Biography.

Childhood.

Richter was born in Zhytomyr, Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire (modern-day Ukraine), a native town of his parents. His father, (1872–1941), was a pianist, organist and composer born to German expatriates; from 1893 to 1900 he studied in the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. His mother, Anna Pavlovna Richter (née Moskaleva; 1893–1963), came from a noble Russian landowning family, and at one point she studied under her future husband. In 1918, when Richter's parents were in Odessa, the Civil War separated them from their son, and Richter moved in with his aunt Tamara. He lived with her from 1918 to 1921, and it was then that his interest in art first manifested itself: he first became interested in painting, which his aunt taught him.  In 1921 the family was reunited, and the Richters moved to Odessa, where Teofil taught at the Odessa Conservatory and, briefly, worked as organist of a Lutheran church. In the early 1920s Richter became interested in music (as well as other art forms such as cinema, literature, and theatre) and started studying piano. Unusually, he was largely self-taught. His father gave him only a basic education in music, as did one of his father's pupils, a Czech harpist.  Even at an early age, Richter was an excellent sight-reader and regularly practised with local opera and ballet companies. He developed a lifelong passion for opera, vocal and chamber music that found its full expression in the festivals he established in La Grange de Meslay, France, and in Moscow, at the Pushkin Museum. At age 15, he started to work at the Odessa Opera, where he accompanied the rehearsals.

Early career.

On March 19, 1934, Richter gave his first recital, at the Engineers' Club of Odessa; but he did not formally start studying piano until three years later, when he decided to seek out Heinrich Neuhaus, a famous pianist and piano teacher, at the Moscow Conservatory. During Richter's audition for Neuhaus (at which he performed Chopin's Ballade No. 4), Neuhaus apparently whispered to a fellow student, "This man's a genius". Although Neuhaus taught many great pianists, including Emil Gilels and Radu Lupu, it is said that he considered Richter to be "the genius pupil, for whom he had been waiting all his life," while acknowledging that he taught Richter "almost nothing."  Early in his career, Richter also tried his hand at composing, and it even appears that he played some of his compositions during his audition for Neuhaus. He gave up composition shortly after moving to Moscow. Years later, Richter explained this decision as follows: "Perhaps the best way I can put it is that I see no point in adding to all the bad music in the world".  By the beginning of World War II, Richter's parents' marriage had failed and his mother had fallen in love with another man. Because Richter's father was a German, he was under suspicion by the authorities and a plan was made for the family to flee the country. Due to her romantic involvement, his mother did not want to leave and so they remained in Odessa. In August 1941 his father was arrested and later found guilty of espionage, being sentenced to death on 6 October 1941. Richter didn't speak to his mother again until shortly before her death nearly 20 years later in connection with his first US tour.  In 1943 Richter met Nina Dorliak (1908-1998), an operatic soprano. He noticed Dorliak during the memorial service for Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, caught up with her at the street and suggested to accompany her in recital. In 1945 they got married and remained companions until Richter's death. They had no children. Dorliak accompanied Richter both in his complex life and career. She supported him in his last sickness, and died herself a few months later, on May 17, 1998.  It was rumored that Richter was homosexual and that having a female companion provided a social front for his sexual orientation, because homosexuality was still widely seen as strongly taboo and could result in legal repercussions. Richter had a tendency to be private and withdrawn and was not open to interviews. He never publicly discussed his personal life until, in the last year of his life, filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon convinced him to be interviewed for a documentary.

Rise to fame.

In 1949 Richter won the Stalin Prize, which led to extensive concert tours in Russia, Eastern Europe and China. He gave his first concerts outside the Soviet Union in Czechoslovakia in 1950. In 1952, Richter was invited to play Franz Liszt in a film based on the life of Mikhail Glinka, called "The Composer Glinka" (remake of the 1946 film "Glinka"). The title role was played by Boris Smirnov.  On February 18, 1952, Richter made his sole appearance as a conductor in the world premiere of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, with Mstislav Rostropovich as the soloist.  In 1960, even though he had a reputation for being "indifferent" to politics, Richter defied the authorities when he performed at Boris Pasternak's funeral.  Having received the Stalin and Lenin prizes and become People's Artist of the RSFSR, he gave his first tour concerts in the USA in 1960, and in England and France in 1961.

Touring and recording.

In 1948, Richter and Dorliac gave recitals in Bucharest, Romania, then in 1950 performed in Prague and Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. In 1954, Richter gave recitals in Budapest, Hungary. In 1956, he again toured Czechoslovakia, then in 1957, he toured China, then again performed in Prague, Sofia, and Warsaw. In 1958, Richter recorded Prokofiev's 5th Piano Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Witold Rowicki - the recording which made Richter known and desired in America. In 1959, Richter made another successful recording of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon label. Thus the West first became aware of Richter through recordings made in the 1950s. One of Richter's first advocates in the West was Emil Gilels, who stated during his first tour of the United States that the critics (who were giving Gilels rave reviews) should "wait until you hear Richter."  Richter's first concerts in the West took place in May 1960, when he was allowed to play in Finland, and on October 15, 1960, in Chicago, where he played Brahms's 2nd Piano Concerto accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Erich Leinsdorf, creating a sensation. In a review, noted "Chicago Tribune" music critic Claudia Cassidy, who was known for her unkind reviews of established artists, recalled Richter first walking on stage hesitantly, looking vulnerable (as if about to be "devoured"), but then sitting at the piano and dispatching "the performance of a lifetime". Richter's 1960 tour of the United States culminated in a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall.  Richter disliked performing in the United States. Following a 1970 incident at Carnegie Hall in New York City, when Richter's performance alongside David Oistrakh was disrupted by anti-Soviet protests, Richter vowed never to return. Rumors of a planned return to Carnegie Hall surfaced in the last years of Richter's life, although it is not clear whether there was any truth behind them.  In 1961, Richter played for the first time in London. His first recital, pairing works of Haydn and Prokofiev, was received with hostility by British critics. Notably, Neville Cardus concluded that Richter's playing was "provincial", and wondered why Richter had been invited to play in London, given that London had plenty of "second class" pianists of its own. Following a July 18, 1961, concert, where Richter performed both of Liszt's piano concertos, the critics reversed course.  In 1963, after searching in the Loire Valley, France, for a venue suitable for a music festival, Richter discovered La Grange de Meslay, several kilometres north of Tours. The festival was established by Richter and became an annual event.  In 1970, Richter visited Japan for the first time, traveling across Siberia by railway and ship as he disliked flying. He played Beethoven, Schumann, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Bartók and Rachmaninoff, as well as works by Mozart and Beethoven with Japanese orchestras. He visited Japan eight times.

Later years.

While he very much enjoyed performing for an audience, Richter hated planning concerts years in advance, and in later life took to playing at very short notice in small, most often darkened halls, with only a small lamp lighting the score. Richter said that this setting helped the audience focus on the music being performed, rather than on extraneous and irrelevant matters such as the performer's grimaces and gestures.

Career.

In 1981 Richter initiated the international musical festival December nights, held in the Pushkin Museum, which after his death in 1997 was renamed December Nights of Sviatoslav Richter. In 1986, Richter embarked on a six-month tour of Siberia with his beloved Yamaha piano, giving perhaps 150 recitals, at times performing in small towns that did not even have a concert hall. It is said that after one such concert, the members of the audience, who had never before heard classical music performed, gathered in the middle of the hall and started swaying from side to side to celebrate the performer. It is said that in his last years Richter contemplated giving concerts free of charge (although he never actually did so).  An anecdote illustrates Richter's approach to performance in the last decade of his life. After reading a biography of Charlemagne (he was an avid reader), Richter had his secretary send a telegram to the director of the theater in Aachen, Charlemagne's favoured residence city and his burial place, stating "The Maestro has read a biography of Charlemagne and would like to play at Aquisgrana (Aachen)". The performance took place shortly thereafter.  As late as 1995, Richter continued to perform some of the most demanding pieces in the pianistic repertoire, including Ravel's "Miroirs" cycle, Prokofiev's Second Sonata and Chopin's études and Ballade No. 4.  Richter's last recorded orchestral performance was of three Mozart concerti in 1994 with the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra conducted by his old friend Rudolf Barshai.  Richter's last recital was a private gathering in Lübeck, Germany, on March 30, 1995. The program consisted of two Haydn sonatas and Reger's "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Beethoven", a piece for two pianos, which Richter performed with pianist Andreas Lucewicz.  Richter died at Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow from a heart attack on August 1, 1997, aged 82. He had been suffering from depression due to an inability to perform caused by changes in his hearing that altered his perception of pitch. At the time of his death, he was rehearsing Schubert's "Fünf Klavierstücke", D. 459.

Repertoire.

As Richter once put it, "My repertory runs to around eighty different programs, not counting chamber works." His repertoire ranged from Handel and Bach to Tchaikovsky, Szymanowski, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Bartók, Hindemith, Britten, and Gershwin.  Richter worked tirelessly to learn new pieces. For instance, in the late 1980s, he learned Brahms's Paganini and Handel Variations, and in the 1990s, several of Debussy's études and pieces by Gershwin, and works by Bach and Mozart that he had not previously included in his programs.  Central to his repertoire were the works of Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, J. S. Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev and Debussy. He is said to have learned and memorized the second book of Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" in one month.  He gave the premiere of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 7, which he learned in four days, and No. 9, which Prokofiev dedicated to Richter. Apart from his solo career, he also performed chamber music with partners such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Rudolf Barshai, David Oistrakh, Oleg Kagan, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Zoltán Kocsis, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Benjamin Britten and members of the Borodin Quartet. Richter also often accompanied singers such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, Galina Pisarenko and his wife and long-time artistic companion Nina Dorliak.  Richter also conducted the premiere of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra. This was his sole appearance as a conductor. The soloist was Rostropovich, to whom the work was dedicated. Prokofiev also wrote his 1949 Cello Sonata in C for Rostropovich, and he and Richter premiered it in 1950. Richter himself was a passable cellist, and Rostropovich was a good pianist; at one concert in Moscow at which he accompanied Rostropovich on the piano, they exchanged instruments for part of the program.

