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When discussing this topic, it is worth starting with a brief overview of the historiography of the subject. This aspect is especially important because the cultural historical study of Western esotericism took a different course in Western and Eastern (ex-East Bloc) Europe.
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The general task of the project ‘Russia’s (Dis)Information Activities Against the Nordic-Baltic Region’ is to provide an assessment of Russia’s influence on the information environment of the Nordic-Baltic countries (NB8). An analysis of the information environment requires a comprehensive understanding of the major elements of Russia’s grand strategy and their impact on the region, because the information environment reflects all major spheres of interaction between the NB8 countries and Russia. For the purpose of this study, the grand strategy is defined as the integrated use of all military and non-military means to pursue the interests of the state in the international system.4 What are Russia’s interests, and what implications do they have for the NB8 region in general—and for its information environment in particular? How do these interests translate into narratives promoted by Russia? To answer these questions, an analysis of the following documents has been conducted: Russia’s Concept of Foreign Policy (2016), Russia’s Military Doctrine (2014), Russia’s National Security Strategy (2015), and Russia’s Information Security Doctrine (2016). To understand the meaning of the documents, they are viewed in the context of actual events, research data, and the rhetoric of Russia’s top officials. The study is structured around four dimensions of analysis: political, military, economic, and informational. These dimensions cover all major power instruments that states use to advance their national interests. The political dimension includes such areas of influence as diplomacy, geopolitics, and involvement in the domestic policies of foreign states.
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News-making is a powerful instrument for shaping public sentiment. We have attempted to map the Moldovan media in order to highlight its variety. Three factors were considered in positioning the various media outlets on the chart: (1) Are the media outlets state owned or privately owned? (2) Do they broadcast in Russian or in Romanian? (3) Do they use cultural/ geopolitical framing? Ownership data is publicly available, but the rest of the information was gleaned by surveying the editorial line of each media outlet.
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This case study looks at how Russian television uses humour as a support mechanism for strategic communications with its audience, specifically on the issue of Western leaders, and endeavours to determine the essence of the core message. To do this, various Russian Perviy Kanal (Первый Канал/ Channel One) entertainment broadcasts specializing in comedy will be analysed.
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Ukraine is a unique case for study as far as the use of humour as a strategic communication tool is concerned. Russia launched a massive information war against another country. During the first months after the annexation of Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine, there was no unified or coordinated approach to countering Russian propaganda. Furthermore, during the first phases of the war, civil and military volunteers, and the Ukrainian diaspora took the place of the official Ukrainian authorities in countering Russia’s information attacks. A horizontally organized, post-Euromaidan Ukrainian civil society had to combat Russia’s vertically constructed propaganda machine. That horizontally structured civil society provided such functions of humour as solidarity (belongingness) and stress-relief. As the information war progressed, Ukraine, a country with no real experience in counterpropaganda and with restricted financial capacity, had to learn how to fight back, literally from square one. That is why Ukraine counterpropaganda and use of humour were and still are more a product of a variety of independent and spontaneous initiatives, rather than a systemic approach. Nevertheless, the diverse landscape of humour in the Ukrainian media provides a rich source of information for the case study.
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Humour is a universal concept that has been analysed within different disciplines of social sciences. The study presented by a group of scholars aims to elaborate a multidisciplinary methodological framework that can be applied in the analysis of humour, particularly if researchers or practitioners are confronted with very large sets of data, as well as to the construction of humorous messages for strategic communication purposes. The methodological framework is not a template to follow when generating humorous stories or jokes, but rather a collection of the most relevant attributes of humour that can be combined in different groupings to achieve the initial strategic goal. In order to test the functioning of the methodological framework and identify its strengths and weaknesses, three case studies were conducted. The first case study, on the discrediting of Western political leaders in late-night shows broadcast by the central Russian TV channels, identified humour as a massive propaganda tool aimed at national and international audiences. The second case study dealt with KVN (Klub Vesyeliykh i Nakhodchivikh) which is a TV-show and competition broadcast since the early 1970s. While the third case, focusing on the use of humour by the Ukrainian media, provides rich evidence on humour as a tool of counter-propaganda. The Ukrainian case also serves as an example of the role of humour in a situation of on-going information warfare. The following conclusions and recommendations were identified from the analyses of the three case studies.
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Strategic alliances, joint ventures, and franchising are established by contract between at least two independent companies as part of their strategy for growth and expansion. Franchising is one of the oldest methods, often used in developed countries. The use of franchising as a growth strategy has significantly increased in Europe and the US in recent years. As both parties in a franchising relationship are economically interdependent, but legally dependent (Michael, 2000), franchising as an organizational form can be looked at from a legal and an economic perspective and as a possible alternative for the integration of production and distribution undertakings in a single organization (Emmerson, 1990).
