Visual research programs of Yakut intellectuals in expedition projects of the 1930-1940s. Institute of Language and Culture at the Council of People's Commissars of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Yakut Museum of Local Lore by Em. Yaroslavsky name

Pokatilova Nadezhda Volodarovna ORCID: 0000-0002-2869-1400 Doctor of Philology Chief Researcher; Department of the Folklore and Literature; Institute of the Humanities Research and the Indigenous Studies of the North; Russian Academy of Sciences; Siberian Branch - Federal Research Centre “The Yakut Scientific Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences”. 677027, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Petrovsky str., 1 pnv_ysu@mail.ru

Stepanova Lena Borisovna ORCID: 0000-0002-2826-6295 PhD in History Senior researcher; Department of Archaeology and Ethnography; Institute of the Humanities Research and the Indigenous Studies of the North; Russian Academy of Sciences; Siberian Branch - Federal Research Centre «The Yakut Scientific Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences» 677007, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Petrovsky str., 1 solo007_79@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

IntroductionVisual research has become an important part of the research work of the members of the local research societies of YORGO, "Sakha Aimaga", "Sakha kaskile" and "Society for the Study of YASSR".

The study of interpersonal communications of the circle of Yakut intellectuals who were in these communities, archivist and first professional archaeologist E.D. Strelov, poets A.E. Kulakovsky and N.D. Neustroev, artists I.V. Popov and M.M. Nosov, archaeologist M.I. Kovinin, ethnographers S.I. Bolo, G.V. Ksenofontov, A.A. Savvin, I.D. Novgorodova, I.G. Berezkina and O.V. Ionova, the plans and programs of the NIIYAK expeditions under the SNK of the YAASSR, open up new contexts in the history of the first years of the formation of the Yakut ethnographic school and the expeditionary study of the YAASSR. Subsequently, these researchers became part of the scientific staff of the Scientific Research Institute of Language and Culture organized in 1935 under the Council of People's Commissars of the JASSR (NIIYAK under the SNK of the JASSR). The visual fixation of samples of the material and spiritual culture of the polyethnic population of the YASSR was contained in museum collecting and research programs developed by members of the Yakut scientific communities, the Yakut Museum of Local Lore and the NIIIIK at the SNK of the YASSR of the 1920s-1950s, indicating that this work was given an important place.

Yakut researchers, who worked in 1925-1930, played an important role in the formation of ethnographic research skills, including with the use of visual methods. The Yakut expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences led by major scientists (P.V. Wittenburg, I.I. Mainov, E.K. Pekarsky, L.V. Bianchi, etc.). Local scientific forces involved in the work of the academic expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences not only mastered the necessary skills in the field of visual research. But they also developed the author's program research, which included a section of drawing and photo fixation of the objects under study. The evolution and change of methodological approaches to the collection of illustrative materials as tools for field folklore and ethnographic research in the 1920s-1940s is presented in the programs of G.A. Popov, N.N. Moskvin, N.D. Neustroev, G.V. Ksenofontov, S.I. Bolo, M.M. Nosov, A.A. Savvin, O.V. Ionova and others . ^{[6; 17, pp. 27-28; 3, L. 60ob; 5; 15, pp. 100-101; 1, l.1-4]}. The main result of the beginning of the systematic scientific study of the republic was the active involvement of the public in the independent search for historical and local history information. And the formation of a steady interest in historical local lore and museum construction. Preliminary results of the study of the individual biographies of the circle of these researchers allow us to speak of them as the first intellectuals who considered ethnography and folklore as a single text of culture ^{[21, p. 24; 19, p.78-104; 16, p. 105-117]}.

As enthusiastic researchers, they devoted a lot of time not only to the painstaking work of identifying and studying samples of oral folk art (songs, tales and legends), but also to collecting objects reflecting the history, culture and way of life of the people. The expansion of the sphere of scientific interests of researchers and a certain canon of field research of Soviet industrial ethnography dictated to expedition photography and drawing, in addition to fixing the object itself, the format of plot-narrative documentation of the transformations that took place in society

Empirical analysis of the complex of illustrative material of the expeditions of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore named after Em. Yaroslavsky and NIIIIK at the SNK of the IAASSR allowed us to identify the following thematic classification:

v Anthropological types of the population

v Games

v Samples of folk decorative and applied art

v Examples of wooden and stone architecture (buildings, structures, including tombstones and monuments)

v Clothing

v Samples of traditional ornament

v Objects of ritual and ritual practices and everyday life

v Hunting and fishing items

v Agricultural equipment

v Dancing

v Types of outbuildings, means of movement, tools

v Visual evidence of the new life of Soviet Yakutia: collective farms, schools, boarding schools and kindergartens

It is important to note here that each of them came to the conclusion about the need for a visual study of the traditional culture of ethnic communities, after receiving quite extensive field work experience in collecting samples of folk folklore.

