Allemann, L. The sami of the Kola Peninsula : about the life of an ethnic minority in the Soviet Union / Lukas Allemann ; [transl. by Michael Lomax]. - Rovaniemi : University of Lapland Printing Centre, 2013. - 151 p. : ill., map, portr. ; 25 см. - (Senter for samiske studier, Skriftserie ; 19).

Lukas Allemann 2. Oral history and personal accounts as tools of historical scholarship The increasing use of orally transmitted historical evidence has much to do with the evolution of technology in the twentieth century. Tape recorders, radio, cinema and other technological innovations have given oral accounts an important place in the canon of historical sources. For the historian, non-written sources can open up access to layers of society that do not produce written records. Today we want to know more than ever "how elementary historical changes in the economic situation, state and society were understood and processed by individual persons" .25 The fact that oral history and narrative sources have up until now achieved an increasingly important place in history is the result of numerous and lengthy discus­ sions: in part as a critique of structure-oriented social and economic history, in part providing a supplement to discourse-oriented cultural history. Without examining in detail the history of these numerous theoretical and methodological discussions, the following paragraphs will briefly set out the ideas with regard to oral history, every­ day history and narrative autobiographies that are the most important for the pre­ sent work. 2.1 Everyday history and narrativity The present work is very much in line with the ever-growing interest over the past three decades "in the behaviour of the individual in history, a counter-movement to the major structural issues. [...] This is especially true for those social classes in history which usually were not among those who expressed themselves often, but formed the silent mass. "26 25Schulze 1992, 420. 26 Schulze 1992, 419. Senterfor samiske studier, Skriftserie nr. 19 10