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.