Articles de revues sur le sujet « International rivers – Eurasia »

Compilation of empirical data on river-terrace sequences from across Eurasia during successive International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) projects revealed marked contrasts between the records from different crustal provinces, notably between the East European Platform (EEP) and the Caledonian/Variscan/Alpine provinces of western/central Europe. Well-developed terrace staircases, often indicative of hundreds of metres of Late Cenozoic uplift/fluvial incision, are preserved in many parts of the European continent, especially westward of the EEP. In contrast, rivers within the EEP have extensive sedimentary archives that are not preserved as terrace staircases; instead, they form sets of laterally accreted sediment packages, never more than a few tens of metres above or below modern river level. There are parallels in Asia, albeit that the crust of the Asian continent has a greater proportion of tectonically active zones, at one extreme, and stable platforms/cratons at the other. The observed patterns point strongly to the mobility of lower-crustal material within younger provinces, where the continental crust is significantly hotter, as a key part of the mechanism driving the progressive uplift that has led to valley incision and the formation of river terraces: a process of erosional isostasy with lower-crustal flow as a positive-feedback driver. The contrast between these different styles of fluvial-archive preservation is of considerable significance for Quaternary stratigraphy, as such archives provide important templates for the understanding of the terrestrial record.

Abstract —The Quaternary stratigraphy of the southern West Siberian Plain is considered in the context of the updated International Chronostratigraphic Scale, with the Neogene/Quarternary boundary at 2.588 Ma. New geological, lithological, paleontological, and paleomagnetic data from a reference Quaternary section in the Irtysh River valley near Isakovka Village provide more rigorous constraints on the Lower–Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy and the respective deposition conditions. The Isakovka outcrop exposes two stratigraphically expressed and paleontologically characterized units that were deposited during regional Pleistocene interglacial events of different ages: the Strunino and Serebryanoe alluvium beds lying over eroded surfaces. The species of the Corbicula genus coexisting with numerous species of Palearctic molluscs, small mammals Allophaiomys deucalion, Mimomys reidi, and last rooted lagurids Borsodia found in the Strunino alluvium are known also from continental equivalents of the warm upper Gelasian Stage in different parts of northern Eurasia. Judging by the presence of extant corbicules, the Strunino alluvium was deposited in a warm climate, with a mean annual air temperature above +16 °C and a mean winter temperature no colder than –8 °C, in rivers that remained free from ice all year round. On the basis of fauna constraints for the Serebryanoe alluvium, along with the first appearance of the European Pisidium clessini molluscs in West Siberia, the unit can be correlated with one of the earliest Middle Pleistocene interglacial events. The faunal assemblages and spore-pollen patterns of the two units indicate that the climate during the Serebryanoe deposition was slightly cooler and wetter than during the Strunino deposition, though steppe landscapes predominated on watersheds in both events. The two alluvial beds, which are traceable in river bluffs, at 30 m above the modern water level in a tectonically stable part of West Siberia, mark the hypsometrically higher position of the river network during the Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene interglacials.

In contrast to fairly good knowledge of dissolved carbon and major elements in great Arctic rivers, seasonally resolved concentrations of many trace elements remain poorly characterized, hindering assessment of the current status and possible future changes in the hydrochemistry of the Eurasian Arctic. To fill this gap, here we present results for a broad suite of trace elements in the largest rivers of the Russian Arctic (Ob, Yenisey, Lena, and Kolyma). For context, we also present results for major elements that are more routinely measured in these rivers. Water samples for this study were collected during an international campaign called PARTNERS from 2004 through 2006. A comparison of element concentrations obtained for Arctic rivers in this study with average concentrations in the world’s rivers shows that most elements in the Arctic rivers are similar to or significantly lower than the world average. The mineral content of the three greatest rivers (Ob, Yenisey, and Lena) varies within a narrow range (from 107 mg/L for Yenisey to 123 mg/L for Ob). The Kolyma’s mineral content is significantly lower (52.4 mg/L). Fluxes of all major and trace elements were calculated using average concentrations and average water discharge for the 2004–2006 period. Based on these flux estimates, specific export (i.e., t/km2/y) for most of the elements was greatest for the Lena, followed by the Yenisey, Ob, and Kolyma in decreasing order. Element pairwise correlation analysis identified several distinct groups of elements depending on their sources and relative mobility in the river water. There was a negative correlation between Fe and DOC concentration in the Ob River, which could be linked to different sources of these components in this river. The annual yields of major and trace elements calculated for each river were generally consistent with values assessed for other mid-size and small rivers of the Eurasian subarctic.

Abstract. The mapping of river sediment yields at continental or global scale involves a number of technical difficulties that have largely been ignored. The maps need to show the large zonal peculiarities of river sediment yields, as well as the level (smoothed) local anomalies. This study was carried out to create a map of river sediment yields for Northern Eurasia (within the boundaries of the former Soviet Union, 22 × 106 km2) at a scale of 1:1 500 000. The data for preparing the map were taken from the long-term observations recorded at more than 1000 hydrological stations. The data have mostly been collected during the 20th century by applying a single method. The creation of this map from the study of river sediment yield is a major step towards enhancing international research on understanding the mechanical denudation of land due mainly to erosion.

The purpose of the research paper. The article deals with one of the few hillforts of the Final Bronze - Early Iron Age on the northern coast of the Black Sea - the Uch-Bash settlement. Scientific novelty. Discovered remains of fortification, the system and stages of their construction, the reason and time of fortification of the settlement, the place of the site in the system of synchronous fortified settlements of the region are discussed in the article. Conclusions. The settlement of Uch-Bash is one of the points that arose on the shores of the Black Sea during the final Bronze Age – around the end of the 12 century B.C. The site was badly damaged by the detonation of the Black Sea Fleet’s ammunition depots during the retreat of the Primors’ka Army in 1942. The settlement was founded on a place with landscape protection. From the side of the Inkerman valley and the sea, Uch-Bash was impregnable, its protected steep rock was about 15 meters high. From the land, the plateau of the Uch-Bash smoothly descended towards the hill of Malakhovy Kurgan on the Heraklion Peninsula. The first remains of an ancient fortification were excavated in the 1950s by the expedition of S.F. Strzelecki. 2006-2012 research revealed the remains of walls, an ancient entrance and a ditch on the west side of the settlement. The direction of the walls corresponded to the direction of the fortifications excavated in the 1950s. The context of the remains of the fortification allows them to date from the end of the 12th to the mid of 8th century BC. Archaeological excavations have shown that the fortifications at the Uch-Bash settlement were built in several stages. The second stage dated on the middle of the 8th century BC. It is likely that the construction of the fortress was not finished. The remains of these buildings are covered by a layer of destruction and fire associated with an attack by nomads, which left a number of finds of the Novocherkassk type in the fire layers. The fortifications of Uch-Bash are not the only one site in the north of Pontus. Various types of fortifications have sites in the mouth and lower reaches of the Danube, the Southern Bug, and the Don. Landmarks with similar geographical characteristics are known in the headwaters of the estuaries of other large rivers in the north of the Black Sea. Fortified settlements of this time also appear further north on the border of the steppe and forest-steppe, in the forest-steppe region, further east near the steppe zone of Eurasia. There are grounds for asserting that the northern coast of the Black Sea had an economically and socially determined system of fortified settlements and hillforts, which was located on the border of coastal settlements and the steppe zone of the region.

The article presents one of the most promising and ambitious in socio-economic, political, humanitarian aspects of the Russian scientists’ project: “United Eurasia: Trans-Eurasian Belt of RAZVITIE — Integrated Eurasian Transport System (United Eurasia: TEBR-IETS)”. The main purpose of the project is to ensure the connectivity of the territories of the Russian Federation and their active development, first of all, the deep integrated development of Siberia, the Far East and the Arctic. The role of the project in the partnership of the progressive world community is great; the radically modernized Trans-Siberian Railway — the backbone of the project — is designed to connect the Far East, including Japan, with Western Europe and the USA in the future. This fact will make it possible to carry out on the territory of the Russian Federation and the countries included in the project, the systemic coordination of all types of transport, including river and nautical, to create a single world logistics complex of advanced technical and managerial development. The creation of the IETS will consolidate Russian geopolitical position as a transport bridge between the world economic and civilizational regions. It will create conditions for mutually beneficial cooperation with Austria, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India; will open up new opportunities for cooperation with North Korea, Canada and USA in the future. It will arouse interest from the PRC in the integration of a similar Chinese project, the "Silk Road" with the Russian Megaproject. The implementation of the Megaproject will allow Russia to offer the world a new effective version of a non-confrontational way of solving international problems, become a geo-economic and geopolitical integrator on the Euro-Asian continent, lay the foundations for the solidarity development of all civilizational centers around Russia as a civilization state, make it senseless and impossible to impose sanctions on Russia, and raise to a qualitatively new level of authority and the role of the Russian Federation in the modern world.

Until recently, only economically developed West-oriented states launched integration initiatives encompassing the entire Asia-Pacific region. However, over the last few years Beijing proposed several such initiatives embracing territories from America to Africa. The paper discusses the changes in Chinese views towards the leadership in modern world. Recent events in Syria, Ukraine, South China Sea and East China Sea made it clear that the world becomes more polycentric, with Russia and China resistant to external interference in the territories of their vital interests. The latest trends in East Asian and Asia-Pacific regionalism are singled out. China and USA have been the main rivals in initiating and supporting competing integration models. China has demonstrated unprecedented activity and launched several integration projects of trans-regional (Asia-Pacific and Eurasia) and on regional levels (East Asia). However, despite its growing geopolitical and economic aspirations, Beijing is not frontally challenging Washington-led system of intergovernmental agreements and financial institutions in Asia. Instead, Beijing is forming an alternative pro-Chinese model of integration without US participation (or with their secondary role) thus trying to gradually transform the Asia-Pacific to post-American hegemony model. President Xi Jinping put forward a concept of “Asia-Pacific Dream”. It incorporates formation of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “New Maritime Silk Road” that will link the economies of Asia, Europe and Africa. By proposing these large scale infrastructure projects and two new regional financial institutions (Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and New Development Bank), the Chinese leadership renewed its global and regional politics, attempting to create a Eurasian “economic corridor” which could serve not only its regional and global interests, but for the common good of whole Asia and the world. Obviously, “New Silk Roads” strategy faces geopolitical and other challenges; yet, even it partial realization would make China a leader of the continental part of Eurasia. In terms of global and regional governance these trends can be strengthened through coordinated policy of Moscow and Beijing towards including these projects into the agenda of non-Western intergovernmental institutions, such as BRICS, SCO, Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and others. Moreover, strategic cooperation with Russia is one of the principal factors to secure the success of China’s integration plans in the Asia-Pacific and especially in Eurasia. For its part, Moscow should deepen interaction and effectively utilize the resources of “rising” China to support Russia’s interests in Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific. It is necessary for Moscow to coordinate efforts with Central Asian states and China to elaborate co-development plans for infrastructural initiatives put forward by the SCO, EEU and the “Silk Road Economic Belt”. At the same time, Moscow should increasingly encourage Chinese investment into the Russian Far East. Acknowledgements. This article has been prepared in the framework of contract with the RF Ministry of Education and Science “Formation of the New International Order in the Asia-Pacific and National Interests of Russia”, project № 1430.

The Eurasian ruffe, Gymnocephalus cernuus, was collected from the lower St. Louis River, Lake Superior's westernmost tributary, in late summer 1987. This is the first known occurrence of the ruffe in North America. The likely vector for this species was ballast water of a transoceanic vessel dumped into the international port of Duluth-Superior located on the lower end of the St. Louis River. The ruffe is increasing in abundance and expanding its range into other tributaries and nearshore areas of Lake Superior.

Although Eurasia’s Caspian basin once supported the world’s richest and most diverse complex of sturgeon species, recent human activities have decimated populations of these ecologically and economically important fish. All five anadromous Caspian sturgeon species are critically endangered, and the potamodromous sterlet is also threatened. The precipitous decline of these species is due to a combination of factors that includes illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; destruction of feeding and spawning habitat; water pollution; and the environmental consequences of climate change. International efforts are currently underway to re-establish sustained naturally reproducing sturgeon populations in the basin. Here, we update and review the status of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea with emphasis on the northern basin and the inflowing Volga and Ural rivers. We then focus on efforts to restore sturgeon in the Ural, which originates in Russia and flows through Kazakhstan before entering the Caspian Sea. With nearly ideal hydrological conditions for sturgeon, the Ural is the basin’s sole remaining river that allows migrating sturgeon unimpeded access to potentially productive spawning grounds. The challenge of re-establishing sturgeon in the Ural River exhibits the classical characteristics of wicked problems: ambiguous definitions, changing assumptions and unanticipated consequences, tradeoffs and economic dependencies, an incomplete and contradictory knowledge base, and no straightforward pathway toward a final solution. This challenge is examined here for the first time from the perspective of its wicked dynamics, with consideration given to approaches that have proven effective elsewhere in resolving wicked environmental problems.

According to the data of 23 seismic stations of the Yakutia branch of GS RAS, the seismicity monitoring of the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was carried out for 2016–2017. During this period, more than 800 earthquakes with an energy class of KR≥7.1 (magnitude M≥1.7) were registered. This is somewhat more than in 2015 (N=567) and is due to the extension of the time interval of work up to 2 years. The epicenters were located in the zones of interaction between large lithospheric plates: the Eurasian and North American in the Northeastern and Arctic regions, as well as the Eurasian and Amur in the southern regions of Yakutia. The clusters of these events comprised two extended (Arctic-Asian and Baikal-Stanovoy) seismic belts. On the map of epicenters, these zones are displayed as a continuous strip of earthquakes from the Olekma River to the Sea of Okhotsk in the south and in the form of separate groups and clusters of earthquakes between the Laptev and Okhotsk Seas – in the northeast and in the Arctic. The highest seismic activity was noted in the Olekma area, the Stanovoy Ridge and the Aldan Highlands (Southern Yakutia) and the Chersky Ridge and Laptev Sea (in the North-East). Information on the manifestations of local seismicity in the Lena River Delta, where from August 2016 to December 2017 is given. 25 temporary field automatic stations under the joint Russian-German project "Seismicity and neotectonics of the Laptev Sea region" (SIOLA) in 2016–2018 operated. The first results of the distribution of Arctic earthquakes in the lower reaches of the Lena River in space, time, by depth and their connection with active tectonics are considered.

