To modern people, folklore images seem fabulous, fantastic and unreal, and the actions of the heroes are mysterious. This is understandable: after all, when talking about folklore, we are talking about a different level of thinking, about a different representation by a person of the world around him, the roots of which go back to the mythological past.

The word folklore literally translated from English means folk wisdom. This is poetry created by the people and existing among the masses, in which they reflect their work activities, social and everyday life, knowledge of life, nature, cults and beliefs. Folklore embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic fantasy, the richest world of thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness.

The Slavs created a huge oral literature (wise proverbs and cunning riddles, fairy tales, funny and sad ritual songs, solemn epics chanted to the sound of strings), which became the Dignity and Mind of the people. She established and strengthened his moral character, was his historical memory, the festive clothes of his soul and filled with deep content his entire measured life, flowing according to the customs and rituals associated with his work, nature and the veneration of his fathers and grandfathers.

Unfortunately, too little is devoted to the study of folklore in literature and music lessons in the school curriculum. In this regard, through the integration of subjects, we tried to show the areas of contact between academic disciplines, and through their organic connection, give students an idea of ​​the unity of the world around us. An example of the implementation of integrated tasks is the summary of the lesson “In the world of Slavic folklore” for 6th grade students of a secondary school.

Target:

Show the importance of Slavic folklore in the life of the people;

Tasks:

· education of moral and aesthetic feelings: love for the Motherland, pride in the achievements of Russian musical art, respect for the history and spiritual traditions of Russia;

· formation of the foundations of musical culture through emotionally active perception;

· development of artistic taste, interest in musical art and musical activity;

· implementation of one’s own creative ideas in various types of musical activities (singing and interpretation, musical-plastic movement and improvisation);

· formation of integrity of perception and understanding of the world around us through interdisciplinary connections of literature and music lessons.

Equipment: multimedia equipment, presentation, sound files, folk costumes.

During the classes:

Music sounds (Vladimir horns playing)

Literature teacher:

We are entering the amazing and beautiful, mysterious world of folk wisdom - the world of folklore. It contains a fairy tale and a song, a riddle and a proverb... Here they play, sing, tell and listen... Here you can learn a lot, think about a lot, understand a lot...

In ancient times, when people did not yet know how to write, they passed on their knowledge about life to each other, playing games, performing rituals, singing songs….

Each nation had its own songs, rituals, games - its own folklore.

· Question for students:

We have already heard the word “folklore” several times. What does this word “folklore” mean? (Folklore - folk wisdom, folk art.)

We want to learn as much as possible about Russian folklore - the folklore of our ancestors. These were strong, beautiful, kind people. They were attentive to nature, noticed its every movement, and by signs they knew how to properly manage a household.

The life of Russian people has always consisted of a series of everyday life and holidays. Everyday life is a time filled with work and worries. A distinctive feature of everyday life was the routine of domestic existence, moderation in food, simple, comfortable clothing, calm and benevolent relationships, and the isolation of the family world.

A holiday is opposed to everyday life - a time of rest, fun and joy. The alternation of everyday life and holidays was considered a necessary component of the normal course of life, and failures could even lead to the destruction of the world.

There were many holidays a year. They arose in different historical eras.

The most ancient holidays were those associated with the agricultural calendar. They were called calendar or annual holidays, since they lasted throughout the year, ending in late autumn with the completion of the harvest.

The main ones were those that were associated with the four most important natural and astronomical phenomena: the winter and summer solstices, the spring and autumn equinoxes.

Along with the ancient pagan agricultural holidays, there were many holidays of the Orthodox Church in Russian life. They began to be established from the end of the 10th century in Rus' with the adoption of Christianity.

Music teacher:

The most revered by the people were the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity, and Easter.

Among the holidays dating back to the ancient agricultural tradition, Maslenitsa was revered.

Each holiday had its own program, verbal formulas, and songs marked by tradition. The program of holidays also included the performance of rituals and customs of the annual cycle associated with the economic activities of the Russian farmer.

· Question for students:

What does “rite”, “ritual songs” mean?

(Ritual- a set of actions established by custom, in which some religious ideas or everyday traditions of the people are embodied.

Ritual songs- these are songs that were performed during a variety of rituals and were an important component and a necessary part of them).

Music teacher:

Ritual songs are a special musical world. If there are Russian fairy tales, epics, and proverbs, then calling ritual songs Russian is not correct. Their name is SLAVIC ritual songs. This is due to the fact that the baptism of Rus' occurred only in the 10th century, and rituals dedicated to a good harvest, timely rain, and warm sun existed before that. And the territory of Rus' at that time was completely different from what it is now. An analysis of ritual songs from different parts of our country, as well as Ukraine and Belarus, showed the similarity of language and modal and intonation basis.

Ritual songs are closely related to pagan rituals; the main melodic turns and modal basis remain from previous pagan times. Since some pagan deities and rituals were placed in parallel with Christian saints (Perun - Ilya, Velos (Volos) - Vlasiy, Yarilo - Yuri, George), it is quite obvious that the musical basis of such cult pagan songs later influenced the Slavic early Christian cult melos. In particular, the melodies of many chants and chants are intonationally close to the simplest types of church singing of ancient Rus'.

· Question for students:

What types of ritual songs do you know? (calendar, family and church)

Literature teacher:

The attitude of Russians towards the holiday was extremely serious.

“We work all day for the holiday.” “At least pawn everything and celebrate Maslenitsa.” “Life without a holiday is like food without bread,” the peasants liked to say.)

Russian people believed that any holiday requires respect.

Autumn holidays of the Russian peasant agricultural calendar

dedicated to summing up the results of the working year. In other words, it is a harvest festival.

Music teacher:

Among them are the holidays associated with the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Students tell the story of the origin of the Intercession holiday.

Music teacher:

In the popular consciousness, the Most Holy Theotokos is a loving Mother for all people, Defender, Comforter, Intercessor. Her image is closely connected with the image of the “mother of the damp earth-nurse”, her native land and, ultimately, with the image of the Motherland. The church hymns “To the Virgin Mary” performed by the brothers from the Valaam Monastery and “To Your Most Holy Image” are performed by the children’s choir of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos (Novosibirsk). Students analyze musical fragments and make comparative analyses.

An interesting feature of the autumn rituals was that they did not coincide with the usual calendar. Autumn rituals began already in August, from the moment the harvest began. Each ritual had its own intonation feature, its own special scale, which was very different from the scale of songs dedicated to other seasons. Many ritual songs are in the nature of chants, chants, built on 3-4 notes and, according to people, have magical powers. The simplest form went to autumn ritual songs. People worked hard, they were tired and they wanted peace and rest. Sometimes autumn ritual songs were called PITY. But they were not always sad.

Students show a dramatization:

Women reapers gathered in the field near the unharvested strip. The eldest, the most respected of the reapers, twisted and twisted the stems of plants so that they touched the ground, in the form of a rope or a wreath, tying them with colored ribbons. The girls dance in a circle and say:

The field is yours to plow,

It’s easy for us!

This year gave birth, and don’t forget next year!

Performing the autumn ritual song “Don’t Scold Autumn.”

(Children with ears of corn read by role)

We stung, stung,

They stung and reaped, -

We reap the young

Golden sickles,

Niva debt,

Stand wide;

They stung for a month,

The sickles were broken,

Haven't been to the region

We didn't see any people.

And he said rye grain,

Standing in an open field,

Standing in an open field:

I don’t want it, but rye grain,

Yes, stand in the field, yes, stand in the field.

I don’t want it, but rye rye

Yes, standing in the field - waving your ears!

But I want rye grain,

Tie into a bun,

Cuddle into a song

And for me, and rye grain,

Tied into a bun,

They took the rye out of me

The decorated last sheaf was carried with songs to the village, where a festive meal was prepared: pies, porridge.

Literature teacher:

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the date of which coincided with the day of the autumnal equinox, was timed to coincide with Osenin (from the word canopy, the place where hay was stored) - the meeting of autumn. Women gathered early in the morning and went out to the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds to meet “Mother Osenina.” This holiday is characterized by hospitality, the visiting of relatives, especially newlyweds, to the parents of the young woman. On these days, they sang songs, danced in circles, and held games.

Performance of the song-game “Autumn”

Music teacher:

The topic of Slavic folklore is still relevant today. Many modern composers use quotes from folk ritual music in their works. Sometimes there are works written in a very unexpected style.

Listening to the song “Ovsen” by the group “Nevid”.

At the end of the lesson, after summing up the results, the girls bring out apples, pears, and bagels on a platter and distribute them to students and guests.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN

Almetyevsk State Oil Institute

Department of Humanitarian Education and Sociology

Test

in the course “History of World Culture”

on the topic: Pagan ancient Russian proto-culture.

Completed by: student of group 82-12

Makarov Sergey Alexandrovich

Checked by: Ph.D., Associate Professor

Mustafina Elvira Marsilovna

Almetyevsk 2013

Introduction.

Chapter 1. Religious ideas of the ancient Slavs.

Chapter 2. Anthropotheoxism of the ancient Slavs.

Chapter 3. Folklore and writing of the ancient Slavs.

Conclusion.

List of used literature.

Introduction

The word "culture" comes from the word "cult" - the faith, customs and traditions of ancestors. Before Christianity and other monotheistic religions, all peoples were pagans. Paganism is surrounded, on the one hand, by the secrets of oblivion and many losses, like an ancient lost and therefore completely unfamiliar world, and on the other hand, an unspoken “taboo” is imposed on it. A kind of taboo on paganism appeared among the Eastern Slavs with the introduction of Christianity; it was not abolished with the advent of atheists to Rus' in 1917. Paganism is a religion, and is close to any other religion in its main essence of faith in God. That is why paganism, while simultaneously drawing closer to each other through its different channels, also came closer to other, later, monotheistic religions that came along an evolutionary path (man became more complex, his ideas about the Cosmos and God became more complex), merged with them and, in many ways, dissolved in them. Paganism from “languages” (essence: peoples, tribes); this word combines the principle of faith of different peoples. The very faith of these peoples, even within the framework of a tribal union, could be very different among themselves.

The pagan Slavs worshiped the elements, believed in the kinship of people with various animals, and made sacrifices to the deities that inhabited everything around them. Each Slavic tribe prayed to its own gods. There were never common ideas about gods for the entire Slavic world: since the Slavic tribes in pre-Christian times did not have a single state, they were not united in beliefs. Therefore, the Slavic gods are not related, although some of them are very similar to each other.

Religious beliefs of the ancient Slavs

As in other ancient cultures, the earliest forms of religion - magic, fetishism and, especially, totemism - were of great importance in Slavic-Russian paganism.

The most revered totems among the Slavs among birds were the falcon, eagle and rooster, and among animals - the horse and bear. The pagan beliefs of the Slavs did not represent some kind of complete system. Modern research allows us to identify several stages in the development of paganism, which | coexisted with each other for a long time, some of these beliefs have survived almost to this day.

The Slavs worshiped Mother Earth, whose symbol was patterns depicting a large square, | divided into four small squares with dots in the center - a sign of a plowed field. Water cults were quite developed, since water was considered the element from which the world was formed. The water was inhabited by numerous deities - mermaids, mermen, in whose honor special holidays were held - mermaids.

Ducks and geese usually served as symbols of water in art. Forests and groves, which were the dwellings of the gods, were revered.

At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e. ancient Slavic deities take an anthropomorphic form. The main ones among them are the gods of the Sun, Sky and Fire - Svarog, Dazhdbog and Khora. Winds - Stribog, thunderstorms - Perun, domestic animals and wealth - Veles (Volos), god of fertility - Yarilo.

The companion of the god Veles was the female deity Mokosh - the patroness of women, the goddess of fertility and hearth. Slavic-Russian mythology was not recorded in any literary works and therefore a clear distribution of roles between the deities and their hierarchy is not known.

These gods also had their own symbols in art. The rooster, who kept time with amazing accuracy, was recognized as a bird of things, and a rare fairy tale passed without mentioning him. The horse, this proud, swift animal, often merged in the minds of the ancient Slavs either with the sun god or with the image of an equestrian warrior, was a favorite motif in ancient Russian art. And much later, his image continued to appear on the skates of Russian huts and towers. The sun was especially revered, and the image of a fiery wheel “thunder circle”, divided into six parts, became firmly established in fine art. These images appeared on the frames of huts and embroidered towels until the beginning of the 20th century.

Honoring and fearing brownies, barnacles, goblin, mermaids, water and other creatures inhabiting the world around him, the Slav tried to isolate himself from them with dozens of conspiracies and amulets-amulets that have survived to this day.

At the late stage of the development of ancient Slavic paganism, the cult of Rod and Rozhanitsa - the creator of the Universe and the fertility goddesses Lada and Lelya - took shape and lasted longer than others. It was a cult of ancestors, family and home. Images of Lada and Lelya on numerous embroideries continued to appear in the 18th-20th centuries. Their cult aroused particular hostility of the Russian church.

At the same time, a three-level idea of ​​the world took shape: lower, underground (the symbol is a lizard), middle - earthly (usually people and animals were depicted) and upper - heavenly, starry. An image of this structure of the world could be seen on idols, surviving only in single copies; as well as Russian spinning wheels, manufactured a hundred years ago.

Worship and sacrifices took place in a special cult sanctuary-temple. According to the ideas of the Eastern Slavs, the world and the universe are a circle of eternal rotation and therefore the temple had the shape of a round platform surrounded on all sides by sacrificial fires, in the center of which there was a stone or wooden sculptural image of a god on a pedestal. A roof in the form of a tent was erected over the site. The walls were made of vertical logs, decorated with carvings and brightly painted. The temple got its name from the word “drip”, which is translated from the ancient Slavic language as sculpture, idol, blockhead. The ancient Russians respected and feared the gods, so they tried to gain their favor with magical rituals and sacrifices, placating the idols with gifts, as well as human sacrifices.

The most famous monument of paganism was the Zbruch Idol (IX-X centuries) - a tetrahedral stone pillar installed on a hill above the Zbruch River. The sides of the pillar are covered with bas-reliefs in several tiers. The top one depicts gods and goddesses with long hair. Below there are three more tiers, revealing the ideas of our ancestors about space, sky, earth and the underworld.

