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The article examines findings of flails (fighting weights) representing a sort of hand-held shock weapon, that were in the Kyrgyz warriors weapon of Tian Shan during the Late Middle Ages and Modern period. These objects of armament were studied in the weapon collection of private museum «Rarity», as well as a part of a private collection of archaeological objects in Bishkek city. The article traces the main events of the history of flails studied by specialists of the weapon history in Northern Eurasia. The examined findings of fighting weights from the territory of Tian Shan are classified by formal signs and related to different types of this sort of weapon. The paper provides argumentation to define chronology and cultural affiliation of examined fighting weights. It is supposed that fighting weights were used by the Kyrgyz warriors during their battles with historical adversaries in the nomadic world: West Mongolian, Dzungar or Oirat peoples. The author considers main data on the history of applying fighting weights by the ancient and medieval ethnoses in Europe, Central Asia. According to available archaeological materials this weapon appeared in Eastern Europe in the Late Bronze Age. The most ancient findings of flails were discovered in archaeological monuments of the Koban culture in Northern Caucasus. Flails were used in close combats by the warriors of Khazar Khanate in the era of the early Middle Ages. They were used as strike weapon by the Sogdian warriors in the territory of Central Asia. The Old Turkic and Kimaek warriors utilized fighting weights as strike weapon in regions of Sayan-Altai Mountains and the Irtysh River basin in the early Middle Ages. Similar strike weapons were applied by the warriors of Great Liao and Jurchen State at the territory of Central and Eastern Asia in the developed Middle Ages epoch.

Archaeological materials from the Philippine archipelago in spite of their uniqueness, though unique, highly informative and unusual, have been for a long time out of interests of Russian archaeologists. Up to date Russian specialists have not studied Philippine topics, archaeological materials have been unknown, and publications in Russian on the ancient Philippine cultures are absent. Intensification of scientific-educational contacts among countries of the Asia-Pacific region along with mutual aspiration to the cooperation create favorable conditions for systematic studies of ancient cultures of the Philippines and joint archaeological projects. The article objective is an overview of key topics and subject matters of the archipelago archaeological exploration, and debatable issues of archaeological chronology and periodization. Pilot archaeological studies on the archipelago are connected with names of American scholars C. Guthe (1893-1974), H. Beyer (1883-1966), R. Fox (1918-1985), W. Solheim II (1924-2014), and Filipino A. Evangelista. The degree of the Philippines archaeological research is extremely uneven. Traditionally the main research objects are compact territories on the largest islands Luzon, Palawan, Negros, and Mindanao, while vast areas of small islands remain a “blank spot”. Nowadays archaeological periodization of the Philippines looks like that: - 67 - 11,000 BP - Paleolithic; - 11 - 4,000 BP - “Preceramic period” or “Early Holocene period”; - 4 - 2,000 BP - Neolithic; - 0 - 900/1,000 AD - “Metal period”; - 1,000 - 1,500 AD - “Tradeware ceramics period” The tradition of secondary “Jar burials” (“Urn burials”) in ceramic vessels is one of the most spectacular archaeological complexes. In the archaeological literature discussions on the origin and evolution of “Jar burials” on the Philippines is traditionally connected with the culture on the territories of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It seems to us that the “Japanese vector” deserves no less attention.

The article considers peculiarities of forming the national culture image under conditions of a Siberian metropolis. For the first time it has been made on Novosibirsk materials. To achieve the study objectives a model-based approach has been applied for the first time. The sources consist of data and reports provided by national-cultural organizations, interviews, and data of included observations. The national culture is diverse and it is manifested in activities of the society, social institutions, national traditions, spiritual values, peculiarities of language and lifestyle, and covers the totality of spiritual and material cultural phenomena produced and consumed by ethnic groups. It gives the opportunity to shape an ethnic-cultural model, which components allow revealing features of the national culture image creation. The ethnic-cultural model should provide understanding of the national culture model, which is the result of activities of national cultural organizations to adapt elements of their culture to the metropolis environment. Taking into account the fact that the model only approaches to the reality description, coarsens it, as well as gives the basic idea about it, the study results have shown that the main activities of the national cultural organizations are directed to work in a field of the language practice, the symbolic-iconic range of clothing, diet, dwellings, crafts, song and dance creativity, calendar’s holidays, religious views, which construct the body of the ethnic-cultural model elements. Ukrainian and Belarusian national cultural organizations working in Novosibirsk are integrated into the Siberian metropolis modern life, build a collective image of their national culture based on ethnic-cultural patterns. In addition to demonstrating cultural identity, they are aimed at promoting a tolerant attitude towards other peoples’ cultures.

