Moscow Mulls Creation of Folklore Day and Folklore Medal, Two More Steps in the Reduction of Non-Russian Nations to Folklore Alone

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 27 – Russia’s State Council Commission on Culture and Traditional Values has called for the creation of a new national holiday, the Day of the Folklore of the Peoples of Russia, on July 17 and the establishment of a new award, “the Guardian of Folk Traditions.”

            These proposals will be taken up at a December meeting of the full State Council (nazaccent.ru/content/45868-den-folklora-narodov-rossii-predlozhili-otmechat-17-iyulya-na-federalnom-urovne/) and they represent another step in Putin’s effort to reduce Russia’s nations to cultural communities alone (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/07/putin-seeking-to-reduce-nations-to.html).

            What may seem to some as only yet another way to offer the people a new form of entertainment in fact is a profoundly political challenge to the existence of nations within the Russian Federation and their right to have republics and other forms of political action. If Putin can achieve the folklorization of nationality, he will further rein in nationalities.

            The current proposals apply not only to non-Russians who will thus be encouraged to focus on folklore exhibits and fairs but also to ethnic Russians as well. But that last may run into some problems especially if the proposed date for the holiday isn’t changed: July 17 after all is the anniversary of the murder of the last tsar and the imperial family by the Soviets.