The article is an attempt by the author to address the basic issues of the development of history and historical knowledge in the era of turning points and changes. The article discusses the issue of actualizing historical knowledge during periods of changes in the social, political, cultural structure of the state. The author defines the characteristic features for the development of   history  and historical knowledge in the era of turning points.He singles out fear of the past as the first and one of the main elements of comprehension and rethinking of the past.The past, according to the author, at such moments has the property of becoming a landmark in the developing the social and political forces. The denial of history and the historical is also one an element in the development of history in an era of change. A return to indefinite values characterizes the era of transitions, and a number of additional questions arise related to the acceptance of ideas or their interpretations in the present. The author is inclined to believe that during the changes there is arise in the understanding and concept of that the present is a projection of our past, what to a greater extent affects the increase in the relevance of the object under study. The mechanisms of  actualizing historical knowledge and attitudes towards history have been little studied in the scientific literature and require additional involving the historians researchers into the theme since that directly affects our present.

The article seeks to present the attitude of Greek society to Russia in the second half of the 19th century, based on memoirs of representatives of the Russian intelligentsia who visited Greece at that time. The author draws attention to the fact that the second half of the 19th century was a very difficult timefor Greeksociety.In1821, as a result of a long struggle, the Greeks gained independence from the Ottoman state and the question arose before them about the ways of further development. There was no consensus in society on that issue. The paper explores the opinions of different strata of Greek society based on the facts and arguments from the memoirs of our compatriots. Repres entatives of the Russian intelligentsia who visited Greece at that time note that the attitude to Russia was not uniform. The opinion of the Greek sabout Russia was particularly impacted by political events and the influence of Western Europe.

In the second half of the 19th century – especially in the period following the introduction of the Academic Constitution of 1869, and in the 1880s and continuing until the forced closure of Theological Academies after the Revolutionary coup – the historical and liturgical research area in Russian academic science experienced a period of its formation and flourishing. The subject of the article is a comparison of approaches to the study of the worship service history and analysis of the formation of the research methodology for teaching  Liturgics  by  professors  N.V.  Pokrovsky  and  I.A.  Karabinov  of  the  St.  Petersburg Theological Academy, where they taught the history of Christian worship from the 1880’s until its forced closure in 1918. Analysis and juxtaposing of academic courses in Liturgics allows defining the boundaries and content of the discipline in the period of its formation as well as considering the evolution in research methodology and, more broadly, the formation of the Russian historical and liturgical scientific school. A comparison of the courses reveals the authors attitudes towards historical sources material and its studies. Their own ideas about the provenance of various rites used in church worship characterize their views on the development of the liturgical tradition, expressing their approaches to its study and thereby form our picture of the establishment of historical Liturgics as a field of  researchable  knowledge.

The  author  of  the  article  makes  an  attempt  to  analyze  the  views  of  Russian  historian  Peter  Mikhailovich  Golovachev.  Those  views  concerned  issues of Russian policy in the Far East in the late 19th – early 20th century. The basis of the article is analyzing P.M. Golovachev’s treatise “Russia in the Far East”. The author of the article intends not only to research different aspects of Russian Far Eastern policy raised in that treatise. The analysis of intellectual  context  has  an  equal  significance.  The  author  makes  an  attempt  to represent specific features of Russian public thought at the turn of the ages. Researching of P.M. Golovachev’s views enables to identify several intellectual transformations concerned Russian society’s visions of the Far East.  The  author  of  the  article  emphasizes  that  historical  knowledge  allowed  P.M. Golovachev having an unconventional approach to the consideration of issues of interest to the Russian public. The latter was expressed, in particular, in criticism of well-established ideas and concepts.  The  author  concludes  arguing  that  P.M.  Golovachev’s  work  was  the  great  example of the Far East development project. The emergence of such projects became  the  forerunner  of  the  sphere  of  knowledge,  which  later  became  known  as “geopolitics”.

