Version: 4 (current) | Updated: 11/13/2025, 6:20:44 AM
Added description
**File metadata**
@file_pinax -> documents -> @ukrainian_conflict:event {description: "Geopolitical events in Mariupol and broader Ukrainian conflict (metadata from PINAX)"}
@file_pinax -> mentions -> [@mariupol, @donetsk, @eastern_ukraine, @ukraine, @russia]
@file_51088585_mariupol -> documents -> @election_2014_presidential:election {date: @date_2014_05_25, source: "newsletter"}
@file_51088585_mariupol -> documents -> @election_2014_parliamentary:election {date: @date_2014_10_26, source: "newsletter"}
@file_51088585_mariupol -> mentions -> [@svoboda, @right_sector, @ultranationalist_mps, @volunteer_battalions, @azovstal, @anti_terror_operation]
@file_51125548_luxembourg -> documents -> @luxembourg:place {description: "Luxembourg as a secondary global financial centre"}
@file_51125548_luxembourg -> mentions -> [@global_financial_centres_index, @system_capital_management]
@file_51625523_mariupol -> documents -> @azovstal:organization {description: "Azovstal steel plant and the 3600‑plate‑mill construction project"}
@file_51625523_mariupol -> mentions -> [@zhdanov_construction_combine, @rinat_akhmetov, @system_capital_management, @metinvest, @dtek]
@file_51648881_chinese_fishing_fleet -> documents -> @china_distant_water_fleet:organization {description: "World’s largest distant‑water fishing fleet, accused of illegal over‑fishing and labour abuses"}
@file_51648881_chinese_fishing_fleet -> mentions -> [@quad_initiative, @wto_subsidies_agreement, @environmental_justice_foundation, @steve_trent, @alan_beattie]
---
**Core entities**
@ukrainian_conflict:event {description: "Armed conflict in Ukraine involving Russian‑backed separatists, the ATO, and internal political turmoil"}
@anti_terror_operation:event {description: "Ukrainian military “Anti‑Terror Operation” against separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine"}
@election_2014_presidential:election {date: @date_2014_05_25, type: "presidential"}
@election_2014_parliamentary:election {date: @date_2014_10_26, type: "parliamentary"}
@svoboda:organization {type: "far‑right political party", country: @ukraine}
@right_sector:organization {type: "far‑right political party", country: @ukraine}
@ultranationalist_mps:person {count: 13, total_mps: 423, parliament: @ukrainian_parliament}
@volunteer_battalions:organization {description: "Irregular or semi‑regular armed groups formed in 2014 supporting Ukrainian forces"}
@azovstal:organization {type: "steel plant and industrial complex", location: @mariupol}
@rinat_akhmetov:person {occupation: "oligarch, steel magnate", net_worth_usd: 12000000000, hometown: @donetsk}
@metinvest:organization {industry: "steel & mining", owner: @rinat_akhmetov}
@dtek:organization {industry: "energy", owner: @rinat_akhmetov}
@system_capital_management:organization {type: "holding company", owner: @rinat_akhmetov}
@zhdanov_construction_combine:organization {type: "construction combine", region: @donetsk_oblast}
@luxembourg:place {country: @luxembourg}
@global_financial_centres_index:document {rank_2023: 30, scope: "global financial centres"}
@quad_initiative:event {description: "Quad (US, Japan, Australia, India) launches satellite‑based Maritime Domain Awareness programme targeting illegal Chinese fishing"}
@indian_pacific_partnership:organization {type: "security grouping", members: [@united_states, @japan, @australia, @india]}
@wto_subsidies_agreement:event {date: @date_2022_06, description: "WTO agreement to eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies"}
@china_distant_water_fleet:organization {type: "global fishing fleet", nationality: @china}
@environmental_justice_foundation:organization {type: "NGO"}
@steve_trent:person {role: "founder of Environmental Justice Foundation"}
@alan_beattie:person {role: "Financial Times Trade Secrets columnist"}
@ukrainian_parliament:organization {type: "legislature"}
@donetsk_people_s_republic:organization {type: "self‑proclaimed separatist republic"}
@donetsk:place {region: @donetsk_oblast, country: @ukraine}
@donetsk_oblast:place {region_of: @ukraine}
@mariupol:place {region: @donetsk_oblast, country: @ukraine}
@eastern_ukraine:place {region_of: @ukraine}
@donbas:place {region_of: @ukraine}
---
**Inter‑entity relationships**
@azovstal -> owned by -> @rinat_akhmetov
@metinvest -> owned by -> @rinat_akhmetov
@dtek -> owned by -> @rinat_akhmetov
@system_capital_management -> owned by -> @rinat_akhmetov
@svoboda -> participated in -> @election_2014_presidential
@right_sector -> participated in -> @election_2014_presidential
@ultranationalist_mps -> served in -> @ukrainian_parliament
@volunteer_battalions -> fought in -> @anti_terror_operation
@azovstal -> contributed to -> @anti_terror_operation
@quad_initiative -> involves -> [@united_states, @japan, @australia, @india]
@wto_subsidies_agreement -> targets -> @china_distant_water_fleet
@environmental_justice_foundation -> consulted by -> @steve_trent
@alan_beattie -> writes for -> @financial_times
@zhdanov_construction_combine -> collaborated with -> @azovstal
---
*All dates (e.g., @date_2014_05_25, @date_2022_06) are auto‑created and need no explicit definition.*<!--
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<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png" width="1002" height="1032" data-attrs="{"src":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1032,"width":1002,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":961712,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!81Rb!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d10b9d2-ccfc-4321-8fa8-4cd3c28e80a7_1002x1032.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container restack-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-refresh-cw"><path d="M3 12a9 9 0 0 1 9-9 9.75 9.75 0 0 1 6.74 2.74L21 8"></path><path d="M21 3v5h-5"></path><path d="M21 12a9 9 0 0 1-9 9 9.75 9.75 0 0 1-6.74-2.74L3 16"></path><path d="M8 16H3v5"></path></svg></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Therefore, these developments were only partly a result of endogenous Ukrainian developments and heavily related to the growing external threat to Ukraine and increasing existential concerns, if not panic, especially amongst Ukraine’s elite and youth regarding the Kremlin’s actions and intentions in Ukraine. As illustrated by the limited success of Ukraine’s far right in the presidential, parliamentary, and local elections of 2014–2015, and the low number of ultra-nationalists—no more than 13 out of the current 423 MPs—in the first post-Euromaydan Verkhovna Rada elected in October 2014, public support for right-wing extremism remains relatively weak.</p><p>This is remarkable if one takes into account the far-reaching social, mental, and cultural effects of the profound economic crisis and ongoing pseudo-civil war in Eastern Ukraine triggered by Russia’s covert intervention since 2014.<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">18</a> At least, with regard to the state of affairs by the end of 2017, emphasizing the relative weakness of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism and its popular support remains justified if one takes into account the electoral success of other European far-right parties, for example, during elections to the European Parliament which took place on the same day as Ukraine’s presidential elections on May 25, 2014, or when comparing the presence of right-wing extremism in the current Ukrainian Parliament with the strength of radical nationalists in parliaments across Europe, not the least in Russia.<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">19</a> In fact, the modest electoral results:</p><ul><li><p>of the far right All-Ukrainian Union “Svoboda” (Freedom), i.e., 1.16% for Svoboda’s leader Oleh Tyahnybok in the presidential elections of May 25, 2014 and 4.71% for the party in the parliamentary elections of October 26, 2014,<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">20</a> and</p></li><li><p>of the Pravyy sektor, i.e. 0.7% for Right Sector’s then leader Dmytro Yarosh on May 25, 2014 and 1.81% for the party on October 26, 2014,</p><p>re quite striking. That is because, in both 2014 Ukrainian national elections, millions of Crimeans and residents of the Donets Basin, many of whom under normal circumstances would have gone to the polls, did not take part in these polls, due to Russia’s covert military intervention. Had this segment of the Ukrainian electorate participated fully in the presidential and parliamentary voting, the overall percentage of nationwide support for the two far-right groups, in the first war year of 2014, would have been even lower than the relatively low support they received in these two national elections, under extreme conditions.