Pottery marked the advent of the agricultural revolution, transition to sedentary life, and a new era of intellectual development. Man used pottery to communicate important ideas in symbolic form. This article presents examples of ancient art, in particular, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images on pottery. The research featured ceramic vessels found at the archaeological sites of Halaf culture in Syria. The research objective was to interpret their meaning using various descriptive and analytical methods. The author believes that the ancient potter used animal images out of reverence  or fear. Animal images on pottery point at the close interaction between people, animals, and nature. 

The research featured the biography of Alexander A. Semenov (1873–1959), an outstanding expert in Asian Studies, who made a great contribution to Soviet and global oriental scholarship. The paper focuses on his work at the Turkestan Committee for Museums and Protection of Antiquities, Art, and Nature (Turkomstaris) and the Central Asian Committee for Museums and Protection of Antiquities, Art, and Nature (Sredazkomstaris) in 1921–1928. The research involved articles published by A. A. Semyonov in 1926 and 1928 in the Proceedings of the Central Asian Committee, as well as valuable data from publications made by Professor A. M. Mironov and Chairman of Sredazkomstaris D. I. Nechkin. A. A. Semyonov owed his education to the outstanding teaching staff of Lazarev Institute: V. F. Miller, N. N. Kharuzin, F. E. Korsh, and M. O. Attai. His scientific worldview was shaped under the influence of orientalist V. V. Barthold.

The present article introduces a historical analysis of students of the Technical College of Taiga in 1943–1991. The socal analysis involved factorial, structural-systemic, and historical approaches. The Technical Railway College has almost 80 years of history, which makes it one of the leading educational institutions of its branch in the country. Since 1991, it has been the Taiga Institute of Railway Transport, a branch of the Omsk State Railway University. The author identified the changes in the contigent of applicants in 1943–1991. They appeared to be connected with the development of the country and education policy. The revealed characteristics made it possible to clarify the logic of the development of a particular institution based on the changes in the forms and methods of recruitment, payment, age, etc. In this regard, recruitment acted as a set of special methods, e.g.clubs of young naturalists, contests and conferences, material base, promotion of railway professions through alumni, etc. In addition, good working conditions and high salary were important factors that attracted people to the Technical College of Taiga.

This article reconstructs the early history of the Soviet militia in Western Siberia. The research was based on the personal archive of Lieutenant Colonel A. N. Ovchinnikov and previously unpublished official documents stored in the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Altai Krai and in the Novosibirsk Region. The research featured A. N. Ovchinnikov’s professional activity and personal participation in the development of militia in the Altai Krai and Kuzbass. When A. N. Ovchinnikov joined the militia forces, the institution was undergoing some radical reforms, e.g. it merged with the Joint State Political Directorate, became militarized and politicized, etc. In the 1920s – 1940s, the Soviet militia turned into a command and administrative system that made collectivization and industrialization possible. Militia officers were evaluated not only by their professional qualities, but also by their party affiliation, political views, and education. The sources made it possible to reveal A. N. Ovchinnikov’s personal position in the process of militia development in the 1930s – 1940s. Despite the constant personnel shortage and the low level of education, the party managed to improve the discipline, qualifications, moral qualities, and political consciousness of militia officers, thus increasing their performance. The authors believe that personal historic narratives can be a valuable contribution to the historical studies of Soviet militia.

The article introduces prehistoric artifacts from the sites of Karasor-5, Karasor-6, and Karasor-7 obtained in 1998. The archaeological site of Karasor is located in the Upper Tobol region, near the town of Lisakovsk. Stone tools, pottery fragments, a ceramic item, and a bronze arrow head were collected from a sand blowout, which had destroyed the cultural layer. The paper gives a detailed description of the pottery. The stone tools were examined using the technical and typological analysis, which featured the primary splitting, the morphological parameters and size of plates, the ratio of blanks, plates, flakes, and finished tools, the secondary processing methods, and the typological composition of the tools. The nature of the raw materials was counted as an independent indicator. The pottery fragments, the bronze arrow head, and the ceramic item belonged to the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The stone industry of the Karasor archeological cluster proved to be a Mesolithic monument of the Turgai Trough. The technical and typological analysis revealed a close similarity with the Mesolithic sites of the Southern and Middle Trans-Urals, as well as the forest-steppe part of the Tobol-Irtysh interfluve. The stone artifacts were dated from the Mesolithic to the Early Iron Age.

