Vasily Stalin (1921-1962) was the youngest son of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva. His life was defined by the immense privilege of his birth, a meteoric military rise, severe personal struggles, and a tragic downfall after his father's death.... He entered aviation school and joined the Soviet Air Force, serving as a pilot during WWII. Fueled by his father's name and fear from subordinates, Vasily rose through the ranks at a staggering pace. He became a major general at age 24 and later lieutenant general, eventually serving as Commander of the Air Forces of the Moscow Military District. Despite his high rank, his alcoholism, volatile temper, and reckless decisions—such as an unauthorized air show crash that killed two people—led to his removal from command in 1952. When his father died in March 1953, Vasily lost his protection. He lashed out, publicly claimed that his father had been poisoned, and defied orders from new party leaders like Nikita Khrushchev. He was arrested and later sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of corruption, abuse of power, and anti-Soviet agitation/slander against the leadership. . . . . Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. On April 28, his younger son Vasily was arrested. Less than two months separated the death of the Soviet dictator from the imprisonment of a man whose family name had helped propel him through the military hierarchy. Vasily was 32. He had trained as a pilot, served during the war against Nazi Germany, and risen to general’s rank while still remarkably young. In 1948, he became commander of the air forces of the Moscow Military District. His position was not simply ceremonial. He had genuine flying experience and wartime service. But his extraordinary advancement cannot be separated from his father. The special treatment had begun long before he became a general. In a 1938 letter to one of Vasily’s teachers, Stalin himself complained that people had spoiled the boy by constantly emphasizing that he was Stalin’s son. The dictator could recognize the privilege without eliminating the system that produced it. Vasily’s military career was also marked by drinking, disciplinary problems, and abuses associated with his authority. His protection was not unlimited. His father had already removed him from his Moscow command in 1952. But dismissal under a living Stalin was one thing. Life under the men who inherited Stalin’s power was another. After the dictator’s death, Vasily criticized the new leadership. His sister Svetlana later recalled his increasingly reckless behavior and denunciations. He also claimed that his father had been poisoned. That was his accusation, not an established explanation of Stalin’s death. In March 1953, Vasily was discharged from the armed forces. In April, he was taken into custody. The investigation lasted more than two years. In 1955, he received an eight-year prison sentence on charges including anti-Soviet propaganda and abuse of office. Those charges require distinction. Criticizing Soviet leaders was criminalized political speech. Allegations of misconduct in office concerned his actual use of authority. They were not the same kind of accusation. Decades later, a Russian court would remove the political component of the conviction while leaving findings concerning official misconduct in place. He had not simply been declared innocent of everything. Vasily was released in January 1960, but his freedom did not last. He was imprisoned again and subsequently required to live in Kazan, away from Moscow. He died there on March 19, 1962. Official accounts attributed his death to alcohol-related causes. Claims that he was murdered have not been established by publicly available evidence. The reversal was devastating, but it should not turn him into a flawless victim. He had benefited from a dictatorship that gave a leader’s child opportunities unavailable to ordinary citizens. #archaeohistories

Naples, Italy 🇮🇹

ドゴールは 身長200cm でした

╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮
Q. メルツ首相って、どんな人？ 
╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯ 明日の来日に合わせて、政治の話だけではわからない、メルツ首相の意外な一面や知っておきたいことをスライドにまとめました！ ✅️

