 1993 with a 9K32 Strela-2 MANPADS, while another Su-25 was downed by friendly fire by a ZU-23-2 on 4 July. The Russian Air Force also lost an Su-25 during war, the aircraft crashed due to a pilot's mistake while providing CAS for Abkhaz forces.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Russian Su-25s were employed during the First Chechen War. Together with other Russian Air Force air assets, they achieved air supremacy for Russian Forces. On 29 November 1994, attacking all four Chechen military bases, Russian Su-25 from the 368th Assault Aviation Regiment (OShAP) destroyed up to 266 Chechen aircraft on the ground, mostly not airworthy. The Air Force's deployed assets performed around 9,000 air sorties, with around 5,300 being strike sorties during the Chechen campaign between 1994 and 1996. The Russian 4th Air Army had 140 Sukhoi Su-17Ms, Su-24s and Su-25s in the war zone supported by an A-50 AWACS aircraft. The employed munitions were generally unguided S-5, S-8, and S-24 rockets, as well as FAB-250 and FAB-500 bombs, while only 2.3% of the strikes used precision-guided Kh-25ML missiles, KAB-500L and KAB-500KR smart bombs when weather conditions were suitable. Russian forces were not able to properly take advantage of the achieved air supremacy due to obsolete air tactics that focused the Air Force on useless tasks in this type of war such as Combat Air Patrols. The Russian air losses were low since no integrated air defense was fielded by the Chechens.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 4 February 1995, a Russian Su-25 was shot down by ZSU-23-4 Shilka antiaircraft fire over Belgatoi Gekhi, five kilometers southeast of Grozny. The pilot, Maj. Nikolay Bairov, ejected but died impacting the ground as his parachute did not deploy on time. Another Su-25 piloted by Lt. Col. Evgeny Derkulsky was damaged by ground fire on the same day, but managed to land at Mozdok air base, where the aircraft was repaired. On 5 May 1995, another Russian Su-25 was downed near Serzhen-Yurt by 12.7 mm fire while on a low-altitude patrol. The pilot, Col. Vladimir Sarabeyev, was killed.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 4 April 1996, another Su-25 fell either to ZU-23-2 fire while either making a reconnaissance flight or attacking the village of Goiskoye. The pilot, Maj. Alexander Matvienko, ejected and was recovered by a friendly helicopter returning to the airbase in Khankala, Grozny. On 5 May 1996, a two-seat Su-25UB was downed with an 9K34 Strela-3 MANPADS near the village of Mairtup while on reconnaissance. Both pilots, Col. Igor Sviryidov and Maj. Oleg Isayev, were killed in the crash. It was the fourth Su-25 shot down and fifth Russian fixed wing aircraft lost, since the start of the war in December 1994.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Russian Air Force Su-25s were extensively used during the Second Chechen War in particular during the first phase when Russian forces were invading the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Up to seven Russian Su-25s were lost, one to hostile fire: on 4 October 1999, a Su-25 was shot down by a MANPADS during a reconnaissance mission over the village of Tolstoy-Yurt killing its pilot. The wings of the aircraft were put on a pedestal in the central square in Grozny.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Su-25 attack aircraft were used by the Ethiopian Air Force to strike Eritrean targets. On 15 May 2000, An Ethiopian Su-25 was shot down by an Eritrean Air Force MiG-29, killing the pilot.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Su-25s were used by the Macedonian Air Force during the conflict against Albanian separatists. Beginning on 24 June 2001, the aircraft made multiple attack runs against separatist positions. The most successful operation took place on 10 August 2001, in the village of Raduša, when Su-25s attacked Albanian militants who had ambushed and killed 16 Macedonian soldiers over the previous two days.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: During the Ivorian Civil War, Su-25s were used by government forces to attack rebel targets. On 6 November 2004, at least one Ivorian Sukhoi Su-25 attacked a unit of France's Unicorn peacekeeping forces stationed in Bouaké at 1300, killing nine soldiers, a U.S. development worker and wounding 37 soldiers. Shortly afterwards, the French military retaliated by attacking the air base in Yamoussoukro and destroyed the Ivorian air force, heavily damaging the two Su-25s responsible for the attack.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: In August 2008, Su-25s were used by both Georgia and Russia during the 2008 Russia–Georgia war. Su-25s of the Georgian Air Force participated in providing air support for troops during Battle of Tskhinvali and launched bombing raids on targets in South Ossetia. Russian military Su-25s struck Georgian forces in South Ossetia, and undertook air raids on targets in Georgia. The Russian military officially confirmed the loss of three Su-25 aircraft to the Georgian air defense, though the "Moscow Defense Brief" suggests four. The three Russian aircraft were reportedly downed by Georgian Buk-M1 air defence units. Georgian Su-25s were able to operate at night. In early August 2008, Russian Su-25s attacked the Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing plant, where the Su-25 is produced, dropping bombs on the factory's airfield.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 1 November 2012, two Iranian Su-25s fired cannon bursts at a USAF MQ-1 Predator drone off the Iranian coast. The Iranian government has claimed that the drone violated its airspace.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Ukrainian armed forces deployed aircraft over insurgent Eastern regions starting in spring 2014. On 26 May 2014, Ukrainian Su-25s supported Mi-24 helicopters during a military operation to regain control over the airport in Donetsk, during which the Su-25s fired air to ground rockets. On 2 July 2014, one Ukrainian Su-25 crashed due to a technical fault.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 16 July 2014, an Su-25 was shot down, with Ukrainian officials stating that a Russian MiG-29 shot it down using a R-27T missile. Russia denied these allegations.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 23 July 2014, two Su-25s were shot down in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. A spokesperson for the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said the aircraft were shot down by missiles fired from Russia.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 29 August 2014, a Ukrainian Su-25 was shot down by pro-Russian rebels. The Ukrainian authorities said the downing was due to a Russian missile without clarifying if they mean Russian made or fired by Russian forces. The pilot managed to eject safely. On the same day, pro-Russian rebels claimed the downing of up to four Su-25s.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 9 February 2015, the pro-Russian forces indirectly acknowledged, for the first time, with a reference to a Ukrainian media source, their use of Su-25 against Ukrainian forces during the fighting near Debaltsevo.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 29 June 2014, it was reported that Iraq claimed to have received the first batch of second hand Su-25s ordered from Russia in order to fight the Islamic State forces. An Iraqi defense ministry source claimed the aircraft would be in service "within three to four days", despite the fact that the Iraqis require technical help and parts to make them operational, and the fact that the Russian made aircraft are incompatible with the Iraqi Air force's inventory of American made Hellfire missiles.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Air Force delivered seven Su-25s on 1 July 2014, the majority of which were ex-Iraqi aircraft from the Gulf War. They were quickly pushed into combat, performing air raids as early as the beginning of August 2014 and later expanding their area of operation.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Iraqi Su-25s flew the bulk of the sorties against the Islamic State, with 3562 missions between June 2014 and December 2017, by which time ISIS had lost control of all the territory it formerly controlled in Iraq. That compares to 514 sorties flown by the Iraqi fleet of F-16IQ fighters.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: In September 2015, it was reported that at least a dozen Su-25 were deployed by Russia to an airfield near Latakia, Syria, to support the Russian forces there who were taking part in the Syrian offensive against ISIL. On 2 October 2015, Russian Su-24M and Su-25 attack aircraft destroyed an ISIL command post in the Idlib province, while Su-34 and Su-25 aircraft eliminated an ISIL fortified bunker in the Hama province. By 15 March 2016, with the scaling down of Russian presence in Syria, Russian Su-25s had performed over 1,600 sorties in Syria while dropping 6,000 bombs.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 3 February 2018 a Russian Su-25 was shot down over Idlib by rebel fighters who used a MANPADS. A Syrian militant said that the pilot, Roman Filipov, ejected safely but killed himself with a grenade to avoid capture.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 29 September 2020, Armenian Defense Ministry claimed that an Armenian Air Force Su-25 was shot down by a Turkish Air Force F-16, killing the pilot. However Turkey denied the allegation.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 4 October 2020, an Azerbaijani Air force Su-25 aircraft was shot down, by Armenian forces, probably by a 9K33 Osa while targeting Armenian positions in Fuzuli. The pilot, Col. Zaur Nudiraliyev died in the crash. Azerbaijani officials acknowledged the loss in December 2020, while disclosing a major role of manned aviation being hidden during the active phase of the conflict with more than 600 airstrikes by manned aviation from 27 September 2020 to 9 November 2020, with the Su-25 fleet, tasked with the critical role of suppression and destruction of the enemy air defense among others.