bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nuclear DNA content variation in seeds from 22 half‐sib families of jack pine (Pinus banksiana, Pinaceae)
Authors: Wyman Janet , Laliberté Sylvie , Tremblay M.‐Francine
Published: April 2006

In order to understand the amount of DNA content variation and its potential roles, both absolute DNA amount and cell cycle phases in 22 half‐sib families of jack pine were examined using flow cytometry. When the variability due to differences in speed of germination was taken into account, embryos from superior families (classified on the basis of height growth during field trials) had significantly higher levels of all nuclei classes greater than 4C. Mean DNA contents per nucleus were significantly lower in embryos from superior families compared to inferior ones. Analysis of megagametophyte tissue showed that the mother trees of these embryos expressed a similar pattern. Absolute DNA values were also established on the emerging radicle and the hypocotyl + cotyledons region (HC) separately in five of the families. Nuclei isolated from the emerging radicles had significantly lower levels of DNA than those isolated from the HC region. For three of these families, absolute DNA values from nuclei of the hypocotyl + cotyledons region were established on individual embryos with varying cotyledon numbers. In all three families total DNA amount per nucleus decreased with increasing cotyledon number. A better understanding of differences observed in DNA content during germination, as well as in total DNA content per nuclei among different half‐sib families of jack pine, may help in the identification of factors that influence growth and adaptation of this species.
Localization of plastid DNA replication on a nucleoid structure
Authors: Nerozzi Andrea M. , Coleman Annette W.
Published: April 2006

Plastids contain multiple copies of the plastid genome that are arranged into discrete aggregates, termed nucleoids. Nucleoid molecular organization and its possible role in ensuring genome continuity have not yet been carefully explored. We examined the relationship between plastid DNA synthesis and nucleoid cytology in the unicellular chrysophyte Ochromonas danica, which is useful for such work because the genomes in each plastid are arranged in a single ring‐shaped nucleoid. Immunocytochemical detection of thymidine analog incorporation into replicating DNA revealed that plastid DNA synthesis occurs at several sites along the ring nucleoid simultaneously, and that all plastids of a single cell display similar replication patterns. Plastid DNA replication was observed in G1, S, and G2 phase cells. Pulse‐chase‐pulse labelling with two different thymidine analogs revealed that new sites are activated as cells progress through the cell cycle while some old sites continue. The double labelling patterns suggest that the individual genomes are arranged consecutively, either singly or in clusters, along the nucleoid perimeter and that the selection of which genome replicates when is a matter of chance. These observations eliminate a number of alternative hypotheses concerning plastid DNA organization, and suggest how cells might maintain a constancy of plastid DNA amount and why plastid genome variants segregate so rapidly during mitosis.
Hybridization and introgression in Carpobrotus spp. (Aizoaceae) in California. I. Morphological evidence
Authors: Albert Marc E. , D'Antonio Carla M. , Schierenbeck Kristina A.
Published: April 2006

Individuals of the invasive non‐native plant species Carpobrotus edulis, its native or naturalized congener C. chilensis, and putative hybrids are found throughout coastal California. This study characterized morphological variation within the genus and assessed the extent of hybridization and direction of introgression between C. edulis and C. chilensis. Twelve randomly selected Carpobrotus individuals from each of 49 sample locations were classified as “C. edulis,“ “C. chilensis,” or one of three intermediate morphotype classes, and compared for clonal, vegetative, and fruit characters. Univariate comparisons showed that C. edulis individuals had deeper mats with more cover within the mat boundary, longer, wider, more serrate leaves, and wider fruits with more carpels than intermediate and C. chilensis morphotype classes. Carpobrotus edulis and intermediates had more lateral branches than did C. chilensis, suggesting that hybrids tend to vary toward C. edulis. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) identified the following characters as discriminating significantly among Carpobrotus groups: leaf length, leaf width, leaf length/width, number of lateral branches, number of carpels, and fruit diameter. Using these characters, DFA correctly classified 98% of apparently pure C. edulis and C. chilensis, but only 76% of all Carpobrotus individuals when putative hybrids were included. Principal components analysis showed that C. edulis and C. chilensis cluster into distinct morphotypes, but that hybrids overlap with both groups, particularly with C. edulis. The genus Carpobrotus in California resembles a large hybrid swarm, with putative hybrids forming a large portion of the overall population and tending to vary toward C. edulis.
Heritable variation in stomatal responses to elevated CO2 in wild radish, Raphanus raphanistrum (Brassicaceae)
Authors: Case Andrea L. , Curtis Peter S. , Snow Allison A.
Published: April 2006