Anthropotheoxism of the ancient Slavs

The continuous struggle and alternate victory of the light and dark forces of nature was enshrined in the Slavs’ ideas about the cycle of the seasons. Their starting point was the onset of the new year - the birth of a new sun at the end of December. This celebration received the Greco-Roman name from the Slavs - Kolyada (from the Latin kalendas - the first day of the new month). There was also a custom of walking with a may (symbol of spring) - a small Christmas tree decorated with ribbons, paper, and eggs. The deity of the sun, seen off for the winter, was called Kupala, Yarilo and Kostroma. During the spring festival, a straw effigy of these deities was either burned or drowned in water.

Pagan folk holidays, such as New Year's fortune-telling, rampant Maslenitsa, and “Mermaid Week,” were accompanied by incantatory magical rituals and were a kind of prayer to the gods for general well-being, a rich harvest, and deliverance from thunderstorms and hail. For New Year's fortune telling about the harvest, special vessels were used - charms. They often depicted 12 different designs making up a closed circle - a symbol of 12 months.

By the time of the adoption of Christianity, the ancient Slavic religion had not yet been able to develop strict forms of cult, and the priests had not yet become a special class. Sacrifices to the clan and heavenly gods were made by representatives of clan unions, and the wise men - sorcerers, sorcerers, and soothsayers - took care of contacts with the lower demons of the earth, delivering people from their harmful influence and receiving various services from them.

At the last, final stage of the development of paganism, the cult of Perun, the warrior god of thunder, acquired special significance. In 980, the Kiev prince Vladimir the Red Sun made an attempt to reform paganism, giving it the appearance of a monotheistic religion. In an effort to raise folk beliefs to the level of a state religion, the prince ordered the erection of wooden idols of six gods: Perun with a silver head and golden mustache, Khors, Dazhdbog, Simargl and Mokosha. According to ancient legends, Vladimir established sacrifices to these gods, which was supposed to give their cult a tragic, but at the same time very solemn character. Eight unquenchable fires were supposed to burn around the idol of Perun.

Folklore and writing of the ancient Slavs

Some conspiracies and spells, proverbs and sayings, riddles, often containing traces of ancient magical ideas, ritual songs associated with the pagan agricultural calendar, wedding songs and funeral laments have survived to this day. The origin of fairy tales is also connected with the distant pagan past, because fairy tales are echoes of myths, where, for example, numerous mandatory tests of heroes are traces of ancient initiation rites. And such a famous image of Russian fairy tales as Baba Yaga is a character of the most ancient beliefs in the natural feminine principle, which, on the one hand, is a good assistant in the earthly affairs of fairy-tale heroes (hence the help that fairy-tale characters receive from Baba Yaga), and on the other hand, an evil witch trying to harm people.

A special place in folklore was occupied by epics created by the entire people. Passing from mouth to mouth, they were subject to reinterpretation and were often understood differently by different people. The most famous are the epics of the Kyiv cycle, associated with Kiev, with Prince Vladimir the Red Sun, and the three heroes. They began to take shape in the 10th-11th centuries, and they very well reflected the phenomenon of dual faith, the combination of old pagan ideas with new Christian forms. The images and plots of epics continued to nourish Russian literature for many subsequent centuries.

By the end of the pagan period, the level of development of ancient Russian culture was so high that it could no longer exist without writing. Until now, it was believed that the Slavs did not know writing before the advent of the Cyrillic alphabet. However, today some historians and linguists believe that in addition to Greek, the Slavs had their own original writing system: the so-called knotted writing. Its signs were not written down, but were transmitted using knots tied on threads that were wrapped in ball books. The memory of this knotted letter has been preserved in our language and folklore. We are still tying “knots for memory”, talking about the “thread of the narrative”, “the intricacy of the plot”.

In the ancient cultures of other peoples, knotted writing was quite widespread. Knotted writing was used by the ancient Incas and Iroquois, and was also known in Ancient China. Finns, Ugrians, Karelians, who from ancient times lived together with the Slavs in the northern territories of Rus', had a knotted writing system, a mention of which was preserved in the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala”. In ancient Slavic culture, traces of knotted writing can be found on the walls of temples from the era of “dual faith,” when Christian sanctuaries were decorated not only with the faces of saints, but also with ornamental patterns.

If knotted pagan writing existed among the ancient Slavs, then it was very complex. Accessible only to a select few - priests and high nobility, it was a sacred letter. As Christianity spread and the ancient culture of the Slavs faded, knotted writing also perished along with the priest-magi. Obviously, the knotted writing could not compete with the simpler and more logically perfect writing system based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Conclusion

In the evolution of the culture of Ancient Rus', historically the first was the pagan, or pre-Christian period, which originates during the formation of the Old Russian ethnos and ends in the 10th century. baptism of Kievan Rus. However, even before the formation of the Kievan state, the Slavs had a significant history and notable achievements in both material and spiritual culture.

The central place in the culture of this period was occupied by paganism, which arose among the Slavs in ancient times, in primitive society, long before the advent of the ancient Russian state.

The initial religious ideas of the ancient Slavs were associated with the deification of the forces of nature, which seemed to be inhabited by many spirits, which was reflected in the symbolism of ancient Slavic art.

The worldview of the ancient Slavs was characterized by anthropotheocosmism, that is, the perception of the human, divine and

natural as a single undivided whole, the feeling of the world as not created by anyone.

Pagan beliefs and traditions found their expression in applied arts and folklore.

Despite the thousands of years of dominance of the state Orthodox Church, pagan views were the people's faith until the 20th century. manifested themselves in rituals, round dance games, songs, fairy tales and folk art.

List of used literature

1. Belyakova G.S. "Slavic Mythology" Enlightenment. 2005.

2. Darnitsky E.V. “Ancient Rus'” Origins of antiquity. 2006.

3. Grushevitskaya T.G., Sadokhin A.P. Culturology / T.G. Grushevitskaya, A.P.

Sadokhin. - M.: Unity, 2007, p. 457-485.

4. Culturology: textbook / Ed. G.V. Dracha. - Rostov-on-Don:

"Phoenix", 2007. - pp. 216 -274.

5. Rybakov B. A. “Paganism of the ancient Slavs” Science. 2001.

6. Famintsyn A.S. “Deities of the ancient Slavs” Science. 2005.

In 1971, the publishing house “Nauka” published a small collection of articles “Slavic and Balkan folklore”, which did not imply any continuation, the executive editor of which was I. M. Sheptunov, a specialist in the field of South Slavic Hajdut folklore, who headed the at that time the Group for the Study of the Folklore of the Peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The authors of this first collection of “Slavic and Balkan folklore” included folklorists: B. N. Putilov, S. N. Azbelev, Yu. I. Smirnov, L. N. Vinogradova, L. G. Barag and others. And only in 1978, already as the first issue of the future series, a volume entitled “Slavic and Balkan folklore: Genesis” was published. Archaic. Traditions", the executive editor of which was again I.M. Sheptunov, who, before his death (which happened in the same year), managed to attract a wonderful team of famous and just beginning scientists to participate in this publication, such as E.V. Pomerantseva V.K. Sokolova, N. I. Tolstoy, S. M. Tolstaya, A. F. Zhuravlev, Yu. I. Smirnov, V. V. Usacheva, A. V. Gura, L. N. Vinogradova.

From 1981 to 1995 The famous Slavist, founder of the Moscow Ethnolinguistic School, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy, became the editor-in-chief and one of the leading authors of all issues of this series. During this period, six volumes of “Slavic and Balkan Folklore” were published, which received wide recognition among specialists - folklorists, ethnolinguists and ethnologists. The focus is on the established team of authors (mostly they were employees of the Department of Ethnolinguistics and Folklore of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by N. I. Tolstoy: S. M. Tolstaya, L. N. Vinogradova, V. V. Usacheva, A. V. Gura , O. A. Ternovskaya, T. A. Agapkina, A. A. Plotnikova, O. V. Belova, E. S. Uzeneva, M. M. Valentsova) - the tasks of a comprehensive study of the spiritual culture of the Slavs and, above all, its forms , which preserve common Slavic mythopoetic traditions, manifested in different ways in language, rituals, beliefs and folklore. On the initiative of N.I. and S.M. Tolstoy, two issues of the series (1986, 1995) were specifically devoted to the problems of ethnolinguistic study of Polesie. They present the results of mapping individual fragments of the traditional culture of this unique region: folk terminology, rituals, folklore motifs, demonological beliefs.

After the death of N. I. Tolstoy in 1996, the editorial board of the series was headed by S. M. Tolstaya. Under her editorship, two volumes of the series were published: “Slavic and Balkan folklore: Folk demonology” (M., 2000) and “Slavic and Balkan folklore: Semantics and pragmatics of the text” (M., 2006).

Over the 30 years of the series’ existence, among its authors were such famous domestic and foreign Slavists as B. N. Putilov, V. E. Gusev, E. V. Pomerantseva, V. K. Sokolova, V. N. Toporov, V. V. Ivanov, T. V. Tsivyan, A. F. Zhuravlev, S. E. Nikitina, O. A. Pashina, I. A. Dzedzelevsky, M. Matichetov, L. Radenkovich, E. Horvatova, M. Wojtyla-Swierzowska and etc.

/ Rep. ed. I. M. Sheptunov. M.: "Science", 1971.

Introduction

South Slavic epic and problems of the Serbian Middle Ages ( E. L. Naumov)

Motives for killing the enemy king in epics and Kosovo songs ( S. N. Azbelev)

Plot closure and the second plot plan in the Slavic epic ( B. N. Putilov)

Similar descriptions in Slavic epic songs and their meaning ( Yu. I. Smirnov)

Compositional analysis of Polish carol ritual songs ( L. N. Vinogradova)

About musical parallels in the songs of Southern Russia and Southwestern Bulgaria ( S. N. Kondratieva)

On the significance of Slavic folklore for the study of the Balkan epic community ( Yu. I. Smirnov)

Plots and motives of Belarusian fairy tales. (Systematic index) ( L. G. Barag)

The similarity of Slavic proverbs ( A. M. Zhigulev)

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Genesis. Archaic. Traditions / Rep. ed. I. M. Sheptunov. M.: “Science”, 1978.

Introduction

L. N. Vinogradova. Spell formulas in the calendar poetry of the Slavs and their ritual origins

V. V. Usacheva. The “polaznik” ritual and its folklore elements in the area of ​​the Serbo-Croatian language

V. K. Sokolova. Maslenitsa (its composition, development and specificity)

A. F. Zhuravlev. Protective rituals associated with livestock deaths and their geographical distribution.

N.I. and S.M. Tolstoy. Notes on Slavic paganism. 2. Making rain in Polesie

S. M. Tolstaya. Materials for the description of the Polesie Kupala rite

E. V. Pomerantseva. Interethnic community of beliefs and tales about midday

A. V. Gura. The symbolism of the hare in Slavic ritual and song folklore

F. D. Klimchuk. Song tradition of the Western Polesie village of Simonovichi

Yu. I. Smirnov. Epika Polesie

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Rite. Text / Reply ed. N.I. Tolstoy. M.: “Science”, 1981.

Yu. I. Smirnov. Focus of comparative studies on folklore

L. N. Vinogradova. Girl's fortune telling about marriage in the cycle of Slavic calendar rituals (West-East Slavic parallels)

N. I. and S. M. Tolstoy. Notes on Slavic paganism. 5. Hail protection in Dragacevo and other Serbian zones

A. V. Gura. Weasel (Mustela nivalis) in Slavic folk ideas

O. A. Ternovskaya. To a description of some Slavic ideas associated with insects. One system of rituals for exterminating domestic insects

L. G. Barag. The plot of snake fighting on a bridge in the tales of East Slavic and other peoples

N. L. Ruchkina. Genetic connections between the Akritan epic and Kleft songs

Yu. I. Smirnov. Epika Polesie (according to records of 1975)

Appendix - Indexes to the article by N. I. and S. M. Tolstoy “Notes on Slavic paganism. 5"

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Ethnogenetic community and typological parallels / Rep. ed. N. I. Tolstoy . M.: "Science", 1984.

Introduction

N.I. Tolstoy. Fragment of Slavic paganism: archaic ritual-dialogue

L. N. Vinogradova. Types of carol refrains and their areal characteristics

T. V. Tsivyan. On the mythological interpretation of the Eastern Roman carol text “Plugushor”

O. A. Ternovskaya. Perezhina in the Kostroma region. (Based on materials from the questionnaire “Cult and National Agriculture” 1922-1923)

A. V. Gura. Weasel (Mustela nivalis) in Slavic folk ideas. 2

E. N. Razumovskaya. Crying with the cuckoo. Traditional non-ritual voting of the Russian-Belarusian borderland

Materials and publications

Yu. I. Smirnov. Epika Polesie according to records of 1976

F. D. Klimchuk. Songs from the south-eastern Zagorodye

N. L. Ruchkina. Greek Akritan songs about a hero slaying a dragon

I. A. Dzendzelevsky. Prohibitions in the practice of Carpathian sheep breeders

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Spiritual culture of Polesie on a common Slavic background / Rep. ed. N.I. Tolstoy. M.: “Science”, 1986.

Materials for the Polesie ethnolinguistic atlas. Mapping experience

Preface ( N.T., S.T.)

The sun is playing ( S. M. Tolstaya)

Ritual outrages of youth ( S. M. Tolstaya)

Trinity Greens ( N. I. Tolstoy)

Plowing rivers, roads ( S. M. Tolstaya)

Frog, snake and other animals in rituals of causing and stopping rain ( S. M. Tolstaya)

Sretenskaya and Thursday candles ( S. M. Tolstaya)

Rain during a wedding ( A. V. Gura)

Invocation of Spring ( T. A. Agapkina)

The daughter-in-law became a poplar in the field ( N. I. Tolstoy)

O. A. Pashina. Calendar songs of the spring-summer cycle of southeastern Belarus

V. I. Kharitonova. Polesie tradition of lamentation in Polesie on an East Slavic background

Articles and research

V. E. Gusev. Driving an "arrow" ("sula") in Eastern Polesie

On the problem of the ethnographic context of calendar songs

L. N. Vinogradova. Mythological aspect of the Polesie “Russian” tradition

N.I. Tolstoy. From observations of Polesie conspiracies

Materials and publications

A. V. Gura. From Polesie wedding terminology. Wedding ceremonies. Vocabulary: N – Svashka

S. M. Tolstaya. Polesie folk calendar. Materials for the ethnodialect dictionary: K – P

Yu. I. Smirnov. Epika Polesie

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Reconstruction of ancient Slavic spiritual culture: Sources and methods / Rep. ed. N.I. Tolstoy. M.: “Science”, 1989.

