The subjects discussed with Sergey Kurginyan are the spiritual component of the contemporary world, confrontation of the Modern project with the counter-Modern, destiny of the Communist paradigm in new historical context, opportunities of spiritual collaboration on the platform of the great battle for the Human because only the Human is the real driver of the historical process while all material factors are of secondary importance and value relative to the Human. If fact, the great battle for the Human becomes the current big politics' real background.

The article focuses on peculiarities of present-day positions of CIS countries and Georgia in the geoeconomic pattern of the world. An explanation for causes of some significant differences between results of international economic comparisons (including the latest ones) is given. Data which characterize multivariant estimates of the levels of economic development of various countries are provided. Particular attention is drawn to the values of per capita GDP of Russia, Central Asian and South Caucasian states, provided by such international organizations as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Center for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The authors emphasize the fact the differences between the estimates of per capita GDP (and, consequently, between the levels of economic development) of some countries reach 30−50−70%, and in some cases even two or more times. Based on the totals of international comparisons, the authors show how the balance between economic development of Russia and the United States (as well as between Russia and the world’s per capita GDP average) changed from the beginning of XX century to early 2000's.

In article of an estimation of U.S. press of Soviet announcement of war against Japan are analyzed. Specificity this opinions is revealed. Sources of formation of opinions and estimations are considered, for the first time in historiography. A comparison of press concerning the progress and character of Soviet offensive. Analyzed in the article the evolution of the role of the press estimates of the USSR in the Pacific war from positive 8 August, up sharply negative August 15, 1945 with the informational processes that influenced the change in public opinion about the Soviet Union.

The paper addresses the problem of evolution of the holyday’s conceptual structure from the19th Russian culture to the Soviet culture of the 1920−1930th. The author describes the two basic models representing the «ideal type» of holyday, and reveals how this models correlate in the late Russian and the early Soviet culture. The main methodological result of the paper can be characterized as the bringing out the way to map the late Russian culture onto the early Soviet one, given the concept of holyday as example.

The article deals with history of military education in the early 19th century Russia and, in the first place, with the history of the First cadet corps. The author focuses her attention on the period when K.Th.Ryleev, famous Russian poet attended the corps. The system of military and other disciplines learning that was introduced in the corps and morals that prevailed in the corps are studied. The mentioned features emerged, in many respects, due to personal traits of tutors who undoubtedly had an influence on their students. Besides that, the author investigates the corps' department for minors where Ryleev also spent several years and attempts to define the circle of cadet friends of the future revolutionary and analyze his first verses written in the cadet corps.

The author investigates motives related to making of the state and state power as these motives were presented in the Slavic folklore legends and oral narratives. In the popular narrative tradition these motives are inseparably connected with the motive of faith choice. This motive is present in folklore legends of different chronological periods. Reflecting the plot borrowed form medieval literature sources the popular narratives emphasize the inseparable connection between choice of «right» faith with accession of the «right» potentate to power and consolidation of his power. In greater part of these cases such texts are results of literature sources adaptation for folklore, of textbooks, popular books and local studies retelling. Nevertheless such adaptations become assets of a local «oral history» and are transferred to «local legends» codes.

The article describes the history of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union in the first half of the 1970s. The desire of the Soviet leadership to limit the opportunities for emigration, especially for those people who got higher education, led to a confrontation with the USA. On the basis of archival documents, including the notes from the L.I.Brezhnev's personal diary, we can examine the pragmatic policy of the General Secretary of the CPSU which was aimed at continuing the «détente», taking into consideration the «Jewish question».

The 200th anniversary of Russia’s victory in the Patriotic War of 1912 was celebrated at the state level. Preparations and conducting of the jubilee included various events. Numerous exhibitions, conferences, scientific proceedings devoted to the glorious date were held in the course of several years. With no pretension to analytical nature of her remarks the author characterizes the content and geographical scope of celebrations on the basis of published special literature, media materials and information distributed in the Web.