The research featured the Special Troika of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, i.e. a committee of three officials who issued sentences without public trial. The authors focused on the number of the convicted on the so-called ethnic cases during the late Great Terror in the fall of 1938. The study was based on the archival documents of the Special Troika of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. According to the protocols, 1,894 local residents were found guilty in the ethnic cases in in the fall of 1938. Out of 1,690 people who were sentenced to capital punishment, less than 1% were executed. On November 26, 1938, the NKVD issued Order No. 00762, which marked the end of the Great Terror and recommended to transfer the remaining cases to the courts. Those convicted on the last day of mass repressions were released, and the NKVD authorities were forbidden to carry out sentences approved by the Special Troika after November 15, 1938. On December 22, 1938, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. P. Beria declared that all execution sentences issued by the Troika before November 17, 1928, became invalid.

The research featured special reports from the Tomsk Department of State Security about the “anti-Soviet” protest movement of Tomsk deportees in the first months after Joseph Stalin's death. The analysis revealed how the deportees adapted to the authority demands and imitated their loyalty to the system, even when the regime positions was clearly weakened. The author analyzed the sanctions imposed on the deportees and the behavior of the local punitive officials, who received no instructions from Moscow. Most likely, the “anti-Soviet” behavior was not so much a purposeful protest as an irrational reaction to such an extraordinary event as Joseph Stalin's death. The responsive actions of the Regional Department of State Security did not follow the new course of Soviet policy but rather the behavioral patterns formed during the Stalin era: violators were identified and punished severely and demonstratively.

 Higher education is not only about professional knowledge and skills: it also develops one’s self-awareness. Students’ self-identity changes as they expand their competencies and self-awareness, master new activities, and develop  professional values. According to the systemic and constructivist approaches, self-identity is a system of identities that develop in during one’s life and based on one’s conscious identity with any subjects of psychic reality. During  their university years, students' self-identity transforms in terms of structure, general state, and attitudes towards certain types of identity. In this empirical research, senior students identified more with family, close social  environment, external representation, and personality assessment. They demonstrated a positive attitude towards ethnicity and family roles as their self-identity system grew less stable and autonomous. As a result, self-identity became more dependent and blurred. The same tendencies manifested themselves in the dynamics of professional identity. The more they learnt about their future profession, the more they grew aware of its limitations, and the image of the profession became more ambiguous. All these changes led to self-identity crisis in some graduates. 

The present research featured the readiness of university and high school students for distance learning as a means of improving their digital skills. The survey was conducted in October 2020 and involved 807 students from schools and universities of Nizhny Novgorod aged 14–24 (M=18, SD=2.22; 62.6 % female, 37.4 % male). Six focus groups included 63 students aged 17–24 (M=18, SD=1.83; 65 % female, 35 % male). The study showed that the readiness of young people for distance learning depended on their awareness of how digital technologies changed human life during the pandemic. The research revealed four types of young people with different attitudes to distance learning. Awareness of the impact of digitalization appeared to be a powerful motivator for the use of distance learning to develop digital competencies. The constraining factors included emotional and volitional immaturity, orientation to hedonistic values, confidence in one’s own digital competence, and skepticism regarding the ability of distance education to promote professional development.

The present research featured the psychosemantic foundation of interpersonal relations, the latter represented as a three-level system. The psychosemantic foundation contains implicit models of interpersonal relations; the regulatory level regulates interpersonal relationships in various contexts; the behavioral level manifests itself in direct interpersonal behavior. The research was based on the method of semantic differential. However, the method proved too sensitive to various kinds of heterogeneity of the test subjects, which rendered it impossible to identify the factor structure. As a result, the semantic differential was converted to factorial personality systems through the Automated Personal Thesaurus TEZAL. In this research, the semantic differential vocabulary profile was converted to 16PF personality profile. The semantic differential and converted data underwent statistical and comparative analyses, which singled out the general structures of perception in the system of interpersonal relations. The procedure revealed two bipolar factors. The factor of social self-organization reflected the degree of orderliness of social activity and behavior. The factor of social interaction demonstrated the flexibility, activity and initiative of social behavior. A regression analysis of the psychosemantic foundations revealed a more complex system, when interpersonal relations are perceived through the role image of mother and friend. Thus, initial data conversion provided a more detailed reconstruction of the psychosemantic foundation of interpersonal relations.

