#Vladimir Alexandrov
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Zabironin Andrey Nikolaevich.
By the window. 2000s.
Oil on canvas. 90x60 cm.
The author's monogram in the lower right corner.
Andrey Nikolaevich Zabironin (1961) graduated from high school in 1978 and entered the Textile Institute named after A.N. Kosygin to the Faculty of Applied Arts, Department of Fabric Artist. In 1980, a student exhibition was held in the city of Cargopol "Kargopol Etudes." In the same year, he participated in a student exhibition in the city of Vologda "In Vologda." In 1982, he was a participant in the exhibition of young artists, the city of Moscow. In the same year, he took part in the exhibition of creative independent works of students - members of the scientific student society of FPI, the city of Moscow, in 1983 - in the exhibition of artists of the Oktyabrsky district of the city of Moscow in the exhibition hall of the Museum of Architecture. A.V. Shchusev in the Donskoy Monastery. In the same year, he participated in an exhibition of young artists, the city of Moscow. In 1983, he graduated from MTII FPI. From 1983 to 2003, he worked at KhBK. III International (later renamed KATSMA, KAOTFA). In 1990, his works were approved by the Vladimir Union of Artists to join the youth section of the Union of Artists. The artist also exhibited quite a lot in the area. His works are in the museum of the city. Alexandrov and private collections in Sweden, Italy, the USA and Germany.
Alters
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E.L.A character names if they lived in Russia
I'm dead
Dream:
Lunin Daniil (Daniel)
Ink:
Rogozina / Lunina Dana
Hope:
Fyodorovna Nadezhda Mikhailovna
Cross:
Alexandrov Igor
Error:
Mogilin Nikita
Nightmare:
Vladimirov Vasiliy
Killer:
Zaitseva Bogdana
--------------------------🦊----------------------------
Lux:
Alexandrovna / Lunina Ada Danilovna / Igorevna
Pallete:
Lunin Oleg Daniilovich
Drop:
Mogilina / Lunina Alina Danilovna / Nikitina
Vivi:
Lunina Galina Danilovna
Angst:
Vladimirov Elisey Vasilievich
Crescent:
Vladimirov Yakov Vasilievich
Merciless:
Zaitsev Gleb Vasilievich
Artemis:
Vladimirovna Ekaterina Vasilievna
Kira:
Vladimirovna Kira Vasilievna
--------------------------🦊----------------------------
Meaning:
Names:
Daniel - Divine Judge
Dana - Moon Goddess
Nadezhda - hope
Igor - God's Defender
Nikita - to win (in common parlance Nikita = “fuck, he’s a fucker, I can tell it by his name” (every girl has that one ex-boyfriend who’s a moron and that’s Nikita))
Vasiliy - royal
Bogdana - given by God
Ada - decoration / pleasure / decorating life (consonant with the word "Hell")
Oleg - saint
Alina - stranger
Galina - calm
Elisey - saved by God
Yakov - imitator of God
Gleb - big, tall
Yekaterina - purity / spotlessness
Kira - mistress / Lord
Last names:
Lunin - Lightbringer / son of Luka / Light
Rogozina - quarrel / swear words
Fyodorovna - comes from the male name Fyodor - “giver of God”
Alexandrov - from the name Alexander - “defender of people”
Mogilin - a small hill (essentially a grave)
Vladimirov - comes from the male name Vladimir - “owning the world”
Zaitseva - from the name of the animal - hare / has a symbolic meaning, denoting agility, speed and liveliness (I will never stop laughing at the name "Rusak")
--------------------------🦊----------------------------
E. L. A. by @anotherrosesthatfell
E. L. A. Artemis by @abloomingsunflower / @itzcherrybonbon
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The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office (SCPO) proposed to the prosecutor general Ivan Geshev to submit a request to bring to criminal responsibility the deputy of GERB Daniel Alexandrov.
He is a member of parliament for the first time and is a member of the committee on children, family, youth and sports. He is 31 years old and a competitor in classical wrestling.
From the announcement of the state prosecution, it is understood that the proposal was prepared by the supervising prosecutor in the city prosecutor's office in connection with a pre-trial proceeding initiated on May 31, 2023, and it indicates that the collected evidence is sufficient to bring D.A. as a defendant for a crime under Art. 150, par. 1 of the Criminal Code.
"The supervising prosecutor considered that in the course of the investigation, evidence was gathered that on May 7, 2023, in the village of Bistrica, D.A., through the use of force, committed acts with the aim of arousing sexual desire without intercourse with a person who has reached the age of 14", reads the announcement of the prosecutor's office. For this crime, the Penal Code provides from two to eight years in prison.
In recent days, Geshev submitted a request to remove the immunity of GERB leader Boyko Borissov because of the "Barcelonagate" investigation. He also received a proposal to submit a request for the immunity of the former prime minister and co-chairman of "We Continue the Change" Kiril Petkov for filling out the citizenship declaration. The chief prosecutor also requested the immunities of two deputies from "Vazrazhdane".
Years ago, "Ataka" deputy Vladimir Kuzov was convicted of pedophilia and expelled from parliament.
Daniel Alexandrov is in the National Assembly from Region 23 Sofia. He came in after Prof. Asen Baltov announced that he was giving up his seat in parliament. Alexandrov was in second place on the electoral list in Kyustendil, but was displaced by preferences.
According to "Club Z", Aleksandrov is close to Boyko Borissov and is being considered for the GERB nomination for mayor of Dupnitsa in the local elections in the fall.
