Historical Conditions Research Articles

Historia (non?) grata: Byzantine archaeology of Istanbul during the First World War and the Allied occupation

ABSTRACT Over the course of the ‘long’ 1920s, following the First World War, there was increasing interest in Byzantine Constantinople, as well as prolific research activity characterized by a commendable collaboration between local authorities and foreign scholars such as Theodore Wiegand, Stanley Casson, David Talbot Rice, M.C. Vett, Nicholas Brunoff and Ernest Mamboury. These scholars, who laid the foundation stones for Byzantine archaeology in Istanbul, defined the key urban features of Byzantine Constantinople by bringing to light considerable data on the Mangana Quarter, the Hippodrome, the Baths of Zeuxippus, Forum Tauri, the Column of Constantine, Hebdomon and a number of Byzantine churches in Istanbul. Yet, in Byzantine Studies, the controversial political and historical conditions of war and military occupation in Istanbul, under which these scholars operated with the aim of uncovering the physical remains of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, remained largely unexplored. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on Byzantine archaeology in Istanbul during the period between 1920 and 1930. Drawing on historical archives in Ottoman Turkish, French, English and Turkish, along with a comparative analysis of the Antiquities Law initially codified in the Ottoman Empire and later adopted by the young Turkish Republic, the paper explores the work of the pioneers of Byzantine archaeology in Istanbul within the framework of the cultural dynamics that emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century, marked by the First World War and the Allied Occupation. In doing so, the paper contextualizes the role of these precursory archaeological missions for the newly founded Turkish Republic and its renewed narrative of nationhood, as well as its cultural and archaeological heritage inherited from the Ottoman Empire.

Problems of the Russian economy in 2023–2024: the catch–up development trap, parallel imports, distribution of national income and development of competition

The authors of the article focused on the current problems of the Russian economy in 2023–2024, such as: import substitution and the catch–up development trap, parallel import, insufficiently efficient distribution of national income and the need to develop competition in the domestic Russian market. The authors revealed the prerequisites, current state and impact on the general state of the country’s economy of all the above problems. It was shown that catch–up development, import substitution and parallel import are effective tools for solving a number of economic problems arising under the influence of both economic and political historical conditions. The catch–up development of the Russian economy does not allow us to fully effectively solve the problems of efficient distribution of national income, poverty, demography, as well as consistently develop domestic competition. The authors concluded that solving the entire complex of the identified problems of the Russian economy requires a scientifically based systems approach, the best theoretical basis for which, of course, is the work of domestic scientists in the field of systemic economic theory.

How did the Chinese Russianists interpretate the leading theme in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”

The reception of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in China can be traced back to a hundred years ago. The most significant issue in this process was the discussion about the leading theme in this epic, initiated by the Chinese Russianists. This article mainly focuses on an important controversy about the patriotic idea in the “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” that arose in China in the 1980s. Firstly, the author overviews the main works and their basic views in this discussion, including the “initiator” of this debate, Liu Wenxiao, who denied the presence of patriotic ideas in this epic, and his opponents Wei Huangnu, Bao Liangjun and Lu Jiayu, who firmly support the patriotic character of it. In addition, the Chinese researchers’ cogitation on the main idea of this epic and the debates themselves in the 21st century are also presented as comparative material. Subsequently, this article attempts to examine the aesthetic subjectivity reflected in this process from the perspective of receptive theory. The historical conditions that influenced the specific interest of Chinese readers in the “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” are considered, and thus the personal experience that contributed to the formation of Liu Wenxiao’s views is recognized.

