Kudeyar is the territory of delicious food. Who is Ataman Kudeyar? History, legend, mention in literary works. Identification of the ataman with Tsarevich Yuri
The robber Kudeyar is one of the most popular characters in folklore.
Legends about him are recorded in all the southern and central provinces of Russia - from Smolensk to Saratov:
“And then there was Kudeyar - this one didn’t rob anywhere! And in Kaluga, and in Tula, and to Ryazan he came, and to Yelets, and to Voronezh, and to Smolensk - he went everywhere, set up his camps everywhere and buried many treasures in the ground, but all with curses: he was a terrible sorcerer. And what a filthy power he wielded: he would spread out on the banks of a river, a lake, so, no matter what stream, he would spread a sheepskin coat or retinue and lie down to sleep; sleeps with one eye, guards with the other: is there a chase somewhere; the right eye fell asleep - the left guards, and there - the left sleeps, the right guards - so alternately; and when he sees where the detectives are, he jumps to his feet, throws into the water the short fur coat on which he slept, and that short fur coat becomes not a short fur coat, but a boat with oars; Kudeyar will sit in that boat - remember your name ...
So he died his death - they couldn’t catch him in any way, no matter how hard they tried.
This is only one of the brief biographies of Kudeyar that existed among the people. What is the real historical character behind this name? Many hypotheses have already been expressed on this score, but, alas, none of them shed light on the mystery of Kudeyar.
When did Kudeyar live? Here the opinions basically coincide: in the middle of the 16th century. He was a contemporary of Ivan the Terrible. This is partly documented. So, in 1640, in response to a request from Moscow, the Tula governor wrote that he was told about Kudeyar "for a long time by old people, about forty years ago."
Who is Kudeyar?
Most historians agree that the name Kudeyar (Khudoyar) is of Tatar origin: Kudeyar (Turkic Persian Xudāyār “beloved by God”). But a number of researchers do not agree with the Turkic origin of the name Kudeyar and point out that the name Kudeyar was quite common in Western and Central Russia and meant "the strongest of sorcerers."
- According to a popular legend, Kudeyar is the son of Vasily III and his wife Solomonia, born after she was exiled to a monastery for infertility. Thus, he turns out to be the elder brother of Ivan the Terrible and his real name is Prince Georgy Vasilyevich. She was imprisoned by force in a monastery under the name of Sophia, so that Vasily III could marry Elena Glinskaya. Solomonia gave birth to Kudeyar in a monastery and he was taken to the Kerzhensky forests and secretly brought up in forest sketes.
- According to another legend, Kudeyar is the son of Zsigmond Bathory, born even before his relative Stefan Bathory (Zsigmond was Stefan's nephew) became the king of the Polish state. Having quarreled with his father, who by that time was already old, he fled to the Cossacks on the Dnieper. Then he goes to the service of the Russian Tsar. Thus, he is among the guardsmen of the Terrible Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his real name is Prince Gabor-Georgy in the Russian version of Sigismundovich.
- Another version says that he could be Kudeyar Tishenkov (XVI century) - the son of a boyar, originally from the city of Belev. Contemporary of Ivan the Terrible. In May 1571, he showed the hordes of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray the way to approach Moscow. Retreating along with the Crimean Tatars, he left the Moscow state and remained in the Crimea. Then it is mentioned in the letters of the captive Vasily Gryazny from the Crimea to the king. After some time, Tishenkov turns to Ivan IV with a request for pardon and permission to return to Moscow. Permission has been granted. Further traces of the historical Kudeyar Tishenkov are lost. There is no evidence that the robber Kudeyar, who lived around the same era and, as they say, also came from Belev, and Tishenkov are one and the same person, no. The fact that Kudeyar belonged to their family was also told in the Kursk family of the Markovs.
- According to the version mentioned earlier, Kudeyar belonged to the Batory family, was sent to the Cossacks on the Dnieper, then served as Ivan IV as a guardsman, and after the royal disgrace, he fled and robbed, having a camp near the village of Bozhedarovka, modern Shchorsk.
Since the area of distribution of legends is very wide, the researchers offer a version according to which the name Kudeyar could become a household name, and several chieftains used it.
Among the associates of Kudeyar are called the robber Anna, Boldyr and the daughter Lyubasha cursed by him (her ghost was shown not far from Optina Hermitage).
His grave is placed near Tula behind the Oblique Mountain or in one of the barrows. Saratov province(according to Volga legends).
The legend of the Kudeyarova cave and its treasures
Very often there are stories about numerous treasures hidden by a robber, which were actively searched for in the 19th century. based on forged letters and descriptions. There are about a hundred such Kudeyarov towns, where, according to legend, robber treasures are buried, in southern Russia. Especially many of these places were within the Voronezh province. In the Bryansk forests, they named the places where the treasures buried by Kudeyar were hidden. It was said that over the stones that cover these treasures, lights flash, and twice a week at 12 o'clock a child's plaintive cry is heard.
Here is one of the legends about the Kudeyar treasure.
Kudeyar gathered fellows and robbed merchants and boyars with them. They accumulated a rich treasury: a lot of gold, barrels of silver and gemstones. Part of the wealth he distributed to the poor, the rest he put in a cave. Kudeyar lived in his mountain, inside which there were richly decorated rooms and kept treasures obtained during raids. In front of the mountain flowed the swift and bright river Sokolka, and all around the mountains rose, covered, like Kudeyarova, with dense old forest, stretching far to the north and south. Next to Kudeyarova, Karaulnaya Hill rises - a high cone, overgrown with pine trees at that time.
The camp of the Kudeyarov troops was dug in with a moat and a rampart. Kudeyar posted his sentries on the Guard Hill. At the end of the Sokolka valley, in the current "Pushki" tract, there were Kudeyar forges, where weapons and guns were made. When Kudeyar went on a raid with his army, he locked his dungeon with huge castles, the size of a pig, and blocked the entrance so that no one could find him.
Kudeyar kept his treasures in storerooms inside the mountain behind iron doors. A narrow, winding and low underground passage led inside the mountain from the middle of the rather steep side of the mountain, stretching 100 fathoms inside. covered with stone.
He had a companion Shem or Simon; once they argued about the strength and dexterity of their horses, decided for the experiment to jump from Merkulova Gora to Kudeyarova through Mayrov Dol, where the Sokolka flows. Kudeyar jumped on his horse, but Sim broke off and fell into the valley. In the place where he fell into the ground with a horse, a spring hit, which still bears his name.
For no reason at all, Kudeyar's wife, beloved Nastya, fell ill, and died overnight. They buried her in an oak coffin, dressed her in brocade and velvet with pearls and gems, buried with her in the grave all the clothes and jewelry that belonged to the deceased, and poured a mound over her.
Kudeyar buried both his faithful friend and his beloved wife at the same time, he was sick of white light. Kudeyar remembered that he was a Christian and made a vow - to atone for grave sins. He released all his fellows and was left alone. He blocked all the passages to his underground dwelling and began to live alone under the mountain, to atone for his own and human sins before the Lord.
It is believed that Kudeyar is still alive and guards his treasures in Kudeyarova Gora in a dugout. During the day, this dugout is invisible, but at night a huge bird flies there and hammers Kudeyar's head to the brain, flying away by dawn. He is doomed for two centuries to guard his treasures in grief and bears the punishment of God for robbery. In the dugout lies a loaf of bread that never decreases.
According to other sources, Kudeyar put a pledge on all his treasures for 200 years. This deadline has already passed. Workers must dig odd number. golden key iron doors lies in the Simov spring, and only the one who scoops out this spring or draws water from the Supper Lake can get it. Where it is, Supper Lake, no one knows.
folk song
THERE WAS TWELVE ROBBERS
Words by N. A. Nekrasov
Performed by F. Chaliapin with choral accompaniment (recorded in 1932):
There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar ataman.
Many robbers shed
Blood of honest Christians!
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
monk honest Pitirim.
Lots of good stuff was stolen
They lived in a dense forest.
Kudeyar himself, from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
So in Solovki he told us
monk honest Pitirim.
In the afternoon with his mistress amused,
He made raids at night.
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
So in Solovki he told us
monk honest Pitirim.
He abandoned his comrades
Threw raids to create;
Kudeyar himself went to the monastery
Serve God and people!
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
So in Solovki he told us
Kudeyar himself - Pitirim!
Song adaptation of the tale "About two great sinners" (1876) from Nikolai Nekrasov's unfinished poem "Who should live well in Russia" (1863-1877) (the tale is given at the end of the page). The tale is based on folklore legends about Kudeyar-ataman. The meaning of Nekrasov's poem and the original legend is not preserved in the song. Both in the legend and in Nekrasov's work, the hero acts as a people's avenger: having abandoned robbery, he becomes a pilgrim and a hermit, lives alone in the forest (and does not go to a monastery), but prayers do not help him. Atonement for sins comes as soon as Kudeyar kills the landowner with his old robber's knife, who "torments, tortures and hangs serfs." Also, in the Nekrasov original, there is no mention anywhere that the monk Pitirim and Kudeyar are the same person. It is likely that this song is not a spontaneous folk adaptation, but the result of the activity of some author from the church environment.
Legends about Kudeyar-ataman are connected with the Volga region. In the Zhiguli Mountains there is Kudeyarova Gora, as well as other names inherited in memory of the Volga robbers - the village of Otvazhnoye, the village of Obsharovka, the Molodetsky Kurgan, the Voevodino tract, the Thieves' Settlement, etc. But in general, the legend of two great sinners is very common among different peoples, it is especially popular with the Eastern Slavs; in this case, the hero is named Kudeyar, but this is not necessary. Instead of a landowner, an overseer, a merchant, a priest, etc., can act. Most often, in order to forgive sins, a former robber must water a charred firebrand until it sprouts (Nekrasov’s hero cuts an oak), but then the hero meets and kills an even greater sinner, a tormentor of the people , and the firebrand sprouts itself.
