The polemic texts of Ivan the Terrible: a study of the most important bestiary symbols (“dog” and “asp”)

The article investigates the causes and goals of the address of the sovereign polemicist, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, to traditional medieval symbols associated with the names and properties of various animals, including those endowed with fantastic signs and habits. Unlike many medieval authors, for whom the bestiary fits into the strategy of describing the created (created by God) world or is necessary for a realistic reconstruction of the situation, the tsar turns to zoo symbolism solely for journalistic purposes. It is important for him to hurt the enemy more strongly, to demonstrate more clearly the negative aspects of his behavior and way of thinking. The novelty of this article is in the fact that for the first time the semantics of the two key characters in the messages of Ivan IV are examined in such detail - “dog” and “asp”. The “dog” symbol is endowed not only with a negative connotation, but also with an important ideological component. After all, the “dog”, one of the favorite characters in the works of the king, is a traitor. Nevertheless, we noted very rare cases of ambivalence (Grozny's controversy recognized by his contemporaries) of the symbol, which are very rare for medieval book writing. In our opinion, this is proved by the correspondence of Grozny with the oprichnik Vasily Gryazny. The symbol “asp” is used in correspondence with Andrei Kurbsky not only to create an image of treason as such, but also to expose the very logic of the traitor, to deconstruct his ideological platform. The biblical “asp” is endowed in the polemical texts of Tsar Ivan with an essential metaphysical component.