THREE YOUNG LADIES OF NIZHNI NOVGOROD PHOTOGRAPHED BY THEIR 



OWN REQUEST 



greedy wolves, the cruel bears, and every 

 ill beast/' 



In the Germanic epics Thor, the patron 

 of the toilers, is constantly overridden by 

 Odin, the warrior. It is just the con- 

 trary in the Slav epic. The best loved 

 and the most popular hero of the Rus- 

 sian "bylinas" (legends) is Ilya Alouro- 

 metz, "the Peasant's Son." This is the 

 epithet which invariably accompanies 

 Ilva's name in all the "bylinas.'' 



RUSSIAN HEROES AS SOIL DEFENDERS 



Ilya, according to the popular tales, 

 performed a great many exploits in the 

 defense of the Russian soil. Having 

 received from his father, the aged peas- 

 ant, the commandment "to plot nothing 

 against the Tatar nor to kill the Chris- 

 tians, and to do good and not evil," Ilya 

 tries religiously to observe these com- 

 mands and uses his strength onlv to 



struggle against evil and the enemies of 

 his country. 



He is a peasant warrior who seeks 

 neither aggression nor conquest and who 

 accepts battle only as a means of legiti- 

 mate defense. The hero of the Russian 

 legends is, above all, the defender of the 

 native soil. 



All through the Russian epics you see 

 the heroes as the guardians of the people's 

 independence, but by no means the op- 

 pressors of other people. Whenever the 

 numerous Mongol tribes in ancient times 

 would assail Russia, the princes of the 

 various Russian States would call the 

 "bogatyrs," who always personified the 

 people, to defend the Russian soil. 



They would leave their plows, their 

 peaceful tilling of the land, gather to the 

 prince, drive away the enemy, take no 

 rewards, nor acquire any privileges by 

 their defense, and afterward would not 



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