OPTION 1
There were twelve robbers
Words by N. A. Nekrasov (in folk arrangement)
“Let us pray to the Lord God!
We will announce the ancient story, -
So in Solovki he told us
Monk the honest Pitirim.
There was Kudeyar-ataman.
A lot of robbers shed
The blood of honest Christians.
Lots of wealth was stolen
They lived in a dense forest.
Kudeyar himself from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
He made raids at night.
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
He abandoned his comrades
He gave up raids to create.
He himself went to the monastery
Serve God and people.
“Let us pray to the Lord God!
We will announce the ancient story, -
So in Solovki he told us
Kudeyar-Pitirim himself.
OPTION 2
Twelve thieves lived
Zhanna Bichevskaya - "The Ballad of the Twelve Thieves"
Twelve thieves lived
Lived Kudeyar ataman.
Many robbers shed
Blood of honest Christians!
Many robbers shed
Blood of honest Christians!
Lots of wealth was stolen
They lived in a dense forest.
Leader Kudeyar from near Kiev
Stole the beautiful girl.
During the day he was having fun with his mistress,
He made raids at night.
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
He abandoned his comrades
He gave up raids to create.
Kudeyar himself went to the monastery
Serve God and people!
He prays to the Lord God
He will serve him.
We will all be for Kudeyar
Thank the Lord.
We will all be for Kudeyar
Thank the Lord.
Transcription of Zhanna Bichevskaya's phonogram, album "Old Russian folk village and city songs and ballads", Part 2, ZeKo Records, 1996 (recorded in 1994)
ORIGINAL POEM
About two great sinners
<Из поэмы «Кому на Руси жить хорошо»>
N. A. Nekrasov
Let's pray to the Lord God
We will announce the ancient story,
He told me in Solovki
Monk, Father Pitirim.
There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar-ataman,
Many robbers shed
The blood of honest Christians,
Lots of wealth was stolen
Lived in a dense forest
Leader Kudeyar from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
In the afternoon with his mistress, he amused himself,
He made raids at night,
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
The dream flew away; disgusted
Drunkenness, murder, robbery,
The shadows of the slain are,
A whole army - you can't count!
Long fought, resisted
Lord beast-man,
Head blew off his mistress
And Yesaula spotted.
The conscience of the villain mastered
Disbanded his band
Distributed property to the church,
Buried the knife under the willow.
And forgive sins
Goes to the tomb of the Lord
Wandering, praying, repenting,
It doesn't get any easier for him.
An old man, in monastic clothes,
The sinner came home
Lived under the canopy of the oldest
Duba, in the forest slum.
Day and night of the Most High
Pray: forgive sins!
Let your body be tortured
Let me save my soul!
God took pity and to salvation
The schemer showed the way:
An old man in prayer vigil
Some saint appeared
Rivers: "Not without God's providence
You chose the age-old oak,
With the same knife that robbed
Cut it off with the same hand!
There will be great work
There will be a reward for work,
The tree just collapsed
The chains of sin will fall."
The hermit measured the monster:
Oak - three girths around!
I went to work with a prayer
Cuts with a damask knife
Cuts tough wood
Singing glory to the Lord
The years go by - advance
Slowly business forward.
What to do with the giant
Frail, sick person?
We need iron strength here,
We don't need an old age!
Doubt creeps into the heart
Cuts and hears the words:
"Hey old man, what are you doing?"
Crossed first,
I looked - and Pan Glukhovsky
He sees on a greyhound horse,
Pan rich, noble,
The first one in that direction.
A lot of cruel, scary
The old man heard about the pan
And as a lesson to the sinner
He told his secret.
Pan chuckled: "Salvation
I haven't had tea for a long time
In the world I honor only a woman,
Gold, honor and wine.
You have to live, old man, in my opinion:
How many slaves I destroy
I torture, I torture and hang,
And I would like to see how I sleep!
The miracle with the hermit happened:
Felt rage,
Rushed to Pan Glukhovsky,
A knife plunged into his heart!
Just pan bloody
Fell head on the saddle
A huge tree collapsed
The echo shook the whole forest.
The tree collapsed, rolled down
From a monk the burden of sins! ..
Glory to the creator omnipresent
Today and forever! (1876)
N. A. Nekrasov. Full Sobr. op. and letters in 15 volumes. V. 5. - L., "Nauka", 1982 (printed according to the typographical print of 1876 with the restoration of the fragments modified by Nekrasov for printing according to the typesetting manuscript)
In some editions, the last stanza:
The tree collapsed, rolled down
From a monk the burden of sins! ..
Let us pray to the Lord God:
Have mercy on us, dark slaves!
The difference in the texts is explained by the fact that several versions of the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” of the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” are known:
Nekrasov's typesetting manuscript of 1876 for the magazine "Notes of the Fatherland" for November 1876,
- a typographical print of 1876 made on its basis (with changes for censorship reasons),
- illegal edition of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House of 1879,
- publication in Otechestvennye Zapiski for February 1881 (in a truncated and distorted form; probably many edits were made by the editors).
The "correct" author's version is considered to be the text of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House - it reproduces the text of the print of 1876 with the restoration of the modified fragments according to the author's typesetting manuscript. In this form, the text is included in the Complete Works of Nekrasov (1982).
The tale of Kudeyar-ataman is contained in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” of the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia”. Nekrasov died on January 8 (according to the new style), 1878, leaving the poem unfinished. The author did not know what the final should be, and could not find an answer to the question of who is good in Russia.
The prototype of Pan Glukhovsky could be a real Smolensk landowner of the middle of the 19th century Glukhovsky, who spotted a peasant to death, as reported by Herzen's "Bell" dated October 1, 1859.
The seriously ill Nekrasov tried to publish the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” in “Notes of the Fatherland” for November 1876, and then for January 1877, but both times he was refused censorship. The chapter was published posthumously in an illegal edition of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House in 1879. In 1881, a distorted and truncated version was published in the February issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski.
The exit of the head coincided with the peak of the Narodnaya Volya terror, which culminated in March 1881 with the assassination of Alexander II. (
The robber Kudeyar is one of the most popular characters in folklore.
Legends about him are recorded in all the southern and central provinces of Russia - from Smolensk to Saratov:
“And then there was Kudeyar - this one didn’t rob anywhere! And in Kaluga, and in Tula, and to Ryazan he came, and to Yelets, and to Voronezh, and to Smolensk - he went everywhere, set up his camps everywhere and buried many treasures in the ground, but all with curses: he was a terrible sorcerer. And what a filthy power he wielded: he would spread out on the banks of a river, a lake, so, no matter what stream, he would spread a sheepskin coat or retinue and lie down to sleep; sleeps with one eye, guards with the other: is there a chase somewhere; the right eye fell asleep - the left guards, and there - the left sleeps, the right guards - so alternately; and when he sees where the detectives are, he jumps to his feet, throws into the water the short fur coat on which he slept, and that short fur coat becomes not a short fur coat, but a boat with oars; Kudeyar will sit in that boat - remember your name ...
So he died his death - they couldn’t catch him in any way, no matter how hard they tried.
This is only one of the brief biographies of Kudeyar that existed among the people. What is the real historical character behind this name? Many hypotheses have already been expressed on this score, but, alas, none of them shed light on the mystery of Kudeyar.
When did Kudeyar live? Here the opinions basically coincide: in the middle of the 16th century. He was a contemporary of Ivan the Terrible. This is partly documented. So, in 1640, in response to a request from Moscow, the Tula governor wrote that he was told about Kudeyar "for a long time by old people, about forty years ago."
Who is Kudeyar?
Most historians agree that the name Kudeyar (Khudoyar) is of Tatar origin: Kudeyar (Turkic Persian Xudāyār “beloved by God”). But a number of researchers do not agree with the Turkic origin of the name Kudeyar and point out that the name Kudeyar was quite common in Western and Central Russia and meant "the strongest of sorcerers."
- According to a popular legend, Kudeyar is the son of Vasily III and his wife Solomonia, born after she was exiled to a monastery for infertility. Thus, he turns out to be the elder brother of Ivan the Terrible and his real name is Prince Georgy Vasilyevich. She was imprisoned by force in a monastery under the name of Sophia, so that Vasily III could marry Elena Glinskaya. Solomonia gave birth to Kudeyar in a monastery and he was taken to the Kerzhensky forests and secretly brought up in forest sketes.
- According to another legend, Kudeyar is the son of Zsigmond Bathory, born even before his relative Stefan Bathory (Zsigmond was Stefan's nephew) became the king of the Polish state. Having quarreled with his father, who by that time was already old, he fled to the Cossacks on the Dnieper. Then he goes to the service of the Russian Tsar. Thus, he is among the guardsmen of the Terrible Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his real name is Prince Gabor-Georgy in the Russian version of Sigismundovich.
- Another version says that he could be Kudeyar Tishenkov (XVI century) - the son of a boyar, originally from the city of Belev. Contemporary of Ivan the Terrible. In May 1571, he showed the hordes of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray the way to approach Moscow. Retreating along with the Crimean Tatars, he left the Moscow state and remained in the Crimea. Then it is mentioned in the letters of the captive Vasily Gryazny from the Crimea to the king. After some time, Tishenkov turns to Ivan IV with a request for pardon and permission to return to Moscow. Permission has been granted. Further traces of the historical Kudeyar Tishenkov are lost. There is no evidence that the robber Kudeyar, who lived around the same era and, as they say, also came from Belev, and Tishenkov are one and the same person, no. The fact that Kudeyar belonged to their family was also told in the Kursk family of the Markovs.
- According to the version mentioned earlier, Kudeyar belonged to the Batory family, was sent to the Cossacks on the Dnieper, then served as Ivan IV as a guardsman, and after the royal disgrace, he fled and robbed, having a camp near the village of Bozhedarovka, modern Shchorsk.
