Slavic paganism. Folklore

Let us remember the system that I spoke about, that Slavic mythology consists of three levels - higher, middle and lower. The highest level is the pantheon of gods established by Prince Vladimir in 980, the middle level is the gods of the Slavic tribe, seasonal gods (Kostroma, Yarila) and abstract gods (Krivda, Pravda, Dolya). The average gods are either new or disappear. Some believe that there were no such gods in Slavic mythology, in particular there was no god Rod (as the founder of the Slavic family). But at that stage there was no writing, then Slavic myths were not written down. On the contrary, Christians fought against myths. The most important thing is that this mythology remained in artistic creativity, remained as an ideological and aesthetic design of views. This needs to be taken seriously, because after the adoption of Christianity, the Slavs allegedly developed dual faith. And this dual faith lasted for almost a millennium, when in the end they abandoned all faith. Mythology is not yet faith. It is difficult to say how much the Slavs believed in their Perun. What they believed in was the lower gods. Superstition remained a powerful layer in the consciousness of not only the peasantry, but also all groups of the population. But superstition is not faith. I advise you to read the encyclopedia “Slavic Mythology” (M., 1995) - from this book I took articles by V.V. Ivanov and his co-author V. Toporov. There is also a good article by N.I., a researcher of Slavism in general. Tolstoy on ritual belief and superstition .

Today I will briefly talk about oral folk art, which has survived for a millennium and which is drying up, but to some extent still lives. Oral folk art is also connected with mythology, this is also part of the religious ritual. One of the largest researchers of Slavic oral folk art A.N. Veselovsky (1838–1906) wrote about ancient Slavic folklore. And he wrote that this folklore is characterized by syncretism, i.e. lack of differentiation of poetry, magic, rituals, musical verbal rhythm in general, as well as choreographic performance (for example, a round dance in which some words were sung and spoken). It is not known exactly to what extent this was true. Later, Veselovsky established that in the 10th–11th centuries. syncretism disintegrates and ritual poetry comes to the fore, then lyrics and epics. This is also quite speculative. In fact, syncretism is a property not only of Slavic poetry. It is also present in Africa. To some extent, syncretism is a form of religious ritual where there are words, music and choreography. This form of existence of folk art is the most primary, according to Veselovsky. This is the beginning of aesthetic creativity in general. And then there is a disintegration of these syncretic forms into epic, lyrical, as well as fairy tale forms (as in fairy tales and epics). There are many of these stable folklore genres in the Slavic and Old Russian folklore traditions. And they were recorded, of course, late – in the 18th–19th centuries. This is primarily ritual folklore - calendar songs, lyrical, comic, war songs, fairy tales, legends, epics and tales, folk epic, etc.

If we talk in more detail, then we probably need to start with epics. In terms of content, the Russian epic epic has no analogues in ancient European poetry. This is not an epic of the skalds, this is not an epic that celebrates the exploits of Charlemagne in Old French. We have only two cycles - the Kiev cycle and the Novgorod cycle. The Kiev cycle is the famous epics about Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, about Svyatogor, etc. They were recorded in the 19th century. It is difficult to say what actually remains from antiquity. Because there is a lot of Christianization of these epics, but little paganism. The Kiev cycle of epics is very patriotic in spirit and is entirely imbued with the idea of ​​protecting the Russian land, it is imbued with the antithesis of good and evil. There is a clear division into good heroes and evil Gorynych Serpents who attack our land. The struggle between good and evil actually forms the basis of the Kyiv cycle. In general, these epics are short (400–500 verses), but there are epics with more than 1000 verses. Apparently they were very popular among the people. In fact, there is no such evidence in Russian chronicles, but this is evidenced by the fact that they have been preserved in people’s memory.

The Novgorod cycle is of a different kind. It is dedicated primarily to revealing the secret strength, power and secrets of wealth. Novgorod epics are epics about travel, about merchant guests, about feasts, about Slavic prowess, about the generosity of heroes. There is still a Scandinavian influence in the Novgorod cycle. It does not contain such patriotic pathos as in the Kyiv epics. Kyiv epics are epics that take place in Kyiv, and the epics themselves were composed in different places. The Novgorod cycle fully reveals the Russian national character. Sadko - breadth of soul, daring, generosity, interest in mystery, interest in travel (a continental longing for travel that those who live on the seashore do not have). But in fact, the Russian national character is already a literary transformation of the Novgorod cycle. We know the opera “Sadko” - there is a special libretto and music. These are later layers. First, in all oral folk art, certain deep archetypes of the entire Slavic people are presented. And the Russian character itself is an adaptation of the 18th–19th centuries. The heroes are both daring and generous, but unpredictable, which is supposedly characteristic of the Russian people. It was these epics that served as the basis for literary, musical and even symphonic adaptations. There is, for example, a musical theme written in the north, and then developed into a whole symphony. For example, Arensky.

The Russian fairy tale tradition - Russian fairy tales - is considered by many researchers to be the most archaic form in all of Europe. Apparently this is due to the origin of the Slavs. Slavic Russians starting from the end of the 6th century. They were isolated for a long time and retained archaic forms in their work. Especially fairy tales about living and dead water, about the resurrection of a dying hero, fairy tales “go there - I don’t know where,” fairy tales where the boundaries between two worlds are overcome. The territory occupied by Baba Yaga and her hut, connecting two worlds - fairy-tale and real, is such a border. This is a kind of third world - a neutral zone, as it were. There are few such tales in Europe. There is an immediate entrance to another world. In Russian folk tales there is a third world, mediated, between the witchcraft world and the real one. And there is also a middle one, where you can get the key and find out the way to the enchanted world.

