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ANNE-MARGRETHE HUSTAD

The North Russian Lament
in the Light of the Religious Songs of the Old Believers

“Sub specie aetemitatis et sub specie religionis”

When  studying  the  north  Russian  Lament  and  the  background  of  those
who  carried  on  the  tradition,  one  feature  in  particular  stands  out,  namely
the  strict moral  attitude  of  the  Old  Believers,  the  Raskolniks,  and  the pre

judices which their moral code entailed.

The lament is an ancient phenomenon in most cultures. Best known

within our own culture is perhaps the lamentations of Jeremiah in the Old

Testament, with its “Sursum corda” (Jer. I l l : 41). But the traditions them

selves are of much greater age. Probably the oldest written sources are to

be  found  in  the  Rigveda,  the  Assyrian  Gilgamesh,  in  the  Persian  Zend and
also  in  Egyptian  burials.  In  Greece,  this tradition—already ancient—found
its  expression  in  the  tragedies  with  the  threnos  of  the  leader  of  the  chorus
and  also  in  the  women’s  chorus.  As  part  of  the  culture  which  Rome  in

herited  from  the  Greeks  we  also  come  across  the  laments  (elegies)  in  the
works  of  Vergil  and  Catullus.  Of  a  different  character  altogether,  are the
laments  found  in  the  older  Germanic  and  Anglo  Saxon  literature,  in  the

Niebelungenlied and the Beowulf. Here the cry for vengeance is often the

motive,  never  the  appeal  for  sympathy  and  comfort  demanded  in  the
cultures  of  the  East.  In these the lament was  a role imposed upon  the  sor
rowing  and  suffering  individual  by  a  strict  and  authoritarian  society  in
order that society itself could play its part as the good helper and comforter.

We  can  agree  up  to  a  point  with  the  Russian  social  philosopher  Cerny-
sevskij  when,  in  another  connection,  he  cynically  characterizes  the  singing
of  laments  as  “rational egotism”  (Cemysevskij  1950,  p.  283).  But we  must

not approach the singing of laments with cynicism.

The most important functions of lamentations were:

1. To safeguard the memory of the dead by praise and tokens of respect.

In this lay also a certain insurance against the return of the deceased to
seek vengeance on the family.

2. Social care, both economic and from a psychological point of view.
3. As means to release possible bitterness in the minds of the grieving.

4. To teach the younger generation a highly regarded tradition.

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The laments were obrjadnye and bytovye (either of a ritualistic nature or

for everyday life). The former were obligatory at funerals and weddings
and also, from around 1700 at the merciless recruiting drives (zabory,

provody). These latter had tragic and severe consequences for the Russian

farming families who watched husbands, sons and brothers conscripted

to  25 years  of military service. They might perish from the treatment meted
out  in  the  service  before  their  time  was  up.  The  laments  again  and  again
recall  that  to  part  from  the  recruit  was  more  bitter  than  a  parting  at  a

deathbed: “Kak detina toska — neugasimaja, i kak živa éta razluka pušce

mertvoj” (Barsov 1882).

The second group of laments, bytovye, was traditionally sung when great

afflictions  occurred,  such as storms and bad weather, landslides and floods,
fire  and  shipwreck,  pestilence  and  famine.  These  bytovye  laments  are  less
strictly  tied  to  the  traditional  framework  but  give  in  their formal  freedom
an even stronger lyrical description of the everyday life  of the people. They
will  stand as a living source for ethnography and cultural history.

The specific Russian singing of laments has accompanied both sectarian

and  political  emigrants  outside  Russia’s  border.  In  our  time  they  have
been recorded in  Siberia,  Canada,  USA,  Brazil  and Japan.  As  early as  the
late  Middle  Ages  there  were  traces  of  laments  along  the  hanseatic  com
mercial  routes  from  the  east,  traces  which  have  persisted  until  our  own
time  in  north  Europe.

Laments were an indispensable element in the life of the Russian people

throughout the social scale, in town and in the country until Peter I banned
them on a specific occasion in his own family in 1715. It nevertheless did

not prevent the  populace from  singing heartrending laments when he him
self died  ten years  later.  The singings  of laments  meanwhile,  had long been
a  thorn  in  the flesh  of the  Church which  rightly  detected  a heathen  legacy
in the custom. This was particulary the case at the traditional commemora

tive  festivals (jpominki)  on the graves at Whitsuntide.  Then the graves were
covered with tablecloths, food and drink were served and laments rang out
naming the deceased as the guest of honour at the feast.  The  Church,  with
its  Christian  view  directed  at  life  after  death,  took  umbrage  at  this  clear
survival  of  a  forefather  cult  in  which  the  dead  in  the  family  are  forever

partakers in the life on earth. From the time of Stoglav (1551) a regular

question in the confessional was whether one had sung laments or comitted

any similar outrage!

The reciters of laments, or wailers, were specially gifted women (voplinicy)

from the locality. Often the gift persisted within the family and passed from

mother to daughter. However, it was expected of a Russian woman that she

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could  sing laments.  A young bride must learn from an experienced woman
the  appropriate  lamentations  for  her  wedding.  But  whether  at  funerals,
weddings  or  recruiting  drives  the  principal  local  woman  wailer  always  led
the ritual  of  lamentations  in  all its facets  and  she it was,  who  directed  the
women’s  chorus.  More  often  than  not  she  could  also  recite  on  behalf  of
the family and of the neighbours. An exception to this are the women in the
Lena  district  in  Siberia  who  were  generally  themselves  the  performers
(Azadovskij  1922).  The  principal  wailer  with  her  strong  personality  and

thorough knowledge of the immediate surroundings was at times of grief
a wise comforter, excerting moral influence on the life and conduct of her
fellow beings.

