卷 96, 编号 5 (2025)

The article is devoted to a dramatic moment in the history of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War – the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany. A serious struggle unfolded around this event with the participation of the leadership of Germany, Great Britain, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The leadership of the USSR did everything possible to prevent the conclusion of a separate peace between Germany and Great Britain, which the government of K. Dönitz sought. The author traces all the stages of this military-political collision, within the framework of which it was not only about the post-war status of Germany, but also about a new system of international relations.

The article presents generalized statistical data on the launches and decommissioning of spacecraft of the Starlink satellite system and estimates of their actual active life. The results of calculations of the achievable composition of the orbital grouping are given, taking into account and without taking into account the early decommissioning of spacecraft. The possibilities of further expansion of the Starlink orbital grouping are considered.

The objective of the study was to assess, on the base of diverse statistical data, whether there was a sustainable strengthening of international cooperation in research and development (R&D) in the first two decades of the 21st century; and to identify the main competitors of the countries leading in the scientific and technological (S&T) development. For this purpose, the dynamics of foreign R&D financing, foreign patenting of residents and the volumes of international charges for the use of intellectual property (IP) were analyzed for the leading and some of developing countries. It was found that in 2000–2020, there was an increase in interrelations in the R&D cooperation between the countries. The dynamics of payments and receipts from the use of IP showed the weakening of the world leaders’ monopoly in R&D due to the gradual diffusion of not only high-tech production, but of R&D for them as well. Stagnation or decline in foreign R&D funding, recorded in most of the countries, may indicate not only financial difficulties, but also a desire to develop advanced technologies domestically. Traditional leaders in scientific and technological development are beginning to be challenged by competitors from both developed (Ireland, the Netherlands) and developing countries (China). And meanwhile developed countries compete primarily in the sphere of production and individual high-tech industries, China is capable of not only be present in many industry markets, but also to carry out its own developments.

Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel “And quiet flows the Don” is undoubtedly one of the greatest works of the Russian literature of XX century. The publication in 1940 of the last book of the novel provoked heated discussions in the central periodicals, at meetings of the Critics’ Section of the USSR Writers’ Union and subsequently in the Committee on the Stalin Prizes. This article examines the various views of the writer’s contemporaries regarding the ending of the novel, and Sholokhov’s own reaction to it.

The changes taking place on the Earth’s surface have been documented since Antiquity. In the Modern period, the evolution of lithological processes was recognized by science and described by individual scientists, and since the second half of the 19th century, stable ideas have developed about a certain constancy of processes and their consequences in inanimate nature and changes in the organic world. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the ideas of the evolution of the sedimentary process began to prevail, accompanied by corresponding changes in the composition and properties of sedimentary formations with the direct and indirect participation of living organisms.

This publication is an excerpt from the transcript of the meeting of the RCP(b) faction of the 3rd session of the USSR Central Executive Committee of the 2nd convocation in Tiflis on March 5, 1925, at which the issue of awarding the Russian Academy of Sciences the all-Union status was discussed in connection with the need to approve its new charter. The preface discusses the prerequisites for this decision, as well as the various opinions of CEC members, representatives of the Academy, heads of Glavnauka, People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR and other party delegates.