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide may affect plant populations in the short term through effects on photosynthesis and carbon allocation, and over the long term as an agent of natural selection. To test for heritable effects of elevated CO2 on stomatal responses and plant fecundity in Raphanus raphanistrum, we grew plants from 12 paternal families in outdoor open‐top chambers at ambient (35 Pa) or elevated (67 Pa) CO2. Contrary to results from a previous study of this species, total flower and fruit production were marginally lower under elevated CO2. Across families, stomatal index and guard cell length showed little response to CO2 enrichment, but these characters varied significantly among paternal families in both the direction and magnitude of their response to changing CO2. Although these family‐by‐CO2 interactions suggest that natural selection might affect stomatal characters when ambient CO2 levels increase, we found no significant correlation between either character and flower or fruit production. Therefore, our data suggest that while heritable variation for stomatal index and guard cell length exists in this population, selection due to increasing CO2 is not likely to act on these traits because they had no detectable effect on lifetime fecundity.
Interspecific mating in the Piriqueta caroliniana (turneraceae) complex: effects of pollen load size and composition
Authors: Wang Jiongqian , Cruzan Mitchell B.
Published: April 2006

Two taxa of Piriqueta (P. caroliniana and P. viridis) form a broad hybrid zone that extends over much of the central‐Florida peninsula. We used genetic markers to examine the strength of the isolation barriers between these taxa and the patterns of mating at the initial stages of hybridization. Regression models were employed to analyze the effects of pollen load size and the proportions of intra‐ and interspecific pollen on the frequency of first‐generation (F1) hybrid formation. Overall, the postpollination mating barriers between these two taxa were relatively weak. However, there were significant effects of pollen load composition and size on the patterns of hybridization in both taxa with frequency‐dependent responses to composition in both taxa. The frequency of F1 hybrid formation was generally lower than expected based on the frequency of each pollen type on the stigma for P. caroliniana recipients. The lower frequencies of F1 seeds in this taxon were apparently due to a greater competitive ability for intraspecific pollen, since hybrid seed formation decreased with increasing pollen load size. Pollen from P. caroliniana donors was also competitively superior on P. viridis recipients, leading to higher than expected frequencies of hybrid seed formation. Pollen from P. caroliniana did suffer higher rates of pollen‐tube attrition than intraspecific pollen on P. viridis recipients, so the frequency of hybrid seed formation would be lower when pollen load sizes were small. In general, reproductive isolation mechanisms were stronger in P. caroliniana, suggesting that introgression should occur into P. viridis when these taxa come into close contact. Comparison of these expected patterns of mating to the distribution of hybrid genotypes in Florida provides insights into the relative roles of mating and selection in the evolution of hybrid populations of Piriqueta.
The evolution of beetle pollination in a South African orchid
Authors: Steiner Kim E.
Published: April 2006

The pollination biology of the orchid Ceratandra grandiflora was investigated in order to determine whether the partial loss of a specialized floral reward (i.e., oil) was the result of an incomplete shift from one specialized pollinator to another. In the three‐species clade of section Ceratandra, there has been a progressive loss of the oil‐secreting callus. It is always present in C. atrata, sometimes present in C. grandiflora, and never present in C. globosa. Thirty‐nine to 67% of individuals in populations of C. grandiflora bear the callus gland, but gland presence has no significant effect on the proportion of flowers pollinated. Pollinator observations show that the shift in pollinators is complete and that the oil‐secreting callus is a vestige of the ancestral oil‐bee pollination system that no longer plays a role in pollination. C. grandiflora is pollinated almost exclusively by a single species of hopliine beetle (Scarabaeidae). Experiments with artificial flower traps indicate that color alone can explain the attraction of beetles to C. grandiflora, despite the absence of a floral reward. The proportion of C. grandiflora flowers pollinated (50.2 and 61.1%; N = 524 and 324 flowers, respectively) is unusually high for a plant that relies on generalized food deception and is probably due to the use of inflorescences as mating sites (i.e., rendezvous pollination).
SEM studies on vessels in ferns. 9. Dicranopteris(Gleicheniaceae) and vessel patterns in leptosporangiate ferns
Authors: Schneider Edward L. , Carlquist Sherwin
Published: April 2006

Ferns in which vessels have been demonstrated to date are phylogenetically relatively specialized and characteristic of habitats with marked extremes in temperature and water availability. These specifications do not apply to the Gleicheniaceae, which indicates that vessels may occur in a range of more primitive ferns, including those from more nearly mesic habitats. Vessels in Dicranopteris have perforation plates (both lateral and terminal) with morphology similar to that of lateral wall pitting as seen with light microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is therefore necessary to demonstrate presence of perforations. Vessel presence in Dicranopteris is important in forming a picture of vessel presence and specialization in ferns, the phylogenetic and ecological distribution of which may differ from the patterns found in monocotyledons and dicotyledons. We believe that presence of vessels may not be a reliable indicator of phylogenetic position among ferns.
Patterns of genetic variation detected by RAPDs suggest a single origin with subsequent mutations and long‐distance dispersal in the apomictic fern Dryopteris remota (Dryopteridaceae)
Authors: Schneller Jakob , Holderegger Rolf , Gugerli Felix , Eichenberger Kurt , Lutz Eva
Published: April 2006