The article reflects the outbreak of indignation provoked by the Public Health department’s irresponsible decision to disestablish the oldest Moscow psychoneurological dispensary № 21 which is famous with its humanistic traditions and high level of its staff qualification. The decision in question was made without consent of numerous patients and well-knit medical staff whose activities are aimed at meeting needs of persons with psychic deviations. Arbitrariness of the Public Health department officials violates the basic principles of dispensary medical care, i.e. its decentralization and accessibility for population. The Public Health department’s decision was made secretly and in contempt of patient interests. According to the author, the decision is determined by a desire to use the plot occupied with the dispensary in the downtown in commercial purposes.

The author deals with the current situation in the Russian political life. The main content of the current processes are the struggle of elites, alignment and correlation of forces, problem of principal messages formation (messages that the supreme authority sends to elites and the society at large). The crisis of the current domestic policy in Russia arises from the ambiguity of the general situation: elites have not defined their predilections and the vector of further development. Where will move the country? Will we go to East? Or to West? Will we retain our identity and uniqueness or not? How will we fight rodent corruption? It is impossible to provide answers to these questions without renewal of political life, without displacement of elite with some fresh forces and without broad public initiative.

The public generally thought of military procurement and supply system as of the sphere that attracted people of low moral standards. In fact, corruption and embezzlement of state property in the military department of the Russian Empire were complex socio-cultural phenomena that reflected realities of the political system, of social life pattern, of legal conscience and administration technologies. The organized embezzlement of the state property in form of money or inventory items is the inescapable result of loose control over the bureaucratic machine where activities of all audit structures are effectively neutralized with techniques developed in the process of practical use of normative acts and by-laws that were presumably aimed at preservation of every public penny.

The author examines contribution of early 20th century Russian scientists and publicists who belonged to the Liberal-Centrists to making of the business social responsibility conception and characterizes main sources that prompted these people to accept the public mission of entrepreneurs. The author also analyzes these people’s notions of distribution of roles in the sphere of social responsibility within participants of «triangle» consisting of the power, business and society. The author’s attention is focused on persons who formed the circle that emerged around the «Vestnik Evropy» magazine and the «Russkie Vedomosti» newspaper and some other periodicals. The particular attention is devoted to views of V.G.Yarotsky and A.M.Rykachev whose names are emerging from the historical oblivion nowadays. Original and innovative character and relevance of the Russian Liberal-Centrists' opinions on importance of businessmen in Russia’s development is emphasized.

The purpose of the article is generalization of the basic results of research of the author over the last 5 years. The article defines historically developed motives of charity in Russia, allocates problems of development of charity connected mainly with standard-legal regulation of this activity, for assistance of development of corporate charity some recommendations are offered. The analysis of charity practice in Russia shows that charity starts to be used more and more as an element of the corporate strategy aimed to increase capitalization of companies. The merciful nature of charity keeps the value, but key features in modern charity are connected with «responsibility» and «efficiency».

The article is devoted to one of the least investigated aspects of the Russian-Jewish mutual relations, i.e. to participation of Christian Jews in the Orthodox church life in the early Modern times Russian Empire. The author focuses on one figure, Vassily Krizhanovsky, a Jew who was baptized in 1716 and got name Vladimir Kalligraf as a monk. His biography is a unique source for study of such key issues as adaptation to and integration of neophytes of Jewish origin in the Russian socio-cultural environment, the Orthodox intellectuals' and representatives of the state power perception of such neophytes.

The issue describes the problems of the Sixth anti-Napoleonic coalition, Russian-British and British-Austrian relations during campaign of 1813. The article disproves an opinion that Britain had always supported Austria since as early as 1813. Austria was viewed with deеp distrust in England and Castlereagh did not intend to follow the main waterway of Austrian policy in 1813. It was Russia that has been seen by Castlereagh as a main and most important ally. When Castlereagh emerged in the Foreign Office in 1812, an opportunity to get closer and overcome the mutual distrust occurred for both Russia and Britain. But Russian-British alliance (proposed by Castlereagh in the beginning of 1813) did not work in 1813 and Castlereagh found support with Metternich instead of Russian Emperor. The article describes the personal relationships between the ambassadors which, as the experience of the talks in 1813 specifically illustrated, and as it will be shown below, were very important and sometimes decisive for Europe.

