Protection of public's ecological concerns: current status and prospects for improvement

The contemporary ecological situation in Russia is negatively influenced by economic and sanitary-hygienic factors, which can be defined as insufficiently prosperous. In addition, emergencies arising as a result of accidental circumstances or insufficient compliance with environmental safety requirements, violation of work rules, use of obsolete or environmentally hazardous equipment make a certain ”contribution” to its deterioration. Provided that the national economy is characterized by a varied diversity and optimistic growth rates, one cannot but notice that most sources of formation of the state welfare are ecologically harmful, contribute to the maintenance in an ecologically unfavorable condition of industrial facilities and adjacent territories, the formation of a significant mass of production and consumption waste. With the proclamation in Article 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of the right of everyone to a prosperous environment, the state has the obligation to create appropriate legal instruments to implement this right and to maintain ecological safety at a high level. Nevertheless, due to the high degree of natural resource exploitation that persists to the present day, the rate at which these instruments are created is clearly inferior to the rate at which the negative impact on the natural environment is increasing. In the article a quantitative analysis of the risks and threats to the ecological interests of society arising in connection with anthropogenic impact on the environment and a qualitative analysis of the norms of the current legislation aimed at maintaining their protected state are carried out. Their results confirm the need for further improvement of legal instruments adequately protecting the environmental well-being of the population

Russian Charity as a Confidence Factor between Society and the State in XIX Century

There is talking about phenomenon of the charity in the Russian empire in the XIX century in this article. Author is considering themes of the collaboration between state and society from the point of view of trust. This approach is illustrated on the example of Sankt-Petersburg because there are developing the most successfully in the capital both departmental institutions and a private initiative in the field of philanthropy

On a Question of a Role of the Printing Book in Besieged Leningrad in days of the Great Patriotic War

Article is devoted to the role of printed books in Leningrad’s blockade of the period of the Great Patriotic War. There are some examples of the most interesting editions, including ones of Leningrad’s blockade in the article. It should be noted, that printed book has important ideological role. The author considers this theme on the basis of book collection of the Library of Russian Academy of Sciences

Key determinants of environmental crime in Russia

The subject of the study is the peculiarities of ensuring environmental security in countering environmental crime. Effective counteraction to it is impossible without detailed data on the causes of environmental crime. Modern Russian concepts of the determination of criminal behavior are diverse, but they are based on the analysis of the social complex of causes of crime. Scientists divide the established approaches into three groups depending on the presence in the center of determinants of social processes, subjective causes, or biological properties of the criminal’s personality. Environmental crime has peculiarities, and both general and specific determinants may underlie the genesis of criminal behavior. Using a wide range of general scientific methods (primarily content analysis and instrumental analysis), the authors substantiate the conclusion about the selfserving nature of environmental crime. The main criminal threat to environmental security is acts of socially dangerous behavior committed against natural resources and aimed at illegal trafficking. The perpetrator, acting for personal enrichment, does not realise the damage to the natural environment most times. Other types of environmental crimes relate to improper fulfilment by economic entities of their obligations in environmentally safe operation of industrial and other facilities. The listed types have a small percentage of the overall structure of environmental crime. Such factors as the demand for natural resource products and marginalization of part of the population living in resource-rich but economically depressed regions of Russia underlie the determinants of criminal behavior

The 1917-th Year Russian Revolution and its Reflection in the Rare Editions of the Library of Russian Academy of Sciences

In this article we are talking about the 1917-th year Russian revolution rare editions, which are stored in the Library of the Russian Academy of sciences. There are some examples of the most interesting rare editions. The authors consider this theme on the basis of book collection of the scientific department of the rare books of the Library of Russian Academy of Sciences

On a Question of Modern Approaches in Studying of a Problem of State Regulation of Charity and Patronage in St. Petersburg the 18-19th Centuries

In this article we are talking about contemporary approach to the charity phenomen and questions of state cooperation with philanthropic organizations in the Russian empire of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Authors are considering the present theme on the model of Sankt-Petersburg and coming to a conclusion that there are developing the capital departmental institutions

Установление административной и уголовной ответственности в период действия режима повышенной готовности

