Introduction. The 20th century reform of Mongolian writing shaped the basis for wide transformations in the country’s culture, science, and education. It is noteworthy that the language policy in the Mongolian People’s Republic was not only reduced to the Cyrillic reform of 1941. Goals. The article attempts a variety of insights into multiple directions of language policy in the Mongolian Peo\ple’s Republic. The work distinguishes four main stages of the latter’s implementation, and also compares those to similar processes in the USSR. Materials and methods. The paper analyzes Russian and Mongolian language sources, primarily laws and regulations of the USSR and the Mongolian People’s Republic, special attention be paid to works titled ‘The Revolution and Writing’ and ‘Public Education, Culture, Arts, and Science [in the MPR]: Systematically Collected Decrees and Laws’. Results. It reveals the MPR’s language policy was being implemented in strict compliance with similar processes in the Soviets. And it was largely the language policy that served a key to the successful abolition of illiteracy nationwide, modernization of Mongolian society, and spread of Soviet and European cultures. However, certain aspects and consequences of the language policy — primarily the intensified ‘Russification’ — would give rise to rejection and criticism among the Mongolian intelligentsia. Conclusions. Subsequently, this very  reaction led to a dramatic rethink of the language policy in the 1990s, which attests to the significance of analyzing the MPR’s policy in this realm for better understanding of the situation in contemporary Mongolia. 

Introduction. The article deals with an iron helmet stored at Smolensk State Reserve Museum (inv. no. OР-375) that has never been subject to any academic research. The goal. The paper aims to introduce the item into scientific circulation, describe its construction and design, clarify some dating and attribution properties. Results. The efforts to establish when and how the helmet had been obtained by the museum came to nothing but it can still be dated and attributed on the basis of a typological analysis. The headpiece clusters with a large group of riveted helmets characterized by a four-piece crown and a specific ‘frame’ consisting of narrow faceted overlays with a smooth edge and one (two) narrow hoops. Helmets of this type are equipped with a cylindrical (less often conical) pommel (top) with a plume tube. Another frequent design element of such helmets is a ‘box-shaped’ visor. Such headpieces come from Central Asia, South Siberia, and the Volga Region and are dated back to the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. The helmet from Smolensk State Reserve Museum is distinguished by multiple ornamental patterns on the crown, as well as the shape of the two-part top piece. It is very likely that the armorer to have authored this element of the helmet may have been inspired by images of Buddhist stupas inherent to the Kadampa tradition. The crown and other elements of the helmet bear a jagged ornament that creates rhombic and triangular patterns, as well as ones in the form of three-toed bird claws. Conclusions. The construction and design structures of the examined headpiece — including the Buddhist symbols on the pommel — suggest that the helmet was forged by armorers of Dzungaria or Volga Kalmykia for an Oirat Buddhist warrior between the 1610s and 1750s (most likely in the second half of this period). The available visual materials attest to that such helmets were long used in weaponry of nomads across the Great Steppe. So, in particular, one can see them on images of Bashkir warriors dated to the 1800s–1820s. 

Introduction. The article examines a significant early-to-mid 18th-century episode of Kalmyk-Chinese and Kalmyk-Dzungar relations to have been controlled by the Russian Government. This very period was witnessing deepest processes across Central Asia that would subsequently result in dramatic ethnic and political transformations in the region. Goals. The work aims at revealing plans and intentions of the involved governments and groups, outlining the actual sequence of events under the observed conditions, showing efforts of certain individuals had been initially determined by their personal wishes that made them seek for opportunities to orchestrate the events towards their own benefits. However, the latter had to finally accept the real state of affairs as they were. Results. So, the Kalmyk rulers were involved in China-Dzungar relations, both the sides having been eager to take advantage of Kalmyk military power. But it became evident that external policies of the Kalmyk Khanate were largely dependent on Russia’s foreign affairs strategy which implied no interest in the participation of Kalmyks in Chinese-Dzungar struggle. This resulted in that Kalmyks never joined the confrontation between the Qing Empire and Dzungar Khanate to have ended up with a defeat and collapse of the latter.

