Humanitarian geography is an interdisciplinary science studying the different ways of representing and interpreting the earth in the spaces of human activity, including mental activity. Basic concepts, which operates humanitarian geography is the cultural landscape (ethno-cultural landscape), the geographical images, regional (spatial) identity, spatial or local myth (mythology).
Cognitive scheme of levels of consideration of the geographical factor in the Genesis and dynamics of civilizations (synchrony) in general coincides with the approximate line of the development of scientific ideas about the role and importance of natural (geographical) environment, geographical conditions in the formation and reproduction of civilizations (diachrony). In general terms, we can speak of three cognitive levels: geographical determinism, is searched when a strict causal link between geographic conditions and patterns of development of a particular civilization; geographical possibilism, when approved by the probabilistic relationship between the fan of natural-geographical constraints and opportunities and ways geographical adaptation of a certain civilization in their dynamics; and, finally, geospatialism, in which local civilization and geographical environment seem inextricably parts or elements of civilization-spatial continuity (of the image, or of the historical-geographical image).
Issues of geospatial solutions and geospatial imagination compels, obliges you to think the civilizations as the images, to present them a key images, forming a rapidly changing, growing in its value and decreasing civilization-images whose symbolism, semiotics, phenomenology may in some degree be based on ontologically understanding the civilizational status of a place, territory, landscape.

This article designates the theoretical and practical foundations of the methodosophycal approach – a synthesis of methodology and anthroposophy. This is a complex of modern humanitarian technologies, including intuitive drama, organizational-activity game and contemplative dialogue. Special attention is given to the method the contemplative dialogue. Contemplative dialogue as a method of communication was developed in 2012. It is founded on a special technique of communication with the spiritual world, based on conscious mental work on situation analysis and problem solution. We describe the theoretical basis of the method, its organization and implementation procedure. The author describes the existing practice of the dialogue method in his work of the consultant, as well as the experience of other researchers around the world. Describes the application of methodosophycal approach to research and solutions geocultural conflicts involving the Slavic population. The paper summarizes the results of the work of an international group of researchers at the material conflicts in countries such as Ukraine, Estonia, Israel.

This article takes a comparativistic approach to the manifestation of a common Indo-European heritage in the Slavic geo-culture, and the influences of this on the social structure of Slavic society and the religious dualism, or syncretism, characteristic to this community. In this social structure, the estate of the clergy is of special interest, and its use of the sacral liturgical Church-Slavonic language, commonly identified in popular literature with the Old Slavonic language as a pagan Old Bulgarian profane dialect. The article discusses the influence of Indo-European archetypes on the Slavic collective subconscious, and on the manifestation of these archetypes in public relations. Special attention is paid to different etymological aspects of the term “Slav”. The comparative-historical method allows for the recognition of the philosophical, linguistic and sociological aspects of the term, an especially, the idea of the term as a “socionym”, not only an ethnonym. In this context, the term “Slav” is regarded as a category of spiritual unity, more ethical than ethnic, based on the idea of the “second birth”.

The article deals with the problem of the phenomenon of Slavdom and Slavonic identity. Slavonic identity is presented on linqustic, geografical, historical, political, geopolitical and geocultural levels. Starting from the middle of the 19th century the Slavs in Austro-Hungary have become an object of the ideas and doctrines which have had a geopolitical and geocultural character (the idea of Slavonic reciprocity, ideology of illyrism, Austroslavism, neoslavism). The Slavophile and Panslavonic ideas in Russia were obviously ideological, geopolitical and purely political. After the desintegration of the U.S.S.R. the Slavonic movement does not play an important role, it is fragmented (The Panslavonic Assembly). At present time in Europe there are two dominant gepolitical spaces: European Union – Pax occidentalis, and Russia with its satellite countries – Pax rossica. In such a political situation the problem of Slavonic identity and the unity of the Slavs is rather complicated.

