“Zadonshchina” is a monument of ancient Russian literature of the Kulikovo cycle. Analysis of the work “Zadonshchina” What is said in the poem “Zadonshchina”

The largest work of the early 15th century about the Battle of Kulikovo is “Zadonshchina,” named after the site of the battle on the Kulikovo field, “beyond the Don.” Already the first stories about this victory, which appeared shortly after the events of 1380, are characterized by the search for a heroic style capable of reflecting the greatness of the event. In “Zadonshchina” this heroic style was found: it appeared in a combination of the manner of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and folk poetry. The author of “Zadonshchina” correctly sensed the poetry of “The Word...”, not limiting himself to only superficial borrowings, but managing to present the heroic events of the Battle of Kulikovo in the same artistic system, creating a work of great aesthetic power.

“Zadonshchina” is essentially an extensive glorification of victory, which is combined with sadness for the fallen. As the author puts it, this is “pity and praise”: pity for the dead, praise for the living. Moments of glory and praise are combined in it with motives of lamentation, joy - with “tightness”, menacing premonitions - with happy omens.

The beginning and end of the “pity of the Russian land” (as the author calls the Mongol-Tatar yoke) are in many ways similar, but in many ways they are opposite. Events are compared and contrasted throughout “Zadonshchina.” In this convergence of events of the past and present is the pathos of the historical plan of “Zadonshchina”, which reflected the common in historical thought of the late XIV - early XV centuries, the rapprochement of the struggle with the Polovtsians and the struggle with the Tatars as two stages of an essentially unified struggle with the steppe, with the “wild field” for national independence.

The central moment in “Zadonshchina” is the battle “with the filthy”, which unfolds dramatically in two episodes. The outcome of the first half of the battle threatens the defeat of the Russian army, and the second half brings victory. Ominous signs accompany the march of the Tatar army here: birds fly under the clouds, crows often play, and the Galits speak their speech, eagles squeal, wolves howl menacingly, and foxes rattle on bones. The Russian sons fenced off the wide fields with a clique, the black soil under the hooves was sown with Tatar bones. The “Tatar” land groaned, becoming covered in troubles and “tightness,” and joy and rioting spread across the Russian land.

The author of “Zadonshchina” attributes the beginning of that historical period from which the Russian land “sits sadly” to the Battle of Kayal, when the troops of Igor Novgorod-Seversky were defeated; “Zadonshchina”, therefore, tells the story of the end of the era of “toughness and sadness,” the era of foreign yoke, the beginning of which is spoken of in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

The central idea of ​​“Zadonshchina” is the idea of ​​retribution; the Battle of Kulikovo is seen as retribution for the defeat suffered by the troops of Prince Igor on Kayal, which the author deliberately identifies with the Kalka River, the defeat on which in 1223 was the first stage of the conquest of Russia by the Tatars.

That is why, at the beginning of his work, the author invites brothers, friends and sons of Russians to gather, put together word by word, rejoice the Russian land and cast down

sadness to the eastern country, to the country of our ancestral enemies - the Tatar-Polovtsian steppe, to proclaim victory over Mamai, to praise Grand Duke Dmitry.

By comparing the events of the past with the events of his time, the author of “Zadonshchina” thereby oriented the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” itself towards the present, gave a new, topical sound to its content, gave new meaning to the calls of the “Tale...” for unity, having accomplished many things the same work as the Moscow chroniclers, who introduced similar ideas in the Tale of Bygone Years.

A word about Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother Prince Vladimir Andreevich, how they defeated their adversary Tsar Mamai.

Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich with his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, and with his governors were at a feast at Mikula Vasilyevich, and he said: “The news has come to us, brothers, that Tsar Mamai is standing at the fast Don, he has come to Rus' and wants to go on us in the Zalessk land."

Let's go, brothers, to the northern side - the destiny of Noah's son, Afet, from whom the Orthodox Russian people originate. Let's climb the Kyiv mountains, look at the glorious Dnieper, and then at the whole Russian land. And after that, let's look at the eastern lands - the inheritance of Noah's son, Shem, from whom came the Hinovs - the filthy Tatars, the Basurmans. It was they who defeated the Afet family on the river Kayal. Since that time, the Russian land has been gloomy: Or the Battle of Kalki before the Battle of Mamaev, it was overcome with melancholy and sadness, crying, remembering its sons - princes, and boyars, and brave people who left their homes, wives and children, and all their property, and, having earned the honor and glory of this world, they laid down their heads for the Russian land and for the Christian faith.

I described the ancient affairs and pity of the Russian land from book legends, and then I will describe the pity and praise for Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich.

Brothers and friends, sons of the Russian land! Let's get together, put it together word by word, let's rejoice the Russian land, throw away sadness to the eastern countries - the inheritance of the Sims, and praise the victory over the filthy Mamai, and glorify Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich! And let’s say this: it’s better, brothers, to tell us this story in sublime words about the campaign of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, descendants of the holy Grand Duke Vladimir of Kyiv. Let's begin to talk about their deeds, by deed and by story... Let's remember ancient times, let's praise the prophetic Boyan, a skilled guslar in Kyiv. That prophetic Boyan, fingering the living strings with his quick fingers, sang to the Russian princes of glory: the first glory to the Grand Duke of Kyiv Igor Rurikovich, the second to the Grand Duke Vladimir Svyatoslavich of Kyiv, the third to the Grand Duke Yaroslav Vladimirovich.

I will remember the Ryazan resident Zephanius and praise with songs, to the sonorous playing of the gusli, our Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, the descendants of the holy Grand Duke Vladimir of Kyiv. Let us sing the deeds of the Russian princes who stood up for the Christian faith! And from the Battle of Kalka to the Massacre of Mamaev one hundred and sixty years. And so Prince Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, having prayed to God and his most pure mother, strengthening their minds with strength, tempering their hearts with their courage, filled with military spirit, organized their brave regiments in the Russian land and remembered their great-grandfather, Grand Duke Vladimir of Kyiv .

Oh, lark, summer bird, joyful days of joy, fly up to the blue skies, look at the mighty city of Moscow, sing glory to Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich! It was as if a storm carried the falcons from the land of Zalesskaya into the Polovtsian field! Glory rings throughout the Russian land: horses neigh in Moscow, trumpets sound in Kolomna, tambourines sound in Serpukhov, Russian banners stand on the banks of the Great Don.

The veche bells are ringing in Veliky Novgorod, the men of Novgorod have gathered at the Church of St. Sophia and say this: “Can’t we, brothers, be in time to help Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich?” And as soon as these words were uttered, they flew together like eagles. No, it was not the eagles that flocked - the mayors left Veliky Novgorod and with them seven thousand troops to Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, to help.

All the Russian princes came to the glorious city of Moscow and said this: “The filthy Tatars stand near the Don, Mamai the Tsar is at the Mechi River, between Churov and Mikhailov, they want to cross the river and part with their lives for our glory.”

And the Great Prince Dmitry Ivanovich said: “Brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, let’s go there, glorify our life, surprise the land, so that the old will tell and the young will remember! We will test our brave men and fill the Don River with blood for the Russian land and for the Christian faith!”

And Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich said to everyone: “Brothers and Russian princes, we are the nest of Grand Duke Vladimir of Kyiv! We were not born to offend either a falcon, or a hawk, or a gyrfalcon, or a black raven, or that filthy Mamai!”

