Multi-confessional State Research Articles

INFORMING THROUGH HISTORY: ARTICLES ABOUT ISHAN-MULLAHS IN THE SOVIET PRESS AS A TOOL FOR TEACHING STUDENTS

The article analyzes the social portrait of religious figures represented in Kazakh periodicals of the Soviet period. Special attention is paid to the coverage of these figures in the newspaper “Kazakh” and the comparison with the derogatory tone characteristic of the newspaper “Ak zhol”. The emphasis is placed on the importance of accurately documenting the fate of the khojas, mullahs, Islamists and pilgrims who became victims of Soviet power repression, as well as their role in the resistance in conditions of political upheaval.The position of the newspaper "Ak zhol" and the national intelligentsia on these issues was also evaluated. Since Kazakhstan is a secular and multi-confessional state that values peaceful coexistence and religious stability, understanding the historical context through the press is important for the development of national science and education.The article emphasizes the need to preserve and disseminate information about these historical figures in order to promotea deeper understanding of religious and cultural dynamics. In conclusion, it is noted that the work on restoring historical justice and researching the repressions of the past contributes to strengthening identity and national memory, which is key to the formation of a conscious and informed society, including young generation.

FEATURES OF THE STATE NATIONAL POLICY AND INTERETHNIC INTERACTION IN THE REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF BASHKORTOSTAN, TATARSTAN AND CHUVASHIA). PART 2

Studying various aspects of the national policy of the Russian Federation in modern conditions attracts the attention of many researchers. This is due, firstly, to the rapid development of ethnic processes in the countries of Western Europe, and secondly, to the uniqueness of our country as a multinational and multi-confessional state.
 
 The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of the state national policy in modern conditions on the example of three multinational republics of the Russian Federation.
 
 Materials and methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article was made by the fundamental principles for organizing research: scientific objectivity, historicism, consistency, comprehensiveness and complexity, recognizing legitimacy of pluralism in the research process, focusing on studying the events and phenomena of the past in all their complexity, inconsistency, mutual conditionality, in accordance with the specifics of the historical era, in connection with modernity. Besides methodological approaches, studying the topic of the article assumes mandatory knowledge of the literature and sources that make up the basic part of the research process.
 
 Results. The article characterizes current state of interethnic relations in Russia on the example of three national republics: Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia, which are polyethnic and multi-confessional subjects of the Russian Federation. Choosing these regions of the Ural-Volga region is conditioned by the fact that the titular ethnic groups here are cognate Turkic peoples: the Bashkirs, the Tatars and the Chuvash. When implementing the policy in the field of interethnic interaction in the country, the state authorities rely on such fundamental documents as the “Concept of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation” (1996), the Law of the Russian Federation “On National and Cultural Autonomy” (1996), the “Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025” (2012) and others.
 
 The article discusses the activities of regional authorities on forming mutual understanding and consent between ethnic groups living within individual republics. Each subject adopted special programs to implement the Strategy of the state national policy of the Russian Federation, taking into account its socio-economic and ethno-cultural development. Some attention is also paid to the activities carried out by national cultural autonomies in the national republics under consideration.
 
 Conclusions. In order to solve the research tasks set in the article, the authors analyzed the data of sociological surveys conducted to study ethno-cultural processes in the subjects of the Russian Federation, and examined the assessment of various aspects in interethnic relations by the population pf three republics; a separate emphasis is placed on the views and assessment of young people regarding the relationship between representatives of different peoples, about the level of well-being in the confessional and interethnic spheres. The analysis of the state national policy of Russia at the present stage testifies to the great attention on the part of the governing bodies of the Russian Federation to interethnic problems in the multinational state: timely adoption of conceptual and regulatory legal acts; formation and control of authorities and public institutions responsible for issues of interethnic interaction, as well as organization of their activities; involvement of politicians and researchers in the study of state policy in order to improve it. However, despite concrete steps in the field of interethnic interaction both in the center and on the ground, often of a preventive nature, it is not always possible to overcome inconsistency of the national issue in full, especially for multi-ethnic subjects of the Russian Federation. To one degree or another, there are manifestations of conflict situations in them, they are primarily associated with such a factor of modernity as the desire of peoples to preserve and fully develop national languages and culture. Migration flows and population changes are beginning to play an important role in the regions, which is proved by the population censuses of recent years, but the main thing is the state of interethnic coexistence in the country, for example, on the materials of the Republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia.