Understanding the notion of geoculture as broadly as possible requires including the culture of nationhood-building and self-consciousness of the nation connected with the process. It seems to be up-to-date now when globalization has impact on state institutions which are shaped by history. The school of knowledge about the state and comparative law studies of the Slavs came into existence in many countries in the 19th century, but reached the greatest prosperity in Poland. It should be noted that Poland had outstanding representatives of the so-called Slavic community theory, although more familiar are the names of F. Palacki, L. Stur and P. Szafarzyk. “Polishness” in historiography overshadowed the trend which acknowledged the Slavs as an integral subject of research. However, at the beginning of the Slavic community theory, we come across the research of Wawrzyniec Surowiecki, the author of The Research on the Origins of the Slavic Nations from 1828.
The leader in the field of law history of the Slavs is Waclaw Maciejewski. His monumental work: The History of Slavic Legislation initiated a new trend of research which covered all the Slavic nations, creating a synthesis of the history of Slavic legislation. His research was continued by the Russian-Polish law historian and philosopher Fyodor Taranowski. He argued that all Slavic nations belonged to Europe. He expressed astonishment that some Slavs renounced their Slavic nature. Romantic idealization of Slavic history was alien to him. He studied real, spiritual, social and material culture of the Slavs, with particular emphasis on Poland.

For a long time, Ukraine has been viewed by the Russian Eurasians as part of the Russian Empire in historical, geopolitical, cultural, civilizational, religious and linguistic meaning. According to a more recent opinion, there has been a theory that joining the West Ukraine is not only becoming a place of treason but also a place of civilization war which seems to be of soteriological nature. In this context, Ukraine becomes a particularly dangerous stronghold of destructive liberalism which is, in a peculiar way, demonized by the contemporary Eurasians, especially as seen by A. Dugin and V. Korovin, at present, the leading ideologists of the Russian Neo-Eurasianism. The subject of this specific interpretation of liberalism is the key point of the article where the author will also refer to V. Putin’s beliefs in the polemics.

The problem of “Russia and Europe” is one of the so-called eternal problems and not only Russia is interested in it. In today’s fast-evolving world relations between Russia and Europe and mutual understanding are crucial for the future of world politics. What is Europe? Is it
a Roman-German culture in which man embodies duty and honor in the struggle of good and evil? Or maybe it is “human rights” – a system in which the contemptuous and cold sentence of Pontius Pilate: “What is truth?” is the motto of modern libertarian philosophy. Nihilism in terms of value means the end of history. That is why Europe is experiencing the end of history understood as spiritual development. The remaining technocratic civilization. Today technocracy is defenseless against migrants not because there are many of them and they are different, but due to the fact that they are devoid of holiness.

This report is an attempt to understand the place of Slavs in humanity based on a Christian concept of the meaning of history, beginning with the first people, and concluding with the kingdom of the Antichrist. Christ became incarnate on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, and its European peoples, the descendants of the youngest son of Noah – Japheth, were destined to become the major followers Christianity. A part of the Europeans, the Slavs, originally had their own characteristics and a common cultural identity. However, the differences between Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy, that generally aspires for salvation in the kingdom of God) and Western Christianity (that seeks to create the Kingdom of God here on the Earth) affected the Slavic peoples, dividing them first on religious grounds, and then, with the spread of secularization –politically. In that process the largest Slavic nation, Russian, became the successor to the Byzantine Empire (the Second Rome) and spread throughout the middle part of the Earth’s land mass. This is an obvious geopolitical phenomenon that can be seen on a map of the world, and it seeks a spiritual explanation (that is proposed in this report). Because of internal sins and under the pressure of external enemies the Russian people lost their Orthodox statehood in the early twentieth century. Currently, in connection with the strengthening on Earth of a globally-leveling anti-Christian New World Order – is there any basis for the creation of a defensive union among the Slavs, and wider – between the Christian nations? What is the eschatological perspective of such an association?

After the fall of communism and the collapse of the USSR, a new phase of Polish-Russian relations began. Rather than being bound by the ideals of a compromised communism, the two countries began to shape new, necessary relations based on universal values belonging to the spheres of civilization, politics, culture, and social life. These new ideas were a part of Christianity, whose foundation was based on human rights, and likewise the communication of partnered sovereign states. This is a realistic perspective of Polish-Russian relationships, where Poland respects these values, while Russia returns to them.

Expression “Slavs-brothers” is based on geographic, cultural and historical reality. Polish-Russian mutual relations were not very simple but they could be illustrated by the friendship of Mitzkevich and Pushkin. These two poets were not alike, but they knew how to appreciate the best sides of each other, how to say a bitter truth and in the same time to remain brothers, not only in this life, but also in eternity. “Beloved unlikeness” is a good foundation for our unity.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and, in fact, the first serious disintegration of the Russian Empire as a cultural space created conditions for testing geocultural processes. These tests require methods other than those used in relation to geopolitics or geoeconomy. Geoculture might often more convincingly explain phenomena occurring in the field of politics, economy and allows to account for political actions, as it was for instance in the case of the Crimea in 2014.

