Top 10 Russian legends (with explanation and meaning)

To speak of Russia is to speak of the country with the largest geographical extension in the world, which has been the scene of a large number of important events throughout time.

It is therefore a country with a long history, which has its own myths, legends and customs. That is why throughout this article we are going to talk about a small selection of the best known Russian myths, tales and legends.

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10 interesting Russian legends

Here we show you a series of ten legends, myths and tales from Russia, some of which are also shared by other Slavic peoples.

1. The legend of the Matrioshka

Legend has it that once upon a time a humble carpenter named Serguei who needed wood to work. One day when he was having a hard time finding a valid wood, he found a perfect log which he took home.

Sergei didn't know what to do with it, until one day the idea of ​​making a doll came to mind. He made it with so much love and so beautiful that after finishing it he did not want to sell it, and gave it the name of Matrioshka. The young man greeted her creation every day, but one day and surprisingly this she greeted him back.

Little by little they established a communication and a good relationship, but one day the doll told him of her sadness because all the creatures had children, except her. The carpenter told her that if he wanted her she should remove her wood from inside her, something that she accepted.

Sergei made a smaller copy, which he called Trioska. But Over time Trioska also wanted to have children, so with part of her wood she made another smaller version: Oska. The situation was repeated with her, with which Serguei would make one more doll, this time with a mustache and a masculine appearance so that she did not have maternal instincts. He would name the latter Ka. So, he put each of the dolls inside his parent. Days later, however, to Sergei's despair, Matrioshka and all of her offspring left and simply disappeared.

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2. Baba Yaga

One of the best known creatures in Russian and Slavic legends is the witch Baba Yaga, an old woman (although other versions consider her a goddess) who inhabits the forests. Legend has it that this being, who is said to feed on children, she has iron teeth with which she can easily tear flesh.

However, some of her representations are not always negative. It is said that she guards the waters of life and death, and she lives in a house which moves with huge duck legs and in whose palisade numerous human skulls can be seen. She also that she rejuvenates every time she drinks a tea made with blue roses, rewarding whoever brings them to her. She is considered the representative of the limit between life and death.

3. The ghost of Zhuzha

A relatively recent Russian legend, centered in Moscow, tells us about love and death.

The legend tells us about Zhuzha, a woman who for years had been in love with a millionaire. One day, when he was walking along Kuznetsky Most, he heard a boy delivering newspapers shout that his lover had taken her own life. Just when she got out of her carriage and went to get more information, she was run over and died.

However, the days passed and the boy who sold the newspapers was found dead and strangled with a woman's stocking, the one Zhuzha was wearing on the day of his death. Soon those who had published the alleged death of the millionaire also died. Since then there have been several testimonies of a ghost that runs through Kuznetsky Most, in Moscow. It is said about who sees her that she possibly she will have the loss of a close male person.

4. The Legend of the Snow Lady

Like many other peoples that face freezing temperatures, the Russians also have a legend that refers to the cold. In his case, he also refers to infidelity and betrayal. It is about the legend of Sgroya.

This looking young and attractive woman is a raging spirit who hates the male gender due to deceit suffered by her partner, although in other versions it is a deity who punishes acts of infidelity.

Sgroya appears in her paths offering her attentions to the men who cross her, seducing them. By accepting her invitations and kissing her, she will become an ice floe and drive her victim to death by freezing, or else drive her mad.

5. The legend of the city of Kitezh

Some Russian legends tell us about the invasion they suffered in ancient times by the Mongols. Specifically, one of them refers to the disappearance of the city of Kitezh.

According to legend, Prince Vladimir founded two cities, one called Maly Kitezh and another named Bolshoi Kitezh. However, the Mongols invaded the first one, taking prisoners during the process who ended up confessing how to get to the second.

Once they reached its surroundings, they saw that this city had no wall or defensive structure, and they immediately attacked. The desperate citizens prayed for her salvation. However, before the assailants arrived at the city, it was swallowed by the waters, plunging into Lake Svetloyar and saving it from the attack, as well as making it invisible. Since then it is said that only the purest can find this city.

6. Prince Ivan and Koschei the Immortal

Legend has it that Prince Ivan Tsarevitch promised his parents, before he died, that he would seek a husband for his three sisters. These are claimed by the Eagle, the Hawk and the Raven, with whom they end up marrying and going to live.

With the passage of time the prince, alone, decides to undertake a trip in order to visit his sisters and brothers-in-law. On his way he comes across the remains of an annihilated army, which he had fallen before the might of warrior Marya Morevna. The prince met said woman, falling in love with her and eventually marrying her and going to live in her home.

However over time a war broke out in which Marya Morevna decides to participate, leaving the prince in her house with the warning that she does not open her closet as there is a secret in it that must remain there. However, the prince, curious, decided to open the closet. In it he found a chained man named Koschei, who asked him for water. After giving it to him, suddenly he broke his chains and magically vanished, after which he kidnapped the prince's wife.

The prince decides to go in search of him, passing on his way through the houses of his sisters and brothers-in-law and leaving behind various objects. He found the castle of Koschei and took his beloved, but was caught by the sorcerer and his swift horse. He returns to take Marya Morevna, forgiving the prince since she had quenched his thirst when he was in chains. The prince repeated the rescue two more times, always being caught by the sorcerer, and on the occasion he ended up dismembering him and throwing him into the sea.

