Yuri Sokolov in cooperation with his brother Boris, released the book Russian Folklore in 1938. It became the first textbook

Textbook

A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...

 on the topic of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 to be used in the Russian Universities. The information for the book was based on extensive field work that the two had conducted. Due to the popularity of the book, Sokolov was appointed to a plethora of positions in the field of folklore. The highest position in the field of folklore that he attained in his career came in 1938 with his election as the Chair of Folklore at Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

's Institute of Philosophy, History, and Literature.

Russian Folklore became one of the biggest staple texts for any non-Russian folklore or anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 scholar who was studying the Russian

Russian culture

Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes, specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture...

 or Soviet society

Culture of the Soviet Union

The Culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the 69 year existence of the Soviet Union. It was contributed by people of various nationalities from every of 15 union republics, although the majority of them were Russians...

 largely because of his influence in the folklore field. The work is divided into 3 sections that describe the different eras of folklore. Since he did field work both before and after the Soviets took over in the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

, he has a section of "Folklore Before The October Revolution" and "Soviet Folklore". Before he goes into the two eras of folklore, he discusses "Problems and Historiography

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

of Folklore". Some scholars are critical of the sources from which he obtained his information, but his image still remains as one of the forefathers in the bringing of Russian Folklore to the Russian and American University setting.

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