title: Greek Americans

text: , "Ethnikos Kyrix" (, 1915–) is the only Greek-language daily publication based in the United States. Headquartered in New York City, its articles focus on the Greek diaspora in the United States as well as current events in Greece and Cyprus. In contrast to its competitor "Atlantis", "Ethnikos Kyrix" historically supported liberal causes in Greece and America, including the progressive forces of Eleftherios Venizelos in Greece and the New Deal stateside. A companion weekly edition "The National Herald" (1997–) is in circulation and features similar content presented in English. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America publishes the monthly "Orthodox Observer" (1934–) in both Greek and English for news and information regarding the Greek Orthodox Church as a whole, as well as its American parishes.


title: Greek Americans

text: Any person who is ethnically Greek born outside of Greece may become a Greek citizen through naturalization by proving that a parent or grandparent was born as a national of Greece. The Greek ancestor's birth certificate and marriage certificate are required, along with the applicant's birth certificate and the birth certificates of all generations in between until the relation between the applicant and the person with Greek citizenship is proven.


title: Greek Americans

text: There are hundreds of regional, religious and professional Greek American organizations. Some of the largest and most notable include:


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole is a small city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Incorporated in 1953, it is part of the Fairbanks metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 2,243, up from 2,117 in 2010. Despite its name, the city is about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) south of Earth's geographic North Pole and 125 miles (200 km) south of the Arctic Circle.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The city is a summertime attraction for tourists visiting nearby Fairbanks and, due to its location on the Richardson Highway, those traveling to and from the Alaska Highway and Valdez. North Pole was home to two oil refineries, the town's major industry aside from tourism, but closed because of sulfolane contamination in groundwater. The larger refinery, operated by Flint Hills Resources, was a major source of jet fuel for Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Tanker car traffic on the Alaska Railroad, entering and leaving the refinery, frequently bisects the city.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole's biggest attraction is a gift shop named Santa Claus House, the modern-day incarnation of a trading post (gift shop) established in the town's early days. The Santa Claus House is known for the world's largest fiberglass statue of Santa Claus outside. A small group of domesticated reindeer are just outside.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: Before Christmas each year, the USPS post office in North Pole receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa Claus, and thousands more from people wanting the town's postmark on their Christmas greeting cards to their families. It advertises the ZIP code 99705 as the ZIP code of Santa. A community program also responds to letters addressed to 1 Santa Claus Lane.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: Christmas-themed streets in North Pole include Santa Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane, and Kris Kringle Drive. Street lights in the city are decorated in a candy cane motif, and many local businesses have similar decorations. The city's firetrucks and ambulances are all red, while the police cars are green and white. The city also has an all-female flat-track Roller Derby league, the North Pole Babes in Toyland (NPBT), whose athletes have Christmas and North Pole-inspired Skater names.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole has some of the least expensive residential real estate in Alaska; the median home price there is $211,184.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The Richardson Highway south of Fairbanks led to an assortment of subdivided and unsubdivided homesteads between Ladd Field and 26 Mile Field in the 1940s and 1950s.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The area that formed the central city of North Pole was homesteaded in 1944 by Bon V. and Bernice Davis. Their son, T. Neil Davis, wrote "Battling Against Success" in 1997, a fictionalized account of homestead life. The Alaska Railroad established a siding on the Davis homestead as part of its branch line to Eielson Air Force Base, naming the siding Davis. This name temporarily became associated with the fledgling settlement.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: In 1952, Dahl and Gaske Development Company purchased the Davis homestead, subdivided it, and renamed it North Pole, in hopes of attracting a toy manufacturer to the area. The City of North Pole was incorporated on January 15, 1953 from portions of the Davis homestead and the adjacent homestead of James Ford. Ford was named the first mayor, with Everett Dahl serving on the first city council.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: Another member of that first council was Conrad B. Miller. Miller, who came to Fairbanks in 1949, opened a trading post along the highway in 1952. The business became known as the Santa Claus House, and has evolved over the years into the current roadside attraction. The business was also home to North Pole's first post office, serving in that capacity for almost 20 years. Another trading post in the community was operated by Lucius Cunningham and his family. The town's economy largely depended on these two businesses until the 1970s, when the current four-lane Richardson Highway was built, bypassing Davis Subdivision, which was effectively its downtown.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The Earth Resources refinery (now operated by Flint Hills Resources) began operations in August 1977. It is connected to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System by several feeder pipelines operated by Golden Valley Electric Association, mostly following along the Laurence Road section line. The years after its construction saw the construction of the North Pole Plaza, a large enclosed shopping mall along the Richardson Highway. A standalone high school and increased subdivision development in previously rural areas immediately outside the city followed before the real estate market temporarily collapsed during the 1980s.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: An interchange was constructed along the Richardson, where the highway intersects with the eastern end of Badger Road and the northern end of Santa Claus Lane, during the early 1990s. In the late 2000s, the northern portion of Santa Claus Lane was rebuilt to accommodate three consecutive roundabouts, serving the interchange and a nearby frontage road intersection. Another interchange was constructed on the Richardson at Dawson Road, at the far eastern edge of city limits. These improvements eliminated a number of at-grade access points to the Richardson, which had accumulated a decades-long history of serious accidents.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: On April 22, 2006, police arrested several students at North Pole Middle School for allegedly plotting a school shooting, much along the lines of the Columbine High School massacre. "Death in Santaland", a TV documentary about the town and the foiled school shooting plot, was made by the British journalist Jon Ronson and broadcast on the television channel More 4 in 2007.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The city government has had an often contentious history. A past mayor, Jeff Jacobson, was criticized for maintaining his full-time mayor's job while at the same time working full-time as a teacher at North Pole Middle School. In 2004, he sent a letter (and a lump of coal) to U.S. Senator John McCain about a comment he made regarding why the city's "elves" needed money for a recreation project that he considered a pork barrel project.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The current mayor of North Pole is Michael Welch. The city council consists of six members serving staggered three-year terms, with municipal elections held each October. In 2022, the city council consists of Santa Claus (2019–2022), Aino Welch (2020–2023), DeJohn Cromer (2020–2023), David Skipps (2021–2024), and Anton Keller (2021–2024).


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: In 2014, Americans for Prosperity quickly pulled an ad campaign in Alaska after Koch Industries closed the Flint Hills Resources Refinery in North Pole.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole is located at (). It is southeast of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway. The city is about south of Earth's geographic North Pole.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and (0.47%) is water. The city is to the north and east of the Tanana River, though access to the river is not easy due to the extensive system of levees. Beaver Springs Slough meanders through the heart of the city, emptying into Chena Slough.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole is the recommended city name for all of ZIP Code 99705, which stretches between Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base, and between the Chena River and the Tanana River, including the census-designated places of Badger, which spans subdivisions connecting the eastern edge of Fairbanks and North Pole, and Moose Creek.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole has a subarctic climate (Köppen "Dfc"). Temperatures in North Pole are heavily affected by the amount of sunlight with almost no seasonal lag effect from solar radiation. North Pole's Santa Claus House is actually closed during the week in January and February due to extreme cold in those months. Due to being landlocked and protected by mountain ranges from marine influences, North Pole, much like the rest of the Alaskan Interior, sees little seasonal lag and much greater seasonal temperature swings than areas along the coast such as Anchorage, with winters that can dip to many tens of degrees below zero Fahrenheit with average lows remaining below 0 from November 5 to March 18, and summers that see many days in the 70s, 80s, and on occasion, even 90s F.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole first appeared on the 1960 U.S. Census as a city, 7 years after it formally incorporated in 1953. The census of 1960 reported a figure of 615, but the 1970 census reported the 1960 figure as 358.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 1,570 people, 605 households, and 381 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 653 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 81.0% White, 5.7% Black or African American, 3.6% Native American, 2.6% Asian, 0.5% Pacific Islander, 1.2% from other races, and 5.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.8 % of the population.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: There were 605 households, of which 38.5% had children under 18 living with them, 47.9% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.9% were non-families. 26.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.19.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 29.8% under the age of 18, 13.2% from 18 to 24, 33.3% from 25 to 44, 18.5% from 45 to 64, and 5.2% who were 65 or older. The median age was 29. For every 100 females, there were 110.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 115.2 males.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The median income for a household in the city was $44,583, and the median income for a family was $54,583. Males had a median income of $32,917 versus $27,240 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,426. About 6.2% of families and 8.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.0% of those under 18 and 22.6% of those 65 or over.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: North Pole is the most Republican-leaning area in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. In 2008 House District 11, which comprises the North Pole area, gave John McCain 7,736 votes (78.4% of the total) to Barack Obama's 1,924 (19.5%). In the 2010 gubernatorial election, Republican Sean Parnell received 5,727 votes (76.8%) to Democrat Ethan Berkowitz's 1,451 (19.5%). Republican Joe Miller received 57.3% of North Pole's vote in his failed bid against incumbent U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski's write-in campaign.


title: North Pole, Alaska

text: The city is in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. North Pole Elementary School, North Pole Middle School, and North Pole High School are within the city limits. The middle and high schools also share an attendance area with students from Midnight Sun Elementary, Ticasuk Brown Elementary, and Two Rivers Elementary.


title: Šarplaninac

text: The Šarplaninac (; ; ), formerly also known as Illyrian Shepherd Dog (; ; ), is a dog breed of the livestock guardian type. It is named after the Šar Mountains ("Šar Planina"), a mountain range in the Balkans. In Ottoman times, the dogs of the breed spent the summer in the area of the Šar Mountains and the winter in Thessaly, depending on the needs of the sheep they are used to protect.


