The article offers an interpretation of the discussion between H.-G. Gadamer and J. Derrida as a starting point for the elaboration of Gadamer’s late hermeneutics, which differs from the project of “Truth and Method”. The three key concepts of that project are: good will to understanding, dialog and participation. They mark out the intersubjective nature of understanding, which is not so much the increasing knowledge, but the transformation of subjectivity. The good will to understand implies the resolution to be engaged in a relationship with indefinite end, where subjectivity is at stake. The dialog as an “inherent” mode of being-with and the origin of speech joints intersubjectivity and understanding. It is the challenging relation, in which tension unfolds between the desire for understanding and the maintenance of difference in meanings. The participation marks the singularity of the situation of understanding. The involved subjectivity experiences the transformative effect of understanding. The late hermeneutics of H.-G. Gadamer is characterised by the description of a “weak” subjectivity, which has some alterity in itself. Instead of the opposition “I – Other (not-I)” on the background of a common world, we propose to consider understanding as a process of interaction of singular life-worlds, where the common ground is not guaranteed.

The article represents the final part of a study on the influence of the works by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and John of the Cross (1542–1591) on Lev Platonovich Karsavin’s (1882–1952) creative decision to accompany his theological poems with an author’s commentary. The author uses documentary evidence to show that the Russian metaphysician was familiar with the works about the Carmelite monk and attributed personal significance to him. Karsavin’s attention was not accidental, as evidenced by the panorama of how the name and legacy of John of the Cross entered the culture of European countries and Russia, and how the theme of mysticism was explored by humanitarian theories since the mid-19^th century. Karsavin’s attitude towards mysticism was influenced by his unique worldview, which is evident in his work “Noctes Petropolitanae” and others.

The publication deals with the little-studied pages of the Eurasianism’s history. The archival part includes a letter from the Soviet Eurasian A.N. Zelinsky to G.V. Vernadsky with the latter’s reply, as well as Vernadsky’s obituary dedicated to Savitsky. The preface to the publication describes briefly the history of friendship and relationship between Savitsky and Vernadsky, the circumstances of Vernadsky’s turn to Eurasianism, as well as his contribution to Eurasian historiosophy. The history of the relationship between Zelinsky and Vernadsky has not only a personal, but also a generational aspect – the fathers of the correspondents, the famous chemist, inventor of the gas mask N.D. Zelinsky was in a long-term relationship of friendship and scientific cooperation with the biogeochemist V. Vernadsky, whose main lines of thought and worldview, in turn, influenced Savitsky.

The article considers the understanding of language in the concept of E.V. Ilyenkov and a number of his followers. Recognizing the importance of language, especially in the formation and manifestation of human consciousness, E.V. Ilyenkov did not identify language with thinking. For him, those are different areas of human existence connected by social practice. The language is historical. According to S.N. Mareev, social work and the associated need for communication create the first “symbols” which serve as tools of labor, based on the principle of self-reference. The tool of labor is the first real universal. Activity with a tool is abstracted into a gesture. Over time, the language of gestures is transformed into a verbal language. The same pattern is present in the development of deafblind children: activity with an object – gesture, partially imitating activity – dactylic word – verbal language. Developed language appears as a relatively autonomous area of human social being. According to L.K. Naumenko, language cannot be directly reduced to a non-linguistic “substratum” like human physiology, psyche, social relations, etc. Also language is neither a completely autonomous area. The “substance” of language, which requires “sound matter” for itself at a certain level of development, is social practice.

G.I. Chernavin’s book “The Semblance of Conscience” continues the methodology of his previous book “The Philosophy of the Troll”: a phenomenological re-description of the untrue, taking into account the point of view of the producer of the untrue. In the “Semblance of Conscience”, the epistemological perspective is replaced by an ethical one. The author considers how it is possible to distinguish between a real and a phantom (socially determined) conscience if they both present themselves to the subject. That act of presentation precedes the act of self-awareness, and therefore it is impossible to distinguish between true and false conscience by analyzing the contents of consciousness. A phenomenological analysis of the very conditions of experience presentation is required. An analysis of Chernavin’s approach shows its productivity for the philosophy and epistemology of the humanities, but its adaptation always requires some clarifications.

