Soviet Delegation Research Articles

Soviets Assess Cause of Chernobyl Accident

Some—but by no means all—of the Chernobyl story can now be told. Soviet scientists have assembled enough information from interviews, plant records and computer simulations to describe the chronology of events leading to a severe accident that destroyed a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl on 26 April and spread radiation over much of Europe. A Soviet delegation of 28 specialists headed by V. A. Legasov (Kurchatov Institute) presented a very frank report on the accident's causes and consequences to an experts' meeting sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on 25–29 August. Their report places heavy blame on the reactor staff for committing numerous violations of operating rules, one of which left the reactor operating at a power level where the consequences of further violations were greatly exacerbated.

Coordination of the Economic Plans of Cmea Member Nations for 1981-85

The regularly scheduled, Thirty-fifth Session of Council for Mutual Economic Aid, held in July 1981, summed up results of coordination of economic plans of CMEA member nations for 1981-85. After reviewing report of Soviet delegation, headed by N. A. Tikhonov, chairman of USSR Council of Ministers, Politburo of Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union and USSR Council of Ministers noted that the completed coordination of economic plans and coordinated plan of multilateral integration measures for 1981-85 approved by session create a firm basis for progressive development of economy of fraternal countries and for their successful resolution of mounting social and economic problems.

The Fifth Symposium of Soviet and American Economists

In line with the program for scientific collaboration between the USSR Academy of Sciences and the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fifth Symposium of Soviet and American Economists took place June 11-13, 1979, in Mount Kisco (not far from New York City). Its theme was Structural Changes in the Soviet and U.S. Economies. The American delegation was headed by Professor L. Reynolds (Yale University), vice-president of the American Economics Association. Academician T. Khachaturov, chairman of the Association of Soviet Economic Scientific Institutions, headed the Soviet delegation to the symposium.

Gvishiani: U.S.-Soviets face common enemy

The most popular Soviet official in U.S. industrial and probably academic circles is a social scientist named Jermen M. Gvishiani. Wherever there's a major commercial deal to be made between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Gvishiani is there to orchestrate it for the Soviets as deputy chairman of the State Committee for Science & Technology. That is not all. As a son-in-law of Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, Gvishiani is privy to the inner forces of Soviet power struggles. As director of the Institute of Cybernetic Studies in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he is one of the top figures in the Soviet science structure. Those seeking clues to the future of Soviet-U.S. scientific and technological relations are wise to listen to the words of Gvishiani. C&EN sought out Gvishiani during the United Nations Conference on Science & Technology for Development, held recently in Vienna, where he headed a large but rather muted Soviet delegation. ...

The Bureaucratic Politics Paradigm and the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

On August 3, 1968, at the peak of the Czechoslovak crisis, Leonid Brezhnev and other members of the Soviet delegation to the Bratislava conference, together with the leaders of several Warsaw Pact countries-East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria-appeared to have reached a modus vivendi with Alexander Dubcek's leadership. Simultaneously, Warsaw Pact forces were ordered to cease their maneuvers on Czechoslovak territory. Many observers of Soviet politics interpreted these events as a victory for the Czechoslovak reformers. Yet only seventeen days later the agreement was broken by the sudden military invasion of Czechoslovakia by these same countries-all partners of Czechoslovakia in the Bratislava agreement. Among observers of Soviet politics, there were some skeptics who doubted that the Bratislava rapprochement would last for long, but few expected a military move so soon. Also, as former commander in chief of the U.S. Army in Europe, General James H. Polk, recently noted, both U.S. government and NATO officials considered a Soviet invasion to be highly unlikely.1 Even

