Дело всей жизни… К истории песенного собрания Петра Киреевского

Abstract

Piotr Vasilievich Kireyevsky entered the history of culture as one of the founders of Russian folkloristics. The present paper is an attempt to provide a systematic analysis of the work of researcher` entire life — the Collection of Russian Folk Songs, which became the first monumental set of works of folk art in Russian culture. P. Kireyevsky's song collection is considered in the aspect of interaction of various factors — cultural, historical, socio-ideological, artistic and aesthetic. Much attention is paid to the cultural and historical context of appearance of this work, which summarized the efforts of progressive public of the first half of the 19th century: A. S. Pushkin stood at its origins, among “depositors” of the Collection were N. V. Gogol, V. I. Dahl, A. V. Koltsov, P. I. Yakushkin. The paper also touches upon the circumstances of Kireyevsky's turning to folk songwriting, determined by the combination of personal life experiences, ideological attitudes and Russian realities of the first half of the 19th century. The author traces the stages of Kireyevsky`s formation as a folklorist as well as the milestones of his collecting activities. The history of work on the collection of Russian folk songs is presented in accordance with the evolution of the scientist`s folkloristic views. The paper addresses the history of publications of the Song Collection, from its lifetime editions of the 19th century to our times (beginning of the 21st century) and dwells on the issue of establishing scientific methodology, relevant for various fields of modern ethnography.