Collection of Russian folklore in the 19th - early 20th centuries. Names of famous collectors of folk songs, proverbs, fairy tales, epics, their works

Volgograd

State Institute of Arts and Culture

Subject: "Ethnography and folklore"

On the subject: "Collectors of folklore"

Fulfilled

group student

3RTP AND OZO

Makarov Gennady

Checked by teacher:

Slastenova I.V.

VOLGOGRAD 2005

Collectors of Russian folklore.

Collectors and researchers of folklore have long paid attention to the "coherence" of Russian proverbs.

Special consideration of the poetic form of proverbs and genres close to them is devoted to the study by I. I. Voznesensky “On the warehouse or rhythm and meter of short sayings of the Russian people: proverbs, sayings, riddles, sayings, etc.” (Kostroma, 1908), which has not lost its significance to our time.

At the same time, it should be recognized that in pre-revolutionary folklore and Soviet science of the first two decades, the questions of the poetic organization of Russian proverbs did not become the object of comprehensive consideration. Yu. M. Sokolov, in this regard, in the mid-30s quite rightly wrote: “If the proverb is still completely insufficiently studied in socio-historical terms, then Russian folklore cannot boast of any detailed study of the artistic side either. her. Researchers usually emphasize that "the proverb for the most part is measured or folding" or that "the form of a proverb is a more or less short saying, often expressed in a collapsible, measured speech, often metaphorical / poetic / language", but on the question of what exactly is the "warehouse and measure", detailed studies still not available."

A certain semantic and intonational independence in proverbs is acquired not only by their parts, but even by individual words, which in their semantic expressiveness often approach a phrase. Here are examples of such proverbs: “To endure, fall in love”; “It is said and done”, “It was - and swam away”.

We will consider several directions of folklore collectors.

Since we started with proverbs and sayings, then we will start the story about them.

Few people know now that Vladimir Ivanovich Dal, the compiler of the famous Explanatory Dictionary and the collection "Proverbs of the Russian People", was half Dane by blood, a Lutheran by religion.

Returning from the voyage, Dal was promoted to midshipman and sent to serve in Nikolaev. In March 1819, Vladimir Dal was heading from St. Petersburg to the south on the messenger. On the ancient Novgorod land, leaving the Zimogorsky Chm station, the coachman dropped a word: -Rejuvenates ...

And in response to a perplexed question, Dahl explained: it’s getting cloudy, it’s about heat. Seventeen-year-old Dahl gets notebook and writes: “Rejuvenate” - otherwise cloudy - in the Novgorod province means to fill up with clouds, speaking of the sky, it tends to bad weather. This entry became the grain from which, 45 years later, the Explanatory Dictionary grew.

But this is still very far away. The collection of extraordinary sayings, words and sayings, folk oral wealth has just begun.

Dal saw the roads of Moldova and Bulgarian villages, and Turkish fortresses. He heard someone else's dialect and all shades of his native Russian speech. At the bivouac fire, in a free moment in the hospital, Vladimir Ivanovich wrote down more and more new words that had not been heard before.

In 1832, the serious literary activity of V.I.Dal began. Metropolitan magazines publish his articles under the pseudonym "Vladimir Lugansky" or "Cossack Lugansky" - after the name of his native town. A gifted storyteller, a sociable person. Dal easily enters literary world Petersburg.

He converges with Pushkin, Pletnev, Odoevsky, and other famous writers and journalists. His works are quickly gaining huge success.

In the spring of 1832, Dal again abruptly turns his fate - he goes to distant Orenburg as an official for special assignments under the military governor. Dahl is a collegiate assessor, an official of the 8th grade, which corresponds to a major in the army.

Traveling around the Cossack villages and camps of nomads, Dal discovered for himself the special world of Russian disturbing borderlands. He not only observed orders and customs, not only wrote down words, he acted, treated the sick, interceded for the offended. "Fair Distance", - the steppe people called him.

In Orenburg, he met with Pushkin, who came to a distant land to collect material on the history of Pugachev rebellion. Together they traveled to the places where Pugachev's movement began, questioned the old people. Then Pushkin advised Dahl to seriously engage in literature, probably he gave the idea to come to grips with the dictionary.

Dahl's last meeting with Pushkin took place on the tragic days of December 1837 in St. Petersburg, where Dahl had come on official business. Having learned about the duel between Pushkin and Dantes, Vladimir Ivanovich immediately appeared at the apartment of a friend and did not leave him until the end.

Pushkin was treated by palace doctors, Dahl was a military doctor.

Although he was not as famous as Scholz, Salomon or Arendt, it was he who gave Pushkin hope until the last hour, it was he who remained with the wounded inseparably the last night.

The publication of an explanatory dictionary and a collection of Russian proverbs required a lot of money. Dahl made a decision to work and earn, save for the future, so that in old age he could devote himself to his favorite business.-

In the spirit of the times, Vladimir Ivanovich instructs his subordinates to deal with his private matter. Grigorovich recalled Dal: “Using his position, he sent out circulars to all officials inside Russia, instructing them to collect and deliver to him local traits, songs, sayings, and so on.” But it was not the officials who made up the Dahl collections with their offerings. The fame of Dahl, not only a writer and essayist, but also an ascetic who took on the nationwide cause, spread more and more widely. From all over Russia, well-wishers send him their collections, lists of rare words and sayings. It was the time of the awakening of interest in society to the way of life, the life of the people. The Russian Geographical Society, created with the active participation of Dahl, sent an "Ethnographic Circular" to all parts of Russia with a proposal to study the life of the population of all regions.

The time was coming to an end when the geography of France and life ancient rome educated people knew more than their own, domestic. Magazines, one after another, inform the public about Dahl's asceticism, asking for help. Many famous cultural figures, such as Lazhechnikov and Pogodin, collect words, songs, fairy tales for Dahl. In the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, Dahl thanks his assistants again and again.

In 1848 he moved to Nizhny Novgorod, to the post of manager of a specific office.

“During a ten-year stay in the Nizhny Novgorod province, Dal collected a lot of materials for the geographical indication of the distribution of various dialects,” writes Melnikov-Pechersky.

Nizhny Novgorod province in this respect is a remarkable originality.

Still would! The famous Makariev Fair was an event of European significance. Here the trade routes of East and West intersected - tea from China, iron from the Urals, bread from the steppe provinces, carpets from Central Asia, manufactory and manufactured goods from the West - everything that was produced in the vast expanses of the Russian Empire, everything that was imported from neighboring countries , exhibited, sold on the lowland area lined with shops near the mouth of the Oka. 86 million rubles in silver - such was the trade turnover of the Makariev Fair in those years.

The new era tore out the peasants with centuries of their homes mixed in a common cauldron, and so the language was created, which Dahl called the living Great Russian.

Dahl perfectly mastered one of the main qualities of a folklorist: the ability to talk to people, to talk people. “There was someone and something to learn, how to speak with a Russian commoner,” recalls Melnikov-Pechersky, who often accompanied Dahl on his trips around the province. The peasants did not want to believe that Dal was not a natural Russian person. “He grew up exactly in the village, he was fed on the floor, he was drunk on the stove,” they used to say about him, and how well he felt, how pleased he was when he was among our kind and intelligent people!

Dal was by nature obrukim - that is, he wielded both the right and left hands with equal dexterity (this helped him in eye operations, where he acted with the hand that was convenient), he was the same obrukov in relation to his fate: we will not be able to to name only a hobby the compilation of a grandiose Explanatory Dictionary for 200 thousand words, a set of proverbs, including more than thirty-one thousand sayings, literary works, occupying almost four thousand pages of text, numerous articles, collections of songs, fairy tales, etc.

In his declining years, Dal settled in Moscow. His house has been preserved - a spacious mansion on Presnya. Here Dahl's titanic, ascetic work was completed - compiling a collection of proverbs of the Russian people and an Explanatory Dictionary .. Dahl devoted three to four hours a day to this occupation for decades. He copied the collected proverbs in two copies, cut them into "straps". One copy was pasted into one of the 180 notebooks by category - it was a collection of proverbs. The other was pasted into the alphabetical notebook to the keyword - these are examples for the Explanatory Dictionary. For half a century, Dahl explained and provided with examples about two hundred thousand words. If you deduce the “average figure”, it turns out that with a twelve-hour working day, for half a century, he wrote down and explained one word every hour. But he not only collected and recorded, he created, served, lived!...

The explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language included: “Written, colloquial, common folk, general, local, regional, everyday, scientific, trade and craft, foreign, learned and re-used, with translation. explanation and description of objects, interpretation of the concepts of general and particular, subordinate, average, equivalent and opposite, and much more.

Plunging into its wealth, you do not believe that all these thousands of words passed through one hand. Dahl's dictionary lives and will live as long as the Russian people live.

Now, at a temporary distance, we deeply thank Dahl for his tremendous work. A dictionary, essays on everyday life, a collection of proverbs is for us one of the sure keys that open the past era. His task - to give in words, proverbs, pictures of everyday life an accurate photographic snapshot of the Russian world of the middle of the 19th century, to capture the life of the nation in the smallest details and manifestations - Dahl brilliantly fulfilled. Time will pass, life will change. The colossal image of the era created by Dahl will remain unchanged. And the further, the more valuable it will be for future generations. -

PRINCIPLES OF EDITION. COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
SERIES "EPIC" CODE OF RUSSIAN FOLKLORE

The epic epic as an expression of the artistic genius of the Russian people is an outstanding monument of universal culture. Entering the East Slavic cultural and ethnic core, acting as the guardian of the most ancient epic heritage, epics combine in their plot features of epics before the state, the era of Kievan Rus and the period of Moscow centralization. Permeated with the ideas of patriotic heroism, epic works were one of the most important factors that ensured the consolidation of the Russian nation and Russian statehood. The monumental images of heroes created by the epic - warriors and plowmen, defenders and builders of the Fatherland have become symbols of our people.

The publication of epics in the series provides for the release of monuments of the Russian folk song epic at a level equivalent to the level of academic publications of Russian writers.

The epics have completed their thousand-year development and almost completely passed into the category of cultural monuments. Folkloristics today has the opportunity to create, on the basis of an exhaustive accounting of all the material of epics recorded in the 17th-20th centuries, not just another anthology, but a stock national library, a corpus of Russian epic epics, which will ensure the preservation and further popularization of one of the indigenous forms of national culture.

Researchers from different social sciences still do not have a reliable basic library of the Russian epic, capable of satisfying their diverse requests, which leads to the deliberate preliminaryity of many conclusions, duplication of search processes, and ultimately to unacceptable wastefulness of scientific forces. The publication of the series "Epics" of the Code of Russian Folklore involves the creation of a factual foundation for Russian epic studies.

The Byliny series is the first in the order of the creation of the Code of Russian Folklore. This is dictated not only by high social and aesthetic value of this circle of cultural monuments, but also due to the scientific readiness of domestic folklore to publish the named type of folk poetry (a large number of studies of epics in the aspects of philological, historical, musicological; a solid tradition of publishing a song epic starting from the works of K. F. Kalaidovich, P. V. Kireevsky , P. N. Rybnikov, A. F. Gilferding). The amount of material - including data on archival accumulations, materials of expeditions of the Soviet era and current years - is realistically foreseeable.

scientific term“epics”, like the folk term “old times”, in the practice of research and publications of Russian folklore often, and not without good reason, come together, embracing all varieties of oral song epic, which together form the repertoire of performers of epics (Russian North) and epic songs ( South of Russia, the Volga region and some other areas), namely:

epics (heroic, or heroic, epics-short stories, epics on local themes, epics on fairy tales, comic epic); older historical songs (XIV - early XVII centuries); older ballads; songs of the old Russian book edition, influenced by the epic epic (apocryphal songs, or spiritual verses, songs-parables, etc.); epic songs; ballad songs.

Of the named varieties of song epic, the series "Epics" on the basis of the similarity of content, stylistic and poetic form, plot-genetic relationship, functional proximity, stability of performing and musical traditions - works of category "A" are combined (with the exclusion of epic-like arrangements of fairy tales, as well as stylizations - "news") and "D".

Approximately one third of the epic epic material identified to date (meaning total records - 3 thousand units of texts-variants of works) has not been published and has not been involved in a systematic study. The published collections are diversified, different in their concepts, variegated in composition, do not have the same textological settings.

