To the reader
The territory of the Bashkortostan republic is the place where besides the native people - Bashkirs, more than 100 peoples of different nationalities live. They settled here in different times, but managed to preserve the folklore of their ancestors and add new local features to it. The most significant cultural phenomenon of the region’s life in the new Millenium appeared to be the intention to revive folklore of the peoples. “Folklore of Bashkortostan Peoples” encyclopedia shows the systematized and generalized information about folklore
of peoples living in the republic. It also presents the results of the new researches. The publication in Russian and English languages is a collective work done by the leading scientists and specialists of the republic, Russia and abroad. The encyclopedia reflects modern condition of Bashkir folklore and folklore
of other peoples, who have been living on the territory of Bashkortostan in compact settlements at least 100 years (The Belorussians, Maris, Mordovians, Russians, Tatars, Udmurts, Ukrainians, Chuvashes). It also presents modern condition of the diaspores, which have their national and cultural centers as well as social organisations (the Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Geargians, Degestanis, Kazakhs, Kirghiz at al.).
The encyclopedia is organised in alphabetical order and consists of two interrelated parts. The first part is an overview, which characterizes folklore and folklore science condition in the region, peculiarities of national and cultural politics, historiography of folklore of Bashkortostan peoples. The second part includes more than 600 conceptual and biographical articles arranged in alphabetical order. The encyclopedia contains the articles about genres, works, folklore characters, folklore amateur and professional art groups, which have titles and international or all-Russian awards; scientific, cultural and social organizations, traditional ethnic holidays; musical instruments, folklore festivals and contests, fundamental works about folklore etc., as well as the most famous carriers, researchers and collectors of folklore.
The articles of the encyclopedia are ordered sequentially: first goes the article in Russian and then its English translation, e.g.:
АКАДЕМЦЕНТР Народного комиссариата просвещения БАССР, создан в 1922 в Уфе […].
ACADEMICAL CENTER Commissariat of education of BASSR was founded in 1922 in Ufa […].
The names of the articles (“black words”) in Russian and English languages are presented in capital letters in bold, for example: KUBAIR. Bashkir, Belorussian, Mari, Mordovian, Russian, Tatar, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Chuvash names are transliterated in parenthesis; synonymous names may be indicated in usual font separated by commas, for example: “BLACK AMBLER” (“Kara yurga”), “Dark amble”, “SMALL ROPE” (“Kandyra”) etc. The references to other articles with additional information about a given topic are in bold italics. The name of an article repeated in the text is replaced by the initial letters of the words, for example: NATIONAL CULTURAL CENTERS – N.-c.c. The names of the institutions and organizations, administrative subjects are given at the time of mention; modern administrative subject names are provided for the localities within Bashkortostan.
As a rule, the illustrations are near the corresponding article or on the page-spread. The publication includes a preface, alphabet lists of the articles in the Russian and English languages, bibliographical index, shortenings and abbreviations lists. The appendices present the lists of folklore groups of the republic, ethnic sesens and schools of sesens, samples of proverbs, idioms and signs of the most numerous Bashkortostan peoples.
The publication uses the findings of Russian and foreign encyclopedias as well as its own experience collected by SAIS RB “Bashkir encyclopedia” and accumulated while creating different universal and special encyclopedias.
