Soviet Space Research Articles

Space travel across the decades and beyond: A brief history of NASA’s space programme

Abstract The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) journey into the cosmos is a captivating tapestry of milestones that have revolutionised our understanding of space. The intense competition in the early part of the Space Race between the US and Soviet space programmes fuelled rapid advancements in spacecraft technology, space science and interplanetary exploration strategies as both countries tried to be the first to put humans on the Moon. For NASA, human exploration began with the Mercury missions, followed by the Gemini missions proving humans could travel and work in space. The early pinnacle of NASA’s human space explorations came with the Apollo programme, which triumphantly made six historic lunar landings bringing back 382 kg of lunar material and leaving many important instruments on the Moon. Following the human Moon landings, NASA embraced space station missions with the marvel of engineering known as the Space Shuttle. This led to the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station (ISS), a colossal orbiting laboratory hosting countless scientific experiments in microgravity. Now, NASA’s future human space exploration sets its sights on going back to the Moon, then onto Mars, aiming to establish a long-term human presence in the Solar System. Additionally, NASA’s science missions encompass Astrophysics, Earth Science, Heliophysics, Planetary Science, and Biological and Physical Sciences, yielding groundbreaking discoveries about our Sun, climate change, the Solar System and the Universe beyond and how life survives in the harshness of space. NASA’s extraordinary odyssey has left an indelible mark on human history, unlocking the secrets of the cosmos and igniting the dreams for past and future generations to come.

PERIPHERAL WRITING AND WRITING ON THE PERIPHERY IN TRAVELOGUES BY JAY NORWOOD DARLING

The article is devoted to the little-known literary work of the American cartoonist Jay Norwood Darling. The current study was conducted on the travelogues “Ding Goes to Russia” (1932) and “The Cruise of the Bouncing Betsy. A Trailer Travelogue” (1937). This article aims to reveal and contextualize the features of J.N. Darling’s travel texts as peripheral genres. The main objective of this work is to analyze the deep structures of the travelogues chronotope, based on which the hypothesis will be put forward. Its essence is that the intensity of the crisis time experience in different spaces and through these spaces modifies the involved genre clichés, giving rise to a tragic (for Soviet space) and optimistic (for American space) premonition. The research methodology is based on the study of the interaction between the centre and periphery of the literary system, in particular, the concept of “semiosphere” formulated by Yu. Lotman. Genre analysis includes comparative and contextual methods of studying texts. The cultural-historical method deepens the understanding of the context of Darling’s literary work. Particularly, it is used to discover the historical and social factors that impact the peculiarities of others and one’s own world perception and image reconstruction. Genre analysis of travelogues with various graphic components, including caricatures, involves an intermedia method of studying the semantic connections between visual and verbal in travelogues. The examination of Darling’s travelogues “Ding Goes to Russia” and “The Cruise of the Bouncing Betsy. A Trailer Travelogue”, which inherited different genre traditions, revealed their conceptual and poetic affinities. In both texts, the author investigates the common issues of civilization and its advancement, as well as the significance of technological progress for a human being. The features of the unmanifested future or hidden phenomena of the present are felt more strongly at a distance from the centre, at the intersection of transit paths. Geography in these travels is perceived through anthropological optics, implemented, among other things, through the concepts of the mutual influence of society and space in an unstable world. The experience of alienation is constructed through images of places displayed identically in both travelogues. In Darling’s travelogues, places outside of symbolic meaning come to the fore of the spatio-temporal structure. According to the concept of M. Auger, their features can be attributed to non-places. The key features of the chronotope of both travelogues are the peripheralization of space, the transformation of places into space, and the related process, the representation of non-places. The caricaturists’ texts exhibit genre peripherality through the dual nature of their poetic codes. Behind the secondary nature of the genre constructions of both texts, one cannot help but see individual searches reflected in the unique role and methods of spatial metaphors and imaginary topoi explication. Their semantic and visual density force us to recall and re-estimate the factual writing of the cartoonist in the context of future genre development.

