'Polish Question' in Lithuania and Problems of Polish-Lithuanian Relations at the Turn of the Century

This article tracks how relations between two neighbouring states of the Baltic region, Po­land and Lithuania, developed over the last decades. These relations cannot be described in unambiguous terms. On the one hand, common aspirations for European integration created conditions for rapprochement and cooperation. On the other, the partnership has been complicated by disagreements and mutual claims. The main problem is the situa­tion of the correspondent ethnic minorities in the two countries: Poles in Lithuania and Lithuanians in Poland. According to the Polish authorities, the interests of Lithuania's Polish residents are not safeguarded, and their rights are infringed. Similar complaints are voiced by Vilnius regarding the situation of ethnic Lithuanians in Poland. These contradictions are partly smoothed by common political interests: cooperation within the North Atlantic Alliance, defiance of the notorious 'threat from the East' and joint support for the pro-­Western opposition in the neighbouring Belarus

1917: Between February and October. Review of: The Russian Revolution of 1917: new approaches and views: collection of scientific articles, edited by A.B. Nikolaev, D.A. Bazhanov, and A.A. Ivanov. St Petersburg: RGPU im. A.I. Gertsena, 2020.

The collection of scientific articles under review contains materials of the All-Russian scientific conference held at the Department of Russian History of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in St Petersburg and dedicated to the problems of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The collection contains 19 articles, including one documentary publication. Among the authors of the collection, there are well-known scientists and aspiring young researchers from St Petersburg and a number of other Russian cities as well as one foreign participant (from Poland). The articles examine various aspects of revolutionary transformations, mainly on the basis of Petrograd materials, mostly in the period between spring 1917 and early autumn 1917. Based on a significant number of published and archival sources, the articles of the collection consider little-known facts from the history of the Russian Revolution and propose new approaches to the interpretation of the situation in Russia in 1917.</jats:p

The efficacy and safety of levilimab in severely ill COVID-19 patients not requiring mechanical ventilation: results of a multicenter randomized double-blind placebo-controlled phase III CORONA clinical study

Abstract Objective and design The aim of this double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III CORONA clinical trial was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IL-6 receptor inhibitor levilimab (LVL) in subjects with severe COVID-19. Subjects The study included 217 patients. The eligible were men and non-pregnant women aged 18 years or older, hospitalized for severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Treatment 206 subjects were randomized (1:1) to receive single subcutaneous administration of LVL 324 mg or placebo, both in combination with standard of care (SOC). 204 patients received allocated therapy. After the LVL/placebo administration in case of deterioration of symptoms, the investigator could perform a single open-label LVL 324 mg administration as the rescue therapy. Methods The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients with sustained clinical improvement on the 7-category ordinal scale on Day 14. All efficacy data obtained after rescue therapy administration were considered missing. For primary efficacy analysis, all subjects with missing data were considered non-responders. Results 63.1% and 42.7% of patients in the LVL and in the placebo groups, respectively, achieved sustained clinical improvement on Day 14 (P = .0017). The frequency of adverse drug reactions was comparable between the groups. Conclusion In patients with radiologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, requiring or not oxygen therapy (but not ventilation) with no signs of other active infection administration of LVL + SOC results in an increase of sustained clinical improvement rate. Trail registration The trial is registered at the US National Institutes of Health (ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT04397562). </jats:sec