Siberian Chronicles and the Holy Write: the Story Of Yermak as a Christian archeplot

The article is devoted to the motifs of the Siberian chronicles that dependon the Bible and Russian hagiography. The sacred semantics of the Siberian chronicles has long been a problem for both historians andphilologists who investigated the early period of Russian literature evolution in Siberia. It is well known that most of all the Christiantheme affected Yesipovskaya letopis written by Tobolsk scribe Savva Yesipov and Istoriya Sibirskaya composed by Semen Remesov.However their relation to the Bible themes and motifs was not practically taken into account. The aim of this article was to show thedependence of the Yermak chronicle story on the Holy Writ and to describe the basic motifs that form his literary image in this perspective.As a result we found a number of Christian motifs in the Siberian chronicles. There is an archetypical correlation of water andwood and some apostle motifs concerning Yermak. We revealed the ways the Siberian chronicles reflect the antithesis of saving waterand devilish wood that goes back to the Old Testament and passes through the Bible tradition and the later medieval chronicles. Moreover,there is an image of a wooden idol that is represented as a pagan mistake. There is also a symbolic and functional parallel of Yermaksand Apostles images. The etymology of Yermaks name goes back to the word stone, his social status - to a fisherman thatallows to draw a parallel of the conqueror of Siberia with Peter, a fisher of men (his name is translated as stone from Greek). Yermaksbiography shows another symbolic connection with the image of Apostle Paul. Like Paul, Yermak persecuted Christians andspilled their blood. Nevertheless, he became a true servant of God. These parallels are not the only ones that show the correlation ofYermaks story and the Apostles archetypal plot. In this perspective, Yermaks story allows understanding the hidden sacred meaningsof medieval texts that would not be revealed without an accurate comparison of these texts with the Holy Writ.

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