The article sketches the consequences of the German defeat in Stalingrad inside the Third Reich. The German population, inadequately informed by state controlled media until the very last phase of the battle, went into a state of shock. While political opponents of Hitler’s dictatorship drew hope from its loss of popularity, the regime tried to overcome the critical situation by means of propagating «total war», which meant first of all radicalizing its criminal methods of suppression and enslavement.

The article is based on the US Office of War Information (OWI) brochure «Toward new horizons» (1942). The OWI was central governmental agency that promoted information on Franklin D. Roosevelt diplomacy and US war efforts during the World War II. The translated into Russian brochure consists of the chief US politicians and is designated to show the US aims at WWII to the general American reader. The main ideas of it are as follows: resistance to the Evil (Nazis and Japan militarists), that will be finished by victory of Good (United Nations) that will provide wellness all over the world.

Moshe Lewin is one of the major foreign explorers of Soviet Russia’s social and political history. His works «Lenin's Last Struggle» and «Russian Peasants and Soviet Power» (both books were published in 1968) occupy as of right the place among those fundamental writings that, according to prominent Steven Cohen’s words, «superceded single-mindedness and axioms of Soviet studies with scientific pluralism and broad vision». As it turned out, the only book by Lewin translated into Russian is his last book, «Soviet Age». Publisher Gleb Pavlovski in his foreword to the book titled «Textbook of caution for heroes» has justly remarked: «…It is the book on the Soviet school of politics, on the Soviet type of domination that emerged spontaneously (as result of acceptance of responsibility for the sinking country) and succeeded in entrenching itself in history though at a heavy cost». The keen and impartial vision and of Lewin’s expressions are in many ways determined by Lewin’s own life experience. In particular, these experiences are reflected in Lewin’s Attachments (that are published for the first time) and narrate about years of the Great Patriotic War Lewin spent in the USSR: about Sovietization of Lithuania, Jewish youth organization Gashomer Gozeir, work in a collective farm and in shops of Serov steelworks, about service in construction units and training in Podolsk military school.

The author deals with the nearest prospects of humankind that has lost its historical future. Humankind is suffocating in the gripe of crisis. It is the crisis of the world political class, the elite monster. In connection with that the author is concerned with chances that fall to the lot of Russia. So far the vector of Russia’s development was the movement to the West. However this way is exhausted for the Western civilization has rejected values of Modern and opted for anti-Communist project. The elite has built the civilization of lust to prolong the age of capitalist heaven. But the end will be soon put to this condition and the whole humankind will be subject to reduction. The response of Russia may be contained in promotion of the advanced ideology of counter-elite, the cognitariat that will be able to take upon itself specific and complex mission of control and management in the interests of laboring people.

The middle and the second half of last century of Second Millennium were noted for unprecedented acuteness of comprehensive confrontation of two extremely hostile to each other social systems. This phenomenon, called «cold» war, also has a big impact on people’s fates now, in Third Millennium. Important thing is that it didn’t led to a «hot» war. Nevertheless it has repeatedly drive the ideologically parted society into a border of «hot» war by the impermissibility of using military expenses on the development needs. «Cold» war can be compared with «hot» World Wars I and II by the influence on people’s fates, heavy human casualties and the damage to the environment. The background of such a way of society life since World War II should be founded in quite impartial events, in actual of world war, especially its final stage, and in its conclusions.

Gennady Kostyrchenko, a prominent historian, challenges the authenticity of the official biography of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov who was in charge of the KGB for many years and by the end of his life became a head of the USSR and the CPSU for a short period. Having scrupulously examined numerous historical evidence and documents, including documents from the state archive collections the author demonstrates in detail how this prominent political leader «corrected» his own personal data for the sake of a successful career and concealed his true social background that could be dangerous at those times. Andropov carried out this first special operation on creation of his own legend so neatly and fundamentally that it is still impossible to reveal his real past to the very end. It remains just to speculate about his real parents, his ethnic origin, and place of his birth.

The article revisits the image of Sheikh-Mansour one of the most enigmatic figures of the Chechen history, who by the close of the 18-th century, to quote John Baddeley, «dropped, as it were, from the clouds full grown, a warrior, preacher and prophet» to lead the resistance movement against Russia. The mere fact that Mansour gave an armed response to the advent of the Russians serves for many scholars an irresistible temptation to cast him both as a precursor of the 19-th century Caucasus War and a typological predecessor of the renowned Imam Shamyl. The author of this essay argues against what seems to him a far-fetched comparison between the two mountaineers' leaders belonging to different epochs and having different kinds of perception of their political, ideological, and military missions.

