Unclean force (; , 'undead') is a collective name in

Slavic paganism Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who ...

for mythological forces and creatures including

evil spirits A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in media including fiction, comics, film, t ...

chort A chort ( Russian: чёрт, Belarusian and Ukrainian: чорт, Serbo-Croatian ''čort'' or ''črt'', Polish: ''czart'' and ''czort'', Czech and Slovak: ''čert'', Slovene: ''črt'') is an anthropomorphic malign spirit or demon in Slavic ...

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

werewolves In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after bei ...

and the

undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if they were alive. A common example of an undead being is a cadaver, corpse reanimated by supernatural forces, by the application of either the deceased's o ...

—

Domovoy In the Slavic religious tradition, Domovoy (, literally " he oneof the household"; also spelled ''Domovoi'', ''Domovoj'', and known as , (''Domovik''), (''Domovyk'') and (''Damavik'')) is the household spirit of a given kin. According to th ...

Polevik Polevik or Polewik in Slavic mythology Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the Religion, religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation of the Slavs, Christianisation, which occu ...

Vodyanoy In Slavic mythology, ''vodyanoy'' ( rus, водяной, p=vədʲɪˈnoj; lit. ' efrom the water' or 'watery') is a water spirit. In Czech and Slovak fairy tales, he is called ''vodník'' (or in Germanized form: ), and often referred to as '' ...

Leshy Leshy or Leshi, ; literally, ' efrom the forest'. is a tutelary deity of the forest in pagan Slavic mythology. As Leshy rules over the forest and hunting, he may be related to the Slavic god Porewit. A similar deity called ''Svyatibor'' ('' ...

rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalki; , plural: русалки; , plural: ''rusałki'') is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as th ...

kikimora Kikimora is a legendary creature, a female house spirit in Slavic mythology. Her role in the house is usually juxtaposed with that of the domovoy. The kikimora can either be a "bad" or a "good" spirit, which will depend on the behavior of the hom ...

and other.''Нечистая сила'' / Svetlana Tolstaya // /

editorial board The editorial board is a group of editors, writers, and other people who are charged with implementing a publication's approach to editorials and other opinion pieces. The editorials published normally represent the views or goals of the publicat ...

: Svetlana Tolstaya (executive editor), , , Lyudmila Vinogradova,

Vladimir Petrukhin Vladimir Petrukhin (full name: Vladimir Yakovlevich Petrukhin, ; born on July 25, 1950, in Pushkino, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union) is a Russian historian, archaeologist and ethnographer, Doctor of Historical Sciences (since 1994), chief research f ...

; Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. — 2nd edition. — Moscow: International Relations, 2002. — p. 319–321. — ''Нечистая сила, нечисть'' / // / editor-in-chief

Yeleazar Meletinsky Eleazar Moiseevich Meletinskii (also ''Meletinsky'' or ''Meletinskij''; ; 22 October 1918, Kharkiv – 17 December 2005, Moscow) was a Russian scholar famous for his seminal studies of folklore, literature, philology and the history and theory of ...

— Moscow: ''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

'', 1990. — p. 388–389. — Common to all of them is belonging to the "unclean", "negative", "out of this world", the otherworldly world and their malevolence towards people.

Shepherd A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...

miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

witches Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

and sorcerers were suspected of having ties with evil forces.

Origin

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, unclean forces are seen as

fallen angel Fallen angels are angels who were expelled from Heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" does not appear in any Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven. Such angels are often described ...

s. According to

apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

Christian beliefs, the unclean force is partly created by

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, partly by

Satan Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...

. Other of its varieties appear from the so-called " mortgaged dead" - unbaptized children,

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

s or those who died another

unnatural death In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distin ...

(e.g.,

drowned Drowning is a type of Asphyxia, suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Submersion injury refers to both drowning and near-miss incidents. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where othe ...

). People kidnapped by unclean forces (by

rusalki In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalki; , plural: русалки; , plural: ''rusałki'') is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as th ...

) and children cursed by their parents could turn into evil. Children who had been conceived with an unclean force could also become unclean. In Croatia, a is a phrase used to describe the term meaning something angry or evil, or the

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

, and the legend was that God created all animals but the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

which was born by . The "masters" of certain loci - Domovoys, Vodyanoys, Leshies, Poleviks (field Domovoy), swamp spirits - are mixed with the image of

, with "walking" dead people (spirits of the dead).

Folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

believes that under different names the contours of one character emerge, and the names change depending on the place of meeting with him. Such a generalizing figure, overlapping almost the entire variety of male demonic images, is the cohort in

Polesia Polesia, also called Polissia, Polesie, or Polesye, is a natural (geographic) and historical region in Eastern Europe within the East European Plain, including the Belarus–Ukraine border region and part of eastern Poland. This region shou ...

, as the main embodiment of all unclean forces. In

Russian mythology Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who ...