Educational Activities of the First Special Meteor Expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1921–1922

Investigating the activities of the First Soviet Meteorite Expedition of 1921–1922, the paper aims to analyze the objectives of the expedition and fill in some gaps in the Quest for the Tunguska Meteorite. Aiming to recover either the fragments of the Tunguska meteorite or any other meteorite, the expedition was launched by the Russian Academy of Sciences and led by Leonid A. Kulik. The Yenissei province in Siberia was among several territories where the Expedition worked. The paper hypothesizes that the First Soviet Meteorite Expedition (1921– 1922) was a factor that contributed not only to the development of the new Soviet space science but became a unique driving force behind the vigorous attempt of the Soviet state to shift the backward mental paradigm full of prejudices and cognitive misconceptions and introduce the new one that prioritized scientific knowledge. The paper identifies the legal basis for the Expedition, its overall educational impact on ordinary people. The paper argues that the First Soviet Meteorite Expedition of 1921–1922 became a factor in transforming the sociocultural space and an incentive for further scientific research. The paper presents a historiographical review within the framework of the topic and introduces some new data obtained from the documents stored in the local archives (the towns of Yeniseisk and Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory).

Перспективы унификации процессуальной формы разрешения вопроса о восстановлении процессуального срока в гражданском и административном судопроизводстве

One of the trends in the development of the civil process in recent years is the legislator's attempt to unify the same type of procedural institutions in the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the CAS of the Russian Federation and the APC of the Russian Federation. Among the issues that were beyond the attention of the legislator, one can name the definition of the optimal civil procedural form for considering the issue of restoring procedural terms. Currently, within the framework of civil proceedings, it is envisaged to resolve this issue through a court session, and in administrative proceedings, on the contrary, without a court session. In the article, based on an analysis of civil and administrative proceedings in the post- Soviet space, judicial practice, the author argues in favor of establishing a unified procedure for restoring procedural terms in the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation and the CAS of the Russian Federation — through a court session.

Внутрішньо переміщені особи як особливий об'єкт соціального захисту України

The article is devoted to the study of certain issues related to the social protection of internally displaced persons in Ukraine through the prism of security and economic aspects, which are the main ones for this category of persons. It is emphasized that the issues of migration processes throughout all the years of Ukraine's independence were quite acute for our state. The issue of the legal status of persons who returned to the state from the territories of the republics of the former Soviet space was replaced by the issue of refugees, deported peoples, illegal and labor migration, and since 2014, a new category of migrants has emerged – internally displaced persons. Terrible events: the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the armed conflict in the East of the country, and in 2022 – a full-scale aggressive war by the Russian Federation, which continues to this day, caused the largest internal displacement of the population of Ukraine. All this became a good reason for the adoption of a number of legislative acts that created the basis for regulating their status and creating an appropriate mechanism for the realization and protection of the rights and freedoms of this category of persons. It has been established that today in our country an extremely terrible mass forced migration crisis continues, which in terms of its scale and consequences is considered to be almost the largest in terms of its nature and number of forced displacement of the population. The large-scale military aggression shown by the Russian Federation against Ukraine left a large number of residents of our country without homes, radically changed their security, economic and financial situation, as well as the state of their social security and well-being. Such vulnerability of IDPs requires the state to create and use a whole range of possible measures and means that will ensure the proper social integration of these persons in the new environment, among which the most important are the issues of: provision of housing, employment opportunities, realization of the right to medical care and education, psychological support, etc., as well as financial support, which is almost the most important element of providing social services.

Советский космос в современных социальных медиа: динамика и специфика медиаобраза

The article investigates the specifics and dynamics of the media image of the Soviet space in the social network «VKontakte». The main methodological solution is socio-philosophical analysis of the dynamics of the hashtag «#sovietspace». This approach allows us to identify the transformations of the media image of the Soviet space in a specific time period, as well as to put forward those socio-political factors that could predetermine these transformations.

