The greatest vampire of world culture. Count Dracula, who is he - biography

Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler or simply Dracula, was a legendary military prince of Wallachia. He ruled the principality three times - in 1448, from 1456 to 1462 and in 1476, during the beginning of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Dracula has become a popular folklore character in many countries of Eastern Europe thanks to his bloody battles and protection Orthodox Christianity from the Ottoman invasion. And at the same time he is one of the most popular and bloody figures in the history of pop culture. The blood-chilling legends of Dracula are known to almost everyone, but what was real Vlad Tepes.

1. Small Motherland

The real historical prototype of Dracula was Vlad III (Vlad the Impaler). He was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania in 1431. Today on his former place birth, a restaurant was built, which annually attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world.

2. Order of the Dragon

Dracula's father was called Dracul, which means "dragon". Also, according to other sources, he had the nickname “devil”. He received a similar name because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Ottoman Empire.

3. Father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa

Although nothing is known about Dracula's mother, it is assumed that his father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa at the time. However, since Vlad II had several mistresses, no one knows who Dracula's real mother was.

4. Between two fires

Dracula lived in a time of constant war. Transylvania was located on the border of two great empires: the Ottoman and Austrian Habsburgs. As a young man he was imprisoned, first by the Turks and later by the Hungarians. Dracula's father was killed, and his older brother Mircea was blinded with red-hot iron stakes and buried alive. These two facts greatly influenced how vile and vicious Vlad later became.

5.Constantine XI Palaiologos

It is believed that the young Dracula spent some time in Constantinople in 1443 at the court of Constantine XI Palaiologos, a legendary character in Greek folklore and the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. Some historians suggest that it was there that he developed his hatred of the Ottomans.

6. Son and heir Mikhnya is evil

It is believed that Dracula was married twice. His first wife is unknown, although she may have been a Transylvanian noblewoman. She bore Vlad a son and heir, the evil Mikhny. Vlad married a second time after serving his prison sentence in Hungary. Dracula's second wife was Ilona Szilágyi, the daughter of a Hungarian nobleman. She bore him two sons, but neither of them became a ruler.

7. Nickname “Tepes”

The nickname “Tepes” translated from Romanian means “piercer”. It appeared 30 years after Vlad's death. Vlad III earned his nickname “Tepes” (from the Romanian word țeapă 0 - “stake”) because he killed thousands of Turks in a gruesome way - impalement. He learned about this execution as a teenager, when he was a political hostage. Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.

8. The worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire

It is believed that Dracula is responsible for the deaths of more than one hundred thousand people (most of them Turks). This made him the worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire.

9. Twenty thousand rotting corpses frightened the Sultan

In 1462, during the war between the Ottoman Empire and Dracula's Wallachia, Sultan Mehmed II fled with his army, horrified by the sight of twenty thousand rotting Turkish corpses impaled on stakes on the outskirts of Vlad's capital, Targovishte. During one battle, Dracula retreated into the nearby mountains, leaving behind him imprisoned prisoners. This forced the Turks to stop their pursuit, since the Sultan could not stand the stench of decaying corpses.

10. Birth of a legend

Impaled corpses were usually displayed as a warning to others. At the same time, the corpses were white because the blood completely flowed out of the wound on the neck. This is where the legend came from that Vlad the Impaler was a vampire.

11. Scorched earth tactics

Dracula also became famous for the fact that during his retreat, he burned villages along the way and killed everyone local residents. Such atrocities were committed so that the soldiers of the Ottoman army had no place to rest and so that there were no women whom they could rape. In an attempt to cleanse the streets of the Wallachian capital Targovishte, Dracula invited all the sick, vagabonds and beggars to one of his houses under the pretext of a feast. At the end of the feast, Dracula left the house, locked it from the outside and set it on fire.

12. Dracula's head went to the Sultan

In 1476, 45-year-old Vlad was eventually captured and beheaded during the Turkish invasion. His head was brought to the Sultan, who put it on public display on the fence of his palace.

13. Remains of Dracula

It is believed that archaeologists who were searching for Snagov (a commune near Bucharest) in 1931 found the remains of Dracula. The remains were transferred to historical Museum in Bucharest, but later they disappeared without a trace, leaving the secrets of the real Prince Dracula unanswered.

14. Dracula was very religious

Despite his cruelty, Dracula was very religious and surrounded himself with priests and monks throughout his life. He founded five monasteries, and his family founded more than fifty monasteries over 150 years. He was initially praised by the Vatican for defending Christianity. However, the church subsequently expressed its disapproval of Dracula's brutal methods and ended its relationship with him.

15. Monstrous Ruler

In Turkey, Dracula is considered a monstrous and vile ruler who executed his enemies in a painful way purely for his own pleasure.

16. Transylvanian subculture

Dracula enjoyed enormous popularity in the second half of the twentieth century. More than two hundred films have been made starring Count Dracula, more than any other historical figure. At the center of this subculture is the legend of Transylvania, which has become almost synonymous with the land of vampires.

17. Dracula and Ceausescu

Former Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu (1965 – 1989) used Dracula in his campaign. To be more precise, he referred to Vlad's patriotism in a speech to the Hungarians and other ethnic minorities in Transylvania.

18. There are no vampires in Romania

Contrary to popular belief, vampires are not part of Romanian folklore and the word does not even exist in the Romanian language. The word comes from the Serbian “Vampyr”.

