Public Figures Research Articles

Xhafer Deva: Nationalism, Collaboration and Mass Murder in Pursuit of a ‘Greater Albanian’ State

Xhafer Deva is one of the most notorious figures in the history of World War II in Kosovo and ‘Greater Albania’. As Minister of the Interior of the ‘Greater Albanian’ state and a Nazi collaborator, he was responsible for the assassination, deportation and expulsion of countless Serbs. At the same time, he fought for the integration of Kosovo into Albania. As such, notwithstanding the mass atrocities for which he is responsible, he is still revered in nationalist circles to this day. In this contribution, Xhafer Deva, a controversial public figure, will be examined and presented against the backdrop of the shifting empires and loyalties during the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.

From Moral Indignation to Affective Citizenship: Public Shaming of Celebrity Emigration from Russia During the War Against Ukraine

The article analyzes the public shaming campaigns that followed celebrity emigration from Russia at the beginning of the war against Ukraine. It shows that celebrity emigration represented a challenge to the construction of a nation morally and emotionally united around the war. The special status of celebrities in modern society as figures that provide the public with a focus of common identification and attention makes celebrity emigration during the war particularly challenging both for the state authorities and for the public. Through systematic analysis of commentary on social media, the article reveals the communicative process of public shaming of these public figures, which works through acts of revelation of their moral failure and othering, including by highlighting their ethnic and class differences. By expressing moral outrage, individual commenters on social media are not only conducting symbolic destruction of these celebrities’ moral character and social status, but also reconstituting the moral meaning of emigration as an act of betrayal of the Motherland. Using the affordances of social media, ordinary people not only express their outrage but also formulate how they see the proper moral commitments and appropriate feelings of patriotic citizens in wartime. Their moral rhetoric and affective expressions are anchored in the well-established Soviet tradition of public shaming and denunciation. They are also framed by the contemporary context of emotional and confrontational social media campaigns.

Problems of alcohol consumption in the oral and written literary tradition of the Yakuts (late 19th – early 20th centuries)

The research subject of this article is the texts of folklore and literary works of the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, dedicated to the issue of alcohol consumption. The research was conducted using historical-cultural and comparative-historical methods. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the authors’ attempt to comprehensively study the problem of alcohol in folklore and written literary works of the pre-revolutionary period. The study examines the initial instances of critical understanding of alcohol consumption in Yakut society, as expressed in oral and written literary traditions of the people. In their analysis of the texts, the authors explored previously undiscovered archival documents. They conclude that, starting from the late 19th century, “songs about vodka” emerged in Yakut folklore, addressing the issues of alcohol consumption and explaining the harmful effects of alcoholic beverages to the population. The article acknowledges the contribution of folk singers who, alongside intelligentsia, initiated efforts the combat excessive drinking in Yakutia. In the 1910s, A.E. Kulakovsky, the founder of Yakut literature, authored two works addressing the problem of alcoholism. These were the first works in Yakut literature presented in the form of literary genres: a short poem and a narrative poem with a clearly expressed and developing plot, and a well-balanced composition. While folk singers raised awareness of the issue of drinking in their songs and portrayed its harmful effects on individuals, Kulakovsky, recognizing alcoholism as a potential national threat, vividely illustrated the potential consequences of alcohol addiction and its destructive impact on people's lives. A.E. Kulakovsky, as an educator, public figure, and spiritual leader of the nation, endeavored through his creative work to caution his people against excessive alcohol consumption.

Introducing the Marginalized Image Navigation and Expression (MINE) principles via the confirmation hearings of judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Image Restoration Theory (IRT) examines the strategies that people, especially public figures, and organizations use when they face image and reputational threats. Past scholarship has not fully accounted for the impact of identity on an individual or group’s ability to invoke image repair strategies. We examine the 2022 Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson through an intersectional lens to spotlight the constraints that minoritized populations, generally, and Black women, specifically, encounter when responding to reputational threats. Given the legacies of patriarchy and whiteness that operate in the West, Black women often lack the standing in the eyes of the public to defend themselves against attacks and accusations, an experience we describe as nonpersonhood. This point suggests that image repair strategies are not neutral, but embedded within socio-political and historical contexts. Via our analysis, we introduce Marginalized Image Navigation and Expression (MINE) principles as a conceptual framework that is useful for understanding the nuanced ways that images are navigated, negotiated, and expressed, especially for marginalized persons. Finally, we examine the implications of our arguments in the context of reputational threats against minoritized people and organizations.The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.Malcolm X