The author deals with study of ancient Russia miniature pictures contained in the Facial chronicle code of Ivan the Terrible. This is the unique memorial of the Russian Middle Ages. In 2004 «Acteon» publishers made the first facsimile publication of the Facial code. Dozens volumes and 16 thousand miniature pictures that illustrate the world and the Russian history were presented and became available in many Russian and foreign libraries. Now access to the first (and subsequent) volumes of the Facial Chronicle Code (in e-version) is possible only by virtue of Internet. It should seem that the publication guaranties knowledge. But it is not so: the sign nature of miniatures is to be in reconstructed for understanding their content. The issue concerns the experience reconstruction of the unknown language specific to the Russian culture. This language has determined the way of text and artistic image «reading». One of the main problems of the article is the study of an ancient Russian artist’s horizon of freedom. Whether this artist was not free in his creative work or he was a creator of his own artistic world?

The author deals with two strategies of rhetoric narrative in the Russian saints' hagiographies written by Medieval scribe Epiphany the Wise at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The heritage of this Moscow Rus author is considered in the broad context of the literature culture of Medieval and early Modern Russia. Rhetoric poetics has never disappeared. Taking its origins in the antique times it kept to be alive during the Middle Age, in the 18th century, in the epoch when classicism burst into blossom, and in the 20th century literature. The rhetoric poetics is connected with extra-literature purposes and tasks as strongly as no other formation of literary culture is and serves to substantiation and propaganda and clear-cut ideological principles and values.

The article and publication of some unknown documents from a private correspondence of American diplomats describe the substance of the polemics in modern Russian historiography of the genesis of the WWII. The author claims that the archival sources of special origin — personal diaries, letters of professional American diplomats to their colleagues, their highly confidential in governments' offices, newspapermen and family friends provide an upright overview of events in dramatic history of Europe in 1938−1939 which proves that the «traditional» school of historical research is more close in general to the correct interpretations of the international relations in the 1930s including the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The middle and the second half of last century of Second Millennium were noted for unprecedented acuteness of comprehensive confrontation of two extremely hostile to each other social systems. This phenomenon, called «cold» war, also has a big impact on people’s fates now, in Third Millennium. The background of such a way of society life since World War II should be founded in quite impartial events, in actual of world war, especially its final stage, and in its conclusions. Is the international society in ability to change the paradigm of international relations in a way of refusing «hot» and «cold» war thinking?

The authors deal with the history of V.S.Grossman's novel «Life and destiny» publication considered in relation with the history of novel «For the right cause» edition. Relations of Grossman with I.V.Stalin, K.M.Simonov, A.A.Fedeev, A.T.Tvardovski, V.M.Kozhevnikov, A.Yu.Krivitski, S.I.Lipkin and with other coevals. The authors demonstrate that judgments of memoirists on the causes of «Life and destiny» sequestration are not confirmed with documents.

The article revisits the image of Sheikh-Mansour one of the most enigmatic figures of the Chechen history, who by the close of the 18-th century, to quote John Baddeley, «dropped, as it were, from the clouds full grown, a warrior, preacher and prophet» to lead the resistance movement against Russia. The mere fact that Mansour gave an armed response to the advent of the Russians serves for many scholars an irresistible temptation to cast him both as a precursor of the 19-th century Caucasus War and a typological predecessor of the renowned Imam Shamyl. The author of this essay argues against what seems to him a far-fetched comparison between the two mountaineers' leaders belonging to different epochs and having different kinds of perception of their political, ideological, and military missions.

The article covers the phenomenon of scientific congresses organized by Russian émigré scientists during the 1921−1930 years. These congresses combined Russian academic community abroad, coordinated scholars’s activities, regulated system of education and scientific manpower training. In total, five congresses were organized. Prague, Belgrade and Sofia were places where these congresses took place. A.A.Kizewetter, A.S.Lomshakov, N.O.Lossky, M.M.Novikov, P.B.Struve and others were members of congresses. Congresses have played a huge role in the development of scientific communication between emigrants.

