Ksenofontov Gavriil

Ksenofontov Gavriil (1988–1938) – specialist in the history, ethnography and folklore of Yakuts, Buryats, Evenks.

He made several long expeditions in the central regions of Yakutia (1921), low parts of the rivers Lena and Oleniok (1923-1924), along the route Yakutsk – West-Kanagalass Ulus – Viluisk District – Chona – Erbogachion – Low Tunguska – Krasnoyarsk – Khakassia – Western Buryatia (1925-1926).

Material collected in the expeditions laid in the foundation of the works on folklore, ethnography, and history of the native peoples of Siberia. He considered that folklore kept data on some real historical events, therefore, it would be possible to reconstruct them comparing legends and tales.

In 1930-s, he was Researcher of the Research Institute of Language and Culture of the Soviet of people’s Commissioners of the Yakutskaya A.S.S.R. He was arrested on April 22, 1938 in the frames of the so called ‘Yakutian Affair’. He was sentenced to death; rehabilitated.

He left two big research works: ‘Elleiada’ and ‘Uraanghai-sakhalar: Essays on the Old History of Yakuts’. The first one is a collection of oral folk tales about the legendary initial ancestor and cultural hero of Yakutia – Ellei. Its manuscript was found by P. E. Efremov in 1965, and was published in 1977.

Compositions

Rock Images on the Lena River in the Borders of the Yakutsky District // Buryatovedenie. 1927, No ¾, pp. 64-70. (in Rus.)
Legends and Tales aboyt Shamans at Yakuts, Buryats, and Tungus: Materials on the Mythology of Uralian and Altai Tribes of the Northern Asia. Irkutsk, 1928 (2nd publ. Moscow, 1930). (in Rus.)
Chrestes, Shamanism and Christianity: Facts and Conclusions. Irkutsk к, 1929. (in Rus.)
Cult of Madness in the Uralian and Altai Shamanism: ON the Issue of Dying and Resurrecting God. Irkutsk, 1929. (in Rus.)
Shepherds’ Life and Mythological Ideas of the peoples of Classical East. Irkutsk, 1929. (in Rus.)
Deciphering of Two Monuments of the Orkhon Writing from the West Baikal Region // Language and Thought. 1933, vol. 1, pp. 170‒173. (in Rus.)
Uraanghai-sakhalar: Essays on the Old History of Yakuts. Vol. 1, Irkutsk, 1937 (2nd publ. Yakutsk, 1992). (in Rus.)
Elleiada: Materials on the Mythology and legendary History of Yakuts. Moscow, 1977; republ.: Yakutsk, 2005. (in Rus.)
Shamanism: Selected Works. Yakutsk, 1992. (in Rus.)

About him

Khoroshikh P. On the report by G. V. Ksenofontov ‘The Conquest of the Territory of the Yakutia Region by Yakuts, and Its Reflection in the Heroic Epic and in the Rock Images on the Lena River’ // Vlast’ truda. 1922, No 69-708. (in Rus.)
On the Work by Ethnographer G. V. Ksenofontov // Ksenofontov Г. В. Uraanghai-sakhalar: Essays on the Old History of Yakuts. Vol. 1, Irkutsk, 1937, pp. 3-11. (in Rus.)
Erghis G. U. Results and Tasks of Studying Yakutian Folklore // The Main Problems of Studying Poetic Creativity of the Peoples of Siberian and Far East. Ulan Ude, 1961, pp. 53-56. (in Rus.)
G. V. Ksenofontov ‒ Yakutian Ethnographer // Calendar of the Important and Memorial Dates of the Yakutskaya А.S.S.R. for 1963. Yakutsk, 1963, pp. 8-10. (in Rus.)
Erghis G. U. On the Research Work and Written Archive of G. V. Ksenofontov // Essays on the History of Russian Ethnography, Folkloristic, and Anthropology. 1978, iss. 8, pp. 122-141. (in Rus.)
Nickolaev I., Ushnitsky I. The Central Affair: Chronicle of Stalinist Repressions in Yakutia. Yakutsk, 1990, pp. 78-81. (in Rus.)
Ivanov V. N. ‘Uraanghai-sakhalar’ by G. V. Ksenofontov // Ksenofontov G. V. Uraanghai-sakhalar: Essays on the Old History of Yakuts. Vol. 1, book 1, Yakutsk, 1992, pp. 5-10. (in Rus.)

M. Sh.