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: On 24 February 2022, Russia reported the loss of an Su-25 due to "pilot error." On 1 March, a Russian Su-25SM piloted by Ruslan Rudnev was lost over Ukraine. The next day, another Russian Su-25SM, registration number "RF-91961" - Red 07, was shot down in Makariv, Ukraine. On 4 March, two Russian Su-25SMs, the first with registration number "RF-93026", were lost over Volnovakha, Ukraine. The second, with callsign "Red 04", was lost along with its pilot. Images of the aircraft wrecks were displayed on social media. On 7 March, an Su-25 strike aircraft flown by Russian pilot Oleg Chervov was lost during a combat mission in Ukraine. On 10 March, one Su-25 with registration number "RF-91969" was shot down near Kyiv and the pilot killed. On 14 March, a Russian Su-25 was damaged by enemy fire, likely MANPADs, but managed to return to its base. On 24 May Ukraine claimed to have shot down retired Major General Kanamat Botashev flying an Su-25 using a Stinger missile. It was unknown if he was in service, or a private military contractor. On 27 May Ukraine claimed to have shot down a retired Russian pilot, Colonel Nikolai Markov, who was reportedly flying an Su-25 over the Luhansk region.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Ukrainian Air force also operates Su-25s. On 26 February three Su-25s from the 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade were lost. "Blue 19" and "Blue 30" were shot down over the Kherson region. The pilots were presumed dead. Photos of the wrecks of the two Ukrainian aircraft were published. A third aircraft from the 299th was lost, but the pilot, Andrey Maksinov was captured by Russian forces. Ukrainian media acknowledged that the pilot was Ukrainian. The next day another Su-25, "Blue 39", piloted by Gennady Matulyak was shot down near Hlibivka Vyshgorod, Kyiv region. On 2 March, one Su-25 from 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade piloted by Oleksandr Korpan was lost over Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnytskyi Oblast. On 10 March one Su-25, "Blue 31" was shot down near Nova Kakhovka, Kherson. On 14 March another Su-25 was shot down by Russian forces in Volnovakha, Donbas region. The pilot, Roman Vasyliuk, was captured by Russian forces and later released on 24 April, in a Russo-Ukrainian prisoner swap. On 22 March, a Ukrainian Su-25, heavily damaged in combat was recorded in video. On 15 April, a Ukrainian Su-25 was reportedly shot down by Russian forces in Izyum. The downing of the aircraft was recorded by a military camera in thermographic mode. The pilot, Captain Yegor Seredyuk, was reported as being killed near Izyum on 15 April. Seredyuk was awarded the Hero of Ukraine order. On 14 May a Su-25 from 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade piloted by Captain Serhiy Parkhomenko was shot down in Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia Oblast and the pilot killed.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The basic version of the aircraft was produced at Factory 31, at Tbilisi, in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. Between 1978 and 1989, 582 single-seat Su-25s were produced in Georgia, not including aircraft produced under the Su-25K export program. This variant of the aircraft represents the backbone of the Russian Air Force's Su-25 fleet, currently the largest in the world. The aircraft experienced a number of accidents in operational service caused by system failures attributed to salvo firing of weapons. In the wake of these incidents, use of its main armament, the 240 mm S-24 rocket, was prohibited. In its place, the FAB-500 general-purpose high-explosive bomb became the primary armament.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The basic Su-25 model was used as the basis for a commercial export variant, known as the Su-25K ("Komercheskiy"). This model was also built at Factory 31 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The aircraft differed from the Soviet Air Force version in certain minor details concerning internal equipment. A total of 180 Su-25K aircraft were built between 1984 and 1989.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25UB trainer ("Uchebno-Boyevoy") was drawn up in 1977. The first prototype, called "T-8UB-1", was rolled out in July 1985 and its maiden flight was carried out at the Ulan-Ude factory airfield on 12 August of that year. By the end of 1986, 25 Su-25UBs had been produced at Ulan-Ude before the twin-seater completed its State trials and officially cleared for service with the Soviet Air Force.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: It was intended for training and evaluation flights of active-duty pilots, and for training pilot cadets at Soviet Air Force flying schools. The performance did not differ substantially from that of the single-seater. The navigation, attack, sighting devices and weapons-control systems of the two-seater enabled it to be used for both routine training and weapons-training missions.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: From 1986 to 1989, in parallel with the construction of the main Su-25UB combat training variant, the Ulan-Ude plant produced the so-called "commercial" Su-25UBK, intended for export to countries that bought the Su-25K, and with similar modifications to that aircraft.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25UBM is a twin seat variant that can be used as an operational trainer, but also has attack capabilities, and can be used for reconnaissance, target designation and airborne control. Its first flight was on 6 December 2008 and it was certified in December 2010. It will enter operational use with the Russian Air Force later. The variant has a Phazotron NIIR Kopyo radar and Bars-2 equipment on board. Su-25UBM's range is believed to be and it may have protection against infra-red guided missiles (IRGM), a minimal requirement on today's battle fields where IRGMs proliferate.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25UTG ("Uchebno-Trenirovochnyy s Gakom") is a variant of the Su-25UB designed to train pilots in takeoff and landing on a land-based simulated carrier deck, with a sloping ski-jump section and arrester wires. The first one flew in September 1988, and approximately 10 were produced. About half remained in Russian service after 1991; they were used on Russia's sole aircraft carrier, . This small number of aircraft were insufficient to meet the training needs of Russia's carrier air group, so a number of Su-25UBs were converted into Su-25UTGs. These aircraft being distinguished by the alternative designation "Su-25UBP" ("Uchebno-Boyevoy Palubny")—the adjective "palubnyy" meaning "deck", indicating that these aircraft have a naval function. As of 2007, approximately 10 of these aircraft were operational in the Russian Navy as part of the 279th Naval Aviation Regiment of the Northern Fleet. In 2021, Su-25 aircraft were also reported deployed with the 100th Independent Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment of the same fleet.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25BM ("Buksirovshchik Misheney") is a target-towing variant of the Su-25 whose development began in 1986. The prototype, designated T-8BM1, successfully flew for the first time on 22 March 1990, at Tbilisi. After completion of the test phase, the aircraft was put into production.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25BM target-tower was designed to provide towed target facilities for training ground forces and naval personnel in ground-to-air or naval surface-to-air missile systems. It is powered by an R-195 engine and equipped with an RSDN-10 long-range navigation system, an analogue of the Western LORAN system.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25T ("Tankovy") is a dedicated antitank version, which has been combat-tested with notable success in Chechnya. The design of the aircraft is similar to the Su-25UB. The variant was converted to one-seater, with the rear seat replaced by additional avionics. It has all-weather and night attack capability. In addition to the full arsenal of weapons of the standard Su-25, the Su-25T can employ the KAB-500Kr TV-guided bomb and the semi-active laser-guided Kh-25ML. Its enlarged nosecone houses the "Shkval" optical TV and aiming system with the "Prichal" laser rangefinder and target designator. It can also carry "Vikhr" laser-guided, tube-launched missiles, which is its main antitank armament. For night operations, the low-light TV "Merkuriy" pod system can be carried under the fuselage. Three Su-25Ts prototypes were built in 1983–86 and 8 production aircraft were built in 1990. With the introduction of a definitive Russian Air Force Su-25 upgrade programme, in the form of "Stroyevoy Modernizirovannyi", the Su-25T programme was officially canceled in 2000.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: A second-generation Su-25T, the "Su-25TM" (also designated "Su-39"), has been developed with improved navigation and attack systems, and better survivability. While retaining the built-in "Shkval" of Su-25T, it may carry "Kopyo" (rus. "Spear") radar in the container under fuselage, which is used for engaging air targets (with RVV-AE/R-77 missiles) as well as ships (with Kh-31 and Kh-35 antiship missiles). The Russian Air Force has received 8 aircraft as of 2008. Some of the improved avionics systems designed for T and TM variants have been included in the "Su-25SM", an interim upgrade of the operational Russian Air Force Su-25, for improved survivability and combat capability. The Su-25TM, as an all-inclusive upgrade programme has been replaced with the "affordable" Su-25SM programme.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25SM ("Stroyevoy Modernizirovannyi") is an "affordable" upgrade programme for the Su-25, conceived by the Russian Air Force in 2000. The programme stems from the attempted Su-25T and Su-25TM upgrades, which were evaluated and labeled as over-sophisticated and expensive. The SM upgrade incorporates avionics enhancements and airframe refurbishment to extend the Frogfoot's service life by up to 500 flight hours or 5 years.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Su-25SM's all-new PRnK-25SM "Bars" navigation/attack suite is built around the BTsVM-90 digital computer system, originally planned for the Su-25TM upgrade programme. Navigation and attack precision provided by the new suite is three times better of the baseline Su-25 and is reported to be within using satellite correction and without it.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: A new KA1-1-01 Head-Up Display (HUD) was added providing, among other things, double the field of view of the original ASP-17BTs-8 electro-optical sight. Other systems and components incorporated during the upgrade include a Multi-Function Display (MFD), RSBN-85 Short Range Aid to Navigation (SHORAN), ARK-35-1 Automatic Direction Finder (ADF), A-737-01 GPS/GLONASS Receiver, Karat-B-25 Flight Data Recorder (FDR), Berkut-1 Video Recording System (VRS), Banker-2 UHF/VHF communication radio, SO-96 Transponder and a L150 "Pastel" Radar Warning Receiver (RWR).


