Introduction. The article deals with activities of Italian merchants in Mongol Persia (mid-thirteenth to late fourteenth centuries). The work analyzes economic, diplomatic and social impacts of Italians in trade networks of the Ilkhanate, as well as some factors that facilitated the integration of European merchants into the Mongol economic model. Particular attention is paid to financial issues, the interaction of Italian merchants with local elites and Mongol authorities, reasons behind the decline of their presence in the region. Goals. The study examines notarial documents and trade contracts for certain interconnections between trade endeavors and political changes in the Ilkhanate to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Italian commercial activities. As is shown herein, Italian merchants played not only commercial roles but also contributed significantly to diplomatic processes via facilitating negotiations between Mongol rulers and European powers. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on notarial documents relating to transactions and debt obligations, commercial contracts, wills of Italian merchants, diplomatic correspondence between European monarchs and rulers of the Ilkhanate, chronicles by Western and Eastern authors. The research involves both published and archival materials, the latter to have required special efforts of attribution and analysis. The employed interdisciplinary approach comprising historical, economic, and social analysis tools makes it possible to identify key aspects of Italian trade strategies in Persia. The work highlights some mechanisms of adaptation to the Mongol administrative system, including partnerships with local elites and participations in institutionalized forms of trade. Results. A most essential achievement is that the paper clarifies the factors behind the decline of Italian influence, such as shifts in the Ilkhanate’s religious policy and modifications of trade routes. It is emphasized that the experiences of Italian merchants in Persia illustrate how — in a context of dynamic political and economic changes — they were able not only to sustain but also to successfully leverage opportunities for cultural and regional exchange. Conclusions. The investigated activities of Italian merchants did leave a significant mark on the history of medieval trade, and demonstrate that personal initiatives, adaptation to new conditions, and a skillful combination of commercial and diplomatic interests could serve as powerful drivers of historical transformations.

Introduction. The article examines the Tibetan question in British foreign policy between 1858 and 1904. In Russian historiography, the issue was never comprehensively approached in the context of parliamentary debates over expansion methods and funding sources in Tibet. Britain’s colonial policy was aimed at expanding its trade with Tibet, providing access to oil fields, and displacing China, Nepal, and Russia. The identified points keep motivating historians to seek for the beginnings of centuries-old contradictions between the nations that have shaped somewhat foreign policy continuities. Goals. The study attempts an analysis into the Tibetan question as part of the British international agenda in the context of expansion techniques and funding aspects. To facilitate this, the paper shall consider the then positions of parliament members and government officials who ― despite the growing international resistance ― tended to use colonial ideologies and methods for a break in the isolation of Tibet. Materials and methods. The work employs the historical genetic and comparative methods to focus on publications of parliamentary debates and British laws, documents of personal origin, periodicals and international treaties. Results and conclusions. The era of Queen Victoria witnessed the shaping of a new course in British foreign policy that would lead to further development of trade with Tibet, displacement of China, Nepal and Russia from the region. The military intelligence activities in Tibet, cynically referred to in Parliament as ‘the Mission’, proved a continuation of Victorian policy in India, Nepal and China. The Mission’s methods included military operations, intelligence duties, the deployment of Britain’s permanent representative, and penetrations into territories adjacent to India, Nepal, and China. The military and scientific expansion was funded by the Parliament following the Victorian Act 1858 ― from revenues collected through India’s colonization. The colonial forces were compiled from Gurkhas, Pathans, Indian surveyors, British surgeons, cartographers and intelligence officers. Minimal costs, violation of Tibet’s isolation, and military actions were justified in the Parliament as a mission supposed to protect the national interests of both India and Great Britain.