</p></li><li><p>Regarding the circa three dozen Ukrainian irregular or semi-regular armed groups that emerged in 2014, not only the specific historical context of their surge and popularity has to be considered, but also their relative weight within Ukraine’s armed forces as a whole. While the volunteer battalions did play some role in the initial phase of the conflict, the soldiers of these new paramilitary units made up only a small amount of the entire Ukrainian assembly of armed forces employed in the so-called Anti-Terror Operation (ATO), in the East of Ukraine. According to one estimate of September 2014, out of the approximately 50,000 soldiers then taking part in the ATO, around 7,000 were members of semi-regular or irregular volunteer units.<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">21</a> In February 2015, there were, within the Ministry of Interior, 37 volunteer units which then included 6,700 men and women.<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">22</a></p><p>Only some of these groups grew out of Ukraine’s far right scene. They were founded by organizations such as “Svoboda,” the UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defence),<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">23</a> the Right Sector, the SNA/PU (Social-National Assembly/Patriot of Ukraine), party “Bratstvo” (Brotherhood), and others.<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">24</a> This means that the summary share of those Ukrainian ATO soldiers who have served in units with ultra-nationalist roots was seemingly lower than 10%.<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974#">25</a> Since 2014, most of the irregular or semi-regular units have been transformed into, or merged with, regular armed detachments (battalions, brigades, regiments, etc.) of Ukraine’s Ministries of Defense and Interior, and thus ceased to exist as semi-independent armed groups.</p></li><li><p>In the foreign media, particularly the Russian propaganda outlets, but at times also in Western reporting, Azov is sometimes presented as the archetypical example of Ukraine’s voluntary battalions. Well-informed observers, some of whom are quoted below, in contrast, have highlighted the peculiarity of Azov as well as the difficulty of applying, in general, a single over-arching political classification and interpretation to the volunteers movement</p><p>https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974</p></li></ul><p>MARIUPOL, Ukraine — Thousands of steelworkers fanned out on Thursday through the city of Mariupol, establishing control over the streets and banishing the pro-Kremlin militants who until recently had seemed to be consolidating their grip on power, dealing a setback to Russia and possibly reversing the momentum in eastern Ukraine.By late Thursday, miners and steelworkers had deployed in at least five cities, including the regional capital, Donetsk. They had not, however, become the dominant force there that they were in Mariupol, the region’s second-largest city and the site last week of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/world/europe/ukraine-forces-destroy-police-building-in-restive-east.html" title="Times article">a bloody confrontation</a> between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian militants.While it was still far too early to say the tide had turned in eastern Ukraine, the day’s events were a blow to separatists who recently seized control here and in a dozen or so other cities and who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/world/europe/ukraine.html" title="Times article">held a referendum on independence</a> on Sunday. Backed by the Russian propaganda machine and by 40,000 Russian troops just over the border, their grip on power seemed to be tightening every day.But <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/europe/ukrainians-favor-unity-not-russia-polls-find.html?_r=0" title="Times article">polls had indicated</a> that a strong majority of eastern Ukrainians supported unity, though few were prepared to say so publicly in the face of armed pro-Russian militants. When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia withdrew support for the separatists last week, calling for a delay in the referendum and for dialogue on Ukraine’s future, the political winds shifted, providing an opening that the country’s canny oligarchs could exploit.ADVERTISEMENT<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/world/europe/ukraine-workers-take-to-streets-to-calm-Mariupol.html#after-story-ad-1">Continue reading the main story</a>The workers who took to the streets on Thursday were among the hundreds of thousands in the east who are employed in metals and mining by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who only recently went beyond paying lip service to Ukrainian unity and on Wednesday issued a statement rejecting separatism.Critics say Mr. Akhmetov could have prevented much of the bloodshed in the east if he had taken a strong stance sooner. But his lieutenants say he decided to confront the separatists out of a deep belief that independence, or even quasi-autonomy, would be disastrous for eastern Ukraine. Mr. Akhmetov urged his employees, whose jobs were at risk, to take over the city.The workers, who were wearing only their protective clothing and hard hats, said they were “outside politics” and were just trying to establish order. Faced with waves of steelworkers joined by the police, the pro-Russian protesters melted away, along with signs of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and its representatives. Backhoes and dump trucks from the steelworkers’ factory dismantled the barricades that separatists had erected.Metinvest and DTEK, the metals and mining subsidiaries of Mr. Akhmetov’s company, System Capital Management, together employ 280,000 people in eastern Ukraine, forming an important and possibly decisive force in the region. They have a history of political activism stretching back to miner strikes that helped bring down the Soviet Union. In this conflict, they had not previously signaled their allegiance to one side or the other.It remains possible that the separatists could regroup and challenge the industrial workers, though few were to be found in and around Mariupol on Thursday, even in the public administration building they had been occupying.<strong>Editors’ Picks<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/travel/tsa-social-media.html?action=click&algo=identity&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=313289201&impression_id=f2c5aff0-acb6-11ec-a05b-913c6e7a765f&index=0&pgtype=Article&pool=editors-picks-ls&region=ccolumn&req_id=129429108&surface=home-featured&variant=0_identity&action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article&region=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending">The Funniest Travel Account on Instagram Is Run by the T.S.A. Seriously.</a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/t-magazine/writers-alcohol-drugs-art.html?action=click&algo=identity&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=862977570&impression_id=f2c5aff1-acb6-11ec-a05b-913c6e7a765f&index=1&pgtype=Article&pool=editors-picks-ls&region=ccolumn&req_id=129429108&surface=home-featured&variant=0_identity&action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article&region=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending">Where Have All the Artist-Addicts Gone?</a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/style/80s-weddings-dresses-cakes.html?action=click&algo=identity&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=56876492&impression_id=f2c5d700-acb6-11ec-a05b-913c6e7a765f&index=2&pgtype=Article&pool=editors-picks-ls&region=ccolumn&req_id=129429108&surface=home-featured&variant=0_identity&action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article&region=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending">‘Epic’ Dresses and Maximalist Cakes: These ’80s Wedding Trends Are Back</a></strong><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/world/europe/ukraine-workers-take-to-streets-to-calm-Mariupol.html?action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article&region=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending#after-pp_edpick">Continue reading the main story</a>ADVERTISEMENT<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/world/europe/ukraine-workers-take-to-streets-to-calm-Mariupol.html#after-story-ad-2">Continue reading the main story</a></p><p>https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/world/europe/ukraine-workers-take-to-streets-to-calm-Mariupol.html</p><p><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ukraine" title="Title: Ukraine">Ukraine</a>’s wealthiest man, <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Rinat+Akhmetov" title="Title: Rinat Akhmetov">Rinat Akhmetov</a>, is a native of <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Donetsk" title="Title: Donetsk">Donetsk</a>, with a fortune of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/rinat-akhmetov/">more than $12 billion</a>, mostly from coal, steel, and power holdings. He allegedly flirted with the separatists before throwing his support behind Kiev. After he declared his loyalty, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/25/us-ukraine-crisis-donetsk-akhmetov-idUSBREA4O04Z20140525">rebels surrounded Akhmetov’s home</a> in Donetsk, but he was not there at the time. He owns the successful soccer team Shakhtar Donetsk, which will now <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/24/brazil-fred-shakhtar-donetsk-mh17-disaster">play its games in western Ukraine</a>. </p><p>In May, Akhmetov <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/world/europe/ukraine-workers-take-to-streets-to-calm-Mariupol.html">unleashed his steelworkers</a> on the city of Mariupol to tamp down separatism. But when he tried this in Donetsk, it fizzled. With <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/ukraine-crisis-economy-east-idUSL6N0Q021220140728">approximately 300,000 employees</a> on his payroll in eastern Ukraine, Akhmetov has a vested interest in the region's economic stability. </p><!--
