The treasure guardian (“kladovoy”) as a mythological character: evidence from the Ural regional tradition of the mid-19th — early 20th century

The article examines the local perceptions of the kladovoy — a spirit regarded as the owner or guardian of hidden treasures — within the Ural macroregion, encompassing the historical governorates of Perm, Orenburg, Ufa, and Vyatka. The analysis draws on ethnographic descriptions, notes, scholarly studies, ethnographic fiction, and pre-Soviet archaeological materials. The conceptual framework for analysing the kladovoy is based on the descriptive scheme for mythological characters proposed by L.N. Vinogradova. Interest in such entities within Rus-sian mythological studies emerged in the 1840s, leading scholars to recognize them as an independent mythological character. For the regional system of lower mythology in the Urals, the kladovoy holds particular significance due to its association with beliefs about mountain spirits. As expected, the figure was better represented at the periphery of mi-ning zones. The most fully developed representation of the kladovoy emerged by the mid-19th century in Malmyzh County (Vyatka Governorate), where the owner or guardian of treasures acquired both the mythonym kladovoy and a distinct visual identity. In other regions, while the spirit's name and physical appearance were only fragmentarily docu-mented, its typical functions and abilities remained consistent. Key functions of the kladovoy included ensuring the preservation of the treasure, controlling the execution of the spell, frightening, pursuing, or expelling treasure hunters. Supernatural abilities attributed to the spirit encompassed shapeshifting (including invisibility or assuming anthropomor-phic or zoomorphic forms), the creation of illusory phenomena (such as fallen trees or fires), the manipulation of objects across air, earth, and solid ground in any direction, the induction of natural phenomena (wind, whirlwind) and disasters (storm, earthquake, fire), and the infliction of diseases, injuries, or even death.