A NEW EURASIAN BLOC? CHARACTERIZING THE ACTIVITY OF FORMER SOVIET AND TURKIC COUNTRIES AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Soviet countries were the most cohesive bloc in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) during the bipolar era, after which the East-West cleavage was replaced by a North-South division. Hence, the Soviet space fell out of the attention of UN research in the post-Cold War era. However, this North-South polarization arises mainly from voting analyses that ignore other interstate activities at the UN. An analysis of sponsorship patterns of draft resolutions from the last decade, in contrast, reveals alternative groups, including a cluster with former Soviet, Eastern European, and Turkish-speaking countries, suggesting some unity among Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In light of such evidence, this exploratory paper uses data on UNGA sponsorship between 2009 and 2019 to descriptively characterize this newfound coalition of Eurasian countries, probing what their pattern of UNGA activity is and what topics bind them together as a group.

Forced marriages and unintentional divorces: The national attitudes in Armenia and Uzbekistan towards the ‘Russian World’

In 1991, new political discourses emerged in the Soviet republics that had to reinvent themselves as independent states, redefining their national identity on several dimensions. This process matured ambiguous attitudes toward the former imperial center and different visions over the scopes, perspectives, and claims of a ‘Russian World’ in the former Soviet space, where Moscow still asserted an exclusive political and cultural sphere of influence. In this article, we will review the cases of Armenia and Uzbekistan with peculiar national projects and relationships with Moscow, reviewing their inclusion within the USSR, their path to independence, their post-Soviet relations with Moscow, and the changes during the turning points of 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Support for Vladimir Putin in Russia's neighbors: Survey evidence from an endorsement experiment in six post-Soviet countries

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has again drawn attention to the geopolitical aims of President Vladimir Putin in the states of the former Soviet Union, the ‘Near Abroad’. While Putin's actions have been widely condemned in the West, the reaction among the former Soviet states has been more mixed. Using representative national surveys from late 2019 - early 2020, the article reports the results of an endorsement experiment to gage the support that Putin had in six countries of the former Soviet space (Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia). Direct questioning about Putin revealed that half of the 8420 respondents said that they had ‘no trust at all’ though views varied a lot by country. Given the sensitivity around perceptions of Putin, an endorsement experiment elicits more accurate results. Five expectations of who supports Putin are tested in models with socio-demographic controls. Respondents with more close-minded personalities show significantly more support for Vladimir Putin, our key test. People who are skeptical of scientific expertise and those with traditional views (measured by a question about patriarchal dominance in marriages) are also more likely to support Putin. In contrast, support for Putin is not significantly greater by those who subscribe to conspiracy theories, and by those with little interest in politics. Country level results are generally in line with the results of the overall model, but demonstrate some interesting variation. Vladimir Putin overall has higher trust and support in Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan than in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova but the respondents in all countries behave in a manner consistent with their personal traits in endorsing or opposing Putin's positions.

HUMAN FREEDOM – THE PATH TO PERFECTION OR THE PATH TO DESPAIR

The present study aims to analyze how contemporary man uses the divine gift of freedom. On the one hand, man, freed from sin through the Sacrament of Baptism, can grow in freedom to the extent that he opens himself to the work of grace and fulfills the deeds of freedom, that is, the virtues. On the other hand, caught up in the whirlwind of different life choices to find professional fulfillment, he may not find his desires fulfilled and not feel the joy of earthly life, thus falling prey to fears, fears, unhappiness, and neurotic-depressive behavior, amplified in recent years by the various global crises (the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in the Soviet space etc.).

Творчество Ирен Немировски в оценке советских критиков 1920-1940-х гг.

The paper examines the views of Soviet critics on the works of the writer Irène Némirovsky, a representative of the “younger generation” of the first-wave Russian emigration to France. The writer successfully integrated into French society and her writings enjoyed success with the European public in the 1920s and 1940s. The researcher reveals the reasons for the lack of references to Némirovsky’s creative work in most periodicals in the novelist’s homeland during this period. The aim of the study is to determine the features of the reception of Irène Némirovsky’s works in Russia during the writer’s lifetime. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the editorial policy of the journal “Foreign Literature” due to the fact that it is the only literary magazine that published reviews of the writer’s works during the specified period found by the author of the paper. This material has not been analysed before, which accounts for the scientific originality of the study. The examination of the discovered articles makes it possible to reveal the view of Soviet society on Némirovsky’s creative work. As a result, it has been proved that the attitudes dictated by the party’s policy in the field of fiction prevented the popularisation of the writer’s works in the Soviet space.

