The article successively examines the demonstrative pronouns for general display, for close people and objects, for distant people and objects and for enumerating, which have the function of the 3rd person forms of personal pronouns in the Tarnovo edition of the Stishen Prologue (a calendar hagiographic collection, translated in the first half of the fourteenth century). It is established that the semantics of the demonstrative forms is determined by the context: in a combination with a noun form they have an indicative meaning, and in a combination with a verb form they mean a third-person pronoun, for example, съи блаженыи which means този блаженият (“this blissful one”), съи бэше means той беше (“he was”). The use of the elongated forms for masculine тъи, for feminine тя, for the plural тие / тйе which later turn into he, she and they, as well as the presence of the new forms тои, characteristic of the spoken language, are historically significant.

The aim of this work is to examine the system of the syntactic relations of the cardinal numerals with the words which belong to them in the Kievo-Pecherskiy Paterikon that was compiled in the 13th century. The manuscript on the basis of which the text was published was copied in the late 15th - early 16th centuries. I am mainly searching those phenomena, which can give information about the conditions of the genesis and development of the numerals as a new independent part of speech. I am paying attention to the phenomena which can be connected with the unification of the several types of the syntactic relations of the cardinal numerals with their associated words. I am searching for all quantitative constructions except for the constructions containing the numeral 1 as a prime numeral. The found quantitative constructions are grouped according to the type of combination of cardinal numerals with names or participles. Particular attention is paid to the combinations of quantitative numerals with related words, which differ from the norms of other monuments, such as the Old Church Slavonic language of the Russian edition, Old Russian and early Russian Church Slavonic monuments, since it is these phenomena that can indicate the process of acquiring general morphological and syntactic properties by cardinal numerals. On the basis of the quantitative constructions that do not correspond to the above mentioned norms, three important grammatical phenomena are distinguished that can indicate the process of replacing old norms with new ones. As a contrast I am showing data from the other manuscripts.

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of textuality of the Old Believers’ community, where the text was an argument in proving the illegality of the actions of the reformers, determined the ideology of the movement, the political, social views of the participants, and the peculiarities of the religious life of the communities. Due to the appeal to ancient manuscripts and early printed books, a fund of citations was formed, that testified to the validity of Old Believers’ point of view on innovation. Having inherited from the scribes of Ancient Russia respect for the book, bordering on its sacralization, the opponents of church reform began to treat the selected fragments of texts in a similar way. As a result, the “canon of sacred texts” was formalized. As a result, these extracts began to be perceived by the Old Believers as reflecting the tradition of the Russian Church and equated to the reading of the Holy Scripture. The Old Believers used the fund of fragments of authoritative texts, formed by several generations, describing the tradition of the Russian Church, the defenders of which they proclaimed themselves. The canon of Sacred Texts was composed not only of extracts from ancient manuscripts, but also from pre-Nikon Moscow printed editions. Extracts from books published in the time of Patriarch Iosif, the content of which should be characterized as the creative heritage of the Kiev Metropolis, adapted for the Russian reader, became fundamental. Turning to the analysis of church policy in the first half of the 17th century allowed to conclude that the Church, solving the problem of religious education of the population, introduced these texts into circulation. Consequently, opponents of church reform had reason to use them by description of the Russian tradition.

Loanwords are important parts of lexical structure of a language, as well as significant markers of changes in the society. The studing of loanwords has particular significance and relevance. Greek loanwords are among the oldest layers of loanwords in the Russian language, and their study is especially important because no systematic studies of the volume, the place and role of Greek loanwords in various periods of the Russian language’s history as well as in the structure of the modern Russian language already exist. The first translations from the Greek language into Slavonic played a significant role in the process of transposition of Greek loanwords. One of these early translations was the translation of Orationes of St. Gregory Nazianzen. The Slavic text of the homilies included in the XIII Homilies of Gregory the Theologian offers wide possibilities to monitor the processes of borrowing and adaptation of Greek words. Analyzing Greek loanwords in this translation lets us draw some conclusions regarding transposition of foreign language vocabulary from one language to another and the reasons for differences in the adaptation of loanwords.

