The Slovak “Narcissus” with Croatian roots. Rudolf Sloboda, a writer

Rudolf Sloboda is one of the brightest and most distinctive writers of the generation of the Slovak “sixties”. He was born and lived most of his life in the village of Devinska Nova Ves near Bratislava with a predominantly Croatian population. Sloboda is the author of dozens of works, including novels, stories, short stories, essays, poems, plays, film scripts. In his work, he was based on the original “egocentric” vision of reality and the confessional-monologue type of narration. The themes of his largely autobiographical prose and drama were complex, often painful relationships between people, crisis states of the personality — everything he faced in his own life. The main space of Sloboda’s books is his native village, with its constants and inevitable transformation. The novels of the writer, first of all — “The Narcissus” (1965), “The Reason” (1982) and “The Blood” (1991), reflect the most important stages in the life and mental wavering of the author and his hero: the early youth marked by entering into an unknown social environment and his first erotic experiences; the maturity with family problems and setbacks, psychological crisis; approaching the old age with the extinction of feelings and desires, that lead to inner emptiness. The universal sound of “private” statements about the existential problems of a person, the artistic persuasiveness, originality and recognizability of his style — all this makes the works of Rudolf Sloboda a part of the Gold Reserve of the modern Slovak literature.

Soviet Aid to the Spanish Republic in 1936–1939: Modern Conservative Versions

The subject of the study is some modern conservative versions of the history of the Soviet Union’s military assistance to the Spanish Republic in 1936–1939. The aim of the article is to attempt a critical analysis of the new and revived versions of the motives of Soviet intervention in the Spanish conflict, of the involvement of the Soviet leadership in large-scale terror against civilians in the republican zone, of the degree of influence of the Soviet leadership and Soviet representatives in Spain on the governmental structure of the Spanish Republic, of the anti-fascist character of the war. The study has established the inconsistency of the versions about Soviet aid as a means of promoting the world revolution in Spain and as an attempt to draw the democratic and fascist states into a major war between themselves through the Spanish conflict, about the possibilities of Stalin in 1936 to manipulate the great powers. It has been proved that conservative historians exaggerate the degree of influence of Stalin and Soviet political representatives in Spain on the military-political leadership of the republic. The impact of the so-called “instruments” of Soviet influence in the Spanish Republic is also exaggerated. The first of the instruments is considered to be the relocation of part of the gold reserve to Moscow, which, allegedly, allowed the Soviet control over the finances of the republic to be established. The second is the activities of Soviet military advisers; the third is the Communist Party of Spain, which was part of the Comintern, and was considered as an obedient tool in the hands of Moscow. It was and still is traditional to attribute responsibility for unleashing large-scale terror against civilians in the republican zone to Stalin, which does not correspond to reality as convincingly proved by the British historian P. Preston in his famous work The Spanish Holocaust. The scale of terror was exaggerated in the republican zone and, accordingly, understated in the Francoist zone. The study shows the failure of attempts to distort the anti-fascist nature of the war waged by the Spanish Republic relying on the support of the Soviet Union, Mexico, the progressive public of most civilized countries of that time, as well as attempts to present the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in 1936–1939 as quite respectable. The new and updated critical versions of the Soviet aid to the Spanish Republic considered in the article are the result of the neoconservative wave in western historiography, which influenced representatives of both the classical historical school and the adherents of postmodernism.

Occupation and Loss of Autonomy

This chapter focuses on Norges Bank during the Second World War. The Second World War came to Norway on 9 April 1940, when German forces invaded the country. This was one of the darkest days in Norwegian history, but still one of the finest in Norges Bank’s history. In the chaotic morning hours, the large gold reserve was evacuated and, by a long journey in inland Norway and along the coast, finally brought to safety overseas. However, the rest of the war, and of the first pre-war years, brought less glory to Norges Bank. Already before the gold had departed Norway, a gradual inflation of the Norwegian monetary system had started because of the Germans’ requisitions of legal tender through the central bank. In the following years, large sums of Norwegian kroner were withdrawn from Norges Bank as a part of the financing of the occupational force’s activities in Norway. This created a large liquidity surplus, which made monetary policy more or less inefficient, until the surplus was finally eliminated around 1950.

