Articles

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.

The development of disciplinary knowledge led to the fragmentation of the social sciences and humanities and the destruction of a unified categorical and conceptual framework. In the early modern, attempts were made to integrate these disciplines, including through political science. Currently, political science has extensive experience working with political concepts and is therefore capable of facilitating the “synchronization” of the categorical and conceptual frameworks of the disciplines comprising the unified social sciences and humanities core of Russian higher education. This article examines the historical and value-based approaches to the study of political concepts. Both approaches demonstrate the sensitivity of concepts to social and political contexts. Therefore, due to the dynamism of contexts, the system of political concepts is constantly changing, refining, and adjusting. This should be addressed within the framework of studying the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities core. The integration of social sciences and humanities is also facilitated by the shift from the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge to the acquisition of wisdom. Strengthening the university’s mediating role will allow political science to develop consensus models adequate to political realities.

This article attempts to characterize the interplay of geopolitics and space activities based on an analysis of the evolution of international relations in the realm of space exploration. The study emphasizes that in recent decades, space has become a key element of contemporary global politics. With the transition of international relations to a multipolar model among centers of influence, competition and rivalry in global affairs, including space, have intensified. Several countries are actively developing their space programs and striving for leadership in the space domain as a means to ensure national security, gain economic advantages, and wield influence in the world. The study discusses the relationship between Russia and the USA in the space domain in a historical retrospective, and analyzes the development of China’s space industry as a long-time partner of Russia in space exploration over the past thirty years. The author concludes that today, Russia and China, possessing significant space potential, set ambitious goals in this area and plan to jointly implement prospective space projects. The consolidation of efforts will open up new opportunities for both countries in space exploration.

Studying how young social media users understand and demonstrate the value of self-development allows for a better understanding of new norms and contradictions emerging among young people. The aim of the study was to identify the key forms and meanings of representing the value of self-development among Russian youth in social networks. The empirical basis of the study was a corpus of public posts by users under 35 on the topic of self-development, mainly from the VKontakte network, published between October 2024 and April 2025. Among the topics of the 369 analyzed posts related to the “Development — Self-Realization — Self-Improvement” value cluster, the predominance of two themes emerged: “Autobiographical Narrative” (50,9 %) and “Rituals and Participation” (texts in which self-realization and self-development are framed through calendar milestones and/or collective formats, 43,6 %). It was revealed that self-narratives resonate more strongly with audiences, while collective rituals are articulated through individual reports and promises. The study showed a high potential for promoting role models through the description of personal experience; the topics of various aspects of self-realization provide additional potential for the development of creative industries, as well as the development of youth policy system.

The article, devoted to the characteristics of the process of forming and training of political elites in the Soviet Union, tries to identify key aspects in the formation of the Soviet managerial class, analyze training methods and the role played by ideological factors. It also reveals the concepts such as ‘Soviet political elites’ and ‘nomenklatura’. We will consider institutions that formed political cadres and give an idea of specific requirements for a state cadres, consider decisions made by the Soviet leadership to create political elite. Methodological tools used include historical, comparative and sociological analyses, as well as institutional and discourse analysis, which allow a comprehensive reconstruction of the processes of political elite formation and tracing internal mechanisms for change.
The article substantiates the conclusion that the Soviet elite was formed as a closed managerial class, where membership was determined not by origin, but by inclusion into nomenclatural hierarchy and ideological allegiance. The results allow us to rethink the Soviet elites as dynamic systems with internal stratification, whose characteristics can be justified by stable reproduction mechanisms that combine formal access to “social elevation” with strict ideological control.