Psychological and pedagogical expertise is part of divorce proceedings. It is intended to resolve custody disputes and diagnose the emotional status of the child by various projective methods. The research objective was to identify effective projective referents of emotional instability and conflict in 63 children going through a custody trial. The control group included 56 children. The subjects were asked to draw a non-existent animal with crayons. The parameters evaluated on a dichotomous scale included: crosshatching, sketching, erasing and correcting, strong pressure, wounds or scars on the animal's body, weak legs, two or more heads, brightness and polychromy. The φ*-Fischer angular transformation criterion was used to compare the frequency in two independent samples and to assess the reliability of the differences. If the imaginary creature had two heads, it was a sign with a high differentiating power, which indicated an internal conflict and emotional contradiction in the child and, as a result, psychological instability. The polychromic pattern also proved different: the children in the experimental group appeared less likely to use color, which may indicate their low energy tone and depressed emotional state. Imaginary creatures on weak legs also proved more common in the experimental group, suggesting the children were going through an unbalanced state. Other parameters were quite rare in both groups.

The problem of online aggression has attracted increasing attention over the past decade. Various studies revealed a need for tools that would identify the causes of aggressive behavior in cyberspace. The article presents the results of the adaptation of the English-language Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire (CATQ) by K. C. Runions on 421 Russian-speaking teenagers aged 10–15 years (St. Petersburg). The method features four types of online aggression. K. C. Runions describes the cyber-aggression in teenagers through their motivational goals and the ability to behavioral self-control. The procedures of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four-factor model of the original questionnaire. All factors were balanced by the number of statements. The final version of the questionnaire included 23 statements. The structure of the questionnaire was represented by the following factors: impulsive-aversive cyber-aggression, controlled-aversive cyberaggression, controlled-appetitive cyber-aggression, and impulsive-appetitive cyber-aggression. The questionnaire showed good indicators of discriminativeness and reliability; it can serve as a reliable psychological diagnosis tool for studying the phenomenon of cyber-aggression in scientific and practical purposes. Understanding the motivations behind cyber-aggressive behavior can help to develop new preventive measures based on individual differences in the disadaptive factors of online aggression.

The present research featured the regularities, according to which the accuracy of human movements is associated with the length of these movements and time. The author considered the speed–accuracy tradeoff problem by analyzing the procedural aspect of cognitive performance. The experiment included more than a thousand participants and was performed on a portable touch screen device that tested the subject's attitude to solving problems in terms of speed or accuracy. The research objective was to identify significantly different ways of solving the speed–accuracy tradeoff dilemma. At the fine motor level, the participants failed to accomplish a one-to-one correspondence between target area and target time. This ambiguity was a manifestation of various cognitive strategies for performing a speed–accuracy tradeoff task. The Fitts law violations were determined using a wide range of statistical methods and manifested themselves at the level of criteria analysis for the normality of data distribution, types of variance analysis, and multivariate data analysis. The cluster analysis could register various strategies for performing the speed–accuracy tradeoff task. Additional variables, e.g. professional status of the subjects, made it possible to interpret the differences according to specific skills in solving cognitive tasks and to clarify the nature of these skills.

The research featured inter- and intrapersonal emotional competencies as parameters of the psychological health in high school students with different virtual communication engagement rates. The psychological health parameters included neuropsychiatric stability, self-adjustment parameters, volitional qualities, self-attitude, self-perception, moral self-esteem, life-purpose orientations, and positive social adaptation. The authors studied the intrasystem interactions between these parameters and the inter- and intrapersonal emotional competencies. The high level of cybercommunicative addiction appeared to be connected with poor volitional qualities, self-regulation, and life-sense orientations. Immature inter- and intrapersonal emotional competencies, e.g. empathy, expression control, etc., indicated cybercommunicative addiction in high school students. Therefore, inter- and intrapersonal emotional competencies cam be reliable diagnostic tools in this sphere.