19. “Like frogs”

According to the book In Search of Dracula, Vlad had a very strange sense of humor. The book tells how his victims often twitched on the stakes “like frogs.” Vlad thought it was funny, and once said of his victims: “Oh, what great grace they show.”

20. Fear and the Golden Cup

In order to prove how much the inhabitants of the principality feared him, Dracula placed a golden cup in the middle of the city square in Targovishte. He allowed people to drink from it, but the golden cup had to remain in its place at all times. Surprisingly, during the entire reign of Vlad, the golden cup was never touched, although sixty thousand people lived in the city, most in conditions of extreme poverty.

Let's decide once and for all. Who is he - the great and terrible Count Dracula...

The Romanian ruler Vlad III, better known as Dracula (1431-1476), came from the family of Basarab the Great, ruler of Wallachia (1310-1352), who in a difficult struggle defended the independence of his state from Hungary.

Vlad III's father, Vlad II, seized the throne in 1436, overthrowing cousin with the support of the Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg. But later, yielding to Turkish pressure, Vlad II was forced to renew his vassal obligations to the Wallachian rulers and send his two sons, Vlad and Radu, as hostages to the Sultan’s court.

Hungary, of course, also increased pressure, and Vlad II constantly had to maneuver, seeking compromises.

However, in 1447 he was killed by order of the regent of the Hungarian kingdom, the legendary Janos Hunyadi, and the Wallachian throne was occupied by a new Hungarian protege.

In 1448, seventeen-year-old Vlad made his first attempt to seize the throne. Taking advantage of the fact that Hunyadi's troops were defeated by the Turks, Vlad, with Turkish help, reigned under the name of Vlad III.

Vlad III gained “world fame” during his lifetime. Mainly - thanks to frantic courage and equally frantic bloodthirstiness, which even in a dark era Late Renaissance seemed pathological. He was unimaginably cruel to his enemies, allies, and subjects: he chopped off their heads, burned them, tore off their skin, forced them to commit cannibalism, boiled them alive, ripped open their bellies, impaled them, etc. and so on. Dracula was especially good at impalement.
One day, without any reason, he attacked his own innocent city and killed 10 thousand subjects under torture. Many of them were impaled - so he earned another nickname - “tepes”, or “impaler”.

During the wildest of the massacres he organized in 1460, on St. Bartholomew's Day in one of the cities of Transylvania, 30 thousand people were impaled.

Count Dracula was more than just a sadist

His cruel punishments had some political meaning. For example, when the envoys of the Turkish court dared not to remove their headdresses in his presence, he ordered the turbans to be nailed to their heads, which was undoubtedly a defiantly bold demonstration of independence. Depending on the social status of the condemned, the stakes varied in length, diameter, color, and they were used to make whimsical geometric figures- something like a “garden of torture”, where Vlad III loved to feast at his leisure, and the cadaverous stench and groans of those in agony did not at all spoil his appetite. That is why Vlad III entered the history of Romania under the nickname “Tepes” (lit. “Impaler”).

Even in a Hungarian prison, Vlad III, according to the ancient Russian “Tale of Dracula the Voivode,” remained true to his passions: he caught or bought mice and birds, which he tortured, impaled and beheaded. The fury of Vlad III (in German sources he is called "wutrich" - "furious", "monster", "fierce"), it seems, was fairly tired not only of his enemies, but also of his subjects, and in 1476 they killed Tepes at the age of 45. His severed head was preserved in honey and delivered as a trophy to the Sultan. According to the 15th century version, Vlad III was mistaken for a Turk in battle and, surrounded, pierced with spears, which, having noticed the mistake, was greatly regretted.

But if everything was so, then why did Vlad III, having managed to kill five attackers, not have time to explain to the others that he was their commander? And why did the “grieving” compatriots, trumpeting the head of the dead ruler, send it to the Sultan?

Some saw in him the national hero of Romania, a defender against Muslim expansion, a fighter against boyar abuses (C. Giurescu), others considered Vlad III an unprincipled tyrant, no different from other “Machiavellian” sovereigns of the Late Renaissance, and called him a “terrorist” ruler. , the forerunners of Stalin and Hitler (R. McNally and R. Florescu).

However, by all accounts, Dracula acquired his reputation as a vampire warlock only at the end of the 19th century - thanks to the imagination and talent of Bram Stoker (1847-1912), the author famous novel"Dracula" (1897). Indeed, in written sources there is no mention of warlocks and vampirism of the Wallachian ruler. But if we take into account the specifics of these sources, it turns out that the fantasies of the English novelist were by no means groundless.

Therefore, information about Dracula should be interpreted not only in the historical-pragmatic aspect, but - and above all - in the mythological one. This concerns the name itself, or rather the nickname of Vlad III Dracula. Fyodor Kuritsyn, the alleged author of “The Tale of Dracula the Voivode,” characterizing Vlad III, directly says that “the name is Dracula in the Vlash language, and ours is the Devil. Here the Russian scribe of the 15th century makes a mistake, although not a fundamental one. In Romanian, “devil” is “dracul”, and “Dracula” is “son of the devil”.

The nickname "Dracul" was given to the father of Vlad III, but historians traditionally explain that the connection with evil spirits has nothing to do with it.

It is no coincidence that local peasants, who had never heard of Stoker’s novel, considered Dracula’s Castle an unclean place even in the 20th century.

