Philosophical understanding of Russian cultural and historical myths in K. Sluchevsky’s cycle “Ballads, fantasies and tales”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the philosophical understanding of the cultural and historical myths in K. Sluchevsky’s cycle “Ballads, Fantasies and Tales”. The object of the study is his poems on historical topics: “Peter I on the Canals”, “About Tsarevich Alexei”, “About the First Soldier”, “The Novgorod Tradition” and “The Crown of Patriarch Nikon”. In the lyrical microcycle, which includes the first three poems, the image of Peter I is considered to be the ideal of a ruler who cares for the Fatherland, the creator of the Russian army and, at the same time, a person who is characterized by ordinary human feelings. Along with the image of Peter, the poet creates the image of people, who are a driving force and who support the reformer king. The next two works describe historical events, in which the famous figures of Ivan III and Patriarch Nikon are interpreted by the poet in a negative way. The figure of Nikon is indicative, characterized by the poet as an ambitious, powerful person with a demonic essence. The people in these works are shown by K. Sluchevsky as a force that creates history and preserves its spiritual memory. Thus, on the one hand, the texts examine two opposing concepts of relations between the authorities and the people that are connected with the cultural and historical myth of Peter as the defender of the Russian Fatherland; on the other hand - with the legends about the destruction of the Novgorod independence by Ivan III and the split of the Russian church as a result of Nikon’s reforms.