The paper discusses the stages of normalizing Russian spelling from the 1917–1918 reform all the way through to the year 1956 which brought “A Set of Spelling and Punctuation Rules”. It is claimed that the 1930’s was a crucial period as it brought guides to publishing and drafted sets of spelling rules. The paper studies the drafts through the prism of the 1956 final version so as to get a better understanding of baffling questions and to see how the rules entered into the comprehensive academic reference-book released in 2006.

The article explores linguistic and stylistic characteristics of the poetic paraphrase of the Book of Job by Fedor Glinka. The state of mind of the poem’s narrator is revealed by means of his vocabulary and syntax. Metaphor and simile play the main part, especially in the descriptions of landscapes. Glinka uses these tropes as well as various repetitions – both root and word ones – to show the inner suffering of Job. Chapters describing the mental and physical suffering of Job contain evocative vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms as well as rhetorical questions and exclamations that intensify the emotional tone of narration. The article discusses such literary devices as anaphora, alliteration, assonance, and rhetorical question that help to organize the poem. Authorial punctuation is discussed as well.

The article is devoted to Belarusian literature about World War I. It is a thematic field which nowadays requires a detailed research. It is emphasized that since the turn of the 20th century a unity of fictional texts valuable for the national tradition of 1914–1918 literary depiction has been formed. M. Haretsky’s works play a special part in Belarusian literature. In the middle of the 1910s the author one of the first in the national prose writing started the development of the war theme. It is pointed out that World War I sometimes was depicted as a portent of revolutionary events and civil struggle (books by M. Zaretsky, Ya. Kolas, K. Krapiva, M. Lynkou). In the 1920–1930-ies Belarusian literature about the First World War worked in three fields: events at the front, in the rear, depiction of a refugee life. In the second part of the 20th century the theme was developed by V. Adamchуk, U. Hnilamodau, H. Dalidovich, V. Karamazau, I. Schamyakin.

‘The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages’ (CEFR) is a document that, among other things, defines what foreign language learners need to learn to be able to be able to use a language for communication. Classifying in relation to a descriptive scale is particularly useful when testing and certifying knowledge, and so teaching material is linked to this, which is why modern publishing guidelines demand the use of labels indicating which level of knowledge particular material is suitable for. Who should rank the material and how is an unresolved issue, and so at the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language we put together a working group to grade the Centre’s textbooks. We came up with a method of classification and an appropriate form, and carried out a selection of textbooks. In the initial stages of rankinging we encountered a number of challenges, since we found that we had 57 different evaluative scales available. We agreed that we would separately number learning tasks and indicate which scale we were using, while more complex tasks involving different activities we would place on the scale on the basis of the activity demanded; after individual evaluation, we would compare results and offer arguments for our evaluation; finally, we would reassess together the final ranking of individual tasks. The evaluations were useful from a number of perspectives: for instance, the scale ranking will in future be printed on the cover of textbooks. We established that our production of teaching material was evenly distributed among the different levels of difficulty and that individual learning activities were appropriately represented within the selected material, which is probably also a result of the relevant experience of the authors, peer reviewers and editors. In the future, ranking on the scale would make sense before the textbook is published and we shall make use of the acquired knowledge in the planning of new materials.

The article systematizes some concepts of Chekhov’s literary connections with his contemporaries, whose influence on his work he experienced and on whom he influenced himself. In the article the closest Chekhov’s “satellites”, in terms of the aesthetic strategy of the writer are identified.

The article deals with the contribution of Russian artists-emigrants at Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the 1930s to the formation of the new genre – comics, or, in Serbian “strip” (comics strip). The participition of Yuri Lobachev, Nikolay Navoev, Sergei Soloviev, Konstantin Kuznetsov and the other artists in the development of the new genre is analyzed. The peculiarities of their creativity on the example of the adaptation in comics the texts of the different genres, including of the folk epic and fairy tales are revealed.