Of course, there is reason to believe that the soldiers of Vlad III turned their spears against the ruler out of fear and revenge or for the sake of a Turkish reward, and cut off their head in order to send it to the Sultan and thereby curry favor or visually confirm the fulfillment of the “order” - the head of Tepes was exhibited in Istanbul on public view. But despite all this, Dracula’s warriors acted exactly as custom prescribed to deal with vampires: the bloodsucker’s body had to be pierced with a sharp weapon, and the head had to be separated from the body.

From this point of view, the story of Dracula's tomb is also characteristic. Vlad III was buried not far from the place of his death - in the Orthodox Snagov monastery, which his family patronized.

P.S. So Dracula is not a vampire, but a mere mortal!

Count Dracula is a character known to perhaps everyone. Today we invite you to take a closer look at this hero and find out whether he really existed.

First mentions

The name Count Dracula was first used in 1897 in a novel by Irish writer Abraham "Bram" Stoker. This was the name of the main antagonist of the work - an evil vampire-bloodsucker who lives in a gloomy castle and cannot stand daylight. In reality, such a person did not exist, and the famous Romanian prince, Prince of Wallachia, Vlad III Tepes, became a kind of prototype for the hero of the book. Translated from Romanian, “tepesh” means “impaler.” This nickname didn't just arise out of nowhere. When dealing with his enemies, the count ordered them to be impaled on stakes. As a result, the victim could suffer for hours, and sometimes days. “Draco” is translated from Latin as “devil,” so the name of Count Dracula, as the prototype of the main villain of Stoker’s novel, is not unreasonable.

The Story of Dracula

As mentioned earlier, Vlad III was a tough ruler, fought with the boyars for the centralization of power, and went on campaigns against the Turks. It is known that the ruler allowed the peasants to arm themselves in order to increase the possibility of resistance to the hated Turkish raids. As a result of the refusal to pay tribute to the Turkish Sultan, a large army of the Ottoman Empire tried to enter the principality, but their advance was successfully stopped, not without the help of the population.

Legends about the Muntyansky governor

Being a strict but fair ruler, Count Dracula aroused fear and respect of his subjects. There are several stories that are documented by records in archives and chronicles or orally transmitted by the inhabitants of those regions from generation to generation. The most famous of them tells the story of a merchant who was robbed at the market. A thief stole a merchant's wallet. He complained to Vlad III Tepes. The thief was quickly found and, in the traditional way for the ruler, was punished by impaling him. And the wallet was thrown to the merchant, adding one extra coin. Having counted the contents, the merchant informed the ruler that there was extra money there. Count Vladislav Dracula grinned and said: “If you had kept silent, you would have been sitting next to your offender!” Another story tells that in those days there were many beggars in Romania. Count Dracula brought them all together in big hall, fed him, gave him something to drink, and after a hearty dinner he asked the question: “Do you want to stop your worldly torment?” Many answered in the affirmative, after which the ruler ordered the hall filled with people to be set on fire. Another story tells of a golden bowl placed near a fountain right in the city. Anyone could drink water from it, and no one even thought of stealing it. Probably the population of Wallachia was very frightened by public executions, and no one wanted to die by being impaled.

Where did the legendary ruler live?

On a modern map you will not find Wallachia, the principality that was once ruled by Vlad III the Impaler. Today it is part of the modern European country of Romania. Wallachia was located in the south of the Carpathians, reaching the Danube River. This region is very picturesque, has a wonderful beautiful nature. The charm of mountains, rivers, fresh air You will remember it for a long time if you decide to go to this area. One of the places that is highly recommended to visit is the city of Brasov. It is here that the famous castle of Count Dracula, Bran, is located. Historians have no evidence that it was the permanent residence of Vlad the Impaler. However, the information that while visiting the Principality of Transylvania, Count Dracula stayed at Bran Castle cannot be refuted. Tourists who have been here claim that groans and screams can be heard in the corridors and rooms of the building, and in the morning the smell of blood is in the air. Thus, for such a modern state as Romania, Count Dracula to this day is a means of replenishing the treasury.

The exploits of the Romanian prince

If you stop thinking about Dracula as a vampire for a minute and turn to historical information to encyclopedias and archives, it will become clear that Vlad III Tepes was a rather stubborn, strict, but competent commander, a true patriot. Born in 1430 (some historians say 1431), he became the main contender for the throne of Wallachia, whose territory was claimed by Catholic Hungary and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Already at the age of thirteen, Count Vladislav Dracula takes part in the Battle of Varna. At seventeen, with the help of the Turks, he ascends to the throne of Wallachia. But he does not manage to rule for long. Only in 1456 Tepes took the place of ruler for a long time. After four years, he decides to stop paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Mehmet, personally acquainted with Vlad III the Impaler, was surprised by this act and sent a huge army to deal with the apostate prince. To the surprise of the Sultan, small Wallachia, headed by a bloodthirsty ruler, gave a serious rebuff to the Janissary army. Count Dracula's castle was besieged by hordes of enemies, but the attacks were repulsed, and as a result the Turks had to return home empty-handed.

