Mariya Dmitriyevna Krivopolenova (russian: Мария Дмитриевна Кривополенова; née Mariya Kabalina; born 1843 —1924) was a Russian

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

performer and a storyteller.

Biography

Mariya Krivopolenova was born as Mariya Kabalina on , 1843 in Ust-Yezhuga,

Pinezhsky Uyezd Pinezhsky Uyezd (''Пинежский уезд'') was one of the subdivisions of the Arkhangelsk Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the central part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Pinega. Demographics At th ...

, Arkhangelsk Governorate, Russia Empire in a peasant family on the Pinega River in the Northern Russia. In 1867, she got married and moved to the village of Shotogorka, also on the bank of the Pinega. She practiced storytelling, which she learned from her family, and when an interest to the northern Russian folklore increased, and folklore collectors started to travel to Arkhangelsk area in 1890s, she was noticed for her performance skills. First, Alexander Dmitriyevich Grigoryev, who travelled over the Pinega, met her and included some of the songs she performed in the collection of the Pinega folklore he published in 1902. Apparently, she was living in a very poor family and was begging almost all of her life, until in the end of her life she could earn enough money by storytelling. In 1915, Olga Ozarovskaya, a folklore performer had travelled to Arkhangelsk Governorate to collect songs and stories, she met Krivopolenova whom she took along with her to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Ozarovskaya also worked with Krivopolenova to transcribe and publish her work. Krivopolenova performed in Moscow, and then in Arkhangelsk with the great success, she had her portrait done by the best artists (for instance, there is a wooden sculpture of Sergey Konyonkov). When she returned to the Pinega she was basically forgotten. She travelled again to Moscow in 1921, invited by

Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...

, gave a number of concerts. She died on February 2, 1924, at the age of 80, in Veyegora,

, Arkhangelsk Governorate,

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Songs, fairy tales, and

bylina A ( rus, были́на, p=bɨˈlʲinə; pl. ) is an Old Russian oral epic poem. Byliny narratives are loosely based on historical fact, but greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole. The word derives from the past tense of the verb '' ...

s performed by Mariya Krivopolenova are now the standard examples of Northern Russia folklore.

Publications

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krivopolenova, Mariya 1843 births 1924 deaths People from Pinezhsky Uyezd Russian storytellers Women storytellers