Books

The first Russian language monograph on the Master of Moulins, one of the most mysterious painters in the Northern Renaissance. After heated scientific discussions, which began in the 19th century, it has been finally agreed to accept the view that this anonymous master was Jean Hey. The painter worked in the late 15th century, believed to be the least studied periods in French art history. This is a transitional period from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, innovative solutions and unprecedentedly strong international artistic ties. The book provides an insight into the features of French court culture and political history under Charles VIII, king of France (1483–1498) and reflects the latest trends in contemporary art study.

The monograph is devoted to the last articles, letters and notes of V.I. Lenin, known as his "Political Testament", which had a significant impact on the political development of Soviet society. The analysis of available sources leads the author to the conclusion that not all the texts included in the "Testament" belong to Lenin (in particular, the "Letter to the Congress" and the notes "On the question of nationalities or on "autonomization""). The work is based on a source analysis conducted in organic connection with the study of the internal party struggle of those years. 

For specialists-historians, as well as a wide range of politically active and interested in history readers.

«The Worlds of Color»: The Quest for National Identity in American Literature The problem under investigation In the research is the cultural identity quest and assertion in the course of emergence and evolution of the American literary tradition. The transformation of the European background shared by non-European racial and ethnic groups in the New World is in the focus of attention. The key moments of the process as reflected in literary texts are under consideration: the conversion of Africans and Native Americans, the nascence of the double consciousness, the debates over separatism, assimilation and integration, the controversy between the patriotic and eurocentrist viewpoints, the making of new and re-making of old concepts (the primitive, the New World utopia, the American Eden, etc.) integrating the “worlds of color” in multicultural American kaleidoscope.

The book is addressed to the university and college professors, students, scholars in American literature, culture and history.

The monograph considers the historical destinies of legal pluralism in the North Caucasus from the 19th century up to the present day. It offers a systematic exposition of the main problems of Adat and Muslim law application in the processes of the Russian legal systems dynamics over the past two centuries. The general theoretical propositions of the monograph are based on the results of specific historical and legal studies of Adat and Sharia institutionalization in the North Caucasus in different periods of Russian statehood development. The author makes an attempt in his book to reduce to the common denominator ideas that characterize the regulatory and regulatory continuity of Adat and Muslim law among the peoples of the North Caucasus in the past and the present at all levels of historical and legal interpretation of the problem.

For teachers, postgraduate and senior students at humanitarian universities and faculties, as well as for all those interested in this subject.

The monograph is an analytical study of Academician A.N. Nesmeyanov’s activities as Rector of the Moscow State University (1947–1951) and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1951–1961). ‘The Nesmeyanov epoch covers the time of the construction of the new complex of the Moscow University on Lenin Hills and the implementation of profound changes in the system of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It also saw the university and the Academy actively engage in international scientific collaboration worldwide. That was a very strenuous period when the country was consequently headed by Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, who had their own views on education, science, culture and Nesmeyanov himself.

In spite of the contradictory position of the authorities, he succeeded in solving numerous problems facing the Moscow University and the Academy of Sciences and went down in our history as a bright personality, outstanding scientist, public figure and citizen.

The book is an analytical study of Academician I.G. Petrovsky’s activities as Rector of Moscow State University. He held this post for 22 years in the period between May 18, 1951 and January 15, 1973. This covers a third of the Soviet period in Russian history. The time of Petrovsky’s rectorship is the heyday of the Moscow University as a major scientific educational and cultural center of world renown. Based on a detailed investigation of a large amount of documentary, factual and statistical material, most of which was unavailable for scientific research before, the book analyses the functions of the MSU Rector as a civil servant (in terms of management sociology) and their implementation by specific people in the 1920s – 40s. All of this enables us to link the dynamic development of Moscow University more organically and directly with the scale of Petrovsky’s personality as an inividual, scientist, state and public figure of a high civil and moral standing.

The book about academician, Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Rector of Moscow State University R.V. Khokhlov is based on his interviews, reports, articles, as well as a large number of memoirs of his students, colleagues, friends and relatives.

The monograph contains an accessible presentation of the theory of three-dimensional manifolds, which plays a huge role in modern mathematics and mathematical physics. The main emphasis is on algorithmic problems of three-dimensional computer geometry. The publication clearly describes the spectacular and unexpected applications of computers in topology and geometry. The book teaches the competent use of computers to form (and sometimes prove) geometric hypotheses and test them. The application of computer geometry methods to problems of Hamiltonian geometry and physics is shown.

For specialists in computer geometry, for mathematicians, geometricians and topologists. The book can also be used as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students involved in the creation of modern geometric type algorithms.

