The goals and objectives of the study are to compare different ideas about historical knowledge in the aspect of legitimizing the social system, to compare the main characteristics of social projects and their approaches to understanding the beginning of Russian statehood. The study used the methods of comparative analysis when examining the object in all its interrelationships and contradictions. Also, the author used the ascent from the abstract to the concrete in the unity of the historical and logical approaches. The author refers to the description of the nature of social myth in the works of J. Frazer, A. F. Loseva, E. Fromm, who analyses the views of the social reality of domestic and foreign researchers. The work results continue and develop the discussion about the foundations of Russian statehood, presented in the works of various authors. The study allows for a comparative analysis of various social projects, the degree of their utopianism, and, consequently, their viability and feasibility.

This article analyses the impact of the First World War on the evolution of the philosophical worldview and especially on the historiosophical idea of Dmitry Merezhkovsky’s theocratic anarchy. According to the author, the war is seen here as a katálysis, due to which the division, exposition, and radicalization of the constitutive elements of this concept takes place. Through the analysis of texts 1914–1917. Merezhkovsky’s attitude to such key concepts as war, revolution, intelligentsia, religion, violence, patriotism, nationalism, universalism, neo-Slavophiles, and the authors of the almanack “Milestones” is determined.

The article purpose is to reveal the content and philosophical background of the discussion of the 80s‑90s concerning the late Slavophiles, in which, apparently, V. Solovyov also participated. The research is based on a general analytical approach and hermeneutical understanding of the text, taking into account modern discussions in the field of Russian history and philosophy of law. We revealed the reasons for Solovyov’s criticism of the ideas of Slavophiles and his transition to the camp of late Slavophiles and Westerners. Further, we noted the ideological problems of the correlation of the political views of Westerners and late Slavophiles, which had a considerable impact on the socio-political situation in the country by the beginning of the twentieth century.

The article is devoted to the problems of the modern process of teaching the history of foreign and domestic literature in universities. The problem is relevant in connection with the decline in the quality of teaching the history of literature. This paper aims to revise the established concepts and approaches in the compilation of curricula and lists of literary texts and substantiate fundamentally “new” approaches to the compilation of literature lists and the formation of a genre-thematic approach in the study of literature. The following methods were used in the work: analysis of documents (curricula, lists of literary texts, etc.), biographical and autobiographical methods, the method of expert assessments (involving the experience of domestic and foreign colleagues) and the statistical method. The author gave a partial solution to the posed questions. As the research results, the author planned to test and implement a new system for selecting texts, as well as their study in the practice of teaching the history of Russian and foreign literature.

The generally accepted statement about the postmodern character of today’s world does not provide a clue to understanding its essence. We just know that from this point of view, it is already modernist. However, the concepts of postmodernism are extremely diverse and depend on the subjectivity of their authors. Basically, a central question arises that remains unanswered: will postmodernism appear after modernism as evolution, or is it a criticism of modernism, rejection, a kind of general disappointment? For some, truly postmodernism is a disappointment of rationality. By contrast, neoconservatives rejoice in postmodernism. Nevertheless, their postmodern world is free from any substance, from any essence. They offer a kind of modernism, without a soul and without a Man, since everything must be “rendered harmless” in advance and, preferably, without excesses. It is a kind of sad utopia. In both cases, there is denial: either open — by the critics of postmodernism; or hidden — by “our own”.

The article is devoted to identifying the features of digital management of opposition (protest) and pro-government producers of relevant content (political actors and media agents) who actively participated in the protest wave in the Republic of Belarus in 2020–2021. Certain similarities of communication and political culture allow us to say that unconventional forces can use the applied algorithms to destabilize the situation in the Russian Federation. Using a hybrid technique, including discourse analysis and automated social media analysis, the authors studied the digital management of content producers, the contextual discourse field, and the features of communication strategy in a network environment for broadcasting the generated discourses.

Interethnic relations in the Russian Federation, taking into account the multinational and multi-confessional population of our country, are one of the priority state policy issues. Both for Russian political science and the system of state power, issues related to the prevention of ethnopolitical conflicts in the state deserve special attention. The article examines the problems associated with the implementation of network monitoring as a promising direction for improving the system of prevention of ethnopolitical conflicts in the Russian Federation and the main trends in the development of this area, considering state strategic priorities.

The article examines several amendments proposed for introduction into the fundamental law of the Republic of Belarus in the context of the transformational processes of the political and social environment. The author analysed the meaning of the index of democracy on the country’s territory. Further, the author studied the data of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus to identify the population’s demand for changing social processes. The author notes that the need to amend the Constitution is due to the democratisation of political processes and the development of civil society. The paper also examines the activities of government officials after the 2020 presidential elections and the reaction of the population, expressed in mass post-electoral political protests. Proposed by the author, amendments to the leading law are a prerequisite for ensuring the country’s stable development in the social and political spheres and can also serve as a legislative basis for the integration process.

