IS RUSSIA AN EMPIRE OR A NATION-STATE? Book Review: Achkasov V. A. Russian Dilemma: Empire or Nation State: Monograph. Moscow, Yurayt Publishing House, 2019, 373 p.

Abstract

In the review of the book by Valery Achkasov, devoted to the study of ethno-political processes in Russia from the moment of its transformation into an empire to the present day, an attempt is made to comprehend the views of both the author and other scholars on significant ethno-political problems in regard to the correlation of an empire and a nation state, the formation of the Russian nation and Russian imperial nationalism, the influence of the Russian revolution on national politics, as well as on the Soviet experience of nation building. According to the reviewer, the author convincingly revealed the causes of the crisis of national identity in modern Russia and the peculiarities of regional identities, due to the characteristics of the status of the region as an integral part of the nation state. The author’s position, which casts doubt on the orientation of the Russian post-communist state towards the production of democratic and civic identities is of scientific interest as well as arguing for the promotion and actualization of identities, both ethnic and those oriented on the principle of loyalty to the state. Valery Achkasov’s conclusions are significant concerning the need to replace the model of interethnic interaction with the civil-political model of national integration and that Russia is in the process of forming a nation-state, which acts as the final result of the development of social integration.

The Changing Dynamics of Kazakhstan’s Fisheries Sector: From the Early Soviet Era to the Twenty-First Century

“…Glavryba, the Directorate for Fish and the Fishing Industry in Russia, was established in October of 1918 and assigned comprehensive responsibilities for the administration, regulation, and production of fish. Five regional directorates termed Oblastryba were also created and began to organize fishers into collectives [53][54][55].…”

“…The once-flourishing Volga-Caspian fisheries became a testing ground for the new political ideology, which funneled support to poorer, nonproductive peasants while denying it to the wealthier, most productive group of fishers [56]. Lenin's New Economic Policy of 1921 counteracted some of the damage caused by these stringent policies by restoring fishing firms, removing the state monopoly on fishing grounds, and allowing fishers to work privately and sell their own catches [53][54][55][56][57].…”

“…The die for centralization had nevertheless been cast [54]. Beginning with the first Five Year Plan for 1928-1932 and continuing until the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Soviet fishing sector was issued production targets and provided with resources to achieve them.…”

Multispectral Remote Sensing Satellite Data for Mineral and Hydrocarbon Exploration: Big Data Processing and Deep Fusion Learning Techniques

“…Solovov (1987) used metallometric methods for the identification of geochemical anomaly (IGA) and the quantitative evaluation of ore reserves [22]. Baranov (1987) introduced a model in which horizons of the erosional surface were computed for geochemical associations [23]. Solovov (1990) introduced different relations to predict hidden orebodies by using metallometric exploration [24].…”

Cluster analysis of the effectiveness of management of higher education institutions

“…As known, management has a direct and significant impact on the university's position in the ranking of universities. In other words, a high position in ranking tables is the result of management in the corresponding category of the university's activity [5][6][7].…”