This article examines the origins of the Serbian mentality, which matured over thirteen centuries in southeastern Europe’s cultural, historical, and religious-dogmatic landscape. Due to its strategically significant location, Serbia endured many trials and was exposed to external cultural and civilizational influences. These processes, as well as fateful imprinted events and the activities of prominent Serbs, had a radical impact on the formation and development of the national mentality. As Serbs explored the Balkans, they mentally found themselves within the sphere of expansion of Latin culture and language. Local elites found the foundations of their cultural development, initial theological education, and political reflection here. A distinctive identity and political mentality were formed and ingrained on the foundations of the Orthodox Christian tradition in the consciousness of a people previously defined by polytheism, Slavic character, and geographical location. The folk epic of Kosovo—the Kosovo Testament—integrates historically significant national ideals into the dominant mentalities of the Orthodox people. In the Serbian mentality, the religious dimension of national and political identity is expressed in the desire to preserve national integrity, sovereignty, and uniqueness, and in a passionate commitment to the values of faith, justice, and freedom.

The article is devoted to the study of contemporaries’ views on the Polish question in the Russian Empire in the 19th century. The problem, being considered in the context of international relations, domestic politics and the national specifics of the region, is presented through the analysis of the correspondence of the Russian diplomat Prince N.A. Orlov with Tsesareviches (heirs apparent) Grand Dukes Nicholas Alexandrovich and Alexander Alexandrovich. The article presents an approach to assessing the evolution of imperial policy from granting autonomy to the Kingdom of Poland to the events of 1863–1864, emphasizing the complexity of the balance between centralization and consideration of local characteristics. Special attention is paid to the role of the Polish uprisings as some kind of catalysts for changes in the governance of the region. The purpose of the study is to examine the contradictions and consequences (as reflected in Russian elites’ consciousness, according to the analysis of N.A. Orlov’s manuscripts) of the Russian Empire’s policy in the Polish territories and neighboring ones.

The article examines the formation of the internal security system on the Asian outskirts of the Russian Empire in the last third of the 18th century — a period of large-scale transformations under the reign of Catherine II. The author analyses the institutional foundations of law enforcement in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, regions characterised by low population density, ethnic and confessional diversity, underdeveloped infrastructure, and the absence of a landowning nobility that was a key element for maintaining order in the European part of the country. Particular attention is paid to the description of the pre-reform security system and the key innovations introduced by the Governorate reform of 1775 and the Police Ordinance of 1782. The new security model combined the principles of legality and crime prevention with traditional mechanisms of social control. The article highlights the key changes: the establishment of the institutions of gorodnichy (city commandants) and zemsky ispravnik (district police chiefs), the separation of police, judicial, and fiscal functions, and the involvement of the local population in maintaining public order. The study concludes that by the end of the 18th century, a relatively unified and structured internal security system had been formed on the Asian outskirts. This system met the objectives of imperial administration and remained in place for nearly a century.

The article examines the evolution of the image of the Russian autocrat (samoderzhets) and the concept of autocracy (samoderzhavie) in the 1610s–1660s. It is examined how the idea of the monarch’s power was formed and changed in the social consciousness during the key period of the Romanov dynasty establishing. The research methodology is based on a comprehensive analysis of various sources: official documents, historical chronicles, other historiographical and literary monuments, and folk art.
The study shows that the legitimacy of the power of the first Romanovs was based on three key elements: dynastic succession, “people's will” and Divine election. It is revealed that in the official discourse there was a gradual shift in emphasis from popular election to the sacralization of power, the source of which was declared solely the will of God. The analysis of non-governmental sources demonstrates that all classes of Russian society have accepted this transformation, while expecting the autocrat to fulfill his duties as a defender of the faith, preserve “silence” and regather lands. Thus, autocracy (samoderzhavie) has established itself as a value core uniting the state and society.

The article is devoted to the issues of the applicability potential of nonlinear analysis to the study of political processes and the substantiation of such applicability. It examines the results of Russian political and social scientists’ work published in the 1990s and related to forecasting and modeling socio-political changes. The study analyzes the phenomenon of an imbalance of forces and interests as a source of social problems, identifies problem types in relation to types of political activity, examines the specifics of their solutions, as well as the characteristics of the manifestation of political interests in these processes, and characterizes the conceptual ideas about the matter of politics, developed in the research of the 1990s. Models for solving ordinary problems (with increasing stability of the status quo) and extraordinary problems (with increasing stability of the social system) are compared. Concepts regarding the relationship between problem types, types of political activity, and types of conflicts are summarized, as well as reflection of this relationship in modeling socio-political changes; the features of the manifestation of political interests in a problematic situation are highlighted; model representations of the matter of politics reflecting the interrelation of interests, needs, and claims are described.