Introduction: The article studies a number of archival materials — some of the latter being newly introduced into scientific discourse — and examines the incorporation of Tuvans into Russia’s political space through the establishment of its protectorate over Tannu Uriankhai. The Tsarist Government would elaborate different plans to spread its influence, including somewhat military annexation of the territory. The problems were negotiated at multiple levels of the Russian power structures. A most debating point proved the task of administering both the native and Russian populations. The consultations resulted in shaping a moderate policy aimed to strengthen their positions through inflows of ethnic Russian peasants into Tuva.
Goals: The paper aims to investigate some issues of administrative and territorial management in Tuva after the establishment of Russia’s protectorate in 1914.
Methods: The applied empirical methods included comparisons, descriptions, interpretations, and system analysis; the theoretical ones comprised historicism patterns and those of formal and dialectical logic.
Results: The actual political situation required that certain corrections be introduced into the regional management system, namely: Russian administrative bodies were to be organized, their competences to be delineated, protocols for liaison between the Commissariat, Migration Department, and their relations to local authorities, Russian and Tuvan populations to be clarified. Representatives of the Russian Government employed experienced, initiative officials (A. Tsererin, V. Gabaev, V. Grigoriev) whose efficient and active efforts largely contributed to the establishment of the protectorate and facilitated the subsequent implementation of administrative and territorial reforms in the region. A number of important tasks (e.g., construction of the Usinsky Tract, conflicts between natives and newly arrived groups) required the involvement of the Governor-General of Irkutsk.
Conclusions: The Xinhai Revolution gave Russia an opportunity to strengthen its positions in Tuva. The Russian officials chose the path of indirect governance through establishing close contacts with khoshun (Tuv. kozhuun ‘district’) rulers or appointing loyal individuals. The approach facilitated the formation of new political elites in Tuva. As a result, the Mongols were removed from power, and all Tuvan khoshuns and sumons (Tuv. sumon ‘township’) were governed by natives. So, Lama K. Chymba was elected as head of one of the multiple khoshuns, and four sumons were transformed into two new khoshuns.
The then Tuvan political elites failed to come to a consensus about national self-determination, which partly stemmed from somewhat indifferent attitudes of theirs towards Tuva’s future and the still lingering inclinations to former administrative procedures.

Introduction: Soon after the launch of new Socialist healthcare policies in national autonomies (including Buryat-Mongolia), the algorithms and methods developed thereby were required for the similar transformations in Outer Mongolia. Soviet medical assistance to Mongolia followed two ways: employment of Russian doctors for them to join the public Mongolian healthcare service, and organization of medical and sanitary expeditions. The article examines health problems of local cattle herders as viewed by Soviet physicians and healthcare institutors in the Mongolian People’s Republic in the late 1920s – mid-1930s. Soviet health professionals produced a voluminous layer of professional representations regarding the everyday life and practices of local inhabitants. Those have rarely been addressed to as historical sources, and have never studied as cultural anthropology research sources.
Goals: The article aims to identify such narratives as distinct sources for interpretative anthropology studies and to analyze the described representations of traditional Mongolian lifestyles in the eyes of university-educated medical specialists inclined to apply modern approaches and methodologies. From this viewpoint, the article offers a new relevant perspective on a complex issue of medicine as a tool of Soviet-style modernization in Mongolia.
Methods: The research methodology is based on the modern history of medicine. The study approaches the implementation of Socialist medicine in Mongolia as a process of complex multi-layered interactions between European scientific medicine and traditional nomadic lifestyles, including the religious worldview and indigenous medical systems, such as folk medicine and Tibetan medicine. Medical texts are also viewed as sources for interpretative anthropology and textual reflections of the writers’ subjective characteristics, their professional and ethical backgrounds. The approach stems from interpretative anthropology by Clifford Geertz.
Results: The study shows that in the late 1920s traditional Mongolian lifestyles seemed anti-sanitary in the eyes of Soviet physicians. The latter viewed most of the then practices as deviations from the European hygienic norms. Sexual life, traditional dwellings, food, clothes, childbirth procedures, and childcare were the most castigated aspects of the then social norms. In the 1930s, the emerged social changes resulted in that the Soviet medical attitudes to the everyday life of natives — though still seriously contested — became a little more reserved.
Nevertheless, some Soviet physicians in Mongolia actually criticized their colleagues for the subjective vision of the Mongolian life. In part, such criticism reflected the need to fixate the Socialist achievements in medical narratives. However, the critique was basically objective enough as it pointed at the fact that many Soviet doctors viewed the Mongolian traditions as a priori anti-sanitary, giving no credit to all excellent hygienic habits and practices that the Mongols had developed over the millennia.