Ritual poetry and ritual songs (not only ritual, but also lyrical) - there is no such wealth in the Western European oral tradition. Even if you count primitively, there are more than 3 thousand songs in ancient Russian lyrics. The ritual song is connected with a person’s life, with his destiny. And all his life - from birth to death - a person is accompanied by songs. The second form of ritual song is also very developed - these are calendar folk songs associated with agricultural work. I'm talking about songs that accompany a person through life. There are ritual songs, or rather, there were, dedicated to pregnancy. The person has not yet been born, but the song already exists. They are dedicated to keeping the child alive. And once a person is born, his life is accompanied by a whole cycle of songs. There are songs for children and teenagers. A huge cycle of wedding songs. They begin with matchmaking, then songs of the groom, songs of the bride, then the wedding itself, the marriage song. The end of the wedding is a spree. This cycle is well represented and recorded in different versions and forms in different provinces in the 19th century. Songs accompanying warriors going to battle, both majestic songs, spells, spells, a lot of playful, fortune-telling songs. There are simply lyrical songs about love. I will read you a small fragment of the spell, but this is already a spell transformed by Christianity. And there are probably purely pagan spells. Witchcraft using words is a pagan form of influencing the human psyche. It still exists. Conspiracies against diseases, against enemies, and drying conspiracies were especially powerful with emotional power (there are about a hundred options for how to dry a loved one). In conspiracies about love, there is always an ancient image of fire-flame, which symbolizes love and should ignite the heart, melt it and inspire “longing melancholy” in the soul. In these conspiracies one can hear real ancient sorcery. Magi are sorcerers. Let me give you an example. Let’s say a guy Ivan fell in love with a girl and went to a sorcerer or an old woman who knows such sayings: “Pain her heart, burn her conscience, endure her ardent blood, ardent flesh. Torment her thoughts both day and night, and in the dead of midnight, and on a clear noon, and at every hour, and at every minute about me, God’s servant Ivan. Give her, Lord, a fiery game in her heart, in her lungs, in her liver, in her sweat and blood, in her bones, in her veins, in her brain, in her thoughts, in her hearing, in her sight, in her smell, in her touch, in her hair, in her hands. , at the feet. Put melancholy, and dryness, and torment, pity, sadness and care for me, God’s servant Ivan.” The beginning here is usual: “I will stand, blessing myself, and go, crossing myself, from door to door, from gate to gate, into an open field...”. But if there is “crossing,” then there is already the influence of Christianity. But the very idea of ​​the spell is undoubtedly pagan. This kind of spells, spells, incantations can be used in original creativity. Those who write poetry know this well. I will give just one example of the brilliant use of this kind of spell in M. Voloshin’s poem “The Spell on the Russian Earth.” It was written in 1919, during the Civil War, when the state was falling apart, everything was crumbling and blood was oozing everywhere. And here there is an image of reunification, the restoration of the kingdom as a whole:

I'll get up and pray

I'll go cross myself

From door to door,

From gate to gate -

Morning paths

With fiery feet,

In an open field

On a white-flammable stone.

I will stand facing east,

To the west along the ridge,

I'll look around in all four directions:

To the seven seas,

On three oceans

For seventy-seven tribes,

For thirty-three kingdoms -

To the entire Holy Russian land.

Can't hear people

No churches in sight

No white monasteries, -

Rus' lies -

Ruined

Bloody, scorched.

All over the field -

Wild, great -

The bones are dry, empty,

Dead-yellow.

Cut with a saber,

Marked by a bullet,

The horses are trampled.

The Iron Man walks across the field,

Hit the bones

With an iron rod:

- “From four sides,

From the four winds

Die, Spirit,

Revive the bone!

It's not the flame that's buzzing,

It's not the wind that rustles,

It’s not the rye that rustles, -

Bones rustle

The flesh rustles

Life is heating up...

How bone meets bone,

Like a bone is dressed with flesh,

How sinewy flesh is sutured,

How the flesh is gathered by a muscle, -

So - stand up, Rus', rise up,

Come to life, come together, grow together, -

Kingdom to kingdom, tribe to tribe!

A blacksmith forges an ash crown -

Forged hoop:

Kingdom of Russia

Collect, chain, rivet

Firmly and firmly

Tightly;

So that it is the Russian Kingdom

Didn't crumble

Didn't become famous

It didn't spill...

So that we can have it - the Russian Kingdom

They didn’t go on a walk,

They didn’t dance in the dance,

The auction was not terminated,

We didn't speak in words,

There is no boasting in boasting!

So that it is the Russian Kingdom

It was bright - it was shining

The life of the living,

The death of saints

Tormented by the torments.

May my words be strong and molding,

Saltier than salt

Burning flame...

I'll close my words

And I’ll drop the keys into the Sea-Ocean.

As you can see, paganism is alive, folk art is alive. Folklore, it turns out, can be used in wonderful creativity, and even in the most difficult historical situation. To this day, the collection of folk art continues, although there are many pseudo-Russian spells, legends, and fairy tales. This is the tendency to restore paganism. One priest calculated that throughout the former territory of the Soviet Union there are about 7 thousand sects of various kinds, but primarily with a pagan direction. I point this out because paganism never really died.

Calendar poetry is also very developed. It is connected, first of all, with agricultural labor. These are stoneflies when they are preparing for spring sowing, this is a cycle of songs dedicated to summer work, and autumn songs during the harvest. There are also winter songs for when boring times come. They predict the future harvest.

The new topic - “The Beginning of Slavic Writing” - is important for us primarily for the reason that there was a short time (120-150 years) when Slavic unity was based on the basis of a single Slavic writing. But this unity was lost by the end of the 11th century. Those. Slavic writing was on the territory of modern Czech Republic, modern Slovakia, and southern Poland. Let me remind you of the terms that we use in relation to the ancient Slavic languages. The term “Proto-Slavic language” is used only by linguists. As if it existed before the middle of the 1st millennium AD. (beginning unknown), and then split into separate Slavic languages. The concept of “Old Church Slavonic” is the language of the oldest Slavic monuments that have come down to us. These are monuments from the 10th – early 11th centuries. There are very few of these monuments, only 17. And even this figure is controversial. Those. what Cyril and Methodius translated into Old Church Slavonic has not survived at all. And if it was preserved, it was only in copies of other monuments. Further, as a continuation of the Old Church Slavonic language, according to tradition, the Church Slavonic language is considered. This is an ancient Slavic literary language - the language of the Orthodox Church on a Slavic basis. The New and Old Testaments are written in this language. Actually, there was not much difference between Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic - the question is in terminology. The living ancient Russian language is a different concept. There was the language of the church service, but there were living people who spoke their own language. When they received writing, they began to record their conversations. It was like a second language appeared. On the one hand, Church Slavonic, and on the other, Old Russian. According to some concepts, bilingualism in Rus' existed until the 17th century; other scientists object. The Church Slavonic language has been preserved even now - services are conducted in it in our Orthodox churches. You know various trends in this regard, which are still considered heretical. There is an opinion that services should be conducted in modern Russian. Such churches are organized, but they are still heretical. This opinion leads to a split in our church, which is only being reborn.

