The real project of development connected with the Western civilization is the Modern project. The author believes that Russia is another, alternative West and Communism is an alternative Modern. The Modern project has created a great literary language, uplifted history to an unprecedented height, created centralized national state and nation. The Modern as a design and the nation comprise the holistic unity of the project and its subject. The «leap from feudalism into socialism» suggested by Lenin was a way to pass by the modernization stage which was destroying the empire. In fact, it was an alternative modernization project. What is going in Russia nowadays is neither a nation building nor modernization but reconstruction of tribes, tribalization. The tragedy of the contemporary world lies in the fact that the charge on resources and environmental capacities of the Earth has caused arguments in favor of impossibility to keep modernization on and in favor of destruction of nation states while creation of such states should be discouraged. If no new energy, no «cultural meaning» are found for implementation of the Modern project then days of the Modern project are counted. The principal threat to humankind is posed by combination of counter-Modern and post-Modern for these two phenomena will bring about loss of human mission and to the «repeated archaization».

The article deals with two strategies of interpretation of medieval sources. The author does not subscribe to the theory put forward by Ricardo Picchio, the Italian Slavicist who studies so called «Biblical thematic key» of the ancient Russian texts. According to Picchio, the original context of hidden quotations from the Holy Scripture allows prompt and precise defining of a work’s idea and deciphering its author’s implicit intention. However such methodology does not bring about the genuine verification of a study’s conclusion and is based on an interpreter’s abused discretion. The only way to reconstruct a medieval scribe’s thought is to analyze his text as the unity of expressive and meaningful components. The article provides readers with examples of such interpretation.

In mid-17th century Czar Alexei Mikhailovich and his closest confidants found themselves at the crossroads. Medieval Russia turns out to be increasingly obsolete against achievements of the West. The church reform was conceived for «moral correction» of ecclesiastic affairs. Learned monks headed by Epiphanius Slavinetzki were invited to Moscow to carry out the conceived program. However the Czar was utterly dissatisfied with Greeks and in 1660s invited «Latinists», graduates of Kievo-Bratski college. Simeon Polotzki was the leader of this group. The struggle for the spiritual predominance at the Czar’s court between two trends («Greek» and «Latin» ones) gradually transformed into the struggle for the future cultural position of Russia. The author investigates epistemological aspect of the confrontation. According to the author, two discourses are revealed in texts and documents of that epoch. One discourse is predominantly allegoric while the other one is syllogistic. The first discourse was embedded in the Russian medieval ecclesiastic and popular tradition. The other discourse was brought in by the «Latinists» ands represented «new thinking» of a sort. The power which desperately needed church people and officials who were able to think clearly gradually leaned towards the second discourse. This discourse allowed Russian intellectuals in the next, 18th century to fall into dialogue with Enlightenment and to implement the basic reception of the European philosophy of the Modern time.

The article is written within the framework of «Slavic mythology: results and prospects of inter-disciplinary studies» research project. The project’s aim is to detect archaic elements of the popular culture that survived in languages, historical and archeological sources, in folklore, rites and beliefs of Slavs and in a varying degree reflect complex of mythological notions specific to pre-Slavic epoch and to construe them from the viewpoint of the most recent discoveries achieved in Slavic studies. The «mythological» themes that reflect peculiarities of perception of history by bearers of traditional culture are of particular significance within the limits of this study. It is exactly because of this fact material contained in popular legends that to varying extent reflect the historical past of Rus and Russia has become so attractive for the authors. In the article authors consider plots connected with notions of Slavic deities, christening of Rus and selection of religion, foundation of Kiev and reflection of confessional polemics. Material from literary and oral sources demonstrates that this circle of themes is subject to «mythological» treatment in the sphere of Medieval book-learning as well as in folklore.

The author clears up to what extent transformations that determined peculiarities of the Russian modernization of the 19th and early 20th centuries (abolition of serfdom and start of transition to constitutionalism) were well-timed. The author assesses capability of Russian rulers to meet challenge of the time, traces consequences of collision between «early» and «late» that occurred in their policy, finds out an extent of the society’s readiness for reforming and role of other factors that affected behavior of politicians. In particular, the author characterizes attitude of Nicolas II toward the «constitution» he granted. Doing that the author takes into consideration the archaism of the last Czar’s worldview. The author argues that delay with reforms and inconsistency in their implementation contributed to destabilization of the society. In conclusion the author collates historians' statements on validity and justification of search for alternatives of development in the past and on danger of intellectual speculations.

