Streets Of Moscow Research Articles

Russian elements in the ergonymy of intra-urban objects in Moscow

The article presents a fragment of a study examining the ergonymy of intra-urban objects in Moscow. The research focuses on ergonyms created on the basis of the Russian language. The study aims to find out what names of commercial enterprises are more attractive to city residents, which of them provoke positive, neutral, or negative emotions. The material for the study included the names of commercial enterprises in Moscow formed with the techniques of retrohybridisation, quasi-naming, anti-orthography, superimposition of words, and allusion. During the study, 2700 names of commercial enterprises located on the signs, bracket panels, and in the shop windows of establishments in the main streets of Moscow were collected. The selected ergonyms were classified according to their formation methods. A survey involving 90 respondents of different ages and educational backgrounds was conducted as well. The data obtained during the survey were processed using statistical analysis. Based on the experimental results, the study revealed that ergonyms with letters from the pre-revolutionary script had positive evaluations more often. Also, they were the most memorable. The largest number of negative evaluations was given to the names with a deliberate distortion of the Russian orthographic norm. Drawing on the data obtained, the paper formulates recommendations to those who create commercial enterprise names aimed at different age groups of consumers. The results of the work can be used in linguodidactics, for example, in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

Evaluation of public spaces street activity for its sustainable planning and design

In the context of rapid urbanization and increasing population density, the role of city streets as public spaces in cities is increasing. Street space activity is measured in terms of the number of functions it can offer users. The urban space of the streets plays the role of social services for the population, a linear element of the green frame of the city and a business center, which corresponds to the three aspects of sustainable urban development. Thus, the intensity of use of public spaces becomes an indicator that characterizes the sustainability of the development of the city as a whole. The article presents the results of a functional analysis using the methods of spatial analysis and field observations of public life, carried out on the streets of Moscow. Data processing using statistical methods will make it possible to distinguish three types of streets with different characteristics of the functional content.

“You’re a disgrace to the uniform!” Lev Protiv’s challenge to the police in Moscow streets and on YouTube

ABSTRACT Lev Protiv presents itself as a “social project” intertwining civic involvement, moral policing, and entertaining YouTube content. Promoting a healthy lifestyle and claiming to defend innocent youth, Moscow vigilantes have patrolled public spaces since 2014 in search of people consuming alcohol or smoking, for the purpose of enforcing the law. However, their targets are not only drunkards and youth subculture, but also police who are reluctant to implement the law. Financially supported by the government for two years in 2014 and 2015, and earning money thanks to its YouTube channel, why is Lev Protiv’s vigilante activity, openly challenging state authority, tolerated in an authoritarian regime? Based on analysis of raid videos and ethnographic observation, this paper shows that Lev Protiv has imposed a particular form of police oversight from below, forcing law enforcement officers to act as vigilante auxiliaries, partially in line with the governmental management of civil society.

Electric buses on the streets of Moscow: experience, problems, prospects

Moscow is one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. According to unofficial data, the population of Moscow is about 18-20 million people, according to official data - in 2020 12.6 million people. In such an overpopulated metropolis, the problem of exhaust emissions from urban, commercial, and personal vehicles is extremely relevant. Since September 2018, electric buses have been running in Moscow, of which there are more than 1000 today. The city authorities are actively promoting this new type of urban land transport, focusing on its environmental friendliness, equipping with modern multimedia equipment, free Wi-Fi, USB connectors, comfort for passengers with limited mobility etc. Practice has shown that in Moscow an electric bus can travel a maximum of 59 km on a single charge. The electric bus travels along the route for 40 minutes, charging at the final station for 30 minutes. However, the problems of using innovative urban land transport have been identified. For example, in the cold season, diesel heaters are used to heat the interior of an electric bus, which consume 3-4 liters of diesel fuel per hour. This circumstance does not allow classifying electric buses as urban transport with zero emissions into the atmosphere. Today, electric buses are the most expensive urban land transport (the price of one Russian-made electric bus is 400,000 euros). Despite this, the Moscow authorities are implementing a long-term strategy for the development of environmentally friendly urban transport. By 2030, it is planned to completely switch to electric buses instead of buses with internal combustion engines.