Since the area of distribution of legends is very wide, the researchers offer a version according to which the name Kudeyar could become a household name, and several chieftains used it.
Among the associates of Kudeyar are called the robber Anna, Boldyr and the daughter Lyubasha cursed by him (her ghost was shown not far from Optina Hermitage).
His grave is placed not far from Tula behind the Oblique Mountain or in one of the mounds of the Saratov province (according to Volga legends).
The legend of the Kudeyarova cave and its treasures
Very often there are stories about numerous treasures hidden by a robber, which were actively searched for in the 19th century. based on forged letters and descriptions. There are about a hundred such Kudeyarov towns, where, according to legend, robber treasures are buried, in southern Russia. Especially many of these places were within the Voronezh province. In the Bryansk forests, they named the places where the treasures buried by Kudeyar were hidden. It was said that over the stones that cover these treasures, lights flash, and twice a week at 12 o'clock a child's plaintive cry is heard.
Here is one of the legends about the Kudeyar treasure.
Kudeyar gathered fellows and robbed merchants and boyars with them. They accumulated a rich treasury: a lot of gold, barrels of silver and gemstones. Part of the wealth he distributed to the poor, the rest he put in a cave. Kudeyar lived in his mountain, inside which there were richly decorated rooms and kept treasures obtained during raids. In front of the mountain flowed the swift and bright river Sokolka, and all around the mountains rose, covered, like Kudeyarova, with dense old forest, stretching far to the north and south. Next to Kudeyarova, Karaulnaya Hill rises - a high cone, overgrown with pine trees at that time.
The camp of the Kudeyarov troops was dug in with a moat and a rampart. Kudeyar posted his sentries on the Guard Hill. At the end of the Sokolka valley, in the current "Pushki" tract, there were Kudeyar forges, where weapons and guns were made. When Kudeyar went on a raid with his army, he locked his dungeon with huge castles, the size of a pig, and blocked the entrance so that no one could find him.
Kudeyar kept his treasures in storerooms inside the mountain behind iron doors. A narrow, winding and low underground passage led inside the mountain from the middle of the rather steep side of the mountain, stretching 100 fathoms inside. covered with stone.
He had a companion Shem or Simon; once they argued about the strength and dexterity of their horses, decided for the experiment to jump from Merkulova Gora to Kudeyarova through Mayrov Dol, where the Sokolka flows. Kudeyar jumped on his horse, but Sim broke off and fell into the valley. In the place where he fell into the ground with a horse, a spring hit, which still bears his name.
For no reason at all, Kudeyar's wife, beloved Nastya, fell ill, and died overnight. They buried her in an oak coffin, dressed her in brocade and velvet with pearls and gems, buried with her in the grave all the clothes and jewelry that belonged to the deceased, and poured a mound over her.
Kudeyar buried both his faithful friend and his beloved wife at the same time, he was sick of white light. Kudeyar remembered that he was a Christian and made a vow - to atone for grave sins. He released all his fellows and was left alone. He blocked all the passages to his underground dwelling and began to live alone under the mountain, to atone for his own and human sins before the Lord.
It is believed that Kudeyar is still alive and guards his treasures in Kudeyarova Gora in a dugout. During the day, this dugout is invisible, but at night a huge bird flies there and hammers Kudeyar's head to the brain, flying away by dawn. He is doomed for two centuries to guard his treasures in grief and bears the punishment of God for robbery. In the dugout lies a loaf of bread that never decreases.
According to other sources, Kudeyar put a pledge on all his treasures for 200 years. This deadline has already passed. Workers must dig in an odd number. The golden key to the iron doors lies in the Simov spring, and only the one who scoops out this spring or draws water from the Supper Lake can get it. Where it is, Supper Lake, no one knows.
folk song
THERE WAS TWELVE ROBBERS
Words by N. A. Nekrasov
Performed by F. Chaliapin with choral accompaniment (recorded in 1932):
There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar ataman.
Many robbers shed
Blood of honest Christians!
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
monk honest Pitirim.
Lots of good stuff was stolen
They lived in a dense forest.
Kudeyar himself, from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
So in Solovki he told us
monk honest Pitirim.
In the afternoon with his mistress amused,
He made raids at night.
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
So in Solovki he told us
monk honest Pitirim.
He abandoned his comrades
Threw raids to create;
Kudeyar himself went to the monastery
Serve God and people!
Let us pray to the Lord God
let's announce the ancient story!
So in Solovki he told us
Kudeyar himself - Pitirim!
Song adaptation of the tale "About two great sinners" (1876) from Nikolai Nekrasov's unfinished poem "Who should live well in Russia" (1863-1877) (the tale is given at the end of the page). The tale is based on folklore legends about Kudeyar-ataman. The meaning of Nekrasov's poem and the original legend is not preserved in the song. Both in the legend and in Nekrasov's work, the hero acts as a people's avenger: having abandoned robbery, he becomes a pilgrim and a hermit, lives alone in the forest (and does not go to a monastery), but prayers do not help him. Atonement for sins comes as soon as Kudeyar kills the landowner with his old robber's knife, who "torments, tortures and hangs serfs." Also, in the Nekrasov original, there is no mention anywhere that the monk Pitirim and Kudeyar are the same person. It is likely that this song is not a spontaneous folk adaptation, but the result of the activity of some author from the church environment.
Legends about Kudeyar-ataman are connected with the Volga region. In the Zhiguli Mountains there is Kudeyarova Gora, as well as other names inherited in memory of the Volga robbers - the village of Otvazhnoye, the village of Obsharovka, the Molodetsky Kurgan, the Voevodino tract, the Thieves' Settlement, etc. But in general, the legend of two great sinners is very common among different peoples , it is especially popular with the Eastern Slavs; in this case, the hero is named Kudeyar, but this is not necessary. Instead of a landowner, an overseer, a merchant, a priest, etc., can act. Most often, in order to forgive sins, a former robber must water a charred firebrand until it sprouts (Nekrasov’s hero cuts an oak), but then the hero meets and kills an even greater sinner, a tormentor of the people , and the firebrand sprouts itself.
OPTION 1
There were twelve robbers
Words by N. A. Nekrasov (in folk arrangement)
“Let us pray to the Lord God!
We will announce the ancient story, -
So in Solovki he told us
Monk the honest Pitirim.
There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar-ataman.
A lot of robbers shed
The blood of honest Christians.
Lots of wealth was stolen
They lived in a dense forest.
Kudeyar himself from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
In the afternoon with his mistress, he amused himself,
He made raids at night.
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
He abandoned his comrades
He gave up raids to create.
He himself went to the monastery
Serve God and people.
“Let us pray to the Lord God!
We will announce the ancient story, -
So in Solovki he told us
Kudeyar-Pitirim himself.
OPTION 2
Twelve thieves lived
Zhanna Bichevskaya - "The Ballad of the Twelve Thieves"
Twelve thieves lived
Lived Kudeyar ataman.
Many robbers shed
Blood of honest Christians!
Many robbers shed
Blood of honest Christians!
Lots of wealth was stolen
They lived in a dense forest.
Leader Kudeyar from near Kiev
Stole the beautiful girl.
During the day he was having fun with his mistress,
He made raids at night.
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
He abandoned his comrades
He gave up raids to create.
Kudeyar himself went to the monastery
Serve God and people!
He prays to the Lord God
He will serve him.
We will all be for Kudeyar
Thank the Lord.
We will all be for Kudeyar
Thank the Lord.
Transcription of Zhanna Bichevskaya's phonogram, album "Old Russian folk village and city songs and ballads", Part 2, ZeKo Records, 1996 (recorded in 1994)
ORIGINAL POEM
About two great sinners
<Из поэмы «Кому на Руси жить хорошо»>
N. A. Nekrasov
Let's pray to the Lord God
We will announce the ancient story,
He told me in Solovki
Monk, Father Pitirim.
There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar-ataman,
Many robbers shed
The blood of honest Christians,
Lots of wealth was stolen
Lived in a dense forest
Leader Kudeyar from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
In the afternoon with his mistress, he amused himself,
He made raids at night,
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
The dream flew away; disgusted
Drunkenness, murder, robbery,
The shadows of the slain are,
A whole army - you can't count!
Long fought, resisted
Lord beast-man,
Head blew off his mistress
And Yesaula spotted.
The conscience of the villain mastered
Disbanded his band
Distributed property to the church,
Buried the knife under the willow.
And forgive sins
Goes to the tomb of the Lord
Wandering, praying, repenting,
It doesn't get any easier for him.
An old man, in monastic clothes,
The sinner came home
Lived under the canopy of the oldest
Duba, in the forest slum.
Day and night of the Most High
Pray: forgive sins!
Let your body be tortured
Let me save my soul!
God took pity and to salvation
The schemer showed the way:
An old man in prayer vigil
Some saint appeared
Rivers: "Not without God's providence
You chose the age-old oak,
With the same knife that robbed
Cut it off with the same hand!
There will be great work
There will be a reward for work,
The tree just collapsed
The chains of sin will fall."
The hermit measured the monster:
Oak - three girths around!
I went to work with a prayer
Cuts with a damask knife
Cuts tough wood
Singing glory to the Lord
The years go by - advance
Slowly business forward.
What to do with the giant
Frail, sick person?
We need iron strength here,
We don't need an old age!
Doubt creeps into the heart
Cuts and hears the words:
"Hey old man, what are you doing?"
Crossed first,
I looked - and Pan Glukhovsky
He sees on a greyhound horse,
Pan rich, noble,
The first one in that direction.
A lot of cruel, scary
The old man heard about the pan
And as a lesson to the sinner
He told his secret.
Pan chuckled: "Salvation
I haven't had tea for a long time
In the world I honor only a woman,
Gold, honor and wine.
You have to live, old man, in my opinion:
How many slaves I destroy
I torture, I torture and hang,
And I would like to see how I sleep!
The miracle with the hermit happened:
Felt rage,
Rushed to Pan Glukhovsky,
A knife plunged into his heart!
