List of the first phenomena of ancient Russian culture. Old Russian culture of the 10th – early 13th centuries

IX - early XII century.

Tatiana Ponka

In IX - X centuries. The political consolidation of the East Slavic tribes took place, the Christianization of Rus' was carried out, and the Old Russian nationality was formed. In the 11th century Rus' entered the international arena and took an important place in the system of European and Asian states. The formation and strengthening of Russian statehood created favorable conditions for the formation of ancient Russian culture. In the X-XI centuries. Old Russian culture first declared itself, manifested itself in various spheres, flourished and became an important part of world culture.

Old Russian culture arose on a powerful, original basis. First of all, she relied on rich cultural heritage Eastern Slavs. The state of Kievan Rus was formed on a multi-ethnic basis. In the formation of the Old Russian people in the 9th - 11th centuries. Some non-Slavic tribes also played a role. Elements of their culture merged into Old Russian culture, manifesting themselves in the ethnographic features of the Old Russian population in a number of regions. This factor predetermined the synthetic nature of the emerging Old Russian culture. The development of Russian culture was also deeply influenced by the fact that Rus' took shape on the Plain, as a flat state, not protected from other peoples by powerful rivers, inaccessible mountains, and insurmountable seas. Russian society was open to all foreign influences. This factor predetermined the open nature of Russian culture, capable of absorbing cultural achievements other peoples, processing them in accordance with their aesthetic traditions.

Old Russian culture was constantly influenced by the cultural traditions of neighboring lands and states. From the moment Russia adopted Christianity, the influence of one of the most culturally developed states of that time, Byzantium, was especially noticeable. Byzantine influence manifested itself in the field of church ideology, canon law, and religious fine arts. Through Byzantium, Rus' came into contact with ancient, primarily Greek, culture. Byzantium played such a significant role in Russian history that it is sometimes called the “godmother of Rus'.” The entire life of East Slavic society at that time was oriented towards Byzantium. Byzantine influence on Rus' was beneficial, but it was not long-lasting and comprehensive. Rus' needed Byzantium until then, as long as the young, strengthening state needed the versatile experience of an established state. Over time, Byzantine influence in Rus' weakened. At the same time, the obvious presence of the brilliant Byzantium in the emerging ancient Russian culture testified to the sensitivity of Russian society to the wonderful achievements of a more highly developed culture, the ability and readiness to perceive them.

The development of ancient Russian culture was also influenced by the cultural contacts of Kievan Rus with the countries of Central and Western Europe, it becomes most noticeable in the XII - XIII centuries. Cultural interaction with the countries of Europe was equal and mutual, since Rus' did not yield in its cultural development most European countries.

But Rus' didn’t just copy cultural traditions other peoples. Only those cultural traditions were borrowed that corresponded to folk experience that had come down from time immemorial. On Russian soil, foreign cultural traditions were comprehended, creatively processed, enriched with their own ideas about beauty and, thus, became the property of original Russian culture.

In the same time long years Old Russian culture developed under the influence of pagan religion and pagan worldview, which were deeply rooted in the popular consciousness. With the adoption of Christianity the situation changed. Christianity dramatically changed people's worldview, their idea of beauty. The Russian Church stubbornly fought against all manifestations of paganism. But Christianity was never able to completely overcome the folk origins of culture. Until the 14th century. Dual faith remained in Rus'. Pagan spiritual traditions had a profound impact on the entire development of Russian culture and are still evident today.

But the main role in Rus'’s entry into European society and the formation of ancient Russian culture was played by Russia’s adoption of Christianity in 988. The adoption of Christianity contributed to the emergence of writing, education, literature, architecture, art, the humanization of morals in Russian society, and the spiritual elevation of the individual. Christianity consolidated all the Eastern Slavs into one people, and with the adoption of Christianity, Russian society acquired a spiritual core.

Syntheticity, openness, powerful reliance on folk origins, close interweaving of Christian and pagan influences, deep humanism - in the 10th - 11th centuries. formed a phenomenon of world culture - ancient Russian culture, which has enduring significance even today.

Folklore. Appearance written literature and chronicles in Rus' were preceded by the development of folklore. Songs, epics, tales, proverbs, and sayings were passed down orally from generation to generation for centuries, and they could be heard performed live even in the 19th century. Later many oral traditions will be included in written monuments on the history of Rus'.

With the formation of the state, interest in historical genres folklore Such legends include legends about Kiy, Shchek and Horiv and the founding of Kyiv, about the calling of the Varangians, about the campaigns of Russian troops against Byzantium, about the campaigns of Svyatoslav, the legend about Boris and Gleb and many others.

By the 10th century, the danger to Rus' from nomads intensified, and then the people began to sing praises to the defenders of their native land - the heroes serving “at the heroic outposts.” A new epic genre is emerging in Russian culture - the heroic epic. main topic epics - the fight against foreign invaders. They are based on real historical events, the prototypes of some epic heroes are real people. Bylinas are often called the people's history textbook. For many centuries, people learned their history from epics. But epics rarely retained the accuracy of factual details; they combined fairy tales and true stories, intertwining the real and the fantastic. And we shouldn’t talk about distortion native history, but about its special perception, about a special folk version of history. The value of epics is not in the preservation of individual historical facts, but in the preservation of historical, moral and philosophical ideas embodied in artistic images. The collection of epics began in the 19th century, and currently up to 3 thousand epics have been recorded.

The epic storytellers differed not by topic - what, but by name - about whom, about whom the epic was about: about Ilya Muromets, about Dobrynya, about Alyosha. The theme and plot were determined and clarified by the second name: Dobrynya and the Serpent, Dobrynya and Alyosha Popovich, Ilya and Nightingale - the robber.

The first epic epic was dedicated to the plowman Mikula Selyaninovich, who fought in the squad of Oleg Svyatoslavich with the Varangians.

Second cycle heroic epics was dedicated to Vladimir Svyatoslavich, nicknamed by the people “Red Sun”. At the same time, in these epics a significant place is given to Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. Especially loved by the people was Ilya Muromets, a peasant son, who was called by Prince Vladimir at the first meeting “a peasant-hillbilly.” But it is this “peasant hillbilly” who is the only one who can protect the capital Kyiv – hail in a moment of danger. The princely squads, in the opinion of the people, are only capable of “eating bread” (eating bread). The Prince of Kiev himself can only call upon the heroes (people) to defend Kyiv. And this is an expression of the people’s version of their native history, which leaves no doubt about who is the true defender of their native land.

The third cycle of epics is dedicated to the outstanding statesman of Rus' Vladimir Monomakh, who did a lot to protect his native land from the Polovtsian khans.

Writing. Writing is one of the foundations of the culture of any people. Its appearance is associated with this stage historical development when society has a need to consolidate and transfer knowledge, ideas, thoughts, preserve and disseminate cultural achievements.

