Tartaria Magna is a magazine that has been needed for a long time. It's not just about the content, which will be discussed below. First of all, I would like to mention the approach of the journal's creators, which solves several problems that exist in the field of scientific journals in Russia. First, it is a free electronic magazine (www.tartaria-magna.ru) with the ability to view or download in PDF format. In conditions when many journals and collections are published in small print runs and are sometimes inaccessible to potential readers (it is noteworthy that scientists themselves sometimes call such publications "mass graves"), publishing articles in electronic form is a successful and correct decision.

Secondly, unlike other electronic publications, Tartaria Magna is a peer-reviewed journal that is integrated into specialized search engines (Elibrary-RSCI, OOODACADEMY) and social networks (Academia.edu, Facebook).

Tartaria Magna is published 3 times a year and distributed to thousands of specialists around the world. This approach significantly expands the scientist's ability to make the results of their research available to the scientific community.

The journal was created on the basis of the Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhology and Tibetology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ulan-Ude) and is intended for those who are interested in-

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interested in the past and present of the peoples of Eurasia. According to the creators, the magazine brings together historians, cultural scientists and anthropologists of various scientific schools and directions on its pages. Another advantage of the journal is that it publishes articles by leading foreign researchers, which allows the Russian-speaking reader to get acquainted with them.

To the editorial Board of the journal, in addition to the staff of the Institute, headed by a corresponding member. RAS B. V. Bazarov, includes well-known Orientalists, religious scholars and anthropologists from other countries and institutions. Among them are K. Humphrey (University of Cambridge), A. Morrison (University of Liverpool), T. Skrynnikova (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences) and others.

To date, two issues of the magazine have been published. They are united by the common theme "The world of friends and strangers: conflict, interaction, symbiosis", and each issue deals with one of the aspects of this common theme. The first issue was devoted to the theme "Frontier movement", the second-to the theme "Spiritual brothers, sacred enemies. Social communication through the prism of religious experience".

Let's take a closer look at this latest issue.

The first three articles of the issue consider religion as an effective tool for assimilation and, at the same time, alienation of the subjects of the Russian Empire from the state and from each other.

The author of the first article, "Change of Religion in the Orthodox Empire: The Politics of Religious Affiliation in 19th - Century Russia," is American scholar Nicholas Breyfogle, who writes about the confrontation between Orthodoxy and the Molokans, Doukhobors, Eunuchs, and Subbotniks sects and analyzes the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of transitions from one faith to another. The author was able to convincingly demonstrate the complexity of the concept of religious identity, the instability and almost transparency of the borders of spiritual communities, and show the interaction of religious identity with religious practice. Breifogl concludes that " the main significance of imperial expansion in Transcaucasia is that it made possible the formation of new identities, social structures and cultural systems...Tsarist legislation made religious affiliation the key that sectarians used to open the entrance to or exit from Transcaucasia. Russians evaluated their religious affiliation in accordance with the prevailing conditions, giving their religious identity a certain significance. -

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At the same time, these laws gave Russian colonization a religious connotation, since religious identity and the ability to manipulate it became a defining component of the Russian colonial experience."

The second article, "Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly and projects for the transformation of Muslim institutions in the Kazakh steppe in the 50s - 80s of the XIX century", is devoted to how the Russian authorities "mastered"Islam. Its author, Kazakh historian Pavel Shabley, uses the example of the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly to show how the Russian authorities were looking for an optimal model of coexistence with Islam. Chablay concludes that by trying to overcome religious boundaries, the authorities only strengthened them. The administrative constraint of Islam increased the Kazakhs ' sense of religious inequality, and attempts to reduce the influence of the Mullahs only led to an increase in their influence on society. The Orenburg Mohammedan spiritual administration, which was conceived as an effective channel of Russian influence, in fact not only alienated the empire from its subjects, but also alienated the official Muslim bureaucracy from the faithful.

The work of Russian researcher Olga Litzenberger - " Useful non-believers or dangerous outsiders? Perception of Western Christians by Russian society and the Orthodox Church in the X-XIX centuries" is devoted to the complex history of relations between the Orthodox Church and Western Christians - Catholicism and Protestantism. The author shows how initially tolerant relations between different churches gradually gave way to mutual hostility. The turning point in relations came after the merger of the Russian Orthodox Church with the state, which demanded the complete and unquestioning submission of Western Christian denominations. "While formally recognizing other faiths, tsarism made every effort to minimize their influence in Russia. The Orthodox Church was considered by the state as a social institution responsible for shaping the negative perception of Western Christians by Russian society," writes Fr.

