Abstract China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most ambitious infrastructure investment efforts in history, representing great potential for stimulating regional economic growth in Asia, Europe and Africa. This study collects cross-country panel data from 2007 to 2016 and investigates the impact of transport infrastructure (railway and road) on the economic growth in the BRI countries. First, a spatial-temporal characteristics analysis of transport infrastructure and economic growth is presented. Then, the global Moran’s I and the local Moran scatterplot are employed to test for possible spatial autocorrelations. Finally, both static and dynamic spatial models are utilized to empirically examine the impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth from the national and regional perspectives. The estimation results at the national level reveal that the transport infrastructure in the BRI countries plays an essential role in facilitating economic growth. Moreover, this study finds significantly positive spatial spillover effects of economic growth in the categories of geographical distance, economic distance, cultural distance, and institutional distance spatial weight matrices, i.e., shorter geographical distances and economic, cultural and institutional similarities among the BRI countries lead to mutual economic growth. The estimation results at the regional level indicate that the spatial spillover effects of transport infrastructure are significantly negative in East Asia-Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States and in South Asia. On the contrary, the positive spatial spillover effect of transport infrastructure on economic growth is most pronounced in Central and Eastern Europe. This indicates the polarization effect in the initial stage of the lagging transport infrastructure and the diffusion effects after the transport infrastructure is mature. This study is valuable because it examines the impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth in the BRI countries. In addition, two policy suggestions for driving the regional economy in the BRI countries are given.
Peter de Barros Damgaard, Rui Martiniano, J. Kamm
et al.
Ancient steppes for human equestrians The Eurasian steppes reach from the Ukraine in Europe to Mongolia and China. Over the past 5000 years, these flat grasslands were thought to be the route for the ebb and flow of migrant humans, their horses, and their languages. de Barros Damgaard et al. probed whole-genome sequences from the remains of 74 individuals found across this region. Although there is evidence for migration into Europe from the steppes, the details of human movements are complex and involve independent acquisitions of horse cultures. Furthermore, it appears that the Indo-European Hittite language derived from Anatolia, not the steppes. The steppe people seem not to have penetrated South Asia. Genetic evidence indicates an independent history involving western Eurasian admixture into ancient South Asian peoples. Science, this issue p. eaar7711 Ancient DNA from the Asian steppe elucidates the origins and movement of Indo-European languages. INTRODUCTION According to the commonly accepted “steppe hypothesis,” the initial spread of Indo-European (IE) languages into both Europe and Asia took place with migrations of Early Bronze Age Yamnaya pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe. This is believed to have been enabled by horse domestication, which revolutionized transport and warfare. Although in Europe there is much support for the steppe hypothesis, the impact of Early Bronze Age Western steppe pastoralists in Asia, including Anatolia and South Asia, remains less well understood, with limited archaeological evidence for their presence. Furthermore, the earliest secure evidence of horse husbandry comes from the Botai culture of Central Asia, whereas direct evidence for Yamnaya equestrianism remains elusive. RATIONALE We investigated the genetic impact of Early Bronze Age migrations into Asia and interpret our findings in relation to the steppe hypothesis and early spread of IE languages. We generated whole-genome shotgun sequence data (~1 to 25 X average coverage) for 74 ancient individuals from Inner Asia and Anatolia, as well as 41 high-coverage present-day genomes from 17 Central Asian ethnicities. RESULTS We show that the population at Botai associated with the earliest evidence for horse husbandry derived from an ancient hunter-gatherer ancestry previously seen in the Upper Paleolithic Mal’ta (MA1) and was deeply diverged from the Western steppe pastoralists. They form part of a previously undescribed west-to-east cline of Holocene prehistoric steppe genetic ancestry in which Botai, Central Asians, and Baikal groups can be modeled with different amounts of Eastern