FEATURES OF THE STATE NATIONAL POLICY AND INTERETHNIC INTERACTION IN THE REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (based on the materials of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia). PART 1

Studying various aspects of the national policy of the Russian Federation in modern conditions attracts the attention of many researchers. This is due, firstly, to the rapid development of ethnic processes in the countries of Western Europe, and secondly, to the uniqueness of our country as a multinational and multi-confessional state.
 
 The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of the state national policy in modern conditions on the example of three multinational republics of the Russian Federation.
 
 Materials and methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article was the fundamental principles for organizing research: scientific objectivity, historicism, consistency, comprehensiveness and complexity, recognizing legitimacy of pluralism in the research process, focusing on the study of events and phenomena of the past in all their complexity, inconsistency, mutual conditionality, in accordance with the specifics of the historical era, in connection with modernity. In addition to methodological approaches, the study of the topic of the article assumes mandatory knowledge of the literature and sources that make up the basic part of the study process.
 
 Results. The article characterizes the current state of interethnic relations in Russia on the example of three national republics: Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia, which are polyethnic and multi-confessional subjects of the Russian Federation. The choice of these regions of the Ural-Volga region is due to the fact that the titular ethnic groups here are related Turkic peoples: the Bashkirs, the Tatars and the Chuvash. When implementing the policy in the field of interethnic interaction in the country, the state authorities rely on such fundamental documents as the “Concept of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation” (1996), the Law of the Russian Federation “On National and Cultural Autonomy” (1996), the “Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025” (2012) and others.
 
 The article discusses the activities of regional authorities on forming mutual understanding and consent between ethnic groups living within individual republics. Each subject adopted special programs to implement the Strategy of the state national policy of the Russian Federation, taking into account its socio-economic and ethno-cultural development. Some attention is also paid to the activities carried out by national cultural autonomies in the national republics under consideration.
 
 Conclusions. In order to solve the research tasks set in the article, the authors analyzed the data of sociological surveys conducted to study ethno-cultural processes in the subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as examined the assessment of various aspects in interethnic relations by the population pf three republics; a special emphasis is placed on the views and assessment of young people regarding the relationship between representatives of different peoples, about the level of well-being in the confessional and interethnic spheres. The analysis of the state national policy of Russia at the present stage testifies to the great attention on the part of the governing bodies of the Russian Federation to interethnic problems in the multinational state: timely adoption of conceptual and regulatory legal acts; formation and control of authorities and public institutions responsible for issues of interethnic interaction, as well as organization of their activities; involvement of politicians and researchers in the study of state policy in order to improve it. However, despite concrete steps in the field of interethnic interaction both in the center and on the ground, often of a preventive nature, it is not always possible to overcome inconsistency of the national issue in full, especially for multi-ethnic subjects of the Russian Federation. To one degree or another, conflict situations manifest themselves in them, they are primarily associated with such a factor of modernity as the desire of peoples to preserve and fully develop national languages and culture. Migration flows and population changes are beginning to play an important role in the regions, which is proved by the population censuses of recent years, but the main thing is the state of interethnic coexistence in the country, for example, on the materials of the Republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia.

Политическое и социокультурное пространство Российской империи и модели судоустройства при проведении Судебной реформы 1864 г.

The article considers a range of problems related to the need for liberal-democratic reforms in such a multinational, multicultural and multi-confessional state as the Russian Empire, studied the typology of judicial institutions formed in domestic science, created during the Judicial Reform of 1864, and proposed models of the judiciary, implemented in the course of judicial reforms in the second half of the 19th century in Russia.

Catastrophic Consequences of Spain’s Language Policy against the Background of Russia’s Language Policy

