The famous first Belarusian book printer Francisk Skorina occupies an outstanding place among East Slavic enlighteners of the Renaissance. The article notes that he was brightly and widely talented. Along with book printing which became his main vocation, he achieved significant success in medicine, botany, astronomy, and painting. He spoke several languages and met with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Luther. Between 1517 and 1519, he printed 23 illustrated books of the Bible in the Belarusians’ native language and “The Small Traveller’s Book” and “The Apostolos” later on. The mutual convergence between religious and transcendental and secular ideals and values is brought to the fore in Skorina’s works. His anthropocentric convictions were based on his confidence that any simple person, a commoner, who is neither wealthy nor noble, can exalt himself spiritually and morally through his own effort. His ethical doctrine urges us to be focused on real socially beneficial activity and service to the people and Fatherland. Skorina’s works organically unite truth, good and justice. All this ought to constitute the life credo of a person, be reinforced by, and reflected in, his good deeds and his striving for civil and social understanding. The leitmotif of Skorina’s multifaceted humanistic work was the understanding of his people as an integral community united by origin, native land, historical destiny, language, culture, Christian traditions, and common state borders and laws.

The article presents a conceptual analysis of the transformations of trust in the context of globalization and informatization, pointing out the pressing problem of formulating new contemporary ethical principles in the context of trust vulnerability risk profiles in modern society. Trust is proposed to be conceptualized as a risk-generating benefit-oriented act which is based on the fact that the intentions of the Other (both personified and impersonal) are non-transparent and that the Other has initial freedom and no control over his actions, and which expresses the acceptance of one’s own vulnerability as a ‘notwithstanding’ action strategy, thus reducing uncertainty and social complexity. The reasons behind the problematization of trust in the contemporary conditions have been analyzed, and the value-related grounds for the crisis of trust have been studied in the context of analyzing modern transformational changes, pointing out that the instability of social order and the uncertainty and risk in the formation of trust-based relations have pressing significance. The specifics of how trust functions in the interrelationship of globalization and glocalization processes have been analyzed. It is noted that glocalization can be construed as a way to restore the local climate of trust, which increases the significance of the cultural context of normativeness in the environment of trust. Glocalization is proposed to be addressed both in the aspect of local advantages, including those arising from the preservation of axiological and normative basis for the ethos of support and sanctioned reliability, and as local vulnerability. The crisis of trust is viewed as a crisis of trust resources contained in the socio-cultural field of normatively established mutual interests, addressing such issues as identity, the dichotomy between the global and local, the rational and irrational, and increasing manipulation capacities of information society. Particular focus is made on analyzing specific features of the transformation of social reality in the context of new capacities the Big Data technologies have and new threats they pose, viewing them from the ontological, epistemological and ethical perspectives. It is shown that, in the conditions of the increasing dexterity of modern information society, a reasonable ratio of trust and distrust is required as a ratio between interdependent strategies of social and individual self-realization.

The article analyzes the phenomenon of cultural code and its form, a political culture code. Two aspects of understanding the cultural code are distinguished: a descriptive aspect and a programmatic aspect. Separate areas are noted in the latter: a normative and axiological area and a symbolic and semiotic one. Based on this differentiation, a structural scheme of the political culture code is proposed to include two components: a descriptive component and a programmatic component. The selected area which this article addresses and which is of high sociocultural interest is normative and axiological analysis of the political culture code, with political values being its core from this perspective. The typology of political values is proposed. It is indicated that, following Samuel Huntington’s concept, the political culture code includes some common civilizational features in a number of aspects. It is noted that a sociological survey can help reveal those political values which are relatively permanent and dominant among the general public. Based on the analysis of data from empirical representative polls, the following specific values are proposed as the ones comprising the political culture code of modern Belarusian society: the value of democracy, the significance of left-wing ideologies (communism, socialism, social democracy), the paternalistic role of the state, low interest in strikes and protests, preference to common political views, Rechtsstaat (‘legal state’), equality before the law.

