Galina Tkacheva, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: tkacheva@bmail.ru
The paper analyzes the main structural elements of defense potential of USSR’s Far East during the Great Patriotic War (1941—1945). The author describes characteristic features of military units’ strategic deployment on the Far-Eastern Front, Pacific Front, Amur Navy as well as fortified area construction, mine and artillery obstacle placement on ways to naval bases derived from an archive document and material collection. The author gives a picture of recruitment to Far-Eastern forces with obligated reservists, draft-age men of Moscow, Urals, Siberian Military District and the Far East, servicemen of personnel depots and rear-based units based on analysis of statistical material. Main indicators of mobilization processes depended on economic and demographic possibilities of the country and determined the changes in the troops’ deployment, reorganization of rifle, motorized rifle, armored, artillery, air, anti-air, and naval forces during the Great Patriotic War. The author gives information on displacement of military units and changes in personnel strength of the Far-Eastern force group depending on the strategic situation in the region and necessity to reinforce the operating units on Soviet-German front. During the Great Patriotic War, Far-Eastern border inviolability was maintained by using social, political, military and economic resources of the country under conditions of limited human resources, underdeveloped communications system and lack of finances. Strategic deployment of the Armed Forces of the USSR in the Far East reflected the Soviet national security concept, the ability of military organization structures to fulfill the tasks set to them performing armed defense of the country’s territorial inviolability depending on quantity and quality indicators of troops’ composition, material and technical status.
Key words: Great Patriotic War, Far East, Far-Eastern front, Pacific Navy, Amur Fleet, defense potential, fortified areas, mine and artillery stations, mobilization, Far-Eastern group’s troops composition.

Vadim Turaev, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: v_turaev@mail.ru
The paper deals with participation of indigenous ethnicities of the Russian Far East in the Great Patriotic War; the youth voluntary movement who went off to the front is analyzed; examples of mass heroism of northern soldiers who were sharp shooters, intelligence operators, mine pickers, infantry soldiers, fighters of other military professions are given. Patriotic willingness of indigenous ethnicities to participate in the fight with fascist aggression against their country supported by local military authorities in spite of the State Defense Committee not to draw northern peoples to the color did not conform to the tasks of their ethnic development. The paper describes the negative consequences of the northerners’ participation in the war: population size reduction of very small ethnic groups as they were, negative sex ratio resulting from draft of young men, falling birth and marriage rates and effect of these factors on the further demographic and assimilation processes. The indigenous ethnicities’ participation in the Great Patriotic War lead to equally negative results for their ethnocultural development. The best nation’s representatives did not return from the front: writers, artists, scientists — everyone who had been trained with such difficulties in pre-war years. Ethnicities of the Russian Far East could not recover from such intellectual losses for decades. Based on analysis of negative demographic and ethnocultural consequences of the indigenous ethnicities’ participation in the Great Patriotic War on their ethnic development, the paper’s author concludes that draft call of indigenous ethnicities to the field was a serious mistake. Peaceful work of northerners for the future of their peoples would have been more important than their heroic deeds.
Key words: Indigenous peoples of the Far East, the Great Patriotic War, demographic and ethnocultural implications.