Debates on speciation processes in pteridophytes have revived. In order to study the evolutionary origin of an apomictic fern species, we investigated the genetic variation in the strictly agamosporous Dryopteris remota. We determined the genotypes of 22 individuals from many different locations within the species’ European distribution and of 20 individuals from a Swiss population. A previous study on isozyme variation showed no intraspecific genetic variation in a similar sample set (Schneller and Holderegger, 1994, American Fern Journal 84: 94–98). In contrast to this, four out of 12 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers tested revealed low genetic diversity among individuals of D. remota from different locations. Intrapopulational genetic variation was also very low, but in the single population studied, a unique multiband genotype could be detected. The geographic distribution of genetic variation found in D. remota was best explained by the assumption of a single origin, the accumulation of somatic mutations during spread, and occasional, but effective, events of dispersal over large distances. The present study thus stresses the importance of long‐distance dispersal in evolutionary processes and biogeography of ferns.
Conservation genetics of the endangered endemic Hawaiian genus Brighamia (Campanulaceae)
Authors: Gemmill Chrissen E. C. , Ranker Tom A. , Ragone Diane , Perlman Steven P. , Wood Kenneth R.
Published: April 2006

The endemic Hawaiian genus Brighamia (Campanulaceae) comprises two federally endangered, morphologically similar species, B. insignis from Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau and B. rockii from Moloka‘i. To assist the design of conservation management programs for these taxa, isozyme analyses were performed to assess the levels of genetic diversity at the population and species levels, including comparisons within and among seven natural populations and one ex situ collection each of B. insignis and B. rockii. Our sampling (N = 80) represents ~41% of all known individuals in the wild. Isozyme analyses revealed levels of genetic variation comparable to those reported for other Hawaiian flowering plant taxa but low levels of genetic variation at the population and species levels when compared to flowering plants in general. Ex situ individuals (N = 61) were genetically representative of natural populations and hence may appropriately serve as stock for population augmentations. The two morphologically similar Brighamia species were highly distinct genetically. The combination of morphological and ecological similarity with allozymic dissimilarity observed in Brighamia is unique among the Hawaiian taxa studied to date.
Greater male fitness of a rare invader (Spartina alterniflora, Poaceae) threatens a common native (Spartina foliosa) with hybridization
Authors: Anttila Carina K. , Daehler Curtis C. , Rank Nathan E. , Strong Donald R.
Published: April 2006

Hybridization with abundant invaders is a well‐known threat to rare native species. Our study addresses mechanisms of hybridization between a rare invader, smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) and the common native California cordgrass (S. foliosa) in the salt marshes of San Francisco Bay. These species are wind‐pollinated and flower in summer. The invader produced 21‐fold the viable pollen of the native, and 28% of invader pollen germinated on native stigmas (1.5‐fold the rate of the native's own pollen). Invader pollen increased the seed set of native plants almost eightfold over that produced with native pollen, while native pollen failed to increase seed set of the invader. This pollen swamping and superior siring ability by the invader could lead to serial genetic assimilation of a very large native population. Unlike California cordgrass, smooth cordgrass can grow into low intertidal habitats and cover open mud necessary to foraging shorebirds, marine life, navigation, and flood control in channels. To the extent that intertidal range of the hybrids is more similar to the invader than to the native parent, introgression will lead to habitat loss for shore birds and marine life as well to genetic pollution of native California cordgrass.
Cost of reproduction in the pink lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule, Orchidaceae): an eleven‐year experimental study of three populations
Authors: Primack Richard , Stacy Elizabeth
Published: April 2006

An 11‐yr experimental study of the cost of reproduction in three wild populations of the perennial orchid Cypripedium acaule contrasted experimental plants that were repeatedly hand‐pollinated and often made fruits with control plants that were not hand‐pollinated and only rarely made fruits. Repeated flowering without subsequent fruit production resulted in no detectable reduction in either plant size or probability of flowering in subsequent years. A cost of fruit production was evident in experimental plants in all three populations in terms of a reduced probability of flowering and smaller leaf area in subsequent years, but was not evident in terms of mortality rate. Experimental effects of fruit production reached maximum values at 3–7 yr, depending on the population. The probability of remaining dormant below ground in a given year was strongly dependent on plant size in the previous year. Furthermore, the length of the dormancy period (one to several years) was a significant and inverse function of plant size just prior to dormancy. Sample sizes and the consequent ability to detect experimental effects declined over time as more plants died or stopped flowering. Four to seven years appears to be an optimal duration for studies of the cost of reproduction in perennial herbs similar to this species. Studies lasting less than 4 yr may be too brief to reveal experimental effects, whereas those lasting more than 7 yr may fail to reveal new insights.
Phylogenetic analysis of Artemisia section Tridentatae (Asteraceae) based on sequences from the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA
Authors: Kornkven Amy B. , Watson Linda E. , Estes James R.
Published: April 2006

