From Kabul to Kiev: Afghan trading networks across the former Soviet Union

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1010-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAGNUS MARSDEN
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Trading Network ◽  
Trading Networks

AbstractWhile the territory of Afghanistan is widely connected in the popular and historical imagination to long-distance trade, Afghan society continues to be popularly represented as being made-up of ‘tribes’, who subscribe to static ‘honour codes’, and tenaciously cling to archaic tribal values. This article examines the significance of traders of Afghan background to commodity flows across a wide range of contexts in the former Soviet Union, especially in Russia and Ukraine and the Muslim-majority Central Asian Republics. It charts the social and political backgrounds of the merchants who make up this trading network, the nature of their connections to one another and the forms of mobility that make these connections possible, their complex relations with the communities amongst whom they live, and the types of moral value they attach to their work as traders.

The Social Roots of China's Economic Development

1995 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 999-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin King Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
East European ◽  
Chinese Populations ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Why has China been so much more successful than the former Soviet Union and its East European satellites in making the transition away from a centrally planned economy? While other articles address a wide range of explanations of China's success, this one explores the possible contri- bution of China's grass roots social organization, and particularly its family and kinship structures. Attention is drawn to social factors by the obvious fact that China, through its spectacular recent growth, has taken its place among other Chinese (and Chinese cultural orbit) populations in East Asia, reinforcing the position of this region as the most dynamic portion of the world economy. Could China share with other Chinese populations, despite more than 30 years of collectivist socialism, grass roots social structures that are conducive to economic growth under the proper conditions - social structures that are different in strategically important ways from those in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe?

scholarly journals A review on design and testing methodologies of modern freight train draft gear system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Wagner ◽  
Colin Cole ◽  
Maksym Spiryagin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
South America ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Rolling Stock ◽  
Freight Train ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Draft Gear ◽  
Design And Testing ◽  
Damping Systems ◽  
The Eu

AbstractRolling stock connection systems are key to running longer and heavier trains as they provide both the connections of vehicles and the damping, providing the longitudinal suspension of the train. This paper focuses on the evolution of both connection and stiffness damping systems. Focus is on freight rolling stock, but passenger draw gears are also examined. It was found that connection systems have evolved from the buff and chain system used in the pioneer railways of the 1800s to the modern auto-coupler connection systems that are in-service worldwide today. Refined versions of the buff and chain coupling are, however, still in use in the EU, UK, South America and India. A wide range of auto-coupler systems are currently utilised, but the AAR coupler (Janney coupler) remains the most popular. A further variation that persists is the SA3 coupler (improved Wilson coupler) which is an alternative auto-coupler design used mainly throughout the former Soviet Union. Restricting the review to auto-coupler systems allowed the paper to focus on draft gears which revealed polymer, polymer-friction, steel spring-friction, hydraulic draft gears and sliding sill cushioning systems. Along with the single compressive draft gear units balanced and floating plate configurations are also presented. Typical draft gear acceptance standards are presented along with modelling that was included to aid in presentation of the functional characteristics of draft gears.

Russia and the Use of Trade Policy: Concentration with Soviet Successor States

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 20170068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Lutz ◽  
James Lutz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Baltic

Economic policy has often been an integral part of foreign policy usage by governments. Many states will use trade, aid, and investment as instruments to attain other objectives deemed to be in the national interest. Albert Hirschman in an early and classic study suggested that governments in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany consciously attempted to dominate the trade of weaker states in Europe as a means of enhancing the German foreign policy position. Russian trade policy since the breakup of the Soviet Union has followed a similar policy, especially in regard to the other successor states of the former Soviet Union. Patterns were different for the Baltic countries, other European successor states, the Transcaucasian states, and Central Asian countries. Notwithstanding differences that were present, there was evidence in the trade patterns to indicate that Moscow was using trade policy to gain influence in the successor states.

scholarly journals Cambrian Bradoriida and Phosphatocopida (Arthropoda) of the former Soviet Union

1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila M. Melnikova ◽  
David J. Siveter ◽  
Mark Williams
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Minor Component ◽  
Leningrad Region ◽  
The Urals ◽  
Late Cambrian ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Early Palaeozoic ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Middle And Late Cambrian

Abstract. Some 40 bradoriid and phosphatocopid (Arthropoda) species are known from the Cambrian of the former Soviet Union. The faunas occur chiefly in Asia (mostly Siberia and Kazakhstan; also Kirghizia); west of the Urals bradoriid and phosphatocopid faunas are sparse, occurring in the Leningrad region, Belarus and Estonia. Most specimens are recovered as crack-out material from clastic and impure carbonate rocks; acid resistant valves from limestones are a minor component of the known faunas.Early Cambrian (Atdabanian-Botomian) faunas are widespread; middle and late Cambrian faunas are scarcer and are known largely from Siberia and Kazakhstan. Though many species are seemingly short-ranging, currently most have only local biostratigraphic significance, with only a few having practical international correlative value.Palaeogeographically, faunas west of the Urals show affinites with those of the Early Palaeozoic Baltica and Avalonia palaeocontinents (Olenellid trilobite realm). Siberian and central Asian (Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Gorny–Altay–Mongolian belt) faunas show clear affinities with those of palaeocontinental South China and eastern Gondwana (Redlichiid trilobite realm).

