Hustad A M The North Russian Lament in the Light of the Religious Songs of the Old Believers 1981

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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

Anne-Margrethe Hustad

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The North Russian Lament

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!

Scando-Slavica, Tomus 27 1981

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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

Anne-Margrethe Hustad

Scando-Slavica, Tomus 27 1981

The North Russian Lament

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,

Scando-Slavica, Tomus 271981

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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

Anne-Margrethe Hustad

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The North Russian Lament

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).

Anne-Margrethe Hustad

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The North Russian Lament

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)

5 -8 1 2 5 8 4

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Anne-Margrethe Hustad

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.

Andreev 1937 = Russkie pláči {pričitanija), vstupit. staťja N. P. Andreeva i P. S.

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Leningrad 1966 ( *= Russkij fol'klor 10), pp. 63-78.

Azadovskij 1938 - M. K. Azadovskij, Staťi o literature i fol'klore, Leningrad &

Moskva 1938.

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sudě”, “Son Bogorodice”, “Voznesenie”, “Kniga golubinnaja”, “Oleksej
Čelovek Božij”, “Anika Voin”, “Egorij Chrabryj”, “O bogatom i ubogom

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14, 16.

— 1872, 1882 = E. V. Barsov, Pričitanija Sěvernago kraja 1-2, Moskva 1872-82.
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1942-1945, Leningrad & Moskva 1962.

Bezsonov 1861, 1864 — P. A. Bezsonov, Kaleki perechožie 1-2, Moskva 1861-64.

(Facsimile reprint, Famborough 1970.)

rtnes 1975 “ Jostein B

rtnes, Det gammelrussiske helgenvita: Dikterisk egenart

og historisk betydning, Oslo 1975.

Černyševskij 1950 = N. G. Čemyševskij, Polnoe sobranie sočinenijl, Moskva 1950.

Čistov 1960 - Pričitanija, podgotovka teksta B. E. Čistovoj i K. V. Čistova,

Leningrad 1960 (Bibliotéka poèta, b. s., 2. izd.).

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litteratur: En artikkelsamling, red. av M. Bjerkeng Nielsen og G. Kjetsaa,
Oslo 1979, pp. 35-48.

Gor'kij 1961 “ M. Gor'kij, Sobranie sočinenij v 18 tomach 8, Moskva 1961.
Haavio 1934 — M. Haavio, Über die finnisch-karelischen Klagelieder, Helsinki 1934

(Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran aikakauskirja 47: 3).

Hartmann 1974 “ Karl Hartmann, Volksepik am Weissen Meer, München 1974.
Hauptmann 1963 — Peter Hauptmann, Altrussischer Glaube, Göttingen 1963

( - Kirche im Osten 4).

Hustad 1977 - Anne-Margrethe Hustad, Den russiske klagesang, (unpubl. diss.,

Oslo Univ., 1977).

— 1979 ~ Anne-Margrethe Hustad, “Den russiske klagekone og Nekrasov”,

Kvinnen i russisk litteratur: En artikkelsamling, red. av M. Bjerkeng Nielsen
og G. Kjetsaa, Oslo 1979, pp. 71-86.

Kennan 1898 - George Kennan, Sibirien, overs. [fra amerik.], Kristiania 1898.
Ključevskij 1969 - V . O. Ključevskij, Cerkov’ i Rossija, Paris 1969.

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Kljuev 1954 - Nikolaj Kljuev, Polnoe sobranie sočinenij 1-2, New York 1954.
Lewitter 1979 - L. R. Lewitter, “Women, Sainthood and Marriage in Muscovy”,

Journal of Russian Studies 1979, pp. 3-10.

Nekrasov 1970 - N. A. Nekrasov, Poémy, Moskva 1970.
Pentikäinen 1978 = Juha Pentikäinen, Oral Repertoire and World View: An

Anthropological Study of Marina Takalo's Life Story, Helsinki 1978 ( - F F
Communications 219).

Platonov 1924 - S. F. Platonov, Prošloe russkogo Severa, Berlin 1924.
Prišvin 1907 - M. M. Prišvin, V kraju nepugannych ptic, Petrozavodsk 1907.

Sokolov 1971 = Y. M. [ = Jurij Matveevič] Sokolov, Russian Folklore, New York

1971.

Speranskij 1917 - S. M. Speranskij, Russkaja ustnaja slovesnosť, Moskva 1917.

Stief 1953 - Carl Stief, Studies in the Russian Historical Song, K

benhavn 1953.

Valderhaug 1972 —

m Valderhaug, “Syrota”-motivet i Ševčenkos diktning,

Oslo 1972 ( - Universitetet i Oslo, Slavisk-baltisk institutt, Meddelelser 1).

Veselovskij 1872 - A. [N.] Veselovskij, “Kaleki perechožie i bogomil'skie stran-

niki”, Vestnik Evropy 34, 1872, pp. 682-722.

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( - Forum Slavicum 21).

Scando-Slavica, Tomus 27 1981

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