History.

Stalinism is used to describe the period during which Stalin was leader of the Soviet Union while serving as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from 1922 to his death on 5 March 1953.

Etymology.

The term "Stalinism" came into prominence during the mid-1930s when Lazar Kaganovich, a Soviet politician and associate of Stalin, reportedly declared: "Let's replace Long Live Leninism with Long Live Stalinism!" Stalin dismissed this as excessively praiseful and contributing to a cult of personality.

Stalinist policies.

While some historians view Stalinism as a reflection of the ideologies of Leninism and Marxism, some argue that it stands separate from the socialist ideals it stemmed from. After a political struggle that culminated in the defeat of the Bukharinists (the "Party's Right Tendency"), Stalinism was free to shape policy without opposition, ushering forth an era of harsh authoritarianism that worked toward rapid industrialization regardless of the cost.  From 1917 to 1924, often appearing united, Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky had discernible ideological differences. In his dispute with Trotsky, Stalin de-emphasized the role of workers in advanced capitalist countries (e.g., he considered the American working class "bourgeoisified" labor aristocracy). Stalin also polemicized against Trotsky on the role of peasants as in China, whereas Trotsky's position was in favor of urban insurrection over peasant-based guerrilla warfare.  While all other October Revolution 1917 Bolshevik leaders regarded their revolution more or less just as the beginning, they viewed Russia as the springboard on the road towards the World Wide Revolution. Stalin would eventually introduce the idea of socialism in one country by the autumn of 1924, a theory not only standing in sharp contrast to Trotsky's permanent revolution but to all earlier socialistic theses just as well. The revolution, however, did not spread outside of Russia as Lenin had assumed it soon would. Not even within other former territories of the Russian Empire―such as Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia―had the revolution been a success. On the contrary, all of these countries had returned to capitalist bourgeois rule.  Despite this, by the autumn of 1924, Stalin's notion of socialism in Soviet Russia was initially considered next to blasphemy in the ears of other Politburo members, including Zinoviev and Kamenev to the intellectual left; Rykov, Bukharin, and Tomsky to the pragmatic right; and the powerful Trotsky, who belonged to no side but his own. None would even think of Stalin's concept as a potential addition to Communist ideology. As result, Stalin's "socialism in one country" doctrine could not be imposed until he, himself, had become close to being the autocratic ruler of the U.S.S.R. around 1929. Bukharin and the Right Opposition expressed their support for imposing Stalin's ideas, as Trotsky had been exiled, whereas Zinoviev and Kamenev had been thrown out of the party.

Proletariat state.

While traditional communist thought holds that the state will gradually "wither away," as the implementation of socialism reduces class distinction, Stalin argued that the proletarian state (as opposed to the bourgeois state) must become stronger before it can wither away. In Stalin's view, counter-revolutionary elements will attempt to derail the transition to full communism, and the state must be powerful enough to defeat them. For this reason, Communist regimes influenced by Stalin have been widely described as totalitarian.  Sheng Shicai, a Chinese warlord with Marxist leanings, invited Soviet intervention and allowed Stalinist rule to be extended to the Xinjiang province in the 1930s. In 1937, Sheng conducted a purge similar to the Great Purge, imprisoning, torturing, and killing about 100,000 people, many of whom were Uyghurs.

Class-based violence.

Stalin blamed the kulaks as the inciters of reactionary violence against the people during the implementation of agricultural collectivisation. In response, the state under Stalin's leadership initiated a violent campaign against the kulaks. This kind of campaign would later be known as "classicide".

Purges and executions.

As head of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930s with a Great Purge of the party that claimed to expel "opportunists" and "counter-revolutionary infiltrators." Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from the party, though more severe measures ranged from banishment to the Gulag labor camps to execution after trials held by NKVD troikas.  In the 1930s, Stalin apparently became increasingly worried about the growing popularity of the Leningrad party head Sergei Kirov. At the 1934 Party Congress where the vote for the new Central Committee was held, Kirov received only three negative votes (the fewest of any candidate) while Stalin received at least over a hundred negative votes. After the assassination of Kirov, which may have been orchestrated by Stalin, Stalin invented a detailed scheme to implicate opposition leaders in the murder, including Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, and Grigory Zinoviev. From thereon, the investigations and trials expanded. Stalin passed a new law on "terrorist organizations and terrorist acts" that were to be investigated for no more than ten days, with no prosecution, defense attorneys or appeals, followed by a sentence to be executed "quickly."  Thereafter, several trials, known as the Moscow Trials, were held, but the procedures were replicated throughout the country. Article 58 of the legal code, which listed prohibited anti-Soviet activities as a counter-revolutionary crime, was applied in the broadest manner. Many alleged anti-Soviet pretexts were used to brand individuals as "enemies of the people", starting the cycle of public persecution, often proceeding to interrogation, torture, and deportation, if not death. The Russian word "troika" thereby gained a new meaning: a quick, simplified trial by a committee of three subordinated to NKVD troika—with sentencing carried out within 24 hours. Stalin's hand-picked executioner Vasili Blokhin was entrusted with carrying out some of the high-profile executions in this period. Many military leaders were convicted of treason, and a large-scale purge of Red Army officers followed. The repression of so many formerly high-ranking revolutionaries and party members led Leon Trotsky to claim that a "river of blood" separated Stalin's regime from that of Lenin. In August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, where he had lived in exile since January 1937—this eliminated the last of Stalin's opponents among the former Party leadership.  With the exception of Vladimir Milyutin (who died in prison in 1937) and Stalin himself, all of the members of Lenin's original cabinet who had not succumbed to death from natural causes before the purge were executed.  Mass operations of the NKVD also targeted "national contingents" (foreign ethnicities) such as Poles, ethnic Germans, and Koreans. A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested and 247,157 (110,000 Poles) were executed. Many Americans who had emigrated to the Soviet Union during the worst of the Great Depression were executed, while others were sent to prison camps or gulags. Concurrent with the purges, efforts were made to rewrite the history in Soviet textbooks and other propaganda materials. Notable people executed by NKVD were removed from the texts and photographs as though they never existed. Gradually, the history of revolution was transformed into a story about just two key characters: Lenin and Stalin.  In light of revelations from Soviet archives, historians now estimate that nearly 700,000 people (353,074 in 1937 and 328,612 in 1938) were executed in the course of the terror, with the great mass of victims merely "ordinary" Soviet citizens: workers, peasants, homemakers, teachers, priests, musicians, soldiers, pensioners, ballerinas, and beggars. Many of the executed were interred in mass graves, with some of the major killing and burial sites being Bykivnia, Kurapaty, and Butovo.  Some Western experts believe the evidence released from the Soviet archives is understated, incomplete or unreliable. Conversely, historian Stephen G. Wheatcroft, who spent a good portion of his academic career researching the archives, contends that, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the archives for historical research, "our understanding of the scale and the nature of Soviet repression has been extremely poor" and that some specialists who wish to maintain earlier high estimates of the Stalinist death toll are "finding it difficult to adapt to the new circumstances when the archives are open and when there are plenty of irrefutable data" and instead "hang on to their old Sovietological methods with round-about calculations based on odd statements from emigres and other informants who are supposed to have superior knowledge."  Stalin personally signed 357 proscription lists in 1937 and 1938 that condemned to execute some 40,000 people, about 90% of whom are confirmed to have been shot. At the time, while reviewing one such list, he reportedly muttered to no one in particular: "Who's going to remember all this riff-raff in ten or twenty years time? No one. Who remembers the names now of the boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of? No one." In addition, Stalin dispatched a contingent of NKVD operatives to Mongolia, established a Mongolian version of the NKVD "troika", and unleashed a bloody purge in which tens of thousands were executed as "Japanese spies," as Mongolian ruler Khorloogiin Choibalsan closely followed Stalin's lead.  During the 1930s and 1940s, the Soviet leadership sent NKVD squads into other countries to murder defectors and other opponents of the Soviet regime. Victims of such plots included Yevhen Konovalets, Ignace Poretsky, Rudolf Klement, Alexander Kutepov, Evgeny Miller, Leon Trotsky, and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) leadership in Catalonia (e.g. Andréu Nin Pérez).

Deportations.

