Jeff Sahadeo reveals the complex and fascinating stories of migrant populations in Leningrad and Moscow.Voices from the Soviet Edgefocuses on the hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Georgians, ...Azerbaijanis, and others who arrived toward the end of the Soviet era, seeking opportunity at the privileged heart of the USSR. Through the extensive oral histories Sahadeo has collected, he shows how the energy of these migrants, denigrated as "Blacks" by some Russians, transformed their families' lives and created inter-republican networks, altering society and community in both the center and the periphery of life in the "two capitals."
Voices from the Soviet Edgeconnects Leningrad and Moscow to transnational trends of core-periphery movement and marks them as global cities. In examining Soviet concepts such as "friendship of peoples" alongside ethnic and national differences, Sahadeo shows how those ideas became racialized but could also be deployed to advance migrant aspirations. He exposes the Brezhnev era as a time of dynamism and opportunity, and Leningrad and Moscow not as isolated outposts of privilege but at the heart of any number of systems that linked the disparate regions of the USSR into a whole. In the 1980s, as the Soviet Union crumbled, migration increased. These later migrants were the forbears of contemporary Muslims from former Soviet spaces who now confront significant discrimination in European Russia. As Sahadeo demonstrates, the two cities benefited from 1980s' migration but also became communities where racism and exclusion coexisted with citizenship and Soviet identity.
In the conditions of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, an important issue in science and practice is to determine the patterns of the aggressor's transition from hybrid to wartime actions ...and to determine lessons learned from conducting war at sea. Therefore, in this work is considered the hybrid and military actions of the Russian Federation at sea and main lessons learned, cooperative countering and prospects.
The paper reports data on the specific accumulation of heavy metals by various species of willow (
Salix caprea
,
S. fragili
, and
S. schwerinii
) and other plants of the genus Salix within ...landscapes with ore anomalies and at background territories: in the area of the Ardon River in North Ossetia, Transbaikalia, and Kamchatka. All willow species can accumulate high concentrations of Cd and sometimes also Zn, and this can serve as a prospecting guide for base-metal and anthropogenic anomalies and be utilized when phytoremediation technologies are developed. The leaves of willow
S. caprea
that grows in areas contaminated with heavy metals are proved to actively synthesize certain sulfur-bearing phytochelatines.
Today the 80-mile-long Moscow Canal is a source of leisure for Muscovites, a conduit for tourists and provides the city with more than 60 percent of its potable water. Yet the past looms heavy over ...these quotidian activities: the canal was built by Gulag inmates at the height of Stalinism and thousands died in the process. In this wide-ranging book, Cynthia Ruder argues that the construction of the canal physically manifests Stalinist ideology and that the vertical, horizontal, underwater, ideological, artistic and metaphorical spaces created by it resonate with the desire of the state to dominate all space within and outside the Soviet Union. Ruder draws on theoretical constructs from cultural geography and spatial studies to interpret and contextualize a variety of structural and cultural products dedicated to, and in praise of, this signature Stalinist construction project. Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources, personal interviews and contemporary documentary materials, this is essential reading for all scholars working on the all-pervasive nature of Stalinism and its complex afterlife in Russia today.
In October 1941 Hitler launched Operation Typhoon the German drive to capture Moscow and knock the Soviet Union out of the war. As the last chance to escape the dire implications of a winter ...campaign, Hitler directed seventy-five German divisions, almost two million men and three of Germany's four panzer groups into the offensive, resulting in huge victories at Viaz'ma and Briansk - among the biggest battles of the Second World War. David Stahel's groundbreaking new account of Operation Typhoon captures the perspectives of both the German high command and individual soldiers, revealing that despite success on the battlefield the wider German war effort was in far greater trouble than is often acknowledged. Germany's hopes of final victory depended on the success of the October offensive but the autumn conditions and the stubborn resistance of the Red Army ensured that the capture of Moscow was anything but certain.
