The geopolitical effect of the maritime factor on the spatial development of post-Soviet Russia: the Baltic case
The article explores the impact of geopolitical processes on the spatial organisation of society, a matter that has gained increasing importance in Russia. It focuses on the utilization of the World Ocean and its coastlines for resource extraction, logistics, military-strategic purposes, and settlement. Methodologically, this study combines modern socio-geographical approaches emphasising the role of the maritime factor in spatial development with classical geopolitical ideologemes drawing a line...
Geography of the mobile internet in the border and interior regions of Russia
Digital transformation of socio-economic processes is the basis for sustainable development of regions in the digital age. The foundation for such a transformation is the information and communication infrastructure and, first of all, the mobile Internet. The technological growth of mobile networks has provided a rapid increase in the number of users around the world, contributing to further digitalization. With the development of digital technologies, research in the field of human geography has...
The sea factor in the federal regulation of Russia’s spatial development: post-Soviet experience and current priorities
Current geoeconomic and geopolitical transformations project on Russian society and its spatial organisation, highlighting the problems of spatial socioeconomic development and its governmental regulation. This article examines the theoretical and applied aspects of the incorporation into the national regional policy of the sea factor, understood as a combination of location and resources, which is determined by a country’s jurisdiction over coasts and waters, its maritime activities and coastalisation...
Socio-spatial differentiation in transition: a preliminary comparative analysis of post-soviet St Petersburg and Riga
Research into the socio-spatial dynamics in Central-Eastern European cities is an im-portant area of contemporary transition studies. Open issues in this domain range from defining a theoretical framework to data availability and methodological approaches. As to the former aspect, recent literature focuses on the hybrid nature of the post-socialist urban space, which underwent transformation in the conditions of globalization and eco-nomic liberalization; the earlier model of spatial development...
Societal security in the Baltic Sea Region: the Russian perspective
This study discusses whether the concept of societal security is embedded in the Russian formal and informal discourses as well as in the Russian strategic documents on national security and the Baltic Sea region. Particularly, the paper describes four paradigms of international relations (neorealism, neoliberalism, globalism and postpositivism) and theoretical approaches to the concept of societal security formulated in them. On a practical plane, Russia has managed to develop — together with...
Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement
This paper summarizes the results of the seminar “Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement”, held on August 26, 2022, at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad. During the seminar, the Institute of Geopolitical and Regional Studies of the university announced an initiative to devise a system of monitoring the geopolitical (regional) security of Russia. The debate centred around the development of a conceptual framework and a geopolitical security model...
Demographic development processes in the history of the Kaliningrad region: national trends and regional specifics
This article aims to identify the main demographic development trends and features observed in the Kaliningrad region from a historical perspective and assess the extent to which the region’s demographic development corresponds to the national model accepted in contemporary historiography. The empirical sources used in this study include demographic statistics from published and archival materials; theoretically, it draws on the concepts of demographic and epidemiological transitions. Analysis...
Population change and the settlement system transformation in Poland, as revealed by the 2021 census
This article aims to analyse current geodemographic changes in Poland, based on the data of the 2021 National Population and Housing Census. Methods, traditional for socioeconomic geography, such as zoning, were employed. Poland’s population decreased during the inter-census period (2011—2021), with the urban population declining faster than its rural counterpart. The large voivodeships aligned along the Vistula ‘axis’ — Mazowiecka, Lesser Poland and Pomerania — outperform other Polish...
Development of municipal districts in Saint Petersburg over the last decade: an economic and spatial analysis
The article analyses economic and spatial indicators to produce a typology of the economic development levels of St. Petersburg municipal districts. To normalise the city’s development, it is vital to understand which territories have contributed more to the process and which have inhibited it. It is also essential to analyse the principal economic indicators of each municipal district and assess transport accessibility, street activity and transit. The study demonstrates the connection between...
Contemporary society as a post-industrial and technogenic one
This article focuses on contemporary society, which, in accordance with D. Bell’s concept, is post-industrial (and information) one. The author draws attention to Bell’s serious mistakes in the development of the concept – the use of only sociological and economic analysis and disregard of social philosophy. The author offers a scientific and philosophical substantiation of the technogenic development of society and the world, its crisis condition, and presents the evidence as to why contemporary...
The Accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO: Geopolitical implications for Russia’s position in the Baltic Sea region
The article examines Sweden’s and Finland’s motives for ending their long-time non-aligned policies and joining NATO after Russia had launched a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The two countries’ decision is shown to be in the interest of the United States, which has always sought to fill the geopolitical vacuum reigning after the collapse of the opposing Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union itself. Finland and Sweden were the missing links for Washington and NATO in the...
The Visegrad Group and the Baltic Assembly: coalitions within the EU as seen through Russian foreign policy
Today Russia has difficulty doing business-as-usual with EU states. It seems that the countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) and the Baltic Assembly/Baltic Council of Ministers (BA/BСM) have contributed substantially to this state of affairs. Overall, the tensions between Russia and the EU are building up – another tendency that did not arise on the Russian initiative. This article aims to address the question of whether Russia should establish direct relations with the V4 and the BA/BCM as tools...
Migration and the Transformation of Multiethnic Population Structure in the Kaliningrad Region of the Post-Soviet Era
This paper analyses the migration processes and their influence on the transformation of multiethnic population structure in the Kaliningrad region. The author uses official statistics (current statistics and census data), as well as interviews with the representatives of ethnic cultural associations as information sources. Special attention is paid to the migration features associated with different ethnic groups. The author identifies major reasons behind the incoming and outgoing movement of population...
Natural Increase in the Baltic South and South-West
This article analyses the natural population increase (decrease) in the postcommunist part of Baltic Europe (the federated state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian, and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Kaliningrad and Leningrad region, and the federal city of Saint Petersburg) in 2002—2011. The study uses standard methods of demographic analysis, the data provided by national statistical services and Eurostat. All regions analysed are characterised...
Post-Soviet Space: background and the results of regionalization
The article deals with the regionalization of social processes and their specific manifestations in the post-Soviet space. According to the author, regionalization is developing at four levels-international (macroregional), subregional, intraregional and on country levels. The most important one is the international level. Specific features of regionalization at each level of the post-Soviet space are described. The author draws a conclusion that the post-Soviet space is the epicenter of regionalization...
Translation Historiography
The article offers an overview of the development of translation history during the past decade. It focuses on recent debates, research areas and methodological avenues in translation history with special emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Driven by a move away from a Euro-centric view of translation, researchers have become interested in producing connected and comparative histories of translation. The dialogue with the general field of history has led to the adoption of new methods and forms of analysis...
Migration from Post-Soviet countries to Poland and the Baltic States: trends and features
This article aims to analyse migration from the post-Soviet space to the north-eastern periphery of the EU (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and examines the hypothesis about these states, once countries of origin, turning into destinations for migrants. A change in the socio-economic paradigm and accession to the EU sped up economic development in the Baltics and Poland. Despite growing welfare and income levels and a decline in the unemployment rate, further economic growth was hampered by the...
Global value chains in the age of uncertainty: advantages, vulnerabilities, and ways for enhancing resilience
In this paper, we seek to explain the fundamental vulnerability of global value chains (GVCs) to sudden shocks, as revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and outline ways for enhancing their adaptability to the increased uncertainty at both conceptual and policy levels. We consider the concept and a typical multi-structural model of GVCs, highlighting the network complexity of the system of distributed production and trade in value added. Not only does this system bring competitive advantages...
Breast silicone implants: the issues of post-surgery complications
The issue of breast silicone implants reliability is getting widely discussed in the world. The article presents the results of an anonymous survey of more than three hundred women with a of mammoplasty in medical history. We analyzed whether post-surgery complications depend on age, surgical access, and the manufacturer of the prosthesis. The study showed that age and surgical access are not associated with the occurrence of complications. Commonly known breast silicone implants are produced...
Rheological properties of blood and hemostasis of the stab wounds of the heart
The authors try to characterize changes in viscosities of blood and thromboresistance of vascular endothelium after stab wounds of heart. To achieve the goal, the indicators of microblood circulation were studied in 34 patients. All patients were divided into two groups: the first group of 17 people has been operated for the wounds of heart with the thoracotomy, suturing heart wounds and the pleural cavity drainage. The second group of 17 patients had stab wounds of the chest, they underwent primary...
