The article puts forward the thesis about the need to actualize the heritage of Russian religious thought in the modern intellectual culture of Russia. The question of reinterpretation of philosophical projects of the Silver Age in cultural and philosophical discourse on secularism and post-secularism and axiological structure of culture is raised. The article considers the specifics of B.P. Vysheslavtsev’s cultural-critical approach formulated by the Russian thinker in the process of comprehending the results of secularization in Russia and Europe contemporary to him, within the framework of which he problematized the themes of the crisis of religious consciousness and the spiritual integrity of human existence. Central attention is paid to the philosopher’s attempt to integrate the ideas and concepts of psychoanalysis into his religious-philosophical concept of culture, based on the traditions of Eastern Christian theology and Russian religious metaphysics. The originality of the concept presented by Vysheslavtsev is revealed in comparison with other, contemporary projects of synthesizing Russian religious thought with philosophical currents of late modernity. The subject of the study is the basic concepts that Vysheslavtsev borrows from the works of S. Freud and C.G. Jung, as well as the sacred theological texts that Vysheslavtsev singled out as the most appropriate initial bases for integrating the provisions of the psychoanalytical school into Orthodox-coloured philosophy of culture and ethics. It is concluded that the attempt to find a way of synthesis and dialogue between concepts that are ideologically opposing in many of their provisions is philosophically and culturologically significant, although it does not achieve the desired goal of transforming psychoanalysis with faith in a transcendent God. The main result is the search for interaction and the possibility of an exchange of ideas between modern philosophy and theology as an endeavor to renew the language of intellectual communication in revealing the truth of Christianity and its revival in the spiritual experience of man in modern culture.

The relevance of the topic is related to the modernization of regional ethnic cultures in Russia. Modernity lies at the heart of modern Russian civilization, offering the Western postmodernity with total anomie the imperative of preserving traditions. In turn, Russian modernity, being the heir to the Soviet version, is also transforming, actualizing the paradigm of ethnomodernity, which realizes ethno-cultural human capital.

The author states that the epoch of realization of the ethnocultural potential of the multinational country, which is on the wave of ethno-cultural renaissance, has arrived. One of the conditions for its realization is the search for the sacral beginning in socio-cultural modernization. Today, in a difficult geopolitical situation for Russia, the public order for the ontology of sacred meanings of the development of society, which, unlike many Western countries, retains traditional foundations and morals, has become clear. Such searches are doubly relevant for the northern communities of the national republics of the Russian Federation, which have mainly preserved the mythological subconscious complex, oriented to sacredly colored goals and forms of expression of a decent life in harmony with the surrounding nature.

The basic principles of formulating the sacral beginning for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) are proposed. The existence of correlation between ethno-cultural renaissance and socio-cultural modernization is stated. Renaissance is a natural cultural response to the unwillingness to break moral and ethical traditions fixed by dissociated ethnosymbolic complex. The first stage of renaissance processes in ethnic culture is manifested in art, folklore genres, revival of the purity and richness of the national language. The second stage includes scientific and technological creativity, commodity production and socio-economic growth. New ethno-cultural mechanisms of ontologisation of modernization development programmes are needed, through the inclusion of ideologemes with sacred beginning.

The article deals with the content that cultural industries transmit to the mass consciousness. The author believes that cultural industries fully play the role of a tool for shaping the worldview and value system characteristic of Western post-industrial society. Cultural industries with their external content diversity and multifaceted offers to the consumer always fulfil a social order, are subject to the dictates of financial power elites and are inextricably intertwined with the commercial relations of market society and the corresponding mass culture. The values disseminated by cultural industries are not homogeneous; they are values of two types, directed to different strata of society. The values of individualism, financial success, rivalry, dominance seem to be transmitted to everyone, but are intended for potential economic and political leaders who are capable of engaging in competition for power influence. The second group consists of values intended “for the masses”, acting as the majority, which is exploited but should not hinder the growth of elites’ welfare. Two types of values prevail in this group: “values of reconciliation” (sentimental values and tolerance) and “values of oblivion” (self-immersion in negative inner states or in struggle against them). It is noted that the most important value disseminated by Western business elites through cultural industries is the Western way of life itself, which is offered to other countries and peoples as a standard of perfection. It is emphasized that Russian cultural industries are designed to offer Russians different value and meaning orientations.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of folk saints — unofficially canonized individuals, posthumously honored as heroes, to whom prayers and offerings are made. This syncretic cult emerged from the fusion of traditional Amerindian beliefs and Catholicism and has become widespread throughout Latin America. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that today more and more Latin Americans who consider themselves Catholic are honoring folk saints, among others. This cult is moving beyond religion and into the category of cultural practice, as places of veneration of folk saints become full-fledged tourist centers that define the economic, cultural and symbolic image of the region. A number of examples show that the popularity of popular saint cults is due to a search for justice and an attempt to find solace in the hardships of life, as Latin Americans have largely lost faith in both the church and socio-political institutions. At the same time, popular saints are more credible because in their lifetime these individuals either faced the same misfortunes as ordinary people — poverty, lawlessness, and injustice — or they suffered premature or violent deaths that magnify their suffering in the eyes of society. The appeal to popular saints is not limited to personal communication: numerous altars are erected in their honor, festivals are held that attract thousands of believers and sceptics, works of art are created, and appropriate infrastructure is built. It is concluded that some Latin American cities and regions are becoming associated with the images of specific saints, as the latter become their real cultural symbols, defining their territorial identity and cultural space.

