Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soviet Union

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[edit] foreign relations

What is particularly intresting about USSR was their foreign policies.they would buy sugar from cuba at inflated prices and sell petroleum at deflated prices.at one point of time,the entire cuban economy was running on USSR funds. Today,Soviet weapons have found a place among almost all nations, militants and rebels alike.the best example being AK-47, which was invented by then Soviet,but now Russian Kaleshnikov. The AK-47 is the most preffered automatic gun throughout the world. and it is manufactured by various companies outside USSR. They also sold Gorshkov Aircraft Carrier to India. they sold innumerable number of aircrafts especailly the migs and sukhois to countries from Argentina to North Korea. also mentionable is the Excocet missiles given to argentina, the funding of eritrean rebels,arms to Nicaragua,etc i will add more.anybody who find the above intresting and worthy,please expand it.--Jayanthv86 19:15, 19 January 2006 (UTC)


well one of the most important things has been left out of WPSU.The Secret Service and Intelligence agencies.The very word Soviet brings along with it KGB,FSB,and many other famous institutions.So,i have added Secret services and miltary agenciesof USSR in the Category list.

Good work. - FrancisTyers 16:22, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Naming conventions

With most of the ministry/department names, we have a number of pieces of information we might want to include:

  • contraction in cyrillic (e.g. Госплан)
  • contraction transliterated (e.g. Gosplan)
  • full name in Russian cyrillic (e.g. Государственный комитет по планированию)
  • full name in Russian transliterated (e.g. Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu)
  • full name in English (e.g. State Committee for Planning)

What do you reckon the best way of getting this information into the article would be? Personally I think using the transliterated contraction and then have an stub article about each one. This article can include the rest of the information along with a brief description of what the ministry/department does. Like I have done for Gosstandart, Goskomtrud and Gosstroy (they aren't perfect I'd appreciate your input).

Also, which should be bold, which should be italicised which should be in parentheses etc.? - FrancisTyers 02:37, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

This is a very good question, far wider than dept. titles or even WPSU. Perhaps we can cook something up based on Template:lang-ru. Some fields would be optional. ←Humus sapiens←ну? 00:41, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Sounds good, but which fields/information should we include? - FrancisTyers 00:51, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Some comments:

  • Just bolding the main title term has the best impact. Sometimes it's necessary to bold two or more equally-prominent names, often for reasons of national respect, but bolding a half-dozen terms in the first line or throughout the article merely adds clutter.
  • Italicizing Cyrillic text can be problematic for display, if it includes unusual letters or diacritics. The different alphabet is self-evident, so I avoid italicizing Cyrillic merely to show that it's a foreign language.
  • Italicizing transliterations or first occurrences of new terms is a good idea.
  • If the set of alternate, transliterated, Cyrillic, and other-language names gets long, it works well to put it in stand-alone parentheses at the end of the lead paragraph, or even in a separate paragraph if there is some explanation required.

Transliteration requires some discussion too, but I have to run for now. —Michael Z. 2005-11-14 19:19 Z

Agree with first 3 points. Regarding your last point, I think that is what is best done with the full name in English (i.e. explain what it is in the text). How about this:

Gosplan (Russian: Госплан; Государственный комитет по планированию; Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu)
Gosplan (Russian: Государственный комитет по планированию; Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu)
Gosplan (Russian: Госплан), was a contraction of Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu (Russian: Государственный комитет по планированию)

To be honest I'm not entirely happy with any of these and would welcome more input. Another way of solving this (at least for state organs) would be to have a template like the country template I suppose... - FrancisTyers 22:24, 14 November 2005 (UTC)


