Introduction. Being a country with a young age structure, Tajikistan has become a prominent participant of various migration flows in recent years. A large number of labor migrants from Tajikistan to the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have been reported since 2014, which is associated with a fall in the ruble’s exchange rate and a decrease in incomes of migrants to Russia in currency equivalent. At the same time, traditionally Tajik youth used to to study in Russia and Kazakhstan, but in recent decades the flow to OECD member countries has also increased significantly. Goals. The study aims to identify the causes and features underlying the reorientation of the flows of educational migrants from Tajikistan toward new geographical directions, namely the OECD member countries. Materials and methods. The work basically employs two research methods. Firstly, the statistical method processes data on the scope and structure of educational emigration from Tajikistan. Secondly, the sociological method provides insights into outcomes of sociological surveys and expert interviews (secondary analysis of sociological data). The key sources of information are OECD-related data from the OECD.Stat reports, and the author’s survey (conducted online via Facebook social network — banned in Russia — accounts of several associations of Tajik citizens abroad) among young individuals from Tajikistan who study in OECD member countries. The questionnaire contained 17 questions about adaptation and integration of migrants, educational levels of migrants, age-sex structure, migration channels, reasons for the reorientation of labor migrants toward OECD member countries, resettlement, and sectoral employment in host countries. The convenience sampling yielded a total of was 417 individuals who were then undertaking training programs in Austria, Germany, the U.S., and Canada. The survey was primarily seeking to identify adaptation strategies selected by young emigrants from Tajikistan in OECD member countries. Results. So, the article presents the outcomes of the survey. Half of Tajik university graduates try to continue their studies and/or find a job abroad via the Internet. Actually, many tend to view educational migration as an emigration channel. This process is accompanied by that Tajik citizens take additional training or retraining programs, seek to receive acknowledgement certificates for diplomas of Tajikistan, and undergo corresponding courses in the receiving countries. As a rule, they quickly adapt to labor markets in OECD member countries: it takes ‘less than a month’ (or ‘from 1 to 3 months’) to get a job. The working language for most Tajik migrants is English and German, and they get jobs in the fields of education and medicine, which attests to somewhat increased educational levels of theirs.

Introduction.  Recent historiographic studies show an increasing interest in the figure of Khan Ayuka and the whole of written heritage pertaining to seventeenth-eighteenth century Russian-Kalmyk relations. The article is the first to publish a complete text of one 1718 letter missive submitted by Tsar Peter Alekseyevich to Khan Ayuka. Goals. So, the paper shall introduce some further evidence of Russian-Kalmyk contacts from Peter the Great’s era. Materials. The study focuses on related documentary material from the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. Results. Such and similar publications shall significantly contribute to the study of Russian-Kalmyk relations throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The examined document mentions a variety of noteworthy facts dealing with the then military and political situation across Russia’s southern frontier. Conclusions. The 1718 letter missive of Peter I attests to the Russian government was well aware of the actual agenda along its southern and southeastern domains. The text clearly shows that Russian authorities were keeping a watchful eye on contacts between Kalmyk landlords and Sultan Bahti Giray of Kuban. The intelligence messages would be regularly delivered by Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn offices, Don Cossacks and princes of Kabardia.

Introduction. The paper introduces some newly discovered archival material and sources in different languages to examine the shaping of Kalmyk-Kazakh relations in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The concern about the issue is explained by its limited historiography, since only a few unconnected works have tackled it to date. Furthermore, decent research efforts therein do imply the need for interdisciplinary and cross-civilizational/cross-cultural approaches. Goals. The work attempts a comprehensive review of how relations between the Volga Kalmyks and Kazakhs developed throughout the mentioned period, which shall shed light on the dramatic events that would prove crucial to historical destinies of the nomadic peoples. Materials. To facilitate this, the publication introduces some related data contained in various sources (repositories) and supplemented with historiographic analyses by both Russian and foreign scholars. The identified period seems most instrumental in analyzing the evolution of Kalmyk-Kazakh relations and the latter’s impacts onto their then (and subsequent) historical agendas. Results. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, relations between the Volga Kalmyks and Kazakhs were somewhat controversial and ambivalent, which never excluded certain cultural ties then manifested in bilingualism of Kazakh elites that tended to make fluency in Kalmyk a useful rule of theirs, in dynastic marriages and mutual judicial influences traced in codes of laws (Jeti-Jargy and Iki Tsaadzhin Bitchig).

