Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2005700221
Russian (Cyrillic); English
The photographic prints and manuscript material were produced during an ethnographic study conducted by Sergei Zhirkevich in which he documented the enduring folk and religious traditions of regional provincial life in the former Soviet Union. Zhirkevich spent over a decade interviewing local people, recording music, and photographing in the Pskov Region of Russia, the former Baltic states, the Leningrad region, Kazakhstan, and the region north of the Caucasus Mountains. The resulting monograph,
Sergei Zhirkevich was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in 1958. Zhirkevich, who is trained as a professional photographer, is a professor at the Russian Institute of History of Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1982, he began his ethnographic folklore expeditions to the Pskov Region of Russia, the former Baltic states, the Leningrad Region, Kazakhstan, and the region north of the Caucasus Mountains. His goal was to document the varied folk and religious traditions that survived the years of Soviet rule. In 1996, Zhirkevich began compiling his material for
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The collection was donated to the Library of Congress by Sergei Zhirkevich after the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, viewed some of Zhirkevich’s photographs during a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in October 1997. Zhirkevich sent a portfolio of material to the Library of Congress and select photographs were chosen by the Librarian’s office to be added to the Library’s permanent collection. The material was deposited with the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center in the spring of 2000.
The collection was processed by Sarah Bradley Leighton in March 2005. The photographic prints were matted and boxed by the Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress. Each print was assigned a unique identifying number and the verso of each print was photocopied to capture the handwritten notes that appear there. The verso notes that appear in the container list were translated by Sarah Bradley Leighton and Harold Leich of the European Division, but researchers are encouraged to use the photocopies of the original versos in Russian, located in Box 1, Folder 2, to make their own interpretations.
The collection is open for research. Duplication of the collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.
Sergei Zhirkevich Photograph Collection (AFC 2000/026), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2005700221
Copy of this document and a diskette with saved finding aid file. 8 pages.
Preservation photocopies of the verso of the photographic prints documenting the notes written in Russian. 28 pages.
Typewritten excerpts from the diaries made by Sergei Zhirkevich during his field research. 46 pages.
Copy of the book in which the photographs from the collection are published. The text contains reprinted quotations from the people interviewed. It should be noted that the form of Russian used in the text is representative of the dialect spoken in the provincial regions depicted. 214 pages.
The list below contains descriptions of the subject of each photograph, the location at which the photograph was taken, the date on which the photograph was taken, and the transcription of the verso caption translated from Russian to English. Also included is the physical description and dimensions of the photograph, a note indicating whether the photograph is signed by the photographer, and the page number on which the photograph appears in the monograph,
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Aksin’ia."
1
black-and-white print. 14 x 11 inches. Signed. Page 13.
Verso caption: "Old Believer Victor, Glukhoe Lake, Pskov
Oblast. 1994."
1 black-and-white print. 10.5 x 15.5 inches. Not signed.
Page 19.
Verso caption: "Maria Sosenkova./Singer. Accordionist,
Violinist, 'white' sorceress/1990. Pskov Oblast."
1 black-and-white print.
12.25 x 16.5 inches. Not signed. Page 29.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Bolshevik-sorceress.
80-82(?)."
1 black-and-white print. 10.75 x 15.25 inches. Signed. Page 39.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Vinnitsy. Leningrad
Oblast."
1 black-and-white print. 15 x 11 inches. Signed. Page 156.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. 1991. Evdok’ia
Borovikova."
1 black-and-white print. 11 x 15 inches. Signed. Page 57.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Pechory. 1993."
1
black-and-white print. 14.75 x 10.75 inches. Signed. Page 58.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. 1996. On the path to
becoming a 'Holy Fool.' Vanya."
1 black-and-white print. 10.75 x 14.75
inches. Signed. Page 61.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. 1995. Izborsk.
Family."
1 black-and-white print. 10.75 x 14.5 inches. Signed. Page 65.
Verso caption: "Accordionist Stepan, Pskov Oblast. 1984."
1 black-and-white print. 15.75 x 11.75 inches. Not signed. Page 78.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Grandfather Savelii and
his wife, Vera. (Atliakovs)."
1 black-and-white print. 11 x 15 inches.
Signed. Page 87.
Verso caption: "Prayer service at Pskov-Pechory
Monastery/Assumption of the Virgin Mary/1994."
1 black-and-white print.
15.75 x 12.25 inches. Not signed. Page 90.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Grandfather Fëdor from
Fëdorovka and his wife, Olya/Waltz: Mare’s Tears/."
1 black-and-white
print. 15 x 10.75 inches. Signed. Page 92.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Savelii Atliakov."
1
black-and-white print. 10.25 x 15.25 inches. Signed. Page 97.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. From the series: Refuge
in the forest."
1 black-and-white print. 14.25 x 10.5 inches. Signed. Page
125.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Accordionist Maria."
1 black-and-white print. 15.25 x 10.75 inches. Signed. Page 133.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Holiday. 1987."
1
black-and-white print. 15.25 x 11.25 inches. Signed. Same scene, but not the
same photograph, page 134.
Verso caption: "Stepanida Moisenko keens (mournfully wails) for
'Maslenitsa Grandfather.' Village of Mockalianiata. Pskov Oblast. 1989."
1
black-and-white print. 11.5 x 16 inches. Not signed. Same scene, but not the
same photograph, page 136.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Playing a
wedding/Reconstruction of an old ritual."
1 black-and-white print. 14.5 x
10.75 inches. Signed. Page 148.
Verso caption: "Liubov Berzina. Singer. Pskov Oblast.
1984."
1 black-and-white print. 15.25 x 11.25 inches. Not signed. Page
149.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Accordionist
Vasilii."
1 black-and-white print. 10.75 x 14.75 inches. Signed. Page 151.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Zhora Zhukov. The first
song in the new house -'Kolyma.'"
1 black-and-white print. 10.5 x 15.5
inches. Signed. Page 155.
Verso caption: "Preparing 'Maslenitsa Grandmother' at
collective farm, 'Trudy.' 1984. Border of Pskov Oblast and Belarus."
1
black-and-white print. 11.5 x 15.75 inches. Not signed. Same scene, but not the
same photograph, page 168.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Pechory. 1995."
1
black-and-white print. 13.75 x 10.75 inches. Signed. Page 182.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Izborsk. Grave of an
unknown."
1 black-and-white print. 11 x 14.75 inches. Signed. Page 184.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich."
1 black-and-white
print. 15 x 10.75 inches. Signed. The version published on page 204 is the
mirror image of the print.
Verso caption: "Photo: S. Zhirkevich. Pskov. 1996."
1
black-and-white print. 15.25 x 11.75 inches. Signed. Page 207.
Verso caption: "At a wall. Tallinn, 1982."
1
black-and-white print. 12.5 x 14 inches. Not signed. Not published in
monograph.