N.I. Tolstoy. Some thoughts on the reconstruction of Slavic spiritual culture

V. N. Toporov. On the Iranian element in Russian spiritual culture

V. V. Martynov. Sacred world "Tales of Igor's Campaign"

V.V. Ivanov. Ritual burning of a horse skull and wheel in Polesie and its Indo-European parallels

M. Matichetov. About the mythical creatures of the Slovenians and especially about Kurent

L. N. Vinogradova. Folklore as a source for the reconstruction of ancient Slavic spiritual culture

L. Radenkovic. Symbolism of color in Slavic spells

S. E. Nikitina. On the relationship between oral and written forms in folk culture

E. Horvatova. Traditional youth unions and initiation rites among the Western Slavs

Z. Mikhail. Ethnolinguistic methods in the study of folk spiritual culture

T. V. Tsivyan. On the linguistic foundations of the world model (based on Balkan languages ​​and traditions)

M. Wojtyla-Swierzowska. Terminology of agrarian rituals as a source for studying ancient Slavic spiritual culture

S. M. Tolstaya. Terminology of rituals and beliefs as a source of reconstruction of ancient spiritual culture

T. A. Agapkina, A. L. Toporkov. Sparrow (Rowan) night in the language and beliefs of the Eastern Slavs

A. A. Potebnya. On the origin of the names of some Slavic pagan deities ( Preparation of the text by V. Yu. Franchuk. Notes by N. E. Afanasyeva and V. Yu. Franchuk)

About the work of A. A. Potebnya, dedicated to the origin and etymology of the names of Slavic pagan deities ( V. Yu. Franchuk)

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Beliefs. Text. Ritual / Rep. ed. N. I. Tolstoy . M.: “Science”, 1994.

I

N.I. Tolstoy. Once again about the theme “clouds are beef, rain is milk”

L. N. Vinogradova, S. M. Tolstaya. On the problem of identification and comparison of characters in Slavic mythology

O. V. Sannikova. Polish mythological vocabulary in the structure of folklore text

II

T. A. Agapkina. South Slavic beliefs and rituals associated with fruit trees in a pan-Slavic perspective

S. M. Tolstaya. Mirror in traditional Slavic beliefs and rituals

I. A. Sedakova. Bread in the traditional rituals of the Bulgarians: homelands and the main stages of child development

III

N.I. Tolstoy. Vita herbae et vita rei in the Slavic folk tradition

T. A. Agapkina, L. N. Vinogradova. Good wishes: ritual and text

G. I. Kabakova. The structure and geography of the legend of the March Old Woman

V.V. Usacheva. Vocative formulas in Slavic folk medicine

N. A. Ipatova. Werewolfism as a property of fairy-tale characters

E. E. Levkievskaya. Materials on Carpathian demonology

Corrective additions to the article by N. I. Tolstoy “Vita herbae et vita rei in the Slavic folk tradition”

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Ethnolinguistic study of Polesie / Rep. ed. N. I. Tolstoy . M.: “Indrik”, 1995.

N.I. Tolstoy. Ethnocultural and linguistic study of Polesie (1984–1994)

I. Polesie ethnolinguistic atlas: research and materials

T. A. Agapkina. Essays on the spring rituals of Polesie

A. A. Plotnikova. The first cattle pasture in Polesie

L. N. Vinogradova. Regional features of Polesie beliefs about the brownie

E. E. Levkievskaya, V. V. Usacheva. Polesie vodyanoi on a common Slavic background

L. N. Vinogradova. Where do children come from? Polesie formulas on the origin of children

V. L. Svitelskaya. Experience of mapping Polesie funeral rituals

M. M. Valentsova. Materials for mapping the types of Polesie Christmas fortune-telling

M. Nikonchuk, O. Nikonchuk, G. Orlenko. Actors of the terminology of material culture in the towns of the right bank of Poliss

O. A. Parshina. Calendar cycle in the northwestern villages of Sumy region

II. Ethnolinguistic dictionaries. Publications

S. M. Tolstaya. Polesie folk calendar. Materials for the ethno-dialect dictionary: R – Z

A. V. Gura. From Polesie wedding terminology. Wedding ceremonies. Dictionary (Svenochelniki – Ш)

F. D. Klimchuk. Spiritual culture of the Polesie village of Simonovichi

III. Applications

N. P. Antropov, A. A. Plotnikova. Chronicle of Polesie expeditions

List of settlements in the Polesie ethnolinguistic atlas

Abbreviations of names of regional centers and districts

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Folk demonology / Rep. ed. S. M. Tolstaya . M.: “Indrik”, 2000.

Preface

N.I. Tolstoy.“Without four corners a hut cannot be built” (Notes on Slavic Paganism. 6)

L. N. Vinogradova. new ideas about the origin of evil spirits: demonologization of the deceased

S. M. Tolstaya. Slavic mythological ideas about the soul

E. E. Levkievskaya. Mythological characters in the Slavic tradition. I. East Slavic brownie

Dagmar Klimova (Prague).Hospodářík in the beliefs of the Czech people

T. V. Tsivyan. About one class of characters of lower mythology: "professionals"

N. A. Mikhailov. To one Balto-South Slavic folklore and ritual formula: lit. laimė lėmė, ltsh. laima nolemj, slvn. sojenice sodijo

L. R. Khafizova. Buka as a character in children's folklore

T. A. Agapkina. Demons as characters of calendar mythology

A. A. Plotnikova. Mythology of atmospheric and celestial phenomena among the Balkan Slavs

V.V. Usacheva. Mythological ideas of the Slavs about the origin of plants

A. V. Gura. Demonological properties of animals in Slavic mythological ideas

V. Ya. Petrukhin.“Gods and demons” of the Russian Middle Ages: gender, women in labor and the problem of Russian dual faith

O. V. Belova. Judas Iscariot: from the Gospel image to a mythological character

M. M. Valentsova. Demon saints Lucia and Barbara in Western Slavic calendar mythology

Polesie and Western Russian materials about the brownie

: Semantics and pragmatics of text / Rep. ed. S. M. Tolstaya . M.: “Indrik”, 2006.

Preface

Pragmatics of the text

T. A. Agapkina. The plot of East Slavic conspiracies in a comparative aspect

O. V. Belova. Slavic biblical legends: verbal text in the context of ritual

E. E. Levkievskaya. Pragmatics of mythological text

L. N. Vinogradova. Socio-regulatory function of superstitious stories about violators of prohibitions and customs

S. M. Tolstaya. The motive of posthumous walking in beliefs and ritual

Text and ritual

A. V. Gura. Correlation and interaction of actional and verbal codes of the wedding ceremony

V.V. Usacheva. Verbal magic in the agricultural rites of the Slavs

A. A. Plotnikova. Spring spell formulas for “expelling” reptiles from the southern Slavs (in an areal perspective)

Vocabulary and phraseology and their role in the generation of text

M. M. Valentsova. Calendar paremias of the Western Slavs

E. L. Berezovich, K. V. Pyankova. Food code in the game text: porridge And kvass

A. V. Gura. Moon spots: ways to construct a mythological text

O. V. Chekha. Linguistic and cultural image of lunar time in the Polesie tradition ( young And old month)

E. S. Uzeneva. The relationship between chrononym and legend (the feast of St. Tryphon in an areal perspective)

Several folk Christian legends from Transcarpathia ( publication by M. N. Tolstoy)

Vladimir Nikolaevich Toporov and his texts ( S. M. Tolstaya)

Slavic and Balakan folklore: Vinogradye. For the anniversary of Lyudmila Nikolaevna Vinogradova / Rep. ed. A. V. Gura . M.: “Indrik”, 2011. – 376 p.

The eleventh issue of the series “Slavic and Balkan folklore” is dedicated to the anniversary of Lyudmila Nikolaevna Vinogradova.
The articles included in the collection are grouped into five sections, which are related to a wide range of topics of interest to Lyudmila Nikolaevna. The first section is devoted to general issues of ethnolinguistics, semantic categories of cultural language, cultural semantics and the function of vocabulary and phraseology. The second section contains works on Slavic folk demonology - the area closest to the hero of the day. The third section publishes articles analyzing folklore texts of a magical nature (spells, curses) and spiritual poems. The fourth section examines rituals (wedding, calendar, occasional) and ritual folklore in the context of beliefs and mythology. Finally, the articles in the fifth section analyze mythological motifs in literary works and art. Several publications are devoted to the folk culture of Transcarpathia, with which Lyudmila Nikolaevna’s early years are connected - she graduated from high school in Mukachevo, and from the philological faculty of the university in Uzhgorod.
The collection ends with a list of scientific works of the hero of the day.

Preface

Language and culture

Tolstaya S. M. Subject oppositions, their semantic structure and symbolic functions

Antropov N. P. Axiological motives of ethnolinguistic attraction

Berezovich E. L., Kazakova E. D. The situation of “language testing” in folk culture

Kabakova G. I. Invitation to a feast

Gura A.V. On conflict situations in traditional peasant culture

Morozov I. A., Frolova O. E. Zhivoe/inanimate in cultural and linguistic contexts

Folk demonology

Radenkovic L. Dangerous places in Slavic folk demonology

Kolosova V. B. Demonology in Slavic ethnobotany

Andryunina M. A."Hostage" dead - loci of the body and loci of the soul

Yasinskaya M. V. Visualization of the invisible: ways of contacting the other world

Moroz A. B."Old man." Experience of describing a mythological character

Dobrovolskaya V. E. Hiccups in traditional culture (based on materials from the Vladimir region)

Plotnikova A. A. Folk mythology in Transcarpathian Verkhovyna

Tolstaya M. N. Potinka And babble in the Transcarpathian village of Synevyr

Valentsova M. M. Orava's demonological ideas

Folklore: themes, motives, pragmatics

Nikitina S. E. Fire, water and (copper) pipes (based on folk religious song texts)

Niebzegowska-Bartmińska S."Posłuchajcie, grzesznicy, o straszlisym sądzie..." Wykonawca, narrator i bohater ludowych piesni dziadowśkich

Neklyudov S. Yu. Naked bride on a tree

Agapkina T. A. On some features of the transmission and functioning of the East Slavic charm tradition

Yudin A.V. Grandmother Solomonia in East Slavic conspiracies and the sources of her image

Sedakova I. A. Curse in Bulgarian folk songs: Ethnolinguistics and folklore poetics

Rituals and ritual folklore

Pashina O. A. On the criteria for identifying types and versions of a fun wedding (using the example of a Smolensk wedding)

Kurochkin A.V. Elements of Greek Catholic syncretism in the calendar rituals of Ukrainians

Belova O. V.“Tuti-tutti, Moshke, let’s take a walk for a little bit...” (modern Yuletide dressing up in Galicia)

Chekha O.V. Yuletide mummery in western Macedonia: ρογκατσάρια And μπουμπουτσιάρια

Bondar N. I. Magic of the moon (from the occasional rituals of the East Slavic population of the North Caucasus: XIX - early XXI centuries)

Uzeneva E. S. Prohibitions and regulations in the traditional culture of Transcarpathia (the village of Kolochava, Mizhgorsky district, Transcarpathian region)

Myth – folklore – literature

Petrukhin V. Ya. Mother's milk eaters in Pseudo-Caesarea: demonological motive or “religious slander”?

Toporkov A. L. Mythological image of a tree growing from a woman's body

Sofronova L. A."Someone" and "something" in Gogol's early stories

Ajdachic D. The warlock Pan Tvardovsky and the pact with the devil in the literature of the 19th century.

Tsivyan T.V. Palm theme in Russian literature of the 20th century: flickering mythology (several examples)

Svirida I. I. Svoe And someone else's name in art

List of scientific works by L. N. Vinogradova

Folklore and its main forms. Orthodox literature

Slavs in the XI-XVI centuries. Modern Slavic literatures

The topic of folklore and Slavic literatures is touched upon in our manual only in connection with Slavic verbal culture as a whole, and we do not delve into the details of this topic (in particular, into a discussion of the current state of folklore studies). There are many valuable manuals specifically devoted to folklore as such (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc. folk art), as there are similar manuals related to Russian and other Slavic literatures. We refer readers to them who are interested in an in-depth acquaintance with this topic.

The Slavic peoples created such an important folklore genre as fairy tales, and a rich set of fairy-tale plots (magical, everyday, social, etc.). Fairy tales feature the most colorful human characters, endowed with folk ingenuity - Ivan the Fool among the Russians, the cunning Peter among the Bulgarians, etc.

According to the witty observation of F.I. Buslaeva, “The fairy tale glorifies mainly heroes, heroes and knights; the princess, who usually appears in it, is very often not called by name and, having married a hero or knight, leaves the scene of action. But, inferior to men in heroism and glory gained by military exploits, a woman in the era of paganism... was a demigoddess, a sorceress...

Quite naturally, a folk tale could add physical strength to a woman’s mental strength. So, Stavrov’s young wife, dressed up as an ambassador, defeated the Vladimirov wrestlers.” 175 .

The Eastern Slavs developed epics. Among them, the Kiev cycle (epics about the peasant Mikul Selyaninovich, the heroes Svyatogor, Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, etc.) and the Novgorod cycle (epics about Vasily Buslaev, Sadko, etc.) stand out. A unique genre of heroic epic, Russian epics constitute one of the most important accessories of the national verbal art. Among the Serbs, the heroic epic is represented by stories about Miloš Obilic, Korolevich Marko, and others. There are similar characters in the epic of the Bulgarians - Sekula Detence, Daichin the Voivode, Yankul and Momgil, etc. 176 Among the Western Slavs, the heroic epic, due to a number of complex reasons, did not show itself so impressively.

An epic is not a historical chronicle, but an artistic phenomenon. Russians usually feel well the distance between the real personality of the Monk Ilya Muromets and the epic image of the hero Ilya Muromets. About the Serbian epic by its researcher Ilya Nikolaevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov(1904-1969), for example, wrote:

“In addition to events that do not violate the boundaries of the reliable,<...>in the songs about Prince Marko there are stories about winged horses speaking in a human voice, about snakes and mountain sorceresses-forks" 177 .

How expressively characterized the oral folk art of F.I. Buslaev, “The people do not remember the beginning of their songs and fairy tales. They have been carried on from time immemorial and are passed down from generation to generation, according to legend, like antiquity. Even though the singer Igor knows some Boyan, he already calls ancient folk legends “old words.” In “Ancient Russian Poems,” a song or legend is called “old times”: “that’s how the old days ended,” says the singer... Otherwise, a song with narrative content is called “bylina,” that is, a story about what was.<...> Therefore, when finishing a song, sometimes the singer adds the following words in conclusion: “then the “old thing”, then the “deed”,” expressing with this verse the idea that his epic is not only an old thing, a legend, but precisely a legend about the “deed” that actually happened. » 178 .

The Slavic peoples have preserved legends related to their origin. Both Western and Eastern Slavs know the legend about the brothers Czech, Lech and Rus. Among the Eastern Slavs, the founding of Kyiv is associated with the legendary Kiy, Shchek, Khoriv and their sister Lybid. The Poles, according to legend, imprinted the names of the children of the forester who lived here in the name of Warsaw: a boy named Var and a girl named Sawa. Very interesting are the tales, stories and legends about Libusz and Přemysl, about the Maiden's War, about the Blanice knights of the Czechs, about Piast and Popel, Krak and Wanda among the Poles, which contain a variety of information about prehistoric times.

For example, the plot of the legend about the Maiden War makes us recall the struggle between matriarchal and patriarchal principles in Slavic society of ancient times.

According to him, after the death of the legendary Czech ruler Libusha, who relied on girls and women and even kept a female squad, her husband Przemysl began to rule. However, the girls, accustomed to rule, rebelled against the men, built the Devin fortress and settled in it. Then they defeated a detachment of men who frivolously tried to capture the fortress - three hundred knights died, and seven were personally stabbed to death by the leader of the women’s army, Vlasta (formerly the foremost warrior in Libushi’s squad). After this victory, the women treacherously captured the young knight Tstirad, who rushed to save the beauty tied to an oak tree, and wheeled him on the wheel. In response, the men united into an army and completely defeated the women, killing Vlasta in battle and capturing Devin 179 .

The poetic genres of folklore among the Slavs are extremely diverse. In addition to epics and myths, this includes various songs - youth and haidut songs among the southern Slavs, bandit songs among the eastern Slavs, etc., historical songs and ballads, Ukrainian thoughts, etc. 180 The Slovaks have a very interesting cycle of folklore works about the noble robber Juraj Janosik.

Many poetic works were performed to the accompaniment of various musical instruments (Russian gusli, Ukrainian bandura, etc.).

Small genres of folklore (proverb, saying, riddle, etc.) are of particular interest to philologists who study semasiological problems. So, for example, A.A. Potebnya dedicated in his work “ From lectures on the theory of literature“special section on “techniques for transforming a complex poetic work into a proverb,” emphasizing: “The entire process of compressing a longer story into a proverb is one of the phenomena that is of great importance for human thought” (Potebnya called these phenomena “condensation of thought”) 181 .

Among the collections of Russian proverbs, “ Russian folk proverbs and parables"(1848) I.M. Snegireva, " Russian proverbs and sayings"(1855) F.I. Buslaeva and " Proverbs of the Russian people"(1862) V.I. Dalia.

Among the collectors of Slavic folklore are the largest cultural figures (for example, A.I. Afanasiev And IN AND. Dahl from the Russians, Vuk Karadzic among the Serbs). In Russia, talented enthusiasts like Kirsha Danilov and professional philologists were engaged in this matter P.N. Rybnikov, A.F. Hilferding, I.V. Kireevsky and others. Ukrainian folklore was collected, for example, ON THE. Tsertelev, M. Maksimovich, Y. Golovatsky etc. The brothers did a great job among the southern Slavs Miladinovs, P.R. Slaveykov et al. among the Poles Waclaw Zaleski, Zegota Pauli, Z. Dolenga-Chodakowski and others, among the Czechs and Slovaks F. Chelakovsky, K. Erben, P. Dobshinsky and other philologists.

Slavic literatures are very diverse. Old Russian literature, a characteristic manifestation of literatures of the so-called “medieval type,” existed from the 11th century. Let us recall several important points related to it.

Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev(1906-1999) rightly wrote: “Ancient Russian literature was not only not isolated from the literatures of neighboring Western and Southern countries, in particular from Byzantium, but up to the 17th century. we can talk about absolutely the opposite - about the absence of clear national boundaries in it. We can rightfully talk about the common development of the literatures of the Eastern and Southern Slavs. There were unified literature(italics mine. - Yu.M.), a single script and a single (Church Slavonic) language among the Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), Bulgarians, Serbs and Romanians" (as mentioned above, the Romanians, as Orthodox Christians, actively used the Church Slavonic language until the second half of the 19th century) 182 .

Expression by D.S. Likhachev’s “unified literature” should not be absolutized. He further explains his thought: “The main fund of church and literary monuments was common. Liturgical, preaching, church-edifying, hagiographic, partly world-historical (chronographic), partly narrative literature was uniform for the entire Orthodox south and east of Europe. Common were such huge literary monuments as prologues, menaions, solemnities, triodions, partly chronicles, paleas of various types, “Alexandria”, “The Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph”, “The Tale of Akira the Wise”, “The Bee”, cosmographies, physiologists, hexadays, apocrypha, individual lives, etc., etc.” 183 .

Obviously, they were not common " A Word about Igor's Campaign», « Teaching» Vladimir Monomakh, “The word about the destruction of the Russian land», « Zadonshchina», « Prayer of Daniel the Imprisoner"and some other works, perhaps the most interesting in ancient Russian literature to our contemporaries. However, for the medieval reader, whose heart was turned primarily to God, and not to earthly human problems, they were not “the most important” among literary texts. No matter how difficult it may be for a person of the 21st century to comprehend this fact, the Gospel, lives of saints, psalms, akathists, etc., and by no means “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and similar masterpieces of fiction, were in the center of attention of ancient Russian readers (namely that is why the “Word” was so easily lost and was only discovered by chance at the end of the 18th century).

After the above explanations, it is impossible not to join D.S.’s thesis. Likhachev, that “Old Russian literature before the 16th century. was united with the literature of other Orthodox countries" 184 . As a result, if you turn to manuals such as “Ancient Serbian Literature”, “Ancient Bulgarian Literature”, etc., the reader will immediately encounter in them many works known to him from the course of Old Russian literature.

For example, in the “History of Slavic Literatures” by academician Alexander Nikolaevich Pypin(1833-1904) and Vladimir Danilovich Spasovich(1829-1906) those mentioned above by Academician Likhachev appear as ancient Bulgarian (and not ancient Russian!) Prologue», « Paleya», « Alexandria" and etc. 185 Moreover, according to the authors, it was the Bulgarians who created “extensive literature in the Old Church Slavonic language, which was completely passed on to the Russians and Serbs”; “the church relations of the Russians with the Bulgarians and with Mount Athos, the close proximity of the Serbs with the Bulgarians established a exchange of manuscripts between them”; “as a result, the Serbian writer represents the general type that we see in the Bulgarian and ancient Russian writers of this kind” 186 .

In turn, I.V. Jagić in his “History of Serbo-Croatian Literature” stated the same trend: “Ancient Serbian original(italics mine. - Yu.M.) works constitute a very insignificant part of the rest of the literature" 187 .

I.V. Yagich admitted that “from our current point of view” the “thin notebook of medieval folk songs and the like” seems more important than the “entire huge store of biblical-theological-liturgical works” translated by the Orthodox Slavs. However, he immediately emphasized that one must “vividly imagine the views of those times, according to which there was no occupation more sacred than this.” 188 .

Unfortunately, the actual discovery of “thin notebooks” of this kind is extremely rare. As a result, in the era of romanticism, some West Slavic patriots (in the Czech Republic) could not resist compiling such artistic hoaxes, How Kraledvor manuscript(1817, “discovered” in the town of Kralevodvor) 189 .

This “notebook” of “the newest works of ancient Czech literature,” as V.I. ironically said. Lamansky, is a collection of masterful stylizations of Slavic antiquity. The Kraledvor manuscript includes, for example, epic songs about knightly tournaments and feasts, about the victory of the Czechs over the Saxons, about the expulsion of the Poles from Prague, about the victory over the Tatars, etc. The lyrical poems present the usual love themes, and the influence of Russian folklore is noticeable.

The author of the texts was Vaclav Hanka(1791-1861), famous Czech cultural figure and educator. And soon the student Josef Linda“found” a manuscript with “The Love Song of King Wenceslas I” (Zelenogorsk manuscript). Thinking in terms of romanticism, they both clearly wanted to elevate the historical past of their people, who, after the defeat of the Czechs at the Battle of White Mountain (1620), were actually enslaved by the Austrian feudal lords.

Many people believed in the authenticity of the Kraledvor manuscript almost until the beginning of the 20th century. This beautiful hoax was exposed by philological scientists - linguists and paleographers, who discovered errors in verb tenses, endings, letter forms impossible in ancient times, etc., as well as historians who pointed out factual inconsistencies. At the same time, there is no doubt that the stylizations of Ganka and Linda had a great positive impact on contemporary literature, giving rise to many bright artistic variations, imagery and plots revealed in them.

Around the middle of the 17th century. Old Russian literature was replaced and surprisingly quickly - over the course of two generations - the literature of modern times took hold in society. This means literature in the narrow strict sense of the word - artistic, having the system of genres familiar to us to this day (poem, poem, ode, novel, story, tragedy, comedy, etc.). Of course, such a rapid spread of new literature is due to the fact that the prerequisites for its appearance in Rus' gradually took shape and invisibly accumulated over the previous several centuries.

It is not difficult to feel the differences between modern literature and ancient Russian literature by comparing, for example, “The Life of Sergius of Radonezh” (written in the era of Dmitry Donskoy by Epiphanius the Wise) with the novel by Leo Tolstoy (or even with “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”) or by comparing the ancient Orthodox Christian akathist and spiritual ode to Derzhavin. In addition to clearly visible specific genre and style differences, there were also global differences.

The author of the life of the saint and the compiler of the chronicle, the author of the church akathist were engaged in a sacred craft - the aesthetic principle, to the extent of personal talent, of course, entered into their works, but still as a side effect. In ancient Russian writing there were separate works where, just like in the literature of modern times, the artistic side prevails (the above-mentioned “The Tale of Igor’s Host”, “The Teaching” of Vladimir Monomakh, “The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land”, “The Prayer of Daniil the Zatochnik”, etc. ). However, they are few in number and stand apart (although, we repeat, for the reader of the 21st century, these works of art in the narrow sense of the word are perhaps the most interesting and internally close).

The creative tasks of the chronicler, the author of a historical tale, the author of a patericon life, a solemn church sermon, an akathist, etc. corresponded to a special (hardly understandable to a person of our time without special philological training) “aesthetics of the canons” (or “aesthetics of identity”).

This aesthetics professed fidelity to “divinely inspired” authoritative models and a sophisticated reproduction of their main features in one’s own work (with subtle innovations in detail, but not in general). Thus, the ancient Russian reader of hagiography knew in advance how the author would describe the life of a saint - the genre of hagiography included a system of canonically strict rules, and hagiographic works were similar to each other, like siblings; their content was in a number of ways predictable in advance.

This feature of Old Russian literature, reflecting the socio-psychological characteristics of the people of the Russian Orthodox Middle Ages, as well as the essence of that complex cultural and historical phenomenon, which is now called “Old Russian literature”, was replaced in the 17th century. alive to this day with the “aesthetics of novelty.”

Writers of modern times do not engage in “sacred craft”, but in art as such; the aesthetic principle is the primary condition for their creativity; they care about recording their authorship, strive to ensure that their works do not resemble the works of their predecessors, are “artistically original,” and the reader appreciates and considers the unpredictability of the development of artistic content and the uniqueness of the plot as a natural condition.

New Russian literature at the initial stage was literature baroque. Baroque came to us through Poland and Belarus. The actual founder of Moscow Baroque poetry Simeon of Polotsk(1629-1680) was a Belarusian invited to Moscow by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Among the other most prominent representatives of Baroque poetry can be named a resident of Kiev Ivan Velichkovsky, and at the beginning of the 18th century. - St. Dimitry Rostovsky(1651 - 1709), Feofan Prokopovich(1681 - 1736), satirist poet Antioch Cantemir(1708-1744), etc. At the origins of the prose of the Baroque era stands the powerful figure of the archpriest Avvakum Petrova(1620-1682).

It is necessary to take into account the special status of grammatical teachings in the cultural consciousness of the Baroque era. “Grammar,” according to F.I. Buslaev, - considered the first step... of the ladder of sciences and arts.” About Smotritsky’s grammar, he recalls that “they studied using it in the time of Peter the Great; it was also the gate of wisdom for Lomonosov himself. In addition to its literary and educational significance, it is still sacredly revered among schismatic Old Believers (Buslaev means its Moscow edition of 1648 - Yu.M.), because in the verses or poems appended to this book for example, the form Isus is used - obviously for verse and measure, vm. Jesus. This explains the extreme high cost of the 1648 edition.” Further, Buslaev openly laughs at such a religious celebration of grammar by the Old Believers, recalling that Smotritsky “submitted to the pope and was a Uniate” 190 .

M. Smotritsky, a graduate of the Jesuit Vilna Academy, in the future, indeed, a supporter of union with the Roman Catholic Church, from an early age came into contact with circles that cultivated typically Baroque ideas, ideas and theories (Baroque in Catholic countries arose much earlier than in Rus', and the “Jesuit Baroque” was its real offshoot).

It should be noted that our Baroque was closely connected, sometimes merged, with other arts. To put it differently, he was distinguished by his complex artistic synthesis. For example, the literary image is often closely intertwined in the works of this time with the pictorial image.

In the field of painting of the 17th century. changes similar to those in literature occurred. Secular painting quickly takes shape here - portraits, genre scenes, landscapes (previously religious painting dominated here - icons, frescoes, etc.). Icon painting itself is evolving - authors appear who create so-called “life-like” icons, and a sharp struggle flares up between them and supporters of the old style 191 .

Verbal-textual manuals for icon painters, the so-called “Originals”, which existed before, acquire new qualities of real works of literature. Speaking about this phenomenon, F.I. Buslaev wrote:

“Thus, expanding its limits more and more, and getting closer and closer to literary interests, the Russian artistic Original insensitively merges with the ABC Book, which for our ancestors was not only a dictionary and grammar, but also an entire encyclopedia. It is difficult to imagine a more friendly, more harmonious agreement between purely artistic and literary interests after this, so to speak, organic fusion of such opposites as painting and grammar with a dictionary.” 192 .