This study was conducted as part of the research project “Universities. The Inside Look” in collaboration with VCIOM. The perceptions of the identity of RSUH are identified in the assessments of its staff as the main agents t communicating aspects of identity in both internal and external contexts. The university’s identity is understood as a set of diverse elements related to knowledge of the university’s history and the outstanding personalities who studied or taught there, as well as knowledge of university symbols and values. According to the study, the unifying codes of the university are the concepts of “humanities”, “traditions”, “liberty”, “creative work”, “professionalism”. On the basis of such concepts, the work of the university should be built not as a set of faculties, but as a single whole. It is important to work at the popularization of formal elements of identity, including a logo, a motto, a slogan and a mascot.

Authors carried out the content analysis of the gender regime in the normative legal acts of European intergovernmental organizations; the legislative framework of the member states of the European Union, judicial precedents in the field of implementation and ensuring the rights and opportunities for representatives of trans- and non-binary groups. Statistical data and author’s materials of sociological research were used in the article. Currently, two main, parallel processes are obvious: degenderization and multigenderization. They occur with the visible influence and control of the governments of particular states and intergovernmental organizations. The issue is widely covered and lobbied by European states acting as part of and on behalf of the European Union. However, European countries are heterogeneous in the implementation of gender and sexual equality policies. The ideas promoted by the EU, the intensity and tools can be considered as a mechanism for unification of the European space, ignoring historical, cultural and ideological features, and also calling into question the very statehood and sovereignty of the members of that association.

The modern socio-political situation is developing very dynamically. It presents many issues that can be solved through greater participation of women in their settlement. The increasing role of women in business and other areas of society has already become noticeable. One of the areas where women’s activity is in demand is public diplomacy. The maintenance of the necessary stability in the socio-political sphere depends on their increased participation in public diplomacy. The article deals with the study of issues associated with such participation . In recent years, there has been a slight increase in the role of women in the political sphere. Women have specific qualities that can contribute to the increased effectiveness of diplomacy. On the one hand, encourages a fresh perspective on the issues surrounding their involvement in public diplomacy. On the other hand, there are obstacles and difficulties in engaging women in the settlement of international situations. The emerging issues require the intensification of theoretical and practical research by sociologists, psychologists and other specialists, particularly considering the changes currently taking place in international relations and foreign policy. The material presented in the article is based on the author’s research of the matter using his own approaches in the context of the changing political situation, as well as secondary analysis of sociological survey data related to the issues of women’s participation in politics.

The article considers the features of the social contract between the artistic intelligentsia and the Soviet government during the era of late socialism and the period of perestroika (1985–1991) in the USSR. On the eve of perestroika, the artistic intelligentsia is in a state of creative lack of freedom and the party administering. The social contract between the government and the artistic intelligentsia is maintained during perestroika through democratization, glasnost and freedom of creative work, through market, liberal freedoms and consumption, through the “intelligentsia’s rise to power”.

The author analyzes whether a woman should change her surname when getting married. Based on the author’s exploratory research and secondary quantitative data, it has been revealed that respondents express different contradictory points of view in mass surveys. A large number of respondents support the freedom to choose a surname. The main reason for keeping one’s surname is the desire to maintain individuality or the recognition of the surname in professional circles. In a qualitative study, young people said that changing one’s surname should only be voluntary. Men are more likely than women to show their belief that a woman should change her surname in marriage, but solely out woman’s wish.

The reasons given for the surname change were: 1) tradition; 2) surname change emphasizes a status change; 3) the desire for family unity; 4) a woman joins her husband’s family; 5) love for her husband. Reasons for refusing to change the surname: 1) unwillingness to change all documents; 2) the surname is part of a woman’s identity and individuality; 3) maiden name is a connection with the parents family; 4) striving for equality; 5) the surname is already well known in professional circles; 6) the desire to preserve the wife’s family (ancestral) surname by passing it on to the child.