Children's daily life play in the post-war years (based on the material of the Ukrainian SSR)
The author makes an attempt to characterize the daily life play of the Soviet children in the postwar period. The analysis of the issue was carried out on the background of theoretical works on the topic, as well as archival materials and the results of the questionnaire. The study allows to identify the main types of toys and gaming activities, common among Soviet children in the post-war years. It was determined that the post-war devastation had negative consequences for the development of the...
Security in the Baltic region as a Projection of Global Confrontation between Russia and the USA
This article considers the problem of security in the Baltic region, namely, that of Poland and the Baltics. The authors rely on the works of Karl Deutsch, Emanuel Adler, on Michael Barnett’s theory of security communities and Barry Buzan’s regional security complex theory, address Steven Mann’s controlled chaos theory and the concept of Intermarium. Their starting assumption is that the situation in the Baltic depends largely on the politics of external powers — Russia and the United States...
The elite interaction in the post-Soviet Lithuania: the constitutional aspect
The article deals with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania as a result of inter-elite struggles in post-Soviet period of different power groups.
1. Estonian Human Development Report. Baltic Way(s) of Human Development: Twenty Years On. 2010/2011. Eesti Koostöö Kogu. Tallinn. 2011.
2. Geddes B. Initiation of New Democratic Institutions in Eastern Europe and Latin America // A. Lijphart & C.H. Waisman (eds.). Institutional Design in New Democracies: Eastern Europe and Latin America...
Euroregions as a factor of successful international integration in modern conditions
This article focuses on the correlation between the contemporary crisis phenomenon in the Eurozone and some CIS countries, and the existing Euroregions. We attempt to analyze the interdependence of the qualitative aspect of cross-border relations of European countries with their economic sustainability in the context of regional international integration. The theoretical significance of this work lies in the revealed correlation between the efficiency of cross-border Euroregions and the additional...
The border as a barrier and an incentive for the structural economic transformation of the Kaliningrad exclave
This paper aims to study how geopolitical shifts affect regional economies and their structures. Border functions and regimes act as tools for the economy and society to adapt to the redistribution of political influence, movements of people, goods, capital and information between integration associations, individual countries and their cores. A changed environment may slow down the development of some industries (and even cause them to decline) and give a boost to others, with these two processes...
Estonian ‘Balticness’ as a social construct: meanings and contextual specifics
This paper explores the Estonian vision of Baltic identity. Estonia’s authorities have repeatedly articulated their scepticism towards the concept of a stand-alone ‘Baltic region’ and the inclusion of Estonia in it, preferring to position their state as a Nordic country. Yet, in numerous cases, they have clearly labelled Estonia as a Baltic State. To identify the contexts and meanings labelling the country as a Baltic State, this contribution provides a content analysis of official speeches...
Dismantling monuments as the core of the post-2014 ‘decommunisation’ in Ukraine and Poland
Drawing on a wide range of sources (Polish and Ukrainian legal acts, Russian and international media), this study looks at the ‘monument fall’ in Ukraine and Poland as part of the post-2014 memory wars. The purpose of this article is to identify the main patterns associated with the demolition of Soviet and Russian monuments in the two countries. The ‘decommunisation’ of public space is an element of Ukraine’s and Poland’s politics of memory, enshrined in legal acts. Its driving force...
Preserve vs dismantle: major trends in the Baltics’ politics of memory regarding Soviet monuments at sites of mass violence
Another round of the Soviet ‘monument fall’ in the Baltics, which began in the early 2000s, continued into 2022. This process, however, has not affected Soviet memorials at the sites of mass violence perpetrated during the German occupation of the Baltics. This article aims to investigate major trends in the Baltics’ politics of memory regarding Soviet monuments erected at sites of mass violence. The official policy of the Baltics towards these memorial sites has been largely shaped by the...
The Republic of Belarus and the Kaliningrad region of Russia as a sub-regional security complex
The formal indivisibility of security, which theorists in the field of international relations speak of, is an indisputable thing. Although the development of military technology, the format of globalization, a critical attitude towards classical geopolitics have led to an underestimation of the spatial factor, regionalisation has once again proved that it is an integral part of globalisation and its alter ego. At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, political developments in Europe...
Spatial organisation of the new forms of e-grocery and ready-made food trade in a large Russian city
This work aims to identify fundamentally new features in the spatial organization of e-grocery and ready-made food trade in a Russian city, distinct from those typical of traditional food retail enterprises. Focusing on St Petersburg, the article describes the emergence of a completely different system of requirements imposed by new forms of online food retail in the space of a large Russian city, compared with traditional industries and retail organization methods. The spatial and temporal parameters...
