The article studies scientific papers published by A.P. Bergerbin in the magazine «Russkaya Starina». The author collaborated with the editors of this journal for fourteen years (1872–1886) and prepared for it dozens of documentary collections and articles dedicated to the problem of Russian-Caucasian relations in the 16th-19th centuries, as well as various issues of the history and culture of the Caucasian peoples.Most of the archival materials published by the historian constitute paperwork and memoirs of military-political and public figures known in the Caucasus. Among them are orders and correspondence of P.D. Tsitsianov, I.V. Gudovich, A.P. Tormasov, A.P. Ermolov, I.V. Paskevich and others. The bulk of the research of A.P. Berger published by the «Russkaya Starina» is devoted to the policy of the Russian military administration in the region, various problems of the accession of the Caucasian peoples to Russia, etc. Part of the scientist’s works is devoted to the study of the facts of the biography of famous historical personalities, one way or another, related to the Caucasus. Among them, the writer and diplomat A.S. Griboedov, Iranian Shah Feth-Ali-Shah, his grandson Khosrov-Mirza, Caucasian governor N.I. Muravyov, Lieutenant General N.P. Kolyubakin and others.In the articles of A.P. Berger, presented in the journal «Russkaya Starina», were acquired new research areas of Caucasian. Its support on an extensive source base contributed to the development of the scientific method and the formation of the domestic Caucasia foundations.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics
The following paper undertakes a comparative legal analysis of the treaties of friendship and cooperation signed by Poland with six post-Soviet countries: Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Each of the treaties examined in the paper has a similar structure (preamble, main part, final provisions) and covers several common issues, including declarations of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, conducting political consultations, and the development of economic, scientific, cultural, and other forms of cooperation. The analysis of the treaties revealed both common elements and those specific to individual bilateral relations. Significant differences occur in the scope of detailed regulations and emphasis on particular areas of cooperation, conditioned by the specificity of bilateral relations. The article contributes to the research on legal instruments of Polish foreign policy towards the post-Soviet states after 1991.
Nicole N Khatibi, Daniil A. Radamovich, Michael P. Brenner
Recent breakthroughs have spurred claims that large language models (LLMs) match gold medal Olympiad to graduate level proficiency on mathematics benchmarks. In this work, we examine these claims in detail and assess the extent to which current benchmarks capture genuine LLM mathematical reasoning. The composition of these benchmarks, primarily drawing from the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) and related competitions, may overstate models reasoning ability due to potential data contamination and a narrow focus on familiar problem types. To enable a more holistic assessment of mathematical understanding, we introduce EEFSUVA, a novel benchmark curated from under circulated regional and national Olympiads of Eastern Europe and the countries from the former Soviet Union. These contests feature problems of comparable difficulty to the IMO and are renowned for demanding nonstandard problem-solving techniques, yet their problems are far less prevalent in online corpora. Preliminary results suggest that even state-of-the-art LLMs exhibit a notable performance decline on EEFSUVA relative to other Olympiad-style benchmarks. These findings also suggest the potential importance of broader evaluation datasets for a fuller assessment of mathematical reasoning and for guiding future model development.
For a graph $F$, let ${\rm EX}(n,F)$ be the set of $F$-free graphs of order $n$ with the maximum number of edges. The graph $F$ is called vertex-critical, if the deletion of its some vertex induces a graph with smaller chromatic number. For example, an odd wheel (obtained by connecting a vertex to a cycle of even length) is a vertex-critical graph with chromatic number 3. For $h\geq2$, let $F_{1},F_{2},...,F_{h}$ be vertex-critical graphs with the same chromatic number. Let $\cup_{1\leq i\leq h}F_{i}$ be the disjoint union of them. In this paper, we characterize the graphs in ${\rm EX}(n,\cup_{1\leq i\leq h}F_{i})$, when there is a proper order among the graphs $F_{1},F_{2},...,F_{h}$. This solves a conjecture (on extremal problem for disjoint union of odd wheels) proposed by Xiao and Zamora \cite{XZ}.
Neural embedding models are extensively employed in the table union search problem, which aims to find semantically compatible tables that can be merged with a given query table. In particular, multi-vector models, which represent a table as a vector set (typically one vector per column), have been demonstrated to achieve superior retrieval quality by capturing fine-grained semantic alignments. However, this problem faces more severe efficiency challenges than the single-vector problem due to the inherent dependency on bipartite graph maximum matching to compute unionability scores. Therefore, this paper proposes an efficient Proximity Graph-based Table Union Search (PGTUS) approach. PGTUS employs a multi-stage pipeline that combines a novel refinement strategy, a filtering strategy based on many-to-one bipartite matching. Besides, we propose an enhanced pruning strategy to prune the candidate set, which further improve the search efficiency. Extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets demonstrate that our approach achieves 3.6-6.0X speedup over existing approaches while maintaining comparable recall rates.