The article based on new documents from American archives illuminates a little-known episode of the Cold War history connected with a courageous struggle of a prominent physicist Leo Szilard to remove the threat of war and stop the nuclear arms race. It describes the story of his «Open letter» to I. Stalin of late 1947, that was preceded by internal fights among academic community and government bureaucracy. The letter itself is being published for the first time in Russia with necessary comments and background. The story of this document presents a vivid example of a collision between one of the earliest proponents of the new thinking with inertia of the Cold War policy and bureaucracy on both sides of the iron curtain.

In her review of «Foreign policy of Russia and international systems: 1700 to 1918» by Professor V.V.Degoev the author calls attention to the fact that the books is not a simple textbook on history of foreign policy and the European diplomacy. It is a genuine investigation which gives an impetus to further study of history of foreign relations. The work has obvious importance not just in scientific way as well as in political sense, particularly so in connection with the goal Russia faces nowadays: that of preservation of its own unity. The author also notes the exciting manner of narrative which is made in brilliant standard Russian language.

The article which is based on analysis of the «information games» around cartoons of Prophet Muhammad demonstrates that the nature of this game is closely connected with the «landmarks change» in the US policy. This «landmark change» was announced by C. Rice during her visit to Egypt and since then it was confirmed by her position during her tour around the Middle East countries. C. Rice has apparently contributed to the success of Muslim brothers in Egypt and to success of their subsidiary, Hamas in Palestine. The Muslim Brothers were established for promotion of triumph of «Universal Caliphate» and there are grounds to believe that the American and British intelligence too part in formation of the organization. The author demonstrates that Muslim Brothers are used against any regime of modernization tinge in the Muslim world. The triangle formed of Egypt, Palestine and Iran is an important part of the process initiated. The essence of this process is sequentially described in Al-Qaeda's working schedule entitled «Seven steps to Islamic caliphate» which indicates that the Christian world will have to be totally defeated. Transformation of «Euro Islam» into radical Islam should serve the plan’s execution and the provocation with cartoons is to be considered in this light and as a part of the program.

«Dynamics of the hegemony crisis», a study written by Giovanni Arrighi, the professor of John Hopkins University has been a cause for the article presented to readers. Arrighi’s book is devoted to historical and conceptual problems connected with evolution of the world political and economic order. The people’s planet is undergoing not just a transformational but transitional situation when components of obviously different construction of the world emerge amidst diverse social transformers. However realities of the Modernity epoch are still present on the historical stage. The subject of the authors reflections presented in form of decrypted polemical marginalia on Arrighi’s book is the approach to recognition of mobile architecture of the global community which is to replace old forms of the «world order». The author also investigates subscriptions of the «design documents» of the forthcoming epoch, i.e. schemes and drawings of the contemporary or, rather, post-contemporary structures that are being constructed right before our eyes.

Due to centrifugal processes of late 1980s and early 1990s the Islamic movement in the Northern Caucasus turned out to be fragmented. That fact found its reflection not just in a new institutionalization of the official Islam but also in emergence of absolutely new actors in the Moslem field which hitherto had been single and unified. The author means numerous «Islamic» political parties and movements that vigorously employed the Islamic rhetoric and symbols in their activities. By mid-1990s these structures achieved the peak of their influence. Then they dwindled and nowadays they do not exert any serious impact on political processes in the region. However in the meantime (and not without influence from without) the Salafi grouping emerged and became the principal opponents of the conventional and official Islam. Events that took place in Chechnya in 1994−1996 paved the way for accelerated internationalization of the Salafi movement in the region. In 1996−1999 Chechen Republic was turned into the drill ground of the international terrorism which allowed the extremist movement which used Islam as a disguise to develop there. An exceptionally powerful force and administrative pressure was exerted on adherents of Salafism and that pressure was, for all practical purposes, indiscriminate. At the same time «anti-Wahhabi» laws were passed in many North Caucasian regions of Russia. That resulted in disappearance of moderate radicals' communities and strengthening of religious and political extremists' positions. Defeat of separatists in Chechnya, diffusion of the Salafi movement over other North Caucasian republics transformed «the resistance» partially into «guerilla way of life», partially into mobile, loosely interconnected terrorist groups. The extremist Jihad has spread out all over the region.

