Journal articles on the topic 'Volga River Region (Russia) – History – 19th century'

The Volga Travelogue is a large layer of travel essays in the 19th-century Russian literature. This layer has not become a subject of special research in literature studies. The “journey along the Volga” is distinguished by the wide diversity of issues and themes it discusses: the economic and industrial activities of the region, its cultural and historical sights, the uniqueness of the Volga region in an ethnographic perspective – of the multifaceted “Volga region resident”. One of the structural components of the travelogue is the Volga mythology and folklore: historical-geographical and cultural-ethnic information is supplemented with legends of the ancient Volga, Russian and non- Russian (Tatar, Mordovian, German, Kalmyk) legends. Describing the “non-Russian Volga”, writers refer to the national aspects of the life of different nationalities, the most important archetypes of their consciousness. A characteristic feature of N.P. Bogolyubov’s travelogue The Volga from Tver to Astrakhan is the non-Russian word as a marker of cultural identity: it is invariably present in the description of national customs. Telling about the “Mordovian places” of the Volga region, Bogolyubov describes specific rituals associated with the birth of a baby and with burials. The Muslim as a different national and cultural tradition of the Volga region particularly attracts writers’ attention. M.I. Nevzorov, in his Journey to Kazan, Vyatka and Orenburg in 1800, tells about the spiritual and religious experience of the Tatar people: writes about the ontological constants, acquaints the reader with epigraphic culture representing Muslims’ existential ideas about people and the universe. S. Monastyrsky, in his Illustrated companion along the Volga, presents Tatar legends about the winged snake Jilantau, about the “Black Chamber” and the khan’s daughter. These legends express the religious and poetic ideas of the people. Telling about the local cultural and mythological tradition is a characteristic feature of the Russian travelogue: an autochthon is represented by its ethnocultural identity. Folklore material functions in structural parallels – multilingual sources: V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, in his travelogue The Great River: Pictures from the Life and Nature on the Volga, gives two – Russian and Mordovian – versions of the legend about “Polonyanka”, and notes the particular poetry of the non-Russian text. In the combination of various – Tatar, Russian, Kalmyk – cultural and national constants of the lower Volga. German characterology is particularly expressed. A German legend associated with biblical material about the history of the prophet Elijah’s wandering through the desert to Sarepta of Sidon is fixed in the travelogues of Ya.P. Kuchin, S. Monastyrsky, and A.P. Valueva. The legend conveys the historical “memory of the place” – the foundation of the Sarepta colony. In the travelogues of V. Sidorov, N. Bogolyubov, descriptions of Buddhist Kalmyks, with their way of life, khuruls and gelyungs, are supplemented with Kalmyk legends about the Bogdo-Ola mountain. Folklore and mythology as categories of a non-native cultural text complicate the artistic system of the travelogue and contribute to the poetic comprehension of the poly-ethnic and poly-confessional Volga region.

The history of the development of the biological resources of the Volga River is reflected from the first records until 1917. The Neolithic period is described in detail, based on archaeological researches in the Upper Volga region. The ancient Slavs especially valued sturgeons. The main fishing centers were located in the area of the current city Rybinsk. During the Mongol-Tatar yoke, bread and fish were the main items of domestic trade. After the capture of Astrakhan in 1554, control over the fisheries on the Volga River was completely transferred to the Russian state. In 1660, they began to legislatively regulate the relations between fishery and treasury. Since 1721, many ukases and decrees have been issued with the aim of restoring order in the fisheries of the Volga-Caspian basin. In 1768–1774, a large expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences was organized to study “all three kingdoms of nature”, including regions along the Volga River and the Caspian Sea. From the twenties of the 19th century, the period of industrial development of the biological resources of the Volga and the Caspian began and as a result, by the end of the century, the industrial fishing zone was rolling down from the upper river to the orifice, and also a quantitative reduction in fish production was observed, including a decrease in the number of large fish in catches. In 1862, according to the results of the expedition 1853–1858 N. Ya. Danilevsky compiled a project for the construction of the Caspian and Volga fisheries. The review includes data on the formation of the legislative framework for fisheries and the first attempts to preserve and restore stocks of aquatic biological resources in the Volga basin.

