Pskov Oblast Research Articles

Septoria tormentillae . [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria

Abstract A description is provided for Septoria tormentillae , which sometimes causes lesions on Potentilla erecta . Some information on its dispersal and transmission and conservation status is given, along with details of its geographical distribution (Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan), Russia (Primorskyi krai), South Korea), Europe (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia (Belgorod oblast, Leningrad oblast, Oryol oblast, Pskov oblast, Yaroslavl oblast), Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine) and hosts ( Ramularia grevilleana [syn. Ramularia arvensis ] and Potentilla spp.).

Gene pool structure of Russian populations from the European part of Russia inferred from the data on Y chromosome haplogroups distribution

Population structure of Russian population from the European part of Russia was investigated by analyzing the distribution of 23 SNP makers of Y chromosome in Russian populations from Kaluga oblast, Yaroslavl' oblast, Vladimir oblast, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, Pskov oblast, Tula oblast, Belgorod oblast, and Novgorod oblast. In the populations studied a total of 14 Y-chromosome haplogroups (E, F*, I, J, K*, N3a, N2, P*, R1*, R1a1, C3, H, and A) were discovered, of which haplogroups R1a1, I, and N3a were the prevailing. Analysis of Phi statistics in the populations grouped in accordance to the dialect subdivision of the Russian language, showed the absence of statistically significant differences between Russian population groups. Analysis of the Y-chromosome markers distribution patterns among Russian population (10 population groups) in comparison with the population of Germany (11 population groups) revealed statistically significant differences between the gene pools of Slavs (Russians and Poles) and Teutons (Germans).

Effects of the Astacus astacus L. Population on Biomass of Macrophytes in a Fresh Water Body

In experiments performed in aquariums, the daily consumption of Chara vulgaris alga by crayfish (Astacus astacus L.) has been determined. These quantitative data have been used to make a prognosis of the effect of the A. astacus population on the biomass of macrophytes in Lake Berezovo (Pskov oblast). The density of the crayfish population and the biomass of higher aquatic vegetation in the lake have been determined in field studies. Extrapolation of the results of laboratory experiments to a natural water body has shown that crayfish are capable of controlling no less than 40% of submersed macrophytes in the area used by their population.

The Downsizing of Russian Agriculture1

The hand of Adam Smith, which has already clutched the Russian peasant by his throat, will soon squeeze the life out of him (unnamed member of Russia’s Council of the Federation). 2 THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT the change Russian agriculture has experienced since 1991 is closer to Sturm und Drang wild market enforcement or suspension of rules than to reform. The Russian state shed its former regulative and supportive role at a time when its financial resources dried up, and it did so abruptly. Some law-making activities were initiated but they made little difference. Since 1999 the Russian state’s fiscal condition has been improving, so the state is staging a comeback to the agrarian scene. But its interventions, though justifiable and similar to other national governments’ impact on agriculture, are essentially anti-market. In the meantime, Russian commercial agriculture has been downscaled in terms of inputs and output alike. Livestock numbers and farmland have been particularly hard hit, and the ongoing agricultural recovery is more structurally and spatially selective than ever before. In the Non-Chernozem Zone of European Russia, for example, a spatially contiguous belt of agricultural colonisation has given way to an archipelago-like pattern. This article examines some acquired (socio-demographic) and inborn (environmental) constraints Russian farming faces and questions whether retaining of large swaths of farmland in Russia is compatible with a liberal economic order. The article begins with an examination of trends in three modes of farming operations. I then turn to the Russian state’s re-entering the agrarian scene — after being conspicuously absent for almost a decade — in an effort to rein in the improprieties of the wild market. Vertical integration of farms and food processors is examined, as it has spawned most if not all agricultural success stories since 1999. Human capital in rural Russia is then interpreted as a limiting factor of agricultural modernisation. Aside from the publications of students of Russian agriculture, three other sources routinely inform the author about its current condition: Russian government statistics, Russian media reports and field trips. All three sources have become more limited and fragmented, and arguably less accurate, than before 1992. After the demise of central planning regions have taken diverging tacks, and so whatever has been observed by this author and his collaborators in selected regions such as Moscow, Novgorod, the Chuvash Republic, Ryazan’ and Stavropol does not equate to a coherent picture of

Materials for studying the gene pools of Russia and neighboring countries: the Russian population of the Pskov region

The distributions of the genes and haplotypes for blood groups ABO, MN, Rhesus, P1, Lewis, and Kell-Cell-ano and biochemical markers of the genes of loci HP, GC, C'3, Tf, 6PGD, GLO1, ESD, ACP1, and PGM1 (including subtypes) were studied in 116 Russian subjects born in the Pskov oblast. Differences of this group from other Russian populations with respect to genetic structure were found.

Ethnic Identity of the Setus and the Estonian–Russian Border Dispute

The Setus are an ethnic group, small in numbers, in the southeastern part of the Republic of Estonia and the Russian territories bordering on Estonia (Petseri raion of the Pskov oblast). The Setus can be seen as ethnographic raw material that both Estonian and Russian nationalists have attempted to claim. Generally, the Setus has been viewed as an ethnographic subgroup of Estonians and their language as part of the South Estonian dialect. Unlike the Estonians, who are predominantly Lutheran by tradition, the Setus are Orthodox. The specific characteristics of the Setus have emerged as a result of the combined influence of religious and linguistic peculiarities and a historic fate that is different from the Estonian. Because of the fact that they were considered Estonians when the censuses took place, the exact number of the Setus is unknown; however, I estimate the number of the Setus living in Setumaa and in Estonian towns to be about 5,000–6,000.

Elections into the Pskov Oblast Assembly: a social portrait of a deputy

Elections into the Pskov Oblast Assembly: a social portrait of a deputy

Rhytisma salicinum . [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria

Abstract A description is provided for Rhytisma salicinum . Information is included on the disease caused by the organism, its transmission, geographical distribution, and hosts. DISEASE: Tarspot disease of willow. HOSTS: Leaves of Salix acutifolia, S. amygdaloides, S. arbuscula, S. arctica. S. arctica var. brownei, S. arctophila, S. atrocinerea, S. atrocinerea × purpurea, S. aurita, S. barclayi, S. brachycarpa, S. caprea, S. cinerea, S. cordata, S. deprena, S. discolor, S. glauca, S. groenlandica, S. hastata, S. herbacea, S. herbacea × polaris, S. humilis, S. kitaibeliana, S. lanata, S. lapporum, S. lasiandra, S. linearifolia, S. longifolia, S. lucida, S. lutea, S. missouriensis, S. monticola, S. myrsinifolia, S. myrsinites, S. myrtilloides, S. nigra, S. nivalis, S. oleaefolia, S. pallasii, S. petiolaris, S. phlomoides, S. phylicifolia, S. piperi, S. polaris, S. pulchra, S. purpurea, S. repens, S. reticulata, S. richardsonii, S. rosmarinifolia, S. rostrata, S. rotundifolia, S. scouleriana, S. silesiaca, S. sitchensis, S. siuzewii, S. starkeana, S. triandra, S. uva-ursi, S. viminalis, Salix sp. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Belarus, Belgium, Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec, Saskatchewan, Yukon), China, Denmark, Estonia, Faroes, Finland, France, Republic of Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India (Himachal Pradesh), Iran, Ireland. Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Latvia, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Rumania, Russia (Altaïskyi Krai, Irkutskaya Oblast, Kamchatskya Oblast, Karelia, Krasnoyarskyi Krai, Kursk Oblast, Leningrad Oblast, Mari, Murmansk Oblast, Novgorod Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Primorskyi Krai, Pskov Oblast, Ryazan Oblast, Smolensk Oblast, Stavropolkyi Krai, Tambov Oblast, Tomsk Oblast, Tula Oblast, Vologda Oblast, Voronezh Oblast), Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK (England, Scotland, Wales), USA (Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming), Ukraine. Altitude records exist up to 3400m (India), 1950m (USA), 1500m (Greece), 1370m (Canada), 1100m (UK), 900m (Finland), 850m (Morocco), 660m (Ireland) and 600m (Ukraine). The distribution of Rhytisma salicinum is predominantly north-temperate to sub-arctic and circum-polar. In addition, the fungus can be encountered at higher altitudes in mediterranean countries as far south as north Africa. In Britain the species occurs predominantly in the north and west, though exceptional records are known. This may also perhaps indicate a preference for a cooler and wetter climate. The fungus is probably very widely distributed, and in some places may be locally abundant. TRANSMISSION: By air-borne ascospores in humid conditions.

