“A life you’ve been allowed to briskly touch”: Nikita Petrov on individual memory and the project “The People’s History of Russia”

Abstract

Nikita Petrov leads the project “The People’s History of Russia: Crossroads of Local Civilisations” (pastandnow.ru) that is funded by the Presidential Grant Foundation (# 20-1-036197). He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Urban Folklore and Anthropology Studies, the Head of the Laboratory for Theoretical Studies in Folklore (SASH ISS RANEPA) and an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Typological and Semiotic Folklore Studies (RSUH), Moscow. The interview dwells upon the prolegomenons of an oral history project, the inner workings of the research group and some of the methodological developments. The transcription of the interview involved some editing: pauses and false starts were omitted.