Introduction. Neither foreign investments (Western powers made the latter in a variety of economies without any such effect) nor Beijing’s economic course at large (neighboring Japan and Republic of Korea have experienced comparable economic development rates but tended to remain inert enough on the world stage) could explain the growth of China’s international influence anyway rooted in its rapid and comprehensive development over the last thirty years. The lack of understanding gives rise to wariness and anxiety in the West, and the standard ‘explanation’ is that the PRC be striving for world hegemony based on Marxist ideology. Goals. The study seeks to substantiate the conceptualization of Chinese foreign policy as a function in implementing the Marxist research method for international relations addressed by Chinese theorists and practitioners as core scientific approach. Materials and methods. The work investigates foreign policy concepts of the PRC articulated since the late 1990s, sections of official documents and speeches by China’s top officials dealing with foreign policy, and relevant writings of Russian and foreign political scientists and sinologists. The study rests on retrospective, comparative and systemic historical approaches, as well as discourse analysis, which make it possible to examine the formation and development of the conceptualization of foreign policy in connection with domestic political and economic factors. Results. The paper features the PRC’s transition to the conceptualization of foreign policy rooted in a scientific approach centered around the Marxist method and employed by Chinese theorists and the top leadership. Although the West considers Marxism a mere ideology, it is as important to understand Chinese attitudes towards the latter, including the implicit ones, especially since the results achieved and plans for the future ― particularly in international relations ― are quite understandable from these very positions. In this regard, the article presents some theoretical aspects of Chinese ‘state capitalism’ and ‘Sinicization of Marxism’, given that the both can be called specifically ‘Chinese’ only in the sense of their actual implementation in China. Conclusions. The study attests to the modern Chinese leadership tends to employ a systematic scientific approach to foreign policy activities which results in formalized global concepts proclaiming ― mutually beneficial development of all countries of the world. Their ultimate goal is to ensure the safe development of the PRC which is believed by Chinese communists to have somewhat systemic advantages when compared to other nations. Instead of ideological ‘export of revolution’, socialist China is attempting to scientifically substantiate the prospects of its systemic victory in competition with capitalism through the development of production forces under the control of more advanced ― according to Marxist methodology ― production relations.

Introduction. The history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Russia is marked by the phenomenon of Bashkir embassies to the Tsar. Enthronements, consequences of uprisings were to be confirmed with corresponding government agreements. And in the nineteenth century, Bashkirs would become honored guests at coronations. Goals. The study aims to reveal how Bashkir-Tsar relations shifted from consensus to ritual throughout the seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries, how the deputations represented ethnic elites and the community at large, what changed their essentials and functions. Materials and methods. The work analyzes some related documents discovered at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, National Archive of Bashkortostan, and reviews a variety of publications. The historical-genetic method proves most instrumental in considering the reasons for the emergence of Bashkir embassies to the Tsar, their transformation from discussing governance issues to demonstrating imperial unity. Results. The right of direct access to Tsar was a stipulation of the mid-sixteenth century Bashkir contractual subjection. However, the privilege was not directly associated with the voluntary accession since other ethnic groups had somewhat similar experiences. The Russian government concluded an agreement with the Bashkir as a semi-nomadic people that had no institutional elites authorized to make decisions for the entire community. This demanded repeated reviews of once achieved agreements with representatives of Bashkir clans through embassies to the Tsar. The strengthening of Russia’s military and administrative presence in Bashkir-inhabited territories made such coordination arrangements unnecessary. The 1740s construction of Orenburg Defense Line resulted in that Bashkir embassies to the court lost their original function only to turn into ritual visits of loyalty to be paid by newly appointed Bashkir executives. The canton system created elites of canton chiefs and Bashkir nobles directly subordinate to Orenburg Military Command. And the nineteenth-century integration processes filled the old form with a new content: henceforth Bashkir participants of coronation ceremonies were to demonstrate the Empire’s power and the unity of peoples under the Russian Tsar. Conclusions. According to the accession terms, Bashkirs — along with hereditary land ownership, freedom of religion, and local self-governance — received the privilege of direct appeal to the monarch. This was exercised in the form of Bashkir embassies throughout the seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries. The early-to-mid eighteenth century crisis between the Bashkir and Russian government was overcome by involving the former in border defense and changing communication patterns. Canton officials and Bashkir elites in Russian service were supposed to show the triumph of the Empire at coronations.