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The Late Photographer Dmitry Markov's Final Instagram Post
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Дмитрий Марков (@dcim.ru)
Photographer Dmitry Markov’s final post on Instagram, filed from the town of Alexandrov in Russia’s Vladimir Region
We met Andrei when we were walking in Alexandrov’s bedroom district. He had gone out to get a bottle of vodka from a taxi driver and bumped into us on the narrow snow-covered path at the entrance to his…
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Cómo el misil de crucero nuclear ruso Stormbringer puede arruinar la máquina de guerra estadounidense
Dmitry Kornev, creador del portal MilitaryRussia.ru, dijo que el misil de crucero nuclear ruso llamado "Burevestnik", que se traduce como "Stormbringer", puede llevar a la quiebra la maquinaria de guerra estadounidense.
Según el presidente Putin, se probó con éxito el “Burevestnik” (“Stormbringer”), un misil de crucero ruso con capacidad y propulsión nuclear que no se parece a ningún otro del arsenal de ningún otro país. ¿Qué se sabe hasta ahora sobre el arma? ¿Qué efecto tendrá sobre el equilibrio estratégico en todo el mundo? Sputnik se puso en contacto con un reconocido especialista para obtener más información.
El Burevestnik, un misil de crucero de largo alcance con un sistema de propulsión nuclear, ha sido sometido a su prueba exitosa más reciente, dijo el jueves el presidente ruso Vladimir Putin ante la audiencia del Club de Debate Valdai en Sochi.
En referencia a su discurso de marzo de 2018 ante los legisladores, durante el cual el presidente dio a conocer el Burevestnik y otras nuevas armas estratégicas destinadas a garantizar la estabilidad estratégica global frente a las medidas estadounidenses para rodear a Rusia con defensas antimisiles con capacidades ofensivas y la planificación del Pentágono destinada a neutralizar el Putin dijo: “Hoy casi hemos terminado el trabajo sobre los tipos modernos de armas estratégicas que anuncié y de los que hablé hace varios años”.
Putin reafirmó que, según la actual doctrina nuclear rusa, Moscú sólo utilizaría sus armas estratégicas en respuesta a una agresión enemiga, pero añadió que debido a las capacidades de respuesta garantizadas por Rusia, cualquier posible agresor sufriría pérdidas “absolutamente inaceptables”.
¿Qué impulsó el desarrollo del Burevestnik?
El torpedo de propulsión nuclear Poseidon, el vehículo hipersónico de impulso y planeo Avangard, el misil balístico intercontinental Sarmat, el misil hipersónico cuasibalístico lanzado desde el aire Kinzhal y el complejo láser Peresvet se desarrollaron junto con otras armas estratégicas de vanguardia. El Burevestnik es parte de la respuesta multifacética de Rusia a la decisión de la administración Bush de retirarse en 2002 del Tratado de Misiles Antibalísticos de 1972.
Rusia desempolvó planos y prototipos de sofisticados sistemas e ideas aeroespaciales y de cohetes que se crearon en estricto secreto a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XX hasta el final de la Guerra Fría como resultado de la decisión miope de Washington. En el caso del Burevestnik, esto implicó construir un motor de cohete térmico nuclear utilizando propulsor de hidrógeno líquido siguiendo un camino establecido por la Oficina de Diseño de Automática Química con sede en Voronezh.
La idea de un motor de propulsión nuclear se desarrolló a finales de la década de 1940, al inicio de los programas nucleares y de cohetes soviéticos, con el apoyo del legendario científico espacial Vitaly Ievlev, Igor Kurchatov, el inventor de la bomba atómica soviética, y el científico espacial Sergey Korolev y Mstislav Keldysh, quienes trabajaron en investigaciones teóricas para desarrollar dicho motor. El estado vio rápidamente el enorme potencial de la idea de que las naves espaciales utilizaran un motor de propulsión nuclear para realizar viajes de larga distancia a través del sistema solar, incluido Marte, pero el trabajo en el programa se concentró primero por completo en posibles usos militares.
De izquierda a derecha: los físicos y científicos de cohetes soviéticos Mstislav Keldysh, Alexander Leipunskiy, Vitaly Ievlev, Igor Kurchatov, Anatoly Alexandrov y Yuri Treskin, 1959.
El RD-0410, el primer y único motor de cohete de propulsión nuclear construido en la URSS, fue finalmente posible gracias al trabajo de Ievlev y su equipo. El proyecto se inició en 1966 en el Centro de Investigación Keldysh. Entre mediados y finales de la década de 1970 se llevaron a cabo allí numerosas pruebas exitosas. A mediados de la década de 1980 se había alcanzado una capacidad de generación de energía de hasta 63 megavatios. Sin embargo, en 1988, la administración Gorbachev puso fin al avance del proyecto. Ievlev falleció en 1990, dos años después.
Durante el mismo período, los científicos estadounidenses de cohetes lograron sus propios avances significativos en este campo. La NASA y la Comisión de Energía Atómica desarrollaron conjuntamente un diseño conocido como Motor Nuclear para Aplicaciones en Vehículos Cohetes (NERVA), con el motor experimental propulsado por hidrógeno líquido construido y certificado. Sin embargo, en 1973, mientras Washington estaba cerrando el programa espacial estadounidense tras los alunizajes, la administración de Richard Nixon decidió descartar el diseño.
Se pretendía que el motor de cohete soviético de propulsión nuclear fuera capaz de producir hasta 196 megavatios de energía utilizando 37 conjuntos combustibles diferentes. También fue impulsado por hidrógeno líquido, con heptano actuando como fuente de energía de respaldo. Sin embargo, ni los diseños estadounidenses ni los soviéticos permitirían que los cohetes o las naves espaciales funcionaran de forma continua durante largos períodos de tiempo; El tiempo de combustión del NERVA fue de aproximadamente 45 minutos y requirió 24 reinicios, mientras que el tiempo de combustión del RD-0410 requirió 60 minutos y 10 reinicios.
