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.