bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Polyphenol deposition in leaf hairs of Olea Europaea (OLeaceae) andQUercus Ilex (Fagaceae)
Authors: Karabourniotis George , Kofidis George , Fasseas Costas , Liakoura Vally , Drossopoulos Ioannis
Published: April 2006

The subcellular localization (cytoplasm, vacuoles, cell walls) of polyphenol compounds during the development of the multicellular nonglandular leaf hairs of Olea europaea (scales) and Quercus ilex (stellates), was investigated. Hairs of all developmental stages were treated with specific inducers of polyphenol fluorescence, and the bright yellow‐green fluorescence of individual hairs was monitored with epifluorescence microscopy. During the early ontogenetic stages, bright fluorescence was emitted from the cytoplasm of the cells composing the multicellular shield of the scales of O. europaea. Transmission electron micrographs of the same stages showed that these cells possessed poor vacuolation and thin cell walls. The nucleus of these cells may be protected against ultraviolet‐B radiation damage. The progressive vacuolation that occurred during maturation was followed by a shifting of the bright green‐yellow fluorescence from the perinuclear region and the cytoplasm to the cell walls. The same trends were observed during the development of the nonglandular stellate hairs of Quercus ilex, in which maturation was also accompanied by a considerable secondary thickening of the cell walls. Despite the differences in morphology, high concentrations of polyphenol compounds are initially located mainly in the cytoplasm of the developing nonglandular hairs, and their deposition on the cell walls takes place during the secondary cell wall thickening. These structural changes during the development of the leaf hairs make them a very effective barrier against abiotic (uv‐B radiation) and probably biotic (pathogenic) stresses.
Molecular tests of the proposed diploid hybrid origin of Gilia achilleifolia (Polemoniaceae)
Authors: Morrell Peter L. , Rieseberg Loren H.
Published: April 2006

Gilia achilleifolia is a putative diploid hybrid species. Hybrid origin was hypothesized based on traditional biosystematic evidence (i.e., morphological, cytological, and crossability data), which may be insufficient to establish genealogical history. Here, phylogenetic analysis of sequence data from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions is used to examine the relationship between the putative hybrid species and its proposed parents. Isozyme variation is assayed to test for genetic additivity in the putative hybrid taxon and morphological data are analyzed cladistically to evaluate the characters that led to the original hypothesis of hybrid origin. The ITS‐based gene tree placed G. achilleifolia in two divergent clades, each sister to one of the putative parental lineages. Little isozyme additivity was observed and G. achilleifolia possessed six unique alleles among 42 alleles observed. However, ITS and isozyme trees differed in their placement of the two lineages of G. achilleifolia; both lineages are closer to a third putative parent in the isozyme tree. Also, G. achilleifolia is intermediate or polymorphic for all nine morphological characteristics differentiating the parental species. Sorting of ancestral polymorphisms cannot easily account for expression patterns of seven of these characters. In our view, these results fail to distinguish between alternative hypotheses of ancient hybrid origin and divergent evolution, belying the difficulty of detecting ancient hybrids.
Early succession on lahars spawned by Mount St. Helens
Authors: Moral Roger del
Published: April 2006

The effects of isolation on primary succession are poorly documented. I monitored vegetation recovery on two Mount St. Helens lahars (mud flows) with different degrees of isolation using contiguous plots. Seventeen years after the eruption, species richness was stable, but cover continued to increase. That isolation affects community structure was confirmed in several ways. The dominance hierarchies of the lahars differed sharply. Detrended correspondence analysis on Lahar I showed a trend related to distance from an adjacent woodland, whereas vegetation on Lahar II was relatively homogeneous. Spectra of growth forms and dispersal types also differed. Lahar I was dominated by species with modest dispersal ability, while Lahar II was dominated by species with better dispersal. Variation between plots should decline through time, a prediction confirmed on Lahar II. Lahar I remained heterogeneous despite having developed significantly higher cover. Here, the increasing distance from the forest has prevented plots from becoming more homogeneous. At this stage of early primary succession, neither lahar is converging towards the species composition of adjacent vegetation. This study shows that isolation and differential dispersal ability combine to determine initial vegetation structure. Stochastic effects resulting from dispersal limitations may resist the more deterministic effects of competition that could lead to floristic convergence.
G. Ledyard Stebbins, Jr. and the evolutionary synthesis (1924–1950)
Authors: Smocovitis Vassiliki Betty
Published: April 2006

This is an historical paper examining the scientific background of George Ledyard Stebbins, Jr. (b. 1906), one of the foremost botanists of this century and one of the architects of the evolutionary synthesis, the intellectual event that brought together genetics and selection theory in the interval between 1920 and 1950. It considers his scientific influence and research, beginning with his Harvard education in 1924 and ending in 1950 with the publication of his book Variation and Evolution in Plants. The paper also more broadly assesses the contributions of other botanists to the evolutionary synthesis, including discussion of the work of Edgar Anderson (1897–1967) and others. It also traces the larger historical patterns of American botany, which saw a shift from East Coast botany as exemplified by Harvard botany, to West Coast botany, as exemplified by California botany.
Clonal population structure and genetic variation in sand‐shinnery oak,Quercus havardii (Fagaceae)
Authors: Mayes Steven G. , McGinley Mark A. , Werth Charles R.
Published: April 2006

