Politico-ideological criteria for the authenticity of Russian heroic epic in V. Y. Propp’s theory

The article criticizes the signs of authenticity of epics proposed by V.Ya. Propp in his book "Russian heroic epic." According to the author of the article, Propp uses these criteria to identify the “correct” epics performed by the pathos of the political struggle, but unilaterally uses the definition of the epos put forward by him as “songs about struggle and victory”, “discarding and evoking” fragments of the plot and whole epics in which it is sung not about political, but about moral, spiritual struggle. The author considers Propp’s productive idea that the epic reflects the “aspirations” of the people, because it raises the question of the co-relation between historicism and prophetism of the Russian epic, reflecting not only the spiritual meaning of historical events that is obvious to the people, but also his pre-sensation of his own historical mission.