Ust'-Kova site is the most well-known Late Paleolithic site in the Northern Cis-Angaria. In 2014-2015, it was flooded due to the building of Boguchany Dam. Despite the long researches of the site, the issues of the age and the cultural relation are remaining unsolved. Basic collections of stone inventory of 1980s - 2000 haven’t been published yet. Using the artifacts that were picked up during the salvage excavations within the area of Boguchany Dam (in 2008-2011) and by the partial revision of the materials of 1970-1980, we can discuss this topic again. The Late Paleolithic cultural layer of Ust'-Kova site is completely deformed by polygonal ice wedges due to the cryogenic processes. The division of cultural layer into three archaeological components of different chronology (early, middle and late) is not proved due to the archaeological material. Based on the series of radiocarbon data, we can define the age of Ust'-Kova Paleolithic as Gydan stage of Sartan glaciation. Perhaps, deposits of the Late Sartan period were denuded at the end of Pleistocene that could be marked by the wind on the surface of artefacts, which are situated right in the central part of the cryogenic polygon sites. In accordance with archaeological material characteristics the settlement can be roughly divided into three areas. Traditional “kovinsky” area mostly includes stone and bone inventory of the central area (excavated 1970-1980). The distinctive flint tools, jewelers and mammoth tuck sculptural images allows us to present an argument for the belonging of Ust'-Kova to Mal'ta-Buret' Siberian Paleolithic group of sites. At the same time, the excavations within east and west areas of the site helped to reveal a new archaeological component with microblades which are similar to the Late Karga (MIS3) - Early Sartan (MIS2) industries of the Enisey Valley. We suggest that further researches along the banks of Boguchany Dam may help to discover similar sites, which consequently may provide us with extra facts.

This article reviews the history of Paleolitic archaeological research in Northern China, and presents important events and important figures in the development of Paleolithic archaeology in the past 100 years. Through nearly a hundred years of Paleolithic archaeological research, China has undergone several generations of hard work, which has changed the world's original understanding of the time-space framework of Paleolithic archaeology in China. Chinese Paleolithic studies began with the discovery of the remains of a Sinanthropus ( Homo erectus pekinensis ) and stone tools made by him in the Zhoukoudian Cave. The next important step in the study of the Paleolithic was the discovery in China of a series of sites where tools made in microlithic technique were discovered. Subsequently, it turned out that some of them date back to the Late Paleolithic, and others to the Mesolithic or Neolithic. In addition, it summarizes the new developments of Paleolithic archaeology in northern China since the beginning of the new century. These discoveries established a set of the sequence of Chinese archaeological culture in the Paleolithic period, and deeply explored the origin of China's earliest humans and the origin and evolution of modern humans. In the village of Shanchen in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, stone products were found about 2.12 million years ago - the oldest in East Asia. The Acheulean biface, found in the middle part of the Yellow River basin in Lonan County, Shaanxi Province, testified to the spread of Acheulean technology in China. The discovery in northern China of blades made using the Levallois technique indicated links with Mongolia and made it possible to determine the ways of dispersal of Homo sapiens sapiens in antiquity. Article also calls on Russian scholars to participate in the study of Chinese Paleolithic archaeology and jointly solve some related problems.

In 2018, the Russian-Mongolian expedition led by A.A. Kovalev and Ch. Munkhbayar completely excavated the Chemurchek ritual complex Khulagash, which was built like a rectangular fence of stone slabs decorated on the outside with petrogliphs of fantastic creatures and animals. In particular, a stone slab with an anthropomorphic image, which was first copied more than a hundred years ago by the Finnish traveler J.G. Granö, was studied in situ and restored. On this slab is chiseled a parabolic contour with an anthropomorphic figure with arms spread out inside. It was found that an anthropomorphic figure was carved over a parabolic contour. Similar images of anthropomorphs in the contour were found during excavations of the neighboring Chemurchek ritual fence Khar Chuluut. Of the five compositions that have been fragmentarily preserved in Khar Chuluut, at least in four cases anthropomorphic figures were applied after drawing the outline. The features of these drawings do not allow us to accept the hypothesis of V.D. Kubarev that they depict a certain “shaman” hidden behind a screen. On the contrary, it is rather a symbolic image of the emanation of a deity. It is noteworthy that anthropomorphic figures in the outline, as a rule, are devoid of signs of gender and are surrounded by rounded spots or dots. This may indicate their supernatural nature. The earliest images of similar parabolic figures come from the context of megalithic cultures of the Neolithic of France and Northern Italy. These figures are devoid of obvious anthropomorphism, the addition of “realistic” details occurred after the invasion of the traditions of megalithic art from the west into the center of Eurasia. The tradition of combining anthropomorphic figures with a parabolic or rectangular contours extends up to Western Tibet (Ladakh), where similar petroglyphs are found.