We investigated clonal population structure and genetic variation in Quercus havardii (sand‐shinnery oak), a deciduous rhizomatous shrub that dominates vegetation by forming uninterrupted expanses of ground cover over sandy deposits on the plains of western Texas, western Oklahoma, and eastern New Mexico. Isozyme electrophoresis (15 loci coding 11 enzymes) was used to recognize and map clones arrayed in a 2000‐m transect (50‐m sample intervals) and a 200 × 190 m grid (10‐m sample intervals). Ninety‐four clones were discovered, 38 in the transect and 56 in the grid, resulting in an estimated density of ∼15 clones per hectare. Clones varied greatly in size (∼100–7000 m2), shape, and degree of fragmentation. The larger clones possessed massive interiors free of intergrowth by other clones, while the smaller clones varied in degree of intergrowth. The population maintained substantial levels of genetic variation (P = 60%, A = 2.5, Hexp = 0.289) comparable to values obtained for other Quercus spp. and for other long‐lived perennials. The population was outcrossing as evidenced by conformance of most loci to Hardy‐Weinberg expected genotype proportions, although exceptions indicated a limited degree of population substructuring. These data indicate that despite apparent reproduction primarily through vegetative means, Q. havardii possesses conventional attributes of a sexual population.
Artificial hybridization in the Hawaiian endemic genus Labordia (Loganiaceae)
Authors: Motley Timothy J. , Carr Gerald D.
Published: April 2006

Cross‐pollinations were performed within and among eight species of Labordia from Oahu, Molokai, and Hawaii, and one species from Guam of the closely related genus Geniostoma. Detailed floral examination confirmed that the species are functionally dioecious, i.e., a given individual lacks either ovules or pollen grains. Female inflorescences bagged to prevent pollination never produced seed, but intraspecific crosses between male and female individuals nearly always yielded fruits with viable seed (>80%). Interspecific crosses between species from different islands and separate taxonomic sections of the genus also yielded good fruit set (>55%). Interspecific F1 hybrids were vigorous and appeared to be morphologically intermediate to their parents. Intergeneric crosses between Geniostoma and Labordia failed. Chromosome counts from Labordia species were found to be 2n = 80 or 2n ≈ 80, twice the chromosome complement of two collections examined from its postulated ancestor, Geniostoma rupestre. Labordia species are distinct morphologically, ecologically, and geographically but apparently lack genetic barriers to interbreeding. This suggests that geographical and ecological isolation, recentness of colonization, and/or rapid speciation have been important factors in the origin of species of Labordia.
Karyotypic studies on species of Phaseolus (Fabaceae: Phaseolinae)
Authors: Mercado‐Ruaro Pedro , Delgado‐Salinas Alfonso
Published: April 2006

Ten karyotypes of Phaseolus were analyzed. Possible directions of karyological evolution of those species are suggested. All species studied have karyotypes composed exclusively of metacentric and submetacentric chromosomes, except P. filiformis with all metacentrics, and P. chiapasanus with one pair of subtelocentric chromosomes. Secondary constrictions and satellites are common among species studied. Phaseolus leptostachyus, P. micranthus, and P. macvaughii are considered as aneuploids with 2n= 20, whereas the rest of the species have 2n= 22.

We include a comprehensive list with information on chromosome counts gathered from other studies, using chromosomal indices, combined with our earlier counts and present findings. We provide recounts of all studied species and a first chromosome count of P. macvaughii.
Effects of soil salt levels on the growth and water use efficiency of Atriplex canescens (Chenopodiaceae) varieties in drying soil
Authors: Glenn Edward P. , Brown J. Jed
Published: April 2006

The effect of salt stress on the growth and water use efficiency of the xerohalophyte Atriplex canescens (Pursh.) Nutt. in drying soil was determined by growing plants to the wilting point in soils receiving a one‐time irrigation of nutrient solution containing low, medium, and high levels of NaCl. The experiment compared three varieties of A. canescens that differed in salt tolerance and capacity for Na and K uptake in previous research. Contrary to expectations, we did not find that water and salt stress were strictly additive in reducing plant performance. Soil salts enhanced the growth performance of the plants in drying soil by increasing their days to wilting, ability to extract water from the soil, organic matter production, and water use efficiency. The variety with the highest salt tolerance also had the highest growth rates and water use efficiency on drying soils. We conclude that tolerances to water and salt stress are linked through a common mechanism of Na uptake for osmotic adjustment in this species.
Response of chaparral shrubs to below‐freezing temperatures: acclimation, ecotypes, seedlings vs. adults
Authors: Boorse Graham C. , Ewers Frank W. , Davis Stephen D.
Published: April 2006

