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1. Young Volga Svyatoslavovich longs for a lot of wisdom and strength. He gathers a squad of thirty daredevils, and they leave for an open field. They hear a plowman in the field: he whistles, and his plow creaks. They go one day, another, the third, and cannot get to the plowman in any way. Finally they see a plowman, and he asks Volga where he is on his way. He replies that the capital prince Vladimir granted him three cities with peasants and he is now going there for a paycheck. The plowman says
   Volga, that the men in these cities are robbers, they can kill him and drown him in the river Smorodina. The plowman tells Volga how he himself was recently in the city, bought salt, and the city peasants began to demand that he share pennies with them, and then he had to treat them with fists.
   Volga sees that the plowman can be useful to him when he has to collect tribute from the townspeople, and invites him to go with him. They mount their horses and ride, but the plowman remembers that he forgot to pull the plow out of the ground and throw it behind the bush. Volga sends five mighty fellows, but they cannot cope with the task. Then Volga sends a dozen more fellows, but even those fail to pull the plow out of the ground. Finally, Volga's entire squad tries to pull out the plow. Then a plowman approaches his plow, takes it with one hand, pulls it out of the ground and throws it behind a bush. Volga wants to know what the name of the mighty plowman is. He replies that his name is Mikula Selyaninovich.
   They arrive in the city, and the city men recognize Mikula, who recently beat them alone. They come to Volga with Mikula and apologize. Volga sees the respect a simple peasant enjoys here, and gives him three towns with peasants. He invites Mikula to become the governor and receive tribute from the peasants.

Mikula Selyaninovich is one of the most beloved Russian heroes. And this is no accident: Mikula personifies the entire Russian peasant family.

This is a bogatyr-plowman whom Mother - Cheese Earth loves very much together with her family. He is closely connected with her, because he processes her, and she feeds him.

Therefore, it is impossible to fight with Mikula and his relatives, they are under reliable protection forces of nature.

Peasant warrior

According to one of the central epics about him, Mikula meets Svyatogor - the most ancient hero, who has unearthly features of an archaic character in his appearance. Svyatogor is a fantastic hero, whose strength is immeasurable.

To make sure of this, Mikula invites him to pick up the bag from the ground. However, Svyatogor cannot do this - as soon as he tries to lift the bag, he goes into the ground with his feet. And Mikula himself lifts the bag with one hand and says that it contains all "earthly burdens". This may mean that the Russian peasant is able to overcome even natural elements.

A similar motive can be traced in the epic about the meeting of Volga and Mikula. Volga is a prince who owns three cities and many villages. When the heroes meet, Mikula complains to Volga about the tax collectors who rob the peasants to the bone. Volga punishes the collectors, and Mikula takes him to his squad. The army goes to fight, and then Mikula remembers that he forgot to pull his plow out of the ground.

Mikula Selyanovich and Volga photo

Volga several times sent his mighty warriors there, but they could not pull out the plow. Then Mikula himself drove behind the plow and easily pulled it out with one hand. Mikula Selyaninovich, with all his connection with Slavic mythology- the character is quite late. His image was formed when the Russian peasantry had already developed as an estate and opposed itself to the rest of the social classes in Russia.

The opposition of Volga and Mikula is the opposition of a noble prince, a relative of Vladimir, and a simple peasant, and the first is put to shame, and the second is exalted.

Mikula and Saint Nicholas

Some researchers believe that the image of Mikula arose on the basis of the most popular saint in Russian culture - Nicholas the Wonderworker. The writer P.I. religious holiday in honor of St. Nicholas; on this holiday the people honor the "oratai" Mikula Selyaninovich, in whose honor they even brew home brew.

Most likely, the ancient prototype of Mikula had some other name, which was later changed to Christian. Some scientists even suggest that in the name of Mikula the names of Nikolai and Mikhail came close. Such renaming of ancient deities and heroes is not uncommon in Russian and other cultures.

"Thunderman" Perun was revered after baptism under the name of Elijah the Prophet; Agricultural god Velez "turned" into Saint Blasius; Among the Serbs, the ancient hero Svyatogor "was reborn" in Kraljevic Marko - the ruler, protector of Christians from the Ottoman invaders. Marco is a real historical figure, but in the popular mind his image has merged with mythological heroes.

