Despite there are quite a number of works dealing with the history of Kalmykia’s Communist party organizations, the former provide virtually no description of the latter’s structure, and, specifically, nothing has been published to characterize activities of the Women’s Affairs Department within Kalmyk Oblast Party Committee. So, the paper represents a first consideration of the issue. Goals. The study seeks to analyze Kalmyk Oblast Party Committee’s work among women in 1921–1928. Materials. The paper primarily examines materials housed by the National Archive of Kalmykia and containing valuable insights into activities of Kalmyk Oblast’s departments, including that of women’s affairs. Conclusions. The work concludes that Kalmykia’s party organizations would undertake conscious efforts for political indoctrination of women and their active involvement into industrial and agricultural development of the country, party, Komsomol, Soviet and trade union movements. The involvement of women into industrial production by regional party organizations also served to completely transform rural women’s life and attitudes.

The purpose of the article is to study the administrative and territorial changes and the process of renaming settlements in Kalmykia in the period from 1957 to 1977 from the standpoint of the public management aspect (reflected in regulatory and legal acts, documents of party bodies, in official correspondence, minutes of meetings). Methods and materials: Published legal and regulatory acts of Kalmykia for the specified period, collections of documents, data of the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia were used as input for the article. Results and conclusions: Since the restoration of autonomy in 1957 and before the adoption of the new Constitution of the USSR in 1977, the administrative and territorial division of Kalmykia had undergone a number of fundamental changes. A kind of territorial rehabilitation of the Republic, though maybe incomplete, took place. One of the aspects of this process was renaming of some settlements through restoring to them their former national names. Administrative and territorial changes were also conditioned by management reforms in the USSR in the late 1950s – the first half of the 1960s. (consolidation and unbundling of rural areas), as well as by the development needs of new branches of agriculture.

The article seeks to introduce into scientific discourse a Mongolian-language text dealing with divination and astrological practices, and housed by the National Museum of the Tyva Republic (М-653). Materials. The Classical Mongolian manuscript text is a fragment (introductory part) of the famous Chinese composition titled ‘Jade Box Writings’. It includes 25 yellowish pages of medium size, the pages 7б, 9а, 9б, 10а, 10б missing from the document. The fragment comprises several sections dealing with astrology and divination. Results. The paper compares the Tuva-based text (М-653) to a woodblock print from the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (ID no. F 145). The analysis reveals that manuscript М-653 contains a number of omissions (words and phrases), many lexemes having been essentially marred. The study concludes the Mongolian translation — as is evident from the title ‘A Concise Description of Chapter One of The Jade Box Writings Newly Translated for Various Occasions’ — is a concise translation of the Chinese original, the former missing quite a number of details, and suggests the Tuva-based manuscript is a copy of the Beijing Mongolian-language edition two xylographs of which have been discovered at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. The text introduced into scientific discourse is actually a historical document providing insight into household activities and worldview concepts of the 19th-century Mongols. The article transliterates the text, translates it into Russian, and supplements a facsimile.

The paper addresses the problem of studying the vocabulary of translated written Oirat-language monuments in comparison to their Tibetan-language originals. It briefly describes the lexicographic works based on materials from ancient Buddhist sources and available to modern Oiratologists. In addition, it examines some issues of studying the language of the monuments through the use of modern computer programs, provides examples of text processing, and analyzes the results obtained.

The Story of Usun Debeskertu Khan is a most famous Oirat (Kalmyk) Clear Script literary composition. The text consists of homilies delivered by Tibetan King Tri Palpachen and his sixteen senior executives. It was translated into Oirat after Clear Script was created in 1648. Its popularity and widest distribution are attested by multiple copies included into Mongolian-language manuscript collections of Russia, Mongolia and China. The colophon says the translation was made by Gushi Nomin Khan and ordered by Kendulen Khurmusta Khan. Thus, the composition was created in Tibet not until the 10th century AD. In the mid-17th century, the Tri Ralpachen’s didactic collection was translated into Oirat by the renown Khoshut ruler — a prominent figure in the history of Dzungaria and Tibet — Gushi Nomin Khan at the request of his brother Kendulen Ubushi. The earliest publication was made by Kalmyk emigres in 1927.