Buslaev further examines the example of pictorial “symbolism of letters” in the Original of the “era of syllabic verses” (that is, the Baroque era. - Yu.M.), where “on each page, in cinnabar, one of the letters” of the name “Jesus Christ” is written in sequential order, “and under the letter there is an explanation in syllabic verses, namely:

І (the first letter of the name in the old spelling - Yu.M.) in the form of a pillar with a rooster on top:

Our Jesus Christ is tied to the pillar,

Velmi was always scourged from the torment of the evil ones.

WITH with the image inside his pieces of silver:

They bought a piece of silver for Jesus for thirty.

So that he would be condemned to death.

U Church Slavonic, in the form of pincers:

Nails were removed from hands and feet with pliers,

Sometimes they took it down from the cross with their hands.

WITH with a picture of his four nails inside.<...>

X with an image of a cane and a spear arranged in a cross.<...>

R in the form of a bowl...<...>

AND shaped like a staircase...<...>

T in the form of a cross...<...>

ABOUT in the form of a crown of thorns...<...>

WITH with a hammer and instruments of punishment...<...>» 193 .

The pictorial principle penetrated into literature more deeply than in similar syllabic couplets. Thus, Simeon Polotsky, Ivan Velichkovsky and other authors created a number of poems-drawings (in the form of a star, heart, cross, bowl and other figures); they wrote semantically structured texts in a special way, such as palindromons, crayfish, labyrinths, etc. , they used letters of different colors for figurative and expressive purposes.

Here is an example of “controversial cancer” from Ivan Velichkovsky - in his words, a verse “whose words, when read in a flash, are disgusting (opposite in meaning. - Yu.M.) text express":

Btsa With me, life is not the fear of death, Evva

I will not die by living.

That is: “With me there is life, not the fear of death, by me you will not die” (Mother of God); “Fear of death, not life with me, Die, undead with me” (Eve).

On its historical path, Russian literature from the second half of the 19th century. managed to take the position of one of the world leaders. Already I.S. Turgenev, without saying a word, was called the best writer in Europe by the Goncourt brothers, Georges Sand, and Flaubert. Soon L.N. gained enormous prestige throughout the world as an artist and thinker. Tolstoy. Later, readers all over the world discovered F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhova, A.M. Gorky, M.A. Sholokhova, M.A. Bulgakov...

The contribution of other Slavic literatures to the world literary process was not so global. Thus, writers of Little Russian (Ukrainian) origin in the 18th - 19th centuries. most often they wrote in the Great Russian (Moscow) dialect, that is, they became figures Russian literature. It refers to Vasily Vasilievich Kapnist(1757-1823), Vasily Trofimovich Narezhny(1780-1825), Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich(1784-1833), Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky(1787-1836, pseudonym Anthony Pogorelsky), Orest Mikhailovich Somov(1793-1833), Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol(1809-1852), Nestor Vasilievich Kukolnik(1809-1868), Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy(1817-1875), Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko(1853-1921), etc. 194

N.S. Trubetskoy noted: “Kotlyarevsky is considered the founder of the new Ukrainian literary language. The works of this writer (“Aeneid”, “Natalka-Poltavka”, “Moskal-Charivnik”, “Ode to Prince Kurakin”) are written in the common Little Russian dialect of the Poltava region and in their content belong to the same genre of poetry, in which the deliberate use of the common language is quite appropriate and motivated by the content itself. The poems of the most important Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko, were written for the most part in the spirit and style of Little Russian folk poetry and, therefore, again by their very content motivate the use of the common language. In all these works, just like in stories from the folk life of good Ukrainian prose writers, the language is deliberately vernacular, that is, as if deliberately unliterary. In this genre of works, the writer deliberately limits himself to the sphere of such concepts and ideas for which ready-made words already exist in the unsophisticated folk language, and chooses a topic that gives him the opportunity to use only those words that actually exist - and, moreover, precisely in this meaning - in living folk speech" 195 .

The Balkan Slavs, and in the west the Czechs and Slovaks, were under foreign oppression for several centuries.

The Bulgarians and Serbs did not experience processes parallel to the Russians in replacing medieval literature with literature of a new type. The situation was completely different. Bulgarian and Serbian literature experienced a break in their development of more than four centuries. This unfortunate cultural and historical phenomenon directly follows from the occupation of the Balkans by the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the Middle Ages.

Bulgarians are a Slavic people, but the name of this people comes from the name of a Turkic nomadic tribe Bulgars, in the 7th century n. e. under the leadership of Khan Asparukh, who occupied the lands of seven Slavic tribes on the Danube. On these lands Asparuh founded his Bulgarian kingdom with its capital in the city Pliska. Soon the conquerors were assimilated by the incomparably more numerous Slavic environment 196 .

In 1371, the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman, after decades of increasingly weakening resistance, recognized himself as a vassal of the Turkish Sultan Murad I. Then in 1393, the Turks took the then Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo. Three years later, the last pillar of Bulgarian statehood was taken by storm - the city of Vidin (1396). A Turkish governor settled in Sofia.

Serbia fell under the Turkish yoke after its defeat in the battle with the Turks on Kosovo Polje(1389), that is, approximately in the same years (in Rus', nine years earlier, the battle with the Tatars took place on the Kulikovo Field, which had a completely different outcome for the Russians).

The indigenous Bulgarian and Serbian population engaged in peasant labor, paid unaffordable taxes to the Turks, but stubbornly resisted Islamization. However, the real picture of the subsequent ups and downs of the history of both peoples was very ambiguous and complex. Feudal strife led to the fact that some of the Slavs from time to time found themselves in one or another military clashes against Catholic Christians on the side of the Muslim Turks. In relation to Serbian history, a number of facts of this kind were cited in his monograph “The Epic of the Peoples of Yugoslavia” by I.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, wrote:

“Thus, from the end of the 15th to the end of the 18th century. Serbs were in both camps, fighting for the cause of Christian sovereigns and Turkish sultans... there was no period in which the Serbian people did not have weapons. The idea of ​​an amorphous Serbian peasant mass... does not correspond to historical reality.<...>

In the 15th - 17th centuries in Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Dalmatia there was not a single area in which the haiduks did not operate." 197 .

Some Serbs and Croats were nevertheless forcibly converted to Islam. Their descendants now make up a special ethnic group called “ Muslims"(that is, "Muslim") 198 . The Bulgarians and Serbs survived some Orthodox monasteries, where the rewriting and reproduction of literary texts continued (the Bulgarians did not yet know printing even in the 17th century) - on Mount Athos, the Bulgarian Zografsky and Serbian Hilendarsky monasteries, as well as the Troyan, Rylsky (it was destroyed several times, but was restored); “The last center of national culture of the Serbs in the Middle Ages arose in the Manasseh monastery”: “There were workshops where they copied and decorated manuscripts in Church Slavonic, which was also the literary language. Serbian scribes were strongly influenced by the destroyed Bulgarian school of the Old Slavic language in Tarnovo." 199 .

The oppressed people gradually began to look at the ancient handwritten book as a national shrine.

Bulgarian and Serbian priests were in fact the only bookish (and generally literate) people in this difficult era for the cultures of the southern Slavs. They often went to study in Russia and then wrote in a language in which, in addition to the Church Slavonic basis, there were not only words from the folk language, but also Russianisms 200 .

In 1791, the first Serbian newspaper began to be published in Vienna Serbian Novini" In 1806, the first printed Bulgarian work “ Weekly» Sophrony Vrachansky.

Bulgarian monk Paisiy in 1762 he wrote a history of the Bulgarians, imbued with a desire for national independence, which circulated in manuscript for decades, and was published only in 1844. In Serbia and Montenegro, the Montenegrin prince (and metropolitan) awakened the people with his fiery sermons Petr Petrovich Iegosh(1813-1851). Montenegrin by origin and the greatest romantic poet, he wrote the dramatic poem “ Mountain crown» ( Gorskiy Vijenac, 1847), calling the Slavs to unity and depicting the life of the Montenegrin people.

In the era of romanticism, Bulgarians and Serbs began to develop fiction. Poets are at its origins in Bulgaria Petko Slaveykov(1827-1895), Lyuben Karavelov(1835-1879) and Hristo Botev(1848-1876). These are revolutionary romantics, whose bright talent was objectively prevented from manifesting itself in full force only by the lack of the necessary national literary and artistic tradition behind them.

The great Bulgarian poet, prose writer and playwright worked under the great fruitful influence of Russian literature Ivan Vazov(1850-1921), author of the historical novel " Under the yoke"(1890) 201 .

Serbian poetic romanticism is represented by such poets as Djura Jaksic(1832-1878) and Laza Kostic(1841 - 1910), among the Montenegrins - for example, the work of the king Nikola I Petrovich(1841-1921). In the region of Vojvodina, in the city of Novi Sad, a center of Slavic culture developed. A remarkable educator acted here Dositej Obradovic from Vojvodina (1739-1811), the actual founder of modern literature.

A playwright with a sparkling satirical gift later appeared in Serbian literature Branislav Nusic(1864-1938), author of comedies " Suspicious person"(based on Gogol's The Inspector General) (1887), " Patronage"(1888), " Madam Minister"(1929), " Mister Dollar"(1932), " Saddened relatives"(1935), " Dr." (1936), " Deceased"(1937), etc., as well as full of self-irony " Autobiographies».

Bosnian Serb won the Nobel Prize in 1961 Ivo Andric(1892-1975). Among his historical novels, it should be noted first of all “ Bridge on the Drina"(1945), " Travnica Chronicle"(1945), " Damn yard"(1954), etc.

Czech and Slovak literature, the literature of the Balkan Slavs (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins, Macedonians, etc.), as well as the cultures of these Slavic peoples as a whole, have essentially survived centuries break in development.

If we mean the Czechs, this truly tragic collision is a consequence of the seizure of Czech lands by Austrian feudal lords (that is, Catholic Germans) after the defeat of the Czechs in the Battle of White Mountain in the 17th century.

Medieval Czechs were a courageous and freedom-loving people. A century and a half before the reform movement of Calvinists, Lutherans, etc. split the Catholic world, it was the Czechs who fought against Catholicism.

Great figure of Czech culture, preacher and church reformer Jan Hus(1371-1415), rector of the Bethlehem Chapel in the old part of Prague, and later rector of the University of Prague, in 1412 he sharply opposed the Catholic practice of trading indulgences. Hus had already begun reading sermons in Czech rather than in Latin. He also criticized some other Catholic institutions relating to church property, the power of the pope, etc. Hus also wrote in Latin, using his knowledge to expose the vices nesting in the Catholic Church (“ About six fornications»).

Acting as a public educator, Jan Hus also devoted his energy to philological work. In his essay " About Czech spelling“He proposed superscripts for the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to convey sounds characteristic of the Czech language.

The Catholics lured Hus to the Council of Constance. He received a safe conduct, which, after his arrest, was blatantly disavowed on the grounds that the promises made to the “heretic” were invalid. Jan Hus was burned at the stake (he has not been “rehabilitated” by the Catholic Church to this day). The Czech people responded to this atrocity with a national uprising.

A nobleman stood at the head of the Hussites Jan Zizka(1360-1424), who turned out to be a wonderful commander. He also fought at Grunwald, where he lost an eye. Zizka's army repulsed several crusades organized by Catholic knights against the Hussites. Jan Žižka created a new type of army that moved on armored vehicles and had artillery. The carts, lined up in a row or in a circle and secured with chains, turned into a fortress on wheels. More than once the Hussites brought down heavily loaded carts from the mountain, crushing and putting to flight knights who outnumbered them many times over.

Having lost his second eye in battle, Zizka continued to command the troops as a blind man. It was only when he died of the plague during the siege of Przybyslav that the united Catholic forces managed to curb the Hussite movement, which had terrorized all of Europe for more than 20 years.

In the next 16th century, the Austrians infiltrated the throne in Prague. Of these, Archduke Rudolf II of Habsburg remained in history as a philanthropist and ruler prone to religious tolerance. Under him, astronomers Tycho Brahe and Kepler worked in Prague, and Giordano Bruno was hiding from the Inquisition. Protestantism spread in the Czech Republic.

In 1618, Protestant Czechia rebelled against the rule of Catholic Austrians. This uprising ended in defeat at the Battle of White Mountain (1620).

Upon entering Prague, the victors carried out a brutal massacre. The Slavic aristocracy was diligently destroyed. The Austrians set themselves the task now and forever to suppress the people's ability to resist. Even the tomb of Jan Zizka in 1623 (199 years after the death of the commander) was destroyed by order of the Austrian emperor, and his remains were thrown out.

The era of 300 years of domination in the Czech Republic by the Austrian Habsburg dynasty began (it ended in 1918 after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the creation of independent Czechoslovakia). Austrian feudal lords and their henchmen systematically suppressed national culture in the Czech Republic.

In the Czech Republic already in the 14th century. there was developed medieval literature in the native language (chronicles, lives of saints, chivalric novels, dramatic works, etc.). The works (sermons, epistles and other philosophical and theological works) of the great reformer Jan Hus were written in Czech. A bishop with great artistic talent Jan Amos Comenius(1592-1670), teacher and theologian, used Czech along with Latin. For example, his allegory, which is distinguished by its high literary merits, is written in Czech. Labyrinth of the world and paradise of the heart"(1631). However, J. Comenius died in exile in Holland. The Germans ruled the homeland.

In 1620 the written tradition itself was interrupted. From now on, the Czechs began to write in German, and this was controlled by the winners with truly German punctuality. The victors were especially zealous in destroying the Slavic culture of the vanquished during the first century and a half. Counter-Reformation and forced Germanization were carried out; Jesuits burned Czech books at the stake. As a result, in the past, independent Czechs were reduced to the status of German serfs (serfdom was abolished here in 1848). The national nobility was destroyed (the surviving Slavic nobles mainly tried to imitate themselves as “Germans”).

In the peasant Slavic environment, during the centuries of Austrian dominance, oral folk art continued to develop latently. But writers of Slavic nationality, when they appeared, created their works in German. Baroque art in the conquered lands was cultivated by Catholic clergy, did not produce significant works and was not directly related to the culture of the Slavs as such.

