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At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries the foreign authors paid increasingly greater attention to Russia’s successes in the Arctic territories development. This topic was covered mostly by periodicals published in the United States, Great Britain and Germany - the leading naval powers of the time. The present article attempts at reviewing major works published by the English- and German-language researchers in order to reveal main trends in studying the history of the Russian Arctic development in the XIX - early XX centuries. Describing Russia’s activities in the Arctic (F.Schwatka, G.Melville, A. Hrdlicka) Western authors contributed to the overall picture of the imperial expansion and power of Russia. The first decades of the XX century were marked by the growing activities of European countries in the Arctic region raising a topical question of these territories’ legal status. One of the ways to claim the rights to these areas was to organize expeditions (described in the works by R. Bartlett, V. Stefansson, N.A. Transehe, H.Abel, W. Barr). The history of the Northern Sea Route exploration and development was studied by C. Crypton, T.Armstrong, W.E. Butler. In the 1990s - early 2000s the Arctic policy of the Russian empire in the pre-revolutionary period was analyzed by P. Horensma, J. McCannon, D. Dahlmann. Problems of relationships between the Russian population and aboriginal peoples of the Far North were discussed by A.Kappeler, Yu.Slezkine, D.Anderson. The contemporary research is focused on the negative aspects of the Russian “paternalist” policy and tends to reject the “russocentric” approach and to describe the history of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North from their point of view.

The paper presents two opposing views on evaluation of economic potential of the North and prospects of its development shared by representatives of political elite, metropolitan and Siberian business communities in the late XIX - early XX centuries. This period of history was marked not only by fundamental internal transformations in the country, destruction of the Russian empire’s foundations and establishment of Soviet power, but also by a difficult foreign policy situation caused by the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. Having analysed various ideas, initiatives, plans and undertakings in regard to the Russian Arctic development the authors showed that the government remained passive and estranged itself from the problems of Northern territories that could be explained not only by the lack of funds and resources along with harsh climatic conditions, but also by the short-sightedness of administrators and policy makers. Thoughout most of the XIX century the Russian North remained economically neglected. Mechanisms preventing its economic development acted throughout the entire territory of the country. Local administration being in the custody of the central government supported its policy and in every possible way interfered with the attempts and initiatives of the Siberian entrepreneurs and public figures who were ready to invest millions of roubles in the projects of transportation and economic development of the North. Great importance in these projects was given to developing the network of railway communications. Its lines were to be built to the Murmansk Coast - the future ocean port opening to Russia a gate to the transoceanic trade links. However, private funds were inscufficent for the large-scale development of the Northern territories. In the 1920s the estabishment of Soviet power and concentration of all financial resources of the country gave a real chance for implementation of projects of railroads and sea ports construction not only along the Murmansk Coast but in the Far East as well.

The paper analyzes expeditionary materials of a member of the Second Kamchatka expedition (1733-1743) G.F. Müller characterizing the ethnic structure of the Samoyedic peoples of the North-Western Siberia as well as some specific features of their material and spiritual culture. For the first time in historiography the author introduces into scientific use facts from the previously unstudied G.F. Müller’s manuscripts written in German language and comprised of the scholar’s field book, draft materials and rough copies later used in his “Description of the Siberian peoples”. It is shown that these sources significantly contribute to the dictionaries compiled by G.F.Müller, especially in terms of ethnonymics of the Samoyedic peoples and their dialect clusters. It is proved that G.F.Müller (a century before M.A.Castren) was the first to determine that the Selkup language (“Ostyaks of Narym language”) belongs to the Samoyedic languages and not to the Finno-Ugric group. The author gives some unique data on ethnonymics of the peoples of Mangazeya uyezd revisiting the problem of autoethnonim of “tavgi” (Nganasans) and putting a question whether Yurak Samoyeds were a separate ethnos or just a dialect group of the Nenets. Wide array of data collected directly from the indigenous population of Mangazeya uyezd allowed the scientists to define the Yuraks as a separate ethnos speaking its own language. The paper considers G.F. Müller’s materials on the ethnography of Samoyedic peoples that are of great importance for researchers. Unlike many previous authors who had compared Samoyeds and Finno-Ugric peoples with wild animals G.F. Müller argued that their anthropological parameters were very close to these of Europeans, that they were notable for kindness of heart, inability to hurt someone deliberately, mercifulness and sentimentality. These and other arguments of G.F. Müller demonstrate that he not merely stood at the origins of ethnographic studies on Samoyedic and Finno-Ugric peoples of the North, but also showed goodwill, impartiality and eagerness to see the best human qualities in the nomads of the tundra.