Shortly before, during, and immediately after World War II, Stalin conducted a broad-scale series of deportations that profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. Separatism, resistance to Soviet rule, and collaboration with the invading Germans were cited as the official reasons for the deportations. Individual circumstances of those spending time in German-occupied territories were not examined. After the brief Nazi occupation of the Caucasus, the entire population of five of the small highland peoples and the Crimean Tatars—more than a million people in total—were deported without notice or any opportunity to take their possessions.  As a result of Stalin's lack of trust in the loyalty of particular ethnicities, ethnic groups such as the Soviet Koreans, Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, and many Poles, were forcibly moved out of strategic areas and relocated to places in the central Soviet Union, especially Kazakhstan in Soviet Central Asia. By some estimates, hundreds of thousands of deportees may have died en route. It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949 nearly 3.3 million were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics. By some estimates, up to 43% of the resettled population died of diseases and malnutrition.  According to official Soviet estimates, more than 14 million people passed through the gulags from 1929 to 1953, with a further 7 to 8 million being deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union (including entire nationalities in several cases). The emergent scholarly consensus is that from 1930 to 1953, around 1.5 to 1.7 million perished in the gulag system.  In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev condemned the deportations as a violation of Leninism and reversed most of them, although it was not until 1991 that the Tatars, Meskhetians, and Volga Germans were allowed to return "en masse" to their homelands. The deportations had a profound effect on the peoples of the Soviet Union. The memory of the deportations has played a major part in the separatist movements in the Baltic states, Tatarstan and Chechnya even today.

Economic policy.

At the start of the 1930s, Stalin launched a wave of radical economic policies that completely overhauled the industrial and agricultural face of the Soviet Union. This came to be known as the Great Turn as Russia turned away from the near-capitalist New Economic Policy (NEP) and instead adopted a command economy. The NEP had been implemented by Lenin in order to ensure the survival of the socialist state following seven years of war (World War I, 1914–1917, and the subsequent Civil War, 1917–1921) and had rebuilt Soviet production to its 1913 levels. However, Russia still lagged far behind the West, and the NEP was felt by Stalin and the majority of the Communist Party, not only to be compromising communist ideals but also not delivering sufficient economic performance as well as not creating the envisaged socialist society. It was, therefore, felt necessary to increase the pace of industrialization in order to catch up with the West.  Fredric Jameson has said that "Stalinism was...a success and fulfilled its historic mission, socially as well as economically" given that it "modernized the Soviet Union, transforming a peasant society into an industrial state with a literate population and a remarkable scientific superstructure." Robert Conquest disputed such a conclusion, noting that "Russia had already been fourth to fifth among industrial economies before World War I" and that Russian industrial advances could have been achieved without collectivization, famine, or terror. According to Conquest, the industrial successes were far less than claimed, and the Soviet-style industrialization was "an anti-innovative dead-end." Stephen Kotkin said those who argue collectivization was necessary are "dead wrong," arguing that such "only seemed necessary within the straitjacket of Communist ideology and its repudiation of capitalism. And economically, collectivization failed to deliver." Kotkin further claimed that it decreased harvests instead of increasing them.  According to several Western historians, Stalinist agricultural policies were a key factor in causing the Soviet famine of 1932–1933, which the Ukrainian government now calls the Holodomor, recognizing it as an act of genocide. Some scholars, however, dispute the intentionality of the famine.

Legacy.

Pierre du Bois argues that the cult was elaborately constructed to legitimize his rule. Many deliberate distortions and falsehoods were used. The Kremlin refused access to archival records that might reveal the truth, and key documents were destroyed. Photographs were altered, and documents were invented. People who knew Stalin were forced to provide "official" accounts to meet the ideological demands of the cult, especially as Stalin himself presented it in 1938 in "Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)", which became the official history. Historian David L. Hoffmann sums up the consensus of scholars:  However, after Stalin's death in 1953, his successor Nikita Khrushchev repudiated his policies and condemned Stalin's cult of personality in his Secret Speech to the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956, as well as instituting de-Stalinisation and relative liberalization (within the same political framework). Consequently, some of the world's communist parties who previously adhered to Stalinism abandoned it and, to a greater or lesser degree, adopted the positions of Khrushchev. Others, such as the Communist Party of China, instead chose to split from the Soviet Union. The ousting of Khrushchev in 1964 by his former party-state allies has been described as a Stalinist restoration by some, epitomized by the Brezhnev Doctrine and the apparatchik/nomenklatura "stability of cadres," lasting until the period of glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Maoism and Hoxhaism.

Mao Zedong famously declared that Stalin was 70% good, 30% bad. Maoists criticized Stalin chiefly regarding his view that bourgeois influence within the Soviet Union was primarily a result of external forces (to the almost complete exclusion of internal forces) and his view that class contradictions ended after the basic construction of socialism. However, they praised Stalin for leading the Soviet Union and the international proletariat, defeating fascism in Germany and his anti-revisionism. Taking the side of the Chinese Party in the Sino-Soviet split, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania remained committed, at least theoretically, to its own brand of Stalinism ("Hoxhaism") for decades thereafter under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. Despite their initial cooperation against "revisionism," Hoxha denounced Mao as a revisionist, along with almost every other self-identified communist organization in the world. This had the effect of isolating Albania from the rest of the world as Hoxha was hostile to both the pro-American and pro-Soviet spheres of influence, as well as the Non-Aligned Movement under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, whom Hoxha had also denounced.

Parallels.

Some historians and writers (such as German Dietrich Schwanitz) draw parallels between Stalinism and the economic policy of Tsar Peter the Great, although Schwanitz in particular views Stalin as "a monstrous reincarnation" of him. Both men wanted Russia to leave the western European states far behind in terms of development. Both largely succeeded, turning Russia into Europe's leading power. Others compare Stalin with Ivan the Terrible because of his policies of oprichnina and restriction of the liberties of common people.  Stalinism has been considered by some reviewers as a "red fascism." Though fascist regimes were ideologically opposed to the Soviet Union, some of them positively regarded Stalinism as evolving Bolshevism into a form of fascism. Benito Mussolini, himself, positively reviewed Stalinism as having transformed Soviet Bolshevism into a Slavic fascism.

Contemporary interpretations.

In writing "The Mortal Danger: Misconceptions about Soviet Russia and the Threat to America", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn argues that the use of the term "Stalinism" is an excuse to hide the inevitable effects of communism as a whole on human liberties. He writes that the concept of "Stalinism" was developed after 1956 by Western intellectuals so as to be able to keep alive the communist ideal. However, the term "Stalinism" was in use as early as 1937 when Leon Trotsky wrote his pamphlet "Stalinism and Bolshevism".  Kristen R. Ghodsee, ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, posits that the triumphalist attitudes of Western powers at the end of the Cold War and, in particular, the fixation with linking all socialist political ideals with the excesses of Stalinism had marginalized the left's response to the fusing of democracy with neoliberal ideology, which helped undermine the former. This allowed the anger and resentment that came with the ravages of neoliberalism (i.e. economic misery, unemployment, hopelessness, and rising inequality throughout the former Eastern Bloc and much of the West) to be channeled into nationalist movements in the decades that followed.  Writing in 2002, British journalist Seumas Milne said that the impact of the post-Cold War narrative that Stalin and Hitler were twin evils, and therefore Communism is as monstrous as Nazism, "has been to relativize the unique crimes of Nazism, bury those of colonialism and feed the idea that any attempt at radical social change will always lead to suffering, killing and failure."  In modern Russia, public opinion of Stalin and the former Soviet Union has increased in recent years. According to a 2015 Levada Center poll, 34% of respondents (up from 28% in 2007) say that leading the Soviet people to victory in the World War II was such a great achievement that it outweighed his mistakes. A 2019 Lavada Center poll showed that support for Stalin reached a record high in the post-Soviet era, with 51% regarding Stalin as a positive figure, and 70% saying his reign was good for the country.

Trotskyism.

Trotskyists argue that the Stalinist USSR was neither socialist nor communist, but rather a bureaucratized degenerated workers' state—that is, a non-capitalist state in which exploitation is controlled by a ruling caste which, although not owning the means of production and not constituting a social class in its own right, accrued benefits and privileges at the expense of the working class. Trotsky believed that the Bolshevik revolution needed to be spread all over the globe's working class, the proletarians for world revolution. However, after the failure of the revolution in Germany, Stalin reasoned that industrializing and consolidating Bolshevism in Russia would best serve the proletariat in the long run. The dispute did not end until Trotsky's assassination in his Mexican villa by Stalinist assassin Ramón Mercader in 1940.  Max Shachtman, one of the principal Trotskyist theorists in the United States at the time, argued that the Soviet Union had evolved from a degenerated worker's state to a new mode of production which he called "bureaucratic collectivism", whereby orthodox Trotskyists considered the Soviet Union an ally gone astray. Shachtman and his followers thus argued for the formation of a Third Camp opposed equally to both the Soviet and capitalist blocs. By the mid-20th century, Shachtman and many of his associates identified as social democrats rather than Trotskyists, while some ultimately abandoned socialism altogether. In the United Kingdom, Tony Cliff independently developed a critique of state capitalism that resembled Shachtman's in some respects, but retained a commitment to revolutionary communism.

Relationship to Leninism.