Only at the end of the 18th century. patriotic philologist Joseph Dobrowski(1753-1829) took up the grammatical description of the Czech language and issues of Czech literature, writing (in German) its history, scientifically substantiating the rules of syllabic-tonic versification for Czech poetry. The literary language had to be created anew. N.S. Trubetskoy talks about this situation like this:

“Thanks to the activities of Jan Hus and the so-called Czech brothers, the Czech language by the 16th century. took on a completely formed appearance. But unfavorable circumstances interrupted its further development, and the Czech literary tradition almost completely dried up for a long time. Only at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The revival of the Czech literary language began. At the same time, the figures of the Czech Renaissance turned not to modern folk dialects, but to the interrupted tradition of the old Czech language of the end of the 16th century. Of course, this language had to be somewhat updated, but thanks to this connection to the interrupted tradition, the Modern Czech language received a completely unique appearance: it is archaic, but artificially archaic, so that elements of completely different eras of linguistic development in it coexist with each other in artificial cohabitation.” 202 .

The practical consequence of this is that literary Czech is very different from spoken Czech. Having learned to read works of Czech literature fluently, a foreigner suddenly faces the fact that he does not understand the live speech of the Czechs, and they do not understand him when trying to communicate.

Romantic poets began their creativity in Czech Frantisek Celakovsky(1799-1852), Vaclav Hanka(1791-1861), Karel Jaromir Erben(1811-1870), etc. Old Czech literary monuments began to be republished.

In the second half of the 19th century. the most brilliant poet and prose writer of the period of national revival appeared in the Czech Republic Svatopluk Czech(1846-1908).His defiantly bold " Slave songs» ( Pisně otroka) called the Czech people to fight for freedom. Historical poems from the glorious Czech past were rich in plot and also enjoyed great readership. Satirical novels " Mr. Broucek's true journey to the moon» (« Pravy vylet pana Broučka do Měsice", 1888) and " A new epochal journey of Mr. Broucek, this time to the fifteenth century» (« Novy epochalni vylet pana Broučka, tentokrat do patnacteho stoleti» , 1888) anticipated the satirical prose of J. Hasek and K. Capek 203 .

Contemporary of S. Cech Alois Irasek(1851 - 1930) began as a poet, but, switching to prose with plots from Czech history, he became a classic of national literature (he also wrote historical dramas). He created a series of novels about the Hussites " Between the currents» ( Mezi proud 1887-1890), " Against all» ( Proti vsem, 1893), " Brotherhood» ( Bratrstvo, 1898-1908); plays about Jan Hus and Jan Zizka.

In Czechoslovakia, which was formed after the end of the First World War, the satirist and humorist was popular Jaroslav Hasek(1883-1923) With his anti-war novel " The adventures of the good soldier Schweik» ( Osudy dobreho vojaka Švejka za světove valky, 1921-1923). Hasek was a communist and a participant in the Russian Civil War, which contributed to his fame in the USSR.

Karel Capek(1890-1938), playwright and prose writer, famous for his plays " Makropoulos remedy» ( Vec Makropoulos, 1922), " Mother» ( Matka, 1938), " R.U .R.» ( Rossumovi Univerzalni Roboti, 1920) and others, novels " Factory of the absolute» ( Tovarna na absolutno, 1922), " Krakatite» ( Krakatit, 1922), " Gordubal» ( Hordubal, 1937), " Meteor», « War with the salamanders"(Valka s mloky, 1936), etc. Along with the Pole S. Lem, Capek can be recognized as a classic of philosophical fiction. Karel Capek died, having a hard time surviving the Munich Agreement, which handed over his homeland to the power of the Germans.

Centuries of slavish dependence on the Germans, apparently, did not pass without a trace for the Czechs as a nation, having taught them to humbly accept the vicissitudes of fate. As you know, Hitler met desperate resistance in Poland in 1939. A year earlier, fascist troops invaded the Czech Republic almost without firing a single shot. The Czech Republic, at that time a powerful industrial country with an excellent defense industry and a strong army equipped with the most modern weapons (much stronger than the Polish army), surrendered to the Germans. (Subsequently, Czech tanks fought during the Great Patriotic War against the USSR, and Czech soldiers abounded in Hitler’s army.)

In 1938, some in the Czech Republic felt doomed that their usual hosts, the Germans, had returned... A poem by Marina Tsvetaeva, who loved Czechoslovakia with all her heart, recalls these dramatic days “ One officer" The Russian poetess prefaced this work with the following epigraph:

“In the Sudetes, on the forested Czech border, an officer with twenty soldiers, leaving the soldiers in the forest, went out onto the road and began shooting at the approaching Germans. Its end is unknown ( From September newspapers 1938)».

Tsvetaeva writes:

Czech forest -

The most forested.

Year - nine hundred

Thirty-eighth.

Day and month? - peaks, echo:

The day the Germans entered the Czechs!

The forest is reddish,

The day is blue-gray.

Twenty soldiers

One officer.

Round-faced and round-faced

An officer guards the border.

My forest is all around,

My bush, all around,

My house is all around

This house is mine.

I won’t give up the forest,

I won't rent out the house

I won’t give up the edge,

I won’t give up an inch!

Leafy darkness.

Hearts are frightened:

Is it a Prussian move?

Is there a heartbeat?

My forest, goodbye!

My century, goodbye!

My land, goodbye!

This region is mine!

Let the whole region

At the enemy's feet!

I'm under your feet -

I won't give up the stone!

The clatter of boots.

Germans! - leaf.

The rumble of iron.

Germans! - the whole forest.

Germans! - peal

Mountains and caves.

Threw the soldier

One is an officer.

From the forest - in a lively manner

To the community - yes with a revolver!

Incurred

Good news,

What - saved

Czech honor!

So it's a country

So it’s not delivered,

Means war

Still - it was!

My land, vivat!

Bite it, Herr!

Twenty soldiers.

One officer.

Consequences of a break in cultural and historical development during the 17th-18th centuries. are already visible from the obvious fact that Czech literature, unfortunately, has shown little of itself at the international level. However, writers like A. Irasek and K. Capek, and other authors translated into foreign languages, worthily carry its ideas and themes to a variety of countries. Russian readers have great sympathy for Czech literature.

Even in the early Middle Ages, the lands of the Slovaks became part of Hungary, whose feudal authorities invariably and cruelly suppressed the Slovak national culture. However, in the 16th century. Hungarians lost their national independence. The German language was introduced in Hungary, and the local feudal lords themselves had a hard time. Together with their long-time oppressors, the Hungarians, the Slovaks fell under the scepter of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, which soon absorbed the Czechs. The nuance is that for the Slovaks, with this subjugation of them to the Austrians, i.e., the Germans, the cruel rule over them weakened Hungarians, against which the Slovaks fought for centuries 204 . In addition, unlike the Czechs, the Slovaks were Catholics like the Austrians - that is, there was no religious confrontation here. And today, a noticeable majority of citizens of the Slovak Republic formed in 1993 are Catholics (almost all others are Protestants, as in the Czech Republic).

(For the first time, the Slovak state was created - for political reasons - by Nazi Germany after its capture of Czechoslovakia. After the liberation of the Czechs and Slovaks by Soviet troops, the unified Czechoslovak Republic was restored (as a socialist one). In other words, in the period 1918-1993, Slovakia was almost always in composition Czechoslovakia.)

Slovaks were greatly influenced by Czech culture in general and literature in particular. From the 16th century those Slovaks who became Protestants. In this environment, people willingly wrote in Czech - for example, poets Juraj Palkovich(1769-1850), author of the book of poems “Muse of the Slovak Mountains” (1801), and Boguslav Tablitz(1769-1832), who published his collections “Poetry and Notes” one after another (1806-1812). Tablitz also published an anthology of Slovak poetry of the 18th century. “Slovak Poets” (1804) - also in Czech.

IN Catholic Slovak circles at the end of the 18th century. a philologically interesting attempt was made to create a system of Slovak spelling (the so-called “bernolacchina” - named after its creator, a Slovak Catholic priest Antonina Bernolaka(1762-1813). A number of books were published at Bernolaccina. Although this cumbersome system never caught on, Bernolak attracted the efforts of national cultural figures to create a Slovak literary language. However, N.S. Trubetskoy made a keen and capacious observation:

“Despite the desire of the founders and main figures of Slovak literature to dissociate themselves from the Czech language, adherence to the Czech literary and linguistic tradition is so natural for Slovaks that it is impossible to resist it. The differences between the Slovak and Czech literary languages ​​are mainly grammatical and phonetic, but the vocabulary of both languages ​​is almost the same, especially in the sphere of concepts and ideas of higher mental culture.” 205 .

Started writing poetry in Slovak Jan Kollar(1793-1852), who created odes, elegies, and wrote the patriotic poem “ Daughter of Glory"(1824).

Slovak by nationality was one of the largest philologists of the Slavic world Pavel Joseph Safarik(1795-1861). Living in Prague for many years, he wrote mainly in Czech. His most famous work is “ Slavic antiquities"(1837).

Philologist and Hegelian philosopher Ljudevit Stuhr(1815-1856) in the 30s of the XIX century. headed the department of Czechoslovak literature at the Bratislava Lyceum. He promoted the writer's loyalty to the spirit of the people, which is refracted in oral folk art.

Romantic poets worked under the influence of Stuhr's ideas Janko Kralj(1822-1876), who is characterized by rebellious motives (for example, a cycle of his poems about the “Slovak Robin Hood” robber Janosik) and prose writer Jan Kalinchak(1822-1871), who wrote historical stories about the Slavic struggle for independence - “ Bozkovići"(1842), " Milko's grave" (1845), " Prince Liptovsky"(1847), etc.

In fact, the named authors and some of their contemporaries played the role of the founders of the young (in historical terms, and a century and a half later still quite young) Slovak literature. This literature is full of fresh energy, but its entry into the wider international arena is a matter of the future.

The Polish people have been developing their culture in their own state for centuries. At the end of the 14th century. Polish Queen Jadwiga married the Lithuanian King Jagiello (later the military-political leader of the Battle of Grunwald). The Grand Duchy of Lithuania retained its autonomy, but less than a century later (June 28, 1569) Union of Lublin, according to which Poland and Lithuania have already become a single state. As a result of this union, Orthodox Belarusians and Ukrainians became dependent on Catholic Poles.

A few years later, a Catholic Hungarian was elected king of Poland. Stefan Batory(1533-1586), who led decisive military actions against the Orthodox Rus' of Ivan IV. At the same time, Catholicism intensified its confessional attack on Orthodoxy.

In 1574 the Jesuit Petr Skarga(1536-1612), a major Polish Catholic figure, published his famous book “ About jednośći Kośćtioła Bożego” (“On the unity of the Church of God and on the Greek deviation from this unity”), in which he accused Orthodox priests of getting married and therefore immersed in a sinful worldly life, and also knowing Latin poorly and therefore not being distinguished by the necessary theological learning. He especially attacked the Church Slavonic language, arguing that with it “no one can become a scientist.” Church Slavonic supposedly has no rules of grammar, and it is also poorly understood everywhere. Skarga naturally contrasted this depressing picture with Catholicism with its Latin - in which, it must be admitted, various techniques of logical scholasticism and intellectual sophistry were sophisticatedly developed.

In response to Peter Skarga, the Athonite monk is Ukrainian Ivan Vishensky(1550-1623) pointed to the inspiration of the Church Slavonic language, “the most fruitful of all languages,” but precisely because it is hated by the devil, who “has such envy of the Slovenian language.” This language is “beloved to God: even without filthy tricks and manuals, yet there is a grammarian, a rhetorician, a dialectician and their other vain deceits, the universal devil.” 206 .

In 1596, Catholic church circles, with the support of the Polish authorities, implemented a religious union. According to this so-called Brest, Union, Orthodox Christians living in Poland were subordinate to the Pope, although they retained the right to conduct religious services in Church Slavonic.

The Little Russian and Belarusian masses did not accept the union. In many ways, it was the union that pushed the Ukrainian people into a series of armed uprisings against the rule of the Poles. In the end, this fight was led by Bogdan Mikhailovich Khmelnitsky(1595-1657) - Koshevoy ataman of the Zaporozhye army, later hetman of Ukraine.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, who arrived at his headquarters, called on Khmelnitsky to create an Orthodox state and abolish the union. However, the hetman understood that in his war with the Poles the forces were too unequal, and after major military defeats, he assembled a council in Pereyaslavl on January 8, 1654, at which the people supported his intention to become a citizen of the “Tsar of Moscow.” The reunification of Ukrainians and Russians began with the Pereyaslav Rada, which lasted until the end of 1991, that is, almost to the present day.

Poland experienced in the 17th - 18th centuries. a series of severe disasters. A few years after the Pereyaslav Rada, it was literally flooded by the so-called “flood” - the invasion of the Swedes. The country has never recovered from it. In 1703, the Swedes of Charles XII again occupied Poland, took Warsaw and even installed their protege Stanislav Leszczynski as king.

In the 18th century circumstances unfavorable for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth multiplied more and more. With growing aggressiveness, the gentry, defending their “democratic rights,” entered into a fight with King Stanislav Poniatowski, who was supported by Russia, and formed a “confederation” against him. The king asked Russia for help. As a result of very turbulent events, the so-called first and second partitions of Poland took place between Russia, Austria and Prussia.

In 1794, the Polish confederates, led by an outstanding commander Tadeusz Kosciuszko(1746-1817) were completely defeated Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov(1730-1800), and the third partition of Poland took place. Poland as a state ceased to exist. For the Poles, as a distinctive Slavic nation, this was a tragedy.

There were and are world-famous authors in Polish literature (Adam Mickiewicz, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Stanislaw Lem, Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, etc.).

Polish secular fiction expanded beyond “Catholic Esperanto” (Latin) in the 16th century. N.S. Trubetskoy writes:

“The Old Polish language became literary much later than the Czech language, and since there was quite lively cultural communication between Poland and the Czech Republic, and the Polish and Czech languages ​​in the 14th century. were phonetically and grammatically much closer to each other than at present, it is not surprising that at the beginning of its literary existence the Old Polish language experienced an extremely strong Czech influence. At its core, the Old Polish literary language developed from the spoken language of the Polish gentry, and this connection with a certain class, and not with a certain locality, meant that from its very beginning it did not reflect any specifically local, dialectical features and never coincided not with any local folk dialect: while, for example, the Russian literary language in terms of pronunciation can definitely be localized in the area of ​​Central Russian dialects, the Polish literary language is not at all amenable to localization on the dialectical map of ethnographic Poland. Literary tradition of the Polish language since the 14th century. never stopped, so that in terms of the duration and continuity of the literary tradition, the Polish language among the Slavic literary languages ​​occupies the next place after Russian" 207 .

