Purpose. The authors of the article focus on the number five, which is considered sacred in Christian culture. This number, like other figures in the top ten, plays a significant role in the literary device used by Metropolitan Paisius Ligarides of Gaza in his work about the trial of Patriarch Nikon. The article demonstrates that the traditional numerical and symbolic meanings of the number five are revealed by the author in the plot, which deals with the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate and the place of the Moscow Patriarchal See within the Ecumenical Church. 

Results. It has been determined that in order to explain the spiritual significance of the Byzantine pentarchy model, along with authoritative works by the holy fathers of the Christian world, Metropolitan Ligarides draws upon literary texts by Byzantine authors that are not well-known to the Russian Orthodox reader., ex. Patriarch Peter III of Antioch and Nicetas Seidas. Entertaining manipulations with letters, which were popular among Byzantine intellectuals, are also employed by Ligarides. For instance, the letter “P”, which is the seventeenth letter in the Greek alphabet, conveys  a meaning that emphasizes the idea of the liberating mission of the Moscow ruler and “Russian people” in the Christian East, as Paisius derived from the prophecies of Emperor Leo the Wise.

Conclusion. These devices assist the metropolitan in not only in revealing the symbolic and anthropological significance of the number five, but also in expressing the individual characteristics of his own spiritual and religious experience.

Purpose. This article presents an analysis of the binary concepts of LIGHT and DARKNESS in the Russian linguistic picture of the world. The study is based on corpus material covering the period from 2015 to 2025. 

Results. The material used was social networks contexts with lexemes representing the binary concepts of LIGHT and DARKNESS. These contexts were extracted from the subcorpora “Social Networks” within the “National Corpus of the Russian Language”. The main cognitive features of the concepts of LIGHT and DARKNESS were identified by analyzing their core zone, degree of abstraction, opposition in structure and figurative and emotional features. A sample of 2,000 contexts was analyzed for the study. 

Conclusion. Conclusions are made that the number of cognitive features of the concepts LIGHT and DARKNESS based on contexts is presented in the form of a nuclear zone, a perinuclear zone and a peripheral zone, cognitive features of the concepts LIGHT and DARKNESS with varying degrees of abstraction, features that form oppositions in the structure of the concepts LIGHT and DARKNESS, as well as features of the concepts LIGHT, DARKNESS in specific features. In general, this research is innovative and has a developmental impact on the study of linguistic culture. It is also the basis for cross-cultural research and multilingual comparative research.

Purpose. This article examines the neologisms in the Russian language that were created during the assimilation of Pan-Asian cuisine into Russian culture, with a particular focus on Vietnamese cuisine that emerged. The aim of the investigation is to identify Russian neologisms that were developed during the dissemination of Vietnamese cuisine in Russia, as well as to clarify their word-formation, grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic characteristics. The research material comprised Russian-language media, Russian-language websites regarding Vietnamese cuisine, and Russianlanguage tourist forums. The lexical meanings of neologisms are identified in the paper through the use of the contextual analysis method and the component analysis method.

Results. Seven lexemes were identified that emerged during the dissemination of Vietnamese cuisine in Russia. The neogastronym group is formed in two ways: semantic (1 lexeme) and word-formation (6 lexemes) from the perspective of the neologism formation method. The phobo soup, a popular choice among gourmets in Russia, and establishments that sell Vietnamese cuisine are directly associated with these neologisms from a lexical perspective. This work divulges the use of neologisms that signify catering in a variety of contexts.

Conclusion. The examination of neologism-gastronyms of Vietnamese origin in the Russian language generally suggests a new phase in the evolution of Vietnamisms, as they have the potential to generate derivatives in the Russian language. 

