The “Tale of the Destruction of Riazan” presents as a legend story to be told and passed down to future generations. I found this as a major theme of the Tale. There are battles fought with glory and passion to protect the homeland of Riazan. I found that this paralleled many previous stories we have read in class.
A theme of religion was tied into the Tale as well. The main identification was the battle between the good, Russia, and the evil, the godless emperor Batu. The godless emperor Batu showed no mercy in the slaughter of the city of Riazan. Although, god had a plan for the people and land of Russia. The saying, “And all this happened for our sins” was repeated many times in the story after death. All death happened for a reason. The story is ended by the land of Raizan being restored to god. This restoration of the land was expected due to the theme of religion in the Tale. Everything in the Tale occurred for a reason and in accordance to god so the loss and death of many people occurred to sacrifice for the greater power of Russia.
I found it interesting that the format and theme of the “Tale of the Destruction of Riazan” was similar to many other texts that we have read in class. Do all classic Russian stories have a theme of legend and religion?
Hi Xander! Thanks for the question. I don’t know whether you have read medieval literature from other European cultures (English, for example), but you will find that medieval Russian literature shares very similar characteristics with those traditions, since Kievan Rus in fact was in very close contact with western Europe up until the time of the Mongol invasion, and there was a great deal of cultural exchange. So the legend-like narrative style and importance of Christianity are definitely common to the medieval sensibility and worldview in general, and are not just Russian-specific.