The article provides an overview of documents in the Archives of Orientalists at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences that contain important information about the history of the manuscripts collection of Gregory IV of Antioch (Haddad) in the early 20th century. The collection of Arabic Christian manuscripts was gifted by Gregory IV to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II during the former’s visit to Saint Petersburg on the occasion of the Romanov Tercentenary. Entering His Majesty’s personal library at the Winter Palace, the collection immediately caught the attention of researchers. One of the first scholars to be granted access to it was the future academician I. Yu. Krachkovsky. He soon created a short catalogue of the collection which was published in 1927 in the 2nd volume of the Bulletin of the Caucasian Historical-Archaeological Institute in Tifl is. It has hitherto been assumed that only Krachkovsky’s early draft has survived which is stored at the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, the author of the article has been able to discover unknown drafts by Krachkovsky in the Archives of Orientalists at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. The notes dating from 1919 allow for the conclusion that Krachkovsky had completed at least two draft versions of the catalogue of the manuscripts of Patriarch of Antioch. Moreover, we can confi rm that it was precisely this 1919 draft which served the basis for the 1927 publication since the earlier drafts were located then in Leiden with the Slavicist Nicolaas van Wijk, with whom Krachkovsky had left them together with other luggage when he had had to leave for St. Petersburg in a hurry. Krachkovsky was forced to cut short his study trip to Europe because of the outbreak of WWI. In 1919, he continued his work on the catalogue of the manuscripts collection of the Patriarch of Antioch, whose collection had by then already been moved from the Winter Palace to the Asiatic Museum. Unfortunately, Nicolaas van Wijk was unable to send the drafts to Krachkovsky in time, so that the latter had to begin the work on the catalogue from zero. Using the example of Krachkovsky’s description of a 12th century Greek lectionary manuscript, the article attempts a comparative analysis of fragments of the 1914 and 1919 drafts. The paper proofs that the basis for the short descriptive catalogue of Gregory IV’s manuscripts collection published in 1927 was the previously unknown 1919 draft. Furthermore, the paper reviews previously unpublished materials from the Archives of Orientalists at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which are linked to Gregory IV’s collection of Arabic Christian manuscripts, such as a copy of the list 3 NATIONAL HISTORY of manuscripts that was compiled upon their transfer to the Asiatic Museum in 1919, and information about the offi cial accounts of the activities of the Asiatic Museum and others.

The article aims to study peculiarities in the formation and evolution of the Tuvan traditional social structure under the Qing rule (1757-1912). With evidence from archival sources, the paper investigates historical conditions for the formation of different social strata and shows characteristic features of social organization within the traditional Tuvan society. Once the Manchu Qing dynasty took control over the territory of Tuvan tribes, administrative and territorial reforms were initiated, new military ranks were introduced, and titles of nobility, insignia gradually began displacing the old titles and ranks. The Buddhist khuree temples were also constructed on the territory of Tannu-Tuva. The changes greatly affected the social organization which had existed within the traditional Tuvan society. The key feature of the formation of social organization in the mid-18th century was that new social strata were introduced into the structure of the traditional Tuvan society, namely: the princely class (Tuvan and Mongolian princes), Buddhist clergy, and bureaucracy. The author determines that offi cials made a special privileged group whose legal status depended on the position and quality of performance of corresponding duties. Since the mid-18th century, the basis of the social system was the territorial organization resulting from the 1759 administrative reform. Transformation of the social structure of the traditional nomadic civilization in the early 20th century lead to further changes in the political organization of society and culture. Under the infl uence of modernization processes that took place in Tannu-Tuva since the beginning of the 20th century there was further social stratifi cation caused by substantial property inequality. The newly marginal strata within the traditional Tuvan society resulted from fi scal policies of the Qing Empire, nomadic pastoralism and extensive penetration of elements of industrial civilization in Tuva: construction of gold mines by Russian entrepreneurs, establishment of salt works and maral farms. The paper describes the history of the formation and transformation of the social organization of the traditional Tuvan society characterizing each social layer and its legal status. The novelty of the article is that it is the fi rst attempt to analyze the Tuvan traditional social structure, reveal its composition and hierarchy of ranks and degrees in Tuva from the mid-18th to the 20th centuries.

