Ever since the appearance of "Kirsha Danilov's Collection" (the first recordings of Russian epics), there have been fierce debates about the possibility or impossibility of correlating these texts with some real historical events.
First of all, perhaps, let's define the terms: what exactly should be considered an epic, and what is the difference between an epic and a fairy tale. And is there a fundamental difference: perhaps the epic is just a kind of heroic tale?
Epics and fairy tales
The very word "epic" directly indicates the concept of "true". This is not in doubt, but it is not a proof of the reality of the plots used in the genre and their heroes. The point is that at the first stage both the narrators themselves and their listeners believed in the reality of the events that were discussed in these stories. This was the fundamental difference between the epic and the fairy tale, which was initially perceived by everyone as fiction. The epic was presented as a story about old times, when things could happen that are completely impossible in the present. And only later, with the appearance of clearly fantastic plots in them, the epics began to be perceived by many as heroic tales.
Confirmation of this assumption can be, for example, "The Lay of Igor's Campaign": its author immediately warns readers that he begins his "song" "according to the epics of this time," and not "according to Boyan's intentions." Paying tribute to this poet, he clearly hints that Boyan's works, unlike his own, are the fruit of poetic inspiration and the author's imagination.
But why did the "epic" suddenly become almost synonymous with a fairy tale? For this I must say "thank you" to the first researchers of Russian folklore, who in the middle of the 19th century for some reason called this word "antiquity" - songs-stories about very ancient times, that is, antiquity, recorded in the Russian North.
In its modern meaning, the word "epic" is used as a philological term for folk songs with a specific content and specific artistic form.
"General" and "historical" approaches to the study of heroic epics
The most fierce disputes among researchers are caused by "heroic epics", which tells about heroes fighting the enemies of Russia, who sometimes appear in the guise of various monsters. It also describes the quarrels of the heroes, their duels among themselves, and even protests against the unjust prince. There are two approaches to interpreting these plots and characters, and, accordingly, the researchers were divided into two camps.
Supporters of a general approach to the epic as a reflection of the processes taking place in society at different stages of its development, tend to see here echoes of the customs of deep antiquity. In their opinion, heroic epics retain vague memories of animistic beliefs, the struggle for hunting grounds and the gradual transition to agriculture, the formation of an early feudal state.
Researchers professing a "historical approach" among the fantastic narrative try to highlight real details and even connect them with specific facts recorded in historical sources.
At the same time, researchers of both schools consider in their works only facts that are suitable for them, declaring "unnecessary" "superficial" or "later".
Prince and peasant
Both approaches to the study of epics have their own advantages and disadvantages. So, for example, the opposition of Volga (Volkh) Vseslavich (sometimes Svyatoslavovich) and Mikula Selyaninovich is interpreted by the first group of authors as a contradiction between a hunter and a farmer, or they consider a free peasant with a feudal lord as a conflict.
And the researchers of the historical school are trying to identify Volga with real-life princes - some with Prophetic Oleg, but most, of course, with Vseslav of Polotsk. It was for this prince in Russia that the reputation of a sorcerer and sorcerer was entrenched. It was even asserted that Vseslav was born from "sorcery", and in the year of his birth there was "the Serpent's sign in heaven" in Russia. In 1092, during the reign of Vseslav, miracles began to take place, about which it was just right to make horror films. Nestor reports (adaptation of the quote into modern Russian):
"A wonderful miracle was presented in Polotsk. At night there was a stomping, demons, like people groaning, prowled the streets. If anyone left the house, wanting to see, he was immediately wounded by demons and died from this, and no one dared to leave the house. Then the demons began during the day to appear on horses, but they themselves were not visible, only their horses' hooves were visible. And so they wounded people in Polotsk and its region. Therefore, people said that the Navi beat the Polotsk people."
Usually this incident is explained by an epidemic of some kind of disease that struck Polotsk. However, it should be admitted that this description of the "pestilence" looks very allegorical, nothing like this is found on the pages of the chronicles. Perhaps some particularly daring gang of robbers acted under the guise of "Navies"? Let us recall the famous "jumpers" (they were also called "living dead") of post-revolutionary Petrograd. Or, as an option, a secret operation by Vseslav himself, who could have dealt with disgruntled townspeople and political opponents in this way that year, and “appoint” demons to be guilty.
