Russian military salaries are low. Theoretically, the army provides all necessities, but housing and food shortages continue to plague the armed forces. Problems with both discipline and brutal hazing are common as well. Such conditions continue to encourage draft evasion and efforts to delay military service. Moreover, military officials complain that new recruit cohorts are plagued by increasing incidences of poor education, communicable diseases, and criminality. HIV infection rates in the Russian army are estimated to be between two and five times higher than in the general population, and tuberculosis is a persistent problem.
The Russian Government has stated a desire to convert to a professional army, but implementation has been progressing slowly. In an effort to make military service more attractive, the tour of duty for conscripts was reduced to one year (from 18 months) beginning in 2008, and the military is offering increased pay and benefits to raise the number of professional servicemen. Current plans envision a transition to a mixed force, in which professional soldiers fill approximately 70%, including in select units, and conscription fills 30%. There is also an effort to develop a non-commissioned officer (NCO) corps, but the military faces difficulties recruiting NCOs, and has done little to develop the mechanisms and capability to sustain such a force.
16 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
At the start of the 18th century the reforms of Peter the Great (the founder of Russian Academy of Sciences and Saint Petersburg State University) and the work of such champions as polymath Mikhail Lomonosov (the founder of Moscow State University) gave a great boost for development of science and innovation in Russia. In the 19th and 20th centuries the country produced a large number of great scientists and inventors. Nikolai Lobachevsky, a Copernicus of Geometry, developed the non-Euclidean geometry. Dmitry Mendeleev invented the Periodic table, the main framework of the modern chemistry. Gleb Kotelnikov invented the knapsack parachute, while Evgeniy Chertovsky invented the pressure suit. Pavel Yablochkov and Alexander Lodygin were great pioneers of electrical engineering and inventors of early electric lamps. Alexander Popov was among the inventors of radio, while Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were co-inventors of lasers and masers. Igor Tamm, Andrei Sakharov and Lev Artsimovich developed the idea of tokamak for controlled nuclear fusion and created its first prototype, which finally led to ITER project. Many famous Russian scientists and inventors were émigrés, like Igor Sikorsky and Vladimir Zworykin, and many foreign ones worked in Russia for a long time, like Leonard Euler and Alfred Nobel. The greatest Russian successes are in the field of space technology and space exploration. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the father of theoretical austronautics. His works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergey Korolyov, Valentin Glushko and many others that contributed to the success of the Soviet space program at early stages of the Space Race. In 1957 the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched; in 1961 on April 12 the first human trip into space was successfully made by Yury Gagarin; and many other Soviet and Russian space exploration records ensued. Nowadays Russia is the largest satellite launcher and the only provider of space tourism services. Other technologies, where Russia historically leads, include nuclear technology, aircraft production and arms industry. The creation of the first nuclear power plant along with the first nuclear reactors for submarines and surface ships was directed by Igor Kurchatov. A number of prominent Soviet aerospace engineers, inspired by the theoretical works of Nikolai Zhukovsky, supervised the creation of many dozens of models of military and civilian aircraft and founded a number of KBs (Construction Bureaus) that now constitute the bulk of Russian United Aircraft Corporation. The famous Russian airplanes include the first supersonic passenger jet Tupolev Tu-144 by Alexei Tupolev, MiG fighter aircraft series by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich, and Su series by Pavel Sukhoi and his followers. Famous Russian battle tanks include T-34, the best tank design of World War II, and further tanks of T-series. AK-47 and AK-74 by Mikhail Kalashnikov constitute the most widely used type of assault rifle throughout the world — so much so that more AK-type rifles have been produced than all other assault rifles combined. With these and other weapons Russia for a long time has been among the world's top suppliers of arms, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales and exporting weapons to about 80 countries. With such technological achievements, however, since the time of Brezhnev stagnation Russia was lagging significantly behind the West in a number of technologies, especially those concerning energy conservation and consumer goods production. The crisis of 1990-s led to the drastic reduction of the state support for science. Many Russian scientists and university graduates left Russia for Europe or United States; this migration is known as a brain drain. In 2000-s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation in the Russian science and technology has improved, and the government launched a campaign aimed into modernisation and innovation. Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev formulated top 5 priorities for the country's technological development: energy efficiency, IT (inluding both common products and the products combined with space technology), nuclear energy and pharmaceuticals. Some progress already has been achieved, with Russia's having nearly completed GLONASS, the only global satellite navigation system apart from American GPS, and Russia's being the only country constructing mobile nuclear plants.
Литература
1. Зайцева С.Е. Шибанова Е.С, Английский язык для экономистов. М., 2008.-184c.
2. Мюллер В.К. Дашевская В.Л. Каплан В.А. Романова С.П. Черкасская Е.Б. Дворкина А.Я. Есипова В.Я. Новый англо-русский словарь М., 1997.-880c.
3. Collin P.H. Weland Carol Dohn S. Derek Dictionary of American Business P.H. Collin Publisher, 1991.-313c.
4. Electronic dictionary АВВУ Lingvo 12 version, ABBY Software 2008.-электронно-оптический диск (CD-ROM)
5. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia http://wiki.org/
6. US department of state diplomacy in action
Содержание
I Часть I Тексты для аудиторной работы …………………….…………….3
I.1. Geographical position………………………….………………..…………3
I.2. Climate and population of Russia…………………….………….….……..8
I.3. Administrative and territorial divisions………………….……………….12
I.4. Government and political conditions……………………….…………….19
I.5. Economy……………………………………………………….…………25
II Тексты для самостоятельного чтения……………………………..…….30
II.1. History……………………………………………………………….…..30
II.2. Global position and boundaries……………………………………….…34
II.3. Art in Russia………………………………………………………….….35
II.4. Human rights………………………………………………………….…38
II.5. Gross domestic product……………………………………………….…39
II.6. Monetary policy………………………………………………….………40
II.7. Government spending. Taxation………………………………………....40
II.8. Commercial law…………………………………….……………............41
II.9. Natural resources………………………….…………………….…….…41
II.10. Industry……………………………………………………………….…41
II.11. Agriculture………………………………………………………………42
II.12. Investment. Banking…………………………………………………….42
II.13. Trade…………………………………………………………………….43
II.14. Foreign relations………………………………………………………...44
II.15. Defense………………………………………………………………….45
II.16. Science and technology…………………………………………………45
Литература ………………………………………………….………….…….48
Кафедра иностранных языков
Методические указания
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
(английский язык)
Татьяна Леонидовна Лобановская
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Отпечатано с оригинал-макета. Формат 60Í90. 1/16
Печ.л. 3,06 Тираж 100 экз.
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Санкт-Петербургский государственный технологический институт
(Технический университет)
190013, Санкт-Петербург, Московский пр., 26