O nightingale, summer bird, if only you, nightingale, could glorify with your singing the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother Prince Vladimir Andreevich, and from the land of Lithuania two Olgerdovich brothers, Andrey and his brother Dmitry, and Dmitry Volynsky! Those, after all, are the brave sons of Lithuania, gyrfalcons in the time of war and glorified commanders, they were swaddled to the sound of trumpets, they were cherished under helmets, they were fed from the end of a spear, they were given water from a sharp sword in the Lithuanian land.

Andrei Olgerdovich said to his brother: “Brother Dmitry, you and I are two brothers, the sons of the Olgerds, and we are the grandchildren of the Gediminos, and the great-grandsons of the Skolomendovs. Let us gather, brother, our beloved lords of daring Lithuania, brave daredevils, and we ourselves will mount our greyhound horses and stroke the fast Don, we will drink water from it with our helmets, we will test our Lithuanian swords against Tatar helmets, and our German swords against Basurman chain mail!”

And Dmitry said to him: “Brother Andrei, we will not spare our lives for the Russian land and for the Christian faith, and for the offense of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich! Already, brother, the knock is knocking and the thunder is thundering in white-stone Moscow. Well, brother, it’s not knocking that knocks, it’s not thunder that thunders, it’s the mighty army of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich that knocks, it’s the Russian daredevils who thunder with their gilded armor and scarlet shields. Saddle up, brother Andrey, your greyhound horses, and mine are already ready - saddled before yours. Let's go, brother, to an open field and review our regiments - how many brave Lithuanians are with us, brother. And seventy thousand brave Lithuanians are with us.”

Now, brothers, strong winds have blown from the sea to the mouths of the Don and Dnieper, brought menacing clouds to the Russian land, bloody lightning emerges from them, and blue lightning flutters in them. There will be great knocking and thunder on the Nepryadva river, between the Don and the Dnieper, the Kulikovo field will be covered with human corpses, the Nepryadva river will flow with blood!

The carts are already creaking between the Don and the Dnieper, and they are driving the khinove onto the Russian land! Gray wolves came running from the mouths of the Don and Dnieper, howling, hiding on the Sword River, wanting to rush to Russian land. These were not gray wolves - the filthy Tatars came, they want to go through the war all over the Russian land.

Then the geese cackled and the swans flapped their wings. No, it was not the geese who cackled and the swans who flapped their wings, but the filthy Mamai who came to the Russian land and brought his soldiers. And winged birds lie in wait for their death, soaring under the clouds, crows play incessantly, and jackdaws speak in their own way, eagles squawk, wolves howl menacingly, and foxes squawk, smelling bones. Russian land, you have now visited Solomon as if you were the king. And falcons, and gyrfalcons, and Belozersk hawks are tearing from golden stocks from the stone city of Moscow, breaking silk fetters, soaring under the blue skies, ringing gilded bells on the fast Don, wanting to strike at countless herds of geese and swans - then the Russian heroes and daredevils they want to attack the great forces of the filthy Tsar Mamai.

Then Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich stepped into his golden stirrup, sat on his greyhound horse and took his sword in his right hand, and prayed to God and his most pure mother. The sun shines clearly in the east and shows him the way, and Boris and Gleb offer a prayer for their relatives.

What makes noise, what thunders early before dawn? Then Prince Vladimir Andreevich sets up the regiments and leads them to the great Don. And he said to his brother, Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich: “Do not give in, brother, to the filthy Tatars - after all, the filthy Russians are already trampling the fields and taking away our patrimony!” -

And the prince, the great Dmitry Ivanovich, told him: “Brother Vladimir Andreevich! You and I are two brothers, and we are the grandchildren of Grand Duke Vladimir of Kyiv. We have already appointed governors - seventy boyars, and the brave princes of Belozersk Fyodor Semenovich and Semyon Mikhailovich, and Mikula Vasilyevich, and both Olgerdovich brothers, and Dmitry Volynsky, and Timofey Voluevich, and Andrei Serkizovich, and Mikhail Ivanovich, and with us there are three hundred soldiers thousands of men-at-arms. And our governors are reliable, and our squad is battle-tested, and the horses under us are greyhounds, and our armor is gilded, and our helmets are from Cherkassy, ​​and our shields are from Moscow, and our sulits are German, and our daggers are from Fryazh, and our swords are damask; but the paths are known to them, and crossings have been established for them, and all as one are ready to lay down their heads for the Russian land and for the Christian faith. Banners are fluttering as if living things, warriors are eager to gain honor and glorify their name.”

After all, those falcons and gyrfalcons and Belozersk hawks soon flew over the Don and struck countless herds of geese and swans. It was not falcons or gyrfalcons - it was the Russian princes who attacked the Tatar force. And the hardened spears struck the Tatar armor, the damask swords thundered against the Khinov helmets on the Kulikovo field on the Nepryadva river.

The ground is black under the hooves, the fields are strewn with Tatar bones, and the ground is flooded with their blood. These strong armies came together and trampled the hills and meadows, and the rivers, streams and lakes became muddy. Div called in the Russian land and ordered the formidable lands to listen. Glory spread to the Iron Gates, and to Ornach, to Rome, and to Cafe by sea, and to Tarnov, and from there to Constantinople for the praise of the Russian princes: Great Rus' defeated the Tatar army on the Kulikovo field, on the Nepryadva river.

On that field, menacing clouds converged, and from them lightning continuously flashed and great thunder roared. After all, the Russian sons got along with the filthy Tatars for their great insult. It was gilded armor that sparkled, and the Russian princes thundered with damask swords on Khinov’s helmets. And they fought from morning until noon on Saturday on the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God. It was not the tours that roared at the Great Don on the Kulikovo field. It’s not the Turks who were beaten at the Great Don, but the Russian princes, and the boyars, and the governors of the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich. The Belozersk princes, Fyodor Semenovich and Semyon Mikhailovich, and Timofey Voluevich, and Mikula Vasilyevich, and Andrei Serkizovich, and Mikhail Ivanovich and many others from the squad, died after being beaten by the filthy Tatars.

Peresvet the Chernets, a Bryansk boyar, was brought to the place of trial. And Peresvst the Chernets said to Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich: “It’s better for us to be killed than to be captured by the filthy Tatars!” Peresvet gallops on his greyhound horse, his gilded armor sparkling, and many already lie whipped on the shore of the Great Don.

At such a time, an old person should remember his youth, and brave people should test their courage. And Oslyabya the Chernets says to his brother Elder Peresvet: “Brother Peresvet, I see serious wounds on your body, already, brother, your head is flying onto the feather grass, and my son Yakov is lying on the green feather grass in the Kulikovo field, on the Nepryadva river, for the Christian faith and for the Russian land, and for the offense against Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich.”

And at that time, in the Ryazan land near the Don, neither plowmen nor shepherds called in the field, only crows incessantly cawing over human corpses, it was scary and pitiful to hear this then; and the grass was drenched in blood, and the trees bowed to the ground in sadness. The birds sang pitiful songs - all the princesses and boyars and all the voivod's wives began to lament for the dead. Mikula Vasilyevich’s wife Marya cried early in the morning on the visors of the Moscow walls, wailing: “Oh Don, Don, fast river, you have dug through stone mountains and are flowing into the Polovtsian land. Bring my master Mikula Vasilyevich to me on your waves!” And Timofey Voluevich’s wife Fedosya also cried, wailing: “My joy has already faded in the glorious city of Moscow, and I will no longer see my sovereign Timofey Voluevich alive!” And Andreev’s wife Marya and Mikhailov’s wife Aksinya wailed at dawn: “For both of us, the sun has already darkened in the glorious city of Moscow, sad news rushed to us from the fast Don, bringing great sadness: our daredevils from greyhound horses were defeated at a narrowed place on the Kulikovo field , on the river Nepryadva!”

