The article presents a fundamentally new educational product in the Russian educational space - the master’s program “Environmental History: Sources, Methods and Research Practices (Russia-West)”, developed at the RSUH with the support of the V. Potanin Foundation. The program meets federal state standard of higher education in the degree program track 46.04.01 - History and is motivated by the rapid development of one of the authoritative trends in world historiography and historical education - Environmental history.

The publication presents a comparative analysis of articles of the three Constitutions of the RSFSR, regulating the Church and state relationship, in the most active period of persecution against the Russian orthodox Church from 1918 to 1937. That approach allowed tracing the law enforcement practice of the constitutional norms in their development.

The article discusses the historical and legendary details about Acts of Pope Leo the Great (pontiff in 440-461) that are reflected in the hagiographical work of the prominent Polish Catholic writer Piotr Skarga (1536-1612). It is shown that ‘Leo’s Life’ composed by Skarga, firstly, was a source for old Belarusian translation preserved by the manuscript stored in The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius (1669). Secondly, Skarga’s work was used by Dimitry of Rostov for writing his story about Leo the Great that was published in Kiev in 1695 as a part of ‘Lives of the Saints’ and became the first voluminous ‘Leo’s Life’ in the East Slavic tradition.

This research is devoted to two articles by P.K. Simoni (1859-1939), Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, unpublished during lifetime of the author. In those works Simoni acts as a theorist of bibliology when he identifies a specific copy of publishing production in the diversity of its editions as a research subject. P.K. Simoni set up the issues of book preservation as an authentic cultural monument, of studies in unbound loos-leaf editions and unpublished books , and copy-by-copy method of book study.

Paper written on the basis of a complex of documents of the Russian state archive of contemporary history, is devoted to the description and analysis of an internal process of awarding the Stalin prize in 1952. It shows the decision-making mechanisms, ideological background for the selection of books of likely winners. Not awarding the Stalin prize is evaluated as part of an overall process of gradual de-Stalinization.

The article covers the analysis of the most famous works of French historians and researchers, which are associated with the origins and development of environmental history in France during the XX and XXI centuries. The historical geography had the great influence on the works of French scientists and the formation of environmental history, but, according to French historians, it interfered with the development of environmental history in France. In addition, there were a lot of discussions related to methods, concepts interdisciplinary approaches of environmental history among French historians. Nowadays,nevertheless there are still unsolved problems, new approaches to the development of environmental history has appeared in France.

The article analyzes reasons of the M. Weber’s works influence on supporters of the history of everyday life in Germany and examines works impact on the development of the methodology for the German history of everyday life. H. Medick, A. Ludke and their colleagues borrowed the approach of M. Weber to “ideal types” of behavior classification in order to empirically check the theory on the local material. The focus was the work “The Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism”, because that project of protoindustrialization study was consistent with the search of the Protestant ethics influence on the formation of capitalism. An appeal to the M. Weber’s authority served the opposition against the attacks of supporters of traditional social history.

The article analyzes the narrative documents related to the history of the 500^th Ingulsky regiment, which took part in the offensive on the South-Western front in summer 1916. The author discovers in the State Historical museum collection previously unpublished sources, both official and private, and makes the source-study and comparative analysis. Those materials serve the basis for reconstruction of the front life and regiments’ military operations history.

The article examines the history of coinage in Novgorod during the monetary reforms of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the middle of the XVII century. The development of commodity monetary relations, the growth and strengthening of the Russian market, the reinforcement of state power and the annexation of the Ukraine in 1654 made it essential to improve the monetary system. The aim of the monetary reform of 1654 was to introduce a set of large and small denominations, the use of copper as a coinage metal. The accelerated issue of copper coins led to inflation, which in turn produced the disruption of the economy and the Copper Riot 1662 in Moscow.

The article reviews the historiography of Russian peasant genealogy in different stages of its development: pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet period. The first publications in Russia on peasant genealogy are given and the most significant ones are highlighted. Indicated some problems in the historiography on the subject matter. Directions in the history of peasant genealogy in the modern world are revealed and characterized for the first time. Descriptions of the main publications on the peasant genealogy are given.

The article is devoted to the representation of diplomatics as an auxiliary historical discipline in the Russian universal encyclopedias and dictionaries. Source study observations speak about continuity and mutual relation of these works as an integral part of the research in the field of diplomatics.

In Russian historiography there are no researches, presenting reliable information about the family members of Prince Vladimir Andreyevich of Staritsa. The lists of his children, presented in the scientific literature, testify that our knowledge in this question is approximate - the examples given in the article point on it. The data published in the represented article reflects the new and more cogent view on the question about the number of prince’s children in both marriages. In the genealogical chart we adduce the data reflecting eight prince’s children - this data is confirmed by written sources and data of the Kremlin Voznesensky cathedral necropolis.

The article analyzes the history of municipal heraldry in the Tsardom of Muscovy and the Russian Empire throughout its existence. It distinguishes 7 periods in its history and marks characteristic features of the municipal heraldry at every stage, it also gives an account of approved municipal coats of arms in four main categories. In the issuance, the development trends of municipal heraldry, changes in its semantics and iconography emblems are traced. In the each of periods characteristic features of municipal heraldry were influenced by the history of heraldic practice in Russia and the history of Russian culture, art and symbolic language.

The article examines the historical circumstances related to the manuscript tradition of Greek orthodox Bishop Elias Meniates’s works in Russian translations during the 18th century. Most of these translations from Greek into Russian were done by Stefan Ivanovich Pisarev (1708?-1775). The author provides the information about various manuscripts from Russian libraries and archives that keep the translations of Meniates’s sermons as well as his treatise directed against the papacy entitled ‘Stone of Scandal’. In its final part the article, discusses similarities in roles of translated Meniates’s works for the spiritual cultures of Russia and Serbia at the Enlightenment.