This article is devoted to the prominent Russian historian N.A.Rozhkov on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth. The article reflects upon the main scientific and socio-political events of Rozhkov's biography and briefly characterizes the historical-sociological concept which formed the basis of his twelve-volume "Russian History in a Comparative Historical Interpretation". Attention is also given to his standard historical-sociological model of a bourgeois revolution. The article is written on the basis of a long study of Rozhkov’s life and work undertaken by the authors as reflected in their books and publications in journals and collections of scholarly articles. The article uses the main sources and archival funds of the Russian state library and archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Bibliographic publications are given. The article aims to familiarize the general public with N.A. Rozhkov’s key biographical milestones and contributions in historical science.

The article deals with the personality of Lucullus, who after being removed from the post of commander of the Roman army in the war with Mithridates was severely criticized by Pompey. Despite the fact that he had the potential to enter into an open confrontation with his opponents, Lucullus made efforts to avoid political struggle and chose peace and personal pleasures. By his behavior he demonstrated not only an alternative to civil war, but also confirmed the role of personality in history.

The research convers the decentralized forms of colonial expansion, which suppose the optimization of the annexed overseas territory topology and estab-lishment of direct control only in the centers of production, trade, and transport cross-roads. Such state of affairs was somehow concomitant to the first transna-tional corporations (TNC), especially to the East India Companies (EIC). It has been argued that the abovementioned from of colonial policy were successfully implemented by the Danish EIC - Østindisk Kompagni - after 1616 (as it was reorganized into the second company in 1670 and into the Asiatisk Kompagni in 1732) as it established factories in Tranquebar, other parts of India, and China. The Company also outreached intra-Asian trade and shipped cargoes for rivalling European merchants to Copenhagen for re-exportation. The im-portant role of private capital in the Danish EIC has been stipulated, since it had allowed optimization of overseas administration costs. The patterns of trade diversified as the Company had relinquished the monocentric topology of suppling colonial cargoes to the home country, as the first TNCs were apt to follow.

The aim of the article is to analyze the evolution of the French policy in matters of arms reduction during the presidency of Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou. Based on the materials of the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, most of which have not been put into scientific circulation either in Russian or in foreign historiography, the text shows the reasons for the formation and peculiarities of Paris's special policy in the field of disarmament. The study confirms that the position of France, which refused to participate in all major arms reduction projects, was explained by the détente’s essence and disarmament issues understanding different from the standpoint of the USSR and the United States. For Moscow and Washington, detente meant consolidating the status quo that developed after the Second World War, and arms reduction, respectively, was invariably planned on a balanced and block basis. France, which aspired just to overcome the Yalta system of international relations, rejected Soviet-American initiatives to reduce armaments because of their bipolar nature. The conclusions drawn in the article are relevant not only for the Cold War period, but also for the current aggravation of the international situation.

The article is aimed at researching the problem of the religious consciousness of youth in the United States in the 1970s. On the basis of interdisciplinary approach, involving social data, the changes of religious attitudes of American youth in the 70s are analyzed. The comparative characteristic of development of the religious-philosophical thought of the "white" and the "black" youth in the 60s is given. It turned out to be the world outlook platform of the youth of the 70s. The author concludes that the social activism of youth in 1960s transformed into mysticism and keenness on Eastern cults which predominated the institutionalized religions among the young people in the 1970s.

In the article the author makes an attempt to analyze the actions of N. Sarkozy’s administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France during the beginning of the “Arab spring” (2010-2012). Following the traditional neogaullism concept (support to authoritative regimes in exchange for their loyalty to French interests) Paris turned out not to be ready for the events which followed it and acted contextually. Finally, France didn’t express any firm position towards the events in Tunisia and Egypt. It took active part in the events only after the crisis took place in Libya. There France followed the policy of the USA.

This article examines the issues of China's migration policy. Particular attention is focused on the legal regulation of migration processes from 1949 to the present. Analysis of each stage of the development of China's migration policy made it possible to identify the key problems caused by the peculiarities of institutionalization and regulation of attracting and adapting immigrants, especially highly qualified specialists. Recommendations are given to Russia in the field of state migration policy regarding the involvement of highly qualified specialists and the fight against illegal migration based on the analysis of the peculiarities of the Chinese migration policy. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that with the economic development of our two countries, the number of immigrants is increasing, so it is necessary to put forward a more effective migration policy.

