The work is devoted to the events of the Patriotic
War of 1812 on the territory of Moscow Province. The
researcher analyzes the way the hostilities influenced the
condition and further destiny of the city settlements and their
inhabitants in Moscow region. The author tries not to follow
the habit of praising the 12th year only as a military exploit of
the warring parties. On the basis of a concrete historical data
the author makes an attempt to analyze the war events as
disastrous for the civilian residents and notes their destructive
effect not only during the military campaign but even after it.
Special attention is given to the peculiarities and traditions
of describing this problem in historiography. Besides,
the article stresses the recent evolution of views on the problem
of city and war.

The article is the first attempt in scientific literature
to examine the plans and the emergency measures to put on
alert the coastal fortresses of the Russian Empire, which were
implemented in 1863 by the War Ministry and the Office of the
Chief of Engineers. The author observes them on the example
of the main seaside fortresses of Russia: Kronstadt, Dinaburg,
Sveaborg, Vyborg, and Kerch-Yenikale, as well as on the example
of the construction of batteries at the mouth of the Neva
River. The assessed level of those fortresses combat readiness
helps estimate the development of fortification and military science
in Russia of the XIXth century. The article is based on the
unpublished materials of the Fund of the Office of the Chief of
Engineers of the Russian State Military Historical Archive.

The article deals with the working peoples letters
to I.V.Stalin in 1946. The records kept in the Russian
State Archive of Socio-Political History include mainly annotations
of the letters and partially the letters themselves.
These epistolary documents are a historical source which
characterizes the situation and expectations of various social
groups in post-war soviet society. The author takes into consideration
this aspect while analyzing the letters of: collective
farmers, urban population, former prisoners of war and the
repatriated ones. All those letters in whole make up a picture
of Soviet peoples everyday-life in post-war poverty and hunger
of 1946. Questions of material security were important
for most of status groups, while former prisoners of war and
the repatriated citizens were mostly interested in their legal
status problems.

City mayor was the highest position in the city
self-government system. The purpose of this article is to analyze
the activities of mayors in those cities of Moscow District,
where existed both the City Duma and the position of City
mayor (Bogorodsk, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, Zvenigorod). The researcher
reveals the role of Mayors in the life of those cities,
as well as their competences and capabilities. The position of
Mayor has never been explored yet in the way the author of
the article has done it using the historical sources.

The article considers data about two Early
Iron Age states in Syria and Cilicia, which were established
in early 12th century B.C. by the migrant Sea Peoples. The
author considers them in the context of all migrations of the
Sea Peoples in late 13th - early 12th centuries B.C. and uses
Ramses III. inscriptions, archaeological data from Eastern
Mediterranean and the Greek epic tradition about the journey
of Amphilochus and Mopsus to Cilicia, Syria and Phoenicia.
On the basis of the complex analysis of the sources the author
states that Greek epic tradition captured two waves of the
Sea Peoples migrations. One of them took place in Southern
Greece and was due to the collapse of the Mycenaean
world. The other one came from the north-west of Anatolia,
where according to Ramses III inscriptions a great war had
taken place. The emergence of the Early Iron Age states in
Syria and Cilicia, established by different ethnic groups of the
Sea Peoples, confirms once again the fact that there was a
long-lasting and heterogeneous process of the Sea Peoples
migrations.

The monumental altars at the court of the Oxus
Temple at Takht-i Sangin (Bactria) were originally wattle and
daub. Later they were partially taken down and new stone
altars were built above them. Charring bones of small cattle
were found beneath the stone altars, on the remains of the
primary wattle and daub ones. The discoverers of the temple,
B. Litvinskiy and I. Pichikyan, thought that the primary altars
had been sacrificial ones, while the later stone ones had been
used in the Zoroastrian rite of laying out and worshipping ash
and coals of the sacred fire. The author of the present article
thinks that burning of animals, as well as places of such
burning, were impure from the Zoroastrian point of view and
incompatible with Zoroastrian rites. Thus the monumental
altars of the Oxus temple were always used for animal sacrifices
and the temple itself was not Zoroastrian.

