Was Dracula a vampire? Universal horror and world phenomenon: Count Dracula or Vlad III the Impaler.

Was Dracula a vampire?

A man died. We put him in the grave -
And with him the good that he managed to do.
And we remember only what was bad in him.
William Shakespeare

In tales, chronicles, chronicles, legends... In all these sources, Vlad Dracula is presented as a cruel ruler, a tyrant. But where did the legends that Vlad Dracula was a vampire come from?

You may be disappointed, but the real Dracula did not drink blood. In Romania, where children study the history of the reign of Prince Dracula in schools and a monument to the Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler is erected, and a small town near Bucharest is named after him, almost everyone knows this. Maybe he was a cruel ruler. Historical sources claim that he burned, flayed, ripped open bellies, chopped off arms and legs, cut off noses, drove nails into heads and, of course, impaled them in huge quantities. But to drink blood...

Irish writer Bram Stoker slandered Vlad when he needed a name for the main character of his new novel. A familiar professor from Budapest, who, as a reward for his assistance in writing the novel, became the prototype of the vampire fighter in the work, suggested to the author the name of Dracula, whose reputation corresponded to the coloring of the novel.

The book about the vampire was published in 1897 and became a bestseller. Afterwards, the image of the vampire Count Dracula was picked up by cinema and, thanks to its effectiveness, it became incredibly popular. There are hundreds of films about Dracula, and new ones are appearing all the time. Of course, the film image is infinitely far from the real appearance of the historical Tepes.

Stoker's hero is also far from the real appearance of Dracula. Apart from the name and the approximate location of the action, there is nothing real in the novel. Dracula in the novel bears the title of count, although even without being a ruler, that is, a prince, he had the right to the title of duke. Northern Transylvania is named as his place of residence in the novel, but in reality Vlad Tepes was associated mainly with the southern regions of this country and was a ruler in Wallachia. No legends ever connected Dracula with vampirism, although his name was associated with myths about werewolves, which in the 19th century were intertwined with myths about vampires.

However, Stoker did not write his sensational novel from scratch; he relied on the same folklore, the collection of which he devoted a lot of time and effort. Did these legends appear during Dracula's lifetime - or did this happen later?

In the Russian “The Tale of Dracula the Voivode” there are many mystical moments: for example, the following story is told: “The craftsmen made iron barrels for him (Vlad); he filled them with gold and plunged them into the river. And he ordered those masters to be hacked to pieces so that no one would know about his damnation except his namesake, the devil.” It would seem that, in comparison with other described acts of Dracula, his murder of the masters seems like an ordinary crime, and one may wonder why it is here that the author of “The Tale” remembers the devil.

The point, perhaps, is that this episode indicates the witchcraft, satanic qualities of the governor. After all, according to folklore, treasures are hidden by robbers and sorcerers, robbers use magical objects, can transform into animals and birds, they know forbidden words that people, animals and objects obey. Folklore robbers not only know how to rob, they know how to store the loot. Such knowledge is not available to every mortal and, judging by folklore texts, this knowledge is magical.

In Rus', there was also a belief that treasures are hidden with a vow and are given only to those who fulfill the vow, and according to Romanian legends, one of the reasons for the restlessness of a dead person is the treasures hidden during his lifetime. Using the above episode, the author of the “Tale” seems to emphasize that the Wallachian ruler is not just the namesake of the devil, but also acts like a sorcerer, by definition associated with the devil. So the story of Dracula burying a treasure and the subsequent murder of witnesses echoes a whole layer of similar stories about sorcerers.

It also seems curious that in the later legends about Vlad’s death, the sources are surprisingly unanimous about what happened to the ruler’s body after death: he was pierced through and then his head was cut off - according to one version, to be sent to the Turkish Sultan as a sign of devotion. But any horror fan knows that this is exactly what you should do with a vampire's body. The myth that the monks buried Dracula so that those entering would trample the ashes underfoot also became popular.

Another reason why the opinion spread that Vlad Dracula became a vampire was the story about his conversion to Catholicism. There is no documentary evidence of this; on the contrary, Vlad was buried not as a Catholic, but as an Orthodox Christian, in a monastery. But, nevertheless, the myth spread that the prince, languishing in prison, was forced to convert to Catholicism in order to gain freedom.

For the authors of German printed brochures, this act of his served as a reason for some justification of Vlad, in accordance with the widespread story of a villain (robber, tyrant) who reformed after baptism and repentance. Romanians, on the contrary, have a belief: an Orthodox Christian who renounces his faith will certainly become a vampire, because when he converts to Catholicism, an Orthodox Christian, although he retains the right to receive communion with the Body of Christ, refuses to receive Communion by Blood, because for Catholics, double communion is the privilege of the clergy .

Accordingly, the apostate had to strive to compensate for the “damage,” and since betrayal of faith does not occur without diabolical intervention, then the method of “compensation” is chosen according to the diabolical prompting. In the 15th century, the topic of apostasy was very relevant. It was then, for example, that the Hussites fought with all Catholic knighthood, defending the “right of the Chalice” (i.e., the right to partake of the Blood of Christ, being lay Catholics), for which they were nicknamed “chalicemen.” The fight against the “cupmen” was led by Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, and just when Dracula’s father became the “Dragon Knight”.

It turns out that the vampire’s terrible reputation could have developed during the lifetime of the Wallachian governor. Contemporaries could well see a ghoul in Dracula, but we must take into account that their idea of vampires was significantly different from the current one, which developed thanks to literature and cinema.

In the 15th century, the ghoul was considered a sorcerer, a warlock, who certainly entered into an alliance with the devil for the sake of worldly benefits. Such a vampire sorcerer needs blood to perform magical rituals. For example, the famous contemporary of Dracula, the Marshal of France, who went down in history thanks to savage executions and torture, was suspected of witchcraft: there was an assumption that he, being a magician, used the blood and entrails of the victims.

