The article deals with the soldiers’ unrest in the Semyonovsky Regiment in 1820, which, according to many researchers, was a kind of “prelude” to the Decembrist uprising. After the soldiers’ unrest in October 1820, the Semyonovsky Guards Regiment was disbanded and its officers were transferred to the army regiments. The article explores the causes of soldiers’ and officers’ dissatisfaction with the regiment’s commander, Colonel F.E. Schwartz, the course of the riots in the regiment, and the behavior of the officers.

In addition, the article investigates the case of Semyonovsky Regiment officers, D. Yermolaev and I. Scherbatov, accused of sympathizing with the soldiers and attempting to meet with the punished instigators of riots.

The Semyonov history is considered in connection with the biography of one of its participants, the future Decembrist S.I. Murav’ev-Apostol. The article describes the events in the company commanded by Muravyov-Apostol, as well as the consequences that this “story” had for his life and career. It is concluded that by offending an innocent officer, the authorities thereby contributed to his transformation into a radical revolutionary and leader of an antigovernment conspiracy

This article presents some theoretical as well as historiographical reflections concerning new Russian monograph “Africa: Post-Colonial Discourse” (Moscow, 2020).

The aim of this study is to comprehend some problems of the basic contemporary macro-historical studies, as following: expanding the competence of the present-day source-based global studies; more comprehensive understanding of macro-historical phenomenon of slavery and – wider – of compulsive labor as one of the most tragic and unjust universals of global history; and perceiving of the imprescriptible role of inter-cultural as well as inter-civilizational codevelopment in possible humanization of global reality.

Post-colonial discourse hardly seems to be an exact solution of all the controversial problems of the XV–XXI centuries’, so deep and so painful. Nevertheless, it poses some basic questions of the History as such including questions of compulsion and violence in history as well as the question of hope for freedom and dignity as an ultima ratio of all the human cultural experience.

This article provides an overview of the numerous problems associated with the analysis of costume in the visual arts of traditional societies. Most of them are often underestimated. Among the most serious difficulties are those associated with the schematic and fragmented images and the desire to present a complete reconstruction of the costume. Problems in interpretation are created by the poses of the characters, the use of old iconography (including foreign ones), and the dominance of stereotyped images of foreigners. In ancient art, the principle of verismo is very important, associated with emphasizing the socially significant elements of the costume. Most often, the initiators of costume innovations were the rulers, as well as their favorites and other people in their environment. The motives behind the behavior of “fashionista” rulers are usually unclear. Each group of the most popular subjects is associated with different sets, costume types and different symbolic interpretations. The article discusses its specificity with different ways of interpreting images – glorification, methods of individualizing the appearance of the same type of characters in groups, etc. Many problems are associated with the adequacy of the reproduction of colors, with the level of its conventionality, with the degree of its preservation, with the capabilities of masters, and with the interpretation of materials from which the elements of the costume were made. It is difficult to interpret the perception in specific societies of archaic elements of cut and silhouette, to clarify the costume of some seasons of the year. With the dominance of gala and ceremonial costume, they can’t be often distinguished.

 Serial today is a popular and dynamically developing form of audiovisual text, presenting the viewer with a full-fledged narrative. Serials representing the historical past are particularly important. Due to the peculiarities of production and distribution, historical serials create an extensive and frequently updated pool of representations of historical epochs in the media space. The tendency towards increasing racial diversity in film and television has recently led to the active involvement of non-European actors in TV-projects representing the European Middle Ages. Their appearance on the screens led to a number of effects. They not only revived the audience’s interest in history, but also activated protective tendencies in society, forcing them to wage a discursive struggle for cultural heritage and historical authenticity. Operating with such concepts as race, heritage and authenticity in a single context requires scientific reflection and theoretical comprehension. This research focuses on the problem of reassembling the image of the past by incorporating racial and national minorities into audiovisual historical representations. Based on a research of a range of serials from the first quarter of the 21st century we concluded that the origins of this tendency date back in the late 2000s. The constructing of representations of the Middle Ages under the influence of the inclusive trend went through three successive stages: from the using of symbolism of dark skin color to the constructing of a racially diverse society. At the last stage, there is a wide presence of actors of different races and nationalities in roles of all plans, including as the main characters, whose historical prototypes were Europeans. This trend is aimed at constructing a new European identity, by “ancientizing” the presence and increasing the cultural contribution of ethnic minorities in European history. The new image of the past, consistently creating on the screen, is meant to remove the blame for the colonial legacy and reduce the degree of social tension.

