Artículos de revistas sobre el tema "Bulgaria Legends"

This contribution examines two modern, "Neo-Bogomil" groups: the Universal White Brotherhood (Bulgaria), and the Balkan Bogomil Center (Croatia). Both of these groups claim not only the authority of Bogomilism but ancient "Gnosticism," articulating these dualist heresies in terms of Theosophy as well as South-Eastern European religious and ethnic-national identities formulated in the later nineteenth century.

The sanctuary in the area Mishkova Niva near the town of Malko Tarnovo is an ancient object of our cultural heritage. For many years the site is inaccessible because it falls behind the border enclosure, in the nobody area between Bulgaria and Turkey. However, the site is present with bizarre legends in the local complex of folk narratives. It has been studied by several archaeological expeditions, adorned by Laitsi with exotic and modernist stories of fantasy-type, and today it is fully accessible for visits by ordinary and pilgrimage tourists. Many legends turn it into one of the big prides, but also the great care of the Malkotrnovska municipality. Keywords: Thracian Sanctuary, Folklore Legends, Divine Presence, Secrets and Mysteries, Tangible and Digital Heritage

The review is devoted to the analysis of the new lexicographic work of the Bulgarian dialectologists of the Prof. L. Andreichin Institute of the Bulgarian Language. BAN, ―a dictionary of one archaic dialect of the Ropka region in the Western Rhodope Mountains. The book is a logical continuation of S. Keremedchieva’s 1993 monograph, which describes the grammar of this dialect. The dictionary significantly complements the understanding of it, which makes it the first comprehensive study of the Rhodope dialect at several linguistic levels: phonological, morphological and lexical. Due to its basic linguistic features, this dialect became a link between the Thracian and central Rhodope dialects, whose speakers, due to a number of geopolitical reasons and events, found themselves outside the borders of modern Bulgaria, in Greece and Turkey. The local Bulgarian population was mostly Islamized in the XVII century, and after the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1879–1882 and 1912, part of the families of Bulgarian Muslims from the villages of Pavelsko, Orekhovo and Studenets were resettled to Asia Minor, Turkey. According to one of the etymological versions of the origin of the name of the village Pavelsko, the fact of the existence here in the past of adherents of the Pavlikian heresy, whose center was the village of Pavelsko, is likely. This hypothesis is supported by numerous linguistic links between the Ropkа dialect and the Pavlikian dialect in Bulgaria. The Ropka dialect has accumulated features of a certain stage in the development of the Bulgarian language, preserving a number of its archaic features, including vocabulary and morphology. Despite the modern intensive changes taking place in everyday life, culture and language, the inhabitants of the Ropka region have preserved their ancestral memory and customs, songs and legends, melodious Rhodope dialect with its ancient features and inimitable architectonics. Rich authentic dialect material is a serious lexical database and a source for scientific research in various fields, including ethnolinguistics.

A rather small portion of old Slavonic literatures is thematically linked with the journey to the Holy Land. Of many Serbian pilgrims over the centuries only three left more detailed descriptions of Bulgarian places and parts: patriarch Arsenije III, Jerotej of Raca and Silvestar Popovic. They described, each in his own way, some of the places and areas along the road to Istanbul or Salonika. Their vivid depiction of encounters with people and observations about the places they saw on their way reveal only a fragment of life in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Ottoman empire. In a seemingly ordinary way, they incorporate into their own epoch the legends heard from the people they met. The descriptions of Bulgarian parts in the Serbian accounts of pilgrimage have all the appeal that generally characterizes travel literature. Although their literary value is modest they belong among the works characterized by the simplicity and immediacy of experience. Rather than being the result of a strong literary ambition, they are witness to the need to speak about the great journey, quite an adventurous enterprise at the time.

Following the footsteps of ancient civilizations is not easy at all. One should always start from the oldest data, going through the itineraries of guidebooks, legends, legends, comparisons, archaeological excavations, assumptions and hypotheses of different authors. The territory of Dardania, was a very rich territory with various and very precious mines and minerals, and also to search for a very rich city and civilization which is known more by its coins, is also challenging but also easily defined. According to the data and finds of coins from this city we see that we have done with the extension of the monopoly all over the Illyrian Peninsula, including Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo as well. Therefore, we should always look for the city of Damastion in the area of ancient Dardania, since this area also had an influence on the entire region.

Due to the insufficient amount of written evidence covering a particular chronological period, researchers are forced to resort, among others, to the help of folklore sources. In this article the author tried to identify the real historical basis of the plots of a number of Udmurt folklore works, which are often used to illustrate the history of interaction between the Udmurts and the peoples and states of the Middle Volga region in the period of the X–XVI centuries. As the research has shown, the considered historical stories and legends actually reflect historical events dating back to the period of the XVII–XIX centuries. In a number of cases, significant authorial interference in the plot of folklore works was revealed. Thus, the analyzed historical stories and legends cannot be used to highlight events dating back to the existence of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, the Mongol conquests of Eastern Europe, as well as to the Golden Horde and Kazan periods of the history of the Middle Volga region.

The article examines the formation of the special resort as a topos in which the pro-cesses of construction and functioning of literary texts were activated in the time of social realism, when privileges and benefits were created for special category of writ-ers. The process began with the formation of the Union of Fighters Against Fascism and Capitalism and grew with the special writers' awards given out on various occa-sions. The preferential use of recreational areas in Bulgaria also creates a kind of zoning - Borovets, Sozopol, Hisarya (Villa "Petrovich"), Varna, "Golden Sands" and others are assigned to Union of the Bulgarian Writers. In this context, literary collec-tions of short stories, novels, literary legends, etc. are compiled. The main thesis of the research is that resort-themed works combine ideology and literature while seemingly maintaining their tolerance for dominant socio-ideology. At the same time, they form a layer of relative freedom and are a peculiar escape from the cruel reality of the totali-tarian state. For the purpose of the report, the normative base (laws, rules, regula-tions, etc.) for the period 1944-1965, as well as memories, letters, journalistic materi-als, archives, works of fiction, are studied.

In the article the author considers the basic ideas of the Moscow ethnolinguistic school on the basis of several examples from the South Slavic cultural dialects. The methods are similar to the technique of isolating certain linguistic dialects and cultural dialects; much attention is paid to justification of the concept ?cultural dialect.? Eastern Serbia and western Bulgaria were taken as an example for the analysis of dialects based on phonetic, grammatical features and those that are observed in folk culture and which are reflected in its terminological vocabulary. Research was carried out into one of the main arealogical regularities that is linked to the interaction between cultural and language contexts of its functioning (in the sphere of beliefs and rituals, in folklore texts - legends, stories about encounters with supernatural beings, etc.). For example, ?bear?s day? shows the areal scheme of concentric circles, according to which the central place belongs to the terminological vocabulary, as far as the distance from the center is concerned, there are only rituals and beliefs associated with the ?bear? symbols of the holiday, and the wide range covers the extent of the legend of St. Andrew riding a bear. The paper concludes with a description of the geographic background in the ethnolinguistic dictionary Slavic Antiquities, whose main purpose is a reconstruction of old Slavic culture aided by the linguistic method of study of folk culture, i.e. the study of verbal expressions for a number of cultural phenomena (lexical and phraseological items).

In the beginning of 1550s the diplomats of Russian Tsar Ivan IV for the first time used the legend about «Kazan tribute» and «Dorpat tribute» to justify the historical rule over Kazan and German Livonia. The story about «Kazan tribute» was firstly mainstreamed during the reign of Ivan IV; however, the «Dorpat tribute» was mentioned in the Russian-Livonian treaties of 15th century – its origin is still unknown. For the first time in historiography this article compares two stories. The author examines the sources of both legends, their author, the role in the justification of the continuity between the ancient Rus’ of Rurikovichi and Moscow Russia of Ivan IV, the relation between the terms «otchina» (paternity), «dan’» (tribute), «zemlya» (land). Since the 1470s Moscow began to rethink the tribute relationships, that had been established in Mongol-Turk political space. This resulted in an attempt to stop the payments for the Chan of Crimea (1473) and to demand the tribute from the Bishop of Dorpat (Russian Yuryev, 1474). Based on the Text of «Primary chronicle» the Russian intellectuals claimed the identity of Volga Bulgaria and Kazan, ancient Russian Yuryev and German Dorpat in the text of Nikon Chronicle. The main criterion for the hereditary rule over the territory was «zemlya» (land) as the political category, regardless of the ethnicity and religion of its population. The author concludes that the courtier Alexey Adashev edited the story about «Dorpat tribute» following the example of «Kazan tribute» story. Thus, there is a direct intertextual dependence between the two stories.