Science has publications of a consolidated type, relating to the early, romantic, time of the development of folklore (for example, in I-V issues of the Collection folk songs P. V. Kireevsky contains 100 epic versions for 35 plots about heroes) and therefore embracing only a relatively small part of the currently known records; has classical collections of epic songs of various genres of the regional type. These collections give a general idea of ​​the composition of the Russian epic epic or of the state of local tradition a certain time in the volume of material that became known to the collector, but they do not create either a cumulative characteristic of the Russian epic, or complete picture life of epic-epic art in the region throughout the records. There are - also not exhaustive - publications of the repertoire of one performer. There are anthologies of epic works about a number of heroes of the Kyiv and Novgorod epic cycles, where the leading plots and their versions are presented in selected versions. There are other valuable editions of epic folklore. But they do not pursue the goal of reuniting the monuments of the epic epic into a single series capable of concentrating in forms acceptable to a relatively wide range of readers all the millennial wealth of Russian epic culture and at the same time preserving the maximum information about this type of Russian folk art. Recordings and retellings of folklore works found in ancient Russian manuscripts or publications of the 18th century are transmitted with the preservation of the phonetic and morphological features of the source text, but with the elimination archaic features graphics and orthography (extension letters in a line; continuous spelling.-

Russian folklore (V. S. Galkin. "Siberian Tales") (review)

Soon the fairy tale takes its toll... Saying The magical world of a fairy tale - it has been created since time immemorial, when a person was unaware of not only the printed, but also the handwritten word. The fairy tale lived and passed from mouth to mouth, passed from generation to generation. Its roots are deeply folk. And the fairy tale will live as long as the sun will shine in the sky. Of course, the fairy tale of our time is not an oral folk art, but an essay written by a professional writer. It inevitably differs both in form and style from the old fairy tales. But the fairy tale has not lost its precious original qualities to this day. This is cunning, kindness, the search for the best, noble principles in the character of a person, fierce determination in overcoming evil. I recently read Vladimir Galkin's book "Siberian Tales" and rejoiced at the author's success in developing Russian fairy tale traditions. The book tells about the author that he is a teacher and has been collecting folklore for many years in order to form new tales on its basis. V. Galkin harmoniously combines the details of the real life of modern Siberia and its past with magic fairy world. Therefore, when reading the Siberian Tales, it is as if you breathe in the aroma of spirited bread sourdough, which is still preserved by many rural housewives, and you are burned by the fresh Siberian frost, going out into the forest in the morning along with the heroes of the tales. The plots of the stories are simple. For example, in the tale “Yeremey's word” we are talking about the old man Yeremey Stoerosov, who lived in the village by weaving baskets for mushrooms and berries. But the thing is that he loved during this work, it is interesting to tell different stories. Often he had a full hut filled with people. Everyone wanted to listen to Yeremeyev's tales. And the people gathered like this: “The mother of some boy will come, make a noise:“ He listens to stories, but you won’t wake up in the morning! But others will shush her: “Take, aunt, your little one, don’t bother us!” Baba will shut up. He will stand, stand and sit down in the corner: “Evon speaks so fluently!” With this short fragment, the author outlined two moral principles in the life of the Russian people: the first is that work is not an end in itself for him, and he always tries to somehow decorate it with a song or a word, in other words, turn weekdays into holidays; the second - at the sight of someone else's joy, he forgets his own difficulties and sorrows. But not without envious people. There is a guy in the village Oska Ryabov, nicknamed Ryabok. Everyone in the village dislikes him. Envious: “A neighbor will bring a scarf from the city for the holiday to his wife, Ryabok whispers in the village: “What does Makar Maryu dress up? Still didn’t come out with a snout. ” Of course, such a person envied the good reputation of Yeremey the storyteller and tried to taunt him. He sits, sits - and suddenly, for no reason at all, blurts out: “All lies!” Yeremey treated this diameter calmly, although the villagers tried to intercede for him many times: “Ryabka Yeremey would have driven Ryabka, what does he endure?” And other oils were added to the fire: “He cut off, you see, his Oska!” The author describes situations where there are clearly manifested various characters heroes. Jeremey is especially good here. He is not at all offended by Ryabka, but nevertheless he meekly decides to teach him a lesson, or rather, to guide him on the right path. To achieve his goal, Eremey chooses an old Russian fairy-tale version: to ridicule the diameter through some intricate case. He goes to a familiar hunter and asks him for several live hares, knowing that he knows how to catch them not with loops, but in pits. Yeremey placed Zaitsev in a box and began to wait for the guests to arrive - to listen to his stories. The guests came, and with them the diameter of Ryabok. Here Yeremey says: “I will catch Zaitsev, why waste time. I’ll read the plot - they will pile on while I’m telling you stories. ” Of course, only Ryabok doubted and agreed to a dispute with Yeremey. Whoever loses, he puts a bucket of mead. But Yeremey also shows the breadth of nature here: while he was whispering a conspiracy, the guests were treated to his own mead. Of course, Yeremey won the argument. While his hares jumped out of the box and fled into the forest, everyone laughed at Ryabko. All his life he had science. It is possible to speculate on this fragment more broadly. It can be seen that the hunter "sometimes hunted with a rifle, but wore it more for force." More such hunters! And the main character of the tale, Eremey, is not a vindictive and generous person. Although he won the argument, he still put out his mead. And it was the bunnies that helped restore justice. I immediately recall a fairy tale about how a hare, in the role of a younger brother, participated in the race and won. That is, the author retained the Russian fairy tradition. In conclusion, I want to say that there are not so many collectors of folklore in our country. Therefore, every meeting with such a collector of the semiprecious folk word, like Vladimir Galkin, is always a joy. .

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION OF SONG FOLKLORE OF THE SAMARA REGION

The history of collecting song folklore of the Samara region has more than a hundred years. The first editions were collections and scattered publications, in which only lyrics were placed without a notographic recording of the tunes. In some works, the authors recorded the dialectal features of local dialects.

One of the first major publications devoted to the song folklore of the Samara province was the work of a prominent folklorist-collector, researcher of folk art, translator V.G. Varentsov "Collection of songs Samara region". The book contains more than 170 texts of songs recorded by students of the Samara district school in several villages of the Samara province. The author supplements the collection with personal comments on the genre features of local folklore, notes the influence on the local song style of immigrants from the Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Simbirsk provinces.

Several Samara round dance songs of the Stavropol district were included in the well-known "Collection of Russian Folk Songs" by M.A. Balakirev.

In 1898 the first volume of P.V. Shane "Great Russian in his songs, rituals, customs, beliefs, legends, etc." . The publication includes many Samara wedding, dance, children's and other songs.

At the turn of the century, the largest work over the past century devoted to traditional songs was published - the seven-volume book Great Russian Folk Songs Published by Prof. AI Sobolevsky. The collection included a large number of Samara songs of various genres, recorded in Buzuluk, Stavropol districts, the cities of Nikolaevsk, Syzran, Samara.

` One of the first major works of the 20th century was the book of the famous folklorist, publicist, archeographer P.V. Kireevsky. The multi-volume edition includes hundreds of lyrics recorded in different regions of Russia. Among them are the first published songs of the Samara province, collected in the middle of the 19th century by the Russian poet - lyricist P. M. Yazykov.

Of interest is a large genre variety of lyrics. The epic genre, which has practically disappeared in the Samara Territory, is represented here by ten epics; military, Cossack, recruit, soldier, sailor, lyrical, wedding songs, ballads, spiritual poems are also recorded.

In the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, publications of song lyrics were often dispersed in local periodicals. Notable work in the direction of popularization of traditional folk art was carried out by the collector-folklorist R. Akulshin. So, in 1926, in the local newspapers "Krasnaya Niva", "Music and Revolution", he published the texts of Samara ditties. Several soldiers' songs recorded by R. Akulshin in the Kuibyshev region were published by the Volzhskaya Nov newspaper. The same publication in the section "Folk Songs" placed on its pages 16 texts of old wedding and military songs collected by R. Akulshin in 1923.

Of interest is the description of an old Russian wedding, recorded by S. Lukyanov in 1929 in the village. Duck. The article contains expeditionary material with a description of the wedding action, set out from the words of the ritual participants themselves, starting from the moment of matchmaking and ending with the second day of the wedding feast. The article also published the texts of some wedding songs performed by a local ethnographic ensemble.

In 1937, a collection compiled by V. Sidelnikov and V. Krupyanskaya "Volga folklore" was dedicated to the folklore of our region. It includes expeditionary materials of 1935, reflecting the picture of the existence of oral folk art in the Kuibyshev region. The collection includes samples of local fairy tales, legends, more than 30 texts of historical, wedding, everyday and other songs, 354 texts of Soviet ditties. During the recording, the territory of the Volga coast was examined - the Krasnoyarsk region (the villages of Malaya and Bolshaya Tsarevshchina, Shiryaevo), the Stavropol region (the villages of Russkaya Barkovka, Stavropol, Khryashchevka), as well as some villages of the Ulyanovsk region.

A large number of texts of songs of the Kuibyshev region are placed in the 1938 collection "Volga Songs". In addition to songs dedicated to the revolutionary Stalinist theme, more than 20 texts of historical, lyrical, wedding and dance songs have been published. Among them are "The Nightingale Persuaded the Cuckoo", "The Volozhka Spilled Widely",

“Oh, you, garden, you are my garden”, “Oh, fogs, you, fogs”, “Blow, blow, you weather”, “Ah, father, drink, don’t drink me”, “Vanya’s mother sent”, “ Spinning wheel under the bench ", etc.

Since the end of the 40s, the songs of our region have been published separately in some major metropolitan publications,,,.

The first musical publications of songs recorded in the Samara region appeared in 1862 and 1876-77,. We meet three tunes in the collection of M. Balakirev, published in 1891. The composer made a special trip along the Volga, he was the first of the collectors who began to record songs not in the city, but in the countryside from the peasants. Each tune the author gives his processing - harmonization.

Collector Lipaev I.V. in the newspaper "Russian Musical Newspaper" he published the tunes and texts of the wedding lament "You, my breadwinner, father" and the labor artel "Here it will not come, it will go".

Three tunes recorded in 1901 by A. Maslov were published in the collection "Songs from the Volga Region" in 1906. In 1926, songs collected by R. Akulshin were published.

Separate songs of the Samara Volga region were included in various collections of the 30-40s. One, recorded by V. Zakharov in 1934 in Bor district, is placed in his work "Thirty Russian Folk Songs". Three songs were published by the Kuibyshev ODNT in 1944.

Three more, notated from a phonograph, were included in the Moscow collection Ten Russian Folk Songs. Four tunes are included in the brochure by V.I. Volkov "Seven Russian Folk Songs". Several song samples have been included in other editions of , , , , , .

A large expeditionary work in the Samara Volga region in the late 40s and early 50s was carried out by a group of folklore researchers from Leningrad, who were part of the scientific expedition of the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Planned field work to collect and record works of local oral folk art was carried out in the Elkhovsky, Utevsky, Stavropol, Bogatovsky, Kinel-Cherkassky and Novodevichensky districts of the Samara region.

The result of the Leningrad expeditions was a number of publications dedicated to Samara song folklore, which were published in the late 50s and early 60s.

The main result of the expedition trips of 1948, 1953, 1954 was the collection "Russian folk songs of the Volga region", which became the first major publication dedicated to the folklore of the Samara region. As the newspaper Sovetskaya Kultura wrote, “...among the materials [of the expedition] are more than one and a half thousand Volga ditties,<...>old lyrical and play tunes ". The work has a preface and an introductory article by N. Kolpakova, which reveals a number of issues in the history of the settlement of the Kuibyshev region, and also analyzes state of the art folk art in the region.

The collection includes 100 Russian folk songs. It is divided into two sections: Soviet songs (20) and old folk songs (80). Of the 100 songs published, 83 were recorded with a tape recorder and 17 by ear. It seems especially valuable that "... [songs] were recorded directly from the voice of the people ..." without copyright musical processing or arrangements. Unfortunately, the poetic texts have been edited according to the generally accepted literary transcription, which has deprived them of their original dialect flavor.

The work on collecting and studying the Samara Russian song folklore noticeably intensified with the opening of the department of folk choral art at the KGIK in 1979. Expeditionary trips to the regions of the region have become more planned and systematic. Since that time, students and teachers of the university have carried out a huge research work - hundreds of folk songs have been recorded and analyzed, interesting material has been collected on the history, ethnography of the Samara Territory,,,,,,.

One of the most notable publications among recent publications was O. Abramova's book "Living Springs". Along with the song material collected in the Bogatovsky, Borsky, Neftegorsky, Krasnoyarsk regions, the collection contains information about the traditional culture, ethnography of our region, an analytical article "Cadenzas in folk songs of the Samara region."

In 2001, a wonderful book was published in Samara, dedicated to the famous collector of the Middle Volga folklore M.I. Chuvashev "The spiritual heritage of the peoples of the Volga region: living sources". It includes hundreds of samples of traditional Mordovian and Russian songs recorded by the researcher from 1964-1971 in the northern and central regions of the Samara region. Of interest are Russian folk songs that exist in villages with a mixed Russian-Mordovian population. 49 song samples of different genres of Pokhvistnevsky, Shentalinsky, Chelno-Vershinsky, and other regions reflect the specifics of the existence of the Russian song tradition in a foreign language environment.

One of the latest publications on the folklore of the Samara region was the collections released in 2002 by the Syzran College of Arts,. Both works include original song material recorded in the Volga and Shigon regions. The songs presented in the collections reflect the genre specifics of local folklore; labor, wedding, lullabies, dance, round dance, lyrical songs and romances are collected and notated.

