September 29: Birthday of Inga Andronikova, a researcher of Roma folklore
Inga Andronikova was born on September 29, 1937 in LeningradA researcher and collector of Romani folklore, one of the most renowned Roma scholars in the USSR, she collected thousands of proverbs, songs, and fairy tales—and spent almost her entire life battling Soviet censorship for the right to continue her work.
God will judge in the next world, and in this world we will judge in a gypsy court.
(Gypsy proverb)
Family business
Inga's mother and aunt collected Gypsy folklore, but after the abolition of the Gypsy written language in the USSR and the closure of publishing houses in 1938, their work had to be put away.
Inga dreamed of becoming a writer since childhood. At 11, she was already visiting a Romani camp and interacting with the Roma. She wrote down songs and proverbs. Gradually, she learned the language and dedicated her life to studying Roma culture.
In total, she collected 12 proverbs about the life, customs, and traditions of the Roma. She recorded over 500 songs and about 100 fairy tales.
The horse and the gypsy's hearts beat together
Gypsy laws are not written on paper
To bow to an elder is not to lift his head from his shoulders
Born a gypsy - be cunning in how to survive
"Romany Tea" - Gypsy Daughter
The gypsies respectfully called her "romany chai" - the gypsy's daughter.
In 1963, at the age of 26, she published a collection of stories, "Tales of Those Who Follow the Sun," under this pseudonym. They were praised in the print media and read on Leningrad Radio.
In 1964, Andronikova graduated from the journalism department of Leningrad University. Her thesis was on the history of the Romani press in the 1920s and 1930s.
Inga Andronikova in Science: Camps and Expeditions
Andronikova entered graduate school at the Moscow Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. There, she began studying the material culture of the Roma people—their numbers, distribution, and socioeconomic status. She went on ethnographic expeditions and wrote inquiries to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
She collected unique statistics for 27 regions of the RSFSR and presented them in the form of summary tables; she also compiled a map of the settlement of Roma.
Worked in camps.
At my wedding, they almost broke my tape recorder. You have to take into account that these people are very distrustful and superstitious.
The biggest danger is that I might be mistaken for a "dog." That's what the Roma call those associated with the police.
Harassment and censorship
She was not allowed to defend her dissertation—according to one version, the topic was censored: back in 1956, the nomadic lifestyle was banned in the USSR and equated with parasitism.
In 1969, Andronikova returned home to Leningrad and found work as a lab assistant at the local branch of the Institute of Ethnography. The persecution continued. She was prevented from conducting research, but when inquiries about Roma in the USSR came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and foreign colleagues, she was asked to draft official responses.
Colleagues wrote reports on her, accusing her of "inappropriate behavior." When she contracted pneumonia, they wrote her off for absences. In 1973, she was laid off due to staff reductions.
Magazines refused to publish her work "for censorship reasons." Publishers wouldn't accept her books: the manuscripts contained Roma statements on a wide range of topics, including their attitudes toward Stalin, Khrushchev, the Great Patriotic War, and the decree banning nomadism.
Search
In 1974, 37-year-old Andronikova wrote a letter to the Science Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers, asking for permission to continue her research.
A month later, her home was searched. They confiscated most of her archive: notes and documents inherited from her mother, as well as fieldwork containing the names and addresses of Roma, which had been repeatedly requested from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Due to stress, Andronikova's legs gave out and she began to suffer brain damage. In the last 20 years of her life, she suffered from a severe form of nervous disorder. She died in 1994 in St. Petersburg, at the age of 57.
A book from the distant mezzanines
In 2006, Dmitry Bulanin Publishing House published her book, The Gypsy Language Is Full of Riddles, a collection of proverbs and sayings that survived the search in the farthest attics.
As they sing, so they dance
(what goes around comes around)Ants are not lazy, and no one has ever eaten ant honey (when gypsies are accused of being lazy, they say that they sing and dance better than anyone else)
Give your wife your heart, give your children your soul