Just pan bloody
Fell head on the saddle
A huge tree collapsed
The echo shook the whole forest.
The tree collapsed, rolled down
From a monk the burden of sins! ..
Glory to the creator omnipresent
Today and forever! (1876)
N. A. Nekrasov. Full Sobr. op. and letters in 15 volumes. V. 5. - L., "Nauka", 1982 (printed according to the typographical print of 1876 with the restoration of the fragments modified by Nekrasov for printing according to the typesetting manuscript)
In some editions, the last stanza:
The tree collapsed, rolled down
From a monk the burden of sins! ..
Let us pray to the Lord God:
Have mercy on us, dark slaves!
The difference in the texts is explained by the fact that several versions of the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” of the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” are known:
Nekrasov's typesetting manuscript of 1876 for the magazine "Notes of the Fatherland" for November 1876,
- a typographical print of 1876 made on its basis (with changes for censorship reasons),
- illegal edition of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House of 1879,
- publication in Otechestvennye Zapiski for February 1881 (in a truncated and distorted form; probably many edits were made by the editors).
The "correct" author's version is considered to be the text of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House - it reproduces the text of the print of 1876 with the restoration of the modified fragments according to the author's typesetting manuscript. In this form, the text is included in the Complete Works of Nekrasov (1982).
The tale of Kudeyar-ataman is contained in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” of the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia”. Nekrasov died on January 8 (according to the new style), 1878, leaving the poem unfinished. The author did not know what the final should be, and could not find an answer to the question of who is good in Russia.
The prototype of Pan Glukhovsky could be a real Smolensk landowner of the middle of the 19th century Glukhovsky, who spotted a peasant to death, as reported by Herzen's "Bell" dated October 1, 1859.
The seriously ill Nekrasov tried to publish the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” in “Notes of the Fatherland” for November 1876, and then for January 1877, but both times he was refused censorship. The chapter was published posthumously in an illegal edition of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House in 1879. In 1881, a distorted and truncated version was published in the February issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski.
The exit of the head coincided with the peak of the Narodnaya Volya terror, which culminated in March 1881 with the assassination of Alexander II. (
In the old days, and not so long ago, - says the legend, around the whole city of Orel for a hundred miles, or even another hundred, all the forests were, the forests were dense; and in those forests there were not so much wild beasts as robbers. Not so long ago, they were told about their villainy here with fear, adding: "It is not for nothing that the Orlovites are called broken heads!" And then another proverb developed about them: "Eagle and Kromy are the first thieves."
At the same time, it would be appropriate to add that not only Eagle and Kromy were famous in antiquity as the first thieves. A similar view was formed on almost all the cities of the Oryol Territory. So they say that even the Dmitrovites don't betray the old thieves; that Karachev is a sacrifice; that Yelets is the father of all thieves, and Livny is wonderful to thieves themselves! Such a view has formed about the inhabitants of Mtsensk that when someone wants trouble for another, he sends an Amchanin to him in their hearts: "Amchanin to your yard!" This means that no good is to be expected from an Amchanian, or, as they say in rhyme: "If an Amchanian is in the yard, then take the saints out!" And what thieves-robbers were not in the old days in the Oryol limits!
The people especially remember Kudeyar. "This one did not rob anywhere! And to Kaluga, and to Tula, and to Ryazan, and to Yelets, and to Voronezh, and to Sevsk, and to Bryansk, and to Smolensk - he went everywhere, set up his camps everywhere, and many he buried treasures in the ground, and all with curses: he was a terrible sorcerer, and what a filthy power he wielded: he would spread a sheepskin coat or retinue on the banks of a river, a lake, some stream, and lie down to sleep; there, sleep on the left, watch on the right, so it’s a break; and when he sees where the detectives are, he jumps to his feet, throws into the water the coat on which he slept, and that coat becomes not a coat, but a boat with oars; Kudeyar will sit in that boat and remember what was his name ... So he died his death - they couldn’t catch him in any way, no matter how hard they tried "(Oryol Gubernskiye Vedomosti, No. 30, 1861).
On the Oryol-Vitebsk road there is the Naryshkino station (20 versts from Orel), from which the village of Sergievskoye is located four versts, and a mountain with a bog in the middle is located about a verst and a half from this village. They say about this mountain with a quagmire that a long time ago Kudeyar the robber lived here, had a house there and robbed from there; the mountain, it should be noted, was surrounded by a dense forest, of which now only bushes remained. Kudeyar robbed here for a long time; but the Lord had mercy ... The robber left this place in his old age and went to the Bryansk forests, and the house where he lived, for the wickedness of Kudeyar, fell through the ground; now there is a quagmire in that place; and as the house was surrounded by a circle, so is the quagmire round (according to local old-timers).
How long has Kudeyar lived?
- For a long time! - they answer in Orel. - You see: the Desna passed in Bryansk, beyond Bryansk the Desna River went further, everything flowed straight to Kudeyar, and under Kudeyar it gave a bow.
- How did you give the bow? ..
- And here's how: at first she went straight, and then she went with a hook, arched herself with a hook.
- Why did Desna give onions?
- Here's why: in the very place where the bow is now, there was a dense forest, and in that forest Kudeyar had a brothel; and in that forest, on the very bank of the Desna, there was a courtyard, or two, so the village was small. A sedate man lived in this settlement, he did not do bad deeds, and he had a daughter, a beautiful beauty, and this Kudeyar the robber fell in love with her ... Kudeyar and this way and that - all his business does not burn out! .. He looked after the time-temporary when father and mother went to work or something, - only this girl was left alone in the whole hut ... Kudeyar began to knock on the door.
- What do you want? - the girl asks: - why did you come?
- Let go, - say Kudeyar, - it is necessary.
- Yes, what do you need?
- And I need you: I want to take you with me! Open quickly.
- I won't open it, you thief! Go where you came from!
- And if you don’t want it by will, you turn up your snout; so by force I will make you fall in love! - And the robber began to break the door ...
Kudeyar broke the door, and looks into the hut, but there is no one in the hut. Looking out the window: he sees a girl with an icon running towards the Desna River; he is after her; the girl is from him, he follows her; I almost caught up, only the girl ran up to the Desna and began to pray: "Mother, Most Pure Mother of God! Mother, Desna River! It’s not my own fault - I’m disappearing from an evil person! ”And rushed into the Desna River; and the Desna River dried up at that very hour and went to the side, gave a bow, so that the girl stood on one bank, and Kudeyar, And others say that the Desna, as it rushed to the side, captured Kudeyar himself in a wave and drowned him (Oryol Gubernskiye Vedomosti, No. 30, 1861).
Clearer than the legend about Kudeyar in the Bryansk district, where he dropped out from under the Eagle in his old age and where, as the legend says, he laid down his daring little head.
Kudeyar lived in the Crooked Forest. On the chalk mountains he built stone cellars; now they have already collapsed, but a pit is still visible near the Desna, where the robbers burned bricks for this deed. Kudeyar himself lived with fellows in kurenki, and in the cellars all sorts of goods were piled up that he robbed from the boyars. On the high road in the Crooked Forest, no one got a pass from Kudeyar. Robbers sat among the pines and whistled when there was prey. The boyars traveled with a large household; but not every time they managed to pass safely, wasn’t Kudeyar himself at home ... The robbers more often did this: they would lead them to a high cliff, put them on a pitchfork, lower the pitchforks to the Desna, swing them, and they would say:
We do not beat you, but pitchforks;
We are not destroying you, but the Desna River! ..
Kudeyar has already become old, and he robs everything, sheds Christian blood, everything angers the Most Holy Theotokos. She collected seven Fridays into one, and immediately poured them on the head of the accursed Kudeyar ... They say that Vasily Afanasyevich Bakhtin from the regiment arrived in the village of Strashevichi at that time, and he informed his relatives that he wanted to see them. Vasily Afanasyevich was a noble gentleman, he had a lot of land and peasants, he lived richly and had noble relatives ... And so Princess Drutskaya-Sokolnitskaya went to see him, and her path lay through the Crooked Forest. She knew about Kudeyar, but she relied on her people, that they were with her, about 30 people. The princess enters the Crooked Forest and laughs: they said, they say, that there are robbers here, but they don’t even exist! .. Only at the Chalk Mountain he sat on a robber from a tree: and, at his sign, like black crows, the robbers, apparently invisible, jumped out, shot the butler, beat people, and offended the princess herself, almost alive, let her go to Vasily Afanasyevich ... Then Vasily Afanasyevich chose from his people - well done to well done, about forty people, gave each one a squeak, put them on a horse and rode against the robbers. By morning he was already in the Crooked Forest (60 versts); drove up to the Chalk Mountains and already wanted to climb one of the mountains, as he sees, a robber is sitting on a pine tree and shouting that they say there are a lot of travelers! Annoyance took Vasily Afanasyevich; he takes the best squeaker, and the robber, like a sheaf, flew head over heels from the tree ... The robbers gathered, and Kudeyar himself was in front. The battle was terrible. Itself Holy Mother of God helped Vasily Afanasyevich to wound Kudeyar on the cheek. Kudeyar grabbed a silk handkerchief, tied up his cheek and shouted: "Cossacks, water!" The robbers rushed in all directions, they were driven and beaten; and Vasily Afanasyevich caught up with Kudeyar himself and immediately finished with him ”... He adds to this legend that all the wealth of Kudeyar that was in sight fell into the hands of Vasily Afanasyevich Bakhtin, who, in addition, freed Kudeyar from smoking Golubeevsky deacon (the village of Golubeya 30 versts from the chalk mountains) and a gusliar. The boyar released the clerk into the wild, and took the harpman with him to Strashevichi. The blind husler sang and played well, and lived in Strashevichi until his death, and when he died, he was buried according to Christian custom, and the service, they say, was led by priest Rogozhka (from the stories of the old residents of the village of Strashevichi). It was too much a hundred years before our time. In addition to Kudeyar, they also talk about robbers - Ivan Gulyaev, Stepan and Cook, who moved forests and mountains with his sorcery.
