The Historical Space of Siberia in Seventeenth-Century Songs
This is a study of two historical songs about events that took place in Siberia in the 17th century: “Cossacks Defend Daursky Burg” and “Campaign of the Selenga Cossacks”. Each of the songs is known in a single version found in the collection of Kirsha Danilov from 1730s. The article analyzes toponyms, katoikonyms, and ethnonyms which embody the functions of conquering the territory and historical memory in these folk texts. The article draws attention to the fact that large-scale events of the seventeenth-century colonization of Siberia by Russians were not reflected in historical folk songs. The author argues that the reason for that lies in the small number of possible bearers of the tradition: the military Cossack squads operating in seventeenth-century Siberia were not large, and not many of the Cossacks returned to Russia. Therefore, any historical poetic text that developed in this environment belonged exclusively to the local tradition and had virtually no chance to enter the general Russian repertoire of historical songs.