Communist Control Act on Tony Evers

The Communist Party of the United States, or any successors of such party regardless of the assumed name, whose object or purpose is to overthrow the Government of the United States, or the government of any State, Territory, District, or possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein by force and violence, are not entitled to any of the rights, privileges, and immunities attendant upon legal bodies created under the jurisdiction of the laws of the United States or any political subdivision thereof; and whatever rights, privileges, and immunities which have heretofore been granted to said party or any subsidiary organization by reason of the laws of the United States or any political subdivision thereof, are terminated: Provided, however, That nothing in this section shall be construed as amending the Internal Security Act of 1950, as amended [50 U.S.C. 781 et seq.]

Way too many 5 year plans in Wisconsin!

In the Workplace, Age Discrimination Starts At Age 35

I'm 34 1/2!
If you are in your thirties or about to be, then these two quick videos may interest you, specifically if you are still in the job market or struggling to get your business off the ground.
In my small business journey while getting my passive income system in place, I’ve considered going back into the workforce for extra earnings to help me more quickly meet my long-term financial goals.
Reality struck and challenged me when I heard the woman in the video below mention that people face age discrimination starting at age 35 beginning with their resumes. I still consider myself to be youthful so this was a blow to my ego! My mother is in her 60’s, still in the workforce, and I’ve seen her woes from age discrimination and a competitive market. It’s real! Companies like to hire younger folks regardless of experience and wisdom of the older. To make matters worse, according to the New York Federal Reserve, earnings begin to decrease by age 45 and it’s women who are most affected.
What’s my point here? My point is that you must seek God and find your gifts that will make room for you and be the authority in it that enables you to move about successfully, freely and strategically to the glory of God. You can’t be fearful of what the world’s work climate is. It can’t be trusted. You have to know how to invest your time, money, network and gifts. Work to set up a system in your life that gives you consistent passive income you can retire with or gives you security in case of hard times or disasters. Ecclesiastes 11:2 instructs,

“Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.”

Does this scripture necessarily mean create 8 businesses? Not necessarily. Rather seven or eight methods of return on your investments.
Another woman in these videos and author of Fifty-five, Unemployed and Faking Normal, Elizabeth White showed how she’d basically taken a chunk of her money and nestled all of her eggs into one basket, and they all cracked. She’d come to realize that she had to narrow down what was most important to her.
I truly believe that many of us waste years cultivating ourselves for others but don’t cultivate ourselves into being what we need in order to sustain ourselves after other companies have used us up! Many of us don’t know what God would have us to do outside of what we have been and done for others. The more we invest in who we truly are and what we truly are meant for, the more we will find and operate in our gifts that will make room for us and God will use to financially stabilize us.
My hope as you watch this two-part PBS special is that you be encouraged to do more than just make ends meet. Consider how you save, spend and invest yourself, your time and your money. My hope is that you will be motivated to do better today, that you can laugh at the future like the virtuous Proverbs 31 woman. Surely she had many wise investments and it was clear that her joy in the Lord fueled her.
The second video below points out how depression and anxiety rise in older age due to the financial pressures and work, ultimately shortening people’s life spans. Jesus said in Matthew 6 to fear not over such things because your heavenly Father already knows your needs. He teaches to seek after the will of God. Learn from His Holy Spirit instead of fearing because He said worrying doesn’t add to you at all.

God shows in His word how He constantly wants to add to our lives and mature us that we may walk in victory and overcome these times.

It's not just me for age discrimation!

Ageism in tech is a hotly debated issue. On one side, you have many older tech workers complaining that discrimination is rampant. On the other, companies insist that they hire based solely on merit—not an applicant’s age.
However much ageism plays a role in tech hiring, it’s clear that job candidates are worried about it: according to a new survey from Indeed, some 43 percent of tech workers were worried about losing their job due to their age. In addition, 18 percent said that the worry was constant, and 36 percent said that they hadn’t been taken seriously by colleagues because of their age.
“There is a serious disconnect here: a contradiction, even. The older workers get, the more concerned they are about their careers. And yet most of their colleagues at tech firms believe they still have much to contribute,” Indeed concluded.
Although workers over 40 are protected by federal civil rights laws, that’s never stopped the controversy. Last year, when Dice sat down with Dan Lyons, writer for the HBO show “Silicon Valley” and a former Newsweek editor, to discuss his book “Disrupted: My Midadventure in the Startup Bubble,” he blamed a tech culture that wants big profits as fast as possible.
“I think it starts with those guys—the investors, what they want and what they push for,” he said. “I think they’ve all decided that the optimal return is young kids: Burn them out, get rid of them, replace them.”
Of course, it doesn’t help the industry’s case when tech CEOs such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg say things like, “Young people are just smarter.” But there are firms that prize the knowledge of older tech pros. For instance, Amazon Web Services has hired many of tech’s most notable figures, including James Gosling (co-inventor of Java; 62 years old), Tim Bray (co-inventor of XML; 61 years old), and Andi Gutmans (co-inventor of PHP; 41 years old).
“[Amazon] puts such a premium on independent groups working fast and making their own decisions it requires a particular skillset, which generally involves a great deal of field experience,” RedMonk helpfully pointed out in a recent blog posting about AWS. “A related trend is hiring seasoned marketing talent from the likes of IBM.”
So what can older tech pros do to compete in this environment? That’s a very complex question. Peter Greulich, a 30-year IBM veteran, told Dice in late 2016 that targeting open positions that demand management or leadership skills could give more experienced tech workers an advantage. “Use exciting words in your résumé and during interviews to show youthful enthusiasm,” he said. “Then highlight your maturity by talking about your ability to lead and guide younger professionals.”

Even if you’re not interested in a management role, highlighting your experience is key—as is keeping your skills up-to-date. Although it can prove aggravating to constantly learn new languages and platforms, it’s vital when trying to land jobs with employers on the cutting edge.

30+ is too Old for Tech Jobs in China ~ Is Midwest Similar?

Ou Jianxin said goodbye to his wife and two young children shortly after 9 a.m. on a cold day last December. He was on his way to Chinese smartphone maker ZTE Corp.’s Shenzhen headquarters—he’d been let go from his job as a research engineer at the company more than a week before, but management had asked to speak with him again, he said. “There are internal conflicts in our company,” he told his wife. “I’m very likely to be the victim of that.” Whether there was an actual meeting is unclear. What is clear is that sometime after he arrived, Ou went to his former office on the 26th floor of the campus’s research and development building and jumped to his death. He was 42 years old.

Four days later, Ou’s widow wrote a post on the blogging platform Meipian about her husband and the circumstances of his death. According to her account, ZTE refused to give a reason for Ou’s dismissal. Neither Ou’s widow nor representatives from ZTE responded to requests for comment, though Ou’s widow took down her post, according to the site, within two days after a reporter from Bloomberg Businessweek attempted to contact the company.

Nevertheless, Ou’s story took on a life of its own. In its four months online, the Meipian post became a viral phenomenon—the platform registered only that it had been viewed more than 100,000 times, but via media coverage and word-of-mouth, the story would have reached millions. Why ZTE let Ou go remains a mystery, as does Ou’s reason for ending his life. But to the people discussing his story online, none of that mattered. Almost immediately, readers seized on his age: At 42, he would have already been considered too old to be an engineer in China, where three-quarters of tech workers are younger than 30, according to China’s largest jobs website, Zhaopin.com. The online discussion gave vent to an anxiety that’s been building for years. Chinese internet users call it the “30+ middle-aged crisis.”

Despite her bobbed black hair, smooth complexion, and schoolgirlish appearance, Helen He, a tech recruiter in Shanghai, is well-acquainted with age-related pressures: Now 38, she’s been told by her bosses not to recruit anyone older than 35. “Most people in their 30s are married and have to take care of their family—they’re not able to focus on the high-intensity work,” she says, parroting the conventional wisdom, though she also may be talking about her own future should she find herself back on the job market. “If a 35-year-old candidate isn’t seeking to be a manager, a hiring company wouldn’t even give that CV a glance.”

The idealization of youth is in the DNA of the American tech industry. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg all famously dropped out of college to start Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, respectively, and imbued their companies’ culture with a puckish distrust of authority. Google has been fighting an age-related class-action suit in California since 2015, and in March, a ProPublica investigation showed that International Business Machines Corp. cut 20,000 older employees in the U.S. in the past five years to “sharply increase hiring of people born after 1980.” Both companies say they comply with employment laws.

In China the discrimination begins even younger than in the U.S. The irony is that most of the country’s famous tech companies were started by men older than 30. Lei Jun founded smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc., expected to go public this year with a valuation of at least $80 billion, at age 40. Jack Ma was 34 when he opened the online shopping colossus Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Robin Li was 31 when he built the search engine Baidu. An exception among the current leaders is Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Pony Ma, who was 27 when he created the company behind the popular social media app WeChat. The industry’s rising generation, however—Cheng Wei of taxi app Didi Chuxing and Zhang Yiming of news app Toutiao—established their business in their 20s.

