The Conceptual Understanding of the Cultural Traditions of Belarusian Peasant Migrants

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2024-3/391-396

Abstract

Book Review: Fedorov, R. Yu. The Features of Traditional Culture and Dynamics of Ethnocultural Processes among Belarusian Peasant-migrants of Siberia and the Far East of Russia (second half of the 19^th — beginning of 21^st century)

The book by R. Yu. Fedorov presents the findings of a ten-year investigation into the migration patterns of peasants from Belarus to Siberia and the Far East. For the first time in Russian ethnology, the author conducted a comprehensive and multifactorial study, employing a historical perspective and drawing upon data from a range of disciplines, including ethnology, history, folklore, linguistics, statistics and geography. This approach enabled the identification of the distinctive features of traditional culture and the dynamics of ethno-cultural processes among Belarusian peasant migrants to Siberia and the Far East. The author characterizes the ethno-cultural palette of migrants — people from different provinces of Belarus, the socio-historical background of their movement to the east of Russia, traces the evolution of identity, regional settlements and ethno-cultural processes of peasant migrants to Siberia and the Far East. The monograph also devotes significant attention to the preservation, renewal and transformation of the spiritual and material culture of Belarusian peasant migrants, modification of the mechanisms of tradition transmission among the descendants of immigrants from Belarus. The reviewer provides a concise overview of the content, sources, and methodology of the research, emphasizing the novel elements of the study in the context of the contemporary studies of diasporas of the East Slavic population of Siberia and the Far East.