1 My account of Shniukova’s story is largely based on five letters and an eight-page-long description of the summer courses which she sent to Moscow music pedagogue A.A. Lukanin between 1953 and 1964. GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33 (Stat΄ia E. Shniukovoi “A.D. Gorodtsov. Rukovoditel΄ narodnykh khorov Permskoi gubernii”); GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27 (Pis΄ma A.A. Lukaninu ot E.N. Shniukovoi).

2 I have not been able to find concrete information about her parents, but the fact that at least two of their daughters, Elizaveta and her sister Vassa, were literate, and the family could afford to let two of its members travel away from home during the busiest period of the agricultural year indicates that they were comparably well-situated economically. Additionally, Ilenskoe was a relatively wealthy village that boasted a number of churches, shops, and schools and served as the administrative center of a parish that included eleven smaller hamlets. Prikhody i tserkvy Ekaterinburgskoi eparkhii (Ekaterinburg, 1902). On literacy as a requirement to take part in the choir courses see. Otchet rukovidetlia narodnykh khorov permskogo popechitel΄stva o narodnoi trezvosti za 1915 god i za dvadtsatiletie s 1896 po 1915 god (Perm΄, 1917), 43. On her journey, see Karta irbitskogo uezda (Ekaterinburg, 1908).

3 Adres-kalendar΄ i spravochnaia knizhka Permskoi gubernii 1911g (Perm΄, 1910), 144.

4 Semenov, V. L., A.D. Gorodtsov: Zhizn΄, otdannaia narodu (Perm΄, 2012), 143Google Scholar.

5 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 4.

6 Adres-kalendar (1911g), 127, 134.

7 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 3, l. 1. (Svidetel΄stvo, vydannoe Elizavete Nilovne Shniukovoi A Gorodtsovym o proslushivanii ei kurskov pevcheskoi gramoty). The certificate refers to Liapunovo, the alternative name of Ilenskoe. On two names of the village see Prikhody, 350.

8 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 3, l. 2.

9 Otchet rukoviditelia narodnykh khorov permskogo popechitel΄stva o narodnoi trezvosti za 1913 god (Perm΄, 1915), 16–18. See also Aleksandr Gorodtsov, Stseny iz opery “Zhizn΄ za Tsaria”: K trekhsotoletiiu tsarstvovaniia Doma Romanovykh 1613–1913g (Perm΄, 1913).

10 On Russian music see for example Taruskin, Richard, Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays (Princeton, 1997)Google Scholar; Maes, Francis, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, 2002)Google Scholar; Frolova-Walker, Marina, Russian Music and Nationalism: from Glinka to Stalin (New Haven, 2007)Google Scholar.

11 On choral music, see Johannes von Gardner, Gesang der russisch-orthodoxen Kirche. Band II: Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts bis 1918 (Wiesbaden, 1987); V. Il΄in, Ocherki istorii russkoi khorovoi kul΄tury: Vtoroi poloviny xvii—nachala xx veka (Moscow, 1985); Vladimir Morosan, Choral Performance in Pre-Revolutionary Russia (Ann Arbor, 1986); Vladimir Morosan, “Russia,” in Donna Di Grazia, ed., Nineteenth-Century Choral Music (New York and London, 2013), 431–34. Il΄in, who sometimes mentions the provinces, nonetheless retains a focus on the center by starting all discussions of innovative developments with an analysis of St. Petersburg and Moscow, before briefly listing similar tendencies in the provinces. He follows this structure even when his own examples suggest a different chronological sequence.

12 Sargeant, Lynn A., Harmony and Discord: Music and the Transformation of Russian Cultural Life (Oxford, 2011)Google Scholar.

13 Sargeant mentions the Perm΄ singing program in a couple of paragraphs, but the details and causal relationships of her description are imprecise. Sargeant, Lynn A., “High Anxiety: New Venues, New Audiences, and the Fear of the Popular in Late Imperial Russia,” Nineteenth-Century Music 35, no. 2, (2011): 93–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 98.

14 Sargeant, Harmony and Discord, 208–9.

15 Sargeant, “High Anxiety,” 113.

16 For an overview see Susan Smith-Peter, “Bringing the Provinces into Focus: Subnational Spaces in the Recent Historiography of Russia,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 12, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 835–48.