The Russian officials permanently express their indignation caused by arrangement of monuments to SS-men in Latvia and Estonia and commemorations in honor of SS-men organized in these states. Rehabilitation of Nazism in the Baltic states and in Western Ukraine is really a disgraceful, ignominious phenomenon. However the paradox lies in the fact that the monument of SS-men, Gruppenführer Helmut von Pannvitz and his fellows in arms from punitive units of Wehrmacht and SS was constructed in the capital of the Russian Federation, near Sokol subway station already under Elstin and it was not demolished in the year of the Victory 60th anniversary in spite of Muscovites' protests. The organized and purposeful revision of conventional scientific (read moral) notions on the WWII has gone (and still goes) unabated under accompaniment of jubilee speeches. Books, movies and performances whose authors freely scoffed at the memory of anti-Nazi fighters have kept to appear. It should be emphasized that quite often such undertakings were funded from the State budget and enjoyed the complete and cordial support of officials. Recently Ilya Smirnov, a historian, has published a series of articles on creeping rehabilitation of Nazism. Today he comes round to the theme and takes into account contradictory experience of the Victory 60th anniversary. He demonstrates how the political propaganda is disseminated under false cloak of «creativity». This propaganda campaign drubs the idea that the forefathers of the younger generations of Russians were cruel and brutish murderers and Nazis were innocent victims of the Soviet «totalitarian» regime into conscience of people who are coming into age. The author draws a particular attention to underlying motives of the organizers of this propaganda campaign as well as to the deplorable fact that these people still control principal Russian media and may employ the air and press to advertise their production and defame their opponents.

The article is devoted to life and creative work of Afzaladdin Badil Ibrahim ibn Ali Khakani Shirvani, one of the greatest Persian lyric poets. Analysis of Khakani’s verses and circumstances of life that accompanied these verses' emergence allowed the author to introduce some important amendments into the poet’s biography. The author considers Khakani’s creative work against a broad historical background and investigates the poet’s multifaceted interests to his own country and the adjacent countries: Byzantine, Georgia, Iraq, Armenia, Rus. Khalani’s poetry is the embodiment of aesthetic, ethical, philosophical and historical culture. Khakani’s poetry reflected the variegated life of Transcaucasia and Middle East in the epoch of Turkomans' expansion to the West and did that with a greater authenticity than many chronicles and scientific treatises. It is not for nothing that historians in their studies so often refer to Khakani’s poetical testimonies. His poetry contains pre-admonition of Byzatine’s collapse which would have to occur nearly three centuries later. His poetry contains admonition of planetary disaster which would happen unless injustice of the social arrangement is done away. Khakani’s poetry is the poetry of pain caused by personal humiliation and humiliation of the nation. It is the poetry of persistence, tenacity and courage. At the end of the article the author offers analysis of Khakani’s poetics. The author demonstrates influence of Khakani’s creative work on many his contemporaries and later poets including Hafiz, another man of genius in the Persian poetry.

Vladimir Savelievich Voitinski’s letters to Petr Abramovich Harvey are surprising examples of warmth toward the addressee, comprehensiveness of the most important world events coverage and depth of their analysis, of impartial characterization of known political figures (Russian as well as American ones), exactitude of everyday sketches, of lambent humor and of doubtless literary gift of their author. The selection includes just a small part of collection. Letters written by Harvey, his wife Sophia Samoilovna and their children, daughter Sylvia and son Yuri in response are unavailable. However the selection is quite self-sufficient. All consistent topics (economic, political, personal ones) are complete and provide no only panorama of the most important world events of that watershed period in the 20th century which was exceptionally saturated with all kinds of disasters but also assessment of these events by one of the most wise and bright Russian politicians and scientists who unfortunately is poorly known in his motherland (See publication «Economic opinions of V.S.Voitinski» in our magazine No. 6, 2005.).