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The R-95sh engines have been overhauled and modified with an anti-surge system installed. The system is designed to improve the resistance of the engine to ingested powders and gases during gun and rocket salvo firing.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The combination of reconditioned and new equipment, with increased automation and self-test capability has allowed for a reduction of pre- and post-flight maintenance by some 25 to 30%. Overall weight savings are around .


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Su-25SM weapon suite has been expanded with the addition of the Vympel R-73 highly agile air-to-air missile (albeit without helmet mounted cueing and only the traditional longitudinal seeker mode) and the S-13T 130 mm rockets (carried in five-round B-13 pods) with blast-fragmentation and armour-piercing warheads. Further, the Kh-25ML and Kh-29L Weapon Employment Profiles have been significantly improved, permitting some complex missile launch scenarios to be executed, such as: firing two consecutive missiles on two different targets in a single attack pass. The GSh-30-2 autocannon (250-round magazine) has received three new reduced rate-of-fire modes: 750, 375 and 188 rounds per minute. The Su-25SM was also given new BD3-25 under-wing pylons.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The eventual procurement programme is expected to include between 100 and 130 kits, covering 60 to 70 percent of the Russian Air Force active single-seat fleet, as operated in the early 2000s. On 21 February 2012, Air Force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said that Russia will continue to upgrade its Su-25 attack aircraft to Su-25SM version, which has a significantly better survivability and combat effectiveness. The Russian Air Force then had over 30 Su-25SMs in service and plans to modernize about 80 Su-25s by 2020, Drik said. By March 2013, over 60 aircraft are to be upgraded. In February 2013, ten new Su-25SMs were delivered to the Air Force southern base, where operational training is being conducted. During the period 2005–2015, more than 80 aircraft were upgraded.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Since early 2014, the 368th Assault Aviation Regiment of the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army at Budyonnovsk has received advanced Su-25SMs (probably 16 aircraft). Nine more were delivered in 2018, eight more in early 2019 and four more in early 2020 plus one more in early 2021.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: Since 2018, the Aerospace Forces [VKS] have been receiving Su-25SM3s, and a total of 25 aircraft have already been delivered as of June 2019. Unlike the baseline Su-25 and its incrementally upgraded variant, the Su-25SM, both of which have a rather outdated Klen-PS laser target designator in the nose, the Su-25SM3 has been upgraded with the new SOLT-25 electro-optics nose module. The SOLT-25 provides 16× zoom and features a laser range finder and target designator, thermal imager, TV channels, and the ability to track moving targets in all weather up to 8 km away. In addition, the Su-25SM3 comes with the Vitebsk-25 protection suite, which integrates a set of Zakhvat forward and rearward facing missile approach warning ultraviolet sensors, the L-150-16M Pastel radar homing and warning system, two UV-26M 50 mm chaff dispensers, and a pair of wing-mounted L-370-3S radar jamming pods. Furthermore, the Su-25SM3 has been upgraded with the new PrNK-25SM-1 Bars targeting-and-navigation system and the KSS-25 communication system with Banker-8-TM-1 antenna.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: As a result from combat experience in Syria the Su-25SM3 has been equipped with SVP-24 navigation and bombing aids that improve the accuracy of unguided bombs.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The ("Komercheski, Modernized"), nicknamed "Scorpion", is an Su-25 upgrade programme announced in early 2001 by the original manufacturer, Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing in Georgia, in partnership with Elbit Systems of Israel. The prototype aircraft made its maiden flight on 18 April 2001 at Tbilisi in full Georgian Air Force markings.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The aircraft uses a standard Su-25 airframe, enhanced with advanced avionics including a glass cockpit, digital map generator, helmet-mounted display, computerised weapons system, complete mission pre-plan capability, and fully redundant backup modes. Performance enhancements include a highly accurate navigation system, pinpoint weapon delivery systems, all-weather and day/night performance, NATO compatibility, state-of-the art safety and survivability features, and advanced onboard debriefing capabilities complying with international requirements. It has the ability to use Israeli Opher infrared-guided bombs and Lizard laser-guided bombs, as well as the Vympel R-73 infrared-guided missile.


title: Sukhoi Su-25

text: The Sukhoi Su-28 (also designated "Su-25UT" – "Uchebno-Trenirovochnyy") is an advanced basic jet trainer, built on the basis of the Su-25UB as a private initiative by the Sukhoi Design Bureau. The Su-28 is a light aircraft designed to replace the Czechoslovak Aero L-39 Albatros. Unlike the basic Su-25UB, it lacks a weapons-control system, built-in cannon, weapons hardpoints, and engine armour.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Richard Ellef Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is an English actor, comedian, broadcaster and filmmaker. He is best known for his role as socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom "The IT Crowd" (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: From 1998 to 1999, Ayoade was the president of the Footlights club whilst a student at the University of Cambridge. He and Matthew Holness debuted their respective characters Dean Learner and Garth Marenghi at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000, bringing the characters to television with "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" (2004) and "Man to Man with Dean Learner" (2006). He appeared in the comedy shows "The Mighty Boosh" (2004–2007) and "Nathan Barley" (2005), before becoming widely known for his role in "The IT Crowd". After directing music videos for Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he wrote and directed the comedy-drama film "Submarine" (2010), an adaptation of the 2008 novel by Joe Dunthorne. He co-starred in the American science fiction comedy film "The Watch" (2012) and his second film as a writer and director, the black comedy "The Double" (2013), drew inspiration from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella of the same title.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade has frequently appeared on panel shows, mostly prominently on "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year", and served as a team captain on "Was It Something I Said?" (2013). He presented the factual shows "Gadget Man" (2013–2015), its spin-off "Travel Man" (2015–2019), and the revival of "The Crystal Maze" (2017). He has also voiced characters in a number of animated projects, including the films "The Boxtrolls" (2014), "Early Man" (2018), "" (2019), "Soul" (2020), and "The Bad Guys" (2022), as well as the series "Strange Hill High" (2013–2014), "Apple & Onion" (2018–2021), and "Disenchantment" (2021).


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade has written three comedic film–focused books: "Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey" (2014), "The Grip of Film" (2017), and "Ayoade on Top" (2019). He is currently writing two children's books: "The Book That No One Wanted to Read" (2022) and a picture book called "The Fairy Tale Fan Club" (TBD).