The article considers various taxes and duties of the Nogai population to their landlords as well as uniform duties introduced after the Nogais were incorporated into the Russian state. Murzas - leaders of the nomadic auls (Nog. ‘settlement’) - constituted the upper class of the Nogai community. It was to them that ordinary people were supposed to serve their diverse duties. The Nogais were also to pay taxes for the maintenance of the local administration. It should be noted that duties were distributed not in terms of the number of individuals within a household, but rather - the amount of cattle the household possesses. Since 1828, the Russian authorities imposed corresponding duties upon tarkhans, seits and murzas. The Russian administration exercised strict control over distribution of duties. Such distribution was held by village heads in the presence of the leader and senior representatives, and was to be approved by the whole community. No duty could be introduced without the knowledge of the High Commissioner of the Caucasus. Precinct chiefs issued no internal orders pertaining to duties, apportionments and collection of money but obligated senior representatives to perform such activities. Poor widows, disabled and sick people were exempted from servitudes. Heads, senior representatives and aqsaqals also paid no servitudes when in charge of public affairs. Besides, after the Nogai territory was abolished by Russia the nomads were charged with the following duties: transportation of state-owned provisions to shops of the Right and Left Flanks of the North Caucasus Line using their own resources and at their own expense; maintenance of post stations in the Kizlyar-Astrakhan road; recruitment of armed horsemen for them to serve as border guards; transportation of construction materials under the requisition of the Construction Commission stationed in Pyatigorsk. It is noteworthy that in the latter half of the 19th century the food rent began to be partially replaced by a money one. The diverse forms of the food rent were accompanied by various patriarchal labor rents, such as help to murzas and beis, herding of some rich ‘relative’s cattle, etc. In Zasulakskaya Kumykia Nogais paid their landlords 4 sabus for a four-unit plow, one arba of hay or one silver rouble (per household) for a haymaking session, etc. Nogais of the Kumyk Plain were also to perform statute labors. Access to plough land was to be repaid by bulka (‘mutual aid’) - one day of work during planting of wheat and one more during planting of millet; and the same when it came to reap - one day for wheat and one for millet respectively. By the mid-19th century the labor rent had disappeared.

With evidence from newly introduced archival materials, the paper studies the eradication of illiteracy among the USSR’s adult population during the 1950-1960s. It analyzes the causes for the increase in the number of illiterate citizens in the postwar period and concludes that the miserable situation largely resulted from repressive deportations and arrangements of ‘special settlements’ (Rus. ‘spetsposeleniya’). Many children from families of the deported and ‘special settlers’ (Rus. ‘spetsposelentsy’) had no real opportunities to learn the basics of how to read and write. For example, over 23 % of Kalmyk school-age children did not attend school. The government planned to eradicate illiteracy in the USSR during the mid-1950s, however, the lack of funding and poor organization of the work on the identifi cation and training of illiterates impeded the realization of the plans. The attempt by the Ministry of Education to shift the concern for the elimination of illiteracy among trade union members onto trade union organizations had yielded no positive results. The article provides the fi rst attempt to investigate the state illiteracy eradication program. This policy was set in motion throughout the country after enactment of the confi dential decree “On Illiteracy Eradication among the Population” dated 4 January 1958. The paper analyzes the implementation of the decree and its results. In 1958, half a million illiterate citizens aged 16 to 49 years, including 1 611 Kalmyks, were trained in the RSFSR. The 1959 population census showed that the work on elimination of illiteracy had not been completed. The greatest number of illiterates in the RSFSR (as a percentage of the total population of the region) was found in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR (5.6 % of the total population of the autonomous republic) and in the Yakut ASSR (2.3 %). In the Kalmyk ASSR, the census revealed 3 935 illiterates (2.2 % of the total population of the region). In the author’s opinion, such a situation is largely an echo of the policy of deportations and special settlements. The article contains extensive statistical materials on the number of illiterates and semi-literates in the country and its regions.

