The Moscow Colloquium on Electroencephalography of Higher Nervous Activity and Its Impact on International Brain Research

Late 1950s was a period of recognition of Russian neurophysiology by international neuroscience community and vice versa. This process of “opening windows in both directions” might be illustrated by the story of The Moscow Colloquium on Electroencephalography of Higher Nervous Activity.

The Colloquium took place on October 6–11, 1958 at the House of Scientists in Moscow. It was organized by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR under the initiative of the Institute for Higher Nervous Activity and focused on (a) EEG correlates of cortical excitation and inhibition; (b) electrophysiological study of different brain structures and their role in conditioned reflexes; and (c) EEG of higher nervous activity in humans.

At the final session it was suggested to launch an International Year for the Study of the Brain and to ask UNESCO for international coordination of brain research. This resulted into the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) founded in 1960.

This article is based on unpublished records of international contacts of Soviet neurophysiologists and organization of the Moscow Colloquium from the Archive of Russian Academy of Science (ARAN), reports in Soviet periodicals, publications in obscure Festschriften, etc.     

Developments in Russia's Far East and their implications for the Pacific Basin

The Soviet Union ceased to exist as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality in December 1991 with the declaration of a new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). For the present the territory formerly known as the Soviet Far East remains part of the Russian Republic controlled from Moscow, but its political and economic destiny remains uncertain. In 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev asserted that the USSR was an Asian-Pacific country and that the development of the Far East region was to be reinvigorated. This coincided with. and was closely related to, efforts designed to improve relations with several countries in the Pacific Basin, including Australia. This paper outlines some of the infrastructural, social and other obstacles to development that can only be overcome by financial and technological assistance from abroad. Lingering international tensions (such as the Kurile Islands dispute with Japan) and political, economic and administrative uncertainties within the Russian Republic and the CIS more generally have led private companies — including several in Australia — to defer their investment plans. It seems likely that it will be many years before the Russian Far East will have much impact on the economy of the Pacific Basin.     

Pantheon of brains: the Moscow Brain Research Institute 1925-1936

The investigation of Lenin's brain by the German neurobiologist Oskar Vogt and his Russian collaborators in Moscow is one of the most exciting and simultaneously questionable chapters in the history of medicine. With the bizarre claim to be able to detect the material substrate of genius it provoked as much unrealistic expectations in the public as strong criticism by the scientific community of brain researchers. The following paper deals in a brief survey with the foundation and the early history of the Moscow Brain Research Institute (INSTITUT MOZGA) and its initial task - the collecting and mapping the brains of famous (Russian) persons in general and the investigation of Lenin's brain in particular.     

Zytoarchitektonik und Revolution ‐ Lenins Gehirn als Raum und Objekt

The investigation of Lenin's brain by the German neurobiologist Oskar Vogt from Berlin and his Russian collaborators in Moscow is one of the most exciting and simultaneously oddest chapters in the history of medicine. With the bizarre claim to be able to detect the material substrate of genius it provoked as much unrealistic expectations in the public as strong criticism by the scientific community of brain researchers. The present paper deals in a brief survey with the history of collecting and measuring the brains of famous persons in general and particularly with the historical, political and social circumstances of the performed investigation of Lenin's brain. In this connection the epistemological and technical prereqisites of architectonical brain research and its means of the topographical representation of complex histo‐anatomical and physiological differences in the brain cortex are shortly discussed. The opening of Russian archives after the socio‐economic turn of the year 1991 brought up new background facts in Lenin's pathobiography; together with the sources from German archives a rather extensive reconstruction of the historical events between Lenin's death in 1924 and the final report of the Moscow Brain Research Institute (Institute Mozga) to the Politburo of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviki) in 1936 is possible now.     

孙中山与苏俄关系论析

本文运用近年新解密的俄罗斯档案及国内孙中山研究中发掘的有关文献资料,对孙中山与腚苏俄关系问题进行一些新的审视和探析.1917年俄国十月革命胜利后,孙中山十分关注俄国的沧桑巨变,进而由外交接触到联俄政策的酝酿,由确立联俄政策再到"以俄为师".他晚期政治理想中有着浓厚的"恋苏"情结.孙中山晚年既要苏俄的援助,又要维护中华民族利益,还要防止俄式共产主义和苏维埃革命的输入,在联俄与防俄间充分发挥了他的政治平衡.同时,孙中山在与共产国际和苏俄关系的互动中呈现出鲜明的策略性、现实性和独立自主性.苏俄在处理与孙中山的关系上存在大国沙文主义倾向.     

