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).

The Sami of the Kola Peninsula - The interviewer should not rush in too early with his own interventions. Even though the narrator spends a long time 'beating round the bush', he should be immediately instructed that he should please start at his childhood. A too precipi­ tous intervention would signal a lack of interest and jeopardize the atmosphere of confidence. In addition, certain thematic digressions can often only later be tied in to the main narrative. So as not to disrupt the narrative flow, the informant should be interrupted as little as possible in the narrative phase with requests for details, in particular w-questions' ("When was that?", "Where was that?" etc.), or even with questions about other experiences. Otherwise answers will tend to be­ come shorter and shorter. If, instead, the informant is not interrupted by interven­ tions in the process of building up his memories, the narrative sequences tend to become longer and longer. The fragile process of memory begins to come alive, and more and more experiences surface out of the narrator's memory. This re­ quirement is, however, particularly difficult to observe in the actual practice of in­ terviewing. First of all it may happen that, despite all efforts, the interview can on­ ly very gradually be brought to autonomous narration. This was the case, for ex­ ample, in the conversation with Anastasija Mat^hina. If the hesitancy continues, the open questions sooner or later become exhausted, and nolens volens one has to pose detailed questions, that inevitably steer the conversation in one direction or another. Second, there is a great temptation to interrupt and ask: "When was that?", "Where was that?" etc., when the narrator is simply telling what comes into his mind at that moment, without strict regard for chronology. Often it is hard to hold back such questions, only to find at the transcription stage that one's inter­ ventions have led to a shortage of explanations. Therefore, ideally, all questions should be noted down and kept back to the third part. - Often the interviewee builds momentum the longer the interview lasts, because his memories open more and more and one memory calls up new ones. The in­ terviewer's attention curve runs in the opposite direction: falling more and more, which, given the wealth of new and often chronologically disordered information about personal experiences, is understandable. I have noticed in myself how, to­ Senterfor samiske studier, Skriftserie nr. 19 25