It is possible that the bloody massacres of Vlad Dracula were perceived in a similar way - the apostate sorcerer was all the more supposed to be sophisticatedly cruel, voluptuously experiment with the human body and blood. An interesting parallel also exists in Russian literature: the werewolf sorcerer from Gogol’s story “Terrible Vengeance” is an apostate who converted to Catholicism, and he, like Dracula, keeps countless treasures in the ground.

There is no need to take legends lightly, because just a few decades ago this kind of attitude towards vampires would have caused indignation among many residents of Transylvania. For them and their ancestors, the vampire (aka ghoul, ghoul, vukodlak) was not a scary fairy tale at all. It was often perceived much more prosaically - as a very specific misfortune, something like a deadly contagious disease. It was in Transylvania and the adjacent areas of Southern Europe that people for centuries believed in the existence of the living dead and cited numerous cases, often confirmed by dozens of eyewitnesses, to confirm their belief.

If we summarize these essentially similar stories, the following picture is observed. Vampires, as a rule, become people who have renounced Christ, but are buried in land consecrated according to Christian rites. (And this, according to legend, was the case with Vlad Dracula). They cannot find peace and take revenge on the living. It is curious that vampires prefer to attack their relatives and close friends.

In the imagination of the inhabitants of Transylvania, it actually resembles a contagious disease - after death, a person bitten by a vampire turns into a vampire. It is curious that there are descriptions of cases of transmission of vampirism through animals. The bite mark resembles a leech bite, but is located on the neck or in the heart area. If timely measures are not taken, the unfortunate person begins to quickly lose strength and dies without other visible causes in one to two weeks.

Folk tradition offers very specific measures for treating a person who has been attacked by a vampire. These are by no means garlic flowers, a cross and protective prayers as in Stoker’s novel. In Southern Europe, the main and most effective remedy in such a situation was considered to be soil from the grave of a vampire, mixed with his blood. This potion must be rubbed onto the bite site, and the vampire itself must be destroyed. But it must first be discovered. To do this, it is enough to dig up all the suspicious graves, there is a vampire hiding, who is not difficult to distinguish from an ordinary dead person. The body of a vampire is not subject to decay and rigor mortis, the limbs remain flexible, and the eyes are usually open. His nails and hair continue to grow...

It is curious that in stories about the appearance of the living dead and the fight against them, it is extremely rare to find a mention of a priest and there is practically no reference to the Church Sacraments as a means of protection from vampires. It seems that everything connected with vampires and the belief in their existence is a product of the darker side of folk fantasy, which to this day is closely associated with paganism.

Legends are legends, but Vlad Dracula finally became a vampire with the light hand of Bram Stoker, at the end of the 19th century. This was a time when writers actively used folk tales and ancient sources as the basis for their works. Stoker himself spent a long time researching popular beliefs in order to use them in the novel, and became acquainted with historical sources.

It is interesting that at the same time two more, undoubtedly much more talented writers, turned to the “vampire” theme: Prosper Merimee and Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. But their “Lokis” and “Ghoul” did not entail such a long series of sequels, retellings, and film adaptations as Stoker’s “Dracula”. Its success is due not only to the literary merits of the book, but to the amazing, one hundred percent hit in the choice of the hero - the peculiar charm of the real Wallachian ruler Dracula.

Thanks to many film adaptations of Stoker's novel, the image of Dracula has become a kind of symbol of Transylvania. A “medieval” castle was built on the site where Tepes allegedly lived. Every year it hosts the international Dracula festival. Of course, this festival has nothing to do with the horrors of a real “black mass” and is more reminiscent of the famous American Halloween. A huge “Draculaland” has been built in Romania, where you can join horror-style entertainment... Thus, Dracula from a national hero has almost officially turned into a kind of Romanian brand. The city where Vlad the Impaler was born - Sighisoara - became the world capital of vampirism.

Draculamania is spreading and attracting scientists too. Thus, in 1994, a group of historians from Romania established the “Transylvanian Dracula Society” - “an association that stands outside politics and the desire to generate income, but is entirely devoted to analyzing the phenomenon of the penetration of the Western European myth of Dracula into Romania.” Although mercantile issues turned out to be not alien to historians, because most of the tourist routes along the “footsteps of military glory” of Vlad Dracula are run by society. The Dracula Society holds a fairly representative international scientific congress in Sighisoara every 4 years. Of course, there are more than 4,000 clubs of the Count’s fans in the world alone!

Many novels and stories, articles in newspapers and magazines, and even many volumes of scientific literature are devoted to the mythical count. The filmography of "Draculiades" in our time includes about a hundred films - from screen masterpieces to outright parodies. Not to mention the many role-playing computer games like Camarilla, Masquerade, Dracula and others.

But no matter how the mass cultural myth about “Count Dracula” spreads, we should not forget that Vlad Tepes was a real historical ruler, an extraordinary and controversial person, unlike any of his screen and literary heroes. Take a look at the lifetime portrait of Dracula. The man depicted on the canvas does not at all look like a bloodthirsty sadist and maniac. It can be assumed that this man suffered severe trials and hardships...

Let's start with the fact that Count Dracula is the literary hero of the Irish writer Bram Stoker, who created the image of a vampire in his novel “Dracula”. As it turns out, the count is not a count at all, but a prince, because he ruled the principality of Wallachia, and not the county. This is to restore historical justice.

According to legend, Prince Dracula was distinguished by unprecedented cruelty: he drank blood, tore off the skin of living people, impaled thousands, pierced their stomachs, nailed turbans to the heads of the Turks, burned people alive, and then calmly feasted amid all this bacchanalia.

This is how one of the most mysterious personalities of the Middle Ages appears before us - the Son of the Dragon (Dracul in Romanian means dragon), the Prince of Darkness, the Son of the Devil - a tyrant and a vampire - Count Dracula, nicknamed Tepes, which literally means “impalement.”