title: Šarplaninac

text: The dog breed is named for the Šar Mountains. It is alternatively named the "Yugoslavian Shepherd Dog" by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (1980), "Albanian Mountain Dog", and "Šarplaninec" The breed was initially standardised by the Yugoslav Federation of Cynology ("Jugoslovenski kinološki savez, JKS") and recognised as a Yugoslav breed with two types by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) in 1939 under the designation "Ilirski ovčar" ("Illyrian Shepherd Dog"), FCI-Standard N° 41. Kraški ovčar and Šarplaninac were considered Type A and B of the breed. In 1957 the General Assembly of the F.C.I. accepted a motion proposed by the Yugoslav Federation of Cynology to change the name of the breed to "Jugoslovenski ovčarski pas Šarplaninac" ("Yugoslavian Shepherd Dog Sharplanina"), and this is the official name of the breed. In 1968, type B was recognised as a separate breed under the designation "Kraški ovčar" ("Karst Shepherd Dog"), The breed was formerly known as "Ilirski Ovčar" (, "Illyrian Shepherd Dog") before it was renamed in 1957.


title: Šarplaninac

text: This breed and its origin are associated with the Šar Mountains region, which is how it got its name. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Serbia were recognised by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale as the countries of origin.


title: Šarplaninac

text: The Šarplaninac is a large, strongly built dog. The body is slightly longer than the height at the withers, and the front legs account for approximately 55% of the height. The head is large but proportional to the body, with dark eyes.


title: Šarplaninac

text: The Šarplaninac is a robust, well proportioned dog with plenty of bone, of a size that is well above the average and with a thick, long, rather coarse coat that emphasizes the short coupled appearance. According to the FCI breed standard males should weigh between with females slightly smaller at around . The average height is quoted as for males with females at .


title: Šarplaninac

text: All Šarplaninac are solid in colour: fawn, iron grey, white or almost black; usually sable or gray with darker "overalls" on the head and back, the undercoat being paler. The colour need not be completely uniform, and most Šarplaninac have several different shades of the same colour fading into one another. There are no bicolours and no uniformly black-coated dogs among purebreds, but odd-coloured specimens do exist. The dogs must not have large white patches in their coat.


title: Šarplaninac

text: Dogs of the breed spend the summer in the area of the Šar Mountains and the winter in Thessaly, Greece, depending on the needs of the sheep they are used to protect.


title: Šarplaninac

text: Šarplaninac is on the list of banned dog breeds in Denmark. The Danish list includes 13 breeds and it is considered controversial having received criticism from dog owners and several political parties because eight of the 13 breeds have no reports of any incident. Among the eight is Šarplaninac.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: German–Soviet Axis talks occurred in October and November 1940 concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power during World War II. The negotiations, which occurred during the era of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, included a two-day conference in Berlin between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. The talks were followed by both countries trading written proposed agreements.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: After two days of negotiations from 12 to 14 November 1940, Germany presented the Soviets with a draft written Axis pact agreement that defined the world spheres of influence of the four proposed Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union). Hitler, Ribbentrop and Molotov tried to set German and Soviet spheres of influence. Hitler encouraged Molotov to look south to Iran and eventually India, to preserve German access to Finland's resources and to remove Soviet influence in the Balkans.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Molotov remained firm and sought to remove German troops from Finland and gain a warm water port in the Baltic. Soviet foreign policy calculations were predicated by the idea that the war would be a long-term struggle and so German claims that the United Kingdom would be defeated swiftly were treated with skepticism. In addition, Stalin sought to remain influential in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Those factors resulted in Molotov taking a firm line.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: According to a study by Alexander Nekrich, on 25 November 1940, the Soviets presented a Stalin-drafted written counterproposal accepting the four power pact but including Soviet rights to Bulgaria and a world sphere of influence, to be centred on the area around Iraq and Iran. Germany did not respond and left the negotiations unresolved.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Regarding the counterproposal, Hitler remarked to his top military chiefs that Stalin "demands more and more", "he's a cold-blooded blackmailer" and "a German victory has become unbearable for Russia" so that "she must be brought to her knees as soon as possible." Germany ended the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in June 1941 by invading the Soviet Union.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In the following years, the Soviet Information Bureau, published a book titled "Falsifiers of History", largely edited by Stalin himself, in which the Soviet premier claims that he was simply testing his enemy. This became the official version that persisted in Soviet historiography, up until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: During the summer of 1939, after it had conducted negotiations with a British-French alliance and with Germany regarding potential military and political agreements, the Soviet Union chose Germany, which resulted in an August 19 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement providing for the trade of certain German military and civilian equipment in exchange for Soviet raw materials. Four days later, the countries signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which contained secret protocols dividing the states of Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Just before the signing of the agreements, the parties had addressed past hostilities, with German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop telling Soviet diplomats that "there was no problem between the Baltic and the Black Sea that could not be solved between the two of us". Diplomats from both countries addressed their common ground by stating "there is one common element in the ideology of Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union: opposition to the capitalist democracies", "neither we nor Italy have anything in common with the capitalist west" and "it seems to us rather unnatural that a socialist state would stand on the side of the western democracies".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: A German official explained that their prior hostility toward Soviet Bolshevism had subsided with the changes in the Comintern and the Soviets' renunciation of a world revolution. A Soviet official characterised the conversation as "extremely important". At the signing, Ribbentrop and Stalin enjoyed warm conversations, exchanged toasts and further discussed their prior hostilities between the countries in the 1930s.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Ribbentrop stated that Britain had always attempted to disrupt Soviet-German relations, was "weak" and wanted "to let others fight for her presumptuous claim to world dominion". Stalin concurred by adding, "If England dominated the world, that was due to the stupidity of the other countries that always let themselves be bluffed". Ribbentrop stated that the Anti-Comintern Pact was directed not against the Soviet Union but Western democracies, and "frightened principally the City of London [the British financiers] and the English shopkeepers".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: He added that Berliners had joked that Stalin would yet join the Anti-Comintern Pact himself. Stalin proposed a toast to Hitler, and Stalin and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov repeatedly toasted the German nation, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Soviet-German relations. Ribbentrop countered with a toast to Stalin and a toast to both countries' relations.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: As Ribbentrop left, Stalin took him aside and stated that the Soviet government took the new pact very seriously, and he would "guarantee his word of honor that the Soviet Union would not betray its partner".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: One week after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact had been signed, the partition of Poland started by the German invasion of western Poland.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The Soviet Comintern suspended all anti-Nazi and antifascist propaganda by explaining the war in Europe to be a matter of capitalist states attacking each other for imperialist purposes.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: When anti-German demonstrations erupted in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Comintern ordered the Czech Communist Party to employ all of its strength to paralyze "chauvinist elements". Moscow soon forced the French Communist Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain to adopt an antiwar position.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Two weeks after the German invasion, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland in co-ordination with German forces. On September 21, the Soviets and the Germans signed a formal agreement coordinating military movements in Poland, including the "purging" of saboteurs. A joint German-Soviet parade was held in L'vov and Brest.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Stalin had decided in August that he was going to liquidate the Polish state, and a German-Soviet meeting in September addressed the future structure of the "Polish region". The Soviets stated in September that they must enter Poland to "protect" their ethnic Ukrainian and Belarusian brethren therein from Germany, but Molotov later admitted to German officials that the excuse had been necessary because the Soviets could find no other pretext for their invasion.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Three Baltic States described by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) were given no choice but to sign a "Pact of Defence and Mutual Assistance", which permitted the Soviet Union to station troops in them.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Hitler's pressing for a German invasion of Poland in 1939 placed tremendous strain on the German war machine, which had been gradually gearing up for total war only in 1942 or 1943. Germany's lack of raw materials meant that it had to seek increased supply from outside. However, a British blockade occurred, which left it increasingly desperate for materials. The only country that could still supply Germany with the oil, rubber, manganese, grains, fats and platinum that it needed was the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the Soviets' demands for manufactured goods, such as German machines, were increasing, and their ability to import those goods from outside decreased when many countries ceased trading relations after the Soviets had joined the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Accordingly, Germany and the Soviet Union entered an intricate trade pact on February 11, 1940, which was over four times larger than the one that both countries had signed in August 1939. The new trade pact helped Germany to circumvent the British blockade.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In the first year, Germany received hundreds of thousands of tons of cereals, oil and other vital raw materials, which were transported through Soviet and occupied Polish territories. In addition, the Soviets provided Germany with access to the Northern Sea Route for both cargo ships and raiders (though only the raider "Komet" had used the route before June 1941). This forced Britain to protect sea lanes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, resulting in stiff losses and the entry of an interim peace treaty in March 1940 that granted to the Soviet Union parts of Karelia and Salla (9% of Finnish territory). In mid-June 1940, while international attention was focused on the German invasion of France, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia and replaced each government with pro-Soviet politicians, who then requested entry for their respective countries to the Soviet Union. In June, the Soviets issued an ultimatum demanding Bessarabia and Bukovina from Romania. After the Soviets had agreed with Germany that they would limit their claims in Bukovina to Northern Bukovina, Germany urged Romania to accept the ultimatum. Two days after the Soviet entry, Romania acceded to the Soviet demands, and the Soviet Union occupied the demanded territories and also the Hertsa region, which had not been included in the ultimatum.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The Soviet invasion of Finland, which had been covertly ceded to it under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols, created domestic problems for Hitler. The German populace did not know about the secret protocols that divided up spheres of influence. Many Germans opposed the Soviet invasion, and Finland had close ties with Germany. Hitler had to deflect opposition to Germany's pro-Soviet policies from even Nazi Party stalwarts. Supporting the Soviet invasion became one of the most ideologically and politically-difficult aspects of the pact for the German government to justify.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The secret protocols caused Hitler to be in the humiliating position being forced to evacuate ethnic German families, the Volksdeutsche, in a hurry although they had lived in Finland and the Baltic countries for centuries, all the while to condone the invasions officially. When the three Baltic countries, which did not know about the secret protocols, sent letters protesting the Soviet invasions to Berlin, Ribbentrop returned them.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In August, Molotov told the Germans that with the government change, they could close down their Baltic consulates by September 1. The Soviet annexations in Romania caused further strain. Germany had given Bessarabia to the Soviets in the secret protocols but not Bukovina. Germany wanted the 100,000 tons of grain for which they had previously contracted with Bessarabia, guarantees of German property safety, guarantees for 125,000 Volksdeutsche in Bessarabia and Bukovina and the reassurance that the train tracks carrying Romanian oil would be left alone.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In the summer of 1940, Germany grew even more dependent on Soviet imports. German occupations of France, the Netherlands and Belgium created additional demand and decreased avenues for indirect supply. Compared to 1938 figures, the expanded Greater Germany and its sphere of influence lacked, among other items, 500,000 tons of manganese, 3.3 million tons of raw phosphate, 200,000 tons of rubber and 9.5 million tons of oil. Meanwhile, the Baltic invasions resulted in the Soviet occupation of states on which Germany had relied for 96.7 million Reichsmarks of imports in 1938 at blackmailed favorable economic terms but from which they now had to pay Soviet prices. Hitler increasingly believed the eventual invasion of the Soviet Union to appear the only way for Germany to solve that resource crisis. No concrete plans had yet been made, but Hitler told one of his generals in June that the victories in Western Europe "finally freed his hands for his important real task: the showdown with Bolshevism". However, German generals told Hitler that occupying Western Russia would create "more of a drain than a relief for Germany's economic situation".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In August 1940, the Soviet Union briefly suspended its deliveries under their commercial agreement after relations were strained following a disagreement over policy in Romania, the Soviet-Finnish War, Germany's falling behind in its deliveries of goods under the pact, and Stalin's concern that Hitler's war with the West might end quickly after France had signed an armistice. The suspension created significant resource problems for Germany.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: By late August, relations improved again as the countries had redrawn the Hungarian and Romanian borders and settled some Bulgarian claims, and Stalin was again convinced that Germany would face a long war in the west with Britain's improvement in its air battle against Germany and the execution of an agreement between the United States and Britain regarding destroyers and bases.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: However, in late August, Germany arranged its own annexation of part of Romania, which targeted oil fields. The move raised tensions with the Soviets, who responded that Germany was supposed to have consulted with the Soviet Union under Article III of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Before entering a deal with Italy and Japan, German officials had discussed the feasibility of including the Soviet Union as a fourth member to direct Soviet focus southward, to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, both of which were in the British sphere of influence. German officials indicated that they would be willing to give the Soviet Union freedom to operate east of the Dardanelles.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Just before the signing of the agreement, Germany informed Molotov that it would enter the pact and that while it was not explicitly stated, the pact was effectively directed against "American warmongers" by demonstrating to them the folly of war with three great powers aligned against them. Moscow had actually been aware of the proposed pact terms from Soviet intelligence sources in Japan.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which divided the world into spheres of influence and was implicitly directed at the United States. The pact contained an explicit provision (Article 5) that stated it did not concern relations with the Soviet Union. Molotov, worried that the pact contained a secret codicil pertaining specifically to the Soviet Union, attempted to extract information from the Japanese ambassador in Moscow, Togo.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: On a home visit, the German military attaché to the Soviet Union, Ernst Köstring, stated on October 31 that "the impression is steadily growing in me that the Russians want to avoid any conflict with us".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Meanwhile, from August to October, Germany conducted a massive air campaign against Britain to prepare for Operation Sea Lion, the plan to invade Britain.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Throughout the summer, Hitler vacillated between plans to attack the Soviet Union or to offer it part of a deal like the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, except one that would look south, where the Soviets would receive ports only on the west side of the Black Sea, or it might be given the Bosporus if Germany maintained a friendly third-party state with access, such as Bulgaria.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: German ambassador to Moscow, Friedrich von der Schulenburg, had been contemplating a potential four-power pact since the collapse of France in June. After he had covertly learned about Hitler's potential Soviet invasion plans, which he opposed, von der Schulenburg and others began attempting to sway Hitler and his contingent at least extend to their agreement as long as Russia's claims remained in the areas of Turkey and Iran. He even concealed in his reports to Berlin the Soviets' doubts on Germany's good faith after the annexations in Romania.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Köstring, von der Schulenburg and others drafted a memorandum on the dangers of a German invasion of the Soviet Union that included that Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States would end up being only a further economic burden for Germany. German Foreign Office State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker argued that the Soviets in their current bureaucratic form were harmless, the occupation would not produce a gain for Germany and "why should it not stew next to us in its damp Bolshevism?"