Life path and the formation of scientific and political horizons of the scientisr-mechanic, minister of finance of the Russian empire I. A. Vyshegradsky

The article briefly describes the life path, as well as the history of the formation of the horizons of the famous Russian scientist-mechanic, professor, Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire Ivan Alekseevich Vyshnegradsky. By 1862, Ivan Alekseevich had already visited several European countries and received the title of professor. From the same year, Vyshnegradsky’s activity began at the St. Petersburg Practical Technological Institute, in which he lectured on mechanical theory of heat and the theory of steam engines, was appointed a member of the study committee.On his initiative, the Department of Metal and Wood Technology was restored. In 1871, a mechanical laboratory was founded at the institute for scientific research on the resistance of building materials and for hydraulics experiments.In 1875, Vyshnegradsky was appointed director of the institute, continuing his teaching activities. Among the machines he designed: an automatic press for the manufacture of prismatic powder, lifting machines, a press for testing materials, a mechanical material handler (for a river port), etc. Features of economic policy of I. A. Vyshnegradsky consisted in the desire to increase the gold reserve of the empire and increase Russia's influence on the international economy and politics.For him, the most important and only task was the visible improvement of Russian finance in a short time. Favorable conditions were artificially created for heavy industry, which became a priority among the interests of the Ministry of Finance, often to the detriment of the interests of all agriculture.Under Vyshnegradsky, the export of Russian bread more than doubled. Stimulated the export of not only surplus bread, but also part of the necessary stocks of peasants. As a minister, he led the redemption of unprofitable railways, undertook control and financial (1889-1890) and tariff (1889) reforms in the railway sector.Conducted the conversion of state (external and internal) loans, which helped to reduce payments on public debt, lower interest, streamline public debt.

Secret services of the USSR in Spain and their role in the military and political conflict of 1936–1939

The article is dedicated to the activities of the Soviet intelligence agencies in Spain during the Civil War of 1936–1939. By June 1936, diplomatic relations between USSR and Spain were absent. Due to the putschist revolt and the appeal of the legitimate government of Spain to the USSR, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) made a decision to establish diplomatic, military, and trade delegations in Spain. The intelligence agencies of the USSR planned operation ‘X’ for military assistance to Spain. As part of this operation, a Soviet advisory staff concerning military and foreign intelligence was formed. The author brings to light the goals of the secret service authorities of the Soviet Union, including such particular ones as the removal of Spain’s gold reserve and the creation of the 14th Partisan Corps. The article analyses the activities of the advisory staff, their role in the development of the largest military operations during the Spanish Civil War, and traces the fate of the conflict’s most active participants. Based on the analysis of new data introduced into the historical discourse in recent years, the author concludes that the secret services of the USSR played a large role in this conflict. The Soviet advisors and specialists obtained unique experiences, including conducting large-scale operations; military equipment was tested in actual battle activities; intelligence specialists enlisted information sources with great potential. Many military specialists tried and trained in Spain in 1936–1939 later played an invaluable role in the victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War.

Irkutsk Story of Gold Reserves of the Russian Empire

The article discusses the role of Russia’s allies in the Entente in unleashing of the Civil War and in an effort to move the state’s gold reserves outside the country. Currently, many historical publications examine this problem from the standpoint of the ideology of liberalism, which is unacceptable for scientific research. The materialistic understanding of historical processes and generalization from class positions also do not allow to make meaningful progress in studying the topic, especially since there is a rich body of literature from the Soviet period. In this article, we investigated the problem of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire during the civil war using the historical and geopolitical approach. Within this methodological approach, we perceive Russia as an integral space, and consider that the protection of national state interests and insuring the country’s security is only possible when the state controls its resources. Gold has always been and remains a serious resource of world politics, so the struggle for its possession between states is always ongoing. We studied the main events that took place along the route of the echelon with gold reserves from the station Nizhneudinsk to Irkutsk, which ended with its transfer to representatives of the Soviet government and returning gold reserves first to Kazan and then to Moscow. We explored various discrepancies in the historical literature and documents related to this topic that paved the way for pseudo-scientific hypothesis. We suggested that it is necessary to study the fate of the gold reserves of USSR and the subjects of its appropriation.

Factors Determining Gold Prices in Malaysia

Gold is a valuable asset to a country because of its liquidity. Gold reserve can stabilize the currency in a country. The objective of this paper is to identify the factors contributing to the volatility of gold prices, such as Real Malaysia GDP, inflation rates, crude oil prices and exchange rates. The data was analysed using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach with time series data, with 30-year coverage from 1987 to 2016. Findings showed that only Real Malaysia GDP and crude oil prices were significantly related to gold prices. As a conclusion, this study can be used as reference by other investors. The author suggests to other researchers to further improve upon this study by adding more variables or diversifying the variables that relate to volatility of gold prices.