Introduction. The topic remains understudied and is thus relevant enough to historical science. Despite the over a century has witnessed a dozen of publications examining schooling in prerevolutionary Kalmykia in various perspectives and detail, the bulk of them only partly approach the issue as a background phenomenon within wider insights into history of culture and education on broader timescapes. And only two related articles have been published in recent times. Furthermore, the problem is being actualized in connection with contemporary contexts: present-day Russian society utterly needs a new national educational trajectory of its own. In this regard, a historical review of schooling formation and development in sparsely inhabited specific regions with a nomadic population may be useful enough. Goals. The article aims to characterize the school system of Kalmyk Steppe (Astrakhan Governorate) at its initial stages. So, the paper primarily seeks to introduce newly discovered archival sources into scientific circulation. Materials and Methods. The work employs a complex of general scientific and special historical research methods, of which the principle of historicism, system-oriented analysis and interdisciplinary approach are of paramount importance, the three to identify actual conditions and development trends of Kalmyk Steppe’s school system and determine the latter’s place in the structure of value-based orientations inherent to Kalmyk nomadic society. The study focuses on documentary materials contained in the Collection of the Kalmyk People’s Executive Department (National Archive of Kalmykia), the former to largely include annual reports of the Astrakhan Governor on respective conditions in Kalmyk Steppe. Results. The article characterizes Kalmyk schools by numbers of students, teachers’ staffing levels, and disciplines taught. Conclusions. Initially, Kalmyk schools were meant to train translators for administrative structures. Hence, largest numbers of students were registered in the 1860s–1870s. At the same time, the Central Kalmyk College was educating future teachers for the few ulus schools. This accounts for both the set of required disciplines taught and the teaching staff employed.

Introduction. The article publishes a report delivered at the Thirteenth Congress of Orientalists and deals with problems of searching materials on repressed Kalmyks and their 1944–1957 life in Siberia with additional emphasis be laid on their preservation and duplication for specialists in Kalmyk studies. Materials and methods. The study employs a wide range of
research methods, both common scientific (analysis, synthesis, etc.) and special historical ones (historical genetics, historical systemic methods, etc.). The comparative historical methods proves instrumental in identifying actual storage and access conditions at archives across different regions, agencies, and authorities. Results. The paper covers the Siberian period of the repressed Kalmyk people’s life between 28 December 1943 and 9 January 1957. The thirteen years and thirteen days’ witnessed tremendous hardships and miseries experienced and survived by two thirds of the population only. Part 1 of the article has reviewed Kalmyk
Deportation proper, its geography, living conditions, and demographic losses among exiled settlers. Part 2 evaluates federal and regional Siberian archives as sources on the history of Kalmyk Deportation. The initial analysis shows those contain vastest materials relating to the issue under consideration. However, since Kalmyk exiled settlers were scattered across several regions quite a share of archival documents are essentially sketchy, difficult or even
impossible to access. Specialists have explored materials housed by federal depositories but the regional and municipal ones — as well as key archives of Siberia — still remain a terra incognita, especially those of particular agencies and institutions. Meanwhile, the situation
tends to get aggravated for some categories of archival files to have reached the retention period of 75 years may be considered valueless and disposed of, i.e. lost to any further research. The paper concludes it is urgent to mobilize quite a number of research associates to search for materials dealing with the topic in archival depositories nationwide, primarily regional ones.

Introduction. The article examines activities of Kalmykia’s archival institutions between the 1990s and early 2000s, i.e. the period to have witnessed a nationwide redistribution of authority, strengthened self-sufficiency of regions, and increased sociopolitical role of Russia’s state archival service. Goals. The paper aims to investigate impacts of the administrative and archival reforms on the development of archival affairs in Kalmykia, consider problems of security of archives and archival documents, IT-related challenges. Materials and methods. The work analyzes documents from the National Archive of Kalmykia for historical perspectives on archival construction in the republic and introduces some newly discovered documents that characterize the examined period into scientific circulation. The work employs an integrated approach to the study of documents and materials. Results. The work shows that the period under consideration is characterized by cardinal changes in Kalmykia’s archival construction and activities of archival institutions under new conditions.