Introduction. The article examines how the Kalmyk law-court of Zargo would hear criminal proceedings in the mid-nineteenth century. The works dealing with the administration of justice among the Kalmyk are few enough, and primarily come from the pre-revolutionary and Soviet eras. As for the modern period, the study of judicial structures and legal procedures in Kalmyk society should be considered from civilizational-cultural and sociological perspectives. Goals. The work attempts a comprehensive description of the Zargo’s criminal hearings and procedures in the mid-nineteenth century. Materials and methods. The paper presents and analyzes some related materials from the National Archives of Kalmykia. The key methodological principles employed are objectivity, historicism, and comprehensiveness. In general, the study rests on the civilizational-cultural approach and essentials of sociological positivism. Results. Our investigation succeeds in characterizing activities and procedures of the mid-nineteenth century Zargo. The archival insights make it possible to conclude how they would conduct investigations in Kalmyk uluses, collect evidence, and arrange legal proceedings at large. The All-Kalmyk Zargo was a higher authority in relation to ulus-level Zargo law-courts and could review the latter’s decisions and sentences. Criminal cases involving ethnic Kalmyk defendants fell under the jurisdiction of the Zargo. If a criminal case involved Cossacks, urban commoners or peasants, as well as Kalmyk Christians, the Zargo would hear it and issue a sentence only in relation to Kalmyks proper, while decisions for representatives of other classes were to be made by due authorities according to jurisdiction. Despite criminal cases were considered in accordance with Russian criminal legislation, the Kalmyk civilizational and cultural features did have significant influence on legal procedures.

Introduction. The article examines the migration system that has taken shape between Russia and Central Asian states at the turn of the twenty first century. Russian society traditionally associates labor migration with interactions between former Soviet populations. However, recent times have witnessed somewhat a securitization of migration. A possible increase in negative attitudes may lead to ignoring the significance of migration as a needed resource instrumental in maintaining Russia’s geopolitical influence across the region and boosting its socioeconomic development. Goals. The article attempts to determine a migration research model that would closest reflect actual (and supposed) changes in the Russia–Central Asia migration system — for efficient regulation of migration processes and distribution of migration flows. Materials and methods. The analyzed facts and figures have been borrowed from resources of the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, International Organization for Migration, National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, and online research databases. Migration has been considered within the network approach and actor-network theory, which makes it possible to include all material and non-material actors to describe certain transformational changes, their specifics and variability. Results. Shifts in the Russia–Central Asia migration paradigm are caused by a variety of factors as follows: 1) Central Asian republics tend to reorient their foreign policies toward the Middle East, Europe, Americas, and East Asia; 2) The sanctions pressure keeps growing, and ruble exchange rates keep falling. Furthermore, Russian society is experiencing a trend of naturalizing Soviet-born and segregating post-Soviet-born Asian migrants. Meanwhile, the choice of a host country increasingly depends on non-economic factors, such as ecology, social security, interethnic harmony, and availability of migration corridors. The paper also identifies some positive components of international migration. Labor migration is positioned as a necessary resource for the socioeconomic development of contemporary Russia. The publicly proclaimed negative impacts of migrants on Russian society prove objectively groundless. However, migration may (and sometimes does) exacerbate societal risks. Central Asian laborers still perceive Russia as a most economically optimal destination, even given that historical and cultural proximities, shared historical memories, and similar traditions are no longer of primary importance. Conclusions. The conducted analyses of migration process models and the current state of the Russia–Central Asia migration system justify the use of actor-network theory that — for modeling purposes — involves (and emphasizes the significance of) material and non-material, natural-climatic, and cognitive components of migration.

Introduction. The article presents the results of 2012 excavations of a late nomadic burial in Kurgan 1 at Ozek-Suat – 5 mound grave field in Neftekumsky District (Stavropol Krai, Russia). Goals. The paper publishes the archaeological materials from the specified site in the Lower Kuma excavated in 2012. So, the work shall describe and characterize the investigated late nomadic complex, specify its culture and historical attribution. Materials. Archaeological materials from the burial include items made of iron, bronze and bone from the Golden Horde era. The grave goods comprised elements of a composite bow, a wooden (birch bark) quiver with unornamented bone overlays, bone loops to fix a quiver and a bow case, arrowheads, an iron saber and an iron knife, two bell buttons and a piece of chalk. Results. Burial 1 was the main and only one in Kurgan 1. It was made in a grave pit with an alcove in its southern wall, the human body and a stuffed horse oriented westwards. This burial pattern has analogies in the Golden Horde sites of the Don Region and the Volga-Don steppes. However, the asymmetric composite bow from the burial is unique enough for Ciscaucasia and the specified territories. Similar items have been discovered at pre-Mongol sites in South Siberia where this bow type had preceded the ‘Mongol’ one. The South Siberian nomads could have delivered it to Ciscaucasia during conquest campaigns. The site in the Lower Kuma dates to the mid-thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. 