U.S. - U.S.S.R. cooperation in superconducting power transmission

The cooperative exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the field of superconducting power transmission began in 1971 when a U.S. delegation representing government and industry met with a Soviet delegation in Moscow. The following year a Soviet delegation met in the U.S. and this alternating pattern has continued to the present. The development and guidance of the cooperation by these yearly meetings of delegations from the coordinating committee is described in context with the evolving U.S. and Soviet national programs to develop superconducting power transmission. The U.S. national program is now concentrated in the projects at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory while the Soviet program is concentrated in projects at the G. M. Krzhizha-novsky Power Engineering Institute, the All-Union Research Institute for the Cable Industry and the Lenin All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. These projects are briefly reviewed along with the supporting projects in other institutions in both countries. The detailed planning for the cooperation is carried out by six technical working groups whose members are drawn from the broad technical community that supports the national programs. These groups also report on the technical progress in each country. To facilitate these reports, five joint technical symposia have been held, one at each of the delegation meetings except for the 1977 meeting in Moscow. Highlights of these symposia will be presented. At the present time the cooperation is focused on joint participation in both the small scale laboratory studies and large scale test installations which each country is conducting as part of its national program. The results from the eight joint experiments conducted since 1971 will be presented along with some of the future plans and prospects.

Fifth International Congress on Steroid Hormones

s of the brief communications have been published in the form of a special issue of the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry (Volume 9, No. 9, September, 1978). The scientific program of the Congress was opened by the plenary lecture of Prof. E. Diczfalusy (Sweden): "Gregory Pincus and steroid contraceptives: a new step in the history of mankind." His lecture was devoted to the history of the creation and further improvement of oral contraceptives. This problem is of prime importance in a number of developing countries of Asia and Africa and it is therefore not surprising that the discussion of questions connected with the possible regulation of the size of the family with the aid of steroid hormones was given no little value at the Congress. Among other plenary lectures, the attention of chemists was attracted by that of R. Breslow (U.S.A.) on "The use of a matrix in the synthesis of steroids." Four lectures were heard at a symposium on "Advances in the chemistry of steroids." Of these the most interesting was that of U. Eder (West Berlin) on "The total synthesis of natural and unnatural steroid hormones," in which methods for the synthesis of estrone, 8~-H derivatives of estrone, and 7~and 78-methyl estrones and of a 19-dinorsteroid and of some racemic C-norhomosteroids with the aid of a single "building block~" including steroid rings Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 245-246, March-April, 1979. 216 0009-3130/79/1502-0216507.50 © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation C and D were discussed, and a lecture by G. H. Phillips (United Kingdom) on the synthesis of some water-soluble steroids and the dependence of the anesthetic properties of the compounds obtained on their structure. Members of the Soviet delegation gave several lectures. In the "Steroid-protein interaction" section, a communication of "The influence of structural and steric changes in the molecule of estradiol on the migration of the estrogen-receptor complex from the cytoplasm into the cell nucleus of the rabbit uterus" was given by G. A. Chernyaev (a member of the tourist group) in the name of a group of authors including T. I. Barkov, S. N. Ananchenko, and I. B. Sorokin. In the "Metabolism" section, K. A. Koshhenko delivered a lecture on the subject: "Features of the transformation of steroid compounds by microorganisms when deposited on polyacrylamide gel." Two other lectures were delivered in the chemical section: by I. S. Levina (tourist group) on the pentaranes -a new class of active gestagens -(coauthors A. V. Kamernitskii and G. E. Kulikova) and by the author of the present note on the determination of the structures of new phytoecdysones (coauthors M. B. Gorovits and B. Z. Usmanov). Friendly relationships exist between the Soviet and the Indian scientists working in the field of bioorganic chemistry: combined symposia on the chemistry of natural compounds are held regularly, every two years, alternately in the Soviet Union and in India. The last, fifth, Indo-Soviet symposium was held in May, 1978, in Erevan. The Soviet delegation met some of the participants of the symposia again in India. Congresses of this type permit investigators with different points of view to approach and evaluate more profoundly the modern problems and tasks facing a concrete area of understanding and to determine the level of scientific work existing at a given moment, and the contacts of specialists with different interests promote the mutual enrichment on thoughts and ideas.

A Meeting Of American and Soviet Economists

A meeting of Soviet and American economists took place in the USA in April 1975. The Soviet delegation was made up of: T. S. Khachaturov, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences; corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences O. T. Bogomolov and S. S. Shatalin; doctors of economic sciences E. I. Kapustin, E. M. Nikitin, A. S. Tolkachev, and E. S. Shershnev; and candidates of sciences V. K. Ozerov, A. I. Semenov, and L. K. Semenov.

