"As stipulated by the “Federalism: a Multidimensional Model of Research” scientific-publishing program, a report - the first of a series - is published here within the “Federalism and the Public Sphere in Russia and Canada” project being realized by the political science department of the Carleton University (for the Canadian part) and the Gorbachev Foundation (for the Russian part). The 1st part of the report contains comprehensive definitions of the notions of “federalism” and “public sphere”