The concept of anthropological crisis is very popular in contemporary Russian humanities: the Russian Scientific Electronic Library, or Elibrary.ru, includes more than ten thousand publications with the keyword anthropological crisis. On the contrary, Google gives links to Russian publications only when one searches for anthropological crisis. This keyword has no reference in the famous online book catalogue Worldcat.org. Nowadays English-speaking scientific communities still explore the crisis in anthropology as a discipline. The difference between the anthropological crisis and the crisis in anthropology seems essential. The crisis of a scientific discipline is not a crisis of the human nature. The modern Russian academicians, including the late Vyacheslav Stepin, find many features of the anthropological crisis in the successes of genetic engineering and modern medicine as well as in the growing psychological pressures. Russian-language scholars find the traits of anthropological crisis in many fields, including studies of memory, bioethics, pedagogics, literature, and economics. The loss of the sense of life is often treated by Russian scholars, like Stepin and Boris Pruzhinin, as a trait of the anthropological crisis. The problems of self-identity are also marked by Russian authors as a mark of that crisis. Sergey Averintsev felt that human beings lack their human nature. Pruzhinin supposes humans cannot predict consequences of genetic engineering for their nature as a species. But all these trends have nothing in common with the anthropological crisis. Genetic engineering helps improving of sick human nature and self-realization. Certainly, all consequences are not open but there is no scientific discovery whose effects would be absolutely evident at once. Cyborgs are an inevitable step towards healthier and smarter humans. Existential problems are universal since the emergence of self-consciousness among the humans. Self-identities are in constant flux since the birth of complex societies, especially since the industrial revolution strengthened alienation. The growth and volume of information flows are not threats to humans as there is no necessity to memorize all the data in the world, and there are multiple network and personal filters which block garbage. The anthropological crisis seems a myth in contemporary Russian-language humanities in general and philosophy in particular.

The focus of the article is the research program of B. F. Lomov, viewed through the prism of Russian scientific culture, while taking into account the nuances of the late Soviet period. Scientific culture is analyzed in accordance with a model that singles out practices as a typical and stable way of doing things, and patterns as cognitive elements that integrate culture into a concise whole. Viewed via this model, any innovation appears to involve introduction of new practices into the culture. That means the risk of the introduced practices colliding with existing patterns. There are three main patterns of the Russian scientific culture that operated in the Soviet period, which are described as formulas analogous with the themes of S. Moskovichi: (a) science is a state matter, (b) basic science creates groundwork for the technologies of the future, (c) science is a selfless service. The practices promoted within Lomov's program were largely associated with American engineering psychology as practiced by A. Chapanis, and, as such, collided with the organization of the Soviet scientific establishment, built around the patterns mentioned. As a consequence of this contention, the article examines the tension that arose in Soviet psychology in the 1970s and 1980s between the supporters of the activity theory of A. N. Leontiev on one side and B. F. Lomov’s systems approach on the other. It draws parallels between this collision and the collision of the practices promoted by Lomov with the patterns of the science culture of the late Soviet period. Both external and internal perspectives are employed: the article examines the theoretical contradictions between the activity theory and the systems approach, and at the same time investigates the context of the theoretical argument: the transfer of the leadership in the psychological science from the Academy of the Pedagogical Sciences to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the mosaic outlay of the newly established Institute of Psychology, the influence of new approaches to the organization of research.

