Mythic Russia takes you to the world of Russian myth, history and folklore, a land just freeing itself from the Mongol Yoke and already beginning to face threats from the armoured knights of Europe, a land of deep, dark forests and onion-domed citadels, a land where Christianity is often a thin veneer over the Old Faith, a land of peasants and heroes, of dragons and bathhouse-spirits and...the flame-feathered Firebird.
After all, few peoples have suffered as much through their history as the Russians – periodic foreign invasions, famines, poor soils, hot summers and arctic winters, insane and capricious rulers, you name it – and few have retained their humour, dignity and culture so well. One manifestation has been in their traditional folklore and a mythologised version of their history. Russian folklore is a rich in variety and drama as Russian history, as strongly influenced by other cultures… and as striking a mix of the entertaining and the macabre. Tales of heroic figures and the chronicles of proud cities stand alongside (and as often mix with) a huge body of folktale and legend.
Much of this is sunny, uplifting and optimistic, of the bogatyri, mythic heroes who travelled the lands righting wrongs and doing good. Yet this is also a world of darkness and danger, the land of Baba Yaga, the hook-nosed cannibal witch, carried through the night in her stilt-legged walking hut and of many equal horrors.
The World of Mythic Russia, land of the Firebird
It is the 1380s. Some 150 years ago, the Mongols (or Tatars) swept across the principalities of the Rus’ – an irresistible, alien host convinced that the whole world was their rightful dominion. Some Rus’ tried to fight but in vain: they even laid waste to the great city of Kiev. Instead, the Rus’ learnt the wisdom of surrender and cooperation. After all, the Mongols were conquerors rather than imperial administrators and they had no interest in the detail of government, happy to leave that to subject princes, so long as they acknowledged the authority of the Great Khan and paid their tribute in silver and humiliation.
The Daniilov dynasty of a small, upstart city called Moscow proved to be the greatest beneficiaries of the ‘Tatar Yoke.’ They grew in power and wealth as the Mongols’ most ruthless and effective vassals amongst the Rus’ but they were cunning enough to know when it was time instead to turn against their masters and instead re-invent themselves as the champions of a new, reborn Russia – under their rule. After all, through the fourteenth century, Tatar power and unity had been waning. Prince Dmitri of Moscow finally decided that the time was right. In 1380, a combined Rus’ force broke the forces of Tatar Khan Mamai at Kulikovo Field.
Kulikovo marks just the beginning of the struggle to create a define the new Russia. It is a land of feuding principalities, especially divided between three great cities: Kiev, the ancient capital; Novgorod, the cosmopolitan trading centre; and Moscow, the brooding and ambitious home of an emerging dynasty. It is by no means wholly free of the Tatars, and Dmitri will have to rebuild his bridges if he is to avoid a punitive invasion from the east. The lands of the Rus’ are also threatened from the west, by traditional enemy Lithuania and the zealot crusading order of the Teutonic Knights.
This is therefore an era of danger and opportunity. Heroes, schemers, patriots and turncoats may engage themselves with the complex and often murderous internal politics of the Rus’. Entrepreneurs can grow rich on new trading opportunities and storytellers spread news, myth and gossip. This is also a time of social and religious turmoil. The Rus’ practice dvoeverie, ‘twin faiths,’ through which they reconcile retaining many of their pagan ways with Christianity, but this is being challenged both by different, less inclusive Churches both to the south (the Orthodox hierarchy in Constantinople) and Europe.