Cultural purposes in its Byzantine variant were closely related to eschatological objectives and conceived of as universal. Connection between culture and eschatology was neither political nor economic. This issue was a subject of dispute between Russia and European culture in the nineteenth century. Defense of traditional Russian culture at the time was understood as defense of an individual, society and the state. Culture and the state are protective shields for one another which requires existence of a specific relationship between both the spheres. Geoculture creates cultural foundations to ensure cohesion and legitimacy throughout the empire, even in the post-imperial period.
Russia inherited spatial-eschatological view of the world from Greeks. Even the Soviet Union assumed the role of a leader in the materialistic eschaton. It is not associated with messianism but with the type of culture that fills eschatological space with its content. Russian culture is an illustration of the fact that history often puts Russian citizens before eschatological tasks. They were also those moments when the geocultural community took on new political shapes and the society struggled with the problem of adaptation to new political forms trying to keep their identity. The analysis of Russian history leads to the conclusion that criteria and geocultural mechanisms were dominant in relation to geopolitical space. Culture was in turn associated with eschatological objectives, the implementation of which legitimized existence of the state.

The title refers to a legend about a brick that fell on Ivan IV head while exploring the newly built Cathedral Church of Vologda Kremlin. In this article is shown polemics and mixed responses – in environmental historians, publicists, writers and even monks – to the personality and the role of the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of All the Russias. Especially the variety of views is presented in works of Stephan Veselovsky who is a researcher of Old Russian society and state.
At the beginning of his reign Ivan IV confirmed the position of the Orthodox Church with the Council of the Hundred Chapters [The Stoglavy Sobor] that was held in Moscow in 1551. This event, with the participation of Tsar and Metropolitan Macarius, was an expression of the desire of Muscovite state to symphony of Orthodox Church and Tsarist power.
Maximus the Greek, identified himself with the mystical-ascetic trend in the Orthodoxy monasticism called Hesychasm, came to Moscow in March 1518. Hagiorite Elder (Staretz) was a teacher of the Byzantine idea on Russia. He taught on the basis of The Holy Fathers of Eastern Christianity that true symphony is not possible without transformation of human nature. In the Byzantine and Old Russian tradition this state was termed as deification.
Ivan IV in the correspondence to one of his advisors, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who defected to the Lithuanians, expressed his own view about Orthodoxy Tsarist power. He rejected the Byzantine tradition. One expression of this was, among other things, the creation of the Oprichnina and the execution of Metropolitan Philip.
The article promotes the thesis that the essence of personal tragedy and fulfillment of hopes pinned on Ivan IV is the result of disobedience to Saint Hagiorite Elder who warned that without transformation (gr. Metanoia) of each member of the body of the Orthodox Theocracy – the idea of the Third Rome is unachievable.

The subject of this article is an image of the Russian Orthodox Church in Polish Catholic press. The example of most popular and one of the oldest Catholic weekly newspapers the “Sunday Guest” was examined. In the article introduction the definition of a Catholic press and similar conceptions were presented as well as their fundamental functions. Afterward, the role of the “Sunday Guest” in shaping public opinion about the Russian Orthodox Church was considered. The article focuses also on the problems in relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Ortodox Church and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Chrurch on Russian culture.

The name of Peter Mogila is connected with the present Kiev Theological Academy. In the 17th century he created the first orthodox educational institution, for that time in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His Academy became a source of science which set the standard of academic theology on the territory of present Ukraine and Russia. Especially important are his merits in creation of catechism, in liturgical reform and state legalization of Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Some theologians criticize his contribution to theology, protecting uniqueness of Eastern Christianity. This are George Florovsky (in Russian theology) and Christos Yannaras (in Greek theology). However some other thinkers (Meyendorff, Asmus, Lossky, Ware, Plested) are rather inclined to protect the position of Mogila in his aspiration to find synthesis of the Eastern and Western Christianity. It is especially clear in the “Byzantine Thomism“ popularizing “Latin logic” (medieval scholasticism) in Byzantium. Nowadays orthodox theology in Ukraine and Russia looks for the place among university humanitarian disciplines, and therefore needs systematization and codification. Therefore methodology of Peter Mogila is urgent again, and we can expect “Mogila revival”.

