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Do alliances help or hinder non-proliferation efforts? Existing theories of nuclear non-proliferation have looked at the direct effects of having allies on the spread of nuclear weapons, i.e., whether protégés are more or less likely to obtain atomic arsenals. However, there is value in examining the indirect impact of alliances on non-proliferation, namely how allies make it easier or harder for third parties to acquire nuclear weapons. In this article, I argue that transfers from suppliers allied with enforcers spoil the non-proliferation regime more than assistance from other suppliers, which underlines the difficulties enforcers face when combatting proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to analyse the transformation of Dungan ethnic identity from the era of the Soviet Union to the present day. The Dungans, an ethnic group related to the Chinese Hui, are widespread in post-Soviet Central Asia. Their ethnic identity is influenced by a combination of Islamic and Chinese traditions, which is reflected in their distinctive language and way of life. The primary focus of this study was the influence exerted on the formation of Dungan identity by totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union and China. The research combined historical analysis with fieldwork and oral history to analyse the impact of political, social and economic factors on ethnic consciousness. The findings illuminate how these regimes affected not only political and social structures but also the personal beliefs and behaviour of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reemergence of aesthetics in China's early reform period witnessed a wide-ranging embrace of the early Marxist vocabulary of species-being, alienation, and unalienated labor, in tandem with a wave of interest in developments in Soviet aesthetics that had arisen over the 1960s and 1970s. Above all, Chinese aestheticians were enthused by the Soviet field of "technical aesthetics," which marked those currents in Soviet aesthetic thought that extended the possibilities of beauty beyond the delimited space of the artwork or literary creation to envision how factory labor might become an aesthetic process, simultaneously productive and artistic. By tracing the trajectory of these currents of aesthetic thought against the background of Marxist humanism, I show the ways in which Soviet–Chinese aesthetic encounters conditioned the fashioning of the post-Maoist factory as creative space and the postsocialist figure of the human as creative laborer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the global impact of English actor Paul Scofield during the Cold War, particularly his political engagement through theater and film. Topics include his rejection of Hollywood stardom, his cultural significance in the Soviet Union; the political undertones in his performances, like "A Man for All Seasons" and "King Lear"; and discusses how Scofield's work defied the conventions of the time, influencing cultural and political discussions in both the West and Eastern Bloc.

The article delves into the efforts made by the Allies to deploy British and US air forces on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front during the Second World War. Its main focus is on internal Soviet military reports and diplomatic documents from the negotiations that took place in 1942, preceding Operation Velvet. The research presented examines the preparations made by the Allied aviation forces to carry out the combat missions assigned by the Soviet Air Force staff. In addition, the author analyses the simultaneous activities of the diplomatic bodies of the three countries involved in reaching an agreement on the Operation Velvet project. By drawing from various sources, the author uncovers the objectives of each side in the proposed operation and investigates the reasons behind the ultimate lack of results despite the extensive period of preparation for joint actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leader of Republican People's Party (RPP), İsmet İnönü, formed three governments between 1961 and 1965. Turkey faced several political, economic, social and military challenges in this period. Turkish foreign policy also witnessed problems such as the crises that erupted in Cuba and Cyprus in 1962 and 1963, respectively. Both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cyprus Crisis had serious effects on Turkish–American political relations, so a great deal of literature exists discussing these developments. At the same time, Turkey negotiated with the United States of America (USA) to obtain more economic and military aid, which has drawn less scholarly attention. This article aims to shed light on the negotiations between Turkey and the USA to show how Turkish decision-makers worked hard to obtain more economic and military aid from the USA in the shadow of these crises. This article argues that these crises did not negatively influence economic and military relations between the countries due to Turkey's economic and military dependence on and strategic importance for the USA against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from the beginning of the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turcology Research is the property of Ataturk University Coordinatorship