The article highlights the colonial aims of Kaiser
Germany in 1918. On the basis of the new archive materials
introduced into scientific circulation the author defines the
regime`s colonial aspirations both in the spring of 1918 and in
April-October of 1918, just on the eve of the defeat in the war.
The article presents a detailed analysis of the peace treaty
draft with France and England, which was worked out by the
War Ministry of Germany in 1918. The treaty mentioned was
to be concluded in case of Germanys military victory over
them.

This article is devoted to the development of
the theory of social work in the period between the two world
wars. The theory and practice of social work in France are
based on the ideas and approaches of the North-American
model of social work. However, the First International Conference
of Social Work, held in Paris in the first third of the XXth
century, had great influence on the formation of the national
methodology of social work. They were the Conferences
theoretical orientations which defined the development vector
of scientific theory and practice of social work in France and
laid the foundation of the French theoretical model in the 20th
century.

The article covers the history of the Austrian
movement towards European economic integration in 1945
- 1960. Since World War II Austrian foreign trade policy was
aimed at strengthening the position of its experts in foreign
markets. Austria started moving to European integration with
the Marshall Plan. In 1948 Austria signed the agreement on
the establishment of the Organization for European Economic
Cooperation (OEEC) in 1950 it took part in the creation of
the European Payments Union (EPU). In 1950s the problems
of European economic integration were one of the central
issues discussed by the political parties of the Republic of
Austria. The Austrian Peoples Party (APP) was a supporter
of Austrias integration into all the economic organizations of
Europe. In 1959 Austria took part in the negotiations on establishing
a smaller Free Trade Zone. In 1960 the European
Free Trade Association (EFTA) was established, which Austria
called the second «Column of European integration» after
the EEC. In the same year Austria signed the Convention on
the establishment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD).

THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL PROTECTION AND SOCIAL WORK
IN FRANCE IN 40-50s OF THE XXTH CENTURY

The article is about the post-communist modernization
in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe,
the radical free-market economic reforms and reforms in the
social sphere. The scientific study of the socio-economic
transformations in the countries of Eastern Europe is linked
with concrete results. The authors offer a comprehensive understanding
of the post-communist modernization, including
progress in all key areas of peoples life, and first of all in
the social sphere. The article raises the question of the social
value of the post-communist reforms.

Article is devoted to the safety ensuring problems
in the tourist industry, considering them in concordance
with the historical experience as a difficult, multicomponent
activity. While becoming more aware of fear of death and natural
cataclysms, people came to estimating risks of the tourist
industry objects and subjects. Cooperating with the environment
people put themselves put at risk or in danger. The article
considers the objects which may cause danger and threat:
either individuals or communities of people of various social
groups. Besides, some possible ways of ensuring safety of
the tourist industry objects and subjects are examined in the
context of tourism development.

The article considers the commercial and loaning
activity of the merchants who came to Moscow from Estonia,
Livonia, Courland and Memel in the XVIIIth century. On
the basis of mass sources (records fixing joining the Moscow
merchant class, promissory notes with the exceeded time
limit, poll census archive documents) the author disclosed the
list of Baltic merchants names, and detected the nature and
trends of their banking operations. Consequently the author
comes to the conclusion about the nature of their commercial
contacts at the internal and foreign markets. The article illustrates
the dual nature of the status of East Baltic merchants
who were of foreign origin but Russian citizenship.

The article is devoted to the problems of the
Russian-Prussian relations in the context of Russian foreign
policy during the War of the Austrian Succession. The
author analyzes the treaties of alliance concluded by Russia
and Prussia in 1740 and 1743 and comes to the conclusion
that they were not effective. The article considers the tasks
and goals of Russian and Prussian diplomacy, reveals the
reasons which led to the deterioration of the Russian-Prussian
diplomatic relations. The main conclusion of the article
is: there was certain development in the Russian establishment
representatives understanding of Russian-Prussian relations
during the War; such development was based on their
increasing degree of awareness of the dangers coming from
Prussia. The result of such development was the change of
the Russian foreign policy course.

The article is devoted to the topical issue of the
study of the idea of convocation of the Constituent Assembly
in the views of the leaders of the revolutionary organization
«Narodnaya Volya» in the 70-80s of the XIXth century. The
aim of the publication is to identify the similar and opposite
points of view on the issue of the Constituent Assembly expressed
by the most prominent members of this organization.
The analysis of various sources shows great significance of
the idea of Constituent Assembly in the ideology of «Narodnaya
Volya», as well as the combination of different ideas its
representatives had.