Motor cohete de propulsión nuclear RD-0410.
¿Qué es el Burevestnik?
Con su planta de energía nuclear a bordo construida para proporcionarle energía continua mientras opera dentro de la atmósfera de la Tierra durante días, semanas o incluso meses seguidos, el misil de crucero 9M730 Burevestnik (nombre de informe de la OTAN SSC-X-9 Skyfall) es único. Esto le da al arma un alcance esencialmente ilimitado.
En diciembre de 2001, poco después de que Estados Unidos revelara su intención de abandonar el Tratado ABM, comenzaron los trabajos de desarrollo del Burevestnik. El apodo del posible misil de crucero, "Burevestnik", que se traduce como "Stormbringer", "profeta de una tormenta" o "petrel" en ruso, fue elegido en una votación pública en línea por el Ministerio de Defensa ruso en 2018, unas semanas después. su existencia se hizo pública.
Las dimensiones del Burevestnik parecen ser más o menos similares a las de la serie Kh-101 de misiles de crucero de ultra largo alcance, aunque el Burevestnik parece ser hasta dos veces más grande, según imágenes militares del arma dadas a conocer al público. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las especificaciones del Burevestnik, incluida su carga útil, todavía están clasificadas. Otra diferencia es que, a diferencia del Kh-101, las alas del misil de crucero se ven claramente colgando sobre la parte superior del fuselaje.
Se dice que el Burevestnik tiene un motor nuclear de respiración aérea (ramjet) o turborreactor para la propulsión de vuelo y un motor de arranque alimentado con propulsor sólido. La longitud del misil es de unos 12 metros cuando se lanza, pero disminuye a 9 metros a medida que vuela cuando el motor de arranque se apaga.
La historia y las características de las pequeñas instalaciones nucleares de Burevestnik tampoco se conocen en gran medida. Tanto el Burevestnik como el Poseidon utilizan modificaciones de la misma central eléctrica, según una fuente que habló con los medios rusos poco después del discurso de Putin en marzo de 2018 en el que presentó el arma. La fuente también insinuó que los científicos habían terminado de probar una planta de energía que podría usarse en misiles de crucero y vehículos submarinos autónomos en alta mar.
El Burevestnik ha sido sometido a pruebas en el archipiélago de Novaya Zemlya, en el norte de Rusia. Las pruebas de campo del motor finalizaron en enero de 2019. Ya en junio de 2016, se informó que se estaban realizando pruebas adicionales y se espera que hasta ahora se hayan realizado al menos una docena de lanzamientos, el más reciente de los cuales tuvo lugar en agosto de 2023.
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La OTAN hace sonar la alarma
"Esto le dará a Rusia capacidad para tomar un arma potencialmente nuclear de bajo alcance y luego usarla para hacerla viajar una distancia mayor, decenas de miles de millas", dijo el jueves el mayor retirado del ejército estadounidense Mike Lyons a los medios estadounidenses, varias veces. Horas después del discurso de Valdai de Putin.
“Este misil Burevestnik es normalmente un misil de crucero convencional que se utiliza, digamos, entre teatros. Sin embargo, esto proporciona una visión estratégica. Digamos que tienen esto en el Ártico, donde lo están probando ahora mismo. Podrían lanzar fácilmente este misil desde esa plataforma y alcanzar objetivos en Estados Unidos, sin utilizar misiles balísticos intercontinentales”, explicó Lyons.
En 2020, el entonces jefe de Inteligencia de Defensa del Reino Unido, el teniente general Jim Hockenhull, advirtió que el Burevestnik tiene lo que es efectivamente un “alcance global y permitiría ataques desde direcciones inesperadas”, dando a Moscú un arma con un “tiempo de merodeo casi infinito”. Combinado con las capacidades del Poseidón, esto “permitiría a los rusos mantener la infraestructura civil y militar del Reino Unido y sus aliados en riesgo de ataques directos con explosivos convencionales y armas nucleares, limitando las opciones o aumentando los riesgos en tiempos de crisis”. ”, dijo Hockenhull.
El Burevestnik es un misil de crucero, por lo que debería poder replicar la capacidad de los misiles de crucero existentes para volar a altitudes tan bajas como 50 a 100 metros, obviando efectivamente la necesidad de detección por radar enemigo y limitando la detección a satélites y solo durante el lanzamiento.
Desde el debut de la publicación en 2018, Dmitry Kornev, el creador del portal MilitaryRussia.ru, ha seguido el avance del Burevestnik.
El principal atractivo del misil de crucero como arma de represalia de uso general es su alcance casi infinito, que se mide en “días, semanas o meses”, según Kornev.
“Esto significa que dichos misiles pueden lanzarse y permanecer en vuelo sobre una zona de retención durante varios meses, y pueden alterar estas zonas a voluntad. En este estado, sería extremadamente difícil atraparlos y destruirlos. Por el momento no existen sistemas que puedan detectar de forma fiable estos misiles en sus zonas de almacenamiento y destruirlos. Y en el caso de la 'hora X', si se recibiera una orden que proporcionara información sobre los objetivos… estos misiles podrían avanzar hacia sus objetivos y atacarlos”, explicó el observador.
Dados los recientes esfuerzos de Estados Unidos por neutralizar otros componentes de la tríada nuclear rusa, las inigualables características de alcance del Burevestnik permitirán que el misil maniobre fácilmente alrededor de los sistemas de defensa aérea y avance hacia objetivos “desde una dirección completamente inesperada”. Como resultado, el misil será una nueva y valiosa incorporación a la capacidad de disuasión estratégica de Moscú.
