Review: The subject of this research is cosplay as a modern large-scale practice of copying and public demonstration of the costume, image and behavior of famous heroes of popular culture: movies, animated movies, comic strips, and video games within the framework of thematic festivals, processions, and clubs. This article provides scientific grounds for comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of cosplay as a modern cultural form and practice through determining its cultural and historical prototypes, as well as artistic and social development. The empirical material contains the interviews with the Russian cosplayers, observations, publications in field-specific mass media, and digital broadcasting of cosplay events. The novelty of this work consists in revealing the cultural-historical prototypes of cosplay – totemic primitive festivities, medieval carnival, first forms of theater, as well as in outlining the artistic and social trends of cosplay, among which are the development of the language of modern visual culture and improvement of popular culture through creative materialization of the characters of screen culture. The author describes the socio-psychological mechanisms, which underlie the practice of cosplay and are close to the genetic foundations of the existence of theater: imitation and identification. The article carries out the typology of cosplay genres; determines the universal features and the specifics of the national forms of cosplay.

Keywords: archaic, screen culture, youth, theater, costume, game industry, subculture, popular culture, cosplay, design

Review: The object of this research is a separate element of chronotope genre – the time in dystopia in Russian cinematography of the late XX century – early XXI centuries. The subject of this research is the ideological time – a part of screenwriting that reflects the worldview of the characters through verbal constructions. Special attention is given to juxtaposition of ideology (the system proclaimed by the author) and counter-ideology (the opposing system of the public majority), as well as the manifestations of “doublethink”. Detailed analysis is conducted on the characteristic of the author's position on the ideological questions and its correlation with the social and cultural situation in the Soviet and post-Soviet society. Leaning on the theory of “vertical” time, the author explores one of its chronological layers associated with the ideology of dystopia, which defines the scientific novelty of this research. The works of K. Lopushansky, A. Sokurov, and A. German Sr. demonstrate that there can be at least to perspectives on the events, which underlies the dramaturgical conflict. The conclusion is made that various parts of ideology of the characters may be attributed to time that is different from time of the author and the audience. Another conclusion indicates the diversity of humanistic ideologies that film directors resort to, as well as different ways of their expression by the characters. The acquired results can be implemented in the genre dramaturgy, film studies, and film criticism.

Keywords: science fiction, time, humanism, ideology, dramatic composition, poetics, Soviet cinema, dystopia, Russian cinema, film theory

Review: In the late XIX – early XX centuries, the Buryat people were struggling to survive due to numerous social problems that had accumulated over time. The absence of basic sanitation, low cultural level and moral standards, widespread alcoholism led to mass infectious diseases and issues in reproductive health. The established menacing situation is described by the researchers, medical personnel, and representatives of the European academic science, who worked in the Baikal Region at that time. The goal of this article consists in giving an outlook on the situation from the perspective of Buryat society. The research employs the analysis of previously unpublished materials stored in the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia and State Archive of the Irkutsk Region. This article is first to publish the notes of the little-known Buryat researcher Mangutkhan Malasagaev. He lived his entire life in the Baikal Region, was engaged in the traditional peasant activities, and thus can be considered a true representative of the Buryat people. His elementary education and lively analytical mind allowed him keeping records of his own observations, and thus leaving a range of manuscripts that describe and analyze various aspects of life of the Buryat people. The article presents his observations on social problems of the Buryat society.

Keywords: olzo, society, people, morality, medicine, kalym, demography, Buryats, tradition, ethnos

Review: The subject of this research is the analysis of the composition of Bosporan terracotta with the image of enthroned goddess of the Early Hellenistic period (the late IV century BC – the late II century BC). The research material involves the figurines from the collection of the East Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve of this type of iconography. Terracotta from the prewar excavations of the museum, as well as a number of figurines from the excavations in Porfmy are being published for the first time. The goal of this work is to highlight and analyze the characteristic traits of iconography of the enthroned goddess in the Bosporan coroplast, as well as their reveal their sacred meaning. Special attention is given to interpretation of the depicted attributes, which allow identifying the deity. Analysis of iconography testifies to the spread of the cult of Cybele in the III – II centuries BC. In the ancient coroplast, the image of this goddess is associated with such attributes as a tympanum, a young lion, and a cup. Such details can be traced in the Bosporan terracotta. However, by the turn of the III – II centuries, perhaps under the influence of the ideas of autochthonous population of the region, emerges a specific local iconography: new attributes, such as medallion with the head of a young line and a cone). Replication of the new image in the coroplast works underlines the popularity of the cult of the syncretic female deity among the overall population of the Bosporus.

