Wandering in Circles: Venichka's Journey of Redemption in
"Moskva-Petushki" examines the definition of redemption in
Venedikt Erofeev's Moskva-Petushki . By placing Erofeev's
poema in conversation ...with other travel narratives from
Russia and the West, the book explores the meaning of redemption
across societies and cultures, and how Erofeev creates a commentary
on the possibility of redemption in a broken political and social
system. Through this comparative approach to
Moskva-Petushki , this work offers a new reading of the
text as a journey of failed social and personal redemption.
Relevance and purpose. The Russian geobotanical science has a profound tradition of studying the vegetation cover heterogeneities. However, the number of studies on the mosaics in complexly organized ...coniferous-deciduous forests is very limited, and there is high ambiguity in the obtained results. In addition, there has appeared a need to resolve the “terminological issue”. The aim of this study was to assess the vegetation cover mosaics of widespread forest phytocenoses in the Moskva-Oka Plain. Material and methods. We present a review of publications on the intracenotic heterogeneity of forest cover and make an attempt to systematize the existing terminology. The field studies were carried out on the territory of the Valuevsky forest park (Novomoskovsky AO, Moscow) using classical geobotanical methods. The acquired data was analyzed with various modern methods of statistical data analysis. Results and conclusions. The obtained results indicate that differences in vegetation are much more pronounced at the level of phytocenoses than at the level of microgroups. The most powerful edificatory effect of spruce has been confirmed. We identified the following reasons that determine the weak differentiation of vegetation at the level of microgroups: the co-influence of neighboring microgroups, the lack of individual trees’ impact duration for a noticeable transformation of vegetation, and legacies in the structure and species composition of previous states over a long period of time.
This study explores improvements in the estimation of snow water equivalent (SWE) over snow‐covered terrain using an ensemble‐based data assimilation (DA) framework. The NASA Catchment land surface ...model is used as the prognostic model in the assimilation of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS passive microwave (PMW) brightness temperature spectral differences (ΔTb) where support vector machine regression is employed as the observation operator. A series of synthetic twin experiments are conducted using different precipitation boundary conditions. The results show, at times, DA degrades modeled SWE estimates (compared to the land surface model without assimilation) over complex terrain. To mitigate this degradation, a physically informed approach using different ΔTb for shallow‐to‐medium or medium‐to‐deep snow conditions along with a “data‐thinning” strategy is explored. Overall, both strategies improve the model ability to encapsulate more of the evaluation data and mitigate model ensemble collapse. The physically informed DA and 3‐days thinning DA strategies show marginal improvements of basin‐averaged SWE in terms of reduction of bias from 10 mm (baseline DA) to−5.2 mm and −2.5 mm, respectively. When the estimated forcings are greater than the truth, the baseline DA, physically informed DA, and 3‐days thinning DA improve SWE the most with ∼30%, 31%, and 24% reduction of RMSE (relative to OL), respectively. Overall, these results highlight the limited utility of PMW ΔTb observations in the estimation of snow in complex terrain, but do demonstrate that a physically based constraint approach and data thinning strategy can add more utility to the ΔTb observations in the estimation of SWE.