On 2 July 2021, President V. V. Putin has approved a new National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation. The article undertakes a comparative analysis of the national security strategies of the Russian Federation 2015 and 2021, provides a content analysis of the conceptual apparatus of these strategic planning documents in terms of ensuring information, socio-cultural and value sovereignty. The author concluded that there is the strengthening of the trend towards reinforcement the state sovereignty of Russia based on maintaining traditional spiritual and moral values, preventing the negative consequences of westernization. There is a continuing departure of the Russian state from the Western-centric foreign policy and orientation towards internal forces and resources of strategic development. Finally, the author stated the consistent harmonization of the principles, attitudes, and content of the goal-setting documents of state strategic planning in terms of strengthening all dimensions of state sovereignty.

The development of information technologies and the widespread digitalisation of many life factors needs an individual’s information security in the digital space. Also, it indicates the need to develop a system of control over this space. This article discusses the main problems concerning the Russian national cybersecurity policy concept. The authors note that two multidirectional trends influence the implementation of the security policy and the protection of information resources and data. First, it is the lack of a clear definition of the Internet space and its boundaries in the legislative framework. Second, the significant interest of the public sector in the independence and security of this space from possible threats and attacks. The formation of the concept of national interest in the field of cybersecurity leads to the solution of several tasks at once, both in the internal domain of digital presence and in the international arena. The authors provide several fundamental terms that will be interesting and necessary for further research in this direction. We have drawn attention to the insufficient terminological elaboration of this topic.

The article examines Trust as the essential element of the functioning of society. Firstly, the author analysed the literature on the problem of Trust in various fields of knowledge, such as philosophy, sociology, economics, and political science. Particular emphasis was placed on the study of Trust and distrust from the point of view of psychological research, considering the impact of global transformations in modern society. In addition, the author carried out the analysis of studies on the issues of trust in political leaders, institutions, government bodies.

The article is devoted to the scientific heritage of Andrei Yakovlevich Bolshunov, a thinker, scientist, and mentor who made an outstanding contribution to science and didactics. The article examines the role of intercultural communication in the sociocultural sphere as a basic one for other spheres of society’s life, including politics, education, science, and economics. In this paper, we presented the authors’ model of intercultural communication in the sociocultural sphere in the form of a map of the lifeworlds. Under the term ‘lifeworld’, we understood by the authors as an intersubjective shared everyday world of the individual. Analysis of the relationship between sociocultural lifeworlds in dynamics makes it possible to ascertain the presence of transformations, decentrations, reassembly of social, global tensions. Overcoming the crisis of confidence, reducing international tension, according to the authors, is possible through the creation of a common global lifeworld. Finally, we propose a specific practices that contribute to creating a space of intersubjectively shared meanings, deliberative activities based on the model of absolute hospitality and the circulation of gifts.

The purpose of the article is a critical analysis of the determination of the subject matter of economic politology. In the books and articles analysed by the author, the situational picture of the subject dominates, determined by the current practice of relations between business and the state in Russia. The author also analysed the training programs of the leading universities in Russia. Considering the economic and political situation in the world at the end of 2021, the author concluded that the state of both research and teaching in this discipline is unsatisfactory. The article’s central thesis is the assertion that in the coming years, the world’s fate will largely be determined by the struggle in the economy, especially in the field of money circulation and finance. Therefore, the country urgently needs new specialists of a unique profile — an economist-political scientist.

The proposed paper examines the problem of updating the German doctrine “Realpolitik” in relation to contemporary world politics. The presentation of the material follows a theoretical and methodological line, associated with the designation of the main approaches to “real politics” that were present in the history of political thought. Secondly, it compares the realistic direction of political science analysis with the normative-value paradigm and a practice-oriented line, associated with an appeal to the current world political agenda and the characteristics of those directions that have political realism as a fundamental principle. When referring to real-world politics, the author concluded that realism is especially relevant in the following areas: reducing the nuclear arsenal and weakening the missile potential, preventing the deployment of strategic offensive weapons and the deployment of armed forces of competing militarypolitical blocs in border areas, the fight against international terrorism, as well as preventing the consequences of the new coronavirus pandemic.

In this paper, we examine the features of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of labour and social protection, the mechanisms of its implementation, and methods and tools. The relevance of the study is due to the increasing role of social protection of citizens, the emergence of new state-legal institutions designed to strengthen the social function of the state, as well as the subjective dissatisfaction of a significant part of the population with the degree of the practical feasibility of constitutionally enshrined social guarantees. The purpose of the study is to develop recommendations for improving state policy in the field of labour and social protection. The subject of the study is the organizational and economic relations of mechanisms for the implementation of state policy in the field of labour and social protection.

This article examines one of the key plots of the monograph by the English scientist Roger Vernon Scruton “Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left”, edited in London by Bloomsbury Publishing. This plot concerns the analysis and criticism of the views of two leading American representatives of the mentioned socio-political ideological direction: John Kenneth Galbraith and Ronald Dworkin. In each case, the author demonstrates an individual approach, individual assessments of his “wards”, plunging into the argumentation of the named thinkers, analysing along the way many independent plots. The author noted many of Scruton’s statements’ polemical fervour and undisguised provocativeness. However, he pays tribute to the outstanding intellectual abilities of his “attack” objects and tries to systematically and substantiate his attacks in detail. All this ultimately led to the appearance of a fairly original text, which, although not an outstanding work, will attract the attention of specialists and everyone interested in the topic of ideological confrontation in the modern world.

