Letter from Belarus: legacy of the Chernobyl nuclear incident

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-288
Author(s):  
Ivan J. Antanovich

The Republic of Belarus lies in between Russia and Poland, and to the north of Ukraine. It has a population of 10 million and a complicated history; parts of Belarus were in Poland and parts in Russia. When within the USSR, policies were adopted, especially in the 1980s, that were at the expense of member parts of the Union. The Chernobyl power plant was built in the Ukraine, near the southern border of Belarus. When the Chernobyl disaster happened on 26 April 1986 (Mould 1988; Park 1989), for three days running the wind blew in the direction of Belarus and we received about 60% of the total fallout. It was not the fault of the Ukraine, but ultimately that of a bureacratized society of over-confident technocrats. About one-fifth of Belarus, as a region which acquired autonomy in July 1991 upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been affected to the extent that we have had to organize large resettlements of people, and we now have 300 km2 of land seriously affected and unfit for human habitation, surrounded by a wider circle of about 10 000 km2 which is taken to be endangered, and this within a country of 220 000 km2. Both before and after independence, Belarus' resources have been enormously drained by this disaster.

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 723-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildus G. Ilishev

Problems of building a new democratic Russia based on federative principles and the region's long-refractory “national question,” forming a knotty tangle of complicated issues, have steadily remained in the political limelight. In a number of regions worldwide dramatic changes have occurred, related in one way or the other to the processes of national-territorial self-determination. As a result of this, the Eurasian political landscape has been marked by the emergence of some twenty newly independent states. Suffice it to say that the Soviet Union, a preponderant superpower feared by all, collapsed; and in Europe the Federative Republic of Yugoslavia ceased to exist, bringing on a long-term national conflict threatening not only regional but even global security. In East Central Europe binational Czechoslovakia split up into two independent nation states. Elsewhere, even in the absence of militarized national conflict, political processes have dramatically intensified. In Asia, for example, the multinational Chinese Republic with its Tibetan and Uighur problems, and ethnically heterogeneous India with its population speaking more than 400 languages and dialects have long attracted public attention as sources of potential instability in the region. The “Sikh issue” alone, for instance, continues to pose a threat to India. Even the North American continent, a peaceful region in terms of its political and ethnic stability, is confronted with similar problems. The integrity of Canada is still in question with the franco-lingual province of Quebec striving for independence.


Author(s):  
С.А. Секинаев

В последние годы заметно возрос исследовательский интерес к событиям Второй мировой войны и особенно к ее важнейшей составной части – войне Советского Союза с нацистской Германией. Публикация новых документов раскрывает многие ранее неизвестные страницы военной истории, конкретизирует и дополняет, казалось бы, уже известные. В предлагаемой статье на основе архивных источников и историографических материалов освещается политика немецких властей в период оккупации большей части территории Северной Осетии в ходе Великой Отечественной войны. Показано, что действия захватчиков по установлению так называемого «нового порядка», сопровождаемые жестокими карательными мерами, вызывали активное противодействие местного населения. В то же время многие вынуждены были работать на оккупантов, большое число граждан было отправлено на работы в Германию. Важную роль в борьбе против немецко-фашистских захватчиков сыграла всенародная борьба в тылу врага. Верховное Главнокомандование и руководство СССР с первых же дней войны придали партизанскому движению целенаправленный и организованный характер. Активное участие в партизанском движении приняли и жители Северной Осетии. На оккупированной территории организовывались партизанские отряды, проводившие рейды в тыл противника. В статье анализируется также экономическое положение республики и делается вывод о значительном ущербе, нанесенном многим хозяйственным отраслям в период оккупации. In recent years, research interest in the events of World War II and especially in its most important component, the war of the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany, has noticeably increased. The publication of new documents reveals many previously unknown pages of military history, concretizes and supplements the seemingly already known ones. This article, based on archival sources and historiographic data, highlights the policy of the German authorities in the period of the occupation of most of the territory of North Ossetia during the Great Patriotic War. It is shown that the actions of the invaders to establish the so-called "new order", accompanied by brutal punitive measures, provoked active opposition from the local population. At the same time, many people were forced to work for the occupiers, a large number of citizens were sent to work in Germany. An important role in the struggle against the German fascist invaders was played by the national struggle behind enemy lines. The Supreme Command and the leadership of the USSR from the very first days of the war gave the partisan movement a purposeful and organized character. Residents of North Ossetia also took an active part in the partisan movement. In the occupied territory, partisan detachments were organized, conducting raids behind enemy lines. The economic situation of the republic is analyzed and a conclusion is made about the significant damage caused many economic sectors during the occupation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 258-263
Author(s):  
Argyrios Tasoulas

