Direct Witness Research Articles

„Mihailiada” of the Bessarabians. King Mihai I of Romania in folklore between the Dniester and Prut

The article presents for the first time a repertoire of modern and recent popular creations, of exceptional value, from the Bessarabian space: songs, legends, accounts with a legendary tone by direct witnesses of the era, inherited stories about their last king, Mihai I. At the same time, the main archetypes invoked by the collective imaginary in the stories about royalty, in general, and King Mihai I, in particular, are highlighted. The Bessarabians’ several decades of existence within the Soviet Union cultivated a chilling ignorance about the kings they had. The fact that the Bessarabians have a history of the modern period, represented by kings, was wanted to be erased from memory forever. In this case, collective memory and folklore proved to be truly saviors. The stories told by ordinary people filled the memory gap, reconstructing events obscured by official history. Unwilling to accept the perversities of contemporary politicians, the stories of the Bessarabians valued the moral image of King Mihai. Contemporary popular inventiveness favors his ethical and spiritual virtues. Therefore, Mihai I is associated and invested with ideal qualities, such as wisdom, sense of justice, integrity, dignity, faith, balance, equidistance, stability, love of Nation, Fatherland and God. The exaggeration traditionally accompanying popular creation is manifested in the passionate attitude, the note of mystery imprinted on the story, the tonality that suggests that the narrated events are in close proximity to the metaphysical world.

Multiple Views on Return Migration to Northern Syria

ABSTRACTMedia, humanitarian organisations and host governments have increasingly talked about returning refugees affected by a more than a decade‐long conflict in Syria. However, the northern Syria region does not offer adequate living conditions for return; this region is currently unfit for settlement, and it is impossible to attract Syrians to return to it, regardless of the lack of security and the political issues that many scholars have discussed. This study was conducted in early 2023 in two regions including four areas in northern Syria (Jarabulus, Azaz, Al‐Bab and Afrin) and three provinces in Türkiye (Istanbul, Gaziantep and Mersin). We compare the opinions of Syrian refugees in Türkiye and Syrians who had been internally displaced and who resettled in the northern region. The purpose of the comparison is to understand the views of both Syrians in Türkiye and in northern Syria regarding whether the region is attractive to them or not. However, the results confirm that people are not willing to return, as the push factors overcome the pull factors. The data collection among Türkiye‐based Syrians and northern Syria's residents enabled us to work with different opinion‐making processes: The assessment of today's Syrian services results from the direct witness of current dwellers and the views of Türkiye‐based refugees. Through a large‐scale survey, our study aims to identify the push factors that induce refugees to discount the possibility of returning to the northern Syrian region, including the lack of job opportunities and basic services such as potable water, electricity, fuel, Internet, adequate education and healthcare.

Still in there—citizens’ well-being and PTSD after Seoul Halloween crowd crush in Korea: a cross-sectional study

The October 29, 2022, Seoul Halloween Crowd Crush (SHCC) caused the loss of 159 lives, making it the deadliest global mass-gathering disaster between 2018 and 2022. Despite the fact that years have passed since the incident, there remains a significant gap in research addressing the mental health of citizens to evaluate their recovery progress. Therefore, in this study, a survey was conducted to assess citizens’ anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and well-being after the SHCC. The data were analyzed using t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlations, a Kruskal–Wallis test, and post hoc tests. The citizens' well-being differed significantly by victimization status, with direct victims showing languishing well-being (p = .036). PTSD severity level was higher in victims and direct witnesses (p < .001). Victims and direct witnesses exhibited worse outcomes in subjective, social, and psychological well-being as well as in PTSD (p < .001). Well-being exhibited a significant negative correlation with PTSD (r = − .247, p < .001). The results of the analysis suggest the SHCC’s psychological impact has endured not only for victims and direct witnesses but also for media-exposed citizens. Offering continuous psychological support and fostering positive self-perceptions and social interactions are crucial for their recovery and well-being enhancement.