The advent of writing gave a huge impetus to the development of ancient Russian culture. Numerous written sources and archaeological finds indicate that writing among the Eastern Slavs appeared in the pre-Christian period, namely in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. Apparently, these were the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, family and personal signs of ownership, signs for fortune telling, calendar signs that served to date the start of various agricultural work, pagan holidays, etc. But the scope of this letter was limited.

The creation of an orderly Slavic alphabet is associated with the names of Byzantine monks - the missionaries Cyril and Methodius, the famous "Thessalonica brothers". In 863, the brothers were sent by the Byzantine emperor to Moravia to preach Christianity in the Slavic language in order to counter German, Roman and Irish missionaries. Before this, the Christian church had a trilingual rule, according to which services were conducted in one of three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin; only sermons could be read in the local language. Before leaving for Moravia, Cyril began translating the Gospel, Apostle, Psalter and other liturgical books into Old Church Slavonic. Cyril brought liturgical books to the Moravian ruler Rostislav already at Old Slavonic language. Therefore, 863 is considered the date of the beginning of Slavic writing. At first, the Slavs had two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet almost completely coincided in alphabetical arrangement, sound meaning, and letter names, but differed sharply in the form of writing the letters. The Cyrillic alphabet was closer to the Greek script, which had long been common among the Slavs. In general, it was a synthesis of Greek writing and those elements of the Glagolitic alphabet that successfully conveyed the features of Slavic sounds. In particular, in the 11th century. The Cyrillic alphabet had 43 letters, of which 25 were borrowed from the Greek letter, and 18 were created to convey the sounds of Old Church Slavonic speech that were absent in the Greek language. Until now, scientists have not come to a consensus when the Glagolitic alphabet appeared, which alphabet - Cyrillic or Glagolitic - was created by Kirill. Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet until the 11th - 12th centuries. were used by the Slavs in parallel. Then the Western Slavs - Czechs and Poles - switched to the Latin alphabet, and the rest of the Slavs - southern and eastern - to the Cyrillic alphabet. Based on the Cyrillic alphabet, Russian, Bulgarian and other Slavic writing systems would later emerge. In our country, alphabet reforms took place in 1710, 1735, 1758, 1917. led to the creation of the modern alphabet.

With the adoption of Christianity, along with liturgical books, the first inter-Slavic literary language, which arose on the basis of one of the dialects of the ancient Bulgarian language, penetrated into Rus' from Bulgaria, which adopted Christianity 120 years earlier. This language, usually called Old Church Slavonic (or Church Slavonic), became the language of worship and religious literature. At the same time, on a local East Slavic basis, the Old Russian literary language was formed, which was used in cultural, social and state life.

The appearance of writing contributed to the widespread spread of literacy among the population of Ancient Rus'. Under Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise, schools were created at monasteries and churches to train literati, scribes, and translators. The most educated people in Rus' were churchmen and monks. Literacy was widespread among the princely-boyars. It is widely known about the high education of Yaroslav the Wise, Vsevolod Yaroslavich, Vladimir Monomakh, Yaroslav Osmomysl, Konstantin Vsevolodovich of Rostov. Some women in princely families also received education.

Literacy and education were also widespread among broad sections of the urban population: merchants and wealthy artisans. This is evidenced by birch bark letters, first discovered in 1951 in Novgorod by an archaeological expedition led by A.V. Artsikhovsky. The letters were scratched with a sharp bone or metal stick on specially prepared birch bark. Most of the birch bark letters are private letters of household and economic content, letters of instructions, letters of complaints, letters of humorous content, inventories of feudal duties, monetary documents, wills. The value of birch bark letters lies in the fact that they recorded what never found its way into chronicles, state acts, or church books. Birch bark letters are the most valuable evidence Everyday life man of that time. Birch bark documents XI - XV centuries. were found not only in Novgorod, but also in Smolensk, Pskov, Vitebsk, Staraya Russa.

School education also existed in Ancient Rus'. Prince Vladimir, immediately after the introduction of Christianity, ordered that the children of the “best people,” i.e., be sent “for book teaching.” local aristocracy. There were two types of schools: at monasteries and schools of the highest type. Training was conducted in the native language. Firstly, they trained clergy. These schools taught writing, reading, theology, and singing. In higher schools they taught reading, writing, theology, philosophy, rhetoric, and grammar. These schools also used historical works, collections of sayings of ancient authors, geographical and natural science works. Girls were also taught literacy. Vladimir Monomakh's sister Yanka, the founder of a convent in Kyiv, founded a school for girls there.

Book business. After the adoption of Christianity in Rus', book writing became more active. Books were highly valued by Russian people. They were written by hand on expensive material - parchment, which was made mainly from calf and lamb skins. The parchment was lined by a scribe using a ruler. Then the scribe drew out each letter according to strict rules. Ink made from soot (“smoked”) and from a decoction of oak and walnut bark were used. The words in the line were not separated, but only the paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with a cinnabar initial - an initial. The written sheets were sewn into notebooks. The format of the book was chosen by the scribe himself. The main centers of book learning were monasteries and cathedral churches, in which there were special workshops with permanent teams of scribes. The researchers came to the conclusion that in the XI - XII centuries. There were about 130–140 thousand books in circulation in Rus', but only 11 have survived to this day.

The famous and oldest book is the Ostromir Gospel, written in 1056–1057. deacon Gregory for the Novgorod mayor Ostromir, close to Prince Izyaslav. The Ostromir Gospel is the oldest surviving dated Russian handwritten book. The colors of the miniatures depicting the evangelists are bright, applied flatly, the figures and folds of clothing are outlined with gold lines. The figures of the evangelists are similar to the figures of the apostles of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The capital letters are filled with floral patterns, unexpectedly turning into the likeness of a human face or the muzzle of an animal. In the miniatures of manuscripts of that time there are also portrait images, for example: of the grand-ducal family in the “Svyatoslav Collection” - a manuscript copied by Deacon John from the Bulgarian original (1073); Yaropolk and his family in the Trier Psalter, performed for the wife of Prince Izyaslav Gertrude (1078-1087). A peculiar independent version of the manuscript of the “Ostromir Gospel” type is the “Mstislav Gospel” (1103-1117), written in Novgorod for the Novgorod prince Mstislav, the son of Vladimir Monomakh. From the postscripts it is known that Alexa, the son of a presbyter, wrote the “Gospel”, and “Zhadan wrote in gold.” The book was intended to be read in church on holidays, and therefore is richly decorated. It is written in a beautiful, large charter, decorated with colored headpieces, miniatures of the evangelists, and large initials. The Gospel was taken to Constantinople, where the binding was decorated with gold, enamels and precious stones.