Stalin considered the political and economic system under his rule to be Marxism–Leninism, which he considered the only legitimate successor of Marxism and Leninism. The historiography of Stalin is diverse, with many different aspects of continuity and discontinuity between the regimes of Stalin and Lenin proposed. Some historians, such as Richard Pipes, consider Stalinism as the natural consequence of Leninism, that Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programs." Robert Service notes that "institutionally and ideologically Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin... but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism was not smooth and inevitable." Likewise, historian and Stalin biographer Edvard Radzinsky believes that Stalin was a real follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed himself. Another Stalin biographer, Stephen Kotkin, wrote that "his violence was not the product of his subconscious but of the Bolshevik engagement with Marxist–Leninist ideology."  Dmitri Volkogonov, who wrote biographies of both Lenin and Stalin, explained that during the 1960s through 1980s an official patriotic Soviet de-Stalinized view of the Lenin–Stalin relationship (i.e., during the Khrushchev Thaw and later) was that the overly-autocratic Stalin had distorted the Leninism of the wise "dedushka" Lenin. However, Volkogonov also lamented that this view eventually dissolved for those like him who had the scales fall from their eyes in the years immediately before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After researching the biographies in the Soviet archives, he came to the same conclusion as Radzinsky and Kotkin: that Lenin had built a culture of violent autocratic totalitarianism, of which Stalinism was a logical extension. He lamented that, while Stalin had long since fallen in the estimation of many Soviet minds (the many who agreed with de-Stalinization), "Lenin was the last bastion" in Volkogonov's mind to fall and the fall was the most painful, given the secular apotheosis of Lenin that all Soviet children grew up with.  Proponents of continuity cite a variety of contributory factors, in that it was Lenin, rather than Stalin, whose civil war measures introduced the Red Terror with its hostage-taking and internment camps; that it was Lenin who developed the infamous Article 58 and who established the autocratic system within the Communist Party. They also note that Lenin put a ban on factions within the Russian Communist Party and introduced the one-party state in 1921—a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death and cite Felix Dzerzhinsky, who, during the Bolshevik struggle against opponents in the Russian Civil War, exclaimed: "We stand for organized terror—this should be frankly stated."  Opponents of this view include revisionist historians and a number of post-Cold War and otherwise dissident Soviet historians including Roy Medvedev, who argues that although "one could list the various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin...in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them." In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism in order to undermine the totalitarian view that the negative facets of Stalin were inherent in communism from the start. Critics of this kind include anti-Stalinist communists such as Leon Trotsky, who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade the Communist Party to remove Stalin from his post as its General Secretary. Lenin's Testament, the document which contained this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. In his biography of Trotsky, British historian Isaac Deutscher says that, on being faced with the evidence, "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism." A similar analysis is present in more recent works, such as those of Graeme Gill, who argues that "[Stalinism was] not a natural flow-on of earlier developments; [it formed a] sharp break resulting from conscious decisions by leading political actors." However, Gill notes that "difficulties with the use of the term reflect problems with the concept of Stalinism itself. The major difficulty is a lack of agreement about what should constitute Stalinism." Revisionist historians such as Sheila Fitzpatrick have criticized the focus upon the upper levels of society and the use of Cold War concepts, such as totalitarianism, which have obscured the reality of the system.

Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin (1878–1953), including rapid industrialization; the theory of socialism in one country; a totalitarianism; collectivization of agriculture; a cult of personality; and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.

Stalinismus byla politická teorie a praxe spjatá s J. V. Stalinem. Teorie stalinismu se vyznačovala především koncepcí budování socialismu v jedné zemi.


Early career.

Zachary was a Greek from the Calabrian town of Santa Severina. He was most probably a deacon of the Roman Church and as such signed the decrees of the Roman council of 732. He was selected to succeed Gregory III as pope on 3 December or 5 December 741.

Pontificate.

Gregory III's alliance with the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto put papal cities at risk when the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento rebelled. Zachary turned to King Liutprand the Lombard directly. Out of respect for Zachary the king restored to the church of Rome all the territory seized by the Lombards and sent back the captives without ransom. The contemporary history ("Liber pontificalis") dwells chiefly on Zachary's personal influence with Liutprand, and with his successor Ratchis. At the request of the Exarchate of Ravenna, Zachary persuaded Luitprand to abandon a planned attack on Ravenna and to restore territory seized from the city.  Zachary corresponded with Archbishop Boniface of Mainz, counseling him about dealing with disreputable prelates such as Milo, bishop of Reims and Trier. "As for Milo and his like, who are doing great injury to the church of God, preach in season and out of season, according to the word of the Apostle, that they cease from their evil ways." At Boniface's request, Zachary confirmed three newly established the bishoprics of Würzburg, Büraburg, and Erfurt. In 742 he appointed Boniface as papal legate to the Concilium Germanicum, hosted by Carloman, one of the Frankish mayors of the Palace. In a later letter Zachary confirmed the metropolitans appointed by Boniface to Rouen, Reims, and Sens. In 745 Zachary convened a synod in Rome to discourage a tendency toward the worship of angels.  Zachary corresponded with temporal rulers as well. Answering a question from the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Pepin the Short, who planned to usurp the Frankish throne from the puppet-king Childeric III, Zachary rendered the opinion that it was better that he should be king who had the royal power than he who had not. Shortly thereafter, the Frankish nobles decided to abandon Childeric, the last Merovingian king, in favor of Pepin. Zachary remonstrated with the Byzantine emperor Constantine V Copronymus on his iconoclastic policies.  Zachary built the original church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva over an ancient temple to Minerva near the Pantheon. He also restored the decaying Lateran Palace, moving the relic of the head of Saint George to the church of San Giorgio al Velabro. After Venetian merchants bought many slaves in Rome to sell to the Muslims of Africa, Zachary forbade such traffic and then paid the merchants their price, giving the slaves their freedom.

Death and legacy.

Pope Zachary died around 15 March 752 (it may also have been the 12th or 14th) and was buried in St. Peter's Basilica. His elected successor, Stephen, died within days, and Zachary was finally succeeded by Stephen II. The letters and decrees of Zachary are published in Jacques Paul Migne, "Patrolog. lat." lxxxix. p. 917–960.  Church historian Johann Peter Kirsch said of Zachary: "In a troubled era Zachary proved himself to be an excellent, capable, vigorous, and charitable successor of Peter." Peter Partner called Zachary a skilled diplomat, "perhaps the most subtle and able of all the Roman pontiffs, in this dark corridor in which the Roman See hovered just inside the doors of the Byzantine world."

Pope Zachary (; 679 – March 752) was the bishop of Rome from December 741 to his death. He was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy. Zachary built the original church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, forbade the traffic of slaves in Rome, negotiated peace with the Lombards, and sanctioned Pepin the Short's usurpation of the Frankish throne from Childeric III. Zachary is regarded as a capable administrator and a skillful and subtle diplomat in a dangerous time.

Svatý Zachariáš (679 Santa Severina, Kalábrie – 15. března 752 Řím) byl papežem od 4. prosince 741. Katolická církev slaví jeho svátek 15. března.


Rise.

Paul was a native of Rome. He and his brother Stephen had been educated for the priesthood at the Lateran Palace. Stephen became pope in 752. After Stephen's death on 26 April 757, Paul prevailed over a faction that wanted to make Archdeacon Theophylact pope and was chosen to succeed his brother by the majority that wished a continuation of Stephen's policy.

Pontificate.

Paul I's reign was dominated by relations with the Frankish and Lombard kings and with the Eastern Roman emperor. He adopted an independent tone in informing the imperial exarch in Ravenna of his election, but wrote to Pepin the Younger that the Frankish alliance should be maintained unimpaired. Paul was likely concerned of the danger posed by the Lombard king Desiderius. The Lombards held the cities of Imola, Osimo, Bologna, and Ancona, which were claimed by the papacy, and in 758 seized upon the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. On his return from suppressing a revolt in Benevento, Desiderius visited Rome and compelled Paul to write to Pepin asking him to concede all the Lombard claims. He promised to return Imola, but on condition that the pope should persuade Pepin to send back Lombard hostages held by the Franks. Paul agreed and sent a letter to Pepin. In a second secret letter, Paul advised Pepin of the agreement of Desiderius with the Byzantines for the conquest of Ravenna, and implored Pepin to come to the aid of the pope, and to force the Lombard king to yield the towns retained by him. Pepin found it advisable to maintain good relations with Desiderius, and Paul apparently accomplished little by his double-dealing. Later, however, Pepin gave the pope some support and acted as arbiter between the Roman and Lombard claims.  In 765, papal privileges were restored in the duchies of Benevento and Tuscany and partially in Spoleto. Meanwhile, the alienation from Eastern Roman Empire grew greater. Several times, especially in 759, Paul feared that the emperor would send an armament against Rome. Paul lived in continual dread lest Eastern Roman ambitions turn the Frankish influence in favor of the Lombards. This was actually attempted, but Pepin held to his original foreign policy regarding Italy.  Paul died in Rome on 28 June 767.

