EAP1045/1

The archival material was gathered mainly during folkloric and ethnographic expeditions of the staff of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Moldovan Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences/Academy of Sciences of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. The folkloric material was recorded on notebooks of various formats, either through direct transcription of the creations provided by the informants, or through transcription of the material recorded initially on reel-to-reel tapes. The notebooks were bound afterwards in volumes. The main geographical area where the folkloric material was collected is that between the Prut and the Dniester rivers, nowadays on the territory of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, but other areas in the former USSR where Romanians were living were also covered: in western Ukraine (nowadays Zakarpatska/Transcarpatia, the historical region of Maramureş and Cernăuţi oblast, part of the historical region of Bucovina), southern Ukraine (between the Dniester and the Bug rivers; Bugeac - the region just north to the inferior course of the Danube), Caucasus. The archival material comprises all the main genres of Romanian folkloric creations: a) creations expressing the mythological knowledge of the world and the magical relationship with the rest of the universe (e.g. magical beliefs and incantations); b) creations used by various traditional groups or referring to important ceremonies in one’s life (e.g. children’s songs and games, war songs, wedding songs, laments for the dead); c) the artistic thought (e.g. historical ballads, tales, folkloric theatre). There are a significant number of doina songs, lyric genre specific to the Romanian folklore, included on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The manuscript material of the nowadays ‘Folkloric collection of the Institute of Language and Literature’ was gathered since 1946 by: 1. Individual researchers or teams of researchers of the Folklore Division of the Institute of History, Language and Literature/ the Institute of Language and Literature (in place since 1956), who interviewed inhabitants of the MSSR and of other Soviet regions inhabited by Romanian-speaking population; 2. Students of several Moldovan universities and institutes (e.g. the Chişinău State University, the Pedagogical Institute of Bălţi, Ion Creangă Pedagogical Institute of Chişinău), during their practical stages, who gave their notebooks with results of their field research to the researchers of the Institute; 3. Pupils, students, teachers who occasionally gathered folklore as a hobby and who gave their notebooks and letters to the Institute of Language and Literature.

Custodial history: The archival material was recorded during folkloric and ethnographic expeditions of the staff of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Moldovan Branch of the USSR/Academy of SciencesAcademy of Sciences of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, before the fall of the USSR in 1991. The manuscripts were stored for a certain amount of time (usually several months) in the offices of the researchers who wrote reports on their field work. Afterwards they were given to the Central Scientific Archive of the Academy (whose physical location changed in time from the main building of the Academy, on Ştefan cel Mare 1, to another building of the same institution, on Academiei 6/A, building known as the "Institute of Chemistry"; the archival material was located in a room at the 4th floor). After the fall of the USSR in 1991, the Institute was divided and then merged with another institute of the Academy, respectively the Institute of Linguistics, the result being the nowadays Institute of Philology. The material in work, cca. 135 volumes, were taken out from the Central Scientific Archive, for research and have been stored since 2011 in the room 414, in the Institute of Philology headquarters on Ştefan cel Mare 1. During the transition from the Institute of Language and Literature to the Institute of Philology (1991-2006) and in the first few years of the Institute of Philology, part of the volumes were lost or destroyed, as they were stored not only in the Central Scientific Archive, but also in a improper warehouse of the Academy and in some offices of the researchers, who frequently took them home and never returned them. During EAP 1045, that took place in 2018-2019, at the same time when all the institutes of the Academy of Sciences changed subordination to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, all the found material, was relocated in room 420, belonging to the Institute, who changed its name into the Institute of Romanian Philology "Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu" and its subordination, to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research.

Extent and format of original material: 1 collection of 358 rescued volumes.

Owner(s) of original material: Original owner: Institute of Language and Literature of the Moldovan Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR//Academy of Sciences of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, nowadays the Institute of Romanian Philology "Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu" of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova.