The study of culture as a diversity of activities involves the study of specific forms of such activities not only in their “independent” existence, but also through the lens of those who actually carry out the activities. This approach in cultural studies is related to the treatment of psychology data and cannot ignore its achievements, which became especially relevant by the end of XX - the beginning of XXI centuries and continue to remain among the most demanded issues of cultural studies as a scientific discipline. The methodology of such studies is related to the integrated use of experimental psychology data, as well as theoretical reflection of their role and place in holistic knowledge about the peculiarities of solving “human problem” with their help.

Because of this, science, art and religion as spheres of cultural activity can be considered through the lens of S. Freud’s theory of unconscious and the clarifications made to this teaching by academician P.V. Simon. According to Simonov, the Freudian “pre-conscious” includes both subconscious and super-conscious. The subconscious contains interiorized mechanical skills and nonverbalizable images. An important discovery of Simonov was the identification in the psyche of the area of super-consciousness, where also nonverbalized images are placed, which protect consciousness from itself. In addressing the mental layers of science, art and religion, three sub-levels can be identified in each. In science, these are hypothetics (super-consciousness), theoretmatics (consciousness), and axiomatics (subconscious). In art, respectively, icons (super-consciousness), drama (consciousness), and canon (subconscious). In religion - mythics (super-consciousness), theologics (consciousness), dogmatics (subconscious).

One of the most important aspects of the layers and levels of the psyche in a given model is their balanced development, which helps to prevent multiple “distortions” in one direction or another. The normative layer of cultural studies defined in this way, does not mean essentialist attitudes. The foundation of analytical psychology rests on an experimental component; when thinking about a holistic human phenomenon, its importance still requires a study.

The article describes the socio-cultural situation in which the individual professionally working on scientific and mathematical problems turns out in politary society (ancient Egypt and Babylon, India and China, medieval Arab-Muslim world, etc.). It focuses on the complex relationship between scientists seeking to uncover the mysteries of nature, and the clergy whose aim is complete control of the process and results of any cognitive activities. Hierocratic estate allows research only to the extent that is necessary for the consolidation of its prerogatives and powers. The conflict of these two cognitive trends largely determines the general character and peculiarities of scientific-cognitive activity in these societies. Existing sacral picture of the world is considered as a firm and perfect one, requiring only minor refinements and specifications. While rituals, committed by clergy, positioned as a necessary condition for the preservation of the natural and social world order. On the contrary, sovereign scientific discourse implies that scientist has a right on free revision of existing views as about the world in general and about specific details of its devices and evolution. The scientist also should not be restricted in finding and applying specific means and methods of cognition of truth. Accordingly, the performance of rituals cannot play a significant role in the picture of the world which is created by scholar’s work. Patterns found in the natural processes are independent from actions committed by various people, including the sacred ceremonies of both ordinary and very senior individuals of spiritual title. Proto-scientific concepts of the universe and particular consequents from them are treated by hierocracyas godless and heretical. In the absence of adequate empirical and theoretical arguments, priests and theologians have to resort in struggle against scholar’s freethinking to force “arguments”. But scientists under favorable conditions can successfully resist this pressure and continue their professional work.

This article is considering origins of Stoic representation of Cosmos as The Universe State and there is briefly tracing its totemistic preconditions, which were proceeding from the primitive mythopoetic thinking’s specifics. Furthermore, there is proving a thesis about that the metaphor of Cosmos-Polis has emerged from searchings of an adequate philosophical language by early Greek thinkers, and that sociomorphical code was one of the most important metaphorical models of Cosmos in ancient philosophical poetics, not only for Stoics. A great number of political doctrines by Plato and faraway in the postplatonic tradition, including Stoa, were arising on the fundament of the this code. There is considering character of some Stoic ethical contradictions and is offering an attempt of resolving them through allocation of horizontically-civil and vertically-divine links in the Stoic teaching, which were containing peculiar dual system of communication of stoic sage with Cosmos.

