STORY

STORY is an oral story about events that happened a long time ago, claims to be truth. It often comes from stories of eyewitnesses (see Memory story). L. is told from one person to another and the plot transforms due to poetical interpretation, artistic fiction and variety. The plausibility of a L. is represented by identifying it to a particular time period, such as: “in ancient times”, “long time ago”, “when Russians took Kazan”, “about five hundred years ago”; and to a particular place: “on the right bank of the Agidel river”, “in Salavat village” etc. The characters of L. are historical personalities (Akay Kusyumov, Karasakal, Kinzya Arslanov, Salavat Yulayev etc.) and other people with dramatic destinies. The majority of L. are local. L. are specific but they also have common motifs. The plots of L. are typologically common in a number of cases (e.g., L. about the noble escapees: “Biish-batyr”, “Kamal the escapee”). According to the theme, L. can be divided into historical-genealogical or ethnogonic (“The origin of Bashkirs”, “Yurmaty and Taltim kins” etc.), historical (“Boshman-kypsak-batyr”, “Aksak Timyer – Lame Timur”, “How Salavat became a friend of Pugachyev” etc.), toponymic (“Asylykul”, “the Irgiz river”, “Foundation of Kasiyarovo village, Burayevskiy district”, “Foundation of Kanly village, Kushnarenkovskiy distric” etc.), social and economic (“Gilmiyaza”, Tashtugay” etc.) According to the structure, L. are different: there are short very informative stories (“Baik-sesen”, “Death of Salavat’s family” etc.) and plot narratives (Salavat and Baltas”, “Burzyans in the age of khans” etc.) L. is very close to legend.

F.A. Nadrshina