Introduction. In November of 1921 after the meeting between Mongolian officials and Vladimir Lenin, an Agreement on Friendly Relations between the two states was concluded. This significant act confirmed the mutual recognition of the only legitimate government by both counterparties, measures of prevention of unfriendly actions by third parties, exchange of plenipotentiary representatives and ambassadors, state border regulations and the most favorable nation treatment for citizens whilst visiting the counterparty and jurisdiction. It also provided the regulations for a number of trade matters, intercommunication issues, questions of personal property etc., however, in actuality this document touched upon a smaller realm of mutual relations that had already been established before the execution of the Agreement, having been formalized in other documents, such as letters and memorandums. These precontractual acts are of genuine interest not only due to their uncertain legal nature and consequences, but also because they cover a much wider range of collaboration and cooperation issues than the Agreement dated November 5, 1921. Goals. So, the paper attempts an interdisciplinary insight into the mentioned documents (addresses, diplomatic notes, letters, etc.) to have preceded the Agreement and formalized Soviet Russia’s foreign policy in the region and its presence in the territory of Outer Mongolia ― to determine the role and impact of the former. Materials and Methods. The study focuses on widely known materials contained in diverse published collections of documents from the Soviet era that were never viewed by most researchers as important tools to have guaranteed the national interests in the Far East. To facilitate a more comfortable perception of the investigated materials by different specialists, the paper was divided in two ― Part One to focus on research tools and its ideological essentials, and Part Two to emphasize certain instruments to have secured the ‘export of revolution’. Results. The article specifies four key lines of cooperation: 1) bilateral collaboration that includes ‘export of ideology’ and sufficient tools thereto, such as disassociation from former political regimes, support for anticolonial sentiments, securement of equal rights in foreign policy issues, cooperative struggle against the common ideological enemy ― world capitalism, ‘soft power’ in the form of educational projects; 2) security arrangements for Soviet territories and borders, including assistance to Mongolian comrades in their fight against the White Guard, allocation of the Red Army units within Mongolian territories until the complete eradication of the White threat, with the participation of military units from the Far Eastern Republic; 3) economic cooperation through mutual financial and economic support of industrial construction projects, resource development and social infrastructure initiatives, etc., 4) joint actions on the international stage pinnacled with the recognition of the Mongolian People’s Republic by China (1945) and the rest of the world community (1961). This shows that during the shaping of the political agenda towards Mongolia the then Soviet leaders did not view contractual aspects of the mechanism as fundamental, and attached no paramount importance to international agreements, which had been distinctive of the Russian Empire. 

Introduction. The paper examines an understudied period in the history of the Kalmyk Khanate — beginnings of a military confrontation between joint Kazakh-Karakalpak forces and Kalmyk units in 1723–1724. Goals. The article aims at introducing newly discovered archival data about the reign of Khan Tseren-Donduk (1724–1735). Materials and Methods. The source materials are related records stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia (Coll. И-36). The Register of Kalmyk Affairs contains dispatches and reports by the Governor of Astrakhan, A. Volynsky, clustered under the title ‘About Actual Disagreements and Feuds of Kalmyk Landlords’. The employed historical comparative method makes it possible to specify a chronicle of events on the basis of coinciding events described by all or most of the investigated sources. Results. The 1723 feuds between young Kalmyk princely heirs, Khan Ayuka’s death in 1724, and the unsettled order of succession paved the path for Kazakh and Karakalpak invasions of eastern Kalmyk-inhabited territories between the Volga and the Yaik (Ural) Rivers. Conclusions. Despite the actual political factionalism across the Kalmyk Khanate, eastern landlords headed by Dorji Nazarov were able to repel the aggression of hostile groups. The 1724 battle of the Uzen which ended in a defeat of a small Kazakh-Karakalpak unit had important military and political consequences conveying the message that even amidst the lack of solidarity between Kalmyk noblemen any invasion of their lands should turn an essentially arduous task. However, the successful local engagement of the Volga Kalmyks could not stop the subsequent eastward expansion of Kazakhs. 