This article discusses the text and its problem in the culture of philosophy of the XX century. It is shown that the peculiarity of this approach is the disclosure of the essence of dialogical thinking in culture through the study of the text as the “primary reality” of any Humanities. The article analyzes the scientific research that the text as a universal form of communication can not be reduced only to the semiotic or only hermeneutic understanding. The paper presents an attempt to chronologically consider the problem of the text in different periods of society. The concept of “test epoch” is revealed in great detail . In conclusion, the article reveals the cultural and philosophical traditions of the XX century in the Russian intellectual field, where of particular interest is the direction of philosophical thought, which seeks to justify the specifics of the methodological approach to social and humanitarian knowledge, which differs from the natural science and mathematical methodology. Central to this area of research are the concepts of symbol, function, communication, game, and text. The main advantage of this study is that such a view will be interesting to specialists in the field of philosophy and Philology.

This article offers a brief overview of some challenges and paradoxes of contemporary research as well as various social questions related to them. Key problems of consciousness research are stated relating to the scientific work on artificial intelligence development. Due to such ambitious objectives of modern science, there is a special attention to personality sphere, to its emotional sufferings and personal creative aspirations. The proposed theses of research of the communicative and creative possibilities of the musical language, its qualitative differences from the considered potential of verbal semantics give a clear idea that the language of music is directly related to emotional expressiveness and cognitive process stimulation. As a result of such a summary, it becomes obvious that the study of verbal and musical expressive possibilities, their comparative analysis in the realities of cultural and communication tendencies of modernity is not limited to the needs of the sphere of art. The article also addresses communicative possibilities of musical expressiveness in light of the ability of music to convey the flow of personal emotions.

The novelty of this article is to substantiate further detailed study of musical expression communication possibilities, which will make personal emotional world accessible, i.e. qualia. In turn, the status of qualia is considered as one of the most acute and widely discussed problems in modern philosophy, since representatives of various fields of science often see it as a key to understanding the nature of consciousness.

The article attempts to find common ground between the artistic systems divided by a century – the lyrics of the Russian poet and philosopher F. I. Tyutchev and prose of the outstanding Russian-American writer V. V. Nabokov. The first part of the article deals with the ideas of domestic and foreign researchers of the peculiarity of the Nabokov’s aesthetic system. Nabokov did not write a special article and did not publish a single lecture on Tyutchev’s lyrics, although he repeatedly turned to the work of the poet, in particular, while teaching in America, left excellent translations of his poems into English. The authors of the article show the common perception of life of nature and man for both authors. The inner closeness of Nabokov and Tyutchev is manifested not so much in direct statements as indirectly. This is an acknowledgement of the narrator in the General Ledger, Nabokov’s Other shores (“Pushkin and Tolstoy, Tyutchev, Gogol stood at the four corners of my world”); and accented by the intertextuality in the prose of the author with specific Tyutchen’s reminiscences, sometimes shocking-pun (short story “Cloud, lake, tower”); and focusing on the motifs of memory, gift, abyss (in Schellingian understanding); and Nabokov’s use of the key opposition “dream – chaos”, which runs through the entire lyrics of Tyutchev. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of Tyutchev’s poetry in the light of researches conducted by Russian philosophers and literary critics. The article notes the little-known fact that Nabokov and Tyutchev were related in kinship. You can find out at what point the kinship of the two great masters of the word crossed by reading the article.

