scholarly journals Sverdlovsk Oblast in the diplomatic history of the USSR: visits of top officials of foreign countries to the region (1955–1965)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 529-570
Author(s):  
Mariia V. Beklenishcheva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Average Length ◽  
Middle Urals ◽  
Sverdlovsk Oblast ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Average Length Of Stay ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Geological Museum ◽  
Almost All

The article deals with the problem of increasing the regions’ role in international and foreign economic cooperation of the Soviet Union in 1955–65. The aim of the research is to study the dynamics of the visits of foreign countries’ leaders to Sverdlovsk Oblast, which was traditionally considered as “closed.” Based on the results of the study, the stages of diplomatic activity in the region are identified. It was found that 1955–59 and 1963–65, when 18 visits of leaders of capitalist, socialist and developing countries to Sverdlovsk Oblast were organized and held, were the most eventful periods in this regard. The programs of the visits to the territory of the oblast were analyzed. Based on the results of the analysis, the average length of stay in Sverdlovsk Oblast, the preferred period for a trip to the Middle Urals, and general principles and features of organizing the reception of eminent guests in Sverdlovsk Oblast were determined. It was revealed that the Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee of the CPSU approved a list of 64 institutions which were recommended for foreign delegations to visit. The article highlights the key objects and facilities that were shown to foreign guests. It was found that the main point of the program of almost all delegations was a visit to Uralmash. Foreign guests also visited other industrial enterprises, including those which were located within the 40–50 km radius of the administrative center of the region, the city of Sverdlovsk. The article reveals the importance of the role assigned to the cultural program (visiting the Geological Museum and theaters). Sojourn in Sverdlovsk Oblast allowed eminent guests to see the potential of one of the country’s industrial centers in person and facilitated placing orders in the oblast for the needs of the economy of foreign countries. In addition, an ideological task was solved: the peaceful stance of the Soviet Union which possessed powerful defense potential was demonstrated to the guests. The author concludes that the involvement of the USSR’s regions in the processes of international cooperation was effective. At the same time, the adjustment of the country’s foreign policy in the mid-1960s was marked by a trend towards a decrease in the number of trips of foreign countries’ top officials to the regions of the USSR, including Sverdlovsk Oblast, within the framework of official and working visits.

INDIA’S ROLE IN KAZAKHSTAN’S MULTI-VECTOR FOREIGN POLICY

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 043-049
Author(s):  
Punit GAUR ◽  
Anurag TRIPATHI ◽  
Shovan Sinha RAY
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Complex Interdependence ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Economy ◽  
Near Future

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan’s economy was weak since most of the industrial enterprises were located in Russia. To attain economic growth, Kazakhstan crafted a unique foreign policy known as the multi-vector foreign policy, which facilitated an easy inflow of direct foreign investments into the state economy. After economic liberalization in 1991, India took a serious interest in Central Asia, and since then the two nations have come a long way marked by complex interdependence in the international arena. They have demonstrated a successful and sustained upward trend in their bilateral relationship through soft power, trade and long-standing historical connections. Thus, the prospects of mutual cooperation between Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan, and India are quite promising in the near future.

The Human Rights of Foreign Labor

Worldview ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Steven Charnovitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Labor ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The Press ◽  
Developed World ◽  
New Criteria

Little noticed by the press. United States trade policy is undergoing significant changes aimed at promoting the rights of workers in foreign countries—changes achieved through the use of both a carrot and a stick. The carrot, now being offered to the less-developed world, is dutyfree access to the U.S. market for qualifying products exported by countries that meet certain new criteria on bbor. The stick is a ban on imports made by forced labor— something the Reagan administration is under increasing pressure to invoke against the Soviet Union. While it is too early to gauge the success of such attempts at exercising economic leverage, they may yet become a milestone in the march of human rights.

scholarly journals Dog ownership, dog behaviour and transmission of Echinococcus spp. in the Alay Valley, southern Kyrgyzstan

Parasitology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 140 (13) ◽  
pp. 1674-1684 ◽  
Author(s):  
FREYA VAN KESTEREN ◽  
ALEXANDER MASTIN ◽  
BERMET MYTYNOVA ◽  
ISKENDER ZIADINOV ◽  
BELGEES BOUFANA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Environmental Contamination ◽  
Human Infection ◽  
Domestic Dogs ◽  
Dog Ownership ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Almost All ◽  
First Time ◽  
Echinococcus Spp

