Тhe Rus’-Polovetsian Conflict in the Bylina’s Epos

Abstract

Annals are the main source of the presentation of Russian statehood in the 19^th - 13^th centuries. The accented written resource is a reflection on the state-building process of only the two largest feudal lords of that time: the prince, the church. ‘Bylinas’ is an epic format of reaction to the same process of that part of society, which showed opposition to the initiatives of the Rurikovichs: to change the owner of the land, destroying the traditionally active principle of communal land ownership; replace customary law with codified law, centralize power by replacing democratically elected princes in the context of one or another tribe with an official of Kyiv, increase taxation by introducing a tithe; give Christianity the status of the state religion, eradicating paganism.

‘Bylinas’ is an epic imprint of the conflict between the social forces that created the fairway of statehood and the social majority, which experienced the loss of rights and freedoms during the establishment of a new format of social practice. The entire opposing (autochthonous!) mass is «read» by the polytonym «polovtsi» in the meaning «defenders». The bylina’s epic is a representative of the Rus’-Polovtsian confrontation.