While analyzing the Shusha declaration between Azerbaijan and Turkey the author centers around the key spheres of cooperation, which are specified in the document. He draws a parallel between the bilateral dialogue of the states and the cooperation within the Turkic Council. The author concludes that for Azerbaijan and Turkey the Shusha declaration is a significant step towards each other. It is also suggested that the declaration may become a basis for the further cooperation of all Turkic states. The article reviews possible consequences and risks for Russia in the light of growing assertiveness of Turkish foreign policy.

Tsarevna Sophia Alekseevna (1657–1704) ruled Russia for seven years (1682–1689). A contemporary assured that "there had never been such a wise rule in the Russian state": the country was enriched, enlightened with sciences and decorated with justice. The tsarevna relied on the reforms of her enlightened brother Fyodor, which went also seven years (1676–1682). But between their reigns lay a powerful uprising of Streltsy and soldiers in Moscow from the spring to the autumn of 1682, which almost crushed the noble state. In the course of it, a revolt of supporters of the old faith nearly brought down the official Church. It seemed a miracle that the tsarevna was able to overcome all this and return the state to peaceful life. She protected the economy and developed Russian trade, forever took away Kiev from the Poles, and from Constantinople – the Orthodox Church of Little Russia, Poland and Lithuania.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Princess Daria Lieven, who is called the first Russian female diplomat. Not an official diplomat, but rather a secret or behind-the-scenes diplomat, still an incredibly skillful and outstanding one. Accompanying her husband, Khristofor Andreyevich Lieven, a Russian diplomat in Berlin and London, she, thanks to her natural feminine charm, refined manners and wit, very quickly found herself in the center of attention of representatives of high European society. While with the help of outstanding charisma, acute observation and a mascuiline, cold and judicious mind, she received important information about the politics of European powers. Darya Lieven, by her own admission, served her Russian fatherland faithfully.

The article examines the reflection of the theme of childhood in China at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the pages of the journal «Vestnik Evropy» as an attempt by contemporaries to understand the national character of the Chinese. Changes in the “children’s world” in connection with the process of Europeanization are noted. At the same time, it is emphasized that traditional state and social foundations and spiritual and moral guidelines were preserved during the reforms. This ensured the viability of the centuries-old model of family education, based on the inseparable unity of generations.

This article examines the development of the strategies of interaction between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire and the Constitutional-Democratic faction during the period of the III State Duma (1907–1912). The desire of the diplomatic staff to cooperate with the deputies, including the oppositional ones, is especially evident during these years. Whereby, the article focuses not only on their interaction during the formal work of the lower chamber of parliament, but also on informal practices of cooperation, that had become an important channel of communication between the government officials and the public representatives. Thus, during these years public opinion begins to play a significant role in shaping the course of foreign policy of the Russian Empire.

The article is devoted to informal practices of interaction between the leader of the Union of 17 оctober, A.I.Guchkov, and key political figures, Prime Minister P.A.Stolypin and Emperor Nicholas II. The article examines the process and results of informal interaction, in which Guchkov saw a way to strengthen his own political authority and the party's positions. Despite a number of successes achieved, the failure of Guchkov's tactics in 1910–1911 marked the beginning of the decline of cooperation between the government and the Octobrists.

The article examines the assessments of the political and social activities of the Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government and leader of the Union of Zemstvos Georgy Lvov, reflected in the press of the Russian Diaspora in the 1920–1930s, the formation of which was a consequence of the October Revolution and the Civil War. The sources of the article are such periodicals of the White émigré as «Poslednie novosti», «Russkaia gazeta», «Dvuglavyi orel», «Vysshii monarkhicheskii sovet», «Russkaia letopis'», «Volia Rossii» and memoirs of contemporaries of Prince Georgy Lvov. The article examines the assessments by representatives of the White émigré of the work of the Russian Zemstvos and Towns Relief Committee of Russian Citizens Abroad, which maintained continuity in relation to pre-revolutionary Russian zemstvo, the first chairman of which was Georgy Lvov.

The son of King Irakli II, Alexander, was the leader of those who opposed Georgia's entry into the Russian Empire for three decades. Historical sources from 1799-1829 indicate that he was a prominent participant in military and political events in Transcaucasia. However, the image of Tsarevich Alexander Iraklievich did not occupy the same place in the memory of the Georgian people as Salavat Yulaev did in Bashkiria, Imam Shamil did in the North Caucasus, Tadeusz Kosciuszko did in Poland, and Leo Michelin did in Finland. The article examines the issue of the formation of state (national) pantheons, composed of images of those people who, according to the consolidated opinion, played the most important roles in the struggle for freedom.