Introduction. The article analyzes tax apportionment for Kalmyk population in the 19th century through examining aimak-level (Kalm. ‘locality, settlement’) data. Goals. The study mainly aims at identification of categories of taxes adopted at the aimak level, determination of the tax apportionment mechanism, analysis of average amounts of taxes across different aimaks. Materials. The analyzed documents include  reports of 1882 on taxes from southern aimaks of Baga Dorbet (Russ. Maloderbetovsky) Ulus housed by the National Archive of the Kalmykia (Coll. И-15). Results. Apportionment, i.e. a financial method which assumes distribution of the total amount of a certain type of income for a set of taxable objects, was officially adopted by Kalmyks in the second half of the 19th century. The materials show the form in which it was used by the Kalmyks on the eve of the obligatory relationships’ cancellation, i.e. in the 1880s. Kalmyk commoners paid both official and non-official taxes — in terms of the Regulations introduced by the Imperial Court for the Kalmyk People’s Directorate. The non-official ones included ‘dark’ and household fees, as well as a ‘public needs’ fee, which, in our view, went to ulus-level budgets. The period under study witnessed the application of the apportionment principle (guideline) to the entire amount of taxes. Aimak meetings decided which families would not pay taxes to further divide the entire amount into two parts: the first one was apportioned for a certain number of heads of cattle, while the other was paid by each truly dutiable family at a rate set by the meeting. There was a rather tangible difference between aimaks in the average values of taxes per family. This indicator depended mainly on the share of tax-exempt families and the specific value of ‘unofficial’ taxes in the aimak.

Introduction. The article examines the understudied issues of how and to what extent epidemic diseases used to spread across Kalmyk uluses (‘districts’) in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, with special attention be paid to employed control and monitoring methods. The problem was covered in a number of published reports delivered at the First Congress of Astrakhan physicians to have worked in Kalmyk-inhabited lands during the period under study, and the former contain their shared their experiences and valuable findings. Historians hardly ever approached the topic in just a few papers. Goals. So, the work aims at a detailed survey of epidemic diseases in the Kalmyk Steppe of Astrakhan Governorate in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Materials and Methods. The study employs a set of general scientific and specific historical research methods. The observance of the historicism principle made it possible to avoid modern misinterpretations of the century-old events examined, while system-analysis techniques and interdisciplinary approaches resulted in that certain specific events of Kalmyk life were analyzed as parts of an overall picture. The article mainly explores and newly introduces materials of the Medical Department — a healthcare agency within the Kalmyk People’s Administration — currently stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia. Results. Despite the remoteness of Kalmyk nomadic settlements (Kalm. khoton) from administrative centers and first-aid stations, healthcare practitioners still were efficient enough to promptly respond in case of epidemic outbreaks. Besides treatment proper, the medical, administrative and police personnel were largely responsible for quarantine and disinfection activities, medical examination and supervision of people living around the periphery of the effective disease area. Conclusions. The analysis of materials dealing with the issue reveals Kalmyk districts were widely affected by epidemic diseases, such as typhus, smallpox, measles, diphtheria and others, while cholera and plague were not that often. It should be admitted that the frequent occurrence of those diseases in medical records across the Kalmyk Steppe was determined by their endemicity to have resulted from a number of reasons. 

Introduction. Soviet Kalmykia’s historiography comprises quite a cluster of publications to have dealt with the shaping and development of the ethnic statehood. Such works primarily focus on preparatory and constitutive activities, economic beginnings. However, the formation of Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast’s territory and population have been covered by separate papers only fragmentarily. Goals. The study aims at investigating Kalmykia’s border-related problems and migrations of dispersed Kalmyk groups towards the region. In order to facilitate this, the article shall explore why territorial and border-related issues turned essentially difficult tasks and how the problems were being solved, describe the roadmap of the Kalmyk Oblast Executive Committee to comprehensively tackle the emerged territorial and migration challenges. Materials and Methods. The paper centers around archival sources, quite a share of the latter being thus newly introduced into scientific discourse. The key methods employed are those of comparativism and source analysis. Results. According to the nationalities policy set forth by the Bolsheviks in 1920, the Soviet Government granted the Kalmyk people an ethnic statehood in the form of an administrative autonomy within the latter’s historical territory — Kalmyk Steppe. Once the autonomy was established, its territory and borders were determined in accordance with the then state policies and without any essential dissents from neighboring provinces. Migrations of minor Kalmyk groups to the autonomous oblast were supported by the Government and encountered no resistance, except for disputes between the Salsk Okrug Executive Committee and that of Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast over the territorial issue when it came to the resettlement of Salsk Kalmyks. The prolonged mutual tension resulted in the establishment of Kalmytsky (‘Kalmyk’) District within Salsk Okrug of North Caucasus Krai. 

