Field Diaries of the Botanist N. A. Bush, as a Source of Folklore and Ethnography of the Caucasus Ethnic groups (Using the Example of the Karachays)

This paper explores the scientific legacy of N. A. Bush. His primary areas of interest were the vegetation, flora, and geography of the Caucasus. His numerous trips to the Caucasus yielded folklore and ethnographic materials and information, as well as ethnographic collections gathered from local residents. Interest in these materials has increased in recent years, and some of the collection has been included in scholarly circulation. This paper aims to continue this endeavor and introduces materials relating to the Karachays. These materials were recorded by N. A. Bush in the late 19th century and are preserved in his personal collection at the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This paper draws on information from a diary kept by N. A. Bush during his summer trip to the Kuban region in 1897. Some of the results of this trip were published as a separate article, but the majority of the material has not appeared in print. Therefore, it was important for the authors of this article to analyze its scientific value. The primary research method for this study is comparative analysis. The authors also aimed to draw researchers' attention to N. A. Bush himself as a collector and specialist in the Caucasus, whose material remains largely unstudied. The results obtained during the study demonstrate that the scholar was able to capture valuable folklore and ethnographic data. Analysis of the material allows us to conclude that the information collected by N. A. Bush is fully trustworthy and may be of great interest for further study.