All these atrocities are attributed to him thanks to the Irish writer Bram Stoker, who created such an image in his novel “Dracula”. The idea of writing such a novel was given to him by his friend, the Hungarian professor Arminius Vambery. In gratitude for this, Stoker recreated his friend in the novel in the image of Van Helsing, an implacable fighter against vampires.

The novel was written in 1897. At this time, myths and legends about vampires were very popular. Most Europeans truly believed in their existence. Bram Stoker created the image of a tyrant and bloodsucker at the most opportune moment. The seeds fell into fertile soil.

Earlier, Russian diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn (died after 1500) added fuel to the fire. He wrote the book “The Tale of Dracula,” which described in great detail the incredible and simply impossible sadistic tendencies of the count. The horrors described by F. Kuritsyn were not accepted in Russia. The book was banned. But one day it accidentally fell into the hands of the young Ivan the Terrible, who studied it carefully (you can imagine a child happily studying methods of torture and execution methods). This book became for I. Grozny a reference manual and a guide to governing the state - the state of Russia. I. the Terrible even surpassed the literary hero in the methods and methods of execution described by F. Kuritsyn. He made a significant contribution to improving the methods and methods of torture and execution.

Who was Dracula really and why do Romanians still consider him a hero, a fighter against numerous external and internal enemies for the freedom and independence of his homeland?

Vlad was born in 1431 in Transylvania, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1436 his father, also Vlad only the second (Vlad Dracula was the third), became the ruler of Wallachia - a small principality, note the principalities, not the counties, on the territory of modern Romania. Therefore, Count Dracula is not a count at all, but a prince.

Vlad's father had three sons. Their destinies turned out differently, but they cannot be called happy. As a result of a conspiracy and a coup d'etat, the eldest son and father were killed and buried alive. Radu's younger brother betrayed his faith, became the favorite of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed, led the Turkish army and marched with him against his brother Vlad, who was ready to destroy all of Turkey for the shame and humiliation Radu experienced in Turkish captivity.

Once in one of the battles, Vlad, fighting with a Turk, knocked off his turban from his head. Imagine his surprise when he saw features so dear to him. I must say that he loved his brother very much. In that battle, he spared Rada, thereby signing his own death warrant. Can you imagine: a tyrant, a ghoul, a murderer lowers the sword that has already been raised over the head of his enemy, sparing his life, and at the same time knows that this weakness shown on the battlefield will destroy him. And so it happened. The time will come and Radu will not spare him. So who is the scoundrel and the murderer? But that will come later.

Vlad himself spent most of his life either fighting on the battlefield or in prison: as a child - Turkish, as an adult - Hungarian, where his best friend, the Hungarian King Matthias, hid him. His entire life passed in an atmosphere of slander and betrayal. No one spared him: neither enemies, nor friends, nor relatives - everyone was against him. He was alone. And no one could or wanted to help him.

Vlad Dracula is the only bright personality among all this medieval obscurantism.

As a sign of loyalty to the Turkish Sultan, his father sent Vlad and Rada (Vlad's younger and beloved brother) to Turkey as hostages. Vlad stayed in Turkey for more than 10 years. He learned the language and Turkish customs, received a very good education, and learned the art of war.

While in captivity, Vlad saw how the Turks executed Christians by impaling them. The victims died a painful death for many hours.

After his father and older brother Mircea were executed in Wallachia as a result of a conspiracy and a coup d'etat, burying them alive in a grave, the throne was vacant and the Sultan decided that it would be better for him if Vlad were the ruler of Wallachia. He sent him back to conquer the throne that was already his by right.

While he was in captivity, the boyars managed to install their own man at the head of the state. With battles, Vlad Dracula regained his throne. Having become the ruler of Wallachia, he vowed to take revenge on the boyars for the death of his father and brother, and fulfilled this promise. He killed all the boyars who participated in the conspiracy and execution of his father and brother. The second oath is to take revenge on the Turks for the humiliation of their people and their younger brother by executing as many enemies as possible with their favorite execution. This is what he later did, impaling thousands of Turks, and thus receiving the nickname Tepes (impaler). And the third oath is to liberate your homeland from Turkish oppression. And he will fulfill this oath too. He eventually liberated his homeland from the Ottoman yoke. Thanks to him, the Romanian people became free. Therefore, Romanians still honor him as a national hero and do not believe in the fables about the vampire Dracula.

Having headed the state, Vlad Dracula quickly restored order there. He issued a law according to which, for theft, murder and other serious crimes, the perpetrators faced one punishment - death by burning at the stake. The theft was over. According to legend, money and other valuables could be safely left anywhere and no one would even think about touching them. There was not a single thief in the country. It is a well-known fact that Vlad left a golden cup in every city near a source of drinking water so that everyone could drink from it, but no one dared to steal it, because the punishment was death. At the beginning of Dracula's reign, order in the country was truly maintained by fear. But Dracula had no other choice. Too many enemies and too little time.

In addition, he carried out a number of other reforms. In particular, he imposed a heavy duty on foreign merchants, but gave his own merchants greater freedom of action. He built many castles, monasteries, laid the foundations of the future capital of Romania - Bucharest, and much more. The country began to rise. Only Turkish domination overshadowed it.

The power of the Turks in Europe was increasing. Many Christians, saving their lives, were forced to convert to their faith - Islam. The Pope could not come to terms with this situation. He decided to attempt a Crusade against the Turks. But only Hungary and little Wallachia, led by Dracula, agreed to fight the Turkish Empire.

All the money allocated by the Pope for military needs was appropriated by the Hungarian King Matthias, “safely” squandered it and actually did not participate in the war. Vlad got nothing. But he was so happy about the opportunity to take revenge on the Turks and get rid of them that he happily agreed to participate in the Crusade. Other states refused, fearing Turkish revenge, preferring to continue to be under their yoke and pay them tribute.

