The history of academic research of the ethnic culture of the votes in the XVIII–XX centuries (part one)

The purpose of the study is to provide an overview of the history of academic research of the ethnic culture of the Votian people; the objectives are to provide a systematization of scientific developments in this area and to determine their place in the general paradigm of the study of the Votian people. In addition, it is proposed to introduce a new term into Russian academic discourse, denoting a scientific complex of studies of the Votian ethnicity. In this paper, this complex will be referred to by the word “Votology”. The object of this research, therefore, is the history of Votology; the subject comprises of academic works published in the field of designated scientific knowledge in the XVIII, XIX and XX centuries.