Andrey Popovkin, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: andrey.popovkin@gmail.com
The problem of interest to ideas of fascism, Nazism and other nationalism forms is quite delicate. Relatively few publications deal with it. The reasons why a number of serious philosophers expressing ideas close to fascism, such as F. Nietzsche or N.S. Trubetskoy, or openly approving of it, such as I.A. Ilyin and M. Heidegger, renounced it quite quickly upon experiencing their interest in fascism (Nazism) as an idea and facing its political practice, virtually haven’t been researched. The question now arises, why these philosophers could not foresee the practical consequences of Nazism ideas. The hypothesis is that dedication of philosophers, in particular Russian ones, to fascism and Nazism, is primarily connected with their serious attitude to national issue in these doctrines. Characteristic features of the very philosophic idea, its abstractness, constant search for self-substantiation, and truth criterion of its contemplations are a no less important factor. Nationalistic ideas frequently evoke huge inspiration in society, the influence of spiritual world on the material world is easy to grasp therein. The latter, i.e. the spirit in its reality and force, has been a subject of philosophers’ search probably since Plato’s times, so “efficient” ideas of fascism can become tempting for them. One more significant factor, in particular in I.A. Ilyin’s relationships with fascism, is a mental trauma connected with tragic experience of forced emigration: fascism is considered to be a force able to stand against Bolshevism’s expansion. The author sees a way to overcome the nationalistic philosophy in “overcoming the abstract elements” of philosophism begun by V.S. Solovyov, probably the only eminent Russian philosopher whose reflections on the national issue lack the nationalistic overtone entirely. The practical solution to the problem is considered to be found on the way pointed by F.M. Dostoevsky: “to love life more than the meaning of life”.
Key words: Russian philosophy, fascism, national issue, ethics, Christianity.

Tatyana Krayushkina, Centre of Cultural History and Intercultural Communication, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: kvtbp@mail.ru
In this paper, author describes the image of a national leader in Russian folklore. Two important figures of the 20th century, antagonist leaders, Hitler and Stalin, were chosen for analysis. Couplets of the Great Patriotic War, a popular genre of that period, were used as material. Folklore texts appear not out of nowhere; the creative experience of previous generations resting upon a complex system of traditional ideas of human nature and perception of people, in many cases reproduced in cliches, is reflected in them. The idea of national leaders, the national and foreign ones, is also articulated in folklore. Essentially, these characters are a translation of historic persons’ images reconceived by the people. It is also true in relation to national leaders’ images in couplets. Couplets about Hitler have some common features with reproaching songs and ticklers; his image is similar to the ones of Russia’s foes in epic poems: he is portrayed as a glutton, a flaccid person thinking too highly of himself; his military operations fall through; people wish him to die violently. Stalin’s image is in discordance with traditional ideas of a sovereign: he is either idealized beyond measure (the victory is attributed to him solely, his orders are looked forward to, he replaces the God), or, on the contrary, people hates him strongly and wishes that he die.
Key words: Russian folklore, couplet, Great Patriotic War, national leader, Hitler, Stalin.

Aleksey Maklyukov, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: alekseymaklyukov@yandex.ru
The paper deals with development issues of power supply sources in the Russian Far East during the Great Patriotic War. The author shows that the region’s capacity building before and during the war did not seem to be possible without power industry development. During the first five-year plans, a brand-new power infrastructure was created in the Far-Eastern region consisting of advanced power-generating enterprises. Electrical energy industry promoted to the regional economy’s modernization, primarily, to modernization of heavy industry, the chief power user. Alongside with that, power branch was the most problematic economic sector in the Russian Far East. Electric energy deficit grew from year to year and motorization of industry, transportation, municipal and rural economy was low. It created a threat to normal operation of the region’s strategic industrial enterprises, particularly during the war. From the first months of the Great Patriotic War, an energy crisis resulting from heavy generating capacity deficit broke out in the region. Central and local party and economic bodies took most vigorous actions to develop the region’s power industry: from building local power plants to supply of power engineering equipment from the USA. But a difficult situation with power supply for users underwent virtually no changes. A small number of power supply sources restrained the operation of defense industrial enterprises. The author comes to a conclusion that, due to problems in power economy during the war, it was impossible to take full advantage of the region’s military economic potential.
Key words: Great Patriotic War, Russian Far East, power supply sources, military production plants, power generation.