El Burevestnik se diferencia de un misil balístico convencional en que tiene un alcance extremadamente largo y es maniobrable, lo que lo hace más difícil de interceptar, según Kornev. En términos generales, los misiles de crucero "pueden realizar maniobras, doblarse alrededor del terreno, rodear edificios, estructuras, islas y continentes". En el caso del Burevestnik no hay restricciones en el alcance de vuelo, por lo que puede circunnavegar continentes enteros, océanos enteros e incluso el mundo entero en su camino hacia su objetivo.
"Este es un componente completamente nuevo de nuestra fuerza de disuasión nuclear", enfatizó el observador, diciendo que efectivamente ayudará a convertir la tríada nuclear rusa de misiles lanzados desde tierra, aire y submarinos en un cuarteto.
Poderosa carta triunfal para el control de armas
Una vez finalizados el desarrollo y las pruebas del Burevestnik, Moscú tendrá una opción, dice Kornev: poner el sistema en funcionamiento o utilizarlo como moneda de cambio en las conversaciones sobre armas con Washington. “Este asunto aún está en debate. En otras palabras, nadie predice el lanzamiento y empleo de los misiles de crucero Burevestnik mañana. Sin embargo, basándose en este avance, se podría producir rápidamente un sistema de armas que nadie más en el mundo posee.
“Los sistemas que ofrecen represalias garantizadas esencialmente ponen fin a la tradicional carrera armamentista de sistemas de armas nucleares estratégicas”, dice Kornev. Según el observador, la posesión por parte de Rusia de armas como el Burevesink y el Poseidon podría obligar a los Estados Unidos y a otras grandes potencias nucleares a sentarse a la mesa de negociaciones y poner fin finalmente a una situación iniciada por Washington hace más de 20 años, en la que no había Ya casi no quedan acuerdos para garantizar un control efectivo de armas entre las superpotencias nucleares.
"Por supuesto, Estados Unidos trabajará para descubrir cómo contrarrestar al Burevestnik", dijo Kornev. Si se determina que el programa ruso de misiles de crucero de propulsión nuclear ha tenido éxito, “debemos entender que las capacidades financieras y tecnológicas de Estados Unidos son tales que, si así lo desean, podrán ponerse al día”.
¿Podría Burevestnik contribuir a la quiebra del Pentágono?
El observador subrayó que el Pentágono actualmente carece de medios para frustrar al Burevestnik. Sin duda reforzarán sus defensas aéreas. Sin embargo, no será una garantía de que estos misiles no encuentren sus objetivos previstos.
“Es probable que Estados Unidos decida crear medios espaciales para detectar tales misiles. Si se sabe dónde vuelan tales misiles, cualquier avión de combate podrá derribarlos… Pero entonces sería necesario crear un sistema de detección, construir un sistema para la transmisión de información, modernizar radicalmente todo el sistema aéreo. sistema de defensa de América del Norte, probablemente Europa y otros países amenazados por tal sistema de armas. En cualquier caso, estos son costos colosales. Y es muy posible que estos costos excedan significativamente el costo de crear misiles del tipo Burevestnik”, subrayó Kornev.
Cuestiones por resolver
Según el experto militar, “quedan muchas preguntas” sobre la utilidad de los misiles de crucero de propulsión nuclear. “¿Rusia creará un sistema de armas sobre la base del Burevestnik? Porque una cosa es la capacidad de lanzar un misil, pero otra es crear un sistema de armas, entrenar personal, producir estos misiles, aceptarlos y operarlos”, señaló Kornev.
Kornev cree que hay muchos problemas que deberán resolverse, empezando por el hecho de que los misiles de crucero no pueden aterrizar de forma segura sin ser destruidos. “Este cohete podría caer y destruirse incluso mientras está siendo probado. En cualquier escenario, los elementos a bordo tienen el potencial de contaminar radiactivamente, dijo.
Otro problema es que el Burevestnik es el primer sistema de este tipo en todo el mundo.
“No tenemos experiencia, no hay experiencia en ningún lugar del mundo; aquí estaremos “en primera línea”, por así decirlo, y es en esa primera línea donde a menudo “llegan” los problemas. Así que, por supuesto, existen ciertos riesgos. Pero si abordamos esta cuestión de manera reflexiva, cuidadosa y utilizando todo nuestro potencial científico, seguramente podremos crear algo único”, resumió el observador.
Sheila Weir tomó fotografías del submarino Vanguard cuando llega a casa, luciendo como un monstruo marino completamente cubierto de algas.
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Meduza's The Beet: Azovstal: A history
Hello, and welcome back to The Beet!
I’m Eilish Hart, the editor of this weekly dispatch from Meduza covering Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. To begin, I’d like to give our new subscribers a warm welcome! Thanks for joining us and feel free to tell your friends about The Beet. For those of you still hunting for the subscribe button, the search is over: sign up here.
After last week’s feature about the thorn in Europe’s side known as Kaliningrad, today’s story takes us to Ukraine’s east. Specifically, to the port city of Mariupol — the war-torn and Russian-occupied home of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. One year ago, Russian forces were laying siege to the famous factory, which had come to serve as a stronghold for the last Ukrainian soldiers defending the encircled city, as well as a refuge for desperate civilians. Those who managed to escape Mariupol said the Russian assault turned their hometown into “hell on earth.” Journalists report that as many as 75,000 people were killed in Mariupol alone; villages on the city’s outskirts now harbor sprawling mass graves.