Introduction. The study focuses on a rather unique source within the Muslim book culture of the Ural-Volga Region. It is a convolute primarily compiled and authored by the Kiyikovs, father and son, who were Sufi mentors of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya, historiographers and writers. They lived in the north of present-day Bashkortostan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Goals. The article attempts a general and archaeographic description of the manuscript, analyzes its structure and content, and provides an overview of its key themes. Results. The paper resumes the compendium be an important artifact of Muslim written and book culture, and can be described as a unified source. It expands the existing understanding of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century book culture of Volga-Ural Muslims, and specifically the tradition of Sufi knowledge transmission during this period. The breadth and diversity of the Kiyikovs' cultural ties with centers of Muslim scholarship in the Ottoman Empire, Hejaz, Central Asia, and India reflected in the source may serve to rebut the prevailing view in modern academic literature that Russian Muslims' interest in Sufism declined during this period.

Introduction. Despite its compilation nature, the chronicle of the Khori and Aga Buryats by Rabji Sanzhiev not only serves a continuation of the chronicles by Sh.-N. Khobituev, T. Toboev, A. Ochirov — but rather proves an original work with extensive involvement of documentary texts. In this regard, in addition to the author’s views proper, readers may enjoy an impressive database of documents and sources covering the imperial Russian period of the Khori Buryats. Goals. The article attempts an analysis into the interaction of Buryats with Russian authorities described in R. Sanzhiev’s writing. Materials and methods. A critical review of the text enforced by source analysis tools proves instrumental in considering the relationship with authorities over several centuries, since R. Sanzhiev’s narrative describes a variety of historical events (facts) from the seventeenth century to the 1920s. Results. The article gives an overview of the relationship with authorities via mentions of administrative restructuring arrangements, incentives for officials, audiences, and public initiatives. The paper reveals the author included most important events in the history of Khori and Aga Buryats, including awards and commendations for officials as key mediators between the community and the Tsarist government. Particular attention is paid to land ownership, payment of taxes, military service, the right to religious practice, etc. Conclusions. The part covering the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is most precious since it deals with some episodes unavailable in other chronicles. The identified characteristic features of the relationship with higher authorities are as follows: loyalty to the government and support for its initiatives in the form of collecting special-purpose donations and drafting certain verdicts. A most efficient method of solving complicated issues throughout the described period was submitting delegations to different authorities. The Sanzhiev Chronicle includes a wealth of material for analyzing the concept of honoring authorities, ways of accepting and rejecting decisions, and is thus a valuable source in Buryat history and culture.

Introduction. The work is relevant enough for the issue of childlessness in Mongolic folklores and the connection between verbal and structural elements of the ritual remain understudied. The paper is first to secure a comparative diachronic insight into one rite and synchronic reviews of the other regional rituals, which makes it possible to reveal the relationship between verbal and actional codes. Goals. The study aims to identify the connection between actional and verbal components of the rituals. To facilitate this, it shall identify stable motifs and symbols preserved in cultural codes of the traditional rite. Methods. Structural-semiotic analysis tools and those of typologization prove instrumental in outlining the features of architectonics and semantics inherent to the ritual action. The study is conducted from the perspective of ‘participant observation’, which helps reveal how bearers of ethnic culture comprehend and explain their traditional ritual practices. Results. The article examines — in time and space — three ritual acts characteristic of the western Buryats in a comparative perspective. Ethnically, the Barguzin and Kabansk Buryats under study are western Buryats, namely Ekhirit clans that migrated from the Upper Lena to Transbaikalia three centuries ago. The Barguzin Buryat rite for childless families was held in the early twentieth century, and is closely related to their ancient mythological traditions of fire worship. In the rite referred to as ‘Judgment of Old Women’ and observed among western Buryats around the same time, the actional code differs by its pragmatic aspect, while the verbal part to a certain extent coincides with the semantics of the ritual action in the previous rite. The third rite of ‘worshipping grandmother Alya’ that dates back to the shamanic traditions of treating and appeasing angry and vengeful spirits was also held in the early twentieth century. In the modern version of this rite, only the actional code is relevant, and the verbal part has been preserved in earlier archival records. Conclusions. The paper shows the rituals differ compositionally and semantically in a synchronic perspective. In the rite of the Barguzin Buryats, it is the mythological component that retains primary importance: the shamanic ritual articulates a request for a child’s soul from the deity of fire. In the two other rites, it is the actual pragmatic aspect that is in greater demand: those serve to request the deities for increased reproduction strength. In a diachronic perspective, present-day ritual patterns tend to lose the verbal component, which actualizes the food code. So, the interdependence of actional and verbal codes during ritual efforts is revealed.