Key Points
Synthetic assimilation of passive microwave (PMW) brightness temperature is explored in the Volga River basin
Assimilation of PMW brightness temperature spectral differences improves modeled snow water equivalent (SWE) estimates
Physically informed data assimilation yields larger improvements in modeled SWE than a traditional approach
Floodplain deposits in the valley of the Moskva River contain a series of buried soils of the Holocene age, which can be an important source of paleoecological information. These soils were dated as ...follows: Soil 1 — 100BP, Soil 2 — cal 1200AD–500BC, Soil 3 — 900–2700BC, and Soil 4 — 3700–6000BC. Archeological monuments associated with these soils belong to the Neolithic (Soil 4), Early Bronze Age (Soil 3), and Iron Age and Middle Ages (Soil 2). Buried soils have well developed profiles and diagnostic features. Dark-colored soils of the Atlantic period (Soil 4) in most cases can be attributed to Phaeozems. Pollen analysis shows that these soils were formed under forest-steppe communities. Buried soils of the Subatlantic period (Soil 2) are usually referred to as Luvisols. Unlike them, the soils of the Subboreal period (Soil 3) are traced in rare cases and have no clear diagnostic features allowing reconstruction of the paleoenvironment. These soils have a light-colored humus horizon, which does not allow them to be classified as Phaeozems. However, they do not have the Bt horizon characteristic of Luvisols. This paper describes the results of a new comprehensive study of the Moskva River floodplain near the Zvenigorod Biological Station (ZBS) of Moscow State University. The buried soils of the Atlantic and Subboreal periods were studied by palaeopedological and palynological methods. The findings confirmed previously obtained results and indicated that the buried Soil 3 at the ZBS site could be developed under mixed forests dominated by spruce. These results suggest that the landscapes of the lower levels of the valley changed dramatically between 5000 and 4500calBP. The forest-steppe communities were replaced by dense forests due to the early Subboreal climate change. The paper also examines the specifics of soil and pollen records of the landscape evolution. The anthropogenic influence on the floodplain landscapes is also considered.
•A series of buried soils are found in the floodplain of the Moskva-river.•The Atlantic soils (Soil 4) belong to Phaeozems and were formed under forest-steppe.•The Subatlantic soils (Soil 2) belong to Luvisols and were formed under forests.•The poor developed Subboreal soils (Soil 3) are rarely found and have uncertain characteristics.•Pollen data of Soil 3 revealed mass distribution of spruce in the early Subboreal.
An extinct thermophile European water buffalo Bubalus murrensis was recorded in the interglacials of the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Central and Western Europe. The species was unknown after the ...Eemian Interglacial (c. 123 ka) there and have never been found in Eastern Europe. Here we report on an unexpected record of this exotic species in the center of East European Plain near the Kolomna town (Moscow Region) more than 110 millennia later, in the Bølling – Allerød warming of the Last glacial. The unique paleontological discovery of the last European water buffalo in the center of Eastern Europe occupied mainly by a cold adapted so-called ‘Mammoth fauna’ allow us to discuss this unusual occurrence in paleoenvironmental context and suggest the model of dispersal and final extinction of the species. Based on recent integrated studies, we show that the species could persist in the Ponto-Caspian region and then spread northwards during the last Late Pleistocene warming. Main factors of its extinction could be the rapid global climatic changes and strong regional paleoenvironmental instability as well as increasing activity of Upper Paleolithic hunters. The discovery is important in the context of the late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions and a recent phenomenon of global warming.
Denne artikel analyserer ideen om ”den socialistiske by”, der lå til grund for byplanlægningen og omstruktureringen af Moskva i 1930'erne. Omdrejningspunktet for analysen er konstruktionen af byens ...metro, der indgik i statens selvfremstilling, som et fysisk bevis på konstruktionen af socialismens realitet i Sovjetunionen. De massive, sovjetiske moderniseringsbestræbelser i Moskva havde dermed et æstetisk og symbolsk formål: at delegitimere både det omstyrtede, kapitalistiske system i Rusland og de konkurrerende kapitalistiske systemer i Vest – og derved at fremstå som en fysisk manifestation af fremtidsvisionen om ”den socialistiske by”.
Jiří Weil (1900–1959), the Czech writer of Jewish origin, is known primarily for his works of fiction dealing with the experience of the Shoah, both in the form of short stories and his celebrated ...novels Život s hvězdou (Life with a Star, 1949) and Na střeše je Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn is on the Roof, 1960), as well as the text collage Žalozpěv za 77 297 obětí (Lamentation for 77 297 Victims, 1958). However, the fact that Weil presented the theme of Jewishness also from a different perspective is often overlooked — for example in the novel Harfeník (The Harpist, 1958) and in the unpublished texts ‘Perrotina, mašina chlebozlodějská’ (Perrotine, the Bread-Stealing Machine) and ‘Tiskařská romance’ (A Printer’s Romance), in which he linked the theme of Jewishness to that of the beginnings of the labour movement in the Czech lands in the 19th century. Although Weil’s post-war literary output is characterised by his focus on themes of Jewishness and the Shoah, we also find Jewish figures represented in his pre-war novel writing. Last but not least, it is necessary also to recall his texts of a non-fiction character, in which he dealt with Jewish themes in the course of his employment at the State Jewish Museum. The focal point of this contribution therefore resides in the presentation of Weil’s lesser-known texts, dealing with the theme of Jewishness other than through the prism of the Shoah, and in his uncovering of a complex of Jewish identities in his pre-war novel Moskvahranice (Moscow-Border, 1937).