Young Volga Svyatoslavovich longs for a lot of wisdom and strength. He gathers a squad of thirty daredevils, and they leave for an open field. They hear a plowman in the field: he whistles, and his plow creaks. They drive one day, another, the third - and just can't get to the plowman. Finally they see a plowman, and he asks Volga where he is on his way. He replies that the capital prince Vladimir granted him three cities with peasants and he is now going there for a paycheck. The plowman tells Volga that the men in these cities are robbers, they can kill him and drown him in the river Smorodina. The plowman tells Volga how he himself was recently in the city, bought salt, and the city peasants began to demand that he share pennies with them, and then he had to treat them with fists. Volga sees that the plowman can be useful to him when he has to collect tribute from the townspeople, and invites him to go with him. They mount their horses and ride, but the plowman remembers that he forgot to pull the plow out of the ground and throw it behind the bush. Volga sends five mighty fellows, but they cannot cope with the task. Then Volga sends a dozen more fellows, but even they fail to pull the plow out of the ground. Finally, Volga's entire squad tries to pull out the plow. Then a plowman approaches his plow, takes it with one hand, pulls it out of the ground and throws it behind a bush. Volga wants to know what the name of the mighty plowman is. He replies that his name is Mikula Selyaninovich. GO TO SITONS They come to the city, and the city men recognize Mikula, who recently beat them alone. They come to Volga with Mikula and apologize. Volga sees the respect a simple peasant enjoys here, and gives him three towns with peasants. He invites Mikula to become the governor and receive tribute from the peasants.

The value of MIKULA SELYANINOVICH in the Brief biographical encyclopedia

MIKULA SELYANINOVICH

Mikula Selyaninovich - epic hero-peasant. The variant of the name - Vikula - is explained by the transition of the labial nasal "m" in the labial nasal in the Olonets dialect. Mikula's patronymic is much more diverse: Selyaninovich, Selyanovich, Selyaninov, Seyatelevich, Selyaginov and Selyaginovich. Of these forms, the greatest right to archaism belongs to the Selyaginovich (Selyaginov) form. As not entirely clear, it could be interpreted in the form of Selyaninovich; on the contrary, from the Selyaninovich form it is impossible to explain the appearance of the Selyaginovich form, with the middle sound "g". Forms Selyagin and Selyaginovich are displayed by Vs. Miller from the ancient word selga, found in the XIV century. and denoting the fields, launched under the grass and forest. The name selga still exists in the Olonets province. It was extremely difficult to plow the selga overgrown with forest and grass: it was necessary to constantly jump on the roots of the trees, although not yet too deep, and indeed from the epic it is clear that Mikula Selyaninovich was not shouting at the cornfield, but at the selga, as he twisted the roots with the plow. In the epics about Volga's meeting with Mikula (Rybnikov, I, 3 and 4), II, ¦ 1 and 60; Hilferding ¦ 32, 55, 73, 131, 195), this meeting, apparently, was in the original plan only an episode in the story of the adventures of the hero Volga Seslavich; but in the epics that have come down to us, the personality of the wonderful strongman-plowman came to the fore so clearly that it completely discolored Volga's personality. His adventure with some cities, for which he actually undertakes a trip from Kiev with his squad, is usually crumpled in several verses, so that between the beginning of the epic telling about the birth of the hero Volga, signs of nature, the departure of animals, birds, fish, training and recruiting a brave squad , and it ended with a mismatch. The beginning makes the listeners expect the extraordinary feats of Volga, but the episode - the meeting with Mikula - absorbs all the interest, and the epic somehow brings the end to the beginning. The best option the epics of Trofim Ryabinin (Rybnikov, I, ¦ 3; Hilferding ¦ 73) can be found in any anthology. Mikula, in his luxurious outfit, does not appear to be a peasant by profession, but rather some prince or boyar who has taken a plow for the sake of appearance and is playing a kind of farmer. Learning from Volga that he was going to get a tribute, Mikula says that he himself recently ran into the Orekhovtsy peasants when he went to fetch salt, and calls them robbers. In other versions, it is very briefly said about the help provided by Mikula Volga in receiving tribute from the rebellious townspeople who wanted to destroy Volga's squad by sawing bridges across the Volkhov River. Mikula Selyaninovich is also found in one visit recorded by Rybnikov (vol. I, p. 39, note). Here Svyatogor cannot overtake the traveler on horseback, cannot lift the bag he carries. There was an earthly thrust in the bag, and the traveler calls himself Mikula Selyaninovich. When Svyatogor asked how he could find out the fate of God, Mikula sent him to the Siversky mountains, where Svyatogor found his betrothed. The newest researchers suggest that the storyline of the epic could be a wandering plot brought into our epic from the outside. The direct source of the epic has not yet been discovered, although there is no lack of European and Eastern legends in parallels to the miraculous plowman met by the king. So, academician Veselovsky compared Mikula Selyaninovich with the Byzantine emperor Gugon, whom Charlemagne meets with plowing in the Western European legend about Charlemagne's walk to Jerusalem and Constantinople. All in. Miller indicated a person similar to Mikula Selyaninovich in the oriental legends about Alexander the Great (Iskander), processed in the poem by the Persian poet Nizami (see Materials for the history of epic plots, IX. To the epic about Mikul Selyaninovich, Ethnographic Review " , 1892, Book XIII - XIV, pp. 120 - 126). Great results were achieved by the study of the everyday side of the epic, which revealed its North Russian (probably Novgorod) origin. The everyday features include: 1) a picture of northern plowing in the provinces of Novgorod, Pskov, Olonets, etc., where arable land is sometimes completely dotted with boulders, then small ones, which are constantly marked by plow omeshiks, then large ones, which have to be skirted around when plowing (cf. description plowing of Mikula Selyaninovich); 2) the use of a plow, not a plow; 3) sowing rye, not wheat; 4) Mikula Selyaninovich's driving for salt, explained by Novgorod living conditions; 5) his collision with Orekhovtsy sometimes because of salt: Orekhovets - the ancient name of the present Shlisselburg on the Neva, where Novgorodians had to buy imported salt; 6) mention of the Volkhov River in one version (Rybnikov, I, p. 24); 7) perhaps the above analyzed patronymic of Mikula from the word selga; 8) confusion between the considered epic and other undoubtedly Novgorod ones (for example, Volga has a patronymic Buslaevich [Hilferding, ¦ 91]; Sadko is reduced to Volga and Mikula [Hilferding, ¦ 2]); 9) finally, the personality of Mikula Selyaninovich is known exclusively in the Olonets epic repertoire, and there is not a single epic about him recorded in other parts of Russia. The time of the addition of the version of the epic that has come down to us, deduced from the comparison of options, cannot be too distant. The chronological date can be the silver pennies for which Mikula buys salt - an indication of the era not earlier than the beginning of the 15th century, when the Novgorodians used foreign money instead of the old Kunna system: artigs, pubes and Lithuanian pennies. In addition to the literature indicated in the article "Heroes", cf. Kvashnin-Samarin (in the journal "Beseda", no. 4, p. 96); Al. Veselovsky ("Journal of the Ministry of National Education", 1881, February, p. 364, and 1888, May, p. 76); M. Halansiy ("Russian Philological Bulletin", 1881, no. 4, p. 270); All in. Miller "To the epics about Volga and Mikula" ("Journal of the Ministry of Public Education", 1894, November). Sun. Miller (deceased).

