Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state

New Preparative Approach to Purer Technetium-99 Samples—Tetramethylammonium Pertechnetate: Deep Understanding and Application of Crystal Structure, Solubility, and Its Conversion to Technetium Zero Valent Matrix

99Tc is one of the predominant fission products of 235U and an important component of nuclear industry wastes. The long half-life and specific activity of 99Tc (212,000 y, 0.63 GBq g−1) makes Tc a hazardous material. Two principal ways were proposed for its disposal, namely, long-term storage and transmutation. Conversion to metal-like technetium matrices is highly desirable for both cases and for the second one the reasonably high Tc purity was important too. Tetramethylammonium pertechnetate (TMAP) was proposed here as a prospective precursor for matrix manufacture. It provided with very high decontamination factors from actinides (that is imperative for transmutation) by means of recrystallisation and it was based on the precise data on TMAP solubility and thermodynamics accomplished in the temperature range of 3–68 °C. The structure of solid pertechnetates were re-estimated with precise X-ray structure solution and compared to its Re and Cl analogues and tetrabutylammonium analogue as well. Differential thermal and evolved gas analysis in a flow of Ar–5% H2 gas mixture showed that the major products of thermolysis were pure metallic technetium in solid matrix, trimethylammonium, carbon dioxide, and water in gas phase. High decontamination factors have been achieved when TMAP was used as an intermediate precursor for Tc

The Conflict in the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists: 1959 - 1963

The division that occurred among Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the 1960s is one of the most dramatic pages in the history of evangelicalism in Russia and the USSR. At present, when the historical facts and chronological sequence of those events have been well studied, more attention should be paid to the analysis of the actions of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (AUCECB) and the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (CCECB) during those years. Unfortunately, what we find now is quite one-sided analysis, where the actions of one of the parties in the conflict (depending on the author’s stand) are presented as correct, while the actions of the other side are portrayed as incorrect and destructive. Now that several decades have passed since those events, there is an opportunity to assess more objectively what happed. This article is an attempt at such an objective analysis

New Preparative Approach to Purer Technetium-99 Samples—Tetramethylammonium Pertechnetate: Deep Understanding and Application of Crystal Structure, Solubility, and Its Conversion to Technetium Zero Valent Matrix

99Tc is one of the predominant fission products of 235U and an important component of nuclear industry wastes. The long half-life and specific activity of 99Tc (212,000 y, 0.63 GBq g−1) makes Tc a hazardous material. Two principal ways were proposed for its disposal, namely, long-term storage and transmutation. Conversion to metal-like technetium matrices is highly desirable for both cases and for the second one the reasonably high Tc purity was important too. Tetramethylammonium pertechnetate (TMAP) was proposed here as a prospective precursor for matrix manufacture. It provided with very high decontamination factors from actinides (that is imperative for transmutation) by means of recrystallisation and it was based on the precise data on TMAP solubility and thermodynamics accomplished in the temperature range of 3–68 °C. The structure of solid pertechnetates were re-estimated with precise X-ray structure solution and compared to its Re and Cl analogues and tetrabutylammonium analogue as well. Differential thermal and evolved gas analysis in a flow of Ar–5% H2 gas mixture showed that the major products of thermolysis were pure metallic technetium in solid matrix, trimethylammonium, carbon dioxide, and water in gas phase. High decontamination factors have been achieved when TMAP was used as an intermediate precursor for Tc.</jats:p

New Preparative Approach to Purer Technetium-99 Samples&mdash;Tetramethylammonium Pertechnetate: Deep Understanding and Application of Crystal Structure, Solubility, and Its Conversion to Technetium Zero Valent Matrix

99Tc is one of the predominant fission products of 235U and an important component of nuclear industry wastes. The long half-life and specific activity of 99Tc (212,000 y, 0.63 GBq g&minus;1) makes Tc a hazardous material. Two principal ways were proposed for its disposal, namely, long-term storage and transmutation. Conversion to metal-like technetium matrices is highly desirable for both cases and for the second one the reasonably high Tc purity was important too. Tetramethylammonium pertechnetate (TMAP) was proposed here as a prospective precursor for matrix manufacture. It provided with very high decontamination factors from actinides (that is imperative for transmutation) by means of recrystallisation and it was based on the precise data on TMAP solubility and thermodynamics accomplished in the temperature range of 3&ndash;68 &deg;C. The structure of solid pertechnetates were re-estimated with precise X-ray structure solution and compared to its Re and Cl analogues and tetrabutylammonium analogue as well. Differential thermal and evolved gas analysis in a flow of Ar&ndash;5% H2 gas mixture showed that the major products of thermolysis were pure metallic technetium in solid matrix, trimethylammonium, carbon dioxide, and water in gas phase. High decontamination factors have been achieved when TMAP was used as an intermediate precursor for Tc

Crystal Structure of Mixed Np(V)-Ammonium Carbonate

This work presents details of the synthesis, properties and structure of a novel neptunium carbonate (NH4)[NpO2CO3], a member of the M[AnO2CO3] (M = K, (NH4), Rb, Cs) class of compounds. Carbonates play an important role in the migration of actinides in the environment, and thus are relevant for handling and disposal of radioactive wastes, including spent nuclear fuel and vitrified raffinates. Knowledge of the crystallographic structure of these compounds is important for models of the environmental migration behavior based on thermodynamic descriptions of such chemical processes. (NH4)[NpO2CO3] crystals were obtained during long-term hydrothermal treatment of Np(VI) in aqueous ammonia at 250 &deg;C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) show that a single-phase sample containing only Np(V) was obtained. Structural features of (NH4)[NpO2CO3] were elucidated from single crystal X-ray diffraction and confirmed by vibrational spectroscopy. The results obtained are of interest both for fundamental radiochemistry and for applied problems of the nuclear fuel cycle