Leaf death due to freezing was examined for four, co‐occurring species of chaparral shrubs from the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California, Rhus laurina (= Malosma laurina), R. ovata, Ceanothus megacarpus, and C. spinosus. Measurements were made on seedlings vs. adults for all species, and for Rhus spp. in winter vs. summer, and at a warm vs. a cold site. We used four methods to determine the temperature for 50% change in activity or cell death (LT50) of leaves: (1) electrical conductivity (electrolyte leakage into a bathing solution), (2) photosynthetic fluorescent capacity (Fv/Fm), (3) percentage of palisade mesophyll cells stained by fluorescein diacetate vital stain, and (4) visual score of leaf color (Munsell color chart). In all four species seedlings were found to be more sensitive to freezing temperatures than were adults by 1°–3°C. For adults the LT50 ranged from −5°C for Rhus laurina in the summer to −16°C for Rhus ovata in the winter. The LT50 of R. ovata located at a colder inland site was 4°C lower than R. ovata at the warmer coastal site just 4 km apart, suggesting ecotypic differences between R. ovata at the two sites. Both R. laurina and R. ovata underwent significant winter hardening. At the cold site, R. ovata acclimated by 6°C on average, while R. laurina acclimated by only 3°C. These results were consistent with species distributions and with field observations of differential shoot dieback between these two congeneric species after a natural freeze‐thaw event in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Genetic diversity and gene flow in the endangered dwarf bear poppy,Arctomecon humilis(Papaveraceae)
Authors: Allphin Loreen , Windham Michael D. , Harper Kimball T.
Published: April 2006

Arctomecon humilisis a critically endangered species endemic to the Moenkopi shale of Washington County, Utah. Recovery plans for the species would be improved by an understanding of genetic diversity and gene flow among its remaining populations. Ten variable isozyme loci were used to calculate genetic diversity statistics for study populations. Westerly populations possessed higher levels of genetic variability than other populations at the same isozyme loci. Three of the populations exhibited significant deviations from Hardy‐Weinberg expectations. No correlation existed between genetic distance and geographic distance. Most of the genetic diversity was distributed among populations with little gene flow between populations, suggesting that observed genetic differences may arise from genetic drift. For the westerly populations, similar genotypes were observed in the seedling and old age classes, while intermediate age classes typically possessed an alternate set of genotypes atPgi‐2. Mean heterozygosity increased with age class across populations. Westerly populations ofA. humilisshared more alleles with the nearest geographic population ofA. californicathan other populations. Since the westerly populations contained more genetic variability and more alleles in common with a near relative, they may be relictual. Other populations may contain less genetic diversity due to founder effects and/or genetic drift.
Two new fossil flowers of magnoliid affinity from the Late Cretaceous of New Jersey
Authors: Crepet William L. , Nixon Kevin C.
Published: April 2006

Two taxa of cupulate magnoliid fossil flowers, Cronquistiflora and Detrusandra, are described from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian, ∼90 million years before present [MYBP]) Raritan (or lower Magothy) Formation of New Jersey. The fossil taxa are represented by flowers at various stages of development, associated fragments of cup‐shaped floral receptacles with attached anthers, and isolated anthers. Both taxa have laminar stamens with adaxial thecae and valvate dehiscence. Pollen is boat‐shaped and foveolate in anthers associated with Cronquistiflora and spherical with reticulate ornamentation in Detrusandra. Cup‐shaped receptacles are externally bracteose in both taxa. The receptacle of Cronquistiflora is broader than the campanulate one of Detrusandra. Cronquistiflora also has more carpels (∼50 in a spiral vs. ∼5 in a whorl or tight spiral). In Detrusandra the carpels are surrounded by dorsiventrally flattened structures (pistillodes?) that are remote from the attachment of the stamens near the distal rim of the receptacular cupule. Detrusandra stigmas are rounded and bilobed, while those of Cronquistiflora, although bilateral in symmetry, are somewhat peltate. The fossil taxa share prominent characters with extant cupulate magnoliids (e.g., Eupomatia, Calycanthus), but also share characters with other magnoliids including Winteraceae. These fossils represent taxa that are character mosaics relative to currently recognized families. Inclusion of these fossils in existing data matrices and ensuing phylogenetic analyses effect changes in tree topologies consistent with their mosaicism relative to modern taxa. But such analyses do not definitively demonstrate the affinities of the fossils other than illustrating that these fossils are generalized magnoliids. Additional analysis of modern and fossil magnoliids is necessary to fully appreciate the phylogenetic significance and positions of these fossil taxa. However, the results of the phylogenetic analyses do introduce the possibility that extinct taxa of Magnoliales with cupulate floral receptacles were transitional between basal angiosperms and those with tricolpate pollen. The fossils provide insights into the timing of evolution of character complexes now associated with coleopteran pollination.
The 1962-1963 Reforms in Soviet Economic Regionalization
Authors: Mieczkowski Z.
Published: April 2006

The changes of 1962 and 1963 in the Soviet economic system in the wake of the decisions of the March and November 1962 plenums of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union constitute an important link in the chain of "permanent reforms" designed to cure the chronic malfunctioning of the Soviet planning and management system. These changes are especially interesting with respect to the perennial problem of economic regionalization.
Russian Sisters of Mercy in the Crimea, 1854-1855
Authors: Curtiss John Shelton
Published: April 2006