I have already listed how the Slavs accepted Christianity. Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs. But Christian texts were needed for instruction in the faith. Such texts were in Greek. The Slavs did not understand them. But this problem is not the most important. It was possible to teach the clergy the Greek language. In the West, too, they taught the Christian faith on obscure texts, using Latin texts. All Latin texts are translated from Greek, and some from Hebrew. Famous publicist of the 20th century. Georgy Fedotov was very sad that we adopted Christianity in the Slavic language. We would be much better educated if we were taught religion in Greek. Byzantium, compared to Rome, pursued a more progressive policy - it allowed translations from Greek into other languages. It was allowed to make translations into Slavic languages, but there was no alphabet. And then the Slavic alphabet was created. With the help of the Byzantine church back in the 5th century. translations of the New Testament into Armenian were made. Armenians are pioneers in Christianity. Even before the Roman Empire, in 301, they made Christianity the official religion. This is the first state to make Christianity the state religion. They say that in the 5th century. and some translations of the New Testament were made into Georgian (but this is already more controversial). And into other languages.

In order to create the alphabet, the brothers Constantine and Methodius were sent from Constantinople to Great Moravia (the state that was located on the territory of modern Slovakia, on the Morava River). The date of their arrival is 863. This date is considered the beginning of Slavic writing. Perhaps they invented this alphabet at home, in Constantinople. There is an opinion that they were also Slavs. These were philosophers, great scientists. The Slavic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet. Actually we are talking about two alphabets - first the Glagolitic alphabet was invented (a very complex alphabet, it went out of use, but texts on it were preserved) and then the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet came into use after the death of Kirill, but according to tradition it is called the Cyrillic alphabet. Inventing the alphabet was only the beginning of Slavic writing. It was necessary to translate complex texts from Greek into Old Church Slavonic. Cyril and Methodius, with the help of their students, translated the entire New Testament and some fragments from the Old Testament (in particular, the Psalter). They translated, creating a new literary Slavic language. Using a literal translation, word by word. It was a complete tracing. As we read, starting from the first conjunction and so on word by word. It so happened that Church Slavonic and Old Church Slavonic, and thus Russian, are very similar to Greek. Most of all, the Russian language is similar to Greek in syntax. Compound words are also borrowed from Greek. Now this principle of compound words is losing force and fading away. If in the XV and even in the XVII century. 500 words with the word were recorded good (well-being, blessing etc.), now our dictionary records about 75 such words. This principle also exists in the German language. But we copied it from Greek. So, the most important merit of Cyril and Methodius is not so much that the alphabet was invented, but that translations were made and a written language was created. Church sources tell a lot about the life of the great Slavic enlighteners. There is the life of Constantine (died in 869), the life of Methodius (died in 885). There are historical sources. There are enough materials here.

There is one difficult issue related to Slavic writing. Nowadays they talk and write a lot about whether the Slavs had writing before Cyril and Methodius? There are some enthusiasts who believe that there was. In particular, the life of Constantine says that during his passage through Russian land he saw Russian writings. Historians say this is not true. It is difficult to prove anything here. But you can fantasize. About 20 years ago, a young writer Sergei Alekseev wrote a novel called “The Word”. It said that there was ancient Russian writing, and then it was destroyed by Christian priests. The entire plot of the novel is based on the search for sources of ancient Slavic writing before Cyril and Methodius. Pseudo-texts such as the Book of Veles, created in the 20th century, are also used as arguments. They say that it was written in the 5th century. in ancient Slavic language.

I want to say that the struggle for Slavic writing is the spiritual struggle of the Slavic peoples for their native sacred language and for their writing. Before this, there were three sacred languages ​​- Hebrew, Greek and Latin. In these three languages, inscriptions were scrawled on the Cross on which Christ was crucified. But the Bible was translated into Latin only at the end of the 4th century. Blessed Jerome translated both the New Testament and the Old Testament from ancient Greek into Latin at the end of the 4th century. And then, a thousand years later, at the Council of Trent in 1545, Latin books were canonized. Only from this time on did the Latin text become sacred. But our church did not consecrate the Slavic text. The sacred language of the Slavs did not work out. In Church Slavonic, the full text of the Bible - all 77 books - was collected only at the very end of the 15th century. Archbishop Gennady, this is the so-called “Gennady Bible” (1499). The official text, in which Lomonosov, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky read the Bible, was created under Elizaveta Petrovna in 1751–1756. During this five-year period, this translation was completed, edited and printed. There were big objections to the Russian translation for a very long time; the Bible was translated into Russian for about 40 years. The final date for the translation of the Bible into Russian is 1876.

It was with great difficulty that the Bible was translated into English. The King James Version of 1611 is the most important. Before it there were 5-6 more translations into English. One translator was even burned. Luther translated the Bible into German in the 16th century. In total, the Bible was translated into 1,400 languages, including such exotic languages ​​as the Chukchi language, into the languages ​​of all the peoples of Siberia. Among all these languages, let us not forget the translation into Church Slavonic in 863. This translation actually created for us writing, Church Slavonic, and the literary language, which brought us the benefits of civilization. From here, with the adoption of Christianity and writing, our civilization began - the civilization of Ancient Rus' and Russia. This is the date of the beginning of our civilization.

Most likely, this means the book: Tolstoy N.I. Language and folk culture: Essays on Slavic mythology and ethnolinguistics. M., 1995.

Most likely, we are talking about the works of Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861–1906), who composed musical fantasies on Russian themes of the folk singer, epic storyteller Trofim Grigorievich Ryabinin.

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. Kireyevsky 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», « Palea», « 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: “Life is with me, 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 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 had 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 is guarding 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 step?

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 brutally 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 Josef 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.

Answering 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 revealing 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.

k u r s a

"SLAVIC FOLKLORE"

For philological faculties
state universities

Specialty - Slavic languages ​​and literature

The program was prepared by the Department of Russian Oral Folk Art
Faculty of Philology, Moscow University

Compiled by: prof. ,
Assoc. ,
scientific co-workers

INTRODUCTION

The meaning and place of folklore in the culture of Slavic peoples. General features of folklore (syntheticity, collectivity of creativity, unity of the collective and individual, traditionality, changeability, orality). Folklore studies as a science, its relationships with literary criticism, linguistics, ethnography, history, musicology, and art criticism. Terminology. Folklore as the art of words. Folklore and religion. Folklore and art. Folklore and literature (similarities and differences). Folklore and life. The relationship between the aesthetic and the extra-aesthetic in folklore. Artistic system of folklore.

Oral poetic creativity of the Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs. There are general and similar phenomena in it: in themes, genres, types of characters, composition techniques, poetic imagery, language. Foundations of community and similarity: common origin of the Slavic peoples, relatedness of languages, similarity of socio-historical living conditions, cultural ties. General patterns of development of oral and poetic creativity of Slavic peoples at the present stage. Comparative historical study of Slavic folklore. Its results at international congresses of Slavists.