Reviews/Comptes rendus

Guide to Geographical Bibliographies and Reference Works in Russian or on the Soviet Union, by C hauncy D. H arris , Research Paper No. 164, Department of Geography, University of Chicago, Chicago
Geographical Perspectives in the Soviet Union: A Selection of Readings, edited by G eorge J. D emko and R oland J. F uchs , Ohio State University Press, Columbus
Principles of Landscape Science and Physical-Geographic Regionalization, by A.G. I sachenko , edited by J ohn S. M assey , Melbourne University Press International Scholarly Books Services, Portland, Oregon
Spatial Perspectives on Industrial Organization and Decision Making, edited by F.E. I an H amilton , John Wiley & Sons, Toronto
Locational Dynamics of Manufacturing Activity, edited by L yndhurst C ollins and D avid F. W alker , John Wiley & Sons, Toronto
Geography of World Agriculture, Research Institute of Geography, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest: No. 2, A Geography of Agriculture in the United States' Southeast, by J ames R. A nderson
The New Urban History, edited by L eo F. S chnore , Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Vancouver, by W alter G. H ardwick , Collier-Macmillan Canada, Ltd., Don Mills     

‘An enemy at the gates’ or ‘from victory to victory’? Russian foreign policy

Russian foreign policy reflects an evolving balance between vulnerability and opportunity. For much of President Putin's second term, Russia has been on the defensive. Despite increasing economic strength, observed in greater activity and an apparently more confident rhetorical stance, Russian diplomacy reflected a sense of vulnerability in Moscow. Indeed, diplomacy was largely inward looking: on the one hand it was a tool with which to unite and mobilize the Russian population rather than confront the West; on the other hand, it was a means of preventing external interference in Russian domestic affairs. On another level, Moscow sees an international situation destabilized by the unilateral actions of the US and an attempt by the ‘western alliance’ to assert and export its value system. But Moscow also believes that the international situation has reached a moment of transition, one which presents an opportunity for a Russia that lays claim to a global role. Russian foreign policy reflects a broad consensus in Moscow that asserts Russia's status as a leading power with legitimate interests. This moment of opportunity coincides with Moscow's desire to rethink the results of the post‐Cold War period and to establish Russia as a valid international player. Continuing constraints and recognition that its domestic priorities proscribe Moscow from seeking confrontation with the West, which it cannot afford. Nonetheless, the attempt to establish the legitimacy of sovereign democracy as an international model of development appears to represent an important development in how Russia will approach wider European politics.     

Cables in Cipher,the Raoul Wallenberg Case and Swedish–Soviet Diplomatic Communication 1944–1947

In 2011, the Russian government, in order to mark the 100th anniversary of Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, decided to allow one Swedish researcher to go through the diplomatic correspondence in cipher between the Soviet Embassy in Stockholm and the Soviet Foreign Ministry during the years 1944–1947. This article presents some of the major findings on Wallenberg and discusses whether parallel paths of Soviet encrypted communication between Moscow and Stockholm may still be harbouring additional information on his case. The ciphers cannot provide us with any conclusive answers on the Soviet motives for arresting Wallenberg, or his ultimate fate. They do, however, provide us with unique insights into how the matter was handled on both the Soviet and Swedish sides.     

An old hypothesis and new tools: Alfred Fessard's approach to the problem of consciousness

In 1954, a symposium was held in Canada on "Brain Mechanisms and Consciousness." It was a time for the promotion of international and interdisciplinary scientific cooperation, of new technological expectation, and of speculating about complex human behavior. Alfred Fessard's lecture on "Mechanisms of Nervous Integration and Conscious Experience" was one of the outstanding presentations, rich in critical analysis of the then available experimental data and in working hypothesis proposals. Reading the concept expressed by Fessard, it was found that several of his ideas had anticipated data obtained in modern research with new technologies.     