The article is devoted to a little-known manuscript of the third quarter of the 16th century, containing the hagiographies of Gregory of Akragantium, Philaret the Merciful and Savva the Sanctified and unique owner’s inscriptions of the 17th century. The purpose of this work is to trace the book’s existence and to introduce it into the scientific turnover as a new historical source related to the fate of a famous Old Believer figure – Archpriest Daniel Temnikovsky. The study of numerous records left in the 17th—19th centuries in the margins of the book by its owners showed that as early as 1630 the collection was in the Arkhangelsk lands, and in 1636 it was sold by the landowner Pavel Timofeevich Goloperov to Vasily, a priest of the church of Zosima and Savvatiy of Solovetsky and the church of Nikola the Wonderworker in the Nizhny (Nikolskiy) Posad in Kholmogory. It turned out that the further fate of the manuscript is connected with its new owner — the archpriest of the cathedral church of Transfiguration and Nikola the Wonderworker in Temnikov Daniil Nikitich Temnikovsky, who left his autographic record in the margins of the book (not earlier than 1650—1652). This circumstance is introduced for the first time into the scientific turnover against the background of the well-studied biography of the protopope, known for his court proceedings and defence of the principles of the old faith, for which he was imprisoned in Moscow’s Novospassky monastery by order of Patriarch Nikon, and in 1673 exiled by the Novgorod metropolitan Joakim to the Derevyanitsky monastery. The similarity of the binding of the Egorov collection (made in 1630) with the binding of another manuscript from the collection of E.E. Egorov, which was used in the Arkhangelsk lands, on Vychegda, is noted. The further fate of the book under study is traced up to its acquisition in the late 19th century by Old Believer merchants N.P. Nikiforov and then E.E. Egorov.

The Krasnoyarsk Art Museum named after V.I. Surikov has kept cast objects made at the Ural art and industrial factories of the Chelyabinsk region since the second half of the 20th century. The question about the aesthetic properties of this trend of decorative and applied arts worries today’s museum community, because even castings of the late 20th century are gradually acquiring museum value. The article considers examples of cast iron castings as an aesthetic phenomenon. Most of them were produced at the Kasli factory, and there are also examples of castings from the Ural town of Kusa. The problem of studying decorative-applied arts is one of the most difficult in art history, because it is necessary to evaluate not only the content quality, but also the purpose of the object, its functionality and decorativeness. As a result of the study it was concluded that in relation to cast iron the dialectical approach is applicable, in particular related to the concept of culture as an ideal-forming side of human life activity. Thus, the animalistic and portrait genres of cabinet sculpture are more often a harmonious balance of the decorative and applied. The aesthetic function prevails over the utilitarian one in household, ethnographic (visual-anthropological) genres. This function has an aspect of non-utilitarian pleasure (A.M. Losev’s concept). In particular, it is associated with the expansion of the former educational boundaries of the viewer, sensual contemplation of the recipient. Thus, the aesthetic function of an arts and crafts work increases with the formation of a dialogue between the viewer and the work of art on the basis of a non-utilitarian relationship with the object.

Actualization of natural and cultural heritage is considered in an integrated approach: preservation/archiving and presentation through museum institutions (archives), including protected areas, and “transfer” of tangible objects and intangible values into real life to include them in the modern meaningful context. While the preservation and presentation of heritage has an extensive tradition and practice in museology, the methods and approaches of incorporating heritage into the contemporary context are constantly changing and being updated to reflect the current situation. The appeal to contemporary art as a method of heritage interpretation is based on its potential to use various methods, techniques and approaches from different disciplines: artistic research, interdisciplinary approach, etc. The specificity of protected areas in Russia as complex formations that combine multiple practices (scientific, educational, recreational, etc.) opens up the possibility of using a variety of formats for data interpretation, such as creative laboratories that include contemporary artistic research, interdisciplinary and social co-operation, and presentation of research results to a wide audience. As an example of such a laboratory, the study considers international art research projects implemented on the territory of the Divnogorye Museum-Reserve.