The article discusses the Grasse Diary by Galina Kuznetsova, the writer and memoirist of the Russian Diaspora, Ivan Bunin’s follower and secretary, focusing on the evolution of the author’s individuality. Research into the Diary has enabled us to see three circles of books which were read at the Villa by the residents – a) books, recommended by Ivan Bunin, b) books of Bunin’s milieu, and c) books by French authors. The article concluded that the circle of reading and disputes around the books read became an important factor that influenced Bunin’s worldview and literary preferences.

The article provides insights into the notes by count Pyotr Vyazemsky in the margins of “The Letters of the Russian Traveller” from the second volume of “Selected Works by Nikolay Karamzin”.

The interest in making bibliographies in the Byzantine age, and Photius’ Bibliotheca, or Myriobiblion as a striking example, can be attributed to the higher literacy rate of the people and a desire to introduce them to the most important artistic and scientific accomplishments of the time. Bibliotheca has overviews of 280 works by ancient classics, including religious and mundane texts on history, philosophy, rhetoric, medicine, and grammar, all except poetry. A bibliography studied through the historical perspective may show the national identity and consciousness manifested by the longing to hail the culture and wish to pass it on to new generations. In Europe bibliographies started to emerge only in the Middle Ages, and bibliographers normally adhered to the religious criterion. The French Revolution sparked further interest in bibliographies, and the 19th century made them widespread. The article discusses the role of Photius’ Myriobiblion in the rise of bibliography as a field of knowledge.

This article is concerned with the analysis of linguistic tools that transfer evaluative meanings in phrases with names of acts. The illustrative examples of it are the novel by R. Zelazny “A Night in The Lonesome October” and its Russian translations. The narrator is also one of the heroes, but he values behavior and results of actions and often communicates with readers. There are means that define the attitude of narrator and help to provide readers with a specific impression.
The functional complex of such means include, for example, evaluative judgements and evaluative lexis. The centre of this complex is composed with the qualitative adjectives and adverbs, and also the verbs with evaluative semantics. The research is focused on cases of using such means and their realizations in translations.

The article presents the survey of the investigation tendencies in the field of study of N. Gumilev’s mythopoetics. Symbolism exercised a decisive influence on the works and mythopoeism of the author, including his acmeistic texts. Various scholars analyse religious, occult, ancient, historical-cultural and literary myths and mythologems in Gumilev’s works. Through the example of the biblical character of Adam it is proved that the complex analysis of Gumilev’s mythopoetics is the best possible, because this approach takes into account its polygenetic character. A work-while direction in this field is the study of Gumilev’s mythopoeism theory in comparison with Symbolists’ theories and the study of the value aspect of his mythopoetics.

The article discusses the content of the concept “adamism”, which is traditionally considered to be an alternative term for acmeism. The founders of this poetic school – S. Gorodetsky and N. Gumilev – defined adamism in different ways. Gorodetsky equalled it with acmeism and described it as an appeal to the poetics of thingness and naturalism. For Gumilev, however, adamism was a world view, i.e. ideological, but not an aesthetic category. The author substantiaties his proposal that Gumilev was the founder of the term “adamism”, because the character of Adam appeared in Gumilev’s poetry several years before the rise of acmeism and this character continued to be the central element of the poet’s Adamic myth.

The article revises the author’s decades-long personal experience of teaching Russian as a foreign language with the intent to develop a set of objectives for the future teacher of RFL so that they the scope of work to be done while in college.

The nature of the Russian language is completely different from the Chinese language, therefore the difficulties of studying the Russian language of Chinese students are particularly acute. Researchers of the Russian language point out that Chinese learners fail to master the Russian language, both in the vocational and industrial perspective, and in the social sphere of Communication. One of the main reasons for this is the existence of a certain body of difficulties encountered by a Chinese student studying the Russian language. In this article, the author will analyze the difficulties that Chinese students face when studying the Russian language at two levels: the phonetic level (phonetic difficulties) and the grammatical level (morphological and syntactic difficulties). This re-search aims to draw the attention of students and teachers to take specific features of Russian and Chinese languages into account in organizing training sessions with Chinese students and in the preparation of educational materials.