ABSTRACT
If in Kozlov’s festival Orthodoxy served a legitimating function for nationalizing discourse, and the dominant form of presentation was kitsch, the following case is, in a sense, its opposite. Here Orthodoxy serves as the overarching context within which nationalizing performance may be understood, and in fact this religious context serves to make both nationality and folk culture sacred rather than primarily secular. While Kozlov’s festival advertised its political loyalties and its relation to the center, this example took place far from the center and there were few traces of official political ties. Unlike the Kozlov festival kitsch mode, which offered a superficial treatment of nationalist symbols, this example links Cossack, Orthodox, and military symbols in the context of a rite that creates a richly ambiguous and multifaceted connection between local and national, present and past.