“Working in tech is like being a professional athlete”

The pressure on older workers exists across China’s industries, but it’s particularly acute in tech, where the frenzy to hire young talent reveals the extent of the country’s desire to prove itself as a global leader. China has used tech advancements to propel its economy forward for decades, but President Xi Jinping’s Made in China 2025 plan kicked activity into a higher gear. As Xi’s political power has grown, so has the urgency in the industry to carry out his ambition: to dominate the world in advanced technologies, including semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

On its face, Ou’s death bears similarities to the wave of suicides among low-wage workers at Foxconn Technology Group factories in 2010 and 2011, which were widely attributed to labor abuses. What readers responded to in his story, though, is of a different nature. In a country of 1.4 billion people, many Chinese tech companies are able to move faster than their overseas rivals by throwing people at a problem, and younger workers cost less than their more experienced colleagues. Anxious to keep up with fierce competition, Chinese internet companies often expect their employees to work a so-called 996 schedule: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week, including holidays. After age 30, tech recruiter He wrote in a post on the question-and-answer website Zhihu, it’s harder to recover from late nights, and as your priorities shift from job to family, working overtime becomes a greater burden. “In HR,” she says, “I’ve found that 30 years old is already the beginning of the middle-aged crisis.”
EQUALITY_AGEISM-2-CMS-This-image-can-only-be-used-with-attached-article-for-period-of-90-days-from-publication
Photographer: Molly Cranna for Bloomberg Businessweek

A search on Zhaopin.com reveals tens of thousands of job postings calling for applicants younger than 35: They include one from e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc. seeking someone with a master’s degree for a senior manager position and a sales position at travel website Ctrip for which applicants are required to be from 20 to 28. (JD.com says it strictly forbids hiring restrictions based on age or gender. Ctrip declined to comment.) A recent job posting for a front-end developer at a Beijing tech startup explained that the company is willing to relax its requirements for educational attainment but not for age; a college degree isn’t strictly necessary, but if you’re older than 30, don’t bother applying. “Working in tech is like being a professional athlete,” says Robin Chan, an entrepreneur and angel investor in companies such as Xiaomi and Twitter Inc. “You work extremely hard from 20 to 40 years old and hope you hit it big. After that, it’s time to move on to something else and let someone younger try their hand.”

China has national laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender, religion, and disability, but declining to hire someone based on age is perfectly legal. “Age-dismissal victims rarely ask for help from lawyers,” says Lu Jun, a social activist and visiting scholar at Fordham University School of Law who fought successfully for legislation prohibiting Chinese employers from discriminating against hepatitis B carriers, formerly a common practice. With no statutory basis for a lawsuit, direct action is rare, but there are other ways to apply pressure. In 2011 the Shenzhen Stock Exchange posted a recruitment notice on its website asking for applicants younger than 28. The director of a local nonprofit wrote an open letter about the listing to the municipal bureau of human resources and social security. The media picked up the story, and after the stock exchange conducted an investigation into the listing, it was taken down.

Public entities are particularly good targets because they’re often viewed as examples by the private sector—force the government to change, Lu says, and the effects will trickle down. Last fall, shortly before Ou’s story began circulating, human-rights lawyer Zhang Keke heard from several colleagues about a job listing for a clerk’s position in the public prosecutor’s office in Shenzhen. The upper age limit was 28. “I really can’t believe that such things could happen in Shenzhen, an open city compared with other cities in China,” he says. China’s fifth-largest city, Shenzhen is considered to be the nation’s Silicon Valley—in addition to ZTE, Tencent and Huawei are headquartered there—and as such it tends to be more progressive.

Zhang is known for taking on controversial cases, including defending members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, and belongs to a network of public-interest lawyers created two years ago to handle discrimination cases. He sent the Shenzhen job posting around to his network and eventually assembled a group of eight lawyers to write an open letter to the Shenzhen prosecutor’s office recommending that it replace age limits with a merit-based exam. They met with textbook bureaucratic runaround: After two months with no response, the lawyers sent their complaint letter to the provincial prosecutor’s office and the city’s personnel bureau, which handles HR issues for government agencies; the bureau punted the case to another judicial agency, which didn’t respond. They then sent the letter to the head of the Shenzhen prosecutor’s office, who explained that the age limit was set by party officials. The prosecutor’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“It’s very common the government doesn’t do anything about it at first,” says Lu of complaints about government agencies. Zhang is considering bringing the case to other government authorities but has no firm plan yet. “This is just an idea at the moment,” he says. One of the other people involved, Wang Le, a 31-year-old lawyer from Hunan, says that as it’s the prosecutor’s duty to uphold the law, the office should be held to a higher standard than other government agencies. “Plus, we are all lawyers over age 28.”

Not everyone in China has responded to age-related hiring pressure by trying to fight it. There are those who say the system has taught them to work harder than their thirtysomething peers. Getting downsized out of his IT job at Nokia Corp. in Chengdu “pushed me to change and improve my skills to get a better job,” says Liu Huai Yi, 33. “I don’t buy the idea that after 35 you can’t get a job. Someone in IT has to just keep learning to keep up.” After searching for eight months, he was hired in another IT position at a multinational health-care company, which will offer more job security.

The competition for top tech talent has prompted higher salaries and relaxed age requirements for those skilled in complex fields such as AI and machine learning, which tend to require advanced degrees. If nothing else, China’s shifting age dynamics will force the issue. Forty-seven percent of China’s population is older than 40, up from 30 percent two decades ago, according to the World Bank Group. That number is projected to rise to 55 percent by 2030. Despite the end of the one-child policy, births fell last year to 17.2 million, from 18.5 million in 2016. He, the tech recruiter, remains hopeful that age discrimination will eventually disappear in China. A graying population means there will be fewer young candidates to choose from, she says. “If you have no more young employees, you will have no other choice.”

For now, He is preparing for the day she’ll be considered too old for her job. She has a second apartment in Shanghai that she rents out for extra cash, but she has also dreamed of writing a book and is banking on an encore career as an author and online influencer. She started a WeChat blog where readers can tip her if they like her articles, and along with more than a dozen fellow recruiters, she published an e-book in April on how companies can use WeChat to reach job candidates.

She advises others to follow her lead. “We worry that as we get older we might lose our jobs. How will we support our family and live a good life then?” asks He. “We have to start doing something about it now.” —With Mengchen Lu, Gao Yuan, and Charlie Zhu

20 ways Windows 10 sucks compared to a Linux

Problems which are present in every version of Windows for PC

• Devastating Windows rot (might be solved in future Windows releases if developers switch from Win32 to UWP).
• No enforced file system and registry hierarchy (I have yet to find a single serious application which can uninstall itself cleanly and fully). The $USER directory in Windows, specially in Windows 10, is an inexplicable mess.
• No true safe mode (rogue applications may easily run in it).
• The user as a system administrator (thus viruses/​malware - most users don't and won't understand UAC warnings).
• No good packaging mechanism (MSI is way too fragile).
• No system-wide update mechanism (which includes third party software - to be fair there are third party applications which offer this functionality, but then such applications don't support core Windows updates).
• In certain cases it's extremely difficult to find or update drivers for your hardware devices (anyone who's tried to install a fresh Windows onto their laptop will testify).
• Windows is extremely difficult to debug (e.g. try finding out why your system is slow to boot).
• Windows boot problems are too often fatal and unsolvable unless you reinstall from scratch.
• Windows is hardware dependent (especially when running from UEFI).
• Windows updates are terribly unreliable, very slow (to install) and they also waste disk space (Microsoft has promised to fix updates after over 13 years of constant woes from Windows users).
• Windows cannot replace system DLLs on the fly and restart corresponding services which depend on said DLLs due to its architecture. As a result some system updates require multiple reboots (innocuous malevolence in me requires to mention that in Linux you can even update the kernel on the fly).
• The Windows OS installer doesn't give a damn about other OSes installed on your PC and it always overwrites the MBR. In case of already existing Windows installations, it sets the newly installed Windows as the default OS - no questions asked. In case of UEFI, booting of other non-Windows OSes is unsupported and Windows actively prevents this.
• WinSxS, though a neat idea, turned into some madness: Windows keeps the versions of files the user won't ever need: for instance the English version of Windows will have copies of files for many other languages irrespectively of the chosen locale or MUI.
• Cryptic error messages (considering the size of the OS, >9GB as of Windows 10, this practice is simply ridiculous).
• Most malware writers target Windows as the most popular desktop OS, so it has the biggest number of viruses among all other OSes (over five thousand new viruses daily).
• Windows loves thrashing your HDD - Windows 10 with its incessant tracking is the worst offender.
• Microsoft programmers are still unable to cope with NTFS fragmentation thirty years after its introduction. To make things worse most Windows applications do not preallocate files thus they contribute to fragmentation even more.
• Windows anti-virus products oftentimes make your PC less safe - so if you want perfect security and privacy, stop using Windows and migrate to Linux right away. OEM updaters make your PC wide open for attacks.
• Microsoft has recently decided that you will no longer be able to download certain Windows updates manually. You'll only be able to get them via Windows Update.
• "sfc /scannow" is offered as a solution to most Windows Update Service and Microsoft Installer Service errors, yet in absolute most cases it's totally ineffective.
• Windows does not allow you to use any partitions other than the first one on your removable USB flash drive. There's no logic or explanation behind this totally ridiculous and artificial limitation.
• Windows does not automatically clean temporary files ever, however it must do that for every reboot/power cycle - partially solved in Windows 10 1809.
• The generic drivers Windows comes with are not always compatible with the wide range of existing hardware. Since Windows has a habit of replacing your vendor's drivers with its own newer drivers your hardware may stop working correctly after upgrading to a newer Windows release (remember that Windows 10 is a codename for major different operating systems, e.g. like Windows Vista vs Windows 7 in the past).
• Windows keeps a large number of databases of the applications which the user runs: Windows Activity History, bam.sys, Prefetcher, Program Compatibility Assistant and others.
• Windows keeps trying to reinstall failed updates over and over (in certain cases every such cycle of "updating" can render your PC disabled for hours!). To be fixed in 2019 in Windows 10.
• No clean state (for most OEM installations out there). This will be finally solved in new Windows 10 builds.
• svchost.exe (the whole philosophy of preserving RAM this way became outdated years ago) - now fixed in Windows 10.
• There's no way to cleanly upgrade your system (there will be thousands of leftovers), etc - "fixed" in Windows 10 by a complete semiannual system reinstallation.
• Windows doesn't support a hybrid MBR/GPT partitioning scheme. MBR is now more or less abandoned, so it's no longer an issue.
• Microsoft has gone crazy: Windows 10 is now a recommended update for all Windows 7/8.1 users unless you're running their Enterprise versions. That means your computer will automatically update to Windows 10 unless you either disable the Windows Update service completely or set Windows updates to the manual mode.
• In May 2016 Microsoft started deceptively updating users' PCs to Windows 10 regardless of your Automatic Windows Updates settings or the way you interact with the GWX application.

