
Card Index: 'Success and Self-Sustainability of the Individual in a Changing World'
To achieve success and well-being, a modern person needs to keep up with ongoing social, economic, technological and cultural changes. However, in order to adapt to these, you need to be competent, healthy and active, develop cognitive abilities, acquire new skills and maintain friendships. All of this can expand people’s capabilities, revealing their potential. The HSE's unique multidisciplinary strategic project 'Success and Self-Sustainability of the Individual in a Changing World', which brings together educators, sociologists, psychologists, economists, biologists, physicians and digital technology specialists, helps to solve some of these tasks. Working together, they have managed to create a navigation system to improve human achievements for the benefit of the whole of society.

Peacocks, Pepper, and Petrol: The Early History of Imports from Asia
Petroleum for equine care, wood oil for lighting, sandalwood for Easter celebrations, and lemons and olives for entertaining unexpected guests. Russian monasteries often used these and other eastern goods in the period leading up to and during the reign of Peter the Great. Analysing their account books leads to a revision of the traditional assumptions about the primary consumers of oriental goods in Russia. These consumers, in addition to the royal and aristocratic circles, included monastery estates, as discussed in the paper ‘“Three altyns worth of petroleum…”: Oriental goods in Russia at the second half of the 17th and early 18th century’ by historian Arthur Mustafin of HSE University. Based on his paper, IQ.HSE explores the types of goods that were shipped from the East to Russia in the latter half of the 17th to the early 18th century, including the routes and purposes of these shipments.

‘Progress in Life Comes when You’re More Driven than Everyone Else’
Alexandra Mamlina teaches HSE University students Italian, defends her dissertation on the Visconti of Milan, and dreams of writing an art history book about northern Italy. In an interview with the HSE Young Scientists project, she shared how Italian became part of her life, thoughts about the giants on the facade of the Duomo, and the fact that she could have been born on a lake, but instead was born on the Ob Sea.
Deadline for applications to present academic reports - January 20, 2025