of Scientific Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper deals with “national revival” in late Soviet Armenia, seen through the lens of football, focusing on the success story of fc Yerevan Ararat in the Soviet football league. This research is based on two academic currents, one dealing with “the nationalities question” in the ussr, and, the other focusing on the relationship between nationalism and sport, particularly football. Supporting Ararat in the late Soviet decades became an experience that provided an expression for Armenian national identity that was going through a revival in the 1960–1970s. Ararat became the centre of consolidation of Armenian national sentiment in late Soviet years. The promotion of the club was part of a larger policy of the Republic’s government, which sought to strengthen the football club as a locus of loyalty and consolidation of the Armenian public. It was both a safety valve for channelling nationalist sentiment, and an instrument for strengthening Armenia’s distinct national identity. Thus, the story of Ararat-73 offers insight into the peculiar relationship between local nationalism and Soviet government policies. On the one hand, the Soviet government allowed and even in certain ways encouraged the national “revivals”. At same time, the government policies sought to contain and manage rising nationalisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is a result of historical investigation into the cultural aspects of English language education in secondary schools of Ukraine in the 1930s–1980s, when Ukraine was one of the republics of the former Soviet Union. The course books, the school curricula and the articles published in scientific journals during this period built the documentary basis of the examination of the evolution of intercultural and intracultural information in instructional materials over these decades. The article offers insights into the content and character of the texts and tasks included in the English course books and major trends in presenting cultural aspects of language teaching. The article relies on data from 16 English-language textbooks written and published in the Soviet Union following the regularly issued national secondary school curricula. The qualitative and chronological study of the textbooks uses a combination of methods of content analysis (CA), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), and critical discourse analysis (CDA). We single out stages in the development of the cultural component of English language education, including the character of the cultural messages delivered through them, and the values, attitudes, and behaviour patterns suggested by different discourse forms. We argue that although the obligatory study of one foreign language (English, German, French, Spanish) by every student was officially introduced in the USSR in 1932, this knowledge remained mostly useless because of an almost complete lack of contact of ordinary people with the outer world and, thus, the cultural component of the language education pursued primarily ideological goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses one of the main elements of the Soviet political doctrine, as well as the principles of Soviet education – internationalism and its implementation at school. Internationalist upbringing and the accompanying "friendship of nations" become the main axis of this article, not only in terms of the concepts themselves and their ideologised meanings, but also, and most importantly, in terms of their expressions, which are presented based on the interviews of 32 former students about their experiences in the Lithuanian Soviet school in the late Soviet era (1960s–1980s). In this case, the most striking aspect of the introduction of the so-called "friendship of nations" in schools is the example of pupils' correspondence with young people from different socialist countries and Soviet republics. Relying on the personal reflections of pupils at the time, and also on the Soviet press, textbooks, etc., we analyse what promoted and what constrained this form of communication. The study reveals that internationalist education served as a Trojan horse, masking russification and the ideology of the "creation of a new Soviet man". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soviet period is described as a highly centralised top-down system where schools and teachers had little to say about managerial topics. Instead, change was initiated by the resolutions and decisions of the Ministry of Education. This article aims to shed light on the establishment of Foreign-Language Subject Councils in Soviet Estonia in the 1960s, how and why they turned into communities of practice (CoPs) and the role that teacher agency played in the Soviet foreign-language landscape. The article also shows how the Soviet top-down controlling subject council transitioned into a bottom-up initiative-rich Foreign-Language Teachers' Association (FLTA) during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ups and downs of FLTAs as well as the development of teacher professionalism are followed through the period of 30 years of Estonian re-independence. As our study shows, there is evidence that FL teachers voluntarily bonded and socialised outside of the school environment. They had a common denominator that pushed them to