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade often works alongside Julian Barratt, Matt Berry, Noel Fielding, Matthew Holness, and Rich Fulcher.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Richard Ellef Ayoade was born in the Hammersmith district of London on 23 May 1977, the son of a Norwegian mother and Nigerian father. The family moved to Ipswich when he was young. At the age of 15, he developed an interest in film "beyond "Star Wars" and "Back to the Future"" and began exploring the works of directors Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini. He studied at the independent St Joseph's College in Ipswich, where he recalls being "obsessed" with J. D. Salinger's book "The Catcher in the Rye". He was so obsessed with the book that he started to dress like its protagonist, Holden Caulfield.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: From 1995 to 1998, Ayoade studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he won the Martin Steele Prize for play production and was president of the amateur theatrical club Footlights. He and Footlights vice-president John Oliver wrote and performed in several productions together, appearing in both Footlights' 1997 and 1998 touring shows: "Emotional Baggage" (directed by Matthew Holness) and "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (directed by Cal McCrystal). Ayoade says that his parents would not approve of studies considered to be of the "Regency era", adding that "a non-vocational degree seemed such an outlandish indulgence". He said that his degree in law was no longer a viable "fallback" for him and that he would need to "go back to square one".


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade co-wrote the stage show "Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight" with Matthew Holness, whom he also met at the Footlights, appearing in the show with Holness at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000 where it was nominated for a Perrier Award. The show saw the debut of Holness' character Garth Marenghi, a fictional horror writer, and Ayoade's character Dean Learner, Marenghi's publisher. In 2001, he won the Perrier Comedy Award for co-writing and performing in "Garth Marenghi's Netherhead", the sequel to "Fright Knight". In 2004, Ayoade and Holness took the Marenghi character to Channel 4, creating the spoof horror comedy series "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace". Ayoade wrote, directed and appeared in the series, which saw Marenghi and Learner star in a 1980s television drama that was never broadcast. Learner played Thornton Reed, a hospital administrator. Along with Matt Berry, Ayoade directed, co-wrote and co-starred in "", which parodies life-of-Christ rock operas and aired on BBC Three in December 2004. Ayoade was also a writer on the sketch show "Bruiser" in 2000, which starred former Footlights president David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and featured Holness. Ayoade was featured in a bit-part as a reporter in the HBO television film "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (2004).


title: Richard Ayoade

text: After appearing in Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding's radio series "The Boosh", Ayoade was part of the original cast of Barratt and Fielding's "The Mighty Boosh" television show. He was originally selected to play the role of dangerous villain Dixon Bainbridge. However, by the time the radio series transferred to television he was under contract by Channel 4 and was only able to act in the pilot before leaving "The Boosh". The part was taken by fellow "Darkplace" actor and eventual "IT Crowd" co-star Matt Berry. He later returned in the second series in 2005, to play the part of the belligerent shaman Saboo. Ayoade continued his association with "The Mighty Boosh" in the third series, reprising his role and acting as script editor. In 2005, he played the role of Ned Smanks in Chris Morris' and Charlie Brooker's sitcom "Nathan Barley". Ayoade's Dean Learner character was resurrected in 2006 to host a comedy chat show, "Man to Man with Dean Learner," on Channel 4. The different guests were played each week by Holness. Ayoade appeared in the satirical comedy series "Time Trumpet" in 2006, which is set in the year 2031 and saw Ayoade and other celebrities reminiscing about the year 2007 onwards.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In February 2006, Ayoade began playing technically brilliant but socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in the sitcom "The IT Crowd" on Channel 4, appearing with Chris O'Dowd, Katherine Parkinson, Chris Morris, and later on, Matt Berry. The series' creator Graham Linehan wrote the part specifically for Ayoade. In 2008, Ayoade won the award for an outstanding actor in a television comedy series at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival for his performance. In 2009, Ayoade co-starred with Joel McHale in the pilot for an American version of "The IT Crowd", reprising his role with the same appearance and personality; however, no series was commissioned, and the pilot never aired. The original "The IT Crowd" ran for four seasons until 2010, with a special airing in 2013, for which Ayoade won a BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In 2007, he directed the music videos for the songs "Fluorescent Adolescent" by Arctic Monkeys and Super Furry Animals's "Run-Away", which starred Matt Berry. The former received a UK Music Video Award nomination, attributed by Ayoade only to the song being "so good". Ayoade has frequently appeared as a panellist on "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year", often with Noel Fielding, making his first appearance on "The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz" in 2007, which marked Channel 4's 25th anniversary.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In 2008, Ayoade directed the music videos for two Vampire Weekend singles: "Oxford Comma", filmed in one long take, and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". That year he also directed videos for The Last Shadow Puppets songs "Standing Next to Me" and "My Mistakes Were Made for You", the latter of which was inspired by Federico Fellini's "Toby Dammit". He directed a live Arctic Monkeys DVD, "At the Apollo" (2008), recorded at the Manchester Apollo on super 16mm film. It was previewed at Vue cinemas across the UK in October 2008 and released on DVD the next month. Ayoade was featured in Paul King's 2009 film "Bunny and the Bull", playing an extremely boring museum tour guide. That year he also directed two music videos for the Arctic Monkeys, "Crying Lightning" and "Cornerstone", and videos for Kasabian's "Vlad the Impaler", starring Fielding, and "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In 2010, Ayoade made his debut directorial feature, "Submarine", a coming-of-age comedy-drama he adapted from Joe Dunthorne's 2008 novel of the same name. The film stars newcomers Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige with Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor, and Paddy Considine. It follows Welsh teenager Oliver Tate (Roberts) as he becomes infatuated with a classmate (Paige) and the turmoil of his parents' failing relationship. Produced by Warp Films and Film4, it premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, had a general release in the UK in March 2011, and was released in June in the US after being picked up by the Weinstein Company for North America. Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets frontman Alex Turner contributed five original songs to the soundtrack, inspired by Simon & Garfunkel's music in "The Graduate" (1967). The film was positively received by critics, with "The Guardian" critic Peter Bradshaw calling Ayoade a "tremendous new voice in British film". Ayoade was nominated for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the 65th British Academy Film Awards.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In 2011, Ayoade directed the "Community" episode "Critical Film Studies" in the comedy show's second season. The episode pays homage to the 1981 film "My Dinner with Andre" and was named the "most brilliant half-hour of TV to arrive in this century" by "Rolling Stone" writer Rob Sheffield. Ayoade then directed a performance of comedian Tommy Tiernan's world stand-up tour, "Crooked Man", which was released in November 2011. Ayoade provided his voice to the main cast of Channel 4's ill-received animated sitcom "Full English", which aired for just five episodes in 2012 before being cancelled. Ayoade starred opposite Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill in the science fiction comedy "The Watch" as a neighbourhood watch group that uncovers alien forces threatening the world. The film was not well received by critics, although Ayoade's performance was praised. Keith Phipps of "The A.V. Club" felt the film's "brightest spots" came courtesy of Ayoade, while Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" felt Ayoade was "the reason it's not entirely lame". Also in 2012, Ayoade began voicing Todd Lagoona, an anthropomorphic hammerhead shark who was a recurring character in "Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy".


title: Richard Ayoade

text: From 2013 to 2014, Ayoade voiced Templeton, the class nerd, in the CBBC animated series "Strange Hill High". He replaced Stephen Fry as presenter in the second series of Channel 4's "Gadget Man" in September 2013, and also presented a third and fourth season. The series featured Ayoade presenting a variety of innovative products and gadgets. He was also the host of the spin-off series "Travel Man", where he spent 48 hours in a different location each episode with a celebrity guest. He was a team captain on the Channel 4 panel show "Was It Something I Said?", which began airing October 2013 and co-starred David Mitchell as host and Micky Flanagan as fellow team captain. Also in 2013, Ayoade read Roald Dahl's children book "The Twits" for Penguin Audio's audiobook collection and Virgin Media launched an advertising campaign starring the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt featuring the voice of Ayoade. He provided the voice-over for Apple's iPhone 6 UK campaign with Chris O'Dowd in 2014. He also appears on Channel 4's "8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown", usually at least once per season.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade's second feature film, the black comedy thriller "The Double", was based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1846 novella "The Double"; it was written by Ayoade and Avi Korine and stars Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. It concerns a timid man who becomes frustrated by the appearance of his charming doppelgänger, both of whom are played by Eisenberg. It was released in April 2014 to generally positive reviews, drawing comparisons to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985) in its visuals and narrative. In the stop-motion animated fantasy film "The Boxtrolls" (2014), Ayoade voiced Mr. Pickles, a henchman to the film's antagonist Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley).