The article presents the results of a study on a male online community as one of the forms of the institution of male unions, performing the function of socialization and emotional mutual support for males. From the discourse analysis point of view, the male online community is analyzed as a discourse of masculinity, within which a certain model of masculinity is produced and supported, which includes the ideal of behavior, norms and values recognized as adequate for a modern man. The work contains a quantitative analysis of a large array of text data collected by the web scraping method, preprocessed for quantitative research. The methodological basis of the analysis consisted of content analysis and thematic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA).

Qualitative discourse analysis is an auxiliary method for clarifying the findings. Following the study, the author identifies several blocks of topics existing within the discourse of the male online community. As well as he shows the relationship between gender processes occurring in modern Russian society and the topics and issues discussed within the selected male online community. Methodological conclusions on the application of topic modeling to large text data are presented.

The article deals with an issue of mentoring in the formation of social potential of young people using a sociological approach. In the conditions of changes in society and the labor market, mentoring is becoming an important tool for the adaptation of the younger generation. The purpose of the article is to analyze the key factors in the influence of mentoring programs on the process of training young specialists in production.

The article emphasizes the importance of interaction between a mentor and a mentee in the context of transferring knowledge and work experience. An important feature of the work is a comprehensive analysis of the concept of “social potential of youth”, since it, according to many authors, forms a new working reality. The analysis is based on empirical data collected through surveys of college students who did or did not participate in mentoring programs. The study allowed to identify the students’ attitudes to such innovative programs. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the assessment (and subsequent analysis) of the quality of work of student interns from the point of view of the host party – the factory. The main conclusions of the work are that mentoring plays a key role in shaping the social potential of young people, inspiring them to an active civic position. By participating in significant professional projects within the framework of industrial practice at JSC Moscow Machine-Building Plant “Avangard”, JSC SSC “Keldysh Center”, young people develop professional skills and obtain their first work connections.

The analysis of the forms of girls’ participation in youth organizations in the post-war period is preceded by an overview of the socioeconomic situation of Soviet students, their educational status, and the socialization characteristics of the post-war generation. In the context of the mobilization course for the restoration of the post-war economy, the role of youth in economic production is important. A separate section deals with issues of higher education, prospects for educational status, and measures of financial support from the state.

When analyzing the participation of female students in youth organizations, the following aspects are taken into account: the number of students, the requests of the state, their fulfillment, the position of youth and its relations with the authorities; aspirations, interests, orientations of Soviet students, what they consisted of, how they correlated with the state interests, as well as the interests of the whole people.

The article gives a differentiation of youth organizations of the postwar period, considering official and unofficial, amateur associations, youth movements and the extent to which they met the state’s demands. It analyses the causes and consequences of participation in formal youth organizations and informal associations, and presents the objective factors behind the emergence of youth subcultures. It highlights the established contradiction between officially existing forms of participation in public life and the unrealised need for the youth self-expression in the cultural sphere of society.

The article deals with an interdisciplinary study of the decoration of the ceremonial chariot of Thutmose IV (18th Dynasty, New Kingdom), discovered in tomb KV43 in the Valley of the Kings. Overcoming the limitations of traditional iconographic and stylistic analysis, the author focuses on the psychological functions of the imagery within its specific burial context. The central hypothesis posits that the battle scene on the chariot served not a propagandistic, but a ritual-magical function, aimed at ensuring the pharaoh’s power in the afterlife. The research methodology combines approaches from art history, archaeology, historical psychology, and anthropology. The study provides a detailed analysis of the object’s material characteristics, its iconography, and archaeological context to reconstruct an implicit model of perception. Particular attention is paid to the polysensory experience of interacting with the object, including tactile and kinesthetic aspects, which are considered an integral part of ritual practice. A semiotic analysis demonstrates that the visual rhetoric of the decoration – including hierarchy of scale, deliberate iconographic conditionalities, ethnographically detailed depictions of enemies, and performative hieroglyphic inscriptions – was designed to construct an image of the eternal triumph of the deified ruler. It is concluded that the chariot’s decoration constitutes a complex ritual-psychological instrument intended for the magical affirmation of the pharaoh’s power in the afterlife. The results of the study confirm the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary approach for understanding ancient Egyptian art and visual culture.

