Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/455

 Modern Russian Popular Songs. 431

collecting and studying Russian folklore. But the old poetry is more and more on the wane ; it is being super- seded by the new songs which give expression to the tendencies and moods of a new time.

The radical changes which have taken place during the past fifty years in the whole order of Russian life have had a powerful influence on the decay of the ancient poetry. The emancipation of the serfs brought Russia to a new stage of economic and industrial development, gave freedom to the individuality of the peasant, and promoted the growth of industrialism. With the abolition of compulsory labour the natural economical system of ancient Russia was ruined and the factory method of production encouraged, and at the same time the flow of the country population into the towns greatly increased ; the extension of the railways brought into connection with each other new districts and new circles of the population, enabling them to interchange trade and ideas. Town and country being thus brought into closer touch with one another, new wants began to make themselves felt in the peasants' life ; an entirely new world of interests and ideas was opened to the peasantry. All this, affecting the national life, thoughts, and feelings, could not but have an influence on the poetical creative genius of the people. Already N. Nekrasov (1821-1877), when drawing a picture of reformed Russia in his poem " Who has a happy life in Russia ", had observed with keen insight the birth of a new kind of poetry and pondered on the new paths along which the popular creative faculty would travel.

" O, new, new time !

Thou wilt express thyself in song :

But how ? " . ..

In our days these new songs are spreading widely, and re-echo from end to end of the vast empire. They have won their way into literature, and may even be heard in the creations of musical composers.