collaborate closely – the lack of materials. Furthermore, their activities were driven by teacher agency, as we call it today. Their actions involved so much more than just creating materials. Moreover, their communication could also be perceived as a sense of belonging. These three features (joint interest, agency, sense of belonging) are common to CoPs. Thus, the journey of FLTAs from the 1960s to today has been described and explained, in order to better understand the present situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics in the USSR revived in the middle of the twentieth century after more than twenty years of silence. The impetus for the development of research and teaching in this area was given by the supreme power, which considered ethics as one of the more effective tools of state propaganda, corresponding to the new social realities. But pretty soon, the very logic of research immersion in the subject required ethicists to deepen the philosophical and normative analysis of morality. This ultimately led to the revision of the postulates of orthodox Soviet social science and to the formation of a strict moral theory within its framework. The latter, by the very fact of its appearance, called into question the agenda of moralizing ideologization. The renewal of Soviet ethics proceeded in several directions, but in theoretical perspective, the key one was the turn from understanding morality as a form of ideological superstructure (which was dogmatically asserted in historical materialism), to understanding it as a way of regulating human behavior with specific functional characteristics. Today one can trace that transition by a number of intermediate steps in the interpretation of morality, the reconstruction of which, based on the texts of the 1950s to early 1970s, is of interest not only in the context of the history of ideas, but also in terms of the development of the methodology of ethical research and understanding of how a rigorous moral theory can be formed. Some episodes of the history of Soviet ethics are relevant today as examples of emancipated thought and intellectual opposition to the domination of state ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty years of nuclear-arms-control efforts have been successful in many respects, with one notable exception: it has proven difficult to transition from a bilateral (US–Soviet Union/Russia) to a multilateral format in seeking to limit and reduce existing nuclear weapons. This is principally because of a mistaken approach to multilateral disarmament that does not take into account the nature of multilateral deterrence among nuclear states. Yet a transition to a multilateral format is becoming an indispensable condition for the rescue of the non-proliferation and disarmament system in the emerging polycentric world order. Assuming that the Russia–Ukraine war can first be settled, a new approach to multilateral arms control is needed that takes into account the security interests of all the participating states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locked in a struggle with the United States after its 1959 revolution, Cuba was a natural Soviet ally in the Cold War. The USSR offered Cuba lavish aid, including in the realm of medicine and health. The 1960s saw dozens of public health officials, medical instructors, and clinicians arrive on the island to help improve the health and wellbeing of Cuban workers and peasants. This article plumbs Russian archives and published Cuban and Soviet medical journals and newspapers to analyse the Cold War as a lived experience through a case study of Soviet cadres on the ground in Cuba. The USSR's socialist solidarity project in Cuba exemplifies Cold War soft power policies designed to 'win hearts and minds'. Moscow's intent to build an 'unbreakable friendship' with Havana meant navigating a complex web of relationships. In illuminating the grassroots experience, we argue for the centrality of personal and interpersonal encounters as a window on the state and bloc politics that entangled the First, Second, and Third Worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nepal's strategic position and open border with India and China have attracted unusually high attention, particularly during the Cold War era, not only from these two large neighbours but also from European countries, the USA and the former Soviet Union. However, despite decades of aid inflows, Nepal remains one of the poorest countries. While debate over aid–growth nexus remains unsettled, our empirical results do suggest that aid fragmentation is detrimental to growth, perhaps due to increased administrative burden to manage a large number of small projects and meet reporting requirements of the donor community. While we find that aid is good for growth, attracting uncoordinated and fragmented aid without the need for assessment can, in fact, do more harm than good. These findings point to the importance of coordinated aid approach not only at the country level but also among the donor community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Berliner Debatte Initial is the property of Berliner Debatte Initial e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The m method power series solution is commonly used for calculating laterally loaded piles in domestic engineering design codes and manuals. This