Approach to performance.

Richter explained his approach to performance as follows: "The interpreter is really an executant, carrying out the composer's intentions to the letter. He doesn't add anything that isn't already in the work. If he is talented, he allows us to glimpse the truth of the work that is in itself a thing of genius and that is reflected in him. He shouldn't dominate the music, but should dissolve into it." "I am not a complete idiot, but whether from weakness or laziness have no talent for thinking. I know only how to reflect: I am a mirror... Logic does not exist for me. I float on the waves of art and life and never really know how to distinguish what belongs to the one or the other or what is common to both. Life unfolds for me like a theatre presenting a sequence of somewhat unreal sentiments; while the things of art are real to me and go straight to my heart."  Richter's belief that musicians should "carry... out the composer's intentions to the letter", led him to be critical of others and, most often, himself. After attending a recital of Murray Perahia, where Perahia performed Chopin's Third Piano Sonata without observing the first movement repeat, Richter asked him backstage to explain the omission. Similarly, after Richter realized that he had been playing a wrong note in Bach's Italian Concerto for decades, he insisted that the following disclaimer/apology be printed on a CD containing a performance thereof: "Just now Sviatoslav Richter realized, much to his regret, that he always made a mistake in the third measure before the end of the second part of the 'Italian Concerto'. As a matter of fact, through forty years – and no musician or technician ever pointed it out to him – he played 'F-sharp' rather than 'F'. The same mistake can be found in the previous recording made by Maestro Richter in the fifties."

Recordings.

Despite his large discography, Richter disliked the recording process, and most of his recordings originate from live performances. Thus, his live recitals from Moscow (1948), Warsaw (1954 and 1972), Sofia (1958), New York City (1960), Leipzig (1963), Aldeburgh (multiple years), la Grange de Meslay near Tours (multiple years), Prague (multiple years), Salzburg (1977) and Amsterdam (1986), are considered among the finest documents of his playing, as are other live recordings issued during his lifetime and since his death on labels including Music & Arts, BBC Legends, Philips, Russia Revelation, Parnassus, and Ankh Productions.  Other critically acclaimed live recordings by Richter include performances of Scriabin's selected études, preludes and sonatas (multiple performances), Schumann's C major Fantasy (multiple performances), Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata (Moscow, 1960), Schubert's B-flat Sonata (multiple performances), Ravel's "Miroirs" (Prague, 1965), Liszt's B minor Sonata (multiple performances, 1965–66), Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata (multiple performances, 1975) and selected preludes by Rachmaninoff (multiple performances) and Debussy (multiple performances).  Despite his professed hatred for the studio, Richter took the recording process seriously. For instance, after a long recording session for Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy", for which he had used a Bösendorfer piano, Richter listened to the tapes and, dissatisfied with his performance, told the recording engineer "Well, I think we'll remake it on the Steinway after all". Similarly, during a recording session for Schumann's Toccata, Richter reportedly chose to play this piece (which Schumann himself considered "among the most difficult pieces ever written") several times in a row, without taking any breaks, in order to preserve the spontaneity of his interpretation.  According to Falk Schwartz and John Berrie's 1983 article "Sviatoslav Richter – A Discography", in the 1970s Richter announced his intention of recording his complete solo repertoire "on some 50 discs". This "complete" Richter project did not come to fruition, however, although twelve LPs worth of recordings were pressed between 1970 and 1973 and were subsequently re-issued (in CD format) by Olympia (various composers, 10 CDs) and RCA (Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier").  In 1961, Richter's recording with Erich Leinsdorf and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance – Concerto or Instrumental Soloist. That recording is still considered a landmark (despite Richter's dissatisfaction with it), as are his studio recordings of Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy", Liszt's two Piano Concertos, Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto and Schumann's Toccata, among many others.

In film.

Richter appeared in a 1952 Soviet film, playing Liszt in "Kompozitor Glinka" (Russian: "Композитор Глинка").

Quotations.

Memorable statements about Richter.

The Italian critic Piero Rattalino has asserted that the only pianists comparable to Richter in the history of piano performance were Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni.  Glenn Gould called Richter "one of the most powerful communicators the world of music has produced in our time".  Nathan Milstein described Richter in his memoir "From Russia to the West" as the following: "Richter was certainly a marvelous pianist but not as impeccable as he was reputed to be. His music making was too dry for me. In Richter's interpretation of Ravel's "Jeux d'eau", instead of flowing water you hear frozen icicles."  Van Cliburn attended a Richter recital in 1958 in the Soviet Union. He reportedly wept during the recital and, upon returning to the United States, described Richter's playing as "the most powerful piano playing I have ever heard".  Arthur Rubinstein described his first exposure to Richter as follows: "It really wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Then at some point I noticed my eyes growing moist: tears began rolling down my cheeks."  Heinrich Neuhaus described Richter as follows: "His singular ability to grasp the whole and at the same time miss none of the smallest details of a composition suggests a comparison with an eagle who from his great height can see as far as the horizon and yet single out the tiniest detail of the landscape."  Dmitri Shostakovich wrote of Richter: "Richter is an extraordinary phenomenon. The enormity of his talent staggers and enraptures. All the phenomena of musical art are accessible to him."  Vladimir Sofronitsky proclaimed that Richter was a "genius", prompting Richter to respond that Sofronitsky was a "god".  Vladimir Horowitz said: "Of the Russian pianists, I like only one, Richter."  Pierre Boulez wrote of Richter: "His personality was greater than the possibilities offered to him by the piano, broader than the very concept of complete mastery of the instrument."  Marlene Dietrich, who was Richter's friend, wrote in her autobiography, "Marlene": "One evening the audience sat around him on the stage. While he was playing a piece, a woman directly behind him collapsed and died on the spot. She was carried out of the hall. I was deeply impressed by this incident and thought to myself: “What an enviable fate, to die while Richter is playing! What a strong feeling for the music this woman must have had when she breathed out her life!” But Richter did not share this opinion, he was shaken".  Gramophone critic Bryce Morrison described Richter as follows: "Idiosyncratic, plain-speaking, heroic, reserved, lyrical, virtuosic and perhaps above all, profoundly enigmatic, Sviatoslav Richter remains one of the greatest recreative artists of all time."

Memorable statements by Richter.

On listening to Bach: "It does no harm to listen to Bach from time to time, even if only from a hygienic standpoint."  On Scriabin: "Scriabin isn't the sort of composer whom you'd regard as your daily bread, but is a heavy liqueur on which you can get drunk periodically, a poetical drug, a crystal that's easily broken."  On picking small venues for performance: "Put a small piano in a truck and drive out on country roads; take time to discover new scenery; stop in a pretty place where there is a good church; unload the piano and tell the residents; give a concert; offer flowers to the people who have been so kind as to attend; leave again."  On his plan to perform without a fee: "Music must be given to those who love it. I want to give free concerts; that's the answer."  On Neuhaus: "I learned a lot from him, even though he kept saying that there was nothing he could teach me. Music is written to be played and listened to and has always seemed to me to be able to manage without words... This was exactly the case with Heinrich Neuhaus. In his presence I was almost always reduced to total silence. This was an extremely good thing, as it meant that we concentrated exclusively on the music. Above all, he taught me the meaning of silence and the meaning of singing. He said I was incredibly obstinate and did only what I wanted to. It's true that I've only ever played what I wanted. And so he left me to do as I liked."  On playing: "...I don't play for the audience, I play for myself, and if I derive any satisfaction from it, then the audience, too, is content."  After playing some Haydn for a television programme whilst touring in the US, Richter said, after much coaxing by the interviewer and embarrassment on his own part, that Haydn was 'better than Mozart'.

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter (; – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet pianist of Russian-German origin, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. He is known for the "depth of his interpretations, his virtuoso technique, and his vast repertoire."

Svjatoslav Teofilovič Richter či poruštěně Richtěr (rusky "", 20. března 1915 Žytomyr, Ruské impérium – 1. srpna 1997 Moskva) byl sovětský pianista rusko-německého původu, považovaný za jednoho z největších pianistů 20. století.


History of archaeological research.

Tell Hassuna was found in 1942 by Fuad Safar, and excavated in 1943 and 1944 by a team from the Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities led by Seton Lloyd. Excavations revealed that there was once an advanced village culture that was spread throughout northern Mesopotamia.  At Hassuna, six different layers of houses were uncovered, revealing various vessels and pottery that date ~5600-5350 BCE, with each layer becoming more substantial. Similar vessels were found throughout the Middle East, showing that there was an extensive trade network that was present as early as the 6th Millennium BCE.

Tell Hassuna and its environment.

Tell Hassuna is located approximately southwest of modern Mosul, along the west bank of the Tigris River. It is a small site, roughly and about high. Hassuna was one of the earliest cultures in Northern Mesopotamia. Before this time, Southern Mesopotamia was considered the cradle of civilization. When settlements began forming in the north, such as Hassuna, Jarmo, Samarra, and Tell Halaf, the north became the important region.  The architecture at Hassuna was built of packed mud, with the width varying from 20 to 50 centimeters. The mud-brick technique may perhaps have been developed in Southern Mesopotamia, where mud-bricks were common in the first half of 6th millennium B.C.

Occupation history.

Around 6,000 B.C., people began moving to the foothills of northern Mesopotamia and practicing methods of dry agriculture. These people were the first known farmers, and Hassuna became one of the most ancient centers for the principal forms of producing economies, such as the cultivation of soil and raising livestock. Evidence of this is shown in the oldest layers of Hassuna. The occupants of Hassuna also led the way in improving agriculture, settling the river valleys, the beginning of irrigation, and progress in all branches of production and culture.  Around 6,000 B.C., at Tell Hassuna, adobe dwellings built around open central courts; fine painted pottery was replacing the crude pottery of the earlier levels.  Hand axes, sickles, grinding stones, bins, baking ovens and numerous bones of domesticated animals reflect settled agricultural life. Stone tools found at Tell Hassuna do not seem to be as advanced as tools found at other sites of the Hassuna culture, such as Jarmo, and were typically made of flint and obsidian.  Female figurines were also used in relation to worship and jar burials, within which food was placed due to belief in the afterlife.

