Historical ethnology

The article examines the emergence and evolution of the culture of high-status funerals in Tatar society from 1912 to 1942. The term “high-status funerals” refers to public farewell and burial rites that articulated the social or cultural prominence of the deceased. The study analyzes economic, political, and religious factors shaping collective funeral practices and traces their transformation under the impact of modernization, the 1917 Revolution, and subsequent sociopolitical changes. It demonstrates how public funerals functioned as a space of religious ceremonies and simultaneously as instruments of social recognition and arenas for the display of status and communal solidarity.

It is pointed out that high-status funerals served as an important platform of symbolical struggle and self-identification, which reflected both traditional and modern ideals of the period under review. Particular attention is devoted to the funerals of prominent public figures, religious leaders and intelligentsia, such as Kh. Yamashev, G. Tukay, K. Yakub, G. Barudi, F. Amirkhan, Kh. Taktash, G. Kamal, and Sh. Kamal, whose funerals were considered significant events in the city’s life. The study reveals distinctive features of Tatar high-status funerals during the early Soviet period and identifies mechanisms of institutionalization and reinterpretation of funeral rituals. The analysis shows that the transformation of burial rites reflected broader changes in the system of Tatar society’s social hierarchy and the dynamics of its modernization. The research is based on the analysis of sources from the funds the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, periodical press, and memoirs.

Representatives of the Tatar ethnic group have been living in the Kostroma region since the 17th century. According to the documents of the Razryadnyy Prikaz, the Tatar Suburban settlement was founded in 1680 in the suburbs of Kostroma, across the Chernaya River, on its left bank, and it still exists today. Local historians and ethnographers began to take an interest in the settlement’s life in the 18th century, which is reflected in numerous publications. The first people to turn their attention to the ethnic group of Tatars living in the city of Kostroma were Nikolay Stepanovich Sumarokov and Ivan Kuzmich Vas'kov. They conducted research activities aimed at studying the historical and ethnographic heritage of the Kostroma region in the 18th century. In 1861, a publication titled “Materials for the geography and statistics of Russia, collected by officers of the General Staff. The Kostroma Province” was published by Yakov Stepanovich Krzhivoblotsky. In 1881, Vasily Gennadyevich Pirogov presented a work dedicated to the Kostroma Tatars. The publication was published in the fourth issue of the collection “Materials for the statistics of the Kostroma Province” under the title “The Tatar village near Kostroma.” Leonid Andreevich Kolgushkin, a native of Kostroma, presented detailed historical evidence about the Tatar settlement of the early 20th century in his memoirs titled “Kostroma Antiquity.” The interest of ethnographers in this topic remains strong, as the residents of the settlement continue to honor the traditions and customs of their people.

A considerable number of material objects that characterize the culture and everyday life of the village people have been added to the collection of the Kostroma Museum-Reserve. Those items are an important source of information about the Kostroma Tatars. The article examines the key stages of the collection formation and analyzes various types of artifacts, including traditional clothing, jewelry, household items, and artistic works.

Particular attention is given to the unique sketches of Tatar everyday life, made in the early 20th century by the staff of the Kostroma Scientific Society, which was the predecessor of the modern museum. The given research highlights the uniqueness of the collection and its significance for the preservation and promotion of the Tatar cultural heritage in the context of regional history and interethnic relations in the multinational city of Kostroma.

The article examines the processes of formation of the profession of midwives and the nature of medical activity of women in the Kazan province in the late 19th – early 20th century. Based on archival, periodical and statistical materials, as well as published records of the county zemstvos of the Kazan province in the 1870s – 1900s, the paper presents the training of obstetric and medical practitioner personnel in various educational institutions of the country and the province. The motives that encouraged women to choose medical specialties has been analyzed, as well as the reasons for the relocation of metropolitan residents to the province to practice medicine. The authors studied the working conditions of midwives, in particular, the size of salaries, job responsibilities, relationships with colleagues, county and provincial administrations, as well as with the peasant population. Social barriers on the way of women who aspired to practice medicine are shown. It is concluded that medical professions are of interest to them as a way to ensure economic independence, despite the difficulties they had to face in their work. In addition, it is emphasized that medical specialties were chosen by young ladies from wealthy families, since only they could afford to pay tuition fees, or alternatively zemstvos sent their scholarship holders to educational institutions. The focus is on the ethno-confessional specifics of the Kazan province. Examples of obstetric practice among Muslim women are given.

