Suchergebnisse

The article examines the personality of "Chairman Mao's good soldier" Lei Feng — a soldier of the People's Liberation Army of China, who died tragically in 1962. On March 5, 1963, on the initiative of Mao Zedong, a political and ideological campaign was announced in China under the slogan "Learn from Lei Feng". In order to consolidate the positive image of Lei Feng in the mass consciousness of the people of the PRC, the possibilities of culture and art were widely used. The largest-scale political and ideological campaign under the slogan "Learn from Comrade Lei Feng!" acquired in the first years after the death of Lei Feng and during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976). In 1977 Lei Feng's study campaign unfolded with renewed vigor. In the 1980s, the mass movement gradually began to fade. The CPC leadership made significant efforts to preserve it in 1980-1981, to revive it in 1987 and after the tragic events in Tiananmen Square (1989). Since 2012, there has been an increase in this campaign. Currently, Lei Feng is the personification of altruism, volunteering and helping others, carried out on a selfless basis. In this capacity, the image of Lei Feng is used in the public discourse of modern China. The Chinese media constantly refer to stories, the heroes of which are ordinary Chinese — "modern Lei Feng'". The cult of Lei Feng, persistently promoted by the CCP for decades, confronts the recently widespread facts of corruption in various (including the highest) echelons of political power.

When establishing human rights violations committed by the state, should it be violation of internationally protected rights or constitutional rights, the violator is obliged to compensate for the harm caused. In the meantime, neither international sources, nor national legal acts and case law answer the question whether the obligation to compensate is exhausted by the compensation awarded in accordance with a decision of an international judicial body or such a payment has punitive nature, and the state keeps the obligation to compensate the damage within the frameworks of national proceedings. Following the first part of opening remarks the second part of the article studies universal international law approach towards the state obligation to compensate for human rights violations, it reviews positions of the International Court of Justice, the model established in international customary law of international responsibility. The third part discusses the compensation mechanism of the European Court of Human Rights and a number of cases where the Russian Federation was the respondent state. The forth part considers national regulation of the Council of Europe states and case law thereof. The author argues that the established international case law in respect of awarding compensations for human rights violations is too restrictive – it does not take into account a complex nature of this phenomenon which includes both correction of the individual applicant situation (restitution of the pre-existed situation) and prevention of similar situations in the future. It is concluded that awarding the compensation by an international body primarily constitutes a measure of international responsibility whereas consideration by a national court is a more effective means of restitution of the applicants rights and that the national court shall not deny consideration of applicants claims due to the fact that they have already been awarded compensation by the international judicial body including the European Court of Human Rights.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the socio-political transformation of the Arab world in the 2010s. The author analyses its changes through the concept of neo-modernity, which was already developed in a number of his earlier publications. The key thesis is the idea of a new turn of society to metanarratives, or "big stories" after postmodern relativism led to attempts to abandon them. In the first part of the article, the problem of metanarratives is considered at the theoretical level. The author proposes a methodology for studying socio-political processes and determines the influence of the condition of neo-modernity on political reality. The second part of the article highlights the main modern (liberal, left, nationalist, conservative) and premodern (tribal, Islamist) "big stories". These "stories" determine the content and nature of public and political life in the Arab world in the 2010s and problematize new aspects of social relations. It shows how the actualization of metanarratives affected the course of the political process in Arab countries, as well as the organization of political systems, building new relations between societies and states. The third part of the article is devoted to the analysis of international political processes in the region. The influence of "big stories" on the configuration of the regional subsystem, armed conflicts, the composition of key actors, the specifics of their strategies, their identity and the identity of the region as a whole is revealed. In conclusion, the author shows a possibility of gradual harmonization of the system of regional relations in the case of the formation of hypertext, which makes it possible for the coexistence of actors guided by different narrative strategies.

The article is prepared for the 65th anniversary of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Russian and World History, Archaeology of Volgograd State University Sergey G. Sidorov. The article traces the biography of S.G. Sidorov, his pedagogical, scientific, and administrative activities. It is shown that fundamental foundations of the future pedagogical and scientific work of S.G. Sidorov were laid at the Faculty of History of Saratov State University named after N.G. Chernyshevsky, from which he graduated in 1981. Most of Sergey Grigoryevichs life is connected with Volgograd State University, where he has been working since 1986. He combined teaching historical disciplines with the administrative work. S.G. Sidorov was Vice-rector for Academic Affairs for 25 years. Being in this position he has done a lot to make Volgograd State University a leader in the region in training highly qualified specialists. S.G. Sidorov is one of the leading experts on the history of the Great Patriotic War. He is the author of the first fundamental comprehensive study of using labor of prisoners of war of the Second World War in the national economy of the USSR in 1939–1956. With his active participation, six volumes of Documents and Materials "Prisoners of War in the USSR. 1939–1956" were published. Since 2009, S.G. Sidorov has been the Head of the Dissertation Council on Historical Sciences at Volgograd State University. From 2014 to 2020, largely due to the efforts of S.G. Sidorov, Volgograd State University held five International Thematic Scientific Conferences "Military History of Russia: Problems, Searches, Solutions".

Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC), which includes more than thirty countries, is traditionally characterized by a complex combination of elements of homogeneity and heterogeneity. The latter, stemming from traditional economic social and political differentiation and ideological polarization, in the modern context strengthens regional contradictions and creates new division lines. At the same time, the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries was marked by a growing integration of the region into the global market and globalization processes in general. In order to provide an outlook on the possible future developments in LAC, the author examines how the key trends of the current world politics permeate the region. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on the methodology proposed by the Russian researcher M.M. Lebedeva who outlines three basic megatrends — globalization, integration, and democratization and their counter-trends — deglobalization, disintegration, and dedemocratization, accordingly. It is within this broader context of a complex interplay of these trends and counter-trends, that the dynamics of regional processes in LAC is conceived. On this basis, the author identifies three possible regional development scenarios. The first one presupposes strengthening of institutional linkages between North, Central, and South America on the basis of Pan-American ideas. The second implies civilizational 'isolation' of LAC within large but still only regional integration projects. Finally, the third scenario proceeds from the linear development of the current regional trends. It implies further fragmentation of LAC within subregional organizations and chaotization of regional international relations. The author concludes that currently the regional development is affected predominantly by counter-trends, which are evidenced by increasing isolationism, an impasse facing major integration projects and democratic institutions, and the growth of populist movements. At the same time, all this shows that Latin America is fully integrated in global economic and political processes since these counter-trends characterize the development of a contemporary system of international relations in general.

Lack of transparency predetermines the shortage of private investment in small business. Financial statement presents the only source of information which reflects the performance of a company but does not provide the investor with sufficient data for proper decision making. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop a set of key performance indicators that will assess the viability of a company and reduce investment risks. Specific nature of small business determines the need to use a minimum number of parameters. To develop the system, the author examines two groups of enterprises: with a bankruptcy claim and without it. The data set consists of financial statement indicators and economic indicators. The use of random forest methods and gradient boosting confirmed the existence of differentiating parameters between successful and unsuccessful businesses: short-term accounts payable, profitability ratio, revenue trend, equity to total assets, receivables index, gain and loss on sale. The established system offers high accuracy for company's success/bankruptcy forecast. Applying the findings will ensure greater transparency and investment attractiveness of small businesses.

The paper deals with the quandary of the neutrality and transparency of technologies. First, I show how this problem is connected with the image of the opening of 'black boxes' that is pivotal to much of science and technology studies. Second, methodological and socio-political dimensions of the 'black box' metaphor are discussed. Third, I analyze three typical solutions to the problem of the neutrality of technologies outside and inside constructivist technology studies. It is demonstrated that despite their apparent differences, these solutions are similar in their logic of conceptualizing technology as a neutral intermediary. Forth, I look for an alternative to this logic in the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour. Here technologies are conceived in terms of an eventful association of heterogeneous entities irreducible to its conditions of possibility. The construction of technologies is understood as mediation, or as a 'making-do' process where creators are surprised by their creations and vice versa. In Latour's actor-network, technologies are interpreted as opaque and non-neutral entities. Finally, I turn to some object-lessons from smart technologies powered by neural networks to demonstrate that these are empirical vindications of Latour's conception of technical mediation. Particular attention is paid to the opacity and (non)interpretability of machine learning algorithms.

The modern global financial system is based on unlimited dollar issuance, which is backed by a key reserve asset – US debt obligations. The concept of official foreign exchange reserves promoted by the IMF puts in a privileged position the countries with reserve currencies, primarily the United State. This concept has exhausted the possibilities for productive investment of the savings of the rest of the world. As a result, the savings of the periphery of the global economy are directed to the consumption and speculative spheres. Global financial crises has proved – despite speculative activities banks have priority support from key central banks. Developing countries objectively claim a parity distribution of the benefits and costs of financial globalization, as they play an increasingly important role in global value chains. As a donor of the global financial system, Russia is practically not involved in the distribution of profits in the global financial market. As the largest supplier of raw materials, intellectual and financial resources, Russia requires new solutions in the field of international monetary circulation.

This study investigates Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) new generic top-level domain (gTLD) programme, exploring how it a shape of 'community' suitable for domain name system (DNS) expansion is constituted. Despite the apparent goal of promoting rights to freedom of expression and free association, the prevalence of the controlled vocabulary model results in preference for unopposed entities with clear hierarchical structures and strict membership boundaries. This creates a TLD landscape incapable of encompassing the heterogeneity and uncertainty of many existing communities, but helps to reinforce ICANN's discourse surrounding the function of the DNS and its role in Internet governance.