Introduction. The late 1950s restoration of autonomies for the repressed peoples is an important era in the history of those ethnic statehoods. Still, even over 60 years thereafter quite a number of issues remain essentially problematic. And the main question is as follows: Can one interpret the late 1950s restoration of autonomies for the repressed peoples of Southern Russia as a rehabilitation? Materials and Methods. The study analyzes a number of scholarly Russian historiographical publications examining the mentioned period, and employs the historical genetic and historical legal methods. Results. The article considers a range of problematic issues, such as substantial features of ‘rehabilitation’ for repressed peoples in the Soviet era, political and historical essentials of the process, general issues of periodization of the rehabilitation (including that of the Soviet era), debating aspects of the phenomenon in respect to the restoration of autonomies, contemporary political and legal aspects related to the Soviet restoration of South Russia’s ethnic autonomies. Conclusions. In Russian historiography, there is a consensus as to the identification of the period of the restoration of autonomies for the repressed peoples as a rehabilitation, though incomplete one. The paper shows observation of the principle of historicism presupposes this period be viewed in a general context of the whole Soviet era that witnessed the rehabilitation of repressed peoples pinnacled with the rehabilitation decrees of perestroika. Since 1992 there emerged a new — Russian — stage of the rehabilitation. As for critical notes on outdated norms of the RSFSR Law On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples, it seems evident that the agenda of its complete implementation was never actualized by federal government agencies since the mid-1990s. It is possible that another law be created in future to comprise the rehabilitation experiences of the Soviets, including that of the initial stage from the late 1950s. This would require explicit political and legal assessments of the repressed peoples’ rehabilitation in a historical perspective. 

Introduction. Accelerated development of the Far East has been — and still is — one of the main priorities of Russia’s regional policy in the 2010s. The cities and urban agglomerations of the region are proclaimed by the Russian government as key basic points of further economic growth in this part of the country. At the same time, despite the efforts of the federal and regional authorities, the processes of urbanization in most regions of the Far East are still in crisis. Goals. The study aims to analyze the results of the Soviet urbanization in Amur Oblast and the dynamics of urbanization processes in the region over the past three decades. Materials and Methods. Analyzing official statistical data, as well as statutory instruments at the national, regional and local levels, the paper uses a set of general scientific methods, the statistical method, and special methods of historical research, in particular, the problem-chronological one. Results. The entire system of urban settlements in Amur Oblast experienced a dramatic socioeconomic, infrastructural and demographic crisis in the 1990-2010s. Even the first half of the 1990s witnessed a weakening of urbanization processes and an outflow of population from the region caused by the restructuring and crisis of production, the weakening of state social policy, a decrease in investments in the engineering and household development of territories, and insufficient solution of housing problems. In the structure of urban settlements, the greatest changes have affected workmen’s settlements most of which have lost the prospects for industrial development. In the early 2010s, the development of urban settlements in the region was still constrained by a number of economic factors (the regional budget deficit and its dependence on federal subsidies, the ongoing production crisis of most of the city-forming enterprises, etc.). Large infrastructure projects in the region (construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Power of Siberia gas pipeline, Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, creation of advanced development areas) have supported urban settlements of the region’s industrial center in the 2010s. However, cities and towns in the north of the region have not received tangible sources of growth as a result of the Baikal–Amur Mainline project crisis. Conclusions. By the end of the 2010s, the general crisis of urbanization processes in the region resulted in that the network of urban settlements acquired more linear features — along the Trans-Siberian railway line — that be accompanied by concentrate resettlement towards Blagoveshchensk. 