Key approaches to clarify the notion of the national and cultural component were explored in application to the task of teaching lexical means of communication to Russian speaking students. The authors highlight its significant features that are important in terms of the teaching methods. A number of conclusions, which are significant for this task, were made based on the results of analyzing Korean sememes. The meanings, which are correlated with the national-cultural information conveying ethnocultural realities of the native speakers of the studied language, were determined. Groups of actual issues related to the determination of the scope of national-cultural information to be mastered by the students, mechanisms of its transmission in teaching and methods for the formation of relevant associations and images were highlighted. It is shown that the scope of accumulation of national-cultural information can vary at a certain level of education, therefore, it seems reasonable to talk about the list of associations as additional information to a certain lexical meaning, which has yet to become knowledge and be subsequently used at the stages of training and application of forming the lexical skills. It is stated that in respect of the linguo-didactic aspect it seems more rational to talk about a certain number of associations necessary for complete disclosure of the lexical meaning of the words, since neither translation nor non-translation methods of semantization by themselves allow students to differentiate the corresponding concepts without additional national-cultural information. Thus, methods of the most effective delivery of such information are to be specified for better results of teaching lexical means of communication to students.

Purpose. The article examines the concept of anger, which should be placed among the central concepts of the world’s folk epics. Results. According to axiological analysis, pre-Christian epic poetry renders anger as a certain “indicator” of heroic nature peculiar to this or that character: the epic hero is “obliged” to feel this emotion when public evaluation of his personal honor (the one made either by his relatives or his bride, lord, rival, etc.) does not meet his own idea of those honors which should be granted to him as a possessor of miraculous strength. Such an underestimation is treated by the character as a kind of disgrace, and, consequently, provokes his anger - a feeling that induces him to restore “justice” through violent means. Russian folk epics, however, should be considered as a principal exception from this rule: bylinas don’t render the “fury” - or the “resentment” - of the knight as his response to the underestimation of personal honor. In Russian heroic songs, the pagan understanding of anger mentioned above is replaced by a new treatment of this feeling: now, anger is conceived as a manifestation of “love-eagerness” focused on those external realities and objective categories, which presuppose their own “honor”. Also, bylinas are remarkably distinct from other folk epics by their two opposed types of heroic characters: here, we find both “pagan knights” (Volkh, Dunay, Vasiliy Buslaev, Ivan Godinovich, Sukhman) and “Christian knights” (Ilya, Dobrynya, Alesha, Mikula, etc.). If the former ones are angry because of their personal disgrace (and, as a rule, perish), the latter ones become angry when certain individuals, objects, and value categories (“God’s law”, “honorable icons”, widows, orphans, etc.) are insulted or devoid of their sacredness; in bylinas, these heroes are invariably rendered as victorious, though their feats - the ones caused by “fury” and “eagerness” - do not increase their own property honor. Conclusion. Among the world’s folk epics, only Russian bylinas render the hero’s anger as a Christian concept pre-supposing both righteous zeal and love.

The article presents textual materials for fifteen copies of the Old Russian homilia “Word about the star of Irania”, which is known in the manuscripts of the 15th - 17th centuries. Twelve copies of the Word are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Based on textological analysis, we distinguish two editions of the work: Short and Extensive. In the process of creating the Extensive Edition, the text of the Word was verified with the “Tale of Aphroditian the Persian” and the Christmas homily of Russian origin, often attributed to John Chrysostom “Now of my nature”. At the same time, the context of the Word in handwritten manuscripts testifies to an earlier origin of the monument than the copies that have come down to us, and also makes it possible to assume that the author of the monument was a person from the encirclementof Kirill Turovsky. The Extensive one, created on the basis of the Short, introduces additional details into the text and strengthens the motive for the transfer of power from the pagan gods to the born Christ. A Short edition of the Word seems to be the closest to its archetypal text.

