Kunt Ernő szerk.: Kép-hagyomány – Nép-hagyomány (Miskolc, 1990)

I. RÉSZTANULMÁNYOK - Tatiana Voronina: A lubok helye és szerepe az orosz népi kultúra rendszerében a 19. század 20-as és 60-as évei között

Besides its religious role, the lubok picture was intended simply for decoration of the peasants' huts. Sheets printed to illustrate Russian folk fairy-tales (..Strong, courageous and glorious Tsarevich Ivan"), as well as portraits of Russian generals, heroes of the war of 1812. generally depicted on horseback, were basically decorative (III. 14). Some of the sheets were devoted to Russian ancient history, where the place of honour was accorded to Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan the Terrible and Vladimir Monomach. The number of sheets dedicated to national heroes Minin and Pozharsky, liberators of Moscow in 1612, was particularly large. Thus, the shett entitled „prince Pozharsky inspires the troops for the salvation of Motherland" was issued several times: in 1847, 1850, 1852, 1858, 1862 and 1867. The theme of patriotism was constantly maintained and endorsed, and what is most important is that it was popular among peasants. It was no accident that the sheet depicting a feat of a soldier who saved Peter the Great was published dozens of times from 1826 upto the 1870s (III. 15). In the 20s and 60s the faith in the tsar was strong among ordinary people, and this was sustained by the issue of numerous sheets depicting the portraits of the royal family. So as to enhance the effect, some sheets contained 22 portraits of great princes, tsars and their wives. One of the main peculiarities of lubok pictures was the fact that they were intermediaries between town and willage. They performed an important communicative function by bringing the news of what went on in towns, as well as conveying the mode of townsfolk life to the countryside. Some sheets reflected a negative side of life in towns („Ruined tavern-keeper comes back home from Petersburg"). As from the 40s, sheets carrying the texts of popular songs were widespread. They illustrated the visualisation of folklore songs which had previously been located only in the verbal poetic creation. Lubok pictures showed beautifully dressed young people singing and dancing in the meadows or at home (III. 16, 17). To a certain extent, the lubok picture reflected peasants' world outlook, their dreams about a fair and prosperous life. In settlements located far away from the central areas, for example in Siberia, the patriarchal life style was preserved longer than elsewhere, and the older type of picture was more popular. Hence, salesmen brought pictures to remote villages, where Suzdal engravings decorated the walls of peasants' chambers. In the Barabinsk steppe one could enjoy the paintings about the Nose and Glorius Frost, about Foma- the musician and Yeryoma- the dancer, about the she-goat wearing sarafan, etc.'"

1 Lubok pictures popular in the countryside differed from those popular in urban localities both in content and functions. It is no accident that it was precisely in the countryside, the stronghold of traditional rites and customs, that stereotype adorned pictures with cononised titles were best preserved. „Just as Russian ordinary people adhere to the old dress style, colour and pattern of their clothes, huts without a chimney, they are equally fond of the old-fashioned style and colour of their lubok pictures. They only accept things which are close to their hearts and to their daily life. Alien things would not strike cords in their minds, since people are not a soulless stone on which any image could be inscribed arbitrarily by a cutter or on which moss could grow.""

1 Despite a relatively high price, peasants still bought pictures. They had a definite material value for them. In case of fire, the pictures were saved first. Many salesmen noted that in the 60s peasants prefered old pictures to the new and improved ones. Without covering the entire range of our topic, we can still conclude that in the 182()s-1860s lubok as a whole was performing an important ethnic role and was prominent in the daily life of diverse strata of the population. Lubok production became more differentiated, becoming subdivided into „úrban" and „peasants" variants. Their widespread use, and in particular the role of lubok in a peasant milieu, and the maintenance