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Bylinas are kind of poetry without rhyme ( blank verse), but with a characteristic rhythm, a kind of free verse. The style of bylinas was imitated by many famous Russian poets.

There are quite a few bylina cycles. Bylinas may be roughly classified into the following series:

• Of the older heroes (Volga Vseslavich, Mikula Selianinovich, Sviatogor)
• Of Vladimir, prince of Kiev, tales of the Golden Age of Kiev, of Kievan Rus'. Here belongs the Ilya Muromets (Ilya of Murom) cycle, being among the most popular ones.
• Of Novgorod (Vassili Buslaev, Sadko the merchant)
• Of Moscow (of Yermak Timofeyevich, Ivan the Terrible)
• Of the Ukrainian cossackCossack ( Russian Kazak ; plural, Kazaki , Polish Kozak plural, Kozacy from the Turkish quzzaq "adventurer", "freeman"), is the name given to a portion of the population of Eastern Europe. Cossacks inhabited parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, th history (in Ukrainian languageUkrainian is an East Slavic language, one of three members of this language group, the other two being Russian and Belarusian. Written Ukrainian bears resemblances to these two languages, but with many notable differences. Historically, Belarusian and Ukr, of invasions of Turks and TatarsTatars or Tartars collective name applied to the Turkic-speaking people of Europe and Asia. Most Tatars live in the central and southern parts of Russia, Ukraine, and in Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They collectively numbe, of HaidamakThe Haidamaks were paramilitary bands in 18th century Ukraine. uprisings)
• Of cossack insurgents ( Stenka RazinStenka Razin ( 1630- 1671) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the Russian government. A long war with Poland from 1654 to 1667 put heavy demands upon the people of Russia. Taxes increased as did conscription. Many peasants hoping to esc)
• Of Peter the Great

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• Russian literature