And here is how these "navias" are depicted on the pages of the Radziwill Chronicle (late 15th century, stored in the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg):
The author of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" also believed in Vseslav's magical abilities. He still remembered the stories that in a moment of danger Vseslav could disappear, enveloped in a blue mist, and appear in another place. In addition, he supposedly knew how to turn into a wolf: "He jumped like a wolf to Nemiga from Dudutok." In the guise of a wolf, he could in one night get from Kiev to Tmutorokan (on the shore of the Kerch Strait): "Vseslav the prince ruled the court for people, ruled the princes of the city, and in the night he prowled like a wolf: from Kiev he was looking for the cocks of Tmutorokan".
Geography of Russian epics
The action of heroic epics is always somehow tied to Kiev - even if the main action takes place in some other place, it either begins in Kiev, or one of the heroes is sent there. At the same time, epic Kiev with the real sometimes has little in common at all. For example, some heroes go to Chernigov from Kiev and back by sea, and from Kiev to Constantinople - along the Volga. The Pochayna River (Puchay is a river of many epics), flowing within the boundaries of modern Kiev (in June 2015, A. Morina managed to prove that the Obolon system of Opechen lakes is the former bed of the Pochayna River), is described in the epics as very distant and dangerous - " fiery ".
In it, contrary to the prohibition of his mother, Dobrynya Nikitich bathes (and here he is caught off guard by the Serpent). And Mikhail Potyk (the Novgorod hero who "migrated" into the Kiev epics) on the banks of this river met his witch-wife, who came from a foreign world, Avdotya - White Swan, daughter of Tsar Vakhramei.
In the finale of the epic, Avdotya, revived by Potyk (who had to follow her to the grave and kill the Serpent there), fled to Koshchey the Immortal as gratitude and with him almost killed the hero.
The fact is that the Mongol devastation of South-Western Russia led to a massive outflow of the population to the east and northeast - and in present-day Ryazan, for example, there appeared the "Pereyaslavl" river Trubezh, "Kiev" Lybed and even the Danube (now it is called Dunaichik) …
In the territories that fell into the sphere of Lithuanian and Polish influence, even the memory of the "olden days" (epics) was not preserved. But on the territory of Russia, epics of the "Kiev cycle" were recorded in the Moscow province (3), in Nizhny Novgorod (6), in Saratov (10), in Simbirsk (22), in Siberia (29), in the Arkhangelsk province (34), and, finally, in Olonetskaya - about 300. In the Russian North, "antiquities" were recorded at the beginning of the twentieth century, this region is sometimes called "Iceland of the Russian epic". But the local storytellers have thoroughly forgotten the geography of "Kievan Rus", hence a number of incongruities.
However, the geographical inconsistency is especially characteristic of the epics of the Kiev cycle, the Novgorod ones in this respect are much more real. Here, for example, is the route of Sadko's voyage "to foreign countries": Volkhov - Ladoga Lake - Neva - Baltic Sea. Vasily Buslaev, going to Jerusalem, floats up Lovati, then descends along the Dnieper to the Black Sea, visits Constantinople (Constantinople), bathes in the Jordan River. On the way back, he dies on the Sorochinskaya mountain - near the Tsaritsa river (in fact, the territory of Volgograd).
Prince Vladimir of Russian epics
The complexity of the study of epics as possible sources is also determined by the fact that the Russian oral folk tradition does not have clear dating. The time for storytellers is almost always limited by an indication of the reign of Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko. In this ruler, who has become the embodiment of popular ideas about the ideal prince - the defender of his native land, they most often see Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the baptist of Russia (died 1015). However, it is worth recognizing the opinion that this image is synthetic, incorporating the features of Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh (1053-1125) as well.
The storytellers, by the way, believed that the patronymic of their prince Vladimir was Vseslavich. A. N. Veselovsky, who studied the South German poem "Ortnit" written in the first half of the 13th century, came to the conclusion that the name of the father of the king of Russia Valdimar is "a modified Germanic equivalent of the Slavic name Vseslav" (more details about this poem will be described in the next article) …
But another strong and authoritative Russian prince - Yaroslav Vladimirovich (Wise) did not become a hero of epics. Historians believe that the reason for this was the great love of the married to the Swedish princess Yaroslav for the Scandinavians around him, on whom he traditionally relied in the war with his brothers and other military affairs. And therefore, among the defeated Novgorodians and Varangians, and relegated to the background, the soldiers of the local, Kiev squad, he did not enjoy special love and popularity.
