Starting from the theoretical premises of the novel as a literary genre that oscillates between the referential (towards historical reality) and the self-referential (towards its own textuality and its own literary tradition), this paper interprets the intertwining of these two aspects in the novel ‘Tolku temno’ / ‘So Dark’ by the Macedonian author Sasho Dimoski. The interpretation follows the thematic levels in the novel (related to the history of epidemics), as well as the narrative procedures in the novel and their metafictional implications in relation to possible narrativizations of the repetitiveness and cyclicality of history.

The given article dwells on the comparative analysis of a select group of emotionally expressive Tajik interjections, juxtaposing them with their functional and semantic equivalents in English and Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin). The ana­lytical framework focuses on semantic fields (surprise, pain, disapproval, call, etc.), pragmatic functions (emotive, conative, phatic), and degrees of equivalence. Findings reveal a spectrum of correspondence, from near-direct semantic equivalents to signi­ficant pragmatic gaps necessitating compensatory strategies in translation. The triadic comparison highlights the profound embeddedness of interjections in linguistic world­views, demonstrating that while core human emotions are universal, their immediate verbal expressions are heavily mediated by cultural norms and syntactic constraints. The article concludes with implications for translation theory, lexicography, and intercultural communication.

The given article dwells on issues beset with the analysis of psychological and pedagogical reasons for students’ failure in academic activities. It is noted that the analysis of modern research shows that academic failure is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon determined by the interaction of multi-level factors. It is mentioned that the results of the diagnostics of the motivational sphere of students revealed significant differences between the group of successful and unsuccessful students.
Thus, the conducted analysis made it possible to identify and systematically analyze a complex of psychological and pedagogical reasons for students’ academic failure.

The article examines the development and institutionalization of Brazil’s cultural policy in the context of international relations and soft power instruments. Special attention is paid to the creation of the Guimarães Rosa Institute as the main body res­ponsible for promoting Brazilian culture and the Portuguese language abroad. The study analyzes the historical background of its establishment, interministerial competition for control over cultural diplomacy, and the specific features of the Institute’s activities in different regions. Particular focus is placed on educational programs, the promotion of Brazilian Portuguese, and the development of the Celpe-Bras examination system in Russia. The article also addresses the issues of institutional fragmentation, inter-agency rivalry, and chronic underfunding that limit the Institute’s effectiveness. It concludes that Brazil’s contemporary cultural policy is characterized by a contradictory combination of institutional progress and persistent financial and administrative challenges.

In this article, a discursive analysis of scholarly and critical sources from the first third of the 20th century is conducted to determine the degree of conceptual understanding and establishment of the term “German School” in Russian literary criticism, as well as the specific perception of this phenomenon during that particular historical period. The study demonstrates that, despite the term being introduced by I.V. Kireevsky in 1830, it failed to gain widespread use in the literary discourse of the 1900s–1930s. An analysis of works by Yu.N. Tynyanov, R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik, V.M. Zhirmunsky, and other authors reveals that the group of poets associated with German influence was described using other categories: “Russian Schellingians”, “The Society of the Lovers of Wisdom” (Obshchestvo lyubomudriya), “Archive Youths,” and the “school of pure art”. F.I.In this article, a discursive analysis of scholarly and critical sources from the first third of the 20th century is conducted to determine the degree of conceptual understanding and establishment of the term “German School” in Russian literary criticism, as well as the specific perception of this phenomenon during that particular historical period. The study demonstrates that, despite the term being introduced by I.V. Kireevsky in 1830, it failed to gain widespread use in the literary discourse of the 1900s–1930s. An analysis of works by Yu.N. Tynyanov, R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik, V.M. Zhirmunsky, and other authors reveals that the group of poets associated with German influence was described using other categories: “Russian Schellingians”, “The Society of the Lovers of Wisdom” (Obshchestvo lyubomudriya), “Archive Youths,” and the “school of pure art”. F.I.In this article, a discursive analysis of scholarly and critical sources from the first third of the 20th century is conducted to determine the degree of conceptual understanding and establishment of the term “German School” in Russian literary criticism, as well as the specific perception of this phenomenon during that particular historical period. The study demonstrates that, despite the term being introduced by I.V. Kireevsky in 1830, it failed to gain widespread use in the literary discourse of the 1900s–1930s. An analysis of works by Yu.N. Tynyanov, R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik, V.M. Zhirmunsky, and other authors reveals that the group of poets associated with German influence was described using other categories: “Russian Schellingians”, “The Society of the Lovers of Wisdom” (Obshchestvo lyubomudriya), “Archive Youths,” and the “school of pure art”. F.I.In this article, a discursive analysis of scholarly and critical sources from the first third of the 20th century is conducted to determine the degree of conceptual understanding and establishment of the term “German School” in Russian literary criticism, as well as the specific perception of this phenomenon during that particular historical period. The study demonstrates that, despite the term being introduced by I.V. Kireevsky in 1830, it failed to gain widespread use in the literary discourse of the 1900s–1930s. An analysis of works by Yu.N. Tynyanov, R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik, V.M. Zhirmunsky, and other authors reveals that the group of poets associated with German influence was described using other categories: “Russian Schellingians”, “The Society of the Lovers of Wisdom” (Obshchestvo lyubomudriya), “Archive Youths,” and the “school of pure art”. F.I. Tyutchev held a special place in these discussions; while his work was acknowledged as being shaped by German Romanticism, he was only rarely directly attributed to the “German School”. Thus, the main conclusion of the article is that within the critical discourse of the first third of the 20^th century, the concept of the “German School” remained marginal and was supplanted by other, more commonly used terms.Tyutchev held a special place in these discussions; while his work was acknowledged as being shaped by German Romanticism, he was only rarely directly attributed to the “German School”. Thus, the main conclusion of the article is that within the critical discourse of the first third of the 20th century, the concept of the “German School” remained marginal and was supplanted by other, more commonly used terms.Tyutchev held a special place in these discussions; while his work was acknowledged as being shaped by German Romanticism, he was only rarely directly attributed to the “German School”.
Thus, the main conclusion of the article is that within the critical discourse of the first third of the 20th century, the concept of the “German School” remained marginal and was supplanted by other, more commonly used terms.Tyutchev held a special place in these discussions; while his work was acknowledged as being shaped by German Romanticism, he was only rarely directly attributed to the “German School”.
Thus, the main conclusion of the article is that within the critical discourse of the first third of the 20^th century, the concept of the “German School” remained marginal and was supplanted by other, more commonly used terms.

