War Years Research Articles

Mental health of children with special educational needs in the context of long-term crisis challenges: as seen by parents

Aim: To study the peculiarities of the mental health of children with special educational needs after 1.5 years of full-scale war in Ukraine. Materials and Methods: The mental health of children with special educational needs (SEN) as well as the peculiarities of the impact of hostilities on their emotional and volitional sphere was assessed through the anonymous survey of their parents using the questionnaire developed by the authors (25 questions). The research, which was conducted in 2023 using a Google form, involved 466 parents having children with SEN aged 6 to 10. Results: It was found that among the surveyed families raising children with SEN, 30.7 % of children were in the combat zone or zone of temporary occupation for a week to a month, 19.1 % – for more than a month; 36.9 % of children experienced relocation, 23.4 % were separated from their parents, 19.7 % witnessed hostilities; 49.4 % of children experienced an unstable psycho-emotional state (“emotional swings”) during 1.5 years of war in Ukraine, 40.1 % – restlessness, 38.6 % – anxiety; 23.2 % of parents noted that their children were “hooked” on computer games and social networks, 11.2 % – had problems with sleep, 10.5 % – demonstrated the emergence or increase in cognitive problems. Conclusions: The negative impact of prolonged stress during the war on the mental health of children with SEN has been revealed, which requires psychological support for such children from parents and psychologists.

Forecasting methods for financial support of military capability during the democratisation

Background . The progressive exhaustion of Ukraine's economy due to the war, which, among other things, led to industrial, demographic, and environmental crises, forced the Government to look for reliable external sources of financial borrowing and material and humanitarian support as well as implementing efficient mechanisms of internal financial sources. During the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian war, international financial support, together with the monetary policy of the National Bank of Ukraine in terms of the emission of funds, was crucial to stabilising the stagnating economy. However, in the following years, the Government pursued an exceptional external and internal borrowing policy, which led us to identify the main bases for verification of the impact of financial support on the development and maintenance of an adequate level of Ukraine's military capability in the context of democratisation, – an essential requirement for Euro-Atlantic integration. The purpose of the article is to make predictions and provide practical recommendations for continuing the relatively successful policy of the Government of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine to attract external and internal borrowing to fill the state budget, allocate funds for the needs of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and use financial resources efficiently to ensure national and economic security. The object of the study is the financial support of military capability, i. e. trust funds and Western aid. Methods . To achieve the research objective, we used the method of analysis and hypothesis formulation based on observations of the phenomena that most accurately describe military and economic indicators. The hypothesis was confirmed and established on regression analysis, trends, and forecasts. Results . The indicator of financial support to the state budget from democratic governments is highlighted as well as national trust funds. The variance indicators of democratisation, economic growth and military expenditures are determined. The data of the above indicators are analysed using the double-squared method, and their forecasting was made. Conclusions . It has been found that financial support, due to the appropriate democratisation of public administration processes, is the primary basis for developing Ukraine's military capability.

СУЧАСНА РОСІЙСЬКА МУЗИКА ЯК ЗАСІБ ПОШИРЕННЯ ПРОРОСІЙСЬКИХ НАРАТИВІВ: ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ТА ШЛЯХИ БОРОТЬБИ З БОКУ УКРАЇНИ

Over the course of two years of full-scale war, numerous studies demonstrate that a portion of Ukraine’s population still maintains an interest in Russian-language musical products. This has a particularly negative impact on the consciousness of such citizens and supports the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Through the monetization of music streaming on various platforms, funds flow into Russia’s budget, which it then uses to purchase weapons for its war against Ukraine. Music is enjoyed by different generations of people, regardless of age, status, or nationality. That is why it is one of the most effective means of spreading propaganda. It is unobtrusive, designed for easy perception and relaxation. This manipulation tactic of audience consciousness can be observed even during World War II. Most Russian songs predominantly celebrate everyday phenomena, various forms of leisure, or depict the grandeur of love and other emotions. However, in Russia, there are types of songs that propagate narratives such as the idealization and romanticization of Russian President V. Putin, calls for patriotism, reminders that everyone living in Russia and speaking Russian is part of the «great Russian people», emphasis on the greatness and power of Russia, and portraying the country as always victorious, urging participation in the military. Ukrainian media researchers need to regularly and carefully monitor the emergence of such compositions and the narratives they spread. They have a particularly negative impact on the consciousness of Ukrainian citizens, especially those residing in temporarily occupied territories of our country. The dissemination of propaganda through songs is a widespread and at the same time insidious method of influencing society. Russia actively uses it and unfortunately, quite successfully, as evidenced by numerous studies showing that Ukrainians still listen to Russian music on many online platforms.