International Symposium “Mires of Northern Eurasia: Biosphere functions, diversity and management”, held on September 25–28, 2023 in Petrozavodsk, continued the traditions of the previous symposums organized by Karelian specialists in 2005 and 2015. Totally 101 participants from 21 regions of Russia and Belarus attended the Symposium. They represented 42 organizations: Universities and Research Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, environmental organizations, Nature reserves and industrial enterprises. 86 scientists arrived to Petrozavodsk, 9 specialists presented online reports. During the two days of the Symposium, 6 plenary and 56 sectional oral presentations and 28 posters were presented. Six plenary presentations were devoted to the history of mire research in different regions, the diversity of types of mires and mire vegetation, the history of climate and vegetation dynamics in the Holocene, the importance of mires in the exchange of greenhouse gases and the development of modern methodological approaches to the study of mire dynamics. The most extensive section called “Diversity, structure, dynamics and functioning of mire ecosystems” contained 32 oral presentations. The issues of the typology of mire massifs of different regions of Russia, diversity and originality of mire plant communities, their dynamics, geographical distribution of mires, and conservation value of mire communities were highlighted. Such classical studies continue the traditions of the Russian and Soviet geobotanical school and provide a new level of insight into mire ecosystems and form the basis for solving such current problems as assessment of climate change, carbon balance, protection of rare species. The traditional part of the mire conferences are the presentations devoted to paleoecology, based on the results of analysis of the peat deposit structure, were. Within the section “Mires and climate in the Holocene, Paleoecology” 15 oral presentations were devoted to the impact of climate change to the Holocene vegetation, the frequency of natural fires that have left traces in the peat sediments, reconstruction of vegetation successions on mires and their connections with archaeological research of the Middle Ages. Separately, a wide range of methods used by paleo ecologists was noted. Along them together with traditional spore-pollen analysis and analysis of plant macrofossils, some modern methods of analyzing arthropods and mollusks and testate amoebas were used. At the section entitled “Research methods, management of mire ecosystems and their restoration” nine reports were presented, covering such topics as the influence of cranberry pickers’ on the mire vegetation, remote sensing methods used for monitoring plant successions and typology of mire ecosystems, the growth of sphagnum mosses as an indicator of activity of ultraviolet, and thermal analysis of organic matter of peat soils. Twenty eight posters were exhibited at the poster session, their topics mostly repeated such of sectional presentations, but were more specific. The works of young scientists and students were presented there. The youngest participant of the session and the entire Symposium was a student of the Lomonosov Lyceum from Arkhangelsk, who presented a poster on the features of cranberries cultivated in the White Sea region. An important part of the symposium were field trips. During two days participants were able to visit two remarkable sites in the southern part of Karelia. Small eutrophic fens near the village of Kolatselga (150 km west of Petrozavodsk) had a specific floristic composition. In 1942–43, two Finnish botanists have described these mires. Their publication provided an excellent comparative data for the further researchers. The participants of the Symposium visited four of these fens and assessed their current state. Another object of excursion were the mires of the Kivach Nature Reserve situated 80 km north from Petrozavodsk. The Reserve is a popular tourist attraction for visiting the Kivach Waterfall on the Suna River. However, the local nature is quite rich, diverse and picturesque, so the reserve serves as a traditional place for environmental research in Karelia. Local mires are also well studied; the participants of the Symposium visited some of them. Video broadcasts of the symposium sessions are available on Youtube channel of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a collection of abstracts has been published (Mires…, 2023).

Abstract. The Arctic marine climate system is changing rapidly, which is seen in the warming of the ocean and atmosphere, decline of sea ice cover, increase in river discharge, acidification of the ocean, and changes in marine ecosystems. Socio-economic activities in the coastal and marine Arctic are simultaneously changing. This calls for the establishment of a marine Arctic component of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (MA-PEEX). There is a need for more in situ observations on the marine atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean, but increasing the amount of such observations is a pronounced technological and logistical challenge. The SMEAR (Station for Measuring Ecosystem–Atmosphere Relations) concept can be applied in coastal and archipelago stations, but in the Arctic Ocean it will probably be more cost-effective to further develop a strongly distributed marine observation network based on autonomous buoys, moorings, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These have to be supported by research vessel and aircraft campaigns, as well as various coastal observations, including community-based ones. Major manned drifting stations may occasionally be comparable to terrestrial SMEAR flagship stations. To best utilize the observations, atmosphere–ocean reanalyses need to be further developed. To well integrate MA-PEEX with the existing terrestrial–atmospheric PEEX, focus is needed on the river discharge and associated fluxes, coastal processes, and atmospheric transports in and out of the marine Arctic. More observations and research are also needed on the specific socio-economic challenges and opportunities in the marine and coastal Arctic, and on their interaction with changes in the climate and environmental system. MA-PEEX will promote international collaboration; sustainable marine meteorological, sea ice, and oceanographic observations; advanced data management; and multidisciplinary research on the marine Arctic and its interaction with the Eurasian continent.

In conditions when the water factor is increasingly affecting the economic development of the CIS countries, the adoption and implementation of modern technological and organizational and managerial decisions on the most effective use of water become an urgent, imperative necessity. This is all the more so because, on the one hand, the decarbonization recommended by the UN cannot be considered as the main means of solving the water problem in the economies of the Commonwealth States. On the other hand, reducing the water capacity of these economies can both accelerate their technological renewal, and become a factor in reducing the negative climate changes occurring in the post-Soviet-Eurasian area. Starting from these considerations, the authors of the article use the example of Azerbaijan — a country with limited water resources — to identify ways to modernize the water management system. This management reform is designed to address aspects of the water problem related not only to climate change, water pollution and large losses during delivery to consumers, but also to the water management policies of neighboring States located upstream of the main rivers. According to the author’s final conclusion, the experience of Azerbaijan shows a very significant role of various formats of international cooperation in the creation of effective national integrated water resources management systems in the CIS countries.

The Scottish Beaver Trial (SBT) reintroduced the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) in 2009 using wild-caught Norwegian beavers. This included a six-month prerelease quarantine in Devon, England. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and government guidelines for health screening were followed, including testing for Leptospira species. Unlicensed beavers, from Germany, were also identified in Scotland (Tayside) and Devon (later forming the River Otter Beaver Trial (ROBT)) and were health-screened under licence. Due to positive Leptospira species results and lack of prerelease screening in ROBT and Tayside, beavers from Germany and Norway (range sources) were screened. One hundred and fifty-six samples from 151 beavers were analysed by Leptospira species quantitative PCR (qPCR) (n=73 kidney (postmortem)/urine samples (antemortem)) or microscopic agglutination test (MAT, Leptospira pools 1–6) (n=83 serum samples). No beavers from Norway (95 per cent confidence interval (CI) 0–5.6 per cent, n=52), Tayside or SBT postrelease (95 per cent CI 0–4.6 per cent, n=63) tested positive. Seven beavers from Germany and Devon were positive. This gives an overall 9.3 per cent (95 per cent CI 5.2-15.1 per cent) exposure level, of which 4.6 per cent (95 per cent CI 1.9-9.3 per cent) suggested infection on a positive qPCR (n=1) or MAT titre of at least 1/400 (n=6), although none had abnormal physical, biochemical or haematological changes. This study suggests that Leptospira species infection in wild Eurasian beavers occurs at a low level, has no sex bias and does not appear to cause significant morbidity or mortality.

The first reference to a ‘Sea of Melayu’ is from an Arabic document dated c. 1000, which noted that travellers ‘reaching the Sea of Melayu, were approaching the area of China’. While the location of the Sea of Melayu is not specified, the practice of naming a sea after a dominant people surrounding its shores suggests that this particular body of water must have been the Straits of Melaka. This is clear in the only other known reference to the use of this name, which is found inDescription of Malacca, Meridional India and Cathaywritten in 1613 by Emanuel Godinho de Eredia, a Eurasian Jesuit born in Portuguese Melaka. Eredia refers to the Sea of Melayu as that ‘land-enclosed sea between the mainland of Ujontana [Malay Peninsula] and the Golden Chersonese [Sumatra]’. He was clearly referring to the Straits of Melaka, though it was obviously not yet called that by his contemporaries. Eredia's description of that ‘land-enclosed sea’ clearly reveals a commonly held assumption of the greater significance of a land mass over a body of water. But for Malays and many other sea and riverine peoples, the focus was on water, not land, and entities were formed by seas and rivers joined by short land passages.

In terms of the space concept, the prospects of Russia's new formats of global co-operation development through mutually beneficial transnational partnership in the Arctic are analyzed in the article. The possibility of implementation of Russia’s Eurasian and Arctic advantages in the Trans-Arctic as the key element of global connection between Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific spaces is considered. Until now the "Eurasian dividends" for Russia have been associated with strengthening of its positions in the Pacific Asia. However, the scale of Russian socio-economic and naval presence in this area does not allow the country to become a leader. The situation is completely different in the Trans-Arctic, where Russia’s total capacity is equal to that of other Arctic states. Moreover, in the Trans-Arctic the "Eurasian factor" may become an "influence multiplier" for Russia. This refers to Russia’s key role in the connection between Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific through the logistic chain: Northwest Passage – Northern sea route – Eastern Siberia’s river system – Trans-Siberian Railway. The Trans-Arctic may become a "testing ground" for neutralisation of attempts to isolate Russia from global governance, which appeared in G-8 dismantling. The initiation of a new structure with participation of global “extraregional” actors, first of all Russia's strategic BRICS partners, could become its efficient Arctic pivot. Special attention is paid to subjects of the multilevel governance over the Trans-Arctic, to aspects of connection between transnational spaces, to the potential conflictogenity of the Arctic macroregion, and to the problem of the sovereignty concept classical understanding transformation, which appeared in the Arctic context. The relevance of the topic stems from decisions of the RF Security Council special extended meeting (April 2014), which put the "qualitative strengthening" of Russian positions in the Arctic, "preservation of Russian influence" in the region, and "advancing of partners" as major priorities. The tendencies of the Arctic transnationalisation and of the Trans-Arctic formation indicate a serious challenge for the Russian expert community and policy-makers. On one hand, Russia cannot sacrifice its national interests and restrict its rights and powers in the areas, to which its sovereignty and jurisdiction extend. On the other hand, formation of a new global governance regime in the Arctic gives Russia a chance to strengthen its leadership in this polar area, since the socio-economic, political and reputation dividends brought by such regime might be extremely high.

According to the information received from 20 stationary digital seismic stations of the Yakutia Branch of Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences, two-year (2018–2019) seismic monitoring of the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was carried out. During this time interval, more than 730 earthquakes with an energy class of KR≥7.2 (magnitude M≥1.8) were registered. During the previous two years, their number was 801. Manifestations of seismicity fixed the spatial position of the contact zones and their constituent blocks of known lithospheric plates: the Eurasian and North American plates in the northeastern and arctic regions, as well as the Eurasian and Amur plates – in the southern areas of Yakutia. The epicentral fields traced individual relief lineaments and identified active boundary structures combined into two large-scale seismic belts – BaikalStanovoy and Arctic-Asian. Their outlines are seen as bands of earthquake epicenters, elongated from the Olekma River to the Sea of Okhotsk in the south and as ensembles of separate groups and chains of earthquakes between the Laptev and Okhotsk Seas in the northeast and in the Arctic. Significant seismic activity has been detected in the northeast of the region – in the Olekminsk region and the Aldan Highlands (South Yakutia), as well as in the Yano-Oymyakon Highlands, the Chersky Ridge and the Laptev Sea. A map of epicenters was constructed for the entire territory of the region, where 12 districts were identified and an analysis of the seismotectonic situation in each of them was given. The map of Arctic earthquakes in the Lena River delta is considered separately. It is compiled according to the processing of digital seismograms obtained at 25 autonomous field stations installed in accordance with the Russian-German project "Seismicity and Neotectonics of the Laptev Sea Region" (SIOLA). In this area during 2016–2019 more than 2 thousand shocks of small energy classes KR≥7.2–10.7 (M≥1.8–3.7) were recorded within the depth interval of 1–36 km of the Earth's crust. The characteristics of the most seismically active local tectonic structures developed in this region are given.

Important Bird Areas in Macedonia: Sites of Global and European Importance Identification of the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) is an initiative implemented by BirdLife International at the global level, aiming to conserve a network of sites that are particularly important for the conservation of birds. With the changed conservation status of some species and increased information on the distribution and population sizes of birds in Macedonia in general, a revision of the IBA network was needed to update previous inventories for this country, published in 1989 and 2000. As the bird fauna of the Republic of Macedonia ranks among the least known in Europe, and as data on many species, notably passerines, are still largely missing, the inventory is mainly based on some threatened or rare birds of prey and a few other larger species, yet characteristic of the Macedonian landscape. Data used were collected in the course of different dedicated studies and projects carried out after 2000. Out of 314 species so far registered in Macedonia, 114 regularly occurring species have currently unfavourable conservation status in Europe, 84 of which breed or possibly breed in the country. Several criteria for the selection of IBAs of global (A criterion) and European importance (B criterion) developed by BirdLife International were used for sites selection, taking into consideration species of global conservation concern (A1), biome-restricted species (A3), important congregations (A4, B1) and species with an unfavourable conservation status (B2) or concentrated (B3) in Europe. Species of global conservation concern used for site identification include the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus, considered Endangered (EN) at the global level according to the latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Dalmatian Pelican Pelecanus crispus and Imperial Eagle Aquila heliaca (both Vulnerable - VU), and Roller Coracias garrulus and Semicollared Flycatcher Ficedula semitorquata (both Near Threatened - NT). Furthermore, species assemblages characteristic as occurring mostly or entirely within a Eurasian high-montane or Mediterranean biome are found in Macedonia. Important congregations of non-breeding waterbirds with at least 1% of global or biogeographic populations of individual species occur on all three large lakes in the country, some of them (e.g. Dalmatian Pelican, Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina) in very large numbers, surpassing the 1% threshold by more than tenfold. In total, 25 species regularly occurring in the breeding season, for which the site protection approach is thought to be appropriate in Macedonia, were used for the selection of sites of European importance. Site boundaries were drawn following distinct natural features or isohypses to include breeding sites and foraging areas of triggering species, and, for Imperial Eagle and Egyptian Vulture also former breeding sites back to 1991, taking into consideration their habitat requirements, land-use and management needs. The resulting IBA list numbers 24 sites, covering 6,907 km2 or 26.9% of the entire territory of Macedonia: (1) Šar Planina Mountain, (2) River Radika Catchment, (3) Lake Ohrid, (4) Lake Prespa, (5) Demir Kapija Gorge, (6) Lake Dojran, (7) Zletovska River Valley, (8) Tikveš Region, (9) Pčinja - Petrošnica - Kriva Reka Rivers, (10) Preod - Gjugjance, (11) Osogovo Mountains, (12) Jakupica Mountain, (13) Taor Gorge, (14) Ovče Pole, (15) Topolka - Babuna - Bregalnica Rivers, (16) Gradsko - Rosoman - Negotino, (17) Lake Mantovo and Kriva Lakavica River, (18) Raec River Valley, (19) Pelagonia, (20) Mariovo, (21) Lake Tikveš, (22) Bošavija, (23) Kočani Rice Fields, and (24) Lower Vardar. With the exception of three sites occupying the highest parts of the large mountain massifs in NW and central parts of Macedonia, and the lakes Ohrid and Prespa, sites are concentrated mostly in central hilly and lowland parts of the country, comprising breeding areas of species of global conservation concern. The percentage of territory covered by the IBAs in Macedonia is relatively high compared to the total European average but comparable to several countries in SE parts of Europe. The size of separate IBAs ranges from 25 km2 (Taor Gorge) to 1,136 km2 (Pelagonia) and number of triggering species per site from one (Bošavija, Kočani Rice Fields) to 17 (Pčinja - Petrošnica - Kriva Reka Rivers). 22 sites trigger some of the criteria of global importance - three sites (Lakes Ohrid, Prespa and Dojran) meet A4 criterion, eight sites hold significant populations of species characteristic of the Mediterranean biome, while three other sites sustain significant populations characteristic of the European high-montane biome. Species of global conservation concern are included as follows: Egyptian Vulture on 13 sites, Imperial Eagle on 7, Dalmatian Pelican and Saker Falcon Falco cherrug on 2, Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca on 3, Roller Coracias garrulus on 10, Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus on 3 sites, and Semi-collared Flycatcher on 1 site. Individual triggering species for sites of European importance are represented on 2-15 sites. The IBA network includes 80-100% of the national populations of the globally threatened species, while the coverage of other species vary between 5% and 100%, being over 40% in great majority of species. Non-irrigated arable land and transitional woodland-shrub are dominant land-cover types, jointly covering 32% of the total IBA surface area. Abandonment of traditional pastoral system, resulting in decrease of the livestock numbers and overgrowing as well as trapping, poisoning and poaching, are considered the most serious threats for triggering species, particularly the Egyptian Vulture and Imperial Eagle, being classified as high on no less than 11 sites, respectively. The national legal protection of the sites is incomplete, being either only partial or with inadequate conservation measures adopted, or, many sites still lack any form of legal protection. With about 21% of the National protected area network overlapping with the IBAs, the existing protected area system is thus insufficient for conservation of most priority species. Notably underrepresented are the regions in the lower parts of the country with the highest number of species of global conservation concern.

