Between female fidelity and adultery: Folk remakes of war songs

Abstract

The article dwells upon folklore remakes of Soviet war songs (“Ogonyok”, “Tyomnaya noch”, “Moya lyubimaya”). The authors, using the analytical apparatus of folklore studies, Soviet studies, and theoretical framework of gender studies, explain how the folk versions of these famous songs, all of which are unfolding upon the issue of adultery instead of women’s fidelity, were made and why they existed in manuscripts only. Our suggestion is that these inversions of songs can be perceived as a grassroots response to the conservative turn during the Stalinist era of Soviet history. Moreover, we believe that the emergence of such versions is connected to the increase in literacy and the advancement of the “elimination of illiteracy” program. The resulting texts can be interpreted as a grassroots response to gender politics and the existential challenges of wartime. From this point of view, folk remakes are an example of the participatory culture that creates alternatives around the “canon” text that reflect it symmetrically. The remakes discussed in this article follow the original texts in everything except women’s fidelity, which turns into adultery. At the same time, they, like the original texts, convey the value of fidelity and remain in the same ethical field as the official Soviet lyrics. The new versions differ from the earlier remakes, more numerous and familiar to researchers, that were generated mainly by oral transmission and therefore are more variable.The article is based on handwritten songbooks, song archives, printed publications, and biographical interviews. Some of the texts are being introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time.