method is primarily derived from several papers published in the 1960s and 1970s in Railway Standard Design Communication, and the calculation coefficients originate from Leningrad Transport Bridge Design Institute in the former Soviet Union. Based on the basic equation of the m method for laterally loaded piles, this study used the power series solution to calculate coefficients for the horizontal displacement, rotation angle, bending moment, shear force, and their corresponding derived coefficients. The results showed that the accuracy of these coefficients was related to truncation and rounding errors. The current table of coefficients with 5 decimal places, provided in Appendix D of Code for Design on Subsoil and Foundation of Railway Bridge and Culvert(TB 10093-2017) contained some errors. These discrepancies, especially in the derived coefficients, became more pronounced when the conversion depth was less than 0.5 m. Through a comparative analysis of rounding errors and coefficient accuracy, the study proposed an appropriate number of terms to satisfy the accuracy requirements of the power series solution. It was recommended that the calculation coefficients be presented in scientific notation with an appropriate number of significant figures to ensure accuracy when using the coefficient table for laterally loaded pile analysis. Correction to the coefficient table was suggested for the upcoming revision of the code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electronic Turkish Studies is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrasında, Birleşmiş Milletler (BM), öncelikli konuları arasına girmesi sebebiyle, Filistin’deki İngiliz İdaresinin durumunu tartışmak üzere toplanmıştır. Yapılan toplantı sonrasında İngiltere, bölgedeki idaresini sonlandırma kararı almış ve bölgenin İsrail ve Filistin adı altında kurulacak iki devlet arasında pay edilmesini öngören Taksim Planı kabul edilmiştir. Filistin’deki Yahudiler bu gelişmeyi memnuniyetle karşılarken, Araplar ise bu duruma karşı çıkmış ve kabul etmemiştir. Zira Arap yönetimleri, nüfus kefasetinin Araplardan yana olduğu Filistin’de azınlık durumundaki Yahudilerin ayrı devlet kurmasının kabul edilemez olduğunu ifade etmiştir. Ancak 1948 yılı Mayıs ayında Yahudiler Filistin’de, İsrail adı altında bir devlet kurduklarını ilan etmiştir. Bu ilan üzerine Arap-İsrail anlaşmazlığı ve ilk Arap-İsrail Savaşı da resmen başlamıştır. Ortaya çıkan bu anlaşmazlık ve neden olduğu savaşlar 20’inci yüzyılın ikinci yarısında bölgeyi ve dünya siyasetini şekillendirmiştir. İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası dönemde dünyanın iki büyük devlet ve İkinci Dünya Savaşı’nın da galipleri arasında olan ABD ve Sovyetler Birliği arasında rakip kamplara ayrılması Ortadoğu’yu ve Arap-İsrail anlaşmazlığını da etkilemiştir. ABD ve Sovyetler Birliği ile onların müttefikleri olan devletler arasında başlayan ve Soğuk Savaş adı verilen rekabet ve gerginlik bölgeye de taşınmıştır. Bunun sonucunda iki büyük devlet Arap-İsrail anlaşmazlığında da taraf olmak durumunda kalmıştır. Bu rekabette Araplara destek vermesine rağmen Sovyetler Birliği yönetimi İsrail’i yok etmenin Arap-İsrail anlaşmazlığının tek çözüm yolu olduğu düşünmemiştir. Ancak Araplar arasında dillendirilen bu söyleme itiraz da edilmemiştir zira mevcut durum Sovyetler Birliği’nin Ortadoğu’da varlık göstermesi ve etkin olmasını kolaylaştırmıştır. İşte bu çalışmada bu anlaşmazlık ve dönemin iki büyük gücünün bu anlaşmazlığa yönelik tutumları ve dahli mercek altına alınacaktır.

Five years after the passing of artist and illustrator Vladimir Radunsky, the article draws a portrait of this complex figure in the context of his life and migrations. Born in Russia, in 1954, Radunsky embraced illustration after difficult vocational junctures. The major hinge points in his artistic life were his two emigrations. The first, in 1982 at the age of 28, catapulted him from a grim USSR to New York City. Eighteen years later and now an accomplished artist and illustrator, Radunsky moved permanently to Italy. This geographic zigzag divides his life into three distinct periods, each generating accretions of cultural heritage that inform his artistic oeuvre. The article also addresses the impact on Radunsky’s work of his Russian-Jewish childhood, and sets the artist in the context of an oft-forgotten wave of global Jewish migration and the American political movement that supported it.

Based on unpublished primary sources (private collections, diplomatic archives, interviews), this article examines a key moment for French commitment to Cuba’s revolutionary project: the Cultural Congress of Havana of January 1968, an international conference that gathered around 500 foreign guests, including nearly 80 French intellectuals. The “Third Worldist” inclination of the Cuban Revolution and its ideological defiance to the USSR was keenly welcomed by many French people, who saw in Cuba the emergence of a non-dogmatic revolutionary model focused on South-South solidarity, and freedom of thought and creation. Back in France, many participants in the congress implemented concrete initiatives in support of the Cuban Revolution, but the events of May 1968 and Castro’s backing of the military intervention in Czechoslovakia (August 1968) dampened this militant momentum, obstructing French solidarity projects towards Cuba.