The research featured predictors of subjective quality of students' life in the context of international student migration. The paper focuses on the ideological and ethnic components of social identity as a key predictor of the subjective quality of life in students of different ethnicities. The subjective quality of life was studied from the point of view of its motivational, emotional, and cognitive components. The research involved foreign students of Tomsk universities that came from various African or European countries, China, India, and Russia. The social identity was defined based on two questionnaires, namely The Types of Ethnic Identity by G. U. Soldatova and S. V. Ryzhova and The Scale of Ideological Ego Identity by J. R. Adams; components of the subjective quality of life – according to The Scale of Positive and Negative Affect by D. Watson et al., The Scale of Life Satisfaction by E. Diener et al., and The Values of Happiness by B. Ford et al. The authors managed to define the factor structure of social identity, which appeared to have both ethnically-specific and universal features. All cultural groups demonstrated certain factors of social identity that can act as key predictors of ideas about happiness, as well as about emotional (dominant affect) and cognitive (assessment of life satisfaction) components of the subjective quality of life. The results can help to set goals for psychological and educational support of foreign students.

The paper reviews the existing approaches to using digital footprints in the digital learning environment. Monitoring digital footprints of university students can help to design smart learning environment and predict models of interaction between this environment and the user. The article covers the main analysis tools that can be applied to activity monitoring in LMS Moodle, including datasets as a convenient resource for distant learning. The authors studied authentication techniques that are based not on one’s knowledge but on the confirmation of one’s digital profile. The research results revealed some personal styles and patterns of cognitive behavior that reflect students’ work in the digital learning environment. The research results can be used to develop new psychological support of activity monitoring of the digital university environment, as well as to create new effective cognitive user-friendly interfaces.

The research featured the effect of dominant mental state on professional self-awareness. The survey was conducted as part of personnel audit and involved 113 employees of an agricultural holding with 1–5 years of experience. The empirical data were provided by two questionnaires: Professional Self-Awareness and Determining the Dominant State. The activity parameter reflected the level of claims and setting for professional self-development. As an indicator of professional selfawareness, it is connected with such parameters of mental state as "active (passive) attitude to the life" and "high (low) tonus". The positivity indicator defines one’s acceptance and perception of oneself as a professional. It is interconnected with "vigor" as a mental state indicator. In subjects with an active-positive professional self-awareness, synthonic and active types of mood prevailed. In situations where activity dominated over positivity, active mood also domineered. Synthonic mood dominated if positivity indicators were more pronounced than activity. Subjects with a balanced professional self-awareness demonstrated a happy and enthusiastic mood. Enthusiastic mood prevailed when activity dominated, a happy mood increased with increasing positivity. Passive-negative professional self-awareness was associated with a contemplative mood. The research can help to prevent tonic "risk conditions", e.g. overwork and asthenic conditions. In addition, the study can be used to develop an active-positive professional self-awareness in employees, as well as the sense of vocational and psychological well-being.

The empirical study featured the attitude of students to restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper introduces various patterns of attitudes that adolescents with different indicators of value orientations and personal express to the lockdown. An authentic questionnaire with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral blocks was used to define the dominant attitude, A. I. Krupnov’s test – to study the responsibility patterns, and Sh. Schwartz's questionnaire – to describe the system of values. The obtained results made it possible to identify some coping strategies in respondents with different personal qualities. Certain dominant values and the level of responsibility proved to be able to determine a positive or negative attitude to the lockdown. By taking into account the age and personal qualities of the population, authorities one can develop better preventive measures in future.

The present research featured competitive strategy aimed at achieving different goals in professional activity of employees with different intensity of perfectionism. It resulted in a definition of perfectionism based on the role of personality orientation in competitiveness, the subject content of personality orientation, and available publications on the subject content of perfectionism, its types, and their relationship. The type of perfectionism depends on personal characteristics that manifest themselves in competitive environment. Therefore, perfectionist orientation shapes completive strategy in employees. The research involved 142 employees (112 women, 30 men) aged 19–62. The procedure for identifying various types of perfectionist orientation combined the type of perfectionism, achievement motivation, and cognitive attitudes. The paper also introduces criteria for distinguishing self-oriented and socially-oriented perfectionism. The main goal of competition strategy in subjects with self-oriented perfectionism was formulated as demonstration of individual work pattern, while in subjects with sociallyoriented perfectionism it was high quality of activity. The first appeared to be fuelled by the internal motivation and dependence on others. However, criticism and disapproval can affect the desire to achieve the goal. The second was fuelled by security reasons and resulted in actions aimed at retaining the achieved advantages. Both groups hardly saw colleagues as rivals.