Dracula was left alone. His army consisted of 30,000 soldiers, the Turks had almost 10 times more - 250,000 people.

Given this ratio, fighting in open battle would be tantamount to defeat, so Dracula chose the tactics of guerrilla warfare. His small mobile detachments quickly moved around the country, attacking the Turks in unexpected places and at unexpected times, defeating the enemy outnumbered. In addition, Dracula chose a scorched earth tactic. Wherever Turkish troops came, they found deserted land and poisoned water sources. No food, no drink. The Turks died by the thousands from poisoning, thirst and hunger.

Victory was already close. But Matthias, in order to somehow justify himself to Pius II and account for the large amount of money received, appropriated the victory to himself, slandering Dracula. He presented Vlad as a tyrant, a bloodsucker, an apostate and a traitor. The pinnacle of his “creativity” was the arrest of Vlad. Vlad's best friend put him behind bars for 12 long years. The Pope was satisfied with this report, and he did not thoroughly understand this whole story. Apart from this fabricated denunciation, history knows no other evidence of Dracula’s atrocities. There are not even cities whose names were mentioned in the denunciation of the Hungarian king.

Thus, Vlad's victories were in vain. Matthias, having agreed with the Sultan, did not fight with him, and by mutual agreement Vlad’s brother, Radu, was placed on the throne of Transylvania.

During Radu's reign, Romania completely submitted to Turkey. Christians adopted Islam en masse. This greatly alarmed Siesta 4, the new Pope. He then remembered Vlad Dracula. He freed him from prison and sent him on a new Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. But the condition for release must be Dracula's apostasy. He had to renounce Orthodoxy and accept Catholicism. In addition, he was supposed to marry the cousin of Matthias Corvinus - the man who slandered him before the Pope and the entire Romanian people.

For the sake of his freedom and a new opportunity to take revenge, Vlad unconditionally accepted all the conditions of release. He led the Hungarian troops and successfully dealt with the Turks in Transylvania and Wallachia, again becoming its ruler.

Prince Dracula died in battle, but not at the hands of his enemies. They could not defeat him in open conflict. There was no fighter among the Turks who could defeat him in battle. He fell victim to a conspiracy by his own boyars, his beloved brother Radu and the Turkish Sultan. Once in one of the battles, while finishing off the remnants of the Turkish army, he was stabbed in the back. They struck. Dracula was only 45 years old. They betrayed everything that the Son of the Dragon, the Prince of Darkness, the Son of the Devil, Prince Dracula and himself fought for. The monks buried Vlad in a chapel built by Dracula himself, but someone buried his remains, so no one knows where the “vampire” Dracula now rests.

This whole fictitious story about the atrocities of Count Tepes and Prince of Wallachia Vlad Dracula can be considered a myth. In fact, his whole life was devoted to the struggle for the independence of his homeland and the freedom of the Romanian people against the Turkish yoke.

Many residents of Romania, having watched the film about Dracula, were surprised to learn that their national hero was credited with such terrible atrocities that he actually never committed against his people, but he did not spare enemies and invaders and dealt with them in the same way as they are with the Romanian people. That's why it's war.
Currently, there is a restaurant in the house where Vlad was born. At the entrance there is an image of a dragon - the family coat of arms of the Dracula family. Romanian peasants still remember with nostalgia the period of Dracula's reign. Because under him, hominy was cooked not in water, but in milk. Milk was cheaper than water back then. Even now, a song is popular among the people, in which there are the following words: Where are you Tepes - our God? Come and set us free.

Count Dracula is the hero of many mystical books and films. The Romanian tourism industry is associated with the name of the famous count. In every village in Transylvania (northwest of modern Romania) you can taste the blood-red wine called Dracula. 4 castles are contenders for the title of birthplace of the legendary prince.

"Lucifer International"

Blood is known to have enormous magical powers. It was used when making terrible oaths, as well as making attempts to resurrect the dead or rejuvenate. , or “red brothers”, as they call themselves (it turns out that they exist in our time), drink other people's blood in order to prolong their lives.

Until recently, the Gypsy Jesters sect operated in Los Angeles. Its members stabbed the victim, drank his blood and ate the meat, and destroyed all traces of the brutal ritual in a portable cremation oven. There is a “Lucifer International”, which includes bloody sects all over the world! So who is their ideological inspirer, Vlad Dracula?

Creation of a myth

About Vlad the Impaler, the most famous vampire of all time, the myth began in 1463 by King Matthias I of Hungary. On his order, an anonymous denunciation was fabricated about the terrible atrocities that Vlad allegedly committed: about tens of thousands of tortured civilians, beggars burned alive, about hats nailed to the heads of discourteous ambassadors.

Books about ghouls and ghouls played a major role in the emergence of interest in the topic of vampirism. Byron's friend, the doctor Polidori, wrote the novel "The Vampire" in 1819, which became a role model. Bram Stoker, who glorified the “red brothers” (who, by the way, was a black magician and a member of the magical order of the Golden Dawn), only completed the creation of the myth when he published his famous novel “Dracula” in 1897. His character became a very real role model for the bloodsuckers.

The cult of vampirism became associated with “initiation” into the ancient knowledge of the Dacians, the ancestors of the Romanians, and impalement. The symbol of vampires was two crossed pointed stakes. It is believed that Dracula revived the magical rite of his distant ancestors. What do historical documents say about his personality?

The truth about the “great monster”

The future ruler Vlad III Dracula (“son of the dragon”) was born in 1431 and spent the first years of his life in the city of Sighisoara in Transylvania. His family coat of arms featured a dragon - "Dracul" in Romanian, hence the nickname. The only portrait of Vlad during his lifetime does not at all correspond to the image of a ferocious and ruthless villain.