Between the Eurasian and European subsystems: migration and migration policy in the CIS and Baltic Countries in the 1990s—2020s
The article analyses migration from border countries (the so-called overlapping area) of two migration subsystems — Eurasian (centred in the Russian Federation) and European (the European Union) from 1991 to 2021 (before the recent events in Ukraine). A step-by-step analysis of the migration situation in the countries of the former USSR — Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine and Estonia was conducted. The article examines bilateral and multilateral migration processes, analyses the main...
The unexpected someone in Nobel history
The main intention of the article is to prove that the unique style of Handke’s creative individuality reflects his special life-saving SOMEONE, who resists in his negative dialectic the dictatorship of another pernicious SOMEONE who sets the false movement. In a remarkable symmetry to post-structuralist theories about the “totalitarianism of language”, Handke experiences in his own verbalized existence the pernicious power of some of this totalitarianism, seeking to free himself from it in...
"Politically purposeful, ideologically informative and literary correct local programmes": the news agenda of the Kaliningrad region in 1947
The article considers the news content of the information environment in the Kaliningrad region, the new Soviet region, in 1947, when the main media of the first post-war years were formed here. The authors describe the process of organisation of radio and press. They also analyse key topics through the texts of Kaliningrad and district newspapers as well as radio programmes. The research draws the following conclusions: the tone of radio and newspaper reports, which was ideological and prevailingly...
Typology of migration processes of Russian coastal regions
The coastal area of Russia is a dynamically developing region of the country, the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of which has grown significantly in recent decades due to changes in the external conditions of development. The differences in the socio-economic development of the coastal area of Russia are reflected in the numerous gradients of the migration situation, the study of which determines the purpose of this article. The study relies on typology, statistical and general scientific...
European and Eurasian integration: similarities and differences
The article studies the development of integration processes in Europe and Eurasia. The purpose of scientific research is to identify the similarities and differences between European and Eurasian integration. The theoretical relevance of the research lies in the comparison of the integration processes regarding the analysis of demographic and socio-economic development indicators of the EU and EAEU countries, as well as the integration mechanisms and instruments. The research comes to the conclusion...
Translation of postmodern terminology in the philosophical works by M. Foucault, J. Baudrillard, and J. Derrida
The article examines the specifics of the translation of postmodern philosophical terminology. The authors explore Russian translations of the works of the modern French postmodernist philosophers Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard and Jacques Derrida. Postmodernism as a philosophical movement is based on the concept of radical plurality. It is characterised by the multiplicity of dimensions and types of analysis. The authors look into the problem of choosing strategies for the translation of...
Impact of remigration on the worksphere under Covid-19: the case of Lithuania
Remigration opens up the opportunity for a country to see the return of its citizens from migration, bringing with them their ideas, knowledge, values and skills. The work sphere is one of the main areas where these social remittances can be used. Still, very little attention is paid to the workplace in social remittance literature. Therefore, the first aim of this article is to explore the types of remigrants’ social remittances, the ways they are transmitted and their acceptance in the work sphere...
The theory of peripheral capitalism: on the applicability of the Latin American model to the Baltic States. An attempt at an inter-disciplinary analysis
The relevance of this study of post-Soviet transition lies in the focus on the technically theoretical problems that are nevertheless the key to understanding regional development processes in the East of the Baltic Sea. The research aims to verify the theory of peripheral capitalism as applied to the Baltic States. The first theoretical objective is to draw a distinction between the ideas of modernisation and transformation in a regional context. The second objective is to adjust the theory of peripheral...
Digital World Communication аnd Translation
The introduction of digital computers, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the Internet/Web has broadened the scope of communication globally in ways unprecedented in human history. The “digital world” implies more than the technical and instrumental aspects and usage of technology; it equally involves our tangible human social engagement and interface with the tools and technologies themselves. The relevance of digital studies to translation studies, and vice versa, is substantial...
Ergonomics and the translation process
The translation process can be regarded as a complex system involving many agents, organizational factors such as workflow, communication processes, project management, job security, and translator status. Environmental factors in the physical sense (e. g. lighting, temperature, air quality, space) as well in the broader sense of the role of translation and translators in the economy and society as a whole can also influence the process. Viewing translation from an ergonomic perspective can provide...
