The editors would like to thank Professor Maurer for bringing this issue to our attention. In response to the points made by Professor Maurer, Ab Imperio would like to draw our readers’ attention to the fact that the term “host culture” that has no commonly accepted equivalent in the Russian academic language is widely used in Anglo-American sociological and historical literature that deals both with assimilation and acculturation. As such, it certainly does not bear any negative or prejudiced connotations. In our view, this term belongs to the scholarly apparatus of social sciences and is a standard generic concept to describe encounters between majority and minority groups in modern societies without any particular reference to the notions of “autochthon” or “allochtone” cultures.
At the same time, an abstract is a very condensed outline of the article’s main argument and it cannot and should not be judged as reflecting the entire range and all possible details of the article’s discussions. We hope that no one who has read the article by Professor Maurer (Ab Imperio, 4/2003) will ever think about interpreting it in terms suggested by her Letter to the editors.
Ab Imperio regrets any possible misunderstanding that may ensue from this occurrence. An Imperio is a bilingual journal, and our translation program is without precedent as far as the multitude of works and the complexity of concepts and ideas are concerned. Moreover, we often have to translate concepts and ideas from/to languages other than English and Russian. We will continue this work that enriches international communication of scholars with the same dedication and thoroughness.

Editors of Ab Imperio:
I. Gerasimov
S. Glebov
A. Kaplunovski
M. Mogilner
A. Semyonov