Edition prepared by Yu. I. Smirnov and T. S. Shentalinskaya. Photo illustrations by B. V. Dmitrieva. Editing of the musicological section by I. I. Zemtsovskiy and E. E. Alekseev. - Novosibirsk: Nauka. Siberian Division, 1991. - 499 pages.
The book is the first comprehensive edition of Russian epics in the history of Russian folklore studies. Many of the 245 examples of bylinas, ballads, wandering minstrel songs, tales with epic content and historical songs of the 16th to 18th centuries are published here for the first time.
The texts were checked against the earliest oral recordings found in the archives. Many were recorded only in Siberia and have no analogs in European Russia. Also unique are the retellings of Russian epic stories by Evenki, Buryat, Yakut and Yukaghir storytellers.
The audio recordings on the accompanying record will acquaint the listeners with the authentic sound of Russian epic songs of Siberia as they were recorded in the
1980s.
