The 17th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during 26 January - 10 February 1934. The congress was attended by 1,225 delegates with a casting vote and 736 delegates with a consultative vote, representing 1,872,488 party members and 935,298 candidate members. Nicknamed "The Congress of the Victors" due to the economic successes of the First Five-Year Plan, it was in fact the last clandestine revolt against Stalin from within party ranks.
During the elections to the 17th Central Committee Stalin received a significant number (over a hundred, although the precise number is unknown) of negative votes, whereas only three delegates crossed out the name of the popular Leningrad party boss, Sergei Kirov. The results were subsequently covered up on Stalin's orders and it was officially reported that Stalin also received only three negative votes.
During the Congress a group of veteran party members approached Kirov with the suggestion that he replace Stalin as the party leader. Kirov declined the offer and reported the conversation to Stalin.
"The Victors" is the fight song of the University of Michigan (UM). It was composed by UM student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute victory over the University of Chicago that clinched a football league championship.John Philip Sousa is said to have called The Victors, "the greatest college fight song ever written". First performed in public in 1899, "The Victors" was not immediately popular, and did not become Michigan's official fight song until many years later. The song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" was perceived as the school's fight song.
An abbreviated version of the fight song, based on the final refrain, is played after the football team either scores or makes a decisive defense play, such as an interception. Its full lyrics span several verses that run of more than two minute duration. The melody of the fight song is very similar to the trio section from "The Spirit of Liberty March", published seven months earlier by Tin Pan Alley composer George "Rosey" Rosenberg. This song is often referred incorrectly to as "Hail to the Victors".
The Victors is a 1963 Anglo-American war film written, produced and directed by Carl Foreman, whose name on the film's posters was accompanied by nearby text, "from the man who fired The Guns of Navarone". Shot on location in Western Europe and Britain, The Victors features an all-star cast, with fifteen American and European leading players, including six actresses (Melina Mercouri from Greece, Jeanne Moreau from France, Rosanna Schiaffino from Italy, Romy Schneider and Senta Berger from Austria as well as Elke Sommer from West Germany) whose photographs appear on the posters. One of the posters carries the tagline, "The six most exciting women in the world… in the most explosive entertainment ever made!".
Overview
The film follows a group of American soldiers through Europe during the Second World War, from Britain in 1942, through the fierce fighting in Italy and France, to the uneasy peace of Berlin. Production of the story's action meant filming scenes that took place in Sweden, France, Italy and England.