Socio – cultural existence of modern East Mary subethnos

The article deals with the history, traditions and way of life of sub-ethnic group of the Finno-Ugric tribes –the Eastern Maris, who are considered the "last pagans of Europe". Using specific ethnographic material, scientific and popular-scientific works, the authors showed the unique culture of the Eastern Maris sub-ethnos, pagan beliefs, preserved to date and reflecting people’s social existence, beauty of the traditions and essential national characteristics. The authors draw a conclusion that the Eastern Maris present an independent sub-ethnos tending to self-reproduction. Being amidst the powerful Slavic and Turkic civilizations, the Eastern Marian sub ethnos managed to maintain its national self-identity with some borrowings from neighboring cultures

БОРИРОВАНИЕ ТИТАНА ОТ4 ИЗ ПОРОШКОВЫХ НАСЫЩАЮЩИХ СРЕД

The paper considers the possibility of using boriding media based on boron carbide additionally containing chromium, titanium and silicon, for the diffusion hardening of titanium alloys. As a comparison, boriding is conducted in amorphous boron. The paper studies the microstructure, elemental and phase composition of OT4 titanium alloy diffusion coatings produced by saturation in powder media. Hardening boride layers based on titanium alloy are obtained from saturating media based on amorphous boron and multicomponent mixtures based on boron carbide. In all cases, coating phase composition corresponds to TiB, Ti2B5 and Fe2Ti phases. It is found that 30 to 150 μm thick coatings are formed from powder mixtures by means of diffusion process in the conditions of solid-phase titanium saturation. The paper studies temperature-time conditions of OT4 titanium-based boride layer formation from powder saturating media, and determines optimum modes for functional boride coating formation. The optimum temperature range for the processes of thermochemical titanium borating (900–1150 °C) is determined along with saturation time (2,5 to 5 hours). The paper specifies the maximum thickness of a functional boride coating based on the OT4 titanium alloy: from 180 μm in case of saturation from Bamorph to 240 μm for a mixture of 50%B4C + 20%SiC + 25%CrB2 + 5%NaCl at 950 °C and a saturation time of 4 hours. It should be noted that the maximum coating thickness is the one retained on the surface of the hardened sample.Рассмотрена возможность применения борирующих сред на основе карбида бора, содержащих дополнительно хром, титан и кремний, для диффузионного упрочнения титановых сплавов. Для сравнения проведено борирование в аморфном боре. Исследованы микроструктура, элементный и фазовый составы диффузионных покрытий на титановом сплаве ОТ4, полученных насыщением в порошковых средах. Получены упрочняющие боридные слои на титановом сплаве из насыщающих сред на основе аморфного бора и многокомпонентных смесей на основе карбида бора. Во всех случаях фазовый состав покрытия соответствует фазам TiB, Ti2B5 и Fe2Ti. Выявлено, что в условиях твердофазного насыщения титана из порошковых смесей за счет процесса диффузии формируются покрытия толщиной от 30 до 150 мкм. Изучены температурно-временные условия образования боридных слоев на титане ОТ4 из порошковых насыщающих сред и установлены оптимальные режимы для формирования работоспособных боридных покрытий. Определен оптимальный температурный интервал для процессов химико-термического борирования титана (900–1150 °С) и время насыщения (от 2,5 до 5 ч). Установлена максимальная толщина работоспособного боридного покрытия на титановом сплаве ОТ4: от 180 мкм в случае насыщения из Ваморф и до 240 мкм – для смеси 50%B4C + 20%SiC + 25%CrB2 + 5%NaCl при температуре 950 °С и времени насыщения 4 ч. При этом необходимо отметить, что наибольшей толщиной покрытия считалась та, которая сохраняется на поверхности упрочненного образца

The Emerging Aversion to Inequality: Evidence from Poland 1992-2005

This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish experience of transition and explore self-declared attitudes of the citizens. Using monthly representative surveys of the population, realized by the Polish poll institute (CBOS) from 1992 to 2005, we identify a structural break in the relation between income inequality and subjective evaluation of well-being. The downturn in the tolerance for inequality (1997) coincides with the increasing distrust of political elites.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64387/1/wp919.pd

The Re-Emerging Role of the State in Contemporary Russia

I examine ownership structure of Russian firms during the 1998-2006 period, where a greater emphasis is placed on motivations behind increased government ownership in the latter years, when oligarchs' opportunistic influence on the firm diminished as state ownership correspondingly increased. As this phenomenon is also correlated with improved corporate growth during the period, I argue that state participation in corporate governance acted as an effective substitute mechanism to constrain wealth-tunnelling behaviour of corporate insiders and local bureaucrats in a country defined by a weak property rights system. © 2012 Springer-Verlag

Life cycle of the centrally planned economy: Why Soviet growth rates peaked in the 1950s

The highest rates of growth of labor productivity in the Soviet Union were observed not in the 1930s (3% annually), but in the 1950s (6%). The TFP growth rates by decades increased from 0.6% annually in the 1930s to 2.8% in the 1950s and then fell monotonously becoming negative in the 1980s. The decade of 1950s was thus the “golden period” of Soviet economic growth. The patterns of Soviet growth of the 1950s in terms of growth accounting were very similar to the Japanese growth of the 1950s-70s and to Korean and Taiwanese growth in the 1960-80s – fast increases in labor productivity counterweighted the decline in capital productivity, so that the TFP increased markedly. However, high Soviet economic growth lasted only for a decade, whereas in East Asia it continued for three to four decades, propelling Japan, South Korea and Taiwan into the ranks of developed countries. This paper offers an explanation for the inverted U-shaped trajectory of labor productivity and TFP in centrally planned economies (CPEs). It is argued that CPEs under-invested into the replacement of the retiring elements of the fixed capital stock and over-invested into the expansion of production capacities. The task of renovating physical capital contradicted the short-run goal of fulfilling plan targets, and therefore Soviet planners preferred to invest in new capacities instead of upgrading the old ones. Hence, after the massive investment of the 1930s in the USSR, the highest productivity was achieved after the period equal to the average service life of fixed capital stock (about 20 years) – before there emerged a need for the massive investment into replacing retirement. Afterwards, the capital stock started to age rapidly reducing sharply capital productivity and lowering labor productivity and TFP growth rates

Russia’s Legal Transitions: Marxist Theory, Neoclassical Economics and the Rule of Law

We review the role of economic theory in shaping the process of legal change in Russia during the two transitions it experienced during the course of the twentieth century: the transition to a socialist economy organised along the lines of state ownership of the means of production in the 1920s, and the transition to a market economy which occurred after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Despite differences in methodology and in policy implications, Marxist theory, dominant in the 1920s, and neoclassical economics, dominant in the 1990s, offered a similarly reductive account of law as subservient to wider economic forces. In both cases, the subordinate place accorded to law undermined the transition process. Although path dependence and history are frequently invoked to explain the limited development of the rule of law in Russia during the 1990s, policy choices driven by a deterministic conception of law and economics also played a role.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40803-015-0012-