To date, the published song material, recorded by researchers in different years, has hundreds of samples. A huge expeditionary work has been done, the results of which are not only literary publications, but also priceless sound recordings made decades ago. But, on an all-Russian scale, the Middle Volga (and Samara as a component) song tradition still remains one of the least studied. This is largely due to the national heterogeneity of the local population, which definitely complicates the search for authentic Russian ensembles. However, the songs that exist in the conditions of "national diversity" are of great interest to the researcher. V.G. Varentsov in his book "Collection of songs of the Samara region" noted: "... those colonists who live, surrounded on all sides by foreigners, keep their special features much longer<...>, living among the Chuvash and Mordovians, still retain their costumes and dialect. "Thus, the primary tasks of folklorists and local historians are the collection of new material in poorly studied areas of the region, such as Khvorostyansky, Koshkinsky, Klyavlensky, Bolshechernigovskiy, etc. and the classification of samples from the already existing stock of records.

Used Books

1. Sokolov Yu. M. Russian folklore. M., 1941, p. 212.

2. See: Dal V.I. Proverbs of the Russian people. M., 1957 (in

text: D., p. ...Ch. Rybnikova M. A. Russian proverbs and

sayings. M., 1961.

3. Page 3-to-6

V.I.Dal - "Proverbs of the Russian people." 1-2-3 vol.

Moscow. "Russian Book" 1993.

4.- The author's work on the first two volumes was performed by A. A. Gorelov ("Foreword", "Principles of publication. Composition and structure of the Epic series of the Code of Russian Folklore"); V. I. Eremina, V. I. Zhekulina, A. F. Nekrylova (textological preparation of the corpus of texts of epics, “Principles of the distribution of verbal material”, “Textological principles of publication”, passport and textological commentary, “Biographical data about the performers”); Yu. A. Novikov (plot-variant commentary). The authors of the article "Russian epic epic":

5. ALLSoch.ru: Galkin V.S. Miscellaneous Russian folklore (V. S. Galkin. "Siberian Tales") (review)

Literature

1. Abramova O.A. Living springs. Materials of folklore expeditions in the Samara region. - Barnaul, 2000. - 355s.

2. Aksyuk S.V., Golemba A.I. Modern folk songs and songs amateur performances. M.-L. -Issue 1. - 1950. - 36s.; Issue 2. - 1951. - 59p.

3. Akulshin R. Village dances // Krasn. field. - 1926. - No. 36. - S.14-15.

4. Akulshin R. Our songs // Music and revolution. - 1926. - 7-8. - P.19-28.

5. Akulshin R. Rivals: From the life of the Samara province. // Music and revolution. - 1926. - No. 3.

6. Balakirev M.A. Collection of Russian folk songs. - S.-Pb., 1866. - 375s.

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03.10.2018 0 522 Khadzhieva T.M.

T.M. Khadzhiev

M.P. GAIDA AS A COLLECTOR AND RESEARCHER

KARACHAYEV-BALKAR FOLK SONGS

Starting from the 20s. 20th century in Russia, a lot of work was done to collect, publish and study the folklore of its peoples. This article deals with the folklore expedition to Balkaria (1924) by the famous Ukrainian folklorist - musicologist, collector of folk songs, conductor of choir chapels Mikhail Petrovich Gaidai. During this expedition, he recorded about 100 musical notations of Balkar songs and tunes. The materials he collected during this expedition formed the basis of two of his articles: "On the Balkarian Folk Song" and "Journey to Balkaria". The manuscripts of these articles and musical notes by M.P. Gaidai (“About the Balkarian Folk Song”) are kept in the archives of the Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnology. M.F. Rylsky National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Gaidai's manuscript "Balkarian Folk Melodies" consists of 108 musical notes of songs and tunes. Of these, 96 are Balkar; 10 - Kabardian; 2 - Kyrgyz melodies recorded by him in Stavropol. The enduring value and significance of Gaidai's musical notes of songs is that he gives them subtexts in the original language. Gaidai naturally possessed not only perfect pitch and a subtle sense of harmony and rhythm, but he also drew well. This is evidenced by the drawings he made for his ethnographic article "Journey to Balkaria", which undoubtedly increase the scientific and ethnographic value of his notes.

M.P. Gaidai (1) in his article “Journey to Balkaria”, noting that “the idea of ​​traveling to Balkaria to record folk melodies arose” from the head of the Cabinet of Musical Ethnography of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, member of the Folklore Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences K.K. Kvitki writes: “Last summer of 1924, for almost two months, on behalf of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, I had, at times with great difficulty, to travel around Balkaria. Based on the materials of this expedition, in addition to general ethnographic everyday observations of Balkar life, about which I wrote a report to the Academy, 123 folk melodies (2), mostly Balkar, were recorded, of which 10 were recorded by me on a phonograph "(3). Manuscripts by M.P. Gaidai "Balkarian Folk Melodies" (music notes), "On the Balkar Folk Song" (musicological article) and "Journey to Balkaria" (an ethnographic article) are stored in the archives of the Institute of Art History, Folkloristics and Ethnology. M.F. Rylsky National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Gaidai by nature possessed not only absolute pitch and a subtle sense of harmony and rhythm, but he also drew well. This is evidenced by the drawings he made for his ethnographic article "Journey to Balkaria", which undoubtedly increase the scientific and ethnographic value of his notes.

Manuscript M.P. Gaidai "Balkarian folk melodies", as we noted above, are 108 musical notations of songs and tunes. Of these, 96 are Balkar (Nos. 1-96); 10 - Kabardian (nos. 97-107); 2 - Kyrgyz melodies recorded by him in Stavropol (Nos. 108, 109).

Songs and tunes are located on sheet music in a row, the next song starts on the same sheet on which the previous one ended. Judging by the handwriting and condition of the sheets, the notes were probably made in the field. The sheets are well preserved, with the exception of some pages in which the last lines are hard to read. In each song, two or three stanzas are notated, sometimes more (Nos. 16, 19, 52, 91, etc.).

It is also noteworthy that for all songs and tunes, in addition to passport data (name of the artist, his age, place of recording, recording conditions), scientists are given brief comments and notes that are undoubtedly of value to musicologists and folklorists. And in the passport data of the songs that are sung in accompaniment ejiu(refrain), he also indicates the names of the ejiu performers (Nos. 11, 48).

The great significance of musical notations of M.P. Gaidai is that he gives them subtexts in the original language. After the publication of the songs of the Karachays and Balkars by the Austro-Hungarian scientist V. Prele, the materials of M.P. Gaidai are the first recordings of songs in the language of these peoples. Subtexts are made in Cyrillic, some of them are translated into Ukrainian.

In many songs, genre definitions and information about the purpose of the song, about the place and time of its performance are given in brackets at the beginning of the subtext (Nos. 1.4, 10.1 3, 14, 16, 28, 39, 47, etc.).

From instrumental music, Gaidai recorded shepherd tunes and dance melodies. In addition to the notes of 5 dance melodies (No. 11, 22-24, 36), the scientist describes in detail the Balkar national dance tuz tepseu: “Never in my life have I seen such a dance. The youth becomes in a circle, and in the middle - he and she, to the music, rhythmically walk towards each other. With their movements they create the impression that they are about to be together, but it lasts long enough, and it is striking that the girl does not do any complicated steps, but with great dignity, gracefully takes two calm steps forward, and then unexpectedly steps back , as if marking time in one place, and all this happens in a calm rhythm. The partner, on the other hand, is her direct opposite, he is all impulse and courage, his movements are more daring, he all the time famously kicks out with his heels, then approaches, trying, as it were, to hug his cold partner. At first I thought that such restraint in the movements of the girl was a consequence of her temperament, but other couples also observed this during the dance. .

Both in his musicological study “On the Balkar Folk Song”, and in the ethnographic article “Journey to Balkaria” M.P. Gaidai gives small, but valuable, informative characteristics to folk song performers. The scientist notes that he recorded the songs "mainly from ordinary, elderly people." Among them, he highlights Tokmak Anakhaev (72 years old) from Yanikoy, Mussa Osmanov (60 years old) from the village of Mukhol, Khadzhi-Murza Akaev (46 years old) from Upper Chegem. Speaking of his work at the Janicoi, he writes: “... the presence in it of people from the distant Balkar gorges of Chegem, Bezinga, Khulam and others gave me the opportunity to hear the melodies of these mountainous areas performed by the old singers Anakhaev, Musukaev and Osman Kudaev (labor and historical songs).

The best singer Anakhaev, unfortunately, had malaria, besides, he was old - 72 years old - and therefore could not sing many songs to me, but what he sang is important not only from the point of view of the melody, but also the text, because he sang songs from pagan and historical times, when the Balkars were not Mohammedans, but honored the god Choppa”. He also describes in detail his work with the singer from Muhol: “ In this village, I met the best singer in Balkaria, Musa Osmanov. He is now 60 years old, but he has retained his good voice (tenor) to this day and sings old songs with love and inspiration ...

In Osmanov's singing Ukrainian thoughts were heard with their uneven recitative rhythm... In the middle of the singing, before the cadenza (the harmonic completion of the musical thought), Moussa inserted recitation cries, in words, just like our kobza players did and as the old lyre players do now. I notice such cries only among those Balkar singers, about whom the Balkars themselves say that this is a “master of playing” (singers Etezov, Anakhaev, Temukuev) ” .

Regarding musical instruments, Gaidai writes that he "I happened to hear in Janika old shepherd melodies on the national Balkar instrument "sybyzgy". Sybyzgy is a flute made of elderberry, reed or iron, 16-17 inches long, with three voices, and sometimes with six.

Another national instrument - "kyyl-kobuz"(a type of violin with 2 or 3 strings and a horsehair bow) I have not seen anywhere in Balkaria and I think that this instrument is disappearing (it was replaced by an accordion), if it has not completely disappeared from use. Yusup Sultanov and Bibert Akaev played on sybyzgy, the first - the melody "Lezgor tarynda", and the second - "Sonana Zhyry", "Chechencha" (Lezginka) and "Shidak". It was raining all the time in the yard, there was humidity, and Sultanov's flute, just made, from the humidity, really sniffled and played uncleanly. But when they brought the old sybyzgy, made of reeds, Akaev perfectly conveyed sad melodies with various melismatic decorations on it, which I have not yet heard so clearly in Balkar songs. .

Kyyl kobuz.

From G. Merzbacher's book "Aus den Hochregionen des Kaukasus"

In his other article, "Journey to Balkaria", Gaidai notes: “In Nalchik, when recording melodies, I was assisted by a translator, an expert on the Balkar language and local ancient customs, taubiy (prince) Ibragim Urusbiev (4). But he, like other educated Balkars, was soon arrested, and all the papers, together with the notes we made simultaneously with the notes that he was supposed to translate into Russian for me, ended up in the Nalchik GPU. With a warm word, with great respect, I remember this person, who, together with another well-known figure throughout Balkaria, Izmail Abaev (5), gave me great help in my difficult, if we take into account local events, case. .

From the book "Narts. The heroic epic of the Balkars and Karachays"

(M., Nauka. - 1994.)

THEIR. Urusbiev helped Gaidai not only in working with storytellers, he, according to Mikhail Petrovich, was his translator, took part in translating the subtexts of the songs, in addition, according to the comments on the songs and tunes Nos. 1, 22, 23 - they were recorded from him.

Gaidai divides the 96 songs and melodies recorded by him in Balkaria into the following sections:

"A. Labor songs: 1) when cultivating the land; 2) churning butter; 3) when cloth is woven; 4) Kosar; 5) shepherds; 6) hunting songs.

B. Ritual: wedding and springflies.

IN. Nart songs about Narts-bogatyrs.

G. Lullabies.

D. dance.

E. historical.

AND. Love.

Z. Contemporary revolutionary songs» .

As you can see, Gaidai begins his classification with labor songs, which, like those of other peoples, belong to the earliest musical art of the Balkars and Karachais. According to the nature of performance and timing, these songs can be divided into the following genre-thematic sections:

1) songs directly related to labor;

2) mythological songs associated with labor indirectly: a) hunting songs; b) songs-spells of fertility and abundance;

3) songs-addresses to mythological deities and patrons.

Songs directly related to labor had not only a utilitarian, "organizing" meaning - they were also credited with magical functions.

So, for example, while churning butter, they sang the song “Dolai”, dedicated to the patron saint of domestic animals Dolai. It was believed that thanks to the singing of “Dolai” there would be an abundance of oil and that singing would affect its quality and taste. M.P. Gaidai recorded 4 versions of this song (Nos. 1, 2, 65.82). To appease Dolai, they not only dignify him, but also poetically describe his animals, sing of his gifts. In the later versions of the songs "Dolay", when faith in the deity was lost, and, consequently, faith in his power, the motive of a threat against Dolai appears in them (No. 82). In these versions of the songs, social motives are enhanced.

