Introduction. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russia-Persia economic relations have been widely described in domestic and foreign historiographies. However, some regional features of the process, development of Russian trade with various provinces of the Qajar Empire — including its northwestern regions economically dominated by Russia — have escaped researchers’ attention. So, the problem of Russia’s economic penetration into Gilan also remains an understudied topic in modern historiography. Goals. The paper shall analyze reports by Russian diplomats for insights into how the national economy of Gilan would specifically develop and for evaluations of its export potential in the early twentieth century. Results. The article examines the dynamics of Russia-Gilan economic relations and challenges of economic cooperation faced by the former. Considerable attention is given to the significance of Russia and Persia’s Armenian communities (and other subjects of the Romanov Empire) in the economic dialogue between Russia and Gilan. Another research problem is that of how Russian capital would penetrate into Gilan and further develop therein. The political instabilities in Russia and Persia had most negative impacts on Russia-Gilan economic contacts. Conclusions. The work resumes Russian diplomats emphasized Russia’s dominant role in trade relations with Gilan since the former asserted control over a considerable portion of sugar exports and rice imports from the region. Russian exporters were substantially assisted by the Rasht office of the Discount and Loan Bank, including via granting credits to merchants of Gilan. Russian diplomats tended to conclude it was the intensification of private entrepreneurship and further assistance from the government that would secure further strengthening of Russia’s economic positions in Gilan.

Introduction. The paper examines the history of infrastructure cooperation between the Russian Empire and Persia at the turn of the twentieth century, which included the construction of a cart road between two important economic centers of the Southeastern Caspian — Ashgabat and Mashhad. The project was intended to intensify trade processes between Russia and Persia’s Khorasan through Transcaspian Oblast. Goals. The article seeks to show the role of the Ashgabat–Mashhad road in the shaping of bilateral trade and economic relations in the late imperial era. To facilitate this, the work shall consider the road’s construction progress and features, articulate its impacts on mutual trade turnover within the specified period, reveal roles of financial, organizational, geopolitical factors during the Russian-Persian infrastructure project’s implementation. Materials and methods. The study analyzes quite a variety of sources, including both published and unpublished ones (the latter discovered in federal archives). The study employs the structural historical, comparative and systems methods. Results and conclusions. The Ashgabat – Mashhad road, Transcaspian Railway and other transport routes constituted a unified transport infrastructure system that connected Russia’s Central Asian territories to Northeast Persia. This did contribute to the intensification of mutual trade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the low quality of construction works on the Persian section, Russia’s lack of efficient construction control tools in the territory of Persia, resistance from Great Britain, and other factors led to delays, additional financial costs and decreased efficiency. These prompted the Russian Government to completely convey the existing route to a Russian concessionaire for the latter to arrange a large-scale modernization of the required transport corridor. Inter alia, the discussion included a possibility of constructing a railway to be funded by Russian subjects. Still, Russia’s participation in World War I deprived the Government of any opportunity to begin implementing the designed project.

Introduction. Historically, Siam (Thailand) has been an open country for representatives of different nations due to its geographical location and religious tolerance. Goals. The study seeks to evaluate impacts of bilateral international relations on the past/present determinants and features of Russian migration to Siam (Thailand). The paper is first to consider the phenomenon of tourism and forms of Russian migration to Siam (Thailand) through the prism of bilateral relations development in comparative retrospective and present-day contexts. Materials and methods. The works focuses on pre-revolutionary Russian publications, scholarly editions, available statistical data on migration and tourism (Tourism Authority and Immigration Bureau of Thailand, Border Service and Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia). The work involves a VK-based survey held in July 2024 among Russian citizens aged 18 and over who have been residing in Thailand for at least two years. The questionnaire contains a total of 19 questions to identify sociodemographic characteristics, features of adaptation and employment, access to social networks and media in Thailand. Results. The 1897 visit of Tsesarevich Nicholas II to Bangkok and establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Siam (Thailand) were followed by a variety of messages about the mysterious ‘Land of White Elephants’. As of 1899, the population of Siam (Thailand) was ca. 9 million, including 27 thousand foreigners and only 7 Russians. However, the late nineteenth century witnessed Russia’s active efforts aimed at developing political, trade and economic ties with Siam (Thailand). The 2000s relations renaissance has been largely manifested through the phenomenon of tourism and migration. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, about 1.5 million Russians visited the country in 2023, which ranks Russia fifth after Malaysia, China, South Korea and India. So, the 2023 tourist flow from the Russian Federation to Thailand did exceed the pre-pandemic levels. Russian and Chinese citizens have become major real estate buyers in Thailand (with utmost demand for villas in Phuket). Temporary or permanent Russian residents tend to develop objects of ‘Russian-speaking economy’, produce jobs for locals, and pay taxes.

