Abstract
<jats:p>The article examines “The Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the Young Oprichnik, and the Merchant Kalashnikov” focusing on its evaluation within the history of Russian criticism and the works of Russian philologists. The research aims to identify the historical-literary strategies and literary descriptions of the text that border on “myth”, which have maintained their influence and shaped the specific interpretations of “The Song…” over time. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that “The Song…” has not yet been studied from a historical-functional perspective; furthermore, issues related to the polyphony surrounding the work’s title, genre, and ideological problems have not previously been the subject of specialized scholarly discussion. As a result of this research, it was established for the first time that within the reception model of “The Song…”, the title was primarily subjected to “deformation”, leading to an interpretation where the image of Kalashnikov became disproportionately dominant, resulting in subjective and often mythologized portrayals. This, in turn, led to a “correction” of the author’s original intent and the formation of controversial opinions regarding the Orthodox origins of the poem. The study identifies two opposing scholarly approaches to the interpretation of the text: 1) the monologization of its artistic form and themes, and 2) a drive toward an objective description of its architectonics while accounting for the author’s function.</jats:p>