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<div id="youtube2-ja-u79iJ3R0" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{"videoId":"ja-u79iJ3R0","startTime":null,"endTime":null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ja-u79iJ3R0?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><p></p><p>https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=084f970d-f111-4c48-b026-6e92f2278c25%40redis</p><p>Since the 1960s, Luxembourg has progressively become one of the secondary financial players that ‘controls and smooths the processes of global financial transactions and the trade of a dizzying array of financial products’. 3 Although not operating at the level of very large financial centres, the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) ranks Luxembourg thirtieth among the few centres operating at the worldwide level.4 This rise has been rapid and the centre’s history has only now begun to be told.</p><p>the passing of a 1929 law on holding companies, or the listing of the Autostrade bond (considered to be the first Eurobond issue) on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange in 1963. Yet entire decades between or after these years are markedly absent from the literature, or at best confined to a few sentences. Moreover, important aspects such as the framework provided by the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union (in particular the double exchange market set up in the 1950s), or the absence of a central bank in the country, are often ignored. Similarly, the domestic banking system and its connection to the growing internationally oriented financial sector tends to go unmentioned.</p><p>the niche that Liechtenstein has carved out for itself can only exist because it is rooted within a dense and multi-layered network of economic relations, which explains why the country is perpetually engaged in a ‘delicate balance between cooperation and delimitation’. 27 Exploring the ways in which Luxembourg and other offshore financial centres experience a similar tension (i.e. between its long-time economic partner Belgium, and more broadly the European Union, but also in relation to London, as the epicentre of the Euromarkets), is a research angle that has not at present been sufficiently explored</p><p>The 1850s. Several banks were set up in Luxembourg in the mid-nineteenth century, two of which are still operating today and have left a lasting impact on the country’s financial landscape: the Banque internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) and the Caisse d’Épargne de l’État du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (BCEE), both founded in 1856. ● The 1929 law on financial holding companies. Inspired by legislation in several Swiss cantons, this act set up a favourable tax regime for holdings and encouraged the development of offshore industry.32 It is cited in virtually all the research that includes a historical component. The studies also emphasize that this regulation, together with the creation of the stock exchange that same year did not, however, have the intended effect, due both to the economic crisis of 1929 and the Second World War. Indeed, the deglobalization experienced by the Western world during this time put an end to efforts to create an international financial centre. ● The 1960s and 1970s. Economists and legal experts agree that the true boom period for the financial centre began in these years. Those who see investment funds as its basis tend to favour the 1960s (as the number of funds increased from 1161 in 1961 to 2309 in 197033), while those who focus on banks opt to point to the 1970s (as the number of banks rose from 37 in 1970 to 109 in 1980).34 In addition to this chronological dispute, another open question is why exactly the financial centre started to succeed. Some argue that it began to prosper thanks to events outside Luxembourg, particularly the Interest Equalization Tax enacted in the United States in 1963, which raised the cost of borrowing dollars for non-residents, together with the Kouponsteuer, a withholding tax introduced in Germany in 1965 to limit the influx of foreign capital. Others claim instead that it was the active efforts of the Luxembourg government to devise a suitable regulatory framework for these new circumstances that provided the impetus for the centre’s growth.</p><p>virtually ‘natural’ development for a nation-state whose economy developed through the exercise of ‘national sovereignty’ from the nineteenth century onwards, whether this be the clause prohibiting exportation for the steel industry in the 1880s (Verhüttungsklausel), the commercialization of a public service concession by a private group (the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion) in the 1930s, or the development of tax niches for the financial centre. Yet while the state plays a central role in André Bauler’s analysis, the stakeholders are not clearly delineated. Who were the men (and women) behind it, what groups and tensions have shaped its development? Nor does he address an aspect that sets Luxembourg apart, namely that of conferring responsibilities normally attributed to the state to private companies, such as the diplomatic role of the steel company ARBED.36 Gérard Trausch, who similarly begins in the nineteenth century to explain the roots of the Luxembourg economy, proposes a narrative that partly opposes that of Bauler. He presents the financial centre as a product of external factors, especially the decisions made by the United States (the interest equalization tax) and Germany (increase in reserves by the Bundesbank). In his words: ‘The gradual expansion of the service sector in the Luxembourg economy is not rooted in the proactive action of various Luxembourg governments; it is the result of legal/regulatory provisions abroad.’ 37 Gérard Trausch is also critical of the position occupied by the financial sector in Luxembourg, contemplating the potential risks to the democratic functioning of a society that is increasingly dominated by financialization. While adopting a less historically based approach, a team of researchers working with economist Patrice Pieretti has similarly emphasized the role of external factors in the growth of the industry, without, however, ignoring the ‘somewhat proactive impetus that created conditions conducive to the emergence of a competitive banking and financial centre’. 38</p><p></p><div id="youtube2-ja-u79iJ3R0" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{"videoId":"ja-u79iJ3R0","startTime":null,"endTime":null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ja-u79iJ3R0?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><!--
