RUSSIAN-TATAR DICTIONARIES OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19 <sup>th</sup> CENTURY
The article throws light upon Russian-Tatar dictionaries of the first half of the XIX century. It analyzes the lexis of these dictionaries, explains the aims and objectives, the problems and the method of compiling, and also provides new data about compilers. The first half of the XIX century in Russia is characterized by a lack of politicians, interpreters and religious figures, who knew Tatar for missionary and eastern policy. It was a reason to teach Tatar in religious academies and seminaries, professional colleges and high schools. It became an indispensable condition to compile Tatar-Russian dictionaries to ensure both Russian internal policy and foreign policy. Furthermore, being a political object, dictionaries are a linguistic source for the science of language. They are a gem of lexis, phonetic and grammatical peculiarities, dialectal features, onomastic and folk material.