Soviet Specialists Research Articles

THE DOCTRINE OF AIR WARFARE BY GIULIO DOUHET IN THE SOVIET MILITARY-SCIENTIFIC JOURNALISM AND FICTION OF THE 1920S-30S

The article says about reflection of the doctrine of air warfare of Italian military theorist Giulio Douhet (1869-1930) in military, scientific, popular science and artistic literature in the USSR in 1920-30s, its criticism by Soviet specialists, discussions about the role of aviation in the wars-to-be. According to the said concept, the lack of military aircrafts, primarily bombers, might cost an entire war. Numerous Soviet leaders in the 1920s saw aviation as a formidable military force and as a kind of ‟locomotive” capable of driving industry, science and culture. It is logical that Giulio Douhet’s doctrine aroused their great interest. The works of the Italian general and some works of other foreign authors related to his doctrine, were repeatedly published in the USSR. Prominent military commanders and aviation specialists took part in their publication and discussion. Those disputes were intertwined with discussions about the role of aviation in the wars-to-be. Some authors believed that there was a rational grain in the doctrine of Giulio Douhet, and aviation could put enemy on the brink of defeat in short time. Others insisted on the need to prepare for a protracted war, where aviation would play an important role, but only as one of the means of struggle. As a result, the 1920s-30s’ discussion of Giulio Douhet’s theory in the USSR reflected significant aspects in the development of views on the tasks of the air fleet.

СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКИЙ БЫТ В РУКОПИСИ О.А. ВУТКЕ

The architecture of the Soviet avant-garde was one of the main tools of the social engineering. By the end of 1929, several points of view had formed on the problem of organizing a new socialist way of life in a young revolutionary state. This question had been widely discussed by the government representatives, by the society and, first of all, by the specialists, destined to realize in practice the concepts of a new way of life. Among them, the architects played one of the leading roles. The article expands the research understanding of how Soviet specialists of the 1920s understood the idea of a new everyday life and what did they think about the possibility of its implementation. The article also introduces for the first time the manuscript of O.A. Wutke, one of the representatives of the Soviet architectural avant-garde.

Participation of Soviet specialists in the creation of the Egyptian national dance school as an manifestation of cultural sensitivity phenomenon

The paper presents a combination of historical and sociological research. The authors scrutinize the history of the work of Soviet choreographers, first of all related to the choreographic school of I. Moiseyev in Egypt in 1950-60s. As a result of this work, the Egyptian traditional dances, which probably originated in ancient times, including raks sharki, known worldwide as bellydance, were recorded and brought to the professional stage. The authors rely on the concept of institutionalization of culture, the essence of which is that folklore tradition in an industrial and urban society can no longer be transmitted naturally through the family, but can be preserved through fixation and institutionalization in the system of cultural institutions and supplementary education. This idea was realized in the USSR and in Egypt with the active participation of Soviet specialists.
 The authors conclude that the successful experience of Soviet choreographers with Egyptian cultural heritage could be interpreted as empirical evidence of the "cultural openness" (i. e., sensitivity and respect for other cultures).
 Finally, the example discussed in the paper shows that the Soviet experience of the institutionalization and professionalization of cultural tradition can be successfully applied in other countries and among peoples belonging to completely` different macrosocial communities. At the same time, it makes possible to preserve important elements of national identity and even local originality in urban milieu of industrial or post-industrial society.

НАУЧНО-ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЕ СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВО СССР И СРВ В ОБЛАСТИ СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВА ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫХ ОБЪЕКТОВ (1976-1983 ГГ.)

The article discusses the main directions of scientific and technical cooperation between the USSR and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereinafter - SRV) in the field of construction of industrial facilities (1976-1983). Archival materials of the GARF, RGANTD, TSGANTD Spb funds are analyzed, examples of constructed facilities are given, the role of Soviet specialists is analyzed, the identified problems of bilateral interaction are considered, the significance and effectiveness are assessed cooperation between the USSR and the SRV in this area. The paper concludes that cooperation in the construction of industrial facilities in the SRV has helped build backbone enterprises and given an impetus to the development of science and manufacturing industries.

