The article is devoted to the social and political activities of one of the North Caucasian leaders of the early twentieth century Z. Shamil, the grandson of Imam Shamil, previously unknown facts from his biography in the conditions of the Russian revolution and civil war of 1917–1920 are given

The role of the Warsaw Governor-General G.A.Scalon in the development of government policy in the Kingdom of Poland in 1905–1914 is considered. Skalon's projects and proposals on changing the status of the Polish language in teaching, city self-government, the introduction of zemstvo self-government and the creation of the Kholm province are analyzed. Conclusions are drawn about the declining role of the Governor-General's power in making decisions on the administration of the Kingdom of Poland in the early twentieth century and the growing influence of the Council of Ministers and Ministries.

In the Russian Empire, refusal to officially recognize the national (ethnic) identity of subjects was one of the pillars of national and religious policy (religion was indicated in documents). In the second half of the 19th century, in the context of the transition to all-class conscription, the conscription contingent expanded to include the non-Russian population, which raised the question of its suitability for service in the armed forces. As part of the discussion of this issue, there was actual recognition of the country’s “multinationality” in the works of General Staff officers and in special interdepartmental committees.

The article is devoted to the views and emigrant activities of one of the North Caucasian leaders of the first third of the 20th century A. Tsalikov, a socialist, theorist and leader of the All-Russian Muslim Council (1917–1918), the Muslim Socialist Party, and his emigrant activities.

The article is devoted to the problem of interaction of national movements of previously repressed peoples (Soviet Germans, Crimean Tatars, Meskhe-tian Turks) and the Soviet state in the second half of the 1960s – early 1980s. Particular attention is paid to the position of the republican ruling eth-nic elites (Kazakh, Ukrainian, Georgian) on the implementation of the requirements of national movements. It was their position that had a serious impact on the attitude of the Brezhnev leadership to the issue, did not allow satisfying the demands of the movements and carrying out a full-scale rehabilitation of these peoples.

The article analyzes the views of General A. I. Denikin, who headed the White movement in the South of Russia, on the peculiarities of psychology, economic and military activities, social mood, perception of a different identity, interfaith interaction, political interests, the search for allies and patrons, methods of communication with the conditions of a foreign cultural environment characteristic of the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus in years Civil War in 1917–1920. The commander's reflections reveal his understanding of the relationship between Russia and the North Caucasus, as interaction between the Center and the periphery in a single large society. This concept is confirmed by the practice of their difficult, but, nevertheless, effective joint development. In the conditions when the North Caucasus region is the sphere of interests of many states of the world, it continues to remain and develop within Russia.

The article is devoted to party building among the Crimean Tatars in 1917–1928, the goals of their party leaders, relations between them and the leadership of Crimea, political contacts of Crimean politicians with local Bolsheviks, with the Central Committee of the RCP(b). The attached materials, including archival materials, contain a variety of information about the party life of the Crimean Tatars, its features during these 10 years.

This article covers the issues of formatting the borders of Taurida in 1774–1917. The author sees it necessary to trace the prerequisites, causes, dynamics and principles of transformations of the status and boundaries of Taurida in the period under study. As a result of long-term Russian-Turkish conflicts, in the 18th century the region came under control and became an integral part of the Russian state. It is emphasized that the process of changes in the political status and administrative-territorial transformations took place against the background of the changing international situation that influenced its course, and setting various tasks in the field of public administration.

In this article the coverage of the status and formatting of the borders of Taurida was continued. The author sees it necessary to trace the prerequisites, causes, dynamics and principles of transformations of the status and boundaries of Taurida in the 1917–1921. It is emphasized that the process of changes in the political status and administrative-territorial transformations took place against the background of the changing international situation that influenced its course, and the setting by the state leadership of various internal political tasks. As a result of a long process of formatting, Taurida was divided between two Soviet states – the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR. Its borders are in this form in the 21st century.

The article, based mainly on archival data, shows the ideological and political aspirations of various representatives of the Muslim population of the disintegrated Russian Empire and neighboring countries in the first years of Soviet power, their attitude to the Comintern, to the theory of the world revolution and its practical implementation. The events associated with the I and II congresses of the Comintern, and their impact on the Muslim world are examined.

In article, the author considers relationship between the leader of the White movement in the south of Russia general A.I.Denikin and the government of the self-proclaimed Mountain Republic at the beginning of 1919. White refused to recognize sovereignty of the Mountain Republic but guaranteed them broad internal self-government. The Mountain Government insisted on recognition of independence and non-interference to internal affairs of the republic. Parties did not succeed to reach a compromise, and negotiation process came to a standstill. In May 1919, the Volunteer Army liquidated the Mountain Republic. It was tactical success of White Guards, however strategically they considerably weakened their positions, having involved in the wearisome armed opposition with the Caucasian mountaineers.