The reconstruction of agriculture in Pskovoblast'1945–1953

THE CURRENT STATE of agriculture in the USSR attests to the total failure of the kolkhoz-sovkhoz system. This crisis raises the possibility of a deadlock. The main argument supporting this thesis is the lack of a social stratum that would form the basis of a system of privately owned farms, which is a necessity. In fact, no such stratum exists. The Soviet peasantry has got used to being employees of the state. I shall not discuss here how this stratum could be recreated, but show that this would have been possible during the years of Khrushchev's reforms. For this purpose I shall analyse the situation in agriculture during the early post-war years in Pskov oblast'. First I want to make clear the differences between the behaviour of the oblast' and the raion administration. Then I shall examine the implementation of state policy in Pskov oblast' and, at the same time, try to explain the real reasons for the government policy of widespread amalgamation of kolkhozy. Then I shall try to analyse the peasantry's reaction to this policy and the ways in which the peasants adapted to the real situation in agriculture. In Pskov oblast' the consequences of Stalin's rule were very serious and for that reason they are easy to identify. Pskov oblast' is located in the North-West of the European part of the USSR (the non-Black-Earth zone). The majority of the oblast' has been part of the USSR since 1917, but three raiony were not incorporated into the USSR until 1940, (at the same time as Estonia and Latvia) and for this reason there were no kolkhozy in these three raiony until 1946. The small area of the oblast' was the reason for the addition of part of Velikie Luki oblast' to Pskov oblast' at the end of 1957. At the end of the war agriculture in the oblast' was in a very bad state. The number of able-bodied kolkhozniki had decreased by one-third; 60% of kolkhoznik families were living in dug-outs or in neighbours' houses.1 The sown area had fallen to 36.5% of the pre-war level, cattle numbers at the beginning of 1945 were only 40% of the numbers at the beginning of 1941 (in the kolkhozy only 11%), and pig numbers were down to 15% of the pre-war level ( and in the kolkhozy there were none at all).2 The great problem was the restoration of the kolkhozy, because during the occupation the peasants had operated the pre-kolkhoz system with the permission of the German authorities. The oblast' party committee and agriculture administration had taken into account the local realities. If one considers the undoubtedly hard line coming from Moscow, the behaviour of the oblast' authorities seems more liberal. In particular,

"She Entered a Nunnery …"

want to enter a nunnery. Don't ask why. I can only say that the nunnery is my age-old dream. Svetlana Sh., Krasnodar. Our editors received the above letter. Yes, even today, certain women choose the lot of a nun. Our correspondent spent some time at the Kuremiae (Pukhtitskii) Nunnery (100 kilometers from Tallin, on the border of Pskov Oblast), talked with its prioress and its residents, familiarized herself with their way of life. She shares her experiences from this trip.

The Usviat Wedding Ritual in its Contemporary Form: (From Data Collected by the 1971-79 Expeditions to Pskov Oblast)

Usviat (Usviach', Vsviach') is an ancient Russian town. It is first mentioned in the chronicles at the beginning of the eleventh century. (1) For several centuries (the fourteenth through the eighteenth) it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian principality. Only in 1772 were Usviat and other west Russian towns rejoined to Russia once and for all. After the third partition of Poland, when the Russian frontier was moved to the Baltic Sea, the Usviat District lost its great strategic importance, and the city of Usviat, which was off the main roads, became, over the course of time, the little country town of Usviaty. Today it is a large village serving as county seat in the south of Pskov Oblast.

On the Linkage Between the Demographic Processes and Economy of a Region: (with particular reference to Pskov Oblast)

A low rate of natural increase, deriving from a disrupted age-sex structure, and net out-migration combine to account for a steady depopulation of Pskov Oblast. The introduction of industries providing additional male employment is recommended in the two principal cities—Pskov and Velikiye Luki—to correct the present predominance of women in industrial towns. Several measures (modernization of the countryside, promotion of truck-produce farming around the major urban centers) are suggested to keep more young people in rural areas and thus correct the lop-sided age structure there. Economic decision-making is viewed as a key factor in improving the demographic situation of a region.