A beautiful face: black eyebrows, wide open green eyes framed by long eyelashes, an aquiline nose, a thick mustache, a shaved chin. Large, suffering eyes without a shadow of cruelty and malice, unnatural thinness and a yellow, sickly complexion speak of trials and hardships endured. Black wavy hair falls over broad shoulders. A noble, dignified appearance.

He became the ruler of Wallachia (a historical region on the territory of Romania) in 1456, during difficult times. Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II Fatih (the Conqueror) had already stormed Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, and advanced on Europe. The Turks occupied Bulgaria and Serbia. And the ruler of little Wallachia not only repelled their onslaught, but also attacked them himself.

In 1458, he made a campaign in Bulgaria, freed and settled Bulgarian peasants professing Orthodoxy in his principality. Mehmed II decided to overthrow the rebellious prince of Wallachia and place on the throne his younger brother Radu the Handsome, who converted to Islam. Vlad knew that he could not survive alone, and turned to his neighbors for help. Matthias I Corvinus, Moldavian Prince Stefan (Vlad's cousin and friend) and other rulers promised to provide assistance.

But when the Turks attacked Wallachia in the summer of 1462, no one came to the rescue. The forces were unequal, despite the fact that Vlad drafted the entire male population of Wallachia into the army, starting from the age of 12, waged a guerrilla war and used scorched earth tactics. The Sultan approached the capital of the principality of Targovishte.

In a swift night attack, Vlad's 7,000-strong force destroyed about 15,000 Turks and caused panic in their camp. But the main goal - to kill the Sultan in order to prevent further aggression - was not achieved. After that bloody night, Mehmed II, leaving part of his troops to Radu the Beautiful, left Wallachia. Defending his land, Vlad mercilessly exterminated its enemies and actually impaled them. But such execution was then used in many countries.

Black treason

Dracula defeated his enemies, but Stefan betrayed him and went over to Radu's side. The prince retreated to Transylvania, where Hungarian troops were stationed. Corvinus, whom he once helped to take the throne of Hungary, called Vlad “a beloved and faithful friend.” Matthias organized a denunciation of Dracula, and during the negotiations he arrested and put Vlad in chains, accusing him of having connections with the Sultan, and kept him in prison without trial for 12 years!

The fact is that Corvinus squandered 40,000 guilders, which he received from Pope Pius II to organize a crusade against the Turks, and decided to blame Vlad for his failure. Such an accusation against a man known for his irreconcilable fight against the Turks and who actually put Mehmed II to flight sounds absurd. The prince, despite the torture, did not admit to anything, and then Corvinus, in order to hide his crimes, decided to present him as a monster in the eyes of people.

Last takeoff

Under the reign of Radu the Handsome, Wallachia became a region of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish threat to Europe was growing. The new Pope Sixtus IV apparently understood that it was Dracula, who had actually shown his abilities as a commander, who could lead the Christian army against the Turks in a crusade. And the “great monster” received freedom by fulfilling the conditions set for him: converting from the Orthodox faith to the Catholic faith and marrying Corvinus’ cousin.

In 1476, Vlad, as commander of the Hungarian army, set out on a campaign to liberate Wallachia. Troops marched through Transylvania. There are documents about how joyfully his return was greeted by the townspeople of Brasov, where, according to the denunciation, he had recently committed unheard-of atrocities. Having knocked out the Turks from the territory of the principality, Dracula on November 26, 1476 again became the ruler of Wallachia. But he was surrounded by obvious and secret enemies.

At the end of December, he was treacherously killed by traitors from his inner circle. His head was donated to the Turkish Sultan and it was exhibited in one of the squares of Constantinople, which Mehmed II made the capital of the Ottoman Empire. According to legend, Vlad's headless body was found by the monks of the Snagov monastery located near Bucharest. They buried him in the chapel he had built earlier near the altar.

Truth in streams of lies

Facts, as we know, are stubborn things, and they say that Dracula was cruelly slandered. He did not commit heinous crimes, of which there is no evidence in historical documents. It is impossible that such facts would not be reflected in the chronicles of those years. In the writings of court chroniclers, the vile Corvinus is presented as fair, and the traitor Stefan, who impaled 2,000 Romanians, as a saint. Among the streams of lies, fortunately, documents about Vlad’s reign have reached us.

During his short, troubled life, he founded Bucharest as a fortress and built there the Curtea Veche Palace, the future residence of the Wallachian princes, in front of the ruins of which his bust now stands. Letters have been preserved in which he gave land to the peasants. Vlad fought bravely against the Turks, defending his people and his land, and built churches and monasteries.

He is the national hero of Romania, a martyr betrayed by his insidious “friends,” killed and slandered. An extraordinary personality, an intelligent and fair ruler, who inspired terror in his enemies, was turned into a mythical bloodthirsty monster for the whole world, which became an ideal for modern, very real cannibals and bloodsuckers.

Vampires and zombies.

“Secrets of the 20th Century” - (Golden Series)

A man died. We put him in the grave -

And with him the good that he managed to do.

And we remember only what was bad in him.

William Shakespeare

Stories, chronicles, chronicles, legends... In all these sources, Vlad Dracula appears as a cruel ruler, a tyrant. But where did the legends that he was a vampire come from?

You may be disappointed, but the real Dracula did not drink blood. In Romania, where children study the history of the reign of this prince in schools and a monument to the Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler is erected, and a small town near Bucharest is named after him, almost everyone knows this. Perhaps he was a cruel ruler. Sources claim that he burned, flayed, ripped open bellies, chopped off arms and legs, cut off noses, drove nails into the head and, of course, impaled them in huge quantities. But to drink blood...

Vlad was slandered by the Irishman Bram Stoker when the writer needed a name for the main character of his new novel about vampires. A Budapest professor he knew, who, as a reward for his assistance in writing the book, became the prototype of the vampire fighter in the novel, suggested to the author the name of Dracula, whose reputation corresponded to the coloring of the novel.