GENRE COMPOSITION OF SLAVIC FOLKLORE

Features of the genre composition of Slavic folklore. Genre system. Its historical formation. Genetic connection of genres, stage-by-stage periodization of folklore genres. Inclusion of some genres into others. General processes in genres: development of common features, historical change of genres. Classification of genres and its principles. Ideological, aesthetic and non-aesthetic functions of genres.

RITUALS FOLKLORE

General features of ritual poetry. Verbal and non-verbal components of rituals. Polymorphism and polyfunctionality of the ritual. Reflection of the mythological views of the ancient Slavs in ritual folklore. The emergence of “dual faith” after the Slavs adopted Christianity; manifestations of “dual faith” in rituals and ritual folklore. The struggle of the church against pagan rituals.

Calendar ritual poetry. Its connection with annual agricultural work. Winter, spring-summer and autumn cycles of ritual poetry. Winter cycle: songs of winter rituals (carols, etc.), Christmas fortune-telling and youth songs, Maslenitsa rituals, choruses and songs. Spring-summer cycle: meeting spring and spring calls among the Eastern Slavs; “carrying out (seeing off) Madder (death)” among the Western Slavs; the cycle of Yuriev rituals among the southern and partly eastern Slavs; a cycle of Easter and Yuryev round dances and games among all Slavs; a cycle of Trinity-Kupala rituals, round dances, games, fortune telling and songs among all Slavs. Reaping rituals and songs among all Slavic peoples. Features of the content, imagery and style of calendar ritual poetry, traces of pagan beliefs, Christian symbolism and imagery in calendar folklore.

Family ritual poetry. Its composition. Maternity ritual and its poetry. Ukrainian and Belarusian songs of maternity and christening rites. Images of the Woman in Labor, Orisnitsa. Wedding ceremony and its poetry. It reflects the history of society and family, life and beliefs of the people. Stages of the wedding ceremony. Wedding songs, lamentations, magnifications, reproaches, sentences of wedding participants. Funeral rites and lamentations. Features of the content, imagery and style of family ritual poetry.

Conspiracies. Their magical nature, word and action in them. Connection with rituals. Types of conspiracies and their use. Composition, imagery, verbal means. Evidence of ancient writing about conspiracies. Stability of conspiracy texts. Conspiracies and other genres (fairy tales and epics). Performers of spells: sorcerers, healers.

SMALL GENRES

Proverbs and sayings. Definition of a proverb and the difference between a saying and a proverb; their functions in speech. Thematic diversity of proverbs. Reflection in them of the worldview, life experience and ideals of the people. Cognitive, historical, moral and aesthetic value of proverbs. The structure of proverbs and their artistic means. Commonality and similarity of Slavic proverbs. Proverbs in the works of Slavic writers.

Puzzles. Definition of a riddle. Reflection in the mysteries of peasant labor and life. “Secret speech” (speech taboos) and the origin of riddles. Artistic means of riddles. General and similar in the mysteries of the Slavic peoples. Riddle and proverb. Riddles in fairy tales and folk songs. Riddles in the works of Slavic writers.

PROSE EPIC GENRES

The concept of “oral folk prose”. Its genres are: fairy tales, tales, legends and tales. Fantastic narration style, memorata.

Fairy tales. Definition of a fairy tale. The relationship between fairy tale fiction and reality. Fairy tale and myth. Tales about animals, magical, social and everyday, novelistic, tall tales.

Tales about animals. Reflection in them of ancient ideas (animism, anthropomorphism, totemism). Tales about wild animals, domestic animals, birds, people. Real features of animals and birds. Allegory of fairy tales. Satire and humor in them. General plots and heroes in Slavic fairy tales about animals and nationally peculiar plots and heroes.

Fairy tales. A combination of the real and the fantastic. The most ancient motifs and imagery. Morphology and historical roots of fairy tales. Themes, plots, images, characters, chronotope, composition of Slavic fairy tales. Similar plots and images of Slavic fairy tales. Ivanushka the Fool, Yirzhik, Khlopek Rostropek, Sly Peter, Ero. A combination of primitive views with some features of medieval life. Victory of good over evil. Ideals of hard work, honesty and justice. Features of plots and images in fairy tales of individual Slavic peoples.

Social and everyday tales. Reflection of social and family relations, features of feudal life. Social satire: images of the master, lord, merchant, priest. The triumph of a positive hero (peasant, worker, soldier). The image of a cunning, rogue, cunning thief. Family and everyday stories. Images of husband and wife. Plot structure and poetics of social fairy tales. Traditional joke.

Legends. Definition of genre. Historical and toponymic legends. Plots of historical legends. Legends in chronicles and ancient writing: about Czech, Lech and Rus; about Kiy, Shchek and Horeb; about Krakus and Wanda; about Piast and Popel; about Libuš and Přemysl. Legends about the founding of cities. The relationship between legends and historical reality. Legends about Pan Tvardovsky. Features of structure and narration in legends. Family legends.

Legends. Definition of genre. Fabulate and memorial. Types of legends. Stories about mythical creatures, the creation of the world, the origin of animals, birds and fish and their characteristics; biblical motifs and characters. Utopian legends. The plot of the search for a happy country. Other legends common among the Slavs (about a great sinner, Christ’s wanderings on earth, a pact between man and the devil). Artistic features of legends.

Bylichki. Stories about brownies, goblins, mermans, mermaids, samodivas, exchangers, the damned, etc. Artistic features and tales.

POETRY EPIC GENRES

Types of poetic epic genres: mythological songs, epics, youth songs, Haidutsk, Zboinitsa, daring (robber) songs, thoughts, historical songs, spiritual poems, ballads. Their common features: plot, poetic form, typical (common) places, reflection of the history of the people in them. The heroic character of the main genres. The absence of a heroic epic among the Western Slavs and the attempts of its artificial creation by writers.

Mythological songs of the South Slavs. The most ancient songs are about mythical creatures personifying natural elements (samodivs, samovils, pitchforks, judas, mermaids, etc.), heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars), dangerous diseases (plague, fever). Fortune tellers of Orisnitsa. Relationships between mythical creatures and people (“Stoyan and Samodiva”, “The Sun and Dobrinka”, “The Brodnitsa and the Guy”). Mythological songs of the South Slavs (“Two snakes and a lamya”, “Snake-groom”, “Yova and the Samovils”). Mythological motifs in the epic songs of the Eastern and Western Slavs (werewolf, foreshadowing of misfortune, miraculous pipe/violin, marriage of a woman and a snake, etc.).

