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Introduction. The article presents the analysis of the practice of organizing collective works and duties in the traditional community of Don Cossacks. The relevance of the research is due to both small exploration degree of this problem and possibilities of using some traditional forms of organizing working community life in modern conditions.

Methods and materials. The base of the article is the analysis of periodic printing data of the late 19th century and ethnographic expeditions of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The paper presents the practice analysis of organizing collective works and social duties in the traditional community of Don Cossacks. Different varieties of field works, hunting, neighbour mutual help in constructing houses and preparing products for winter, improving settlements, maintaining churches etc. were related to collective works and duties. Such duties as keeping horse producing herds, being on duty at stanitsa administration, convoying, securing settlements were determined by the features of the Cossack militarized mode of life. Social works and duties were distributed by sex and age.

Analysis and Results. By the structure and functions revealing this practices and by analyzing people's terms for their designation the author determines that the most part of these works and duties (in view of their social importance and ways of organizing, and due to the connection with the term of common share) were related more to the sacral scope than the profane one and in fact represented varieties of rite forms. Such attitude to the labor sphere of life was connected with shared worldviews of Cossacks, their ideas about harmonically arranged social life. The relevance of the presented materials is determined by small exploration degree of this problem and possibilities of using some traditional forms of organizing working community life in modern conditions.

The article reveals the folk principles of the organization of fisheries and the worldviews behind them in the Cossack communities of the Azov and Caspian regions in the imperial period of their history. Despite the participation of official structures in organization of industries, they were based on the people's own ideas about the proper use of natural resources in which human labor was not invested, as well as about their fair distribution. In the first case, in all Cossack troops, with the exception of that of the Ural, there was a gradual transition from the free use of water resources to an equalizing transfer, which took into account only the interests of the Cossack population of the region, and Cossack widows and orphans. In the Ural Cossack army, until the beginning of the 20th century, the ancient principles of using water lands were preserved, the basis of which was the idea of equal opportunities for all participants in the fishery. When distributing the fish catch, the people's ideas about the collective (communal) share and its symbolic distribution were fundamental, which involved allocating three main "pieces": to the tsar (in the Urals), to the church and for the commemoration of the dead, as well as to the "disadvantaged" categories of the Cossack population (in the whole army). The Cossack communities also showed extreme concern for the safety of fish resources determining the timing of fishing, types of tools, and introducing multiple prohibitions and regulations. The organization of some types of fishing in the region shares some principles with the military organization of Cossacks.

Introduction. The studies carried out to date on the settlements of the Don Cossacks and the toponymic system associated with them can and should be continued, since they open up prospects for further identifying the images of those with whom the Cossacks waged incessant wars, conquering and protecting the Russian and Don lands. They make it possible to trace the evolution of the development of the images of "us" and "others", as well as to identify the socio-cultural image of the Cossacks themselves, reflected in the characteristics of the "others." Methods and Materials. To solve these problems, field materials were used, collected by the ethnographic expedition of the Volgograd State University, the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1983–2011, as well as the author's personal trips to places of compact residence of the Don Cossacks on the territory of the Volgograd region, and newspapers materials of the second half of the 19th century. Analysis. The analysis showed that the system of toponyms and toponymic folk legends reflected the historical realities associated with the constant military confrontation between the Cossacks and nomadic peoples living in the neighborhood, as well as the respectful attitude of the Cossacks to their enemies. A significant number of toponyms associated with the Tatar and Circassian population, not erased over time in the memory of the Cossacks, but preserved and overgrown with new legends, testifies to how different cultural traditions coexisted peacefully in Diko Pole, despite the extreme nature of life in the zone of constant war. Along with the historical background of the life of the Cossacks, reflected in the toponyms, the mythology of the antithesis "ours and others" is studied, reflecting the Cossack version of social history and eschatology. Results. Analysis of the legends about the ancient inhabitants of the Don land showed that they appear as mythological creatures associated with the other world, secrets, treasures and dungeons, and in the context of folk eschatology they appear as ancestors – those who "left, but promised to return." Over time, the images of alien ancestors are replaced in the Don legends by the images of Cossack chieftains, who are also guardians of treasures and must return "in the end times" to restore social justice in the world. Along with the change in the socio-cultural model of the Cossacks, the image of "aliens" was also transformed from the perception of neighbors-enemies as such to "nonresident" living in Cossack settlements, but not associated with the Cossack military service. At all stages of the history of the Cossacks, the antithesis "we–they" reflected in toponyms and legends, was associated with the military status of the Cossacks and contributed to the search and the strengthening of the group's own identity.