This article studies the development of Soviet-Cypriot trade relations in 1960-63, based on research at the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVP RF). Concurrently, a historical analysis follows the events after the creation of the new Cypriot state and the two major Cold War crises (the building of the Berlin wall and the Cuban missile crisis). The efforts made by both governments to develop bilateral trade, the aftermath of the two major international crises and the results of the two governments’ policies have been identified and analyzed.


Author(s):  
Vladislav Strutynsky

By analyzing one of the most eventful periods of the modern history of Poland, the early 80s of the XX century, the author examines the dynamics of social and political conflict on the eve of the introduction of martial law, which determines the location of the leading political forces in these events in Poland, that were grouped around the Polish United Labor Party and the Independent trade union «Solidarity», their governing structures and grassroots organizations, highlighting the development of socio-political situation in the country before entering the martial law on the 13th of December and analyzing the relation of the leading countries to the events, especially the Soviet Union. Also, the author distinguishes causes that prevent to reach the compromise in the process of realization different programs, that were offered to public and designed by PUWP and «Solidarity» and were “aimed” to help Polish society to exit an unprecedented conflict. This article provides a comparative analysis of the different analytical meaningful reasons, offered by historians, political scientists, lawyers, and led to the imposition of martial law in the Republic of Poland. The author also analyses the legality of such actions by the state and some conclusions that were reached by scientists, investigating the internal dynamics of the conflict and the process of implementation of tasks, that Polish United Workers’ Party (which ruled at that time) tried to solve with martial law and «Solidarity» was used as self-determination in Polish society. Keywords: Martial law, Independent trade union «Solidarity», inter-factory strike committee, social-political conflict, Polish United Workers’ Party, the Warsaw Pact, the Military Council of National Salvation


2017 ◽  
Vol 922 (4) ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
V.L. Kashin ◽  
N.L. Kashina

Biographic information about the veteran of geodetic service of the Soviet Union Tamara Aleksandrovna Prokofieva is provided in this article. On January 1, 2017, she turned 96 years old. T. A. Prokofieva’s biography is in many respects similar to destinies of her age-mates who met the Great Patriotic War on a student’s bench. In 1939 she entered the Moscow Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Photography, and Cartography. Since then all her life was connected with geodesy. In this article we use Tamara Aleksandrovna’s memories of a communal flat of the 1930s, peripetias of military years, of the North Caucasian and Kazakh aero geodetic enterprises where she worked with her husband Leonid Andreevich Kashin who held a number of executive positions in geodetic service of the USSR in the post-war time.


Author(s):  
Ivan V. ZYKIN

During the years of Soviet power, principal changes took place in the country’s wood industry, including in spatial layout development. Having the large-scale crisis in the industry in the late 1980s — 2000s and the positive changes in its functioning in recent years and the development of an industry strategy, it becomes relevant to analyze the experience of planning the spatial layout of the wood industry during the period of Stalin’s modernization, particularly during the first five-year plan. The aim of the article is to analyze the reason behind spatial layout of the Soviet wood industry during the implementation of the first five-year plan. The study is based on the modernization concept. In our research we conducted mapping of the wood industry by region as well as of planned construction of the industry facilities. It was revealed that the discussion and development of an industrialization project by the Soviet Union party-state and planning agencies in the second half of the 1920s led to increased attention to the wood industry. The sector, which enterprises were concentrated mainly in the north-west, west and central regions of the country, was set the task of increasing the volume of harvesting, export of wood and production to meet the domestic needs and the export needs of wood resources and materials. Due to weak level of development of the wood industry, the scale of these tasks required restructuring of the branch, its inclusion to the centralized economic system, the direction of large capital investments to the development of new forest areas and the construction of enterprises. It was concluded that according to the first five-year plan, the priority principles for the spatial development of the wood industry were the approach of production to forests and seaports, intrasectoral and intersectoral combining. The framework of the industry was meant to strengthen and expand by including forests to the economic turnover and building new enterprises in the European North and the Urals, where the main capital investments were sent, as well as in the Vyatka region, Transcaucasia, Siberia and the Far East.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-102
Author(s):  
E.A. CHEGODAEV ◽  