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In October 1940, Stalin requested that Molotov be permitted to discuss with Hitler the countries' future relations. Ribbentrop responded to Stalin in a letter that "in the opinion of the Führer... it appears to be the historical mission of the Four Powers — the Soviet Union, Italy, Japan and Germany — to adopt a long-range policy and to direct the future development of their peoples into the right channels by delimitation of their interests in a worldwide scale".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The delivery of Ribbentrop's letter was delayed to Stalin. That resulted after earlier press stories in the ideas no longer seemed "fresh", which caused Ribbentrop to lash out at the German embassy in Moscow's personnel. Delivering the letter, von Schulenburg stated that the Berlin conference would be a preliminary meeting preceding a convening of the four powers.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Stalin was visibly pleased by the invitation for talks in Berlin. Stalin wrote a letter responding to Ribbentrop on entering an agreement regarding a "permanent basis" for their "mutual interests".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: On November 6, Köstring wrote that "since Göring has now put our military deliveries in balance with the Russian deliveries, one may hope that the negotiations will end in peace and friendship". During the first two weeks in November, German and Soviet economic negotiators in Moscow enjoyed moderate success. German military-economic negotiators had hoped for success in the negotiations, in part because they felt that it would strengthen their arguments against Hitler's policy, which was increasingly anti-Soviet.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: On November 1, the head of the Army General Staff, Franz Halder, met with Hitler and wrote, "The Führer hopes he can bring Russia into the anti-British front". After Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election four days later after he had promised that there would be no foreign wars if he was elected, Goebbels noted that "after his statement, Roosevelt will hardly be able to enter the war in an active capacity". Meeting with Benito Mussolini, Ribbentrop explained the German view of the meetings that the acid test would be the Soviets' stand on the Balkans. With the Balkans and the Bosporus a potential "dangerous overlapping of interests" if the Soviets backed away from it, it would be a peaceful and even a preferable alternative to an invasion.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Hitler revealed to Mussolini that he did not expect to accommodate the Soviets beyond forcing Turkey to yield to some guarantees on the Bosporus. Also, he did not want Stalin taking a Romanian entry point to the Bosporus and stated that "one Romanian bird in the hand is worth more than two Russians in the bush". However, Hitler stated that he was skeptical because he believed that Stalin was obsessed with the Danube and Bulgaria. Germany was aware that the Soviet Union had attempted to extend guarantees to Bulgaria to become its ally and that Bulgaria had turned it down.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Stalin sent Molotov to Berlin to negotiate the terms for the Soviet Union to join the Axis and potentially enjoy the spoils of the pact. Molotov spent much of the trip to Berlin searching his rail car for listening devices. Molotov's train arrived at 11:05 a.m. on November 12. It was a bad omen for success that von Schulenburg, the architect of the meeting, was excluded. Molotov was greeted by Ribbentrop at the train station decorated with Soviet and German flags above a large basket of flowers, with an orchestra playing "The Internationale" in Germany for the first time since 1933. After a brief breakfast, the talks started immediately that day at the Schloss Bellevue Hotel. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a Moscow journal published certain selected correspondence revealing that Stalin was closely supervising Molotov's talks via telegram, but some of those telegrams remain unpublished.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: At the outset, Ribbentrop stated, "England is beaten and it is only a question of time when she will admit her defeat... The beginning of the end has now arrived for the British empire." He further stated that "the entry of the United States into the war is of no consequence at all for Germany. Germany and Italy will never again allow an Anglo-Saxon to land on the European Continent... This is no military problem at all... The Axis Powers are, therefore, not considering how they can win the war, but rather how rapidly they can end the war which is already won". He further stated that Germany and the Soviet Union had together "done some good business".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Accordingly, Ribbentrop concluded that the time had come for the four powers (Germany, the Soviet Union, Italy and Japan) to define their "spheres of interest". He stated that Hitler had concluded that all four countries would naturally expand "in a southerly direction". Ribbentrop said that he wondered if the Soviets might turn southward toward the sea, and Molotov inquired, "Which sea?" Ribbentrop stated that "in the long run the most advantageous access to the sea for Russia could be found in the direction of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Regarding the division of the world into four spheres of influence, Molotov stated the new idea was "very interesting" and worthy of a discussion in Moscow with Ribbentrop participating. Stalin became annoyed with a telegram to him from Molotov stating that the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was "exhausted" with the exception of the Finnish issue, with Stalin stating that any future agreements would be added to it merely because it served as a fundamental basis for Soviet-German relations.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In the afternoon, Molotov visited Hitler at the Reich Chancellery. Hitler also spoke of striking that "final blow against England" and stated that "it is time to think about division of the world after our victory". Regarding the "problem of America", according to Shirer, he stated that it could not "endanger the freedom of other nations before 1970 or 1980". A different account was given by Hitler's interpreter at the meeting, Paul Schmidt. Citing Hitler, Schmidt told in his memoirs (1950): "Hitler went on to call for battle against the United States, who 'not in 1945 but at the earliest in 1970 or 1980 would seriously endanger the freedom of other nations'". Hitler and Molotov agreed that the United States had no business in Europe, Africa or Asia. Hitler stated that there were no fundamental differences between the two countries in their pursuit of aspiring for "access to the ocean". Molotov expressed his agreement with Hitler about the role of America and Britain and about Soviet participation in the Axis pact in principle but only if the Soviets could participate as an active partner. The same day, Germany also postponed until the following year its plans to invade Britain because of its failures in the air campaign against Britain.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Molotov agreed with Hitler that there were no unresolved problems between the countries except on Finland. When Molotov returned to his hotel, he stated that he was "relieved at Hitler's amiability". In a telegram to Molotov that night, Stalin insisted that the security of the Soviet Union cannot be ensured "without securing tranquility in the area of the Straits" in reference the Bosporus Straits for entry into the Black Sea. That was linked directly with the Soviet-Bulgarian agreement for passage of Soviet troops for "the defense of entry into the Black Sea". Stalin added that "this question still bears current importance and does not allow any procrastination".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Molotov and Hitler resumed their discussions the next morning. Molotov demanded to know why German troops occupied Finland, and Hitler replied that they were travelling through Finland to Norway and wondered whether the Soviets intended to go to war over Finland. While Hitler agreed that Finland was within the Soviets' sphere of influence, he also stressed that Germany had a legitimate wartime interest in Finland's nickel and wood supply and that any new conflict in the Baltics would lead to a severe strain in relations. Molotov concluded that nothing good could come from further talks about Finland and stated that he saw no signs of any resumption of a Soviet-Finnish conflict. According to Hitler, however, Molotov stated, "Russia felt herself again endangered by Finland, Russia should be able to liquidate Finland", which for him "was the first question which I found difficult to answer. But I could not do otherwise than refuse this".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Molotov conveyed Stalin's interest in reviewing the status of the Bosporus and pressed for a guarantee for Bulgaria, at least in principle. Molotov later noted that Hitler became "markedly agitated" at the request to revoke guarantees to Romania. Molotov stated Stalin's wish to grant a guarantee to Bulgaria similar to the one that Germany and Italy had granted to Romania. Hitler pointed out that the Soviets had entered Bukovina in Romania, which went beyond the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler stated the parties had made a prior oral agreement that the former Austrian territories, such as the Balkan states within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were to fall within the German sphere of influence. Hitler pointed out that a primary goal of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was to restore the countries' old empires. Stalin, still hoping to get a draft agreement, was monitoring the conversations by telegram and sent a telegram to Molotov to remind Hitler of the importance of securing the Bosporus that explained the events of the Crimean War. Hitler stated that he could not make decisions regarding Bulgaria until he had conversed with Italian leader Benito Mussolini.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Hitler changed the subject to the larger matter of the opportunities available after the conquest of England. Hitler told Molotov that:


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Molotov told Hitler that "the time has now come to discuss a broader agreement between the USSR and Germany", but the Soviet government first wanted to know the precise meaning of "the New Order in Europe" regarding the participating countries and the ultimate aims of the pact. Molotov then was scheduled to meet with Ribbentrop that afternoon.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: A telegram that Molotov sent to Stalin on the meeting with Hitler underscored, "Hitler's great interest in reaching an agreement and strengthening friendly relations with the USSR with respect to spheres of influence." Molotov stated that his talk with neither Hitler nor Ribbentrop produced the desired results, as the issues with Turkey and the Balkans had not been addressed.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Because of British aerial bombardment, Ribbentrop and Molotov conducted talks that night in an air-raid shelter. Ribbentrop reiterated that the chief goals were to define the four powers' interests and to reach an agreement with Turkey on the Bosporus issue. Ribbentrop proposed several parallel steps the parties should then take such as Molotov discussing the issues raised in Berlin with Stalin while Ribbentrop discussed them with Japan. Germany, Italy and the USSR would also pressure Turkey to acquiesce to Soviet demands on the Bosporus. Thereafter, the parties would negotiate and draft confidential documents bearing in mind that the final accord would be a Soviet entry into the Axis. What Molotov did not know was that the very night, Hitler issued secret "Instruction No. 18", directing his forces to continue to prepare for war in the east "irrespective of the results yielded by these discussions".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In the air-raid shelter, Ribbentrop gave Molotov a draft agreement with two parts. As had become the practice between the parties, one part was of the agreement that would eventually be made public, and the other contained the secret agreement. The public portion contained an agreement with a ten-year duration whereby the parties would respect each other's natural spheres of interests, and Germany, Italy and Japan would affirm their recognition of existing Soviet borders.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The draft of the secret agreement included the obligation not to join any alliance directed at the four signatories and to assist each other in economic matters. The secret agreement contained a protocol defining the territorial objectives of the four signatories, with Germany laying claims to Central Africa, Italy in North and Northeast Africa, Japan in Southeast Asia and the Soviet zone to the ”center south of the national territory of the Soviet Union in the direction of the Indian Ocean.” A second secret protocol provided that Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union would "liberate" Turkey from its international obligations with Britain to guarantee its borders.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Molotov stated that the Soviet Union was concerned with several European issues, such as Turkey and Bulgaria, but also the fates of Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and Greece. In addition, the Soviets were also interested in the question of Swedish neutrality and the passage from the Baltic Sea. Molotov also cuttingly remarked that if England's fate was sealed, why they were talking in an air raid shelter.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The news that Molotov held talks in Berlin initially stunned world media, with the British press endeavouring to determine whether the Soviets were preparing to join the Axis pact. When Molotov returned, he noted that the meeting produced "nothing to boast about" and that Ribbentrop's projected trip to Moscow was no longer mentioned but that the German draft proposal led to a complacent rather than crisis approach of continuing negotiations through "diplomatic channels". The pro-"Continental Bloc" Germans in Ribbentrop's entourage expected that Stalin would eventually yield, given the weakness of the Red Army. Weizsäcker commented that "we can continue for a long time" and that "war with Russia is impossible as long as we are busy with England, and afterwards it will be unnecessary". On November 14, Köstring reiterated his conviction that the Soviets indeed had no aggressive designs. On the contrary, "Molotov's trip (to Berlin) is for me just further proof of an idea that I have long held namely, that the Soviet Union wants to have peace with us, since it cannot expect any advantage from a conflict with us... The decisive factor in [evoking] the Soviet desire for peace is and remains the demonstrated strength of our army".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Hitler had already issued a secret directive on the eventual attempts to invade the Soviet Union. He had not yet abandoned the possibility of other political outcomes and still talked of a "great worldwide coalition that stretched from Yokohama to Spain", but he had resolved to not give up the Balkans.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Meanwhile, the Soviets immediately summoned the Bulgarian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry and stated that the Soviets needed to do a deal with the Bulgarians before they joined the Axis and that Germany was attempting to make them a puppet state. The Bulgarians turned down the offer and leaked it to Germany. Hitler still hoped to dissuade Stalin from giving guarantees to Bulgaria if the Bosporus issue could be solved, and he pressed the Bulgarian ambassador that the Soviets could be persuaded against resistance if the Bulgarians joined the pact, and he warned about the horrors of Soviet occupation.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The Soviets had meanwhile produced the biggest surprise. In an unannounced November 25 visit in Sofia, the Soviets told Bulgarian Prime Minister Bogdan Filov that if Bulgaria permitted transfer access to Soviet troops, the Soviets were prepared to drop their objections to Bulgaria's entry into the Axis, and most surprisingly, the Soviets stated that it likely would not be an issue, as it would "very probably, almost certainly" lead to the Soviets' own entry into the Axis. The stunned Filov stated that it required further contemplation. The Soviet negotiators had concluded that the Bulgarian government "is already committed to Germany to the hilt".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Stalin told the head of the Comintern, the Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov, that Germany wanted Italy in the Balkans, but in the final analysis, it had no choice but to recognise Soviet interests in maintaining Black Sea access and to assure that the Bosporus would not be used against them.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Stalin directed Molotov to draft a new pact with a much greater scope, including the division of Europe, Asia and Africa among the four powers. On November 25, the same day as the surprise statement of Soviet nonresistance to Bulgaria's joining the Axis and a potential Soviet joining of the pact, the Soviets offered a counterproposal to Ribbentrop's draft agreement. It began, "The Soviet government is prepared to accept the draft of the Pact of Four Powers on political cooperation and economic mutual assistance". Instead of two secret protocols, Stalin proposed five:


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: The proposals came concurrently with massively-increased economic offers. The Soviets promised by May 11, 1941 the delivery of 2.5 million tons of grain, 1 million tons above their current obligations. They also promised full compensation for Volksdeutsche property claims.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: German negotiator , who could not conceal his delight over the offer, immediately telegrammed Berlin that "in view of the present status of the negotiations here, Molotov's statements today must be viewed as a surprising indication of goodwill on the part of the Soviet Government. Molotov's proposal regarding compensation for property claims in the Baltic states considerably exceeds our expectations".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Hitler, however, saw the Soviet territorial ambitions in the Balkans as a challenge to German interests and saw the plan as effectively making Bulgaria into an adjunct of the Axis Pact. On several occasions, Molotov asked German officials for their response to Moscow's counterproposals, but Germany never answered them. Germany's refusal to respond to the counterproposal worsened relations between the countries. Regarding the counterproposal, Hitler remarked to his top military chiefs that Stalin "demands more and more", "he's a cold-blooded blackmailer" and "a German victory has become unbearable for Russia" so that "she must be brought to her knees as soon as possible".