Among the main threats to the Russian energy sector is the high volatility of the oil markets, which leads to significant fluctuations in the volume of revenues received by Russian oil and gas companies and the country’s budget due to the export of hydrocarbon resources. It necessitates the search for mechanisms aimed at minimizing this risk. Such mechanisms should be of a political and economic nature. Russia can achieve a significant reduction in risks for the budgetary system through the introduction of a system of hedging oil prices. This system has found wide application in the practice of several oil and gas companies and is used at the national level in Mexico. The Mexican experience shows that the hedging system allows the country’s economy to overcome periods of falling oil prices on global markets without significant losses. Calculations show that for Russia, the economic effect of hedging could reach 4.36 trillion roubles over the period 2015–2020. The hedging system can also provide Russia with some advantages in the field of energy diplomacy.

In this article, the author analysed the cause of massive rolling blackouts in the USA, Texas and followed the change of people’s opinions regarding the country’s energy policy. The results show that extreme freezing temperatures had a more significant impact on Texas Republicans in comparison with the Democrats and Grand Old Party (GOP) average. Meeting with the reality of power outages caused by cold weather in Southern State is the reason why Texas Republicans are far more supportive of specific climate policies than most other Republicans. Meanwhile, according to the author, both Parties have tremendous opportunities to use unplanned blackouts in the political struggle because, supported by Biden’s Democratic Program, wind farms are guilty and Republican’s fossil fuels.

The Olympic Games were not the only major sporting event in ancient Greek civilisation. The Nemean, Pythian and Isthmian Games were held simultaneously. After the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, modern Olympic sport has passed a difficult, albeit not so long-term path. But even earlier, around the middle of the XIX century, professional sports began to form in the developed countries of Europe and the United States. The appearance of professional athletes, both in the ancient world and in modern history, was essentially the result of those significant changes that occurred in the economic, social and political aspects of human life at the stages of its development and the evolution of sports competitions. It can be argued that professional sports (both in ancient and modern times) arose as a particular human activity, the content of which was sports. However, the problem of amateurs and professionalism in modern Olympic sports and the Olympic movement was one of the most significant in the context of introducing Olympic ideals into the life of society, solving the problem of “fair play” and allowing athletes to participate in major international competitions (Olympic Games, World Championships, etc.).

The presented article actualizes the topic of the interdependence of the needs of the state and the social order imposed on the education system. The author noted that political practice and political would determine the features of each stage of development and the content of the educational component of educational activity. The request of society and the course of government structures to strengthen Russia’s position as a strong state also implies significant investment in the education and upbringing of the future generation of the country’s residents. The author stressed that an episodic frame could not solve the task of forming a civic position among young people. Moreover, the trend towards the unity of education and upbringing should return and become an integral part of the activities of educational institutions. The task of socialization of students, including the formation of political culture and an active civic position, can be solved in the classes of the socio-humanitarian cycle, particularly political science.

The work aims to study the institute of postgraduate studies as a complex social phenomenon. Object: the institute of postgraduate studies as a social phenomenon; subject: the social mechanism of functioning of the institute of postgraduate studies as a composite phenomenon. The paper examines all five elements of the social mechanism of the institute of postgraduate studies; thereby, we are attempting a comprehensive analysis of the behaviour of actors based on the socio-cultural basis and the regulatory framework. The management block provides an analysis of the main functions of the Higher Attestation Commission and determines its role in the functioning of the Institute of Postgraduate Studies. The status block provides a 3-level model of the involvement of various groups of students, scientific and pedagogical personnel and university employees in the institute of postgraduate studies. At the level of perception of postgraduate studies, the author determined its role in the formation of personnel for the labour market. At the level of perception of professional activity, the emphasis is on prestige and economic well-being. And at the level of perception of an academic degree in society, it is necessary to consider the social risks for the holder of an academic degree due to the stereotypes formed in society. The behavioural block provides a comprehensive analysis of the activities of all groups of actors at the three main stages of the postgraduate institute for applicants: educational, individual (plan) and dissertation. In the fifth block (consequences), the author considered the results of postgraduate institute reform in 2013. Finally, the author made disappointing conclusions about the reduction in the number of protections, the loss of prestige of postgraduate studies and the strengthening of barriers to the protection of graduate students.

The article presents the results of a study of community-blogging as a new communicative digital phenomenon with the application of archetypal theory. Based on the results of the analysis of personal blogs and commercial brands, determining the most suitable archetypes for them, the authors identified strategies for communication of the influencer community with potential consumers and also noted perspective areas of research in the context of improving the information and communication interaction of the bloggers’ community, brands and users in the digital segment.