One of the first university textbooks on ethnography in Russian, published in Soviet times. The teaching of ethnography in the USSR became mandatory at the historical faculties of universities only in the 1960s. In this regard, the Department of Ethnography, Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov prepared the textbook "Fundamentals of Ethnography." Its editor was the head of the department, the famous Soviet ethnographer S.A. Tokarev. The system of teaching the course of ethnography proposed in this textbook has become entrenched in Soviet and, later, Russian universities and influences modern approaches to lecturing on ethnology.