Pope Paul I (; 70028 June 767) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the emerging Papal States from 29 May 757 to his death. He first served as a Roman deacon and was frequently employed by his brother, Pope Stephen II, in negotiations with the Lombard kings.

Svatý Pavel I. (700 Řím – 28. června 767) byl papežem od 29. května 757 do své smrti 28. června 767.


Early life.

According to the "Liber Pontificalis", Paschal was a native of Rome and son of Bonosus and Episcopa Theodora. The "Liber Censuum" says that Paschal was from the Massimo family, as was his predecessor, Stephen IV.  Pope Leo III placed Paschal in charge of the monastery of St Stephen of the Abyssinians, where his responsibilities included the care of pilgrims visiting Rome. According to early modern accounts, Leo III may have elevated Paschal as the cardinal priest of Santa Prassede. Goodson attributes this account to a "desire to explain the attention that the pope so lavishly and prominently paid to that church later in his career."

Accession.

Paschal became pope on 25 January 817, just one day after the sudden death of Stephen IV. This decision was made without the sanction of Emperor Louis the Pious. Paschal began his pontificate apologizing for this slight, stressing that the office had been thrust upon him. He claimed that the decision had been made to avoid factional strife in Rome. According to the "Liber Pontificalis", Pope Paschal's legate Theodore returned with a document titled "Pactum cum Pashali pontiff", in which the emperor congratulated Paschal, recognized his sovereignty over the Papal States, and guaranteed the free election of future pontiffs. This document has since been challenged by historians as a forgery.

Papacy.

At first, Emperor Louis confirmed the agreement reached in Rheims with Paschal's predecessor, Stephen IV, and detailed in the document "Pactum Ludovicanum" about free papal elections and noninterference in Church affairs unless officially asked for help. The two worked together to send Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims to evangelize the Danes in 822.  On Easter Sunday of 823, Paschal crowned and anointed Louis's son Lothair I. Lothair was less amenable to cooperating with the Papal Curia than his father. He held a court and declared Farfa Abbey, just north of Rome, exempt from papal taxation. Paschal's aristocratic opponents in the papal palace, especially his former legate, Theodore, and his son-in-law, Leo, who turned to the young leader of the Franks for support in their opposition to Paschal. The decision outraged the Roman nobility and led to an uprising against the authority of the Roman Curia in northern Italy led by Theodore and Leo. The revolt was quickly suppressed, and two of its leaders were seized, blinded, and afterwards beheaded by members of the papal household. Paschal denied any involvement, but the Emperor remained suspicious and sent two commissioners to investigate. Paschal refused to submit to the authority of the imperial court, but he did take an oath of purgation before a synod of thirty-four bishops. The commissioners returned to Aachen, and Emperor Louis let the matter drop.

Construction projects.

Paschal gave shelter to exiled monks from the Byzantine Empire who had fled persecution for their opposition to iconoclasm. He both offered the exiled Byzantine mosaic artists work decorating churches in Rome and wrote to Louis the Pious and the Byzantine emperor Leo the Armenian in support of those who opposed iconoclasm.  Paschal rebuilt three basilicas of Rome: Santa Prassede, Santa Maria in Domnica, and Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. These churches contain mosaics with lifelike portraits of Paschal. Paschal is credited with finding the body of Saint Cecilia in the Catacomb of Callixtus and translating it to the rebuild the basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Paschal also undertook significant renovations on Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In addition, Paschal added two oratories to Old St. Peter's Basilica, SS. Processus et Martinianus and SS. Xistus et Fabianus, which did not survive the 16th century renovation of St. Peter's.  Paschal is also sometimes credited with the renovation of Santo Stefano del Cacco in early modern sources, but this renovation was actually undertaken by Pope Paschal II.  According to Goodson, Paschal "used church-building to express the authority of the papacy as an independent state."

Writings.

Only six known letters written by Paschal remain. The first (Jaffé 2546) confirms the possessions of the Territorial Abbey of Farfa. The second and third (Jaffé 2547 and Jaffee 2548) were written to a Frankish abbot prior to and after his elevation as archbishop of Vienne. The fourth (Jaffé 2550) was written to Louis the Pious. The fifth (Jaffé 2551, preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana) confirms the privileges of the church of Ravenna. The last (Jaffé 2553) was written to Ebbo, the archbishop of Reims.

Death.

Paschal died on 11 February 824. The Roman Curia refused him the honour of burial within St. Peter's Basilica because of his harsh government of the Roman people. He was instead buried in the Basilica of Santa Prassede, which also contains the famous "Episcopa Theodora" mosaic of his mother.  Paschal was canonized in the late sixteenth-century. His feast day in the Roman calendar prior to 1963 was 14 May. It is currently celebrated on 11 February.

Pope Paschal I (; died 824) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 25 January 817 to his death in 824.

Svatý Paschal I., vlastním jménem Pascale Massimi, (??, Řím – 11. února 824, Řím) byl papežem od 25. ledna 817 až do své smrti. Jeho svátek se datuje na 11. února podle církve katolické a 14. května dle pravoslavné.


Rise.

Born to a noble family, Sergius was educated in the "schola cantorum", was ordained cardinal-priest of the Church of Sts. Martin and Sylvester by Pope Paschal I. Under Pope Gregory IV, he became archpriest.  At a preliminary meeting to designate a successor to Gregory IV, who died in January 844, Sergius was nominated by the aristocracy, while the people of Rome declared for the deacon John. The opposition was suppressed, with Sergius intervening to save John's life. John was, however, shut up in a monastery, and Sergius was duly consecrated, without seeking ratification of the Frankish court. Emperor Lothair I, however, disapproved of this abandonment of the Constitutio Romana of 824, which included a statute that no pope should be consecrated until his election had imperial approval. He sent an army under his son Louis, the recently appointed king of Italy, to re-establish his authority. The Church and the emperor reached an accommodation, with Sergius crowning Louis as king, but the pope did not accede to all the demands made upon him.

Pontificate.

Sergius contributed to urban redevelopment in Rome, improving churches, aqueducts, and the Lateran Basilica. He and his brother, Benedict, funded their building plans by selling appointments to various church positions to the highest bidder.  During his pontificate the outskirts of Rome were ravaged, and the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul were sacked by Arabs, who also approached Portus and Ostia in August 846. During the raid, he and the people of Rome looked on helplessly as they hid behind the Aurelian walls. Despite having been forewarned of the intentions of the raiders, Sergius is seen as having not acted adequately enough to prepare for that which eventuated.  Sergius died while negotiating between the Italian patriarchs of Aquileia and Grado. and was succeeded by Pope Leo IV.

Popular culture.

Pope Sergius was portrayed by John Goodman in the 2009 film "Pope Joan".

Pope Sergius II (; died 27 January 847) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from January 844 to his death. Sergius II's pontificate saw the Arab raid against Rome as well as the city's redevelopment.

Sergius II. (785/795 Řím – 27. ledna 847 Řím) byl papežem od 25. ledna 844 až do své smrti. Pocházel ze zámožné římské šlechty, Řehoř IV. ho jmenoval kardinálem. Po Řehořově smrti ho aristokraté zvolili papežem, římský lid však podporoval oblíbeného arcijáhna Jana. Povstání bylo potlačeno a Jan odsouzen k smrti, Sergius mu ale udělil milost a poslal ho do kláštera. Kvůli nepokojům byl Sergius korunován dříve, než jeho volbu stačil schválit Lothar I. Franský. Ten to považoval za porušení smlouvy Constitutio Romana a poslal proti Římu vojsko vedené jeho synem Ludvíkem. Sergius vyjednal kompromis, který zabránil válce, a korunoval Ludvíka králem Lombardie.


Administrative history.

In the 9th century, the area was ruled by the Bulgarian-Slavic dukes Glad (in the east) and Salan (in the west), while in the 11th century, the eastern part of the area was ruled by duke Ahtum. From 11th to 16th century, during the administration of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, the area was divided between the Csanadiensis County, Temesiensis County and Torontaliensis County in the east, and Csongradiensis County, Bacsensis County and Bodrogiensis County in the west. Part of the area was also located within the Cumania region. In 1526-1527, the area was ruled by the independent Serb ruler, emperor Jovan Nenad, while during Ottoman administration (16th-18th century), it was divided between the Temeşvar Eyalet in the east and the Sanjak of Segedin in the west.  During Habsburg administration (18th century), the area was divided between the Banat of Temeswar in the east and the Military Frontier in the west. Since the abolishment of the Theiß-Marosch section of the Military Frontier (in 1751), and abolishment of the Banat of Temeswar (in 1778), the area was divided between the Torontal County in the east and the Batsch-Bodrog County in the west, with a small part of it that was located within the Tschongrad County. Much of the area was part of the autonomous districts of Velika Kikinda (existed from 1774 to 1876 within the Torontal County) in the east and Potisje (existed from 1751 to 1848 within the Batsch-Bodrog County) in the west. In the 1850s, the area was divided between the Veliki Bečkerek District in the east and Sombor and Novi Sad districts in the west. After 1860, it was again divided between Torontal, Batsch-Bodrog and Tschongrad counties.  During the royal Serb-Croat-Slovene (Yugoslav) administration (1918-1941), the area was initially (from 1918 to 1922) divided between the Veliki Bečkerek County in the east and the Novi Sad County in the west. From 1922 to 1929, it was part of the Belgrade Oblast, and from 1929 to 1941 part of the Danube Banovina.  During the German-Hungarian Axis occupation (1941-1944), the area was divided between the Banat autonomous region (part of German-occupied puppet state of Serbia) in the east and the Bács-Bodrog County (an administrative unit of Horthy's Hungary) in the west. Initially, the Banat region was part of the rump Danube Banovina (whose capital was moved to Smederevo), but since December 1941, it was organized as one of the districts of Serbia and was officially named the District of Veliki Bečkerek.  Since 1944, the area was part of autonomous Yugoslav Vojvodina (which was part of new socialist Yugoslav Serbia since 1945). The present-day districts of Serbia (including North Banat District) were defined by the Government of Serbia's Enactment of 29 January 1992.

