The Fugitive Pugachevite Ataman Shchuka (on the Historical Foundation of One Legend)

In folklore genres, real names, events, and cultural facts are incorporated into stereotypical narrative structures that are sometimes much older than the inserted elements. This feature of folklore poetics does not eradicate the question of the real-life basis of particular plots. Establishing this basis, through comparison with cadastral and census documents among other things, allows us to see both the work of already known narrative matrices and the emergence of new narrative patterns. Data for this research includes 30 versions of legends about the first inhabitants of Shchukinsky Pochinok — the future Russian-Komi-Permyak village of Kuva in the Perm region. According to the most popular version, the founders of the village were the fugitive Pugachevites led by ataman Shchuka. From the hero’s nickname, oral tradition derives the first name of the village and the surname Shchukin,common in Kuva. The comparison with census documents shows that the surname is indeed of local origin. Like the village, it arose much earlier than the Pugachev Rebellion, but in the legend a recognizable event of the “big” history is chosen as a starting point. One of the reasons why the first inhabitants are considered to be former Pugachevites, robbers, runaway soldiers or exiled persons may be the documented presence of runaway peasants and recruits among the inhabitants of Shchukinsky Pochinok in the middle of the 18th century. The plot explains in its own way the appearance of Russian settlers on the Komi-Permyak land and extends the time of their stay in this territory.