Pottery.

Pottery found at Hassuna can be divided into three different categories: Hassuna Archaic, Hassuna Standard, and Samarran. These also include painted, incised, and painted-incised ware.

Samarra Painted Fine Ware.

The decoration of the Samarra Painted Fine Ware is always monochrome, but it seems as if three types of paint have been used: an ivory black, a dark violet brown, and a medium chocolate brown. Circumstances of firing and variations in the concentration of the paint have caused color changes, so that for example an oxidizing firing of vessels painted with ivory black has produced an Indian red color.  In general, the designs of the Samarra Painted Fine Ware are carefully painted. Occasionally, however, parallel lines approach or diverge slightly, and the thickness of some lines varies, apparently due to the use of a soft painting-brush. The outside rim motifs are spaced and limited by groups of horizontal lines.

Tell Hassuna is a tell, or settlement mound, in the Nineveh Province (Iraq), about 35km south-west of Nineveh. It is the type site for the Hassuna culture (early sixth millennium BCE).

Tell Chassuna nebo pouze Chassuna je archeologická lokalita 35 km jižně od dnešního Mosulu v severním Iráku. Leží na řece Tigridu a byla podle ní pojmenována pozdně neolitická chassunská kultura, v níž se vedle polonomádských lovců a sběračů poprvé v historii lidstva setkáváme se zemědělci, žijícími v trvalých osadách. Její hlavní osídlení datujeme do 2. poloviny 6. tisíciletí př. n. l.


Encyclopædia Britannica description.

The 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica gave the following description of Nikopol: It was formerly called "Mykytyn Rog", and occupies an elongated peninsula between two arms of the Dnieper at a point where its banks are low and marshy, and has been for centuries one of the places where the middle Dnieper can most conveniently be crossed. Note, during the period of Russian Empire in Ukraine, the Ukrainian language was recognized as fictitious and was strictly prohibited, hence the names were transliterated from the Russian language.  In 1900, its 21,282 inhabitants were Ukrainians, Jews and Mennonites, who carry on agriculture and shipbuilding. The old Sich, or fortified camp of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, brilliantly described in N. V. Gogol's novel Taras Bulba (1834), was situated a little higher up the river. A number of graves in the vicinity recall the battles which were fought for the possession of this important strategic point. One of graves, close to the town, contained, along with other Scythian antiquities, a well-known precious vase representing the capture of wild horses. Even now Nikopol, which is situated on the highway from Dnipro to Kherson, is the point where the "salt-highway" of the Chumaks (Ukrainian salt-carriers) to the Crimea crosses the Dnieper. Nikopol is, further, one of the chief places on the lower Dnieper for the export of corn, linseed, hemp and wool.

History.

Archaeological excavations.

According to archaeological excavations, the city's area was populated as early as the Neolithic epoch in the 4th millennium BCE as evidenced by remnants of a settlement discovered on banks of Mala Kamianka River. In burial mounds of copper-bronze epoch in the 3rd-1st millenniums BCE were found stone and bronze tools, clay sharp-bottomed ornamental dishes. Here also were researched burials of Scythian-Sarmatian period in the 2nd century BCE – the 2nd century CE.

Mykytyn Rih / Mykytyn Sich.

In the beginning of 16th century in place of Nikopol appeared a river crossing over Dnieper controlled by Cossacks, Mykytyn Rih. According to a folk legend, it was established by a Cossack Mykyta Tsyhan. Under the same name the crossing is mentioned in diary of the Holy Roman Empire envoy Erich Lassota von Steblau who visited Zaporizhian Sich in 1594.  In 1638-1639 Cossacks led by F.Linchai built here a fort which is conditionally named as Mykytyn Sich (). Soon due to conflict with Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, in 1652 Kosh Otaman Fedir Liutay moved the administrative seat to Chortomlyk.  By 1648, in the close proximity of today's Nikopol, Mykytyn Sich was built, renowned for the fact that it was here that Bohdan Khmelnytsky was elected as the Hetman of Ukraine, and it was here that the rebellion against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth started. Until 1775, the time of the Sich sacking, it was called "Mykytyn Rih", "Mykytyn Pereviz", or simply "Mykytyne". The name "rih" (Ukrainian for horn) was given because the locality rose at a place reminiscing a peninsula, as it was almost surrounded by the Dnieper river (see Kryvyi Rih). Mykytyne was a town of the Kodak Palanka, an administrative division of the Zaporizhian Sich. Later it was renamed into Slovianske and then Nikopol.

Sloviansk / Nikopol.

What could be now the most sacred place of an early distinctly Ukrainian statehood was eventually submerged by water, owing to the Soviet policy of industrialization. The Kakhovka Reservoir covers now the lands of the former Zaporizhian Host and the burial sites of thousands of former heroes whose names, probably, will never be recovered.  During World War II, Nikopol was occupied by the German Army until 18 February 1944. Albert Speer refers to it as the "center of manganese mining," and of vital importance to Hitler for armaments production.  Just a few kilometres west of the city, the Kosh otaman Ivan Sirko is buried.  Nowadays Nikopol is one of the largest towns in the region with the population of 120 774 (2013). The largest manufactures are former Nikopol Tube Plant, which is not divided into smaller plants, and Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, which is the largest in Europe and second in the world in producing Ferromanganese (FeMn) and Ferrosilicomanganese (FeSiMn). There is bus station, railway station and river port, which connect the town with other cities.

International relations.

Twin towns — Sister cities.

Nikopol is twinned with:

Nikopol ( ; ; from ) is a city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine, on the right bank of the Dnieper River, about 100 km south-west of Dnipro. Administratively, Nikopol is incorporated as the city of oblast significance and serves as the administrative center of Nikopol Raion which it does not belong to. Population: 116,834 (2015 est.).

Nikopol (, ) je město na jižní Ukrajině na břehu Dněpru vzedmutého Kachovskou přehradou. Administrativně spadá pod Dněpropetrovskou oblast, přestože leží blíže Záporoží; je sídlem samostatného rajónu. Nikopol leží na hlavní silnici a železniční trati spojující průmyslové oblasti Donbasu, Záporoží a Kryvého Rohu.


Early History & Findings.

German scientists Dr. Erich Albert Müller and Dr. Theodor Hettinger concluded that muscle growth can be attained by exerting 60% of existing muscle strength against a superior resistance for only seven seconds once a day, a fitness technique known as isometrics. The study at the Max Planck Institute consisted of over 200 experiments over a ten-year period.  Professor James A. Baley put isometrics to the test with a class of college students at the University of Connecticut. The study resulted in the isometric training group improving three times faster than the sports training group on tests measuring increases in strength, endurance, coordination, and agility.

Rise of Bullworker device.

In 1962, Bullworker pioneered portable home fitness devices and the seven second isometric exercise for the fastest strength gains, using both contraction and extension movements involving range of motion for all the major muscle groups, into one lightweight and compact fitness tool at a price everyone could afford. Various charts were then introduced, proposing different work to exercise and develop the muscles.  Bullworker exploded on the fitness scene revolutionizing exercise for muscle strength to be more effective and much faster. Bullworker enjoyed widespread popularity in Europe and the United States in the 1960s and 1970s during the personal fitness craze.  The original Bullworker device consists of two sleeved, spring-loaded, telescopic cylinders in the center, with two hand grips affixed at the outermost ends. Two opposing cables are attached to the hand grips at each end of the device. The original Bullworker exercise apparatus weighs about four pounds (1.8 kilograms). Exercises are performed by pushing inwards on the contractible cylinders, by pulling the cables outwards away from the cylinders, or any variation of these. The resultant compression of the internal spring creates the desired resistance. The Bullworker will return to its original position when pressure is released. A range of up to 150 pounds (68 kilograms) or more of resistance is possible in the Bullworker exercise routines.

Later Bullworker versions.

Since the original Bullworker fitness device was made available for purchase and use by the general public in the 1950s, a number of modified and improved different versions of the original Bullworker have been made available since its introduction, particularly Bullworker 2, Bullworker Deluxe, and Bullworker X5. However, the Bullworker's functional isometric concepts to improve physical fitness remain the same. Though Bullworker's popularity fell off in the 1980s when personal gyms became readily available, Bullworker is still marketed worldwide, with trademarks and distribution owned by Hughes Marketing, LLC. There are two Bullworker models currently commercially available: Bullworker Bow Classic and Bullworker Steel-Bow. The Bow Classic is 36 inches long, and is the Bullworker 'barbell' equivalent, specializing in powerful holds and greater range of motion. The Steel-Bow is 20 inches long and is the Bullworker dumbbell specializing in versatility for muscle targeting and travel. Both Bullworker models have interchangeable springs to easily change resistance levels, ranging from approximately 0-130 lbs (0-60 kg) of resistance.  The original Bullworker suggested 26 individual exercises. While isometrics was the emphasis, the instructions included isotonic, cardio, resiliency and endurance routines. The emphasis on these additional functions greatly expanded the number of exercises available. An additional fitness routine of Iso-Motion has since been added. Bullworkers are well built and very durable; many early units remain in regular fitness use decades later.  Bullworker has also developed a fitness product line specializing in convenient exercise to improve strength and flexibility for everyday performance. The Bullworker Pro System is a complete cross training personal home gym workout of various fitness devices, including: Bullworker Bow Classic; Bullworker Steel Bow; Bullworker Iso-Gym; Bullworker Iso-Bow and Bow Extensions.

The Bullworker Mission.

The purpose of Bullworker's exercise routine is to make fitness simple while improving the individual's quality of life who works out regularly with the device.

Bullworker is a product and fitness company that specializes in isometric exercise, known to be the fastest way to build strength. The original portable home fitness device was invented by Gert F. Kölbel in 1962 to give everyday people access to high quality equipment focusing on total body fitness without the cost or size of other gym equipment. With over 10 million sold it continues to sell around the world including in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Bullworker je zařízení pro izometrické posilování svalů, původně uvedené na trh počátkem 60. let 20. století. Bylo navrženo a patentováno německým vynálezcem Gertem F. Kobelem a stále se prodává v Evropě, Asii a USA.