In 1963 and 1965 V.V. Svinin and L.P. Khlobystin conducted research on the Lysaya Sopka, a hill located in the southwestern part of the village of Nizhneangarsk in the Severobaikalsky district of the Republic of Buryatia, 160 m from Lake Baikal. Open surface artifacts were collected on the hill and a 5 x 6 m excavation area with a 1 x 2 m test pit were laid. The archaeological finds were represented by fragments of ceramic vessels, lithics and animal bones. A small part of the dishes from the second cultural layer was covered with impressions of the netting. This is the earliest pottery known on the northern coast of Lake Baikal. It dates back to the VIII-beginning of the VII millennium BC. Most of the fragments of ceramic vessels were found in the first cultural layer. They are ornamented with riveted rollers, various stamps and impressions of the spatula, were located in the first layer. Later such pottery was named as the ceramics of the North Baikal Type. Previously, it can be dated to the second half of the III-II thousand BC. The finds from the Lysaya Sopka were transferred by V.V. Svinin to the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore for storage and were included in the collections No. 10292 and No. 10293. The analysis of materials from the archaeological collections from the Lysaya Sopka allowed us to characterize in detail the remains of ceramic vessels found here and to give a detailed description of the dishes of the Northern Baikal type. The geomorphological features of the hill and the location of archaeological material on it give grounds to consider this natural object as an ancient sanctuary, where rituals dedicated to heavenly patrons were held from the early Neolithic to the Mongol period.

The researchers have reached a consensus that the deer stones left by the owners of khirigsuur and deer stone culture during the Bronze Age on the territory of Mongolia were erected in dedication for human in terms of purpose. However, no consensus has been reached to date among researchers in terms of dating and classification. In this article, I propose a new postulation to classify the deer stones into two categories, including the deer stones dedicated for men and the deer stones dedicated to women. Previous researchers have often classified deer stone statues based on differences in appearance, but in this article when writing about the deer stone statue clearly shows to me the gender differences of the person to whom it is dedicated. Some researchers believe that the depictions on the stone statues of deer stones are not based on gender differences, but on facial expressions, necklaces, belts, images, weapons, deer, moose, ungulates and wild animal predators. However, some scientists do not equate to the statues of deer stones statues stone women and consider them subhuman statues image. Although some researchers have classified deer stones the same type of classification as previous researchers, some forms were considered subclasses within the main classification. This is because the subclass considers other additional images depicted on the deer statues as a special class. Deer stones are one of the most interesting and still largely mysterious types of archaeological sites that have become a kind of symbol of the ancient culture of Mongolia and Central Asia. Deer stones are located on the territory of Mongolia and a large region of Altai Mountain and Khangai Mountain, also Mountain Sayan-Altai, Tuva and Transbaikalia. These archaeological cultures Deer stones with khirigsuur have a number of characteristic natural features, which largely determined the paths of the historical development of its population and that special role in world history.

The article is devoted to the mapping of archaeological sites in the Ust-Yansky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), covering the lower reaches with the delta of the Yana River and the eastern part of the coastal Yano-Indigirskaya lowland. Ust-Yansky ulus (district) belongs to the Arctic territories and is located in the north of Yakutia, adjacent to the coast of the Laptev Sea. The history of the formation of the Ust-Yansky District passed a multi-stage path from the Bulunsky District, which covered almost the entire north of Yakutia in the 1920s, to the modern borders formed in 1967. In the first half of the 17th century, teams of Russian pioneers emerged in the lower reaches of the Yana River. Since that time, the territory of the Yansky basin and the northern coast from Olenek to Kolyma has been included in the sphere of influence of the expanding Russian State. Sites left by Russian pioneers on the territory of the Ust-Yanskiy region remain unexplored. Archaeological research of the Ust-Yansky region began in 1974 by the teams of the Prilensk archaeological expedition of the Yakut filial of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The study of many sites discovered on the territory of the Ust-Yansky District is still limited by the preliminary exploration nature of the work due to the remoteness of the region and the absence of any road infrastructure. Nevertheless, the studies of the lower Yana River, the Yano-Indigirskaya lowland and the mountainous area carried out by the Prilensk archaeological expedition and the East-Yakutsk (Yano-Indigirskaia) expedition of the Institute of the History of Material Culture RAS show the promise of archaeological research of the Arctic regions. The purpose of this work is to summarize and systematize in a short form archaeological research carried out on the territory of the Ust-Yansky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) since the 1970s, as well as primary mapping of sites. To date, more than 20 archaeological sites have been discovered here, dating from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age, of which the most studied is the Yanskaya site (Yana RHS) (which is a whole complex of sites and locations).

