Today, the problems of solving demographic issues in the literature are given quite a lot of attention. The demographic problem today is complex and ambiguous, which can be seen in the example of the Republic of Belarus. When writing the article, the methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, comparison, and grouping were used. The study is based on the conceptual provisions, ideas, and results of the analysis of the demographic problem in the world, and on the example of the Republic of Belarus, in particular. The object of the study is demographic problems in the Republic of Belarus. In Belarus, the demographic situation is assessed as a serious threat to the sustainable development and national security of the country and is put at the center of its social policy. The main goal of the demographic policy of the republic, both at the national and regional levels, is to create conditions that ensure an increase in the population and an improvement in its age structure. Demographic security can contribute to the creation of the best conditions for Belarusian society – it is an integral part of national security, which determines the state of protection of the socio-economic development of the state and society from demographic threats To achieve an improvement in the demographic situation in the Republic of Belarus, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: strengthening the status of the family, which implies the adoption of a number of measures to stimulate the birth rate; reducing the death rate; creating a mechanism for migration replacement of natural population decline in certain regions, etc.

The Lovelace Test is one of the most famous alternatives to the Turing Test. It suggests to use the concept of creativity as a way to estimate the ability of artificial intelligence to think in the same sense as a human being. It is demonstrated in the article that the concept of creativity is too ambiguous to be used as a criteria of anything. It is shown that both versions of the Lovelace Test are inherently behaviorist and therefore cannot prove the ability of a machine to think.

The article is devoted to the problem of forming a conceptual-categorical apparatus in the field of social topography and reveals the dynamics of problematization of the category “social space” in sociology. The logic of the movement of the research focus in the spatial concepts created by G. Simmel, P. Sorokin and P. Bourdieu are explicated. The ratio of the material and non-material sides of space is analyzed, and the question of the relationship between social structure and spatial forms is considered. With the assistance of R. Carnap and H. Lefebvre’s theoretical schemes are represented two opposite views of meaning of “social” in the spatial study. The dividing of concepts of physical, geometrical and social space is submitted. The ontological and epistemological aspects of the explored phenomenon are explicated. The two approaches to social space definition are outlined. The first of them supposes a focus on social interaction and co-presence social actors, the second one supposes social practice in the broadest sense. The author’s definition is designed.

The article explores such a poorly studied problem in Belarusian historical science as the development of vocational training for rural youth in the territory of the Polesskie Voivodeship in the 1920s and 1930s. It is emphasized that this activity was an important area of the youth policy of the authorities in the territory of the Polessky Voivodeship. It is noted that the main form of implementing this direction was the holding of a competitive campaign for Agricultural Training, which covered, including Western Belarus. The main tasks, steps and methods of agricultural competitions are characterized. The participation of pro-government youth organizations, the Union of Rural Youth and the Strelets Union in the competition, as well as the financial support of the action by the voivode authorities and local governments are shown. Conclusions are drawn that by the end of the 1930s. on the territory of the Polesie Voivodeship, certain successes were achieved in the field of agricultural preparation, and in general this action deserved a positive assessment from the central leadership. However, due to the difficult socio-economic situation in the region, the competition did not become widespread and could not fundamentally change the situation in the field of vocational training for rural youth of the Polessky Voivodeship. When writing the article, a wide range of documentary materials was used.

The article shows the conditions, factors and features of the organization of the Institute of Philosophy and Law in the structure of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR. The features of the implementation of projects for the creation of the philosophy sector are disclosed. The reasons for the accelerated creation of the Institute in 1947 are identified, its structure, personnel and main areas of activity are presented. The obstacles to the creation of a research institution and the organization of its effective work are considered.

The article is devoted to the iconographic and semantic analysis of the Roman Catholic medal, which was revealed during the archaeological study of the Glybov burial mound in 1958. The medal has an oval shape and is made of a copper alloy using the casting technique. The obverse of the medal depicts the instruments of the passions of Jesus Christ, and the reverse depicts a relief image of St. Catherine of Genoa. The instruments of passion are an important and integral attribute of the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, which are described in detail in the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), numerous apocryphal texts, reflected in the works of medal painting and decorative and applied art. The instruments of passions symbolize the events that took place in Jerusalem in the last hours of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, as well as after death, which brought him physical and spiritual suffering. The total number of symbol elements depicted on the front side of the medal is 27. On the back of the medal there is a relief image of St. Catherine of Genoa. St. Catherine was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Pope Clement XII in 1737. An analysis of the iconographic and semantic features made it possible to date the medal to the 18th century, and the most likely place of its manufacture is Italy.

In the process of intercultural communication, due to cultural national differences, experts make many mistakes when translating proverbs and generally idioms. Including there are significant cultural differences between China and Russia, China and Belarus, where they use Russian. With literal translation of proverbs and idioms, readers find it difficult to understand the artistic concept. Therefore, this article discusses in detail the cultural differences between China and the Russian language space (Russia and Belarus) within four aspects: regional characteristics, religious beliefs, customs and traditions, cultural and historical values, as well as difficulties in translating phraseological units and suggested translation strategies taking into account the Chinese-Russian cultural differences.

