Praise of the national struggle in Kalmyk folklore and lyrics of the XXth-early XXIst centuries

The article continues the study of the genre of praise (magtal) in Kalmyk folklore and lyrics of the 20th - early 21st centuries. The national wrestling “bѳk bәrldәn” in Kalmyk folklore reflected the history of the people, the heroic battles of the heroes from the epic “Dzhangar” in a duel with enemies (people, muses, mangas), victory over them thanks to physical strength, courage, and duty. In heroic and fairy tales we also see praise of heroes with a description of martial arts in a briefer form. Common to the folklore tradition is the glorification of the defenders of the homeland, mastery of wrestling skills, exaggeration and metaphorization of the image of the fight, the duration of the combat, the deformation of the terrain during the battle, the victory of the hero over the enemy. The Mongolian magtal “Bukin magtal” (“Praise of wrestlers”) conveys the attitude towards national wrestling as a divine creation, in which wrestlers are akin to deities in their physical beauty, power, and courage. The folklore tradition of praising the national struggle was continued in Kalmyk poetry of the last century in the genre of the poem, “0nchn bek” (“Orphan Fighter”, 1935) by Kh. Syan-Belgin, in poems by A. Suseev, V. Nurov, S. Badmaev. In the current century, this is a poem by I. Badma-Khalgaev. Despite the different titles of the poems (using the genre definition of praise (magtal) in the title or without this specification), all works exhibit elements of the laudatory genre, glorifying both the national struggle itself and its fighters, in ancient and modern times. At the same time, the authors show knowledge of both folklore tradition, the history of national wrestling, and the rules of wrestling competition, and some of them (S. Badmaev) rely on their own experience of participating in such competitions. As in the epic tradition, modern poets convey wrestling techniques in their texts when depicting a fight, show the sports uniform of the wrestlers, present the process of martial arts itself from beginning to end, expressing admiration for the athletes, including fellow countrymen. These poets are characterized by determining the significance of the national struggle in the past and present; they see in this the education of a real man, a defender of the fatherland, a faithful successor to the heroic traditions of their ancestors.