Author of the article analyzes the symbolic dominance in traditional dress of Russian old-residents, as well as the Southern Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in Siberia in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Inclusion of clothes in all spheres of life in a traditional society (the time of the pre-industrial technology) led to a high degree of symbolism in clothing together with footwear, additions and embellishments. The study of traditional garments such as the synthesis of the diverse manifestations of popular culture was conducted in the field of ethnographic expeditions to Western Siberia, organized by more than half a century in the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS. Collected source base, on the one hand, makes it possible to reveal the question of overcoming the border, when people of different culture became “own”. On the other hand, it is possible to identify the conditions under which this border is irresistible and long preserved. South Russian and Ukrainian women who wore similar clothes, although perceived local Siberian complex with a skirt and a jacket, which was also supported by fashion at the time, but at different pace. Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk and others migrants sooner adopted common types of clothing in Siberia, while Poltava, Chernihiv and other settlers from the Ukrainian lands until the 1950s retained shirts clung (afterwards jackets), tank tops etc., but abandoned the swing types of waist dress in favor of skirts. Of the several symbols of traditional clothing of Siberian communities most resistant were embroidered shirts (‘vishivanka’), which discovered new facets of their importance, as shown by historical experience, even set the tone for fashion trends in 1920-1950s. The main motive of the refusal from the traditional clothing was the fact that it was missing among the local population - the Siberians (Chaldon). In the eyes of the settlers they looked not only secured, but also “fashionably” dressed. This refutes the widespread image of the “Siberian Bear”, which was formed under the influence of a large complex of fur garments for the winter.

The paper considers main stages of transformation of the Barguzin Buryat traditional costume in the XIX - early XXI centuries. Currently one observes the growth of interest to this sub-ethnical group that can be explained by the Barguzin Buryats’ Association high activity, attracting public attention to the history of the Bargut ancient tribe settled in the Barguzin valley in the early Middle Age. The paper relevance is also explained by the fact that the Barguzin Buryat material culture and history has not been deeply examined. The article objective is to reveal main stages of the traditional clothes transformation based on the archival and field data. In the XVIII - early XIX centuries Buryats started migrating from the Upper Lena River banks to the Barguzin valley, therefore this time period was chosen to study. During three centuries of neighboring with Evenks and Transbaikal Buryats the traditional costume of Barguzin Buryats significantly changed due to adaptation to climatic conditions and new social-cultural realities. The article’s first part represents specific features of the Upper Lena Buryats, because Barguzin Buryats belonged to this ethnic group. Then it shows the analysis of the costume changes in the early-mid XX century. The paper’s third part describes modern tendencies in Barguzin costumes. As a result borrowings from the costumes of Transbaikal Buryats and Evenks are revealed: unique details in summer clothes decoration and hats originated in Transbaikal Buryat costumes, Evenk borrowings of winter clothes and fur shoes, etc. In addition, the article reveals linguistic peculiarities and similarities in the clothes’ terminology of Barguzin and Upper Lena Buryats dialects, which confirms the originality and authenticity of the Barguzin Buryat costume.

The subject of the article is wooden and ground constructions connected with fencing in Siberia in the XVII century. The authors study such constructions as walls and other elements of fortresses. The research objective is to reveal sign and symbolic functions of barriers in the ethnic, political and social space of a colonized territory. The authors analyze the Siberian documents, archeological data, graphic, and folklore materials. They use a semiotic-phenomenology paradigm both in its classic and post-Foucauldian interpretation as the main method of research. The authors refer to the modern Russian ethnographic school devoted to ethnic-symbolic colonization and sociological-anthropological research of the urban symbolic spaces. As a result the authors argue that the barriers had defensive functions at the beginning of the XVII century and provided three security levels: state, public and individual ones. However, very soon the government turned the walls and other fencing into a discipline strategy for people in Siberia. Furthermore, the barriers performed the important elements of the ethnical, political and social hierarchical representation of Siberia under the control of Russia. These facts showed no transparency of the institutional environment and the government endeavor to limit social mobility or at least set it under the administrative control. The author’s findings are that there were two trends during the period under study: the first one was connected with main cultural characteristics of the Russian space as continuously dispersing territory with huge migrants flows; the contrary second trend was in fixing people to the place of their living and proper social groups. In that case the fencing was the appropriate symbol of the Russian government efforts to shape the vast territory.

The traditional culture of Russian inhabitants of the Minusinsk hollow is not a deeply studied subject. It concerns mainly immigrants of the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. The article objective is studying the architectural customs of the Upper Syda basin inhabitants. The article is based on the field research carried out during the author’s expedition organized by Minusinsk Museum of Local History in 2016, as well as the text materials kept in Minusinsk State Archive concerning the history of villages foundation, statistic data, and materials of the expedition of Minusinsk Museum of Local History headed by E.V. Leontyev in 2009. The Russians have developed the Upper Syda river region since the mid XIX century. The major part of immigrants was from Perm-Vyatka region, it was fixed in villages’ names, inhabitants’ nicknames, archives data and informants’ memories. The country people of the Syda river basin had enough wood. The cribbed houses of pine-tree, cedar, silver-fur and larch were typical for them. There were four- and five-walled houses, cross-shaped houses. Huts often had saddle and hipped roofs. Gates usually had butterfly type sheds. Windows (four or five of them facing the street) were mostly big and decorated with floral and solar ornaments. The rooms’ names were traditional: izba (a hut), gornitsa (a chamber), seni (a sort of an entry, a hall), kazenka (a cabin, a log deck). A stove was usually placed on the right to the door with its mouth next to the window; the far left corner was “red” (krasny ugol). The superstitions connected with choosing of a building place, the process of building, moving rituals are not numerous nowadays because there aren’t many informants left who can tell about pre-revolutionary traditions. We can only assert that the elder generation still believe in domovoy (a bogie). Many customs were lost in Soviet times. Now the majority of informants are people born in 1920s-1940s. Hard life conditions such as collectivization, war and need to restore the economics advanced the loss of traditions promoting the survival matter.

