The Chronicles contain limited information about Ladoga in the 9th–10th centuries. Epic and toponymic legends are visible in these news. The first news is found under the year 862 in the copies of the «Povest’ vremennykh let» of the Ipatiev tradition. It belongs to the text of the Varangian legend from the «Ladoga» version. The second news about Ladoga is discovered in 922. This year, the First Novgorod Chronicle reports the death of Prince Oleg the Prophet and his grave, preserved in Ladoga. The political relevance of both news in the historical context of the 11th – early 12th centuries can be clearly seen. An article by N. I. Platonova deals with the problems of sources, meanings, genre and chronology of various versions of the Varangian legend in the Primary Chronicle. The types of oral sources, which became the basis of the earliest texts, and the cultural mechanisms for the preservation and transmission of information about the past in the Old Russian society are briefly characterized. The author supports the N. Lopatin’s hypothesis about the emergence of the «Novgorod» version in the early 11th century and its historical context. Particular attention is paid to the chronology of the «Ladoga» version and the political situation that gave rise to it, as well as the problem of the existence of a princely residence in Ladoga in the 9th–10th centuries. The article demonstrates that both the original and editorial versions of the Varangian legend are, first of all, sources for studying the history of the period when they were created. It is impossible to consider any of them — as a direct reflection of the 9th century events. Nevertheless, this text contains indirectly important information about the early stage of Old Russian history, which can be extracted analytically.

The article deals with the unique phenomenon of Protestant churches of the Peace, as well as «articular churches» of the middle of the 17th–18th centuries, built after the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648) and the Sopron Seim (1681) in the Slavic lands of the Holy Roman Empire. Relative religious tolerance, on the one hand, and the harsh conditions in which the Protestant communities were placed among the Catholic majority, dictated the special specifics of the architecture of the wooden Protestant churches of the 1650–1770s in Swidnica, Jawor, Kežmarok, Hronsek, Leštiny, Istebne, Svätý Kríž. The main result of the study is the conclusion that the fundamental difference between «churches of the world» and «particular churches» from Catholic wooden churches lies not only in the cross-planned solution dictated by the well-known differences in the order of worship, but also in the very technique of wooden construction, which is unusual for the local East Slavic tradition. and more characteristic of North German wooden architecture. As a result, «articular» churches became a prominent phenomenon in the colorful and diverse cultural landscape of Eastern Europe. Having largely broken with local building traditions, these outstanding buildings significantly enriched the panorama of monuments of Protestant architecture of the 17th–18th centuries, which became a noticeable alternative to Catholic and Greek Catholic wooden construction. At the same time, they served the purposes of self-identification, when ethnic Poles or Slovaks who professed Protestantism and were in a minority, in every possible way through a different «architectural language», expressed in German or Scandinavian building technologies, tried to present their temple as a grandiose wooden «Noah’s Ark», on which members of the community together they make their voyage among the storms, anxieties and upheavals that filled the history of modern Europe.

The article is devoted to the study of one of the key topics of the Soviet art industry — the space program of the USSR. This topic is considered on the example of the activities of the Sverdlovsk factory «Russkiye Samotsvety». In the 1950s – 1980s, the factory was the leading stone-cutting enterprise of the state, which allows us to consider the formation and development of the space theme in the stone-cutting art and, more broadly, the art industry of the Soviet Union using its example. For the study, archival data published for the first time, graphic materials previously unknown to researchers from the collection of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, as well as works from the collection of Russian museums were involved. The material of the article is divided into two parts, revealing the areas of activity of the stone-cutters of the factory «Russkiye Samotsvety». The first part deals with models of souvenirs and functional items approved for production from the late 1950s to the 1970s. The main constructive motives of these works are noted, as well as materials (stone raw materials) and techniques chosen by the masters for the implementation of projects. Stable motives and techniques are singled out, which remained relevant in the framework of the embodiment of space themes in products of the circulation circle. The second part is devoted to the consideration of the so-called author’s works of the plant’s stone-cutting masters. On the basis of recently discovered sheets of design graphics, as well as rare objects presented in museum collections, the main types of works are distinguished, as well as the characteristic techniques used by masters in creating objects. Great detail is noted, the use of materials uncharacteristic for the space theme in the 1970s, as well as attempts by craftsmen to use their specific properties within the framework of a given topic (transparency-translucency, color, texture, stone pattern, etc.). Consideration of two areas of creativity of stone-cutting masters makes it possible to single out the topic of space exploration as one of the most important in line with the selfpresentation of the successes and capabilities of the USSR.