The poet successfully used the Polish language Nikolai Ray(1505-1569), author of moralizing poems (collection " Menagerie", 1562) allegorical poem "A true image of the life of a worthy person, in which, as in a mirror, everyone can easily review their actions" (1558), a book of short comic poems (" frashek») « Funny stories"(1562), etc. Jan Kokhanovsky(1530-1584) was the greatest poet of his time, the author of such didactic works in tone as “ Susanna" (1562), " Chess"(1562-1566), " Agreement" (1564), " Satyr"(1564), etc. A poet who had little time to write Samp Szazynski(1550-1581) is considered a kind of predecessor of the Polish Baroque. One of the most famous representatives of the Baroque in Poland - Jan Andrzej Morsztyn(1621-1693), in whose work the Poles see the influence of the major figure of the Italian Baroque G. Marino (1569-1625).

Becoming at the end of the 18th century. part of the Russian Empire, Slavic Poland experienced a strong and fruitful cultural and historical influence from its Russian brothers. In relation to literature, this fact is undoubtedly captured in the works of the classic of Polish romanticism Adam Mickiewicz(1798-1855), who was a personal friend of A.S. Pushkin and a number of contemporary Russian writers. A comparison of the works of Mitskevich and Pushkin more than once makes it possible to feel that the creative quests of these two great contemporaries (and at the same time the leaders of two Slavic literatures) were in many ways parallel to each other (they even both lived in Odessa, Moscow and St. Petersburg, both loved these cities).

« Crimean sonnets"("Sonety krymskie", 1826) by A. Mickiewicz are consonant with Pushkin's poems of the southern period. In turn, A.S. Pushkin brilliantly translated some of Mickiewicz’s poems (“ Budrys and his sons», « Voivode"). Mickiewicz’s epic poems are magnificent “ Conrad Wallenrod" (1828) and " Pan Tadeusz"(1834). In 1834, the poet also completed the dramatic poem “ Dziady"(her artistically strongest 3rd part), imbued with mystical-fantastic motifs and motifs of Polish paganism, after that, unfortunately, she almost stopped composing poetry. A. Mitskevich owns many sonnets, romances, lyric poems and ballads. He also wrote a kind of romantic prose.

Among the Polish poets of subsequent generations, they stand out primarily Juliusz Słowacki(1809-1849), who also acted as a playwright and tragic Ciprian Norwid(1821-1883), a lyricist and poet-philosopher who published little during his lifetime.

In the second half of the 19th century. A whole galaxy of wonderful prose writers has matured in Poland.

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski(1812-1887) wrote prose, poetry and plays, leaving more than 500 volumes of essays (one of the most prolific European writers), but most of all he was glorified by 88 historical novels. Among them stand out “ Countess Kozel"(1873), " Bruhl" (1874), " Old legend"(1876), etc. Among the largest Polish prose writers of the 19th century. It was Kraszewski who first began to systematically poetize the historical past of Poland, at the end of the 18th century. lost its state independence and was dismembered.

Krashevsky lived in that (main) part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which became part of Russia, and was a contemporary of I.S. Turgeneva, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.S. Leskov and other major Russian prose writers. Since 1868, thinking humanity has become increasingly familiar with the great novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", which influenced the work of historical novelists in various countries (as the romantic Walter Scott had previously managed to achieve with his work at the beginning of the 19th century). Kraszewski's novels established a powerful tradition of historical prose in Polish literature.

Alexander Glovatsky(1847-1912), who wrote under a pseudonym Boleslav Prus, He liked to joke that he used a pseudonym because he was embarrassed by the nonsense coming from his pen. Despite such ironic self-criticism, Prus was a master of the pen. Starting out as a humorist writer, he then became famous for his realistic novels and stories " Outpost"(1885), "Doll" (1890), " Emancipants"(1894), etc., as well as the wonderful historical novel " Pharaoh"(1895).

Classic novelist, Nobel Prize laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz(1846-1916) also focused primarily on depicting Poland's great past. Novels " With fire and sword"(1883-1884), " Flood"(1884-1886), " Pan Volodyevsky"(1887-1888) constitute a trilogy dedicated to the military exploits of the Polish gentry of bygone times (in the novel "With Fire and Sword" the Poles fight their Ukrainian brothers, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky). Historical novel " Kamo is coming"("Quo vadis"), written in 1894-1896, takes the action to the first centuries of Christianity (the reign of Emperor Nero).

Sienkiewicz's best novel " Crusaders"(1900) depicts Poland on the brink of the 14th-15th centuries. The plot action is resolved by the Battle of Grunwald, in which the united forces of the Slavs inflicted a crushing defeat on the Teutonic Order.

Stefan Żeromski(1864-1925), who wrote prose and plays, became famous primarily for his historical novel from the era of the Napoleonic wars " Ash"(Popioły, 1904). Among his other works (as a rule, permeated with pessimistic intonations), the novel “ History of Sin"(Dzieje grzechu, 1908) and the trilogy " Fighting Satan"(Walka z szatanem, 1916-1919).

Works of a prose writer and playwright Stanislav Przybyszewski(1868-1927), the de facto leader of Polish modernism at the beginning of the 20th century, was appreciated by Russian symbolists. He created novels, plays, prose poems, essays, etc. Przybyszewski wrote many of his works in German (he grew up in the Prussian part of Poland), then translating himself into Polish. This includes " Homo Sapiens», « Children of Satan», « Deprofundis» and etc.

In the first decades of the 20th century. in Poland there was also a bright poetic galaxy. Poets belonged to her Boleslav Lesmyan(1877-1937), Leopold Staff(1878-1957), as well as younger authors who formed the Scamander group - Julian Tuwim(1894-1953), Yaroslav Ivashkevich(1894-1980), Kazimierz Wierzynski(1894-1969), etc. The revolutionary romantic poet joined this group Vladislav Bronevsky(1897-1962).

One of the greatest Polish poets of the 20th century was remarkably talented. Constants Ildefons Galczynski(1905-1953) - a wonderful lyricist, but also an ironic author, prone to fantasy and the grotesque, and on occasion a bright and strong satirist. Galczyński's pre-war lyrics are mainly united in " Utwory poetyckie"(1937). Captured by the Germans, the poet spent the years of World War II in a prisoner of war camp, where his health suffered. After the war, Galczynski published books of poetry " Enchanted droshky"("Zaczarowana dorożka", 1948), " Wedding rings"("Ślubne obrączki", 1949), " Lyric poems"("Wiersze liryczne", 1952), poem " Niobe"(Niobe, 1951) and a poem about the medieval Polish sculptor " Wit Stwosh"("Wit Stwosz", 1952). In the post-war years, the poet worked a lot as a satirist - he created the poetic cycle “ Letters with violet"("Listy z fiołkiem", 1948).

There is reason to believe that K.I. Galczynski, whose work is marked by traits of genius, was generally the last in chronology great Polish poet. Among the authors of subsequent generations, modernist attitudes generally prevailed, and creativity acquired a rather rationalistic character. 208 .

This applies even to such major figures as the Polish-Lithuanian poet who received the Nobel Prize (1980). Czeslaw Milosz(1911-2004), who had been in exile since 1951, and Tadeusz Ruzewicz(1921) with his strict program of saving figurative means (refusal of rhyme, poetic rhythm, etc., that is, a transition to vers libre, refusal of metaphors, etc.). Even more indicative in this regard is the work of famous poets of later generations - for example, Stanislav Baranczak(1946), acting in parallel with writing poetry as a literary theorist, and Waldemar Zelazny(1959).

In 1996, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to a Polish poet. Wislawa Szymborska(1923). This act of somewhat belated official recognition prompts us to point to this poetess as a classic woman of modern Polish literature.

The true pride of modern Polish culture is its multifaceted creativity Stanislav Lem(1921-2006). Since 1961, when his science fiction novels were published one after another " Solaris», « Return from the Stars», « Diary found in the bathtub" And " Book of Robots", it became clear what kind of writer (prose writer, philosopher-essayist, critic) appeared in one of the Slavic countries. S. Lem was an innovator who updated the system of genres of native literature. Known all over the world and widely influencing world literary fiction, Lem's work has enormous artistic significance.

If we summarize all of the above, it is deeply obvious that the Slavic world has made a powerful contribution to world verbal culture. The Slavs created the most important literary monuments of the Middle Ages. Slavic writers (primarily Russians) confidently occupy leadership positions in a number of areas of world literary development.

It was bad with evil spirits in Rus'. There have been so many bogatyrs recently that the number of Gorynychs has dropped sharply. Only once did a ray of hope flash for Ivan: an elderly man who called himself Susanin promised to lead him to the very lair of Likh One-Eyed... But he only came across a rickety ancient hut with broken windows and a broken door. On the wall was scratched: “Checked. Likh no. Bogatyr Popovich."

Sergey Lukyanenko, Yuliy Burkin, “Rus Island”

“Slavic monsters” - you must agree, it sounds a bit wild. Mermaids, goblins, water creatures - they are all familiar to us from childhood and make us remember fairy tales. That is why the fauna of “Slavic fantasy” is still undeservedly considered something naive, frivolous and even slightly stupid. Nowadays, when it comes to magical monsters, we more often think of zombies or dragons, although in our mythology there are such ancient creatures, in comparison with which Lovecraft’s monsters may seem like petty dirty tricks.

The inhabitants of Slavic pagan legends are not the joyful brownie Kuzya or the sentimental monster with a scarlet flower. Our ancestors seriously believed in those evil spirits that we now consider worthy only of children's horror stories.

Almost no original source describing fictional creatures from Slavic mythology has survived to our time. Something was covered in the darkness of history, something was destroyed during the baptism of Rus'. What do we have except vague, contradictory and often dissimilar legends of different Slavic peoples? A few mentions in the works of the Danish historian Saxo Grammarian (1150-1220) - once. “Chronica Slavorum” by the German historian Helmold (1125-1177) - two. And finally, we should recall the collection “Veda Slovena” - a compilation of ancient Bulgarian ritual songs, from which one can also draw conclusions about the pagan beliefs of the ancient Slavs. The objectivity of church sources and chronicles, for obvious reasons, is in great doubt.

Book of Veles

The “Book of Veles” (“Veles Book”, Isenbek tablets) has long been passed off as a unique monument of ancient Slavic mythology and history, dating from the 7th century BC - 9th century AD.

Its text was allegedly carved (or burned) onto small wooden strips, some of the “pages” were partially rotten. According to legend, the “Book of Veles” was discovered in 1919 near Kharkov by white colonel Fyodor Isenbek, who took it to Brussels and handed it over to the Slavist Mirolyubov for study. He made several copies, and in August 1941, during the German offensive, the tablets were lost. Versions have been put forward that they were hidden by the Nazis in the “archive of the Aryan past” under Annenerbe, or taken after the war to the USA).

Alas, the authenticity of the book initially raised great doubts, and recently it was finally proven that the entire text of the book was a falsification, carried out in the mid-20th century. The language of this fake is a mixture of different Slavic dialects. Despite the exposure, some writers still use the “Book of Veles” as a source of knowledge.

The only available image of one of the boards of the “Book of Veles”, beginning with the words “We dedicate this book to Veles.”

The history of Slavic fairy-tale creatures may be the envy of other European monsters. The age of pagan legends is impressive: according to some estimates, it reaches 3000 years, and its roots go back to the Neolithic or even Mesolithic - that is, about 9000 BC.

The common Slavic fairy-tale “menagerie” was absent - in different areas they spoke of completely different creatures. The Slavs did not have sea or mountain monsters, but forest and river evil spirits were abundant. There was no gigantomania either: our ancestors very rarely thought about evil giants like the Greek Cyclops or the Scandinavian Jotuns. Some wonderful creatures appeared among the Slavs relatively late, during the period of their Christianization - most often they were borrowed from Greek legends and introduced into national mythology, thus creating a bizarre mixture of beliefs.

Alkonost

According to ancient Greek myth, Alkyone, the wife of the Thessalian king Keik, upon learning of the death of her husband, threw herself into the sea and was turned into a bird, named after her, alkyon (kingfisher). The word “Alkonost” entered the Russian language as a result of a distortion of the ancient saying “alkion is a bird.”

Slavic Alkonost is a bird of paradise with a surprisingly sweet, euphonious voice. She lays her eggs on the seashore, then plunges them into the sea - and the waves calm down for a week. When the eggs hatch, a storm begins. In the Orthodox tradition, Alkonost is considered a divine messenger - she lives in heaven and comes down to convey the highest will to people.

Aspid

A winged snake with two trunks and a bird's beak. Lives high in the mountains and periodically makes devastating raids on villages. He gravitates towards rocks so much that he cannot even sit on damp ground - only on a stone. The asp is invulnerable to conventional weapons; it cannot be killed with a sword or arrow, but can only be burned. The name comes from the Greek aspis - poisonous snake.

Auca

A type of mischievous forest spirit, small, pot-bellied, with round cheeks. Doesn't sleep in winter or summer. He likes to fool people in the forest, responding to their cry of “Aw!” from all sides. Leads travelers into a remote thicket and abandons them there.

Baba Yaga

Slavic witch, popular folklore character. Usually depicted as a nasty old woman with disheveled hair, a hooked nose, a "bone foot", long claws and several teeth in her mouth. Baba Yaga is an ambiguous character. Most often, she acts as a pest, with pronounced tendencies towards cannibalism, but on occasion, this witch can voluntarily help a brave hero by questioning him, steaming him in a bathhouse and giving him magical gifts (or providing valuable information).

It is known that Baba Yaga lives in a deep forest. There stands her hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls. Sometimes it was said that on the gate to Yaga’s house there are hands instead of locks, and the keyhole is a small toothy mouth. Baba Yaga's house is enchanted - you can enter it only by saying: “Hut, hut, turn your front to me, and your back to the forest.”
Like Western European witches, Baba Yaga can fly. To do this, she needs a large wooden mortar and a magic broom. With Baba Yaga you can often meet animals (familiars): a black cat or a crow, helping her in her witchcraft.