A finnish translation of the above list can be read at keskustelu.suomi24.fi.

Now the second kind of issues is intrinsic to Windows 10 only

• Windows 10 spies on you and even more so on your children aka phones home (welcome NSA/CIA/thoughtcrime/1984)! Microsoft added spying features to Windows 7/8.1 as well (more general list). Microsoft officially admits that automatic spying cannot be disabled in Windows 10.
  The official Microsoft guide on Windows 10 telemetry settings contains this beautiful tidbit: "Ability to gather user content, such as documents, if they might have been the trigger for the issue". Now, Microsoft states that user files can be requested only on the "Full" level of telemetry, however you need to bear in mind that this feature is built-in, it's remotely triggered, and it can be used to get any of your data any time they want.
  In April 2017 Microsoft published a list of things it's collecting from your PC at the basic telemetry setting (Web Archive copy).
• Wow, just wow: Microsoft now openly publishes its collected data in regard to Windows 10 users:
  • "Over 44.5 billion minutes spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in just the last month" - we spy on Edge users.
  • "Over 82 billion photos viewed within the Windows 10 Photo app" - you're using our Gallery app, right? Great!
  • "Gaming continues to grow on Windows 10 – in 2015, gamers spent over 4 billion hours playing PC games on Windows 10" - we now know what apps you're running and for how long.
• Starting October 2016 telemetry (spying) became impossible to disable in Windows 7 and 8.1 because Microsoft changed the way it distributes updates for those two operating systems.
• Windows 10 Enterprise, which is the only version where ostensibly telemetery can be fully disabled, is still contacting various data collection servers despite your privacy settings.
• Microsoft's EULA grants Microsoft the rights to use any of your content related to the services like Bing, Cortana (a built-in file indexer and search in Windows 10), OneDrive or Skype: "you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content". You can read Microsoft's response here which paints everything in a positive light however after Snowden's leaks it's hard if not impossible to take them seriously.
• Microsoft pushes Windows 10 so hard it actually started spreading FUD even about its own older OSes:
  • Microsoft started lying through their teeth about Windows 7: "We do worry when people are running an operating system that's 10 years old that the next printer they buy isn't going to work well, or they buy a new game, they buy Fallout 4, a very popular game, and it doesn't work on a bunch of older machines. And so, as we are pushing our software vendors and hardware partners to build great new stuff that takes advantage of Windows 10 that obviously makes the old stuff really bad and not to mention viruses and security problems".
  • Egregious lying continues: Microsoft falsely states that newer Intel and AMD CPUs will only be supported by Windows 10. If that were actually true you wouldn't be able to run MS-DOS on Intel Skylake yet you can, perfectly (edit: later, Microsoft reneged on not supporting Skylake CPUs). Perhaps they are talking about new advanced features of the said CPUs, but their wording means the opposite: like you cannot physically run any older Windows releases on these new CPUs.
  • Microsoft is getting desperate: the users of Intel Kaby Lake CPUs and AMD Ryzen CPUs will no longer receive Windows 7/8.1 updates at all. More information.
  • Microsoft unlawfully forced its hardware partners (Intel and AMD) to stop supporting previous versions of Windows; that's why you can't use your integrated Gen 7 Intel/AMD Raven Ridge graphics in Windows 7/8.1 (inf modification hacks notwithstanding).
  • Microsoft started interrupting Chrome and Firefox installations to promote Edge in Windows 10.
  • Microsoft desperately wants to install Windows 10 on pretty much all computers running Windows 7/8/8.1, even though some older hardware is not compatible with Windows 10 due to missing drivers. In certain cases, drivers for Windows 10 are buggy and incomplete, which means after upgrading you end up with a broken PC you cannot use or its features don't work like they should.
  • Microsoft has lost its mind and they now aggressively try to foist/force Windows 10 on unsuspecting users. Oh, it's now official: they will forcefully install it everywhere they can in 2016.
• Windows 10 will forever be beta software (specially after they fired a large chunk of their QA/QC department and instead delegated testing to the insiders) - Ars Technica published a monumental article pertaining to the issue:
  • A new model of development with no Windows 11 in sight.
  • Two Control Panels (read below).
  • Microsoft hides the information about Windows 10 updates, so oftentimes you won't even know what certain updates are aimed to fix or improve. Also Windows 10 updates may have unintended consequences and unannounced changes in behaviour (it's already been confirmed).
  • Microsoft sometimes pushes half-baked updates which kill end-users' PCs or cause a lot of damage (this is a wonderful read). Make sure you also read an article about the clusterfuck called Anniversary Update - there are numerous reports that the installer kills all the partitions which Windows doesn't know about (Linux users beware).
  • August 2016 anniversary update broke millions of web cameras.
  • September 2016 security update broke print functionality for certain users.
  • December 2016 update broke the DHCP service (read Internet connection) for many users.
  • GWX application updates the PCs which are incompatible with Windows 10 because there are no drivers available for PC components or periphery devices like printers/scanners/etc.
• You've got no real control over crucial features of the OS:
  • Windows 10 will have no service packs which means it will always be a work in progress and you are a perpetual beta tester.
  • Forced updates you cannot opt out of (and Microsoft have borked quite a lot of them recently so prepare to see your Windows die after installing a new batch of updates - actually Microsoft has already borked one update, read horror stories about KB3081424). In December 2016 Chris Capossela, chief marketing officer at Microsoft, admitted that the company had gone too far with the way Windows updates are distributed.
  • Safe Mode has become impossible to access unless you've booted into ... the running OS, which totally defeats its purpose. Also Safe Mode is hidden behind almost a dozen of steps vs. a single F8 key press on boot in every Windows version from 95 to 7.
  • Windows 10 anniversary update makes it very difficult (read impossible for average users) to disable Cortana.
  • Windows 10 violates basic networking principles: it ignores the hosts files, the DNS protocol and firewall rules and sends telemetry data regardless.
• Microsoft says that there will be at least two service updates (or whatever their names are) for Windows every year, and each update is basically a new version of Windows, so:
  • Twice per year you may reinstall software deemed not required by Microsoft.
  • Some features you grew dependent on will be removed without providing any alternatives.
  • Your preferences will be reset to default, so you'll need to go through them regularly.
  • Some Metro applications will be reinstalled if you deleted them previously. New wonderful Metro applications will be installed.
  • Expect your group policy settings and tweaks to be completely removed or changed and the only way to get them back is to upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise.
  • Certain software titles and drivers will cease to work.
• Windows 10 features terrible UI inconsistency, not limited to:
  • Two kinds of font antialiasing (ClearType v2 for classic applications and some awful dirty grayish something for Modern apps). Truth to be told it's not a problem with HiDPI monitors but few people own them.
  • All kinds of varying visual decorations and styles (some people have discovered up to seven varying styles in Windows 10).
  • Absolutely dissimilar classic and modern (PC settings) control panels.
  • Different font faces and sizes all around.
  • Different styles of settings for modern apps.
  • Absolutely different context menus and their appearance in different applications and apps.
• Terrible hardly-configurable appearance, dubious design choices and extremely limited functionality (vs Windows 7/XP):
  • Two Control Panels with absolutely zero thought given to how they differ and why each one should be used.
  • Some Control Widgets are spread between the two Control Panels which is utterly confusing (e.g. User Management).
  • No Windows classic UI for windows decorations. Windows decorations can hardly be configured at all in Windows 10.
  • An awful choice of colors/palette.
  • Absolutely awful, childish and amateurish icons (the current release features slightly better icons) as if we live in the era of eight-bit displays (only rivalled by those in Windows 3.1 from 1992). Windows 2000 in 1999 looked better than Windows 10 in 2015.
  • A big number of Windows 10 apps are still NOT on par with their classical counterparts from Windows 7/Vista/XP (many features are missing or many options are not configurable).
  • The start menu is an unusable abomination. Sometimes classic Win32 applications are not listed anywhere. Applications are listed as a list which is nigh impossible to scroll.
• Windows 10 sucks terribly if you are an unlucky user of a metered Internet connection:
  • It features huge mandatory system and apps updates (you cannot disable them, you can only postpone the system reboot after their installation). A note for smug commentators: certain home users/companies use a 3G uplink connection (for instance via a router which supports USB 3G modems), which means Windows 10 doesn't and cannot know how it's connected to the Internet.
  • By default it uses your free bandwidth to distribute updates to other users nearby you.
  • As if it wasn't enough, Windows 10 gets downloaded automatically if you run Windows 7 or 8.1. We are talking about 3-6 gigabytes of data some people absolutely do not need.
• Windows 10 Pro edition has become more or less unsuitable for small enterprises because Windows 10 anniversary update removes the ability to disable the following "features" (more like annoyances):
  • Microsoft Consumer Experience: personalized recommendations or, in simple terms, ads in the start menu.
  • Windows Tips.
  • The Lock Screen.
  • Disable all apps from the Windows Store.
  To disable these "features" you will have to purchase a subscription for Windows 10 Enterprise or Education editions.
• Interesting (read awful) features for developers and power users:
  • Visual Studio 2015 C++ compiler secretly inserts telemetry code into binaries.
  • Windows 10 anniversary update blocks all drivers which are not signed by Microsoft. At the moment the ext2fsd driver and VirtualBox will cease to function.
• In Windows 10 certain not-so-old games and applications either do not work or have severe problems (old StarForce drivers are not supported).
• A new shocker: Windows 10 installs apps behind your back without your approval. The first Windows anniversary update without asking first reinstalls Skype and auto-logins you.
• Windows 10 resets your default applications to built-in Microsoft's ones after each major update.
• As has already been mentioned, different Windows 10 releases are different operating systems altogether, so Microsoft is "free" to deprecate the support for your hardware even if it came with Windows 10 preinstalled. So, Microsoft decided it no longer wants to allow new Windows releases on PCs having an Intel Clover Trail Atom CPU inside.
• A newly-created user profile weighs over 300MB (!) while containing zero (!) information about the user.
• A newly-created user profile is populated with all the default apps instead of giving the user a choice.
• Windows 10 shows full-screen ads on your lock screen.
• With Wi-Fi sense enabled anyone you have in your Skype, Outlook or Hotmail contacts lists — and any of your Facebook friends - can be granted automatic access to your Wi-Fi network as long as they're within range.
• March 2017 update: Windows Explorer now shows ads for OneDrive.

