The theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) is applicable for explaining powerful surges of protest activity on social media. The objects of study were two protest clusters. The first was a set of Facebook groups that promoted the impeachment of the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The second was a set of groups on the social network Vkontakte that provided support for anti-government rallies in Armenia, referred to as Electric Yerevan. Numerous groups in the examined clusters were functioning in SOC mode during certain periods. Those clusters were able to generate information avalanches—seemingly spontaneous, powerful surges of creation, transmission, and reproduction of information. The facts are presented that supported the assumptions that SOC effects in social networks are associated with mass actions on the streets, including violence. The observations of SOC make it possible to reveal certain periods when the course of a sociopolitical system is least stable.

This is another way of stating that there are features at all time scales. Just as Norway has fjords of all sizes, a 1/f signal has bumps of all durations. (pp. 21-22) Because pink noise (as in Figure 1) is a fractal phenomenon, SOC theory integrates many fractal geometry concepts (Frame & Mandelbrot, 2002; Mandelbrot, 1982). Pink noise is characterized by large-scale invariance, combining in a single process all proportions from minor splashes, through mediumsized waves, to grand tsunamis. These elements must be united by numerous connections, including feedback loops. Bak has indicated that such systems are able to generate criticality arbitrarily, as a result of a weak initial influence. A state of criticality implies that any event (even a shortterm or low-energy one) has global implications. Local changes do not fade, but rather initiate diverse cause-effect chains and thus influence the entire system. A multitude of 683216S GOXXX10.

The article presents the General Fractal Model of Transit (GFMT) designed to apply modeling in the sociopolitical disciplines. For the purposes of conducting computer experiments with the model, a "Modernofractal 5.1" program was created. Constructing procedures for algebraic fractals enables to simulate social evolutions in the phase space, mainly their starting and end points. The GFMT formula iteration simulated interaction of a series of abstract governing factors, which may be treated as the most significant for different social systems under the stage of transformation. The GFMT has the potential "tuned," made more specific, for studying various social phenomena. The authors examined the heuristic opportunities of this analysis tool as applied to the fields of historical and political science research (the object of study was rapid modernization of institutions with informal "game rules"). The article contains descriptions of several GFMT computer experiments demonstrating the analysis tools and interpretability of outcome data.

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This paper outlines factors that impacted the change of demographic behavior of the rural population of the Central Black Earth Region from the middle of the 19th century to the late 20th century. Factor scores have been determined when modeling demographic processes in 1,500 rural settlements. The authors rely on a classical view that late traditional society was highly dependent on negative natural events, characterized by low migration and strong ties of birth rates with death rates. It has been shown that extraordinary positive factors (the rise of zemstvo medicine in particular) stimulated unlimited natural growth. Short-term stress factors (wars, hunger and epidemics) led to compensatory reproduction. The authors also come to a conclusion that modernized society (the latter half of the 20th century) had more complicated relations between demographic behavior factors. The evolution of modernized micro-communities (individual settlements) was subjected to a great number of nonlinear effects. The data demonstrate that the agrarian society at the time continued the move to natural growth although to a lesser extent than during the previous stages. However, the results of such an intention were largely neutralized by migration.