The events of the Battle for Stalingrad became
the beginning of a radical turn in the fight against Nazi Germany.
The intensification of the Soviet military-industrial production
was the basis for the USSRs military and technological
superiority. The high commands work on planning and
performing combatant operations was well coordinated; the
army had support from home front; the Red Armys soldiers
fought selflessly. All that was not only the reason for winning
the Battle for Stalingrad but strengthened the conviction that
the fascism would inevitably be defeated.

The author examines the history of housing policy
in Bashkir ASSR within the period of 1953-1964. The main
attention is given to the organizational activities aimed at solving
the problem of the lack of dwelling mainly by erecting multifamily
panel houses. The author stresses the effectiveness
of the policy aimed at ensuring the greatest possible number
of people in Bashkir Republic with individual dwelling. The
policy was performed through the activities of two types of
construction companies: construction thrusts, which specialized
in multi-storey housing, the bases of their functioning being
state order; and cooperative housing organizations, which
specialized in low-rise construction. The author considers the
main peculiarity of the given period to be the implementing of
a large-scale construction of individual dwelling in the republic.
It is stated that it was in line with the general tendency of
forming Soviet industrial society.

The article examines the reasons and results of
the politics of unpromising villages and settlements liquidation
in Central Russia Region. The politics was due to the CPSU
course to create large industrial settlements in rural area of
Russia. Besides, there were objective circumstances for it:
the increase of rural population migration which started in late
1950s and scarcity of labour at collective and state farms. The
article presents the data of collapse of the rural settlements. It
is stated that the liquidation of a huge number of rural settlements
resulted in cardinal changes in rural populations way
of life and aspirations. Instead of making up of rural resources
there was an increase in migration to towns and depopulation
of rural area.

The article studies the issues of the civil society
development in KBR and the influence of the national movement,
which originated at the end of last century, on the sociopolitical
situation in the country. The article is the first attempt
to analyze the reasons of the confrontation between the titular
ethnic groups and the role of the national movements in
solving these problems. The author concludes that the study
of national movements is significant both for the theoretical
analysis of this form of political activity and for development
of state policy in the sphere of relations with public organizations.

The article presents the analysis of territorial
public self-governing as a mechanism of increasing the social
activity of population in municipal structures. The authors
developed the indicators of assessment of territorial public
self-governing efficiency. Besides, the content of this social
technology is formulated from the point of increasing the social
activity and the involvement of population in the process
of exercising the administration of the trust territory. The effectiveness
of the implementation of the territorial public selfgoverning
method is proved by the research conducted by
the authors.

The author of the article puts forward the thesis
that the historical memory is one of the important bases of
legitimacy of state power in Russia. The Russian government
uses the scheme of destruction, i.e. it produces historical
schemes of the past. The cultural heritage is used as a part
of the mechanism which reproduces such schemes. Currently
the great-power model of history and the image of «the peoples
monarchy» are relevant for the state power. However,
such an approach to the politics of memory and cultural heritage
makes the political consciousness of the Russian society
archaic and archetypical.

The article deals with the specific features of
educational process in Russia. The author takes into account
both the conditions promoting effective activity in educational
sphere and the conditions negatively affecting this sphere.
The article determines some external and internal factors
of modern educational policy determination. Besides, some
possible directions of formation of a perspective educational
system under conditions of globalization are given. The author
considers the foremost task of the educational policy
under conditions of globalization to be: the achievement of
contemporary quality of education; its compliance with what
is actual and perspective for personality, society and state; its
organic entry into the international educational system.

The article analyzes the modern geopolitical
situation in Russia (security problems for the countries of the
world, particularly for Russia have become a priority). Meanwhile
the article stresses that the detection of the whole range
of external threats to the Russian Federation security has
special significance, as it is the consequence of the changes
in geopolitical situation. Taking this aspect of the problem into
account the author scrutinizes the necessity of carrying out
the complex of measures aimed at timely, efficient and effective
counteracting modern threats to Russia. It is stated that
such measures are: a guarantee of the federative integrity
maintenance, an important aim of foreign policy, a condition
of ensuring mutually beneficial cooperation with all the entities
of international activity, a condition of the state interests
protection and ensuring security of the citizens of Russia.