Epics. Definition of the genre, its main features. The term "epic". Performers of epics. Classification of epics. Kyiv and Novgorod cycles of epics. The theme and ideological essence of the main composition of the epics. The hero is the main character. Typification and individualization of images. Images of senior heroes: Svyatogor, Mikula Selyaninovich, Volga; younger heroes: Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich. Composition and poetics of epics of the Kyiv cycle. Plots and heroes of epics of the Novgorod type. Images of Sadok and Vasily Buslaev. Artistic features of epics of this cycle. Interpretation of epics by representatives of different scientific schools. Echoes of epics in Belarusian fairy tales about heroes.

Young people's songs. Heroic epic of the South Slavs. Young people's song as a genre. Heroic plots and poetics. Cyclization of songs around the images of heroes: songs about Momchil, about Prince Marko, about Dojcin. Cycles of Serbian songs about the Battle of Kosovo, about post-Kosovo heroes, about the liberation of Serbia.

Haidutsk and Zboinitsa songs. Gaidutsky songs of the southern Slavs, the difference between Haidutsky songs and Yunatsky ones. Zboinice songs of the Western Slavs are a special type of heroic songs. Reflection of the struggle against foreign enslavers. Historical basis of songs. Historical prototypes of heroes: Strahil the Voivode, Stoyan, Manol, Novak, Gruitsa, Ivo Senyanin - heroes of Haidut songs. Janosik, Ondras, Vdovchik, Adamek are the heroes of zboinice songs. Images of female guides in Bulgarian songs: Boyana the Voivode, Todorka, Rada. Compositional and stylistic features of the songs. Haiduk (zboynik) and nature. People and haiduk (zboynik). Russian daring (robber) songs.

Duma. Dumas as a genre of Ukrainian folklore. The term "thought". Duma performers are kobzars and bandura players. Patriotic character of thoughts. Pictures of foreign domination, exploits of heroes in the fight against enemies. Stories about suffering in captivity and escape from captivity. The fight against the Turks and the Polish gentry. Heroes of thought: Golota (Netyaga), Samoilo Koshka, Fesko Andyber, Khmelnitsky, Marusya Boguslavka. Poetics of thoughts.

Historical songs. Historical songs as a thematic group of works. Their varieties. The specific historical nature of the songs. Differences from epics, youth and Haidut songs. Historical prototypes of heroes. The meaning of historical songs in the folklore of Slavic peoples. General themes of Slavic historical songs: the fight against the Tatar and Turkish invasion, peasant uprisings, wars of the 17th - 19th centuries. Russian historical songs about the capture of Kazan, about Ivan the Terrible, Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, Kutuzov and Platov. Ukrainian historical songs about Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Maxim Zheleznyak, Karmelyuk. Bulgarian and Macedonian historical songs about the hijacking, Turkish atrocities, forced Turkification, Ivan Shishman, the fall of the Bulgarian kingdom. Slovenian songs about King Matthias, Polish songs about the Jazdovetsky castle, Slovak songs about Belgrade, about the fight against Austrian domination, Serbian songs about the Battle of Kosovo, about the liberation of Serbia.

Spiritual poems. Spiritual poems as a thematic group of epic, lyric-epic and lyrical works on religious Christian themes. The origin of spiritual verses and their sources (books of Holy Scripture, Christian canonical and apocryphal literature; pre-Christian mythology). The creators and performers of spiritual poems are “walking kaliki”, pilgrims to holy places, blind men (“maisters”). Popular rethinking of biblical themes, lives of saints. Affirmation of the idea of ​​​​the superiority of the spiritual over the material, glorification of asceticism, martyrdom for the faith, denunciation of the sinfulness of people, non-observance of God's commandments.

Russian poems reflecting ideas about the universe (“The Dove Book”), based on Old Testament stories (“Osip the Beautiful,” “The Lamentation of Adam”). Belarusian and Ukrainian poems on gospel themes (“Crucifixion of Christ”, “Ascension”). Polish, Czech, Slovak poems and cants about the Virgin Mary and the Nativity of Christ. Czech spiritual songs from the era of the Hussite wars. Bulgarian poems about the Lord, angels and sinless Yanka, about Abraham's sacrifice, Saint Elijah and sinful souls. Serbian poems about the baptism of Christ, about Saint Sava, about the finding of the Cross of the Lord, songs of the blind men (about the mother of Saint Peter).

Images of serpent-fighting heroes (St. George, Fyodor the Tyrian), martyrs (Galaktion and Epistimia, Kirik and Ulita), ascetics (Alexey the man of God), miracle workers, righteous people and sinners in the traditions of the Slavic peoples. Poems about the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Late poems and cants of a literary type. The poetics of spiritual poems, the influence on them of other epic songs and literary Christian stylistics. Features of their composition and poetic language.

Ballads. The term "ballad". Definition of the genre, its main features: epic, family and everyday subjects, tragic, antithetical. Historical and everyday ballads. Historical subjects: meeting of relatives in captivity, escape from captivity, feudal despotism. Everyday subjects: tragic conflicts husband - wife, mother-in-law - daughter-in-law, brother - sister, stepmother - orphan stepdaughter, etc. (Russian ballad "Dmitry and Domna", Ukrainian - "Yavor and Birch", Belarusian - "Gay, there on the road ”, Serbian - “”, Slovenian - “Beauty Vida”, Bulgarian - “Lazar and Petkana”, Polish - “Pani Pana Killed”, Czech - “Herman and Dorota”, Slovak - “Sworn Girl”). Social subjects: Pan Kanevsky and Bondarevna, Prince Volkonsky and Vanya the Keykeeper, serf and the master's daughter. Ballads with mythological motifs (plots of transformation). Ballads about incest. The originality of ballads among Muslim Bosnians (“Hasan-aginica”, “Omer and Meirima”). Similarities and differences between Slavic ballads. New ballads, their connections with the old ones (plot and thematic similarity) and differences.