Հեղինակային «ես»-ի արտացոլումը Վաշինգտոն Իրվինգի փոքր արձակում

In this paper, Washington Irving's authorial ''ego'', the founder of American romanticism, is studied. The article presents how the writer's personality and his works complement each other, parallelling and revealing their direct inter­connection, as well as considers some structural and content features of the writer's works, particularly short prose. The reserved, balanced and insightful type of the writer is clearly reflected especially in his short stories and novellas. There are no extremes either in his life or in his literary works. Irving's stories are characterized by calmness, lightness, delicacy, harmony, humor and deep meaning at the same time. The short prose of the author is dominated by descriptive passages, which are complemented by various details and illustrative scenes. However, there is almost always a lack of action here. The writer, being self-absorbed, also avoided writing long and boring texts, instead preferring brief but at the same time meaningful, smooth and beautiful speech. An impression is created that everything is real, and the reader is a direct witness of those scenes and images.

Enhancing Emergency Post Classification through Image Information Amplification via Large Language Models

Real-time information extracted from social media platforms can be highly valuable during emergencies. For example, reports and direct witnesses can help build situational awareness in the early phases of an emergency, with the potential to save lives. However, suitable techniques for selecting relevant data are needed to gather this information from large-scale social media streams and utilize it effectively. Given the multimedia nature of these streams, selection techniques should simultaneously understand textual and image information, as previous studies highlighted. Leveraging recent advances in language and vision models, we propose and evaluate a method working with a homogeneous, text-only representation for the different modalities of social media posts. Experiments on established and novel datasets, including video data, show that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performances while providing a highly general and plug-and-play approach to multimodal data filtering.

The 1980 Aparejo Glacier catastrophic detachment: new insights and current status

The catastrophic detachment of Aparejo Glacier (one of the three known cases in the Andes) took place on 1 March 1980 and resulted in the removal of an ice volume initially estimated to be 7.2 Mm3, which originally was 1.0 km long and covered an area of 0.2 km2. The event caused the sudden mobilization of the sliding mass 3.7 km down valley at an estimated speed of 110 km/h, causing remarkable geomorphological changes, including the obliteration of most of the glacier. 40 years after the event, we analyze new evidence: 3 ground surveys carried out in 2015 and 2016; DEMs and glacier outlines compiled from orthorectified aerial imagery pre-and post-event; GNSS data; Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data; a terrestrial LiDAR scan survey of 2020, together with detailed interviews with 2 direct witnesses of the event, terrestrial and helicopter-borne photographs acquired 12 days after the sudden detachment. The combined interpretation of these new data, allow us to make a more precise estimation of the pre-detachment glacier volume, 12.9 ± 0.6 × 106 m3 and the detached ice volume of 11.7 ± 0.6 × 106 m3 (90% of the total volume of the glacier). We also show that in the 40-year period Aparejo Glacier has recovered 12.4% of the original glacier volume, with a mean ice thickness of 19.5 m and a maximum of 40 m according to GPR data, being preserved within the same basin as the detached glacier. In recent years, the glacier has shown a mean elevation change of −3.7 ± 1.2 m during the 2015–2020 period, with maximum thinning values greater than 8 m, which are probably caused by enhanced ablation due to climate warming and reduced precipitation during the current megadrought which started in 2010 and has lasted more than 1 decade. We conclude that under the projected scenarios of climate warming and reduced precipitation for central Chile, the risk associated to a new detachment of Aparejo Glacier is unlikely.

Преславно бо Господь прослави вѣрнаго раба своего»: чудеса в составе «Жития Михаила Ярославича Тверского

The paper examines the functioning of a symbolic microgenre as part of an Old Russian literary work of the 14 century — “The hagiography of Mikhail Yaroslavich Tverskoy”. Among the miracles presented in the text only one is intravital, all the rest are posthumous. They are arranged in a chain of successive episodes, united ideologically, thematically and by the object of the image. Most posthumous miracles happened when the murdered prince`s body has been moved from the Horde to Tver, mostly on the foreign territory. Therefore the purpose of their inclusion in the hagiography may be the desire to affirm the holiness of Mikhail Tverskoy and to convince his enemies and people who do not believe in his righteousness. Among the common and familiar miraculous motifs are the following: a body untouched by wild animals, a pillar of fire and a glow over the body, incorruptible relics. Besides the miracles which are performed directly over the relics and with the relics, unusual situations that cannot be rationally explained may also be considered as miracles. The author of the text, without being a direct witness of miraculous events, basing on eyewitness accounts retells them in detail, sometimes with explanations. Despite references to early Old Russian literary works and the use of familiar topos, the author of “The hagiography of Mikhail Yaroslavich Tverskoy”, thanks to the inclusion of miracles, manages to achieve a high degree of persuasiveness, to reveal his plan and reflect his assessment of what was happening in the Horde.