The process of formation and development of images and ideas about time and eternity in antiquity is considered. The analysis of various approaches and concepts of understanding the specifics of mythical ideas about time in antiquity both related to the cosmos and the daily life of the ancient polis is carried out. The author reveals the myth's inherent understanding of time, which includes a special “logic of time”. It is concluded that based on a rational understanding of the original mythical ideas the Greeks sought to see the rational connectedness of ideas about time behind individual myths. The main points of complication of ideas about time in connection with the development of the policy are revealed. As one of the most important factors in the development of ideas about time, the measurement of time in court is considered. The article shows the connection between the complexity of the ideas about time and the ideas about the biographical character of a citizen of the polis. The analysis of the semantic field of time concepts in classical antiquity is based on the reference to the concepts of Heraclitus and Parmenides and the concepts of Plato and Aristotle. The most significant points of interpretation of the concepts of chronos, aeon, and kairos are revealed. It is concluded that critical thinking the source of the mythical notions of time was associated with the growth and development of policies, where the complexity of social relations with the necessity led to the emergence of the measurement techniques of the time as well as to complicate notions of time of human life, and to rise to fundamental ideas about the nature of time and understanding of eternity. At the same time, the specific attitude of the Greeks to time was the dominance of the mythical idea of the importance of “today” and “now”.

The article is devoted to the problem of using the traditional Russian folk costume in the court nobility in order to demonstrate their belonging to the national Russian culture. The interest to this topic was provoked by the spontaneous popularity of the Russian kokoshnik during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. While researching it turned out that interest in the folk kokoshnik had already manifested itself in the history of Russia. The beginning of this trend was determined by the period of the reign of Catherine II. After 1812, the trend was supported by the patriotic sentiments of the Russian nobility, and since 1834, after the approval of the “Regulations on civil uniforms” which included “Description of ladies' outfits for arriving on solemn days to the highest court”, became an officially enshrined tradition that remained late 19th century. This is confirmed by portraits of women, including empresses, as well as multi-figure paintings depicting coronation festivities. Particularly convincing is the replication of portraits of empresses in engravings, undoubtedly designed to introduce into the masses the idea of the proximity of the establishment to the people. This phenomenon faced the counter tendency of a fascination with Russian costume, formed under the influence of the democratic sentiments of Russian society, which manifested itself in a growing interest in genuine folk art, and in court culture - in an interest in costumed masquerade balls in the Russian style, which disappeared with the advent of new ideals of the XX century. This revealed the false, masquerade nature of the government's interest in the people. On the whole, this proves both the iconic value of the costume and the fact that its development is a self-developing process.

The article deals with the most prominent representatives of the chronicle genre of the city of Irkutsk. The chroniclers' product, the Chronicles, is an unique historiographical phenomenon, and more specifically, a written source of the early period of our history. And if researchers still cannot come to a common opinion about the authorship and objectivity of the chroniclers of Ancient Russia, then we can make a completely objective knowledge of the chroniclers of the later period, which is important from the scientific point of view, and from the point of view of local lore in particular. The article analyzes the peculiarity of Irkutsk, which contributed to the birth of the chronicle tradition here and brought up a whole galaxy of enthusiasts of the chronicle genre, not professional historians, who reflected the events to us as they took place in the history of Irkutsk, and not according to rumors and memories. Paying tribute to the chroniclers who recorded the past of the city, the article also notes the contribution of modern historians who are committed to the idea of studying the region and those who laid the chronicle tradition for us. Special attention is paid to the historian and historiographer who wrote the history of the chronicle of the city of Irkutsk with the indication of the main biographical data of the chroniclers - Nadezhda Kulikauskene. Thanks to the chroniclers and their historiographers V. Sibiryakov, N.V. Semivsky, V.N. Basnin, I.I. Serebrennikov, Donskoy, A.I. Losev, P.I. Pezhemsky V.A. Krotov, N.K. Potapova, A.V. Dulov, N.S. Romanov, K.A. Antonov, I.V. Shcheglov, N.V. Kulikauskienė we have a clear and truthful chronology of all the most important events that happened to the city from the very beginning of its foundation. Irkutsk did not yet have a seal and coat of arms, but the first record was already made that in the city a certain Ivan Kolokolnik casts cannons and bells, Ivan Kirpichnik makes bricks, Lyubim Vyzhigalschikov burns resin and charcoal from birch, etc. Irkutsk stood out for its affairs ahead of history.