The article is based on materials previously not used in the scientific circulation and highlights the dramatic history of the creation, activities, and closure of the Russian non-bolshevik representation in Bulgaria. The Russian Foreign Diplomatic Corps was the only remnant of the old state apparatus that survived the October Revolution in Russia (1917). The embassy in Sofia became a part of it at the end of 1919, after Bulgaria’s withdrawal from World War I. The article clarifies the circumstances and personal composition of the Representation. The embassy played an important role in the formation of the Russian refugee colony and was closed at the very beginning of 1923. The article identifies the causes of the crisis in relations between the Bulgarian authorities and the embassy, its development, assesses its collapse and shows the hard work that was aimed at preserving the informal non-bolshevik representation. The new representative of the Council of Russian Ambassadors in Bulgaria was B. S. Serafimov. Over two decades he defended the interests of the Russian colony there.

The position of Russian refuges in the 1920s in Bulgaria is analyzed in the article drawing on a large factual material. The reasons for the country’s policy of «open doors», the numerical dynamics of emigrants, the peculiarities of their social composition and adaptation are revealed. It is shown that the legal status of Russians was regulated at the national level, taking into account the interests of emigration in Bulgaria and the situation in other countries, as well as in close connection with the decisions of the League of Nations. Gradually, a unified legal context of refugee existence was created. The Russian diplomatic mission headed by A. M. Petryaev, who since 1923 handed over his duties to the former adviser of the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria S. G. Bogoyavlensky, the Committee on Russian Refugees in Bulgaria, the representation of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Bulgaria, provided institutional assistance. The relationship between various institutions and personalities in solving the refugee issue is revealed. The legal status of Russians is examined from the standpoint of structural integration: inclusion in the host society through the national labor market, taxation, social sphere, realization of inheritance rights, access to the court, through the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church, the institution of citizenship. Russian refugees in Bulgaria formally obeyed the general laws on foreigners on an equal basis with other foreigners. There was no special law regulating the rights of Russians, but they were in a different position compared to other foreigners because of the number of legislative and administrative reservations. The special attitude towards the veterans of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878 was characteristic: they were granted the right to a lifetime monthly allowance. The role of Nansen passports, established for Russians, and the difficulties of their application by ordinary migrants are revealed. It is concluded that the economic crisis of the late 1920s — early 1930s stimulated the integration of Russians due to the activation of naturalization. The confessional and linguistic affinity of the peoples played a role.

This article examines how eschatological ideas which circulated in the late 16th – mid 17th century Muscovite State, described the place of Rus’ / Russia in the world and in the world history. The starting point for the analysis is the model of the God-chosen exclusivity of the Muscovite tsardom, which is often called a special Muscovite mythology. Eschatological ideas, first of all, the idea of «Moscow—Third Rome», developed by the Pskov monk Philotheus in the 1520s, were a necessary element of this model, which created the image of «shining Russia» (or «holy Rus»), preserving the true faith up to the End of the world. In the first half of the 17th century, eschatological ideas described by Orthodox Ruthenian authors working in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began to be warmly received in the Muscovite State. Adaptions of their works appeared primarily in two anthologies of polemic writings published in Moscow — Cyril’s Book (1644) and The Book of Faith (1648). As this article demonstrates, the eschatological schemes featured in these texts envisaged Rus’ as a nation united by an ancient history and by true faith rather than by any political structures. At the same time, in the 1640s–1650s, prophecies of Greco-Byzantine origin popularised in Moscow assigned a key role to Russia in reviving the universal empire. These new concepts fundamentally diverged both from the idea of «Moscow—Third Rome» and from the entire Muscovite mythology of exceptionality. As the author concludes, the popularity of these ideas coincided with fundamental societal changes in Russia, marked by the incorporation of Ukraine in 1654 and the Church Schism.

The history of the creation and veneration of the image of Our Lady of Ostrobram is studied as a reflection of the processes of the forming Lithuanian national identity in its dynamics over several centuries. The author analyzes how the icon reflects the main ethnic markers, which include: territory, confessional affiliation, language, historical memory, ideas about the past and the future. Theories of the origin of the image and disputes about its confessional affiliation led to the idea of the formation of interconfessional dialogue and unity in diversity as a marker of the border and frontier zone. Within the framework of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which united the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, the Ostra Brama was perceived as «Strażniczką Kresów», or the guardian of the eastern borders. The preserved historical songs, psalms and hymns dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Vilna emphasize the regional identity. However, at the same time, powerful integration processes in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the assertion of Polishness, which was reflected in fiction, where until the 1920s and 1930s the Ostrobram image was perceived as an integral symbol not only of Polish culture, but also of Polish history and statehood. As the conducted research has shown, the intensified aspirations of the local population for the rooting, the use of the national language and the political processes of the Lithuanian national revival led to the transformation of ideas about the image, which in the 20th century gradually becomes a symbol of Lithuanian rather than Polish. Nevertheless, it is still uncertain whether the Ostrobram Mother of God has become the state symbol of Lithuania as a nation or it remains the guardian of the local original culture and traditions.