Electric Buses on the Streets of Moscow: Experience, Problems, Prospects

Electric Buses on the Streets of Moscow: Experience, Problems, Prospects

Filmmaking practice and animals’ geographies: attunement, perspective, narration

After being captured from the streets of Moscow, Laika was the first living creature to be sent into Earth’s orbit by the USSR in 1957. The 2019 film, Space Dogs, tells the story of Laika’s spectral return to Moscow, and searches for her ghosts in the city’s street dogs 60 years later. Combining archival material with contemporary documentary footage ‘filmed at dog’s level’, the film reanimates Laika’s spectral afterlives. Drawing on a series of in-depth conversations with the film’s directors, writers, and director of photography, we provide critical reflections on filmmaking practice for animals’ geographies. We offer a three-part typology which frames these contributions: attunement, which focuses on the affordances of filmmaking practice for attuning to the lives of nonhuman lifeworlds; perspective, which documents how filmmaking practice allows for more-than-human urban space to be viewed from alternative vantage points; and narration, which enables filmmakers to experiment with affective modes of representing animals’ lives, offering audiences alternative spatiotemporal experiences. Finally, we reflect on the potentials of filmmaking as a fruitful practice, method, and output for animals’ geographers.

Пространственный образ как носитель геокультурной и лингвокультурной информации (на материале обучающей топонимической базы данных «Московская топонимика»)

The article discusses spatial images preserved in the names of Moscow streets (hodonyms). The relevance of the multidimensional study of the Moscow spatial image is preconditioned by the necessity to add both linguocultural and geocultural data to the training toponymic database. Decoding spatial images through the prism of cross-cultural communication and urban anthropology contributes to a more complete disclosure of local culture specificity. The spatial image a name contains is associated with the toponymic picture of the nominator’s world that a culture-bearer can hardly decode without historical and linguistic-cultural knowledge. Using spatial features distinctiveness as a tool to analyze the group of selected toponyms, we have distinguished objectified and subjectified toponyms. It should be also noted that in the system of Moscow hodonyms, subjective spatial orientation can be implemented in various linguistic ways designated as space markers. Examples illustrating the main word-building and semantic markers of spatial localization are provided. In conclusion, all the features are summarized in the concept of a toponymic image that actually integrates linguistic, linguistic-cultural and geocultural parameters. From this perspective, for the bearer of another linguistic culture, the transition of a purely spatial image to a toponymic image can be regarded one of the criteria to getting closer to the linguistic world image of the speakers of a studied language.

Расставить все точки… в рекламных текстах

The purpose of this study is to identify new functions and determine trends in the use of punctuation marks in advertising texts, and to reveal the essence of the “play with punctuation marks” as a new kind of language play in the framework of linguistic theory. The research material were examples of outdoor advertising on Moscow streets and in well-known printing buildings, collected by the author. The result of the study is to generalize and systematize the use of punctuation marks, identify and explain cases of replacing one character with another, justify the functions of punctuation marks in printed advertising texts and to describing a new kind of language play called “punctuation play”.

Social-oriented approach to street public spaces design

Global challenges for urban development determine the need to develop new approaches to urban environment design aimed on smart and sustainable cities. City streets become centre of human life and places where many public functions are concentrated. Thats why nowadays the issue of street function relates non only to its transportation use, but also to the development of public interaction and a new progressive approach to the social-oriented design of the urban environment with the involvement of the population is becoming a great demand. The article offers a social-oriented approach to the functional zoning of public spaces along city streets to create comfortable and safe environments and to ensure the effective land use of the linear street space resource. The approach is based on the concept of demand and supply relative to territorial assessment of various public functions. It is proposed a model of functional planning of the territory and social space depending on the users needs. The proposed approach to urban development was tested for example in Moscow streets.

Is there a relation among REM sleep dissociated phenomena, like lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, out-of-body experiences, and false awakening?

During REM sleep we normally experience dreams. However, there are other less common REM sleep phenomena, like lucid dreaming (LD), false awakening (FA), sleep paralysis (SP), and out of body experiences (OBE). LD occurs when one is conscious during dreaming, and FA occurs when one is dreaming but believes that has woken up. SP is characterized by skeletal muscle atonia and occurs mainly during awakening or falling asleep. OBE is the subjective sensation of ‘leaving the physical body’. Since all these phenomena happen during REM sleep, their frequency is probably connected. The goal of this research is to explore how these phenomena are connected to each other in terms of frequency. We surveyed 974 people on the streets of Moscow and found significant correlations between the phenomena. Of those surveyed, 88% have experienced at least one of the phenomena of interest (i.e., LD, OBE, FA, and SP), which appeared to be closely correlated to each other. Furthermore, 43% of respondents stated that they often experience at least one of these phenomena. We found that the recurrence of these phenomena correlated with sleep duration and dream recall frequency. The results of the survey provide better understanding of the nature of REM sleep dissociative phenomena.Cross-correlations between REM sleep dissociated phenomena, like lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, out-of-body experiences, and false awakening, revealed by a survey.

