oral tradition during the Soviet era, in which it was suppressed.
Not that old chestnut. A search in the USSR Records database reveals 13 releases of Manas recitals between 1936 and 1987, including a 7 disc Manas Anthology from 1974. That database is not complete, so there were probably more.
It’s all too easy to make false claims about the suppression of folklore in the USSR when so little is known about it in the west.