And Div is calling out under the Tatar sabers, and the Russian heroes will be wounded.

The Shchurs sang pitiful songs in Kolomna on the visors of the city walls at dawn on Sunday, the day of Akim and Anna. It was not the Shchurs who sang pitiful songs early - the wives of Kolomna began to lament, saying: “Moscow, Moscow, fast river, why did you carry our husbands away from us to the Polovtsian land on your waves?” So they spoke; “Can you, Mr. Great Prince, block the Dnieper, and scoop up the Don with helmets, and dam the Sword River with Tatar corpses? Lock the gates at the Oka River, sir, great prince, so that the filthy Tatars will no longer come to us. Our husbands have already been beaten in battle.”

On the same day, Saturday, the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God, Christians defeated the filthy regiments on the Kulikovo field, on the Nepryadva River.

And, having shouted the cry, Prince Vladimir Andreevich rushed with his army to the shelves of the filthy Tatars, shining his gilded helmet. Damask swords rattle against Khinov helmets. And he praised his brother, Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich: “Brother Dmitry Ivanovich, in evil and bitter times you are a strong shield for us. Do not give in, Great Prince, with your great regiments, do not indulge the seditious people! The filthy Tatars are already trampling our fields and have beaten a lot of our brave squad - so many human corpses that greyhound horses cannot gallop: they wander knee-deep in blood. It’s a pity, brother, to see so much Christian blood. Do not delay, Great Prince, with your boyars.” And the Great Prince Dmitry Ivanovich said to his boyars: “Brothers, boyars and governors, and boyar children, here are your Moscow sweet honeys and great places! Then get a place for yourself and your wives. Here, brothers, the old must become younger, and the young must gain honor.” And the Great Prince Dmitry Ivanovich exclaimed: “Lord my God, I trust in you, may there never be shame on me, may my enemies not laugh at me!” And he prayed to God, and to his most pure mother, and to all the saints, and he shed bitter tears and wiped away his tears.

And then, like falcons, they flew headlong to the fast Don. It was not falcons that flew: the Great Prince Dmitry Ivanovich galloped with his regiments beyond the Don, and behind him the entire Russian army. And he said: “Brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, here, brother, let’s drink the circular honey spell, and let’s attack, brother, with our strong regiments against the army of the filthy Tatars.”

And then the great prince began to advance. Damask swords rattle against Khinov helmets. The filthy ones covered their heads with their hands. And so the filthy ones rushed back. The wind roars in the banners of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, the filthy are fleeing, and the Russian sons fenced off the wide fields with a clique and illuminated them with gilded armor. The battle has already begun!

Then Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, turned back the regiments of the filthy ones and began to beat them and flog them mercilessly, bringing melancholy to them. And their princes fell from their horses, and the fields were strewn with Tatar corpses and the rivers flowed with their blood. Then the filthy ones scattered in confusion and ran along unbeaten roads into the Lukomorye, gnashing their teeth and tearing their faces, saying: “We, brothers, will no longer be in our own land and will not see our children, and will not caress our wives, but we will caress the damp earth.” , but we should kiss the green grass, and we should not go to Rus' as an army and we should not ask the Russian princes for tribute.” The Tatar land has already groaned, filled with troubles and grief; The kings and their princes lost their desire to go to the Russian land. Their joy has already faded.

Now the Russian sons have captured Tatar patterns, and armor, and horses, and oxen, and camels, and wine, and sugar, and expensive decorations, fine fabrics and silks, and take them to their wives. And now Russian wives began to jingle with Tatar gold.

Fun and rejoicing already spread across the Russian land. The Russian glory has overcome the blasphemy of the filthy. The Divas have already been cast down to the ground, and the thunder and glory of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, has swept across all lands. Shoot, great prince, across all lands, strike, great prince, with your brave squad of the filthy Mamai-Khinovin for the Russian land, for the Christian faith. The filthy ones have already thrown away their weapons, and the Russians have bowed their heads under their swords. And their trumpets do not sound, and their voices are dull.

And the filthy Mamai darted away from his squad like a gray wolf and ran to Cafe-town. And the fryags said to him: “Why are you, filthy Mamai, coveting the Russian land? After all, the Zalesskaya horde has now beaten you. You are far from being Tsar Batu: Tsar Batu had four hundred thousand men-at-arms, and he filled the entire Russian land from east to west. Then God punished the Russian land for its sins. And you came to the Russian land, Tsar Mamai, with great forces, with nine hordes and seventy princes. And now you, the filthy one, are running away to the Lukomorye, there is no one for you to spend the winter in the field with. Apparently, the Russian princes have thoroughly treated you: there are neither princes nor governors with you! Apparently, they got very drunk with the fast Don on the Kulikovo field, on the feather grass! Run away, you filthy Mamai, from us beyond the dark forests!”

The Russian land is like a sweet baby to its mother: its mother caresses it, but flogs it for mischief, and praises it for good deeds. So God had mercy on the Russian princes, Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, between the Don and the Dnieper, on the Kulikovo field, on the Nepryadva river. And Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich stood with his brother, with Prince Vladimir Andreevich, and with the rest of his commanders on the bones on the Kulikovo field, on the Nepryadva river. It was scary and sad, brothers, at that time to see: Christian corpses lay like haystacks on the banks of the Great Don, and the Don River flowed with blood for three days. And the Great Prince Dmitry Ivanovich said: “Count, brothers, how many governors do we not have and how many young people are missing?”

Then Mikhail Alexandrovich, the Moscow boyar, answers Prince Dmitry Ivanovich: “Mr. Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich! No, sir, we have forty Moscow boyars, twelve Belozersk princes, thirty Novgorod mayors, twenty Kolomna boyars, forty Serpukhov boyars, thirty Lithuanian lords, twenty Pereyaslav boyars, twenty-five Kostroma boyars, thirty-five Vladimir boyars, fifty Suzdal boyars, forty boyars Murom, seventy Razyan boyars, thirty-four Rostov boyars, twenty-three Dmitrov boyars, sixty Mozhaisk boyars, thirty Zvenigorod boyars, fifteen Uglich boyars. And two hundred and fifty-three thousand were flogged by the godless Mamas. And God had mercy on the Russian land, and countless Tatars fell.”

And the great prince Dmitry Ivanovich said: “Brothers, boyars and princes and boyar children, you are destined for that place between the Don and the Dnieper, on the Kulikovo field, on the Nepryadva river. You laid down your heads for the holy churches, for the Russian land and for the Christian faith. Forgive me, brothers, and bless me in this age and in the future. Let’s go, brother, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, to our Zalesskaya land to the glorious city of Moscow and sit down, brother, in our reign, and we, brother, have gained honor and a glorious name!” Glory to our God.

At the end of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries. a poetic story about the Battle of Kulikovo was written - “Zadonshchina”, preserved in six copies, two editions. The oldest list that has come down to us dates back to the 70s of the 15th century; the list has no end, there are many omissions.

Lists of the 16th and 17th centuries. are also defective, but on their basis S.K. Shambinago reconstructed the consolidated text of “Zadonshchina”. A textual analysis of the surviving lists of “Zadonshchina” was carried out by R. P. Dmitrieva.