From the Renaissance on science pushed religion to the background and occupied the leading position in the humankind’s worldview. From the 18th century to the mid-19th century scientific discoveries followed each other in succession while practice followed in the science’s track taking these discoveries up and realizing them in public production. However thereafter science began to switch over technological improvement of practice. Notion of ‘scientific and technological revolution' was replaced with notion of ‘technological revolution' and science is getting to be more and more oriented to practice. In the past development of science provided the humankind with the industrial revolution. That determined transition of humankind to the post-industrial epoch which is characterized with instability and dynamism of political, economic, social, technological and other conditions. Practice has to re-adjust itself to permanently changing conditions. Therefore the innovative practice has become the principal characteristic of the contemporary period. If earlier, under a relatively long-term stability of way of life the public practice could wait for until science developed new recommendations and designers and industrial engineers developed and tested respective designs and technologies and only then these innovations would be introduced into practice nowadays such waiting has become senseless. Therefore practice has headed for another direction: practical workers have begun to create innovative models of social, economic, technological etc. systems. That has brought about authorial models of manufacturing, companies, technologies, methods etc. But to perform in such capacity practical workers need the scientific training, scientific education and need them more and more. Change of science’s role in the contemporary society and closing-in movement of science and practice create and will bring about significant impact on all aspects of life: politics, economics, social sphere, education, culture and so on.

Pressing on Russia is a problem which deserves analysis offered in the article. Any person who starts a long-term process fraught with prospect of regress (as, for instance, Russian perestroika and its diverse follow-ups) relies on the law of ideological systems rotation and the classical theory of cycles. Anti-Soviet sentiments in Russia have already passed the stage of consumerist liberalism and entered stage 2, i.e. «centrist patriotism» stage. Stage 3, harsh and tough nationalism stage is on agenda. Then perhaps Orthodox fundamentalism and, further on, fascism will follow. To create a barrier to skating down to harsh nationalism new leading social groups, other social system and other management models are needed. However nowadays Russians have neither moral nor material motivation. The major scale strategic modernization is lacking too. The author discusses new trends in pressure on Russia that shift the country towards harsh nationalism. In the first place, these trends include revision of Washington policy towards Moscow. USA demonstrates concern about excessive concentration of power in hands of Putin, about issues of democracy and suggests to punish Russia for its treaty with Tehran (the treaty was made on February 26, 2006), not to allow Russia to «big eight» summit, recommends «not to impede freedom and democracy in neighboring countries». Threats of US nuclear war on Russia are already rung about because US nuclear superiority is allegedly obvious. In order to live Russia needs the mobilization model of development and strategic offensive intellectual openness.

The article raises the problem of freezing inflammable trends in the North Caucasus through administrative reforms. These reforms, as the author thinks, should be centered around the formation of a functional mechanism to secure gradual replacement of the aging ethnocratical elites by a new generation of broadly educated political leaders with wider commitments.

he article deals with the judicial reform of 1864. Its contemporaries and later researchers called it the most consistent among all «great reforms». That consistency which brought about the complete liquidation of the old, in all respects abominable system and emergence of the new system which was, no doubt, by far more attractive one is demonstrated by the author on rich and diversified material. In a no less convincing manner the author demonstrates the paradox created in Russia by the autocracy which carried out the liberal reforms. The new courts as well as other institutions established in the course of reforms could not find a room within framework of the autocratic and bureaucratic system and permanently compromised and, moreover, destroyed the old judicial system. In result the power had inevitably either to change itself in spirit of the reforms it initiated making itself more liberal or to distort the new court and impose its will on the new court, zemstva (local self-government bodies) etc. The czarist government opted for precisely the second way.

I.M.Maiski was the Soviet plenipotentiary (an the ambassador since 1941) in London. The diary Maiski kept from 1933 to 1943, is a serious source for researchers of Soviet-British relations of that period and of international situation of 1930s. Thus the Diary sheds light on the issue of the WWII ripening and beginning. The personality of the diarist who so emotionally and vividly depicted the political landscape of London of that time is also of interest. The author is a superb stylist and that makes reading of his diary a fascinating and easy entertainment. Some biographical data on I.M. Maiski (Lyakhovetski) are given in the article. Entries put in the Diary and related to the Soviet-Czechoslovakian relations in 1938−1940 are examined. Appraisals of the Munich conspiracy (September 29−30, 1938) among Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy that initiated process of Czechoslovakia’s dismemberment are analyzed too. Evidence contained in Maiski’s Diary certainly require a low-keyed approach and are to be compared with other documents. Nevertheless this evidence is valuable for investigation of development of relations between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in the pre-WWII years and provides extra pabulum for reflections on positions of both states.

