The article presents the results of the study of should -constructions in the penitentiary instructions of the 19^th century. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that the data obtained will complement the understanding of the means of expression of the category of directivity in the period of formation of the language of penal legislation. The novelty of the work is seen primarily in the fact that the forms of expression of the meaning of obligation are studied in legal discourse as a means of linguistic construction of the legal norm. In addition, the sources are the texts not previously studied from a linguistic standpoint. The article seeks to identify distinctive signs, allowing to differentiate between deontic and non-deontic necessity in legal discourse. Based on the idea that the basic semantic indicator of deontic or non-deontic statements with the meaning of obligation is the nature of the relationship of the subjects of obligation, the authors distinguish between the forms of a normative obligation and a need. The first, having in its syntactic structure the position of an agent, imply the ratio of subjects through the force of coercion. The second, active constructions with non-agentive subject, are determined by the opposition of the subject-addressee of obligation, implementing the modes of need and aspiration, and the subject of voluntariness, which in turn implements a strong-willed impact on an agent that bears an non-normative character.

The book “Political eloquence. What a speaker needs” by M. N. Popov is analyzed. The book is considered as the first Russian rhetorical guide to political speech. The appearance of Popov’s work is associated with the birth of parliamentary and - more broadly - political rhetoric in Russia in the early 20^th century. Particular attention is paid to the format of the publication - public, popular rhetorical guidance - and its content in terms of the author’s ideas about the emerging parliamentary communication. A portrait of a reader is recreated: this is a person who does not have a systematic education, but has experience in pronouncing non-institutional speeches at rallies and gatherings. The structure of the book in the aspect of traditional rhetorical guides is analyzed. Attention is drawn both to the deviations from the traditional canons of compiling a textbook on rhetoric, and to the continuity of the latter. Particular attention is paid to M. N. Popov’s usage of psychological approach in explaining the problems of interaction between the speaker and the audience. It is concluded that M. N. Popov’s book reflects largely idealistic views about oral public speech in Parliament, but at the same time anticipates many traits of domestic parliamentary communication. Analyzed work is of scientific interest as a source of study of the history of Russian rhetoric reflecting the rhetorical ideal of the Russian public political speech.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the elements of meaning with the semantic sign of ‘man’ (anthropocentric elements) on the material of the Russian and French languages. Their role in the semantics of formal tokens and discursive words is discussed. The classification of a number of hidden anthropocentric elements is proposed, substantiation of this classification is given. Novelty of research consists in that such elements are related not only to a speaker and an observer, as in many works on similar topic, but to a carrier of a point of view, norm, a scale controller. The results of the additions of modern service descriptions and discursive words are presented. The author notes that the existing descriptions of the semantics for indicating an implicit presence of the element man use the impersonal construction or indicate the internal state of one of the main semantic actants (X wants, X believes that, X is experiencing the condition Y), or introduce the indicators of logical, emotional, probabilistic assessment, that is individualized figure behind the scenes is explicitly absent. It is proposed to include in the semantic description various types of anthropocentric elements of the hidden plan instead of combining them under the names of a speaker or an observer .

The features of the concept representation of wine drinking in the artistic version of Boris Akunin are considered on the example of a series of detective stories “The Adventures of Erast Fandorin”. The work is a continuation of the author’s research in the field of artistic interpretation of Bacchic discourse by various writers. The connection between the creation of a bacchic artistic image and the type of culture (soteriological and eudaimonic) is noted. Among the artistic features of Akunin’s work is a description of the crimes that were committed with “grace and taste”. The author of the article claims that this feature affects the choice of means of creating a bacchic picture of the world in the work. It is noted that the introduction of elements of the wine drinking situation is used by Akunin as a means of reconstructing the background “picture” that performs a descriptive function, and as a plot-modeling component. In the Akunin model of a city street of the XIX century, the “classical” composition of the characters includes not only “a janitor”, “a tradeswoman”, “a cabman”, etc., but also a “drunken cornball”. A “character model” is described, including a set of his characteristics, which can be called a “card index” of his weaknesses and habits. Among the elements of this “card index” the presence of a tendency to wine drinking, which is a character's vulnerability, is noted. The character traits include such features as appearance (face, eyes, weight), olfactory characteristics (smell as a marker of social status or national identity), speech (voice, its timbre, register and manners), wine variety as a business card of the hero, his weaknesses and habits.