The article examines one of the topical questions in Kalmykia’s history - the beginnings of the political rehabilitation of the indigenous population groundlessly repressed in December 1943. The USSR’s policy for the rehabilitation of repressed peoples was determined by the Decree of the 20th Congress and a corresponding prescript of the governing Communist Party of the Soviet Union dated 24 November 1956. The rehabilitation policies, fi rst and foremost the political and territorial aspects, were conducted in accordance with defi nite legislative acts. The documents that laid foundation of the Kalmyk people’s rehabilitation process include as follows: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR ‘On Establishment of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast as Part of the RSFSR’ and Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR ‘On Establishment of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast as Part of Stavropol Krai’ of 9 January 1957. The acts had the legal force of laws of the USSR and RSFSR, and, thus, virtually abolished the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR of 27 December and Enactment of the Council of People’s Commissars of 28 December 1943 according to which the Kalmyks had been deported, restoring their national statehood in the form of an administrative autonomy. In natural sequence, the paper considers the graduated arrangements of the party and state aimed to mitigate the ‘special’ regime within ‘special settlements’, partially reinstate civil rights of separate categories of ‘special settlers’. The measures preceded the subsequent rehabilitation of repressed peoples and proved an important milestone on the way there. The Kalmyk people’s political rehabilitation was meaningful not only in terms of restoration of national statehood but also in terms of justice towards innocent victims of the dictatorship when knowingly false accusations against a whole people were fi nally withdrawn.

The article deals with traditional Kyrgyz magical rites practiced till nowadays. It shows shamanistic origins of ritual ablution (‘rukh tazaloo’), fi re purifi cation (‘sham zhaguu, alastoo’), contacts to the spiritual world (‘zhar saluu’), sacrifi ces (‘kurmandyk, sadaga, tülöö’), invocations and spells (‘dem saluu’). The magical tradition of the Kyrgyz people is considered in the context of Turkic shamanism which is characterized by beliefs in spirits, power of the elements and sacred places. Spirits of ancestors and other magic beings are acting through their elects, i.e. shamans and healers. According to folk views, water and fi re also have healing powers. The folk tradition ‘kyrgyzchylyk’ is examined as a cultural and historical phenomenon resulting from combinations of shamanistic and Islamic elements. The article demonstrates structural relationships between the Kyrgyz magical rites. Same rites can be applied in different situations, following one another and interrupting each other during the whole ceremony. The information from ethnologists and folklorists is illustrated by a number of evidences received from informants residing in Northern Kyrgyzstan and interviewed by the author from 2011 to 2016. The paper traces some parallels between the Kyrgyz magic rites and shamanistic practices of the Turkic and Mongolic peoples who have cultural and genetic relationships with the Kyrgyz population. The article also pays signifi cant attention to the important role of the altered states of consciousness (ASC) in the rites of the Kyrgyz shamans and healers. ASCs are very important for ‘zhar saluu’ practices standing for mediumistic contacts to spirits. Describing sacrifi ces and highlighting the functional difference between the diverse sacrifi cial rites the paper hypothesizes that the ritual formula ‘aylanayyn’ is related to the archaic sacrifi ces which created a basis for the proto-religious cults. The article uses the data of ethnologists, cultural scientists including the poorly studied manuscript ‘Songs and Words of Bakshy’ by Togolok Moldo and the author’s field data.

The article aims to study the forms of marriage and family among the Tuvans of Russia, Mongolia and China from a comparative perspective. The study of the forms of marriage and family of Tuvinians is supposed to shed light upon the complex history of social relations in Tuva in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, and identify conditions for the existence of some archaic features of marriage relationships. At the same time, the study of marriage and family relations in the period of transformation processes can identify ways of building new forms of marriage and family required for further development and improvement of the norms of marital relations among the Tuvinians. The undoubted feature of the article is that fi eld materials collected by the author on the territory of the Republic of Tuva, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China have been apllied for the analysis within the study.