Prehistory and Ideology in Cold War Southeast Asia: The Politics of Wartime Archaeology in Thailand and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1954–1975

The two decades comprised within the partition of Vietnam and the end of the Indochina Wars surprisingly saw major advances in prehistoric archaeology in the region. This article examines the political context and implications of archaeological investigations conducted in Thailand and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under the guidance of, respectively, American and Soviet specialists, as an aspect of the cultural Cold War. Archaeological discoveries in both countries debunked colonial archaeology’s account of prehistoric Southeast Asia as a passive recipient of Chinese cultural influence by documenting autonomous technological development. The article argues that the new image of mainland Southeast Asia’ prehistory that formed by the early 1970s reflected the superpowers’ objective of empowering the region’s postcolonial nation-states notwithstanding their political contrasts, yet it was not equally congruent with the nationalist narratives of Thailand and North Vietnam.

Чехословацкий византиновед Милада Паулова и советские историки: на пути к сотрудничеству (середина 1940-х - середина 1960-х гг.)

The article deals with the scientific contacts of the Czechoslovak historian M. Paulova with colleagues from the Soviet Union. The main direction in the development of cooperation was the interaction within the framework of the Czechoslovak and Soviet Byzantine journals - «Byzantinoslavica» and «Vizantiysky Vremennik». A short moment of hope for fruitful cooperation in the mid-1940s was replaced at the end of the same decade by the alienation of Soviet research and their closure in the national intellectual space. The next round of mutual attraction fell on the years of the Khrushchev Thaw. The episode under consideration of scientific life coincided with the Sovietization of Czechoslovak science and the formation of a single communicative field of Eastern European scientists. However, the experience of cooperation within the framework of «Byzantinoslavica» and «Vizantiysky Vremennik» contrasts with the established ideas about the main role of Soviet historians in the complex ensemble of Eastern European scholarship in the mid-1940s and early 1950s. Scholars from the USSR were guides to the enchanting world of the Marxist understanding of history: they were looked up to, they were imitated, they were consulted. An appeal to this material paints a different picture: Soviet specialists not only do not set the pace and sound of this orchestra, they (co)exist for some time in parallel. The reason for this state of affairs, according to the authors of the article, lies in the preservation of scientists of the old school in post-war Czechoslovakia, including in such narrow areas of knowledge as Byzantine studies.

Марризм и советская фольклористика (по материалам архива М.К. Азадовского)

The linguistic theory of the Soviet academician Nikolai Marr which in the 1930s captured Soviet humanities, including literary and folklore studies, had several stages: from an unrestrained glorification up to its complete defamation in 1950 (after Stalin’s article in “Pravda”). Heated discussions around the “paleontological method” resumed in Russia during the Perestroika and later, when most experts consider it as unfounded. The present publication is focused on the remembered evidence of Mark Azadovsky (1888–1954) who in the 1930s headed all folklore studies in Leningrad (in the Academy of Sciences as well as at the University) and who was at that time deeply involved in the principal events of folkloristic life and was well acquainted with its participants. His letter to the Moscow folklore scholar Vera Krupyanskaya (1897–1985), written in May 1952, represents a retrospective evaluation of Marr’s direction in Soviet folklore studies and gives, moreover, an answer to the question: who among the Soviet specialists in folklore could be regarded (and to what degree) as a real adherent of Marr’s school? After 1949, when Mark Azadovsky was subjected to public dishonor and dismissed from all of his academic positions, he had no possibility to express his views in public. However, he managed to indirectly influence the contents of one of the “anti-Marrist” articles typical of that time (“About the fallacious views of N.Ya. Marr and his followers in the field of the folklore studies” by Vladimir Chicherov). The story of this article, published in the magazine “Soviet Ethnography” (1952) presents an “intrigue” with some fascinating details.