Artemisia sect. Tridentatae is composed of 11 species of xerophytic shrubs, which dominate much of western North America. Sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were used to construct a phylogeny, examine circumscription of the section, resolve interspecific relationships, and test competing hypotheses on the origin of the section. The data support the monophyly of sect. Tridentatae, with the exclusion of A. bigelovii and A. palmeri—two historically, anomolous species. However, the ITS data provide insufficient variation to fully resolve interspecific relationships or to support major lineages within the Tridentata clade. Nuclear and chloroplast DNA phylogenies are discordant, which may be a result of interspecific gene flow and subsequent chloroplast capture, particularly related to the placement of A. filifolia and A. californica, in addition to A. bigelovii. Furthermore, the ITS data are in conflict with cpDNA data, providing equivocal evidence for competing hypotheses on the Old World vs. New World origin for the section and do not provide support for definitive subgeneric placement.
Regeneration of tissue following cavity formation in the vascular cylinders of Pisum sativum (Fabaceae) primary roots
Authors: Niki Teruo , Rost Thomas L. , Gladish Daniel K.
Published: April 2006

The reorganization of vascular cylinders of pea (Pisum sativum, cv. Alaska) primary roots following the formation of vascular cavities was examined by light and electron microscopy. Cavities usually began forming ~20 mm from the root tip and were continuous to ~90 mm from the tips in roots 150 mm long, where they began filling with specialized parenchyma cells (SP cells). SP cells were usually produced by enlargement of parenchymous cells of the primary xylem at cavity margins. Depending on the extent and shape of the cavity, they were also sometimes produced by primary phloem parenchyma and early derivatives of the vascular cambium. Enlargement and some divisions of SP cells continued until a cavity was completely filled by them. SP cells proceeded through a series of cytoplasmic changes as they developed. First the cytoplasmic layer became thicker and more electron dense than surrounding cells. As SP cells enlarged there was an increase in vesicular traffic and the cytoplasm became less electron dense. Ultimately the cytoplasm thinned further, organelles degenerated, and the tonoplast sometimes broke down. SP cells did not form secondary walls. X‐ray microanalysis revealed that SP cells accumulated potassium and rubidium to the same degree as cortical and xylem parenchyma cells and to a greater degree than immature secondary and late‐maturing tracheary elements.
Allozyme frequencies in New Jersey and North Carolina populations of Atlantic white‐cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides (Cupressaceae)
Authors: Kuser John E. , Meagher Thomas R. , Sheely Deborah L. , White Adam
Published: April 2006

The present study was conducted to assess the distribution of genetic variation within and among populations of Chamaecyparis thyoides in both marginal and centrally located populations. Allozyme frequency analyses of ten loci from foliage of four New Jersey populations and two North Carolina populations of C. thyoides showed polymorphic loci = 50%, mean number of alleles per locus = 2.8, effective number of alleles per locus = 1.17, and expected heterozygosity = 0.14. Diversity was highest in two populations from southern New Jersey. The isolated population at High Point, New Jersey had only two polymorphic loci and expected heterozygosity of 0.03. There was no correlation between genetic and geographic distances among populations, implying that cedar must have possessed some means of long‐distance dispersal at the end of the last glacial period, rather than advancing northward step by step.
Pedilanthus diazlunanus (Euphorbiaceae): pollination by hymenopterans in a bird‐pollinated genus
Authors: Sahagún‐Godínez Eduardo , Lomelí‐Sención José Aquileo
Published: April 2006

Pollination in the genus Pedilanthus is commonly effected by hummingbirds. Pollination by vespid wasps in Pedilanthus is documented for the first time based on observations of Pachodynerus nasidens and Eumenes americanus pollinating Pedilanthus diazlunanus. An hypothesis concerning the mechanism by which hummingbird pollination was replaced by insect pollination in Pedilanthus is advanced based on observations of insects on P. bracteatus.
In Lieu of a Discussion
Authors: Weintraub Wiktor
Published: April 2006

In his article “Between Author and Reviewer,” published in the June 1967 issue of Slavic Review, Mr. Konstanty Zantuan takes me to task for my review of Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s book on Slavic Renaissance literatures. A discussion of the wider issues raised by Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s book could be interesting. Unfortunately, it is not possible to conduct such a discussion on the basis of Mr. Zantuan’s article. Despite a self-assured tone and quite copious references to Polish scholarly literature, the article reveals poor orientation in die subject, and its author occasionally deals with the evidence in an inadmissible, cavalier way. An examination of a few instances taken at random should suffice to prove this.
Solzhenitsyn's Place in Contemporary Soviet Literature
Authors: Hayward Max
Published: April 2006

I am so completely in agreement with the main points of Victor Erlich's diagnosis—particularly with the lucidly formulated conclusions in the last few pages—that I shall confine myself to the one issue on which I dissent from his judgment—namely, his opinion of Solzhenitsyn.