The current reality situation can be described as atypical and caused significant changes in all areas of human life. COVID-related experiences made people revaluate themselves and reconsider their plans. The research objective was to describe the current reality situation and its effect on resilience. Because of the lock down of March-April 2020, the research was conducted as online testing and involved 131 people (female – 56 %) aged 18–75 years (18–21 years – 39 respondents; 22–35 – 50 respondents; 36–60 – 37 respondents; 61–75 – 5 respondents), of whom 74 people were single and 57 were married. The obtained data were processed using methods of descriptive statistics, while statistical analysis of differences between groups were described based on H-Kraskel-Wallis Test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and Fischer Angular Transformation Criterion. The empirical study included S. Maddi's Resilience Test as adapted by D. A. Leontyev and E. I. Rasskazova, as well as the method of Semantic Differential of the Reality Situation developed by O. V. Alexandrova and I. B. Dermanova. The authors analyzed the way the participants coped with the pandemic situation and attributed it to the type of adversities. The pandemic interrupted the continuity of life and interfered with the internal needs, e.g. motives, aspirations, values, etc. Groups with different socio-demographic background showed little difference in the way they coped with the reality situation; however, the differences in the level of resilience were more pronounced. The major difference between the groups was that a high level of resilience appeared to provide positive expectations and made it possible to see it not as critically complex. In some cases, participants with medium and low levels of resilience coped with the current situation better than the rest. The authors see the content of one’s inner work in an adverse situation as a self-organized process of understanding the situation in the context of one’s life path, gaining new meanings, and strengthening one’s resources.

This article considers the concept as a linguacultural unit in cognitive linguistics. The research objective was to identify cultural and linguistic universals in the Bashkir language, as well as to reveal its national specificity. The paper gives a review of Russian and Bashkir publications about concepts in the language: definitions, classification, keywords as mental symbols, etc. Bashkir cognitive linguistics studies concepts on the basis of their linguistic and cultural features. The author used the methods of analysis and description in their linguistic and cultural aspects. Studies of the Bashkir national linguistic world view can reveal the national character and ancient linguistic values that are passed from generation to generation. The Bashkir linguistic world view is diverse and rich: the legends, traditions, proverbs, tales, epics, songs, poetry, and fiction reflect the moral, aesthetic, and national features that remain relevant to this day. The research featured the conceptual framework of Ғailә (Family) in works by Mustai Karim. It included such concepts as Әсә (Mother), Inәy (Aunt), Өlәsәy (Grandmother), Atai (Father), Ul (Son), Olatai (Uncle), Aғai (Brother), etc. They reflect such concepts as loyalty, love, mutual respect, mutual understanding and care, kindness, and spiritual kinship, which reveals the versatility and complexity of this content.

Propositional frame-based modeling is one of the most effective methods of cognitive linguistics. This method considers the interaction between the semantic and cognitive aspects of units of two typologically different languages, e. g. Russian and Chinese, in order to study the way language structures and reflects human knowledge and experience. Propositional structures are the same for all languages, but they are implemented differently in every language. The authors used the propositional frame-based analysis to identify universal and specific aspects in the semantics of proverbs based on frames husband's mother – daughter-in-law, wife's mother – son-in-law and husband's sister – sister-in-law, which are important fragments of the Russian and Chinese linguistic world view. The cognitive potential of paroemiological units is enormous: proverbs reflect historical, cultural, linguistic, and extralinguistic cognitive experience. The propositional-frame analysis of the semantics of Chinese and Russian proverbs made it possible to distinguish the following logical-thematic classification: 1) features of the character and behavior of each relative; 2) the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, mother-in-law and son-in-law, between sisters-in-law; 3) the family status of the mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, and sister-in-law; 4) family traditions, way of life; 5) sources of family conflicts; 6) ways of solving conflict situations.

