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This book is the first comprehensive treatment in any language of the most consequential work of art ever to be executed in Russia-the equestrian monument to Peter the Great, orThe Bronze Horseman,as it has come to be known since it appeared in Alexander Pushkin's poem bearing that title. The author deals with the cultural setting that prepared the ground for the monument and provides life stories of those who were involved in its creation: the sculptors Etienne-Maurice Falconet and Marie-Anne Collot, the engineer Marin Carburi, the diplomat Dmitry Golitsyn, and Catherine's \"commissar\" for culture, Ivan Betskoi. He also touches upon the extraordinary resonance of the monument in Russian culture, which, since the unveiling in 1782, has become the icon of St. Petersburg and has alimented the so-called \"St. Petersburg theme\" in Russian letters, familiar from the works of such writers as Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Bely.

This book highlights the main features and trends of Russian \"political\" thought in an era when sovereignty, state, and politics, as understood in Western Christendom, were non-existent in Russia, or were only beginning to be articulated. It concentrates on enigmatic authors and sources that shaped official perception of rulership, or marked certain changes of importance of this perception. Special emphasis is given to those written and visual sources that point towards depersonalization and secularization of rulership in Russia. A comparison with Western Christendom frames the argument throughout the book, both in terms of ideas and the practical aspects of state-building, allowing the reader to ponder Russia's differentia specifica .

The reforms of Russian Tsar Peter I (1682–1725) touched all spheres of life, including the Church. The purpose of this paper is to bring into focus his approach to the reform of monasticism. It reflects on Peter’s personal remarks as reported both by his Russian and his foreign interlocutors, his legislation, including law drafts, and practical measures such as the All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod. The principal conclusion is that it was this Russian ruler who was the first to call into question the very existence of monasticism and who came close to the ultimate dissolution of monasteries. He did not abolish monasticism not because it was a too radical step but because he devised measures of reform to raise its standards and improve its public utility. His treatment of the monastic tradition should be interpretated not as secularization but rather as modernization. Peter’s personal “monachophobia” is best understood as a modernizing impulse. His objective was the creation of a “modern” state whose Church and clergy represented contemporary values. Traditional, unreformed monasticism presented an obstacle in his progress towards this goal. The legacy of Peter’s policy was an increasing monachophobia in Russia apparent from the 18th century onwards.

A hypoxic zone with dissolved oxygen concentrations of 3.0–3.6 mL/L (42–51% saturation) was first discovered in the bottom depression in the Srednyaya Cove (between the Pushchin and Pashinnikov capes) in Vostok Bay in July–September 2021. It existed from mid-July to mid-September. It was revealed that the surveyed area was characterized by high concentrations of phosphates at bottom horizons and organic carbon in sediments. It was shown that the formation of the hypoxic zone occurred as the result of an increase in the anthropogenic impact on this sea area.

— It is shown that in Peter the Great Bay, the southern part of the range of the threaded sculpin Gymnocanthus pistilliger , its maximum size is larger than in the more northern waters off western Kamchatka . Reliable records of the species in trawl catches begin when individuals reach an absolute body length of 20 cm. Since males reach smaller sizes than females, their records, especially in the north, are less comprehensive. The growth rates of fish in Peter the Great Bay are higher, which is why the fish of the same age are larger here than in the waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The weight of individuals of the same size in the bay is also larger. The best growth rates in the area located to the south is determined by more favorable conditions of the aquatic environment. Despite the differences in growth rates, the maximum age of fish reached in populations is similar. The sex ratio with a predominance of females is also similar.