Social informatization and virtualization are changing the living environment and life values. The article introduces a meta-analysis of the axiological identity of Russian students at various stages of the social digitalization. The authors selected sources, defined their relevance based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and performed their qualitative and quantitative analysis. The sample included 90 publications, 53 of which featured Russian students. The resulting trends in the axiological identity of Russian students were compared with foreign studies. The research revealed the following developmental trends in the life values of Russian students: individualistic values are giving way to collective ones, and conservative values are becoming more and more significant.

 The present review of publications on bioethical awareness demonstrated a lack of a comprehensive, holistic study of bioethical awareness in different population groups. The research featured an empirical study of bioethical awareness in university students. The experiment was part of a big project aimed at filling the gap in scientific knowledge about bioethics and bioethical awareness. The research objective was to identify the current trends and patterns of bioethical awareness in university students. The study involved 155 students of the Perm State National Research University, who answered a modified questionnaire developed by Y. A. Evelson and O. V. Evusyak (2014). The study revealed the following structural components of bioethical awareness: content-cognitive, motivational-communicative, and reflexive-activity. The students showed a low level of bioethical awareness. Further research is needed to design a program for bioethical awareness  development. 

Self-identity is a structural and dynamic system that develops as one’s living environment expands. During vocational training, professional identity acquires an integrating role in this system. Professional identity develops in the academic environment, which is expanding due to digitalization. The research objective was to identify the features of professional identity development in students in the conditions of academic digitalization and to determine the ways of psychological and pedagogical optimization of this process. The theoretical analysis is based on the general provisions of cultural and historical psychology, as well as on the methodology of the environmental approach in education. The contemporary academic environment demonstrated a lack of interpersonal interaction, which makes it difficult to enter the professional community and identify with it. However, the interactive character of the digital academic environment makes it possible to optimize the process of professional identity development. It comprises various information and communication platforms into a single media environment. Psychological and pedagogical technologies develop awareness and acceptance of professional values in the process of indirect interaction between students, teaching staff, and professionals.

 The study aims to identify peculiarities of sociocultural adaptation (factors, coping strategies and anticipatory competence) of students from India, China and Arab countries. The research is based on the data obtained from the first-, second- and third-year students from India (73 respondents), China (45 respondents), Arab countries (64 respondents). The “Russian language proficiency” factor shows more significance for students from India and China, compared to students from Arab countries. Students from China, India and Arab countries tend to start and maintain relationships, to participate in academic activities, to have hobbies and interests and interact with other students. The prosocial coping strategy is predominant for Arab, Indian and Chinese students, regardless of their culture of origin, which proves  universality of the strategy. Representatives of a polychronic culture (students from Arab countries and India) lack temporal anticipatory competence,
with Arab students showing the lowest value of this parameter. Chinese  students differ from representatives of a polyactive culture (Arab students) or a reactive-polyactive culture (Indian students) as they can hardly predict how a person they know would act in a certain situation. 

 The article features personality determinants of adaptation in first-year medical students. The study involved R. Cattell’s questionnaire of personality qualities and S. R. Panteleev’s test of self-attitude components. The factor analysis revealed six personality factors that covered 74.7 % of the primary characteristics included in the statistical procedure. The participants had different adaptation levels: high, medium, and low. Based on the zones of positive or negative factor values, the identified determinants were divided into two groups. The group of successful adaptation factors included emotional maturity, positive attitude to oneself and to life, readiness to change, orientation towards social approval, social activity and importance of communication, intelligence and mental abilities. The factors of adaptation disorders included conservative attitudes and caution with a prominent need for sympathy from others, idealistic worldview, and internal illusions. The emotional and volitional qualities proved to be the most important factor of professional self, while self-attitude components appeared to be underrepresented, and intellectual qualities had ambiguous impact on the process of adaptation. The obtained data reflected both general scientific ideas about the phenomenon of adaptation, i.e. the role of emotions at the initial stage of university education. The article also describes the personality development of students at this stage of ontogenesis, e.g. incomplete self-attitude formation, etc. The results can be used in medical universities as a part of psychological support in order to prevent personality adaptation disorders in first-year students. 