МАТЕМАТИЧНЕ МОДЕЛЮВАННЯ ПЕРЕХІДНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ В ІЄРАРХІЧНИХ СТРУКТУРАХ ДЕРЖАВНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ З НЕЛІНІЙНИМИ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКАМИ

The last decades are characterized by a large number of studies of state and public figures, which can be called an era of deep (fundamental) and rapid changes. Society is experiencing qualitative changes and serious challenges, therefore there is a kind of paradox when the imperatives of a new era force the development of a theoretical basis in the semantic field of common sense, which is associated with permanence and qualitative changes in political, economic and social life [1, 2, 3] . In state administration and local self-government bodies, relations between people, rapid unpredictable changes in the situation in the country and in regions (political, economic, social, etc.) are non-linear management systems. Moreover, any physical system when examined in more detail is always nonlinear. The effectiveness of managing a nonlinear system, taking into account disturbing factors, depends on the accuracy of forecasting the dynamics of changes in individual elements of such a system. This is a multifaceted problem [15]. A characteristic feature of non-linear hierarchical structures (NIS) in the public service (state administration - DU and local self-government - MS) is a continuous and discrete change in the processes of development of events, which distinguishes them from other internal and external influences, such as those that cause the transformation of linear communication into non-linear, which ultimately leads to new changes. This is the first thing. Second, subject-object relationships can have uncoordinated actions caused by real-world circumstances. Such uncoordinated actions can occur even more in transitional processes of society (for example, the speed of their flow) due to the inertia of individual elements or the social system itself as a whole. As a result of these phenomena, the linear relationship between discrete changes is broken and the previous hierarchical structure changes, which leads to non-linear information relationships in the state administration (SU) and local self-government bodies (MS). For example, G. Pocheptsov and other scientists associate this nonlinearity with chaos, the growing complexity of social processes, globalization, with a threat to state security, with the manifestation of unpredictability and instability [1-5]. Strict requirements are imposed on the management process in the new state of DU and MS: - resilience of the management system; - the system should be described as continuous-discrete (its dynamics); - the management process must ensure the necessary accuracy of matching the indicators of the new state of the system with the previous one. A number of problems appear in newly formed non-linear hierarchical structures (NIS) in DU and MS: - lack of a priori information about processes with non-linear connections; - inaccuracy of structural identification; - inaccuracy in the choice of criteria for assessing the situation; - restructuring processes; - wrong choice of states of nature; - incorrect determination of the importance of the selected criteria according to the scale of importance; - incorrectly chosen dependence of alternatives on the criterion; - insufficient degree of awareness of the complexity of the situation. Solving the above problems requires experimental research. If the process of stabilization of the NIS in the DU is considered as an object of regulation, then it is enough to establish the dependence of this stability on the control action and the main disturbance, and all other actions are considered as disturbances on the object of study. Such a description will reflect the main dynamic characteristics of such a process and will be sufficient for the synthesis and development of an optimal regulation system with the aim of achieving stable (stable) processes in such systems (including DU and MS). In the future, we will approach the DU as a non-linear hierarchical system (NHS) and depict the NIS as a multidimensional continuous system, in which the state of nature is the regulated quantity, and the input is the action of managers in the DU and MS (management decisions made by them - PUR) regarding regulation , coordination and perturbations acting on the system.

