ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN SUPERSTITIONS
VAMPIRE

VAMPIRE — a blood-sucking shape-shifter; a ghoul (upyr), a sorcerer (vedmak).

This term is not widespread in Russia. According to V. Dal, it "is attributed to a fairy-tale shape-shifter who, after death, flies about as a blood-sucker, gnawing people to death" <Dal, 1880>.

"The concept of the bloodthirsty vampire penetrated from Western Europe only into Ukraine and Belarus (Ukrainian upir, Belarusian vupor). <…> The vampire, like the 'unquiet dead' (zalozhniy pokoynik — someone who died an unnatural or premature death), is not subject to decay. He lies in the coffin face down, his face red. At night, he comes to the house of his former enemy, and sometimes even a friend or relative, lies on the chest of his victim, presses his lips to their heart, and drinks hot blood. His tongue is as sharp as a snake's stinger. A person who has become a victim of a vampire develops only a small, barely visible wound, yet they become increasingly pale and perish. Just as with the unquiet dead, an aspen stake is driven into the chest of vampires lying in the grave, and after this, their nocturnal wanderings cease. In some places, Ukrainians believe that a living person carries the dead vampire on their back. It is believed that vampires of both sexes <…> bring and spread various epidemic diseases" <Zelenin, 1991>. In Great Russian beliefs, creatures that resemble vampires to some extent are heretics and ghouls.

Marina Vlasova