An American diplomat and historian George Kennan in his celebrated «Long Telegram» (1946), which made such a strong impact in American official circles warned against assuming the Soviet foreign policy as entirely based on nationalistic cynicism or imperial ambitions. The USSR, he wrote «is neither schematic nor adventuristic». Thus the mere logic (though not the only one) prompts us that Stalin saw in the Secret protocols to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 23, 1939 not only the means of achieving some intermediate aims in his drive for restoration of a full-scale Russian power and a step toward the direction which was governed by the idea of world revolution, but in the first place as the most necessary attempt in creation of a security belt on the whole perimeter of the Soviet western boundaries. Winston Churchill described these steps made in the war crisis atmosphere of 1939−1940 as motivated by rational Soviet feelings of deep insecurity in view of the Nazi move through eastwards and introduced the term «the Eastern bulwark» for designation of the territorial changes, occurred with the pushing westward of the Soviet boundaries in the second part of 1940 during the dramatic events which have followed the capitulation of France in June 1940. The documents from the U.S. diplomatic archives cited in the article underscore the validity of this conclusion.

Doctrianiarism can kill Weltanschauung, even the most developed and wholistic one. V.S.Voitinski's letters published in the issue are, inter alia, about that. They are about those objective and subjective circumstances that inexorably led to wreck opinions held by the Overseas Delegation of RSDWP leaders. A.N.Potresov justly characterized these opinions as «creation of revolutionary fiction». However let’s not forget that those leaders were not just politicians but also people of their own time, of that phantasmagoric world which had been created by WWI, Russian revolution of 1917, fratricidal civil war and emigration. These people experienced terror of the Bolshevist dictatorship, emergence and success of fascism, bitterness of Munich surrender and beginning of WWII. Their assessments were wrong. They overestimated their own potential and forces, they believed in triumph of socialism even in circumstances that were inappropriate for such expectations. Let us respect them with all their weaknesses and shortcomings.

The author examines the dismissal of the Prosecutor General not as a single event but as a component of a major political process and pays the particular attention to the alliance between Ustinov as a member of «Krasnodar grouping» and I. Sechin, the deputy head of the President’s administration. The author draws a parallel between resignation of Ustinov and resignations of A. Korzhakov and Yu. Skuratov and points out that excessive economic and political ambitions of clans that included the aforementioned persons are the common denominator in both cases. In case of Ustinov this hypothesis finds confirmations in the following events: attacks on Alpha Group, Gazprom, LUKoil and Transneft'. It means that the Prosecutor General office under Ustinov as well as under Skuratov initiated proceedings that affected too many influential figures. Sechin-Ustinov group much in the same way as Korzhakov-Barsukov-Soskovets group earlier sought after establishment of its monopoly over the key export segments of the Russian economy. The author indicates mistakes the Prosecutor General might commit and examines political and psychological consequences of the resignation for Sechin grouping and for the Russian power at large.

The author undertakes an attempt to examine models of the tyrannical power that emerged in the Russian literary culture of the 11th to 17th century. The author identifies and analyzes the predominant ways of description of the conflict between the victim and the ruler-tormentor. Original ideological constant of the martyrdom for the sake of the faith was augmented by a new prototype plot based on typological story of Cain and Abel. The first Russian saints were beatified by the Church precisely as the innocent martyrs. Other victims followed their suit and also humbled themselves before their murderers and persecutors. However, as early as in pre-Mongolian period a new conventional model of a proud and unjust coreligionist was being developed. Since authority of a ruler must not extend to his subjects' souls the resistance had to be furnished to such prince. Gradually this notion acquired an eschatological tinge and the early Christian mythologeme of a martyr opposing the ungodly authority asserted itself with a new vigor. Eschatological expectations and prophetic protest became obvious and audible in the epoch of Schism. The semantic dominant tenet of the Russian medieval doctrine of power was the power’s establishment by the God and that tenet influenced the discursive practices.

The Russian school philosophy of law emphasizes the fact that by virtue of legal norms that by perforce are to be laid down with the «axe-cut precision» people are able to provide for regulation of the social life just at the lowest level where a person agrees to act like an automation-machine. Rights of the «humane in a human being» can be protected only by a more powerful system which, alongside with the law, also includes morality and religion. Therefore the liberal slogan «the supremacy of law» is a cheap politics which mislead people. In Russia the greatest contribution to understanding and recognition of non all-sufficient nature of the legal system was made by P.I.Novgorodtsev and his disciples among whom the best known are I.A.Il'in and B.P.Vysheslavtsev.

