Moscow Workers Research Articles

On the double social life of failure

AbstractWhat might it mean to follow failure ‘out into the world’ (Alexander, introduction to this volume) in a way that is attentive both to its contingent and diffuse effects, and to the work involved in making it socially legible? This essay follows a moment of social breakdown, its reverberations in social life, and the forms of diagnosis it elicited as a way of exploring the double social life of failure. Focusing on the aftermath of Kyrgyzstan's 2010 ‘Osh events’ (Oshskie sobytiia) as they took hold in a multi‐tenant and ethnically mixed dormitory apartment for migrant workers in Moscow, I follow failure forwards, exploring how a period of intercommunal violence reverberated in a context of protracted work migration, legal non‐recognition, and the digital circulation of blame. I also track it backwards, attending to my interlocutors’ practices of diagnosis and excavation. Among Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Moscow, the Osh events figured as indexical of different kinds of failure – whether of protection, recognition, or proper state care. I take vernacular diagnoses of bardak – normative breakdown – as an ethnographic entry point for thinking about the spatial and temporal afterlives of violence, their articulation in an age of digital mediation, and the ethics of naming and diagnosing failure.

To the 100th anniversary of the All-Russian Congress of Penitentiary Workers in Moscow (October 18–24, 1923)

To the 100th anniversary of the All-Russian Congress of Penitentiary Workers in Moscow (October 18–24, 1923)

Comparison of measles incidence in different age groups with the intensity of specific humoral immunity in healthcare workers in Moscow

The study of the intensity of humoral immunity to the measles virus (Paramyxoviridae: Morbillivirus) (MV) remains relevant due to the ongoing registration of the cluster cases of measles (including nosocomial cases).The aim of the study was to analyze correlation between the intensity of the humoral immunity to measles virus and the measles incidence in different age groups of the Moscow residents. A simple analytic study was carried out under the framework of measles prevention improvement program conducted in the subjects of the Russian Federation. The study included the analysis of the reasons for the increase in the proportion of seronegative individuals and the comparison of the results of seromonitoring with the data of age-related measles incidence. Throughout 2018, total 1,855 blood serum samples obtained from employees of a large hospital center in Moscow who were previously vaccinated against measles were tested for IgG antibodies (ABs) to MV. The subjects were divided into 11 groups according to their age. Statistical analysis of the obtained data was performed using nonparametric criteria. The proportion of seronegative individuals among the staff of the medical facility decreased with age, from 38.5% in persons aged 19-23 to 0% among employees aged 64 and over. Persons aged 19-43 years were the most susceptible to measles infection, which was confirmed also by the highest incidence rate at these age groups (from 6.93 to 14.03 per 100,000 population). The age group most protected against measles was those over 64 years of age, who were all seropositive and had the lowest rates of incidence. This is probably due to the fact that by this age most of them have had a measles infection and have formed a sufficient immune response. At the same time, younger individuals living in the post-elimination era have only vaccine-induced ABs to MV, the level of which declines rapidly to non-protective values in the absence of boosterization due to the exposure to the wild-type strain of the pathogen. The monitoring of the MV-specific IgG- AB levels is required for employees in the medical institutions under the age of 35. Administration of the single dose of the appropriate vaccine is recommended for seronegative individuals.

Assessment of Diagnostic Specificity of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Tests and Their Application for Monitoring of Seroconversion and Stability of Antiviral Antibody Response in Healthcare Workers in Moscow.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing is an efficient tool to assess the proportion of seropositive population due to infection and/or vaccination. Numerous test systems utilizing various antigen composition(s) are routinely used for detection and quantitation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We determined their diagnostic specificity using archived true-negative samples collected before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using test systems demonstrating 98.5–100% specificity, we assessed the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion and durability of anti-spike (S) antibodies in healthcare professionals (n = 100) working in Moscow during the first two cycles of the pandemic (May 2020 to June 2021) outside of the “red zone”. Analysis revealed a rapid increase in anti-SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity from 19 to 80% (19/100 and 80/100, respectively) due to virus exposition/infection; only 16.3% of seroconversion cases (13/80) were due to vaccination, but not the virus exposure, although massive COVID-19 vaccination of healthcare workers was performed beginning in December 2020. In total, 12.7% (8/63) remained positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM for >6 months, indicating unsuitability of IgM for identification of newly infected individuals. All except one remained seropositive for anti-S antibodies for >9 months on average. Significant (>15%) declines in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody concentrations were observed in only 18% of individuals (9/50). Our data on the high seropositivity rate and stability of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels in healthcare personnel working outside of the “red zone” indicate their regular exposition to SARS-CoV-2/an increased risk of infection, while a low frequency of vaccine-induced antibody response acquired after the start of vaccination points to vaccine hesitancy.

