Chronicle. Volume 32, No. 10-11 (1932)

About the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine. (Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR). October 15, 1932

SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF PROFESSOR F. KH. BURUMKULOV (TO THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY)

Professor F.Kh. Burumkulov holds a special place among the well- known scientists who have contributed to the development of the strengthening and restoring machine parts. The graduate of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, he devoted his entire adult life to scientific research on testing machine parts, coating methods, introducing innovative equipment and technologies into repair production. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in presenting the main scientific achievements of F.Kh. Burumkulov, evaluating their contribution to solving the problems of restoration and hardening of parts in modern conditions. (Materials and methods) The article presents literary data, scientific works, archival materials, the most significant publications of F.Kh. Burumkulov, his students and associates. (Results and discussion) The article describes the main stages of the professor's activity. In 1965 he graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the branch of "Tracked and wheeled vehicles". F.Kh. Burumkulov studied there in graduate school and in 1968 defended his PhD thesis on the topic "Study of steady-state forced oscillations of the transmission of a multi-drive wheeled vehicle 8x8". They pointed out that after defending his dissertation, he worked at the All-Union Institute of Standardization and Metrology and worked his way up from a senior teacher to a deputy director for academic affairs. From 1980 until the last days, the scientist worked in the VNPO "Remdetal", which was repeatedly renamed (currently – FNAC VIM). The article presents the achieved results and scientific contribution at each stage of its activity. (Conclusions) The scientific heritage of Professor F.Kh. Burumkulov includes more than 250 scientific works, including 7 monographs and 75 inventions. The results of his scientific achievements are recognized by the scientific community; he has trained 2 doctors of sciences and 10 candidates of technical sciences.

L. S. Vygotsky and His Students: Outputs of the Collective Research Activities in the First Half of the 20th Century

Within the framework of the study of collective forms of arranging national scientific activity the paper presents the outcomes of the activity of the groups organized by L. S. Vygotsky at the Institute of Experimental Psychology, the Experimental Defectologic Institute, the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine, and the Academy of Communist Education named after N. K. Krupskaya. The analysis of the titles and contents of the works published from 1924 to 1950 revealed the fact that prevailing number of researches were fundamental, a third part of which, however, had a practical orientation. The author has come to the conclusion that collective research activities were of importance for realization of L. S. Vygotsky’s general psychology ideas and methodological sets in the course of solving practical tasks in child and educational psychology, defectology, neuropsychology, and pathopsychology that were significant for public.

Life in Science and the Science of Life by Aleksandr Shmuk

Рецензируется книга доктора биологических наук, академика РАН А.Х. Шеуджена и доктора исторических наук А.Н. Еремеевой, посвященная жизни и творчеству известного советского агрохимика и биохимика, академика ВАСХНИЛ Александра Александровича Шмука (1886–1945). Анализ отечественной и зарубежной литературы, научных и общественно-политических периодических изданий первой половины ХХ века, материалов девяти центральных и региональных архивов позволил авторам произвести реконструкцию биографии ученого, рассмотреть ее в контексте политических и экономических трансформаций в обществе. The reviewed book by A.N. Eremeeva, Dr. Sci. (History), and by A.Kh. Sheudzhen, Dr. Sci. (Biology), academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is devoted to the life and scientific work of Aleksandr Shmuk (1886–1945), the famous Soviet agrochemist and biochemist, full member of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after V. I. Lenin. The analysis of Russian and foreign literature, scientific and sociopolitical periodicals of the first half of the twentieth century, documents from nine central and regional archives allowed the authors to reconstruct the biography of the scientist and consider it in the context of sociopolitical and economic transformations. The authors describe in detail Shmuk’s way to science in the New Alexandria and Moscow Agricultural Institutes, and note the role of his teachers in choosing a scientific specialization. Special attention is paid to the period in Krasnodar, where Shmuk realized himself as an internationally renowned scientist and an organizer of science (he headed the All-Union Institute of Tobacco) and education (as the founder and head of the Department of Agrochemistry of the Kuban Institute of Agriculture). The authors describe in detail Shmuk’s works on the chemical composition of tobacco, soil chemistry, and methods of agrochemical research. They note that the methods of obtaining nicotine, citric and malic acids from raw materials, which were developed by Schmuk and provided import substitution, were strategically important for the Soviet state in the pre-war period and especially during the years of the Great Patriotic War.

From the Bureau on applied botany to the Institute for plant genetic resources (commemorating the 125th Anniversary of VIR)

The article provides a historical background on the activities of the N. I. Vavilov All‑Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) for a 125‑year period. The Institute began its history as the Bureau of Applied Botany in the end of the 19th century, the times of the Russian Empire; it went through the crucible of World War I, the October Revolution and the Civil War, to become the All‑Union Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in the Soviet times. The Institute overcame the period of Stalin’s repressions and the devastating irreparable losses sustained during the World War II and the Siege of Leningrad. In the post‑war period, VIR underwent revival, and since 1967 has been proudly bearing the name of N. I. Vavilov. The most successful period in the history of VIR was in the 60‑70s of the 20th century, while in the 90s there followed a period of a sharp drop in funding of all research, and the institute staff was preserving and saving the Vavilov collection at the cost of incredible efforts. In the 21st century, VIR continues its work as a globally known leader in the spheres of systematic collection, comprehensive study, reliable conservation and rational use of genetic resources of cultivated plants and their wild relatives for solving the problems directly related to ensuring national and global food security.