A few words to begin with about the general approach of Western observers to Soviet literature. Professor Erlich rightly dwells on the question of the relationship between politics and literature, and I would like to reinforce his sagacious plea for the maintenance of a "viable balance between literary and political considerations."
A Note on Some European Foreign Office Archives and Russian Domestic History, 1790-1812
Authors: McGrew R. E.
Published: April 2006

The use of foreign office materials for domestic history is by no means new, but Russian historians have done very little with this kind of research. One reason is that the Russians themselves have not needed to, and in recent years the turn toward social and intellectual history has seemed to make the diplomats' comments on court and society superficial if not irrelevant. This impression is actually erroneous, and non-Soviet scholars will find diplomatic archives a rich resource in themselves and an excellent supplement for published materials. This essay describes materials for Russian internal history from the Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv, the Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, and the Public Record Office. The author read these archives for the period 1790-1812 looking for material on Russian reform policies to supplement information collected from published sources. The results were so gratifying that a summary of them should be of value to other scholars engaged on projects in prerevolutionary Russian domestic history.
Legislative Committees in Polish Lawmaking
Authors: Chrypinski Vincent C.
Published: April 2006

In recent years Poland's political life has produced a genuine and interesting revival of the Polish parliament, the Seym. It has been especially significant in the area of legislative committees, which not only grew in number but enlarged their sphere of activities and became more independent. The development had its sources in the “thaw” that followed the death of Stalin in 1953 and culminated in Poland in the so-called “October Revolt” of 1956.
Soviet Farm Mechanization in Perspective
Authors: Dovring Folke
Published: April 2006

The Soviet Paradox of high mechanization and continuing intensive use of hand labor in agriculture has been commented upon many times. For its level of capital intensity, Soviet agriculture is easily the least productive in the world. The purpose of this paper is not to elaborate anew on these well-known oddities or their consequences for the current and prospective (short-run) supply of farm goods in the USSR. The problem here is: Given the collectivist ideology which found expression in the collective-farm and state-farm systems, what will mechanization ultimately do to the farm system? In countries with advanced farm mechanization and effective use of capital, such as the United States, the farm labor force tends to become rather small; a similar development is clearly under way also in western Europe.
Class Struggle and Socialist Construction: The Hungarian Paradox
Authors: von Lazar A. J.
Published: April 2006

This article examines the relationship between the semantics of ideology and political practice under the pressure of socio-economic change in Hungary of the early 1960s, especially 1962-63. The events of 1956 forced the Communist Party elite to recognize the imperative need for internal social change and for control over its dynamics. Manipulation of social forces and ideological currents became a day-to-day concern as soon as it was realized that the political system must rely to an increasing extent upon the introduction of policies which induced support for the system itself—a need undoubtedly arising out of the social transformation that accompanies a developing and modernizing industrial society.
The Theme of Sterility in Olesha's Envy
Authors: Harkins William E.
Published: April 2006

Iurii Olesha's Short Novel Envy (Zavist', 1927) has been greatly admired and even has some claim to be considered the “great Soviet novel.“Yet comparatively little has been written about Envy since the first flood of reviews and articles, many uncritical, appeared in the Soviet press between 1927 and 1933.

Envy is a complex novel, sometimes described as expressionistic, written in a variety of styles and with many planes of meaning. Elements of realist, romanticist, and symbolist styles are present. Dreams, fantasies, and lies are introduced, often as reality. It is a work in which the author's ideological intentions are far from clear or unambiguous, a work deeply hedged with irony. And it is a work that can yield much to discerning analysis.
Russia and the Baltic 1494–1558
Authors: Esper Thomas
Published: April 2006

Historians have customarily treated two major periods of Russia's commercial relations with Western Europe (defined as Western Christendom) in the pre-Petrine period: (1) until 1494, the year in which Ivan III closed the Hanseatic establishment in Novgorod and which is generally viewed as the end of Hanseatic dominance in the Russian trade; and (2) from 1553, when the English first sailed around the North Cape to establish regular commercial relations with Russia via the northern route, or from 1558, when Ivan IV conquered the Baltic port of Narva (he then maintained direct trade with Western merchants there until he lost that port to the Swedes in 1581).
Polish Elections 1919-1928
Authors: Groth A. J.
Published: April 2006

Much valuable information on the dynamics of Poland's political life between the world wars is still to be uncovered in the records of national elections. Of particular interest are the contests of 1919, 1922, and 1928, since in all of these elections political parties were still allowed to participate directly (as they were not in 1935 and 1938), and governmental restraint and manipulation were not yet so massive as to cast doubt on the entire result (as in 1930).
The Development of the Polish Novel: Functions and Structure
Authors: Najder Zdzislaw
Published: April 2006

The novel is the only major literary genre whose origins and development we have been able to watch in detail. It also seems to be the only genre whose development depended more on the customers than on the makers. Richardson, who wrote Pamela because he noticed how popular a continuous story in the form of letters could be; Fielding, who exploited Richardson's success in his parodistic Joseph Andrews; Scott, who produced innumerable historical romances, gamely trying to match demand with supply; Dickens, who accidentally struck a gold mine with the first chapters of The Pickwick Papers; Dostoevsky, who made extensive use of the conventions of popular, sensational novels—all are typical of the way the novel evolved. In other literary forms the discrepancy between merits and rewards, creativeness and popular expectations, and originality and response has been so frequent as to become proverbial. But this is not true of the nineteenth-century novel, where it is unusual to find a writer like Stendhal, who gained his reputation only after his death.
Moral Ambiguity in Dostoevski
Authors: Davison R. M.
Published: April 2006

In a recent review of Wasiolek’s work on Dostoevski’s major writings Joseph Frank criticized the idea of moral ambiguity as “unquestionably the most dubious“ in the book. Although he regards the idea as useful and relevant, Frank feels that Wasiolek makes the “ambiguity more radical than it really is.” What is this concept and how radical is it in Dostoevski’s work?