Epidemiological traits of measles in infectious hospital staff

The maximum incidence rates of measles were recorded on the eve of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 in many countries of the world, including Russia. One of the features of the epidemic process of this infection in the period from 2011 to 2019 was the involvement of employees of medical organizations (MO) with the formation of large foci. Current features for the development of the measles epidemic situation can be assessed using serological studies. Aim: to assess the epidemiological features of measles in medical workers in Moscow, including by assessing the prevalence of specific IgG antibodies to the measles virus using the example of an infectious disease’s hospital in Moscow. Materials and methods. Using data from state reports on the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population in Moscow and form No. 2 of the Federal State Statistical Observation «Information on Infectious and Parasitic Diseases». To study the strength of immunity against measles by the method of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using test systems «Vecto-measles IgG» (CJSC «Vector-Best», Russia), 191 blood serum samples from the collection of the Department of Epidemiology of the National Research Center for Epidemiology were examined and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N. F. Gamaleya (Moscow), taken from the employees of the infectious hospital of the city of Moscow (aged 22 to 65 years) with a different vaccination history. Positive (seropositive) was considered the result of a study of the level of IgG antibodies to measles virus more than 0.18 IU / ml. Results. A feature of the epidemic process of measles in Moscow (for the period from 2014 to 2020) was the annual (except for 2016) registration of measles cases among medical workers and hospital patients of various profiles (in 2019–2020, only among patients). Reasonable doubts about the reliability of the vaccination coverage of the population according to official statistics (exceeds the level of 95 % since 2013), including medical workers, arise due to the availability of data on the previous vaccination in some cases of measles. Measles vaccination data were recorded in 28 people (4.7 %) out of 191 surveyed. In two of them, antibodies to the measles virus could not be detected, and the median of their level in seropositive individuals was 1.75 IU / ml (0.5; 3.0). 10 health workers had a history of measles in the past, which was confirmed by serological examination (the level of IgG antibodies was higher than 3.3 IU / ml). 152 people (79.6 %) had no information about vaccination and measles in the past. Among them, eight people were seronegative (5.3 %), and the level of antibodies in the seropositive was higher than in the vaccinated, and amounted to 2.4 IU / ml [0.74; 3.68]. Conclusion. It was found that the proportion of seronegative among the surveyed individuals did not exceed 7 %. However, the predominance of individuals with a low level of immunity, both among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, indicates the need for periodic serological studies for the timely detection of seronegative individuals.

ЖИЛИЩНО-БЫТОВАЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ ПРОЛЕТАРИАТА В УСЛОВИЯХ ФОРСИРОВАННОЙ МОДЕРНИЗАЦИИ: ВЫЗОВЫ И ВОПЛОЩЕНИЕ (НА МАТЕРИАЛАХ МОСКВЫ)

The paper analyzes the socio-political tasks that challenged the implementation of the housing organization project in the USSR in the early 1930s, and their realization on the example of the housing arrangement for Moscow workers. In the conditions of forced industrialization, the transformation in housing and life of the working class takes on the significance of the struggle for the successes of the Five-Year Plan: it was necessary to provide such living conditions for workers that would make it possible to stop the labor fluctuation at enterprises and to cultivate ideological consciousness in the working class emerging from the peasantry. The implementation of such a task confronted a number of issues: it was necessary to determine the architectural form of the housing and communal facilities, to draw the public in the actualization of the objectives set, to find material resources for realizing the project. But it was not possible to achieve any significantresults due to the lack of actual interest, both from the public and from the authorities themselves. The lack of enthusiasm of the workers, focused on solving more pressing difficulties, led to the passivity of workers’ participation in the implementation of the housing reconstruction project. As a result, the authorities, not having the proper material resources that they would be ready to use to improve the living conditions of the workers, used repressive methods, solving the original task – to stop the labor force fluctuation.

