Article is devoted to the policy of George William, Elector of Brandenburg, during
the third and fourth periods of the Thirty-year war. The author analyses the turn in Prince
Electors policy, happened in 1635, and its reasons. Joining of Pomerania - hereditary
possession of Hohenzollern became the main objective of Brandenburg policy. However,
George William faced his allys (Sweden) counteraction. It was the main reason of Prince
Electors going across to the emperor side. But, being in the Habsburgs alliance, George
William could not achieve his purpose.

The article is devoted to the renewal of the Canon in the church monumental
painting at the turn of the centuries. This renewal is considered to be a part of church ministry,
the liturgical worldview in the range of problems of mastering and studying church painting.
Church art carries some artistic information about church events, creates the image of
the Temple as a semblance of heavenly life on Earth. The canon is also understood as a
commencement and the basis of any icon. It was the canon that prevented the change of an
icon into a picture or portrait, but allowed it to remain national and modern. The innovation
has always existed in icon painting and was one of the principles of forming a fi ne artistic
language.

Analyzing use of QR codes in creolized texts of written communication the author
attempts to defi ne their specifi c functions. The main functions are: attractive, esthetic, informative,
hyperlinking, image creation and the function of text fi eld organization. The author
draws attention to the possibility of hypercode usage as verbal and iconic components of
creolized texts, as well as to the information perception selectivity connected to the hypercode
phenomenon.

The article provides an overview of the theories expressed by the supporters of
the single-tape linear theory of society modernization. It presents some alternative concepts
of society development as well. Describing a particular case - the Western countries path
to modernity - the scientists of the 1950s and the fi rst part of the 1960s attached it a universal
value. Thereby the phenomenon of modernization was seen by them as a synonym
of westernization. Whereas the national culture of a modernizing country was considered
to be the remnant of the traditional society and, therefore, an obstacle to modernity. The
opponents of the modernization theory criticized the thesis of universality of the Western
path to modernity. Noting the lack of progress in the developing countries, they focused
on searching the causes of backwardness of the third world countries. According to the
researchers the disastrous situation of the developing countries is a consequence of the
global socio-economic system built by the West where the wealth of some countries causes
the poverty of the rest.

The article is based on the results of the authors content analysis of the Russian
newspaper press of 1990, 2001 and 2010. The author reveals the way the newspaper press
refl ects socio-political transformations in modern Russia. The article depicts the importance
of the newspaper press as a platform for the dialogue between the society and the power,
and describes it as a political communicator, as well as an objective means of informing
the people. To give a formal defi nition of the media and their evolution the author singled
out some distinctive features of the media. At the same time to describe each of these
features the author selected the most common types of publications, the content of which
corresponds each of the features most.

The scientifi c article opens a series of papers devoted to the study of political
symbolism of the modern «color revolutions». The article discloses the method of frame
analysis aimed at identifying common and special symbols of the political opposition. The
author makes actual the theoretical and methodological and historical aspects of this scientifi
c problem. The concept of domestic political semiosphere acts as a theoretical matrix acts
of the research.
Putting forward her own scientific hypothesis the author suggests that to rally the opposition
contemporary political scientists create unique and at the same time typical
political symbols while preparing the «color revolutions». The author states that they
use the psychology of color and the influence of the archetypes on peoples minds.
The probative base of the research is based on the latest achievements of foreign and
domestic political science

The article deals with the problems of working with children who fi nd themselves
in diffi cult situations. The future of these children is usually defi ned by the current system of
solving such problems: annulment of parents, the removal of the child from the family and
sending him to a state orphanage, and further transferring him to a substitute family. The
author discloses the diffi culties of foster childrens preparation for transferring them to substitute
families, as well as the orphanage staff diffi culties in overcoming social stereotypes

The article presents the fi rst Russian novel titled The Changeable Fortune or Miramonds
Adventure (1763) in terms of interaction of imaginary and documentary origins. Their
interaction becomes possible due to the parallel development of the novels two plotlines:
a romance plot and an adventure story which is genetically tied with the authors biography
and his attempt to enlighten the reader with some useful information about faraway exotic
countries. There have been made conclusions on uniqueness of the poetics of narration and
the specifi c character of principles of F.A. Emin as a novelist

The population of Transcarpathia, Eastern Slovakia, Serbian Vojevodina, Southeastern
Poland and Northwestern Rumania is known under the general ethnic name of Ruthenians
(Rusyns). In their religious faith they are Eastern Orthodox Church believers and
Greсo- Catholics. Their status of an ethnic minority was recognized by the United Nations,
the European Union and European countries, with the exception of Ukraine. Not having any
statehood, they use four koines (linguae franca) Lemkovian, Prjashevian, Uzhgorodian and
Vojevodian. Their alphabet is mainly Cyrillic. The Ruthenian language differs from Ukrainian
and Slovakian on the lexical level. The koines differ from each other phonetically and grammatically.
The same differences can be found when compared with neighboring languages.

The article considers some modern concepts of communicative activities and
communication of persons with mental defi ciency. The author provides psychological-pedagogical
characteristic features of communication process in a group of junior classes pupils
having light mental defi ciency. The main factors contributing to the development of
their communicative activities are shown. The author gives the empirical information about
a separate practical research and provides the comparative analysis of the results, obtained
before and after the training process.

The article is referred to the theoretical basics of the present social pedagogics,
which being Germanys practical model is closely connected with the practice of social work.
In 1970-s H. Thiersch introduced a concept of «lifeworld orientation». As a scientist he was
interested in such subject areas as theory of social pedagogics and reality-oriented social
pedagogics.
Social pedagogics is oriented to the recipients real life. It also formulates aid-sets, which are
aimed at the work with social confl icts. It is professionally implemented and has preventive
nature. Its activity is considered to be a system of services for all people in normal life situations.

This article is focused on the method of varying the sample thickness necessary for
measuring the way the dielectric permittivity of a studied liquid crystal depends on temperature
at 30 HHz and at atmospheric pressure. The method is based on measuring the attenuation
coeffi cient of the electromagnetic wave while it passes through the studied substance which
is poured into a section of the wave conductor. The article provides a detailed description of
the experimental setup and the procedures, as well as observational error computations and
control measurements of the dielectric permittivity of butyl acetate and bensole.

The article discloses the observers position in defi ning the concept of physical
reality in quantum mechanics. The author analyses the probabilistic nature of quantum
mechanics versus classical. The role of the observer in determining the characteristics of
elementary particles is considered to be central. Special attention is paid to the question
of completeness of quantum mechanics which was raised by Einstein in 1935. It is shown
that negation of completeness of quantum mechanics is wrong. The article presents a set of
theoretical and experimental works proving the completeness of quantum mechanics. The
presentation of the anthropic principle and its importance for the solving on the problem the
properties of the Universe, necessary for the emergence of a man, is given.

The article discloses the concept of goodwill and business reputation as an economic
category, which is a prerequisite for industrial enterprises success in the modern
world. It considers the main components of goodwill - the quantitative component of the
companys business reputation, the impact of the business management quality on goodwill.
It describes the concept of the companys business reputation management and the impact
of such management on the value of industrial companies. It also describes the practice of
assessing goodwill and its results.