Abstract We trace the history of the uses of the alcoholic drink known as kumyshka among the Udmurt. Our focus is on kumyshka’s ritual uses both in public and domestic contexts in the second half of the 19th century, the early 20th century as well as the early 21st century. We suggest that kumyshka not only represents a site of resistance to the dominant religious regime, i.e. Russian Orthodoxy, but is also a tool for self-enhancement and identity making for this indigenous people in the Volga River basin in Central Russia. The consumption of kumyshka has been a frequent object of criticism in the accounts of Orthodox clergy, scholars, doctors, travellers and administrators. Most accounts show a moralising stance, which only occasionally reflects the local understandings behind its uses. As anthropologists working in the region, we compare these historical sources with the current practices. We discuss changes in the religious sphere as well as in gender roles related to the uses of kumyshka.

Goals. The article publishes and analyzes archaeological materials of the modern period found at Pervomaisky-1 site discovered in foothill-steppe areas of the Southern Trans-Urals (a high plateau 14 km west of the right bank of the Ural River, Abzelilovsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia) in 2019. Materials. The collection includes three groups of pottery (coarse, gray-clay and red-clay), porcelain and earthenware dishes, various iron products (knives, harrow teeth, fragments of a cast-iron pot, horseshoes, etc., and no weapons traced), pieces of iron ore, animal bones, etc. Results. The source analysis of the finds and analogies from the rest of the Urals, Volga Region and Western Siberia made it possible to date the site to the mid — late 19th century and typologically classify it a short-term sedentary agricultural settlement. The paper establishes a relative synchronicity of all types of pottery (including impurities to clay dough), porcelain and earthenware, showing a high proportion of tableware and ‘tea’ utensils, which may be associated with the type of the site. The absence of large cast-iron cauldrons is defined as a marker of some agricultural (not nomadic) population. The involvement of historical data and cartographic materials deepened the analysis and made it possible to determine the site is a field camp of Cossacks from Magnitnaya stanitsa (Orenburg Cossack Host) that emerged after the establishment of Novolineiny District and the 200 km eastward transfer of Russia’s national frontier. This resulted in the territory turned into a deep rear area. So, the former fortress became a rich village where trade was developing and the population was rapidly increasing. Cartographic data show the object was located in the center of a narrow (5-6 km) arable land strip bounded by the main transport artery of the region — Orenburg Post Road — in the east, and by the border of Cossack and Bashkir lands in the west. The conducted comprehensive studies substantiate dating parameters of the archaeological complex which is of great importance for further development of modern history-related archeology in the entire Ural–West Siberian Region, and show the likely abundance of agricultural field camps across the territory that can be viewed as a separate type of archaeological objects.

The article focuses on the analysis of glazed ware imported into the southern regions of Russia from the Early Middle Ages to the Golden Horde period. The author studied most common types of glazed ware and their sources. In order to compare, the paper considers the groups of ware brought to the Pontic and the Volga River regions. From the 7th century in the northern Pontic region, vessels produced in Constantinople appeared. Various groups of Byzantine pottery were recorded there till the beginning of the Golden Horde period. In the Caspian region, glazed ware appeared not earlier than the middle-late 9th – early 10th century coming there from Central Asia and the Middle East. In the 11th century, there were no significant changes in the sources and number of imported products in the Pontic, while the Volga River region falls under the influence of the North-Eastern Caucasus, Transcaucasia and the Middle East (mainly Iran). In the second half – end of the 12th century, the Volga region was becoming one of the key areas points in the trade of kashi ware of Middle Eastern origin. In the 14th century, Byzantine ware first appeared there. The same period was marked with the rise in local pottery production in the Pontic and Azov littoral which contributed to the spread of these products throughout Eastern Europe.

History of literary criticism of various nations of Russia in the 19th century is many-sided and is important both for further development of literature and for the process of mutual enrichment, addition of literatures and literary studies. A special place in this context belongs to the Kazan province which has always been characterized by ethnic diversity an multinational structure and to the University of Kazan which is the acknowledged center for studying traditional ways of life, folklore and literature of the Volga region. In the formation of literary criticism and the development of literature of the Volga region in general and Chuvash literature in particular, the activities of the Chuvash writers, actors, artists, composers (I. Yurkin, G. Timofeev, M. Akimov, K. Ivanov, N. Shubossinni, M. Trubina, F. Pavlov, P. Pazukhin, etc.) and researchers (A.A. Fuchs, V.A. Sboev, S.M. Mikhailov, P. Malkhov, I.Ya. Yakovlev, N.M. Ashmarin, etc.) are of special importance.