Analysis of the representation of women in Ukrainian media content in the conditions of a full-scale war

The article deals with the problem of gender imbalance in the Ukrainian media. Despite the fact that the problem has resonance both in social practice and in scientific discourse, after two years of full-scale war, the situation regarding the balance of media content and representation of women remains complicated, has signs of regressive dynamics and requires careful research. The aim of the study is to analyze the peculiarities of the representation of women in the content of Ukrainian national and hyperlocal media in the conditions of a full-scale war. The main method is a comparative analysis of all-Ukrainian national and hyperlocal media’ monitoring data for the first quarter of 2024. Regular media monitoring shows that the domestic media publish materials with signs of sexism and gender stereotypes. Data analysis showed that the monitoring results have certain differences in quantitative and qualitative indicators. During the monitoring period, in national media, women were experts in 17% of materials, heroines – in 22.5%, in hyperlocal media – in 39.5% and 33.5% of materials, respectively. Despite certain differences in the data caused by different research approaches and methodologies, the results of both monitorings indicate a gender imbalance in the domestic media in favor of men, especially in the coverage of the topic of war; the national media landscape is characterized by an indirect reflection of gender inequality existing in society. This requires a thorough study of various aspects of this problem: social, historical, psychological, etc., and is a promising direction for further research.

POSTER CITATION AS ONE OF THE MAIN ADVANTAGES OF THE NATIONAL NEWS MARATHON. SPECIFICS OF THE APPROACH TO CITATION

The content of online media was analyzed for citations of the content that was primarily broadcast during the national news marathon. The analysis allows us to trace the popularity of the news marathon in the second year of the large-scale war among information resources as a primary source of important news and theses of fundamental social importance. The importance of the study is due to the decline in the ratings of the only news marathon among Ukrainians. According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, as of December 2023, only 43 % of respondents trusted it [3]. Quoting a media outlet among media outlets allows the media outlet to increase its popularity, reach, and build a loyal audience, given the uniqueness of the news. In today’s world, where telegram channels are beginning to dominate the media landscape of Ukraine, it is the uniqueness of the news that becomes the reason for quoting that allows the media to remain in demand in the market. This also applies to the news marathon. The News Marathon, which is a national product and is managed by the state, has a large number of tools to be the first to receive exclusive comments from government officials, which is an official source of information. Therefore, it is a resource that other media can refer to as a verified primary source. The analysis of the data obtained gives a general understanding of the importance of the marathon and its involvement in the overall information picture of the country

Around-language discourse during the Russian-Ukrainian war

The goal of this study was to find out how the discourse related to the language issue, which has developed, in particular, in the Ukrainian segment of the Internet, changed after Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine. For this purpose, the material was collected during the period of 2012—2021, with a comparison of theses and arguments in the discussions that arose around the appearing issues of the language situation with those recorded during the year of the Ukrainian-Russian war. Nowadays, the discourse surrounding the language issue has changed. Even those political forces that used it as a tool of pre-election campaigning, speculating on the topic of the division of society on the basis of language, immediately changed their rhetoric. The language-related discourse has lost its former characteristic of debate; it has become more radical, highly symbolised, and sometimes pejorative; the former polarity of thoughts has disappeared. It displays public reflections on the nation-building function of language. More and more Ukrainians are coming to understand that “language matters” and “language is a weapon”. The symbolic “war of languages” has transformed in the physical plane into a “war with the help of language”. The language has become a weapon of the military. At the same time, Ukrainian journalists shock the society by covering scandals surrounding the issue of language, as the term ‘Movosrach’, which is a manipulative denomination for language-related discussions and which emphasises contempt for those who raise the issue of language functioning, arose long before the start of the full-scale war. Many people are convinced that the language situation in Ukraine will undergo a radical change after the war. This refers, at a minimum, to the levelling of the status, prestige, and ultimately the prevalence of the Russian language. Expert opinions carry significant weight when it comes to the language issue. However, a part of society still hopes that in the language policy, the state will adhere to the position of non-interference in the language practices of society. Based on the current language policies and the prevailing language attitudes, the development of the language situation in the country is likely to be influenced by the ongoing events; however, it is expected that the trends related to language communication guidelines and the vision for the language development will remain inertial. Keywords: metalinguistic discourse, Ukrainian language, language issue, rhetoric, RussianUkrainian war.

