ON THE FORTHCOMING OBONEZHIE VOLUMES OF THE SVOD RUSSKOGO FOLKLORA SERIES: MATERIALS FROM THE 1931–1932 EXPEDITIONS OF THE FOLKLORE SECTION OF THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF PEOPLES IN THE COLLECTION OF THE INSTITUTE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE (PUSHKINSKII DOM) IN ST. PETERSBURG

Abstract

The article considers for the first time the history, methods, and results of two folklore expeditions to the Zaonezhie region, which took place in the summer of 1931 and in the winter of 1931/1932. The expeditions were led by members of the Folklore Section of the Institute for the Study of Peoples of the USSR and the Karelian Research Institute. Two students of the Leningrad State Historical and Linguistic Institute, M. B. Kaminskaia and N. N. Tiaponkina, took part in the expeditions. Among other things, the expeditions were especially charged with collecting materials on the current state of the epic tradition and the “social function of the epic.” The expedition of 1931 was intended to provide field practice experience to students. For that matter it involved many participants and solved a wide range of problems. Members of the expedition took records only in notebooks. The 1931–1932 winter expedition was professional, so it took records even on wax cylinders. The article summarizes data concerning both expeditions and pays special attention to the materials on the Russian epic tradition. It reconstructs the route of the winter expedition, provides an inventory of the phonographic collection, and reviews the handwritten records. The analysis of the materials showed that the young specialists adopted the work methods used by Leningrad folklorists: searching for masters of epics performance, working with both the best and ordinary performers, practicing separate handwriting of the text (“in 2 pencils”) and sound recording, collecting biographies of performers, taking detailed interviews about the experience of mastering of the epic tradition and the experience of performing. These methods made it possible to accumulate important material about the folklore and ethnography of the Zaonezhie region.