ABSTRACT
The song “Kostryuk” is another example of the genre called historical song, which fully emerged in the sixteenth century and initially reflected events during the reign of Ivan IV (Putilov 1960: 144–70; Sokolova 1960: 37–48). He ruled Muscovite Russia from 1533 to 1584, is also known as Ivan the Terrible, and in folklore is often addressed as “Ivan Vasilyevich” (see the introduction to the song “Ivan the Terrible and His Sons”). The main figures appearing in “Kostryuk” are historical in origin. In 1561 Ivan IV married his second wife, Marya Temryukovna, who was the daughter of a Kabardinian or Circassian prince, the Kabardinans being a people that lived in the northwestern Caucasus. One of her brothers, Mikhail, came with her to the wedding in Moscow, where he stayed, became a member of court, served in the oprichnina, and was executed in 1571. A second brother, Mamstryuk, from whom the name “Kostryuk” in the song is derived, came to Moscow after the wedding in 1565 but visited only for a short time. Nikita Romanovich, who is depicted in songs about this period as a “wise counselor,” was the brother of Ivan’s first wife, Anastasia, who died in 1560. Although some investigators have tried to connect the main event in “Kostryuk” with Mamstryuk or with other historical figures later in the seventeenth century, most folklorists believe that the episode was fictitious and that no specific person or occasion was involved. The song “Kostryuk,” which has been collected over one hundred times in many parts of Russia, exists in a less common “epic version” and in a more popular “historical version.” A variant of the historical version has been chosen for translation.