This paper addresses the comparative analysis of the two famous Russian treatises Domostroi and Junosti chestnoe zertsalo to account for the transformations of the basic attitudes to everyday life from 16th to 18th cent. In order to implement that the author is developing a special methodology rest on revealing the categories of «pivot meaning». The gist of the analysis can be formulated as follows: the rationalization and the secularization of Russian culture turn out the two main directions of cultural evolution.

The idea of tsar as an autocrat whose God-blessed reign is rooted in his God-chosen dynasty, was fully formed in Russia in the 16th century. Still at the end of the century, after the death of Feodor Ivanovich who left no successor, the model collapsed. The new ritual and symbolical system of choosing the tsar was rapidly created. This step signified the radical shift of notions that concerned the origins and the system of reign. The article is focused on this new model and the way it influenced the culture of the 17th century.

The author analyzes principal strategies the Church hierarchs of the Catherine the Great reign employed at the ceremonies of vicegerency openings for substantiation of the provincial governance reform as well as for explanation of ideas related to the role of justice and court bodies in life of the society and the state. A sermon is considered as an effective instrument that allowed providing information about domestic and foreign policies actions of the supreme power. Though the principal aim of a sermon had to be spiritual instruction on the execution of Christian virtues by the flock, the civic function of s sermon, i.e. conveying of the state ideology and its fastening in conscience of the Russian sovereign subjects of various standings was increasing in a quite visible way.

The authors deal with the situation in the Russian army after the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of 1813 and 1814. Relations in mass of army officers are examined on the example of K. Th. Ryleev, the poet and conspirator, service activities. The authors reconstruct the circle of the army officers' interests and their attitude to the military service and come to the conclusion that the post-war officers' service could not meet aspirations of young gentlemen to the full in the later years of Alexander I reign.

The article deals with the so much featured reform of the Russian Academy of sciences (the RAS). Whatever may happen in the future, any person sensitive and partial to destiny of the Russian science has to side with the Russian Academy of sciences. This institution represents and embodies the history of all Russian science while those who wish to privatize the RAS property are agents of the criminal capital. It is necessary to withstand all attempts to convert the RAS reform into an enormous raider takeover. Though the RAS in its present condition is a far cry from what it used to be, it as well as its staff is, no doubt, more close to Russia’s interests than those who plan takeover of property. However, the future of the RAS depends on the RAS itself and on the society at large.

The Pushkin-Decembrist myth of the Soviet times, according to which the national poet did not find his way into the conspirator ranks solely due conspirators' careful attitude to Pushkin’s literary genius, is being subject to a comprehensive revision nowadays. The higher power and Orthodox monarchists who enjoy the power’s support are creating an image of a consistent and coherent admirer of the empire and the loyal son of the Church. Such person could have only short-term and superficial relations with Freemasonic Decembrists. The intelligentsia is also creating a new design of the myth, and this design provides no place to revolutionary moods. Liberal Pushkin does not share his more resolute friends' opinions about a coup d’etat and even more so their ideas about a regicidal dagger. Though Pushkin’s opinions diverged from opinions of his friends he had friendly feelings to them and called upon harsh but just Czar Nicholas to demonstrate mercy to them. In this interpretation interrelation of the Soviet myth characters is being changed. Pushkin is no longer a younger friend and a like-minded man of revolutionary Decembrists. Vice versa, now Decembrists are considered as an element of Pushkin’s environment. Indifference to self-giving Decembrists (as they were presented by A.I.Herzen and since his times had been seen as the archetype of the Russian intelligentsia) is an evidence of rapid estrangement of the current ‘creative class' from the tradition of a selfless life for the sake of the people’s enlightenment. Properly speaking, intelligentsia as a social group which unites people who are ready to sacrifice their time, money, freedom and even their lives for the sake of social interests and common good does not exist any longer. Heroic loners are unable to influence a demoralized majority of ‘very special people' (as A.I.Herzen defined them) of creative professions who are absorbed, along with ‘the trash' they despise so much, in the values of comfort.