The article introduces legal discourse as part of a complex communicative activity. It is an integrative interdisciplinary phenomenon on the border of jurisprudence and linguistics. The research objective was to establish the constituent parts of legal discourse, which includes legal texts, related scientific literature, and other documents. Legal linguistics is a generalizing discipline that studies the interaction of language and law. The line between legal discourse and other discourses is hard to define. Legal discourse is characterized by unified subjects, procedures, circumstances, and impersonality, that is, the absence of recipient and sender, hence the abundance of impersonal verb forms and impersonal constructions. Legal texts are devoid of national marks, and the vocabulary has equivalents in other languages. The present research was the first to designate a set of texts that make up legal discourse, i.e. texts of laws, decrees, scientific literature on legal matters, various legal documents, judicial texts, texts of interrogations, court speeches, expert opinion, etc. Although legal discourse and legal linguistics have different subjects and tasks, they share the same object, i.e. the interaction of language and law. Legal linguistics is an integrative science based on linguistics and legal theory, which uses achievements of philosophy, psychology, sociology, ethics, cognitive linguistics, pragmalinguistics, linguistic conflictology, etc.

This article describes communicative strategies and tactics used by companies to build a brand. The diachronic method made it possible to observe brand development strategies. The analysis featured 104 advertising slogans of 11 companies. Strategies and tactics of communicative influence were identified according to Yu. Pirogova’s classification of communicative strategies. The authors see strategies as the goals of creating a company's image, while tactics depend on specific vocabulary, syntactic structures, and means of involving the addressee in the advertising discourse. The list of prevailing strategies included those implemented by the following tactics: Compliance with the needs of the addressee, Increasing brand value in the eyes of the consumer, Informing about brand products, Intimization, Product metaphorization and Influence on the senses. The strategy of rationality was embodied by the tactics of Popularization of a healthy lifestyle and Demonstration of practical benefits. The value-oriented strategy was characterized by the tactic of Informing about brand products. The research results contribute to a better understanding of strategies and tactics in business communication and can be used as demonstration and evidentiary material in teaching cultural linguistics and discourse analysis, as well as for copywriting purposes.

The research featured the problem of truth / falsity as properties of advertising discourse. Advertising is described both within the linguistics of lying and the interpretive linguistics. The paper introduces a linguistic study of the phenomenon of lying from the subjectivist positions, i.e. as the interaction between two communicants: the liar and the recipient of the lies. Subjectivists interpret the text as compliant or non-compliant to one’s idea of reality, i.e. the conformity to the world of thought. Advertising discourse is the object of the recipient’s receptive and interpretive activity. The authors studied the speech behavior of the interpreter of the false discourse, i.e. how the lies affected the addressee. The research objective was to prove the thesis statement that discourse of lies is determined not only by the liar and their speech behavior, but also by the recipient of the lies. The study featured two texts that differed in the extent of false and reliable information. The lying potential of the advertising discourse was studied by the method of linguistic experiment. Each advertisement was evaluated by the recipient as containing information of various degrees of falsehood. The interpretation depended on the presumptions of the recipient and their choice of either rational-logical or emotional-sensual interpretive strategy.

The article introduces a comprehensive analysis of the key concepts in the Even linguistic world view, i.e. shame and remorse. These concepts are represented by the following lexical units in the Even dialects: haldyun has analogies in all languages of the Tungus-Manchu group; nyumar, nyumarin and khadarin are recorded in the Eastern dialect of the Even language; kherkehyi is common in the Lamunkhin dialect. The semantic structure of these lexemes is complex and includes similar concepts of shyness, embarrassment, modesty, and humbleness. The work used the descriptive method, the continuous sampling method, and the conceptual analysis, as well as the methods of definition (highlighting semantic features), etymological analysis, collecting and processing of field data. In the national consciousness of the Even, shame and remorse are concepts that reflect the assessment of one’s behavior in society and attitude to the world. In addition, they also demonstrate strong emotional content.