Vasilij Makarenko, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: vasgen@bk.ru
Based on analysis, systematization and summary of published and archive sources, the paper researches the activity of higher education institutions in connection with training specialists in the Far East. Common tendencies of training specialists with higher education in USSR are identified under wartime conditions: development of patriotic movement, reduction of study terms in 1941—1942; decreasing duration of teachers’ leaves and students’ vacations; cancellation of graduation projects; entry and final examinations; accelerated training and pre-schedule graduation of specialists. Also regional characteristic features of this activity were researched: expansion of higher education institutions network, creation of new departments, chairs and specialties, unlike western regions of the country; the regional institutions falling behind the ones of central regions of USSR in their infrastructure level and availability of researchers and pedagogues. Using memoirs of the described events’ participants, the author shows the difficulties of wartime routine, self-sacrificing militant and labor contributions of students, researchers and teachers of Far-Eastern higher education institutions into the common deed — victory over fascist Germany and its allies. The forms of patriotic movement in regional higher education institutions are explored. The author gives a provisional number of specialists trained in wartime years and last names of more than 150 representatives of Far-Eastern higher education institutions who were active participants of combat and labor front of the Great Patriotic War awarded with state awards — orders and medals of USSR.
Key words: Higher school, prepared of the specialists, Far East of USSR, Great Patriotic War 1941—1945, material-technical base, scientific-pedagogical specialists.

Galina Popovkina, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: galina.popovkina@gmail.com
The author expresses her opinion on ethical problems characteristic for contemporary Russian medicine. She disputes the feasibility of some medical officials’ statements that patients should pay for medical services. The main formation and development milestones of Russian professional medicine which, in the author’s opinion, goes back to monastery medicine, are given as arguments. In addition to the social allegiance principle (hospitals, pharmacies), Christianity brought to Russian medicine main moral ideas, including the main idea of service and love. Numerous examples show that humanism and compassion have always constituted the ethical and moral base of Russian medicine. These qualities were shown most vividly in heroic deeds of health professionals during the Great Patriotic War. In spite of wartime hardships, medical workers managed to remain true to the principles of medical allegiance to patients: they rescued the wounded on battlefields and in evacuation hospitals, worked unsparingly, and displayed mercy even to the wounded enemies. The author believes that referring to the moral heritage of military health workers will allow to preserve Russian medical traditions.
Key words: Great Patriotic War, health worker, doctor, morality, heroic deed, compassion, humanism.

Anna Zakolodnaya, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: zakolodnay@mail.ru
The article analyzes the activity of Khabarovsk Regional Law Chamber, many members of which were called in to the front, from 1941 to 1945. The measures taken by the bar to support the families of lawyers going off to war (reduction of legal advice offices’ expenses, granting diverse allowances) are reviewed. Personnel deficit and training level degradation of candidates to lawyers were among significant problems which Khabarovsk Regional Law Chamber had to face. The measures taken by the bar’s board intended to settle these issues are described: they included assistance to trainees rendered by experienced lawyers, activity of Part-Time Law Practice School and opening jurisprudence courses in Blagoveshchensk. The distinguishing features of lawyers’ education during wartime are briefly described. Characteristic features of the bar’s work during the Great Patriotic war are analyzed: in 1941—1945, its members had not only to fulfill their direct professional duties but also to conduct social work and to explain the wartime laws to the population. The contribution of Khabarovsk Regional Law Chamber into the country’s defense reserve and its assistance to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army are reviewed. It is proved that the lawyers’ material standing deteriorated significantly during the war; many of them had no funds even to buy necessary wants. Due to load increase, the chamber’s members not always had an opportunity to fulfill their professional duties at the appropriate level, but even under such conditions, the majority of them were keen to work conscientiously.
Key words: practice of law, Great Patriotic War, Khabarovsk Regional Law Chamber, Far East, history.