“Events from the Life of My Father”: The Diary of Yuri Lyapunov (1911–1919)

The name of Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov (1859–1924) is currently attracting particularly close attention of researchers. One of the greatest composers of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Lyapunov survived the post-revolutionary years in Petrograd, was among the defendants in the so-called “Case of the Petrograd Churchmen”, in 1923 went abroad on tour and died a year later in Paris. During the Soviet period, his name was actually deleted from the national history of music. Currently, the life and work of Lyapunov are being actively studied, gaps are being restored. The shortage of factual material is particularly acute. The article introduces into scientific circulation as an integral document one of the most important information sources associated with the name of Lyapunov — the unpublished diary of his eldest son Yuri. The diary covers the period from 1911 to 1919 and is dedicated to his father: it records significant events in the creative life of Lyapunov, the composer’s statements about the art of music and the works of colleagues — both contemporaries and predecessors, about his own work, including unfulfilled plans. The second half of the diary, which includes entries for the years of the First World War and the post-revolutionary period, gives an idea of Lyapunov’s life in the most difficult conditions associated with the historical period. The diary is a document that reveals the features of the composer’s creative thinking, and can become a good basis for compiling a scientific biography of Lyapunov for these years.

Kemel Tokayev in the years of the Great Patriotic war (based on the novel "A soldier who went to war")

The article describes the participation of Kemel Tokayev in the major battles of the Don, 1st Ukrainian, 2nd Belarusian fronts of the Great Patriotic War. The author tries to reveal the main points of the battle path of the researched person’s battle path in the 226th Rifle Division and the 7th Guards Tank Regiment breakthrough of the Red Army. It also gives a brief information on the scale of the heavy battle and Kazakhstan’s contribution to the struggle for the liberation of the conquered territory. Special attention is paid to Kemel Tokayev’s autobiographical novel «Soldier went to war», where the content indicates the time intervals of the events. The author of the article used documents of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense and the Central State Archive of the Russian Federation, publications of contemporaries in periodicals and a book of memory of a member of the family, Collective monographs and historical and documentary collections of domestic scientists about the Great Patriotic War. Maps supplementing and characterizing the actions of the tank regiment in combat operations helped to improve the accuracy of the data presented in visual form. Comparing the contents of Kemel Tokayev’s work with the information contained in archival documents, it was found that the literary work has a historical background. In conclusion of the research it was noted that the awards received by the veteran writer were the logical conclusion of the battle path of struggle stressing the need for detailed research in this direction. It was also noted that the development of a new detective genre in Kazakh literature is directly related to the name of Kemel Tokayev.

<span>The Image of Italy on the Pages of the Newspaper Russian Invalid in the First Years of the First World War (1914–1915)</span>

<span>The Image of Italy on the Pages of the Newspaper Russian Invalid in the First Years of the First World War (1914–1915)</span>

NATO’s Southern Flank: The Evolution of Türkiye’s Strategic Role and Its Implications for Regional Security

This article delves into the progressive development of Türkiye's strategic function within NATO, and what it signifies for regional security along the Alliance's Southern Flank. Türkiye, as a crucial NATO member since 1952, has steadfastly assumed a considerable part in the organization's collective defense, thereby bolstering the stability of the region. The article offers a historical review of Türkiye's involvement in NATO, tracking its journey from joining the Alliance during the initial Cold War years to navigating the more intricate security milieu of the post-Cold War era. The focus then shifts to the geopolitical challenges faced by NATO on its Southern Flank, particularly in the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea region. Within this context, the article analyzes Türkiye's evolving strategic role, including its military capabilities and growing defense industry, diplomacy, and soft power initiatives, as well as its efforts to balance relations with NATO, Russia, and other regional actors. The article also explores Türkiye's strategic decision to acquire the Russian S-400 missile defense system, a move that underscores Türkiye's commitment to diversifying its defense capabilities and enhancing its national security, while also navigating the complex dynamics of international alliances and NATO's evolving security landscape. Subsequently, it discusses the possible advantages and hurdles that could arise from Türkiye's dynamic strategic role in regional security and on NATO's Southern Flank. Key topics addressed include the reinforcement of NATO's defense capabilities, the enhancement of regional security cooperation, and potential strains within the Alliance. The piece wraps up with an evaluation of future prospects for Türkiye's strategic function in NATO and the implications for regional security. This underlines the significance of maintaining a united and adaptable NATO that can adeptly respond to the evolving security challenges in the region.

