songs about Siberia

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Margaret McKibben wrote:

> I have an anecdote which may apply...in 1985 I was at a folk song festival
> in Novosibirsk, and in conversation with the head of the hosting choir
> mentioned that I was collecting songs from US Old Believers whose roots
> were in Siberia.
>
> "Have you found any anti-war songs?" she asked.  "Our choir keeps getting
> invited to perform at peace festivals, and we've tried to find appropriate
> material on our recording expeditions to our local villages, but all we
> can get are exile songs -- exile songs -- and more exile songs!"
>
> So that's Siberia in the imagination of the local Russian population, it
> seems.
>
> I've long been curious about the absence of railroad lore in Siberian
> folk music.  The musical folklore of the American West is packed with
> railroad heroes, railroad references, instrumental quotes of steam engine
> whistles and the sound of wheels on track. I've yet to find anything
> analogous in Siberian folk music, in spite of the similiar role of the
> railroad.

You won't find them because you are mistaken here.
The first Russian people's acquaintance with the railroads was through
their forced labor in building them with absolutely unhumane conditions.
It was hard for them to be enthusiastic for the result of their heroic
efforts when they went through swamps and the elements of nature leaving
many dead behind.

There is no comparison with the American experience.


Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>