hunter-gatherer (EHG) and Ancient East Asian genetic ancestry represented by Baikal_EN. In Anatolia, Bronze Age samples, including from Hittite speaking settlements associated with the first written evidence of IE languages, show genetic continuity with preceding Anatolian Copper Age (CA) samples and have substantial Caucasian hunter-gatherer (CHG)–related ancestry but no evidence of direct steppe admixture. In South Asia, we identified at least two distinct waves of admixture from the west, the first occurring from a source related to the Copper Age Namazga farming culture from the southern edge of the steppe, who exhibit both the Iranian and the EHG components found in many contemporary Pakistani and Indian groups from across the subcontinent. The second came from Late Bronze Age steppe sources, with a genetic impact that is more localized in the north and west. CONCLUSION Our findings reveal that the early spread of Yamnaya Bronze Age pastoralists had limited genetic impact in Anatolia as well as Central and South Asia. As such, the Asian story of Early Bronze Age expansions differs from that of Europe. Intriguingly, we find that direct descendants of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers of Central Asia, now extinct as a separate lineage, survived well into the Bronze Age. These groups likely engaged in early horse domestication as a prey-route transition from hunting to herding, as otherwise seen for reindeer. Our findings further suggest that West Eurasian ancestry entered South Asia before and after, rather than during, the initial expansion of western steppe pastoralists, with the later event consistent with a Late Bronze Age entry of IE languages into South Asia. Finally, the lack of steppe ancestry in samples from Anatolia indicates that the spread of the earliest branch of IE languages into that region was not associated with a major population migration from the steppe. Model-based admixture proportions for selected ancient and present-day individuals, assuming K = 6, shown with their corresponding geographical locations. Ancient groups are represented by larger admixture plots, with those sequenced in the present work surrounded by black borders and others used for providing context with blue borders. Present-day South Asian groups are represented by smaller admixture plots with dark red borders. The Yamnaya expansions from the western steppe into Europe and Asia during the Early Bronze Age (~3000 BCE) are believed to have brought with them Indo-European languages and possibly horse husbandry. We analyzed 74 ancient whole-genome sequences from across Inner Asia and Anatolia and show that the Botai people associated with the earliest horse husbandry derived from a hunter-gatherer population deeply diverged from the Yamnaya. Our results also suggest distinct migrations bringing West Eurasian ancestry into South Asia before and after, but not at the time of, Yamnaya culture. We find no evidence of steppe ancestry in Bronze Age Anatolia from when Indo-European languages are attested there. Thus, in contrast to Europe, Early Bronze Age Yamnaya-related migrations had limited direct genetic impact in Asia.
B. Llamas, Lars Fehren-Schmitz, Guido Valverde
et al.
Native American population history is reexamined using a large data set of pre-Columbian mitochondrial genomes. The exact timing, route, and process of the initial peopling of the Americas remains uncertain despite much research. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of humans as far as southern Chile by 14.6 thousand years ago (ka), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of the timing and route of entry have been constrained by the lack of suitable calibration points and low genetic diversity of Native Americans. We sequenced 92 whole mitochondrial genomes from pre-Columbian South American skeletons dating from 8.6 to 0.5 ka, allowing a detailed, temporally calibrated reconstruction of the peopling of the Americas in a Bayesian coalescent analysis. The data suggest that a small population entered the Americas via a coastal route around 16.0 ka, following previous isolation in eastern Beringia for ~2.4 to 9 thousand years after separation from eastern Siberian populations. Following a rapid movement throughout the Americas, limited gene flow in South America resulted in a marked phylogeographic structure of populations, which persisted through time. All of the ancient mitochondrial lineages detected in this study were absent from modern data sets, suggesting a high extinction rate. To investigate this further, we applied a novel principal components multiple logistic regression test to Bayesian serial coalescent simulations. The analysis supported a scenario in which European colonization caused a substantial loss of pre-Columbian lineages.