5 MAIN cats in Russian literature (PICS)
The image of the cat in Russian literature has undergone a transformation from a dangerous monster to a multifaceted character. Cats have been depicted as scary, otherworldly, fluffy, cute and helpful. But, unfortunately, they have always been inferior in popularity to dogs. Nevertheless, some cats have firmly entered the history of Russian literature.
Bayun the Cat from Fairy Tales
‘Bayun’ means a talker, a storyteller. A man-eating monster from Russian fairy tales, whose image combines the features of a cat and a siren. It inherited his appearance from the cat: he looks like a cat, only huge. A siren has a magical, soporific voice. Bayun lulls travelers with its tales and songs, intending to kill them. In Russian fairy tales, the protagonist is tasked with catching such a cat – meaning, of course, that it dies on the quest.
Vaska the Cat from Ivan Krylov's fable ‘The Cat and the Cook’
The plot of this famous fable is simple: A drunk cook returns from the tavern to the kitchen and discovers that, while he was gone, his cat has eaten his pie and is now devouring a chicken. The cook, with great inspiration and eloquence, reproaches the cat for his crime. However, the cat "listens and eats". And while the cook practices his eloquence, Vaska manages not only to finish the chicken, but also to finish the roast. The moral of the story is as follows: Don't resort to words where action is needed. But, is the moral of the fable so straightforward? There's no doubt that Vaska is the cook's favorite. And he limits himself to scolding him not because he's incapable of decisive action, but because he's generally happy to let the cat finish whatever he's tempted to eat.
The Learned Cat from Alexander Pushkin's poem ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’
Pushkin seems to have loved cats. In any case, sketches of cats appear in a wide variety of his works. A cat "washes guests" in ‘Eugene Onegin’, the blacksmith Arkhip rescues a cat from the roof of a burning nobleman's estate in ‘Dubrovsky’ and a cat in ‘Count Nulin’ is dubbed "the servant's pet". But, the poet's most famous cat is the "learned cat" from the prologue to ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’. He is a direct descendant of the fairy tale cat Bayun. In Pushkin’s poem, this is a safe, tamed version of the monstrous cat.
The Witch Cat from Nikolai Gogol's story ‘May Night or The Drowned Maiden’
In Gogol, the image of the cat is often associated with themes of witchcraft and lycanthropy. This motif runs through several of his works, reaching its greatest strength in ‘May Night, or The Drowned Maiden’. A centurion's young wife, who turns out to be a witch, takes the form of an evil black cat to destroy her stepdaughter. The cat is described very vividly: It has "burning" fur and "iron claws" that clatter on the floor. The cat creeps around the room, then lunges at its victim's neck and begins to strangle them. The girl grabs her father's saber and chops the cat's paw off and, the next morning, she finds her stepmother's hand bandaged.
Behemoth the Cat from Mikhail Bulgakov's novel ‘The Master and Margarita’
This is probably one of the most striking and charming cats in Russian literature! He’s simultaneously a werewolf, a beloved jester and a member of Woland's retinue. He’s also enormous, "black as soot or a rook and with a wild cavalry mustache", walks on his two hind legs and speaks with a human voice. He can also change shape. In human form, he is a "short, fat man in a tattered cap" with a "cat-like face". Behemoth speaks with a human voice; drinks vodka and snacks on pickled mushrooms; causes chaos and a fire; orchestrates a clownish shootout with some Chekists in a "bad apartment"; steals Berlioz's head and generally behaves like a trickster. At the very end of the novel, when all the members of Woland's retinue throw off their masks, Behemoth becomes a "skinny young man".