Municipalities.

The North Banat District comprises the city of Kikinda, five municipalities and 50 local communities. The municipalities are  Note: for municipalities with Hungarian ethnic majority, the names are also given in Hungarian.  An interesting fact is that the first three municipalities enlisted (Kanjiža, Senta and Ada) are geographically, in fact, in the Bačka region since the natural border between Banat and Bačka is the river Tisa.

Demographics.

According to the last official census done in 2011, the North Banat District has 147,770 inhabitants.

Ethnic groups.

Hungarians are the largest ethnic group in the district at 46.64%, closely followed by Serbs at 42.67%. Municipalities with Serb ethnic majority are Kikinda (75.43%) and Novi Kneževac (57.19%), while municipalities with Hungarian ethnic majority are: Čoka (49.66%), Ada (75.03%), Senta (79.09%) and Kanjiža (85.13%). As for local communities, 29 have Hungarian majority, 19 have Serb majority, and 2 are ethnically mixed, with Hungarian relative majority.  The ethnic composition of the district (as of 2011 census):

Culture.

The first modern Serb printing-house was founded in Kikinda in 1878, to be followed a year later by the opening of the first library.  This city is also reputable for its painters, including Teodor Ilić Češljar, Nikola Aleksić, Đura Pecić, and Đura Jakšić, a painter and author.  Kikinda was the scene of the region's first theatrical performance, given in German, in 1796.

References.

Note: "All official material made by Government of Serbia is public by law. Information was taken from official website".

The North Banat District (, ) is one of seven administrative districts of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It lies in the geographical regions of Banat and Bačka. According to the 2011 census, the district has a population of 146,690 inhabitants. The administrative center of the district is the city of Kikinda.

Severobanátský okruh (srbsky "Severnobanatski okrug", Севернобанатски округ, maďarsky "Észak Bánsági Körzet", chorvatsky "Sjevernobanatski okrug", slovensky "Severobanátsky okres", rumunsky "Districtul Banatul de Nord", rusínsky Сивернобанатски окрух) se rozkládá na severu Srbské autonomní oblasti Vojvodina. Okruhem protéká řeka Tisa, dělící jeho území na část ležící v Bačce, k níž zde náleží 3 opštiny; a část ležící v Banátu, k němuž zde náleží také 3 opštiny. V roce 2002 zde žilo 165 881 obyvatel. Správní centrum je ve městě Kikinda.


Background.

Little is known of Theodore's background; he is recorded as being born a Roman, and the son of Photios. His brother Theodosius (or Theosius) was also a bishop. Theodore was ordained as a priest by Pope Stephen V.  In January 897, Pope Stephen VI held what is known as the Cadaver Synod. Because his predecessor, Formosus, sided with Arnulf of Carinthia rather than Stephen's ally, Lambert of Spoleto, in their struggle for the imperial dignity, Stephen had the corpse of Formosus exhumed and tried for "perjury, violating the canons prohibiting the translation of bishops, and coveting the papacy". The dead pope was found guilty, his body thrown in the Tiber, and all his acts and ordinations were annulled. Supporters of Formosus rebelled and deposed Stephen VI. His successor, Romanus, is generally assumed to have been pro-Formosus, but he too was soon deposed.

Papacy.

Theodore II was elected to succeed the deposed Romanus as pope. The exact dates of Theodore II's reign are unknown, but modern sources generally agree that he was pope for twenty days during December 897. Flodoard, a tenth-century French chronicler, only credited Theodore with a twelve-day reign, while in his history of the popes, Alexis-François Artaud de Montor listed Theodore's reign as being twenty days, from 12 February to 3 March 898.  Like Romanus, Theodore was a supporter of Formosus. Some historians believe that Romanus had been deposed because he had not acted to restore Formosus' honour quickly enough, though others suggest that he was removed by supporters of Stephen VI. In either case, Theodore immediately threw himself into the task of undoing the Cadaver Synod. He called his own synod, which annulled the rulings set out by Stephen VI. In so doing, he restored the acts and ordinations of Formosus, including the restoration of a large number of clergy and bishops to their offices. Theodore also ordered Formosus' body to be recovered from the harbour of Portus, where it had been secretly buried, and restored to the original grave at Old St. Peter's Basilica. Like Romanus before him, Theodore bestowed a privilege upon the See of Grado, and had a coin minted, bearing the name of Lambert on the obverse, and "Scs. Petrus" and "Thedr." on the reverse.  Flodoard cast Theodore in a positive light, describing him as "beloved of the clergy, a friend of peace, temperate, chaste, affable and a great lover of the poor." He died in office, though the cause of his death is unknown. Because of this, some writers, such as, Wendy Reardon) suggest the possibility of foul play. Horace Kinder Mann offers a different suggestion in his papal history, noting that it is possible that popes who were "infirm or even older than [...] their predecessors" might have been elected intentionally. Theodore was buried at St. Peter's Basilica, but his tomb was destroyed during the demolition of the old basilica in the seventeenth century.

Aftermath.

After Theodore's death, both John IX and Sergius III claimed to have been elected pope; the latter was excommunicated and driven from the city, though he did later become pope in 904. John IX held synods reaffirming that of Theodore II, and he further banned the trial of people after their death. In turn, Sergius III later annulled the synods of Theodore II and John IX, and reinstated the validity of the Cadaver Synod.

Pope Theodore II (; 840 – December 897) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States for twenty days in December 897. His short reign occurred during a period of partisan strife in the Catholic Church, which was entangled with a period of violence and disorder in central Italy. His main act as pope was to annul the recent Cadaver Synod, therefore reinstating the acts and ordinations of Pope Formosus, which had themselves been annulled by Pope Stephen VI. He also had the body of Formosus recovered from the river Tiber and reburied with honour. He died in office in late December 897.

Theodor II. (asi 840 Řím – 20. prosince 897 Řím) byl papežem katolické církve v prosinci 897. Podle některých zdrojů byl zvolen na konci listopadu 897 a v prosinci téhož roku zemřel. Jeho pontifikát pravděpodobně trval 20 dnů.


Name.

The name of the region in Serbian is "Bačka" or Бачка and in Hungarian is "Bácska". In other languages of the region, the name is similar: "Bačka" in Croatian and Bunjevac, "Báčka" in Slovak, Бачка "(Bačka)" in Rusyn, and "Batschka" in German.  According to Serbian historians, Bačka is a typical Slavic name form, created from "Bač" (name of historical town in Bačka) and suffix "ka" (which designates "the land that belongs to Bač"). There are many other similar name forms used in Serbian and other Slavic languages, for example Šajkaška, Srpska, Hrvatska (Croatia), Timočka Krajina, Bugarska (Bulgaria), Polska (Poland), etc.  The name of "Bač" (Bács) town itself is of uncertain origin and its existence was recorded among Vlachs, Slavs and Hungarians in the Middle Ages. The origin of the name could be Paleo-Balkanic, Romanian, Slavic, or Old Turkic.  According to Hungarian historians, the denominator of the landscape may have been the first bailiff of Bač (Bács) castle, and the name one which can be rendered probable it Old Turkic "baya" derives from a dignity name.  In the 17th and 18th century, due to the large number of Serbs who lived in Bačka, this region was called »Raczorszag« (Hungarian name, which means "the Serb country" in English). Sometimes, the Hungarians used name Délvidék ("the southern or lower country") for a wider imprecisely defined geographical area, which, according to 19th century view also included Bačka. However, according to other Hungarian sources, Bačka was rather seen as part of Alföld.

History.

