The article is dedicated to the role of monasterial cartography in the religious didactics of the Middle Ages. The author analyzes principles of correlation of text and image in the Christian cartography, examines its connection with the biblical concepts of the geography, topography and temporality. In this aspect, author analyzes the role of Mappe mundi as mnemonic matrix in the didactic works of Hugues de Saint-Victor Descriptio mappe mundi, De arca Noe mystica and De arca Noe morali.

Analysis and publication of chapters from the most important source of European garden culture. It is proved that total allegorical-symbolic understanding of the garden and its objects necessarily required a detailed plot of acquaintance with the garden, which influenced the culture of European guidebooks.

The article is devoted to the influence of the works of WesternEuropean landscape painters on the Russian academic school of landscape painting  and their role in  forming the typological and artistic structure of the genre. A number of so-called original model works served as patterns for the students of the Saint-Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts in the last third of 18 – early 19 century are now identified with the use of archival and literary sources. The author tracks preferences of the students of the Academy landscape and perspective classes in copying, as determined by the body of national collection and changing style priorities.

So far the creativity of an outstanding representative of Russian artistic culture of the first half of the twentieth century, the founder of one of the greatest sculptural dynasties of Russia of the Newest time – Mitrofan Sergeyevich Rukavishnikov – remained practically unknown to neither a narrow circle of specialists nor to the broader scientific community. First of all, the limitation of information about the life and work of the master caused by the fact that the source base of this issue was not studied completely. As a result, a sound historiographical analysis of that topic seemed to be very difficult. The main objective of present work was studying some sources that allowed to reconstruct substantially the life and career of M.S. Rukavishnikov. For the first time we collected and studied all the currently available publications in periodicals (total number 42), covering the period from 1919 to 1934. They include mentioning the works of M.S. Rukavishnikov, notes accompanied the reproduction of his works, and very few articles of a general nature about the creative work of the master relating to the lifetime criticism. Materials of that work allow to evaluate objectively and comprehensively the artists’ creative heritage.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the architecture of Russian pavilions at world exhibitions since the inauguration in 1851 of the famous London show and up to the last pre-war exhibition in Turin and Rome in 1911. Taking the London exhibition as the starting point, the author, by this example, explains the reasons for an appearance relatively soon of pavilion buildings, which immediately became an alternative to the construction of grandiose buildings at the world exhibitions. Since the Paris exhibition of 1867, Russia has been constantly represented by national constructions. Through the representation of their appearance, he traces a frequent, as is seen, change of vectors in the interpretation of the concept of “Russian style” by architects, and also pays attention to other equally intriguing metamorphoses in the functional purpose of those temporary structures in the context of international events.

The article explores the current Russian theatrical market. In the 1990s the economic regime changes reintroduced private enterprise. The appearance of the independent theatrical platforms and the development of the media gave an opportunity for independent artistic practice. The “input barrier” to the theatrical industry was destructed and the competition between the theatrical organizations intensified. So in this market changes the art surviving was referred to the marketing promotion technologies. The article analyzes principal marketing elements. It is the first study of the SMM-technology for theatrical needs in Russia. Also for the first time the lateral marketing method is designated as an innovative marketing instrument, based on non-standard thinking for the development of creative and original promotional strategies.

The article is dedicated to an artistic concept of the Marс Chagall museum in Vitebsk, city where he was born and spent his childhood and adolescence. The difficulty for creating such a museum is that in Vitebsk there are no completely oeuvres of the artist nor his memorial things or documents. As a conceptual idea to that end the author suggests developing the museum in a form of cultural center with modern multimedia technologies. The conception is built on the artist’s relationship with the city, his house and memorial place, which turn out to become the main and authentic exhibit of that museum.

The article presents principal features of the consumption society and the objective conditions necessary for its genesis and functioning. The main purpose of this article is to identify and describe the mechanisms of social control as a necessary condition for the functioning of consumption society and to describe the signs of a crisis in it.

Description of the demographic, socio-political, economic, environmental and climatic situation in 265 countries and territories of the world in 2015 revealed the international migration as a factor in the generative processes of an international environment. Performance of global organizations, the institutionalization of multilateral agreements, rise of new migration management mechanisms altogether limit the possibility of using the established approaches. The need to take into account new trends is dictated by the fact that, in practice, Russia is at the time the country of origin, transit and destination of the migration flows.

Basing on three works by P. Sorokin: “The sociology of Revolution”, “Man and Society in Disasters”, “Long Journey: the Autobiography”, the author attempts to analyze an evolution of views of the great sociologist upon the nature, essence and consequences of the revolution as one of the social disaster of humanity. The article focuses on main findings of scientists: the revolution and other great evils will cease to be necessary and lose meaning in human history, when mankind significantly increases the reserves of unselfish, creative love in the external behavior, the interpersonal and intergroup relationships, the social institutions and culture in general.

The article gives a picture of the reading among Russian students, studying in higher education institutions of Chelyabinsk region. The main socio-psychological and demographic characteristics of young readers, the frequency of their reading, and reader orientations are analyzed. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the phenomenon of fashion and Internet technologies in stimulating the reader’s activity of young people.

This article studies the formation of female monastic tradition at the Daoist School of the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) during the Jin (1115–1234) and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties. The research is based on stele inscription with the epitaph to the Daoist nun, who made a powerful contribution to the development of this religious movement. Important aspects of the female self-sacrifice are discussed on material of hagiography of Ao-dun Miao-shan (1199–1275). They give information on the origin of first female convents of the Daoist School Quanzhen in China in the 12–13th centuries.

The article examines the views of German thinkers of the early Enlightenment on the relationship between faith and reason. Enlightenment is so multifaceted that we can quite speak about different types of Enlightenment. The author considers the main representatives of the philosophical Enlightenment (Thomasius and Wolf) and the religious Enlightenment (pietists) and concludes that both the first and the second were oriented towards the cultivation of the mind and its purification from errors and prejudices, including in the sphere of morality and religion. However, setting the same goals, they differed in the methods for achieving them.