Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Turkey to France to Norway before accepting an
offer of asylum from Mexico in 1936. He
founded the Fourth International as a vehicle to
oppose Stalinism and advance his views of world
revolution. After 1929, his defeat and exile gave
Trotsky the time to write extensively, and some
of his longer-lasting works belong to this period,
including the autobiography
My Life
(1930), a
three-volume
History of the Russian Revolution
(1931-33), and
The Revolution Betrayed
(1937), a
critical analysis of Stalinist Russia. In August
1940, after one unsuccessful attempt on his life, a
Soviet agent infiltrated Trotsky's compound in
the suburbs of Mexico City and assassinated him,
the last of the Old Bolsheviks eliminated by
Stalin.
popular interest in aviation and science fiction,
Tsiolkovsky became a public figure. His work
was extremely influential in shaping the practi-
cal research of the first generation of Soviet
rocket scientists. He died on September 19,
1935. A two-volume edition of his collected
writings was published in 1934, a second version
in 1962.
Tsoi, Viktor Robertovich
(1962-1990)
musician
An influential rock musician whose early death
earned him a central place in the pantheon of
Russian and Soviet youth. Tsoi was born in
Leningrad. At the age of 12 he organized his first
group, Palata no. 6, which was disbanded three
years later. Another group, Garin i Giperboloidy,
established in 1981, served as the predecessor to
Kino, the group that would insure his reputation
with Soviet youth in the 1980s. The first version
of Kino was formed in 1982, and the group
toured with the legendary Akvarium. In 1984,
Kino released one of their best-known albums,
Nachalnik Kamchatki,
which solidified its cultish
reputation among Soviet youth. Later that year a
second version of Kino was formed, with Tsoi
remaining the group's central presence. The
group's popularity and Tsoi's own status as a
genuine Soviet rock star grew with the relax-
ation of political control during the
GORBACHEV
years of the late 1980s; this translated into
greater recording opportunities and record sales.
In addition, Tsoi pursued an acting career,
appearing in several films, including
Assa
(1986),
a film that was considered controversial when
released in the early years of Gorbachev's rule.
In the late 1980s, Tsoi and Kino took advantage
of new opportunities to record and travel, and
the group embarked on tours of the United
States and Japan. His tragic death on August 15,
1990, in a motorcycle crash deprived the Rus-
sian and Soviet music world of a highly creative
musician, while cementing his iconic status
among Russian and Soviet youth. Soon after his
death a “Wall of Viktor Tsoi” appeared on the
Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich
(1857-1935)
inventor
Considered the father of Soviet rocket design,
Tsiolkovsky was a visionary pioneer in the study
of aviation, rocketry, and the theory of cosmic
travel. Born in the village of Izhevskoe in Rya-
zan oblast, Tsiolkovsky lost much of his hearing
in a childhood accident. He largely educated
himself during his early years, then took corre-
spondence courses, gained certification as an
instructor, and taught mathematics, physics, and
geometry at the Borovsk District College in
Kaluga province (1880-92). In 1892 he became
an instructor at the Kaluga Gymnasium and the
College of Kaluga Diocese. He began his scien-
tific research with studies of design for metal
dirigibles and improved aircraft, then turned to
problems of jet flight and space travel. In 1903
he published a scientific paper in which he dis-
cussed the possibility of exploring space with jet-
driven vehicles. In later papers he laid out the
principles for constructing a jet engine, depicted
multistage rockets, and argued for the possibility
of launching earth satellites into orbit. Tsiolkov-
sky also studied the social problems that would
be encountered by people living on artificial
orbital islands. By the 1920s, with widespread
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