Lelkhova Akulina Vasilyevna

1923-2009

a performer of Khanty folklore

Akulina Vasilyevna was born in the village of Pashtory, Beryozovsky District, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous-Okrug – Yugra, Tyumen Oblast in the family of a fisherman and a hunter. Her father, Vasiliy Ivanovich Fedotov, is from the kin of the former village of Rezany. When he married, he moved to live with his wife in the village of Pashtory. At first, the family lived with Akulina Vasilyevna's parents. Over time, they built their own house. The inhabitants of the village of Rezany were called syhԓăӈ yoh (syhăԓ is the willow tree, the patron spirit of the village in the image of this tree. For inhabitants of the village of Rezany, this tree was sacred). Due to frequent illnesses, Akulina Vasilyevna went to school late and graduated from only two classes at the school in the village of Polnovat. Like the children of the war years, Akulina Vasilyevna started to work on the collective farm early. At the beginning of 1950, in connection with the consolidation of collective farms, she moved with her family to the village of Tugiyany. A few years later they went back to the Pashtory settlement. Akulina Vasilyevna is a connoisseur and performer of folklore. The folklore texts recorded by Akulina Vasilyevna were published in the district national newspaper "Khanty Yasang", and were broadcast on the national radio. Individual samples of this artist are included in the folklore collection "Fairy Tales, Songs of the Khanty of the Polnovatksky Ob Region", published in 2016 and compiled by Pyatnikova T. R. and Slepenkova R. K.