Nativeness as Gradient: Towards a More Complete Value Assessment of Species in a Rapidly Changing World

Conservation biologists recognize a duty to maintain as much value as possible in ecosystems that are threatened by recent anthropogenic impacts. Until recently the paradigm of contemporary conservation seemed relatively straightforward: the best way to maintain the value of species and ecosystems at a given location was to maintain—or shepherd the system back towards—historical conditions. Among the most difficult theoretical tasks was the determination of “baseline” historical conditions (or trajectories) to return to, recognizing the dynamism of ecosystems over time. However, the rate, scale, and magnitude of contemporary climate change, species introductions, and land-use change make it increasingly impractical to return locations to any kind of historical state. This forces a paradigm shift which is both ongoing and difficult, and necessitates a rigorous evaluation of the scientific and ethical foundations of modern conservation along with a careful reexamination of terminology. Here, I discuss the moral relevance and waning utility of the geographically-based and dichotomous understanding of “native” (or “in situ”) which is an important component of conservation ethics and practice. I then propose a new understanding of nativeness in which a species is native—not to a geographic location—but to a quantifiable set of biotic, climatic, geologic, and topographic conditions (i.e. its niche) that can then map to geographic space. Following this, I demonstrate the unique utility of this concept, which I will refer to as “econativeness,” in thinking through conservation problems—range expansions, range contractions, species introductions, and assisted migration—where the classical understanding of nativeness has become increasingly inadequate for assessing the moral value of species.

Weather conditions in southern Poland at the turn of the 20th century — Insights from archived observational records

This study examines weather conditions in Małopolska (Lesser Poland, southern Poland) from 1861 to 1919, utilizing historical meteorological materials stored in the Archives of the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management — National Research Institute, Poland. The region developed an extensive meteorological network in the latter half of the nineteenth century, preserving daily and sub-daily measurements of air temperature and precipitation, along with notes on socio-economic events and environmental issues. Despite the loss of many early records, the study focuses on 14 measurement points, including the Kraków–Observatory, which has been in operation since 1792 and served as the reference station. Data were digitized through the HISTKLIM project. Analysis revealed that air temperatures in the late 1800s and early 1900s were lower than present-day values, with varied rainfall patterns. The study highlights the substantial value of these historical records, despite gaps and the absence of metadata. Comparing historical weather conditions to current climate normals (1991–2020), the findings contribute to understanding regional climate variability and underscore the importance of preserving archival meteorological data for future research.

The (Neo-)Romantic Roots of Austria’s Politics of Pessimism

ABSTRACT This article explores some historical and ideological conditions of possibility underpinning the two most widely debated and strongly politicized topics in Austrian public discourse over recent years: in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, an “anti-vaxxer” sub-culture, which is less internally coherent than one may assume; and prominent, if controversial positions vis-à-vis Russia. My focus leads to the extrapolation of a common denominator that I locate in the longue durée legacy of romantic and neo-romantic ideas. Following an initial contextualization, a methodological rationale, and summary of existing literature on the history of (neo-)romantic thought on the territories of present-day Austria, the crux of the argument is that a cultural-cum-political pessimism, often articulated through (inadvertent and selective) neo-romantic tropes and topoi, constitutes the shared argumentative terrain between the two thematic clusters in question (i.e. the Querdenker phenomenon and Russophile positions). In a more tentatively formulated vein that awaits sustained empirical exploration, I also suggest that while this (neo-)romantic pessimism is particularly pronounced on the (far)right end of the spectrum, some of its elements cut across political divides in Austria today.

Adivasi (Tea Tribe) worldviews of living close to wild Asian elephants in Assam, India.

In Assam state, northeastern India, human-elephant conflict mitigation has included technocentric measures, such as installation of barriers, alternative livelihoods, and afforestation. Such measures treat conflict as a technical problem with linear cause-effect relations and are usually ineffective over the long term because they do not consider how historical conditions have shaped present interactions between humans and elephants. Human-elephant encounters in South Asia, including in Assam, have arisen from colonial and postcolonial land-use policies, ethnic relations, and capital extraction. To disentangle these relations, we conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Udalguri district of Assam among the Adivasi (Tea Tribe) to examine their interactions with wild elephants. Through socioecological ruptures, caused by displacement and deforestation, Adivasi (Tea Tribe) and elephant lives have intersected through space and time. Adivasi (Tea Tribe) life narratives and observations of daily encounters with elephants revealed that their interactions are multifaceted and motivated by multiple factors. Myths and oral testimonies revealed that the community has created conceptualizations of the elephant by closely observing their behavior, especially their movements, diets, vocalizations, and interactions with humans. These conceptualizations are filled with vignettes of shared marginalized lives, caused by the loss of homeland, food poverty, and uncertain ways of living. The empathy, expressed by the Adivasi (Tea Tribe), highlights ways of living with elephants that are affective and reach beyond technocentric interventions. For Adivasi (Tea Tribe) members, cohabitation could thus be achieved by living close to elephants as uneasy neighbors. Concepts of cohabitation, we suggest, could be harnessed to inform conservation policy and bring into focus the critically important-and yet often underutilized-values, encompassed by bottom-up, place-centric understandings of what elephants are and how coexistence may be possible in increasingly anthropogenic landscapes.