Report On the 24th Annual Technical Meeting

Abstract THE EXCHANGE of technical information in the area of enhanced recovery between Canada and the Soviet Union was the highlight of the 24th Annual Technical Meeting of The Petroleum Society of CIM, held in Edmonton, May 8th through to the 12th, 1973. It was pointed out during the meeting that Soviet research in the area of enhanced recovery is at the present time among the top-priority subjects of, the oil and gas industry of the Soviet Union. This international meeting, complete with simultaneous translation into -Russian and English, was part of the Canadian government's technical exchange agreement between Canada and the Soviet Union. It was an overwhelming success. Two highlights of the meeting were papers prepared and presented by Professor G. G. Vakhitov on the "Review of the USSR Oil Extracting Industries State and Development" and Stanley A. Milner, president, Chieftain Development Company Limited, on "The Canadian Oil- and Gas Industry - An Overview". The Soviet delegation showed interest in a wide variety of petroleum subjects by presenting papers on mining methods involving thermal energy mathematical simulation of oil-field development processes, the application of surface- active substances for reservoirs containing high-viscosity oils, and the present state and prospective trends of the development of gas recovery stimulation methods in the USSR. In addition to the technical papers presented by the Soviets, during a press conference a general discussion was presented on the USSR petroleum industry production and reserves and statistics. It was of interest to note that statistical data on production and reserves of petroleum and natural gas in the Soviet Union are handled individually by the different ministries within the country. For example, the Soviet Ministry of Oil and the Soviet Ministry of Gas collect their own oil and gas production data. Projections of oil and gas production for the coming years were forecast by 1975 to reach a level of 480 to 500 million tons per year and 300 to 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Professor Vakhitov emphasized that from the beginning of their development, 70% of all Russian oil production was placed under enhanced recovery. The Soviet delegation showed particular interest in papers on tar sands, shallow gas reserves, high-viscosity oils, thermal energy, arctic drilling and water flooding. Further highlights of the Technical Meeting were the luncheon programs featuring well-known guest speakers. The Hon. Jean Chretien, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, presented a keynote address on "Partnership in Northern Development". Charles Lynch, a well-known Canadian journalist, presented a talk entitled "The, Uncertain Canadian Scene", and one of our own Alberta authors, James Grey, presented an address of "Myths of Prairie History". As a result of the international flavour of this meeting, the Provincial and Federal governments were strongly represented, and special gatherings were held for our Soviet friends, a dinner sponsored by the Provincial government providing an opportunity for the Soviets to meet many prominent oil and gas personnel of Alberta.

Soviet delegation visits Italy

Soviet delegation visits Italy

Soviet delegation visits the low countries

Soviet delegation visits the low countries

Argonauts of Peace: The Soviet Delegation to Western Europe in the Summer of 1917

“We are Argonauts of peace.” Under this self-description a delegation of Russian socialists sailed to western Europe in the summer of 1917 to rally popular support for a great conference of world socialism to meet at Stockholm for the purpose of reuniting the International and ending the war. Of all the peace flurries of the war none other roused such hopes and fears as the “Stockholm Conference.” Its proposal caused sharp crises in the governments and in the socialist parties of all the belligerent powers. That it never met contributed mightily to the outcome of the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks' coming to power.The Stockholm Conference was the child of the Russian Revolution. There had been several abortive efforts during the war to reconvene the International, and now the Russian Revolution encouraged some neutral socialists to form a Dutch-Scandinavian Committee to make another effort. It met with a rebuff from the socialist parties of the belligerent powers. The intervention of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies, however, drastically changed the situation. The Soviet took its first, tentative step into international affairs with the issuance on March 14/27 of a general appeal to the peoples of all countries to unite for peace. Soviet backing for an international socialist conference took more concrete form when the “Siberian Zimmerwaldists,” led by Irakli Tsereteli, returned to Petrograd in late March and asserted their control over the Soviet.