Purpose. This article deals with the political Internet discourse of regional politicians of Germany and Russia – Markus Söder and Sergey Tsivilev and Internet comments to the politicians’ publications. The publications represent the policy decisions made by political actors during the period of the Covid-19. The main idea of the article is to determine the types of subjective modality used by politicians to legitimize their political decisions. It was also important to define the types of subjective modality in the texts of comments and to observe the responses of the addressee to see if the political decisions were legitimized. In our opinion, it is the subjective modality in the discourse of a political actor that can have a decisive role in legitimization of the political decisions. 

Results. The research is based on the online publications of regional politicians, as well as the comments to them posted on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram ^*) in the period from January 2020 to April 2022. The context analysis, the component analysis, the transformation method, the comparative method were applied for the research.  It is found that the ontological modality is prevalent in the discourse of both political actors. The analysis of comments to politicians’ publications in social networks made it possible to assess the appropriateness of subjective modality means for legitimizing decisions in political Internet discourse. It has been disclosed that commentators legitimize politicians’ actions using deontic modality, caused by the institutional position of the politician.

Purpose. The author considers the verbs of the Mongolian languages characterizing the process of sexual intercourse. Due to the high degree of taboo of the topic under consideration, a large number of the verbs of Mongolian languages appeared in processes of the lexicalization of the figurative meaning of the word and the lexicalization of syntactic phrases. 

Results. The material of paper contains only two verbs formed using the affixal way of word formation. From the point of view of evaluative variation, euphemisms, dysphemisms, and orthophemisms can be distinguished among the verbs of the sphere under consideration. There are verbs with the initial semantics of impact, representing a semantic universal, are identified. The functioning of substitutive verbs in order to avoid communicative discomfort is noteworthy. The verbs of the field under consideration have nationally marked features due to the cultural originality of the speech culture and traditions of the Mongolian peoples. In particular, cases of the transfer of pastoral vocabulary into the sphere of relations between the sexes have been identified. The presence of a rich layer of imitative words in the Mongolian languages also makes it possible to skillfully conceal inappropriate forms. The analysis of words related  to the sphere of intimate relations allowed us to conclude that their semantics contain both the universal and specific character of the mental world of native Mongolian speakers.

The paper analyses naming cattle regarding their age and sex in Yakut in comparison to other Turkic and Mongolic languages. The historical-comparative study of Yakut cattle terms representing an early layer of native vocabulary revealed their lexical parallels in Turkic and Mongolic languages. Ten of seventeen analyzed Yakut word stems have Turkic and Mongolic parallels: ынах ‘cow’, оҕус ‘an adult male, bull’, ньирэй ‘calf’, торбос ‘calf during its first summer after birth’, бороон/борооску ‘calf during its first winter’, бургунас ‘heifer, a young female before she has had a calf of her own under three years of age, кунан ‘a young male of 3 to 4 yrs. of age’, субай (субан) ‘a dry cow’, буос ‘a springer’ (of cow), in-foal (of mare), pregnant (of some female animals), үтүрүм ‘a cow that has had calves for a few years in a row’. The other seven are of Turkic origin: тыһаҕас ‘2 yrs. old female or male’, тиҥэһэ ‘young cattle during the third year of age’, субан ‘a dry cow’, кытарах ‘dry’, уулаах ‘a springer’ (of cow), in-foal (of mare), pregnant (of some female animals), туҥуй ‘a young female that she has had its first calf’. Investigation of native vocabulary of material culture, including that related to animal husbandry, is of great scientific interest and potential.

Purpose. The article presents a comparative analysis of I. S. Turgenev’s story “Asya” and J. W. Goethe’s tragedy “Faust”. As part of the comparative study, the significance of all the discovered quotations, references, and plot and imaginative interchanges is established in close connection with the themes of the work.