The aim of the article is to find answers to the questions concerning Ivan the Great belfry in September-October of 1812., i.e.: the reason why it attracted so much attention of the French invaders and why its cross was included into the list of Moscow trophies of Napoleon. Besides, it is unknown whether it was of any material value or not, and whether it was taken out of Moscow or not. The research result enabled the author to state that the cross had no material value as its framework was wooden and its cove was made of copper and just gilded. The cross was not taken out of the city as it was snowed under. The theoretical importance of the article is in the complex analysis of the sources and historiography of various time origins. That makes it possible to escape the subjectivity of the data. The article is addressed to the teachers-historians and researchers who study the history of the Napoleonic wars.

The article deals with the assessment of the opposition between Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia given by a number of Russian periodicals of the late 19th century. The purpose of the article is to systematize and reconstruct the views of publicists on the policies of the two empires in the region strategically important for them. The domestic publicists’ interpretations of the main components of the Russian-British contradictions are analyzed. The arguments used by some publicists to justify the activities of the Russian government in opposition to the English policy in the region are given. The way various publications described the goals and methods of Russia and Britain’s advance into Central Asia is also clarified, as well as their interpretation of the two states’ foreign policy features. The authors conclude that the conservative authors focused on the geopolitical rivalry of the two empires, regarding the expansion of Russia’s sphere of influence as fully justified and logical. The liberals believed that the resolution of contradictions in the region between the two empires was possible in case of the spheres of their influence were delimited, the borders were established and the buffer zones were eliminated. The research makes it possible to find out the common traits and the particular ones in the way colonial expansion was perceived, as well as to correlate between the ideological attitudes of the periodicals and their understanding of the essence of the country’s national interests.

The article considers in detail the socialist-revolutionary publicist E.E. Lazarev’s standpoint on the nature of the Russian parliamentarism, confrontation and cooperation of the left factions and groups in the II State Duma. The author analyzes the empirical material (E.E. Lazarev's personal letters to his wife and other people for the period of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907). Besides, the reconstruction and comparative evaluation of Lazarev's views at different stages of this historical period is performed. E.E. Lazarev's key guidelines on assessing the nature of the political struggle of the left factions and groups in the II State Duma are empirically established and verified. The degree of objectivity of his critical assessments of the ongoing process has been determined. Theoretical and practical value of the article consists in the forming new evaluation conclusions about the nature of the political struggle around the II State Duma and presenting previously unpublished archival materials. The article is addressed to historians and political scientists dealing with the problems of studying the process of parliamentarism formation in Russia.

Аbstract. The decisive role of the editor's personality in the formation and development of the periodical publication of the Russian province of the XIX century is analyzed in the article on the example of editing activities of A.A. Tankov (1856-1930), the historian, regional ethnographer, journalist and pedagogue from Kursk. The author considers his personal, creative, intellectual and professional characteristics, his social and civic positions, moral principles in determining the position of the printed organ he edits. The article describes the regional themes of the basic periodicals of Kursk province of the late XIX - early XX centuries.

The article analyzes the relationship between the old and the new in the organs of the All-Russian extraordinary commission (Cheka), as this problem is the most acute in the domestic historiography. The author shows the presence of ambiguity in the assessment of the Cheka as a new phenomenon in the history of the state security. On the basis of the source base, a new organization of the Cheka was noted, on the one hand, and, on the other, the use of the Security Department of the Russian Empire in its work. As a result, on the basis of the concept of continuity, the formula of a combination of the "old" and the "new" in the organs of the Cheka was derived.

The article deals with a set of basic legal measures to eliminate the illiteracy of the Kyrgyz population on the material of the south of Kyrgyzstan. The process of Cultural Revolution at the time of the Kyrgyz statehood formation from 1920 till 1930 is studied. The author has analyzed the most important stages in implementing the legal policy to eliminate the illiteracy of the adult population. Particular attention is paid to the concept of illiteracy eliminating which was supported by the quantitative data and the practice of applying basic laws and regulations of the young Soviet state on the basis of the archival materials of the city of Osh. It was noted that together with the creation of the Kirghiz Soviet national statehood the systematic and systemic work was carried out to overcome the illiteracy of the Kyrgyz population.