Introduction. With reference to works by Russian ethnographers and collected field materials, the paper presents the first insight into specific features of Altaian traditional clothes and changes the latter undergo in the modern period. Goals. The work primarily seeks to reveal transformations of Altaian national garments in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. Materials. The study examines data from field expeditions to Ust-Kansky, Shebalinsky and other districts of the Altai Republic in 2017-2019. The research data collection methods included those of questionnaires and interviews among local communities of the mentioned districts of the region. Results. The paper highlights various aspects of men’s and women’s clothes represented mainly by outer garments, such as sheepskin coats, e.g., nekey ton (a sheepskin coat a with long thick fur), akar ton (a coat sheepskin with short thick fur), kyptu ton (a coat with fabric-trimmed upper elements), tortok ton (a short sheepskin coat), and also sleeveless jackets (kögÿspek) and national gowns (chekpen). The work describes caps worn both by men and women (tÿlkÿ bychkak börÿk, talbañ börÿk, kish börÿk, bolchok börÿk), shoes made of fur (skin) from animals’ lower legs (bychkak ödÿk) or leather ones (katu/ köm ödÿk, charyk ödÿk, shiri ödÿk) usually decorated with upright pointed toes. Special attention is paid to women’s wedding and festal clothes, namely: dresses with wide sleeves and long cuffs that were to completely cover hands, the former decorated with buttons, beads, and ornaments to be worn under a full-length silk sleeveless jacket. The research explains differences between the classical and contemporary conventionalized chegedek full-length sleeveless jackets worn by women over a special dress during wedding ceremonies. Chegedek communicates a symbolic message that a girl acquires the new status of a married woman. Some attention is given to men’s undergarments, such as regular shirts (chamcha) mostly worn untucked with woolen trousers (shtan). Conclusions. The Altaian clothes have underwent certain changes but some centuries-old traditions survive till nowadays, e.g., women’s dresses are distinguished by special sleeves (ushtuktar) and ‘wings’ (kanattar). However, it is noteworthy that the tradition of selecting colors for garments with due regard of age and sex is lost, and layout of decorative elements has also changed. The loss of ethnic features in national clothes results from the wide use of commercial cloths and services of tailor shops. 

Goals. The study aims to determine the influence of a complex of cryogenic factors (snow, ice, permafrost, cold in general) on traditional household and sociocultural practices of the Yakuts including benefits that some representatives of this ethnic group have learned to derive from winter climatological conditions. Materials and Methods. The work analyzes archival materials, scientific literature and the author’s field data. The most important elements of the methodological toolkit are sociocultural analysis and basic principles of cryosophy that suggest analysis of the phenomena of the ‘cold world’ in terms of their resource potential. Results. The paper shows positions (impacts) of low temperatures and accompanying phenomena when it comes to choose a place of location for a winter settlement and layout a farmstead (availability of a reservoir that does not freeze over the winter to its bottom, relative remoteness of permafrost soils from the surface, creation of open spaces for a better view, etc.), and the former’s influence on the architecture and functionality of residential and household buildings. The work introduces certain characteristics of deep freeze practices used for storing and cooking food, employment of cryogenic phenomena and processes for sanitary and hygienic purposes. Special insight is made into the significance of ‘cold’ practices in household activities. Specifically, the study shows that in farming and cattle breeding cryogenic phenomena were used for irrigation of agriculturally used areas, livestock feeding and threshing arrangements. Moreover, the specific climatic regime made it possible to apply quite a range of unique approaches to fishing and hunting. However, one of the most important results obtained during this study is the conclusion — confirmed by definite examples — that the Yakuts practiced conscious control over cryogenic processes in household activities. Conclusions. Based on the above, the paper  concludes it is largely due to cold that a big complex of elements of the traditional life sustenance system of the Yakuts had emerged — to further essentially shape the latter’s most representative ethnocultural features.

Introduction. The article newly examines regional mass media materials of the 2010s for current problems of Buryat language preservation, the latter being an important element of Buryatia’s ethnocultural processes. The term ‘ethnocultural processes’ is understood as a part of contemporary Buryat history, a true expression to denote the development of nation building ideas, including ones related to native language preservation. Materials. The paper considers a number of issues, namely: the need for universal language learning, activities by the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia (BTSR), efficiency of application of federal budget subsidies, literary language and dialects, etc. The reliable media sources confirmed by field and literary materials attest to that ethnocultural processes in Buryatia pertaining to the preservation of the regional titular nation’s language remain relevant throughout the post-Soviet era. Results. The Government’s measures (often essentially formal), initiatives of public organizations (primarily those by BTSR) do contribute to the preservation of the language at a certain level, but yield no transformative results — the share of fluent speakers decreases, which is also caused by the succession of generations. The extremities of obliging all pupils to learn the language are not that harmless and can lead to an imbalance in interethnic relations in the region. Other alarming trends discussed are as follows: the use of the topic for speculative declarations by certain groups and as a background for manifestations of tribalistic attitudes, struggles for subsidies, etc. For the bulk of the population, including some Buryats, language preservation through compulsory schooling is undesirable for its low teaching efficiency and lack of usage prospects determined by insufficient demand in society. Conclusions. The discussion initiated by the mass media forced government agencies of the republic to continue the former at round tables with the participation of officials, scientists, and the public. That resulted in certain positive results, namely: efforts of BTSR were objectively assessed as efficient, and the need to study dialects and subdialects along with the literary language was recognized, the latter establishing a certain consensus between the parties, which shall possibly promote the ethnocultural processes to a new level.