The article discusses theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of “ethnic identity” as a key tool of scientific analysis in cultural anthropology and ethnology. The primordialist, instrumentalist and constructivist theories of ethnicity, which in different ways determine the role of the objective and subjective characteristics of its expression, are characterized. Primordialist view on ethnos as organic ethnic unit is based on “primordial” cultural differences (“givens”). Constructivists and instrumentalists have mainly focused on the social organization of ethnic differences and distinctions based on situational processes of inclusion and exclusion. From the standpoint of constructivism, ethnic identity is viewed as a symbolic construct – socially invented, discursively constructed and culturally marked. In the study of ethnic identity, an important role is played by the revealing of the specific distinctive features that separate one ethnic group or category from another. For this, it is necessary to use comparative ethnographic methods aimed at identifying “ethnic boundaries” and “ethnic markers”.

The article presents rare fact of folk tradition recorded by Belarusian scientists in the Rechitsa region during the Minsk-Gomel ethnographic expedition in 1956. A comparative historical study allows us to put forward a hypothesis about the existence of a unique Christmas rite at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries on the territory of the Belarusian and Ukrainian Polesie. The ceremony is based on a modification of the folk drama “Tsar Maximilians”. There is a reflex of this phenomenon in the ritual known today “Tsars” in the village of Semezhevo, Kopylsky district. The reduced non-stationary form of folk drama penetrated into folklore in the second half of the 19th century. This was facilitated by the cultural interaction of the indigenous population with representatives of the social and professional group of the military. It was among the Russian army that shows of folk drama were developed. The problem of rethinking a number of provisions and simplified assessments accepted in the Belarusian folklore studies is posed.

The article analyzes the hospitality customs of the landed nobility of Belarus in the late XVIII − early XX centuries. The rational reasons for the perception of this tradition in the public opinion of the privileged class of Belarus of the considered period as an unconditional value are determined. A description of the main elements of the gift-giving customs; the basic rules and norms are given. The mechanisms of its functioning in relation to different social groups are shown. The structure of the guest reception ritual is analyzed. Much attention is paid to the phenomenon of table manners in the article. The importance of the hospitality customs and, in particular, the festive ritual in the presentation of the social status of representatives of the privileged class and the identification of intragroup differentiation is noted. It is noted that at the same time it was a tool for the socio-political mobilization of the privileged class and a way to preserve class solidarity.

The symbolic and metaphorical fullness of the image of the road in the poem of Y. Kolas “New Land” in comparison with the works of N. Gogol and T. Shevchenko is revealed in the article. It is emphasized that in the artistic and philosophical understanding of the authors, the road is presented as a way of heroes’ existence, overcoming life obstacles, as well as a universal symbol of the endless movement of spirit, thought, comprehension of existential values. Comparative analysis made it possible to expand the range of semantic meanings of the image as an embodiment of the search for spiritual, national and historical self-identification of a person, people, country.

Basing on the material of the “Diary” Samuel Maskievič, the article deals with the modes of presentation of the emotion as an essential sign of the author’s subjectivity in Belarusian literature of the first part of the 17th century. Emotionality is considering as the marker of an art and aesthetic level of the work. Specific textual manifestation of the emotionality in its explicit and implicit forms has been demonstrated, as well as its role in exposing of psychological situations, in coloured descriptions of exotic customs, and in its estimation by the author, too. The specific features of the author and of his work in Belarusian memoir literature of the period are defined.

This article discusses the main trends, achievements and problems of forming and implementing the administrative and delict policy of the Republic of Belarus as a strategy of governing the state to ensure law and order, combating administrative offenses in various spheres of public relations. The modern tasks of the state predetermine the transformation and new trends in the development of administrative and delict policy of the state. The most striking manifestation of these changes is the reform of the law on administrative offences. The main innovations of the law on administrative offences, provided for as a result of its reform, are presented. In order to improve the efficiency of the formation and implementation of administrative and delicate policies, the need for legal forecasting tools for the consequences of new prohibitions and measures of administrative and legal coercion is justified. A system of indicators has been developed to conduct a full cycle of assessment of the regulatory impact of administrative law. The expansion of the subjects and facilities for assessing the regulatory impact of regulations in the application of administrative and legal coercion measures is justified.

Fundamental theory of rent is a methodological framework of a research of innovative social and environmental transformation of forest sector of Belarus. The purpose of the work was to highlight an importance of patterns of rent-based economies and the need for them to be accommodated in the economic relations of the forest sector, as well as to identify the operational applications of complex and differentiated knowledge of rents in an aspect of active and passive (monitoring, associative) behavioral patterns. Analysis of the institutional organization of production is presented; the features and directions of development of rental relations are considered. Components of the structural and logical model of single institutional socio-ecosystem space that are embedded in the rental relations of society; are justified by the forestry practice. The role of impact investment and a “feedback” loop of the forestry sector as an institutional platform for sustainable development is outlined. The content of the innovative-socio-ecological transformation of the forestry sector in Belarus characterized by posing questions on property creation covered by stable and manageable value of rent, requiring the linking of various interests and management decisions with the rental format of economic relations as a mechanism for the transition to sustainable development through resources and property, is revealed.