The novel was published in 1897 and became a bestseller. Then the image of the vampire Count Dracula was picked up by cinema and, due to its effectiveness, became extremely popular. There are hundreds of films about Dracula, and new ones are appearing all the time. Naturally, the film image is infinitely far from the real appearance of the historical Tepes.

Stoker's hero is also far from the real appearance of Dracula. Apart from the name and the approximate location of the action, there is nothing real left in the novel. Dracula is called a count in the novel, although even without being a ruler, that is, a prince, he had the right to the title of duke. Northern Transylvania is named as his place of residence in the novel, but in reality Vlad was associated mainly with the southern regions of this country and was a ruler in Wallachia. No legends ever connected Dracula with vampirism, although his name was associated with myths about werewolves, which in the 19th century were intertwined with myths about vampires.

However, Stoker did not write his sensational novel from scratch; he relied on the same folklore, the collection of which he devoted a lot of time and effort. Did these legends arise during the lifetime of Vlad the Impaler - or did this happen later?

In the mentioned Russian “The Tale of Dracula the Voivode” there are many mystical moments: for example, the following story is told there: “The craftsmen made iron barrels for him (Dracula); he filled them with gold and plunged them into the river. And he ordered those masters to be hacked to pieces so that no one would know about his damnation except his namesake, the devil.” It would seem that, in comparison with other described acts of Dracula, his murder of the masters seems like an ordinary crime, and one may wonder why it is here that the author of the “Tale” remembers the devil. The point is probably that this episode indicates the witchcraft, satanic qualities of the governor. After all, according to folklore, treasures are hidden by robbers and sorcerers, robbers use magical objects, eat human flesh, know how to transform into animals and birds, they know forbidden words that people, animals and objects obey. Folklore robbers not only know how to rob, they know how to store the loot. Such knowledge is not available to every mortal and, judging by folklore texts, this knowledge is magical. In Rus' there was also a belief that treasures are hidden with a vow and are given only to those who fulfill the vow, and according to Romanian legends, one of the reasons for the restlessness of a dead person is the treasures hidden during his lifetime. With the help of the above episode, the author of the “Tale” seems to emphasize that the Wallachian ruler is not just the namesake of the devil, but also acts like a sorcerer, by definition associated with the devil. So the story of Dracula burying a treasure and the subsequent murder of witnesses echoes a whole layer of similar stories about sorcerers.

It also seems interesting that in later legends about the death of Dracula, sources are surprisingly unanimous about what happened to the prince’s body after death: he was pierced through and then his head was cut off - according to one version, to be sent to the Turkish Sultan as a sign of devotion. However, any fan of the horror genre knows that this is exactly what should be done with the bodies of vampires. The legend that the monks buried Dracula so that those entering would trample the ashes underfoot also became popular.

Another reason why the idea that Dracula became a vampire spread was the story of Vlad’s conversion to Catholicism. There is no documentary evidence of this; on the contrary, Tepes was buried not as a Catholic, but as an Orthodox Christian, in a monastery. But, nevertheless, a legend spread that Volodar, who was languishing in prison, was forced to convert to Catholicism in order to gain freedom. For the authors of German printed brochures, this act of his served as a reason for some justification of Dracula, in accordance with the widespread story of a villain (robber, tyrant) who reformed after baptism and repentance. Romanians, on the contrary, have a belief: an Orthodox Christian who renounces his faith will certainly become a vampire, because when converting to Catholicism, an Orthodox Christian, although he retained the right to receive communion with the Body of Christ, refused to receive Communion by Blood, since for Catholics double communion is the privilege of the clergy. Accordingly, the apostate had to strive to compensate for the “damage,” and since betrayal of faith does not occur without diabolical intervention, then the method of “compensation” is chosen according to the diabolical prompting. In the 15th century, the topic of apostasy was very relevant. It was then, for example, that the Hussites fought with the entire Catholic knighthood, defending the “right of the Cup” (that is, the right to partake of the Blood of Christ, being lay Catholics), for which they were nicknamed “Cupmen.” The fight against the “cupmen” was led by Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, and just when Dracula’s father became the “Dragon Knight”.

It turns out that the vampire’s sinister reputation could have developed during the lifetime of the Wallachian governor. Contemporaries could well see a ghoul in Dracula, but it should be borne in mind that their idea of vampires was significantly different from the current one, which developed thanks to literature and cinema. In the 15th century, the ghoul was considered a sorcerer, a warlock, who necessarily entered into an alliance with the devil for the sake of worldly benefits. Such a vampire sorcerer needs blood to perform magical rituals. For example, a contemporary of Dracula, the famous Gilles de Rais, Marshal of France, who went down in history thanks to savage executions and torture, was suspected of witchcraft: it was assumed that he, being a magician, used the blood and entrails of victims. It is possible that the bloody massacres of Vlad the Impaler were perceived in a similar way - the apostate sorcerer was all the more supposed to be sophisticatedly cruel, voluptuously experiment with the human body and blood. There is an interesting parallel in Russian literature: the werewolf sorcerer from Gogol’s story “Terrible Vengeance” is an apostate, who converted to Catholicism, and he, like Dracula, keeps countless treasures in the ground.

One should not take legends lightly, because just a few decades ago such an attitude towards vampires would have caused indignation among many residents of Transylvania. For them and their ancestors, the vampire (aka ghoul, ghoul, vukodlak) was not a scary fairy tale at all. It was often perceived much more prosaically - as a very specific misfortune, something like a deadly contagious disease. It was in Transylvania and the surrounding areas of Southern Europe that people for centuries believed in the existence of the living dead and cited many cases, often confirmed by dozens of witnesses, to confirm their belief.

If we summarize these generally similar stories, the following picture emerges. Vampires, as a rule, become people who have renounced Christ, but are buried in land consecrated according to Christian rites. (And this, according to legend, was the case with Vlad the Impaler). They cannot find peace and take revenge on the living. Interestingly, vampires prefer to attack their relatives and close friends.

