E-mail: yulyachernysheva99@gmail.com, Tel.: +7 (3422) 212-70-19
13a, Lenina str., Perm, 614090, Russian Federation
Researcher, Institute of Humanities Research, Perm Federal Research Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
This study was carried out as part of the state project, “Ethnocultural Processes in the Center of Eurasia: the Archeology and Ethnography of the Urals” (reg. № 124021500047-2).
Russian folklore concerning recruitment mentions historical events and social phenomena, evaluates them, and reflects the peculiarities of peasants’ perception of military service. This article attempts to describe Russian peasants ideas about military service that existed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By analyzing the texts of folklore concerning recruitment — lamentations, songs, chastushki — we can discern peasants’ perception of army service; the way that conscripts were regarded in the collective; and the attitude of fellow villagers and relatives toward them. Recruits in the peasant environment ceased to be considered “their own,” and fellow villagers and family members sympathized with their fate. Since the army world was alien to the peasant, the view formed that those in the army were mistreated by the authorities and that soldiers suffer from hunger and hard service. The results of this study may not only serve as a basis for further folkloric, ethnographic, linguistic research, but are also relevant for putting educational and cultural activities into practice. Sources for this article include archival materials from folklore and ethnographic expeditions sponsored by the Institute of Humanitarian Studies, the Perm Federal Research Center, Ural Branch, and by Lomonosov Moscow State University; as well as periodical publications
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