History.

Živnostenská banka was established in 1868 as a joint stock company focusing on the financing of Czech small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs). It was the first bank in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be financed entirely by Czech capital, and had as its aim supporting the development of newly established Czech businesses. The bank also sought the deposits of small savers: tradesmen and owners of small Czech companies. ZIBA became the umbrella organization of a network of small Czech savings and loan associations. Prior to the World War I, ZIBA took a minority holding in Serbian Credit Bank. Just before the outbreak of World War I, ZIBA had 1,068 employees, 11 branches in Bohemia and Moravia, and branches in Vienna, Cracow, Lviv, and Trieste. At that time ZIBA alone accounted for almost a third of the total capital of the Czech banking system. After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, ZIBA grew rapidly because of its role as the new state's key bank.  The Nostrification Law of 1920 forced joint-stock companies to transfer their head offices to the territory of the new state where they had their factories and plants. This law protected Czech banks from foreign competition. ZIBA benefited enormously as it changed its strategy to one of providing loans to large industrial companies. In 1922 ZIBA established a branch in London. The bank fostered mergers among large Czech industrial corporations (for example the creation of the mechanical engineering colossus CKD) and systematically built up its industrial empire. As the strongest bank in prewar Czechoslovakia, ZIBA controlled 60 companies, including the largest in the country. It also developed links with French and British financial institutions.  ZIBA had become a major financial actor in Central and Eastern Europe by 1938. On 12 March, Nazi Germany annexed Austria. The Germans established Länderbank Wien by merging the Dresdner Bank–owned Merkurbank in Vienna, the Austrian business of the Zentral-Europäische Länderbank of Paris, and ZIBA's branch in Vienna. On 29 September, as a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to hand over the Sudetenland regions to the German Reich. Dresdner Bank took over ZIBA's Liberec, Ústí nad Labem, Karlovy Vary and Teplice branches. That same year Anglo-Czechoslovak and Prague Credit Bank established an office in New York. Next year, Prague Credit Bank changed its name to Anglo-Prague Credit Bank.  During World War II ZIBA escaped direct annexation by a German bank, the only Czech bank to do so. Even so, it was forced to accept German control and to contribute heavily to German war financing. It purchased almost a billion crowns' worth of Reich treasury bills, a sum about three times the ZIBA's capital stock. Under German occupation, ZIBA tried more or less successfully, to protect the interests of Czech industry. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the new Czechoslovak government nationalized ZIBA, together with all other Czechoslovak banks.  In 1948 ZIBA absorbed Prague Credit Bank and with it PCB's New York office. A London Office of Zivnostenska Banka existed at No.48 Bishopsgate. It was managed by Bruno Pollack. His deputy was Leonard Dunstan. The bank continued to exist on that site into the 1950s when it moved to another part of the City. In 1949 ZIBA closed the New York office.  Between 1950-6, ZIBA continued to exist as a legal entity but the government severely restricted its activities. Then starting in 1956, ZIBA's international and foreign exchange experience led the government to make it the primary Czechoslovak bank for Comecon import and export business, in which its London branch played a significant role. ZIBA was the repository for all foreign currency accounts maintained by expatriates, foreign firms operating in Czechoslovakia, and state agencies facilitating "invisible" trade such as tourism. In 1988 ZIBA resumed corporate business.  In 1992, ZIBA became the first bank in Central and Eastern Europe to be privatized. Germany's BHF-BANK took up 40% of the shares, the IFC acquired 12%, and the remaining 48% went to private individuals and Czech investment funds. Six years latere, Bankgesellschaft Berlin became the largest shareholder in ZIBA after taking over BHF-BANK's now 47% equity stake. Other significant shareholders were the IFC and Crédit Commercial de France. In 2000, Bankgesellschaft Berlin increased its stake in ZIBA to 85.16%. At this time, the bank had branches in Prague, Brno, České Budějovice, Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Ostrava, Pardubice and Zlín. It also had a representative office in Bratislava to handle operations in Slovakia.  In 2002 - UniCredito Italiano acquired Bankgesellschaft Berlin's stake and launched a tender offer for all the remaining shares. In 2006 it was merged with HVB Bank Czech Republic and the new merged bank was renamed UniCredit Bank Czech Republic.

Živnostenská banka (also known under acronyms ŽB or ZIBA) was a major commercial bank operating in the Czech Republic. In 2002 it became a member of the Italian UniCredit Group. In 2006 it was merged with HVB Bank and the new merged bank was renamed UniCredit Bank Czech Republic.

Živnostenská banka (ŽB, známá také jako Živnobanka) patřila mezi nejstarší české banky. Byla založena roku 1868, v letech 1935-1941 pro ni bylo vybudováno nové pražské sídlo na místě čtyř domů na nároží ulic Na příkopě a Senovážné čp.980-984/II (č.o. 24-28). V roce 1945 byl znárodněna, v letech 1949-1956 existovala jako právnická osoba s výrazně omezenými aktivity, pak byla přičleněna ke Státní bance československé a její budova od té doby sloužila jako hlavní bankovní dům státu. Roku 2002 se stala součástí italské finanční skupiny UniCredit. V roce 2007 se sloučila s HVB Bank Czech Republic a působí pod novým jménem UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia.


Personal life.

Piaget was born in 1896 in Neuchâtel, in the Francophone region of Switzerland. He was the oldest son of Arthur Piaget (Swiss), a professor of medieval literature at the University of Neuchâtel, and Rebecca Jackson (French). Piaget was a precocious child who developed an interest in biology and the natural world. His early interest in zoology earned him a reputation among those in the field after he had published several articles on mollusks by the age of 15. When he was 15, his former nanny wrote to his parents to apologize for having once lied to them about fighting off a would-be kidnapper from baby Jean's pram. There never was a kidnapper. Piaget became fascinated that he had somehow formed a memory of this kidnapping incident, a memory that endured even after he understood it to be false.  He developed an interest in epistemology due to his godfather's urgings to study the fields of philosophy and logic. He was educated at the University of Neuchâtel, and studied briefly at the University of Zürich. During this time, he published two philosophical papers that showed the direction of his thinking at the time, but which he later dismissed as adolescent thought. His interest in psychoanalysis, at the time a burgeoning strain of psychology, can also be dated to this period. Piaget moved from Switzerland to Paris, France after his graduation and he taught at the Grange-Aux-Belles Street School for Boys. The school was run by Alfred Binet, the developer of the Binet-Simon test

Career history.

Harry Beilin described Jean Piaget's theoretical research program as consisting of four phases: The resulting theoretical frameworks are sufficiently different from each other that they have been characterized as representing different "Piagets." More recently, Jeremy Burman responded to Beilin and called for the addition of a phase before his turn to psychology: "the zeroeth Piaget."

Piaget before psychology.

Before Piaget became a psychologist, he trained in natural history and philosophy. He received a doctorate in 1918 from the University of Neuchâtel. He then undertook post-doctoral training in Zürich (1918–1919),

Sociological model of development.

Piaget first developed as a psychologist in the 1920s. He investigated the hidden side of children's minds. Piaget proposed that children moved from a position of egocentrism to sociocentrism. For this explanation he combined the use of psychological and clinical methods to create what he called a semiclinical interview. He began the interview by asking children standardized questions and depending on how they answered, he would ask

Biological model of intellectual development.

In this stage, Piaget believed that the process of thinking and the intellectual development could be regarded as an extension of the biological process of the adaptation of the species, which has also two on-going processes: assimilation and accommodation. There is "assimilation" when a child responds to a new event in a way that is consistent with an existing schema. There is "accommodation" when a child either modifies an existing schema or forms an entirely new schema to deal with a new object or event.  He argued infants were engaging in an act of assimilation when they sucked on everything in their reach. He claimed infants transform all objects

Elaboration of the logical model of intellectual development.

In the model Piaget developed in stage three, he argued that intelligence develops in a series of stages that are related to age and are progressive because one stage must be accomplished before the next can occur. For each stage of development the child forms a view of reality for that age

Study of figurative thought.

Piaget studied areas of intelligence like perception and memory that are not entirely logical. Logical concepts are described as being completely reversible because they can always get back to the starting point, meaning that if one starts with a given premise and follows logical steps to reach a conclusion, the same steps may be done in the opposite order, starting from the conclusion to arrive at the premise. The perceptual concepts Piaget studied could not be manipulated. To describe the figurative process, Piaget uses pictures as examples. Pictures cannot be

Theory.

Piaget defined himself as a 'genetic' epistemologist, interested in the process of the qualitative development of knowledge. He considered cognitive structures development as a differentiation of biological regulations. When his entire theory first became known – the theory in itself being based on a structuralist and a cognitivitist approach – it was an outstanding and exciting development in regards to the psychological community at that time.  There are a total of four phases in Piaget's research program that included books on certain topics of developmental psychology. In particular, during one period of research, he described himself studying his own three children, and carefully observing and interpreting their cognitive development. In one of his last books, "Equilibration of Cognitive Structures: The Central Problem of Intellectual Development", he intends to explain knowledge development as a process of equilibration using two main concepts in his theory, assimilation and accommodation, as belonging not only to biological interactions but also to cognitive ones.  Piaget believed answers for the epistemological questions at his time could be answered, or better proposed, if one looked to the genetic aspect of it, hence his experimentations with children and adolescents. As he says in the introduction of his book "Genetic Epistemology": "What the genetic epistemology proposes is discovering the roots of the different varieties of knowledge, since its elementary forms, following to the next levels, including also the scientific knowledge."

Stages.

The four development stages are described in Piaget's theory as:  1. "Sensorimotor stage": from birth to age two. The children experience the world through movement and their senses. During the sensorimotor stage children are extremely egocentric, meaning they cannot perceive the world from others' viewpoints. The sensorimotor stage is divided into six substages:  Some followers of Piaget's studies of infancy, such as Kenneth Kaye argue that his contribution was as an observer of countless phenomena not previously described, but that he didn't offer explanation of the processes in

Developmental process.

