The Russian heroic epic is one of the greatest creations of the Russian folk genius. Meanwhile, he is little known in wide reading circles. To date, there is no book about the epic that in a simple and publicly available form would introduce the reader to this area of ​ ​ national culture and at the same time meet the requirements of modern academic science and would be useful in pedagogical work. The author's goal is to put in the hands of any reader, having no special training, such a book that, first of all, would simply acquaint him with the Russian epic, which would reveal to him the full depth of the artistic beauties of the epic, would help him understand popular thought, the idea inherent in the epic, would show that the Russian epic is connected with Russian history, with Russian reality, with the age-old struggle of the people for their national independence, for their honor and freedom.