The purpose of the paper is foremost to present Andrey Muraviev’s approach to fasting, both in his personal life and in literary work. The main basis of the analysis are the memories of the writer and his Letters about the service of the Eastern Catholic [Orthodox] Church (Письма о Богослужении Восточной Кафолической Церкви). Attention is paid to the Slavic word post ‘fast’, to its etymology, sense, its equivalents in biblical languages, i.e. in Hebrew and Greek as well. The writer’s considerations for fasting are confronted with appropriate biblical comments on this topic. The paper emphasizes that Muraviev, despite being brought up in a religious spirit, in his childhood and youth was not used to following the restraints of fasting. Only on his way to the Holy Land, did he fast throughout the entirety of Lent. Then he gradually got used to other multi‑day fasts and to weekly fasts, on Wednesdays and Fridays. In his reflections, referring to the books of the Old and New Testament, the works of Church Fathers and church songs, Muraviev argued that fasting is an important means in man’s spiritual life. He pointed out the need not only to renounce a particular type of food, but also above all to subdue the body to the soul and to tame passions. For the writer, fasting was a sign of faith and a practice supporting prayer.

The article analyzes the interrelations between the texts of the Novgorodian‑Sophian group of the first half of the 15th century (Novgorod Karamzin, First Sophian and Forth Novgorod chronicles) on a specific section of the annalistic material. We explore the “links” to some Kievan text in the entries of the late 11th century from the First Sophian Chronicle, their context and probable sources. The compiler of this chronicle has left traces of his activity on early Rus’ history in his drafts (such remarks as “to search in Kievan” and similar) which scholars have considered as evidence of some importance to define the stages of annalistic work of the 15th century in Novgorod and Moscow. It is argued that a set of “links” of the First Sophian was used by the author of the second part of the Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle to fill the gaps in his narrative. However, detailed textual analysis demonstrates the very complicated and clearly later composition in the First Sophian. Therefore both the first and second parts of Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle precede the First Sophian. The paper also pays attention to some aspects of the relations between the Novgorodian‑Sophian group and early Kievan and Novgorod chronicles.

The film art of the Russian Empire, in the light of the current state of research, may not be completely terra incognita, and yet a number of issues on this topic still need to be elaborated and saved from oblivion. The subject of the present research are the lost or only partially preserved horror movies filmed in the country of the last tsar of Russia – Nicholas II. The author recalls the circumstances of the creation of specific films, as well as the critical reception of such productions as Vasily Goncharov’s Viy (1909), At Midnight in the Graveyard (1909/1910) by the same director, The Vampire Woman (1915) by Viatcheslav (Victor) Tourjansky or two films by Ladislas Starevich: The Portrait (1915) and another screen adaptation of Viy (1916?).

The article is devoted to demonstrating the presence of F. Dostoyevsky’s thought in the drama The Wedding Rings by Lidiya Zinov’yeva‑Annibal. Dostoevsky occupied an important place in the lives and works of the Russian symbolists (including L. Zinov’yeva‑Annibal), as reflected by their diaries and articles, as well as contemporary studies. In the Russian poet’s drama the intertextual relationships with the novel The Idiot are especially visible. First of all they are manifested in the construction of the protagonist, who has the same name as that of The Idiot), but also in conceptualizing such motifs as: love (the love triangle), beauty, good, sacrifice, devoting oneself to others. The presented studies lead to the conclusion that in spite of the fact that the creation of the drama protagonist reveals certain features in common with Dostoyevsky’s heroines, the very conceptualizing of this figure is different: in the case of Lidiya Zinov’yeva‑Annibal it is based on the “logic of triplicity” and in the symbolist thinking about Eros.

The present work discusses the issues of the variantivity of borrowings from English into modern Polish and Russian. The material for study is variants of English borrowings (based on spelling, spelling and pronunciation, stress pattern, and morphology), excerpted mainly from newest dictionaries of foreign words that have been published over the last 15 years. The analysis aims to determine common “regular correspondencies” of such variants present in the two Slavic languages under discussion, and to identify the individualised variances typical of a particular national language. An important objective of the study is also to specify the reasons why alternative forms have been emerging so numerously in both languages, and to unearth some problems underlying the variantivity of Anglicisms. The research presented in this paper is significant for several perspectives: firstly, variantivity is a challenge to lexicographers and normative linguists still attempting to standardise the enormity of foreign lexical items of an unstable form. Secondly, the fact that a given item has its equivalents poses a problem to average language users who are often confused and do not know how to write or pronounce a word, with dictionaries not necessarily being helpful in this respect. The obtained results may encourage further steps towards the systematization of principles governing the adaptation of borrowings and the attempts to tame the present escalating chaos in Polish and Russian literature on the subject.

The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the cognitive semantics of the verbal predicates “чудиться”, “почудиться”, taking into account their inner form, and also to suggest a linguo‑cognitive model for explaining polysemy. The object of the study is the different contextual meanings of the verbal predicates “чудиться”, “почудиться” in the contexts of fictional discourse, the subject is cognitive semantics as a repeated structure of cognitive processes reflecting the patterns of understanding and thinking. The article presents a typology of contexts for the functioning of verbal predicates, their different contextual meanings are defined, the semantic dependence of the contextual meaning of the verb word on the semantics of the broader context analyzed, the role of the inner form in the creation of polysemy determined, while a linguo‑cognitive model for explaining polysemy in terms of “gestalt”, “focus”, “background – figure”, “focusing – defocusing” is suggested.

