The values of the “new man” as represented in Russian folk epics

The article poses the question of Russian folk epics' Christian dimension, arguing that this question should be resolved primarily through an axiological approach. The mentioned approach involves an analysis of the protagonist's motivational values, his act, and its consequences. Depending on the consequences (either positive or negative) caused by the main hero's act, his motivational axiological category emerges as strengthened or, vice versa, rendered negatively, being in the end devalued or discredited by artistic means. Given that in the vast majority of cases Russian folk epics obviously tend to challenge, the generally pagan values of the pre-Christian “old man,” it could be justifiably argued that bylinas presupposed a Christianizing influence on their audience as their extra-aesthetical genre function. This feature makes it possible to establish the unique nature of Russian folk epics when compared with other monuments of heroic poetry (first of all, the Western European epics that actually have no Christian values and meanings at the deeper levels of their artistic structure), to describe them as originally devoid of any archaic or mythological motifs and images (and employing such elements only because of later reverse influences exerted by different folk and literally genres), and, finally, as playing a specific value-identifying role in the Russian spiritual culture, characterized by a consistent denial of the secular worldview.