Introduction.  The article examines some key stages of administrative governance evolution in the Inner Bukey Horde throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — with due regard of the present-day historical research agenda and various methodological approaches adopted to interpret Imperial Russia’s policies toward Orientals across its southeastern domains. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on a number of related historical publications, namely: A Review of the Fifty-Year Long History (1837–1887) by the Ministry of State Property (Pt. 2: Guardianship. Land Affairs Management), and Russian Political Law by N. Korkunov, a renowned Russian lawyer of the prerevolutionary era. The latter reviews the Bukey Horde’s administrative structure as of the early twentieth century. Results. The work employs an institutional approach to the study of administrative governance evolution in the Inner Bukey Horde, and delineates a total of four stages therein: establishment of the Bukey Horde, institutional legalization of the Bukey Khanate, transformation and abolishment of native royal power of khans, integration of the Horde into Russia’s political and economic environments as part of Astrakhan Governorate. The staging model centers around the institution of khanship that did outlive ones in all other Kazakh communities, which is explained by the personal traits of Khan Jäñgir and a special ‘inner’ status of the Bukey Horde.

Introduction. The study deals with Russia Germans of Kalmykia and analyzes the state of the ethnic group (traditionally referred to as a minority across the designated territory) from 1897 to the late 1930s on the basis of census data (1897, 1926, 1939), archival documents, and published works. The relevance of the issue lies in its poor historiography: works examining census data as a historical source on Kalmyk Steppe are few enough, and they actually focus on the indigenous ethnic community (Kalmyks) with only fragmentary reviews of two-three other groups. Goals. The paper seeks to characterize the German ethnic group, which has been integral to Kalmyk Steppe’s population since the late nineteenth century, its demographic features, and social structure. Materials and methods. The study rest on the general scientific principles of historicism and objectivity, and employs the methods of historical reconstruction and system analysis that have proved instrumental in identifying certain demographic changes over time. Results. The German community in Kalmykia started taking its shape in the mid-1870s, and was closely connected with the history of local Estonians, the latter having arrived in Kalmyk Steppe almost simultaneously and founded a settlement next to the German one. The traced growth dynamics attests to the group was enjoying a constant increase since its foundation. Sound facilities and decent educational levels became key to the successful development of both farms (households) and villages joined by German settlers. On arrival in Bolshederbetovsky Ulus, the newcomers immediately built prayer houses in their villages and opened primary parish schools with teachers of their own. These would, on the one hand, facilitate the community’s consolidation in the new place and, on the other hand, ensure the younger generation be brought up in the spirit of ancestral values. Kalmykia’s ethnic Germans were part of the multinational society, but meanwhile tended to preserve some specifics of their culture. According to the Soviet Census of 1939, the size of this group increased 3.5 times compared to the early 1890s. The events witnessed by the following decade changed their history once and for all.

Introduction. The study analyzes a variety of newly discovered archival documents and materials for a comprehensive insight into the 1921–1922 mass famine in Uralsk Governorate. To facilitate this, the paper shall examine the causes, mitigation measures, and consequences of the famine in the designated region of present-day Kazakhstan. Materials. So, the study focuses on related documents from the State Archive of West Kazakhstan Region that have never been introduced into scientific discourse and received only fragmented attention. Results. The work provides a historiographic review on the topic under consideration, while some key research results are based on analytical insights into the archival papers. Our narrative centers around the causes and socio-demographic consequences, conditions of livestock breeding and agrarian industries, famine mitigation measures. Statistical data contained in the reports of governorate-level commissions prove most instrumental in evaluating the 1921–1922 famine’s scale and tracing negative socioeconomic dynamics. Conclusions. Uralsk Governorate happened to be a most famine-affected region of Kazakhstan, which was dramatically preceded (and paralleled) by harsh natural and climatic conditions, such as drought, crop failure, zud (jut), and livestock reduction. These were aggravated by poor agrarian development of the region and reduction of cultivated areas — only to be face the early twentieth century political cataclysms (e.g., Russian Civil War, increase of taxation, etc.). The famine’s consequences included increased mortality rates, population decline, dramatic fall of living standards, and large numbers of orphans and homeless children.