Assessing the quality of suicide reporting in Portugal: 6 case studies of celebrities and non-celebrities over 25 years

Multiple studies from various countries have found evidence of suicide increases after media reports of suicide, which are known as the Werther effect, but responsible suicide reporting can contribute to suicide prevention, a phenomenon known as the Papageno effect. This study aims to assess adherence by the Portuguese media to the suicide reporting guidelines released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and to determine whether there are differences in reporting style between them and over time. News items about six suicides of public and non-public figures between 1996 and 2020 were collected from several Portuguese media—two newspapers, three radio stations, three television channels, and a few websites—in the periods following those deaths, and they were subsequently examined for adherence to the WHO guidelines. A total of 374 news items were analyzed. The majority of them complied with most of the WHO recommendations for suicide reporting, especially the ‘don’t do’ guidelines. However, most of the news items that were analyzed did not follow the recommendations regarding putatively preventive information, notably the inclusion of support contacts and citation of mental health experts. The Portuguese media mostly adhered to the WHO suicide reporting guidelines and there was a positive evolution over time in the level of compliance with them. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement.

Між минулим і майбутнім: рефлексії навколо нового тлумачення просвітницьких ідей Бориса Грінченка (кін. ХІХ – поч. ХХ ст.)

The research dives into similarities between historical events in the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries, drawing connections to Borys Hrinchenko’s inspirations which resonate with contemporary efforts in resisting russian occupation, emphasizing the struggle for Ukrainian independence, identity, and freedom through primarily ideological, cultural, national, and linguistic means. The article highlights the leading pedagogical ideas of the scientific and journalistic heritage of Borys Hrinchenko, a prominent Ukrainian linguist, writer, poet, playwright, publicist, critic, ethnographer, educator, and public figure of the late nineteenth – early twentieth centuries. The author focuses on various aspects of the scientist’s contributions, including ethnographic research and methodological systematization of Ukrainian folk art, social endeavors aimed at common societal objectives, educational perspectives, and pedagogical intentions. Additionally, the emphasis is on humanizing personal and social interactions among individuals through the promotion of universal moral ideals and spiritual values, among other aspects. The article provides characteristics of educational concepts related to the national upbringing of Ukrainian youth within Borys Hrinchenko’s scientific and journalistic heritage. It outlines the pedagogical discussions on intergenerational transmission in the realm of Ukrainian studies during the specified period. The author attempts to reinterpret the eminent thinker’s persona in intrinsic harmony with well-known figures from the intellectual elite of that era. Significant attention is devoted to the alignment of creative concepts between Borys Hrinchenko and Ivan Franko. The article highlights Kamenyar’s extensive praise for Hrinchenko, mentioning his resilience challenging criticism, often hostile, and his consistent profound love for Ukraine and “sincere democracy” in all his writings. Specific examples are presented to illustrate Hrinchenko’s aimed critique of Khrystyna Alchevska’s idleness, particularly in the context of russifying Ukrainian schools and publishing her books in russian. The research offers an entirely different interpretation of the critical perspective on certain intellectuals’ scientific and literary works from the relevant period. This perspective was aimed at the promotion of Ukrainian studies and national education. The article explores certain aspects of Hrinchenko’s role as a teacher in a rural school, drawing from historical and scholarly references. It emphasizes the strong connection between two generations of the Ukrainian national movement – Borys Hrinchenko and Dmytro Doroshenko – by analyzing their common efforts. The author highlights their effective collaboration in developing the Ukrainian independent press, public engagement, educational initiatives, and shaping the Ukrainian people’s national consciousness and identity.