The author discusses the category of paradigm introduced by Thomas Kuhn, systematizes and summarizes the principal claims advanced by home and foreign scholars, reveals the most common trends in understanding paradigms in modern humanities, specifically in linguistics. It is demonstrated that the category of paradigm remains popular, but it has undergone some transformations. Considering the review, it can be assumed that the strict understanding of paradigms as incompatible model problems and solutions to them is being replaced by more flexible statements about a greater or lesser importance of a given paradigm over a specific period. Scholars admit the possibility to return to old research problems and tackle them at a higher level, focus on building a universal paradigm that would incorporate various directions of studies and views of language. The author characterizes paradigm arguments in Western research methodology as constructed on the basis of different philosophical approaches to knowledge (admitting or rejecting the possibility to learn the objective truth). It is shown that the methodological compromise has resulted in ‘compatibility principle’, mixed-method research, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative research in humanities, including linguistics.

The article covers the features of verbal self-presentation in the German-speaking segment of the Instagram Internet service. The study focuses on the virtual personality of influencers from Germany, who through blogging gain popularity among a large audience of users and achieve commercial benefits. The relevance of the work is predetermined by the anthropocentric paradigm of modern linguistics and the unflagging attention of philologists to the issues of Internet communication. The novelty is seen in the fact that for the first time an attempt is made to comprehensively consider verbal methods and means of self-presentation in the Instagram environment. The linguistic analysis of self-positioning of a special category of virtual communicants-influencers, which has no analogues in modern linguistics, is proposed. The author distinguishes four ways of verbal self-presentation in Instagram: self-nomination (user name and account name), self-description, caption for a photo or video, comment. The use of each method for the construction of a virtual image of the blogger is characterized separately. It is noted that all components of self-presentation of influencers demonstrate certain trends in the use of language tools. The structural, lexical, thematic, graphical specificity of the self-presentational ways is describes. The results of quantitative analysis of the vocabular diversity and readability of the texts produced by the influencers performed with the help of special software are presented.

Rarely raised in the works on onomastics the question of the functioning of anthroponymic units - calendar and non-calendar personal names recorded in the Karelian official written monuments of the 15^th-17^th centuries, heterogeneous in terms of genre. From the functional point of view the author analyzes the composition of the regional name collection and nominative variants, the abundance of which in the regional written sources of the pre-national period is explained by the lack of a single, strict norm in the representation of a person at the specified time. It is proved that the complete picture of the onomastic system can be folded using the data of documents of different genres. However, due to the specifics of each of them, the repertoire is more fully represented in the official and business writing, and nominative variation - in the Acts narratives, including various individual nominations of one person: full (Church and worldly) personal names and ones modified from full and truncated, abbreviated forms. Particular attention is paid to anthropoformants, creating a variety of individual human nominations, fixation of which is associated with the functioning of such forms in the spoken language, the implicit representative of which were the texts of official documents. It is emphasized that some formants are attached to the names of certain social groups of persons (Church officials, Zemstvo officials, women, etc.), as well as territorial, temporary binding of modifiers with certain suffixes to a certain territory and a certain time.