While the presence of women—chiefly disreputable camp followers—in military hospitals was not new, during the Crimean War women of a different sort undertook to care for the patients, with the French army the first to provide this service. When the horrors of the British hospital at Scutari (Uskudar) became known, British wrath was aroused. In The Times of October 13, 1854, an article by William Howard Russell stated: “Here the French are greatly our superiors. Their medical arrangements are extremely good … and they have the help of the Sisters of Charity These devoted women are excellent nurses.” Immediately a letter to The Times demanded: “Why have we no Sisters of Charity?”
The Politotdel: A Lesson from the Past
Authors: Miller Robert F.
Published: April 2006

At the end of 1932 Soviet agriculture was in an extremely perilous condition. After three years of forced collectivization, “dekulakization,” and confiscatory procurement policies, labor discipline and operational effectiveness were collapsing in the socialist enterprises in the village—the machinetractor stations (mashinno-traktornye stantsii—MTS), the kolkhozes, and the sovkhozes. Through neglect or outright sabotage the peasants had decimated the herds of cattle and essential draft animals. Finally, a growing famine, partially artificial in origin, was striking certain major regions of the country.
The Obkom First Secretaries
Authors: Hodnett Grey
Published: April 2006

If upon occasion in the past Nikita Khrushchev took an indulgent view of the Stalinist process of natural selection in the Party apparatus, it would hardly have been surprising. He was, after all, a most prominent product and beneficiary of it. Yet, without in any way criticizing the process as such, Khrushchev constantly manifested a nagging concern over its end results. In part this concern may be attributed, as it often has been, to a readiness to regard personnel changes as a panacea for difficulties in reality stemming from deep structural flaws in the Soviet economy and administrative system. And it can hardly be denied that in 1962 and 1963 Khrushchev was confronted with serious difficulties in agriculture and industry. But there is also little reason to doubt that he was genuinely worried about the effectiveness— and hence the quality—of Party cadres, or, furthermore, that there were grounds for his uneasiness.
Balmont: A Reappraisal
Authors: Markov Vladimir
Published: April 2006

The revaluation of the literary past was a central preoccupation of the Russian symbolists. Some of these reassessments (Gogol and Dostoevsky in particular come to mind) have remained surprisingly fresh and valid after the passage of more than half a century. It is all the more ironic, then, that for decades the work of the Russian symbolists has been shamefully neglected by the critics. In Russia itself most of these fine poets are hardly mentioned, while a few, such as Blok and Briusov, are presented in such a fashion as to be unrecognizable. Outside Russia there have been valuable contributions to our knowledge of this period (by Mochulsky, Makovsky, Stepun, Tschižewskij, and Setschkarev, as well as Holthusen and other German scholars), but even here there is sometimes undue reliance on doubtful opinions which were formed fifty years ago; Mochulsky, for example, is guilty of this.
Economic Aid Flow from the USSR: A Recount of the First Fifteen Years
Authors: Horvath Janos
Published: April 2006

Since the inception in 1954 of Soviet economic aid to non-Communist underdeveloped countries, commitments have grown to over $6 billion and deliveries to $2.7 billion. Concomitantly an extensive literature on the subject has emerged. Per unit of aid money, the attention paid to the Soviet programs is much greater than for a comparable flow of resources from other countries. Undoubtedly circumstances that go beyond conventional considerations about international capital flows are responsible for this interest. Writers take various approaches, such as the motives of the donor, contract terms, contribution to the development of recipient countries, impact on alignment with bloc politics, and so on. With few exceptions the investigators attempt, one way or another, to estimate the payoffs accruing to the donor from such international transfer of resources. Yet there is no comprehensive record that could serve as a basis for the numerous appraisals and evaluations. Ironically, at the milestone of one and a half decades of Soviet aid activities the "authentic" sources on the subject still use varying figures.
Griboedov and the Willock Affair
Authors: Harden Evelyn Jasiulko
Published: April 2006

Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov's letter of December 24, 1828 O.S. (January 5, 1829 N.S.) to his wife Nina has hitherto been considered his last extant piece of correspondence. The Manuscript Division of the University of Nottingham Library, however, has in its archives a copy of an unpublished Griboedov letter which now replaces the letter to Nina as his last surviving letter. It belongs to the final weeks of Griboedov's life, early February 1829. I found the letter among that portion of the Portland Papers which comprises the correspondence of Lord William Bentinck, governor general of India from 1828 to 1835. It was lying in a packet containing three other documents: a letter from Lieutenant Colonel John Macdonald, British envoy to Persia, to Sir John Malcolm, his brother-in-law and governor of Bombay; a letter from Sir John Malcolm to Lord William Bentinck; and an “Extract of Private Letter from Lt. Col. Macdonald to Sir John Malcolm.”
N. M. Iazykov as a Slavophile Poet
Authors: Lilly Ian K.
Published: April 2006