"Oryol Diocesan Gazette", No. 7, 1873.
Treasures of the robber Kudeyar.
Even the most advanced historians cannot answer the question of whether the famous robber Kudeyar was a real person. Perhaps the numerous stories about him are just legends, folk tales. But be that as it may, the tales of Kudeyar and the richest treasures allegedly hidden by him and his comrades in robbery still live.
Brother of Ivan the Terrible.
First, about the name Kudeyar. It is believed that it is of Turkic origin and is formed from two Persian words "hudi" - "god" and "yar" - "beloved", that is, "beloved by God". It may seem unexpected, but five centuries ago the name Kudeyar in Russia was quite common.
The most famous of the versions about the origin of Kudeyar says that he is the elder brother of Ivan the Terrible himself! It is known that the father of the Terrible, Vasily III, was married twice. His first wife, Princess Solomonia Saburova, was, according to healers, barren. For a long time, Vasily sought a divorce from her. For the second time, he married the Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya, who bore him a boy, the future Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible.
Meanwhile, forty-year-old Solomonia, imprisoned in the Intercession Monastery in Suzdal, unexpectedly also gave birth to a son, who was named George. Glinskaya sent her people to the monastery to kill the baby. But Solomonia hid her son: she declared him dead and even staged a funeral. In fact, she secretly transported George to the Crimean Khanate.
In the Crimea, the boy received a new name - Kudeyar. He grew up there and returned to Muscovy, hoping to take the throne. He did not succeed, and then the young man took up robbery.
Russian Robin Hood?
According to another version, Kudeyar was a Tatar and served with the Khan as a Baskak, that is, a tribute collector. Once, having collected a rich tribute, he did not return to the khan, he fled and stood at the head of a band of robbers.
To complete the picture, we should also mention a person who actually existed during the time of Ivan the Terrible, a certain Kudeyar Tishenkov, a boyar son who went over to the side of the Tatar Khan Devlet Giray. It was thanks to him that in 1571 the Tatars were able to make a devastating campaign against Moscow and set it on fire.
Popular rumor depicts Kudeyar as a man of enormous stature, unprecedented strength, with a black beard and a stern look. In some legends, he appears not just as an ataman of a gang of robbers, but as a kind of Russian Robin Hood, a people's protector. But most often they spoke of Kudeyar as a robber who did not care who to kill and rob.
Magic power.
Stories about the adventures of Kudeyar and his untold riches were told in almost all the southern and central provinces of Russia. Not uncommon in the regions of Central Russia "objects", one way or another connected with the name of Kudeyar. In many provinces, you can find the villages of Kudeyarovka, Kudeyarov mountains and barrows, Kudeyarov forests and caves.
Popular rumor endowed Kudeyar with magical abilities. “And then there was Kudeyar,” says one of the legends. “This one robbed wherever! And in Kaluga, and in Tula, and in Ryazan, and in Smolensk, he visited everywhere, set up his camps everywhere, and buried many treasures to the ground, and all with curses. And what power he wielded! He would spread a sheepskin coat on the shore of a river or lake and lie down to sleep. With one eye he sleeps, and with the other he watches: if there is a chase. And when he sees where the detectives are, he jumps to his feet, throws a sheepskin coat into the water on which he slept, and that short fur coat will become a boat with oars. He will sit in it, and remember your name."
According to the legends, Kudeyar and his comrades-in-arms operated in many places at once, on an extremely vast territory. This circumstance suggests that several gangs were robbing under the name of the legendary ataman, and other leaders also used the "authoritative" name.
Naturally, the stolen treasures had to settle in the treasures that Kudeyar hid in different parts, creating Kudeyar towns there.
Damn town.
Such towns, and therefore treasures, historians have counted at least a hundred. It was said that over the stones covering the robber's treasures, from time to time, lights should flash. Nevertheless, finding such a treasure is not an easy task.
Each region had its own story about Kudeyarov's treasures - gold, silver, pearls, precious stones - and attempts to find them. In the Tula and Kaluga provinces, there were rumors about treasures hidden in ravines and wells, but to search, storeroom records are needed. A monk of the Optina Hermitage allegedly had one such record. After his death, they said, she ended up in the monastery library. Perhaps, this key to the riches buried by robbers near the cities of Kozelsk and Likhvin is still stored somewhere. And considerable riches - twelve barrels of pure gold! (The devil's settlement is located on a high mound overgrown with forest, where it rises with three sheer walls of grayish sandstone, furrowed with numerous cracks and overgrown with moss. one night The devils built a two-story stone house, a gate, they dug a pond, but then a rooster crowed, and they fled without finishing the construction. On one of the stones lying at the foot of the settlement, a hundred years ago, the trace of the "paw" of the unclean was clearly visible. They say that treasures are hidden in the settlement, but the evil spirit carefully protects them. At night, the ghost of Kudeyar's daughter, Lyubasha, appears on the settlement, who was cursed by her father and imprisoned forever in the depths of the Devil's settlement. Her ghost comes out onto the mountain, sits down on the stones and cries, asking: "It's hard for me! Give me a cross!". To get rid of evil spirits, the monks twice installed a cross on the settlement, but this did not help)
Another place indicated in the named treasure entry is the so-called Devil's Settlement, or Shutova Gora - a deaf forest tract about twenty kilometers from the monastery of Optina Pustyn, next to the road from Kozelsk to Likhvin. The place, presumably, is not accidental: it was along this road that in the old days there were carts with goods that were attacked by robbers.
In the Saratov province there is a village Lokh, standing on the banks of the river of the same name. The settlement is surrounded by hills covered with forest. One of them - Kudeyarova Gora - is famous for its cave, in which, according to Saratov local historians, Kudeyar and his comrades lived. According to legend, the richest treasures are hidden there.
Mysterious rings.
The legend described the underground "apartments" of the robbers: "They dug passages and rooms, cleaned them with all sorts of good things. And so that the air in the mountain was light and it was possible to make a fire and keep horses in it, they pierced a pipe from above." Indeed, there was some kind of pipe in Kudeyarova Gora.
What can you see here now? Three passages lead inside the mysterious mountain. Now it is risky to climb into them because of possible collapses. However, many years ago, daredevils made their way along these passages for hundreds of meters and ran into impenetrable blockages of stones. The testimony of one of the treasure hunters who managed to approach the rubble and make out some rings behind them, possibly attached to the doors of the storeroom with treasures, dates back to that distant time.
The search for the treasures of Kudeyar began from ancient times, and they continue today. Alas, the progress achieved is more than modest. In the inventory of the Saratov Museum for 1893 there are the following lines: "Two copper coins. Received on August 18, 1893 from Gavriil Petrovich Svetsky, found in Kudeyarova Gora. "Much later, as old-timers said, one peasant managed to find a large treasure in the same places, consisting of 12 buckets of old coins, unfortunately, also copper. However, this does not prevent the current treasure hunters from going in search of kudeyar treasures again and again, hoping for good luck.
There is no information either about the time of birth of the chieftain, or about the day of his death. According to one of the legends, at the end of his life, the robber decided to repent and began an honest life. As Nekrasov wrote:
Day and night of the Most High
Pray: forgive sins!
Let your body be tortured
Let me save my soul!
Kudeyar built a church with a golden iconostasis and a silver bell and began to atone for his grave sins. Whether this was actually the case, no one knows for sure.
Gennady Chernenko.
"Secrets of the XX century", No. 52, 2012.
In the Oryol province, Kudeyar was generally considered not a person, but an unclean spirit - a "storekeeper" who guards the charmed treasures. Kudeyar's treasures were especially actively searched for in the 19th century using forged letters and inventories. It is said that in the Bryansk forests there are places where lights flare up above the stones that cover these treasures. And twice a week at midnight, a plaintive cry of a child is heard.
One of the legends speaks of Chashin Kurgan - the place of the historical foundation of the city of Bryansk; the second says that the Kudeyar treasure was buried somewhere in the Khotylevo region; the third, associated with the name of the Bryansk Major General Mikhail Bakhtin, who lived in the 18th century, says that the treasure was not far from the village of Baryshye.
Photo from the book "Travel Letters", P.I. Yakushkin, 1884.
(Don't forget to listen to this ballad performed by Chaliapin, and only him!!!)
ABOUT TWO GREAT SINNERS
Let's pray to the Lord God
We will announce the ancient story,
He told me in Solovki
Monk, Father Pitirim.
There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar-ataman,
Lots of robbers prol or
The blood of honest Christians,
Lots of wealth was stolen
Lived in a dense forest
Leader Kudeyar from near Kiev
Take the beautiful girl out.
In the afternoon with his mistress, he amused himself,
He made raids at night,
Suddenly at the fierce robber
The Lord awakened the conscience.
The dream flew away; disgusted
Drunkenness, murder, robbery,
The shadows of the slain are,
A whole army - you can't count!
Long fought, resisted
God is a beast-man.
Head blew off his mistress
And Yesaula spotted.
The conscience of the villain mastered
Disbanded his band
Distributed property to the church,
Buried the knife under the willow.
And forgive sins
Goes to the tomb of the Lord
Wandering, praying, repenting,
It doesn't get any easier for him.
An old man, in monastic clothes,
The sinner came home
Lived under the canopy of the oldest
Duba, in the forest slum.
Day and night of the Most High
Pray: forgive sins!
Let your body be tortured.
Let me save my soul!
God took pity and to salvation
The schemer showed the way:
An old man in prayer vigil
Some saint appeared
Rivers: "Not without God's providence
You chose the age-old oak,
With the same knife that robbed
Cut it off with the same hand!
There will be great work
There will be a reward for labor;
The tree just collapsed
The chains of sin will fall."
The hermit measured the monster:
Oak - three girths around!
