Ethnography of I.I. Zheleznov’s “Tales of the Ural Cossacks”

Abstract

“Tales of the Ural Cossacks” is a set consisting of fourteen essays that resulted from the writer and belletrist I.I. Zheleznov’s trip in 1858 as a collector to the area of deployment of the Ural Cossack Army, where he developed an idea to reflect on his field experience. A structural analysis of the essays shows that they imitate ethnographic interviews in which the author-collector communicates with
informants: a storyteller from whom he records songs and legends, and a narrator whom he deliberately questions about issues related to popular religiosity. The process of interviewing itself becomes an object of reflection for the writer. The stages of “fieldwork” identified by him – presenting himself to the informants, establishing relationships with them, overcoming communication barriers, and conducting interviews or surveys –remain relevant today. Strategies, principles, techniques, and methods used by I.I. Zheleznov during his work in the field later took root in various intellectual practices. An analysis of the “Tales of the Ural Cossacks” suggests that at that time there were more conscious, diverse, and complex paths towards shaping ethnographic writing than has traditionally been assumed.