The idea of the «Teutonic captivity» under which the Russian philosophy fell was expressed by Sobolev. Later on this idea was subject by some critical revaluation by I.F.Shapovalov. According to the author of the comment, the assertion that German philosophical ideas exerted a one-sided and sinister influence on the Russian intelligentsia that was unable to get free of the way of thinking which was alien to the Russian soil is to be rethought considerably. It is quite evident that the fact of captivity cannot be denied. But was that captivity really the Teutonic' one, i.e. were shallow and vapid rationalistic opinions of the Russian intelligentsia the results of the passion the Russian intelligentsia felt precisely for the German philosophy? On the contrary, the German is to be considered as an ally of the Russian religious and philosophical reflections in its struggle against common place rationalism and doctrinarianism. The author sees the origins of the intellectual paradigm wedded to speculative ideas and ready-made intellectual prescriptions exactly in the French tradition, in the French positivism of the 19th century in particular.

This article, which takes its title from the famous song «Nightingales, O Nightingales» of the Great Patriotic War, seeks to discover the source of the Russian historical ballad «Il'ya of Murom and the Nightingale-Robber» in a spell to gain the power of the mythical Indian eagle Garuda. Two different forms of such a tale exist: a semi-Buddhist shamanistic spell-song from Mongolia, and a medieval Armenian magical spell-tale whose earliest variant is close to the Mongolian form. The tale would have reached Russia most likely via Central Asia, via Iran. The Armenian version is Christianised; the Russian, assimilated to the heroic genre. It is suggested that the eagle becomes a nightingale (slavii, solovei) because of the connection of the latter with the potent word (slovo) and the glory (slava) acquired by a hero through bardic acclaim: so the bard Boyan in the Song (Slovo) of the Campaign of Igor' is called the «nightingale of olden times».

Developing the topic of the article published in the previous number of the magazine the author performs a detailed analysis of events around the Prosecutor General' resignation and their connections with other conflict stories that unfolded in the Russian elite in recent years. The furniture salons «Three whales» and «Grand» affair initiated as early as in 2000 is obviously stood out among these stories. This affair is not a «criminal adventure» but a non-transparent episode of the struggle amongst inner parties of the power. At the level of known, open facts one discovers the conflict which totally destroys myths about ‘confrontation between liberals and checkists'. It is not a struggle between liberals and people from power structures. It is the internal struggle of the people from power structures. And they fight not for the furniture but for something by far more important, for positions of clans in power and for property. «The furniture scandal» highlighted an intense conflict within the checklist community which seemed to be consolidated. The same scandal also demonstrated confrontation of the Prosecutor General and the chief of the Federal Security Service as members of certain elite groupings. There are other deals including international ones behind these collisions.

The author undertakes an attempt to understand the roots of the Russian statehood, its specific properties and define national peculiarities of Russia’s historical path and Russia’s national priorities. The author pays the particular attention to the Soviet period of the Russian history and to the current stage of the state and national building which «is sewn together rough-and ready». According to the author, the principal problem of the society at the present time lies in the «crisis of meanings» which goes on unabated, in overcoming of the Russian political thought reduction and fugacity that have become quite customary features, in necessity of the new statehood self-identification within the framework of more than 1000 years old Russian historical experience. A serious, detailed «talk of foundations», restoration of traditions of conceptual creativity, development of social and political philosophy, recognition of Russia’s genuine condition and horizons in the world of the 21st century, investigation of the rapid shifts that have occurred and still occur in political, social, cultural spheres, discussion of the civilizational situation that has emerged and of the entire global changes mechanics are equal requirements of the period

Outbreak of the youth and students' protest which occurred in France in spring of 2006 has aroused very little attention and a weak reaction in Russia. That presents a sharp contrast with evaluations provided by the European observers and politicians who have seen these protests as one of the most vivid and obvious symptoms of the «end of epoch» mood which has begun to emerge in the West. The dominant note of this mood is the Angst to lose the social achievements conquered from 1950s to 1970s. The young people are afraid to find out that they are poorer than their parents and to lose the social guaranties that have become customary constants. Different opinions are brought out in respect of what should be considered as the determinant feature of the departing epoch. The author focuses on convergence of ideologies for this issue is the most accurate description of the problem’s scale. The name of the carrier of the ideology which underwent the convergence is the USSR. This approach highlights the generally valid social consequences of the Soviet Union’s collapse.