The European Union, Russia and the Post Soviet Space: Shared Neighbourhood, Battleground or Transit Zone on the New Silk Road? Editors: Viktoria Akchurina and Vincent Della Sala. Publisher: Routledge, 2023

The European Union, Russia and the Post Soviet Space: Shared Neighbourhood, Battleground or Transit Zone on the New Silk Road? Editors: Viktoria Akchurina and Vincent Della Sala. Publisher: Routledge, 2023

Planetary geoarchaeology as a new frontier in archaeological science: Evaluating site formation processes on Earth's Moon

AbstractOn October 4, 1957, Homo sapiens crossed a new threshold of technological innovation after constructing an artifact capable of entering Low Earth Orbit and effectively paving the way for a future of space exploration. This artifact was Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet space program which triggered the “space race” of the mid‐20th century. Over the past 65 years, we have continued to explore and populate our solar system with rockets and spacecraft including satellites, probes, landers, and rovers. This expansion into our solar system has left traces of our presence on several planets including the Earth, Mars, Mercury, and Venus along with Earth's Moon, Titan, and several galaxy travelers in the form of asteroids and comets. Today, we have entered the realm of a new privatized and global space race, effectively a “new space race” or “new Space Age.” As we expand our material footprint into new extraterrestrial environments, there is a growing need to understand the types of unique site formation processes capable of altering, destroying, or preserving this rapidly increasing archaeological record known as space heritage. Such understandings are germane to the subdiscipline of geoarchaeology, that part of archaeology dedicated to studying the interaction between humans, cultural heritage, and environmental systems from a geoscience perspective. Closely aligned and partially overlapping with the subdisciplines of space archaeology, archaeological science, and planetary geology, we introduce a new subfield we call planetary geoarchaeology to open discussion about how geoarchaeologists can play a role in addressing current and future issues surrounding the preservation and management of space heritage. To demonstrate the potential of the subdiscipline, we focus on the current archaeological record of the Moon, describe lunar site formation processes, and discuss the implications for the current and future preservation of space heritage in the lunar setting. Planetary geoarchaeology can be applied to practically every type of extraterrestrial environment, provided humans have left behind a measurable record. We hope this paper will spur more research studying human–environment interaction in space.

Mechanism, Occultism, the Calculus of Environments: The Perpetual Motion of Soviet Space

This article attempts to fix Dmitry Morozov’s Geological Trilogy between three poles or three paradigmatic models. The author takes recourse to Anson Rabinbach’s theory and his account of how the mechanisms characteristic of the 18th century stand in opposition to the motor and electric machines of the 19th century. The ever-renewing processes of Morozov’s installations share with 18th century mechanisms the fact that their the source of movement is not electromagnetism and its conversion but the workings of interrelated parts. Yet Morozov’s machines are distinct from those of the 18th century in the absence of the mimetic. The article also draws a distinction, following Matteo Pasquinelli, between carbon and silicon-based machines. The third theory, on which the author bases his own conclusions, takes an interpretation of the 16th century Kabbalist Isaac Luria and compares it with Pasquanelli’s theory. The material point where this transformation took place is ascribed to occult practices of manipulation. Hypothetically, Morozov’s machine amounts to a machine of the third type: a motive, technical potential of the 18th century while being also a particular transformation of that potential. A machine of the third type is a machine of location which is able to transform the situation as a whole. The basic functionality of such machines is a quadripartite gestural code and general principles of the calculus of environments which allow one to put different socio-cultural aspects together and examine the question of their connection with the paradigm of the “soviet”. The author suggests that Morozov’s machines act to change the past (the Soviet past, especially that of the period of stagnation). However the resolution of other issues raised by Morozov’s machines require a new ontology and new mathematics.