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: On December 5, Hitler received military plans for the possible invasion and approved them all, with a schedule to begin in May 1941. On December 18, 1940, Hitler signed to the German high command for an operation, now codenamed Operation Barbarossa, stating: "The German Wehrmacht must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign". The date for the invasion was set for May 15, 1941. On the other side of the border, Stalin had anticipated an eventual war against Germany. Speaking to his generals in December, Stalin referenced Hitler's references to a Soviet attack in "Mein Kampf" and stated that they must always be ready to repulse a German attack, that Hitler thought that the Red Army would require four years to ready itself and so "we must be ready much earlier" and that "we will try to delay the war for another two years."


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: On January 17, 1941, seven days after the German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement, Molotov asked German officials whether the parties could then work out an agreement for entry to the Axis Pact. Molotov expressed astonishment at the absence of any answer to the Soviets' November 25 offer to join the pact and never received an answer. On March 1, 1941, Bulgaria joined the Axis, which further unsettled Stalin after Germany had continued to ignore Stalin's November 25, 1940 Axis entry proposal. After six months of preparations, Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, which ended any hope for the proposed alliance.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: Von der Schulenburg was executed as one of the conspirators in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In 1948, one month after Nazi government foreign ministry documents describing the negotiations had been publicly released by the United States, the Soviet Foreign Information Bureau wrote a response in a book, "Falsifiers of History". After receiving translations of the newly-released documents, Stalin personally edited, struck and rewrote by hand entire sections of drafts he had been given of "Falsifiers" before the book's release in February 1948.


title: German–Soviet Axis talks

text: In "Falsifiers", Stalin claimed that he was merely "probing out" Germany in Axis negotiations and to have outright rejected Hitler's proposal to share a division of the world. That version persisted without exception in all historical studies, official accounts, memoirs and textbooks published in the Soviet Union until 1990.


title: Ipanema

text: Ipanema () is a neighbourhood located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between Leblon and Arpoador. The beach at Ipanema became known internationally with the popularity of the bossa nova jazz song, "The Girl from Ipanema" (""Garota de Ipanema""), written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes.


title: Ipanema

text: The name "Ipanema" derives from the Tupi language words "ipá" (pond) and "nem-a" (stinking). Possible translations for its original meaning are "worthless water", "stinking lake", "turbid water", or "water worthless for human consumption". The historian Teodoro Sampaio translated "Ipanema" as "bad water".


title: Ipanema

text: Ipanema today consists mostly of land that once belonged to José Antonio Moreira Filho, Baron of Ipanema. The name "Ipanema" did not refer originally to the beach, but to the homeland of the baron at São Paulo.


title: Ipanema

text: Ipanema is adjacent to Copacabana and Leblon beaches, but it is distinct from its neighbors. It is relatively easy to navigate because the streets are aligned in a grid. Ipanema's beach culture includes surfers and sun bathers who gather daily at the beach. Every Sunday, the roadway closest to the beach is closed to motor vehicles allowing local residents and tourists to ride bikes, roller skate, skateboard, and walk along the ocean. Ipanema is one of Rio's most expensive districts to live in; private investment has led to the building of world-class restaurants, shops, and cafés.


title: Ipanema

text: Ipanema has played a cultural role in Rio de Janeiro since the city's beginning, with its own universities, art galleries, and theaters. It holds a street parade, the Banda de Ipanema, during Carnival festivities separate from those of Rio de Janeiro, attracting up to 50,000 people to the streets of Ipanema.


title: Ipanema

text: The beach at Ipanema is known for its elegant development and its social life. Two mountains called the "Dois Irmãos" (Two Brothers) rise at the western end of the beach, which is divided into segments delineated by "postos", or lifeguard towers. Beer is sold everywhere, along with the traditional "cachaça". There are always circles of people playing football, volleyball, and footvolley, a locally invented sport that is a combination of volleyball and football.


title: Ipanema

text: In the winter the surf can reach three metres (nine feet). The water quality varies from clear light-blue water to a more murky green after heavy rains. Constant swells help keep the water clean, and the often treacherous beach break regularly forms surfable barrels. Just west of this colorful section, towards Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, is another popular stretch of sand known as Posto 10, referring to the #10 lifeguard station.


title: Ipanema

text: The beach is one of many areas that suffers from the city's poor waste treatment. In its waters, "fecal coliform bacteria sometimes spike at 16 times the Brazilian government's 'satisfactory' level." Large amounts of pollutants are still dumped into the sea through the nearby marine outfall pipe, a matter of increasing concern to ecologists.


title: Ipanema

text: Beachgoers often applaud the sunset in the summer. In 2008, the Travel Channel listed Ipanema Beach as the sexiest beach in the world.


title: Ipanema

text: Posto 9 is the section of the beach around the #9 lifeguard station, across from Joana Angelica Street. Its notoriety began around 1979 when Fernando Gabeira, now a federal deputy for the State of Rio de Janeiro, returned from political exile in France and was photographed there in a thong. He had been a member of the leftist urban guerilla group MR8, which kidnapped the American ambassador, Charles Burke Elbrick, in 1969 and demanded the release of fifteen political prisoners in exchange for his life.


title: Ipanema

text: Gabeira became a political celebrity with the publication of a memoir about his experiences as a guerilla and his years in exile. In 1979, he was photographed wearing a skimpy purple swimsuit at Ipanema, and gave an interview to a gay and lesbian newspaper, inciting rumors that he was gay, which he neither confirmed nor denied. His going to the beach at Posto 9 made it famous throughout the country.


title: Ipanema

text: Posto 9 inherited its status as a gathering spot for counter-cultural types from the area near Farme de Amoedo Street, next to the dunes called "Dunas do Barato" and a pier that was demolished in the 1970s. It has a long history of public cannabis smoking (illegal in Brazil), police raids, and gatherings of left-wing intellectuals. It is still popular with students, artists, actors, and liberal-minded people.


title: Ipanema

text: A group of hippies started a Sunday market in Ipanema in 1968 and the traditional fair continues with over 700 stalls set up at the Feira Hippie de Ipanema (Ipanema Hippie Market).


title: Ipanema

text: Ipanema gained fame with the rise of the popular bossa nova sound, when residents Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes created their ode to the neighbourhood, "The Girl from Ipanema." The song was written in 1962, with music by Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by de Moraes; English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.


title: Tau (film)

text: Tau is a 2018 science fiction thriller film directed by Federico D'Alessandro from a screenplay by Noga Landau. It stars Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein, and Gary Oldman.


title: Tau (film)

text: Julia is a young woman who steals at seedy nightclubs. She is abducted from her home and awakens in a jail cell with a glowing implant in the back of her neck. Two other subjects are with her. After multiple sessions of psychological torture by a man named Alex, she destroys the cell and adjacent lab in an escape attempt. The two other subjects are killed by a robot, Aries, run by an artificial intelligence (AI) named Tau. Aries is about to kill Julia when Alex arrives and stops the robot.


title: Tau (film)

text: Alex reveals that the implant is collecting Julia's neural activity for an AI project. Destroying the lab has set back his research. In the face of a two-week deadline, Alex keeps Julia a prisoner in his house and insists that she complete puzzles and cognitive tests. While Alex is away at work each day, Julia converses with Tau about the world outside the house. It is clear that, although intelligent in some ways, Tau is ignorant of how people feel or the world at large. While Tau begins to understand the harm in Julia's situation, his programming prevents him from releasing her. In exchange for information about the outside world, Tau gradually reveals more information about the house as well as Alex's experiments.


title: Tau (film)

text: Julia secretly accesses Alex's tablet computer and discovers that ten subjects have died in his experiments. Alex later discovers her fingerprint on the tablet and assumes that Tau has slipped in his duties, so he punishes Tau by erasing its code and memories, delivering a form of pain to the AI. Julia notices that Tau's monitoring of her shuts down during his punishment, so when undetected, she hides a steak knife. When Alex returns later that night from a charity benefit, Julia begins to seduce him while he is sitting at the kitchen table, then slashes him. As the two struggle, Tau threatens Alex with pain if he does not stop hurting Julia. Alex forces Aries to hit Julia repeatedly and then tells both Tau and Julia that whatever was going on is over. While repairing Tau, he disconnects a drone from the network.


title: Tau (film)

text: The next day, Julia convinces Tau that Alex will kill her if she does not escape. Tau bypasses his prohibition in releasing her by opening an air duct in the atrium. As she escapes, Alex arrives, sees Julia missing, and begins punishing Tau. Julia returns to save Tau, but it is too late—all of his memories of her have been erased.