Display in early cinema

IN modern films, thanks to the advent of computer special effects, Count Dracula was transformed and began to look even more terrifying. A worthy film is Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1997, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film retells the book by an Irish writer. The role of the main protagonist was played by Gary Oldman. Cast The film is very impressive: Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves fit into their roles perfectly. The most recent film is “Count Dracula” released in 2014. The plot in it deviated somewhat from classic movie horror. Present here love story and a story about the dashing campaigns of the Romanian governor, who protects native land from the Turkish invaders. And in this interpretation, he received his unearthly power from an ancient vampire. In addition, in the 2014 movie “Count Dracula” there are inconsistencies related to the marital status and names of the count’s children.

Dracula in modern cinema

In modern films, thanks to the advent of computer special effects, Count Dracula has changed and began to look even more terrifying. A worthy film is Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1997, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film retells the book by an Irish writer. The role of the main protagonist was played by Gary Oldman. The film's cast is quite impressive: Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves fit into their roles perfectly. The most recent film is “Count Dracula” released in 2014. The plot in it somewhat departed from the classic horror film. There is a love story and a story about the dashing campaigns of the Romanian commander, who protects his native land from the Turkish invaders. And in this interpretation, he received his unearthly power from an ancient vampire. In addition, the 2014 movie Count Dracula contains inconsistencies related to marital status and the names of the count's children.

Role in modern culture

In recent decades, we have been increasingly influenced by western culture. It was once alien to us, but today many of its features have become firmly established in our lives. Thus, various holidays came to us from the West, which were not previously celebrated in our area. One of them is Halloween (All Hallows' Eve). Traditionally, on this day, people celebrating it dress up in carnival costumes. Necessary requirement The outfit includes a “horrible” or “mystical” theme. The Count Dracula costume occupies a leading position in the ranking of Halloween costumes. Moreover, it is quite simple and consists of a long cloak with a standing collar and fangs. Thus, a person wearing such a costume will look like Dracula the vampire from the movie and have the appearance of a bloodsucker familiar to our eyes.

Considering the time in which Count Dracula lived, a photo with this legendary character does not exist. However, there are paintings and frescoes with his images. For fans of similar themes, the outfit of Vlad III Tepes in festive evening will make a lasting impression. And true connoisseurs of the genre and history will only confirm its irresistible appearance.

Vampire or not?

As far as we know, a vampire is someone who drinks the blood of others. Count Dracula gained the image of a bloodsucker thanks to the novel and subsequent films based on it. The prototype of the book's hero, Vlad III Tepes, was not convicted of drinking human or anyone else's blood. However, being a strict and sometimes cruel ruler of his lands, he often punished and executed people who were guilty of even small things. And the executions were terrible and demonstrative, so that others would be discouraged from repeating the atrocities. Perhaps because of these bloody massacres, the image of the vampire Dracula is associated with the image of the Romanian medieval prince. In any case, regardless of whether he drank blood or not, today the most famous vampire in the world is Dracula, created by a writer from Ireland, whom the reader first met back in 1897. Vlad Tepes became the prototype of a hero, nothing more. Therefore, you should not believe in the supernatural powers of the Prince of Wallachia, even despite the very a vivid biography this ruler, his exploits and legends about him.

A few final words

Vlad III Tepes Dracula lived more than five hundred years ago, and his memory is still alive. The “blame” for this is Count Dracula, photos, videos and other materials about whom have filled the media space today. Famous character created a whole direction in cinema and art. And today, every year, films and TV series are released where the main characters are bloodthirsty bloodsuckers. The vampire Dracula inspired hundreds of historians to want to explore some useful and interesting information about the ruler of Wallachia in the 15th century - Prince Vlad III. Thus, some of the historical gaps have been filled.

A man died. We put him in the grave -

And with him the good that he managed to do.

And we remember only what was bad in him.

William Shakespeare

Stories, chronicles, chronicles, legends... In all these sources, Vlad Dracula appears as a cruel ruler, a tyrant. But where did the legends that he was a vampire come from?

You may be disappointed, but the real Dracula did not drink blood. In Romania, where children study the history of the reign of this prince in schools and a monument to the Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler is erected, and a small town near Bucharest is named after him, almost everyone knows this. Perhaps he was a cruel ruler. Sources claim that he burned, flayed, ripped open bellies, chopped off arms and legs, cut off noses, drove nails into the head and, of course, huge quantities impaled But to drink blood...

Vlad was slandered by the Irishman Bram Stoker when the writer needed a name for the main character of his new novel about vampires. A Budapest professor he knew, who, as a reward for his assistance in writing the book, became the prototype of the vampire fighter in the novel, suggested to the author the name of Dracula, whose reputation corresponded to the coloring of the novel.

The novel was published in 1897 and became a bestseller. Then the image of the vampire Count Dracula was picked up by cinema and, due to its effectiveness, became extremely popular. There are hundreds of films about Dracula, and new ones are appearing all the time. Naturally, the film image is infinitely far from the real appearance of the historical Tepes.

Stoker's hero is also far from the real appearance of Dracula. Apart from the name and the approximate location of the action, there is nothing real left in the novel. Dracula is called a count in the novel, although even without being a ruler, that is, a prince, he had the right to the title of duke. Northern Transylvania is named as his place of residence in the novel, but in reality Vlad was mainly associated with southern regions of this country, was the ruler of Wallachia. No legends ever connected Dracula with vampirism, although his name was associated with myths about werewolves, which in the 19th century were intertwined with myths about vampires.