These were the established moral claims of the Old Believers (Russian

starovercy, Finnish vierolaiset) in north Russia, in Russian and Finnish

Karelia, with an impact also in Finnish laments proper. The Old Believers

considered themselves the only true believers, pravoslavnye (Pentikainen

1978, pp. 100-20).

During the hundred years and more since folklore became a field of

research in its own right, there has been a shift of emphasis in the meaning

of  the  word  itself:  folklore.  In  1850  the  investigation  would  concern  itself
with  the  lore  part,  whereas  in  the  1950s  the  emphasis  was  on  the folk  ele
ment. Today there is a general  acceptance within folklore research that one
of  the  most  important factors  in  the  growth  and  dissemination  of  a tradi

tion  is  the  personal  attitude  to  life  and  experience  of  the  bearer  himself
and  the  way  in  which  he  has  been  formed  by  circumstances.  This  theory
explains  the  firm  basis  of  the  folk  poetry  which  they  subconsciously  re
created  and  spread,  in  the  conscious  belief  that  an  old  tradition  had  been
passed  on,  unchanged,  to  a  younger  generation.  The  change  in  emphasis

in  the word folklore  has given  and is providing rich new fields for research
everywhere.  As  for  the  laments  and  the  women  wailers,  valuable  research
has  been  done  in  the  east  Finnish  area.  As  recently  as  in  1976,  professor
Pentikainen’s  study of the Old  Believer wailer Marina Takola excited great
interest (Pentikainen  1978).  Previous researchers have written about Larina
Paraske and Anna Sjustajeva.  The folklore scholar Martti Haavio  (Haavio

1937, pp. 3-39) has been successful in identifying himself closely with the

very essence of the laments, but then he was himself one of Finland’s great
lyrical writers, writing under the pseudonym of P. Mustapaa.

In Russia interest naturally centers around the three great women wailers

of the last century: Irina Fedosova (1833-1896), Natal'ja Bogdanova (1855—

1937), both from Olonec and Agrafena Kijukova (1855-1930) from Arch

angel. The repertoire of these gifted women consisted of a great deal more

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than their improvised laments which of all folkpoetry remains peculiary the
women’s domain. They were also the disseminators of folk tales and legends,
riddles and proverbs,  of ballads and heroic lays (byliny) but above all, they
favoured  the  religious  songs  (duchovnye stichi,  geistliche  Lieder).  The  Old
Believers knew best  how to  conserve this  unique  genre  of folk  poetry,  and
did  so  by  adapting  according  to  the  needs  of their  own  moral  code.  Since
the  18th  century  the  religious  songs  have  excerted  a  remarkable  influence
on  the  north  Russian  and  Finnish  laments,  an  influence  which  is  worthy
of  investigation.  The  Russian  and  Finnish  women  wailers  we  have  men
tioned,  were  as  people  quite  different  in  personality  but  were  socially
linked  together  as  Old  Believers.  They all possessed a rare  artistic quality

which  they  could  readily  express  in  improvisations.  None  of  them  could
read or write but each of them had recourse to  an excellent memory. What
Irina  Fedosova  said  about herself  to  the researcher Barsov holds  for  them

all: “Ja gramotoj ne gramotna, zato ja pamjat'ju ja pamjatna” (Barsov

1872, p. 315).

The remarkable similarity between north Russian and east Finnish la

ments has naturally led to debate between Russian and Finnish folklorists

from their different points of view. In this context it is important to know

about  the  geography  involved  and  also  to  understand  the  historic  per
spective,  lest  we  forget  that  national  feelings  are  of  fairly  recent  date.
Frontiers,  arbitrarily established according to the changing fortunes of war
of  kings  and  sovereigns  did  not  prevent  the  free  movement  of  people  as
do  our  modern  border  controls.  There  would  remain  a  continuous  inter
course between  good  neighbours with  a lively exchange also  of ideas.  That
was  the  process  which  in  Russia  and  Finnish  Karelia  and  in  Pomor'e
produced the fruitful interaction which gives the stamp of beauty to the folk

poetry in these regions. What further eased the process was the influence

since the early Middle Ages in Finnish Karelia of the Greek Orthodox
Church. The distinctive quality of this church found its particular expression

in east Finland and established itself differently in the popular mind from

the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches in south-west Finland.

The religious song is the only oral tradition in Russian folk poetry which

has firm roots in literary sources, in particular from the New Testament,
the Lives of the Saints and the Legends of the Martyrs as well as from the

Greek Apocrypha. How this genre of folk poetry was spread, which group

within society became the bearers of this tradition and how the tradition
was reshaped gradually as the various needs became apparent, is a far

reaching subject. The present study concerns the movement northwards
of this genre into the north Russian tradition. I will therefore discuss the

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northern religious songs only, recorded'among others by Rybnikov and
Hilferding around 1860. Incidentally, these collectors regarded many of

these songs as genuine by liny. Most of them were collected as early as 1840

by the Slavophil scholar Kireevskij and after his death in 1856 arranged
and edited by P. V. Bezsonov (1861-1864).