Most Soviet doctors from the very outset viewed the Mongolian traditions as deviations from the hygienic norms. Even if those were right from the medical viewpoint, it was the lack of cultural knowledge and understanding of how vital those traditions were in the Mongolian context that prevented them from correctly assessing the scale and depth of the social and cultural phenomena they were dealing with.

Introduction: The article analyzes military biographies of Kalmykia’s residents — Kalmykia-born individuals (within the boundaries of 1941), individuals who had arrived from other territories to be conscripted by the Red Army in the republic, and other alien-born citizens to have resided in Kalmykia after 1957 — who had received ‘orders for commanding officers’. The latter include orders awarded to senior and middle-ranking officers for military commanding skills only, namely: Order of Suvorov, Order of Kutuzov, Order of Bogdan Khmeltitsky (the range of recipients being a little wider), and Order of Alexander Nevsky. The orders were established by the Soviet Government in 1942–1943 when it became evident that commanding skills of Red Army officers was far more important and significant than individual bravery or even political fanaticism.
During the Great Patriotic War, 35 residents of Kalmykia (including five ones awarded twice) received such military decorations: four Orders of Suvorov, three Orders of Kutuzov, five Orders of Bogdan Khmeltitsky, and twenty eight Orders of Alexander Nevsky. The paper contains concise military biographies of all the 35 cavaliers.
Goals: The paper aims to examine military biographies of Kalmykia’s cavaliers of ‘orders for red Army commanders’ and reveal their somewhat distinct and common features.
Methods: The study applied both general scientific methods (typological classification, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, comparison and analogy) and those of special historical research (historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological, and historical-systematic methods).
Results: The statistical analysis revealed a number of distinct features inherent to this group of military commanders. For example, the majority of the investigated individuals (28 of 35) were young enough being aged 16 to 29 (at the outbreak of the war) to have been brought up during the Soviet era in strict adherence to Communist ideals and representations. The six older commanders (aged 31 to 38 respectively) were those to have voluntarily supported the Soviet regime, thus, being eager to defend it even at the expense of their lives. The bulk of the examined cavaliers were infantry officers, and included no representatives of technology-packed troops (fleet, air power, armored force, army signals). When viewed from a perspective of ethnic composition, only one third of the list is represented by ethnic Kalmyks, which evidently disagrees with the all-Union censuses according to which Kalmyks constituted a majority in the region. This had been largely contributed to by the unjust collaborationist accusations against the Kalmyks followed by a deportation of the whole nation to easternmost regions of the country.

The paper examines the development of Russia's customs policy in the Central Asian region in the mid-to-late 19th c. The main part of the paper is a publication of a staff report written by Vladimir P. Cherevansky, a Russian high-rank official to Turkestan, namely, Head of Chamber of Control, in the 1870s. As a member of Commission for Russian Trade in Central Asia he disagreed with his colleagues on customs evolution and expressed his opinion in the report addressed to Konstantin von Kaufman, the then Governor-General of Turkestan.
Since the 18th c. Russia had implemented the most favorable treatment towards merchants from the Central Asian khanates (Bukhara, Khiva, Khoqand, etc.) but their monarchs never responded equally. In the 1850s – 1860s, the Russian Empire substantially widened its possessions in Central Asia, shifting its borders southward. It caused a necessity of closing customs stations on the former borders (in particular, in Orenburg region). However, imperial authorities did not agree on whether or not to establish new ones in the newly annexed Russian Turkestan. The problem of customs policy of the Russian Empire (Turkestan Governor-Generalship being its specific region) towards Central Asian Khanates has been studied in a number of works, but the published document was never analyzed properly, whereas its content and especially its author are of great importance to go deeply into that difficult situation in the Russian customs policy to Central Asia.
V. P. Cherevansky’s report mirrored different opinions on customs policy and, in fact, the end of the era of free-trade in the Russian Empire in general, and its Central Asian trade specifically. The content of report was influenced by debates between central authorities on administration of Turkestan — the Ministry of Finance and the Military Ministry. Although V. P. Cherevansky and Kaufman represented, respectively, financial authorities and military circles, they were not in conflict, and the report is an evidence of their constructive and respectful relations. In fact, the author of the report, who ex officio had to support free-trade policy, manifested his adherence to protectionism and strict customs policy towards Central Asian khanates and potential competitors from British India.
The publication of the report also gives more information on V. P. Cherevansky as such. He was not just an official of a high rank (not only to Turkestan but later in Moscow and St. Petersburg where he finished his career as senator and member of the State Council), but also an author of novels and historical essays. His literary talents can well be seen in the published report, its style and content.