 The article introduces the lexical-semantic aspect of the adjective poor in English, its synonyms, and antonyms. The analysis featured five English dictionaries: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus, Cobuild Advanced English Dictionary, The Free Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, and Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The author analyzed the lexical-semantic variants of the adjective and determined its meanings. The component analysis allocated 46 semes and sememes, which were combined into eight thematic groups: 1. People: (poor) people / a group, poverty, emaciated, not very skilful (in a particular activity), needy, humble, meek; 2. Animal: (hungry) animal; 3. Material means: having, material, possessions, mean, petty / (little) money / insufficient wealth, used of land, barren (land), unproductive (land); 4. Lack / shortage: lacking / deficient; 5. Something material: very little of the substance, (little of a particular) substance, (poor) food; 6. Resources: supply (of something specified – resources, materials), (poor) country; 7. Evaluation: bad / not good, (being of a very low) quality, (being of a very low) quantity, (being of a very low) standard, inferior / very little (in quality), inferior (in value), (less) amount, (less) rate, (less) number, little / few, (in bad) condition, not normal, less (than adequate) / scanty / inadequate, negative, small (in worth), quality; 8. Emotional attitude: exciting , pity, (deserving) sympathy, unlucky, disappointing , disagreeable, indifferent, unfavorable, no pleasure. The adjective poor appeared to have 37 synonyms and 13 antonyms.

This article deals with the lexical-semantic group of verbs that denote light in Russian and French. The authors compared their lexical-semantic classifications, characteristics, and grammatical parameters. The research involved the method of continuous sampling, lexical systematization, and component analysis. The paper introduces lexical-semantic subgroups of Russian and French verbs of light with their nucleus and periphery. A comparative analysis revealed some aspectual differences: Russian and French demonstrated different means of expressing some meanings and modes of action. The Russian language is synthetic and expresses these meanings lexematically. In the French language, which is analytical, these grammatical meanings do not always find their expression at the level of a single lexeme. The context and tense forms appeared to play an important role, and the verbs of light proved to be more numerous in Russian than in French. Despite the differences, the proposed classification of verbs of light turned out to be universal for both languages.

The research objective was to identify the axiological values in uncensored free speech, i.e. natural written speech, of Soviet citizens. The axiological approach made it possible to identify individual life attitudes and values. The research featured a letter that the Kuzbass poet Mikhail A. Nebogatov wrote to the US President James Carter about the socio-political problem of dissidence. The author had no experience in professional journalism or in intercultural communication, which makes him a naive author. The text of the letter reflects the worldview and value system of the author himself rather than situational norms and pragmatic attitudes. M. A. Nebogatov represents himself not as a private person with a unique point of view, but as a speaker for the entire Soviet nation. He believed in the idea of the ideological and axiological unity of the Soviet society, hence the frequent use of the pronouns "we" and "our", as well as the general sense of self-righteousness. For him, Russian literature was the ultimate expression of the Soviet axiosphere, which resulted in numerous references to the authority of Russian writers. M. A. Nebogatov's expressive and appellative intention was to represent himself as a poet, which automatically made him the bearer of the national system of values, with Motherland and patriotism in its core. The axiological and conceptual analysis shows that natural written speech can help to identify the basic values of a social group, e.g., residents of a particular region.

The present paper focuses on intertextuality as a means of black humor in plays by Martin McDonagh, a famous British-Irish playwright. Nine of his plays have been translated into different languages and staged in theatres around the world. However, most theories of comic effect cannot explain the phenomenon of his popularity. This prompted the authors to search for the most accurate and least conditioned way to classify intertext as a means of comic effect in general and black humor in particular. As a result, they chose the semantic theory of humor by V. Raskin and the multidisciplinary general theory of verbal humor developed by V. Raskin and S. Attardo. These theories employ the notions of "script" and "opposition" to examine the linguistic nature of the joke. Using attributed and unattributed intertext inclusions as "signs" or "scripts", the authors analyzed McDonagh’s plays through the prism of this theory. The result was a system of scripts and oppositions that form the chronotope of a long text as opposed to that of a joke. The article also introduces the black humor mechanism in McDonagh's plays: it is based on references to the intertextual thesaurus of the potential reader / theatre audience.

The present study featured the issues of human resourcing in the sphere of physical training and sports in Kuzbass during the transition period from the Soviet to the post-Soviet model. The research was based on a wide range of documents, including those from several collections of the Regional State Archive. The research united scientific, historicist, and comparative methods, which made it possible to identify two factors that affected the personnel potential in the sphere of physical education and sports. The first one was the policy of advanced socio-economic development, proclaimed in the mid-1980s. The second was the transition to the market economy, which started in the early 1990s and was accompanied by a serious crisis. These two processes systematically affected the sphere of physical training and sports, including its national and regional human resources. The staffing proved uneven: while it was satisfactory in urban institutions of higher education and sports, the rural areas saw a severe labor shortage.

