THE NATIONAL SPECIFICITY OF FOLK HISTORICAL MEMORY (BASED ON THE SONGS ABOUT THE EVENTS IN THE CAUCASUS)
The article raises the question of specifics and preserving of the national historical memory in historical and singing works of Russian Cossacks and the descendants of the highlanders who opposed the conquest of the Caucasus. The range of problems associated with comparative analysis of historical and songwriting people - combatants - are outlined, based on the analysis of Russian folklore discourse (a small number of publications and reprints of historical recordings of Russian songs about the war in the Caucasus, a rare publication of highlanders’ heroic songs in a native language and Russian, studying the specifics of folklore and historical memory of one nation). The article identified the causes of researchers’ inattention to comparative analysis of the existing material (analysis of folk interpretation of events, taking into consideration the specifics of the genre of historical and heroic songs can destroy stereotypes about military operations in the Caucasus in the first half of the 19th century). The array of folklore texts are defined for the correctness of comparative analysis (song cycles about General Yermolov and his activities, Shamil and Hadji Murad, that were common in the Russian Cossack folklore and among the peoples of the Northern Caucasus). The tendency to idealize one’s own history and the glorification of ancestors, but at the same time different attitude to the war and the motivation to participate in it can be traced: the protection of native land, family and faith - for Caucasian highlanders; expanding the boundaries of the Christian world, a way to excel and to be rewarded - for Russian Cossacks and soldiers. The exaggeration of the enemy forces is pertained for all the songs but its goals are different: in Russian historical songs it emphasizes the importance of victory, while in the songs of Caucasian highlanders - softens the bitterness of defeat and implicitly justifies the defeated. The peoples of the Caucasus singing about the cruelty of the conquerors, but this motif is absent in Russian songs about the conquest of the Caucasus. The motive of internal contradictions, treason, bribery is common for Caucasian highlanders’ songs. These realities of war are not mentioned in the songs of the Cossacks because of conflicting with military morality. The idealization of their own past in Russian songs associated with an ironic attitude towards the enemy, while it's absent in highlanders' songs: the defeat makes remember the power of the winner.