The Oponskoye Kingdom (russian: Опонское/опоньское царство, supposed to mean "Yaponskoye tsarstvo", or "kingdom of Japan"),
in "Orthodox Encyclopedia''АндреаМайер-Фратц(Andrea Meyer-Fraatz)
"Andrei Bitovʼs Autobiographical Myth on Japan as a Creative Utopia: Neizbezhnost’ Nenapisannogo"
or as some English sources erroneously put it, Kingdom of Opona, is a mythical kingdom in

Russian folklore Folklore of Russia is folklore of Russians and other ethnic groups of Russia. Russian folklore takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales. Epic Russian bylinas are also an important ...

, envisioned by

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...

s as lying at the edge of the

flat earth The flat-Earth model is an archaic and scientifically disproven conception of Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat-Earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period (5th century BC), t ...

. Here, it was believed, the peasants lived happy lives undisturbed by the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

or the

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest c ...

,Figes, p. 101 under a "White

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

" who ruled truly and justly.Ellwood, p. 97 Such paradise places were also known under the names of the Golden Land, Land of Chud, and Belovodye. The myth of the

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

n kingdom of old Russia is similar to other myths of "earthly paradises", out of sight but possibly reachable by the right courageous explorer, such as

Shambhala In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala ( sa, शम्भल ',''Śambhala'', also ''Sambhala'', is the name of a town between the Rathaprā and Ganges rivers, identified by some with Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. In the Puranas, it is named as ...

, El Dorado, etc. Initially the tale of Belovodye was treated as a hearsay about a real place. Groups of peasants from various regions of Russia were known to have gone on expeditions in the far north of Russia to find the mythical utopia. There was strain of old Believers called "Wanderers" (russian: странники), since they spent their lives wandering, and some researchers asserted that they were instrumental in the propagation of the legend. However other researchers have arguments against this hypothesis. At the break of the 19th and 20th centuries the tale gradually transformed from a "real thing" to an element of Russian folklore.

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Bibliography

* * {{Slavic mythology Locations in Slavic mythology Mythological kingdoms, empires, and countries Russian folklore Mythical utopias

See also

References

Bibliography