In some cases, the reference to Prince Vladimir in Russian epics clearly serves as an idiomatic expression, which over time was supplanted by the phrase "this was under Tsar Pea."
The entire conventionality of dating and linking characters to certain personalities is illustrated by the mention of Prince Vladimir's rubber galoshes in one of the versions of the epic, recorded in the Russian North at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, I would not be surprised if the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance would guess to use this text as evidence of the discovery of America by the ancient Ukrainians in the 10th century (after all, rubber was brought from there). Therefore, Mr. Vyatrovich V. M. it is better not to show this article.
Supporters of the historical school see confirmation of the version of Monomakh as the prototype of Vladimir in the epic about Stavra Gordyatinich and his wife, who changed into a man's dress to help out her unlucky husband. According to the chronicles, in 1118 Vladimir Monomakh summoned all the boyars from Novgorod to Kiev and made them swear allegiance to themselves. Some of them angered the prince and were thrown into prison, including a certain Stavr (by the way, an autograph of some Stavr was opened on the wall of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev - it's not a fact that this one is from Novgorod).
Alesha Popovich
In historical sources, you can also find the name of Alyosha Popovich. This is what the Nikon Chronicle says:
"In the summer of 6508 (1000) Volodar came with the Polovtsy to Kiev, forgetting the good deeds of his master, Prince Vladimir, taught by a demon. Vladimir was then in Pereyaslavets on the Danube, and there was great confusion in Kiev, and Alexander Popovich went to meet them at night, and killed He beat Volodar and his brother, and others a multitude of Polovtsians, and drove others out into the field. And upon learning of this, Vladimir rejoiced very much, and put a gold hryvnia on him, and made him a nobleman in his chamber."
From this passage, we can conclude that it was Alyosha who became the first person in Russia to be awarded the insignia for military merit - the hryvnia (it was worn around the neck). At least, the first of those who are awarded for military valor is indicated in a written source.
But in this case, we see a clear mistake of the scribe - for as long as 100 years: Volodar Rostislavich, indeed, came with the Polovtsy to Kiev - in 1100. This is the time of Vladimir Monomakh, but he then reigned in Pereyaslavl Russky (not on the Danube!). Svyatopolk was the prince of Kiev, Volodar fought with him, who, by the way, was not killed and survived.
B. A. Rybakov, who "found" the prototypes of almost all the heroes of the epics, identified Alyosha Popovich with the warrior of Vladimir Monomakh Olbeg Ratiborovich. This warrior took part in the assassination of the Polovtsian Khan Itlar, who had arrived for negotiations. And Itlar, in Rybakov's opinion, is none other than "The rotten idol". However, in Russian epics, it is not Alyosha Popovich who fights with "Idol", but Ilya Muromets.
In the Abbreviated Chronicle of 1493, we again see the familiar name:
"In the summer of 6725 (1217), there was a battle between Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich and Prince Konstantin (Vsevolodovich) Rostovsky on the river Where, and God helped Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich, his elder brother, and his truth came. And there were two brave (heroes) with him: Dobrynya Golden Belt and Alexander Popovich, with his servant Hurry."
Once again Alyosha Popovich is mentioned in the legend about the Battle of Kalka (1223). In this battle, he dies - like many other heroes.
Nikitich
Dobrynya The Golden Belt, which was discussed above, "damaged" the beautiful version that the prototype of this epic hero was Vladimir Svyatoslavich's maternal uncle, "voivode, brave and managerial husband" (Laurentian Chronicle). The one who ordered Vladimir to rape Rogneda in front of her parents (the message of the Laurentian and Radziwill chronicles, dating back to the Vladimir Arch of 1205) and "baptized Novgorod with fire." However, the epic Dobrynya comes from Ryazan, and in character is completely different from the governor of the Baptist.
The serpent-fighting feats of the hero also interfere with the identification of the epic Dobrynya and the uncle of Vladimir Svyatoslavich.