Graves containing the unidentified bodies of people killed during Russia’s siege of Mariupol are seen at a cemetery outside of the city. December 24, 2022.
ALEXEI ALEXANDROV / AP / SCANPIX / LETA
Meanwhile, Azovstal’s vast grounds — like most of Mariupol — lie in ruins. The Russian authorities, who are alternately tearing down and slapping up buildings in an apparent effort to cover up war crimes and salvage a city their troops razed to the ground, have decided not to rebuild Azovstal. One Construction Ministry official deemed the plant’s reconstruction an “impossible and unprofitable” task. With 2023 marking 90 years since Azovstal first began operations, The Beet shares a brief history of the steelworks that lay at the heart of Mariupol life, as told by journalist and researcher Konstantin Skorkin.
The following is an abridged translation of an article that first appeared in Kit, a Russian-language newsletter from the creators of Meduza.
Azovstal: A history
By Konstantin Skorkin
The city of Mariupol sits on the coast of the warm Sea of Azov, at the mouth of Kalmius River, which flows through Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Thanks to nearby coal and iron ore deposits in the Donbas and Crimea, it has been a center for heavy industry since the beginning of the industrial boom in the late 19th century.
Back then, the largest factory in the region was the Russian Providence metallurgical plant. Founded by Belgian capitalists and built by American engineers, it produced cast iron and sheet metal. After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, they nationalized the factory and named it the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, in honor of their leader, Vladimir Lenin. It would go on to become one of the key metallurgical enterprises of the USSR and, later, independent Ukraine.
But by 1930, Mariupol’s one metallurgical plant wasn’t enough to meet the needs of Soviet industrialization. The authorities decided to build another one: Azovstal.
The construction, destruction, and resurrection of Azovstal
The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works launched production in August 1933. Its construction cost a total of 292 million rubles — a sum that would be huge today (equivalent to $3.5 million) but was astronomical back then. The plant’s design capacity was more than two million tons of cast iron per year, but this figure was expected to double in the future.
A young Soviet manager named Yakov Gugel led the plant’s construction and went on to become its first director. He was a typical industrialization-era boss who relied on party directives and mobilized workers to take their quotas by storm. By all appearances, Gugel dreamed of creating the most powerful metalworks on the planet; the world’s largest steel mill at the time was the Gary Works in Indiana, which produced three million tons of cast iron per year. But Gugel’s ambitions didn’t save him from a tragic fate: he was arrested and shot during Stalin’s purge in 1937, and his wife spent years in the Gulag camps.
A statue of Joseph Stalin on the grounds of a steel mill in Mariupol. USSR, 1940.
SOVFOTO / UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP / GETTY IMAGES
By the beginning of World War II, Azovstal had become a titan of Soviet industry, with four blast furnaces and six open-hearth furnaces in operation. When Nazi troops occupied Mariupol in October 1941, the plant’s workers had already turned off the furnaces and evacuated east along with most of its equipment, but the factory’s facilities remained in place. The Nazi authorities tried to restore production, but Soviet air raids and sabotage carried out by partisans prevented the plant from operating at full capacity.
The Nazis blew up Azovstal’s main facilities during their retreat from the city in 1943, destroying the plant almost completely. Nearly 85 percent of the buildings in Mariupol proper were destroyed during the war. (According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, Russia’s 2022 invasion damaged or destroyed 90 percent of Mariupol’s residential buildings.)
Large-scale restoration work on Azovstal began immediately after Mariupol’s liberation from German troops. Seeking to finish the job as soon as possible, a team of Soviet engineers conducted a never-before-seen experiment. The plant’s most powerful blast furnace, weighing some 2,600 tons, hadn’t been destroyed when the Nazis blew up the factory — it had shifted and now stood on a slant. Rather than taking years to disassemble and reassemble the furnace, the engineers managed to level it quickly using hydraulic jacks. This feat earned them the Stalin Prize.
By 1945, Azovstal had resumed operations, and its iron and steel production returned to pre-war levels by the end of the decade. The means by which the Soviet authorities achieved this stunning result should not be overlooked: Gulag prisoners and former Soviet prisoners of war — who were supposed to atone for the “shame” of falling captive — were front and center in the reconstruction work.
According to Ukrainian historians Stanislav Kulchytsky and Larysa Yakubova, more than 7,000 inmates were involved in the reconstruction of Azovstal in 1947 alone. By May 1949, more than 61,400 former POWs and deportees from Germany had been brought to the Stalino (Donetsk) region in total. These people labored in harsh conditions and were forbidden from leaving their assigned places of work. This is how the author’s own grandfather found himself in the Donbas: Following his release from German captivity, he wasn’t allowed to return home. Instead, he was sent to help rebuild the Luhansk region, where he ended up staying.
Life was hard in post-war Mariupol. Lawyer and economist Nina Pokrovskaya, who traveled from Moscow to Azovstal on a business trip in December 1947, wrote the following in her diary: “You can’t buy anything in the city. Market prices have risen to unprecedented levels in a week. A loaf of bread that used to cost 30 rubles in the market now costs 200. The shops are empty.”
In addition to hunger and hyperinflation, Mariupol residents faced a typhus epidemic. Pokrovskaya described horse-drawn ambulances carrying typhus patients with “gray, dead faces.” “Hospitals, disinfection rooms, bathhouses, doctors who check every worker at the factory daily, and lice everywhere — fat, translucent typhoid lice. In the eyes of the sick and dying half-starved people lurks the complete helplessness of the doomed,” she wrote.
The Soviet authorities renamed Mariupol after World War II. From 1948 to 1989, the city was known as Zhdanov — a tribute to Joseph Stalin’s “propagandist-in-chief,” Mariupol native Andrey Zhdanov.
