Operational Structure of the Hungarian Royal Agricultural Schools - the Example of Somogyszentimre

The purpose of the study. Exploration of a major milestone in the development of small towns. Presenting the role of education through the example of the agricultural vocational school in Somogyszentimre, a settlement attached to Kadarkút. Applied methods. The analysis of literature ranges from a review of education policy to factors driving the development of small towns. The study heavily relies on archival research instrumental in shedding light on the everyday life of the educational institution, and the identification of factors demonstrating a unique and innovative approach. The biographies of individuals affiliated to the institution have provided an equally valuable contribution. Outcomes. The dominance of agriculture has permeated the socio-economic history of small towns in Somogy county in all spheres of existence. Small town economies and societies were greatly enriched by their commercial and industrial functions (industrial plants), the right to hold fairs, and educational institutions connected to agriculture. The educational institution by virtue of its students, teaching staff, owners and patrons was a major trigger of development in small towns. Agricultural vocational schools besides providing theoretical training also familiarised students with novel and innovative practical approaches. This type of approach was embraced by small town farmers, generating an innovative, development-oriented vision that still characterises the majority of small towns in Somogy county today.

The Impact of a Lack of Government Strategies for Sustainable Water Management and Land Use Planning on the Hydrology of Water Bodies: Lessons Learned from the Disappearance of the Aculeo Lagoon in Central Chile

Several studies have focused on why the Aculeo Lagoon in central Chile disappeared, with a recent one concluding that a lack of precipitation was the main cause, bringing tremendous political consequences as it supported the argument that the government is not responsible for this environmental, economic, and social disaster. In this study, we evaluated in detail the socio-economic history of the watershed, the past climate and its effects on the lagoon’s water levels (including precipitation recycling effects), anthropogenic modifications to the lagoon’s water balance, the evolution of water rights and demands, and inaccurate estimates of sustainable groundwater extraction volumes from regional aquifers. This analysis has revealed novel and undisputable evidence that this natural body of water disappeared primarily because of anthropogenic factors (mostly river deviations and aquifer pumping) that, combined with the effects of less than a decade with below-normal precipitation, had a severe impact on this natural lagoon–aquifer system.

Гуманитарные научные исследования в Бурятии в 1930–1940-е гг.: достижения и проблемы (на материалах Государственного института культуры / Государственного института языка, литературы и истории)

The article aims to analyze the principal directions in the activities of Buryat-Mongolian State Institute of Culture (1929–1936) / Buryat-Mongolian State Institute of Language, Literature and History (1936–1944), the successor of the first scientific organization in Burya­tia — the Buryat-Mongolian Scientific Committee (1922–1929). It focuses on the achievements and problems in the organization and implementation of scientific research in the humanities in the 1930s. Materials. The sources used are unpublished documents of the Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the IMBT SB RAS, such as annual plans and reports on research work, minutes of meetings of the Directorate, expedition reports, presentations, abstracts and minutes of conferences, correspondence with various organizations and offices, and other materials that were instrumental in reconstructing the history of reorganizations of the scientific institute under study, in following the changes in its scientific program, and in showing its effectiveness and efficiency. Results. In the 1930–1940s, the studies in the field of history, language, literature, and arts of the Buryat-Mongolian people were the principal directions of research in the Institute. Archaeological expeditions were useful in drawing a general picture of the ancient history of Buryatia and the first cultural-historical schemes. Historians’ work resulted in publishing a significant number of documents devoted to the history of the Buryat-Mongolian people, the publications included materials on issues of the pre-revolutionary Buryat-Mongolia, the revolutionary movement and the Civil war period, culture, and education, including monographs on the history of Buryatia recognized today as classical scientific works. Within the framework of the established ideological attitudes, there was a discussion on controversial issues of the history of Buryat-Mongolia, which accepted the one-line nature of the historical process in Buryat studies. Thanks to the successes of Buryat linguistics, a reform of the Buryat-Mongolian writing was carried out, first based on the Latin, and then on the Cyrillic alphabet. The linguists of the Institute made a decisive contribution to the elaboration of the literary Buryat language, enriching its lexical resources and standardizing spelling and grammar. Collection, systematization and study of oral folk art and musical folklore, adding to the Manuscript Department of the Institute manuscripts and woodcuts in Tibetan, Mongolian, Buryat-Mongolian languages, as well as uligers, chronicles, and other historical and literary monuments, and translation work — these and other areas of scientific research shaped the development of the humanities in Buryatia in the 1930–1940s. Throughout the period of persecutions and repressions, despite personnel shortage and everyday hardships, the Institute’s team continued their work, conducting large-scale studies of the socio-political and economic history, the culture and art of Buryat-Mongolia.

