Author: Russia (federation). Generalʹnyĭ Shtab File Type: pdf The War in Afghanistan (1979-1989) has been called the Soviet Unions Vietnam War, a conflict that pitted Soviet regulars against a relentless, elusive, and ultimately unbeatable Afghan guerrilla force (the mujahideen). The hit-and-run bloodletting across the wars decade tallied more than 25,000 dead Soviet soldiers plus a great many more casualties and further demoralized a USSR on the verge of disintegration.In The Soviet-Afghan War the Russian general staff takes a close critical look at the Soviet militarys disappointing performance in that war in an effort to better understand what happened and why and what lessons should be taken from it. Lester Grau and Michael Gresss expert English translation of the general staffs study offers the very first publication in any language of this important and illuminating work.Surprisingly, this was a study the general staff never intended to write, initially viewing the war in Afghanistan as a dismal aberration in Russian military history. The history of the 1990s has, of course, completely demolished that belief, as evidenced by the Russian Armys subsequent engagements with guerrilla forces in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, and elsewhere. As a result, Russian officers decided to take a much closer look at the Red Armys experiences in the Afghan War.Their study presents the Russian view of how the war started, how it progressed, and how it ended shows how a modern mechanized army organized and conducted a counter-guerrilla war chronicles the major battles and operations and provides valuable insights into Soviet tactics, strategy, doctrine, and organization across a wide array of military branches. Theeditors incisive preface and commentary help contextualize the Russian view and alert the reader to blind spots in the general staffs thinking about the war.This one-of-a-kind document provides a powerful case study on how

Author: Yu S. Kuz'minov File Type: pdf A new method of production of high-temperature dielectric crystals, including cubic zirconia, glasses and melted ceramic materials, is discussed. The method is based on direct induction melting in a cold container. The physical fundamentals of the technology and equipment are described, and the possibilities and advantages of the new technology are indicated. The properties of the produced materials are discussed. Special attention is given to cubiz zirconia crystals which cannot be produced by other methods.

Author: Michael Tomasello File Type: pdf A Natural History of Human Morality offers the most detailed account to date of the evolution of human moral psychology. Based on extensive experimental data comparing great apes and human children, Michael Tomasello reconstructs how early humans gradually became an ultra-cooperative and, eventually, a moral species. There were two key evolutionary steps, each founded on a new way that individuals could act together as a plural agent we. The first step occurred as ecological challenges forced early humans to forage together collaboratively or die. To coordinate these collaborative activities, humans evolved cognitive skills of joint intentionality, ensuring that both partners knew together the normative standards governing each role. To reduce risk, individuals could make an explicit joint commitment that we forage together and share the spoils together as equally deserving partners, based on shared senses of trust, respect, and responsibility. The second step occurred as human populations grew and the division of labor became more complex. Distinct cultural groups emerged that demanded from members loyalty, conformity, and cultural identity. In becoming members of a new cultural we, modern humans evolved cognitive skills of collective intentionality, resulting in culturally created and objectified norms of right and wrong that everyone in the group saw as legitimate morals for anyone who would be one of us. As a result of this two-stage process, contemporary humans possess both a second-personal morality for face-to-face engagement with individuals and a group-minded objective morality that obliges them to the moral community as a whole. **

Author: Kirsten Moana Thompson File Type: pdf In Apocalyptic Dread, Kirsten Moana Thompson examines how fears and anxieties about the future are reflected in recent American cinema. Through close readings of such films as Cape Fear, Candyman, Dolores Claiborne, Se7en, Signs, and War of the Worlds, Thompson argues that a longstanding American apocalyptic tradition permeates our popular culture, spreading from science-fiction and disaster films into horror, crime, and melodrama. Drawing upon Kierkegaards notion of dreadthat is, a fundamental anxiety and ambivalence about existential choice and the futureThompson suggests that the apocalyptic dread revealed in these films, and its guiding tropes of violence, retribution, and renewal, also reveal deep-seated anxieties about historical fragmentation and change, anxieties that are in turn displaced onto each films particular monster, whether human, demonic, or eschatological.