Vampirism in the views of the inhabitants of Transylvania really resembles a contagious disease - after death, a person bitten by a vampire turns into a vampire. Interestingly, cases of the transmission of vampirism through animals have been described. The bite mark resembles a leech bite, but is located on the neck or in the heart area. If timely measures are not taken, the victim begins to quickly lose strength and dies for no other apparent reason in one to two weeks. Folk tradition offers rather specific measures for treating a person attacked by a vampire. These are by no means garlic flowers, a cross and protective prayers as in Stoker’s novel. In Southern Europe, the main and most effective remedy in such a situation was considered to be soil from the grave of a vampire, mixed with his blood. This potion should be rubbed on the bite site, and the vampire itself must be destroyed. But it must first be discovered. To do this, it is enough to dig up all the suspicious graves, there is a vampire hiding, who is easy to distinguish from an ordinary dead person. The vampire's body is not subject to decay and rigor mortis, the limbs remain flexible, and the eyes are usually open. His nails and hair continue to grow, and his mouth is full of fresh blood.

The most tested and widespread means of exterminating vampires in Transylvania, as in many other places, is considered to be an aspen stake, which must be driven into the ghoul’s heart. However, this measure is not always sufficient. Therefore, the stake is usually combined with cutting off the head and subsequent burning of the corpse. Shooting with silver bullets among the “experts” is considered nothing more than ridiculous amateurish fantasies in the style of Hollywood Westerns. It is interesting that in stories about the appearance of vampires and the fight against them, it is extremely rare to find a mention of a priest and there is practically no reference to the Church Sacraments as a means of protection from the living dead. It seems that everything connected with vampires and the belief in their existence is a product of the darker side of folk fantasy, which to this day is closely associated with paganism. At the same time, sometimes stories about vampires and their victims become a form of folk humor. Thus, along with numerous ominous legends, there is a well-known story about a cowardly peasant who happened to be returning home late at night past a village cemetery. Having reached the outermost graves, he heard someone gnawing on a bone. The peasant was terribly frightened, deciding that he heard sounds accompanying the terrible meal of the vampire. Remembering the remedies recommended in such cases, our brave man decided to get closer and rub himself with earth from the grave of the alleged vampire. Carefully making his way through the cemetery towards the sound, he actually saw a dug hole. Holding his breath, the peasant came closer and saw a dog gnawing on a bone. He barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief when the dog, deciding that the stranger wanted to take the bone, rushed at him and bit him on the hand. Based on the plot of this folk joke by A.S. Pushkin wrote a humorous poem "Ghoul".

Poor Vanya was a bit of a coward:

Since he is late sometimes,

All sweaty, pale with fear,

I walked home through the cemetery.

Poor Vanya can barely breathe,

Stumbling, wandering a little

By graves; suddenly he hears -

Someone is gnawing on a bone, grumbling.

Vanya became; – can’t step.

God! the poor man thinks

This is true, it gnaws at the bones

Red-lipped ghoul.

Woe! I'm small and not strong;

The ghoul will eat me completely,

If the earth itself is grave

I won’t eat with prayer.

What? instead of a ghoul -

(Just imagine Vanya’s anger!)

In the dark there is a dog in front of him

There is a bone gnawing on the grave.

Jokes are jokes, legends are legends, but Vlad the Impaler finally became a vampire thanks to the light hand of Bram Stoker, at the end of the 19th century. This was a time when writers actively used folk tales and ancient sources as the basis for their works. Stoker himself spent a long time researching popular beliefs in order to use them in the novel, and became acquainted with historical sources. It is interesting that at the same time two more, undoubtedly much more talented writers, turned to the “vampire” theme: Prosper Merimee and Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. However, their “Lokis” and “The Ghoul” did not entail such a long series of sequels, retellings, and film adaptations as Stoker’s “Dracula”. Its success is due not only to the literary merits of the book, but to the amazing, one hundred percent hit in the choice of the hero - the peculiar charm of the real Vlad the Impaler, the ruler of the Wallachian Dracula.

Thanks to numerous film adaptations of Stoker's novel, the image of Dracula has become a kind of symbol of Transylvania. A “medieval” castle was built on the site where Vlad allegedly lived. It hosts the international Dracula festival every year. Of course, this festival has nothing to do with the horrors of a real “black mass” and is more reminiscent of the famous American Halloween. A huge “Draculaland” has been built in Romania, where you can join horror-style entertainment... Thus, Dracula from a national hero almost officially turned into a kind of Romanian brand. The city in which Vlad the Impaler was born - Sighisoara - became the universal capital of vampirism.

Draculamania is spreading and attracting scientists too. Thus, in 1994, a group of Romanian historians established the Transylvanian Dracula Society - “an association that stands outside politics and the desire to generate income, but is entirely devoted to analyzing the phenomenon of the penetration of the Western European myth of Dracula into Romania.” Although mercantile issues turned out to be not alien to historians, since most of the tourist routes along the “footsteps of military glory” of Vlad the Impaler are run by society. The Dracula Society holds a very representative international scientific congress in Sighisoara every four years. Of course, there are more than 4 thousand clubs of the Count’s fans in the world alone!

Many novels and stories, articles in newspapers and magazines, and even many volumes of scientific literature are devoted to the mythical Dracula. The filmography of "Draculiades" today includes about a hundred films - from screen masterpieces to outright parodies. Not to mention the many role-playing computer games like “Camarilla”, “Masquerade”, “Dracula” and others.