The present article by Andrey Pavlovich Zabiyako, the Doctor of Philosophy, professor, the head of the department of religious studies and history, the head of the laboratory of archeology and anthropology of Amur state university, professor of department of philosophy and religious studies of School of arts and the humanities of Far Eastern Federal University, the editor-in-chief of the “Religious studies”, brings up and discusses the main questions and problems of modern religious studies as a science. According to him, religious studies arose already more than a hundred years ago, but the process of its isolation from other types of scientific and unscientific knowledge is still incomplete; therefore there is a need of an accurate boundary demarcation of religious studies as a science. First of all these lines should be drawn on the fields of contact of religious studies with philosophy and theology. Such a boundary demarcation is a guarantee of successful interaction between different types of knowledge. The development of religious studies is caused first of all by the progress of humanitarian and natural sciences. Since the beginning of the 21st century the latest discoveries in the field of anthropogenesis and culture genesis has had a particular importance for the science of religion. Huge successes of archeology and anthropology led actually to scientific revolution in understanding of the problems of origin and evolution of mankind, its culture, religion. Religious studies is a science which comprises, on the one hand, the level of knowledge of fundamental type, on the other hand, the level of applied knowledge. Religion is closely twisted in surrounding reality of social, political, ethnic life. Therefore examination problem is one of the most important issues of religious studies as a strict science. The procedure for the materials’ scientific expertise, methods of interpretation of empirical data, and outputs should be based on a uniform, strictly scientific basis within the expert community. Developing fundamental and applied components, the religious studies approves itself not only as a strict, but also as a necessary science.

The search for the origins of the secular is important for science because it clarifies the concept of “secular” as a category of modern thought against the background of rethinking the classical theory of secularization and uprising of post-secular concepts. The article argues that despite many different approaches to the definition of the secular there is a common thing that unites them — the recognition of religion as a finite area and the existence of the “non-religious”. The article presents the positions of well-known scientists who tried to explain the origin of the category of the secular within social sciences, including those who challenge the classical theory of secularization. In search of the signs of uprising the “secular” in culture a researcher can consistently dive into history and find them in almost any historical era. But such a search inevitably leads to the final borders of social sciences beyond which the theological discourse begins. Even those researchers who consistently defend secular principles (Berger) face this problem. In this regard some researchers continue their studies in the theological plane (Trostnikov, Milbank). There is also a potential problem here — artificial construction of new concepts of “secularities” which would have no relation to the “secular” itself. Therefore the reconstruction of the genealogy of the secular makes sense only if it helps to explain the logic of modern social and ideological processes. From this point of view the researcher has no choice: even before he determines where the secular begins, he already states that the secular has become itself in the Christian paradigm (theological, geographical and chronological); right here it has acquired the problem field in which the culture of modernity and the paradigm of modern scientific knowledge exist. The author concludes that the development of secular discourse is also a theological process.

This paper as illustrated by Nizhny Novgorod province in the first half of the twenties of the XX century presents one of the most tragic pages of the relationship between church and state. The purpose of the Soviet government, which declared the creation of the first-ever atheistic state, was a complete elimination of church and religion as cultural, social and world outlook phenomenon. Hunger in 1921-1922 was an initial stage and constituted a ground for all further hardline policy of the Soviet state in its stance toward a church. In consequence of which a huge number of different objects of our Motherland’s historical and cultural heritage were done away with, also during repressions, a large number of believers and priests died. Many years in the Soviet historiography, there was a dominant statement that the Russian Orthodox Church opposed transferring the church values, which was intended for the relief aid. All actions of the church and appeals of the Patriarch Tikhon were subjected to obfuscation. A wide variety of sources, which earlier were strictly confidential, and nowadays they become available for researchers, allow objectively analyzing the charity of Russian Orthodox Church for the relief aid in 1921-1922. On the basis of regional archive documents, which contain statistical data, clergies and lay members records of meetings. The article provides more insight on through the campaign for a seizure of churches’ values in the Nizhny Novgorod province, also outlines the quantity of the seizure values: how many from them went for the relief aid. The clergies and lay members’ records of meetings of the Nizhny Novgorod province make it clear that their desire for relief aid was the optional choice. Printed copies have allowed to establish specific aspects of the campaign for a seizure of a church property, to fully consider the process of transition from the donation of values for the relief aid before the forced seizure of churches’ values in the region, and also to determine a problem of the collaboration of the government and the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.