On his return to Russia in July 1843 after a period of convalescence in Western Europe, Iazykov was confronted by a literary situation which bore little resemblance to the one he had left in July 1838, five years earlier. Many important nineteenth-century poets had already died by the time of Iazykov’s departure: Ryleev (1826), Venevitinov (1827), Griboedov (1829), Delvig (1831), Gnedich (1833), Pushkin, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, the fabulist Dmitriev (all in 1837), and Polezhaev (early 1838). Nevertheless, poetry continued to be the dominant form of literary expression, at least until April 1840, when Lermontov first published the full text of Geroi nashego vremeni. By late 1843, however, the tide had turned decisively in favor of prose. Many more poets had died—Davydov and Alexander Odoevsky (1839), Kozlov and Stankevich (1840), Lermontov himself (1841), and Koltsov (1842). Baratynsky and Krylov were to die in 1844.
Social Services for Families and Children in the Soviet Union Since 1967
Authors: Madison Bernice
Published: April 2006

The history and development of social services for families and children in the Soviet Union prior to 1967 have been studied quite extensively.1 Soviet writings published since that time, more critical and probing than most earlier materials, as well as a field trip in October 1971 by this writer, make it possible to update our knowledge and to suggest what the future Soviet policy will be in this increasingly important area.
Alexander I's Hundred Days: The Politics of a Paternalist Reformer
Authors: McConnell Allen
Published: April 2006

“Speransky chez lui is very kind. I spoke to him about the fine beginning of Alexander's reign.”—

A. S. Pushkin

“Sire, vos années sont comptées, vous n'avez plus rien à remettre, et vous avez encore tant de choses à faire pour que la fin de votre règne soit digne de son beau commencement.”—

M. N. Karamzin

In the nearly one hundred days between the murder of Alexander Pavlovich's father, Paul I, on the night of March 11-12, 1801, and the fall of Count Peter von der Pahlen, the leader of the conspiracy, on June 17, Alexander recovered from his initial demoralization and formed the paternalist political conceptions that would guide the next twenty-five years of his reign.
The Reception of Pushkin's Poetic Works in the 1820s: A Study of the Critic's Role
Authors: Debreczeny Paul
Published: April 2006

The relationship between Pushkin and his critics has been a subject of considerable interest and discussion since the poet's own time. Belinsky made it the focus of the introduction to his series of essays on Pushkin. The early biographers provided some further information, and scholarly attention dates from the 1889 monograph by S. S. Trubachev, Pushkin v russkoi kritike, 1820-1880, which appeared shortly after V. A. Zelinsky had published, between 1887 and 1889, his extremely useful anthology of Pushkin criticism. The monograph is little more than a pedestrian rehearsal of reviews, digressing only to promulgate such myths as Pushkin's “aristocratic” attitude toward critics, but it remains valuable as a catalogue of criticism. Thereafter, both before the Revolution and during the Soviet period, the relevant published material becomes too extensive to list here. Recent comprehensive treatments of the subject may be found in N. I. Mordovchenko's Russkaia kritika pervoi chetverti XIX veka (1959) and in the Academy publication Pushkin: Itogi i problemy izucheniia (1966).
Sociology in Eastern Europe: Trends and Prospects
Authors: Denitch Bogdan
Published: April 2006

The Seventh World Congress of Sociologists in Varna, Bulgaria, held in September 1970, marked a major stage in the development of social science, particularly sociology, in the one-party states of Eastern Europe. Taking place in the most orthodox country of an increasingly diverse bloc, the congress was characterized by the largest and best-organized participation to date of sociologists from Eastern Europe. One country in the area—Albania—did not participate at all; and Yugoslavia, which is probably the country with the most developed social science community and institutions, had a notably small delegation. Yet the fact is that for prestige reasons, if no other, the East European countries and the Soviet Union did their best to show the state of their current development of sociology. This was shown in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Most delegates presented papers.
Skomorokhi: The Russian Minstrel-Entertainers
Authors: Zguta Russell
Published: April 2006

Numerous sources, both secular and ecclesiastical, attest to the widespread popularity in Kievan Rus' and Muscovite Russia of the professional minstrelentertainers known as skomorokhi. To the folklorist these curious jacks-of all- trades, reminiscent of the French jongleurs and German Spielmänner, have become identified primarily with the singing, composing, and eventual transmission to the peasants of the north of heroic tales and historical songs (byliny and istoricheskie pesni). To the sociocultural historian the skomorokhi represent both a preliminary or formative stage in the evolution of the Russian theater and an important chapter in the early history of secular music in Russia. But whether one views them through the eyes of the folklorist or the historian there is little doubt that these veselye liudi or veselye molodtsy, as they were sometimes referred to, played an important role in the social and cultural life of the Eastern Slavs from the eleventh through the seventeenth century.
Mass Collectivization and the Contribution of Soviet Agriculture to the First Five-Year Plan: A Review Article
Authors: Millar James R.
Published: April 2006

