V dannoy sbornike statey formatsionnye predposylki raspada SSSR i problemy modernizatsii postsovetskoy Rossii rassmatrivayutsya v svete sovremennoy global'noy perekhodnoy epokhi. V obshchem plane daetsya predstavlenie o ponyatiyakh: epokha, formatsiya, tsivilizatsiya, bol'shoy formatsionnyy tsikl vsemirnoy istorii, malyy formatsionnyy tsikl vsemirnoy istorii, global'naya perekhodnaya epokha, sotsializm. Vyyasnyayutsya osobennosti sovremennoy perekhodnoy epokhi, zaklyuchayushchiesya v perekhode ot formatsionnoy k tsivilizatsionnoy identichnosti. Opredelyayushchaya rol' obshchestvennogo bytiya postepenno zameshchaetsya opredelyayushchey rol'yu obshchestvennogo soznaniya. Otnosheniya sobstvennosti iz bazisnykh transformiruyutsya v zavisimye ot kul'turno-informatsionnykh, pravovykh i vlastnykh otnosheniy. Klassovaya ideologiya ustupaet mesto obshchenatsional'noy ideologii.