The name “Zadonshchina” appears only in the title of the K-B list and belongs to the author of this list, Efrosin; in other lists the monument is called the “Word” about Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother Prince Vladimir Andreevich or “Praise” to these princes.

“Zadonshchina” is dedicated to the glorification of the victory of Russian troops over the Mongol-Tatar hordes; its author drew factual material from the chronicle story, and the literary model was “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

Revealing the connection between a later work of art and its prototype, the researcher does not limit himself to simply establishing a fact: he strives to find precisely in this plan the reason for the artist’s appeal to this sample.

It is usually easy to determine which of two overlapping works is the original. Two monuments, ideologically and artistically connected with each other, found themselves in a special situation - “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and “Zadonshchina”. Each of these monuments is dedicated to a precisely dated event - Igor Svyatoslavich’s campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185 and the Battle of Kulikovo in 1330. But while “Zadonshchina,” although unknown in the author’s list or one close to it, still reached the manuscript in 1470 s and later, and therefore its dating did not cause much controversy, the fate of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” gave skeptics additional reason to doubt its proximity to the event described in it. This work, even in the burned Musin-Pushkin copy, was only read in a copy no older than the end of the 15th century. In the three centuries separating this copy from the author’s text, not a single copy has survived, and to top it all off, the Musin-Pushkin manuscript burned, and the only evidence of its existence remained the 1800 edition, Catherine’s copy and translations of the late 18th century.

In the preface to “Zadonshchina”, only one name of the river on which in the past the Russians were defeated by the “filthy”, “Kayala”, is reminiscent of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. However, due to the fact that the “Kayala River” as the site of the battle is also in the description of Igor Svyatoslavich’s campaign in the Ipatiev Chronicle, we will not bring our monuments together on the basis of the presence in both of this still not entirely clear geographical (or stylistic?) name. 5 The undoubted overlap between “Zadonshchina” and “The Lay” begins with the same introductory phrase with which each author introduces his narration:

The next episode of “Zadonshchina”, which brings it closer to “The Lay”, is a characterization of princes Dmitry Ivanovich and Vladimir Andreevich, repeated almost verbatim in the description of the psychological state of Igor Svyatoslavich, setting out on a campaign:

In this episode of the Lay there is one of the hapaxes not found in other ancient Russian monuments - the verb “istyagnu”. Researchers, comparing it with the same root “contract”,

The description of the beginning of Prince Igor’s campaign does not immediately result in its final form in the Lay: the author reflects on how Boyan would begin this story, and therefore turns his thoughts to this old singer: “Oh Boyan, the nightingale of the old time, if only you had tickled his cheeks " Boyan’s metaphorical epithet in “Zadonshchina” corresponds to the real image of a lark, to which the author turns with a request to sing the glory of the Grand Duke and his brother: “O lark bird, red days of joy, fly under the blue skies, look to the strong city of Moscow, sing glory.” However, in “Zadonshchina” there is a closer parallel to the image of Boyan the Nightingale, although also devoid of metaphorical meaning.

Comparing the text of this description of the warriors in the two monuments, restored on the basis of the surviving lists of “Zadonshchina,” we discover an almost complete coincidence between them. “Kameti” “Words” could not find a place in “Zadonshchina”, where it was not about the prince’s warriors, but about the leaders of the army themselves, hence their name “commanders”.

Andrei Olgerdovich’s speech in “Zadonshchina” echoes both the beginning of Vsevolod’s appeal and Igor Svyatoslavich’s previous call to the squad:

From the moment of the Mamaev massacre, a turning point came in the fate of the Russian land: “Let us descend, brothers and friends and sons of Russia, let us compose word for word, rejoice the Russian land and cast sorrow on the eastern country.”

And we can trace such comparison and contrast throughout the text. Let's give just one example. When Dmitry sets out on a campaign, “the sun shines clearly for him and will tell him the way.” Let us recall that in the “Tale” Igor’s army comes out at the moment of a solar eclipse (“Then Igor looked at the bright sun and saw that all his howls were covered with darkness”).

In the story “Zadonshchina” about the movement of Mamai’s forces to the Kulikovo field, a picture of ominous natural phenomena is given: “And already their misfortunes are shepherded by birds winging, flying under the clouds, crows often playing, and Galicians speaking their speeches, eagles slurping, and wolves howling menacingly, and foxes break bones." In the Lay this passage is correlated with the march of Russian forces.

In “Zadonshchina”, in comparison with “The Lay”, images of church poetics are more often used (“for the land, for the Russian and for the peasant faith”, “stepping into your golden stirrup, and taking your sword in your right hand, and praying to God and the Most Pure his mother”, etc.). The author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” turned to the means of oral folk poetics and processed them creatively, creating his own original poetic images based on folklore material.

The author of “Zadonshchina” simplifies many of these images, his poetic means, going back to the poetics of oral creativity, are closer to their prototypes, a number of original epithets of “Zadonshchina” in comparison with “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” are clearly of a folk-oral nature (typical of the epic style the phrase “such is the word”, “fast Don”, “damp earth” and some others).

In all lists, the text is greatly distorted and full of errors; the K-B list is a reduction and reworking of the original text made by Efrosyn. The poor preservation of the text of “Zadonshchina” in surviving copies forces us to use the reconstructed text of the work.

In “Zadonshchina” we do not have a description of the vicissitudes of the Battle of Kulikovo (we will find all this in “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev”), but a poetic expression of emotional and lyrical feelings about the event. The author recalls both the past and the present, his story is transferred from one place to another: from Moscow to the Kulikovo Field, again to Moscow, to Novgorod, again to the Kulikovo Field. He himself defined the nature of his work as “pity and praise for Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimer Ondreevich.”

This is pity—crying for the dead, and praise—glory to the courage and military valor of the Russians.

The style of “Zadonshchina” is distinguished by its diversity: the poetic parts of the monument are closely intertwined with parts of a prosaic, sometimes even businesslike nature. It is possible that this diversity and “disorganization” of the text is explained by the state of the copies of the monument that have reached us. Prosaisms could have arisen as a result of later stratifications, and do not reflect the author's text.

Features of “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” as a monument of the Kulikovo cycle

The most detailed description of the events of the Battle of Kulikovo has been preserved for us by “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” - the main monument of the Kulikovo cycle. This work was extremely popular among ancient Russian readers.

The legend was rewritten and revised many times and has come to us in eight editions and a large number of variants. The popularity of the monument among the medieval reader as “someone’s” work is evidenced by the large number of front copies (illustrated with miniatures) of it.

The exact time of creation of “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” is unknown. There are anachronisms and errors in the text of the Legend (we will dwell on some of them in more detail below). They are usually explained by the late origin of the monument. This is a deep misconception.

Some of these “mistakes” are so obvious that they could not have taken place in a detailed narrative about a historical event if the author had not pursued some specific goal. And, as we will see later, the deliberate replacement of one name with another made sense only if the story was compiled at a time not too distant from the events described in it. Anachronisms and “mistakes” of the Legend are explained by the journalistic orientation of the work.

Recently, the question of dating the Legend has attracted a lot of attention. Yu. K. Begunov dates the creation of the Legend to the period between the middle and end of the 15th century, I. B. Grekov - to the 90s. XIV century, V. S. Mingalev - by the 30-40s. XVI century, M.A. Salmina - to the period from the 40s. XV century until the beginning of the 16th century.