Introduction. In terms of process, bilingualism — in our case the Bashkir-Russian one — is inextricably linked with the phenomenon of code-switching. According to K. Myers-Scotton, code-switching is the first stage in mastering foreign language lexemes through the native (matrix) language that — when repeated — may become ‘nuclear’ (‘occasional’) borrowings. The latter, in turn, duplicate words already existing in the language and are not included in the mental lexicon of the matrix language as ‘cultural’ borrowings. So, the work examines barbarisms used in simple (living) speech as ‘nuclear’ borrowings in Bashkir. Just like borrowings, code-switching items may undergo phonetic changes in the matrix language. Goals. In this connection, the paper aims to identify somewhat specific and basic patterns of phonetic adaptations inherent to code-switching in Bashkir discourse. Materials and methods. The work primarily analyzes the author’s expeditionary materials and dialect texts contained in the Computer-Based Corpus of Bashkir. The study employs the continuous sampling method to examine texts and spot code-switches represented by individual lexemes (substantive and systemic ones) and word combinations for further analysis. When it comes to describe code-switching items, the Matrix Language Frame model by K. Myers-Scotton has proved instrumental enough. Results. The article examines phonetic changes in intraphrase code-switches in the form of inclusions proper, ‘pidginized’ and ‘insular’ code-switches. The phonetic adaptation of inclusions in Bashkir discourse is manifested in their subjection to the law of vowel harmony, avoidance of consonantal clusters within word stems, vowel or consonant reductions, replacements of alien phonemes by Bashkir ones, etc.

 Introduction. The article introduces a comprehensive insight into the lexical-thematic group ‘names of inanimate objects’ shaped by Arabic and Persian loanwords to Bashkir and its dialects. The work is the first to classify this group of words, analyze their etymological essentials in comparison to Kipchak, Oghuz, Karluk, and Finno-Ugric languages of the Volga Region, and clarify origins for a number of such words. Goals. The paper attempts a complete systemization and classification of the aforementioned lexemes by their distribution across languages and regions. It also seeks to determine the methods and times of their assimilation into the Turkic discourse. Materials and methods. The article employs the lexical-semantic, descriptive and etymological methods, those of structural and comparative analyses. The examined lexemes include groups as follows: ‘atmospheric phenomena and weather conditions’, ‘wind, cold, frost and related natural phenomena’, ‘landscape objects’. A separate group includes rarely used, obsolete and bookish borrowings clustered as follows: 1) names of atmospheric natural phenomena, 2) names of celestial bodies, 3) landscape objects, 4) names of precious and semi-precious stones and metals. Results and conclusions. It has been established that the borrowings of this lexical-thematic group may be both general Turkic, specifically regional, and purely dialectal. The study resumes the bulk of the analyzed vocabulary was borrowed to the Turkic languages through books, a significant number of the latter having been connected with Islam. To a very large extent, the loanwords reflect somewhat basic ideas about the surrounding world that continue to persist for centuries as part of the world religions.

Introduction. A most challenging question in Samoyedic classifications is the position of Mator. Traditionally, it has been grouped with Kamas. However, in recent years, some scholars have argued that it is most closely related to Tundra Nenets, while others consider Mator to be an earliest branch to have separated from Proto-Samoyedic. Goals. The article attempts an analysis into the relationship of Mator to Kamas and Nenets from the perspectives of glottochronology, phonetic correspondences, and morphological similarities. Materials and methods. The LingvoDoc platform contains dictionaries of 16 Samoyedic languages and dialects, as well as 3 morphological dictionaries for Mator, Kamas, and Tundra Nenets. The dictionaries have been processed by original LingvoDoc-based programs designed to assess linguistic proximities based on glottochronology, phonetics, and morphology. Results. The glottochronological insights tend to confirm the traditional classification: Mator and Kamas do prove to share most of their basic vocabularies (76 %), while coomon basic lexems between Mator and Tundra Nenets are somewhat fewer (from 58 % to 67 % depending on a certain dictionary). However, as for phonetic correspondences, no sound evidence for any long-term existence of a Mator-Kamas branch has been traced. Almost all identified phonetic isoglosses are characteristic for Turkic languages of Siberia as well. In terms of morphology, most shared affixes in Mator, Tundra Nenets and Kamas appear to be essentially archaic. Conclusions. It can be assumed that the phonetic and lexical innovations shared by Mator and Kamas have arisen as a result of language contacts. Genetically, the Mator language exhibits no significant phonetic or morphological innovations shared with other Samoyedic languages.