17 See for example Crews, Robert D., For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Cambridge, Mass., 2006)Google Scholar; Faith Hillis, Children of Rus΄: Right-Bank Ukraine and the Invention of a Russian Nation (Ithaca, 2013); Lutz Häfner, Gesellschaft als lokale Veranstaltung: Die Wolgastädte Kazan΄ und Saratov (1870–1914) (Cologne, 2004); Kirsten Bönker, Jenseits der Metropolen: Öffentlichkeit und Lokalpolitik im Gouvernement Saratov (1890–1914) (Cologne, 2010); Susan Smith-Peter, Imagining Russian Regions: Subnational Identity and Civil Society (Leiden, Netherlands, 2018).

18 N.K. Piksanov, Oblastnye kul΄tyrnye gnezda (Moscow and Leningrad, 1928). I.P. Kozlovskaia applies Piksanov’s concept to describe Perm΄ singers within an imperial context of choral “musical nests.” I.P. Kozlovskaia, “Narodno-pevcheskoe delo A. Gorodtsova v khorovom prostranstve Rossii na rubezhe xix-xx vv.,” Vestnik Permskogo gosudarstvennogo insititua iskusstva i kul΄tury: Nauchno-prakticheskii zhurnal, no. 5, (2007): 137–47.

19 Catherine Evtuhov, Portrait of a Russian Province: Economy, Society, and Civilization in Nineteenth-Century Nizhnii Novgorod (Pittsburgh, 2011).

20 For a summary if these reassessments, see ibid., 248–50.

21 On classical music as an elite past-time in the provinces, see ibid., 214–15.

22 On Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar and its position in Russian culture see Frolova-Walker, Russian Music, 58–84.

23 In the 1890s, one publisher in Kiev even sold illustrated pocket versions of the work to its fans. “Ob-iavleniia: Zhizn΄ za tsaria (karmannyi al΄bom),” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta (1895): 508, 513.

24 Gorodtsov based his choral version of A Life on M. I. Glinka, Zhizn΄ za Tsaria (no date).

25 Gorodtsov, Stseny iz opery.

26 Otchet za 1913g, 17.

27 Ibid., 18–22.

28 Otchet za 1915g, 42.

29 On-zhe, “S. Krutikhinskoe: redkii spektakl.’” Irbitskaia zhizn,’ 9 January 1915, 2.

30 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 6ob.

31 Ibid., 1. 14ob; GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 32, l. 2. (Vypiski iz gazetnykh zametok, kotorye imeiutsia u E.N. Shniukovoi).

32 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, ll. 6, 14ob.

33 Prikhody, 338.

34 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. ob7; GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 14ob; GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 5. (Programma prakticheskikh zaniatii kursov pevcheskoi gramoty i khorovogo tserkovnogo i svetskogo peniia).

35 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 7ob.

36 Ibid., l. 7–7ob.

37 I have been able to identify 59 articles that explicitly discuss various activities of the Perm΄ Guardianship in Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta. There were probably more. An invaluable help for finding these reports is Nataliia Ostroumova, ed. Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta, 1894–1918 (Baltimore, 2012).

38 See for example ***, “Narodno-pevcheskoe delo: Kursy pevcheskoi gramoty i khorovogo dukhovnogo i svetskogo peniia v Permi s 27 maia po 29 iiulia 1905 goda. Otchet rukovoditelia po ustroistvu khorov. Vstuplenie ot redaktsii,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta no. 37: 843–47; no. 39: 918–20; no. 40: 945–49 (1905).

39 The annual budget for the summer courses varied significantly over the 20 years of their existence. In 1899, the Guardianship ran month-long courses in both Perm΄ and Ekaterinburg, and paid stipends to 80 participants in each location. In 1902, it awarded 80 stipends of 15 rubles; in 1913, 63 participants received monthly allowances of 10.84 rubles and 54 were reimbursed for travel expenses of up to 5.31 rubles. In 1915, in the middle of World War I, the financial situation was strained, and the Guardianship was only able to award 32 stipends of 10 roubles, and to cover travel expenses for 28 participants. ***, “Khronika: muzyka v provintsii. Perm΄. Kursy pevcheskoi gramoty v Ekaterinburge i v Permi,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta, no. 21–22, (1899): 607; ***, “Khronika: muzyka v provintsii. Ekaterinburg, Perm΄,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta, no. 20–21, (1902): 569–70; Otchet za 1913g, 7; Otchet za 1915g, 16.

40 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 12ob.

