MARCH 2006

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 2/24/2006 3:04 AM

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

A Speech to Stun Even a Daughter
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
    

Igor Tabakov / MT

Rada Adzhubei, now 76, was a university student when Khrushchev made the secret speech on Feb. 25, 1956.

When a Party official read Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech to her university class two weeks later, Rada Adzhubei, like millions of Soviet citizens, was stunned by the denunciation of Josef Stalin.

But she was not surprised that the speech had been kept secret, even from her, Khrushchev's daughter.

"He was a statesman who went through Stalin's school," Adzhubei, now 76, said of her father. "Khrushchev never discussed secret affairs with the family, and the speech was a secret."

Khrushchev's speech, denouncing the Stalin personality cult and his mass purges, came as a bombshell to the 1,500 delegates who attended the last day of the 20th Communist Party Congress. The date was Feb. 25, 1956 -- 50 years ago Saturday.

The speech wasn't a secret for long, as the ...
>> full

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 2/24/2006 2:59 PM
KOMMERSANT Rubricated Docs, FEBRUARY 23, 2006
Open Gallery... Photo: Alexey Kudenko
    
Russia's Population Down to 142.7 Million
With regard to migration, the number of permanent residents of Russia lowered by 735,500 in 2005 to 142.7 million as of January 1, 2006, the Federal Statistics Service reported.
Past year, 1,460,100 babies were born in Russia and 2,303,100 people died there. What's more, the newborn number shed by 42,400 on year, and the death number widened by 7,700 vs. 2004. Therefore, the natural loss of the population was 843,000 in 2004 compared with 792,900 a year earlier.

On average, the death number is 1.6 fold above the number of newborns in Russia. The indicator goes up to 2 to 2.5 fold in 23 regions of the country.

The natural growth of the population was registered only in 16 regions of Russia.

In number, the population of Russia has been losing roughly 900,000 on year in the recent decade with the overall loss of 9 million.

The ...
>> full