Still, first of all V. P. Cherevansky was a professional with expertise in Russian Central Asian affairs. That is why his arguments were kept in mind by both local Turkestanian rulers and central authorities. However, the process of establishment of the customs system in Russian Central Asia proved long-term. Only in the late 19th c. it was finally organized with the aid of Cherevansky’s proposals.

Goals: The article deals with the issues of inter-ethnic relations between Siberian peoples in the 20th century. The nationalities policy experienced significant transformations in the 20th century, with subsequent impacts on virtually all ethnic communities of the former Russian Empire. The paper examines distinct features inherent to mutual relations between Siberia’s peoples in the context of the introduced nationalities policy. Special attention is paid to the available archival sources that make it possible to analyze the concept of the nationalities policy as such and understand its significance for Siberian communities. The work provides an overview and analysis of some documents on the performance of the policy in the region, and attempts to identify the distinctive features of relations between local peoples.
Methods: The methodology includes content analysis of documents ― from both federal and regional archives ― on the 20th-century history of Siberia’s peoples, analysis of statistical and migration data. The paper investigates corresponding processes through analysis of documents issued by the USSR Central Department of Nationalities Policy (Narkomnats, VTsIK Department of Nationalities) and those of the regional level stored in the State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It reviews a number of documents to reconstruct the ethnographic portrait of 20th-century Siberia with due regard of the inter-ethnic processes that developed during the mentioned period.
Results: The main results of the study include a systematization of the 20th-century relations between Siberian peoples and corresponding conclusions that characterize peculiarities of those relations. The study confirms the henotic function of the Russian language within the ethnographically diverse Siberia, mentions such a peculiarity of the Siberian archival heritage as non-homogenous modernization of management processes and records keeping procedures, and specifies the problem of identifying documents on the national history of Siberian peoples arising due to separate databases dispersed within a wide range of archival funds. The significance of the present contemporary study lies in that its results can be used in integrated research works dealing with the history of Siberian peoples and the history of 20th-century inter-ethnic relations in general. The research results can also be applied in training courses on the history of inter-ethnic relations and the history of Siberia.

Goals: The article revises the concepts of civil nation and national identity to clarify the newly introduced — for Russian academic discourse — notion of civic religion which is basically misrepresented being believed to postulate religious tolerance and elimination of interfaith conflicts as its goal and essence. Ultimately, the paper aims to show a required internal connection between national identity and civic religion.
The study proves the thesis that a political component of a civic nation cannot be self-sufficient, and that it is possible only due to the irremovable historical / cultural component. The widely used concept of national identity has been reduced to formal ethnic (or citizenship) affiliations, and pursuant thereto its functional content and instrumentality in social research of civil solidarity / disintegration are examined. Special attention is paid to E. Durkheim’s concept of the religious to clarify the notion of civic religion. The concept serves to substantiate the thesis that society is viewed as something sacral — and not merely a living environment — by separate individuals, and that from socio-political perspectives practices of civic religion are urgent to any national state.
Methods: The research methodology is based on social constructivism according to which national identity is not a certainty but a result of purposeful activities manifested in the institution of civic religion. The task to reveal the operation principles of the institution has been solved through the analysis of works by J.-J. Rousseau, J. Michelet, R. Bellah, and V. Legoida.
Examining the problem of identity, the study drew evidence from the analytical article Beyond Identity by R. Brubaker and F. Cooper, most useful being corresponding characteristics of ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ identities. This resulted in an original understanding of their connections, namely their dialectical connections, which helped show the topicality of civic religion as an institution and reveal a distinctive feature of national identity.
Conclusions: It is concluded that national identity and citizenship actually result from a variety of intense impacts contained in civic religion. At the same time, being an integral part of social life, civic religion is a practice with no guaranteed result, and basically aims to reconcile individual attitudes towards one’s own state / motherland with existential fundamentals of reality (life, love, family, death).

Goals: The article studies traditional costumes in material and spiritual culture of the Bashkir people. The national clothes endowed with certain meanings would perform various sign functions thus determining differences in behavior and communication.
The paper aims to identify and describe the mentioned sign functions of Bashkir clothes within a wide range of identities, including ethnic, geographical, gender, age, social ones, etc.
Methods: Descriptive, structurally functional, comparative and typological research methods have been applied to identify semantic values of clothes in the Bashkir traditional culture and define the social relations attached to clothes, including affiliations with certain groups and typological parallels with other nations.
Results: The research applies an integrated approach involving a comprehensive analysis of historical, philosophical, ethnographic works, and collected field data.
The national costume had been endowed with certain semantic interpretations and showed a status of its owner, basically corresponding to beauty ideals accepted within a separate ethnic environment. The language of clothes indicated ethnic origins, gender, age, marital and social status of the interlocutor, including his / her belonging to a certain generation, his / her actual life cycle.