41 One participant each came from the neighboring provinces of Viatka and Ufa, one had travelled to Perm΄ from Omsk. GAPK, f. 67, op. 1, d. 86, l.1. (Otchety o rabote rukovoditelia khorov Permskoi gub. A. Gorodtsova i uezdnykh komitetov popechitel΄stva o narodnoi trezvosti za 1911 god).

42 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 51 (Pevcheskie kursy gruppovaia fotografiia. Iiun΄ 1905 g. g Perm΄); GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 52. (Gruppovaia fotografiia: Pevcheskie kursy prokhodivshikh s 28 maia po 30 iunia 1915 goda v g. Permi).

43 GAPK, f. 1601, op. 1, d. 2a (A.M. Osinovskikh: Biografiia Maksima Stepanovicha Osinovskikh).

44 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 5ob.

45 Otchet za 1915g, 55; Gosudarstvennoe kraevoe biudzhetnoe uchrezhdenie Permskii kraevedcheskii muzei (GKBUK PKM), f. 672, l. 1. (Vedomost΄ o narodnopevcheskikh khorov imevshikh otnoshenie k Permskomu Gubernskomu Komitetu Popechitel΄stva o narodnoi trezvosti za 1911 god).

46 N.V., “Iz letnykh i osennikh vospominanii o Permi i Permskoi gubernii (1896g),” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta (April, 1897): 639–44; Gorodtsov, “Narodno-pevcheskoe delo: Otchet o deiatel΄nosti Permskogo popechitel΄stvo o narodnoi trezvosti,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta no. 16–17, (1905): 479–80; A. Arkhangel΄skii, “Narodno pevcheskoe delo v Permskoi gub,” V bor΄be za trezvost΄ no. 5, (1916), 71. The Guardianship’s annual reports do not list the source of their funding.

47 As Patricia Herlihy shows, many contemporary observers condemned the hypocrisy of the Ministry of Finance which, after all, relied on the state monopoly on alcohol for its largest share of revenue. Like Sargeant, Herlihy, who studied the Guardianship’s central Moscow and Petersburg branches, stresses the antagonism between the authorities who propagated monarchism and the cultural intelligentsia who turned away in disgust. Patricia Herlihy, The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka and Politics in Late Imperial Russia (Oxford, 2002), 14–35.

48 In 1915, Shniukova listened to a speech by governor M. A. Lozinа-Lozinskii, and met the local school inspector G. I. Smirnov, A. V. Perevoshchikov, a conservative representative in the Duma since 1906, and Andronik, bishop of Perm΄ and Solikamsk. Otchet za 1915g, 14.

49 Otchet za 1913g, 13; GAPK, f. 67, op. 1, d. 86, l. 3ob; Otchet za 1915g, 12–13.

50 GAPK, f. 67, op. 1, d. 86, l. 3.

51 Otchet za 1913g, 5.

52 Ibid.

53 Semenov, Gorodtsov, 211–14.

54 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 16.

55 Ibid., ll. 16, 18ob.

56 Semenov has suggested that Lukanin was too busy with other responsibilities, too frail, and lacked the ability to deal with his oral material. Semenov, Gorodtsov, 8.

57 Efremov’s depiction of Gorodtsov is shameless to the point of being ridiculous. For example, he “quotes” invented conversations between Gorodtsov and his son Andrei, in which the father “explains” how he is only pretending to support the Romanov dynasty while in actual fact working toward revolution. Efremov’s title for the chapter about the revolutionary years—during which Gorodtsov died of pneumonia and his wife and son fled east with the Whites (a fact Efremov passes over)—is “The Short Days of Great Happiness.” I. Efremov, Podvizhnik narodnoi kul΄tury A.D. Gorodtsov (Perm΄, 1983), 76–79, 95–96. E.V. Maiburova equally glosses over Gorodtsov’s monarchism, but describes his educational mission as anticipating Soviet policies. E.V. Maiburova, “Muzykal΄naia zhizn΄ dorevoliutsennoi Permi,” in Iz muzykal΄nogo proshlogo: Sbornik ocherkov, ed. B. S. Shteinpress (Moscow, 1960). 72–124, here 112–13.