The paper covers the origin and functioning of ‘Mother India’ (Bharat Mata) – the goddess, who joined the ancient and vast Hindu pantheon only in the beginning of the XX century. ‘Mother India’ emerged as the embodiment of national territory, and the universal symbol of the country’s diverse communities. Paraded in various media, the new goddess swiftly changed her names (from the Spirit of Motherland through Banga Mata on to Bharat Mata) and appearances, incorporating the map shape of the subcontinent into the portrait of the original four-handed young woman.The new image reflected the nation’s patriotic trend of collective self-identification with Indian territory and the desire to surrender lives for its freedom. Exploiting the mutual entanglement of the cartographic and anthropomorphic images, Mother India is distinguished from from the other members of Hindu pantheon, which guarantees her unique status as the only embodiment and symbol of the national territory. The graphic integration of the woman and the map brought into existence the new phenomenon of ‘Geo-body’ to become yet another symbol of the Indian struggle for independence together with the saffron-white-green flag and ‘VandeMataram’ song. In addition to the traditional forms of devotion (statues and temples) across India, the image of Bharat Mata spread through mass media and became the first envoy of Hindu gods abroad.

The world is becoming more complicated, which is confirmed both in the natural and artificial spheres. Complication can be considered one of the key characteristics of the development process, and complexity – an indicator of the difference between one stage of development from another. However, if the objective complication of the material and technical culture of mankind seems obvious, the legitimacy of the statements about the complication of spiritual culture requires discussion. Scientific and technological progress reveals a number of pathological processes of complication. Man finds himself in a complex socio-cultural space, in the world of self-developing system objects, accelerating the flow of poorly understood innovations. The initial intuition of this article is the statement that a person experiences complexity throughout his socio-cultural development. The paper presents the transformation of anthropological and cultural complexity in historical perspective. It is proposed to understand the anthropological characteristics of the phenomenon of complexity, as well as the peculiarities of its unfolding in culture. Represent a summary of the issues associated with finding antropocentric nature and complexity of the humanitarian strategy for its comprehension. Culture reveals a tendency of complication, which non-linearly correlates with the complexity of human consciousness. Primitive art and the complexity of ritual practices indicate an underestimated level of cognitive complexity of primitive man. The development of philosophy and theistic religions greatly complicates the spiritual life of man. Industrial civilization is experiencing a significant round of social complexity, actualizing the practice of managing complexity. The widespread complexity of economic life, the multiplication of the number of transitional identities, cultural forms, the trend of globalization and intercultural integration indicate that post-industrial society, on the one hand, is the result of recursively increasing complexity, and, on the other hand, reveals the complexity of a qualitatively different order.

In 2017 it was 90 years since a “cult” movie “The Third Meshanskaya”, by A. Room came out. This movie was known as a “Battleship Potemkin” in everyday life movie genre. In 2018, in turn, it was a 20-year anniversary of the movie “Retro for three”, a remake of “The Third Meshanskaya” by P. Todorovsky.

Because of this, students of faculty of foreign languages and area studies were given an assignment as a part of a course “Russian Cinema” to write reviews on both aforementioned movies. The main goal of the task was not to find out students’ opinion about a “provocative” movie shot in 1920s, but rather to assess their knowledge of peculiarities and problems of interpersonal and family relations that people had in the first years of Soviet regime.

The results of the experiment were predictable. Students generally liked both movies, especially “The Third Meshanskaya”. Students were surprised both with topicality of the movie’s theme and with the audacity of the film director. It turned out that the realities of soviet life in 1920s are unfamiliar and practically unknown to modern students.

This article makes an attempt to address gender issues related to NEP (new economic policy) period of Soviet history in order to define exactly how authentically the daily life of average soviet people was shown in soviet movies. To make an objective assessment of a content of such movies additional sources and materials are required.

