The article analyzes the development of political — elitist (elitological) thought as a special paradigm in political science. Its specificity lies in the representation of the most significant subjective trigger of the political process. The authors consider the main points of the development of political elitology in modern Russia. Special attention is paid to the Rostov Scientific School of Political Elitology. The most significant scientific provisions and characteristics proposed within the framework of this school are highlighted: the civilizational conditionality of elitogenesis; the principle of elitological paradigmatization in political science; proto-elite status of the modern elite-forming process; factors of elite marginalization; new trends of the elite-forming process; the role of postmodern methodology in modern elitology.  

The article is devoted to assessing the need of the labor market for personnel with certain flexible skills, the so-called “soft-skills”. A literary review of scientific papers devoted to similar research issues is carried out, based on the data obtained, an expanded concept of the term “social competence” is presented. A detailed analysis of existing employers’ requests for the possession of a particular social competence by potential employees in the current conditions has revealed a number of “basic” and “composite” social competencies, which will allow further research to study the peculiarities of the combination of certain positions when considering employers’ requirements for candidates for vacant positions in various industries and spheres.

The article deals with various aspects of Russian studies of patriotism within the framework of the theory of generations. The subject of the analysis was the patriotic values and attitudes of Russian citizens in the context and conditions of the reorganization and restructuring of the world order. Based on the sociological research data, the author comes to the conclusion about the high level of political consolidation of the Russian society and significant differences between generations in the content of patriotism. The prospects for further research of patriotism in Russian society are connected with the application of a complex methodology that reveals not only values and attitudes, but also frames, motivation, and models of behaviour in extraordinary conditions.

As challenges and uncertainties and risks are forming, the competition of countries for a better future is intensifying, and the number of studies and publications of multimillion global scientific community is growing, the role and importance of adequate description, accessibility and practical use of global knowledge is continuously increasing. Ontologies are becoming a tool for organizing both scientific and practical activities. As the world develops and becomes more complex, the importance and role of human beings grows — accordingly, the significance of ontologies in the social and behavioral sciences and the possibilities of their application for the purposeful creation of a better future grows significantly. Mastering modern digital approaches to creating dynamic ontologies and their application becomes the key to the development of a globally significant unique national project to create a better future for Russia and competitive strategic management of its sustainability.

The article is devoted to the problems of the state approach to the implementation of youth policy in democratic countries. The author analyzes the trends in the orientation of youth policy in the United States of America, European countries, as well as the in the Russian Federation. The relevance of this study is due to the changes that are now occurring in all spheres of life of the world community, destabilising the policy of many developing and developed states by influencing its economic and social sphere. In the course of analyzing the effectiveness of the implementation of youth policy in these countries, the author comes to the conclusion that there is an urgent need to create a scientifically based methodology for the implementation of international youth policy.

The relevance of the article is due to the need for a full-fledged scientific analysis of the achievements of the Soviet era, which made an exceptional contribution to the world socio-cultural space, demonstrating unprecedented results in various spheres of human life. The author analyzes, first of all, the sphere of education as a key factor in socio-cultural development. It is noted that the “Soviet project” gave a unique experience of a breakthrough in the field of education in its various directions. It is stated that the Soviet GOELRO plan became no less decisive, laying the foundations for systemic industrialization. An analysis of the main achievements of the “Soviet project” in the field of economics allows us to conclude that the growth of economic indicators determines colossal changes in the entire socio-cultural paradigm of the Soviet society, which, in turn, determines the values and the general way of life of the Soviet people. The author concludes that the “Soviet project” is a colossal socio-cultural breakthrough in the history of mankind, and the analysis of the best achievements of this project will allow us to avoid such mistakes and miscalculations in the future and bring our country to new heights, strengthen its sovereignty and confidently go into the future.

The authors research aspects of the implementation of mythologization in the socio-political discourse. They determine the role of the political myth in the creation of individual and collective representations about the state and political processes. The article contents analysis of functions of the political myth. The political and psychological features of the myth and its value-semantic basis are given. As a result of the analysis, the authors revealed that myths are used for political purposes as a tool for maintaining the legitimacy of the existing system through mechanisms of justification events and glorification of people’s feats. The political myth can construct and change images of the past in the interests of the government or the public elite due to highlighting some events and overshadowing others.