However, Stoker did not write his sensational novel from scratch; he relied on the same folklore, the collection of which he devoted a lot of time and effort. Did these legends arise during the lifetime of Vlad the Impaler - or did this happen later?

In the mentioned Russian “The Tale of Dracula the Voivode” there are many mystical moments: for example, the following story is told there: “The craftsmen made iron barrels for him (Dracula); he filled them with gold and plunged them into the river. And he ordered those masters to be hacked to pieces so that no one would know about his damnation except his namesake, the devil.” It would seem that, in comparison with other described acts of Dracula, his murder of the masters seems like an ordinary crime, and one may wonder why it is here that the author of the “Tale” remembers the devil. The point is probably that this episode indicates the witchcraft, satanic qualities of the governor. After all, according to folklore, treasures are hidden by robbers and sorcerers, robbers use magical objects, eat human flesh, know how to transform into animals and birds, they know forbidden words that people, animals and objects obey. Folklore robbers not only know how to rob, they know how to store the loot. Such knowledge is not available to every mortal and, judging by folklore texts, this knowledge is magical. In Rus' there was also a belief that treasures are hidden with a vow and are given only to those who fulfill the vow, and according to Romanian legends, one of the reasons for the restlessness of a dead person is the treasures hidden during his lifetime. With the help of the above episode, the author of the “Tale” seems to emphasize that the Wallachian ruler is not just the namesake of the devil, but also acts like a sorcerer, by definition associated with the devil. So the story of Dracula burying a treasure followed by the murder of witnesses echoes a whole layer similar stories about sorcerers.

It also seems interesting that in later legends about the death of Dracula, sources are surprisingly unanimous about what happened to the prince’s body after death: he was pierced through and then his head was cut off - according to one version, to be sent to the Turkish Sultan as a sign of devotion. However, any fan of the horror genre knows that this is exactly what should be done with the bodies of vampires. The legend that the monks buried Dracula so that those entering would trample the ashes underfoot also became popular.

Another reason why the idea that Dracula became a vampire spread was the story of Vlad’s conversion to Catholicism. There is no documentary evidence of this; on the contrary, Tepes was buried not as a Catholic, but as an Orthodox Christian, in a monastery. But, nevertheless, a legend spread that Volodar, who was languishing in prison, was forced to convert to Catholicism in order to gain freedom. For the authors of German printed brochures, this act of his served as a reason for some justification of Dracula, in accordance with the widespread story of a villain (robber, tyrant) who reformed after baptism and repentance. Romanians, on the contrary, have a belief: an Orthodox Christian who renounces his faith will certainly become a vampire, because when converting to Catholicism, an Orthodox Christian, although he retained the right to receive communion with the Body of Christ, refused to receive Communion by Blood, since for Catholics double communion is the privilege of the clergy. Accordingly, the apostate had to strive to compensate for the “damage,” and since betrayal of faith does not occur without diabolical intervention, then the method of “compensation” is chosen according to the diabolical prompting. In the 15th century, the topic of apostasy was very relevant. It was then, for example, that the Hussites fought with all Catholic knighthood, defending the “right of the Cup” (that is, the right to partake of the Blood of Christ, being lay Catholics), for which they were nicknamed “Cupmen.” The fight against the “cupmen” was led by Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, and just when Dracula’s father became the “Dragon Knight”.

It turns out that the vampire’s sinister reputation could have developed during the lifetime of the Wallachian governor. Contemporaries could well see a ghoul in Dracula, but it should be borne in mind that their idea of ​​vampires was significantly different from the current one, which developed thanks to literature and cinema. In the 15th century, the ghoul was considered a sorcerer, a warlock, who necessarily entered into an alliance with the devil for the sake of worldly benefits. Such a vampire sorcerer needs blood to perform magical rituals. For example, a contemporary of Dracula, the famous Gilles de Rais, Marshal of France, who went down in history thanks to savage executions and torture, was suspected of witchcraft: it was assumed that he, being a magician, used the blood and entrails of victims. It is possible that the bloody reprisals of Vlad the Impaler were perceived in a similar way - the apostate sorcerer was all the more supposed to be sophisticatedly cruel, voluptuously experiment with human body and blood. There is an interesting parallel in Russian literature: the werewolf sorcerer from Gogol’s story “ Terrible revenge“is an apostate, and he converted specifically to Catholicism, and he, like Dracula, keeps countless treasures in the ground.

One should not take legends lightly, because just a few decades ago such an attitude towards vampires would have caused indignation among many residents of Transylvania. For them and their ancestors, a vampire (aka ghoul, ghoul, vukodlak) was not at all a scary fairy tale. It was often perceived much more prosaically - as a very specific misfortune, something like a deadly contagious disease. It was in Transylvania and the surrounding areas of Southern Europe that people for centuries believed in the existence of the living dead and cited many cases, often confirmed by dozens of witnesses, to confirm their belief.

To summarize these, in general, similar stories, the following picture emerges. Vampires, as a rule, become people who have renounced Christ, but are buried in land consecrated according to Christian rites. (And this, according to legend, was the case with Vlad the Impaler). They cannot find peace and take revenge on the living. Interestingly, vampires prefer to attack their relatives and close friends.

