Muzeológia a Kultúrne Dedičstvo (Mar 2017)
„Forgotten voices“ of the Great War: Phonographic records of Udmurt POWs in Austria-Hungary and Germany (1915 – 1918) („ZABUDNUTÉ HLASY“ PRVEJ SVETOVEJ VOJNY: FONOGRAFICKÉ NAHRÁVKY VOJNOVÝCH ZAJATCOV V RAKÚSKO-UHORSKU A NEMECKU (1915 – 1918) NA PRÍKLADE ZAJATÝCH UDMURTOV)
Abstract
This paper examines recordings of Russian WWI POWs of Finno-Ugric ethnicities (primarily Udmurts) captured by Austria-Hungary and Germany between 1915 and 1918. These recordings were made by Austrian, Hungarian and German Academies of Sciences in the POW camps using the technical know-how and state-of-the-art technical capabilities of the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv and the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and were stored as phonographs and gramophone records. Top experts in the fields of anthropology, ethnography, musicology and linguistics participated in the project, the out-come of which is preserved to this day and allows us to study the Great War not only through written materials, but by hearing the voices of those who fought in it.