Introduction. The article deals with one interesting pattern of research heuristics tackled to create a unified empirical database on forced labor relocations of Rostov Oblast-based Soviet citizens to Nazi Germany. Goals. The source study primarily attempts a consistent reconstruction of individual elements to the ethnic stratification among the O starbeiter (‘Eastern workers’) from the selected region, the former to be facilitated by the current identification of ethnic Kalmyks among such displaced individuals. This specific epistemological perspective has never been addressed by the preceding historiographic tradition, which makes the research practice relevant enough. Materials and methods. The integrated use of traditional archival search methods at the Taganrog Office of Rostov Oblast Archive (Russia) and the City Archive of Lüdenscheid (Germany) made it possible to identify an approximate circle of Kalmyk Soviet citizens forcibly displaced from Taganrog. Results. The paper contributes to a consistent understanding of how Nazi Germany’s forced labor civilian deportations from occupied territories took place, and outlines the phenomenon’s dynamics. The undertaken reconstruction of the ethnic stratification among forcibly displaced Soviet citizens clearly illustrates the rigid universalism of the occupation authorities that were seeking to gain ‘living space’ for ‘true Aryans’. The integrated object for Nazi repressive actions was civilian populations of occupied regions viewed as inferior communities, with no special privileges for any certain ethnic group. A particularly valuable result is that the study has yielded preliminary verifications for a number of ethnic Kalmyks that experienced such forced labor relocations to Nazi Germany.

Introduction. Ethnic deportations were a form of political repression in the USSR. Official Soviet directives clearly proclaimed mass relocations with exact indications of ethnic identities the would-be deportees should belong to. Goals. The study attempts a historical reconstruction of how Kalmyks from the abolished Kalmyk ASSR survived the exile, reviews their legal status, and outlines a social portrait. Materials and methods. The work employs a variety of research methods, such as the source study, information, mathematic/statistical, factual/historic ones and that of computer content analyses for sufficient insights into earlier classified and thus unclaimed sources. The study is the first to examine personal files declassified since November 2021 by the Government Commission for Complete Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions (est. by the order of President K.-Zh. Tokayev), as well as some related documents from departmental archives of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Committee of National Security transmitted in 2021–2023 to the Archive of the President of Kazakhstan. Files dealing with special settlers are also housed at the Archive of the Committee for Legal Statistics and Special Records (Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan) and its departments in Turkistan, Kyzylorda, Akmola, Karaganda and Zhetysu regions, at the State Archive of Kyzylorda Region (its branch — Archive of Sociopolitical History). Results. The Kalmyk deportees started arriving in the Kazakh SSR since January 1944. Despite the Republic was not designated as a region to host the repressed people, the war decided differently. The ethnic Kalmyks — though a minority in the host society to face hard life conditions — never assimilated culturally and showed sustainable social, professional and psycho-physical adaptation skills to the changed circumstances and environments.

Introduction. The issue of Soviet medical assistance to Northeast China in combating plague in 1947–1949 remains understudied in Russia. However, the anti-epidemic teams dispatched by the Soviet Red Cross did make a significant contribution to the struggle against plague in China, and the medical assistance proper proved an efficient ‘soft power’ tool of the USSR. Goals. The article attempts an insight into how the Soviet Union managed to help China combat the plague in the harsh political situation caused by the Chinese Civil War. Materials and methods. The study examines documents contained in Collection Р-9501 (‘Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the USSR’) of Russia’s State Archive, most of the former being reports by physicians of Soviet Red Cross affiliated sanitary/epidemiological teams. Special attention is also paid to related scholarly papers by China-based researchers. In terms of theory, the article rests on J. Nye’s concept of ‘soft power’ and a geopolitical approach to historical research. Results. The three years (from 1947 to 1949) witnessed a triumph of joint efforts by Soviet and Chinese medical specialists in their struggle against plague epidemics in Northeast China. Soviet physicians would selflessly tackle anti-epidemic measures in the spirit of internationalism to earn the respect of local communities and the gratitude of Chinese leaders. At the same time, the elimination of plague across the ‘liberated areas’ of Manchuria contributed to the region’s stabilization and increased the population’s confidence in the Chinese Communist Party. Conclusions. The anti-epidemic endeavors of the Soviet Red Cross were not only to demonstrate the achievements of Soviet medicine and promote a positive image of the country but also to guarantee epidemic safety along its borders. The medical assistance to the Communist government of Northeast China did as well serve the geopolitical interests of the Soviet Union, since it had a positive impact on the course of the Chinese Civil War — in favor of the USSR.