I always try to minimize brackets, punctuation, bolding, and language links (pretty much minimize everything). Indicating the word fragments that make up the contraction is usually not necessary, but if it were then I think I would prefer italics. If the parenthetic matter is longer than the lead sentence, I prefer to move it down. How about this:
Gosplan (Russian: Госплан, contraction of Государственный комитет по планированию, Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu) was the committee for economic planning in the Soviet Union. . . .
Sometimes a precise translation is needed too, which I usually put in quotation marks (Excuse my translation; I'm just guessing here):
Gosplan (Russian: Госплан, contraction of Государственный комитет по планированию, Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu, "Economic Committee for Planning") was the . . .
Lately I've sometimes put the transliteration first, which is more accessible to anglophones, then the Cyrillic second. I wish we used a transliteration system that was more disciplined, and consistent across languages. Then this would suffice:
Gosplan (Russian, contraction of Gosudarstvenny Komitet po Planirovaniyu) was the committee for economic planning in the Soviet Union. . . .
Minimizing extraneous material and formatting helps keep the focus on the subject, which becomes painfully important when more languages enter into it. A couple of examples: Volodymyr-Volyns'kyi, Polesie, where the nomenclature was moved down. —Michael Z. 2005-11-14 22:50 Z
Please use/improve Template:Russianterm. See example in Gosstandart. I listed abbreviated and full terms on the same line separated by parentheses. ←Humus sapiens←ну? 03:13, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Infoboxes

Should the Soviet Republics infobox be changed to use the same type of layout as the ASSR infobox? - FrancisTyers 00:34, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics

Is it worthwhile standardising the names of the articles of the ASSRs ? e.g. at the moment we have some like Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic spelt out in full, and some like Moldavian ASSR acronymised. If it is worthwhile, which would be preferred. My opinion would be spell it all out with _ASSR as a redirect. - FrancisTyers 00:45, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

  • Sounds good to me (ASSR as a redirect, I mean). We should also start creating some kind of To-Do list of all things Soviet that don't have their own articles yet, i.e. red links. KNewman 02:46, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
I agree, feel free to add stuff to the Todo list on the main page. It was with this in mind that I created the ASSR template, all those fun red links to fill in. :) Maybe red links should also be listed under Requests on the page? - FrancisTyers 03:28, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

I am not sure whether the long form is really better. If so, shouldnt it first be done for the SSRs? To spell out AO is ok, because it is not that long. What about SFSRs? The ASSR have the shortet form partially in their flag, so it is really official to use ASSR. Tobias Conradi (Talk) 14:19, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

I've standardised all to use "Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic", since the majority already seemed to do that. —Nightstallion (?) 19:08, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Separate articles for ASSRs?

I have noticed trend of creating separate articles on ASSR, then the article on the present respublics are present. So we have separate articles on:

etc.

I think separating already short articles into a pair of stubs is coutnerproductive and akin to have sparate articles on Saint Petersburg, Petrograd and Leningrad or Gorky and Nizhny Novgorod. I think we should use the present name of the republics and have the ASSR name as a redirect. An obvious extemption is the case then the Republic does not exist anymore as Checheno-Ingushskaya ASSR or Volga German ASSR. abakharev 00:19, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Ok, sounds good to me. Then we just merge the ASSR history etc. into the new republic article? Agree with exempting republics that no longer exist. Should we then do the same with SSR and SFSR articles too? e.g. merge the content from Kyrgyz_SSR to Kyrgyzstan? Keeping ones like TSFSR where the republic no longer exists. - FrancisTyers 01:46, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

I would keep all the Soviet Union stuff seperated. The ASSR template that connects all the ASSR is not very logic on a Bashkiria page. And then we have the no more existing entities anyway. Can we add flags to all the ASSR articles? Like on Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic? What about maps? The Category:Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union gives an overview of all existing ASSR articles (stubs). Tobias Conradi (Talk) 14:38, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

Should some of the categories be renamed to conform to a standard way of arranging them? i.e. Soviet state -> State organisations in the Soviet Union, or Soviet media -> Media in the Soviet Union ? Could some of the categories be merged / split? - FrancisTyers 19:16, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I should prefer "Government of the Soviet Union", like for subcats in the category Category:Government by country. As concerns the media, current category looks good to me, like most of categories in Category:Media by country. Cmapm 02:39, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
mmmh the cat has spanish media along with argentine media. If it is a "by country" category the country name should be used as in other country cats. E.g. it is not clear what is meant by German media. Tobias Conradi (Talk) 14:51, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Please kpep in mind that "Government" and "State" are different things. Government is part of state even in formal sense. mikka (t) 23:28, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I've just noticed, that there is some non-governmental stuff in the category, that stuff relates to the "state". But it seems, that there is no (or there is a few) categories for other countries, similar to "Soviet state". Therefore, I think, a new subcategory "Government of the Soviet Union" should be created, either inside the "Soviet state" category or inside the "Soviet Union" category. It should include all "governmental" stuff from the category "Soviet state". Cmapm 19:03, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
Would "Soviet state" not be the same as "Soviet Union" ? Also, agree with idea of having a "Government of the Soviet Union" Category inside "Soviet Union". Welcome to have more input as I'm not entirely certain of the distinction. - FrancisTyers 20:51, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
I've created the category, the only thing, I'm not sure in, is whether "passport system" article should belong to the "government" category. Cmapm 22:49, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
I'd say yes unless someone objects? - FrancisTyers 16:58, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Soviet COA in templates

