The image of Moscow in Russian epics and the epic tradition of the Moscow region

The central locus in Russian epics, to which all the heroes strive, is known to be Kiev, while Moscow occupies a peripheral place in the epic space. Nevertheless, according to the indexes of geographical names in the volumes of the “Epics” series of the Corpus of Russian Folklore, this toponym still holds a significant place, albeit not as central as Kiev. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively describe the role of Moscow in the epics, which has not yet been the subject of special consideration in folklore studies. It is noted that within the song-epic tradition there are late plots in which the conflict develops not in the Kiev space, but in the Moscow one (“Arrival of the Lithuanians”, “Rakhta Ragnozersky”). The study also delves into the attempts found in some texts to fit classical epic plots into the “Moscow era”. Similarly, Russian epic studies do not have a systematic understanding of the few recordings of epic songs from the Moscow region, which has never received much attention from folklorists. The epic tradition of the Moscow region is viewed in this study as being secondary to the epics of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus. It is noted that in this region epics were primarily recorded in cities (such as Moscow and Kolomna) rather than in villages, with the epic tradition being carried by urban middle-class citizens rather than peasants.