Maxim Oskin, Institute of Jurisprudence and Management of the All-Russian police association, Tula, Russian Federation. E-mail: maxozv@yandex.ru
During World War I (1914—1918), the issue of provision supply became one of essential national-level problems for Russia resulting in revolutionary crisis of 1917 and its further escalation from February to October. The Russian Empire’s pre-war status as grain exporter allowed the government to consider the country’s food supply safety attained. Supplies of Russian grain to allied countries continued virtually throughout the entire war, but already in 1915, Russia proceeded to purchasing meat in Mongolia (for armed forces in general) and Iran (for Caucasian army); from 1917, diverse provision types were preserved in North China and Manchuria: Russia prepared to expand the territorial limits of its organizations’ activity in case of the preservations’ success. In the latter case, Russian government (first, the tsarist, then the Interim Government) pursued two aims. First, providing food for Transbaikalia and Far East under conditions of transportation and food supply crisis evolving in Russia. Second, making a stock fund of export grain for the post-war period to solve the problem of currency purchase, preserving the status of grain exporter to the starving Europe and confirm Russia’s position of a great victorious country on the international scene (inter alia, in economic respect). Due to revolutionary events, these aims were never attained, but management and organization of purchase structure, as well as beginning of procurement, confirm that under conditions of an exhausting war, Russian government was not only thinking in terms of instantaneous current needs of the country, but also set prospective strategic tasks of a great-power nature.
Key words: Ministry of Food, “Mongoleks”, purchase of cattle, export grain.

Dmitry Kiseljov, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: levkis@hotmail.com
The paper describes the underresearched aspects of German and Austrian-Hungarian subjects’ activity in Manchuria during World War I. Already in the first months of the conflict, confrontation of Russian and German military intelligence broke out in the North-East China. The German intelligence had bases in German consulate in Mukden and divisions of German trade firms in diverse Manchurian cities and used services of specific German and Austrian-Hungarian subjects. On the Russian part, counterintelligence agents of Zaamursky district command staff, Special Border Guard Corps, and consulate organizations’ employees opposed them. The German agents’ activity was expressed mostly in collecting military information, anti-Russian propaganda and assistance to double-quick prisoners of war of the Central Powers’ armies entering Manchuria from Siberia. The sabotage attempts in respect of Russian military and railway infrastructure objects (including the ones using local criminals) were performed less frequently and had little success. Chinese authorities of Manchuria actively joined the control of German and Austrian agents’ activity after the Republic of China had entered the war on the Entente’s side. In respect of double-quick prisoners of war, China performed policy of internment and custody in concentration camps and the further repatriation. As for Russia, the activity of its counterintelligence organizations in Manchuria decreased as the domestic social and political crisis grew coming to nothing after the Russian revolution of 1917. Using a large amount of unpublished archive materials, the author follows the changes in the position of German and Austrian-Hungarian subjects in Manchuria in 1914—1915 noting the emerging role of Chinese authorities controlling their place of residence and activity.
Key words: China, Manchuria, World War I, war, intelligence, counterintelligence, propaganda, prisoners of war, escape, internment.

Galina Romanova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: galnikrom@yandex.ru
The paper analyzes economic ties of USSR and China in the railway industry in 1930’s — 1940’s conditioned by significant influence of external factors. The international situation in the Far East, Japanese aggression in China and creation of marionette state Manchukuo resulting in operation changes of Russian-Chinese joint-stock company Chinese Eastern Railway are reviewed. To prevent the war in North-East China, USSR had to assign its title for the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1935 to Manchukuo for a minimum price compared with the railway’s initial cost. After the said events, economic ties of USSR and China in the Far East virtually discontinued. Chinese Eastern Railway was attached to state Manchukuo railways and united with South Manchuria Railway on October 1, 1936 into a single railway with headquarters in Mukden. Taking into consideration the importance of transportation services in the economic life and military operations in China, diverse aspects of Chinese Eastern Railway’s and South Manchuria Railway’s (called Chinese Changchun Railway after their unification) operation were discussed at Yalta conference and Soviet-Chinese negotiations in 1945. Such issues as ownership for the railways, management organization, and shipments nature were discussed. The paper gives an assessment of Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance dated August 14, 1945, playing an important role during the Anti-Japanese Aggression War in economic ties between USSR and China including the field of railway transportation. The author draws a conclusion that Soviet Union rendered significant assistance in reconstruction of railway infrastructure of the North-East destroyed during the Japanese troops’ stepback, in management of Chinese Changchun Railway, training qualified railway specialists at specially organized courses in Harbin and at diverse departments of Harbin Polytechnic Institute of Chinese Changchun Railway, in providing food and manufactured goods for the railways’ workers and employees. Damaged locomotives and railway cars of Chinese Changchun Railway were repaired at plants of Siberia and Russian Far East. All the above-mentioned promoted to the victory of the Chinese people in their national liberation fight against Japanese aggression becoming a part of World War II. For China, it meant borrowing advanced technologies, training their own administrative and technical personnel, the region’s modernization. For Russia, it was an experience of material value augmentation by organizing the distribution chain, protection of the country’s interests in state-to-state relationships. Activity of incorporate Soviet-Chinese Association of Chinese Changchun Railway was an experience of creating a new type of production structure characteristic for market economy.
Key words: economic ties, railway transport, North-East China, Chinese Eastern Railway, Chinese Changchun Railway, modernization, management.