Introduction. Having been important religious institutions in the Ottoman Empire, tekkes (takya) posed an obstacle to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s modernization of the religious sphere since the nineteenth century. Istanbul used to host over 600 tekkes, which was thrice the number of madrasas. Once established for dervishes and pilgrims, tekkes would become centers of political and social life, especially those of Sultantepe, Bülbüldere, Sultanahmet and Eyüp that received support from the Ottoman authorities. They also played an important role in other regions serving the needs of Turkic Muslim pilgrims from Central Asia. Goals. The article seeks to investigate the role of tekkes in the context of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s spiritual modernization policy, and identify the impact of reforms on religious and cultural practices in the country. Materials and methods. The study focuses on Turkish-, Russian- and English language sources and scholarly papers dealing with the Ottoman imperial policy towards tekkes. Special attention is paid to works by M. Ӧzdamar, M. Kara, and that of R. Nicholson examining the spread of Sufism. The interdisciplinary approach proves central herein and includes tools of sociological and comparative analyses, with due regard of the conceptual framework of secularization and cultural transformation. Results. The 1925 closures of tekkes proved a major aspect in the transition towards a secular state system, and they would undertake drastic measures aimed at neutralizing religious impacts that could ever put the new order’s stability in question. The former were integral to widest efforts invested to dismantle the traditional religious institutions that remained essential both for spiritual and political spheres of the empire. However, those never eradicated the cultural and social influence of tekkes that kept functioning as part of Turkey’s society was characterized by persistent elements of religious control, which required further understanding and elaborating certain strategies to integrate religious and political realms within the newly shaped state order.

Introduction. The study of Peter the Great’s Russian naval personnel is a long-living tradition. The presence of Rear Admiral Denis S. Kalmykov — an ethnic Kalmyk — among the Emperor’s officers has so far been perceived only as an anecdote, and in the 1930s–1970s served a starting point for the creation of a novel, play and films. Goals. The paper seeks to specify and actualize biographical data of D. Kalmykov and J. Brant, and examine the latter’s paths in corresponding historical contexts. Materials and methods. The work deals with documents that make it possible to significantly clarify the biography of D. Kalmykov, prove his Kalmyk origin. So, in youth he had been a slave of N. G. Spafaria-Milescu and attended the Navigation School with the latter’s son M. N. Spafariev. However, during his studies abroad D. Kalmykov was no longer a lackey, and the most dramatic element of the anecdote about a servant who had been taking classes instead of his master — namely, an exam administered by Peter I which promoted the servant to an officer’s rank and defined his master as sailor — is fiction. Results. The article sheds light on details of D. Kalmykov’s biography, in particular, the analysis of his handwriting patterns presumes he may have been apprentice to a highly qualified book copyist, and refutes a number of falsehoods, such as that it was D. Kalmykov who introduced the ‘Kalmyk’ knot into Russian naval practices. It also supports Kalmyk origin of another officer — colonel-rank Captain Jacob Brant, and specifies some details of his life. Conclusions. The fact D. Kalmykov had been an ethnic Kalmyk serf to the remarkable statesman N. G. Spafaria-Milescu may be considered well proved. The former had also obtained excellent writing skills from a qualified book copyist in youth. And his ‘servant-to-admiral’ career was unique enough to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russian Navy. Furthermore, J. Brant might also have been an ethnic Kalmyk servant of the Dutch merchant K. Brant, and in view of his non-noble backgrounds his colonel-rank captainship can definitely be viewed as a most significant achievement.