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

See also the interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what MIKULA SELYANINOVICH is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

• MIKULA SELYANINOVICH
  bogatyr-plowman, hero of Russian epics "Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich", "Svyatogor and Mikula ...
• MIKULA SELYANINOVICH
  Selyaninovich, one of the heroes of Russian epics, a hero-plowman. Two epic stories about him are known: "Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich", "Svyatogor and Mikula ...
• MIKULA SELYANINOVICH
  the famous epic hero-peasant. The variant of the name - Vikula - is explained by the transition of the labial nasal m to the labial nasal m in the Olonets dialect. ...
• MIKULA SELYANINOVICH
  ? the famous epic hero-peasant. Name variation? Vikula? is explained by the transition of the labial nasal m into the labial nasal m in the Olonets ...
• MIKULA SELYANINOVICH in the Modern explanatory dictionary, TSB:
  bogatyr-plowman, hero of Russian epics "Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich", "Svyatogor and Mikula ...
• MIKULA in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  MIЌULA SELYANINOVICH, Russian hero epics "Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich", "Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich", ...
• TIMOFEEV ALEXEY VASILIEVICH
  Timofeev (Alexey Vasilievich) - poet (1812 - 1883); studied at the Faculty of Law of Kazan University; was the provincial prosecutor in Ufa, then ...
• SVYATOGOR in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
  Svyatogor is a hero of the Russian bygone epic, standing outside the Kiev and Novgorod cycles and only partly in contact with the first in epics ...
• VELYAMINOV NIKOLAY VASILIEVICH (MIKULA VASILIEVICH) in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
  Velyaminov Nikolay (according to the chronicles - Mikula Vasilyevich) - the son of a thousand Vasily Velyaminov. Despite the betrayal of his older brother, Nikolay Velyaminov ...
• BOGATYRI in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
  Heroes. The word "bogatyr" in Russian is of Eastern (Turkic) origin, although, perhaps, the Turks themselves borrowed it from the Asian Aryans. In others ...
• FOLKLORE in the Literary Encyclopedia.
• TIMOFEEV in the Literary Encyclopedia:
  1. Alexey Vasilievich - poet and fiction writer. R. in Kurmysh b. Simbirsk lips. in a wealthy landlord family. Studied …
• VRUBEL MIKHAIL ALEXANDROVICH in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  (1856-1910) Russian painter. The works ("The Demon", 1890, "Lilac", 1900) are marked by a dramatic intensity of color, "crystal" clarity, constructiveness of the drawing, gravitation towards symbolic and philosophical generalization ...
• USSR. LITERATURE AND ARTS in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
  and art Literature Multinational Soviet literature is a qualitatively new stage development of literature. As a definite artistic whole, united by a single socio-ideological ...
• TIMOFEEV ALEXEY VASILIEVICH in Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron:
  poet (1812-83); studied at the Faculty of Law of Kazan University; was the provincial prosecutor in Ufa, then an official for special assignments at the Moscow. Governor General. ...
• SVYATOGOR in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
  the hero of the Russian bygone epic, standing outside the Kiev and Novgorod cycles and only partly in contact with the first in the epics about the meeting ...
• BOGATYRI in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron.
• TIMOFEEV ALEXEY VASILIEVICH in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
  ? poet (1812? 83); studied at the Faculty of Law of Kazan University; was the provincial prosecutor in Ufa, then an official for special assignments at the Moscow. ...
• SVYATOGOR in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
  ? the hero of the Russian bygone epic, standing outside the Kiev and Novgorod cycles and only partly in contact with the first in the epics of ...
• BOGATYRI in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia.