The article revisits the image of Sheikh-Mansour one of the most enigmatic figures of the Chechen history, who by the close of the 18-th century, to quote John Baddeley, «dropped, as it were, from the clouds full grown, a warrior, preacher and prophet» to lead the resistance movement against Russia. The mere fact that Mansour gave an armed response to the advent of the Russians serves for many scholars an irresistible temptation to cast him both as a precursor of the 19-th century Caucasus War and a typological predecessor of the renowned Imam Shamyl. The author of this essay argues against what seems to him a far-fetched comparison between the two mountaineers' leaders belonging to different epochs and having different kinds of perception of their political, ideological, and military missions.

The article covers the phenomenon of scientific congresses organized by Russian émigré scientists during the 1921−1930 years. These congresses combined Russian academic community abroad, coordinated scholars’s activities, regulated system of education and scientific manpower training. The article is devoted to the congresses organized in Prague (1922), Belgrade (1929) and Sofia (1930). A.A.Kizewetter, A.V.Florovsky, A.S.Lomshakov, N.O.Lossky, M.M.Novikov, P.B.Struve and others were members of congresses. Congresses have played a huge role in the development of scientific communication between Russian émigré scientists.

The author deals with one of the most dramatic and new social phenomena the Russian empire encountered during the World War I, i.e. massive flow of refugees. The author considers various aspects of a female refugee as these are represented by results of new document studies. The main types of new documents are newspaper publications and some female refugees' letters kept in archives. The author describes a wide range of a female refugee’s fears and alarms, difficulties of such females' life at new places of residence in the escape.

This article is devoted to the biography of Markel Atmakin, socialist-revolutionary and journalist, who was governor of Irbitskii uezd in 1918−1919. The article is focusing on activity of Atmakin during the period of Russian Civil war. With use of various archival documents, the background of conflicts between civil and military authorities of Kolchak regime is described in the article. According to the author’s opinion, such conflicts bring the White movement in the East of Russia to defeat.

The article brings to life a fulcrum moment in history of Russian-American relations in XX century which took place at the very time of the Great Depression and when it was recognized in full the seriousness of the Japanese threat in Asia and the reality of the Nazi menace in Europe. In Autumn 1933 the new president of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt fully appreciated the gravity of these development and initiated the recognition of the USSR. As a result of the negotiation with the Soviet foreign commissar M. Litvinov the establishment of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union was announced in November 16, 1933. Thus the sixteen years long, notorious non-recognition was closed and the path to more or less durable relationship between the two countries was opened. The article reveals not only the historical significance of the Roosevelt-Litvinov meeting as one of the first indications of the two states' marked solicitude for the precarious position of the peace-loving nations in the face of the Nazi menace and Japanese militarism. It was also a clear recognition of the Russia’s role in international relations and seriousness of Soviet offer to prevent attacks of the aggressors at the first sign. The efforts to stop the war failed but the ordeal of WWII proved definitely that the personal relationship of confidence between leaders and diplomats of the Big Three was entirely necessary and possible. M. Litvinov in his quality as a soviet envoy to Washington (1941−1943) was successful in gaining Roosevelt’s sympathy and involving him in talks concerning the postwar international security and world structure.

The author considers problems of engineering and technical personnel training in the 1920s. In particular, the author investigates principal guidelines of the Soviet system devised for the purpose of cadre question solution in metallurgy. The greatest attention is paid to analysis of metallurgical high quality engineer training system ich was suggested by the prominent metallurgical scientist, the Associate Member of the USSR Academy of sciences Vladimir Efimovich Groum-Grzhimailo who was the father of hydraulic theory of flame furnace computation and the author of works on physical and chemical fundamentals of steel-smelting processes, size-grading of forming rolls and refractory materials making.

The author deals with situation in the present day Russia. Over a quarter of century the country experiences degradation and decay, the post-Soviet syndrome of a kind. Is an exit from the situation possible? The author compares the current situation with the post-revolutionary breakdown and chaos that emerged due to the crisis of leadership. The feudal gentry and bourgeoisie were incapable to overcome the breakdown. The future belonged to the Bolshevists charged with ideal aims and willing to make sacrifices to attain their aims. The criminal capitalism emerged on the ruins of the Soviet Union carries no less danger than the collapse of the authority in 1917. Is it possible to find a force that will stop the country at the very brink of disaster?