The origin of the Baba Yaga estate is unclear. Perhaps it came from Turkic languages, or perhaps derived from the Old Serbian “ega” - disease.

Baba Yaga, bone leg. A witch, an ogress and the first female pilot. Paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov and Ivan Bilibin.

Hut on kurnogi

A forest hut on chicken legs, where there are no windows or doors, is not fiction. This is exactly how hunters from the Urals, Siberia and Finno-Ugric tribes built temporary dwellings. Houses with blank walls and an entrance through a hatch in the floor, raised 2-3 meters above the ground, protected both from rodents hungry for supplies and from large predators. Siberian pagans kept stone idols in similar structures. It can be assumed that a figurine of some female deity, placed in a small house “on chicken legs,” gave rise to the myth of Baba Yaga, who can hardly fit in her house: her legs are in one corner, her head is in the other, and her nose rests into the ceiling.

Bannik

The spirit living in the baths was usually represented as a small old man with a long beard. Like all Slavic spirits, he is mischievous. If people in the bathhouse slip, get burned, faint from the heat, get scalded by boiling water, hear the cracking of stones in the stove or knocking on the wall - all these are the tricks of the bathhouse.

The bannik rarely causes any serious harm, only when people behave incorrectly (wash on holidays or late at night). Much more often he helps them. The Slavs associated the bathhouse with mystical, life-giving powers - they often gave birth here or told fortunes (it was believed that the bannik could predict the future).

Like other spirits, they fed the bannik - they left him black bread with salt or buried a strangled black chicken under the threshold of the bathhouse. There was also a female version of the bannik - bannitsa, or obderiha. A shishiga also lived in the baths - an evil spirit that appears only to those who go to the baths without praying. Shishiga takes the form of a friend or relative, invites a person to steam with her and can steam to death.

Bas Celik (Man of Steel)

A popular character in Serbian folklore, a demon or evil sorcerer. According to legend, the king bequeathed to his three sons to marry their sisters to the first one to ask for their hand in marriage. One night, someone with a thunderous voice came to the palace and demanded the youngest princess as his wife. The sons fulfilled the will of their father, and soon lost their middle and older sister in a similar way.

Soon the brothers came to their senses and went in search of them. The younger brother met a beautiful princess and took her as his wife. Looking out of curiosity into the forbidden room, the prince saw a man chained. He introduced himself as Bash Celik and asked for three glasses of water. The naive young man gave the stranger a drink, he regained his strength, broke the chains, released his wings, grabbed the princess and flew away. Saddened, the prince went in search. He found out that the thunderous voices that demanded his sisters as wives belonged to the lords of dragons, falcons and eagles. They agreed to help him, and together they defeated the evil Bash Celik.

This is what Bash Celik looks like as imagined by W. Tauber.

Ghouls

The living dead rising from their graves. Like any other vampires, ghouls drink blood and can devastate entire villages. First of all, they kill relatives and friends.

Gamayun

Like Alkonost, a divine female bird whose main function is to carry out predictions. The saying “Gamayun is a prophetic bird” is well known. She also knew how to control the weather. It was believed that when Gamayun flies from the direction of sunrise, a storm comes after her.

Gamayun-Gamayun, how long do I have left to live? - Ku. - Why so ma...?

Divya people

Demi-humans with one eye, one leg and one arm. To move, they had to fold in half. They live somewhere on the edge of the world, reproduce artificially, forging their own kind from iron. The smoke of their forges brings with it pestilence, smallpox and fevers.

Brownie

In the most generalized representation - a house spirit, the patron of the hearth, a little old man with a beard (or completely covered with hair). It was believed that every house had its own brownie. In their homes they were rarely called “brownies,” preferring the affectionate “grandfather.”

If people established normal relations with him, fed him (they left a saucer of milk, bread and salt on the floor) and considered him a member of their family, then the brownie helped them do minor housework, looked after the livestock, guarded the household, and warned them of danger.

On the other hand, an angry brownie could be very dangerous - at night he pinched people until they were bruised, strangled them, killed horses and cows, made noise, broke dishes and even set fire to a house. It was believed that the brownie lived behind the stove or in the stable.

Drekavac (drekavac)

A half-forgotten creature from the folklore of the southern Slavs. There is no exact description of it - some consider it an animal, others a bird, and in central Serbia there is a belief that drekavak is the soul of a dead, unbaptized baby. They agree on only one thing - the drekavak can scream terribly.

Usually the drekavak is the hero of children's horror stories, but in remote areas (for example, the mountainous Zlatibor in Serbia) even adults believe in this creature. Residents of the village of Tometino Polie from time to time report strange attacks on their livestock - it is difficult to determine from the nature of the wounds what kind of predator it was. The peasants claim to have heard eerie screams, so a Drekavak is probably involved.

Firebird

An image familiar to us from childhood, a beautiful bird with bright, dazzling fiery feathers (“they burn like heat”). A traditional test for fairy-tale heroes is to get a feather from the tail of this bird. For the Slavs, the firebird was more of a metaphor than a real creature. She personified fire, light, sun, and possibly knowledge. Its closest relative is the medieval bird Phoenix, known both in the West and in Rus'.

One cannot help but recall such an inhabitant of Slavic mythology as the bird Rarog (probably distorted from Svarog - the blacksmith god). A fiery falcon that can also look like a whirlwind of flame, Rarog is depicted on the coat of arms of the Rurikovichs ("Rarogs" in German) - the first dynasty of Russian rulers. The highly stylized diving Rarog eventually began to resemble a trident - this is how the modern coat of arms of Ukraine appeared.

Kikimora (shishimora, mara)

An evil spirit (sometimes the brownie's wife), appearing in the form of a small, ugly old woman. If a kikimora lives in a house behind the stove or in the attic, then it constantly harms people: it makes noise, knocks on walls, interferes with sleep, tears yarn, breaks dishes, poisons livestock. Sometimes it was believed that infants who died without baptism became kikimoras, or kikimoras could be unleashed on a house under construction by evil carpenters or stove makers. A kikimora that lives in a swamp or forest does much less harm - mostly it only scares lost travelers.

Koschey the Immortal (Kashchei)

One of the well-known Old Slavonic negative characters, usually represented as a thin, skeletal old man with a repulsive appearance. Aggressive, vengeful, greedy and stingy. It is difficult to say whether he was a personification of the external enemies of the Slavs, an evil spirit, a powerful wizard, or a unique variety of undead.

It is indisputable that Koschey possessed very strong magic, avoided people and often engaged in the favorite activity of all villains in the world - kidnapping girls. In Russian science fiction, the image of Koshchei is quite popular, and he is presented in different ways: in a comic light (“Island of Rus'” by Lukyanenko and Burkin), or, for example, as a cyborg (“The Fate of Koshchei in the Cyberozoic Era” by Alexander Tyurin).

Koshchei’s “signature” feature was immortality, and far from absolute. As we all probably remember, on the magical island of Buyan (capable of suddenly disappearing and appearing before travelers) there is a large old oak tree on which a chest hangs. There is a hare in the chest, there is a duck in the hare, there is an egg in the duck, and in the egg there is a magic needle where Koshchei’s death is hidden. He can be killed by breaking this needle (according to some versions, by breaking an egg on Koshchei’s head).

Koschey as imagined by Vasnetsov and Bilibin.

Georgy Millyar is the best performer of the roles of Koshchei and Baba Yaga in Soviet fairy tales.

Goblin

Forest spirit, protector of animals. He looks like a tall man with a long beard and hair all over his body. Essentially not evil - he walks through the forest, protects it from people, occasionally shows himself, for which he can take on any form - a plant, a mushroom (a giant talking fly agaric), an animal or even a person. The goblin can be distinguished from other people by two signs - his eyes glow with magical fire, and his shoes are put on backwards.

Sometimes a meeting with a goblin can end in failure - he will lead a person into the forest and throw him to be devoured by animals. However, those who respect nature can even become friends with this creature and receive help from it.

Dashingly one-eyed

Spirit of evil, failure, symbol of grief. There is no certainty regarding Likh’s appearance - he is either a one-eyed giant or a tall, thin woman with one eye in the middle of his forehead. Dashing is often compared to the Cyclopes, although apart from one eye and tall stature, they have nothing in common.

The saying has reached our time: “Don’t wake up Dashing while it’s quiet.” In a literal and allegorical sense, Likho meant trouble - it became attached to a person, sat on his neck (in some legends, the unfortunate person tried to drown Likho by throwing himself into the water, and drowned himself) and prevented him from living.
Likh, however, could be gotten rid of - deceived, driven away by force of will, or, as is occasionally mentioned, given to another person along with some gift. According to very dark superstitions, Likho could come and devour you.

Mermaid

In Slavic mythology, mermaids are a type of mischievous evil spirits. They were drowned women, girls who died near a pond, or people swimming at inopportune times. Mermaids were sometimes identified with “mavkas” (from the Old Slavonic “nav” - dead man) - children who died without baptism or were strangled by their mothers.

The eyes of such mermaids glow with green fire. By their nature, they are nasty and evil creatures, they grab bathing people by the legs, pull them under the water, or lure them from the shore, wrap their arms around them and drown them. There was a belief that a mermaid's laughter could cause death (this makes them look like Irish banshees).

Some beliefs called mermaids the lower spirits of nature (for example, good “beregins”), who have nothing in common with drowned people and willingly save drowning people.

There were also “tree mermaids” living in tree branches. Some researchers classify mermaids as mermaids (in Poland - lakanits) - lower spirits who take the form of girls in transparent white clothes, living in the fields and helping the field. The latter is also a natural spirit - it is believed that he looks like a little old man with a white beard. The field dwells in cultivated fields and usually patronizes peasants - except when they work at noon. For this, he sends midday warriors to the peasants so that they will deprive them of their minds with their magic.

We should also mention the waterwoman - a type of mermaid, a baptized drowned woman who does not belong to the category of evil spirits, and therefore is relatively kind. Waterworts love deep pools, but most often they settle under mill wheels, ride on them, spoil millstones, muddy the water, wash out holes, and tear nets.

It was believed that waterwomen were the wives of mermen - spirits who appeared in the guise of old men with a long green beard made of algae and (rarely) fish scales instead of skin. Bug-eyed, fat, creepy, the merman lives at great depths in whirlpools, commands mermaids and other underwater inhabitants. It was believed that he rode around his underwater kingdom riding a catfish, for which this fish was sometimes called “devil’s horse” among the people.

The merman is not malicious by nature and even acts as a patron of sailors, fishermen or millers, but from time to time he likes to play pranks, dragging a gaping (or offended) bather under the water. Sometimes the merman was endowed with the ability to shapeshift - transform into fish, animals or even logs.

Over time, the image of the merman as the patron of rivers and lakes changed - he began to be seen as a powerful “sea king” living under water in a luxurious palace. From the spirit of nature, the merman turned into a kind of magical tyrant, with whom the heroes of the folk epic (for example, Sadko) could communicate, enter into agreements and even defeat him with cunning.

Mermen as presented by Bilibin and V. Vladimirov.

Sirin

Another creature with the head of a woman and the body of an owl (owl), with a charming voice. Unlike Alkonost and Gamayun, Sirin is not a messenger from above, but a direct threat to life. It is believed that these birds live in the “Indian lands near paradise”, or on the Euphrates River, and sing such songs for the saints in heaven, upon hearing which people completely lose their memory and will, and their ships are wrecked.

It's not hard to guess that Sirin is a mythological adaptation of the Greek Sirens. However, unlike them, the bird Sirin is not a negative character, but rather a metaphor for the temptation of a person with various kinds of temptations.

Nightingale the Robber (Nightingale Odikhmantievich)

A character in late Slavic legends, a complex image combining the features of a bird, an evil wizard and a hero. The Nightingale the Robber lived in the forests near Chernigov near the Smorodina River and for 30 years guarded the road to Kyiv, not letting anyone through, deafening travelers with a monstrous whistle and roar.

The Robber Nightingale had a nest on seven oak trees, but the legend also says that he had a mansion and three daughters. The epic hero Ilya Muromets was not afraid of the adversary and knocked out his eye with an arrow from a bow, and during their battle, the whistle of the Nightingale the Robber knocked down the entire forest in the area. The hero brought the captive villain to Kyiv, where Prince Vladimir, out of curiosity, asked the Nightingale the Robber to whistle - to check whether the rumor about the super-abilities of this villain was true. The nightingale, of course, whistled so loudly that he almost destroyed half the city. After this, Ilya Muromets took him to the forest and cut off his head so that such an outrage would not happen again (according to another version, Nightingale the Robber later acted as Ilya Muromets’ assistant in battle).

For his first novels and poems, Vladimir Nabokov used the pseudonym "Sirin".

In 2004, the village of Kukoboi (Pervomaisky district of the Yaroslavl region) was declared the “homeland” of Baba Yaga. Her “birthday” is celebrated on July 26th. The Orthodox Church sharply condemned the “worship of Baba Yaga.”

Ilya Muromets is the only epic hero canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Baba Yaga is found even in Western comics, for example, “Hellboy” by Mike Mignola. In the first episode of the computer game "Quest for Glory" Baba Yaga is the main plot villain. In the role-playing game “Vampire: The Masquerade,” Baba Yaga is a vampire of the Nosferatu clan (distinguished by ugliness and secrecy). After Gorbachev left the political arena, she came out of hiding and killed all the vampires of the Brujah clan who controlled the Soviet Union.

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It is very difficult to list all the fabulous creatures of the Slavs: most of them have been studied very poorly and represent local varieties of spirits - forest, water or domestic, and some of them were very similar to each other. In general, the abundance of intangible creatures greatly distinguishes the Slavic bestiary from more “mundane” collections of monsters from other cultures
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Among the Slavic “monsters” there are very few monsters as such. Our ancestors led a calm, measured life, and therefore the creatures they invented for themselves were associated with the elementary elements, neutral in their essence. If they opposed people, then, for the most part, they were only protecting Mother Nature and ancestral traditions. Stories of Russian folklore teach us to be kinder, more tolerant, to love nature and respect the ancient heritage of our ancestors.

The latter is especially important, because ancient legends are quickly forgotten, and instead of mysterious and mischievous Russian mermaids, Disney fish-maidens with shells on their breasts come to us. Do not be ashamed to study Slavic legends - especially in their original versions, not adapted for children's books. Our bestiary is archaic and in some sense even naive, but we can be proud of it, because it is one of the most ancient in Europe.