The present research featured the cultural and chronological context of the Oglakhty-Tom petroglyphs found in the lower valley of the Tom river. The author compiled a complete list of geometric petroglyphs of South Siberia, as well as a series of representational parallels that can help to date geometric zoomorph characters carved by the Bronze Age peoples of West Siberia. The author also illustrated some representational parallels for geometric petroglyphs from the early Andronian period found in the Vasyugan complex and the Lugavskoye burial mound in the Middle Yenisei. The paper introduces some results of carbon dating for these petroglyphs. The author detected some new archaeologic and petroglyphic complexes in the Lower Tom that go back to the epoch between Early Andronian time and the Bronze Age. He established the connection between the geometric petroglyphs and the Early Andronian complex in the Lower Tom, while the Minor Tuva-Altai petroglyphs proved to be as old as the Early Seyma-Turbino period. The paper contains palimpsests and ritual assemblages that prove that Oglakhty-Tom and Late Angara petroglyphs once co-existed. The author believes that the geometric petroglyphs and the realistic Late Angara petroglyphs date back to the same Early Andronian communities. The research also traces back various sources of these art traditions.

The article deals with the assimilation of Siberian indigenous peoples by the first Russian settlers in the north of the Kemerovo region. The research was based on the historical and genealogical methods and featured a microhistorical analysis of a particular settlement of the Chulym Turkic people who lived in the Kiya river basin in the first half of the XIX century. The paper introduces the case of the Kolmogorov family of old-timers from the village of Сhumay (Chebulinsky municipal district of the Kemerovo region). The author studied memoirs and parish documents to trace the changes in the status of the Kolmogorovs: from representatives of the indigenous peoples who paid a regular tribute in furs (yasak) to peasants. The research also helped to define the borders of the yasak territories and establish the conditions that encouraged the yasak-payers to settle down as peasants. The exposure to peasantry and Russification was a long stage: it took the Kolmogorovs 25 years to enter the peasant community of Сhumay village. Moreover, the process was small-scale and random in the period under review.

Positive historical experience facilitates the democratic development of the modern Russia. The present research featured the changes that occurred in the status of women in the first decades of Soviet power in the national regions and their regional peculiarities. The research objective was to study the measures that the Dagestani authorities took to change the social and family status of local women in the 1920s. The study was based on the principle of historicism and involved comparativehistorical, statistical, systemic, and narrative methods. The paper introduces a complex analysis of novel material and scientific publications. The Dagestani authorities and public institutions were aimed at the economic, political, and socio-cultural transformations of the multiethnic region. They proved to have some positive effect on the socio-political and family status of local women. However, by the end of the 1920s, a significant part of Dagestani women still remained under the influence of the Muslim clergy and conservative men. They followed traditional norms and adats – the customary law of certain Muslim peoples – especially in the family and marriage sphere.

A bronze knife from the burial site near Rostovka village was found in a grave under the skull bones that belonged to a nine–ten-year-old child. Sopka-2/4B Krotovo necropolis has two burials, in which daggers were found under the bones of a child and a man. This ritual might have been associated with the belief that wearing a knife around one’s neck behind one’s back could make the owner invulnerable. Necklaces and belts are known to have a similar magic function. The SeimaTurbino tradition of belt weapons still remains understudied: in fact, no belt weapon has been described for this culture so far, as the belts might have been made of wool. Various weaving techniques are based on the materials of the Sinthashta and Petrovka sites. The newly-discovered images on the Seima-Turbino knives add new information to the known ceremonial practice.