Introduction. The paper develops the idea of a hypothesized ethnogenetic succession of the Chonos and related groups from the legendary Bӧrtä-Čïno within the ‘Mongol’ Y-chromosomal subclade of R2a-M124 among Kalmyks (Oirats and Mongols at large), attempts ethnonymic reconstructions for potential ancestral communities from the designated period. Goals. The study attempts an analysis of ethnographic, linguistic and historical data proper in light of R2a-M124 Y-STR haplotypes of Kalmyks, and deepens the hypothesis suggesting ethnohistorical (ethnogenetic) succession of Oirats and Mongols’ ancestors from nomads (and other groups) of the Early and High Middle Ages. Materials and methods. The work investigates classical historical chronicles and treatises on Turkic and Mongolian studies, employs an interdisciplinary approach with the aid of tools inherent to system analysis, historical reconstruction, etc. Results. The article draws parallels between the ethnic names ‘Dörbän’, ‘Durban’ and ‘Dorbet’. It hypothesizes as to potential roots of the male ancestral line at earliest stages of the Mongolian and Oirat ethnogenesis, not excepting the possibility of its Sogdian origin via Ashina Turks within their vassal Toquz Oghuz elites (since the mid-sixth century CE). Finally, the paper tends to identify some ethnic communities from the designated era represented in totemic genealogical myths of Turko-Mongols, and sets forth a narrative of potential ethnohistorical succession of Bukhus Kalmyks from the medieval Bugu (Pugu).

Goals. The article attempts an analysis of miscegenation as a reason behind the Khakass population decline and the titular ethnic group’s assimilation. Despite there is an increasing number of publications examining various aspects of miscegenation among indigenous Siberians, such works dealing with the complex social process in Khakassia are scarce enough. The working hypothesis rest on the assertions as follows: the increased number of mestizos has led to significant changes in identities of descendants of interethnic marriages in recent decades; positions of the Khakass language as a means of everyday communication and cultural transmission have been weakened by the globalization and electronic communication development; the two put together may result in that the Khakass would lose their native language and culture on the way toward total assimilation. Materials and methods. The study focuses on official statistics data and outcomes of the author’s survey conducted in 2018, as well as on some bibliographic interviews with ethnic Khakass individuals and mestizos of Khakassia obtained in 2023. The snowball sampling method proved most instrumental in identifying further interviewees. Results. Present-day Khakassia witnesses quite a difficult situation: the increase in miscegenation and decrease of Khakass population trigger accelerated linguistic and cultural assimilation trends. The former have resulted from somewhat changed ethnic composition across the region, urbanization, and globalization. However, in the face of the mentioned circumstances, ethnic consciousness of the Khakass remains stable enough, the latter being manifested in the recognition of the Khakass language as mother tongue, in their understanding of the need to protect and develop traditional Khakass culture. But despite the efforts aimed at preserving Khakass, there is a real threat of its extinction. As compared to descendants of monoethnic marriages, mestizos tend to choose assimilation behavior strategies, which also entails dramatic risks for ethnic survival.

Introduction. The formation and maintenance of Kazakh identity in the northern regions of Kazakhstan was largely associated with the specificity of historical, cultural, linguistic resources, and the religious factor played an important role therein. The shaping of ‘Kazakhness’ in the pre-Soviet period was based not only on the self-image as free nomads and language community but also on belonging to the world of Islam. Such local resources of the Kazakh ethnic identity comprise the cult of holy warriors and seers — batyr, auwliye and zhyrau, i.e. true historical heroes from the period of fierce struggle for the region throughout the seventeenth–eighteenth centuries. Goals. The study attempts an insight into the specifics of the saints’ cult among Kazakhs of Northern Kazakhstan. Real supporters of Khan Abylai and active participants of steppe wars — batyrs Kozhabergen, Kulsary and Kuleke — were included in the pantheon of saints across the designated region. Materials and methods. The work examines a wide range of sources, both published archival documents and pre-revolutionary statistical collections, as well as ethnographic material collected by the authors in the form of family trees (shezhire) and ethno-genealogical legends about the deeds of cultural heroes. The documents introduced into scientific turnover have made it possible to verify the relevance of data articulated by oral shezhire narratives and legends, which together constitute a valuable layer of sources yielding insights into the mentality and spiritual world of nomads. Results. The ethnic history of the northern Kazakh clans and tribes and the emergence of the local cult of holy warriors show a close connection between lifestyle and religious factor for the reproduction of ethnic identity. Under the conditions of constant hostilities and distrust toward alien neighbors across northern steppes, those were Genghisids — famous warlords/batyrs and charismatic leaders of mighty tribes — that became objects of veneration, rather than Muslim righteous men or descendants of the Kozha clan. The informal alliance of Genghisids and batyrhood did facilitate the preservation of “Kazakhness’ during the period of heavy defeats and severe trials in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries. The lives of heroes served as examples to all Kazakhs regardless of tribal affiliation and as models of ideal behavior. Later, descendants would endow their ancestors with the traits of Muslim saints and pass on narratives claiming their gifts of soothsaying and healing from generation to generation. Being a local Muslim variant of saints’ worship practices which incorporated elements of pre-Islamic beliefs, the cult of the northern batyr-auwliye performed an important integrative function and contributed to the deep ethnicization of clan/tribal roots among local Kazakhs.