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<p>https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/donbas-war-and-politics-in-cities-on-the-front-mariupol-and-kramatorsk/DE686D74FD88BD206485B3172F2EC3DE</p><p>file:///Users/adamtooze/Downloads/the-donbas-war-and-politics-in-cities-on-the-front-mariupol-and-kramatorsk.pdf</p><p>https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3103/S096709120701007X.pdf</p><p>19.11.2018, 10:06 1109</p><h1><strong>Mariupol Residents Daily Breathe Dangerous to Health Formaldehyde</strong>https://vchasnoua.com/en/281-mariupol-residents-daily-breathe-dangerous-to-health-formaldehyde</h1><h1>Mariupol: Thousands protest against dangerous levels of pollution</h1><p>https://khpg.org/en/1352148881</p><p>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-24/mariupol-s-history-helps-explain-putin-s-ukraine-fiasco?sref=wOrDP8KX</p><p>http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CM%5CA%5CMariupol.htm</p><p>https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/conflict-and-reviv-urban-trasformation-in-mariupol-after-2014/viewer</p><div id="youtube2-dRyiBnqA-L4" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{"videoId":"dRyiBnqA-L4","startTime":null,"endTime":null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/dRyiBnqA-L4?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><p>https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-mariupol-russia-war/31269094.html</p><p>https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974</p><p>All this has been achieved by the introduction of new techniques, advanced technology, mechanization and automation of industrial processes, application of the experience of industrial innovators, and extensive development of socialistic competition. During recent years our plant has made considerable advances. In the sintering 1hill the belts have been reconstructed to increase their area to 62.5 rather than 50/mZ; the exhaust fans with a capacity of 3500 m 3 rain have been replaced with ones having a capacity of 6500 m3/min. This permitted the output of abe sinter beit to be increased by 20% and saved more than 26 thousandtons of coke and more than 68 thousand tonsof limestone per year. To improve the quality of agglomerate a crushing unit was built and hydraulic regulators were set up which maintain the necessary gas pressure at the furnace; the regulator works according to the load of charge in the bin of'the swing feeder and a!so according to the moisture content in the secondary drum-mixer. Serious changes have also taken place in the blast-furnace industry. The Mast-furnaces are constructed with thick-wailed boshes, stronger hearths, and reinforced construction of the mouths and the dust catchers estimated on the basis of furnace operation under a gas pressure of 1.2-1.5 atm in the working space; the capacity of the active air heaters has been increased and new ones have been constructed; lined nozzles have been introduced; a great deal of work has been done on selecting the appropriate diameter of the air tuyeres. Increasing the diameter of the tuyeres to 190 permitted the smelting intensity to be raised. tn the mill work has been completed on the utilization of natural gas; this made it possible to sharply increase the temperature of the blast and save up to 20~ coke. At the present time work is being conducted on the utilization of oxygen in the bIast-furnace industry. Much work is being done on mechanization and automation of production. A system of remote control for changing the weight of the coke charge has been worked out and introduced on all blast-furnaces. Complex automation of the air heaters has been put into service. On the blast-furnace much work is being done on the automatic regulation of furnace pace. At the present time a unique computer is being tested; the command controller for the program of the loading system and the revolving distributor are regulated by the superintendant by remote control. On another furnace the scale car works automatically; regulators of the ratio of air to natural gas have been installed in all units. 336 All this allowed us to increase the production of iron in 1962 by 70.7% as compared with 1958. In the blast-furnace mill a great deal of by-product material is obtained - slag, crushed stone, and granulated slag; this will soon be used to obtain mineral wadding. The productivity of the open-hearth mill also increases continuously. Much work has beendone by the collective of steel workers on introducing technologically new production, mechanization of arduous tasks, and automation of processes. At the present time all open-hearth furnaces employ oxygen. Oxygen is hereby used both to intensify the combustion process and to oxidize impurities in the metal bath directly. Four open-hearth furnaces have been reconstructed and operate on natural gas; this permitted an increase in their productivity of 20%, At the present time a commercial unit for blowing iron in the ladles is being adopted. The capacity of the charging boxes has been increased and the charging machines reconstructed in order to curtail the loading period. All teeming ladles have been equipped with stoppers regulated hydraulically by remote control; Standstills of the open-hearth furnaces become less frequent every year. A new technology for rapid, prophylactic repair of floors has been worked out and introduced on the basis of work and tests completed on the formation and wear of floors using radioactive isotopes of phosphorus and iridium. Many changes have been made in the technology of metal production and the construction of the furnace. Open-hearth furnaces are equipped with television units. All this permitted the output of steel in 1962 to be increased by 17.9% as compared with 1958. The rolling mill operators of the plant are doing as well as the blast-furnace and steel workers. In the blooming mill a new group of heating wells have been constructed and adopted; a ground-type machine for opening and closing the covers of the heating wells has been put into service; the motor of the blooming mill has been replaced with a more powerful one; a new transformer unit has been installed. The output per worker in the blooming mill in 1962 had increased by 12.6% as compared to 1958. In the rail-structural mill 25-ton rails are being produced on the 900 mill; a contact-free scheme of regulating the main drive and the clamping device of the mill has been introducedl the rail-finishing units have been automated. Much work has been done on mastering and perfecting the grooving of light sections; the grooving of sections and mine supports has been mastered. tn the heavy grade mill a hot-cutting saw has been set up in front of the 800 mill. Much work has been done on mechanization and automation of production of rail reinforcements; multiple-thread gaging has been introduced for rolling bails. The plant proposed and worked out a process for tempering the ends of rails by heating with high~requency currents. This method makes it possible to considerably increase the durability of the rails. The collective of the central plant laboratory has done a great deal to improve and introduce new technological processes such as the reduction of high-phosphorus irons, establishing the optimum regimes for forced conducting of the blast-furnace and open-hearth heats using natural gas and oxygen, and others. The young collective of the central automation and mechanization laboratory has already done a great deal: operation of the air heaters, scale car, rail-finishing, and other units has been automated. For successes achieved in developing ferrous metallurgy the workers of the plant "Azovstal"': superintendant of the blast-furnace mill M. M. Ivchenko, senior furnace attendant G, L. Chuiko, and steel worker V. A, Shkuropat were awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Competition for the right to be called an installation of communist labor has developed extensively at the plant. At out plant 1063 collectives are competing for the title, Communist Labor Grew. Eighty-eight collectives have already earned this right. The plant collective completed its plan for 6 months of this year with respect to the entire metallurgical cycle and contributed thousands of tons of iron, steel, and roiled stock in excess of the plan. There are many innovators at the plant. During 4 years and 5 months of the seven-year plan they have made 14957 suggestions, the realization of which has saved over 8140 thousand rubies. 337 Many valuable technical innovations introduced into production at other metallurgical plants are due to workers, engineers, and technicians of the plant "Azovstal' ": a boring machine with remote control for opening the iron tap hole invented by G. A. Zinov'ev permits the time required for opening the hole to be reduced from go to 5 rain, precludes injuries altogether, and also eases the work of the furnace attendants; a rail tilter on the inspection rack constructed by B. V. Sheftolovich, K. A. Kuyumdzhi, D. A. Taushan, and other engineers eliminates heavy manual labor of the workers in tilting the rails for their inspecting; a high'temperature nozzle for the blast-furnace lined with wedge-shaped foam-fireclay brick worked out by innovators of the blast-furnace mill; the use of such nozzles makes it possible to increase the temperature of the hot blast by 26.2~ and save 21333tons of coke per year. Much has been done by the innovators and inventors of the plant in the area of perfecting technology and the units. While working on increasing the productivity of the open-hearth furnaces, our steel workers found a method of raising the fire banks by 200 mm by raising the caissons, oxygen tuyeres, water-cooled sealing collars, and subabutment beams of the furnace arch by the same amount. The average weight of the heats has been increased by 12.7tons or by 3.4% as a result of introducing the proposed reconstruction of the furnaces. A creative coilective of the mill for rail reinforcements consisting of A. A. Mosharov, M. A. Kur~anov, and A. A. Tret' yakov worked out and introduced double-thread gaging in the production of balls 40, 50, and 60 mm in diameter instead of the single-thread gaging called for in the design. This increased the productivity of the ball roiling mill by 7200 tons per year. In 1962 a collective of innovators of the plant won first place in the district competition, and in the All-Union contest in 1962 for introducing inventions the plant "Azovstal' " won third place. The cadres grow and improve with the plant. This year over 5 thousand persons are enrolled in institutes, technical schools, schools for advanced training, and industrial-technical courses. The workers of "Azovstal' " have pledged to fulfill the state plan with respect to the entire metallurgical cycle and to produce thousands of tons of iron, steel, rolled stock, and other products over plan, Realization of the resolutions of the November Plenum of the CC of the CPSU and the December Plenum of the CC of the CIKJ opens a wider scope for emergence of the innovating creativity of the Soviet people as they strive to make the great Program for the building of communism a reality.