Cosmogonies and mythopoesis in the Balkans and beyondCompared and contrasted in this article are three different types of accounts dealing with the cosmogonic and eschatological themes employed in Slavonic and Balkan oral tradition, para-Biblical literature and modern poetry. The focus of analysis is the cluster of motifs attested in the creation narrative of the apocryphal Legend of the Sea of Tiberias. Two versions are examined: the South-Slavonic one discovered in 1845 by V. Grigorovich in the Monastery of Slepche, and the 18th century Russian account from MS № 21.11.3 (fols. 3a–5b) from the Archaeographic Department of the Library of the Academy of Sciences [Библиотека Академии наук, Рукописный отдел] in St. Petersburg, composed most probably by an Old Believer; this manuscript is published here for the first time. Folklore counterparts of the apocryphal Legend of the Sea of Tiberias are treated, with special emphasis on the oral narratives from the Bulgarian diaspora in Bessarabia (God and the Devil Create the World Amicably but then Fall Out). Finally, a poem of the 20th century Bulgarian intellectual Pencho Slaveykov [Пенчо Славейков] from his anthology “On the Island of the Blessed” is discussed; the poem, entitled How God willed the Earth to come to be and what did Satanail do after that? was designated by Slaveykov himself as “a legend of the Bogomils”, and blended within his lyrics are dualistic themes and motifs attested in vernacular Christianity, with the hallmark of Haeresis Bulgarica. Kosmogonie i mitopoetyki na Bałkanach i nie tylkoW artykule zostały porównane trzy typy narracji zawierających wątki kosmogoniczne i eschatologiczne, które funkcjonują w słowiańskiej i bałkańskiej tradycji ustnej, literaturze parabiblijnej oraz poezji doby modernizmu. Przedmiotem uwagi stała się grupa motywów poświadczonych w narracji o stworzeniu, znanej z Legendy o Morzu Tyberiadzkim. Analizom poddane zostały dwie wersje: południowosłowiańska, odkryta w 1845 roku przez W. Grigorowicza w Monastyrze w Slepče, oraz ruska – z XVIII wieku, znajdująca się w kodeksie MS № 21.11.3 (fols. 3a–5b), przechowywanym w Oddziale Rękopisów Biblioteki Akademii Nauk w Sankt Petersburgu – skomponowana najprawdopodobniej w środowisku staroobrzędowców (rękopis ten jest tu publikowany po raz pierwszy). Następnie przeprowadzona została analiza odpowiedników folklorystycznych apokryficznej Legendy o Morzu Tyberiadzkim, ze szczegól­nym uwzględnieniem narracji ustnych funkcjonujących w bułgarskiej diasporze w Besarabii (Bóg i Diabeł tworzą świat w przyjaźni ale potem stają się wrogami). Na końcu został poddany interpretacji poemat z XX wieku autorstwa bułgarskiego modernisty Penczo Sławejkowa [Пенчо Славейков] z antologii Na wyspie błogosławionych [На острова на блажените]; poemat ten, zatytułowany Jak Bóg zezwolił, aby powstała ziemia i co potem uczynił Satanael?, został nazwany przez samego autora „legendą Bogomiłów”, i skompilowany w jego tekstach z dualistycznymi motywami występującymi w chrześcijaństwie tego regionu, a rozpoznawa­nymi jako haeresis bulgarica.

Music not only affects the soul but also is a language that we express ourselves and a memory that records our experiences. As seen in the examples of Balkan history, these experiences can be migration, separation, death, and war. Balkan history can be called the history of migrations and wars. Especially the 1878 Ottoman-Russian War, the 1912-13 Balkan Wars, and the First World War caused the migrations of Turks. The recurrent waves of mass migration to mainland Turkey from the Balkans since the late 19th century continuing up to today, about 1/5 of Turkey’s population today is of Balkan origin (Kut, 1997, 42). The pain of migration, separation, suffering, and death seem to live in folk songs called ‘Rumeli Türküleri’ meaning folk songs of Rumelia that draw boundaries between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey today. I aim to show the effects of migrations, and wars on people through the study of music. First, I will mention Balkan's historic background, and then I will analyze the lyrics of Rumelian songs together with two examples of songs from Bulgaria and Kosova and analyze the style and rhythm of selected songs. Finally, I will mention how Balkan music keeps legends alive and how it serves as a bridge of friendship between Anatolia and the Balkans today. To show this, I will analyze the folk song ‘Drama Bridge’, which is about Drama that remained within the Greek boundaries after the Balkan Wars, and which is used in the 2010 ECOC (European Capital of Culture) project in Istanbul for the immigrants in Greece and Turkey to understand each other.

Abstract The Slavonic eschatological apocryphon Solunskaja Legenda (“The Legend of Thessalonica”) is a direct translation from Syriac. The archetype of the extant recensions is datable to 893–972. It was created, in the First Bulgarian Empire, on the base of an earlier Slavonic text that did not mention the Bulgarians. The Sitz im Leben of the original Syriac recension and its Slavonic translation is a Syrian monothelete colony in North Macedonia (then, a part of Byzantium) between 752/754 and 839/842. The legend echoed events related to a successful Syriac monothelete mission to a slavinia (Slavic enclave headed by an autonomous prince) in the region of Thessalonica in the 670s or 680s. The legend describes the creation of the first Slavonic alphabet, and it uses specific terminology for writing tools. In its Slavonic translation, this terminology was transliterated instead of being translated. It can be assumed that the translator wanted to introduce new terms into the Slavonic language in this way.

We just have the 575th anniversary of the memorable battle between a coalition of Christian armies and the army of the Ottoman Empire. Christians’ defeat had significant consequences not only for Bulgaria, but also for Byzantium and whole Europe. The aim of the presented work is a systematization of knowledge about artefacts paying homage to the Polish-Hungarian King Ladislaus III of Varna, who fell there, and thousands of knights of both sides of the fight. There has been applied participant observation of places commemorating those events, there were conducted interviews with persons preserving their memory, there were analyzed many academic dissertations, popular scientific works and other informative materials dedicated to that topic, there were gathered data about authors of works dedicated to that Battle of nations, aiming at creation of a relatively complete description of a marketing product for needs of cultural tourism. Since many artefacts commemorating the battle do not exist anymore or exist in undocumented legends, they were separated from description of those ones which exist and can be presented to tourists interested in them. Thus, the text describes in the chronological order Turkish memorabilia, Hungarian and Polish artifacts and their authors.

The purpose of the study is to trace the evolutionary path of the images of the primal forefathers of the Hunno-Bulgars and their descendants. Materials and methods. Ethnographic data from ancient and later sources were used, an ethnolinguistic and comparative approach to the study was applied. The etymological works of modern linguists-Turkologists are considered. Results. In this article, the word “primal forefather” refers to the “natural-ancestral divine essence” of Eastern (primarily Chinese) antiquity. The most ancient images of the Hunno-Bulgars’ primal forefathers were formed in the pre-Altai era. They reflected the surrounding world of ancient hunters, primarily the world of wild animals. People concluded an agreement on mutual donation with the ancestral primal forefather *taŋgïrï (“oath”, “deity”). In the era of contacts with the ancestors of the Chinese, the Huns (Xiongnu) began to represent their primal forefather as a celestial inhabitant, setting the world in motion by shifting the masculine and feminine principles. In different epochs of interrelations with the tribes of Eastern Iranians, the culture of the ancestors of the Bulgaro-Chuvash experienced the beneficial effect of their “animal style”. In the early Middle Ages, various narrative texts about the primal forefathers-giants and epic heroes-bogatyrs began to appear in their folk art. The ethnogenetic legends of the Chuvash eventually transformed into legends about the origin of their settlements. Conclusions. A comparative analysis of the images of the primal forefathers of the ancient ancestors of the Hunno-Bulgars and their descendants showed that these images were constantly evolving, gaining new features. At first they appeared to people in the guise of a sacred animal; a little later, instead of the leading animal, the primal forefather-hunter appears who finds new lands; then the Bulgarian plot of the ethnogenetic legend gradually turns into a narrative about an extraordinary giant hero, surprising with his physique and strength. The Turkic–speaking peoples of the Volga region and the Urals called such a hero Ulap/Alp, and the meadow Mari and the Udmurts – Onar and Alangasar.

Abstract The review-article discusses the new critical edition of BHG 1199 and its traditional attribution to Theophylact of Ohrid (which is rejected). The legend representing the conversion of Bulgaria with no participation of Cyril and Methodius or their disciples must go back to the tenth century First Bulgarian kingdom.

During the Middle Ages two dualistic communities were active in Bulgaria and Bulgarian lands – Bogomils and Paulicians. Paulicians, unlike Bogomils, survived as a separate religious sect up to the 17th century, when most of them gradually accepted Catholicism. The detailed reports of Catholic missionaries, priests and bishops shed light on different aspects of their beliefs and practices from the 17th century. The aim of the present article is to propose an explanation of a strange ritual and a legend spread among the Bulgarian Paulicians and recorded in the above-mentioned reports. The thesis of the article is that the legend and the ritual in question refer to the early history of Paulicianism. The ritual is related to syncretic religious notions and goes beyond the scope of dualism. I try to examine the legend and ritual in the context of Paulician history in the Balkans, especially in the context of Paulician belief system, inherited from the early Anatolian Paulicians.

is article investigates the legend of Duklian prince Ioan Vladimir and Theodora Kosara – the daughter of Bulgarian king Samuil in the book Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskoga by the Dalmatian writer Andrija Kačić Miošić, as well as in the Latin translation of the book, made by Emerik Pavić. The historical situation on the Balkans during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries provoked the growing native writers’ interest towards the past. Many South Slavic authors searched for examples of heroism and greatness of the Slavsin written documents and oral legends. They strived to emphasize the linguistic and cultural affinity between them and included common characters, folklore and legendary motifsin their literary works. The real historical facts and the heroic myths about the might and the unification of the Slavic ethnos in “Pisma od kralja Vladimira” and in the other parts of “Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskoga” inspired the southern Slavicpeoples and gave them hope that they might be free and powerful again as they had been formerly. The extensive translation in Latin popularized the Bulgarian history and folklore, not only among Slavic, but also among other European nations. The legend of Duklian prince Ioan Vladimir and the Bulgarian princess Theodora Kosara went beyond the times it was created, described and printed.