But no matter how the popular cultural myth about “Count Dracula” spreads, we should not forget that Vlad Tepes was a real historical ruler, an extraordinary and controversial person, unlike any of his screen and literary heroes. Take a look at the lifetime portrait of Dracula. The man depicted on the canvas does not at all look like a bloodthirsty sadist and maniac. There is something philosophical in the expression of his face, marked by deep intelligence and strong will, and with the combination of smiling eyes and a sarcastic mouth, he resembles Montaigne (judging by the portraits of the latter that have come down to us), who lived a century later. Vlad’s large, suffering, beautiful eyes attract attention. It can be assumed that this man suffered severe trials and hardships, that he is a martyr rather than a monster, a victim rather than an executioner.

A strong wind blows, thunder rumbles, Dracula's Castle appears from time to time against the black sky, illuminated by bright flashes of lightning... And all this happens in Transylvania.

Why did this quiet region in the north-west of what is now Romania become the home of vampires and Count Dracula himself? Why is the real-life Bran Castle considered and called Dracula's Castle?

Count Dracula

Legends have been formed about blood-sucking monsters, vampires, since antiquity. The character of the bloodthirsty count appeared much later. It all started at the end of the 19th century, when the Irish writer Bram Stoker published his famous book “Dracula”. In this work, Count Dracula appears for the first time, who subsequently becomes the most popular cinematic and literary image of a vampire.

When creating his immortal work, Stoker most likely drew inspiration from Irish myths about vampires. The writer was also influenced by Sheridan le Fanu’s work “Carmilla,” which was published 25 years earlier than his “Dracula,” in which there is a story about a beautiful vampire.
The very name “Dracula” was borrowed from a real person - Vlad III Dracula (Vlad the Impaler), known for his abnormal bloodthirstiness as the ruler of medieval Wallachia (a region of today's Romania). While working on the novel, Bram Stoker thoroughly studied the history and folklore of Transylvania, and also constantly borrowed a book from the library about the rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia. The writer collected data about Vlad Dracula.

In Stoker's book, Count Dracula lived in a castle near the Borgo Gorge in Transylvania. The residence of the real person, Vlad the Impaler, who became the prototype of the Count, was located in Targovishte, the capital of Wallachia. Why did the book vampire live in Transylvania?

Dracula's Castle (Bran Castle)

It is quite possible that Stoker, in one of the books he studied, came across a legend that Vlad the Impaler often spent the night in Bran Castle during his campaigns, and the area around it was the favorite hunting ground of the ruler Dracula. Moreover, Bran Castle is located just in Transylvania, not at all far from the gorge... Only this gorge has a different name than the fictitious Borgo.
That is why Bran Castle is now called Dracula's Castle, although this building never actually belonged to the famous Vlad the Impaler. The castle received this name only in the 20th century, after the success of “Dracula,” when fans of stories about vampires went in search of the legendary Castle and came to the conclusion that Bran Castle was the prototype of the monster’s ominous hideout...

Nowadays, Dracula's Castle is the most famous and popular in Romania, and not only because of the mysterious connection with the gloomy Count. The Gothic architecture of the building delights and fascinates. The castle was built on top of a cliff and has an unusual trapezoidal shape, with sharp towers soaring to the sky. The corridors and halls of Bran Castle make up a mysterious labyrinth, and everything in the interior of the building reminds of those distant times when Vlad Dracula lived...
What was Vlad the Impaler like, who became the prototype of the “king of the vampires”?

Vlad III received the nickname Tepes (impaler) for his particular cruelty in dealing with his subjects and enemies - Tepes impaled the guilty. Vlad inherited the nickname Dracul (translated as “dragon”) from his father Vlad II, who was a member of the elite knightly Order of the Dragon.

Vlad Tepes was born in 1431 in the small town of Transylvania - Sighisoara. When Vlad was 12 years old, he was captured by the Turks, who at that time were constantly at war with Hungary, including Transylvania, then it was an autonomous part of this country. Tepes spent about 4 years in captivity. Most likely, it was this event that had such a detrimental effect on the psyche of the future ruler of Wallachia.

When Vlad turns 17, the Turks free him and place him on the throne of Wallachia. However, within a few months Tepes left the throne under the pressure of the Hungarian military man Janos Hunyadi. Dracula flees first to Moldavia and then to Hungary and spends about four years in Transylvania. In 1456, Vlad Tepes again ascended the throne of Wallachia with the help of Wallachian boyars and Hungarians.
Dracula's reign lasted 5 years. During this time, according to the stories of contemporaries, Vlad the Impaler killed a huge number of people. The executions were characterized by unheard-of cruelty and perversity, and there were many variations in the execution of the sentence. The torment of the Tepes victims could last for several days, and almost all of the convicts died in terrible agony...

They also said that Tepes dealt very cruelly with his unfaithful women, for fun he could kill innocent people, and the worst thing is that Vlad loved to eat in close proximity to corpses hanging on stakes...

In 1462, thanks to the actions of the Hungarian monarch Matthias Corvinus, Vlad the Impaler was again forced to flee to Hungary, where Dracula was soon taken into custody on false charges of conspiring with the Turks. Vlad spends 12 years in prison.
Having freed himself, Tepes manages to regain the throne of Wallachia. However, 2 months after this, in the same 1476, Dracula dies during a battle with the Ottomans near Bucharest. There is more than one version of the death of Vlad the Impaler: he could have died at the hands of enemies; it is also assumed that the Romanians mistook him for a Turk and stabbed him with spears. The most likely historians believe that Vlad was killed by people specially hired by the Romanian boyars.

After the death of Vlad the Impaler, a legend appeared among the people that he turned into a vampire. There were reasons for this - countless victims of the monster often cursed their tormentor before death, in addition, Vlad changed his faith. This, according to the folklore beliefs of the peoples of the Carpathians, is quite enough for posthumous transformation into a vampire. Moreover, according to another legend, Dracula's body disappeared from the grave shortly after the funeral.
Bram Stoker, while working on his creation, probably learned about these legends, and that is why he named his hero Dracula. In addition, Vlad III’s nickname “Dracula” can be translated not only as “dragon”, but also as “devil”.