The following article is an attempt at a comparative analysis of  the  images  of  a  key  character  in  the  epoch  of  the  Civil  (religious)  wars  in  France,  Henry,  Duke  of  Guise  in  schoolbooks  of  the  19th  –  early  20th  century.  The  research  is  based  on  several  schoolbooks  for  different  levels  of  education  published  in  France  and  Russia  at  that  time.  It  is  concluded  that  the  “black  legend”  about  the  Duke  of  Guise  consolidated  in  the  collective  consciousness  as a contribution of educational literature. He was portrayed not only as an antagonist to not only the last Valois, but also to the future monarch Henry IV, the one traditionally standing for tolerance and progress in European historical culture. However, in the liberal-republican discourse Henry of Guise’s image was  always  rather  ambiguous.  The  schoolbooks  reflect  the  controversial  character of his figure, as it was constructed by historians. The ever-changing political context and the development of historical research defined the evolution of his image in France as well as in Russia and the aiming for further objectiveness in  19–20th  century  schoolbooks.  Nevertheless,  the  main  features  of  his  image  haven’t changed.

The  paper  analyzes  the  poetic  work  of  a  late  antique  court  poet  from  Western  Roman  Empire  Claudius  Claudianus.  The  key  verbal  constructions describing the situation on the Lower-Danube region after the Goths have settled are identified. The analysis of the Claudianus’ discourse shows the state  of  alarm  of  the  Honorius  court  looked  at  the  Balkan  region. The high officials of Western Empire sought to establish Roman authority over the Danube region, regardless of whether the Eastern or Western court would rule there. Claudianus conveys to the readers that desire to see those lands under Roman rule. The study of contexts in which the Danube is mentioned by Claudianus allows to assume that in the official discourse at court of the Western Emperor Honorius the Lower-Danube lands were pronounced pacified. They were beginning to recover from the destruction of the past wars, although still being perceived as a hotbed of instability. It was supposed that after Theodosius I first concluded the Treaty with the Goths in 382, and then Alaric and his people left Thrace in 395, the Danubian lands returned to Roman rule regardless whether the Roman institutes of power there functioned or not.

The Mayan commemorative practices of the Classic Period (3d – 9th centuries) committed for the purpose of on claiming the power legitimacy, territorial possessions and the establishment of political influence, are well known. A commemorative program, aimed at constructing historical memory, is characterized by the ostentation and periodic addressing to specific event, and by ritual accompaniment. In the article the author identifies one more commemorative practice that stands out of the listed – the hieroglyphic texts in Mayan caves. The caves are among the objects of the sacred landscape, which is common for all Mesoamerican cultures; it was and still is a place for the pilgrimage and worship. Many archaeological projects witnessed the elite and non-elite use of caves in the Late Classic and the Postclassic Periods. The hieroglyphic texts were applied in hard-to-reach areas of absolute darkness, where sunlight did not reach them due to natural barriers or artificial walls. Such texts were not intended to be broadly demonstrated. This article considers the practice of hidden text application as a special type of the Maya commemorative practice of the Сlassic Period.

The article describes the “regulations” as a type of document of legislative and executive authorities. Particular attention is paid to the formation of a system of regulations in the executive authorities. The author defines a connection with the “General Regulations of 1720” in preserving the traditions of  establishing  the  rules  of  the  records  management  along  with  the  main  tasks  and functions of state bodies. The influence of regulations on the formation of requirements for the organization of the records management in public authorities is shown. Based on the analysis of the content of the “Rules of the records management in state bodies, local authorities” conclusions are formulated about the degree of regulation of the records management at the present stage and proposals for improving the rules of the records management in legislative bodies,  with  taking  into  account  the  specifics  of  their  activities.