Die Grenze zwischen Glauben und Wissen: Zur Wirkungsgeschichte und aktuellen Bedeutung von Kants Religionsphilosophie
Der Autor des Artikels analysiert zunächst den Inhalt der Kantschen Religionsphilosophie (Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft), um dann ihre Wirkungsgeschichte zu verfolgen und ihre Aktualität aufzuzeigen. In groben Zügen, aber doch ausführlicher als andere Lehren, betrachtet er in diesem Zusammenhang die philosophischen Ansichten von Hegel, Schleiermacher und Kierkegaard. Habermas schlägt vor, Kants Moralphilosophie insgesamt als Versuch anzusehen, das kategorische Sollen göttlicher...
Transformations in the Communicative Characteristics of Political Discourse in the Current Information Space
The article analyses the main causes and the genesis of transformations in political discourse (PD) and provides a comparative analysis of the present and earlier forms of PD. The author examines the ontology and principal characteristics of PD, describes the state of political discourse prior to its current transformation and identifies the key problems and actual results of political communication in modern society. Considering the rise of populism, the author stresses that the current problems...
On crisis trends in the legitimacy of the political regimes of the Baltic States
This article considers the legitimacy of political regimes in the Baltic States by analysing three major parameters: confidence in political institutions, level of corruption, and the development of their party systems. The author identifies the major crisis trends in the legitimacy of the political regimes of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The article stresses the problem of legitimacy reproduction resulting from the limited representation of the national party systems. Special attention is paid...
The “European identity” of today: a category of political practice or discourse?
This paper considers the cultural, political, and historical problems of the development of European identity in the discourse of Europe. The author addresses the question as to whether European identity is a category of political discourse or a real instrument of European integration and comes to a conclusion that the concepts of European identity are stuck in a methodological trap. And the EU institutional design does not inspire confidence among the residents of united Europe. The question as...
Peasant affairs institutions in post-reform Russia
This article is an attempt to identify the role of peasant affairs institutions in the governmental system of post-reform Russia. The subject of the research is the public policy towards peasant affairs agencies during the second half of the 19th century. Special attention is paid to the change of the legal status and authority of these institutions and their relations with local authorities and population.
1. Катаев М. М. Местные крестьянские учреждения 1861...
Technogenic Tendency of Modern Society Informatisation Processes
The article defines the notion of modern technogenic social and natural development and the role of informatisation in the increasingly technogenic character of the evolution of society, biosphere and human being.
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Белл Д.
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Экология...
The Development of Russian Social Geography: Challenges, Trends, Priorities
Promoting the development of social geography (one of the most important components of present-day social sciences) is especially important for contemporary Russia. In the last 25 years Russian social geography has seen dramatic disciplinary changes. On the one hand, it has widened its scope. On the other hand, it has suffered from a growing contradiction between the popularization of the social geographic knowledge, the need to have a clear understanding of the factors and results of a multi-scale...
The Role of Political Elites in the Development of Politics of Memory in the Baltic States
The article focuses on multiple cases of the politicization of history by the Baltic political elites. Three states of development of politics of memory in the Baltic States are identified. Problems of political exploitation of the past are scrutinized in the context of political life and international relations. It is concluded that the narratives of the past where nazi and Soviet legacies are equated are actively promoted on the pan-European level. Elites of the Baltic States play a salient role...
The Role of Small Countries in Post-Soviet Territorial Restructuring: the Baltic Case
This author analyses the 2013 Lithuanian presidency of the EU in the context of the Ukrainian crisis and evaluates the contribution of Latvia and Estonia (the former Soviet republics set to preside over the EU in 2015 and 2018) to the shift in the power balance in the post-Soviet space. Through assessing the actions of small countries in promoting the Eastern Partnership programme with an emphasis on the anti-Russian agenda, the author concludes that they will inflict harm on the EU in a long-term...
International Migration in the Periods of Transition and Crisis: the Case of Latvia
Migration processes are amongst the most relevant issues in the geography of the Baltic States. The authors analyse the changes in migration patterns from the early 1990s until today. The focus of the study is the recent trends of migratory movements in the case of Latvia. Due to the country’s economic recession, migration has accelerated in the recent years. Empirical results show the response of the migration system to the changing internal factors and external influences in the times of transition...