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The article analyzes the opinion of the expert community on a number of problems concerning the ethnocultural development and language policy in Chuvashia. The survey was conducted in 15 regions of the country using the tools developed at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology under the Russian Academy of Sciences. In autumn 2020, 30 experts expressed their opinion, they represented equally the sphere of state and municipal administration, science, higher education, the media, as well as national cultural associations and other public organizations. Much attention of the experts was directed to the ways and methods of implementing the amendments to the Constitution of Russia in Chuvashia adopted in 2020, including by expanding the opportunities of regional legislation in the field of ethno-cultural development. Different points of view are expressed on such subjects as the legislative strengthening of the Chuvash language in the public space, the decision to switch to voluntary study of native languages in educational institutions, the possibility of state and public support for native languages of various peoples, etc. The attitude to such innovations was determined during the All-Russian Population Census as the ability of citizens to name themselves as representatives of more than one nationality and to name not one native language but more, to determine the extent of using other languages in everyday life other than Russian. The opinion of experts on the place and role of national cultural associations in the work on the ethno-cultural direction was studied. On a number of issues, experts expressed an integrated opinion, including supporting the cultural needs of the old-time and newly arriving population, on the need to consider native languages as belonging to traditional family values, on the possibility of identifying the level of language use in everyday life during the population census, etc. At the same time, quite opposite opinions were expressed on a number of issues. For example, this is in reference to the possibility to consider oneself a person belonging not to one, but, for example, to two ethnic identities during the population census, about the activity of national and cultural associations when discussing the amendments to the Constitution of Russia, etc.

In post-revolutionary Russia, the scale of child homelessness and adolescent neglect, which resulted from October 1917, the events of the First World War and the Civil War, devastation of the national economy, unemployment, the mass spread of social diseases and other social upheavals, caused serious concern to the Government of the country. A number of legislative acts are adopted that create a legal and organizational basis for combating the social evil of homelessness (creation of children’s militia, children’s social inspections, commissions on juvenile affairs, labor communes and camps, orphanages, remand houses, as well as the emergence of public organizations). A separate area of the authorities’ work in this direction is massive organization of child care and foster care institutions throughout the country; in a number of national regions, including the Chuvash ASSR, the number of orphanages and children’s towns partially solved the problem of homelessness growth, but did not eliminate it. The conducted research reveals the contribution of Zavolzhsky House № 2 under the Ministry of Education of the Chuvash ASSR in solving the problems of combating, preventing and eliminating the social evil of homelessness in the Chuvash Region. Timely measures for organizing the life of orphans and semi-orphans made it possible to consider the Chuvash ASSR a region that successfully coped with the state task of eliminating homelessness in the Soviet Russia.

The article discusses the process of changes in the administrative-territorial division of the RSFSR in the 20s–30s of the XX century. The article distinguishes several stages. Relying on historiography and sources, the author tries to analyze and summarize the historical experience in reorganization of the RSFSR administrative-territorial system from the “spontaneous” emergence of new administrative-territorial units against the background of the existing old-regime administrative-territorial units to the first consolidation reform, when governorates, volosts, uyezds were finally liquidated, as well as the second reform of the Soviet government, the essence of which was fragmentation. The study shows that all the transformations of the young Soviet republic in the studied area took place in connection with changes in the form of power organization, as well as with a change in the principles of regional policy and the direction of economic development of the country’s territories. At the present stage, opinions on the return to the governorate administration began to appear more and more often in the research literature, which became the subject of a detailed analysis by the author of this work. The article suggests and substantiates possible directions for improving the administrative-territorial division of the RSFSR after the reform in the 1920s–1930s in order to implement the policy of the Bolsheviks and further territorial development of the country. The main approaches to the formation of the RSFSR administrative-territorial division, identification of local socio-economic systems, determination of the optimal size of administrative-territorial entities are highlighted. The interrelation between the administrative-territorial division and economic zone division in Russia is substantiated.

