“The Book of Boredom”

The article describes the prerequisites, the creation and the plans of the Holy Alliance to establish international law and order. The end of the Napoleonic wars was marked by the Congress of Vienna. Its participants sought to restore the rule of the nobility in the conquered states of Napoleon. Based on the so-called principle of legitimacy, Congress supported the restoration on the thrones of former dynasties and noble orders in many countries. In the first place, each of the participating countries sought to meet their invasive goals, to profit from the redistribution of Europe and the colonies. In order to consolidate the conquests of, Alexander I initiated the formation of a permanent organization – the Holy Alliance. It was a kind of ideological and military-political superstructure over the “Viennese system” of diplomatic relations, founded under the guise of Christianity. The text of the union treaty in its form and content was atypical, unlike other international agreements. This has led many international law professionals to treat it as a declaration. The organization had existed until the mid-19th century before the Crimean War, although contradictions in the alliance have been around since the 1920s. The treaty of the Holy Alliance was concluded in Paris on September 14 (26) 1815 by the governments of Russia, Austria and Prussia. It was a rather vague statement about the mutual assistance and cooperation of all Christian states. Under the terms of the treaty, everyone who recognized him could join the alliance. After approval, almost all European rulers, except the Pope, the head of the Christian world who considered his signature superfluous, and the Turkish Sultan who professed Islam, joined him. England also did not join the alliance, though proposals from the founders were. It should be said that in England, the treaty was treated with the greatest caution. The absence of the Holy See’s signature in England did not prevent her from being an active participant in all its congresses. The original task of the Holy Alliance was to fulfill the role of a communication platform in which the leading powers of the world would coordinate their actions to ensure peace in Europe, preventing aggression that could harm the security of international law and order on the continent. With varying success, but in the first years of existence of the alliance these goals were achieved. The Holy Alliance was the first collective security institution in the world after the Napoleonic wars.

This article reviews a selection of scientific presentations at the 2012 European Respiratory Society Annual Congress in Vienna, Austria. The best abstracts from the groups of the Clinical Assembly (Clinical Problems, Rehabilitation and Chronic Care, Imaging, Interventional Pulmonology, Diffuse Parenchymal Lung Disease, and General Practice and Primary Care) are presented and discussed in the context of the most up-to-date literature. The reviewed topics especially deal with the areas of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (acute exacerbations, comorbidities, prognosis and rehabilitation), the diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, endobronchial techniques in emphysema, functional imaging and issues in respiratory medicine relevant for the primary care setting, including aspects related to end-of-life care and palliation.

Most current references to European Congresses prior to the one now sitting in Paris go no farther back than the Congress of Vienna in 1815. These references generally suggest that, whatever may have been done at Vienna, this we do not propose to do at Paris. The implication is that the European world has been running on the wrong track, and that now it is the mission of somebody to set it right and start it anew on wiser and safer lines. Students of history, however, know that Vienna and Paris mark only two stages in a long succession of efforts to bring the peoples of Europe into some kind of harmonious working together for common ends. The terminology of these attempts, the immediate interests involved, vary greatly, so greatly that the casual reader of history easily fails to recognize the community of purpose; but to one who has in mind the fundamental principle of historic continuity the chain of ideas is fairly distinct and complete.

The aim of this article is to describe the paediatric highlights from the 2009 European Respiratory Society Annual Congress in Vienna, Austria. The best abstracts from the seven groups of the Paediatric Assembly (asthma and allergy, respiratory epidemiology, cystic fibrosis, respiratory physiology, respiratory infections and immunology, neonatology and paediatric intensive care, and bronchology) are presented alongside findings from the current literature.