The article presents a systematic analysis the personal potential of young political leaders of contemporary Russian parties, which has been studied in recent years by an Associate Professor of the Department of Public Relations, Tourism and Hospitality of the Faculty of History, Political Science and Law of Russian State University for the Humanities. The research were was carried out according to political and psychological methods of a verbal and projective type, supplemented by training of public self-presentation of young representatives of parliamentary parties among their potential voters. As part of the study, a political and psychological profile of each potential young party leader was compiled, highlighting their value orientations and readiness  to  work  in  public  politics.  The  article  reveals  the  basic  motives  contributing to choosing the politics by young people as a professional sphere for the formation of their own personality. Also, the values orientations of young party leaders are compared with their political self-identification. Following  the  results  of  the  research  works,  the  author  of  the  article  concludes  that the existing leadership potential of young representatives of Russian parliamentary parties is not always manifested in the public practice and requires serious adjustments in terms of training in specific communication techniques, and coming into politics is determined by the desire for personal self-realization.

The main purpose of the article is to review the most complete and  holistic  scientific  works  of  Russian  authors  which  are  devoted  to  the  study  of Italian-Libyan relations. To carry out the research a broad historiographic base  on  the  topic  was  involved,  the  author  turned  to  both  the  “classic”  works  of Soviet scientists, and to the most modern scientific figures. One of the main tasks in  the  study  of  the  topic  is  to  identify  the  historiographic  issues  associated  with  the  lack  of  modern  Russian  scientific  literature  on  the  referred  theme.  The article analyzes the specific features of the literature published from the end of the 20th to the beginning of the 21st century in Russia, highlighting the issue of interaction between two countries in different spheres of international relations.  The methodological  basis  of  the  work  is  the  issue-chronological  and  complex analysis of the used literature, the establishment of the cause-effect relationships and patterns in the Russian authors approaches to their research, as well as their interpretation for the current stage of development of relations between the two countries. During research it was revealed that most of the scientific  works  of  our  compatriots  are  devoted  to  a  certain,  rather  narrow,  range  of  issues:  the  Italian–Turkish  war  of  1911–1912,  cooperation  between  Libya and Italy in the control of illegal migration from Africa to Europe, Italian military intervention in the civil war in Libya 2011. At the same time, not many Russian authors cover and analyze the Italian-Libyan cooperation in the political, cultural, social, and economic fields during the long-term period of Colonel Gaddafi’s rule in Libya. In this regard, the author of the article notes that there is a great amount of historical data: the diplomatic documents, resolutions, official letters of top public executives, treaties and agreements between the countries, including documents of international organizations that are not studied at present sufficiently. The article identifies the most perspective areas for further research of Italian-Libyan relations, what emphasizes the importance and relevance of the chosen topic. The author comes to a conclusion that at the moment it seems quite difficult to find a well-founded, comprehensive scientific literature designed to determine the nature and options for the development of relations between Libya and Italy at the modern stage.

The article is devoted to the issues of improving the legal regulation  of  academic  interaction  between  Russia  and  Germany  in  the  framework  of  the  Bologna  process.  The  work  uses  methods  of  the  retrospective,  statistical,  analytical,  rational,  comparative  research.  The  author  outlines  the  key  areas regulated by the Bologna Declaration, gives the main characteristics of the  regulatory  framework  for  the  participation  of  Russian  universities  in  the  Bologna process. The role of the Russian-German scientific and educational partnership in reforming the higher education system in Russia is noted. The article considers the regulatory legal acts that form the organizational and legal framework  of  educational  cooperation  between  Russia  and  Germany  within  the Bologna process. As fundamental issues that hinder widening the academic cooperation between Russia and Germany under the Bologna process it names an  insufficiency  of  the  Russian  legislative  base  and  a  lack  of  legal  conditions  for active academic mobility of students and academic staff. The difficulties also mentioned are: 1) high requirements for obtaining a student visa (both for Russian and German students); 2) a limited amount of educational exchange programs  for  students  and  teachers;  3)  lack  of  funding  for  educational  trips  (conferences, internships) abroad; 4) incorrect interpretation and assessment of the Russian qualification “specialist” in the countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).