Successes in Russian politics of the XIX century are significant thanks to the efforts of diplomats Alexei Borisovich Lobanov-Rostovsky and Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatieff. In studies of the XX century, they are almost forgotten. Ignatieff is an experienced tactician, a supreme professional who owns a military affair. He had diplomatic cunning. Sometimes Ignatieff showed adventurism. Basically, these qualities provided him good luck in the diplomatic field. However, Ignatieff was not enough historical knowledge. It was in diplomatic negotiations during the Russian-Turkish war of 1878-1879 that this lacuna prevented his success. He insisted on the idea of pan-Slavism, not taking into account all international factors. The diplomat did not take into account the historical features of the Ottoman Empire, Europe’s interest in its power and influence, that is, the historical totality of the international system of counterweights. Lobanov-Rostovsky - strategist. And it was inherent evasiveness, skillful ability to convince of the correctness. However, the role of historical education in his diplomatic practice was enormous. In a more deliberate line of conduct at the conclusion of the final Treaty of Constantinople, he was helped by fundamental «background knowledge» that allowed him to adequately assess the geopolitical situation. The Prince was engaged in history from an early age. The hobby grew into professional occupations. For 16 years he published historical essays in leading historical journals. He had access to secret documents of the Russian Empire thanks to the trust of Emperor Alexander II. Lobanov used to work with primary sources. History has taught him that sometimes you need to act quickly, and in some situations, to exercise the greatest caution. In the situation of the Russian-Turkish war, he set himself only specific goals. If the San Stefano peace Treaty of 1878, signed by count Ignatieff, is well known, then the final Treaty of Constantinople, signed by Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, is still very little mentioned. Meanwhile, after the Treaty of San Stefano, there were events that undermined its positive results. A “Berlin treatise of the great powers” in 1878 deprived Russia of a significant part of the acquisitions that it has achieved under the Treaty of San Stefano. Here Lobanov faced important General and specific tasks. To solve them, the new Ambassador had to have absolutely unique characteristics. In addition to the enormously developed ability Lobanov to build relationships with people: personal goodwill and the confidence of Alexander II; the respect in the higher Turkish circles; the location to him of the Sultan, who himself appealed to the Emperor with a request to appoint Ambassador Lobanov. The totality of personality traits and circumstances led to a convincing success, which was the final Treaty of Constantinople in 1879, which resulted in an independent state-the Autonomous Principality of Bulgaria.

The literary magazine «Otechestvennye Zapiski» legitimately belongs to the realm of the most known and reputable periodicals in the history of Russian journalism. Its publishers did everything possible to refine the journalistic style of its content and to turn each issue or, a book, as they used to call them, into high-quality classical thick literary magazines. The magazine published articles and stories of various genres. All of them stood out in terms of the high-quality writing. Both, up-and-coming and established authors dreamed of a publication there. At the same time, all of them realized that it was crucial to write something special for «Otechestvennye Zapiski», something not to be found in any other magazine. For many years, the magazine had a reputation of journalism training school. Yet, not only had it shaped outstanding journalists. Many up-and-coming writers became famous after the magazine featured their first works. Those, who we call today the classics of Russian literature, were among them. The magazine discovered Mikhail Lermontov to the world by being the first publisher of his short novels «Bela», «Fatalist», and «Taman» which later became parts of the novel «A Hero of Our Time». Many poems of Lermontov found the readers through «Otechestvennye Zapiski». Some of the early works of Nikolay Gogol and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were first featured there. It was this magazine, where young Turgenev gave his early poems as well. Plays of Alexander Ostrovsky went to the stages of the leading theaters shortly after being published in «Otechestvennye Zapiski». Taking advantage of the glory of a brilliant literary and artistic magazine, “Otechestvennye Zapiski” made a great contribution to the Russian culture. From the first years of its existence, articles on the newly opened private art galleries, numismatic collections, libraries, and various art exhibitions began to appear on its pages. From the very beginning of its publication and up to its closure, the journal carried out an important educational mission.

Modern processes among Chinese citizens in the field of studying history of their culture convincingly demonstrate an increasing consistent interest in such an important part of it as writing and calligraphy traditions. After detailed analysis of the fundamental documents that control returning calligraphy to the basic school curriculum, it is possible to point out a strong tendency in sustained government support for calligraphy-based courses both as compulsory or additional education. University education also includes calligraphy. Currently, the Government of China is carrying out an educational reform focusing on teaching calligraphy in primary and secondary education; well-qualified teachers are being trained for carrying out this reform. Also there is another arousing interest in teaching calligraphy skills for the aged, which accords with the general direction of social work with a “culture of age” represented by Chinese traditions. The population interest in calligraphy is supported by the cultural-educational activities of numerous calligraphic associations.

