The article deals with the issue of studying and preserving the cultural legacy. In the course of the analysis of the achievements and losses of the regional cultural legacy of Tsaritsyn - Stalingrad - Volgograd in the first decades of Soviet power, as well as the damage caused to the Stalingrad region during the Second World War, the attention is focused on the civil responsibility of the government, society and individuals for the preservation of historical and cultural monuments as a sign of historical memory, which is the basis of the cultural code of the nation.

There is covered the issue of the complex investigation and preservation of the regions’ natural and cultural variety as a part of the world culture heritage by the example of the Svetloyarsky district of the Volgograd region known for its natural landscape and cultural variety.

There is described the evolution of philosophic views on time. There are revealed such modern categories as social and ethnic time, which in the methodological aspect can be productive in studying the parameters of the historical, social and cultural development of society.