The article is devoted to studying the features of the traditional culture of the descendants of Belarusian immigrants of the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries living in Western Siberia. Based on the materials of expedition studies in places of their compact residence, the nature of ethno-cultural interactions between migrants and the old-time environment is considered, and the main markers of the ethno-cultural identity of Belarusians in Siberia are highlighted. A detailed description is given of the "Candle" rite recorded among the displaced people, which is common in the places of their release in the territory of Mogilev Province. Based on the generalization of the research results, conclusions are drawn about the correlation between the principles of settlement of Belarusians in Siberia and the peculiarities of their ethno-cultural self-identification in a new place.

Key words: Belarusians in Siberia, traditional culture of Belarusians, peasant migrations, ethno-cultural interactions.

Introduction

The traditional culture of Belarusians living in Siberia, whose ancestors settled on its territory as a result of mass peasant migrations in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, has rarely been the subject of special research for a long time. This was largely due to the long-prevailing ideas about the insufficiently developed national identity of immigrants, the blurring of ethno-cultural differences between Belarusians and Siberian old-timers. Indeed, during the formation of places of compact residence of Belarusians on the territory of Siberia, the national consciousness of the majority of migrants was not yet fully formed, as evidenced by the phenomenon of "tuteishiny": "If you ask such Belarusians who they are in terms of nationality, then very many will only be able to tell you that they are" tuteyshe", i.e. local ones... And they will be rather skeptical about your claim that they are Russians or Belarusians: call them whatever you want..." [Bogdanovich, 2009, p.15]. As many descendants of Belarusian immigrants note, their ancestors most often called their homeland Russia, which indicates that it is not directly identified with their ethnic characteristics. However, against the background of these trends, it is possible to trace many examples of reproduction by migrants of original traditions introduced from their places of origin. Therefore, for studying the culture of Belarusians living in Siberia, it is of great importance to identify the fundamental features of their ethno-cultural identity, often expressed in an implicit, indirect form. This area of research has been consistently developed only in the last decade due to the active cooperation of historians and ethnographers of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus [Belorusy..., 2000; Essay-

The work was carried out with the financial support of RGNF, project N 12 - 21 - 01000 a(m).

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ki..., 2002]. In such works, more and more attention is paid to the identification and in-depth study of previously undiscovered unique elements of the traditional culture of Belarusian immigrants, the mechanisms of their preservation or transformation in a new ethno-cultural environment [Fursova, 2000a, b, 2003; Fedorov, 2009]. Summarizing the results of this research cycle are presented in the recently published collective monograph "Belarusians in Siberia: Preservation and Transformation of Ethnic Culture" [2011]. This article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the ethnic and cultural identity of Belarusians in Siberia.

Ethno-cultural interactions and settlement principles

On the territory of a number of regions of Western Siberia, immigrants from Belarus received the name "self-propelled guns". Local residents most often explain the origin of this word by the fact that before the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, their ancestors moved to Siberia "on their own", carrying their belongings on carts. In the Belarusian language, the word "samokhats" means "voluntarily, at will" [Belaruska-Rus slounik, 2003, p. 218]. Thus, the "self-propelled" people were people who came to Siberia without permission, representing the most mobile part of the Belarusian peasantry, who were not afraid to go thousands of kilometers of difficult road in search of a better life. We can say that the name "samokhod" characterizes the special ethno-cultural status of Belarusians-immigrants, who eventually became full-fledged Siberians, while retaining some original features of their traditional culture.

The first generations of Belarusian peasants who moved to the territory of Western Siberia had a number of differences from the local old-timers, both in material and spiritual culture. These circumstances have long supported the mechanisms of ethnic self-identification of self-driving Belarusians, based on the principles of otherness, opposition to the local ethno-cultural environment. Most often, Chaldons, who made up the majority of old-timers, and Dvoedans (Old Believers) played the role of the old-timers ' environment in which the migrants were forced to exist.

