Alyosha Popovich

Alyosha Popovich is "noted for his slyness, agility, and craftiness, may be fun-loving, sometimes being depicted as a ‘mocker of women’, and may occasionally be a liar and a cheat", as described by James Bailey.

[10] A summary is as follows: Alyosha Popovich and his squire, (Yekim[11] Maryshko Paranov[12]) travel from Rostov to Kiev and are welcomed by Prince Vladimir.

Tugarin shows no table manners, insults the prince, and consumes whole rounds of bread or an entire swan in huge gulps.

In the fairytale version, after their clubs are shattered and their lances shivered, Alyosha finishes Tugarin off with the knife from earlier, and severs his head.

[16] Due to Alyosha's victory he shreds Tugarin's body and celebrates by throwing up his head and catching it on his spear multiple times on the ride back to the castle.

[16][21] In another version (Danilov), Alyosha lowers Tugarins guard with the pilgrim's disguise, pretending to be a (kalêka) who is hard of hearing.

being completely seduced by "Young Tugarin Zemeyevich",[27] and she reproaches Alyosha for leaving her bereft of her "dear friend" at the end of the song, as in Danilov's long version.

[5][c] There are some versions of the byliny recorded which has added a historical veneer so that the dragon has been more explicitly recast as "a traditional Tatar enemy of Kiev".

[16][31] However, a later commentator raised the specter that the figure may not have existed, his name merely a 15th-century interpolation into the chronicles by influence of epic poetry.

[35][36] Another early source for the historical Alexander Popovich is a povest or story in a MS from Tver, which records his servant named Torop, matching Trofim who replaces Yekim as squire in a bylina variant.

[37] Soviet (Russian) historian Boris Rybakov, among others, has written that this bylina reflected the victory of Vladimir Monomakh over the Polovetsian commander Tugor-khan.

[18] Alyosha often features as a seсondary character in Russian fantasy movies such as Ilya Muromets, Real Fairy Tale, Last Knight, among others.

He is the main protagonist in the 2004 animated comedy Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmey by Konstantin Bronzit and also appears in the series of its sequels, sharing screen with Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitich[40] Alyosha Popovich is the member of Vladimir Monomakh's armed force in Vadim Nikolayev's historical novel Bogatyr's Armed Force of Monomakh.