The humanities and social science

This article shows that the opposition between formal and dialectical logic first emerged within Hegel’s dialectical logic. The article shows that in the framework of the division of time into «now» and «not now», the incorrect formal logical description of dialectical opposition disappears. The author comes to a generalised conclusion: the rejection of language description of dialectical opposition as a true conjunctive proposition of the A ¬A type marks the end of opposition between formal and dialectical logic in Russian philosophy.

This paper considers the medieval approach to resolving insolubles developed by T. Bradwardine. The article aims to reconstruct T. Bradwardine’s classification of insolubles and compare certain types identified by Bradwardine with the modern ideas of epistemic paradoxes.

This article offers a review and analysis of the discussion on the possibility of visual argumentation presented in English periodicals. The author focuses on the prospects of including this problem into the context of contemporary argumentation theory.

This article analyses the most widespread definitions of religion. The author maintains that, since all essential definitions of religion are unscientific, whereas the descriptive ones contain logical fallacies, religion must be defined through functional analysis and studying its interactions with other elements of culture.

    This article focuses on contemporary society, which, in accordance with D. Bell’s concept, is post-industrial (and information) one. The author draws attention to Bell’s serious mistakes in the development of the concept – the use of only sociological and economic analysis and disregard of social philosophy. The author offers a scientific and philosophical substantiation of the technogenic development of society and the world, its crisis condition, and presents the evidence as to why contemporary society is a post-industrial and technogenic one.

This article considers the influence of globalisation processes on the development of the crisis of historical and ethnocultural identity and describes the factors affecting the ethnocultural identity transformation. The author analyses how globalisation results in both the blurring of ethnocultural identity and the intensification of regionalisation processes.

The publication reflects the problem of new identity of the Baltics in the conditions of competition between European spaces. The Baltic States are presented as a political structure, where mutually competitive identities oriented towards different centres of modern Europe are developing. In the Baltics, the identity discourse acquires new markers. The agenda includes the crisis of confidence in the institutions of power and integration problems.

This article considers the human rights issues in relations between the Russian Federation and the European Union in the context of formal agreements and real policy from 1994 to the beginning of 2013. The EU regards human rights as fundamental values, which serve as the basis for its foreign relations. Russia tends to consider this issue as an attempt of an ill-disposed external actor to interfere in the domestic politics of the state.

The delegitimation of single-party dictatorship in the 1980s brought about fundamental political changes. The abolishment of the Communist party monopoly in December 1989 marked the formation of the modern Lithuanian multi-party system. The author pays attention to the role of confrontation between the social and political movement „Sajudis» and the Communist party of the Lithuanian SSR in the formation of the bipolar party system based on the ideological confrontation between the two dominant political parties — the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party and the Homeland Union.

This article analyses different aspects of the development of electronic form of culture. Particular emphasis is placed on the philosophical and sociological study of the phenomenon, which has been pronounced since the second half of the 20th century. The author considers the conditions and factors of the interdisciplinary approach to studying electronic culture.

This article examines transformation of the social administrative resources through different historical periods. The author suggests criteria for analyzing evolution of scientific views on public administration: sociological time and the volume of the social ties. On the basis of these criteria, the author identifies the stages of cardinal changes in public administration. The optimum administrative model is suggested for each of these stages. The article emphasizes the dependence of the changes in the resource base of the public administration on the actual social mandate.

Social advertising, which is growing fast nowadays, gives rise to a number of issues relating to its efficiency and impact on the audience. The author focuses on the current problems faced by social advertising in the Kaliningrad region and demonstrates a lack of variety in topics, as well as a limited range of the techniques applied. The paper tackles the problem of identifying the quality level of advertisements addressing various social needs.

This article analyses the changes to the legal status of various categories of allotment during P.A. Stolypin’s agrarian reform. It is shown that the introduction of the institution of personal property (which is not identical to private property) did not mean the elimination of rural community’s ownership of a significant part of the allotment land.

This article is devoted to the Department of Awareness of the Don Government and its activities during the Russian Civil War. The author describes in detail the structure of the organization, it principal activities, and the reasons behind its closure. The author pays special attention to the political situation in Russia in 1919 and the importance of agitation during the disintegration of the old foundations of the state.

This article focuses on the eradication of Latvian khutors in Bashkiria as a result of the state plan for total collectivization. The author arrives at a conclusion that it resulted in the elimination of conditions for ethnicity development.

This article analyses the process of development of Russian population’s business activities during the early Perestroika period. The case of Central Black Earth regions helps examine the outcomes and complications associated with the establishment and functioning of cooperatives producing consumer goods and providing personal services.

This article focuses on the reasons behind and the diplomatic aspects of the Neuchâtel crisis in Prussian-Swiss relations. The Neuchâtel crisis arose in the end of 1856 as a result of the Prussian territorial claims and interference in Swiss home affairs. The author examines the diplomacy of the leading European powers – mainly England – aimed to resolve the Neuchâtel crisis.

This article considers the political success of the Baltic Popular Fronts in the years of perestroika on the materials of 1989—1990 elections. The author analyses the motives behind the establishment of mass movements and their ideational imperatives, describes the dynamics of changes in the demands of popular fronts, and comes to a conclusion about their significance for the establishment of a multi-party system in the Baltics.

This article considers the features of urban restoration in East Prussia after World War I. In a difficult economic situation, the system of restoration works was clearly structured. In the interbellum, the public development policy for the province was formulated in accordance with the contemporary urban development requirements and was based on a combination of old and new architecture, the expansion of residential areas, and creation of a comfortable environment with the help of landscape gardening.

This article examines the development of draft resolutions of the USSR Council of Ministers “On the Priority Measures for the Population of Districts and the Development of Agriculture in the Kaliningrad Region.” The author considers the reasons behind a reduction in financial benefits and food support for settlers in the Kaliningrad region.

This article analyses the ethnonymy and other ethnocultural markers (denomination, language) of the residents of Belarusian lands during the partitions of Poland on the basis of works by S. Plescheev, H. F. Hackmann, L. M. Maksimovich, V. M. Severgin, and other scholars. The urban population was ethnically identified as Polish, whereas the rural peasant one as predominantly Lithuanian.

This article explores the parallels between the Lithuanian movements for national independence in 1917—1920 and 1988—1991 as analyzed in the Anglo-American historiography of the first half of the 1990s. Such scholars as A. Lieven and other authors characterize some main similarities and differences between those movements. These scholars emphasize the ambiguity of the Soviet experience, as well as the internal conflicts within the Lithuanian political elite and demonstrate the productivity of the comparative approach.