Two Poems on the Death of Akhmatova: Dialogues,Private Codes,and the Myth of Akhmatova’s Orphans

Abstract

In Serhiy Zhadan’s recent novel Voroshylovhrad (2010), memory and emptiness form a duality of being and non-being, as represented by remembering and forgetting. This framework is proposed here as a metaphor for understanding some of the challenges facing Ukraine today. Using the concept of post-socialist memory as an entry point, this article positions Voroshylovhrad at the productive intersection of memory and literature, offers interpretations for several crucial scenes of the narrative, and contends that the novel recalibrates common paradigms of separation from a traumatic past. Finally, an argument is put forth that the book’s textual voids cast the reader as a key agent of recollection. This analysis of literary mechanisms involved in the memoryemptiness dichotomy contributes to an on-going exploration of strategies contemporary Ukrainian writers employ to engage in cultural and historical discourses, as well as to the studies of memory and literature in the post-Soviet regions of the world.     

Carabidae assemblages in pine forests with different recreation regimes within and outside a megalopolis

Urban Ecosystems - The expansion of cities highlights the need for studies of the biodiversity on urban territories and factors affecting the structure and functioning of communities. In...     

Dispersion and Polarization of Income among Aboriginal and Non‐Aboriginal Canadians*

Cet article pose trois questions: 1) Pourquoi étudier les inégalités entre les autochtones? 2) Quel est l'écart entre les salaires et les revenus de la population canadienne en général et ceux des différents peuples autochtones? et 3) Jusqu'à quel point existe‐t‐il des inégalités entre les peuples autochtones ainsi qu'entre la population autochtone et la population non autochtone? Cet article montre une tendance générale de l'augmentation des disparités mesurées ainsi que de la polarisation des revenus chez tous les groupes autochtones compara‐tivement à la population non autochtone. Pour ce qui est de l'inégalité entre les groupes autochtones, les Inuits se classent au sommet de la pyramide, suivis des Indiens inscrits, des Indiens non inscrits et, finalement, des Métis. This article addresses three questions: 1) Why study intra‐Aboriginal inequality? 2) What is the gap in wages and income between the general Canadian population and the different Aboriginal peoples? and 3) How much inequality exists within the Aboriginal groups and between Aboriginal groups and the non‐Aboriginal population? The article points to a general pattern of increase in measured disparity and polarization in income for all Aboriginal groups in comparison to the non‐Aboriginal population. In terms of intra‐Aboriginal inequality, Aboriginal groups rank from Inuit at the high end, through Status Indians, to non‐status Indians and, finally, to Métis.     

On Mixture Failure Rates Ordering

Mixtures of increasing failure rate distributions (IFR) can decrease at least in some intervals of time. Usually, this property can be observed asymptotically as t → ∞. This is due to the fact that the mixture failure rate is “bent down” compared with the corresponding unconditional expectation of the baseline failure rate, which was proved previously for some specific cases. We generalize this result and discuss the “weakest populations are dying first” property, which leads to the change in the failure rate shape. We also consider the problem of mixture failure rate ordering for the ordered mixing distributions. Two types of stochastic ordering are analyzed: ordering in the likelihood ratio sense and ordering in variances when the means are equal.     

A note on ‘curable’ shock processes

In most conventional shock models, the events caused by an external shock are initiated at the moments of its occurrence. Recently, Cha and Finkelstein (2012) had considered the case when each shock from a nonhomogeneous Poisson processes can trigger a failure of a system not immediately, as in the classical shock models, but with delay of some random time. In this paper, we suggest the new type of shock models, where each delayed failure can be cured (repaired) with certain probabilities. These shock processes have not been considered in the literature before. We derive and analyze the corresponding survival and failure rate functions and consider a meaningful reliability example of the stress–strength model.     

Some results on discrete mixture failure rates

Some properties of the discrete mixture failure rates are studied. Specifically, similar to the continuous case, it is shown that the population mixture failure rate is always smaller than the unconditional expectation in the family of subpopulations failure rates. The analog of the multiplicative and the additive frailty models is introduced via the corresponding survival function. Another approach via the alternative discrete failure rate is also discussed. Stochastic comparisons for two mixed distributions with equal and different mixing distributions are studied.     

Third Sector in Ukraine: Civic Engagement Before and After the “Euromaidan”

This study explores the determinants of the low level of civic engagement in Ukraine. Applying the methodological framework of analytical sociology, we consider different social mechanisms that explain the weakness of the Ukrainian third sector. First, we discuss how the political system and economic performance of the country have shaped beliefs, values, and motives of people by creating the context for their actions. Second, we focus on different aspects of people’s experiences during the Soviet times to formulate a number of hypotheses concerning unwillingness of citizens to join CSOs. Analyzing the survey data of the years 2010 (beginning of Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency) and 2014 (survey conducted right after the “Euromaidan”), we argue that some specific features of Homo Sovieticus, such as passivity, absence of political identification, and reliance on informal networks negatively affect the propensity of people to participate in CSOs. These effects are complemented by disappointment with the post-Soviet transformation and low subjective social status. Based on the results of analyses, we formulate suggestions concerning possible ways of fostering the development of civil society in Ukraine.