This article deals with Slavic pseudo-mythology, comprising myths and deities that do not exist in authentic mythology and folklore or whose existence is doubtful or refuted. It is typically an artificial construct and may be created by scholars who freely interpret scarce sources. This pseudo-mythology, as we will see, has created a false reality. The image we have of Slavic paganism is in fact very vague for lack of sources. On the contrary, today we are used to talking (...) about a well-constructed mythology which in fact rests on the construction based on assumptions and pseudo-theories of the 18th, mainly of the 19th and 20th centuries. This phenomenon is also related to Rodnovery or Rodnovery, which is a Slavic neo-pagan reconstructionist movement. (shrink)

The paper discusses issues related to the use of faceted classifications in an online environment. The author argues that knowledge organization systems can be fully utilized in information retrieval only if they are exposed and made available for machine processing. The experience with classification automation to date may be used to speed up and ease the conversion of existing faceted schemes or the creation of management tools for new systems. The author suggests that it is possible to agree on a (...) set of functional requirements for supporting faceted classifications online that are equally relevant for the maintenance of classifications, the creation of classification indexing tools, or the management of classifications in an authority file. It is suggested that a set of requirements for analytico-synthetic classifications may be put forward to improve standards for the use and exchange of knowledge organization systems. (shrink)

This paper investigates lexical mass-to-count and count-to-mass operators in Slavic languages, primarily Russian and Ukrainian, by exploring the distribution and semantic contribution of the suffix -_in_/-_yn_. The focus is on two uses of the suffix: the singulative turns mass nouns like _gorox_ ‘pea’ into count, denoting sets of natural units (e.g., _gorošina_ ‘a pea’), and the massifier applies to count nouns, such as _kon’_ ‘horse’, and turns them into mass (e.g., _konina_ ‘horsemeat’). It is proposed that each use of (...) -_in_/-_yn_ contributes a partition operator which triggers a new division into units of the original material part. It is further argued that the singulative and the massifier should be unified, given their (i) phonological identity, (ii) shared grammatical properties, and (iii) common semantic core. Under the proposed analysis, there is a single suffix that functions as an underspecified lexical partition shifter. (shrink)

The emergence of Russia as a dominant force in Europe from the early nineteenth century onward was characterized by growing tensions between Russians and Poles as seen in the recurring Russian suppression of Polish uprisings. F. H. Duchinski who, like other Polish intellectuals, tried to uncover the root causes of these political tensions, concluded that Russians were neither Slavic nor European, but Asians, and it was this fact alone, he believed, that accounted for the continuing Russian hostility toward the (...) Poles. (shrink)

The idea of Slavic solidarity served in the 19th century often as a means for rea-ching the cultural equality of particular Slavic nations. However, the representatives of the "New School" expanded its primarily cultural legacy also on the political collaboration of the Slavs. Their objective was a gradual national and civic emancipation within the given frontiers of Austria-Hungary. Its new meaning was the Hungarian patriotism as a uniting civic basis for national and cultural diversity. By including the anew (...) articulated idea of Slavic solidarity into their liberal political program they created favourable conditions for the collaboration of Slavic nations on a civic basis. This program was in clear opposition to the idea of the political panslavism proclaimed by Russia. (shrink)

In Slovakia Slavic literary studies can be found at the institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) and at university departments. The only SAS institute to truly focus on Slavic studies is the Ján Stanislav Institute of Slavistics. Other SAS institutes that deal with Slavic studies to a lesser extent are the Institute of Slovak Literature and the Institute of World Literature. There are also Slavic-oriented academic initiatives involving short-term projects. Considering this situation, there is (...) a need to prepare a programme for Slavic literary studies in Slovakia so that a framework can be created outlining a new, systematic approach. (shrink)

