People's Parliament

The term People's Parliaments or People's Assemblies (Latvian: Tautas Saeima, Lithuanian: Liaudies Seimas) was used in 1940 for puppet legislatures put together after show elections in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to legitimize the occupation by the Soviet Union. In all three countries, the elections to the parliaments followed the same scenario, dictated by functionaries in Moscow and borrowed from incorporation of Belarusian and Ukrainian lands in the aftermath of the invasion of Poland in 1939.

Occupation

On June 15 and 16, 1940, Soviet Union presented ultimatums to all three Baltic states, which were then invaded by the Red Army. After the invasion previous governments were replaced by pro-Communist "People's Governments". The new government then dismissed existing parliaments (Riigikogu in Estonia, Seimas in Lithuania) and announced new elections to the "People's Parliaments" to be held on July 14 and July 15, 1940 (originally, election in Lithuania was to be held only on July 14, but due to low turnout was also extended to July 15).

Parliament-Funkadelic

Parliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums and memorable live performances. They influenced numerous post-disco and post-punk music groups of the 1980s and 1990s.

The collective's origins date back to the doo-wop group the Parliaments, formed in the late 1950s in Plainfield, New Jersey. Under Clinton's direction, by the early 1970s the groups Parliament and Funkadelic were operating concurrently and consisted of the same stable of musicians playing different types of funk music for two different labels. The name "Parliament-Funkadelic" became the catch-all term for the multiple bands in Clinton's stable. By the late 1970s the collective had grown to include dozens of musicians recording and touring under many different group names and solo projects. (See P-Funk offshoot groups and solo ventures.) Overall, the collective achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits. Funkadelic is a funk band with a psychedelic rock touch whose influences include the amplified sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, James Brown's funk, blues, Sun Ra's experimentation, Frank Zappa's and the Coasters' humor, the concept albums of the Beatles and the Who and southern soul artists like Otis Redding and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Parliament is a funk/R&B band whose influences are the funky side of Hendrix and Sly Stone, Motown soul groups turned funk groups like the Temptations, the political songs of the Impressions, Rufus Thomas' southern funk, doo-wop groups like the Coasters for the humour and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.