The application of symbols and signs in painting is analyzed. The limited scope of this article does not allow to solve the problems related to the manifestations of symbols and signs in painting, but it gives an opportunity to outline the range of issues arising in this case. A symbol is considered as an image of some real or fictitious object that has an independent existence and, moreover, is endowed with the function of a signifier with some signified. A sign, unlike a symbol, has no existence of its own; its whole meaning is to bear the function of the signifier. It is shown that an artistic image is already a symbol in itself, since, being an independent object, it points to something that it is not itself. In addition, symbols (as well as signs) form the most important part of the plot of an artistic image. Ch. Pierce’s concept is also in demand in the discourse of modern art history. It distinguishes such semiotic units as iconic sign, sign-index and sign-symbol. When assessing the role of signs and symbols in painting, it is necessary to apply a systematic approach, because semiotic units together constitute a hierarchical system. This is a multiaxis hierarchy in which internal contradictions often develop, which take the form of systemic inversions. Systemic inversion is a form of relationship in a hierarchical system in which some lower, subordinate element acquires a dominant role, while formally remaining in its former low hierarchical position. Inversion, creating tension in the system, can lead this system to destruction; however, inversions can be a prerequisite for its further development. It seems necessary to use the analysis of hierarchical relations and system inversions in the study of the totality of semiotic units represented in works of painting.

The article continues the large-scale and inexhaustible topic “The image of the library and the librarian in fiction and cinema”. This time the attention of researchers was drawn to the recent (2023) 8-series film adaptation of M. Elizarov’s postmodernist novel “The Librarian” (2007), which was awarded the Russian Booker Prize in 2008. The film was made in the genre of urban fantasy and in the style of magic realism. The film’s creators reconstructed the meanings embedded in the interpretation of the book and the library, albeit far from the traditional understanding of the tasks of library activity in society. It is noted that the series is interesting for library specialists from the point of view of the profession image, broadcast to the mass audience, as well as the accents placed by the film’s creators (debunking of stereotypical (and partially outdated) understanding of library work; a sense-bearing and sense-making role of the book, its communicative potential; high moral qualities of the representatives of the reading collectives; inclusion of the book and the library in the structure of nostalgia of the generation that largely determines today’s economic, political and cultural situation in the country. The article analyses the dramaturgical strategies used in the series (hyperbolization and absurdity of the depicted), light and coloristic solution, musical design, and associative lines arising from the postmodern interpretation of the book theme. It is suggested that the film cannot be directly assessed as a source of popularization and promotion of library activities, the goal of the main character — to reveal the power of books to people, to make texts a common property, working for the benefit of society — is quite consonant with the eternal mission of library work.

In the era of customized hand-printed bookbinding, the type and grade of materials used were directly related to the number of operations involved in processing the various elements of the binding and the quality of the decoration. More valuable leathers and fabrics were chosen for expensive and artistically decorated bindings. One way to create a luxury effect was to applique a strip of saffiano on the spine over less expensive calfskin. When on the bookshelf, such bindings looked as if they were made entirely of morocco.

This article studies Russian bindings of the first quarter of the 19th century with smooth morocco spines. More than 130 such specimens have been found in the collection of the Research Department of Rare Books (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library (RSL). On the basis of the analysis of gold tooling stamps and their arrangement, two main types of spine decoration are identified: with a single vertically oriented composition of stamps and with a traditional bandage composition, i.e. with the division of the whole area of the spine into separate quadrangular sections with the help of horizontally arranged bands of ornament.

The types of stamps and decorative techniques characteristic of certain chronological intervals within the period under study are described. The identified characteristics can be used to describe both full-leather and Russian quorter leather bindings, as well as to clarify dating.

The popularity of the traditional story of the legend of Meng Jiangnu is increasing in modern culture: every year there are more and more literary, theatrical and cinematographic references, and the number of films, TV series and music videos is multiplying. Culture reacts sensitively to any changes in society — new forms of embodiment of traditional stories appear, in which, nevertheless, familiar images continue to exist and develop. The purpose of this study is to explain the changes and transformations that led to the version of the story that remains popular and in demand today. The author gives a brief history of the development of the legend in the Chinese literary tradition to show the reader that different film adaptations correspond to different stages in the development of the story. The embodiments of the legend in contemporary screen culture are analyzed, which include films, silent films, TV series and animated works. The article uses the method of narrative analysis to identify invariant (static) and variant (circumstance-dependent) elements of the narrative. It traces the development of images through the embodiments of the story of Meng Jiangnu in different contemporary art forms such as cinema and animation. It is concluded that the legend of Meng Jiangnu has not only “survived” to the present day, but also “acquired” new meanings.

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