58 Semenov, Gorodtsov.

59 Ibid.

60 District administrators ran local branches of the Guardianship, numerous zemstva contributed stipends, and the church offered accommodation to participants at summer courses. The annual reports also note that many teachers and local music lovers conducted instrumental lessons and rehearsals. Otchet za 1915g. See also N.A. Terenina, “Tragicheskaia sud’ba Viktora Kolmogorova, regenta Sviato-Troitskoi tserkvi, pomoshchnika A.D. Gorodtsova,” in Stranitsy proshlogo. Izbrannye materialy kraevedcheskikh smyshliaevskikh chtenii (Perm΄, 1999): 196–99.

61 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 4ob.

62 Ibid., l. 5.

63 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 12ob.

64 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 51.

65 Otchet za 1915g, 49. These diplomas were a pragmatic, local solution to the unrealistic Church requirement that parish regenty had completed higher musical education. Gardner, Gesang (II), 172.

66 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 12.

67 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 2ob.

68 Ibid., l. 6ob.

69 Gorodtsov, Stseny iz opery, 35. For Glinka’s original, see Glinka, Zhizn΄ za Tsaria, 428.

70 On-zhe, “S. Krutikhinskoe.”

71 Vasilii Lebedev, “A.D. Gorodtsov: Pioner muzykal΄no-narodnogo obrazovaniia,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta, no. 16: 425–29; no. 18–19: 488–90; no. 20–21: 526–29 (1909), here 526. Another example is Arkhangel΄skii, “Narodno pevcheskoe delo,” 75.

72 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 5.

73 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 51

74 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 5ob.

75 Otchet za 1915g, 43. Andrei Aleksandrovich Gorodtsov had been taken under his father’s professional wing from 1911 or earlier. Otchet za 1913g, 17. For a more detailed portrait of Andrei see Semenov, Gorodtsov, 166–74.

76 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 5.

77 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 12.

78 Ibid., l. 12.

79 Gorodtsov visited eleven choirs in Perm΄, eight in Solikamsk, one in Kungursk, seven in Ekaterinburg, four in Verkhoture, five in Irbit, and four in Kamyshlov districts. Otchet za 1915g, 28.

80 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 13ob.

81 Ibid., l. 14.

82 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 6ob.

83 Otchet za 1915g, 28.

84 Ibid., 43; GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 54 (Gruppovaia fotografiia organizatorov i ispolnitielei stsen iz opery Glinki “Ivan Susanin” v sele Krutikhinskom Irbitskogo uezda Permskoi gubernii v 1915 godu).

85 Otchet za 1915g, 43, 78.

86 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 13ob.

87 Otchet za 1915g, 42.

88 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 6.

89 Ibid.

90 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 14–14ob.

91 Otchet za 1915g, 78.

92 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27, l. 3ob.

93 Ibid., l. 16.

94 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 54.

95 “Popechitel΄stvo o narodnoi trezvosti: Kontsert pamiati Rimskogo-Korsakogo,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta (1), (1909): 25–26; GAPK, f. 67, op. 1, d. 86, ll. 2ob, 11–12.

96 Otchet za 1915g, 17.

97 Gorodtsov, Stseny iz opery, 31.

98 Otchet za 1915g, 31; GAPK, f. 1601, op. 1, d. 2a, l. 1–1ob.

99 Otchet za 1915g, 83.

100 “Uvlechenie dlia ranenykh,” Permskie gubernskie vedomosti, June 9, 1915, 4.

101 Gorodtsov, Stseny iz opery, 7.

102 Otchet za 1915g, 35.

103 Ibid., 42; Prikhody, 557.

104 Otchet za 1915g, 42.

105 Because none of these women is remembered in the scholarship, I want to name them at least in a footnote: teacher M. I. Beliava at the Us΄va steel factory; teacher A. M. Khristoliubova in Gubernskoe; widow Kurynina in Beloiarskoe; A. T. Gagarina in Maminskoe; Kireeva in Mostovskii mine settlement; and T. Vasil΄eva in Lebiazhskoe. Ibid., 36, 39, 41, 42.

106 Morosan, Choral Performance, 157. See also Il΄in, Ocherki, 177. Gardner, Gesang (II), 238–39.

107 GAPK, f. 1601, op. 1, d. 2a.

108 Gardner claims that female choir directors could only be amateurs, whereas their male colleagues were either professional church regenty, singing teachers, or sacristans. As Elizaveta Shniukova’s example shows, this was not true for Perm΄ province. Gardner, Gesang (II), 297.

109 Morosan, Choral Performance, 84.

110 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 3, l. 1. See also S. G. Zvereva, A. A. Naumov, and M. P. Rakhmanova, eds., Sinodal΄nyi khor i uchilishche tserkovnogo peniia (Moscow, 2004), 1092–1103.