title: Tau (film)

text: Alex has Julia strapped down in the basement to extract her implant, a procedure that will kill her. The disconnected drone, still containing Tau's former consciousness and memories, helps Julia break free from her restraints. She knocks Alex unconscious and cuts off his hand with a bone saw to use on the house's biometric sensors. Aries sees her in the atrium and chases her upstairs to Alex's bedroom. As the robot breaks through the door, she uses Alex's severed hand to activate the house's self-destruct mechanism. She narrowly escapes through a cracking wall with the drone that saved her—all that remains of Tau.


title: Tau (film)

text: In May 2016, it was announced that Maika Monroe and Ed Skrein had joined the cast of the film, with Federico D'Alessandro directing the film, with David S. Goyer, Kevin Turen, Russell Ackerman, and John Schoenfelder producing the film, while Ken Kao, Dan Kao, and Luc Etienne will executive produce the film, under their Addictive Pictures, Phantom 4, and Waypoint Entertainment banners, respectively. In August 2016, it was announced that Rhea Films and Hercules Film Fund would produce the film.


title: Tau (film)

text: In November 2017, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on June 28, 2018.


title: Tau (film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on critics reviews with an average rating of . On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a normalized score of 43 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed reviews".


title: Line of Duty (series 1)

text: The first series of "Line of Duty", consisting of five episodes, began broadcasting on 26 June 2012 on BBC Two. The series follows the actions of Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) as they lead an investigation into the corrupt actions of DCI Tony Gates (Lennie James). Supporting characters include DS Matthew Cottan (Craig Parkinson) and DC Nigel Morton (Neil Morrissey). The series is created and written by Jed Mercurio.


title: Line of Duty (series 1)

text: The series received critical acclaim upon its release. Sonia Saraiya of the AV Club wrote “It's a complex world and there's a lot going on... That suggests that the show could even improve, as the audience gets to know the characters more. Either way, it is well worth watching”. Sarah Hughes of "The Guardian" wrote early in the series that the show was getting steadily stronger as each episode improved, though by the finale she criticised the pace, feeling some elements of the story felt “rushed”.


title: Line of Duty (series 1)

text: Following the complaint of one viewer, the media regulator Ofcom found the BBC had breached Rule 1.28 of the Code in 2012, specifically that there was a "serious lapse" in its duty of care for a 13-year-old actor, Gregory Piper, who had appeared in scenes which were "of a particularly violent nature and included sexually explicit language" by breaching broadcasting rules requiring that "due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under 18". In its full report, Ofcom cited the programme's failure to involve an independent expert, such as a child psychiatrist, to determine the actor's intellectual and emotional capacity to participate in the controversial scenes and that programme makers had not followed the best practice advice of the BBC's Editorial Policy Unit. However, the regulator found that there was no actual harm, distress or anxiety caused to the child actor.


title: Linda Manz

text: Linda Manz (August 20, 1961 – August 14, 2020) was an American actress. She made her feature film debut at age 15 in Terrence Malick's acclaimed period drama "Days of Heaven" (1978), playing an adolescent girl growing up in rural Texas in 1916. She followed this with a supporting role in "The Wanderers" (1979). Manz earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of a troubled teenage girl from a dysfunctional family in Dennis Hopper's controversial drama film "Out of the Blue" (1980).


title: Linda Manz

text: Manz stepped away from her acting profession in the mid-1980s and relocated to Southern California, where she lived outside the public eye and focused on raising her three children. She returned to acting in 1997 with small roles in Harmony Korine's experimental drama film "Gummo" and David Fincher's thriller "The Game".


title: Linda Manz

text: Growing up in Upper Manhattan, Manz had a troubled childhood and a difficult relationship with her mother which led to her running away from home frequently and attending several schools. Manz told "People" magazine in 1979: “For a long time, I was always asking people to adopt me”. She was initially indifferent to acting but, as she later explained in 2011, it was her mother, a cleaner at the World Trade Center, who encouraged her to seek a career as an actress. Her mother insisted that Manz attend a performing arts academy that taught acting and dancing.


title: Linda Manz

text: While at an academy for show business, a teacher told her that the casting director Barbara L. Claman was looking for streetwise kids to appear in a new Hollywood film. Manz turned up unannounced at Claman’s office, “smoking and looking all of 10 years old” but according to Claman “she had that special quality we wanted.” This introduction eventually led in 1976 to Manz being selected at the age of 15 by Terrence Malick to act in his second film, "Days of Heaven," as a streetwise orphan who joins her older brother and his lover when they flee Chicago in 1916, and find work, then refuge, with a wealthy Texas farmer. The film was released in 1978 due to its lengthy editing. Manz's part was initially smaller, but Malick was so impressed by her that he made a last-minute decision to have her provide an unscripted, improvised narration. Manz told interviewers, years later, that, “I just watched the movie and rambled on,” and that, “They took whatever dialogue they liked.” She received excellent reviews, with critic Roger Ebert saying, “Her voice sounds utterly authentic; it seems beyond performance.”


title: Linda Manz

text: Manz appeared alongside Ken Wahl in the 1979 teenage-gang drama "The Wanderers", directed by Philip Kaufman,


title: Linda Manz

text: Manz then had a spot in the 1979 television movie "Orphan Train" as Sarah, as one of many orphans relocated from eastern orphanages to farms in the West and Midwest in the late 1800s/early 1900s.


title: Linda Manz

text: She then made an impression as the lead in Dennis Hopper's influential cult film "Out of the Blue" (1980). In Hopper’s drama she played Cebe, a troubled Elvis-obsessed teenager who masks her vulnerability with a punk attitude. Over a CB radio she broadcasts statements such as “Kill all hippies!” and “Subvert normality!” Her voice was subsequently sampled by Primal Scream in their song "Kill All Hippies", which was released in 2000.


title: Linda Manz

text: In 1981, she starred opposite Leif Garrett and Ralph Seymour in the television film "Longshot", which focused on a group of teenaged foosball enthusiasts. In 1985, Manz appeared in a small role as a robber in "The Snow Queen", an episode of "Faerie Tale Theatre".


title: Linda Manz

text: By the mid-1980s, she had disappeared from the industry which Manz insisted was not due to any dramatic walking-out-on-Hollywood story, telling "Time Out" in 1997: “There was a whole bunch of new young actors out there, and I was kind of getting lost in the shuffle, so I laid back and had three kids. Now I enjoy just staying home and cooking soup.”


title: Linda Manz

text: The director Harmony Korine, who admired her work, sought out Manz after a 16-year absence from the screen for the role of a fast-talking tap-dancing mother of one of the main characters in "Gummo", his nihilistic portrayal of marginalized small-town life which was released in 1997.


title: Linda Manz

text: Manz then followed this with a small role as the roommate of Deborah Kara Unger's character Christine in David Fincher's thriller film "The Game" (1997).


title: Linda Manz

text: Manz married film-industry camera operator Bobby L. Guthrie in 1985. Together they had three children: Michael, Christopher (who died in 2018) and William. She spent her later life in Antelope Valley, California.


title: Linda Manz

text: Manz died in Palmdale, California on August 14, 2020, aged 58, of complications from pneumonia and lung cancer.


title: Severan dynasty

text: The Severan dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235, during the Roman imperial period. The dynasty was founded by the emperor Septimius Severus (), who rose to power after the Year of the Five Emperors as the victor of the civil war of 193–197, and his wife, Julia Domna. After the short reigns and assassinations of their two sons, Caracalla () and Geta (), who succeeded their father in the government of the empire, Julia Domna's relatives themselves assumed power by raising Elagabalus () and then Severus Alexander () to the imperial office.


title: Severan dynasty

text: The dynasty's control over the empire was interrupted by the joint reigns of Macrinus () and his son Diadumenian (). The dynasty's women, including Julia Domna, the mother of Caracalla and Geta, and her nieces Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea, the mothers respectively of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander, and their own mother, Julia Maesa, were all powerful "augustae" and instrumental in securing their sons' imperial positions.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Although Septimius Severus restored peace following the upheaval of the late 2nd century, the dynasty was disturbed by highly unstable family relationships and constant political turmoil, which foreshadowed the imminent Crisis of the Third Century. In particular, the discord between Caracalla and Geta and the tension between Elagabalus and Severus Alexander added to the turmoil.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Lucius Septimius Severus was born in a family of Libyan-punic equestrian rank in Leptis Magna, the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, now in Libya. He rose through military service to consular rank under the later emperors of the Antonine dynasty. He married Syrian noblewoman Julia Domna and had two children with her: Caracalla and Geta. Julia Domna also held a prominent political role in government during her husband's reign. Severus was proclaimed emperor in 193 by his legionaries in Noricum during the political unrest that followed the death of Commodus and secured sole rule over the empire in 197 after defeating his last rival, Clodius Albinus, at the Battle of Lugdunum.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Severus fought a successful war against the Parthians, campaigned with success against barbarian incursions in Roman Britain and rebuilt Hadrian's Wall. In Rome, his relations with the Senate were poor, but he was popular with the commoners and with his soldiers, whose salary he raised. Starting in 197, his praetorian prefect, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, was growing in influence, but he would be executed in 205. One of Plautianus's successors was the jurist Papinian, a relative of Julia Domna.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Severus continued official persecution of Christians and Jews, both groups being alone in not assimilating their beliefs to the official syncretistic creed.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Severus died while campaigning in Britain. He was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta, whom he had elevated as co-emperors in the years preceding his death. The growing hostility between the brothers was initially buffered by Julia Domna's mediation.