The article discusses the birth of a national historical discourse in Central Asia at the turn of the 20th century with special reference to the Taranchi Turks of Russian Semirech’ye (Zhetissu) and early example of Uyghur national history written by the Taranchi intellectual Näzärγoja Abdusemätov (d. 1951). The article shows how intellectuals among the Taranchi Turks, an ethnic group who settled in the Semirech’ye oblast of the Russian Empire in late 19th century, became involved in debates on nations and national history organized on the pages of the Tatar newspapers and journals in the Volga region of Russia. Näzärγoja Abdusemätov’s published workIli Taranchi Türklirining tarihi(‘History of the Taranchi Turks of Ili’) receives particular attention as part of an examination of the evolution of the author’s ideas about an Uyghur nation.

The article examines the views and the work of S. A. Rachinsky and N. I. Ilminsky, the prominent religious enlightenment fi gures in the second half of the 19th century. The former had created a network of church schools for the common people in his estate Tatevo in Smolensk province and its environs, and spent a number of years teaching there. The latter in 1872–1891 held the position of a Director in Kazan Seminary for Teachers of Non-Russian Origin — the central educational institution of the missionary type in the Volga region, aimed at maintaining Orthodoxy among the Christianized peoples of the area. Both educators received the support of K. P. Pobedonostsev, the prominent statesman, publicist and notionalist, one of the leaders of the conservative camp and the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod. The activists of the religion-based primary education shared the views of specifi c conservative populism based on the idea of common people possessing a set of values that could potentially prevent the society from social upheavals (such as simplicity, patriarchal relations, loyalty to traditions, true religiosity). Rachinsky’s and Ilminsky’s initiatives were aimed at preserving such qualities among the Russian peasantry and the “smaller” nations of the Volga region — social groups that, according to the educators, had managed to stay most aloof from the destructive tendencies of ideological and political development of the second half of the 19th century. Such views in many respects corresponded to the ideas of Pobedonostsev. The famous conservative shared the belief of Rachinsky and Ilminsky that the cause of upheavals that engulfed the post-reform Russia had been the excessive development of individualism and the desire to reconstruct the historically established way of life according to abstract theoretical principles, and that the counterbalance to these phenomena could only be found in the moods of the common people. Rachinsky’s and Ilminsky’s work became a noticeable phenomenon of public life in Russia in the second half of the 19th — early 20th century, and refl ected its important features.

The madrasah in the village of Satyshevo, Mamadyshsky district of Kazan province (modern Sabinsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan) was one of the oldest rural madrasas in the province. The activity of the Satyshevsky madrasah begins no later than the middle of the 18th century (after the 1750s). In the 19th – early 20th centuries it was one of the largest rural madrasas in Russia. At the beginning of the 19th century, the training center consisted of 3 wooden buildings, and by the beginning of the 20th century, a complex of mektebe and madrasah of 7 buildings was being created. At the beginning of the 20th century, a second parish was allocated in the village and another mosque was being built. The teachers and students of the madrasah were famous imams and recognized theologians in the Volga-Ural region. The madrasah in Satyshevo village had extensive educational ties with the Muslims of the main educational centers of Kazan, Orenburg, Troitsk, Bukhara and Dagestan. The founder of the madrasah should be considered Imam Abdurrashid bin Kadermukhammad. The next famous imam and mudarris was Ibrahim bin Jagfar as-Satyshi. After him, Mukmin ben Budach continued his spiritual path in Satyshevo. One of the famous imams and mudarris of the Satyshev madrasah was Yarulla bin Bikmukhammad (1794–1869). His son Mubaraksha continued his spiritual ministry at the Satyshevo Mosque. One of the students of Yarulla hazrat was Muhammad bin Ali (Mukhammet Mukhammetgaleev), his name is associated with the further development of teaching in the Satyshev madrasah. After his death in 1902, the position of the first imam passed to his son – Abdrakhman Mukhametov, and the second imam in the documents is indicated by the son of Mubaraksha hazrat – Gabdulla. The teaching program at the madrasah was old-fashioned, classical. It is known from the preserved description of the library of the madrasah that there were a large number of manuscripts and books published in Russia and Turkey.