LYRIC GENRES

Folk lyrics. Her genres. Principles of classification of non-ritual lyrics (thematic, functional, formal). Love and family songs, military songs, coachman, barge hauler songs. Small lyrical genres. Classification of lyrical songs by theme and structure: frequent songs, their comic and satirical nature, dance rhythms; lingering songs, chants, their dramatic nature, the theme of personal relationships. Two types of drawn-out songs: narrative songs and meditation songs. Compositional features and poetics of lyrical songs. Pictures of everyday life, nature, portraits of heroes. Psychological image, means of revealing the inner world of characters, creating generalized images. The role of symbolism and psychological parallelism (symbolism from the plant and animal world, the world of inanimate nature and celestial bodies). Similarities and differences between lyrical songs of different Slavic peoples.

Bulgarian songs of reapers, Russian artel labor songs, Polish, Czech and Ukrainian songs of raftsmen. Structural and stylistic features.

Household themes of songs. Two varieties (love and family). Main characters: well done - girl, husband - wife. The plot situation as the basis for song composition. Typical situations of love songs: meeting, separation, betrayal. Themes of happy and unhappy love, their symbolic expression. Characteristic symbols. The role of narration, description, monologue and dialogue in a song. Psychological parallelism. Expression of the character's inner world. Common Slavic motifs and symbols of love and family songs, the originality of songs among different Slavic peoples. Typical situations of family songs: the hard life of a woman in someone else’s family, conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, husband and wife. Topics of social and age inequality. Comic motives of the songs: images of a lazy husband, an obstinate wife, a mother-in-law, a cruel mother-in-law. The originality of the poetics and imagery of family songs.

Small lyrical genres. Popularity in Slavic folklore of small lyrical genres-choruses: ditties, Kolomyeks, Krakowiaks, Bechartsev. Simplicity of form, concise expression of thoughts, clarity of assessments, lively response to phenomena of reality. The role of improvisation. Joke, humor, satire. Verbal text, chant and dance. Chants of choruses. Russian ditties. Their varieties: actual ditties, dance songs, “Semyonovna”, suffering. The emergence and reasons for the popularity of ditties. Connection with dance songs. Variety of themes, predominance of love themes. The composition of a ditty, the role of parallelism, symbolism and repetition. Ukrainian Kolomyaks. Origin of name. Social satire. Theme of love relationships. The structure of Kolomyyka. The nature of the rhythm. Polish Krakowiaks. Breadth of topics. Structure, rhythm and rhyme. The role of typical beginnings, endings, appeals and choruses in the composition of small genres. Serbian and Croatian Bečarci.

DRAMA AND THEATER

The variety of dramatic forms in Slavic folklore. Theatrical, dramatic and play elements in calendar and family rituals, the relationship between words and actions in them. Games. Mummers. Dramatic scenes in the folklore of Slavic peoples. Their social and everyday satire, bright comedy. Russian folk dramas “The Boat” and “Tsar Maximilian”. Puppet show. Its two forms: nativity scene (betleika, shopka) and puppet comedy (Petrushka, Kasparek). Religious and secular elements in puppet theater. Artistic originality of folk dramatic forms.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SLAVIC FOLKLORE

Historical changes in folklore, composition of genres, plots, themes, heroes, means of expression. Principles of chronological correlation of works. Folklore and history of the people. Difficulties of historical study of folklore. General periodization of the history of Slavic folklore. Primitive communal system and folklore. Reflection of animism, anthropomorphism, totemism in folklore. Cult of ancestors, plants, animals. Primary forms of folklore. Syncretism. Folklore and mythology. The most ancient forms of Slavic folklore. Legends about the settlement of the Slavs; epic river Danube. The ancient origin of calendar poetry, fairy tales, proverbs, riddles. Early feudalism and the emergence of the heroic epic. The patriotic character of the epic, the idea of ​​the unity of the native land. The struggle of the Slavic peoples with the Tatar-Mongol, Turkish, German and other conquerors. The development of the heroic epic, the genres of epics and youth songs. Social contradictions and satire in folklore. Development of Haidutsk and Zboinitsa songs, social fairy tales and satire in other genres of folklore. Forms of folk drama. Expanding connections with literature. The role of folklore in the era of national revivals in Slavic countries and in the formation of national literatures. Changing the traditional poetic system of folklore. Folklore of the city, artisans, soldiers. The dying out of traditional genres. The response of folklore to important historical events and social processes of modern times. Folklore and the First World War. World War II: anti-fascist folklore, partisan folklore. The current state of Slavic folklore. Common Slavic phenomena and their interaction in the folklore of Slavic countries.

COMMON-SLAVIC PHENOMENA IN FOLK POETIC CREATIVITY AND NATIONAL ORIGINALITY OF FOLKLORE

Comparative historical study of folklore (typological, genetic, historical and cultural). Various scientific schools in folklore studies. General and similar in the folklore of the Slavic peoples (development processes, genres, plots, types of heroes, poetics). Development of Slavic folklore at the present stage: new genres, plots, images and artistic means.

The originality of the folklore of individual Slavic peoples. Its historical foundations. The originality of the content and form of works. National identity of the people and their oral and poetic creativity. Images of the native land, folk heroes, native nature. Folk life and its reflection in folklore. The originality of artistic means and language. Historical enrichment of the originality of Slavic folklore.

LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE

The great role of folklore in the development of Slavic literatures. Formation of national literatures and folk art. Ancient Slavic literature and folklore. Chronicles and historical legends. Evidence of ancient writing about rituals, games, songs of the people. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and folklore. Gradual expansion of connections between literature and folklore. System of genres of ancient Russian literature and folklore. National revival of the Slavic peoples and the role of folk art in it. Romantic writers and folklore (early works of Pushkin; Mickiewicz, Celakovsky, Erben, Stuhr, Vraz, Mazhuranić, Prešern, Radičević, Njegoš, Botev, Jakšić, Kralj). Realism and folklore (Pushkin, Gogol, Krashevsky, Nemtsova, Zmaj). The flourishing of realism (Nekrasov, democratic and populist writers, L. Tolstoy, Kondratovich, Ozheshko, Sienkiewicz, Konopnitskaya, Neruda, Irasek, Vazov, Ashkerts, Zmaj, Shantic). Literature of the 20th century and folklore (Gorky, Yesenin, Sholokhov, Platonov, Hasek, Olbracht, Elin-Pelin). Modern Slavic literature and folk art. The impact of literature on folklore. Songs and ballads of romantics and realists in the folk repertoire, their folklorization. Development of stanzas and rhymes of literary type in song genres of folklore. Expanding the ideological and artistic influence of literature on folklore.