Principles of Planning Organization of Dormitories for Migrant Workers in Moscow

The paper addresses the problems of accommodation of migrant workers in Moscow at the present stage. The authors offer specialized dormitories with certain planning parameters aimed at achieving balance between the maximum cost effectiveness and creation of adequate living and working conditions for migrant workers. The paper is focused on possible principles of planning organization of dormitories for migrant workers in Moscow. It contains recommendations on supplementing the RF regulatory framework with regard to organization of temporary accommodation houses and practical suggestions on designing such dormitories. These suggestions allow considering organization of the specialized dormitories for migrant workers both as new construction and in the existing city architectural environment by reconstruction of the existing residential buildings. The prospects of using the suggested temporary accommodation houses for migrant workers in megalopolises are addressed as well.

Experience and Prospects of Cooperation between Beijing Institute of Technology and Russia in Higher Education

The history of the Beijing Institute of Technology (University) began in 1940 in the city of Yan’an. In 2019, two 70th anniversaries were celebrated — the establishment of the Russian- Chinese diplomatic relations and the beginning of cooperation between the Beijing Institute of Technology and Russian universities (1949–2019). 2020 became the year of the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the institute (1940–2020). In connection with this special and significant date, the generalization and outline of the history of development and experience of the Institute seems to be especially important. The history of the Russian-Chinese cooperation in higher education has been illuminated by the bright stars: the best people of the modern period and the heroes of the revolution graduated from the University of Workers of the East named after I. V. Stalin and the Sun Yat-sen University of Chinese Workers in Moscow. During the glorious but difficult early years of the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet government sent many of its educational specialists to China. Today, with the development of Russian-Chinese relations, this bilateral cooperation will only become more successful and closer. This article provides an overview of the three most important stages of cooperation between the Beijing Institute of Technology and Russian universities, on the basis of which the significant experience of the institute in this field is summarized, as well as the direction and possibility for their future cooperation in the light of “The Belt and Road” initiative, a comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China in the new era and the “double top level” program.

HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers in Moscow (Russia): prevalence and associated risk factors

To estimate the prevalence and factors associated with HIV and five other STIs among outdoor female sex workers (OSFW) and indoor FSW (IFSW).MethodsCross-sectional survey using respondent-driven sampling methodology. Participants answered...

Aligning the Affective Body

Drawing on the concepts of «emotional labour» (Hochschild) and «technologies of the self» (Foucault), this article explores how women align their affective and thus risky bodies in order to become effective surrogate workers in Moscow. I argue that this alignment entails «dis-emotionalising» the pregnancy by strategically essentialising the female body. This essentialisation also serves as an authoritative tool of control and conceals the power disparities at hand.

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori among medical workers in Moscow and Kazan according to ¹³С-urease breath test

Rationale: The relevance of the problem is related to the lack of data on Helicobacter pylori (HP) prevalence in Russia, which is associated with the risk of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer, and also, on the other hand, to the non-adherence of the doctors to the existing expert guidelines on diagnosis of this infection and HP eradication therapy. Aim: To assess the prevalence of HP among medical workers and their willingness to undergo eradication therapy. Materials and methods: A total of 315 medical workers (61 men and 254 women) aged 18 to 76 years were examined, among them 221 in Moscow and 94 in Kazan. To assess the HP contamination rate, all participants performed a ¹³С-urease breath test with the “HELICARB” test kit according to the “four-point” technique. All participants were asked to complete the questionnaires to access the impact of social and occupational factors on the prevalence of HP. Results: HP was identified in 54.9% of the examined subjects, including 45.9% of men and 57.1% of women. The prevalence of HP in Moscow was substantially lower (49.8%) than in Kazan (67%). The proportion of HP-positive subjects increased with age from 41.8% in those below 25 years of age to 76.9% in those above their 60s. 60.2% of married participants and 49% of the singles were HP-positive. Among doctors, HP prevalence rate was the largest in the endoscopy specialists (61.5%) and internists (60.9%). Only 61.4% of HP-positive medical workers expressed their willingness to undergo eradication therapy. Conclusion: The study showed a high prevalence of HР in medical workers increasing with age. It is presumably related to hygiene habits and conditions during childhood of each generation; however, one cannot exclude their potential contamination during their occupational activities.