This question is very hypothetical and cannot be considered resolved. It is considered most likely to date the origin of the Legend to the first quarter of the 15th century. The particular interest in the Battle of Kulikovo at this time can be explained by the newly aggravated relations with the Horde, and in particular by the invasion of Edigei to Rus' in 1408.

The invasion of Edigei, the success of which was explained by the lack of cohesion and unanimity of the Russian princes, awakens the idea of ​​​​the need to restore unity under the leadership of the Grand Duke of Moscow to fight the external enemy. This idea is the main one in the Legend.

The main character of the Legend is Dmitry Donskoy. The legend is not only a story about the Battle of Kulikovo, but also a work dedicated to the praise of the Grand Duke of Moscow. The author portrays Dmitry as a wise and courageous commander, emphasizing his military valor and courage. All other characters are grouped around Dmitry Donskoy. Dmitry is the eldest among the Russian princes, all of them are his faithful vassals, his younger brothers.

The relationship between senior and junior princes, which seems ideal to the author and which all Russian princes should follow, is shown in the monument using the example of the relationship between Dmitry Ivanovich and his cousin Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky.

Vladimir Andreevich is portrayed everywhere as a faithful vassal of the Grand Duke of Moscow, unquestioningly carrying out all his commands. Such an emphasis on the devotion and love of the Prince of Serpukhov to the Prince of Moscow clearly illustrated the vassal devotion of the younger prince to the elder prince.

In the Legend, Dmitry Ivanovich’s campaign is blessed by Metropolitan Cyprian, who in fact in 1380 was not even within Rus', and because of the “mess up” at the metropolis, there was no metropolitan in Moscow at that time. This, of course, is not a mistake by the author of the Tale, but a literary and journalistic device.

The author of the Legend, who set as his goal in the person of Dmitry Donskoy to show the ideal image of the Grand Duke of Moscow, it was necessary to present him as supporting a strong alliance with the Metropolitan. For journalistic reasons, the author could have included Metropolitan Cyprian among the characters, although this contradicted historical reality (formally Cyprian was at that time the Metropolitan of All Rus').

The principle of “abstract psychologism” in this case manifests itself very clearly. The Tatars are also directly opposed to Russian warriors. The Russian army is characterized as a bright, morally high force, the Tatar army as a dark, cruel, sharply negative force. Even death is completely different for both.

For the Russians this is glory and salvation for eternal life, for the Tatars it is endless destruction: “Many people become sad because of both, seeing death before their eyes. Having begun to defile the Polovtsians, they were darkened with much grief over the destruction of their lives, before the wicked died, and their memory perished with a noise. And people who are orthodox are more than prosperous, rejoicing, longing for this fulfilled promise, for beautiful crowns, about which the Venerable Abbot Sergius told the Grand Duke.”

The Lithuanian ally of Mamai in the Legend is named Prince Olgerd. In fact, during the events of the Battle of Kulikovo, the son of Olgerd Jagiello concluded an alliance with Mamai, and Olgerd had already died by this time. As in the case of Cyprian, this is not a mistake, but a conscious literary and journalistic device.

For Russian people of the late XIV - early XV centuries, and especially for Muscovites, the name of Olgerd was associated with memories of his campaigns against the Moscow Principality; he was an insidious and dangerous enemy of Rus', whose military cunning was reported in the chronicle obituary article about his death.

Therefore, they could call Olgerd an ally of Mamai instead of Jogaila only at a time when this name was still well remembered as the name of a dangerous enemy of Moscow. At a later time, such a change of names did not make any sense. It is no coincidence, therefore, that already in the early period of the literary history of the monument, in some editions of the Legend, the name of Olgerd was replaced, in accordance with historical truth, by the name of Jogaila. By calling Mamai Olgerd an ally, the author of the Legend thereby strengthened both the journalistic and artistic sound of his work: the most insidious and dangerous enemies opposed Moscow, but they too were defeated.

The replacement of the name of the Lithuanian prince also had another connotation: the princes Andrei and Dmitry Olgerdovich, the children of Olgerd, were in alliance with Dmitry. Due to the fact that Olgerd appeared in the Tale, it turned out that even his own children opposed him, which also enhanced the journalistic and plot sharpness of the work.

The heroic nature of the event depicted in the Legend led the author to turn to oral traditions about the Massacre of Mamaev, to epic stories about this event. Most likely, the episode of single combat before the start of the general battle of the monk of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery of Peresvet with the Tatar hero goes back to oral traditions.

The epic basis is felt in the story about the “test of omens” by Dmitry Volynets - the experienced commander Dmitry Volynets and the Grand Duke, on the night before the battle, go into the field between the Russian and Tatar troops, and Volynets hears how the earth is crying “in two” - about the Tatars and Russians soldiers: there will be many killed, but the Russians will still prevail. Oral tradition probably underlies the message of the Legend that before the battle Dmitry put princely armor on his beloved governor Mikhail Brenka, and he himself, in the clothes of a simple warrior with an iron club, was the first to rush into battle.

The influence of oral folk poetry on the Legend is revealed in the author’s use of certain visual means, which go back to the techniques of oral folk art. Russian warriors are compared to falcons and gyrfalcons, Russians beat their enemies “like a forest, like a scythe of grass.” The cry of Grand Duchess Evdokia after bidding farewell to the prince, who was leaving Moscow to fight the Tatars, can be regarded as a reflection of folklore influence.

Although the author gives this lament in the form of a prayer, one can still note in it a reflection of the elements of folk lamentation. The descriptions of the Russian army are imbued with poetry (“The armor of the Russian sons, like water swaying in all the winds. The golden Sholoms on their heads, like the dawn of the morning during buckets of light, the yalovtsi of their Sholoms, like a fiery flame plows”), the pictures of nature are bright, deeply Some of the author's comments are emotional and not devoid of life-like truthfulness.

Talking, for example, about the farewell of soldiers leaving Moscow for battle with their wives, the author writes that the wives “were unable to utter a word in tears and exclamations from the heart,” and adds that “the great prince himself could hardly help himself from tears, without giving I want to make the people cry."

“The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” was of interest to readers simply because it described in detail all the circumstances of the Battle of Kulikovo. Some of them were of a legendary-epic nature, some are a reflection of actual facts not recorded in any other sources.

However, this is not the only attractiveness of the work. Despite a significant touch of rhetoric, “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” has a pronounced plot character. Not only the event itself, but also the fates of individuals, the development of the twists and turns of the plot made readers worry and empathize with what was being described.

And in a number of editions of the monument, the plot episodes become more complex and their number increases. All this made “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” not only a historical and journalistic narrative, but also a work that could captivate the reader with its plot and the nature of the development of this plot.

Alexey Ranchin, Berenika Vesnina

Zadonshchina is a monument of ancient Russian literature of the late 14th–15th centuries, dedicated to the victory of Russian troops led by the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich (Dmitry Donskoy) and his cousin Vladimir Andreevich over the Mongol-Tatar troops of the ruler of the Golden Horde, Mamai; the battle took place on the Kulikovo field on September 8 (according to the old style 1380).