The article is devoted to the analysis of Ju.I. Bazanova's charitable activities. She was the heir to the fortune of her father in law the Irkutsk merchant I.I. Bazanov. Bazanova's charitable activity is considered in the context of her life scenario and changing roles within the merchant family during the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. It is emphasized that the conclusion of her marriage with the son of I.I. Bazanov Peter was the main social lift for Ju.I. Lyavdanskaya. This created financial and status opportunities for Ju.I. Bazanova's broad charitable activities and ensured her entry into the social environment of major merchants of the region. The analysis of motivational attitudes of Ju.I. Bazanova's charitable activities was carried out. It is proved that the idea of public service was perceived by her organically, corresponded to personal character traits. The article highlights the priorities of public and charitable initiatives of Ju.I. Bazanova, analyzes the main donations. Special attention is paid to its role in opening a Clinic for Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases in Moscow and a Children's Hospital in Irkutsk. The author concluded that, on the one hand, Ju.I. Bazanova's charitable activity was based on the traditional merchant concept of charity as the fulfillment of a moral duty. On the other hand, charity was perceived by Bazanova as a sphere of active, conscious participation in solving social problems. This point of view has become increasingly widespread in Russian society since the 80's of the XIX century.

The article based on the memoirs of A.I. Denikin analyzed the attitude of the general to the “Polish question”. For a military man whose mother was Polish by birth, this problem also had a personal meaning. Traditionally, Anton Ivanovich is perceived as a staunch supporter of the imperial idea, however, on the pages of Denikin's unfinished memoirs “The Way of a Russian Officer” one can come across curious sketches of the life of Polish society under the rule of the Russian Empire. In the memoirs of A.I. Denikin presents a wide range of information about the life of the Congress Poland (Kingdom of Poland) during the reign of Emperors Alexander II and Alexander III, about the mood among the inhabitants of the region, about the specifics of national identification in the region. The author's focus is on his father, Ivan Efimovich, a retired officer. In the general's memoirs, the story of his path to faith is also presented. Anton Ivanovich also describes in detail his only meeting with the Emperor Alexander II, who was passing through Wloclawsk shortly before his death. Growing up in the Polish environment, Denikin acquired from his father a deep and not feigned patriotism, a sense of sincere pride in his Fatherland and empathy for its troubles. At the same time, Denikin loved both Poland and the Polish people for life. The general's view of Russian-Polish relations, expressed by him in 1937 in a letter to S. Karpinsky, seems interesting. A.I. Denikin on the “connectedness of the fate of National Russia and Poland”, as well as his opinion that the “Russian-Polish wound” is curable, and the “blood union” and “complete reconciliation” of the two Slavic peoples are possible and necessary for our states. The author comes to the conclusion that Denikin's precepts can and should be in demand in our time. The work is based on a wide range of sources, including not only expanded cited Denikin's works of different years, but also unpublished archival materials.

This article based on a large body of unpublished documents from the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RSMHA). The author analyzes the current situation in military-educational institution of Transbaikalia in 1899. In that year, there was a visit of the War Minister of Russian Empire Aleksey N. Kuropatkin to Siberian Military District. That visit was of historic importance as it took place about 4 years prior the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and less than 7 months before the Siberian Military District mobilization in response to the Boxer Rebellion in China. Its purpose was personal acquaintance of the War Minister with the recently created Siberian Military District; specifically, evaluation of the actual state and combat readiness of the dislocated troops, data gathering to further develop defense plans and regional military reforms in Siberia. Traveling by Trans-Siberian Railway, Kuropatkin inspected troops of the largest Siberian garrisons in cities of Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, including military institutions and training schools (Irkutsk Preparatory School of Siberian Cadet Corps, Irkutsk Junker School). As a result, deficiencies in the reserve troops’ military training and mobilization readiness of the Siberian Military District were exposed, and an emergency plan created to correct them. In this article the most detailed descriptions of life end educational process in Irkutsk Preparatory School of Siberian Cadet Corps and Irkutsk Junker School is published for the first time. It has been described the placement, life conditions and organization of educational process and also the opinion of War Minister about both military-educational institution and the education level in it. It has been analyzed the failures in work of both schools, which were been found by the high guests. The first part of the article devoted to the Irkutsk Preparatory School of Siberian Cadet Corps.

