RITUALS AND OMENS IN MOSCOW AUTOMOBILE RETRO CLUBS

Introduction. The article examines the rituals and illusory correlations that arise within Moscow communities of retro car enthusiasts. It analyzes how, among “ideological” drivers, a car serves not only as a means of transportation but also as an “animated partner” for the enthusiast - one that demands special attention and increased control over the owner’s actions. The study explores how, under conditions of high uncertainty in road traffic (a “danger space”), apotropaic practices help retro club members build symbolic relationships with both the car and the road, thereby creating a “semantic space” of movement. It also considers how such relationships are reflected in car-enthusiast folklore. Content. Field materials collected through participant observation in car clubs in Moscow and the Moscow region allowed us to identify a complex of linguistic and cultural features characteristic of “ideological” drivers’ community (i. e., those who regard the car as a constituent element of their enthusiast identity). For the theoretical framing of the topic, we draw on modern domestic studies of automobiles in Russia (Kononenko R.; Mirskaya M. L.), ethnographies of the urban technosphere (Shchepanskaya T. B.), and foreign research on magical thinking in the context of risk and automobile folklore (Case T. I.; Fitness J.; Kemp L. W.). The main question of the article is how recourse to rituals and signs in retro clubs helps car owners adapt to the risks and uncertainty of road space, and what role community-specific practices play in the cultural life of “ideological” motorists. During observation, we recorded a specific language - based on a combination of slang expressions, professional terms, and metaphorical constructions - through which the collective “identity of the driver” and the “animation” of the car are constructed. This language not only serves as a means of everyday communication but also functions as symbolic communication, in which each word and expression acquires an additional cultural and emotional charge. Conclusions. The article concludes that automobile illusory correlations and specific beliefs - integral both to the retro-car community’s linguistic code and to the broader driver folklore - help members of car culture interpret unfolding events, anticipate potential dangers, and make decisions based not only on rational analysis but also on an intuitive sense of collective experience. In the context of modern urban culture - characterized by a fast pace of life and constant change - established ideas and practices undergo rethinking. This process of transformation reflects the complex interplay between tradition and innovation, in which language becomes a living organism, continually evolving under the influence of external social and cultural factors.