The period between the 19th – early 20th century witnessed waves of actively forming Polish communities in Russia’s rural areas. A major factor that contributed to the process was the repressive policy by the Russian Empire towards those involved in the Polish national liberation and revolutionary movement. Large communities were founded in Siberia, the Volga region, Caucasus, and European North of Russia (Arkhangelsk). One of the largest communities emerged in Siberia. By the early 20th century, the Polonia in the region consisted of tens of thousands of people. The Polish population was engaged in Siberia’s economic life and was an important stakeholder in business. Among the most well-known Polish-Siberian entrepreneurs was Alfons Poklewski-Koziell who was called the “Vodka King of Siberia” by his contemporaries. Poles, who returned from Siberian exile and penal labor, left recollections of their staying in Siberia or notes on the region starting already from the middle of the 19th century. It was this literature that was the main source of information about the life of the Siberian full for a long time. Exile undoubtedly became a significant factor that was responsible for Russia’s negative image in the historical memory of Poles. This was reflected in publications based on the martyrological approach in the Polish historiography. Glorification of the struggle of Poles to restore their statehood was a central standpoint adopted not only in memoirs, but also in scientific studies that appeared the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. The martyrological approach dominated the Polish historiography until 1970s. It was not until the late 20th century that serious scientific research started utilizing the civilizational approach, which broke the mold of the Polish historical science. This is currently a leading approach. This enables us to objectively reconstruct the history of the Siberian Polonia in the imperial period of the Russian history. The article is intended to analyze publications by Polish authors on the history of the Polish community in Siberia the 19th – early 20th century. It focuses on memoirs and research works, which had an impact on the reconstruction of the Siberian Polonia’s history. The paper is written using the retrospective, genetic, and comparative methods.re.

We present a reconstruction of vegetation dynamics and fire history from the western part of the Putorana Plateau during the Late-Holocene. The study area is located in the remote and poorly investigated region of Central Siberia, which represents an important area for understanding climate and environmental changes in the Russian Subarctic. Pollen and macroscopic charcoal data from three closely located lakes along an altitudinal transect in the Khantaika River basin show no major changes in vegetation in the study area during the last 3.9 ka BP. However, a detailed analysis of the data reveals an extension of forest coverage in lake catchments at about 3.1 ka BP followed by a gradual degradation of woodlands, and an expansion of shrubs and tundra vegetation at around 2.7–2.5 ka BP. Fire activity was relatively high between 3.0 and 2.0 ka BP compared to all but the most modern part of the record, while macroscopic charcoal accumulation reaches a maximum in the most recent surface sediments. This suggests an increase in the frequency and area of fires in the region since the end of the 19th century, which has no analog during the Late-Holocene.