The article is devoted to the views of one of the Azerbaijani leaders of the first third of the 20th century, M.E. Rasulzade, a socialist, theorist and leader of the ruling “Musavat” (“Equality”) party in the Republic of Azerbaijan (1918–1920), as well as the influence of this party on the situation in the Azerbaijan SSR in 1920.

The article highlights the process of the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic formation, the key role in which was played by the People's Commissar for National Affairs of the RSFSR Government I.V.Stalin. The ten months search for optimal model of the national and state status of the Crimea in 1921 resulted in the choice of a variant that can be defined as territorial autonomy taking into account the historical tradition with elements of national coloring.

The article devotes to the questions of formation of the Caucasian statehood during the Russian revolution and Civil war of 1917–1921. Desintegration of the Russian Empire has led to aggravation of a political and social and economic situation in the North Caucasus, at the same time, the various political forces moved forward the projects of association of all people of the Caucasus and creation of uniform state education. The author analyzes various models of statehood which tried to introduce both local, and all-Russian political forces in the North Caucasus and the reasons of a failure of similar attempts; explores the place and a role of national movements of the people of the Caucasus in the context of the national and state construction in post-revolutionary Russia.

The spring of 1918 in the Soviet Russia saw a universal military preparation of citizens, one of the main aims of which was the organization of physical education of workers and peasants. In order to achieve this aim, the theory of the Soviet system of physical education was elaborated and new administrative and controlling bodies were established to control the development of physical education and sport in the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The article is devoted to Sh.I.Shagiakhmetov, one of the first Social Democrats in the Russian Empire, representative of the Tatar nobility, Muslim intelligentsia. The attempt was made to analyze his biography and socio-political activity before 1917 and in the conditions of the Great Russian Revolution of 1917. Particular attention is paid to his political journalism, his contribution to the Muslim movement, his role in the formation of the self-determination of the Turkestan population.

In the USSR there were precise official ideological attitudes to the implementation of physical recovery of the people in to the Soviet everyday life. However, dissemination of the physical education was not at the best level. Despite the activity of VSFK, Glavpolitprosvet, Proletkult, proletphyskults, trade unions, Komsomol and other organizations, the spreading of PE in the USSR in 1920-s did not happen efficiently.

In 2015, the publishing house "Political Encyclopedia" released collective monograph "Patriotism and Nationalism as Factors of Russian History (the end of the 18th century – 1991)" edited by the winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor V.Zhuravlev. Soon the book was awarded the National Prize "The Best Books and Publishing Houses of the Year – 2015". Reflection of the author of the article is aimed at the process of formation and evolution of the ideas of Russian patriotism and nationalism, analyzed in the monograph. He tries to trace how the idea of ​unraveling a complex coil of problems connected with the history and essence of the concepts "patriotism" and "nationalism" in Russian history, ideology and public consciousness is realized in the course of the research.

The article deals with the Muslim movement in the territory of Eurasia in conditions of the Great Russian revolution of 1917, analysis of this movement’s goals and its leaders who led, through the All-Russian Muslim Council, the numerous Muslim population of the Empire which became the Russian Republic in September, 1917. A particular attention is devoted to the personality of Akhmed Tsalikov, the Chairman of the Council, the theorist and leader of this movement.

The article deals with a comparative analysis of «Moldavian question» in Bessarabia in late XIX and early XX century. Bessarabia was an object of symbolical competition of Russian Empire and Romanian national state. The comparison of Bessarabian case with other «national questions» in Russia shows that the Moldavians had complex position in the ethno-cultural hierarchies and their national movement demonstrated resemblance with the nationalisms of both «western» and «eastern» national borderlands of Russian Empire. In Romanian national imagination and policy Bessarabia played smaller role as compared with Transilvania and Bucovina.

Interest in the common law of the Ossetians used to be and is still of current interest. Nowadays adats of the Ossetians as well as of other mountainous peoples exist both as an important historical resource and as a practical guidance. The author of the article bases this conclusion not only on studies of published collections of common law documents but also on his own experience gained during the extensive travels in the mountain regions taken by him to understand the reason for these archaic norms to survive through ages.

The article is devoted to the attitude of the Russian officials to the mountain Jews in the second half of 19th — the beginning of 20th centuries. Many laws, restricted rights of the Jews appeared in the 1880-s. One of them was the law 18th June 1892 against the Jews of the Terek and Kuban Cossacks areas. This territory was not included in the pale of Jewish settlement, but before the law of 1892 it was opened for some categories of Jews who had rights to live temporary out of the pale of settlement. When this law was issued, the Russian officials did not pay attention to the fact, that besides the European Jews this territory was also native land of the mountain Jews. Therefore as the Russian officials as local one had problems connected with realization of this law.