Received 03.07.2020. This article represents a stage in a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of foreign policy institutions and personalities of the People’s Republic of China since the late 1990s. to November 2019. During this period there was a rapid growth in the economic, technological and cultural development of the country, which both allowed and demanded a greater foreign policy activity of China, which until then was focused on internal, maximum, regional problems. At the same time, people and institutions, that shaped and implemented this new foreign policy also developed and changed. The periods between the congresses of the Chinese Communist Party with the corresponding renewal of political leadership and foreign policy priorities correlate with the prevalence of human resources with certain biographical criteria (place of birth, higher education and practical work) in the Foreign Ministry and the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, those who were born in the East of the country, studied and worked in Europe, and not in the United States and Russia, as one might suppose on the basis of the discourse, for many decades concentrated on the military confrontation between the main nuclear powers. This article examines the biographies of key employees of the CPC International department in connection with the formation of foreign policy in the context of the overall development of China. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded, firstly, about the strengthening of the technocratic approach to foreign policy specialists, which takes into account, first of all, their expert qualities, even in such a party structure as the CPC Central Committee International department, instead of the ideological approach that dominated in the past. Secondly, personnel dynamics are influenced by the specifics of the work of the International Department, which is currently aimed at maximizing the implementation of opportunities for cooperation, primarily of an economic nature, in the Eurasian direction, while the Foreign Ministry has the main current task of confronting the United States and regional rivals. Third, the revealed correlation and long-term effects of such a personnel policy can also stimulate Russian activity in terms of training the next generations of foreign policy human resources on the Chinese direction.

The trade-network of Afro-Eurasia changed radically in the 9th–10th centuries, instead of the former east-west routes the south-north came to the fore. The Volga-Kama region became the most important port of trade between the Islamic world and Eastern Europe in the beginning of the 10th century which set in motion the formation of the Volga Bulghar state and the conversion to Islam. The Volga Bulghars are mentioned in the Muslim sources as the center of trade. Ibn Faḍlān, al-Masʿūdī give a detailed picture of this intensive trade. The Muslim dirhams came from Samanid mints to the Volga region and the Volga Bulghar merchants bought northern merchandise (furs, slaves, wax, honey etc.) in the 10th century. Al-Muqaddasī gives an exhaustive list of trade goods from the Volga Bulgar area at the end of the 10th century. After the disappearance of the silver dirhams in the first decades of the 11th century the state of the Volga Bulghars remained a significant trade center. The Muslim maps of Ibn Ḥawqal, Maḥmūd al-Kāshġarī and al-Idrīsī reflect a river system called Etil which is waterway commercial network. It connects Central Asia via Siberia with the Volga-Kama region, the northern regions can be reached on the way along the Kama and perhaps the Vyatka, the northeastern network includes the Oka, Unzha and upper Volga. The southern routes represent the lower Volga from the territory of Volga Bulghars to the Caspian Sea and the Volga-Don portage plus the lower Don until its estuary to the Azov Sea.

Исследования искусственной среды уже давно изучаются в отдельных областях социальных наук, и предпринимается несколько попыток создания единой теории взаимодействия человека с окружающей средой. Текущий дискурс об искусственной среде оставался фрагментированным между археологами и социальными антропологами. Исследование комплексного подхода теоретических основ теории искусственной среды может оказаться полезным для археологов и социальных антропологов в понимании взаимодействия человека с окружающей средой. Подходы, применяемые как археологами, так и социальными антропологами, обладают уникальными преимуществами, которые, адаптированные вместе, могут обеспечить более сильную концептуализацию и развитие большего за счет исследований взаимоотношений человека с искусственной средой в прошлых и современных обществах. Библиографическме ссылки Blockley, M. 2003. In P. G. Stone, P. G. Planel. (eds). The Constructed Past: Experimental Archaeology, Education and the Public. Routledge,. 16–18. Goody, J. 1971.In Goody, J. (ed.). The Developmental Cycle in Domestic Groups. Cambridge University Press, 347–381.Hodder I. 1979. In American Antiquity. 44 (3), 446–454. Kent, S.1984. Analyzing Activity Areas: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Use of Space. University of New Mexico Press. Lawrence, D. L., Low, S. M. 1990. In Annual Review of Anthropology. 1990. 19, 435–505. Lercari, N. 2017. In Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. 6, 10–17. Micoli L., Guidi G., Angheleddu D., Russo M. 2013. A multidisciplinary approach to 3D survey and reconstruction of historical buildings. Digital Heritage International Congress Proceedings. 241–248. Morgan, L. H. 1965. Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines. University of Chicago Press. Planel, P. G., Stone, P. G. 2003. In P. G. Stone, P. G. Planel. (eds). The Constructed Past: Experimental Archaeology, Education and the Public. Routledge,. 1–5. Rapoport, A. 1977. Human Aspects of Urban Form. Pergamon. Rapoport, A. 1990. The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach. University of Arizona Press. Schiffer, M.B. 1978. In Gould, R. (ed.). Methodological issues in ethnoarchaeology. Explorations in Ethnoarchaeology.. University of New Mexico Press, 1978. Р. 347–381. Sitdikov, A., Badeev, D. 2017. In European Research Studies Journal. S (20), 208−214. Baranov, V. S. 2013. In Baranov, V. S., Valeev R. M., Salikhov R. R., Poluboiarinova M. D., Sharifullin R. F. (eds.). Velikii Bolgar (Great Bolgar). Moscow; Kazan: “Feoriia” Publ., 232–242 (in Russian). Valeev, R. M. 2013. In Baranov, V. S., Valeev R. M., Salikhov R. R., Poluboiarinova M. D., Sharifullin R. F. (eds.). Velikii Bolgar (Great Bolgar). Moscow; Kazan: “Feoriia” Publ., 92–97 (in Russian). Izmailov, I. L. 2013. In Baranov, V. S., Valeev R. M., Salikhov R. R., Poluboiarinova M. D., Sharifullin R. F. (eds.). Velikii Bolgar (Great Bolgar). Moscow; Kazan: “Feoriia” Publ., 55−63 (in Russian). Koval V. Yu. 2016. In Povolzhskaya arkheologiya (Volga River Region Archaeology) 18 (4), 99−124 (in Russian). Mukhametshin, D. G. 2016. In Bocharov, S. G., Sitdikov, A. G. (eds.). Dialog gorodskoi i stepnoi kul'tur na Evraziiskom prostranstve. Istoricheskaia geografi ia Zolotoi Ordy (Dialogue of the Urban and Steppe Cultures in the Eurasian Space. Historical Geography of the Golden Horde). Kazan; Yalta; Kishinev: “Stratum plus” Publ., 121−123 (in Russian). Nigamaev, A. Z. 2017. In Arkheologiia Evraziiskikh stepei (Archaeology of Eurasian Steppes) 3. 239−242 (in Russian). Sharifullin R. F. 2014. In Povolzhskaya arkheologiya (Volga River Region Archaeology) 9 (3), 56−75 (in Russian).

Hathnikund is a place in Yamunanagar District in Haryana where Yamuna Rivers forms a sort of Lake over raised plinth after descending into plains from Himalayas nearby Ponta Sahib town near Haryana-Himachal Border. At the same time, Tajewala Barrage is one more pool like scenic place where waters of Western Yamuna Canal are collected by Govt. of Haryana for subsequent multipurpose. In the present studies, wetland bird’s diversity of Hathnikund has been recorded, analyzed and interpreted. The studies were conducted for a period of three years (September 2005-March 2008) during winter season only. The present studies revealed that in all 47 species of wetland birds belonging to 9 orders and 13 families were observed during September 2005-March 2011. Out of these 47 species of wetland birds, 26 species were Winter Migratory, 13 Resident and 9 species were Local Migratory. In so far as Abundance Status is concerned, 26 species of birds were Common, Nine species were UnCommon, Seven Species of birds were Very Common and five species were Rare. Truely winter migratory birds observed belong to Orders, Ciconiiformes, Anseriformes and Chardriiformes. Prominent migratory birds include, amongst others, Bar-headed Goose Anser indicus, Brahminy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea, Gadwall Anas strepera, Eurasian Wigeon Anas penelope, Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Northern Pintail Anas acuta, Northern Shoveller Anas clypeata, Red-crested Pochard Rhodonessa rufina, Common Pochard Aythya ferina, Tufted Pochard Aythya fuligula which come to Hathini Kund during winter from far off places like Russia, Siberia, South and East Asia, China and Caspian region. It is recommended that Hathnikund be further promoted as Winter Halting Place for migratory birds by adding islands within the Water Sheet, the construction of wide margins on the peripheral zones and a rich canopy of endemic trees by implanted in plenty. It is further recommended that Eco-tourism facilities be generated at Hathnikund, linking biodiversity with society’s economic upliftment, employment and awareness. It is also recommended that Fish angling sport can be an added attraction to Bird Watching. In correlation with mystery-wrapped natural ambiences of Hathnikund, it can be sold to tourists of foreign origin thus generating exchange earning facility. As of today, no body known about Hathnikund except amateur bird watchers who turn out to be tourists too, if appropriate lodging boarding facilities are available.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v5i1.5953 International Journal of Life Sciences Vol.5(1) 2011 39-43

Meadow ecosystems comprise a significant part of the area of Ukraine, especially in its western regions. Those ecosystems are subjects of concern today because of the active agricultural use and droughts that also threatens the animal population of meadows, including birds. Studies of meadow bird species of western Ukraine are limited to atlases, which results in a lack of precise data. This work was part of an international project on the conservation of the great snipe Gallinago media and allowed us to collect valuable data on the abundance and occurrence of meadow bird species nearby to the Polish and Belarusian borders of Ukraine — territories that are commonly ignored by Ukrainian researchers. The surveys of meadow birds conducted near the Ukrainian-Polish border in 2020 have shown that the general state of the marshes is worse compared to 2019: even close to the Western Bug river, only deep oxbow lakes were wet or contained some water, but minor lakes and wetlands of the valley were found to be dry. In total, we observed 141 bird species belonging to 17 orders. Among them, 26 were common by abundance and frequency, such as the great egret Ardea alba, the white stork Ciconia ciconia, the common quail Coturnix coturnix, the corn crake Crex crex, the northern lapwing Vanellus vanellus, the common redshank Tringa totanus, the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus, the Eurasian skylark Alauda arvensis, the meadow pipit Anthus pratensis, the western yellow wagtail Motacilla flava, the sedge warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, the marsh warbler A. palustris, the great reed warbler A. arundinaceus, the common whitethroat Sylvia communis, the whinchat Saxicola rubetra, the thrush nightingale Luscinia luscinia, the common linnet Linaria cannabina, the corn bunting Emberiza calandra, the common reed bunting E. schoeniclus, and 7 more species, which were observed frequently though are not typical marshland species. We have identified the species that can be used as indicators of parameters of marsh ecosystems such as grass height (corn crake, western yellow wagtail, and sedge warbler), moisture (common redshank, common cuckoo, and the sedge and great reed warblers), and habitat type (corn crake, European bee-eater Merops apiaster, sedge warbler, common reed, and corn buntings).

Many historians believe that Russia became a great power either as a result of the Poltava victory in 1709, or after the Nystadt Peace of 1721. It is difficult to agree with this. Peter the Great’s rule indeed produced a combat-ready regular army, a guard, an officer corps, a navy with shipyards, military bases, and coastal artillery. There was an upsurge in the metallurgical industry and mining. Schools with high-quality military and secular education, the Academy of Sciences, the Senate, and the Synod were established. St. Petersburg was founded. Talented and enterprising individuals were promoted to military, diplomatic and administrative posts. The main factor in the rise of the state was military modernization. The main geopolitical achievement of Peter I was the conquest of full access to the Baltic Sea. However, a limited resource base, military and diplomatic defeats and setbacks did not allow Russia to rise to the rank of a great power. The disasters of Narva in 1700 and on the Prut River in 1711 were painful. Russia lost access to the Sea of Azov, the city of Azov, city of Taganrog, the Azov squadron, shipyards and shipbuilding in the Voronezh Territory were lost. The damage from three treatises with the Ottomans in 1711-1713 was great. Russia has lost all of Zaporozhye. The demarcation of the borders of 1714 threw Russia back several hundred kilometers from the Black Sea region. In 1719, the Russian military force was squeezed out of Central Europe – from Mecklenburg. The sphere of influence of Russia after the victorious Peace of Nystad in 1721 was established only in Northern and Eastern Europe – in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Swedish and Danish-Norwegian kingdom, partly in Prussia. The tsar had no claims to hegemony in Europe and no claims to join the circle of the then great powers. Russia was not a great power like the Habsburg monarchy, France, Great Britain, and the Eurasian-African Ottoman Empire. Russia could not compare with the great powers of that time neither in terms of economic (industrial, financial) power, nor in terms of the intensity of expansionism. The entry of the Russian Empire into the system of international relations as one of the five great powers – France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia – occurred during the Seven Years War of 1756-1763. Another rise to great power took place during the reign of Catherine II. The apogee of greatness and the culmination of Russia's influence on European affairs was the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815.

Abstract. Between 2008 and 2010, the Arctic Oscillation index over Arctic regions shifted from positive values corresponding to more cyclonic conditions prevailing during the 4th International Polar Year (IPY) period (2007–2008) to extremely negative values corresponding to strong anticyclonic conditions in 2010. In this context, we investigated the recent large-scale evolution of the upper western Arctic Ocean, based on temperature and salinity summertime observations collected during icebreaker campaigns and from ice-tethered profilers (ITPs) drifting across the region in 2008 and 2010. Particularly, we focused on (1) the freshwater content which was extensively studied during previous years, (2) the near-surface temperature maximum due to incoming solar radiation, and (3) the water masses advected from the Pacific Ocean into the Arctic Ocean. The observations revealed a freshwater content change in the Canadian Basin during this time period. South of 80° N, the freshwater content increased, while north of 80° N, less freshening occurred in 2010 compared to 2008. This was more likely due to the strong anticyclonicity characteristic of a low AO index mode that enhanced both a wind-generated Ekman pumping in the Beaufort Gyre and a possible diversion of the Siberian River runoff toward the Eurasian Basin at the same time. The near-surface temperature maximum due to incoming solar radiation was almost 1 °C colder in the southern Canada Basin (south of 75° N) in 2010 compared to 2008, which contrasted with the positive trend observed during previous years. This was more likely due to higher summer sea ice concentration in 2010 compared to 2008 in that region, and surface albedo feedback reflecting more sun radiation back in space. The Pacific water (PaW) was also subjected to strong spatial and temporal variability between 2008 and 2010. In the Canada Basin, both summer and winter PaW signatures were stronger between 75° N and 80° N. This was more likely due to a strong recirculation within the Beaufort Gyre. In contrast, south of 75° N, the cooling and warming of the summer and winter PaW, respectively, suggest that either the PaW was less present in 2010 than in 2008 in this region, and/or the PaW was older in 2010 than in 2008. In addition, in the vicinity of the Chukchi Sea, both summer and winter PaW were significantly warmer in 2010 than in 2008, as a consequence of a general warming trend of the PaW entering in the deep Arctic Ocean as of 2008.