This article examines the Arabian Nights subtext of Venedikt Erofeev’s Moskva-Petushki, proposing that the subtext is far more extensive and relevant than previously recognized. This subtext ...highlights the tension in the book between linear and circular narratives, and the vicious circles Venichka hopes to escape. The Arabian Nights subtext challenges the way we read the book, hinting that Moskva-Petushki is a book that emulates its redemptive subtexts but omits the frame stories that reveal this redemption. In such an interpretation, we see that Venichka is playing the role of the holy fool, or the storyteller Scheherazade, and that his primary audience is not his train companions nor the conductor who calls him Scheherazade, but the reader; it is therefore by his effect on the reader that the book’s success or failure as a redemptive story should be measured.
Boundaries of densely populated areas can approach with time to old subsurface repositories of radioactive waste due to growth of settlement territories. Protective isolation of the repositories was ...sometimes insufficient. Penetration of groundwater into the repository and discharge of the polluted water into neighboring rivers can lead to radioactive pollution of water resources of the region. Special rehabilitation measures at the repository sites are required to prevent this. Their efficiency is considered on example of former repositories of an atomic research center in Moscow (Russia). Radioactive materials were extracted from the subsurface burials for consequent disposal in a safer repository. A limited volume of polluted enclosing sedimentary rocks was also extracted and placed back after flushing with water. Analysis of rock pollution shows that these rehabilitation measures cannot enhance substantially a forecast of radioactive pollution. Moreover, loosening of the sedimentary rocks at the site of the earthwork leads to focusing of meteoric water from the surface in the domain of the most severe pollution of the underground medium. Elevated concentration of humic and fulvic acids in the surface water could intensify highly mobile colloidal form of actinide migration after the rehabilitation procedure. Place of polluted water discharge at a river bank and time of colloid-facilitated migration of radionuclides from the repository to the discharge place were estimated by computer simulation. Sampling of river sediments after approximately this time showed that concentration of uranium in the sediments at the calculated point exceeded about twice its values at neighboring sampling points up- and downstream (bottom sediments, which were polluted before remediation, were eliminated by a foregoing channel-cleaning of the river). Distributions of uranium in the sampled columns of the bottom sediments evidence that pollution of the sediments is caused by groundwater discharge. A comparison with the results of the mathematical modeling shows that this is in good agreement with the assumption of fast colloid-facilitated migration of uranium from the repository site. Along with the analysis of limited conditioning of the polluted rocks, these results indicate that the considered remediation method is less effective than hydraulic isolation of waste disposal area like it was performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
God, Tsar, and People brings together in one volume essays written over a period of fifty years, using a wide variety of evidence—texts, icons, architecture, and ritual—to reveal how early modern ...Russians (1450–1700) imagined their rapidly changing political world. This volume presents a more nuanced picture of Russian political thought during the two centuries before Peter the Great came to power than is typically available. The state was expanding at a dizzying rate, and atop Russia's traditional political structure sat a ruler who supposedly reflected God's will. The problem facing Russians was that actual rulers seldom—or never—exhibited the required perfection. Daniel Rowland argues that this contradictory set of ideas was far less autocratic in both theory and practice than modern stereotypes would have us believe. In comparing and contrasting Russian history with that of Western European states, Rowland is also questioning the notion that Russia has always been, and always viewed itself as, an authoritarian country. God, Tsar, and People explores how the Russian state in this period kept its vast lands and diverse subjects united in a common view of a Christian polity, defending its long frontier against powerful enemies from the East and from the West.
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