Transformation of the Ukrainian agrarian model in the context of accession to the EU

Abstract The article determines the strategy for the development and transformation of Ukraine’s agricultural system in the process of accession to the EU. This article analyzes the most common contemporary political systems and business models of agriculture in the world. On this basis, the current model of the agricultural system of Ukraine was compared with the most common models in European and American countries. The scope of the analysis concerned the historical, economic, and organizational conditions of individual models, their properties, and development prospects in the context of the needs of Ukrainian agriculture. For this purpose, SWOT analysis was used, among others, which allowed the most credible scenarios for the development of Ukraine’s agricultural sector to be verified. The conducted research allowed not only to systematize the literature in the area of agricultural business models but also to formulate the author’s vision for agricultural business models and agrarian system models.

Key issues of Marxist Doctrine on the State in the First Half of the 20th Century

The article examines the evolution of Marxist state theory in the first half of the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the period following the October Revolution of 1917. The author analyzes key aspects of Marxist-Leninist doctrine on the state, including the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the issue of eliminating class differences between peasantry and workers, and questions of overcoming commodity forms and bureaucracy. The study investigates both theoretical and practical aspects of socialist construction in the conditions of a backward agrarian country, which Russia was at the time. Special attention is given to the analysis of works by V. I. Lenin, J. V. Stalin, L. D. Trotsky, I. Bukharin, and other Marxist theorists. The article examines mechanisms facilitating the movement towards a class less society and analyzes specific manifestations of the state’s withering away during the process of socialist construction. The study draws conclusions about the developmental trends of the socialist state and the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat in this process. The article emphasizes the dialectical relationship between the theoretical propositions of Marxism and their practical implementation in specific historical conditions.

Life prediction of on-board supercapacitor energy storage system based on gate recurrent unit neural network using sparse monitoring data

With the increasing use of supercapacitor in transportation and energy sectors, service life prediction becomes an important aspect to consider. As the aging process of onboard supercapacitors is closely related to practical working conditions, the actual service life may be inconsistent with the cycle life measured in the laboratory. However, the low-quality onboard monitoring data recording the historical working conditions is usually sparse and fragmented, making it difficult to extract valuable information. In our previous study, we successfully obtained the characteristic parameters from sparse and fragmented data, whereas those characteristic parameters change periodically and couldn't be used directly for life prediction. In this paper, we firstly extract the degradation trend term of supercapacitor by a composite sine and polynomial time series decomposition model from the characteristic parameters. Secondly, in order to make up for the lack of data, a GRU network is designed to generate more sample data which is in consistent with historical data evolution trends. The combination of input characteristic variables including the extracted historical characteristic capacitance C, temperature T and the time fitting sequences CtD are selected to improve the accuracy of GRU predictions. The predictive error of the characteristic capacitance C is 2.36 %. Finally, the life prediction of on-board supercapacitors based on actual working conditions is realized.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation for rice-based farming systems in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

