Picture from Mr. Venelin Dynchev, Bulgaria.
There is not much information or pictures around about the Russian Mastiff to be collected.
The breed are also known in the west as Medlen, but the correct Russian name is Medelyanskaya Sobaka. The name Sobaka simply translates to dog.
The name Medelyanka was also used on the breed.
The breed disappared under the World War I and the last Medelyan dog where in the Russian Tzar's possession until the end of
the revolution in 1917. A Russian historican, Mr. V. Priklonsky, wrote about the breed in the magazine "Our Dogs" in
1941.
An old drawing by L.P. Sabaneev.
Picture from Moshe Gorelik, Israel.
The Russian Mastiff is mentioned in "Brothers Karamazov" by Dostosievsky, in "Beast" by N. Leskov and in "Bulba" (Bulka) by Leo Tolstoi, where a fight
between a Russian Mastiff and a bear is described.
According to Moshe Gorelik the meaning of the name Medelyan is "Milanskiy Dog"; Dog from Milano (Italy) and that these dogs were imported by Russians from Milano.
Igor Polyakov of Russia tells me that this is not true and I am looking forward to do a bit researce in this matter.
Igor Polyakov tells me that there were in addition a breed called Mordashka, also extinct, who was considered to be a breed of its own. It was a Bulldog-typed dog, small and
with a unproportionally large head with a big muzzle. The name Mordash means "Big Muzzle".
I hope that there still are more information and pictures/illustrations to be collected, so we can have a better picture of this vanished Mastiff.
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