Goals. The article provides a historiography of studies dealing with the famous Tibeto-Mongolian scholar Sum pa mkhan po Ye shes dpal ‘byor, introduces one of his important works — The Annals of Kokonor — and presents a translation of its first chapter. Materials. The paper investigates collected works (gsung ‘bum) of Sum pa mkhan po stored at the Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs affiliated to the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies (Siberian Branch of the RAS). Results. The Annals of Kokonor (Tib. Mtsho sngon gyi lo rgyus) is a text from Volume Two of Sum pa mkhan po’s gsung ‘bum, it comprises 19 large format folios. The treatise consists of four chapters, each representing a particular literary genre. Chapter One critically examines two old legends about the origin of Kokonor Lake. Chapter Two covers a religious and a secular history of Tibet and Kokonor from 1612 to 1786. Chapter Three contains a highly ornate description of the Kokonor Region, while Chapter Four narrates about the happiness and pleasure of Kokonor inhabitants who used to live according to the basic precepts of Buddhism. The closing part gives historical accounts of Dzungaria and China, as well as describes the geography of the region. Accordingly, the text can be viewed from different perspectives — those of history, religion, folklore, geography and poetry as well. There is one Russian translation by Ven. Bidiya Dandaron. However, that was not a scholarly edition and had just a small circulation, thus remaining unnoticed by most Tibetologists. The paper argues that the mentioned translation — although constituting an important contribution to the studies on Sum pa Mkhan po — is outdated by now, and a new critical edition and scholarly translation of Sum pa Mkhan po’s Annals of Kokonor is required.

Ladakhi is an idiom used mainly within Ladakh (a region that until 2019 was part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir), as well as in the bordering areas of China and Pakistan. Goals. The paper discusses the development of Ladakhi as a written language and the controversy it leads to both in Ladakh and outside. Methods and Materials. The study analyzes various official documents issued by local administrative bodies of Ladakh, academic works and grammatical descriptions of the Ladakhi idiom, as well as interviews with residents of the region. The main methods of the field research conducted in Ladakh in 2010—2011 include participant observation, analysis of documentary sources, and interviewing. Results. Most Ladakhis consider Tibetan and Ladakhi to be the same language, often using the linguonym ‘Bhoti’ to refer to both the languages. Since the independent princedom of Ladakh was established in the 10th century AD, Classical Tibetan has been the dominant written language there, while other idioms have also been used in oral communication. For a long time, Ladakhi has existed in diglossia, its role being that of a ‘low’ language. Most government officials, education workers and Buddhist clerics in Ladakh still believe that Ladakhi is and should remain a spoken version of Classical Tibetan rather than an entirely separate language. They see any attempts to codify the Ladakhi language as sacrilege because in their opinion the Tibetan language was created by Thonmi Sambhota to put down sacred Buddhist texts, and so it should remain unchanged. However, the last four decades have seen some considerable changes. A few dozen books written in Ladakhi or translated into the language have been published. A number of issues of a magazine in spoken Ladakhi released, and Al-Baqarah, the second surah of Quran, was also published in Ladakhi. Whether Ladakhi should become a fully fledged written (literary) language is the subject of hot debates in contemporary Ladakh attracting increasing attention both in and outside the region.

The article studies the functioning of the verbal hesitation marker ni / nei ‘whatchamacallit’ in Bashkir spontaneous speech. Goals. The research aims to analyze and identify the main functions of the investigated hesitation marker in the process of organizing spontaneous discourse. Materials and Methods. The study explores dialectal materials included in the text database of the dialectological cluster within the Digital Corpus (lit. ‘Machine Fund’) of the Bashkir Language (https://mfbl2.ru). The total of the studied materials is 209 dialectal texts. The database contains 718 tokens of the investigated hesitation marker. The selection of examples for analysis was carried out through the method of continuous sampling. The employed research methods are those of discourse and contextual analysis, as well as the statistical method. Results. Asemantization of the basic meaning of the interrogative pronoun in spontaneous speech results in the emergence of a pragmatic meaning, and the lexeme begins to function as a filler for hesitational pauses. The multifunctionality of this hesitation marker is confirmed by numerous examples of its use. In spontaneous speech, the verbal hesitation marker performs the hesitative (fills in pauses in speech production), discursive (as a means to organize speech) and search (temporary substitutions in search for a speech unit corresponding to the original intention) functions. The uniqueness of this hesitation marker is that in spontaneous speech it can replace any notional word that one has ‘on the tip of the tongue’ and, thus, help avoid the occurrence of long pauses or interruptions in utterances. The analysis of materials reveals the main methods of correcting problem areas in speech production. Being a characteristic attribute of spontaneous speech, the lexemes can also be stylistically used in fiction works as instruments to reveal the author’s intention — depicting a psychological portrait of the character through the latter’s speech features. 