Curriculum material is generally considered the subject matter of information, talents, dispositions, understandings, and principles that make up research programs in the field. At a more complex level, the curricula need to contain historical and socio-political strengths, traditions, cultural views, and goals with wide differences in sovereignty, adaptation, and local understanding that encompass a diversity of cultures, laws, metaphysics, and political discourse This study aims to develop a curriculum with local content as a new approach in early childhood science learning. The Local Content Curriculum (LCC) is compiled and developed to preserve the uniqueness of local culture, natural environment, and community crafts for early childhood teachers so that they can introduce local content to early childhood. Research and model development combines the design of the Dick-Carey and Dabbagh models with qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis. 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Introduction. A revision of syntaxa was carried out within the framework of the classification of the Brown-Blanquet school identified in the Russian Arctic. A geodatabase (GDB) and GIS, which include several interconnected main modules (see: Matveyeva et al., 2019a, b), with information on species composition, structure, ecology, and geography of syntaxa of all levels, integrated in these databases, became the basis of the presented checklist. This is the first result of compiling information on the vegetation classification, performed with the prospect to produce Prodromus of syntaxa, identified in this territory, with detailed information (character/differential/diagnostic species, ecology, zonal position, geography, bibliography), available in the GDB. It will be in time included in the Prodromus and later will become the basis for a volume in multivolume series on the vegetation of the Russian Federation (see: Plugatar et al., 2020). Territory. The checklist contains information on syntaxa established in the Russian Arctic within the boundaries of the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (hereafter CAVM) (CAVM Team, et al., 2003; Walker et al., 2005; Raynolds et al., 2019), as well as on the Barents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula, which is referred to the tundra zone in accordance with the zonation of the Russian Arctic flat territory (see: Matveyeva, 1998). The list includes syntaxa found north of the treeline — in the tundra zone (subzones of the southern, typical, and arctic tundra) and polar deserts.1 Hence, it follows that there are no syntaxa from the forest-tundra as well as those above the treeline in the mountains adjacent to the tundra zone (Putorana and Anabarskoe plateaus). The syntaxa from the territory of the «Russian Arctic» (Barentsburg, Pyramida) on the West Spitsbergen Island (Spitsbergen archipelago) are also not taken into account (their positioning is logical in Spitzbergern syntaxonomy). History. The study of the Russian Arctic plant cover began in the second third of the XIXth century in the north-east of the European Russia (Schrenk, 1855) and in Siberia on the Taymyr Peninsula (Middendorf, 1860–1867). After a significant break, it continued in the USSR in the pre-war time and intensified after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The most intense (both in the size of the studied areas and the numbers and duration of the field works) was the period from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s. Researchers working both in other zones and in the Arctic processed the obtained data in accordance with the approaches of the dominant classification, and the relevés were either not published or presented in a small (4–5) number for association. Despite the obvious limitations of this approach, there were published (both in the form of text with listing of few dominants and with relevé tables) both general (Gorodkov, 1935) and regional (Andreev, 1932; Bogdanovskaya-Giyenef, 1938; Smirnova, 1938; Dedov, 2006 [1940]; Aleksandrova, 1956, 1983; Gorodkov, 1956, 1958 a, b; Katenin, 1972) classifications, and checklists — a draft classification of vegetation of the whole Arctic (Aleksandrova, 1979) and classification of Taymyr vegetation (Matveyeva, 1985). In the late 1980s, Russian phytosociologists turned to the Brown-Blanquet floristic (= floristic-sociological (Theurillat et al., 2021), or ecological-floristic (Mirkin, Naumova, 2014)), classification system as the most conceptually substantiated, with generally accepted rules for describing communities in the field and the technique of relevé tabular processing, and also with clear rules for the formation of syntaxon names. In this system, the obligatory publication of the original data and the requirements for its validity when describing the basic syntaxon are strictly postulated, which provides an objective comparison and classification of any plant community types, in whatever system these data are not submitted. Just as it is impossible to imagine the development of taxonomy without the existence of herbarium collections, so it should be an axiom for phytosociologists that since the relevé is the only documentary reflection of a natural phenomenon named «plant community» (Matveyeva, 2008), it should be available for analysis to all syntaxonomists. Since the second decade of the XXth century, the followers of the Braun-Blanquet system have published thousands of relevés from different regions of the globe, which made it possible to produce a unified classification of vegetation from the Arctic to the tropics and its constant replenishment. Currently, the process of creating electronic databases (archives) of relevés, including the Arctic Vegetation Archive, which accumulates information on circumpolar vegetation is accumulated, is actively underway (Walker et al., 2018). The starting point when Russian tundra experts began to work consistently, following the principles of this classification, is the first International Meeting on the Classification and Mapping of Arctic Vegetation, which took place in 1992 in Boulder, CO (USA). For the publication of its data, a special issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science (1994, Vol. 5, N 6) named «Circumpolar arctic vegetation» (where 4 papers by Russian syntaxonomists were published) was provided. After 1992, when the intensity of field works decreased sharply, the number of publications with complete characteristics of the communities of the Russian Arctic increased rapidly.The proposed checklist of syntaxa is the result of this almost 30-year acti­vity. The checklist structure. The arrangement of syntaxa of class rank is mainly the same as in the EuroVegChecklist — hereafter EVC (Mucina et al., 2016): zonal and intrazonal communities of the polar desert zone (one class); zonal (one class) and landscape-forming intrazonal (five classes) communities of the tundra zone; intrazonal communities (13 classes), united into groups according to the gradients of moisture, snow depth and soil mechanical composition. A syntaxon is represented as follows: — higher units of the rank Class/Order/Allian­ce (Suballiance): number (for Class), abbreviated rank in English (Cl., Ord., All. (Suball.)), in square brackets — code (if any) from EVC (Mucina et al., 2016); full name, author(s) and year; below is a brief description in two languages: English — in general as in the cited paper with some corrections due to the specificity in syntaxon geography and ecology in the Asian part; Russian — partly in accordance with the English version and/or to Prodromus of higher vegetation units of Russia (Ermakov, 2012), sometimes with minor corrections or clarifications. For new orders and alliances within the zonal tundra class differential taxon combinations are listed; — syntaxa of the rank Association, Community Type, Community, established on the territory of the Russian Arctic: abbreviated rank in English (Ass., Com. Type, Com.), name, author(s) and year (besides association, the cited papers are included in the Refe­rences). If syntaxon was previously described by European/American authors outside the Russian Fede­ration, the link to the publication, where it was found in the Russian Arctic, is placed in brackets. The ­arrangement of associations is alphabetical; — syntaxa of units of a lower (within association) rank (subassociation and vicariant, variant, subvariant, facies): abbreviated rank in English (subass. and vicar., var., subvar., fac.), name, in brackets author, year (besides subassociation, the cited papers are included in the References). The arrangement of the syntaxa is as follows: typicum(-cal, -ca), inops, then alphabetically. For subass. typicum authors are not listed (Theurillat et al., 2021), but if it was described by another author and/or in another paper, then the link to it is given in brackets and the paper is included in the References. All names of syntaxa are given in the author’s edition (as it was published), including the endings of a typical syntaxon within an association (subassociation, vicariant, variant, facia) — typicum, typical, typica. In different papers, there are two English spellings of Russian surnames: Aleksandrova/Alexandrova, Andreev/Andreyev, Bogdanovskaya-Giyenef/Bogdanovskaya-Gienef, Pristyazhnyuk/Prystyazhnyuk, Savich/Savič. A uniform (the first one) spelling of the surname is used here. If there was something that caused a disagreement with the author’s decision (including the assignment of an association to a syntaxon of a higher rank), there is a superscript number before the syntaxon name, or before the author’s surname (when it is in brackets), referring to critical comments. Critical comments. 1 – The name is invalid or needs change because: 1a – no reference to the nomenclature type; 1b – published ineffectively (names published as ‘manuscript’ or ‘unpublished’); 1c – not accompanied by a sufficient diagnosis, no tables with original relevés; 1d – suggested by the author as preliminary; 1e – not obvious from what species syntaxon epithet is formed and it cannot be extracted from the diagnosis and/or tables); 1f – syntaxon with the same name was described earlier (including the case of inversion); 1g – the form of the syntaxon name does not correspond to Art. 10 of «International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature» — hereafter ICPN (Theurillat et al., 2021); 1h – the given nomenclature type belongs to a different syntaxon, validation does not correspond to ICPN; 1i – the relevé chosen as an association or subassociation nomenclature type does not contain the name-giving taxon of this syntaxon; 1j – there is a subspecies in the original diagnosis and in the tables, while in the syntaxon name the species name is used; 1k – the nomenclature type is given for 2 variants of the vicariant, among which there is no tyicum one; 1l – published or validated in 2002 or later with no indication of novelty (like, Ass. nov.). 2 – the author(s) did not place the syntaxon among the higher units. 3 – the author(s) placed the syntaxon in other higher units than suggested in this list. 4 – the syntaxon was renamed due to a change in its rank; in this checklist it is also given under a new name. 5 – the syntaxon is described by the author(s) in the Community rank but is assigned within the known association as a unit of it internal division. 6 – the author(s) assigned the syntaxon to this class with a question. 7 – the author(s) unreasonably (noted in literature) placed the communities in given syntaxon that needs revision. 8 – in the EVC there is only one author, while in the original source there are two. 9 – it is written that the title proposed by the first author was valid, but according to Principle II of the ICPN it is not. 10 – the author(s) of the syntaxon is(are) incorrect: the syntaxonomic units originally described in the framework of the ecological-physiognomic classification are invalid in accordance with Principle II (Art. 3d ICPN), and have been validated by subsequent authors. 11 – the author(s) assigned the syntaxon to this class/order, but did not refer to an alliance or placed in the alliance other than that proposed in this checklist. 12 – the author(s) attributed the syntaxon to this alliance, but as part of a different class/order, or not attributed to the class/order. 13 – the author(s) changed the rank of the syntaxon in comparison with the original description. 14 – the spelling of the syntaxon name does not correspond to the rules of the ICPN; the correct name [recte[ is given in square brackets. 15 – in the EVC the alliance is placed in another order. 16 – the author(s) of the syntaxon are incorrect, the first author (in brackets) did not give such a name, or incorrect year. 17 – the author(s) of the syntaxon incorrectly cited, priority belongs to other author(s) who published the name earlier and/or effectively. 18 – in the EVC the alliance is placed in synonyms for another alliance, which name was changed but not yet approved (nom. mut. propos). THE CHECKLIST — see the main text. Brief analysis of the composition. The checklist is based upon analysis of more than 70 papers, professionally reviewed and published, which contain more than 6,000 geobotanical relevés, that make available information on the composition and structure of 734 syntaxa ranging from association/community type/community to facies. At the mid-2021, the checklist includes 241 associations (152 subassociations and 25 vicariants, 190 variants and 61 subvariants, 13 facies), 35 types of communities and 17 communities from 62 alliances (6 suballiances), 33 orders and 20 classes. Most of the higher rank units — Class/Order/Alliance — are taken from the classification of vegetation in Europe (Mucina et al., 2016) Class. Of the 20 classes, 19 are in EVC (Mucina et al., 2016), to which we have assigned 207 associations, although we do not consider this decision final. A new class for zonal tundra vegetation Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov.2 so far is left in the provisional status. Conventionally is used the class Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis which contains willow scrubs in the valleys and on the interfluves. Order. Of the 33 orders 29 are in EVC. Among the known ones there is formally described Salicetalia glauco-lanatae so far located in Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis. Three orders (Arctophiletalia fulvae; Chamerio–Betuletalia nanae; Schulzio crini­tae–Aquilegietalia glandulosae) were described by Russian authors. Three new orders (Salici polaris–Hylocomietalia alaskani ord. nov. prov., Caricetalia arctisibiricae-lugentis ord. nov. prov., Eriophoretalia vaginati ord. nov. prov.) are suggested here in the provisional status, for establishing within the tund­ra zonal class Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. Nameless order is proposed for communities dominated by mesophytic arctic and/or arcto­alpine herbs often with dwarf shrubs (Salix arctica/polaris/reticulata, Dryas octopetala/punctata) and few mosses on the southern slopes of hills and high river banks in the tundra zone of Eurasia; conventionally it is placed in the Mulgedio–Aconitetea. According to both species composition and habitat the order Arabidetalia caeruleae is moved from Thlaspietea rotundifolii (as in EVC) into Salicetea herbaceae. Alliance. Of the 62 alliances 36 are in EVC, 5 of which (Arctophilion fulvae; Caricion stantis, Chamerio angustifolii–Matricarion hookeri; Dryado octopetalae–Caricion arctisibiricae, Polemonio acutiflorum–Veratrion lobeliani) are described by Russian authors. Alliance Oxytropidion nigrescentis, validated in 1998 (Matveyeva 1998, p. 81), is given as valid. The following 8 alliances are valid: Aulacomnio palustris–Caricion rariflorae, Polemonio acutiflorum–Salicion glaucae and Rubo chamaemori–Dicranion elongati on the European North, Carici concoloris–Aulacomnion turgidi, Oxytropido sordidae–Tanacetion