In August 2021, the cultural community of St. Petersburg celebrated the 265th anniversary of St. Petersburg State Theater Library, which is known worldwide as the richest repository of materials about the theater and for the theater. It has been collecting its unique fund, including a number of rare and valuable collections, since the XVIII century. The author’s research attention is focused on the facts of the Middle Volga period in A.S. Polyakov’s biography – the legend of one of the country’s oldest libraries. After the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in 1918–1923, Alexander Sergeevich Polyakov, working as the head of this book depository, largely determined its modern multifunctional appearance. During this difficult period in the life of the state and the society, with great enthusiasm the talented writer edited several different print media, the most famous of which was one of the first theatrical magazines of the Soviet Russia, “The Biryuch of Petrograd State Theaters”. Alexander Polyakov was not a native of St. Petersburg. His small homeland is the Middle Volga region. The author explores the childhood and youth years of the future bibliophile and writer, which he spent in Simbirsk and Kazan governorates. The researcher tells that Alexander was not only born and brought up in the Volga region, but also studied at Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium and the Imperial Kazan University. The article gives some facts about an active participation of this native of Simbirsk in the socio-political life of the Middle Volga region which deserve special attention. For example, in 1901–1904 A.S. Polyakov played a major role in the creation of Kazan and Simbirsk organizations of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs). In 1905, he was one of the most famous participants of the First Russian Revolution in the region. So, being under the tacit supervision of the police, Polyakov at that time constantly spoke at meetings and rallies in the town of Simbirsk and some uyezds of Simbirsk province, actively participated in agitation events of social revolutionaries of various kinds. In 1906, a young native of the Volga region moved to an illegal position, and then secretly left the Volga region. In 1907, the future outstanding bibliographer was detained by the police in St. Petersburg and sent into administrative exile. The article also provides previously little-known facts of his personal life. At this, the author tells about Polyakov’s parents and other family members. The specialist paid special attention to his wife, Elizaveta Polyakova (Dubova), a native of the Middle Volga region, who was a St. Petersburg student and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The young revolutionary was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility and after the defeat of the revolution of 1905–1907 was exiled to the Eastern Siberia.

The purpose of the research conducted by the author is to clarify the distinctive features in the development of the prosecutor’s office of the Chuvash Republic in the first decade of the 2000s. This topic has an absolute novelty and is raised for the first time in Russian historical science. The author of the article is a member of the author’s group consisting of lecturers of I.N. Ulianov Chuvash State University, which conducted a comprehensive study of the history of the Prosecutor’s office of Chuvashia in 2021. The article contains interim results of the study reflecting the main facts and events of the history of the Republican Prosecutor’s Office in the period under review. A number of facts analyzed in the article, which were revealed by the author thanks to archival documents introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, have novelty as well. The main methods used in the study were the traditional methods for the Russian historical science problem – chronological and comparative-historical methods. The first of them made it possible to trace the consistent nature of historical events reflecting the development of the Prosecutor’s Office of Chuvashia in 2000–2010. Thanks to the second method, the facts of regional history were considered in comparison with the general processes that took place in the life of the Russian Federation during the period under review. In addition, the author applied a systematic approach, which was expressed in studying the activities of the state legal institution of the Prosecutor’s Office as an integral part of the country’s legal system. The result of the study was identifying the characteristic features in the development process of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Chuvash Republic in 2000–2010. These include strengthening state government institutions both in Chuvashia and in Russia as a whole. Against this background, there was a significant reorganization of the prosecutor’s office. Some changes occurred in determining the main priorities of activity. The evolution in the nature of activity is also significant. The prosecutor’s offices became noticeably more open to the public, this is manifested, among other things, in the use of modern information technology opportunities. Special attention was paid to the moral and ethical qualities of the prosecutor’s office staff. The research topic has a high degree of relevance, practical significance and the prospect of continuation in connection with preparing a monographic publication by the author’s group.

The polyethnicity of the Republic of Mordovia, an equal subject of the Russian Federation, is confirmed by the 2010 census data. According to the All-Russian census, the population of 119 nationalities lives here. The increase in the number of nationalities in the regions results in an increase in contacts between people and the impact on ethnic processes. The interaction of ethnic groups affects all aspects of the life of an ethnic group: from the way of life, including customs, rituals, type of clothing, dietary habits, relationships with nature, social relationships of ethnic groups, to the forms of economic activity of ethnic groups. Eastern European peoples, especially the Ukrainians, the Belarusians, as well as representatives of the peoples of Transcaucasia and the Central Asia living in Mordovia, are commonly found in a natural assimilation, which is expressed in some common features of their economic activities, culture and way of life. The purpose of the study is to analyze the features of economic activity carried out by the peoples living in a non-native environment outside their historical homeland. The main objective of the study is to demonstrate the factors that determine the specifics of the economic activity carried out by the peoples of expatriate community in Mordovia. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that it is for the first time that the study makes an attempt to comprehensively study the features of the economic activities carried out by the peoples of expatriate community living in a non-native environment. The general scientific method of research in the work consists in a general analysis of the economic components of ethnic groups in a non-native environment. The results of the study intend to identify specific features of the economic structure of migrants from Europe, Central Asia and Transcaucasia in the polyethnic region of the Volga Federal District. The peoples of the foreign countries living in Mordovia successfully adapted to the Republic, this was facilitated by the similarity of the living and economic conditions of the migrants in question in new territories and unfamiliar places with the areas of exodus.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of the “Union of the Russian Sokolstvo” in emigration in the 1920s–1930s. Having found themselves in emigration, young people were forced to adapt to new conditions, while not losing their life orientations. Youth movements and associations played a special role in socialization of the younger generation and preserving its connection with the lost homeland. The most active Sokol movement in emigration developed in Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Basing on the analysis of archival and published sources and using general scientific methods, the article analyzes the activities carried out by the “Russian Sokol” in Czechoslovakia, the “Russian Sokol” in the Kingdom of the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes, and shows the reasons for creating the “Union of the Russian Sokolstvo”. The study emphasizes that participation of the Russian emigrants’ oncoming generation in the activities of Sokol associations contributed to preserving their national and cultural identity, the sense of belonging to the Russian history and the Russian people. It is noted that the “Union of the Russian Sokolstvo” held such events for the local population as exhibitions, where it was possible to get acquainted with the history of the organization, to learn about Russian traditions and to establish relationships between the emigrant youth and local residents. The analysis of sources demonstrated a unified structure of Sokol associations, strict admission rules. The analyzed practices of working with the oncoming generation in Sokol associations combined physical development and raising the young people in love to the motherland, contributed to the formation of national and cultural identity. Extending its activities not only to persons over the age of 18, but to teenagers as well, the Sokol movement helped to occupy the free time of a young man, cultivated the interest in studying and sports, which helped to protect young people from the influence of the “street”.

