The Rokotov–Faibishenko case was a criminal trial against financial speculators that took place in the Soviet Union in 1961. It also marked the start of a three-year campaign against large-scale economic crimes, accompanied by show trials. == History == === Background and arrests === Ever since the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow in 1957, dealing in foreign currency had begun to take place on a fairly large scale despite being illegal. Soviets (generally of a young age) would buy foreign currency from tourists and other visitors, selling it for a profit. In 1961...

The U-Haul lesbian or U-Haul syndrome is a stereotype of lesbian relationships, referring to the joke that lesbians tend to move in together on the second date. It suggests an extreme inclination toward committed relationships. It can be considered either complimentary or pejorative, depending on context. == Origin == A joke which references U-Haul (a brand of rental "move-it-yourself" trucks and trailers) became well known in lesbian culture. Question: What does a lesbian bring on a second date? Answer: A U-Haul. Often attributed to comic Lea DeLaria, the joke suggests that lesbians move in...

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon, U.S., who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. An observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello, everyone!" but with "Ahoy, maties!" or "Ahoy, me hearties!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy. == History == According to Summers, the day is the only known holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury...

Natan Sharansky (Hebrew: נתן שרנסקי; Russian: Ната́н Щара́нский; Ukrainian: Натан Щаранський), born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky, is an Israeli politician, human rights activist, and author who, as a refusenik in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, spent nine years in Soviet prisons. He served as Chairman of the Executive for the Jewish Agency from June 2009 to August 2018. Sharansky currently serves as chairman for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), an American non-partisan organization. == Biography == Sharansky was born into a Jewish family on...

The Royal Game (also known as Chess Story; in the original German Schachnovelle, "Chess Novella") is a novella by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig written in 1941, the year before the author's death by suicide. In some editions, the title is used for a collection that also includes "Amok", "Burning Secret", "Fear", and "Letter From an Unknown Woman". == Plot summary == The narrator opens the story on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the Nazis, Dr B, a securities expert hiding valuable assets of the nobility from...