The color map, fashion, ornaments and jewelry manifested the traditional beliefs about the universe, showed religious affiliation. Any detail of clothes was historically, mythologically, and economically — from household and practical perspectives — reasonable. The generation (life-cycle) affiliation was most vividly shown in dresses. Bright colors and diverse jewelry were typical for youth clothes, those of childbearing-aged women. Children’s garments contained a minimum of components. Reserved color scales and less jewelry characterize suits of elderly and aged women. Each element of clothes coupled with others conveyed an individual text to characterize the owner.
Traditional society laid special emphasis upon clothes since any discrepancies gave rise to condemnation, sometimes mockery. Handling with different elements of clothes was closely connected with ancient beliefs, ideas about vital force, happiness, wellbeing (Bash. ‘ҡот’ / ‘qot’) therefore lucky clothes were not to be donated, men’s costumes were not to be used in household activities. Clothes of authoritative elderly people were used to extend their stamina, longevity, health to subsequent generations.
The traditional etiquette, customs and traditions maintained such clothes-related practices that corresponded to practical, religious, sacral, esthetic, and ethical representations.
Conclusions: In traditional society, costumes were a source of information, allowed to define unmistakably the gender, age, marital and social status, geographical, tribal, and even economic affiliations. All sign functions of clothes, being reference points, served as a criterion to pose the interlocutor within the binary opposition ‘we’ / ‘they’, facilitated regulation activities within family and society. The traditional costume served to transmit ethnic knowledge from one generation to another.

Goals: Proceeding from multi-year field research data, the paper attempts to review some trends in the development of Buryatia’s contemporary shamanism.
Methods: The work applies historical-comparative and comparative-contrastive research methods; a variety of field ethnographic research methods were used to collect corresponding analytical materials.
Results: The study provides an overview of current shamanistic practices in Buryatia. It is noteworthy that the new generation of shamans are university-educated individuals with experience in different specialities. Thus, the ‘shamanistic intelligentsia’ has taken shape. Their practices include not only traditional rites but also public conversations in the media aimed to facilitate the promotion of shamanistic beliefs and world outlooks. They write books, appear in documentary films, leave their ancestral lands for different Russian and foreign cities to perform their practices there — which has been frown upon in classical shamanism. The emergence of associations and alliances of shamans have resulted in that nowadays they engage in publishing and teaching (educational) activities. The new challenges required that personalities of traditional shamans change accordingly, and the new generation of in-demand shamans do possess such personal qualities.
The article comprises two parts. Part One generally characterizes the topic and depicts portrayals of three female shamans — representatives of the mentioned ‘shamanistic intelligentsia’, namely: Nadezhda Stepanova, Yeshir-Khorlo Tsybikzhapova, and Vera Taglasova. Their shamanistic evolutions are traditional enough and have included certain stages, such as shamanistic illness and shamanistic roots (even in cases of mixed parentage). At the same time, all the mentioned present-day female shamans of Buryatia have university degrees (in the humanities and culture), maintain close relations with academic circles, stay at the forefront of public life, being activists of shamanistic associations and regularly promoting corresponding beliefs and representations.
Part Two examines places of shamans and their associations in the new Russia. The paper shows that the newly emerged shamanistic organizations seek to keep performing their practices in changing environments when, acting as an official, shamans can register their sacred places as specially protected territories. On the other hand, another challenge of theirs is to protect the public from pseudo-shamans that have significantly increased in numbers recently. This part also contains sections to deal with the issues, such as ‘shamans and scientists’, ‘shamans and ecology’. Both the parts of the article to be published in two consecutive issues of the journal shall be supplemented with complete references.

Goals: The paper provides an overview of Kalmyk homonymic studies, determines criteria to differentiate between homonyms and polysemantic words, describes lexical and semantic ties between different variants of one word or different words, examines grammatical and word-forming homonymy. The work is a case study of lexical materials collected through continuous sampling of homonyms contained in the Kalmyk-Russian Dictionary by B. Muniev and the author’s card-catalogue compiled from literary writings, oral folklore texts, and periodicals.
Methods: The study conducts a qualitative and quantitative analysis of pairs of modern Kalmyk lexemes with diverse homonymic ties that proved helpful in identifying types (and kinds) of homonymy.
Results: The study revealed the types of homonyms as follows: lexical, grammatical, and phonetic ones.
Lexical homonyms can be etymologically divided into three groups.
Group 1 includes genetically unrelated homonyms, namely, etymological, historical, and heterogeneous ones. Such etymological homonyms appeared as results of full phonetic and scriptural matches of different words, e. g., өңг ‘color, pigment’ — өңг ‘friend, comrade’, саам ‘milk yield’ — саам ‘period of time’, цоохр ‘starred sturgeon’ — цоохр ‘variegated’.