Introduction. The problem of preserving and protecting the native language today is one of the main ones facing any people thinking about their future in the conditions of globalization, European economic integration and a modern multinational and multi-confessional state. The purpose of this article is to examine the internal processes of the destruction of the status of a single official language as a link between the country and the analysis of the discriminatory status of the Spanish language in modern Spain and the prediction of the consequences of such discrimination of language policy, as well as a comparative analysis of the language situation in Spain and Russia. Materials and Methods. This section specifies what has served as material for the analysis and describes the research techniques used. The object of the study is the Spanish language as the official language of the Kingdom of Spain, its role and its changes in the regions in the process of political processes over the past decades. Comparative- historical and typological research methods are used, as well as methods of observation, analysis, modeling. Results. This is the main section, which aims to confirm or reject a working hypothesis (or hypotheses) by means of analysis, synthesis and elucidation of data. The reasons for the unbalanced state of the language situation in Spain, as well as the negative consequences of the language policy pursued by the government, are analyzed. Practical recommendations have been developed to overcome the existing critical problems in the field of the country's language policy, based on the Russian example. Discussion and Conclusion. In this part, the results are to be briefly summarized and the main directions for further research indicated. The results presented in the article contribute to the scientific understanding of the problem of the status of the state official language in modern Spain. They contribute to the development of awareness of the seriousness and danger of the problem. If we Spaniards do not realize the seriousness of what is happening and do not force the government, the opposition and all legitimate parties to respond to this critical situation, then the future of the Spanish language and the Spaniards themselves in Spain seems pessimistic, since we will be foreigners in our beautiful country.

ОСНОВНІ НАПРЯМИ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ МУСУЛЬМАНСЬКИХ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙ УКРАЇНИ В 2022 РОЦІ

The activity of the Muslim communities of Ukraine during the Russian Federation war, due to the involvement of Muslims in social processes, military actions and migration processes of a multi-confessional state, is considered. In the article, we were selected the main areas of activity of Muslim organizations: protection of the state borders and territories of Ukraine, cooperation and consolidation of the Muslim Ummah to help the civilian population and the military of the Armed Forces with the necessary help and directly volunteer work. The article also examines such an important element of the activities of Muslim communities as cooperation with authorities in order to establish productive relations among Muslim organizations and the Muslim world as a whole.

Legal standing of churches and religious communities in the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians and the kingdom of Yugoslavia

This paper shows how the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia legally regulated the position and organisation of religious communities, which after unification found themselves in a joint and multi-confessional state. Although the concept of complete separation of churches and religious communities from the state was not implemented in the Constitutions of 1921 and 1931, religious communities were very influential in social life and politics, and after several unsuccessful draft laws on religions and interreligious relations, specific laws that regulated the legal position of many churches and religious communities that were represented in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were adopted. In addition, negotiations with the Holy See were carried out in order to conclude a concordat that would determine the status of the Catholic Church in the Yugoslav state in detail. From the adopted constitutions and the entire religious legislation on individual religions and their communities in the common state, it can be concluded that the principle of the state church was abandoned, as well as that religious communities enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy in regulating their own organisation and internal affairs. Nevertheless, the election of supreme church leaders and dignitaries depended on the king and the government, so the state still exerted a great deal of influence over the church organisation and structure.

Социокультурная идентичность кыргызского народа в контексте толерантности

Modern Kyrgyzstan is a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional state with a rich history of interaction between different peoples and ethnic groups. The importance of tolerance as an integral characteristic of a modern and civilized society is emphasized. The article is written on the basis of data from a sociological study conducted in 2019–2020. The analyzed materials showed that over the years of independence, not all citizens of the country of different ethnic communities have realized that they are part of the single people of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Polish Contribution to Central European Musical Culture in the Seventeenth Century. The Case of Marcin Mielczewski

The seventeenth-century Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, embracing the lands of the Polish Crown (together with the territory of present-day Ukraine) and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, belonged geographically to both Central and Eastern Europe. It was a multiethnic and multiconfessional state, in which the Latin and Greek cultures were mutually interactive. With regard to the musical culture of the royal court, however, itwas the close ties with Italy that were of the greatest significance. The Polish kings of the Vasa dynasty (above ali Zygmunt III and Władysław IV) maintained music chapels consisting to a considerable extent of Italian musicians, among whom were Luca Marenzio, Giulio Cesare Gabussi, Asprilio Pacelli, Giovanni Francesco Anerio and Tarquinio Merula. Thanks to the Polish patronage, they not only composed newworks, but also trained musicians of various nations belonging to the royal ensembles. Among the composers trained at the Polish court was the Italian Marco Scacchi (d. 1662), chapel-master to Władysław IV, the composer of operas staged in the royal theatre, and also a music theorist – the author of a classification of musical genres which was produced during Scacchi's dispute over music theory with the Gdansk organist Paul Siefert. This dispute contributed to the popularisation across Europe of the works of Scacchi and also of other musicians associated with the court of the Polish Vasas. Extant handwritten sources of Silesian provenance (belonging to the Emil Bohn collection, currently held in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin) testify the considerable interest in this region (now within the Polish borders, but in the seventeenth century constituting a dominion of the Empire) in the religious compositions of Marcin Mielczewski (d. 1651), musician to Władysław IV (until 1644) and subsequently, until his death, chapel-master to Karol Ferdinand Vasa, Bishop of Płock and Wrocław. Of Mielczewski's compositional output for the needs of the Roman Catholic Church, copyists from Lutheran circles in Wrocław chose primarily psalms that were universal to the Christian repertory, furnishing those works whose texts chimed with the doctrine of the Augsburg confession with more appropriate texts of German-language contrafacta. However, this method was not always successful in eliminating traces of Catholicism, which remained, for example, in the melodies of works based on pre-compositional material drawn by Mielczewski from Marian songs that were popular in Poland (e.g. the church concerto Audite gentes et exsultate, also preserved in a version with the text of a German-language contrafactum entitled Nun höret alle, based on the song O gloriosa Domina, which in the former Commonwealth was treated as a chivalrous hymn).