After the adoption of Christianity in Rus', a large amount of translated literature with religious and secular content appeared. In particular, the main books of the Holy Scriptures appeared, since the needs of the Christian cult required a large number of liturgical books that served as a guide for the performance of church rites. The works of Christian writers of the 3rd - 7th centuries are becoming popular in Rus'. (“Fathers of the Church”) and collections of their works. The works of John Chrysostom became especially widespread in the collections “Zlatostruy”, “Zlatoust” and others. Of particular interest in Rus' were the historical works of the Byzantines George Amartol, John Malala, and Patriarch Nicephorus. Works that reflected medieval ideas about the universe, about natural phenomena, and semi-fantastic information about the animal and plant world (“Physiologist”) were also known in Rus'. The Slavic version of “Shestodnev”, which tells about the creation of the world and its structure according to the ideas of Christian doctrine, was also widespread. One of the most popular works there was “Christian Topography” by Cosmas Indicoplov, a Byzantine merchant who committed in the 6th century. travel to India.

Secular military stories, widespread in world medieval literature, were also translated into Rus'. Among them is one of the largest works of world literature, “The History of the Jewish War” by Josephus, in Russian translation called “The Tale of the Devastation of Jerusalem.” The story about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great - “Alexandria”, dating back to Hellenistic literature, was very popular. Another popular military story throughout the Middle Ages was “The Deed of Devgenius,” a 10th-century Byzantine epic poem about the exploits of Digenis Akritos, a courageous Christian warrior.

Literature. The emergence of ordered writing, the creation of literacy centers, the appearance of a large number of educated people in the princely-boyar and church-monastic environment, and the general rise of Rus' in the 11th century contributed to the formation of Russian written literature.

One of the first and main genres of Russian literature was chronicle writing - a large-scale historical narrative, divided by years and usually covering several centuries. Chronicle writing was considered an unusually responsible, state matter, therefore it was entrusted to educated people who were able to convey through the word ideas that meet the interests of one or another princely branch. Usually these were priests and monks. Chronicle records were kept in large cities - Kyiv, Novgorod, Chernigov, Polotsk.

Scientists believe that the first major historical work was a collection of various information created in 997. The code was intended to reflect the history of Rus' from the time of the reign of the Rurikovichs to the reign of Vladimir Svyatoslavich and the introduction of Christianity. In the second decade of the 12th century (1113), at the court of Prince Svyatopolk, the compilation of what scientists consider to be the fifth chronicle collection began. This was entrusted to the monk of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery Nestor. Nestor's work was called "The Tale of Bygone Years" and became the main work on the history of Ancient Rus', therefore the chronicler Nestor is often called the "father of Russian history." The vault has survived to this day as part of later chronicle vaults (XIV–XV centuries). "The Tale" begins with a story about the settlement of the Slavs throughout Europe, their relationships with other peoples. Then Nestor talks about the emergence of the state of Rus' and the actions of its first rulers. Nestor also included in the "Tale of Bygone Years" brief weather records, detailed stories about political events, texts of diplomatic and legal documents, retellings of folklore legends, excerpts from translated literature, records of natural phenomena, independent literary works - historical stories, lives, theological treatises and teachings, words of praise. At the very beginning, Nestor set a large-scale goal for his work: “... Where did the Russian land come from, who began to reign first in Kyiv, and where did the Russian land come from?” The chronicler sets out the origins of Rus' against the background of the development of all world history. For Nestor, the history of Rus' is part of world history. At a time when Rus' began to weaken and disintegrate into separate principalities, the "Tale" is imbued with the idea of the unity of the Russian land, which was conceived as the unity of all lands under the rule of the great Kyiv princes. This perception of Russian history testifies to the magnitude of the personality of the chronicler himself. In 1113, Vladimir Monomakh began to reign in Kyiv. He was unhappy with Nestor's positive coverage of Svyatopolk's role in Russian history. By order of Monomakh, the chronicle was confiscated from the Pechersk monks and transferred to Monomakh's ancestral Vydubitsky monastery. Abbot of the Vydubitsky Monastery Sylvester subjected The Tale of Bygone Years to some revision. So Sylvester became the author of a new chronicle. He moderated his positive assessments of Svyatopolk, described all the good deeds of Vladimir Monomakh, but left the main body of the vault unchanged. As Rus' collapsed, chronicle writing developed in new centers of all-Russian life. Local chroniclers brought their own local princes to the fore, but the history of each land was conceived by them as part of the entire Russian history, and “The Tale of Bygone Years” was included as the initial part in the newly compiled local chronicle collections. Chronicle writing in Rus' was carried out until the 17th century.

The next genre of ancient Russian literature was oratory and teachings. In 1037 - 1050 - gg. the priest of the princely church in Berestovo, Hilarion, in the form of a church sermon, creates the famous “Sermon on Law and Grace”. In 1051, Yaroslav the Wise, without the knowledge of the Patriarch of Constantinople, appointed Hilarion Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. So Hilarion will become the first Russian head of the Russian Church. Hilarion wrote the "Lay" as praise to the Kyiv prince Vladimir for his Christian exploits. According to the assumption of D. S. Likhachev, the “Word” was pronounced by Hilarion before Prince Yaroslav the Wise and his entourage in the choir of the Kyiv St. Sophia Cathedral. By Law, Hilarion means the Old Testament, and by Grace, the New Testament. According to Hilarion, the Old Testament is a law for only one people - the Jews, the New Testament is grace for all peoples who have adopted Christianity. Hilarion praises Vladimir, comparing his adoption of Christianity with the acts of the apostles, who converted various lands to Christianity. Hilarion puts Vladimir on a par with Constantine the Great, who proclaimed Christianity state religion Byzantium. At the same time, Hilarion outlined his understanding of the place of Rus' in world history. The main idea of the Lay is that Rus', having adopted Christianity, took its rightful place among other Christian states.

In the second half of the 11th - early 12th centuries. In Rus', such a genre of literature as the lives of Russian saints arose. One of the first such works was “The Tale of Boris and Gleb.” Boris, Prince of Rostov, and Gleb, Prince of Murom, younger sons Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, were killed in 1015 by order of their elder brother Svyatopolk. Rus' had known the murder of princes before. But the murder of Boris and Gleb shook up Russian society and left a deep mark on the people's consciousness. The fact is that Boris and Gleb were special children of Vladimir I. At a time when Christianity was just strengthening in Rus', from childhood they were raised in a new, Christian spirit, and, on the orders of their elder brother, they accepted death humbly, like Christ, “in the glory of Christ." Boris and Gleb became the first Russian saints officially recognized by Byzantium. Over time, the cult of Boris and Gleb as patrons of the grand ducal dynasty would develop in Rus'. During the period of feudal fragmentation that began, this cult had a deep state-political meaning: thus, the idea of clan seniority was carried out in the system of princely hierarchy, which pacified intra-princely feuds.