The other three materials of the issue concern Buddhism in Tibet and Buryatia.

In the article by British scholar Hildegard Diemberger, "Imperial Heritage and' Hidden Lands ' in the Life of a Tibetan Princess

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Choikyi Dronmy " tells about how an individual can be interpreted in culture as a manifestation of a deity who acts in the world of people from generation to generation. Based on the biographies of Tibetan yogins and yoginesses of the 14th and 15th centuries, the author meticulously reconstructs the history of the formation of the first tradition of female "rebirths" in Tibet. As X writes: Dimberger, the line of rebirths connects past generations with the future through spiritual connections: "Rebirths and hidden lands can be seen as special manifestations of Tibetan religious culture, as unique ways to renew connections between people and places. Their language of memory and prophecy links the past with the future, often combining political and spiritual pretensions. They often draw on the Tibetan heritage, which is thus imprinted on the Tibetan landscape and its inhabitants as part of a living tradition."

Two other articles about Buddhism are devoted to the present-day Buddhist revival in Buryatia. Darima Amogolonova's article " The Return of Khambolama Itigelov in the context of post-Soviet desecularization of public consciousness "is another attempt to understand the significance of the phenomenon of the" incorruptible body " of Khambolama Itigelov in the process of religious and national revival in Buryatia. Dashi-Dorjo Itigelov, the twelfth head of the Buryat Buddhists, passed away in 1927 and was buried in a wooden sarcophagus in one of the districts of Buryatia. In 2002, the lama's body was exhumed, according to his will. As it turned out, it had no signs of decomposition. The phenomenon of Itigelov quickly gained worldwide fame, newspapers wrote about it, videos and films were made. The leadership of the Buryat Sangha interpreted this inexplicable event as a manifestation of a miracle. According to D. Amogolonova, the phenomenon of Itigelov went far beyond the exclusively religious discourse, becoming a kind of symbol (or, as the author himself writes, a brand) of the national revival of Buryats. People pin their hopes on him not only in solving their personal and everyday problems, but also connect the solution of economic, social and political problems facing Russia and Buryatia.

The essay by Czech researcher Lubos Belka - "Dandaron Mandala: a visual representation of the history of the Buddhist community of the Soviet period" - is devoted to a well-known and extremely important stage in the history of the spread of Buddhism.-

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disma in Russia - the activities of the so-called Dandaron Sangha. In the late 1950s, a group of followers, including representatives of various nationalities and social strata, formed around the famous Buryat scholar-orientalist and religious figure Bidya Dandaron. One of them, Alexander Zheleznov, wrote a mandala, which, according to Belka, was supposed to serve as a visual representation of the collective memory of the "Dandaronians". The article is accompanied by a number of extremely interesting and, one might say, unique illustrations, which in themselves very well reflect the spirit and mood of the time described.

The latest article in the issue - "Russian Ultranationalism: the Current State of Research" - by Ukrainian scientist Andreas Umland deals with a topical and extremely relevant topic-ultranationalism in post-Soviet Russia. According to the author, radical anti-Westernism has now turned into a serious intellectual and political movement. In this regard, there was a need for the appearance (creation?) a new subdiscipline that brings together people engaged in the study of radical anti-Westernism and nationalism. This kind of integration, according to Umland, by promoting mutual dialogue among scientists, will increase the "thematic focus, historical validity, empirical richness and conceptual clarity" of research and improve its quality.

Describing the issue as a whole, we can say that it turned out to be extremely interesting, relevant and versatile in terms of coverage of topics and historical periods. In the next issue, the creators of the magazine plan to continue studying the relationship between "friends" and" strangers", but on a different level and from a different point of view. The third issue of the journal will be devoted to the same issues, but using the approaches offered in the kinship studies direction. I would also like to mention the fact that the magazine is beautifully illustrated and decorated.

Of course, Tartaria Magna is not the first magazine of a new type in Russian, just remember the "New Literary Review" and Ab Imperio. But UFOs are devoted to more general humanitarian topics, and Ab Imperio has a significant drawback - it is not freely available online, and it also differs in thematic coverage. In my opinion, one of the advantages and achievements of Tartaria Magna is that the magazine brings novelty and modernity-

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It is also important to focus on Russian Orientalist (and partly Eurasian) studies, as well as on religious studies and ethnographic research. The attempt to combine "native" and "foreign" scientists, as well as various theories and approaches, seems fruitful and promising. How successfully it will be implemented - time will tell, but looking at the first issues of the magazine, I want to wish its creators good luck.

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