Stereotyping of the Don Cossacks in the perception of consumers of folklore-ethnographic tourist and socio-cultural products: to the formulation of the problem

Ethnic and social stereotypes are an indicative and multifunctional socio-cultural phenomenon that cannot be considered fully studied either in theoretical or in content-practical terms. The paper compares the results of the analysis of current historical, historiographical and cultural scientific works on Don Cossacks, the study of representations of the culture of Don Cossacks in the tourist and socio-cultural spheres in the Rostov Region (24 objects), a pilot survey (N = 70) of respondents for the reconstruction of ideas about Don Cossacks. In the scientific discourse of recent years about Don Cossacks, there is a tendency to discuss the directed formation of the image of the Cossacks by certain social forces.