Bogurodzico, przegoń Putina. Pussy Riot – feministki kontra autorytaryzm w Rosji

The events that took place in Russia at the end of 2011 – the rigged parliamentary elections and the nomination of Vladimir Putin as presidential candidate, his return to the Kremlin after four years, caused numerous protests on a previously unknown scale. According to various estimates, tens of thousands of dissatisfied citizens took to the streets of Moscow. They were led by Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov, who was later murdered in 2015. The public support of the authorities and the condemnation of the protesters by Patriarch Cyril – the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was met with a reaction from a now outraged society. On February, 21 2012, the famous feminist group Pussy Riot, staged a performance in the building of the Council of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. The performance was to be a form of protest against the informal alliance of „the throne and the altar”. This informal alliance has been present in Russia for many years, it obliges both sides to mutual support, especially in times of crisis. The trial of the three members of the Pussy Riot group – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samucevich and Maria Alokhina was strictly political, despite strict efforts of judges and prosecutors to change its character. Under the pretence of offending religious feelings, a political lynch was carried out against the three women. The real reason for such harsh actions, was disobedience against the head of the Russian state and standing in opposition to the authoritarian form of government. The phoney trial was treated as a warning to the system’s opponents, for them to think twice before undertaking any actions against the state authorities. Pussy Riot’s performance and its consequences have provoked many questions about the condition of the rule of law in Russia and the durability of Vladimir Putin’s regime. The article describes the earlier activities of Pussy Riot, background of the events preceding performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a trial and the world’s response to the verdict. The research area durability and stability of political system in Russia during the presidency of Vladimir Putin and what it guarantees. The main hypothesis is the assumption that any manifestation or insubordination to the existing order in Russia is treated as an affront, and every person undertaking such action must be severely punished and stigmatized. The research method used in the article is an analysis of written sources.

Spatial Features Transformation of Emission from Motor Vehicles in Moscow

The article examines changing volumes of emission from vehicles by administrative and municipal districts of Moscow. In Moscow automobile transport is the general source of pollution, it produces more than 93% of allover, and this is the absolute maximum of impact for Russian cities and regions. In 2011-2017, it was the first time when the growth of motorization was noticed against background of reduce of pollution due to modernization of car park and new quality of petrol. Total gross emission from vehicles decreased four times. Shifts in the factors defining spatial specifics of distribution of pollution from vehicles are revealed. Assessments of air pollution based on information of all Moscow streets provides estimations for 93 thousand low-level city areas. One of the research result revealed a high correlation between changes of pollution density and changes in transport infrastructure including developing of public transportation, modernization of car park structure. Spatial uniformity of pollution from vehicles has become the main trend of recent years. Programs of the new housing construction and large-scale projects aimed at the transformation of the districts increase the transport connectivity of the city. Administrative decisions on the traffic intensity reduction in the central districts decrease territorial differentiation of pollution. Transport and planning structure at the level of the city, the district, and the area is the defining characteristic. An attempt to solve the transport problem through the transformation of the street road network complicates the application of innovative techniques for combatting air pollution in Moscow.

Пленум Российского общества историков-архивистов в Екатеринбурге 26 сентября 2017 г. Информационное сообщение

The information on the last plenary meeting of the All-Russian public organization ‘Russian Society of Historians and Archivists’ (ROIA) includes report and official documentation. The report and discussion of the ROIA plenary meeting participants remarked that the events of interest are in complete congruence with the profile of the ROIA activities as a non-profit-making organization, active on both federal level and on the level of its regional offices in over 70 subjects of the Russian Federation. Of particular importance are interactions of the ROIA with the Federal Archival Agency and regional directorates for archiving and their subordinate institutions. Methodological focus of the ROIA projects is connected with tasks of identification, summation, introduction into scientific use, and popularization of archival documents on the Russian history. The ROIA activities ascertain results and prospects of new documents (especially, those of personal provenance) acquisition in the state archives and bring little-known documents to light. The ROIA gave coverage to results of work on the project ‘Revolution of 1917 in archival documents.’ Together with the Russian Military Historical Society and Association of Scholars in Soviet Society and Contemporary History, it participated in the contest of research and creative work ‘Russia: The memory space: The 20th century.’ To support the scientific research and educational project ‘Historical document heritage on the history of the Republic of Crimes and Sebastopol,’ a presidential grant was obtained. The ROIA seeks cooperation of the National Association of Russian Border Troops Veterans. The ROIA was one of the winners in the 2nd Grant Contest of the ‘History of the Motherland’ foundation with its exhibition project ‘Revolution of 1917 in the Moscow streets: Documents and photographs.’