A series of copper figures of the “Sapogova type” from votive sets in sanctuaries in the north of the Chelyabinsk Region (Sapogova, Karino etc.) is considered. Today they are attributed to the end of the existence of the Gorokhovo Culture, the elite of which originated from nomadic Sarmatians. There is no reason to see them as an “illustration of the structure of society”, as is commonly thought. Many of their features are ritualistic or do not relate to humans. The schematic figure of a flying bird on the left shoulder (Figs. 2B; 3, 2) has a parallel on the male attributes of the Sarmatians (Yanchokrak) and is associated with the character’s high status. In the Iranian World there are analogues of two birds at the shoulders of the deity in the Itkul Culture (Fig. 4, 1). A.D. A.D. Tairov’s connection of a solitary bird on the left shoulder with the burial traditions of the Ugrians is weakly argued. The author emphasizes the similarity of the iconography to the statues in the Ustyurt sanctuaries. The figures of warriors with their knees bent (Fig. 2, A, Г, E, З) have two different poses. Those are probably the poses of dances dedicated to the god of war (like the Kafirs of the Hindukush).

Chinoiserie as the quintessence of Europeans sensual expectations of the Far East, originated in the 17^th century, when Chinese and pseudo-Chinese styles were just beginning to come into fashion. Among the factors that influenced the development of that fashion, the economic success of the East India Companies trading activities needs to be highlighted first, thanks to which the European art market was soon filled with authentic Chinese art objects (primarily decorative and applied art). Nevertheless, Europeans actual knowledge of the real China was still limited. In Chinoiserie, “Chinese” did not refer to a specific historical and cultural reality, but rather to a romantic image formed more based on imaginary representations rather than a true understanding of the specifics of Chinese culture and art. In the early stages of the formation of chinoiserie, the trendsetters for the imaginary China came from the countries of the Franco-Flemish region: France (Paris/Versailles) as the recognized leader in artistic culture, and Flanders (Antwerp/Brussels) as the commercial and economic leader. One manifestation of the fashion for “Chinese” was lace from the Franco-Flemish region in the chinoiserie style. It appeared in the second quarter of the 18^th century, during the style’s peak popularity. Despite the variety of techniques used in creating such lace, the unifying factor was the attempt to represent the image of the “Other”. The figurative representation of characteristic iconographic motifs and types of compositions representing such a fancied image is the result of the research.

By passing the Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars “On Monuments of the Republic” dated April 12, 1918, the Soviet government set the task for the artists in promoting a materialistic worldview aiming to educate a new Soviet man. At the suggestion of V.I. Lenin, that task was supposed to be solved through the “creation of images” of historical characters who were carriers and embodiments of important revolutionary ideas. In the process of implementing Lenin’s plan of monumental propaganda in 1918–1919, a significant number of monuments were created in Moscow and Petrograd in all stylistic trends that existed at that time. Based on the formal and iconographic analysis of the presented works, the article substantiates the choice of the authorities in favor of classical methods of embodying images. Special attention is paid to the consideration of monuments made in the style of Cubism and Cubo-futurism and to explanation why avant-garde methods of representation proved unacceptable for solving the tasks set by the contest. The author also formulates the issue of the discrepancy between the plastic language used within the framework of academicism and symbolism and the emerging Soviet aesthetics and the need to find an adequate figurarive language. The monument to K. Marx by A.T. Matveev, who proposed a synthesis of the classical method of representation with the contemporary language of sculpture, is considered as a successfully found solution.