Mammadli Sh.
PhD, senior researcher of the Institute of History and Ethnography named after A.A. Bakikhanov of ANAS
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8822-3513
Baku, Azerbaijan

Abstract
Azerbaijani cities, located on an important transit trade route between Europe and Asia, have long played an important role in the political and economic life of the countries of Europe and the Middle East. The trade route in the southern region of Azerbaijan (Tabriz–Marend-Julfa-Nakhchivan–Turkiye–Europe) was one of the main routes of transit trade between Europe and Asia. In the eastern direction, the roads led to Isfahan–Bandar Abbas (Hormuz), and from there by sea to India.  Medieval documents confirm the transportation of raw silk from Shamakhi to the Ottoman state, Baghdad and Basra, and from there to England. The silk industry, established in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great, was largely dependent on raw materials imported from the Caspian countries.
Shamakhi, Sheki, Aresh, Karabakh, and Ganja played an important role in the raw silk trade. High-quality Azerbaijani silk was supplied to the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Poland, and Western European countries through these territories.

 Keywords: International trade, cities of Azerbaijan, trade in the Middle Ages, European-Asian trade, Eastern trade

Bayramov A.
PhD student, Department of History,
 Hacettepe University, Ankara Turkiye

Abstract
Despite its rich cultural and historical legacy, Transcaucasia has been on the global agenda due to political and military conflicts in the last 30 years. The conflict in Abkhazia and Ossetia, as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh Wars, have overshadowed the region’s rich cultural and economic heritage. However, when we look back at the historical past, throughout the empire age, we can see that ethnic groups in the region strove to highlight their own cultural and literary creativity. This literary and ideological development was led by the intellectual elite of Transcaucasia. Influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution and Russia’s imperialist policies, Georgian, Armenian, and Turkish intellectuals struggled to resist the exploitation of their people by the major powers in the region (Iran, the Ottoman, and Russian Empires). In fact, after a thirty-year armed struggle during which Russia invaded Transcaucasia, realists took important steps by changing their methods to develop national ideas and enlighten the people. Despite the differences and similarities among the three ethnic groups, this process, which began with literary enlightenment in the second half of the 19th century, resulted in political organization, national identity formation, and the establishment of independent states. The study presents the literary enlightenment period in Transcaucasia by bringing together second-hand sources of Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani historians along with other relevant individual studies on the subject.

 Keywords: imperialism, enlightenment, literature, language, printing

Japaridze A.
Professor, Metropolitan
Georgian Technical University. Head of Tbilisi State Technical University Training-Scientific Center of Theology

Kikvadze G.
PhD student. Georgian Technical University

Abstract
The article discusses the issue of recognition of ancient autocephaly and patriarchal dignity of the Georgian Church. The initiator of the process of recognition of ancient autocephaly and the patriarchal dignity of the Georgian Church was His Holiness Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II.

After many years of struggle, the final recognition of the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church occurred in 1990. On January 7, 1990, after a service in Zion, Metropolitan Chrysostomos, who visited Georgia, officially announced the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to recognize the historical autocephaly of the Georgian Apostolic Church and the patriarchal title of its head.

Then Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II spoke. In his sermon, he emphasized the fact that the Georgian Church has been autocephalous since ancient times and was headed by a Catholicos.

 Keywords: Georgian Church, autocephaly, patriarchal dignity

Tarko A.
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences,
Professor of Mathematical Cybernetics,
Chief Researcher of the Federal Research Center «Computer Science and Control» of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract
Forecasts of a nuclear winter that can result from a large-scale nuclear war were obtained si First forecasts of a Nuclear winter that will result from a large-scale nuclear war were obtained simultaneously and independently by scientists of the USSR and the USA in 1983-1985. The main factor causing a Nuclear winter is the powerful fires that have arisen as a result of the bombing of large cities, which have turned into “fire tornadoes”. The magnitude of the temperature drop at different points of the earth’s surface ranges from -5 to -50 degrees. The forecasts received by Soviet scientists of the USSR in 1988 are presented. for the case of the consequences of a large-scale nuclear war for an isolated human population and obtained by US scientists for the regional war between India and Pakistan in 2008-2022. The simulation results showed that the consequences of this regional conflict can have significant global consequences.

Keywords: Nuclear winter forecasts, nuclear arsenal, forced optimization, mathematical models of global climate and biosphere processes, high spatial resolution of the model, food security.

Avdanin V.
PhD in History
Saint Petersburg City Administration

Abstract
Based on contemporary historiography, the reasons for the entry of the Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979 are reviewed, the factors that forced the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to directly get involved in a long-drawn-out armed conflict are analyzed, and the planned and factual scale of the military presence is reported. The author notes that the Soviet troops were not prepared for a prolonged military campaign in Afghanistan and had fundamentally different military-political objectives. In the author’s opinion, the entry of the Soviet troops into Afghanistan was the initial stage of their subsequent deployment to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. The unique role of the Soviet special forces in the events under review is also discussed.

Keywords: armed conflict in Afghanistan 1979–1989; Soviet-Chinese relations; history of Soviet foreign policy.