The religious songs are somewhat older than the earliest written docu

ments,  the Adam  song (Plac Adama)  of around  1400.  Because  their source
is the medieval religious literature they form their own  category within folk
poetry. No less characteristic is the spread of this tradition. The songs were
carried  by  vagrant  beggars,  kaleki perechozie,  who  were  for  the  most part
blind  or  crippled  and  who  would  sing  for  their  supper  on  the  open road
and from  house  to  house.  More  often  than  not  they would turn  up  at the
monastries  and  cathedrals  at  the  time  of  the  great  Church  festivals when
large  crowds  had  gathered.  It  was  as  a  tradition  very  much  alive  that the
religious  verses accompanied  the  Old  Believers  on  their flight to the north.
These  older  songs  have  been  called  starsie  in  contrast  to  the  songs  which

with their later form and structuré have been given the name of mladsie and
which travelled west and south. That these are also called kanty or psalmy

indicates  how  the  process  of  their  development  was  influenced  by  the
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Also  in  these  regions  the  verses  acquired  the
West European rhyme and meter, the syllabic as opposed to the alliteration
of  the  starsie  and  the  Russian  tonic  verse.

The religious songs were composed at a time when people must show their

belief through deeds. Itmustnotbeforgotten that by distributing charities one
was not only buying ones own salvation. Equally important it gave the beggar
his  right  to  demand charity.  These kaleki perechozie were everywhere called
the  “servants  of  the  Lord”,  Raby Bozie.  People  generally considered  them
to be  the  true  successors  of Christ.  From the early  Middle  Ages  there had
also been  among the wealthy a religious urge to  seek ascetism and  to  make
pilgrimages  a  Christian  duty.  Dressed  in  rags  and  without food  or  shelter
the rich would follow the example of Christ and his disciples. This provides
the  story  line  in  numerous  variants  of two  songs  recited  in  the  north:  the
songs  about  Iosif  CareviS  and  the  songs  about  Aleksej  Bozij  Celovek
(‘Joseph  the  Sovereign’s  son’  and  ‘Aleksej,  Man  of  God’).

The laments are also strongly influenced by the heroic songs, byliny. This

oral tradition was firmly anchored among the reciters of both sexes along the
coast of the White Sea,  along the rivers  of the Pomor'e region and around
the  great  lakes  of  Ladoga  and  Onega.  The  religious  song  can  also  be  a
dramatic epic, as is always the case with byliny.  But much more often it is a
genuine  lament  where  ritual  characteristics  of  expressions  and  the  word

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imagery are  similar to  the  northern  laments.  As  with  other  oral  traditions
we  must also  here take into account a reciprocal influence,  considering the
greater age  of the lament.

It is therefore nothing remarkable in the fact that older collectors and

researchers considered the religious songs to be folk poems, and let byliny,
folksongs and religious songs belong to the same category. As professor

Carl Stief puts it: “an odds and ends box which needed a good turnout”

(Stief  1953,  p.  5),  and  this  has  subsequently  been  done.  Among  the  re
searchers  there  was  no  appreciation  of  the  lament’s  distinctive  quality.
Barsov,  who  was  later  to  lay  the  foundation  both  for  research  into  and
collecting  laments,  1869,  as  a  young  man  asked  Rybnikov  about  this
possible field of study which he had discovered in the Onega region, and was
told:  “Such  everyday  popular poetry  is  of  no  significance.  It  is  the  byliny
which is  of  significance to research.”  Russian folklore studies must forever
be indebted to Barsov who was not to be frightened  off his researches into
the laments. Without him this distinctive folk poetry would have sunk into
oblivion.  The  influence  which  the  lament  and  its  performers  have  exerted
on  Russian  literature and art through Barsov’s three volumes of “Laments
from  the North Country”  (Pricitanija Sevemago kraja  1-3,  1872,1882 and

1885) would never have come about.

Barsov tells of Irina Fedosova that she was reluctant to recite other

songs than the religious ones during Lent, and then she recited them with

intense fervour (Barsov 1872, p. 314). The same is told of other women
wailers both in north and east Finland. The religious songs were spread in

Finland in various ways, partly by itinerant peddlars who for practical

trade reasons  did not always  manage  to  stick to  the  Old  Belief  with  all its
restrictions.  Often these peddlars acquired nicknames from their own camp
and  must  have felt  excluded  from  the  ‘inner  group’  by  their  dealings with
the  unbelieving  ‘outer  group’.  The  real  disseminators  of  the  religious  song

here, as had happened in Russia, were the vagrant beggars. They asked
for bread in God’s name and were often regarded as holy singers.

There is the same unpretentious beauty in the religious songs as we en

counter in the old icons which previously were to be found in every peasant
cottage. It is a manifestation of beauty which has come down from the
Russian Middle Ages in the icons and religious songs right up to the present

time,  showing the  artistic  desire  of  the  people to  interpret—as  they under
stood it—what was told them from the Bible and the Legends of the Saints.
However  terrible  the  Middle  Ages  may  have  been  for  many  who  were
innocently and without defence caught up in  the family feuds  of the Bojars

as well as under the yoke of the Tartar regime, for the people as a whole the

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Middle Ages were a period  of  “light”.  The appreciation of this was helped
along  by  a  naïve  religious  belief  in  fate,  inherited  without  change  and
accepted  without  a  question  from  one  generation  to  the  next  in  the  old
Russia  of the people.

The “dark” ages arrived for many with Peter I who brutally enforced a

new era. Russia had not had the period of preparatory transition which the
renaissance had afforded to Western Europe, and had to accept the in

fringements on a traditional way of life which to them had become almost

sacrosanct. The result was a stubborn resistence at all levels of society.