bipinnati in Siberia, Androsaco arctisibiricae–Aconogonion laxmannii, Aulacomnio turgidi–Salicion glaucae, Salici pulchrae–Caricion lugentis on Chukotka. Another 7 alliances have invalid names (suggested as preliminary, no nomenclature type was chosen, etc.). For 6 of these validation is necessary and quite simple. An exeption is the alliance Luzulo–Festucion rubrae (Ektova, Ermokhina, 2012), with all invalid associations (no both relevés and diagnoses); after the later are validated they logically could be placed in Loiseleurio-Arctostaphylion. Within the tundra zonal class the alliance Salici polaris–Hylocomion alaskani all. nov. is formally described and the alliances Cassiopo tetragonae–Eriophorion vaginati all. nov. prov. and Poo arcticae–Calamagrostion holmii all. nov. prov. are proposed provisionally. It is recommended to establish 6 alliances (in the checklist with no name) in classes Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani (3), Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis (1), Thlaspietea rotundifolii (1) and Mulgedio-Aconitetea (1). Syntaxonomic decisions, other than those derived from the EVC, are made on the positions of 4 alliances within the higher-rank units: Caricion stantis was moved from Sphagno warnstorfii–Tomentypnetalia to Caricetalia fuscae; Dryado octopetalae–Caricion arctisibiricae — from Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii to Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. (see: Lavrinenko, Lavrinenko, 2018a); Potentillo–Polygonion vivipari is recognized (Koroleva et al., 2019) as different from Kobresio-Dryadion, synonym with which it is given in the EVC; the Honckenyo–Leymion arenarii is used compare to the EVC where it is the synonym of Agropyro–Honckenyion peploidis nom. mut. propos. Compared to the author’s decision, the alliance Carici concoloris–Aulacomnion turgidi from Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea is moved to Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. Suballiance. Of the 6 suballiances 4 (Androsaco arctisibiricae–Aconogonenion laxmannii; Astragalo pseudadsurgentis–Calamagrostienion purpurascentis; Caricenion rariflorae; Oxytropido vassilczenkoi–Dryadenion punctatae) are valid, and two (Anemono parviflorae–Salicenion and Pediculari lapponicae–Salicenion) require validation. The suballiance Caricenion rariflorae placed in the checklist in Scheuchzerion palustris was originally established within the Sphagnion baltici, which in the EVC is synonymous with the first name. Association. Of 241 associations only 34 are known outside the Russian Arctic, and the remaining 207 are new. The known ones are mainly on coastal bio­topes — marshes (15) and dunes (3) — and extremely wet habitats (9). There are 4 associations described earlier in Europe within the large landscape-forming classes (Dryadetum octopetalae, Empetro–Betuletum nanae, Loiseleurio-Diapensietum, Phyllodoco–Vaccinietum myrtilli) which distribution ranges are extended to the European North of Russia, and 3 within small intrazonal classes (Geranietum sylvatici, Potentillo crantzii–Polygonetum vivipari, and Rumici–Salicetum lapponi) found on Kola Peninsula. Only 2 associations, described by European (Dryado–Cassiopetum tetragonae) and American syntaxonomists (Sphagno–Eriophoretum vaginati), occur in the Asian part of the Russian Arctic (with new subunits within both). The most association-rich are 8 main classes. The two zonal classes include Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani (20 associations) in the polar desert zone and Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. (34 associations) in the tundra zone — 54 in total. 129 associations are identified in the 6 main classes of intrazonal vegetation: Be­tulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis (29 associations) Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea 1960 (22 associations), Carici rupestris–Kobresietea (21 associations), Salicetea herbaceae (16), Scheuchzerio palustris–Caricetea fuscae (25 associations); Juncetea maritimi (16 associations) — 187 in total. The vegetation of other 12 classes is described locally geographically and selectively syntaxonomically. 37 associations were not assigned to any of the known classes. This, in particular, was the case with the vegetation of the polar desert zone (Matveyeva, 2006) before Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani class was described in 2016. But it also happened when deciding to assign an association to some well-known class, authors stressed that they did this forcibly in the absence of an adequate unit. For example, before the proposal, albeit provisionally, of the class Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskanii class. prov., even zonal communities from the Arctic tundra subzone were placed in the Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea class accentuating that they do not contain a single characteristic species of this class (Kholod, 2007). Community type is distinguished when author does not establish new association due to the small number (less than 10) relevés in one location, leaving this for the future There are 35 such units, most of which (9) are in the Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani in the polar desert zone. It is worth noting two points: 1) almost never Community types reach the association status; 2) not all authors are stopped by a small number of relevés, when naming syntaxa, and many associations are based upon on less than not 10, but even 5 relevés. As a result, units of different status often contain equally little information about their composition. Community. This rank exists when there is only one relevé, due to both the type rarity and the lack of time. There are 17 such units, with 7 in the polar desert zone. Two main subordinate levels are used within the association: the first — subassociation and vicariant (not protected by the ICPN), the second — variant. Both reflect small but obvious differences in composition, abundance, constancy of species from the type of association (typicum), conditioned edaphically, locally-climatically, chorologically (Ellenberg, 1956; Braun-Blanquet, 1964) or indicate different stages of succession (Westhoff, van der Maarel, 1978). Differences in the listed characteristics from the type group (typicum) due to ecology are an undoubted reason for identifying several subassociations even in a landscape. To reflect similar differences due to the object location in several areas on latitudinal (in different tundra subzones) or longitudinal (in different sectors of the same zone/subzone) gradients in similar habitats (on the same landscape elements, with the same soil type), subassociation (a unit protected by the ICPN) is used as well. However, the desire to distinguish the reasons that caused such differences is also understandable. Hence, understandable is the interest to the concept of geographic vicariant, perceived by some Russian syntaxonomists working in the Arctic, which is reflected in the checklist (since the unit is not protected by ICPN, after the name in brackets there is a link to References). Leading European phytosociologists E. van der Maarel and W. Westhoff, who in 1993 reviewed an article by N. Matveyeva on the vegetation of Taymyr (Matveyeva, 1994), recalling the concept of geographical races (Becking, 1957), or vicariants (Barkman, 1958), recommended to use the status of a geographic vicariant to reflect changes in the composition of communities of one association related with a geographic location, leaving ecologically determined differences for subassociations.The need for such a division is reflected in the famous paper of F. Daniëls (1982) on Greenland, where the author distinguishes ecologically (habitat-differential) and geographically (area-differential) determined syntaxa, although uses only the name of subassociations. It is a great pity that the concept of a geographical vicariant, which was formed in the minds of the classics of phytosociology almost 60 years ago, did not find formal support: this unit was not included nor in the 3rd edition of the ICPN (Weber et al., 2000), neither in the 4th (Theurillat et al., 2021). The question of whether such a unit should be covered by the ICPN regulations «... can be resolved with the accumulation of experience in its application» (Weber et al., 2000, p. 6); the results of such experience are reflected in this checklist. Subassociation. There are 152 subassociations within 71 associations: most of all in the Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani (24), slightly less in Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea (21) and Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis (23), more than 11 in Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii (16), Scheuchzerio palustris–Caricetea fuscae (17), Juncetea maritimi (12) and Thlaspietea rotundifolii (12). Usually there are 2–3 subassociations in one association. Vicariant. There are 25 vicarians in the 14 associations. 19 of these are latitudinal in associations of zonal, mire, snowbed (Matveyeva, 1994, 1998, 2006) and herb meadow (Zanokha, 1993, 1995a, b) communities within 3 tundra subzones and syntaxa, replacing them in the polar deserts on Severnaya Zemlya (Zanokha, 2001; Matveyeva, 2006. The appeal to the concept of vicariant on Taymyr, where in the only place on the Earth on the mainland at about 900 km a full latitudinal gradient from the tree line to the polar deserts is expressed (Matveyeva, 1998), is quite understandable and logical. The other 6 vicariants are longitudinal: 1 in the European North of Russia (Matveyeva, Lavrinenko, 2011) and 5 on Wrangel Isl. (Kholod, 2007). Variant. There are 190 variants within 66 associations. There are no clearly formulated rules regarding their fundamental difference from subassociations. It is also not obvious whether the level of variant is the next after subassociation in association subdivision, or these are units of the same rank: in 31 associations, variants are allocated within subassociations or vicariants, in 34 — directly in the association. There is no clear logic behind why even one and the same author follows the first way in some cases, and the second in others. Subvariant. This unit was used for the division of variants of technogenically disturbed vegetation (Sumina, 2012, 2018), where 54 subvariants (2–5 in each) were identified in 20 variants of 6 associations, as well as of the baydzharakh vegetation in the arctic tundra subzone in Siberia (7 subvariants). Facies. The unit without differentiaal taxa, recognized by the predominance (with a high abundance) of a species of the «normal» floristic complex of the association, due to particular or sometimes ­extreme abiotic factors, or under anthropogenic impact (Westhoff, van der Maarel, 1978). There are 14 facies in 2 associations of 2 classes on Wrangel Isl. (Kholod, 2007) and in 3 syntaxa of 3 classes in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra (Neshataev, Lavrinenko, 2020). Conclusion. One of the purposes of publishing this checklist is to draw the attention of northern phytosociologists to assessing the validity of syntaxa and the legality of their position in the Braun-Blanquet system. Our task was to bring together all available information, which is done in this article. Even a simple list of syntaxa makes it possible to assess the completeness of the geographical and syntaxonomic knowledge of vegetation. Geographically, sytaxonomic information is available for 12 of the 13 Russian floristic provinces (according to CAVM), in which about 130 districts have been investigated. The most studied provinces (from west to east) are Kanino-Pechora, Yamalo-Gydan, Taymyr, East Chukotka, Wrangel Island (the number of published relevés in each more than 600. There are no published data for the Kharaulakh province. It is not possible to say for sure to what extent the number of associations reflects the presence and distribution communities of 20 classes in different regions of the Russian Arctic. The completeness of the vegetation study depended on the tasks and on the possibility of their implementation. High attention to zonal vegetation is natural, since it is used for subdivision of the territory, for zonal division, and for maps of various scales. Both snowless (Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii) and snowbed (Salicetea herbaceae) communities, as specific for the Arctic, are also always in the sphere of interests. Polygonal mires and bog-hollow vegetation (Scheuchzerio palustris–Caricetea) certainly require much more research, due to their vast areas in the eastern regions of the Siberian Arctic, where these types are not described. For the relatively well-studied shrub communities in the Asian part (conditionally assigned to the Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis), validation of many syntaxa are required; the gap in the description of this object in the northern European regions has just begun to be filled. For 12 associations of grass-forbs communities on the well heated slopes conditionally positioned in the Mulgedio-Aconitetea, new orders and allian­ces, and, potentially, the class are necessary to be established. Unreasonably little data are available for raised bogs (Oxycocco-Sphagnetea), if even these are ­rather common of the southern regions of the tundra zone. Very scattered geographically and sparse syntaxonomic data are on the vegetation of naturally eroded mobile substrates (sand screes, gravel debris, landslides). In the Arctic, as in other regions of the globe, communities are placed in this class not by their species composition, but by habitat (unstable substrate), and the fact of the sparse cover. Only recently the zonal vegetation of polar deserts on horizontal surfaces with quite stable loamy substrates has been classified as a distinct class (Daniëls et al., 2016). In the list of habitat types with associated described Brown-Blanquet syntaxa from Arctic regions of Europe, Greenland, western North America, and Alaska, there are 5 classes (Walker et al., 2018) which are absent in our checklist: Juncetea trifidi Hadač in Klika et Hadač 1994, Saxifrago cernuae–Cochlearietea groenlandica Micuna et Daniëls in Mucina et al. 2016, Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl. et al. 1939, Asplenietea trichomanis (Br.-Bl. in Meier et Br.-Bl. 1934) Oberd. 1977, Salicetea purpureae Moor 1958. Communities of these classes either exist in the Russian Arctic, but were not described (e. g. forest «islets» in tundra landscapes — Vaccinio-Piceetea, and the vegetation of rocks and rubble talus — Asplenietea trichomanis), or they exist, but are positioned in the other classes. An open question remains with Junce­tea trifidi on acidic substrates. Final conclusions on these classes will become possible after the thorough analysis of syntaxa throughout the entire circumpolar space. Even a very brief analysis of the available data revealed numerous cases of invalid names of syntaxa (no indication of the nomenclature type) or inconsistency names with ICPN rules (correct [recte] names are given for 43 ones); leaving the association outside of higher-level units or assigning one basic unit to ­several higher ones, etc. There are more such cases than we have noted now, especially taking into ­account the new edition of the ICPN (for example, the obligatory Latin or English terminology for denoting ranks and new units (ICPN 4th, Art. 3d, 3i, 3o, 5), mutation ­cases (Lat. mutatum, ICPN. 4th, Art. 45), inversions (Lat. inversum, ICPN. 4th, Art. 42) of names and autonym (Lat. autonym, ICPN 4th, Art. 13b, 4d). Now it becomes possible for each author to take measures to eliminate errors of various kinds to validate their syntaxa. Consolidated participation in joint publication is also possible. This is a necessary step for the next action — preparing the Prodromus of the vegetation syntaxa of the Russian Arctic with the expanded characteristics for all levels.

