The article examines the unenviable fate of the ranks of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes in the Grand Duchy of Finland. Few in number and without any administrative support in the region, the ranks of the Finnish Gendarme Administration became the bogeyman of the Finnish intelligentsia and people; subjected to attacks, they had no opportunity to defend their interests in court. Moreover, they often did not find support even among the ranks of the Russian administration and military officials. All this not only made it extremely difficult to carry out service, the results of which were very contradictory, but also served as a demonstration of the weakness of the Russian government.

The author of the article carried out the systematic analysis of the journals of this institution the highest authority for certain chronological periods (1737 and December 1740 ‒ November 1741) in order to establish quantitative data on the following attributes: thematic categories of Senate case files, state bodies-sources of the Senate agenda and state bodies-addressees of its outgoing documents. The values for these parameters allow us to clarify the true role of this higher institution in the governance of the empire. As a result of the study, the conclusions were reached that the structure of the Senate’s functioning during the indicated intervals was similar to the system of its activities, which was characteristic of one of the last years of Peter the Great’s reign (1723), and in some important respects at the period of the regency of Anna Leopoldovna, the “Governing” body even surpassed the indicators of that time.

The article is devoted to informal practices of interaction between the leader of the Union of 17 оctober, A.I.Guchkov, and key political figures, Prime Minister P.A.Stolypin and Emperor Nicholas II. The article examines the process and results of informal interaction, in which Guchkov saw a way to strengthen his own political authority and the party's positions. Despite a number of successes achieved, the failure of Guchkov's tactics in 1910–1911 marked the beginning of the decline of cooperation between the government and the Octobrists.

The article examines the assessments of the political and social activities of the Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government and leader of the Union of Zemstvos Georgy Lvov, reflected in the press of the Russian Diaspora in the 1920–1930s, the formation of which was a consequence of the October Revolution and the Civil War. The sources of the article are such periodicals of the White émigré as «Poslednie novosti», «Russkaia gazeta», «Dvuglavyi orel», «Vysshii monarkhicheskii sovet», «Russkaia letopis'», «Volia Rossii» and memoirs of contemporaries of Prince Georgy Lvov. The article examines the assessments by representatives of the White émigré of the work of the Russian Zemstvos and Towns Relief Committee of Russian Citizens Abroad, which maintained continuity in relation to pre-revolutionary Russian zemstvo, the first chairman of which was Georgy Lvov.

Based on little-known and unknown to the general scientific community documentary complexes of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as materials of regional archival institutions, the author highlights attempts to clarify the Russian-Ukrainian inter-republican border in 1928–1944. The author emphasizes that during this period, the actualization of the process of Russian-Ukrainian demarcation no longer had the same severity and intensity inherent in the first half of the 1920s and was exclusively peaceful in nature. Nevertheless, both republics once again decided to turn to economic and ethnographic factors as key arguments in order to adjust the line of the Russian-Ukrainian inter-republican border. At the same time, it should be recognized that the reasons for such changes were quite compelling. However, the result was only a minor adjustment in September 1944 of the border line in favor of the Ukrainian SSR on the border of the Rostov and Voroshilovgrad regions.

The autobiographical essay focuses on the fate of a child who lost his mother and was effectively adopted into the family of his grandmother and aunt. The narrative begins with the history of two families on the maternal and paternal lines, which had peasant roots and reached the level of the urban middle classes in post-reform Russia. The childhood of the grandson of the heads of these families is associated with his place of residence, the city of Yalta in the 1930s. This time of childhood was cut short by the war in 1941. The author recalls it in different aspects of life: the appearance of the city, the social environment, everyday life, etc. The essay pays attention to the religious issue and interethnic relations. An important factor in the child's formation was his entry into the world of books.

The conducted research allows us to conclude that the widespread use of extortion in the structures of power in the 80–90s of the 16th century was caused by the following reasons. 1. The struggle for power between the heirs of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, frequent changes in the composition of the government, exile of opponents, impunity of supporters and, ultimately, the weakening of control of the supreme power over the activities of the administration. 2. The active rapprochement of the Moscow state with the countries of Western Europe, which caused serious changes in the daily life of the ruling class, its craving for comfort and luxury. 3. A decrease in the moral level of the ruling elite, replenished after the coup of 1689 by participants in the military games and amusements of Peter I. The article also examines various types of official crimes and the government's attitude to them; special attention is paid to the abuses of the Siberian administration.

The article considers the development of domestic commercial education after the adoption of the "Regulations on Commercial Educational Institutions" proposed by the Minister of Finance S.Y. Witte in 1896. The analysis of the implementation of the proposals and recommendations contained in the "Regulations" is carried out through consideration of the process of organizing the Educational Committee, its composition, the subject of activity and its specific work. The characteristics of the Committee members are given, their high professional qualifications are noted, which ensured objective control over the quality of education in newly created commercial educational institutions of various levels.

The main topic of the article is the mechanisms and models of self-organization of the deputies of the Third State Duma of the Russian Empire. We examine how Duma factions were founded, who were their leaders, and what organizational structures were used by deputies to coordinate their work and consolidate factions in fundamentally new conditions of parliamentary activity. The author analyzes each of the 14 factions that existed during different periods of the third convocation. Three models of deputy organization are identified and their characteristics are analysed. None of the models showed a decisive superiority in terms of discipline or in the effectiveness of achieving long-term political goals. Nevertheless, the models themselves allowed the factions to organize their work in the way that was most preferable to them.

N. D. Postnikov's monograph is dedicated to the party history of the Grand Duchy of Finland during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on significant factual material, the author has made the first attempt in Russian historiography to present a comprehensive picture of the origin, development and activities of the numerous parties of the Duchy. The narrative includes a wide panorama of the social, economic and public life of the principality during this period. Special attention is paid to the problems of relations with the imperial center. However, the factual richness of the study contrasts with the lack of a serious theoretical basis, when outdated terminology does not allow an adequate assessment of the essence of the phenomenon under consideration