</p><p>The builders of the 1930's have passed the baton to reliable hands. The evidence of this is one of the largest projects of our time-- the 3600 mill, which was put into service six months ahead of schedule. 538 E E 9 ~E ~ CI) 0 g~ ~o .~ ~ 539 9 9 9 9 ~.~ 0 ~ m g ~ .~ ~ ~ 9 ~ m N ~ o ~ ~ ~. ~ 9 ,~ ml 540 0 ~cJ 0 & uD 541 Fig. 8. Fedor Ivanovich Ermolin, brigadeer ofassembiers. Photos by N. Kladita. In ~is issue we will tell you about the difficulties encountered by the builders, about the friendship and labor rivalry, about everyday life saturated to the limit with work which urith complete grounds can be called heroic. Thus, the 3600 mill. Even to the experienced builders who have become ; ccustomed to large-scale projects of Soviet industry, this complex being built at the Azovstal' Plant causes unintentional admiration. The technological equipment of the mills covers an area exceeding 23 hectares. The annual capacity of the milt is 1.~5 million tons of rolled product. The entire production process is completelyautomated. </p><p> The mill produces sheet from 5 to 50 mm thick, used for the manufacture of pipes for the main gas and oil lines and other needs of the national economy, and plates up to 200 mm thick. And there are some figures characterizing the grandiosity of the construction. The cost of all the fixed capital of plant as large as Azovstal' is 280 million rubles, but the total estimate cost of the mill alone is 100 million rubles. The construction of the mill was called for by the Directives of the 94th Party Congress for the Ninth FiveYear Plan. "To start up the 3600 plate mill and oxygen-converter shop at the Azovstal' Plant ... " - such was written in the Directives of the 24th Parr]Congress concerning the disposition of productive forces and development of the Ukrainian SSR. The first stage of construction of the mill occurred under rather complex conditions: there were not enough workhands,machines, and mechanisms, and the difficulties with material and technical supplies were many. Last year, for example, 11.6 million rubles were not used on the construction of the complex; of the 26 organizations building the mill, only five fulfilled the plan. This unconditionally affected the rhythm of the project. The Party, trade union, and economic organizations of the republic, district, and city took the most decisive measures to bring construction out of the situation that was created. The operative group of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party and Council of Ministers of the republic, which included G. K. Lubenets, Minister of Construction of Heavy Industry Plants of the Ukrainian SSR, V. O. Kulikov, First Deputy Minister of Ferrous Metallurgy of the Ukrainian SSR, N. P. Amelichkin, Deputy Minister of Assembly and Special Construction Works of the Ukrainian SSR, and P. I. Mostovoi, Secretary of the Donetsk Regional Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party, having taken the necessary measures, straightened out the interaction of the numerous departments involved in the project, which greatly improved its material and technical supply. The necessary practical everyday problems were solved promptly, and all conditions for highly productive work were created. Forty well-appointed hostels were built for the workers, more than ~00 collapsible-type dressing and rest rooms were set up at the construction site, and 20 dining halls and eating centers seating more than 1300 persons simultaneously were opened. In addition, traveling lunchrooms and mobile kitchens operate in the construction area, where you can find vendors of pastries, tea, and coffee. It has been calculated roughly that a worker spends only 20 rain on eating. Shoe and watch repair shops, barber shops, dry cleaners, a laundry, a book store, and newstands operate at the construction site. A polyclinic and health centers are at the service of the builders. Special buses take the workers to the job sites. All this unconditionally affected the morale of the workers and promoted an increase of labor productivity. But socialist competition became the most effective means of increasing the creative initiative of the builders and of activating the work of all collectives of the construction, assembly, and specialized organizations engaged in the construction of the mill. Its slogan: "With speed, quality, and economy! " 542 The construction of the 3600 mill not without grounds is called the university of socialist competition. Here, on one of the largest projects of the decisive year of the quinquennium, were born new forms of competition which unquestionably will become widespread also at other projects of the country. The organization of a competition on such a vast project as the 3600 mill, where more than 30 construction and specialized organizations are engaged, is no easy task. For directing the competition it was necessary to create a single coordinating center which could summarize the results promptly, suggest more effective forms of competition, and concentrate the efforts of all trade union organizations on the main directions. The trade union headquarters of the project, created by decree of the Ukrainian Republic Trade Union Council, became such a center. It was headed by N. S. Dranko, secretary of the Donetsk Regional Trade Union Council. Commissions were organized at the headquarters: mass-production work, mass-cultural work, industrial safety, living conditions, community life, transportation, trade, an operative group of the plant committee of the Azovstal' Plant for checking the course of construction of the mill, and joint council of the physical culture collectives, a club nBuilder,~ and an art council. In all, the headquarters and its commissions numbered more than 300 persons - experienced managers and trade union workers. The work of more than 80 trade union organizations, 307 trade union groups, four joint construction committees, and the plant trade union committee of the Azovstal' Plant are under the control of the headquarters. Thousands of people of the most diverse occupations, ages, and skills are working at the project, but they are all working in a single rhythm which socialist competition dictates. The decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU, USSR Council of Ministers, All-Union Central Trade Union Council, and Central Committee of the Lenin Young Communist League, nOn launching an All-Union competition of industrial, transport, and construction workers for the prescheduled fulfillment of the national economic plan for 1973," served as a powerful impetus for the further development of competition for construction of the mill. It was decided to find new, more effective forms of socialist competition which would interest all participants of the construction equally. Thus arose the agreement for socialist competition between the metallurgists of the Azovstal' Plant and the builders of the Zhdanov Construction Combine of the Ukrainian Ministry of Construction of Heavy industrial Plants (Mintyazhstroi Ukrainian SSSR) and specialized organizations of Mintyazhstroi Ukrainian SSR for the prescheduled start up of the 3600 mill. We will not list all the points of this interesting document. We will tell only about the main ones. The collectives of the Zhdanov Construction Combine and subcontracting organizations pledged: to begL~ hot testing of the production equipment of the millsix months before the established deadline, in July 1973; to start up the first line of the mill with a good quality of the construction and assembly works by November 7, 1973, which will enable the metallurgists of the Azovstal' Plant to produce 350,000 tons of sheet by the end of the