This article explores a key aspect of life, funeral and memorial rites, and attitudes toward death, using the language and culture of two Old Believer groups in Yakutia and Transbaikalia – descendants of the Tsar’s coachmen and the Semeiskie Old Believers. Both Old Believer groups speak a secondary dialect, a territorial variant of the Russian language. The coachmen and Old Believers long lived in isolated conditions, with unrelated linguistic and religious backgrounds. The Old Believers’ neighbors were the Buryats, who practiced Buddhism and shamanism, and the Evenki, who were pagans. The coachmen’s neighbors were the pagan Yakuts and Evenki. The language and funeral and memorial culture of the Yakuts and Evenki greatly influenced the coachmen, leading to the long-distance displacement of Russian as the native language of this ethnosocial group. In terms of ritual, the coachmen also adopted pagan views on death. To this day, the Yakut language is actively used by the descendants of the Tsar’s coachmen in everyday life. At the same time, the orthodox way of life of the Semeisk Old Believers prevented them from replacing the archaic version of Russian until the era of illiteracy and globalization. However, today, a surviving dialect can be heard in certain areas where Semeisk Old Believers live in compact settlements in Transbaikalia and Buryatia. In the case of the village of Dono mentioned in the article, it can be said that the dialect has been lost within the village. The religiosity of this ethnosocial group remains strong. One of the key factors in preserving orthodox views among the Old Believers is the Old Believer Church in Dono and the division of the village cemeteries into Nikon and pre-Nikon cemeteries. During fieldwork, a comparative analysis revealed that the topic of death is taboo among the descendants of the Tsar’s coachmen, and funeral and memorial rites include actions with superstitious undertones and pagan roots. The Semeiskie Old Believers have a relaxed attitude toward death, and preparation for the funeral process begins while they are still alive.

In recent years artificial intelligence technologies, including machine translation, have been actively developing. Modern neural network systems based on Transformer provide high-accuracy translation of scientific and technical texts, but not in the case of literary translation. Literary text requires the transmission of style, emotional nuances and cultural associations, being difficult for machine systems. The aim is to determine the capabilities and limitations of Machine Translation working with literary texts. The object of analysis is machine and author’s translations of F. Thompson’s novel “Lark Rise to Candleford” (1945). The subject of the analysis is the lexical, morphological, syntactic and pragmatic features of translations. It was done on the base of comparative and component analytical method, as well as a translation experiment involving senior students from the RUDN University Faculty of Philology. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the analysis of a text that has not previously been translated into Russian, so the influence of former versions on the work of machine translation is eliminated. The practical significance of the research is aimed at improving neural network translation models and training specialists in post-editing texts created using AI.

This article examines the functions and semantics of the images of deceased parents in wonder tales and legendary tales. Using texts from the collections of A.N. Afanasyev, N.E. Onuchkov, D.N. Sadovnikov, and other folklorists, the study explores the transformation of the archetypal parent-donor role in the transition from the classical wonder tale to narratives shaped by Christian consciousness. In the analyzed wonder tales (“Sivko-Burko”, “Cinderella”, “The Miraculous Cow”), the deceased parent retains an active function as a tester and donor, rooted in the ancestor cult and initiation rites. In legendary tales, however, (“Christ’s Brother”, “Go I Know Not Whither”, “The Wretched Drunkard”), this image is reinterpreted and transforms into a suffering sinner, an object of salvation, or a supplicant. The identified differences can be explained by analyzing pre-Christian and Christian concepts of the afterlife and funerary cults.

The review presents an annotated bibliography devoted to the first two decades of the 21st century in the development of foreign Russian studies, namely literary thought in Europe and the USA, prepared at the Faculty of Philology of Lomonosov Moscow State University as part of the special course “Foreign Russian Studies on Russian Russian literature of the 20th–21st centuries”.