The article is devoted to political repressions among Belarusians of Bashkiria in the 30s of the XX century. To date, this ethnic group remains one of the little-studied peoples of the republic, which was a consequence of the long-term priority in the research of the titular Bashkir ethnic group against the background of the ethnocentrism of the historical science of the country. The number of publications devoted to the Belarusians of Bashkiria continues to remain insignificant until now, and most of them are published in the periodical press, as a rule, they have a journalistic, local history, popular science, reference or review orientation. For the first time, the researcher was faced with the task of identifying the dynamics of repressive measures against the ethnic group of Belarusians who lived compactly in rural areas of the region. The analysis of the data of the "Book of Memory of the Victims of Political Repression of the Republic of Bashkortostan" has established that rural residents from among the Belarusian ethnic group suffered more at the initial stages of mass collectivization. this confirms the prosperity of the settlers acquired during the functioning of the farm system of management, as well as the fact that the repressions against Belarusians did not have an ethnic coloring, like their neighbors in the farm residence of Latvians. As an example, the archival and investigative cases of the FSB in the Republic of Bashkortostan from 1931 are considered. The fate of a late-period migrant who emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1926 from the territory of Western Belarus is considered.


Author(s):  
N.D. Borshchik ◽  

The article deals with the problems of post-war reconstruction of Yalta – one of the most popular resorts of the Soviet Union. During the great Patriotic war, this all-Union health resort was subjected to barbaric destruction and looting. The fascist occupation regime (1941-1944) caused enormous damage to the health resort Fund of Yalta, the city economy and the entire infrastructure of the southern coast of Crimea. The rapid return to the pre-war structure and the commissioning of social facilities has become a priority for the regional authorities and the population. In addition to traditional methods, the Patriotic «Сherkassov» movement, which began in the liberated Stalingrad in 1943 and spread throughout the country, was widely used. A solid Foundation was laid for the interaction of the city administration of Yalta and the local population with the commanders and soldiers of the red Army. Based on the analysis of archival documents of the State archive of the Republic of Crimea, it was possible to trace the course of restoration work in the fi rst months after the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula from fascism. It is established that for the rapid restoration and functioning of the Yalta resorts, public activists launched a socialist competition on «Сherkassov» methods


2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-17
Author(s):  
Fuad Ismayilov

Azerbaijan is a nation with a Turkic population which regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It has an area of approximately 86 000 km2. Georgia and Armenia, the other countries comprising the Transcaucasian region, border Azerbaijan to the north and west, respectively. Russia also borders the north, Iran and Turkey the south, and the Caspian Sea borders the east. The total population is about 8 million. The largest ethnic group is Azeri, comprising 90% of the population; Dagestanis comprise 3.2%, Russians 2.5%, Armenians 2% and others 2.3%.


2019 ◽  
Vol 193 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-557
Author(s):  
Sławomir Wojciechowski

This year, NATO is celebrating its 70th anniversary and the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty. The Alliance was founded in the early days of the Cold War, but found itself in a new geopolitical situation after the col-lapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar world. The organi-zation has been transforming ever since and over time this transfor-mation has included both expansion and adaptation to new circum-stances. With the return of Russian neo-imperial ambitions in the re-cent years, NATO has been given new impetus. Emerging threats and challenges, which are mainly of a military nature, have been addressed by NATO through further recent adaptation processes which were based on the return to the core role of the Alliance, namely collective defense and deterrence. This, in turn, has created a boost of NATO ac-tivity on the ground, which means that improvement with regard to interoperability and integration is now in high demand.


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