RusNet on the Offensive

RusNet on the Offensive

Konst och politik under Putin

Lena.Jonson@ui.se Abstract: Art and Politics under Putin What role can culture play in mass protests? How important a factor was culture for the 100,000 people who took to the Moscow streets following the parliamentary elections in December 2011? In this article I argue that values and perceptions undergo changes long before social eruptions take place, changes that are reflected and expressed in culture before being articulated in political terms. I discuss the role of contemporary art in Russian society during the 2000s and the mind-liberating function of Russian art during these years of reconfiguring the sensory landscape, exposing shifts in the official discourse, and in some cases as a substitute for politics. I argue that art contributed to a process of subjectivation in the words of Jacques Ranciere.

Political Criticism From the Soviet Kitchen to the Russian Internet: A Comparative Analysis of Russian Media Coverage of the December 2011 Election Protests

The election protests in Moscow in December 2011 signified an important moment for Russian society. Political dissent, historically reserved for the private domain of Soviet kitchens and in recent years to the regulation-free space of the Russian Internet (RuNet), entered the public space of Moscow streets. Just like the protests revealed the long-held tension between the political discussion (and action) in Russian public and private spheres, the coverage of the protests by different media brought to light similar struggles in Russian journalism. This project combines the textual analysis of the protests’ coverage by two progovernment and two oppositional media with the analysis of their connections to the RuNet—a space that played an important role in the protests’ organization and coordination. The project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the role RuNet—a private space that increasingly becomes more public—plays in the development of Russian journalism.

Russians Go West

Russians Go West

Moscow in black and white - three film portraits of the city

This article presents the three different portraits of Moscow depicted in the Russian films Walking the Streets of Moscow by Georgy Danielija, Taxi Blues by Pavel Lungin and Moscow by Alexander Zeldovich. The times the films were made (the thaw period, the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the decline during the 1990s) determine differences in the directors’ perceptions. The picture of the city becomes a reflection of both hope and of more contemporary fears and anxieties.

Animals in (new) space: chimponauts, cosmodogs, and biosphere II

Like many baby-boomers, I grew up with visuals of chimpanzees being shot up into space as part of NASA’s program for space exploration; I read about Laika, the Russian dog who perished on her first space mission, involuntarily recruited from the streets of Moscow where she had lived as a stray. Biosphere II—the failed attempt to re-create earth’s ecosystems in an enclosure outside of Tucson, Arizona—similarly instrumentalized animals, this time for food, as part of a larger project investigating the possibilities of human life beyond earth. Now, NewSpace entrepreneurs pursue techno-solutions and space escapes for elites seeking adventurous enclosures beyond earth’s climate-changing surface. An ecofeminist perspective enriches our understanding of space exploration ideology by examining how cultural narratives of gender, species, and culture play out both here on earth and beyond our biosphere. Interrogating these techno-scientific pursuits in outer space augments our understanding of contemporary environmental problems such as climate change, environmental justice, and human-animal relations.

A Breakdown of Civil-Military Relations: The Soviet Coup of 1991

In August 1991 a Committee for State Emergencies, consisting of the minister of defence and the chief of the KGB, ousted Mikhail Gorbachev from power in the Soviet Union. The coup was important for several reasons. The platoons of tanks that moved in Moscow's streets ended a long tradition of obedience by the Soviet military to the civilian Communist Party. In addition, the military coup also marked a decisive shift in the foundation of civilian control in the Soviet Union. By analysing Soviet civil-military relations before the coup, this essay tries to determine how the military became involved in the coup. The essay then seeks to determine whether different theoretical frameworks, mostly based on American experience, could explain the breakdown of civil-military relations in the Soviet Union.