Professor V.A. Waldman and his family: a contribution to Russian medicine

Outstanding representatives of the St. Petersburg medical dynasty from the Waldman family: V.A. Waldman, his son A.V. Waldman and sister A.A. Waldman made a huge contribution to the health care of our country. The founder and first head of the department of faculty therapy at the Leningrad State Pediatric Medical Institute, Viktor A. Waldman, is an outstanding therapist, cardiologist, rheumatologist, classic of domestic medicine, a successor to the best traditions of the Botkin school. Cardiovascular pathology was studied clinically and experimentally by him and his staff, the pathogenesis of various forms of rheumatism was studied, methods for its diagnosis and treatment were developed. He did a great job of creating the rheumatological service of the city, for the first time founded in Leningrad cardiac rheumatology rooms at large enterprises, and later on a cardiac rheumatology clinic. Arthur V. Waldman son of V.A. Waldman, a prominent pharmacologist, head of the department of pharmacology of the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute named after academician I.P. Pavlov, academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR made a significant contribution to the study of the mechanism of action of various pharmacological substances on synaptic transmission of excitation in the central nervous system. A large series of works by A.V. Waldman is devoted to the pharmacology of emotional stress, the problem of the experimental study of emotions and means of controlling them. Alisa A. Valdman sister of V.A. Waldman, a pathologist, an employee of the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine, studied the role of nervous and hormonal regulation in the development of the infectious process, which she studied on a paratyphoid model for enteric infection in laboratory animals.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of a Questionnaire for Evaluating Online Training in the Workplace

(1) Background: The objective of this research is to analyse the validated psychometric characteristics of a reduced version of the Questionnaire to Evaluate Online Training in the Workplace (CEFOAL), developed to evaluate the impact of online training processes in terms of satisfaction with lived experience. (2) Methods: This instrument has a factor design structure of five latent factors, obtained through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The factors are pedagogical design, tutor performance, virtual environment design, timing, and transfer of learning. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 471 participants several months after they took courses on occupational health and the environment. The courses were provided through the ISTAS (Trade Union Institute for Labour, Environment and Health; Spain) e-learning platform. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed using the maximum likelihood method. (3) Results: We were able to explain 71.58% of the total variance. Reliability, calculated with Cronbach’s alpha, achieved an overall value greater than 0.90 (α = 0.95). (4) Conclusions: This valid and reliable questionnaire, which incorporates a dimension that measures learning transfer to the job, can be applied in the evaluation of online training processes.

In pursuit of the research group of L. S. Vygotsky

Despite the fact that L. S. Vygotsky is a prominent figure in the history of Russian psychology due to the unique contribution to the development of scientific thought and organization of work of the new scientific center, the research group under his authority becomes the subject of a separate research for the first time. This article discusses the results of biographical analysis based on the historical-psychological sources, published testimonies of his contemporaries, such as memoirs, conversations and interviews, scientific autobiographies, transcripts of speeches, biographical articles, and published archival materials. The novelty of the implemented by the author research approach consists in reference to the research activity of L. S. Vygotsky and his scientific school from the perspective of theory of the collective. It is determined that due to the work in different institutions and different goals of research activity, the group of scholars under the authority of L. S. Vygotsky cannot be defined as a collective. The leader of Soviet psychology and defectology was a head of several interrelated research groups: since 1924 at the premises of the Institute of Experimental Psychology, since 1929 – the Experimental Institute of Defectology and the Academy of Communist Education named after N. K. Krupskaya, since 1932 – the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine. In order to manage the effective research work of the groups, L. S. Vygotsky applied his creative, pedagogical and organizational skills. The scholar implemented a democratic management approach based on the uniformity of administration, cognition, and communication. L. S. Vygotsky’s scientific school was united by a progressive experimental and practice-oriented research program, sensitive to the public needs in building the theory and system of psychological assistance in the USSR.

Debbie Friedman

Song leader, composer, and liturgist Debbie Friedman (also Deborah Lynn Friedman, b. 1951–d. 2011) played a significant role in liberal American Jewish music circles over a career that began in the late 1960s, and ended with her premature death from pneumonia on 9 January 2011. Born in Utica, New York, Friedman grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she premiered her service Sing Unto God in 1972 with the choir from her alma mater, Highland Park High School. In the era just before American Jewish seminaries accepted women into cantorial training programs, Friedman parlayed her work with youth groups and summer camps into broader professional opportunities. A season at the Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, a Reform Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin, led to an artist-in-residence position at Chicago Sinai congregation (1972–1977). From there she moved on to positions as a youth group leader at Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel (1978–1984); cantor/soloist at The New Reform Congregation in southern California’s San Fernando Valley (1984–1987); and co-leader of monthly healing services on New York City’s Upper West Side in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to an active concertizing career, Friedman recorded twenty-two albums, many of which comprised complete, multipart, religious rituals created in collaboration with progressive religious organizations. Although Friedman’s music has become ubiquitous in liberal Jewish settings around the world, scholarship has proceeded slowly due to ambivalence about Friedman’s lack of formal Jewish music training, perceptions of her “outsider” status related to Jewish institutional life, and concerns that the more popular style of her music symbolized spiritual shallowness—matters made more complicated by Friedman’s own repeated claims that she could not read sheet music. Even when New York’s Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music hired Friedman to instruct its cantorial students in 2007, and when the school itself officially took Friedman’s name just after her death, due to a sizeable anonymous donation in her memory, concerns about her role as a representative of Jewish musical tradition persisted. Thus, most research on Friedman tends to focus on historical and social issues, while struggling to address her music on its own terms. The entries in this article consequently include a significant number of primary and journalistic sources useful for future scholarship.