Koshchei, also Kashchei often given the epithet "the Immortal", or "the Deathless", is an archetypal male antagonist in Russian folklore.
The Russian alphabet is the script used to write the Russian language. It is derived from the Cyrillic script, which was modified in the 9th century to capture accurately the phonology of the first Slavic literary language, Old Slavonic. Initially an old variant of the Bulgarian alphabet, it was used in Kievan Rus' from the 10th century onward to write what would become the modern Russian language.
Zagоvory is a form of verbal folk magic in Eastern Slavic folklore and mythology. Users of zagоvory use incantations to enchant objects or people.
Mokosh is a Slavic goddess. According to etymological reconstruction, Mokosh was the goddess of earth, waters and fertility, and later, according to most researchers, she was reflected in bylinas and zagovory as Mat Zemlya. Another reconstruction was made on the basis of ethnography: at the end of the 19th century, such names of kikimora as Mokusha or Mokosha were recorded in the Russian North. The coincidence is explained by the fact that kikimora is a demonized version of the goddess, and by approximating between the two, researchers have portrayed Mokosh as the goddess of love and birth, with a connection to the night, the moon, spinning, sheep farming and women's economy. Spinning was the occupation of various European goddesses of fate, which led to the characterization of Mokosh as a deity controlling fate. This reconstruction does not agree with the data on her etymology, which shows that the function of spinning could not have been the main one.
Khors is a Slavic god of uncertain functions mentioned since the 12th century. Generally interpreted as a sun god, sometimes as a moon god. The meaning of the theonym is also unknown: most often his name has been combined with the Iranian word for sun, such as the Persian xoršid, or the Ossetian xor, but modern linguists strongly criticize such an etymology, and other native etymologies are proposed instead.
The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopaedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in the Russian Empire in 1890–1907, as a joint venture of Leipzig and St Petersburg publishers. The articles were written by the prominent Russian scholars of the period, such as Dmitri Mendeleev and Vladimir Solovyov. Reprints have appeared following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
A bogatyr or vityaz is a stock character in medieval East Slavic legends, akin to a Western European knight-errant. Bogatyrs appear mainly in Rus' epic poems—bylinas. Historically, they came into existence during the reign of Vladimir the Great as part of his elite warriors (druzhina), akin to Knights of the Round Table. Tradition describes bogatyrs as warriors of immense strength, courage and bravery, rarely using magic while fighting enemies in order to maintain the "loosely based on historical fact" aspect of bylinas. They are characterized as having resounding voices, with patriotic and religious pursuits, defending Rus' from foreign enemies and their religion.
Volost was a traditional administrative subdivision in Kievan Rus', the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Russian Empire.
A khutor or khutir is a type of rural locality in some countries of Eastern Europe; in the past the term mostly referred to a single-homestead settlement. The term can be translated as "hamlet".
It East Slavic folklore Buyan is a mysterious island in the ocean with the ability to appear and disappear with the tide.
In the medieval history of Kievan Rus' and Early Poland, a druzhina, drużyna, or družyna was a retinue in service of a Slavic chieftain, also called knyaz. The name is derived from the Slavic word drug with the meaning of "companion, friend".
Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer best known for publishing nearly 600 East Slavic and Russian fairy and folk tales, one of the largest collections of folklore in the world. This collection was not strictly Russian, but included folk tales from Ukraine and Belarus alongside Russian folk tales. The first edition of his collection was published in eight volumes from 1855 to 1867, earning him the reputation of being the Russian counterpart to the Brothers Grimm.
Sword Kladenets is a magic sword in Russian fairy tales and byliny, rendered as "sword of steel", "hidden sword", or "magic sword" in English translations.
The Vyg is a river in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. It consists of the Upper Vyg which is 135 kilometres (84 mi) long and discharges into Lake Vygozero, and the Lower Vyg, which is 102 kilometres (63 mi) long and flows from Vygozero and discharges into Onega Bay of the White Sea near Belomorsk.
Tyushtya IPA ['tʲuʃtʲɑ] is Moksha demigod, son of Atäm and mortal girl. Tyushtya is able to turn into White horse. The good harvest depends on him. He was the first Moksha King chosen by clan elders. The first Moksha title for the king derives from his name Moksha: тюштян, romanized: tyushtyan, lit. 'king' IPA [tʲuʃ'tʲɑn].
Znamya was a newspaper established by ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds journalist Pavel Krushevan in Petersburg. It is known for publishing of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in August–September 1903.
Idolishche Poganoye is a mythological monstrosity from Russian bylinas and other folklore; he personifies pagan forces invading the Russian lands. The name literally means "pagan idol", with a Russian augmentative suffix "-ishche".
Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Kniazhnina was an 18th-century Russian poet. Her surname also appears as Knyazhnina.
Evgeny Vasilyevich Anichkov was a Russian literary critic and historian who specialised in the Slavic folklore and mythology, as well as their relation to and use in the Russian literature.
The Verse about the Book of the Dove is a medieval Russian spiritual verse. At least 20 versions are known. They vary in length from 30 to over 900 lines. The poem is generally thought to have been written ca. 1500 in the Novgorod region, though Russian nationalists postulate its great antiquity. The earliest extant manuscript is dated to the 17th century.