A bitter contest had already a generation earlier taken place within the
church at the time of the patriarch Nikon’s church reforms in 1658 (raskol),
causing enmity both within the priesthood and among lay people. When

among the reforms of Peter I it was required that a man’s beard must be
shaven off, people took this as a personal insult. To the Old Believers it

spelt blasphemy. The recruits’ laments from  1700 and into the  19th century
bear  this  out,  that  “it  was  better  that  the  head  be cut off than the beard”
(Barsov  1882,  pp.  74-5).  Both  in  the  religious  songs,  and  in  the  laments
themselves  anything that is  new  and forces  itself in  from  the  outside  earns
the  derogative  term  of  bazurmanskie,  buzurmanskie,  muselmanskie,  applied
as  the  regular  epitheton  ornans.  For  the  people  these  became  the  most
apt terms for infidel and pagan.

The reason for the fanaticism in the Russian religious struggle must be

seen in the Greek orthodox traditional insistence on symbolic values in all
matters. We must not forget the reason why the common man felt so out

raged at Nikon’s corrections of the service books. He could not read the
printed text but listened devoutly when the priests in church read from the

Holy Script. This provided the feeling of magic in the ritual of the church.

The  words  read  aloud  should  not  be  understood  by  those  who  were  not
learned,  but  they  were  the  treasured  and  necessary  protection  against  evil
expressed  in  the familiar,  holy  words.

It is a common phenomenon in popular belief, and this is acknowledged

by folklore research—that the slightest change in the exorcism or the

magic formulae, whether for good or evil, diminishes their magic power.
They must be recited in the old familiar way. At ritual lament singing

(funerals, weddings and recruiting drives) which was expected to work

magic, it often happened that the audience interrupted with rebukes if they
thought  that  the  woman  wailer had  changed round  the  regular words and
sequences  during the ceremony.  Maksim  Gor'kij  tells  of  this  happening  in
one  of his books  as late  as  1898  (Gor'kij  1961,  pp.  69-73).

One of the reasons why the influence of the religious songs is so notice

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able in the north Russian laments is that the religious song is in itself wholly
or partly a lament.

In the song of Aleksej, Bozij Celovek there are three laments: that of the

father, the mother and the rejected wife. They all lament. In one of the

songs which the Old Believers treasured most, i.e. the songs of Iosif Carevic,

there are preserved many variants. Iosif, the royal prince, sought life in the
wilderness because the secure existence in his father’s palace did not offer

any challenge. The ideal here is the same as in the songs of Aleksej, a glori

fication of the hero’s supernatural strength. This is parallelled in the byliny
where the hero boasts of physical strength. But in the religious song we meet
the hero who has the courage and strength of mind to avoid all the material
comforts on earth and who shows spiritual strength in his heroic acceptance

of  the  sufferings  which  ensue.  The  desert (pustynja)  acquires  in  the  north
Russian  variants  the  original  meaning  of  wilderness,  and  becomes  syno
nymous with the ascetic life which was for the  Old Believer the ideal exist
ence.  It became  the symbol  of the isolation he wished for himself from the
world outside where Antichrist was the ruler. The symbol therefore provides
a  sense  of  haven  and  the  desert-wildemess  becomes  their  Matjuska syraja

Pustynja equally beloved as M at' syraja zemlja in other religious songs and
in the laments.

In the songs about Joseph, sold by his brothers, i.e. the song about Iosif

Prekrasnyj, the most moving lament is when Joseph sings at his mother’s
grave. On the way to Egypt when he is tied up and chained as the merchants’

prisoner, he implores them: “Take off the chains so that I can lament at

my mother’s grave.” It must be noted that the first thing he asks for is to be
allowed  to  move  his  body  freely  in  order  to  lament.  The  words  of  the
lament were  always  accompanied  by prescribed  gestures  of  the  hands  and
arms,  genuflexions  and  inclinations  of  the  head  to  all  four comers  of  the
earth,  this  according  to  the  rythm  of  the  lament  during  the  course  of  the
ceremony. Also  in  Joseph’s lament we hear distinctly the  Wakening  Cry, a
regular feature  in  all  north  Russian  laments.

Ame-Margrethe Hustad

Увиждь, мати Іосифа,

Востань скоро ты изъ гроба!

[...]

Отверзи гробъ, моя мати,

пріими къ с е б і свое чадо,
Буди твой гробъ т е б і и мнЪ!
-------нынЪ в горці зл і.

[...]

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Внуши1, Мати, плачь горкій
И жалостный гласъ тонкій;
Плачевный виждь образъ мой:
Пріими скоро мя во гробъ твой,

Не могу болши я плаката!

(Bezsonov 1861, р. 192)

In a lament recorded as late as in the 1920s, the daughter tries to awaken

her dead mother:

Вот пришла-то я к тебе, лебедушке,
Вот пришла-то я к тебе, родима матушка,
Крепко спиш ты, не разбудишься,
Уж как встань, родима матушка,

Уж ты встань на ножки резвые,
Поднимись, тучи грозные,

Розбейте матушку гробову доску,
Подымись, моя родима матушка,
Распахни-ка свой белы савани,

Разбрось-ка ручки белые,

Раскрой очи язные,
Расречатай уста сахарные
Промолвы со мной словечушко,
Обрадуй-ка мое сердечушко!

(Andreev, 1937, р. 202)

We find almost the same wording in Barsov’s collections:

Да ты стань, — постань, любимой, милой сватушко,
Да ты сдий-ко сомной доброе здровьицо,
Сговори со мной малое словечушко.

(Barsov 1872, р. 241)

Да ты стань, востань, надежная головушка,
На свои да стань могучи резвы ноженьки,
Сотвори да ты Ісусову молитовку
Да ты крест клади надежа по учёному,
Да ты здей со мной доброе здоровьицо,
Возпроговори единое словечюшко.