The Influence of Soviet Musicians on Education at the Shanghai Conservatory

The article is devoted to the study of various aspects of the activities and influence of Soviet musicians on the musical culture and education of Shanghai. The author comes to the conclusion that Russian musicians played an important role in the formation of the musical life of Shanghai and in general of the whole of China. Russian and European cultural and performing traditions were promoted by them, works of Russian and European authors were distributed, and their students were introduced to the masterpieces of world musical art. The traditions laid down by Russian musical figures at the beginning of the twentieth century were continued and strengthened by Soviet specialists who brought up a whole galaxy of outstanding musicians in China. The strengthening of Russian-Chinese relations after 1949 played a special role. Many Soviet musicians were sent to China by agreement of the countries. Among them were outstanding teachers and musicians: D. M. Serov, K.N. Dmitrevskaya, S. G. Delitsiev, N. N. Delitsieva, F. G. Arzamanov, I. G. Beridze, etc. They helped to develop curricula and programs, gave lectures, reports, held consultations and conducted teaching and organizational activities. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that for the first time it provides information about the work of the listed Soviet musicians and analyzes their influence on education at the Shanghai Conservatory.

Некоторые особенности культурной идентичности Шейбани-хана и монументальное строительство в Самарканде в начале XVI века

Research objective: to analyze the cultural identity of Shaybani khan and his policy of reconstructing Samarkand and to identify the origins of cultural traditions in architectural construction in Samarkand at the beginning of the 16th century. Research materials: The sources mainly used in this study are historical works of Central Asian, Persian and Turkic authors of the sixteenth century: Muhammad Salikh, Fadhlallah ibn Ruzbikhan Isfahani, Shaybani Khan, Hafiz Tanysh Bukhari, and archive materials of L. Mankovskaya and M. Masson from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The publications of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet specialists on the history of the Central Asia – V. Bartold, A. Semenov, R. Mukminova, B. Akhmedov, R. Djalilova, A. Bodrogligeti, R. McChesney, Y. Karasoy, M. Subtelny, T. Sultanov, K. Baypakov, E. Smagulov, D. DeWeese, F. Schwartz, B. Babajanov, A. Muminov, B. Norik and others are also analyzed in detail. Results and scientific novelty: Shaybani Khan, who possessed certain knowledge in the field of Islamic theology, law, Turkic, and Persian poetry, continued the cultural traditions of the Syrdarya regions of Ulus Juchi and Khorezm, which he adapted to the conditions of the Timurid society of Maverannakhr. Unlike the representatives of the Timurid dynasty, he was defiantly dealing with theological issues and supported the importance of the Turkic language as a means of propagating his power in Maverannakhr and Khorasan. In the memorial constructions in Samarkand, Shaybani Khan founded the Sufa, a family necropolis distinguished by its simplicity in comparison with the luxurious mausoleum of the Timurids. He combined certain traditions of the memorial architecture of Dashti Kipchak and funerary structures – dahmas of the higher clergy of Bukhara and Samarkand. The construction of the Shaybani Khan Madrasah in the historical center of Samarkand near the madrasah founded by a representative of the Chingisid dynasty and Timur’s eldest wife, Sarai-mulk Khanum, was not only symbolic in its importance, but also served as the legal and theological center of his state. There is no information in the sources about Shaybani-Khan’s reconstruction of the largest Islamic shrines of Samarkand. At the same time, Shaybani Khan continued the Timurid traditions of building garden and park complexes in Samarkand and erected civilian structures in the form of a water bridge.

Transformation of work relationships in the 1920s-1930s (by the materials of the Samara Governorate)

The paper deals with changes in labor relations in the period of 19201930s in the context of the transition of the countrys economy from war communism to the NEP and planned economy. During the period under study, new forms of interaction between power and man emerged. An important aspect of studying the transformation of labor relations is the method of including the working masses in the restoration of industry, stimulation and motivation to work. Another important aspect of this study is the analysis of forms and methods of education and upbringing of workers in the USSR. Research interest in the problem of the existence of man in labor made it possible to turn to the principles of the history of everyday life and social history. The study is based on archival materials from the Samara Governorate and the Middle Volga region. Published sources were also used (documents and legislative acts of the ruling party, which were administrative and regulatory in nature). It should be noted that the paper examines the role of trade union organizations in improving the quality of the qualifications of Soviet workers, as well as their role in increasing efficiency and improving the production process. The paper presents a content of some curricula aimed at improving the quality of education of Soviet specialists.