The article is focused on the problem of ordering and adaptation of modern Russian onomastic terminology to its foreign, especially Western European versions. The material for the analysis was the terms and their definitions from the Dictionary of Russian Onomastic Terminology by N. V. Podolskaya, the list of basic terms of ICOS (International Council of Onomastic Sciences) and lists of basic terms and their definitions in English, French and German. The article shows the history of the Russian urbanonymic terminology, noting its systematic nature. At the same time, its shortcomings are pointed out: emergence of new meanings of the term urbanonym that are contrary to the recommendations of the dictionaries and are not included in the conceptual field of the toponym, which is a hypernym for it. The authors note the difficulties in adapting the Russian terminology under Western European, its inconsistency: the term odonym actually acts as a synonym of the Russian term urbanonym . At the same time, it can be argued that in the Western European tradition, in contrast to the Russian one, the complete concept of urbanonym and its hypero-hyponymic relations is missing. The revision of the list of basic ICOS onomastic terms is needed, introduction of a term similar to the Russian urbanonym , its precise definition, definition of the scope of the specific terms and its components.

The analysis of secondary colour nominations attributing a shade by means of attraction of real images is carried out. The material for the study was “The Unique Reference with Parameters (RGB, HSV, CMYK, hex) and Names of about 1,000 Colours” on the web-site http://tinyurl.ru/services/colour/list. Names of shades of colour are characterized from the point of view of their structural characteristics and motivational characteristics. It is found that colour names with the subject reference may be single-word units, and may provide a simple and comprehensive phrases, the structure of which is not always a colour symbol or a reference to a colour of any object. It is shown that the studied colour nominations are often derived from phytonyms, zoonyms, hydronyms and other words naming objects of living and inanimate nature. It is noted that some of the non-basic colour names are derived from nouns that name personalities, geographical objects, organizations, etc. Usually such colour names are focused on attracting the attention of an educated recipient of speech. The analysis of the material confirms the opinion of other researchers of colour nominations: they believe that colour naming is often based on metaphorical and metonymic transfer of a meaning.

The article is devoted to the study of structural models and semantic content of parenthetical structures presented in the texts of modern English fiction. The relevance of the study is due to its focus on studying parenthetical corpus of modern English language in the framework of general scientific problem “a man in a language.” The novelty of the study lies in the fact that it is made on the modern language material (texts by S. King, D. Barnes, Y. McEwan, D. Mitchell, D. Coe), not studied previously in terms of parenthetical structures functioning. Attraction of new language material presented by 736 contexts and the use of component, distributional, transformational, contextual analysis methods and method of quantitative calculations have allowed to deepen the existing knowledge about the structure and semantics of parenthetical constructions in the English language. In particular, it was found that the most typical structural models of parenthetical constructions in modern English prose are word forms, phrase and simple sentence. The most characteristic for the semantic content of the considered constructions is refinement / detailing (of a character’s image, its state or a situation), the expression of the author’s position, as well as the introduction of additional rema. The functions of concretisation and explanatory comment can be recognized as the most frequent functions of parenthetical constructions.

The issues related to the transformation of Slavic languages at the turn of the 20^th - 21^st centuries are considered. Special attention is paid to the tendencies of enrichment of Bulgarian and Russian languages with phraseological units. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that for the first time a comparative analysis of dictionaries containing phraseological neologisms is made. The results of a comparison of the sources of phraseological units and their areas of functioning are presented. The author proceeds from the fact that the enrichment of phraseology is subject to two trends - borrowing and updating at the expense of its own reserves. It is established that borrowed phraseological units are represented by calques, semi-calques and units that preserve the original sound appearance. It is emphasized that they function in technical, political, financial, military, sport and other spheres of communication. The author dwells on the differences between Bulgarian and Russian neologisms: Bulgarians have mainly folk and folklore units; Russians have many expressions from synthetic genres of art. The higher productivity of such “suppliers” of neologisms as international political discourse, military and slang spheres in the Russian language, and financial and economic sphere in the Bulgarian language is proved. The relevance of the study is proved by the need to create the Russian-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-Russian dictionaries of phraseological neologisms.