(Ibid., стр. 29)

When the day is over and the mourners return home, the woman wailer

laments:

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День ко вечеру теперь коротается,
Ко  горам красно  солнышко двигается,
Как народ добры люди собираются,
Староверы со рустыней-то съежаются,
В монашеское  платье одеваются,
Воску ярова свещи да затоплают,
Одноручное кадило зажигают,
Староверьчески стихи запевают,
Оны голосом  ведут по тихошеньку,
Оны словечко-то  скажут полегоненьку,
Крест кладут оны по писаному,
как начало  полагают староверское.

(Barsov 1872, р. 243)

In the religious song, the symbolic comparison between the day and

human existence is more menacing:

День к вечеру вечерается,
Последний часъ кь нам приближается,
идётъ же солнушко ко западу.
СЪкира лежить близко къ корню дерева.
Уже нашему житию, братьа, конецъ идётъ,
приходить к намъ время последнее.

(Bezsonov 1864, No. 482)

By singing the religious songs the vagrant beggars earned their living,

but  the  citizens  in  the  secure  homes  sang  them  with  equal  sincerety  and
derived  from  them  the  spiritual  strength  to  face  daily  life.  For  life,  if  we
lived  according to  the correct precepts,  must not be  easy.  “The  song is  the

ladder to God” (Pesen'ka к Bogu lesen'ka) went an old saying.

To sing for ones supper in the manner of the poor, was in Russian known

as  pet'  lazarja  (in  colloquial  Russian  today  the  words  have  a  pejorative
meaning  of  grumbling,  complaining,  bemoaning  oneself)  after  the  song
about Lazarus,  the rich man  and  the poor man,  which in  the  oral tradition

has become not a little removed from the original story in the New Testa
ment (Bezsonov 1861, No. 22). The common man was deeply impressed by

the just change of roles between the rich and the poor in the world beyond
(‘tot svet’). For they are the two brothers Lazarus and the song touched

with justified anger on the strong Russian sense of the family: “Brat brata
bratem ne nazyval!” After death, the rich man justly gets his catalogue of

sins added up in hell, and his punishment meted out. When he asks for

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mercy from his poor brother who now sits resplendent next to God in

heaven, his plea is rejected. In heaven, only God’s will rules, which is

justice forever.

Братець ты, братець, богатый Лазарь!

Какъ жили мы были на волъномъ на свету,
Не знали мы,  братець,  никакого гріха:
Брать брата  брацемъ не назывывали, —
Голоднаго  не накармливали,

Жаждущаго не напаивали,

Голаго не надЪвывали,
Босаго не обувивали,

Красную дЪвицу изъ стыда не вывели,

Колодниковъ тюремгциковъ не навЪщивали,

Убогаго въ путьво дорожку не проваживали,

Теперь воля не моя, воля Господа,

Воля Господа царя небеснаго!

(Bezsonov 1861, No. 22)

The spirit of condemnation and the lack of mercy shown between the

two brothers is similar to the one we meet in many different religious songs
concerning Doomsday and the Resurrection of Christ,  Strasnyj sud (Bezso
nov  1864,  pp.  230-43).  Why  it  is  that  man  must  live  in  constant  battle
against sin and evil here on earth is  explained in  one of the  oldest religious
songs  concerning  the  Depth  of  Wisdom  (Golubinnaja  kniga)  (Bezsonov

1861, p. 298). It describes the struggle between Pravda and Krivda, between

right and wrong, good and evil. Krivda was victorious and remained on

earth, wheras Pravda, in heaven, patiently awaited her own final victory.

The climate of moral demands created by the Old Belief in the north and

strengthened by the religious songs, is the background to the north Russian

lament. There is hardly a single lament which does not drag in sin and the

realization of sin, admitting to one own and others’ well deserved punish

ment. This was often quite mercilessly stressed by the wailer at the time of
mourning. There is a contradiction here, considering the one of the functions
of the lamenting was to praise the deceased and thereby secure his good

reputation. But there was no virtue in being indulgent with your fellow
men for the Old Believers, be he dead or alive. However, the stem reckoning
will be conditioned by the individual temperament of the woman wailer.

Agrafena Kjukova who had a mild temper and a strong belief may well use
a lesser degree of denunciation in her laments and folksongs, but she never
allows a reduction in the moral demands laid down by the Old Believers.

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This can also be detected in her bashful, almost diffident use of certain
words, as is indeed the case with other women Old Believers (Hartmann

1974, pp. 178-9). Even in the song about the folk-hero Sten'ka Razin, she

allows his sins to be openly displayed. Agrafena’s beautiful oral re-rendering
of the Anastasia song has in it the spirit of the religious song. This is the

folk song about the queen of Ivan Groznyj on her deathbed (Stief 1953,
pp. 162-3) and is a moving testimony to how an artist with a noble spirit

can sublimate her own bitter experience of life. The song tells how goodness
on behalf of all defenceless people is victorious in the struggle against the

powerful. It is the theme as we know it from the Danish folksong about the

death of queen Dagmar. This rendering by Kijukova of the Anastasia song

is a striking example of how the growth of a tradition is qualified by the

sympathy and antipathy of the bearer towards the material (Stief 1953,

p. 165; Hartmann 1974, p. 184).

In the Finnish Karelian lament we find the same attitudes towards sin

and penitence as had been demanded by the Old Belief (Pentikáinen 1978,

pp. 100-20). They are the same which were valid for the north Russian
wallers such as Natal'ja Bogdanova and Irina Fedosova.

