Suchergebnisse

This study explores the representation of Novorossiya's space in Pavel Sumarokov's travelogue "Journey Across Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799" within the framework of semiotic-imagological analysis. The research's relevance stems from the growing interest of domestic humanities in Novorossiysk issues, which exhibit certain lacunae. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of spatial imagery elements of Novorossiya, primarily limited to descriptions of the surroundings of Nikolaev, Kherson, and Odessa, areas relatively understudied in literary studies. Loci types are identified based on the opposition of "naturalness — anthropogenicity." The natural space is predominantly portrayed as untamed, dangerous, and inhospitable steppe, contrasted with spatial images of three major Novorossiysk cities mentioned above. Common motifs of sudden (miraculous) appearance, rapid growth, and high degree of orderliness are attributed to the latter. The motif of frontierness is identified as a fundamental element characteristic of the entire Novorossiya space. It is also actualized in the analysis of Sumarokov's representation of Novorossiya's historical space, whose core meaning is formed by plots and personae associated with the era of Catherine II and, specifically, the Russo-Turkish wars.

The article explores the images of the German cities, Lubeck and Hamburg, presented in Nikolay Gretsch's travelogue "The real trip to Germany in 1835". The author determines the link between the images of the two cities and the tradition of describing Germany as an idyllic place. This tradition was widespread in Russian literature at the end of the 18th century — first half of the 19th century. In Gretsch's text, Lubeck and Hamburg are depicted as idyllic but to different degrees. The locus of Lubeck is a homogeneous, patriarchal and achronous idyll, a static space that seems to have frozen in the Middle Ages. In contrast to Lübeck, the city of Hamburg is depicted as a large, contemporary, and dynamic city — in other words, as a modern type of idyll. Moreover, its orderliness goes beyond the idyll and is defined by the rational organisation of space, which is characterised by heterogeneity. Firstly, the idyllic subloci are distinguished, where the key role belongs to the demi-natural images of the garden, the park and the promenade. Secondly, the utilitarian-rational subloci of the stock exchange, quay, and canals are described. Subloci, which are marked by both idyll and rationality, have been identified (e. g. an orphanage, an almshouse). Finally, the third spatial type identified marginal sublocations of seafarers' establishments associated with the motives of disorderli­ness — drunkenness, debauchery, etc.

This article contains the analysis of the results of socioeconomic development of the Republic of Latvia over the five-year period after joining the EU, distinct characteristics of economic policy of its Government during the current world crisis, as well as the evaluation of perspectives of Russian-Latvian interaction.

There are some theoretical grounds to expect that general inflation can have an ambiguous effect on the likelihood of the outbreak of revolutionary actions: while high inflation has a positive effect on revolutionary activity, moderate inflation reduces the likelihood of revolution, whereas negative inflation values again increase revolutionary activity. At the same time, many researchers suggest to treat separately food inflation as a significant predictor of the unfolding of revolutionary processes, because food inflation is a much more sensitive macroeconomic indicator that aggravates many social ills, such as poverty, protest sentiments, frustration, socio-economic shocks, etc. The authors, based on modern political science concepts and quantitative calculations, test the corresponding hypotheses. Using a rare event regression model and a set of control variables (the main factors of revolutions, according to modern political science research — GDP per capita, population, share of youth, urbanization, level of education, level of democracy) to obtain more reliable results, the authors come to the conclusion that the general level of inflation does not have a significant impact on the risks of revolutionary destabilization. On the other hand, food inflation does turn out to be a fairly reliable predictor of the beginning of the unfolding of revolutionary processes. Food inflation has a particularly strong impact on low-income groups, so it is powerful destabilizing factor in the least economically developed countries. Furthermore, regionally, food inflation may have the most powerful destabilizing effect in Africa (especially in African cities).

