Transformation of the identity of the Buryat children's literature at the turn of the 1980s–1990s.

Isakov Aleksandr Viktorovich ORCID: 0000-0003-3416-9683 Junior Research Fellow, Research Laboratory of the History and Theory of Culture, East Siberian State Institute of Culture 6 Sakhyanova str., Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, 670047, Russia alexandr_isakov98@vk.com

Introduction

         The period of the turn of the 1980s and 1990s in the history of Russia is notable for the fact that at that time the Soviet Union was disintegrating and a new Russian statehood was being formed. In parallel with the political processes, cultural transformations related to the crisis of Soviet cultural identity and the search for new ways of self-identification took place. In those years, the national minorities of Russia intensified the processes of national and cultural construction, the search for alternative options for national development that could replace the Soviet model. All this is characteristic of the Buryat culture.

In this article we would like to consider the Buryat children's literature of the transitional period of the 1980s-1990s in the aspect of the dynamics of its cultural identity. Our interest in children's literature of this period is due to the fact that children's literature is an important means of forming a picture of the world, and its content is determined by what kind of self–awareness adults want to cultivate among new representatives of their people. During periods of socio-cultural transformations, the approach to parenting is also changing, and with it, children's literature, which begins to form a new identity corresponding to the changed socio-cultural attitudes. Therefore, children's literature of the transition period can be an important source for studying the processes of transformation of national culture as a whole. At the same time, the study of boundary periods in the history of children's literature is also important for understanding the literary process itself, since it gives us knowledge about the causes, logic and chronology of the transformation of children's literature during the transition from one period to another.

The purpose of this study is to determine the specifics of the transformation of the identity of Buryat children's literature at the turn of the Soviet and post–Soviet periods.

Research objectives:

1) to establish the socio-cultural reasons for the transformation of the cultural identity of Buryat children's literature at the end of the twentieth century;

2) to determine the chronology and the main stages of the transformation of the cultural identity of Buryat children's literature;

3) to characterize the correlation of the old and new cultural identity of Buryat children's literature.

As a research material, we decided to involve the texts of the most sensitive to socio–cultural changes in the fields of children's literature - periodicals and dramaturgy. The direct material of the research is the issues of the children's magazine "Swallow" ("Kharaasgai") and the texts of plays by Buryat children's writers published in the period from 1985 to 1995.

The research is based on a diachronic approach. The main research methods are cultural-historical and the method of discourse analysis.

         The socio-cultural context of Buryat children's literature at the turn of the 1980s-1990s.

         With the beginning of Perestroika in Buryatia, for the first time in many years, the problems of the political and cultural fate of the Buryat nation are brought into the public field ^{[6, p. 337]}. There is a critical look at the consequences of the Sovietization of Buryat culture, which, of course, includes the blurring of national identity, a break with pre-revolutionary traditions, and a decrease in the social status of the Buryat language. Against the background of the collapse of Soviet culture, a new paradigm of national-cultural construction is being formed, called "national (or national-cultural) revival" ^[15]. In a short period of time (approximately 1985-1991), a radical transformation took place that covered all spheres of Buryat culture: from orientation to the ideals of Soviet culture, "national in form, socialist in content", it moved to orientation to its own values of Buryat culture, associated primarily with its pre-Soviet stage of development.

         The cultural space of Buryatia is noticeably changing. Phenomena that were previously considered alien to the new Buryat culture are returning to it: for example, the Buddhist religion, the celebration of Sagaalgan (New Year according to the traditional Buryat calendar). The issues of national education and upbringing, the introduction of new generations to the revived heritage of Buryat culture are being discussed more and more widely. Buryat children's literature is gradually becoming one of the tools for the formation of a new national identity, which we will try to prove with the following examples.

         Lastochka Magazine: from Soviet to National

         In 1986, the first children's magazine "Swallow" in Buryatia began to be published. The magazine was published simultaneously in two versions – in Buryat and Russian, while the content of the issues, as a rule, coincided.