Статья посвящена анализу архивных фотодокументов 1860–1870-х годов, находящихся в коллекции Музея антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого (Кунсткамера) РАН, и изобразительных материалов, созданных на их основе. Комплекс этих изображений отражает тенденции второй половины XIX в. в визуализации этнических черт, когда нужный эффект достигался как с помощью различных выразительных средств, так и манипуляциями с зафиксированной информацией через компиляцию, ретушь и текстовое сопровождение. Анализ содержания при сравнении оригинальных и вторичных данных показывает, как искусственное насыщение информацией и объединение эстетических подходов отражались на достоверности этнической репрезентации. Примеры обработки фотодокументов и технологии создания на их основе новых, описанные в тексте, позволяют представить масштабы и вариации существовавшего явления. Сравнение изменений, произошедших с изображениями во временном и пространственном движении, выявляет смысловые и коннотационные трансформации. В статье рассмотрена музейная история фотоколлекции МАЭ № 106А, проанализированы атрибуции, повлиявшие на трансформацию информативных возможностей ряда документов и изменившие этнические и исторические факты. Особое внимание уделено тому, как нюансированно менялись контексты с помощью незначительных доработок как визуального текста, так и текста вербального. Описаны несколько вариантов создания вторичных документов – рисунков на основе фотографий – для научного иллюстрирования текста о путешествии О. Финша и А. Брема и в художественных произведениях с этнической тематикой М. С. Знаменского. Вопрос о достоверности изображения, особенно если оно раннее, должен обязательно подниматься при обработке фотодокумента. Не только критика фотографии, но и простое иллюстрирование текстов визуальными данными невозможны без предварительного изучения как самого изображения, так и сопроводительной документации. Анализ художественных работ сложнее, так как здесь исследование необходимо начинать с поиска первоисточников, послуживших основой для создания произведения. The article examines the archival photo documents of the 1860s–1870s, stored in the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and graphic materials created on their basis. These images reflect the trends of the second half of the 19th century in the visualization of ethnic features. The desired effect was achieved both through various expressive means and by manipulating the recorded information via compilation, retouching and textual accompaniment. The author’s aesthetic vision of beauty and exoticism often dominated in these pictures. Saturation with visual information was more likely to attract clients to purchase such an image. The comparison of the original and secondary data shows how the artificial information content and the integration of aesthetic approaches were reflected in the specificity of ethnic representation. The careful investigation of specific im-ages suggests where to look for difficult situations, allows avoiding loose interpretation and supporting the conclusions with specific facts. The museum received Collection No. 106 from the scientist Ivan Polyakov. The collection of photos is heterogeneous and includes two sets of documents: (1) prints acquired from various photographers during trips across the Russian Em-pire: the Caucasus, Siberia, the Volga region, Kazakhstan; (2) prints of photos Polyakov took during his own expedition along the Ob River to study local people. The history of the collection demonstrates how difficult it is to find out the origin of a photographic document and then to study its content. An example of changing attribution for a set of six photos from the collection is considered in the text. This group of documents is interesting because it vividly demonstrates conventions in depicting gender and national differences. All the photos show the same man. However, in three of them, he presents three variants of the Samoyed male costume; in the oth-er three, two variants of the female costume. The attribution of the photos is not clear to date. It is known that they were displayed at the ethnographic exhibition in Moscow in 1867 as images of the European group of Samoyeds (Nenets people) from Arkhangelsk Province. However, in the museum’s collection, they are registered with the title “Ostyak and Samoyed Winter Cos-tumes”. We can see how this change of attribution is reflected in the illustration and text error in the book about travel across Russia by Otto Finsch and Alfred Brehm. In the second part of the article, photo documents are considered as a source for creating graphic art works, in particular by the artist Mikhail Znamensky. Three color drawings, whose objects he borrowed from the prints of Collection No. 106, are analyzed in detail. Znamensky combined the objects with visu-al data from other sources and created new works of his own. The artist placed earlier samples into the new pieces of art. As a result, the original context presented in the original source was lost or altered. People drawn from photographs were assigned activities they did not do or this information was not embedded in the original image. The author colored his images copied from monochrome photographs and chose the color of the clothes at his discretion. The characters taken from different documents and placed in the narrative of the combined pictures turned out to be connected with each other by different semiotic links and created contexts in the new plots. Thus, representing various phenomena and cultures, a community of characters and events from different-time documents was created. This gave rise to unification and created ethnic stereotypes. Undoubtedly, people who created such constructs were more than far from thinking about a conscious falsification of data and from understanding that, in the historical perspective, the analysis of their compilations can lead to false conclusions. Their work, which concentrated information, responded to the needs of their time; it allowed contemporaries to see the diversity of life, without reference to special literature.

This article focuses on the participation Bashkirs took in the development of Transvolga Region. The lands in Samara Province were the most western ones in Russia where the Bashkir population lived compactly. Historical studies of the region and the population living there between the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries refer to documents of central and local archives, manuscripts of the Russian National Library, etc. Critical analysis of sources and historiography and the application of modern techniques of local and ethnic history allows the author not only to solve research problems, but also look at the past while constructing historical and cultural memory. In the “imperial period”, the problem of correlating the ethnic and local history was complicated by the resettlement of peoples in different territories over considerable distances. The transformation of Volga Region into an internal Samara province of the empire, on the one hand, was due to the mobilisation of part of the estates of Bashkir lands, which occurred both forcibly and voluntarily. On the other hand, the loss by the Bashkirs of mostly remote and underutilised Transvolga estates was compensated for by receiving the status of a military service class, the presence of self-government, and the possibility of modernising the economy, culture, and life. As a result, the territories of the ethnos’s settlement were preserved and expanded, its undoubted numerical growth took place, amounting to more than a tenfold increase over two centuries nationwide. In the middle of the nineteenth century, about 50 thousand Bashkirs lived in Transvolga Region. The author provides a definition of the “imperial people” on the basis of active participation in the genesis of the empire, especially in the process of including “peripheral lands”. The Bashkirs are certainly an “imperial people” and Samara Transvolga Region is one of the “peripheral lands” included in the economic, political, and multicultural space of the Russian Empire, which was important for the further development of the entire multi-ethnic country.