Zhyrau are Akyns – storytellers of a special art who create and disseminate the oral poetic creations of the people. The oral epic tradition existed in ancient Greece, Arabia, among the Turkic peoples and until the 40-50s of the XX century – in Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. The main feature of the Zhyrau poetic tradition is that the legends are passed down from generation to generation orally rather than in writing. The worldview in Zhyrau poetry is determined by universal human values such as life and death, joy and sorrow, homeland, which are revealed in the conceptual intentions of the national consciousness, namely the concepts of a perfect human being, the creation of the world and the fatherland.The article is devoted to the understanding of Sufism in the work of Kazakh zhyrau, especially the numerous zhyrau of Western Kazakhstan. The authors note that in the study of Sufism there are still no systematic studies that show the role of Sufism in the spiritual and moral development of a person, his cultural and intellectual development. Among the European scholars to whom the authors refer, there are contradictory opinions about the main postulates of Sufism.The authors state that the concept of ‘kamili insan’, a perfect person, is one of the main purposes of the teachings of Sufism, the attainment of full human individuality through spiritual purification, asceticism and a person’s rejection of material values. In addition, other important terms of Sufism such as zіkіr, pіkіr etu, shukіr etu, taubaga kelu, taglym, and iman are subjected to philosophical, theological, historical, cultural and semantic analysis in the article. Poetic texts of zhyrau-akyns served as illustrative material for this analysis.

Background: One of the least researched periods of Bulgarian-Ukrainian intercul-tural dialogue is late Middle Ages period. It is explained by the low number of sources and their fragmented character, and mainly by incomplete methodology of their pro-cessing, lack of respective conceptual approaches, which are still applied, despite seri-ous criticism. In the second part of the 20th century Ukrainian Slavic Studies, being under mo-nopoly influence of the Russian historiographic patterns, fully accepted the concept of the “second South Slavic influence”, artificially adapting it to the Ukrainian late Middle Ages history. Definitely it was not beneficial for it as self-sufficient processes of reli-gious and cultural relations of Ukraine-Rus with Bulgaria of the 14th–15th centuries were narrowed down only to one abstract phenomenon, which main recipient undoubt-edly was Moscow. Purpose: Modern Ukrainian researchers continue using the term “second South Slavic influence”, and this automatically makes their texts not only a bit terminologically vague, but often retranslates outdated historiographic patterns with clearly expressed myth-making elements. To finally neutralize the afore-mentioned tendency, one should refer back to the origins of our national historiography that includes alternative interpre-tations of cultural relations of Ukraine-Rus with Bulgaria and other South Slavic coun-tries in the late Middle Ages period. Their subsequent analysis is the man objective of this article. Results: Ukrainian scholars of the 19th – first quarter of the 20th century rigorous-ly studied all the aspects of Bulgarian-Ukrainian relations of the late Middle Ages peri-od known at that time. I. Franko and М. Hrushevsky contributed to these studies the most, and some of their opinions are based both on the in-depth knowledge of Ukraini-an and Bulgarian cultural and religious life, and the results of comparative analysis of the respective book and literary monuments, therefore they are still scientifically topical. At the same time, materials of all these studies, irrespective of their scientific value, is an inseparable part of Ukrainian Slavic researchers’ knowledge about the place of their cul-tural heritage within the system of interslavic relations of ancient times. Key words: Bulgaria, Ukraine-Rus, cultural relations, “second South Slavic influ-ence”, the late Middle Ages, Ukrainian Slavic Studies. Dashkevich, N., 1904. Several facts on Rus’ communication with South Slavs in Lith-uanian-Polish period of its history, including dumas. Kievan Anthology dedicated to Т. D. Florinsky. Kiev, pp.117–137. (In Russian) Franko, I. Ya., 1981. Collection of works. In 50 volumes, 30. Kyyiv: Naukova dumka. (In Ukrainian) Franko, I. Ya., 1984. Collection of works. In 50 volumes, 41. Kyyiv: Naukova dumka. (In Ukrainian) Franko, I., 1899. Apocrypha and legends from Ukrainian manuscripts. The Monu-ments of the Ukrainian-Russian Language and Literature, 2. L"viv. (In Ukrainian) Franko, I., 1913. Studies of the Ukrainian Folk Sngs, 1 L"viv. (In Ukrainian) Hnatyuk, V., 1906. Relations of Ukrainians with Serbs. Collection of scientific articles dedicated to Prof. Mykhailo Hrushevsky by his students and supporters to celebrate the 10th anniversary of His scientific activitiy in Halychyna (1894–1904). L"viv, pp.373–408. (In Ukrainian) Hojnackіj, A., 1873. Life and activity of the hierarch Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev and Moscow in Volyn region. Volyn Eparchial Journal. Unofficial Section, 14, с.497–503. (In Russian) Hrushevs"kyj, M. S., 1992. From the history of religious thought in Ukraine. Kyyiv: Osvita. (In Ukrainian) Hrushevs"kyj, M. S., 1994. History of Ukraine-Rus' : vols. 1–10 (in 12 books), 5–6. Kyyiv: Naukova dumka. (In Ukrainian) Hrushevs"kyj, M. S., 1995. History of Ukrainian literature, 5/1. Kyyiv: Lybid. (In Ukrainian) Hryhorash, N., 2007. Ukrainian Literary Bulgarian Studies of the 19th – middle of the 20th century: schools and personalities. Veliko T"rnovo: Universitetsko izdatelstvo “Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodij”. (Іn Bulgarian) Kaluzhnjackij, E. І., 1878. Overview of Slavic-Russian monuments of language and writing, kept in Lvov libraries and archives. Proceedings of the Third Archeological Congress in Russia, held in Kiev in August of 1874, 2, pp.213–321. (In Russian) Kryzhanovskіj, G., 1886. Kamianets-Strumilov tetro-Gospel of 1411 and Volyn dialect in the 14th–15th centuries. Volyn Eparchial Journal. Unofficial Section, 17, pp.502–509; 18, pp.531–543. (In Russian) Lihachev, D. S., 1958. Certain tasks of studying the second South Slavic influence in Russia. Moskva: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. (In Russian) Myshanych, S. V., 1974. Comparative study of the epic literature of the Ukrainian and South Slavic peoples. Folklore and Ethnography, 4, pp.24–37. (In Ukrainian) Rybinskij, V., 1891. Kiev Metropolitan Cathedral from the half of the 13th to the end of the 16th century. Kіev": Tipografіja G. T. Korchak"-Novickago. (In Russian) Shchepkin, V. N., 1967. Russian paleography. Moskva: Nauka. (In Russian) Shhurat, V., 1895. The Monk’s Republic in the Mount Athos. L"viv: Publishing house of the Scientific Association Shevchenko. (In Ukrainian) Sobolevskij, A. I., 1894. South Slavic influence on the Russian language and writing in the 14th–15th centuries. Report, delivered at the annual event of the Archeological Insti-tute on March 8, 1894. Sankt-Peterburg: Tipografija M. Merkusheva. (In Russian) Sohan', P. S., 1976. Outline of history of Ukrainian-Bulgarian relations. Kiev: Naukova dumka. (In Russian) Stepovyk, D. V., 1975. Ukrainian-Bulgarian art relations. Kyyiv: Naukova dumka. (In Ukrainian) Svyencicz`ky`j, I., 1922. Decoration of Manuscripts of Galician Ukraine XVI-го віку, 1–3. Zhovkva: Ex officina Monasterii O. s. Basilii Magni. (In Ukrainian) Venelin, Ju., 1835. On Folk Songs of Transdanube Slavs. Moskva: Tipografija N. Stepanova. (In Russian) Worth, D., 1983. The so called “second South Slavic influence” in the history of Russian literary language. 9th International Congress of Slavis Studies Scholars (Kiev, September 1983). Abstracts of reports and articles. Moskva, рр.222–223. (In Russian) Wozniak, M., 1992. History of Ukrainian literature: In 2 books. L"viv: Svit. (In Ukrainian) Zhukovskaja, L. P., 1987. Greek influence and archiazation of the Russian language of the second half of the 15th – first half of the 16th centuries (On the falseness of the notion “second South Slavic influence”). Old Russian literary language in its relation to the Old Slavic language, pp.144–176. (In Russian)

This article examines one of the latest and most controversial pieces of information about the origin of the Bulgars . In our attempt to establish its historical credibility, we compared the most important Greek and Old Bulgarian copies of St. Clement of Ohrid’s Life, and suggested a date and possible ideological motives behind the creation of so-called „Moesian legend”. Special attention is paid to the coincidence between the names of the modern Bulgarian cities and towns of Varna, Kavarna and Shabla and the toponyms registered in the Hittite inventory inscriptions of the 2nd millennium BCE.

