Biobibliography of the life of Vasily Fedorov-Manchaary. Folklore and art works about Manchaary from the pre-revolutionary period

The year 2025 marks the 220th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Fedorov - Manchaary, a legendary hero of the Sakha people. The rebellious fighter against social injustice in the 19th century, who was repeatedly arrested and escaped from prison, is famous as a defender of the poor and oppressed, as a storyteller and improvisational poet. The hard fate of the young Manchaary is interpreted in different ways. In pre-revolutionary times, the first information about him as one of the most vivid and interesting personalities in the history of Yakutia was published. The first information about him as one of the most colourful and interesting personalities in Yakutia's history was published. Aleksey Kulakovsky generalised and systematised the legends about Manchaary. His work consists of an independent group of texts based on oral legends. The talented Siberian poet Matvei Alexandrov, whose work is almost forgotten, wrote a poem about Manchaary while the hero was still alive. In the poem he used a large number of Yakut words, from this we can conclude that he knew the life of the Yakuts well enough. The second poem with a similar title ‘Yakut Manchaary’, written also by the Slavic poet Borisovsky, is also of interest. About Manchaary wrote political exiles Seroshevsky and Korolenko. The drama ‘Bandit Manchaary’ by Vasily Nikiforov is the first dramatic piece in Yakut literature. A valuable source is the documentary account by Mikhail Tereshkin from the words of an eyewitness of episodes in the life of a contemporary of the folk hero. The article systematises biobibliographical data on Manchaary's life, presents his folklore and artistic image in the texts of the late 19th century.