RELATIONSHIP OF THE PERCEIVED STRESS LEVEL, ANTHROPOMETRIC INDICATORS AND BODY COMPOSITION IN CHILDREN EXPERIENCING PERMANENT NEGATIVE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE WAR IN UKRAINE.

to assess the impact of stressful life events occuring with the period of restrictive measures introductionconnected to the COVID-19 pandemic and during the full-scale Russian aggression, on the anthropometric indicators and body composition of children aged 10-17 years. The research group consisted of 56 boys and 70 girls aged 10-17 years who lived in radioactively contaminated areas of Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Kyiv regions with a soil contamination density of 137Cs from 18 kBq/m2 to 235 kBq/m2. The impact of stressful factors was assessed using the stress perception scale (PSS-10).Weight, height, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured. Body mass index (BMI), ratioof WC to HC, ratio of WC to height were calculated. Body composition (fat content, skeletal muscle content, visceral fat index and basal metabolic rate) was determined using OMRON smart scales based on the bioelectrical impedance method. The vast majority of examined children (76.19 %) had a high level of perceived stress, while girls in generalmore often considered certain life events as stressful. «Direct witnessing of hostilities» was the strongest triggeringstress factor, and «Location of a loudspeaker warning of danger near the house» was a reinforcing stress factor.«Negative impact of COVID-19» factor did not significantly affect the level of perceived stress at present. A probablecurrent effects of the interaction of gender, age and level of stress perception were established, which were characterized by a decrease in the level of stress perception in boys with minimum indicators at the age of 16-17 and, conversely, an increase in the level of stress perception in girls with maximum indicators at the same age. Gender andage characteristics of anthropometric values and indicators of body structure were determined. It was shown thatwith age, the index of visceral fat in boys gradually decreased, while in girls, on the contrary, it increased, reaching aprobable difference at the age of 16-17 years. Perceived stress level had direct correlations with weight, BMI, HC, WC,WtHR index, visceral fat index, total fat content and an inverse relationship with skeletal muscle content. The dependent variable visceral fat index and the categorical factor - level of perceived stress revealed a significant currentinteraction effect of sufficient power for both males and females. Anthropometric values and indicators of body structure had no probable dependence on the activity of 137Cs in the body of children and their average annual accumulated doses of internal radiation. A weak inverse relationship between the level of perceived stress and the activity of137Cs in the body of children and their average annual accumulated doses of internal radiation was established. The vast majority of children perceive the events taking place in Ukraine as stressful. Several changesin anthropometric indices and indicators of body structure, in particular an increase in visceral fat index are closely related to the increased level of perceived stress. The level of perceived stress inversely correlated with the activity of 137Cs in the body of children and their average annual accumulated doses of internal radiation.

ПО ПРОЧТЕНИИ БРИТТЕНА: ОБ ОСОБЕННОСТЯХ СТИЛЯ И ДРАМАТУРГИИ ВТОРОЙ СИМФОНИИ БОРИСА КЛЮЗНЕРА

The article is devoted to the comparison of two significant works of world music classics of the second half of the XXth century: Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” and Boris Klyuzner’s Second Symphony. Both these works are considered in the context of national and world tendencies of comprehension of the results of the Second World War in art. It is noted that Klyuzner’s Symphony was created on the wave of interest in Britten’s music that arose among Leningrad musicians after Shostakovich’s return from Aldeburgh and Britten’s visits to the USSR. Following a detailed analysis of the musical dramaturgy of Klyuzner’s Symphony and an examination of its background, it is concluded that the Leningrad composer, having become acquainted with Britten’s music, perhaps unknowingly, reproduced some features of its musical dramaturgy, in particular its timbre and intonation, and thus engaged in a dispute with the general idea of the work. A comparison of two works reveals the opposing conclusions which both composers reach in the finale: Britten’s conception is imbued with the spirit of religious and ethical catharsis of reconciliation, while Klyuzner’s conception is full of tragic pessimism, based on the personal experience of a direct witness and participant of the events, and contains no hope of future conflict resolution.