In ancient Russian literature, the genre of travel appeared, which described the “travels of Russian people to foreign lands.” One of the first was the journey of Vladimir Monomakh’s associate Abbot Daniel to the holy places in Palestine. Daniel visited the Holy Land around 1115, while Jerusalem was in the possession of the Crusaders, and it was ruled by one of their leaders, King Baldwin I. Upon his return, Daniel created the "Walk of Abbot Daniel to the Holy Places." Daniel described his entire journey in detail, but wrote little about the hardships of the long journey; His main concern was: “it is good to experience and see all the holy places in the city and outside the city.” With the permission of Baldwin I, at the Holy Sepulcher, Daniel lit a lamp from the entire Russian land and sang fifty liturgies “for the Russian princes and for all Christians.” Thanks to Daniel, we have undoubted evidence that already at the beginning of the 12th century “many sons of the Russian land” visited holy places, and that wanderings to Palestine became a custom among the Russian people along with the adoption of the Christian faith.

Music. The adoption of Orthodoxy in 988 contributed to the emergence of a professional musical art. Along with icons and books, Greek-Oriental chants appeared in Rus'. It was single-voice music, which was performed in an Orthodox church by a male choir, without musical accompaniment. Russian sacred music developed along the lines of monophonic singing for many centuries until the 17th century.

Architecture. Before the adoption of Christianity, Rus' was predominantly a wooden country. Fortresses, chapels, nobles' houses, and commoners' huts were built of wood. After the adoption of Christianity, special buildings were needed to conduct religious cults - churches. As in Byzantium, they began to build them from stone. This is how stone architecture began in Rus'. Prince Vladimir describes Greek architects as the most skillful and famous throughout the Christian world. They brought with them to Rus' a cross-domed church, which by this time had become established throughout the Orthodox world: its design used a dome and a cross - the main symbols of Christianity. The dome is a symbol of Heaven, the Mountain World; The cross is a symbol of the suffering of Jesus Christ, a symbol of salvation, a stronghold of the church. In the plan of the cross-domed church there is an equilateral Greek cross, above the center of which a dome rises. The hemispherical dome is raised on a round base - a drum. The drum rests on 4 central pillars. The central pillars are connected by arches, which support the dome drum with the help of sails. Windows are cut into the drum, making the entire central space of the temple flooded with light. The entire central space of the temple in plan forms a cross; it was divided by rows of pillars or columns into naves - inter-row spaces running from the entrance to the altar. In the eastern part of the interior there are altar rooms - apses, usually protruding in semicircles on the outside. A distinctive feature of the exterior of the pre-Mongol temple was the division of the façade into spindles by flat vertical semi-columns, called blades in Rus'. The outside walls were decorated with sculptural images and carved ornaments.

In Byzantium, the temple usually had one dome. In Rus', instead of one main one, 3.5 small domes were often installed. According to legend, even before Russia adopted Christianity, Princess Olga founded a wooden cathedral “of seventy verses” outside of Kyiv - with 70 domes. At that time it was believed that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem had 70 domes. 70 domes could symbolize Christ with 70 disciples who spread the teachings of their Teacher throughout the world. Researchers suggest that this is how the idea of multi-domes arose in church architecture in Rus'.

Multi-headedness began to be supported by Olga's descendants and established in wood and stone. Already under Olga’s grandson, Vladimir, 7, 9, 11, 13-domed churches began to be built in Rus'. Polydomes have become a typically Russian phenomenon in church architecture. There were no multi-domed churches in Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Armenia, or Georgia. Russian craftsmen also changed the shape of the dome: instead of semicircular, as in Byzantium, in Rus' it became onion-shaped.

The next typically Russian phenomenon in architecture is the multi-stage pyramidal structure of temples, which continues the tradition of ancient Slavic architecture. This tradition goes back centuries.

Immediately after the adoption of Christianity in Kyiv, the first brick church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, the so-called Tithe Church, was built in Rus' (989 - 996). In 1240, during the defense of Kyiv from Batu’s troops, the Tithe Church became the last stronghold of the city’s defenders and was destroyed. According to written sources, as well as the remains of the foundation and decorative elements, it was a large 13-domed church, surrounded on both sides by lowered galleries, which gave a pyramidal appearance to the entire temple. Inside, the Tithe Church was richly “decorated” with mosaics and fresco paintings, carved marble slabs. The Church of the Tithes stood on the main square of the city.

The earliest surviving monument of ancient Russian architecture is the brick Hagia Sophia Cathedral, built by Yaroslav the Wise in the 30-40s. XI century in imitation of Sophia of Constantinople. Sophia of Kyiv became the main cathedral of Rus'. Ceremonies of seating on the princely table and placing on the metropolitan throne, councils of Russian bishops took place here, ambassadors were received here, prayers were held in honor of major victories and the oath of allegiance was taken.

Kiev Sophia is a 13-domed, five-nave, five-apse church, surrounded by an internal two-story gallery - a walkway. In the 17th century, the Kiev Sophia was rebuilt, as a result of which it lost its characteristic pyramidal structure.

The interior of Sophia of Kyiv was unusually rich and picturesque: the altar rooms were well lit, the central domed space was decorated with mosaics, the pillars of the naves, and the walls were decorated with frescoes. The floors were also mosaic. The altar barriers and choir bars were especially beautiful: according to Byzantine custom, they were made of stone, with the finest carvings. The overall impression was majestic, unusually solemn. Currently, due to numerous later extensions that have covered it to the very top, the temple is immersed in darkness, the tone of the frescoes is distorted.

In Kyiv, in the metropolitan courtyard, the Church of Irene and the Church of St. George, more modest in size and decoration, were also built. The Metropolitan Court was surrounded by a brick wall for more than 3 km, reaching a height of 14 meters. Several gates led to Kyiv. Some of them, the Golden ones, were a majestic passage arch with a gate church (They have now been restored).

The same craftsmen who built Sophia of Kyiv took part in the construction of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, built in 1045 - 1050. This is a 5-domed, five-nave temple. Interior decoration Sofia Novgorodskaya is much more modest. There were no more mosaics or marble here. The temple is built from local rough limestone. The temple in honor of Sophia was also built in the middle of the 11th century. in Polotsk.

In the second half of the 11th century, the dominant position in architecture was occupied by a single-domed, three-nave, six-pillar temple. These were the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery (1073-1077), the Cathedral of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (1108-1130), the Cathedral of the Vydubitsky Monastery (1070-1088), etc. In the same spirit, buildings were erected in Novgorod at the beginning of the 11th century. : Church of the Annunciation on the Settlement (1103), St. Nicholas Cathedral on the Yaroslav Settlement (1113), Nativity Cathedral of the Anthony Monastery (1117).

Overall in Kyiv period the foundations of the Russian architectural tradition and outlines the features of future construction schools of various ancient Russian principalities of the era of feudal fragmentation.