In the article the author has analyzed the presence of the religious topic in the tabloids. The author diagnoses a part of the Polish and Russian society that is the recipient of this kind of media. First of all, it must be noted that the Polish and Russian tabloids are similar regarding their form and content. Presenting the spirituality is included into the narrative scheme in which are used the oversimplified criteria of the reality assessment. This simplification consists in the radical sharpening of the assessments and using the pragmatic ethic that is based on the situation ethics. The recipient is fairly alert and at the same time susceptible to the mechanisms of such influence. On one hand they receive superficial religiosity, lacking in the theological nuances, and on the other they get the identification mechanism with defined attitudes that confirms the validity of their beliefs. Ironically, the recipients of extremely divergent views will find the confirmation in such tabloids, each one for their own beliefs. When it comes to the issues regarding ethics and culture that are related to the religiosity topic in a natural way, the tabloids present the noticeable tendency to justify the infringements of the representatives of the group “us” and strong stigmatization of the group “them”. However, what is the most important, the dispute on the fundamental issues, axiology and the universalities of the tabloids fall into the trap of the entertainment; such discussion is supposed to be of deep content, spiritual and constitute the counterweight to the “vanity fair”, but it becomes a cheap sensation instead. This process, that one might call tabloidization, oversimplifies the medial communication, eliminates the need of intellectual effort within the process of media content reception and at the same time oversimplifying the value system.

The theme of the essay is the Christian funeral rite is discussed based on two novels by Leo Tolstoy: War and peace (the death of old count Bezuchow) and Anna Karenina (the death of Nikolai Levin), as well as works F. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (the death of the old man Zosima, funeral of Iliusza). The arguments are intended to show the features of the funeral rites in the Orthodox tradition.
In the presentation the main emphasis is to raise the visibility of Christian aspects related to the preparation of the deceased to his last path, but also pay attention to how important rituals in the Christian tradition, then the Russians. Account was taken of different types of burial: layman, monk and child, in order to fully show the specificity of the Orthodox funeral rite.
The examples are intended to demonstrate that nineteenth-century Russian literature adopted the image of death and the funeral rites annually on Christian soil the Russian language combined with the traditions of the Orthodox. Show that cases of death and related rituals are predefined this tradition and affiliated with the Orthodox understanding of death.

In the article the most important aspects of a complex – and impeded by geopolitical reasons – national and cultural (self)identification of the Montenegrins, which is inscribed into a process of the reinterpretation of their native history and tradition, are taken into consideration. One of the most crucial problems of the Montenegrins, who have been for centuries existing within a common Serbian-Montenegrin cultural sphere, is not just their double identity at an individual level but also the identification at a collective level that derives from an important ethnic-cultural complexity of certain Montenegrin regions (within three ethno-geographic entities: the basic, the alternative and the hybrid). In the article an overwhelming political instrumentalization of identity discourse is analyzed. It is responsible for impeding attempts of the constructions of the Montenegrin canon of the cultural tradition and makes it possible to utilize the Orthodoxy (including the local Orthodox Churches) and Islam as a tool in making current policy.

Sergey Arno, a contemporary Petersburg author, represents the existing variant of the Petersburg Text, connected with literary concept of the city constituting significant factors for the emergence of psychiatric diseases. Into his novel Smiritel’naya rubashka dlya geniyev Arno entered a number of reflections on the ongoing crisis in Russian as well as world literature, indicating the controversies between madness and literary genius. The text, which carries out the objectives of literary fiction, by applying certain techniques is gaining the strength of realism, and therefore stimulates to follow the question of current phenomena in the field of belles-lettres. In the way characteristic of his style, author focuses on the problem of mass culture and the issues of cultural globalization, to compose the basis for bizarre idea of making literature entirely dependent on economic factors together with peculiar outlook on methods of diagnosing and treatment for mental disorders. As one can see, a great contributor to the novel’s plot is psychiatry, with its primary Russian feature recognized as submission to authorities. According to Arno, the low condition of recent literature appears to result from the principles of the government’s plan to submit all areas of artistic activities to the demands of free market. As part of the process, in mental hospitals writers are cured from their tendencies to create demanding novels, and acquire useful professions instead. It appears, that there is no place for literary masterpieces in today’s Russia, and that only bestsellers, written by efficient cooperatives, are what is worth publishing. However, in his novel Arno proves, that present literature does not necessarily have to bare a postmodern face.