The article deals with the issue of intercultural communications (ICC) as an academic discipline. The authors stress its significance in the current economical, political, social and cultural contexts. The research is focused on the content-related and sociocultural aspects of ICC. The methods of this research are comparative analysis method used for comparing some didactical approaches to teaching intercultural communications as well as problem-oriented analysis for developing pedagogical activities in the frame of this discipline. As stated, content of ICC is influenced by a certain training program - philological, economical, engineering-technical etc. However, content of the academic course is needed to be related with the external sociocultural context, actual demands of society and government for validating ICC as a substantive much-needed discipline.

The paper deals with myth-images of Spanish painters Diego Velazquez and Pablo Picasso in texts by P.G. Antokolsky with regard to relation of these images with the Spanish myth of Russian culture as well as with the tradition of representing the Spanish paintings personosphere in Russian literature. Ambivalence of author’s interpreting the images of painters characterized with some elements of the ‘black legend’ is stated. Relation between the images of the Spanish painters and the motif of immortal arts is determined. The myth-image of Picasso that is highly significant for Antokolsky is also marked with the motif of creator-groundbreaker being a personalization of the XX century.