Challenging Issues of the Earth’s History and the Central Asian and Circum-Pacific Tectonics, Geodynamics, and Metallogeny (on the 85th Birthday of Academician Nikolai L. Dobretsov)

Abstract—This Special Issue celebrates the 85th birthday of Nikolai Leontievich Dobretsov, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The opening paper presents a brief outline of the contributions related to the scientific interests of the hero, which, however, far transcend this limited scope. Hardly there is a field in geosciences where Nikolai Dobretsov would not leave a significant footprint. All over the course of his scientific carrier, he has been prolific in generating new ideas, which he shared generously with the colleagues and numerous disciples. Their papers published in this volume concern key issues of the deep structure and general evolution theory of the planet Earth, including various historic aspects of the geomagnetic field, its relation with the gravity field and with the periodicity of geologic processes, as well as global plate tectonics and plume activity through the Earth’s history. The problems of deep structure are discussed for the cases of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and the magmatic system feeding the Kamchatka volcanoes. The volume is completed with several papers on metallogeny of the Central Asian orogen and the Russian Far East, especially gold mineralization, which was among principal subjects investigated by N. Dobretsov.

The Knight of Contemporary Russian Kantiana. On the 85th Birthday of Leonard Kalinnikov

This is a review of the main research achievements of Professor L. A. Kalinnikov presented in his articles and monographs. The theoretical issues of Kantianism considered in Kalinnikov’s works include the problem of cognisability of “the thing in itself” and noumenal affection, the character of systematicity in Kant’s philosophy and the methodology of its interpretation. Cycles of articles are devoted to the reception of Kant’s ideas in the philosophical and poetic work of V. S. Solovyov, Kant’s impact on A. S. Pushkin, A. A. Fet, and E. T. A. Hoffmann. These topics are elaborated in the monographs Immanuel Kant in Russian Poetry (2008), E. T. A. Hoffmann and I. Kant (2012), The Philosophical and Poetic Worldview of A. A. Fet: the Impact of I. Kant and A. Schopenhauer (2016), Pushkin and Kant. The Poet and Philosophy (2018), The Philosophical System of Kant. Conception and Outcomes (2021). L. A. Kalinnikov’s works form an impressive and original part of contemporary Russian Kantiana.