scholarly journals Civility and diplomacy: Trust and dissimulation in transnational Afghan trading networks

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 175-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Commercial Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethical Virtue ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Trading Networks ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

This article explores the relationship between civility and diplomacy in the transnational commercial activities of traders from Afghanistan. The commodity traders on which the article focuses – most of whom are involved in the export and wholesale of commodities made in China – form long-distance networks that criss-cross multiple parts of Asia and are rooted in multiple trading nodes across the region, including the Chinese commercial city of Yiwu, Moscow and Odessa. Much scholarship associates both diplomacy and civility with impression management and dissimulation and therefore identifies such modes of behaviour as being inimical to the fashioning of enduring ties of trust. However, analysis of ethnographic material concerning the traders’ understandings of being diplomatic, as well as the ways in which they seek to conform to contested local notions of civility, furnishes unique insights into the ways in which they build the social relationships and ties of trust on which their commercial activities depend. By exploring the interrelationship between civility and diplomacy, the article seeks to move anthropological debate beyond the question of whether civility is either a form of artifice premised on performance or a deeper ethical virtue in and of itself. It suggests, rather, ambiguity, ambivalence, contradiction and imperfection are inbuilt aspects of the ways in which respect is communicated and evaluated, and ties of trust fashioned and maintained.

scholarly journals Analysis of the identities of men who have sex with men in Ukrainian society

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
M. G. Kasianchuk ◽  
◽  
Ye. B. Leshchynskyi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Peer Observation ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sex With Men ◽  
Ukrainian Society

The article is based on both the data obtained in the Donetsk region at the end of 2004 by the method of introducing peer observation at the places of direct social contacts of men possessing the sexual relations with men and the data taken from thematically related sources. It is shown that, on the territory of the former Soviet Union, a “fleshpot” is one of the significant reference points, relative to which the social reality of this category of persons is formed.

scholarly journals A Great Game in Greater Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-243
Author(s):  
M. H. Glantz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Aral Sea Basin ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Great Game ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The region historically referred to as Soviet Central Asia includes the 5 Central Asian Republics (CARs) of the Former Soviet Union (FSU): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Their political status changed drastically when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and they became independent republics. Since the early 1990s, Central Asian leaders have referred on occasion to neighboring Afghanistan as the sixth CAR. In fact, it does occupy 14% of the Aral Sea Basin and its mountains supply about 15% of streamflow to the region’s mighty Amu Darya River that used to flow into Central Asia’s Aral Sea.

scholarly journals Dlaczego Putin wszczął wojnę przeciw Ukrainie?

Politeja ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (2 (34/1)) ◽  
pp. 239-245
Author(s):  
Mykoła Doroszko
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Economic Pressure ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Russian President ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
New Type ◽  
Vladimir Putin ◽  
Former Ussr ◽  
The Eu

Why Putin Started War Against Ukraine? The author analyzes the causes and consequences of undeclared war of Russia against Ukraine. Among the main reasons – the desire to restore Russian leadership’s geopolitical influence in the former Soviet Union by building a new type of empire. In order to reach it official Moscow uses a wide range of tools - from economic pressure and blackmail to armed aggression on the territories of the former USSR. The author is convinced that the annexation of the Crimea and the undeclared war of Russia against Ukraine were the result of revanchist policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at the return of influential world power status. Achieving this goal involves prevention of Europeanisation and democratization of post-Soviet countries, the main jewel among which is Ukraine. Exit from the influence of Russia is possible, according to the author, through the integration of Ukraine into the EU and NATO.

scholarly journals Bacteriophage therapy: experience from the Eliava Institute, Georgia

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Chanishvili ◽  
Richard Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
Phage Therapy ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Resistant Bacteria ◽  
Bacteriophage Therapy ◽  
Antibiotic Resistant ◽  
Bacterial Diseases ◽  
Wide Range

The lysis of bacteria by bacteriophage was independently discovered by Frederick Twort and Felix d?Herelle but it was d?Herelle who proposed that bacteriophage might be applied to the control of bacterial diseases. Within the former Soviet Union (FSU), bacteriophage therapy was researched and applied extensively for the treatment of a wide range of bacterial infections. In the West, however, it was not explored with the same enthusiasm and was eventually discarded with the arrival of antibiotics. However, the increase in the incidence of multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the absence of effective means for their control has led to increasing international interest in phage therapy and in the long experience of the Eliava Institute. The Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology (IBMV), which celebrates its 85th anniversary in 2008, was founded in Tbilisi in 1923 through the joint efforts of d?Herelle and the Georgian microbiologist, George Eliava.

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