Folk Culture in Saratov Province's Urban Areas in the Late Eighteenth Century and the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

This article demonstrates the determinants of the significant role played by Russian ethnic folk culture in the urban sociocultural milieu of Saratov Province. Written sources are engaged in casting light on the manifestations of that culture in various spheres of urban life, including in the public face of urban areas. It exerted a predominant influence on the cultural process in most district towns, and in the provincial center its traits were vividly conspicuous in the spiritual and ceremonial life of the greater part of the population.