This article discusses the concepts of values and symbol, reveals their ontological connection. A symbol is an object with some special value. This relationship has not been clearly marked so far. However, the value can be considered as an object that has some special signifi cance. The author analyzes the hierarchical value system and the possibility of inversions in this hierarchy.

The inversions in a hierarchical system represent some contradictions between the organizational principles. The inversions in the structure of values are caused by the contradiction between the constitutional and majority principles. The constitutional principle means that the highest position in the hierarchy belongs to prosocial values. According to the majority principle, the highest position in the hierarchy should take those values that are acceptable to the greatest number of people. The prosocial values should be acceptable for most people. If the majority adheres only to individual, anti-social values, such a society is threatened by disintegration.

The article shows the relationship between the concepts “symbol” and “sacred” through the concept of “value”. It is also shown that these three concepts form a coherent hierarchical system. The separation of the “sacred” is a necessary stage of the development of human thinking. For this reason, the concept of “sacred” can be transformed, but cannot disappear from the mass consciousness.

TheSoviet and post-Soviet urban environment represents a unique phenomenon of the national culture. The spatial-temporal structure of modern urban settlements has been developed as a result of the complex cultural, social, economic, and political transformations that occurred in the second half of the 20th century. The mass housing construction, which was initiated in the late fi fties and widely deployed in the 1960s— 1970s, formed the spatial image of the modern city, extant and functioning up to the present. The urban environment is closely intertwined with the fate of the citizens, becoming the stage of the human existence formation, the fi eld of deployment of the individual’s life world. The individual existence of a city dweller has acquired an intrinsic connection with the surrounding spatial-temporal urban unity. This natural cultural and historical relationship of the human individual life to the surrounding city environment, being relevant in this specifi c present historical period, justifi es our scienti fi c interest in this subject and our turning to the study of the spatiotemporal structure of Soviet and post-Soviet cities as a historical and cultural phenomenon, refl ected in different literary sources. The theoretical and methodological foundations and scientifi c novelty of this interpretation of the space-time system of the urban environment lies in the author’s understanding of the concept of chronotope, which has a universal ontological signi-fi cance, allowing essentially to disclose and describe any cultural-historical phenomenon.

In the era of the “civilization of leisure”, the leisure time is increasingly perceived not as a necessary “complement” to the people’s production and social life, but as an autonomous social institution, which has an independent meaning and value. Meanwhile, the leisure activities often characterize the human’s personality much more accurate than their professional activities. However, under the infl uence of civilization trends, the essence of the leisure activities is changing: the types of leisure are getting mixed and fi lled with new content. The semantic ambiguity of the leisure activities makes their content diffi cult to be analyzed and requires changes in the research approaches and tools. The article shows that the understanding of the changing essence of the cultural and leisure activities and stra tegies is possible, using modern econometric methods, through the study of large amounts of sociological data. Analyzing the results of sociological surveys for a number of years, the author reveals some statistical regularities in the forms of leisure people prefer and discovers the integral factors that could explain those regularities. As a result, the article proposes an original typology of the leisure behavior, which refl ects the inner connection between the various kinds of leisure and identi-fi es the most common strategies of the leisure activities. The study shows that people’s attitude to their leisure activities, in particular to the art, is not random. The study is based on the unique data arrays on the sociological surveys of Russia’s urban population.

In the past few years, the Russian cultural policy has been strongly affected by a number of state regulations and legal initiatives. There is an attempt to transform the old, narrowly departmentalized approach to the ma nagement in cultural sphere into a unifi ed strategy of the state machinery. Culture has been elevated to the rank of national priorities. The state is willing to become one of its strategic investors and ideologists. The recently approved “Strategy of the State Cultural Policy for the Period till 2030” considers culture as a system of the traditional Russian values, conservation and support of which should be the guarantee of the national security and “civilization authenticity” of the country, facing the challenges of the outside world. The intensifi ed governmental attention to the sphere of culture can be interpreted as a return of the paternalistic approach. In this regard, the contemporary art becomes one of the most problematic marginal fi elds that may run counter to the state cultural priorities, either in form or in content. It seems relevant to compare the Russian cultural policy in the contemporary art sphere with that in China, where culture, as a basis of the national security, is also raised to the level of state priorities.