The article examines the development of approaches to the category of sobornost (spiritual community of people), stated in the works of V. Solovyov, in the works of P. Florensky, S. Bulgakov, N. Berdyaev. This essay traces the evolvement of sobornost from abstraction to definition by means of Hegel’s dialectic. The process of dialectic development is projected onto modern life through philosophic polylogue that includes symbolic interpretation of the language of Russian religious philosophy of the 19th–20th centuries. Sobornost is interpreted as a specific ontology of culture enfolding itself in religious, secular, and religious-secular communality. Thus, with Hegel’s triads in mind we can build on the unity and self-identity of sobornost at the level of religious communality. For secular communality with its duality, sobornost is mediated and reversed. Though duality of sobornost is not substantial and it unites general and particular into religious-secular communality as the most concrete form of its actualization. Each communality type means a specific form of presentation of sobornost in language and shows itself in the texts through religious philosophemes (symbols). For example, wandering (S. N. Bulgakov) and self-sacrifice (P. Florensky, N. A. Berdyaev) indicate religious communality. They are characterized by religious hyper-asceticism, mono-ideism, atemporality, martyrdom, and chosenness. Whereas heroism (S. N. Bulgakov, P. Florensky) implies maximalism of causes and means, individualism, chosenness, collectivity, political mono-ideism, martyrdom and points to secular communality. All three symbols of religious and secular communalities have common features: atemporality, eschatologism, the idea of chosenness, mono-ideism, martyrdom and Messianism with different actualization in each of the communalities. The third type of communality combining both religious and secular demonstrates all three symbols of sobornost. Herein these symbols are associated with humility, personal maximalism of actions, religious conscience, historicity, and freedom. In this way an individual is always placed in the dimension of sobornost and cannot be regarded out of it. The establishment of sobornost leads to spiritual totality of the divine-humanity.

The article investigates the strategies of adapting to the changing social environment of city-based religious communities on the example of the case of the Intercession Commune (Pokrovskaya obitel’) in Perm. The community of believers led by activists developed as an Orthodox institution and subsequently evolved into a closed group with elements of mysticism and esotericism under the leadership of a charismatic female leader. The logic of the changes that have taken place is described through an analysis of interviews with former believers, private correspondence, and is performed using elements of the biographical method, materials from a closed group on a social network, records of classes conducted by the leader of the monastery, and photographs. The Intercession Commune as a community successfully evolves and adapts to the changing environment in response to the lawsuits filed against it. As a defensive strategy, community members chose active participation in patriotic projects, applying for grants issued by the local administration, and active appeal to Russian cultural traditions. Emphasis was placed on military education, which led to the creation of a special training center named after a former foreign intelligence officer. An additional way of legitimizing the community in the social space was participation in all-Russian patriotic actions (Immortal Regiment). All the above mentioned indicates a special mimicry of the group to appear as loyal to society, since it contradicts the ideas of withdrawal from social life, broadcast by the leader during internal seminars in the community. The chosen defensive strategy of the Intercession Commune allows us to say that religious associations that are not affiliated with official religious organizations are open to the active use of non-religious ways to assert themselves in society.

This article examines the peculiarities of royal power’s representation in the ideology of priests in early Judaism. Researchers of Judaism deem this period important since it is then that the basic ideas about the power institutions of society, their attributes, functions, and features were laid. The institution of the royal power appears to be the most significant here: this power transforms from purely secular to religious, and the priest becomes the king. This research is devoted to the aspects of these transformations that were not previously given due attention: the reflection of the authors who lived during this epoch upon the biblical king David’s image and his place in the new doctrine of power. Besides the understanding of the image within the scope of secular power, it also played an important role in the formation of priestly ideology in the period examined. Exploring the data from three sources (The 1st Book of Maccabees, The Book of Sirach, and The Damascus Document), the author concludes that the development of King David’s image perception took place in the following directions. The first one did not deny the possibility of the Davidic dynasty heir’s return but focused its attention on building a new doctrine of power, which would center around the figure of the elected priest. The second direction represented King David as a figure of the past, creating a new doctrine of power, where only a priest could lead the society. The third direction, represented by Qumran, radically revised the prophecies about the return of David’s bloodline to the throne: in their view, the Qumran community becomes King David by itself and receives primacy in Israel.

The creation of Spanish language corpora is becoming one of the priorities of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE) in the 21st century. The work on the compilation of Spanish language corpora is a response to the challenges of the modern era of globalization and is based on new computer technologies. Corpora in linguistics are used for language research and are a tool for generalizing data about a language that have a versatile nature, starting with the frequency of use of word forms and ending with the training of artificial intelligence. The purpose of this article is to show how the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE), using new approaches in the field of corpus linguistics, expands the areas of its traditional activities, spreading the Spanish language in the digital sphere of human activity. The novelty of this study is that all the main Spanish language corpora created by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language are analyzed from the point of view of the cultural vector of development of the Spanish-speaking civilization. The authors determine the importance of creating corpora as a way of developing this language culture in the future, which implies the need to use corpora for teaching artificial intelligence. Raising the topic of the importance of the digitalization of language for communication between machines and humans, the authors consider the compilation of corpora to be a necessary basis for launching this process. The article, on the one hand, analyzes the currently existing academic corpora, on the other, describes the possibilities of using corpora for language research and for teaching artificial intelligence, and as a result summarizes the importance of corpora in the digital age.