Introduction. The paper deals with a byzantine lead seal of Constantine, notarios and abydikos, which originated from the vicinity of the medieval fortress of Rusokastro, southeastern Bulgaria. Methods. A part of byzantine lead seals are a primary source of information regarding both the commercial and economic activity in the Byzantine Empire and the administrative structures and mechanisms for its control and management, in particular for the period of the 8th – 9 th centuries. Therefore, the appearance of any such new scrambling monument is of great importance and the information derived from it should be carefully analyzed and appropriately taken into account in any reconstruction of the picture of the socio-economic life of the Empire and its contacts with its neighbors, including the medieval Bulgaria. Analysis. The seal dates from the second half of the 8th – the first half of the 9th cc. A cross-shaped invocative monogram is depicted on its obverse, while there is an inscription in four lines placed in a partly preserved circle on the reverse. The whole text of the monogram and the legend is as follows: “+ Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλω Κωνσταντίνω νοταρίου καὶ ἀβυδηκοῦ +”. The article also focuses on retrieving possible information from the Byzantine lead seal published in it. Results. The Byzantine lead seal published here is a material proof related to the picture of the commercial and economic life in the area of the Byzantine Empire near the medieval Bulgarian state and its administration by the Byzantine provincial authorities. Finding it in the territory that for the most of this period was a part of the First Bulgarian Empire suggests that Constantine’s seal is undoubtedly a testimony of the nature of peacetime contacts between Byzantium and Bulgaria at that time.

The study is an attempt at a comparative analysis of two pseudo-canonical texts: the Slavic Homily of John Chrysostom on How Michael Vanquished Satanael (in two versions) and the Greek Λόγος τοῠ ἀρχηστρατήγου Μιχαήλ, ὃταν ἐπῆρεν τήν στολήν (BHG 1288n). Both texts, very close to each other in terms of the plot, relate an ancient angelomachia between a heavenly emissary and a demiurge expelled from the angelic hierarchy. When examined against the background of dualistic heterodox doctrines on the one hand, and compared to other medieval cultural texts (be they liturgical, iconographical or folkloric) on the other, these works enable insight into how heterodox and pseudo-canonical texts functioned and were disseminated in the medieval Byzantine-Slavic cultural sphere. The Slavic Homily… is not genetically related to its Greek counterpart, which is only preserved in a lat, 16th century copy. Rather, it was composed before the 13th century on the basis of another, non-extant model with a content similar to the pseudo-canonical Greek Homily… It is probable to a certain degree that the emergence of the Slavic work is connected with the growing interest in the cult of Archangel Michael in the First Bulgarian Empire, especially in the Diocese of Ohrid. Certain Gnostic ideas related to dualistic cosmology, as well as cosmogony, angelology and anthropology spread from the Judeo-Christian world to Byzantine literature and culture. Having undergone a number of transformations in the neo-Manichean communities of the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria, they formed the basis for medieval dualistic cosmogony, as well as angelology and anthropology. Circulated both orally and in written form, beliefs concerning the invisible God, Archangel Michael as a ‘second God’ and the soul’s journey to Paradise became so widespread that they are not only found in heretic texts, but also cited almost verbatim in anti-heretic treatises. The content and later textual modifications of the Slavic Homily… cast a doubt on the hypothesis concerning its Bogomil origin. Furthermore, it cannot be determined to what extent works such as the Homily… were made use of by (moderate?) Bogomil communities. Even before the 14th century, the text underwent the processes of liturgization and folklorization, as proven by the presence of liturgical quotations (absent from the Greek text), the visualization of the story in sacred space as well as the aetiological legends about Archangel Michael’s fight against the Devil. The existence of ancient Gnostic ideas in the beliefs propagated by neo-Manichean Balkan heretic teachings, as well as their widespread presence in “high” and “low” texts originating in medieval communities call for a more cautious evaluation of the mutual antagonisms between them. This raises the problem of a wider look at medieval culture, in fact a syncretic phenomenon, where the distinction between the canonical, the pseudo-canonical, the heretic and the folkloric is not always clear-cut.

The object of the study is the adoption of Islam by the population of the Southern Ural. The subject of the study is the question of the time of the adoption of Islam in the territory of modern Bashkortostan – the largest region of the Southern Urals. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the historiography of the issue, the spread of Islam among Bashkirs according to narrative sources – information from foreign travelers and Bashkir legends, archaeological sites with a Muslim funeral rite. In historiography, the question of the time of the adoption of Islam by Bashkirs has been repeatedly revised in the direction of antiquity. Narrative sources link the Islamization of Bashkirs with the activities of missionaries from Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde. In archeology, the spread of Islam on the territory of Bashkortostan is associated with the Chiyalik culture of the XII-XIV centuries. Special attention is paid to the funerary monuments of the nomadic population of steppe origin, dated XIII-XV centuries. Having settled in the land of Bashkirs, the nomads converted to Islam. A special contribution of the author to the study of the topic is a comparative analysis of the "pagan" and Muslim burials of the XIII-XV centuries, identified within the republic. A total of 84 burials were recorded. Of these, 31 burials were performed according to the "pagan" rite, dated XIII-XIV centuries., 53 burials were performed according to the Muslim rite, dated XIV-XV centuries. It is concluded that the archaeological data correspond to written sources reporting the adoption of Islam in Bashkiria in the XIV century. The novelty of the study lies in clarifying the dating of the three main stages of Islamization of the region's population. The penetration of Islam into the Bashkir environment occurs in the pre–Mongol period, the spread of Islam – in the Golden Horde period, the establishment of Islam - after the XV century. The process of Islamization ends with the disappearance of the burial burial rite and the transition to the modern Muslim funeral rite. Voluntary entry into Russia guaranteed Bashkirs freedom of religion.

The article attempts to extract textual and extratextual planes on which representatives of fauna made their mark in the folklore of the South Slavs, mainly Bulgarians; in their oral literature, rituals, and beliefs, juxtaposed with selected Apocrypha, primarily from the Protoevangelium of James, confronted with the Scripture. The analysed texts (legends, folk tales, ritual songs performed during Christmas) relate to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and placing him in a manger – the events of Night of Bethlehem and the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. The excerpted texts of fairy tales and legends marginalise the theme of the Divine Birth, focusing on the figure of the Mother of God and her actions: meeting with St. Tryphon, rejecting the child, receiving lessons on motherhood from the frog, escaping with the Child to Egypt. The birth of Jesus is used as an excuse to tell a story of an etiological character (theme cursing animal or plant), often based on ritual custom and referring to it, such as clipping vines. Just as in the case of fairy tales and legends, folk song uses the birth of Jesus to explain the genesis of some of the characteristics and phenomena of nature. Presentation of animals in ritual songs occasionally refers to the economic sphere (the shepherds slept, and their flock wandered away), while wild animals are the object of punishment or reward. The Apocrypha known among the South Slavs mention animals in situations encountered also in the Bulgarian oral literature – the cosmic silence when fauna and flora freezes in anticipation of the birth of the Young God. The quoted texts of the Bulgarian oral culture referring to the theme of the Nativity of the Lord, the Gospel inspiration or even interaction with the apocryphal text fades into the background. The content of the stories and folk songs seems to be primordial in relation to the processed content of the Gospel; biblical characters and situations are introduced to oral stories already in circulation, creating texts that are testament of the so-called folk Christianity.

This article briefly examines the differing and common features in the symbolism of birds in Chinese and Bulgarian traditional beliefs and myths. It starts with a short introduction of how birds were viewed throughout history and in different cultures. Then, a few birds and bird families are given as an example from the Chinese culture and from the Bulgarian culture as a part of the Slavic culture. It starts with the Corvidae family (ravens, crows, magpies etc.), followed by owls and eagles. The last birds that are discussed are two mythological creatures with features similar to the Western image of the phoenix. These are the Fenghuang in Chinese legends and the Firebird (Zhar-bird) in the Slavic legends.

The article analyses the visions of Polish literary critics, attesting to a certain reception of the life path as well as the comprehension of Michal Tchaikovsky’s works in the context of the Polish Romanticism “Ukrainian school”. The genre-thematic and compositional features of the prose are also outlined, the author’s narrative strategy is analysed, and both ideological and aesthetic writer views and his literary contacts are shown. The significance of his creativity and activity through the implementation of the romantic idea is clarified. Tchaikovsky’s creation of a prose formula for Romantic Ukrainianism, the search for new forms of transferring Ukrainian stereotypes to Polish soil is still poorly understood. Various manifestations of reception and prose typology, M. Tchaikovsky’s artistic skill in the context of the “Ukrainian school” became the subject of the research. The author’s world-views were taken into account while studying Tchaikovsky’s prose which made it possible to systematically outline the problems, poetic and genre features of the works. The embodiment of the romantic ethnic hero features, a look on the Cossacks are expressed both in the works themselves and in the author’s prefaces, comments, notes making up an integral part of the writer’s creative achievements. M. Tchaikovsky is considered the father of a Polish historical novel. Mythologized vision of history and modern Polish-Ukrainian relations are reflected in various prose forms – diary, gavendas (“Gavendas”, “Legends”, “The Poles and Poles Strange Life”), adventure stories (“Wernygora”, “Kirdzhali”, “Stefan Charnetsky”, “Koshovata”, “Ovruchanyn”, “Hetman of Ukraine”), modern stories (“The Gilovs”, “Anna”), pamphlets (“Bulgaria”, “Nemolyaka”, “Bosnia”, “From Hetman Lach Times”). Slavic-Turkish tales of the Danube Cossacks whose manuscripts were burned in Istanbul remain still unknown. The movement of life was the M. Tchaikovsky environment namely a direct action in which one sees scope, confidence, and desire to bring to life all that he dreamed of. The author of “Wernygora” realised his longing for ancient life through literary activity, he dreamed of Ukraine, and created a world he wanted to see around him. The Cossacks, Slavophilism and colourful personalities have become he sources of M. Tchaikovsky’s works. The moment of literary creativity comes in the periods when the social roles of the politician and the soldier have been lost. The paper is another step towards understanding the place and role of M. Tchaikovsky’s works in Polish romanticism through the prism of historical prose. It is an attempt to read the works scientifically in the context of historical, social and cultural factors at the theoretical level. Research is a contribution to the set of theoretical knowledge of hermeneutics, theory of literature, social anthropology.

