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Introduction. The paper conducts the analysis of the attempt of the Cossack revival in Russia in different historical periods of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The attempt of revival is treated as a series of social experiments that involved the government and the Cossacks as a social group. The relevance of the issue is due to the need for complex studying the relations between the government and the Cossacks in the conditions of transformation and systemic modernization in different periods. The revival experiments of different periods had both specific and common characteristics as to their tasks and forms. It is important to study the tasks, participants, forms and methods of the revival experiments in different periods.

Methods and materials. The author uses the historical method, the conception of systemic modernization and transformation, and the conception of social and cultural construction.

Analysis. The paper determines two main periods in the history of the relations between the government and the Cossacks in the 20th – early 21st centuries that can be characterized as "the Cossack revival". The author establishes the reasons of those social experiments as well as the roles of participants, and the forms and ways of Cossacks' integration into the new social and political relations. Results. The article determines that all the attempts of the Cossack revival were undertaken during the systemic modernization. The author determines the main difference between the periods. In the 1920s – 1930s there were transformation of the Cossacks and their adaptation to the new conditions. The late 1980s – early 1990s can be characterized as the period of social and cultural formation of the Cossacks as a social group. Within each period revival development stages that display peculiar features of those experiments can be determined. The mid 1920s was the period of involving Cossacks in the Soviet construction processes. Some Cossack cultural elements were restored and the authorities sought to establish a dialogue with the Cossacks. In the mid 1930s the government actions were rather ostentatious. In both periods the initiator of the processes was the government. In the late 1980s – early 1990s, the initiators of the revival process were Cossacks themselves while the authorities played an important role as a supporter of the revival movement. Within this period the early 2000s can be marked out when the process of the Cossack revival shifted from cultural development to the Cossacks' public service.

The study of socio-political attitudes of the Don Cossacks in the early 1920s is of large importance for understanding the socio-political processes in the south of Russia at that time. After the Soviet power was established in the Don region, relations of mutual distrust formed between the Cossacks and the new power. The Soviet authorities viewed the Cossacks as a potentially counter-revolutionary force, though actual economic collapse and repressions from the state authorities considerably undermined the counter-revolutionary enthusiasm and brought social apathy among the Cossacks. Generally the sociopolitical attitudes of the Don Cossacks in 1920- 1922 can be described as follows. These were sporadic acts of disloyalty provoked primarily by the economic crisis and general social disruption in Cossack villages. By 1923 the situation had gradually changed. The economic growth contributed to a more positive attitude among Cossacks and peasants. The strengthening of the Soviet power, along with the policy of attention to peasants' and Cossacks' needs, made the Cossacks more loyal. They gradually got involved in the process of Soviet construction, took part in organization of the use of land, in elections to Soviet bodies, and so on. The article reveals the Don Cossacks' attitudes in 1920-1924 and determines their causes, characteristics and changes under various factors.

In the early 1990s first Cossack organizations were formed in Russia and the process of Cossack restoration was launched. The role of the government was very important in the organization of the Cossack restoration movement and in forming its bodies. Nevertheless, initially the movement was pushed mostly by aspiration of Cossack descendants, i.e. by primarily social and cultural forces. In the first place those forces searched for a new social identity and the desire to regain the Cossacks' past and, probably, to live it again. The Cossack restoration movement is developing in many regions of Russia. The process is especially rapid in the south of Russia, on the traditional Cossack territories which were part of the Don, Terek, Kuban, and Astrakhan
Cossack Hosts in the early 20th century. New Cossack organizations are formed by people of different professions and social status, Cossack organizations grow fast in number which is indicative of demand for Cossack movement in the Russian society. The principal ideas under the Cossack restoration movement are preservation of the Cossack culture and history, rehabilitation of the Cossacks as a politically persecuted people and its ethnic revival, and presentation of the Cossacks as the most patriotic part of the Russian society. These principal ideas vary in details in different Cossack organizations according to the changed social, territorial, and political conditions. Nevertheless, all the above-mentioned factors collectively led to establishing the Cossacks as a new distinct part of the Russian society and contributed to putting the Cossack restoration movement on a long-term basis in the social and political life in Russia.