Introduction. The article examines the onym Megüren (Yak. Möŋürüön < Mögürüön) used as a name of several administrative units in the territory of Yakutia, mainly those included in Meginsky (Yak. Mäŋä) District. The available 17th-century written sources — i.e. earliest Russian-language documents on Yakuts — mention no such onym. And it was E. Pekarsky who already pointed out that the Yakut word mögürüön ‘round-thick’ could be a Mongolic borrowing and, in particular, tended to trace parallels in the Buryat language. Subsequent researchers paid no attention to both the word and the corresponding ethnonym. Goals. The paper aims to analyze origins of the word the ethnic name stems from. Materials and methods. In the absence of early historical accounts, the work explores linguistic sources to investigate phonetic appearances of the Yakut onym in question and comparable data in other languages, primarily Mongolic ones. The latter include not only vocabularies but also materials dealing with personal onomastics. Some folklore elements also prove instrumental in settling the issue. Conclusions. The analysis of phonetic properties inherent to the Yakut ethnonym möŋürüön — in comparison with different forms of the word in Buryat dialects — makes it possible to conclude that it penetrated the Yakut discourse precisely from a language essentially close to western Buryat dialects characterized by the use of /ö/ in the first syllable (/ü/ in standard Buryat) and vowel labialization in non-first syllables. Other features outline the upper chronological limit of the word’s arrival in Yakut to the late 17th century since the observed properties are as follows: /g/ > /ŋ/ assimilation; presence of a long vowel in -VgV- complex, and the intervocalic /g/ from the Mongolic /k/ not yet transformed into the Buryat /χ/.

Introduction. The paper discusses some religious beliefs — identified as original and authentic ones — based on shamanic traditions among the Old Barga (Barghuts). Despite the active presence of Buddhism and coexistence with the latter, the Old Barga shamanism remains viable enough. Goals. The study attempts to delineate elements that would indicate connections and interactions between the shamanic tradition of Old Barghuts and those of Buryats and Manchus. To facilitate this, the work pursues a number of objectives, namely: a brief review and analysis of published studies covering the topic; identification of common features inherent to Barghut, Buryat and Manchu shamanisms. Materials and methods. The main research methods employed are the historical/genetic one and that of comparative analysis (with due regard of historicism principles). Results. The available works and materials of different authors, mainly field studies, make it possible to reconstruct the structure and hierarchy of the Old Barga shamanic pantheon, highlight key religious cults that form their unified religious beliefs and preferences. At the same time, publications to have examined the Old Barga shamanism state a genetic relationship with the Buryat tradition — without any essential insights into ideas to be associated with a more archaic layer, and the strong influence of Chinese culture, despite the fact Old Barghuts had been rather placed in Manchu environments. The paper assumes the religious ideas of Old Barghuts which had begun to take shape during the medieval domination of Tengrism (with its central idea of worshiping and deification of the Eternal Blue Sky) also contain and essentially rest on Tengrian views and ideas. Conclusions. So, the Old Barga shamanism is a flexible and changeable system of religious views. However, the transformations experienced nowadays may attest to both its evolution and certain destructive processes.

