Bogatyr

The tale of the bogatyrs

The bogatyrs are the heroic knights of the byliny, the old epic songs of Kyiv's Rus. They are huge, strong and simple-hearted. They ride horses that leap over rivers and forests, carry maces that weigh as much as a cart, and guard the borders of the land against monsters, raiders and foreign armies. They serve Prince Vladimir the Bright Sun, though they do not always like him.

Three of them are the most famous of all, and every child in the Slavic East knows them.

Ilya of Murom

Ilya Muromets was the son of a peasant from the village of Karacharovo near Murom. For thirty-three years he could not walk, and he sat on the stove in his parents' house. One day, while his parents worked in the fields, three wandering pilgrims came to the door and asked for a drink. Ilya told them he could not move. Get up and bring it, they said, and he stood up. They gave him a drink of honey, and he felt such strength that he could have turned the earth upside down.

Ilya rode to Kyiv. On the way he defeated Solovey the Robber, who whistled travellers to death on the forest road, and he dragged him in a sack to the prince's court. He spent his life guarding the borders and became the oldest and strongest of the bogatyrs, the defender of ordinary people.

Dobrynya and Alyosha

Dobrynya Nikitich was a prince's nephew, brave and well-mannered, a fine archer and harpist. He fought the dragon Zmey Gorynych and rescued Prince Vladimir's niece from its caves. Alyosha Popovich, a priest's son, was the youngest: not the strongest but the cleverest, and he won his fights with tricks as often as with his sword, most famously against the monster Tugarin.

Together the three are painted again and again: on the open steppe on their horses, keeping watch for the enemy. They are a brave peasant, a noble knight and a clever youth. The game's Bogatyr is all of them and none, the hero most champions buy first.

Bogatyr in Battle of Myths

The Bogatyr is a cost 1 Slavic hero with two aspects. As the Village Hero (warrior and guardian) he lands a Mighty Blow that stuns his target. With Alyosha's Bow (hunter and warrior) he shoots the Volley of Kyiv, arrows that fall on several enemies at once. With the Slavic heroes he shares the Cycle of Morana: the first time he falls, he rises again as a spectral spirit.

Did you know?

• Viktor Vasnetsov's 1898 painting Bogatyrs, showing the three heroes on horseback, is one of the most famous Russian paintings.
• Ilya of Murom was later honoured as a saint, and relics said to be his rest in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.