Introduction. The paper deals with studying the formation of culture elements during the Cossacks revival process in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. The cultural pattern of a community is always changing. Cultural practices and traditions of the past get integrated into the modern social conditions, while new values and rituals assume the character of traditional ones. The topicality of the subject derives from the fact that the Cossack culture was subject to a dramatic transformation in the 20th century, while many elements of the culture were wiped out. The transmission of the cultural tradition was interrupted. The Cossacks revival in the late 20th century supposed a return to traditional historical forms. However, this task proved difficult because of the break in the transmission of the ethnic culture. The formation of the present-day Cossack cultural system supposed the selection of some elements of culture from the past and their integration into the new conditions as well as the creation of new forms of culture that would contribute to the cultural identification of the Cossacks.

Methods and materials. Historiography has predominantly described the traditional forms of the Cossack culture. The issues of cultural construction were touched upon only occasionally. This paper applies the historical and chronological, historicalgenetic methods as well as the conception of socio-cultural construction.

Analysis. During the Cossacks revival process its participants demonstrated a sharp increase of interest in the traditional forms of culture. The attempts at their integration into the present-day conditions led to the deformation of cultural forms. They lost their authenticity and transformed themselves into secondary forms of culture, thus cultural patterns of the modern Cossacks got changed. At the same time, new cultural traditions and norms were "invented". Their function was to fix Cossacks identity and to show that the Cossacks do exist in the social life of the country. The adaptation of the traditions and historical elements of the Cossack socio-cultural system had its peculiarities. The traditions and elements were taken from different epochs and formed an arbitrary composition of different cultural phenomena. Traditions played an important role in the Cossacks revival process because they acted as cultural identification markers for the Cossack community. For that reason even new cultural practices were given the appearance of traditions.

Results. In the late 20th – early 21st centuries the restoration of the Cossack culture was actually its construction. A number of trends can be traced in the process. They developed concurrently and contributed to the creation of new cultural milieu.

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the need for an objective study of events related to the history of the civil war. The study of archival sources by the Tsaritsyn (since 1925 – Stalingrad) Commission for the collection and processing of materials on the history of the October Revolution and the Civil War (histparty) will expand the documentary base for researchers on this topic. The purpose of the article is to conduct a source and archeographic study of the memoirs of one of the prominent figures of the Civil War. The author's tasks were to identify the memories of A.K. Vydrin in the Stalingrad Histparty Fund, study the biography of their author, and analyze the preserved memories as a historical source on the history of Tsaritsyn 1918–1920. Methods and materials. The article is based on archival documents and materials from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and the State Archive of the Volgograd region. The study of archival documents was based on the principles of source studies and critical analysis of historical sources. In the 1920s and 1930s, the memoirs of eyewitnesses to the events were published, including those of participants in the fighting on the Tsaritsyn front (V. Alekseev, S. Minin, etc.). However, most of the memories have not yet been introduced into scientific circulation. Analysis. When analyzing the memories, the author's personality is characterized, and a textual and factual study of the text is carried out. Results. The result of the study is a biography of a participant in the civil war and the historical value of memories as a source on the history of Tsaritsyn at the beginning of the twentieth century. Authors' contribution. O.V. Rvacheva analyzed the activities of the Histparty Commission, described the tasks of forming narrative sources, characterized the memoirs as a specific source base, and revealed information that reveals the historical value of A.K. Vydrin's memoirs (historical events, personalities that complement the historical picture of revolutionary events and the civil war in Tsaritsyn). I.S. Petrova performed an archeographic description and analysis of A.K. Vydrin's memoirs, assessed the significance of the memoirs for studying the revolution and the civil war in Tsaritsyn, and prepared the text of the source for publication.