Through history, Bačka has been a part of Dacia, the Kingdom of the Iazyges, the Hun Empire, the Gepid Kingdom, the Avar Khanate, the First Bulgarian Empire, the Great Moravia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Serb realm of Jovan Nenad, the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, and since 2006, it has been part of an independent Republic of Serbia. The smaller northern part of the region was part of the short-lived Serb-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic (in 1921) and part of independent Hungary since 1921.  People have inhabited the region of Bačka since Neolithic times. Indo-European peoples settled in this region in three migration waves dated in 4200 BC, 3300 BC, and 2800 BC respectively. The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were probably Illyrian tribes. Later, other Indo-European peoples, including Dacians, Celts, Sarmatians (Iazyges) and Gepids were recorded as inhabitants of Bačka.  Slavs, the ancestors of contemporary Serbs, settled today's Bačka in the 6th and 7th centuries, before part of them subsequently migrated to the Balkans. In the 9th century the territory of Bačka was part of Bulgarian Empire. Salan, a Bulgarian voivod (duke), was a ruler in this territory and his capital city was Titel. In the early 10th century, Hungarians defeated Salan, and his duchy came under Hungarian rule.  At the turn of the first millennium, during the administration of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary by Stephen I of Hungary, two counties (comitatus) were formed in this land. "Bács County" in the south, with city of Bács (now Bač) as its administrative centre and "Bodrog County" in the western and central territories with the historical city of "Bodrogvár" as capital (near the presenr-day village of Bački Monoštor). The two countries were later united to form Bács-Bodrog County. There were also territories of Csongrád County in the northeastern parts of Bačka. In 1085 King Ladislaus I made Bács the seat of the Archbishopric of Kalocsa-Bács. The first archbishop, Fabian (1085–1103) helped the king in the course of the campaign against Croatia and was rewarded with the title. According to Serbian sources, Ilija Vid, the first known prefect of Bacsensis County was recorded in 1068 and he was an ethnic Serb. In this time, the region was populated by both, Slavs and Hungarians. Serbian historian Dr. Milenko Palić also mentions that prefect Vid was an ethnic Serb and that he, together with two other ethnic Serbs whose names were Ilija and Radovan, participated in dynastic struggles in the Kingdom of Hungary, in the end of the 11th century. According to Hungarian authors, prefect Vid belonged to the Gutkeled genus, but there is a possibility that he was a fictitious person. In 1169, canons from the knighthood Order of the Holy Sepulchre built a small church in Bács in the Romanesque style. They used some building materials from much older previous edifices. Franciscans took over the church in 1300. In the second half of the 14th century, the Franciscans expanded it, forming a monastery. Today the Fanciscian monastery of Bács is the oldest church building in present-day Vojvodina. In the early 13th century Ugrin Csák, Archbishop of Kalocsa, founded a hospital in Bács, as the first such facility in this part of Europe. Pope Gregory IX wrote about the "Bačka hospital" in 1234, as being open for the sick and poor. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the town of Bács prospered during the rule of king Charles Robert I, who started building the modern fortress in 1338–42 at the site of the earlier hillfort. From the 15th century, it became the most important Hungarian defense point against the invading Ottoman forces.  In 1526 the Kingdom of Hungary was defeated in the Battle of Mohács by the Ottoman Empire, King Louis II fell in the battle. After the victorious campaign the Ottoman army led by Suleiman I withdrew from Hungary through the Danube–Tisza Interfluve, leaving only smaller garrisons in the fortifications. Within two to three weeks the retreating army killed approximately 400.000 men, burned down almost all the settlements, desolating the whole region. In this chaotic period took place the revolt of the Rascians and Bačka became (from 1526–27) the central region of an independent, short-lived Serbian pseudostate, which existed in the territory of present-day Vojvodina. The ruler of this state was the self-appointed Emperor Jovan Nenad (previously the stableman of the king John Zápolya) and his capital city was Subotica. After Jovan Nenad was defeated and killed, his state collapsed and Bačka, for a short time, came again under Hungarian administration. Soon, the region became part of the Ottoman Empire.  After the Ottoman conquest, most of the previously decisive Hungarian majority population have fled (in the 16th–17th centuries). The relatively dense populated and prosperous southern counties of the Kingdom were devastated and became mostly abandoned and depopulated. During the Ottoman period, and later in the 17th and 18th century begun the intense settlement of the Serbs and other South Slavs from the Ottoman ruled central Balkans. They were military engaged in the borderlands by the both sides. This resulted in radical changes of the population structure. Hungarian, Serb and Bunjevci peasants, and Serb and Vlach peasant soldiers lived (in ever-decreasing number) in the area, who had an impact on the landscape with their farming. In the Ottoman towns there was a Muslim population, and outside the city wall there were communities of various Christian denominations and occupations. Bačka was part of the Sanjak of Segedin (Szeged), the region was sparsely populated with Serbs (who were in an absolute majority) and Muslims.  During the Great Turkish War (1683-1699) on 11 September 1697, near Senta in the eastern Bačka took place one of the most decisive defeats in Ottoman history, the Battle of Zenta. Christian forces of the Holy League (1684) led by Prince Eugene of Savoy in a surprise attack destroyed the Ottoman army crossing the river Tisza. The battle resulted in a spectacular victory for Austria. As a result, in 1699 the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed, ending the Ottoman control in much of Central Europe. All the lands of the Kingdom of Hungary (except for Banat and a small chunk of Eastern Slavonia) conquered by the Ottomans in the previous 150 years were returned. Under the rule of Leopold I the Bačka became a possession of the Habsburg Monarchy. Bács-Bodrog County was established in the western parts of the region and it was re-integrated into the county system of the Kingdom of Hungary, while some other (mostly eastern) parts of the Bačka were incorporated into the Tisza-Maros section of Habsburg Military Frontier, which was directly administered by the Imperial Habsburg court in Vienna. There were significant differences in the status of the inhabitants of the feudal county and the privileged newcome settlers of the Military Frontier, who composed mostly of ethnic Serbs. The Grenz infantry of the Military Frontier was primarily formed to defend Austria against the Ottoman Turks, but impliedly it was intended to offset and control the Hungarian population. This position was several times used by the Habsburg rulers as a political and tactical instrument in the following centuries.  In the Rákóczi's War of Independence heavy fightings took place also in Bačka. In 1704 Francis II Rákóczi led a victorious campaign in this parts. The Serbs fought on the Emperor's side since the beginning of the war. They were used as the light cavalry in the Austrian army and as tax collectors. During the eight years of war Hungarian villages and towns of the Great Hungarian Plain and Transdanubia were burnt and robbed by the Serbs, while in Bácska Serb villages were burnt. However, there were some Serbs who fought on Rakóczi's side against the Habsburgs – the Frontiersmen of Semlak. The leader of the Kuruc Serb troops was Frontier Captain Obrad Lalić from Senta. Later, some parts of the Military Frontier were abolished in 1751, these parts of Bačka were also included into Bács-Bodrog County. The only part of Bačka which remained within the Military Frontier was Šajkaška, but it also came under civil administration in 1873.  According to the Austrian censuses from 1715–20, Serbs, Bunjevci, and Šokci comprised most of the region's population (97.6% of population according to 1715–1720 census data). There were only 530 or 1.9% Hungarians and 0.5% Germans. During the 18th century, the Habsburgs carried out an intensive colonisation of the area, which had low population density after the last Ottoman Wars, as much of the Serbian population had been decimated through warfare. Muslim population had almost entirely left or was expelled from the region and some of the Muslim refugees from this area settled in Ottoman Bosnia. The new settlers in Bačka were primarily Serbs who moved from Ottoman Balkans, Hungarians - returning to Bačka from all parts of the Habsburg Hungary, and Germans. Because many of the Germans came from Swabia, they were known as "Donauschwaben", or Danube Swabians. Some Germans also came from Austria, and some from Bavaria and Alsace. Lutheran Slovaks, Rusyns, and others were also colonized but to a much smaller extent.  There was also an emigration of Serbs from the eastern parts of the region, which belonged to Military Frontier until 1751. After the abolition of the Tisa-Mureş section of Military Frontier, many Serbs emigrated from north-eastern parts of Bačka. They moved either to Russia (notably to New Serbia and Slavo-Serbia) or to Banat, where the Military Frontier was still needed.  In 1848 and 1849, in the course of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence broke out the Serb uprising in the Délvidék. The rebels fought on the side of the Habsburg army (together with the German and Romanian regiments from Banat and numerous voluntiers from the Principality of Serbia) against the legitimate Hungarian government and the Hungarian Revolutionary Army. The fightings were characterized by largely ethnically-motivated, bloody atrocities on the civilians, mostly executed by the irregular Serb forces. One of the most illustrative events was the "Bloody Candlemas" of 1849 in Senta (Hungarian: "véres gyertyaszentelő"). On 2 February the Serb forces overrun and concquered the city, resulting mass looting, arson and massacre of the Hungarian inhabitants. In the following weeks of the occupation 2000-2800 civilians were killed partially with the assistance of the lokal Serbs. As the result of the uprising Bačka was proclaimed as part of the Serbian Voivodship, meant as a Serbian autonomous region within Austrian Empire, while between 1849 and 1860 it was part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar, a separate Austrian crown land (the official languages of the voivodship were German and Illyrian, i.e. Serbo-Croatian). After 1860, when the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar was abolished, Bács-Bodrog County was again formed in the territory of Bačka. The county was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, which became one of two constitutient parts of Austria-Hungary in 1867. According to the 1910 census, the population of Bačka numbered 704,563 people and was composed of: 43.2% speakers of Hungarian (310,490), 28.1% speakers of South Slavic (Serbo-Croatian) language and 22.5% speakers of German. Linguistic composition of the region is partially different from ethnic composition since some ethnic Jews and bilingual South Slavs were in this census recorded as speakers of Hungarian language.  In early September 1914, several years before the end of the Austria-Hungary, in a town in the West Vojvodina Bačka region known as Zombor or Sombor of some 30,000 people, including 12,000 Serb-speakers, popular demonstrations demanded the removal of all shop signs in the Cyrillic alphabet. When an angry mob chased one Serb-speaking shopkeeper to his home for refusing to remove his Cyrillic sign, he responded by shooting at the demonstrators. The local military commander demanded the shopkeeper's immediate extradition, court martialed him and executed him on the spot. The court martial also designated twelve more affluent hostages from among the Serb-speaking population who would be "arrested and immediately executed by the military authorities" in the case of any obstruction or opposition shown by the local [Serb-speaking] population to the military authorities." This would presage the Serb genocide committed in the Independent State of Croatia during most of the Second World War.  At the end of October 1918, Austria-Hungary gradually dissolved and, with the Armistice of Villa Giusti of 3 November, officially capitulated to the Triple Entente. Following this capitulation, Slavs from Banat, Bačka and Baranja organized a new civil administration in these regions as well as their own military units known as People's Guard (Serbian: "Narodna straža"). The new civil administration was composed of local People's Boards (Serbian: "Narodni odbori"), which were subordinated to Serb People's Board (Serbian: "Srpski narodni odbor") in Novi Sad. Military units of Serb People's Board also possessed aircraft from the Novi Sad Airport. After elections, which were organized between 18 and 24 November, Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs of Banat, Bačka and Baranja (held on 25 November 1918) proclaimed unification of these regions with the Kingdom of Serbia. The assembly represented only a part of the whole population and did not met the principle of the self-determination of nations. It numbered 757 deputies, of which 578 were Serbs, 84 Bunjevci, 62 Slovaks, 21 Rusyn, 6 Germans, 3 Šokci, 2 Croats and 1 Hungarian, despite the fact that the absolute majority of the population of these regions was Hungarian and German. New administrative bodies of Banat, Bačka and Baranja (government and parliament) were also formed. Although, government in Belgrade accepted decision of unification with Serbia, it never recognized new provincial government. The provincial administration, however, was active until 12 March 1919, when it held its last session.  On 1 December 1918, the Kingdom of Serbia united with the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form new country named the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Sovereignty of new kingdom was recognized by the Treaty of Saint Germain in 1919. The Treaty of Trianon of 4 June 1920 defined the exact borders between Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which was later renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and original territory of Bačka was divided between these two countries. The northern part of the region was a separate county of Hungary (Bács-Bodrog) with seat in Baja, which was later incorporated into Bács-Kiskun county. The southern part of the region was within the District of Novi Sad of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes between 1918 and 1922, then was divided between Bačka Oblast and Belgrade Oblast, provinces "(oblasts)" of the kingdom, between 1922 and 1929. In 1929, it was incorporated into Danube Banovina, which was a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.  Between 1820 and 1910, Hungarian speaking population in Bačka increased from 121,688 (31.5%) to 363,518 (44.75%). In the same time, percentage of South Slavs decreased from 44% in 1820 to 27% in 1910. 1921 census showed about 40,000 Hungarian speakers less than in census of 1910. This was especially case in Subotica where 1910 census recorded 55.587 speakers of Hungarian and 33,247 speakers of Bunjevac, while census of 1921 recorded 60,700 speakers of Serbo-Croatian and 26,750 speakers of Hungarian. This is explained by the fact that ethnic Bunjevci from Subotica who had knowledge of Hungarian language were listed as speakers of Hungarian by 1910 census. Between 1921 and 1931 census, number of Hungarian speakers in Bačka increased from 260,998 to 268,711. Slavic population increased by 91,800 inhabitants.  In 1941, Yugoslav Bačka was occupied by the Axis powers and attached to Horthy's Hungary (but was still internationally recognized as part of Yugoslavia). Before this occupation, according to 1931 census, Yugoslav Bačka had 784,896 inhabitants, of whom there were 284,865 Yugoslavs (Serbs, Croats, Bunjevci, Šokci), 268,711 Hungarians and 169,858 Germans. Hungarian occupation authorities expelled several thousands of Serbs from the region and settled ethnic Hungarians from other parts of Central Europe in their place, so that the Hungarian census of 1941 recorded different a demographic composition in the region. According to this census, the territory of Bačka had 789,705 inhabitants, of which 45.4% or 47.2% were speakers of Hungarian language (not all of them native, however). During the occupation, Hungarian troops killed about 20,000 Serbs, Jews and Roma.  The occupation ended in 1944 and Yugoslav Bačka became part of the new Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (later the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). Following the defeat of the Axis troops, most of the German population that lived in the area left the region together with German army. The smaller part of the German population (several thousands of people) that did not leave the area (mostly women, children and the elderly) were sent to prison camps, where many of them died of malnutrition and disease. After the war, members of the Yugoslav Partisan army also killed several tens of thousands of inhabitants of German, Hungarian and Serb ethnic origin (in whole of Vojvodina). Estimates about numbers of victims of the Partisans (in whole of Vojvodina) are between 17,000 and 56,000 killed Germans, between 4,000 and 40,000 Hungarians killed, and about 23,000–24,000 Serbs killed.  Together with eastern Syrmia, western Banat, and northern Mačva, Yugoslav Bačka has been part of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina since 1945. After 1992, Yugoslav Bačka was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003), and since 2006 it has been part of the independent Republic of Serbia.