Some ways to fix/configure Windows 10

• Do not install it or upgrade to it if you're running Windows 7/8.1. If you did, read further.
• Install Open Shell (a fork of Classic Shell) aka Windows 7 (XP) Start Menu for Windows 10.
• Uninstall/remove most built-in Metro/Modern apps in Windows 10 (quiet a lot of them are immutable and cannot be uninstalled no matter what):
  • Fire up an administrator's PowerShell (Start -> Search -> Power -> Right mouse click -> Run as Administrator).
  • Run (copy and paste):
    Get-AppXPackage -User | Remove-AppxPackage (remove the user's apps)
    Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage (remove all system-wide apps)
• Disable Windows 10 most spying/tracking/call home features - for deep cleaning use more powerful (and equally dangerous) utilities.
• You can disable the built-in torrent-like/bandwidth sharing feature by going to the Start Start button icon , then Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and then select Advanced options.
• The other things mentioned above cannot be fixed unfortunately (UI inconsistency, two Control Panels, very little UI customizability, disabling of updates, etc.).

Why was Windows 10 spyware? (stopped being so after July 29, 2016)

Because it has all the attributes of spyware:

• Downloads itself to your machine without you specifically asking for it? YES
• Aggressively attempts to install itself taking over your computer in the process? YES
• Sends unknown and/or encrypted data to known and unknown third parties? YES
• Sends personally identifying information to known and unknown third parties? YES
• Difficult to remove? YES

In short, it looks like spyware, smells like spyware, walks like spyware and talks like spyware. Windows 10 is spyware.
As a bonus, Windows 10 has the features of a PUP: it shows ads in the start menu including full-screen ads on the lock screen.

Busting Windows 10 myths

There seems to be a good number of myths which are spread on pro-Microsoft forums and websites and I want to take a bit of your time to debunk them.
Windows 10 is faster
According to this, this and this there's no discernible difference between Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. Windows 10 features improved memory handling for certain multithreaded applications like WinRAR, but most other applications have the same performance.
"I have installed Windows 10 and it feels faster", right, like with every Windows release it feels fast when you install it from scratch. Then, strangely, it slows down significantly.
I have nothing to hide - let them track me!
Robin Doherty has a nice piece on this issue: "Why privacy is important, and having 'nothing to hide' is irrelevant". Also you might want to read about the implications of real-life surveillance.
Here's an insightful comment I cannot agree more with:

"Microsoft has given themselves the right to do remote administration and data gathering ... and for all but the ones which can select Security, they'll do it in such a way that they can personally identify you. Oh, and apparently they'll gather some of your documents as well. No fucking way we can trust them with this, because as soon as they have the ability to tell your computer to package up some data and send it to them, some asshole in law enforcement is going to demand they misuse it. And don't say they won't, because that's exactly the kind of shit law enforcement and the security agencies are doing. No way they won't show up with an NSL demanding information and forbidding Microsoft from admitting to it."

I've got Windows 10 preinstalled on my PC/laptop, I hate it, what should I do?

If you do value your freedom, privacy and ability to control your OS, not the other way around, you've get these options:

• Downgrade to Windows 8.1 or even better to Windows 7 (can't recommend 7 any longer as it will stop being supported starting January, 2019) which contains zero privacy invasion features. Make sure you have automatic updates set to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them". Review and research every non-security update before installing it. Also you might want to disable telemetry bits and upgrade elements in Windows 7/8.1 - use with caution.
  Mind that Microsoft stopped offering Windows 7/8.1 updates to the owners of new PCs with new Intel/AMD CPUs.
  Also mind that finding drivers for older Windows releases has become extremely difficult for new hardware (released after 2015).
• If everything you do on your PC is web browsing, watching online videos and listening to online music, give Linux a try. You don't even have to install it to try it - it can be trivially run from your USB flash drive without touching your OS or personal data. Linux is slowly becoming a nice alternative to Windows.
• Migrate to MacOS. This is the most expensive option but the most viable at the moment because Linux is not exactly perfect.

Free upgrade to Windows 10 (updated)

How to save money and upgrade to Windows 10 for free after the free upgrade offer expires?
Activate any assistive technology in your Windows 7/8.1, for instance, click + U and enable the onscreen keyboard and follow this link.
Officially in January 2018 Microsoft ended this offer. But not really - read on.
Update: it turns out the offer is still valid and you can upgrade to Widnows 10 for free if you own a copy of Windows 7 or 8. I've just saved you up to $199.

In conclusion

Just before you call me anti-Microsoft, a Linux shill, zealot or fanatic, here's a wonderful list of Linux problems that I've been compiling over the past six years. The truth is I don't plead allegiance to any OS on the market. So, sorry, Windows 10 sucks no less than Linux sucks, it just sucks differently. So far, Microsoft has had two great modern OSes: Windows XP and Windows 7 (in the past they had rock-solid Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000).
I have no opinion on MacOS X, because I've never had a chance to use it, however from what I've seen on screenshots, this OS has the worst font antialiasing among any existing OSes - I actually refuse to try it because I don't want to hurt my eyes (not an issue for Macs with "retina" displays but they are even more expensive).
I'm not a journalist and I've never been one.
P.S. If you want to reinforce your love towards Microsoft and Windows 10 go to neowin.net - this website has thousands of raving idiots who dribble and moan with excitement over everything made by Microsoft.
Some guy from game-debate dot com rewrote this article in an easy-to-understand way.

Leave your comments, additions and hatred below.

If you want to understand the age of Trump, read the Frankfurt School

In 1923, a motley collection of philosophers, cultural critics, and sociologists formed the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Known popularly as the Frankfurt School, it was an all-star crew of lefty theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse.

The Frankfurt School consisted mostly of neo-Marxists who hoped for a socialist revolution in Germany but instead got fascism in the form of the Nazi Party. Addled by their misreading of history and their failure to foresee Hitler’s rise, they developed a form of social critique known as critical theory.

Their ideas took shape when several of the critical theorists fled Nazism, landed in the US, and turned their gaze on American culture. They saw the yoke of capitalist ideology wherever they looked — in films, in radio, in poplar music, in literature. Adorno, one of the more prominent Frankfurt theorists, warned of an American “culture industry” that blurred the distinction between truth and fiction, between the commercial and the political.

Interest in the Frankfurt School has spiked since Donald Trump burst onto the political scene in 2016. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross even penned a piece last year arguing that the Frankfurt School “knew Trump was coming.” “Trump is as much a pop-culture phenomenon as he is a political one,” Ross argued, and that’s precisely what you’d expect in age in which “traffic trumps ethics.”

If the critical theorists do make a comeback, a new book by Guardian columnist Stuart Jeffries might help lead it. A group biography of the Frankfurt intellectuals, Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School throws fresh light on a tradition of thought that feels depressingly relevant.

I spoke with Jeffries earlier this year about the book and what he learned from reentering the Frankfurt orbit. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

---

Sean Illing

What’s the main intellectual contribution of the Frankfurt School?

Stuart Jeffries

I think the main contribution is their insistence on the power of culture as a political tool, and also the power of the mass media. They examined as closely as anyone how these instruments became politically relevant, and what the consequences of that were.

Sean Illing

And how were they influenced by the rise of fascism in Germany at the time?

Stuart Jeffries

In the 1920s, they were wondering why there was no socialist revolution in a sophisticated and advanced industrialized country like Germany. Why a successful Bolshevik Revolution a couple years before in Russia but not in Germany? They concluded that culture and the use of the media was the primary tool for oppressing the masses without the masses realizing that they're being oppressed.

This is what they witnessed in Germany, and it became the guiding insight of their work and the main source of their relevance.

Sean Illing

And yet they fell into irrelevance anyhow — why?

Stuart Jeffries

They became irrelevant because people didn't worry too much about culture — they were too comfortable to realize there was a problem. “Culture” is a difficult concept; hard to get your hands around it.

Sean Illing

Theodor Adorno coined the phrase “culture industry.” What did he mean?

Stuart Jeffries

Well, he was distinguishing art from culture. Art is something that's elevating and challenges the existing order, whereas culture is precisely the opposite. Culture, or the culture industry, uses art in a conservative way, which is to say it uses art to uphold the existing order.

So the culture industry peddles an ideology that supports the prevailing power structure — in the case of America, that ideology was consumerism.

Sean Illing

What changed for Adorno and the other critical theorists when they landed in America? Why did they see American culture as ripe for fascism?

Stuart Jeffries

Well, Adorno came to the states and was appalled by the culture industry; it was an utter scandal in his mind. He saw the culture industry controlling the minds of Americans in much the same way Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist, controlled the minds of Germans.

So Adorno and the other critical theorists saw culture as inherently totalitarian, and this was particularly true in America. This, of course, didn't go over well with the public. You have these Germans coming to your country with their old attitudes and their defense of bourgeois art, and they're critical of every aspect of American culture and regard it as an artistic wasteland.

Americans struggled with this idea that popular culture, their popular culture, could be subversive in this way. And, to be fair, many of the critical theorists didn’t get American culture, and so they undoubtedly overreached at times.

“Trump is clearly a product of a mass media age. The way he speaks and lies and bombards voters — this is a way of controlling people, especially people who don't have a sense of history.”

