It is my pleasure and honor to introduce this new journal issue that features and celebrates two of my favorite educators – the late Oleg Gazman (1936-1996) and Sergey Polyakov (born in 1946). Both have had a serious effect on my own research and career, and inspired a number of others. Oleg Gazman was an exceptionally bright and innovative researcher, and at the same time, a very friendly and humble person. Sergey Polyakov is still very active, writing books, working as a university professor, organizing projects, and supervising doctorate students. There are two papers about them included in this issue. I am also using this opportunity to send my greetings and congratulations to Sergey whose 70th birthday is coming soon, and who has been a very supportive and loyal reader and author of our journal. The editorial board wishes Sergey a lot of success and good luck in every new beginning! In the ‘special topic’ section we present six papers, which while not closely connected with one another, display a mosaic of different research approaches and themes in the Russian theory of education today. Most of the authors are renowned for their expertise, and we are grateful that they have chosen our journal for their current publications. Each of the authors expresses his/her own opinions, which the editor and the editorial board do not necessarily share, but we publish these articles to initiate a discussion and invite you, our readers, to express your thoughts in this regard. Your feedback makes it much more interactive and stimulating.