Valery Kashnikova, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: valery.kashnikova@yandex.ru
The paper deals with the issue of borderline conflict between Pakistan and India constituting a destabilizing factor in South Asia’s security. It analyzes the highlights of Kargil crisis of 1999 attracting the global community’s attention and proves that warfare between these long-time rivals with nuclear weapons can go beyond the limits of a borderline engagement. The conclusions are drawn about Washington’s essential role in the conflict settlement and its enormous influence on Deli, Islamabad and the region in general. The actions of the USA and their relationships with the conflict’s parties are reviewed in detail. In particular, the United States acknowledge India’s domination in South Asia and Pakistan, in turn, is considered a buffer between the Persian Gulf’s countries and the Middle East. Washington is also concerned with instability of Pakistan’s domestic policy and its political elite’s legitimacy. It is proved that nuclear weapon’s factor in the long-term conflict between India and Pakistan is ambiguous, so a third party should participate in early settlement of the growing threat. At the same time, USA’s diplomatic success in Kargil conflict is disputable: neither government of India nor government of Pakistan believe that American intervention was necessary. The conclusion is drawn that stable relationships between India and Pakistan constitute the foundation of peace in the region.
Key words: Kargil crisis, conflict, war, USA, Pakistan, India, nuclear armory, region’s stability, Nawaz Sharif, Washington, general Musharraf, Line of Control, Lahore, Islamabad.

Pavel Volkov, Novosibirsk State University, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, FEB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia. E-mail: volkov100@ya.ru
Elena Jambaltarova, Museum of Buryat Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, FEB RAS, Ulan-Ude, Russia. E-mail: dashievna@yandex.ru
For the first time, the paper presents operational characteristics of bone and horn items from the inventory of Fofanovsky barrow’s early Neolithic entombments, one of the main monuments of primitive age’s archeology in East Siberia. The necessity of the barrow’s complex exploration becomes even more urgent due to accumulation of many materials in more than one hundred entombments, the possibility of moving to a new level of analyzing and interpreting the adaptation model development regularities and peculiarities in the ancient population of South-East Baikal in middle Holocene age. Methods of processing bone and horn artefacts are researched using experimental, technological and trace evidence analysis. The collection of early Neolithic materials from Fofanovsky barrow (collections of Museum of Buryat Research Center, Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences) served as a source base of the research. Bone and horn stock is represented with hunting weapons, fishing gear, gathering and household production tools, decorations, sculptures and processed birds’ bones. Bone and horn processing technologies include the following: carving, shaping, drilling (manual, by rotation, and speed, with a drill bow), splitting, extracting spongy mass. Traces of surface rubbing and polishing on the items explored prove the use of abrasive processing methods. In general, the collection explored demonstrates the diversity of bone and horn processing technologies, availability of an efficient toolkit and high skills of jewelry making corresponding to the general cultural level of Baikal region’s population in the period in question.
Key words: South-East Baikal region, Fofanovsky barrow, early Neolithic age, bone and horn artefacts, analogies, experimental, technological and trace evidence analysis.