SUMMARYEchinococcosis is a re-emerging zoonotic disease in Kyrgyzstan, and the incidence of human infection has increased substantially since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Domestic dogs are hosts of Echinococcus spp. and play an important role in the transmission of these parasites. The demography, ecology and behaviour of dogs are therefore relevant in studying Echinococcus spp. transmission. Dog demographics, roles of dogs, dog movements and faecal environmental contamination were assessed in four rural communities in the Alay Valley, southern Kyrgyzstan. Arecoline purge data revealed for the first time that E. granulosus, E. canadensis and E. multilocularis were present in domestic dogs in the Alay Valley. Surveys revealed that many households had dogs and that dogs played various roles in the communities, as pets, guard dogs or sheep dogs. Almost all dogs were free to roam, and GPS data revealed that many moved outside their communities, thus being able to scavenge offal and consume rodents. Faecal environmental contamination was high, presenting a significant infection risk to the local communities.

VOKS, Cultural Diplomacy and the Shadow of the Lubianka: Olavi Paavolainen’s 1939 Visit to the Soviet Union

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1022-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ville Laamanen
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Vice Chairman ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Network Building ◽  
Foreign Countries

Existing scholarship suggests that Stalin’s Great Terror of 1936–8 seriously undermined Soviet cultural diplomacy and forced its main promoter, the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS), to succumb to the strict control of the party and secret police. By contrast, this article argues that by the spring and summer of 1939 VOKS was recovering from stagnation and reintroducing customs from before the Great Terror. Through a micro-historical analysis of Finnish writer Olavi Paavolainen’s exceptionally long visit to the Soviet Union between May and August 1939, the article demonstrates how case studies of select VOKS operations can explain many of the dilemmas and peculiarities of Soviet cultural diplomacy during the thus far scantily researched 1939–41 period. By focusing on the interactions between Paavolainen, the VOKS vice-chairman Grigori Kheifets and Soviet writers, the article illustrates that after the purges, VOKS continued its efforts to disseminate a positive and controlled image of Soviet life by complex means that linked propaganda with network-building. Finally, the article highlights the role of individuals in cultural diplomacy and explores how an outsider perceived the Great Terror’s effects on Soviet cultural intelligentsia.

Neutrality or Involvement? World War II and Evolution of Foreign Policy Concepts of the Nordic Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-256
Author(s):  
E. V. Korunova
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Fundamental Reason ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Cold War

In the middle of the 20th century a unique subsystem of international relations emerged in the Northern Europe, which has turned it into one of the stablest and most peaceful regions during the Cold War period. Nowadays, rising international tensions bring new relevance to the history lessons of World War II, its origins and aftermaths. The paper examines the evolution of the Nordic countries’ views on the issue of neutrality from mid-1930s to the end of 1940s. The first section considers the approaches of the Scandinavian countries to the establishment of a collective security system in the region in the interwar period. In that regard, the paper focuses on the Swedish project of the Northern defense alliance, which was aimed at deepening military cooperation between the states of the region and strengthening their ability to jointly deter any aggression as the best way to guarantee their neutrality. However, this project had not been implemented, because it faced both cool reactions from the leaders of Norway and Denmark and suspicion from the leading powers. According to the author, the fundamental reason for the failure of that project was that Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland sought support and protection from different, opposing great powers. The latter circumstance had also to a large extent predetermined the fate of the Scandinavian countries during the war years, when almost all of them were in one form or another involved in the conflict. The victory of the anti-Hitler coalition both opened new opportunities and posed new challenges for the states of the region: in the emerging bipolar world they rapidly turned into the subject matter of dispute of the superpowers. In these conditions, Sweden once again put forward the idea that in order to preserve peace in the region, the Nordic countries should be able to defend their neutrality and proposed the establishment of a Scandinavian Defense Union. In the final section, the paper examines the reaction to this project of the Scandinavian countries, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain. The author shows that although this reaction was more than restrained, and the project was not implemented, Sweden’s initiatives contributed to the creation of a unique security architecture in Northern Europe, where each state of the region had its own role with the neutral Sweden serving as a balancing force.

Religion under Communism

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Communist Countries

Lenin began and Stalin completed the organizational structures and the repertoire of strategies and tactics that would be used as a model by almost all subsequent communist movements for suppressing religion. This model was primarily constructed to overcome the challenges posed to the revolution by a powerful Russian Orthodox Church. As such it did not fit the religious circumstances of other communist countries. It was poorly adapted to the decentralized patterns of religious practice in Asia, and it was unable to eliminate resistance from the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe, especially when that church was connected with nationalism. Even though the Stalinist model initially seemed successful in eliminating political opposition from religion in the Soviet Union, it was in the long run a failure on its own terms.