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade's first book, "Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey", was published by Faber and Faber in October 2014. It parodies Faber's "Directors on Directors" series, where critically celebrated filmmakers discuss their work, and sees Ayoade conduct several fictional interviews with himself where he discusses his work and enthusiasm for the world of cinema. Ayoade voiced a villainous snowman in several episodes of the 2015 reboot of the animated series "Danger Mouse". In June 2016, he directed a short music video for the Radiohead song "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief", as part of a series of video vignettes to promote their album "A Moon Shaped Pool".


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade took over as host of the Channel 4 game show "The Crystal Maze" in 2017, following the success of a celebrity charity special revival hosted by Stephen Merchant. His style of presenting has been described as being "a more cerebral and intense version" of his "IT Crowd" character, Maurice Moss. Ayoade made a cameo appearance in the comedy sequel "Paddington 2" as a forensic investigator in 2017 and was amongst the voice cast for Vampire Weekend Ezra Koenig's animated series "Neo Yokio" in the same year. His second book, "The Grip Of Film", was published in October 2017. Written in the perspective of clueless film fanatic Gordy LaSure, in its canon is an A-Z of films and what makes them good with footnotes by Ayoade. Beginning in late 2017, he has guest hosted a number of episodes of the panel show "Have I Got News for You". Ayoade starred in an advertisement for HSBC in 2018, which addressed other countries' cultural impact on the United Kingdom ahead of Brexit; appearing in four more in the following years Ayoade voiced Treebor, a Stone Age caveman, in the Aardman Animations stop-motion comedy "Early Man" (2018).


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Since February 2018, Ayoade has voiced Onion, one of the title characters in the Cartoon Network animated series "Apple & Onion". He also returned to music video directing in 2018, helming the science fiction-inspired video for The Breeders song "Spacewoman". Ayoade was featured in a supporting role as a pompous artist in both parts of Joanna Hogg's two-part drama "The Souvenir". He lent his voice as a talking ice cream cone to the animated comedy sequel "" (2019)–which also featured Noel Fielding– and the English version of the Finnish series "Moominvalley". Ayoade provided voice work for the Star Wars Disney+ series "The Mandalorian" (2019) where he voiced the droid Zero in a recurring role. He also lent his voice for the animated adult fantasy sitcom "Disenchantment" (2021) on Netflix where he voiced the character Alva Gunderson.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: "Ayoade on Top", his third book published by Faber and Faber, is a tongue-in-cheek ode to the critically maligned romantic comedy "View from the Top" starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The "Financial Times" included "Ayoade on Top" in its collection of the best books of 2019 and Ayoade was ranked 33rd of the 50 best comedians of the 21st century in a 2019 list published by "The Guardian".


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In May 2020, it was announced that Ayoade would host the 2020 British Academy Television Awards, which was held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned to host the 2021 and 2022 ceremonies.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade is a fan of French New Wave cinema and said in an interview with "The Guardian" that Louis Malle's "Zazie dans le Métro" was the film that sparked his interest in filmmaking. His favourite filmmakers include Malle, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Paul Thomas Anderson.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Ayoade participated in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" directors' poll, where he listed his 10 favourite films: "The Apartment", "Badlands", "Barry Lyndon", "Crimes and Misdemeanors", "Make Way for Tomorrow", "Contempt", "Ordet", "Persona", "Raging Bull", and "Tokyo Story".


title: Richard Ayoade

text: In 2007, Ayoade married Lydia Fox, a member of the Fox family of actors. They have three children and live in the East Dulwich area of London.


title: Richard Ayoade

text: Fox courted Ayoade's chagrin publicly in 2020, when he asked Ayoade to announce his support for him on Twitter after a controversial appearance on "Question Time". The episode in question was condemned for allowing Fox on as a guest, in particular for when he told a Black woman in the audience that discussing racism was "boring". According to Fox, Ayoade told him that "You have never encountered racism." Fox stated that he had told Ayoade he had, because "he worked in Kenya once" and "racism can be deferential".


title: Ethnic group

text: An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area. Ethnicity is sometimes used interchangeably with the term nation, particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism, and is separate from the related concept of races.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or as a societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language, or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, or physical appearance. Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with many groups having mixed genetic ancestry. Ethnic groups often continue to speak related languages.


title: Ethnic group

text: By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be subdivided into subgroups or tribes, which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from the parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity. Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis.


title: Ethnic group

text: Although both organic and performative criteria characterise ethnic groups, debate in the past had dichotomised between primordialism and constructivism. Earlier 20th-century "Primordialists" viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since the distant past. Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as "social constructs", with identity assigned by societal rules.


title: Ethnic group

text: The term "ethnic" is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος "ethnos" (more precisely, from the adjective ἐθνικός "ethnikos", which was loaned into Latin as "ethnicus"). The inherited English language term for this concept is "folk", used alongside the latinate "people" since the late Middle English period.


title: Ethnic group

text: In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, "ethnic" was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian oikumene), as the Septuagint used "ta ethne" ("the nations") to translate the Hebrew "goyim" "the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews". The Greek term in early antiquity (Homeric Greek) could refer to any large group, a "host" of men, a "band" of comrades as well as a "swarm" or "flock" of animals. In Classical Greek, the term took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as "nation, people"; only in Hellenistic Greek did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or "barbarous" nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan").


title: Ethnic group

text: In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "racial, cultural or national minority group" arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism.


title: Ethnic group

text: The abstract "ethnicity" had been used for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953).


title: Ethnic group

text: The term "ethnic group" was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on context, the term nationality may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with citizenship (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something exotic (cf. "ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established.


title: Ethnic group

text: Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership, the following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified:


title: Ethnic group

text: In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, Armenian ethnicity can be defined by Armenian citizenship, native use of the Armenian language, or membership of the Armenian Apostolic Church.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnography begins in classical antiquity; after early authors like Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus laid the foundation of both historiography and ethnography of the ancient world . The Greeks had developed a concept of their own "ethnicity", which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus (8.144.2) gave a famous account of what defined Greek (Hellenic) ethnic identity in his day, enumerating


title: Ethnic group

text: Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf, do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups.


title: Ethnic group

text: According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently.


title: Ethnic group

text: According to Eriksen, these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology, by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicized forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in the Caribbean and South Asia.


title: Ethnic group

text: Max Weber maintained that ethnic groups were "künstlich" (artificial, i.e. a social construct) because they were based on a subjective belief in shared "Gemeinschaft" (community). Secondly, this belief in shared Gemeinschaft did not create the group; the group created the belief. Third, group formation resulted from the drive to monopolize power and status. This was contrary to the prevailing naturalist belief of the time, which held that socio-cultural and behavioral differences between peoples stemmed from inherited traits and tendencies derived from common descent, then called "race".


title: Ethnic group

text: Another influential theoretician of ethnicity was Fredrik Barth, whose "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" from 1969 has been described as instrumental in spreading the usage of the term in social studies in the 1980s and 1990s. Barth went further than Weber in stressing the constructed nature of ethnicity. To Barth, ethnicity was perpetually negotiated and renegotiated by both external ascription and internal self-identification. Barth's view is that ethnic groups are not discontinuous cultural isolates or logical "a priority" to which people naturally belong. He wanted to part with anthropological notions of cultures as bounded entities, and ethnicity as primordialist bonds, replacing it with a focus on the interface between groups. "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries", therefore, is a focus on the interconnectedness of ethnic identities. Barth writes: "...categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in the course of individual life histories."


title: Ethnic group

text: In 1978, anthropologist Ronald Cohen claimed that the identification of "ethnic groups" in the usage of social scientists often reflected inaccurate labels more than indigenous realities:


title: Ethnic group

text: In this way, he pointed to the fact that identification of an ethnic group by outsiders, e.g. anthropologists, may not coincide with the self-identification of the members of that group. He also described that in the first decades of usage, the term ethnicity had often been used in lieu of older terms such as "cultural" or "tribal" when referring to smaller groups with shared cultural systems and shared heritage, but that "ethnicity" had the added value of being able to describe the commonalities between systems of group identity in both tribal and modern societies. Cohen also suggested that claims concerning "ethnic" identity (like earlier claims concerning "tribal" identity) are often colonialist practices and effects of the relations between colonized peoples and nation-states.


