Newly collected and restudied earlier materials on an enigmatic fish Ventalepis ketleriensis Schultze, 1980
from the upper Famennian (postera – ? Lower expansa conodont zones) of Latvia and central and northwestern
Russia support its porolepiform affinities. A new family Ventalepididae fam. nova is established for this genus
upon a peculiar combination of characters, including scale structure and dermal bones ornamentation. New
records extend the distribution of this genus and the Ventalepis vertebrate assemblage on the whole to a vast
geographical zone along the south-eastern coast of the Old Red Sandstone continent. The habitat area of the
Devonian vertebrate assemblage over such a large territory within the zoogeographical province of Baltica is
established for the first time. Palaeozoogeographical analysis suggests Laurentian affinities of the Ventalepis
assemblage demonstrating the major congruency to the Belgian and East Greenland ones. These and Russian
localities are separated by a vast ORS continent. Presence of the dipnoan Jarvikia in all three locations, as well
as an Ichthyostega-like tetrapod in the Belgian one reveals palaeozoogeographical connections, which might
reflect possible dwelling not only in the near-shore continent periphery but also in the river systems of the
continent itself.
The study focuses on one of the ways to express for eignness of ethnicities encountered by the inhabitants of Medieval Rus’, namely on constructing the origin of those ethnicities. The narrative about the origin of an ethnicity and its ancestors (origo gentis) is known from European medieval historiography in general. The oldest Russian chronicles, however, are distinguishable for not only recording the origin of their own nation, but noting the roots of completely different cultures, i.e. steppe tribes and northern peoples; later the origin of Mongols is refl ected in a similar way. The comparison of the Primary Chronicle and Latin Central European chronicles which were created almost at the same time period (Chronica Boemorum by Cosmas of Prague, Chronica et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum by Gallus Anonymus and a slightly younger anonymous Gesta Hungarorum) demonstrates that the primary function of Latin origo gentis was to define the identity of the medieval gens, which was changing into natio of the High Medieval Period, and to legitimate its political structures. In these chronicles, origo gentis never became a separate theme in relation to other nations. On the contrary, the authors of the oldest Russian chronicles considered the identifi cation of the origins of the foreign nations to be the key for recognizing their functions not only in the present or in the past, but, first and foremost, in the future, in the end time.
The natural gas supply is used from Russia Federation as a political instrument in the geopolitical and territorial conflict with Ukraine. The effectiveness of Russian strategy towards Ukraine is due to the fact that power in Kiev is also exercised by the pro-Russian politicians and supported on the part of Ukrainian oligarchs. The two countries are interdependent in terms of energy by means of the existing gas infrastructure and long-term contracts, because Ukraine guarantees the Russian Federation the transit of natural gas to Europe through its system of transmission gas pipelines, and Russia pays for the transit and used to supply the agreed amount of gas to Ukraine. For the first time – in 2016 – Ukraine didn’t import natural gas directly from the Russia Federation. This article attempts to obtain an answer to the research question, whether Ukraine actually strives to diversify its natural gas supply. What part of this policy is the Ukrainian political instrument in terms of Russia, and what part is the real political objective? Especially in the context of the gas contract between both States, ending in 2019. What role will be played the underground gas storage in the geopolitical struggle? Despite Nord Stream II the Russian Federation still needs the Ukrainian pipelines to fulfill contractual obligations in gas supplies to Europe. What are the strategic goals of the energy policy of Ukraine and Russia? The geopolitical as well as geo-economic theories will be applied. Moreover, a factor analysis as well as a decision-making analysis will be used. The political analysis method and the forecasting technique are applied to obtain, not only theoretical, but also practical input.
The article presents an analysis of Russia’s participation in international steam coal trade, which has been its important participant for years. The research covered the years 2014–2018. The geographical location on two continents and the availability of coal deposits, favors its presence on both the Pacific and Atlantic markets. The article also discusses the main coal producers in Russia and the prices of Russian steam coal directed to the spot market. Due to the significant share of coal exports for the Russian economy, the focus was also on analyzing Russian seaports.
In recent years, Asian exports have dominated in Russian steam coal exports. The share of export to this market in the years 2014–2018 was in the range of 49–57% (60–87 million tons). Currently, three countries play an important role among Asian countries: South Korea, China and J apan. They purchased a total of 38–52 million tons of Russian coal. Although in the years under analysis Russia exported 52–67 million tons of steam coal to the European market, the share of this market dropped from almost half to around 40%. T he slow departure from coal energy contributes to reducing the share of recipients from this direction. Among European countries, in 2014 the main direction of export was Great Britain with 19% (24 million tons) of total export share. In 2018, exports fell to 9 million tons (5%).