Mosaic and fresco. With the spread of cult stone construction, monumental painting began to develop - mosaics and frescoes. Russian masters also adopted the system of painting the religious building from the Byzantines. But Russian masters in painting, as well as in architecture, early began to rework Byzantine traditions in accordance with their traditions.

The interior decoration and painting of the temple were supposed to reflect the entire essence of Christian doctrine in visual images. The characters of the Sacred History in the painting of the temple were arranged in strict order. The entire space of the temple was mentally divided into two parts - “heavenly” and “earthly”. In the “heavenly” part, under the dome, is the kingdom of Christ and the heavenly army. It was customary to depict the apostles on the drum of the temple, and the four evangelists “pillars of the gospel teaching” on the main pillars. In the apse, in the center of the “earthly” part of the temple, the Mother of God (usually Oranta), the intercessor of all people before God, was depicted. The northern, western and southern parts of the temple were painted in several tiers, and the upper tiers were filled with scenes from the earthly life of Christ, miracles and passions. In the lower tier, at the height of human growth, the Fathers of the Church, martyrs and righteous people were written.

The interior space of the Kyiv Sophia was decorated according to the Byzantine canon. The main parts of the interior were decorated with mosaics: the space under the dome and the altar. In the dome, surrounded by four archangels - the guardians of the throne of the Most High - Christ the Pantocrator (in Greek - Pantocrator) is depicted. The figures of the 12 apostles are placed in the piers between the 12 windows of the drum, and the evangelists are placed in the sails supporting the dome. One of the mosaic masterpieces of the St. Sophia Cathedral is the figure Mother of God― Mary - Oranta. The Virgin Mary is depicted in a prayer pose, with her hands raised up. Later, among the people, this iconographic type of image of the Mother of God would be called “Intercessor”, “Unbreakable Wall”. Her figure reaches almost 5 m. Below Oranta there is a scene of the Eucharist - Communion, the rite of transforming bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, one of the main sacraments in Christian worship.

The rest of the St. Sophia Cathedral is decorated with fresco, a cheaper and more accessible form of monumental painting. The frescoes of the Kiev Sophia depict many scenes from the life of Christ, Mary and the Archangel Michael ("Meeting at the Golden Gate", "Betrothal", "Annunciation", "Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth", "Descent into Hell"), images of martyrs and righteous people. Along with purely church scenes among the frescoes of Sofia there were frescoes that give us an idea of the life of secular society in the 11th century: the frescoes depict the daughters of Yaroslav, his sons, Prince Yaroslav himself with a model of the temple in his hands, the frescoes “Mummers’ Fight”, “Buffoons”, “Fist Fight”, "Acrobats", "Hunting".

From that time, in addition to the mosaics of the Kyiv Sophia, mosaics of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery have also been preserved. One of the mosaics of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery "Dmitry of Thessaloniki", currently stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery, is well preserved. Researchers believe that in the image of this saint, the medieval master expressed the popular idea of an ideal prince - a ruler and warrior, a defender of his subjects and the state. Dmitry Solunsky's military clothes, shield, spear, sword emphasize his readiness at any moment to defend his land and faith.

In general, few fresco paintings from the 11th century have reached us.

Iconography. The temples that were being built had to be decorated with icons, according to Byzantine custom. Iconography appeared in Rus' - painting, the subjects of which were religious.

The first icons that appeared in Rus' were Byzantine, and the first icon painters were also Byzantine. Over time, Rus' has its own, Russian icon painters. History has almost not preserved the names of the first Russian icon painters; the names of only two outstanding artists of Ancient Rus' have survived to this day - Alimpia and Alisey Grechin. Contemporaries said about Alimpiy, the Pechersk monk-painter, that he “was very cunning to paint icons.” It is also known that Alimpius’s only means of subsistence was icon painting. But he spent what he earned in the following way: with one part he bought everything that was necessary for his craft, the other he gave to the poor, and the third he donated to the Pechersky Monastery.

Sculpture. In Ancient Rus', sculpture did not develop, since round sculpture symbolized pagan gods before the adoption of Christianity. Church for a long time fought against paganism, and therefore prohibited images of round “boobs”. But the Russians, living among the forests, were skilled “woodworkers” and had extensive experience in wood carving. They transferred their skills to products small plastic surgery, in the art of altar barriers, in stone carving.

Applied decorative arts. Decorative and applied arts, which were deeply influenced by paganism, became widespread in Rus'. Literally all the products of ancient Russian craftsmen - wooden utensils, furniture, gold-embroidered fabrics, as well as jewelry - depicted various mythological characters, which by this time had already lost their religious meaning.

Artistic sewing has become widespread. It came from Byzantium along with Orthodoxy. It should be noted that by this time Rus' already had extensive sewing traditions. But along with the adoption of Orthodoxy, facial embroidery (icon painting with threads on fabric) and gold embroidery (with gold threads) began to develop. Already in the X-XII centuries. In chronicles, hagiographic literature and other sources there are references to Russian gold embroidery. In the 11th century In Kiev, in the Yanchin monastery, there was a school of gold embroidery and weaving, where the first nun of the Russian princesses, the daughter of Prince Vsevolod Yanka, “gathered the girls, taught them writing, also crafts, singing and sewing.” Wife Prince of Kyiv Rurik Rostislavovich (d. 1215) Anna “she herself devoted herself to labor and handicrafts, sewing with gold and silver.”

Jewelry making has achieved great development in Rus'. Russian people loved to decorate themselves, and an indispensable attribute of the costume ancient Russian man there were jewelry made of gold, silver and bronze. The main types of products of ancient Russian jewelers are pendants, belt plaques, bracelets, chains, temple rings, rings, neck hryvnias. For jewelry, jewelers used various techniques - niello, granulation, filigree, embossing, enamel. The blackening technique was especially complex. First, a “black” mass was prepared from a mixture of silver, lead, copper, sulfur and other minerals. Then this composition was applied to the jewelry. Most often they depicted griffins, lions, birds with human heads, and various fantastic beasts.

The grain required great skill: small gold and silver grains, each of which was 5 to 6 times smaller than a pin head, were soldered to the flat surface of the product. Sometimes the craftsman had to solder up to 5 thousand of these grains onto a product. Most often, grain is found on typical Russian jewelry - lunnitsa, which were pendants in the shape of a crescent. If, instead of grains, patterns of the finest gold or silver threads - wires - were soldered onto the decoration, then the result was filigree. The embossing technique was used on thin gold or silver sheets. They were pressed tightly against a bronze matrix with the desired image, and it was transferred to a metal sheet. Images of animals were embossed on colts. Usually it was a leopard or a lion with a raised paw and a flower in its mouth. The pinnacle of ancient Russian jewelry art was cloisonné enamel. The enamel mass was glass with lead and other additives. First, the entire design was applied to the future decoration. Then the thinnest sheet of gold was placed on it. Partitions were cut from gold, which were soldered to the base along the contours of the design, and the spaces between them were filled with molten enamel. The enamels were different colors, but in Rus' they especially loved red, blue, and green. The resulting decoration played and shone different colors and shades.