year; to over fulfill the annual assignment for increase of labor productivity by 0.5%. In turn the collective of the Azovstal' Plant pledged to provide the construction in time with design and budget documents, equipment, and financing; to give all possible aid to the builders for accelerating the construction of the first line of the mill; to feed the collectives participating in the construction of the mill by means of the plant's workers' supply system; to put at the disposal of the builders all sports facilities of the plant; to train 1127 workers, engineers, and technicians for the mill by July 1, 1973. The contracting parties pledged to make quarterly checks of the provisions of the agreement on the following dates: April 10, 1978, Iune 10, 1973, October 10, 1978, and January 10, 1974. The trade union staff of the project was selected as the arbitrator in executing this agreement. And now we will let I. P. Golbev, chief of the construction of the 3600 mill, have the floor: "How do we plan to obtain the prize in six months ? First of all, by increasing the effectiveness of the socialist competition. We are all competing now. Every unit-- from the worker who daily compares his achievements with the achievements of his counterpart from another brigade, to the entire collective of the project that concluded the agreement with the metallurgists of the Azovstal' Plant. We are building a mill unique in its capabilities for the metallurgists, and they are supplying us with energy, steel structures, and their railroad for hauling freight." Now the floor is turned over to N. S Dranko, secretary of the Donetsk Regional Trade Union Council and chief of the trade union headquarters at the construction of the mill: "We consider the conducting of organizational work 543 for the development of the socialist competition and for finding its most effective and interesting forms to be the main direction in our work. In our opinion we have already obtained perceptible results. First of all, it must be emphasized that this year all collectives of trusts, administrations, and brigades have backed their pledges by concluding agreements, which imparted great concreteness and keenness to the competition. "In all, more than 370 agreements for socialist competition have been concluded at the project. That now everyone at the project- builders, assemblers, plant operators, drivers, and food personnel- is competing, we consider our great achievement." Ac.tually, the competition at the project has acquired a truly grandiose scale. The collective of the Zhdanov Construction T rust of Mintyazhstroi Ukrainian SSR is competing with the collectives of the specialized organizations of Ukrainian Ministry of Installation and Special Construction for the prescheduled startup of the mill. Individual machinists and entire crews of the electric bridge cranes of the complex being constructed are competing. The brigades and crews of drivers of the Donetsk Industrial Transportation Administration of Mintyazhstroi Ukrainian SSR have started a competition for the timely and prescheduled delivery of freight to the construction. A competition is underway between individual workers and collectives of the dining hails of the workers' service department engaged in catering the builders at the construction site and at their residences. An agreement was even concluded between the collectives of builders of the mill and the artists of Kiev. Red Banners of the Ukrainian Council of Ministers and Ukrainian Trade Union Council, ministries and republic trade union committes, Donetsk Regional Party Committee, Executive Committee of the Regional Council of Workers' Deputies, Presidium of the Regional Trade U nion Committee, and Regional Committee of the Lenin Young Communist League of the Ukraine have been instituted for further activation of the socialist competition. In addition, the titles "Honored Builder of the a600 Mill" and the "Book of Labor Achievements on the Construction of the a600 Mill" have been instituted by decree of the Party, trade union, Komsomol headquarters, and leaders of the project for stimulating the morale of the participants. If we seek words to define the work of the collectives, perhaps "Mass Labor Heroism" are the most accurate. Mass it is. Workers, brigades, and coliectives of entire construction administrations have performed truly heroic feats. By no other words can one call, for example, the construction of one of the main substations, the Zhdanov substation, which was constructed 25 days ahead of the deadline established by the schedule. The collectives of the specialized organizations of the Ukrainian Main Administration for the Installation of Chemical and Heating Equipment completed all mechanical assembly, sanitary engineering, and heat-insulating works at the first stage 48 days ahead of schedule. The brigade of I. I. Zelenin for ten successive days fulfilled three shift quotas and on March 12 set a record: 35~o. The brigades of the Plant Construction Administration fulfilled four days' work in 21 h. The brigade of V. T arasov from the No. 207 administration of the Donbas Metallurgical Installation Trust completed the installation of the finishing stand 1.8 months ahead of schedule and 1 month earlier than the time stipulated by pledges. The assemblers headed by Hero of Socialist Labor Mikhail Bodashevskii assembled 83 m a of precast reinforced concrete in one shift- five times greater than the norm. The concreters headed by Anatolti Ivashchenko poured 44.1 m ~ of solid concrete into the mill foundation in 4 h: this amounted to 2.2 m 3 per worker as opposed to the norm of 0.31 m a . A 10-kV voltage was delivered from the power switchboard of the No. 1 machine room to the transformer substations in the region of the holding furnaces 30 days before the established deadline. Labor and beauty! These concepts always go hand-in-hand. They complement, enrich one another. And it is not by chance that we speak about beauty. Distinguished builder Hero of Socialist Labor M. Bodashevskii suggested starting a competition for the right to hand over to the Azovstal' metallurgists the symbolic key from the main housing of the mill on the day of starting up the complex. According to the conditions of this competition, the names of the victors should be engraved on the first sheet roiled on the mill. Is this not evidence of the rich spiritual world of the Soviet worker? The competition for the prescheduled startup of the mill has gone beyond the limits of the Donbas. In shops of many plants manufacturing equipment for the giant mill one can see such an inscription: "Give the Green Light to Orders of Azovstal'! " 544 The Kharkov Electromechanical Plant is supplying the project with the most complicated machines and control stations. For the first line of the mill the plant has manufactured more than 4400 such stations and 25 large electrical machines. All this equipment was shipped ahead of schedule. Welders, assemblers, insulators, fitters, designers, and technologists are competing with one another for reducing the time of manufacture of equipment for the mill. The leading plant brigades of N. Khil'ko and V. Piskunov responded to the call of the brigades of S. Bezverkhii and A. Taba!a engaged in the assembly of the electrical equipment of the mill. In their pledges sent to the Zhdanov workers they wrote: "To assemble three machine units not in 11 days as stipulated by the specifications but in six days; to produce each of the six electrical machines 2-3 days earlier than the deadline, reduce the manufacturing time by at least 20 norm-hours .... The green light is being given to mill orders at the Novo-Kramatorsk Machine Building Plants, at the industrial association Zaporozh-transfon-nator, at the Moscow Elektrosvet Plant, lat~. the Khmel'nitsk Transformer Station Plant, and other plants of the country. On April 25, 1973 the Presidium of the All-Union Central Trade Union Council passed a special decree "On the Experience of the Organization of the Socialist Competition for the Prescheduled Startup of the 3600 Plate Mill at the Zhdanov S. Ordzhonikidze Azovstal' Plant in the Donetsk Region. ~ This decree gives a detailed analysis of the activities of the economic, Party, trade union, and Komsomol organizations in mobilizing workers for the socialist competition for the preseheduled startup of the mill. The Presidium of the All-Union Central Trade Union Council approved the experience of the trade union and economic organizations in the launching of the socialist competition for the prescheduled startup of the 3600 mill and suggested to the Central Committees of the Trade Unions of Builders and Metallurgists that they take the necessary steps to disseminate this experience at construction sites and plants of ferrous metallurgy. In May, on the recommendations of the Presidium, an All-Union seminar was held at the construction of the mill for the