The submitted article deals with the key aspects of the archpastoral activity of saint Luka (a world-renowned surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky) in the city of Krasnoyarsk in 1941-1944. On the basis of archival sources, scientific research and testimony of the saint himself, the author analysed the specifics of the state and development of non-secular life in the Krasnoyarsk diocese. The author highlights the peculiarities and stages of Luka's pontifical ministering as the Archbishop in the only church that was operating in the Krasnoyarsk region and describes the conditions in which the Bishop worked. Conclusions are drawn on the results of the hard work of Archbishop Luka on the revival of the Krasnoyarsk diocese in a fairly short time. The article is addressed to historians studying the periods of the life of St. Luka (Voino-Yasenetsky) and the position of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War.

The author discusses new ideas for the development of town planning in the USSR in the late 1950s, when the transition to the building on the free territories started, and transport network of the city expanded. The author considers the expansion of the city limits of Moscow, the change of the administrative-territorial division of the capital, the formation of forest-park shelter belt of Moscow. The author analyzes social, demographic, and cultural issues in development of urban planning in the transition to mass house-building.

The article is devoted to the influence of the individual’s stereotypes of consciousness and behavior on the domestic economic reforms in the late 1980 and the 1990s. It is shown that the very formulation of the problem contains an element of scientific novelty, because in this perspective, the history of modern Russian reforms has not been studied. The article is written on the basis of a complex of well-known and sources-memoirs of the participants of transformations previously unused by historians, as well as on the basis of their diaries and data of sociological surveys (including those conducted by the author), materials of oral history. Significant part of the sources is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The historiography is dominated by works published over the past five years. The research methodology is based on the methods of content analysis, the method of biographical practices, the actor approach, the history of representation and other methods and approaches of modern anthropological research. As a result, it was revealed that the studied stereotypes actively influenced the implementation of the reforms, not only hindering their implementation, but also contributing to it. These same stereotypes were a kind of mechanism of adaptation of the Russians to the new economic conditions. The most common stereotypes are considered. The approaches to their classification for the purposes of this study are indicated. In conclusion, the author draws conclusions about the importance of stereotypes in the history of modern Russian economic reforms.

The transformations in the USSR in the second half of the 1980s, which went down in history as "perestroika", determined the change in the political restructuring of the state, its economic basis, social structure, as well as socio-political life of the Soviet society. The need to study the grandiose changes in the socio-political consciousness in the period of perestroika is both relevant and natural. The author analyzes the state of the economy and social sphere of the Soviet society by the middle of the XX century. It is concluded that the need of system transformations is inevitable.

Abstuct. The article traces the influence of the issue about the status of Jerusalem on the geopolitical situation in the region. The author of the article examined the body of documents on the status of Jerusalem, studied the development of the question of its status, analyzed the actions of the main actors in the region after the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem. The theoretical importance includes the possibilities of using the results of the research in writing analytical works by specialists in international affairs, orientalist and politologists. Besides, the research results can be of use in the course of educational process. The author came to the conclusion that after the Arab Spring the priority of the foreign policy of the Arab states in the Middle East has changed a lot. Before the Arab Spring the key issue was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now the countries are concentrated on the deterrence of Iran. The transfer of the embassy changes the USA’s role from a mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict into a participant of the conflict because of the status of Jerusalem, thus making the USA’s position much more vulnerable. In its turn Russia can use the existing situation for strengthening its status in the Middle East peace process.

Article is devoted to the activities of the German party Soyuz 90 / the Greens. Having adopted the idea of environment protection, the "greens" initially criticize the foreign and domestic policy of the state and all existing political parties from anti-system positions. Over time having refused former radicalism, the "greens" entered the government coalition as the junior partner of social democrats. However, when it disintegrated in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, their search of political partners both at the land, and federal levels wasn't successful. Addressing the publications which were published during the period when the "greens" were forming as a parliamentary party the authors disclose some of the reasons which determined similar succession of events.

In the article the historical aspects of formation and implementation of the project of unification Romania and Moldova are scrutinized. The current processes of the gradual «romanization» of Moldova are given in the context of the European integration course of Chisinau. The attitude to the problem of unification of the current Moldovan ruling class and society is mentioned. The position of Transnistria and Gagauzia to the problem is discussed. The influence of the unionist process on the state of the Russian-Moldovan relations is scrutinized.