From the first issues, you can notice a certain hierarchy of topics. The main emphasis was placed on topics that occupied an important place in the Soviet ideological discourse: the first pages were given to articles, stories and poems dedicated to the party, the pioneer movement, Lenin, the history of the revolution and the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War. The national Buryat theme usually appeared in connection with these all-Soviet themes (for example, in stories about Buryat revolutionaries ^{[8, p. 5]}). This suggests that initially the Lastochka magazine, which was, by the way, the printing organ of the Komsomol regional committee, pursued the goal of forming a common Soviet identity, to a much lesser extent – regional and national. This orientation was characteristic of Soviet Buryat culture as a whole, in the picture of the world of which Buryatia was an integral part and a "replica" of the USSR ^{[14, p. 108]}, and national literature demonstrated primarily the role of Buryats in the most important events of Soviet history and the positive aspects of the life of the Buryat people under Soviet rule ^{[16, p. 176]}.

But gradually, starting in 1987, national topics that were not directly related to the Soviet ideological discourse penetrated into the magazine: for example, materials about Buryat traditional games ^{[10, p. 15]}, horse equipment ^[11], Buryat phrasebook in the Russian version of the magazine ^{[9, p. 11]}. These materials were placed on the back pages until the early 1990s, while the first pages of magazines remained behind traditional Soviet themes. Everything changed in 1990-1991. Firstly, the range of national topics has expanded - materials about Buddhism appeared in the magazine for the first time. And secondly, by the end of 1990, materials related to the Communist Party and its heroes ceased to be published in The Swallow, and materials of national content took the central place. If the first issue of "Swallow" in 1986 opened with a cover with pioneers and a poem dedicated to Lenin ^{[7, p. 1-2]}, then in 1991 for the first time a number was published on the cover of which a Buddhist tank (a work of cult painting) was placed ^[12]. This clearly demonstrates the transformation of the identity of the Lastochka magazine that occurred between 1986 and 1991: now it was no longer broadcasting a Soviet, but a new Buryat identity based on the revived pre-revolutionary culture.

In subsequent years, the magazine regularly published materials about Buddhism, about traditional Buryat culture, about prominent Buryat cultural and religious figures (without linking them with the Soviet government), as well as about the peoples related to the Buryats – Mongols and Kalmyks. It can be said that in the first half of the 1990s, the Lastochka magazine joined the new discourse of Buryat cultural identity, which finally replaced the Soviet one. The national in this discourse was no longer connected with the Soviet state and its history – it was presented in the context of the Buddhist world and the Mongol sphere.

         Buryat Children's Drama of the 1980s: Between Two Identities

         The process of transformation of the cultural identity of Buryat children's literature was reflected in the children's drama of the second half of the 1980s. Let's consider two illustrative examples.

In 1985, Mikhail Batoin's play "The Holy Mountains" ("Nangin hadanuud") was published ^[3]. The plot of the play is as follows. Mice have been suffering from predatory Boa attacks for a long time. One day the White Mouse decides to change such an unenviable life for something better and, on the advice of Aunt Frog, sets off on a journey to the top of a high mountain. On the way, the Mouse shows compassion for sick animals – a Yak and a Bear – and helps them heal. In gratitude, the recovered animals help the Mouse to reach the top of the mountain. Having reached the goal, the Mouse turns into an eagle, returns in a new guise to its relatives and finally drives away the Boa Constrictor. As it is clear to us today, the plot of this play was inspired by Buddhist parables and illustrates the law of karma: the mouse did good deeds, therefore he was reborn in a better form and was able to help his weaker relatives (as reborn bodhisattvas do, according to the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism). But in the first version of the play, the Buddhist content was not explicated in any way. In the final monologue of the narrator, summing up the events of the play, it was said only about the bravery of the main character.

In 1988 ^[13] this play was staged, but under a new name – "The Secret of the Golden Peaks" ("Altan mundargyn nyusa") ^{[2, pp. 5-17]}, and in this edition the play received a new ending, which emphasizes the Buddhist content of this story. Now, in the final monologue, it was directly said about the Buddhist law of karma and rebirth and that compassion for one's neighbor, which the Mouse showed, was the reason for his rebirth in a new, better appearance ^{[2, p. 17]}.