Речное русло в процессе своей эволюции подвержено деформациям, проявляющимся в виде размыва русла и поймы, переноса и аккумуляции наносов. Знание истории развития речных русел в условиях, характерных для данной территории, позволяет дать оценку их эволюции в будущем. Целью исследования являлось выявление особенностей формировании и эволюции гидрографической сети Южного Приильменья в голоцене. Эти особенности преимущественно связаны с последним Валдайским оледенением. Вопервых, реки возникли только после отступления ледника и имеют возраст примерно от 11 до 14тыс. лет назад. Вовторых, их развитие контролировалось меняющимся базисом эрозии, зависящим от уровня приледникового озера, сформировавшегося на южной периферии ледника при его отступлении. Втретьих, эволюция водотоков происходила в условиях компенсационного деформационного поднятия территории. В результате на территории Южного Приильменья сформировались реки, в начальной стадии своего развития свободно меандрирующие по широкой и почти плоской равнине, сложенной флювиогляциальными отложениями. Затем, по мере понижения базиса эрозии, происходило врезание русел в водоупорные ледниковые отложения Валдайского горизонта. В последнее тысячелетие вертикальный размыв резко усилился, что связано с преодолением трудноразмываемых флювиогляциальных четвертичных суглинистых пород и непосредственным воздействием потока на нижележащие девонские отложения, и в настоящее время по нашей оценке достигает 13 см в год. По мере врезания русел рек плановые деформации существенно замедлились. Русла развиваются, хотя и не полной мере, по типу вынужденного меандрирования. Амантов А.В., Амантова М.Г., Ряб-чук Д.В., Сергеев А.Ю., Гусенцова Т.М., Жамойда В.А., Фьелдскар В. Проблемы голоценового развития Южного Приладожья // Региональ-ная геология и металлогения. 2016. № 65. С. 37-49 Барац Н.И. 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DOI: 10.17741/bgsf/90.2.010 The riverbed in the course of its evolution is subject to deformations, manifested in the form of erosion of the channel and floodplain, sediment transport and accumulation. Knowledge of the history of the development of river channels in the conditions characteristic of a given territory allows us to assess their future evolution. The aim of the study was to identify the features of the formation and evolution of the hydrographic network of Southern Priilmenye in the Holocene. These features are mainly associated with the last Valdai glaciation. Firstly, rivers arose only after the retreat of the glacier and are about 11 to 14 thousand years old. Secondly, their development was controlled by a changing erosion basis, depending on the level of the subglacial lake, which formed on the southern periphery of the glacier during its retreat. Thirdly, the evolution of watercourses occurred in conditions of compensatory deformational elevation of the territory. As a result, rivers formed on the territory of Southern Priilmene, in the initial stage of their development, meandering freely along a wide and almost flat plain composed of fluvioglacial deposits. Then, as the erosion basis decreased, the channels incised into the waterresistant glacial deposits of the Valdai horizon. In the last millennium, vertical erosion sharply increased, which is associated with overcoming difficult to wash out fluvioglacial Quaternary loamy rocks and the direct impact of the flow on the underlying Devonian sediments, and at present, according to our estimates, it reaches 13 cm per year. As the riverbeds cut in, the planned deformations slowed significantly. The channels develop, although not to the full extent, by the type of forced meandering. Amantov A.V., Amantova M.G., Ryabchuk D.V., Ser-geev A.Yu., Gusentsova T.M., Zhamoida V.A., Fjeldskaar W. 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Golotsenovye i sovremennye dvizheniya zemnoi kory (Geologo-geomorfologicheskie i seismotek-tonicheskie voprosy) [Recent crustal movements (Geolog-ical-geomorphological and seismotectonic aspects)]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1977. 240 p. (In Russian) Nikonov A.A., Enman S.V., Fleifel' L.D. Golotsenovye i sovremennye dvizheniya zemnoi kory v perekhodnoi zone ot Fennoskandinavskogo shchita k Vostochno-Evropeiskoi platforme v raione Ladozhskogo grabena [Holocene and modern movements of the earth's crust in the transition zone from the Fennoscandinavian shield to the East Europe platform in the Ladoga graben area]. Materialy chetyrnadtsatoi Mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii «Svyaz' poverkhnostnykh struktur zemnoi kory s glubin-nymi» (g. Petrozavodsk, 27-31 oktyabrya 2018) [Pro-ceedings of the 14th international conference «Relation-ship between the surface and deep structures of the Earth’s crust» (Petrozavodsk, October 27–31, 2008] Pet-rozavodsk: Karel'skii nauchnyi tsentr RAN, 2008. Part 2, pp. 79–81. (In Russian) Ramsay W. Changes of sea-level, resulting from the in-crease and decrease of glaciacion. Fennia, 1931, 52(5), pp. 1-62 Rinterknecht V., Hang T., Gorlach A., Kohv M., Kalla K., Kalm V., Subetto D., Bourlès D., Léanni L., Guillou V. The Last Glacial Maximum extent of the Scandinavi-an Ice Sheet in the Valday Heights, western Russia: Ev-idence from cosmogenic surface exposure dating using 10Be. Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018, Vol. 200, pp. 106-113. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.09.032 Shel'fy Evrazii v mezozoe i kainozoe: Atlas paleogeo-graficheskikh kart: v 2 vol. Vol.2 [Palaeogeographic at-las of the shelf regions of Eurasia for the mesozoic and cenozoic]. Moscow, Publ. Geological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1991. 106 p. (In Russian and English) Shitov M.V. Golotsenovye transgressii Ladozhskogo ozera. Avtoref. diss. kand. geol-min. najuk [Holocene transgressions of Lake Ladoga. Ph. D. (geological and mineralogical) thesis]. SPb, 2007. 17 p. (In Russian) Shuiskii Yu.D., Simeonova G.A. O vliyanii geolog-icheskogo stroeniya morskikh beregov na protsessy abra-zii [On the influence of the geological structure of sea coasts on the processes of abrasion]. Doklady Bolgarskoi Akademii Nauk [Reports of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences], 1976, vol. 29, no 2, pp. 57-79. (In Russian) Stokes C.R. Deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Last Glacial Maximum. Cuadernos de Investi-gación Geográfica = Geographical Reseach Letters, 2017, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 377-428. DOI: 10.18172/cig.3237. Subetto D.A. Istoriya formirovaniya Ladozhskogo ozera i ego soedineniya s Baltiiskim morem [The history of the formation of Lake Ladoga and its connection with the Baltic Sea]. Obshchestvo. Sreda. Razvitie (Terra Hu-mana) [Society. Environment. Development (Terra Nu-mana)], 2007, no 1 (2), pp. 111-120. (In Russian) Subetto D.A., Shvarev S.V., Nikonov A.A., Zaretska-ya N.E., Poleshchuk A.V., Potakhin M.S. New evidence of the Vuoksi River origin by geodynamic cataclysm. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland, 2018, vol. 90, pp 275-289, DOI: 10.17741/bgsf/90.2.010. Tsytovich N.A. Mekhanika gruntov (kratkii kurs): Uchebnik dlya stroitel'nykh vuzov [Soil mechanics (short course)]. Moscow, Vyssh. shk. Publ., 1983. 288 p. (In Russian) Vasilieva N.V., Subetto D.A., Verbitsky V.R., Krotova-Putintseva A.E. Istoriya formirovaniya Il'men'-Volkhovskogo basseina [History of the Ilmen-Volkhov Basin Development]. Izvestiya Rossiiskogo gosudar-stvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta im. A.I. Gertsena [Izvestia: Herzen University Journal of Human-ities & Sciences], 2012, no. 153(2), pp. 141-150. (In Russian; abstract in English) Vinogradov A.Yu., Obyazov V.A. Glyatsioizostatich-eskoe podnyatie Priil'menskoi nizmennosti v golotsene [Glacio-isostatic uplift of the Priilmen lowland in the Holocene]. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov chetyrnadtsatoi Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii «Nauchnye issledovaniya: klyuchevye problemy tret'ego tysyacheletiya» (Moskva, 01-02 aprelya 2018) [Collec-tion of scientific papers of the fourteenth International scientific-practical conference "Scientific research: key problems of the third millennium" (Moscow, April 01-02, 2018)], Moscow, Problems of science Publ., 2018, pp. 99-102. (In Russian)