The authors consider a key aspect of globalization, i.e. peculiarities of emergence of so called «glocal» territorial formations that are by far more integrated into the world economy than they are integrated in a national economy. It is noted that this trend will inevitably affect Russia. Thus the trend is to be taken into account in the long-term strategy of economic development right now. It is stated that as of now such strategy is virtually non-existent. The authors provide substantiation to the thesis that a balanced and progressive advance of Russia cannot be based exclusively on knowledge-intensive branches. The authors offer their definition of branches that can accumulate a considerable part of population under circumstances of economic activity liberalization and a drastic aggravation of international competition. Tourism which is the basis of social and economic development of many local formations (regions) as well as of states and has a powerful multiplicative effect on development of a number of related sectors is explored as one of such branches.

Visions of the other world played a very important role in the Medieval Europe’s culture. They let a person to penetrate the next life’s mysteries, were visual illustrations of the ecclesiastical eschatology, established links between the world of the living and that of the dead and performed many other functions as well. Historians for a long time and fruitfully have used texts of visions as the sources for investigation of the Medieval culture, religious life and psychology of a Medieval person. However it is for from easy to work with these texts. They speak a very complicated language of the visual images that have deep roots in the Christian symbolics and are not clear and plain to a present day researcher. Too often we do not know how these texts were read in the Medieval time and who constituted the audience for such texts. How attitude to them changed over the time? How these texts had to be understood, in the literal or allegorical sense? What was the perception of the other world visions in the popular and scholarly cultures? The author attempts to give answers to these questions.

Leo Tikhomirov, a revolutionary and ideologue of «Narodnaya volya» who became a monarchist and editor of the «Moscovskie vedomosti», for more than 30 years kept a diary. Shortly before his death Tikhomirov passed his diaries over to the Rumyantsevs Museum for keeping it in custody. In recent years monarchists have republished Tikhomirov’s works and popularized his heritage actively. However Tikhomirov’s diary is actually unknown to general readers. In many ways that is due to the fact that thoughts and opinions contained in the diary not always complement what Tikhomirov declared in public. At the present time ROSSPEN publishers prepare publication of the full text of L.A.Tikhomirov's diary for 1915−1917. The commentaries will be attached to the text. Many of what was written by Tikhomirov 90 years ago can arouse interests of researchers who study history of Russia and of the Russian conservatism. Selection of fragments from the diary for 1917 (it is published for the first time) demonstrates the deep crisis of the author’s Weltanschauung and his disappointment in the principles he had professed upon his skip to the monarchist camp.

The author does not dwell upon the specific excesses, the Georgian excess in particular. Instead, he investigates the strategic aims of Russia. One of these aims is related with the Russian presence in certain territories, namely, those that in the past had been parts of the Czarist Russia and the USSR. The author considers various contingent scenarios. Two of these are expansive ones, the third scenario is conservative while the fourth scenario implies the diminutive strategy which is allegedly consistent with the genuine Russian interest. The role of «the Russian Party» is considered in this connection. The author points out that the Russian Party’s activity actually accelerates dying-out of the Russian people. Programming of Russians who have suffered the most from the collapse of the USSR to xenophobic attitudes means their programming to diminution of their territory. The Russian Party’s doctrine is not the nationalism but its exact opposite, the syndrome artificially and intentionally concocted for disintegration of Russia. The state structure of the USSR was logical and effective because it was crowned by the super-national and super-confessional idea to which all nations and confessions were «attached» and which provided the impetus to modernization. Attempts to create the nation state after the disintegration of the USSR failed because the social, economic and political regress was launched instead of the accelerated modernization. Russia where people who belong to hundreds various ethnic groups live is utterly unable to build the Russian mono-ethnic state because every molecule of the Russian history is encoded with multinational amalgam. If Russians split this amalgam they will encounter with collapse earlier than they will gather the desired mono-ethnic components. The only case in hand is building of the nation state which rejects the demand of the ethnic identification.

