The Presidential Library: New acquisitions

The Presidential Library’s portal continues to publish the materials delivered by the National Library of Republic of Karelia.

The editions offered to readers are intended to supplement the "People" and "Russian language" thematic units. They are devoted to folklore of the peoples inhabiting the Olonets region, the reflection of the history of the region and of the country as a whole in folklore, as well as to everyday life, languages and dialects of indigenous inhabitants of the region.

Russian folk songs about the legendary defenders of the Fatherland – epical heroes Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, Danilo Ignatievich, Ilya of Murom, etc. – are revealed in the publication of the writer, translator, and folklorist, specialist in the study of early texts, P. V. Kireyevsky "Songs Collected by P. V. Kireyevsky". Moscow, 1860-1861. Part 1, Issue 1 (1860), Issue 2 (1861), Issue 3 (1861).

The book by Russian specialist in the study of Slavs, folklorist, A. F. Hilferding, Onega Bylinas ... 1871 (St. Petersburg, 1873) brings together folk tales performed by 71 singers of the Olonets Province with the appendix featuring the biographies of local Rhapsody. Many of the texts have preserved the people's interpretation of major historical figures - Ivan the Terrible, Gregory Otrepiev, Ermak, Peter I, Stepan Razin, as well as important events in Russian history - the Zemsky Sobor, the capture of Kazan, the war with Sweden, etc. The publication is provided with an index of the bylinas in accordance with their content and with an introductory article, which sets out the views of the author regarding the reflection of historical reality in the Russian epic folklore.

Russian folk songs with melodies (spiritual poems, epics, wedding prichet (lamentations), wedding songs, round dance songs and lingering songs), collected by an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society supported by means specially allocated by the Emperor Alexander III, are revealed in the Songs of the Russian People: Collected in the Archangelsk and Olonets Provinces in 1886 (St. Petersburg, 1894) by ethnographer F. M. Istomin. The book contains an index of locations, singers, narrators, etc.

Ancient wedding ceremonies of the Olonets region are presented in the book by D. Lysanov, Dosyulnaya Wedding, Songs, Games and Dances in Zaonezhie of the Olonets Province (Petrozavodsk, 1916). The copy from which the digital copy is made, bears the author’s gift note to Cleopatra Shidlovskaya Ivanovna - the wife of the last Arkhangelsk and Olotnets governor, A. F. Shidlovskiy, who had made a significant contribution to a large-scale scientific study and development of the Russian North in the early 20th century.

The work of N. S. Shayzhin, "Olonets Region: According to Local Folklore." 1 (Petrazovodsk, 1908), 3 (Petrazovodsk, 1909) enables a reader to trace the reflection of life and fate of the Olonets region, as well as the popular notions of power and the state service in the works of local folk art.

The significance and importance of collecting and studying popular funeral prichet to study people's attitudes and way of life is reflected in N. S. Shayzhin’s "Olonets Folklore." (Petrozavodsk, 1910). 2: Funeral Laments of the Olonets Region, which includes an autobiography of the performer, A. Bogdanova. E. V. Barsov’s "Lamentations of the Northern Territory ..." (Moscow, 1882). Part 2, devoted to the Emperor Alexander II as a liberator of the people of conscription, includes war, recruits’ and soldiers’ laments, as well as comments about the laments’ language and vocabulary of the North Russian dialect.

M. D. Georgievskiy’s Russian-Korelsky Dictionary. (St. Petersburg, 1908), G. I. Kulikovskiy’s Dictionary of the Olonets Regional Dialect in its Everyday and Ethnographic Application. (St. Petersburg, 1898) and P. K. Uspenskiy’s Russian-Peipus Dictionary with Some Grammatical Guidance. (St. Petersburg, 1913) cover languages and dialects that exist in the Onega territory.

Preparation of new materials continues.