The species diversity of lamellicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea) on the 20 islands of Peter the Great Gulf was considered and analyzed for the first time, where 83 species from 38 genera were identified. There are 60 species (72.3%) and 20 genera (52.6%) are new for the fauna of the islands, with reference to the literature data. The total fauna with Russky Island (21 islands) includes 87 species from 38 genera of 13 subfamilies and four families of the superfamily Scarabaeoidea. The diversity and degree of study of the group on individual islands is very uneven. Russky Island with 80 species (92% of the total fauna of 21 islands), Popov Island with 42 species (48.3%) and Putyatin Island with 39 species (44.8%) have the most species-rich fauna. On the islands of Kozlov, Rikord, Zheltukhin, and Durnovo, one species was recorded (1.1%). The Scarabaeidae Latreille, 1802 is dominates the fauna of 21 islands—77 species (88.5%), other families are represented by a single species: Trogidae Macleay, 1819—5 species (5.7%), Lucanidae Latreille, 1804—3 species (3.5%), Geotrupidae Latreille, 1802—2 species (2.3%). Scarabaeinae with 15 species (19.5%), Aphodiinae Leach, 1815 with 14 species (18.2%), and Rhizotroginae with 13 species (16.9%) are dominant in the Scarabaeidae fauna. The article deals with the annotated list of species and the studied material, discusses the ecological and zoogeographical features of the local faunas of Scarabaeoidea and features of the faunagenesis of the study area. The local Scarabaeoidea faunas of the islands are characterized by a significant depletion and mosaic composition of the species composition in comparison with the continental fauna. Despite the peculiarity of the climatic conditions of the islands and their significant isolation from the continental coast, the insular faunas of Scarabaeoidea demonstrate a high degree of similarity to the area, and have a logical structure with the continental fauna of lamellicorn beetles due to the geological youth of the island. The islands appeared during the post-Pleistocene transgression of the sea 11 to 8.5 thousand years ago.

The intense anthropogenic load and the high economic exploitation of marine biological resources in the coastal part of the Primorsky Krai (Sea of Japan) cause a comprehensive study of the marine environment and biota conditions. Macrobenthos is one of the essential components that determines the normal functioning of the marine ecosystem. We studied the composition, structure, and quantitative characteristics of macrobenthos and their functions. We grouped all coastal zones into four groups: (1) open areas subject to the influence of the prevailing river flow and minimal impact of the marine fleet; (2) open areas of the north-eastern and northern coasts, where the accumulation of organic matter (OM) is not observed; (3) water areas with naturally elevated OM content and local anthropogenic impact; and (4) the most polluted territories, subject to the intense chronic influence of factors of accumulation of OM, mainly of anthropogenic origin. The Golden Horn Bight is the water area subjected to the most significant anthropogenic impact, while the Kievka, Udobnaya, and Rudnaya Bights, on the eastern coast of Primorsky Krai, are the areas with the smallest level of anthropogenic press. The water areas of Nakhodka, Vladimira, Vostok, and Troitca Bight, enriched in organic matter, occupied the intermediate position. We revealed that the most significant components of macrobenthos-macrophytes and bivalves-cease to work as an effective biological filter, and the transformation of incoming pollution in the water area is too slow in conditions of chronic pollution of coastal marine ecosystems. The heterotrophic community feeds on a significant amount of introduced organic matter, often of toxic origin, the nature of which probably affects the functioning of mass groups of organisms, reducing the indicators of biodiversity and abundance.