This scientific work, in its characteristic exposition, is a modest attempt at a comparative description of one of the most famous mythical creatures from ancient legends and its incarnations in the fabulous folk art of two peoples, which at first glance are distant and different, but both unique. antiquity and culture. The comparison between the dragon and the dragon and the other theriomorphic images perfectly illustrates the laws of myth-making, its diffusion and its modeling ability.This scientific work, in its characteristic exposition, is a modest attempt at a comparative description of one of the most famous mythical creatures from ancient legends and its incarnations in the fabulous folk art of two peoples, which at first glance are distant and different, but both unique antiquity and culture. The comparison between the dragon and the dragon and the other theriomorphic images perfectly illustrates the laws of myth-making, its diffusion and its modeling ability.

During the Second World War and its aftermath, the legend was spread that the Germans turned the bodies of Holocaust victims into soap stamped with the initials RIF, falsely interpreted as made from pure Jewish fat. In the years following liberation, RIF soap was solemnly buried in cemeteries all over the world and came to symbolise the six million killed in the Shoah, publicly showing the determination of Jewry to never forget the victims. This article will examine the funerals that started in Bulgaria and then attracted several thousand mourners in Brazil and Romania, attended by prominent public personalities and receiving widespread media coverage at home and abroad. In 1990 Yad Vashem laid the Jewish soap legend to rest, and today tombstones over soap graves are falling into decay with new ones avoiding the word soap. RIF soap, however, is alive in the virtual world of the Internet and remains fiercely disputed between believers and deniers.

The author is a professor of Slavic studies and a translator of Bulgarian literature. In her article, she deals with the problem of new translations of such Bulgarian texts, which have already been translated into Polish once. So, she tries to get answers to the following questions: 1) Is there a need to prepare new translations of those texts that have already appeared in Polish? 2) What should be the scope of modernizing the language of these texts? She illustrates her considerations with examples taken from her own work. The article contains thoughts that emerged while working on the translation of Anton Strashimirov’s short story Рамадан-бегови сараи. They concern both the need to update vocabulary and modernize syntax, i.e. problems related to the linguistic competences of contemporary readers, as well as changes in their sensitivity to issues of cultural distinctiveness.

The author argues that the earliest recension of the Slavonic Aḥiqar (Povestʹ ob Akire Premudrom) was produced in Bulgaria as a direct translation from Syriac, whereas the original Christian (Syriac) recension was created in the Syriac-speaking anti-Chalcedonian milieu within the Sassanid Iranian Empire in the late fifth century; in this latter context, it originated as a hagiographic legend inaugurating a new cult directed against the pro-Chalcedonian Ctesiphon cult of the Three Youths in Babylon. This anti-Chalcedonian and anti-Byzantine work was never accepted in Byzantine culture.

This paper analyses a Byzantine lead seal discovered in 2019 and now residing in the Regional Historical Museum in Burgas (Bulgaria). According to the legend, it belonged to a Byzantine official Michael by name, who held the position of (imperial) protonotarios and judge. This seal originates from the area of the medieval fortress of Rusokastro located in south-eastern Bulgaria. The obverse depicts facing bust of St. Archangel Michael, nimbate, wearing mail armour, which is encircled with the border of dots. The image is framed with a partially preserved continuous circle. Archangel Michael holds a spear in his right hand, with its top part partially worn off by mechanical damage. To the right of the spear is well legible letter M, and to the left of the image, at the worn off flattened area of the field, there is a relatively well-preserved letter X, i. e. abbreviations of the name of St. Archangel Michael. On the reverse is an inscription in four lines reading: “+ Lord help Michael, (imperial?) protonotarios and judge.” The seal dates from the tenth to the early eleventh century.

The paper compares how Paulicians were described in different types of medieval Slavonic sources by using the approach of the linguistic and culturological conceptualization of the alterity. By means of linguistic analysis, it tries to reach some essential dogmatic issues in the Paulician doctrine, and to focalize on the perception models towards Paulicians with their tangible semantic codes according to the specificities of the medieval world view. The two chosen texts the analysis is based on, are the legendary Bulgarian narrative Sermon about how the Paulicians have been conceived, and the Slavonic translation of 24th title of Panoplia Dogmatica by Euthymius Zigabenus. The analysis is followed by an English translation of the Sermon (insofar known in 8 copies), and a partial edition of the Slavonic translation of Zigabenus’s work upon the unique copy from the manuscript BAR 296, Library of the Romanian Academy of Sciences in Bucharest, dated between 1410–1420. The text account from the Slavonic manuscript is published for the first time, giving supplementary details about the overall Slavonic translation.

The article presents the results of a study of two South Slavic redactions of the St. Sisinnios’ legend (the Prayer of the Archangel Michael and the Prayer of St. Sisinnios) in the manuscript known as the Codex Sturdzanus (Library of the Romanian Academy, Ms. rom. 447). The Prayer of the Archangel Michael and the Prayer of St. Sisinnios are considered in the context of the South Slavic and Greek tradition of Sisinnios’ legend. The using of linguistic and textual methods of the investigation made it possible to describe the redactions as stylistic. The complex of orthographic, phonetic and morphological features of the Prayer of the Archangel Michael and the Prayer of St. Sisinnios in the Codex Sturdzanus (reflexes *ȩ, *ě, *dj, transition *y " [i], spelling of syllabic consonants, declension of nouns and adjectives) allows to describe the language of the texts as the Middle Bulgarian redaction of the Church Slavonic language, used as a written language in the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania.

The article discusses the text pertaining to the mysterious star Цигръ (Venus) and its image found in the 16th-century Moldavian collection BAR 219. The aim is to provide a summary of the data and an analysis of a piece of evidence from another geographical area written in Middle Bulgarian orthography, rather than solve the problems surrounding the name’s etymology and the sources used in the Slavic collection. This analysis is conducted against the backdrop of an abundance of texts and legends about this star in the Russian written tradition and popular culture. The paper illustrates the process of enriching prognostic literature during the post-Byzantine period from the 15th century onwards. It highlights the various foreign influences on ancient Near Eastern and Byzantine motifs in astronomical knowledge during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Times and discusses the role of monastic communities in their dis-semination.

Our research is based on a rather large "library" of various works by M. Drahomanov, which contains his views on religion. Among them: Paradise and Progress, From the History of Relations Between Church and State in Western Europe, Faith and Public Affairs, Fight for Spiritual Power and Freedom of Conscience in the 16th - 17th Centuries, , "Church and State in the Roman Empire", "The Status and Tasks of the Science of Ancient History," "Evangelical Faith in Old England," "Populism and Popular Progress in Austrian Rus, Austrian-Russian Remembrance (1867- 1877)," "Pious The Legend of the Bulgarians "," The Issues of Religious Freedom in Russia, "" On the Brotherhood of the Baptist or the Baptist in Ukraine, "" The Foreword (to the Community of 1878), " Shevchenko, Ukrainianophiles and Socialism "," Wonderful thoughts about the Ukrainian national affair "," Zazdri gods "," Slavic variants of one Gospel legend "," Resurrection of Christ (folklore record) ", etc.

The article deals with mythological characters that represent ‘bad weather’ phenomena such as drought, hail, whirlwind, thunder, and lightning. Folk ‘lower’ mythology pays much attention to the manifestations of bad weather, which reflects the understanding of nature by man. Many ancient Chinese myths and legends originated in Shandong province, where numerous meteorological mythological motives were created. At that time, human life depended on weather, therefore a lot of folklore rich in meteorological mythological motives and imagery was created. The representations of bad weather in Shandong province studied in the paper are based on Chinese literature related to ancient mythology. As to Serbian culture, it has accumulated the beliefs of various ethnic groups of the Balkans. The Serbian cultural and linguistic space has strong ties with adjacent folk traditions – Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Bosnian, Herzegovinian, etc. Accordingly, Serbian mythology reflects the culture of the Balkan Slavs. The article analyzes common and individual features in mythologies concerning unfavorable weather conditions in Shandong and Serbia. The etymology of the names, myths and legends associated with the characters personifying ‘bad weather’ phenomena is investigated. The connection with local rituals, customs and ethnoculture of Shandong province and Serbia is indicated. The study is based on the methods of the Moscow ethnolinguistic school and the materials presented in the ethnolinguistic dictionary Slavic Antiquities. The paper discusses the isofunctionality of the Chinese and Serbian mythology of bad weather. The purpose of this study is to supplement the cultural and linguistic picture of bad weather phenomena through involving data from two unrelated cultures at the level of mythological memory.

The author considers copper coins of the so-called “archaic” type minted in Bulgar. According to the author, they were issued in the mid – late 1230s. The main feature of these coins is a kind of legend handwriting and great weight. The work is the Corpus – the publication of all copies of the “archaic” dinars known to date. In addition to weight and diameter, the article provides photo images of most of the coins presented in the table. Materials are presented from the funds of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, State Historical Museum (Moscow), ZENO database. Coins from the Bolgar State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve are first presented. After analyzing the weight histogram compiled from materials of weight 84 dinars, the author calculates the average weight – 6.01 g. Later, in the 1240s, copper coins with a weight of 3.1–3.3 g began to be issued in the Bulgar region. The article also provides rare versions of heavy-weight dinars minted, according to the author, immediately after the “archaic” type.

