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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.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

Mourners were thrown into confusion at the Kerugoya Referral Hospital Mortuary in Kirinyaga County on Wednesday when three women fought over the body of a boda boda rider whom they each claimed was the husband.The trio scuffled as they attempted to sign the burial permit for the deceased Peter Mwangi, who died in a road accident last week.

Drama and confusion as trio fight to bury 'husband'

Some of the mourners, who were wounded during the machete attacks, are on admission at the Ada East District Hospital.

Angry youth burn chief's corpse, ambulance

The Mourner's Kaddish is an Aramaic prayer extolling the name of God.

Britain's Chief Rabbi OK with Women Reciting Kaddish

"Well," said the chief mourner, "the first coffin contains my wife, the second my mother-in-law.

A shaggy dog story for non-PC brigade

According to Prof Larson, the manual undermines the legitimate feelings of the mourner and the help available from family, support groups, clerics and professional counsellors.

Grief could soon be branded a 'mental illness'

The funeral procession passed by huge crowds of mourners, most of them standing in the snow with their heads bare, many screaming and flailing their arms as soldiers struggled to keep them from spilling on to the road.

Tears flow as mourners say farewell to Kim Jong Il

A Borough Park apartment building has been visited by thousands of mourners inside the neighborhood and out as the family of Leiby Kletzky, the slain Hasidic eight-year-old boy, sits shivah.

Bloomberg and Kelly Pay Shivah Call

SORROW: Sister Brooke Kinsella, left, watches Ben's purple coffin carried from the service attended by star Linda Robson, right, and son Louis, below right; SUPPORT: A mourner backs the anti-knife campaign after the tragic death of Ben Kinsella, right; GRIEF: Gillian Taylforth, above, and James Alexandrou, left, among tearful mourners, right

In Ben's memory

presidents who have influenced American history, the least recognized and discussed is Franklin Pierce--until the appearance of Brian Matthew Jordan's Triumphant Mourner, that is.

Triumphant Mourner

Now, in Vajtojca (Mourner), 2002, projected on a large screen, Paci enacts his own death.

Adrian Paci: Galleria Francesca Kaufmann. (Milan)

About 1,000 people, including imperial family members, government officials and foreign dignitaries, attended a Shinto-style funeral Tuesday for the late Empress Dowager Nagako at two locations in Tokyo, with Emperor Akihito, her eldest son, as chief mourner.

2ND LD: About 1,000 mourn late empress dowager