Geography.

Bačka is a flat, fertile agricultural area within the larger Pannonian Plain, which was once the ancient Pannonian Sea. In Hungary, it is seen as a southern extension of the Great Alfold (itself part of the Pannonian Plain), while this designation is not used in Serbia where region is simply seen as a part of the Pannonian Plain. It lies between the River Danube to the west and south, and by the River Tisa (Tisza) to the east of which confluence is located near Titel in the South Bačka District of Serbia. The region is crisscrossed by parts of the Danube–Tisa–Danube Canal system which serves a variety of economic purposes. Almost all of Bačka is divided between Serbia and Hungary. However, there are small uninhabited pockets of the area on the left bank of the Danube which are "de jure" parts of Croatia according to the Badinter Commission; the disputed areas have been under "de facto" Serbian control since 1991.  Most of the territory and a vast majority of the population of Bačka is part of Serbia's Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. This area within Serbia is officially divided into the districts of Southern Bačka, Western Bačka, and Northern Bačka. Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, lies on the border between Bačka and Syrmia, on both banks of the river Danube. In some sources, Serbian part of Bačka is referred to as "Central and Southern Bačka" ( / Srednja i južna Bačka; ) or simply "Southern Bačka" ( / ""Južna Bačka; Dél-Bácska"). The smaller part of the region in Hungary's Bács-Kiskun County is, by the same sources, described as "Northern Bačka" (; / "Severna Bačka").

Serbian Bačka.

The districts of Serbia in Bačka are:  Note that municipalities of Sremski Karlovci, Petrovaradin, and Beočin and southern part of municipality of Bačka Palanka that belong to South Bačka District are geographically not located in Bačka, but in Syrmia, while municipalities of Ada, Senta and Kanjiža which are geographically located in Bačka are part of North Banat District.  Geographic or traditional subregions or regions overlapping with Serbian Bačka include Gornji Breg, Podunavlje, Potisje, Šajkaška, Telečka and Paorija.  Cities, towns and villages in the Serbian part of Bačka with more than 10,000 inhabitants (with population numbers from 2011 census):  Towns and villages in the Serbian part of Bačka with population between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants (with population numbers from 2011 census):  Note: Senta, Kanjiža, Ada, Mol and Horgoš are geographically located in Bačka, but they are part of the North Banat District.  Also see: List of inhabited places of Vojvodina

Hungarian Bácska.

The Hungarian Bácska is mostly located in the Bács-Kiskun county of Hungary, while one small part of the region is located in the Baranya county.  Subregions in the Hungarian Bácska include (with population numbers):  Note that parts of Hungarian Bácska also belong to the subregions of Kiskunhalasi and Mohácsi, although the main parts of those subregions are not located in Bácska.  Most important towns in Hungarian Bácska (with population numbers):

Demographics.