This book considers major issues directly related to the monitoring of the chemical composition of cognac distillates and brandy by using capillary electrophoresis and gas chromatography. It also discusses technological aspects and a number of new approaches to the processing of additional materials in the technology of brandy and cognac. The author examines the specifics of quantitative analysis of the monitored brandy and cognac parameters.

This monograph is intended for specialists in analytical chemistry and the technology of winemaking.

The topic of the book is analytical chemistry as a science and applied chemical analysis at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The central place is occupied by the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry, its scientific achievements, pedagogical activity and its people. Studies at other departments and faculties of the university are also considered. Attention is paid to the training of highly qualified personnel, university graduates who have proved themselves in analytical chemistry. 

The list of books on analytical chemistry written by the university staff is given, the awards received by the staff are named.

This monograph is another study published under the auspices of the Faculty of World Politics of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and devoted to the questions of the formation and development of the Anglo-Saxon model, or concept, military intelligence, poorly studied in the framework of Russian political science and military history. The monograph is a continuation of a series of studies affecting the history of the formation of a conglomerate of Anglo-Saxon states, their inherent features of state and military construction, the establishment of special relations between them, joint planning and conducting coalition wars, etc.

The emphasis in this work is on the disclosure of specific issues of the emergence of ideas in the Anglo-Saxon states, and then the formation of a model of military intelligence, its formation through testing in numerous wars and military conflicts of various sizes, the disclosure of the features of the historically established priority of information work in intelligence, problems of relationships with counterintelligence and competing civilian intelligence agencies.

The monograph is intended for students studying problems world politics and international law, experts in the field of international and military security, as well as for everyone interested in the problems of international relations.

The book describes the Anglo-Saxon mentality through the prism of the English language. Despite being a serious scientific study into the key concepts of the English language that make up its specifics and reflect the special features of English national character, the book is written in a lively and interesting fashion and contains a large number of both cultural and linguistic illustrations of English life and behavior. Another merit of the book is that it provides a large amount of not only culturological and linguistic information, but also draws heavily from related fields – psychology, linguogeography, philosophy and art history.

The book can be successfully used at faculties of foreign languages, cultural studies, regional studies, philology, history, psychology, journalism, etc. It will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, university and high school teachers and a wide range of people interested in the issues of the British mentality and national character.

The book is a scientific interdisciplinary monograph on modern forms of symbolic, ritual behavior including the form that uses the virtual Internet space. The research involving modern factual material is based on theoretical generalization of the methodological approaches. views by Z. Freud, J. Piaget, L. Vygotsky, K. Levy– Strauss, J. Lacan, J.G. Mead, as well as on the analysis of the social role of K.I. Chukovsky’s book ‘From 2 to 5’ and the book-induced process of collecting and recounting ‘children's utterances’ in Soviet society.

In general, the publication will allow the reader to form a clear idea about the method of social psychoanalysis.

Anton Ažbe (1862–1905) was a Slovenian artist and educator who, through his work, incorporated Slovenian art in the European cultural context and exerted serious influence on the fine arts in several European countries. The book examines Ažbe’s life, work and pedagogical activity based of the materials and research hitherto unknown to the Russian reader. It shows for the first time all the preserved and attributed works of this artist and teacher and also expands and clarifies the available information about Ažbe’s Russian students – Bilibin, Grabar, Dobuzhinsky, Kandinsky, Petrov-Vodkin, etc.

The monograph presents the principles of operation of robotic networks on the example of the Global Network of Robot Telescopes MASTER (Mobile Astronomical System of Robot Telescopes). The first chapter tells a brief history of the appearance of robotic optical telescopes in the world. The next four chapters are devoted to the principles of operation of individual robotic observatories and their interaction as part of a network united by a common goal and management. The next six chapters of the book are devoted to the most striking astrophysical discoveries made by the MASTER network in the study of extreme processes in the Universe.

In real time, it is possible to observe the formation or collision of relativistic stars and relativistic processes occurring near them. After the discovery of the polarization of its own optical radiation, the MASTER network became the world leader in early observations of gamma-ray bursts — the most powerful electromagnetic explosions in the universe. Its robots independently produced the first in the history of astronomy localization of the source of gravitational waves with optical accuracy. The MASTER network is a leader in the operational search for extragalactic sources of high-energy neutrinos. At the same time, its telescopes constantly carry out a regular survey of the sky and have discovered thousands of explosions in the universe and even potentially dangerous asteroids and comets. All the largest telescopes in the world have observed objects discovered by the MASTER system.

The book is devoted to philanthropists’ and art patrons’ contribution to the development of Moscow University in the pre-revolutionary period (1755–1917). It presents various forms of assistance to the university from financing the construction of buildings, dormitories, donations of collections and books to creating charitable societies and establishing scholarships for ‘necessitous’ students. The narrative includes many well-known and lesser-known figures whose support has contributed to the transformation of Moscow University into Russia’s leading scientific and educational institution.