This research republishes an interesting sigillographic find from Byzantine Cherson (Shumen, 2011), which first attribution was tentative, suggesting subsequent clarifications and corrections. Oleksandr Alf’orov has provided a new reading of the place-name on the seal reverse, thus indicating the necessity of setting aside the initial attribution of the seal to one of the bishoprics in Bulgaria and allowing one to relate the find from Cherson with the metropolis of Rus’. Now the obverse legend has been successfully reconstructed, uncovering that the seal certainly shows not the traditional image of St. Nikephoros, but rather that of the homonymous saint, the glorified patriarch of Constantinople in the ninth century. The image of St. Nikephoros is among the rarest pieces of Byzantine sigillography, though the image of St. Patriarch Nikephoros of Constantinople does not meet with any analogies. The chronology of the seal depends on the specific script and abbreviations in the legend, typical of the period from the twelfth to fourteenth century. Taking stylistic and epigraphic features of the find from Cherson and the term πάσης Ῥωσίας (“of all Rus’) used in the legend into account, there are reasons to consider that, among two metropolitans of Kiev bearing the same name in the twelfth century, the owner of the seal in question was Nikephoros (Nikifor) II who headed the Rus’ian Orthodox church in the late twelfth and the very early thirteenth centuries. The new attribution of this seal clarifies the list of church figures who received letters from Byzantine Cherson in the Late Byzantine period and uncovers this seal’s role of a source valuable and important for the history of the region, which testifies to the existence of inter-church connections between Cherson and Rus’ at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth century.

An attempt is made to study (i) the differences in the way BIRD metaphoric and metonymic models are employed in the Bulgarian and Anglo-American language and culture communities, and more specifically in children's books, and (ii) the role the translation of the latter may play in the migration of such models across boundaries.For the purpose, the internal structure of the BIRD category is elaborated on the basis of our perception of, and interaction with, its members (outer appearance – shape, body parts, size, colour; habitat in terms of space and time, and activities). Asymmetries across the two languages and cultures mainly occur on the subordinate level, while with basic level metaphors a higher degree of correspondence is observed.The cross-cultural asymmetries associatied with differences in the various layers of myth, legend, oral and written tradition in the two cultures, may further multiply and create additional difficulties for the translator due to some major differences between the English and Bulgarian languages, mainly in relation to gender, diminutives, proper names formation mechanisms, compounding and the use of kinship terms in structuring the animal domain, which are particularly important in the rendering of Bird characters.

The article presents archival materials and other historical sources which keep primary information about the death and funeral of the famous Bulgarian rebel leader Hadzhi Dimitar Asenov (1840 – 1868) who originates from the town of Sliven. The widely accepted thesis that Hadzhi Dimitar was deadly shot during the Buzludzha battle (18th July 1868) and was buried at the place of the battle has been proven once again by bringing new motives and logical arguments. The funeral of the famous revolutionary on the Buzludzha peak (named in 1942 Hadzhi Dimitar peak) has been confirmed with memorial and archaeological pieces of evidence. Both re-burials of the fallen heroes (1898 and 1961) provide additional data in that direction. Despite scientific argumentation of the said thesis, the article also interprets some uncertain and contradictory evidence about the eventual death of Hadzhi Dimitar on the Kadrafil peak, located in the Sredna gora mountain – 50 km away from Bualudzha peak in the Stara planina mountain. Neither factual nor logical arguments of this legend withstand scientific criticism. Nevertheless, they are persistently popularized by local patriots, originating mainly from the village Svezhen (formerly called Ajar – until 1934). Furthermore, supporters of the so called Adjar's legend are trying to give national status of their unscientific claims about the death and burial of the famous revolutionary leader Hadzhi Dimitar Asenov. Their unjustified actions are conceptualized in the scientific context of the cultural memory theory. The dispute between the scientific version and the Adjar's legend is explained by the different approaches of historical science and cultural memory toward a single fact from the past – the last moments of a national hero's life. The professional historiography works with objective facts, scientific methods and logical arguments. Cultural memory attracts convenient hypotheses, mythological plots and unprovable local memories.

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a Croatian novelist Slavenka Dra-kulić simultaneously in several countries published a collection of essays titled A Guided Tour through the Museum of Communism.The collection consists of eight stories narrated by ani-mals: a mole, a mouse, a dog, a cat, a raven, a parrot, a pig and a bear. The animals talk about neuralgic issues of Communism in former Eastern European countries (Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, Albania, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Bulgaria). The genre differentiation is based on determining postmodern variations of basic genre conventions in the process of creating a piece of literature. Fable variations are determined by analyzing the relationship between a fable and other genre forms, such as, an essay, a novella, a legend, a myth. Next to genre differentiation of a literary structure, one can also observe the differen-tiation of its role that has been conditioned by today’s cultural memory. In that manner, my-thologized persons, objects and features of Communism are analyzed as universal symbols of a message, as well as elements of a satiric play. This paper will determine in which ways the above mentioned variations enrich the existent genre forms.

In this text author used an analytical-synthetic method to present directions for proving the source of Serbian identity on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija or "Old Serbia", as was the name of this territory in the past. The author presented various sources to prove the antiquity of the Serbian Patriarchy of Pec and the formation of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija as a medieval center of statehood and spirituality of Serbian people. This medieval state with its own church jurisdiction, laws, moral values, economic achievements, national customs and manners, and other achievements continued and upgraded the previous church jurisdiction and cultural tradition of Prima Iustiniana. In the text, there is also underlined the significance of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija for Serbian identity in the historical and geopolitical context of genealogical, political, and cultural liaisons of members of the medieval Serbian Nemanjic dynasty with the members of the medieval Greek, Bulgarian, and Russian dynasties. For the purpose of argumentation of significant determinants of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija for Serbian identity, there are used various Serbian and world-historical sources such as the results of archeological research, Serbian medieval state documents, artifacts, heraldic and folk legends and beliefs in the context of historical processes which have shaped the Serbian identity and promoted the territory of Kosovo and Metohija as the cradle of Serbian identity throughout history.

According to various data, the area of grey forest soils in the world is 94–120.2 million ha, in Ukraine – 4.7–5.5 million ha (about 9 % of the country’s territory). The diversity of conditions for the formation of these soils, discussions about their genesis are the causes of different approaches to the classification of grey forest soils. The history of the classification of grey forest soils is analysed; the most common variants of their classification in Ukraine are presented. Seeking to find approximate equivalents, an attempt to find grey forest soils in the classification systems of different countries (Russia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, USA, Canada), as well as in the legend of the FAO-UNESCO map and the WRB has been made. To establish exact analogues of soils practically it is impossible due to different principles of classification’s construction. Modern soil classifications of different countries are as close as possible to WRB and “Soil Taxonomy”. The following names of grey forest soils are identified as the most grounded: light grey forest, grey forest and dark grey podzolic. The following equivalents of the WRB nomenclature (2014) for sub-types of grey forest soils are offered: light grey forest – Albic Luvisols, grey forest – Haplic Luvisols, dark grey podzolic – Luvic Greyzemic Phaeozems. To the names of analogues of these soils with gleyic properties, the qualifier “Gleyic” should be added before the name of the reference soil group. The urgent task for soil scientists of Ukraine is to create a new soil classification that would preserve the acquisitions of genetic soil science but took into account the world trends: the allocation of diagnostic horizons and features that have clearly defined quantitative boundaries. In the new classification, it is proposed to combine the light grey and grey forest soils by a separate group, dark grey podzolic soils to be grouped together in a group with podzolic chernozems. The need for such selection is confirmed by the study of the dark grey soils position in different classification systems of the world, most of which these soils are in the chernozemic type group (Mollisols, Phaeozems and Chernozems). Key words: classification, grey forest soils, Greyzems, Luvisols, Mollisols, Phaeozems.

According to contemporaries, the play “Boris Godunov” was written by Dostoevsky before he began work on the novel “Poor People.” The manuscript of the play is lost. Some assumptions about its composition have been made in the scientific literature, but this article for the first time undertakes a systematic analysis, if possible, of all the alleged sources of the idea, as well as some of its reflections in the writer’s later works. The article examines the situation in Russian historiography and fiction related the coverage of the reign of Boris Godunov and the personality of the tsar himself prior to Dostoevsky’s undertaking of this topic. The key sources for him were the 9 volumes of Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State” and Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov,” which formed the consciousness of the future writer since the times of family readings in his parents’ house. Subsequently, Dostoevsky faced an acute dispute in literature around Karamzin and Pushkin, who declared Godunov guilty of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry. Their position was supported in the 1830s by the authors of historical dramas V. T. Narezhny, A. S. Khomyakov, and M. E. Lobanov. The historians M. P. Pogodin, N. S. Artsybashev, and A. A. Kraevsky defended Godunov; their point of view was reflected in the dramas of the same Pogodin and G. F. Rosen. F. V. Bulgarin took an ambivalent position in both journalism and prose. Dostoevsky was undoubtedly familiar with Schiller’s printed sketches for the tragedy “Demetrius,” where the figure of Boris Godunov as psychologically complex and ambiguous. The critics of Pushkin’s Boris Godunov N. I. Nadezhdin, N. A. Polevoy, and V. G. Belinsky played a certain role in shaping Dostoevsky’s idea. In “interacting” with them, Dostoevsky obviously developed a new twist in the dramatic plot, which resolved the historians’ dead-end disputes. In his play, which absorbed the dramatic experience of Shakespeare, Racine, Schiller, as well as the historical legends around Alexander I and Napoleon, a version was proposed about Godunov’s indirect guilt in Dmitry’s death and about the hero’s unwavering moral responsibility even for indirect complicity in a crime. This motif was developed in Dostoevsky’s subsequent works, such as “Netochka Nezvanova” (Efimov), “Demons” (Stavrogin), “Brothers Karamazov” (Ivan). It can be stated with a high degree of confidence that the origin of the concept of expanding guilt and responsibility for it occurred in the very first works of the writer — the tragedies “Mary Stuart” and “Boris Godunov.” The author of the article suggests the formation of Dostoevsky’s aesthetics in the context of the development of Russian historical drama.

