Vol 89, No 11 (2019)

On June 18, 2019, the Presidiums of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus held a joint session to discuss results of cooperation in 2018, prospective projects of Union State programs, and short-term plans for cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Particular attention was paid to scientific support for development of strategic directions for long-term spatial-territorial and socioeconomic development of Russia and Belarus and to the concept of the United Eurasia megaproject.

This paper discusses the most important aspects of the development of the oil and gas industry in Russia. To replace declining oil production in Russia, we need to change the obsolete paradigm of the development of the domestic resource base. In the twenty-first century, the priority tasks in the search for oil deposits should be the Russian Arctic shelves and immature onshore provinces as well as unique unconventional oil accumulations (Bazhenov, Domanik, Khadum, Kuonamka Formations, etc.). In addition, special focus should be placed on the exploration of small and smallest oil and gas fields, which will be developed with the collaboration of small- and medium-sized oil businesses to ensure up to 20% of domestic oil production. The shift from extensive to intensive development of Russia’s oil and gas sector will require the prioritizing of technological tasks.

In this paper, the history of the formation, dynamics of structure, and species composition of the main objects of the national fishery in the Black Sea from the moment of the fall of the Crimean Khanate in 1783 up to today are analyzed, as well as the structure of commercial biological resources of the sea formed throughout the geological history of development of the Ponto-Caspian Basin (more than 30 million years). The geography and catch composition, scales, and methods of fish harvesting in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are examined. The stages of intensification and reduction of fish harvesting success and the causes of these fluctuations (natural dynamics of population abundance, press of predatory species, hydrotechnical construction, marine pollution, overfishing, poaching) are identified. The author shows that at the end of the twentieth century, the Russian fishing industry entered a depressed state, while the other Black Sea countries increased their average annual total catch. At the same time, starting at the beginning of the twenty-first century, due to the lessening of press of warty comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi), a decrease in the level of oil and chemical pollution of coastal and shelf waters in the northern Black Sea, and a reduction in industrial production on the seacoast and watershed territories, the ecological situation in the Russian territorial waters improved significantly and many formerly commercial fish populations started to recover.

The paper deals with the state and dynamics of religiosity in modern Russia. The study, which is based on a system of empirical indicators, helps identify key features of religious consciousness, and behavior. This comparative investigation was conducted in Moscow during the last three decades. It was found that at the level of self-identification, approximately half of the population defined themselves as believers, and that there was a decrease in this value over time. The use of a complex typology of religiosity shows that the proportion of actually churched believers who combine adherence to the canons, both at the level of consciousness and of behavior, is significantly lower and has been in the range of 6%–8% during the past five years. The motives for participation in religious ceremonies are mainly a general cultural orientation associated with family, kinship, and national traditions.

An ergot alkaloid, 2-Br-alfa-ergocriptin, and its effect on lactation in rats was first mentioned by E. Fluckiger and H. Wagner in the twenty-fourth issue, published in 1968, of the journal "Experientia". Initially, this work did not attract much attention; however, after the isolation of pure prolactin, and the establishment of its physiological role, the high efficacy of bromocriptine in the treatment of hyperprolactinemia quickly became clear. Bromocriptine has been actively studied not only by American and European scientists but also in the USSR since 1975. Bromocriptine was used in the treatment of persistent lactorrhea and amenorrhea, acromegaly, and also the drug was experimentally prescribed for Itsenko – Cushing’s disease. Unique data about the children of mothers with hyperprolactinemia who received bromocriptine therapy was collected in the USSR. Bromocriptine also made a huge contribution to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, for which it has been used since the 1960s. Much later, in 2009, bromocriptine in small doses was approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Currently, different studies of the effect of bromocriptine on various metabolic pathways are continuing. Thus, even 50 years after the discovery of bromocriptine, not all of its effects are well studied, and this world-famous drug continues to raise more and more new questions for scientists and doctors.

The paper presents the life and scientific achievements of Sergei Alekseevich Chaplygin (1869–1942), mathematician and mechanical engineer; one of the founders of aerodynamics; organizer of science and higher education; a talented teacher; creator of the largest scientific school in the field of aerohydromechanics; one of the organizers of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, who contributed to its transformation into a world-class leading scientific center; and an ally and successor of the work of his outstanding predecessor, the "father of Russian aviation," N.Ye. Zhukovsky.

The authors publish and analyze newly found archival documents on the first years of the academic Institute of History (1936–1941). The most interesting feature is the project of 1939 on the foundation of two separate research institutions: the Institute of History of the USSR and the Institute of World History. The authors analyze reasons for these projects’ emergence and subsequent refusal, arguing that reasons for refusal were administrative and economic.

Monograph of RAS Corresponding Member Zh.T. Toshchenko is distinguished by the well-known features of the author's research style: a thorough analysis of modern social processes, the identification of new qualities, phenomena, trends and their deep scientific understanding in them. In this case, those phenomena that already have or will begin to exert a significant influence on the essence and appearance of society in the near future fall into focus. The subject of scientific interest Zh.T. Toshchenko had previously faced the problems of a paradoxical person, centaurism, phantoms, ethnocracy, theocracy, the fate of the intelligentsia, etc. An analysis of these topics led the scientist to create original, well-constructed scientific concepts, including the integral concept of the “sociology of life” [1], which has received scientific recognition community. The new book is dedicated to the precariate - an emerging social class, the place and role of which in the life of modern societies is becoming more tangible.

Awards and prizes