BackgroundRice is a major contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primarily methane, and at the same time will be negatively impacted by regional climate changes. Identifying rice management interventions to reduce methane emissions while improving productivity is, therefore, critical for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and food security. However, it can be challenging to conduct multivariate assessments of rice interventions in the field owing to the intensiveness of data collection and/or the challenges in testing long-term changes in meteorological and climate conditions. Process-based modeling, evaluated against site-based data, provides an entry point for evaluating the impacts of climate change on rice systems and assessing the impacts, co-benefits, and trade-offs of interventions under historical and future climate conditions.MethodsWe leverage existing site-based management data to model combined rice yields, methane emissions, and water productivity using a suite of process-based coupled crop-soil model experiments for 83 growing sites across the Red River Delta, Vietnam. We test three rice management interventions with our coupled crop-soil model, characterized by Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) water management and other principles representing the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). Our simulations are forced with historical as well as future climate conditions, represented by five Earth System Models for a high-emission climate scenario centered on the year 2050. We evaluate the efficacy of these interventions for combined climate change mitigation and adaptation under historical and future climate change.ResultsTwo SRI interventions significantly increased yields (one by over 50%) under historical climate conditions while also reducing (or not increasing) methane emissions. These interventions also increase yields under future climate conditions relative to baseline management practices, although climate change decreases absolute yields across all management practices. Generally, where yield improved, so did crop water-use efficiency. However, impacts on methane emissions were mixed across the sites under future climate conditions. Two of the interventions resulted in increased methane emissions, depending on the baseline management point of comparison. Nevertheless, one intervention reduced (or did not significantly increase) methane under both historical and future climate conditions and relative to all baseline management systems, although there was considerable variation across five selected climate models.ConclusionsSRI management principles combined with high-yielding varieties, implemented for site-specific conditions, can serve climate change adaptation and mitigation goals, although the magnitude of future climate changes, particularly warming, may reduce the efficacy of these interventions with respect to methane reductions. Future work should better bracket important sensitivities of coupled crop-soil models and disentangle which management and climate factors drive the responses shown. Furthermore, future analyses that integrate these findings into socio-economic assessment can better inform if and how SRI/AWD can potentially benefit farmer livelihoods now and in the future, which will be critical to the adoption and scaling of these management principles.

Analysis of the Process of RMB Internationalization with Special Emphasis on the Offshore Bond Markets

With rapid economic growth in recent years, China has become the world's second largest economy. In the context of economic globalization, the process of RMB internationalization is gradually accelerating, and remarkable achievements have been made in cross-border settlement and offshore market. This paper first reviews the relevant theories of currency internationalization and analyzes the historical conditions of the development of RMB internationalization. It reveals the internal and external driving forces of RMB internationalization and sorts out its development context. Taking the offshore bond market as the research object, the currency structure in the international bond market is selected as an index reflecting the degree of currency internationalization, and the determining model of international bond proportion is established. Using the data of 28 countries from 2005 to 2019, the regression analysis shows that a country's economic size and domestic macroeconomic stability are positively correlated with the level of currency internationalization, while foreign exchange reserves are negatively correlated. According to the model, the difference between the theoretical demand and the actual issuance of RMB international bonds is nearly 10 times. Therefore, it can be inferred that the offshore RMB bond market has great development potential.

Advanced Short-Term Load Forecasting with XGBoost-RF Feature Selection and CNN-GRU

Accurate and efficient short-term load forecasting (STLF) is essential for optimizing power system operations. This study proposes a novel hybrid forecasting model that integrates XGBoost-RF feature selection with a CNN-GRU neural network to enhance prediction performance while reducing model complexity. The XGBoost-RF approach is first applied to select the most predictive features from historical load data, weather conditions, and time-based variables. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is then employed to extract spatial features, while a gated recurrent unit (GRU) captures temporal dependencies for load forecasting. By leveraging a dual-channel structure that combines long- and short-term historical load trends, the proposed model significantly mitigates cumulative errors from recursive predictions. Experimental results demonstrate that the model achieves superior performance with an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 53.29 and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 3.56% on the test set. Compared to traditional models, the prediction accuracy improves by 28.140% to 110.146%. Additionally, the model exhibits strong robustness across different climatic conditions. This research validates the efficacy of integrating XGBoost-RF feature selection with CNN-GRU for STLF, offering reliable decision support for power system management.