The date of creation of Zadonshchina is unknown. According to researchers M.N. Tikhomirov and V.F. Rzhiga, this work was written shortly after the Battle of Kulikovo, between 1380 and 1393. Their evidence is as follows. Firstly, in the Zadonshchina the capital of the Bulgarian kingdom, the city of Tornava (Tarnovo), is mentioned, to which the news of the glorious victory won by Dmitry Donskoy reaches. But Tarnovo was conquered by the Turks in 1393, which means Zadonshchina was most likely written before that time. Secondly, in the text of the work there is an indication that 160 years passed from the battle on the Kalka River (1223), the first clash between the Russians and the Mongol-Tatars, to the victory on the Kulikovo Field. Apparently, this calculation refers not to the year of the Battle of Kulikovo, but to the time of writing of Zadonshchina, that is, to 1384 or, perhaps, a little earlier. M.A. Salmina argued that the author of Zadonshchina used the text of the so-called Long Chronicle, created in the 1440s; accordingly, Zadonshchina could not have been written earlier than the 1440s. But most scientists did not support this hypothesis. It is more likely that it was not Zadonshchina that was influenced by the chronicle story, but, on the contrary, the compiler of the chronicle story turned to the text of Zadonshchina.

There are 6 known lists of Zadonshchina. The earliest of them, containing an abbreviated text of the work (the so-called Short Edition), dates back to the 1470s; its copyist and probable editor is the famous ancient Russian scribe, monk of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Euphrosynus. 5 lists (the earliest dates back to the late 15th - early 16th centuries, the rest were compiled at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries) contain the text of the so-called Long Edition of Zadonshchina; in three of these five lists the text has been preserved in its entirety, in two only fragments have been preserved. There are serious discrepancies between the lists. None of the manuscripts preserved the original, author's text of the work.

There is debate in science about which of the two editions – the Brief or the Long – is closer to the original text of Zadonshchina. There is a prevailing opinion about the primacy of the Long version in comparison with the Short version. Zadonshchina researcher L.A. Dmitriev, having compared all the manuscripts of the work, reconstructed the author’s text. However, its reconstruction is not accepted by all scientists.

The word Zadonshchina is contained in the title of the work only in the earliest list, belonging to the scribe Evfrosin: “Zadonshchina of the Grand Duke Dimitri Ivanovich and his brother Prince Volodimer Ondreevich.” Although in scientific literature the word “Zadonshchina” became the name of the monument, in the text of the title itself, “Zadonshchina” refers to the Battle of Kulikovo, and not the work dedicated to it.

In the title of the same list, a certain monk (elder) Sophony, or Zephaniah of Ryazan, is mentioned as the author: “The Scripture of Zephaniah the Elder of Ryazan<…>"; In a similar way, Zephanius is mentioned in the title of one of the lists of the Long Edition - Synodal: “The Legend of Saphon the Rezant<…>" The name Zephaniah is also found in the text of Zadonshchina itself in several lists of the Long Edition. But here Zephaniah is spoken of in the third person: “I will remember Zephanius the cutter” (list by V.M. Undolsky), “And here we will remember Sophon the cutter” (Synodal list). The name Zephanius is also contained in some lists of the Main Edition of another work about the Battle of Kulikovo - The Legend of the Battle of Mamayev, and Zephanius is named as the author of the “Legend<…>" These contradictory news about Zephaniah gave grounds for the hypothesis that Zephanius was not the author of Zadonshchina and not the Legend of the Massacre of Mamai, but not the work that has survived to this day about the victory on the Kulikovo Field (the so-called Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev). Perhaps the text of this work was consulted by both the compiler of Zadonshchina and the compiler of the Legend of the Massacre of Mamaev. (This hypothesis belongs to R.P. Dmitrieva.)

The Battle of Kulikovo is depicted in the Zadonshchina as a feat of the Russian princes and army in the name of the Orthodox faith, as a victory ordained by God.

In various lists in the title of Zadonshchina the work is called “writing”, “legend”, “word”, “praise”. “Zadonshchina” combines the features of a word of praise for Prince Dmitry Donskoy and his brother Vladimir Andreevich and lamentation for the warriors killed on the Kulikovo Field. In the text itself, the monument is called “pity and praise.” The narrative about the battle in Zadonshchina is not developed, as if outlined with a dotted line: the author does not so much depict the battle as express his own feelings associated with it.

The author's text of Zadonshchina probably opened with the author's conventional address to “brothers and friends,” “Russian sons.” He calls to remember the past humiliation and grief of the Russian land, once conquered by Batu Khan. This fragment expresses the antithesis: the former plight of Rus', captured by the Tatars - the current greatness of the Russian land, which defeated the hordes of Mamai on the Don.

Following this comes a fragment, which also opens with an appeal to the Russian people. This appeal is a kind of refrain in the introduction to the main text of Zadonshchina. The author calls to cast sadness into the eastern land, into the Tatar borders, and glorify Dmitry Donskoy and his cousin Vladimir Andreevich. The narrator remembers the skilled singer (“gorazna gudtsa”) Boyan. Just as Boyan glorified the victories of the Kyiv princes in ancient times, the author of Zadonshchina, following Boyan and the here mentioned Zephanius of Ryazan, praises the victors of Mamai.

The central part of Zadonshchina opens with the news of how Dmitry Donskoy and Vladimir Andreevich opposed Mamai. The gathering of the Russian army is indicated by the metaphor “glory rings throughout the Russian lands” and is depicted by comparing Russian warriors with eagles. The author of Zadonshchina resorts to hyperbole, saying that all Russian princes and warriors, gathered in all Russian lands, opposed Mamai.

The description of the campaign and battle is dominated by speeches and dialogues. Dmitry Donskoy calls on his brother and soldiers not to disgrace their honor and glory, to shed blood “for the Russian land and for the peasant faith.” The brothers Andrei and Dmitry Olgerdovich, the sons of the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, who was the worst enemy of Dmitry Donskoy, talk among themselves: they decide to help the Moscow prince and oppose Mamai. Dmitry Donskoy strengthens the spirit of his cousin with a courageous speech before the battle, listing his glorious commanders and boyars. And the warrior-monk Peresvet inspires Prince Dmitry himself to fight with a brief reminder: “We would rather be sweated (killed - A.R.) than full of filthy Tatars.” Another warrior monk, Oslyabya, turning his speech to Peresvet, predicts death in battle for him and his own son Yakov.

The climax of the battle coincides with the crying of Russian wives for their murdered husbands, and the turning point in the battle occurs after new speeches by Vladimir Andreevich and Dmitry Donskoy, calling on the soldiers to perform a feat. The metaphor of the battle in the speech of Dmitry Donskoy is a feast: “Brother Prince Vladimer Andreevich, here, brother, drink the medvyana charm, we will, brother, send our strong regiments against the army of the filthy Tatars.” Another expanded metaphor for the battle in the Trans-Don region is the sowing and watering of the land: “The earth is black under the hooves, and the fields were sowed with Tatar bones, and the land was quickly shed with their blood.” The battle is also likened to a hunt, in which the hunting birds represent the Russian warriors, and their prey – the warriors of Mamai: “Already those falcons and gyrfalcons flew over the Don greyhounds and hit many herds of swan. So the Russian princes attacked the Tatar force<…>».

The speeches of the battle participants are interspersed with lyrical digressions by the author. He calls on the lark and the nightingale to sing glory to the princes who defeated foreign enemies: “O lark, summer bird, red day of joy, fly under the blue skies, look to the strong city of Moscow, sing glory to the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother Prince Vladimer Andreevy”; “Oh nightingales, summer bird, so that nightingales may tickle glory to the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother Prince Vladimer Andreevich and the land of Lithuania to his two brothers Olgordovich, Andrey and his brother Dmitry, and Dmitry Volynsky.”