Paraphrasing Napoleon’s well-known statement that «politics is destiny», one could assert that economy became destiny of Volga Germans. The adoption of backward farming methods made disappear specific features of this population group, causing its factual «economic assimilation» or, so to speak, «economic acculturation» until early 20th century. As a result, the Volga German peasantry faced, during the 1905 Russian’s revolution and the years of the Stolypin agrarian reform, the very same problems and conflicts as their Russian counterparts. If they opted to evade the challenge of modernisation (e.g. by emigration) instead of meeting it in the same radical way, it was solely due to their status as a non-Russian-speaking national minority.

The paper explores attempts to instrumentalize such factors as ethnicity and faith within the framework of russian captivity in 1914−1919. Captivity realities, as the author demonstrates, were such that manipulations with national and religious sentiments of foreign captives realized through various practices produced — besides sought-for results — a lot of side effects which altered the scenarios of events that their creators deemed the only possible. In large measure this reflected the fact that policy and economy, the generals and civil officialdom, the centre and the periphery affected the captivity patterns according to their interests and aims which conventionality could hardly be taken for granted.

This is an article on the teaching and studying of the controversial problems of the North Caucasus history. The author argues that this branch of Russian historiography is going through severe crisis partly due to the demise of Marxist paradigm to be followed by ideological vacuum. He sees the way to overcome it in the post-modernist overarching approach to the issues sensitive to non-Russian peoples on the one hand, and in ridding of powerful myths firmly established in nationalistic-oriented consciousness, on the other, to develop broader vision of the past.

The American civilization is the product of Enlightenment epoch. It radically differs from other civilizations. Historical and geographical circumstances had a tremendous impact on business culture of a young nation. Unlike countries of the Old World country which was to become US was not suffering from remnants of feudalism. Protestantism as the stimulant to social and economic activities and spiritual influence of Britain facilitated formation of market mentality in almost every sphere of American society life. A businessman, an entrepreneur enjoying a relatively high level of success and public recognition became the social type specific to the USA.

The author on the basis of great array of facts demonstrates that the current Russian social, political and economic reforms lack systemic character from the outset. That lack of coherence imparts a diluted character to their results. The results acquire a transmuted form when proclaimed goals and intentions of reforms do not match their real results. In the end, as the author thinks, the peculiar situation has emerged: in nowadays Russia actually all basic institutions of the public life (social existence) have a transmuted form because functions these institutions perform differ from functions formally prescribed. For instance, institution of private property in Russia has not become the foundation of the creative economy, the parliament has not become a mechanism of democracy and a type of independent branch of power while political parties have not become mouthpieces of mass moods in society. In this general situation the university does not perform its mission too. The university has nor become a leading form of civil society, a barometer of democracy that exists in political life, the basis of science and technology development. And the most important point: law and legal relationship system does function because in the real life it is displaced by corruption.

The multinational and poly-confessional Russian empire experienced problems with use of human resources in military purposes. The government had to take into account martial customs of various regions' population as well as the danger connected with arming of nations political loyalty of which caused well-grounded doubts. Situation was aggravated by the estate differentiation of the society and negative attitude toward soldiery which was considered as a punishment. Different levels of Russia’s Western and Eastern peripheries cultural and social development hindered the process of military service regulations standardization. The authorities tried to use the army as a school of state education and the state integration.

As the Presidential election are approaching the more vigorously various political forces appeal to the conservative values and traditions. Doing that every political force invests the content advantageous to impart into the concept of conservatism. In every specific moment and in every specific country this concept acquires a new meaning. There are no «pure» or «impure» conservatives for the very criteria of conservatism are different and a former revolutionary and an subversive may, upon coming to power, turn into an guard and adherent of a strong state. The Russian conservatism is unlike its European and American parallels. It is paradoxical and unique. It is imbued with the national traditions but it tried and still tries, though timidly, to provide answers to challenges of the time. Though, at the first glance, the contemporary political situation seems to be stable in fact it is fraught with unpredictable developments. In this respect the present day situation is very similar to the «conservative stabilization» Russia experienced during Alexander III reign. That conservative stabilization carried in itself three revolutions that overthrew the dynasty. That is why the most pure conservatism (i.e., the unsophisticated preservation of the status quo) has no chance in Russia. The same is true in respect of conservatism calling for return into the «bright yesterday». The current fashion for conservatism, on one hand, has already provoked discussions among historians, sociologists and political scientists (and the fact is positive in itself) but, on the other hand, it made a mess of the very notion of conservatism. All these developments make us to ponder about correlation between the historical experience of use of the conservative ideology in Russia and problems of the contemporary conservatism.