The songs "Erirey" (No. 64) and "The Plowman's Song" (No. 3, 51, 89), recorded by Gaidai, belong to agricultural songs. All agricultural work (plowing, harvesting, etc.) among the ancient Balkars and Karachays was accompanied by obligatory magical rites. Like many peoples, they believed that the future harvest depended on a good start (“the magic of the first day”). Therefore, going out to plow was accompanied by a number of ritual actions. Early in the morning, before entering the field, the whole community had a plowing festival ( saban toy). After that, with songs and dances, everyone went to the field, where the first furrow was laid by a man who was considered happy in the village. The "Plowman's Song" was performed both before the start of plowing (during the Saban toy and on the way to the field), and during plowing and sowing. In the song that Gaidai recorded in p. Muhol from Musa Osmanov ask the deity Ashkergi, who was in charge of the crop of cereals, for a lot of grain. At the same time, in order to appease him and thereby achieve the desired result, they praise him: "Hey, biy Ashkergi - biy Teyri"“Hey, like Teyri, great Ashkergi!” (No. 89).

The song "Erirey" (No. 64) belongs to the agricultural songs of the autumn cycle. While the oxen were threshing grain, the drovers sang a song in honor of the mythological patron of the crop, Eryreus. Belief in the magical power of the word can explain the fact that in the song "Erirey" one of the leading ones is the motive of abundance and satiety. Turning to Erirey, they ask not only for a plentiful harvest in the future, but also pray to give strength and endurance to the oxen, because. successful, fast threshing depended primarily on them. They also treat the animals affectionately, cheer them up and promise a satisfying life after threshing. In the later versions of "Erirey" labor is poeticized and laziness is condemned. In them, labor-related motives are of a didactic nature.

The songs "Inay" / "Onay" (Nos. 31-35,72), recorded by Gaidai, were sung during weaving and making kiyiz (felt), buroks, while felting homespun cloth. Inai (Onai) is the name of the patroness of wool and weaving, whose functions were forgotten over time, and the name began to be perceived as a song refrain. Heavy and monotonous work required great efforts, while the song “Onai” (“Inai”), setting the working rhythm, in its own way facilitated the hard work of women. The singer improvised the words of the song, the text of which varied. Most often, these were recitative algyshi-spells and algyshi-wishes addressed to the person to whom the product was intended. Therefore, the song "Inai" ("Onai"), in addition to the utilitarian and organizational, also carried magical functions.

One of the essential elements of life support for the Karachais and Balkars in the past was hunting. Gaidai also emphasizes this in his article: “I consider hunting songs to be labor songs, because in the Balkarian hunting industry I see a way of existence, not entertainment”. That is why in the beliefs, ceremonies, folklore of these peoples, the God of hunting and the patron of mountains, forests and noble animals (deer, tours) Apsata is given a significant place. The archaic versions of the "Song of Apsata" are characterized by an ancient form of a song of an imperative type. The main part of the songs of this cycle are pleading or thanksgiving (of the hymnal type).

Almost all Caucasian peoples had an opinion that luck in hunting depends on the blessing of the deity of hunting, therefore "Abkhazians and Ossetians, Karachays and Balkars, - wrote the Caucasian specialist G.F. Chursin, - propitiate the God of the hunt with special songs in his honor". Samples of similar songs recorded by M.P. Gaidai (Nos. 4, 25, 80) will undoubtedly be of great interest to those who are engaged in hunting poetry.

Up to the nineteenth century. Balkars and Karachays celebrated the New Year in the spring (March 22, on the day of the vernal equinox). The meeting of the new year coincided with the beginning of agricultural work, so the meeting of the new economic year was a great national holiday. They arranged dances, races, games with mummers, who walked around the yards with laughter, demanding rewards for spring songs “Ozay”, “Gyuppe”, “Shertmen”. A wish and a request for a reward was always accompanied by threats against those who did not give gifts to the participants in the ceremony. Sometimes these threats turned into curses.

The antiquity of these songs is also indicated by the fact that their main part is the traditional formulas of spells and wishes, characteristic of cult algysh-good wishes. The refrains "Ozay" and "Gyuppe", "Shertman", which are an organic part of these songs, are the names of already forgotten deities. The song "Shertman" recorded by Gaidai in Khulam (No. 28) is an interesting example of a traditional spring song.

Over time, these songs, having lost their ritual essence, turned into a children's game and began to be performed in different calendar periods.

In Balkaria for a long time there was an agrarian holiday dedicated to the chthonic deity of the productive forces of the earth, the patron saint of the harvest, Goll. In the spring, ritual cheesecakes were baked for this day ( kalach), pies ( hychins), brewed buza and beer ( cheese), which were eaten with sacrificial meat by the participants of the ceremony. “After the appearance of all participants, the ritual ceremonial began with the fact that the head of the rite - terechi - performed a melody on sybyzgy (flute), which announced the beginning of the rite. At the first sound of the flute, the participants, holding hands, stood in a large circle, began to move in a circle by dancing and singing.. The song-dance was one of the main components in the complex of ritual actions of the Balkars and Karachays. And Gaidai in his notes to the recording of "Gollu" (No. 10, Verkhny Chegem village) notes that this pagan dance is performed on the first day of spring. Everyone participates in the round dance: small children, girls, lads and old people. And in a note to another version of the song-dance "Gollu Tutkhan"[#39] writes that her "dancing around the fire".

During public prayers, they turned not only to the Supreme deity of the pagan pantheon Teyri (Tengri), Goll and deities associated with the cult of fertility, but also to the souls of dead ancestors. Apparently, therefore, the ritual associated with the cult of ancestors coincided among the Balkars with the Gollu holiday, which ended with a commemoration for the ancestors: "Annual commemoration, - writes M. Kovalevsky, - coincide with the Gollu holiday and are organized by individual rural communities in mid-March. This holiday lasts for several days and nights in a row. On one of the last nights general commemoration according to the ancestors, pies are baked, sheep are roasted, and from all this the best pieces are offered to the dead. The people think that on this night the ancestors come out of the graves and that if they are propitiated with food, the people can safely wait for a good harvest next summer. .

The rite of "Gollu" (but in a modified form) existed until recently. So, in the spring, after sowing, and also during a drought in V. Balkaria (KBR), the entire community gathered at the graves of their ancestors, where rams were slaughtered in their honor and a rich commemoration was held ( check) with dances and chants. Circling around the fire, where the meat of the sacrificial animal was cooked, the ritual participants sang songs in honor of Teiri and the deities of fertility, thunder, lightning and thunder Choppa and Eliya. Singing on behalf of the clans who sowed the grain, they turned to them with a prayer for rain and a rich harvest. The texts of later recordings of songs indicate that entertainment motives increased over time in Gollu (No. 62, 63, 76). Having lost their ritual essence, they were transformed into comic round dance songs performed at the festivities.

The variants of the songs "Choppa", recorded by Gaidai (Nos. 57,58), are effective, purposeful in nature - they ask for rain. Speaking about Anakhaev, one of the performers of these songs, Gaidai writes: “He sang songs from the times of pagan and historical times, when the Balkars were not Mohammedans, but honored the god Choppa ... It is interesting that Ossetians still revere this deity - they call him Tsopai”. According to V. I. Abaev, among the Ossetians “Tsoppai” is “a ritual dance and singing around a person struck by thunder”; “a refrain repeated during the performance of this rite”, as well as “ritual walking around villages during a drought”. Regarding this deity, whose cult among the peoples of the North Caucasus was noted back in the 18th century. Georgian prince Vakhushti, G.F. Chursin wrote: "Choppa", according to the explanation of the Karachais, was some kind of God, who was addressed in all important cases of life. S.I. Taneev, in his article on the music of the Balkars, notes that they, like the Ossetians and Kabardians, have preserved the Choppa dance, that “this dance was performed in order to propitiate the God of Thunder, in those cases when the thunder killed a person or an animal” . And in the Nart legend "Rachikau", published in 1881 by S.-A. Urusbiev says that the cowardly Evil-tongued Gilyakhsyrtan, wounded by the Nart Rachikau, runs away from him and hides in his castle. At the same time, in order to hide the fact that he was wounded by Rachikau, he shouts that he was struck by lightning and that he should sing Choppa as soon as possible. In his comments on the legend, Urusbiev notes: “According to legend, the Narts, when someone was struck by lightning, always sang some song “Choppa” .

In the context of the above examples, V.P. Gaidai of the Kabardian song-spell "Eller" (in the subtext, the name is given as "Ellari Choppa"). In the article “Journey to Balkaria” he writes: “I recorded from the old man Bezruko Kerefov the melody of the Eller spell, which is sung in Kabarda when a fire occurs. In ancient times, in the days of paganism, when some kind of dwelling caught fire from a lightning strike, oddly enough, the fire was extinguished in the only way - by singing. Those who saw the fire immediately stood in front of the burning house and sang this spell. (№ 105).

The Balkars and Karachays celebrated their haymaking with a big communal holiday. In the auls, the old people not only determined the day of going to the mower, but also chose the toastmaster of the mowers, as well as the ritual khan (gepchi, teke - mummers). “Hay harvesting is extremely hard work. Therefore, the people's actor brought cheerfulness and a healthy mood to the labor process along with fun.. As with laying the first furrow, haymaking was started by a man who was considered a kind, lucky man. In the songs of mowers recorded by Gaidai, satirical (No. 60) and comic motifs (Nos. 79, 87) prevail.

The ancient Karachay-Balkar wedding was a complex ritual. Almost all her rituals were accompanied by songs. Unfortunately, most of the old wedding songs have not been preserved6. In this regard, the importance of the recordings of Gaidai's wedding songs increases even more. So, in the footnote to songs No. 8 and No. 42, he notes that they were "sung by girls in the bride's house." He also recorded a version of the song that was sung in the groom's house (No. 43). And the soloist sings the wedding song “Orida Carrying the Bride” together with a group of young men (No. 47).

wedding songs under common name“Oraida” (the word “oraida” in the Karachay-Balkarian language is synonymous with the concept of “wedding song”) was accompanied by all the main moments of the wedding ritual: “Oraida”, sung on the way for the bride”; "Oraida" in the yard of the bride; “Oraida” during the removal of the bride from the parental home consisted of: “Oraida” - the demand of the bride, the glorious “Oraida” by the groom’s friends (praise of the groom, his relatives, home, etc.), the reciprocal magnificatory “Oraida” by the bride’s relatives, “ Orida" - farewell to the relatives of the bride; "Oraida", carrying the bride; "Oraida" - bringing the bride into the groom's yard; "Oraida" of the wedding ceremony "showing the bride to the parents and relatives of the groom"; "Oraida" when the groom returns to the parental home; "Oraida" of the rite "showing the groom to the parents and relatives of the bride"). Since these "Oraida" are situational and serve different moments of the wedding, they have their own rhythmic, melodic features, differ from each other in terms of composition.

At the wedding, the circular song-dance "Tepena" was also obligatory. Like "Gollu", it probably goes back to the most ancient cult actions. The semantics of most variants of "Tepena" is, as it were, a synthesis of the two main genres of wedding poetry - "Oraida" and ritual wishes ( Algysh).

The lyrics of the songs indicate that "Tepena" is associated with one or another wedding ceremony. For example, the song-dance "Tepena" in the groom's house had a spell-magical character. The owners were obliged to give its performers a ram (“sacrifice for Tepena” - “Tepenany “sogumu”). The real power of algysh was associated with the donation of a ram. The Tepena soloist, standing by the hearth (bonfire), regulated the behavior of the dancers: “Dance to the right, to the left! / Left leg pick it up..." The organizing motif is the common place of Tepen dance songs. As in the latest editions of Gollu, it is apparently a reminiscence of some already forgotten cult rite. The song "Tepena" from Gaidai's recordings (No. 75) is one of the above variants of this dance song.

If in the dance song-algysh "Tepena" the ritual-magical function is dominant, then in the satirical laughter song-dance "Sandyrak" the main function is entertaining. In it, as in the reproachful wedding songs of many peoples, someone's vices, weaknesses were ridiculed: stinginess, gluttony, cowardice, bragging, etc.

"Sandyrak" can be called a song with a "subtext", which can be understood only with the knowledge of the situational background and the circumstances from which it arose ( sandyrak « 1) to rave; 2) fool around» ; ancient Turkic sandiri « talk incoherently, go astray, babble» .

In ancient times, the dance songs "Tepena", "Sandyrak", "Gollu" were cult songs. Over time, due to their deritualization and desacralization, they turned into circular dance songs with an open composition. In them, as in some other genres of Karachay-Balkar folklore (“Oraida”, lullabies, lamentations, iinars), improvisation began to play a dominant role. The change in the genetic basis of the cult rite entailed a change in the semantics of the text and, of course, in the melodic contour, rhythm and verse of these songs. This contributed to the fact that from strictly timed cult songs they moved not only to another rite, but also to another genre system- funny songs. "Gollu" and "Sandyrak" became popular dances for shepherds, "Tepena" was performed during the construction of a new sakli (house), etc.

Lullabies, like those of other nations, are one of the ancient types song genre Balkars and Karachais. They differ depending on the content (wishing songs, narrative songs), addressee (songs intended for a boy; songs addressed to a girl; general) and performer (lullabies sung by a mother; lullabies sung by a grandmother, etc.).