Fixing the situation during the recitation and reproduction of songs, historical legends, folk epics by informants, they drew attention to the external aspects of the construction of a space filled with symbolic images: social etiquette ceremonial, jewelry, symbolism of the external image (national dress, hairstyle, symbolic objects in the hands, body language).

The documents of N.D. Neustroev preserved the collecting program developed by the Sakha Aimakh Society in 1919 ^{[6, l. 44]}. A researcher of the work of N.D. Neustroev, Boeskorov noted that the writer was keen on collecting samples of oral folk art, especially in such genres of Yakut folklore as riddles, proverbs and sayings, recorded legends and legends of antiquity, illustrating them in a separate album and notebook ^{[12, p.111]}. G.A. Popov in 1921 G. appeals to the population of the republic from the pages of the magazine "Red North" with an appeal to collect antiquities: "... Were there any finds, especially recently, of ancient coins, weapons, household items, clothes, jewelry, and what was the fate of the finds. If the items listed above have been preserved, it is desirable to have a description of them, and if possible, drawings. Are there any icons of old writing, ancient wall paintings, ancient utensils, ancient bells in churches? Are there any family or other portraits (XVII-XVII centuries) of albums, architectural monuments, acts, letters, correspondence, etc. For all questions related to the study of the Yakut Region, interested persons and institutions should contact the address: Yakutsk, the sub-department of the study of the region at Yakut. Gubernia. Department of Public Education ^{[17, p. 28]}.

Ethnographer G.V. Ksenofontov widely used the possibilities of pictorial fixation in the course of field research, collected samples of folk ornaments, when the opportunity arose, he did not shy away from seeking help from local artists.  Already in his early works, speaking about material culture as a subject of research, he asserts that "the ancient religious concepts of the people are deposited in various forms of fine art, manifested in types of housing, household utensils, clothing, outfits, ... in Yakut ornamental art, the cult of the sun and its derivatives is especially pronounced" ^{[20, p. 93]}. The hypothesis of G.V. Ksenofontov that the ornament testifies to both early and late ties of peoples, because in which direction it was modified under the influence of the art of neighbors, gives an idea of its study in the zones of contact of some peoples with others, and in this respect is a very valuable historical source if analyzed under the historical-From an ethnographic point of view, it was subsequently developed in the famous work of S.V. Ivanov ^{[14, p. 478]}. It is known that Ksenofontov consulted with him on the study of folk ornament ^{[4, l. 153]}. Among the materials on the origin of the Yakut ornament, in addition to the drawings of the researcher himself (drawings, prints from the ornaments of objects of Yakut traditional utensils), samples made by the national artist I.V. Popov and amateur artist I. Koryakin (1910-1920) were identified. In 1933-1934, the scientist worked at the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore as the registrar of the Yakut collection 417A, transferred The Yakut community in 1931, it is noteworthy that a scrupulous description of all the items included in it was carefully sketched by them ^{[20, p. 97]}.

 Ksenofontov collected not just samples of decorative decorations, horse decorations, household items and ritual utensils, but reproduces the mapping of typical patterns of ornament characteristic of a particular area. For the first time, he makes an attempt to typologically systematize the material on the Yakut ornament on the materials of the collections of the Irkutsk and Yakut regional museums. He correlates Yakut ornamental art with mythology and traditional folk ideas, for the first time highlighting components characteristic of the peoples of Southern Siberia in ornamental motifs. And later he tried to perform correlative comparisons of the folk ornament of the Sakha, Buryats and Minusinsk Turks (Khakas).

Photofixation and pictorial fixation of museum objects for cataloguing archaeological and ethnographic collections of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore named after Em. Yaroslavsky.In 1936, S.I. Bolo for the first time posed to the public of the republic the question of the protection and systematic fixation of materials on Yakut ornaments and ancient Yakut architectural structures and tombstones in ancestral cemeteries from the pages of the newspaper "Socialist Yakutia" ^{[13, L.2]}. The staff of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore began to record ancient buildings and structures that characterize the wooden architecture.

By 1940, they had drawn up schematic plans of the Yakut wooden architecture.

