Formation and development of ethnography in the Penza, Saratov and Tambov provinces

The process of formation of ethnography in the Russian province is analysed in the article. The leading role of the Russian Geographic Society, the Society of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography, Moscow Archaeological Society and provincial committees on statistics in the origin of ethnographic knowledge is demonstrated. The contribution of professional ethnographers of the 2nd half of the XIX century into the formation of ethnographic knowledge in the Russian province is underlined.