Introduction. In mythological worldviews of Buryats and quite a number of other Turko-Mongols, swan acts as a totem on the female part of the ethnic community. The article examines the image of swan in Buryat cosmogonic folkways. The semantic approach to the study of functions attributed to Swan Maiden in mythological worldviews of Buryats and some other Turko-Mongols of Siberia and Central Asia, and historical cultures of the region makes the work topical enough. Goals. The study aims to delineate cosmogonic and cosmological ideas in the plot of the genealogical myth of Khori Buryats, and seasonal holidays resulting from by the former. Materials and methods. The paper primarily explores writings by M. Khangalov, G. Rumyantsev, A. Okladnikov, and D. Raevsky. The main research methods used are the cultural/semantic, comparative, and historical/comparative ones (the latter instrumental in analyzing structural units of the myth that make it possible to reveal its links with Scythian cosmology and Indo-Iranian mythology). The chronological framework of the study covers the late 19th to early 29th century. Results. In the myth, changes in anthropomorphic and ornithomorphic appearances of swan maiden serve to model spatial and temporal parameters of the world. Three stages in the development of time correlate with the three stages of Swan Maiden’s life and attest to that mythological worldviews of the community contained no ‘death of time’ concept. The point of ‘disappearance’ of time simultaneously acted as a new beginning to be secured through the milk sprinkling ritual performed by women during seasonal arrivals and reverse migrations of birds. The historical and cultural essentials of the mythologemes ‘marriage’ (autumn rites) and ‘birth’ (spring ones) manifested in Bronze Age petroglyphs of the Baikal bays (Sagan-Zaba, Aya) and the Chuluut River in Mongolia illustrate a process of transforming the Scythian cosmogonic plot into that of a genealogical myth. Conclusions. The image of swan in mythological worldviews of Buryats and a wide range of Turko-Mongols serves a personification of the cosmological classifier. 

Introduction. The article deals with the concept ‘Kara Khitai’ in Muslim historical writings. In particular, the paper examines a relatively well-known anonymous Persian-language text of 1133 containing valuable messages on the Kara Khitai invasion of East Turkestan. Goals. The study aims to analyze information about the Kara Khitai from the specified text and correlate the data with those traced in other 12th–13th century Muslim historical compositions. Materials and methods. The work considers a wide range of Muslim historical texts of both the pre-Mongol period and that of the Mongol invasion proper comprising data on the mentioned issues. And again, the anonymous Persian text of 1133 is integral to the collection of letters and documents first partially published by V. V. Bartold with the title ‘Insha’. This text narrates, in particular, that after the victorious campaign of Khwarazmshah Atsiz deep into Turkestan the latter would send fath-namehs — to receive a response from the ruler of Kashgar who was announcing his own victory over the ‘infidels’ led by a nameless leader referred to none other than ‘the One-Eyed’. A comparison of this message to later ones in Ibn al-Athir’s Al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh  (The Complete History) results in a convincing conclusion there is a connection between the two texts. As for the victory of Kashgar’s ruler over the Kara Khitai, that was rather a local success since those invaders were not only able to eventually conquer the region but also extended their power to the adjacent lands. Conclusions. A comparative analysis of the anonymous work included in the Insha collection and Ibn al-Athir’s text may suggest a preliminary implication the Arab historian had been familiar with the former narrative and, apparently, that was where he borrowed the image of ‘the One-Eyed’ ruler of the Kara Khitai. No other 12th century Muslim texts (synchronous with the Insha) mention the latter, nor historical works from the first quarter of the 13th century — which Ibn al-Athir could have turned to — contain anything of the kind.

Introduction. The seal of Daichin Shasa-Byuja Khan holds a special place among those once owned by Kalmyk rulers and landlords. The seal was granted to the Kalmyk Khan Tseren-Donduk by the 7th Dalai Lama. It is uniquely distinguished by that this is the only royal seal to bear the title of its owner. Goals. The article aims to introduce sigillographic data from the seal of Tseren-Donduk into scientific circulation, reveal the meaning of the title ‘Daichin Shasa-Byuja Khan’, and propose a hypothesis of its origin. Materials and methods. The study analyzes letters of Tseren-Donduk to Saratov Voivode V. P. Beklemishev and Astrakhan Governor I. P. Izmailov stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia. The employed research methods are the comparative historical one and that of literary investigation. Results. The work introduces a translation of this title supplemented with a hypothesis of its origin. The former is exemplified by another monument of Tibetan sphragistics which has a legend in Sanskrit written in the ʼPhags-pa script . The paper clarifies the meaning of the title ‘Daichin Shasa-Byuja Khan’, articulates the legend on Tseren-Donduk’s seal, gives an example of a similar Tibetan seal, and also delivers a hypothesis on origins of the title. 

