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.