The article addresses theoretical and methodological aspects of researching the structure of organizational culture and the system of its values. Organizational culture is understood as a system of values, norms, rules and traditions that exist (dominate) in the organization and determine the organizational behaviour of its members and the organizational style. The article explores Edgar Schein’s concept of organizational culture which includes three levels: surface (artifacts), subsurface (espoused values) and deep (assumptions). Values in organizational culture constitute the subsurface level, are a key structural component of organizational culture and largely determine the organizational culture itself. Values in organizational culture include terminal and instrumental values; terminal values, or goal values, are beliefs that a certain ultimate goal of the organization’s existence is worth achieving, while instrumental values, or tool values, are beliefs that a certain mode of action or personal feature is preferable for this organization and its activities. The organization’s mission is the main goal value of the organization. It formulates the strategic long-term goal of the organization’s existence and gives general justification for the organization’s purpose. The interrelationship between fundamental, declared and shared values of organizational culture is presented.

 

The biography of Francisk Skorina, the first Belarusian and East Slavic book printer, is addressed on the basis of documentary sources of the 15th and 16th centuries. The author also explores both blank spots and major periods in the life of the first book printer and enlightener. Hypotheses are considered regarding the dates of his birth and death and the place of his primary education. Documentary information is presented about his family and relatives, his wife and sons. The scientific community is supplied with new information obtained from documentary and archive materials. On their basis, new arguments are presented in favour of Skorina’s obtaining his degree of Doctor of Liberal Arts and solid medical education at Copenhagen University. It is also suggested that he participated in the Danish delegation to the Fifth Council of the Lateran in Rome in the summer of 1512 three months before his doctoral examinations in medicine in Prague. The author also deems it possible to identify Skorina as the one who wrote the anonymous medical essay on how to cure the sweating sickness that was sent by Albert, Duke of Prussia, to the Great Chancellor of the Crown Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. Besides, two new documents in the archives of the Czech Republic are reported as related to the first printer’s son, Simeon.

The article explores ideological foundations of Yanka Kupala’s and Yakub Kolas’s literary work in the early 20th century and how they were influenced by Nasha Niva, a newspaper. The author comes to the conclusion that the main motive of the both writers’ literary work in that period was to show the importance of struggling for Belarusian statehood. Also, the author proposes a hypothesis to explain that the pseudonym of Yanka Kupala used by the poet Ivan Lutsevich derives from the name of the Biblical prophet, John the Baptist: the word “Baptist” is translated into Church Slavonic exactly as “Kupala”. Moreover, according to the Bible, John the Baptist sees his mission in preparing his people for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Similarly, what Yanka Kupala’s literary work sought was exactly for the Belarusians to believe in their unique mission and be prepared to establish their own independent state. The article also explored Yakub Kolas’s poem, The New Land, that points out the problem of land in Belarus in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the context of the struggle for the Belarusian lands between Poland and Russia.

The article is devoted to determining Francisk Skaryna’s role in developing the vocabulary of the Old Belarusian literary and written language. It examines the Bible editions issued by the first Belarusian book printer in Prague for lexical units of the Proto-Slavic, Old Russian, Church Slavonic, West Slavic, and West European origin and determines their impact on the Old Belarusian lexicon. The proper Belarusian word-formation system receives the most detailed account. The main focus is made on the lexical units which can be considered a product of the first Belarusian printer’s word-formation activity.

The article is focused on the cognitive aspect of musical integrity. The basic idea behind the introduction is that the world embodied in music and music as a world are nothing, but a specially arranged musical meaning and the meaning of musical text. The main part of the article explores the composer’s thought development process using works by Belarusian composers, A. Litvinovsky and V. Kuznetsov. It is noted that compositions incorporate diverse cognitive models, musical concepts and meaning-making procedures, because the author, regardless of his style, always acts as the creator of a new musical world, using sound to unveil both the musical meaning and the spiritual substance of man and the life of the Universe. The most important stage in music analysis is to identify its cognitive model as the one containing a certain set of elementary, basic semantic units that perform different functions in the meaning-making process. Their interaction forms a conceptual system in which the leading place belongs to conceptually significant means of musical language and images. Concluding, the author notes that music contains no direct links with particular real-life images and concepts, even though a composition may have a name or program. Therefore, special interdisciplinary knowledge and methodological tools relevant to a product of creation are required to address the specific ratio between the musical and extra-musical as the core of the meaning contained in a composition.