Religious traditions of the Kazakh people before Islam

The scientific article is devoted to a critical analysis of some features of religious worldviews and traditions of the Kazakh people in history. In the work of the position of religious-analytical analysis of the peculiarities of beliefs, religious views of the tradition of the Kazakh people in the pre-Islamic period. Today, 70% of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan adhere to the values of the Sunni Islamic sect, and the name of Abu Hanifa. This means that the country in the demographic plan is dominated by the number of adherents of Islam. Representatives of more than 130 nationalities and 18 religious denominations live peacefully in all conditions in Kazakhstan. Prior to the emergence of Islam in the Kazakh steppes, various religious directions were widespread. Religious views and religious beliefs of the inhabitants of a multinational, multi-confessional state as Kazakhstan are always one of the most important and topical issues requiring scientific research of the current state of the problems of the present study. Key words: belief, religion, shamanism, Tengrianism, Mitraizm. Zoroastrianism.

Министр исповеданий А.В. Карташев и конфессиональная политика Временного правительства

The article considers the views of A. Kartashev, an outstanding theologian, Minister of Confessions of the Provisional Government, on relationship between church and state in Russia and the measures he proposed in order to reform them. What Kartashev advocated was not the complete separation of church and state, but rather such a “growing distance” between them which would give the Russian Orthodox Church independence and would allow the state to be secular rather than unilaterally confessional. During the short period when the Ministry of Religious Confessions was working, Anton Kartashev tried to be less involved into church administration, defended the interests of the religious department in the government, and supported a number of proposals from the Local Council. Kartashev began to implement the legal registration of the multi-confessional state system and consistently defended the interests of the Orthodox Church in other ministries and government departments. He gradually moved away from the doctrinal guidelines of the Provisional Government on the separation of church and state and became inclined to strengthen the influence of the church in the life of society, seeing its activities as a guarantee of the spiritual salvation of Russia. This approach did not coincide with the ideas about the role of the church in the life of society which had developed in liberal and socialist circles of that time and led to a discrepancy between the declarations of the Provisional Government and the activities it carried out in the church sphere. The article considers the reasons why Kartashev was able to pursue his line of confessional policy. The most important of these reasons was that neither the Provisional Government nor the Constitutional Democratic Party or the Socialist Revolutionary Party considered the problems of church-state relations a priority. They treated such problems in the context of general problems of the democratic transformation of Russia and attributed the right to solve them to the Constituent Assembly. It is emphasized that in the tense atmosphere of 1917 neither the Provisional Government nor the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to conflict with each other. In this situation, the compromise policy of Anton Kartashev suited both sides and softened the negative attitude of the church circles towards the activities of the Provisional Government.

HISTORICAL-LEGAL FUNDAMENTALS OF THE STATE RUSSIAN POLITICS IN XVI-XVIII CENTURIES TOWARDS ABORIGINAL PEOPLES ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE MORDVINS

The rationale of the study is the uniqueness of the system of the multi-national and multi-confessional Russian state. Peoples' inclusion into a single state legal framework determined the need to develop a relevant ethnic legal policy. In this regard, this paper is aimed at articulating the legal fundamentals of the Russian politics in XVI-XVIII centuries towards aboriginal peoples on the example of the Mordvins. The paper discusses the key aspects of the Mordvins life under the Russian law. It looks into 16th-18th centuries regulations regarding non-Russians that determined the specifics of their adaptation within Russia. The study is mainly based on the formal-legal, historical-legal methodology with emphasis on sociocultural and legal-anthropological approaches, which made it possible to historically and legally assess laws and regulations that reflect specifics of Mordvins position in the 16th-18th centuries. The paper has a practical value for improving the legislation for inter-ethnic relations and strengthening the foundations of federalism as the key characteristic of the Russian state.