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The current franchise model of enterprise development has evolved for centuries. Franchising in its contemporary form was initially developed in the American market, but owing to its universality, this model has gained supporters among entrepreneurs all over the world. Today, it is successfully applied in Poland, where nearly 1,2000 networks, both in the trade and services sectors, follow this model of development. This is so even though franchising is not regulated in detail by law in Poland, and the franchise agreement operates as an innominate contract in the legal order. The legal framework underlying franchise relationships is anchored in various regulations, in particular, those devoted to combating unfair competition.
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Before the political transition, franchising was an unknown business model, but it became very popular in the ’90s and at the beginning of 21st century. The word franchising also seemed very attractive to Hungarian entrepreneurs, even a book was published with the title: Franchising is the entrepreneurs’ secret weapon? Many experts thought this could be the solution for several problems of our economy. Many networks started to use the word for their systems, without following the real ethical rules of franchising, because they could easily find investors. Even nowadays we can find Google AdWords promotion with the slogan: Join our system, no franchise fees, no royalty! Therefore, education about this business model is still very important. There are many good examples to follow in the franchise sector, not only international, but Hungarian ones as well.
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Foreign franchising emerged in Slovenia during the 1980s. Afterwards, it continued in various forms. The eighties of the twentieth century were the years when the common state began to fall apart. However, these were the years when Slovenia was the most developed republic of the Yugoslav federation, which included high levels of both exports and imports. One may observe three main fields where franchising first appeared. Car rentals, credit cards and hotels can be found in this group of imported franchise companies.
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Inside the New Europe, proposed to reorganize based on cosmic principles instead of some arbitrary decisions, it’s possible to create five administrative-territorial unities, with grouping of the existent national states, -enclaves and –exclaves, of which functioning follows a damped harmonic oscillator model, taking part in the forming Eurasian Continental Unity. The Carpathian Chain being the terrestrial projection of the Constellation Draco/Dragon, with the included Ecliptic Centre represented by the Rosia Poieni Peak in the West-Carpathians, results of course the forming around it the Central-East European Territory, bordered by the Baltic Sea to the North, the Mediterranean Sea to the South, the Black Sea and the rivers Nistru-Bug to the East, and by the limits of the Central-West European Territory (former German-Roman Empire) to the West, with which together are forming the New Central Europe, surrounded by the West-, North- and East-European Territories, each of them with Northern- and Southern parts. Thus, the Central-East European Territory, called DRAKYA according to the Constellation, is separated by the river Danube-Drava in North-Drakya=DAKYA and South-Drakya=TRAKYA. DAKYA is relatively simple to realize, extending the V4 Association of Czech-land, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary with ROMANIA and MOLDOVA, respectively including the intercalated small teritories, but TRAKYA is more difficult to border inside the Mediterranean Sea. The coordinating centre of DAKYA results of course by cosmic criteria, through realizing of the new spatial town ROSIA POIENI, with residential and agreement zones on the surface, and with production and communal services in the depth, including a transatomic work too. A similar coordinating centre is possible to realize in TRAKYA at the Olympos Mountain, which is the projection of the Thuban, first star of the Constellation. In this conception, the functioning of the whole system is proposed with a periodicity of 5 years, started in 2020 with DRAKYA and TRAKYA, and from 2030 following with our western neighbours, and in order the West-, North- and East-European territorial ones, so in the next 100 years will be functioning the complete system with its mechanism based on equality, equilibrium and harmony, making certain the long-term evolution, after 2120 in cicles of 30 years. This transition from the „bulk” or atomized Europe to the proposed new structure, coincides with a transition process to a higher level of our consciousness, through a cosmic thought in general, inclusive in our renewed architectural and urbanistic thinking. In Europe’s restructuring based on cosmic principles, after their outside positions, ROMANIA and MOLDOVA will have a central position and coordinating role, with the possibility to catch up – or exceed – the more advanced European countries, restructuring their slender infrastructure and settlement network, as a result of their better situation in the domain of resources. In the realizing process of this grandious programme, a prime role will have the institution INCD-URBAN-INCERC, with its complex profile, able to coordinate on long term
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The author publishes some new recently obtained and analyzed data related to historical topography of a Golden Horde city of Ukek. He specifically examines history of field research on the Uvek Hillfort, which dates back to 90s of 19 th c. His special focus in examining natural and geographic factors is on peculiar local topography affected by some landslides, as well as on a high hill with a flat top (the Uvek Mount), which gave the name to the city — Ukek, from a Mongolian word meaning ‘plateau’. Changes in landscape caused by either natural or anthropogenic factors are also assessed. New data on fortifications and hydraulic structures of the hillfort, a rich estate, a hammam, kilns and a mausoleum are also published and discussed in the article.