After surviving the epidemic and the famine, the Azovstal plant entered into a golden age. In 1948, the factory began to produce railroad tracks, in addition to smelting metal. To this day, these tracks make up two thirds of the railway lines across the former USSR. Indeed, Yakov Gugel’s dream came true after all — Azovstal became one of the largest metalworks in the world. It was akin to a city within a city: its sprawling area of 11 square kilometers (four square miles) exceeded that of the Vatican and Monaco.
Azovstal also boasted an extensive network of underground shelters, built during the Cold War in case of a nuclear strike. It was these 36 bomb shelters, connected by 24 kilometers (15 miles) of tunnels, that allowed Ukrainian forces holed up inside Azovstal to withstand Russia’s siege in 2022 for more than two months.
Ukrainian soldiers inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works complex during Russia’s siege of Mariupol. May 20, 2022.
DMYTRO OREST KOZATSKYI / AZOV REGIMENT PRESS SERVICE / REUTERS / SCANPIX / LETA
Hard times and new owners
The economic decline of the late 1980s and the Soviet Union’s subsequent collapse hit the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works hard. Massive metallurgical production, though effective within the framework of a large planned economy, degraded under market conditions. Equipment grew outdated and, due to the collapse of the USSR’s unified production system, the plant lost its standing orders.
The so-called “Red directors” failed to cope with the crisis. And yet, Azovstal remained a coveted prize: in the 1990s, its products brought in 10 percent of Ukraine’s total foreign exchange earnings. Around the same time, the plant came under the control of the Industrial Union of Donbas (ISD), a holding company co-founded in 1995 by Donetsk businessmen Serhiy Taruta (who is now a Ukrainian lawmaker), Oleh Mkrtchian (who is currently serving time in Russia for economic crimes), and Vitaliy Haiduk (who held a number of high-level government positions in the 2000s). The ISD provided the plant with energy and raw materials, gradually bought up its shares and, by the end of the decade, completely took over the enterprise for next to nothing.
Former Mariupol Mayor Mykhailo Pozhyvanov later claimed that Azovstal’s privatization was made possible due to the ISD leadership’s corrupt ties with officials in Kyiv and Donetsk.
In 2002, shareholder Rinat Akhmetov left the ISD, taking Azovstal with him. The plant came under the control of Akhmetov’s financial and industrial conglomerate, System Capital Management (SCM). It would later become a division of the steel and mining group Metinvest, an SCM subsidiary co-owned by Akhmetov and his business partner Vadym Novynskyi. Today, Akhmetov is considered Ukraine’s wealthiest billionaire, while Novynskyi ranks eighth.
Under its new ownership, Azovstal remained one of the most profitable economic assets in Ukraine. Moreover, it helped develop local infrastructure, such as hospitals, a stadium, and schools. In 2010, Azovstal ranked fourth among the country’s most successful enterprises.
However, in 2011, the authorities deemed Azovstal one of Ukraine’s “dirtiest” industrial facilities. The factory’s Soviet designers prioritized economic expediency and gave little thought to the environment. And so for decades, the sea breeze had spread Azovstal’s harmful emissions throughout residential areas and the coastal zone. In 2012, environmental protests swept Mariupol, forcing Akhmetov’s representatives to negotiate with the protesters about reducing emissions. According to local activists, this was when Mariupol’s civil society was born.
The factory also played a key role in the city’s political life. The management of local metalworks and other major industries in the Donbas shaped the course of elections. Industrial workers were strongly encouraged to vote for specific candidates, and they obeyed for fear of losing their jobs. In the 1990s and 2000s, constituencies in “factory districts” — where large enterprises were located — often elected factory bosses to local councils and the national parliament. Mariupol’s current mayor, the exiled Vadym Boychenko, is himself a former Metinvest top manager who got his start at the Azovstal plant.
It wasn’t difficult for “factory candidates” to trounce their competitors: prior to Russia’s 2022 occupation of Mariupol, Metinvest controlled all of the city’s television channels and newspapers. According to local journalist and civil activist Anna Murlykina, the company created a quasi-feudal system in Mariupol and effectively controlled every aspect of city life. “The entire city leadership was linked to Metinvest, which paid them money. Not directly, but through relatives,” that is, family members employed by Metinvest, Murlykina explained. Government bodies, she added, wouldn’t even take on new employees without the Metinvest office greenlighting the candidates.
The 2013–2014 Euromaidan Revolution and the war in the Donbas that followed inevitably impacted the Azovstal plant. After the formation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics,” the factory lost access to coal from the mines in occupied areas. This initially led to a decline in production, but by 2016 the factory had bounced back. Metinvest said that it had diversified its suppliers, bringing in coal from Canada, Australia, Indonesia, and Russia. However, claims circulated that Akhmetov’s corporation continued to buy coal from Ukraine’s occupied territories.
Ukrainian forces managed to hold Mariupol in 2014. After the armed clashes in the city that May, Azovstal’s management decided to restore the factory’s bomb shelters and equip them for long-term defense. Unfortunately, this was not in vain.
Finding a future in the ruins
Mariupol was one of the first victims of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When Russian forces laid siege to the city in the spring of 2022, the Azovstal plant was all but destroyed. Metinvest estimates its losses in Mariupol at a staggering $10 billion.
Smoke rises above a plant at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works complex during Russia’s siege of Mariupol. April 25, 2022.
ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS / SCANPIX / LETA
Akhmetov’s lawyers are preparing to bring lawsuits against Russia in international courts, but with the war still raging, it’s difficult to predict whether they’ll be able to extract any compensation. Mariupol remains under Russian occupation, but Akhmetov’s System Capital Management is confident that Ukraine will emerge victorious and retake the city. As such, the company is already making plans to revive the local industrial potential, which will require international support. “We will definitely need an unprecedented international recovery program — a Marshall Plan for Ukraine,” Akhmetov underscored last April.
Market players speculate that SCM will eventually merge Ukraine’s two largest metalworks — the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and Azovstal — and make them more environmentally friendly. As unlikely as this may sound right now, Akhemtov’s enterprises were already moving in that direction before Russia’s 2022 invasion. In 2021, for example, his energy holding DTEK partnered with Germany’s Siemens Energy on a pilot project for the production of hydrogen fuel.
Despite Ukraine’s decommunization efforts, the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works’s management found a way to keep its historical name: they “renamed” the plant after another prominent Ilyich — metallurgist Zot Ilyich Nekrasov.
However, the city of Mariupol will have to be rebuilt, too — not just its industrial potential. This won’t be easy, but both Mariupol and Azovstal were resurrected from ruins after World War II. The Soviet Union actually rejected foreign aid and achieved its postwar reconstruction goals through the sheer exploitation of its own citizens. With the active support of international partners and the use of modern technologies, Ukraine should have an easier time rebuilding both the city and the plant.
That said, there’s also an alternative vision for Mariupol’s future. Journalist Anna Murlykina argues that the city needn’t remain an industrial center after its liberation. “It will become a pilgrimage site for ‘sorrow tourism.’ People from all over Europe will want to see with their own eyes what modern Nazism is,” Murlykina said. This would require conserving some of the damage to the city, but could, in turn, provide an impulse for the development of tourism infrastructure and small businesses, she continued.
Murlykina also thinks that diversifying the economy would help change the city’s socio-political image. Moreover, Mariupol has positive experience with change: from 2014 until the 2022 invasion, small- and medium-sized businesses were expanding, and European investors were underwriting the city’s development. “If all the programs planned until 2030 had continued, it would be a completely different city, on par with Poland’s Gdańsk,” Murlykina said. At the same time, she acknowledges that such a transformation may never take place now, given the current circumstances. Mariupol risks becoming a city with no work, where no one will want to live.
An aerial view of the damage in Mariupol’s central district. May 18, 2022.
ANDREY BORODULIN / AFP / SCANPIX / LETA
Researcher Oleksandr Zabirko, who studies how the Donbas compares to other post-industrial regions of Europe (such as the Ruhr and Upper Silesia), believes that there’s no industrial future for the region. But the mentality of its inhabitants and elites won’t change overnight. Representatives of German foundations that carried out humanitarian projects in the Donbas last summer told Zabirko that local residents were only interested in discussing the reindustrialization of the Donbas, in the hopes that the E.U. would sink money into its dilapidated factories and mines (“to get the smoke going again”).
“I doubt that European investors will want to rebuild monstrous Soviet factories like Sievierodonetsk’s Azot or Azovstal, and their role in Ukraine’s recovery will be key,” Zabirko concluded.
Be that as it may, regional identity is harder to destroy than a factory or even a city. As Zabirko pointed out, a region’s identity is often built on memories of the past, but with time, other identities — national or ideological ones, for example — may come to the fore. Much will depend on the outcome of the war, which has no end in sight.
And so, Mariupol’s future — and the fate of Azovstal along with it — remains lost in the fog of war. The city’s Russian occupiers aren’t going to rebuild the iconic factory. Instead, Azovstal’s ruins stand as a monument to the Ukrainian people’s heroic resistance and a symbol of the crimes of Putin’s militarism.
That’s all for this week!
For more from Konstantin Skorkin, check out his story on Crimea’s past and future, and his brief history of Russia’s heavy hand in the Donbas separatist movement. Until next time,
Eilish
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Ovechkin scored for Washington in a preseason game. Namestnikov scored a hat-trick, Kaprizov scored three points
Ovechkin scored for Washington in a preseason game. Namestnikov scored a hat-trick, Kaprizov scored three points
Alexander Ovechkin / Photo: © REUTERS/Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The NHL clubs held regular matches in preparation for the new season.
The St. Louis Blues defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-0.
As part of the winners, Russian players scored three goals – Ivan Barbashev hit the gate twice, Nikita Alexandrov had one goal in his asset. Vladimir Tarasenko and Pavel Buchnevich made an assist.
