Riabinin

Riabinin 

a family of Russian bylina (epic folk song) narrators.

Trofim Grigor’evich Riabinin. Born 1791 in the village of Garnitsy, Petrozavodsk District, Olonets Province; died 1885 in the village of Seredka, Petrozavodsk District, Olonets Province, now in Zaonega Raion, Karelian ASSR.

Riabinin belonged to the strict, restrained school of epic narration and followed the heroic tradition in his treatment of images and plots. His renderings of byliny were recorded by P. N. Rybnikov and A. F. Gil’ferding.

Ivan Trofimovich Riabinin. Born 1844 in the village of Seredka; died Feb. 2 (15), 1909, in the village of Garnitsy. Son of Trofim Grigor’evich Riabinin.

Riabinin became well known in the 1890’s as a narrator of byliny in many Russian cities and abroad. His bylina texts contained variations and deviations from tradition.

Petr Ivanovich Riabinin-Andreev. Born May 27 (June 9), 1905, in Garnitsy; died Feb. 3, 1953, in Petrozavodsk. Son of the bylina narrator Ivan Gerasimovich Riabinin-Andreev; stepson of Ivan Trofimovich Riabinin.

Riabinin-Andreev first recorded his versions of bylina texts in 1926. He performed frequently in Petrozavodsk, Moscow, and Leningrad. His renderings diverged considerably from tradition, and he created a number of noviny, nonfolkloric stylized works that combined the traditional bylina form with modern content.

The Riabinins’ contribution to the art of the bylina has been of great importance for scholars.

TEXTS AND REFERENCES

Liatskii, E. Skazitel’ Ivan Trofimovich Riabinin i ego byliny: Etnograficheskii ocherk. Moscow, 1895.
Sokolov, B. M. Skaziteli. Moscow [1925].
Byliny P. I. Riabinina-Andreeva. Petrozavodsk, 1940.
Byliny Ivana Gerasimovicha Riabinina-Andreeva. Petrozavodsk, 1948.
Byliny Severa, vol. 2. Text and commentary prepared by A. M. Astakhova. Moscow-Leningrad, 1951.
Astakhova, A. M. “Skaziteli bylin, ikh khudozhestvennoe masterstvo.” In Russkoe narodnoe poeticheskoe tvorchestvo, vol. 2, book 2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1956.
Astakhova, A. M. Byliny. Moscow-Leningrad, 1966.
Chettéoui, W. Un Rapsode russe: Rjabinin le père. Paris, 1942.

V. P. ANIKIN