Overchuk O. Theoretical and methodological basis of folklore in the South-West Division of the Russian Geographical Society

The study carries out the complex analysis of folklore in the South-West Division of the Russian Geographical Society with current methods of proceeding the historiographical research. The review of scientific and journalistic literature showed varying degrees of scrutiny of the scientific personalities in the second half of the XIX century. The dissertation offers the prerequisites of founding the academic institution, the study of socio-political and historical factors of scientific and educational priorities among the passionaries of national humanities. The thesis highlights the key stages of the Division activity and the reasons for its dissolution. Considerable attention is devoted to the main principles of the South-West Division of the Russian Geographical Society, taking into account fixing folklore texts via field studies, its preservation in folklore collections, the theoretical study of factual material and the publication of its results at scientific conferences. Owing to analytical and system analysis of folklore the new opportunities of interdisciplinary research for future generations of folklorists have been opened up.