Цель статьи — рассмотреть русско-армянские межконфессиональные отношения в Московском государстве и определить, как оценивали вероучение Армянской Церкви на Руси. Материалом для исследования является древнерусская литература XIV–XVI вв., в том числе некоторые фрагменты текстов в русских летописных сборниках, Требник митрополита Киевского и всея Руси Феогноста (1329 г.), ответное письмо митрополита Киевского и всея Руси Киприана «Ко Афанасию, вопросившему о некоих потребных вещах» (между 1390–1405 гг.), «Чин избрания и поставления во епископы» (1423 г.), «Послание великого князя московского Василия II Константинопольскому патриарху Митрофану об отступлении от православия митрополита Исидора» (1441 г.), предание о крещении Армении в «Послании Российского духовенства Углицкого князю Дмитрию Юрьевичу» (1447 г.), «Слово против армянского зловерия» прп. Максима Грека (нач. XVI в.), некоторые документы периода царствования Иоанна IV Грозного (1530–1584 гг.) др. В ходе работы выявлено, что в анализируемых письменных источниках вероучение Армянской Церкви оценивается в основном как еретическое. Дополнительным аргументом «еретичности» армян служило употребление ими двоеперстия (и др. молитвенных жестов и обрядов, присущих русским старообрядцам). Такое отношение к армянскому вероучению и обряду (например, проблема Арцивуриева поста) в Русской Церкви появилось в основном посредством греко-византийских и болгарских церковных источников. The purpose of the article is to examine the Russian-Armenian interfaith relations in the Moscow state and to determine how the doctrine of the Armenian Church in Russia was evaluated. The material for the study is the ancient Russian literature of the XIV–XVI centuries, including , who asked about certain necessary things (between 1390–1405), «The Rank of Election and Appointment to the Episcopate» (1423), «The Message of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II to Patriarch Mitrofan of Constantinople on the Apostasy from Orthodoxy of Metropolitan Isidore» (1441), The legend of the baptism of Armenia in the «Epistle of the Russian Clergy to Prince Dmitry Yuryevich of Uglice» (1447), «The Word Against the Armenian Malice» of the Rev. Maxim the Greek (beginning of the XVI century), some documents of the reign of John IV the Terrible (1530–1584), etc. In the course of the work, it was revealed that in the analyzed written sources, the doctrine of the Armenian Church is assessed mainly as heretical. An additional argument for the «hereticism» of the Armenians was their use of the double-cross (and other prayer gestures and rituals inherent in the Russian Old Believers). Such an attitude to the Armenian creed and rite (for example, the problem of the Artsivurian fast) in the Russian Church appeared mainly through Greek-Byzantine and Bulgarian church sources.

The aim of the article is discussing the peculiar image of still waters encountered in paremias: its origins, spread, formation of connotations, and its symbolism, with special emphasis on the differences in Lithuanian and Russian (and other Slavic) languages. The global type Still waters are / run deep / deepest or have a deep bottom emerged already in antiquity, based on a literary image, and subsequently spread across the whole of Europe. Proverbs belonging to this type in Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, and Latin are analyzed here with regard to their structure and semantics. The still waters symbolically describe a certain mode of human behavior or a characteristic complex of human features. The metaphoric transformation of meaning is based on an important peculiarity of water: its ambivalence, since a still or quietly running river can quickly turn into a dangerous and destructive force. The proverbial images tend to abstract these characteristics and by way of association transfer them to a social level: a quiet, equable person is usually wise, deep feeling, but under certain circumstances, he / she can surprise others with dauntless behavior. In Slavic languages, the negative connotation of the image in question has developed, still waters having come to symbolize feigned modesty and covert intrigues (or persons behaving that way). With time, the negative connotation became so pervasive, that with the standard text of the proverb shortened, it turned into a phraseological unit popular in many Slavic languages: Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, and Serbo-Croatian.Apparently, in Lithuanian language the negative connotation of the image in question did not develop due to existing synonymous proverb of an identical syntactic type Tyli kiaulė gilią šaknį knisa [‘A quiet pig roots up a deep root’], which used to be uttered in similar situations as proverbs with the still waters image. Whenever resentment against the selfish or treacherous behavior of the community members had to be vented, Lithuanians found the proverb mentioning the cunning, roguish pig to be more appropriate and expressive.In the second half of the article, two texts characterized by archaic poetical structure are taken into consideration: namely, a Lithuanian verbal charm and a popular Russian proverbial phrase actively used until nowadays. In their imagery, two equivalent parts of the syntactic parallelism are brought together, i.e. the [still] waters and the [low] grass. They reflect but a single side of the ambivalent water image, symbolizing quietness, indulgency, peacefulness, and weakness. The author of the article assumes that in the Slavic languages the verbal charm could have existed as well, since the absence of Christian elements testifies to its archaism. The dictionary by Vladimir Dal contains a longer version of the Russian text with the verb in imperative still preserved, which completely corresponds to the Lithuanian charm. Therefore, it is quite possible that the verbal charming formula having cut adrift from the ritual, the conditions of its use have also changed and the transformation of the genre occurred: the same text continued existing according to the principles of a different genre, acquiring status of another folklore item (i.e. the proverbial phrase).The established symbolic meaning of the image in question fits smoothly within the mythic symbolism of water as determined by other kinds of folklore (songs, tales, and legends), enriching it with peculiar qualities. It establishes a vivid and accurate parallel with characteristic human behavior and certain peculiarities of human character, and surprises us with variety of changing connotations inherent in the phrase itself.

The change in emphasis of linguistic investigations towards anthropocentrism directs researchers to reveal creative mechanisms of verbalization expertise in modern scientific paradigm. Lexical means of expression take a special place in professional communication and have the ability to represent elements of professional knowledge peculiarly. Appeals to the functionalities of the stylistic tropes and figures are motivated in our article primarily by their wide use for pragmatic purpose specialist’ implementation. The purpose and objectives. The functionalities of lexical means of expression are considered; the role and place in professional tourism communication are defined; how employees of tourism industry form the tourists’ attitude to certain phenomena of reality are found out in the article. Experts of tourism enterprises should affect not only the sense of potential tourists, but also their imagination providing communicative comfort. For this purpose managers operate on a whole case of lexical expression means – stylistic tropes and figures that are part of elements in the contact creation. It is well known fact that their application is always promoted to colorful creation of different aspects phenomena in the language. In professional speech tourism communication we observe tropes’ usage as a leverage the recipient to create vivid images with a high degree of suggestibility in his mind. Experts in tourism industry use quite colorful composition vocabulary which “under power of romantic profession” is supersaturated with multiple comparisons: everything is as a legend, as a work of art in Vienna; Bulgaria, like endless field dotted with colorful flower and green parks. Metaphor in professional tourism lexicon often becomes a means of emotional impact on the recipient and involves a surreal space where you can see the necklace of islands of the Indian Ocean, dip in the whirlpool of sea impressions, sunbathe in the sun bathed beach. If the metaphor is understood as the transfer by the name similarity, metonymy is regarded as transfer based on adjacency of objects and phenomena. In the tourism sector metonymy promotes accumulation оf linguistic means for clearer and concise structure in providing information such as: Cherkasy region offers opportunities for unique, interesting and cognitive rest; Ukraine entered the top 10 countries by number of tourists in Turkey. Epithet function is to provide a positive asessment of tourist facilities, emphasizing its importance: a fantastic atmosphere, a picturesque peninsula, a luxurious excursion program, a perfect hotel infrastructure. A tourism manager using hyperbole convince potential tourist that he buys all the best. The usage of hyperbole animates the description of tourist sites and at the same time promotes the attitude creation to delivered information. For example, the rating of the most popular countries among tourists Spain ranked the first; for a beach holiday one should go to beautiful Zanzibar. One of the most prominent means of creating an attractive image of tourism services are stable expressions. Such words and phrases are perceived as something unexpected that contrasting with the rest of the text. They promote to strengthening linguistic influence: relax with a royal scale, it is time to see the world, you will have a great opportunity to visit a unique museum of port wine, with this tour operator everything will be in chocolate and others. So lexical means of expressions in professional tourism communication have a significant impact on the recipient’s speech because of his originality and expressiveness. Namely such verbal tools give impetus to the author’ display of his artistic identity, promote the impact on consumers’ high intensity of tourism product by creating certain emotional effect and provide opportunities for manipulation of the audience. All these factors taken together affect the consumer choice of potential tourist ultimately.