The article introduced the anti-value concept of cowardice in the humorous discourse of Anglo-Saxon linguistic culture. This concept is one of the main anti-values of modern Anglo-Saxon linguistic culture; however, it received very little scientific attention. Based on cognitive and axiological analyses, the author identified and analyzed the main characteristics of cowardice in humorous discourse. The analysis involved 50 episodes of stand-up specials and 500 episodes of various sitcoms. The key features of the anti-value concept of cowardice included fear, the level of danger, and the importance of overcoming danger. Other important characteristics of cowardice included immoral actions, avoiding danger, inaction, loss of control over one’s bodily functions, and unreasonable behavior. The fear of death / injury / social disapproval proved to be the main reasons for cowardice. The author also analyzed the gender aspect of the concept. Cowardice appeared to be a typical male feature because humor is often derived from breaking the gender stereotype "a man is stronger / braver than a woman".

The article introduces the semiotic, cognitive, and technical aspects of the most important trends in the modern written communication, which arise as a result of the competition between acoustic-auditory and manual-visual codes. The author believes that Russian education has to adapt to the contemporary trends in virtual communication, which requires a preliminary research. The problem is that the integral-systemic presentation of communicative content is developing as a result of the growing share of visual data in various types of communication. The school course of Russian is based on elementary strategies and cannot keep up with these changes. Video-clip unites give the visual-written perception much better holistic possibilities than those of the phono-auditory-written channel. The competition of these two forms of writing is unlikely to displace the weaker opposition member. Chances are that it will redistribute their functions based on the advantages of each form.

The present study featured the image of a TV hostess in such genres as chat interview and portrait interview. The speech genre is a factor that affects the linguistic image of a media personality. The linguistic image explicates various linguistic means used by TV hostesses to achieve the main goal of the speech genre. The research objective was to demonstrate the interrelation between the TV hostess image and the chat / portrait interview speech genres. The study involved the descriptive method, the qualitative and quantitative content analysis, and the discourse analysis. The linguistic image was analyzed at four levels. Each level revealed units that served as markers of the linguistic image of a TV hostess during chat and portrait interviews. The research results can be applied in theoretical and practical courses of media discourse theory, as well as in special courses of media linguistics, linguistic imagology, and communicative genreology. Further research is required to identify the nonverbal means of the image of a TV hostess in these speech genres.

Phono-stylistics is a promising research area. Expressive power of a text depends on its phonetic imagery. The research objective was to identify the pragmatic features of phonic expressive means in translations of contemporary English poetry. The methods included a comparative analysis, phono-semantic and phono-stylistic interpretation of the original poems and their translations, and O. N. Tynyanov's law of versification. The method of sound counting developed by E. V. Elkina and L. S. Yudina was used to calculate the frequency of sounds in the context of phono-semantic analysis in the Russian translations. The method of sound counting designed by Tsoi Vi Chuen Thomas was used to calculate the frequency of sounds in the original English texts. The theoretical foundation of the research was formed by the works by M. A. Balash, G. V. Vekshin, Z. S. Dotmurzieva, V. N. Elkina, A. P. Zhuravlev, L. V. Laenko, F. Miko, L. P. Prokofyeva, E. A. Titov, etc. The study featured the phonics and pragmatics of S. Dugdale’s poem Zaitz and its three translations made by E. Tretyakova, A. Shchetinina, and M. Vinogradova, and C. E. Duffy’s Anne Hathaway translated by Yu. Fokina. The author compared the pragmatics of sound imagery in the English originals and their Russian translations. The research made it possible to define the role of sound imagery in the poetic discourse, as well as the relationship between the sound organization of poetic speech and the pragmatic value at the phonographic level. The results can be used in courses of translation, stylistics, and phonetics.

This research featured the lingua-personolological aspect of linguistic means and speech techniques connected with the use of discrediting strategy in online comments aimed at discrediting the authorities. The study was based on the methods of continuous sampling and linguistic analysis of official Facebook and Twitter pages of the mayors of New York and London. Lowering proved to be the leading strategy used in comments aimed at discrediting the government. The research revealed the prevailing tactics and techniques of the speech strategy for lowering, e.g. "analysis minus", insult, accusation, etc. Internet users appeared to have an individual style and vocabulary choice that depended on various subjective factors. The comments showed little trust for the government, which makes discrediting the authorities an important contemporary issue.

The article compares the motivating signs of the concepts of bogatstvo and wealth based on eleven Russian etymological dictionaries and seven English etymological and four explanatory dictionaries. The author analyzed the words bogatstvo and wealth as the main representatives of the concepts in question and identified their motivating signs. The interpretation relied on the theory of mentality. The Russian concept of bogatstvo appeared to have 15 motivating sings that could be grouped into five blocks: 1) material wealth, 2) allocation of resources, 3) a share of property, 4) spiritual wealth, 5) values. The English concept of wealth demonstrated fourteen motivating signs represented as three blocks: 1) material wealth, 2) values, 3) spiritual wealth.

