The idea of salvation in Ryleev’s narrative poem “Vladimir the Saint”

Largely overlooked by scholars the religious context of Ryleev’s writing became the focus of our research. The narrative poem “Vladimir the Saint” originally called duma was not published during the poet’s lifetime. Being studied in an axiological aspect the central conflict of the poem is interpreted from a completely different angle. An analysis of the artistic structure covers a number of important points, that distinguish the duma’s plot from the historical source, and prioritizes the opposition between Christianity and paganism that brings forward the antithesis of true and false values. The study clearly shows that the motif of conscience occupying the central place in the plot directly associates the ideological system to Christian anthropology. So, the transformation of a traditional impulse for the protagonist’s separation from the world being usual for Romanticism elevates the idea of salvation as central and plot-generating in the poem. The final leaves the impression of incompleteness, thus, the title of the work anticipates future events and the poem depicts only the initial situation whereof the prince’s path to holiness begins.