The North American Newspapers Perspective about the Peace Treaty with the Colombian Guerrilla: FARC

This paper is the result of the research project developed by the research group Peace, communication, and journalism by the Fundación Universitaria para el Desarrollo Humano – UNINPAHU (Colombia). The target is to describe and analyse the way two important North American newspapers approached the peace process signed in Colombia in 2016 between the Revolutionary Army Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government leaded by President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon.
 First at all, it is important to describe the Colombia violence context to highlight the peace treaty with the FARC guerrilla after almost 60 years of war. After that, there is a description of the analysis categories and the results.
 All in all, the paper describes the Americans perception about the peace treaty, its leaders and opponents through the two-mass media published information. This allows to enhance the debate about the role and the contribution of the mass media in peace or war context.

Industrial potential of the Kazakh SSR during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945)

The aim of the article is to analyze the activities of various industries of the Kazakh SSR during the Great Patriotic War, aimed at providing raw materials to enterprises of the military-industrial complex and their own production aimed at improving the defense capabilities of the Soviet state. The relevance of the study was determined by the need to identify trends in the development of industry in the Kazakh Republic during the Patriotic War. The source base of the work was the works of Soviet, Russian and Kazakh authors, information from the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dedicated to the history of the Great Patriotic War. The peculiarities of technological production aimed at increasing labour efficiency in the coal, non-ferrous, oil, chemical and energy industries of the republic are given. The growth trends of the indicators of these industries are revealed. The main ones are: increase of raw materials extraction at Karaganda coal basin, construction of auxiliary industrial enterprises, such as brick, cement works, explosive materials plant, woodworking plant, etc. In non-ferrous metallurgy, growth of non-ferrous metal output during the war years increased manifold compared to the pre-war periods. In oil industry – growth of high-quality oil production in Western Kazakhstan. In the chemical industry – increase of the list of products through construction of new shops and workshops of the operating enterprises of the chemical industry of the republic. In the energy sphere – construction of new power stations from regional to industrial levels. It is concluded that the identified trends in industrial development in Kazakhstan during the Great Patriotic War were a definite contribution to the improvement of the defensive capability of the USSR and in its victory over Germany.

Procopius and Thucydides

Modern understanding of the emperor Justinian’s protracted war against the Gothic regime in Italy and Sicily is based almost entirely on the account of Procopius of Caesarea from 535 to 552. The chronology of the war therefore depends on the interpretation of Procopius’s narrative in the fundamental books by J.B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire (1923) and E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire (1949), which underpin all modern accounts. Both Bury and Stein presumed that Procopius’ Gothic war year ran uniformly from the end of June of one year to the end of June of the next. This paper aims to demonstrate that the Procopian Gothic war year did not run at a fixed time from June to June each year, but from the beginning of the annual campaign season (normally March) to the end of the following winter, in clear imitation of his model Thucydides. Also explored are the implications for redating key episodes of the Gothic War

The Study of the Industrial Infrastructure of Irkutsk-II During World War II

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet industry was evacuated from the western regions of the country to the deep east - to Siberia, unprecedented in world history. The article deals with the chronology of wartime events in 1941–1945. The author used declassified materials from archival documents, but mainly the works of S.N. Aksenov «Irkutsk Aviation Plant. History of Education 1932–1956». The object of the study was the industrial infrastructure of Irkutsk-II (village of aircraft builders), which became the industrial epicenter of the region during the Second World War. The phenomena considered in the study reflect not only regional specifics, but also all-Russian trends. Therefore, some economic indicators of the aircraft industry of that time are given, despite the confidential nature of the industry. On the basis of the study, the author concluded that during the period of 1941–1945, the aircraft industry was the infrastructure-forming industry of the Irkutsk region.