The article analyzes the world of childhood of a girl-noblewoman in the memoirs of T. N. Sukhotina-Tolstaya, the eldest daughter of Leo Tolstoy. It is shown that the world of childhood in “Memories” is represented in a number of images typical for the genre of autobiography (memories of childhood), and for the manor metatext. Among them, the author pays special attention to the following: space of a children’s room, environment of a child (brothers and sisters, significant adults - parents, educators), organization of activities and leisure, holidays, games, favourite toys, food and smells in the estate. It is proved that in the text of “Memoirs” childhood is described by the laws of the manor idyll, allowing contradictions. Thus, a child’s life is perceived by the memoirist as the happiest time lived “in Paradise” and gone forever. At the same time, childhood-Paradise is adjacent to the world of death (the death of the older generation and the death of the child), as well as opposed to adolescence (“difficult years”) and subsequent adult life (“without a father”). Attention is also drawn to the fact that the heroine’s growing up is shown through the implementation of the motif “expulsion from Paradise.” It is concluded that these contradictions do not remove the “Paradise halo” from the image of childhood and are organically perceived by the memoirist as a part of life.

The problem of modelling a classical plot in the literature of modernism and postmodernism is considered. Attention is paid to the transformation of the story of Alexander the Great in the novels of Mikhail Kuzmin (1872-1936) and Sasha Sokolov (b. 1943). The results of comparative analysis of two novels of different literary directions are presented. The question is raised that the classic story and image are transformed, becoming a way of artistic understanding of the worldview of the era. Particular attention is paid to the methods of stylization and parody in the studied texts. It is shown that the authors in the classic examples are looking for the ways to resolve the conflicts of our time: M. Kuzmin’s application to the image of the great commander is an artistic interpretation of the tragedy of human existence that have reached a lot in this world, but can not change the fate; Sasha Sokolov writes his “Palisandria” to depict the new ironic perspective on the historical process. The relevance of the study is due to the need of modern literary studies in typological studies, in the search for intertextual links. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the comparison of plot and figuratively close texts in the main literary directions of the 20^th century allows to see ways of modelling a classic plot in its variants, taking into account the specifics of modernism and postmodernism.

The article is devoted to one of the newest genres of literary criticism - philological novel. Material for the study was the work of the contemporary Austrian writer Barbara Frishmuth - “Time of Ripening.” The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that Frishmuth’s works are little studied in the domestic literature, and this novel was not analyzed by Russian scientists. The proposed research coordinate system considers literary approach to addressing problems in the modern literature, including B. Frishmuth’s works. The author dwells on the characterization of the novel’s main character - a philologist, creative personality, whose creative abilities are manifested in the spontaneity of the world view, inner freedom, desire to comprehend the irrational mystery of creativity. It is shown that this novel has a complex composition associated with the interweaving of different chronological plans; driving force of the story is a mystery. The question of the set of realities and fiction in the depicted world of the work is raised. Special attention is paid to the fact that not only the narrator but all the characters in the novel are involved in the literary activities: specialists in medieval cryptography plunge into the mysterious text, they gradually begin to understand that they faced with one of the fantastic mysteries of the past - amazing conversation between a great Eastern poet with a German Prelate of a small monastery, who were divided by a century.

The article examines the activities of state authorities of the Kabardian autonomous Soviet socialist republic at the final stage of the Great Patriotic War. This phenomenon is considered against the background of the deportation of Balkarians to Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The nomenclature of positions and resolutions of the Kabardian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) were studied in terms of restructuring the management system in the republic. It was established that among the actualized problems of development of the management system during this period was the aggravation of the personnel crisis, in which the deportation of the Balkar people was added to the number of main causes (participation in military actions, high death rates of both military and civilians). It is noted that among the main areas of activity of the republic authorities in the period under review are actions aimed at improving the material and living situation of orphans and children of front-line soldiers, structural changes in government, harvesting and bread-making on collective and state farms, launching socialist competition and etc. Attention is drawn to the fact that after the deportation of Balkarians, the main constitutional functions of the authorities as compared with the previous period did not undergo significant changes. It was concluded that the main transformations in the system of power of the republic in the period under review were associated with the transformation of the administrative and territorial structure of the region and the change in the ethnic composition of leading staff.