Should we replace the current image (with no source) with a sourced one from the following article: Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union? Cmapm 02:39, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Yes, care to do the honours? :) - FrancisTyers 20:57, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
No problem. Cmapm 21:35, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Comecon

Should the articles on the Comecon be part of this WikiProject? I'm of two minds, on one hand, Comecon was conceived in the Soviet Union, on the other hand it was really an international phenomenon. Is there a WikiProject Communism that might be interested in them? - FrancisTyers 22:49, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A Question

Hello there! I'm currently working in improving the quality of several articles related to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Does that mean that I qualify to work with you guys? I think that this war was also one of the mayor factors behind the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cheers! and I'm waiting for the answer ! Messhermit 02:29, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Don't ask permissions in wikipedia and welcome, despite your suspicious name :-). mikka (t) 03:32, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Soviet Union up to WP:WIAFA

Just throwing this open for people to make suggestions as to how we can improve Soviet Union so its up to WP:WIAFA standards. Do you think there is anything particularly missing? Any way of formatting it better, adding more pics, removing pics, removing info? With everything we've got I don't think we can be very far off. - FrancisTyers 00:15, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm currently improving the one in Wiki:ES. I will say that what we need is pictures and to separate the article a little bit more in smaller sections. Messhermit 16:57, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Konstantin Chernenko

An anonymous editor keeps removing pictures of Chernenko from this article on the basis of them being propagandistic and POV. I am currently in discussion with that person, but an outside opinion would be helpful, too. Thank you.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus amurensis) 16:08, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

I already give my opinion over there, and I agree with you in that the picture itself is not propaganda and not copyvio. I will also keep an eye on it to prevent this rv war. Messhermit 16:55, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
Please see my comment to your comment here.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus amurensis) 17:36, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
Ditto. PS. Considered joining us in this fine wikiproject? :) - FrancisTyers 16:56, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
Thanks. I can definitely occasionally lend a hand here and there, but I already am involved in too many projects for the limited time budget I am on.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus amurensis) 17:36, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
Cool! Thanks for that. Any help in the Soviet Afghan War would be great ! Messhermit 16:58, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cyrillic in Wikipedia

Please see the new page at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Cyrillic), aimed at

  1. Documenting the use of Cyrillic and its transliteration in Wikipedia
  2. Discussing potential revision of current practices

—Michael Z. 2005-12-9 20:34 Z

[edit] Broadcasting/Automobile industry in the Soviet Union

Two questions in one:

1. In terms of broadcasting in the Soviet Union, there is an issue. I have already contributed information to the Soviet television article, and I'm still surfing around for information regarding the Soviet radio system, even though I'm surrounded by WRTHs and copies of "Passport to World Band Radio". I'm wondering if it's possible to do a general article that mentions to both Soviet radio and television or if they should remain separate articles, since they were both parallel structures. Plus, how are we going to tackle broadcasting in the FSU post-1991?

2. In regards to the Soviet automobile industry, DmitryKo, whom I met through GMInsideNews.com, could possibly help out; I just need to send a PM to him. However, I have a question in terms of that: are we going to have one article as a portal to the many different companies of the Soviet era, such as AvtoVAZ? If we want to get started, I can suggest Autosoviet and Sovauto to give everyone a general idea.

