Past Expeditions
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Katon-Karagai district August 10-23, 2022
Refuge in a land of honey
Russian settlers in East Kazakhstan
In the days of Imperial Russia, in these borderlands, villages along the Bukhtarma river sheltered runaway serfs, escaped prisoners, Old Believer religious dissidents and other refugees from the Russian government.... Read More
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Smolensk Province, Russia February 19 - March 3, 2020
Maslenitsa– songs, stories and Butter Week
The season of Maslenitsa (aka Butter Week, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrovetide) is a great time to be in Russia. Everywhere people celebrate the end of winter and the promise... Read More
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Altai Republic, Russia July 2019
Russians in the Heart of Asia
Songs, Stories, Beliefs
The remote village of Shebalino is populated by both indigenous Altains and descendants of Russian settlers who arrived in the 1800s. These very different cultures have lived side by side... Read More
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Chelyabinsk province, Russia July 2019
Places of Power
in the Ural Mountains
Soon after archaeologists uncovered the the Bronze Age city of Arkaim in 1987, an array of prophets, mystics and pilgrims heralded the site as the Aryan homeland, a model of the universe, an astronomical instrument, ... Read More
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Altai Republic, Russia July 2019
Russian Settlers of the Altai Mountains
The city of Gorno Altaisk is your jumping off point for Uimon Valley in the Altai mountains. Here your team will visit the descendants of popovtsy and bezpopovtsy Orthodox Christian... Read More
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Suceava County, Romania July - August 2019
Magic and Modernity
in Rural Romania
Travel to the borderlands of Romania to study how modernization and traditional belief intertwine in 21st-century rural life. During your three-week stay, cultural anthropologists Professor James M. Nyce and Alexandra... Read More
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Irkutsk province, Siberia August 2019
Belarusian Traditions
in the Land of Baikal
Meet your team in lovely Irkutsk, then travel by bus to the village of Blagodatnaya, founded over 100 years ago by Belarusian settlers seeking land and a new life. Interview... Read More
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Zhitomir province, Ukraine July 2008
Dynamics of Folklore Traditions – 2008
One hundred years ago, a significant part of the population from this village moved out to Siberia with the hope of creating a better economic life for their families. Fifty... Read More
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Itkutsk province, Russia July 2009
Folklore of Siberian Villages – 2008
American Friends of Russian Folklore was pleased to be the lead organization for the 2008 “Folklore of Siberian Villages” Russian folklore expedition. This expedition was to the villages of Batama... Read More
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Seraphimovich district in Volgograd province, Russia January 2009
Don Cossack Folklore Expedition – 2009
Our winter expedition to the Cossack village Ust-Khopiorskaya was completed in January 2009. We chose the winter time for a special reason. This time coincides with the unique time of... Read More