Explanations of the success of Soviet rapid industrialization during the 1930s, whether put forward by Western or Soviet scholars, have generally presupposed the “extraction” of a substantial net contribution from the agricultural sector. According to this view the rapid pace of industrialization, especially during the early years of the campaign, demanded an agricultural contribution well in excess of what might have been obtained by relying on the voluntary acquiescence of the peasantry. Forced mass collectivization, by replacing private (peasant) discretion over the amount, composition, and marketed share of agricultural output with centralized administrative coercion, has been supposed to have ensured the necessary increased flow of agricultural products to industry and urban centers and to have severed the potentially constraining link between the pace of industrialization and peasant willingness to expand output and particularly, marketings in the face of increasingly adverse terms of exchange.
The Pedagogical, Linguistic, and Logistical Problems of Teaching Russian to the Local Soviet Central Asians
Authors: Shorish M. Mobin
Published: April 2006

This study is an assessment of the theories and practices of teaching Russian to the local (indigenous) Turkic and Iranian speaking peoples of Soviet Central Asia. More specifically, it is a description of the processes by which the programs of teaching Russian as a second language (TRSL) are implemented in the classrooms of Central Asia. An investigation of methodologies in TRSL, qualifications of teachers, and some of the characteristics of the target group— the young Central Asians—sheds light on the factors accelerating or inhibiting the acquisition of Russian as a second language in this part of the USSR.
Who's Afraid of Franz Kafka?: Kafka Criticism in the Soviet Union
Authors: Tall Emily
Published: April 2006

In January 1964, Western observers of the Soviet scene were startled by the publication of the major short works of Franz Kafka in Inostrannaia literatura, a leading Soviet literary journal. This event was all the more surprising because it came only a few months after a wide-ranging party campaign against “modernism” in the arts, with Kafka among those singled out for special condemnation. Publication was viewed as evidence of a possible new thaw, and received considerable attention in the Western press. Over ten years have now passed, and, in these days of the expulsion and incarceration of protesters and the suppression of dissent, it is timely once again to examine the fate of Franz Kafka in the land which for decades pretended that he did not exist. As the following pages will show, the debate over Kafka was much broader than his works themselves: it raised questions which were disturbing Soviet society and reflected, in microcosm, forces struggling to determine the very direction of Soviet life.
Neo-Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania
Authors: Kamiński Andrzej
Published: April 2006

The purpose of the present article is neither to examine in detail the state of research regarding demesne-robot farming and the “neo-serfdom” or “second serfdom” in Poland-Lithuania nor to attempt a definitive explanation of these phenomena. Rather, the author has set out to show the inadequacy of conventional views by reiterating a series of important points already raised by various Polish historians.
The Emergence of Stalin’s Foreign Policy
Authors: Tucker Robert C.
Published: April 2006

To understand Stalin as a political thinker, we must see him as a man whose thinking was strongly influenced by perceived parallels between present and past. Unlike other Bolsheviks, he found a parallel between Russia’s internal situation in relatively tranquil 1925 and on the eve of the October upheaval of 1917. He thrice stated in party forums during 1925 that the present international situation resembled the prelude of the World War’s outbreak in 1914. And having come to think in Russian historical terms, he discerned a parallel between Muscovite Russia’s situation in earlier centuries and Soviet Russia’s now. In a party speech of 1928, for example, he found a cue for present policy in Peter the Great’s attempted revolutionary leap out of Russian backwardness; and in the often quoted speech to managers in 1931 he spoke of the beatings that Russia had suffered in history as punishment for her backwardness and declared that Soviet survival now depended on conquering that backwardness in ten years.
A Russian “Yankee Doodle”
Authors: Saul Norman E.
Published: April 2006

Enclosed in a letter, written in September 1815 by William David Lewis (1792-1881) to the United States minister in Sweden, Jonathan Russell (1771-1832), is an interesting and unique example of an American's effort to compose verse in the Russian language. Though only a curiosity of Russian literature, “Yankee Doodle” illustrates the degree of facility gained by one of the first American students of Russian after more than a year of study. Of additional interest is the pronunciation guide which Lewis furnished Russell—rare evidence on how Russian was actually spoken in the early nineteenth century.
N. A. Miliutin and the St. Petersburg Municipal Act of 1846: A Study in Reform Under Nicholas I
Authors: Lincoln W. Bruce
Published: April 2006

Beginning with Catherine II's Municipal Charter of April 21, 1785, Russia's statesmen made repeated efforts to improve the ineffective and antiquated manner in which urban affairs were administered in the Russian Empire. By the beginning of the 1840s, however, the problem of modernizing the administration of Russia's cities was no nearer to a practical solution than it had been a half-century earlier. The growing number of administrative duties which fell upon the shoulders of city authorities sometimes made urban officeholding nearly a full-time responsibility, and Russia's urban classes were understandably reluctant to serve in elective offices which took so much time away from their personal business affairs and offered so little prospect of reward.
Soviet Theory of Literature and the Struggle Around Dostoevsky in Recent Soviet Scholarship
Authors: Shneidman N. N.
Published: April 2006