Introduction. The article summarizes the history of the Gandantegchinlen Monastery (Mongolia). Goals. It aims at revealing the latter’s place and role in the history of Buddhism nationwide. Insights into the history and functioning structures of the Gandantegchinlen Monastery reveal certain historical links between Buddhist centers of Mongolia and Buryatia. Being a stronghold of Buddhist education, Gandantegchenlin has made (and still does) its essential impacts  on the shaping and development of religious and philosophical educational systems among Mongolic peoples — and contributed to the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhist culture. Methods. The study employs tools of factor analysis (characterizing the place and role in historical reality), the historical/genetic and retrospective research methods. Results. The retrospective analysis reveals key stages in the development of the monastery — from its earliest activities, closure, and restoration in the 1940s–1960s to present days witnessing a gradual revival of Buddhist traditions in Russia and Mongolia.

Introduction. The work introduces field data on traditional treatment methods recorded from ethnic Kalmyks during the 2012–2017 folklore and ethnographic expeditions across Kalmykia arranged by the Gorodovikov Kalmyk State University. Goals. The paper seeks to introduce authentic materials (and Russian translations) dealing with folk medicine for further interdisciplinary research. Materials. The study examines oral narratives recorded in 2012 to 2017 across rural Kalmykia and describing folk tools and techniques once used against various illnesses — by Kalmyk ‘emchi’ healers, ‘otchi’ bonesetters, ‘medlgchi’ sorcerers, ‘bärächi’ masseurs, and other specialists. Results. The oral narratives about folk means to handle different health problems are accompanied by Russian translations. The article briefly reviews techniques employed to orally transmit ancient empirical knowledge of Kalmyks about traditional methods of treating different diseases. The to be introduced authentic materials contain little-known data and provide new opportunities for scholarly interpretations of folklore and ethnographic facts about Kalmyk traditional medicine, healing practices to have been orally transmitted across generations. The variety of ancient empirical techniques related to human health and folk healing methods set forth can be well used to support contemporary academic medical arrangements. 

Introduction. In Kalmyk folklore, the genres of yöräl (well-wishing) and kharal (curse) cluster with magic poetry characterized by ritual and communicative functions. The latter genre remains understudied since informants had avoided uttering such narratives fearing their negative impacts, therefore the available records of kharals are much fewer than those containing yöräls. This affected essentials of kharals authored by 20th-century Kalmyk poets, including the former’s peripheral position in the genre system of Kalmyk lyrics and a small number of such poetic examples. The article discusses the genre of kharal in works by Mukebyun Basangov (1878–1944) and Bosya Sangadzhieva (1921–2001). Goals. The article seeks to examine three texts of the mentioned poets in the aspect of the folklore tradition. Materials and methods. The paper studies works of Kalmyk folklorists, ethnographers and historians. The to be investigated sources are one poem by Mukebyun Basangov and two poems by Bosya Sangadzhieva — the three titled ‘Kharal’ (‘Curse’) — created in Kalmyk in different years (1942 and 1966, 1991), including R. Khaninova’s artistic translation of B. Sangadzhieva’s text. The key research methods used are the historical/literary, historical/functional, comparative, quantitative ones, and that of descriptive poetics. Results. The study, firstly, reveals a connection between M. Basangov’s Kharal (1942) and the time of its creation (Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945) which determined its topic and problems raised, folk elements; secondly, two texts by B. Sangadzhieva are compared in ethnocultural and axiological perspectives; thirdly, it shows impacts of the folklore genre on poetic analogues; and finally, the work stresses a synthesis of yöräl and kharal genres observed in Kh. Syan-Belgin’s  Satire on Yöräl and Kharal (1929). Conclusions. In Kalmyk poetry, the genre of kharal remained somewhat undeveloped only to stay in a periphery of the 20th-century genre system, which most likely resulted from specifics of the folklore source. So, the rare appeals of Kalmyk poets to this genre attest to the surviving tradition of avoiding negative impacts of the verbal component inherent to magic poetry of ancestors, and following the postulates of axiology and folk pedagogy.