The fairy tale genre constitutes quite a fruitful part of Kalmyk folklore. Along with the epic, myths, legends and proverbs, fairy tales are integral to the centuries-old spiritual culture. And household fairy tales are especially signifi cant to the Kalmyk fairy tale repertory. Despite the fact that - as is evident from historiography of Kalmyk fairy tale studies - corresponding texts have been recorded and collected since long ago, the internal genre diversity of Kalmyk folklore still remains understudied. Household fairy tales have not yet been subject to special folklore studies though it is widely recognized that those are compositions of high artistic merit. Their well-defi ned specifi city manifests itself in peculiar plots, the system of images and characters, defi nite artistic pictorial means. The article studies the artistic world of Kalmyk household fairy tales which is usually based on alogism and expressed by certain pictorial means to reveal the typical identifi cations of characters and ideological content of the fairy tales. The theoretical and methodological foundation for the paper is constituted by works of Russian scholars, such as V. Gatsak, L. Barag, E. Pomerantseva, V. Anikin, V. Propp, Yu. Yudin and others. The introductory part contains brief historiographic data on how the fairy tales have been collected, published and studied. The body of the article - with reference to classifi cation schemes of the Russian scholars - divides Kalmyk household fairy tales into certain plot and thematic groups and examines most complete variants of plots from the categories. The considered materials are characterized by brevity of narration and evident social orientation as well as a comic and ironical style resulting from the whole content, themes and satirical means applied. Dialogue - i. e. short, felicitous and witty remarks of the characters in response to their opponents’ answers - is the main form of speech within the structure of household fairy tales. Qualities of a dialogue largely depend upon the talent of a taleteller, his or her acting abilities and profi ciency in expressing satirical components within amusive story lines of the fairy tales. The traditional adherence to ‘formulas’ inherent to, e. g., magic fairy tales is not usually the case of household ones (except for some initial and median formulas); constant median formulas and triplings are episodic. Artistic means of satirical denunciation are diverse enough: irony, contrast, exaggeration, antithesis. Laughter serves a special means to express the main idea, it conveys the specifi city of household tales based on description of unusual situations and events. When it comes to the portrayal of characters, contrast and exaggeration are usually applied; otherwise some feature of the main character is depicted in detail. The investigated fairy tales contain elements of magic tales, anecdotes, legends; those also refl ect the national history, with special attention paid to ethno-local peculiarities of economy and different ways of life. The artistic specifi city of Kalmyk household fairy tales helps conceive the folk talent and wisdom, beauty and accuracy of the language, contributes to further understanding the aesthetic and spiritual wealth of the nation.

