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The article is devoted to the activities of national divisions in the power structures of the Tersk province, which was transformed into a district that was part of the North-Caucasus Region in 1924. The administrative center of the Tersk province (district) was the city of Pyatigorsk. The article examines the system of power in this region of the North Caucasus and the place occupied in it by national units that resolved issues on the problems of national minorities: national party sections, councils of national minorities under the departments of public education, commissioners for national minorities, and others.During the years of the new economic policy, the Soviet government was forced to use, without officially recognizing, the idea of cultural and national autonomy, which the ideologists of Bolshevism considered incompatible with the idea of «proletarian internationalism». The most important element of this extraterritorial autonomy was the system of representation of national minorities in government bodies. National structures were called upon to take into account the cultural and everyday characteristics of representatives of dispersed ethnic groups living in the region, to assist the authorities in carrying out measures to involve them in Soviet, cultural and economic construction.The most active on the Terek were district and province Armenian sections. They worked among the 25,000 Armenian population of the district, which was second only to Russians and Ukrainians in number. The reasons for the creation, forms and methods of work of national sections, the reasons for their liquidation are analyzed. At that time, the Armenian sects were assigned the tasks to neutralize religious organizations and national parties that operated in the pre-Soviet period, to reorient the Armenian population from «bourgeois organizations» towards the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government. It is analyzed how the abolition of the Tersk District and the liquidation of national sections coincided in an amazing way, not only in the Terek and the North Caucasus, but also throughout the country.

The article is devoted to features of functioning of VChK in the south of Russia after the end of the Civil war.

The study features practices of constructing the image of a new man by Soviet mass weekly Ogoniok in the 1920s. Modern researchers nominate the period of the 1920s as the beginning of Soviet modernization, aimed at a radical transformation of the cultural, social, economic and institutional space of society. The Soviet leadership was developing new ideology, constructed a new model of interpersonal relations and disseminated new moral values via periodicals. Ogoniok was one of the first weekly magazines which developed various ways of representating the image of a Soviet man in the print media, which conformed to the bolshevic doctrine. One of these forms of presentation was the quiz game "The Hero of Our Time", a series featured in issues 2-15 in of 1929. The article analyzes twelve game series - quizzes, which made it possible to consider the process of formation and reflection of the image of a "new man" in Ogoniok. A series of quiz games was presented in the magazine in various visual and textual forms. "The Hero of our Time" quiz was aimed at formation of new character- istic features of the Soviet man and dissemination of a new representation of moral values such as social optimism, industriousness, patriotism, international socialist solidarity and atheism. They were necessary for the creation of a new society on a new value-semantic, economic, political and spiritual basis. Those values were the core of the Soviet man's mindset, Soviet ideology and a new social system. They conformed to the political strategy of the Soviet power at that time. Propaganda instilled a psychologically positive attitude towards the reforms that took place, promoted moral encouragement of the working people for hard work and exemplary life, created the basis for the introduction of Soviet value orientations and a new culture. All these aspects created the conditions for the formation of the Soviet identity.

The article shows what problems interested humanities scholars and publicists in the prewar period of the Soviet history and how these problems were covered from new methodological positions. The works created at that time by historians of the old school are examined, it is emphasized that even in articles written by authors who have not mastered Marxist theory, much attention is paid to the problems of the life of the masses, the manifestations of the class struggle, and public relations in Stavropol villages. The activity of local history societies and organizations is highlighted. Researchers paid much attention to the problems of the agrarian history of Stavropol, works of this time, as a rule, affect both the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods, since most of them give comparative material. In the 1920s, when the ways of agricultural development were not yet determined, the practical needs of the agricultural sector caused increased attention to the issues of developing cooperation, forms of land ownership and land use in the past. The restructuring of the economy in a socialist manner in the late 1920s and early 1930s is reflected in the journalistic articles of party and Soviet leaders. In the period under review, the history of the revolutionary movement and the struggle for power of the Soviets became the most relevant topics for research. The article discusses the activities of Eastparts - commissions on the history of the revolutionary movement and civil war. It is shown that these organizations, including the Stavropol Istpart, have done a lot to collect and publish materials on this topic. The analysis of journal publications is given, the errors made by the authors are revealed. The widespread publication of the memoirs of participants in revolutionary events, characteristic of the 1920s, was not accompanied by a critical check, therefore, over articles containing incorrect information or a controversial assessment of events, discussions arose in which both historians and participants in the events took part. The characteristic is given to generalizing works on the history of the October Revolution and the Civil war in the Stavropol Territory.

The paper based on materials of mass Soviet weekly Ogoniok of the 1920s features forms and methods of atheistic propaganda that was an integral part of mechanism aimed at creating a new socio-cultural identity in the Soviet society as well as one of the important practices of the Soviet power. Religious moral values of "the old society" were being replaced by Bolshevik ideology focused on collectivism and internationalism. The fight against religion was a form of the fight for "a new lifestyle", proliferation of new social practices and replacement of religious rites by civil ones. The magazine publications exposed the church as an outdated social institution that did not correspond with ongoing processes of modernization. The image of the church constructed by the press was directly related to political purposes of the Soviet power in that historic period. The author comes to the conclusion that the power used the press to introduce new values and ideas into public consciousness. In the 1920s the image of the church in publications was controversial. It ranged from allegations that the church was opposite to progress and science (in the early 1920s) to scathing invectives exposing clergymen as the enemies of the Soviet state (in the late 1920s).

The article analyses the images of the soviet everyday life in 1920-s by the example of the photo reports in the «Ogonek» magazine. The development of the new social structure and new identity of the people were reflected in new everyday practices such as anti-religious propaganda, introduction of new festivals and celebrations as well as new types of everyday life. Through the press channels the government introduced to the readers' minds new ideals and positive images of current changes. Photo reports in the «Ogonek» magazine created a positive image of reality. They reflected the ideas of the authorities about what the reality should be like. The changes that were undergoing in 1920-s were not widespread by that time. However, the press presented them as mass phenomena which took place nationwide.

The article studies the activities of Stavropol Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The focus is on their efforts to cooperate with the new state authorities. The article outlines the conditions for establishing Soviet power in the Stavropol region led by Bolsheviks.