I went to work with a prayer
Cuts with a damask knife.
Cuts tough wood
Singing glory to the Lord
Years go - moves on
Slowly business forward.
What to do with the giant
Frail, sick person?
We need iron strength here,
We don't need an old age!
Doubt creeps into the heart
Cuts and hears the words:
"Hey old man, what are you doing?"
Crossed first.
I looked - and Pan Glukhovsky
He sees on a greyhound horse,
Pan rich, noble,
The first one in that direction.
A lot of cruel, scary
The old man heard about the pan
And as a lesson to the sinner
He told his secret.
Pan chuckled: "Salvation
I haven't had tea for a long time
In the world I honor only a woman,
Gold, honor and wine.
You have to live, old man, in my opinion:
How many slaves I destroy
I torture, I torture and hang,
And I would like to see how I sleep!
The miracle with the hermit happened:
Felt rage,
Rushed to Pan Glukhovsky,
A knife plunged into his heart!
Just pan bloody
Fell head on the saddle
A huge tree collapsed
The echo shook the whole forest.
The tree collapsed, rolled down
From a monk the burden of sins! ..
Let us pray to the Lord God:
Have mercy on us, dark slaves!
/Option:
The tree collapsed, rolled down
From a monk the burden of sins! ..
Glory to the creator omnipresent
Today and forever!
Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia"
Many write that this is a folk song - and indeed, there are several options. But this particular ballad by Nekrasov. Personally, I heard it performed by Chaliapin on a record while still at school - and since then any other performance seems insufficient to me, to put it mildly.
The tale of Kudeyar-ataman is contained in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” of the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia”. Nekrasov died on January 8 (according to the new style), 1878, leaving the poem unfinished. The author did not know what the final should be, and could not find an answer to the question of who is good in Russia.
The prototype of Pan Glukhovsky could be a real Smolensk landowner of the middle of the 19th century Glukhovsky, who spotted a peasant to death, as reported by Herzen's "Bell" dated October 1, 1859.
The seriously ill Nekrasov tried to publish the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” in “Notes of the Fatherland” for November 1876, and then for January 1877, but both times he was refused censorship. The chapter was published posthumously in an illegal edition of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House in 1879. In 1881, a distorted and truncated version was published in the February issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski.
The exit of the head coincided with the peak of the Narodnaya Volya terror, which culminated in March 1881 with the assassination of Alexander II.
GOLD OF KUDEYAR
On one of the serene April days in 1881 in St. Petersburg, on Liteiny Prospekt, a bell rattled over the door of a jewelry store.
A plump shop owner, with a wedge-shaped gray beard, came out to meet the visitor.
In the doorway stood a thick black-moustached man, clearly a provincial, with a small bundle in his hands.
- What do you want? - asked the jeweler.
“I heard you buy antique jewelry,” the newcomer said uncertainly.
- Do you want to offer me something?
- Yes ... Here, if you please, take a look.
The visitor placed the bundle on the counter and unfolded it. The jeweler gasped. On the counter lay a massive chased gold ladle of ancient work, adorned with semi-precious stones, and several gold and silver rings with enamel, rubies and turquoise.
These are very ancient things, - the jeweler said half inquiringly, half affirmatively, looking at the visitor over the glasses of his pince-nez.
Yes. These are things from a treasure that was found on my land. I am a landowner from the Kursk province, I have a small dacha there, more than two hundred acres. They say it's Kudeyar's gold...
Kudeyar's gold... Truly, of all the legends about the "enchanted treasures", this is the biggest mystery that has not been resolved so far. Everything is unclear here. Who is Kudeyar? When and where did he live? How many treasures did he have and where are they?
Where and how did he end his robbery life? There is not a single reliable evidence, not a single reliable document, nothing.
Only legends and numerous, scattered from the Dnieper to the Volga Kudeyarov "towns", ravines, barrows, stones, forests, tracts ... And - treasures.
Treasures full of countless treasures that are still hidden somewhere in the entire expanse of the former Wild Field...
Kudeyar remembered that he was a Christian and made a vow - to atone for grave sins. He released all his fellows and was left alone. He blocked all the passages to his underground dwelling and began to live alone under the mountain, to atone for his own and human sins before the Lord.
it is believed that Kudeyar is still alive and guards his treasures in Kudeyarova Gora in a dugout. During the day, this dugout is invisible, but at night a huge bird flies there and hammers Kudeyar's head to the brain, flying away by dawn. He is doomed for two centuries to guard his treasures in grief and bears the punishment of God for robbery. In the dugout lies a loaf of bread that never decreases.
According to other sources, Kudeyar put a pledge on all his treasures for 200 years. This deadline has already passed. Workers must dig in an odd number. The golden key to the iron doors lies in the Simov spring, and only the one who scoops out this spring or draws water from the Supper Lake can get it. Where is it, Supper Lake, no one knows.
The robber Kudeyar belongs to one of the most popular characters in folklore. Legends about him are recorded in all the southern and central provinces of Russia - from Smolensk to Saratov:
“And then there was Kudeyar - this one didn’t rob anywhere! And in Kaluga, and in Tula, and to Ryazan, he came, and to Yelets, and to Voronezh, and to Smolensk - he went everywhere, set up his camps everywhere and buried many treasures in the ground, but all with curses: he was a terrible sorcerer. And what a filthy power he wielded: he would spread out on the banks of a river, a lake, so, no matter what stream, he would spread a sheepskin coat or retinue and lie down to sleep; sleeps with one eye, guards with the other: is there a chase somewhere; the right eye fell asleep - the left one guards, and there - the left one sleeps, the right one guards - so in turn; and when he sees where the detectives are, he jumps to his feet, throws into the water the short fur coat on which he slept, and that short fur coat becomes not a short fur coat, but a boat with oars; Kudeyar will sit in that boat - remember your name ...
So he died his death - they couldn’t catch him in any way, no matter how hard they tried.
This is only one of the brief biographies of Kudeyar that existed among the people. What is the real historical character behind this name? Many hypotheses have already been expressed on this score, but, alas, none of them shed light on the mystery of Kudeyar.
When did Kudeyar live? Here the opinions basically coincide: in the middle of the 16th century. He was a contemporary of Ivan the Terrible. This is partly documented. So, in 1640, in response to a request from Moscow, the Tula governor wrote that he was told about Kudeyar "for a long time by old people, about forty years ago."
WHAT THE TRADITIONS TALK ABOUT...
Most historians agree that the name Kudeyar (Khudoyar) is of Tatar origin.
Karamzin mentions the Crimean Murza Kudoyar, who in 1509 treated the Russian ambassador Morozov very rudely, calling him a "serf." The Crimean and Astrakhan ambassadors are known with the same name. But, as often happened in the past, from the Tatars this name could also be adopted by the Russians.
Many legends directly call Kudeyar a Tatar. According to the legends recorded in the Saratov and Voronezh provinces, Kudeyar was a Tatar who knew the Russian language, a man of great stature.
He was a Baskak - a khan's tax collector. Having plundered the villages near Moscow and returning with great wealth to the Horde, to the Saratov steppes, Kudeyar on the way decided to hide the tribute he had taken from the khan and settled in the Voronezh lands, where he began to trade in robbery. Here he married a Russian girl - a rare beauty, whom he took away by force.
In the Ryazan and some areas of the Voronezh province, it was said that Kudeyar was a disgraced oprichnik who beat off cattle from local residents, robbed and killed Moscow merchants. And in the Sevsky district of the Oryol province, Kudeyar was generally considered not a person, but an unclean spirit - a "storeroom" that guards the charmed treasures.
In historical documents dating back to the time of Ivan the Terrible, the son of a boyar from the city of Belev, Kudeyar Tishenkov, is mentioned - a traitor who defected to the Crimean Khan and helped him seize Moscow in 1571.
Then Kudeyar Tishenkov went with the Tatars to the Crimea. Talking with the Crimean ambassador two years later, Ivan the Terrible lamented that the khan managed to take Moscow with the help of traitor boyars and the “robber Kudeyar Tishenkov”, who brought the Tatars to Moscow. However, nothing indicates that Kudeyar Tishenkov is the legendary robber Kudeyar.
A fascinating hypothesis is very popular that Kudeyar is none other than the elder brother of Ivan the Terrible, a pretender to the Russian throne. The following historical events served as the basis for such statements.
The first wife of Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, father of Ivan the Terrible, Solomon Saburov was childless. After long expectations, it became clear that the prince would have no heirs. Then Solomonia Saburova, in violation of all church canons, was forcibly tonsured into a monastery, and the prince remarried Elena Glinskaya, who bore him two sons - Ivan and George (Yuri).
Meanwhile, the nun Solomonia Saburova, imprisoned in a monastery... also had a son! The newborn soon died and was buried in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. However, excavations of his grave in 1934 showed that a doll in the clothes of a boy was buried. There is an assumption that the child was hidden, fearing the murderers sent by his second wife, Elena Glinskaya, and secretly transported to the Crimean Khan. There he grew up, and under the Tatar name Kudeyar appeared in Russia as a contender for the throne. Having not achieved success, Kudeyar took up robbery.
As you can see, almost all of the above hypotheses connect Kudeyar with the Crimean Khanate. And the places where, according to legend, Kudeyar robbed, despite their geographical dispersion, are united by one common feature: ancient trade and embassy routes from the Crimea to Moscow Rus passed here. On these roads, the robbers tracked down rich booty, and then hid it in secret places, near their camps and settlements.
Kudeyar towns, where, according to legend, robber treasures are buried, about a hundred are known in southern Russia. Especially many of these towns were located within the Voronezh province. So, in the Thorn forest near the village of Livenki in the Pavlovsk district, there were the remains of Kudeyar's "lair", which included a house, storerooms and stables. Many legends about the robbery of the terrible chieftain are associated with this place.
