The four-volume collection of works by V.A. Gordlevsky is arranged according to the thematic principle. The first volume presented his historical works, the second one – philological studies, the third one – articles on the history and culture of the contemporary Turkey, the fourth one – studies on the ethnography and history of oriental studies. The author deals with religion – in general, and in its various manifestations – in all four volumes. For a Russian reader who is not a specialist in Turkic studies, one of the works in the second volume is of specific interest: “What is a ‘Barefoot Wolf’ (to the Interpretation of ‘The Tale of Igor's Campaign’)” (pp. 482-504). Starting from this strange designation, which many philologists had tried to interpret, the author explained it through the Turkic word boz – gray; through metaphors associated with the wolf, he revealed the shamanic past of the Turks and the meaning of wolf as their totem animal. The same article contains a famous passage on the closeness and common ties of Russia and the Steppe, and the declaration that the demonization of the Polovtsy (Cumans) was a product of interconnections between Kiev and the West (pp. 487-488); in a modified and accented form, that idea is often reproduced in the books by L.N. Gumilev. In the first volume there are also many texts that would attract the attention of a religious scholar. Firstly, this is the monograph ‘The State of the Seljukids of Asia Minor’; and secondly, articles on Ottoman legends and folk narratives, historical traditions and folklore.