The documentary materials of the personal fund of Aleksei Vasilievich Burdukov and his daughter Taisiya Alekseevna Burdukova, stored in the Scientific Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, include valuable sources on the history of Mongolia, the language, life and culture of the Mongolian people, folklore and other aspects that reveal those sides of the life of Mongolian society, that are not recorded in official documentation. These materials are an integral part of the documentary heritage of the Kalmyk Scientific Centre of the RAS. Thanks to these sources, it is possible to restore the time specific details and signs during which Russian and Soviet Mongolian scholar, public figure, philologist, researcher, teacher of the Mongolian language, organizer of the first Soviet school in Mongolia — A.  V. Burdukov lived and worked (1883–1943). Purpose. This article provides an overview of documents from the Scientific Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS based on the materials of the personal fund of A. V. Burdukov and T. A. Burdukova (F. 21). Results. The composition and contents of the Fund 21 of the Scientific Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Centre of the RAS containing the materials related to the life and work of A. V. Burdukov have been analyzed. Despite the fact that the results of the many-sided scientific activity of A. V. Burdukov are only partially reflected in the composition of the archival documents that have been deposited in the archive, they cause a constant and unremitting interest of researchers in them. All this determines the value and significance of the documents of the personal fund of A. V. and T. A. Burdukov.

The article deals with one of the Kalmyk marriage rites, the longstanding tradition of which was disrupted in the second half of the XX century. This topic has not been the subject of the research before. The purpose of the article is to identify the symbolism and origins of the fat-throwing rite in Kalmyk wedding ceremony. Methods. Methods used in the research are synchronous and diachronic, descriptive, comparative-functional and comparative-semantic. Results. Various variants of this ritual have been studied in many Kalmyk families, its comparative materials in wedding traditions of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples have also been analyzed, the ideas that determined the origins and functionality of the ritual among Kalmyks have been revealed. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the original symbolism of this rite is associated with the ancient form of the cult of fire, various deities as well as the cult of ancestors. The ritual of throwing fat during the wedding ceremony in Kalmyk family is aimed at making offerings to various sacred forces through the fire of the hearth as a polysemantic marker and entering under their patronage. The image of fire among the Kalmyks continues to retain its ancient form, despite the adaptation of Buddhist practice. It is suggested that the image of the ancient deity is a taboo in the ritual exclamation-appeal “tsog/tsög” directed towards him. In rites associated with fire, a ram was used as a “solar animal” with the” hot living breath (“halun kiita”). The original meaning of offering the brisket of a ram to the deity of fire in context of the marriage rite is lost. In the ceremonial sphere, it is associated with female symbol, symbols of motherhood, the emotional world of a man.

Vocabulary in the ethnolinguistic aspect is considered as a verbal manifestation of the national culture. A special layer of the lexical system of the Kalmyk language, the formation of which is associated with the conditions of the socio-political life of the Kalmyks, is represented by the vocabulary of military affairs. The study of military vocabulary in the Kalmyk language touches on various aspects: historical lexicology, lexical borrowings, lexicographical description. The military vocabulary of the Kalmyk language at the present stage is considered as part of socio-political vocabulary. As sources of the material for the study of military vocabulary, works of fiction, folklore texts, the epos “Dzhangar”, old Kalmyk business texts, lexicographic publications were used. At the same time, the military vocabulary of the Kalmyk language in synchronous and historical aspects remains insufficiently studied. Materials. The work is based on the material of letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka (1714) and Russian translations of these letters (1714) stored in the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia. The transliteration and transposition to the modern Kalmyk graphics used in the article were made by D. B. Gedeeva. The author analyzes military vocabulary that is specific for that historical period under consideration and relates to several thematic subgroups: 1) names associated with the general concept of ceriq ‘army’; 2) representatives of a certain type of troops; 3) the type of military activity; 4) names of substances that are used for the manufacture of weapons (ammunition). Findings. The elements of the thematic group of military vocabulary analyzed in the article, recorded in business letters of Khan Ayuka for 1714, give a clearer picture of the history of the development of the lexical system of the Kalmyk language and the ethnolinguistic specificity of the business text — original and translated. An analysis of the use of the names of general concepts in business letters, representatives of a certain kind of troops, means for making ammunition reveals the specifics and patterns of functioning of one of the lexical subsystems of the Kalmyk language, confirms the possibility of replenishing existing dictionaries with outdated words and creating a separate dictionary of Kalmyk business letters of the 18th century.

