Nature Theology Within Russian Folklore, by Christie Gibbons, page 2

The political chaos of the early 1570s led to the impoverishment of the majority of relocated Novgorod skomorokhi, while a few ultimately managed quite well,the most talented ones becoming virtually court minstrels, or sovereign’s skomorokhi. 14 The irony of this is that Tsar Ivan himself quite regularly not only privately and publicly enjoyed the skomorokhi, he even sometimes was a part of their entertainment. 15

Having their geographic center completely, and forcefully, changed made it necessary for the skomorokhitoalter their performing, and literally take to the road. (Hence, their name: traveling minstrels.) They traveled together usually in groups ranging from two to eight. 16 In light of this newly acquired nomadic lifestyle of the skomorokhi, Zguta quotes E.K. Chambers’ who offers a poignant description of the medieval Western minstrel:

To travel long miles in wind and rain, to stand wet to the skin and hungry and footsore, making the slow bourgeois laugh while the heart was bitter within; such must have been the daily fate of many amongst the humbler minstrels at least. And at the end to die like a dog in a ditch, under the ban of the Church and with the prospect of eternal damnation before the soul.17

Yet, despite such harsh treatment, a slight relapse in persecution occurred during the reign of Tsar Michael Romanov, in which the church somewhat softened its typically harsh attacks on the skomorokhi, as being responsible for “distracting Muscovite Christians from their spiritual obligations.” 18 Yet, this era of relative ease for the minstrels ended in 1645 with Tsar Michael’s death, ushering in another bleak period for the minstrels. 19 Zguta describes Tsar Michael’s son, and successor, Aleksei, as being:    

[B]y temperament and inclination very different from his father. Early in life he had come under the strong influence of ecclesiastical tutors…Throughout his long reign (1645-76) he continued to be a dedicated and informed Orthodox Christian, meticulously observing all prescribed fasts and rituals. Piety and sobriety permeated his private life as well. 20

Aleksei’s ecclesiastical advisers, who relentlessly sought to eradicate paganism, seized their chance in December of 1648, bringing about the third and final blow for the skomorokhi. Aleksei drafted a gramota, or deed, entitled, On the Righting of Morals and the Abolition of Superstition, which targeted what he viewed as the immoral amusements and pastimes of the skomorokhi. The skomorokhi were singled out as the most evil, pagan influences “diverting Orthodox Christian from the path of virtue.” 21 Aleksei’s closest ecclesiastical advisers saw this as a perfect opportunity to rid the country of the pagan menace. 22 So, Tsar Aleksei publicly identified and officially condemned the skomorokhi as enemies of the state, formally declaring their elimination en masse. 23

Aleksei so desired to dispose of every remnant of paganism that he proposed that every musical instrument that was in any way connected with skomorokhi entertainments was to be confiscated and burned, “and all persons engaged in any of these activities, including of course the skomorokhi and their audiences, were henceforth subject to severe penalties.” 24

Yet, it would be incredibly naïve to presume that Tsar Aleksei’s official command to eradicate an entire institutional group, which had existed for hundreds of years, could be entirely effective. Just as Prince Vladimir’s conversion of Russia (the biggest country in the world) to Christianity, Aleksei’s ban, too, was difficult to enforce, especially among the rural population, which was too spread out to be reached in entirety. Zguta tells us that:

A century or so after Aleksei’s ban went into effect, there were apparently skomorokhi who had not only survived the purges but continued to practice skills that linked them intimately to their own and Russia’s pagan past. 25

Yet, even though a few traces of the skomorokhi remained throughout Russia, all indications of the skomorokhi and their profession seem to have simply vanished in the late 1700s. And while most of the skomorokhi had disappeared, Zguta reassures us that:

[T]he legacy of the skomorokhi endured. To this day one cannot help but note their pervasive influence in many areas of Russian culture, even in an age of radio, television, films, and the like. 26

Not only can we discern the impact of the skomorokhi on Russian oral literature, music, theater, and dance, we can also see their direct involvement in the composition of Russian folktales, folk songs, and proverbs. 27 Zguta further explains this, informing us that the Easter Slavs’ pagan past was an age when:

[M]yth and reality merged in the minds of the people; when the phenomena and mysteries of nature were personified as malevolent beings that had to be appeased lest they wreak havoc on mankind; when the people turned to their spiritual leaders, the skomorokhi-priests, for an explanation of what was beyond their kin. It seems logical to assume, as many scholars have, that in these explanations lie the roots of the Russian folktale, and, by extension, that the skomorokhi, as spiritual leaders of the people, may have played some role in the creation of the folktale. 28

  So, why is it that this group of entertainers was targeted as a group needing to be purged? Were they really participating in evil rites and unholy lifestyles? For, upon closer inspection of the history of religion in Russia, we find that the skomorokhi were actually vital to the nurturing of the religious life of the Russian people. Their connection to earth and religion (through their close ties to Russian paganism) made the skomorokhi the embodiment of dvoeverie, which Zguta defines as “that unique fusion of pagan and Christian elements that gave Russian spirituality its distinctive character.” 29

With the introduction of Christianity into Russian folk belief, the Russian peasants (aided by the skomorokhi) managed to retain their ancient, pre-Christian customs and worldview. One such instance is the way the Christian saints were made to fit the already-existing notions of agricultural figures in Russian folk culture. Linda Ivanits, author of Russian Folk Belief, clarifies this act as putting pre-Christian notions into a wrapper of Christianity 30, saying:

Popular Christianity...was often a far cry from official Orthodoxy, for...many of its personages seem to be thinly disguised reworkings of pagan deities. 31

Ivanits makes it clear that the interweaving of pre-Christian and Christian elements is not limited to Russian history, it being a cross-cultural phenomenon. She emphasizes Russia as an extreme case, saying:

Russia experienced neither the intellectual upheaval of the Renaissance nor the purging of ancient superstitions of the Reformation. 32

One prevailing folk belief is the presence of a female deity called Mokosh. In Russian, her name means ‘moist’. She may be another designation for the slightly personified Moist Mother Earth of popular folk tradition. 33 It was for beliefs such as these, in which soul is attributed to the natural world, many Russian peasants were accused of pagan earth-worship, a grave sin.