The main function of lullabies is to lull, lull the child to sleep. Therefore, one of the constant motives of such songs is the wish for the child to have a sound sleep, pleasant dreams. An analysis of the lullabies of Karachais and Balkars showed that most of them are a chain of algysh-spells and algysh-wishes.

The incantatory function of lullabies in the past is evidenced by the fact that the mother (grandmother), deeply believing in the magical power of the word, repeatedly repeats (sometimes with some modifications) various stable formulas for wishing the child health, wealth, long life, happiness, good fortune, obedience. There is practically not a single lullaby song in which there would not be brief wishes: “let it be”, “let me see you” (happy, adults, etc.). This also applies to the lullabies recorded by Gaidai in Balkaria (Nos. 7, 30).

The song existence of the Nart epic is one of the brightest, original features epic tradition Karachays and Balkars. Not only the performers of Nart songs, but also many collectors and researchers of the Nart epos pointed to the wide distribution of Nart songs among the Karachays and Balkars. It was thanks to the poetic-song form of existence in their epic that many archaic elements were preserved, which was also emphasized by the researchers of the Nartiada.

Music notes of four Nart songs of the Balkars and Karachais (Nos. 20,52, 61, 91), which have come down to us thanks to M.P. Gaidai, they give the opportunity not only to hear these songs as they were intoned at the beginning of the 20th century, but also to compare their musical and poetic features with those previously recorded by S.I. Taneyev with Nart melodies, publications by S. Urusbiev, N.P. Tulchinsky and others, as well as with recordings of Nart songs on audio and video cassettes in the 60-90s. 20th century So, for example, “The song about the Yoryuzmek Nart, recorded by Gaidai performed by Khadzhi-Murza Akaev (No. 20) in content, and in some lines even textually coincides with the song “Oryuzmek”, published in 1903 by N.P. Tulchinsky. The difference is that Gaidai's text is fragmentary. Probably the reason for the reduction given text- partial forgetting of the song by the narrator, or in the fact that only part of the song is given in Gaidai's subtext.

Balkar song. L.Nurmagomedova

Historical and heroic songs - taryh em dzhigitlik dzhyrla- one of the leading genres of oral poetry of Karachays and Balkars. "I remember from my childhood- writes Kaisyn Kuliev, - that even at weddings, not only wedding, drinking, love, comic, but also songs about heroes and exploits were sung. They were not superfluous there, they were considered necessary. It was a tradition that instilled in young people love for the Motherland and exploits, instilling courage and self-esteem. Songs about heroes and exploits were sung every time, for whatever reason, the inhabitants of the village gathered. .

Gaidai recorded one song each from the Crimean cycle (No. 16), about Caucasian war(No. 83) and a song about Russo-Japanese War(No. 27). Among the songs about feudal relations and tribal strife, in addition to well-known songs (Nos. 14, 21, 49, 50, 85,88), he also recorded songs that are unknown or forgotten in the Karachay-Balkarian environment. The scientist recorded a number of interesting raiding songs (No. 13, 15,17, 29, 48, 81, 84, 90), songs of the struggle against social injustice (No. 19), about the Civil War and the heroes of the revolution (No. 53-55 , 66, 67, 74).

Gaidai also recorded lyrical non-ritual songs of the Balkars and Karachays: syuymeklik zhyrla- love songs (No. 6,12,68,73,77,94); iynarla- correspond to the Russian ditty. As a rule, these are quatrains in which various emotions of the lyrical hero are conveyed (Nos. 5,6,37, 38, 40,71); mashara jyrla- satirical songs (No. 44,56,60,69,79,87); kuile- songs-crying (No. 59,70,74).

As we indicated above, in the manuscript under consideration, M.P. Gaidai numbers 1 to 96 are sheet music of songs and various musical tunes of the Balkars, followed by Kabardian material: 8 songs and 2 dance tunes. Notations for songs are given in the original language. At the end of his article “Journey to Balkaria”, regarding these notes, Gaidai writes: “Finally, it should be remembered that on the way to the Kabardian village of Doguzhokovo (Aushiger), I recorded from the old man Kerefov Bezruko the melody of the Eller spell (see above) ... I also learned from Bezruko that during the drought in Kabarda, women, girls and children today dress up a big doll, walk with it along the river bank, and sing a spell (I wrote down the melody), after which they immerse the doll in water, and then lay out the fire and prepare food for everyone who participated in the ceremony from living creatures prepared ahead of time..

The rite of making rain widely known to all Caucasian peoples is “Hantseguashe” among the Circassians, “Dziuou” among the Abkhazians, “Lazaroba” (“Gonjaoba”) among the Georgians, etc. under the name "Kurek biche" ( curek "shovel" biche – « mistress, mistress» ) also existed among the Karachay-Balkarians. During a drought, women and children, dressing up a shovel in a woman's dress, walked around the village with it. In every yard, sticking a shovel into the ground, they sang:

We burn, we die (from the heat)

We pray that it will rain.

We ask Kyurek for more rain! .

After going around the yards (where they were given meat, eggs, bread, etc.), the participants in the rite walked in a cheerful crowd to the river. They threw Kyurek biche into the water, doused themselves with water ( suualyshmak) and bathed a donkey dressed in women's clothing who was then forced to look in a mirror. This cheerful, carnival rite always ended with a common ritual meal.

The ritual of making rain among the Balkars and Karachays was closely associated with the deities of thunder, lightning and thunder - Choppa, Eliya and Shibla. In Balkaria there was a rite "Walking (procession) to Choppa" ("Choppag'a baryu"). It was in many ways reminiscent of the Gollu rite (asking for rain). The stone dedicated to Choppa (Choppany tashy) served as the center of the ritual locus. The ritual dance around this stone was accompanied by a song. In it, singing Choppa, they asked for rain:

Oira, choppa, oira, choppa! After Teyri, you are Teyri,

Oira, choppa, oira, choppa, turn the heat away

Oira, choppa, oira, choppa! Send down the rain!

At the heart of this song, as in other spell songs, is simil magic:

Oira, choppa, oira, choppa! The rain is pouring down!

Oira, choppa, oira, choppa! The harvest is on the rise!

G.F. Chursin noted that with the advent of Christianity, the pagan Choppa was contaminated with Eliya (Ilya the prophet): Ellery-Choppa. This can also be traced in Gaidai's notes. So, in the spell-song No. 105, the refrain repeats: “Oh, Ellya, Ellery Choppa! Elleri Choppa”, and in the “Song of the Plowman” recorded by Gaidai in Yanikoy from T. Anakhaev (No. 57), the singers ask for Elleri-Choppa (Gaidai, in his commentary on the song, deciphers the name Ilya (questionably) as “prophet”). It is very possible that over time only the first part of the name began to be used, as a result of which the name and functions of Choppa gradually began to be forgotten. Speaking about the veneration among the Balkars of the thunder deity Eliya, Klaproth wrote that they claim that Eliya “often appears on the top of the highest mountain; they sacrifice to him with singing and dancing lambs, milk, butter, cheese and beer.” .

The value of Gaidai's recordings of the Nart song "Nart Sosruko" (No. 97) and historical and heroic songs about the popular heroes of Kabardian folklore Andemirkan, Kualov Sozerykh (No. 98-99) is increased by the fact that today these are one of the earliest musical recordings of these songs. As for the song "Andemirkan", Professor A.N. Sokolov in 2000 in the British record company EMI (the successor of Gramophon) has identified about 50 Adyghe archival sound recordings from 1911-1913, including a gramophone recording of this song. At this stage, A.N. Sokolova and the famous folklorist R.B. Unarokova are working on deciphering the musical and verbal parts of these songs.

The cycle of songs and stories about Andemirkan "presented in pre-revolutionary publications a large number records, both in the original language and in Russian translations" is widely used in many philological studies. Gaidai's notation for this song and its sound recording of 1911, of course, will be valuable material for ethno-musicologists in studying and comparing them with versions recorded at a later time.

As you can see, the songs sung about 100 years ago by the inhabitants of Kabardino-Balkaria “were recorded and preserved thanks to the scientific feat of the Ukrainian scientist, folklorist Mikhail Petrovich Gaidai. In the difficult and difficult conditions of 1924, overcoming distrust, not knowing the local languages, he on foot, with a phonograph, went around the gorges of Balkaria, where the Balkars lived. Such asceticism, painstaking work and aspirations, not limited by narrow national interests, have always distinguished truly great scientists. An example of this is the scientific activity of M.P. Gaidai, who recorded a huge number of songs and melodies different peoples former Soviet Union and left these invaluable materials for their history and culture” (7).

At the moment, there are a fairly large number of publications that contain musical notations and lyrics collected in Balkaria, Karachay and Turkey (in the Karachay-Balkarian diaspora), as well as a number of scientific monographs on the musical culture of the Balkars. The publication of M.P. Gaidai (from archaic songs to songs created at the beginning of the 20th century) will allow folklorists, ethnographers, linguists and musicologists, relying on all the above materials, to conduct a comprehensive study of the Karachay-Balkar folk song in time and space.

3. Rolls of these 10 records of M.P. We have not found Gaidai in the archives of Kyiv and Moscow.

4. Ibragim Urusbiev (? - 1928) - the son of Prince Khamzat Mirzakulovich (younger brother of Ismail Mirzakulovich Urusbiev). After graduating from the Nalchik mountain school, he entered the Vladikavkaz real school (1885). In 1892, Ibragim became a student at the Moscow Institute of Technology. “Khamzat Mirzakulovich did not have the opportunity to educate his son at his own expense, and Ibrahim had to leave the institute and enter the military service. August 12, 1893 Ibrahim was enlisted in the 88th Kabardian regiment of Prince Baryatinsky. Until February 1917, he served in the tsarist army, rising to the rank of captain. During the establishment Soviet power in Kabarda and Balkaria, Ibrahim was a member of various democratic organizations in Nalchik, worked in Dagestan. In 1927 he was arrested along with Nazir Katkhanov, Pago Tambiev and others on charges of bourgeois nationalism. In August 1928 he was shot. By the decision of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR of January 9, 1960, he was rehabilitated “for lack of evidence against the charges against him”.

5. Izmail Abaev (1888-1930), son of the Balkar educator Misost Abaev. One of the first doctors of the North Caucasus. He studied at the Kiev Medical Institute, a participant in the First World War. After the establishment of Soviet power, he headed health care in Kabardino-Balkaria, worked as N. Katkhanov's deputy in the representative office of Kabardino-Balkaria in Moscow.

6. In 1928, the composer Dm. Rogal-Levitsky: “As for wedding songs, as a distant echo of forgotten religious cults, in the singing of which only young men take part, those are still preserved in remote villages, not very zealously assimilating the customs of the new time. It should be thought that those few songs that have survived from the wedding ceremony will be forgotten in the same way as religious-mythological songs have already been irretrievably lost.

7. The article cited by us by the journalist M. Botaev was published in the newspapers of the KBR in the late 80s. the last century. Here is what he writes in it about the folklore materials of V.P. Gaidai: Rylsky Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. It contained a request from Ukrainian colleagues to sort out strange melodies and texts recorded "in Balkaria in 1924", as well as three musical samples of melodies. The directorate of the Institute handed over the letter and materials for analysis to Anatoly Rakhaev, senior researcher, now rector of the NKGI, and Khamid Malkonduev, Doctor of Philology. After reviewing them, the scientists gasped. Still would! In front of them were musical notations of the three most ancient songs of the pre-Islamic era! And these melodies were subtexted (!) in the Balkar language by the Latin and Ukrainian alphabet... The Teachings were deciphered from the notes and texts, provided with translations and commentaries, sent to Kiev, and asked there to tell about the history of their appearance in Ukraine. The answer was stunning: according to some information, M. Gaidai recorded more than 100 songs in Balkaria! Anatoly Rakhaev and Khamid Malkonduev were sent to Kyiv, to the Institute of Art Criticism, Folklore and Ethnography. M. Rylsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Valuable materials M.P. Gaidai, so happily discovered in Kyiv and completely copied, became the object of a comprehensive scientific analysis and, perhaps, will be published as a separate book as a monument of folk singing art and scientific accomplishment of the glorious son of the Ukrainian people. After the 1990s, when it became possible to publish Gaidai's materials, unfortunately, they were not found in the KBIGI archive. It is assumed that they could have been lost among other archival materials when the Archives of the Institute were transferred to another room.

In 2012, the Department of Folklore, IMLI RAS, on the initiative of the head. department of V.M. Gatsaka signed an agreement with the Department of Folklore of the Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnology named after M. Rylsky of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on the joint publication of the collection “Balkarian Folk Songs in the Records of M.P. Gaidai. 1924". The collection is currently being prepared for publication.

9. Ivanyukov I., Kovalevsky M.M. At the sole of Elborus // Bulletin of Europe. SPb.1886. T. 1. Book. 1. S. 83-112; Book. 2.

10. Urusbiev S.-A. Legends about the Nart heroes among the Tatars-mountaineers of the Pyatigorsk district of the Terek region // Collection of materials for describing the localities and tribes of the Caucasus. 1881. Issue 1. Dep. 2. S. 1-42.