The article examines the cognitive opposition ‘зонд / cleverness - æнæзонддзинад / stupidity’ represented by lexemes nominating human mental abilities in the poetry of K. Khetagurov, a classic of Ossetian literature. The research is based on the frequency scale of the vocabulary of The Ossetian Lyre (Osset. ‘Iron Fandyr’) - a small collection of poems which programmed the poet’s work as well as the history of the national literature in general. In the process of analytical investigation of the texts, the key words representing the mental sphere and composition of their semantic space have been identifi ed. This space encompasses alongside with the ‘encoding’ lexeme - a basis word-form, all derivative words plus lexemes which have different system relations; to meet the requirements on the size of the article, predicates were reserv ed as a topic of special further research. The paper aims to defi ne content descriptions of the nominative fi eld of the concepts ‘зонд / cleverness - æнæзонддзинад / stupidity’; to assess originality of the individual-authorial values they contain; and, fi nally, to give a systemic idea about properties and conformities to law of functioning of intellectual vocabulary in the author’s poetic vocabulary. In accordance with the defi ned goals, a comprehensive approach with the use of analytical methods of linguo-conceptual analysis coupled with methods of cognitive literary criticism have been applied. Structuring components of the nominative fi eld of the concept are implemented in the article according to the fi eld principle: from a nuclear segment to periphery. But as distinguished from the classifi ers accepted in linguistics and based on statistical methods, the hierarchy of inter-level interaction of conceptual units is ranked according to the degree of artistic meaningfulness and novelty of individual authorial representations of their basic descriptions. On the basis of multi-aspectual analysis of semantics of keywords and features of their functioning (etymologic characteristics, metaphorical and metonymic concept objectivization models, types of fi gurative and associative meanings, etc.) conclusions are drawn about the specifi city of this fragment of K. Khetagurov’s individual vision of the world, the sphere of human mental activities. In particular, the cognitive parameters that form contents of the concept ‘зонд / cleverness’ are as follows: motivation of ideological and spiritual leadership, creative potential of the mind, aspects of the age-related dynamics (uncontrollable reactions of youth consciousness, analytics, quickness of reaction in mature age, wisdom of old age), gender-marked characteristics, their social causality, etc. The concept ‘æнæзонддзинад / stupidity’ in the poet’s artistic vision of the world corresponds to as follows: good deeds should be accomplished with mind and reason; immobility of the mind is a factor of defeat; it is impossible to live only by mind and merits of ancestors; fl ight into ‘reckless’ fantasy is preferable to the commonness of boring prudence. The constituents of classifi cation signs are listed in the structure of both the concepts, as well as sphere and reasons of their display. Complexity of texts with intentionally obscured message (‘That’s it?’, ‘The Reckless Shepherd’), where lexemes ‘зонд’ and ‘æрра’ representing human mental functions are not explicitly opposed, hinders direct or unambiguous interpretations. The interpretation undertaken in the article turns to the biographical basis for the representation of the world, the tradition of setting ‘normality’ against ‘madness’ in the world literature.

The article summarizes theoretical materials accumulated by researchers and clarifi es the author’s interpretation of the term ‘regional identity’ which is necessary for the development of programs and technologies of mass survey of Tatarstan’s population. The paper analyzes the components of regional identity, factors and methods of formation as well as relations with other identities. There are several approaches to understanding a region: 1) a geographical one, i.e. a region is considered as part of the Earth’s surface with defi nite physical and geographical boundaries. Some authors point out the importance of unity in these terms; 2) an ethnographic one, i. e. regional division is connected with the specifi city of economic and cultural landscape, language and ethnic structure of the population caused by certain geographical peculiarities; 3) a political one, i.e. the concept of ‘region’ is used to denote a unit of administrative-territorial structure of the state; 4) a sociological one, i.e. a region is equal to the society established within the area. There are two basic approaches to the ‘nature’ of regional identity: the fi rst one is objectivistic, i. e. identity is understood as a refl ection of the objectively existing socio-territorial structures and social community. The second one is subjectivistic, i. e. identity is treated as a unity constructed during social interactions with the special role of elites. It is Berger and Luckmann’s ‘moderate’ constructivism coupled with Bourdieu’s integrative theory that most suitably corresponds to studies of the republic and identicalness of the population with it in the context of ethnocultural branding of the territory. Some provisions developed in the sociology of space by Simmel - since the specifi city of the studied identity is associated with a particular area - are as important. The analysis of the works showed that those are territorial unity, defi nite boundaries (in particular, the political-administrative ones), community of economic interests and historical past that serve as the main prerequisites for the formation of regional identity. Ethnic specifi city of the region, level of social and economic development, a particular geographical location, stability of administrative boundaries and existence of a ‘central’ city are factors that enhance the signifi cance of feelings and awareness of socially-territorial community of people. Constructivists emphasize the importance of activities and consolidation of the elites and their abilities to express the moods of the masses, favorably represent the territory outside and be aware of their consolidation role. Researchers have identifi ed some constructing techniques: development and consolidation of symbols of a territory, representation of its ethno-cultural images and history, their consolidation through regional branding activities and implementation of megaprojects. At the same time, despite the fact that there are a number of scientifi c works about regional branding and regional identity, the question of relationships and the simultaneous development of this phenomenon especially on the empirical sociological material still remains understudied. Regional identity is constructed in interaction with state-civil, ethnic, global and local identities and is largely determined by relationships of the region with central authorities, other regions and most signifi cant international socio-political subjects.