中国俄国史研究百年检视与思考

中俄交往始于蒙古西征和金帐汗国时代(1238-1480年),中国学人撰写俄国史自1878年刊印的鹭江奇迹人的《俄国志略》,到今天已经有整整140年的历史。中国的俄国史学科伴随民族命运、国家危机以及世界形势的变化而生,自诞生之日起即负有学人情怀、民族重任和学术职责三重使命。因此,俄国史学科在中国一直发挥着“知夷”和“盗火”的两大作用。中华人民共和国成立后,俄国史(包括苏联时期和俄罗斯联邦时期)研究获得了70年的巨大发展,主要成就有:1985年中国苏联东欧史研究会成立(1992年英文更名为中国俄罗斯东欧中亚史研究会),高等院校、社会科学院、党校、国家有关部委及党政机构纷纷设立俄国史或俄罗斯问题研究机构,建立了从历史学学士、俄国史硕士到俄国史博士的三级专业人才培养体系,俄国史和俄罗斯问题研究的专业期刊创立并连续出版,大量的俄国通史、中俄(中苏)关系史、专题著作、各类教科书、翻译著作(来自俄文、英法、法文、德文、波兰文等)出版,中国俄国史学者积极参与国际学术会议和国际合作研究,具有中国特色的中国“俄罗斯学”新学科正在建立过程中。     

重评共产国际指导中国大革命的路线

中国大革命是在联共政治局和共产国际直接指导下进行的。在此期间 ,联共政治局会议专门讨论中国革命问题 1 2 2次 ,做出了 73 8个决定。指导中国大革命的基本路线和方针、政策 ,几乎全部来自莫斯科 ,并且由莫斯科派驻中国的代表、顾问亲自执行 ;只有一小部分是在他们的代表严密监督下由陈独秀为首的中共中央执行。 1 92 3— 1 92 5年 ,莫斯科提出的路线基本上是正确的 ;1 92 5年秋开始发生右倾化的转变 ,最后导致了大革命的失败。     

Looking ‘The Gift’ in the mouth: Russia as donor (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

While the Soviet Union was a significant donor of international development aid, since the 1990s, a generation of Russians has experienced the subject position of ‘recipient’ in the global political economy. However, following its G8 presidency in 2006, Russia officially signalled its intention to (re‐)emerge as an aid donor. Should the Russian government's efforts to join the global community of donors be understood as a defence mechanism against what Mauss called the ‘wounding’ experience of being treated as a perpetual recipient? International development aid is seen here as a cultural phenomenon whose underlying assumptions are both challenged and affirmed by the arrival of ‘emerging donors’ such as Russia.     

Conferences

Conferences reviewed:
Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences, 15–20 June 2000
Easa Conference, Krakow, July 2000     

Changes in the Structure and Distribution of Russian GDP in the 1990s

The author, a noted Japanese observer of Soviet and post-Soviet economic affairs, examines System of National Accounts data for the Russian Federation in order to analyze changes in the structure and distribution of Russian GDP during the six-year period commencing in 1989. The study, based in part on first-hand investigation in Moscow in late 1995 and on hitherto unpublished raw data, represents an initial attempt to examine the methodology underlying the compilation of Russian System of National Accounts statistics, which the Russian Government began to publish only recently. A distinct focus is on GDP by sector of origin and by end use, and on distribution of income. 9 tables, 22 references. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O11, O47, P24.     

The ‘R’ in BRICs: is Russia an emerging power?

The concept of emerging powers presupposes several features shared by the states in question including regional preponderance, aspiration to a global role and the contesting of US unipolarity. This article assesses the role of Russia as an emerging power. It asks how Russians interpret the international system, what kind of system they would prefer, what they are trying to do in the current system and why, and how these considerations affect their relations with the US hegemony, other centres of power such as the EU, and other emerging powers. The author discusses the structural, liberal and regional interpretations of state behaviour and how they relate to the Russian model, arguing that Russia's policy is strongly affected by its domestic economic and political context. Russia is highly responsive to trends in the former Soviet Union and regions it perceives to be in its own space (e.g. EU and NATO Europe and north-east Asia). In the larger international system, Russia's approach is a mix of partnership or acquiescence on matters of vital interest to the hegemonic power, and more competitive behaviour on issues deemed central to Russian but peripheral to US interests. The article concludes that Russia is not an emerging power in the conventional sense. Its foreign policy is dominated by efforts to reverse the decline of the 1980s and 1990s. This entails fostering international conditions conducive to allowing reconsolidation without external hindrance. Its second major priority is regional: to restore Russian influence over the former Soviet states. In essence, Russian policy aims to limit further losses and promote conditions that will allow it to re-emerge as a great power.     