Introduction. The fundamental Buddhist treatise rGyud-bZhi is compiled mainly from Indian and Chinese sources, as well as elements of the oral healing tradition. The extensive range of commentary texts rGyud-bZhi gave rise to is dominated by the treatise Vaidurya-Onbo containing a series of unique illustrations — the ‘Atlas of Tibetan Medicine’. Tibetan healers considered embryology a most important part of medical practice and described it as the ‘making of the body’. Goals. The study seeks to consider the phenomenon of the making of the body — covering the pre-conception period, process of conception, fetal development, birth, postnatal growth, and infancy — in the context of the Buddhist healing treatise rGyud-bZhi and related commentaries. The paper examines conditions and causes of conception, processes of embryonic development, sex determination, karma-based birth to a certain family. Materials and methods. The work analyzes the embryology on the basis of rGyud-bZhi and Vaidurya-Onbo with the illustrations referred to as ‘Atlas of Tibetan Medicine’. One of the most impressive illustrations of the Atlas is titled ‘The Making of the Body’, and explains how under the influence of the vijñāna (‘consciousness’), the five primary elements and attachment to samsara, conception occurs and the fetus gets formed. Results. The making of the body is determined by karma and begins long before the embryo’s conception, since Buddhist texts pay much attention to the moral behavior of would-be parents. In Tibetan society, the influence of traditions manifested itself already at the stage of embryonic development, and women would often turn to mystical rites and rituals in the hope of giving birth to a male child. It was believed that prayers and certain rituals could influence the formation of the unborn child’s sex. Childbirth is basically viewed as a positive event for woman, since it is biologically and culturally natural. According to Tibetan sources, human health is rooted in harmony with environments and moral principles. Parents understand that it is necessary to follow internal and external prescriptions for procreation, to increase physical and spiritual strength in order to successfully conceive, maintain pregnancy, give birth to a healthy child, and provide him/her with proper care.

Introduction. Tibetan-language scriptures created by Mongolian monastic scholars and related studies are extremely few. To date, we are aware of a total of ten such scriptures. Goals. So, the article aims to introduce one such text into scientific circulation, the rest be examined in a series of subsequent works. Materials and methods. The study employs the historical comparative method and those of scientific identification, analysis and synthesis. Results. The paper reveals some errors and inaccuracies that contradict available historical and textual data. Comparative insights into classical works of the designated period identify certain lettering proper (some letters classified neither as vowels nor as consonants in the attempted grammar of written Mongolian) and letter-naming differences, as well as somewhat invariants for same grammatical terms. The analysis has also yielded data unavailable in other works on written Mongolian. Conclusions. The paper reveals evidence of existence of a Mongolian writing school in the fifteenth century, and shows the stylistic levels were distinguished by certain writing patterns.