Group 2 includes genetically related homonyms that have resulted from conversions and split polysemies; those are referred to as semantic of homogenous homonyms. For example, орм ‘place’ — орм ‘trace, trail’, ооср ‘rope’ — ооср ‘dog-collar’, ору ‘estrus’ — ору ‘(spring) flood’.
Group 3 includes homonyms that emerged with the aid of word-forming affixes, such homonyms being referred to as derivative ones. For example, тавта ‘convenient, favorable’ — тавта ‘five-year-old’ — тавта ‘he who is ready (to act)’.
Grammatical homonyms, or homoforms, are words that coincide phonetically and scripturally only in separate grammatical forms but are semantically different, e.g., ке ‘beautiful, elegant’ — ке ‘do’, нар ‘bone, cube’ — нар ‘Come here!’, сур ‘leather bag’ — сур ‘Ask!’.
Another kind of omoforms is conversion when a word of one part of speech functionally acts as that of another. For example, киитн үвл ‘cold winter’ (adj.) — киитн ирв ‘cold has come’ (noun), ноһан альчур ‘green kerchief’ — ноһан шавшна ‘grass trembles’.
There are homonyms similar phonetically but differing scripturally, the latter referred to as homophones. For example, that is the case when a voiced consonant becomes a voiceless one: бордх ‘fatten’ — бортх ‘leather vessel, leather flask (for milk vodka)’, ядх ‘get tired’ — ятх ‘yatkha (a musical instrument)’.
Dialectal differences in the Kalmyk literary language have also given rise to a number of homophones, such as үмсх (Torghut) ‘kiss’ — өмсх (Dorbet) ‘put on’, хүв (Torg.) ‘share’ — хөв (Dorb.) ‘happiness’, төгәх ‘give’ — түгәх ‘infect’.
The Kalmyk lexical system also contains omographs — words that are similar scripturally but differ phonetically, e.g., бод ‘cattle’ — бод(э) ‘think, reflect’, тул ‘taimen (fisg)’ — тул(э) ‘Support!’.
There are a number of coincidences between Kalmyk and loan words that differ by location of stress only, e.g., Kalm. бор(0) ‘grey’ — Rus. бóр ‘pinewood’; Kalm. ад(0) ‘fury’ — Rus. áд ‘hell’; Kalm. хор(0) ‘poison’ — рус. хóр ‘choir’.
Conclusions: The analysis conducted shows that Kalmyk homonyms emerge through a variety of lexical transformations, grouped homonyms to be classified depending upon language contexts.
Thus, the work attempts to semantically describe formation means, types and patterns of homonyms in the Kalmyk literary language.

Goals: Тhe аrticlе aims to investigate the origins of the word ҡыҙыл ‘red’ in the Bashkir language, trace its evolution against the common Turkic background, and reveal the semantic message of the color term.
Methods: Semantic analysis method — analysis of meanings of diverse color terms to denote ‘red’ — served as the leading research method. The comparative historical method was used to identify the common and specific in the evolution of terms and their meanings, a synchronous method applied to identify denotative and connotative components of meanings.
Results: The study revealed that the current gloss qїδїl ‘red’ dates back to the proto-Turkic *Kϊř-ϊl ‘red’ which might have originated from the proto-Altaic form *kiūŕu ‘red; brown, dark’. The word is recorded in all Turkic idioms with some phonetic changes. In the Bashkir language it takes a number of phonetic variants, such as qїδїl / qїhїl / qїzїl. Changes in the sound composition of the word result from the emergence of specific sounds in the Bashkir phonetic structure.
The main meaning of the gloss is designation of the red-orange part of the spectrum (red and its shades, i.e., orange, red, pink, scarlet). In addition, the lexeme qїδїl is actively used in word formation being involved in the formation of a variety of terms, such as phytonyms, zoonyms, anatomical terms, names of minerals, etc. Generally speaking, the range of red in the Turkic languages includes the red and orange spectra. Shades of red can appear monolexemic as in qїδїl (qїδїl sӓsle ‘red-haired’). In most cases, the red color saturation is expressed / formed analytically (qujї qїδїl ‘dark red’), as well as by particles and affixes to construct degrees of adjectives (qïp-qїδїl, selt / sem qїδїl ‘very red, utterly red’, qїδγїlt ‘reddish’).
Moreover, the analyzed Bashkir lexeme has not only the meaning of color but also obtains certain connotative meanings. It has developed the following secondary connotations: ‘ripe’ (the transfer of ‘red’ > ‘ripe’ occurs in regard to ripe berries, fruits), ‘bright’ (resulting from the physical property of red brightness); ‘east’ (in Bashkir toponymy); ‘Soviet’, ‘revolutionary’ (in historical terms); various substances (blush, rust); ‘completely, very’ (i.e., a strong degree of manifestation of some quality / feature); it also acts as a mythologized color to perform a protective function.