The notion is a more subtle and far-reaching version of the common view that things are not necessarily what they seem to be. It says that situations and actions are in themselves neutral and meaningless; any value or meaning is imposed by us. Expressed thus, moral ambiguity seems a rarefied concept, but in Dostoevski’s hands it becomes a vivid, if still confusing, reality. It is best illustrated at first by specific and limited incidents.
Did the Slavs Speak German at Their First Congress?
Authors: Orton Lawrence D.
Published: April 2006

“The language spoken at the congress was German, then regarded as the Esperanto of the Slavs.”—Albert Mousset, Le Monde slave (1946)

“The story that German was used at the congress is a hostile invention.”— Lewis Namier, 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals (1946)

In his Pan-Slav treatise of 1837, On Literary Reciprocity Between the Different Branches and Dialects of the Slav Nation, Jan Kollár recommended that all educated Slavs ought to know the four principal Slavic “dialects”: Illyrian (Serbo-Croatian), Russian, Polish, and Czecho-Slovak. He thought that the scholar, however, should be able to use all the Slavic dialects, as well as the languages of the Slavs’ neighbors. But in a less frequently cited passage, in which he explained why his work was appearing in German, Kollar bemoaned the still limited knowledge of the various Slavic idioms, even among so-called learned Slavs: “When one wishes to make himself understood on any important matter to brother Slavs, he must use a foreign, non-Slavic tongue.”
Raskolnikov’s City and the Napoleonic Plan
Authors: Lindenmeyr Adele
Published: April 2006

Dostoevsky, having lived in the area of central Petersburg around Sennaia Ploshchad' (Haymarket) for several years, was well acquainted with the problems (prevalent in this section) created by the rapid, unplanned growth of the city. In a little-noted passage in Crime and Punishment which recounts Raskolnikov’s thoughts just before the murder (part 1, chapter 6), Dostoevsky connects these urban changes to Raskolnikov’s thoughts and subsequent actions. Raskolnikov imagines a reconstruction of Petersburg aimed especially at the improvement of the wretched, crowded Sennaia area. This passage reveals important facets of the character of Raskolnikov and of the thematics of the novel. The city has two forms, both of which have a powerful psychological influence on Raskolnikov: his motive and rationale for the murder draw support from both the squalor of Sennaia Ploshchad' and the model of Napoleon III’s reconstructed Paris. For Dostoevsky, however, the reality of Sennaia undermines the rational, utilitarian schemes of Napoleon and Raskolnikov and, by extension, Raskolnikov’s whole intellectual rationale for the murder.
SOE and British Involvement in the Belgrade Coup d'État of March 1941
Authors: Stafford David A. T.
Published: April 2006

On March 27, 1941 a coup d'état in Belgrade overthrew the Yugoslav government which only two days previously had signed the Tripartite Pact in Vienna. In its place was installed a new government headed by General Simović, chief of the Air Staff, while the regent, Prince Paul, was replaced by the young King Peter II. It was widely expected that the Simović government would renounce the Pact and align itself firmly with Britain against Germany. Although this expectation was to be disappointed, the anti-German and pro-British intent of the coup was accepted by both Churchill and Hitler. Churchill declared that the Yugoslav nation had “found its soul,” and in his postwar memoirs described the coup as “one tangible result of our desperate efforts to form an Allied front in the Balkans and prevent all falling piecemeal into Hitler’s power.” Hitler, convinced that Britain had “pulled the strings,” ordered the Yugoslav invasion for April 6.
The Academic Labor Market: Where Do We Go From Here?
Authors: Byrnes Robert F.
Published: April 2006

The late Allan M. Cartter was chancellor and executive vice-president of New York University from 1966 through 1972 and then professor in the U.C.L.A. Graduate School of Education and director of its Laboratory for Research on Higher Education. An economist, he devoted the last fifteen years of his short but brilliant life to predicting academic trends, a subject which economists and educational administrators, until recently, have both neglected or mishandled, to our great misfortune.