Introduction. Upon gaining sovereignty, Kazakhstan launched a repatriation program encouraging ethnic Kazakhs to move back to their historical homeland. Still, the repatriation process had also been witnessed by the early years of Soviet rule. That group of migrants — neglected by the international community but assisted by their former compatriots — was compiled from inhabitants of Semirechye. Goals. The article attempts an insight into the activities of Soviet agencies aimed at re-evacuating Semirechye’s migrants to Soviet Russia. Materials and methods. The work focuses on documentary sources contained in a variety of archives and dealing with the history of migration processes in Semirechye on the eve and throughout the establishment and consolidation of Soviet power. The study rests on essentials of the structural-functional analysis, a structural unit be represented by the Special Commission under the Turkestan ASSR Central Executive Committee, and a function be the latter’s activities on arranging assistance to migrants in China and their re-evacuation to native territories. The principle of historicism proves instrumental in considering the Commission’s efforts in the context of the Soviet Union’s shaping and development. Results. The period of mobilization (followed by increased insurgencies) witnessed somewhat mass relocations of Kazakhs and Kyrgyzes from border territories of Semirechye towards Western China. Their mass return took place already under the Soviets. The problem of repatriating Kazakhs and Kyrgyzes, their accommodation across Semirechye and employment assistance were repeatedly discussed by Soviet authorities, and a special body — Special Commission — was established and vested with powers to deliver material support and organize the re-evacuation of migrants. Conclusions. Kazakhs and Kyrgyzes of Semirechye who had fled to China in 1916–1921 found themselves in a very difficult situation. Then and there they were aided by the Russian Provisional Government and subsequently by the Soviets. The two were historical antipodes but when it came to assist and bring back compatriot migrants from China to Semirechye, they were unanimous enough.

Introduction. Since Transcaucasia’s political parties and political forces were shaped on the ethnic principle rather than on that of social clusters, the political process in the region was distinguished by the vast influence of ethno-religious essentials. Goals. The paper attempts a correlation between the ethno-political population structure and 1917 political processes in Baku, the latter to include the course and results of city elections. Materials and methods. Traditional methods of historical research coupled with approaches of ethnopolitical science (and strengthened by adapting the definition of ‘political process’) make it possible to characterize the work as interdisciplinary. The article focuses on a variety of statistical digests and periodicals. Results. Our understanding of the 1917 events rests on a preliminary analysis of the ethno-religious evolution observed within Baku’s population in the pre-revolutionary period. So, the city’s economic development was paralleled by a diversification of its population. The fall of the Russian monarchy was followed by the emergence of local political life in Baku, and those were councils of workers’ deputies that sought to become major authorities. The October 1917 elections to councils of workers and soldiers’ deputies witnessed a dramatic struggle between the Dashnaktsutyun, Musavat, Socialist Revolutionaries, Bolsheviks, Muslim Bloc and Mensheviks. The political democratization did influence the October 1917 elections to the City Duma, and the latter’s composition proved most heterogeneous from both social and ethnic perspectives. Furthermore, 76.2% of votes at the elections to the Constituent Assembly in Baku distributed as follows: Dashnaktsutyun — 19.9%, Muslim National Committee and Turkic Federalist Party (Musavat) — 15.8%, Social Democrats (Mensheviks) — 14.9%, Socialist Revolutionaries — 13.6%, People’s Freedom (Narodnaya Svoboda) — 12%. The industrial district was dominated by the Bolsheviks and Musavat. Conclusions. The work resumes ethnic and religious factors had utmost impacts on political processes in the specified circumstances.