The use of the “image of the Middle Ages” in popular works of art and its impact on the perception of the past by a wide audience has traditionally been defined as “medievalism”. The study of “medievalism” has become a special area in the humanities. However, since the Middle Ages is a concept associated with the periodization of the history of Western Europe, the concept of “medievalism” often includes products created in the conditional West and fictional worlds constructed from elements perceived as “Western”. More importantly, such products are usually aimed at a “Western” audience – that is, at viewers who perceive the European Middle Ages as part of their own culture (even if in fact the product is intended for a global audience). The article attempts to analyze the image of the Middle Ages in popular TV series in South Korea: their main viewer is an internal viewer, for whom the history of the Middle Ages is something extremely distant both from the history of his own country and from him/her personally. An analysis of several TV series that use “medieval” images shows that the medieval heritage of the West is perceived as a very attractive background for a part of the plot, but the “historical” in these narrations reveals the ability to easily transform into the “magical”.

Document has become one of the key tools of modern artists when working with history and memory. The search for different ways of representing the past leads artists to explore their own family and personal archives as well as museums and historical archives. Thus, chronicles, family photos and letters found on flea markets turn into a material for contemporary artists. Within the artistic work documents get transformed, so the things that are not relevant for historians can become important for artists. Questions arise: what happens to documentary material in the space of contemporary art? What are the boundaries of documentary as part of artistic practice? In what situation does a document lose its status, and when a material unimportant for historians can be transformed into important source for exhibitions? Many artists address these questions when working with memory and history.

This article focuses on the film “Letters to Max” by French artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire based on the correspondence with the former minister of Abkhazia Maxim Gvinjia. The specifics of Baudelaire’s work is in the juxtaposition of different types of documents: letters that Baudelaire and Gvinjia wrote to each other and video that Baudelaire shot during his travel to Abkhazia. Connection between different materials allows us to see how different dimensions of representation of the past correlate with each other.

This article explores board and computer games, which represent the image of Peter I and his era. The authors analyzed 96 board games from the nineteenth century to the present, as well as 8 computer games of various genres. The review of games shows that they often touch on historical topics, including the era of Peter the Great. Creating a game for entertainment purposes in some cases implies an educational focus in the study of history. However, any game involves simplification and schematization in the interpretation of historical processes, which contributes to the mythologization of history. On the one hand, the historical content of games is based on the use and interpretation of stable images, stereotypes, myths, and on the other hand, it contributes to the reproduction of collectively shared ideas about the past. The creators of board and computer games include Peter the Great as an iconic figure in Russian history in the gaming context. Games dedicated exclusively to his personality also occupy a significant place in the gaming industry. In them, the image of the first Russian emperor is presented stereotypically and in accordance with the prevailing ideas about him, characteristic of the era to which the game belongs. Computer games are also not free from historical myths in the interpretation of the personality of Peter I and his era, they often act as an analogue of board games both in game mechanics and in terms of content, but at the same time they have wider possibilities for visualizing history.

This article examines one of the modern community models, fandoms. They are constructed not only on the basis of common interests of their participants, but also by virtue of the participants’ desire (readiness) for their active expression through various types of joint practices. Although such associations have existed for a long time (primarily among fans of various forms and genres of mass culture, as well as sports fans), in today’s digital world, they have transformеd in a radically new form – the digital fandoms, the specificity of which has become the subject of analysis in the article. Since the most active, “passionary” participation in such communities is taken by the younger generation, which incorporates new technologies into their daily life faster than the others, this phenomenon is significant enough for the entire spectrum of researches concerning the problems of youth lifestyle, their value orientations, leisure activities, identity, and self-expression. Based on examples from domestic sports-oriented digital fandoms some of these issues are discussed in the article in the context of so-called “fandom creativity” (fan art) regarding its constructive and destructive aspects.

The pandemic has intensified the processes of digitalization in academic culture, which was manifested in the form of intensive development of digital platforms in education and in the request for virtual academic mobility (VAM). The advantages of academic mobility (AM) include accessibility of the scientific and educational environment of other universities since the medieval universities and since the beginning of the Bologna process, and VAM makes educational programs accessible from anywhere in the world, including asynchronous interaction. Due to the pandemic, academic exchange educational programs have switched to the VAM format, according to a survey conducted by the authors of the article. The participants of the academic communication named financial and language problems, socio-cultural differences and difficulties with IT-support among the main difficulties of the AM. These factors make the national AM in demand, which will increase the interest of graduates in the regions as a place of work. It is necessary to create a digital platform for VAM, to solve communication, organizational, managerial and technical problems. It is necessary to take into account the properties of virtual reality, the features of the educational process and the culture of academic communication between participants when designing a platform.