A secluded place called Kudeyarov Log was pointed out in the Zadonsk district - it is located six miles from the village of Belokolodsky, on the road to Lipetsk. This deep ravine is surrounded by steep, almost sheer slopes, making it a safe haven.
Explicitly made human hands the bulk settlement, called Kudeyarov Prison, was known in the Bobrovsky district. The ancient settlement in the form of a large quadrangle, dug in with ramparts and a moat, is surrounded on all sides by swamps and shrubs. Here, as the legends say, was the first headquarters of Kudeyar.
In the Lipetsk region, on the Don, opposite the village of Dolgogo, rises a mountain called Cherny Yar, or Gorodok. On it lies a very large stone of a bluish color. According to legend, the Kudeyarov fortress was located here. The stone lying on the mountain was considered an enchanted, petrified horse of Kudeyar, which received a bluish color because it was scorched by fire. They say that Kudeyar, together with his associates Boldyr and the robber Anna, hiding in the Don forests, robbed the caravans of merchants going down the Don. The Don Cossacks, interested in the safety of the way, took up arms against Kudeyar. First, they defeated the headquarters of Boldyr and Anna, then they reached the shelter of Kudeyar.
For a long time they besieged the Kudeyara fortress, then they guessed to surround it with brushwood and set it on fire from all sides. Then Kudeyar buried all his treasures in the ground, placed his beloved horse over them, turning it into stone so that it would not burn, and he himself fled into the forest. But the Cossacks chased after him, took him prisoner by cunning, chained him up and threw him from Chernoy Yar to the Don.
WHY DO WE SAY THIS? (Petersburg folk tradition)
... and they threw the glorious ataman Kudeyar into the prison castle of Crosses, so that he would wait there for the royal reprisals and other investigative actions. And in those Crosses, the commandant-voivode, a mercenary soul, only thinks how to put his raking paw on the hidden Kudeyar treasures.
While there the king's court and the sovereign's business, began to torture the ataman
- Answer, - yells - the enemy's son, where did you bury the loot?!!!
- A hu-hu not ho-ho? - only Kudeyar said and showed with shackled hands.
The voivode became furious, drew his saber and in one fell swoop cut off the head of the ataman.
And suddenly he hears the royal privets crying at the gates of the Crosses:
- The villain Kudeyar-ataman was ordered to present before the bright eyes of His Majesty !!!
The commandant-voivode was frightened, and nothing can be fixed, not even buried or hidden. All he had time to do was to grab the ataman's head by the Russ and throw it over the prison walls into the nearest weeds.
And the messenger is already on the threshold:
- Well, where is your sovereign's prisoner of particular importance ??
- Duc ... - the governor hesitated, - how can I tell you ....
He hesitated, but did not dare to lie to the royal envoy:
- The chest is in the Crosses, and the head is in the bushes. (Dubious and funny version)
Not far away, in the former Pronsky district, near the villages of Chulkovo and Abakumovo, there is a tract of Stone Crosses. According to legend, one of the main headquarters of Kudeyar was located here. They say that in the 18th century a stone with the name of Kudeyar was found here.
On the river Neruch in the Oryol province, three versts from the village of Calm, there are two "pits of Kudeyar" - three sazhens deep, connected by an underground passage to the river Neruch. Here, as they say, Kudeyar was hiding. Many Kudeyar treasures are associated with the Bryansk forests and, in general, with the entire forest part of the former Oryol province.
http://new-burassity.3dn.ru/publ/1-1-0-3
KUDEYAROVO GORODISCHE
In the Tula and Kaluga provinces, legends tell about the treasures of Kudeyar, buried in various "wells", "tops", "yards", and in some places there were also "storeroom records" for the Kudeyar treasures.
One of these records at the end of the last century was owned by the monk of Optina Pustyn, after whose death the manuscript ended up in the monastery library. It contained extensive information about the treasures buried by Kudeyar in the vicinity of Kozelsk and Likhvin (now Chekalin).
As one of the places where Kudeyar's treasures were hidden, the manuscript called Chertovo Gorodishche, or Shutov Gora, which is 18 versts from the monastery of Optina Pustyn, not far from the old road from Kozelsk to Likhvin, on which it was so convenient to rob passing merchants.
On a high mound overgrown with forest, dominating the surrounding area, almost at its very top, a huge block of grayish sandstone, furrowed with cracks and overgrown with moss, rises from the ground in three sheer walls. Because of these clear boundaries, Devil's Hillfort was sometimes also called Granny Hill. The fourth side of the Settlement, dilapidated by time and overgrown with grass, almost leveled with the platform at the top of the mound, forming a "courtyard".
According to legend, here was the "castle" of Kudeyar, built for him by evil spirits. It was as if in one night the demons built a two-story stone house, a gate, and dug a pond on the site of the Settlement... However, they did not manage to finish the construction before dawn - the rooster crowed, and the evil spirits fled. And, according to the stories of witnesses, a long time later, until early XIX century, on Gorodische one could see an unfinished building - a "monument of demonic architecture", which then began to quickly collapse.
Traces of the pond dug out by the "demons" were noticeable as early as the 80s of the last century; numerous stone fragments scattered around the Settlement, as if testified to some buildings that once were here.
And on one of the stones lying at the foot of the Settlement, a hundred years ago, the trace of the "paw" of the unclean was clearly visible. Several caves are hidden in the thickness of the sandstone from which the Settlement is built. The main cave, called the "lower floor entrance", could easily accommodate several people. From it two narrow manholes go deep into the mountain...
They say that the evil spirit that built the castle is now saving the treasures of Kudeyar buried in Gorodische, in the surrounding ravines and forest tracts. But at night, the ghost of Kudeyar's daughter Lyubushi appears on Gorodische, cursed by her father and forever imprisoned in the depths of Devil's Gorodische. As if she goes to the mountain, sits on the stones and cries, asks: “It’s hard for me! Give me the cross! In the old days, the monks of Optina Hermitage twice erected a cross on Gorodische. Not far from Gorodishche is the Kudeyarov well, in which, according to legend, “12 barrels of gold” are hidden.
Very interesting evidence of Kudeyarov Gorodok on Mount Bogatyrka (Krutse), in the Saratov province. Here, in the ruins of a dugout, in which, according to legend, , Kudeyar lived, human bones, daggers, lanceheads, reeds, fragments of chain mail, Tatar coins, rings, rings, etc. were found. Such finds invariably aroused interest in the legendary treasures of Kudeyar, and there were a great many hunters to find them ...
Kudeyarovo Gorodishche, located in the wilds of the Usman forest, was of particular interest to treasure hunters. It is surrounded by a high rampart with traces of a gate and dug in by a wide moat. Once, in the 40s of the last century, one of the peasant women in the village of Studenki was lucky to find a massive gold ancient ring here.
Since then, every spring, hordes of treasure hunters from all the surrounding places rushed into the Usman forest, dug up the forest with pits and trenches. It was said that the treasures were hidden at the bottom of the nearby Clear Lake. One landowner even tried to drain the lake through a specially dug channel, but it did not work out. There was a lot of talk about a chest allegedly found in the forest, which "went into the ground", and every little thing was found, but the main treasures of Kudeyar have not yet been discovered.
But in other places treasure hunters were more lucky. It cannot be said that the finds of treasures were massive, but at least four cases are known when treasures of silver coins and a few gold objects were found precisely in the Kudeyar tracts.
Did these treasures belong to the legendary robber? Unknown. And in general it is hard to believe that one person could "populate" the vast expanses of the steppe. The opinion has long been expressed that several different people could be hiding under the name Kudeyar - as under the names of Tsarevich Dmitry or Peter III. Or maybe, from the personal name of some particularly daring Russian or Tatar robber, the name Kudeyar turned into the common name of any leader of a band of robbers and became synonymous with the word "robber"?
Therefore, the versions about the origin, life and death of Kudeyar differ so much. Therefore, we have so many kudeyarov - in what, in what, and there has been no shortage of robbers in Russia from time immemorial. And already at the end of the 18th century, legends began to form about how “in the old, old years, seven kudeyar brothers lived in Spassky places ...”
http://www.vokrugsveta.com/S4/proshloe/kudiyar.htm
A rather popular character in the history of Slavic folklore was Ataman Kudeyar. Legends about him are known in many areas of both central and southern Russia. This article will consider in more detail some fairly well-known references in the history, legends and literature of this ataman.
Origin of the name Kudeyar
No one can name the exact dates of the life of Ataman Kudeyar, but it is generally accepted that he lived in the sixteenth century. There are many opinions regarding the origin of the Persian name Khudoyar, which in translation means "Beloved of God", or Kudeyar, most often he is assigned a Tatar origin. In western and central Russia, this name had a different meaning - the most powerful wizard.
For a long time, the proper name Kudeyar was found in many provinces, such as Voronezh, Kharkov, Tula, Kaluga and many others. Later, the surname Kudeyarov began to gain popularity.
The name of Ataman Kudeyar is found not only in legends. Examples of mentioning him in history can be given:
- In the family of the Markov nobles, originally from Kursk, was Kildeyar Ivanovich, who was abbreviated as Kudeyar.
- Some historical documents mention a landowner from Arzamas, who bore the name Kudeyar Chufarov.
- The name of the Moscow Cossack Karachaev Kudeyar is known.
- Often in the annals Kudeyar Ivanovich is mentioned.
- There are also records about a man who fled to the Crimea, named Kudeyar Tishenkov, originally from the Belevsky boyars. Many associate this particular historical figure with the image of the ataman.
Identification of the ataman with Tsarevich Yuri
There are several legends that draw a parallel between Ataman Kudeyar and Yuri Vasilyevich, the son of Solomonia Saburova and Vasily III. Some of them can be distinguished:
- The legend comes from Saratov, which tells that Ivan the Terrible, before going to fight in Kazan, left Moscow for the guardianship of Kudeyar. Later it was found out that the Kazan decree was false, made so that during the absence of the sovereign Kudeyar Vasilyevich, having embezzled the treasury of the state, escaped from punishment.
