The irrefragable answer to questions regarding history of the last third of the 20th century will hardly be possible until all archives will be open. However, it is impossible to wait for that moment passively: in the rapidly changing world exact reference points for building of balanced relations of partners in Europe and all over the world are needed. The negative experience is useful, for people learn from mistakes (at least, theoretically). The human memory is short, selective and unreliable. The notes made in diaries immediately after events are more close to the truth. The evidences that reveal from within the original alignment of forces affecting destiny of people, countries and continents are the most valuable. The diary records related to the eve of the German Democratic Republic’s frontiers opening in November of 1989 are offered in the article.

The fourth part of the article contains the description of the next round of the uncompromising Russo-Turkish talks at Karlowitz. With the immediate prospects still in the haze the opponents tried their utmost to find out the weakest point in each other’s diplomatic defense. Their desperate search for “optimal solution” made the chances for the breakthrough and collapse roughly equal.

After defeat of GKChP the main state owned newspapers were closed by Yeltsin’s decree. “Izvestia”, however, survived, due to privatisation. The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet renamed as Supreme Rada declared referendum on full independency. Similar decrees in other republics of the USSR were destructive for soviet industry, particularly military, atomic and space branches. The ban on the Communist Party of the USSR and CPRF resulted in the formation of many smaller left-oriented parties. One of them was the Socialist Party with R.Medvedev as one of its leaders. All members of GKChP and the speaker of the Supreme Soviet Anatoly Lukyanov were arrested. M.Gorbachev was still the president of the USSR and the main problem remained the payment of huge Soviet state debt. The referendum in the Ukraine which confirmed its independence was the main step of the full desintegration of the Soviet Union.

The first in the series this article, dedicated to Russian historian A.V.Florovsky, describes the attempts of the academic to establish contacts with Soviet colleagues in the postwar years. The interest to the study of the epoch of Peter the Great was his motive. This article describes the communications of A.V.Florovsky with A.I.Andreyev and his research group, which was engaged in the publication of “Letters and papers of the Emperor Peter the Great”. This work shows how politics intervenes in the research plans, as well as the fate of the peoples. In the USSR erupted ideological campaigns. Colleagues of A.V.Florovsky were under fire.

The paper is dedicated to post-soviet subject and its memory. It is based on diaries of Svetlana Volskaya. She was a pro-soviet participant in October 1993 revolt in Moscow. But in late-Soviet period Svetlana was a part of soviet artist life, soft “frondeur”. Moreover, she was pro-Yeltsin protester during the putsch attempt in 1991. In the paper I study her ideological and political evolution using the approach to social memory of Maurice Halbwachs and philosophy of Event of Allain Badiou. My thesis is Svetlana defined herself and her actual political position in 1993–1996 by redefining soviet history and her own soviet memories. I suppose the process of that redefining of the history replaces for post-soviet subject actual political and social reflection.

St.Petersburg demanded a great amount of wood starting from the very first years of its existing. High prizes for firewood became an acute problem for the first habitats of the young city. Reasons for it and ways of solving the problem are under consideration in the article – attempts of state regulation of wood-sale, limitation of export, enlightening publications, suggestions to use special constructions of stoves and alternative fuels. Special attention is paid to the commission of 1783, created to solve the problem of firewood expensiveness in St.Petersburg.

The French revolution represented for enlighteners the most propitious occasion for the making a «kingdom of Reason» a reality. The evolution from fiction to reality, from subjective mood to indicative mood was imagined in most peaceful manner, without destructive rebels and indignation. During the first revolutionary period the legislation was directed to the creation of an ideal state and a citizen (new world and new man). However the permanent danger to social order brought the government to pass the extraordinary law against malevolents in contravention of the Constitution. The violent realization of an earthly paradise derived its strength from the revolutionary psychology but also from the ancient conceptions (the idea of social compact and the practice of “roi de guerre”).

The article is devoted to description of the public sentiments in 1937, in the time of “Great Terror” in the USSR. Testimonies given by A. N. Garry, journalist from the “Izvestia” newspaper, in the course of investigation carried out in 1937 are published, commented and analyzed. Biography of Garry, his contacts and causes due to which he went up for three times are described.