The movement of Mamaev's troops and the battle are allegorically described in images borrowed from the natural world. The author paints ominous pictures of thunderstorms, full of symbolic and metaphorical meaning: “Already, brother, they were hovering across the sea at the mouth of the Don and Nepra, and the clouds were floating (cherished, brought. - A.R.) clouds to the Russian land, and bloody dawns emerged from them , and strong lightning bolts tremble in them”; “On that field strong clouds rolled in, and from them lightning bolts often shone and great thunder roared. Then the Russian daredevils came into conflict with the filthy Tatars for their great insult. And strong, golden armor shone in them, and the Russian princes thundered with damask swords<…>».

The end of the story about the battle in Zadonshchina is the lamentation of the Tatars fleeing the battlefield, and a mention of the flight of Mamai, who is taking refuge in the Genoese city of Cafe (now Feodosia) in the Crimea; immigrants from Genoa inhabiting Cafa reproach Mamai for defeat and disgrace, contrasting him with the victorious Khan Batu, who conquered the Russian land. This is how a compositional “ring” is created: both the introduction and this fragment contain memories of former times when Rus' was conquered by the Mongol-Tatars, and the past is contrasted with the present time, when the Mongol-Tatars are suffering a crushing defeat from the Russians.

The text of Zadonshchina in the Long Edition ends with a list of the names of the fallen princes and boyars (these names are given to Dmitry Donskoy by his boyar Mikhail Alexandrovich) and Dmitry’s words - a farewell to the dead and a call to his cousin to return to Moscow with honor and glory.

In Zadonshchina there are images and techniques characteristic of folk poetry: metaphors of battle-feast and battle-sowing of the land, comparison of Russian princes and warriors with falcons and eagles, appeals to the lark and nightingale to sing victory. But Zadonshchina is a monument to bookishness, and not a recording or reworking of a folk song about the Battle of Kulikovo.

military story about the Battle of Kulikovo 1380, a monument of ancient Russian literature of the late 14th century. Author "Z." used the work of Zephanius of Ryazan, as well as “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” The main idea of ​​"Z." - the struggle for the unity of the Russian principalities in the face of an external enemy, as well as contrasting the disastrous outcome of events in the “Tale” with the victorious one in “Z.”.

