Like the first movement, the finale has a title reflecting its division into two parts: "The Heroic Deeds and Petrification of Ilya Muramets." The first part describes the battle between Vladimir’s knights and the heathen army of the golden land. Ilya and twelve fellow-bogatyrs hold off the entire invading army for twelve days; then Ilya fights in single combat with the titan Oudalaya Polenitsa for a whole day and night, in the end felling him with a formidable blow, and bringing his head back to the camp to the acclaim of his colleagues. After an introduction of mounting excitement, the action is depicted in an Allegro furioso which begins as a strenuous fugue. Eventually, a glowing new melody proclaims victory, and is combined with Ilya’s first-movement theme to drive the music towards a massive climax.
At this crucial point, Ilya and his colleagues commit the act of hubris which seals their fate: in the excitement of victory, they cry out: "Where is the Heavenly Army, that we bogatyrs may annihilate it?" At once two warriors appear and challenge the bogatyrs; when they are cut down, four spring up, then eight, and the Heavenly Army multiplies again and again. The bogatyrs flee towards the mountains, but are turned to stone by their opponents; Ilya Muramets is the last to succumb. Gliere makes it clear that Ilya is the ring-leader of the impious challenge, by basing an extended brass passage on his fanfare motif; and also that the Heavenly Army is led by the two pilgrims of the first movement, by reintroducing their chant theme, and giving it increasing prominence as the unequal battle reaches its conclusion. The coda suggests that after Ilya has been overcome by petrification, at the final resounding climax, his past life flashes before him. There are reminiscences of the earlier theme of victory, of the battle fugue, of the feast at Vladimir’s court, of the enchantments of the forest, and of the mighty Svyatogor; and this cyclic regression through the Symphony leads inexorably to the return of the slow introduction, as Ilya’s heroic career ends as it began, in immobility.
