The article examines the history of the reestablishment of Komsomol organizations in Kalmykia’s ex-occupied after the expulsion of German and Romanian invaders. In the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht troops completely occupied a total of five uluses and the city of Elista, and partially – three more uluses. Quite a number of Komsomol members found themselves in the occupied territories. Despite the terror
of the Nazis, many Komsomol members of Kalmykia joined the struggle against the invaders. Still, there were a few cases of Komsomol members’ collaboration with the occupants. In November 1942 to January 1943, Red Army forces drove the invaders out of Kalmykia. The reestablishment of Komsomol ulus committees started. Secretaries, members of the Bureau, and workers of the Regional Komsomol Committee were commissioned to those uluses to assist in respective activities. The restored Komsomol
city and ulus committees initiated a re-registration of Komsomol members that had remained in the occupied territories and investigations of their activities. This resulted in a number of errors when Komsomol members that had behaved decently during the occupation were expelled from the Komsomol. The Kalmyk Regional Committee justified themselves by the absence of any guideposts from the Central Komsomol Committee. The phase also witnessed efforts for restoration of the national economy. The newly established Komsomol youth brigades managed to significantly succeed in those works over a short period of time.

The article highlights activities of archival institutions of the Republic of Kalmykia aiming to collect and use documents dealing with issues related to victims of political repressions, including questions of their publication. The paper outlines a history of the identification and delivery of documents of Kalmyk soldiers and noncommissioned officers deported to the forced labor camp of Shirokovskaya Dam — to the Information Center of Kalmykia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. It analyzes activities of the Republican Commission for the Restoration of Rights of Rehabilitated Victims of Political Repressions (peoples and citizens) under the Government of the Republic of Kalmykia, including ones aimed at obtaining copies of documents from the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defense according to which ethnic Kalmyk soldiers and non-commissioned officers were recalled from the frontline to join support works in rearward areas. Copies of these documents were submitted to the Archival Committee of the Republic of Kalmykia.

The article publishes a diary kept by the author during the Soviet-Mongolian Comprehensive History and Culture Research Expedition. The expedition began its work in 1969, and the diary covers the events of the latter half of September.

The publication examines texts devoted to the cult of the goddess Tara, the latter being revered by all Mongolic peoples which is evidenced by field materials collected between 2013 and 2016 in Uvs and Khovd Provinces of Mongolia. One such religious text from the personal collection of Midjid Lama (Midjidorzh), the abbot of Namirin Khiid (Ömnӧgovi Sum, Uvs Province, Mongolia), serves as a vivid confirmation. The work publishes an Oirat-language manuscript entitled ‘The Hymn to the Green Tara’ (Oir. Noγōn Dāre ekeyin maqtāl orošiboi) with transliteration, commented translation, and facsimile of the original source. This is one of the prayer texts once used in ceremonial honoring of the goddess Tara. The article also discusses similar texts in Mongolian and Tibetan languages.

The National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia contains quite a range of epistolary, diplomatic, administrative, judicial, and economic documents. Those are presented in the forms of official letters, registers, freedom certificates, contracts, oaths, receipts, letters of attorney, etc. Identification and introduction of written monuments into scientific discourse is always interesting for researchers as a means to acquire new materials that give impetus to further scientific investigations. In this regard, the study of
the 1882 official Clear Script document revealed in the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia is relevant enough. The article aims to introduce into scientific circulation the official paper describing 19-century Kalmyk judicial proceedings. The work provides a first transliteration of the text and supplements it with a modern Kalmyk interpretation. The article also contains a Russian translation of that time made by some Russian court reporter. The introduction of a new written monument shall provide linguists with research materials for further insights into the history of the Kalmyk language.