Kroz svoju šatl diplomatiju nakon Jomkipurskog rata, Henri Kisindžer, jedan od najuticajnijih i najkontroverznijih diplomata s kraja 20. i početka 21. stoljeća, odigrao je ključnu ulogu u oblikovanju geopolitičkog pejzaža Bliskog istoka. Ovaj članak istražuje višedimenzionalnu i slojevitu prirodu Kisindžerove strategije, utemeljene na geostrateškim konceptima Saula Bernarda Koena. Dok je Kisindžerova misija imala za cilj da okonča neprijateljstva između Izraela i njegovih arapskih suseda, ona je takođe nastojala da smanji rastući uticaj Sovjetskog Saveza u regionu, što je ključni aspekt koji se često zanemaruje u postojećim naučnim radovima. Istražujući geopolitiku nafte, moći i uticaja kroz prizmu Karterove doktrine, ovo istraživanje ilustrira na koji način je Kisindžerova realpolitika uticala ne samo na arapsko-izraelske mirovne pregovore, nego i u kojoj mjeri je izmijenila dinamiku Hladnog rata, preoblikujući, na taj način, tok istorije.

Land cover change substantially affects ecosystems and leaves long-lasting legacies. Unfortunately, land cover analyses typically begin in the mid-1980s, when 30-m Landsat data became available, missing major global changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. We aimed to quantify long-term land cover changes in the Caucasus (240,000 km2) comparing the magnitude of Soviet-era (1965–1987) versus post-Soviet changes (1987–2015). We (a) mapped land cover based on 1965 Corona spy satellite imagery and (b) quantified long-term changes by comparing 1965 Corona with 1987 and 2015 Landsat-based classifications while accounting for the differences in sensors’ spatial and spectral resolutions. Our Corona-derived map accuracy was 74.4 ± 3.7%, and change accuracies were 66.0 ± 4.2% for 1965–1987 and 61.6 ± 2.8% for 1965–2015. Overall, 30% of the land changed during the Soviet era compared to 20% during the post-Soviet era, highlighting the importance of mapping those early changes. Change trajectories differed considerably during the Soviet era and thereafter. For example, forests were lost during the Soviet era (− 6%) but gained area post-1987 (+ 5%). Croplands were often lost (− 18%) due to grassland gains (+ 11%), which were continuous, but at different rates (4% versus 7%), whereas croplands were lost in both eras, especially post-1987 (3% versus 16%). There were stark differences among countries: Azerbaijan underwent post-Soviet cropland gains, while the Russian Caucasus and Georgia experienced forest gains. Our results highlight the feasibility and value of early spy satellite data for long-term land cover change analyses, particularly in regions with substantial land cover changes then. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dialogue with Ion Hadârcă, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, honorary member of the Romanian Academy, head of the Social, Economic, Humanistic Sciences, and Arts Department, poet, and participant and animator of the national emancipation events at the end of the 1980s in the MSSR, focuses on the phenomenon of the Romanian language in the space to the right of the Prut River. An eyewitness to the events, Ion Hadârcă reconstructs the main stages that led to the decision on August 31, 1989, regarding the state language and alphabet, as well as the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova. Since then, 35 years have passed – a time of linguistic bifurcation, with schools, textbooks, high school and university programs in Romanian language and history, synchronization with Romanian spiritual values, and at the same time a hybrid war, with external media pressure, economic blockades, and blatant interference in the affairs of our fragile state sovereignty.

Çalışmanın amacı Kırgızistan’da Sovyet eğitim sistemini inceleyerek Bolşeviklerin Ruslaştırma politikalarını ve akislerini ortaya koymaktır. Çalışmada dönemin ana kaynaklarına başvurularak araştırma eserlerden de faydalanılmıştır. Bazı bilim adamları Sovyetler Birliği sayesinde Kırgızların ilk defa eğitim gördüklerini iddia etmektedir. Diğer bilim adamları ise Kırgızların eğitim yoluyla sömürülerek Sovyet propagandasına hizmet ettirildiklerini savunmuşlardır. Bu çalışmayı gerçekleştirmemizdeki gayemiz devrim öncesi ve Sovyet dönemi eğitim sistemini inceleyerek meselenin perde arkasına ışık tutmaktır. Çarlık döneminde Kırgızların yaşadığı bölgelerde yeterli düzeyde mektep ve medresenin varlığı ve öğrenci mevcudu dikkate değerdir. Ancak bu eğitim kurumları Çarlık Rusya tarafından eğitim yuvası olarak kabul edilmemiştir. Çünkü Çarlık zamanında Rusya’da eğitim yaygın olarak misyoner papazlar tarafından yürütülmüştür. Kilise eğitiminin karşısında mektep ve medrese eğitimi doğal olarak kabul görmemiştir. Sovyetler Birliği de Kırgızistan’da sosyal misyonerlik yürüterek kendi ideolojisine hizmet etmeyen hiçbir eğitim kurum ve kuruluşunun varlığını kabul etmemiştir. Birinci görüşü savunanların dayanak noktası burasıdır. Sovyetlerin Kırgızistan eğitim politikası ayrıntılı olarak incelendiğinde derin bir Ruslaştırma faaliyetinin olduğu karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bolşevik ideolojiyi savunan yeni nesiller yetiştirilmek üzere eğitimin planlandığı ve gençlik örgütlenmelerinin okullarda önemli görevler üstlenerek Sovyet propagandası yaptığı görülmektedir. İkinci tezi savunan bilim adamlarının görüşlerinin temelini burası oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmamız ikinci görüş üzerine yoğunlaşmış ve eğitim siteminin yapısı ve işleyişi ele alınmış ve sonuçları analiz edilmiştir.

