Writing a novel inspired by Russian mythology is tricky. There’s not much in the written record. When scribes were recording every aspect of Greek, Roman or even Celtic mythology, Slavic lore existed in a largely oral tradition. Before I wrote Vasilisa, I immersed myself in the darkly mysterious fables themselves, tales which occupy a deep place in the Russian psyche. I also read whatever obscure texts I could get my hands on, in an effort to absorb the flavor, the mood, and some of the language of this unique, powerful, and mysterious land.
The Old Rus I created is a figment of my imagination, inspired by these texts. I hope it does justice to a culture that I fell in love with years ago. As a freshman in college, I took an anthropology class about peasant societies and was captivated by what seemed to me an exotic way of life. Harsh in their stark realities, strictly bound by tradition, these cultures were yet rich in unexpected ways — the intricacy of roles and relationships, the depth of community ties, the ability to find beauty in small, simple things.
Here’s a list of some things that make Russia special, as well as some fun facts your probably didn’t know.
- Russia is the largest country on the planet, comprised of 6,601,668 square miles, the majority of which lie in Siberia. 60% of the country is forest, and almost half that forest is totally uninhabited by humans.
- Old East Slavic, or Old Russian, was the language of Kievan Rus, the loose federation of East Slavic and Finno-Ugric peoples ruled by the Rurik dynasty from the 9th through 13th centuries. It is the chronicles from this period that inspired the mood of my fictional “Old Rus.”
- Currently in Russia, there are around 11 million more women than men.
- Boyars were the highest ranking strata of Russian, feudal society. The boyars of Novgorod began to dominate Kievan Rus in the 12th century, which led to the flowering of a democratic tradition, far in advance of other European cultures of the time. This promising start was halted by the rise of the Muscovite princes in the 14th century, in the aftermath of the Mongol invasions.
- Russia is home to the coldest inhabited place on the planet – Oymyakon. On February 6, 1933, a temperature of −67.7 °C was recorded at its weather station.
- The famous Russian wooden doll, the matryoshka is of relatively recent origin. The first doll was carved in 1890, designed by Sergey Malyutin, a folk crafts painter who was gifted a Japanese daruma doll, which had other dolls hidden inside it. Although inspired by that Japanese design, the doll is regarded as quintessentially Russian.
- The icicles hanging from the gutters in Moscow in the dead of winter can be so enormous that the pavements below are cordoned off – for fear of mortal damage to the people below.
Since Vasilisa has been released to reviewers, I’ve heard from a reader in Transylvania and one in Ukraine, and I’m happy to report that — for them, at least — the book captured something of the magic of Slavic culture. Russia is sometimes seen as the lumbering bear, powerful yet encumbered by social stratification and a history of tyranny. It developed along different lines from its Western European neighbors, well into the 20th century, with a massive, agrarian peasant class, a small aristocratic elite, and relatively little in between. From the elite, the world inherited a rich literary and artistic tradition. From the peasantry, an equally rich oral tradition of lore that represents both brutality and beauty, oppression and resilience. The Russian bear makes its way, one foot in the east, one in the west, and both in some other place that is uniquely, mysteriously Russian.
More to come, so stay tuned! Vasilisa will be released to the public on February 23rd, but I’m always looking for advance reviewers, so if you want to take a peek, let me know!
Image: Interior of a peasant’s house with an oven, artist unknown: compliments of http://www.oldbookillustrations.com
