Vol 93, No 3 (2023)

The beginning of physiology studies at the Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg dates  back to 1725. The first studies were carried out at the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology; and in the 19th century,  at the Physiological Laboratory. The 20th century saw the establishment of the first Institute of Physiology  within the USSR Academy of Sciences. Natural sciences had been developing with the emergence of  new research methods and new scientific fields, but the interest in understanding the mechanisms underlying  functions of the human body and their regulation has remained unchanged. Adequate approaches to the  nature of dysfunctions on the foundation of physiological functions lie at the core of every clinical discipline.  Stemming from the methods of molecular biology, genetics, and bioinformatics, the outstanding achievements  of the last decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century necessitate a transition  to a new level through the interaction between different sciences in order to elucidate regulation mechanisms  for creating a vision of the physiological activity of the body as an integral whole.  

Social imbalances cause or underlie practically all migrations. Due to the diversity and multidimensionality of both processes, the multiplicity of channels for their interaction, their integration into larger social trends, and other overlapping factors, this influence is nonlinear, inhomogeneous, and sometimes ambiguous. Nevertheless, when considering imbalances in such migration optics, it turns out that their dynamics are coupled with changes in the intensity, nature, and directions of human flows. First, the trend towards smoothing global income inequality in the context of the crisis of globalization and other social shifts makes the upward dynamics of mobility change to rather oscillatory, sometimes even downward. Second, although the dominant role of the socioeconomic imbalances in the movement of the population persists, sociopolitical differences between states, especially gaps in the security of living conditions, are becoming increasingly important. This is manifested in the growing share of refugees and asylum seekers in the total number of migrants. Third, against the background of the continued dominance of the global asymmetry of world development in determining migration routes, the effect of imbalances at the regional level is intensifying, in the context of which there are shifts in the geography of migration, in particular, a more intensive expansion of migration corridors between the countries of the South compared to other routes and a powerful surge of forced migration in Europe.

In the context of the transition of the world economy to a new technological basis, leadership in science and technology and the accelerated implementation of scientific research results in production to ensure a full innovation cycle are becoming key factors in increasing the country’s competitiveness. The state of the scientific, technological, and innovative potential of our country and the mechanism to implement state scientific, technical, and innovation policy, including the financing of science and innovation from the federal budget, are analyzed, and measures are proposed to improve it to increase the effectiveness of scientific, scientific, technical, and innovative activities and the competitiveness of the national economy.

The changes in production and population in Russian regions for the years 1990–2020 are considered as an indirect indicator of the changes in the total anthropogenic pressure on the environment. It is shown that the pressure increases primarily in well-developed territories and decreases in vast underdeveloped areas. A new environmentally unfavorable trend in environmental pressures is the relative shift to coastal regions, i.e., to the vulnerable and recreationally attractive coasts of the Atlantic seas as well as the Caspian Sea. Simultaneously, there is a clear northeastern vector in the development of the mining industry, which leads to the formation of new local centers of large-scale impacts on ecologically significant and vulnerable landscapes of East Siberia, the Far East, the European North, and the shelf zones. In the 21st century, most of the main mining regions have increased their extraction of mineral resources: half of them by 50% or more and a quarter by 200% or more. It is shown that the environmental situation is more likely to deteriorate further in the regions with a strong increase in anthropogenic pressure than it is to improve in the regions that are now leaders in terms of reducing adverse impacts.

This article is based on statistical data and the results of expert surveys and the author’s assessments of changes in Russian-language education in the former Soviet national republics in the period from the 1991/1992 academic year to that of 2019/2020. It is shown that the changes in the number of school and university students who received education in Russian in the last 30 years (after the collapse of the Soviet Union) are overall irreversible. At the same time, recently, including in connection with demographic processes and some other factors, the number of school students studying in Russian-speaking classes and schools in a number of Central Asian republics has begun to increase.

March 18, 2023, marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Vasilii Vasil’evich Parin (1903–1971), an outstanding scientist, one of the founders of space physiology and medicine, who made a great contribution to circulatory physiology, space cardiology, medical cybernetics, and in the field of practical astronautics, to medical support for the first human flights into space. His achievements as an organizer of medical science, national health care, and higher medical education are also significant. Careful preservation and development of the experience and knowledge accumulated by predecessors, implementation of innovative ideas, and transfer of scientific heritage to students and followers—this is how Academician V.V. Parin saw the connection between generations of scientists. In the history of world science, his name is rightfully present not only thanks to his pioneering research work but also through his lifelong demonstration of humanity, dedication, and devotion to spiritual and moral values.

The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the 2022 Loonosov Grand Gold Medal to Academician of the RAS Yurii Viktorovich Natochin for his fundamental contribution to the study of kidney physiology and water-salt metabolism and to Foreign Member of the RAS Professor Denis Noble (Great Britain) for his outstanding contribution to the development of circulatory physiology.