Water valuation for economic development and climate planning

ABSTRACT This paper presents a multisector framework for solving the inverse problem from which results are applied to find marginal values of water under historical and counterfactual conditions. It infers from observed data on water use and production the parameters of an underlying multicommodity production function system. From the recovered production function parameters, marginal values of water are calculated over a range of hydrological and economic conditions. This work can inform policy debates over competing proposals for climate change adaptation based on identifying marginal values of water for irrigated agriculture over a range of existing and potential conditions.

Large Reductions in Temperate Rainforest Biome Due to Unmitigated Climate Change

AbstractTemperate rainforests are rare ecosystems globally; restricted to cool, moist conditions that are sensitive to a changing climate. Despite their crucial conservation importance, a global assessment of how temperate rainforests will be impacted by climate change is lacking. We calculated historical (1970–2000) climate conditions for the temperate rainforest biome using ERA5 reanalysis data for three key bioclimatic variables: warmest quarter temperature, annual precipitation and proportion of rainfall during warmest quarter. We used high‐spatial resolution climate projections for these variables to identify regions likely to become unsuitable for temperate rainforests under four future shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios. We predict unmitigated climate change (SSP 5–8.5) would lead to a 68.3 (95% confidence interval (95 CI): 53.4–81.3)% loss in the existing temperate rainforest biome by 2100 at a global scale with some national‐level reductions exceeding 90%. Restricting global warming to <2°C (consistent with SSP 1–2.6), limits loss of global temperate rainforest biome to 9.7 (95 CI: 7.8–13.3)% by 2100 and is crucial to ensuring temperate rainforest persistence. Deforestation has resulted in loss of up to 43% of the current temperate rainforest biome with only 37% of primary forest remaining, and some regions like Europe with virtually none. Protection and restoration of the temperate rainforest biome, along with emissions reductions, are vital to its climate future.

Two 33-Year-Old Women: Minka Stoeva and Kim Jiyoung Across Space and Time

Abstract: Comparative analysis is conducted between the Bulgarian film “A 33-Year-Old Woman” (1982) and the Korean film “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” (2019), as well as the Korean novel (2016) on which it was based. The focus is on the parallels and the differences between the artistic realizations of the protagonists which share the same age, the same gender, the same parent status (mothers of daughters). I explore how images were constructed which claim common validity for certain social and historical conditions. The aim is to identify the common and the specific phenomena and processes depicted in two different and distant cul¬tures in two different historical periods in two completely different socio¬po¬litical systems (Bulgaria in 1981/1982 and South Korea in 2015/2016) through works of narrative art that have provoked exceptionally broad social response and debate. Intercultural issues are seen through the prism of feminist discourse in two dif¬ferent periods. The tumultuous public reactions to the three works of art prove their artistic relevance and their high historical value as documents of their own time. Keywords: comparative analysis, contemporary Korean literature, Bulgarian cine¬ma, Korean cine

Sorabistische Editionspraxis

Abstract The article outlines the historical and current framework conditions as well as various guiding principles of the editorial practice of Sorbian literature. Three phases can be identified: the end of the 19th century, the 1960s/70s and the present day. This perspective can identify various areas of tension that have determined editorial activity from the outset, but which are weighted differently in the individual phases and accordingly influence the conception and realisation of the editions. The discussions held here offer important starting points for further theoretical and practical considerations in the field of Sorbian studies.

THE POLISH-UKRAINIAN ALLIANCE OF 1920 IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