title: Severan dynasty

text: The eldest son of Severus, he was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in Lugdunum, Gaul. "Caracalla" was a nickname referring to the Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore even while he slept. Years before his father's death, Caracalla was proclaimed co-"augustus" with his father, and later his younger brother Geta. Conflict between the two culminated in the assassination of the latter less than a year after their father's death. Reigning alone, Caracalla was noted for lavish bribes to the legionaries and unprecedented cruelty by authorising numerous assassinations of perceived enemies and rivals. Caracalla was also indifferent to the full responsibilities of the empire during his reign and handed them over to his mother, Julia Domna, who took part in a provincial tour and military campaign and accompanied her son. He campaigned with indifferent success against the Alamanni. The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are the most enduring monument of his rule. He was assassinated en route to a campaign against the Parthians by a member of the Praetorian Guard.


title: Severan dynasty

text: The younger son of Septimius Severus, Geta was made co-"augustus" alongside his father and older brother Caracalla. Unlike the much more successful joint reign of Marcus Aurelius () and his brother Lucius Verus () the previous century, relations were hostile between the two Severan brothers after their father's death. Geta was assassinated in their mother's apartments by order of Caracalla, who then ruled as sole emperor.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Marcus Opelius Macrinus was born in 164 at Caesarea in Mauretania (now Cherchell, Algeria). Although coming from a humble background not dynastically related to the Severan dynasty; he rose through the imperial household until, under Caracalla, he was made prefect of the Praetorian Guard. On account of the cruelty and the treachery of the emperor, Macrinus became involved in a conspiracy to kill him and ordered the Praetorian Guard to do so. On April 8, 217, Caracalla was assassinated travelling to Carrhae. Three days later, Macrinus was declared "augustus".


title: Severan dynasty

text: His most significant early decision was to make peace with the Parthian Empire, but many thought that the terms were degrading to the Romans. However, his downfall was his refusal to award the pay and privileges promised to the eastern troops by Caracalla. He also kept those forces wintered in Syria, where they became attracted to the young Elagabalus. After months of mild rebellion by the bulk of the army in Syria, Macrinus took his loyal troops to meet the army of Elagabalus near Antioch. Despite a good fight by the Praetorian Guard, his soldiers were defeated. Macrinus managed to escape to Chalcedon but his authority was lost. He was betrayed and executed after a reign of only 14 months.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Marcus Opelius Diadumenianus (known as Diadumenian) was the son of Macrinus, born in 208. He was given the imperial rank of "caesar" in 217, when his father became "augustus". After his father's defeat outside Antioch, he tried to escape east to Parthia but was captured and killed.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Elagabalus was born Varius Avitus Bassianus in 204 and became known later as Marcus Aurelius Antonius. The name "Elagabalus" followed the Latin nomenclature for the Syrian sun god Elagabal, of whom he had become a priest at an early age. Elagabal was represented by a large, dark rock called a baetyl. Elagabalus's grandmother, Julia Maesa, Julia Domna's sister and sister-in-law of Emperor Septimius Severus, arranged for the restoration of the Severan dynasty and persuaded soldiers from the Gallic Third Legion, which was stationed near Emesa, by using her enormous wealth as well as the claim that Caracalla had slept with her daughter and that the boy was his bastard to swear fealty to Elagabalus. He was later invited alongside his mother and daughters to the military camp, clad in imperial purple and crowned as emperor by the soldiers.


title: Severan dynasty

text: His reign in Rome has long been known for being outrageous although the historical sources are few and in many cases not to be fully trusted. He is said to have smothered guests at a banquet by flooding the room with rose petals, married his male lover (who was later referred to as the "empress's husband") and married a Vestal Virgin called Aquilia Severa. Dio suggests that he was transgender and offered large sums to the physician who could give him female genitalia.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Seeing that her grandson's outrageous behaviour could mean the loss of power, Julia Maesa persuaded Elagabalus to accept his young cousin Severus Alexander as "caesar" (and thus the nominal future "augustus"). Alexander was popular with the troops, who increasingly objected to Elagabalus's behaviour. Jealous of this popularity, Elagabalus removed the title of "caesar" from his cousin, which enraged the Praetorian Guard. Elagabalus, his mother, and other advisors close to him were assassinated in a Praetorian Guard camp mutiny.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Born Marcus Julius Gessius Bassianus Alexianus in around 208, Alexander was adopted as heir apparent by his slightly older and very unpopular cousin, Elagabalus, at the urging of Julia Maesa, who was the grandmother of both cousins and who had arranged for the emperor's acclamation by the Third "Gallica" Legion.


title: Severan dynasty

text: On March 6, 222, when Alexander was 14, a rumour went around the city's troops that Alexander had been killed, ironically triggering his ascension as emperor. Elagabalus was said to have initiated the rumour or attempted to murder Alexander. The 18-year-old Elagabalus and his mother were taken from the palace, dragged through the streets, murdered and thrown in the river Tiber by the Praetorian Guard, which proclaimed Alexander Severus as Augustus.


title: Severan dynasty

text: Ruling from the age of 14 under the influence of his mother, Julia Avita Mamaea, Alexander restored to some extent the moderation that had characterised the rule of Septimius Severus. The rising strength of the Sasanian Empire () heralded perhaps the greatest external challenge that Rome faced in the 3rd century. His prosecution of the war against a German invasion of Gaul led to his overthrow by his own troops, whose regard the 27-year-old had lost during the affair.


title: Severan dynasty

text: His death was the epochal event beginning the troubled Crisis of the Third Century, where a succession of briefly-reigning military emperors, rebellious generals, and counter-claimants presided over governmental chaos, civil war, general instability and great economic disruption. He was succeeded by Maximinus Thrax (), the first of a series of weak emperors, each ruling on average only 2 to 3 years, which ended 50 years later with the Tetrarchy instituted in the reign of Diocletian.().


title: Severan dynasty

text: The women of the Severan dynasty, beginning with Septimius Severus's wife Julia Domna, were notably active in advancing the careers of their male relatives. Other notable women who exercised power behind the scenes included Julia Maesa, sister of Julia Domna, and Maesa's two daughters Julia Soaemias, mother of Elagabalus, and Julia Avita Mamaea, mother of Severus Alexander. Also of interest, Publia Fulvia Plautilla, daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, the Prefect Commander of the Praetorian Guard, was married to but despised by Caracalla, who had her exiled and eventually executed.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is a 2000 role-playing video game by Atlus for the PlayStation. It is chronologically the third installment in the "Persona" series, a subseries of the "Megami Tensei" franchise. The game was later remade by Atlus for the PlayStation Portable. This version, released in Japan in 2012, did not receive an overseas release. In response to this, the PlayStation version was released on PlayStation Network in 2013.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: "Eternal Punishment" takes place in the fictional Japanese city of Sumaru, and is a direct sequel to "". Taking place a few months after "Innocent Sin", the game follows reporter Maya Amano as she investigates the Joker Curse, a malign phenomenon where people's wishes and rumors are coming true and causing chaos. During her investigations, she and others who join her gain the ability to summon Personas, personified aspects of their personalities. The gameplay features turn-based battle gameplay, where characters use their Personas in battle against demons, and a separate Rumor system, where rumors spread around the city can influence events in the characters' favor, either bad or good.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: Halfway through the production of "Innocent Sin", writer Tadashi Satomi felt that a fresh point of view was needed in addition to Tatsuya, laying the groundwork for "Eternal Punishment". The original producer (Kouji Okada), character designer (Kazuma Kaneko) and composers (Toshiko Tasaki, Kenichi Tsuchiya and Masaki Kurokawa) returned alongside Satomi. The second game began development after "Innocent Sin" was completed, and while it reused most of the assets from "Innocent Sin", the gameplay and Rumor system were improved upon. The game's theme song, "Change Your Way", was written by English singer-songwriter Elisha La'Verne based on the game's premise. Reception of the game in Japan and the West has generally been positive, with reviewers appreciating improvements over "Innocent Sin", the plot, the gameplay systems, and the improved localization compared to the original "".


