Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Natalie attended the Second All-Russia Folklore Congress in Moscow, February, 2010. It was there that she met Alevtina Tsvetkova, a folklorist from Pavlodar Toraygyrov State University. She invited Natalie to join her on a fieldtrip to the Ukrainian villages of Kazakhstan.
Natalie recorded 60 hours of interviews which are searchable:
It was the Stolypin Reforms that first brought peasants from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. The stories about the early settlers were tales of courage. She heard about groups of men coming to an essentially barren land and building sod houses, then bringing their families to join them. The names of the founders were known in most villages and current residents took pride in being descended from them. There were also interesting legends about Stolypin himself. A number of people claimed that he had actually visited their villages once they were officially founded, usually around 1908-1909, and that he had approved of what he saw.
Here are some maps to show the areas where Natalie visited.
Natalie has written two articles about her trip to Kazakhstan. One was in the Ukrainian Weekly the other in the journal, which she edited, Folklorica.
You can download the pdfs by CLICKING HERE: Ukrainian Weekly and Folklorica.