Elena Sidorenko, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: sidoriha3@yandex.ru
The paper deals with household and utility facilities of ancient metallic age in Vetroduy settlement. Such facilities are rarely an object for research. One gets to find them either by chance or as a result of large-area diggings. In its formal characteristics (a dredged ditch, remnants of carcass and pillar structure, furnaces, structured entrance), this complex can be easily classified as a permanent dwelling. But a small residential area, the building’s narrowness (and the resulting habitation’s inconvenience and high fire hazard in conditions of a constantly functioning fireplace), a poorly deepened ditch, a household pit with a cellar, four alternative furnaces (two of them overlap each other and are divided with a sterile interfacial layer), the tool kit rather prove seasonal use of the building (such as a summer kitchen in contemporary settlings). Complex no. 2 represents a rectangular ditch with horizontal floor and vertical walls (board height: 0.25—0.30 m). The open plot’s area is about 18 sq. m. The findings located on the floor and in the infilling are similar to the items from other complexes of Vetroduy settlement and characteristic for Tetyukhinskaya monument group of Primorye’s ancient metallic age: jars with wide or narrow flat inferior moldings on the collar ornate with arch, hamiform and round indentions; barrel-shaped bead semiproducts made of characteristic green and teal opal; a pick-axe fragment; a segment-shaped grindstone; a typical Tetyukhino end-capping trapezoidal scraper; a polished chiselette. Unique is a bronze decoration (magatema) found as stone replicas of metallic prototypes are characteristic for Primorye’s ancient metallic age. The materials introduced for research expand the researchers’ ideas of house-building in the ancient metallic age in Sikhote Alin region: the Tetyukhinskaya group’s population, in addition to stationary half-dogout dwellings for year-round use, erected near-rectangular ground dwellings with manufacturing areas located near the building and summer-kitchen type household and utility buildings represented with complex no. 2 in Vetroduy settlement.
Key words: ancient metallic age, Sikhote Alin, Vetroduy, Lidovskaya culture, Tetyukhinskaya group, house-building, household and utility buildings, houses, bronze jewellery.

Vladislav Boldin, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: Vib44@mail.ru
The paper gives a full farming tools’ description of Jurchens who populated Russian Primorye in the first half of the 13th century. Archeological materials confirm the presence of arable farming and developed cattle breeding. Diverse soil-treatment tools: cast-iron ploughshares, blades, iron pick axes and shovels allowing to reconstruct the entire production cycle were found. Harvesting tools are represented with several types of iron sickles. Harvest was processed in stone pounders and in grindstones. The range of cultivated plants was wide enough: soft wheat, several species of switch grass, barley, buckwheat, soy, peas and kidney beans. Seeds of industrial crops, hemp and abutilon, were also present. Farming tools and the range of cultivated plants are indicative of crop rotation and using fallow and ridge farming systems. The osteology material gives evidence of developed cattle breeding. Bovine animals were predominating in households, but also horses, pigs and dogs were bred. Predominantly, meat of adult and old animals was eaten. Presence of iron choppers and chaff cutters indirectly proves farm animal housing. Archeological sources prove the similarity of Jurchens’ economic scheme of life to the ones of Goguryeo and Bohai people. Some agricultural tools of Manchu and Korean farmers in the first quarter of the 20th century are fully similar to the Jurchens’ ones
Key words: Jurchens, Bohai, Goguryeo, ploughing tools, Harvesting tools, arable crops, farming systems, grain processing and storage.