Neutral Protectors. The Comité Hispano-Néerlandais and the Fight for Belgium, 1917–1918

During the First World War, Allies, Central Powers and neutrals collaborated to keep a keyhole in their respective blockades open to allow food and other relief aid for the Belgian civilian population through. American neutrality backed by American power were essential in producing an agreement that, during more than four years of war, sent a steady stream of ships carrying goods for the Committee for Relief of Belgium. But both fell away by 1917, after which America’s duties were taken up by a committee of Spanish and Dutch official diplomats. This article details how they managed to keep Belgium and Northern France fed despite a lack of clear diplomatic precedent, protected occupied populations from forcible displacement by the German army, and thwarted German attempts to seize control of Belgian relief and split the Belgian state in two. It also highlights how neutral state agents set an important precedent for the key role of neutrals, neutrality and neutral states in future humanitarian operations. Neutrals – Americans, but also Dutchmen and Spaniards – were indispensable honest brokers, privileged observers, and key conduits for diplomatic backchannels between belligerents, even in the midst of the Great War.

Baltic Refugees of World War II and Their Descendants: Resettlement and Adaptation in Four Lands

At the end of World War II, an unprecedented burst of politically motivated emigration occurred from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, to escape incorporation into the Soviet Union. This report describes processes of resettlement and adaptation in four lands: Sweden, Canada, Australia, and the United States of America. The analysis examines how refugees’ and descendants’ experiences were shaped by selectivity of evacuation, camps for displaced persons, clustering patterns, and host country policies. The traumas, disruptions, and deprivations experienced during several years of war, foreign occupation, and rootlessness in refugee camps did not prove to create enduring disadvantages, as the second generation more than made up for the ground lost (at least for several years) by their parents. The yearslong journey of the refugees in finding new homes and new careers turned out to be most conducive to the creation of a global network of cohesive, viable, and interdependent ethnic communities. The Baltic refugees prefer to think of themselves as maintaining the traditions of their homelands, but they learned to do some important things differently on the way to new lands, through a process of social levelling and cooperation within their own local ethnic group, as well as through interacting with other local communities of their own kind, with other Baltic groups, and with their new neighbors in the host countries. Later generations will not continue to do everything like their elders did, but substantial numbers of descendants still show a rather high degree of commitment to maintaining their cultural and even linguistic heritage in some form.

From “Exile” to “Diaspora”: The Shift in Self-Identification among Refugee Latvians, 1944–2023

The 175,000- Latvians who fled their northeastern European homeland in the final year of World War II (1944–45) eventually resettled in some four continents and twenty different host societies. Their tasks were many, ranging from “freeing” Latvia among the politically minded to building a new life in their host societies. For some ten years after the war, their official status remained uncertain, as did the terms they used to describe themselves. Eventually, the agreed upon frame of reference became trimda (Eng. exile). It was the rare social, cultural, and polit-ical activity that was not discussed within the exile framework, and an impressive cultural superstructure was built upon it from the 1950s to the 1980s. This framework, however, became anachronistic after 1991 and the collapse of the USSR. Western Latvians could no longer claim to be in exile, but relatively few of them showed a willingness to return to the old homeland. Two decades of discussion about identity eventually led the new Latvian government and social-science researchers in Latvia to propose the term diaspora for all Latvians living outside the country’s borders. This term has been generally accepted, even by the still living World War II refugees and their descendants, who now refer to themselves as the vecā trimda (Eng. old exile) component of the diaspora.