11. Shchukin I. Materials for the study of Karachays // Russian Anthropological Journal. M., 1913. No. 1-2.

12. Rogal-Levitsky Dm. Karachay folk song // Musical review. M., 1928. No. 2.

13. Ancient Turkic dictionary. L., 1969.

14. Khadzhieva T.M. Nart epic Balkars and Karachays // Narts. The heroic epos of the Balkars and Karachays / Comp. CANCER. Ortabaeva, T.M. Khadzhieva, A.Z. Kholaev. Sun. Art., comment. and glossary by T.M. Khadzhieva. Ed. national texts by A.A. Zhappuev. Rep. ed. A.I. Aliyev. M., 1994.

15. Tulchinsky N.P. Poems, legends, songs, fairy tales and proverbs of the mountain Tatars of the Nalchik district of the Terek region // Tersky collection. Vladikavkaz, 1904. Issue. 6. S. 249-334.

16. Kuliev K. This is how a tree grows. M., 1975.

17. Karachay-Balkar folklore. Reader. Comp., author intro. Art. T.M. Khadzhiev. Nalchik, 1996.

18. Klaproth Yu. Description of trips to the Caucasus and Georgia in 1807 and 1808. // Adygs, Balkars and Karachais in the news of European authors of the 13th - 19th centuries. Nalchik, 1974.

19. Alieva A.I. Adyghe folklore in the records of the 19th - early 20th centuries. // Folklore of the Circassians. Nalchik, 1988. Book. 2.

The collection of folklore at a professional level is carried out by a special science - folklore, the science of folklore, which includes the collection, publication and study of works of folk art.

The emergence of folklore was preceded by centuries of experience in collecting (recording) works of folklore and processing them in the work of writers, playwrights, and composers from different countries.

Collecting activities are carried out by various organizations - scientific, educational, creative. Collecting is carried out by amateur folklore associations in order to form a repertoire. Folklore expedition - a trip of a group of people with the aim of collecting folklore. A folklore expedition can take the form of training sessions, performances, and festivities. Folklore expedition is the best condition for self-realization of an amateur who is interested in folklore.

Types of folklore expeditionary activities:

1 - expedition-collection, collection of empirical material with scientific study: notation, analysis, systematization, publication of results. Questions of education and propaganda are of secondary importance.

Expedition-training is closely connected with the "life" of folklore, using different forms of its propaganda in different situations.;

- "oral" expedition. Training of individual memory, comparison with collective memory, search for a "personal" song, improvement of creative abilities.

Methods of collecting folklore.

The experience of collecting activity shows that there are certain rules for collecting folklore. Their observance greatly facilitates the work of the collector, makes it more successful. However, knowledge of the methodology for collecting folklore does not exclude the collector's personal initiative, his inventions, the ability to adapt to the performer and to the specific conditions for recording a folklore work.

One of the basic rules of the collector-folklorist- find out in advance about what talented performers live in the village. The fame of good singers and storytellers usually goes beyond the village. In the practice of field folklore studies, there is a good rule: to seek information about talented performers from the local intelligentsia: teachers, club workers, amateur art leaders.

The more talented the singer or storyteller, the more willingly he shares his art with collectors.

One of the collector's rules is the requirement do not abuse the time and physical capabilities of performers. Since among those who know traditional folklore, many performers are elderly people.

Best for making good contacts Notstart offconversation with direct questions about folklore. Male performers, as a rule, like to talk about international events, about industrial affairs, female performers are more willing to enter into a conversation when it comes to family, about some everyday problems. Almost everyone likes to reminisce about the most remarkable events in their lives. Such conversations are useful not only for establishing contacts, but also for collecting information for the artist's biography, his creative portrait.

There is also one general rule: direct recording of folklore must begin with a request to the performers to tell or sing their favorite works. When the performer, as it seems to him, exhausts the repertoire, the collector must continue to work with him, remembering that a good informant knows a lot. Furthermore what he remembered in the first conversation.

It is very essential in working with the performer and that. How the collector formulates questions. Questions should be asked in such a way that the performer, on the one hand, understands them, on the other hand, so that they tell him the details of the content or the sphere of existence of the folklore work. The next requirement of the methodology for recording folklore works is write down folklore only at the moment of its performance.

There is another important guideline: the informant must not be interrupted during the performance of works of oral folk art, the collector must not interfere in this creative act. All questions about the text are asked after its execution. If the collector does not have time to write down, he leaves empty spaces in the record, where after the performance he enters the missing words. Technical means will help to solve this problem: a tape recorder, a video camera, a voice recorder.

When recording a folklore work, it is also necessary to achieve naturalness environment surrounding the performer and the very act of performing a folklore work. It is good if the collector manages to record folklore in its real existence: on a holiday, at a wedding, during a send-off to the army, etc. But there are not many such happy situations. Therefore, most often it is necessary to reproduce the natural forms of folklore performance. In this regard, you can pay attention to the importance of listeners. There is a desire to perform as best as possible. And exclamations of encouragement or censure are important in themselves. They are the most striking indicators of the position, how the given work exists here, how the people treat it, whether they believe it or not.

But listeners are not always necessary. When collecting conspiracies, it is recommended to work alone with the performer.

For collecting different types of folklore, certain methodological techniques have also been developed. Most often, you will have to write down songs, ditties, small genres of folklore (proverbs, sayings, riddles), children's folklore.

Songs are recorded with notes about their natural performance. If the song is choral, then it must be recorded from the choir, if solo, then from one singer; if the song is a round dance or dance, it should be described how the round dance was carried out, what kind of dances were.

A certain difficulty in recording songs is explained by their genre essence. Frequent songs (dance, comic, satirical) are difficult to record because of the fast rhythm. Therefore, it is best to make a tape recording.

The song is one of the most productive genres of modern folk culture, so it is necessary to carefully record all the facts of its living existence. The collector should not take upon himself the task of critic and judge: his task is to take from the people what was created by the people.

The technique for recording ditties is not difficult. Chastushki is one of the actively existing genres of modern folklore. Students should not forget that there are different types of ditties: there are four-line, two-line - “suffering”, such as “Semenovna”, etc. You can use the method of organizing a “competition” between ditties.

Proverbs and sayings do not have to be collected by active questioning. It is recommended that in the process of communication, listen carefully to speech, highlighting and writing down proverbs and sayings.

When collecting riddles, the method of active questioning is productive. The collector can also act as a “competitor” here.

When collecting children's folklore, it is necessary to remember, first of all, that not only children, but also adults know it. Recording folklore from children is both difficult and easy. In many ways, the success of the work of collecting children's folklore depends on the personality of the collector himself, who must be an artist himself, have the ability to reincarnate, be able to cross the age barrier separating adults from children imperceptibly for the children's team, enter equal into the children's environment, not stand out in any way, argue with children, be upset, rejoice. When collecting children's folklore, its non-textual connections should be taken into account. This is especially true of children's play and ritual folklore.

These are the general, main methodological methods of recording folklore; they represent, first of all, the basis for the initial activity of the collector. It is quite possible that after the accumulation of certain experience, the collector will also develop individual methodological methods of recording.

Basic requirements for recording folklore.

The fixation of a folklore work should maximally reflect the text heard by the collector.

The work must be recorded without any changes, amendments, additions, editing.

Fixing folk work, the collector should try to preserve all the exclamations of the performer, repetitions, appeals, inserted words, explanations, comments in the text and to the text, and even the dialectical features of speech.

When recording a work, it is necessary to pay attention to the manner, performance features: replicas, pauses, gestures, facial expressions. All this is conveniently recorded on video.

If the work is recorded using a tape recorder, it is necessary to start recording by indicating its name and the full name of the performer.

Having fixed a folklore work, the collector must also record information about the informer, i.e. fill in a peculiar passport, confirming the authenticity of the existence of the recorded sample. Only if you have a passport entry is considered complete.

When drawing up a passport, you must specify the following:

The person from whom this work is recorded (informant): full name, year of birth, nationality, education, profession, place of work, place of residence. If the informant moved from another locality, then indicate exactly when and from where;

Recording date (year, month, day);

Place of recording (region, district, village, city);

Under what conditions was the recording made (during a holiday, wedding, etc.);

Information about the collector (full name, year of birth, nationality, education).

Scientific editions of Russian folklore began to appear in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century. First of all, these are collections of professor of Moscow University I.M. Snegirev "Russian folk holidays and superstitious rites" in four parts (1837-1839), "Russian folk proverbs and parables" (1848).

Valuable materials are contained in the collections of the folklorist I.P. Sakharov "Tales of the Russian people about the family life of their ancestors" (in two volumes, 1836 and 1839), "Russian folk tales" (1841).

Gradually, broad public circles became involved in the work of collecting folklore. This was facilitated by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society established in 1845 in St. Petersburg. It had a department of ethnography, which was actively engaged in the collection of folklore in all the provinces of Russia. From nameless correspondents (village and city teachers, doctors, students, clergy, and even peasants), the Society received numerous records of oral works, which made up an extensive archive. Much of this archive was later published in Zapiski Russkogo geographical society in the Department of Ethnography". And in Moscow in the 60-70s, the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature was engaged in the publication of folklore. Folklore materials were published in the central journals "Ethnographic Review" and " Living antiquity", in local periodicals.

In the 30-40s P.V. Kireevsky and his friend the poet N.M. Languages ​​were widely deployed and led the collection of Russian folk epic and lyrical songs (epics, historical songs, songs of ritual and non-ritual, spiritual poems). Kireevsky prepared materials for publication, but an untimely death did not allow him to fully implement his plans. During his lifetime, a single collection was published: spiritual poems. "Songs collected by P.V. Kireevsky" were first published only in the 60-70s of the XIX century (epics and historical songs, the so-called "old series") and in the XX century (ritual and non-ritual songs, "new series" ).

In the same 30-40s, V.I. Dahl. He recorded works of various genres of Russian folklore, however, as a researcher of the "living Great Russian language", Dahl focused on preparing a collection of small genres that are closest to colloquial speech: proverbs, sayings, sayings, etc. In the early 60s, Dahl's collection was published "Proverbs of the Russian people". In it, for the first time, all the texts were grouped according to the thematic principle, which made it possible to objectively present the attitude of the people to various phenomena of life. This turned the collection of proverbs into a genuine book of folk wisdom.

Another detailed folklore publication was the collection of A.N. Afanasyev "Folk Russian Tales", to which Dal also made a great collecting contribution, who gave Afanasyev about a thousand fairy tales recorded by him.

Afanasiev's collection was published in 8 issues from 1855 to 1863. There are a little more than a dozen fairy tales recorded by Afanasiev himself, he mainly used the archive of the Russian Geographical Society, the personal archives of V.I. Dahl, P.I. Yakushkin and other collectors, as well as materials from old manuscripts and some printed collections. The first edition was published only best material. Approximately 600 texts of the collection covered a huge geographical area: the places of residence of Russians, as well as partially Ukrainians and Belarusians.

The publication of Afanasiev's collection caused a wide public response. It was reviewed by prominent scientists A.N. Pypin, F.I. Buslaev, A.A. Kotlyarevsky, I.I. Sreznevsky, O.F. Miller; in the journal "Contemporary" a positive assessment was given by N.A. Dobrolyubov.

Later, fighting against Russian censorship, Afanasiev managed to publish in London the collection "Folk Russian Legends" (1859) and anonymously in Geneva in 1872 the collection "Russian cherished tales".

Afanasiev's collection was partially translated into various foreign languages, and completely translated into German. In Russia, he withstood 7 complete editions.

From 1860 to 1862, simultaneously with the first edition of Afanasiev's collection, a collection of I.A. Khudyakov "Great Russian Tales". New trends were expressed in the collection of D.N. Sadovnikov "Tales and legends of the Samara region" (1884). Sadovnikov is the first who paid close attention to an individual talented storyteller and recorded his repertoire. Of the 183 tales in the collection, 72 were written down from Abram Novopoltsev.

In the middle of the 19th century, in the history of collecting Russian folklore, significant event: in the Olonets region, an actively existing living epic tradition was discovered. Its discoverer was exiled in 1859 for political activity in Petrozavodsk P.N. Rybnikov. While working as an official in the governor's office, Rybnikov began to use official travel to collect epics. Within a few years, he traveled over a vast territory and recorded a large number of epics and other works of oral folk poetry. The collector worked with outstanding storytellers T.G. Ryabinin, A.P. Sorokin, V.P. Shchegolenok and others, from whom other folklorists subsequently recorded.

In 1861-1867, a four-volume edition of "Songs collected by P.N. Rybnikov" was published, prepared for publication by P.A. Bessonov (1 and 2 vols.), Rybnikov himself (3 vols.) and O. Miller (4 vols.). It includes 224 recordings of epics, historical songs, ballads. The material was arranged according to the plot principle. In the 3rd volume (1864), Rybnikov published "A Collector's Note", in which he outlined the state of the epic tradition in the Onega region, gave a number of characteristics to the performers, raised the question of the creative reproduction of epics and the personal contribution of the narrator to the epic heritage.