This article explores the history of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which spans over 120 years and has significantly influenced the development of Northeast China. The focus of this study is on materials from Soviet press outlets in the 1920s that address Soviet-Chinese relations surrounding the railway. It is noted that following the October Revolution of 1917, the railway became a central point of interaction between Russia and China. The Soviet leadership aimed to establish friendly and equal relations with China while simultaneously seeking to bring the railway’s exclusion zone under Bolshevik control. The objective of this article is to trace how events related to the Chinese Eastern Railway were reported during the transitional period of the 1920s by one of the most authoritative domestic publications — ‘Izvestia’, which has been published since March 1917 and became the official organ of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR after the October Revolution. Through analysis, the article reveals the significant role of ‘Izvestia’ in shaping public perceptions of Soviet-Chinese relations during this period and in conveying Soviet Russia’s Far Eastern policy as a whole.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the modernization processes in the crop production sector of the Ulyanovsk region during the Eighth Five-Year Plan. The research draws on unpublished documents sourced from the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk Region and the State Archive of Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region, a significant portion of which is introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time, alongside statistical materials and periodicals. The study examines the efforts of party organs and farm leadership aimed at intensifying the development of crop production. It addresses the authorities’ personnel policies regarding the expansion of vocational and technical education institutions, the organization of training courses for specialists in mass professions, and the enhancement of their qualifications to meet agricultural needs. The dynamics of crop production development from 1966 to 1970 are analyzed, evaluating the achievements of regional farms in producing key agricultural products. The author concludes that, despite facing problematic farms and a slight reduction in areas allocated for grain crops, the authorities in the Ulyanovsk region managed not only to meet but also to exceed the planned targets for yield, total harvest, and state procurement volumes of primary crop products during this period.

The article examines the ways in which both local Indigenous ethnic groups and non-Indigenous Slavs are remembered in the testimonies of Mountain Jewish survivors. Based on official reports from Soviet state institutions, memoirs and interviews with survivors, the article discusses the involvement of German administration and individual collaborators in the extermination of some Mountain Jewish communities, as well as the efforts of the local non-Jewish population in the rescue of others. It provides an analysis of these events through two case studies: the village of Bogdanovka in the Stavropol region and the town of Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria. By focusing on the multiethnic North Caucasus, the article highlights the complex relationships between Jews and other ethnic groups during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, China's nationality policy tended to imitate the Soviet Union while also retaining its uniqueness. Existing scholarship has described three deviations the CCP made vis-à-vis the Soviet model: denying national self-determination, rejecting the supra-national union of nation-states, and undertaking constructivist classification of ethnicity. These features took shape around 1949. In this article, I survey China's observations on Soviet nationality affairs from 1949 to 1991 and provide a perspective for understanding how these deviations from the Soviet nationality model both crystallized and varied. My findings show that after 1949, Soviet studies in China lacked a coherent agenda for studying the nationality question. The experts gathered rich materials but subordinated nationality questions to themes such as revolution, a centrally planned economy, border disputes, geopolitics, and ideological indoctrination. They also tended to reduce ethnopolitics to class struggle and economic modernization. Such systematic evasion of nationality questions persisted until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The USSR's disintegration caused China to recognize the resilience of ethnicity and nationality, while before 1991, Soviet studies in China had lacked any systematic