Retraction note: Arroyo Quiñonez, V. M., Canchingre Bone, M. E., Tenorio Segura, S. E., & Espinoza Echeverría, E. E. (2023). Challenges of the black communities; the conservation of the Santiago Cayapas river commune. TECHNO REVIEW. International Technology, Science and Society Review Revista Internacional De Tecnología, Ciencia Y Sociedad, 15(1), 227–236. https://doi.org/10.37467/revtechno.v15.5112 The Editorial Office of Eurasia Academic Publishing Group has retracted this article. An investigation carried out by our Research Integrity Department has found a group of articles, among which this one is found, that are not within the thematic scope of the journal. We believe that the editorial process was manipulated and, furthermore, acceptance decisions were made under possibly inappropriate peer review.

Retraction note: Lira Camargo. W. M., Lozano Zanelly, G. A., Hurtado Concha, A., Rivera Gonzales, M. M., Zamalloa Torres, A. M., & Lira Camargo, Z. R. (2023). Protected homes, according to the HoNOS scale, in patients with psychiatric disorders,2022. TECHNO REVIEW. International Technology, Science and Society Review Revista Internacional De Tecnología, Ciencia Y Sociedad, 15(1), 219–226. https://doi.org/10.37467/revtechno.v15.5111 The Editorial Office of Eurasia Academic Publishing Group has retracted this article. An investigation carried out by our Research Integrity Department has found a group of articles, among which this one is found, that are not within the thematic scope of the journal. We believe that the editorial process was manipulated and, furthermore, acceptance decisions were made under possibly inappropriate peer review.

The article reviews relevant issues of transportation of goods across the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union by highly automated unmanned transport vehicles. The authors describe the history and the basis for the organization of experimental unmanned cargo transportation between logistics centers in Blagoveschensk (Russia) and Heihe (China) using the bridge across the Amur river. The paper singles out positive effects from the use of unmanned transport vehicles for cargo transportations and analyzes practical technological issues associated with the use of unmanned transport vehicles. The authors bring forward a proposal about the need for the legal consolidation of movement of unmanned transport within the framework of international transport routes.

This article posits that the Ottoman international system was built on three pillars: power projection, interconnectedness, and autonomy of frontier polities. While its military power projection dwarfed its great power rivals, cultural and organizational capacities of the Ottoman Empire extended its influence to areas out of its military reach. Occupying a central position in trade, pilgrimage, and diplomacy during the early modern period, the Ottoman Empire fostered connections throughout the wider Afro-Eurasian world. The flexible and almost independent status of the peripheral polities not only increased the survival capacity of the empire but also played a central role in the functioning of the Ottoman international system. Rather than presenting either a material or ideational perspective, the present study adopts a via-media approach, integrating both perspectives to elucidate the Ottoman international system, which persisted for nearly three centuries from the early 16th century to the late 18th century. Analyzing such a broad historical phenomenon, this article aims to enrich and contribute to the increasingly popularized historical and non-Western IR subfields. Additionally, it holds potential to deepen our comprehension of heterogeneous international systems and their modus operandi. Le système international ottoman : Projection de puissance, interconnexion et autonomie des territoires frontaliers

The article examines interstate cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia on transboundary environmental issues. An analysis of the environmental policy of Kazakhstan and Russia is carried out, and the key norms of the two countries’ environmental legislation are examined to determine the foundations and mechanisms for solving shared environmental problems. The role and ongoing policy of Kazakhstan’s central state body in the environmental protection sphere as a tool for solving environmental problems is determined. The main reasons for the environmental problems of the Ural and Ishim river basins and the biological diversity of the border areas of Russia and Kazakhstan are discussed. Priority prospects for environmental cooperation are highlighted in relation to the countries’ common transboundary environmental problems, including cooperation potential within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Space.

Исследования изменений уровня озера Ильмень важны для изучения развития речной сети в его бассейне, так как он является базисом эрозии для них. Цель работы состояла в оценке уровенного режима озеро Ильмень в течение голоцена, включая современный период. Уровенный режим озера определяется не только поступлением вод с водосбора, но и регулируется стоком вытекающей из него реки Волхов, который до строительства 1926 году Волховской ГЭС зависел от отметок Пчевских и Велецких порогов в низовьях реки. В течение голоцена Пчевские и Велецкие пороги размывались рекой Волхов, в результате чего их отметки понижались. Выполнена ориентировочная реконструкция изменения отметок порогов в зависимости от увлажненности климата в предыдущие столетия. Оценка той или иной степени увлажнения климата за столетний/тысячелетний период достаточно условна и принималась как отношение количества дождливых годов к годам с засухами на основании летописных данных. К началу нашей эры минимальный уровень озера находился на отметках не ниже 19,5 м. Максимальный уровень, учитывая схожесть климата с последними столетиями, скорее всего, не превышал отметки в 24,5 м, то есть амплитуда уровней была меньше современной. Начиная со второй половины первого тысячелетия до наших дней, уровенный режим озера определялся только климатическими особенностями. На основании того, что минимальные отметки дна некоторых рек, в частности Ловати, Мсты и Шелони, впадающих в Ильмень, находятся не только ниже минимального уровня озера, но и минимальных отметок его дна, можно сделать предварительный вывод, что уровень озера Ильмень в прошлом был несколько ниже, нежели в настоящее время и составлял современные 16-17 м балтийской системы. Литература Барышников Н.Б., Попов И.В. Динамика русловых потоков и русловые процессы: учебное пособие. Л.: Гидрометеоиздат, 1988. 454 с. Борисенков Е.П., Пасецкий В.М. Тысячелетняя летопись необычайных явлений природы. М.: Мысль, 1988. 522 с. Былинский Е.Н. Влияние снижения уровней Ильменского и Ладожского озера на развитие продольных профилей притоков оз. Ильмень и Волхова // Вестн. Моск. ун-та: Сер. биологии, почвоведения, геологии, географии. 1959. № 3. С. 221-231 Васильева Н.В., Субетто Д.А., Вербицкий В.Р., Кротова-Путинцева А.Е. История формирования Ильмень-Волховского бассейна // Известия Российского государственного педагогического университета им. А.И. Герцена. 2012. С. 141-150. Виноградов А.Ю., Обязов В.А. Гляциоизостатическое поднятие Приильменской низменности в голоцене // Сборник научных трудов XXIV Международной научно-практической конференции «Научные исследования: ключевые проблемы III тысячелетия» (Москва, 01-02 апреля 2018 г.). М.: Проблемы науки, 2018. С. 99-102. Виноградов А.Ю., Обязов В.А., Кадацкая М.М. История формирования рек Южного Приильменья в голоцене // Гидросфера. Опасные процессы и явления. 2019. Т. 1. Вып. 1. С. 90-113. DOI: 10.34753/HS.2019.1.1.001 Виноградов Ю.Б. Этюды о селевых потоках. Л.: Гидрометеоиздат, 1980. 143 с. Геология СССР. В 48 томах. Том I. Ленинградская, Псковская и Новгородская области. Геологическое описание. Северо-Западное территориальное / Гл. ред. А.В. Сидоренко. М.: Недра, 1971. 504 с. Гришанин К.В. Динамика русловых потоков. Л.: Гидрометеоиздат, 1969. 428 с. Зубов В.Г. Механика. М.: Наука, 1978. 352 с. Квасов Д.Д. Позднечетвертичная история крупных озер и внутренних морей Восточной Европы. Л.: Наука, 1975. 279 с. Малаховский Д.Б. Геоморфологические и геологические наблюдения в долине реки Ловать // Известия Русского Географического общества. 2001. Т. 133. Вып. 2. С. 32-38 Многолетние данные о режиме и ресурсах поверхностных вод суши: в 15 т. Т. 1. РСФСР: в 26 вып. Вып. 5. Бассейны рек Балтийского моря, Ладожского и Онежского озер. Л.: Гидрометеоиздат, 1986. 689 с. Нескоромных В.В. Разрушение горных пород при проведении геологоразведочных работ: учебное пособие. М.: НИЦ ИНФРА-М, 2016. 392 с. DOI: 10.12737/11719 Петров А.Г., Потапов И.И. Перенос наносов под действием нормальных и касательных придонных напряжений с учетом уклона дна // Прикладная механика и техническая физика. 2014. т. 55. № 5 (327). С. 100-105. Ресурсы поверхностных вод: в 20 т. Т. 2. Карелия и Северо-Запад: в 2 ч. Ч. 2. Приложения / Под ред. В.Е. Водогрецкого. Л.: Гидрометеоиздат, 1972. 278 с. Субетто Д.А. История формирования Ладожского озера и его соединения с Балтийским морем // Общество. Среда. Развитие (Terra Humana). 2007, № 1 (2). С. 111-120. Чувардинский В.Г. О ледниковой теории. Происхождение образований ледниковой формации. Апатиты, 1998. 303 с. Шашенко О.М., Пустовойтенко В.П., Сдвижкова О.О. Геомеханика: учебник. К.: ГВУЗ Национальный горный университет, 2015. 563 с. Шуйский Ю.Д., Симеонова Г. О влиянии геологического строения морских берегов на процессы абразии // Докл. Болг. АН. 1976. Т. 29. №2. С. 57-79. Gorlach A., Hang T., Kalm V. GIS-based reconstruction of Late Weichselian proglacial lakes in northwestern Russia and Belarus // Boreas. 2017. Vol. 46. Iss. 3. P. 486-502. DOI: 10.1111/bor.12223. Hughes A.L.C., Gyllencreutz R., Lohne Ø.S., Mangerud J., Svendsen J.I. The last Eurasian ice sheets – a chronological database and time-slice reconstruction, DATED-1 // Boreas. 2016. Vol. 45. Iss. 1. P. 1-45. DOI: 10.1111/bor.12142. Rinterknecht V., Hang T., Gorlach A., Kohv M., Kalla K., Kalm V., Subetto D., Bourlès D., Léanni L., Guillou V. The Last Glacial Maximum extent of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet in the Valday Heights, western Russia: Evidence from cosmogenic surface exposure dating using 10Be // Quaternary Science Reviews. 2018. Vol. 200. P. 106-113. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.09.032 Subetto D.A., Shvarev S.V., Nikonov A.A., Zaretskaya N.E., Poleshchuk A.V., Potakhin M.S. New evidence of the Vuoksi River origin by geodynamic cataclysm // Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland. 2018. Vol. 90. P. 275-289. DOI: 10.17741/bgsf/90.2.010. Researches of changes in the water level of Lake Ilmen are important for studying the development of the river network in its basin, since it is the basis of erosion for them. The purpose of the work was to assess the level regime of Lake Ilmen during the Holocene, including the modern period. The level regime of the lake is determined not only by the inflow of waters from the catchment, but is also regulated by the runoff of the Volkhov River flowing out of it, which, which prior to the construction of the Volkhov Hydroelectric Power Station in 1926, depended on the marks of the Pchevsky and Veletsky rapids in the downstream. During the Holocene, the marks of the Pchevsky and Veletsky rapids were decreasing, because they been eroded by the Volkhov River. An approximate reconstruction of the change in rapids marks has been carried out, depending on the humidity of the climate in previous centuries. Evaluation of a varying degree humidification over a century / millennium is rather arbitrary and was taken as the ratio of the number of rainy years to years with droughts based on annals data. By the beginning of our era, the minimum water level of the lake was not less than 19.5 m. The maximum water level most likely did not exceeding the mark of 24.5 m, considering the similarity of climate to the last centuries, that is, the amplitude of the water levels was less than modern. Only climatic features determined the water level regime of the lake starting from the second half of the first millennium to the present day. On the grounds of the fact that the minimum bottom marks of some rivers, flowing into lake Ilmen (in particular Lovat, Msta and Shelon), are lower not only than the minimum water level of the lake, but also than the minimum marks of its bottom, we can do a preliminary conclusion that the water level of Lake Ilmen in the past was rather lower than at present and was at modern mark of 16-17 m Baltic system. References Baryshnikov N.B., Popov I.V. Dinamika ruslovykh potokov i ruslovye protsessy: uchebnoe posobie [Dynamics of streams and fluviomorphological processes in rivers: text-book]. Leningrad, Publ. Gidrometeoizdat, 1988. 454 p. (In Russian; abstract in English). Borisenkov E.P., Pasetskii V.M. Tysyacheletnyaya letopis' neobychainykh yavlenii prirody [The thousand-year chronicle of extraordinary natural phenomena]. Moscow, Publ. Mysl', 1988. 522 p. (In Russian). Bylinskii E.N. Vliyanie snizheniya urovnei Il'menskogo i Ladozhskogo ozera na razvitie prodol'nykh profilei pritokov oz. Il'men' i Volkhova [The impact of lower levels of Lake Ilmensky and Ladoga on the development of longitudinal profiles of tributaries of Lake Ilmen and Volkhova]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta: Seriya biologii, pochvovedeniya, geologii, geografii [Moscow University Bulletin: Series of Biology, Soil Science, Geology, Geography]. 1959, No. 3, pp. 221-231. (In Russian). Chuvardinskii V.G. O lednikovoi teorii. Proiskhozhdenie obrazovanii lednikovoi formatsii [About glacial theory. The origin of the formations of the glacial formation]. Apatity, 1998. 303 p. (In Russian). Geologiya SSSR. V 48 tomakh. Tom 1. Leningradskaya, Pskovskaya i Novgorodskaya oblasti. Geologicheskoe opisanie. Severo-Zapadnoe territorial'noe [Geology of the USSR. In 48 volumes. Volume 1. Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod regions. Geological description. Northwest Territorial] / A.V. Sidorenko (ed.). Moscow, Publ. Nedra, 1971. 504 p. (In Russian). Gorlach A., Hang T., Kalm V. GIS-based reconstruction of Late Weichselian proglacial lakes in northwestern Russia and Belarus. Boreas, 2017, vol.46, iss.3, pp. 486-502. DOI: 10.1111/bor.12223. Grishanin K.V. Dinamika ruslovykh potokov [The dynamics of channel flows].Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat Publ., 1969. 428 p. (In Russian). Hughes A.L.C., Gyllencreutz R., Lohne Ø.S., Mangerud J., Svendsen J.I. The last Eurasian ice sheets – a chronological database and time-slice reconstruction, DATED-1. Boreas, 2016, vol. 45, iss.1, pp. 1-45. DOI: 10.1111/bor.12142. Kvasov D.D. Pozdnechetvertichnaya istoriya krupnykh ozer i vnutrennikh morei Vostochnoi Evropy [Late Quaternary history of large lakes and inland seas of Eastern Europe]. Leningrad, Publ. Nauka, 1975. 279 p. (In Russian). Malakhovskii D.B. Geomorfologicheskie i geologicheskie nablyudeniya v doline r. Lovat' [Geomorphological and geological observations in the valley of the Lovat river]. Izvestiya Russkogo Geograficheskogo obshchestva [Izvestiya Russkogo geograficheskogo obshestva], 2001, vol. 133, iss. 2, pp. 32-38. (In Russian). Mnogoletnie dannye o rezhime i resursakh poverkhnostnykh vod sushi: v 15 t. T. 1. RSFSR: v 26 vyp. Vyp. 5. Basseiny rek Baltiiskogo morya, Ladozhskogo i Onezhskogo ozer [Long-term data on the regime and resources of land surface water: in 15 volumes. Volume 1. RSFSR: in 26 issue. Issue 5. River basins of the Baltic Sea, Ladoga and Onega Lakes]. Leningrad, Publ. Gidrometeoizdat, 1986. 689 p. (In Russian). Neskoromnykh V.V. Razrushenie gornykh porod pri provedenii geologorazvedochnykh rabot: uchebnoe posobie [Destruction of rocks during exploration: a training manual]. Мoscow, Publ. SPC INFRA-M, 2016, 392 p. (In Russian). DOI: 10.12737/11719 Petrov A.G., Potapov I.I. Sediment transport under normal and tangential bottom stresses with the bottom slope taken into account. Journal of Applied Mechanics and Technical Physics, 2014, vol. 55, iss. 5, pp. 812-817. DOI: 10.1134/S0021894414050101 Resursy poverkhnostnykh vod SSSR: v 20 vol. Vol.2: Kareliya i Severo-Zapad: v 2 ch. Chast' 2. Prilozheniya. [Surface water resources of the USSR: in 20 vol. Vol. 2: Karelia and North-West: in Two parts. Part 2. Applications]. Ed. Vodogretskiy V.E. Leningrad, Publ. Gidrometeoizdat, 1972. 278 p. (In Russian). Rinterknecht V., Hang T., Gorlach A., Kohv M., Kalla K., Kalm V., Subetto D., Bourlès D., Léanni L., Guillou V. The Last Glacial Maximum extent of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet in the Valday Heights, western Russia: Evidence from cosmogenic surface exposure dating using 10Be. Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018, vol. 200, pp. 106-113. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.09.032 Shashenko O.M., Pustovoitenko V.P., Sdvizhkova O.O. Geomekhanika: uchebnik [Geomechanics: textbook]. Kiev, Publ. State Higher Educational Institution National Mining University, 2015. 563 p. (In Russian). Shuiskii Yu.D., Simeonova G.A. O vliyanii geologicheskogo stroeniya morskikh beregov na protsessy abrazii [On the influence of the geological structure of sea coasts on the processes of abrasion]. Doklady Bolgarskoi Akademii Nauk [Reports of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences], 1976, vol. 29, no 2, pp. 57-79. (In Russian) Subetto D.A. Istoriya formirovaniya Ladozhskogo ozera i ego soedineniya s Baltiiskim morem [The history of the formation of Lake Ladoga and its connection with the Baltic Sea]. Obshchestvo. Sreda. Razvitie (Terra Humana) [Society. Environment. Development (Terra Numana)], 2007, no 1 (2), pp. 111-120. (In Russian). Subetto D.A., Shvarev S.V., Nikonov A.A., Zaretskaya N.E., Poleshchuk A.V., Potakhin M.S. New evidence of the Vuoksi River origin by geodynamic cataclysm. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland, 2018, vol. 90, pp 275-289. DOI: 10.17741/bgsf/90.2.010. Vasilieva N.V., Subetto D.A., Verbitsky V.R., Krotova-Putintseva A.E. Istoriya formirovaniya Il'men'-Volkhovskogo basseina [History of the Ilmen-Volkhov Basin Development]. Izvestiya Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta imeni A.I. Gertsena [Izvestia: Herzen University Journal of Humanities & Sciences], 2012, no. 153(2), pp. 141-150. (In Russian; abstract in English). Vinogradov A.Yu., Obyazov V.A. Glyatsioizostaticheskoe podnyatie Priil'menskoi nizmennosti v golotsene [Glacio-isostatic uplift of the Priilmen lowland in the Holocene]. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov chetyrnadtsatoi Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii «Nauchnye issledovaniya: klyuchevye problemy tret'ego tysyacheletiya» (Moskva, 01-02 aprelya 2018) [Collection of scientific papers of the fourteenth International scientific-practical conference "Scientific research: key problems of the third millennium" (Moscow, April 01-02, 2018)], Moscow, Problems of science Publ., 2018, pp. 99-102. (In Russian). Vinogradov A.Yu., Obyazov V.A., Kadatskaya M.M. Istoriya formirovaniya rek Yuzhnogo Priil'men'ya v golotsene [History of formation of the rivers of south Prilimenium in holotsen]. Gidrosfera. Opasnye protsessy i yavleniya [Hydrosphere. Hazard processes and phenomena], 2019, vol. 1, iss. 1, pp. 90-113 (In Russian; abstract in English). DOI: 10.34753/HS.2019.1.1.001 Vinogradov Yu.B. Etyudy o selevykh potokakh [Etudes about mud stream]. Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat Publ., 1980. 144 p. (In Russian). Zubov V.G. Mekhanika [Mechanics]. Moscow, Publ. Nauka, 1978. 352 p. (In Russian).