Bogdanova in her “The Widow’s Lament” for a poor young timber-

floater (splavščik), who drowned in the rapids at Kivače (Deržavin’s “Vodo

pád”), shows a deeper psychological insight than is usual in these parts of the
north. The fight for survival made the young breadwinner break the Sabbath
and work on a Sunday (Andreev 1937, pp. 121-7). Bogdanova has none
of the censorious attitude so apparant in Irina Fedosova in her “Widow’s
lament for a husband struck by lightning”. Arrogance had made him ignore
the warnings of God’s arrow (strelja Boz'ja) sent out from St. Il'ja’s chariot
of fire as he carried on walking behind the plough on Whitsunday! (Barsov

1872, pp. 245-252). God’s arrow was in the popular belief not only lightning

but the symbol of God’s punishment as well:

Душа грешная пощла без поканья,

Телеса его лежать без поминанья,

’

Не придают да их ко матушке сырой земле.

(Барсов 1872, стр. 249)

Arrogance, the classic hubris, was destined for retaliation, and was

considered by the Old Believers to be one of the original sins. In Finnish

Karelian folk poetry arrogance has acquired a special term, reáhka, used
both to denote the sin and its punishment. In the course of time it has be

come the accepted word for any transgression of prescribed conventions

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by the Old Believers in Karelia (Pentikáinen 1978, p. 114). (The word origi

nates from the Russian grech ‘sin’.)

In Fedosova’s “The Widow’s lament for a husband” (Barsov 1872, pp.

13-14) we encounter a constant feature common in the laments, otplavnenie.

This  concept  is  intended  to  bring  comfort  to  the  sorrowing  by  somebody
who has himself suffered, and is therefore related to the classical concept of
“commune  naufragium  dulce  est”.  Often  enough  the  otplavnenie  came  in
the  guise  of  a  stem  moral  lecture.  Fedosova  sings  on  behalf  of  another

young widow who maintains that they have themselves to blame for the

burden of early widowhood. It is a strelja Boz'ja for their neglect of a

Christian way of life.

Кое-день,  кое-темная e ноченька,
Кое светлое Христово воскресеньицо,
Мы с тобой, моя спорядная суседушка
Перед Господом Владыкой согрешили, знать!
Видно тяжкаго греха да залучили,
Мы в воскресной день во церковь не ходили,
Мы молебенов горюши не служили —
Как Пречистой,  Пресвятой да Богодице,
Мы не ставили свещи да все рублевия,
Мы не  клали пелены да все шелковыя,
От желаньица мы Богу не молилися,
От усердия Бладыку не просили мы,
Про  своих да про законныих сдержавушек
Штобы Господи дал добраго здоровьица.

Он наставил бы им долгова бы векушку:
Знать за наше велико прегрешеньицо
Да им Господи тяжело неможеньицо,

Прислал Господи Сам скорую смерётушку,

Укоротал Господь долгой-то им векушко.

(Barsov 1872, р. 13)

Irina Fedosova’s pitiless words show that she has in mind the lines from the

religious song about Strašnyj Sud.

Во святую Божиихъ церковь мы не прихаживали,
Святыихъ Божиихъ книгь мы не слушивали,
По писанному мы, грЪшные, не вЪровали;
За все будете, Богу ответь держать
На страшномъ Христовомъ на пришествии!

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He имели мы ни среду, ни пятницу,

Святого трёхдневнаго Воскресения,
Святыихъ годовыхъ честныхъ празлниковъ:

За все будутъ Богу Нам ответь держать
На страшномъ Христовомъ на пришествии!
Не имели у себя отца духовнаго,
СпЬсивые были, гордые мы, немилостивые.
До нищихъ до убогихъ неподатливые.
За то же мы Господа прогневали,
Владеычицую Прсвятую Богородицу,
Пресвятую Троицу присносущную, поклоняемую.

(Bezsonov 1864, No. 50)

That it was a duty for the Old Believers to observe strict rules of fasting

to  the  point  of  almost  total  abstinence  comes  out  glaringly.  Wednesday
and  Friday  were  always  regular  fast  days  quite  apart  from  all  those  laid
down according to  the  Church calendar year.  In  Fedosova’s  “Laments  for

the young recruit”  (Barsov  1882,  pp.  1-80)  a  sinister note is  sounded when
the boy bitterly condemns his parents.  It is they who are responsible for his
misfortune,  so  tragically  predestined.  In  the  end  the  recruit  curses  them:

И я в безчастный день во середу засиян,
И в  безталанной  во пятницу вспорожен,
И  я солдатушком  в  купеле ведь  окупай,
И во  казенный  во людушки возрощен.

(Barsov 1882, pp. 24-5)

In most cultures it was always considered a great sin to behave badly to

one’s parents. But when we realize what an unforgiveable sin it was for an

Old Believer to curse his parents then we can appreciate Fedosova’s wrath

at the parents’ sinning during the fast. When it came to women, children and

servants, the Old Believers had doubtless inherited much from Domostroj
(Lewitter 1979, pp. 3-10).

The feeling of loss in death and the longing to be with the deceased are

made easier when you go  out searching for him hoping that he is still alive.
This  theme  contains  the  same  questions  and  answers  in  the  religious  song
about  the  wanderings  of  the  Mother  of  God  (Chozdenie  Bogorodicy)
(Bezsonov  1864,  pp.  238-46)  as  in  the  laments.  Here  the  search  is  partly

combined with a parting walk, led by the woman wailer, inside and outside
(Hustad 1977). But the search wanderings in the laments always end in a

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resigned “Už как vek togo ne vodice — so mertvych živy ne rodjatce”
(Andreev 1937, p. 127).

