The article examines the phenomenon of communication between the religious dissident movement of Russian Protestants led by the Evangelical Christian-Baptist Churches Council and power in the Brezhnev era. "Letters to power" of believers and documents of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for 1964-1982 reflect the formation of a new model of interaction between the Soviet authorities and Protestant organizations. Protestants reacted sharply to any restrictions of religious freedoms addressing collective written appeals to both the Soviet authorities and international organizations. As a result, "letters to power" have turned into an effective tool for public protection of the rights of believers. The authorities in turn closely monitored appeals of believers and reacted to them in order to correct state religious policy in a certain way.

Heroism was and remains to be one of the most effective tools of Communist regime legitimization. At the same time creation of heroes was an effective tool of the Soviet elites formation. Rise of «heroic» quasi-social layer of population became the most pronounced example of social mobility in the Soviet society. The author traces genesis of this phenomenon from the cult of fallen heroes of the revolution and civil war through the «post-heroic» «New Economic Policy» period up to «the time of heroes» of the second half of the 1930s. This later period was marked with a hero’s image functionality. A particular attention is paid to the role of the «heroic» narrative.

The article deals with role of awards in formation of the Stalin’s period «new man» formation. The article is based on authentic personal documents of the second half of the 1930s that are introduced into scientific turnover for the first time. Giving an answer to the question on causes of high ascendant social mobility of the Soviet society the author comes to the conclusion that the positive identity of «homo heroicus» which, to a large extent, was being formed due to belonging to the «award bearers» community. The author pays the particular attention to transition of the Soviet award system from awards granted to the elite to mass awards.

The article describes the history of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union in the first half of the 1970s. The desire of the Soviet leadership to limit the opportunities for emigration, especially for those people who got higher education, led to a confrontation with the USA. On the basis of archival documents, including the notes from the L.I.Brezhnev's personal diary, we can examine the pragmatic policy of the General Secretary of the CPSU which was aimed at continuing the «détente», taking into consideration the «Jewish question».

According to the thesis of ‘Ethnicization' of Stalinism, the regime considered ‘enemy' ethnic groups as its main enemies in the 1930−1940s. The study of ‘German operation' 1937−1938 in Western Siberia allows to put the certainty of this interpretation to doubt. The comparison of ‘ethnic' cleansings and NKVD campaign under the order № 447 (‘kulak operation') gives the key to understanding the peculiarities of the former. The criteria of the social past life was determinative in choosing a person as a victim of ‘ethnic' cleansing.