Day: August 31, 2019
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Trying to Maintain Momentum as Election Approaches, Moscow Protests Again
On the last official day of summer in Russia, several thousand people in Moscow turned out for what has become the flavor of the season: the Saturday protest. But the turnout was lower and the mood subdued compared with previous demonstrations in this year’s summer of discontent, which saw as many as 50,000 people at…
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Thousands of Russians Rally to Demand Free Elections
Thousands of Russians took to the streets of central Moscow on Saturday to demand free elections to the capital’s city legislature on Sept. 8, defying a ban which has been enforced with violent detentions during previous protests. Weeks of demonstrations over elections for the city legislature have turned into the biggest sustained protest movement in…
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On This Day in 1935 the ‘Stakhanovite’ Movement Was Born
The Soviet miner Alexei Stakhanov was born in the Oryol province on Jan. 3, 1906. After taking courses in mining and learning to operate a jackhammer, on Aug. 31, 1935, he reportedly mined a record 102 tons of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes, which was 14 times his required quota. The Soviet government…