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes incurable and often lethal hemorrhagic fever in domestic pigs. In 2020, ASF presents an acute and global animal health emergency that has the potential to devastate entire national economies as effective vaccines or antiviral drugs are not currently available (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). With major outbreaks ongoing in Eastern Europe and Asia, urgent action is needed to advance our knowledge about the fundamental biology of ASFV, including the mechanisms and temporal control of gene expression. A thorough understanding of RNAP and transcription factor function, and of the sequence context of their promoter motifs, as well as accurate knowledge of which genes are expressed when and the amino acid sequence of the encoded proteins, is direly needed for the development of antiviral drugs and vaccines. ABSTRACT African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes hemorrhagic fever in domestic pigs, presenting the biggest global threat to animal farming in recorded history. Despite the importance of ASFV, little is known about the mechanisms and regulation of ASFV transcription. Using RNA sequencing methods, we have determined total RNA abundance, transcription start sites, and transcription termination sites at single-nucleotide resolution. This allowed us to characterize DNA consensus motifs of early and late ASFV core promoters, as well as a polythymidylate sequence determinant for transcription termination. Our results demonstrate that ASFV utilizes alternative transcription start sites between early and late stages of infection and that ASFV RNA polymerase (RNAP) undergoes promoter-proximal transcript slippage at 5′ ends of transcription units, adding quasitemplated AU- and AUAU-5′ extensions to mRNAs. Here, we present the first much-needed genome-wide transcriptome study that provides unique insight into ASFV transcription and serves as a resource to aid future functional analyses of ASFV genes which are essential to combat this devastating disease. IMPORTANCE African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes incurable and often lethal hemorrhagic fever in domestic pigs. In 2020, ASF presents an acute and global animal health emergency that has the potential to devastate entire national economies as effective vaccines or antiviral drugs are not currently available (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). With major outbreaks ongoing in Eastern Europe and Asia, urgent action is needed to advance our knowledge about the fundamental biology of ASFV, including the mechanisms and temporal control of gene expression. A thorough understanding of RNAP and transcription factor function, and of the sequence context of their promoter motifs, as well as accurate knowledge of which genes are expressed when and the amino acid sequence of the encoded proteins, is direly needed for the development of antiviral drugs and vaccines.
У статті проаналізовано створення, становлення й функціонування фотосалону єврейської родини Бендицьких в українському мультикультурному місті Переяславі, у якому відобразилися етнокультурні процеси в Україні. Виявлено, що світлини фотосалону Бендицьких із фондового зібрання Національного історико-етнографічного заповідника «Переяслав» становлять наукову та мистецьку цінність, містять важливі культурні, історичні, етнографічні відомості про традиційну культуру й повсякдення мешканців Переяславщини останньої чверті ХІХ – початку ХХ століття та є джерелом інформації для багатьох суміжних наук (історії, етнографії, мистецтвознавства, соціології, антропології, культурології тощо). Показано, що світлини є вагомим візуальним джерелом свідчень для дослідження локальної історії Переяславського краю й допомагають у вивченні етнокультурних процесів на території України в імперську добу. З’ясовано, що наявність цих світлин у музеї дає можливість використовувати фотоматеріал як документальне джерело для різного роду досліджень, також вони можуть бути популяризовані у вигляді каталогів, використані у виставкових проєктах та інших напрямках музейної діяльності. Обґрунтовано, що інформаційний потенціал, ступінь атрибутованості, стан збереження досліджуваних світлин є досить високими, а також наявна достатньо детальна супровідна документація до них. Встановлено авторство, походження й датування знімків, частково визначено сфотографовані суб’єкти, з’ясовано обставини створення фото, проаналізовано зовнішні ознаки знімків і фірмових бланків фотоательє родини Бендицьких. Доведено, що світлини фотосалону Бендицьких є верифікованою фотохронікою регіональної історії України й допомагають осмислити тогочасні етнокультурні процеси та використовувати отриману інформацію для посилення національно-патріотичного виховання громадян Української держави й активно протидіяти російській антиукраїнській пропаганді.
