Interaction of the Finno-Ugric and Russian cultures in the national costume of the Russian North

The article makes at attempt to study the semantics of the national costume of Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces basing on the methodological foundations made by Y. M. Lotman and R. Barthes. That allows to consider a costume as a semiotic unit and a method of transmitting information by means of symbols and colors, as well as to identify the ethnic elements in the ornament of Russian, Norman and Finno-Ugric cultures.