Results. In dialogue with the Goethean tradition, the Russian writer achieves a subtle and precise design of the lyrical and philosophical elements of the work. Firstly, Turgenev creates a harmonious blend of urban and natural landscapes within a German setting. This serves as an embodiment of modest provincial life and reflects the protagonists’. Secondly, the writer presents a situation of a fateful meeting between two young people, whose mutual feelings will subsequently become a source of real drama. As in the case of Faust and Gretchen, for N.N. and Asya, love serves as  a grand test of the sensual and psychological world of humanity, prompting an ethical assessment of their actions. Conclusion. By bringing his hero closer to Goethe’s hero in his apostasy from mutual feeling, Turgenev embodies the pernicious power of Faustian egoism. The betrayal of his first love, which is connected with the fear of revelation, reveals N.N.’s moral failure as a “figure” of the time. 

Purpose. This article examines the thematic continuity of Chekhov’s story “The Cossack” in relation to that of Tolstoy’s story, and also substantiates the possibility of a genetic link between the works. The stage works dedicated to the contacts and creative connections between Chekhov and Tolstoy are outlined.

Results. The story of the creation of Chekhov’s story “The Cossack”, written under the influence of Tolstoy, is presented. A position has been put forward and substantiated as to why Chekhov did not include the story in the collection of his works. Chekhov’s story differs from Tolstoy's novella in the scope of the artistic world presented in it, its emblematic nature. Chekhov singles out a separate problem from Tolstoy’s major work and transposes it into another genre’s framework, which makes its own demands on its design. In Tolstoy’s story, the contradiction between the noble society and the Cossacks is shown dynamically. Chekhov, unlike his predecessor, only outlines it, but does not resolve it. According to the conditions of the genre, the author of the story is constrained by tight constrained, so he is forced to resort to means that allow him to expand the artistic world of the work. For Chekhov, such means were allusions and intertext. In the story “The Cossack” there are obvious intertextual references not only to Tolstoy’s story, but also to his story “What People Live By”.

Conclusion. The fusion of the two precedent texts and references to them reflect Chekhov’s ambivalent combination of studying with Tolstoy and polemics with him.

Purpose. This article is aimed to consider the phenomenon of envy in S. A. Yesenin’s story “Yar”, based on a scene describing a meeting between a beggar and a pilgrim and ending with the murder of the latter. 

Results. Although the poet does not use the word “envy” even once, he reveals its secret essence and consequences to which it leads. This is achieved (bu) by the author through interweaving Christian symbolism and biblical allusions into the narrative. In addition, the verbal (double-barrelled compliment, provocation, condemnation) and non-verbal (related to the mention of eyes, their movements and expression) communicative means serve as a technique to build up a vicious feeling and show its transformation into a crime. A special role is played by the speaking landscape framing the scene. It both prepares the tragic denouement of the story and acts as a harbinger of trouble. The symbols of the nature world are no less important. They are meant to awaken pilgrim from spiritual slumber. However, the heroine does not hear the premonitory voice of God, since she is sinful. 

Conclusion. The poet interprets the tragic outcome of story in his own way: only a person with a pure soul is able to hear the God.

Purpose. Yuri N. Verkhovsky was a poet and philologist, a follower of Alexander N. Veselovsky and Vyacheslav I. Ivanov. His heritage belongs to two different eras – the Silver Age and Soviet Russia, and it is an example of transformation of the artistic discoveries and poetic concepts of the early 20^th century in the official Soviet culture during Stalin’s time. It is also an option for restoring cultural continuity, as he wrote about it in his articles and poems from different periods. The poem Young Heroes, published in 1943 in the newspaper Uralsky Rabochi [The Ural Worker] (Sverdlovsk, USSR), is considered as a fact of both mobilization propaganda literature in the 1940s and the restoration of epic and dithyrambic features in Soviet literature. 

Results. The theses about the unity of the front and the hinterland, as well as the orientation towards the mobilization of creative, physical, and spiritual forces, as broadcast by the press in the 1940s, suggest to the poet a poetic language that meets the demands of the time. This language is simple and understandable to the mass reader and is close to the style of posters or slogans. On the other hand, accessible popular newspaper poetry, adopting classical forms and drawing on folk poetry, fulfills the principles of symbolism. The poem’s case shows conscious archaization, when the original magical and suggestive functions of the poetic word are returned, as Russian symbolists talked about. Excerpts from the poem are being republished for the first time.

