In spite of the fact that the month of June was all rainy, with just moderately warm temperatures, it nonetheless represented the beginning of a thrilling and greatly creative summer for the students of the Yeniseisk College of Pedagogics. For a period of eight days they were engaged in research work in the hamlet of Momotovo in the Kazachinsk District pursuing two main aspects: history and human rights, as well as folklore.
The expedition of history and human rights was the sixth of ist kind; it has
already become
a traditional event for the students, who endeavour to pass on to researching
current, banal events, the so-called „history from below“, instead of just
concentrating on studying „prominent people and great historic events“. The
main, and, in fact, very concrete topic of this research project was „ The
policy of repressions enforced by the Soviet government in the 1930s till
1950s“, which our students have meanwhile been dealing with for more than six
years.
Why the policy of repressions of all things? We live in a society which aspires to define itself as a „democratic, tolerant consitutional state“..., although it is showing a right-leaning tendency from time to time. Researching the policy of repression by listening to what people pass on orally and under the guidance of an expert, the chairman of the Krasnoyarsk „Memorial Organization of Human Rights – A.A. Babiy, implies for our students a quite peculiar way of becoming vaccinated against totalitarism and different kinds of bondage. Word-of-mouth witnesses (about twenty of them were recorded during the project in Momotovo) allow future pedagogues to approach to their history, to not just learn something worth to know about the past, but to also put oneself in the position of teller or victim, to empathize. After each interview, after having listened to what their respondents tried to explain, the students return with an expression of surprise, confusion and dismay on their faces:
Tatyana Luchkina: „Our counterpart, S.S. Balchunas, told us that they received a letter from their father - a letter written on birchbark (!!!). It was folded like one of those common letters written on paper. And it was effectiveley delivered to its final destinjation in Yakutia!“
Alsa Akhmadeeva: „Nowadays you can read a lot about the intricate trying life of the deportees in Siberia. But none of the passages in history books can compare to the difficulties of daily life, such as A.J. Schleining was prepared to tell me about: „Our family did not own a single pair of shoes, so that in April I was forced to walk to school bare-footed. My feet were burning like fire from the cold. On my way to school I discovered some fresh, warm cow pat; I stepped into it with both feets to warm them up. And then I hurried to school within five minutes“.
Maria Pichueva: „It is not really hard to guess, which kind of feelings a mother would nowadays cause with her fellow men when breaking away from her children and placing them into a children’s home. You will be able to imagine and understand all this horror, all this despair of A.F. Freibers’ mother, who one day decided to appear with her three little children before the commandant of the Kazachinsk Special Resettlement Office begging him on her knees to „shoot them or take them to a children’s home, as otherwise they will starve!“ There it is – the theory of relativity!
Orally passed down history did not just unite two generations in Monotovo; it also joined the past and the future. This expedition also joined the past and the future of the college, which has now been existing for more than 75 years. Once upon a time, in the evry beginning of the existence of this school, its students ued to set out each summer for places, where they could learn a lot of thuings about folklore and tradition. Nowadays, after the department of pedagogics and advanced training introduced a new branch of study called “pedagogics with additional musical education”, it has become an absolute must to study and research the folklore of our region, and it means that we live in a time of renaissance of former traditions.
In the course of our expedition the students collected more than 387 four-lined folk verses and wrote down the texts of about one dozen lyrical songs – as they used to be sung as per accepted custom. The most wiedespread genre of orally passed down folklore, which existed in the village at that time, was the so-called “chastooshka” (two-line or four-line folk verse, usually humerous and topical, sung in a lively manner; translator’s note). You will find any topic in them – the history of the country, its politics, love and emotions, the ice-cold whiff of changes, pop idols and completely new realities. But no matter what they are singing about, there is always some sense of humour, something positive – the great Russian soul. Thus, the legendary Kazachinsk singer P.D. Konopliannikova has left a particularly strong mark with the students.
V. Tsurov, S. Kilin: “In Molotovo somebody told us that there is a babushka (grandmother; translator’s note) who lives in Kazachinskoe, and that any gatherer of folklore would dream of having the opportunity to meet with her – Praskovia Dmitrievna Konopliannikova. This was all we learned about her, but we neither knew who she was, nor was anybody able to give us her exact address … In a word: go there, I can’t tell you exactly where she lives, but you will find what you are looking for! Unbelievable, but the very first person we met in Kazachinskoe was able to roughly tell us where she lived. Due to Praskovia Dmitrievna’s high degree of popularity we found her house on the banks of the Little Black River within thirty minutes. She is not just a remarkable singer and poetess of folk verses, she is also a downright hospitable, sensitive and honest woman. And how she is able to enthuse people!
Actually, Sergei and I now have one more grandmother! And talking in general about our folkloristic practice, we can describe it in just a few words: we were caught by folklore all at once!”
T. Dzhioeva: „I will always recall this warm-hearted feeling, when we disembarked in Piskunovka. A wonderful place with broad streets and cultivated gardens. And the people, of course – a conglomerate of Chuvash, Tatar and Russian blood, which results in a very special „race“ – they are all very blithesome, sensitive, like to frolic and usually talk in a loud voice. Some amusing and at the same time slightly sentimental situation came up, when we heared someone shouting behind us. We turned round and caught sight of an old woman of about 80 years, who despairingly tried to catch up with us – for she knew another two “chastooshkas”, which she was rather anxious to repeat to us!“
The summer passed by very quickly, it was already September – A month full of tasks and open for new creative actions. In front of us is a big quantity of work – we need to work up all the collected material and start to realize our big, ambitious plans.
I. Moiseeva, Yeniseisk College of Pedagogics
I have only one shirt
I have only one pair of trousers.
For now we have the crises
Which effects the economy of our country.
Manya, do not get married,
It just bodes ill,
And the shopping basket
Does not provide any marriage.
I was sitting on a swing
I lost the hare
It is nothing to anybody,
that I fell in love with a Chinese.
Play the accordion
And ask the girls to sing along,
In order to let the whole world know,
How the kolkhoz farmers live hear.
A birch.tree is growing on the hill,
The birch is covered by bark.
Our men all died,
The were eaten up by swarms of mosquitos.
Grey bird, do not couckoo,
Do not sit down on that very birch.
Fly over to the fir tree,
And send the sweetheart the my regards.
I planted a forget–me-not
Righted into the streamlet, without any roots.
Get used to the fact, my sweetie pie
To live without any last friend..
Look at the sky, my dear,
And then look at me,
See the black clouds,
They reflect the feelings of my heart.
„In due time“ (Lesosibirsk); N° 35, 4 September 2009