purpose of studying the experience of organizing the socialist competition for the prescheduled starmp of the 3600 plate roiling mill at the Zhdanov S. Ordzhonikidze Azovstal' Metallurgical Plant. The seminar was attended by members of the operative group of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party and Ukrainian Council of Ministers at the construction of the 3600 mill, leading workers of the Central Committees of the Trade Unions of Builders and Metallurgists, Party, trade union, and Komsomot workers of plants of the Donetsk region and Zhdanov, and supervisors of the project. The seminar participants- mainly chairmen of project and plant trade union committees of the most important ferrous metallurgy installations - heard the reports with interest, exchanged views on the experience of organizing the socialist competition for the prescheduled startup of industrial facilities, and expressed unanimous approval of the forms and methods of organizing the socialist competition on the B600 mill. On June 25, at noon., the builders, assemblers, and operators of this giant metallurgical complex gathered in the plate-finishing bay at a festive meeting on the occasion of starting the mill. Brigadeer of the assemblers, Hero of Socialist Labor M. S. Bodashevskii handed the symbolic key from the mill to millman operator N. M. Gaiduk. The assignment of the Directives of the 24th Party Congress was fulfilled six months ahead of schedule. This was possible thanks to the widely developed socialist competition, thanks to the labor of thousands of people who built this truly unique unit. The names of six construction trust~, 10 construction administrations, and the names of the '19 best builders and 10 leading brigades - those of M. Bodashevskii, I. Bablyuk, P. Dorosh, I. Zelenin, N. Matchin, and others- were burned into the first steel sheet rolled on the mill. The builders kept their word- the mill is in service. The working areas are now occupied by its hosts-- the the sheet rollers of the Azovstal' Plant. Before the end of the year they should roll 350,000 tons of sheet, and by November 7, together with the build, ~ ers, should start up the first line of the mill with a capacity of 1,350,000 tons. The task is not easy, but is is feasible. Its solution will be given great help, of course, by socialist competition which played a decisive role in the prescheduled startup of the frst stage of the giant mill.</p><p>25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE "AZOVSTAL" WORKS G. G. Lukashov CMef Engineer of the Works Twenty-five years ago, on August 11, 1933, the first blast furnace of the "Azovstal ~ Works was blown in. That date is kept as the anniversary of the Works. The "Azovstal" Works makes use of the enormous deposits of phosphorus-containing Ketch ores which lie almost on the surface and are transported to the Works by the Azov sea after beneficiation and sintering, and of the Donets coal processed into high-grade coke at the coke and by-product plant. Limestone required for the blast furnace and the open-hearth furnace processes is obtained from the Elenovskie quarries, situated in the vicinity of the Works. Krivoi Rog ores are also employed in the blast-furnace charge. The Works is thus situated in the center of sources of raw materials. The constructors and the operators were quickly putting into operation one unit after another. Four blast furnaces, six 300-t tilting open-hearth furnaces, mechanical plants,and a power plant were completed by 1941. Steel-rolling plants were under construction. The fascist aggression held up the development: of the Works. The Germans did not succeed either by threats or by tortures in forcing Soviet people to carry on the production of pig iron. When retreating before the Red Army, the Hitlerites demolished the town and the Works. The returning workers found a dreadful sight: huge heaps of tens of thousands of tons of stones, lumps of concrete, mutilated steel structures and equipment were !ying all over the Works. In September, 1943, there was no water, electricity or steam either in Mariupol or at the Works. Under those difficult conditions the metallurgists of the ~Azovstal" and the constructors of the ~Azovstalstroi ~ began the reconstruction of their Works, The seemingly impossible task was accomplished with the help of the strong will and the courageous spirit of the Soviet people. In October, 1944, the power station was rebuilt and in July, 1945, No. 8 blast furnace was blown in. In subsequent years the reconstruction of the Works proceeded at a fast rate. At present, the sinter plant, four blast furnaces, twelve large-capacity tilting open-hearth furnaces, the blooming mill, the rail-structural and the heavy-section mills, the plant for rail-joint bars, a slag-processing plant and other plants are In operation. Work is about to be completed on the construction of No.8 blast furnace, whichwill be operated at 1.8 atm top pressure. Zhdanov, the town of metallurgists, has risen from ruins and expanded considerably at the same time as the Works was rebuilt. The Works has an efficient production presonneL With persevering efforts and continuous political and technical education the builders and the personnel of the Works solved many a difficult production problem. The output of pig Iron is now 40% greater than in 1980, coke consumption has fallen by 20a]o and the dust carryout has dropped from 364 kg to 49 kg per ton of pig iron. At present, the ~Azovstal" Works,in cooperation with the Azov and the Black Seas Transport and the Kamysh-Burun Iron Ore Combine,is making arrangements for the delivery of hot,uneooled, fluxed sinter to the blast furnaces. The lighter ~'Mga" of 3,500 t is now being refitted at the Ketch Ship Repair Yard for this purpose. After the ~Mga ~ the whole ore transport fleet will be refitted. 391 Steel is made at our Works in tilting open-hearth furnaces in accordance with a special procedure, developed at the Works, which involves the retaining of some steel in the furnace after the removal of slag and part of the metal. Phosphorus-containing pig Iron (up to 1.5% P) can be efficiently converted Into steel by this method. In the course of the process the slag is repeatedly run off and new slag is formed. Primary slags are processed in the slag processing plant into valuable phosphorus-containing fertilizers of which several hundred thousand tons are supplied to the collective farms annually. Oxygen is extensively used in the open-hearth process; it is used in the flame and in the bath. All furnaces are provided with magnesite-chromite roofs. A year ago the builders handed over to the operators the last open-hearth furnace and it has been successfully put into operation• This year the rolling mill operators of the Works mark the completlgn of the first ten years of the operation of the steel rolling plants. Continually adopting advanced practices of leading metallurgical establishments, the operators are not inferior to rolling mill operators at the best steel works in the country in respect to the productivity in a busy time or the quality of production. The removal of slag in a liquid state from the soaldng pits of the blooming mill; the mastering of the rolling of 25-m rails; the rolling of rails in seven passes according to a new pass design, instead of ten; the insulation of the gliding tubes of the holding furnaces; the plating, hardening and ragging of rolls; the Improvement of the equipment in the rail-joint plant; the mastering of the production of new type rail:joint bars - this is far from a complete list of the achievements of our rolling mill operators, The staff of mechanics and power engineers endeavors to improve equipment components and to develop more efficient methods of maintenance and repair of equipment. Extensive projects on the automation of metallurgical processes, the application of atomic energy for Industrial purposes, the rise of operating efficiency, an improvement in the quality of the product,and a reduction of production costs are under way at theWorks. Although the Works has developed large-scale production and comprises a complete cycle of Iron and steel industrial processes, there fs still great scope for expansion. The erection of No. 5 and No. 6 large-capacity ?blast furnaces at the Works and the building of No. 5 and No. 6 sinter machines at the Kamysh-Burun Combine (the main iron-ore base of our Works) make the erection of a second steelmaldng plant and a second group of rolling mills very urgent. These constructions will cost us much less than the construction of the initial set of plants,as a lot of the foundation work is already done. At the same time, the inadequacy of the repair services and the shortage of the machine stock is felt very strongly. An improvement in this dIrection is imperative. The operation of open-hearth furnaces is made difficult as there is only one mixer for the whole openhearth plant; usually there are two mixers at plants of similar (or even smaller) output. In order to increase the steel output in 1959, it is necessary to install a second mixer. In view of the high speed of steel rolling, it is necessary to erect a fourth holding furnace in the railstructural plant. Extensive building of dwelling houses is envisaged for the next few years. The completion of the accommodations provided for in the plan should fully meet the needs of metallurgists in housing. To solve the housing problem we need effective assistance from the Stalino Sovnarkhoz. Following the great industrial traditions developed at the works, adopting the experience of leading workers, and making use of new potentialities of output increase, the workers of "Azovstai" fight successfully for the fulfillment of the 1958 production plan ahead of schedule.</p><!--