This book, his last and most important, is one of a series sponsored by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. It does not mention Slavic studies or any problems peculiar to them. Moreover, every field of study differs in some ways from every other: Russian and East European studies, for example, constitute a relatively new field, with a faculty corps which will have especially large retirements in the 1980s because of the way it blossomed after World War II.
The Czech Nobility's Use of the Right of Patronage on Behalf of the Hussite Reform Movement
Authors: Klassen John M.
Published: April 2006

Throughout European history the aristocracy has been involved in reform movements which undermined either ecclesiastical or monarchical power structures. Thus the nobles of southern France in the twelfth century granted protection to the Cathars, and in fourteenth-century England lords and knights offered aid to the Lollards. The support of German princes and knights for Lutheranism is well known, as is the instrumental role played by the French aristocracy in initiating the constitutional reforms which gave birth to that nation's eighteenth-century revolution. The fifteenth-century Hussite reform movement in Bohemia similarly received aid from the noble class. Here, when the Hussites were under attack in 1417 from the authorities, especially the archbishop, sympathetic lords protected Hussite priests on their domains.
An Alternative View of the Peasantry: The Raznochintsy Writers of the 1860s
Authors: Glickman Rose
Published: April 2006

The 1860s witnessed an important but somewhat neglected stage in the evolution of intelligentsia attitudes toward the peasantry and other lower strata of society. It is best represented by writers who devoted themselves to portrayals of the narod, urban and rural, and who were known collectively (although they were by no means a cohesive group) as the raznochintsy writers of the sixties. They included F. M. Reshetnikov, N. V. Uspensky, N. G. Pomialovsky, A. I. Levitov, N. A. Kushchevsky, and M. A. Voronov. The biographies of these men are remarkably similar. They were all from uneducated families of the lower classes. Caught up in the ferment of the sixties which penetrated even to the most backward and obscure areas of Russia (from which most of them came), they made their way to St. Petersburg, seeking to free themselves from the age-old restrictions which Russian society had imposed on people of their social origins.
Hungary and the Munich Crisis: The Revisionist Dilemma
Authors: Sakmyster Thomas L.
Published: April 2006

In the first days of 1938, Kalman Kanya, Hungary’s foreign minister, privately expressed the opinion that there was nowhere in Europe a “will to war” and that, barring accidents, peace seemed assured for at least a year. In a technical sense Kanya’s prediction was borne out by events, but he clearly did not foresee the Central European upheavals that were only months away. In the crisis over the Austrian Anschluss, Hungary was to remain a powerless bystander, unable, and to a certain extent unwilling, to raise a voice of protest. The Czechoslovak crisis was an entirely different matter. Virtually all politically conscious Hungarians believed that Prague’s time of troubles should be exploited to obtain territorial revision and strengthen Hungary’s position in East Central Europe. But, as previous historians of this subject have indicated, Hungary’s course in the unfolding Czechoslovak crisis was hesitant and indecisive.
Endre Ady’s Summons to National Regeneration in Hungary, 1900-1919
Authors: Congdon Lee
Published: April 2006

In 1896 Hungarians celebrated the one thousandth anniversary of their conquest of the Central European Plains. Intoxicated with the heady wine of nationalism, they seemed almost to believe that their millennium prefigured the thousand-year reign of Christ prophesied in the book of Revelation. Public officials loudly proclaimed Hungary to be the best of all possible worlds and extolled the virtues of patriotism in the most extravagant terms. Publicists eulogized the Hungarian national genius and lamented that all of Eastern Europe was not ruled by Magyars. The most enthusiastic patriots confidently predicted yet another thousand years of national glory.
The Attitudes of Russian Officials in the 1880s Toward Jewish Assimilation and Emigration
Authors: Aronson I. Michael
Published: April 2006

The significance of the reign of Alexander III as a turning point in the history of Russian Jewry is beyond dispute. This reign witnessed a sharp deterioration in the Jews’ economic, social, and political condition. Jewish hopes for emancipation from the prevailing discriminatory legislation were dashed. Instead of emancipation, the Jews were presented with new restrictions, on their residence rights, educational opportunities, economic and professional pursuits, and participation in the institutions of local government. Faced with starvation, many thousands of Jews chose to leave the Russian Empire. Others chose to convert to Christianity in order to throw off the yoke of persecution. Moving in the opposite direction, many Jewish intellectuals who had previously believed in the beneficial results to be achieved by assimilation began to question this assumption. Some began to turn to Zionism. Others turned to active Jewish self-defense.
Pseudo-History in Recent Writing on the Greek Military
Authors: Papacosma S. Victor
Published: April 2006

The overthrow of the civilian government by the military in Greece on April 21, 1967, produced among its multiple consequences an intense foreign interest in that nation. Since that spring, over fifty books and more numerous articles on the Greek “junta” have been written to satisfy the curiosity of an international clientele. Included in this literary melange are the works of journalists, scholars, celebrities, persecuted prisoners of the regime, and politicians. Together these authors tend to fall into the two broad categories of apologists for the post-April regime or—the larger group—its opponents. One may thus select from a plethora of impressions, opinions, and interpretations, with the knowledge that the works of professional scholars compose only a small segment of the total bibliography.
The Formation of the Militia in the February Revolution: An Aspect of the Origins of Dual Power
Authors: Hasegawa Tsuyoshi
Published: April 2006