For professional historians, culturologists and a wide range of readers.

The book reveals the history of the development of science and higher education in Russia and the current problems they are facing. It investigates the specific features of these processes in the European North in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and highlights the role the Lomonosov Pomor State University and the scientific activities of its professors, teachers and researchers in developing this strategically important region of Russia. It also analyzes key problems and tendencies in the university’s scientific research work and scientific and teaching staff training and certification.

The publication is intended for heads of higher educational institutions and research centers, university teachers, researchers, graduate and postgraduate students, all those interested in the history and contemporary problems of science and higher education.

The work is devoted to the logical and philosophical analysis of attributes ascribed to various philosophical and religious concepts of such entity as God.

For philosophers, religion scholars and those who are interested in the problems of theology and metaphysics.

The monograph is based on the author's long-term (1960–2012) field research carried out on all the Caspian Sea coasts. It represents one of the first complex investigations of the Great Caspian Sea history of the last 3 million years including such aspects as the evolution of its water basins, facial and palaeogeographical variability, and faunal changes.

The book includes an original interpretation of the Old Russian epic poem ‘The Tale of Igor's Campaign’ in terms of Christian religion revealing its hidden and perhaps the only possible implications. This is a writer's interpretation of the epic poem not solely as a historical monument, as it often tends to be interpreted, but also as a creation of the spirit, a work of art expressing the concept of Russian life. The poem is presented as part of the overall development of artistic thought, against a broad background of much more recent Russian literature.

This book is not just about an ancient Russian epic poem, but also about man’s spiritual nature in general, not only about the past but also about the present, about the nature of artistic creativity and the peculiarity of Russian literature that explores the tragedy of a single human life and the spiritual path of the whole people.

The monograph deals with V.I. Vernadsky’s teachings about the noosphere. It analyzes the process of Vernadsky’s formation of his noospheric views in the course of his academic, scientific and organizational and socio-political activities.

For specialists, university lecturers, undergraduate and postgraduate students and a wide range of readers who are interested in the problems of the noosphere and Vernadsky's heritage.

The book is devoted to the issues of modern multidimensional calculus of variations. The central place in it is occupied by the presentation of the original methods developed by the author for the explicit finding of multidimensional extremals of functionals and the study of their topological properties. The book is unique in that it presents a solution to the spectral multidimensional Plateau problem in a form accessible to a wide range of specialists.

For mathematicians specializing in topology, global calculus of variations, functional analysis, theory of differential equations, Lie groups and algebras. It can serve as the basis for special courses and special seminars.

Correspondence between Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich (future Alexander II), the 19-year-old heir apparent to the Russian throne, and his father Emperor Nicholas I during the former’s 1837 tour of Russia is an interesting historical document. The content of the letters allows the reader to take a fuller and, most importantly, a more vivid look at both personalities - the young heir apparent and the autocratic monarch, to see the Russia of the1830s, its cities and towns with their inhabitants of every class and rank.

For specialists in history and all those who are interested in Russian history.

The book describes probabilistic mathematical models of chaotic processes and methods for their statistical analysis. The focus is put on the special class of mathematical models of stochastic chaotic processes – subordinated Wiener processes (processes of Brownian motion with random time). To explain the choice of these models the authors use an asymptotic approach based on limit theorems for compound doubly stochastic Poisson processes (compound Cox processes) which can be regarded as the best mathematical models of non- homogeneous (or non-stationary) chaotic flows on time micro-scales. This approach leads to the distributions of increments of the processes on time macro-scales havivng the form of mixtures of normal distributions and makes it possible not only to find formal probabilistic models of chaotic stochastic processes, but also to give a reasonable theoretical explanation of their adequacy based on mild assumptions concerning the inner structure of the characteristics under investigation. The book proposes a new multivariate interpretation of the volatility of these processes by representing the distributions (logarithms) of increments of financial index evolution processes or those of plasma turbulence as mixtures of normal distribution. For the statistical analysis of chaotic processes it proposes a method of moving separation of mixtures (MSM method) enabling spontaneous decomposition of process volatility into dynamic and diffusive components. Much attention is paid to the analytical and asymptotic properties of mixtures of normal distributions. Systematic consideration is given to statistical procedures for such numerical separation of mixtures as the EM algorithm and its modifications, grid separation methods. The author discusses questions of optimal implementation of these methods and considers examples of CPC method application to analyze the impact of information interventions in financial markets and the data obtained in plasma turbulence experiments.

For postgraduate students and university professors who are interested in the modern state of research in the field of probabilistic and statistical modeling of chaotic stochastic processes as well as scientists, engineers, specialists in the application of mathematical methods and applied statistics for analyzing characteristics of financial markets and plasma turbulence.