The article examines and characterizes the composition and number of lower military ranks of the Siberian Military District (SibVO) on the basis of a wide range of archival and statistical sources, and determines its place in the structure of human resources mobilization of the Russian Empire at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The article provides statistical data on the annual replenishment of the Russian Army with lower military ranks, analyzes the structure, composition and changes in the number of lower military ranks of the SibVO in the context of its territory. The dynamics of the number of conscripts who entered military service in the Russian Army in the status of lower military ranks from 1890 to 1901 is determined. The number and composition of the SibVO human resources mobilization and the dynamics of changes in the number of lower military ranks of the District during the Russian-Chinese armed conflict in 1900-1901 are analyzed. On the example of the Akmola, Semipalatinsk and Yakutia regions which were the parts of the SibVO, the author considers the features of relations between state authorities and representatives of the aboriginal population of the regions in the implementation of the provisions of the Charter on military service. Much attention is paid to the order of military service by lower military ranks, their legal status and types of material support. Special emphasis is placed on the legal status of lower military ranks serving in military units and formations of the SibVO, social and economic aspects of their military service, and measures of state social support for lower military ranks are analyzed. The lower ranks who entered the service acquired the right to education, sanitary and medical services, state social protection and maintenance. The army also acted as an elevator of social mobility.

This research is devoted to elucidate the development of navy skill during to the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. This war caused by the struggle for hegemony in the Eastern Asia between two countries takes a special place in the history. This war was the largest among the first wars of steam fleet epoch. All sorts of navy arms were widely used during this war. The Russian and Japanese plans of sea war were based on the theory of “Mahen-Colomb”. Germany and Austria-Hungary saw in the events in Manchuria an evidence of the military weakness of Russia, which became the basis for their unjustified self-confidence in the 1914. Modern researches are based on well-known facts, they involve new sources into circulation, and overcome the predetermined ideological interpretations. The previous theoretical and methodological approaches are being revised. In historiography, especially in Russia, a spectrum of interpretations of an exceptional diversity is preserved. There is a persistent desire, if necessary, to expand. The newest theoretical and technical elaborations were tasted in this war. This war was the starting point and the powerful impulse for a future rapid development of all navy skill branches of leading world-powers. The fighting sides were developing all navy skill branches already during this war. There are highlighted the development of the tactics of light forces of fleet as well as the using of the mine-torpedo weapon and coordination fleet and ground forces.

The First World War forced the participating countries to move to mobilize not only the military reserves, but also the entire economy. Military-economic mobilization violated plans for military-technical cooperation of allied countries. First, France and then Great Britain recognized that they were not able to meet the ever-growing needs of the Russian Army for military equipment and weapons. The military crisis - the defeat of the Russian Army on the eastern front in 1915 coincided with the crisis of the supply of military equipment from abroad. Since the fall of 1915, the main supplier of the Russian Army from among foreign contractors became the firms of America (USA and Canada) and Japan. Throughout 1916, entrepreneurs of these countries increased military supplies to Russia. The United States has become not only the main supplier of non-ferrous metals, but also of those military equipment, as well as its elements, which were not produced in sufficient quantities in Russia - engines for airplanes and naval ships, guns, gunpowder and other chemicals. A significant part of American supplies was made up of machines for Russian engineering enterprises, as well as rolling stock - steam locomotives, cars, as well as a novelty of that time - diesel locomotives. American and Japanese companies became the critical suppliers for the Russian quartermaster service. Deliveries of overcoat cloth, summer khaki uniforms (dusty-earthen cloth), cavalry saddles, boots, leather made up half of what the Russian Army consumed in 1916. Thus, even before the United States entered the war on the side of the Entente on April 6, 1917, the United States became a valuable producer of military products for Russia.