A comparison of the two editions of the play shows how the cultural climate of Buryatia changed during the second half of the 1980s: if in 1985 Buddhist ideas in children's literature were still unthinkable, by the end of this period the national religion of the Buryats becomes a legitimate part of the cultural space. Therefore, the first edition of the play was written by the author in such a way as to fully comply with the rules of the Soviet secularized discourse, while the second, as a result of small changes, became part of the new national discourse, where Buddhism is one of the foundations of cultural identity. The play "The Secret of the Golden Peaks" was the first such experience in Buryat children's drama, after which M. Batoin wrote many more plays for children based on the ideas of Buddhism and shamanism, thereby strengthening the new cultural identity of the Buryat children's theater.

         The clash of two competing identities – Soviet and national Buryat – in the children's literature of the last Soviet years was reflected in the play by Tsyren-Dulma Dondokova "Alamzhi-Mergen" ("Alamzha-Mergen", 1989) based on the Buryat epic of the same name. The action of the play unites two chronotopes – the first is connected with the plot of the epic and reflects the world of traditional Buryat culture, and the second is the Buryatia of the time of perestroika, that is, the modern world at the time of the creation of the play. The connecting link between the epic world and modernity are two fantastic characters – a Heavenly Star and an Earthly Star. In one of the scenes in which Alamji-mergen is preparing for a fight with an evil shaman, the following dialogue takes place between them:

A celestial Star. <...> Alamji-mergen is fighting a terrible enemy. Pray to Burhan, she still has a sharp spear.

The Earth Star. What burkhan are you talking about, I'm a pioneer. Pray to burhan himself ^{[5, p. 27]}.

The above dialogue shows the conflict of two identities: for a Soviet person, religion is a harmful relic of the past, but for Buryats it is an important part of national culture.

The play also raises the problem of Russification of the Buryat speech, which was one of the manifestations of the unification of Soviet national cultures. From time to time, Russian words are found in the speech of the heroes, after which another character makes a remark to the speaker:

Ogtorgoin Odon. That's it, that's it, is it really Aguu-Gohon duuhein ahaya aluulha gezhe tabihab.

Gazarai Odon. Shimni boleosh daa, orod, buryaad khele hudhazheel baynash. Iihedee goeor duugaraab gezhe h anana gush? ^{[4, p. 122]}.

A celestial Star. That's it, that's it, is Sister Aguu-Gohon really going to send him to certain death.

The Earth Star. Come on, you're mixing Russian with Buryat all the time. Do you think that's how you speak beautifully? ^{[5, p.23]}.

As in the case of the conflict of religiosity and atheism, Ts.-D. Dondokova reflected the real contradiction between Soviet identity, which implied the rapprochement of peoples, including through the transition from national languages to Russian, and Buryat identity, one of the important components of which in the discourse of national revival is considered the national language ^{[1, p. 125]}.

The play by Ts.-D. Dondokova is a unique evidence of a transitional era, reflecting a moment in the history of Buryat children's literature when Soviet identity was still relevant, but was no longer dominant, and a new national identity was being formed next to it. The original artistic solution – the combination of folklore and modern worlds – allowed us to show the contradictions between the discourses of Soviet culture and national revival. At the same time, in the play itself, this dispute does not end with the victory of one of the parties. In the further history of Buryat children's literature, as we know, the Soviet discourse will eventually give way to the national one.

Conclusion

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the cultural identity of Buryat children's literature was transformed. The reasons for this were the crisis of Soviet culture and the formation of the discourse of national revival, which began to play a dominant role in the processes of national and cultural construction. In the mid-1980s, Buryat children's literature still remained within the framework of Soviet discourse and continued to broadcast the all-Soviet identity. Gradually, elements that go beyond the "national in form, socialist in content" of Buryat culture penetrate into it. By the end of the 1980s, along with the Soviet discourse, the discourse of national revival appeared in children's literature, broadcasting a new identity based on continuity with the traditional Buryat culture. In the 1990s, Soviet discourse disappeared from Buryat children's literature, giving way to the discourse of national revival. Prior to this transformation, Buryat children's literature was aimed at forming a Soviet identity associated with communist ideology, the party and the pioneer movement, the idea of the unity of Soviet nations, events of Soviet history, such as the October Revolution and the Great Patriotic War. After the changes that took place, Buryat children's literature began to focus primarily on the formation of a national identity based on familiarization with the traditions of Buddhism, the culture of the Mongolian peoples, the history of the Buryats outside of Soviet statehood.