This article examines the problem of regressive political transit in Germany in the 20–30s of the last century, which led to the transition from the bourgeois-democratic Weimar Republic to the criminal terrorist regime of the Third Reich. The general theoretical provisions on political transit are revealed, the influence of political transformation on all components of society is analyzed. The course of changes in the way of life and militarization of the German economy is outlined, the homogenization of the political field that led to the establishment of a one-party dictatorship is described, the political and philosophical features of the unification of the ideological field are revealed. It is noted that the totalitarian nature of transit was postulated both by the Nazis themselves, who saw in the comprehensive absorption of society the benefit and expression of their own power, and by convinced opponents of the racist dictatorship, who rightly opposed total expansion, irredentism and anti-semitism. In conclusion, it is stated that in the sphere of power relations, the Nazi transit entailed the complete sterilization of the political field, the purification of space from competitive forces through intimidation and destruction, a change in the way of life from mixed to command-administrative with a bias towards militarization took place in the economy, a single nazi idea of racial domination was established in the spiritual and moral sphere the “aryans” and the apology of force, aggression and suppression was fixed

The article deals with the concept of “people” people and as a dual, polemical, partially excluding each other theoretical matrix, the opposition of understanding the people as a community of memory and as an imaginary community is used. Our goal, however, is not only to sum up the two theoretical positions, but with the help of well-known concepts and traditions, we intend to try to make a small contribution to the elucidation of the existence of the people, using, first of all, the philosophical conceptual apparatus, and, as necessary, social ontology.

In the article “Modernization in China” discusses the concept of modernization and options for its definition. The phenomenon itself is still often interpreted as westernization, although the development of a number of Asian countries, and above all of China, shows that there can be many types or versions of modernization. In the light of new scientific data, the main provisions of M. Weber on the impossibility of the development of the bourgeois system in China, related to his analysis of the Confucian and Taoist mentality in comparison with the Protestant principle of “economic man”, are explored. It is shown on concrete material that Euro-centrist methodology often does not give valuable objective results. This requires a new methodology for studying the Chinese national mentality, in particular in the aspect of its ability to form the principles of modern thinking and apply them to economic life.

The article examines the influence of the institutional factor on the dynamics of electoral volatility in post- communist European countries. The party and electoral systems were chosen as institutional variables. It is noted that a noticeable influence on the level of electoral mobility in the group of countries under consideration is not segmentation, but polarization of party systems. The author emphasizes that the small ideological distance between the parties competing in the electoral field hinders the formation of stable party identification of voters, which contributes to the growth of electoral volatility. The author comes to the conclusion that the institutional factor as a whole has a limited effect on the dynamics of changing party preferences of voters. Therefore it should be recognized that the factor of political culture continues to have a predominant impact on the electoral behavior of citizens of post-communist European countries.

Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, various methods and methods of its settlement have been applied. One of such mechanisms was to be an inclusive dialogue within Ukrainian society. This format was supported by all parties involved in the conflict in the spring of 2014. In May 2014, after the start of the so-called anti-terrorist operation in the East of the country, the Kiev authorities, with the assistance of the OSCE, organized a series of All-Ukrainian round tables of national unity. In the public sphere, the organizers of the events pursued the main goal of finding a compromise between the parties to the conflict. In the course of the study, an attempt was made to identify the impact of the All- Ukrainian Round tables of National Unity on the conflict settlement process in the Donbass. The object of the study were three Round tables held in May 2014 in Kiev, Kharkiv and Nikolaev (Mykolaiv). The relevance of the research is due to the problem of insufficient elaboration and development of the topic related to dialogue platforms in Ukraine in the period from 2014 to 2022 and their impact on the course of the conflict in the Donbass. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that the topic of the All-Ukrainian round tables of National Unity has not been covered in the scientific literature.

The primary source for this article is the report on “The Return of Great Power War: Scenarios of Systemic Conflict Between the United States and China”. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation; 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the Report). When considering the current confrontation between the United States and China and trying to outline its future boundaries and plots, American analysts refer to the Soviet experience more than 70 times and give various assessments of the Soviet Union, including in the context of the former global rivalry with it. This retrospective view from across the ocean is of considerable interest in itself. However, this article is not so much about reproducing the perceptions of RAND Corporation analysts as it is about explaining why these perceptions are wrong in certain cases, which, in turn, makes it necessary to outline an alternative, more relevant picture of the USSR’s capabilities and realities. And since they are considered in comparison with the capabilities of other global leaders, the article incorporates consideration of a fairly wide range of topics. Given that the Report compares four global leaders of the last centuries (starting from the mid-18th century), the article includes subjects related to the British Empire and contemporary China. They make it possible to more fully reveal both the specificity of the Soviet experience and to demonstrate the reasons for some aberrations, which, in the opinion of the author of the article, are present in the Report.

