In Russian folklore the Oponskoye Kingdom (, supposed to mean , or "kingdom of Japan"),"БЕЛОВОДЬЕ", in Orthodox EncyclopediaАндреаМайер-Фратц(Andrea Meyer-Fraatz), "Andrei Bitovʼs Autobiographical Myth on Japan as a Creative Utopia: Neizbezhnost’ Nenapisannogo" or as some English-language sources have it, Kingdom of Opona, is a mythical kingdom, envisioned by Russian peasants as lying at the edge of the flat Earth. Here, they believed, the peasants lived happy lives undisturbed by the state or the gentry,Figes, p. 101 under a "White Tsar" who ruled truly and justly.Ellwood, p. 97 Other names in legend include the Golden Land the Land of Chud and ("Land of White Water").
History The myth of the Utopian kingdom of old Russia is similar to other myths of "earthly paradises",The art historian Svetlana Katkova suggested that Russian and Soviet artist Efim Chestnyakov (1874-1961) represented the Oponskoy Kingdom in his painting The City of Universal WelfareKatkova, S. S. (2009). "Город Всеобщего Благоденствия". Вестник Костромского государственного университета им. Н. А. Некрасова. Серия «Гуманитарные науки» [Bulletin of N. A. Nekrasov Kostroma State University. Series "Humanities"] (in Russian). Vol. 15. Энтелехия: Журнал. pp. 102–112. - out of sight but possibly reachable - like Shambhala, El Dorado, etc. - by the right courageous explorer.
Initially some Russians treated the tale of as hearsay about a real place. Groups of peasants from various regions of Russia wandered in the far north of Russia trying to find the mythical utopia. There was strain of Old Believers called () or "Wanderers" (), 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. About 1900 the tale gradually transformed from a "real thing" into an element of Russian folklore.
See also Buyan island Hyperborea Iriy Kitezh city Cockaigne
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