The article analyzes the evolution of Federal relations in Russia at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries: changes in the system and structure of relations between the center and the subjects of the federation. Besides, the political, tax and budgetary systems are studied. The development of the regulatory framework that provides this process is scrutinized, as well as the formation of the nationally oriented model. As a result of the study, the stages of the formation of a centralized, constitutional, vertically oriented model of the Federation are shown. The author considers this model of federative relations to fully correspond to the historical experience of the development of Russia.

The article analyzes political, institutional and identity-related features of the Eurasian integration project that constitute its strengths and weaknesses in competition with the EU-promoted forms of ‘soft integration’ in its Eastern neighbourhood. Proceeding from the finding of the investigation the author shows that the EAEU’s strengths consist in lower degree of integration constraints imposed by it upon member states and, hence, more favorable terms for preservation of their state sovereignty. At the same time, these strengths are not sufficient for overcoming the EAEU’s handicaps: weakness of its common identity and political subjectivity, structural asymmetry of its participants, which prevents integration process from getting beyond inter-state bargaining, and narrowness of its normative context that in absence of potent value basis is not able to compete successfully with the EU normative claims over the CIS states.

The article describes the events of the newest stage in the Russian-Ukrainian relations in the context of the "Crimean problem". The author gives the assessment of the normative-legal basis for the Crimea’s reunion with the Russian Federation. The statistical data are summarized. Besides, the statements of the Ukrainian and Russian experts on the problem are analyzed. Using a wide range of sources the author proves that the official Kiev uses the Crimean issue not as much as really counting on the return of the Peninsula, but as the informational and political cause for further move of the foreign affairs course to the “west”. The article is addressed to the politologists who study the problem of the Russian-Ukrainian relations.

Civil wars are considered in the article as a universal challenge addressed to each national community. Tendencies and mechanisms of reproduction of civil wars at the level of historical consciousness of peoples are traced. The analysis of the factors of the genesis of civil wars in the world and their Russian contextualization is carried out. Particular importance in the light of the current conflicts of the modern era is given to the role of the external factor in civil wars, which correlates with the foreign intervention in Russia. The possibilities of the target policy of transition from the paradigm of civil wars to the paradigm of civil consolidation are considered.

The article analyzes the problem of the emergence of a universal ideology for the proletarian masses in the crater of the civil war. Using a systematic approach to the study, the author concludes that the ideology was based on the basic principles of Christianity while simultaneously rejecting religion. It is emphasized that proletarian internationalism was declared a symbol of faith. The interrelation of the Bolshevik and Christian ideas, acting as a supranational superstructure, allowing a multinational society to be made homogeneous, appears. The consonance of the moral ideals of Christianity and communism, which led to the victory of the ideas of communism in Russia, rises in a renewed form on the powerful civilizational basis of the Russian people. The author concludes that the new supranational messianic idea not only helped the Russian people win the civil war and liberate Russia from the invaders, but also to rally around the peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia and create a new country with a new philosophy and new look.

The article analyzes the leaflets of the Communists, the White Guard governments and the “Greens”, published during the years of the civil war in Russia. Leaflet propaganda was an integral part of the activities of all political forces during the civil war. The leaflets played an important role: they were the instruments of information, agitation, and propaganda. They acted as the organizer of the masses. Regional leaflet literature developed along the same lines as the rest all-Russian political forces and movements’ leafy agitation. However, it had its own characteristics. Leaflets were actively used by the Communists as a powerful means of agitation impact on the masses. They played their part in mobilizing the workers to fight the white movement. The White Guard governments did not lag behind the Communists in their leaflet agitation. But their leaflets lacked clearness in exposing their programs, thus they were less popular and effective.

In the article on the basis of archival materials and memoirs of the Civil war period the main value components of the political culture of the Russians of 1917-1921 are reconstructed. The research focuses on the attitude of the population to the revolution and the new government, the problem of the legitimacy of the Bolshevik regime in a large-scale armed confrontation. Heterogeneity and mosaic character of the political culture of the Civil war period is revealed by the example of behavior of different strata of the Russian society - intellectuals, urban middle strata, workers and peasants. As a result, it is concluded that the victory of the Bolshevik version of the “state of a new type” is explained by the fact that it provided the implementation of traditional understanding of the Russian statehood and gave hope for a better life. But the opponents of the Bolsheviks could not offer a new socio-political ideas and meanings of human activity.