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The author provides general characteristics for over a hundred of archaeological sites of the Golden Horde time on the territory of the Volga Bulgaria, such as forts, unfortified settlements and necropolises. He studies history of their research, area of distribution, topography of some sites, stratigraphy and chronology, archaeological material, and historical context of their emergence and development.Archaeological research of 19th—20th cc. detected at least 330 settlements — both fortified and unfortified. Best studied are forts, i. e. remains of towns and fortresses. Yet, only a small part of archaeological forts can be identified as historical towns mentioned in written sources. Thus, the article first studies towns known from written sources (with Bilyar and Bulgar as the largest ones), then the forts that emerged in pre-Mongol period and continued to exist over the Golden Horde time, and then the forts emerged during the Golden Horde time and unfortified settlements, and last — necropolises of late nomads on the territory of Bulgar Ulus. Necropolises left by the settled population are considered in parallel with the respective settlements.
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The article represents a study of the topography of the Golden Horde town of Azak, which has remained quite underresearched until present. In the 18th — first half of 20th centuries, the hillfort did not attract attention of the Russian historians and archaeologists. Nowadays the territory of the Medieval Azak is completely built-up and archaeological investigations of 20th — early 21th century have been conducted on separate sectors, mainly in the new construction zones. According to the results of research, one can determine the borders of the Medieval town at different stages of its existence. The author discusses different aspects of the economic development of Azak as well as peculiarities of urban development. He localizes various social, professional and ethnic population groups within the town’s territory, together with common buildings, sources of water supply, town necropolises, fortifications and so on.
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The author discusses features of the Middle Volga region historical development in the second half of the 14th to first half of 15th c., in the Golden Horde decline period. The specificity of the three climatic zones of the Middle Volga region, which determined the economic structure and the originality of the population’s material culture, is taken into account. Following the economic boom and the growing number of urban and rural settlements in the first half of the 14th century, a decline and urban life degradation are traced later, as well as the population migration to the north due to military conflicts and climatic changes. On the other hand, new settlements, cities included, emerged in the Middle Volga in the late 14th to first half of the 15th century as a result of the influx of the Golden Horde servicemen, the Volga Finns and the Russians. In the first half of the 15th century, independent Tatar fiefdoms, or beilyaks are established here, and simultaneously prerequisites for the emergence of independent states — Kasimov and Kazan Khanates — are formed.
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In the vicinity of Bilyar (“Great City”), the capital of pre-Mongol Volga Bulgaria, there are 249 archaeological sites referring to the 10th — first half of the 15th century. Of these, 59 date back to the pre-Mongol and the Golden Horde periods, while 20 archaeological sites refer exclusively to the era of the Ulus Jochi. The collapse of the Great City occurred in 1236. This fact is established by both written and archaeological sources and serves as another argument in support of the view that the coins with the name of al-Nasir li-Din Allah were minted in the 1240s. Recent studies have made it possible to localize the restored “Golden-Horde Bilyar”, where coins were minted in the second half of the 13th century, not on the site of the destroyed city, as was thought previously, but rather in the territory of the vast Bilyar III and the Toretskoye settlement sites located 3 km north-west of it. The number of settlements declined almost 3-fold — up to 8 persons per 1 sq. km, with a corresponding decrease in the population density. The changes in settlement patterns and material culture of the Bilyar area population, characteristic of the other conquered territories as well, reflects the process of provincialization of the former pre-Mongol centers.
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The paper discusses how features of the Volga River, the Lower Volga region, the Caspian Sea, and the adjacent territories are represented on 14th—16th century medieval European maps executed according to different cartographic traditions. In the 14th—15th centuries the ancient tradition was succeeded by a fundamentally new step: the appearance of the first nautical charts associated with the actual exploration of the Volga and the Caspian Sea regions by the Europeans. In this respect, Italian- and Catalan-style maps stand out for the manner the Caspian Sea and its adjacent area were represented. However, all of them are characterized by significant inaccuracies, although Italian-style maps are seemingly closer to the reality. The Turkish conquests of the 15th century greatly limited the penetration of the Europeans to the East, which led to the revival of the cartographic tradition that had stemmed from Claudius Ptolemy, and to the emergence of various compilations.
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The paper discusses peculiarities inherent in formation and development of the administrative-territorial structure of the Volga estuary in the Golden Horde period, singles out economic micro-regions included in the Khan’s domain and offers geographical characteristics of the lower reaches of the Volga River, which had influenced the development of the Golden Horde cities and the formation of their suburbs.
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