The museum's receipts in the 1920s and 1930s, as a result of archaeological and ethnographic expeditions, led to the rapid growth of collections, which many times outstripped the pace of the introduction of newly obtained materials into scientific circulation. In the early 1940s of the twentieth century, the chief curator of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore named after Em. Yaroslavsky S.I. Bolo, during the processing of archaeological collections, makes the first attempts to typologize and systematize the objects of the burial inventory of ancient Yakut burials during photo fixation in the process of their preparation for exhibition. First of all, this concerned mass material, often not of expositional value, but having a high scientific potential as a material source for the tasks of typological classification of objects, observation of the appearance, improvement and "degeneration" of individual features (signs) inherent in these things. The introduction of visual fixation of the course of archaeological field research of the museum, tested during the expedition of 1933, where the artist M.M. Nosov and G.V. Ksenofontov, invited from Irkutsk, were involved, allowed the staff of the NIIIIK at the SNK YAASSR and the Yakut Museum of Local Lore named after Em. Yaroslavsky in the period from 1933 to 1945 to make visual mapping of family and ancestral burials in Megino-Kangalassky, Vilyuysky, Verkhnevilyuysky and Churapchinsky districts. Subsequently, this material became the basis for the beginning of a systematic archaeological study of Yakutia, and the identified archaeological sites formed the basis of a consolidated file of archaeological excavations conducted on the territory of Yakutia, and information about the location of ancestral Yakut cemeteries based on the pedigree tables of ancient Yakut clans.

M.M. Nosov, together with S.I. Bolo, carried out a lot of preparatory work on the desk processing and description of the materials of archaeological excavations of ancient Yakut burials, mainly of the XVIII century, made during the 1930s – 1940s. Therefore, it is in the series of ethnographic drawings by M.M. Nosov that the museum objects sketched by him have been preserved, many of which have not survived to this day. Subsequently, based on the materials of this expedition and the work he continued on processing the archaeological and ethnographic collections of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore named after Em. Yaroslavsky, M.M. Nosov was able to reproduce in color drawings a detailed view of the clothing of the XVII century, XVIII century. and all clothing of the XIX century. in a special systematization and classification by groups, in the form of two art albums – monographs, accompanying each drawing with drawings of patterns and a text description. In addition to analyzing the collections that entered the museum in the pre-revolutionary period, S.I. Bolo paid special attention to completing the ethnographic section of the museum collection. He believed that: "... it is necessary to carry out collections and rescue on especially valuable, cultural and national values and with those it is necessary to replenish all types of our fund" ^{[2, l. 29]}. Over the next 15 years of field archaeological research, the museum collected excavation material from more than 50 burials related to the ethnographic everyday life of the XVIII–XIX centuries.

Many plans for scientific work in the museum of S.I. Bolo could not be implemented, a serious illness claimed his life in 1948.

Expedition photo projects of the NIIIIK at the SNK YAASSRIn the period from 1938 to 1940, the Institute organized four folklore expeditions, covering the Kobyai, Vilyui, Verkhne-Vilyui, Suntarsky, Amginsky, Megino-Kangalasskaya, Churapchinsky, Tattinsky, Verkhoyansky, Sakkyrsky, Abysky, Allaikhovsky, Momsky, Tomponsky and Verkhne-Kolymsky districts.

Each expedition party had its own research program, which included, among other things, a section for collecting and recording visual observations by photographing or drawing.

The Vilyui Expedition of 1938-1939 .In 1937, S.I. Bolo was hired at the Institute of Language and Culture as a junior researcher.

   In 1938, together with A.A. Savvin, he took part in a folklore and dialectological expedition of the Institute of Language and Culture at the SNK of the YAASSR in a group of Vilyuisk districts. Photographing has become an important part of research work, he has made a series of expedition photographs. The collection of the YANC SB RAS Archive contains a collection of expedition photographs by A.A. Savvin, from 144 storage units made by him in 1937-1940. Today it is one of the most representative expedition photo projects of the NIIIIK at the SNK YAASSR. A brief overview of the composition of A.A. Savvin's photographs allows us to conclude that only a small part of the former array has survived to this day. Each photo is annotated in detail, the presence of signatures on the back of the expedition photographs of A.A. Savvin, allow us to conclude that after returning from the expedition, he took all the trouble to develop and print photographs. Interestingly, A.A. Savvin also paid attention to the photofixation of his museum and ethnographic collections, indicating on the reverse side of the photographs where he handed over these items ^{[11, l.13-14; 10, l.8]}. The expedition photographs of the Vilyuisk expedition, dating from the second half of 1938-1939, allow us to trace the dynamics of creative growth in as a photographer. Photographs of this period already have a more complex construction of the composition, produces panoramic pictures of ritual actions "Ytyk dabaty" ^{[9, l.18-23]}.