Russia of the 18th – 19th centuries faced a crucial challenge of sparsely populated suburbs consolidation through their economic development. Acute shortage of work force to be involved for transformation of Novorossiya, the steppes of the North Caucasus and the Middle Volga region, Siberia and some other regions into the centers of commodity agriculture and industrial production, forced the authorities to turn to the use of European experience and place a bet on foreign colonization. Central Europe, devastated by the Seven-Year War, brought to life tens of thousands of potential colonists, who answered the call of Empress Catherine the Great to move to the unoccupied lands of the Russian Empire. Since 1765, the first colonies (Novo-Saratovka, Srednaya Rogatka, Yamburg and Izhora colonies) were formed near St. Petersburg. Investigation of the history of these settlements in the imperial period is extremely poor in modern historiography. The article examines the initial period of their existence (1765 – 1800s). It took about 30 years for German colonists to adapt to new living conditions. Some colonies (Srednaya Rogatka) became centers of commodity production of agricultural products (potatoes, etc.), sold in the capital-city market, at the beginning of the 19th century already. Experiments on the advanced multi-field system implementation, initiated by Semyon Dzhunkovsky, opened the way to increase productivity and income of the colonists. The new crop rotation system spurted into popularity not only in the colonies, but in the neighboring settlements of Russian peasants as well. The article is intended for specialists engaged in the study of agrarian development, ethnic minorities of Russia in the imperial period.

The article presents an overview of the biography and scholarly heritage of a graduate of St. Petersburg University, a student of S.F.Platonov, and an outstanding Russian historian of the first half of the 20th century, P.G.Liubomirov. Based on the analysis of the works and materials of the personal archive of the scholar, the paper shows that the sphere of academic interests of P.G.Liubomirov comprised several directions. He made a great contribution to the study of the socio-economic history of the Low Volga region in the 17th–19th centuries, and to the history of social thought in Russia in the 18th century. A series of articles by P.G.Liubomirov on these topics appeared in the 1920–1930s in the regional academic periodicals. Many works of the scholar have never been published and are kept in his archive as manuscripts. In the 1930–1940s a group of his students and colleagues did a large amount of work with concerning publication of his works. However, due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and ideological campaigns of the turn of the 1940–1950s this work has not been completed. Today, much of the scholarly heritage of P.G.Liubomirov remains unpublished and unknown to historians. The works of the historian has not lost their relevance. In this regard, it is necessary to resume work on the study and publication of the works of P.G.Liubomirov, which was interrupted in the 1950s.

This paper aims at reconstructing the genealogy of Siberian Tatars of Knyazevs (Western Siberia), identifying the origins of their surname, which is not characteristic of the Tatars, and at analysis of the influence of socio-political and socio-economical processes in Russia in the 18th through 20th centuries on the social transformation of the family. The sources were represented by the materials of the Inventory Revision Book of Tarsky District of 1701 and census surveys of the end of 18th through 19th centuries, which allowed tracing the Knyazev family through the genealogical succession and identifying social status of its members. In this work, recordkeeping ma-terials of the 18th–20th centuries and contemporary genealogical and historical traditions of the Tatars have been utilized. In the research, the method of genealogical reconstructions by archival materials and their correlation with genealogies of modern population has been used. The history of the Knyazev family is inextricably linked to the history of modern village of Bernyazhka — one of the earliest settlements of the Ayalintsy (a group of the Si-berian Tatars) in the territory of the Tarsky Irtysh land which became the home to the Knyazevs for more than three centuries. The 1701Inventory Revision Book cites Itkuchuk Buchkakov as a local power broker of the Aya-lynsky Tatars in the village. During the 18th century, this position was inherited by his descendants who eventually lost this status in the beginning of the 19th century in the course of the managerial reforms by the Russian gov-ernment. Nevertheless, the social status of the members of the gens remained high. In the mid. 19th century, the village moved — the villagers resettled from the right bank of the River Irtysh onto the left one. As the result, the village was situated nearby the main road connecting the cities of Omsk and Tara. At the same time, the village became the center of the Ayalynskay region. That led to the strengthening of the social status and property en-richment of the descendants of Itkuchuk Buchkakov. The Knyzevs’ surname first appeared in the materials of the First All-Russia Census Survey of 1897. Some of the descendants signed up under this surname later in the Soviet period. During the Soviet years, members of the Knyzev’s gens had different destinies: some worked in the local government, whereas the others were subjected to political repressions and executed. Knyazevs took part in the Great Patriotic War and seven of them perished. Presently there are no descendants of the Knyazevs in Bernyazhka as they spread over the villages of the Omskaya Region, some living in Omsk and other towns of Russia and abroad.