Introduction. The early twentieth century reforms in China gave rise to the issue of renovating fiction that profoundly influences collective consciousness. Chinese translators started actively addressing foreign fiction, including classic Russian literature. Goals. The study attempts an insight how Chinese reading audience’s interest in Russian classics — and particularly in the works of Nikolai V. Gogol — would take form and develop. Results. As for the reasons behind the Chinese translators’ appeal to Russian classical literature, the paper notes those are associated with the huge political and social changes in Russia after the October Revolution. The latter facilitated that Russian literature has firmly entered the cultural space of China, having yielded strong impacts on both readers and Chinese writers. The May Fourth Movement not only marked the beginning of a new era in the history of twentieth century China, but also served as an impetus for the development of new Chinese literature. The works of N. Gogol began to occupy a special place in this cultural space. Since 1920, when N. Gogol’s first work was published in a Chinese magazine, attention to his literary heritage has grown significantly. The translation activities of Qu Qiubai, Geng Jizhi, Ren Guangxuan, Bai Sihong, Bai Chunren and many other associates contributed to the widespread interest in N. Gogol’s works all across China. These efforts were paralleled by literary studies of the writer’s fiction techniques and style. The 1950s witnessed a ‘pause’. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, articles dedicated to N. Gogol disappeared from Chinese newspapers and magazines, but already in the 1970s publications about his works started reappearing. Since the 1990s, the research of Chinese specialists into N. Gogol’s narratives has become far more profound and diverse, and this work will continue, since Russian classical literature has had — and still does — a great influence on the development of contemporary Chinese literature.

Introduction. The influence of the Russian poetic tradition on works of Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov is a well-known fact. However, his poetry, particularly topographical lyrics, has also been influenced by Japanese culture and literature. Goals. The article attempts an insight into landscape lyrics of the Kazakh poet from how it reflects the Japanese philosophy of landscape, most fully expressed in the genres of haiku and tanka. Results. Using the structural-semiotic method, the work reveals that B. Kanapyanov’s landscape poetry is based on the Japanese principle — ‘the beauty of the moment’ which demonstrates the eternity of nature. Just like the Japanese masters of haiku and tanka, B. Kanapyanov depicts nature in small, insignificant details through human sensations and perceptions. Often these sensations complement each other: smells and sights, hearings and visions, etc. Traditional Japanese landscape symbolism, e.g. the moon, gets transformed in the poet’s artistic picture of the world depending on his ideological precepts. The Japanese poetic technique also influenced the formal side of B. Kanapyanov’s poetry: preference for syllabic versification, loose adherence to meter and rhyme. Such a significant influence of Japanese culture and literature is explained by the common philosophical attitude to nature among the Kazakh and the Japanese, namely: principles of unity of man and nature, harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and non-interference of man in nature. The syllabic type of versification is also characteristic of not only Japanese but also of the Kazakh language. 

Introduction. Quite a number of eighteenth-nineteenth century Kalmyk dictionaries have been subject to linguistic analysis. However, the Kalmyk word list in the major work by P. S. Pallas — despite being well known to the scientific community — was never analyzed, yet that was an earliest attempt to record Kalmyk vocabulary and contains decently precise spellings (closest to actual oral patterns), which makes it a unique lexicographic source. Goals. The study attempts a graphophonetic analysis of Kalmyk vowels from the dictionary of P. S. Pallas, and seeks to identify reflexes of such vowel graphemes. Materials. The paper focuses on the Kalmyk word list consisting of 531 units, some to repeat but differ in spelling. Results. The study has yielded some rows of vowel graphemic correspondences between entries contained in the Pallas Dictionary, lexemes of modern standard Kalmyk, the latter’s IPA transcriptions, and H. Nugteren’s proto-Mongolic reconstructions, which makes it possible to conduct a graphophonetic analysis of the mentioned Kalmyk word list. The latter analysis has resulted in a table introducing data on reflexes of regular vowels (i.e., three examples least). There are significant phonetic differences between graphemic patterns of the Pallas Dictionary and present-day Kalmyk lexemes, in most cases those are essentially systemic. The differences from the modern literary language are mainly derived from historical changes that have arisen in vowels and vowel complexes under the influence of certain phonetic processes. In the absolute beginning of a word and after a consonant in the first syllable, vowels experience few changes, the bulk of such transformations be observed in further syllables and relate to reduced positions.

