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62Garakanidze, who conducted a short but very important fieldwork in Dagestan in 1991,and to Manashir Iakubov, one of the best experts of North Caucasian music), dronepolyphony is quite well-known among all major Dagestanian peoples (particularly amongAvars and Kumiks). The tradition of three-part drone singing is present at least amongKumiks. In Kumik three-part drone singing, as in other polyphonic traditions of the NorthCaucasia, the main melody is accompanied by the double drone (in interval fifth apart).Virtually nothing has been published about the polyphonic traditions of Dagestanianseven on their own languages. The article of Manashir Iakubov about the parallelsbetween the musical traditions of Dagestan and Bulgaria is a rare publication thatcontains some materials about Dagestanian polyphony. Among other elements oftraditional music, the article discusses the parallels between the Dagestanian andSouthwestern Bulgarian traditions of polyphonic singing (Iakubov, 1972).The Volga-Ural Region minoritiesof Russian FederationThe easternmost region of the Europe (west from the Ural Mountains, the naturalborder between the Europe and Asia), the Volga-Ural region consists of the big group ofpeoples, who speak on different language families (Finnish branch of Finno-Ugriclanguages and Turkic branch of Altaic languages), have different religious beliefs (pre-Christian, Christian, Moslem) and different traditional cultures. Unlike the NorthCaucasia, Volga-Ural region is not riddled with high impenetrable mountains, and themigration processes were very active here, resulting in a complete or partial change oflanguages, physical types of the populations, and cultures.Finnish branch of Finno-Ugric family of languages are represented in this regionby Mordvinians, Komi, Mari and Udmurts, and the Turkic branch of Altaic languages arerepresented by Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvashs. Few of the peoples (or the part of thepeople) of this region practice various forms of traditional polyphony. Now we are goingto have a closer look at the polyphonic traditions of the different peoples populating theVolga-Ural region.MordvaAmong the peoples of the Volga-Ural region Mordvinians are maybe the bestknown for their rich traditions of vocal polyphony. Although the first publications ofMordvinian songs were the monophonic versions of their polyphonic songs (seeUritskaya, 1973:147). Mordvinian polyphony was also one of the earliest to be published– Mitrofan Piatnitsky published them in 1914, followed publications from the 1920s.Finnish scholar A. Vaisonen published examples of Mordvinian polyphony in 1948 .Polyphony is heavily featured in both regional groups of Mordvinians – Mokshaand Erzia (both are the names these groups call themselves). Leading Mordvinianethnomusicologists Nikolai Boiarkin distinguishes four types of group singing amongMordvinians: (1) unison –heterophonic type (mostly among Erzia-Mordvinians); (2)specific drone two-part singing, (3) developed two- and three-part drone type; and (4) late