The article is devoted to the study of the development and main trends of modern Ukrainian historiography of the Polish-Ukrainian Alliance of 1920. The source base of the study are monographs, articles, and dissertations of Ukrainian historians in the period from 1991 to 2022. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of the Cambridge School of Intellectual History, which can be generally characterized as a contextualist method of interpretation, which places the main emphasis on historical conditions and the intellectual context of the discourse of a given historical era. These principles are especially relevant for the mentioned issue given its political sensitivity, which has not disappeared to this day. As a result, the political context at the time of the creation of the text can significantly influence the research questions and interpretations of the researchers. The author notes that since Ukraine regained its independence in 1991, Ukrainian scholars have rejected the Soviet paradigm of the history of the Polish-Soviet war and have largely adopted the interpretive schemes of emigration historiography. In this narrative, in contrast to the Soviet one, S. Petliura, when signing the agreement with Poland, was guided by Ukrainian national interests. However, Ukraine became a hostage to the selfish interests of Poland, which eventually betrayed its ally. However, as the author proves, the interpretive model that depicts the Polish-Ukrainian Alliance as the resultant force of Polish and Ukrainian interests and resources is beginning to dominate Ukrainian historiography. The aspect of uniting for the common struggle against Bolshevism began to come to the fore. A significant role in this process is played by the possibility of contacts between Ukrainian historians and Polish colleagues, the essential filling of many factual gaps and, not least, the geopolitical situation of Ukraine.

The mass person and their speech roles of a simpleton, a buffoon, a mentor in the Russian prose of the 1920s

The scientific review deals with the understanding of the image of the mass person in the literature of the 1920s. The focus of our attention includes both the actual literary texts of the writers of this decade, as well as fundamentally important studies devoted to this problem. Historical-typological and comparative methods are chosen as leading research technologies. They allow us to study the subjective organization of prose works and create a scientific classification of the most representative phenomena in this field. Modern achievements in narrative theory are taken into account. It is widely known that in the revolutionary breakdown of the entire symbolic system of being the ratio of everydayness and non-everydayness has changed. The role of the public dimension increased, human life went out onto the street, the square, and there was a tilt towards the collectivist "we". An ordinary person found their voice and inevitably became, to some extent, a historical "figure". For writers, this person was of interest as a subject of consciousness and a subject of speech. The range of speech roles of the mass person is quite large. There is a simpleton, and a buffoon, and a joker, and a performer, and a cheat, and a singer, and a limited person, and a fool, and a teaching mentor, and a narrow-minded judge. A mass person represents himself/herself in texts in different ways: 1) in the individual lines assigned to him/her by the author, 2) in detailed monologues, and, finally, 3) in prose. In the latter case comically-colored and holistic forms of fantasy-narrative became extremely active: there was a demand for a narrator figure capable of replacing the traditional figure of an "omniscient" narrator close to the author. This narrator completely subordinates the narrative, and the phraseological point of view of the character who initiated the storytelling event begins to dominate the text. The scientific review deals with the works of M.M. Zoshchenko, P.S. Romanov, A.N. Tolstoy, V.Ya. Shishkov, M.Ya. Kozyrev, Y.L. Slezkin. At the same time, attention is paid to such opposite speech reflections of the mass person as a harmless buffoon who turns every thing and every being around themselves into a theater of life, and a severely instructive mentor, distinguished by speech aggression. All these examples show that the traditional "little person" (familiar from previous literature and becoming a "mass person" in new historical conditions and gaining the status of the initiator of storytelling) does not at the same time acquire proper personal development and reveals his or her stereotypicality and shallowness.

Racial group differences and export market access challenges in agricultural value chains and supply networks of SMEs in South Africa

ABSTRACT Although previous studies provide an insightful and categorised nature of internal and external export barriers experienced by agricultural SMEs in general; there is little, if any, strategic insights on the racial nuances in value chain barriers for most agricultural SMEs that target global export markets. This study posits that export barriers are not uniform and differ based on race and the context in which the agricultural SME is based. Hence, we specifically explore the nature of export barriers per race within the agro-value chains in South Africa and juxtapose these with the dynamic market and historical conditions of the South African market environment. In this multi-case study, we focused mainly on the differences between black and white-owned agricultural SMEs riding on their different supply networks’ capabilities to navigate the export barriers they face. The findings serve to develop seminal knowledge to enhance export capabilities and opportunities for minority groups globally and more importantly to highlight the underlying drivers for racial imbalances in agro-supply chains. Although the findings are geographically skewed to South Africa, the market dynamics are relevant across countries with similar demographic characteristics and provide a platform for future research.