The acceptance of prerevolutionary cultural values in the Soviet Union has been constrained by the development of official interpretation of Marxist-Leninist dogma and its application to the changing historical and political conditions and issues of the day. The evolution of the official Soviet approach to nineteenth-century Russian classical writers thus has been a process influenced by ideological and political considerations. At each stage of development of the Soviet state, Soviet officials devise the necessary literary policy and literary theory with which the values most pertinent to Soviet society at a given stage of its historical development can be extracted from a work of art created in a bourgeois society by an artist alien to the cause of the revolution.
The Economic Origins of Soviet Autarky 1927/28-1934
Authors: Dohan Michael R.
Published: April 2006

Forty years ago the USSR was rushing toward a degree of economic isolation unparalleled by any industrial economy at peace. The autarkic position reached by the Soviet economy in the mid-1930s seemed to be a fundamental characteristic of Soviet policy. In the past two decades, however, Soviet foreign trade has grown rapidly. Thus, it is of both current and historical interest to understand and reassess the circumstances under which the USSR sharply curtailed economic relations with the world capitalist economies in the 1930s. Conventional interpretation stresses that Stalin, during the First and Second Five-Year Plans (1928/29-1932, 1933-37), deliberately pursued economic autarky—a policy intended to reduce Soviet foreign trade as quickly as possible to a “tolerable minimum” and without regard to the possible economic gains from higher levels of foreign trade. According to this explanation, the initial expansion of trade between 1927/28 and 1931 is interpreted as a policy of “imports of machinery intended to end imports” and the subsequent cutback in imports is cited as evidence of its success. In the following analysis of the policies and events that culminated in Stalin’s “autarkic policy,” it is argued that the collapse and stagnation of Soviet foreign trade after 1931 were unforeseen and caused by events beyond the control of Soviet planners.
Ukrainian Nationalism and the Fall of Shelest
Authors: Tillett Lowell
Published: April 2006

In May 1972, Petr Efimovich Shelest, first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, was demoted and transferred to Moscow in the shadowy post of deputy premier. He continued to hold his seat in the Politburo in a kind of lame duck existence, until he was prematurely pensioned off eleven months later. No official charges were placed against him immediately, and most foreign observers attributed his fall to his hard-line views on foreign policy at the moment of budding detente. He was reported to have argued heatedly in the Politburo against the Nixon visit, and his removal on the eve of that occasion was seen as a means of getting him out of the way as the President’s host in Kiev. It was also recognized that Shelest was in trouble for his failures in party administration and his inability to stem the tide of intellectual dissent in the largest non-Russian republic. But the official charges that were eventually brought against him were of a different magnitude. He was accused not only of failing to maintain the norms of Leninist nationality policy, but of actively fostering the intensification of divisive Ukrainian nationalism.
Some Constraints on Change in Eastern Europe
Authors: Croan Melvin
Published: April 2006

Not so many years ago, when “de-Stalinization” and “de-satellization” seemed to be the order of things, the horizons of change in Eastern Europe appeared virtually unlimited. Indeed, one elaborate political science treatise, published in 1967, purported to discern two “irreversible trends” throughout the area, an increase in pluralization within individual countries and the tendency of the European Communist states to become more European and less Communist. Nowadays, in the continued aftermath of the massive Soviet intervention to reverse the changes actually undertaken during 1968 in Czechoslovakia, such certainties have all but disappeared. Yet, as Professor Korbonski’s timely and stimulating discussion reminds us, there is no logical reason to suppose that Communist societies are immune to change. With respect to Eastern Europe, however, as Professor Korbonski also notes, the hazards of forecasting are truly, formidable.
The End of the Volunteer Fleet: Some Evidence on the Scope of Pobedonostsev's Power in Russia
Authors: Sorenson Thomas C.
Published: April 2006

Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev was long considered the real power behind the throne during the reigns of the last two emperors of Russia. He was said to have determined the reactionary policies of the 1880s and 1890s. Robert Byrnes has recently demonstrated that Pobedonostsev's influence was in fact considerably less than had been assumed. Byrnes quite properly maintains that Pobedonostsev had very little power under Nicholas II, that his importance for Alexander III began to decline after 1890, and that even at the height of his power Pobedonostsev could not always persuade Alexander to adopt his point of view. However, although Byrnes concludes that his influence was limited, he still attributes to Pobedonostsev considerable power in “his own special spheres of interest.“ Evidence exists, nevertheless, that even this assessment of Pobedonostsev's power needs to be reconsidered. An event occurred in March 1883 which demonstrates that he was not always in a position to determine policy at will even in matters of vital interest to him.
The “Ruler Legend”: Tsar Nicholas I and the Route of the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway, 1842-1843
Authors: Haywood Richard Mowbray
Published: April 2006

Perhaps the most famous anecdote of the many connected with the reign of Tsar Nicholas I concerns the way in which he supposedly determined the route of the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway. When asked by his officials the route along which it should be built, the tsar, on the spur of the moment, it is claimed, took a ruler, laid it on a map, and arbitrarily and hastily drew an absolutely straight line between the two capitals. The all-powerful despot had spoken, and his decision was carried out by his servile courtiers, regardless of consequences.
Archibald Cary Coolidge: A Founder of Russian Studies in the United States
Authors: Byrnes Robert F.
Published: April 2006