The paper examines adjectives denoting horizontal and vertical size (‘long’ and ‘short’) in the Buryat language and Russian-Buryat dictionaries. The analysis shows that adjectives to define objects in horizontal orientation are fewer than those dealing with vertical orientation. At the same time, adjectives of vertical orientation (oodon and ohor) are distinguished by exclusive compatibility characteristics. The adjective oodon characterizes objects hanging down, such as tails, lower hems, bottom edges of trousers, shoulder weapons, etc.; and the word ohor defines vertical, upwardsdirected
objects, e.g., grass, rocks, etc. The dominant adjectives in synonymic chains of both orientations coincide and serve as general definitions of certain qualities or characteristics of an object (uta and bogony). For deeper understanding of peculiarities inherent to these adjectives, the paper examines no pictorial, stylistically loaded adjectives since those are often essentially evaluative and do not act as object definers directly; the single exception examined being the somewhat evaluative adjective unzhagar ‘long’ containing semes of both horizontal and vertical orientations. It defines objects stretched in perspective, as well as ones that hang down or face upwards. As for the analyzed adjectives, in both the synonymic chains the adjectives bogony and oodon ‘short’ are not used in a figurative sense, while uta and ohor are active enough in this function. This fact, apparently, attests to that those are basically used in their direct, utilitarian function ― determination of physical parameters of an object used in practice and economic activities. So, a different story is that of the word ohor which, when combined with ukhaan, bodol, naγan, express figurative meanings (ohor ukhaan ‘dull mind’, ohor γanaan ‘short-sighted’, ohor naγan ‘short life / short century’). Some of these adjectives are used to form compound nouns and adjectives, e.g., uta honshoor ‘bittern’, ohor γüül ‘tailbone’, oodon buu ‘carbine’, oodon terge ‘uniaxial cart’, oodon ümden ‘shorts’, etc. Distinction between Buryat (and other Mongolic) synonyms in vertical orientation requires a deeper analysis based on their etymologies, and in lexicographical practice – accompaniments in the form of semantic explanations.

The paper examines the etymology of the idiom ‘(ne) khukhry-mukhry’ which in its form fully corresponds to the so-called pair words widely used in Turkic, Mongolic and some Finno-Ugric languages. Several generations of researchers have sought for the actual etymology of this idiom. The revealed complex of features associated with the idiom suggests that this expression goes back to the Mongolic languages and may be one of the earliest Mongolian borrowings in the Russian language.

The article examines a number of 1960–1970s audio recordings contained in the archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS and analyzes tales of one pilgrimage to Tibet. The comparative analysis of legends dealing with Gelong Jijeten involves 5 textual versions recorded from local taletellers at different times. The analysis reveals a number of similarities and ‘typical features’ (10 positions), namely: the pilgrim’s name, the identified goal and destination of the pilgrimage, number of pilgrims, the character they meet en route, their means of transport, description of a Buddhist temple, time spent by Jijeten in the temple. All the versions also contain episodes 1) when those are treated to araka (‘alcohol distilled from milk products’), and 2) when pilgrims set off after the night stop but it is Jijeten sheltered overnight by the
White Old Man who arrives first. Despite the five versions were recorded at different times and from different informants, all of them have retained a common plot basis ― both verbally and structurally. The 1960–1970s recordings made by local folklore researchers attest to the fact that Buddhism in Kalmykia had kept developing due to regular contacts with Tibet.

The article examines somewhat understudied poetics of titles of 1920s–1930s books by Kalmyk poets. The titles of Kalmyk authors’ poetic books mirrored а new era in historical, literary, ideological, artistic, thematic, and sociocultural perpsectives. The formation of Soviet Kalmyk literature at this stage demonstrates is characterized by that many poets turn to the method of Socialist realism, to the ideology and policies of the Soviet state expressed in the spirit of the time through poetics of books.

The article views the semantics of the floral image ‘red tulip’ from the perspective of imagology, delineating — through English translations — its symbolic character and additional motifs, including those of reincarnation and memory. The subject of analysis is Mikhail Khoninov’s ‘I Will Become a Red Tulip’ (1973) in the translations by the American poet C. Copeland and the Mongolian translator V. Tsogmaa. Each translator introduces certain transformations to the original version resulting from Eastern and Western cultural realities.