Just a few ideas. Daniel Blanchette 00:44, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

1. No problem with having a Broadcasting in the Soviet Union article, or perhaps Media in the Soviet Union ? We can always merge/de-merge. Be Bold! :)
2. No reason why we shouldn't have a whole article on it, if there is enough material, might be worth adding it as a section to Economy of the Soviet Union and then splitting it out if it gets too big? - FrancisTyers 00:54, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
Okay, how's this for a start, either as an article or as part of the Soviet Union's Economy article? If Dmitry is still around, he can edit this draft, since he knows more than I do.
Obviously, I still need to add more information, especially since I know there were other companies, such as IZh, which manufactured Moskvitches, but were always more powerful, or like RAF, which made vans. This means I'll have to look more closely at Autosoviet and Sovauto. Other than that, how was that for a first try?
-Daniel Blanchette 01:19, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
If you've got that much man, BE BOLD! :) - FrancisTyers 01:29, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
All right then, the "Automobile industry of the Soviet Union" page is up and running. What do you think? I'll think of something for broadcasting in the Soviet Union. -Daniel Blanchette 05:05, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
Looks good (PS. I removed the copy here, I hope thats ok, if not, feel free to add it back) :) - FrancisTyers 12:17, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
Okay, I'm thinking about merging the Radio in the Soviet Union and the Television in the Soviet Union article into one Broadcasting in the Soviet Union article, since most of it from both sides is mostly repetition. This is what I think the article should look like. This is pretty much a general outline. If no one objects I'll go ahead with it.
-beginning of article-
Broadcasting in the Soviet Union was owned by the state and was under its tight control and censorship.
The governing body in the late Soviet Union was "USSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting", or USSR Gosteleradio (Государственный комитет по телевидению и радиовещанию СССР, Гостелерадио СССР), which was in charge both of Soviet TV and Soviet radio.
1. The problem of broadcasting in the Soviet Union
Information in the first two paragraphs
2. Radio services
NB: The following information is from the 1990 edition of the WRTH.
2a. Home Services
Although the Soviet Union had domestic shortwave stations, most of the radio stations operated in the AM band. In typical Soviet fashion, the sites of both domestic AM and SW stations was never disclosed (including the frequencies that they operated on), thus leaving SWLs wanting to tune into Soviet radio to memorize the frequencies and remember where the sites were. However, the AM/SW programming was relayed on FM, using the OIRT FM band (66-73 MHz).
There were three national radio channels. The first was the All-Union First Programme. (Time-shifting patterns can be found at this page) The second channel was called "Radio Mayak". Mayak is Russian for "lighthouse", and thus is an all-union musical and literary channel designed to be the "lighthouse" of Soviet music and literature. The Third Programme also was a musical and literary channel, but mostly pop music.
2b. External services
Most people who have listened to shortwave are familiar with Radio Moscow, the main Soviet shortwave radio station. However, that's only part of the picture. Soviet radio also had Radio Station Peace and Progress, officially called the "Voice of Soviet Public Opinion". Most republics also had an external service, relayed by Radio Moscow's transmitters. Radio Moscow also relayed other radio stations from their satellite states, such as Radio Afghanistan.
3. Television services
See Television in the Soviet Union.
4. Regional/Satellite services
See Television in the Soviet Union (also Soviet satellite services) for a basic outline. I plan to elaborate further on it for the radio side.
-end of article-
I also want to include information about programming in each section. Again, this is only a general idea. If there are no objections, I'm going ahead with it. -Daniel Blanchette 02:09, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
All right, though I didn't completely merge the Television in the Soviet Union and Radio in the Soviet Union articles, the Broadcasting in the Soviet Union article is up and running. How does it look? -Daniel Blanchette 03:01, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Barnstar

Who is an artist here, to make a Soviet barnstar out of right|64px? mikka (t) 19:40, 11 December 2005 (UTC)


That one is a bit tricky, but I made one out of Hero of Socialist Labour (its more the same shape as a barnstar), it still needs some tidying up around the edges I think though (hard to see when you're in transparency:
Image:Wpsu Barnstar.png
If I get time to fix it I'll upload another one. What do you think? I can try and do a Hero of the USSR one if you think it'd be better... - FrancisTyers 20:29, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
Hopefully it looks better now with some artifacts shaved off... - FrancisTyers 20:38, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
I like it. mikka (t) 01:48, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
I hope I am not too late, but here is my offering:
Image:WPSU Prize.png
This design I based off the "State Prize" and "Lenin Prize" medals. Zach (Smack Back) 04:41, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
Image:WPSU Barnstar.svg
I think this is what Mikka might have wanted. Zach (Smack Back) Fair use policy 05:58, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Posters on Commons