Piaget provided no concise description of the development process as a whole. Broadly speaking it consisted of a cycle:  This process may not be wholly gradual, but new evidence shows that the passage into new stages is more gradual than once thought. Once a new level of organization, knowledge and insight proves to be effective, it will quickly be generalized to other areas "if they exist". As a result, transitions between stages can seem to be rapid and radical, but oftentimes the child has grasped one aspect of the new stage of cognitive functioning but not addressed others. The bulk of the time spent in a new stage consists of refining this new cognitive level; however it does not always happen quickly. For example, a child may see that two different colors of

Genetic epistemology.

According to Jean Piaget, genetic epistemology attempts to "explain knowledge, and in particular scientific knowledge, on the basis of its history, its sociogenesis, and especially the psychological origins of the notions and operations upon which it

Schema.

A Schema is a structured cluster of concepts, it can be used to represent objects, scenarios or sequences of events or relations. The original idea was proposed by philosopher Immanuel Kant as innate structures used to help us perceive the world.  A schema (pl. schemata) is the mental framework that is created as children interact with their physical and social environments. For example, many 3-year-olds insist that the sun is alive because it comes up in the morning and goes down at night. According to Piaget, these children are operating based on a simple cognitive schema that things that move are alive. At any age, children rely on their current cognitive structures to understand the world around them. Moreover, younger and older children may often interpret and respond to the same objects

Physical microstructure of schemata.

In his "Biology and Knowledge" (1967+ / French 1965), Piaget tentatively hinted at possible physical embodiments for his abstract schema entities. At the time, there was much talk and research about RNA as such an agent of learning, and Piaget considered some of the evidence. However, he did not offer any firm conclusions, and confessed that this was beyond his area of expertise.  One difficulty at that time was that it was generally assumed that nearly all RNA served as mere templates for protein production, and such ideas offered no coherent explanation for Piaget's schema account. However (from 2001 onward), Mattick and others pointed out that, in humans, only about 3% of RNA serves that purpose! – leaving ample stocks of ncRNA available for other tasks (perhaps acting in their own right, rather than as templates). On that new basis, it has now been possible to reverse engineer a seemingly plausible mechanistic framework, based on Piaget's work, accounting for some of the activities of the hippocampus and cerebral cortex etc. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether this will be consistent with new direct experimental evidence (if indeed such experiments are possible).

Research methods.

Piaget wanted to revolutionize the way research was conducted. Although he started researching with his colleagues using a traditional method of data collection, he was not fully satisfied with the results and wanted to keep trying to find new ways of researching using a combination of data, which included naturalistic observation, psychometrics, and the psychiatric clinical examination, in order to have a less guided form of research that would produce more empirically valid results. As Piaget developed new research methods, he wrote a book called "The Language and Thought of the Child", which aimed to synthesize the methods he was using in order to study the conclusion children drew from situations and how they arrived to such conclusion. The main idea was to observe how children responded and articulated certain situations with their own reasoning, in order to examine their thought processes (Mayer, 2005).  Piaget administered a test in 15 boys with ages ranging from 10 to 14 years in which he asked participants to describe the relationship between a mixed bouquet of flowers and a bouquet with flowers of the same color. The purpose of this study was to analyze the thinking process the boys had and to draw conclusions about the logic processes they had used, which was a psychometric technique of research. Piaget also used the psychoanalytic method initially developed by Sigmund Freud. The purpose of using such method was to examine the unconscious mind, as well as to continue parallel studies using different research methods. Psychoanalysis was later rejected by Piaget, as he thought it was insufficiently empirical (Mayer, 2005).  Piaget argued that children and adults used speech for different purposes. In order to confirm his argument, he experimented analyzing a child's interpretation of a story. In the experiment, the child listened to a story and then told a friend that same story in his/her/their own words. The purpose of this study was to examine how children verbalize and understand each other without adult intervention. Piaget wanted to examine the limits of naturalistic observation, in order to understand a child's reasoning. He realized the difficulty of studying children's thoughts, as it is hard to know if a child is pretending to believe their thoughts or not. Piaget was the pioneer researcher to examine children's conversations in a social context – starting from examining their speech and actions – where children were comfortable and spontaneous (Kose, 1987).

Influence.

Despite his ceasing to be a fashionable psychologist, the magnitude of Piaget's continuing influence can be measured by the global scale and activity of the Jean Piaget Society, which holds annual conferences and attracts around 700 participants. His theory of cognitive development has proved influential in many different areas:

Developmental psychology.

Piaget is the most influential developmental psychologist to date, influencing not only the work of Lev Vygotsky and of Lawrence Kohlberg but whole generations of eminent

Piaget on education.

By using Piaget's theory, educators focus on their students as learners. As a result of this focus, education is learner-center and constructivist-based to an extent. Piaget's theory allows teachers to view students as individual learners who add new concepts to prior knowledge to construct, or build, understanding for themselves. Teachers who use a learner-centered approach as a basis for their professional practices incorporate the several dispositions. They provide experience-based educational opportunities. These teachers also contemplate the learners' individual qualities and attitudes during curriculum

Education.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Piaget's works also inspired the transformation of European and American education, including both theory and practice, leading to a more 'child-centered' approach. In "Conversations with Jean Piaget", Bringuier says: "Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society... but for me and no one else, education means making creators... You have to make inventors, innovators—not conformists" (Bringuier, 1980, p. 132).  His theory of cognitive development can be used as a tool in the early childhood classroom. According to Piaget, children developed best in a classroom with interaction.  Piaget defined knowledge as the ability to modify, transform, and "operate on" an object or idea, such that it is understood by the operator through the process of transformation. Learning, then, occurs as a result of experience, both physical and logical, with the objects themselves and how they are acted upon. Thus, knowledge must be assimilated in an active

Morality.

Piaget believed in two basic principles relating to character education: that children develop moral ideas in stages and that children create their conceptions of the world. According to Piaget, "the child is someone who constructs his own moral world view, who forms ideas about right and wrong, and fair and unfair, that are not the direct product of adult teaching and that are often maintained in the face of adult wishes to the contrary" (Gallagher, 1978, p. 26). Piaget believed that children

Historical studies of thought and cognition.

Historical changes of thought have been modeled in Piagetian terms. Broadly speaking these models have

Non-human development.

Neo-Piagetian stages have been applied to the maximum stage attained by various animals. For

Origins.

The origins of human intelligence have also been studied in Piagetian terms. Wynn (1979, 1981) analysed Acheulian and Oldowan tools in terms

Primatology.

Piaget's models of cognition have also been applied outside the human

Philosophy.

Philosophers have used Piaget's work. For example, the philosopher and social theorist Jürgen Habermas has incorporated Piaget into his work, most notably in "The Theory of Communicative Action." The philosopher Thomas Kuhn credited Piaget's work with helping him to understand the transition between modes of thought which characterized his

Artificial intelligence.

Piaget also had a considerable effect in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence. Seymour Papert used Piaget's work while developing the Logo programming language. Alan Kay used Piaget's theories as the basis for the Dynabook

Challenges.

Piaget's theory, however vital in understanding child psychology, did not go without scrutiny. A main figure whose ideas contradicted Piaget's ideas was the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky stressed the importance of a child's cultural background as an effect to the stages of development. Because different cultures stress different social interactions, this challenged Piaget's theory that the hierarchy of learning development had to develop in succession. Vygotsky introduced the term Zone of proximal development as an overall task a child would have to develop that would be too difficult to develop alone.  Also, the so-called neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development maintained that Piaget's theory does not do justice either to the underlying mechanisms of information processing that explain transition from stage to stage or individual differences in cognitive development. According to these theories, changes in information processing mechanisms, such as speed of processing and working memory, are responsible for ascension from stage to stage. Moreover, differences between individuals in these processes explain why some

List of major works.

The following groupings are based on

Further reading.

Piaget inspired innumerable studies and even new areas of inquiry. The following is a list of critiques and commentaries, organized using the same citation-based method as the list of his own major works (above). These represent the significant and influential post-Piagetian writings in their respective sub-disciplines.

Jean Piaget (,, ; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

Jean Piaget [ - "žán pjaže"] (9. srpna 1896 – 16. září 1980) byl švýcarský filozof, přírodní vědec a vývojový psycholog, který se proslavil studiem dětského myšlení a teorií kognitivního vývoje či genetické epistemologie. Soustavným empirickým zkoumáním se pokusil vysvětlit, jak se v dětství vytvářejí základní struktury a předpoklady poznávání, které Immanuel Kant pokládal za apriorní. Byl druhým nejcitovanějším psychologem 20. století. Významně se přičinil o reformy školního vzdělávání a jak říká Ernst von Glasersfeld, byl také "velkým průkopníkem konstruktivistické teorie znalostí".


Term.

The Latin name "Cisleithania" derives from that of the Leitha River, a tributary of the Danube forming the historical boundary between the Archduchy of Austria and the Hungarian Kingdom in the area southeast of Vienna (on the way to Budapest). Much of its territory lay west (or, from a Viennese perspective, on "this" side) of the Leitha.  After the constitutional changes of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Cisleithanian crown lands ("Kronländer") continued to constitute the Austrian Empire, but the latter term was rarely used to avoid confusion with the era before 1867, when the Kingdom of Hungary had been a constituent part of that empire. The somewhat cumbersome official name was Die im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreiche und Länder ("The Kingdoms and Lands represented in the Imperial Council"). The phrase was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status until 1915; the press and the general public seldom used it and then with a derogatory connotation. In general, the lands were just called Austria, but the term "Austrian lands" ("Österreichische Länder") originally did not apply to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (i.e., Bohemia proper, the Margraviate of Moravia and Duchy of Silesia) or to the territories annexed in the 18th-century Partitions of Poland (Galicia) or the former Venetian Dalmatia.  From 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Slavonia and the Principality of Transylvania were no longer "Austrian" crown lands. Rather, they constituted an autonomous state, officially called the "Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St Stephen" ( or "A Magyar Szent Korona Országai", ) and commonly known as "Transleithania" or just Hungary. The Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, occupied in 1878, formed a separate part. Both the "Austrian" and "Hungarian" lands of the Dual Monarchy had large Slavic-settled territories in the north (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles and Ruthenians) as well as in the south (Slovenes, Croats and Serbs).

