2020, vol. 8, no. 1. Bulanin D.M.

2020, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 87-106

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2020-8-1.87-106

   IN SEARCH OF THE MODEL:
ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON THE KULIKOVO FIELD

D.M. Bulanin
Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House),
Russian Academy of Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
dmitriibulanin@yandex.ru

Abstract: Research objectives: On one hand, to determine the purpose of the image of Alexander the Great in the earliest versions of The Tale of the Battle with Mamai. On the other hand, the goal here is to determine its function along with other symbolic images in Russian historical narratives of the epoch, i.e. in the tales which appeared after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. To establish patterns and paradoxes of typological exegesis, which used to be practiced by the compilers of the texts. This exegesis consisted in the projection of contemporary events on crucial events and prominent heroes from the distant past. The authors preferred to compare the phenomena, which were essential within providential vision of the history.
Research materials: A diptych consisting of the Serbian Alexandria and The Tale of the Battle with Mamai, which was composed under its influence, is viewed against the background of a whole set of the texts written in the same chronological period. Among them are The Tale on the Campaign against Novgorod in 1471, The Tale on the Capture of Tsargrad by the Turks, Kazan History, and finally, a series of sixteenth-century literary pieces dedicated to Russian–Tatar relations in historical retrospection (entries of the Nikonian Chronicle, cycle of writings glorifying Michael of Chernigov, including The Praise by Leo the Philologist, The Vita of Euphrosyne of Suzdal, The Tale of Mercury of Smolensk, and The Tale about the Destruction of Ryazan by Batu).
Results and novelty of the research: For the first time, the mechanism of typological exegesis, practiced by Russian writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is systematically analyzed. This exegesis used to be applied in order to interpret the most important facts in the past and contemporary history of mankind. It consisted of arranging them as a series of time horizons correlated with each other. As a chronological beginning, the author chose the fall of Byzantium in 1453, a catastrophe which required radical changes in the Christian view of universal development and which stimulated a sense of historical dynamics. The authors of historical narratives analyzed in the study invariably gave preference to the symbolic interpretation of events and heroes over their literal interpretation. This strategy often led to ambivalence in the ethical and political evaluation of the relevant personalities. The idea of history, which was adopted by the medieval writers and which held a kind of fatalism, introduced an element of uncertainty in the strict separation of positive and negative heroes inherent to medieval literature. Characters in the texts often lent each other their attributes, including traditional comparisons with prominent people from the past, historical as well as mythological. A typical example of such uncertainty in the distribution of characteristics is the use of the image of Alexander the Great, an ideal ruler against which later rulers were compared. In The Tale of the Battle with Mamai, Dimitri Donskoy and Mamai, the antagonist characters, are both compared to this king of Macedon. On the symbolic level they become equal.

Keywords: Battle on Kulikovo Field, Alexander Novel, symbol, prototype, function, providential history, typological exegesis

For citation: Bulanin D.M. In Search of the Model: Alexander the Great on the Kulikovo Field. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review. 2020, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 87–106. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2020-8-1.87-106

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About the author: Dmitrii M. Bulanin – Dr. Sci. (Philology), Main Research Fellow of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (4, Makarov embankment, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russian Federation); ORCID: 0000-0002-5480-7964. E-mail: dmitriibulanin@yandex.ru

Received  November 30, 2019   Accepted for publication  February 22, 2020
Published Online March 29, 2020