Among European destinations for Russian coal, Poland’s share is growing in importance. In the years 2014–2018, steam coal exports to Poland varied in the range of 5.6–16.2 million tons. In the years 2014–2018 it changed in the range of 5.6–16.2 million tons. The dynamic growth achieved in the last three years is noteworthy. In relation to 2016, imports increased by 10.0 million tons and in 2018 amounted to as much as 16.1 million tons. The article also discusses the geographical structure of coal imports to Poland by railway border crossings and seaports.
Acquiring citizenship in the country of resettlement is the ultimate step on the integration pathway of a resettled person. For people from countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU), we can see a great variety in patterns of citizenship acquisition and changes in migration policy governing the granting of citizenship. Russia is the main player in this field. As a descendant of the fSU, the country uses its right to determine whether or not to grant its citizenship to people in the new independent countries as a way of maintaining its influence on the post-Soviet and even the former Russian Empire regions. Russian citizenship was granted to m 8.6 million people between 1992 and 2016 (excluding the Crimean popu-lation), more than 92 per cent of whom were from the fSU. Russia employs a range of different policies, starting with its compatriot policy for individual resettlement; then comes its not formally declared pol-icy of issuing Russian passports for the population of non-recognised states (such as Transdnestria) and finally there is Russia’s policy of automatically granted citizenship for 2 million Crimean people. This paper explores the phenomenon of Russian citizenship policy and compares it with European or Eura-sian policy governing fSU countries. It also discusses the implementation of this policy at both regional and global levels.
Claude Carloman de Rulhière was a French diplomat and writer who was sent to Russia in 1762 as a secretary to the French ambassador. During his stay in St. Petersburg, he eye-witnessed the coup d’état staged by the future Catherine II to dethrone Peter III and to seize the imperial power. Upon his return to Paris, Rulhière publicized his testimony of the event. It soon became notorious and provoked controversy, splitting French elites into supporters and detractors of Catherine II. The agents of the empress attempted to persuade him not to divulge his text, but Rulhière did not succumb to their financial offers and resolved to reveal the truth.
While in the United States Polish newspapers and magazines began to spring up in the late 19th century, in Russia the Polish diaspora did not produce their own press until the early 20th century. This article surveys the contents of three periodicals and other publications produced by Polonia associations in Krasnodar, Zheleznovodsk and Stavropol in Southern Russia.
A longstanding folk tradition among rural Russian peasants, ulichnye familii (‘street surnames’) were used by Doukhobors colloquially ‘on the street’ of a village to distinguish among families sharing the same official surname. Similar to Quebecois dit names and Scottish sept names, ulichnye familii arose because of the low surname stock within Doukhobor society. Passed down to succeeding generations and transferred between settlements, these names became a recognized form of address among Doukhobors, helping structure kinship networks and organize social interactions among villagers. When a large contingent of Doukhobors emigrated from the Caucasus to the Canadian prairies in 1899, they continued this naming practice in their settlements well into the early 20th century. A ubiquitous part of their culture for generations, today ulichnye familii have all but disappeared among Doukhobors, as a result of their assimilation, dispersal and modernization. This article offers an analysis of the Doukhobor anthroponymic custom of ulichnye familii: the social factors leading to their adoption; the etymological processes through which these names were formed; the manner in which they were used and transmitted; and the elements contributing to their eventual decline and disuse. It also includes an inventory of extant ulichnye familii among the Doukhobors of the Caucasus and Canada, obtained through extensive fi eld interviews and archival research.
The paper describes the political use of symbols of childhood and orphanhood in the current policy of the Russian authorities. At the beginning of the Bolshevik regime, homeless children (bezprizorni) became a subject of interest for the security apparatus organized by F. Dzerzhinsky. At that time, A. Makarenko developed his innovative pedagogical approach. These activities were designed to create a “new Soviet man”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia again faced the problem of homeless children. After several years, however, children and orphans are now being used as a symbol of vulnerability in the government policy of the Kremlin. As an answer to the so-called “Magnitsky Act”, the Russian authorities implemented the “DimaYakovlev law” prohibiting adoptions of Russian children to the United States. In addition to this, the child as a symbol of innocence and vulnerability is an invariant element in the policy of the Russian authorities. This combines symbolism associated with bravery, dedication and sacrifice, allowing justification of the current political course of power in Russia.
