Abstract
<jats:p>This article examines how the concepts of “merchant/labor” and “core/work” are presented in Sadriddin Aini's autobiographical narrative “Memories”. With the help of lexico-statistical and contextual analysis, semantic clusters and cultural codes associated with these concepts are identified in the study. There is a change in the image of labor – from a manifestation of feudal oppression to a symbol of liberation and identity in the Soviet era. The novelty of the research lies in the interpretation of the work as a cultural cipher encoding the Tajik worldview. The results obtained are valuable material for further research in the field of conceptology, national identity, and socio-cultural semantics of Central Asian literature.</jats:p>