Thearticle analyzes different scenarios of mentioning brand names (cars, clothing, accessories, goods of everyday consumption, gadgets) in the Russian pop songs of the 1980s—2010s. It considers the relationship models of the songs’ characters with the things, their constituted social status, and their author’s attitude both to the songs’ characters and to the modern society. The relationships between the songs’ lyrics and their video or musical implementation are investigated. Whereas in the 1980s—1990s, at the mention of the brands, their prestige was valued above all, the early 2000s started producing more and more hits mocking at the images of status consumption and profaning them. Another typical trick in the domestic pop music is the desire, through the enumeration of brands, to mask the true emotions of the characters. Thus, the processes of consumption are put forward as alternatives to meaningful spiritual experiences. The author pays special attention to the analysis of the models of consumer behavior of female characters. Their images demonstrate the signifi cant shifts in the value orientations of the modern Russian society. In conclusion, the article identifi es the causes of the mental problems faced by the Russian society during the forced transition to market relations.

Thearticle is devoted to an actual problem of the mass musical culture — implementation of folklore material into the mass music fi eld of view. The process of commercialization and “massifi cation” of folklore is accompanied by disappearance of indigenous ethnic traditions and inclusion some of their means of expressiveness into the global, supranational cultural space. The phenomenon of ethnica is regarded as an important participant of the modern popular music industry. The author attempts to classify the ethnic segment, on the basis of a number of parameters: its closeness to/distance from the folklore original, its geographic and stylistic background (jazz, rock, pop). It is noted that the interest in ethnic style was a reaction to the growing integration trends in the world masscult practice and indicated the need to overcome the internal unilateralism and certain stylistic uniformity of the world pop scene. As a result, the Slavic, gypsy and oriental styles, native for the Russian mass music, were complemented by the celtica, latina, reggae, balkanism, and other “alien” styles. With all this, the most creative approach to the folk material is realized by jazz and rock musicians, while the eth-no-pop is limited to certain elements of folklore, used as an original colorful material. The article investigates the mechanisms of implementation of the “alien” traditions into the auditory experience of Russian listeners. There is put out a hypothesis about further dissolution of ethnicity in the popular music, which is adequate to the current multicultural processes.

This article discusses the features of musical intonation, inherent in the ancient period of development of the musical art. This topic is relevant, because it is necessary to examine the issues related to the origination of the musical intonation. In this connection, the article considers currently used wind instruments, specifi c techniques of performance, and the methods that allowed to avoid the objective for that time contradictions in instrumental music playing and, at the same time, that were substantiating such musical directions as microtonal and ekmelic music. The article clarifi es the concept of “musike” in the interpretation of ancient Greeks, who divided the arts into musike (music, dance, poetry) and not musike (sculpture, painting). This differentiation justifi es the birth of the phenomenon of intonation, based on the temporary state that represents a harmonious unity of man and nature. The work analyses the old musical modes that initiated in ancient Greece the appearance of the paradigm of direct connection between music and human nature, named the doctrine of ethos. The comparison of intonational features of the ancient musical modes and human mental properties leads, during the further historical development of musical intonation, to the doctrine of the affections, which actively used almost all the elements that make up the language of music (tempo, rhythm, mode tonality, meter, interval, etc.) to arouse in the listeners strong emotions and passions.

Thearticle describes the essence of the subject of “Copying”, which was presented in the curriculum of the Imperial Academy of Arts right from the day of its opening. The Academy pursued objectives that were aimed at the achievement of excellence and quality of the works of art, in a relatively short period, by the example of those created in the French and Roman Academies of Fine Arts. It is proved that the copying system was introduced at the Academy not only as a discipline that would help young painters master their technical skills and hold a “conversation with the old master”, but it also represented a “translation” of the old masters’ language into the modern language of painting. The technical perfection during the process of copying allowed many artists to reveal their talent and create great masterpieces of the Russian painting. The article uses the analytical, comparative, and diachronic research methods.