The purpose of the article is to explore the features of the self-presentation of the right-wing political parties in Germany and Italy, based on a different approach to reflecting gender topics. the empirical base of the study is the results of the authors’ quantitative and qualitative content analysis of tests of EU official documents (pacts, doctrines), as well as the texts of the election programs of the elected in 2019 for the European parliament right-wing parties, and discourse analysis of the texts of speeches of party leaders. The themes of gender equality is used by all the analyzed parties both in Germany and Italy, however, they are not the main issues of the election programs, but serve as an auxiliary tool for explaining the proposed decisions on fiscal and economic issues in the programs. Quantitative analysis made it possible to identify a number of key thematic clusters in gender issues. The results of the study may be useful to specialists who study internal processes in the EU countries, as well as to those who are interested in the modern features of right-wing political parties.

the purpose of the article is to study the mechanisms and instruments of state support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a factor of political stability. To do this, it is necessary to substantiate the relevance of state support for SMEs in Russia; consider strategic priorities and directions for expanding its capacity; highlight the urgent problems of the systemic strategic development of SMEs in the current market macroeconomic conditions; outline the prospects for the development of SMEs based on the construction of a matrix of predictable risks. Materials and research methods. In the course of the work, a wide range of research methods was used. The use of the legal and regulatory method makes it possible to characterize the key elements of the domestic legal field related to state regulation of SMEs. Within the framework of the statistical method, the formation of the information base necessary for the study of the current state and development trends of SMEs is carried out. On the basis of the logical method, causal relationships are built between the patterns of development of SMEs and market factors that influence it. The analytical method creates conditions for the use of verified diagnostic tools for key performance indicators of SMEs. When using the monographic method, the most important regularities and features of the development of SMEs are focused in the current macroeconomic environment.

The Kashmir crisis has a protracted multi-year character and its relevance in today’s scholarly discourse is characterised by a global confrontation between East and West. Apart from the main actors India and Pakistan, there are a number of stakeholders, the first of which is China. Beijing’s longstanding support to Islamabad has contributed to the latter’s military capabilities. China’s strengthening is also taking place around India’s borders. The authors of the study aim to analyse the current situation, clearly defining the role of the Chinese side in it.

The relevance of the chosen research topic is due to the fact that the market economy, increased competition and increased requirements for efficiency have made universities need to improve all aspects of their activities, ensuring competitiveness in order to develop and obtain additional resources. A well-built marketing strategy plays a key role in this process, which should be based on the most modern promotion tools and must take account of the characteristics of the target audience, for the university — these are the applicants, students and their parents. The article deals with the study of the role of marketing in the development of the university ecosystem. The definition of marketing in the field of higher education is given, the main subjects of marketing in educational activities, the tasks of marketing in the development of the university ecosystem, the principles of marketing educational services are considered, and effective tools for promoting the university are identified. A sociocultural and psychological portrait of a modern applicant and student is also presented, the main aspects of the motivation of the younger generation are identified, recommendations are given for building marketing communications, taking special account the characteristics of modern youth. On the basis of the study, the authors identify effective tools for promoting the university, describe the stages of developing a strategy, and present key aspects of building marketing for an educational organization.

Successful cases of using the metaverse as a promotion channel are discussed in the article. However, States and governments have seen serious risks that need to be addressed to ensure security. In the course of the work, these threats were identified and described in detail. The successful practice of using the metaverse by companies and the presence of serious problems of its development create contradictions that require study. Thus, the purpose of this work is to answer the question whether the metaverse is a promising channel of promotion for business. In order to achieve it, an analysis of the report of the largest bank JPMorgan in 2022 with forecasts of the prospects of metaverses for business promotion was carried out. In the future, the next step will be to investigate whether the major and largest media- outlets are using the metaverse to promote their content. Perhaps it will become a new communication platform, just like once innovative messengers, marketplaces and ecosystems. To test this hypothesis, it is planned to conduct expert interviews with the marketing director of Sensorium Galaxy, Yandex, Sber and VKontakte.

The article presents an assessment of the prospects for creating data storage and processing centers in the Russian Arctic. Despite the successful domestic and foreign practice and the obvious advantages of creating data centers in the Arctic zone, the implementation and further scaling of these projects is accompanied by a number of barriers. Based on the study of political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental and geographical aspects of the external environment that affect the creation of a data center in the Russian Arctic, a SWOT analysis matrix has been compiled. Recommendations are given on the creation of data centers in the region, taking into account its specifics.

The article is devoted to the study of the experience of using Soviet small arms during the Great Patriotic War. The author analyzes changes in tactical training and development of weapons throughout the entire period of the war are analyzed. The process of improving the small arms of the Red army is shown on the example of combat operations. It is concluded that due to close cooperation and the widespread use of new types of weapons and the development of new tactics the Soviet Union was able to defeat the enemy on its territory, and later in Europe.