Hey all, I've moved all of the posters I could find in Category:PD_Soviet to Category:Soviet propaganda. Enjoy! :) PS. If you wish, please see the talk page for my move suggestion. If anyone has any other suggestions for media sorting on commons, feel free to post here. - FrancisTyers 17:13, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Peer review of T-34

The article "T-34" about the famous tank from Kharkov is up for peer review, with the intention of nominating it for a featured article. Please comment at Wikipedia:Peer review/T-34. Thanks. —Michael Z. 2005-12-20 06:34 Z

Consider it commented upon :) - FrancisTyers 04:49, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] F-34 tank gun nominated for DYK

I've nominated F-34 tank gun for WP:DYK. Feel free to improve the wording of the submission, at template talk:Did you know#January 19. —Michael Z. 2006-01-24 06:38 Z

[edit] New article: aerosan

New artice aerosan; I'll submit it to DYK shortly. —Michael Z. 2006-02-02 06:19 Z

Very nice! Great work :) - FrancisTyers 16:28, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
Thank you! —Michael Z. 2006-02-02 16:43 Z

[edit] Polish/Baltic POV

I don't know if somebody have notice, but most of the criticism and vandalism done to the USSR article (and some related to the same topic) are made by users that are also interested in these 2 regions. Is there a way that we may create a common front against some of the most biased POV that they have? Messhermit 19:17, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I would agree that these users do have a certain POV that they like to get accross. Sometimes they do it reasonably, and sometimes not. Regarding the Soviet Union page, unless there are presented specific complaints and specific remedies, I would suggest that we merely revert POV insertion on sight. I can't quite understand what the guy on Talk:Soviet Union's complaint is, perhaps he hasn't read Religion in the Soviet Union:
As for the Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet authorities have sought to control it and, in times of national crisis, to exploit it for the regime's own purposes; but their ultimate goal has been to eliminate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941 only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence prior to World War I.
Needless to say, the USSR is a big topic for one article, we certainly shouldn't give undue weight to any particular POV. - FrancisTyers 19:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Five-Year Plan

I think we should consider moving this article to Five-Year Plan (Soviet Union) to make space for a disambiguation page at Five-Year Plan for Five-Year Plan (India) and Five-Year Plan (China). What do other people think?

Another option would be to make the Five-Year Plan article a basic introduction to Five-Year Plans then have separate articles for each country. I'd welcome other input. :) - FrancisTyers 11:15, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Soviet Antarctic Expedition

I've gone about creating some articles on this matter, and it occurred to me, should we have an infobox or something? Articles I've created - mostly listed on List of Antarctica expeditions - (feel free to expand):

Also, some form of categorisation might be nice, any ideas? Also perhaps they could be renamed? - FrancisTyers 21:44, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] dilemma with Soviet losses in WW2

I have a dilemma with Soviet losses. Here are the facts:
1- The Russian Academy of Science published a report in 1993 that gave data on the demographic impact of the war on the USSR. The losses were 26.6 million including 17 million draft aged males.
2-The official Russian military report published in 1993 listed 6.9 million confirmed dead plus 1.8 million POW and MIA deaths combined. They claim 4.5 million POW & MIA less 2.7 liberated in 1945. Net losses are 8.7 million.
3-The Germans claimed to have taken 5.7 million POW not counting Sov MIA.
4-Most western historians( I could make a list) give Sov POW losses as 3 million+. Not counting in MIA
5-An independent Russian researcher Vadim Erlikman published in 2004 a handbook of statistics on war casualties(with decent footnotes) that claimed the USSR military losses were 10.6 million in the war including 6.9 million Killed, 700,000 MIA, 2.6 million POW and 400,000 partisans and milita. His number of POW and MIA seems more credible than 1.8 million. Erlikman is not an apologist for the communist system or the Russian government. He listed an estimated 1.7 million dead due to Soviet repression in addition to war losses of 26.5 million
6-Back to the 2.7 million POWs and "Vlasovites" that were sent back to the USSR in 1945. I wonder how many are included in the total of 17 million draft aged males lost in the war. They were marched off to the Gulag. We just do not know their fate.
7-Please go to my talk page --Woogie10w 00:14, 17 March 2006 (UTC)to see a posting I copied from the Dupuy Forum on Soviet Casualties. Today there is a high level Russian military official( now he is head of the military archives) who claims there is a card file in Russia with the names of 13.8 million Soviet war dead.
I really need the help of people in Wikipedia who may have knowledge on this topic. We need to get the numbers right--Woogie10w 00:14, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team cooperation