In the XIX century, the printed literature which appeared in the Udmurt language was mainly translation. These publications are mainly religious in nature and published in various dialects of the Udmurt language (Glazov and Sarapul). However, the language of these monuments cannot be correlated with a specific territorial dialect, since the translators and compilers during their writing were not limited to reflecting any one dialect, but, as a rule, resulted in inter-dialect doublets. The appearance of voluminous texts - translations of sources of Christian education in various languages of the Ural-Volga region, including the Udmurt region - is primarily due to the desire of church leaders to extend their influence to the illiterate non-Russian population of the backwoods of Russia in order to familiarize them with their faith. Translations into the Udmurt language of the first half of the 19th century were few. Some of them, compiled on the territory of distribution of various dialects, were deposited in various archives, a small part was published in Kazan in 1847, like the ABC and the Gospel in the Glazov and Sarapul dialects of the Udmurt language. The article deals with the history of creation and the time of publication of the first books in the Udmurt language, since in some works there are unreliable and unreliable dates of their publication. Researchers note that in 1823 a translation into the Udmurt language of the Gospel of Matthew was published, and in 1828 - “The Beginnings of Christian Teaching”. The author made an attempt to find out on the basis of what data similar historiographic mystifications appeared, whether they are not the result of a simple mistake or an inattentive study of written monuments.

This chapter is devoted to the ethnography of the Russian Far East. Russian explorers reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean around the middle of the 17th century. Here they met many local peoples, previously unknown to them, some of which were “yasaked”, that is, imposed a tax in kind. On the other hand, the local population got acquainted with the Russian culture, which was new for them. The first contacts were sometimes accompanied by conflicts and misunderstanding of the customs and traditions of each other, but gradually the practice of mutually beneficial coexistence developed, friendly, marriage and economic relations were established. After military clashes with Qing China and the defeat of the defense of the Albazin fort, Russia and China signed the Nerchinsk peace treaty (1689), according to which the Russians had to leave the Amur River, and the fort itself was subject to “ruin to the ground”. Therefore, until the middle of the 19th century, the main sources on the ethnography of the Russian Far East relate mainly to the peoples of the Chukotka-Kamchatka cultural region who lived north of the Stanovoy Range. The situation changed with the beginning of the “Amur alloys” in 1854—1858, initiated by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N. N. Muravyov, and the signing later of the Aigun (1858) and Peking (1860) treaties with China, as well as the firm consolidation of Sakhalin Island for Russia. From that time on, the development of the Amur and Primorye regions began, which led not only to military, but also to civilian colonization of the region and the beginning of the “golden age” of Far Eastern ethnography. Since that time, the peoples of the Amur-Sakhalin ethnographic region are also included in the orbit of Russian culture. About why and who exactly are referred to as indigenous peoples, about the features of their material and spiritual culture, as well as about modern ethnocultural landscapes of the Russian Far East will be discussed within the framework of this topic.

The article is devoted to the problem of the "annalistic Voronezh" of the XII-XVI centuries. The word "Voronezh" is first mentioned in Russian chronicles under 1177 in connection with the princely feuds in Northeastern Russia. But it is not clear what it meant: the city or the territory adjacent to the river. The author, using the results of the survey conducted among historians, archaeologists and regional ethnographers, tries to determine the reasons for the continuing controversy about the ancient Voronezh, which started in the middle of the 19th century. The questionnaire includes 18 questions, reflecting different interpretations of the word "Voronezh" (city, river, region) and related events, the condition of historiography and sources, researchers' opinions on the ways to solve this issue. According to the majority of respondents, the currently available written and archaeological sources do not allow us to assert that the annalistic Voronezh is a city (or settlement) in the territory of the Ryazan princedom. However, this does not prevent them from believing in the possibility of its existence, until proven otherwise. The most original answers are reproduced in the text of the article. The author concludes with a logical conclusion that the study of the annalistic Voronezh cannot be reduced only to the search for an Old Russian castle. This is a broader scientific topic, because in the opinion of many researchers (including those interviewed by the questionnaire author) in fact "Voronezh" is a separate geographical area on the border of forest and steppe with its own special history. The development of the topic is associated with its further study. In particular, the need to clarify the chronological and geographical boundaries of the annalistic Voronezh, as an outskirt of the Ryazan Principality, is pointed out. The text of the questionnaire is given in the appendix.

