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.