The Image of Writers and the Author's Position in the Novel-essay by K. Yskak «The Illusion of the Past Days»

It is known that one of the genres of Kazakh literature, essays, appeared infrequently in the literature of the Soviet era. During the period of independence, within the framework of this genre, events and scenes in the Soviet space were described in detail, by the authors. Writers have used the rational side of the essay genre as a powerful way to analyze an idea in the context of artistic reality. The article analyzes a novel-essay «Kelmes kunder elesi» («The illusion of the past days»), from two books, which is the result of the relationship between the novel and the essay by the outstanding writer Kalihan Iskak. He defines the features and poetic structure of the essay novel based on native literary criticism. The essay novel analyzes how the author writes very eloquently and with a peculiar style about the events he witnessed, as well as about his views and thoughts. Memoirs of Kalikhan Iskak about himself, about his time, about his contemporaries, about the environment in which he grew up, as well as the memories of the inhabitants of his native land, which were collected to create a wonderful piece of art, served as the basis for writing the article. It is argued that the novel-essay of the writer is distinguished by artistic language, poetic narration and a peculiar style. It is analyzed that the novel-essay is a valuable world telling about the tastes of childhood, unforgettable events, ghosts of the days of the people's life, reflecting the abundance of biographical facts and the breadth of the author's ideological channel, enriching Kazakh literature in artistic, genre, thematic, source studies, cognitive terms. The concluding part says that the novel-essay of Kalikhan Yskak «Kelmes kunder elesi» («The illusion of the past days») is a valuable work that has enriched Kazakh literature in artistic, genre, thematic, documentary and cognitive terms.

Still a great power? Russia’s status dilemmas post-Ukraine war

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact the war in Ukraine has had on Russia’s great power status. Post-Soviet Russia has been one of the most active status-seekers and sought to re-establish its rank among the existing great power status community. In its claim to high status, Russia has historically relied on traditional status markers, including its permanent seat at the UN Security Council, diplomatic prominence at the summits with other great powers, and the strength of its military. However, as this paper shows, Moscow’s fateful choice to launch a war against Ukraine has led to considerable slippage of its status. Russia now struggles to get things done at international fora and has also faced increased diplomatic isolation. Moreover, the war – especially the struggles of the Russian armed forces – challenged Russia’s claim of great military power and an exclusive security provider in the former Soviet space.

Close Quarters: Dealing with Difference in the (Post-)Soviet Realm

Close QuartersDealing with Difference in the (Post-)Soviet Realm Maike Lehmann (bio) Adrienne Edgar and Benjamin Frommer, eds., Intermarriage from Central Europe to Central Asia: Mixed Families in the Age of Extremes. 344 pp. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020. ISBN-13 978-1496202116. $75.00. Jeff Sahadeo, Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow. 273 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019. ISBN-13 978-1501738203. $46.95. Rustamjon Urinboyev, Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes: Navigating the Legal Landscape. 186 pp. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. ISBN-13 978-0520971257 (Open Access e-book). The kommunalka as a living arrangement particular to the Soviet Union appeals to researchers as much as it fascinates people who first come across this space with its complex rules and relationships. Its challenge to Western notions of private and public, the coexistence of fierce territoriality and intimate relationships in cramped quarters, which could elicit the whole range of emotions between inhabitants who often hailed from wildly diverging backgrounds and did not live together by choice, has turned the kommunalka into an allegory for the whole Soviet Union.1 As a metaphor, it has also been popular with scholars working on the multiethnic character of [End Page 391] the Soviet Union.2 Very much like the kommunalka, which accommodated people of all classes in apartments taken from the former imperial elite, the USSR came to be in a mostly involuntary fashion. But it afforded all its inhabitants a national home within the borders of the former empire—room to foster national culture and local support for the socialist project. With rooms in the kommunalka often contested and cramped, sometimes further divided by curtains and makeshift walls, they lend themselves easily to a comparison with the disputed borders of national territories between and within republics. In recent years, however, the kommunalka metaphor has been called into question, because it usually called attention to the aspect of territoriality and conflict when reflecting on the multiethnic layout of the Soviet Union, thereby reinforcing the boundaries drawn by the Soviet state and implicitly treating the different rooms as homogeneous while often foregrounding conflict.3 There are solid grounds for this approach. But what happens when we extend the kommunalka metaphor to include forays into how cohabitation and boundary crossing worked out? What were the rules and relationships here? And what did this kommunalka mean to its (former) inhabitants? ________ The three publications under review here address such issues in different ways and for different groups. While the article collection edited by Adrienne Edgar and Benjamin Frommer brings together contributions dealing with intermarriage from Central Europe to Central Asia from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, the monographs by Sahadeo and Urinboyev explore the experiences of migrants from the (post-)Soviet South to (post-)Soviet Moscow and Leningrad. While the diversity in contexts and perspectives is immediately apparent from the lineup of Edgar's and Frommer's volume, Sahadeo's and Urinboyev's shared focus might suggest the possibility of a long-term perspective on migration across the 1991 divide. After all, a recurring assumption is that the tectonic shifts of the political and social [End Page 392] landscape upon the implosion of the Soviet Union might have brought undercurrents to the surface that previously remained hidden, not the least by the rather idealistic picture of a multiethnic Soviet family painted by official discourse. While for the economic and social sphere, the fundamental change of the 1990s is recognized, the multiethnic makeup of the (post-) Soviet space is often talked about in terms of continuity. The enduring image of the Soviet Union as a breaker of nations is time and again linked to the xenophobic profiling at work in Russia today. The possibility of a long-term perspective could be also expected from certain features the two monographs share: Sahadeo and Urinboyev approach their subjects in large part through interviews (besides contemporary sources in Sahadeo's case and multisited field work in Moscow and the Ferghana Valley, spanning participant observation and exchanges on social media, in Urinboyev's); they focus on their subject's agency while analyzing living situations and everyday experiences...