Literature—at least serious literature—is something that we work at. This is especially true within the academy. Literature departments are places where workers labour over texts carefully extracting and sharing meanings, for which they receive monetary reward. Specialised languages are developed to describe professional concerns. Over the last thirty years, the productions of mass culture, once regarded as too slight to warrant laborious explication, have been admitted to the academic workroom. Gothic studies—the specialist area that treats fearful and horrifying texts —has embraced the growing acceptability of devoting academic effort to texts that would once have fallen outside of the remit of “serious” study. In the seventies, when Gothic studies was just beginning to establish itself, there was a perception that the Gothic was “merely a literature of surfaces and sensations”, and that any Gothic of substantial literary worth had transcended the genre (Thompson 1). Early specialists in the field noted this prejudice; David Punter wrote of the genre’s “difficulty in establishing respectable credentials” (403), while Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick hoped her work would “make it easier for the reader of ‘respectable’ nineteenth-century novels to write ‘Gothic’ in the margin” (4). Gothic studies has gathered a modicum of this longed-for respectability for the texts it treats by deploying the methodologies used within literature departments. This has yielded readings that are largely congruous with readings of other sorts of literature; the Gothic text tells us things about ourselves and the world we inhabit, about power, culture and history. Yet the Gothic remains a production of popular culture as much as it is of the valorised literary field. I do not wish to argue for a reintroduction of the great divide described by Andreas Huyssen, but instead to suggest that we have missed something important about the ways in which popular Gothics—and perhaps other sorts of popular text—function. What if the popular Gothic were not a type of work, but a kind of play? How might this change the way we read these texts? Johan Huizinga noted that “play is not ‘ordinary’ or ‘real’ life. It is rather a stepping out of ‘real’ life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all of its own. Every child knows perfectly well he is ‘only pretending’, or that it was ‘only for fun’” (8). If the Gothic sometimes offers playful texts, then those texts might direct readers not primarily towards the real, but away from it, at least for a limited time. This might help to account for the wicked spectacle offered by Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out, and in particular, its presentation of the black mass. The black mass is the parody of the Christian mass thought to be performed by witches and diabolists. Although it has doubtless been performed on rare occasions since the Middle Ages, the first black mass for which we have substantial documentary evidence was celebrated in Hampstead on Boxing Day 1918, by Montague Summers; it is a satisfying coincidence that Summers was one of the Gothic’s earliest scholars. We have record of Summer’s mass because it was watched by a non-participant, Anatole James, who was “bored to tears” as Summers recited tracts of Latin and practiced homosexual acts with a youth named Sullivan while James looked on (Medway 382-3). Summers claimed to be a Catholic priest, although there is some doubt as to the legitimacy of his ordination. The black mass ought to be officiated by a Catholic clergyman so the host may be transubstantiated before it is blasphemed. In doing so, the mass de-emphasises interpretive meaning and is an assault on the body of Christ rather than a mutilation of the symbol of Christ’s love and sacrifice. Thus, it is not conceived of primarily as a representational act but as actual violence. Nevertheless, Summers’ black mass seems like an elaborate form of sexual play more than spiritual warfare; by asking an acquaintance to observe the mass, Summers formulated the ritual as an erotic performance. The black mass was a favourite trope of the English Gothic of the nineteen-sixties and seventies. Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out features an extended presentation of the mass; it was first published in 1934, but had achieved a kind of genre-specific canonicity by the nineteen-sixties, so that many Gothics produced and consumed in the sixties and seventies featured depictions of the black mass that drew from Wheatley’s original. Like Summers, Wheatley’s mass emphasised licentious sexual practice and, significantly, featured a voyeur or voyeurs watching the performance. Where James only wished Summers’ mass would end, Wheatley and his followers presented the mass as requiring interruption before it reaches a climax. This version of the mass recurs in most of Wheatley’s black magic novels, but it also appears in paperback romances, such as Susan Howatch’s 1973 The Devil on Lammas Night; it is reimagined in the literate and genuinely eerie short stories of Robert Aickman, which are just now thankfully coming back into print; it appears twice in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books. Nor was the black mass confined to the written Gothic, appearing in films of the period too; The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), The Witches (1966), Satan’s Skin, aka Blood on Satan’s Claw (1970), The Wicker Man (1973), and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974) all feature celebrations of the Sabbat, as, of course do the filmed adaptations of Wheatley’s novels, The Devil Rides Out (1967) and To the Devil a Daughter (1975). More than just a key trope, the black mass was a procedure characteristic of the English Gothic of the sixties; narratives were structured so as to lead towards its performance. All of the texts mentioned above repeat narrative and trope, but more importantly, they loosely repeat experience, both for readers and the characters depicted. While Summers’ black mass apparently made for tiresome viewing, textual representations of the black mass typically embrace the pageant and sensuality of the Catholic mass it perverts, involving music, incense and spectacle. Often animalistic sex, bestiality, infanticide or human sacrifice are staged, and are intended to fascinate rather than bore. Although far from canonical in a literary sense, by 1969 Wheatley was an institution. He had sold 27 million books worldwide and around 70 percent of those had been within the British market. All of his 55 books were in print. A new Wheatley in hardcover would typically sell 30,000 copies, and paperback sales of his back catalogue stood at more than a million books a year. While Wheatley wrote thrillers in a range of different subgenres, at the end of the sixties it was his ‘black magic’ stories that were far and away the most popular. While moderately successful when first published, they developed their most substantial audience in the sixties. When The Satanist was published in paperback in 1966, it sold more than 100,000 copies in the first ten days. By 1973, five of these eight black magic titles had sold more than a million copies. The first of these was The Devil Rides Out which, although originally published in 1934, by 1973, helped by the Hammer film of 1967, had sold more than one and a half million copies, making it the most successful of the group (“Pooter”; Hedman and Alexandersson 20, 73). Wheatley’s black magic stories provide a good example of the way that texts persist and accumulate influence in a genre field, gaining genre-specific canonicity. Wheatley’s apparent influence on Gothic texts and films that followed, coupled with the sheer number of his books sold, indicate that he occupied a central position in the field, and that his approach to the genre became, for a time, a defining one. Wheatley’s black magic stories apparently developed a new readership in the sixties. The black mass perhaps became legible as a salacious, nightmarish version of some imaginary hippy gathering. While Wheatley’s Satanists are villainous, there is a vaguely progressive air about them; they listen to unconventional music, dance in the nude, participate in unconventional sexual practice, and glut themselves on various intoxicants. This, after all, was the age of Hair, Oh! Calcutta! and Oz magazine, “an era of personal liberation, in the view of some critics, one of moral anarchy” (Morgan 149). Without suggesting that the Satanists represent hippies there is a contextual relevancy available to later readers that would have been missing in the thirties. The sexual zeitgeist would have allowed later readers to pornographically and pleasurably imagine the liberated sexuality of the era without having to approve of it. Wheatley’s work has since become deeply, embarrassingly unfashionable. The books are racist, sexist, homophobic and committed to a basically fascistic vision of an imperial England, all of which will repel most casual readers. Nor do his works provide an especially good venue for academic criticism; all surface, they do not reward the labour of careful, deep reading. The Devil Rides Out narrates the story of a group of friends locked in a battle with the wicked Satanist Mocata, “a pot-bellied, bald headed person of about sixty, with large, protuberant, fishy eyes, limp hands, and a most unattractive lisp” (11), based, apparently, on the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley (Ellis 145-6). Mocata hopes to start a conflict on the scale of the Great War by performing the appropriate devilish rituals. Led by the aged yet spry Duke de Richleau and garrulous American Rex van Ryn, the friends combat Mocata in three substantial set pieces, including their attempt to disrupt the black mass as it is performed in a secluded field in Wiltshire. The Devil Rides Out is a ripping story. Wheatley’s narrative is urgent, and his simple prose suggests that the book is meant to be read quickly. Likewise, Wheatley’s protagonists do not experience in any real way the crises and collapses that so frequently trouble characters who struggle against the forces of darkness in Gothic narratives. Even when de Richlieu’s courage fails as he observes the Wiltshire Sabbat, this failure is temporary; Rex simply treats him as if he has been physically wounded, and the Duke soon rallies. The Devil Rides Out is remarkably free of trauma and its sequelæ. The morbid psychological states which often interest the twentieth century Gothic are excluded here in favour of the kind of emotional fortitude found in adventure stories. The effect is remarkable. Wheatley retains a cheerful tone even as he depicts the appalling, and potentially repellent representations become entertainments. Wheatley describes in remarkable detail the actions that his protagonists witness from their hidden vantage point. If the Gothic reader looks forward to gleeful blasphemy, then this is amply provided, in the sort of sardonic style that Lewis’ The Monk manages so well. A cross is half stomped into matchwood and inverted in the ground, the Christian host is profaned in a way too dreadful to be narrated, and the Duke informs us that the satanic priests are eating “a stillborn baby or perhaps some unfortunate child that they have stolen and murdered”. Rex is chilled by the sound of a human skull rattling around in their cauldron (117-20). The mass offers a special quality of experience, distinct from the everyday texture of life represented in the text. Ostensibly waiting for their chance to liberate their friend Simon from the action, the Duke and Rex are voyeurs, and readers participate in this voyeurism too. The narrative focus shifts from Rex and de Richlieu’s observation of the mass, to the wayward medium Tanith’s independent, bespelled arrival at the ritual site, before returning to the two men. This arrangement allows Wheatley to extend his description of the gathering, reiterating the same events from different characters’ perspectives. This would be unusual if the text were simply a thriller, and relied on the ongoing release of new information to maintain narrative interest. Instead, readers have the opportunity to “view” the salacious activity of the Satanists a second time. This repetition delays the climactic action of the scene, where the Duke and Rex rescue Simon by driving a car into the midst of the ritual. Moreover, the repetition suggests that the “thrill” on offer is not necessarily related to plot —it offers us nothing new —but instead to simply seeing the rite performed. Tanith, although conveyed to the mass by some dark power, is delayed and she too becomes a part of the mass’ audience. She saw the Satanists… tumbling upon each other in the disgusting nudity of their ritual dance. Old Madame D’Urfé, huge-buttocked and swollen, prancing by some satanic power with all the vigour of a young girl who had only just reached maturity; the Babu, dark-skinned, fleshy, hideous; the American woman, scraggy, lean-flanked and hag-like with empty, hanging breasts; the Eurasian, waving the severed stump of his arm in the air as he gavotted beside the unwieldy figure of the Irish bard, whose paunch stood out like the grotesque belly of a Chinese god. (132) The reader will remember that Madame D’Urfé is French, and that the cultists are dancing before the Goat of Mendes, who masquerades as Malagasy, earlier described by de Richlieu as “a ‘bad black’ if ever I saw one” (11). The human body is obsessively and grotesquely racialized; Wheatley is simultaneously at his most politically vile and aesthetically Goya-like. The physically grotesque meshes with the crudely sexual and racist. The Irishman is typed as a “bard” and somehow acquires a second racial classification, the Indian is horrible seemingly because of his race, and Madame D’Urfé is repulsive because her sexuality is framed as inappropriate to her age. The dancing crone is defined in terms of a younger, presumably sexually appealing, woman; even as she is denigrated, the reader is presented with a contrary image. As the sexuality of the Satanists is excoriated, titillation is offered. Readers may take whatever pleasure they like from the representations while simultaneously condemning them, or even affecting revulsion. A binary opposition is set up between de Richlieu’s company, who are cultured and moneyed, and the Satanists, who might masquerade as civilised, but reveal their savagery at the Sabbat. Their race becomes a further symptom of their lack of civilised qualities. The Duke complains to Rex that “there is little difference between this modern Satanism and Voodoo… We might almost be witnessing some heathen ceremony in an African jungle!” (115). The Satanists become “a trampling mass of bestial animal figures” dancing to music where, “Instead of melody, it was a harsh, discordant jumble of notes and broken chords which beat into the head with a horrible nerve-racking intensity and set the teeth continually on edge” (121). Music and melody are cultural constructions as much as they are mathematical ones. The breakdown of music suggests a breakdown of culture, more specifically, of Western cultural norms. The Satanists feast, with no “knives, forks, spoons or glasses”, but instead drink straight from bottles and eat using their hands (118). This is hardly transgression on the scale of devouring an infant, but emphasises that Satanism is understood to represent the antithesis of civilization, specifically, of a conservative Englishness. Bad table manners are always a sign of wickedness. This sort of reading is useful in that it describes the prejudices and politics of the text. It allows us to see the black mass as meaningful and places it within a wider discursive tradition making sense of a grotesque dance that combines a variety of almost arbitrary transgressive actions, staged in a Wiltshire field. This style of reading seems to confirm the approach to genre text that Fredric Jameson has espoused (117-9), which understands the text as reinforcing a hegemonic worldview within its readership. This is the kind of reading the academy often works to produce; it recognises the mass as standing for something more than the simple fact of its performance, and develops a coherent account of what the mass represents. The labour of reading discerns the work the text does out in the world. Yet despite the good sense and political necessity of this approach, my suggestion is that these observations are secondary to the primary function of the text because they cannot account for the reading experience offered by the Sabbat and the rest of the text. Regardless of text’s prejudices, The Devil Rides Out is not a book about race. It is a book about Satanists. As Jo Walton has observed, competent genre readers effortlessly grasp this kind of distinction, prioritising certain readings and elements of the text over others (33-5). Failing to account for the reading strategy presumed by author and audience risks overemphasising what is less significant in a text while missing more important elements. Crucially, a reading that emphasises the political implications of the Sabbat attributes meaning to the ritual; yet the ritual’s ability to hold meaning is not what is most important about it. By attributing meaning to the Sabbat, we miss the fact of the Sabbat itself; it has become a metaphor rather than a thing unto itself, a demonstration of racist politics rather than one of the central necessities of a black magic story. Seligman, Weller, Puett and Simon claim that ritual is usually read as having a social purpose or a cultural meaning, but that these readings presume that ritual is interested in presenting the world truthfully, as it is. Seligman and his co-authors take exception to this, arguing that ritual does not represent society or culture as they are and that ritual is “a subjunctive—the creation of an order as if it were truly the case” (20). Rather than simply reflecting history, society and culture, ritual responds to the disappointment of the real; the farmer performs a rite to “ensure” the bounty of the harvest not because the rite symbolises the true order of things, but as a consolation because sometimes the harvest fails. Interestingly, the Duke’s analysis of the Satanists’ motivations closely accords with Seligman et al.’s understanding of the need for ritual to console our anxieties and disappointments. For the cultists, the mass is “a release of all their pent-up emotions, and suppressed complexes, engendered by brooding over imagined injustice, lust for power, bitter hatred of rivals in love or some other type of success or good fortune” (121). The Satanists perform the mass as a response to the disappointment of the participant’s lives; they are ugly, uncivil outsiders and according to the Duke, “probably epileptics… nearly all… abnormal” (121). The mass allows them to feel, at least for a limited time, as if they are genuinely powerful, people who ought to be feared rather than despised, able to command the interest and favour of their infernal lord, to receive sexual attention despite their uncomeliness. Seligman et al. go on to argue ritual “must be understood as inherently nondiscursive—semantic content is far secondary to subjunctive creation.” Ritual “cannot be analysed as a coherent system of beliefs” (26). If this is so, we cannot expect the black mass to necessarily say anything coherent about Satanism, let alone racism. In fact, The Devil Rides Out tends not to focus on the meaning of the black mass, but on its performance. The perceivable facts of the mass are given, often in instructional detail, but any sense of what they might stand for remains unexplicated in the text. Indeed, taken individually, it is hard to make sense or meaning out of each of the Sabbat’s components. Why must a skull rattle around a cauldron? Why must a child be killed and eaten? If communion forms the most significant part of the Christian mass, we could presume that the desecration of the host might be the most meaningful part of the rite, but given the extensive description accorded the mass as a whole, the parody of communion is dealt with surprisingly quickly, receiving only three sentences. The Duke describes the act as “the most appalling sacrilege”, but it is left at that as the celebrants stomp the host into the ground (120). The action itself is emphasised over anything it might mean. Most of Wheatley’s readers will, I think, be untroubled by this. As Pierre Bourdieu noted, “the regularities inherent in an arbitrary condition… tend to appear as necessary, even natural, since they are the basis of the schemes of perception and appreciation through which they are apprehended” (53-4). Rather than stretching towards an interpretation of the Sabbat, readers simply accept it a necessary condition of a “black magic story”. While the genre and its tropes are constructed, they tend to appear as “natural” to readers. The Satanists perform the black mass because that is what Satanists do. The representation does not even have to be compelling in literary terms; it simply has to be a “proper” black mass. Richard Schechner argues that, when we are concerned with ritual, “Propriety”, that is, seeing the ritual properly executed, “is more important than artistry in the Euro-American sense” (178). Rather than describing the meaning of the ritual, Wheatley prefers to linger over the Satanist’s actions, their gluttonous feasting and dancing, their nudity. Again, these are actions that hold sensual qualities for their performers that exceed the simply discursive. Through their ritual behaviour they enter into atavistic and ecstatic states beyond everyday human consciousness. They are “hardly human… Their brains are diseased and their mentality is that of the hags and the warlocks of the middle ages…” and are “governed apparently by a desire to throw themselves back into a state of bestiality…” (117-8). They finally reach a state of “maniacal exaltation” and participate in an “intoxicated nightmare” (135). While the mass is being celebrated, the Satanists become an undifferentiated mass, their everyday identities and individuality subsumed into the subjunctive world created by the ritual. Simon, a willing participant, becomes lost amongst them, his individual identity given over to the collective, subjunctive state created by the group. Rex and the Duke are outside of this subjunctive world, expressing revulsion, but voyeuristically looking on; they retain their individual identities. Tanith is caught between the role played by Simon, and the one played by the Duke and Rex, as she risks shifting from observer to participant, her journey to the Sabbat being driven on by “evil powers” (135). These three relationships to the Sabbat suggest some of the strategies available to its readers. Like Rex and the Duke, we seem to observe the black mass as voyeurs, and still have the option of disapproving of it, but like Simon, the act of continuing to read means that we are participating in the representation of this perversity. Having committed to reading a “black magic story”, the reader’s procession towards the black mass is inevitable, as with Tanith’s procession towards it. Yet, just as Tanith is compelled towards it, readers are allowed to experience the Sabbat without necessarily having to see themselves as wanting to experience it. This facilitates a ludic, undiscursive reading experience; readers are not encouraged to seriously reflect on what the Sabbat means or why it might be a source of vicarious pleasure. They do not have to take responsibility for it. As much as the Satanists create a subjunctive world for their own ends, readers are creating a similar world for themselves to participate in. The mass—an incoherent jumble of sex and violence—becomes an imaginative refuge from the everyday world which is too regulated, chaste and well-behaved. Despite having substantial precedent in folklore and Gothic literature (see Medway), the black mass as it is represented in The Devil Rides Out is largely an invention. The rituals performed by occultists like Crowley were never understood by their participants as being black masses, and it was not until the foundation of the Church of Satan in San Francisco in the later nineteen-sixties that it seems the black mass was performed with the regularity or uniformity characteristic of ritual. Instead, its celebration was limited to eccentrics and dabblers like Summers. Thus, as an imaginary ritual, the black mass can be whatever its writers and readers need it to be, providing the opportunity to stage those actions and experiences required by the kind of text in which it appears. Because it is the product of the requirements of the text, it becomes a venue in which those things crucial to the text are staged; forbidden sexual congress, macabre ceremony, violence, the appearance of intoxicating and noisome scents, weird violet lights, blue candle flames and the goat itself. As we observe the Sabbat, the subjunctive of the ritual aligns with the subjunctive of the text itself; the same ‘as if’ is experienced by both the represented worshippers and the readers. The black mass offers an analogue for the black magic story, providing, almost in digest form, the images and experiences associated with the genre at the time. Seligman et al. distinguish between modes that they term the sincere and the ritualistic. Sincerity describes an approach to reading the world that emphasises the individual subject, authenticity, and the need to get at “real” thought and feeling. Ritual, on the other hand, prefers community, convention and performance. The “sincere mode of behavior seeks to replace the ‘mere convention’ of ritual with a genuine and thoughtful state of internal conviction” (103). Where the sincere is meaningful, the ritualistic is practically oriented. In The Devil Rides Out, the black mass, a largely unreal practice, must be regarded as insincere. More important than any “meaning” we might extract from the rite is the simple fact of participation. The individuality and agency of the participants is apparently diminished in the mass, and their regular sense of themselves is recovered only as the Duke and Rex desperately drive the Duke’s Hispano into the ritual so as to halt it. The car’s lights dispel the subjunctive darkness and reduce the unified group to a gathering of confused individuals, breaking the spell of naughtily enabling darkness. Just as the meaningful aspect of the mass is de-emphasised for ritual participants, for readers, self and discursive ability are de-emphasised in favour of an immersive, involving reading experience; we keep reading the mass without pausing to really consider the mass itself. It would reduce our pleasure in and engagement with the text to do so; the mass would be revealed as obnoxious, unpleasant and nonsensical. When we read the black mass we tend to put our day-to-day values, both moral and aesthetic, to one side, bracketing our sincere individuality in favour of participation in the text. If there is little point in trying to interpret Wheatley’s black mass due to its weakly discursive nature, then this raises questions of how to approach the text. Simply, the “work” of interpretation seems unnecessary; Wheatley’s black mass asks to be regarded as a form of play. Simply, The Devil Rides Out is a venue for a particular kind of readerly play, apart from the more substantial, sincere concerns that occupy most literary criticism. As Huizinga argued that, “Play is distinct from ‘ordinary’ life both as to locality and duration… [A significant] characteristic of play [is] its secludedness, its limitedness” (9). Likewise, by seeing the mass as a kind of play, we can understand why, despite the provocative and transgressive acts it represents, it is not especially harrowing as a reading experience. Play “lies outside the antithesis of wisdom and folly, and equally outside those of truth and falsehood, good and evil…. The valuations of vice and virtue do not apply...” (Huizinga 6). The mass might well offer barbarism and infanticide, but it does not offer these to its readers “seriously”. The subjunctive created by the black mass for its participants on the page is approximately equivalent to the subjunctive Wheatley’s text proposes to his readers. The Sabbat offers a tawdry, intoxicated vision, full of strange performances, weird lights, queer music and druggy incenses, a darkened carnival apart from the real that is, despite its apparent transgressive qualities and wretchedness, “only playing”. References Bourdieu, Pierre. The Logic of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1990. Ellis, Bill. Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media. Lexington: The UP of Kentucky, 2000. Hedman, Iwan, and Jan Alexandersson. Four Decades with Dennis Wheatley. 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Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Thompson, G.R. Introduction. “Romanticism and the Gothic Imagination.” The Gothic Imagination: Essays in Dark Romanticism. Ed. G.R. Thompson. Pullman: Washington State UP, 1974. 1-10. Wheatley, Dennis. The Devil Rides Out. 1934. London: Mandarin, 1996.