In the stories of informants, many legends about conflicts between immigrants and old-timers have been preserved. They were particularly frequent when parties of new arrivals were moved to old-time villages by order of the State bodies that implemented the resettlement policy. For example, a similar situation has developed in the villages of Mizonovo and Lokti, located on the territory of the modern Ishim district of the Tyumen region. Settled there in the 1850s and 1860s, parties of "armored boyars" from the Vitebsk province sought to separate themselves from the old-timers. After their arrival, the village of Mizonovo was divided into two parts. There was even a special survey pole installed in it, marking the border of the old-timer and new-settler worlds. In the village of Mizonovo, even after their death, old-timers and immigrants found their last refuge in various places. For this purpose, the cemetery was divided into two parts by a specially dug ditch. A similar situation has developed in the village of Lokti. The displaced persons repeatedly complained to the authorities about harassment by the Chaldons and asked to be provided with a separate plot for settlement. In this case, the peasants ' request was granted: they were allowed to establish a village. New Loci on nearby free lands (Bagashev and Fedorov, 2010).

Here is how M. M. Gromyko assessed this situation: "Two peasant communities, each of which was formed long ago and went through its own path in different socio-historical and economic-geographical conditions, were united in one village, in one territorial community. Siberians, who had invested a lot of work in the development of a new territory and founded a village, claimed certain advantages over strangers who came to everything ready. The settlers, who were united by the process of moving, and who were used to a somewhat privileged position in comparison with other categories of state peasants, did not want to give in" [1991, p.154]. Of course, such a confrontation between old-time and new-settlement peasant communities, based on the ideological opposition" friend - foe", not only prevented the rapid assimilation of Belarusian migrants in a new place, but in some cases even led to the strengthening of their ethno-cultural self-identification.

Contrasting themselves with the culture of local residents, along with the surrounding harsh natural and climatic conditions, contributed to the cohesion of Belarusians who came to Siberia at different levels of community. The first of them was a system of compact settlement - places of residence of Belarusians located in close proximity to each other, who traded with each other, came to each other for holidays, for the purpose of matchmaking, etc. Local residents identified such communities with peculiar national enclaves - islands of native culture. The second level includes a settlement community that is either an entire settlement (village, village, hamlet, settlement) or a separate part of it (in the case of mixed settlements). The third level includes a family or clan. It is noteworthy that some-

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some informants note cases of marriages between members of the same family in the history of "self-propelled" villages. So, Valentina Polivaeva, born in 1948, who lives in the village of Vikulov, Tyumen region, said: "Our family came to Siberia from the Mogiley province in 1916. Relations with the Chaldons and other local residents were not easy. There was always a wary attitude towards each other. Therefore, Belarusians kept to themselves. My father's sister was married to her own half-brother. There were other cases of marriages with close relatives. This was because strangers did not accept Belarusians for marriage, and in these harsh and distant lands it was safer to stay together."

The situation was different in those undeveloped areas, where the share of immigrants significantly exceeded the share of the old-timers. In the stories of the descendants of immigrants from Belarus living there, there are much less frequent references to contrasting themselves with the old-timers. On the contrary, in these areas there are frequent examples of ethno-cultural consolidation between immigrants of different nationalities. A similar situation was typical for a number of places of compact residence of Belarusians in the territory of the Tarsky district of the Omsk region (the villages of Ermakovka, Atirka, Bygan, etc.). During the Stolypin migrations, these places were actively settled and developed by Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Latvians, Chuvash people and representatives of other nationalities. Despite the cases of conflicts between different groups of displaced persons reported by informants and documentary sources, there was generally a tendency for mixed marriages and borrowing of certain elements of traditional culture from each other [Bagashev and Fedorov, 2010].

In many areas of Western Siberia in the late XIX - early XX centuries, Belarusians who arrived there founded small settlements of the khutor type. At the same time, they tried to reproduce the traditional principles of planning and architecture of farmsteads, as well as farming methods. However, by the 1930s, many farms and small settlements of Belarusians had ceased to exist, because "collectivization and socialist forms of farming presupposed the" pulling "of the population into centers, the unification of sown areas, the use of new agrotechnical methods of field cultivation, and a different organization of rural life" [Narody..., 2002, p.302]. As a result of this policy, the population of many farms was forcibly united into large collective farm settlements. These processes marked the beginning of serious transformations not only in economic methods, but also in many fundamental features of the traditional culture of Belarusians living in Siberia.

