ethnos

The article attempts to refute the widespread opinion in historiography that the form of organization of the USSR, consisting of ethnoterritorial formations of different status, was one of the main factors in the collapse of a single state. It is argued that the idea of federalization of Russia did not belong to the Bolsheviks, but to national parties and movements that demanded recognition of their right to national-territorial autonomy.

The article examines the changes in the national composition of Saratov province in the first half of the 1920s based on the materials of the All-Russian Census of 1920, the All-Union Urban Census of 1923 and the first All-Union Population Census of 1926. The factors influencing the evolution of the national structure of the region are being studied. The conclusion is made about the formation in the main features of the ethnic map of the Saratov region.

The paper deals with specifity of a representation of British history by French humanist E. Pasquier. The author attempts to present the special attitude of French historian towards English nation and to find out the ways in forming the image of traditional enemy due to analysis of English and French history’s facts during the Great Migrations, and poque of medieval struggle between England and France. Pasquier devotes the intent attention to Religious confrontation during the Reformation and to the tragic fate of Mary Stuart.

The role of the national movements of the deported peoples in the process of the USSR dissolution is investigated in the article. The programmes of the national movements and its main purpose - creation of independent national states - are analysed in the article. It is made a conclusion that the national movements' leaders position in the setting of the weakened center and the republican national elites strengthening has become disastrous for the integrated state.

The paper deals with one of the important aspects of the Bodin’s political theory, the question of the environmental influence on the peculiarities of the development of peoples and the nature of nation-building. The author analyzes this problem in the context of general trends in the development of political thought of the epoch and the dispute about the problem of ethnic identity, emphasizing the practical orientation of Bodin’s views.

In the article the alteration of ethnic makeup in Saratov Region in 2002–2010  is examined. Tendencies of linguistic and national selfidentity of primary ethnic groups in Saratov Region are scrutinized and determined. Based on the results of the 2010 nationwide population census, the strengthening of the Russian language as primary lingua franca across the region has been registered, as well as persistence of the so-called “national” languages among the peoples of Caucasus and Central Asia.

The article analyzes the main stages of the national structure`s evolution of the region at the beginning of the foundation of Saratov to its radical transformation at the beginning of the third millennium. The problem of «new» ethnic groups in the modern development of a regional multinational community is considered. On the example of the system`s formation of ethno-confessional cooperation in the Saratov Region, the regularities and distinctive features of the Russian «imperialism» are determined.