The stem and unyielding element in the laments contrasts sharply with

the warmth and humanity which is their predominant characteristic. In its

willingness  to  help  the  suffering  carry  the  burden  of  sorrow,  the  laments
are  an  expression  of  true  human  wisdom.  The  immediate  compassion felt
for  the  suffering  of  another  has  in  popular  Russian  poetry  and  literature
given  a  specific  term  to  the  sufferer,  sirota  (Valderhaug  1972).  This  little
word  has  given rise to many concepts.  Not  only does  it retain  the  original
meaning  of  ‘orphan’  (‘orphan’,  ‘Waise’),  but  the  meaning  has  widened  to
denote  anyone  who  through  no  fault  of  his  or  her  own  is  left alone and
without  protection.  The sirota theme is a leading one in the lament, and the

word  appears  in  many  guises  and  connections.  The  widow,  children,  the
recruit,  the  bride,  the lonely mother and the old father are all siroty in the
laments  performed  by  them  or  for  them.  The  sirota  motive  comes  out
strongly  in  the  religious  songs  about  Lazarus  (the  poor  man  is  sirota),
about Joseph (the prisoner),  about the Prodigal  Son (the repentant sinner),
and  in  the  songs  about  the  Virgin  Mary’s  complaint  (the  mother’s  loss  of

a son).

The concept of sirota could also include one who was himself to be

blamed for  his  misfortune  but was  now helpless  and  in  need.  The  story is
told  of  the  strenuous  prison  transports  into  Siberia at the end  of the last
century.  The chained prisoners,  many of them  Old Believers,  were allowed
by  the  warders  to  beg for food  and  clothing  when  they  came  through  the

villages  in  the  Tomsk/Tobolsk  region.  In  groups  of  up  to  one  hundred,
six  to  eight  men  were  chained  together  as  they  went  from  door  to  door
singing their beggar songs as the old kaleki perechožie used to.  Everywhere
they  were  given  what  the  larder contained,  with accompanying  smiles  and
warm wishes. When they proceeded back down the street they were chanting
the beggars’  “Thank you”  songs  of old.

Ай Вы нытетка, ребята,

За царей Богу молити,

За весь миръ православный,
Кто нас поить и кормить,

Обуваетъ, одеваетъ,
Темнойночи сохраняетъ!

Сохрани его Господь Богь
Отъ лихого Человека,

Отъ напраснаго отъ слова,

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Сохрани Господь, помилуй!

Что онъ молить и просить,

То создай ему, Господи!

Сохрани и помилуй

При пута при дорогі,
При темной при ночи,
Отъ бігучаго  от звіря,
От ползучуго  отъ змія!
Закрой его  Господ Богъ,
Своею пеленою,
Отъ летучаго  отъ змея,
При пути его, при дорогі,

Сохрани его Господ Богъ!

(Bezsonov 1861, р. 37)

This ‘prayer singing of the banished’ was a peculiar blend both of the

profane and the religious song, and also of the laments for the dead. No
attempt was made at keeping to a rhythm or to speak the words in unison.
At the end of each line was no pause or set mythm. The singers each of them
appeared the whole time to be breaking off into easy modulated variations

on the same slow melancholy tune. The effect was of that of a canon, one

hundred male voices in turn picked up the sad lamenting melody (Kennan

1898). These transports of prisoners were undertaken on foot, except those

who  were already in  a  poor  state  of health.  It is  told  of the prisoners  that
they  would  fall  down  on  reaching  the  borderstone  between  Russia  and
Asia and with  their faces  touching the  ground would  sing laments  to  take
leave of M at' Rossija, their beloved M at' syraja zemlja (Kennan  1898).

The parallells to which attention has been drawn in the quotations from

these two types of Russian folk poetry in the north form only a small part
of the examples which illustrate the similarity between the religious song and
the lament, be it in the choice of words, stock expressions or imagery. Of

course, these are partly common property within folk poetry, particulary
as regards form and structure well known from the byliny and the folk

song. In particular there have been borrowings from the byliny of straight
epic features both into the religious song and into the lament. In the latter,

the epic-dramatic portrayal is used to describe contemporary happenings of

a local nature. The close relationship between the religious song and the lament

must  be  a special factor  when  we  come  to  examine  the  development  and
growth  of the tradition.  A characteristic of  the lament is  the  didactic tone
which it adopted from the religious song.  This came naturally to the north

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Russian wailer for she considered it her Christian duty to  spread the moral
teaching  as  part  of  the  tradition.  “Molodym  ljudjam  na  poučenie,  starým
ljudjam na pamjati”  (Hartmann  1974,  p.  178).

The religious song is disappearing from Russian folklore. Regrettably

we must agree with professor Ju. Sokolov (1971): “At the present time,
under the influence of anti-religious propaganda, owing to the general

cultural development and the progress of the Soviet organization, the soil
for the existence of religious verses is being destroyed, and they are gradually

disappearing.”

To a certain extent this also applies to the laments, for the conditions

which created them have changed. The lament as it remained over hundreds
of years, genuinely improvised, yet faithfully recited within the traditional

framework, that lament has today disappeared. It grew out of the homestead

and lived on without directives and without consciously adopting trends

from outside.

Latterly, it has been proved scientifically that the art of lamentations

disappeared with the modern social order (Bazanov 1962). But the urge to

lament may always  be present.  It flared up  during the  last world war,  and
many came to  realise the truth  of the  old  saying:  “Přišla beda  sama pričot
našla”.  Recent  laments,  commisioned  from  the  outside,  noviny,  can  in
themselves  be  magnificent,  but  they  cannot  aspire  to  the  level  of  the  old

stariny with their local colour. At the 20th party congress 1956 it was ac

cepted that these noviny should be called “pseudo-folklore” within Russian

folklore studies.