The recent discussions on calligraphy training demonstrate that this type of activity is not inferior to the pressure of digital technologies, but on the contrary, demonstrate that it still remains as a mean of communication between people, is used by government as another mean for increasing cultural level of the population, for preserving and increasing national cultural heritage.

The methodology of studying mentioned questions is based on a content analysis of Chinese media publications, as well as the fundamental documents that are provided for public access on official websites of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and on the university websites which implement and develop the latest strategy in calligraphy teacher training program. The main result of the study could be considered as clarifying the role of calligraphy in modern Chinese culture, where an intentional return to this method of mastering traditions is associated with the desire to incorporate the best of the previous achievements, and combine it with the desire to withstand the negative consequences of the changed living rhythm of modern society.

The author considers the peculiarities of the legal regulation of German multiculturalism. This problem seems to be particularly relevant due to the high rates of globalization that have recently affected the Federal Republic of Germany. This is due to the rapid islamization of the state and the immigration to Germany of various ethnic and religious groups, as well as the attempts of the latter to “protect themselves” from German society and live by their own rules, sometimes disregarding the laws of the host country. Interest in the topic being studied is also largely due to the desire of the state to overcome the Nazi past, the unresolved problems of the existence of ultra-right forces (parties and other organizations) aspiring to the local parliaments (landtags). Members of nationalist groups commit crimes, including on ethnic, national and religious grounds. The paper analyzes the theoretical approaches to the legal regulation of such a complex social phenomenon as multiculturalism. An attempt was made to consider the issues of legal consolidation of this phenomenon from diametrically opposite points of view. The individual causes of the collapse and failure of this policy and ideology in a number of modern European states are investigated. The research topic is revealed by the author from the position of not only doctrinal research, but also from the point of view of the settlement of the issue in international, constitutional and criminal law. The proposals were formulated on the need for a qualitative, global and targeted change in the legal regulation of multiculturalism in Germany, possible prospects for its further development, including for the purpose of criminal prosecution of perpetrators violating the rights, freedoms and legal interests of representatives of different ethnic and national groups and minorities.

This article is an attempt to show how the means of manipulative construction of political reality work on a single example of ideological concept of “road protection”, used a quarter of a century ago by the Georgian authorities as a pretext for a military invasion of Abkhazia. The study revealed that such ideologemes initiate a certain socio-behavioral reflection and allow the aggressor country, under the guise of pseudo-human goals, to carry out both “soft” (humanitarian) and direct (military) expansion. The concept of ideology has acquired special significance for modern political linguistics, and today, in the era of hybrid wars, its analysis and study are more relevant than ever. The aim of the study is to analyze the ideology of “road protection” which highlights the manipulative conceptual features and to prove its demagogic nature. To achieve this goal, we will turn to the events of August 1992 and try to understand the symbolic and ideological concept of “road protection”, used as a lingua-pragmatic background of expansion. The goal is to understand how to use ideological cliches in the minds of the implemented setup, and create unnecessary political mood which enabled the Georgian authorities to implement, not condemned by the international community, the military invasion of the territory of Abkhazia. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time it introduces and actualizes the concept of demagogic ideology. We define demagogic ideology as a populist-propaganda stamp, manifested itself in a certain historical period as a reality, and characterized by imperativeness and, most importantly, simulativeness. Such ideological cliches are thrown in political discourse with the aim to lull the vigilance and urging them on to obviously incorrect conclusions. Over time, however, demagogic ideologies lose their importance and are perceived as not justified expectations of performance, error, not relevant axiological dominant members of a particular culture. In our work we adhered to the following methods of research: linguoideological – to interpret the content of corresponding ideologies; linguistic and semiotic – with the aim of realizing the symbolic mechanisms used for the influence and formation of the corresponding reactions in the consciousness of the masses; and linguocultural – to identify the causes of certain ideological concepts effectiveness.