Glasnost was one of the major political initiatives launched by Soviet Secretary-general Mikhail Gorbachev. For the first time in Soviet history, there was open discussion of many key political and key issues. Gorbachev´s intention was to reform the Communist system, to democratize it and make it less authoritarian. It was sort of a spring in public affairs. Nevertheless, a freer new atmosphere led to protests in many Soviet republics, nationalist sentiments were reborn, political instability ensued. In the last years of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev resembled more and more a wizard that had liberated forces he could not control anymore. His position became too weak after a conservative coup d´etat staged in Moscow. It failed but severely undermined his position and strengthened the standing of the president of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. The Soviet Union broke apart in December 1991.
Mansa Musa, fourteenth century emperor of the MaliEmpire, is the medieval African ruler most known to the world outside Africa. His elaborate pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in 1324 introduced him to rulers in the Middle East and in Europe.
Rail road construction crews were not only subjected to extreme weather conditions, they had to lay tracks across and through many natural geographic features