Analysis of the Impact of Contract Marriages on Tourism in Bogor Puncak

Continuing against the phenomenon of contract marriages and formulating policies that support tourism sustainability. This monitoring may involve collaboration with various parties, including authorities, public figures, and local tourists. The implementation of policies that support the sustainability of tourism at the Bogor Summit has some implications. First, tourism sustainability can enhance the image of a destination as a safe and quality place. It can attract travelers who are looking for a positive travel experience and reduce the negative impact of the contract marriage phenomenon. Moreover, policies supporting public education about contractual marriage risks can help mitigate this practice. Increased public awareness can prevent contractual marriages and promote values that are consistent with applicable social and legal norms. Tourism development focusing on cultural and natural wealth can also provide attractive alternatives for tourists. By attracting tourists to natural and cultural attractions, local governments can reduce reliance on contractual marriage practices as a major attraction. Overall, the implementation of policies that focus on tourism sustainability can have a long-term positive impact. It can not only boost the local economy through sustainable tourism but also strengthen the social and cultural integrity of the Bogor Puncak community. Bogor Puncak, as a popular tourist destination, faces serious challenges related to the phenomenon of contract marriages. Although these practices provide temporary economic contributions, their negative impact on the social, moral, and image aspects of tourism cannot be ignored. The authorities need to take effective action to address the negative impact. The study provides an in-depth overview of the phenomenon of contract marriage in Bogor Puncak, considering a wide range of perspectives, ranging from tourism, and legal, to social aspects. The study's results identify the positive and negative impact of contractual marriage, its prevalence, trends, and legal perspective in Indonesia. The proposed policy recommendations and implications aim to address the negative impact of contract marriages and support the sustainability of tourism in Bogor Summit. Public education, clear regulations, and sustainable tourism development are key steps that the authorities can take. By implementing a policy focused on tourism sustainability, it is expected that Bogor Puncak will retain its image as an attractive and quality destination, as well as provide sustainable economic benefits to local communities.

Transformation of the Symbolic Space of the City of Halych in the Mid to Late 20th – Early 21st Century

The transformation of the symbolic space of the city of Halych from the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century is investigated in the article. The work is based on the analysis of archival and historical documents, field materials collected by the author through the method of participant observation during the 2022–2023. The symbolic space term is used currently in various scientific studies: in cultural anthropology (O. Hrytsenko, H. Bondarenko), in semiotics (R. Barthes), in urban studies (E. Soja, R. Čepaitienė and others), in Ukrainian sociology (V. Sereda, O. Obukhova). The planning and architecture of the city, its landscape, toponymy, monuments as well as the elements of external design of the streets, squares and buildings are used together to create a symbolic space, where collective memory, identity and social dynamics of local communities are formed. In the 1930s, the places of worship have dominated in the urban space of Halych: the Greek-Catholic Church of Christmas (the 14th century), the Roman-Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Volodymyr’s Orthodox Church, the synagogue and the Karaite Kenesa, thus reflecting the ethnic and confessional structure of the population of the city. Part of the walls of Halych Castle is preserved on the Castle Hill, being the evidence of the historical significance of the city. The process of communization has started after the incorporation to the Soviet Union (September, 1939): streets and squares are renamed, Soviet monuments are erected. The places of worship are destroyed or reequipped. The Church of Christmas has become an Orthodox one forcibly and the only active. Participation in parades and meetings to commemorate the Soviet holidays has become a common practice for the population. A tradition to lay flowers at the monument to Lenin by the newly wedded couple has appeared. The central part of the city is a zone of official, formal events of ideological matter at that time as well as the Halych Castle remains a favourite place of family, youth leisure, the space for informal intercourse. Essential transformations of the urban public space of the city of Halych start after Ukraine has gained independence. In 1990 the monument to Lenin is dismantled and the central square of the city has got the Christmas Square name. In 1988 a monumental equestrian sculpture to King Danylo Halytskyi has appeared there. The process of streets’ renaming continues. New churches and chapels (over 20) are built, a number of commemorative plaques and monuments to the participants of the Ukrainian national resistance, public and cultural figures of the city and the region (about 10) have been placed on municipal houses. Nine memorial annotation plaques are dedicated to soldiers died in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Christmas Square today is the main symbolic space of the city, a place where various activities and communications take place (both public and private). Halych Castle continues to occupy an important place in the cultural life of the city. Many significant scientific and cultural events representing Ukrainian historical and musical heritage occur here, influencing the formation of the identity of the local population.