Introduction. The Kazakh SSR used to be a most multiethnic and multiconfessional Soviet republic. The article deals with the understudied issue of religious communities and their development throughout the 1940s to early 1990s in Kazakhstan. Goals. The work examines archival sources for comprehensive insights into the history of the Republic’s Christian (with the exception of ROC-affiliated ones) sectarian communities, and seeks to outline some regional features of the latter. Materials and methods. The study focuses on record-keeping and statistical records contained in archival collections of regional, republican and all-Union plenipotentiaries representing corresponding Councils for the Affairs of Religious Cults (under Councils of People’s Commissars), letters of sectarians submitted to supreme government agencies. With due account of ideological essentials of the involved sources, methodological preference is given to critical and comparative analysis tools. Results. Special attention has been paid to little-known records housed at regional archives of Kazakhstan that reveal some local features of the religious groups, such as their large number that resulted from ethnic deportations (Germans, Poles, Latvians, Ukrainians) to the Republic, high levels of congregational diversity. The tough and controversial relations between the Government and those communities were rooted in strict control and discrimination of believers practiced by Soviet and party organs, imposed activity restrictions, prohibitions on public ritual performances, ‘excesses’ of local officials. Some groups (Catholics, Lutherans, Evangelical Baptists) were eager to get registered and would seek to compromise with authorities, while others (Subbotniks, Dissident Baptists, True Orthodox Christians) expressed open dissent against the Soviet religion-related laws and tended to avoid any such registration. The examined period witnessed virtually no changes in activity patterns even in the aftermath of the 1970s–1980s religious easements.

Introduction. Scholars of the tenth-century classical school of Arab-Muslim geography — or the al-Balkhī school — have preserved a large amount of information about the peoples of Eastern Europe. Goals. The article examines the narrative of Bashkirs in the works of the Balkhī school to identify its sources and verify the reliability of messages contained therein. Materials and methods. The study focuses on manuscripts and published critical texts of Kitāb masālik al-mamālik (‘Book of Roads of the Kingdoms’) authored by AbūIsḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Iṣṭakhrī, as well as the work of Abū-l-Qāsim ibn Ḥauqal an-Naṣibī distinguished by that its various editions were published under two titles — Kitāb al-masālik wa-l-mamālik (‘Book of Roads and Kingdoms) and Kitab ṣūrat al-arḍ (‘Book of Depicting the Earth’). In addition, the article reviews the cartographic material accompanying the mentioned texts. To facilitate these, the work employs tools of source analysis, textual criticism, and those of the comparative historical method. Results. The main source of the Balkhī school about the peoples of Eastern Europe was testimonies of merchants and travelers from Gorgan, Khorasan and other localities of the Caspian who mastered the Volga River Route. They visited the ‘inner Bashkirs’ in the Black Sea region, which is evidenced by the presence of a corresponding itinerary and the designation of the latter’s place of residence on the round world map. Meanwhile, the route to the Bashkirs of the Southern Urals — the so-called ‘outer Bashkirs’ — was less familiar to them. Therefore, the geographers of the Classical school borrowed major parts of their narrative pertaining to the South Ural Bashkirs from other authors. Conclusions. The narrative of the Bashkirs of the Balkhī school is essentially multi-layered, and may have been compiled from writings of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Ibn Faḍlān, al-Mas‘ūdī, as well as from messages delivered by Muslim merchants and travelers.

Introduction. In terms of structure, seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicles basically follow the genealogical principle. Clan histories constitute an ‘archetypal’ feature of the Mongolian chronicles, which is characteristic of all Mongolic historiographies up to the early twentieth century. Another one is the compilation principle. So, entire fragments tended to migrate from text to text. Our comparative insights into five seventeenth-century chronicles with the aforementioned features and the thirteenth-century Secret History of the Mongols cannot trace any written source of a particular chronicle for certain. Goals. The study seeks to identify sources behind such similarities in the oral tradition that comprises the lexically fixed historical narratives of the Mongols. To facilitate this, the paper shall describe some major features of seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicles, such as the genealogical principle and that of compilation — to further uncover sources of the five writings. Results. The comparative analysis aims to reveal some hierarchical subordination patterns. All the five chronicles contain fragments that letter for letter coincide with those of the Secret History or themselves. These are most evident for initial parts dealing with the ancestors of Genghis Khan. However, despite all the similarities and coincidences no strict interrelation patterns or subordination schemes can be identified. So, the work concludes quite a variety of plots and motifs inherent to seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicles be rooted in the so called avant-textes, or their oral pretexts.