The shooting was staged, however, a series of photographs shows the photographer's desire to convey the atmosphere of the ceremony, the subtleties and peculiarities of the rite. Visual methods of field research allowed A.A. Savvin to fix what can be overlooked with the usual textual description in the diary. The means of drawing and photo fixation act here as an addition to the folklore and ethnographic materials collected by him. It is significant that during the work of the Vilyui expedition, A.A. Savvin drew attention to the fixation of points of the sacred geography of the Aby, Suntar and Vilyui districts ^{[10, l.2; 9, l.17, 49]}, in parallel with this, folklore data related to them is being collected, ancient sacred structures in the most remote areas of the "Vilyui" region.

Based on the material of the visual design of the map of sacred places, the researcher traces the transformation of ideas about the other world, which was reflected in his works on folk beliefs, which, unfortunately, remained unpublished. It is characteristic that the change of the mythological picture of the world of the people at the turning point of historical epochs is emphasized by the researcher through the prism of the landscape approach. The photo collection of A.A. Savvin is of scientific interest to researchers of various fields of humanities. The comparative correlation of his expedition photographic materials with the actual field, text, materials significantly increases the scientific value of his photographs, which acquire the value of priceless artifacts in the reconstruction of traditional culture.

Northern folklore expedition. 1939-1940 .During the work in the Northern Expedition, A.A. Savvin and S.I. Bolo collected folklore and linguistic materials on the estuaries of the rivers: Kolyma, Indigirka, Yana, if possible, illustrating them with drawings and photographs ^{[8, l.1-24ob]}.

The content of the work plan of the Northern Folklore-Dialectological expedition, compiled by the head. the literature and folklore sector of the Institute by G.M. Vasiliev in 1939, and the program for collecting materials on religious beliefs compiled by S.I. Bolo and G.U. Ergis in 1935, in many points echoes the program developed by G.V. Ksenofontov and at one time sent by him for S.I. Bolo ^{[7, l.9-12, l.40-45; 5, l.2-4]}. All this is fully reflected in the photographs of A.A. Savvin. In the same years, photographic equipment was significantly improved, which made it possible to produce a relatively large volume of photography. Moreover, A.A. Savvin carried out all the photo-fixing himself during the expedition. Photographing has become an integral part of field and research work, significantly increasing the representativeness and species diversity of the materials obtained.

The study of the programs of the two NIIIAK expeditions A.A. Savvin and S.I. Bolo show that they tried to consistently implement the program for the study of Yakut material and spiritual culture of G.V. Ksenofontov, accompanying it with the collection of visual materials.

The study of the programs and results of the first two expeditions of the Institute of Language and Culture shows that A.A. Savvin and S.I. Bolo in their expedition practice consistently tried to implement G.V. Ksenofontov's program for the study of Yakut material and spiritual culture, accompanying the collection of folklore, dialectological and ethnographic materials with visual sources and objects. The influence of G.V. Ksenofontov's theoretical ideas about the complex nature of traditional culture as a whole influenced the participants of the Vilyuisk and Northern expeditions of the Institute. The result of this was the awareness of the expedition participants of the theoretical aspects in the practice of field research, the emergence of a kind of "theory" of complex gathering, which should be associated with the scientific position and program settings of G.V. Ksenofontov. The diversity and diversity of the field results obtained by the first Vilyuisk expedition (1938) of the Institute confirmed the validity of such an interdisciplinary approach in fixing oral tradition.

Conclusion In scientific works, field research and museum practice of famous Yakut researchers G.V. Ksenofontov, M.M. Nosov, A.A. Savvin and S.I. Bolo, the results of the practical application of visual methods of studying the traditional culture of the people are clearly traced: its customs, rituals, festivals, games, entertainment and crafts, etc.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the staff of the NIIIIK and the museum, within the framework of archaeological and folklore-ethnographic expeditions, tested the methodology of included visual observation by means of photographing or pictorial fixation. In the expedition work of the first scientific institutions of the republic of the 1930s and 1940s, a special kind of visual heritage was specially identified in various collections of the subject world, in photo projects of expedition participants, closely related to the actualization at a new level of the personal approach of intellectual actors to traditional culture and to the culture of everyday life. It is particularly necessary to highlight the evidence of shamanic ritual action captured in photographs, the traditional "oral" performance of the "living" tradition of the Vilyui olonkho, portraits of Olonkhosuts, etc. – all these artifacts appear as special subject realities and forms of manifestation of the intellectual and visual culture of this time, which determined the results and novelty of this work.