“Public catering in service to the industrial financial plan of the “Apatit” trust”: from the history of the establishment and development of a new branch of the socialist economy in 1930–1935

The article retrospectively highlights the main stages of the establishment and development of public catering as a subsystem of food distribution in the area of apatite mining of the Apatit trust in 1930–1935 in the context of the socio-economic modernization processes of the first five-year plans, which led to the rapid urbanization of the population in the new industrial regions of the USSR. Despite the presence of a wide range of foreign and domestic studies of the history of Russian society during the period of its transition from the traditional agrarian to the industrial type of development, including everyday life and the organization of supply of the urban population, which are based on the methodology of social and economic history, anthropology, the scientific literature lacks information on the history of providing food on the regional level to the urbanized population of the new industrial centers of the USSR, in particular through public catering enterprises. This indicates the relevance of studying the history of the formation of a new branch of the Soviet economy in the Khibiny. Within the framework of the humanitarian and systemic approaches, the methodology of the case study is based on general scientific methods of scientific cognition, archival, source study, problem-chronological, comparative, historical-genetic (retrospective) methods. The empirical material for the study was archival documents from the end of 1929–1935 deposited in the collections of the Kirovsk branch of the State Archive of the Murmansk Region and in the Main Collection of the Museum-Archive of the History of Study and Development of the European North of the BCH of the KSC of the RAS, including published prescriptive documents of state power and political administrating authorities in the USSR in 1930–1935, materials of the periodical press of Khibinogorsk (since December 1934 — Kirovsk) in 1930–1935.

A Forgotten Page of the University Science History. Historical-Economic Studies at IFTI - INEI in the 1950s-1960s: Israel D. Brin

The article, which was written within a project of studying the history of creation and existence of the “invisible college” of historical and economic studies at IFEI — INEI in the 1950s–1960s, reconstructs the intellectual biography of one of its participants — Israel D. Brin. The Irkutsk period of the scientist's work is characterized by his referring to historical-economic analysis: establishing a link between the problems of state capitalism and the problems of the NEP and considering the specific institutional forms that state capitalism took during the period of the NEP in the USSR in the 1920s. The works of the political economist reflected the transformation of the economic history of the NEP into a holistic and complex scientific issue. In addition to historians, political economists got involved in the solution of this problem. Their referring to the past was caused not only by historical interest, but also by urgent problems of the present. The New Economic Policy was interesting from the point of view of the implementation of its principles as well as the use of the institutional forms of state capitalism, tested during the implementation of this policy, in the practice of the people's democracies of Europe and Asia, which were in the process of transition from capitalism to socialism after the Second World War.

Public finance during the reign of Catherine the Great

Subject. We study the main directions and special aspects of the monetary system development during the reign of Catherine II. We discuss the monetary reform associated with the introduction of bank notes and the emergence of the banking system, as well as the creation of new financial systems. Objectives. We focus on identifying the economic reasons that propelled Catherine the Great to use a new instrument of State regulation of the financial system, on showing how the creation of the banking system, still within the conditions of serfdom, acquired its own specifics. Methods. We apply the logical, historical and diachronous approaches, economic research methods. We also use the principles of historical method, dialectics, the method of scientific abstraction and analysis, which determine the foundations of the financial reforms of Catherine the Great. Results. We revealed the role of creating the banking system and non-banking institutions during the second half of the eighteenth century, classified their types and goals, determined the main characteristics of paper money. The monetary reform of Catherine the Great, which created favorable conditions for external borrowings, ensured the recovery of public finance in general. Conclusions. The study concludes on important role of State regulation in the development of financial infrastructure, on the need to use the experience in the modern practice of private enterprise development and capital accumulation. The findings can be used in lectures and seminars for basic courses, like History of Finance and Economic History.

Theory Without Measurement or Some Finishing Touches on The Creative Portrait of Douglass North

The article examines some of the key features of the scientific work of Douglass North. It is argued that the popular image of North as an adherent of this or that school of economic thought is not highly relevant. The authors believe that one of the key features of North's research style is his "theory-centricity". The article demonstrates that the most important milestones in North's career (fling with Marxism in his youth, participation in the Сliometrics revolution, the transition from neoclassical economist to one of the founders of neo-institutionalism, a turn towards cognitive science), despite the seeming lack of continuity served as kind of steps of the ladder along which North went to the creation of a comprehensive theory of social development. Based on the results of qualitative content analysis of North's works of the 1950s and 60s, the authors show that even in the years of his affinity for quantitative economic history, the economist always put the ability to theorize above the skills of quantitative analysis. This feature, combined with the recent empirical turn in economics, which raised the prestige of empirical work to unprecedented heights, made it difficult for modern mainstream economists to perceive the ideas of the "late" North. The authors' analysis of the citation structure of North's last major book, "Violence and Social Orders. Conceptual framework for the interpretation of the written history of mankind" confirms this trend. This book generates greater interest among heterodox economists, historians, and political scientists than among representatives of mainstream economics. In the article's conclusion, the authors speculate about the prospects of the Northian theory-driven style of doing economic research in the face of the progressive "empirization" of modern economics.