As of 2022, the European Union has taken several steps regarding enlargement. We focus on the accession of countries with which the Union is actively negotiating membership. This is examined under two enlargement scenarios: first, the enlargement along the lines of the Western Balkan countries, and second, the accession of a trio (Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia) to the already enlarged Union. We determine the a priori power of the member states based on the Banzhaf and Shapley--Shubik indices. Various coalitions are also assumed to assess the power and influence of member states, considering both pre- and post-enlargement scenarios. We found a rare case when the two indices give different rankings. In the case of the Western Balkan countries' accession, the smaller population member states gain power, presenting an example of the new member paradox. While in a Union of 36 members, every member state loses some of their current power. However, some coalitions are better off with the EU36 enlargement than a EU33 one.
We investigate the topological structures of Galois covers of a union of two Zappatic surfaces of type $R_k$. We prove that the Galois covers of such surfaces are simply-connected surfaces of general type. We also compute their Chern numbers and topological indices.
Introduction. The publication is a review of a monograph by Anna-Valerie Pont, Professor of the Sorbonne, devoted to an attempt to determine the time of the disappearance of an ancient city (polis) on the material of Asia Minor. Analysis and results. There is an extensive and complex source base of research in terms of composition and quality, which includes both scanty reports of late Antique and early medieval written heritage, as well as archaeological data, among which the author legitimately highlights epigraphic material. As criteria for the extinction in the city, it is the ancient indicators of public life that have priority: the decline in the functioning of self-government institutions by urban communities, a decrease in the activity of wealthy citizens in organizing spectacles, subsidizing essential products, an increase in the specific weight of imperial bureaucratic control and local management, an increase in the influence of Christians on public processes in policies. The review indicates that the French researcher actually ignored the evolution of municipal property (the degradation of which in the chronological framework under consideration was very modest). In fact, the evolution of such estates as curiales and plebs (whose position at the time under consideration was by no means catastrophic) was also left aside. The social historical realities in the monograph are touched upon only insofar as they are related to institutional elements (the work of city councils, the implementation of magistracies, etc.). The author of the review points out that such a method of analyzing late-antique processes is outdated and goes back to the Enlightenment views on the fall of the Roman Empire. The review focuses on the legitimacy of the priority of epigraphic monuments for the disclosure of the stated topic (due to the insufficiency of narrative sources). However, consideration of the reduction in the number of such monuments at the turn of the 3rd – 4th century (compared with the times of the classical Empire) as an indicator of the extinction of the antique parameters of the policy is doubtful.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations
Introduction. Until now, the issue of four Byzantine (Justinian) Armenias in historiography has been considered according to the data of the Byzantine historian of the 6th century Procopius of Caesarea, which does not give grounds for a final answer to the questions posed. Analysis. When comparing the data of Procopius with the information of “Ashkharatsuyts” (“Ancient Armenian Geography”), we find many discrepancies (especially when considering the contour of the borders of I, II and III Armenias). According to the “Ancient Armenian Geography”, the territory of I Armenia was expanded both at the expense of the other two, and at the expense of Cilicia and northwestern Syria. Results. So, under Emperor Justinian, a new defensive line was created, which we for the first time in historiography called the “Mamikonyan line”. One can rely on the information of Ashkharatsuyts almost without hesitation, since this work was written in the 5th – 7th centuries, and the lion’s share of the information was supplemented by the second author of the work, Anania Shirakatsi (it is convincingly proven that the first author was the father of Armenian historiography, Movses Khorenatsi). Justinian trusted the Mamikonyan family, being convinced that they had previously faithfully served the kings of Greater Armenia, the Arshakids, and was practically not mistaken in his calculations.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations
A transmission interval for an infectious disease is important to understand epidemic processes in complex networks. The transmission interval is defined as a time interval between one person's infection and their infection to another person. To study statistical properties of transmission intervals, we analyze a COVID-19 dataset of confirmed cases in Republic of Korea that has been collected for two years since the confirmation of the first case on 19 January 2020. Utilizing demographic information of confirmed individuals, such as sex, age, residence location, and the nature of relation between infectors and infectees, we find that transmission intervals are rarely affected by sexes, but they tend to have larger values for the youngest and oldest age groups than other groups. We also find some metropolitan cities or provinces with relatively larger (smaller) transmission intervals than other locations. These empirical findings might help us to better understand dynamical mechanisms of epidemic processes in complex social systems.