New data were obtained on the formation mechanisms of relief sediment waves (SWs) in Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan. From the studies, we can assume that the sediment waves in the bay originate from two types of turbidity (TB) currents: (1) fine-dispersed TB currents caused by disintegrating internal waves and entrained by the Primorsky current along the shelf through SWs troughs; (2) fine- and coarse-grained TB currents, formed and entrained by the Primorsky current, intensified by the typhoons. This work presents the geological structure of the shelf area containing SWs. We established that the area of SWs location is on the border of change in facies conditions of sediment bedding in the bay. The transition from the inner shelf facies to the outer shelf facies occurs at a depth of 50–60 m. We analyzed the space variability of temperature and sound speed fields peculiar to the region on the results of hydrological CTD measurements and long-term measurements with moored vertical thermostrings. In the course of measurements, seven typhoons during their passage off the Primorye coast of the Russian Federation were registered. We found a significant change in the hydrological situation in the bay under the influence of extreme external factors. Under calm meteorological conditions, up to three mild thermoclines were observed in the bay, located at depths of 8–15 m, 30–35 m, and 45–60 m. During the passage of typhoons, they combined into one powerful thermocline at a depth of approximately 50–60 m, and in some cases, a high-gradient thermocline formed at the depths of 30–40 m (about 12–15 °C per 10 m of depth). The high-gradient layer significantly increases the amplitude and strength of internal gravity waves, thereby increasing the speed of currents in the water media. We should note that this period of transformation of the hydrological profile on the shelf under the influence of typhoons covers the period from August to October-November. We established that in the SWs location area, firstly, the process of internal waves disintegration intensifies in the autumn season, resulting in the formation of the waves with lengths close to the SWs horizontal scales (SWs wavelengths); secondly, under the influence of the typhoons entering the Sea of Japan, the kinetic energy of the shelf branch of the Primorsky current increases. In this case, it acts as a source of TB currents, including medium- and coarse-grained sedimentary material that forms SWs.

The research aims to study the resonant properties of the water area of the Peter the Great Gulf, in the Sea of Japan. The coast of the gulf is exposed to the threat of tsunamis due to relatively high seismic activity in the Sea of Japan. On May 26, 1983, a tsunami hit several bays of the gulf with wave heights reaching 5 m. As a response, the coasts were equipped with three sophisticated sea level measuring stations. Field measurements with installation of autonomous pressure gauges were carried out August 18–26, 2016, to study the peculiarities of free surface oscillations in the western part of the Peter the Great Gulf. Spectral analysis of the recorded data and the data obtained from the Posyet automated post of the Russian Tsunami Warning Service showed, in particular, that there were several clearly pronounced peaks at periods of 40, 48, 79 and 89 min. These oscillations are coincident for the Sea of Japan and the studied water area with a wide entrance. A finite-volume numerical model was used to calculate free oscillations in the computational domain covering the Sea of Japan region. We performed model calculations with an irregular triangular grid. This allowed us to describe both the outer water area of the Sea of Japan and separate small-scale relief elements in the water area under study, which are important for the formation of local seiches. Isophases and spatial patterns of several resonant oscillations spectra at 15–105 min periods were obtained for the Peter the Great Gulf area. Model calculations carried out in this work showed an evident spatial structure of resonant oscillations. Such research, including field measurements in adjacent coastal waters, is required to identify and monitor potentially hazardous coastal areas. The amplification of resonant oscillations depends on how effectively the specific atmospheric disturbance generates corresponding eigenmodes of the Sea of Japan. In some bays, the amplitudes of the Sea of Japan eigen oscillations can increase due to resonant properties of coastal water areas, even with a low quality factor. If the amplitudes are large, such a double resonance can lead to a meteorological tsunami.

In this paper, the authors present and analyze the geoacoustic digital seabed model they developed, which is a digital description of the water column characteristics, seabed topography, and information about sediments and rocks (their composition and elastic properties) for Peter the Great Bay, the Sea of Japan. The model consists of four relief layers, a foundation and three layers of bottom sediments, and also contains the velocities of longitudinal waves in rocks and statistical characteristics of the sound velocity distribution in the water layer for three seasons. Acoustic characteristics of geological structures are based on seismoacoustic studies, sediment lithology, and laboratory measurements of rock samples collected onshore. The velocities of longitudinal and transversal waves and also the density of the sediments were calculated from their empirical dependencies on the granulometric composition of bottom sediment samples over an area of about 800 km2. In a limited area of the shelf (approximately 130 km2), high-frequency acoustic studies were carried out using echo sounders, and the longitudinal wave velocities of the top sedimentary layer were determined. Porosity, density, longitudinal, and transverse wave velocities in bottom sediments were calculated using empirical models with a normal coefficient of reflection from the seabed. A comparison was made of the results of calculating the elastic properties of the seabed using various methods.