The subject of research is norms of the current administrative and criminal legislation of the Russian Federation applied for violations of anti-epidemic restrictions. In 2020 the array of normative acts applicable in an emergency situation was significantly supplemented and need to be analyzed.The purpose of the study is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that legal certainty norms applied for violations of anti-epidemic restrictions and their position in the hierarchy of administrative-legal and criminal-legal prohibitions look rather dubious.The methodology. The authors choose the hypothetical-deductive method as the main method of this research. This method allowed to create a system of deductively related hypotheses from which statements about empirical facts are derived. The article analyzes the law enforcement practice that developed during the period of high alert.The main results of research and a field of their application. Their relationship between antiepidemic restrictions and permissible restrictions on fundamental human rights and freedoms is considered; an assessment of the proportionality of sanctions for violation of the generally binding rules of conduct is given; the socio-legal conditionality of the repressive legal support for the action of the high alert regime is analyzed. The main trends in law enforcement practice that have developed during the implementation of new administrative and legal and criminal law prohibitions are given. The findings can be useful to optimize law enforcement in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Conclusions. The legitimization of the pandemic alert regime (or high alert regime in other words) took place in a short period of time, as a result of which some defects of legal regulation can be named. So, to date, no clear gradation has been made between the high alert regime and the emergency regime; although the high alert regime has structurally taken shape as a legal concept in conjunction with ensuring the sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing of the population, its systemic relationship with the categories "quarantine", "prevention of the spread of diseases", "isolation" has not been developed, i.e. with concepts developed in such an area of scientific knowledge as epidemiology, and received partial consolidation in the norms of sanitary and epidemiological legislation. The high alert regime has undergone a significant transformation, turning from a set of recommendations addressed to the subjects of the unified state system for the prevention and elimination of emergencies into a wide list of legal provisions of various legal force, the effect of which applies to all groups of the population. In this regard, it is obvious that there is a demand in society for the unification of accepted norms and further structuring of a clear and unambiguous system of rules of conduct applicable in extreme situations that are not of an emergency nature, but require special control and special public attention. It follows from this that extraordinary legal regulation must acquire a consistent form and receive a strictly defined place in the national legal system.Исследуются нормы административного и уголовного законодательства Российской Федерации, разработанные для применения в условиях режима повышенной готовности. Предметом критического анализа является правовая определенность этих норм и их положение в иерархии административно-правовых и уголовно-правовых запретов. Рассматривается их взаимосвязь с допустимыми ограничениями фундаментальных прав и свобод человека; дается оценка соразмерности санкций за нарушение общеобязательных правил поведения; анализируется социально-правовая обусловленность репрессивного правового обеспечения действия режима повышенной готовности. Приводятся основные тенденции правоприменительной практики, сложившиеся при реализации новых административно-правовых и уголовно-правовых запретов

The effects of simultaneous large acidic and alkaline airborne pollutants on forest soil

http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/02697491The effects of air pollutants on soil were studied in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests near the boundary of Russia and Estonia. The study area is characterized by large amounts of acidic and basic pollutants, mainly sulphur dioxide (SO*) and calcium (Ca) . Several variables were measured in different horizons of the podzolic soil polluted by emissions from local sources in areas of several thousands of square kilometres. Alkalinization dominates the processes in the soil, since sulphur is absorbed only in small quantities and Ca is much better absorbed. Ca content in humus horizon may rise even to 100 000 mg kg-’ and the pH of originally very acidic soil may rise to 8.3. Total aluminum (Al) content was high in the heavily polluted plots, since emissions contain much Al. On the other hand, the exchangeable Al was very low in these alkaline sites. A larger quantity of exchangeable Al occurred farther from the pollutant sources, even though total Al in these plots was low. These plots had acidic soils in which Al is in exchangeable form. Due to the neutralizing effect of acidic and basic pollutants, forest damage in the study area was not as serious as might be supposed, Complicated pollutant situations must be taken into consideration when pollution-caused environmental protection measures are planned. It is not reasonable to reduce only SO2 emissions, but necessary to lower the basic emissions at the same time