The article addresses the role and importance of the museum in society during the reform of artistic and industrial education and museum sciences in Europe, Russia and the United States in the 1990s–2010s. The most pressing issue is the use of multimedia technologies in the sphere of total design and the place of the designing artist in the process. It is very important to stress that the increasing use of new educational technologies and new instruction programs in the Art and Graphics Department at Vitebsk State Masherov University has given rise to a number of methodological issues that need to be addressed without delay. These are issues of designing museums and exhibitions, and, first and foremost, designing environmental facilities, such as museums and international expositions. The role and importance of the museum in society in Russia and Belarus is actively discussed today by media and academia. Art critics, museum professionals and cultural researchers are writing about it. What are the prospects of the modern museum and how do architects today solve these issues in the context of international practice in the CIS and other foreign countries? An attempt is made to analyze these processes and identify development trends, and show best achievements in the world expo architecture design. The article primarily focuses on museums of technology due to their recent mass development in Western Europe and America.

The article explores the life and work of the classic of Belarusian literature Yanka Kupala (1882–1942) who made a great impact on the history of Belarusian culture of the twentieth century. It addresses collections of his lyrics, such as “Zhaleika” (Hornpipe), “Guslyar” (Gusli Player), “On the Way of Life”, “Heritage” etc. and his poems, plays and journalism. The authors seek to overcome the established ideological clichés and inconsistency which until now hamper the perception and understanding of this great writer’s work.

Yakub Kolas’s work is explored as part of Belarusian literature in the dialogue with European culture. The following aspects are addressed: an integral understanding of links between socially important events, phenomena and facts of the relevant literary process and the resumption of a bilateral dialogue between European and Belarusian literary science.

The term "risk" can be found in the conceptual apparatus of many social sciences. However, there has been no common understanding of the phenomenon denoted by this term so far. The object of this research is the concept and types of financial risk. The research is based on the use of the dialectical and logical methods of scientific knowledge. They made it possible to reach the identified objectives. The author summarizes different scientific views on risk and suggests his own vision of the phenomenon and his position regarding financial risk and its types. Any undesirable change in a subject's status always has a valid reason. It includes a cause of such change and a set of conditions under which the cause emerges and becomes effective. The possibility for all the conditions necessary and sufficient for the emergence and effect of the said cause to occur is called "hazard." And the hazard-based possibility of an undesirable change in a subject's status is denoted by the term "risk." Financial risk is a hazard-based possibility of an undesirable change in a social subject's monetary status. The latter is the object of financial risk, and financial property is its matter. Based on its matter, financial risk is subdivided into four types: currency risk, investment risk, credit risk and debt risk. Derivative financial risk is additionally identified as a complex image of the main financial risk types. The opposite of financial risk is financial chance, i.e. a desirable change in the monetary status of a social subject.

The objective of this article is to describe and demonstrate how an export development strategy promotes a country’s development. It lists the aspects where the Republic of Belarus should focus efforts to strengthen and increase exports. The most significant derived indicators of the export policy, purposes and tasks of the export strategy of the Republic of Belarus and principles for the development of exports in Belarus are described. The article includes basic guidelines regarding the state’s economic policy objectives to be determined by Belarus’ export capacity development strategy. A number of reasons are given to substantiate a crucial role of exports in the economic system of the Republic of Belarus. Building up exports needs systemic economic and financial transformations, including mutual efforts by manufacturers and government authorities in this field; therefore the article specifies prospective areas of activity. Positive and critical issues in the development of the existing export potential have been assessed, and specific export potential elements have been highlighted. Some necessary systemic economic and financial transformations needed for the country’s potential have been identified. Principles are listed that imply the mobilization of internal and external factors and their most efficient use to ensure steady economic growth.