The cult of Slavik of Chebarkul: narratives of the discourse

The article analyzes the para-hagiographic specificity of the narrative about «Otrok Vyacheslav» (Slavik of Chebarkul). At present, the cult of Slavik remains popular in the Orthodox environment, and there are no clear jurisdictional boundaries in his veneration. The veneration of Vyacheslav Krasheninnikov is part of a poorly structured mythological and ritual complex of folk Orthodoxy formed by conspiracy and eschatological mythologies. The article considers the origin of the corpus of texts containing basic information about the life, miracles and prophecies of Slavik, the features of the discourse pragmatics and the semiotic and hermeneutic methods of cult popularization involved. The fantastic and mythological components of the discourse, their sources and the reasons for their demand by adherents are analyzed.