Song folklore of the resettlement tradition of the Udmurts of the Krasnoyarsk region

This paper analyzes the musical and song resettlement tradition of the Krasnoyarsk Udmurts and compares it with the indigenous tradition of the Udmurts living in the Igrinsky and Alnashsky districts of the Udmurt Republic. The resettlement of the Udmurts to Siberia proceeded in two ways: voluntarily - during the Stolypin agrarian reform (1910-1912) and forcibly - during dekulakization (the 1930s). Krasnoyarsk Krai thus became a second homeland to most settlers. Three expeditions were conducted to the Krasnoyarsk Udmurts: in 1974, 1991, and 2020. This study compared sound recordings of the first and last expeditions. It has been revealed that the musical and song tradition of the Krasnoyarsk Udmurts still preserves a distinction between southern and northern Udmurt traditions. However, the data of the last expedition demonstrates the predominance of the Northern Udmurt tradition. A detailed analysis of ritual and non-ritual songs has shown that settlers remain committed to their indigenous tradition in regard to poetic and musical-stylistic features of genre groups. A characteristic feature of the Siberian Udmurt song tradition is found to be the motif of longing for the former homeland, which is most clearly expressed in the poetic texts recorded during the first expedition. In contrast to the indigenous tradition, the Siberian Udmurt song tradition has an entirely different repertoire. The characteristic feature of the resettlement tradition is that it comprises songs borrowed from neighboring ethnic groups, such as Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. To conclude, remoteness from the original tradition and neighborhood with other ethnic groups contributed to the loss of Udmurt language and culture, although the Krasnoyarsk Udmurts still recognize themselves as Udmurts.

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