Human culture is built upon nature to help humans adapt to their environment – first natural, but later natural-cultural. Cultural practices are aimed at aiding survival in changing environments, and in different settings they meet different environmental pressures, causing later changes in trajectories. According to cultural evolutionism, behaviours, ideas and artefacts are subject to inheritance, competition, accumulation of modifications, adaptation, geographical distribution, convergence and changes of function – these are mechanisms present also in biological evolution. In the following paper, we (...) examine women’s dance and physical exercise practices, which contain similar postures performed in comparable circumstances, as found in initiation ritual dances in chosen East African communities and in Slavic gymnastics for women in the Belarusian tradition. In times of globalization and the mixing of cultures, the position on knees and elbows is recontextualized in a visually attractive form of contemporary dances like Kangamoko and Baikoko, or more widely different variants of ‘twerking’ and reconstructed physical exercises. Approaching ‘twerking’ positions, especially on knees and elbows as a cross-genre performance, we find common roots in the communal support for women’s good wife and mother status teachings in various cultures, showing the importance of women’s circles, women’s health and well-being for the community. (shrink)

I propose that human experience of matter provides the source domain for the metaphor that motivates the grammatical category of aspect in Russian. This model is a version of the universal TIME IS SPACE metaphor, according to which SITUATIONS ARE MATERIAL ENTITIES, and, more specifically, PERFECTIVE IS A DISCRETE SOLID OBJECT versus IMPERFECTIVE IS A FLUID SUBSTANCE. The contrast of discrete solid objects with fluid substances reveals a rich array of over a dozen properties; the isomorphism observed between those properties (...) and the complex uses of aspect in Russian is compelling. This model presents a more finely articulated account of Russian aspect than feature analysis can achieve. Although some of these properties overlap significantly with the count versus mass distinction often associated with aspect, the properties provide more detail and ground the metaphor to concrete experience. Properties of matter can be divided into three groups: inherent properties such as edges, shape, and integrity (which correspond to inherent situation aspect); interactional properties such as juxtaposition, dynamism, and salience (which correspond to discourse phenomena of aspect); and human interactional properties such as graspability and impact (which correspond to pragmatic phenomena of aspect). The interactional and human interactional properties can be used to motivate subjective construal, whereas the inherent properties serve as default motivators. The model will be demonstrated in detail using Russian data, followed by a survey comparing Russian with the other Slavic languages, which will show that deviations consist of either non-implementation of a given property, or the implementation of an inherent (default) property in place of an interactional or human interactional property. This model will be contrasted with a brief discussion of a selection of non-Slavic languages. The specific metaphor in this model does not apply beyond Slavic, but perhaps it will encourage investigation into the source domain of aspect in other languages. There appears to be a correlation between the relatively heavy morphological investment Slavic languages make in nominal individuation and the individuation of situations presented in this metaphorical model. (shrink)

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the role of the feminine principle in the cosmogonic ideas of the Slavic peoples and the philosophy of the Ancient East, in particular, India and China, to the establishment of common and distinctive features of female personification. The authors conclude that the ancient tribal culture, which was based on the logic of nature, the maintenance of the world in unity and the balance of opposites, was much more favorable to women (...) than monotheistic religions, which affirmed the sinful nature of women. Ideas about the origin and development of the universe occupy a central place in the mythological heritage, in the cosmic processes and powerful forces of nature, the unbreakable harmony of male and female principles can be traced, where male energy consists in the idea of fertilization, and female energy – in birth and creation. In every mythological system, there is a character of the Mother Goddess, who acts as a co-creator of the world and living beings, but with the establishment of the patriarchal system, the mythological paradigm undergoes changes, and the female principle is gradually recognized as secondary, or it was completely leveled in the processes of world creation. The archetype of the Great Mother reflects the functioning of human values and runs through the entire history of philosophy and culture. (shrink)

Evidentiality deals with the marking of information source, that is with means that specify how we come to know what we (think to) know. For instance, such means indicate whether knowledge derives from hearsay, or whether an inference has been based on perception or on knowledge about habits. Often these indications are vague. This book focuses on sentence adverbs and so-called function words in Slavic languages. Six of them were subject of a questionnaire survey, whose discussion, preceded by general (...) methodological background, occupies the second part of this book. The first half contains a thorough consideration of notional links between evidentiality and related domains, first of all of epistemic modality, and it discusses the intricacies of doing lexicography of evidential marking. (shrink)

