News
09/04/2025. Educational program Living Folk Word
April 9, 2025:
On the birthday of Elias Lönnrot, Finnish folklorist, scientist, poet, and creator of the Kalevala book, an educational program Living Folk Word took place, dedicated to the storytellers and rune singers of Karelia - the anniversaries of the year. It completed the annual international festival Kalevala Mosaic at the National Library of Karelia.
In 2025, we celebrate the 265th anniversary of the birth of Vaassila Kieliväinen, 210th anniversary of Miikhkali Perttunen, 170th anniversary of Tatyana Perttunen, 165th anniversary of Fyodor Konashkov and 160th anniversary of Filipp Gospodarev. Runes and epic poems, fairy tales from the repertoire of storytellers have preserved the valuable and multifaceted folklore of Karelia.
The participants of the program were introduced to the life and creative paths of storytellers. They saw photographs from the library's book editions and the collections of the National Archives of Karelia as well as video materials prepared by the employees of the National Library of Karelia, journalists of Karelian television, and amateur videos of admirers of Karelian folklore. Karelian runes, Russian epics, Belarusian fairy tales from the repertoire of storytellers sounded on the premises of the library. Memories of storytellers and rune singers by famous folklorists, writers, artists and photographers were read.
The meeting was attended by descendants of storytellers Vaassila Kieliväinen and Pyotr Ryabinin-Andreev, who shared their thoughts on the importance of preserving the memory of Karelian storytellers.
The electronic resources of the National Library of Karelia contain publications dedicated to Karelian storytellers and rune singers:
In the biobibliographical dictionary Writers of Karelia (Petrozavodsk, 2006), we suggest reading materials about M. I. Mikheeva, M. A. Remshu, E. I. Hämäläinen. The dictionary is published in the Internet project Electronic Library of Authors of Karelia.
The theme of rune singing in Karelia is presented in the publication Karelian Collection (Leningrad, 1929) and the book by I. Inha Kalevalan laulumailta (Helsinki, 1921) in Finnish, which are located in the Internet resource Electronic Library of Authors of Karelia.
Gallery of famous Karelian rune singers