Collision-Avoidance Manœuvres

The proposals of Calvert and Hollingdale (Journal,13, 127;14, 234, 379;18, 141) are of considerable interest. Soviet research work similarly leads to the conclusion that the principle of anti-clockwise rotation of the line of sight is the best if not the only way to solve the problem of manœuvring in fog whilst using radar. A rule of manœuvre embodying this principle was described inMorskoi FlotNo. 5, 1958 and later proposed by the Soviet Delegation at the Safety of Life at Sea Conference in London in 1960. The instructions to Soviet ships on the use of radar for collisionavoidance were published and deposited with I.M.C.O. as an official document.Some years laterDie Seewarte(Hamburg, October 1961) andNavigation(Paris, July 1962) published an account of an electronic manœuvre indicator constructed in the U.S.S.R. and described inMorskoi FlotNo. 2, 1959. The trials of this instrument were described inMorskoi FlotNo. 12, 1964. These publications should be of interest to members of this Institute.

Mongolia: New Soviet Moves to Bolster Ruling Group

The political scene in Mongolia in 1965 was relatively quiet and routine when compared with developments in other recent years. Mongolia suspended polemies against Communist China in line with the early attempts by the new Soviet leadership to improve relations with Peking. Soviet-Mongolian relations were highlighted by the exchange of visits by high-level Party-government delegations. These visits resulted in the conclusion (in April) in Moscow of an agreement for substantial Soviet assistance for the Mongolian Fourth Five-Year Plan (1966-1970). On the domestic political scene, the ruling group followed up its purge of three Central Committee members (December 1964) by tightening the Party and state control apparatus, aimed at isolating nationalists and other critics of Tsedenbal's policies and at ensuring swifter and more effective compliance with national Party economic directives. The economy is believed to be recovering only slowly from the reverses of 1964, but the continued substantial infusion of assistance from the Soviet Union and other CEMA countries probably will speed recovery and bring about further development in the period immediately ahead. The Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) throughout the year continued its lavish praise of Soviet foreign policy and of the Soviet Union's unselfish assistance. Mongolian leaders and the Mongolian press frequently called for the backing of Soviet attempts to achieve within the Communist Movement. Unen on March 16 endorsed the communique issued (in March) by the consultative of representatives of communist parties held in Moscow. Unen called the halting of open polemies an important step toward promoting unity within the international communist movement, thus indirectly criticizing the Chinese for continuing polemies of an abusive nature. Montsame called the March plenum of the CPSU Central Committee clear confirmation of the great efforts by the CPSU to overcome differences in the international communist The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) supports the convening of a new international meeting of communists to overcome the difficulties that have arisen in the movement. In February, at the conclusion of a visit to the MPR by a Soviet delegation led by CPSU Presidium member Shelepin, Tsedenbal said the Mongolian-Soviet talks affirmed a complete unanimity of views on questions of mutual interests. Tsedenbal stated that the Soviet Union bore the

Questions of clinical allergology at the Quedlinburg conference (19-20/X 1962, Quedlinburg, East Germany)

The conference was attended by scientists from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria; the Soviet delegation at this conference was represented by a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, prof. A. D. Ado (Moscow), Art. scientific. sotr. A. A. Polner (Moscow) and the author of these lines.

The “National Democratic State”: A Communist Program for Less-Developed Areas

At the international Communist conclave that assembled in Mos-Cow in November 1960, the Soviet delegation introduced a new formula, designed to serve as an ideological blueprint for Communist policy in the less-developed areas of the world. The formula consisted of two parts: a statement of immediate objectives and a tactical plan to achieve them. Of these, the objectives were set forth in the form of a theoretical governmental model, described as a transitional state structure appropriate for less-developed societies. It was christened the “national democratic state,” and the tactical plan chosen as the proper means for its establishment was correspondingly designated the “national democratic front.”

Scientific Results of the Trip of the Delegation of Soviet Geographers to the United States

A report of the Soviet delegation on research by government agencies, universities, and other institutions on the use and development of natural resources and on practical application of such research. The Soviet Union is found to be ahead in some theoretical aspects, but the author calls for detailed study of some of the practical applications of resource research in the United States for possible use in similar Soviet work.