Introduction. The paper examines linguistic pictures of the world (LPW) characteristic of native Russian and Arabic speakers. Goals. The study attempts a bilingual Russian-Arabic LPW model as an integral conceptual framework — to explore its variability, particular attention be paid to semantic and statistical properties of key concepts and their connections. To facilitate this, the work shall define lexical and semantic means, methods to create and analyze parallel text corpora, as well as ones to select and process culture-significant texts in Russian and Arabic. Materials and methods. The work focuses on One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) — the original text and its Russian translation by M. Salye who is the one and only to have authored a complete Arabic-to-Russian translation of the literary monument. The study employs structural linguistic and cognitive models, such as frames, lexical-semantic fields. It also addresses statistical methods for comparative analysis of linguistic phenomena in Russian and Arabic, involves pipeline processing of natural language (with the aid of Intelligent Statistical Verbalizer ISV and Leferent 0.3.0.). Results. The efforts have yielded a bilingual Russian-Arabic LPW model as an integral conceptual framework, its variability duly investigated with consideration to semantic and statistical characteristics of key concepts (entities) and connections (actions). Conclusions. As is shown, the linguistic model of the world reflects subjective perceptions of objective reality, and the variability of the linguistic picture of the world is rooted in polysemy and ambiguity of linguistic signs where it is the context that specifies the meaning.

Goals. The article examines some challenges and outcomes of integrating comprehensive and interdisciplinary approaches during the preparation and publication of collections representing over thirty ethnic folklore traditions of Siberia and Russia’s Far East. Methods. The paper addresses participant observation tools to trace the progress and effects of this integration. A substantial body of folklore patterns accumulated through the efforts of generations of scholars and collectors have shaped the monumental humanitarian project — Folklore Jewels of Siberia and Russia’s Far East. Results. The sixty-volume work provides a complete representation of major genres, such as epic poetry, fairy tales, myths, legends, lore, ritual poetry, and folk songs. The project team of humanitarians has included folklorists, linguists, ethnomusicologists, and ethnographers. So far, a total of thirty four volumes have been published, with two more on the way. Artistic merits of the volumes are exceptional, since the latter vividly represent the Altaian, Belarusian, Buryat, Dolgan, Mansi, Nanai, Nenets, Russian, Tuvan, Udege, Khakass, Shor, Evenk, and Yakut folklore traditions. Published in accordance with universal scholarly guidelines, the editions encompass quite a diversity of genres and languages. Original-language texts are paralleled by folklore translations that preserve the former’s figurative language. The text corpus is accompanied by comments elucidating phraseological expressions, ethnographic and historical contexts, and mythological or worldview elements that might be unclear (‘opaque’) to non-native speakers. Textual processing of the published samples primarily involves punctuation correction, with dialectal, archaic, performance-related, and orthographic features left unaltered. Linguists are thus granted opportunities to analyze linguistic processes diachronically. The series successfully integrates contributions of both folklorists and ethnomusicologists. Ethnomusicologists have provided the first complete musical notation of heroic tales in Volumes 17 and 29. The evolution of music applications has mirrored technological progress, a transition encompassing — gramophone records, compact discs (CDs), and USB flash drives (SDs). The book design also bears certain semantic essentials. The volumes are uniformly bound in blue, a color symbolizing the sacred sky in Siberian traditions, and each protective packaging features a unique, unrepeated ornament to exemplify most sophisticated ornamental traditions of Siberian cultures. It should be noted that the series includes contemporary field notes alongside archival materials. Insights into various texts illuminate the lifespan of folklore — from its peak to the contemporary period. The paper asserts the efficiency of integrated interdisciplinary methodologies in the study and publication of folklore.