The article describes the elements of a warriors’ cult and the facts of weapon socialization in Gaelic epic tradition of the first millennium AD. The images presented in the myth prove the idea that the cult of weaponry was a part of a warrior's tradition in Gaelic society of the early Middle Ages. That influenced the epic heroes’ behavior, and created special background for the development of military culture. The analysis of the source material allows to reveal archaic layers in mythology which connected ancient Celtic cult of weapons with Indo-European mythopoetical heritage and demonstrates the unity of military traditions in ancient Europe.

The article is devoted to the commercial, interstate and cultural relations between Germany and Russia in the IX-XVII centuries. The author reveals the contents and the reasons for different relationship caused by particular circumstances. Attention is drawn to the fact that the Russian monarchs realized that situation pretty well, so their state policy contributed to the development of the relationships. All the above-stated enables the author to conclude that cooperation between the two states in different fields was productive and mutually beneficial.

The article analyzes the German-Yugoslavian relations from the end of the WW I till the establishment of the king’s dictatorship in the Kingdom of SHS in 1929. The choice of time period of the 1920s is determined by the fact that it was a model for developing the relationship between an industrial and an agrarian state during a heavy period for both countries. The analysis of the real causes for closer relations of former enemies under the economical and political circumstances of the 1920s is done. The background of the future close relations during the 1930s is shown. Some rare documents from German archives are used.

The article is devoted to the issue of successful realization of the USA’s intervention in Guatemala in June, 1954. Being based on a number of the documents published in 2003 in the collection «Foreign policy of the United States, 1952-1954, Guatemala» published on the initiative of the US State Department, the author analyzes: the process of preparation of the intervention by the USA; the course of operation and its completion. The author comes to the conclusion about its close connection with the Central Intelligence service (CIA) activities. The article also analyzes the CIA activities in the neighbouring to Guatemala countries. Their interaction with State Department turned out to be an effective factor in the process of preparation of the USA’s intervention to Guatemala.

The article considers the problem of interaction between local authorities in Moscow in the second half of the nineteenth century. The study highlights the problem of the local authorities’ permissions and the influence of personal qualities of the heads of the Moscow administration on their relationship with the City Council. Uncertain and vague wording of the legislation resulted in the duplication of the governors’ functions and governor-generals’, causing the need to distinguish their activities and their attitude to local governments in practice. The paper uses a wide range of sources, including memoirs and archival materials.

The article examines charity activities of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. With the use of archival sources the author analyzes the amount of donations and humanitarian aid received from various regions of the Russian Empire during the entire war. The data from some dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as other forms of the Church’s assistance were used to perform the analysis. The author finally comes to the conclusion that the Church’s philanthropy played a very important role in the liberation of Slavs from the Turkish yoke.

The article considers the place and role of the State Council in overcoming the consequences of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907. The author gives particular attention to its role in the formation of new power structures and the development of legislation, as well as to the activities of the State Council in the difficult period of World War I. That is why the special emphasis in this work is focused on the fact that the State Council could help to overcome the crisis in the country and society only on condition that it overcame its own internal political contradictions in close cooperation with the Russian emperor and the Council of Ministers of Russia, being respectful towards the traditional values. The article also analyzes the role of such political figures as: P.A. Stolypin, V.V. Meller-Zakomelsky, P.N. Durnovo, V.N. Kokovtsov, and others, in the history of the State Council in particular, and in the country’s as a whole.

The article analyses the main points and structure of the activities of the State Council the Russian Empire as a unique administrative institution, which activity was focused on the development and analysis of laws, produced for the Russian society during the XVIII - beginning of XX centuries. The paper focuses on the structural elements of the State Council and their functions, as those were the departments and commissions of the State Duma which solved the most important problems of the Russian Empire. The article also examines the issues related to the formation of the State Council, the election of the heads and their deputies, and evaluates the role of the State Duma in the history of the Russian state and Russian society.

The article is devoted to the attitude of German and Armenian population of the South of Russia - the largest of dispersed ethnic groups in the region in the early twentieth century - to World War I. Their «mother nations» turned out to be opponents in the war. Therefore, the attitude to the outbreak of the war has become an indicator of loyalty and allegiance to Russia. The author shows that in the whole the German population was loyal to the second homeland and fully supported Russian policy on the part of the Armenian community.

The article is dedicated to the eightieth anniversary of the Moscow underground railway - a unique construction erected in Moscow underground. The author considers the period of the thirties, when the construction of the underground railway had a strong impact on the lifestyle of Moscow residents. Underground made fundamental changes in the transport system of Moscow. The article emphasizes that the Moscow underground is a living monument of the Soviet era, one of the most significant architectural structures, has become a national pride of the country.