The Soviet Challenge in Indonesia

THE course of Indonesian policy today must cause doubt and deep concern regarding the future of the world's fifth largest nation. Since Premier Khrushchev's ten-day visit in February i960, Indonesia has become a major target of Soviet aid and influence, and only massive Western efforts can now prevent its gradual incorporation into the Communist bloc. All the instru mentalities available to the Kremlin?overt and covert, domestic and international?are concentrated on the elimination of West ern influences from Indonesia, its isolation from the new nations of Asia and Africa, erosion of the will of domestic anti-Commu nist political forces to resist capture of the government by the Communist Party, and eventual alignment with the Soviet Union. What the West faces in Indonesia is not simply harassment from a group of conspirators, in usual cold-war fashion, but an all-out challenge from a great power. Indonesia has become a testing ground for the new techniques of power politics, with the local Communist Party only one of various instruments used by the Soviet state to supplant Western influence. Soviet advances in Indonesia are truly amazing. In the hectic years of Indonesia's struggle for independence, from 1945 to 1949, Moscow attacked nationalist leaders such as President Sukarno as bourgeois lackeys of imperialism, even though the Soviet delega tion in the United Nations supported Indonesia as a matter of anti-imperialist principle. In June of 1961 Sukarno chose to cele brate his birthday in Moscow, where the top civilian and military leaders of the Soviet Union presented their felicitations to him. In September 1948, the Indonesian Communist Party engaged in armed rebellion against Sukarno's nationalist government and in a historic radio address he was forced to ask the people to choose between himself and Musso, the Communist leader who had just returned from long years of exile in Moscow. Today President Sukarno's most powerful political support comes from the Com munist Party, which he protects against an anti-Communist but submissive officer corps. Until 1954 the Soviet Union was unable to establish diplomatic representation in Djakarta, although it had offered recognition to the nationalist government before in dependence was secured in 1949. Today the Soviet presence in Indonesia is a force tobe reckoned

Economic and Social Council

The resumed 32nd session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1183d–1186th meetings inclusive, was held in New York on December 21 and 22, 1961, under the presidency of Mr. E. Penteado (Brazil). In the 1183d meeting Mr. Franzi (Italy) introduced a draft resolution proposing that the Republic of San Marino be admitted to the Convention on Road Traffic signed at Geneva on September 19, 1959. The resolution was adopted unanimously. The delegate from Afghanistan then submitted a draft resolution proposing the inclusion of the Mongolian People's Republic in the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE). The draft resolution was adopted with no dissenting votes. Resolutions inviting Switzerland's attendance in a consultative capacity at sessions of ECAFE and the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) were unanimously approved. A resolution was adopted maintaining the present membership of the executive committee of the Program of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees until the General Assembly had decided on the future of the Office of the High Commissioner. Mrs. Mironova (Soviet Union) explained her delegation's abstention on the vote for the resolution on the grounds that she saw no reason for the further existence of the executive committee, since all the camps for refugees in Europe would soon be closed and the refugees resettled. She expressed the Soviet delegation's view that the countries where the refugees were living could be made responsible for them.

Security Council

The Security Council devoted its 913th–920th meetings to a consideration of the current situation in the Congo. The Council had before it a report by the Secretary-General regarding the arrest and subsequent treatment of Mr. Patrice Lumumba.and a statement from the government of the Soviet Union concerning the Congo situation, as well as requests to present their views from several delegations not members of the Council. All these requests were granted. Referring to the statement of the Soviet delegate raising the question of the role of the UN in the Congo, and to his own note dealing with the arrest and detention of Mr. Lumumba, the Secretary-General opened the discussion by presenting his views on a number of aspects of the situation. Reminding the Council that UN troops had been sent into the Congo to protect life and property, he assured the delegates: 1) that the UN personnel there had maintained a strict neutrality in relation to all domestic political problems; 2) that, since the UN Force had been requested to assume functions in regard to law and order, there was a legal basis for the Secretary-General to concern himself with the observance of generally accepted human rights; and 3) that it was on that basis that he and his special representatives had appealed to the Congolese authorities to apply due process of law. The problem of ascertaining the true functions of the UN in the Congo was derived from the fact that the situation in that country had changed since the original Security Council mandate authorizing the dispatch of a UN Force to the Congo; one of the original objectives, namely, the elimination of Belgian military forces, had been achieved, but the problem of the protection of life and property was still acute, and the army was not, in the Secretary-General's opinion, much more capable of maintaining law and order than when the UN had first entered the Congo. Thus, it was his conclusion that the original reasons for the UN military presence were still valid, and that the withdrawal of the UN Force would result in chaos rendering impossible technical assistance activities, civilian business, and normal political leadership.