Hello. I'm a member of the Version 1.0 Editorial Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing articles using these criteria, and we are are asking for your help. As you are most aware of the issues surrounding your focus area, we are wondering if you could provide us with a list of the articles that fall within the scope of your WikiProject, and that are either featured, A-class, B-class, or Good articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Do you have any recommendations? If you do, please post your suggestions at the listing of all active Places WikiProjects, and if you have any questions, ask me in the Work Via WikiProjects talk page or directly in my talk page. Thanks a lot! Titoxd(?!? - help us) 18:40, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] cleanup FAQ for non-english-speakers?

Folks, I've written/edited a few articles here, but I'm a russian and not a writer and sometimes cannot realize how the article should be "cleaned up". For instance, R-33 and GRAU articles. Can anyone explain me what's needed? They are now mere "fact lists", but should be "readable english". How to? --jno 16:56, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I'll go through and clean them up a bit. It is a good idea to ask here if you are unsure of something :) - FrancisTyers 17:15, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photograph requested

Hi, I'm working on Tajik alphabet and am looking for a nice example of Tajik written in the Cyrillic alphabet (as it is currently). I've trawled google, and although I was eventually able to find a reasonably nice example of Tajik written in Latin, I can't find anything good for Cyrillic.

Do you guys have any photos that might do, or know where I might find one. Posters, leaflets, shop signs, that kind of thing would be ideal. Ideally something where you can read the text even at a low (200-300px) res. Thanks :) - FrancisTyers 19:56, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Hello, try googling in http://images.google.com/ using a search string:
site:tj
I found this on the second page of results. Cmapm 20:19, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
Actually thats not bad, do you know the copyright status on that? Still, would be nice to have something with a bit more colour, I will keep looking. Searching for high res images didn't bring up many results... - FrancisTyers 20:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
"Undefined" - no copyright notice on the website. The website seems to be close to the government, though... Cmapm 20:38, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article needing attention

Soviet Union and the United Nations is the one in question. Looks extremely biased to me. I slapped the appropriate warning infoboxes and marked the questionable unreferenced statements, but it looks like a candidate for complete rewrite here, to be honest - something I do not have the time for at the moment. Seeing as how it falls under the coverage of this project, I wonder if some of you would consider cleaning it up? int19h 12:54, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Islam in the Soviet Union

People might want to look at the article Islam in the Soviet Union, could do with some editing. - FrancisTyers · 10:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I see somebody had already done some cleaning up, and I fixed the references. TSO1D 18:58, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I'll have to check, but I remember that Manosij Guha, a former reporter with ARD and the former head of its New Delhi bureau, once wrote some articles on Central Asia for a back issue of the Passport to World Band Radio. In one of the articles, he mentions that Soviet policy was liberal towards Islam becuase they hoped to win support in the Middle East, which is mostly comprised of Muslims, thus the Soviet Union tried not to offend Middle Easterners too much. I'll have to check again; once I do, I'll mention it in the article with a proper reference. -Daniel Blanchette 01:24, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
AFAIR, religion matters were mostly ignored by the soviets. Many regimes in Africa, Asia, and Mid-East were supported just for claim to "select socialist orientation" (or for military bases in the best case). As for interim, there was a law of "Freedom of Conscience" which forbid religious discrimination. "If you are religious, then you are a bad boy regardless of the exact religion" was a motto of application of this law, but I cannot remember religion-related problems even in everyday occurrence. --jno 09:36, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't understand what you mean when you say that the Soviets mostly ignored religious matters. I mean for the greater part of the USSR's history, the state carried out a wave of repression against religious institutions by closing down churches, deporting priests, etc. TSO1D 13:39, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
About 1920..1940 (i.e. 20 years of 70+). It's not "the greater part of the USSR's history". The Russian Orthodoxal Church has officially supported the government in the Great Patriotic War (soviet part of WWII) which almost stopped repressions against the church institutions. There were a lot of another problems in religious life in the USSR: priests were made to report to KGB almost any person visited the church, some of them have jointed the CPSU, etc. My grandmother (born in 1907) was a religious woman, but avioded to visit churches: "All the popes are reds" was her explanation. In the times in question (1950s..1980s, AFAIU) when the most soviet activism in support of foreign regimes occured, the religion of that countires was mostly ignored, while internal "religion question" was definitely "solved". --jno 08:01, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
P.S. some sources:
--jno 09:17, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Economic Trends