Markers of ethnic and cultural identity of Belarusians in Siberia

Despite the processes of assimilation and destruction of many forms of traditional culture during the Soviet era, the descendants of Belarusian immigrants have preserved a number of unique ethno-cultural features introduced from the places of origin of their ancestors. Let's try to take a closer look at the mechanisms of preserving or transforming some of the main markers of the ethno-cultural identity of Belarusian migrants.

One of the distinctive features of the economic activity of Belarusians in Siberia was flax growing. The Belarusian settlers started cultivating flax immediately after developing the land plot for arable land, since it had useful properties for preparing the land for winter crops and helped to fight weeds. In most cases, flax was grown and processed in order to provide the family with clothing, necessary household items and ritual actions (tablecloths, towels, etc.). During the Soviet era, attempts were often made to produce industrial linen products in places of compact residence of Belarusians.

In many places of residence of the descendants of Belarusian immigrants, quite persistent traditions of decorative and applied arts, brought from the places of origin of their ancestors, have been preserved. First of all, these are ornamental embroidery motifs on towels, shirts and sundresses. Among the first generations of immigrants, many women wore andaraks, which were once common in Belarus - woolen skirts made of checkered fabric.

One of the most persistent markers of traditional Belarusian culture in Siberia is the peculiarities of cooking. Among the national dishes, almost all informants mention draniki. Potatoes have always occupied a key place in the diet of Belarusians. Among meat products, pork dishes, including lard, were the most common. Descendants of immigrants from the Minsk and Vitebsk provinces mention a dish called "komy", which is balls of mashed potatoes stuffed with lard or pork, cooked in boiling water or baked in an oven. Natives of different regions of Belarus have a number of similar dishes, which are called differently and have differences in cooking recipes.

For many representatives of the first generations of Belarusian immigrants, the native language was one of the main markers of ethno-cultural identity. The next generations, born in Siberia, began to lose its purity, gradually turning their everyday speech into a specific Russian-Belarusian dialect. It can be partially mapped to

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The phenomenon of "trasyanka" is a dialect that has become widespread in certain rural areas of Belarus, where Russian words are pronounced in accordance with the lexical and phonetic norms of the Belarusian language predominate.

Currently, the majority of descendants of Belarusian immigrants no longer have pronounced dialect differences with the old-timers. However, in some settlements, representatives of older generations can find elements of the "Belarusian dialect", as well as the use of a number of nouns borrowed from the Belarusian language, most of which have a special meaning in their everyday life (for example, instead of" onion "they say" tsybulya", instead of" potato " - "bulba", etc.).

From the specific calendar rituals of Belarusians, informants most often call such holidays as Kupala, St. George's Day, Dzyady. Over time, many of them have lost most of the elements of their original sacred context. So, some young descendants of Belarusian immigrants in the Tyumen and Omsk regions in everyday life called the Kupala holiday "Bonfire". According to them, it was reduced to evening gatherings in nature around a campfire, cooking and singing songs. A similar simplification is also typical for the descriptions of the Dzyady holiday. Currently, most of the Belarusian families in which it is celebrated reduce this holiday to a simple commemoration of their ancestors, excluding the ritual actions inherent in its original context.

Against the background of the trend towards the extinction of folklore traditions and calendar rituals among the descendants of Belarusian immigrants living in Siberia, one can trace the process of their artificial revival that began in the 1990s by national cultural associations created in many places of compact residence of Belarusians in the territory of the Russian Federation. So, thanks to the activities of such associations, reconstructions of national holidays have become widespread. For example, in the village of Desyatovo in the Ishim district of the Tyumen region, where there are no native speakers of traditional Belarusian culture left, the national cultural society "Belarus"organizes a staging of the Bagach holiday every year, which is celebrated during the end of the harvest. In many regions of Western Siberia, modern reconstructions of such Belarusian holidays and rituals as Gramnitsy, Radstvo, Gukanye vesna, Kupala, Yuriev Day, Dzyady, etc. are being carried out. Due to the penetration of mass media and the Internet into the life of rural settlements, as well as trips of some of their inhabitants to their ancestral homeland, such holidays are most often held in accordance with the prototypes that take place on the territory of the modern Republic of Belarus. In this case, as a rule, only the external, aestheticized side of them is reproduced, devoid of the original sacred, cultural or economic context.