Vampirism in the views of the inhabitants of Transylvania really resembles a contagious disease - after death, a person bitten by a vampire turns into a vampire. Interestingly, cases of the transmission of vampirism through animals have been described. The bite mark resembles a leech bite, but is located on the neck or in the heart area. If timely measures are not taken, the victim begins to quickly lose strength and dies for no other apparent reason in one to two weeks. Measures to treat a person attacked by a vampire folk tradition offers quite specific ones. These are by no means garlic flowers, a cross and protective prayers as in Stoker’s novel. In Southern Europe, the main and most effective remedy in such a situation was considered to be soil from the grave of a vampire, mixed with his blood. This potion should be rubbed on the bite site, and the vampire itself must be destroyed. But it must first be discovered. To do this, it is enough to dig up all the suspicious graves, there is a vampire hiding, who is easy to distinguish from an ordinary dead person. The vampire's body is not subject to decay and rigor mortis, the limbs remain flexible, and the eyes are usually open. His nails and hair continue to grow, and his mouth is full of fresh blood.

The most tested and widespread means of exterminating vampires in Transylvania, as in many other places, is considered to be an aspen stake, which must be driven into the ghoul’s heart. However, this measure is not always sufficient. Therefore, the stake is usually combined with cutting off the head and subsequent burning of the corpse. Shooting with silver bullets among the “experts” is considered nothing more than ridiculous amateurish fantasies in the style of Hollywood Westerns. It is interesting that in stories about the appearance of vampires and the fight against them, it is extremely rare to find a mention of a priest and there is practically no reference to the Church Sacraments as a means of protection from the living dead. It seems that everything connected with vampires and the belief in their existence is the product of the most dark side folk fantasy, which is still closely associated with paganism. At the same time, sometimes stories about vampires and their victims become a form of folk humor. Thus, along with numerous ominous legends, there is a well-known story about a cowardly peasant who happened to be returning home late at night past a village cemetery. Having reached the outermost graves, he heard someone gnawing on a bone. The peasant was terribly frightened, deciding that he heard sounds accompanying the terrible meal of the vampire. Remembering the remedies recommended in such cases, our brave man decided to get closer and rub himself with earth from the grave of the alleged vampire. Carefully making his way through the cemetery towards the sound, he actually saw a dug hole. Holding his breath, the peasant came closer and saw a dog gnawing on a bone. He barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief when the dog, deciding that the stranger wanted to take the bone, rushed at him and bit him on the hand. Based on the plot of this folk joke by A.S. Pushkin wrote a humorous poem "Ghoul".

Poor Vanya was a bit of a coward:

Since he is late sometimes,

All sweaty, pale with fear,

I walked home through the cemetery.

Poor Vanya can barely breathe,

Stumbling, wandering a little

By graves; suddenly he hears -

Someone is gnawing on a bone, grumbling.

Vanya became; – can’t step.

God! the poor man thinks

This is true, it gnaws at the bones

Red-lipped ghoul.

Woe! I'm small and not strong;

The ghoul will eat me completely,

If the earth itself is grave

I won’t eat with prayer.

What? instead of a ghoul -

(Just imagine Vanya’s anger!)

In the dark there is a dog in front of him

There is a bone gnawing on the grave.

Jokes are jokes, legends are legends, but Vlad Tepes finally became a vampire after all. light hand Bram Stoker, in late XIX century. This was a time when writers actively used folk tales and ancient sources as the basis for his works. Stoker himself for a long time explored folk beliefs to use them in the novel, got acquainted with historical sources. It is interesting that at the same time two more, undoubtedly much more talented writers, turned to the “vampire” theme: Prosper Merimee and Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. However, their “Lokis” and “The Ghoul” did not entail such a long series of sequels, retellings, and film adaptations as Stoker’s “Dracula”. Its success is due not only to the literary merits of the book, but to the amazing, one hundred percent hit in the choice of the hero - the peculiar charm of the real Vlad the Impaler, the ruler of the Wallachian Dracula.

Thanks to numerous film adaptations of Stoker's novel, the image of Dracula has become a kind of symbol of Transylvania. A “medieval” castle was built on the site where Vlad allegedly lived. It hosts annually international festival Dracula. Of course, this festival has nothing to do with the horrors of a real “black mass” and is more reminiscent of the famous American Halloween. A huge “Draculaland” has been built in Romania, where you can join horror-style entertainment... Thus, Dracula from a national hero almost officially turned into a kind of Romanian brand. The city in which Vlad the Impaler was born - Sighisoara - became the universal capital of vampirism.

Draculamania is spreading and attracting scientists too. Thus, in 1994, a group of Romanian historians established the Transylvanian Dracula Society - “an association that stands outside politics and the desire to generate income, but is entirely devoted to analyzing the phenomenon of the penetration of the Western European myth of Dracula into Romania.” Although mercantile issues turned out to be not alien to historians, since most of the tourist routes along the “footsteps of military glory” of Vlad the Impaler are run by society. The Dracula Society holds a very representative international scientific congress in Sighisoara every four years. Of course, there are more than 4 thousand clubs of the Count’s fans in the world alone!

Many novels and stories, articles in newspapers and magazines, and even many volumes are devoted to the mythical Dracula scientific literature. The filmography of "Draculiades" today includes about a hundred films - from screen masterpieces to outright parodies. Not to mention the many role-playing computer games like “Camarilla”, “Masquerade”, “Dracula” and others.