This article reviews the most important articles published in interstitial lung disease, as reviewed during the Clinical Year in Review session at the 2012 annual European Respiratory Society Congress in Vienna, Austria. Since the recent international guidelines for the management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), important new evidence is available. The anti-fibrotic drug pirfenidone has been recently approved in Europe. Other pharmacological agents, especially nintedanib, are still being tested. The so-called triple combination therapy, anticoagulation therapy and endothelin receptor antagonists, especially ambrisentan, are either harmful or ineffective in IPF and are not recommended as treatment. Although the clinical course of IPF is highly variable, novel tools have been developed for individual prediction of prognosis. Acute exacerbations of IPF are associated with increased mortality and may occur with higher frequency in IPF patients with associated pulmonary hypertension. Interstitial lung disease associated with connective tissue disease has been definitely established to have a better long-term survival than IPF. A subset of patients present with symptoms and/or biological autoimmune features, but do not fulfil diagnostic criteria for a given autoimmune disease; this condition is associated with a higher prevalence of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia pattern, female sex and younger age, although survival relevance is unclear.

The objective of this review is to report the Clinical Year in Review proceedings in the field of nonsmall cell lung cancer that were presented at the 2012 European Respiratory Society Congress in Vienna, Austria. Various topics were reviewed, including epidemiology, screening, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and palliative and end of life care.

Lower respiratory tract infections and tuberculosis represent some of the top health priorities in Europe. In the present report, the most recent advances in the field of disease control, clinical research and basic science of lower respiratory tract infections and tuberculosis are presented through analysis of some of the best abstracts presented at the 19th European Respiratory Society Congress in Vienna (Austria). Pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, prognostic factors and novel diagnostic techniques relevant for bacterial and viral infections, as well as new tools for the diagnosis of latent and active tuberculosis in different sub-groups of patients, are discussed. The growing epidemiological threat represented by multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis cases is presented and its impact analysed.

In a randomized, double-blind crossover study, 29 patients with painful diabetic neuropathy received 6 weeks of amitriptyline and 6 weeks of an "active" placebo that mimicked amitriptyline side effects. Amitriptyline was superior to placebo in relieving pain in weeks 3 through 6. Both steady, burning pain and lancinating pains were relieved. Patients able to tolerate higher amitriptyline doses reported greater relief, through the maximum dose of 150 mg nightly. Amitriptyline analgesia was similar in depressed and nondepressed subgroups and was not associated with mood improvement. We conclude that amitriptyline relieves pain in diabetic neuropathy; this effect is independent of mood elevation.

Importance. The activities of the “Society of Participants of the Volga Movement of 1918” are considered and an analysis of its activities as a society for preserving the memory of emigrants about the events of the Civil War in the Volga region is given. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the basis of our sample is the role of its chairman Stanislav Chechek, an active participant in military operations in the Volga region. Particular attention is paid to his work “From Penza to the Urals,” which is created on the basis of a report for members of the Society. This document is analyzed for the first time, despite its availability.Materials and Methods. The research materials are data on the “Society of the Volga Movement of 1918”, stored in the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The work uses a historical-systemic method, which allows us to consider the social activities of S. Chechek and his speech as the highest point in the activities of society. The principles of historicism and objectivism make it possible to analyze the main aspects of the activities of the Society and S. Chechek.Results and Discussion. Based on the study of archival materials and analysis of the text of S. Chechek’s work “From Penza to the Urals”, the public, educational and publication activities of the society, as well as a set of problems that it faced, are considered. Special attention is paid to the activities of his supervisor, through the prism of whose report they are able to rethink his role and significance for the events of the Civil War in Russia.Conclusion. Despite the relatively short period of work, the organization “Society of the Volga Movement of 1918” is able to form a fund of unique profiles of participants in the Civil War, documents and materials that are available to researchers.

Balance of Power. Convenance, European Concert. Peace Congress and Conclusions of Peace from the Age of Louis XIV until the Congress of Vienna

The aim of this article is to explain the long-term process leading to the decision of Sardinian King Charles Albert to wage war against Austria in March 1848. Moving beyond the normal stress on Italian national consciousness, the article focuses more on the King’s attitude towards the conduct of European powers in Italian affairs and attempts to prove that repeated illegal and aggressive actions of the European powers after 1830 destroyed the King’s faith in the fairness of the political-legal system established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, leading also to his loss of faith in the strength of law and increasing his belief in the power of armed force in international relations. All this significantly contributed to his final decision to start a war of conquest against Austria, which he regarded as weak and thus no longer respected, much like his attitude towards the existing political-legal order in general.

