THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF TIT EGOROVICH TOCHILOV (1881–1939) IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SOCIO-CULTURAL PRACTICES AND ETHNOGRAPHIC REALITIES OF THE VILLAGE OF ZIMNIAIA ZOLOTITSA

Abstract

The article analyzes the autobiography of Tit Egorovich Tochilov (1881-1939), a resident of Zimniaia Zolotitsa. In 1935, Tochilov was heavily taxed and deprived of the right to vote. He wrote the autobiography in 1939, after he was levied once again. In this text, Tochilov intended to describe his hard life, which was characterized by roaming and continuous work. He sought to make his life story public and to present himself as a hard worker who aligned with the ideology of the new Soviet state. Tit Egorovich Tochilov is known to Russian folklorists as a performer of epic poems (byliny). His autobiography contains descriptions of the socio-cultural practices and ethnographic realities of Zimniaia Zolotitsa. The village of Zimniaia Zolotitsa has an economy that is typical for the Pomor’e region. Throughout his life, Tochilov worked on fishing vessels and participated in the hunt of sea animals and in sea fishing. In our analysis of Tochilov’s autobiographical narrative, we consider an autobiography as a complex verbal construction that is not a reflection but a presentation of a person’s life. Tochilov’s narrative strategy strove to display his work biography. Accordingly, Tochilov talks in detail about his professional activities but relates almost nothing about his personal life. Tochilov’s autobiography is of interest to folklorists and anthropologists because it gives a detailed description of many sociocultural and professional practices of the Pomor’e: the structure and relationships in the male cooperative association (artel’), the organization of the hunt of sea animals and fishing trades, etc. In his narrative, Tochilov regularly refers to the hunting and fishing times for the Winter Coast of the White Sea that are contained in the traditional calendar.