Sean Illing

What was so unique about the culture industry in America? Adorno seemed to think it was a prop for totalitarian capitalism, and that it was all the more insidious because it was more camouflaged than it was in Germany.

Stuart Jeffries

He thought it was so insidious because it didn't appear to have an ideological message; it was never self-consciously ideological in the way that German propaganda was. It wasn't that America was equivalent to Germany or that American propaganda was equivalently awful; rather, it was that America's culture industry smuggled its consumerist ethos into its art with a similar goal of producing conformity of thought and behavior. Having just fled Germany, Adorno saw this as a precursor to something like fascism.

Sean Illing

The goal of German propaganda at the time was obvious, but what was the goal of American propaganda? To manufacture consent by way of mass distraction?

Stuart Jeffries

Manufacturing distraction is exactly what it is. If you read Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man, you see him struggling with this problem. He sees in 1964 that everyone is getting too comfortable to revolt against oppression of any kind. People are distracted by the sexual revolution, by popular music, by virtually every aspect of mass culture.

As you can see, it's really hard to sympathize with these guys, because they're bringing such a sweeping critique that it's, frankly, hard to believe. But I'm convinced there's some truth in it.

Sean Illing

One thing I appreciate about the critical theorists was their willingness to identify totalitarian tendencies on the left and the right. They recognized that ideological single-mindedness was the real danger.

Stuart Jeffries

They were true critics in that sense, and that resonated with me as well. I used to be involved in the Communist Party, and very often the "left fascism" that Habermas, one of the more famous Frankfurt scholars, described is what I saw — the shutting down of debate in particular. While they incited hatred on both sides of the aisle, you have to admire their intellectual consistency.

Sean Illing

Why did you write this book about the Frankfurt School now? It seems strangely relevant given what’s happening in our politics at the moment, but obviously you undertook this project a few years ago when things were quite different.

Stuart Jeffries

After the economic crisis in 2008, books like Karl Marx's Capital were suddenly best-sellers, and the reason was that people were looking for critiques of contemporary culture. So it seemed like a good time to dust these guys off and revisit their work. And then someone like Trump comes along and proves it even further.

Sean Illing

A lot of people are fumbling for constructive ways to think about what’s happening right now, both politically and culturally. I’ve watched Trump bulldoze his way to the presidency for over a year now, and I still can’t quite believe it.

Stuart Jeffries

There's a lot of similar factors operating in the UK, where I live, and in America. You see this with Brexit and with Trump. There's a resurgence of racism and a kind of contempt for liberal democracy.

From the perspective of critical theory, Trump is clearly a product of a mass media age. The way he speaks and lies and bombards voters — this is a way of controlling people, especially people who don't have a sense of history. I saw the same thing in the months leading up the Brexit vote earlier this year: the lying, the fearmongering, the hysteria. Mass media allows for a kind of collective hypnosis, and to some extent that is what we’re seeing.

Sean Illing

I’ve thought a lot about what Trump’s success says about our culture — mostly how empty and decadent it is. But I wonder if that’s too easy, if I’m missing something deeper.

Stuart Jeffries

That's interesting. I had a friend involved in Democratic politics in Pennsylvania this year, and he kept asking people if they were going to vote for Hillary, and they'd often say, "No, I can't do it — God will decide." I find that sense of fatalism and that failure to take one's responsibility seriously terrifying. And yet it's been brought to life in the most vivid way imaginable, and I have to hope that the consequences of this will force people to reengage.

“Mass media allows for a kind of collective hypnosis, and to some extent that is what we’re seeing.”

Sean Illing

It’s hard not to see Trump’s election, and really the state of discourse in general, as an indictment of our broader culture, a culture nurtured by the very instruments of control the critical theorists worried about.

Stuart Jeffries

I think things have become more heightened by mass media, but I'm not sure anything has fundamentally changed. Look, I’m doing my best to be optimistic here, but I mostly share your angst. Like the critical theorists themselves, I don’t have the solutions. That we have problem, however, is rather obvious.

Sean Illing

Here’s the thing: If Trump’s rise represented an actual substantive rebellion, that at least would suggest a revolution in consciousness. But it’s not that serious. There’s no content behind it. Trump is just a symbol of negation, a big middle finger to the establishment. He’s a TV show for a country transfixed by spectacle. And so in that sense, Trumpism is exactly what you’d expect a “revolution” in the age of mass media to look like.

Stuart Jeffries

Sadly, I agree. If you listen to Trump speak, it's all stream-of-consciousness gibberish. There's no real thought, no real intellectual process, no historical memory. It's a rhetorical sham, but a kind of brilliant one when you think about it. He's a projection of his supporters, and he knows it.

He won by capturing attention, and he captured attention by folding pop entertainment into politics, which is something the critical theorists anticipated.

Sean Illing

The Frankfurt School lost its luster decades ago. Do you see their ideas making a comeback given all these political and cultural transformations?

Stuart Jeffries

Definitely. There's a lot to learn from the critical theorists, whatever your politics might be. They have a lot to say about modern culture, about what's wrong with society, and about the corrupting influence of consumerism.

That alone makes them essential today.

Our Debt Sucks!

The United States (US)

The US has a total of 29.27 trillion dollars of external debt, translating to around 45% of the total debt owed. Its two largest creditors are China (roughly $1.18 trillion) and Japan (roughly $1.06 trillion). The US government is wary of heavy reliance on foreign debt and keeps its Net International Investment Position (NIIP) at a manageable level to avoid economic downfall brought about by any sudden foreign debt reduction.

The United Kingdom (UK)

The UK has a total of $8.12 trillion external debt, translating to about 27% of the total debt owed. It has a better NIIP compared to the US, because of better foreign investments estimated to be about $7.6 trillion.

France

France had a total of $5.36 trillion external debt by the end of 2017, which is almost the equivalent of its GDP. That comparison makes it among the top countries with a large amount of national debt. Its economy enjoys many millionaires and large number of business who supply globally.

Germany

Germany’s external debt is around 5.36 trillion. This is about 64% of its GDP, making it a more stable economy compared to other European countries. Its credit rating has been improving over the years as a result of falling national debt. A ripple effect of that status is that Germany has become a more attractive country for investment.

Foreign Debts and the National Economy

Foreign debt is a key indicator of the borrowing ability of a country, which in turn affects its economic growth. On the other hand, the foreign debt may not affect a nation’s borrowing ability if it is owed more foreign debt than it has. Countries that have had adverse foreign debt usually resort to debt sustenance measures to keep their economies afloat. For example, such countries may opt to reschedule payments, increase its exports and encourage more local investments.
Countries With the Most Debt

Rank	Country	External Debt
1	United States	$17,910,000,000,000
2	United Kingdom	$8,126,000,000,000
3	France	$5,360,000,000,000
4	Germany	$5,326,000,000,000
5	The Netherlands	$4,063,000,000,000
6	Luxembourg	$3,781,000,000,000
7	Japan	$3,240,000,000,000
8	Ireland	$2,470,000,000,000
9	Italy	$2,444,000,000,000
10	Spain	$2,094,000,000,000

2020 Democrats Are Copying Stalin's Platform

Based on the first two debates, the Democratic Party is running in 2020 on the platform of abortion, open borders, and as, conservative commentator Mark  Levin asserts, a more-than-nanny-state style of government with one that is ripped out right out of Joseph Stalin's motherland's communist Soviet Union constitution.
As reported by Nate Madden at the Conservative Review, Levin used his Fox News show, "Life, Liberty, and Levin," to warn of the impending and irreversible danger of big government and big spending offered by the leftist candidates for president as well as squishy Republicans in Congress.
"Do you care about your kids and grandkids?" Levin asked his audience.

"Most of us would give our lives for our kids and grandkids...And yet we’re destroying their society; we’re destroying their economy," Levin said of a recent Congressional Budget Office report that the U.S. national debt will reach "unprecedented" levels in the coming years.
He then warned that the Democratic Party's 2020 candidates' proposals for bigger government, federal spending, and complete takeover of the United States health care system will "not only will fundamentally transform America; it will fundamentally destroy our economic system."

As for where these potential presidential nominees got their ideas, Levin notes that their plans are nearly identical to communist despot Joseph Stalin's platform from the U.S.S.R.'s 1936 constitution. As reported by Madden, "Levin read multiple sections of the communist document, and the similarities between the language in its articles and in the rhetoric on the 2020 campaign trail are indeed striking."
.

Democrats copying 1936 Soviet Constitution

Chapter I : The Organization of Society

ARTICLE 1. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state of workers and peasants.

ARTICLE 2. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies, which grew and attained strength as a result of the overthrow of the landlords and capitalists and the achievement of the dictatorship of the proletariat, constitute the political foundation of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 3. In the U.S.S.R. all power belongs to the working people of town and country as represented by the Soviets of Working People's Deputies.

ARTICLE 4. The socialist system of economy and the socialist ownership of the means and instruments of production, firmly established as a result of the abolition of the capitalist system of economy, the abrogation of private ownership of the means and instruments of production and the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, constitute the economic foundation of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 5. Socialist property in the U.S.S.R. exists either in the form of state property (the possession of the whole people), or in the form of cooperative and collective-farm property (property of a collective farm or property of a cooperative association).

ARTICLE 6. The land, its natural deposits, waters, forests, mills, factories, mines, rail, water and air transport, banks, post, telegraph, and telephones, large state organized agricultural enterprises (state farms, machine and tractor stations and the like) as well as municipal enterprises and the bulk of the dwelling houses in the cities and industrial localities, are state property, that is, belong to the whole people.

ARTICLE 7. Public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative organizations, with their livestock and implements, the products of the collective farms and cooperative organizations, as well as their common buildings, constitute the common, socialist property of the collective farms and cooperative organizations.