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ZADONSHCHINA

On September 8, 1380, on the Kulikovo field (an area within the Tula region, located in the upper reaches of the Don River, at the confluence of the Nepryadva River, in 1380 - a “wild field” - an uninhabited steppe) a battle of a coalition of Russian princes took place , led by the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich, with a Mongol-Tatar army, reinforced by mercenary troops, under the leadership of the Horde ruler Mamai. This was the first big battle between the Russians and the enslavers after the establishment of the Mongol-Tatar yoke (1237), which ended in the complete defeat of the Mongol-Tatars. The Battle of Kulikovo (often called the Massacre of Mamaev) did not put an end to the foreign yoke in Rus' (this would happen only 100 years later - in 1480), but the nature of the relationship between the Russian principalities and the Horde changed dramatically, and the dominant unifying role of the Moscow principality and the Moscow prince emerged. The Battle of Kulikovo showed that in an alliance the Russian principalities could successfully resist the Mongol-Tatars. The victory on the Kulikovo Field had enormous moral significance for national identity. It is no coincidence that the name of St. Sergius (see LIFE...): the founder and abbot of the Trinity Monastery, according to legend, blessed the campaign of Dmitry of Moscow (see THE TALE OF LIFE) (nicknamed "Donskoy" after the battle on the Kulikovo field) against Mamai and, contrary to the monastery rules, sent with Dmitry’s soldiers on the battlefield of two monks of their monastery - Oslyabya and Peresvet. Interest in the events of the Battle of Kulikovo in Rus' has not waned from the time of the battle to the present day. In Ancient Rus', a number of works were created dedicated to the battle of 1380, which in science are united under the name “Kulikovo cycle”: chronicle stories about the Battle of Kulikovo, “Zadonshchina”, “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamaev”. 3.- emotional, lyrical response to the events of the Battle of Kulikovo. 3. has come down to us in 6 lists, the earliest of which, Kirillo-Belozersky (K-B), compiled by the monk of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Efrosin in the 70-80s. XV century, is a revision of only the first half of the original text 3. The remaining 5 lists are of a later date (the earliest of them is an excerpt from the late XV - early XVI centuries, the rest are from the XVI-XVII centuries). Only two lists contain the complete text; all lists contain many errors and distortions. Therefore, based on data from all the lists taken together, it is possible to reconstruct the text of the work. Based on a combination of a number of indirect data, but mainly based on the nature of the work itself, most researchers date the time of its creation to the 80s. XIV century V.F. Rzhiga, who paid a lot of attention to 3. in his works, wrote: “Attempts to date the monument to a time closer to 1380 seem quite appropriate. They correspond to the clearly emotional character that the Word of Zephaniah has (3.- L.D.) from beginning to end. In this regard, there is reason to believe that the Word of Zephaniah appeared immediately after the Battle of Kulikovo, perhaps in the same 1380 or the next." It is traditionally believed that the author 3. was a certain Sophony of Ryazan: in two lists 3. he is named in the title as the author of the work. In the Tver Chronicle there is a small fragment of text, close in individual readings to 3. and “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev,” beginning with the following phrase: “And this is the writing of Sophonia Rezants, the Bryansk boyar, for the praise of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother Prince Volodymer Andreevich.” (this entry is preceded by the date of the Battle of Kulikovo - 1380). A.D. Sedelnikov drew attention to the similarity of this name with the name of the Ryazan boyar from the entourage of the Ryazan prince Oleg - Sophony Alty-kulachevich (Oleg Ryazansky in 1380 was going to take the side of Mamai). Thus, Sophony Ryazan is undoubtedly somehow connected with the monuments of the Kulikovo cycle. But can he be considered the author of 3.? In some lists of the main edition of “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev,” Zephanius is named as the author of this work. In the text itself 3. it is said about him as a person in relation to the author 3. an outsider: “I (i.e. “I” - the author 3.) will remember the cutter Zephaniah...” Based on this reading, 3. Kulikovsky researcher cycle I. Nazarov back in 1858 argued that it identifies Zephanius as the predecessor of the author of 3. Recently, the hypothesis about the authorship of Zephanius was considered by R.P. Dmitrieva, who came to the conclusion that Zephanius was not the author of 3: ". ..the latter refers to Zephanius as a poet or singer of his time, whose work he was inclined to imitate" ("Was Zephanius of Ryazan the author of "Zadonshchina"? - P. 24). Apparently, Sophony was the author of another poetic work about the Battle of Kulikovo that has not reached us, the poetic images of which influenced the authors of both Z. and “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev.” This assumption is consistent with the hypothesis of academician. A. A. Shakhmatova about the existence of the unpreserved “Tale of the Massacre of Mamaev.” The main idea 3. is the greatness of the Battle of Kulikovo. The author of the work exclaims that the glory of the victory on the Kulikovo field reached different ends of the earth (“Shibla glory to the Iron Gates, and to Karanachi, to Rome, and to Cafe by sea, and to Tornav, and then to Constantinople for the praise of the Russian princes”) . The work is based on the real events of the Battle of Kulikovo, but this is not a consistent historical story about the preparation for the battle, about the battle itself, about the return of the victors from the battlefield, but an emotional refraction of all these events in the author’s perception. The story is transferred from one place to another: from Moscow to the Kulikovo Field, again to Moscow, to Novgorod, again to the Kulikovo Field. The present is intertwined with memories of the past. The author himself described his work as “pity and praise for Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and his brother, Prince Vladimir Ondreevich.” “Pity” is a cry for the dead, for the difficult lot of the Russian land. “Praise” is glory to the courage and military valor of Russian soldiers and their leaders. Many of the events that are narrated in detail in “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamaev” are told in 3. in one or two phrases, half a hint. So, for example, about the actions of the ambush regiment under the command of Prince Vladimir Andreevich of Serpukhov, cousin of Dmitry Donskoy, who decided the outcome of the battle, it is said: “And Prince Vladimer Andreevich, having called out the cry, galloped through the army in half a squad of filthy Tatars, and "The damask swords rattle on the helmets of Khinov." If the detailed narrative of “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamaev” had not been preserved, many places 3. would have remained mysterious and inexplicable to us. Already by the nature of the work, by the combination of lamentation and praise in it, 3. is close to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” But this closeness is not only of a general nature, but is most immediate, and this is another remarkable feature of this work of ancient Russian literature. “The Word” was a model for the author 3. at the textual level as well. Plan 3., a number of poetic images 3. - repetition of poetic images of the “Word”, individual words, phrases, large passages of text 3. Repeat the corresponding places, “Words” depend on the “Word”. Author 3. turned to the “Word” as a model with the aim of comparing and contrasting the political situation in Rus' at the time of the “Word” (80s of the 12th century) with the 80s of the 14th century. The main ideological meaning of the “Word” was The author's call to the Russian princes to forget internecine strife and unite their forces to fight the external enemies of Rus'. Author 3. in the victory won over the Horde, saw the real embodiment of the call of his brilliant predecessor: the combined forces of the Russian princes were able to defeat the Mongol-Tatars, who had previously been considered invincible. Author 3. rethinks the text of the Lay in accordance with the events of the Mamaev Massacre and brings in a lot of his own. 3. characterized by stylistic inconsistency - poetic parts of the text alternate with prosaic ones, which are in the nature of business prose. 3. To a greater extent than the “Word”, the techniques of oral folk poetry are characteristic. The main thing is that in “The Lay” techniques and elements close to oral folk art are presented in an artistically executed author’s processing, author’s rethinking, but in 3. they are much closer both verbally and in character to oral sources. This circumstance and the state of the lists 3. (numerous distortions and errors) served as the basis for the assumption of the folklore, oral origin of the monument. It is quite possible that individual lists 3. were written down from memory and not copied from other lists, but there is no reason to believe that 3. was originally a work of oral creativity. 3. goes back to the “Word” - a literary monument. The combination of 3. poetic text with prosaisms, similar in nature to business writing, also speaks of the bookish and literary character of the monument. This is evidenced by the strongly expressed church and religious symbolism and terminology in 3. A number of scientists proceed from the position that the Lay was written in imitation of 3. (French scientists L. Leger, A. Mazon, Russian historian A. A. Zimin). Comparative textual analysis of “The Lay” and 3. with the involvement of reminiscences from 3. in “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev”, a study of the nature of the book-writing activity of Efrosyn, who authored K-B list 3., a study of the phraseology and vocabulary of “The Lay” and 3. , a comparative analysis of the grammar of “The Lay” and 3. - everything indicates that 3. is secondary in relation to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. 3. has been repeatedly translated into modern Russian, several poetic transcriptions of the monument have been created (by V. M. Sayanova, I. A. Novikova, A. Skripov, A. Zhovtis), 3. translated into a number of foreign languages. A large amount of scientific literature is devoted to the monument. Main bibliographic indexes on 3.: Droblenkova N. F., Begunov Yu. K. Bibliography of scientific research works on the “Zadonshchina” (1852-1965) // “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and monuments of the Kulikovo cycle.- M. ; L., 1966.- P. 557-583; Aralovets N. A., Pronina P. V. Battle of Kulikovo 1380: Literature Index // Battle of Kulikovo: Collection. Art.-M., 1980.-P. 289-318. Below is a bibliography of only the most basic publications and studies 3. Ed.: Monuments of the ancient Russian language and literature of the XV-XVIII centuries / Prod. for publication and provided explanatory notes. Pavel Sichoni. Vol. 3: "Zadonshchina" according to the lists of the 15th - 18th centuries. - Pgr., 1922; Adrianova-Peretz V.P. 1) Zadonshchina: Text and notes // TODRL. - 1947. T. a. - P. 194-224; 2) Zadonshchina: Experience in reconstructing the author’s text // TODRL. - 1948.- T. b-S. 201-255, Rzhiga V.F. The Word of Zephanius of Ryazan about the Battle of Kulikovo ("Zadonshchina"): With the attached text of the Word of Zephaniah and 28 photographs from the text based on the manuscript of the State. ist. Museum of the 16th century - M., 1947; Stories about the Battle of Kulikovo / Ed. prepared by M. N. Tikhomirov, V. F. Rzhiga L. A. Dmitriev. M., 1959- P. 9-26 (ser. "Literary monuments"); “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and monuments of the Kulikovo cycle: On the question of time for writing “The Tale” - M.; L., 1966.-S. 535-556- Zadonshchina / Prep. text, translation and notes. L. A. Dmitrieva//Izbornik (1969).-S. 380-397, 747-750; Kulikovo Field: The Legend of the Battle of the Don / Intro. Art. D. S. Likhacheva; Comp. preparation texts, afterword and note. L. A Dmitrieva. M., 1980. - P. 20-49; Zadonshchina / Prep. text, translation and notes. L. A. Dmitrieva // PLDR: XIV - mid-XV century.-M., 1981- P. 96-111, 544-549; Tales and stories about the Battle of Kulikovo / Ed. preparation L. A. Dmitriev and O. P. Likhacheva.-L., 1982.-P. 7-13, 131-137. Lit.: Nazarov I. The Legend of Mamaev’s Massacre // ZhMNP.- 1858,- July - August.- P. 80-85; Shambinago S.K. The Tale of Mamaev’s Massacre. - St. Petersburg, 1906. - P. 84-143; Likhachev D.S. 1) Zadonshchina//Lit. studies.- 1941.-No. 3.-S. 87-100; 2) Traits of imitation of “Zadonshchina”: On the question of the relationship of “Zadonshchina” to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” // Gus. lit.-1964.-No. 3.-S. 84-107; 3) Trans-Don // Great Heritage.- P. 278-292; 4) The relationship between the lists and editors of “Zadonshchina”: Research by Angelo Danti // TODRL. - 1976.-T. 31.-S. 165-175; 5) Textual triangle: “The Tale of Igor’s Host”, the story of the Ipatiev Chronicle about the campaign of Prince Igor in 1185 and “Zadonshchina”: On the textual comments of Prof. J. Fennel // Likhachev D. S. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and the culture of his time. L., 1978.-S. 296-309; Solovyov A.V. The author of “Zadonshchina” and his political ideas // TODRL.- 1958.- T. 14.- P. 183-197; Rzhiga V.F. 1) The word of Zephanius Ryazan about the Battle of Kulikovo (“Zadonshchina”) as a literary monument of the 80s. XIV century // Tale of the Battle of Kulikovo.- P. 377-400; 2) About Zephaniah of Ryazan//Ibid.-P.401-405; Adrianova-Peretz V.P. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and “Zadonshchina” //