Goals. The study seeks to introduce into scientific circulation and analyze in comparative and comparative historical perspectives — horse age-sex terms in modern Khalkha Mongolian, Buryat, and Kalmyk. By way of comparison, the work employs some material from Classical Mongolian to identify common terms and establish their general Mongolian character; it also attempts to reveal and describe some Turkic lexical borrowings associated with horse breeding, since Mongolic and Turkic languages had long contacted and interacted all across Central Asia. Materials and methods. The paper examines dictionaries of the languages involved, as well as field notes recorded from informants during the summer 2022 expedition to the Oka Buryats (Republic of Buryatia, Russia). The key research methods are the descriptive, comparative, and comparative historical ones; that of lexical/semantic analysis proves most instrumental in describing horse age-sex terms proper. Results. The analysis identifies some breed names of horses and related age-sex designations in Khalkha Mongolian, Buryat, and Kalmyk. The insight into collected materials concludes the horse breed and age-sex terms in modern Khalkha Mongolian, Buryat and Kalmyk are of generally Mongolic origin, and thus attest to common roots and great antiquity of the economic culture of Mongol ethnic groups. However, despite the horse breed and age-sex terms are specifically Mongolic, a number of lexemes of Turkic origin in different phonetic variants have still been traced, namely: x-Mong. Kh. Mong. азарга(н), Bur. азарга, Kalm. аҗрh ‘stallion’; Kh. Mong. жороо, Bur. жороошо, Kalm. җора ‘pacer’; Kh. Mong. агт(ан), Bur. агта, Kalm. агт ‘courser’; Kh. Mong. хүлэг, Bur. хүлэг, Kalm. күлг ‘courser, war horse’; Kh. Mong. аргамаг, Bur. аргамаг, Kalm. аргамак ‘argamak’.

Introduction. The paper examines the cluster of toponyms derived from drymonyms. The relevance of the research topic is determined by the poor knowledge of this type of toponyms in the toponymic system of Bashkortostan (Russia). Goals. The study seeks to classify Bashkir toponyms derived from names of forests, groves, wild trees and shrubs, to describe their word-formation structure, semantics, origin and features of functioning in the toponymic system of the Southern Urals. Materials and methods. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the paper is the first to identify toponyms associated with drymonyms using the method of continuous sampling — in the Dictionary of Toponyms of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The work also attempts to describe those systematically, traces new drymonyms of foreign origin, and reveals the latter’s role in the toponymy-related processes. Furthermore, the paper is the first to outline a lexical/semantic classification of such toponyms, defines their structure, semantics, and origin. Results. In addition to toponyms of common Turkic origin, the article identifies drymonymic toponyms formed from Indo-Iranian, Finno-Ugric, and Mongolian word stems. The insight into some drymonymic toponyms associated with beliefs of Bashkirs reveals their function in creating the unique toponymic picture of Bashkortostan. The analysis of related material shows the designated type of Bashkir toponyms characterize primarily natural landscapes of Bashkortostan, habitats of certain species of wild trees and shrubs. The toponymic substratum of Indo-Iranian, Finno-Ugric and Mongolian origin reflects historical backgrounds of the language and ethnos, while toponyms associated with deification of ancestral trees are indicative of specific ancient beliefs of Bashkirs.

Introduction. The publication of the joint monograph titled ‘Karachays. Balkars’ and edited by M. Karaketov and H.-M. Sabanchiev introduced into scientific circulation a large layer of vocabulary characterizing some specific aspects of Karachay-Balkar culture. Quite a number of lexemes associated with traditional culture prove absent in the Karachay-Balkar–Russian Dictionary (30,000 word entries). So, Karachay-Balkar terminology happens to comprise the already expected Turkic lexemes ⸺ and a huge layer of loanwords missing in other Turkic languages. Goals. The article attempts an analysis of borrowings in the Karachay-Balkar language that are not typical for other Turkic languages. Results. The etymological analysis has excluded the undeveloped (literary) Orientalisms of Arab-Persian origin associated with Islam, law, and social order. The greatest number of parallels is noted for Digor Ossetian: over 300 words contained in the mentioned monograph arrived from the latter language. Our investigation of the monograph was followed by additions of already existing etymologies from comparisons by V. Abaev ⸺ with some corrections and certain Digor Ossetian parallels. Some Orientalisms and Caucasisms assimilated into the target vocabulary have also been interpreted as Ossetian parallels, i.e. their penetration into Karachay-Balkar is assumed to have taken place through Digor. The remaining vocabulary is distributed among Western Caucasian loanwords and those from Nakh-Dagestani languages. The article provides complete materials of the borrowed terminology divided into semantic fields, which makes it possible to assess the degree and realms of cultural influence. Interpretations of how the borrowing may have penetrated into the vocabulary and, accordingly, of how the languages contacted prove instrumental in determining the intermediate ancestral homeland of the Karachay-Balkar forefathers. That may have been the area of historical Salatavia north of the Salatau Ridge, bounded on the west by the Aktash River, and on the east ⸺ by the Sulak River. The article is intended for Turkologists and experts in Caucasian studies. The material shall be of interest to historians, ethnographers, and culturologists.