title: Ethnic group

text: According to Paul James, formations of identity were often changed and distorted by colonization, but identities are not made out of nothing:


title: Ethnic group

text: Social scientists have thus focused on how, when, and why different markers of ethnic identity become salient. Thus, anthropologist Joan Vincent observed that ethnic boundaries often have a mercurial character. Ronald Cohen concluded that ethnicity is "a series of nesting dichotomizations of inclusiveness and exclusiveness". He agrees with Joan Vincent's observation that (in Cohen's paraphrase) "Ethnicity... can be narrowed or broadened in boundary terms in relation to the specific needs of political mobilization. This may be why descent is sometimes a marker of ethnicity, and sometimes not: which diacritic of ethnicity is salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political situation.


title: Ethnic group

text: Kanchan Chandra rejects the expansive definitions of ethnic identity (such as those that include common culture, common language, common history and common territory), choosing instead to define ethnic identity narrowly as a subset of identity categories determined by the belief of common descent. Jóhanna Birnir similarly defines ethnicity as "group self-identification around a characteristic that is very difficult or even impossible to change, such as language, race, or location."


title: Ethnic group

text: Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. As Jonathan M. Hall observes, World War II was a turning point in ethnic studies. The consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of ethnic groups and race. Ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than biological entities. Their coherence was attributed to shared myths, descent, kinship, a commonplace of origin, language, religion, customs, and national character. So, ethnic groups are conceived as mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in the genes.


title: Ethnic group

text: Examples of various approaches are primordialism, essentialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf, do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. The process that results in emergence of such identification is called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnic groups can form a cultural mosaic in a society. That could be in a city like New York City or Trieste, but also the fallen monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the United States. Current topics are in particular social and cultural differentiation, multilingualism, competing identity offers, multiple cultural identities and the formation of Salad bowl and melting pot. Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures, interest groups or social classes, because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in a process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure); ethnic identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers"characteristics said to be unique to the group which set it apart from other groups.


title: Ethnic group

text: "Ethnicity theory" argues that race is a social category and is only one of several factors in determining ethnicity. Other criteria include "religion, language, 'customs', nationality, and political identification". This theory was put forward by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is based on the notion of "culture".


title: Ethnic group

text: This theory was preceded by more than 100 years during which biological essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism is the belief that some races, specifically white Europeans in western versions of the paradigm, are biologically superior and other races, specifically non-white races in western debates, are inherently inferior. This view arose as a way to justify enslavement of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans in a society that was officially founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed slowly and came to be a preoccupation with scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple creations of races (polygenesis) and whether God had created lesser races. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up the idea of racial difference and found that white Europeans were superior.


title: Ethnic group

text: The ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined four steps to assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of attributing the marginalized status of people of color in the United States to their inherent biological inferiority, he attributed it to their failure to assimilate into American culture. They could become equal if they abandoned their inferior cultures.


title: Ethnic group

text: Michael Omi and Howard Winant's theory of racial formation directly confronts both the premises and the practices of ethnicity theory. They argue in "Racial Formation in the United States" that the ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of the white population and did take into account the unique experiences of non-whites in the United States. While Park's theory identified different stages in the immigration processcontact, conflict, struggle, and as the last and best response, assimilationit did so only for white communities. The ethnicity paradigm neglected the ways in which race can complicate a community's interactions with social and political structures, especially upon contact.


title: Ethnic group

text: Assimilationshedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of blending in with a host culturedid not work for some groups as a response to racism and discrimination, though it did for others. Once the legal barriers to achieving equality had been dismantled, the problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not "making it" by the standards that had been set by whites, it was because that community did not hold the right values or beliefs, or were stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking to cultural defect as the source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within which racial phenomena operate in the U.S." It prevents critical examination of the structural components of racism and encourages a "benign neglect" of social inequality.


title: Ethnic group

text: In some cases, especially involving transnational migration or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following the modernist understanding of ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. They culminated in the rise of "nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally coincided) with state boundaries.


title: Ethnic group

text: Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation, developed in the context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined.


title: Ethnic group

text: In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations". Nation-states, however, invariably include populations who have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion based on equality or seek autonomy, sometimes even to the extent of complete political separation in their nation-state. Under these conditionswhen people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundariesethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation, but lived in another state.


title: Ethnic group

text: Multi-ethnic states can be the result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic minorities into a former nation-state.


title: Ethnic group

text: Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa, where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom. Examples for the second case are countries such as Netherlands, which were relatively ethnically homogeneous when they attained statehood but have received significant immigration in the 17th century and even more so in the second half of the 20th century. States such as the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in what has been termed "multicultural" societies, especially in large cities.


title: Ethnic group

text: The states of the New World were multi-ethnic from the onset, as they were formed as colonies imposed on existing indigenous populations.


title: Ethnic group

text: In recent decades feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to the public, political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that women act not just as biological reproducers but also as "cultural carriers", transmitting knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that "women and children" constitute the kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of conflict, or in iconic figures such as Britannia or Marianne.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of the term. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues that "racial/ethnic identity" is one concept and concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used as separate and autonomous categories.


title: Ethnic group

text: Before Weber (1864–1920), race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around 1900 and before, the primordialist understanding of ethnicity predominated: cultural differences between peoples were seen as being the result of inherited traits and tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the idea of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity became more divided from each other.


title: Ethnic group

text: In 1950, the UNESCO statement "The Race Question", signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of the time (including Ashley Montagu, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gunnar Myrdal, Julian Huxley, etc.), said:


title: Ethnic group

text: In 1982, anthropologist David Craig Griffith summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are symbolic markers for different ways people from different parts of the world have been incorporated into a global economy:


title: Ethnic group

text: According to Wolf, racial categories were constructed and incorporated during the period of European mercantile expansion, and ethnic groupings during the period of capitalist expansion.


title: Ethnic group

text: Writing in 1977 about the usage of the term "ethnic" in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States, Wallman noted


title: Ethnic group

text: In the U.S., the OMB says the definition of race as used for the purposes of the US Census is not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference".


title: Ethnic group

text: Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by the state or its constituents. In the 20th century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view, the state should not acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka, argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within the boundaries of the nation-state.


title: Ethnic group

text: The 19th century saw the development of the political ideology of ethnic nationalism, when the concept of race was tied to nationalism, first by German theorists including Johann Gottfried von Herder. Instances of societies focusing on ethnic ties, arguably to the exclusion of history or historical context, have resulted in the justification of nationalist goals. Two periods frequently cited as examples of this are the 19th-century consolidation and expansion of the German Empire and the 20th century Nazi Germany. Each promoted the pan-ethnic idea that these governments were acquiring only lands that had always been inhabited by ethnic Germans. The history of late-comers to the nation-state model, such as those arising in the Near East and south-eastern Europe out of the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as those arising out of the former USSR, is marked by inter-ethnic conflicts. Such conflicts usually occur within multi-ethnic states, as opposed to between them, as in other regions of the world. Thus, the conflicts are often misleadingly labeled and characterized as civil wars when they are inter-ethnic conflicts in a multi-ethnic state.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnic groups in Africa number in the hundreds, each generally having its own language (or dialect of a language) and culture.


title: Ethnic group

text: Ethnic groups are abundant throughout Asia, with adaptations to the climate zones of Asia, which can be the Arctic, subarctic, temperate, subtropical or tropical. The ethnic groups have adapted to mountains, deserts, grasslands, and forests.


title: Ethnic group

text: On the coasts of Asia, the ethnic groups have adopted various methods of harvest and transport. Some groups are primarily hunter-gatherers, some practice transhumance (nomadic lifestyle), others have been agrarian/rural for millennia and others becoming industrial/urban. Some groups/countries of Asia are completely urban, such as those in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. The colonization of Asia was largely ended in the 20th century, with national drives for independence and self-determination across the continent.


title: Ethnic group

text: In Indonesia alone, there are more than 1,300 ethnic groups recognized by the government, which are located on 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago


title: Ethnic group

text: Russia has more than 185 recognized ethnic groups besides the eighty percent ethnic Russian majority. The largest group is the Tatars, 3.8 percent. Many of the smaller groups are found in the Asian part of Russia (see Indigenous peoples of Siberia).