Introduction. The article analyzes some handwritten city plans of Turkistan and Bukhara contained in materials of the traveler D. G. Messerschmidt. Goals. The work examines who and when investigated the plans, analyzes their different versions, and resumes when they were compiled. Materials and methods. The study focuses on D. G. Messerschmidt’s handwritten cartographic depictions of Turkistan and Bukhara housed at St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Messerschmidt Collection). The drawings have been compared to another plan of Turkistan discovered at the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (Moscow). In terms of methodology, the work rests on the principles of historicism and objectivity, with due use of chronological and comparative historical method tools. Results. Our analysis of D. G. Messerschmidt’s plans of Turkistan from two different Russian archives shows the one from the compiler’s personal collection served a source for the copy made by K. Miller. The plans of Turkistan and Bukhara have neither scale nor orthographic elements that would further emerge in Peter the Great’s era. Depictions of towers, houses, and captions resemble ones traced in cartographic works of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The paper suggests the plans were created by a member of Fyodor Skibin’s diplomatic mission upon the latter’s return from Turkistan (the capital of the Kazakh Khanate) via Bukhara to Tobolsk in 1695. So, the copies of these plans may have been made for D. G. Messerschmidt during a visit to Tobolsk as part of his Siberian expedition in 1719–1721. The article involves a variety of topographic, cartographic and archaeological materials to explain all the available inscriptions on the plan of Turkistan, interprets the objects and their designations. Conclusions. The article is first to compare the plan of Bukhara from the Messerschmidt Collection to subsequent ones, including some ethnographic research materials pertaining to the designated city. It also attempts a number of explanations and interpretations for a variety of identified inscriptions. The considered plans from the Messerschmidt Collection secure further important insights into the two capital cities of Central Asia in the late Middle Ages.

Introduction. The article examines a total of three G. F. Müller’s dictionaries of languages spoken by peoples inhabiting the Volga Region, the Urals, and created in the mid-to-late eighteenth century. As a member to the Great Northern Expedition, G. F. Müller arrived in Kazan Governorate (1733) to explore languages, habits and household life of the Volga peoples. Goals. The article employs tools of the LingvoDoc platform (https://lingvodoc.ispras.ru) to analyze grapho-phonetic features of the Tatar language contained in the dictionaries. Materials and methods. The work is first to introduce handwritten dictionaries of G. F. Müller included in Collection 1125 (Müller’s Portfolio 199) at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). Müller’s dictionaries that comprise language materials collected from native speakers have been uploaded onto the LingvoDoc platform, namely: two units compiled from archival dictionaries (Files 513 g1 and 513 g2), and one dictionary from a published book (1791). Those are processed with the aid of LingvoDoc tools to yield a graph of proximity degrees between the dictionaries — and modern standard Tatar, its dialects. The comparative and historical comparative methods prove most instrumental herein. Results. The grapho-orthographic analysis into Tatar-language materials of the dictionaries reveals as follows: 1) all processes of the Tatar consonant shift were completed in the eighteenth century; 2) meanwhile, the Volga vowel shift had not yet been completed, and for [*o] and [*u] the process had not even started; 3) in the eighteenth century, Tatar dialect zones were shaped already; 4) the 1791 Cyrillic dictionary differs from modern standard Tatar and dictionaries in Latin characters by some innovative elements; 5) the latter dictionaries are closer to modern standard Tatar. The corpora and concordances of G. F. Müller’s dictionaries hosted by the LingvoDoc platform make it possible to investigate languages of the Volga Region and verify obtained conclusions using broader materials.