The article presents the materials of the Book of the Royal Genealogy (16th century), associated with female images, describes their place in the plot and composition structure (architectonics) of the monument. The life of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, which opens the Book of the Royal Genealogy, emphasizes the legitimacy of the author’s plan, which includes almost all the stories about princely wives and mothers from brief news to detailed stories. The role of these messages is to celebrate the piety of all branches of the royal family. In the characteristics of female representatives of princely families, the author emphasizes the features noted by him in the life of St. Princess Olga (Elena): loyalty to Orthodoxy, service to the cause of its spread, care for the princely family, enlightenment, participation in the earthly affairs of the church (construction of churches, charity), etc. The lives of the princesses are included by the author in the architectonic of the Royal Genealogy, harmoniously fitting into the main concept of the monument.

Purpose. The aim of the article is to investigate the little-studied pedagogical project of V. A. Zhukovsky in the last years of his life (Initial Course of Study , hereinafter - Course) from the point of view of the interaction of verbal and visual elements in it. V. A. Zhukovsky mainly worked out the Course in 1848-1851. He tested it in class with his daughter. The ‘course’ was to consist of three parts: 1) language; 2) mathematics; 3) Sacred History. For each of these parts, Zhukovsky prepared visual tables, which were original experiments in combination of verbal and visual (graphic) materials. The emphasis on visuality and experiments with it were innovative pedagogical strategies for the mid-19th century. An analysis of the techniques used by Zhukovsky to combine the visual and the verbal will reveal the connection between the creative strategies of Zhukovsky the poet and Zhukovsky the teacher. Results. Types of graphic elements involved in the Course are very diverse: plot-shaped images, pictograms, ideograms, symbols, their combinations similar to ideographic writing, as well as diagrams that use various methods of color selection of elements. Based on handwritten material from the Zhukovsky Foundation in the Russian National Library, the article analyzes in detail the most important of these: plot-shaped images, diagrams and mnemonic symbols. We identify the nature of the interaction of signs of different nature in the heterogeneous (visual-verbal) environment of the Course and find that in the materials of the Course related to Sacred History, the model of creolized text is used, and in the materials on mathematics and language - polycode text. The fact of various semiotic systems interaction in the Course was very important for Zhukovsky. The process of concentration, ‘folding’ the content into visual signs-ideograms, and then narratively unfolding it in the process of the student’s response formed the methodological basis of the visual didactics. The techniques used by Zhukovsky as a teacher can be compared with the techniques used by Zhukovsky as a lyricist in the manifestos of his ‘poetic philosophy’ - the poems The Inexpressible and Lalla Rookh. Both of these texts are explications of the romantic duality, but in the The Inexpressible the idea of the duality is articulated with the help of suggestive poetics, and in the Lalla Rookh with the help of emblematic poetics. The poetics of The Inexpressible is dominated by the rejection of figura-tiveness in favor of a complex way of intonated atmospherics, which is close to the artistic language of painting. In contrast to The Inexpressible, the language of the poem Lalla Rookh is so figurative that this poem can be considered an ekphrasis of the Baroque emblem. Suggestive painting and emblematic graphics are the two poles between which Zhukovsky’s artistic, poetic, and pedagogical language fluctuates. The style of the Course is close, of course, to the second of these poles. Conclusions. The idea of the Course was undoubtedly influenced by such types of family communication between adults and children as domestic make-believe games (playing books and stories), board games (cards and other educational games, word registers), games of charades. But in addition, the influence of Zhukovsky’s translation activity and a certain specificity of the figurative activity of his artistic consciousness, a kind of ‘habit of translation’, manifested in the multiplying ways of transmitting the same meaning in different forms, visual and metaphorical, is obvious.