I just did some reasearch on former soviet economics, and i think if i could aquire some graphs of GDP per head and such, i could make a good article about the soviet union versus other countries economically. Should I? or is it suffciantly covered with the Soviet economics article? Just let me know. --Zhukov 05:58, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

be bold! :) - FrancisTyers · 09:21, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portal:Communism

Perhaps the newly created Portal:Communism can be useful. Cheers! Afonso Silva 14:06, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Central Asia

WikiProject Central Asia has just been created. It may overlap with some articles and subjects relevant to this WikiProject, so I thought I would put the word out here as well. Aelfthrytha 21:19, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] T-34 nominated for FA

T-34 is a candidate for featured article. Please comment at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/T-34. —Michael Z. 2006-07-05 23:07 Z

[edit] Georgia

There is a poll going down at Talk:Georgia (country), you guys might be interested. - FrancisTyers · 17:55, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portal:Soviet Union

Hello, I am the sysop of th german vision of the portal:USSR, maybey the sysop of the english one, when he has build up the portal can connect me.

You can also send mee a message, if you have any ideas of connecting the german portals about the diviedes states of the USSR, like the russian portal, or the portal moscow.

Therefore Please check User Manecke!

With greatings manecke!

[edit] Russian and Soviet military history task force

There is a proposal at the Military History WikiProject to establish a Russian and Soviet military history task force. Interested participants, please have a look at the new project page. —Michael Z. 2006-10-19 19:01 Z

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 17:21, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Former Countries

The Former Countries WikiProject (formerly WP Historical States) is back up and running. Our aim is to improve the content and accesibilty of information on now-defunct states. I have just made some modifications to the {{Infobox SSR}} template, including some of the features of the {{Infobox Former Country}} template that we use over at WPFC. There is now a date-navigation feature at the top of the infobox. This shows the life span of the republic and allows you to jump directly to its predecessor and successor states. The infobox now also automatically generates categories for years of establishment and disestablishment. As an example, these changes can now be seen at Armenian SSR. The modifications are not noticeable if you do not fill in the extra fields, so there should be no disruptions. If there are any problems, questions or requests, please let me know.

Since it would be more accurate, would this project be interested in considering itself a child project of our group instead of (or maybe as well as) the Countries Wikiproject? - 52 Pickup 17:42, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

As the modifications to Armenian SSR were reverted within 12hrs of me making them, it is pretty likely that not many people saw what I did and I would be interested in hearing from more people - so the link to the pre-revert version is here. - 52 Pickup 13:41, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Atomnaya Energiya article from 1974?

In Levinskii, Y.V. (1974) "p-versus-T Phase Diagram of the Uranium-Oxygen System" Atomic Energy 37(4):1075-6, as translated by Springer, there is a question about whether "UO3G" should actually be "UO3,G" (with a comma):

Image:PvTdUOs.png

Please see this discussion for more information.

Does anyone have access to the original Russian journal Atomnaya Energiya[1][2]? Here is its editorial board if that helps any.

Do any of your local libraries have volume 37 from 1974? If so, please post on Talk:Uranium trioxide whether the original Russian version has a comma on that top-left label or not. Thank you. LossIsNotMore 22:43, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Vernacular scripts

vote on the use of scripts--D-Boy 01:58, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

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