Soviet specialists’s urban planning technical assistance to China, 1949–1959

ABSTRACT A highlight of the urban planning activities in the early days of the People’s Republic of China was the considerable number of professional specialists from the U.S.S.R. sent to provide China with technical assistance in urban planning. This was also a unique phenomenon in the international urban planning sector. More than forty Soviet specialists, who could be categorized into four groups, were sent to China over a 10-year period to provide technical assistance, commencing with the arrival of the first group of Soviet municipal engineering specialists in August 1949 to the return of the last group in May 1959. By virtue of the technical assistance of the Soviet planners China managed to learn from Soviet planning theory in its entirety and developed urban reconstruction & expansion plans for a number of existing megacities as well as a number of important emerging industrial cities. Furthermore, thanks to the Soviet specialists, China was able to train and acquire a multitude of first-generation urban planners of its own who instilled into the modern Chinese planning model a ‘cultural gene’ which, originating primarily from the Soviet model, characterized socialist urban planning.

Employees Make the Difference!”: Career Trajectories of First Employees of the Higher School of Economics in Prague (1950s)

The article studies the history of establishing the Prague Higher School of Economics in the 1950s and the career trajectories of first employees. This educational institution, opened during the active campaign of Sovietization of Czechoslovak science and education, considered by the Soviet authorities as a forge of new administrators and scholars. The article concludes by arguing the enormous role played by the staff members of the Higher School of Political and Economic Sciences in the establishing of the Higher School of Economics. It also notes the prominent role of staff members who came from the Czech Higher Technical School. Paradoxically, despite the active Sovietization the real influence of Soviet specialists on the work of the Higher School of Economics was very insignificant. The authors show that in the 1950s the process of staffing has not been completed yet. The shortage of staff was one of the reasons for the rapid progress of some persons up the career ladder. The establishment of the Higher School of Economics, on the one hand, marked the development of a new major ideological center of socialist Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, the study of the career paths of its first employees shows that the process of growing new elites went far beyond the preset frameworks, turned out to be more complicated than, for example, similar processes in the USSR in the 1920s – 1930s. The article finds out that the professional trajectories of many persons, who started out as passionate communists, will lead them on the path of criticism of dogmatic Marxism. Among the young employees were those who later enthusiastically joined the economic reforms’ movement of the 1960s and glorified the Prague Spring.

Chinese interpreters and Soviet specialists in Shaanxi Province during the Great Leap Forward

The issue of the Soviet Union's assistance to China in the 1950s and the subsequent dispatch of a large number of Soviet specialists cannot be fully studied without revealing the role of translators in the process of providing this assistance, because it was translators who were the main link that allowed to transfer of extensive Soviet experience to the Chinese side. The Chinese archival documents at our disposal allow us to reveal the nature and content of the work of Chinese translators with Soviet specialists in the territory of Shaanxi Province. Thanks to the concentrated assistance of the USSR to create military facilities during the first and partly second Chinese five-year plans, this province became a new center of military production in China. The content of our documents allows us to reveal the methods and principles of the organization of translation activities by the Chinese leadership for Soviet specialists during the years of the Great Leap Forward. It is in the documents of this period that we can detect the emergence of a new understanding of the basic functions of the translator. If previously translators were mainly a link for the transfer of Soviet knowledge and experience to the Chinese side, then in the years of the Great Leap Forward one of the main functions of the translator was the task of relaying Chinese ideological postulates in relation to specialists. Chinese side tried to convey the ideas of the "big leap" to the soviet specialists through translators in order to turn them into a tool for implementing the super-tasks for Chinese society. In this regard, one of the main requirements for Chinese translators was their ideological literacy, which was even higher than knowledge of the Russian language and translation skills. At the same time attempts at ideological pressure on Soviet specialists led to increased alienation and conflicts between the parties. The author expresses his gratitude to Sergey Smirnov, Professor of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of UrFU, for his help in writing the article.

ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЯ О ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫХ ЛЕСАХ СИБИРИ СРЕДИ СПЕЦИАЛИСТОВ В СССР В КОНЦЕ 1940-х — 1991 гг.

This article examines the notions of Siberia’s industrial forests among Soviet specialists in the context of colonization of Eastern regions of the USSR from the late 1940s to the late 1980s. It pays a particular attention to how specialists perceived forests of Eastern virgin lands and what were their expectations about industrial forest exploitation and wood harvesting. The analysis is based upon professional publications about the tension between so called “old” (mainly North-West and the Urals) and “new” (the Siberian region) forests. The author raises the question of the meaning that Soviet specialists placed on the newly colonized forests within the industrial development. The article demonstrates that foresters replicated the state rhetoric about “virgin” lands seeing the new technologies of colonization as a possibility for solving the problem of resource supply in the industry which became visible in the period under study. The development of forest resources and timber industry construction with the help of the latest technologies have been among the most important tasks set by specialists since the late 1940s. Many specialists hoped to start a new page in forest exploitation via the rational and complex, as they called it, approach to wood harvesting and processing. This was to minimize the risks and losses associated with forest exploitation in old industrial areas. However, the lack of funding and infrastructural impediments including difficult access to new forest reserves complicated the colonization drive and was perceived by specialists as a transfer of old problems (problems typical for the ‘old’ forests) to ‘new’ regions. In the course of colonization during the period between the late 1940s and 1980s professional enthusiasm of earlier decades changed to disappointment about the practice of forest colonization in the Soviet Eastern lands.

ТHE РUTSENTELAS: A FAMILY OF VIOLIN MASTER CRAFTSMEN

The research objective is to reveal the creative road to the manufacturing of string instruments, the secrets of master craftsmanship of Putsentelas, the artisans. The research methodology is based upon systemic and analytic methods, and on the method of interviewing. The scientific novelty consists in detailed description of the activity of the Putsentelas family artisan studio which serves as an example of contemporary tendencies of violin craftsmanship in Ukraine and abroad; in highlighting and detailed description of facts that contribute to the understanding of the importance of violin sound acquisition that is related to a range of important factors in the process of instrument creation. Conclusions. The historical exploration of the history of Lviv local violin making industry is complicated by the fact that numerous published literature items contain references to names or achievements of Polish, Russian or Soviet specialists which sometimes include descriptions of the peculiarities of their practices and its extrapolation onto the Ukrainian land. At the same time, information on contemporary Ukrainian craftsmen – the creators of string instruments – are all but absent in such literature (certain isolated materials can only be extracted from non-specialised periodicals and online resources). The article underscores the social importance of the activities of the Putsentela family – in the regional, nationwide (all-Ukraine) context, and even in continental (all-European) context. Successful activities of violin craftsmen – the Putsentela family – is based upon top quality professional training that was received at leading world-class centres of musical instrument construction, and also on having studied the experience of craftsmen from numerous European schools and the peculiarities of their violins. The combination of the spiritual and the highly professional are two genetically related cores of the master, which enable high artistic flight. Undoubtedly, the tools of the Putsentel family’s workshop have been added and are added to Ukraine’s fame all over the world.

Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown (review).