The…
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A victory march exemplery orchestra of the ussr
This book is primarily tribute to the memory of an Inspiring Personality, the conductor and the musician well-known to the entire nation. Among those who perished in that crash there were 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, including their director and conductor Valery Khalilov. Therefore it was a real blow for us, military band conductors and musicians, when we learned in the early morning of Decemthat the Russian military Tupolev-154 plane crashed in the Black Sea off Sochi on its way to Hmeimim, Syria. Much to our regret, we cannot read our future. "The first choir practice is scheduled for tomorrow." "When join the angels, you will be the conductor of an angels' choir." An angel settled on the conductor's shoulder and tells him: Valery Khalilov had a favourite anecdote. It should be noted that many of these musical works are part of the performance and military-service band programs while some of his marches have been performed for several years now on May, 9 during military parades on Red Square. There are also army song fanfares, waltzes "Lilac" and "Begonia", a number of vocal compositions: romances and songs. Among them are such military marches as: "Alexander", "General Miloradovich", "Cadet", "Red Army Man Sukhov", "Lefortovsky", "Molodezhnyi", "Rynda", "Uhlan", "Junker", "Heraldic March". Khalilov himself wrote over a hundred musical pieces for a military band. To succeed in achieving this goal every effort was made to restructure military band personnel through introducing new positions, to develop fundamentally new guidelines for administrative and economic activities of military band conductors, to include new military marches and pieces of music of various genres in performance programs, to revive the tradition of military band performance in city parks, as well as to organize and conduct music events with participation of brass bands of Russia and foreign music groups.īeing aware of the urgent need for introducing fundamentally new pieces of music into the repertoire of military bands of Russia to be responsive to contemporary demands, V.M. Khalilov did a lot to make sure that after the collapse of the once great power, the prestige of military musician service was again raised to the level adequate for military bands to address their missions. As the chief military conductor of the country, V.M. It was natural for him after socializing with acclaimed artists of the world music scene to eat buckwheat porridge cooked in field conditions in a company of spectators.įor fourteen years, he was successfully in charge of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. And then he would leave for his native village in the Vladimir Region to go to the forest for wild strawberries, to meet all his neighbours in his home, and to take care of the sacred pole for praying by the main road. He conducted a massed band of more than a thousand musicians during the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival, of which he was the founder. He was in all his glory as the country's chief military conductor at the Victory Parades on Red Square. Valery Khalilov combined two seemingly opposite lives. Valery Khalilov called the military orchestra "the connecting link between the army and the people," and the wind music "the musical symbol of the country along with the anthem and coat of arms."
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Review: Black Russian - by Vladimir Alexandrov
Review: Black Russian – by Vladimir Alexandrov
This is an exciting tale from the turn of the twentieth century of an eccentric man of the world who encountered directly some of the most important global events of that era. It is a biography of Frederick Bruce Thomas or Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas. He was born to former plantation slaves in Mississippi, USA in 1872. His parents overcame prejudice and in an age of abolition became successful…
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#20th century#abolition#America#Ataturk#Atlantic#Black Russian#Bolsheviks#Chicago#classist#clubbing#Constantinople#entertainment#europe#Frederick Bruce Thomas#French#French Army#Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas#Istanbul#Jazz#London#Mississippi#New York#New York City#nighclubs#Odessa#ottoman Empire#race#racism#restaurant#revolution
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Zabironin Andrey Nikolaevich
In memory of the great master.
Zabironin Andrey Nikolaevich (1961) graduated from high school in 1978 and entered the Textile Institute named after A.N. Kosygin at the Faculty of Applied Arts, Department of Fabric Artist. In 1980, a student exhibition was held in the city of Kargopol "Kargopol Etudes." In the same year, he participated in a student exhibition in the city of Vologda "According to Vologda." In 1982, he was a participant in the exhibition of young artists, Moscow. Moscow. In the same year, he took part in the exhibition of creative independent works of students - members of the Scientific Student Society of FPI, Moscow. Moscow, in 1983 - in the exhibition of artists of the Oktyabrsky district of the city of Moscow in the exhibition hall of the Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchusev at the Donskoy Monastery. In the same year, he participated in an exhibition of young artists, the city of Moscow. In 1983, he graduated from MTII FPI. From 1983 to 2003, he worked at HBC named after III International (later renamed KATSMA, KAOTFA). In 1990, his works were approved by the Vladimir Union of Artists to join the youth section of the Union of Artists. The artist also exhibited quite a lot in the field. His works are in the museum of the city. Alexandrov and private collections in Sweden, Italy, USA and Germany.
Yegorovs
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Vladimir Tonkha and Natalia Vinogradova playing Anatoly Alexandrov's Cello Sonata, op. 112, recorded in 1988.
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Vladimir Alexandrov - Moonlight over the River
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I think yesterday I visited this Vladimir Alexandrov's painting
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Vladimir Alexandrov (b.1972) - Birch Grove. 2006. Oil on canvas.
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THE BLACK RUSSIAN
Vladimir Alexandrov
かくしてモスクワの夜はつくられ、ジャズはトルコにもたらされた
二つの帝国を渡り歩いた黒人興行師フレデリックの生涯
ウラジーミル・アレクサンドロフ 竹田円訳
白水社
https://www.hakusuisha.co.jp/book/b472225.html
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Colonel General Eduard Chernovoltsev, the former head of the FSB’s science-and-tech service NTS, has been sent into retirement. Chernovoltsev oversaw the work of the FSB Forensic Science Institute (FSB NII-2), which developed the nerve agents used to poison the opposition leaders Alexey Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza, as well as the Russian writer Dmitry Bykov.
The news of Chernovoltsev’s forced retirement was published by The Insider. The Russian news outlet cited sources in the FSB, explaining that, although the general had reached retirement age, he would not have been obliged to leave his job if not for the leaks that exposed his agency’s role in the poisonings. According to one FSB insider,
just two years ago, Eduard Chernovoltsev swore to the country’s leadership that he would put an end to all leaks. But, given our leaky system, this is practically impossible.
Another source told The Insider that the general had been distressed about the Ukraine war, and “often said to his friends that things had gone way too far.”
Apart from NII-2, Chernovoltsev was in charge of the FSB’s Eighth Center for information protection, the Center for Special Technology, and the Directorate of Special Communications.
Earlier, the news of Chernovoltsev’s retirement was reported by RBC.
The politician Alexey Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in August 2020. Investigative journalists were able to establish that FSB operatives from the Forensic Science Institute could have been behind the poisoning. They were Alexey Alexandrov, Ivan Osipov, Vladimir Panyaev, and Konstantin Kudryavtsev. The same people have been linked to the 2019 Novichok attack on Dmitry Bykov, and to the repeated attempts to poison the journalist and politician Vladimir Kara-Murza in 2015 and 2017.
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