COLLECTION AND STUDY OF SLAVIC FOLKLORE

Collectors of Russian folklore (R. James, Kirsha Danilov, Afanasiev, Dahl, Kireevsky, Rybnikov, Hilferding, Shein), Polish (Zhegota Pauli, Dolenga-Khodakovsky, Kolberg, Fedorovsky), Czech and Slovak (Chelakovsky, Erben, Dobshinsky), Bulgarian and Macedonian (Miladinov brothers, Shapkarev, Stoin), Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian (Karadzic, Strekel). Bulgarian "Collection of Narodni Utvoleniya". Gathering activity in Slavic countries in the 20th century. The most valuable publications.

Study of Slavic folklore. Mythological school: Afanasyev, O. Miller. School of borrowing: Buslaev, Shishmanov, Grafenauer. Historical school: Sun. Miller, folklorists of Yugoslavia. Comparative historical study of folklore: Polivka, Veselovsky, Arnaudov, Krzyzhanovsky, Bystron, Moshinsky, Horak. Modern Slavic folklorists: Sokolov, Bogatyrev, Kravtsov, Propp, Putilov, Gusev; Krzyzanowski, Chernik; Latkovich; Arnaudov, Dinekov, Romansk; Melikherchik.

New directions in Slavic folklore (typological study, structural, ethnolinguistic school). Appeal to the study of folklore by literary scholars, linguists, historians, musicologists, and theater scholars. Comprehensive study of folklore. The problem of folklore as the art of speech and the history of Soviet folklore studies. Achievements in folklore studies of individual Slavic countries. Inter-Slavic scientific cooperation in the study of folklore.

LITERATURE

Main

Kravtsov folklore. M. 1976.

Slavic folklore. Texts. Comp. , . M. 1987.

Calendar customs and rituals in foreign European countries. Winter holidays. M. 1973. S. 5 - 17, 204 - 283.

Calendar customs and rituals in foreign European countries. Spring holidays. M. 1977. S. 5 - 11, 202 - 295.

Calendar customs and rituals in foreign European countries. Summer-autumn holidays. M. 1978. S. 5 - 7, 174 - 243.

Slavic folklore and historical reality. M. 1965.

Slavic folklore. Sat. articles. Ed. , . M. 1972.

Epic of the Slavic peoples. Reader. Ed. prof. . M. 1959.

Slavic folklore. Essays and samples. Sst. Ts. Romanska. Sofia. 1972.

Bulgarian folk tales. M. 1965.

Polish folk legends and fairy tales. M. 1965.

Tales of the peoples of Yugoslavia. M. 1956.

Songs of the South Slavs. Comp., intro. Art. . M. 1976.

Serbian folk songs and tales from the collection. M. 1987.

Slovak fairy tales. M. 1955.

Czech folk tales. M. - L. 1951.

Traitor to the Slovenian people. Beograd. 1964.

Additional

Moszyński K. Kultura ludowa słowian. T. 1. Kultura materialna; T. 2. Cz. 1, 2. Kultura duchowa. Warsaw. 1968.

Bulgarian folk poetic creativity. Christomathy. Sofia. 1958.

Bulgarian folklore. Part 1. Sofia. 1972.

Latkoviћ V. Narodna kizhevnost, 1. Beograd. 1967.

Putilov historical ballad. M. - L. 1965.

Putilov and the South Slavic heroic epic. M. 1971.

Bogatyrev theories of folk art. M. 1971. P. 11 - 166 (“People's Theater of Czechs and Slovaks”).

Kravtsov Slavic folklore. M. 1973.

Lazutin oral folk art. M. 1983.

Kruglov folk poetry. L. 1987.

Kravtsov epic. M. 1985.

Bogatyrev epic stories and lyric-epic songs (“Zboinitsky” cycle). M. 1963.

Ukrainian Dumas. M. 1972.

Anthology of Jugoslovenian folk poetry. Nediћ. Beograd. 1962.

Slovenian folklore. Zost. A. Melicherčík. Bratislava. 1965.

Słownik folkloru polskiego. Warsaw. 1965.

Tolstoy and folk culture. Essays on Slavic mythology and ethnolinguistics. M. 1995.

Slavic antiquities: Ethnolinguistic dictionary in 5 volumes. Ed. N.I. Tolstoy. T. 1. A - G. M. 1995. T. 2. D - K. M. 1999.

East Slavic folklore. Dictionary of scientific and folk terminology. Minsk. 1993.

Gura of animals in the Slavic folk tradition. M. 1997.

Series of studies “Slavic and Balkan folklore”. M. (1971, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1994, 1995)

Smirnov ballads and forms close to them. M. 1988.

Klyaus of plots and plot situations of spell texts of the Eastern and Southern Slavs. M. 1997.

Tolstaya S.M., Tolstoy N.I. and others - Slavic and Balkan folklore.

Folklore. Epic. Mythology

Description:
For the 1978 compilation:
The works explore the origins of the folklore tradition of the Slavic and Balkan peoples, examine rituals, customs and symbols associated with Slavic archaic folk culture, provide genetic research in the field of Slavic folklore, and provide many new folklore records made in the territory of Polesie.
Presented:

Slavic and Balkan folklore: Genesis. Archaic. Traditions. M.: Publishing house "Nauka", 1978.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Rite. Text. M.: Publishing house "Nauka", 1981.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Spiritual culture of Polesie on a common Slavic background / Rep. ed. N.I. Tolstoy. M.: “Science”, 1986.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Reconstruction of ancient Slavic spiritual culture: Sources and methods / Rep. ed. N.I. Tolstoy. M.: “Science”, 1989.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Beliefs. Text. Ritual. M.: “Science”, 1994.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Ethnolinguistic study of Polesie. M.: Publishing house "Indrik", 1995.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Folk demonology. M.: Publishing house "Indrik", 2000.
Slavic and Balkan folklore: Semantics and pragmatics of the text. M.: Publishing house "Indrik", 2006.

1) 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 rites 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

2) 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. Girls' 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 Dragačevo 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"

3) 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
T. A. Agapkina, A. L. Toporkov. 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 ethno-dialect dictionary: K – P
Yu. I. Smirnov. Epika Polesie

4) 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 mythical creatures among 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 (Text preparation 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)

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

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

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

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”

6) 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

7) 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, lts. 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

8) Slavic and Balakan folklore: Semantics and pragmatics of the 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)

The image of the cuckoo in Slavic folklore

This publication is a study of Russian folklore. The author of the work addresses the topic of zoo- and ornithomorphic symbolism. The subject of specific analysis was the image of the cuckoo, which was subjected to such in-depth study for the first time. The book uses both folklore and ethnographic materials, as a result of which the text was structured according to a functional principle: the first part examines the functions of the cuckoo's messenger and fortune-telling (about marriage, life span), and the second – the function of werewolf.