Russian bone carvers were also famous. Many household items were made from bone - handles of knives and swords, needles, hooks for weaving, arrowheads, combs, buttons, chess pieces, spoons and much more.

At the turn of the X and XI centuries. Glassmaking begins to develop in Rus'. Craftsmen made beads, rings, bracelets, glassware and window glass from multi-colored glass. Window glass was very expensive and was used only in princely chambers and temples. Glassmaking was first developed in Kyiv, then appeared in Novgorod, Smolensk, Polotsk and other cities.

In the Arab East, in Volga Bulgaria, Byzantium, the Czech Republic, Northern Europe In Scandinavia, products of Russian artisans were in great demand.

1. Old Russian folklore.

3. Writing and education.

4. Old Russian literature and social thought.

5. The influence of Christianity on ancient Russian architecture.

6. Painting of Kievan Rus.

Conclusion.

Introduction

In the introduction, in our opinion, it is advisable to define the basic concepts and outline the chronological framework of the work. So, in this work we will talk about ancient Russian culture. Let's find out what culture is and what is the subject of the history of Russian culture.

Culture is a historically established system of material and spiritual values created by man, sociocultural norms, as well as methods of their dissemination and consumption, the process of self-realization and disclosure creative potential individuals and society in various spheres of life. The subject of the history of Russian culture - one of the components of the history of world culture - is the study of the nature of manifestation in Russian culture general patterns historical and cultural process, as well as the identification and study of private, national patterns of cultural development and the characteristics of its functioning in given historical conditions.

Now let's look at the time frame. The first mentions of the Slavs in Greek, Roman, Arab and Byzantine sources date back to the turn of the 1st millennium AD. By the 6th century the eastern branch of the Slavs was separated. From VI to VIII centuries. in conditions of growing external danger, a process of political consolidation of the East Slavic and some non-Slavic tribes took place. This process ended with the formation of the Old Russian state - Kievan Rus (IX century).

We will consider the features of ancient Russian culture from the time of the formation of Kievan Rus to the beginning of the pre-Mongol period (XII century).

1. Old Russian folklore.

Russian folk poetry has developed in Rus' since time immemorial. The mythological poetry of the ancient Slavs consisted of conspiracies and spells - hunting, shepherding, agricultural, proverbs and sayings, riddles, ritual songs, wedding songs, funeral laments, songs at feasts and funeral feasts. The origin of fairy tales is also connected with the pagan past.

A special place in oral folk art was occupied by “old times” - epic epics. The epics of the Kyiv cycle associated with Kiev, with the Dnieper Slavutich, with Prince Vladimir the Red Sun, and heroes began to take shape at the turn of the 10th – 11th centuries. They expressed it in their own way public consciousness whole historical era, the moral ideals of the people were reflected, the features of ancient life and the events of everyday life were preserved. “The value of the heroic epic lies in the fact that, by its origin, it is inextricably linked with the people, with those smerd warriors who plowed the land and fought under the Kyiv banners with the Pechenegs and Polovtsians.”

Oral folk art was an inexhaustible source of images and plots that fed Russian literature for centuries and enriched the literary language.

2. Slavic paganism and the adoption of Christianity in Rus'.

The paganism of the Slavs was an integral part of the complex of primitive views, beliefs and rituals of primitive man for many millennia. Of course, the term “paganism” is relative. It is used to designate a range of phenomena included in the concept of “early forms of religion.” The basis Slavic paganism consisted of the deification of the forces of nature, belief in the spirits that inhabited the world and accompany man from birth to death. Let us list some of the deities from which the pantheon gradually took shape

pagan gods: Svyatovit (god of war), Svarog (god of heavenly fire), Dazhdbog (son of Svarog, god of light and sun, giver of all blessings), Perun (god of thunderstorms), Stribog (god of wind), Volos (patron of livestock), Mokosh (female deity of fertility and household). The places of worship of pagans were pagan temples, temples, and temples, in which the Magi - the priests of the pagan religion - made sacrifices and performed many other rituals.

Having understood the ideological significance of religion for strengthening princely power, Vladimir Svyatoslavich in 980 tried to reform paganism, giving it the features of a monotheistic religion. A single pantheon of gods was created, primacy in the hierarchy of which was given to Perun (in these times he was revered as the princely warrior god of war).

But the feudal system gradually taking shape in the ancient Russian state needed an ideology that would justify the social stratification of society. Such an ideology could only be a religion that developed in a class society and adapted to its justification. In the 10th century There were 2 such religions: Islam and Christianity. But Islam was mainly practiced in countries that were outside of active foreign policy interests. While “the connections of the Slavs with the outside world, with the centers of world culture of the Middle Ages strengthened significantly at the time of the birth of the Kievan state... The Rus saw ships of different seas and different equipment, dozens of port cities and traded for six months in such major cities as Constantinople, Rey, Itil, Belgrade". In addition, Christianity more fully met the interests of the feudal system with its monotheism, hierarchy of saints, preaching non-resistance to evil, etc.

The introduction of Christianity (starting in 988) was a long and complex process that lasted for centuries. It was asserted not only by force, but also adapted to pagan worldview. With the introduction of a new religion, Rus' finally entered the pan-European historical and cultural landscape.

Epochs, styles; correlate ideas and images of works with various life situations; differ genuine work art from tasteless fakes. But most importantly, the course “Spiritual Culture of Ancient Rus' in Search of Holiness” helps a growing person find a foothold and build his own system of value coordinates. Contents of the program SECTION 1. The image of Holy Rus' in history and...

Rus' has its own examples of solemn words and church teachings, its own lives, chronicles and annals. “The Tale of Bygone Years” is original in form, character, and style. By the beginning of the 13th century, Old Russian literature had become mature, and original works were created in each genre. Russian literature included such well-known ones as “Teaching” by Vladimir Monomakh, and “Words about...

They note the openness and synthetic nature (from the word “synthesis” - reduction into a single whole) of ancient Russian culture. The interaction of the heritage of the Eastern Slavs with Byzantine and, therefore, ancient traditions created a unique spiritual world. The time of its formation and first flowering was the 10th - first half of the 13th century. (pre-Mongol period). Let us first note the influence of the baptism of Rus' on the historical and cultural...

Tsar. The army and navy clergy were entrusted with the task of ensuring the moral factor in the army, maintaining discipline and decent behavior. During the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 Russian Orthodox Church, not limiting itself to patriotic appeals, took a direct part in providing assistance to the front. For those collected at the initiative of the clergy in churches...

Introduction.