The article considers the process of industrial enterprises electrification in the Far East in the pre-revolutionary period (late XIX - early XX centuries). The research relevance is conditioned by the need to comprehend the historical experience of Russian modernization, the Far East place and role in this process. The most important component of modernizing the industry of the Russian Far East in the late XIX - early XX centuries was electrification, i.e. introducing into production of electric energy, various mechanisms and machines operating on its basis. The study of this problem makes it possible to trace the influence of new production technologies on the transformation of the country’s economy main sectors in the late XIX - early XX centuries, and to reveal specific features of this process at the regional level. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries Russia began a profound technical reorganization in industrial production. Russian enterprises obtained various electro-technical machines that began to free workers from carrying out heavy and labor-intensive operations. In 1908-1917 the rapid technical improvement of the public and private factories of the Far East began. Electrification became the most important technological basis for industrial modernization. In such industries as gold and coal mining the transition to electric power allowed increasing production volumes significantly. Technical reorganization of enterprises in metalworking, agricultural processing, food, polymer and other industries led to the growth of the power-to-weight ratio of labor and increased its efficiency. But at the same time, the most remote region of Russia lagged behind the overall indicators of the country on the degree of electrification. The industry development occurred here under conditions of a low population density, a shortage of labor forces, and therefore it was carried out more slowly than in the center of the country. The most successful electrification took place at strategically important state enterprises, which reflected the state policy of the region development and its transformation into an outpost of Russia in the Pacific Ocean.

The paper reconstructs the content and specifics of the discourse of 1932-1933 on the problem of choosing the preferable farming techniques in the West-Siberian Region. Analysis is carried out against the background of agricultural policy of the Soviet state, situation in the agriculture of the region as well as ideological and theoretical disputes in agronomic science. It is established that soil fertility decline occurred due to the neglect of basic farming techniques during the period of forced collectivization. In this regard the Soviet leadership in September, 1932 emphasized the importance of introducing the preferable farming techniques. The science and technology institutions of the region developed a range of agrotechnical measures that were supposed to lead to higher yields. In early 1933 some of these recommended techniques were considered as “harmdoing”. This was followed by the political and ideological campaign in the course of which the requirements of shallow ploughing, medium length planting season for grain crops, substitution of complete fallows for the seeded ones, refusal of the fall plowing etc. were exposed and identified as “harmdoing”. Agrarian workers were also supposed to obey policies in choosing crop rotation systems. “Harmdoing” was exposed not only in farming techniques, but also in zootechnics and animal husbandry systems. The rejected farming techniques were replaced with agrotechnical “innovations” that had not been previously tested in practice in the region. They either proved to be ineffective under Siberian conditions or had been of anti-scientific character from the outset (ultra-early planting, vernalization). The campaign undertaken in 1932-1933 to find the preferable farming techniques and fight against the “harmdoing policies” failed to bring qualitative changes in farming. The agricultural technology in the region and in the country remained at the unsatisfactory level.

Using a microhistorical approach the article examines the process of labor rate setting and the mechanism of its toughening in the industry of Altai region in 1940s- 1980s as an aspect of the industrial labor motivation problem in the Soviet Union, which analysis is closely related to discussions about causes of the Soviet socialism model crisis and collapse. A methodological approach established in the modern historical science is used, it proposes to distinguish three groups of work incentives: coercion, compensation and commitment. They are also different due to the motivation purpose: incentives to attract employees to an enterprise, and incentives promoting productive and intensive labor. The state of rationing is a factor determining the piecework system effectiveness as a compensatory (financial) incentive to increase productivity, and the mechanism of standards toughening is an independent way of employees’ labor coercive intensifications. The paper analyzes large engineering enterprises created on the basis of Kharkov and Stalingrad tractor plants in the early1940s after their evacuation: Altai Tractor Plant (ATP) in Rubtsovsk and Transport Engineering Plant («Transmash») in Barnaul. The article describes the state policy evolution on the matter of labor rationing, shows decreasing a coercive component in the mechanism for raising standards, which occurred simultaneously with the transferring the regulation control to the plant administration in the second half of the 1950s. The author has reconstructed the actions by masters and foremen of the selected plants and analyzed the dynamics of performing norms by piece-workers, which led to the conclusion about underestimated labor norms in the plants, a widespread practice of additions to the workers’ real production and a general lack of demands to toughen norms by plant managers as a motivation tool due to the need to provide a guaranteed level of workers’ income under conditions of a high staff turnover typical for the analyzed period.