Vol 3, No 4 (2021)

The article is devoted to the process of the formation of secular and religious schools in the cities of the Middle Volga region (Simbirsk, Saratov, and Penza provinces) from the reforms of Catherine II in the last third of the 18th century until the end of the 20s of the XIX century. The author distinguishes two main stages of reforming the state secular and religious school; on the base of archival and published sources and materials of historical research, the dates of the founding of educational institutions have been clarified. The study allows to characterize the place of the school in the socio-cultural space of the late feudal provincial city.

The article contains a study of the infrastructure of public places, i.e., libraries, theater, cinema, garden and park zone, of the city of Samara during the First World War, as well as the activities of the city government for its improvement. The author estimates the material and technical characteristics of the cultural and educational institutions and leisure areas, their convenience for visiting by the viewer, reader, or walker. On the base of the materials from Samara, the author came to a conclusion, that, despite the existence of diverse places for cultural and educational leisure in the urban space, such institutions and areas of the provincial center did not provide necessary convenience for visitors according to all criteria. It is revealed that local self-governmental bodies carried out measures to equip and improve the available public leisure cultural and educational places during the war, sought to maintain and develop their infrastructure, enforce safety requirements.

On the base on archival documents, the author examines the social composition, educational level, and professional competencies of employees of the Samara office of the Russian Empire State Bank from the standpoint of the theory of institutionalism. The study comes to the conclusion about the gradual staff growth in the department, the improvement of the professional competencies of its employees, the manifestation of the social protection function by the bank. The author argues that the State Bank as an important system element of the capitalist economy in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century still retained elements of traditional (paternalistic) relations in its inner life.

The aim of the research is the identification and analysis of socio-cultural, political and concrete historical factors that influenced the formation of the image of power in the eyes of the population of the early Roman Empire and the nature of communication between the bearers of power and society. The specifics of the perception of specific rulers and power in general by various categories of people were determined by the peculiarities of their position in the social hierarchy, the nature of the structure of the Roman state, and partly by official propaganda, which built a certain image of both the ruler himself and the entire state, as well as individual circumstances that the emperor had to face. The emperor was in different hierarchical relationships with citizens, soldiers, provincials, freedmen and slaves; the scope of his power was not the same in relation to these groups. As a result, there was no single image of power for the entire population of the Mediterranean state. It was often influenced by local traditions of power perception.

Addressing historical cases has not only academic but also political significance, especially if the current agenda is largely determined by the rhetoric and experience of conflicts rooted in history. In this regard, the article focuses on the nature, forms and consequences of British educational policy on the national outskirts in Modern times in the formation of British identity, which supported the practice of national and state building at the ideological level both within the United Kingdom and within the British Empire. Specific historical and contemporary examples demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of educational policy as a humanitarian technology for strengthening the ideological and rhetorical foundations of Great Britain as a multinational and complex public entity. The study focuses on the Scottish case which has the deepest historically roots; its analysis allows a more detailed study of the relationship between the educational strategies of the authorities in the past and their consequences in the present, taking into account the prospects for a second referendum on Scottish independence in the context of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The article is based on the materials of historical, sociological and methodological works by N. I. Kareev and contains an analysis of his understanding of interdisciplinarity. The analysis led to the conclusion that the development of terminology, classification of sciences and research methodology was central to Kareev’s works throughout his entire scientific career. Moreover, Kareev’s constant references to these topics indicate that the scientist felt the need for such a methodological and meta-scientific reflection. Constantly addressing the issues of interaction of sciences (interdisciplinarity), he discovered some conditions that made it possible, namely: interdisciplinarity is possible only with a strict delineation of the subject area of sciences; it is due to a certain phase in the development of the humanities and social sciences, one of which becomes the basis for scientific reflection (in his works it is the sociology); interdisciplinarity in social sciences and humanities is possible only at the level of fundamental research, but not in applied research. N.I. Kareev’s works seem relevant in the light of the ongoing discussions in contemporary Russian humanities about interdisciplinarity, the use of scientific terminology in the humanities and the objectivity of scientific knowledge.

Despite its rarity, wooden sculpture of the Urals has been the subject of numerous publications and scientific researches. The anthropomorphic sculptures made of stone, clay, and engraved anthropomorphic images are less known. Currently, the literature describes about 400 images of living creatures found in the Urals and the adjacent Trans-Urals and dated in the time range from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. Anthropomorphic images are represented by 60 artifacts, which is only 15 % of the total. Anthropomorphic stone images can be roughly divided into round, flat and flint sculptures. Pendants made in the form of a human head are very interesting. Clay figures are represented by images of women and separate heads. Anthropomorphic engraved images on stone and bone are rare finds. Images of anthropomorphic figures on ceramic vessels constitute a separate group. Most of the sculptural and graphic images dates back to the Neolithic and the Eneolithic.

The article is devoted to the study of the nature of housing construction on the Varfolomeevka site of the Orlovka Neolithic culture of the steppe Volga region. The most complete data were obtained during the excavations of the Varfolomeevka site (late VII-VI thousand BC) on the Maly Uzen river. Later residential buildings overlapped and damaged the earlier ones, but a comparison of the planimography and stratigraphy made it possible to distribute them along chronological horizons and reconstruct the main characteristics of Neolithic buildings. Dwellings are represented by large semi-dugouts with several hearths, utility pits along the walls of the ditches, the location of floors at different levels, and dense building on the site. The dwellings had been functioning for a long time. This is confirmed by long-term foci with ash deposits of more than one meter on both monuments and traces of repair of support pillars at the Varfolomeevka site. It is established that there was a single stable tradition of housing construction at all stages of the Orlovka culture.

The article is based on materials from the authors’ field expeditions and folklore sources, and reveals the significance of the most important mineral – salt – in the traditional culture of the Bashkirs. The Bashkirs have long used salt from the Iletsk deposit, which was located on the patrimonial lands of the Bashkirs; until the middle of the 18^th century they used it for free, for which they paid yasak to the treasury. The authors consider the everyday, pharmacological, religious aspects of the use of salt among the Bashkirs. A special perception of salt was well reflected in the Bashkir vocabulary, in which there are many stable expressions with the word «тоҙ» (bash. ‘salt’), for example: «тоҙһоҙ» (‘meaningless’, literally «unsalted»), «тоҙ күҙ» (‘meaningless look, eyes’, literally «salt eyes»), «тоҙ һипкән кеүек» (‘attractive’, literally «like sprinkled with salt»), «һаҡы тоҙло» («very expensive in price», literally «salty price»).