Introduction. Like in many other cultures, the historically multicultural and multilingual environment entails that the oral speech of modern Yukaghirs tends to comprise native and foreign-language material, which is required by the moment and necessary for language development. Despite the small number of speakers, the centuries-old lexical system experiences constant changes manifested in its own and borrowed resources, through oral and book-written narratives. Goals. The article attempts an analysis of Yakut borrowings — the Yakut language being the dominant one across Yakutia — in colloquial Tundra Yukaghir, which also contains elements borrowed from Chukchi, Tungusic and Russian. Materials and methods. The study focuses on transcripts of original audio recordings, such as monologues and dialogues, some of which be newly introduced into scientific circulation. The paper employs a variety of general and special research methods, addresses the available base of foreign-language words from book-written sources to give a qualitative/quantitative representation of Yakut borrowings in colloquial Tundra Yukaghir, and resume Yakut does have most essential impacts on the specified speakers’ repertoire. Results. It has been established that Yakut retains the role of an intermediary language: Yukaghirs tend to absorb Russian words through Yakut, use Yakut sounds for the efficient integration of newly borrowed Russian lexemes, frequently employ Yakut function words (conjunctions and particles). So, slightly less than half of Yakut loanwords prove to be of Russian origin and are widely represented both lexically and thematically. In general, the most relevant lexemes are ones related to home and function words. Ca. 40% of Yakutisms have confirmed or received the status of ‘rooted’ borrowings on the basis of their high frequency, and their ‘foreignness’ often stays virtually unmentioned by the speakers. Like in written sources, oral speech patterns are distinguished by variability of Yakut words even for a single speaker, which testifies to the ongoing processes of integration and frequency of their use. The uniqueness of the disappearing Yukaghir language lies in its vitality paralleled by the active enrichment of its vocabulary and the creative strategy of its speakers seeking to make their speech more expressive.

Introduction. The study presents a comparative analysis of spontaneous written texts in Russian and Chinese. The work focuses on motion event descriptions, which reveals some distinctive features of motion-related linguistic worldview patterns inherent to speakers of these languages. Goals. The article aims to explore cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences in motion event descriptions traced in written texts of native Russian and Chinese speakers, including Taiwanese students learning Russian. To facilitate these, the paper shall: 1) compare morphosyntactic features of motion event descriptions in corresponding texts; 2) investigate some specifics of motion event constructions used by Taiwanese students learning Russian; 3) analyze narrative strategies to identify cross-cultural differences. Materials and methods. The research material includes three types of written texts, namely: 1) Russian-language texts written by native speakers — T1; 2) Russian-language texts written by Taiwanese students learning Russian — T2; 3) Chinese-language texts written by native speakers — T3. Methodologically, the study employs comparative, quantitative and qualitative data analysis tools, as well as ones instrumental in identifying key morphosyntactic features in written texts. Results. The analysis has yielded a number of findings as follows: 1) cross-linguistic morphosyntactic features of motion event descriptions resulting from the comparison of Russian (T1) and Chinese (T3) texts; 2) specific features of motion event constructions in written texts of Taiwanese students resulting from the comparison of T1 and T2 texts; 3) cross-cultural differences resulting from the comparative insight into essentials inherent to the three types at large. So, the paper reveals significant differences in how motion events are described and conceptualized by speakers of Russian and Chinese. Taiwanese students face challenges in conveying motion events in Russian, which are rooted in language interference and the influence of native language. The obtained results highlight the importance of a cross-cultural approach to foreign language studies and the need for targeted efforts to develop students’ skills in using motion event constructions.

Introduction. The article introduces a comparative analysis of probabilistic topic models derived from a Chinese-Russian corpus of parallel and comparable political texts. The corpus developed hereto includes a total of three sub-corpora: Reports on the Work of the Government in 2012–2022 (original Chinese-language texts), their Russian translations, and Presidential Addresses to the Federal Assembly of Russia in 2011–2021 (a comparable Russian-language sub-corpus). Goals. The work aims at identifying and describing topics that prove common within the corpus, as well as ones specific to individual texts. Linguistic interpretations have been conducted with topic labeling tools of the YandexGPT language model, the resulting topic labels be further compared to expert-generated annotations and automatically extracted keyphrases. The conducted probabilistic topic modelling involves the LDA algorithm in TMT (Topic Modeling Tool), as well as the YAKE, mBERT, and TF-IDF algorithms from Orange library for Python. The algorithms are intended to identify keyphrases and find out similarities in topical words across different sub-corpora and between the languages under comparison. Results. So, a family of probabilistic topic models that describe semantic organization of the Chinese-Russian parallel and comparable corpus of political texts has been created. The outcomes of our topic modelling are compared to the automatically extracted keyphrases, and reveal certain intersections for each sub-corpus. The study also provides a part-of-speech (POS) tagging analysis of topical words. As is shown, the models reproduce key paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships in the text corpus. The research is first to present automatically constructed probabilistic topic models for a Chinese-Russian parallel and comparable corpus of political texts, thus filling in some gaps existing in this field.