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<p>Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of <a href="https://www.ft.com">FT.com</a> <a href="https://help.ft.com/help/legal-privacy/terms-conditions/">T&Cs</a> and <a href="https://help.ft.com/help/legal-privacy/copyright/copyright-policy/">Copyright Policy</a>. Email <a href="mailto:licensing@ft.com">licensing@ft.com</a> to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be <a href="https://www.ft.com/tour">found here</a>. <br><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/10a54ff5-fcfe-496b-b02a-28f6d629cf7b#myft:my-news:page">https://www.ft.com/content/10a54ff5-fcfe-496b-b02a-28f6d629cf7b#myft:my-news:page</a><br><br>Over recent years the Financial Times has documented horrific claims of environmental pillage and modern-day slavery across the global fishing fleet. We’ve written about Taiwanese vessels where Indonesian crews worked 22 hours only to return to sleeping and eating quarters rife with insect infestations. We’ve also exposed the Korean ships that hunted down walruses, seals and dolphins for their livers and genitals. And we’ve reported on China’s distant water fleet — by far the world’s biggest — which stands accused of rapacious illegal overfishing, decimation of endangered species and abuse of south-east Asian fishing crews. Despite the stark risk overfishing poses to the livelihoods of millions of people, a constant complaint from NGOs has been that governments are doing far too little in response. Policing an industry which operates on the high seas — out of sight out of mind — has not been a high priority for many developed nation capitals. Yet in recent months two key wins have been notched in favour of the oceans and marginalised workers. The Quad security grouping of the US, Japan, Australia and India in May launched a new satellite-based initiative across the Asia-Pacific region, a plan mostly targeted at illegal Chinese fishing. The Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness will see the Quad partners fund a commercial satellite-based tracking service that will pass on maritime intelligence to countries in near real-time. US officials told the FT’s US-China correspondent Demetri Sevastopulo that the new system would monitor radio frequencies and radar signals that would allow countries in the region to pick up vessels that have turned off automatic identification systems (AIS) transponders to avoid detection — a key problem in illegal fishing. Then in June, the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference finally — after 20 years of negotiations — reached an agreement to end harmful fisheries subsidies. As Alice Tipping of the International Institute for Sustainable Development neatly surmised: while the exceptions for developing countries are still to be worked out, the rules will at the least force governments to consider the legality and sustainability of the fishing activity they subsidise, something that very few do at present. In a world that has over the past three years lurched from a pandemic to war in Europe, and where big economies teeter on the edge of economic recession, it seems important to note these positive steps when they do occur. That being said, neither the WTO’s breaking of a decades-long bureaucratic impasse nor the Quad partners promising to police the Pacific portend to be a panacea. The scale of the problem, Trade Secrets believes, requires far bolder action. For the uninitiated: the UN estimates that up to 26mn tonnes of fish are caught illegally each year (with a value of about $23bn). Globally, around 20 per cent of all fish caught come from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities. And half of global fish stocks are fished at biologically unsustainable levels (a change from 10 per cent in the 1970s). Yet the fishing industry still enjoys massive subsidies. And it’s not just China. Researchers in academic journal Marine Policy found that China, the EU, the US, Korea and Japan — the top five — account for close to 60 per cent of total global subsidies, at a massive $20bn. They also noted that over the previous decade “the bulk harmful ‘capacity-enhancing’ subsidies, particularly those for fossil fuels have actually increased as a proportion of total subsidies”. What’s more, subsidies classified as harmful still stand at about $22bn, annually. Earlier this year, one of the most extensive investigations into China’s distant water fleet found that 95 per cent of the crew on board reported witnessing illegal fishing. The problems are among their most acute in West Africa, where Chinese trawlers catch an estimated 2.35mn tonnes of fish annually. From a common sense point of view, the Quad’s focus on the Pacific will miss huge swaths of the most problematic areas, especially off the coast of western Africa, but also South America. The focus only on China is also problematic given vessels from the Quad-friendly countries of Taiwan and South Korea have for years faced accusations of widespread environmental plunder and shocking treatment of south-east Asian crews. And while the US has also promised to increasingly utilise its coastguard to help police Chinese fishing — a move started by the Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden — sending a few cutters into the vast Pacific, an area of 165mn square kilometres, is not expected to significantly move the dial. Similarly, when it comes to the WTO breakthrough on subsidies, in a speech in late July WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala herself said: “Reaching the agreement was a vitally important step — but implementing it is what will matter.” Implementation is one issue. Enforcement is another. To make serious improvements via the WTO its members will probably have to bring complaints against China, a move that will undoubtedly risk backlash from Beijing. So, what is really needed? Trade Secrets posed this question to Steve Trent, the founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation who has decades of experience advocating for sweeping changes in the fisheries industry. Trent believes a focus on China in the short-term remains “valuable” and he supports the Quad’s initiative given that abuses are “systemic across the Chinese fleet, without independent and consistent monitoring, the likelihood is these abuses will continue, at least in the near term”. But longer term, Trent is clear: “Ultimately, you need transparency across the architecture of global fisheries governance. It is quite simple. Every vessel, we should be able to see who is fishing what, where, when and how”. One of the key first steps, he believes, is for the major market states of Japan, the US and the EU to align their regulation and requirements for market access and exclude from their markets those products where they cannot prove the provenance, when they do not have the transparency that allows surety that it “has not been produced by a slave, caught by a slave, or caught legally or unsustainably”. Alan Beattie writes a Trade Secrets column for FT.com every Wednesday. Click here to read the latest, and visit ft.com/trade-secrets to see all Alan’s columns and previous newsletters too.</p><p>https://www.ft.com/content/10a54ff5-fcfe-496b-b02a-28f6d629cf7b#myft:my-news:page</p><p></p><p>https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-south-china-sea-silent-war/?srnd=next-china&sref=wOrDP8KX</p><p>https://www.fao.org/3/ai001e/ai001e00.pdf</p><p>https://ejfoundation.org/reports/the-ever-widening-net-mapping-the-scale-nature-and-corporate-structures-of-illegal-unreported-and-unregulated-fishing-by-the-chinese-distant-water-fleet</p><p>https://ejfoundation.org/reports/the-ever-widening-net-mapping-the-scale-nature-and-corporate-structures-of-illegal-unreported-and-unregulated-fishing-by-the-chinese-distant-water-fleet</p><p>https://www.fao.org/3/ai001e/ai001e00.pdf</p><p>https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-south-china-sea-silent-war/?srnd=next-china&sref=wOrDP8KX</p>No children (leaf entity)