Today
These hobbies and occupations were reflected in a series of his articles and essays: the work “Siberian Customs,” which was devoted to a description of Yakut festival “Isih”— the ritual preparation of koumiss; “Sketches and narratives of Siberia”— rather unsystematic, but interesting and truthful essays on various issues of day-to-day life of extreme northern Siberia: trade, hunting, means of communication, travel by dogs, rapport of Russians with the local indigenous population, characteristics of Russians and of natives, reasonings about the future of Siberia, etc. Ultimately, abundant ethnographic material is found in letters to his relatives.
M.I. Murav’ev-Apostol did not publish any kind of special works or articles on the ethnography of northern Siberia, but in his “memoirs” considerable value is found for the ethnographer. This is like, for example, his story of the performance of a Yakut shaman, about certain traits of the Yakut character, about certain architectural motives of the *prilensky peasants, which were taken from the Yakuts, etc. He was increasingly interested in the ethnography of Gorbachevsky and Petrovsky Zavod; he gathered works of the shamanistic cult, sent them to some museum, and also to his own office which, as evidenced by Pershin-Karaksarsky, was more reminiscent of a museum.
Ethnographic interests and infatuations were manifested in the artistic creations of the Decembrists. In Bestuzhev’s ballad “Satire”* was reflected some Yakut legend about an unfaithful wife; N. Chizhov in poetic form told the story of Russian mountains with punished spirits—“Nicha.”
From various mentions in letters, memoirs and diaries it can be concluded that other Decembrists tried to direct attention to local folk legends and oral poetic creation. So, for example, V. Kühelbecker was compelled to relate the fairy tales of his own local workers. Belyaev was as well in Minusinsk. Mih. Bestuzhev was interested (but, evidently unsuccessfully) with the local traditions. In general, folkloric studies are reduced to only the aforementioned experiments of Marlinsky and Chizhov and excellent records (albeit with the help of translators) of Buryat fairy tales and songs by Nich. Bestuzhev. It should be emphasized that he was one of the first collectors of Buryat folklore.
Rich ethnographic material is scattered in the memoirs of Rozen and Belyaev. On many issues of Siberian life, even now they still have not lost their significance. Such are, for example, the observations and studies about the type and character of the Siberian peasant, as well as about his everyday conditions. Incidentally, the famous story of the Tarbagatai family (which was delivered to the poet Nekrasov) indeed belongs to Rozen. For the Buryats he allocates a small space, and his opinion of them coincides entirely with those characteristics of the Buryat race that Nich. Bestuzhev presents in “Goose Lake.”