The insurrection on February 27, 1917, totally annihilated the tsarist police system in Petrograd, the most important link tying the citizens to the government, thus throwing the capital into a state of anarchy. Quickly lawlessness crept into the streets, as drunken soldiers looted wine cellars to get even more drunk and criminals released from prisons easily acquired weapons. To the sober-minded, it was apparent that this intolerable disorder had to be stopped as quickly as possible. Yet, for the more committed revolutionaries, the insurrection was not yet finished; even on February 28 machine-gun shots were fired from rooftops and upper-floor windows of tall buildings—actions, people firmly believed, taken by the remnants of Protopopov's police or the counter-revolutionary officers. Whether for the restoration of law and order or for the defense of the revolution, Petrograd urgently needed an organized police force. Indeed, the future course of the revolution to a large extent depended on how the new police force would be organized. If a group which regarded the restoration of law and order as the most urgent task established an efficient police power in the streets, it would mean that the revolutionary process that had been set in motion would be halted. On the other hand, if the revolutionaries succeeded in arming the masses of insurgents for the defense of the revolution, that would surely mean the further intensification of the revolutionary process. An analysis of the formation of the militias in the February Revolution is, therefore, integrally related to the problem of power.
Stalin in Focus
Authors: Von Laue Theodore H.
Published: April 2006

“As a writer, I would like to examine what kind of soil the personality cult arose from, what social causes produced it. After all, one cannot explain everything in terms of Stalin's individual peculiarities. The philosophers ought to give an explanation.”

Elizar Maltsev (quoted in Roy Medvedev's Political Diary)

Parading under an innocuous title, this essay intends to disarm some of the extreme tensions that still surround the image of Stalin. The disarming, as Elizar Maltsev suggested, has to take a philosophical turn, reaching from the political and biographical data of the specialists into the larger issues of politics and morality that agitate an age of global interdependence and escalate the nuclear arms race. In times like the present, scholarship and a broad concern for the drift of events should overlap. Put differently, this essay tries to enlist the philosophical and historical faculties necessary to examine — and to do so humanely — the harsh context in which Stalinism operated.
Acculturation in Tatarstan: The Case of the Sabantui Festival
Authors: Rorlich Azade-Ayşe
Published: April 2006

No culture enjoys a perfect integration or a static equilibrium of its component traits. The diffusion of features of culture is a constant and crucial dynamic process. Acculturation, as a process of change dominated by the mutual influence of different cultures in close contact, is especially suited to interdisciplinary scrutiny. The study of acculturation is equally challenging for the linguist, the ethnographer, the anthropologist, and the historian interested in investigating processes and forms of cultural change, cultural integration, and causes for the selective receptivity of cultures.

The multinational character of Soviet society against the background of its socioeconomic and ideological homogeneity renders a special quality to the dynamic tension between unity and diversity, especially with regard to culture, cultural change, and integration. Consequently, an investigation of acculturation as a component of the broader ethnic processes is not only justified, but imperative.
The Economic Costs of the GULag Archipelago
Authors: Hunter Holland
Published: April 2006

Professor Rosefielde makes at least two important points: some official Soviet physical output series really were (and are) exaggerated, and output expansion in the 1930s was not based on a surplus extracted from agriculture. But his valiant efforts lack a sense of proportion, and his exaggerated claims weaken his case.

His version of the “standard theory,” for example, appears to confuse intentions with actuality. It seems to me that informed Western consensus about events between 1928 and 1940 runs as follows: Soviet output increases were obtained through very large increments of labor and fixed capital, without much contribution from technological progress.
Babel'’s Red Cavalry: Epic and Pathos, History and Culture
Authors: Ehre Milton
Published: April 2006

Isaak Babel'’s masterpiece of revolution and civil war, though a collection of short stories, is also a book shaped into an artistic whole by patterns of style and a central action or plot. Renato Poggioli detected two major stylistic strains in the work —the “epic-heroic” and the “pathetic“—an insight that criticism has yet to pursue. Though much of Red Cavalry is devoted to genre sketches and anecdotes (many told in the speech of its characters, or skaz), the epic and pathetic modes function as polarities about which the diverse tales are organized. Each has its own language and clusters of imagery, and their interplay lends the work its distinctive shape and meanings.
Collective Action and Collective Violence in the Russian Labor Movement
Authors: Koenker Diane
Published: April 2006

Historians of the Russian labor movement have been slowly chipping away at the stereotypes about Russian workers created by generations of intellectuals quick to generalize from eye-catching impressions. The result has been the stereotyped, bipolar working class. On the one hand is the “peasant yokel” who too frequently resorts to the violent and mindless behavior indigenous to his original rural swamp. On the other hand, we find the skilled urban worker, sometimes a “half-literate intellectual,” sometimes a labor aristocrat who disdains to cooperate with his socialist mentors. Daniel Brower's look at labor violence attempts to help reshape the familiar stereotype by exploring the cultural roots of the Russian worker's predilection for violence and by showing that such behavior is less mindless and more political than its critics have accepted. By not adequately specifying the contours and especially the frequency of violence, however, he leaves us ultimately with the old image of a Pugachevshchina in the factories. Brower in effect takes the pieces of the stereotype he has chipped away and glues them back in approximately the same pattern.