This article is devoted to the analysis of trends that have emerged in the Soviet cinema under the influence of the political situation. Depicting the events of the Great Patriotic War in films during the first postwar decade was a serious problem for the party activists and filmmakers. This period in the history of the cinema is associated with the apogee of the “personality cult”, the period when there was lack of films, but along with this, movies of 1946-1956 reflect the changes resulting from the entry of new territories into the Soviet sphere of influence, the start of "cold war", and the beginning of the "thaw".

The article considers the complex of views and images of «Siberian wealth» sent to the federal government by regional elites, on the basis of which a new regional ideology doctrine of the vital necessity for the special government policy towards Siberia was designed. The main conceptual component of the doctrine was the idea that Siberia was not one of the problematic areas of Russia requiring assistance but an exceptional region on the development of which the welfare of the whole country depended. A dialogue between the Association «Siberian Accord» and the federal government has helped to maintain the stability and integrity of the country.

The article is devoted to the attitude of German and Armenian population of the South of Russia - the largest of dispersed ethnic groups in the region in the early twentieth century - to World War I. Their «mother nations» turned out to be opponents in the war. Therefore, the attitude to the outbreak of the war has become an indicator of loyalty and allegiance to Russia. The author shows that in the whole the German population was loyal to the second homeland and fully supported Russian policy on the part of the Armenian community.

This article analyzes the current process of globalization, as well as the objective and subjective conditions for the formation of a single global state. Theoretical concepts and practical results of this process in the XXI century make it possible to draw some conclusions and make prognoses for the future of the mankind. The author comes to the conclusion that modern model of globalization being implemented in the form of the struggle for world domination and the approval power over the mind can bring to the destruction of the humanity. Anti-globalism is the alternative to such globalization.

The article envisages the specifics of Germany’s military strategic planning war against the Soviet Union. Basic myths in this field (in the framework of the revisionist approach) distort this process and concentrate on: the attempts of postulating the thesis of a preventive (defensive) character of this war on behalf of Germany; absence of any integrated was plan in Berlin, that was accompanied by spontaneous (situational) character of taking decisions by Hitler who ignored advice and recommendations of the top military echelon that finally became the main reason of failing of the “Barbarossa” plan, successive collapse of the “blitzkrieg” concept and the defeat of Germany. Having analyzed the detected documents and sources the authors come to the conclusion that such statements do not correspond with the reality and belong to historical mythology. The analysis of domestic and German historiography on this problem allows to state that before World War II Berlin had a ‘multiversion’ strategic concept aimed at broadening the “living space” the main purpose of which was conquering the Soviet Union and taking its resources. That did not exclude the situational character of Berlin’s behavior in some cases, which was determined by the aspiration to use the real international-political situation with most advantage.

The article deals with the first steps of the USSR and the UK military and economic cooperation in the first months of the Great Patriotic war: starting from 22 June 1941 when the British Prime Minister Churchill inaugurated the policy of aiding the Soviet Union till the conference in Moscow (September 29 - October 1, 1941) where the USSR, the USA and the UK discussed the delivery of military supplies to the Russian front. The author states that the British government left behind the USA in doing it under the lend-lease terms. The article describes the delivery routes: the Arctic Convoys and the “Persian Corridor” (across the territory of Iran controlled by the Soviet and British troops).

This article discusses the state of the industrial potential of the Soviet Union on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the ratio of the German and the Soviet economy. The extremely difficult economic situation that developed in Russia at the beginning of the war is shown. The article discloses the measures taken by the government for evacuating industrial enterprises that survived, for the conversion of the enterprises producing peaceful goods on war footing, for providing them with labor resources labor, for easing the industrial workers’ position during the war.

The article studies charity of the Soviet Union citizens in the period of 1941-1945. Despite the official ban against charity in the country millions of people donated time and money to the needs of the army due to patriotic enthusiasm. The Russian Orthodox Church contributed to the fight against fascism too. The government managed to adapt the revived charity activities and religious enthusiazm for moral and material support of the army.

The article studies the organization of the food supply of the population during the war, the rationing cards supply system and their types, the ration quotas for different categories of the population and their changes, the structure of rationing, the organizational structure of the trade network; the supply system in industry and transport. This article also shows the role of Workers' Supply Department (WSD) and Provisions Supply Office (PSO) in solving the food problem during the years of war. The authors outline the changes in the retail turnover of WSDs and PSOs, the peculiarities of public catering at industrial and transport enterprises, as well as the decentralized sources of food supply, individual and collective gardening.