The Candle Rite

One of the most interesting examples of the original traditions of Belarusian immigrants passed down from generation to generation, which have not lost their original value and semantic meaning, is the veneration of the icon "Candle" and the eponymous rite of its transfer to the village. Osinovka, Vikulovsky district, Tyumen region. Revered in this village icon "Resurrection of Christ", which locals call" Candle", according to legend, was brought to Siberia by the first settlers from Mogilev province and was considered the guardian of the inhabitants of Osinovka. However, to date, there is no reliable information about whether it was really brought from Belarus or found already in Siberia. According to the assumptions of V. N. Verenkova, head of the People's Museum of the city of Moscow. Yermaki, located next to Osinovka, the icon was originally located in St. Nicholas Church in Yermaki. After the church was destroyed in the 30s of the XX century, it was kept in the homes of local residents in accordance with the tradition that existed in the Mogilev province, which was still remembered by old-timers. Over time, a special wooden kiosk was made for the Resurrection of Christ icon, where a number of other icons revered in the village were placed ("St. Nicholas", "Burning Bush", etc.). The iconostasis is decorated with artificial flowers, foil and folk embroidery (fig. 1).

For an existing one in Yandex. Metrica. According to Osinovka tradition, at Christmas the icon "Candle" is moved from one hut to another, where it will remain throughout the year. As a rule, the oldest and most respected residents of the village are chosen for storing icons. On the morning of January 7, the local population and visiting guests gather in the house where the "Candle" stood last year. Each person worships the icon and lights a candle near it. Usually it is also customary to put monetary donations that remain with the owners of the house. According to the recollections of old-timers, the rite of transferring the icon most often took place without a priest, but local residents who knew the prayers read them in front of her. This was due to the absence of a church in the village and the semi-forbidden status of the rite itself in the Soviet era. Recently, a priest from a neighboring village has been invited to the house from which the icon will be taken out. He conducts a service and preaches a sermon. The road along which the icon will be carried is covered with straw in advance. Residents of Osinovka and visiting guests, lined up in a row on this road, get on their knees. The icon sweeps over them (Fig. 2), which is considered a peculiar image.-

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1. Icon "Candle" ("Resurrection of Christ").

2. Rite of transfer of the icon "Candle" (Osinovka village, Vikulovsky district, Tyumen region).

a great blessing for the coming year. Having brought the icon to a new home, it is placed in a place of honor - in the red corner of the hut. According to custom, the doors of the house that received the icon should always be open to all who came to worship it. The hosts prepare a Christmas table for guests, where songs are often sung. All the attributes of the "Candle" are considered miraculous. Straw, which is used to cover the road for carrying the icon, many people take home and keep, believing in its healing properties. Some consider healing and candle stubs left near the icon.

According to the stories of old-timers, the tradition of moving the "Candle" was never interrupted, despite the frequent persecution of this rite in Soviet times. Let's try to compare the peculiarities of its performance among the descendants of Belarusian immigrants with the preserved descriptions of such a ceremony in the places where their ancestors left.

A related tradition of keeping a Fraternal Candle (called Bratchina or Kanun) in one of the houses for a year and then transferring it to another house during the most revered patronal holiday in the village was widespread in the western provinces of Russia, the Russian North, and later found its way to Siberia. The fraternal candle grew annually and sometimes reached extremely large sizes. Often, together with a candle, especially revered icons, usually belonging to the entire community, could be stored and transferred from house to house. After the prayer service and carrying the candle, the villagers arranged a meal to commemorate the saint they revered. In this case, the center of the rite, as a rule, was not an icon, but a candle. The situation was different in Mogilev province, where the settlers who founded the village came from. Aspen tree. In the research of G. I. Lopatin, it was noted that in a number of villages of Mogilev region, in addition to Fraternal candles, icons revered by all residents were called "Candles", and in Eastern Polesie the rite itself was called"Candle". The "Candle" was moved to the memorial day of the saint to whom it was dedicated. Based on the conclusions made by G. I. According to Lopatin's descriptions of the rite in places where Belarusian migrants left [2008], it is possible to speak about the almost complete preservation of its authenticity in Siberia.

