Vol 10, No 1 (2018)

The information approach allows us to distinguish two principal stages in the history of mankind, the stage of oral culture, covering the entire non-written period of history, and the stage of written culture. The latter, in turn, can be divided into three periods: 1. the period of manuscript culture (from the emergence of writing to the invention of printing press); 2) the period of print culture (from the invention of printing press until the advent of the computer); 3) the period of electronic / digital / information culture, which began in the second half of the 20th century and was marked by the revolutionary changes in computer and electronic technologies and the invention of the Internet. The period of the manuscript culture is characterized by the handwritten history records or annales (annalistic tradition); handwritten texts is a subject of the source study of history. The print culture is associated with the formation of the historical science in proper sense; the works of historians are the subject of historiography. Finally, electronic / digital / information culture is correlated with an emerging academic discipline known as the “digital history”.

The article is devoted to the problem of gender vote in the Weimar republic: what were political preferences of the German women of that period, who only had acquired the right to vote under the new constitution. Actuality of such research is caused by the opposite points of view among researchers in a question whow women voted for the main parties of the republic, and also in connection with the forthcoming of 100-year anniversary of formation of the Weimar state. In spite of the fact that the German statistics was one of the best in the world during the considered period, in available data there is a set of gaps that creates a problem of their interpretation and the general conclusions. The author comes to conclusions, 1) that on two Reichstag’s elections in 1924, parliamentary elections of 1928 and 1930 male and female votes for SDPG, NSDAP and GPP were divided approximately equally; 2) the biggest share of female votes was received by Zentrum party, and as concerns GNPP and the share of female voices prevailing over male voices it is possible to speak about that only before elections of 1924 inclusive, but not after; 3) throughout all history of the Weimar republic the Communist Party of Germany had a prevalence of votes of men over female votes.

The article considers the period of informal contacts between the PRC and the FRG before the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972. There was very little direct contact between the parties in the 1950s. Diplomatic contacts between representatives of the two countries intensified in the 1960s due to the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations and the increasing interest of West German business circles to develop trade ties with the PRC. In the author's opinion, conducted by the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt from 1969 a new foreign policy course, as well as famous visit of President Nixon to China had a great impact on the convergence of China and Germany in the late 1960s - early 1970s. These resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and the FRG in October 1972.

In the end of the XX century, the world faced global geopolitical changes. Due to the Soviet Union dissolve, new actors appear on the international arena. At the same time, the US positions strengthening as well as the country becomes the most influential country of the globe. Along with the modern diplomacy development, the relations between Russia and China were also given an impetus. Being important actors on the international arena at the beginning of the century, Russia and China also played an important role in the new international relations system development, especially in the Middle East region that is greatly demonstrated through the joint work in the frameworks of United Nations. In particular, the author analyses the participation of Russian and Chinese diplomacy in the conflict resolution process in Iraq and Libya. Despite the active diplomatic collaboration of Russia and China on the conflicts in Iraq and Libya though the peaceful means did achieve results, however it was late and thus could not prevent the war.

The article analyses the institutional base of the Chinese policy towards Africa: its establishing and managing process during the period from 60s to 90s of 20 century. The article contains a review of the main formal and informal organizations, engaged in developing the Chinese policy towards Africa and its realization. The article also provides for some statistics on the process of establishing the institutional base of the Chinese policy towards Africa, detail information on the aims of the organizations on different levels. Based on that data the conclusion is made, describing the coherence between this institutional organization and the needs of the Chinese strategy towards Africa.

The article is devoted to the study of the early connections of the Manchu rulers with the highest leadership of Tibetan Buddhism. Probably, the countdown should be conducted from the 1620s, when the Manchus intensified their interaction with the Mongolian peoples (Chakhars), where the Tibetan lamas already had strong positions. Further development of Buddhism among the Manchus happened due to the important political events: the coming of the Dalai Lama to power in Tibet in 1642, and the seizure of Beijing by a new Qing dynasty in 1644. For the new rulers of China, lamas had been of the fundamental importance, because, thanks to their support, the Manchus have had the right to claim succession of the government (the “mandate of Heaven”) from the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and at the same time, they were able to “appease” the Mongols. Apparently, after a visit to Beijing by the Dalai Lama in 1652, a new phase of the relationship between emperors and lamas began, which brought the Qing China to clashes with the Dzhungar Oirats.