We estimated a non-Stationary dynamic factor model and used it to generate artificial episodes of disinflation (permanent changes in the mean inflationrate). These datasets were used to test the forecasting abilities of alternative underlying inflation indicators (i.e. measures that capture sustained movements in inflation extracted from information in a disaggregated set of price data).We found that the out of sample forecast errors of the benchmark underlying inflation measures (based on unobserved trend extraction) are more severely affected by disinflation than the alternative simpler methods (based on exclusionor re-weighting approaches). We also show that a non-stationary dynamic factor model may be employed for the extraction of the unobserved trend to be usedas an underlying inflation measure.
Numerous Russian media professionals have moved to Ukraine in the last decade. These migrants can be seen as contemporary mobile, highly skilled, transnationally connected professionals who made a lifestyle choice by relocating to Ukraine. However, after the EuroMaidan, their move has also become increasingly political. Drawing upon a series of interviews with Russian media professionals living and working in Ukraine – and addressing their social relationships, professional practices and thoughts on return migration – I analyse the ways in which the lifestyles of these ‘middling transnationals’ can be affected by the political tensions between host and home countries. This paper draws upon the idea of transnational ties being not necessarily durable and supportive but, rather, flexible and multi-direc-tional. I argue that the annexation of Crimea and the armed conflict in Donbas have altered migrants’ cross-border connections with Russia; however, instead of tying them to a place and excluding them from global networks, it might also push them towards inhabiting multiple transnational spaces. These observations highlight the political dimension of ‘middling transnationalism’ which is usually not con-sidered in migration scholarship.
The article discusses views and the ideological evolution carried out by Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin, a Russian-American sociologist, philosopher and political activist. Influenced by his observations of the events of 1917, Sorokin radically reformulated his opinions about Marx and Marxism which resulted in his espousing of a traditionalist and anti-revolutionary position. He still shared with Marx his negative diagnosis of the modern world, but proposed a different solution as a remedy. His solution was a purification of the idea of equality by liberating it from reductive materialism. Nevertheless Sorokin’s concept of spiritual equality was as utopian as Marx’s. He presented his ideas in a littleknown novel titled: Предтеча (or Прачечная человеческих душ – ‘предтеча’ means ‘ancestor’ and is commonly referred to John the Baptist). This work is a signal for Sorokin’s denial of Marx’s ideas and his revolutionary zeal.
The aim of this study is to analyse the geopolitical position of independent Poland after World War I and the state of her relations with neighbour states, and the policy of building alliances with France and Romania. In view of border conflicts with Lithuania and Czechoslovakia as well as the constant German and Soviet threat, the reborn Polish state was forced to seek for allies in the West. The alliances with France and Romania could not however reduce the danger for Poland emerging from Soviet-German cooperation basing on the treaty of Rapallo from 1922. Also the treaty of Locarno from 1925 in which Polish borders were left without guarantee was seen as a failure of Polish diplomacy. The inconvenient geopolitical position of Poland, and the aggressive policy of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union resulted in the Hitler-Stalin Pact from 23rd of August 1939 and the partition of Poland.
Very rare chondrichthyan spines from the Famennian (Upper Devonian) of European Russia are referred here to ctenacanthiforms, euselachians and a chondrichthyan group of uncertain systematic position. Ctenacanthus Agassiz, 1837 is recorded from the lower and middle Famennian of the central and north-western parts of the area. Sculptospina makhlaevi Lebedev gen. et sp. nov. originates from the lower Famennian of the Lipetsk Region. The holotype of ‘Ctenacanthus’ jaekeli Gross, 1933 and a new specimen from the upper Famennian of the South Urals are shown to belong to the same taxon, which is transferred to Acondylacanthus St. John and Worthen, 1875. New specimens of Tuberospina nataliae Lebedev, 1995 from the upper Famennian of Central Russia are described in detail. The newly presented material increases our knowledge of the composition of Famennian marine assemblages from the East European Platform. It is suggested that these assemblages may be classified as chondrichthyan-dominated and dipnoan-dominated. Hypothetically, after the end- Devonian Hangenberg extinction event, which affected numerous secondary consumers in vertebrate communities, some chondrichthyan groups could have encroached to take advantage of previously occupied ecological niches. Ctenacanthus, as well as Acondylacanthus and Amelacanthus survived the end-Devonian mass extinction to continue into the Carboniferous.