The article presents the context‑determinated meanings of the дурак (durak) lexem based upon the satirical sketches Well‑Meant Speeches by Mikhail Saltykov‑Shchedrin. At the beginning is the etymology of the word and then general vocabulary definitions produce four basic meanings for the word: 1. a good and honest man; 2. a person being the object of widely‑spread mockery and jibes; 3. a person unable to behave in a proper way; 4. a person unable to administer their property in a good way as well as not to live their life successfully – a lame duck, a sluggard and a drunkard. From amongst those meanings the author tries to notice the mutual parallels which interpret visions of the fool in Saltykov‑Shchedrin’s sketches as well as the contemporary vision of the Russian mentality and its folk tradition.

A famous Russian folk song, proverbs and sayings about a mother‑in‑law and son‑in‑law are the key elements of the analysis of the relations between a son‑in‑law (a younger member of the male family) and a mother‑in‑law (an older member of the female family). This analysis is also based on the etymological data and the author tries to answer the question: what is the hidden relation between the two families the members of whom are married? Many papers have been written on that matter. This article describes this relation as a gradual process of building the indirect connection between the mother‑in‑law and son‑in‑law. This is a symmetric/asymmetric relations which only seems to be mutually linked and tied. The emerged and shaped relation attitude direction – from mother‑in‑law to son‑in‑law – is presented here as the act of attracting and repelling. By means of fulfilment and satisfaction it implies the necessity of the adaption but not subordination as well as the hidden favour of the unlimited reproductive power. On the other hand i.e. the direction from the son‑in‑law to mother‑in‑law, the attitude is completely different which means the partial rivalry and repelling attraction. The daughter (from the mother‑in‑law side) and the fiancée/wife (from the son‑in‑law side) is completely out of these relations.

The article is devoted to the identification of mechanisms of influence of the value picture of the world on the semantic development of phraseological units. Considered is the structure of the components of the value picture of the world. We consider the concept and image, as segments of value components, to be the basic ones based on which the objects of extra linguistic reality within a national culture are evaluated. Image / presupposition are the basis of phraseological semiosis. We consider the onomasiological basis of phrase formation not to be a holistic image / presupposition, but only their isolated features, those which have been stereotyped. Evaluated is the image in the system of cultural values. The result of the assessment depends on the location of the image on the value scale of the ethnic group. In the course of stereotyping, the distinctive features of the image are distinguished. The selected features of the image have an evaluative component and can broadcast binary evaluations. During the development of language, phraseological semantics undergoes modifications, which are associated with changes in the value picture of the world of speakers. The reasons for such changes are recognized as out‑of‑order factors. Because of extra lingual influence, transformations of the components of the value picture of the world take place, which is reflected in the structure of phraseological meaning. Semantic changes are caused by image modifications, the features of which serve as an onomasiological basis. Due to the change of the components of the value picture of the world, there is a reassessment of the whole image, or only its already categorized features, which leads to a modification of the semantics of phrases. The reflection of value in the phraseological sense provides a significant denotative component, which associatively correlates with the referent, recording and maintaining the assessment of its features. The isolated feature is the onomasiological basis of the internal form, which reflects the assessment of the object of stereotyping within the connotative component.

The article represents research into poetry written during the Revolution of Dignity (2014). Such artistic texts are analyzed as a kind of phenomenon of contemporary literature. These are the poems of famous authors or even amateurs, united by a common sacred code. They appeal to the patterns and archetypes of the collective consciousness of Ukrainians. In the poetry of Euromaidan the researcher underlines two types of sacralization, which can be conditionally called masculine and feminine (paternal and maternal). The masculine type of this process realizes a symbolic projection of the figure of Jesus Christ. This symbol emphasizes the determination of the act, active attitude, the idea of fighting for the truth, as well as the willingness to sacrifice their own lives for the common good. The feminine version of the proces of sacralization is the Virgin Mary. This image appeals not to the heroic act, but to its emotional reflection, more specifically – the suffering, pain, traumatic experience of the victim. It corresponds to the archetypal image of the Mother of God, the Suffering Mother, who sacrifices her own son to death and cries for him later. The embodiment of the Christian sacrum in the poetry of the Maidan testifies to the fidelity to both European and Ukrainian traditions.

The article is devoted to research into the systematization of the structural and semantic types of partially phraseologized sentences. Partially phraseologized sentences have been ascertained to have their functional and communicative purpose in language and speech. The formal and semantic principles of the typology of partially phraseologized sentences have been determined. Structural typologies of partially phraseologized sentences are based on quantitative and morphological criteria. Analyzed have been the structural types of partly phraseologized sentences. Partially phraseologized sentences are formed by two‑, three‑, four‑, and five‑part phrase‑complexes. The semantic types of partially phraseologized sentences are based on the type of syntactic relations between their two parts, depending on which we can single out: 1) sentences with temporal relations; 2) sentences with relations of generalized condition; 3) sentences with explanatory relations; 4) sentences with applicative relations.

The reconstruction of the semantics of Slavic phraseology is one of the priority tasks of comparative‑historical Slavic studies. Etymological dictionaries should be compiled as the result of such research. This article is dedicated to the origins of the phraseological entity “Jump out as Pylyp from cannabis”. It is known in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech and Lithuanian. The expression has a long chronological fixation that goes back to the second half of the sixteenth century. Many linguists, folklorists, and historians have studied the sources of this expression. According to an analysis of the subject literature, the etymological versions depended on the interpretation of such components as “Pylyp” and “cannabis”. There is no such complicated story in Slavic phraseology that includes two key components at the same time. This expression is considered to have a Polish origin. The result of our study is the hypothesis that the etymology is related to the Baltic area, namely the Lithuanian language and traditional folk culture. The prototype was a mythical character of a “hare”. Due to the obscuration of the original image, modern semantics is based on the anthroponym “Pylyp” – the performer of the mental action of the person. As the original image became obscure, the modern semantics of this notion is based on the anthroponym “Pylyp” – the one performing the mental action of a person.