This paper addresses the use of oral history sources in my practice of documentary filmmaking as a second-generation Holocaust survivor. It examines how the filmic documentation of oral history sources can reflect aspects of testimony, memory, and postmemory, as they are theorized in the field of Holocaust Studies. In my film “Past Forward: Journeys to Transnistria,” I document the challenge of relating an intergenerational and cross-cultural story while preserving historical accuracy. Filmed in Ukraine in 2002, it tells the story of my mother, a child-survivor of the Romanian Holocaust. Through oral testimony, the film captures my mother’s survival story as she tells it to me and later to her granddaughter who documents it for a history school project. It then retraces my mother’s journey between 1941 and 1944 from her hometown of Dorohoi, Romania to Transnistria as it was called then under German-allied Romanian occupation. Survivor’s testimony combined with onsite witness interviews, and an archival military map, were used to trace the story of a little Jewish Romanian girl who survived the journey to Transnistria. Recently available archival sources have further validated her story. It has also contributed to locating the film within the broader context of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
Driven by stability and security concerns stemming from the recent past, the European Union (EU) has decided to include the Western Balkans (WB) in its enlargement process. In the meantime, the United States of America (USA), Russia, and Turkey have become engaged in promoting the need for balance of power in the region, although their interests have been mutually conflicting. In fact, the USA has supported the policies of the EU towards the WB to consolidate Euro-Atlantic integration and to maintain its authority as a superpower on the eastern side of the Atlantic. Another major power, Russia, has sought to counterbalance both the EU and the USA in the region by leveraging its close relations with Serbia. On the other hand, a neighboring country in the region, Turkey, has adopted the policy of soft power and good neighborly policy towards the WB to strengthen relations with old partners, based on perception of shared culture, heritage and history. This article analyzes the diverging national interests of the USA, Russia, and Turkey in the context of the Normative Power Europe approach pertaining to the WB.
International relations, Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence
Paying tribute to the historical collection of essays Landmarks (1909), I interpret the findings of five articles published in the previous issue of “Studi Slavistici” as contributions to our knowledge of how the Russian intellectual elite conceptualised and managed their intellectual, social and physical participation in and survival vis-à-vis the “Russian revolution”. I view the “Russian revolution” as a double, literary-political, or, rather, triple, mental-political-social, phenomenon which came about from the interaction of two Messianisms, socialist and national, suggesting a periodization which duly accounts for its literary/mental aspect: 1848-1930. Understanding “revolution of conscience” as a loss/overcoming of one’s naïve attitude to his or her intellectual-and-social habitus, I compare individual strategies of such ‘losers’ / ‘overcomers’ (Lev Šestov; Evgenij Zamjatin; Michail Prišvin; Vasilij Rozanov; Aleksandr Blok; Roman Jakobson; Vladimir Majakovskij; Vasilij Žukovskij) in coping with the social and political aspects of revolution. I claim that their experience is interpretable against the framework of a ‘competition between professions’ but for now I am able to map the situation in quite general terms only: as one of litterateurs being defeated by politicians whom I designate as ‘technologists of crowd’. In order to make the articles’ findings interoperable, and also compatible with my intentions, I reshape those findings from a literary-sociological perspective. I introduce, besides, two more historical figures: Aleksandr Herzen and Aleksandr Bogdanov, suggesting to view the experience of Herzen and Žukovskij as prototypical and the one of Bogdanov as an epitome of the kinds of experiences Russian intellectuals had within the historical cycle of the “Russian revolution”.
History of Eastern Europe, Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
Gábor Kemenesi, Safia Zeghbib, Balázs A Somogyi
et al.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 is the third highly pathogenic human coronavirus in history. Since the emergence in Hubei province, China, during late 2019, the situation evolved to pandemic level. Following China, Europe was the second epicenter of the pandemic. To better comprehend the detailed founder mechanisms of the epidemic evolution in Central-Eastern Europe, particularly in Hungary, we determined the full-length SARS-CoV-2 genomes from 32 clinical samples collected from laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients over the first month of disease in Hungary. We applied a haplotype network analysis on all available complete genomic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 from GISAID database as of 21 April 2020. We performed additional phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses to achieve the recognition of multiple and parallel introductory events into our region. Here, we present a publicly available network imaging of the worldwide haplotype relations of SARS-CoV-2 sequences and conclude the founder mechanisms of the outbreak in Central-Eastern Europe.
