This article describes the results of the pilot stage of qualitative fi eld research on Russian social memory in the second half of the 1980s. The aim of the research was to reveal what is the image of perestroika preserved in today’s social memory of those Russians who remember the events of those years. The main objective of the pilot stage was the identifi cation of the lexicon of terms and the set of concepts used to verbalize the memories of the perestroika period, as well as the caesuras and temporal characteristics related to the memory of this time. The results are outlined in the main topics, terms and concepts that pop up in conversations with respondents.

In the following article the author discussed the form of research and the central effects of a doctor’s project about four smaller party-blocks in the last years of the DDR. The citizens and members of all five party blocks, also SED, demanded between summer 1986 and November 1989 political and economic reforms in the DDR, referring to Gorbatschow’s glasnost’ and perestroika and under the dynamical influence of the social processes in Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania. The parties’ members issued critical statements about social deficits within the socialistic system which were relayed to the party leaders with different intensity. The dissertation shall provide answers concerning assumed impulses for the DDR-reformation from the party-blocks even without the citizens’ initiatives and the political engagement of the churches. T he a rticle d iscussed the developments of CDU(D), LDP(D), NDPD and DBD since 1980ies and described their positioning within the political and economic system of the DDR.

The article addresses poetic monologues in the works of the Belarusian poet Anatoly Sys, one of the founders and creative leader of the legendary literary group “Tutejšyja” (‘Locals’) (1986-1989). The poet turned to poetic monologue at different periods of his work, being especially active in the second half of the 1980s, during Gorbachev’s perestroika and the new wave of Belarusian national revival. Exhibiting outstanding acting abilities, Anatolʹ Sys recited his poetic monologues at parties and illegal rallies, hiding national revival and anti-Communist ideas relevant for his time behind the guise of famous historical figures – Apanas Filipovič, Zmicier Žylunovič, Alesʹ Harun, Karusʹ Kahaniec and others. In addition to their journalistic sharpness, A. Sys’s best poetic monologues are of a high artistic quality with a universal philosophical content, which has allowed them to pass beyond time and become a part of the golden fund of 20th-century Belarusian poetry (Monologue of a “Local”, Monologue of Apanas Filipovič, Monologue of an Unfrocked Priest, Monologue of an Apostate, Monologue of Karusʹ Kahaniec).