Partnership for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Folklore

We have canceled our January 2025 “Tsar Maxmilian” expedition to Moldova.  

Recent  political developments, including contested presidential elections, have made it difficult and possibly unsafe for our Russian staff members to travel to the research area.

We apologize, and look forward to calmer times.

You can see and hear footage from our 2019 Malanca expedition here.

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Coming soon:  Summer 2025 expeditions to Kazakhstan ! 

Landscape legends, remote mountain villages, 

and the current state of the ancient summer solstice celebration “Ivan Kupala” !

Why Collect Folklore?

You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.

What kinds of mischief are witches accused of ? If people have Youtube do they stop singing their old songs? What kinds of urban legends do Russians tell? Are young people interested in old rituals? How do you make vodka from birch sap? Where do you go to find out?

WE CAN TAKE YOU THERE.

Our expedition volunteers record, film and photograph folklore traditions and the people who are the tradition-bearers. They work under the direction of expert local folklorists who gladly share their knowledge. The field recordings end up in scholarly archives to be preserved for future generations. 

IT CAN BE A LITTLE ROUGH

No luxury hotel, no swimming pool, no fancy restaurant.

BUT THERE ARE COMPENSATIONS

Great home-made hospitality. Spectacular scenery. Immersion in village life. And improvement to your global vision.

Here’s what our volunteers say…

The hospitality of people in the villages was amazing.

I felt that my work made a real contribution. And I loved everyone we met in Verkh-Uimon. I’m dying to get back. All the babushki we interviewed were lovely. Our hostess was wonderful. She let us use the internet from the tractor outside the house.

This trip was the best planned trip I have ever been on in Russia. It was amazing how smoothly it all went. The best part was being allowed to interview one of the villagers on topics of interest to me. The worst part was having to say goodbye to everyone on our last day. It was wonderful how many people came to see us off.

Interviewing trumps all; it was fantastic hearing women recount their stories. And swimming in the Dvina for a break was very nice.