Yuri Sokolov (died 1941), in cooperation with his brother , released the book ''Russian Folklore'' in 1938. It became the first

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

on the topic of Russian

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

to be used in the Russian Universities. The information for the book was based on extensive

field work Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the empirical research, collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across branches of science, disciplines. ...

that the two had conducted. Due to the popularity of the book, Sokolov was appointed to a plethora of positions in the field of folklore. The highest position in the field of folklore that he attained in his career came in 1938 with his election as the Chair of Folklore at the . ''Russian Folklore'' became one of the biggest staple texts for any non-Russian folklore or

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

scholar who was studying the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Soviet society The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the country's 69-year existence. It was contributed to by people of various nationalities from every one of fifteen union republics, although the majority of the influence was ...

largely because of his influence in the folklore field. The work is divided into 3 sections that describe the different eras of folklore. Since he did field work both before and after the Soviets took over in the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, he has a section of "Folklore Before The October Revolution" and "Soviet Folklore". Before he goes into the two eras of folklore, he discusses "Problems and

Historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

of Folklore". Some scholars are critical of the sources from which he obtained his information, but his image still remains as one of the forefathers in the bringing of Russian Folklore to the Russian and American University setting.

References

Works

''Russian Folklore''
(translated by Catherine Ruth Smith) Russian folklorists 1941 deaths 1889 births {{Russia-writer-stub