Following in the footsteps of Rybnikov, in April 1871, Slavic scholar A.F. went to the Olonets province. Hilferding. In two months, he listened to 70 singers and wrote down 318 epics (the manuscript was more than 2000 pages). In the summer of 1872 Hilferding again went to the Olonets region. On the way, he fell seriously ill and died.

A year after the death of the collector, "Onega epics recorded by Alexander Fedorovich Hilferding in the summer of 1871. With two portraits of Onega rhapsodes and melodies of epics" (1873) were published. Hilferding was the first to use the method of studying the repertoire of individual storytellers. He arranged the epics in the collection according to the narrators, with biographical information prefaced. As a general introductory article, Hilferding's latest journal publication "Olonets Gubernia and Its People's Rhapsody" was placed.

60-70s XIX years centuries were for Russian folklore a real flourishing of collecting activity. During these years, the most valuable publications of various genres were published: fairy tales, epics, proverbs, riddles, spiritual poems, incantations, lamentations, ritual and non-ritual songs.

At the beginning of the 20th century, work continued on collecting and publishing folklore. In 1908, a collection of N.E. Onchukov "Northern Tales" - 303 fairy tales from the Olonets and Arkhangelsk provinces. Onchukov arranged the material not according to plots, but according to storytellers, citing their biographies and characteristics. Subsequently, other publishers began to adhere to this principle.

In 1914, a collection of D.K. Zelenin "Great Russian fairy tales of the Perm province". It includes 110 stories. The collection is prefaced by Zelenin's article "Something about storytellers and fairy tales of the Yekaterinburg district of the Perm province." It characterizes the types of storytellers. The material of the collection is arranged by performers.

A valuable contribution to science was the collection of brothers B.M. and Yu.M. Sokolov "Tales and songs of the Belozersky region" (1915). It includes 163 fabulous texts. The accuracy of the record can serve as a model for modern collectors. The collection was compiled based on the materials of the expeditions of 1908 and 1909 to the Belozersky and Kirillovsky districts of the Novgorod province. He is supplied with rich scientific apparatus. Subsequently, both brothers became famous folklorists.

Thus, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a huge amount of material was collected and the main classical editions of Russian oral folk art appeared. This was of tremendous importance both for science and for the entire Russian culture. In 1875, the writer P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky in a letter to P.V. Sheinu described the significance of the work of folklorists-gatherers in the following way:

“For a quarter of a century, I traveled a lot around Russia, wrote down a lot of songs, legends, beliefs, etc., etc., but I couldn’t set foot if there weren’t the works of the late Dal and Kireevsky, there weren’t your works printed from Bodyansky, the works of L. Maikov, Maksimov and - may the Lord calm his drunken soul in the bowels of Abraham - Yakushkin.I find your comparison of your work with the work of an ant not entirely fair.<...>You are bees, not ants - your business is to collect honey, our business is to cook honey (hudromel). If it wasn't for you, we would have cooked some kind of dank kvass, not honey.<...>In less than half a century, grandfather's traditions and customs will dry up among the people, old Russian songs will become silent or distorted under the influence of tavern and tavern civilization, but your works until remote times, until our later descendants, will retain the features of our ancient way of life. You are more durable than us." 1

In the first decades of the 20th century, Russian folklore finally became self-determined as a scientific discipline, separating itself from other sciences (ethnology, linguistics, literary criticism).

In 1926-1928 the brothers B.M. and Yu.M. Sokolovs. The materials of the expedition were published in 1948. Recordings of epics of 1926-1933 from the collections of the Manuscript Depository of the Folklore Commission at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences were included in the two-volume edition of A.M. Astakhova "Epics of the North". The collection of epics continued in the war and post-war years. Materials of three expeditions to the Pechora (1942, 1955 and 1956) made up the volume "Epics of the Pechora and the Winter Coast".

Many new recordings of fairy tales, songs, ditties, works of non-fairytale prose, proverbs, riddles, etc. were made. Firstly, the genre principle, and secondly, the regional principle prevailed in the publication of new materials. Collections reflecting the repertoire of a region, as a rule, consisted of one or a few related genres.

Collectors began to purposefully identify working folklore, the folklore of hard labor and exile. The Civil and Great Patriotic Wars also left their mark on folk poetry, which did not pass by the attention of collectors.

Classical collections of Russian folklore were republished: collections of fairy tales by A.N. Afanasiev, I.A. Khudyakova, D.K. Zelenin, a collection of proverbs by V.I. Dahl, a collection of riddles by D.N. Sadovnikova and others. Many materials from old folklore archives were published for the first time. Multi-volume series are published. Among them are "Monuments of Russian Folklore" (Institute of Russian Literature ( Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) and "Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East" (Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk).

There are centers for the philological study of Russian folklore, with their own archives and periodicals. These are the State Republican Center of Russian Folklore in Moscow (publishing the journal "Live Antiquity"), the sector of Russian folk art of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (yearbook "Russian Folklore: Materials and Research"), the Department of Folklore State University. M.V. Lomonosov (collections "Folklore as the Art of the Word"), as well as regional and regional folklore centers with their archives and publications ("Siberian Folklore", "Folklore of the Urals", "Folklore of the Peoples of Russia", etc.). 2

In the study of folklore, one of the leading places is occupied by the Saratov school of folklore, the history of which is associated with the names of Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, songwriter N.G. Tsyganov, local historian A.F. Leopoldov, a member of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission A.N. Minha; later - professors of Saratov State University - B.M. Sokolova, V.V. Bush, A.P. Skaftymov. A great contribution to the study of folklore was made by professors T.M. Akimov and V.K. Arkhangelsk. 3

An interesting and representative list of sources, which includes works of different times from 1893 to 1994. It is a pity that it did not include M. Lipovetsky's book "The Poetics of a Literary Fairy Tale" (Sverdlovsk, 1992) and M. Petrovsky's book "Books of Our Childhood" (M.) 1986). The first could have the significance of a historical and theoretical study on the fairy tale genre of the 20th century for the special course, and the second could help to see new trends in the literary fairy tale at the beginning of the century, because it examines new types of literary and folklore connections among fairy tale writers and not only among them (A . Blok), when there is a synthesis of cultures - high with folklore, mass and even kitsch.

Undoubtedly, the appearance of the book by T.V. Krivoshchapova is another step towards creating a complete history of the Russian literary fairy tale, as well as towards restoring the picture hard way aesthetic, ideological, philosophical searches of writers and poets of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

T.A. Ekimov

COLLECTOR OF URAL FOLKLORE

Once Vladimir Pavlovich Biryukov admitted that until the mid-1930s, being a convinced local historian, he had little interest in folk songs, fairy tales, ditties, although he wrote them down on occasion. Only after the First Congress of Soviet Writers, where

A.M. Gorky uttered memorable words to everyone (“Collect your folklore, study it”), when the collection of folklore became a truly mass movement in our country, and not just the occupation of specialists,

B.P. Biryukov became interested in this activity. In fact, his first performance as a folklorist was the article "The Old Urals in Folk Art", published in the newspaper "Chelyabinsk Rabochy" on November 24, 1935. Soon the well-known collection “Pre-revolutionary folklore in the Urals” (1936) was published, and about V.P. Biryukov immediately started talking among the folklorists of Moscow and Leningrad. I remember how in 1937, we, a first-year student at the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature, Academician Yu.M. Sokolov, at a lecture on working folklore, stated that the collection of V.P. Biryukov - a great scientific discovery. And then, instead of the traditional lecture, he began to expressively read and enthusiastically comment on the texts from the book. He enthusiastically noted the tales of P.P. Bazhov (published for the first time in this collection). Immediately after the lecture, I rushed to the institute's library and greedily "swallowed" the book, which struck me with its inconsistency.

commonplace, Soon I began to work in a special folklore seminar by Yu.M. Sokolov and I remember how in the spring of 1938 my teacher once announced to us that in Leningrad, at the Institute of Ethnography, a scientific conference was held, at which V.P. Biryukov made a report on his collecting activities.

Here's a happy man! - said Yu.M. Sokolov. - Attacked a gold mine! We, folklorists, think in the old fashioned way that folk art should be collected in a peasant environment, we send expeditions to the wilderness. But Biryukov and his comrades walked around the old Ural factories and taught us all a lesson. Go, my dears, and you will go to some Moscow factory, write songs there. After all, the Moscow proletariat deserves the same attention of folklorists as the workers of the Urals.

So, long before we met, V.P. Biryukov, without knowing it, determined the beginning of my work as a collector of folklore. I went to the Bogatyr factory and throughout the spring of 1938 I recorded folk songs there among hereditary Moscow workers.

With the rapid entry of V.P. Biryukov, one amusing misunderstanding is connected with folklore. At the session of our seminar new works of Soviet folklorists were discussed. The student, who was instructed to review the folklore collections of those years, began briskly: "The young Ural folklorist Biryukov ...". Yu.M. Sokolov burst into laughter and interrupted the speaker: “Do you know that this young man is already ... fifty years old!” At that time we did not know what V.P. Biryukov already had a great experience and authority as a local historian. And only then did we understand that the compiler of the collection “Pre-revolutionary folklore in the Urals” was not just a lucky man, from the young and early, who accidentally attacked a gold mine, but a prospector who went along and across his native land and came to folklore not from a student’s bench, as we, but from "grassroots" science, closely connected with the life of the people.

Several years have passed, and my generation of front-line folklorists resembled native land before he was able to go on the expeditions that he dreamed of in the peaceful pre-war years ... And although in the breaks between battles we did not forget to record soldiers' songs and stories, our professional activity was truly, naturally, resumed after the war.

Having been demobilized from the Soviet Army, I was assigned to work at the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute, where I began to teach a course in folklore and ancient Russian literature. My strongest desire was to meet V.P. Biryukov, who already at that time turned out to be a semi-legendary personality. From all sides I heard about him

the most controversial opinions. Some spoke of him as an erudite, overwhelming his interlocutor with his universal knowledge. Others - as about an unsociable hermit, an impregnable keeper of innumerable riches, which he holds behind seven castles. Still others - as about an eccentric and a vagabond, an indiscriminate collector of all sorts of things. Not without a joke about how V.P. Biryukov once lost his hat and since then, at any time of the year and in any weather, he walks with his head uncovered ... I retained in my soul the impression that his book made on me in my student years, and therefore a completely different image appeared in my mind - a kind of Ural patriarch, a sgarets-ascetic. But already at our first meeting, I realized how far from the truth were the superficial ironic characteristics of V.P. Biryukov and my own idealized, icon-painting idea of ​​him.

V.P. Biryukov lived in those years in quiet Shadrinsk, taught folklore at the local pedagogical institute and occasionally traveled to Chelyabinsk on business. On one of his visits, he went to G.A. Turbin, when I was visiting him (we were preparing for our first joint folklore-dialectological expedition), and my acquaintance with V.P. Biryukov began with a business conversation.

It has arrived in our regiment! - V.P. was delighted. Biryukov and immediately began to generously share with me his advice and addresses. I was amazed at his simplicity in getting around, even unexpected rusticity for me. And later I noticed that the person who first met V.P. Biryukov, did not immediately guess that he was dealing with an intellectual who graduated from two higher educational institutions, knew foreign languages ​​and collaborated with academic institutions. There was nothing in his manner of bearing and speaking that could be mistaken for a sense of superiority, and this showed his worldly wisdom and tact. Then, in the house of G. A. Turbin, he did not teach me and did not demonstrate his knowledge in the field of folklore and ethnography, on the contrary, as it seemed to me, he even tried to belittle his professional experience. But in front of him was just a novice teacher and a completely unknown folklorist. This spiritual softness and delicacy of his immediately allowed me to reach out to him trustingly. Without losing any respect, I felt in him not only a mentor, but also a comrade in common cause. And I was also struck by his appearance. I was not surprised by his more than modest attire (in those first post-war years no one flaunted), but I expected to meet a venerable old man, and in front of me sat a cheerful and youthful man, with fair-haired curls falling almost to his shoulders, with fervently gleaming gray eyes and not descending from the lips, although hidden in a low-hanging mustache, a smile. I easily introduced him cheerfully and tirelessly

walking with a hiking bag along the Ural roads and, despite the difference in years, felt like his "companion".

We easily became close, and soon our scientific cooperation turned into friendship. In 1958, when Vladimir Pavlovich's seventieth birthday was celebrated, he sent me to Leningrad the book "Soviet Urals" published for the anniversary with the inscription dear to me: "... in the year of the decade of our friendship ...". Yes, that memorable decade was marked by many significant events for me of our joint friendly work, mutual support and help in difficult days for each of us...

Modesty and shyness of V.P. Biryukova exceeded all limits. When in 1948 my article about his sixtieth birthday was published in the Chelyabinsk Rabochiy newspaper, at the very first meeting he “reprimanded” me: - Well, why did you write such a thing about a living person! I have been portrayed as such a Holy Russian hero that now I am ashamed to appear in front of people! And no matter how I tried to convince him that I wrote not so much for his glory, but for the sake of the cause that we both serve, he could not calm down and kept saying: - You should only write praiseworthy words! The case speaks for itself.