Reviewed by: Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown John P. DiMoia (bio) Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future By Kate Brown. London: Penguin, 2019. Pp. 432. An eclectic combination of the history of technology, environmental history, and disaster STS, Kate Brown's Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future (also published by W. W. Norton with the subtitle An Environmental History of Chernobyl) captures the aftermath of Chernobyl (1986), focusing less on the specifics of reactor technology and far more on the issue of radiation as an unknown. Brown thus offers a careful account of the accumulation of knowledge, using human bodies, plants, and the surrounding environment collectively as a vast repository, a living archive concerning questions of radiation's absorption, as well as the environment's ability to adjust. She argues that Soviet specialists already held a great deal of such knowledge acquired through the domestic nuclear industry and its attending regulatory problems, although this fact (and the associated knowledge of health physics) was kept quiet at the time, when the mobilization of an accident-free industry remained a standard form of rhetoric. A series of accidents, contingencies, and unknown variables motivates the activity in this fascinating chronicle, when the decisions that were made held long-term implications for lives, along with medical outcomes, favorable or not. Along with her earlier work, Plutopia (2013) and Dispatches from [End Page 246] Dystopia (2015), Manual for Survival continues Brown's project of shifting attention from a body of work located much closer to European history to a more conventional one in the area of Soviet Studies. Throughout her career, Brown has been interested in changing landscapes whether for political, economic, or regional reasons, and in these recent three books, she has tied this theme closely to clusters of vast, overreaching technological ambitions. The creation of industrial landscapes and shattered spaces is not unique to the Soviet project, however, and Brown clearly makes this point in Plutopia, which details the production of plutonium at multiple sites, thereby capturing the American side of the experience. In Manual for Survival, the focus rests on the Ukraine and Soviet stories, while suggesting strongly that the narrative holds lessons for other sites. Brown walks carefully through the technical details of building a tentative model to understand the effects of radiation, drawing upon official and previously unavailable sources, numerous interviews, and personal accounts. If her actors, including Ukrainian, Russian, and a wide range of international citizens, doctors, and activists, frequently come off as less than polished, it is because their motivations encompass a diverse set of aims. While not explicitly a Latourian, Brown incorporates non-human actors, especially when examining the surroundings for radiation effects. For example, the fallen leaves in the area offer a careful measuring device of absorption: a material trace, something many scientists were slow to recognize at first. In contrast to the official reports of deaths and cancers attributed to the accident, Brown offers stories of the living, whether those with mild symptoms, a prolonged cough and respiratory issues, or others who have undergone multiple, invasive surgeries. This material is an alternate brand of accounting and has a cumulative impact that exceeds more traditional measures with strictly defined categories and boundaries. For historians of technology, Brown's narrative appeals on several levels. The first, and most obvious, lies with Russian and Soviet studies, and there are numerous echoes of previous accounts of the Russian nuclear project, including most recently, Sonja Schmid's Producing Power (MIT Press, 2015), a wonderful description of the preceding period. Given Brown's interest and previous work covering the effects of radiation in Washington State, Patrick Vitale's Nuclear Suburbs (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) provides a complement, exploring the changes of the urban landscape through technological spin-offs. Brown moves us from an older, binary Cold War to a richer, multilateral one, enmeshed with environmental history, and perhaps invoking a conscious lack of resolution, given the sober subject matter. If there are traces of Agamben's "bare life" in the narrative, Brown's rich account ultimately finds its ground in painstaking historical detail from archives, sources, and...

Soviet-Czechoslovak Technological Transfer: from the First Post-War Years to the Prague Spring (on the Base of the Foreign Trips Reports of Soviet Engineers)

