Mo Burmakinoa journal about culture in small villages

An independent journal about culture in small villages. It is not the website of a local government body, administration or cultural institution and is not connected with the former website on this domain; we publish no official information or announcements.

History

History of the topic

Songs, rituals and crafts lived in the countryside long before any institutions. But what we now take for granted, a shared room for reading and circles, laws on culture and crafts, the very idea of intangible heritage, took shape over the twentieth century and the early twenty-first.

Institutions change their names and signs, but the need to gather, read, sing and talk together stays the same.

— From the editors

Timeline

  1. 1920s

    Reading huts (izby-chitalni) are widely set up in villages: rural cultural and educational institutions where people could read newspapers and books, attend a lecture or join a circle.

  2. 1992

    The Fundamentals of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Culture are adopted: the core law describing people's cultural rights and the role of cultural activity.

  3. 1999

    The Federal Law on Folk Art Crafts is adopted, dedicated to traditional crafts and the craftspeople who practise them.

  4. 2003

    UNESCO adopts the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: songs, rituals, festivals and crafts are recognised as heritage on a par with monuments.

From reading hut to club

The reading hut was a simple place: a room with newspapers and books where people read aloud in the evenings, listened to lectures and met in circles. For many villagers it was the first shared space not connected with either farm work or the church.

Over time the reading huts gave way to clubs and houses of culture, and the books moved into village libraries. Buildings, programmes and names changed, but the main idea remained: a village needs a place where people do things together, singing, putting on plays, learning and celebrating.

In the late twentieth century culture received its own legislation, and folk crafts a separate law. In the early twenty-first century the international community recognised that heritage is not only buildings and objects but also living skills: a song that is sung, a festival that is kept, a craft that is taught.

For a small village this is an important idea. A choir, a needlework circle or recorded stories from grandmothers are not "second-rate amateur efforts" but exactly the part of heritage that lives on for as long as people keep it up.

  • Events

    What kinds of village cultural events there are, how they are prepared and how to check an announcement.

  • Articles

    Journal topics: the house of culture as a phenomenon, choirs and ensembles, theatre circles, the folk calendar, crafts, the village library. Plus the article catalogue.

  • Archive

    A guide to the journal's sections and what happened to the earlier content on this domain.

Sources

  • Encyclopaedic sources on the history of cultural and educational institutions
  • Fundamentals of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Culture (1992)
  • Federal Law on Folk Art Crafts (1999)
  • UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)

Historical and legal information is based on open encyclopaedic sources and the texts of laws. Official information, schedules and announcements are published only by public authorities and institutions, so please check them there.