The purpose of this work is to assess the ecological state of the Moskva River on the content of heavy metals in bottom sediments by the method of L. Hokanson. The method of determining the ...coefficient of bottom accumulation (CBA) was also used. The content of metals was determined by the X-ray fluorescent method according to the approved procedure. The analysis of the obtained data made it possible to draw a number of conclusions. First, the average level of some heavy metals (zinc, nickel, copper, manganese) was established in the bottom sediments of the Moskva River in the lower reaches. Second, comparison of the obtained data with background indices allowed to characterize the pollution degree of these bottom sediments as significant. Increased content of heavy metals in bottom sediments may be caused by anthropogenic load of the territory located outside the city of Moscow in the south-east. Third, the conducted studies showed that in comparison with river waters pollution levels in bottom sediments are higher.
An algorithm has been proposed for assessing the hydrological role of the main anthropogenic factors governing the formation of Moskva R. runoff both separately and in total. The effect of landscape ...transformations, hydroengineering structures, and water use on the runoff in the Moskva R. basin has been analyzed for characteristic periods in the recent 150 years (the middle XIX century, the early XX century, 1960–1980, and the first decade of the XXI century, the period of calculation of the average long-term runoff). The main hydrological effect of urbanization in the Moskva R. basin on river runoff formation in recent decades has been demonstrated. The shares of the anthropogenic and climatic factors in the overall changes in Moskva R. runoff in the early XXI century have been evaluated.
The results of investigations of three Moskva River sites with different degrees of pollution using a complex of microbiological characteristics and the parameters of chlorophyll a fluorescence are ...presented. We determined that the bacterioplankton seasonal dynamics at less polluted waters (Tushino and Vorob’evy Gory) were similar but differed significantly from one in more polluted waters (Dzerzhinskii). The number of bacteria with active electron transport chain, as well as their share in the bacterioplankton structure, was higher in the water of Dzerzhinskii (average annual values of 0.23 × 10⁶ cells/mL and 14%) than that in the less polluted water of Tushino and Vorob’evy Gory (0.14 × 10⁶ cells/mL; 6% and 0.15 × 10⁶ cells/mL; 7%, respectively). From April to October, the content of chlorophyll a and its photosynthetic activity were the highest in Tushino. In Dzerzhinskii, during spring the increase in photosynthetic activity commenced earlier and was more intensive that the increase in chlorophyll a content; i.e., the increase in phytoplankton biomass was temporarily suppressed. We suggest association of this phenomenon with suppression of organic matter synthesis by phytoplankton due to the high water pollution in Dzerzhinskii. The second autumn peak of chlorophyll a content, which was typical of clear water and was observed in Tushino, did not occur in Dzerzhinskii. We recommend combined application of these microbiological parameters and characteristics of chlorophyll a fluorescence for further monitoring.
Twentyeight species of Navicula genus (Diatomophyceae) have been identified in Moskva River in the vicinity of Zvenigorod Biological Station named after S.N. Skadovskii. Seven species have been regis ...tered for the first time in Moskva River, two species, for Russia. All the found species are described briefly and supported by the original microphotographs.
Inventing the Enemy Goldman, Wendy Z
Inventing the Enemy,
08/2011
eBook, Book Chapter
Inventing the Enemy uses stories of personal relationships to explore the behaviour of ordinary people during Stalin's terror. Communist Party leaders strongly encouraged ordinary citizens and party ...members to 'unmask the hidden enemy' and people responded by flooding the secret police and local authorities with accusations. By 1937, every workplace was convulsed by hyper-vigilance, intense suspicion and the hunt for hidden enemies. Spouses, co-workers, friends and relatives disavowed and denounced each other. People confronted hideous dilemmas. Forced to lie to protect loved ones, they struggled to reconcile political imperatives and personal loyalties. Workplaces were turned into snake pits. The strategies that people used to protect themselves - naming names, pre-emptive denunciations, and shifting blame - all helped to spread the terror. Inventing the Enemy, a history of the terror in five Moscow factories, explores personal relationships and individual behaviour within a pervasive political culture of 'enemy hunting'.