In this article, a large range of unique sources from the collections of the St. Petersburg Central State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation is analyzed and studied for the first time. These are the reports of Soviet specialists in the field of technical knowledge on the business trips to Czechoslovakia in the period from the mid-1940s until the end of the 1960s. Their authors were employees of the Leningrad sectoral research institutes. They were technical chemists, shipbuilders, hydraulic engineers, mining engineers, machine builders, etc. The presented materials made it possible to take a fresh look at the issues of the Soviet-Czechoslovak technological transfer, both within the framework of bilateral relations and within the framework of CMEA. A distinctive feature of all the reports was their de-ideologization. These documents did not contain references to the classics of Marxism-Leninism and assurances of the superiority of socialist science over bourgeois, but they reflected a deep sincere interest in foreign technologies and engineering solutions. Noteworthy is the very respectful attitude of Soviet specialists towards their Czech and Slovak colleagues, and at the same time – deep attention to Czechoslovak technical developments. This fact clearly distinguishes the reports of engineers from the reports of their colleagues in the humanities, especially from the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The latter often wrote such documents from the arrogant position of the “elder brother”, who has a monopoly on the Marxist truth. The Soviet authors of the reports did not separate Soviet technical science from the global context and tried in every possible way to convey the idea of the importance of exchanging experience and scientific and technical information with foreign partners. They looked with some envy at their Czechoslovak colleagues, who, albeit limitedly, had access to Western scientific and technical literature. If we talk about the transfer of knowledge and technology from the standpoint of mutual benefit, then we need to draw a conclusion about its success. Cooperation with the USSR allowed Czechoslovakia to develop a number of new technical areas, such as nuclear power, at the same time, the Soviet side got the opportunity to access promising Czechoslovak technologies in the field of mechanical engineering or polymer chemistry. However, the system of intellectual exchanges, despite the obvious mutual interest of the specialists of the two countries in it, was still fettered by ideological frameworks and party control, and the introduction of certain technical innovations often faced the sluggishness of the planned economy.

СОВЕТСКО-КИТАЙСКИЕ ОТНОШЕНИЯ В РАБОТАХ РОССИЙСКИХ СИНОЛОГОВ

The article attempts to analyze the views of Russian researchers on the development of key aspects of Soviet-Chinese relations. This is relevant not only to satisfy purely scientific and academic interest but also from a political point of view. The article examines the views of Russian sinologists on the goals and conceptual attitudes of the Soviet leaders towards China in various chronological periods; presents some controversial issues of political relations between Moscow and Beijing; analyzes views on the circumstances of the establishment of the first contacts of Soviet Russia with the Kuomintang Party. In addition, the article presents a critical analysis by Russian sinologists of the activities of Soviet military advisers during the reorganization of the Kuomintang army in the 20th of the twentieth century and the attitude of the Soviet leaders to Sun Yatsen is presented. Attention is paid to the assessments of Russian scientists of the relations of the USSR with the Communist Party of China during the Great Patriotic War; the relationship of I.V. Stalin with Mao Zedong; issues of Moscow's military assistance to the CPC in 1945-1949. The points of view of Russian historians on the effectiveness of providing economic and scientific and technical assistance to the USSR to China in 1949-1960 are given; the recall of Soviet specialists in 1960 from the PRC, etc.

A Glimpse of the Initial Conditions for the Development of Science and Technology and Soviet Specialists in the PRC: 1949–1955

This article aims to analyze the so-called “starting point” when modern scientific and technological successes in China were in their infancy, and to provide the reader with insight on how various challenges were overcome in their development. The period under review is 1949–1955. The information about this period was obtained from Soviet archives and special literature. The first part of the article describes the state of affairs in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the early years of its formation, focusing on education, science, industry (including military), communications, and rail transport. The second part turns to the Soviet specialists working in the PRC during these years, focusing on their profession, number, cities of residence and living conditions. Issues regarding Chinese specialists’ internship in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) are also touched upon. The article selects several lesser-known areas in which professional competencies were established in this very weak post-war country to discover the origins of the most important science and technology in the contemporary PRC, thereby contributing to readers’ understanding of the initial conditions for the development of science and technology in China.

Повседневность советских врачей в Анголе (1975-1989) (по мемуарной литературе)

The paper aims to analyse the everyday life of Soviet doctors in Angola during the Civil War, using military memoirs. The paper is novel in that it studies the specific features of Soviet doctors’ life and functions in the setting of the traditional African society. As a result of the research, the author has been able to ascertain that the African reality - i.e. environmental conditions, peculiarities of local culture and rituals, the state of the Angolan health care system and medical services in the 1970s and 1980s, the generally indifferent attitude of local residents towards Soviet specialists - greatly complicated the work of Soviet doctors, expanded the range of their responsibilities, required the search for non-typical ways of addressing issues.