The paper introduces a collection of prehistoric artifacts from Karasor-3 archeological site (1999). The Karasor cluster is located in the Upper Tobol region near the town of Lisakovsk, in the northern part of the Turgai depression, which connects the West Siberian and Turan plains. The Turgai depression borders on the Trans-Ural Plateau on the west and on the Kazakh hummocks and the Ulutau Mountains on the east. This environment does not contribute to the preservation of the cultural layer. As a result, the pottery and stone fragments found at the Karasor 3 site were collected from the surface. The article contains a detailed description of the pottery. The stone tools underwent a technical and typological analysis based on the products of primary splitting, morphological parameters and size of plates, the ratio of blanks and tools made of plates and flakes, methods of secondary processing, and typological composition of the tool kit. The nature of the raw materials was considered as an independent indicator. The stone industry of the Late Eneolithic era proved similar to the Tersek culture. The pottery ranged from the Late Eneolithic to the Early Iron Age.

The article features the causes of the crime rate increase that occurred in the Soviet Union after World War II. The author studied archival documents of the Chief Department of Gang Prevention, as well as memoirs written by militia officers and common citizens. The increase in gangsterism and crime in general presented a serious challenge for the country that had just won the most terrible war in human history. The author managed to define two major causes of crime rate increase in the post-war years. The first was poverty, homeless children, substandard living conditions, and poor organization of public leisure time. The second included nationalist movements in some ethnic regions, uncontrolled weapon possession, and numerous largescale Bills of Oblivion. The post-war crime rate increase had complex causes and was a serious challenge for militia officers.

The present research featured the rural healthcare system in the late XIX – early XX centuries in the Tomsk Guberniya (Province). The research objective was to deduce the stages of formation of the rural healthcare system and to show the decision-making mechanism at the different levels of government. The author analyzed administrative acts and reference books, as well as various documents that reflect discussing the problems of expanding the rural healthcare system at lower administrative levels. The analysis made it possible to identify the needs of rural population, as well as to see differences in views on the formation of the health districts. Before opening a new medical district or relocating an existing one, many factors were taken into account, e.g. the requests of local residents, the level of their material support of the medical institution, landscape and geographical aspects, etc. As a rule, decisions were based on rational arguments. The government of the province was responsible for gathering data, correcting proposals, and planning further development. The results were assessed and approved on the central level. Some proposals coming from the provincial administration did not find support of the center. The author identified two stages of large-scale expansion of the rural medicine in the Tomsk Province: 1898–1910 and 1912–1914. The First World War ruined the plans for 1915–1917.

The article introduces new methodological foundations for analyzing the current ethno-social and ethno-confessional situation in various constituents of the Russian Federation, namely an ethno-social and confessional monitoring based on systematic, selective, and process approaches. Modern ethnic and confessional processes manifest the transformation of traditional social institutions and communications in traditional economy and social organization as a result of state policy. The structural and functional method made it possible to identify the historical context of the impact that religious organizations produce on traditional social institutions. The authors tested a systematic approach to the analysis of the ethnosocial and ethno-confessional situation on three levels: 1) interstate (macro) level in the transboundary zones of southern Russia), 2) regional (mega) level of the fractal and network social organization, 3) micro level within the boundaries of sample polygons. The article also focuses on the problems of secondary analysis of historiographical sources about the history of state national and confessional politics in the XIX – early XXI centuries. It introduces basic definitions used in regional ethno-social monitoring. The topic needs further integrated and applied research.

The article features the reforms of the federal structure in the 1990s and the development of the Treaty of Federation in 1992. It focuses on the practices of federal relations that appeared in the post-Soviet period both in terms of the interaction between the Federal Center and the regional elites and in the context of the classical federalism. The authors described the factors that hindered the signing of the Federal Treaty, as well as the resources the regional elite used to affect the Center. They revealed the opposite views on the concept of federal structure expressed by national and territorial subjects of the Russian Federation and described their attempts to reach a compromise in the redistribution of powers. The research objective was to determine to what degree the Center was responsible for the content of the Treaty of Federation as the regional self-identification was gaining strength and the system of center-regional interaction was changing. The authors also highlighted the role of certain social groups on the development of federal relations, showed how the actions of the Center improved its positions, and identified historical facts that predetermined the asymmetry of the Treaty of Federation. The authors believed that the new model of federal relations was a compromise between the interests of the regional elites and the central government. However, it also strengthened the positions of the Federal Center and legalized the asymmetric nature of its relations with the regions. The research was based on general scientific methods and such historical research tools as comparative and systematic methods. It also involved such interdisciplinary methods as the historical-legal and the comparative analysis of legal documents.