But no matter how the popular cultural myth about “Count Dracula” spreads, we should not forget that Vlad Tepes was a real historical ruler, an extraordinary and controversial person, unlike any of his screen and literary heroes. Take a look at the lifetime portrait of Dracula. The man depicted on the canvas does not at all look like a bloodthirsty sadist and maniac. There is something philosophical in the expression of his face, marked by deep intelligence and strong will, and with the combination of smiling eyes and a sarcastic mouth, he resembles Montaigne (judging by the portraits of the latter that have come down to us), who lived a century later. Large, suffering ones attract attention, beautiful eyes Vlada. It can be assumed that this man suffered severe trials and hardships, that he is a martyr rather than a monster, a victim rather than an executioner.

Let's start with the fact that Count Dracula is the literary hero of the Irish writer Bram Stoker, who created the image of a vampire in his novel “Dracula”. As it turns out, the count is not a count at all, but a prince, because he ruled the principality of Wallachia, and not the county. This is to restore historical justice.

According to legend, Prince Dracula was distinguished by unprecedented cruelty: he drank blood, tore off the skin of living people, impaled thousands, pierced their stomachs, nailed turbans to the heads of the Turks, burned people alive, and then calmly feasted amid all this bacchanalia.

This is how one of the most mysterious personalities Middle Ages - Son of the Dragon (Dracul means dragon in Romanian), Prince of Darkness, Son of the Devil - tyrant and vampire - Count Dracula, nicknamed Tepes, which literally means “impaled”.

All these atrocities are attributed to him thanks to Irish writer Bram Stoker, who created such an image in his novel Dracula. The idea of ​​writing such a novel was given to him by his friend, the Hungarian professor Arminius Vambery. In gratitude for this, Stoker recreated his friend in the novel in the image of Van Helsing, an implacable fighter against vampires.

The novel was written in 1897. At this time, myths and legends about vampires were very popular. Most Europeans truly believed in their existence. Bram Stoker created the image of a tyrant and bloodsucker at the most opportune moment. The seeds fell into fertile soil.

Earlier, Russian diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn (died after 1500) added fuel to the fire. He wrote the book “The Tale of Dracula,” which described in great detail the incredible and simply impossible sadistic tendencies of the count. The horrors described by F. Kuritsyn were not accepted in Russia. The book was banned. But one day it accidentally fell into the hands of the young Ivan the Terrible, who studied it carefully (you can imagine a child happily studying methods of torture and execution methods). This book became for I. Grozny a reference manual and a guide to governing the state - the state of Russia. I. Grozny even surpassed literary hero in the methods and methods of execution described by F. Kuritsyn. He made a significant contribution to improving the methods and methods of torture and execution.

Who was Dracula really and why do Romanians still consider him a hero, a fighter against numerous external and internal enemies for the freedom and independence of your homeland?

Vlad was born in 1431 in Transylvania, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1436 his father, also Vlad only the second (Vlad Dracula was the third), became the ruler of Wallachia - a small principality, note the principalities, not the counties, on the territory of modern Romania. Therefore, Count Dracula is not a count at all, but a prince.

Vlad's father had three sons. Their destinies turned out differently, but they cannot be called happy. As a result of a conspiracy and a coup d'etat, the eldest son and father were killed and buried alive. Radu's younger brother betrayed his faith, became the favorite of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed, led the Turkish army and marched with him against his brother Vlad, who was ready to destroy all of Turkey for the shame and humiliation Radu experienced in Turkish captivity.

Once in one of the battles, Vlad, fighting with a Turk, knocked off his turban from his head. Imagine his surprise when he saw features so dear to him. I must say that he loved his brother very much. In that battle, he spared Rada, thereby signing his own death warrant. Can you imagine: a tyrant, a ghoul, a murderer lowers the sword that has already been raised over the head of his enemy, sparing his life, and at the same time knows that this weakness shown on the battlefield will destroy him. And so it happened. The time will come and Radu will not spare him. So who is the scoundrel and the murderer? But that will come later.

Vlad himself spent most of his life either fighting on the battlefield or in prison: as a child - Turkish, as an adult - Hungarian, where his best friend, the Hungarian King Matthias, hid him. His entire life passed in an atmosphere of slander and betrayal. No one spared him: neither enemies, nor friends, nor relatives - everyone was against him. He was alone. And no one could or wanted to help him.

Vlad Dracula is the only bright personality among all this medieval obscurantism.

As a sign of loyalty to the Turkish Sultan, his father sent Vlad and Rada (Vlad's younger and beloved brother) to Turkey as hostages. Vlad stayed in Turkey for more than 10 years. I learned the language and Turkish customs and gained a lot a good education, learned the art of war.

While in captivity, Vlad saw how the Turks executed Christians by impaling them. The victims died a painful death for many hours.

After his father and older brother Mircea were executed in Wallachia as a result of a conspiracy and a coup d'etat, burying them alive in a grave, the throne was vacant and the Sultan decided that it would be better for him if Vlad were the ruler of Wallachia. He sent him back to conquer the throne that was already his by right.

While he was in captivity, the boyars managed to install their own man at the head of the state. With battles, Vlad Dracula regained his throne. Having become the ruler of Wallachia, he vowed to take revenge on the boyars for the death of his father and brother, and fulfilled this promise. He killed all the boyars who participated in the conspiracy and execution of his father and brother. The second oath is to take revenge on the Turks for the humiliation of their people and younger brother, executing as many enemies as possible with their favorite execution. This is what he later did, impaling thousands of Turks, and thus receiving the nickname Tepes (impaler). And the third oath is to liberate your homeland from Turkish oppression. And he will fulfill this oath too. He eventually liberated his homeland from the Ottoman yoke. Thanks to him, the Romanian people became free. Therefore, Romanians still honor him as a national hero and do not believe in the fables about the vampire Dracula.