Crown lands.

Cisleithania consisted of 17 crown lands which had representatives in the Imperial Council ("Reichsrat"), the Cisleithanian parliament in Vienna. The crown lands centered on the Archduchy of Austria ("Erzherzogtum Österreich") were not states, but provinces in the modern sense. However, they were areas with unique historic political and legal characteristics and were therefore more than mere administrative districts. They have been conceived of as "historical-political entities".  Each crown land had a regional assembly, the Landtag, which enacted laws ("Landesgesetze") on matters of regional and mostly minor importance. Until 1848, the "Landtage" had been traditional diets (assemblies of the estates of the realm). They were disbanded after the Revolutions of 1848 and reformed after 1860. Some members held their position as "ex officio" members (e.g., bishops), while others were elected. There was no universal and equal suffrage, but a mixture of privilege and limited franchise. The executive committee of a Landtag was called "Landesausschuss" and headed by a "Landeshauptmann", being president of the Landtag as well.  From 1868 onwards Emperor Franz Joseph himself (in his function as monarch of a crown land, being king, archduke, grandduke, duke or count) and his Imperial–Royal ("k.k.") government headed by the Minister-President of Austria were represented at the capital cities of the crown lands—except for Vorarlberg which was administered with Tyrol, and Istria and Gorizia-Gradisca which were adminstred together with Trieste under the common name of Austro-Illyrian Littoral— by a stadtholder ("Statthalter"), in few crown lands called "Landespräsident", who acted as chief executive.

Politics.

According to the "December Constitution", a redraft of the emperor's 1861 February Patent, the Austrian government was generally responsible in all affairs concerning the Cisleithanian lands, except for the common Austro-Hungarian Army, the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the Foreign Ministry, these "k.u.k." matters remained reserved for the Imperial and Royal Ministers' Council for Common Affairs of Austria-Hungary.  The Austrian "Reichsrat", a bicameral legislature implemented in 1861, became the Cisleithanian parliament. Originally consisting of delegates of the "Landtage", in 1873 direct election of the House of Deputies ("Abgeordnetenhaus") was introduced with a four-class franchise suffrage for male landowners and bourgeois. Equal, direct, secret and universal suffrage—for men—was not introduced until a 1907 electoral reform. In this Lower House (with 353 members in 1873 and 516 in 1907), at first German-speaking deputies dominated, but with the extension of the suffrage the Slavs gained a majority. An ethnic nationalist struggle between German-speaking and Slavic deputies, especially in the context of the Czech National Revival, was played out. Leaders of the movement like František Palacký advocated the emancipation of the Slavic population within the Monarchy (Austroslavism), while politicians of the Young Czech Party principally denied the right of the "Reichsrat" to put any decisions relevant for the "Czech lands", and used means of filibustering as well as absence to torpedo its work. They were antagonized by radical German nationalists led by Georg von Schönerer, demanding the dissolution of the Monarchy and the unification of the "German Austrian" lands with the German Empire.  After 1893, no "k.k." government was able to rely on a parliamentary majority. Nevertheless, Polish members of parliament and politicians like Count Kasimir Felix Badeni achieved some success involving Galician Poles by special regulations for this "developing country"; thence the "Polenklub" played a constructive role most of the time. Politics were frequently paralysed because of the tensions between different nationalities. When Czech obstruction at the Reichsrat prevented the parliament from working, the emperor went on to rule autocratically through imperial decrees ("Kaiserliche Verordnungen") submitted by his government. The "Reichsrat" was prorogued in March 1914 at the behest of Minister-President Count Karl von Stürgkh, it did not meet during the July Crisis and was not reconvened until May 1917, after the accession of Emperor Karl in 1916.  For representation in matters relevant to the whole real union of Austria-Hungary (foreign affairs, defence, and the financing thereof) the "Reichsrat" appointed delegations of 60 members to discuss these matters parallel to Hungarian delegations of the same size and to come, in separate votes, to the same conclusion on the recommendation of the responsible common ministry. In Cisleithania, the 60 delegates consisted of 40 elected members of the House of Representatives ("Abgeordnetenhaus") and 20 members of the Upper House ("Herrenhaus"). The delegations convened simultaneously, both either in Vienna or in Budapest, though spatially divided. In case of not getting the same decision in three attempts, the law permitted the summoning of a common session of both delegations and the eventual counting of the votes in total, but the Hungarians, who averted any Imperial "roof" over their part of the dual monarchy, as well as the common ministers, carefully avoided reaching this situation. Austria-Hungary as a common entity had not own jurisdiction and legislative power, which was shaped by the fact that there was no common parliament. The common diplomatic and military affairs were managed by delegations from the Imperial Council and the Hungarian parliament. According to the compromise, the members of the delegates from the two parliaments had no right to debate, they had no right to introduce new perspectives and own ideas during the meetings, they were nothing more than the extended arms of their own parliaments. All decisions had to be ratify by the Imperial council in Vienna and by the Hungarian parliament in Budapest. Without the Austrian and Hungarian parliamentary ratifications, the decisions of the delegates were not valid in Austria or in Kingdom of Hungary.

Population.

The largest group within Cisleithania were Austrian Germans (including Yiddish-speaking Jews), who made up around a third of the population. German-speakers and Czechs made up a majority of the population. Almost 60% of Cisleithania's population was ethnically Slavic.

Cisleithania (, also "Zisleithanien",,,,,,,,,, transliterated: "Tsysleitàniia", ) was a common yet unofficial denotation of the northern and western part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in the Compromise of 1867—as distinguished from "Transleithania" ("i.e.", the Hungarian Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen east of ["beyond"] the Leitha River).

Předlitavsko ("Cislajtánie", z němčiny "Cisleithanien") neboli Rakousko byla jedna ze dvou částí Rakousko-Uherska v letech 1867-1918 s hlavním městem Vídní. Od druhé části, Zalitavska ("Translajtánie") neboli Uherska, jej zčásti oddělovala řeka Litava.


Early life and education.

Phelps was born in Evanston, Illinois, and he moved with his family to Hastings-on-Hudson, New York when he was six, where he spent his school years. In 1951, he went to Amherst College for his undergraduate education. At his father's advice, Phelps enrolled in his first economics course in his second year at Amherst. Economist James Nelson gave the course, which was based on the famous textbook "Economics" by Paul Samuelson. Phelps was strongly impressed with the possibility of applying formal analysis to business. He quickly became aware of an important unsolved problem with the existing economic theory and the existing gap between microeconomics and macroeconomics.  After receiving his B.A. at Amherst in 1955, Phelps went to Yale University for graduate studies. At Yale, he studied under future Nobel laureates James Tobin and Thomas Schelling, among others. Phelps was also strongly influenced by William Fellner whose course emphasized the expectations of agents. Phelps received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1959.

Research in 1960s and 1970s.

After receiving his Ph.D., Phelps went to work as an economist for the RAND Corporation. However, feeling he could not pursue macroeconomics at RAND (which focused on defense work), Phelps decided to return to the academic world. In 1960, he took a research position at the Cowles Foundation while he was also teaching at Yale. At the Cowles Foundation, his research focused mainly on neoclassical growth theory, following the seminal work of Robert Solow. As part of his research, in 1961 Phelps published a famous paper on the Golden Rule savings rate, one of his major contributions to economic science. He also wrote papers dealing with other areas of economic theory, such as monetary economics or Ricardian equivalence and its relation to optimal growth.  His position at Cowles gave Phelps the chance to interact with Arthur Okun and other notables in the field. He was able to collaborate with other top economists working on growth theory, including David Cass and fellow Nobelist Tjalling Koopmans. During the 1962-63 academic year, Phelps visited MIT, where he was in contact with future Nobel Prize winners Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow and Franco Modigliani.  In 1966, Phelps left Yale and moved to University of Pennsylvania to take up tenured position as professor of economics. At Penn, Phelps's research focused mainly on the link between employment, wage setting and inflation, leading to his influential 1968 paper "Money-Wage Dynamics and Labor Market Equilibrium" and others. The research contributed important insights in the microeconomics of the Phillips curve, including the role of expectations (in the form of adaptive expectations) and imperfect information in the setting of wages and prices. It also introduced the concept of the natural rate of unemployment and argued that labor market equilibrium is independent of the rate of inflation tand and so is no long run tradeoff between unemployment and inflation. That, if accurate, would have the crucial implication that the Keynesian policy of demand management has only transitory effects and so cannot be used to control the long-term rate of unemployment in the economy. In January 1969, Phelps organized a conference at Penn in support of the research on the microfoundations of inflation and employment determination. The conference papers were published the next year in a book that had a strong and lasting influence; it became known as the "Phelps volume". Along with his research on the Phillips curve, Phelps also collaborated with other economists on research regarding economic growth, the effects of monetary and fiscal policy, and optimal population growth.  In the following years, an element in Phelps's foundations came under heavy criticism with the introduction of John Muth's rational expectations, which was popularized by future Nobel prize winner Robert Lucas, Jr.. Phelps, with Calvo and John Taylor, started a program to rebuild Keynesian economics with rational expectations by employing sticky wages and prices. They did so by explicitly incorporating in models the fact that wage contracts are set in advance for multiple periods, an idea originating from Phelps's 1968 paper. This research lead to a paper published with Taylor in 1977, proving that staggered wage setting gives monetary policy a role in stabilizing economic fluctuations. The use of staggered wage and price setting, further developed by Calvo in a 1983 paper, became a cornerstone of New Keynesian economics. During the 1970s, Phelps and Calvo also collaborated on research on optimal contracts under asymmetric information.  Phelps spent 1969–70 at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science at Stanford University. Discussions with fellow Nobel prize winners Amartya Sen and Kenneth Arrow and especially the influence of the philosophy of John Rawls, whom he met during the year at the Center, led Phelps to undertake some research outside macroeconomics. As a result, in 1972, he published seminal research in the new field that he named statistical discrimination. He also published research on economic justice, applying ideas from Rawls's "A Theory of Justice".  In 1971, Phelps moved to the Economics Department at Columbia University, which also included future Nobel prize winners William Vickrey and James J. Heckman (future laureate Robert Mundell joined three years later), as well as Phoebus Dhrymes, Guillermo Calvo and John B. Taylor. There, he published research on the inflation tax and the impact of fiscal policy on optimal inflation. In 1972, Phelps published a new book which focused on the derivation of policy implications of his new theory. The book further popularized his "expectations-augmented Phillips curve" and introduced the concept of hysteresis with regard to unemployment (prolonged unemployment is partially irreversible as workers lose skill and become demoralized).  In the late 1970s, Phelps and one of his former students, Roman Frydman, conducted some research on the implications of assuming rational expectations, at first independently and then in collaboration. Their results suggested that rational expectations are not the correct way to model agents' expectations. They organized a conference on the issue in 1981 and published the proceedings in a 1983 book. However, as rational expectations were becoming the standard in macroeconomics, the book was initially received with hostility, and it was largely ignored. The financial crisis of 2007–2008, along with the failure of rational expectations models to predict it, led to a renewed interest in the work.