However, Iván's brothers-in-law observed that the objects that he left them, made of silver, darkened, to which they went and subsequently managed to bring him back to life thanks to the waters of life and death. The prince then went to Baba Yaga to grant him a faster horse than Koschei's, to which The witch decides that if she manages to watch over her mares for three days she would give it to him, although otherwise she would he would kill. He succeeded, with the help of various animals (which had promised to help him if he did not eat them), the task of him despite the fact that the witch had rigged him. However, she wanted to kill him anyway, something that made Ivan steal the horse and run away.

Having obtained the steed, Ivan rescues his wife and during the flight kills Koschei with a kick of the horse from him. After that he dismembers the body and sets the pieces on fire. Once free, the couple was able to return home and live happily.

7. The seven giants of the Urals

One of those considered natural wonders of Russia is Man-Pupu-Nyor, which also has its own legend.

Legend has it that the Mansi people lived in those mountains. The village leader had two children, one of whom was a girl who fell in love with one of the giants of the area, named Torev. He asked her young father for her hand, but her father refused.

Furious, the giant called five brothers and together with them he tried to kidnap the young woman and began to attack the town. The inhabitants fled, asking the spirits for help. The next day the other of the leader's sons commanded a group of warriors to face them, the young man carrying a magic sword granted by the spirits and a shield.

The young man raised the sword, and from it arose a light that turned the six giants into stone, but against its use it implied that the wielder of him would also do it. This explains why there are seven observable mounds in the Urals.

8. The legend of the ghost bride

Many of the readers of this article have probably seen the movie "Corpse Bride" by Tim Burton. What many may not know is that his story is largely based on a Russian legend or tale. And this in turn is based on the murders of Jewish women on their way to their wedding already dressed in the wedding dress, as well as the fact that there was a tradition of burying the dead with the clothes in which they had died (with which these murdered women were buried in their girlfriend).

Legend has it that one day a young man who was going to get married was traveling with a friend to the town where his future wife was, finding a branch that resembles a finger. The young man and his friend, playing, placed the engagement ring on the branch and later made the vows and rehearsed the wedding dances. Suddenly, the earth moved, revealing that the branch in the background was a finger, which was part of a corpse in a wedding dress.

This corpse looked at them expectantly and, noting that they had celebrated the wedding, she said she wanted to claim her rights as a wife. Both fled to the town of the future wife, going to the rabbis to ask if the marriage was valid. While the rabbis debated, the dead woman came to their side and returned to claim her husband.

The man's living girlfriend also arrived, who then found out about the situation and cried at the possible loss of her partner and her children. Soon after the rabbis came out, determining that the wedding was valid, but also that the dead could not claim the living. It was now the corpse bride who wept and sobbed at her inability to start a family.

But the living bride, taking pity on her, approached and hugged her, promising that she would live her dream and have many children who would be both of them as well as her husband. This calmed the spirit, which ended up resting in peace and happy at the same time that the couple was able to remarry and eventually have offspring, to whom they would tell the story of the spirit.

9. Buyan Island

The idea of ​​an earthly paradise is not exclusive to one or two religions but is shared by a large number of them, including Russians and other Slavs.

In this sense, one of the best known legends is that of the island of Buyan. This island serves as a refuge to the sun and the winds, as well as to travelers. We can also find on this island the healing waters generated thanks to the Alaturi stone and the maiden Zarya, who sews the wounds.

The island also keeps the soul of him Koschei the Immortal, who separated his soul from his body and placed it in a needle inside an egg which is inside a plate that is inside a rabbit, which in turn is in a trunk that is buried in the reaoces of a tree. If someone gets hold of said egg or needle, he has almost absolute power over the sorcerer, since if he were damaged Koschei would die.

10. The legend of Sadko

One of the Russian legends that refer to a historical period even before the creation of Kiev is Sadko's bylina, an ancient Russian epic and generally transmitted in verse.

The story tells us how a young guslar (a musician who plays the gusli, an ancient Russian traditional instrument) from Novgorod made a living by playing, something he did with great skill. However, there came a time when other musicians came to the area and little by little Sadko began to lose clientele, to the point of ceasing to be hired. One day, saddened by his poverty and the fact that no one was hiring him, he began to play on the shores of Lake Ilmen.

After going several times to touch the Ilmen, one day the god of the waters of the lake appeared to him. He told her that he had heard him play and wanted to help him in his difficult situation. He proposed that the next time he went to town and they would call him to work, he had to ensure that there were fish with gold fins in the lake, and bet with the merchants that these existed. The young man did so, and to everyone's surprise when the young man and those who had bet against him set sail in a fishing boat found that, indeed, by picking up the nets they managed to catch a large quantity of fish from gold.

With the fish and the winnings obtained from the bet, the young man soon became a merchant of great wealth. However, one night when he was returning by boat, the young man returned to play his music. The waters roiled, furious and about to sink the ship. Sadko thought that the god of the waters wanted him to share in his earnings (thanks to him earned), so he threw various barrels of wealth to no avail. The sailors replied that maybe the god wanted a human sacrifice, and after dodging it on several occasions he always touched Sadko.

The young man threw himself into the water and met the god, who wanted him to play for him in his palace. There, Sadko's music made the giant dance with great frenzy. But one day an old man came to the palace while the young man was playing, and he indicated that the power of the god's dance was causing great swells. Sadko decided to stop playing to avoid it, breaking the strings to justify himself.

After that he asked the god to return to his land, to which the god ended up giving in. In some versions the god of the lake tries to offer him a wife to stay, to which, as the old man warned him I can get away by choosing the last and youngest of his daughters, with whom he did not consume and after which the deity released him from his service.

Bibliographic references:

• Warner, E. (2005). Russian myths. Editorial Akal.