18th-century Kalmyk official writing is represented by a number of genres. The paper examines that of oaths. Goals. The article seeks to describe different types of oaths collectively referred to as andaγa:r, and introduce into scientific discourse a text of the reconciliation oath. Materials. The work analyzes Kalmyk-language texts of oaths housed by Russian archives, employing the descriptive and historical-comparative methods. Results. The materials discovered in the National Archive of Kalmykia attest to that in Kalmyk legal practices there were several types of oaths clustered under the name andaγa:r witness oath, loyalty oath, and reconciliation oath.

The work seeks to consider the Kalmyk multivalent verb of motion ɤarkh ʻleave, come outʼ, and identify its lexical-semantic variants. Materials. The paper analyzes texts of the Jangar epic songs. Results. The semantic structure of the Kalmyk verb ɤarkh ʻleave, come outʼ is very wide and multivalent, being represented by 25 lexical meanings. The semantic structure of the Kalmyk lexeme proves to contain meanings typical for a verb of motion: 1) leave, come out, 2) rise, 3) climb up, 4) go, 5) pass, pass by, through, 6) pass, move through something, 7) ascend. The Kalmyk verb ɤarkh ʻleave, come outʼ denotes both horizontal and vertical movement. The sememe ɤarkh contains both direct and indirect meanings, also acting as an auxiliary verb: ʻexude (about liquid)ʼ, ‘ascend (to a throne)’, ʻarise, be bornʼ, ʻpublish, proclaimʼ, ʻbecome famousʼ, ʻloseʼ; as an auxiliary verb ― ʻget rid of’, ʻbe healthy, safeʼ, ʻresembleʼ, ʻgrow (about plants)ʼ, ʻextractʼ, ʻdisappearʼ, ʻsurvive a battleʼ, ʻemergeʼ, ʻsurpassʼ, ʻexhaleʼ, etc. The verb ɤarkh participates in formation of verbal phraseological units which constitute a considerable part of the epic narrative. The analysis shows that subjects of such movement are both sentient (those with legs or wings) and insentient (e. g., gaseous substances).

The text of the epic is replete with words whose meaning and origin from the point of view of modern realities is not entirely clear. Currently, with the advent of linguistic corps, it is possible to study such units as part of collocations, isolating them from a vast array of texts in a statistical way. The aim of this work is to identify and study the collocation series of the word күдр, found on the basis of the epic «Dzhangar» material. Methods. The contextual method, the method of analyzing vocabulary definitions, valency analysis, and the statistical method are used. Results. The analysis allows us to establish and restore the meaning of two homonyms: the noun күдр ‘musk deer’ and the adjective күдр ‘strong, healthy, powerful’. Conclusions. As a result of processing the entire array of textual data of “the Dzhangar” epic, it is revealed that the word occurs three times in the meaning of “musk deer” only in the Bagatsokhurovsky cycle of the epic. The adjective күдр, unlike the noun, is used much more often in different repertoires – Maloderbetovsky (44 times), Bagatsokhurovsky (11 times), Eelyan Ovla’s (20 times), Mukeben Basangov’s (18 times). The absolute frequency of use is recorded in the Maloderbetovsky cycle. The analysis of the number of collocations depending on the recording time, localization, and dialectal features of the rhapsods shows that the largest number is represented in the Maloderbetovsky cycle, one collocation with the main word хавсн also occurs in the cycle of songs by Eelyan Ovla. The collocation күдр зандн иш is found in the Bagatsokhurovsky cycle and in the repertoire of Mukeben Basangov. As for the semantics of the word күдр, depending on the context, it can have the following meanings: ‘tough, strong, powerful, tight, flexible, mighty, cast, impassable’.

Studies of Kalmyk particles are topical enough since the latter remain understudied, and it is urgent to identify their semantics for further analysis of their modality category within the examined language; besides, there has emerged significant interest in issues of semantics and polysemanticism as such. Goals. The paper deals with semantics of the modal particle биз ‘probably, possibly, likely, evidently’ that usually expresses doubt regarding the articulated narrative. Materials. The work analyzes texts of Kalmyk National Corpus (http://kalmcorpora.ru) containing 9 million tokens and approximately 7 million word usages. Examples with the analyzed particle биз ‘probably, possibly, likely, evidently’ were selected through the continuous sampling method. Results. The particle бизexpresses semantics of certainty / uncertainty (reliability / unreliability), the latter being of three types: suppositional certainty, suppositional uncertainty, and epistemic certainty. Functionally, it serves to remove assertiveness of a narrative, i.e. neutralizes indicativeness and transforms a real proposition into neutral one. The particle биз marks the category of indirect evidentiality, drawing no distinct line between inferentiality and presumptiveness. In certain contexts, the lexeme can also express — apart from certainty / uncertainty — semantics of positive emotiveness, thus denoting expectation, good feeling and faith in future. Moreover, in some contexts биз grows to lose certainty / uncertainty meanings, becoming reduced to impersonal predicative semantics of assessment of action / condition (of actions / conditions) from intellectual and emotional perspectives.

