Vol 2, No 4 (2020)

The article analyzes the materials of memoirs, letters, autobiographical notes and diary entries of the best representatives of Russian liberalism, such as D.I. Shakhovsky, V.I. Vernadsky, A.A. Kornilov, and A.V. Tyrkova-Williams, and attempts to consider the formation of views on the development of Russian society. The article shows the process of evolution of their ideas and thoughts from the student’s bench, participation in University circles, and above all in the «Oldenburg» to professional practical activities. It is noted that the friendship started at the University, over the years, grew stronger, and was preserved for life. The main goal of their lives, the friends considered a common cause for the benefit of the people and, above all, educational activities «to try to deliver to the people a number of practically necessary and important information, to bring the people to the consciousness that they need to manage themselves». Their active activities in the development of school Affairs, folk literature, education and science, as well as in the liberal Zemstvo movement, publishing, and the democratization of society are reflected. As a result, during the study period, the friends moved from the common goal of serving the Russian society to understanding the need to change the country’s governance system, to the importance of participating in the political life of Russia. All of them became active members of the constitutional democratic party.

The article evaluates the actions of the Soviet government in the Orenburg province to implement the principles of the new economic policy. The reasons for the need to change the economic policy in the country and the region are indicated. Examples of measures and forms of work of the Soviet party apparatus and other institutions are given. The priorities of local authorities in transforming the life of peasants are indicated. The difficulties of implementing NEP in the province at the first stage are revealed. The reaction of various social groups to the introduction of NEP and attitudes towards it are described. A conclusion is made about the results of the work of the Soviet party bodies on the implementation of NEP by the mid-1920s. in the Orenburg region.

This article is devoted to the analysis of relations between Bosnia and the Dubrovnik Republic in the second quarter of the XIV century. The chronological framework of the study is from 1322 to 1353, the period of the reign of Ban Stjepan II Kotromanić. During this period, the economic and political strengthening of Bosnia begins, and therefore it is important to consider how its relations with the most important economic player of the Balkan Peninsula developed. Based on the available Dubrovnik sources, a picture of relations between the two states has been formed. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that relations between Bosnia and Dubrovnik were generally peaceful, albeit complicated. They became the basis for cooperation between the two states in the second half of the XIV century.

The article is devoted to comprehending the possibilities of the past as a criterion of cultural diversity, that is, as a basis for identifying various sociocultural types. The author substantiates the idea that the specificity of the perception of the past within the framework of a particular culture can demonstrate not only its temporal orientation, but also value-normative, ideological, ethical attitudes, dominant behavioral models, etc. On the basis of various aspects of the existing image of the past, one can distinguish and different types of culture. Such grounds can be: the axiological status of the past (retro-oriented, actual-oriented, future-oriented and mixed types); emotional vector of assessing the past (positive, negative, balanced types); strategies for interacting with the past (types of constructive and destructive interaction), ideas about the dynamic structure of the past (types of linear and cyclical past-temporality); the nature of the integration of the past into culture (types of traditional and artificial continuity); source of the reference model of the past (types of religious, intellectual and artistic standards), etc.

In 1746 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the next seym (parliament) on which the Polish Royal Court decided to pass the decision on increase in the Polish army limited during Great Northern war had to be called. Strengthening of Prussia was one of the main reasons of emergence of this plan. It threatened with power annexation of the western Polish territories by Berlin. In St. Petersburg where Elizabeth Petrovna’s government was also anxious with growth of power of Prussia, decided to support the Polish plans and to turn Poland into the ally of Russia in anti-Prussian fight. For training of the Polish magnates and to clarification of opportunities of the organization of the pro-Russian party, the Russian emissaries M. Liewen and M.N. Volkonsky were sent to Poland. On return to Russia emissaries reported that, despite fears of Prussia, Poles are not ready to take any steps provoking it, including increase in army. Also emissaries presented candidacies of the magnates capable to be active supporters of Russia. From now on the Russian Court, having refused the idea of strengthening of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, did not lose sight of an internal political situation in Poland any more and supported the influential group of princes Czartoryski’s which was guided by rapprochement with Russia.

Issues of the origins and development of pottery are actualized through a study of new Early Neolithic forest-steppe and taiga sites in Western Siberia. The flat-bottomed and round-bottomed Neolithic dishes found in Western Siberia are similar in shape and ornamentation. They seem to be a continuation of an earlier ceramic tradition that was introduced into the region. Based upon the radiocarbon dates, those dishes appeared in West Siberia within the 7th millennium BC. We adhere to the opinion that the local population borrowed ceramic production from migrants and believe that imitation of structural parts of birch bark containers in ceramic vessels was important for the formation of West Siberian pottery. For example, such sculptured elements as ledges, drips, and moldings on the outer and inner sides of the rims of ceramic vessels can be correlated to the bands on birch bark dishes and their fastening elements. In our opinion, sculptured elements on ceramic dishes gradually transformed into semantic elements: wavy lines (zigzags) on the drips on the inner side of the rim not only refer to a band attached to the vessel but apparently represent water (waves) as the contents of the vessel.

The article presents the most interesting discoveries of rock images from the complex of Canosero petroglyphs on the Kola Peninsula, found in recent years. The author traces their typological connections with the Chalmn-Warre and Zalavruga complexes.