Abstract:  In any state, the elite exerts significant impact upon the foreign policy course; at the same time, the elites of traditional societies are yet insufficiently studied. The article attempts to determine the peculiarities of Afghan elite, the features that it imparts upon Afghanistan’s foreign policy, as well as provide the corresponding examples from its history. The factors that triggered such peculiarities are analyzed through the prism of the country’s history and regional geography. The author pursues correlation of the elite and Afghanistan’s foreign policy course with the Pareto’s elite concept, Weber’s national state, and political realism.  A conclusion on discrepancy between the elite and Afghanistan’s foreign policy and the traditional European concept of the national elite, state and foreign policy, gives grounds for the more careful and meticulous establishment of relationship with this country. The search for such discrepancies admonishes the erroneous reliance on the mechanisms of market economy and exported democracy.

Keywords: Islamic State, Democratization, Central Asia, Social instability, National interest, Political realism, Traditional society, Foreign policy, National elite, Afghanistan

Abstract: The object of this article is the political process in modern Russia, while the subject is the role, place, and qualitative characteristics of the modern Russian federal and regional elites as the driving force of sociopolitical processes. Based on the sociological (field) research, the authors examine the general perception of the Russian elite; systematize the ideas on the dynamics of elite; as well as assessment of its qualitative state within the post-Soviet political processes. Special attention is given to the measures that encourage the development of interaction between the elites, and forms of the quality improvement of political leadership in modern Russia. The work applies the result of the panel expert surveys conducted during the preparation for the First All-Russian Elitological Congress (2013) and Second All-Russian Elitological Congress (2016). The theoretical-methodological vector of this work consists in the following: 1) generalization, systemic examination, and sociopolitical interpretation of the overall comprehension on the Russian elites and its perception by the expert community; 2) generalization of the system of evaluation of the dynamics of qualitative changes within the elites, and determination of the complex of measures that in the experts’ opinion must encourage the development of interaction between the elites, as well as development of the political leadership. The article carries out the political modeling of the general sociopolitical trends, which manifest and develop within the current ruling class. Based on the acquired empirical and analytical data, the author confirms the prevalence of certain stereotypic ideas about the political and business elite. At the same time, it is demonstrated that the public and expert opinion still give low assessment namely to the elite capital of the modern ruling class. The article concludes that within the political process of modern Russia, we can observe the trend towards estrangement of the elite groups, their desire to preserve the ruling positions and commercial preferences, as well as the overall reduction in mental activity of the elite groups and individual leaders, value of the national interests, problems of national security and sociocultural integrity of the Russian society. The authors also discuss the forms, directions, and measures that are called to correct the negative trends in modern elitogenesis.

Keywords: political elite, political process, political leadership, panel expert poll, society, security, state, power, transformation, elitogenesis

Abstract: This article examines the vector of influence of the knights of the Order of St. John upon cultural and economic development of Malta and Maltese Archipelago. Status of the island before the arrival of the Order is being reviewed. The author demonstrates the process of development of Malta during the ruling of the Order, as well as main changes that turned the poor and struggling from pirate raids island into a pearl of European Christian culture of the Mediterranean world. Among the main changes are the following: growth of population, construction of new cities and ports, development of trade, medicine, and social wellness in general. The conclusion is made about the extensive role of the system of political administration and composition of political elite of the country from the perspective of its cultural and economic development. The knights, who perceived the island as citadel of Christianity and their struggle against the unfaithful, did all possible and necessary for its strengthening and progress.

Keywords: European history, Christian culture, The Order of Malta, Political elite, History of Malta, Cultural development, Economic development, Military culture, Knights ruling, The role of elite

Abstract: This article examines the problem of intra-elite conflicts in Ukraine during the period of 1991-2005. Special attention is given to the trends and peculiarities of the establishment of political elites in Ukraine. Within the framework of this research, the author notes that the struggle of various actors for political power in Ukraine was determined by a number of factors, including the history of the country that explains the emergence of powerful actors of regional scale and fragmented elites and fairly high cost of crushing the opposition, which led to a series of punishing agreements, and limitations from the political institutions. The article demonstrates that the fusion of business and politics in Ukraine poses a threat to domestic security of the nation and undermines the authorities’ ability to democratically govern, since in majority of cases it is the economic interests that determine the political behavior, and interconnections between political players become hostages of agreements between oligarchs.

Keywords: Political struggle, Political elites, Democratic transit, Democratic transit of Ukraine, Ukrainian political system, Political history of Ukraine, Post-Soviet transit, Regional elites of Ukraine, Façade democracy, Intra-elite conflict

Abstract: The work is done in prosopographical genre. For the purposes of collective portrait of the Komsomol officials during the second half of the 1960s and the first half of the 1980-ies the personal records of 7 secretaries of the regional Committee, 41 secretaries of the town committees, 122 secretaries of the district committees of the Komsomol of the Tambov region (170 people) from the State Archive of Social-Political History of Tambov region are analyzed and created a database. This article presents the results of its processing.The list of required personal and business qualities of the first secretaries is compiled on the basis of 114 party and komsomol characteristics of heads of region, town and district committees of the Komsomol. The increased uniformity of characteristics, use of a large number of stamps and templates, citation of documents of the central and regional committees of the Komsomol on personnel policy are marked. The presence of well-deserved authority and respect among members, nonunion youth and party activists was leading among the most frequently mentioned qualities of candidates to the post of first secretary.According to the author, the activity of Komsomol organizations in 1965-1984 is characterized primarily by the dominance of command-and-control style of relations between the party and the Komsomol. Describing the body of first secretaries of this period, the author notes a sharp increase in educational level of the Komsomol leaders, the prevalence among them of agriculture experts and technical workers, the increase in the share of immigrants from the urban environment, the increase in the average age of the Komsomol officials. Analysis of the causes rotation allowed us to conclude that a consistently high proportion of the Komsomol leaders continued upward movement on nomenclature the stairs.

Keywords: education, description, gender analysis, first secretary, Komsomol, youth, prosopography, history, age, career

Abstract: The article is devoted to political features of the Russian ruling elite at the end of the 1990th — 2000th when Vladimir Putin was in power. Russian political experts describe it as the period of democracy consolidation. Based on massive biographical materials, the author analyzes the Russian ruling elite and particular groups in office based on their main social features such as: place of birth, age, education and career. In his article Bogatyrev tries to find out how radical the social and political changes have been after Vladimir Putin came to office and what impact these events have had on the process of the renewal of the ruling elite in the Russian Federation. The author of the article also views the policy conducted by the experts with reference to the government machine and military government of the country and defines the role of the new ruling elite, its competence and efficiency in governing the country. The methodological grounds of the research involve politological, juridical, historical and sociological researches that reveal genesis, essence and principles of the development of the new ruling elite of Russia (2000–2012). The research is based on general principles of studying social and political phenomena such as systematic, holistic and contradictory development as well as the unity of the historical and logical, theory and practice. The topicality of the research is caused by the fact that the author has solved the important task related to the further development of the politological concept of the development functioning of elite groups of the Russian society: the author has described the stages of the development of regional ruling elites in Russia and the role of the institution of regional authority. For the first time in the academic literature the author outlines the main functions of regional and centralized ruling elites at the regional and general national levels (representation, defense and lobbying through interests of the regional community, support of bilateral relations, influence or participation in the process of the formation of central authority).

Keywords: political elites, the Russian Federation, government, president, efficiency, development, geopolitics, political instability, state institution, interests.