Kim Jong Il - 1942-2011

North Korean state television reported the death of North Korea's longtime ruler Kim Jong Il. Kim reportedly died two days earlier, on Saturday, December 17, 2011, suffering a heart attack while riding on a train outside Pyongyang. 

The 69-year-old had been North Korea's "supreme leader" since 1994, after succeeding his father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of the communist state. Kim Jong Il presided over a long-suffering, isolated nation, antagonized the western world, indulged himself while millions starved, and funneled much of the country's meager funds into military spending and the pursuit of nuclear weapons. 

His nominal successor, son Kim Jong Un, remains untested and the sudden power vacuum in such an unpredictable nation has neighbors, allies, and enemies on edge. 

Collected here are images from the life and times of North Korea's Kim Jong Il, and a few recent images from the reclusive country and those who have noted his passing.

In this April 25, 2002 photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, leader Kim Jong Il salutes the people at the military parade by the Worker and Peasant Red Guard that celebrates the 90th anniversary of leader Kim Il Sung and the 70th anniversary of the North Korean People's Army. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images) 

A young Kim Jong Il, left, takes part in a souvenir picture during his childhood with his parents, Kim Jong Suk, right, and leader Kim Il Sung. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service)  

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The Life Of Joseph Stalin In Photos

Yes, this is not exactly Stalin's real photo album. This is the work of a writer Nodar Djin who has tried to imagine the way Stalin's photo album looked like if he had one.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953; born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953.

While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and was not initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party. This included Leon Trotsky, the Red Army organizer, proponent of world revolution, and principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders, who was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. Instead, Stalin's idea of socialism in one country became the primary line of the Soviet politics.

In power until his death in 1953, Stalin led the USSR during the period of post-war reconstruction, marked by the dominance of Stalinist architecture (most famously represented by the Stalin skyscrapers). The successful development of the Soviet nuclear program enabled the country to become the world's second nuclear weapons power; the Soviet space program was started as spin-off of the nuclear project. In his last years, Stalin also launched the so-called Great Construction Projects of Communism and the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.

This is my house. It’s small, yes, but I didn’t need a bigger one because I was just as small. I kept a goat in the annex and her name was Jeanne. In honor of Jeanne d’Arc. My father Beso worked in Tbilisi and he didn’t like Jeanna. So, when I was at school, he got drunk and choked her to death.

It’s me at school. I’m in the back raw, but in the middle. The photographer didn’t let me get closer to the pillow, even though I was his best pupil. Probably, he was bribed. By those who are next to the pillow, not by their parents. My parent, seeing the picture, told me to grow faster. But he liked it in general because one cannot see smallpox scars on my face in it.

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Lisa Kelly - The Hot Ice Road Trucker

Lisa Kelly is an ‘Ice Road Trucker’ featured on the History channel documentary-style reality television series Ice Road Truckers. Each week the documentary follows several truck drivers as they make their way along the icy Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Deadhorse, frequently towing 'oversized' loads. Kelly was notable as the only female trucker featured in the series until Maya Sieber in Season 5. Originally from Michigan, she now resides in Wasilla, Alaska.

Lisa is a rambunctious tomboy truck driver and motocross-riding daredevil. She has crashed both trucks and motorcycles, but nothing has scared her off from running the Dalton. Lisa mastered the dangerous mountain roads of India, navigating a truck in a country where women aren't normally seen behind the wheel of any vehicle. In Alaska, she has to battle the big boys daily to keep her job and works hard to prove herself worthy of bigger and tougher loads. She's no rookie, but some drivers feel she's a lightweight and can't be trusted on the road.

Lisa was born on the 8th December 1980, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her family moved to a mini farm in Sterling, Alaska when she was six years old. She returned to Grand Rapids, Michigan for college, attending Cornerstone University for one semester before deciding it was not for her.

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