Performing Russia: Folk Revival and Russian Identity by Laura J. Olson

Abstract

MLR, I02.I, 2007 299 PerformingRussia: Folk Revival and Russian Identity. By LAURA J.OLSON. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. 2004. viii + 286 pp. #70. ISBN 978-0-4I5 326I4-8. Laura J. Olson's book is 'about depictions ofRussianness inmusical form', not rural folksong in itsvillage context. A study of the representation of folk song to audiences forwhom oral culture no longer forms an integral part of a traditional lifestyle, it deals with the adaptation and appropriation of folk song in accordance with specific social and political agendas, most particularly ina search fornational identity. In other words, the subject here isnot folklore,but folklorism.The main focus (Chapters 3-8) ison the folk revivalmovement of the last thirtyyears, but these are given a historical context in the firsttwo chapters. The author's own perspective is thatof participant and observer, a position that allows her a degree of detachment as well as sympathy. It is a balancing act she generally maintains successfully. Olson has a talent for clear exposition and cogent summary, as she shows in her surveyof theappropriation of folksong in theeighteenth century by the literateclasses and the main trends in folk-song performance in thenineteenth. Apart fromhistorical context, this chapter exposes continuities such as the idealized Romantic concept of a supposedly pure, and hence static, folk tradition enduring contamination from urban culture, a view thatstillunderpins folk revival inRussia. Similarly, the changes introduced by the folkorchestras of theperiod i86o-i 917 exerted a powerful influence in the twentieth century.Many audiences saw this as real folkmusic, having no idea that folksongswere not sung or performed in thisartificial manner in thecountryside. The second chapter considers the political and artistic approaches to folk song of the Soviet period. Russian folk song and folklore generally were little studied in the I920s, but theposition changed in the I930S when the Soviet government, in an at tempt tocreate an institutionalized state art form,professionalized even the singing of folksongs. The results ironed out regional differences,entrenched an artificial method of performance, and exported itback to thevillage, thus affectingperformance of folk song at grass-roots level. In the post-war period sentimentalized and homogenized folkmusic became ameans of regaining national confidence. Reaction came in the I970S when Dmitrii Pokrovskii started the folk revival movement. Emphasizing authenticity over the showiness of Soviet folk choruses, he stressed thenecessity of learning to sing fromand with village practitioners, since the rules forsingingwere not conscious ones that could be learnt.The result allowed for a degree of spontaneity. But of course the Pokrovskii ensemble's presentation of folk song, like all such performances outside the original context, involved stage aesthetics and so folklorism. In the immediate post- Soviet era,Pokrovskii' s innovationswere a starting-point for revivalists,but the emphasis on nation-building and thebirth of a capitalist economy affected both the underlying principles and themanner of folk-song performance. The movement split intomore mainstream performers who borrowed from estrada and were happy to embrace sponsorship, and a youth movement which strove for purity. In subsequent years the latter itself split into,on the one hand, purists who strongly idealize thevillage as the locus of innocence andmoral purity, and emphasize thecommunal nature of true folk-music performance. Liberal revivalists,on theother hand, have adopted Pokrovskii's interest in individual self-expression. But, whatever theapproach, all groups and performers assert theiressential Russianness, and see the village as amythic Russian space. Such a view prevents them fromrepresenting erotic folklore, just as inSoviet times, though, asOlson points out, other reasons may have contributed to this.The commercialization of sex and thenature of performance, in which, instead ofmass village participation, we have a passive audience watching a small group perform,may bring accusations of voyeurism. 300 Reviews Given themythologizing of folklore, itwas almost inevitable that itwould be en rolled in the cause of the intense post-Soviet discourse about identity. The analysis of theways inwhich folk song has been drafted into the service ofmythic Slav, Russian, regional, group (Cossack), orOrthodox identity isboth thorough and subtle. Perhaps most interesting is the discussion of the role of folklore inCossack revival (Chapter 6). It was folk song and dance that kept Cossack identity alive in Soviet times...