The article presents a brief history covering foundation and development of female gymnasiums in Russia in the XIX century and opening the main secondary educational institution for girls in Vologda Region. The relevance of the study is justified by the fact that this educational institution was one of the first of its kind in the Russian Empire. The purpose of the article is to study the specifics of the foundation process of Vologda Women’s Mariinsky Gymnasium in comparison with similar institutions in other governorates and to analyze its activities in the early years of its functioning. The scientific novelty of the study is to identify the chronological stages of the history of Vologda Gymnasium and the role of this educational institution in the further development of education in Vologda. Based on archival information, the article gives the analysis of female students’ composition by their birth status during the second half of the XIX century. These data demonstrate that until the 1870s the proclaimed principle of estates equality in education in the gymnasium was not observed. However, after 1872, the term of study was no longer 6, but 7 years. The 1st grade was divided into two departments, which gave the opportunity for even students with average knowledge to enter the gymnasium. This innovation ensured the estates equality of education in Vologda Women’s Mariinsky Gymnasium. The article analyzes as well the list of academic subjects taught and the Rules of admission to the educational institution prior to the educational reform of 1864 (according to the Memorandum Book as of 1862, 1863) and after it (according to the Memorandum Book as of 1873). Some of the disciplines changed their name to broader ones, which indicates a more extensive material covered by the discipline. For example, grammar and language arts were added to the Russian language, geometry – to mathematics. Vologda Women’s Gymnasium functioned 60 years and played an important role in the development of women’s education in the Vologda Region. Now Vologda Pedagogical College can be considered its original legal successor.

The worldview of the Chuvash ethnos is a person’s idea of the world formed on the basis of ethnic constants and cultural-value dominants. Being specific to each culture, it created the illusion of objectivity in its bearers. The Chuvash worldview is different in different periods of the ethnos’ life, but thanks to ethnic constants, their structure remains the same at its base. In the Chuvash mythological pantheon of the XVIII century, the main images of the patronizing forces were the God who dwells in heaven and the king who dwells on earth, and the images of the opposing forces were earthly evil spirits and churchmen who moved to the Chuvash villages. In the XIX century, this image changes: a mythological character Pulekhse approached the God, who transformed into the image that has the ability to harm a person, and not bring God-appointed good to him. Such transformations in the mythological pantheon occurred due to a change in the image of the enemy in the socio-cultural space of the Chuvash world. All these processes are well reflected in the scientific works and works of Spiridon Mikhailov (Yandush).

Based on field materials, the article describes the study of children’s outdoor summer games of the Chuvash rural population of the beginning of the XXI century which was undertaken for the first time. These games continue to be favorite and diverse in the children’s environment. They not only contributed to the physical strengthening of children, but also trained endurance, developed eye sight measurement, broadened horizons, taught to interact in a team and to treat various situations with humor. Action-oriented games were strikingly conservative and passed down from generation to generation almost unchanged. However, the changes taking place in the world around children also affect the children’s gaming culture, which leads, on the one hand, to the emergence of new modifications of the characterized games, on the other hand, the native language is used less in children’s games and game folklore. The conducted research has shown that preschool institutions and schools can become an important factor in preserving knowledge about traditional Chuvash games, and consequently, about the Chuvash culture.