ОЦІНКА ІНВЕСТИЦІЙНОГО ПОТЕНЦІАЛУ УКРАЇНИ В СУЧАСНИХ РЕАЛІЯХ

The article addresses the issues related to the essential interpretation of the term "investment potential," its assessment in the current realities of Ukraine, and understanding of its role in crisis management of the national economy in modern conditions. The aim of the article is to identify investment potential as an economic category in the context of crisis management of the country's economy and determine its current state in Ukraine. An analysis of theoretical approaches to defining the concept of investment potential has been conducted, and they have been categorized into resource, probabilistic, market, capacity, structural, and performance directions. The definition of crisis management of the national economy is characterized, attempting to determine the role of the country's investment potential in such management. An analysis and assessment of the dynamics of foreign direct investments in Ukraine from 2002 to 2022 have been carried out, revealing that their total volume during the war year decreased by almost five times, negatively impacting the country's economy. The research emphasizes the necessity for Ukraine to enhance its investment potential to finance the needs of recovery and stabilization of the economic situation, both in the post-war period and the current stage, considering the challenges of digitization. The article argues that due to russia's military aggression and the prolonged war, Ukraine needs to explore new solutions to bring the national economy out of a crisis state and overcome the destructive consequences of warfare through digital solutions. This is achievable by boosting the country's investment potential, especially considering the insufficient domestic resources.

Maxillofacial Surgery inUkraine During a War: Challenges andPerspectives-A National Survey.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on February 24, 2022, and the beginning of the full-scale war had huge humanitarian consequences. The major challenges facing the Ukrainian health care system included the disruption of medical infrastructure and logistics, the termination of the supply of expendable materials, significant migration, and a dramatic increase in high-velocity blast and gunshot injuries among combatants and civilians.The aim of the present study was to analyze the challenges and solutions in patient care faced by the Ukrainian system of maxillofacial surgery during the war in different regions of the country. A cross-sectional study was designed and implemented as an online survey to collect national data concerning maxillofacial surgeons' experiences and professional activities. The study was initiated and supported by Bogomolets National Medical University (Kyiv, Ukraine), the Ukrainian representative of AO CMF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen Craniomaxillofacial Surgery) and the University of Helsinki (Finland).The questionnaire was developed by specialists in maxillofacial surgery and sociologists and contained 65 close-ended questions. Surgeons who had not worked in this specialty in inpatient departments of hospitals since at least the beginning of the full-scale war were excluded from the study. We received and analyzed 97 responses that met the abovementioned criteria. The geography of respondents covered all the regions and the main cities of Ukraine, expect for the occupied territories. After a year of warfare, the percentage of surgeons who treated patients with blast and gunshot injuries increased from 43.4% to 86.6%. This percentage was higher in military hospitals and in regions located in the vicinity of the front line. We found that, during the war, 78.6% of respondents performed osteosynthesis in cases of high-velocity multifragmented facial bone fractures (in such cases, 58.3% of them strictly followed AO CMF recommendations, while 41.7% performed the fixation based on available hardware, existing technical possibilities and their own preferences). We found that 70.2% of respondents had the opportunity to apply Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacture technology and patient-specific implants for the treatment of gunshot injuries, 38.1% reported that their hospitals were able to perform microsurgical reconstructions for facial defects, 79.4% of respondents reported that their departments received humanitarian aid and support from volunteer organizations (either Ukrainian or international), which significantly facilitated the treatment process. According to this nationwide survey of Ukrainian maxillofacial surgeons during a year of the full-scale war, 86.6% of respondents were involved in the treatment of gunshot and ballistic injuries in civilians and combatants. The main problems reported by the respondents were (1) a lack of experience and knowledge related to the treatment of severe wounds, especially by secondary reconstruction, and (2) a deficit of resources (equipment, materials, and medications) under conditions of disrupted logistics and changes in the numbers and nosological distribution of patients. There were the opportunity to transfer the patients to European clinics (29.9%), online consultations (45.4%), collaboration with foreign surgeons who come to Ukraine asvolunteers (32%).

Mexico, 1980: the construction of bacterial molecular genetics

At the beginning of the new millennium, in 2001 to be precise, a work began that at the time turned out to be a titanic task. The project of sequencing the genome of the bacterium Rhizobium etli -a nitrogen-fixing bacterium symbiotic with the bean plant- was the first to be carried out in Mexico and the results were not published until a few years later. But how did molecular biology and genetic engineering arrive in Mexico? Among the many ways and paths that can lead to an answer, we chose the laboratory work of Dr. Fernando Bastarrachea Avilés and his trajectory to answer this question but mainly how the practice of bacterial molecular genetics was constructed in Mexico during the last years of the Cold War (1970-1980). As a first step we used the global history of science, where the units of historical analysis are the circulation of knowledge and collaborative networks. As a second step, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with former students of that laboratory in the ‘80s. Consequently, our aim is to account for the process of building socio-technical networks, focused on the field of microbiology.