Suchergebnisse

The paper studies seven Old Russian graffiti inscriptions made in the altar of the St. George's Chapel of the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral (No 126, 127, 851, 854, 904, 927 and 1076a). They contain a call «to give my goat» or they report about a «goat». For graffiti № 927 a new version of the reading is given, аccording to which the inscription says about the matchmaking of a goat and a ram with the participation of a demon. For this entire series of graffiti, a comparison with the existing folklore and epigraphic material is presented. A conclusion is drawn about its marital and erotic semantics. A detailed extra-stratigraphic analysis of the inscriptions is presented, the result of which is the conclusion that it is necessary to date the entire graffiti complex by the sum of its features to the end of the 13th – beginning of the 14th centuries.

The paper studies seven Old Russian graffiti inscriptions made in the altar of the St. George's Chapel of the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral (No 126, 127, 851, 854, 904, 927 and 1076a). They contain a call «to give my goat» or they report about a «goat». For graffiti № 927 a new version of the reading is given, аccording to which the inscription says about the matchmaking of a goat and a ram with the participation of a demon. For this entire series of graffiti, a comparison with the existing folklore and epigraphic material is presented. A conclusion is drawn about its marital and erotic semantics. A detailed extra-stratigraphic analysis of the inscriptions is presented, the result of which is the conclusion that it is necessary to date the entire graffiti complex by the sum of its features to the end of the 13th – beginning of the 14th centuries.

The paper deals with the problem of investigating strategies and experience of the European Union which it employs to strengthen its political influence in the Eastern Partnership countries by means of working with business sector. The author analyses statistical data, official EU position and programme documents, funding data. Institutional and constructivist approaches are employed to study the processes and results of EU policies. The study covers the period between 2009 and 2020, and investigates aims, instruments, funding, KPI of the EU in dealing with business communities of Eastern Partnership countries. The author gives an overview of a range of opinions in expert discussions concerning the humanitarian influence of the EU. The conclusion is drawn that the scale and forms of EU interventions and funding for particular country are conditioned by the level of political relationship with its government. The bulk of funding (more than 60%) is directed not to loans or subsidies to SMEs, but to humanitarian (i.e. "soft power") projects focusing of particular groups – entrepreneurs, active youth, regions, officials, etc. EU humanitarian penetration into focus countries of EP creates an infrastructure, social organizations and groups, which could be utilized to political ends.

Written on the basis of archival sources drawn for the first time, the article is devoted to the problem of changing the sanitary and ecological conditions of the theatre of military operations at the Russian front during the First World War. The aim of the article is to analyze the sanitary and hygienic state of the theatre of military operations on the western outskirts of Russia during the First World War and the factors of its deterioration; to evaluate the effectiveness of combating the negative aspects of the sanitary state of the front-line territory; to identify the actual environmental practices of the front-line territory and their interrelation with the social aspects of the struggle for the improvement of the territory in conditions of total war. The focus is on the pre-war sanitary situation in the western region of Russia, reflecting its cultural and socio-political peculiarities, its exacerbation during the war and mobilization, as well as sanitary and hygienic measures taken both in eliminating epidemics of contagious diseases and in "sanitating" the front-line territory. The issue is considered in the light of total war, which formed a unified, front and rear, landscape of sanitary hazards. Attention is paid to the activities of society, bureaucracy and military commanders, who generally succeeded in transforming the belligerent landscape and localizing the spread of disease. The technical activities of the engineering and sanitary services of the front and rear are described in detail. The author concludes that the Great War was an important impulse and frontier in solving the problem of improving the ecological condition of Russia's western outskirts. During the war, the belligerent landscape was transformed into an anthropogenic landscape, becoming the basis for the area's future infrastructure in terms of sanitation and hygiene

The author discusses a Jewish inscription published by Adam Olearius (1599–1671), a German traveler, orientalist and a member of the Holstein embassy sent in 1635–39 to Muscovy and Safavid Iran. In December 1635 Olearius had copied this inscription from the wall of a caravanserai located at the foot of the Besh Barmag Mountain (today's territory of the Siazan' district of the Republic of Azerbaijan). Later he published it in the first [Schleßwig, 1647] and subsequent lifetime editions of his account on Persian and Muscovite journeys. The author proposes his reconstruction and translation of the text of the above mentioned inscription. He argues that this inscription was a fragment of a text mentioning a certain Faraj, son of Yitzhak. The inscription dates back to 1537 according to the Seleucid era or the years 1224/5 AD. The author considers this inscription to be an epigraphic confirmation of the testimony of another Western European traveler – William (or Guillaume) Rubruck who had visited the Jewish communities of Transcaucasia in 1254. The stone block with a fragment of the text of the inscription was used in the construction of the caravanserai when Jewish communities seen by Rubruck had left this region or disappeared.