This article features the concept of denotation variation degree of the linguistic sign, which remains largely understudied. The research introduced the term "denotation variation degree" and revealed its practical and theoretic significance, both for general linguistics and for particular aspects related to the world denotation variation degree as part of individual interpretation. The objective was to describe the denotation variation degree as high or low based on specific vocabulary. The linguistic experiment included two steps; speakers were given a model situation and asked to interpret a definition. Test results demonstrated a low variation degree at the level of the word and denotation correlation because the denotate component had a low potential for notional plurality. High variation degree appeared in connotative and associational word components with a higher potential for the different notional variants.

The present paper deals with the issue concerning neuter gender toponyms’ declension ending on -ovo/-evo, -ino/-yno in Russian language. Until the 20th century, these place names had been changed in cases steadily; in the middle of the century, a tendency outlined not to decline these toponyms despite the valid rule. The researchers highlight three reasons for distribution of this phenomenon: the professional speech of military men and topographers, the influence of non-Slavic indeclinable neuter gender toponyms, the attempt to eliminate the possible confusion of neuter and masculine nouns that have the same basis. The author estimates the reliability of the reasons that toponyms on -ovo/-evo, -ino/-yno appeared in indeclinable form, determines the possibility of these reasons to influence on deviation from the normative practice and makes an independent research based on available material. The main factor that strongly fastened in practice the non-declension of toponyms on -ovo/-evo, -ino/-yno is the society in which Russian language functioned for the most of 20th century. That was the totalitarian period with its cult of a simple man and orientation on the least educated; this circumstance could not but play in favour for distribution of multiple deviations from the literary norm. In addition, the appearance of numerous toponyms on -ovo/-evo, -ino/-yno formed from the surnames of the communist chiefs (Stalino, Lenino, Kalinino, Ulyanovo, Kuybyshevo, etc.), in indirect cases, created a dangerous analogy with the Soviet leaders, which could contribute in expansion of non-declension.

Linguaculture is a heterogeneous linguacognitive phenomenon that depends on the local area, values, and community, as well as on national and ethno-specifics cultural codes and subcodes of mythology, theology, anthropomorphism, biomorphism, household, commerce, etc. The article introduces the linguacultural corpus of the Northern Angara Region that unites oral and multimedia (polycode) texts of traditional regional linguaculture. The corpus is being developed at the Siberian Federal University and includes empirical material of complex folklore, dialectological, and ethnographic expeditions to Kezhemskiy, Boguchany and Motygino areas. The article describes the basic principles of the corpus, i.e. representativeness, synchronism, and regionality, as well as the thematic, genre, functional, and semantic diversity of oral and polycode texts. Culturally marked oral texts are included in the corpus based on their linguistic and cultural informativeness. The corpus is divided into dialect, folklore, and multimedia subcorpuses of valuable information, which can solve various issues of Russian studies, as well as practical issues of linguacultural ecology. The information search process depends on several parameters: speech and folklore genre, topic, basic concept, and word. The article also contains a comparative analysis with other specialized corpora of oral speech, which revealed prospects for further development and application. The linguacultural corpus of the Northern Angara Region contributes to regional lexicography and other branches of Russian studies, e.g. Siberian linguaculture, language and culture, language and mentality, etc.

In Russian and Persian, the category of indirect evidentiality points out to some unreliable source of information. The category of admirativity expresses unexpected and new information gained by the speaker. Such interrogative sentences convey combine admirativity with diff erent modal meanings. Foreign students of Russian often fi nd it hard to distinguish these meanings in Russian interrogative sentences. The authors compared Russian and Persian interrogative sentences and the linguistics tools that refl ect the admirative category with an assessment of modal meanings of possibility and motivation. This is the fi rst research of the category of admirativity in the Persian language and the fi rst publication on the comparison of Russian and Persian interrogative sentences, as well as on the relationship between admirativity and modal meanings in Russian and Persian interrogative sentences. The research objective was to perform a comparative analysis of admirativity in Russian and Persian interrogative sentences and to study the situations in which this meaning conveys the surprise of the speaker from the availability or lack of possibility to perform a certain action. In both languages, admirativity can accompany the feeling of motivation in the subject of the speech act. The findings can be useful in teaching Russian as a foreign language.