In the text the author considers politics of interpretation of South-Slavic peoples' recent past, which was demonstrated by the most prominent activists of Serbian non-governmental organizations. By summarizing the interpretation in a few points, the author attempts to identify its key features: arrogance and extremism as a style, counter factuality as a strategy and anti-Serbian nationalism and racism as an ideological strongpoint. In the final section of the text, what is pleaded is a precise legal regulation of that delicate (...) area of civil activism, which in the last decade has presented a malignant protuberance on destroyed social tissue of Serbia and serious threat to the rest of its considerably lost national interests. U tekstu se razmatra politika interpretiranja novije jugoslovenske proslosti, kakvu je u protekloj deceniji praktikovalo nekoliko najprominentnijih aktivista srbijanskih nevladinih organizacija, nominalno usmerenih zastiti i unapredjenju ljudskih prava, promociji vrednosti mira i nenasilja, multikulturalizma i tolerancije. Sazimajuci njihovu interpretaciju nedavne proslosti jugoslovenskih naroda u nekoliko tacaka, autorka identifikuje kljucne karakteristike jedne nove i vulgarne - interpretatorske politicnosti, kakvu su ove nevladine organizacije demonstrirale u proteklom desetlecu svoga delovanja na srbijanskoj javnoj sceni: arogantnost i ekstremizam kao stil, falsifikatorstvo i kontrafaktualnost kao strategiju i antisrpski nacionalizam i rasizam kao ideolosko uporiste. U zakljucnom delu teksta autorka pledira za precizno zakonsko regulisanje ove delikatne oblasti civilnog delovanja, koje bi jasno definisalo sve njegove vaznije aspekte. (shrink)

In the article, the main lines of the research and educational cooperation of the linguists of the Bashkir State University and the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo are considered. The prospects of these contacts are determined by capabilities of joint development of the long-term research programs in comparative linguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, which can be implement as collective monographs, Ph.D. theses, textbooks of the Russian and the Bulgarian languages, dictionaries (including the multilingual dictionaries). A program of (...) the double diplomas in the specialized training of undergraduates ‘Applied Slavic philology (translation study)‘ as a new form of the cooperation is also considered. (shrink)

At all times, the book was understood not only as a means of preserving and transforming knowledge, but also as a means of knowing the world around us. At the same time, from ancient times it was a subject of knowledge. Gradually its theoretical phenomenon was formed. The book essentially is the most important form of consolidation and transfer of information in space and time. From the point of view of the theory of communication, the book serves as one of (...) the forms of existence and dissemination of semantic information, a means of organizing the work of individual consciousness into a sign system for the perception of its social consciousness. After all, the evolution of the book is inextricably linked with the history of mankind. She is the foundation on which the culture of peoples is built. It helps society to grow and improve, borrow and use all the mass of knowledge accumulated by mankind. The book is the most complete and comprehensive expression of the spiritual culture of mankind, since its origin and development are inextricably linked with it. (shrink)

The study of the formation of the literary culture of the words of the "peoples of the nations" is impossible without analyzing the role of libraries of monasteries and cathedrals as centers of documentary memory of the Christian past. After all, the library, as a social institution, has always played an important role in the development of education, science, culture, and religious thought on a long path to its development.

The great achievement of mankind was the appearance of a printed book that not only significantly expanded the circle of readers, but also in comparison with the handwritten book contributed to the unification of canonical texts, in particular, such as Scripture, church service books, works of the Church Fathers, polemical and other religious literature. Consideration of the words "Japanese typography as the basis for the preservation and transmission of sources of Christian literary culture requires a brief description of the essence (...) of printing, not only as a means of mechanical reproduction of the text, but also a remarkable cultural-historical phenomenon. (shrink)

This paper serves as a logical continuation of the article "Fake Science and Simulacra of Culture: Illusory Ideas about Slavic Paganism in Modern Russian Humanities", published in the journal "Voprosy Filosofii" in 2022. This paper was about the mechanism of the origin of illusory ideas about Slavic paganism and the reasons for their intrusion into scientific publications. Here we analyze the socio-cultural consequences that the functioning of this mechanism eventually leads to. The object of study in this article (...) is the modern scientific and parascientific ideas of Russians about the paganism of the ancient Slavs, and the subject of study is the infiltration of parascientific opinions about the ancient Slavs’ paganism in scientific and official business discourses in modern Russia. The methodological basis of the research work is a case study. The methodological arsenal includes also the hermeneutic analysis of a number of texts published in Russian scientific periodicals and serving as material for the author's reflection. In the course of the study, it was revealed that illusory ideas about Slavic paganism very easily infiltrate into various publications presented both in proceedings of the scientific conferences and in scientific journals. As a result, various parascientific (in particular, neo-pagan) constructs gain weight due to their transmission in scientific periodicals. The infiltration of simulacra of traditional culture into scientific discourse leads to the fact that representatives of the scientific community, performing various expert functions, become guides of these simulacra into official business discourse. Given the state's policy of preserving and developing traditional values, it can be expected that under the guise of preserving various folk traditions, modern parascientific constructs that actually have nothing to do with genuine historical and cultural heritage can receive support. (shrink)