Research in 1980s.

In 1982, he was appointed the McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia. During the early 1980s, he wrote an introductory textbook synthesizing contemporary economics knowledge. The book, "Political Economy", was published in 1985 but had limited classroom adoption.  In the 1980, Phelps increased collaboration with European universities and institutions, including Banca d'Italia (where he spent most of his 1985–86 sabbatical and Observatoire français des conjectures économiques (OFCE). He became interested in the puzzle of the persistent high unemployment in Europe despite no pause in inflation and published on the subject with Jean-Paul Fitoussi (the director of OFCE). Further study led Phelps to believe that it is not a transitory phenomenon but the effect of changes in equilibrium unemployment. During the following years, Phelps tried to build a theory to determine endogenously the natural rate of unemployment. He published partial research results in a 1994 book, "Structural Slumps: The Modern Equilibrium Theory of Employment, Interest and Assets". Phelps also collaborated closely with Luigi Paganetto at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and, between 1988 and 1998, as co-organizers of the Villa Mondragone International Seminar.

Research in 1990s.

In 1990 Phelps took part in a mission from the new EBRD to Moscow, where he and Kenneth Arrow designed a proposal for the reform of the Soviet Union. After the EBRD was established, he became a member of its Economic Advisory Board, where he stayed until 1993. From his work at EBRD and collaboration with his former student, Roman Frydman, Phelps developed a strong interest in Eastern Europe's transition economies.  Over the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Phelps created a new non-monetary theory of employment in which business asset values drive the natural rate. The theory, first fully set out in his book "Structural Slumps" (1994), explains Europe's slump without disinflation in the 1980s: the elevation of the world real rate of interest, declining opportunities for continuing technological catching up and the mushrooming social wealth granted by Europe's emerging welfare state play the main causal roles. Two sequel papers in 2000 and 2001 on the theory of'structural booms' explained US inflationless expansion in the late 1990s and claimed its transience. His papers develop the thesis that the great economic swings experienced by the West in the past century not only originate in non-monetary shocks but also operate fundamentally by non-monetary mechanisms.  In the mid-1990s, his research turned to what he called economic inclusion. He published in 1997 a book for the general public, "Rewarding Work" about the causes and cures of the joblessness and low wages among disadvantaged workers.

Current focus.

Phelps's current work is about the benefits and sources of a country's structural dynamism: the enterprise and creativity of entrepreneurs, the skill of financiers in selecting and supporting the best projects, and the knowledge managers draw upon in evaluating and making use of new methods and products. Every dynamic economy has its doldrums and even torpid economies may rise, perhaps with delay, to an extraordinary opportunity. However, great dynamism, he argues, brings advantages in virtually every dimension of economic performance, not just in productivity. For Phelps, the challenges presented in a creative and evolving business sector provide most people with their main vehicle for the exploration, exercise, and development of their talents.  In the already-advanced economies, that is perhaps the best reason that policy must aim to build a business sector of high dynamism and broad inclusion. The research task is to identify the institutions that are pathways to dynamism and the institutions that are obstructions.  Phelps's own research on dynamism began at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1990 and 1992–93, where he worked on the theory of capitalism and issues of mass privatization in Eastern Europe. Later in the decade, he turned to studying a range of economic institutions in Western Europe and the United States. He conducted research with a focus on the Italian economy as Senior Advisor to Italy in Europe of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche from 1997 to 2000.  In 2001, he and Roman Frydman founded the Center on Capitalism & Society at Columbia (now a unit of Arts and Sciences) to promote and conduct research on capitalism.  In 2008, writing in the wake of the Great Recession, Phelps criticized the "false" models of neoclassical economics, but he also wrote with skepticism regarding Keynesian resurgence: What theory can we use to get us out of the impending slump quickly and reliably? To use the 'new classical' theory of fluctuations begun at Chicago in the 1970s – the theory in which the "risk management" models are embedded – is unthinkable, since it is precisely the theory falsified by the asset price collapse. The thoughts of some have turned to John Maynard Keynes. His insights into uncertainty and speculation were deep. Yet his employment theory was problematic and the 'Keynesian' policy solutions are questionable at best...At the end of his life Keynes wrote of'modernist stuff, gone wrong and turned sour and silly'. He told his friend Friedrich Hayek he intended to re-examine his theory in his next book. He would have moved on. The admiration we all have for Keynes's fabulous contributions should not sway us from moving on.  Phelps severely criticizes the economic policy of U.S. president Donald Trump. It feels "like economic policy at a time of fascism [...]. The leader controls the economy and tells the companies how things are going to be done."

Personal life.

In 1974 Phelps married Viviana Montdor. Publications have noted that despite his many accomplishments, Phelps does not own a car.

Honors and awards.

In 1981 Phelps was elected to become a member of the National Academy of Science in the USA. In 2006, he was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, referred to, colloquially, as the Nobel Prize in Economics for "his analysis of inter-temporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy." In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Phelps's work had "deepened our understanding of the relation between short-run and long-run effects of economic policy."  In the year 2000, Phelps was made a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. In February 2008, he was named Chevalier of France's Legion of Honor. Four months later he was given the Global Economy Prize of Kiel Institute for the World Economy.  Furthermore, Phelps received honorary degrees from several renowned institutions acknowledging his academic work. In 1985, he was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater, Amherst College. In June 2001, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Mannheim and, in October 2003, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa; in July 2004, from Paris Dauphine University and in October 2004, from the University of Iceland. He also holds honorary doctorates from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (2006), the University of Buenos Aires (2007), Tsinghua University (2007), and the Université libre de Bruxelles (2010). From 2010 to 2016, he served as Dean of New Huadu Business School at Minjiang University in Fuzhou.

Edmund Strother Phelps (born July 26, 1933) is an American economist and the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Edmund Strother Phelps (* 26. července 1933) je americký profesor ekonomie a nositel Nobelovy ceny z roku 2006. Významná je jeho práce v oblasti makroekonomie, ekonomického růstu, teorie přirozené míry nezaměstnanosti, což úroveň počtu lidí bez práce, která by odpovídala potenciálnímu produktu ekonomiky, a modifikace Phillipsovy křivky.


History.

Jean-Claude Decaux (b. in 1937) first created a company in 1955 that specialised in Outdoor advertising alongside motorways. However, as these billboards were heavily taxed by law, Jean-Claude Decaux turned towards a business model in 1964 which was based on city billboards and invented the concept of advertising street furniture - well-maintained bus shelters fully funded by advertisers.  Since the first concept of the bus shelter in 1964, JCDecaux has continued to innovate and offer different types of street furniture. During the 70s, JCDecaux launched its first Citylight Information Panels (CIPs), a 2m2 billboard with signage to indicate directions in cities to drivers. The first fully accessible automatic amenities were installed in San Francisco in 1994, although, in 1981, JCDecaux established a system of automatic public amenities in France. In 1981, JCDecaux also developed the "News Electronic Journal", which broadcast news relating to culture, sport, associations and information about the city.  JCDecaux then bought the "Société Fermière des Colonnes Morris". The Senior billboards, which measure 8m2 and allow multiple ads on a single site, were created in the 1980s. The first scrolling billboards appeared in 1988, which increased the number of advertising panels without raising the number of structures.  In 1999, the group acquired Havas Media Communication and Avenir. This acquisition allowed the Group to expand into the large format advertising market and into advertising in airports. In 2001, JCDecaux entered the Euronext Stock Exchange with an opening share price of €16,50. In 2002, Jean-Claude Decaux passed the management of the company on to two of his three sons, Jean-Charles Decaux and Jean-François Decaux, who then became co-CEOs of the company.  JCDecaux installed its first rental system of self-service bicycles in Vienna in 2003 and then in Lyon in 2005. In 2007, JCDecaux won a tender for Paris’ street furniture and bicycle rental system. Today, JCDecaux is ranked the number one company worldwide in self-service bicycles, with a fleet of 52,000 bicycles now present in 70 cities. JCDecaux operates this service under the brand "Cyclocity".  In 2011, JCDecaux acquired "MediaKiosk" (a company which own kiosks in France) as the main shareholder.  As part of the open data movement, JCDecaux made available its data system of the rental bike service in 2013. The company is also recognized for its commitment to sustainable development and holds an ISO 14001 certification.

Activities.

The JCDecaux Group specialises in advertising street furniture, large format billboards, advertising on public transport, and self-service bicycle rental systems.

Street furniture.

