The Character of Mikhail Brenk: from “The Tale of the Battle with Mamai” to V. A. Lebedev’s Novel “Expiation”

The article analyzes the character of Mikhail Brenk, the associate of the Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy in “The Tale of the Battle with Mamai”, popular literature and drama of the 19th century, as well as historical novels by S. P. Borodin (“Dmitry Donskoy,” 1941), M. A. Rapov (“Dawns over Russia…,” 1954–1958), M. D. Karateev (“The Heroes Awoke,” 1963), Yu. M. Loschits (“Dmitry Donskoy,” 1980), V. A. Lebedev (“Expiation,” 1980) and etc. Including a wide range of sources allowed identifying the development trajectory of the image of Mikhail Brenk in 19th — 20th-century Russian literature. Two episodes from “The Tale of the Battle with Mamai” (exchange of armor with the Grand Duke and death on the Kulikovo Field) are the only pieces of information about him and the foundation for Russian writers of the 19th — 20th centuries. His roles as a devoted vassal, warrior and confidant of Dmitry Donskoy become the basis for his images in Russian literature. The hero’s storyline in V. A. Lebedev’s novel “Expiation” expands due to the material of Russian chronicles and the author’s imagination, is limited to episodes of the life of an already adult hero. In the historical novel “Expiation,” V. A. Lebedev turns to the inner world of this character. Based on motifs from the “The Tale of the Battle with Mamai” and subsequently developed in the novels of his predecessors, he makes him a “guardian angel” of the Moscow prince, his atoning sacrifice in the battle between Medieval Rus’ and the Golden Horde.