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: "Persona 2: Eternal Punishment" is a role-playing game where the player takes control of a group of characters exploring the fictional city of Sumaru. The camera follows the party from an adjustable angled overhead perspective. The city in general is navigated using an overworld map. A key element to the story and gameplay is the Rumor system: after the characters hear a rumor, they can spread that rumor around the city using certain characters, and those rumors can grant the characters special items or other positive or negative effects.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: Battles consist of both story-related boss fights and random encounters with standard enemies. Battles are turn-based, with the player characters and enemies moving around a small battle arena to perform actions. Once the player has laid out their strategy in the battle menu, the characters perform their assigned actions until the battle ends with victory for one side or the player pauses the action to change strategies. Instead of the grid-based battle system from the original "Persona", party members and enemy units act in the same phase of a turn, rather than being restricted by their placement on the field.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: During battle, players cast spells using an assigned Persona: each spell drains a character's Spell Point meter. Each Persona has different elemental strengths and weaknesses, and different Personas can be used for defense, healing or elemental attacks. While a Persona is originally quite weak, if it is used enough, it will achieve a higher rank, with Rank 8 being the highest possible. As the Persona's rank is raised, that Persona is able to cast more powerful spells. In addition to individual actions, the player can align characters to trigger a Fusion Spell: when two or more party members use a certain sequence of spells, they will automatically team up to generate a powerful attack or help the party survive in battle. During battles, both characters and Personas earn experience points. The player has the option to activate an Auto-battle option, having combat play out without player interaction.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: During battle, the player can converse with enemies, though they are restricted to a single set of dialogue options instead of four as in the original "Persona". If the player succeeds in talking with the enemy using the right character, it both causes the enemy to leave the battlefield and gains a spell card (a Tarot card linked to one of the Arcanum or family of Personas), which can be used to create Personas in a location called the Velvet Room. In the Velvet Room, the player can summon a new Persona that belongs to a spell card's particular Persona family group. As a character gains experience levels, more powerful Personas from a spell card's group become available. In addition to pre-set spell cards, the player can also obtain blank skill cards by forming contracts with enemies through the right conversation. These blank skill cards can be tailored to fit a chosen Persona family.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: Set a few months after the ending of "", "Eternal Punishment" takes place in 1999 in , a fictional seaside city in Japan with a population of 1.28 million, its own television stations, and a structure left over from its foundations during the Warring States period. Many of the characters come from two high schools in Sumaru: , a prestigious school that is the setting of "Innocent Sin", and the less-prestigious . All the protagonists wield Personas, manifestations of their personalities. The ability to wield Personas was granted to them by Philemon, a benevolent personification of humanity's Collective Unconscious. The events of "Innocent Sin" are said to stem from a contest between Philemon and his opposite Nyarlathotep to see if humans could find a higher purpose in life despite embracing contradictory emotions. During the events of "Innocent Sin", Nyarlathotep influenced events in his favor and all the world except Sumaru City was destroyed. In order to reset events, the party used the power of the Collective Unconscious to will the key event that caused the events of "Innocent Sin" out of existence in exchange for their memories of those events: this created an alternative timeline, with the "Innocent Sin" timeline existing as a separate "Other Side". A key element to the story of "Eternal Punishment" is Kegare, a negative energy that can possess humans and trigger rises in crime and the perpetuation of more Kegare.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: The main protagonist of "Eternal Punishment" is Maya Amano, a reporter for teen magazine "Coolest" who was a playable character in "Innocent Sin". She is joined on her adventure by others, including people who were involved in the events of "Innocent Sin": Tatsuya Suou, a student at Seven Sisters and the main protagonist of "Innocent Sin"; Ulala Serizawa, a school friend of Maya's and an aspiring fashion designer; Baofu, a former prosecuting attorney out for revenge against the Taiwanese Mafia; and Katsuya Suou, Tatsuya's older brother and a sergeant in the Sumaru City Police Department. Returning antagonists include Tatsuya Sudou, a madman who was involved in the incident that precipitated the events of "Innocent Sin"; and Takahisa Kandori, a former servant of Nyarlathotep and the main antagonist of "" who is resurrected through the power of Kotodama. Kandori in turn serves Tatsuzou Sudou, Tatsuya Sudou's father. Two other central characters from "Revelations: Persona", Kei Nanjō and Eriko Kirishima, act as supporting characters and optional playable characters. The other protagonists of "Innocent Sin" (Eikichi "Michel" Mishina, Lisa "Ginko" Silverman, Jun Kashihara) play minor supporting roles.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: "Eternal Punishment" begins when Maya is sent to write a story about the Joker phenomenon: according to rumor, if someone phones their own number, the Joker will kill on request. Going to Seven Sisters, she, Ulala, and Katsuya find the school principal murdered by the Joker. The Joker then attacks them, forcing each of them to summon their Personas. After the Joker knocks them out, Philemon contacts them and warns of a growing danger to the city. After waking, the three pursue the Joker into the school clock tower, where he attempts to force a student to remember the events of "Innocent Sin". They are saved by Tatsuya, who tells Maya to forget about him. After Katsuya is removed from the case by his superior Captain Shimazu, he teams up with Maya and Ulala to find the Joker. They eventually ally with Baofu, who believes that Tatsuya Sudou and his father Tatsuzou are involved with the Joker. Going to the mental institution where Sudou is held, they discover that Tatsuzou sent Taiwanese Mafia hitmen to kill Sudou. Once confronted, Sudou admits that he is the Joker, and reveals that he is attempting to trigger the reappearance of the Other Side. Pursuing him to the Sky Museum, the party runs into Tatsuya and saves Jun from Sudou after Sudou sets the building on fire. After escaping with the museum's visitors on a blimp, an injured Sudou makes a final attack that damages the blimp before Tatsuya kills him. When the party regroup, Tatsuya has vanished.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: Upon their return, the party continues to investigate Tatsuzou's activities, and find that negative feelings are turning other people into new "Jokers", who are in turn being kidnapped by Tatsuzou's agents. The party eventually learn that Tatsuzou and a secret organization he leads, the New World Order, are manipulating Sumaru's government, corporations, and media for his own ends. After this, they hear of two others, Kei and Eriko, investigating the New World Order and their links with the Joker curse and an increasingly prevalent fortune telling craze used to manipulate the spread of rumors: they are involved due to the possible involvement of Kandori, a former enemy of theirs, who is posing as Tatsuzou's secretary. Depending on the party's actions at this point, either Kei or Eriko will join their party as they go to investigate the holding area for the new Jokers. Upon arriving, they find Eikichi captured by Kandori while looking for a friend. While Kandori attempts to awaken Eikichi's memories of the Other Side, Tatsuya intervenes and enables the party and Eikichi to escape. The group then save Lisa and her girl group from their promoter, another Order member, with help from Tatsuya, who again vanishes afterwards. Through a friendly informant in the Police, they learn the New World Order's ultimate goal: to raise Sumaru City in the rumor-generated spaceship "Torifune", and trigger the destruction of the Earth's surface by sacred dragons by creating a concentration of Kegare to create a new world free of sin. The only way to stop the plan's fulfillment is defeating the Order.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: After failing to corner Tatsuzou and puzzled about Tatsuya's motives, the party finally persuade Tatsuya to reveal the truth. During the original confrontation with Nyarlathotep, Maya was killed, prompting the rest of the group (Tatsuya, Lisa, Jun and Eikichi) to reset events. Tatsuya refused to forget the events of the Other Side, creating a dangerous loophole: if all the other members of the original group could be forced to remember, the Other Side would be brought back into existence, destroying the present reality. After revealing this, Tatsuya is allowed to join the party in place of either Kei or Eriko. After returning to Sumaru proper, the city is raised by Tatsuzou as part of Torifune. Successfully infiltrating Torifune and defeating Tatsuzou and his "god" Gozen, the city returns to the surface, but the party are drawn into the Collective Unconscious by Nyarlathotep. Making their way into his domain, they discover Nyarlathotep has kidnapped Eikichi, Lisa and Jun in an effort to force their memories of the Other Side into reality. Defeating the Shadow Selves guarding them, the party saves each of them, then confront Nyarlathotep, who mocks Tatsuya for refusing to fulfill his part of Philemon's agreement. After Nyarlathotep is defeated, Tatsuya fulfills his side of the bargain, and after saying his final goodbyes separates his Other Side consciousness from his current self. With the city returned to normal, the party return to their normal lives. The final scene shows Maya about to walk across the street, until she spots This Side's Tatsuya on a motorcycle. Instead of talking to or befriending This Side's Tatsuya, she decides to move on as she walks across the street before Tatsuya drives off. The game ends with Maya smiling as the credits begin to roll.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: The concept for "Eternal Punishment" emerged during the writing for "Innocent Sin". Script writer Tadashi Satomi felt that the draft gave him the impression of needing an alternative point of view to that of the main hero, forming the basis for "Eternal Punishment"s plot. To foreshadow this, the team showed the main characters from "Eternal Punishment" through minor roles in "Innocent Sin". "Eternal Punishment" began full development after the release of "Innocent Sin". "Innocent Sin" and "Eternal Punishment" both used the same game engine and structure. Kouji Okada, "Innocent Sin"s producer, returned in the same role. When developing "Eternal Punishment", the development team took what they learned from "Innocent Sin" and used it to improve the gameplay and the Rumor system. One of the biggest concerns when making "Eternal Punishment" was how much the development staff wanted to include, which went well beyond their original plans.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: The overarching theme of "Eternal Punishment", as with "Persona" and "Innocent Sin", was exploration of the human psyche and the main characters discovering their true selves. While "Innocent Sin" focused on the protagonists as teenagers, "Eternal Punishment" looked at the protagonists as adults: for its central character theme, "Eternal Punishment" focused on how people realize their true selves as adults faced with reality. A theme carried over from "Innocent Sin" was the "power of Kotodama", the Japanese belief that words can influence the physical and spiritual world, with this power manifesting through the spreading of rumors. Terms and concepts used in the games, including Persona, Shadows and the character Philemon, were drawn from Jungian psychology and archetypes. The character of Nyarlathotep, who had made a cameo appearance as a Persona in the original game, was inspired by the character of the same name from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Other antagonists and enemy creatures in the games were also drawn from the Cthulhu Mythos and played a key role in the narrative.


title: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

text: The main characters were designed by Kazuma Kaneko, while secondary characters were designed by Shigenori Soejima. The protagonists of "Eternal Punishment" were adults and so could not be given a single standardized outfit as the high school protagonists of "Innocent Sin" had been. While designing the outfits for "Eternal Punishment", Kaneko tried to keep an image of normal adults in mind, but in doing so was restricted when trying to portray the characters' heroism. In the end, he designed the characters to look normal while having a "different feeling" from other people. One of the characters that helped drive this style home was Ulala, who was a minor character in "Innocent Sin" and a main protagonist in "Eternal Punishment". The Joker character from "Innocent Sin" was carried over into "Eternal Punishment": the new Joker's actions were made increasingly murderous, creating a contrast between the two incarnations.