The problem of transformation of the Soviet Union’s policy towards Afghanistan in the period from the April “revolution” of 1978 to the collapse of the USSR. The author pays attention to the analysis of objective and subjective reasons that influenced the change in the content of the USSR policy in relation to this country. The relevance of the study is due to the need to know and take into account the positive and negative experience of the USSR policy in Afghanistan when developing new relations of the Russian Federation in this region at present. The novelty of the study is in the fact that, based on historiography and new documents, the features of the Afghan policy of the USSR under Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev are revealed. It is proved that the leadership of the USSR, having critically rethought the experience of the war in Afghanistan, began to seek a peaceful solution within the Afghan problem. The author notes that, having decided to withdraw the Soviet troops, it continued to provide military and material assistance to its pro-Soviet ally. It is shown that the USSR was not only a fighting supporter of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, but also provided great economic assistance to this country in the development of the economy and social sphere.

The background of the second Russian-Iranian war of 1825-1826 is considered. It is shown that for almost three decades from the beginning of the 19th century, Kajar Iran stubbornly and persistently fought with Russia for supremacy in the South Caucasus, while the first Russan-Iranian war of 1804-1813 ended with the defeat of Iran and the conclusion of the Gulistan Treaty. It is noted that, despite the peace treaty, tensions between the two countries persisted, since both states were dissatisfied with its conditions. The purpose of this article is to consider the prerequisites and reasons for the start of the second Russan-Iranian war and to answer a number of questions, in particular, whether the unratified Tiflis Treaty (1825) on border delimitation can be considered final; whether Great Britain was the culprit or instigator of the second Russan-Iranian war, as claimed in almost all Soviet and Russian historiography; why Britain did not provide the promised assistance to Qacar Iran under the Tehran Treaty of 1814. The author comes to the conclusion that in the second Russian-Iranian war, the policy of Kajar Iran was defensive in relation to Russia and was due to the expansionist actions of Russia in the region.

The basic approaches to the study of the political development and government of Siena, one of the Italian republics of the Renaissance, are examined. The works of Western, especially Italian, historians of the second half of the XX - beginning of the XXI centuries are analyzed. The novelty of the study is that the author summarizes the results of studying the problem, shows the evolution of approaches to its solution, introduces the reader to modern views on it. An urgent question about the specifics of the Renaissance state by the example of the formation of Siena statehood in the second half of the XIV - first half of the XVI centuries has been raised. Based on a study of the works touching upon this problem, the author shows that during the study period the issue of the features of Siena’s political and state development was considered from different perspectives and underwent evolution from the problem of the decline of Siena to the problems of autonomy of the Siena state within the “Medici state”. Analysis of Western historiography of this period leads the author to agree with the conclusions of Italian scientists that the formation of a system of “parties” and coalition governments in Siena determines not only the relatively late formation of Signoria Petrucci, but also the specifics of Siena’s political and state development a kind of historical alternative to the Florentine signoria.

The causes of the food crisis in the Trans-Baikal region during the years of the First World War are studied. Archival materials reveal the specifics of the food supply of the region as a consuming region, dependent on supplies from European Russia, Western Siberia, the Far East, Manchuria. The factors of high cost and deficit of basic food products (sugar, bread, meat) are revealed. It is shown that speculation, violation of railway communication, and food supply for the army played a significant role. The crisis features are characterized: the crisis manifested itself in the high cost and shortage of food products until 1916, it reached particular severity in late 1916 - early 1917. Large cities (Chita, Verkhneudinsk) experienced great difficulties in supplying the population. The proposals of the military governor commissioned to the Special Meeting on Food in the Trans-Baikal Region A. I. Kiyashko on ways to solve the provision problem are analyzed. It is emphasized that the possibilities for the influence of the provincial administration on economic processes were significantly limited; it did not have any unit for supplying or distributing products, regulating prices, or ensuring timely food provision. It is noted that the activity of the administrative and managerial structures of Transbaikal in the conditions of insufficient development and integration of the territory was complicated by the fact that there were not even statistical organizations here.

