(Part 1/2)
Let me show you a very famous Russian lubok (popular Eastern Slavic print) showing Baba Jaga, a witch in Slavic folklore, who can be seen fighting off a crocodile. Luboks boomed in popularity from the 17th to the early 20th century, this one in particular dating to 1766.
Interestingly, according to the historian Dmitrij Rovinskij, this lubok was part of a larger collection created by the Old Believers, a group of Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintained the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the Church reforms of the mid 17th century.
In his analysis of this piece, he claims that the crocodile symbolizes Emperor Peter the Great, which seems plausible once you realize that "crocodile" was a very common nickname for the emperor used by the Old Believers. Further proof of this claim can be found underneath the crocodile as we can see a small boat, which is yet another reference to the emperor and his passion for everything naval and nautical.
Let me show you a very famous Russian lubok (popular Eastern Slavic print) showing Baba Jaga, a witch in Slavic folklore, who can be seen fighting off a crocodile. Luboks boomed in popularity from the 17th to the early 20th century, this one in particular dating to 1766.
Interestingly, according to the historian Dmitrij Rovinskij, this lubok was part of a larger collection created by the Old Believers, a group of Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintained the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the Church reforms of the mid 17th century.
In his analysis of this piece, he claims that the crocodile symbolizes Emperor Peter the Great, which seems plausible once you realize that "crocodile" was a very common nickname for the emperor used by the Old Believers. Further proof of this claim can be found underneath the crocodile as we can see a small boat, which is yet another reference to the emperor and his passion for everything naval and nautical.