Peace Probes and the Bombing Pause: Hungarian and Polish Diplomacy During the Vietnam War, December 1965–January 1966

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Hershberg
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
East European ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Almost All ◽  
North Vietnam ◽  
European Diplomacy

Archival materials from Budapest and Warsaw have shed valuable light on the role that Hungary and Poland played as intermediaries between Washington and Hanoi during the 37-day pause in the U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam in December 1965–January 1966. It is now possible to trace contacts between the East European countries and Hanoi and to see how the Hungarian and Polish governments coordinated their diplomatic activities with the Soviet Union. Although the new evidence does not reveal any “missed opportunities” in early 1966 for the opening of direct peace negotiations between Washington and Hanoi, it does cast doubt on the way that former U.S. officials and most historians have interpreted these events. Up to now, almost all accounts have dismissed Hungary's and Poland's efforts as insincere and deceptive, and some observers have even questioned whether the two countries were genuinely in contact with North Vietnamese leaders. The documentary evidence leaves many questions unanswered, but it permits a far more nuanced assessment of East European diplomacy during the bombing pause.

The Afghanistan war and the breakdown of the Soviet Union

1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAFAEL REUVENY ◽  
ASEEM PRAKASH
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The Press ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Systemic Factors ◽  
Perceptions Of Leaders ◽  
The Military

The breakdown of the Soviet Union surprised most scholars of international relations, comparative politics, and Soviet politics. Existing explanations attribute the breakdown of the Soviet Union to the reformist leadership of Gorbachev, and/or to systemic factors. These explanations do not focus on the key contribution of the war in Afghanistan. This is surprising since many scholars view wars as key causal factors in empire breakdown and regime change. We argue that the war in Afghanistan was a key factor, though not the only cause, in the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The war impacted Soviet politics in four reinforcing ways: (1) Perception effects: it changed the perceptions of leaders about the efficacy of using the military to hold the empire together and to intervene in foreign countries; (2) Military effects: it discredited the Red Army, created cleavage between the party and the military, and demonstrated that the Red Army was not invincible, which emboldened the non Russian republics to push for independence; (3) Legitimacy effects: it provided non-Russians with a common cause to demand independence since they viewed this war as a Russian war fought by non Russians against Afghans; and (4) Participation effects: it created new forms of political participation, started to transform the press/media before glasnost, initiated the first shots of glasnost, and created a significant mass of war veterans (Afghansti) who formed new civil organizations weakening the political hegemony of the communist party.

scholarly journals The nature and peculiarities of the use of archival documents in studying the history of Soviet industrial enterprises (on the example of Sevastopol plant of shipboard lightning engineering “Mayak”)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Anna Vasil'evna Kuz'mina ◽  
Vadim Sergeevich Komogaev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Large City ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Traditional Industry

This article is dedicated to the peculiarities of the use of archival documents in studying the history of Soviet industrial enterprises based on the large, city-planning enterprise of the local traditional industry – Sevastopol plant of shipboard lighting engineering “Mayak”. The authors meticulously examine different types of archival documents and their informational potential for studying operation of the enterprise. The focus of attention is the acts of acceptance and transfer report, annual reports on the workforce, salaries and regulation, as well as the materials of the trade union, and other documents. The article is based on previously unpublished archival documents on the history of Sevastopol industry that have not been previously introduced into the scientific discourse. The author explore separate episodes of the history of the plant, its establishment, evolution, and key results. The main conclusions lies in determination of the types of archival documents, which were most informative in studying the history of the enterprise. The authors indicate that archival funds, and annual reports in particular, are well preserved and contribute to examination of operation of the enterprise. It is underlined that Sevastopol plant of shipboard lighting engineering “Mayak”, which virtually ceased to operate after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, was one of the most significant and dynamically developing industrial enterprises of the city in the 1960s – 1970s. It is worth noting that currently there are projects aimed at the revival of industrial potential of Sevastopol, one of which is the technology part on the territory of the former plant “Mayak”.

scholarly journals The Phenomenon of Company Towns: Specific Features of Their Genesis and Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
Maxim A. Ulyanychev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Company Towns ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Single Industry ◽  
The Russian Federation

The article analyzes the social phenomenon of single-industry towns (company towns), their role in the modern market economy, their genesis in Russia and other countries. The author observes historical stages of development of single-industry towns in Russia, as well as the features of their occurrence in the Soviet Union in connection with city-forming enterprises, which in addition to economic activities performed social functions. The characteristics of the development of single-industry towns in Europe, North America and are being compared. Distinctive features of the industrial enterprises of the cities formed in the Soviet Union are allocated. The article analyzes the problems of functioning and development of single-industry towns, examines foreign and domestic strategies for the rehabilitation of single-industry municipalities, including current measures to support such towns in the Russian Federation.

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