Opponents of the Russian heroes
There are good reasons to believe that all the epics that tell about the struggle of Russian heroes with snakes, in fact, tell about the wars of Kievan Rus with the nomadic Polovtsians, who appeared in the southern Dnieper region in the middle of the 11th century. This version is adhered to, in particular, by S. A. Pletnev (in the monograph "Polovtsy").
The name of the Kai tribe, which stood at the head of the Kipchak union (as the Polovtsians were called in Central Asia), translated into Russian means "snake". The saying related to the Polovtsians "the snake has seven heads" (according to the number of the main tribes) was widely known in the Steppe; Arab and Chinese historians cite it in their writings.
After the victory over the Polovtsy in 1103, one of the chronicles directly says that Vladimir Monomakh "crush the heads of the serpent." Some historians suggest that the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan entered Russian epics under the name of Tugarin Zmeevich.
It is curious that not only epic heroes fight with the Serpents, but also some heroes of Russian fairy tales. The border of the snake possessions was the famous Smorodina river - the left tributary of the Dnieper Samara (Sneporod) - it was across it that the Kalinov bridge was thrown, on which Ivan the peasant's son fought with the many-headed Serpents.
On the other hand, in the epics it is reported that the blood of the Serpent Gorynych is black and is not absorbed into the ground. This allowed some researchers to suggest that in this case we are talking about the use of oil and fiery shells during the siege of Russian cities. Such weapons could be used by the Mongols, whose troops included Chinese engineers. Moreover, in some epics Kiev and the heroes are opposed by the Tatar khans - Batu, Mamai and the "Dog Kalin-Tsar" ("Dog" at the beginning of the name is not an insult, but an official title). "The dog Kalin-king" in the epics is called "the king of forty kings and forty kings", some researchers suggest that the name of Mengu-Kaan could be transformed in this way. However, there is another, rather unexpected version, according to which this name hides … Kaloyan, the Bulgarian king who ruled in 1197-1207. He successfully fought with the crusaders of the Latin emperor Baldwin and the Byzantines. It was the Byzantines who called him Romeocton (the killer of the Romans) for his cruelty to prisoners, and changed his name to "Skiloioan" - "John the dog". In 1207 Kaloyan died during the siege of Thessaloniki. The delighted Greeks even said that the Bulgarian king was struck in his tent by the patron saint of the city - Dmitry Solunsky. This legend, which became part of the life of this saint, came to Russia together with the Greek priests, and gradually transformed into an epic story. It is believed that this happened after the Battle of Kulikovo, when Kaloyan was identified with Mamai, and Dmitry Donskoy with his heavenly patron, Dmitry Solunsky.
But let's go back a little, to the times of the Polovtsians. Some researchers of folklore believe that the name of the Polovtsian Khan Bonyak, who, in addition to campaigns on Russia, raided Byzantine possessions, Bulgaria, Hungary, in Western Ukrainian songs could be preserved in the story about the head of the Cossack ataman Bunyaka Sheludivy: severed, this head rolls on the ground, destroying everything in its path. In Lviv legends, the "Cossack" Bunyak is a negative hero, which is quite understandable, since he was a terrible enemy of the Poles, and Lviv was a Polish city for centuries. However, in other texts Bunyak is called the Polovtsian hero, the Tatar khan, the Tatar sorcerer, just a robber. The epithet "mangy" in this case is not an insult: that is how people were called at that time, about whom they now say "were born in a shirt." A part of the "shirt" in the form of a dried skin flap remained on the head for a long time, sometimes even in an adult. Outwardly, of course, it looked ugly, but, on the other hand, it was often a sign of a certain peculiarity, exclusivity: the prince-sorcerer Vseslav of Polotsk, for example, was mangy. According to the legend, Bonyak, like Vseslav, knew the wolf's language and could turn into a wolf. In many fairy tales and epics, the heroes, when choosing a horse, opt for mangy foals.
Another Polovtsian khan - Sharukan, according to some researchers, is called Kudrevanko-king or Shark-giant in epics. It is interesting that his son (Atrak) and grandson (famous thanks to "The Lay of Igor's Regiment" Konchak) entered the epics under their own names (however, the nature of kinship is confused):
Rises to Kiev and Kudrevanko-tsar
And yes, with your beloved son-in-law Atrak, He is with his beloved son, and everything is with Kon'shik …"
But not all nomads are negative heroes of Russian epics. Dobrynya's exemplary wife, Nastasya Nikulichna, was from some nomadic tribe, and she was also a pagan. During the first meeting with the hero, she "pulled him off the saddle" - this is how they say about captivity with the help of a lasso.
