Publication history of Karelian runosongs

This paper offers a review of the first collected volumes of Karelian runosongs prepared by the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (formerly known as the Karelian Research Institute) in the 1930s and the 1940s. Systematic study of Karelian communities, as well as recording and publishing folklore materials were among the priorities for the folklore researchers at the said research institution. While preparing the first books, they had to deal with a number of challenges, such as selecting and systematizing the materials, writing the opening sections, and building the scholarly apparatus. Researchers also had to consider language preferences for the texts to be published, and often were to choose between the Cyrillic and Latin scripts. This article is based on the following archival sources: minutes of the Folklore Division meetings, individual research plans, manuscript reviews stored at the Archives of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the published volumes per se. The analysis of the documents and the structural typological method were applied to characterize the folklore publications in the historical context. The article is now of high relevance as the runic tradition in general has been brought to the foreground by declaring 2021 the Year of Karelian Runosongs in the Republic of Karelia. The study can be of interest for folklore and literature researchers as well as for linguists and historians.