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Abstract

Amina Eldarova (1921–2008), Azerbaijan’s first ethnomusicologist, spent the 1930s–1970s traveling to villages to work with rural ashiq bards even as rapid Soviet modernization threatened to subsume local performance traditions. Mentored by Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov and Russian ethnomusicologist Viktor Beliaev, she became the foundational academic in her field. In 1964, Eldarova presented with two Azerbaijani musicians at the International Anthropological and Ethnological Congress in Moscow. There she met American folklorist Alan Lomax, who had been working with Anna Rudneva to copy music from state archives, including Tatar, Uzbek, Kazakh, and Ukrainian. At the conference, he asked to record songs and interview the Azerbaijani musicians. Working with Rudneva as Russian translator and Eldarova as Azerbaijani cultural translator, the sessions produced a recording (now at Lomax’s Association for Cultural Equity) whose easy rapport, despite “double translation,” shows the power of human connection through shared music and culture.

Lomax preserved the relationships he made in 1964 and would return to the Soviet Union to continue fieldwork with Rudneva’s help. In his letters, Lomax stressed the importance of the diverse peoples of the USSR—far from all “Russian,” as many Americans assumed—and advocated cultural exchange as a pathway to peace in the nuclear age. His recordings and notes were later released by Smithsonian Folkways, introducing many Americans to Central Asia and the Caucasus. In 2005, A. Oldfield returned the Azerbaijani recordings to Eldarova and Abbasov and interviewed both about their 1964 meeting.

Recently opened portions of Eldarova’s archive add further dimensions. Years of correspondence with Beliaev and Rudneva reveal mutual respect, affection, and practical cooperation that cut across hierarchies of “center” (Moscow), “periphery” (Baku), and “abroad” (United States). They also illuminate Eldarova’s fieldwork relationships with ashiqs across the urban–rural divide. Far from passively offering or receiving metropolitan expertise, Eldarova negotiated the meaning of her culture with the ashiqs she interviewed and with Russian colleagues, showing how human connections foster empathy and can turn asymmetrical power relationships into learning and growth on all sides.

This paper centers on Eldarova’s experiences as a micro history of center–periphery negotiation and grassroots cultural diplomacy. I argue that these person-to-person exchanges fostered empathy, encouraged mutual growth, challenged Cold War binaries, and modeled a practice of personal peacemaking grounded in listening, honesty, and goodwill.