And the first thing that Dobrynya does upon returning home, "brings his wife into the baptized veranda."
Svyatogor's secret
The most mysterious hero of Russian epics, of course, is Svyatogor, who cannot be worn by his native land, and therefore he spends his life in other people's mountains. Many supporters of the historical approach immediately "recognized" Rurik's grandson, Svyatoslav Igorevich, who was constantly "looking for foreign lands," and the Russian land and Kiev, in his absence, suffered from the raids of the Pechenegs.
But it's not that simple. V. Ya. Propp (one of the most famous supporters of the "general approach") contrasts him with the rest of the Russian heroes of the Kiev cycle, considering him an absolutely archaic figure who came to the Russian epic from pre-Slavic times.
But B. A. Rybakov, on the contrary, believed that the image of Svyatogor was "aged" at a later time. Answering the question he himself posed: "the mythological image was being crushed or titanic features of the hero gradually grew around an insignificant real basis", he gives preference to the second version. As evidence of his point of view, he cites an epic recorded by A. D. Grigoriev in Kuzmin Gorodok, Arkhangelsk region. In this epic Svyatogor Romanovich is not a simple hero, but the head of the squad of the Chernigov prince Oleg (in another version - Olgovich). He leads his soldiers to the east - "in a wide expanse, to fight the strength of Prince Dodonov."
In the steppe, Chernigov people meet three Kiev heroes - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya and Plesha. Having united, they went together to the sea, and on the way they found in the field "a great stone, a great coffin stood by that stone." As a joke, the heroes began to climb into the coffin one by one, and when Svyatogor lay down in the coffin, they, apparently finally amused, "put the lid on that white coffin," but could not remove it.
From the above, Rybakov concludes that in the original version of the epic, it could be a satirical work written in Kiev that ridiculed the unlucky Chernigov warriors. And only in later storytellers did they add elements of high tragedy to the epic plot. But, in my opinion, the opposite situation is also possible: some drunken local "Boyan" decided to play pranks, and altered the plot of the heroic epic, writing a parody of it.
"Heroes" and "heroes" of modern Russia
And nowadays, unfortunately, we can see examples of such "hooliganism" - in the same modern cartoons about the "three heroes", the mental level of which, according to the scriptwriters, clearly leaves much to be desired. Or in the sensational film "The Last Bogatyr", where the main negative hero turned out to be the most intelligent and courteous of the bogatyrs - Dobrynya, Ilya Muromets's "godbrother" (and you could have given this character any other neutral name without any damage to the plot). However, everyone, in my opinion, was "surpassed" by the creators of another mediocre filmmaking - "The Legends of Kolovrat". Evpatiy Kolovrat is undoubtedly a hero of an epic level, whether he was an Englishman or a Frenchman, a very beautiful and pretentious film about him would have been shot about him in Hollywood, no worse than "Spartacus" or "Braveheart".
And our "masters of the arts" made the hero an incapacitated and even socially dangerous disabled person, who should be in a distant monastery, but not in the squad of the Ryazan prince. Because you never know who will tell him what one morning: maybe he is not a Ryazan boyar, but a deeply conspiratorial Kiev (Chernigov, Novgorod, Tmutorokan) saboteur, directed to kill an unwanted prince. But now "the sky is cloudless over the whole of Spain", and "it is raining in Santiago" - it's time to go kill.
In fact, this is not at all harmless, but, on the contrary, very dangerous, because the creators of all these libels are trying to recode the national consciousness, replacing the correct works with forgeries. In which Evpatiy Kolovrat is a mentally disabled person, Alyosha Popovich is a moron with the brain of a 5-year-old child, Dobrynya Nikitich is a dishonest intrigue and a traitor, and Ilya Muromets is a superstitious soldier.
But let's not talk about sad things. After all, we have not yet told anything about the most beloved Russian hero - Ilya Muromets. But the story about him will turn out to be quite long, a separate article will be devoted to this hero.