Yet, seeing the earth as a damp mother was central to Russian folk belief throughout history, and can be found even today. For instance, in the 1900s, it has been observed that peasants took part in various rituals connecting them with the sanctity of Moist Mother Earth. Ivanits tells us of a few of these customs, saying:

[T]hey ratified oaths by swallowing a mouthful of earth; they measured boundary lines by walking them with a clump of earth on their heads; and they protected villages from cattle plague and other epidemics by plowing a furrow around them and thus releasing the life-giving properties of the earth. In addition, we have reports that peasants confessed their sins to the earth in the absence of a priest; in remote areas of Vladimir Province, old people observed a ritual of asking the earth’s forgiveness prior to death into the twentieth century. 34

Ivanits makes light of the Russian folk belief that things found in the natural world have a spirit. She speaks of a lower mythology of Russian folk, which entails belief in the power of sorcerers, witches, and other persons believed to have supernatural powers, saying:

Even on the verge of the Soviet era the Russian peasant retained his belief in spirits of the house [domovoi] and farmstead and of various aspects of nature. 35

Ironically, the fear of sorcery and bad spirits was not held only by peasants, but also by many of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, by the nobility, and even by the tsar himself. Felix J. Oinas, of Indiana University, explains this permeation of thought, saying:

If something went wrong in a family, be it crop failure, drought, family discord, infertility, epidemics, or illness--it was attributed to sorcerers and witches. 36

Yet, what do these ancient beliefs, the skomorokhi folktales, and religion have to do with one another? Well, whether we are considering creation myths, spiritual legends, or folktales, we know that all the stories have been preserved from Old Russia, passed down orally from parents to children for many generations. It was not until the nearly complete eradication of the skomorokhi in the eighteenth century that these stories were committed to writing. This rich collection of stories allows for the continuation of what Pyotr Simonov describes as the “communication and transmission of beliefs, values and traditions”of the ancestors of the Russian people. 37

The skomorokhi, and others, refined the art of storytelling, which called for talented and competent tellers with impeccable memories and the ability to freshly recreate the tales each time they were told, without changing their essential elements. These folktales were retold whenever and wherever people came together. 38

Simonov further explains the content of these stories, when he compares their content with that of the stories of other nations, saying:

The themes of these stories have much in common with the mythology of the theological traditions of other countries: destiny, life and death, the quest for a Utopia, the recovery of paradise lost. Invariably, obstacles must be overcome, remedies obtained and supernatural assistance sought. Furthermore, conflict is at the heart of most of the plots…The hero or heroine must be prepared to undergo trials and anxieties before accomplishing a task, and the difficulties encountered are usually proportional to the honour and bliss finally achieved. 39

 If we consider the entire body of Russian folktales, we see within it a conglomeration of pre-Christian customs and beliefs integrated with Christian thought and practice. The tales are riddled with elements of fantasy and folklore, as well as historical truth. This folk material reveals to us that, though not romantics, Russians did have an immense respect for the natural world, and they sought truth. Simonov notes that many of these qualities are evident among Russians even today, saying:

[W]e must surely see in these stories the primordial and essential features of Russian traditions and values. 40

            Within Russian folk tradition there was great attention given to the natural phenomena that immediately affected their lives. This is extremely evident in the content of all Russian folktales. Ancient Russians offered a large part of their spiritual devotion to the earth, “to her power and sanctity, and to the mysteries that the earth sustains.” 41 Earth was understood as the grain-producing, life-giving soil. And like mentioned earlier, earth for Russians is a moist mother, described by Simonov as:

[A] moist, deep, dark, secret womb, the wellspring of all fecundity, the sustaining breast of nature, the final homeland of all humanity. It is the earth that nourishes; the earth whose inexhaustible energy spends itself and is mysteriously renewed year by year; the earth which sustains humanity, and in which at the end all come to rest. Fertility, rather than beauty, is the supreme virtue of Mother Earth, the eternal woman who at once embraces life and death: procreator, not virgin; pregnant, not chaste; a black welcoming cavity for the departed. She is both womb and tomb, nurturing human beings during their life, and then providing them with eternal rest. For these reasons, 'Mother Earth' lies at the core of ancient Russian religion. 42

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14   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 54.

15   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 55.

16   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 47.

17   E.K. Chambers as cited by Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 32.

18   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 56.

19   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 56.

20   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 56.

21   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 60-61.

22   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 52.

23   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 50.

24   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 61

25   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 64.

26   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 65.

27   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 81.

28   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 100.

29   Zguta, Russian Minstrels, 122.

30   Linda J. Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.), 19.

31   Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, 4.

32   Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, 4.

33   Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, 14.

34   Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, 15.

35   Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, 4.

36   Felix J. Oinas as cited by Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief, xi.

37   Pyotr Simonov, Essential Russian Mythology, (London:Thorsons, 1997), 25-26. 

38   Simonov, Essential Russian Mythology, 26. 

39   Simonov, Essential Russian Mythology, 26. 

40  Simonov, Essential Russian Mythology, 28. 

41  Simonov, Essential Russian Mythology, 4-5.  

42  Simonov, Essential Russian Mythology, 4-5. 

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