Introduction. The article reveals the peculiarities of the organization of fishing and hunting among the Russian population of the Lower Volga region and the Don in the 18th – 19th centuries, which were associated with the artel (collectivist) beginning. The author shows that the general principles of the organization of male fishing artels of fishermen and hunters find direct analogies with the organizational principles characteristic of archaic male, including military, traditions, for example, for the Cossack communities of the Don and Volga in the early period of their history. Methods and materials. The study was carried out on the basis of data from the periodical press of the 19th century, archival and field materials, reflecting both the fishing activities of the Russian population of the region and the forms of self-organization of the Don Cossacks in the early period of their history. This made it possible to conduct a historical and cultural comparison and identify common or similar norms and principles associated with archaic social institutions. Analysis. Conducting a comparative analysis, the author discovers that these similarities manifest themselves in the traditions of the free seizure of territories and ideas about their land and the common share, in the electability of the leaders of the artels, other officials and the presence of general meetings of its members, in the ways of dividing the loot, in the presence of unwritten law, rituals, prohibitions and regulations. Results. Many of these principles and norms are opposed to those that were typical, for example, for agricultural communities, demonstrating a connection with such categories as "strength", "luck", "competitiveness" on the one hand, and the denial of equality in work and the division of production, on the other. Contrasted with those that were typical, for example, for agricultural communities, demonstrating a connection with such categories as "strength", "luck", "competitiveness" on the one hand, and the denial of equality in work and the division of prey, on the other. Russian colonization of the Don and the Lower Volga area, starting from the 16th century, was carried out mainly by free Cossacks (also engaged in hunting and fishing), and later – by the Russian commercial population. The formation of neighboring land communities in the region began much later (from the beginning of the 18th century). There is reason to assert that the people's "Cossacks" and artel principles were subsequently periodically revived at a later time in the fishing activities of the male part of the population, consolidating in the public consciousness strong stereotypes of survival in extreme living conditions based on deep social and cultural archaism. The actual folk forms of self-organization existed along with official structures, representing a deep layer of social life, some elements of which survived until the end of the 20th century.

Based on the analysis of materials from the Don periodicals of the second half of the 19th century as well as data from field ethnographic studies of the late 20th — early 21th century collected in places of compact residence of the Don Cossacks, the article reveals the status and functions of widows in the Don Cossack community and family. The cardinal changes in the situation of widowed women in the family and community, in the economic and ceremonial spheres of life are shown, and the mechanisms for their adaptation to the new status are revealed. Features of the militarized way of life in the Don Cossack communities had an impact on the position of widows in the family and community. They determined their high status associated with the main social function — the guardians of the military glory of husbands. The special property rights of widows and their active participation in the life of the community, including Cossack self-government, were associated with this. The community secured widows' rights to land allotment of the deceased husband and his property, defended the rights of the widow and her children, focusing not only on legislation, but also on customary law. In the Cossack milieu, there were also forms of psychological rehabilitation of widows: their inclusion in the ritual life of the family and community, support through the communities of odnosumy (fellow soldiers) and odnosumok ("female fellow soldiers"). These mechanisms enabled women who found themselves in difficult life situations to find a new place in society, opened opportunities for psychological rehabilitation, spiritual realization and continuation of an active social life.

Introduction. In the study the authors consider the ways of understanding and overcoming the extreme conditions of the Great Patriotic The task is to define the forms and ways of "overcoming" the war conditions and its traumatizing consequences developed by Russians and to identify their connection with traditional types of worldview and folk ritual practices. Methods and materials. The analysis of folk stories recorded among different generations and rural Russian areas as well as memories about the wartime and the period after the Great Patriotic War compose the base of the article. According to the main task the authors use the method widely used in the Russian Ethnography which is called the "inside the tradition" view, or analysis from the position of its bearers. Analysis. The natural alternation of periods of prosperity and crises explains the inevitability of war, but according to popular beliefs, the impoverishment of the sacred sphere of life is the main factor of a tragedy. On the contrary, human turning to God and his / her repentance determine the possibility of overcoming a tragedy. The concept of "a rule" (and its violation) as well as the concept of "a destiny" (a shared fate) which must be restored and redistributed under the crisis according to popular beliefs play an important role in the mechanism of developing ways to "overcome" the war among the Russians during the wartime. Wartime ritual practices including baking and cutting bread, redistributing it to the front line, organizing joint meals, etc. confirm the statement. The process of the revival of religious (Orthodox) practices, and the formation of a collective memory of the war and the fallen heroes was inspired from below, from the masses. This initiative included folk forms of veneration and remembrance of the dead, the creation of sacred places associated with the war and the memory about it. Women, who became the main keepers of the tradition, who took upon themselves the functions of harmonizing the socio-psychological situation in rural areas during the difficult war and postwar years, were especially active in these processes. Results. The authors confirm the particular role of traditional types of worldview influencing the modern collective memory as well as social practices during both extreme conditions and everyday life. Ordinary people preferred to turn to centuries-old spiritual traditions of overcoming war traumas and to use the experience of preserving collective memory of them formed in the pre-revolutionary time within the peasant and Cossack communities.