Americans have paid relatively little attention to the history of higher education in the United States, and Russian specialists have neglected the history of their own field, even though our foundations strongly affect our qualities as scholarteachers and the circumstances in which we work. One of the most important founding fathers of Russian studies in the United States was Archibald Cary Coolidge, a member of the Department of History at Harvard University from 1893 until his death in 1928, who launched teaching and research concerning Russia and Eastern Europe at Harvard and in many other colleges and universities through those whom he helped train.
Representation of Positions on the CPSU Politburo
Authors: Kress John H.
Published: April 2006

The CPSU Politburo has traditionally been regarded as a group of politically powerful individuals. This article will suggest that it can simultaneously, or even alternatively, be viewed as a collection of positions. Politburo membership is not a full-time job. All members hold positions in other institutions, which constitute their occupations, the areas in which they are building their careers. Despite the absence of formal rules linking Politburo seats with specific offices, it is unthinkable that the connection would be random or that it would be arbitrary. Because the positions provide institutional identifications for individuals and tie the work of the Politburo to the activity of important Soviet elites, the pattern of representation depicts the institutional balance of forces in the regime and reflects the overall character of the Politburo and its role in the political system. A positional view of the Politburo is thus essential to defining it and understanding its development as an institution.
The Summing-up of Silence: The Poetry of Ihor Kalynets
Authors: Struk Danylo Husar
Published: April 2006

Because Ihor Kalynets’ is a contemporary poet, whose poetry was almost immediately censured, it is not at all surprising that no critical articles have been written about him in the Soviet Ukraine. The situation is not much better in the West. Apart from a few brief biographical sketches, only two short essays have appeared, and they are introductions to two collections of Kalynet”s poetry: one by Roman Semkovych, which introduces Vidchynennia vertepu,and the other by Larissa Onyshkevych, introducing Vohon kupala.Both of these are more concerned with the poetry found in the given collection, however, than with anoverall appraisal of the poet’s work. Nonetheless, the articles point to the folkloreinspired origins of Kalynets”s verse and refer to the poet’s predilection for steeping his poetry in the linguistic and mythic heritage of the Ukraine.
The Pragmatic Diplomacy of Paul I: Russia’s Relations with Asia, 1796–1801
Authors: Atkin Muriel
Published: April 2006

In recent years, a number of scholars have argued that the traditional negative image of Paul I is in need of substantial revision. Even Boris Nolde’s seminal history of the Russian Empire presents the emperor in an uncomplimentary light, as a man who was greedy for territory but not an astute analyst of the information available to guide his decisions. If no one has yet claimed that Paul was an exceptionally wise and able man, some historians, at least, have shown that he was neither as foolish nor as mad as the partisans of Catherine and Alexander would have him be. Hugh Ragsdale has argued that Paul was far more aware of Russia’s international interests and more assertive in policy making than is usually thought.
The Library of the Free Economic Society
Authors: Atkinson Dorothy
Published: April 2006

The first (and last) Soviet scholar to survey the history of the Imperial Free Economic Society (Imperatorskoe Vol'noe Ekonomicheskoe Obshchestvo, or VEO) arrived at the reasonable conclusion that this important organization deserves far greater notice than it has hitherto received. The same is true of the Society's remarkable and remarkably neglected library, barely mentioned even in the same scholar's monograph but preserved almost intact in Leningrad today. The later activities of the Free Economic Society—the oldest (1765-1919) and most influential economic society in Russia—will be pursued elsewhere as part of a broader inquiry, but a brief note on its library is offered here to alert researchers to the potential usefulness of this unique store of economic, social, technical, and statistical materials.
Soviet and American Childbearing Experiences and Attitudes: A Comparison
Authors: Ispa Jean
Published: April 2006

In 1951, and again in 1955, Dr. Fernand Lamaze, a French obstetrician, traveled to the Soviet Union to study “psychoprophylaxis,” a method designed by Soviet psychologists, obstetricians, and neurologists to help women overcome pain and fear during childbirth. The method, which was rooted in the medical use of hypnosis and suggestion to alleviate pain, involved training women to take their minds off uterine contractions by concentrating instead on other bodily functions, such as breathing. Lamaze refined the method and brought it to the West.

Lamaze's account of his indebtedness to Soviet scientists suggests that it may be useful to learn more about Soviet women's experiences during pregnancy and childbirth. Perusal of the literature, however, indicates that, while general descriptions in English of Soviet obstetrical care are available, very little is known about Soviet women's perceptions of and attitudes toward pregnancy and delivery.
The Failure of Rural Policy in Russia, February-October 1917
Authors: Gill Graeme J.
Published: April 2006

On October 25-26, 1917 (O.S.), the nominal government of Russia, the third coalition of the Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky, was pushed from power with ridiculous ease by the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks' plans were no secret; it had been common knowledge for some weeks that they were planning a move against the government. The Provisional Government, however, was incapable of taking any effective action. By October the government's power had drained away, leaving little more than an empty shell which could be pushed into the dust bin of history with a minimum of difficulty.