Anatoliy Starcev, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: starcev.42@mail.ru
The paper analyzes the history of terms olchi, ulchi and ul’ta introduced in the ethnographical literature and registered by Russian ethnographers in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centure. These ethnonyms are frequently used with conjuction or equating them. Researchers believe that the above-said names are one and the same ethnonym with changed pronunciation denoting the Sakhalin Oroks. In Soviet and post-Soviet ethnography, their etymology has been traditionally connected now with Orok words alya, ulya (domestic reindeer) having final meaning reindeer breeders, then with word uli (water): river, or river country, inhabitants; then with olcha, a hairdo name: people with one braid. Also other assumptions were made connected with animals and fish. But ethnonyms’ etymology should be deduced not from the very Orok words and animal names but from place names of the region where the ancenstry of Sakhalin Oroks came from. In-depth analysis of their ethnical names revealed a connection with local place names of Orochs and Okhotsk Evens, namely, with oeconyms Ultur, Ulda and hydronyms Olchan and Ulchen from which exoethnonyms ul’ta, olcha and ulcha were derived. In addition, these ethnical names do not apply to one word as researchers of the 19th and 20th century believed but are names of different sub-ethnical groups of Sakhalin Oroks.
Key words: ethnicity, ethnonym, olcha, ulcha, ulta, culture, tradition, ethnogenesis, Lower Reach of Amur, Sakhalin.

Lidiya Fetisova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: lefet@yandex.ru
The paper deals with characteristic features of narrative folklore in Ulchs, one of Tungusic ethnicities. Ethnographers’ research proved that not only Tungus (Nanais, Orochs, Evenks, Negidals, Udeges, Oroks) but also ancient Asian ethnicities, Nivkhs and Ainu, contributed to forming the ethnicity at different historic stages. In language aspect, Ulch people is closest to the Nanais. Exceptional heterogeneity of Ulchs took significant effect on their culture. Ulch folklore heritage had the features characteristic for all Tungus. Like the majority of Tungus ethnicities, Ulch people calls the entire diversity of narrative genres associated with fairytales of European nations with a term ningma(n). Fairytales about animals and wonder stories can be most clearly identified in this folklore layer as intra-genre subdivisions. Their texts are full of realistic details reflecting the social and everyday structure characteristic not only for Amur downstream hunters and fishermen, but also for their neighbors living in North-East China. It is remarkable that also Ulchs’ enemies in fairytale epos are frequently not mythological characters but representatives of a specific ethnicity, the Manchus in particular. A group of narrative genres whose contents are acknowledged to be authentic is known under a national term telengu. It includes cosmogonical myths, patrimonial myths, trade myths and others, shaman legends, historic and toponymic fables, hunter stories. Many Ulch telengu have quite a complex structure and sometimes multiple plots which makes them kin with Nivkhs’ texts of the same kind. Besides, a specific genre of non-fairytale prose exists in Ulch folklore: pokto or sudali containing the ceremony administration rules: a ritualized way to follow for the community to have luck in its day-to-day life. Therefore, the research showed that apparent distinctness is characteristic for Ulch narrative folklore not only in topical but also in genre aspect.
Key words: Tungus, Ulchs, heterogeneity, narrative folklore, non-fairytale prose, typology, distinctness.

Galina Andriec, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: andriets2005@list.ru
The paper analyzes the cultural life of Russian Far-Eastern cities during World War I. The author notes a special role and significance of amateur organizations on different levels (assemblies, associations, societies) whose charity work was intended to help the persons suffering from the war. Cultural and educational societies and associations were of special importance: they worked both for those associations’ members and for wide circles of the local community. The characteristic predominance of military topics in cultural events is emphasized. Public lectures, reading events, patriotic concerts, sacred music concerts, cinematic films having “research and patriotic (military newsreel shootings) significance” enjoyed great popularity. Exhibitions took a certain place in the cities’ cultural life. Visiting statistics and frequency of creating new expositions dealing with the war shows the interest of rearward population to contemporary historic events. The Charity and Divisions of Primorye Regional Committee created in cities for collecting donations for sick and wounded soldiers and their families rendered great charitable assistance. Amur region’s sports life was closely connected with the country’s social and political life in the wartime. The events of World War I did not prevent the population from going in for sports but, on the contrary, intensified the work of military sports committees, sports associations and societies enhancing their military applied purpose. The priority of military sports field in the activity of sports organizations and their role in pre-draft physical training of the population could be observed.
Key words: culture, war, sports, society, association, assembly, concert, play, cinematograph, exhibition, lecture, cultural and educational activity.