Purpose. The article presents the results of a study on the plot of a letter in the novel by the writer of the second wave of Russian emigration L. Rzhevsky Dina (1979) as a literary and pictorial self-reflection of the hero. The study uses structural and intermedial analysis methods. 

Results. A hypothesis is made about the author’s tasks in the novel: on the one hand, self-disclosure of the inner world of the artist, the bearer of a picturesque vision of the world, on the other hand, “estrangement” of literary creativity by the reflection of a writing amateur. The functions of keeping notes: self-knowledge and knowledge of another, overcoming loneliness and moving towards literary creativity, reflection of one's own paintings and ideas (autoekphrasis).

It is shown that in the creative collision of the hero, the most significant is the main, unfinished picture – “The Winner” – an expression of the worldview, a sense of the integrity of the universe. The unrealized concepts are partially compensated by notes, in which different versions of the unfinished picture are recorded.

Conclusion. The novel is an expression of the author’s aesthetic position: the rejection of (post)modernism and socialist realism, which equally distort reality, and the affirmation of 20^th century realism, which seeks a spiritual vertical and is aware of the complexity and infinity of the universe, in which man is neither the owner nor the “winner”.

Purpose. To analyze the discursive structure of narration in the novels by Viktor Pelevin “Chapaev and Pustota” and “Generation P”. 

Results. The discursive structure of narration in the novel “Chapaev and Pustota” includes the following levels: the narrative speech of the hero (a concrete narrator) with elements of speech of a potential abstract narrator; the image of the Soviet (Soviet-era) discourse, revealed in the diegesis of the primary narrative; post-Soviet discourse, which is associated with the narrative strategy of deconstructing the Soviet in the novel; and the revealing meta-position of the author. The central position in the narrative structure revealed in the novel “Generation P” is occupied by the speech of the abstract narrator. The Soviet discourse here is not self-sufficient, but is presented as an image of discourse. This is explained by an epochal shift: this discourse is in the stage of irreversible disintegration, and the author, when constructing the text of the novel, works with its residual fragments. The post-Soviet discourse itself is expressed both in the speech of the characters and in the speech of the abstract narrator, in the structure of which direct authorial inclusions of moral assessment are visible. At the same time, the post-Soviet discourse in the novel “Generation P” is bidirectional – focusing firstly, on fragments of the Soviet, discours (both diegetically and linguistically), and secondly, on the diegetic and linguistic world of the post-Soviet period. 

Conclusion. The post-Soviet discourse in Victor Pelevin’s novels not only deconstructs the diegetic world and discourse of the Soviet, but also critically evaluates itself, and behind this lies both the moral and analytical position of the author.

Purpose. Analytical article analyzes two books by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. M. Alpatov, whose 80^th birthday will be celebrated in 2025. “Selected Works of the 21^st Century” (2023) reflect the main directions of his scholarly work: Japanese studies, typology and theory language, sociolinguistics, the history of linguistics. The final part contains “Linguistic tasks” compiled by V. M. Alpatov for competitions. “The Life of a Linguist: reminiscences” (2023) is a vivid account of the scientific and personal journey of an extraordinary scholar. The book talks about his parents and how V. M. Alpatov’s worldview was formed. Of particular note are the scholar’s memoirs of  V. A. Zvegintsev, P. S. Kuznetsov, T. P. Lomtev, S. K. Shaumyan, A. A. Zaliznyak, A. E. Kibrik, S. A. Starostin and description of significant events in Russian linguistics of 20^th – 21^st centuries. 

Results. Both books show the broad interests of V. M. Alpatov, characterize him as a real encyclopedist and a true devotee of scientific work. The paper highlights the importance of V. M. Alpatov’s ideas and developments for  modern linguistics and their practical significance for further study of the history and theory of linguistics and the formation of a new linguistic worldview in humanitarian science of the 21^st century.