The difference between a standing order and a direct debit. Essentially, a standing order is an instruction to your bank, whereas a direct debit gives permission to a company to take money from you. You are the only person who can change the date or payment amount on your standing order.
Born on April 17, 1894 in Kalinovka, Russia, Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. In a 1956 secret speech, he discussed Stalin's crimes for the first time, starting a process called de-Stalinization..
On taking office in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev faced one problem more daunting than all others combined. The Soviet economy had been in a period of stagnation for two decades and was in desperate need of reform. Gorbachev choose to adjust the old system with a period of perestroika or restructuring in the hope of making it more efficient.