Vol 2, No 3 (2018)

Based on the combination of the documentary research and the field research through the surveys and in-depth interviews with experts and businessmen, the paper will present an overview of new generation FTAs and their impact on the development of international trade of member countries. Vietnam will be the case for analysis, review and anticipation of impact of the new generation FTAs on the development of the export-import market. This will provide some recommendation and implications for joining the new generation FTAs for member country.

The article presents, on the basis of archival documents, the authors’ interpretation of the USSR and China positions regarding the conduct of the negotiations in Paris on the war settlement in Vietnam (1968-1972) and the conclusion of the Paris Peace Accord in January 1973. The emphasis is placed on the influence of the two communist powers’ relations with the United States on their position in these talks. Sino-Soviet differences on the issues of war and peace in Vietnam are revealed, it is concluded that they did not allow strategic allies to give full support to the struggle of the Vietnamese people for independence, and even restrained it.

The article analyzes the history of Vietnamese Buddhism in different periods and its impact on national art, especially theater. The main postulates of Buddhism and their implementation in Vietnamese art are revealed. The author shows how the ideology of Buddhism has deeply influenced almost all realms of Vietnamese people's culture. It’s concluded that the role of Buddhism as the base of popular culture predetermined its so-called "revival" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Vietnam.

The article dwells upon publications by Inostrannaya Literatura magazine of two Vietnamese literary works - a short story by Nguyen Thu Tran “The Settlement of Vietnamese Servants” (“Xom so My”) and a short story by Le Van Thao “Mr. Giant with Big Moustache” (“Ong ca ho”), in the translation of I.V. Britov. Based on the content of the story by Nguyen Thu Tran, the author of the article highlights new approaches in covering the war theme by Vietnamese writers and notes new trends that are characteristic of Vietnamese public consciousness, in particular, regarding the U.S. military, former adversaries during the Second Indochina War (Resistance War). The story “The Settlement of American Servants” attempted to whitewash the former enemy. However, against the general background of modern Vietnamese literature, such an attitude to the matter is only an exception. The author tried to compare the Russians’ understanding of the lessons of the Great Patriotic War (of the USSR against Nazi Germany in 1941-1945) with the Vietnamese perception of the lessons of American aggression. It is shown by the example of Le Van Thao’s story how important it is for the reader to know the biography of the author to understand the essence of creativity and the emotional charge of the works of a particular writer.

Investigations of a biodiversity of terrestrial and water ecosystems - one of three main goals of created in 1987 Soviet (Russian)-Vietnamese Tropical research and technological center. Carrying out these researches has been begun on field stations, first of which has been created in Ma Da forestry. For expansion of geography of researches a series of complex zoological and botanical expeditions to various nature reserves and national parks of the Vietnam has been begun, first of which have taken place in 1996 to the Fan Si Pan mountain range. However, actually the first similar complex expedition should be considered which has taken place in 1989 in Cuc Phuong national park. The beginning of long-term monitoring of the reforestation processes for what several plot areas have been put was its main goal. Unfortunately, because of sharp deterioration in an economic situation and the followed collapse of the USSR, that expedition to Cuc Phuong remained single. Nevertheless, considerable results on processes of reforestation and on systematics and ecology of lizards have been received.

The review is given to the book "Mythbusting Vietnam" published in Copenhagen. Its authors, most of them sociologists, set out to understand some of the phenomena of social life in Vietnam in the light of some views well-established in the West. Such issues as the impact of the Soviet Union on reforms in Vietnam, the similarity of the Doi Moi policy in Vietnam, reforms in China and Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika are considered. Special attention is paid to the problems of Vietnam’s cities, in particular the situation of rural residents who moved there. The review offers a brief overview of the published materials; some objections are expressed to a number of conclusions.