The review of the monograph by renowned German scholar Professor Eduard Mühle, currently — President of Viadrina University at Frankfurt (Oder), published in 2020-2023 in German, Polish, English and Czech, is based upon its edition as No 89 of Brill’s collection «Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages». As the author states, «The books is aimed, to show, on the one hand, how the "Slavs" — ever since they first appeared in 6th-century Byzantine sources — were treated as a cultural construct and as such politically instrumentalized in various contexts». Up to Prof. Mühle, the book «describes the real historical structures hidden behind the phenomenon of the "Slavs" in the Middle Ages». Beginning with a sketch of modern and contemporary ideological practices, where the concept of Slavdom was widely used for political ends, he follows with mentions of the «Slavs» in medieval Byzantine, Latin and Oriental texts against the background of the medieval Slavic «realities», challenging the relevancy of the very term «Slavs» and naming them «Slav-speaking» through the whole book. The reviewer critically analyzes the author’s approach and his monograph’s structure, which from his viewpoint in fact are turning «the new light» in which the medieval Slav history is represented, into «canceling» the Slavs as part of the European history.

The article attempts to put forward and substantiate a hypothesis about the use of a special model of this feat in the formation of the cult of some holy fools of the Russian Church, borrowed not from the eastern, but from the western medieval religious culture. Some lives of Russian holy fools noticeably fall out of the Eastern Christian tradition, with which old and modern historiography links their hagiography. Despite the veneration of the Byzantine σαλος in Ancient Russia, in its religious life the practices of foolishness occupied a marginal position for a long time. In the process of formation and development of the «national» cult of holy fools in the Muscovite state, one of the options for explaining where such ascetics came from was their foreign origin. In the article this problem is considered on the material of the hagiography of Isidor of Rostov and Procopius of Ustyug. In their Lives, one can single out a topic that is common to them and unusual for Russian hagiography. Both saints are repeatedly referred to in the texts of their Lives as foreigners who previously lived in Western countries, «German land». Both found in the Orthodox faith their «spiritual fatherland» and abandoned the «Latinism». In the Lives of each of them, «foolishness» is explicated as the main religious practice. But this is not the «obscenity» of the Eastern Christian σαλος, but a desire for solitude and wandering close to the model of behavior of the saints of the Western Middle Ages. In both lives there is a motif of the sea. Based on the observations and arguments presented in the article, it can be assumed that the compilers of the hagiographies, creating the image of a holy fool-foreigner unknown to Old Russian literature before, were guided by hagiographic texts not only of Greek-Byzantine, but also of Western European origin, some of which were available in Slavic translations. The saturation of the texts with Novgorod plot details indicates that Novgorod, which had long-standing and extensive cultural ties both with the post-Byzantine world and with the countries of the Baltic region, could be the place for constructing this new model of holiness for Old Russia.

The article is devoted to the Leningrad artistic textiles, created in the 1960s–1990s. It is well known, that tapestry was actively developing during this period, however, this article discusses both original and industrial designs, which were represented by printed and shaft weaving fabrics, and textile haberdashery. Unique and industrial textiles have evolved with varying degrees of intensity, while fabrics and scarves remain the least explored area of design practice. In most cases, patterns for scarves had a souvenir design. The author gives data on the main industrial enterprises which produced them, points to the inseparable connection with the Leningrad school of textiles, which was based at the department of textiles at the Vera Mukhina Leningrad Higher School of Industrial Art. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the development of tapestry in the Leningrad school of textiles became possible after the opening of internships in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Latvia. The experience of learning about modern European tapestry formed two main trends in Leningrad: traditional and relief-plastic. In each of them were created outstanding works. This article provides information about tapestries and curtains made in the Leningrad Decorative and Applied Arts Factory and Research Experimental Workshops. The scale and high quality of the works are noted, the prominent artists who worked by the «order of the state» (goszakaz) are listed.