The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mourner

(Russian, voplenitsa, placheia, plakal’shchitsa), a woman who performs lamentations. In traditional Russian folk art, weeping and lamentation were an essential element in the ritual of wedding or funeral rites and also in seeing off recruits. Among mourners living in the second half of the 19th century, I. A. Fedosova was outstanding because of her talent and the social content of her laments. Her laments were used by N. A. Nekrasov in the narrative poem Who Is Happy in Russia? M. Gorky wrote about her in the novel The Life of Klim Samgin and in the sketch “The Mourner.” With the disappearance of religious rites, the art of the mourner is also gradually disappearing. In the Soviet period, story-laments were created, dedicated to the memory of V. I. Lenin (for example, “Stony Moscow Wept” by M. S. Kriukova).

REFERENCES

Barsov, E. V. Prichitaniia Severnogo kraia, vols. 1-3. Moscow, 1872-86.
Russkie plachi (Prichitaniia). Edited by G. S. Vinogradov. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.
Prichitaniia. Text prepared by B. E. Chistova and K. V. Chistov. Leningrad, 1960.
Russkaia narodno-bytovaia lirika: Prichitaniia Severa. Written down by V. G. Bazanov and A. P. Razumova. Introductory article and commentary by V. G. Bazanov. Moscow-Leningrad, 1962.

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References in periodicals archive

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