The article critically analyses the economical and political inconsistency of the assessment of the decisive factor of the Anglo-American aid to the USSR during the years of the World War II against Hitlerism. Based on the economical parameters, the author shows a noteworthy political role of the Soviet leadership in building the national military industrial complex in the shortest time. Foreign politicians have been consistently trying to diminish the role the Soviet Union played while achieving the common victory of the anti-Hitler coalition countries over Nazi Germany. Starting since 1945, after effectively declaring “cold war” against the Soviet Union, our enemies have been using falsified data and documents to create a distorted vision of the operations conducted by the Red Army on the Eastern front in the public eye (“filled up Germans with corpses”). Not infrequently, the foundation of such “historical research” contains objective data which is not denied by national historians - presence in the Red Army of a vast number of American trucks and cross-country vehicles, significant role of canned stewed meat, dry milk, and antibiotics provided by the US. However, the true subtext of our ill-wishers’ works is aimed at diminishing the intellectual potential of the Russian people, an urge to present them as dim-witted executors of the leadership’s orders. Along with denying the decisive factor of the Soviet Army’s offensive operations in the defeat of the Wehrmacht, they put in doubt the Soviet contemporary science of warfare, technology, and innovations in the military industry. This article attempts to show the greatness of the labor heroism of Soviet scientists, engineers, and workers.

The subject of the article is a brief analysis of the problem of logic thinking, studied on the basis of the ideas expressed by the representatives of historical science and philosophers of the past and present, among which there are both domestic and foreign scientists. The historiographical analysis of their viewpoints shows there is an essential difference between them. It is stated that it is one of the sources for formation of a scientifically proved representation about the subject and notion of logic.

The article examines the arguments and the change of interpretations of the political situation in England in the first half of the XVIII century given by English and Russian historiography of the XIX-XX centuries. The definition of the political situation in the XVIII century England was described in historical works through different methodological positions. The earliest attempts given by foreign historiography tied the definition of the political situation with the parliamentary struggle of the Tories and the Whigs. The outcome of those political groups’ fight is also mentioned.

The article is about the use of the report documentation in military archaeology in the study of the front-line mode of life. In particular, such additional type of historical sources as exhumation reports is discussed. The author analyses and describes this type of documentation. The article also considers the expedience and special aspects of its use in studying the Red Army soldiers’ mode of life at the front. Conclusions about the value of the information provided by this source are given.

The article examines the perception of the founders of the Marburg School of Germany the key elements of Marxist theory. The author analyzes the works of the three researchers who were the center of Marburg historical school. The article discusses W. Abendroth, W. Hofmann and H. Mouse’s works, which played major role in the development of Marxist direction in West Germany’s historiography during the post-war period. The review of Marburg historians’ works deals with their impact on the methodology they used to study the works of the classics of socialist theory, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The article evaluates the perception of Marxism by the above scholars.

The article analyses the characteristics and different stages of forming European Union energy policy. It is emphasized that the rising demand for gas and its transit through Ukraine to the European countries actualize the problem of EU energy security. The author underlines that the EU countries are interested in enlarging alternative routes to import gas and include Ukraine energy industry into the sphere of their economic influence. In the conditions of «price wars» and political crisis Russia comes out as a reliable partner and supplier of energy resources and creates the stable ground for the EU energy security

The article discusses the possibility of using political mythology in the process of political socialization of youth. The authors studied the functional aspects of the political mythology, which are most involved in the process of socialization, as well as some of the techniques and technologies of political myths. The authors analyze the relationship of political socialization and the nation-state identity. Political mythology is one of the civilization backgrounds for forming this kind of identity of the young people.

The article is devoted to the issues of state civil service development in modern Russia after the collapse of the USSR. Special attention is given to the administrative reform carried out in our country. A complex of measures aimed at improving the legal foundations of public service is carried out while the administrative reforms are being implemented. The key issue is to combat corruption in Russia. New regulations for strengthening the statehood are being created.

The article analyses the current system of international security. The main attention is paid to finding the basic parameters of the international security system. Based on synergetic approach proposed by S. Kapitsa to describe the phenomenon of demographic transition, the author identifies four parameters of the system of international security: the natural environment and resources; population growth, mass migration and uneven development of regions of the world; information, science and technology; global economy and globalization. These factors lead to a change of the nature of international stability.

The article is devoted to the study of the process of formation and development of the party system in post-Soviet Russia. The author considers political parties as a fundamental element of the democratic system and on the basis of the conducted analysis reveals the role and importance of political parties in the process of legitimation of political power. The article reveals the problems and the obstacles to becoming a full-fledged party system, which is one of the main instruments of legitimation of political power in democratic societies.

Since 1999 elections are yearly held against the trend of strengthening the vertical of power and consolidation of resources in the hands of the administrative elite. Changes in the electoral law made loyalty to the administrative elite to be the most effective campaign strategy for the ruling party. The author states that conversion of such loyalty into the administrative resource can be used for influencing the electoral behavior of voters. Electoral tactics of the administrative elite consists of the refusal of party-ideological strategies and focusing the election campaign on pragmatic technologies relying on the image of a popular leader.