Predator Neoliberalism

Lebanon, a multi-confessional state, is undergoing a deep socioeconomic change that could trigger a review of its constitutional arrangement. The tiny republic on the Mediterranean was born in 1920 as a liberal democracy with a market economy, where the Christians had the upper hand in politics and the economy. In 1975, Lebanon witnessed a major war that lasted for fifteen years, and a new political system emerged in 1989, dubbed the Ta’ef Accord. The new constitutional arrangement, also known as the “second republic,” transferred major powers to the Muslims. Under the new republic, illiberal policies were adopted in reconstruction, public finance, and monetary policy, coupled with unprecedented corruption at the highest levels. On 17 October 2019, the country exploded in a social revolution which could precipitate the death of the second republic or the demise of the country as another victim of predator neoliberalism.

Analysis of gender relations in modern social and human sciences

Modern Kazakhstan is a multi-confessional state that provides absolutely equal rights to its citizens.The gender approach presupposes not only an innovative rethinking of the position of women,but also the search for practical ways to free her from outdated ideas about herself and her role in themodern world. The article describes the processes of the development of gender relations in the socialand humanitarian sciences, and also gives their new models adopted in Kazakhstan, in particular inthe field of political science, law, economics and religious studies. Based on the results of the rankingon gender equality, developed by the international community, the results of political, economic, religiousand legal research in Kazakhstan are analyzed. Kazakhstani society is characterized by its ownconsistent development of modern gender relations in these areas.It should be noted that gender studies broadens the scope of innovation and research in sociology,including religion. First of all, this is due to the processes of secularization, modernization and emancipation.The question of the role and importance of gender studies and feminism in the field of religionarises in connection with the increase in the level of religiosity among women, which researchersinterpret in different ways, but most of these approaches are based on theoretical principles of gender.Key words: gender, politics, gender economy, religion.

ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЕ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ И ОХРАНА СУВЕРЕНИТЕТА В КОНТЕКСТЕ СОХРАНЕНИЯ КОНСТИТУЦИОННОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ РОССИИ

The article discusses ways to protect constitutional identity in the face of serious pressure on the traditional sociocultural values of the peoples of Russia. The author proves the need for a comprehensive theoretical justification of optimal legal methods to counter modern geopolitical threats, including by protecting constitutional sovereignty and ensuring constitutional security. According to the author, the constitutional-legal model of the organization of life of society and the state should be based on solidarity of public notions and traditional sociocultural values. The partial synchronization of legal systems, necessary for the normal coexistence of various states, does not imply their complete unification. However, the development of clear criteria for classifying these or those norms as defining national constitutional identity requires a serious ideological and scientific-theoretical justification. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that Russia is a multinational and multiconfessional state, which greatly complicates the identified problem. The author believes that the protection of constitutional sovereignty should not harm world cooperation in the field of protecting human rights and create the prerequisites for using constitutional identity as an instrument of «selective» action. Having positively assessed the constitutional legal consolidation and justification of the mechanism for overcoming constitutional and conventional conflicts, the author advocates the need to continue the «dialogue» between the bodies of constitutional and conventional justice.

Особенности вооруженных конфликтов в Индонезии и возможности их мирного урегулирования

Determining the prospects and methods for the peaceful settlement of violent conflicts in a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state of Indonesia is associated with an assessment of the degree of objectivity of the underlying causes of such conflicts, primarily the nature of the underlying contradictions and the degree of possibility of their resolution. The way of countering violence as a method of achieving political and economic goals is a consistent limitation of the conflict development of ethno-confessional relations and separatist sentiments in some provinces of the country.