Keywords: Demeter, coroplasty, terrcottas, Mirmekion, Pantikapaeum, Bosporus, enthroned goddess, Cybele, cone, spindle

Review: The object of this research is the Soviet historical paradigm in its development. The subject is the achievements of Soviet historians in studying postwar collectivization in Right-bank Moldova. The author dwells on the impact of objective and subjective factors upon the course of historical science during the Soviet period. The article traces the evolution of topics and assessments given in the articles, monographs and collective summary works dedicated to the history of the republic. The novelty of this study is consists in the analysis of the works of Soviet historians from the perspective of modern historical paradigm, which was founded by the scientific school of V. P. Danilov. Examination of the Soviet historiography of collectivization in Right-Bank Moldova allows making the following conclusions: 1) the key problem of Soviet historians consisted in the limited access to archival documents; 2) the agrarian historiography of the problem is often subjective and interprets the information from available archival documents and various statistical records through the prism of generally accepted Soviet ideological attitudes; 3) same as in studying collectivization of the 1920s – 1930s, the topics associated with the violations during collectivization and “dekulakization” remained under the ideological ban; 4) the specificity of historiography of collectivization in Right-Bank Moldova was the significant attention of historians to this problem in the late 1960s – 1970s, which the author believes is associated with L. I. Brezhnev, who was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1951 –1952 and the conventional methods for organizing the collective farms in the republic.

Keywords: collectivization, cooperation, machine and horse rental points, agrarian reform, Right-bank Moldova, scientific school, paradigm, historiography, consolidation of collective farms, political departments of MTS

Review: The subject of this research is the artifacts of material culture of Russian cavalry as a specific form with the capacity of symbolic and semantic content. The goal of this work lies in comprehensive examination of the process of symbolization of certain forms of material culture of Russian cavalry. The research employs archaeological material, historical journalism, memoir literature, including the works of the representatives of white émigré, such as Russian military-historical magazine “Le passé militaire” (Paris, 1952-1974) and literary-publicistic “The New Journal”. For obvious reasons, emphasis is placed on the symbolism and semantic aspect of the problem, despite a fair share of nostalgization and mythologization of historical reality. Most common principles ofresearch methodology are based on the culturological concepts of the representatives of Moscow-Tartu Semiotic School of Y. M. Lotman, B. A. Uspensky (reinterpretation of the Russian cultural history in the context of binary opposition), and V. N. Toporov (reconstruction of the archetypes of Russian culture). First and foremost, it refers to the possibilities of semiotic approach towards history, the object of analysis of which is interrelated historical texts and historical contexts. Such perspective on the problem has not been previously articulated in the historical culturology and history of culture. The history of material culture of the Russian cavalryman is described from the standpoint of culturological methodology of cognition for the first time. The conclusion is made that the process of poetization, mythologization, and symbolization of items of the Russian cavalry received demand in the extreme conditions of the turn of the XIX – XX centuries (the last years of the empire). The acquired results can be applied in the sphere of museology, which is focused not only in preservation of the artifact of material and intellectual culture, but also on fulfillment of their historical-cultural potential and historical uniqueness to the maximum.

Keywords: military rituals, cavalry, Russian Imperial Army, uniform, History of costume, History of material culture, symbolization, History of Russian culture, military history, Lermontov

Keywords: Russian television, tv viewing, culture and media, human and culture, art of mass television, internet tv, modern tv viewer, mass culture, new media, media content