Conclusions: The paper summarizes that the Bashkir term has cetain proto-Turkic and proto-Altaic bases; in the course of its evolution the word has undergone phonetic changes, semantics assumed certain forms and developed against the common Turkic background. Nevertheless, in the Bashkir toponymy (different from other Turkic languages) the meaning of the color term red as ‘eastern’ comes to the fore which is explained by the red colour of the sky at sunrise.

Introduction: Analysis of semantic word structures, revelation and restoration of its meaning in an epic text is quite a difficult task aggravated by chronological non-homogeneity of different versions of the epic, loss or obscurity of semantics of a word, its conversion to passive vocabulary and some structural changes.
Goals: The paper aims to semantically analyze structures of lexemes that denote weapons (тоорцг/товрцг, елдң) in the heroic epic of Jangar. 
Methods: The automatic analysis of texts makes it possible to operate large quantities of data, and it is the contextual method that comes to the forefront as a basic means to calculate some typical compatibility patterns for each lexical unit. Besides, analysis of dictionary entries coupled with valence analysis reveal peculiarities of semantic definitions in lexicographic sources, grammatical and accentual features of sought-for units.
Results: The study has not only revealed and restored the meaning of a separate lexeme but also — in some places — identified semantic differences within the same lexeme. The differences are determined by differing contexts of use that — in their turn — result from stadial peculiarities of a certain version of the epic, distinct features of the taleteller’s performance tradition, and chronological periods when the oral epic text was recorded.
Conclusions: The right use (meaning) of the word товрцг is ‘a whip (scourge) with a reinforced tip and a plaiting pattern resembling that of a closed pine-cone’, i.e., ‘a combat whip (scourge)’. The word belongs to a common Turko-Mongolic vocabulary of the peoples inhabiting (originating from) the Sayan-Altai highlands. The form тоорцг (traced twice in texts recorded from D. Shavaliev) can also be viewed as the author’s novelty or a distortion. Still, the form could have appeared as a misspelling during a recording of the oral text.
The lexeme елдң is widely (52 times) met in different versions and contexts of the epic. Its meanings vary depending upon stadial (chronological) affiliations of the version and areas the performance traditions came from. Within the epic text the word елдң is used in denotative and connotative meanings thus giving rise to quite a semantic spectrum: 1) ‘nagaika’ as a whip — маля; 2) ‘bodyguard’, ‘defender’; 3) ‘noble, idle’; 4) ‘irrepressible’, ‘fidgety’, ‘restless’, ‘fussy’. So, in the early Baγa Dorbet version the lexeme елдң manifests the meanings as follows: 1) ‘nagaika’ as a whip — маля; 2) елдң is widely used as ‘hero’, specifically as ‘nagaika-bearer’. In meaning 3, the word is contextually translated as ‘noble, celebrating’ to depict Jangar Bogdo, the main character, to whom his knights (warriors) arrive to celebrate Tsaγan Sar. In meaning 4, ‘irrepressible’ елдң serves to describe the popular epic hero Khongor and underline his violence and impetuosity.
In later versions of the epic a semantic spectrum of the word елдң contains semes as follows: 1) ‘nagaika’ as a whip — маля; 2) not used; 3) not used; 4) in a connotative meaning it is used to negatively characterize a ‘self-willed, restless’ individual. Consequently, the semantic spectrum of the lexeme елдң grows narrower and poorer — on its way from the early Baγa Dorbet version of the epic towards post-classical ones.

Introduction: Official Kalmyk writing — like that of any other Mongolic language — had been well developed since the emergence of the Mongol Empire and its successor states. Even within Russia’s boundaries the Kalmyks kept sophisticating their writing practices, special emphasis having been paid to administrative correspondence and records management.
The National Archive of Kalmykia contains 18th-century documents addressed by Kalmyk nobility to Russian authorities. The bulk of the texts date back to the period of the Kalmyk Khanate when regular state contacts facilitated the development of official Kalmyk writing to meet the requirements of Imperial Russia’s correspondence protocols.
Documents in Clear Script mirrored both the then literary and conversational variants of the Kalmyk language, and now serve as the basic sources for historical linguistic studies.
The official lexis contained in the sources constitutes an integral part of the Kalmyk vocabulary and is still largely understudied. Identification and further exploration of this lexical stratum is important and urgent to understand the Kalmyk — and basically Mongolic — linguistic development in the long historical context.
Certain efforts have been made to facilitate this, namely, those by D. Suseeva, N. Kokshaeva, and D. Gedeeva.