In the post-Cold War era, Ukraine is struggling with more than political independence, but with her very identity. However, the ingredients in her identity derive from traditions that are incommensurable: westernism and Slavophilism. On the other hand, political independence for Ukraine is largely a formality, since she will become dependent upon either Russia or the European Union and NATO in significant economic and military respects. This paper argues, in part, that Ukraine should use its connections with the West to act as a bridge between western and eastern ways of life within a Slavic and Orthodox federation dedicated to a unity of peoples, but not a unity equated with absorption. The alternative is economic exploitation from western powers at the expense of her Orthodox and Slavic culture.

The author expresses his doubts about ability of Ukraine to enjoy the genuine, not a fictitious independence. Formation of the Ukrainian nation and «Ukraine» as a national organism has been carried out in opposition to everything Russian. Due to that the Ukrainian ideology from its very inception and onwards has the anti-Russian character. Combination of this peculiarity, predominance of bourgeois relationships, lack of economic prerequisites for independence as well as the fact that at the present time Russia is not a power pole on its own and is looking for ways to incorporate itself into the Western world which has its own system of values leaves no alternative way to Ukraine and pushes it into the West’s orbit.

Ukraine occupies a peculiar position on the very frontier between Europe and Russia. Geopolitical position of Ukraine has determined its historical development and is the most important factor defining the current course of the Ukrainian foreign policy. Ukraine which was not an independent state until the end of the 20th century used to be the arena of geopolitical struggle among Russia and European powers: Poland, Austria and Germany. As the independence was declared in 1991 Ukraine confronted with a necessity to choose its path: whether it would run for Europe or for Russia? This dilemma is still unresolved completely even now. The author tries to demonstrate that the choice in favor of integration with Russia fits the national interests of Ukraine while the choice in favor of the EU, on the contrary, would be pernicious for the state sovereignty and the national identity of Ukraine.

At the present moment Ukraine happened to stand on the very «fault line of civilizations» between the East and the West, Europe and Russia. Not just economic weakness of Russia but also lack of any universal cultural and civilization idea on the part of Russia may in the nearest future become one of the main factors prompting Ukraine and other European states of the post-Soviet space to aim at the European Union. Under these circumstances Ukraine would experience great difficulties in its attempts to vindicate its «peculiar identity» and national and cultural distinctiveness.

Ukraine’s choice ought not to be posed as one between a soulless West and spiritual East. An idealized Slavic Orthodox culture, in particular, exists today neither in Russia or Ukraine, and it is still harder to find in the tsarist past. Rather, Ukraine ought to reconstruct its own democratic, independent modern culture based on its traditions of Cossack autonomy, Magdeburg Law, opposition to autocratic centralism, even its autocephalous Orthodox Church history and Christian and populist social ethics. The success of Ukraine and its survival will also make success for Russia’s transformation from despotic empire to democratic nation-state.

National identification happens to become a problem in the period of encroaching globalization. How can one speak of construction of proper Ukrainian civilization when the very notion of civilization is questioned? What can this hypothetical national state be and what it has to do in such new world? Should it increase «multi-vector» policy or should it become a sort of a bridge between the West and East? But is Ukraine ready to withstand durability tests that are applied to any bridge? The author thinks that Ukraine is definitely not ready for such trials. Strength of Russian as well as of Ukraine is connected with the creative power of cultivated political and cultural synthesis. However this is also the weakness for either common ideal or the common enemy may ensure a tight unification of such society.

Sergei Witte has been described variously as statesman, industrializer, bureaucrat, careerist. Yet, like so many other Russians in the late 19th century, Witte was a dreamer. He lived in the European Age of Empire - a time before the chaos of twentieth-century war and revolution, when instead global expanses, new technologies, powerful national states, and evolving cultures seemingly made all things possible. This article examines three intertwined dreams that entranced Witte in these years. The first was a dream of a powerful Russian Empire, its vast Eurasian space subjugated by transcontinental railroad, global commerce, and Russian civilization. The second, especially apparent when he remembered the reign of Emperor Alexander III, was a dream of a Russian autocracy whose monarchical authority was legitimate because it guaranteed imperial power, social order, and popular welfare. The third, necessary if the first two were to be sustained, imagined the unity of an imperial nation, created by a powerful commercial-industrial economy out of the disparate ethnic communities that constituted the Russian Empire. The article speculates that these dreams motivated much of Witte's action in end-of-the-century Russia.