FOLKLORE SOURCES OF VIKTOR PUL’KIN’S BOOK OF TALES THE BRONZE HORSEMAN

The study analyzes folklore traditions in the collection of tales titled The Bronze Horseman written byViktor Pul’kin. The purpose of the article is to conduct a comparative analysis of two tales with the same name publishedbetween 1972 and 2003. The relevance of the article is due to the insuffi cient study of the writer’s works. Theabsence of papers that would analyze The Bronze Horseman tales confi rms the novelty of the study and determines itstheoretical and practical signifi cance. The object of the study is the tales from Viktor Pul’kin’s book The Bronze Horseman,as well as his folklore sources – historical legends about Peter the Great recorded on the territory of the OlonetsProvince and in Karelia. The subject of the study is the folklore aspect of these works’ interpretation. The article uses theliterary historical method and the comparative method. The study revealed that the plots of the two stories are different.The use of historical legends, fairy tales, proverbs, riddles, a set of folklore motifs, and various fi gurative and expressive means testifi es to the infl uence of oral folk tradition on the artistic structure of The Bronze Horseman. Revealing the folklore character of the writer’s works opens up new possibilities for their interpretation.

Viktor Pul’kin, folklore, legends, literature, Peter the Great