1. Old Russian folklore.

2. Slavic paganism and the adoption of Christianity in Rus'.

3. Writing and education.

4. Old Russian literature and social thought.

5. The influence of Christianity on ancient Russian architecture.

6. Painting of Kievan Rus.

Conclusion.

Introduction

Culture is a historically established system of material and spiritual values created by man, sociocultural norms, as well as methods of their dissemination and consumption, the process of self-realization and disclosure of the creative potential of the individual and society in various spheres of life. The subject of the history of Russian culture - one of the components of the history of world culture - is the study of the nature of the manifestation of general patterns of the historical and cultural process in Russian culture, as well as the identification and study of particular, national patterns of cultural development and features of its functioning in given historical conditions.

Now let's look at the time frame. The first mentions of the Slavs in Greek, Roman, Arab and Byzantine sources date back to the turn of the 1st millennium AD. By the 6th century the eastern branch of the Slavs was separated. From VI to VIII centuries. in conditions of growing external danger, a process of political consolidation of the East Slavic and some non-Slavic tribes took place. This process culminated in the formation Old Russian state - Kievan Rus (IXV.).

We will consider the features of ancient Russian culture from the time of the formation of Kievan Rus to the beginning of the pre-Mongol period (XII century).

1. Old Russian folklore.

A special place in oral folk art was occupied by "old times" - epic epic. The epics of the Kyiv cycle associated with Kiev, with the Dnieper Slavutich, with Prince Vladimir the Red Sun, and heroes began to take shape at the turn of the 10th – 11th centuries. They expressed in their own way the social consciousness of an entire historical era, reflected the moral ideals of the people, and preserved the features of ancient life and events of everyday life. “The value of the heroic epic lies in the fact that, by its origin, it is inextricably linked with the people, with those smerd warriors who plowed the land and fought under the Kyiv banners with the Pechenegs and Polovtsians.”

Oral folk art was an inexhaustible source of images and plots, which for centuries nourished Russian literature and enriched the literary language.

2. Slavic paganism and the adoption of Christianity in Rus'.

The paganism of the Slavs was an integral part of the complex of primitive views, beliefs and rituals of primitive man for many millennia. Of course the term "paganism" conditional. It is used to designate a range of phenomena included in the concept of “early forms of religion.” The basis of Slavic paganism was the deification of the forces of nature, belief in the spirits that inhabited the world and accompanied man from birth to death. Let us list some of the deities from which the pantheon gradually took shape

The introduction of Christianity (starting in 988) was a long and complex process that lasted for centuries. It was asserted not only by force, but also adapted to the pagan worldview. With the introduction of a new religion, Rus' finally entered the pan-European historical and cultural landscape.

3. Writing and education.

Writing among the Eastern Slavs, like other manifestations of culture, arose from the needs of social development in the era of the formation of feudal relations and the formation of statehood. The author of the legend “About the Writings”, the Monk Khrabr (the turn of the 9th-10th centuries), noted that while the Slavs were pagans, they used “traits” and “cuts” (unpreserved pictographic writing), with the help of which they “read and gadahu”. To write complex texts, the Slavs used the so-called “Proto-Cyrillic alphabet”. ABOUT presence of writing among the Eastern Slavs pre-Christian times Arab and German sources of the 10th century report.

Missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius in the 2nd half of the 9th century. the Glagolitic alphabet was created, and at the turn of the 9th - 10th centuries. appeared Cyrillic, resulting from the simplification of the Glagolitic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet became most widespread in Rus'. The adoption of Orthodoxy, which allowed services in national languages, contributed to the spread of writing.

The Christianization of Rus' gave a powerful impetus to the further development of writing and literacy. Since the time of Vladimir, church scholars and translators from Byzantium, Bulgaria, and Serbia began to come to Rus'. Numerous translations of Greek and Bulgarian books of both ecclesiastical and secular content appeared, especially during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise and his sons. In particular, Byzantine historical works and biographies of Christian saints are translated. These translations became the property of literate people; they were read with pleasure in the princely, boyar, merchant circles, in monasteries, churches, where Russian chronicle writing originated. In the 11th century such popular translated works as “Alexandria”, containing legends and traditions about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great, and “The Deed of Deugene”, which is a translation of the Byzantine epic poem about the exploits of the warrior Digenis, are becoming widespread.

Thus, a literate Russian person of the 11th century. knew much of what was available in the writing and book culture of Eastern Europe and Byzantium. The cadres of the first Russian scribes, scribes, and translators were formed in schools that were opened at churches from the time of Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise, and later at monasteries. There is a lot of evidence of the widespread development of literacy in Rus' in the 11th-12th centuries. However, it was widespread mainly only in the urban environment, especially among wealthy townspeople, the princely-boyar elite, merchants, and wealthy artisans. In rural areas, in remote, remote places, the population was almost entirely illiterate.

From the 11th century In wealthy families, they began to teach literacy not only to boys, but also to girls. Vladimir Monomakh's sister Yanka, the founder of a convent in Kyiv, created a school there to educate girls.

A clear indication of the widespread spread of literacy in cities and suburbs are the so-called birch bark letters. In 1951, during archaeological excavations in Novgorod, expedition member Nina Akulova extracted birch bark from the ground with well-preserved letters on it. “I’ve been waiting for this find for twenty years!” - exclaimed the head of the expedition, Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky, who had long assumed that the level of literacy in Rus' at that time should have been reflected in mass writing, which could have been, in the absence of paper in Rus', writing either on wooden tablets, as indicated by foreign evidence, or on birch bark. Since then, hundreds of birch bark letters have been introduced into scientific circulation, indicating that in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and other cities of Rus', people loved and knew how to write to each other. The letters include business documents, exchange of information, invitations to visit, and even love correspondence. A certain Mikita wrote to his beloved Ulyana on birch bark “From Mikita to Ulianitsa. Come for me...”

There remains one more interesting evidence of the development of literacy in Rus' - the so-called graffiti inscriptions. They were scratched on the walls of churches by those who loved to pour out their souls. Among these inscriptions are reflections on life, complaints, prayers. The famous Vladimir Monomakh, while still a young man, during a church service, lost in a crowd of the same young princes, scrawled “Oh, it’s hard for me” on the wall of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and signed with his Christian name"Basil".

Birch bark is a very convenient material for writing, although it required some preparation. Birch bast was boiled in water to make the bark more elastic, then its rough layers were removed. The birch bark sheet was cut from all sides, giving it a rectangular shape. They wrote on the inside of the bark, squeezing out letters with a special stick - a “writing” - made of bone, metal or wood. One end of the writing was pointed, and the other was made in the form of a spatula with a hole and hung from the belt. The technique of writing on birch bark allowed texts to be preserved in the ground for centuries.