In the latter part of the fifteenth century, a Jewish translator, working together with a Slavic amanuensis, translated into the East Slavic language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania three medieval Hebrew translations of Arabic philosophical texts: the Logical Terminology, a short work on logic attributed to Maimonides (but probably by a different medieval Jewish author); and two sections of the Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali's famous Intentions of the Philosophers. Highlighting the unexpected role played by Jewish translators as agents (...) of cultural transmission in the heady messianic atmosphere leading up to the year 1492, these texts drew the attention of the Orthodox Church authorities as being in the possession of the enlightened heretical sect known as the Judaizers, which had emerged in Novgorod and spread to Moscow. Reflecting three and even four layers of translation, Prof. Moshe Taube's new triple-language critical edition of the Logika of the Judaizers displays the Slavic texts alongside the Hebrew translations on which they are based and accompanies them with a modern English translation. In his comprehensive introduction and commentary, Taube surveys earlier scholarly efforts to identify the provenance and purport of the translations, discusses the linguistic and textological issues raised by these early Ruthenian texts, puts forward the likely dissimilar motivations of the Jewish translator and the Christians who commissioned the work, and reveals the translator's probable identity. The present publication, a long-awaited desideratum, will be of interest not only to historians of the Great Duchy of Lithuania and of the principality of Muscovy, but also to scholars of Jewish history and of the history of philosophy and science, as well as to linguists studying the history of the Belorussian, Ukrainian and Russian languages. (shrink)

The study of the peculiarities that the reception of such an essential concept of the philosophical Corpus Dionysiacum Areopagiticum as ὑπερούσιος in ancient Slavic translations has is promising. It allows not only to understand better the internal perspective of the development of philosophical terminology in Rus’-Ukraine, where in the 15th–17th centuries, there existed a significant number of manuscripts of the corpus, but also to strengthen the argument in favor of its dating precisely in the 5th century. According to the (...) conceptual features that are present in the Greek text of De divinis nominibus and are confirmed in the studies of Slavic translations of the Corpus Areopagiticum, this work, preserved also in other languages, could belong to an author, who uniquely combined his Christian views and a philosophical vision of the world that was inspired by his Neoplatonic education at the Alexandrian School of Philosophy under the guidance of the eminent Neoplatonic thinker and mathematician Hypatia, who was well acquainted with the ideas of Plotinus and the whole Alexandrian intellectual tradition. It is possible that this author, who used the ideas of Plotinus and Porphyry and for the first time unfolded the idea of the Christian God as the Hyperousios in the aspect of the Christian Triad in his philosophical hymns and treatises, could be Synesius of Cyrene, Bishop of Ptolemais. (shrink)

In the history of the Slavic East, the word "philosopher" first appeared in the first great Oriental-Slavic work, known as "Chronicle." Nestor "or" The Tale of the Bereaved Years ". Ukrainian monk Nestor wrote this essay at the beginning of the XII century. on the basis of those older chronicles, which were written before him by Kiev chroniclers of Rus. In the Chronicle of Nestor "the philosophers" are called saints Cyril and Methodius.

The paper aims to show that by abstracting from a specific mythical historical- stylistic context and “ideation” of the notion of the Proto-Slavic deities Perun and Veles, especially in Croatian tradition, symbolic archetypes and abstract notions of form and primordial matter (materia prima) can be extracted from mythical content. We refer to mythical texts and contents according to the reconstructions and materials brought by Radoslav Katičić, and comparative analysis by Mislav Ježić. We distinguish form (1) as that in which (...) identity and possibility of a thing consists, (2) as the reasonableness of judgment and the form of existence, and (3) as the specific structure of a thing, which unites its parts and aspects as a whole and constitutes its internal necessity. These formative notions are relativized and nullified in Veles’ appearances, in which the archetypal notion of primordial matter is encoded. Examples of Platō’s dialogues historically confirm certain aspects of decoding myth as constitutive of philosophy. The above approach also opens a view of the roots of Croatian philosophical thought, which in its genesis can be traced back to Proto-Slavic mythical archetypes. With the implementation of Christianity, the questions of identity, reason and the structure of the whole are raised radically and sharply, as shown by the text of Trpimir’s grant (852). (shrink)