reflection on the Soviet nationality model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses Russian imperial intervention into Jewish ritual in the late imperial period alongside the rise of a Jewish bureaucracy, imperial legal centralization and expanded state claims in the realms of public order, safety and morality. It explores contestations around Jewish religious rituals, like the new moon blessing, in the context of imperial attempts to define and even ‘correct’ native religion and decide what counts as protected religious behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a review of the correspondence between Swedish diplomats in the Baltic States and the Swedish Foreign Ministry for the years 1938–1940, the purpose of this article is, firstly, to elaborate a framework for the analysis of intelligence reporting in times of crisis, secondly, to investigate how the Swedish diplomats in the Baltic States went about to report intelligence, and thirdly, to try to reconstruct how the Swedes coped with the volatile conditions characteristic of these years. The article concludes that the period can be divided into four phases, each marked by their respective conditions for intelligence reporting, and that despite shifts to the Swedes' access to different types of sources, they were still able to compensate for the loss of certain sources – most notably, among the Baltic political and governmental elites – and keep Stockholm updated with developments. Their effort in this regard arguably adds a new dimension to prevailing understandings of Sweden's interwar Baltic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using recently released documents, this paper considers the viewpoints of Britain, the US and the USSR vis-à-vis Cyprus in the crucial years between 1955 and 1959. Having explained the author’s historical and mental underpinning, the paper shows how crude Cold War geopolitical considerations dictated the approach of all three countries, whatever the moral arguments. The documents revealed in the article show that the British colluded secretly with Turkey, and were fully aware that the Turkish Cypriot leadership had planted a bomb at the Turkish consulate, in order to instigate anti-Greek rioting—a fact covered up at the time, and only recently proven by the eventual release of British documents. The paper demonstrates unequivocally how the whole 1959 arrangement was predicated on the Anglo-Saxons’ insistence on a NATO solution, and how critical the USSR was about an arrangement that was clearly dysfunctional. The paper concludes that external tensions, fear of Russia, and a continuing attempt to solve a problem by repeating the same errors still hold true today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the period following World War II, the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia, under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, experienced a pivotal moment in its history due to the split with the Cominform and the subsequent break in relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a profound military and foreign policy transformation in Belgrade. This period can be seen as a continuation of the rebellious pragmatic line that had already been outlined during World War II, when Yugoslav communists, in contrast to the Eastern Bloc countries, gained power almost independently through their own struggle. The realization that external powers, in this case the Soviet Union, could not simply dictate domestic or foreign policy decisions was crucial for Belgrade's strategic shift. Threats of a military attack from the Eastern Bloc forced the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia to seek aid and support, particularly military, from the West. These activities were particularly evident on the diplomatic front. This research reveals the complexity and dynamism of Yugoslav foreign policy, which Belgrade faced in its efforts to maintain its sovereignty. In this context, the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia gradually became an example of how to maintain a delicate balance between the superpowers. This shift and the steps taken by Belgrade are key to understanding Yugoslavia's role in international relations and its status during that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares two films that focus on long-repressed historical events: Tengiz Abuladze's Repentance and Christian Frosch's Murer, both of which use courtroom trials to confront their nations' pasts. These films highlight unresolved historical trauma and the failure of their respective societies to fully reckon with it. Topics include the Stalinist purges in the USSR, Austria's Nazi past, and how courtroom drama in cinema addresses national historical reckoning.