The story "Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich" belongs to the Novgorod cycle of epics. The summary of the work allows the reader to compare two different images: the prince's nephew and a simple plowman-peasant. According to some reports, in this epic, the main characters are two pagan gods: Mikula is responsible for agriculture, and Volga for hunting. Orest Miller, a 19th century mythologist, found in the work many similar characteristics between the protagonists and the patrons of peasants and hunters.

Volga's meeting with Mikula

The prince's acquaintance with a simple peasant lies at the heart of the plot of the epic “Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich”. The summary tells how the nephew of the Kiev prince was born, matured and thought about acquiring worldly wisdom and strength. Volga asked Vladimir for a squad of 30 people to go with her for tribute. Kiev prince for this he allocates three cities to his nephew: Orekhovets, Gurchevets and Krestyanovets.

Volga Svyatoslavovich in the field, hears the creak of a plow and the whistling of a plowman, but does not see the peasant himself. He rode for a long time with his retinue, only on the third day he saw a peasant. During the meeting, Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich got into conversation. The summary tells that the prince told the peasant where and for what purpose he was going, and the peasant, in turn, warned him about the evil inhabitants of the named cities.

The incredible strength of a plowman

Having learned that he would have to meet with real robbers, Volga asked Mikula to go with him, because his army would not be disturbed by such a strong man who alone coped with several townspeople. The prince was seriously worried that his squad could be killed and drowned in the river Smorodina. The epic "Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich" tells that the peasant agreed to go to the city for tribute, but, having already driven a decent distance from the field, he remembered that he had not pulled his plow out of the ground and thrown it behind a rakita bush.

In order not to return, Volga sent five of his fellows, but, it turns out, they are not able to fulfill Mikula's task. Then 10 more soldiers go to the field, but even they cannot tear down the plow from the spot, the whole squad undertook to pull it out, but there was no result. And then the plowman, as if playfully, pulled her out of the ground and threw her behind a bush. The prince is impressed by the incredible strength of his new acquaintance, after which Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich became close friends.

Heroes of the Russian epic

And so the prince and the peasant came to the city. The men immediately recognized Mikula, who beat them alone when they tried to take the salt from the plowman, and came to the riders to bow and apologize. Volga saw with his own eyes how respected his new acquaintance was, so he decided to give him three cities with peasants. The prince made the plowman his governor and instructed him to collect tribute from the peasants.

But there is also a slightly different interpretation of the epic “Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich”. The summary of the work says that robbers attacked the prince in the city, and the plowman saved him. Whatever it was, but Mikula Selyaninovich is the embodiment of the national hero.

Related materials:

• Characteristics of Mikula Selyaninovich from the epic Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich
• Characteristics of Volga Svyatoslavovich: description of the hero
• Volga Svyatoslavovich: characterization of the hero