The article focuses on K. R. Kachorovsky’s views on the customary law of Russian peasants. The focus of attention is the peasant volost justice, which was developed in post-reform Russia. The paper analyzes the domestic historiography of the issue. The article is based on the fundamental works of K. R. Kachorovsky dedicated to the rural community. In turn, Kachorovsky’s position was based on the valuable source - materials of the peasant communities which he collected through questionnaires. The article shows that the researcher was a supporter of the theory of labour in peasant law, examines in detail his ideas about the “right to work” and “work right” in rural life. It is noted that Kachorovsky and a number of other researchers in post-reform Russia claimed contradictions between the legal views of labour and the lower classes of the Russian elite, relying on the categories of Roman law. In this regard, the thesis is substantiated that the peasants had a strong sense of ownership, but in accordance with the norms of customary law and the labour principle; in this regard, the agrarian unrest of the early 20^th century should be assessed not as “pogroms,” but as attempts of the community to restore justice in its usual legal sense. The novelty of the research lies in the appeal to the creative heritage of the original researcher of the pre-revolutionary village, who studied the legal concepts and values of the Russian peasantry.

The development of the transport and communication system of the Erivan region in the middle of the XIX - early XX centuries, as well as the impact it had on the economic life of the region in the specified period is considered. Analyzing the development of industry in the Erivan Oblast in the late XIX - early XX centuries, it was noted that neither foreign nor Russian capital was involved in the industry of the studied region until the end of the XIX century. This is the novelty and relevance of the study. The main attention is paid to the fact that until the end of the XIX century the industry of the region was limited to two main areas: the processing of copper and the production of wine and brandy. It is emphasized that the development of the transport system in the South Caucasus led to radical changes in many areas of industry, including trade. Based on the analysis of historical sources, it is proved that since the beginning of the 20th century, the role of Russian capital has increased in the industry of the Erivan region, without a doubt. It is shown that the industry of the region developed not due to consolidation and concentration, but due to expansion of the initial enterprises.

The analysis of interpretations of chapter 39 of the Magna Carta proposed by two prominent Russian historians A. N. Savin and P. G. Vinogradov is carried out. It is shown that, although the editors of the Magna Carta of 1225 were of great importance in the constitutional development of England, the authors used the edition of 1215. It is noted that A. N. Savin was interested in the social realities hidden behind the words and formulas of chapter 39: in his opinion, the article reflected the interests of the baronial opposition of the royal power, the feudal lords under “free” meant themselves and wanted to fix guarantees against arbitrariness, while one of instruments to protect the rights and privileges of tycoons was to become a class court - the “court of equals”, or “the court of peers”. The opinion of another historian, P. G. Vinograd, who focused on the adaptive capabilities of chapter 39 of the Magna Charter, is presented: the term free , which in this article refers to barons, was later transferred to other categories of the population, including the Villans; the term country law , which means “customs and laws”, later came to mean “legality, and the further interpretation of "legality” and “law” led to the king’s prerogative of arbitrary arrests being more and more perceived as an exception, but not a rule.