Shaw's Man and Superman and the Don Juan Legend

As seen from the point of view of the dramatist Bernard Shaw, Don Juan is portrayed in his play Man and Superman as a public figure of a womanizer who has appeared in multiple literary works. Ultimately, it tells the story of Superman in terms of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. By illuminating the thought of Superman, the author seeks to discover the significance of the myth of Don Juan. This study shows that John Tanner, the play's hero, and Don Juan Tenorio are two characters merged into one character. The two characters represent the idea of Superman from different points of view. Through his permissiveness in his everyday life, John Tanner shows his thoughts about Superman. John Tanner is the embodiment of the Superman idea. He is a modified version of Superman. In the meantime, Don Juan Tenorio has become the spokesperson for the Superman idea. His image of Superman reflects Nietzsche's idealized perception. In the long dialogue during the hell scene, he discusses the idea of Superman. Don Juan Tenorio represents what Superman thinks, whereas John Tanner represents what Superman does.

General quality of urban greenery as a city indicator in Brazil in comparison with central Europe

The evidence for climate change and its associated consequences, such as severe droughts, floods, and storms, exposed the need to investigate the ways that countries can cope with them, especially Brazil, which is a continental nation. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the urgency to consider global uncertainties. To audit it, the Pondělíček method, an indicator of the general quality of urban greenery (IOKZM), was employed. This approach considers four factors to indicate if one city is sustainable: city altitude [m], average annual temperature [°C], average annual precipitation [mm], and the total greenery area [km2] per inhabitant per year. The outcomes demonstrate that, regardless independently of the Brazilian region, geographic localization, estimated altitude range, or precipitation range may not strongly influence the BIOKZM. The impact measured in the indicator is significantly influenced by the greenery areas in Brazil. Those estimated areas are much smaller than European Union ones. Teresina’s Fkes demonstrates that if the greenery area is more than 5 (i.e., more than 50 percent), the IOKZM will be a positive outcome. The IOKZM calculated for Brazilian cities is interesting precisely because of their location in the southern hemisphere, as all the evidence of climate change subtly suggests that the climate in the southern hemisphere changes in a different way. Hence, this article can be used as an initial tool to assess whether the chosen Brazilian cities (Belém, São Luís, Guarulhos, Campinas, Porto Alegre, Teresina, and João Pessoa) can be considered “smart cities”. It is a step towards guiding mayors and other public figures in charge to create and maintain smart cities in Brazil. In addition, further studies should be conducted to contribute to this collaborative effort.

МЕМЛЕКЕТ ЖӘНЕ ҚОҒАМ ҚАЙРАТКЕРІ – НӘЗІР ТӨРЕҚҰЛОВ

We see that the statesman and public figure Nazir Torekulov is working in all spheres of public and political life, thereby, ultimately, making attempts to achieve our national independence. Today we must say with great pride that N.Torekulov was the first professional, qualified diplomat, ambassador of Kazakh origin, and his name was recognized and highly appreciated internationally at that time, during his lifetime. Nazir Torekulov suffered a cruel and cruel fate, in which his pain and dignity went hand in hand. Looking at his life path, we see that at all stages of his social and political activities, he first strives for selfless help to his nation, his native people. To this end, he also engaged in science, literature and journalism, picking up a pen. Thanks to this, he wrote many valuable things for Kazakh literature and art, for Kazakh language science and the press, in a word, for Kazakh history and spirituality in general.

The Celebrity Factor: Exploring the Impact of Influencers on COVID-19 Vaccine Sentiment through Bayesian Modeling of Time Series

Online social networks allow for information to rapidly propagate throughout the world, and opinions expressed on such platforms can influence people’s decisions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many influential public figures used these social networks to share their opinions about the vaccines developed to combat the virus. Many influencers encouraged vaccination, and a considerable number also expressed doubt and skepticism over the efficacy of the vaccines. This study modeled the impact that eleven influencers’ statements had on the overall sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines, as expressed on Twitter. Sentiment is measured by collecting a series of publicly-available tweets made regarding the vaccine during the pandemic, and assigning each a sentiment score based on the VADER lexicon. Several models were used to analyze the impact of the influencers’ statements, including linear, sequential and tree-based models. The results were obtained by constructing a Bayesian structural time series model based on each model’s counterfactual estimate. The results found that influencers who share messages encouraging vaccination generally tend to increase the number of ”pro-vaccination” tweets over the next 20 days. Influencers sharing ”anti-vaccination” messages sometimes resulted in a decrease in anti-vaccine tweets, and other times in an increase over the next 20 days. The results from this study provide an introductory look into the complex issue of vaccine hesitancy and the effect of influencers on vaccine messaging, and inform public health strategy regarding this issue.