Thearticle is devoted to the ballet works created by the Italian composer C.A. Cavos in Russia. Over 50 theatrical works of the composer are almost unknown, but they make a signifi cant contribution to the national culture. The study is conducted on the basis of unpublished sour ces from the archives of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The article traces the history of the national subjects of Russian musical professional theater, from the time of Catherine II to the fi rst quarter of the 19th century. There is reviewed the problem of “Russian” subject in the operas, ballets, drama plays with Cavos’s music. A list of those works is compiled, which demonstrates that the composer regularly collaborated with the writer A.A. Shakhovskoy and choreographer Ch. Didelot. The review includes the historical, common, and fairy-magical subjects. The stylistic features of the works are noted (including their reliance on folk material), by the example of Cavos’s ballet divertissements “Militia, or Love for the Fatherland”, “Village Festival”, music to Shakhovskoy’s drama “Falcon of Prince Yaroslav of Tver, or the Betrothed on a White Horse”. 

Today the name of Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne is known just to a group of specialists, but once his drawings in periodicals, book illustrations, and water-color works were well known to Petersburg audience. The creative destiny of the descendent of a family of architects was quite successful. In 1848, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied historical painting and, in 1849, went to military art class, headed by B.P. Willewalde. There he started working at his “Suvorov cycle”. The artist was awarded the Big Golden Medal for the painting “Suvorov at the St. Gotthard Pass” (1855) and, during his pensionary trip to Munich under the guidance of A.E. Kotzebue, he painted the “Last Overnight Stop of Suvorov in Switzerland” (1859), which brought him the title of academician. His mature years were marked by his service as a painter in the Engraving Department of the Expedition of Storing State Papers. The painting “Catherine II in Falconet’s Studio” (1867) brought the artist to the title of professor and, in 1873, he was given the title and position of the Artist of His Majesty. Due to the lack of integrated works dedicated to the creative activity of the artist, only few people know A.I. Charlemagne as an excellent costume designer, decorator, creator of a multitude of musical theater programs, menu cards, drawings for playing cards, as well as his works for the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

Thearticle is devoted to the section “Culture. Cultural Science” of the Russian Library-Bibliographical Classifi cation. The author pays special attention to the history of culturology formation as a science from the 19th century, various approaches to the science of culture in foreign and Russian studies. The necessity to revise the created in the middle of the 20th century section is caused by the nature of the literature published in the post-Soviet space. The article substantiates the location of the section in the national classifi cation, its relevance and potential for integrated refl ection of the literature on culture, as well as the role it plays in meeting the readers’ needs on the subject. There are reviewed in detail the structural transformations that were made, the new substantive and terminological content in accordance with the radical changes occurring in this branch of knowledge, and the principles of delimitation of this section with other sections existing in the classifi cation, such as history, sociology, ethnology. The updated schedules refl ect the current state of cultu ral knowledge, contribute to a more complete content disclosure of the publications on culture, and provide an opportunity to explore the heritage of the world science and culture, and new directions in the development of scienti fi c knowledge in general.

The article demonstrates that the new series “Memories of Solovki Prisoners 1923—1939” is a signifi -cant contribution to the development of the memoir genre. Its compilers (The Solovetsky Monastery Publishing) successfully combine the adherence to tradition and the innovative approach caused by the nature of the material (object of the memories). All the texts included in the series are autobiographical, retrospective, have a documentary basis, subjective evaluation character and often increased emotionality. There are resented different subtypes of memoiristics: from unsophisticated stories about people’s own experiences (S. Kureishi, A.R. Grube, etc.) to truly artistic generalizations (B.N. Shiryaev, O.V. Volkov, etc.). The only object common for all of the series’ memories is the “Soviet prison”, organized on the Solovetsky Islands in 1923—1939. Its population consisted of a wide range of types in all parameters: social, age, regional, ideological, etc. The memoirs contain many previously unknown historical facts and varied interpretation of events. All this makes the publication encyclopedic. The mandatory expert comments for each publication and the analytical reviews, not tied to a specifi c memoir, gives the series an academic character. The specifi city of the memories’ object infl uenced on the distribution of the material in volumes. In general, the memoirs are arranged according to the chronological principle. However, due to the nonlinear change of the population, there are quite a lot of chronological overlays. An important feature of the series is the presence of crosscutting thematic lines, represented in all volumes. They are the history of the monastery, escape from the camp, fates of the imprisoned priests, foreigners, women, etc. High quality, voluminous visuals are also included in the unifi ed semantic fi eld of the series.