The first extant references to the "Candle" rite in Mogilev province date back to the second half of the 19th century. [Zhudro, 1893; Dobrovolsky, 1900]. However, it is most likely that it has its roots in the pre-Christian history of the Eastern Slavs. This is evidenced by studies, the authors of which distinguish in the elements of the rite remnants of ancient cults of the home, ancestors, etc. [Lopatin, 2008]. According to eyewitnesses, during the years of Soviet power (especially in 1920-1930), the "Candle" rite continued to be quite persistent on the territory of Belarus. Just as in Osinovka, saved icons from destroyed churches became the property of the rural community and were passed from house to house. It can be assumed that these historical circumstances in some cases contributed to a shift in the semantic accents of this rite. If earlier, in most cases, its organizing object was a Fraternal candle, now it is increasingly becoming an icon saved by the community of the saint it reveres.

It is noteworthy that in this case, due to the lack of a church in the village, the house in which the icon is kept,

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it turns into a kind of temporary sacred center of the settlement. As noted above, its doors are always open to those who wish to pray and worship the icon. A visiting priest can hold services and deliver sermons in this house. Local residents have a special reverence for the house where the icon is kept and the family living in it, often accompanied by donations of money and food. At the same time, every family strives to be worthy to receive a shrine in their home. According to reports, the "Candle" was not given to drunks and murderers. It can be concluded that the "Candle" rite introduced by Belarusians to Siberia served an important function of preserving the unity of the rural community even in the atheistic era of Soviet power.

Conclusion

As a result of generalizing the materials of expedition studies in places of compact residence of Belarusians in Western Siberia, we concluded that a prerequisite for the reproduction of their traditional culture in a new place was the awareness of themselves as a community, held together by this culture, which had pronounced differences from the culture of the ethnic environment in which they found themselves. The implementation of such a model of preserving ethnic and cultural identity was possible only in fairly isolated rural settlements, originally founded by Belarusian immigrants, or in villages with a mixed population, where Belarusians were separated into a separate community of fellow countrymen. In urban environments or towns where the share of immigrants from Belarus was insignificant, they, as a rule, quickly assimilated, dissolving into a related ethno-cultural environment.

Speaking about the current socio-cultural situation, it should be emphasized that to one degree or another all the descendants of Belarusian immigrants have gone through the process of economic and cultural integration into the regional communities that adopted them. However, many settlements founded by Belarusians have their own unique elements of material and spiritual culture, expressed in the principles of economic management, features of architecture and decorative and applied traditions, calendar rituals and folklore. The fundamental condition for their continued existence is the preservation of ethno-cultural identity. Today, it is possible to trace several contradictory trends. On the one hand, the archetypes of self-consciousness of the descendants of Belarusian immigrants retain elements of otherness, expressed in opposition to the culture and lifestyle of the old-time Chaldon and Old Believer environment, on the other hand, one can also trace the growing processes of assimilation, which strengthen the general trends for the modern Russian village associated with the outflow of young people from it, the destruction of cultural continuity of generations many traditional forms of management that once played an important role in the life of these local communities.

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Dobrovolsky V. N. Znachenie narodnogo prazdnika "Svechki" [Meaning of the national holiday "Candles"]. - 1900. - N 4. - p. 35-51.

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Fursova E. F. Traditionally, the peculiarities of the culture of the Belarusians of immigrants of the late XIX - early XX century (on materials of ethnographic expeditions) // Belarusians in Siberia. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000a, pp. 102-1120.

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The article was submitted to the editorial Board on 31.01.11, in the final version-on 25.04.11.

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