Historical Memories in Transcarpathia: Oral Historical Reflections on the Second World War

Transcarpathia is a border and mostly mountainous region with a rather complex ethnographic and religious mosaic. It borders 4 countries (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia), and geographically is the westernmost part of Ukraine. These factors contributed to the shape of a local multicultural population with fluid identities and very specific worldviews. The deepening of cultural ruptures is increased by regional historical memory, which shows the past in a way that is not described in the official historical grand narrative. This situation is also influenced by ethnic diversity and the presence of ethnic minorities, in particular local Hungarians and Germans, whose reflections on World War II and Sovietization differ both from the official grand narrative and from the memories of local Ukrainians. This study exhibits these differences and attempts to generalize and explain them. The ethnographic data was collected during the author’s fieldwork. Among the respondents, there are representatives of various Transcarpathian ethnic groups, direct witnesses of the XX century’s most significant events. Memories of these events are analysed through their impact on the everyday life of ordinary people.

ӘБІШ КЕКІЛБАЕВТЫҢ ТІЛ ТУРАЛЫ ТОЛҒАМДАРЫ

Annotation. The literary and creative heritage of the outstanding statesman and public figure, people's writer of Kazakhstan Abish Kekilbayev covers a wide range of topics. Along with literary and artistic works of various genres, the writer also contributed with journalistic, educational and research works for the spiritual development of our people. His reflections on history and language, traditions, culture and outstanding personalities are reflected in many of his articles and speeches. He was a direct witness of our country's independence, participated in the formation of its legislative framework, and also made a great contribution to writing. Actively participated in the acquisition of the Kazakh language status of the state language, wrote many articles about the problems of its development. Studying the prehistory of the development of society and language, offering lessons from the history of the struggle for the fate of the native language of the peoples freed from citizenship, he expressed valuable thoughts in the direction of expanding the scope of the Kazakh language, education in the native language. In numerous speeches of the writer during the independence of the country, in interviews and articles like "Careful use of the native language and perfection of future generations is a matter of honor", "Our language is the main asset", "Thinking about language means thinking about everything", "The core of national spirituality is language", etc. he it tightens the problems of the native language. The writer's work, which deeply touches on the problem of independence and language, is a historical and cognitive study "Language and independence". It was published in the form of an essay article in several issues of the newspaper "Egemen Kazakhstan" in 2006 and was included in the book of the same name published in 2007 by the publishing house "Er-Daulet" in Astana. It was a work written in a very timely manner and seriously related to a complex language issue in society, expressing valuable thoughts, revealing the significance of the problem of the state language. This work, written after an interview with the then head of state on language, reveals the essence of the principle "The future of Kazakhstan is in the Kazakh language" and reveals the importance of language in the life of society, its place in building a national state and consolidating society. In the light of such concepts as the community of people, society, the state, coloniality and citizenship, freedom and independence, prove by various facts the importance of language development for independence. The article is devoted to the disclosure of the meaning of this work. Keywords: language, society, history, independence, colonial policy, citizenship, civilization, sustainable development.

Psychological aspects in unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) witnesses

Abstract In this study, we surveyed a total of 245 people about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), 93 who directly witnessed UAP. Paying special attention to the psychological impact of UAP, our study survey covered different aspects, including opinions on official UAP releases, the scientific approach to the phenomena and the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. This study found that UAP had a clear psychological impact on witnesses, with a transformative effect, and a benign form of a non-pathological obsessive-like interest in the topic we defined as the UAP deep psychological engagement triad. This deep psychological engagement triad is characterized by UAP topic being present in a witness's mind daily, with a self-recognized interest and appreciation for the topic and a need to talk about UAP topic, not necessarily the event they experienced. UAP appear to have a very specific impact focused on extra-terrestrial aspects and the phenomena itself, which is experienced as a life-changing event by direct witnesses. These psychological aspects are quantitatively and qualitatively objectifiable, and further research is needed in this direction since all research efforts appear currently focused on the physical aspects of these phenomena.