title: Ethnic group

text: Europe has a large number of ethnic groups; Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities within every state they inhabit (although they may form local regional majorities within a sub-national entity). The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people or 14% of 770 million Europeans.


title: Ethnic group

text: A number of European countries, including France and Switzerland, do not collect information on the ethnicity of their resident population.


title: Ethnic group

text: An example of a largely nomadic ethnic group in Europe is the Roma, pejoratively known as Gypsies. They originated from India and speak the Romani language.


title: Ethnic group

text: The Serbian province of Vojvodina is recognizable for its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural identity. There are some 26 ethnic groups in the province, and six languages are in official use by the provincial administration.


title: Ethnic group

text: The indigenous people in North America are Native Americans. During European colonization, Europeans arrived in North America. Most Native Americans died due to Spanish diseases and other European diseases such as smallpox during the European colonization of the Americas. The largest ethnic group in the United States is White Americans. Hispanic and Latino Americans (Mexican Americans in particular) and Asian Americans have immigrated to the United States recently. In Mexico, most Mexicans are mestizo, a mixture of Spanish and Native American ancestry. Some Hispanic and Latino Americans living in the United States are not mestizos.


title: Ethnic group

text: African slaves were brought to North America from the 16th to 19th centuries during the Atlantic slave trade. Many of them were sent to the Caribbean. Ethnic group that live in the Caribbean are Indigenous peoples, Africans, Indians, white Europeans, the Chinese and the Portuguese. The first white Europeans to arrive in the Dominican Republic were the Spanish in 1492. The Caribbean was also colonized and discovered by the Portuguese, English, Dutch and French.


title: Ethnic group

text: A sizeable number of people in the United States have mixed-race identities. In 2021, the number of Americans who identified as non-Hispanic and more than one race was 13.5 million. The number of Hispanic Americans who identified as multiracial was 20.3 million. Over the course of the 2010s decade, there was a 127% increase in non-Hispanic Americans who identified as multiracial.


title: Ethnic group

text: The largest ethnic groups in the United States are Germans, African Americans, Mexicans, Irish, English,


title: Ethnic group

text: Americans, Italians, Poles, French, Scottish, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Norwegians, Dutch people, Swedish people, Chinese people, West Indians, Russians and Filipinos.


title: Ethnic group

text: In Canada, European Canadians are the largest ethnic group. In Canada, the indigenous population is growing faster than the non-indigenous population. Most immigrants in Canada come from Asia.


title: Ethnic group

text: In South America, although highly varying between regions, people are commonly mixed-race, indigenous, European, black African, and to a lesser extent also Asian.


title: Ethnic group

text: Nearly all states in Oceania have majority indigenous populations, with notable exceptions being Australia, New Zealand and Norfolk Island, who have majority European populations. States with smaller European populations include Guam, Hawaii and New Caledonia (whose Europeans are known as Caldoche). Indigenous peoples of Oceania are Australian Aboriginals, Austronesians and Papuans, and they originated from Asia. The Austronesians of Oceania are further broken up into three distinct groups; Melanesians, Micronesians and Polynesians.


title: Ethnic group

text: Oceanic South Pacific islands nearing Latin America were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans in the 16th century, with nothing to indicate prehistoric human activity by Indigenous peoples of the Americas or Oceania. Contemporary residents are mainly mestizos and Europeans from the Latin American countries whom administer them, although none of these islands have extensive populations. Easter Island are the only oceanic island politically associated with Latin America to have an indigenous population, the Polynesian Rapa Nui people. Their current inhabitants include indigenous Polynesians and mestizo settlers from political administrators Chile, in addition to mixed-race individuals with Polynesian and mestizo/European ancestry. The British overseas territory of Pitcairn Islands, to the west of Easter Island, have a population of approximately 50 people. They are mixed-race Euronesians who descended from an initial group of British and Tahitian settlers in the 18th century. The islands were previously inhabited by Polynesians; they had long abandoned Pitcairn by the time the settlers had arrived. Norfolk Island, now an external territory of Australia, is also believed to have been inhabited by Polynesians prior to its initial European discovery in the 18th century. Some of their residents are descended from mixed-race Pitcairn Islanders that were relocated onto Norfolk due to overpopulation in 1856.


title: Ethnic group

text: The once uninhabited Bonin Islands, later politically integrated into Japan, have a small population consisting of Japanese mainlanders and descendants of early European settlers. Archeological findings from the 1990s suggested there was possible prehistoric human activity by Micronesians prior to European discovery in the 16th century.


title: Ethnic group

text: Several political entities associated with Oceania are still uninhabited, including Baker Island, Clipperton Island, Howland Island and Jarvis Island. There were brief attempts to settle Clipperton with Mexicans and Jarvis with Native Hawaiians in the early 20th century. The Jarvis settlers were relocated from the island due to Japanese advancements during World War II, while most of the settlers on Clipperton ended up dying from starvation and murdering one and other.


title: Ethnic group

text: The first evident ethnic group to live in Australia were the Australian Aboriginals, a group considered related to the Melanesian Torres Strait Islander people. Europeans, primarily from England arrived first in 1770.


title: Ethnic group

text: The 2016 Census shows England and New Zealand are the next most common countries of birth after Australia, the proportion of people born in China and India has increased since 2011 (from 6.0 per cent to 8.3 per cent, and 5.6 per cent to 7.4 per cent, respectively).


title: Ethnic group

text: The proportion of people identifying as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin increased from 2.5 per cent of the Australian population in 2011 to 2.8 per cent in 2016.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's "Aeneid") with minor revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.


title: Paradise Lost

text: In his introduction to the Penguin edition of "Paradise Lost", the Milton scholar John Leonard notes, "John Milton was nearly sixty when he published "Paradise Lost" in 1667. The biographer John Aubrey (1626–1697) tells us that the poem was begun in about 1658 and finished in about 1663. However, parts were almost certainly written earlier, and its roots lie in Milton's earliest youth." Leonard speculates that the English Civil War interrupted Milton's earliest attempts to start his "epic [poem] that would encompass all space and time."


title: Paradise Lost

text: Leonard also notes that Milton "did not at first plan to write a biblical epic." Since epics were typically written about heroic kings and queens (and with pagan gods), Milton originally envisioned his epic to be based on a legendary Saxon or British king like the legend of King Arthur.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Having gone blind in 1652, Milton wrote "Paradise Lost" entirely through dictation with the help of amanuenses and friends. He also wrote the epic poem while he was often ill, suffering from gout, and despite suffering emotionally after the early death of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, in 1658, and the death of their infant daughter.


title: Paradise Lost

text: In the 1667 version of "Paradise Lost", the poem was divided into ten books. However, in the 1674 edition, the text was reorganized into twelve books. In later printing, "Arguments" (brief summaries) were inserted at the beginning of each book.


title: Paradise Lost

text: The poem follows the epic tradition of starting "in medias res" ("in the midst of things"), the background story being recounted later.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Milton's story has two narrative arcs, one about Satan (Lucifer) and the other, Adam and Eve. It begins after Satan and the other fallen angels have been defeated and banished to Hell, or, as it is also called in the poem, Tartarus. In Pandæmonium, the capital city of Hell, Satan employs his rhetorical skill to organise his followers; he is aided by Mammon and Beelzebub. Belial and Moloch are also present. At the end of the debate, Satan volunteers to corrupt the newly created Earth and God's new and most favoured creation, Mankind. He braves the dangers of the Abyss alone, in a manner reminiscent of Odysseus or Aeneas. After an arduous traversal of the Chaos outside Hell, he enters God's new material World, and later the Garden of Eden.


title: Paradise Lost

text: At several points in the poem, an Angelic War over Heaven is recounted from different perspectives. Satan's rebellion follows the epic convention of large-scale warfare. The battles between the faithful angels and Satan's forces take place over three days. At the final battle, the Son of God single-handedly defeats the entire legion of angelic rebels and banishes them from Heaven. Following this purge, God creates the World, culminating in his creation of Adam and Eve. While God gave Adam and Eve total freedom and power to rule over all creation, he gave them one explicit command: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on penalty of death.