The question of the development of humanistic historiography in the Renaissance and early Modern era is considered. Special attention is paid to the contribution of Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609) to the creation of a new chronology. The novelty of the research is that Scaliger’s achievements in the field of chronology are considered as an important component of the process of formation of a new historical narrative and the development of scientific principles of historical research. It is emphasized that earlier works written by Italian humanist historians used outdated calendar systems, which developed in the late Antique era and were characterized by a lack of understanding of the true significance of the change of historical epochs. The authors show that Scaliger’s achievements in the field of chronology allowed historians of the early Modern era, especially the French historians, to make significant progress in the understanding of the relevant for the history of Europe period of transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The article concludes that due to the achievements of Scaliger the time scale of the Roman Empire and barbarian kingdoms was able to line up in a meaningful sequence. The history of the Frankish Kingdom as the initial period of the Middle Ages was able to take its place of honor in the writings of historians.

The article is devoted to the comparison of the national policy of France and the Russian Empire in the last third of the 19^th - early 20^th centuries. It is shown that France was characterized in the national issue by the desire to take revenge on Germany after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, the development of political anti-Semitism, the increase in the level of migration from colonial possessions. Attention is paid to the fact that many nationalities lived on the territory of the Russian Empire. Special attention is paid to the fact that in Russia by the end of the 19^th century there was a tightening of national policy, which was aimed at the Russification of representatives of national minorities in order to consolidate the population. The authors dwell on the fact that in the course of national policy in the last third of the 19^th - early 20^th centuries the French government managed to smooth out the contradictions on the national issue, integrating the population and creating conditions for successful actions within the framework of imperialism. It is shown that in the Russian Empire the national issue was not resolved, becoming one of the causes of the revolution of 1905-1907, as well as one of the destabilizing factors during the First World War.

The article analyses notes-memories of Yulia Egorovna Zavoyko (1819-1892), wife of the famous Russian military leader, Admiral Vasily Stepanovich Zavoyko (1810-1898). The literary heritage of Yu. E. Zavoyko is regarded as an important historical source on the history of Kamchatka and the Kamchatka theatre of the Crimean war of 1853-1856. The relevance of the topic is due to the great interest that nowadays manifests itself to the historical problems of gender, first of all - to the understanding of the role of a woman in the historical process. Scientific novelty of research consists in the fact that the literary heritage of Yu. E. Zavoyko by the date has not been the subject of research. It is noted that her name is now known mainly only to professional historians and those who are interested in the history of Russia. It is reported that Yu. E. Zavoyko was born in an aristocratic family and was a relative of a whole group of famous Russian historical figures. It is emphasized that a number of memoirs and scientific works are devoted to the Kamchatka events of 1854-1855. It is stated that some works are devoted to Yu. E. Zavoyko herself and her famous husband, but her memories were not given worthy attention. It is argued that these memories favourably differ from all other works by the fact that they are written by a woman, wife and mother, and therefore do not cover the “battle” (and well-known), but the everyday, everyday side of life and defence of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. It is added that their author was able to contain a fairly large amount of valuable historical, ethnographic and geographical information in a small number of written pages.

The article is a historiographical study devoted to the analysis of the signs of statehood of such actors of the Middle East policy as Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS. The purpose of the work is to study the array of scientific literature and on the basis of the extracted data to conclude about the possession of the above actors signs of outcast states, “failed states” and quasi-state entities. Particular attention is paid to the research of individual cases (historical development and the current situation of Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS), as well as to the works focused on the comparison of these actors. Modern authoritative scientific works on this subject, most of which relate to 2015-2019, were chosen as the basis of the study. The relevance of the study of the characteristics of these organizations is due to the need to expand knowledge about these terrorist groups, understanding of the processes taking place in the unstable Middle East region. On the basis of the literature studied, the author concludes that Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS have features of both outcast states and “failed states” and quasi-state entities. The author also notes that due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East, the scientific interest in the study of quasi-state Middle Eastern actors in the historiographical sphere will only grow.