Analysis of the evaluation zone of the concept "Civil War" in A. Fadeev's novel "The Rout"

The relevance of the research lies in the fact that in linguistics, the study of concepts is an urgent direction that allows us to consider words in their cultural, cognitive and communicative contexts. The purpose of the study is to characterize the evaluation zone of the concept of "Civil War" in A. Fadeev's novel "The Rout". The description of the concept "Civil War" allows us to clarify the peculiarity of the individual experience of cognition of this social concept. The variety of interpretative fields is caused by the peculiarity of the conceptualization of the world in the individual consciousness. In the structure of the concept, the interpretative field of the concept "Civil War" as a periphery, its irreplaceable role in conceptual analysis is determined. The main content of the study is the analysis of the evaluative zone of the interpretative field, in which the characteristics and properties inherent in the concept of "Civil War" are always interpreted in a new way. In this study, the author used the method of conceptual analysis, the method of contextual analysis and logical-semantic analysis. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the study of the novel "The Rout" by A. A. Fadeev has practically not received enough attention, despite the fact that it is one of the most representative works of the twenties of the last century. There are very few scientific papers devoted to the concept of "Civil War". The analytical algorithm of concept research can be applied to the conceptual analysis of similar works of art. Being a direct witness of the war, A. A. Fadeev evaluates it based on the impressions of eyewitnesses, and the study demonstrates his generalized view and understanding of the struggle between the reds and whites, which is manifested in a number of moments through the main components of the assessment of the war by different classes of the novel's heroes, which in general constitute the essence of the Civil War. The results of the study allow us to conclude that in the interpretative field, assessments are mostly negative, which reflects the brutality of the war and the fact that class struggle was an integral cause of the Civil War.

Gaddafi's Chemical Weapons: Chronicles of the Chadian-Libyan Conflict

The civil war in Chad has become one of the most protracted conflicts on the African continent. Its gradual internationalization led to the participation of three foreign military contingents in an internal armed confrontation Libya has taken an active military part in the civil war in Chad since 1972. There were several indications in certain studies about the use of chemical weapons by the Libyan troops. In the realities of the 1980s, these allegations could be true, or they could be an element of some information campaign against Libya. The purpose of this article is to verify the reports of the use of chemical weapons in Chad. Sources, methods. The sources for the study were the UN documents, declassified CIA materials and media reports. Cross-analysis of the documents, as well as the historical reconstruction of background events were carried out. Discussion of the results and conclusions. The analysis of the sources showed that, to date, no material evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Libyan troops in Chad has been found. There were no testimonies of direct witnesses and victims. No investigations have been carried out. Two sources of dissemination of information about the use of chemical weapons in northern Chad have been identified. The first one is the representatives of one of the participants in the civil war, Hissene Habré, who held the post of president in N'Djamena and fought against the Libyan troops. Representatives of H. Habré made such statements in December 1986. They cannot be considered reliable. In this way, one of the parties to the civil war wanted to show that Chad was the victim of the aggression with the use of weapons prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. However, it was established that in 1986 Libya did not possess chemical weapons. The second source is the CIA reports retransmitted to the public space in September 1987 about the alleged deliveries of chemical weapons to Libya from Iran. The reliability of these reports is doubtful. The «Iranian trace» has also not been proven. In 1987, during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), chemical weapons were used against Iran, but the military-chemical potential of Iran itself has not been established. However, such an accusation organically fit into the policy of containment of «rogue states» pursued by the administration of US President Ronald Reagan. In this article, cross-analysis methods have been tested. They have shown their effectiveness in retrospective investigations.