This article examines the relationship between the declared importance of territorial identity and the ability to verbalize key territorial concepts among residents of Northeast Russia. The research is driven by the need to understand the depth and content of territorial identity in multiethnic regions. The study aims to identify correlations between the declared importance of Russian and regional identities and the ways in which the concepts of ‘big’ and ‘small’ homelands are conceptualized. The empirical basis consists of data from a representative sociological survey of 1436 respondents in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Chukotka Autonomous District, conducted in March-April 2024. The research methodology combines traditional survey methods with the psycholinguistic technique of subjective definition, which allows for the collection of spontaneous verbal responses to the stimuli “Big homeland is ...” and “Small homeland is ...”. The analysis is based on a developed 20-category typology of territorial identity, grouped into five main blocks: specific spatial, abstract spatial, temporal, social categories, and null responses. The results demonstrate a considerable gap between the declarative and verbal levels of territorial identity: despite a high declared significance of territorial belonging, one-third of respondents could not verbalize the content of the homeland concepts. A gradient correlation was established between the importance of Russian identity and the state-oriented conceptualization of the large homeland: most respondents who assigned maximum weight to Russian identity define the large homeland through the category “country”. Regional identity demonstrates a more complex, non-linear relationship with the concept of the small homeland, which is primarily conceptualized through biographical-temporal categories and local-territorial representations. Significant interregional differences were revealed: in Yakutia, there is a balanced ratio of regional and Russian identities with a greater diversity in the ways of conceptualizing the homeland; in Chukotka, Russian identity dominates, with more unified territorial representations. These findings broaden the understanding of the mechanisms of territorial identity formation and justify the need for an integrated approach that considers not only the emotional significance but also the cognitive elaboration of identification processes.

The article analyzes the art space of Kazan as one of Russia’s cultural centers through the lens of contemporary exhibition art projects initiated by museums, exhibition halls, and galleries. It addresses both the organization of significant large-scale exhibitions in the 2020s and their scientific and creative aspects, as well as their profound semantic resonance and broad social impact. The publication is accompanied by a historiographical review that focuses on key monographs, scientific articles, online reviews, and interviews related to the historical study of the city’s cultural landmarks and their role in shaping the artistic environment of Kazan.

Through selected exhibition projects, the publication reveals a palette of some current collective exhibition projects, as well as exhibitions of individual artists whose art is of particular interest. As a result, these exhibitions identify the priority contemporary themes, the moods of the artists and the audience, the latest approaches to exhibition design, and the main trends and directions in the city’s art scene.

It is noted that along with the permanent museum exhibitions of classical examples of visual art, the city successfully creates and develops projects by contemporary artists in various fields. It is this area, its changes and progress, that has particularly interested and attracted the attention of the authors, and as a result of the mutual collaboration between a teacher and a student, this publication has been created. A more detailed and in-depth analysis has been conducted on the following exhibitions: “Noah’s Ark” (2023), which provides a comprehensive analysis of individual works by various artists, and two exhibitions of the “Kazan Time” project. Artists of the 1990s at the Contemporary Art Gallery of the Republic of Tatarstan (2025), featuring the creative individuality of such masters as Evgeny Golubtsov and Oleg Ivanov, and “Our Avant-Garde” at the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (2025), focusing on the phenomenon of the popularity of the ‘fathers’ of Russian avant-garde. The article raises questions about the future development of visual arts and the role of young artists in the 21st century. The modern development of the Kazan Art School and its role in the formation of Tatarstan’s visual arts are also discussed.

RETRACTED , см. https://journals.rcsi.science/2619-1636/issue/retracted

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the Hunnic invasion as a key factor in the transformation of the ethnopolitical map of Eastern Europe. The relevance of the research is determined by the need to understand the underlying causes of the decline of the region ancient structures and the subsequent rise of the Slavs. The purpose of the study is to identify the mechanisms of mutual influence of the Hunnic expansion, the disintegration of multiethnic communities and the subsequent consolidation of East Slavic tribes. The object of the study is the processes of destruction of multiethnic communities, migration of nomadic and settled tribes. The methodology is based on a comparative analysis of archaeological data, written sources, and historiographical concepts. The results of the study show that the invasion of the Huns led to serious consequences: the defeat of the Alans and Goths, the destruction of trade routes and cities, the disintegration of archaeological communities and formation of a ‘cultural vacuum’ in the Dnieper region. This destroyed the ties of Roman influence in the region and the ancient multiethnic structures, but created the conditions for the emergence of proto-state associations of the Eastern Slavs. Cultural synthesis with the Varangians and the legacy of the pre-Hunnic cultures laid the foundation of Ancient Rus'. The legends about the founding ancestors testify to the Slavs’ awareness of their common origin. The conclusions emphasize the crucial role of the Hunnic invasion in the formation of Russian statehood. An essential factor in the consolidation of the Slavs was their relative isolation in the forest area. The prolonged presence of the Eastern Slavs surrounded by waves of nomads (Huns, Avars, Bulgars), on the one hand, threatened ruin and assimilation, and on the other, stimulated internal cohesion and independent development.

The article presents an analytical overview of the roundtable discussion “Ethnosocial and Ethnopolitical Processes in Siberia and the Far East,” held as part of the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Institute for Humanitarian Research and Indigenous Studies of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (September 16, 2025, Yakutsk). The event, which brought together leading ethnosociologists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, and Yakutsk, was aimed to consolidate theoretical and empirical expertise to address contemporary challenges that face multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural Russia. The discussion focused on analyzing the theoretical and methodological foundations of ethnosociology, driven by a paradigm shift in development. In this context, the potential of the discipline’s central category – “ethnic identity” – was subjected to a critical analysis in situations of social instability. The empirical field for this analysis included issues of migration policy, the interplay between civic and ethnic identity, and the methodologies of visual studies and factor analysis in ethnosociology. The roundtable discussion not only facilitated an analysis of current trends, but also promoted the synchronization of research programs among leading academic centers, thereby outlining prospects for future research.