In addition to its basic income from the public, collective-farm enterprise, every household in a collective farm has for its personal use a small plot of land attached to the dwelling and, as its personal property, a subsidiary establishment on the plot, a dwelling house, livestock, poultry and minor agricultural implements - in accordance with the the statutes of the agricultural artel.

ARTICLE 8. The land occupied by collective farms is secured to them for their use free of charge and for an unlimited time, that is, in perpetuity.

ARTICLE 9. Alongside the socialist system of economy, which is the predominant form of economy in the U.S.S.R., the law permits the small private economy of individual peasants and handicraftsmen based on their personal labour and precluding the exploitation of the labour of others.

ARTICLE 10. The right of citizens to personal ownership of their incomes from work and of their savings, of their dwelling houses and subsidiary household economy, their household furniture and utensils and articles of personal use and convenience, as well as the right of inheritance of personal property of citizens, is protected by law.

ARTICLE 11. The economic life of the U.S.S.R. is determined and directed by the state national economic plan with the aim of increasing the public wealth, of steadily improving the material conditions of the working people and raising their cultural level, of consolidating the independence of the U.S.S.R. and strengthening its defensive capacity.

ARTICLE 12. In the U.S.S.R. work is a duty and a matter of honour for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle: "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."

The principle applied in the U.S.S.R. is that of socialism : "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."

Chapter II : The Organization of the State

ARTICLE 13. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a federal state, formed on the basis of the voluntary association of Soviet Socialist Republics having equal rights, namely :

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic
The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Esthonian Soviet Socialist Republic

ARTICLE 14. The jurisdiction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as represented by its highest organs of state authority and organs of government, covers :

a) Representation of the Union in international relations, conclusion and ratification of treaties with other states;
b) Questions of war and peace;
c) Admission of new republics into the U.S.S.R.;
d) Control over the observance of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. and ensuring conformity of the Constitutions of the Union Republics with the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.;
e) Confirmation of alterations of boundaries between Union Republics;
f) Confirmation of the formation of new Territories and Regions and also of new Autonomous Republics within Union Republics;
g) Organization of the defence of the U.S.S.R. and direction of all the armed forces of the U.S.S.R.;
h) Foreign trade on the basis of state monopoly;
i) Safeguarding the security of the state;
j) Establishment of the national economic plans of the U.S.S.R.;
k) Approval of the single state budget of the U.S.S.R. as well as of the taxes and revenues which go to the all-Union, Republican and local budgets;
l) Administration of the banks, industrial and agricultural establishments and enterprises and trading enterprises of all-Union importance;
m) Administration of transport and communications;
n) Direction of the monetary and credit system;
o) Organization of state insurance;
p) Raising and granting of loans;
q) Establishment of the basic principles for the use of land as well as for the use of natural deposits, forests and waters;
r) Establishment of the basic principles in the spheres of education and public health;
s) Organization of a uniform system of national economic statistics;
t) Establishment of the principles of labour legislation;
u) Legislation on the judicial system and judicial procedure; criminal and civil codes;
v) Laws on citizenship of the Union; laws on the rights of foreigners;
w) Issuing of all-Union acts of amnesty.

ARTICLE 15. The sovereignty of the Union Republics is limited only within the provisions set forth in Article 14 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.

Outside of these provisions, each Union Republic exercises state authority independently. The U.S.S.R. protects the sovereign rights of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 16. Each Union Republic has its own Constitution, which takes account of the specific features of the Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 17. To every Union Republic is reserved the right freely to secede from the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 18. The territory of a Union Republic may not be altered without its consent.

ARTICLE 19. The laws of the U.S.S.R. have the same force within the territory of every Union Republic.

ARTICLE 20. In the event of a discrepancy between a law of a Union Republic and an all-Union law, the all-Union law prevails.

ARTICLE 21. A single Union citizenship is established for all citizens of the U.S.S.R.

Every citizen of a Union Republic is a citizen of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 22. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic consists of the Altai, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Orjonikidze, Primorye and Khabarovsk Territories; the Archangel, Vologda, Voronezh, Gorky, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kalinin, Kirov, Kuibyshev, Kursk, Leningrad, Molotov, Moscow, Murmansk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orel, Penza, Rostov, Ryazan, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Stalingrad, Tambov, Tula, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Chjkalov and Yaroslavl Regions; the Tatar, Bashkir, Daghestan, Buryat-Mongolian, Kabardino- Balkarian, Kalmyk, Komi, Crimean, Mari, Mordovian, Volga German, North Ossetian, Udmurt, Chechen- Ingush, Chuvash and Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics; and the Adygei, Jewish, Karachai, Oirot, Khakass ans Cherkess Autonomous Regions.

ARTICLE 23. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Vinnitsa, Volhynia, Voroshilovgrad, Dniepropetrovsk, Drohobych, Zhitomir, Zaporozhye, Izmail, Kamenets-Podolsk, Kiev, Kirovograd, Lvov, Nikolayev, Odessa, Poltova, Rovno, Stalino, Stanislav, Sumi, Tarnapol; Kharkov, Chernigov and Chernovitsi Regions.

ARTICLE 24. The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Nagarno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.

ARTICLE 25. The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Adjar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the South Ossetian Autonomous Region.

ARTICLE 26. The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Ferghana and Khorezm Regions, and the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

ARTICLE 27. The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Garm, Kulyab, Leninabad and Stalinabad Regions, and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.

ARTICLE 28. The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Akmolinsk, Aktyubinsk, Alma-Ata East Kazakhstan, Guriev, Jambul, West Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kzyl-Orda, Kustanai, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk and South Kazakhstan Regions.

ARTICLE 29. The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Baranovichi, Byelostok, Brest, Vileyka, Vitebsk, Gomel, Minsk, Moghilev, Pinsk and Polessye Regions.

ARTICLE 29-a. The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Ashkhabad, Krasnovodsk, Mari, Tashauz and Charjow Regions.

ARTICLE 29-b. The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Dzhalal-Abad, Issyk-Kul, Osh, Tien-Shan and Frunze Regions.

Chapter III : The Highest Organs of State Authority of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

ARTICLE 30. The highest organ of state authority of the U.S.S.R. is the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 31. The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. exercises all rights vested in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in accordance with Article 14 of the Constitution, in so far as they do not, by virtue of the Constitution, come within the jurisdiction of organs of the U.S.S.R. that are accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., that is, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. and the People's Commissariats of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 32. The legislative power of the U.S.S.R. is exercised exclusively by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 33. The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. consists of two chambers : the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 34. The Soviet of the Union is elected by the citizens of the U.S.S.R. according to electoral areas on the basis of one deputy for every 300,000 of the population.

ARTICLE 35. The Soviet of Nationalities is elected by the citizens of the U.S.S.R. according to Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Regions and national areas on the basis of twenty-five deputies from each Union Republic, eleven deputies from each Autonomous Republic, five deputies from each Autonomous Region and one deputy from each national area.

ARTICLE 36. The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is elected for a term of four years.

ARTICLE 37. Both Chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, have equal rights.

ARTICLE 38. The Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities have an equal right to initiate legislation.

ARTICLE 39. A law is considered adopted if passed by both Chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. by a simple majority vote in each.

ARTICLE 40. Laws passed by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. are published in the languages of the Union Republics over the signatures of the President and Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 41. Sessions of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities begin and terminate simultaneously.

ARTICLE 42. The Soviet of the Union elects a Chairman of the Soviet of the Union and two Vice- Chairmen.

ARTICLE 43. The Soviet of Nationalities elects a Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities and two Vice-Chairmen.

ARTICLE 44. The Chairmen of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities preside over the sittings of the respective Chambers and direct the procedure of these bodies.

ARTICLE 45. Joint sittings of both Chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. are presided over alternately by the Chairman of the Soviet of the Union and the Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 46. Sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. are convened by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. twice a year.

Special sessions are convened by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. at its discretion or on the demand of one of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 47. In the event of a disagreement between the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, the question is referred for settlement to a conciliation commission formed on a parity basis. If the conciliation commission fails to arrive at an agreement, or if its decision fails to satisfy one of the Chambers, the question is considered for a second time by the Chambers. Failing agreement between the two Chambers, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. dissolves the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. and orders new elections.

ARTICLE 48. The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. at a joint sitting of both Chambers elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., consisting of a President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., sixteen Vice- Presidents, a Secretary of the Presidium and twentyfour members of the Presidium.

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. for all its activities.

ARTICLE 49. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. :

a) Convenes the sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.;
b) Interprets laws of the U.S.S.R. in operation, issues decrees;
c) Dissolves the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.in conformity with Article 47 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. and orders new elections;
d) Conducts referendums on its own initiative or on the demand of one of the Union Republics;
e) Annuls decisions and orders of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. and of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union Republics in case they do not conform to law;
f) In the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., relieves of their posts and appoints People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R., subject to subsequent confirmation by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.;
g) Awards with decorations and confers titles of honour of the U.S.S.R.;
h) Exercises the right of pardon;
i) Appoints and removes the higher commands of the armed forces of the U.S.S.R.; j) In the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., proclaims a state of war in the event of armed attack on the U.S.S.R., or whenever necessary to fulfil international treaty obligations concerning mutual defence against aggression;
k) Orders general or partial mobilization;
l) Ratifies international treaties;
m) Appoints and recalls plenipotentiary representatives of the U.S.S.R. to foreign states;
n) Receives the credentials and letters of recall of diplomatic representatives accredited to it by foreign states;
o) Proclaims martial law in separate localities or throughout the U.S.S.R. in the interests of the defence of the U.S.S.R. or for the purpose of ensuring public order and state security.

ARTICLE 50. The Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities elect Credentials Commissions which verify the credentials of the members of the respective Chambers.

On there commendation of the Credentials Commissions, the Chambers decide either to endorse the the credentials or to annul the election of the deputies concerned.

ARTICLE 51. The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. when it deems necessary, appoints commissions of enquiry and investigation on any matter.