The purpose of this article is to assess the nature of the presence of Russian minority languages (primarily of the Buryat language) on the Internet: is this presence symbolic or is it a real instrument for revitalization? The author considers the main publications on this issue, briefly characterizes the current situation with the Buryat language and analyzes the nature of the presence and the functioning of the Buryat language on the Internet in comparison with other minority languages of the Russian Federation. The material is constituted by the statistical data of the Higher School of Economics’ project on Russian minority languages and online resources on the Buryat language (websites, social network VKontakte, video hosting site YouTube and Instagram application). As a result of the comparative analysis, the conclusion is made about the moderate language activism of the Buryats on the Internet and the mixed language code and translingual practices that have now become the norm for minority language speakers both on the Internet and beyond. The author also notes the emergence of new actors and the effect of globalization which is visible in the fact that most Internet projects are initiated by young people driven by the need for identity in a globalized world. Finally, the author concludes that the presence of the Buryat language (and of many other minority languages in Russia) on the Internet is mainly symbolic and that there is a great variability in the degree of Internet activism of their speakers. As a result, it can be argued that the Internet does not create a new reality, it only reflects the current linguistic situation with minority languages in Russia.

This article is about a widespread plot in which the rods and arrows easily break apart, but it is impossible to break their bundle. The author compares this plot, recorded in the Kalmyk fairy tale, with the plots of The Secret History of the Mongols, a collection of annals of Rashid-ad-Din and a Japanese fairy tale. The author investigates in detail the texts of the ancient fabulist writers Aesop and Babrius, which are considered to be the most ancient and represent the source of the distribution of these stories throughout Eurasia. The fixation of these plots in East Slavic fairy-tale folklore is noted, the author’s texts of Leo Tolstoy based on Aesop’s fable are analyzed in detail.

The aim of this work is to study the relationship of Kalmyk bogatyr tales and historical and heroic traditions, since these genres of oral lore have a similar structure and principles of ideological and artistic organization. Common to them are the central image of the hero-defender, the traditional motives associated with it, ideological and aesthetic content and socio-historical determination. The main attention of the work is concentrated on traditional fairy-tale motifs that were used in the depiction of the epic hero of historical traditions. In this work, we rely on the fact that the motive is a typical, indecomposable unit of folklore. The following fabulous motifs were analyzed: the motive of the “low” hero, the motive of maturity and heroism, the motive of matchmaking and the ransom of the bride, the motive of miraculous healing. Comparing the motives, the author of the work comes to the following conclusion: the motives characteristic of the bogatyr tales are preserved in the traditions. However, since the content of the legend is accepted by the listener and the narrator as a real historical event, some motives undergo a certain transformation due to the genre specificity of the work.

The purpose of the article is to conduct the comparative analysis of the fairy tale “Gyunge-carpenter and Gyunge-artist” translated from the Oirat language by S. B. Balykov, and the tales “Ananda-carpenter and Ananda-painter” translated by B. Ya. Vladimirtsov. Materials. Literary publications of the texts of these works served as the material of the research. As a result of the comparative method, the difference between two versions of translations from the point of view of the plot-compositional plan, the ideological and artistic structure, the figurative system, the description of the details, the level of processing of a folklore source by Kalmyk writer was found; during the course of research it was discovered that translations of B. Ya. Vladimirtsov and S. Balykov generally coincide, though a slight variation is observed in the text of the Kalmyk writer at the level of minor nuances and additions with which he, a talented master of words, supplemented the tale, knowingly only slightly modifying the text, limiting himself to a simple presentation of folklore material. This moment confirms the careful attitude and love of S. Balykov to oral folk art. In general, the analysis allows us to speak about the manifestation of S. Balykov’s personality as a translator, namely about his stylistic device, manner of presentation, which corresponds to the spirit of the original and is aimed at consciously preserving the design of the work, but at the same time preserves national identity.