The purpose of the study is to examine the relevant characteristics of historical events which
were captured by their contemporaries and are preserved in the memory of the people and broadcast
by the next generations. The author analyses the published Tuvan folk songs about the uprising
«Aldan Maadyr» which occurred in 1883–1885. In 1889, four years after the suppression
of the uprising, on the recommendations of V. Radlov, N. Katanov, a graduate of the Faculty
of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University, undertook an ethnographic-linguistic
expedition during which he examined the Tuvan tribes living near the place of the uprising. Despite
the Tuvans' fears of a stranger, the researcher managed to write down several lyrics about
the insurrection. He published the texts translated into Russian in 1907 in the ninth volume of the
series «Samples of folk literature of the northern Turkic tribes» named «Adverbs of Uryanshay
people (Soyots), Abakan Tatars and Karagas».
In 1964, in the monograph «Tuvan folk music», A. Aksyonov published three samples
of songs about the uprising recorded in 1956 in Kyzyl from representatives of the Tuva intelligentsia
N. Olzei-ool and S. Purbe. In 1985, Yu. Aranchin, one of the founders of the Tuvan humanities,
published the book «Aldan-Maadyrlarnyy halyshkyny» («Rise of the Sixty Bogatyrs»),
including eyewitness recollections and folklore materials. Most of the song texts are the republishing
of national texts from the works of N. Katanov and A. Aksenov. In addition, four song
texts recorded in the 1940s were deciphered and presented by Saaya Sevek.
In 2015, in her monograph «Tuvan folk songs and ritual poetry», Z. Kirgis published 35 national
texts about the uprising of sixty heroes with the author's translation into Russian, many
of these texts also are reprinting of early publications.
As a result of the analysis of published texts of songs about the uprising of the sixty heroes,
the author comes to the conclusion that their stylistics is characterized by the absence of a direct
description of historical facts. Events are reflected indirectly, through the prism of human perception.
The creators of the songs were ordinary people who were in sympathy with the insurgents
through song texts, expressed their negative attitude towards greedy and cruel officials. It confirms
the general idea of historical memory as a stable system of notions of the past, existing
in the public consciousness, for which the emotional assessment of the past is inherent.
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Obraztsy narodnoy literatury tyurkskikh plemen. Ch. 9: Narechіya uryankhaytsev (soyotov), abakanskikh tatar i karagasov. Teksty, sobrannye i perevedennye N. F. Katanovym. Perevod [Samples of folk literature of the Turkic tribes. Pt 9: Dialects of Uryanshays (Soyots), Abakan Tatars and Karagas. Texts collected and translated by N. F. Katanov. Translation]. St. Petersburg,
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Obraztsy narodnoy literatury tyurkskikh plemen: Ch. 9: Narechіya uryankhaytsev (soyotov), abakanskikh tatar i karagasov. Teksty, sobrannye i perevedennye N. F. Katanovym. Teksty [Samples of folk literature of the Turkic tribes: Pt 9: Dialects of Uryanshays (Soyots), Abakan Tatars and Karagas. Texts collected and translated by N. F. Katanov. Texts]. St. Petersburg, Izd. Imp.
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Tiron E. L. Tipovye napevy kozhamyk tuvincev-todzhincev [Model tunes of Kozhamyk of the Tuva-Tojus]. Bulletin of Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts. 2015, no. 31, pp. 20–26.
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