But the religious song and the lament continue to live on in the touches

they have added to Russian literature before and now. We cannot be

certain whether it was a deliberate influence or a subconscious part of the

poet’s own language heritage. For A. P. Čechov it was natural to use as an

epigram for the short story “Toska” the opening words from the Joseph
lament: “Komu povem ресаГ moju? ...”, a religious song which he had

himself sung in childhood.

Кому повЪмъ печаль мою,
Кову призову къ рыданию?

Токмо тебЬ Владыко мой
Известна тебЬ печаль моя
Моему творцу, создателю,

Bcixb благахъ подателю.
Буду просить я милости
От всея крепости.

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Кто бы менЪ даль исгочникъ слёзъ?

Я плакалъ бы и день и ношь,

Рыдалъ бы о грЪсЬхъ своихъ,
Пролиялъ бы слезы отъ очию,
Аки р-Ьки Едемския,
Погасилъ бы я геенский огнь.

(Bezsonov 1861, р. 187)

Perhaps F. М. Dostoevskij was not consciously borrowing when he

characterizes old Verchovenskij in Besy in words from a religious song:

“Where shall I go with my sorrow? Who will take it from me?” These are

the same words that we know from the lament: “Mne kuda s gorja goijuše
podevatis'ja?”

Мне куды с горя горюше подеватися?
Разсадить-ли мне обиду по темным лесам?
Уже тут моей обидушке не местечко
Как посохнуть да вси кудрявы деревиночки.
Мне разсеять-ли обиду по чистым полям?
Уже тут моей обидушке не местечко
Задернять да вси роспашисти полошушки;
Загрузить-ли мне обиду по озерьппке?
Уже тут моей обидушке не местечко.

Мне куды с горя горюше подеватися,
Мне куды бедной с обидой украватися?

(Barsov 1872, р. 17)

Quite deliberate are the borrowings and the help which N. I. Nekrasov

obtained  from  Barsov’s  first  collection  in  1872  of  Pričiíanija  Sevemago
kraja.  In  Nekrasov’s  main  work,  Komu  na  Rusi lit'  chorošo? large parts
could  not  have  been  written  without  the  inspiration  he  received  from
Barsov’s  collection  of  Irina  Fedosova,  the  wailer  and  great  human  being

(Hustad 1979, pp. 71-86).

Greater and lesser touches are to be found in many of the younger

Russian authors (Paustovskij, Kazakov, Tvardovskij, Solženicyn et al.).

A short story by the regional author F. Abramov has been written in 1969.

In the form of a monologue it is in reality a prose lament. An old mother tells

of how she can never still the pain or sorrow left by the loss of a small son

many a long time ago. In this dark lament we recognise the voice of Fedo

sova, but also can be heard the tired, resigned voice of Nekrasov’s “Orina
Mat' soldatskaja” (Abramov 1975, pp. 494-8).

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Most strongly influenced by the religious songs and the laments is the

lyrical  poetry  of  Nikolaj  Kljuev  (1887-1937).  His  family  background  and
the  way  he  grew  up  are  good  reasons for  this.  He  was  born in the region
previously called Olonec, which was Fedosova’s home  district,  and his own
beloved  mother  was  a  well-known  wailer.  The family  had for generations
belonged  to  one  of the  strictest  of the  Old  Believers’ sects. He himself had
served  as nacecik and had  read at the  sect’s  services.  His “Plac po materi”
(1919)  and  “Plac po Esenine” (1926) are memorable for the sure artistic use
of words  and imagery from  the religious  song and  the  lament.  He  met his

death in 1937—but where, is not known.

But nowhere in Russian poetry is the echo of the wailer’s voice as strong

and beautiful as in Anna Achmatova’s Requiem. Here we encounter the

similar dark note of pain, the same conquering will to share the sorrows of
others in the midst of ones own, the same artistic gift of sublimating suf

fering.  Requiem  is  russkij  ston  at  the  highest  level  (Achmatova  1964).  In
the  years  1940-1943  she  wrote,  in  the  beginning  of  the  poem  “Raspjatie”
(Egeberg  1979,  pp.  46-48):

Хор ангелов великий час восславил,
И небеса разверзнулись в огне.

Отцу сказал: «Почто Меня оставил!»

А Матери — «О, не рыдай Мене!»

(Achmatova 1964, р. 30)

The  poem  has  an  epigraph  “Ne  rydaj  Mene,  Mati,  vo  grobe  suscu”.  The
words  allegedly  form  part  of  the  Greek  orthodox  Easter  lithurgy,  and is
the  answer  of  the  Son  to  the  Virgin  Mary as  weeping,  she laments  at the

cross. The ancient church hymn, which is the son’s answer from the

cross, predicting his resurrection and thus comforting his mother, has had

wide impact and has reappeared in three of the best known religious songs:

“Plac Bogorodice” (Bezsonov 1864, pp. 229-231), “Chozdenie Bogorodice”
(Bezsonov 1864, pp. 238-246) and “Son Bogorodice”.

-----Мать Его беспрестанно все рыдаетъ,

Безвинныя слезы проливаетъ:

«не плачь, не рыдай, Мати Мария:

Я вірньїмь дарую на спасение,

БезвЪрнымъ на вічную Муку!»

(Bezsonov 1864, No. 378)

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Literature

Abramov 1975 - F. A. Abramov, Izbrannoe v dvuch tomach, Leningrad 1975.

Achmatova 1964 - Anna Achmatowa, Requiem (Deutsche Übertragung und

russischer Originaltext), Frankfurt/Main 1964.

Afanas'ev 1865-69 —

A. N. Afanas'ev, Poétičeskoe vozzrenie slavjan na prirodu

1-3, Moskva 1865-69.

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