World War II was a climax in 500-year-old Turkish-Russian relations. With the war, relations between the two countries have undergone a global and regional change, effects of which continue to this day. In this phase of bilateral relations, a crucial moment in the history of Turkish diplomacy was experienced with Germany’s attack on the USSR, and transfer of Moscow Embassy to Kuybyshev. In this context, this study discusses the activities of the Turkish Embassy, also moved to Kuybyshev, between 1941-1943. The period of the Kuybyshev Embassy deals not only with the relations between the two countries, but also with the difficulties experienced by the embassy staff. The reports sent by the Ambassadors during the Moscow/Kuybyshev periods have made it possible to have some very detailed information about Turkish-Russian relations. The study presents important data on diplomatic and daily life in Soviet Russia in line with embassy reports that witnessed the most critical period of World War II, and reveals how Turkish-Soviet relations transformed by addressing a very important period for historical Turkish-Russian relations. The study was carried out on Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archive and other sources obtained by documentary source scanning method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, research libraries experienced an optimistic time after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The council members of the Council of Europe and the European Commission describe the situation of libraries around 1990 and how decisions from that time had long-term effects on future library trends. LIBER, the Association of European Research Libraries, played an important role in collaborating with the Council of Europe and the European Union, especially in the field of telematics for libraries. The development of libraries in the 1990s was also influenced by the concentration of publishers and the rise of the Open Access movement. [Extracted from the article]

This article describes the promising beginning of the "open" library, the information centre of the Goethe-Institute (GI) in Moscow, its cooperation with Russian libraries all over the country and the introduction of German reading rooms in many GIs. It gives an impression of the growing restrictions imposed on the work of GI libraries, as on many foreign cultural institutes. There is also a brief glance at the activities of GI libraries in the successor states of the USSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of Constructive Intervention on Ukraine's decision to relinquish the nuclear weapons left in its possession after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Constructive Intervention is conducted by international organizations and involves capacity building and socialization of newly independent or post crisis states. The aim of Constructive Intervention is to familiarize states with international law, Western practices and norms, and integrate the state with the international community. The extended Constructive Intervention that took place in Ukraine facilitated its decision to relinquish the nuclear weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research we aim to analyse the multimodal representations of the concepts of LOVE and PASSION in Lithuanian graphic novel 'Gertrūda', by Gerda Jord. The multimodal approach, that combines textual, visual, and semiotic analysis is applied in the research. In the work of these researchers, the analysis of the conceptualisation of emotions is based on the explorations by cognitive linguistics. The analysis of the multimodal nature of graphic novels particularly as it relates to the portrayal of complex emotions such as LOVE and PASSION, remains relatively undeveloped. The research revealed that the source domains for LOVE expose concepts of CLOSENESS, UNITY, MORAL VIRTUE and for PASSION source domains encompass PRESSURE IN THE CONTAINER, CREATIVITY, PHYSICAL POWER, and HEAT of the SUN. The investigation scrutinises the intertextual, visual, and narrative elements present in 'Gertruda.' We explore how the characters' interactions, visual symbolism, and narrative structure contribute to the representation of LOVE and PASSION within the context of a post-Soviet Lithuanian society. Additionally, we consider the socio-cultural and historical backdrop of Lithuania to provide a holistic understanding of how these emotions are intricately woven into the narrative fabric of the graphic novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the history, current state and prospects of Oriental and African Studies (OAS) in modern Russia. It explains why there are several educational models of OAS at bachelor's and master's degree in Russia and describes the current situation where 22 Russian universities offering OAS programmes produce graduates with mostly only two majors, i.e., historians and philologists. The article addresses the position of OAS among modern Russian scientific disciplines. Another aim is to trace the historical logic of the development of Oriental Studies and related African Studies in Russia, placing the discourse in the context of the Eastern Question, or the political fate of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, it identifies and justifies some current alternative trends in the development of OAS in Russian education and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, large-scale urban reconstruction has been ongoing in Dushanbe, Tajikistan's capital city. In this process, the city's Soviet architecture is being demolished and replaced by Dubai-inspired high-rises. This transformation of public space is a manifestation of the process of silent de-Sovietization that has taken place in Tajikistan. Unlike what has been seen in other post-Soviet countries, this form of de-Sovietization does not result from rethinking the country's Soviet past and deliberately departing from it. Rather, it is a casual by-product of Tajikistan's capitalist transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the periodical press allows historians to further their understanding of the turn against the Soviet Union in the West after the Second World War, and delineate how anti-Bolshevism was constructed to repudiate wartime partnership between 1941 and 1945. Right-wing periodicals such as Truth were active proponents of opposition towards Communism in early Cold War Britain, articulating concerns about the perversion of democratic values and the threat to liberal societies. The nature of Truth 's anti-Bolshevism was reactionary but also reflective, highlighting unease on the Right around the postwar consensus, Labour's domestic programme of state intervention in the planning and management of economic activity, and the general eclipse in Britain's international standing. Truth 's attempts to conflate the Communist threat with Labour's democratic socialism also frame the paper as an embryonic staging point in a wider chronology of neo-liberal challenges to the postwar political order. Anti-Bolshevism was therefore multifaceted and could speak to many different constituencies and agendas beyond a commentary on the actual basis of Soviet rule, Communist subversion, and the polarization of postwar Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]