It is the duty of all institutions and public servants to comply with the demands of these commissions and to submit to them the necessary materials and documents.

ARTICLE 52. A member of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. may not be prosecuted or arrested without the consent of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., and during the period when the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is not in session, without the consent of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 53. On the expiration of the term of office of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., or after the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet prior to the expiration of its term of office, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. retains its powers until the formation of a new Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. by the newly-elected Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 54. On the expiration of the term of office of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., or in the event of its dissolution prior to the expiration of its term of office, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. orders new elections to be held within a period not exceeding two months from the date of expiration of the term of office or dissolution of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 55. The newly-elected Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is convened by the outgoing Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. not later than one month after the elections.

ARTICLE 56. The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. at a joint sitting of both Chambers, appoints the Government of the U.S.S.R., namely, the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.

Chapter IV : The Highest Organs of State Authority of the Union Republics

ARTICLE 57. The highest organ of state authority of a Union Republic is the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 58. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic is elected by the citizens of the Republic for a term of four years.

The basis of representation is established by the Constitution of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 59. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic is the sole legislative organ of the Republic.

ARTICLE 60. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic :

a) Adopts the Constitution of the Republic and amends it in conformity with Article 16 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.;
b) Confirms the Constitutions of the Autonomous Republics forming part of it and defines the boundaries of their territories;
c) Approves the national economic plan and also the budget of the Republic;
d) Exercises the right of amnesty and pardon of citizens sentenced by the judicial organs of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 61. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic, consisting of a Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic, Vice-Chairmen, a Secretary of the Presidium and members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic.

The powers of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic are defined by the Constitution of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 62. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic elects a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman to conduct its sittings.

ARTICLE 63. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic appoints the Government of the Union Republic, namely, the Council of People's Commissars of the Union Republic.

Chapter V : The Organs of Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

ARTICLE 64. The highest executive and administrative organ of state authority of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 65. The Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. is responsible to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. and accountable to it; and in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet it is responsible and accountable to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 66. The Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. issues decisions and orders on the basis and in pursuance of the laws in operation, and supervises their execution.

ARTICLE 67. Decisions and orders of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. are binding throughout the territory of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 68. The Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. :

a) Coordinates and directs the work of the All- Union and Union-Republican People's Commissariats of the U.S.S.R. and of other institutions, economic and cultural, under its administration;
b) Adopts measures to carry out the national economic plan and the state budget, and to strengthen the credit and monetary system;
c) Adopts measures for the maintenance of public order, for the protection of the interests of the state, and for the safeguarding of the rights of citizens;
d) Exercises general guidance in respect of relations with foreign states;
e) Fixes the annual contingent of citizens to be called up for military service and directs the general organization and development of the armed forces of the country;
f) Sets up, whenever necessary, special Committees and Central Administrations under the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. for matters concerning economic, cultural and defence organization and development.

ARTICLE 69. The Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. has the right, in respect of those branches of administration and economy which come within the jurisdiction of the U.S.S.R., to suspend decisions and orders of the Councils of People's Commissars of the Union Republics and to annul orders and instructions of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 70. The Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. and consists of:

The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.;
The Vice-Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.;
The Chairman of the State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.;
The Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission;
The People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.;
The Chairman of the Committee on Arts;
The Chairman of the Committee on Higher Education;
The Chairman of the Board of the State Bank.

ARTICLE 71. The Government of the U.S.S.R. or a People's Commissar of the U.S.S.R. to whom a question of a member of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is addressed must give a verbal or written reply in the respective Chamber within a period not exceeding three days.

ARTICLE 72. The People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. direct the branches of state administration which come within the jurisdiction of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 73. The People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. issue, within the limits of the jurisdiction of the respective People's Commissariats, orders and instructions on the basis and in pursuance of the laws in operation, and also of decisions and orders of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R., and supervise their execution.

ARTICLE 74. The People's Commissariats of the U.S.S.R. are either All-Union or Union-Republican Commissariats.

ARTICLE 75. The All-Union People's Commissariats direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them throughout the territory of the U.S.S.R. either directly or through bodies appointed by them.

ARTICLE 76. The Union-Republican People's Commissariats, as a rule, direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them through the corresponding People's Commissariats of the Union Republics; they administer directly only a definite and limited number of enterprises according to a list confirmed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 77. The following People's Commissariats are All-Union People's Commissariats :

Defence
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Trade
Railways
Post, Telegraph and Telephones
Maritime Fleet
River Fleet
Coal-Mining Industry
Oil Industry
Electric Power Stations
Electrical Engineering Industry
Iron and Steel Industry
Non-Ferrous Metals Industry
Chemical Industry
Aircraft Industry
Shipbuilding Industry
Munitions Industry
Armaments Industry
Heavy Machine-Building Industry
Medium Machine-Building Industry
General Machine-Building Industry
Navy
Agricultural Stocks
Civil Engineering Industry
Cellulose and Paper Industry.

ARTICLE 78. The following People's Commissariats are Union-Republican People's Commissariats :

Food Industry
Fishing Industry
Meat and Dairy Produce Industry
Light Industry
Textile Industry
Timber Industry
Agriculture State Grain and Livestock Farms
Finance
Trade
Internal Affairs
State Security
Justice
Public Health
Building Materials Industry
State Control.

Chapter VI : The Organs of Government of the Union Republics

ARTICLE 79. The highest executive and administrative organ of state authority of a Union Republic is the Council of People's Commissars of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 80. The Council of People's Commissars of a Union Republic is responsible to the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic and accountable to it; and in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic it is responsible and accountable to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the respective Union Republic.

ARTICLE 81. The Council of People's Commissars of a Union Republic issues decisions and orders on the basis and in pursuance of the laws in operation of the U.S.S.R. and of the Union Republic, and of the decisions and orders of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R., and supervises their execution.

ARTICLE 82. The Council of People's Commissars of a Union Republic has the right to suspend decisions and orders of Councils of People's Commissars of Autonomous Republics, and to annul decisions and orders of Executive Committees of Soviets of Working People's Deputies of Territories, Regions and Autonomous Regions.

ARTICLE 83. The Council of People's Commissars of a Union Republic is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic and consists of :

The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union Republic;
The Vice-Chairmen;
The Chairman of the State Planning Commission;
The People's Commissars of :
Food Industry
Fishing Industry
Meat and Dairy Produce Industry
Light Industry
Textile Industry
Timber Industry
Building Materials Industry
Agriculture
State Grain and Livestock Farms
Finance
Trade
Internal Affairs
State Security
Justice
Public Health
State Control
Education
Local Industry
Municipal Economy
Social Maintenance
Motor Transport
The Chief of the Arts Administration;
The Representatives of the All-Union People's Commissariats.

ARTICLE 84. The People's Commissars of a Union Republic direct the branches of state administration which come within the jurisdiction of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 85. The People's Commissars of a Union Republic issue, within the limits of the jurisdiction of their respective People's Commissariats, orders and instructions on the basis and in pursuance of the laws of the U.S.S.R. and of the Union Republic, of the decisions and orders of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. and that of the Union Republic, and of the orders and instructions of the Union-Republican People's Commissariats of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 86. The People's Commissariats of a Union Republic are either Union-Republican or Republican Commissariats.

ARTICLE 87. The Union-Republican People's Commissariats direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them, and are subordinate both to the Council of People's Commissars of the Union Republic and to the corresponding Union- Republican People's Commissariats of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 88. The Republican People's Commissariats direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them and are directly subordinate to the Council of People's Commissars of the Union Republic.

Chapter VII : The Highest Organs of State Authority of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics

ARTICLE 89. The highest organ of state authority of an Autonomous Republic is the Supreme Soviet of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

ARTICLE 90. The Supreme Soviet of an Autonomous Republic is elected by the citizens of the Republic for a term of four years on the basis of representation established by the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic.

ARTICLE 91. The Supreme Soviet of an Autonomous Republic is the sole legislative organ of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

ARTICLE 92. Each Autonomous Republic has its own Constitution, which takes account of the specific features of the Autonomous Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with the Constitution of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 93. The Supreme Soviet of an Autonomous Republic elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Autonomous Republic and appoints the Council of People's Commissars of the Autonomous Republic, in accordance with its Constitution.

Chapter VIII : The Local Organs of State Authority

ARTICLE 94. The organs of state authority in territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities and rural localities (stanitsas, villages, hamlets, kishlaks, auls) are the Soviets of Working People's Deputies.

ARTICLE 95. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies of territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities and rural localities (stanitsas, villages, hamlets, kishlaks, auls) are elected by the working people of the respective territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities or rural localities for a term of two years.

ARTICLE 96. The basis of representation for Soviets of Working People's Deputies is defined by the Constitutions of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 97. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies direct the work of the organs of administration subordinate to them, ensure the maintenance of public order, the observance of the laws and the protection of the rights of citizens, direct local economic and cultural organization and development and draw up the local budgets.

ARTICLE 98. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies adopt decisions and issue orders within the limits of the powers vested in them by the laws of the U.S.S.R. and of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 99. The executive and administrative organs of the Soviets of Working People's Deputies of territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities and rural localities are the Executive Committees elected by them, consisting of a Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, a Secretary and members.

ARTICLE 100. The ex ecutive and administrative organ of rural Soviets of Working People's Deputies in small localities, in accordance with the Constitutions of the Union Republics, is the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman and the Secretary elected by them.

ARTICLE 101. The executive organs of the Soviet s of Working People's Deputies are directly accountable both to the Soviets of Working People's Deputies which elected them and to the executive organ of the superior Soviet of Working People's Deputies.

Chapter IX : The Courts and Procurator's Office

ARTICLE 102. In the U.S.S.R. justice is administered by the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., the Supreme Courts of the Union Republics, the Territorial and the Regional courts, the courts of the Autonomous Republics and the Autonomous Regions, the Area courts, the special courts of the U.S.S.R. established by decision of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., and the People's Courts.