The first Ukrainian-American Olympic in 1936 in Philadelphia: memories of the organizers and participants

In the scientific study, an analysis and an attempt to make up for the historically lost time and at least partially return to us the real Ukrainian history of sports and the Olympic movement are carried out. Currently, many pages of the history of Ukrainian sports remain little known. One of them is sports competitions of the Ukrainian diaspora. Their organization required significant efforts, the involvement of specialists, well-known sports and public figures, representatives of state authorities, etc. The symbolic combination of the Olympics of the Ukrainian diaspora with the Olympic Games contributed to the development of the Ukrainian sports and Olympic movement abroad. In September 1936, a grand event in the life of the Ukrainian and American community took place in Philadelphia (USA) - the First Ukrainian-American Olympics or the «First Ukrainian National Games» under the patronage of Ukrainian-American organizations of the city of Philadelphia together with the Ukrainian Catholic League and the American Athletic Union.

Artificial intelligence through the prism of thematic research on ResearchGate web portal

Different instances of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in a short time have made a significant impact on the world’s economic and political scene. Before October 2022, processes of automatization and robotization of manufacturing didn’t have an immediate connection with artificial intelligence in the minds of most people. But mass and sudden infiltration of GenAI into the everyday life of many people around the world caused an immediate reaction from scientists, public figures, politicians, managers and heads of whole sectors of the economy. Thousands of scientific articles on related topics were published in the last two years: everyone at once started talking about fantastic possibilities, and also threats, which this new technology can usher in for our societies. Thus, for public thinking GenAI finally linked automatization with artificial intelligence.
 This paper provides an analysis of problems and prospects, through which scientists are trying to understand different societal processes linked to adoption of AI. For this purpose, the author of this paper analyzed the contents of papers published on this topic on the ResearchGate web portal in 2023, with the choice of the source for representative material motivated by scientific credibility of ResearchGate combined with its wide reach. Ten most popular articles were specifically targeted for final analysis, through which societal trends brought on by AI adoption were described. Although a selective meta-analysis of articles published during the first year after ChatGPT release can’t provide a full understanding of AI potential and possible threats to society, the conclusion can still be reached that a cardinal shift in society’s attitudes towards its own future is required.
 From the ten articles analyzed, four are related to changes required to the education system, four are about AI’s influence on the labour market, one article talks about the possibility of AI-human competition and one is about the AI potential in agriculture. Most articles mention the need for legislative changes in terms of labor protection and education reforms in-line with new digital reality.

Case-based reasoning as a measure of constitutional adjudication

AbstractCase-based reasoning has high significance in constitutional adjudication. The constitutional courts of the Kelsenian model also follow their own previous decisions to develop their own case law, even if those decisions do not bind them formally. In the course of constitutional interpretation, to build coherent and predictable case law and determine constitutional principles and standards in a consistent way are also reasonable expectations of constitutional adjudication deriving from the rule of law. The paper analyses the case law of the Hungarian Constitutional Court from this perspective, regarding the criticism of public figures in defamation cases. It takes case-based reasoning as a measure of the case law of the HCC, reveals the tendencies and highlights the main problems associated with it.

Large language models know how the personality of public figures is perceived by the general public

We show that people’s perceptions of public figures’ personalities can be accurately predicted from their names’ location in GPT-3’s semantic space. We collected Big Five personality perceptions of 226 public figures from 600 human raters. Cross-validated linear regression was used to predict human perceptions from public figures’ name embeddings extracted from GPT-3. The models’ accuracy ranged from r = .78 to .88 without controls and from r = .53 to .70 when controlling for public figures’ likability and demographics, after correcting for attenuation. Prediction models showed high face validity as revealed by the personality-descriptive adjectives occupying their extremes. Our findings reveal that GPT-3 word embeddings capture signals pertaining to individual differences and intimate traits.