The author examines the current state of the Russian society, Russians' attitude toward the authorities and compares them with the aggregate of ideas and expectations that were specific to the so called democratic movement and the liberal intelligentsia in the time of perestroika, on the eve of reforms commenced in 1992. The «democratic» project of those days are compared with results of reforms carried out during the past 20 years along such criteria as freedom, justice, and public moods and values. The author demonstrates that freedom has not been achieved in the social dimension and principles of justice are grossly violated and ignored. All that exercises a negative effect on the mass conscience that experiences crisis and degradation. According to author, the higher authorities lack a coherent conception of reforms, of transformations they carry out. Moreover, even the declaration of the authorities' intentions is a simulation of systemic reforms and modernization.

In this article the author makes an attempt to portray different stages of the Arctic policy of Russia, to show that Russia was historically deeply interconnected with the Arctic region, and to demonstrate continuity and novelty elements in the Russia’s Arctic policy. The author analyzes the Arctic policies of the Russian Empire, of the Soviet Union and of the Russian Federation.

The author investigates the role the notion of law played in the Decembrists' ideology. The semantics of the notion is examined in the first part of the article while the second part of the article deals with defining of the notion’s place in the Decembrists' Weltanschauung: notions that are semantically connected with the notion of law are identified and a system of basic Weltanschauung notions of secret societies' members is reconstructed. Ideology of the Decembrists is examined in the third part of the article on the basis of the system obtained. In particular, emergence of monarchy limitation and serfdom abolition ideas is considered.

The article is devoted to one of the most original thinkers of the 17th century, d’yak (clerk) Ivan Timofeev (Semenov), the author of the «Chronicle», the book that had to provide an answer to the challenging question concerning the causes of the Time of troubles in the Russian state. The plan of the work came to Ivan Timofeev’s mind in Novgorod. This city lived through a long Swedish occupation and all vicissitudes of the state crisis that brought Russian on the brink of national disaster. It was precisely the time when the Metropolitan of Novgorod blessed Timofeev to write the Time of troubles chronicle which had to prevent oblivion of the Russian history tragic period when usurpers, «slave czars» and «Hellenes» of alien faith contributed to the supreme authority renown’s fall. Yet Timofeev produces not a dry chronicle of events but an excited lyrical monologue, confused, irregular in contexture, and does that by extremely difficult language and style. Timofeev failed to write a well-structured historical work. But he was the first of the Russian medieval authors who employed the traditional hagiographic general judgments and techniques of time and space organization for description of the civil history events. Also he was the first who began to consider a historian’s method.

The House of the Romanovs is considered to be a social, culture, political phenomenon of Russian society. Dynasty marriage, on the one hand, is a political tool of Russia-Europe coexistence. On the other hand, it appears to be a special platform for a cross cultural dialog. The article reveals main indicators of positive sociocultural adaptation of German Princesses (Russian Impresses): Russian language competence — Orthodox mentality — self-understanding of high status — social and political activity — people surrounding — Russian self-identification. Two first steps are taken into consideration in details for their basic function in performing Russian self-identification. Also the article focuses on features of motivation and mentality orientation: the reach motif seems to be the most important. It overtakes the stimulus of recognition, stability, in prestige, in belonging to a family/society, cognitive, in self-competence.

In the article there is a detailed analysis of an event in beginning of the ХХ century of the conflict between «the father of Russian marxism» and the founder of the Russian social democracy G.V.Plekhanov with one of leaders of the Russian Menshevism — A.N.Potresov, and also overcoming of this conflict in 1917−1918 on the basis of divided both figures of a «defensist» platform in relation to the First world war contains. A reconciliation between these leaders promoted to the formation during this period of «defensist» alliance in structure of Plekhanov, Potresov and their adherents.

The author considers the fact that in the years of the First World War, contrary to the old view, the struggle was not only for the new territories, but also for the establishment of the «eternal» peace of the world. Being an active participant in this struggle, the Bolsheviks defended the «socialist» model of the world in the ideological confrontation, mainly, with the adherents of the «democratic» model, which included not only liberals, but also many representatives of the international social democratic movement. However, in recent years this activity of the Bolsheviks is often ignored, it helps to wrench the picture of past and to one-side explanation of the world wars history.