Articles

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.

This article provides an analytical review of the key stages in the formation and development of GR management as a system of practical-political for the relationship between businesses and government and an applied discipline in Russia and abroad. The authors examine the evolution of GR management through the lens of four primary organizational forms of GR activity: corporate, associative, consulting, and international (transnational) GR, development of GR as an educational and research system is also reviewed.
The study explores the key stages of GR institutionalization in Russia, systematizes existing theoretical and methodological approaches and elaborates on the core features, functions, and operational frameworks of each of the four organizational GR forms. The analysis identifies challenges facing GR management as an academic discipline and outlines directions for future research.
The findings demonstrate that GR management in Russia has evolved significantly from the fragmented practices of the 1990s to a fully-fledged academic discipline and professional field. Further institutionalization of GR in Russia requires consolidating efforts by academic and professional communities to expand its theoretical-methodological foundation, and develop new or enhance existing programs for training industry specialists.

The article investigates social architecture as a concept linking the theoretical understanding of social order with the practical tasks of public administration and the coordination of socio-political processes within the Russian sociocultural context. It examines the transition from the classical problem of social order to a new governance paradigm grounded in the principles of social architecture. The focus is on the theoretical and methodological dimensions of positioning social architecture as an element of scholarly and socio-political discourse that aspires to a normative character. The article analyzes the institutional consolidation of the social architecture concept across the domains of media, education, expert knowledge, and public policy. It assesses the potential of this discourse in terms of addressing state objectives related to the formation of national (civilizational) identity. The study draws on a combination of discursive institutionalism, the ‘analytics of government’ (in the tradition of governmentality studies), and the strategic-relational approach (of neo-Marxist tradition), enabling social architecture to be examined not as a given, but as a constructed social reality aimed at ensuring the resilience and stability of state systems. The author demonstrates that the development of the social architecture discourse represents an attempt to resolve contradictions in the governance of socio-political processes — contradictions arising from the exhaustion of the previous sociocultural tradition's potential and the need to form new systems of expert support for state policy. In a broader theoretical perspective, social architecture is considered as one possible response to the fundamental problem of social order — a problem of enduring relevance to the contemporary social sciences and humanities — in conditions where interest in Russia's national political tradition and the interpretation of its historical experience of state-building is growing.

In just a decade, Western political thought has gone from using the concept of ‘Civilizational State’ to describe the geopolitical opponents of the modern West to using it in studying the changing political structure and the geopolitical nature of Western civilization itself. These discursive changes demonstrate profound shifts in the paradigmatic perception of both the very structure of international relations and the essence of the actors in these relations. The article presents the results of an analysis of various directions of the civilizational approach in the West, which have an impact in the modern political and scientific discourse of Europe and the United States. The ‘Civilizational State’ is the most appropriate concept to describe the reality of a multipolar world, the transition from the Westphalian model of nation-states to the order of “large spaces” by Carl Schmitt. The reflection of Western political thought on the semantic burden of the concept of ‘Civilizational State’ is obligatory for comprehension in the context of the study of the identity of the Russian Civilizational State — its political, spiritual and social aspects.