This paper presents an overview of information about the everyday culture of the Russian population of the Irkutsk province, collected by European researchers – participants of scientific expeditions organized by the Russian state in the XVIII century – D.G. Messerschmidt, G.F. Miller, I.E. Fisher, I.G. Gmelin, P.S. Pallas, I.G. Georgi. At the beginning of the work, the definition of the concept of «everyday life» is given, which we relied on during the writing of this article. Next, a brief overview of the historical context in which interest in the history of Siberia was formed by the Russian and foreign scientific community is given, and the history of the penetration of the Russian population into the Siberian territories is briefly described. By means of the historical and comparative method, the article reveals: the interchanges of the Russian and aboriginal population of Siberia; traditions recorded during the XVIII century participants of academic expeditions and preserved in modified form to the present, which allows us to trace their retrospective development; changes in the descriptive approach of the authors of the studied works from the 20s to the 70s of the XVIII century are traced. The material presented in the article may be of practical importance for specialists engaged in the study of ethnography and ethnology of Russians in the territory of the modern Irkutsk region.

The article deals with the possible identification and localization of the “Yaliwan state” mentioned in the text of Qing historical source “Huang Qing zhigong tu” dated by the second half of the 18th century among the tributary states of Qing empire. The hypothesis of the identification of the Yaliwan state with the Erevan Khanate, which existed on the territory of Transcaucasia in the middle of the 18th – early 19th centuries is put forward and founded at the first time in Russian historiography. The reconstruction of the appearance of the inhabitants of this khanate of Armenian nationality was made basing on the text of the Qing source and the image of the inhabitants of the Yaliwan state in national costumes. The assumptions about possible ways of penetration of Armenians into the territory of the Qing empire based on information from historical sources about the trade of Armenian merchants in India and Southeast Asia is made in the article, and also the possible time of the first direct contact between the authorities of the Qing empire and representatives of the Armenian merchants from the Erevan Khanate is suggested in the article. The material revealed on early Armenian-Chinese contacts allows to assert that, despite the inclusion of portraits of the inhabitants of the Erеvan Khanate in the text of such a source as “Huang Qing zhigong tu” (Portraits of Tributaries of the August Qing), it doesn’t evidence the real vassalage of the Erevan Khanate from the Qing Empire, but it only tells about periodic trade contacts between the Qing empire and representatives of the Armenian merchants from the Erevan Khanate, who enjoyed the support of the dynasty of Qajar origin, which ruled in Yerevan at that time.

The article examines the issues of introducing and adapting new Soviet holidays in Altai among the descendants of old-timers and settlers in the second half of the 20th century. An analysis is given of the traditional elements of the calendar holiday rituals of the descendants of old-timers and settlers of Altai, included in the script of new Soviet holidays (New Year, of Seeing the Russian Winter Off holiday, Russian Birch or Furrow), shows similar inclusions of elements from the scripts of Soviet holidays in the traditional calendar holidays of rural residents. An analysis of stories from representatives of different generations (older, born in the 1920s–1930s, and younger, born in late of the 1930s–1950s) was carried out to determine the loss of knowledge about the meanings of old holidays and the traditions of their celebration, as well as the traditions of celebrating new Soviet holidays. The article is based on materials from the author’s field expeditions in 2013–2024 to the territory of a number of districts of the Altai Territory (Shipunovsky, Mamontovsky, Romanovsky, Kurinsky, Ust-Pristansky, Volchikhinsky and other districts), as well as materials from regional archives and rural periodicals. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the problem is considered for the first time at a narrow regional level (district, village).

All states in the world have tried to classify their historical correspondence according to their type and importance and keep them as archive documents. Written paper has always been considered important by the Turks and efforts have been made to preserve it carefully. In the Ottoman Empire, which lasted approximately 600 years before the Republic of Turkey, care was taken to preserve official documents. Today, the Presidential Ottoman Archives is an important archive center where a large amount of documents are preserved. Turks brought with them traditional cultures from the geography of Turkestan to Anatolia and the Balkans. Within this culture, there are important textile products that have been introduced to world civilization, from floor mats such as carpets and rugs to precious fabrics. One of the very important and valuable fabrics of the Ottoman period is seraser. There are many documents related to seraser fabric from the Presidential Ottoman Archives.

The article analyses fragments of the diaries of the famous Novosibirsk artist Grigory Gustavovich Likman (1954 and 1960), which represent a publicistic reflection on the events of the Soviet-Chinese cultural exchange in which the artist was involved. These pages reflect the general moments of the Soviet creative intelligentsia's reception of Chinese culture; they contain a vivid emotional reaction to a completely different culture, including visual culture. At the same time, Likman's analyses of his impressions and their recording in the text are accompanied by the application of new knowledge in practice: the artist tries to combine the principles of traditional Chinese painting (the desire to convey the essence of the depicted, the special expressiveness of brush movement, spontaneity) with his own already established artistic style. Likman's diary entries and sketches testify to his keen interest in new painting and decorative-applied techniques and are an important source for filling in the gaps in the creative biography of this very versatile artist. The analysis of the diaries confirms the observations of art historians made on the material of painting and graphics: the artist tried to comprehend socially significant subjects in a lyrical way as well as he comprehended domestic subjects.