Suppose a finite, unweighted, combinatorial graph $G = (V,E)$ is the union of several (degree-)regular graphs which are then additionally connected with a few additional edges. $G$ will then have only a small number of vertices $v \in V$ with the property that one of their neighbors $(v,w) \in E$ has a higher degree $\mbox{deg}(w) > \mbox{deg}(v)$. We prove the converse statement: if a graph has few vertices having a neighbor with higher degree and satisfies a mild regularity condition, then, via adding and removing a few edges, the graph can be turned into a disjoint union of (distance-)regular graphs. The number of edge operations depends on the maximum degree and number of vertices with a higher degree neighbor but is independent of the size of $|V|$.
Fix a positive integer $N$ and a real number $0< β< 1/(N+1)$. Let $Γ$ be the homogeneous symmetric Cantor set generated by the IFS $$ \Big\{ φ_i(x)=βx + i \frac{1-β}{N}: i=0,1,\cdots, N \Big\}. $$ For $m\in\mathbb{Z}_+$ we show that there exist infinitely many translation vectors $\mathbf t=(t_0,t_1,\cdots, t_m)$ with $0=t_0<t_1<\cdots<t_m$ such that the union $\bigcup_{j=0}^m(Γ+t_j)$ is a self-similar set. Furthermore, for $0< β< 1/(2N+1)$, we give a complete characterization on which the union $\bigcup_{j=0}^m(Γ+t_j)$ is a self-similar set. Our characterization relies on determining whether some related directed graph has no cycles, or whether some related adjacency matrix is nilpotent.
The content of the article is a verbatim report of the speech under Title «100 years of Russian anatomy (on the anniversary of the founding of the Scientific Society of Anatomists)», included in the scientific program of the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference with international participation «Morphological Aspects in Practical Medicine and Biology», dedicated to the 65th Anniversary of the Department of Human Anatomy of the Medical Institute of the Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University as part of the annual XIII National Congress with international participation «Ecology and Human Health in the North», which took place in Yakutsk City (Russia, Sakha Republic) on December 8, 2022. The congress was also dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the formation of the former Yakut Soviet Socialist Republic of USSR and the 65th Anniversary of medical education in Yakut Republic. In the report dedicated to the Anniversary of the founding of the first professional scientific community of anatomists, histologists and embryologists in the history of the Russian state - the All-Union Society of Zoologists, Anatomists and Histologists (later - the All-Union Scientific Society of Anatomists, Histologists and Embryologists - AUSSAHE), which took place from December 15 to 21 1922 in Petrograd (later - Leningrad and renamed Saint-Petersburg) provides information about the initiators of the convocation of the meeting, its preparation and conduct, the content of the work and key reports of anatomists presented at the meeting. The meeting was initiated by a prominent Russian zoologist, specialist in animal morphology, Doctor of Zoology, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rector of Petrograd State University Vladimir Shimkevich, as well as the famous Russian Histologist, Professor Alexander Dogiel - the Founder of the Russian scientific journal «Archive of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology», Professors Vladimir Tonkov, Konstantin Deryugin, Nikolay Koltsov and others. Founded in 1922 at the I All-Russian meeting, the All-Russian Society of Zoologists, Anatomists and Histologists was at its IV All-Union meeting in 1930 renamed into the All-Union Scientific Society of Anatomists, Histologists and Zoologists, and then, at the V meeting in 1949 - into the All-Union scientific society of anatomists, histologists and embryologists or AUSMSAHE. AUSMSAHE in September 1991 at its last XI meeting in Minsk ceased to exist.The author noted the anatomical reports of the meeting, which laid the foundation for the entire subsequent development of Russian anatomy as a science and the problems of its current state.