The First World War changed the lives of women no less than direct participation in the war for men. In the absence of the head of the family, it was necessary not only to replace him, but also to take responsibility for the maintenance of family members, children or elderly parents. During the war, women had to make some decisions without precedents before. Mostly women started working, but their wages were much lower than those of men doing similar work. There was no great help from the state. In addition, women who were in a civil marriage, according to the law, did not receive anything at all in return for the lost income of a conscripted to the army man. The waiting time for the men was endless, but after 1918, the women hoped that their husbands would return home from the battlefield and from the pow camps. The article cites written primary sources that clearly and figuratively reveal the research problem: petitions, letters, records in metric books. Some statistical data are also given, and relations with the population of Siberia, including the Cossack population, are briefly highlighted. The internal political situation in Russia, the revolution and Hungarian-Russian diplomatic relations made it difficult to return for prisoners of war. The prisoners had to wait a long time for their return to their homeland, where they returned finally in the early 1920s. The women's expectations were complicated by the fact that even after the start of state repatriation, no one could be sure that their husbands would necessarily return home with this or that group of prisoners of war. So women actually had two choices: either they faithfully waited for their husbands to return, or, having rethought the values of marital fidelity, sought new male support periodically.

The history of the Civil War in Russia and on its borderlands is still rather poorly coincided with the context of the Great War despite the substantial reasons for this. Researchers often consider the logic of actions of foreign actors basing first of all on the internal Russian processes, which leads to distortions or ignoring a number of phenomena. The reasons for this are not only political conjuncture and traditionalism, but also the lack of necessary sources. The document, published for the first time, is (and was) intended to focus attention to the problem of the influence of the Central Powers on the events in the Far East, both in Russia and in China in 1918. The document was found in the Archive of Foreign Policy of Russian Federation. His author, engineer Kleie, had set not only the humanitarian mission of saving his compatriots in East Asia. He conveyed valuable information about the balance of power in China and possible allies for German coalition within Russian and Chinese elites, and assessed the balance of power and the role of the citizens of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the armed conflicts along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The author made a number of assumptions about the genesis of the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps and about the motives of the actions of the so-called internationalists. This memorandum was intended to force the politicians of Berlin and Vienna to prevent the tragedy of their compatriots on the another edge of Eurasia and to encourage active intervention in the struggle for control of the Far East, including establishing contact with Kolchak and other leaders of anti-Bolshevik forces in the region. The publication of such sources could allow to reassess the pool of possibilities of all parties in the Civil War, that was just spreading in 1918, to overturn the established opinion about the constant Entente orientation of a number of leaders of the White Movement.

The article is devoted to a scarcely investigated, topical and debatable problem related to the attempts of the leadership of the Turkestan Soviet Republic to deploy mass conscription of the Muslim population into the ranks of the Red Army in 1918-1924. The urgent need to solve this problem was determined both by the actual personnel problems of the army, and by the requirement to change the methods of fighting with the Basmach movement, which became a real threat to the very existence of the republic. However, the measures taken by the Soviet power and the command of the army, aimed at implementing the adopted decision, were carried out against the background of very complex processes in the internal political and socio-economic life of the region. Along with the problem of Basmachism, there was an acute issue of rejection by the local population of the reforms that the new government began to carry out in very rough forms in the field of everyday life, customs and traditions. The attempts of the administrative authorities to intrude into the issues of the confessional life of the indigenous peoples were perceived painfully. An extremely negative impact on people was produced by moral licentiousness, permissiveness, endless requisitions and robberies, which flourished in the Red Army. Under these conditions, the Muslims considered the very possibility of cooperation with the Soviet regime and serving in the Red Army, as a national betrayal. Consequently, the campaign to mobilize the Muslim population of Turkestan into the ranks of the army was extremely unsuccessful and finally failed. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the author, on the basis of newly discovered archival sources and materials of various scientific works which are first introduced into scientific circulation, shows that the failures of measures aimed at attracting the Muslim population to the Red Army were the result of an ill-conceived policy in the field of interethnic relations, ignoring the peculiarities of confessional character, and the national mentality of the indigenous population of the region, as well as disciplinary problems in the Red Army.

The article is a review of the book by A.S. Puchenkov, V.V. Kalinovsky “The Spiritual Outpost of Russia: the Orthodox clergy of the Crimea in 1914-1920”. Following the authors, it presents a new author's understanding of the role of the Orthodox clergy of the Crimea in the troubled times of Revolutions and Civil War, its adaptation to the challenges of the time, since before that the history of the Tauride diocese was not seriously covered in scientific works. The review notes the significance of the published monograph in the history of Russia.

The review observed the monograph by A.G. Bolshakov and N. Nyamdorzh, dedicated to the problem of urban development of the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. The importance of such studies, continuing the tradition of domestic works, and emphasizing the problem of the development of modern cities are noted. Interest in Ulaanbaatar is caused, first of all, by the consistent non-observance of the plan for the construction and development of the city, which leads to disastrous consequences that can be observed already now.