RELIGIOUS POLICY AS A TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF KAZAKHS IN RUSSIA IN XVIII–XIX CENTURIES

The article reveals the peculiarities of the development of the religious policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the Kazakh population in XVIII — XIX centuries. The author uses previously unpublished materials from the holdings of the Historical archive of Omsk region. This perspective of the study is of practical importance, as in the modern world it is impossible to imagine a multiconfessional state without a certain model of religious policy. One of the variants of such a model was the religious policy of the government of Catherine II. In an eff ort to culturally integrate the Kazakhs into Russia and to protect them from the influence of the Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva anti-Petersburg teachers of Islam, the Russian government in the XVIII century made the Tatar mullahs official representatives and guides of the Russian influence among the Muslim Kazakhs. Tatars had to make the prospect of Russian citizenship more attractive for the Kazakh population than the possibility of political unity with Muslims of Central Asian khanates. At the same time, the Central Asian teachers of Islam have already begun their preaching in the Kazakh steppe. But after the conquest of Central Asia the Russian authorities had no more need for the active Tatar presence in the region. The Russian government organizationally separated Muslim Tatars from Muslim Kazakhs, strengthened the secular direction of development of Kazakh culture, maintaining the loyalty of the Kazakh people. At the same time, any illegal initiatives, which restricted the Muslim population of the Empire, were stopped. Thus, the successful expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire in the XIX century is not only an indicator of the military power of the Empire, but also the result of a flexible religious policy.

Jesuit Culture in Poland and Lithuania, 1564–1773

The presence of the Society of Jesus in the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the period 1564–1773 was certainly one of the most important elements in the process of building the religious, cultural, and political identity of this multinational and multiconfessional state, one of the largest in Europe at the time. The authors sketch the most important trends in research on this subject matter and present the leading authors and their studies. They point out the recent departure from the historiography produced within the Society and the remnants of earlier, largely apologetic writings, towards the “hermeneutic turn” taking place at the moment. They explain their decisions concerning the contents of the present issue of JJS , aimed at filling gaps in the knowledge of English-speaking scholars caused by the fact that the majority of studies concerning the activities of Jesuits in the Commonwealth are published in Polish and Lithuanian.

ISLAM IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE REGIONAL POLITICAL DESIGN OF CONTEMPORARY TATARSTAN

For Russia, as a multicultural and multi-confessional state, ethnic and religious factors play an important role in state building and identity formation of its citizens. The post-Soviet history of the Russian Federation has demonstrated their importance in shaping the political identity of Russian regions, especially in the national republics. Thus, for many republics with Muslim population, Islam becomes one of the most important components of everyday life, while for the local elites it is an element of formation of the region's identity policy. The case study of the Republic of Tatarstan is intended to show the factors and incentives for the actualization of the religious factor in the life of the local community and in the political structure of the region. The research, conducted with the help of historical and sociological methods, traces the dynamics of the religious factor: a) at the level of mass consciousness of the Tatar Muslim community; b) at the ideological level. The latter includes the activities of the political and spiritual elites of the region, as well as external influences(Russian domestic and foreign policy, Islamic globalization) on the use and interpretation of the Islamic factor.

The Constitution, Federalism and the Unity of the State and Law System of Russia

The article deals with issues connected with constitutional provisions of fundamental constitutional principle of unity of state-legal system that preserves integrity and sovereignty of Russian State. Attention drawn to experience of constitutional consolidation of federal order, features of modern regulation of federal relations in RF Constitution that have been preserved since Soviet period. The author draws attention to uniqueness of domestic model of federation that has no analogues among foreign federal states. The article criticizes statements that claim expediency of developing in federation that based exclusively on territorial rather than national principles. Also, it criticyzes concepts that separation of republics as constituent entities of federation is unreasonable and dangerous, and that the most appropriate form of state order for Russia a unitary republic. The author substantiates idea that unity in a federal state due to its rich historical experience can be achieved only trough unity of diversity. Thus, there no need for constitutional reforms of federalism. It concluded that unity of a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional federal state should be strengthened not by forciable reforms, but by development of economy and, as a consequence, increase in financing in a social sphere in compliance with interests and improvement of well-being of people in different fields. The article analyzes evolution of federal system of Russia, current state of which differs not only from Soviet period, but also from federalism that developed in before and after introduction of 1993 Constitution of Russian Federation. Having identified modern federal problems, author argues that optimization of constitutional model of Russian federalism should be supported by legislative establishment of a reasonable balance between powers and finances in compliance with peculiarities of specific constituent entities of Russian Federation, as well as encouraging different regions to develop their own economies. At same time, objective Russian state pursues to preserve ethnic identity of all peoples inhabiting and political and legal identity of Russia.