Russian classical literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries constitutes the whole with the finest Russian journalism of the same period. Almost all famous authors started their careers by releasing their first works of literature in magazines and even in newspapers. Nevertheless, even when gaining popularity, they continued to cooperate with periodicals, offering them their masterpieces. Thus, Leo Tolstoy published his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina in the Russkiy Vestnik [Russian Herald] magazine, while his novel Resurrection was published in Niva, the most popular Russian magazine aimed at mass reader. The writer wanted to reach as many ordinary people as possible. Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov first appeared in the same Russkiy Vestnik, along with Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons. This list is long indeed. Russian authors actively employed material published in press in their works. Therefore, the characters of Anna Karenina passionately discussed the events highlighted by the newspapers and magazines of that time. The references to certain periodicals, their brief description made it possible to understand better the mood and to expose the nature of their characters for the readers. During Soviet times, the attitude of the characters to certain newspapers and magazines displayed the role of media in public relations and their place in the political system of the country. Finally, thanks to the media subscriptions of the characters in novels and short stories, the reader could better understand their worldview, hobbies, and dreams. The authors set themselves the task of studying the specifics of the use of references to certain media as an artistic detail in literary works. They attempt to identify the role of such details in creating the artistic character, as well as in recreating the atmosphere and ideology of the era. They also examine references to journal articles read by the characters of a literary work from the perspective of intertextuality theory, as well as the task of revealing the peculiarities of the interaction of artistic and journalistic texts in the context of the era. The authors also raise the question of the possibility of using texts of literary works as a source for the study of media history.

Historic artifacts speak to the fact that in various historic periods there existed various cultural forms. Recently discovered artifacts presented in this article are unique artifacts of post-war Europe. Alexey Ilyich Lepeshkin who was a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Science and a specialist in the field of soviet public law was presented with two commemorative albums of the Higher Communist Schools of the GDR (1952). As of today, these albums are part of A. I. Lepeshkin’s personal fund, and are stored in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Science (f.No.2004). This article gives the first scientific account of these items. The complex study of commemorative albums is topical due to the lack of research in the very area of handwritten commemorative albums of that period. A comprehensive analysis of the historical and cultural context of the interaction among the socialist countries after the end of the Second World War exemplified by the relations between Russia and Germany in the example of two commemorative albums of German communist institutions of higher education gives researchers an opportunity to bring these manuscripts into a wider cultural and political context. The genre of hand-made folklore albums has a number of distinctive features in both their form and content. The article is devoted to a formal and meaningful description and analysis of these memorial artifacts both in terms of the texts contained in them, and in terms of visual anthropological analysis of photographs, drawings, and calligraphy features. Based on the presented material, we can draw conclusions about the preservation of folklore pragmatics and forms of existence by such albums, regardless of the change in the social structure in Russian and German culture.

The article is devoted to the study of the so-called Spanish theme in Soviet porcelain. The author analyzes the reflection of the stereotypical perception of Spain in small porcelain sculptures of the Soviet period produced by a variety of manufactures. Among the components of the Spanish theme the author highlights the images of flamenco (Spanish dance), bullfighting, most recognizable heroes of Cervantes such as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and fiery Carmen who was created by Prosper Mérimée and has become the stereotypical Spanish woman of the 19th century in the popular imagination thanks to the similarly named music and dance pieces. These traditional components of the perception of Spain in the 20th century were supplemented by the interpretation in propaganda porcelain of the turning point in the Spanish history — the civil war of 1936-1939. The article proposes another perspective on the Spanish theme in Soviet porcelain and considers the formation of the images of Spaniards, men and women. Such images are reflected in all the plots presented herein. Most of the sculptural works by different generations of Soviet porcelain masters are devoted to dance. The author concludes that dance scenes, including the ones that refer to Carmen are fundamental for the Spanish theme in Soviet porcelain.