Deciphering the special zoological code of the cuckoo will provide the key to understanding controversial issues in the formation of ethical and aesthetic criteria inherent in ethnic consciousness. The book is intended for culturologists, teachers, students and everyone interested in folklore issues.

Ethel Lilian Voynich (1864–1960) - English writer, daughter of the prominent English scientist and professor of mathematics George Boole. Having married V.M. Voynich, a Polish writer and revolutionary who moved to England, Voynich found herself among the radical Russian and Polish emigration.

In 1887–1889 lived in Russia, from 1920 - in New York. She acted as a translator of Russian literature and poems by T. Shevchenko into English. Voynich’s best work is the revolutionary novel “The Gadfly” (1897), which became one of the favorite books of young people in Russia.

Other Voynich novels are “Jack Raymond” (1901), “Olivia Latham” (1904), “Interrupted Friendship” (1910, in Russian translation “The Gadfly in Exile”, 1926), “Take Off Your Shoes” (1945) – retain the same rebellious spirit, but are much less popular. Voynich also wrote works on Slavic folklore and music.

She is the author of several musical compositions. This volume publishes the novel “The Gadfly,” dedicated to the liberation struggle of the Italian people in the 30s and 40s. XIX century against Austrian rule. Its main character, Arthur Burton, nicknamed the Gadfly, is a man of strong and integral feelings.

He passionately loves life, but despite this, he goes to his death, because an idea is more valuable to him than life.

Linguistic tasks

The manual includes more than 1,200 original linguistic problems based on material primarily from Russian, as well as Western European (English, German, French, Spanish) and foreign Slavic languages. Particular attention is paid to the “speech environment” of a person: colloquial speech, folklore, fiction, etc.

n. Many tasks are entertaining. The presented tasks are grouped into the following seven sections: “The nature of language. Language as a system of signs”, “Functioning of language in society”, “Phonetics and phonology”, “Lexicology”, “Grammar”, “Typological and genealogical classification of languages”, “Writing, spelling, punctuation”.

For students, graduate students, teachers of philological faculties of universities and pedagogical institutes.

Skomoroshins

Humor and satire have occupied a significant place in the life of Russian people at all times: skomoroshins, the Petrushka Theater, bear fun, rayok, folk satirical performances, anecdotes, boring fairy tales - all these folklore works have entertained both old and young for centuries.

Outstanding researchers of folk art have preserved examples of it, thanks to which we have the opportunity to get acquainted with them. The book contains works of satirical folklore, as well as riddles, refrains and tales about the characters of Slavic mythology - brownies, goblins, kikimoras, recorded in the 19th century by such famous folklorists as A.

Afanasyev, S. Maksimov, A. Gilferding, and others.

Space and time in language and culture

The book is devoted to two key categories of language and culture and continues a series of publications developing the problems of the symbolic language of the traditional culture of the Slavs: see “The Concept of Movement in Language and Culture” (1996), “The Sounding and Silent World. Semiotics of sound and speech in the traditional culture of the Slavs" (1999), "Feature space of culture" (2002), "Category of kinship in language and culture" (2009).

Most of the articles in this and previous editions belong to the authors of the ethnolinguistic dictionary “Slavic Antiquities”, created according to the plan and under the general editorship of N. I. Tolstoy (T. 1. 1995; T. 2. 1999; T. 3. 2004; T. 4 2009; T. 5. In press). Methods of conceptualizing space and time are discussed in this book on the material of different Slavic languages ​​and cultural traditions and different genres of folk culture - rituals and customs (wedding, funeral and memorial complex, customs associated with the birth of a child, magical operations with calendar time, time regulations of weaving , folk demonology), folklore texts (lamentations, fairy tales, “small” genres of folklore, etc.

The book is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of academician Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy (1923–1996), one of the outstanding representatives of Slavic science of the second half of the 20th century. Articles by domestic and foreign authors are thematically related to one area of ​​N.’s activity.

I. Tolstoy, namely with Slavic ethnolinguistics - a discipline created by him in the 70s and studying language and traditional spiritual culture in their inextricable connection. The collection consists of four sections. The first examines traditional ideas related to folk cosmology and demonology, folk botany, as well as the semantics and symbolism of calendar and family rituals, everyday practices, clothing items, etc.

The second section includes articles on mythology and folklore, on the history, structure and symbolism of individual texts and genres (conspiracies, legends, funeral laments). The third section combines articles on the semantics and cultural functions of vocabulary (somatic, mythological, everyday) and ritual terminology (wedding, calendar).

The fourth section contains excerpts from Polesie field notes of N. I. Tolstoy and part of his correspondence with Slavists from different countries. The collection is addressed to both specialists and a wide range of readers interested in the traditional spiritual culture of the Slavic peoples.

Included in the golden fund of Russian philology, the book has not been reprinted in Russia since 1861 and has long become a rarity. It will still find its reader, not only among humanities specialists or as a guide in higher educational institutions, but also among all those who are passionate about ancient Russian literature, writing, language and folklore.

The appendix contains articles by A. I. Sobolevsky, A. A. Shakhmatov and I. N. Zhdanov from the collection “Four Speeches about F. I. Buslaev” (St. Petersburg, 1898), dedicated to the memory of the scientist.

Scourge of God. God's Sign (collection)

Ivan Kuzmich Kondratyev (real patronymic Kazimirovich; 1849–1904) - poet, prose writer, playwright. Born in the village. Kolovichi of Vileika district in a peasant family. He published his poems, stories, and novels in “Russkaya Gazeta”, “News of the Day”, in the magazines “Moscow Review”, “Sputnik”, “Russia” and many others.

Joke plays, dramas from folk life, historical stories, and poems were published in separate publications in Moscow. The song folklore includes the romance “These eyes are dark nights” and other songs and romances by Kondratiev. It is assumed that he owns the original text of the Russian folk song “On the wild steppes of Transbaikalia.”

This volume presents two works by Kondratiev. The novel “The Scourge of God” shows events from the history of the ancient Slavs. The writer offers a non-trivial look at the history of the Huns and the personality of their leader Attila. In the novel, the Huns are shown as one of the branches of the Slavic tribe of the Wends.

The author does not build new historical theories, but only gives a fictional reconstruction of the events of the distant past based on conclusions borrowed from the writings of some Western medieval historians who accepted the Slavs and Huns as one people. The story “God's Sign” takes the reader to the 19th century, during the Patriotic War with Napoleon.