International experience of combating criminal interference with the legal activities of military formations

The article analyzes international and foreign experience in combating criminal obstruction of the legitimate activities of military formations. Based on the experience of foreign countries, the strategies and methods used to prevent and counteract criminal obstruction of military operations are highlighted. International legal acts and agreements aimed at ensuring the security and protection of the legitimate interests of military formations in the performance of their duties are studied.
 Military formations performing their duties in conflict and insecure environments often face criminal obstruction of their legitimate activities. This may include attacks on the military, destruction of military property, restriction of access to resources and other acts aimed at violating the rule of law and disrupting the military regime.
 The issue of criminal obstruction of legitimate activities in the international and/or foreign dimension attracts the attention of both domestic and international scholars. At the same time, in the scientific literature, this issue is considered to a limited extent only in relation to obstruction of a specific type of activity of a person, business entities, officials, public and state figures, journalists and other victims. This is highlighted in the scientific works of such scholars as N.O. Gutorova, S. V. Mohonchuk, and Y V. Pylypenko [1, p. 79]. However, the science of criminal law lacks a theoretical basis for the international and foreign experience of combating criminal obstruction of the lawful activities of military formations. Thus, the purpose of the article is to reveal this issue and to provide a theoretical substantiation of the key elements of the crime under Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
 M.D. Sergievsky stated that scientific research cannot be limited to the positive law of any one nation (domestic law). And the necessary material should be the used definitions of the law of other states [2, p. 3].

Theses to Agvan Dorzhiev’s Report at the First International Buddhist Exhibition Expected in 1927 in Leningrad

The publication presents for the first time the B. Baradin’s theses to A. Dorzhiev’s lecture that was supposed to be delivered at the international Buddhist exhibition in Leningrad in 1927. A. Dorzhiev was a famous Buryat lama who received the academic title of Geshe (the highest philosophical academic degree in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism) upon completion of his philosophical education in the monasteries of Mongolia and Tibet. After 1918, he was involved in organizational issues of the Buddhist Sangha in Russia. B. Baradin was an academic scientist and public figure, a professor at St. Petersburg University, and the author of studies on the history and teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. After the revolution of 1917, he began working in Buryatia in various administrative positions, focusing on the organization of the scientific and cultural life of the Republic. Their main idea is that the modern world consists of the two equal parts - East and West, unification of which is possible and even necessary for the further development of humanity. The system-forming teaching of the East is Buddhism; and the lecture hold on those aspects of Buddhist philosophy that could be compared with the teachings of the West. Four points are highlighted: 1) Buddhism is comparable to Darwin’s theory in that both consider humans in the context of all living beings in an evolutionary manner; 2) Buddhism, like science, accepts the determinism principle; 3) the Buddhist concept of shunya is similar to the relativistic principles of physics; and 4) the system of Buddhist psychotechniques is similar to the theory of reflexology. B. Baradin concludes that Indo-Buddhist culture and European culture are complementary and their rapprochement will bring us closer to a truly universal culture. The theses mentioned here are, apparently, the first systematic exposition of the views of neo-Buddhists-renewalists on the points of convergence between Buddhist and Western cultures.

“Cassius Dio, A Bithynian ‘exiled’ to Rome?”

AbstractFirst, we will retrace the life and brilliant career of this Roman senator of Bithynian origins who came from an ancient family of public figures and who had served five or six emperors and been friends with several of them, having been twice appointed to the role of consul.Then we will consider the nature of his role as Senator coming from an Eastern province and its relationship with Roman power. We will come to see that he represents the perfect example of his theory of the association of provincial élites coming to power, which was developed at length in his work, Roman History, which he produced in Greek for a Greek readership.Finally, rather paradoxically, we will consider how he sees himself in a largely bi-lingual and bi-cultural empire and how he speaks of his homeland with a view to determining whether his attachment to his ‘little country’ is the stronger and if his numerous sojourns in Rome amount to little more than a ‘golden exile’ for him.