Introduction. The article analyzes the transformations of the concept of justice in early Byzantine thought. The purpose of the article is to test the hypothesis that the semantic shifts in the meaning of the concept of justice in the philosophical and theological literature were due to political processes and events. Methods. The article analyzes the political philosophical and political theological texts of the fourth century: “Oration in Honor of Constantine on the Thirtieth Anniversary of His Reign” by Eusebius of Caesarea; “Panegyric in Honour of Constantius” and “The Heroic Deeds of Constantius” by emperor Julian (“The Apostate”); “On Kingship” by Synesius of Cyrene. In the course of the analysis, the methodological tools of the history of concepts were used. Analysis. The analysis revealed a conflict between the concepts of “justice” and “piety”. It was found that the analyzed texts violate the ancient political and philosophical correlation of these concepts in which piety is considered as a form of justice. In the texts of Eusebius of Caesarea, piety is presented as a particular virtue without any connection with justice. Moreover, the frequency of using the concept of “piety” in the sense of the ruler’s virtue significantly exceeds the frequency of using the concept of “justice” in the sense of political virtue. In the texts of the Emperor Justinian, the discursive status of “justice” is restored. However, in the political philosophy of Synesius of Cyrene, the correlation of the concepts of “justice” and “piety” prescribed by Eusebius of Caesarea is fixed. Results. These processes is due to the influence of religious discourse on political one which is quite understandable in the works of theologians, on the one hand, and the crisis of polis and republican political technologies and discourses in the situation of increasing complexity of administrative tasks faced by the Roman emperors of the 4th century, on the other hand which subsequently led to the formation of a specific Byzantine “taxis” – a socio-cultural order. In this regard, the texts of Emperor Julian can be considered as an unsuccessful attempt to restore the previous discourse, an attempt to restore justice to a dominant place among the virtues of the ruler. The failure of this attempt is attested from the texts of Synesius of Cyrene. All the above allows us to conclude that a new Christian-imperial political discourse is being generated in the corpus of philosophical and theological texts in which the concept of justice is given a relatively modest place.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations
Introduction. Extending from the walls of the fortress of Tsaritsyn to the Don river, the Tsaritsyn defense line reliably protected this area from the systematic raids of nomads, gave an impetus to the active settlement of the region and its economic development. A number of research papers are devoted to the history of the Tsaritsyn line, but some aspects are still insufficiently studied. This article reveals the features of fortification and military engineering characteristics of the Tsaritsyn defense line defensive structures, its technical condition during the reign of Peter I. Methods and materials. The research is based on both published documents and ones stored in archives, which allow us to understand the principles that formed the fortified Tsaritsyn defense line, which fortifications were part of its complex in the 20s of the 18th century. Methods of the study: the principles of historicism and objectivity, analysis, synthesis, systematic approach. Analysis. The comparison of the evidence of participants in the construction of the Tsaritsyn defense line (1719–1720) and cartographic plans of its fortifications made it possible to determine the main characteristics of military engineering facilities located at it. Additionally, the analysis of cartographic sources, the manuscript division of the Library of the Academy of Sciences and the documents of the Main Office of Artillery and Fortification helped to determine the time frame and the author of the map “of the defensive line between the Volga and the Don” of 1723, which has not previously been used by researchers when working on the issue of fortification of the Tsaritsyn defense line in the first years of its operation. Results. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that since the beginning of commissioning in 1720, the main fortification objects were formed at the Tsaritsyn defense line, which were part of the complex of its defensive structures, which remained the main fortifications during the entire time of its operation until the abolition of service on it.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations
Nikolay A. Redkov, N. Ganzha, Lyubov A. Khlestakova
The article deals with some problems of constructing elements of crimes with administrative prejudice and concludes that it is necessary to improve such criminal law norms. It is noted that, since 2009, in Russia there is a process of gradual resumption of the construction of administrative prejudice in the structure of the domestic criminal law. To date, this construction is used only in six countries of the world, which are parts of the former Soviet Union, in connection with which the conclusion is made about the uniqueness of the institution of administrative prejudice in the field of criminal law. The authors have collected statistics on the quantitative development of this institution in the post-Soviet space over the past five years. It is concluded that the problem of the absence of a single formulation defining a special subject of the elements of crimes with this construction exists not only in the Russian criminal legislation, but also in the legislation of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The necessity of fixing in Russian criminal law and initiating fixing in the Model Criminal Code for the former Soviet republics the definition of administrative prejudice in criminal law and on its basis the development of a single model of legislative regulation of administrative prejudice in criminal law, which will eliminate the technical and legal shortcomings addressed in the article, is determined.