Goals: The article aims to review document names containing the word bičiq.
Methods: The diachronic lexical research applies descriptive, historical and comparative methods.
Within the investigated texts, the word bičiq and related word combinations have a number of meanings. Except for the main ones, such as ‘script’, ‘credentials’, ‘letter’, those are used as names of official documents. In modern Kalmyk it is the word цаасн ‘paper’ which serves to denote various documents being etymologically related to the source material of such documents. In the language of the investigated the same role is played by the word bičiq ‘record; letter’ which stresses the recording of official information as a hard copy.
Results: The study has discovered some obsolete — though still relevant — lexis dealing with records management. Its introduction into the active vocabulary shall significantly enrich modern Kalmyk, since those words have become rare in view of their obsolescence but due to current Russian-language records keeping (written correspondence) protocols.
Conclusions: The discovered archived texts containing the word bičiq in their titles show there is quite a layer of similar lexis in official recordings of the 18th–19th centuries. In turn, this proves that records management practices had been developed enough in the Kalmyk Khanate. Only small part of the mentioned sources have been examined, and there are still many more Kalmyk lexicographic units to discover, investigate and describe.

The article calculates the meanings and frequency use of some Mongolian term-forming suffixes by the aid of TextStat program.
The present paper deals with meanings, functions, frequency and application of some Mongolian term-forming suffixes, such as -тан4 , -нцар2, -гана4, -лзай3, -ж, ‑жин, -ч, -чин, -ийнхан2. The study examines terms to denote plants, animals, minerals and geological objects related to natural sciences in the Russian-Mongolian Terminological Dictionary (editions of 1964, 1970, and 1979) containing 120,000 terms.
The study includes two main sections. Firstly, it summarizes works by scientists to have studied the meanings of the suffixes mentioned above, and examines which of the meanings are more frequently used to create terms. Among the scientists who have investigated the Mongolian suffix -тан, T. A. Bertagaev described its meaning as follows: 1. ‘massive’, e.g., цэргийн эрхтэн ʽmilitary authorities, militaristsʼ; 2. ‘singular / plural’, e.g., цагаантан ʽwhite guardsman, white guardsmen; 3. ‘singularity’, e.g., сэхээтэн ʽintellectualʼ. In term formation, -тан4 is commonly used to create terms denoting plant and animal species. For example, in animal names — битүү тууртан ʽodd-toed ungulatesʼ (1); in plant names — Луулийн язгууртан ʽChenopodiaceaeʼ; in names of microorganisms — багц шилбүүртэн ʽlofotrihiʼ (1); in bird names — жигүүртэн ʽbirdsʼ, etc.
The suffix -нцар is primarily used to form terms with meaning ‘diminutive’, e. g., үндсэнцэр ʽsmall rootʼ, навчинцар ‘leaflets’ (7); and meanings of similarity, e.g., манинцар ‘hermaphroditism’ (3), болронцор чулуу ‘quartzite’ (2), and the meaning ‘piece of a big thing’, e. g., элэгний хэлтэнцэр ‘hepatic lobule’ (2), etc. Thus, those are suffixes used for semantic extension of the vocabulary.
The study also reveals that the suffix -гана4 contains 5 different meanings when it comes to term formation: a) the suffix is mostly added to a noun to create one characterized by specific terminology of the subject. For example, улаагана ‘red currant’ (3), хонхорт харгана ‘cingil silver’ (3), алтгана ‘golden karagana’; b) it is used to create terms denoting shape and form. For example, өргөст бударгана (өргөст хамхуул) ‘Salsola pestifera Nels’ (2); c) it is added to onomatopoetic words imitating animal sounds, such as tsuur tsuur, hed hed to create corresponding terms. For example, цүүргэнэ ‘locust’ (3), хэдгэнэ ‘wasp’ (3), etc. d) it is used to create term with the meaning of similarity. For example, сүүгэнэ ‘Euphorbia’ (1), салаагана ‘chorispora’ (2), гичгэнэ ‘Potentilla bifurca’ (1), e) it is added to roots of loan words to create new plant and fish names. For example, тавилгана — (tavolga + гана) (1), Суладай, нагана — Нагана (Suladai, Nagana — Nagana) (1), etc.
The second section of the paper mainly focuses on the frequency of the suffixes -тан4, -нцар2, -гана4, -лзай3, -ж, -жин, -ч, -чин, -ийнхан2 in the Russian-Mongolian Terminological Dictionary analyzed using the TextStat corpus linguistic software. The study concludes the suffix -тан4 to be traced 292 times in the structure of single and compound terms; -нцар — 218; -гана — 68; -ч, -чин — 53; -ж, -жин — 45; -ийнхан — 11.