111 Il΄in, Ocherki, 170–83.

112 For a brief list of other regional choirs see Ibid., 185; Kozlovskaia, “Narodno-pevcheskoe delo,” 137–38.

113 In 1902, for example, the school inspector of Minsk province approached colleagues in Perm΄. Similar letters arrived from Kazan΄, Orlov, Petropavlovsk, Tula, and Akmolinsk. GAPK, f. 67, op. 1, d. 47, ll. 9–18. (Otchety ot deiatel΄nosti uezdnykh komitetov).

114 Semenov, Gorodtsov, 99.

115 GAPK, f. 690, op.1, d. 1, ll. 1–1ob. (Stepan Smolenskii, Pis΄mo A. D. Gorodtsovu).

116 Gardner, Gesang (II), 255–57; Morosan, Choral Performance.

117 This address is reprinted in Otchet za 1915g, 47–57.

118 Il΄in mistakenly locates the origin of this development in the capitals. Il’in, Ocherki, 183–85.

119 Otchet za 1913g, 10.

120 “Khronika: Bezplatnye narodnye klassy Popechitel’stva o narodnoi trezvosti v Peterburge,” Russkaia muzykal’naia gazeta, no. 12, (1913): 306–7. Recent scholarship beyond the artistic sphere, though, has significantly shaken the traditional picture of opposition between state and society. See for example Joseph Bradley, Voluntary Associations in Tsarist Russia: Science, Patriotism, and Civil Society (Cambridge, Mass., 2009); Barbara Alpern Engel, Breaking the Ties that Bound: The Politics of Marital Strife in Late Imperial Russia (Ithaca, 2011).

121 E. Fedorov, “Khronika: Muzyka iz provintsii. Kostroma,” Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta, no. 7–8, (1914): 212–13. The article does not say explicitly whether this troupe used Gorodtsov’s adaptation, but given the ensemble’s members and the profession of their conductor, it is likely they did.

122 Efremov, Podvizhnik, 90.

123 Otchet za 1915g, 21–22.

124 Even though it has not been studied systematically, there is ample evidence of a lively choral culture throughout the empire. Every issue of Russkaia muzykal΄naia gazeta had a section devoted to music in the provinces. See also L-e, A.A., “Narodnoe penie: Iz vospominanii dobrovol΄noi uchitel΄nitsei,” Novoe vremia, March 22, 1904, 4.

125 Women’s history has focused on medics, journalists, and political activists drawn from the nobility or bourgeoisie. With the exception of literature, it has not paid much attention to the arts, and has shown little interest in women like Shniukova, whose professional success was apolitical and occurred through modest daily creativity. Richard Stites, The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism and Bolshevism, 1860–1930 (Princeton, 1978); Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild, Equality & Revolution: Women’s Rights in the Russian Empire, 1905–1917 (Oxford, 2010); Barbara Alpern Engel, Mothers and Daughters: Women of the Intelligentsia in Nineteenth-century Russia (Cambridge, Eng., 1983).

126 See for example Maria Mayofis, “The Thaw and the Idea of National Gemeinschaft: The All-Russian Choral Society,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 17, no. 1 (Winter 2016): 27–67. The broad musical collaboration in pre-revolutionary Perm΄, however, was not without friction. The authorities remained suspicious of spontaneous musical performances, while a “former peasant kursist” bemoaned that participants lacked an acknowledgment of their personal contributions to the scheme. Otchet za 1913g, 20; kursist-krest’ianin, Byvshii, “Eshche o kursakh notnoi gramoty v g. Permi,” Baian 10 (1908): 17–22Google Scholar, here 19.

127 GAPK, f. 67, op. 1, d. 86, l. 3ob; Richard S. Wortman, Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian monarchy, Vol. 2: From Alexander II to the Abdication of Nicholas II (Princeton, 2000).

128 Frolova-Walker, Russian Music, 60.

129 A lot of scholarly attention has been devoted to the discussion of the Russianness of Russian music. See for example Taruskin, Defining Russia.

130 In addition to passing over the presence of clerics and liturgical music in the repertoire, Shniukova refers to Glinka’s opera as Ivan Susanin, that is, she uses the composition’s Soviet title. GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33; GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 27

131 GAPK, f. 690, op. 1, d. 33, l. 8.