The purpose of the article is to study the socio-economic, cultural development of a small town in the East in the 1925-1990s. and to determine the meaning and place of the history of the city during the Soviet period. Today in East Kazakhstan there is a small town of Zaysan, one of the cities with different industries. The reason for the separate consideration of small towns in the East is that they are all heterogeneous in terms of the level of socio-economic development and ongoing structural transformations, depending on economic and geographical factors. Some small towns were built in places of industrial development of natural mineral resources - their city-forming basis was large enterprises of various sectors of the economy, others were formed around large transport hubs, scientific and technical centers of the military-industrial complex of the former Soviet Union. As a result, an imbalance arose between the location of industrial enterprises not in areas with large labor resources, where mainly the Kazakh population lives, but in regions with rich raw materials or in cities that are effective from the point of view of union government bodies. Zaysan is a great caravan route that has become a golden bridge between Russia and China. In addition, the city is located in a geopolitical zone bordering China. Since the Republic of Kazakhstan gained independence, a customs service has been established in the country. Since May 1992, the Maykapshagai customs post has been established at the eastern regional customs. Also, the border trade center "Maykapshagai-Zhemeny" has been opened since April 2006. Studying the history of a small historical city, which has not lost its significance until now, is a requirement of today. In the Soviet period, for objective reasons, there were cities with very low economic potential, which due to the lack of a resource base. In such cities, the backward structure of industry, infrastructure and social sphere, low incomes of the population are not developed. In such a city in the region Zaisan also fell.
The article uses the methodology of geopolitics analysis to identify the basic characteristics of NATO’s current policy towards Latvia and the rest of the Baltic Sea countries. This region with the collapse of the former Soviet Union seemed to be one of the most stable in terms of military security. However, at present, especially after the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine and the subsequent Russian aggression against our country, there is a noticeable increase in general tensions in the Baltics between NATO states and the Russian Federation and its allies. A study on the example of Latvia, devoted to the development of the military-political situation in the region, gives grounds to conclude that the current increase in the military presence in the Baltics is due to the need to strengthen the protection of the Baltic States from the Russian threat. The latter does not rule out the possibility of further NATO expansion not only to the East but also to the North at the expense of Sweden and Finland. Modern events in the Baltic region can be characterized as part of the next stage of the positional game on the world “chessboard”, where today the winning situation for the Anglo-Saxon strategy is obvious. At the same time, Russia’s geopolitical interests in the Baltic area, including Latvia, have remained virtually unchanged. The western vector of the republic’s development only strengthened Moscow’s attention through deeper and timely monitoring and analysis of the situation in its western neighbors in order to prevent the final and irreversible exit of the Baltic countries from the sphere of Russian influence. The article is intended to help Ukraine to understand and study the unique experience of the transition of a certain post-Soviet country from one political state to another, which is needed not so much for history, but for the purpose of developing modern political and diplomatic methods of cooperation with the leadership of Latvia, as well as the practical application of its experience in its activities on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration. The focus of NATO and, first of all, the United States, on strengthening its presence in the Baltic Sea region is capable of influencing the relations between the Baltic countries that have developed as a result of many years of cooperation. The emphasis on the military component clearly outlines the differences in approaches between NATO member states (Denmark, Poland, Germany, the Baltic countries and Norway), neutral states (Sweden, Finland) and the CSTO allies (Russia and Belarus).
The study is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the Ukrainian diaspora’s life in Estonia. The Ukrainian community in this country has deep historical roots, but as in other countries of the former Soviet Union, it became more active in the late 1980s. From that time community organizations began to be formed, and become important centers of diaspora. They conduct powerful cultural-educational work. They have been spreading and popularizing our cultural traditions for quite some time. Ethnic Ukrainians constantly help their homeland and maintain a positive image of Ukraine in the world. It should also be noted that Ukrainian communities in Estonia actively influence the transparent coverage of events in Ukraine. But Ukrainians in Estonia are quickly assimilated and lose their identity. One of the reasons for this is that in the Republic of Estonia after the restoration of independence, almost all Ukrainians received the citizenship of this state, in contrast to other Baltic countries. Also, the integration of newly arrived Ukrainians into the previously larger Russian community in the country. And according to the latest data, there is a much larger influx of Ukrainians over the last few years, even compared to the Russians. This gives hope that the development of the Ukrainian community will not be pretended. Currently, there is no single research that would compare the life of the Ukrainian community in Estonia in the modern period. During the research, a survey was conducted, which gave an understanding of the current state of life of the Ukrainian community and will be a good ground for further analysis. This makes the study of the history and activities of the Ukrainian community in Estonia extremely important and relevant. Thus, the systematization and analysis of information about the activities of the Ukrainian community in Estonia are incredibly relevant.