VON THUNEN AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HIS WORK FOR THE GEOGRAPHY OF AGRICULTURE

Von Thünen's classical model of agricultural location was published in the Soviet Union in Russian translation in 1926, a hundred years after its original publication in Germany, but was soon denounced as a bourgeois theory seeking to optimize location from the point of view of minimizing production costs or maximizing the profit of the entrepreneur. The view that the von Thünen model was not applicable to Soviet conditions was stated as late as 1966 in Vol. V of the Kratkaya geograficheskaya entsiklopediya [Short Geographical Encyclopedia], pp. 196, 525. A Moscow University agricultural geographer, in reassessing the von Thünen model, now points out that its objective of determining optimal production systems for a given set of physical (land quality) and economic (market) conditions is shared by anyone who seeks the most highly cost-effective form of agriculture in a particular setting.     

Prometheus Unbound: Southern Caucasia in Prehistory

This paper examines the intellectual traditions and recent advances in the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages of the South Caucasus. The first goal of the paper is to provide an account of the scholarly traditions that have oriented research in the region since the mid-nineteenth century. This discussion provides a detailed case study of an archaeological tradition that arose within the context of Russian and Soviet research—traditions still poorly understood within Western archaeology. Yet archaeology in the South Caucasus was strongly influenced by international research in neighboring southwest Asia, and thus the region’s intellectual currents often diverged from the debates and priorities that predominated in Moscow. The second goal of this paper is to outline the primary issues that orient contemporary work in the region from the Neolithic through the Urartian period. My interest here is both didactic and prognostic. While I am concerned to fairly represent the primary foci of contemporary regional scholarship, I also make an argument for a deeper investigation of the constitution of social life. Such studies are critical to the advancement of archaeology in the South Caucasus over the coming decade.     

Interaction between Nature and Society and Modern Geography

This paper, delivered by one of the leading Soviet philosophers at a plenary session of the Fourth Congress of the Geographical Society USSR, is the latest authoritative statement on the relationship between physical and economic geography. The author balances the fact of increasing differentiation and specialization and the continued existence of separate physical and economic-geographic groups of disciplines against the need for more synthesis in geographic research. He thus echoes ideas expressed by V. A. Anuchin earlier this year in the philosophical journal Problemy Filosofii [see Soviet Geography, April 1964]. Konstantinov, in preparing the paper, made use of the materials of the Combined Conference of Philosophical [Methodological] Seminars of the Academy of Sciences USSR on the theme “The problem of the interaction of nature and society and the place of the geographic sciences in its solution” [see Tezisy dokladov (Abstracts of Papers), Moscow, 1964], especially the paper by A. G. Doskach, Yu. P. Trusov, and Ye. T. Fadeyev on “The interaction of nature and society and some problems of modern geography.” Konstantinov also acknowledges suggestions from Academician I. P. Gerasimov, V. Zh. Kelle, a philosopher, and Academician Ye. K. Fedorov, a geophysicist.     

From Pristina to Tskhinvali: the legacy of Operation Allied Force in Russia's relations with the West

This article reviews the main developments in the Kosovo crisis in the context of relations between Russia and NATO/the West. For Moscow, Operation Allied Force constituted a flagrant breach of international law, a threat to post-Cold War European security governance and a challenge to Russia's status in the international order. Official Russian interpretations, heavily influenced by domestic politics, reflect a perception among Russia's political elite that, rather than upholding liberal democratic values, NATO's intervention constituted a selective defence of the interests of the leading western powers.
Such views have influenced Moscow's position on the thorny question of Kosovo's independence and Russia's more assertive foreign and security policy in the recent period, not least in the conflict over South Ossetia in August 2008. Ultimately, Operation Allied Force resulted in the Russian governing elite reassessing its views on statehood, the international order and the norms underpinning international society.     

Missionary,Reformer, and Old Believer in Revolutionary Russia: Bishop Andrei (Ukhtomskii) (1872–1937)

This article examines the life and thought of Andrei (Ukhtomskii), a prominent Orthodox churchman in late imperial and early Soviet Russia. A proponent of ecclesiastical reform, Andrei believed that the Church was unable to instil piety because of an overly close relationship with the state. Basing his opinions on Slavophile philosophy, Andrei campaigned for the restoration of the Russian patriarchate and parish reform that would grant the laity increased autonomy. As a missionary among non‐Russian populations, he rejected linguistic Russification. After 1905, these beliefs led him to clash with the right and Rasputin. After the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government appointed Andrei to a leading position in the Holy Synod. However, during the collapse of the Church's hierarchy in the 1920s, he grew weary of the prevalent inertia and in 1925 attempted to single‐handedly resolve the centuries‐old Old Believer schism. This was rejected by the Moscow Patriarchate, leading Andrei to create his own catacomb church. This article concludes that Andrei should be seen as a church politician undone by the contradictions inherent both in his own position and that of the Church.