Folklore Fieldwork and Research in Ukraine 

Anne Ingram, U of Virginia 

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Slavic folklore at the 
University of Virginia. I recently went to Ukraine for 
four months to do research for my dissertation on 
Ukrainian funerals and beliefs about the dead in 
Ukraine. As a graduate student, I needed to collect 
as much material on my topic as possible at as low a 
cost as possible. In order to do this, I made 
arrangements with the Kherson branch of the 
Institut Mystetsvoznavstva. Fprklora ta Etnohrafii 
(Institute of Art, Folklore and Ethnography, or IMFE) 
to do archival and field work in Ukraine, working 
with native scholars. Kherson IMFE helped me 
access archival material and set up my fieldwork. I 
spent a month at Kiev IMFE, where I examined 
archival material on funerals and beliefs about the 
dead. Kiev IMFE has a large repository of folklore 
sources and some excellent scholars. Kherson IMFE 
also chose locations for my fieldwork, with the goal 
of giving me a survey of as many areas of Ukraine as 
possible. 

I did fieldwork in Cherkas'ka obi., Khersons'ka 
obi., and L'vivs'ka and Ivano-Frankiv'ska obi. Field-
work in western Ukraine is difficult, due in large 
part to problems with transportation. 

It is now possible to do fieldwork in Ukraine, 
although a high degree of flexibility is necessary, due 
to the current economic situation and transportation 
problems. Salaries and fieldwork funding for native 
scholars are irregular, and bus and train routes have 
been cut. Public transportation, primarily intra-
oblast* buses, is the primary means of traveling to 
villages, unless one has access to a private car. 
Travel on intra-oblast buses is particularly difficult, 

IB SEEFA Journal 1998, Vol. III No. 1



due to discontinuation of some routes, problems in 
getting tickets, and mechanical failures. As a result, 
the buses are extremely crowded and it is not always 
possible to board a bus to a desired destination. 
However, these obstacles are not insurmountable. I 
was able to collect a great deal of material during my 
recent trip to Ukraine. 

In Cherkas'ka obi., I worked with Mykola and 
Halina Kornienko of the Cherkas'ka oblast' 
ethnographic museum, the Oblastnyi Kraeznavchvi 
muzei-Cherkasv. The museum has a very good 
collection of material culture, including an 
impressive number of examples of rushnyks from the 
oblast'. The Kornienkos have done a great deal of 
collecting in the oblast' and are very knowledgeable 
about that region's folklore. Their specialties are 
material culture and wedding rituals, respectively, 
although their knowledge extends considerably 
beyond the boundaries of their specialties. There 
are a number of very old grave markers in this oblast' 
and excavation of old burial sites has been done in 
there. This is a very rich area for collecting. 
In Khersons'ka obi., I worked with Hanna 
Chumachenko, the director of Kherson IMFE, and 
her graduate students. The branch, in conjunction 
with the Kherson Pedagogical Institute, held a very 
successful international conference in June on 
multiculturalism in southern Ukraine. Hanna 
Chumachenko has experience collecting in the 
oblast', is very knowledgeable about the various 
ethnic groups residing in the region, and her 
research interests include performance and ritual. 
This oblast' presents very interesting research 
possibilities, due to the mix of ethnic groups, 
including western Ukrainians, Ukrainian Germans, 
and Tatars. 



Through my association with Kherson IMFE, I 
was able to cojlect a great deal of material in a short 
period of time. I returned with copious interviews, 
old photographs, information from archives, and 
recent publications related to my topic. I witnessed 
contemporary funerals, became familiar with village 
life in modern day Ukraine, and photographed 
cemeteries and grave markers in central, southern, 
and western Ukraine. 

The Kherson branch of IMFE is willing to work 
with scholars and has developed a program to do so. 
Scholars can start in Kiev at the main branch of 
IMFE, exploring its rich resources, then do 
fieldwork in Cherkas'ka oblast' with the Komienkos, 
and finally work in Kherson'ska oblast', with trips to 
Odessa, Nikolaev, or Crimea as possibilities. 
Although my fieldwork focused on funerals and 
beliefs about the dead, the Kherson branch of IMFE 
will work with scholars to create an individual plan. 

Anyone interested in doing research in 
Ukraine through Kherson IMFE can contact me at 
<ami2f©Virginia.edu> for further information. 

SEEFA Journal 1998, Vol. III No. 1