title: Paradise Lost

text: The story of Adam and Eve's temptation and fall is a fundamentally different, new kind of epic: a domestic one. Adam and Eve are presented as having a romantic and sexual relationship while still being without sin. They have passions and distinct personalities. Satan, disguised in the form of a serpent, successfully tempts Eve to eat from the Tree by preying on her vanity and tricking her with rhetoric. Adam, learning that Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin. He declares to Eve that since she was made from his flesh, they are bound to one another – if she dies, he must also die. In this manner, Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure, but also as a greater sinner than Eve, as he is aware that what he is doing is wrong.


title: Paradise Lost

text: After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve have lustful sex. At first, Adam is convinced that Eve was right in thinking that eating the fruit would be beneficial. However, they soon fall asleep and have terrible nightmares, and after they awake, they experience guilt and shame for the first time. Realising that they have committed a terrible act against God, they engage in mutual recrimination.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Meanwhile, Satan returns triumphantly to Hell, amid the praise of his fellow fallen angels. He tells them about how their scheme worked and Mankind has fallen, giving them complete dominion over Paradise. As he finishes his speech, however, the fallen angels around him become hideous snakes, and soon enough, Satan himself turns into a snake, deprived of limbs and unable to talk. Thus, they share the same punishment, as they shared the same guilt.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Eve appeals to Adam for reconciliation of their actions. Her encouragement enables them to approach God, and sue for grace, bowing on supplicant knee, to receive forgiveness. In a vision shown to him by the Archangel Michael, Adam witnesses everything that will happen to Mankind until the Great Flood. Adam is very upset by this vision of the future, so Michael also tells him about Mankind's potential redemption from original sin through Jesus Christ (whom Michael calls "King Messiah").


title: Paradise Lost

text: Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden, and Michael says that Adam may find "a paradise within thee, happier far." Adam and Eve now have a more distant relationship with God, who is omnipresent but invisible (unlike the tangible Father in the Garden of Eden).


title: Paradise Lost

text: Satan, formerly called Lucifer, is the first major character introduced in the poem. He is a tragic figure who famously declares: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (1.263). Following his vain rebellion against God he is cast out from Heaven and condemned to Hell. The rebellion stems from Satan's pride and envy (5.660ff.).


title: Paradise Lost

text: Opinions on the character are often sharply divided. Milton presents Satan as the origin of all evil, but readers have historically struggled with accepting this interpretation. Romanticist critics in particular, among them William Blake, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Hazlitt, are known for reading Satan as the "true hero" of "Paradise Lost". This has led other other critics, such as C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams, both of whom were devout Christians, to argue against reading Satan as a sympathetic, heroic figure. John Carey argues that this conflict cannot be solved, because the character of Satan exists in more modes and greater depth than the other characters of "Paradise Lost": in this way, Milton has created an ambivalent character, and any "pro-Satan" or "anti-Satan" argument is by its nature discarding half the evidence. Satan's ambivalence, Carey says, is "a precondition of the poem's success - a major factor in the attention it has aroused."


title: Paradise Lost

text: Adam is the first human created by God. Adam requests a companion from God: God approves his request then creates Eve. God appoints Adam and Eve to rule over all the creatures of the world and to reside in the Garden of Eden.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Adam is more gregarious than Eve and yearns for her company. He is completely infatuated with her. Raphael advises him to "take heed lest Passion sway / Thy Judgment" (5.635–636). But Adam's great love for Eve contributes to his disobedience to God.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Unlike the biblical Adam, before Milton's Adam leaves Paradise he is given a glimpse of the future of mankind by the Archangel Michael, which includes stories from the Old and New Testaments.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Eve is the second human created by God. God takes one of Adam's ribs and shapes it into Eve. Whether Eve is actually inferior to Adam is a vexed point. She is often unwilling to be submissive. Eve may be the more intelligent of the two. She is generally happy, but longs for knowledge, specifically for self-knowledge. When she first met Adam she turned away, more interested in herself. She had been looking at her reflection in a lake before being led invisibly to Adam. Recounting this to Adam she confesses that she found him less enticing than her reflection (4.477-480).


title: Paradise Lost

text: Nonetheless, Adam later explains this to Raphael as Eve's But Adam's judgment is not always sound. And Eve is beautiful.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Though Eve does love Adam she may feel suffocated by his constant presence. Eve feels the need to be on her own and explore her individuality. In Book 9 she convinces Adam to separate for a time to work in different parts of the Garden. In her solitude she is deceived by Satan. Satan in the serpent leads Eve to the forbidden tree then persuades her that he has eaten of its fruit and gained knowledge and that she should do the same. She is not easily persuaded to eat, but is hungry in body and in mind.


title: Paradise Lost

text: The Son of God is the spirit who will become incarnate as Jesus Christ, though he is never named explicitly because he has not yet entered human form. Milton believed in a subordinationist doctrine of Christology that regarded the Son as secondary to the Father and as God's "great Vice-regent" (5.609).


title: Paradise Lost

text: In the final book a vision of Salvation through the Son is revealed to Adam by Michael. The name Jesus of Nazareth, and the details of Jesus' story are not depicted in the poem, though they are alluded to. Michael explains that "Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call," prefigures the Son of God, "his name and office bearing" to "quell / The adversarie Serpent, and bring back [...] long wander[e]d man / Safe to eternal Paradise of rest."


title: Paradise Lost

text: God the Father is the creator of Heaven, Hell, the world, of everyone and everything there is, through the agency of His Son. Milton presents God as all-powerful and all-knowing, as an infinitely great being who cannot be overthrown by even the great army of angels Satan incites against him. Milton portrays God as often conversing about his plans and his motives for his actions with the Son of God. The poem shows God creating the world in the way Milton believed it was done, that is, God created Heaven, Earth, Hell, and all the creatures that inhabit these separate planes from part of Himself, not out of nothing. Thus, according to Milton, the ultimate authority of God over all things that happen derives from his being the "author" of all creation. Satan tries to justify his rebellion by denying this aspect of God and claiming self-creation, but he admits to himself the truth otherwise, and that God "deserved no such return / From me, whom He created what I was."


title: Paradise Lost

text: Raphael is an archangel who is sent by God to Eden in order to strengthen Adam and Eve against Satan. He tells a heroic tale about the War in Heaven that takes up most of Book 6 of "Paradise Lost". Ultimately, the story told by Raphael, in which Satan is portrayed as bold and decisive, does not prepare Adam and Eve to counter Satan's subtle temptations - and may even have caused the Fall in the first place.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Michael is an archangel who is preeminent in military prowess. He leads in battle and uses a sword which was "giv'n him temperd so, that neither keen / Nor solid might resist that edge" (6.322–323).


title: Paradise Lost

text: Milton first presented Adam and Eve in Book IV with impartiality. The relationship between Adam and Eve is one of "mutual dependence, not a relation of domination or hierarchy." While the author placed Adam above Eve in his intellectual knowledge and, in turn, his relation to God, he granted Eve the benefit of knowledge through experience. Hermine Van Nuis clarifies, that although there was stringency specified for the roles of male and female, Adam and Eve unreservedly accept their designated roles. Rather than viewing these roles as forced upon them, each uses their assignment as an asset in their relationship with each other. These distinctions can be interpreted as Milton's view on the importance of mutuality between husband and wife.


title: Paradise Lost

text: When examining the relationship between Adam and Eve, some critics apply either an Adam-centered or Eve-centered view of hierarchy and importance to God. David Mikics argues, by contrast, these positions "overstate the independence of the characters' stances, and therefore miss the way in which Adam and Eve are entwined with each other." Milton's narrative depicts a relationship where the husband and wife (here, Adam and Eve) depend on each other and, through each other's differences, thrive.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Still, there are several instances where Adam communicates directly with God while Eve must go through Adam to God; thus, some have described Adam as her guide.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Although Milton does not directly mention divorce, critics posit theories on Milton's view of divorce based upon their inferences from the poem and from his tracts on divorce written earlier in his life. Other works by Milton suggest he viewed marriage as an entity separate from the church. Discussing "Paradise Lost", Biberman entertains the idea that "marriage is a contract made by both the man and the woman." These ideas imply Milton may have favored that both man and woman have equal access to marriage and to divorce.


title: Paradise Lost

text: Milton's 17th-century contemporaries by and large criticised his ideas and considered him as a radical, mostly because of his Calvinist views on politics and religion. One of Milton's most controversial arguments centred on his concept of what is idolatrous, which subject is deeply embedded in "Paradise Lost".