The article by Sannikov Sergiy “History and Hermeneutic Horizons of the Bible Commentaries in the Slavic Context: Part 1. History and Practice of the Bible Commentaries in the Slavic Context” is the first part of the research of the history and hermeneutic horizons of the Bible commentaries in the Slavic context. The author surveys the history of the Bible interpretation in Eastern Europe, analyzes the diachronical interpretation principles progress, shows the hermeneutical methods used in the Evangelical movement (...) of in the 19th and 20th centuries and the correspondent hermeneutic approaches in the Orthodox tradition. The author distinguishes the main hermeneutic principles being the basis for the commentators of the 19th-20th centuries and the approaches to interpretation practiced in the Slavic context. A special attention is given to the Bible interpretation made by national authors who have been publishing their works during the last 20 years. The main emphasis is made on the literature on hermeneutics published in recent years and used in Evangelical educational institutions. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Cognitive Linguistics Jahrgang: 27 Heft: 4 Seiten: 573-585.

W artykule przedstawiono wybrane teksty literackie wydane w ciągu ostatniego dziesięciolecia, starając się odpowiedzieć na pytanie o punkty styczne między fantastyką a kryminałem oraz o to, czy można już mówić o nowym podgatunku: „słowiańskim kryminale”. Punktem wyjścia w analizach i interpretacjach utworów było założenie, iż tendencja do eksperymentowania w literaturze przybrała na sile po 2000 roku w ramach postmodernistycznych gier i zabaw tekstem na osi autor – czytelnik. W wyniku kolejnych przekształceń dokonujących się w ciągu ostatnich dziesięcioleci zarówno fantastyka, jak (...) i kryminał zmierzały coraz bardziej w stronę synkretyzmu gatunkowego, stosując wzajemne intertekstualne nawiązania, przenikania swoich motywów, tematów i wątków. W artykule posiłkowano się ustaleniami z zakresu komparatystyki i intertekstualności. (shrink)

The cornerstone of the world view of the ancient Slavs is the sensation of the beauty and sanctity of the world and life. They considered the whole universe as a temple and therefore did not build the temples themselves, but revered the sacred forests, rivers, mountains. Hence their desire for conciliarity, that is, for the spiritual unification of people and nature. But to unite the nations only beauty, this international language, understandable to all is capable. Beauty is our true creator. (...) It reveals the inner essence of man. But without spirituality, it's impossible even to understand beauty. Therefore, in a person from childhood it is necessary to develop spirituality, so that he understands the basis, meaning and purpose of life, realized the spiritual roots of his people. (shrink)

The glorious Sophia image of Nikolai Mokrogo, now completely forgotten, was the oldest national shrine and one of the first miraculous icons of Kievan Rus known to us. The name of the icon is associated with the "Miracle of the Infant in Kiev", which dates from the researchers no later than 1090. The legend tells about the marriage, which went to the pilgrimage to the relics of Boris and Gleb in Vyshgorod. They returned to Kyiv by the Dnipro in a (...) boat. In the road, a tired woman was asleep and dropped into the water a baby, which immediately drowned. Parents of the child turned to despair in despair. Mykola "having a great faith in him", asking for help. Indeed, the next morning the child of a bud was found undisturbed on the outside of the chambers of Sophia of Kiev: "... the child is lying wet in front of the image of St. Nikolai "[Leonid, Archimandrite. Life and miracles of St. Nikolai Mirlykysky and praise him. Investigation of two monuments of ancient Russian writing of the XI century. - St. Petersburg, 1881. - P. 90.] The icon of the saint, under which was found miraculously saved sv. Nicholas is a child in wet diapers, nicknamed Nikolay Mokrogo. For centuries it was located on the choirs of the St. Sophia Cathedral in the iconostasis of the Mykolaiv altar, on the right of the royal gates, occupying the place of the temple image. (shrink)