The article is devoted to the historical trajectory of the Committee for the Assistance to Scientists (CAS) under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, which existed in 1931-1937. It is reported that the CAS replaced the Central Committee for the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists (CCIWS), which had operated under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR since 1921. It describes the functions that were inherited by the CAS from the predecessor organization, and the new powers acquired by it. The author examines in detail the traditional areas of CAS activities inherited from Central Committee for the Improvement of Welfare of Scientists (CCIWS): food and commodity supply of the higher social group of the Soviet scientific intellectuals, elite housing construction for this category of scientists, the organization of medical and sanatorium-resort services for scientists, and their corporate leisure activities. It is emphasized that CAS was an organization for the Soviet scientific elite (1,500-2,000 people). It was shown that the selection of scientific workers was based on the nomenclature-official approach and formal signs of scientific achievements (leadership position, membership in the USSR Academy of Sciences and the academies of the Union republics, etc.). It is noted that the activities of the Committee were organized for the purposeful ideological subordination of a significant part of the scientific intellectuals in exchange for solving a set of its financial, welfare and professional problems.

The question of the development of the Kuban and Stavropol economy industrial sectors in the years of the initial stage of the industrialization plans is considered. The results of a comparative analysis of the industrial sectors of these agricultural regions in their production ratio with the agricultural sector are presented. The relevance of the study is due to the need to analyze the factors of economic interrelation of various business entities, as well as regional characteristics of economic development based on an integrated approach when analyzing the socio-economic transformations of this period. The novelty of the research is in the fact that the economic situation in these agrarian southern Russian regions is being reconstructed from the point of view of the tasks of industrial development and the effectiveness of their solution in the historical context of the corresponding epoch. Special attention is paid to the issues of interaction in this period of collectivized agriculture with industry, primarily with its two branches - food and processing. The problems of reconstruction of relevant enterprises and the construction of new plants and factories are touched upon. Their classification by industry and degree of importance is proposed. It is proved that the industrial enterprises of Stavropol and, especially, Kuban were distinguished by a multi-vector application and development of their production potential, despite the pronounced agrarian dominant in the economy of these regions.

The article is devoted to the study of Chinese historical and ethnographic monuments “Images of tributaries” (“Zhi gong tu”). One of them - “Images of tributaries of the ruling Qing dynasty” (“Huang Qing zhi gong tu”) is mostly analyzed. The novelty of the study is in the fact that for the first time in Russian science a comprehensive review and analytical consideration of these works is presented. The relevance of the study is caused by the growing scientific interest of Russian and foreign scientists in imagological research, as well as poor knowledge of these monuments. The article restores the historical background and circumstances of the creation of the album “Images of tributaries of the ruling Qing Dynasty”. The codicological and structural-compositional descriptions of two copies of it are kept in the collection of old-printed Chinese books of the Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University. The classification of the regions and peoples described in the album is given. The method of organizing the material is analyzed. The nature of the information reported about ethnic groups is revealed. The question of the multi-level content of the book is raised, and the importance of its comprehensive study using interdisciplinary approaches is noted. Particular attention is paid to the connection of the monument with the traditional foreign policy concepts of imperial China; the unique features of “Huang Qing zhi gong tu” are revealed.

Two recent books on the history of the environment and the Middle Ages published by Cambridge University Press are analyzed: Richard Hoffman’s “Ecological History of Medieval Europe” (2014) and Bruce M. S. Campbell’s “The Great Transition: Climate, Disease and Society in the Late Medieval World” (2016). The interdisciplinary approach of both authors is noted, which allowed to re-illuminate such central themes of medieval history as the decline of Rome, religious doctrines, urbanization and technology. It is indicated that the books address key environmental topics: energy use, sustainability, disease and climate change. It is reported that Hoffman and Campbell identify the role of natural forces in such processes as climate change, disease and the transformation of military and political balance. This approach is positively evaluated in this article, as it allows to study the devastating effects of the above factors: hunger, floods, mortality of people and animals, wars and financial crises. It is emphasized that the authors of the analyzed books, immersing medieval history in the context of social ecology, introduce the world of nature into historiography as an acting character (actant) and an object of history itself.