A SOVIET HISTORIAN LOOKS AT RECONSTRUCTION Translated and Edited by John V. Bratcher Three or four review essays usually appear in each monthly edition of Voprosy Istorii, the Soviet Union's leading historical journal. In a review essay published in January, 1960, pp. 186-190, A. V. Efimov reviewed The Negroes' Struggle for Land and Freedom in the South, U.S.A. (1865-1877), by R. F. Ivanov (The Academy of Sciences. U.S.S.R Moscow. 1958). This review is quite different from that usually encountered in this journal because it deals with a non-Russian theme. In this essay Efimov presents an interesting interpretation of the Negro 's role in the American Civil War and Reconstruction and a critical analysis of American historiography of that period. Although he critically reviews Ivanov's book Efimov devotes the major portion of his essay to his own interpretation of these and related themes. This interpretation must approximate the Soviet interpretation since A. V. Efimov is a Correspondent Member of the Academy of Sciences and the review contains terminology which indicates that the ideas are not solely those of the author. A translation of that essay forms the basis for the text that follows. To preserve intact Efimov's original ideas no liberties have been taken by the translator. Expansion of proper names and added footnotes are contained in the translator's brackets.« « « « The Civil War in North America approximates the most important turning point in the history of the United States of America. Millions of farm laborers, workers, and Negroes fighting for freedom from the yoke of slavery participated in the war. As a maker of history the role of the popular masses grew considerably during the Civil War (18611865 ) and later in the reconstruction of the South (1865-1877). Consequently three and a half million black slaves received their personal freedom from the revolution. Although lacking political experience and having almost no political leaders from among their ranks, they contributed significantly to the victory of the North over the slaveholding confederation and actively participated in the most acute class struggle in the period of reconstruction. In the work being reviewed only the introductory chapter is devoted to the Civil War. The primary object of investigation is the period of 257 258CIVIL WAR HISTORY reconstruction of the South which was a continuation of the Civil War or the second phase of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in the U. S. A. The events of this period are most flagrantly falsified by reactionary bourgeois historiography which ignores the revolutionary character of these events and the active participation in them of a great mass of people , especially Negroes. The racist conception of the hisotry of this period finds its expression in the works of J[ohn] W[illiam] Burgess, J[ames] F[ord] Rhodes, and William Afrchibald] Dunning and their successors, who completely deny the progressive aspects of reconstruction.1 According to them the negroes, representatives of the lowest race, "never created any kind of civilization". For instance, Burgess regards the activity of the reconstruction governments in the South, which had a revolutionary character, as the establishment of a supremacy "of barbarism over civilization". He considers the program of reconstruction worked out by congress a most gross error and a direct violation of the constitution .2 At the end of the nineteenth—beginning of the twentieth centuries there appeared in bourgeois historiography in the United States the socalled "economic orientation" with its most distinguished advocate Charles Beard. For the first time individual historians acknowledged the revolutionary character of the Civil War and regarded it as the second American Revolution. Beard considered the Negroes a weak-willed instrument in the hands of "ruling groups" and denied them a political role in the Civil War and reconstruction like the racist-historians. A majority of the advocates of the "economic orientation" emphasizes the struggle against the revolutionary traditions of the American people. As a group this school has conducted an active fight with Marxism. Contemporary American reactionary historians have adopted the racist conception of their predecessors. The revolutionary character of the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction is completely denied in the works of E[llis...

The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism

Europe is a continent of extraordinary variety and diversity geographically, ethnically, nationally, culturally, economically and politically. Yet at the same time all its parts are and always have been so deeply linked by their destiny that this continent can accurately be described as a single albeit complex political entity. Anything crucial in any area of human endeavour occurring anywhere in Europe always has had both direct and indirect consequences for our continent as a whole. The history of Europe is, in fact, the history of a constant searching and reshaping of its internal structures and the relationship of its parts. Today, if we talk about a single European civilization or about common European values, history, traditions, and destiny, what we are referring to is more the fruit of this tendency toward integration than its cause.