The author analyzes Star Trek and Babylon 5 series as segments of American political culture and collective memory. The purpose of the article is to analyze how American popular culture, represented by the TV series, actualizes and visualizes the problems of the admissibility / inadmissibility of external influence / non-influence of more developed societies on less developed ones and demonstrates the features of collective memory developments. The author studies the assimilation of the political in the visual discourses of mass culture. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles proposed in the memorial turn and the analysis of the politics of memory within the paradigm of intellectual history. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of common and unique features and directions of assimilation of the political, reduced to the problems of interference / nonintervention, in modern mass culture and historical memory. The article considers 1) the modes of actualization of political and social differences between societies in Star Trek and Babylon 5 TV series; 2) the political and ideological dimensions of intervention through the prism of mass culture and aspects of the functioning of various memorial cultures; 3) the problems of memory as the trauma received during the forced interaction of imagined societies with different identities in the contexts of the development of collective memories and the uncomfortable past revision through the formation of a compromise memorial canon. The article shows the contribution of the series as elements of mass cultural discourse to the development of Western political culture and of Selfness and Otherness concepts, and indicates their role in the revision of the past in popular culture. The results of the study suggest that the assimilation of the political in mass cultural discourse became both an incentive for ideological modifications and transformations of modern society, and a form of promoting the principles of political correctness and tolerance as its systemic characteristics. Moreover, it can be viewed as an attempt to revise the memorial canon and to enhance it by alternative visions of history, based on the revitalization of marginalized collective memories.

This article proposes to revise the established research approach to Suprematism as a utopian futuristic project. The conceptual analysis of the texts created by K. Malevich (1879–1935) in the period from 1915 to 1922 and devoted to pointlessness has shown that the theory of Suprematism can be viewed as a kind of synthesis of ideas of the fourth dimension (Ch. H. Hinton) and the evolution of human consciousness (P. Ouspensky). It makes it possible to regard the principles of the theory of suprematism through the prism of the concept of the Event. Though the term itself was never used by K. Malevich, the idea of a new way of seeing and a flash of the reason that leads to the possibility of subjective transformation are in line with the meaning of the Event, as seen in philosophical and esoteric thought. The article puts forward the thesis according to which K. Malevich was exposed to these ideas in the atmosphere of spiritual quests of the 1910s and early 1920s. K. Malevich, M. Matyushin, and A. Kruchenykh took part in the production of the opera Victory over the Sun which served as a venue of creative interaction and an outlet for creative approaches and conceptual reinterpretation. Here one can clearly see the logical isomorphism of the artistic practice of the opera creators, based on a specific interpretation of time and the idea of the evolution of consciousness, and those ideas that underlay the esotericism of their time. Another indirect argument in favor of the thesis about the presumed parallelism of the theory of K. Malevich and the concept of the Event is the performative nature of the texts written by the author of the Black Square. According to K. Malevich, through overcoming meaning as the victory over reason and objectivity, the gap between the modus of postulating the possibility of transformation and the real experience of the sense of immortality. This also points to the similarity of his ideas and the esoteric project of irrational cognition and control over the mysterious. Thus, Suprematism can be interpreted as the Event of subjective transformation, and the theory of Suprematism can be viewed as a tool that allows one to experience a sense of immortality, accessible to both the creator and the viewer, who develop the creative will for the future.