The article presents a systematic review of the results of testing political factors of revolutionary destabilization in the works that the authors classify as the fifth generation of research on revolutions. The article demonstrates that according to the existing quantitative cross-national studies, the same political factors can have a different effect on the probability of armed uprisings, on the one hand, and unarmed revolutionary actions, on the other hand. The studies reviewed by the authors show that holding elections increases the risks of unarmed revolutionary destabilization. The diffusion effect in the modern world is more typical for unarmed than armed revolutions. Similarly, the long-serving leader acts as a trigger for unarmed rather than armed uprisings. In turn, armed revolutionary clashes occur especially often in countries characterized by ethnic and religious heterogeneity, where a significant part of the population is excluded from politics on ethno-religious grounds. The same applies to the countries that pursue a policy of discrimination directed against minorities. At the same time, there are factors that impact all types of revolutionary destabilization. The likelihood of both armed and unarmed revolutions is highest in countries with a political regime that lies in between full autocracy and full democracy, that is, in partial autocracies and partial democracies. Both armed and unarmed revolutions are more likely to occur if preceded by the similar events in the recent past (armed revolutionary uprisings increase the likelihood of new armed uprisings, while unarmed — new unarmed protests).

Modern requirements for the quality of automotive fuel, particularly in the context of environmental sustainability, emphasize the urgent need to optimize its production processes. One key stage in this area is sulfuric acid alkylation, a process aimed at obtaining a high-quality gasoline component with minimal harmful impurities.The aim of this study is to improve the heat transfer efficiency in the contact reactor of this process to enhance the quality of the resulting alkylate. The article's structure includes an analysis of the significance of isobutane and olefin alkylation in the presence of sulfuric acid, emphasizing its crucial role in obtaining a component with high detonation resistance and minimal harmful elements for automotive fuel. Against this background, the issue of increased temperature in the reaction zone is highlighted, leading to the formation of harmful by-products and deteriorating the quality of the alkylate.The research methodology involves modeling flows in the reaction zone of the contact reactor using the SolidWorks 3D software and the Flow Simulation tool. Analysis of the base reactor model revealed a problematic stagnant zone, negatively impacting heat transfer efficiency and the temperature regime of the process.The article proposes a solution to this issue by modernizing the reactor with the introduction of spiral partitions, promoting improved flow turbulence and increased heat transfer coefficient. Modeling the modernized reactor demonstrates a more uniform flow distribution and temperature reduction, which can lead to improved alkylate quality and reactor productivity.The results of this study provide a basis for optimizing alkylation processes to enhance the efficiency of producing environmentally friendly automotive gasoline.

The article is devoted to the study of political polarization in the United States through the prism of the influence of various groups of American elites on this process. Empirically analyzing the campaign messages of Joseph Biden, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, which were spread by their electoral staff during the 2020 presidential campaign, and using the methods of network and LDA analysis, the authors attempt to determine to what extent the Democratic and Republican leaders tend to use tools that polarize society and whether the nature of the influence of these parties on the American society differs. Having documented the presence of all types of political polarization in the United States, the authors show that both Republicans and Democrats significantly add to polarization because, on the one hand, they fuel emotional tension in the society, and on the other hand, they deny legitimacy to the principles of their opponents. The analysis carried out in the article clearly demonstrates that all groups of the American political elites, regardless of party affiliation, are nearly equally susceptible to affective and positional polarization, including those whose political activity is usually assessed as depolarizing. All this refutes the widespread notion that the Republican Party, which exploits the Us vs. Them dichotomy for narrow political purposes, is primarily responsible for the polarization in the country, indicating that something bigger, rather than the rise of right-wing populism or the increased popularity of nativist movements, explains the crisis processes that have been unfolding in the recent years in the United States, as well as in other old democracies.

This article analyzes the hierarchy of factors in the development of crisis trends in a consolidated democracy using the example of the United States of America. The authors assess the surge of political instability in the United States, which led to the deconsolidation of the liberal democracy regime, through the prism of centrifugal processes within the American elite and the erosion of democratic institutions over the past 30 years. The main problem of the study is the contradiction between the crisis of democratic regimes in the countries of the Euro-Atlantic region and the high indicators of the factors of the consolidation of democracy, according to classical political science theories. The authors use the path analysis method to determine the main path and hierarchy of factors of erosion of the liberal democracy regime in the United States, which is an example of the "old" democracy and, according to traditional political science, is the most protected from destructive processes. Consideration of the case of deconsolidation of the liberal democracy regime in the United States, thus, sheds light on the possible ways of democracy reversion and risk factors for stability of democratic political systems.