Christophe

I agree.... Ch.

Hi, Maybe a stupid question... But... Why are the texts inside the passport bilingual, including French ? Many thanks in advance. Ch.

Time for a few stats... This small game has now been launched more than 2 years ago (on 1 Nov. 2005), and since : * 165 questions asked, * with 2,065 answers, * This quiz has been viewed more than 21,400 times. * 36 Members of the Forum played, and 27 correctly answered at least 1 question : Nb of good answers : * 34 : Christian (Zulus) * 30 : Christophe * 11 : Bryan (Soviet) & Frank (Knarf) * 10 : Jim (JimZ) * 8 : Simon (Red Threat) * 6 : Auke (Ferdinand), Belaruski, Carol I & Ed (Haynes) * 4 : Dan (Hauptman) & Wild Card. * 3 : Andreas (Alfred), Ivan (Piramida) & Kim (Kimj). * 2 : Chuck (in Oregon), Gerd (Becker), Jan (vatjan) & Order of Victory. * 1 : Charles (Hunyadi), Darrell, Daredevil, Dave (Navy FCO), Dudeman, Filip (Drugo), Rick (Stogieman) & Steen (Ammentorp). This is a great achievement. Thanks to all for your participation. Now, let's continue to have fun with the 166th question... Jim's!!! Cheers. Ch.

Ed, I agree a nice find. Unfirtunately, I was away when this "group" has been put for sale by our friend DD... Well done!!! Cheers. Ch.

Dan, I'm really happy you won the last one. If I was the winner, it would have been only thanks to hints found by others, and I would have felt a little "embarassed" of this victory. Charles and Dan, good job!! Cheers, and back to Dan's question. Ch.

I'm back... The man in the photo is Tibor Szamuely. Tibor Szamuely (December 27, 1890 ? August 2, 1919) was a Hungarian Communist leader. Born in Ny?regyh?za, a city in the Northeast of Hungary, Szamuely (original Samuel)[citation needed] was the oldest son of five children of a Jewish family. After sompleting his university studies, he became a journalist. He started his political activities as a member of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party. Szamuely was drafted and fought as a soldier during World War I; in 1915, he was captured by the Russians. After the Russian Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, he was released togehter with all other POWs. By then Szamuely had became a Communist. In Moscow he organized a Communist group together with B?la Kun among the Hungarian prisoners of war. Many of them, including Szamuely and Kun, joined the Soviet Red Army and fought in the Russian Civil War on the side of the Bolsheviks. Szamuely later went to Germany and in December 1918 he took part in the formation of the German Communist Party with Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. In March 1919, there was a Communist revolution in Hungary, under the leadership of B?la Kun. Tibor Szamuely became another prominent leader of the young Hungarian Soviet Republic. He occupied a number of posts, but finally became people's commissar for Military Affairs and chief of the ?Red Terror? to combat counterrevolutionary activities. In late May 1919, Szamuely made a trip to Moscow by airplane to campaign for world revolution together with Lenin. Szamuely?s own personal guards were nicknamed the Lenin Boys. Victims of the group is taken between 300-600 by different sources. The Hungarian Soviet Republic only lasted for six months until the communist government was overthrown by several invading foreign forces, mainly Romanian. Szamuely managed to evade the ?White Terror? and fled in his car towards Austria, but after making an illegal border crossing, he was seized by the Austrian authorities and killed. Other sources say he committed suicide. His body was hacked and scattered in the fields. (from Wikipedia) From another site : http://www.geocities.com/veldes1/szamuely.html "Tibor Szamuely was born at Ny?regyh?za on 27 December 1890. His name was synonymous with the red terror of Bela Kun?s soviet regime. He was formerly a journalist for small socialist newspapers and became a bolshevik pamphleteer after the end of World War I. One of his proclamations during Graf Mihaly K?rolyi?s government delivers all that Szamuely believed and soon put into practice: ?Everywhere counter-revolutionaries run about and swagger; beat them down! Beat their heads where you find them! If counter-revolutionaries were to gain the upper hand for even a single hour, there will be no mercy for any proletarian. Before they stifle the revolution, suffocate them in their own blood!? When Bela Kun?s bolsheviks took power and formed a Soviet regime, Szamuely became chief propagandist for the government, and made a trip to Moscow to campaign for world revolution by the side of Lenin in late May 1919. He was also appointed to combat counter-revolutionary sentiment with pure terror, with the title Commissar for Military Affairs of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Thanks to the propagation of collectivism that Kun espoused, there were several violent peasant rebellions against the regime during Kun?s 133 days in power. Anti-bolshevik rebellions had to be suppressed with brute force all across the Alf?ld beyond the Danube, also in 20 villages in Kalocsa county, as well as around Budapest. Szamuely gleefully threw his special guard, the so-called ?Lenin Boys? (or ?Youth?) into the fray, arbitrarily shooting and hanging anyone they could lay their hands on as a means of terrorising the peasants into submission. Szamuely once boasted, ?Terror is the principal weapon of our regime,? and for good reason. After several days, the killing was over and Szamuely returned to Kun and reported that the revolution had ?succeeded in the countryside. However, Kun already planned to suppress the Lenin Boys, because the extreme violence of Szamuely was doing more harm than good. Szamuely prepared for this eventuality by starting a newspaper called "Kommunista," but it never got off the ground. Problem was, the regime?s grip on power was becoming shakier and shakier, and the "Lenin Boys" were not actually dissolved until 1 August 1919, when Szamuely, Kun, and other top-ranking bolsheviks fled Budapest as the Rumanians advanced on the city. Kun escaped, but Szamuely was shot and killed by a gendarme while trying to illegally cross the Austrian frontier on 2 August. Afterward, his death was widely celebrated throughout Hungary." And another pic of him in car : Charles, this was a good one, as I did not know this aspect of history. It also gave us the opportunity to better discover some of the fantasms of our Gentlemen members, here in the Forum... Cheers. Ch.