The philosophy of V. Lisovoy in the context of discussions around the “Kyiv world-view and philosophical school”

The article is devoted to the study of the Ukrainian realities of the second half of the 20th century, which are important for the revival of the collective memory of Ukrainians through the prism of the life path and the philosophical views of V. Lisovoy. The main attention is focused on the idea conceptualized in the writings of V. Tabachkovsky about the birth and development in the 60s and 80s of the 20th centuries in Kyiv of an original intellectual center – the “Kyiv worldview and anthropological school”. This pretentious, according to V. Lisovoy, definition caused a lively discussion on the pages of the “Krytika” magazine, to which V. Lisovoy also joined. As a direct witness of the events of the times of “stagnation” and the European intellectual level the philosopher, in contrast to a number of his contemporaries, V. Lisovoy made an attempt to consider the Ukrainian philosophy of the 60s-80s of the 20th century in the context of the methodological assets of the Western intellectual thought of that time. This approach allowed the Ukrainian scientist to refute the belief formed in the 90s of the 20th centuries about the existence and active development of the “Kiev school of worldview and philosophy” in the second half of the 20th century, thereby laying the foundations for rethinking the intellectual heritage of that time. This type of intelligence makes it possible to clarify, and in some cases to construct a clear idea of a certain community about itself, its culture, and with it its place and mission in the world, thereby uniting communities around the achievement of a certain goal.

Szkoła polska z lat ofensywy ideologicznej w oświacie (1948–1956) w świetle wspomnień nauczycieli

The aim of the article is to present the assumptions and methods of the ideological impact on the environment of Polish teachers by the communist authorities in 1948–1956 as remembered by teachers. During the Stalinist period, the Polish Workers’ Party (later the Polish United Workers’ Party) tried to instil in teachers “socialist morality” by means of various courses, conferences, additional education and the order of “self-education”. The following text contains a synthetic historical outline of the above–mentioned activities and their analysis based on the memories of direct witnesses of those events.

История Ассоциации художников революционной России в изложении основателя: к публикации рукописи (к 100-летнему юбилею АХРР)

One of the founders of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AARR) established in 1922 and its permanent secretary was the painter Eugene A. Katsman. Published for the first time, the transcript of his 1957 manuscript highlights some little-known points in the history of the Association. This article is introductory in nature and contains materials from another important source — E.A. Katsman’s diaries, which shed light on the circumstances of the preparation of the material, the author’s attitude to the phenomena in the artistic environment and public life, and his struggle for socialist realism. This publication is dedicated to the centenary of the AARR and designed to provide historians of culture with an honest opinion of a direct witness and participant in the events of a century ago. Both in the text of the published manuscript and in this introductory article, a number of outstanding artists of their time, cultural figures and Soviet political figures are mentioned. In the manuscript, Katsman characterized the major exhibitions and works created over the decade of the Association’s existence, and the diary fragments cited express his opinion on various issues of artistic life and the life of society in those years. The artist’s reflection in the diaries can become a valuable source not only for historians, but also for art critics.

Repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries in children of abuse

Repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries in children of abuse

The Role of Theatre in the Development of the Modern Human

"Theatre, along with all other forms of the performing arts - music, literature and visual arts, in their various manifestations - have always accompanied humanity, offering, among seductive ways to spend the free type, entertainment, moments of wonderful introspection, beneficial soul healing, indispensable spiritual development. Theater, through its specific means and effects, must be seen as material for reflection and thought, as a forum for implantation in contemporary consciousnesses or future of healthy moral and social concepts, as a space of prophylaxis or emotional recovery. Consequently, the actor as direct witness and keen observer of the times, can encompass, gratitude to his art, various functions: from histrion - in an appreciative sense, to spokesperson of the system or the collective, or the therapist."

The situation of students on placement, a real obstacle to the attractiveness of hospitals

Complementing theoretical courses, hospital internships are intended to encourage learners to apply their acquired knowledge while experiencing the field. In fact, this is becoming more and more complicated, and students are direct witnesses of the crisis affecting the hospital. The degraded working conditions of professionals do not allow them to properly supervise trainees, and even allow reprehensible behavior to flourish. Suffering on the job, the students desert the hospital after graduation.