The painted biography of the patron saint of the church of St. Demetrius in the complex of the Patriarchate of Peć is preserved in the middle zone of the nave. Following the northern wall, with episodes inspired by the texts of the Passion of Saint Demetrius, the cycle continues on the south wall, where two of the former four representations remain, namely: The Dormition of Demetrius and Saint Demetrius Saves Thessaloniki from the Enemy. Both scenes have been partially damaged, with the lower parts painted over during the restoration in the second decade of the 17th century. The Dormition of Saint Demetrius. The Dormition of Saint Demetrius is painted in the southeast corner of the nave. The beginning of the legend is legible. Two more compositions with the same iconography have been preserved. One is a miniature in the Menologion in Oxford (MS. Gr. th. f. 1, fol. 55) (c. 1330-35), and the other is a severely damaged fresco in King Marko's Monastery (1376/77, the Republic of North Macedonia). The iconographic scheme of the service over the body of the deceased is well known in medieval art. Since the Passio texts describe Demetrius' martyrdom, scholars have questioned the source and meaning of the scene. At first, they thought that it illustrated Bishop Eusebius praying before the relics of St. Demetriusto save Thessaloniki from the Enemy, according to the description from the 14th homily of the First Book of Miracula. Later, the assumption was made, accepted to this day, that it was the death/entombment of the saint. The textual prototype was found in the sticheron of the patriarch Germanus on the celebration day of Saint Demetrius, from where this theme entered the iconography. Recently, the scene was interpreted as a liturgical ceremony over the saint's tomb in the Thessaloniki church. Knowing the circumstances in which it was created could contribute to a better understanding of the topic. The representation of the dead Demetrius is associated with the reform of the cult after the appearance of the myron, at the beginning of the 11th century at the latest. This is evidenced by reliquaries and enkolpia for myron and/or blood of the saint (11th/12th-14th centuries), which copy the appearance of a myron-gushing tomb. They are characterized by a double lid with superimposed figures of Saint Demetrius. On the outer cover Demetrius is in the orante pose -which has been interpreted as a sarcophagus, while the inside shows a dead saint - that is, a representation ofthe saint's myron-exuding body relic. The myron-gushing tomb received its equivalent in painting, as well, sublimated through the representation of the tomb with the reclining figure of Demetrius in the orante pose. Two paintings are known, both of which are sometimes erroneously cited among scholarsand preserved in Serbian art as the Entombment of Saint Demetrius (in the southern chapel of the Church of Our Lady of Ljeviš, 1309-13, in Kosovo and Metohija, and, as part of the scene The vision of angels of an illustrious and Demetrius' refusal to abandon Thessaloniki, 1335-48 in Dečani, Kosovo and Metohija). Along with this theme, the iconography of the service over Demetrius' relics was also formed. At this time, a legend appeared that, by order of Emperor Maximian, Demetrius' body was thrown into a well under the Thessaloniki Basilica, connected to the crypt or "lower church". Perhaps the changed cult brought more novelties, which could have influenced the appearance of new iconography, yet this question still remains open to debate. The service over the saint's body is officiated by archbishops surrounded by singers, led by a choirmaster and a young kanonarchos, all distinguished by headpieces known as skaranikon. The rest of the entourage were identified as believers or Christians who buried the saint, that is, young noblemen, but in fact they were members of minor order. The building in the background is most often identified as the famous ciborium from the Thessaloniki Basilica, which was a cult centre during the early Christian period. Although the fresco in Peć is unique compared to the other preserved representations, in which the tomb is shown with an open ciborium-baldachin, they are also considered to convey a realistic image of a contemporary tomb. This testifies to the impossibility of reaching a reliable conclusion about the closeness of the painted and real construction, where at the time of the creation of the fresco, the centre of the cult was no longer a ciborium, but a myron-gushing tomb. Saint Demetrius Saves Thessaloniki from the Enemy. The last preserved fresco, from whose inscription the name of Demetrius can be read, illustrates the miracle of the defense of Thessaloniki against the enemy. The event is described in the 14th homily of the First Book of Miracula. The majority of researchers have accepted the opinion that homilies 13-15 describe the attack of the army of Avars and Slavs on Thessaloniki that took place in 586, although a similar event in 597 cannot be ruled out. The iconographic scheme of the fresco in Peć comes right after the text. In the cycles of the Middle Ages, only two more compositions with Demetrius saving Thessaloniki from the enemy have been preserved. In terms of concept, and despite the differences in the processing of details, the fresco in Peć is close to the depiction in Dečani (1335-48). In previous research, the inscription on the fresco in Dečani attracted more attention than the iconography, with the explanation that it was about saving Thessaloniki from the Kumans. This gave scholars a reason for different interpretations of the meaning of the illustration, although it is most likely that it is the very event mentioned in the inscription, for the artistic articulation of which the iconography created according to a much older source was used. The composition on the reliquary in Vatoped, with the enemy's cavalry under the city walls behind which the saint is using the spear to defeat the barbarian, will not be repeated. Searching for the source is made difficult by the fact that no text was written, hence the opinions of scholars about the meaning of the scene are dissonant, although most believe that it is about the defense of Thessaloniki against the siege of the Avars and the Slavs. The walls within which the sacred building is located represent a long-established ideogram for the city, identified as the place of events - Thessaloniki with the Basilica of Saint Demetrius. The hagiography of Saint Demetrius was painted in the nave of the church of the same name in the Patriarchate of Peć, following the practice that prevailed in the 14th century. So far, it has not been a specific research topic, nor has it been discussed in the context of known cycles. About 13 artistic biographies of saints created at the end of the 13th and in the 14th century in the Byzantine, Serbian and Bulgarian art, along with individual representations of certain themes, have been published by scholars, to varying degrees. Despite the fact that the cycles are mostly incompletely preserved, as well as that part of the frescoes in Peć was partially or completely restored in the second decade of the 17th century, which raises the question of the original iconography, certain conclusions can be drawn about its concept and the iconography of individual scenes. Six out of the former eight scenes remain, according to which the Peć cycle belongs to the longer redaction. Being a complex ensemble, it consists of compositions based on the life of the saint, concentrated on the North wall of the nave of the church, and scenes of miracles on the opposite wall, of which only one remains, along with a composition of a special theme with the representation of the Dormition of St. Demetrius. Hagiographic scenes illustrate the most significant events from the texts of the Passion representing an indispensable part of the cycle. Scenes of miracles were painted less often, so the miraculous saving of Thessaloniki from the enemy is preserved in three cycles only. The theme of help in a specific situation has most likely surpassed its source over time, becoming an allusion to the enemies of Christians, and the proof of the miraculous protection of Demetrius as the holy warrior, not only when it comes to Thessaloniki, but war in general. Hence it is not surprising that it was included in the cycle, for now it can be said with confidence, in the 14th century. Since the legend has not been preserved, the question remains whether there was a deeper motive for illustrating this event in the church in Peć. The scene with the representation of the Dormition of St. Demetrius, and the rarely shown one, known from three medieval cycles, remain of unclear origin, but its source should probably be sought in cult practice of the 14th century. This episode, together with the Passion of St. Demetrius, is prominently placed next to the altar partition, which is why the cycle began in the northwest corner of the nave. The general language of Byzantine iconography was used to shape the compositions. Certain frescoes from Peć show similarities with preserved illustrations of the same outline, but they are mostly unique. Iconographically, St. Demetrius blessing St. Nestor and St. Nestor killing Lyus stand out, bearing the caveat in mind that this is a composition that undoubtedly underwent some changes during the copying process. As a whole, the illustrations from Peć represent a unique accomplishment, the closest analogies of which can be found on the monuments of the 14th century created in the Serbian art. Probably at this time there were certain changes in the cycle, primarily following the cult and way of honouring saints, with a greater tendency towards narration as a general trend in the art of this time. Finally, it is necessary to refer to two more cycles. The first one, in poor condition, was created in the church of Saint Demetrius in the village of Leivadi in Crete (1315/16), whose painting is strongly influenced by Western art. The iconography of the scene of the Passion of Saint Demetrius, with the saint with his back turned and falling to his knees receiving a spear blow from a soldier in Western armor, bears no resemblance to the Byzantine tradition. The second cycle was recently discovered in the chapel of the Dodorka monastery in Georgia's Davitgareji Desert (late 12th-early 13th century). Some of the compositions possess the iconography not found anywhere (St. Demetrius drops an honorary regalia before Emperor Maximian and the Martyrdom of St. Demetrius, with the dismembered body of the saint, while his chlamys is in the foreground), i.e., it shows details that do not appear or are rare in Byzantine painting (Saint Demetrius blessing Saint Nestor - both of them standing, and Nestor is unarmed, and Saint Nestor kills Lyus - with a young Christian fighter plunging a spear into the body of a fallen gladiator, in the arena without manganese and without the figure of the emperor in the lodge). The Dodorka cycle has no parallels in Georgian and Byzantine art. Significant iconographic peculiarities, and the fact that the appearance of the frescoes was dictated by a local source (Georgian version of the Passion from the 11th century) and specific needs (the emphasis on the chlamys as a relic of Demetrius), complicate the questions of the model for its iconography and the connection with Byzantine art, but even more so - issues of time and place of origin of the cycle of St. Demetrius.