Abstract: The article's research subject is the life course and becoming of the Russian orientalist Sergey Stefanovich Shchevelev, one of the leading specialists in the field of study of the history of the Near-Eastern conflict. Combining in himself a scholar-orientalist and a professor, for many years, teaching the history of the countries of Asia and Africa, Shchevelev with great ability adapted complicated material, while not simplifying it. Under his direction a series of specialists was raised, who are united by their general scientific school of Eastern studies which was formed by the celebrated scholar. Being reserved by nature and without ambitions of popularity, Sergey Stefanovich – a prolific scholar – author of more than 150 publications, including 9 monographs and 10 schoolbooks. The methodological foundation of this article is the systematic approach to scientific research, the principles of personal history with a basis of institutionalized, historical-genetic, socio-psychological and comparative methods. The article's novelty lies in the fact that its collective of authors for the first time in Russian sciences undertook a complex attempt to present the main development stages of the named specialist and the creative journey of the teacher S. S. Shchevelev, giving a short description of his main studies to aid scholars-orientalists. By revealing the multifaceted contribution of Sergey Stefanovich in the historical study of the question of Palestine and the Near East, in conjunction with his pedagogical mastery as a teacher, the article’s authors congratulate the scholar on his birthday and wish him further success in his scientific endeavors.

Keywords: Oriental Studies, Sergei Shchevelev, Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Arab-Israeli conflict, teacher, Afghanistan, Vitaliy Naumkin, Asia and Africa

Abstract: The review presents the results of a round-table discussion held the 16th of December 2013 at Lomonosov Moscow State University, dedicated to the question of the future development of the university’s Department of Ethnology at the Faculty of History. Directors of various leading anthropological institutes of Moscow, the professorial staff of the department, and foreign colleagues were invited to partake in this discussion. The group successfully addressed and put forward a number of measures to optimize the resolution of the problems of developing the scientific and educational constituents of the department's activities. Members of the round table, according to the academic background of their own scientific formation, discussed the experiences of historical, ethnological, physico-anthropological studies, and the socio-anthropological and educational paradigm overall. The article’s material reflects the country’s multifaceted approaches to understanding and developing the discipline of “Ethnology” and will be of use not only to the faculty members and students of the MSU Department of Ethnology, but will certainly arise the interest of the general reader, interested in the state of Russian humanities.

Keywords: ethnology, socio-cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, academic anthropology journals, contemporary problems of anthropology, university anthropology education, the fundamentals of education, expedition studies, ethnographic student practice, foreign experience.

Abstract: The article summarizes the book presentations of two Italian authors, Gian Paolo Caselli (Caselli G. P. La Russia nuova. Economia e storia da Gorbačёv a Putin. Milano-Udine, 2013) and Giorgio Scotoni (Scotoni G. Il Nemico Fidato. La guerra di sterminio in URSS e l’occupazione alpina sull’Alto Don. Trento, 2013), which took place on the 19th of February 2014 at the History Department of Moscow State University – Lomonosov. The Italian scholars in their comprehensive presentations described the concepts, main premises and conclusions of their studies. The monograph of G. Scotoni fills the gap in the history of the Italian Alpenkorp’s military operations participation in the USSR in 1941–1944. The author raises the question of the Italians degree of involvement in Germany’s extermination war on Soviet territories, proving that the German and the Italian forces from the beginning differed in their motivations: the Italians were moved by the Catholic ideas of proselytism and generally did not tarnish themselves with atrocities against the civil population. The book by G. P. Caselli examines the socio-economical processes in post-Soviet Russia, from which he derived a number of predictions as to the possible options of our country’s movement on the paths of modernization and progress, and on the geopolitical position of Russia in general. The presentation was conducted in Russian and Italian languages and aroused great interest in all present.

Keywords: Second World War, war of annihilation, Italian Alpenkorps, racial theory, Fascism, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin, Perestroika, post-Soviet.

Abstract: The article consists of a detailed review of the session “The Role of libraries in the information support of historical sciences” (moderators: L.I. Borodkin, E.A. Vorontsova, S.V. Mironenko), held at the international scientific conference “150 years at the service of science and education” (the conference, held 5–6 December 2013, was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the public opening of the Chertkov Library, to the 75th anniversary of the name “State Public Historical Library” and to the 130th anniversary of the opening of the State Historical Museum). More than 20 specialists read reports in this session, coming from various scientific institutions and universities, libraries and museums of Moscow and Russian regions, as well as from Poland. The discussion topic was focused on the problem of information support in historical sciences in general, which has not been fully perceived as a problem by the members of this community, and also on the extremely relevant for librarians applied aspects of this question (compiling, systematization, digitalizing collections for this purpose and also for the users’ needs).

Keywords: history, historical sciences, information support, digital era (“Digital-plus”), informational space, informational resource, historiographical source, library, electronic library, State Public Historical Library of Russia.