The book is devoted to the life and scientific biography of Vladimir Fedorovich Luginin. Recent findings in more than 20 Russian and foreign archives have added a lot to the well-known image of Luginin, a prominent scientist, philanthropist, founder of the Russian cooperative movement. The new documents testify to the deep involvement of Luginin, his brother and father in preparing and implementing the Russian peasant reform and participating in zemstvo construction in his native Vetluga district of the Kostroma province. Based on the analysis of the archival sources the book provides a chronological account of the main character’s merits in developing the cooperative movement at home, in creating Russia's first loan and savings partnership, in disseminating this experience throughout the country in the capacity of a member of the Committee on Rural Loan and Savings Industrial partnerships and its St. Petersburg branch.

The book provides a detailed analysis of Luginin’s scientific and pedagogical activities, its directions, motives and priorities and shows the man’s mediating role in the process of rapprochement between Russian and Western European science and culture. For the first time Luginin is presented in his close family environment and in cooperation with his numerous Russian and foreign colleagues, friends and pupils.

Luginin’s diverse activities, we hope, will expand the potential readership of his biography. Its material will be of interest to social historians and historians of science, economists, sociologists, cooperators, school and university teachers of natural sciences, chemists, librarians and museum workers.

The authors examine unique features of modern military construction in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) by drawing on a wide range of Russian and foreign sources. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of IRI military might and gives an assessment of the overall defense potential and its elements: the economic, scientific and technical aspects of its defense capabilities, military potential as well as its armed forces’ moral and political potential. The article briefly describes the population of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its ethnic, religious and social structure as well as the Iranians’ national and psychological characteristics. Attention is paid to the analysis of the Iranian military doctrine, its socio-political and military-technical aspects and main elements. It considers the history and current state of the Iranian armed forces, specific features of the structure and order of the functioning of the armed forces management system as a key element without which the armed forces will be unable to carry out its mission.

The book is intended for Orientalists, political scientists, students studying questions of modern international relations in general and Near and Middle Eastern problems in particular as well as a wide range of readers who are interested in the issues of the internal, foreign and military policies of oriental countries and, primarily, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This is what might be called a peculiar kind of biography of M. M. Bakhtin, an outstanding literary critic and thinker. The book covers the period of his life from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. It gives an account of how he wrote his book on Francois Rabelais and submitted it as a dissertation for a doctoral degree, and interprets certain aspects of his theory of carnival. It also investigates Bakhtin’s correspondence with B.V. Zalessky, V.V. Kozhinov, and V.N. Turbin. The archival materials form the documentary basis of the book.

For all who are interested in the problems of literary criticism and the fate of 20st century culture.

The fundamental historical and political work by A.A. Kokoshin, an Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the sixth Secretary of Russia’s Security Council is dedicated to the biography and creative work of Alexander Andreevich Svechin, an outstanding national military leader, military theoretician and political scientist.

The book analyzes his methodology of research into the relationship between politics, military strategy, operational art and tactics; his views on the correlation between defense and offensive in military strategy; formulas for strategic leadership and Svechin’s insightful observations on the future war (WWII).

The book is intended for specialists in the field of politico-military and military strategic problems and for all those who are interested in national military history. It can be used for educational purposes in civil and military educational institutions.

The articles summarize the work performed in various laboratories of the Department of Higher Nervous Activity at Lomonosov Moscow State University and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Leonid G. Voronin, an outstanding Russian physiologist, founder and organizer of the department, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences who initiated these researches.

The collection considers his concepts about new methodological approaches to the analysis of cognitive activity and animal thinking in organizing complex behavioral forms, about the possibility of modeling and correcting pathological states by using inverse immunoregulation, about the neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms of learning and memory, the principles and patterns of processing various visual information in humans and animals as well as phylogenetic aspects of higher nervous activity.

The book presents lectures read by the author in various educational institutions, institutes and at scientific conferences. All of them are devoted to the problems of efficient problem solving on parallel architecture computing systems. Particular attention is paid to the study of the informational structure of algorithms and its impact on the development of effectively implemented programs. The book discusses the specific features of mathematical education in relation to the requirements of parallel computations.

For students, graduate students and researchers specializing in the study of algorithm structure, large-scale problem-solving and creation of parallel computing systems software.

The monograph is dedicated to the academician Vyacheslav Petrovich Volgin, a historian and rector of the Moscow University. A graduate of the Faculty of History and Philology, a revolutionary and a publicist after the October Revolution, he became directly involved in university reforms and often initiated them. He had to run MSU in a most difficult period of its history when the entire system of higher education was being overhauled and there was a search for the best version of university restructuring as educational curricula were being revised to train specialists for the young socialist state. Most of the illustrations have been published for the first time.

The book is addressed to the widest possible circle of readers.