Thearticle presents the data on the contemporary Japanese art of pottery, collected by the author in June 2015. The study area is Shimane Prefecture on the West coast of the island of Honshu. The study objects are pottery workshops and their production. The article considers the aspects of social organization, technical level and technological cycle of pottery, the stylistic features of ceramics production, and its role in daily life. The author discovers that there are many conservative traits, remaining in the organizational fi eld of pottery and its technological processes, which were typical for the ceramics industry of Japan in the 19th — fi rst half of the 20th century. The technical and technological methods and principles of ceramics production, developed over the centuries, determine its external features and artistic originality. The usage of modern technical equipment for pottery molding and fi ring does not change the pottery’s general trend of keeping the traditions. The pottery production of Shimane is mostly represented by iwá mi-yá ki style. Its main distinctive feature is its specifi c decoration with colorful glazes. At the same time, there are some other styles in Shimane — for instance, hagi style. The pottery workshops offer both traditional forms and products of the European type. Currently, the most popular categories of ceramic production are tableware, including those for the tea ceremony, as well as interior and exterior design objects. 

The article proposes to consider the conception of architecture as a way of presentation of political ideas through aesthetic categories, basing on the analysis of the socialist constructions: the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw and Nowa Huta (Kraków region). This article explores the functions of architecture in the presentation of the political ideology of the Polish People’s Republic. The issue of political engagement of art, including architecture, remains relevant at the present stage, when the problem of political manipulation is still widespread in society. The environment, organized by the architecture, is also constantly affects the emotions, the mind and human be-havior. It is possible to transfer pre-programmed information through architectural structures. The subject of the research demands the interdisciplinary approach. The methodological foundation of the research is going to base on the comparative, problem-chronological, semiotic methods, art and system analysis. The article presents the architecture of the Polish People’s Republic as a special socio-political space, easily re-enco ded  according to the regime change. This can be noticed in the renaming of streets and squares, replacing the world’s heroes by the national ones, etc. With the establishment of the communist regime in Poland, the principle of socialist realism was introduced into the culture; the art was subordinated to the needs of ideology and politics. The author explores the role of the architectural construction of the Polish People’s Republic in the changes in the structure of society. The special attention is focused on the relation of the modern Polish society to the heritage of the communist era. The author concludes that the architecture is a visual interpretation of the political reformations in the country and the most long-term symbol of the communist era political aesthetics. 

Thearticle focuses on the creative interpretation of the Silver Age traditions in the paintings of the younger generation of Moscow unoffi cial art — “Semidesyatniki [Seventiers]”. Such an aspect has never been analyzed in a study of unoffi cial art before. Identifying the linkages with the national artistic tradition is an actual perspective for the studies of unoffi cial art, whose emergence is mainly associated with infl uence of the Western European art of the second half of the 20th century. The genesis of the unoffi cial art, in the “post-thaw” period, is closely related to the appeal to the art of the turn of the 19th—20th centuries — the largest epoch of the Russian art, closest to the artists of the second half of the 20th century — and was directly perceived through its representatives. The article outlines the circle of artists of the Painting Section of the City Committee (Gorkom) of Graphic Artists, whose works refl ected the thematic and stylistic principles of the Silver Age. The artistic principles of symbolism, such as the understanding of light and forms in space, were the basis of the teaching methodo logy in alternative pedagogy (V.Ya. Sitnikov’s Studio). The ability of the artists of Semidesyatniki to comprehend the symbolism and semantics of light, space, colour, as well as some of their stylistic and technical (stroke, smear) methods go back to the art of the “Blue Rose”. The infl uence of symbolism can be noticed in the interpretation of mythological and female images and artefacts of the Silver Age. The interest of the unoffi cial artists in the art of symbolism is related to the fi rst manifestations of postmodernism in the Russian painting, which indicates its earlier emergence and profound infl uence on various genres and directions of art.