And his two Orders of Victory to be added... Cheers. Ch.

... But not too long... Ch.

Sure, we can wait... Cheers. Ch.

Hi to all !! I would say I never thought, when I launched this "small" game 2 years ago, that it would become such a success!!! I would like to thank all of you for your participation and challenges. Both of them made the success of the Quiz!!! Congrats to all!!!! Cheers. Ch.

Now, we have to find the names of the pilots. And I agree that if these can't be named by us, Carol I should be the winner (as alreadya greed by Jim). Cheers. Ch.

I think that for multi-part questions, the asker has to set the rule, as Jim did : "the winner is the one answering all the 5 questions". You did the same with your twin multi-part questions with identification of details of medals (that I won, BTW... ). You specified that the members answerinf partly could only help the final winner... Again, for multi-part questions, the rules have to be defined when the question is asked. If no one can succeed, it is the role of the asker to determine which member has contributed the most to the partial / uncomplete answer.... Cheers. Ch.

Hey, back from Moscow tonight, and I can see that in my (short) absence, the Quiz has been very active. Good. I can only agree with what Jim said. It is the responsibility of the asker to : 1. say if the question is fully and correctly answered (as soon as the question has not been modified once publicly asked), 2. Declare who is the winner. It is only when the winner has been declared by the asker that a new challenge can be launched. Sorry for this reminder of the rules and guidelines, but... Cheers. Ch.

Hi Christian, This is perfect!! Congratulations for your new victory!!! Your turn, now... Cheers. Ch.

Thanks Ed, for your support and challenges !!!! Cheers. Ch.

Question #157 It's not a Who am I? question, but a What am I? What I am? I'm "born" in 1924, in 3 days time. 7 months later, I have been upgraded, and again in 1930. My latest significant improvement took place in 1973. I have been very quiet during the GPW, and much more "busy" in 1953-1961. But, I always have been a passionated topic... What am I ? What happened on my major milestones in 1924, 1930, 1941-1945, 1953-1961 and 1973 ? The first one to fully answer these two questions is the winner. Good hunt and good luck!!! Cheers. Ch.

Regarding the debate we had a few weeks ago about the need or not to open a Quiz Volume 2 for a more convivial use, saving bandwith, etc...; I propose to take the opportunity of next 1st January (2008) to open a new thread that will be the "Soviet & Eastern Block Quiz 2008" !!! I'll open this new Quiz on 1st January 2008, in a separate new thread. I hope it will contribute to attract more Members than the present one, that maybe could be now quite "heavy" to consult... Let's see this in a 2 months time. Thanks to all for your contribution to the success of this little game. Cheers. Ch.

Let's celebrate with some new stats... This small game has now been launched 2 years ago (on 1 Nov. 2005), and since : * 156 questions asked, * with 1,944 answers, * This quiz has been viewed more than 20,340 times. * 36 Members of the Forum played, and 27 correctly answered at least 1 question : Nb of good answers : * 31 : Christian (Zulus) * 30 : Christophe * 11 : Bryan (Soviet) * 10 : Frank (Knarf) * 8 : Jim (JimZ) and Simon (Red Threat) * 6 : Auke (Ferdinand), Belaruski and Ed (Haynes) * 5 : Carol I * 4 : Wild Card. * 3 : Andreas (Alfred), Ivan (Piramida) and Kim (Kimj). * 2 : Chuck (in Oregon), Dan (Hauptman), Gerd (Becker), Jan (vatjan) and Order of Victory. * 1 : Charles (Hunyadi), Darrell, Daredevil, Dave (Navy FCO), Dudeman, Filip (Drugo), Rick (Stogieman) and Steen (Ammentorp). This is a great achievement. Thanks to all for your participation. Now, let's continue to have fun with the 157th question... Mine!!! Cheers. Ch.

And, today, the Quiz is 2 Years old !!!!!! Close to 2,000 answers and more than 20,000 views !!!! A great achievement, thanks to all of you!!!! Let's celebrate !!!!!! Cheers. Ch.

OK guys... Quiet here... I think you got time enough.... Here are my proposals : 1 Mongolia - Medal Glory of the Virgin Land Cultivators 2 USSR - Medal for Development of Virgin Lands 3 Mongolia - Badge Virgin Land Claimer 4 USSR - Order of Lenin ("Tractor") 5 People's Democratic Republic of Afghanistan - Self-Suficiency Medal 6 North Korea - Agricultural Merit Medal 7 Tadjikistan SSR - Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the extra credit is : 8 Mongolia - Dornod Badge (a "famous" NIB). Ed, am I far... ? Cheers. Ch.

BTW, I have already IDed 3 of them, from memory... Ch.

Hi Dan, Exactly what I meant by this small sentence full of "french humour"... I know that Ed will (again) be challenging us strongly . I decided yesterday night (just coming back from Moscow) not to dive in it, but will do later today or tomorrow... Cheers. Ch.

Don't see why you are saying this... Ch.

Hi Alexandre, There is no such Soviet award. It does not exist, even if Wikipedia ( ) indicates this as beeing one of Marshall's awards. I beleive there is confusion in their mind with the Yugoslavian Order of Military Merit., or equivalent form another Eastern Europe country. Look at this thread : http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=16360 Cheers. Ch.

Charles, Our pleasure. But, next time, let us search a little bit more!!!! You helped us too much on this one... Christian, Your turn, now!!!! Cheers. Ch.