, the origin of unclean forces (Domovoys, Leshies, and the like), dating back to the

legend of the children of

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

, born after the fall into sin and hidden from God. "To show them all to the light of God Adam was ashamed, and therefore he hid them in a hut, a bathhouse, in a rig, in the forest and in the water, and God for this secrecy made it so that the children of the forefather forever and remained in places of concealment, where they live, multiplying like humans".''Власова М.'' «Новая Абевега русских суеверий» —

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

: Северо-Запад, 1995 In

Pyatina Pyatina () was a first-level unit of administrative division of Novgorod Land. The name ''pyatina'' originates from the word , which means "five". Novgorod Land was subdivided into five pyatinas. The division was first mentioned in the end of the ...

: In the

Smolensk province Smolensk Province () was a province of Riga Governorate, Russian Empire. The province was created in 1713 when Smolensk Governorate was abolished with its territory divided between Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of ci ...

it was told that Eve advised Adam to hide some of his children in the reeds before going to God: "As Adam was walking away from God, he thought, 'Let me go in and take my uncles by the reeds! But they are no longer there, and their ranks are not lost, but they have become a dark force: masters of ladies, masters of forests, masters of water holes — the idea that God created them to live". In the title "Adam's Children" the folk reinterpretation of the biblical narrative was united with the peasants' ideas about a host of unclean people (Domovoys, Leshies,

Bannik The Bannik () is a bathhouse ('' banya'') spirit in Slavic mythology.Alexinsky, G. ''Slavonic Mythology'' in ''New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology''. Prometheus Press, 1973, p. 287-88 He is usually described as a small, naked old man with a l ...

s) as special, "hidden people", ancestors, the dead. They are connected by various (

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

, contractual and similar) relations with those supernatural forces and beings, which, according to pre-Christian beliefs, fill the whole world — earth, waters, forests. Rusalka Bilibin

The undead

One of the

euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

s for unclean force is "undead". The concept was described in the

Explanatory Dictionary An explanatory dictionary or defining dictionary is a dictionary that provides definitions of word meanings at its entries. It may give additional information on pronunciation, grammar, etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin an ...

Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (, ; 22 November 1801 – 4 October 1872) was a Russians, Russian Lexicography, lexicographer, Multilingualism, speaker of many languages, Turkology, Turkologist, and founding member of the Russian Geographical Society. Du ...

and included humanoid spirits such as:

and others, but did not include the rising dead,

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

s. Vladimir Dal wrote in his explanatory dictionary: "According to the expression of peasants, the undead do not live and do not die. The undead do not have their own appearance, it walks in disguise. All undead are speechless". In Slavic

demonology Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or occultism. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may be n ...

, they are counted among the

s. Other sources slightly different interpretation of the concept, attributing to it, for example, chorts.''Черт''
// Irina Mudrova ''Словарь славянской мифологии'' — Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2010. —

Manifestations

Volhynia Volhynia or Volynia ( ; see #Names and etymology, below) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but in ...

, it was believed that on

Thursday Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week. Name Th ...

night, one should not beat a child and put it outside the door. Otherwise, the unclean spirit will take it away, and in its place will plant another one, who will eat a lot, but only the head will grow, and the legs and arms will be so thin that he will not be able to walk.Lyudmila Vinogradova ''Полесская народная демонология на фоне восточнославянских данных'' // Восточнославянский этнолингвистический сборник. Исследования и материалы / executive editor ;

Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian: Институт славяноведения РАН) is an integral part of the Historical and Philological Studies Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It ...

— Moscow: Индрик, 2001. — p. 10–49. In

, if an

infant In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of ...

cried incessantly at night, the reason for this was seen in the fact that the child was attacked by notsnitsa, "crixa molested", "notsnitsa walk in the house". In

zagovory (singular ) is a form of verbal folk magic in East Slavs, Eastern Slavic Slavic folklore, folklore and Slavic mythology, mythology. Users of use incantations to enchant objects or people. Etymology The present-day Russian language, Russian ...

, the child was asked to leave the child in peace to the notsnitsa-sisters of the night, crixa-plaxa, forest women.

Spirits of Christmas Eve's

''Svyatochnaya uncleanness'' or ''Svyatochniye spirits'' () appear in the "turning point" period of the

winter solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...

. It was believed that they began to walk on the second day of

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

(

Koliada Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, for Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Ch ...

), and on the day of

Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: Psychology * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany seaso ...

after vespers disappeared. According to Northern Russian beliefs, the rampage of the demonic army falls on the second week of

Holy Week Holy Week () commemorates the seven days leading up to Easter. It begins with the commemoration of Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednes ...

. The Slavs considered Svyatki a dangerous period, which belongs to otherworldly forces. According to the beliefs, God, rejoicing at the birth of the Son, releases the souls of the dead and all

s from the "other world". To the category of "svyatochniye" spirits in the

Russian North The Russian North () is an ethnocultural region situated in the northwestern part of Russia. It spans the regions of Arkhangelsk Oblast (including Nenets Autonomous Okrug), Murmansk Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic and Vologda Obl ...

included , kulyashi, svyatke. They began to walk on the second day of Christmas, and on the day of Epiphany after vespers disappeared. On

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

, as it was believed, the dead awakened; taking the form of animals, they walked on the ground ( Vladimir region). According to testimonies from the Russian North, the unclean time lasts from Nikola Zimniy until Epiphany: at this time "Satan commands his servants to walk the earth and predict people's fate".

Origin

The undead

Manifestations

Spirits of Christmas Eve's

See also

References

Further reading