Introduction. The presented article touches upon one of the serious religious problems of Russian history, the phenomenon of “sects”. The author, with the help of the provincial periodical press of the Russian Orthodox Church, tried to highlight the activities of sectarians in the second half of the 19th century until the end of the First World War. The significance of the material presented is undoubtedly, especially in the context of the emergence of new radical sects. To these days, too much depends on the experience of solving this issue, which is acute in our country. The successful resolution of religious problems is the foundation of Russia’s peaceful existence. The purpose of the article is to determine the historical place of sects and sectarianism in the religious life of provinces Middle Volga region, based on the characteristics of their condition and activities, to highlight the policy of the Russian Orthodox Church in relation to sectarians in the period under review, to reveal the special role of the church periodicals aimed at forming environment of negative perception of sects, heretics and all those who broke away from the “true Orthodox teaching”. Materials and Methods. The most important in the study, based on the provisions formulated by the above authors, is the historical method, or, as it is also formulated, the principle of historicism. In carrying out this scientific research, the author relied, first of all, on special historical or general historical methods. Research Results. The study showed that the church media, controlled by local bishops and supported by the secular authorities, carried out an anti-sectarian policy on the pages of their magazines. The Russian Church in Russia had the status of a “state religion” and a monopoly on religious consciousness, therefore it suppressed any deviations from its dogmas. The anti-sectarian tone did not change until 1917. Discussion and Conclusion. We can conclude that the topic of sectarianism is still relevant, moreover, sects continue to arise and develop throughout the world. As long as there are official religions, new sects will be born and spun off. The image of a heretic-sectarian, when necessary, is actively used in propaganda in the media today. The proposed provisions and conclusions create prerequisites for further study of this problem.

Annexed to the Khokand Khanate in the first half of the 19th century, the city of Tashkent was the most important trade centre next to the capital city. It is also a city which is a State within a State and considered to be the most important economic pillar of the whole region. Having a history of 2200 years, the oldest name of the city is “Chach” and “Shash” and, besides, it is also mentioned as “land of Tashkent”, “province of Tashkent”, “Shahar”, “province of Tashkent Steppe of Kypchak” in historic works. An important centre in the Khokand Khanate, Tashkent’s boundaries included Akhangaran, Chinaz, environs of Tashkent, the city and environs of Turkestan situated on the banks of the river Syr Darya, which city is within the territories of Kazakhstan at present. In the second half of the 19th century, the city of Tashkent was again a key point in the Turkestan region, which became a gallant scene for the occupation movements. Once the city of Tashkent had been captured by the Tsarist Russia in 1865, the occupation process gained momentum in the region and the city turned into the centre of the Viceroyalty of Turkestan, which was established in 1867. What we will discuss will be the history and strategic importance as well as political, economic and sociocultural characteristics of the city of Tashkent.

At the end of the 20th century, changes took place in the world that forced politicians and scientists to rethink many seemingly established postulates about the laws of social life and about the ways of development of human civilization. The modern development of the social movement among the Tatars of Russia, and especially the national processes in Tatarstan largely repeat the trends in the development of the nation in the pre-Soviet period. The main role in the social movement of nations is played by the activities of the elite aimed at creating political, educational and cultural institutions. The turning point in the history of the Tatar people should be considered the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. The Tatar ideology was created during the period of rapid development of bourgeois socio-economic relations (especially noticeable among the Tatars of the Volga-Ural region) and the rise of national culture. However, until recently, the sources and works of authors of different times have not been fully studied, although they contain data on the processes of formation of the Tatar social factor and the Tatar nation itself in the context of the development of the Russian community.