The poem "Biarmia" as a result of Kallistrat Zhakov’s research activities on the reconstruction of the ancient Komi-Zyrian world outlook

The poem "Biarmia" by K.F. Zhakov was written in 1916, however, due to the beginning of the revolutionary events, it was not published in St. Petersburg, as other works of the writer. The poem "Biarmia" is the reconstruction of the ancient Northern epic, or rather, one of the northern epics, the epic of the people of Perm, related by language and culture to all nations living on the vast territory of the European North from the Urals to Finland with its central region in the Northern Dvina basin, which is indicated in the poem as Biarmia. The reconstruction of the epic was based on the methods of anthropological theory used to identify the "remnants" of the epic mythology and folklore of Komi, to reconstruct the mythological picture of the world with a pantheon of pagan gods, to outline the range of mythological stories related to the reconstruction of cosmological ideas, feats of heroes of antiquity, explicated diachronic aspect of the myths history, and then to create a single epic storyline focusing on the "Kalevala" by Lцnnrot, Scandinavian sagas and Russian epics. The research started with the Zhakov’s first expedition trip to the Komi region in 1899, which resulted in the publication of the article entitled "Pagan worldview of the Zyryans" in 1901. This work was the first reconstruction of the pagan mythology of Komi, including the pantheon of major authentic deities. The author repeatedly used this scheme of pagan mythology in his later literary works, supplementing it and making changes to the overall structure. According to the author’s plan the poem "Biarmia" is an attempt to recreate the ancient mythology of Komi in the living environment of authentic existence. The plot of the poem is constructed as an epic narrative of the national heroes of the Komi people liv- ing in remote historical period when there was still a strong connection between humans and nature, humans and gods, reality and myth. Accordingly, the plot involves not only the characters, but also the various deities, as well as natural objects. These features of the plot do not translate the story into the realm of fantasy, but, on the contrary, give it a special setting on the authenticity, which is typical for the mythological texts.