The humanities and social science

The analysis of the procedural position of the prosecutor at the current stage of initiating a criminal case, the legal regulation of which has undergone significant changes, has been carried out. The participation of the prosecutor in the stage of initiating a criminal case is limited by the lack of his rights to prove, independent decision-making at this stage. As a result of the implementation of the concept of the procedural independence of the preliminary investigation body, the prosecutor is currently suspended by law from direct participation in the first stage of the criminal process. This situation does not correspond to the leading role of the prosecutor in combating crime and ensuring the rule of law. From the concept of the accusatory power of the state, headed by the prosecutor's office, the thesis is developed about the need to expand the rights of the prosecutor at this stage of the criminal process. Concrete measures are proposed to turn the prosecutor into a leading participant in the stage of initiating a criminal case and to transform prosecutorial supervision into a means of procedural management of the preliminary investigation bodies. It is substantiated that the optimization of the stage of initiating a criminal case is possible only according to the model of the supremacy of the prosecutor in pre-trial proceedings.

The relevance of the study of proceedings in the court of first instance is determined by the need to build its model in the conditions of public and adversarial criminal proceedings, the purpose of which is to protect human rights. The criminal procedural norms regulating the resolution of a criminal legal dispute need to be systematized in order to apply them most effectively. Dialectical, axiological, synergetic research methods were used, as well as the theory of social action. Methods of information analysis and synthesis, comparative legal and formal legal research methods were used. The empirical basis of the study was an analysis of the legislation of the Russian Federation regulating the activities of the court of first instance, data from the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The results of the study allow us to determine the purpose, objectives of the proceedings in the court of first instance, its place among other proceedings to build its effective model.

Formation of the State of Teutonic Order in Prussia in the XIIIth—XIVth centuries based beside military oppression on the relations with local population supported by the incorporation of them in the system of condition landholding. These relations implied, from the one hand, the representation by the Order its own status as a collective ruler, and from the other hand, symbolic expression of the loyalty of Old Prussians in various spheres of social communication: language, onomastic, objects of material culture. Definition of the ways to express loyalty that is the purpose of the article allows to characterize the comprehension of Old Prussians their own status in new political conditions. For this purpose by the using of the old comparative-historical, typological and diachronous-synchronous methods were re­sear­ched both written sources and funds from the Old Prussian necropolis. It allows to define that Old Prus­sians expressed their loyalty by the reception of Middle High German language, Chris­tian names and symbols and sign of Teutonic order. Being included in the culture of Old Prussians these elements co-existed with traditional names, language and principle of heathen fu­ne­ral rite. The resulting co-existence of the symbols different by their character became one of the basis for the relations between Old Prussians and Teutonic order that provided stable de­velopment of the State until 1525.

The author studies governmental measures to regulate the sphere of promotion in rank in the Russian Empire analyzing new data obtained from unpublished documents of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA). Documents demonstrate the role of the Table of Ranks of Peter I and its influence on the development of civil ranks in the Russian Empire. The issues of uncontrolled growth of the bureaucracy and abuse of civil ranks for the rapid career advancement of civil servants are seen to be essential for the XIX century. The article attempts at answering the question why the government failed to abolish civil ranks throughout the entire 19th century. In addition, the article explores possible alternative ways of reforming the system of civil ranks that could be adopted by the government of the Russian Empire.

The article studies the private documents of jurors of the Russian Empire such as diaries and memoirs and analyses them as a complex of historical sources containing unique information about the course of the trial and the work of the jury. The pool of documents included two diaries and eight memoirs. The author evaluated the authorship, purpose, place of creation of these documents as well as their content and cognitive value. It is noted that the memoirs under the study share the features which are characteristic of most memoirs of the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries: they were originally aimed at publication and intended primarily for contemporaries; the time gap between the original events and the “memories” of them was relatively short (from several months to several years). The selected documents are primarily the ones belonging to jurors who participated in the metropolitan district courts trials. This fact narrows our understanding of the work of jury in the Russian Empire in the 19th century down to metropolitan provinces.

The article is devoted to the problem of the development of the Vladivostok commercial port in the early 1920s. The first quarter of the XX century was a time of severe trials for the whole of Russia in general and the Far East in particular: World War I; Civil War; foreign intervention. All this time, the Vladivostok Harbor was in fact the only source of external contacts of the remote region. Being the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, Vladivostok has historically been a kind of center of attraction, both in socio-economic and military-political aspects. However, the destroyed logistics chains and the colossal damage that the era of political instability brought with it deprived him of the primacy in the struggle for the markets of the Pacific Rim. This publication is based on archival documents, many of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The author sets himself the task of demonstrating the key activities of the central and local authorities aimed at restoring the competitiveness of the Vladivostok commercial port in the «Manchurian transit» — its distinctive «Visiting card» since the beginning of the century. The author concludes that despite the cardinal change in the vector of the country's political and economic development after 1917, the port of Vladivostok managed to retain the status of the Russian «Window to Asia». The key means of implementing these plans was the establishment of the so-called «Transit harbor» in the port, which became the logical result of generalization and application of the colossal pre-revolutionary experience in the functioning of «free economic zones».

At the present stage, in conditions of geopolitical tension, technologies are actively used that have a manipulative effect on the historical memory of the population. The impact is especially strong on young people. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study the perception of the regional history and historical and cultural heritage by the population of the Kaliningrad region. Based on the theory of generations, significant differences in the specifics of the historical memory of generational groups were revealed. Differences were found in the degree of their interest in the periods of the history of the region. The younger generations are mainly interested in the German period, while the older ones, along with it, are also interested in the Soviet period. The consequence of this is that among the younger generations (especially among generation Z) there is a markedly higher support for the idea of restoring dilapidated pre-war heritage sites and reviving the completely destroyed Royal Castle.

The article considers one of the indicators of geopolitical security — socio-political moods. Social dissatisfaction, political trust, political activity, migration attitudes of the inhabitants of the Kaliningrad region were revealed. The study was based on the theoretical and empirical provisions of FCTAS RAS of socio-political sentiments and social tensions in Russian society. The main method is a personal semi-formalized interview of the population over 18 years old (n = 915). As a result of the study, it was revealed that the significant problems of the Kaliningrad region for the inhabitants of the region continue to be problems related to economic security: low incomes of the population, high prices for food and essential goods, high tariffs for housing and communal services. The hypothesis is confirmed that in the conditions of geopolitical tensions, the population's trust in local and federal authorities, the president and the army will increase. The political activity of the population, for the most part, comes down to discussing political events with friends, workmates in person and voting in elections. Most Kaliningraders do not consider moving out of the region. It is concluded that the level of social tension in the Kaliningrad region is at an acceptable level and there are no signs of its development into a social conflict.