And about his seventieth birthday, he wrote to me in Leningrad (in a letter dated August 7, 1958): “You have long known that I am generally against the anniversary of a living person and I was already planning to escape from Shadrinsk, as they told me:“ You can’t! - the regional jubilee commission was created...». I had to obey ... Where, from whom did all this come from, I'm at a loss. Suddenly such attention! They even published a book about me. That way, only academics are lucky. What's the matter?" Very typical for V.P. intonations of bewilderment and self-irony!

I also remember how I urged him to write his memoirs. He even got offended. - Well, do you think that my song is sung? After all, memoirs are written when there are no years for any other business!

But nevertheless, one day he brought me to Chelyabinsk a manuscript called “The way of the collector (autobiographical sketch)” and jokingly demanded from me: - Only you testify that I did this not of my own free will, but was forced by you. And then he unexpectedly and mischievously admitted: - This essay has been ready for me for a long time, but I kept quiet.

"The way of the collector" appeared, as is known, in the sixth issue of the almanac "Southern Urals", although this publication did not bring much joy to the author. And even a few years later (in a letter dated as follows: “On the morning of January 26, 1957”), he regretfully recalled that the editor “greatly distorted” his essay and introduced some distortions and factual inaccuracies. By the way, I have preserved the first galleys of the "Way of the Gatherer", containing many interesting details, to

unfortunately excluded from the published text. Biographers and researchers of V.P. Biryukov, on this occasion, it is better to refer not to the journal text, but directly to the manuscript of his memoirs, stored in the archive that remained after him.

What to write about the modesty of V.P. Biryukov, manifested in his attitude to anniversaries and memoirs, even if he was persuaded to speak at a meeting of the folklore and ethnographic circle of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute or in front of the participants of our folklore expedition, it was not an easy task (he believed that I had already taught them everything and he had nothing to say to them). Heading the Department of Literature, I decided to involve V.P. Biryukov to lectures on folklore for correspondence students. I spoke to him on this topic at every meeting, wrote him private and official invitations, but in vain. It seemed to him that he was not “academic” enough for a “capital university” (as he called the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute, alluding to the proverb “Chelyabinsk is the capital of the Southern Urals” then in use). And he agreed only when I told him that since he refuses to teach a folklore course, I must do it myself and therefore I will have to sacrifice the summer expedition. Hearing this, he got excited:

No, no, how can you! I'll help you out - go, go!

My little trick was designed for V.P. camaraderie - how could he allow me to sacrifice the expedition! And after that, for several years he accompanied and admonished me with the students on an expedition to the Southern Urals, and he himself read a folklore course to correspondence students, which is now immortalized, to my joy, on a memorial plaque, on one of the columns of the pediment of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute.

I recall another episode that characterizes the modesty of V.P. Biryukov. In January 1949, the seventieth birthday of the famous P.P. was solemnly celebrated in Sverdlovsk. Bazhov. Writers, journalists, critics gathered. Among the most desired guests for the hero of the day was V.P. Biryukov. I had the honor to represent the Chelyabinsk Writers' Organization. We took pictures after the conference. P.P. Bazhov, who was sitting in the center of the first row, invited V.P. to take a seat in the same row. Biryukov. The experience of his call and other oldest writers of the Urals. But V.P. Biryukov waved his hands in fright and took quick steps towards the exit from the hall. I rushed to catch up with him, and he eventually perched behind everyone, climbing onto a chair next to me (I keep this photo among the most dear to me).

In the evening P.P. Bazhov and his family invited a small group of conference participants to visit them. Of course, V.P. was also invited. Biryukov. I followed him into the hotel room and found him sitting

sitting at the table, immersed in their notebooks. I see that he does not even think of going to the party, I say:

Time to go.

I'm not well, I'll probably go to bed ...

From the tone, I feel that this is an excuse.

Do not dissemble, Vladimir Pavlovich. Offend the good

They know me - they won't be offended.

Well, I won't go without you!

He sat down at the table, took out his notebook from his pocket and also began to write something into it. We sit, we are silent. Vladimir Pavlovich could not stand it, jumped up and, stammering slightly, threw out:

Don't ride on someone else's horse!

I did not immediately realize what he wanted to say by this, and then I guessed: they say, writers will gather, and our folklorist brother has nothing to do there.

Why, Pavel Petrovich rode into literature on the same horse, - I objected to him in tone.

Then he drove in, but he re-harnessed the horses for a long time - he couldn’t catch up ...

For a long time we bickered in the same spirit, but at last he gave in,

convinced that, indeed, without him I would not go, but to deprive me of the opportunity to spend the evening in the family of P.P. Bazhov, he did not dare.

What a folklorist I am! - he modestly remarked V.P. in one of his conversations with me. Biryukov. - I am not a folklorist at all, moreover, I am not a scientist, I am a local historian.

Indeed, V.P. Biryukov cannot, strictly speaking, be called a folklorist in the usual sense of the word, and yet his name has firmly entered the history of Soviet folklore. Folklore studies were only a small and, I would say, subordinate area in his diverse, extensive local history activities. He looked at folklore as an organic part of the entire spiritual culture of the people, inseparable from work, life, struggle, philosophy, and practical morality of the working masses. In the collecting activity of V.P. Biryukov, initially spontaneously, and then consciously implemented the program of Russian revolutionary democrats - to study folklore as "material for characterizing the people" (Dobrolyubov).

There was another feature in the work of V.P. Biryukov as a collector - although he wrote in one of his methodological articles that the collective, expeditionary method of collecting material is the best (see: “Folklore and dialectological collection of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute”, Chelyabinsk, 1953, p. 140), however, he himself

he still preferred individual searches, conversations and recording. At the same time, he combined a systematic stationary method of collecting in one place and from several persons - with long and distant trips with a specific thematic goal (this is how he traveled almost the entire Urals, collecting the folklore of the civil war).

V.P. Biryukov was helped in his work not only by vast experience, but also by intuition, the ability to win over people, knowledge folk speech. He did not imitate the manner of the interlocutor, but quickly grasped the peculiarities of the dialect and could always pass for a fellow countryman. He never parted with a notebook anywhere and kept notes literally continuously, everywhere, in any situation - on the street, in a tram, at the station, even while at home or being treated in a sanatorium and in a hospital. He did not neglect anything and no one, he entered into a notebook any well-aimed word, any message that struck him, a fragment of a song, even one verse of it ... singing (at night or in the rain), but every time he conscientiously stipulated this in his manuscripts, so as not to mislead those who would use his materials. The collection of folklore has become

for him a vital need, and one can easily imagine what a misfortune for him was gradually developing deafness. In December 1963 he wrote to me: “Remember how I was with you in 1958. Then the deafness was already beginning, and now it has intensified ... Because of the deafness, we have to leave the recording of folklore.”

It is not surprising that V.P. Biryukov alone managed to collect such a colossal folkloric and ethnographic archive that any scientific institution could be proud of. His house on Pionerskaya Street in Shadrinsk was a unique repository of a wide variety of materials on the life and spiritual culture of the Ural population, which was listed in the official lists. The archive occupied several cabinets and shelves in the brick closet of his house, specially adapted by him for storing manuscripts. The practical inaccessibility of the archive for specialists brought V.P. Biryukov is very upset. Naturally, he began to think about transferring his collections to some scientific institution or about organizing an independent archive in the Urals on the basis of his collections. Big hopes he assigned to Chelyabinsk. The writers' organization and friends fussed about moving V.P. Biryukov. But for some reason this did not materialize. In the letter I have already quoted of December 29, 1963, V.P. Biryukov wrote bitterly: “Next year it will be 20 years since the question arose of my moving to Chelyabinsk and organizing a literary archive there on the basis of my collection. Over the past 19 years, an inexhaustible amount of blood has been spoiled.<...>Now the issue has been finally and irrevocably settled, so that I can already calmly talk and write to my friends. Since October, the transfer of our assembly to Sverdlovsk began ...> So far, six and a half tons have been transported and the same amount remains to be transported. Thus ended his Odyssey... In Sverdlovsk, as is known, on the basis of V.P. Biryukov, the Ural Central State Archive of Literature and Art was created, and V.P. Biryukov became its first custodian.

No matter how great the literary heritage of V.P. Biryukov, but his books included only a part of the materials he collected on the folk culture of the Russian population of the Urals. The fate of his books was not always easy. I recall, for example, the preparation of the collection "Historical tales and songs", in the publication of which I was involved. The manuscript had already been edited and approved, when suddenly the publishing house had unexpected doubts about whether to publish the book, dedicated to events pre-revolutionary time? Then the saving thought came to me to turn for support to the oldest and honored Moscow folklorist and literary critic I.N. Rozanov, who knew V.P. Biryukov, and he agreed to put his name on the title page,

and I wrote a special preface to explain the value and relevance of the materials included in the collection. And yet, despite all these precautions, in the review of the collection published in the newspaper Krasny Kurgan (May 31, 1960, No. 101), which generally contained an objective and high assessment of the book, a sacramental phrase appeared: “But the collection devoid of shortcomings. It is composed out of touch with the present." And this is about a collection of historical songs and tales, where most of the materials are related to the liberation and revolutionary movement! When the book came out. V.P. Biryukov gave it to me with the inscription: "To my editor and printer." On the title page, above the name of the collection, it is indicated: “Folklore of the Urals. First issue." But, unfortunately, he remained the only one conceived by V.P. Biryukov series of similar scientific folklore collections.

Fortunately, other books by V.P. were published in Sverdlovsk and Kurgan. Biryukov: "Ural in its living word" (1953), "Soviet Ural" (1958), "Winged words in the Urals" (1960), "Notes of the Ural local historian" (1964), "Ural piggy bank" (1969).

V.P. Biryukov created a peculiar type of folklore collections. They clearly manifested the principles of his approach to folklore, which I mentioned above in connection with his collecting activities and which he himself well formulated in the preface to the collection "The Urals in its living word": "Through oral folk art, through folk language - to the knowledge of the native land. It is enough to look at the composition of V.P. Biryukov, on the names and composition of their sections, in order to make sure that the main thing for him was the history or the current state of a particular folklore genre, not the transfer of certain ideological and artistic features of folklore, but, first of all, the desire to give a holistic view of about this or that historical event, about this or that side of the life and life of the people, about the features of this or that social group, about this or that type of labor activity. Therefore, all genres in his collections within one thematic section are interspersed, and a fairy tale, a song, a documentary story, a ditty, a proverb, and sayings, and lyrics, and satire, can stand side by side - in a word, everything, which helps to cover the topic of interest with the utmost completeness. I often heard from colleagues and even read unfounded reproaches against V.P. Biryukov, which are the result of a misunderstanding of the creative concept and purpose of his collections. Meanwhile, the collections of V.P. Biryukov should not be measured by a common academic yardstick, look for in them what is excluded by their very nature, the originality of the principles of their compiler. We must appreciate what V.P. Biryukov gave to science and what no one else could give. In collections

V.P. Biryukov, one should first of all look for something new and original that they contain and perceive folklore in its historical, social and everyday contexts, more clearly see the inseparable connection of folklore with the life, life and work of the people. If we touch on the fact that V.P. Biryukov was not always guided in the selection of material by aesthetic criteria, he himself did not hide this - after all, he did not create anthologies literary texts, but books that could serve as a reliable historical source.

Merits of V.P. Biryukov have long been recognized. There were people who appreciated his folklore activities. Suffice it to mention Yu.M. Sokolov and P.P. Bazhov, constantly supported V.P. Biryukov in all trials, contributed to the appearance of his books, A.A. Shmakov, V.P. Timofeev, D.A. Panov... The more time separates us from those years when we witnessed the versatile activities of V.P. Biryukov, the clearer becomes its significance for national science and culture. And, as always happens after the death of an outstanding person, the sad thought does not leave him that after all, not enough has been done so that he can work comfortably and calmly.

The last time we saw each other was in the winter of 1969, when V.P. Biryukov came to Leningrad on business of his depository. One evening the bell rang, and at the door I saw a gray-haired old man in a sheepskin coat that I knew well, taking off mittens attached to a string, stretched out into his sleeves. We embraced, and before I had time to seat him in a chair, he already, with his usual delicacy, began to apologize that he would soon have to leave. Of course, we talked all evening, without once looking at the clock, and when I begged him to stay overnight, he gently but unwaveringly refused, trying to assure that in the hotel of the Academy of Sciences, where he was given a separate room, not finished ones were waiting for him, but things planned for today. An eternal, tireless worker, he really could not sleep peacefully at a party. The next day, I took him to the train, and we seemed to have a premonition that we were seeing each other. last time, did not say the usual "see you again" ...

But before my mind's eye, he appears not as a tired, stooping old man entering a carriage, but as I knew him in the good old days: slender, youthful, with a sly look in his eyes, dressed in tight old-fashioned trousers, shod in big hiking boots, with a battered leather "paramedic's" trunk in one hand and a "knotty stick" in the other, cheerfully pacing unmeasured miles along the rocky Ural road.