Advertising street furniture was a concept invented by Jean-Claude Decaux.  Street furniture includes bus shelters, Morris Columns, City Information Panels (CIP/MUPIs) and kiosks. Such formats enable advertisers to reach city centres, where large format billboards are not available. Cities can retain a portion of the advertising panels for their own use.  In some countries, JCDecaux holds a contract in shopping malls.  In order to adapt street furniture to the environment, JCDecaux works with internationally renowned designers, such as: Mario Bellini, Philip Cox, Peter Eisenman, Norman Foster, Patrick Jouin, Philippe Starck, Robert Stern, Martin Szekely and Jean-Michel Wilmotte. JCDecaux also has a Design Office, which works to improve and modernise furniture.  Street furniture also includes a range of non-advertising sites, such as self-service toilets, electronic newspapers and interactive kiosks next to public benches, bins, columns, road signs, glass batteries and paper containers.

Transport advertising.

The term transport includes Outdoor advertising in airports, on the underground, on buses, trams, and on taxis. JCDecaux operates concessions in 150 airports and over 300 subways, trains, trolleys and bus stations. In 2013, advertising in Transport accounted for 37.9% of JCDecaux's revenue.

Billboard advertising.

Billboard advertising includes advertising billboards of more than 8m2. These formats can be adapted for many different purposes, such as for event artworks (for example: building wraps), which is operated by JCDecaux under the brand "Artvertising".  Individuals are offered the opportunity to lease part of their property (i.e. wall or garden) to JCDecaux as a billboard site.

Bicycle rental systems.

The public bicycle rental systems are each financed by local advertising operators, in most cases in return for the cities signing over a 10-year licence to exploit citywide billboards. The overall scheme is called "Cyclocity" by the company, but each city's system is branded under an individual name.  The cities that have implemented its bicycle rental systems are listed below.  "To sort this table by any column, click on the icon next to the column title."

Worldwide presence.

JCDecaux operates in over 75 countries across 5 continents. 77.9% of JCDecaux’s annual revenue comes from abroad.

Europe.

JCDecaux originated in France and was quickly established overseas, with its first foreign contracts in Belgium in 1966 and then in Portugal in 1971.  Thanks to its partnership with Wall AG, the company settled in Germany in 1982 and then in Turkey in 1996.  JCDecaux was founded in the United Kingdom in 1984 and is the market leader in Outdoor advertising. In 2005, JCDecaux UK has unveiled the UK's tallest outdoor advertising structure: the M4 Torch. JCDecaux won several important contracts during the past 5 years such as: a contract for Outdoor Advertising at St Pancras International in London (2011), National Rail Outdoor Advertising and BAA Advertising Contracts at Heathrow, Heathrow Express, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow Airports.  In 2010, JCDecaux completed the acquisition of UK rival Titan Outdoor. In 2015, JCDecaux won the Transport for London (TfL) bus shelter advertising contract.  JCDecaux can now be found in most European countries, including Luxembourg (1985), the Netherlands (1986), Finland (1989), Sweden (1989), Spain (1990), Slovakia (1990), Czech Republic (1995), Norway (1998), Ireland (1999), Poland (1999) and in Hungary (2012).  JCDecaux can also be found in the Baltic countries (2002), Bulgaria (2007), in Ukraine (2007).  JCDecaux is present in Denmark (AFA JCDecaux Denmark) since 1989, in Italy (IGPDecaux) since 1995, in Iceland (AFA JCDecaux Iceland) since 1998, in Switzerland (APG|SGA) since 1999, in Austria (Gewista) since 2001, in Croatia and in Slovenia (Europlakat) since 2001, in Serbia (Alma Quattro) since 2003 and in Russia (Russ Outdoor) since 2007 through equity or joint ventures.

North America.

JCDecaux has been present in the United States since 1993 in major cities and in 26 US airports, including New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles. JCDecaux was established in Canada in 2002.  Its North America division has its head office in 350 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

South America.

JCDecaux was founded in Brazil and in Argentina in 1998. The company is also a part of the Outdoor market in Argentina, Uruguay since 2000 and Chile since 2001. Recently, JCDecaux strengthened its presence in Latin America by winning a contract for 1000 digital clocks in São Paulo (2012), completing the acquisition of 85% of EUMEX.

Middle East and Africa.

The company’s operation also covers the Middle East with offices established in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Doha in Qatar, Tel Aviv in Israel, as well as Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, JCDecaux signed recently a 20-year exclusive street furniture contract to provide the City of Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, with a wide range of advertising street furniture.  JCDecaux is present in five African countries: Algeria (2007), Cameroun (2011), South Africa,(2011), Tanzania ( 2016) Botswana (2016), and Nigeria (2017).

Asia and Oceania.

JCDecaux expanded to Australia in 1997. In Asia, JCDecaux can be found in Singapore and Thailand since 1999, Japan since 2000 (as MCDecaux) and in South Korea since 2001. JCDecaux also moved to China in 2004 with 7 airports, including Shanghai and Beijing. The company also has a presence in India (2006), Uzbekistan (2006), Kazakhstan (2007) and Mongolia (2014).  JCDecaux maintains most of the bus stops and MUPIs in the NDMC area in Delhi.  In 2018, the company acquired Australian outdoor advertising company APN Outdoor.  And rival outdoor advertising companies:

JCDecaux Group (JCDecaux SA, ) is a multinational corporation based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, known for its bus-stop advertising systems, billboards, public bicycle rental systems, and street furniture. It is the largest outdoor advertising corporation in the world.

Skupina JCDecaux [žisedeko] je mezinárodní společností se sídlem v Paříži, hlavním městě Francie. Je největší společností zaměřenou na venkovní reklamu na světě a rozvíjí činnost ve třech hlavních segmentech: městský mobiliář, velkoformátová reklama a reklama v systémech městské hromadné dopravy. V České republice JCDecaux od roku 1994 provozuje vybraný městský mobiliář v hlavním městě Praze.


Background.

The hijacking of the train was organized by train driver Jaroslav Konvalinka, train dispatcher Karel Truksa, Jaroslav Švec, a physician, and Karel Ruml, who later described his experience in the book "Z deníku vlaku svobody" (From the Diary of the Freedom Train).  Karel Ruml had been active in the anti-communist resistance movement since 1949. As a member of the right-wing organization "Všehrd", he was expelled from his studies at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague and, soon after, he joined a group smuggling secret documents from the Soviet Union to a French intelligence agency. In late 1949 he met an old friend in Nymburk in Central Bohemia. During their conversation, they were arrested by the StB (Czechoslovak State Security Service). Ruml's friend, Vlasta "Bůňa" Krejčí, was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Ruml himself was released without further consequences. The incident and the growing atmosphere of fear and repression by the state apparatus gradually strengthened his intention to leave Czechoslovakia. In 1951, his girlfriend told him about a planned illegal border crossing by train. The chief organizer was her uncle František Šilhart, a former editor of the magazine "Americké Listy" (American Letters). Šilhart decided to stay in Czechoslovakia and continue illegal anti-state activities. His son Vladimír travelled on the train instead. Karel Ruml only joined up with the other hijackers the train, where he was contacted by Truksa.

The hijacking.

On 11 September 1951, the express train to Cheb set off from Prague at 9:55 a.m. It was divided in Cheb at 2:12 p.m.; three carriages proceeding onward to Aš. When the train arrived at Hazlov—the station before Aš—the driver deliberately delayed it by four minutes. Under cover of inspection of the carriage brakes, he disabled the emergency brakes. Jaroslav Švec boarded at Hazlov. His task was to signal whether the railroad switch at Aš had been switched in the direction of the West German border, which happened irregularly.  The train approached Aš shortly before 3 p.m., Švec gave the signal. The train decelerated and rolled up on the station at its normal speed before it accelerated again and passed through the station, all the while still picking up speed. Passengers were unaware of what was happening and panic erupted. Most were high school students and patients of the spa at Františkovy Lázně (more than 70 returned). A few State Security and State Police officers were on board as passengers as well – they regularly rode on trains passing close by the borders of Western-allied states. Officers tried to reach the emergency brakes that had been installed on all carriages but found them guarded by armed hijackers.  The train sped on and crashed through a barrier placed across the track at the border. It carried on for another kilometer into West Germany before it came to a halt. State Security and State Police officers got off and immediately made for the Czechoslovak border. The plot organizers preferred to continue until the train was farther away from the border, but the driver was unwilling to take the risk due to his unfamiliarity with local track conditions. While the plot organizers explained to the shocked passengers that their action had been planned in advance, a jeep approached. The train driver was ordered by German and U.S. officials to proceed to nearby Selb.

Afterwards.

In Selb, the train was met by a number of reporters and journalists. Karel Ruml, who was the only English speaking person among the hijackers, received an offer (along with Truksa and Konvalinka) from the Americans to undertake a US tour talking about their unusual escape. Ruml asked them to conceal his identity in order to protect family members still in Czechoslovakia. After a month, the group of hijackers and their families (who had left the country with them) moved to Canada, where they received the residence visas. Their case was widely publicized by the Western media, including "The New York Times", "The Globe and Mail" and "The Los Angeles Times".  Ruml, Konvalinka and Truksa later moved to the United States to live, Vladimír Šilhart went to Great Britain.  In response, the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia organized trials of the people involved in the incident and other groups collaborating in anti-state activities. The first nine defendants were sentenced to 162 years in prison. František Šilhart was sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was released in the 1960s. The actress Jiřina Štěpničková was among the 171 suspects interrogated in association with the case. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Freedom Train (in Czech: Vlak svobody) is the term commonly used in the Czech Republic to describe the mass escape of opponents of the Czechoslovak communist regime across the West German border on 11 September 1951 involving State Railways train No. 3717.

Vlak svobody je lidové označení vlaku Československých státních drah č. 3717 z Chebu do Aše, který 11. září 1951 na místo zastavení rychle projel Aší do německého města Selb. Jedná se o jeden z nejznámějších masových útěků na západ, ovšem většina ze 110 cestujících se za hranice dostala naprosto nečekaně, 77 z nich se poté vrátilo do Československa (většinou se jednalo o žáky gymnázia v Chebu a pacienty z Františkových Lázní). Úspěšná akce několika odpůrců režimu vyvolala celosvětový ohlas a vedla komunistické úřady k zahájení budování neprostupné železné opony. Došlo také k vytrhání kolejí na mnoha nevyužívaných hraničních přechodech, aby se zabránilo podobnému incidentu.