Introduction. Color terms constitute a most archaic lexical stratum of any language. Being characterized by vivid ethnocultural specifics, those serve as important elements to the linguistic view of the world. Goals. The paper seeks to analyze semantic features of the Kalmyk color term улан ‘red’ and its German translation equivalents. Materials and Methods. The work explores Kalmyk folktales recorded by the Finnish scholar G. J. Ramstedt during his 1903 scientific expedition to the Kalmyk Steppe. The analysis of the color term comprises both general research methods and specifically linguoculturological ones, such as linguoculturological and conceptual insights into folklore texts. Results. Impacts of color in world perception of the Kalmyks — just as for any other nation — are diverse enough. The folktale texts recorded by G. J. Ramstedt contain a total of five shades of the color, the lexeme улан ‘red’ being largely characterized by positive semantics. German translation variants are not always complete semantic equivalents of the color term which results from that color denoting lexemes — and those of red in particular — are integral to a certain ethnic worldview, this leading to some ambivalence of the color under study. Conclusions. The lexeme улан ‘red’ in its first nominative meaning denotes a color of an object, e.g., red proper, scarlet, ruddy, etc. In the Kalmyk language, it also serves to denote the prototypic color of blood and is often used to describe animal coat colors. The Finnish scholar employed different German translation means. In most cases, the selection of translation equivalents depends on the translator’s associative/visual thinking and perception of the world, as well as on lexical, semantic and morphological patterns of Kalmyk and German. Folklore texts are structured specifically, and a translator needs utmost attention and linguistic intuition to avoid any inaccuracies when communicating a color paradigm from the original text. The challenge be tackled by a translator of color terms in a folklore text is that he/she is supposed to bear both the linguocultures examined. 

Introduction. Russian folklorists have tended — and still do — to focus on formula-type language patterns inherent to traditional epic poetry. The shaping of epic songs would be facilitated by the wide use of structurally identical and stylistically similar descriptions and situations referred to as loci communes (‘typical passages’). Goals. The paper aims at identifying the personality of the taleteller to have recited the Baga Dorbet (Russ. Maloderbetovsky) cycle of the Jangar epic. With this in view, the work reveals typical passages of the Cycle, provides comparative insights into ones within prologues of the Cycle, compares the typical passages to similar elements from other cycles and individual repertoires. Materials and Methods. The study employs the methodology developed by P. D. Ukhov for the classification of Russian bylinas, and analyzes Jangar epic songs from the Baga Dorbet and Baga Tsokhor cycles, repertoires of such renown jangarchis as Eelyan Ovla, Mukӧvün Basangov, Dava Shavaliev, Nasanka Baldyrov, and Badma Obushinov. Conclusions. Typical passages of the Baga Dorbet cycle are structurally identical and stylistically homogenous descriptions where both syntactic patterns and described details and grammatical forms of parts of speech coincide which attests to that the texts were authored by (recorded from) one and the same taleteller. The opinion is confirmed by the below given examples of typical passages from other cycles that differ not only in terms of style or structure, but the very depicted objects, events, participants of the feast, the seating chart of theirs, and even numbers and sequence of stanzas significantly vary. The differences are determined by that the taletellers were representing different epic performance traditions with certain narrative patterns inherited from their predecessors. The comparative analysis of typical passages from the Baga Dorbet cycle shows the taleteller not only reproduces the once learnt song but rather creatively approaches every single performance maintaining standard elements of typical passages, modifies epic formulas employing synonyms, rearranging stanzas, reducing or adding details of descriptions, etc. This can be explained by that ‘above all in epic memory is not the formula precisely and intactly articulated in words but the artistic content, the taleteller (who) adheres to the framework of epic knowledge <...> (to) select one of the possible paths’, since this epic knowledge is wider than the text recited. So, the study concludes the whole of the Baga Dorbet cycle was recorded from (authored by) one taleteller and students whose names still remains unknown.