The article reflects main trends and results of the economic development in China, USA and Russia over the 20th century as well as over a longer hindsight. Doing that the author repeatedly emphasizes the objective inevitability and need to carry out multivariant calculations of any macroeconomic characteristics when levels of economic development of various countries with drastic differences of per capita GDP are compared. The particular attention is paid to the critical analysis of wrong calculations and assessments made by the World Bank experts who compiled the summarizing report on development of 42 countries over the 20th century. In contrast with conclusions of these experts (according to them the Russian and American per capita GDP ratio at the end of the 20th century allegedly fell twofold while the ratio of the same measure for China and USA presumably rose by more that 150%) the author demonstrates that from the beginning of the 20th century down to the beginning of the 21st century both these characteristics did not undergo any significant change. Both in 1913 and in 2005 per capita GDP in China comprised about 15% of per capita GDP in USA while per capita GDP in Russia was equal to about 25−27% of the American per capita GDP. The author also improves accuracy of data on rates of economic growth in Russia in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.

In this part of her article the author continues her investigation of the end of the social guaranties epoch. However she focuses on Russia where this end manifests in the unprecedented harsh and cruel form. Alongside with that slackness, shapelessness of the society’s responses to the process are also unprecedented, particularly in comparison with the similar events in France (these events were investigated in the previous issue of the magazine). Avoiding construction of linear relations the author suggests her answer to the question about certain reasons for this paradox.

The philosophy of mythology subject encompasses the foundations of myth-making and regularities of myths’ historical evolution. Designing of the non-construed specific sensual imagery by the conscience constitutes the basis of myth-making. This ability of the conscience does not disappear with the decay of the primordial society. Rather, it tens to be transferred from lower, earlier types of spirituality to higher, more culturally sophisticated ones. The historical fates of the philosophy of mythology are saturated with high-stakes drama and characterized by alternation of the heady blossom periods with periods of decline and oblivion. The Russian philosophy of mythology took its shape at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and was aimed at development of general philosophical understanding and methodological prerequisites of the peculiar scientific understanding of the Slavic mythology. The period of accumulation of empirical and theoretical prerequisites for the philosophy of mythology in Russia evolved into the process of the discipline’s immediate making which started with «The brief review of the Russian Slavs’ mythology» work written by P.M.Stroev in 1815 and went on up to the emergence of the «mythological school» in the Russian folklore studies in 1840s and 1850s.

The authors deal with one of the «folklore and history» problem’s aspects, specifically with reflection of knowledge about historical figures in the popular stories and legends. There is no doubt that popular legendary stories do not contain a «biographical» portrait of any historical personality. Moreover, due to the impact of the folklore narrative laws historical figures acquire fantastic qualities and by virtues of these fit the whole folklore mythological image of the world quite smoothly. How historical images are transformed in popular texts, what are the laws that govern incorporation of historical facts into the folklore imaginative system, to what archetype images historical characters are related — these are just a few issues the authors of the article address to. Some folklore «portraits» of historical personalities that placed themselves in the memory of the people and in the «oral history» (princes of the Ancient Rus, Peter I, Katherine the Great and Napoleon) are presented in the article. The article is based on the materials derived, first and foremost, from archive and field sources.

Reminiscences of the Czarist secret police leaders are the source which allows shed light on the problem of the potential for reforming and increasing longevity of the Russian monarchy, hunt down elements of continuity that existed between pre-revolutionary and the Soviet political systems in reality and in perception of contemporaries including those who compared «the okhranka» with the CheKa. Describing technologies the «okhranka» employed in its struggle against the revolutionary and opposition movements, the memoirists at the same time performed as the departamental historiographers. They try to understand the circumstances due to which the «okhranka» proved to be incapable to save the monarchical regime. Their opinions, observations, assessments, precise as well as biased ones, reflected condition of the ruling elite, contradictions within the bureaucratic stratum on the eve of events that staggered Russia in 1917.

«The Russian history» textbook by G.A.Eliseev, S.V.Alekseev and D.M.Volodikhin was published in 2006 and was allowed to educational institutions by the Russian Federation Ministry of education (already renewed, reorganized ministry). On behalf of all Russian science the ministry has certified with the state seal those amazing discoveries that lie in wait of young readers right from the first page of the textbook’s first chapter and onwards. And the ministry has approved the remarkable methodology offered by the authors of the textbook instead of the bleak «positivism». Previously the creative freedom was restrained by requirement of some arguments and evidence, substantiation or at least the precise definition of terms. Now these remnants of the totalitarian regime are dismantled. Aveskhan of Macedonia congratulates the authors of the textbook and their ministerial patrons with the victory they secured.