The Stalin period is the last in Soviet history, which today can be fully studied on the basis of archival materials. The results of studies conducted in recent years are impressive. Information flows have reached such sizes that even experts cannot fully keep track of them. The discovery of archives stimulated a change in research approaches and made it possible to raise the question of the emergence of a new political history, first of all, about the study of politics as everyday practice.

Recently, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is increasingly being at the center of universal attention. Before finally the disputes were completely faded about the move of the Constitutional Court from Moscow to St. Petersburg, as new begins.

From the editorial office. On May 8, President Dmitry Medvedev made amendments to the State Duma to the Constitutional Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation", which provide for a new procedure for the appointment of the leadership of the KS. Already on May 22, the State Duma adopted this bill in the second and third readings.

From the editorial office. After the appearance of the commission on countering attempts to falsify history, the topic of memory policy was updated. Should Russia recognize the story that it does not want to recognize yet? And, accordingly, repent for her? About this we asked Andrei Zubov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor MGIMO. * * * Russian magazine: should Russia repent in its past? Andrey Zubov: Russia is an abstract concept. We should talk about the regime.

From the editorial office.

In one of Mikhail Ancharov’s books there is such an example. Imagine that you are at the idea of ​​Hamlet. And just Hamlet starts his "be or not to be", when suddenly his pants begin to subside. He is about "what is noble in spirit," and the pants fall, and he holds them, and they fall, and that's it. And although this is a tragedy, you are disassembled by uncontrollable laughter, from which it can be disgusting, but still funny.

From the editorial office. Why do Western funds help Russian education? What is this policy, hidden self -interest or noble desire to pass on their experience to neighbors? About this with the head of the Moscow Bureau of the Fredrich Naumann Foundation (Germany) Sasha Tamm, the observer of the Russian Journal, Natalya Ivanova-Gladilshchikova, is talking.

Helen Wistney's film “Darkness and light” at the Richard Avedon retrospective exhibition at the Amsterdam museum “FOAM” is running non-stop. Paulie Allen Mellen, art director, talks about the filming of one of the master's most shocking masterpieces: a boa constrictor and a naked Nastassja Kinski. There is not a shadow of alarm on the beauty’s face.