Having headed the state, Vlad Dracula quickly restored order there. He issued a law according to which, for theft, murder and other serious crimes, the perpetrators faced one punishment - death by burning at the stake. The theft was over. According to legend, money and other valuables could be safely left anywhere and no one would even think about touching them. There was not a single thief in the country. It is a well-known fact that Vlad left a golden cup in every city near a source of drinking water so that everyone could drink from it, but no one dared to steal it, because the punishment was death. At the beginning of Dracula's reign, order in the country was truly maintained by fear. But Dracula had no other choice. Too many enemies and too little time.

In addition, he carried out a number of other reforms. In particular, he imposed a heavy duty on foreign merchants, but gave his own merchants greater freedom of action. He built many castles, monasteries, laid the foundations of the future capital of Romania - Bucharest, and much more. The country began to rise. Only Turkish domination overshadowed it.

The power of the Turks in Europe was increasing. Many Christians, saving their lives, were forced to convert to their faith - Islam. The Pope could not come to terms with this situation. He decided to attempt a Crusade against the Turks. But only Hungary and little Wallachia, led by Dracula, agreed to fight the Turkish Empire.

All the money allocated by the Pope for military needs was appropriated by the Hungarian King Matthias, “safely” squandered it and actually did not participate in the war. Vlad got nothing. But he was so happy about the opportunity to take revenge on the Turks and get rid of them that he happily agreed to participate in the Crusade. Other states refused, fearing Turkish revenge, preferring to continue to be under their yoke and pay them tribute.

Dracula was left alone. His army consisted of 30,000 soldiers, the Turks had almost 10 times more - 250,000 people.

Given this ratio, fighting in open battle would be tantamount to defeat, so Dracula chose the tactics of guerrilla warfare. His small mobile detachments quickly moved around the country, attacking the Turks in unexpected places and at unexpected times, defeating the enemy outnumbered. In addition, Dracula chose a scorched earth tactic. Wherever the Turkish troops came, they found desert land and poisoned water sources. No food, no drink. The Turks died by the thousands from poisoning, thirst and hunger.

Victory was already close. But Matthias, in order to somehow justify himself to Pius II and account for what he received a large amount money, he appropriated the victory for himself, slandering Dracula. He presented Vlad as a tyrant, a bloodsucker, an apostate and a traitor. The pinnacle of his “creativity” was the arrest of Vlad. Best friend put Vlad behind bars for 12 long years. The Pope was satisfied with this report, and he did not thoroughly understand this whole story. Apart from this fabricated denunciation, history knows no other evidence of Dracula’s atrocities. There are not even cities whose names were mentioned in the denunciation of the Hungarian king.

Thus, Vlad's victories were in vain. Matthias, having agreed with the Sultan, did not fight with him, and to the throne of Transylvania, according to their mutual consent was imprisoned brother Vlada - Radu.

During Radu's reign, Romania completely submitted to Turkey. Christians adopted Islam en masse. This greatly alarmed Siesta 4, the new Pope. He then remembered Vlad Dracula. He freed him from prison and sent him on a new Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. But the condition for release must be Dracula's apostasy. He had to renounce Orthodoxy and accept Catholicism. In addition, he had to marry cousin Matthias Corvinus - the man who slandered him before the Pope and the entire Romanian people.

For the sake of your freedom and new opportunity to take revenge, Vlad unconditionally accepted all the conditions of release. He led the Hungarian troops and successfully dealt with the Turks in Transylvania and Wallachia, again becoming its ruler.

Prince Dracula died in battle, but not at the hands of his enemies. They could not defeat him in open conflict. There was no fighter among the Turks who could defeat him in battle. He fell victim to a conspiracy by his own boyars, his beloved brother Radu and the Turkish Sultan. Once in one of the battles, while finishing off the remnants of the Turkish army, he was stabbed in the back. They struck. Dracula was only 45 years old. They betrayed everything that the Son of the Dragon, the Prince of Darkness, the Son of the Devil, Prince Dracula and himself fought for. The monks buried Vlad in a chapel built by Dracula himself, but someone buried his remains, so no one knows where the “vampire” Dracula now rests.

This whole fictitious story about the atrocities of Count Tepes and Prince of Wallachia Vlad Dracula can be considered a myth. In fact, his whole life was devoted to the struggle for the independence of his homeland and the freedom of the Romanian people against the Turkish yoke.

Many Romanians, having watched the film about Dracula, were surprised to learn that their national hero such terrible atrocities are attributed to him that he actually never committed against his people, but he did not spare enemies and invaders and dealt with them the same way they dealt with the Romanian people. That's why it's war.
Currently, there is a restaurant in the house where Vlad was born. At the entrance there is an image of a dragon - the family coat of arms of the Dracula family. Romanian peasants still remember with nostalgia the period of Dracula's reign. Because under him, hominy was cooked not in water, but in milk. Milk was cheaper than water back then. Even now, a song is popular among the people, in which there are the following words: Where are you Tepes - our God? Come and set us free.