Propaganda of soviet space achievements in the 1960s and 1970s: forms, methods, restrictions

The article is devoted to the study of forms and methods of Soviet scientific and technical propaganda in the 1960s and 1970s. The main focus is on ways to promote Soviet space achievements. The article is based on archival documents, as well as on the materials of a number of popular magazines of this period. The following issues were carefully considered: the organization of scientific and technical propaganda in the USSR; methods of censorship control. The general conclusions of the study give an idea of two forms of coverage of scientific and technical achievements in the Soviet press of this period. The organization of scientific and technical censorship, in which the key role belonged not to the Glavlit, but to experts of branch research institutes and the Academy of Sciences, is also analyzed in detail.

<strong>Soviet Studies, Russian Studies, Ukrainian Studies... Politics, war, and ‘horizons’.</strong>

This article looks at the development of Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian Studies as academic disciplines in the English-speaking world, and considers how the collapse of the USSR at the end of 1991 affected their approaches, conceptual horizons, and reception within the former Soviet space. It argues that the distinct ‘Western’ schools of area studies looking at the former USSR and its constituent republics have not simply merged with their counterparts in the areas under study, as might have been expected once the political and institutional barriers to international scholarly cooperation had been removed following the end of communist rule. On the contrary, they have survived and retained their vitality for a combination of economic and political reasons, and the narrowing scope for free academic enquiry in both Russia and Ukraine means that they are unlikely to lose their relevance any time soon.

СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ МИГРАЦИОННЫЕ ПОТОКИ НА ПОСТСОВЕТСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ

The subject of the study is the trends and prospects for the development of national migration flows in the post-Soviet space in modern conditions. The purpose of the paper is to identify the degree of stability of the migration flows that have formed in the post- Soviet space now under the influence of a series of unforeseen circumstances. The relevance of the study is due to the growing impact of unforeseen and massive natural and political phenomena on migration flows as the main drivers of cross-border mobility. The research methods are analysis, systematization, synthesis, and classification of the objects under study. The study attempts to assess the impact of the pandemic and recent political upheavals on the scale of migration to Russia. The author concludes that the current migration system within the CIS countries has demonstrated a high level of stability and resilience. The practical interest of the study is determined by the possibility of using the research data for the purposes of forecasting and planning the scale and structure of attracting foreign labor to Russia.