Research objectives: To examine elements of the Turkic epic tradition in the chronicle image of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich. Research materials: Historiographic sources, Russian chronicles, historical works, Turkic epics. Results and research novelty: The image of Prince Svyatoslav, represented in the Old and Late Russian chronicles, was influenced by various ethnocultural impulses, the most studied of which are Scandinavian and Slavic elements. Steppe (Turkic) elements have traditionally received less attention which is due both to the lower prevalence of the Turkic-language sources proper, including epics, in the general body of medieval historical evidence about early Rus’, and the general marginalization of the Steppe in the context of Old Russian history. As the analysis showed, the chronicle portrait of Svyatoslav as a warrior-hero incorporated a number of features characteristic of steppe nomads, which find analogies in the epic tales of the Turkic peoples. A special analogy is provided by a silver dish with scenes from “the Epic of Svyatoslav”, discovered in the Lower Ob region in 2009. According to its technological, iconographic, and decorative features, the dish dates back to the time of Svyatoslav himself or the first decades after his death, i.e. the last third of the 10th to the early 11th century. It presumably originates from the Turkic milieu: Volga-Bulgar or Pecheneg. These analogies once again testify to the existence of stable ties between the Rus’ and the Steppe and the important military, political and socio-cultural role of the Turkic nomads in the development of the Old Russian state of Svyatoslav. It is difficult to say how well the Russian scribes of the 12th–16th centuries were acquainted. They were aware of the connection of the considered chronicle descriptions of Svyatoslav with the Turkic epic tradition. But, apparently, during all this period, such a description of Svyatoslav and his lifestyle did not make the prince alien to East Slavic culture.
Aksanov et al. (Tue,) studied this question.