The article discusses key developments in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. military operation. It analyzes the main contradictions between ethnic and confessional groups in the country, as well as the role of the Kurdish population in the formation of the new Iraq. It examines the steps of Kurdish leaders and their position in the face of the occupation of Iraq, Washington's interaction with the Kurds and Turkey's role in Iraqi Kurdistan. The author concludes the further destabilization of the situation in Iraq, as well as the prospects of the Kurdish Autonomous Region (KAR).

One of the priorities of the federal Center's policy in the first half of the 1990s was the search for effective ways to build relations with the Russian regions. This process was most difficult in Chechnya, where supporters of the republic's secession from the Russian Federation came to power in 1991. During 1992–1994, the parties tried to agree on mutual interests, but the negotiation process for various reasons often came to an impasse. In 1994, the federal Center set a course to curtail contacts with the Chechen authorities and support the anti-Dudayev opposition. The negotiation process, which resumed at the end of 1994, did not lead to positive results. It seems, however, that the possibilities for a peaceful settlement of the crisis were not fully exploited by both sides, which turned into a tragedy for the entire country.

By analyzing a diverse layer of domestic sources, the article attempts to trace the reaction of Russian society and the ruling circles of Russia to the growth of anti-Russian sentiments in Europe in the 1930s – 1940s of XIX century, as well as to identify the measures by which various government departments tried to influence public opinion in Germany, forming a positive image of their country.

The article analyzes the problem of the composition of the imperial Cabinet of Ministers from the point of view of the issue of the personal activities of its members. This aspect of the topic has not received significant coverage in historiography. The chronological framework of the study covers the period from 1734 to 1741, when the main development cycles of this institution were carried out. The material of the research is the clerical documentation of a state body, which made it possible to reveal the following facts of the independent work of ministers: their special orders and opinions, reports to the empress and announcements of the highest orders, as well as the signing of imperial decrees. The author made conclusions about the nature of the personal influence on the activity characteristics and forms of functioning of the institution of higher authority.

The article reviews the evolution of the Russian Orthodox Church’s rhetoric in the early postwar Soviet Union on the basis of papers of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. The main directions of the Russian Orthodox Church’s indoctrination are being analyzed. The article specifies the role of the church in the postwar glorification of J. Stalin in the framework of the cult of his personality. The author concludes that the Russian Orthodox Church generally followed J. Stalin’s line but shifted emphasis while dealing with some particular issues.

In this article the coverage of the status and formatting of the borders of Taurida was continued. The author sees it necessary to trace the prerequisites, causes, dynamics and principles of transformations of the status and boundaries of Taurida in the 1917–1921. It is emphasized that the process of changes in the political status and administrative-territorial transformations took place against the background of the changing international situation that influenced its course, and the setting by the state leadership of various internal political tasks. As a result of a long process of formatting, Taurida was divided between two Soviet states – the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR. Its borders are in this form in the 21st century.

The article examines the situation when the epicenter of Stalin's ideological campaign was the leader's joke that there were those “lacquered” among the Communists who did not want to criticize themselves, although “self-criticism” was a requirement of the Bolshevik Party after the defeat of the united opposition. The joke about the “lacquered” was the basis for satirical essays by journalist B. Samsonov, written for the magazine Crocodile. Samsonov came up with a whole gallery of those who could be called by Stalin's word “varnished”. However, the joke of the leader of the party prompted Samsonov to write not in a humorous manner, but in a satirical manner. And it did not come out as expected. The images of “lacquered” people were consonant with the “spirits of the Russian revolution”, about which the Russian philosopher N. A. Berdyaev wrote.