The paper analyzes the ultimate administrative-territoral division of the Arctic territories in the Northeastern part of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX - early XX century, that resulted in creation of the Kamchatka Oblast in 1909. The situation on the Chukotka penincula is considered in terms of integration of the Chukchi population under the Russian patriality by establishment of Anadyr District in 1888 and Chukotsky District in 1909. The author also studies projects of administrative reorganization of Northern territories, in particular, by means of uniting the Kamchatka and Yakutsk Oblasts into a new general-governorship centered in Yakutsk. Another issue under consideration is the administrative system in the territorial units of the Arctic Zone of Asiatic Russia, first of all in the Yakutsk Oblast. The author pays attention to the administrative staff (Yakutsk governors, district and uyezd police officers - “ispravniks”); states that the key position of the Yakutsk civil governor was held by the officials who had previoisly served in siberia for a long time, demonstrating initiative and ability to make their own decisions. Among such governors one should mention Yu.I. Stubendorf, V.N. Skripitsin, I.I. Kraft. The policy of “indigenization” of the administrative staff (aimed at engagement of the native-born Siberians) had some positive effects. Northern territories were always under control of the West-Siberian (before 1882) and East-Siberian (Irkutsk) governors-generals who regularly made inspection visits.

Preparation of mechanically activated energetic composites (MAECs) based on solid fuels (Al, Mg, and Si) and oxidizers (S, MoO₃, (—C₂F₄—)_n , KClO₄, NH₄ClO₄, etc.) is considered. Compared to conventional mechanical mixtures, the burning rate of MAECs is significantly increased, and in some cases high-velocity detonation can be obtained. The propagation of the reaction in MAECs is accompanied by high energy release comparable to the heat of explosion of powerful aluminized explosive materials. The composites are highly sensitive to heat treatment and are capable of rapid transition from combustion to detonation. The results obtained in this work show that MAEC based formulations are promising energetic materials for a wide range of applications, from igniting and initiating compositions to components to small charges in microsystem devices.

Aluminum particles with a diameter of ≈50 nm were synthesized by means of the Gen-Miller flow-levitation method with alumina or trimethylsiloxane coatings formed on the surface of these particles. Aluminum/HMX nanocomposites manufactured by suspension atomization drying or dry mechanical mixing were investigated by x-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and local x-ray analysis. The combustion of these mixtures with changing particle size of the components and composition of the coating on the metal particles was studied. It was found that, when the composites produced by atomization drying were stored as loose powder, HMX crystals grew, which increased the burning rate of compressed samples from 19 to 55 mm/s in the pressure range 3–10 MPa, and the pressure exponent varied from 0.34 to 0.84, depending on how the burning rate correlates with the pressure.

This paper presents a two-dimensional model of the propagation of a filtration combustion wave in a flat channel with cocurrent flow of a gas containing an oxidizer. It is shown that the increase in the permeability of the porous medium with fuel burnup leads to instability of the flat front and the formation of a structure called a finger. The reasons for the occurrence of the finger are explained, and the dependences of its most important characteristics on the permeability ratio of the initial fuel and combustion products, the specific heat of the injected gas and the width of the channel in which the filtration combustion occurs are determined.

This paper presents a new look at the structure of the radiance signal recorded by an optical pyrometer in measuring the brightness temperature of the detonation front of an emulsion explosive with glass microballoons as a sensitizer. The structure of the optical signal is typical of heterogeneous explosives: first a short temperature spike of up to 2500–3400 K occurs related to the formation of a layer of hot spots igniting the matrix capable of releasing energy, after which the radiance decreases to the quasi-equilibrium level corresponding to a temperature of 1880–2370 K at a detonation pressure of 0.7–11 GPa. There is satisfactory agreement between the experimental data and the results of independent calculations.

The dynamic elastic limit and spall strength of high-alloy chromium-manganese-nickel steel in the martensitic-austenitic transformation induced by a change in the temperature from –120 to 200 ˚C is measured by recording the complete wave profiles with a VISAR laser interferometer and subsequently analyzing them. The spall strength of the investigated steel in the martensitic phase is found to be 25–30% higher than the strength of steel in the austenitic phase. In this case, the strength decreases in a stepwise manner in a narrow temperature range approximately from –50 to 20 ˚C, where, apparently, basic changes in the internal structure of steel occur due to the martensitic-austenitic transformation. The measured values of the dynamic elastic limit of high-alloy steel have a sufficiently large scatter and hardly decrease with increasing temperature without any features associated with the martensitic-austenitic transformation of the structure.

The formation of high-velocity compact elements of shaped charges with a liner of a combined hemisphere-cylinder shape has been analyzed by numerical simulations of a two-dimensional axisymmetric problem of continuum mechanics. The influence of the radius and thickness of the hemispherical portion of the combined liner on the parameters of the compact elements has been studied. It is shown that in implosion of hemispherical liners whose thickness decreases from top to bottom, there is an increase in the velocity of the resulting jet flow. When using a hemispherical portion of variable thickness (to increase the velocity of the compact elements formed), it is necessary to solve two additional problems-to implement timely separation of the head part of the jet flow with increased velocity and increase its mass. For this, it is proposed to use the jet-forming part of the combined liner in the form of a truncated sphere or a slightly elongated ellipsoid of revolution. Combined shaped-charge liners in the form of a truncated ellipsoid of variable thickness were developed, allowing the formation of compact elements having a velocity of 7.5–10 km/s.