In the following article, we analyze the trends in literary depiction of an important economic process in the post-war times (late 1850s), namely joint-stock companies, in A. F. Pisemsky’s novel The Turbulent Sea (1863). We detect and offer commentary on the parallels between descriptions of the ‘joint-stock fever’ depicted in the novel, and the materials on private enterpreneurship published in late 1850s. We offer a detailed analysis on the references to polemics between members of the Russian Society of Steamship Companies and Trade, one of the most influential joint-stock companies of the time, and N. P. Perosio, a journalist and economist, as well as the creator of The Reading Library and The Saint-Petersburg Bulletin. Our research is based on N. P. Perosio’s works, namely Notes on the Report by the Russian Society of Steamship Companies and Trade, The Protest, as well as Tondi’s The Reply to Sir Perosio’s Notes on the Report by the Russian Society of Steamship Companies and Trade, and V. Shultz’s A Dispute Between Sirs Perosio and Smirnov, The Response of Administrator Director of the Russian Society of Steamship Companies and Trade N. A. Novoselsky to Articles Criticizing Company Management, Notes and Projects of Establishment of a Coal Mine on Don, etc. We conclude that the analysis of strategies of depiction of economic processes in the novel offers a clearer understanding of A. F. Pisemsky’s perception of the ‘era of great reforms’. The novel shows that the idea expressed by the new government (development of private enterpreneurship) resulted in the emergence of unskilled enactors: the joint-stock companies were joined by people who lacked practical knowledge and did not wish to learn it, which, in its turn, resulted in wide-scale frauds performed by directors.

Purpose. This paper aims to examine the short stories On the Night before Easter, Student and Bishop by A. P. Chekhov, which the author unites into an individual Easter story cycle based on their common spiritual and moral challenges and particular calendar time - the Easter. Results. The landscape in On the Night before Easter is in consonance with thoughts and inner world of the storyteller, novitiate Hieronimus and idling folk. By depicting nature, Chekhov manages to antithesize ‘spiritual’ and ‘fleshly’, ‘true’ and ‘borrowed’ knowledge. Easter motifs and attributes also contribute to this atmosphere. In this short story, Chekhov portrays the Church representatives as common people, which results in powerful emotional feedback from the readers. The main idea of the Easter short story Student - the issue of human memory, belief and time. At Easter the protagonist - Ivan Velikopolskii - has ‘resurrected’, feels a desire to live and enjoy his life. An accidental meeting with two women at the campfire on Great Friday allows him to acknowledge the importance of being involved in someone else’s suffering and uniting with people. In Bishop , one of Chekhov’s ‘top’ works, Easter motifs, attributes and landscape sketches help the writer to reveal the protagonist’s inner world and get through the author’s idea of the value of human life. This story finalizes many motifs and themes typical for Chekhov’s mature works. Conclusion. The works represented in this article are united by common themes, plots and Easter motifs and multiple psychological details embedded in the narration, which depict the inner world of characters. Landscape descriptions correlating with the characters’ spiritual state also play a significant role.

As a Russian mountain-forest policeman and writer of the Harbin diaspora, B. M. Yulsky combined in his prose the experience of the police service and ideas about the ethnoculture of the Chinese who inhabited the territory of the Far East. This article contains a hermeneutic and comparative historical analysis of the short story The Way of the Dragon (1939) by B. M. Yulsky. The artistic morphology of the dragon is built on the comparison of its image in Chinese, Amur, Slavic and European cultures. One of the key images in the Russian heroic epic, in the Christian legend of Saint George, in Western and Northern European mythology, the dragon is actualized in modern literature. The analysis involves a philosophical treatise and a Chinese classic novel. It is shown that in the Chinese mythopoetic consciousness the temper and morphology of the dragon is different from its interpretation in European and Russian texts. The content of the short story by B. M. Yulsky speaks about his acquaintance with the understanding of the dragon, which is more characteristic in Chinese culture. The writer integrated the archaic image of the werewolf dragon into the real situation and brought a legend to the history of Honghuzi. The facts set forth in the monograph by D. V. Ershov are the real confirmation of the story described by B. M. Yulsky. The Way of the Dragon is an example of the artistic ethnography and the authorial frontier mythology that have developed in Russian literature in Harbin.