Introduction: Comparative analysis of traditional motifs with key formulaic expressions in the Mongol epos to identify the preservation and transformation of a single motif found in different local traditions is urgently important to modern national folklore studies. The article for the first time ever examines the meaning of the code word Altai in a motif of the way within the Mongolic epic texts in a comparative context. In the Mongolic epic tradition, the sacred semantics of the oronym Altai predetermines some special rules for the execution of texts.
Goals: The work aims to reveal the specificity of the spatial characteristic of the Altai code word as a key semantic characteristic of the motif of way. The disclosure of the function of the motif of the way with the help of one spatial thematic image Altai as a repetitive and constant formula determines the ethnic specificity of the Mongolic epic texts. Connotative meanings of such key words reflect the cultural traditions of society. The paper suggests that formulaic expressions with the word-sign Altai have been preserved since the common Turco-Mongolian period almost with the same semantic components.
Methods: The paper presents an analytical description of the traditional motif in the epic text from a semantic perspective with due account of the intertextual nature of the motif. The comparative and typological analysis with a certain technique of modeling standard motives gives the chance to generalize the material and to reveal the general motifs in the Mongol epos.
Results: The motif as a predicate is closely connected with the actant (the hero and related characters of the narrative) and spatio-temporal features. Describing the motif based on its dichotomous nature, the paper reveals the main invariants and variants of the motif. In the spatial scheme of the plot event, specifying the value of the motif, variable formulas are used. The study concludes that the oronym Altai — as a spatial reference point repeatedly used in all texts — most clearly illumines the national specificity of the narrative and clarifies the traditional motif of the way in the epic of the Mongolian peoples. The oronym Altai retaining a common semantic area in the Mongolic epic patterns (in the motif of the way) identifies their native environment. In this context, the key word Altai has a widest semantic content; still, in the Buryat texts there is a narrower use in formula expressions, and in these cases Altai more often denotes horizontal movement. But the oronym can also mean the ‘middle world’ of the universe. In Kalmyk epic texts, the key word Altai is often used as an ephemeral sacred space without specific actions in the plot of the narrative, it most likely implies the native environment of the epic heroes of Jangar, and describing movement (the way) it denotes the vertical center of the world.
Conclusions: The analysis of the texts reveals the main invariants of the motif of the way for the purpose of military campaigns or matchmaking activities of the hero. The paper also specifies some variants of the motif of the way: a place of hunting, pasture for cattle, pasture for the hero’s horse.

Goals: The article studies prologues of the Baγa Tsokhor Cycle of the Jangar Epic to reveal sustained textual patterns, determine the fundamentals and principles of formation of the representational part of the epic.
Methods: The analysis of two prologues of the Baγa Tsokhor Cycle involved the use of complete synoptical comparison of texts introduced by V. Gatsak for epic compositions.
Results: The conducted synoptical comparison of prologues to the songs Duut Bogd Janγr Dogshin Khara Kinesig Dӧrӓtsülgsn Bӧlg (About the Victory of Jangar Bogdo over Khara Kinyas the Furious) and Dogshin Zambl Khaana ϒalzu Dolan Bodngig Asr Ulan Khongor Künd ϒarta Savr Khoir Dӧrӓtsülgsn Bӧlg (About the Victory of Ulan Khongor the Mighty and Savr the Strong over Irrepressible Warriors of Zambal Khan the Fierce) of the Baγa Tsokhor Cycle resulted in 1 383 line entries. The synoptical ‘vertical presentation’ and comparison of parity verses revealed 153 elements that coincided both textually and locally. Matches for 105 verses were discovered in some remote parts of the texts. And 112 verses differ to a certain extent but still coincide being invariants of the same source elements. As for verses to have coincided textually and locally with some fractional synonymies, those number 205. So, the synoptical comparison of the two prologues has revealed that 575 line entries are completely or partly similar, and it can be asserted that — being aware of the basic structural patterns of the epic — a jangarchi (Kalm. ‘epic taleteller’) would construct the narrative according to a certain reference sequence: 1) description of the country, 2) description of the construction of a palace, 3) description of Jangar, his weapons and war-horse, 4) description of the characters’ whereabouts, 5) Savar’s submission, 6) a feast in Jangar’s palace, 7) glorification of the country.
Conclusions: The investigation of the prologues attests to the fact that repeatedly recited folklore texts basically vary. During his performances the taleteller uses ready-made topics, common parts and poetic formulas. Being an important compositional element of the epic, a prologue facilitates a deeper perception of the epic poem, heroic deeds of the main characters, emphasizes the magnitude of the events described in the country of Bumba; so, the larger the prologue, the grander epic state looks; and the prologue as such attests to that the Jangar epic had sustainably developed in a wide historical context.