Living from the Nerves

While deportability has elicited interest as a legal predicament facing migrant workers, less attention has been given to the way in which this condition of temporal uncertainty shapes migrants' everyday encounters with state agents. Drawing on ethnography among Kyrgyzstani migrant workers in Moscow, I show that in conditions of documentary uncertainty 'legal residence' depends upon successfully enacting a right to the city and the personalization of the state. Alongside fear and suspicion, this space of legal uncertainty is characterized by a sense of abandon and awareness of the performativity of law. I explore 'living from the nerves' as an ethnographic reality for Kyrgyzstani migrant workers and as an analytic for developing a more variegated account of state power and its affective resonances in contemporary Russia.

Female Migrant Sex Workers in Moscow: Gender and Power Factors and HIV Risk

This study aimed to build formative knowledge regarding HIV risks in female migrant sex workers in Moscow, focusing on gender and power. This was a collaborative ethnographic study, informed by the theory of gender and power, in which researchers conducted minimally structured interviews with 24 female sex workers who were migrants to Moscow and who provided sexual services to male migrant laborers. Overall, the female migrant sex workers engaged in HIV risk behaviors and practiced inadequate HIV protection with their clients. These behaviors were shaped by gender and power factors in the realms of labor, behavior, and cathexis. In the labor realm, because some female migrants were unable to earn enough money to support their families, they were pushed or pulled into sex work providing service to male migrants. In the behavior realm, many female migrant sex workers were intimidated by their male clients, feared violence, and lacked access to women's health care and prevention. In the cathexis realm, many had a sense of shame, social isolation, emotional distress, and lacked basic HIV knowledge and prevention skills. To prevent HIV transmission requires addressing the gender and power factors that shape HIV/AIDS risks among female migrant sex workers through multilevel intervention strategies.

Raping Freedom: Pornography and Politics in the Satirical Journals of 1905-1906

Abstract Editors of a number of satirical journals deployed images of rape to illustrate their sense that the revolution was lost after the autocracy’s bloody reprisal against workers in Moscow in December, 1905, and subsequent proroguing of the first electoral Duma in June, 1906. Tapping into the Silver Age aesthetics of decadence and eroticism, they cast Freedom as a vulnerable virgin, but did not provide heroes to protect her. Instead, they drew monstrous villains from Russian folklore that in some cases made Freedom complicitous in her violent fate. The Russian male appeared willing to return to his historical impotence, the nineteenth-century’s “superfluous man,” because he did not know what to do with the abstraction of freedom that he had desired for so long.

The city as a transient home: residential patterns of Moscow workers around the turn of the twentieth century

ABSTRACT:This article examines the social topography and the housing patterns of Moscow workers in the context of their social status and experience of immigration. It argues that in the early twentieth century Moscow was characterized by extremely poor housing conditions and the absence of clear residential segregation of social classes due to the lack of profound planning policy and urban reforms.

Induced abortion, contraceptive use, and dual protection among female sex workers in Moscow, Russia

ObjectiveTo describe abortion history and current contraceptive use among female sex workers (FSWs) in Moscow, Russia. MethodsA clinic-based survey was conducted among 147 FSWs in Moscow during an 8-month period in 2005. ResultsIn total, 83 of 143 (58.0%) FSWs reported a history of abortion, with 45 of 143 (31.5%) indicating multiple abortions. Condoms were the primary form of contraception (145/146 [99.3%]); just 17 of 142 (12.0%) FSWs reported using non-barrier modern contraception. All women who reported using a non-barrier modern method also indicated condom use (i.e. dual protection). Non-barrier contraceptive use was associated with inconsistent condom use (odds ratio [OR] 3.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07–9.02) and multiple abortions (OR 4.71; 95% CI, 1.19–18.62). ConclusionThe results illustrate substantial risk for unintended pregnancy among FSWs. Further research is needed regarding the dynamics of non-barrier contraception and condom use. Efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of FSWs should include access to safe and effective contraception, in addition to HIV prevention.