 Reviews Goethe specialists, but to all of us who are inclined to hope that literature might make things better. M E C, C C L Witness between Languages: e Translation of Holocaust Testimonies in Context. By P D. (Dialogue and Disjunction: Studies in Jewish German Literature , Culture, and ought) Rochester, NY: Camden House. .  pp. $. ISBN ––––. Tantalizingly written and dely argued, this monograph by Peter Davies offers a fresh perspective on the study of testimonies of the Holocaust through the lens of translation. In the Introduction, Davies argues that ‘without translation there would be no Holocaust’ (p. , author’s emphasis), by which he means that the proliferation of knowledge about the Holocaust, as we understand it today, influenced to great extent by eyewitness accounts, would be unthinkable without the oen occluded or de-emphasized work done by translators. Davies’s argument works from a central tenet, namely that the work of translation entails a highly dialogic practice. Translations, and the translators that make them possible, form an important part of the larger transnational, multilingual conversation connected to source texts. To put it another way, translators are active participants, key players in the discrete intertextual networks that arise out of the translation of source texts into other languages. Indeed, this study’s principal strength lies in its tightly interwoven combination of close textual analysis with the insightful exploration of how social and political expectations regarding Holocaust representation within specific historical contexts have affected the translation of Holocaust testimonies. is study takes care to document how authors and translators interact with varying practices of Holocaust memory at particular historical moments and in particular geographic areas. As one might expect from a study of this scope, Davies explores a wide variety of Holocaust testimonies, including texts originally penned in Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish. In Chapter , ‘Translation and the Witness Text’, Davies situates his study as a ‘mediati[on] between Holocaust studies and translation studies’, which ‘will discuss methods that offer points of contact between descriptions of translations and the philosophical, literary, ethical, and political concerns of Holocaust scholars, and that take into account the agency of the translator and the expectations placed on a Holocaust testimony in particular cultural and historical circumstances’ (p. ). Chapter , ‘Making Translation Visible’, explores how translators treat the question of voice, specifically translating the ‘voice’ of a Holocaust survivor and eyewitness from one linguistic and cultural context to another. Using the theoretical framework established in the first two chapters as a point of departure, the third chapter reconsiders the complex, to some extent controversial, translation history surrounding Elie Wiesel’s Night () by analysing the German and two separate English translations that orbit to varying degrees around the iconic  French La Nuit, which MLR, .,   has until more recently overshadowed its textual predecessor, the  . . . un di velt hot geshvign. In Chapter  Davies switches gears from Holocaust memory in the West, exploring the question of Soviet memory in Vasily Grossman’s ‘e Hell of Treblinka’ () and Anatoli Kuznetsov’s Babii Yar (). Using these two accounts as his primary examples, Davies investigates the effects the Cold War had on the translation and dissemination of Holocaust texts from East to West. Krstyna Żywulska’s Auschwitz testimony and the question of self-translation form the focal point of Chapter . Davies traces Żywulska’s conscious articulation of herself as a Polish anti-Fascist resistance fighter in her  autobiographical account Przeżyłam Oświęcim (I Survived Auschwitz), and her attempt to maintain this identity in the German translation (Wo vorher Birken waren: Überlebensbericht einer jungen Frau aus Auschwitz-Birkenau), which she prepared and published in  aer resettling in West Germany. Davies demonstrates how Żywulska’s selftranslation , both as the literal act of translating her own text from one language to another (i.e. Polish to German) and as the metaphorical cultivation of a particular narrating persona, had to contend with ‘quite incompatible “victim cultures”’, at one end of the spectrum, ‘a postwar Polish Stalinist culture that stressed the martyrdom of the nation as a whole’, and at the other end ‘a West German society that [. . .] was in the process of renegotiating its...