A century ago, on October 28th Benito Mussolini and twenty thousand members of his National Fascist Party marched on Rome. Prime minister Luigi Facta assured the king that Italian armed forces could resist the few on the march and suggested declaring a state of emergency. King Victor Emmanuel III and his elite for two years had been watching with apprehension the rise of the communist left and sought a strong hand to curb disorders. Mussolini was counting on that and was quick to react. He receded from his socialist views and eagerly propounded his antisocialist ideology and vowed to put an end to antigovernmental strikes. Once Mussolini became prime minister, it marked the beginning of the formation of a totalitarian regime in Italy. At that time Italy was devastated by the war that ended with a Mutilated victory and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Mussolini exploited people’s sentiments of betrayal and dissatisfaction only to initiate rapprochement with Nazi Germany and draw the country into yet another war. In the recently published book on the rise of Mussolini, the authors clearly allude to the involvement of British money in the creation of the fascist party in Italy. Though British and French conservatives did transfer certain money to Mussolini, the proposed thesis is a clear exaggeration. It was the internal situation in Italy that gave rise to fascism. And today’s policy of the ruling coalition led by Giorgi Meloni does not coincide in any way with the signs of fascism listed by Umberto Eco.

Started as an online venue for academic discussions, Kazan International Linguistic Summit (KILS) took place on November 15-19, 2022, both online and offline. The mixed format made it possible to attract 600 participants from 18 countries and 65 Russian cities and reach out to a wider audience. This year within the framework of the International Scientific Conference Contemporary Linguistics: Theory and Practice the Department of Language and Intercultural Communication of the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of Kazan Federal University organized a symposium Evolutionary Trends in Teaching and Learning Languages: Perspectives and Concerns. The participants of the symposium were bachelors and MA students – future teachers of foreign languages. Kazan (Volga) Federal University has been a cradle for a constellation of thinkers, and it still lives up to its renowned past. Another noteworthy feature of Kazan is its unique combination of Christian and Muslim origins. For that reason, at the Summit held in cooperation with the Institute of Linguistics of RAS so much attention was paid, on the one hand, to Turkic studies and, on the other hand, to the Russian language and literature. Kazan can rightfully be considered the center of Turk studies, involving both traditional approaches and digital methods. The Summit provided the researchers with an opportunity to share their experience of employing innovative technologies and point out the prospects of further studies.

On December 2-3, under the guidance of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL) RUDN University held the 8th International Conference BI-, POLY-, TRANSLINGUALISM AND LINGUISTIC EDUCATION. This annual event gathered more than 230 participants from 18 Russian regions and 20 countries. Director of the Institute of Russian Language A. V. Dolzhikova and MAPRYAL Presidium member E. D. Suleymenova addressed the Conference with words of welcome. The plenary session of the Conference included speeches given by esteemed academics M. A. Khakuasheva, E. V. Khilkhanova, G. T. Khukhuni, E. F. Shafranskaya and covering a range of topics from linguistic contacts (M. L. Novikova) and intercultural communication (I. I. Valuytseva) to the Evenki discourse (T. V. Voronchenko). The initiator and permanent host of the Conference U. M. Bakhtikireeva gave a talk on translingual and transcultural processes. Sections of the Conference were devoted to theory and practice of language contacts and bilingualism, transcultural literature and literature in Russian, linguistic education, the art of translation etc. These friendly meetings have become a good tradition of the academic community united by its love for languages. 2022 marks the beginning of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages and the preparation for the next Conference has begun.

MGIMO University started a new academic year with the 14th Russian International Studies Association (RISA) Convention. Held on October 13th–15th the Convention invited leading scholars to discuss historical, socio-economic, political, and legal aspects of shaping a new world order. Its traditional interdepartmental panel Intercultural Communication this year brought together speakers from Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Uruguay, and Iran to discuss cultural diversity under new challenges. An interdisciplinary array of 52 reports by philosophers, culturologists, linguists, political scientists, regionalists, religious scholars, art historians and specialists in the field of media studies presented a vivid picture of modern research in the sphere of intercultural communication. The reports and exchange of opinions encouraged scientists to investigate related academic fields and expand their theoretical horizons by getting acquainted with the achievements of interdisciplinary research in related fields of knowledge. Among the most discussed topics that aroused keen interest of the audience are the following: a new linguistic reality of intercultural interaction on the example of the evolution of the Spanish language, the preservation of the cultural heritage of peoples in the context of globalization, various ways of visualizing culture and their influence on the formation of regional and national identity, philosophical understanding the challenges facing traditional manifestations of culture and much more. The session demonstrated that intercultural communication lying at the intersection of multiple parties’ interests remains flexible and adaptable and the dialogue of cultures is a reciprocal and ever-important process.