- The Simbirsk legend tells that Yuri Kudeyar was summoned to Kazan for execution at the hands of the Terrible. However, having learned in advance about the intentions of the king, Yuri took up defensive positions on the Volga, near the city of Krotkovsky.
- There is a legend that Tsar Ivan the Terrible nevertheless met with Yuri at the besieged Kazan, and he, in turn, fled from the ruler to the north of the country.
- The Kursk legend says that Yuri was captured by the Tatars, who wanted to get a ransom for him from the sovereign. When the attempt failed, the prisoner was sent along with the army to the war for the royal throne. However, this idea turned out to be fruitless, after which Yuri remained in the Russian lands, where he took up robbery.
- The Suzdal legend, on the contrary, tells about the conclusion by Kudeyar Vasilyevich of a voluntary alliance with the Tatars, the purpose of which was to conquer the throne. However, seeing from the outside the atrocities committed by the Tatars, he stood up to defend his native land.
All the legends about both the ataman and Yuri Kudeyar point to his betrayal of the Motherland, which manifests itself in an escape or in going over to the side of the enemy.
Other legends about the origin of Kudeyar
There are many stories about the origin of Ataman Kudeyar:
- According to the Voronezh annals, Kudeyar was a tax collector for the Khan. Once, having plundered Russian settlements, he decided not to return to the ruler, settled in the Voronezh lands, gathered like-minded people around him and continued his robbery life. Soon he fell in love with a Slavic girl, kidnapped her and made her his wife.
- In the village of Lokh, they believe in the legend that Kudeyar was none other than Grozny's younger brother. The sovereign decided to kill him, believing the rumors that when he grows up, he will deprive him of his rightful throne. However, the servants disobeyed the king's orders and fled with the prince, who later converted to Islam and was named Kudeyar.
- There is a legend that Kudeyar was the son of Zhigmont Botoria, who was born even before his uncle was proclaimed king of Poland. He fled to the Dnieper to the Cossacks, later entered the service of Ivan the Terrible, but after the royal disgrace he escaped and leaned into a life of robbers.
- There is an opinion in Ryazan that Kudeyar was an oprichnik who not only robbed merchants from Moscow, but also appropriated the livestock of local residents.
- The ataman was positioned as an unclean spirit who guards his treasures.
Given the huge number of sources that are different from each other, it is quite difficult to give an accurate description of Ataman Kudeyar.
Legends of the Kudeyara Cave
For a long time, many treasure seekers tried to find the treasures of the robber Kudeyar, about which there are many legends. But everything was to no avail. Many ancient manuscripts tell about the cities where the robbers of Ataman Kudeyar hid their loot. Most of these places are noted in the Voronezh region. According to some stories, in the forests of Bryansk there are places where treasures are hidden, and at night light can be seen from under the rubble of stones, and sometimes children cry.
The Kudeyarova Cave is described as a place where not only the loot was stored, but the ataman himself lived in richly furnished chambers. The mountain in which the cave was located is completely covered with dense thickets. Next to it is another mountain - Karaulnaya, on which the sentries of the robber were placed. A deep ditch was dug around these places, protecting the shelter and its inhabitants from intruders. At a time when Kudeyar left his shelter in search of new profit, he locked all the premises, and filled up the entrance to the cave with stones. It is believed that the spirit of the chieftain to this day guards his untold wealth from people. Some are of the opinion that Kudeyar, due to his magical abilities, is still alive today.
There is another version of the legend. According to her, all his treasures were bewitched from human eyes for 200 years. This deadline has long passed, and an odd number of people are needed to search for the treasure. After the entrance is dug, to open the lock, you should use the golden key, which is stored in Sim's spring. It is not so easy to get it, it can only be done by someone who scoops out a source or can get water from the Supper Lake, the location of which is not known to anyone.
Collective image of a robber
The image of Tsarevich Yuri, whom many consider the robber Kudeyar, is collective in history and consists of biographical data of real, but completely different people. As a result, the name Kudeyar became a household name among the people. It characterizes all existing robbers. It is not possible to call this character authentically historical, due to the lack of data confirming his real existence.
According to the notes made in Kudeyar, he appears as a Tatar who knows Russian well and is distinguished by a rather high stature and bestial appearance. Also, many legends endow this character with magical abilities that helped him in robberies, and also hid him from his pursuers.
In some manuscripts, the chieftain is described as a dark-haired man of a quick-tempered and indomitable temper, who at the same time was also a masterful Cossack. In turn, according to some folk tales, a different image appears - a man of attractive appearance, of a heroic status, not stupid, having a weakness for young girls.
In general, there are several images of Kudeyar based on ancient legends. Some attribute to him the life of a cruel robber, others believe that Ataman Kudeyar was of royal blood and was hiding from the righteous wrath of the king. There is also an opinion that he was an impostor who pretended to be a person of royal blood.
Mention of a character in Nekrasov's work
Ataman Kudeyar at Nekrasov Nikolai Alekseevich, the great Russian writer, is mentioned in "Who Lives Well in Russia", in one of the chapters called "A Feast for the Whole World". The last lines of this chapter differ between editions, as several versions of the text are known:
- Manuscript of 1876 for the journal "Domestic Notes" and censored typographical print made on the basis of this manuscript. Another truncated publication in this journal was noted in 1881.
- In 1879, an illegal edition of the St. Petersburg Free Printing House was released. This version is included in the author's collected works.
In this work, the character Ataman Kudeyar is a legend told by Ionushka. His story tells about a fierce robber who repented of his sins and began a hermit life. However, he does not find a place for himself, and one day a wanderer appears to him, who tells how the robber can achieve peace. To do this, cut off a century-old oak tree with the same weapon that innocent people were killed with. It took years to complete this task, but the tree collapsed only after the murder of Pan Glukhovsky.
There were few people close to Ataman Kudeyar in "Who Lives Well in Russia". Their number is indicated in the work. The poem says about this: "There lived twelve robbers, there lived Kudeyar-ataman." When Kudeyar decided to atone for sins and repent, he dismissed his retinue for free bread.
Mentions in the works of other authors
The image of ataman Kudeyar is present not only in the work of Nekrasov. There are references to him in Kostomarov's novel Kudeyar, as well as in Kudeyar's Last Love, described by Navrotsky.
Kostomarov in the work has references to the legend about the origin of the character from the first marriage of Vasily the Third. His wife after the divorce was sent to a monastery due to infertility. However, within the walls of the monastery, her son is born. The woman sends him with people devoted to her to the Turkish border, where the prince is captured. A little later, as an adult, he escapes to native land, where he becomes a robber named Kudeyar.
This character is also mentioned in Soviet literature:
- In Kuprin's story "Grunya" there is a comparison of the uncle of the main character with the image of the famous ataman.
- The story of Kudeyar was described by Bahrevsky in the work "The Ataman's Treasure".
- Shiryaev mentions the ataman in "Kudeyar Oak".
- Alexandrov describes the image in "Kudeyarov Stan".
- The robber is mentioned in the cycle "Pelageya" by the writer Akunin.
Chaliapin's song
“There lived twelve robbers, there lived Kudeyar-ataman” - this is how the first verse of the song “The Legend of the Twelve Thieves” performed by Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin begins, according to the work of Nekrasov. According to some sources, the creation of music is attributed to Nikolai Manykin-Nevstruev.
"Kudeyar-ataman" - a song about a robber and his associates - is performed together with the choir, which sings the chorus after each verse: "Let us pray to the Lord God, we will proclaim the ancient story! So in Solovki, the honest monk Pitirim told us."
This creation, although based on the text from Nekrasov's unfinished poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", but, in turn, has significant semantic differences. For example, in the work of the poet it was not indicated that Kudeyar and Pitirim are the same person, unlike the song.
In addition, in many legends and in the text of the work, Kudeyar is described as a kind of avenger from the people who ends the life of a robber, becomes a pilgrim and lives in solitude in the wilderness, and Kudeyar-ataman in the song goes to the monastery to atone for his sins.
The lyrics of the song have several variants and performers. Many have heard this work performed by Evgeny Dyatlov. Today it is included in the repertoire of many male church choirs.
Kudeyarovo settlement
According to some legends, Ataman Kudeyar lived along with his robbers on the banks of the Seim, in the so-called Kudeyar settlement. This legend mentions Catherine the Second, who at that time was making a trip to the south of Russia. During one of her stops not far from this settlement, Kudeyar stole the golden carriage of the empress and buried it between three oaks.
No less famous is the Devil's settlement, which many people call Shutova Gora, on the road from Kozelsk to Likhvin. This place was very well located, because it was along this road that caravans with goods quite often passed, which were excellent prey for any robber.
Many believe that Kudeyar's shelter was located here, built for him by evil spirits. It is believed that it is this power that to this day guards the hidden treasures of the robber, and at night the ghost of Lyubush, the daughter of the ataman, who was cursed and imprisoned by her own father in these lands, appears in those places.
Black Yar
Actually known a large number of Kudeyarov cities in southern Russia. Each province has its own stories and places where the treasures of the Kudeyar gang are hidden.
The mountain which is located in the Lipetsk region is very popular. Its distinguishing feature is a bluish-colored stone lying on top, which is considered to be the petrified horse of the ataman, which received this color after being scorched by fire.
According to many legends, it was here that the Kudeyarov fortress was located. According to legend, the Don Cossacks, dissatisfied with the excesses of Kudeyar and his robbers, took up arms against them. When they reached the fortress, they could not capture it in any way, so they surrounded it with brushwood and set it on fire.
The chieftain hid all the loot and left his beloved horse as a guard. And so that she would not suffer from fire, he turned her into stone.
For most contemporaries, Ataman Kudeyar - forgotten history, but not so long ago this character was legendary, one might say, semi-mythical. And even today, the memory of him is preserved in the names of mountains, cities, ravines, and the name Kudeyar itself is associated with a sinister, remarkable power.