У статті висвітлюється позалаштункова політика гібридно-комбінованої війни Російської Соціалістичної Федеративної Радянської Республіки проти Української Держави протягом гетьманування Павла Скоропадського (квітень–грудень 1918 р.). Досліджується антиукраїнська діяльність Ради народних комісарів РСФРР, правлячої Російської комуністичної партії (більшовиків) та союзних їй російських партій лівих і правих соціалістів-революціонерів та анархістів.
Зокрема, йдеться про зусилля радянської Росії щодо підриву соціально-політичного становища в Україні, організацію та збройну і фінансову допомогу антиурядовим повстанським загонам і ватагам, участь і спрямування повстанського руху в організації масштабних страйків і саботажів через свою агентуру, а також в облаштуванні схронів зі зброєю та підпільної мережі революційних комітетів тощо. Викрито таємні аспекти підривної антиукраїнської діяльності більшовицької дипломатії в Україні, зокрема радянського консульства в Одесі, і її участь у сприянні антигетьманському рухові та про обізнаність у цьому німецьких дипломатичних чинників в Українській Державі.
Окрему увагу приділено радянсько-більшовицькій політиці щодо створення в Україні таємних бойових загонів підпільної соціалістичної терористичної армії, а також фактам не лише сприяння та спонсорування радянським урядом Росії масового повстансько-терористичного руху, а й безпосередній організації та кермуванню Радою народних комісарів РСФРР та проводу партій російських більшовиків і лівих есерів актів індивідуального терору проти державних діячів України, зокрема спробі влаштування кількох замахів на життя гетьмана Павла Скоропадського. Вказано на обізнаність українських служб безпеки (Освідомчого відділу МВС, департаменту Державної Варти МВС, Осібного відділу Власного Штабу гетьмана) про структуру, систему мережевої діяльності, підривну роботу й організацію замахів на гетьмана Української Держави з боку радянської Всеросійської надзвичайної комісії (ВЧК).
Висвітлено підготовку збройного вторгнення радянсько-більшовицьких військ в Україну й зафіксовано факт початку військової агресії російської Червоної Армії проти незалежної Української Держави восени 1918 р.
The article analyses socio-economic propaganda campaigns that were actively developed in the Lithuanian press during the period from 1941 to 1944: 1) anti-speculation propaganda; 2) calls for Lithuanians to engage in trading (this can be visually called the creation of a cast of “new traders”).
In 1941, after the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany, speculative activities increased due to the difficult economic situation, the faltering supply of food products to cities and the interruption of the supply of industrial goods (for example, kerosene, textiles) to villages. The occupation regime carried out an active anti-speculation propaganda campaign, which manifested itself in three ways: 1) calls not to buy goods from speculators and to report speculators to the authorities; 2) promoting legal alternatives to speculation (such as commissions or barter stores); 3) intimidation through repression.
The creation of the caste of “new traders” was based on the belief that Lithuanians would willingly take advantage of the Holocaust, when Jewish traders who had held significant positions in pre-war Lithuanian trade, especially in the private sector, were killed (or isolated in ghettos) along with the Jewish community. Lithuanians were urged through the press to engage in trade business, to create a new, nationally socially oriented, qualitatively different trade system. The network of trade schools had been actively expanded in the towns of the provincial regions.
Despite their ambitions, these two propaganda campaigns did not achieve their goals. Speculation was active throughout the war, while its legal alternatives were unattractive and unpopular, and the actual practice of punishing speculators was far more moderate than the press calls for the death penalty. The creation of the “new traders” caste was also unsuccessful: although trade schools soon began to prepare new trade sector employees, relatively few were prepared, and the same press soon began to criticize “new traders” for taking over “Jewish speculation” and for tending to deceive buyers and the regime.
Nicolae Petrică (1944-2018) was born in Ozerne, a village in the province of Odesa, Ukraine. He served in Afghanistan as an advisor to the 9th and 14th Infantry Divisions of the Afghan Army (1985-1987) and oversaw their command in 26 combat operations. From 1992 to 1993, he was Chief of Staff of the National Army, and the first Defense vice-minister of Moldova. At the time of the interview he was a Brigadier General and a professor of military science at the Technical University of Moldova.
History of Eastern Europe, Social sciences (General)