The International Migration System Between Turkey and Russia: Project‐Tied Migrant Workers in Moscow

AbstractThe last 50 years of emigration history in Turkey indicate that the migratory flows of Turkish citizens have consecutively become a part of various migratory systems. In this essay, our main aims are twofold. First, we attempt to document the dynamics and mechanism of project‐tied migration from Turkey to the Russian Federation, focusing in particular on the case of project‐tied workers migrating from Turkey to Moscow. Second, this effort intends to elaborate on the research on migratory systems between Turkey and the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and Central and Northern Asian countries, mainly referring to macro‐, micro‐ and meso‐level factors affecting the relevant migration systems. In this paper, in which we tackle the various migration systems with which Turkey is involved, we conclude by arguing that parallel to the new migration patterns that have been experienced throughout the post‐Soviet geographies, the internalization process of Turkish constructors within the changing dynamics of Turkish foreign policy has widened the direction of the migration flows from Turkey by introducing new migrant worker profiles to different regions. In this sense, short‐term labour migrants, shuttle traders and in particular project‐tied migrant workers show not only the important role that migrants may play in the shift towards a market‐based economy in the Russian Federation, but also how they have become crucial actors of the migration system between Turkey and Russia.

The roles of labor migrants' wives in HIV/AIDS risk and prevention in Tajikistan

This study aimed to build formative knowledge regarding labor migrants' wives' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding HIV/AIDS risk and protection that would inform developing innovative HIV prevention strategies. This was a collaborative ethnography in Tajikistan that included minimally structured interviews and focused field observations with 30 Tajik wives in Dushanbe married to Tajik male migrant workers currently working in Moscow. The results documented the wives' concerns over their husbands’ safety in Moscow and the difficulties of living without husbands. In a male-dominated society, gender norms limit the wives' abilities to protect themselves and their husbands from HIV/AIDS. They have some awareness of HIV/AIDS, but limited abilities to speak about sexual activity, HIV/AIDS, condoms, and HIV testing. Wives do not use condoms with their husbands and depend upon their husband's role as their protector. Wives often turn for support to their “circle of friends” or to a primary care nurse for support, but seldom do these relationships focus on preventing HIV/AIDS. To respond to HIV/AIDS risks amongst the wives of Tajik male migrant workers in Moscow, preventive interventions could build upon migrants' wives' role as the primary family caregiver and their existing sources of social support from women's circles and nurses. The overall intervention strategy could be to expand their role as family caregivers to include HIV/AIDS protection, through enhancing their HIV/AIDS knowledge and prevention skills and negotiation strategies with their husbands.

Male sex workers in Moscow, Russia: a pilot study of demographics, substance use patterns, and prevalence of HIV-1 and sexually transmitted infections

The Russian federation has been undergoing a concentrated epidemic of HIV-1 with high rates of infection among injecting drug users. Less is known about the relative risk and contribution to the country's HIV epidemic by other at-risk populations including sex workers and men who have sex with men. The goals of this project were to explore demographic characteristics, substance use patterns, and estimate the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and high-risk behaviors among male sex workers (MSW) in Moscow and to assess the feasibility of prospective cohort recruitment and retention among this population. Research design was a longitudinal study of 50 men with a six-month follow-up period. Participants were recruited through venue-based and snowball sampling methods. Results revealed an HIV prevalence at baseline of 16%; one MSW seroconverted during the follow-up period, yielding an incidence estimate of 4.8/100PY (95%CI 0.0–11.2). Twenty-four percentage were diagnosed with at least one STI: 12% had syphilis; 8% had Human Papilloma Virus (HPV); and 4% had Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)-2. Three (6%) of the study participants had evidence of previous Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) exposure at baseline. Retention rates were poor with higher retention significantly associated with older men (OR: 13.1, 95% CI 3.3–52.5). This was the first study to evaluate baseline demographics, substance use patterns, and prevalence of infectious disease among MSW in Moscow. Identification and recruitment of this population appears to be feasible, but retention a challenge. While the sample size in the current study was small, the results also suggested that this is a population at considerable high risk for HIV. MSW in Moscow may be an important at-risk population in the Russian HIV epidemic and further research is urgently required to address their needs and explore prevention strategies.

Everyday Life of Moscow Workers' Families in the 1920s: Food, Clothing and Housing

Everyday Life of Moscow Workers' Families in the 1920s: Food, Clothing and Housing