ARTICLE 103. In all courts cases are tried with the participation of people's assessors, except in cases specially provided for by law.

ARTICLE 104. The Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. is the highest judicial organ. The Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. is charged with the supervision of the judicial activities of all the judicial organs of the U.S.S.R. and of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 105. The Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. and the special courts of the U.S.S.R. are elected by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 106. The Supreme Courts of the Union Republics are elected by the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 107. The Supreme Courts of the Autonomous Republics are elected by the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 108. The Territorial and the Regional courts, the courts of the Autonomous Regions and the Area courts are elected by the Territorial, Regional or Area Soviets of Working People's Deputies of the Autonomous Regions for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 109. People's Courts are elected by the citizens of the district on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot for a term of three years.

ARTICLE 110. Judicial proceedings are conducted in the language of the Union Republic, Autonomous Republic or Autonomous Region, persons not knowing this language being guaranteed every opportunity of fully acquainting themselves with the material of the case through an interpreter and likewise the right to use their own language in court.

ARTICLE 111. In all courts of the U.S.S.R. cases are heard in public, unless otherwise provided for by law, and the accused is guaranteed the right to be defended by Counsel.

ARTICLE 112. Judges are independent and subject only to the law.

ARTICLE 113. Supreme supervisory power over the strict execution of the laws by all People's Commissariats and institutions subordinated to them, as well as by public servants and citizens of the U.S.S.R. is vested in the Procurator of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 114. The Procurator of the U.S.S.R. is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. for a term of seven years.

ARTICLE 115. Procurators of Republics, Territories and Regions, as well as Procurators of Autonomous Republics and Autonomous Regions are appointed by the Procurator of the U.S.S.R. for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 116. Area, district and city procurators are appointed for a term of five years by the Procurators of the Union Republics, subject to the approval of the Procurator of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 117. The organs of the Procurator's Office perform their functions independently of any local organs whatsoever, being subordinate solely to the Procurator of the U.S.S.R.

Chapter X : Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens

ARTICLE 118. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality.

The right to work is ensured by the socialist organization of the national economy, the steady growth of the productive forces of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of economic crises, and the abolition of unemployment.

ARTICLE 119. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure.

The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.

ARTICLE 120. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to maintenance in old age and also in the case of sickness or loss of capacity to work.

This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education.

This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native language, and by the organization in the factories, state farms, machine and tractor stations and collective farms of free vocational, technical and agronomic training for the working people.

ARTICLE 122. Women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life.

The possibility of exercising these rights is ensured to women by granting them an equal right with men to work, payment for work, rest and leisure, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, pre-maternity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.

ARTICLE 123. Equality of rights of citizens of the U.S.S.R., irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life, is an indefeasible law.

Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of, or, conversely, any establishment of direct or indirect privileges for, citizens on account of their race or nationality, as well as any advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and contempt, is punishable by law.

ARTICLE 124. In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the U.S.S.R. is separated from the state, and the school from the church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.

ARTICLE 125. In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed by law :

a) freedom of speech;
b) freedom of the press;
c) freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings;
d) freedom of street processions and demonstrations; These civil rights are ensured by placing at the disposal of the working people and their organizations printing presses, stocks of paper, public buildings, the streets, communications facilities and other material requisites for the exercise of these rights.

ARTICLE 126. In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to develop the organizational initiative and political activity of the masses of the people, citizens of the U.S.S.R. are ensured the right to unite in public organizations - trade unions, cooperative associations, youth organizations, sport and defence organizations, cultural, technical and scientific societies; and the most active and politically most conscious citizens in the ranks of the working class and other sections of the working people unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system and is the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state.

ARTICLE 127. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed inviolability of the person. No person may be placed under arrest except by decision of a court or with the sanction of a procurator.

ARTICLE 128. The inviolability of the homes of citizens and privacy of correspondence are protected by law.

ARTICLE 129. The U.S.S.R. affords the right of asylum to foreign citizens persecuted for defending the interests of the working people, or for their scientific activities, or for their struggle for national liberation.

ARTICLE 130. It is the duty of every citizen of the U.S.S.R. to abide by the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, to observe the laws, to maintain labour discipline, honestly to perform public duties, and to respect the rules of socialist intercourse.

ARTICLE 131. It is the duty of every citizen of the U.S.S.R. to safeguard and strengthen public, socialist property as the sacred and inviolable foundation of the Soviet system, as the source of the wealth and might of the country, as the source of the prosperous and cultured life of all the working people.

Persons committing offences against public, socialist property are enemies of the people.

ARTICLE 132. Universal military service is law.

Military service in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is an honourable duty of the citizens of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 133. To def en d the fatherland is the sacred duty of every citizen of the U.S.S.R. Treason to the country - violation of the oath of allegiance, desertion to the enemy, impairing the military power of the state, espionage - is punishable with all the severity of the law as the most heinous of crimes.

Chapter XI : The Electoral System

ARTICLE 134. Member s of all Soviets of Working People's Deputies - of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics, the Soviets of Working People's Deputies of the Territories and Regions, the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics, the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of Autonomous Regions, area, district, city and rural (stanitsa, village, hamlet, kishlak, aul) Soviets of Working People's Deputies - are chosen by the electors on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot.

ARTICLE 135. Elections of deputies are universal : all citizens of the U.S.S.R. who have reached the age of eighteen, irrespective of race or nationality, religion, educational and residential qualifications, social origin, property status or past activities, have the right to vote in the election of deputies and to be elected, with the exception of insane persons and persons who have been convicted by a court of law and whose sentences include deprivation of electoral rights.

ARTICLE 136. Elections of deputies are equal : each citizen has one vote; all citizens participate in elections on an equal footing.

ARTICLE 137. Women have the right to elect and be elected on equal terms with men.

ARTICLE 138. Citizens serving in the Red Army have the right to elect and be elected on equal terms with all other citizens.

ARTICLE 139. Elections of deputies are direct : all Soviets of Working People's Deputies from rural and city Soviets of Working People's Deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., inclusive, are elected by the citizens by direct vote.

ARTICLE 140. Voting at elections of deputies is secret.

ARTICLE 141. Candidates for election are nominated according to electoral areas.

The right to nominate candidates is secured to public organizations and societies of the working people : Communist Party organizations, trade unions, cooperatives, youth organizations and cultural societies.

ARTICLE 142. It is the duty of every deputy to report to his electors on his work and on the work of the Soviet of Working People's Deputies, and he is liable to be recalled at any time in the manner established by law upon decision of a majority of the electors.

Chapter XII : Arms, Flag, Capital

ARTICLE 143. The arms of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics consists of a sickle and hammer against a globe depicted in the rays of the sun and surrounded by ears of grain with the inscription "Workers of All Countries, Unite!" in the languages of the Union Republics. At the top of the arms is a five-pointed star.

ARTICLE 144. The state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is of red cloth with the sickle and hammer depicted in gold in the upper corner near the staff and above them a five-pointed star bordered in gold. The ratio of the width to the length is 1:2.

ARTICLE 145. The capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is the City of Moscow.

Chapter XIII : Procedure for Amending the Constitution

ARTICLE 146. The Constitution of the U.S.S.R. may be amended only by decision of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. adopted by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the votes cast in each of its Chambers.

Appensices : Laws Adopted by the Tenth Session of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

APPENDIX   I

LAW
On Creating Troop Formations of the Union Republics and on Reorganizing the People's Commissariat of Defence in Connection therewith from an All-Union into a Union Republican People's Commissariat

With the object of strengthening the defence capacity of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decrees :

1. To establish that the Union Republics shall organize troop formations of their respective Republics.

2. To introduce into the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. the following amendments :

a) to insert in ARTICLE 14g of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. after the words "Organization of the defence of the U.S.S.R. and direction of all the armed forces of the U.S.S.R.," the words - "establishment of the guiding principles of organization of the troop formations of the Union Republics," thus formulating this point as follows :
"g) Organization of the defence of the U.S.S.R., direction of all the armed forces of the U.S.S.R., establishment of the guiding principles of organization of the troop formations of the Union Republics."
b) To add to the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 18 -b, as follows :

"ARTICLE 18-b Each Union Republic has its own Republican troop formations."

c) To add to ARTICLE 60 of the Constitution of of the U.S.S.R. sec. f, as follows :

"f) Establishes the system of organization of the Republican troop formations."

3. To reorganize the People's Commissariat of Defence from an All-Union into a Union-Republican People's Commissariat.

M. KALININ
President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

A. GORKIN
Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

APPENDIX   II

LAW
On Granting the Union Republics Plenipotentiary Powers in the Sphere of Foreign Relations and on Reorganizing the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs in Connection Therewith  from an All-Union into a Union Republican People's Commissariat

With the object of extending international connections and strengthening the collaboration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with other states and taking into consideration the growing requirements of the Union Republics in the matter of establishing direct relations with foreign states, the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decrees :

1. To establish that the Union Republics may enter into direct relations with foreign states and conclude agreements with them.

2. To introduce into the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. the following amendments :

a) To insert in ARTICLE 14a of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., after the words "Representation of the Union in international relations, conclusion and ratification of treaties with other states," the words - "establishment of a uniform system in the relations between the Union Republics and foreign states," thus formulating this point as follows :

"a) Representation of the Union in international relations, conclusion and ratification of treaties with other states, establishment of a uniform system in the relations between the Union Republics and foreign states."

b) To add to the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.

ARTICLE 18-a, as follows :

"ARTICLE 18-a "Each Union Republic has the right to enter into direct relations with foreign states, conclude agreements with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives."

c) To add to ARTICLE 60 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. sec. e, as follows :

"e) Establishes representation of the Union Republic in international relations."

3. To reorganize the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs from an All-Union into a Union- Republican People's Commissariat.

M. KALININ
President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
A. GORKIN
Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

Moscow, The Kremlin

February 1, 1944.