Abstract: Forming a cultural image of the two Russian capitals is a recent and important challenge. Historical collisions that resulted in Moscow and St. Petersburg being brought apart were the basis for the forming of two major paradigms in history, which reflected the complexity and ambiguity of Russia's path in history. This is why we see a dichotomy in the image of the two capitals in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s creative work, as well as its emerging depth and dialectic nature. Nostalgic images of pre-Revolution Moscow, as evident on the pages of the "Red Wheel" are replaced by political metaphor which became the main stylistic technique of works devoted to Stalin-era Russia. The main method of this research is the analysis of text meaning from the perspective of social and cultural context. The author explores an area that few ever touched upon, as far as A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s work is concerned, as he analyzes the cities not as mere historical setting, but rather as full actors on the stage of the great author's books. A city is presented as a collective actor, an animate being which actively impacts the lives of the main characters.

Abstract: This article examines reading as one of the traditional leisure activities of urban dwellers. The reading culture as a distinct kind of communication has already been studied by social and cultural scientists of XX-eth century like N.A. Rubankin, I.A. Butenko, P.B. Biryukov, B.A. Uspenskiy. Reading is presented as a necessary attribute for urban cultural life. Attention is focused on youth reading, especially technical collegehigher education institution student reading. This defined the object and subject of the research for this work. The authors employ public opinion surveys, based on MGSU control groups. The authors also employed the systemic analysis methods that enabled the authors to link the state of modern information culture with reading traditions. The novelty of this research is defined by the fact that the authors have successfully conducted a synthesis of cultural and social science approaches to studying reading as a phenomenon, as well as information culture as a whole. Cultural science's non-numerical conclusions were taken into account, as well as social science's numerical data in youth control groups. Another novelty is the attempt to compare traditional forms of reading head to head with IT-spread-based information exchange forms.

Abstract: The problem of creating a clean, biosphere-compatible urban environment is currently one of the major issues for our society. Its importance is dictated by the multivectoral nature of modern megapolys development, which, in turn, becomes a stimulus for a transition from a technocratic model of urban planning to a biosphere-compatible one. However, the results of the current urban planning process appears ambiguous: by limiting industry development in some cases, the urban planners make other, no less serious problems, even worse. Because of this, the author believes that it is necessary to analyze the current situation in cities, to analyze the dynamics of environmentalist movements that are currently fashionable due to the modern social and political paradigms, to evaluate their potential good and harm. Case study is the main method of analysis in this work. The cases are analyzed for modern ecourban trends, deindustrialization, advertisement business regulations, ecologization, comprehensive planning, legal regulation of nuclear industry, interactions between environment movements and business. This work also employs traditional general scientific methods of inductive generalization of facts and deductive application of the generalizations generated, for the sake of identifying patterns in the dynamics of urban life. The author draws attention to the inconsistency of statements issued in the architecture and environment planning of modern cities, to the crises that we need to overcome for the sake of our civilization. The author points out the dysfunction of modern environmentalist movements - they are too political. And it becomes a reason for conflict situations and interferes with constructive dialog between the civil society and the Federal and municipal authorities (Selyatin and Khimki forest protection movements come to mind).