Serbia.

According to the 2002 Serbian census, the population of the Serbian part of Bačka (in geographical borders) numbers 1,022,524 people and is composed of:

Hungary.

According to the 2001 census in Hungary, the rough population of the Hungarian Bácska (including districts of Bajai, Bácsalmási, and Jánoshalmai) numbering 113,432 people. Note that administrative borders of the districts do not fully correspond with the geographical borders of Hungarian Bácska. Most of the inhabitants of Hungarian Bácska are ethnic Hungarians.

Bačka ( / "Bačka", ;, ) is a geographical and historical area within the Pannonian Plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east. It is divided between Serbia and Hungary. Most of the area is located within the Vojvodina region in Serbia and Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, lies on the border between Bačka and Syrmia. The smaller northern part of the geographical area is located within Bács-Kiskun County, in Hungary.

Bačka (srbsky "Бачка" / "Bačka", maďarsky "Bácska", slovensky "Báčka", rusínsky "Бачка", německy "Batschka", rumunsky "Bacica") je historické území v Karpatské kotlině nad soutokem Dunaje a Tisy, rozdělené dnes mezi severosrbskou autonomní oblast Vojvodinu (naprostá většina) a maďarskou župu Bács-Kiskun (severozápadní okraj). Nazývá se podle městečka Bač, svého někdejšího střediska.


Overview.

The two sub-networks had a combined total route length of, making the whole network the fourth largest in the world, after the networks in Melbourne, St. Petersburg and Berlin.  The tram is historically the second type of urban passenger transport in Moscow, the successor of the "Konka" (horse-driven tram). However, the presence in Moscow by the beginning of the 20th century horse-railways hindered the development of tram lines. For the laying of tram lines, it was necessary first to free the roads from horse tracks. In 1901, the council purchased the first competition of the Belgian joint-stock company. When, in 1903, came a period of redemption horse-drawn railway the second Belgian joint stock company, the Duma is not solved, as, according to N. I. Astrov: "In Russia we have not experienced builders and engineers". In November 1905, immediately after the events of October elected a new mayor Nikolai Guchkov. Its launching coincided with the revolutionary actions of workers of Moscow in November–December 1905. As soon as the life in the town had returned to normal, Nikolai Ivanovich ordered to proceed with the laying of tram tracks. In February 1907, a movement began in the Myasnitska street, the Sretenka street and the Lubyanka street, from the Passion of the monastery Dmitrovka and further the Sretenka and Myasnitskaya. The first electric tram routes linked the outskirts of the Garden ring with the center and mainly repeated konechnye.  May 18, 1910 the city council on the proposal of N. I. Guchkov made a decision about carrying out in 1912 in Moscow, the congress of tram companies.  To the 1910 years the dense network of lines was observed in the western part of the centre with the formation of arcs on the Garden and Boulevard rings. In 1918 the total length of tram lines in the city amounted to In 1926 the length of track grew to in 1918, there were 475 cars, and in 1926 — 764. Average speed of trams increased from in 1918 to in 1926.

History of the network.

The apogee of Moscow's tram network was in the early 1930s, when it served both rings (the Boulevard and the Garden) and all connecting streets, gas lines [?] were laid and on the outskirts. In 1934, when the tram was the dominant mode of transport, 2.6 million of the city's population of 4 million used the tram every day. More radical changes took place in the 1940s, when trams were replaced by trolleybuses in the western part of the Boulevard Ring and removed from the Kremlin. With the development of the metro in the 1950s some of the lines leading to the suburbs were closed, and the carriage of freight ceased.  In 1958, the tram and trolleybus administration was merged with the passenger transport department to form the Department of Passenger Transport of Moscow (UPTM), which operated all three types of surface public transport: bus, trolleybus and tram.  In the 1960s and 1970s, tram lines were finally eliminated in the western part of the city and from the Garden Ring. However, new lines were laid in areas that were not served by the metro: Medvedkovo Chertanovo, Perovo and Novogireevo. After the closure of the lines between Lower Maslivka and Tikhvin streets in 1965 and on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya street in 1973, the lines operating from the Krasnaya Presnya tram depot in the north-west of the city was severed from the rest of the network. In the mid-1990s a new wave of line closures started, mainly on major highways near the city centre. In 1995, the company closed the line on Peace Prospect, then at the Bottom Maslovka due to the construction of the 3rd ring road. For the same reason in the early 2000s, the rails on Treadmill street, near the 1905 Street metro station and on Dvintsev street were lifted. In 2004, in connection with forthcoming reconstruction, the Leningrad Prospect line was closed. In 2008 the lines on Forest street and Volokolamsky highway closed. Between 1989 and 2004 the length of the lines fell from 460 to (the high point in the 1940s was 560 km). In 1990 daily ridership was over 800,000, but by the late 1990s this had fallen to about 150,000 passengers. From 30–31 August 2013 in the framework of the experimental introduction of night routes of public transport route No 3 is translated to round-the-clock work.

List of routes.

А. Chistye prudy subway station – Kaluzhskaya Square (only in weekdays)  Б. Sokol'nicheskaya Zastava – Kursky Railway Station  1. Moskvoretsky Market – Ulitsa Akademika Yangelya (Academic Yangel St.)  2. Semyonovskaya subway station – Children's sanatorium  3. Chistye prudy subway station – Balaklavsky Prospect (Avenue)  4л. Bulvar Rokossovskovo subway station – Bulvar Rokossovskovo subway station (circle route)  4пр. Bulvar Rokossovskovo subway station – Bulvar Rokossovskovo subway station (circle route)  6. Sokol subway station – Bratsevo  7. Bulvar Rokossovskovo subway station – Belorussky Rail Terminal  9. Belorussky Rail Terminal — MIIT (only in weekdays)  10. Shchukinskaya subway station – Ulitsa Kulakova (Kulakov St.)  11. Ostankino – 16th Parkovaya St.  12. 16th Parkovaya St. – 2nd ulitsa Mashinostroyeniya (2nd Machinbuilding St.)  13. Kalanchovskaya St. – Children's sanatorium  14. Kaluzhskaya Ploshad' (Square) – Universitet subway station  15. Sokol subway station – Tallinskaya Str.  16. Novodanilovsky Proezd (Drive) - Ulitsa Akademika Yangelya (Academic Yangel St.)  17. Ostankino - Medvedkovo  20. Kursky Rail Terminal - Krasnokazarmennaya Ploschad' (Square)  20п. Kursky Railway Station — Proletarskaya subway station (only in weekdays)  21. Tallinskaya St. - Schukinskaya subway station  23. Sokol subway station – Mikhalkovo  24. Kursky Railway Station - Novogireevo  25. Ostankino - Sokol'nicheskaya Zastava  26. Oktyabrskaya subway station – Universitet subway station (through Cheryomushki)  27. Voikovskaya subway station - Dmitrovskaya subway station  28. Prospekt Marshala Zhukova (Avenue of marshal Zhukov) - Sokol subway station  29. Children's sanatorium - Bogorodskoye (only in weekdays)  30. Tallinskaya St. - Mikhalkovo  31. Prospekt Marshala Zhukova (Avenue of marshal Zhukov) - Voikovskaya underground station  32. Proezd Entuziastov (Entusiasts' drive) - Partizanskaya subway station  34. 16th Parkovaya St. - Semyonovskaya subway station  35. Nagatino - Novokonnaya ploschad' (Square)  36. Children's sanatorium - Novogireyevo  37. Kalanchyovskaya St. - Novogireyevo  38. Cheryomushki - 3rd Vladimirskaya St.  39. Chistye prudy subway station - Universitet subway station  40. Novokonnaya ploschad' (Square) - Ugreshskaya MCC (only in weekdays)  43. Semyonovskaya subway station - Ugreshskaya MCC  45. Novokonnaya ploschad' (Square) - Sokol'nicheskaya Zastava  46. Bulvar Rokossovskovo subway station - Novokonnaya Ploshad' (Square)  47. Nagatino - Kaluzhskaya Ploshad' (Square)  47к. Nagatino - "Nizhniye Kotly" railway station (only in weekdays)  49. Nagatino - Balaklavsky Prospect (Avenue)  50. Novovorotnikovskiy pereulok - Proezd Entuziastov (Entusiasts' drive)

The Moscow tramway network, which is divided into two sub-networks, is a key element of the public transport system in Moscow, the capital city of Russia. Opened in 1872, it has been operated since 1958 by Mosgortrans, a state-owned company.

Hlavní město Ruské federace, Moskva, provozuje dvě na sobě nezávislé a oddělené tramvajové sítě. Tramvaje jsou napájené proudem o napětí 550 V. Rozsah celého provozu činí 181,2 km, dopravu zajišťuje 30 – 40 linek, které obsluhují přibližně 420 zastávek.