The 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions and the 20th Armored Division of the US Army liberate approximately 32,000 prisoners at Dachau... Dachau had operated for 12 years as the first Nazi concentration camp. More than 200,000 people passed through its gates over its history, and at least 32,000 to 41,500 people died from starvation, disease (like typhus), forced labor, and executions. Right before the Americans arrived, the SS had forced over 7,000 prisoners (mostly Jewish) on a brutal "death march" toward Tegernsee, shooting anyone who could no longer walk. . . . On April 29, 1945, soldiers from the U.S. 45th Infantry Division arrived at the Dachau concentration camp and encountered sights that deeply traumatized even combat-hardened troops. Outside the camp gates, they discovered dozens of railway boxcars packed with thousands of skeletal corpes of prisoners who had been starved or mrdered in the final days before the retreat. Inside, thousands of emaciated survivors remained alongside unburied bod*es piled high across the grounds, revealing the full horror of Nazi atrocities. Overcome by extreme shock, rage, and grief, some American soldiers and newly liberated prisoners engaged in spontaneous reprisal attacks. After capturing remaining SS guards and auxiliary personnel, a number of German troops were rounded up, segregated, and summarily execut*d near the camp walls and in a coal yard without formal military trials. Some guards were also handed over or exposed to violent retaliation by vengeful inmates who had suffered years of systematic torture. Following the liberation, the U.S. Army initiated a formal internal investigation into the unauthorized k*llings of the surrendered guards. While investigators classified the incident as a war crime, military authorities ultimately decided against prosecuting the officers and soldiers involved. They cited profound mitigating circumstances, acknowledging the overwhelming psychological trauma triggered by discovering the camp's horrific conditions. Amid the chaos and violence of the liberation, a lesser-known yet critical figure in saving thousands of lives was Victor Maurer, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Just days prior to the arrival of American troops, as SS commanders plotted to liquidte or forcibly march the remaining 30,000 prisoners into the Alps to prevent their rescue, Maurer bravely negotiated directly with SS General Max Ramcke and camp commandant Eduard Weiter. Refusing to leave the camp despite intense danger, Maurer persuaded the German officers to abandon the planned mass dath march, leave behind a minimal guard force, and surrender the camp peacefully. His courageous presence and diplomacy prevented a final widespread sl*ughter of the inmates and established a tenuous truce that held until U.S. forces entered the gates. #archaeohistories

La principale armée française s'est rendue sans conditions à Metz le 27 octobre 1870. Plus de 140 000 soldats ont été livrés aux Prussiens par leur propre chef. Le maréchal Bazaine sera condamné à mort pour trahison. Puis il s'évadera de nuit, au bout d'une corde. C'est la guerre de 1870, entre la France de Napoléon III et la Prusse, alliée aux autres États allemands. Bazaine commande l'armée du Rhin, le cœur des forces françaises. Il a 59 ans. Engagé comme simple soldat à 20 ans, il a gravi tous les grades. Napoléon III l'a fait maréchal de France en 1864. À la mi-août 1870, après des batailles sanglantes autour de Metz, il se replie dans la ville fortifiée. Les Prussiens l'encerclent. Ses tentatives de sortie échouent. Le 2 septembre, l'autre armée française, partie le délivrer, capitule à Sedan. Napoléon III est fait prisonnier. Dans Metz, on mange les chevaux, puis les rats. Près de 15 000 malades et blessés s'entassent dans les hôpitaux. Le 27 octobre 1870, Bazaine signe la capitulation au château de Frescaty, aux portes de Metz. Il livre ses soldats, ses canons et les aigles de ses régiments, les emblèmes sacrés de l'armée. À Tours, Léon Gambetta, ministre de la Guerre de la jeune République, accuse : « Le maréchal Bazaine a trahi. » Libérée, l'armée prussienne qui assiégeait Metz marche vers la Loire. Elle va affronter les armées levées en urgence par la République. En 1873, Bazaine est jugé au Grand Trianon, à Versailles. Il est condamné à mort. Le président de la République, Mac Mahon, change sa peine en 20 ans de prison. Il est enfermé sur l'île Sainte-Marguerite, au large de Cannes. Dans la nuit du 9 au 10 août 1874, il descend la falaise au bout d'une corde. Une barque l'attend. Il meurt en exil à Madrid, en 1888. Metz, elle, devient allemande en 1871. Elle le restera jusqu'en 1918.

ユーミンの親友が死んじゃった時に作った歌です youtu.be/SlXL1A7rrxo?si=sOvM…