The production of ancient handwritten books was expensive and labor-intensive. The material for them was parchment - specially made leather. The best parchment was made from soft, thin skin of lambs and calves. She was cleared of wool and washed thoroughly. Then they pulled them onto drums, sprinkled them with chalk and cleaned them with pumice. After air drying, the rough edges were cut off from the leather and sanded again with pumice. The tanned leather was cut into rectangular pieces and sewn into notebooks of eight sheets. It is noteworthy that this ancient order of stitching has been preserved to this day.

The stitched notebooks were collected into a book. Depending on the format and number of sheets, one book required from 10 to 30 animal skins - a whole herd! According to the testimony of one of the scribes who worked at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, three rubles were paid for the leather for the book. At that time, you could buy three horses with this money.

Books were usually written with a quill pen and ink. The king had the privilege of writing with a swan and even a peacock feather. Making writing instruments required a certain skill. The feather was always removed from the left wing of the bird so that the bend would be comfortable for the right writing hand. The feather was degreased by sticking it into hot sand, then the tip was cut off at an angle, split and sharpened with a special penknife. They also scraped out errors in the text.

Medieval ink, unlike the blue and black we are used to, was brown in color, as it was made on the basis of ferrous compounds, or, more simply, rust. Pieces of old iron were dipped into the water, which, rusting, painted it brown. Ancient recipes for making ink have been preserved. In addition to iron, oak or alder bark, cherry glue, kvass, honey and many other substances were used as components, giving the ink the necessary viscosity, color, and stability. Centuries later, this ink has retained its brightness and color strength.

The scribe blotted the ink with finely crushed sand, sprinkling it onto a sheet of parchment from a sandbox - a vessel similar to a modern pepper shaker.

Unfortunately, very few ancient books have survived. In total there are about 130 copies of priceless evidence of the 11th-12th centuries. came to us. There were few of them in those days.

In Rus' in the Middle Ages they knew several types of writing. The oldest of them was the “charter” - with letters without slope, strictly geometric shape, reminiscent of a modern printed font. In the 14th century, with the spread of business writing, the slow “charter” was replaced by the “half-chart” with smaller letters, easier to write, with a slight slant. The semi-character vaguely resembles modern italics. Another hundred years later, in the 15th century, they began to write in “cursive script” - smoothly connecting adjacent letters. In the XV-XVII centuries. cursive writing gradually replaced other types of writing.

To decorate manuscripts, titles in the Middle Ages were written in a special, decorative font - script. The letters, stretched upward, intertwined with each other (hence the name - ligature), forming a text similar to an ornamental ribbon. They wrote in script not only on paper. Gold and Silver vessels and fabrics were often covered with elegant inscriptions. Of all types of ancient writing until the 19th century. It is the ligature that has been preserved, although only in Old Believer books and decorative “antique” inscriptions.

On the pages of ancient Russian books, the text was arranged in one or two columns. Letters were not divided into lowercase and uppercase. They filled the line in a long sequence without the usual intervals between words. To save space, some letters, mainly vowels, were written above the line or replaced with the “title” sign - a horizontal line. The endings of words that were well known and often used were also truncated, for example God, Mother of God, Gospel, etc. The tradition of placing an accent mark on each word - “strength” - was borrowed from Byzantium.

For a long time there was no pagination. Instead, the word that started the next page was written at the bottom right.

4. Old Russian literature and socio-political thought.

The acute journalistic nature of ancient Russian literature allows us to consider many literary works as monuments of socio-political thought. The leading genre of emerging literature was chronicle. Chronicles are the focus of the history of Ancient Rus', its ideology, understanding of its place in world history - they are one of the most important monuments of writing, literature, history, and culture in general. For compiling chronicles, i.e. weather reports of events, only the most literate, knowledgeable, wise people were taken, capable of not only presenting various events year after year, but also giving them an appropriate explanation, leaving for posterity a vision of the era as the chroniclers understood it.

The chronicle was a state matter, a princely matter. Therefore, the order to compile a chronicle was given not just to the most literate and intelligent person, but also to the one who would be able to implement ideas close to this or that princely branch, this or that princely house. Thus, the chronicler’s objectivity and honesty came into conflict with what we call “social order.” If the chronicler did not satisfy the tastes of his customer, they parted with him and transferred the compilation of the chronicle to another, more reliable, more obedient author. Alas, work for the needs of power arose already at the dawn of writing, and not only in Rus', but also in other countries.

Chronicles, according to the observations of domestic scientists, appeared in Rus' shortly after the introduction of Christianity. The first chronicle may have been compiled at the end of the 10th century. It was intended to reflect the history of Rus' from the time the new Rurik dynasty appeared there until the reign of Vladimir with his impressive victories, with the introduction of Christianity in Rus'. From this time on, the right and duty to keep chronicles were given to church leaders. It was in churches and monasteries that the most literate, well-prepared and trained people were found - priests and monks. They had a rich book heritage, translated literature, Russian records of ancient tales, legends, epics, traditions; They also had the grand ducal archives at their disposal. It was best for them to carry out this responsible and important work: to create a written historical monument era in which they lived and worked, connecting it with past times, with deep historical origins.

Scientists believe that before chronicles appeared - large-scale historical works covering several centuries of Russian history, there existed individual entries, including churches, oral histories, which initially served as the basis for the first generalizing works. These were stories about Kiev and the founding of Kiev, about the campaigns of Russian troops against Byzantium, about the journey of Princess Olga to Constantinople, about the wars of Svyatoslav, the legend about the murder of Boris and Gleb, as well as epics, lives of saints, sermons, traditions, songs, various kinds of legends .

Later, already during the existence of the chronicles, more and more new stories were added to them, tales about impressive events in Rus', such as the famous feud of 1097 and the blinding of the young prince Vasilko, or about the campaign of the Russian princes against the Polovtsians in 1111. The chronicle included in its composition and Vladimir Monomakh’s memoirs about life - his “Teachings to Children”.

The second chronicle was created under Yaroslav the Wise at the time when he united Rus' and founded the Church of Hagia Sophia. This chronicle absorbed the previous chronicle and other materials.

Already at the first stage of creating chronicles, it became obvious that they represent collective creativity, are a collection of previous chronicles, documents, and various types of oral and written historical evidence. The compiler of the next chronicle acted not only as the author of the corresponding newly written parts of the chronicle, but also as a compiler and editor. This and his ability to direct the idea of the arch in the right direction were highly valued by the Kyiv princes.

The next chronicle Code was created by the famous Hilarion, who wrote it, apparently under the name of the monk Nikon, in the 60-70s of the 11th century, after the death of Yaroslav the Wise. And then the Code appeared already during the time of Svyatopolk in the 90s of the 11th century.

The vault, which was taken up by the monk of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery Nestor and which entered our history under the name “The Tale of Bygone Years,” thus turned out to be at least the fifth in a row and was created in the first decade of the 12th century. at the court of Prince Svyatopolk. And each collection was enriched with more and more new materials, and each author contributed to it his talent, his knowledge, his erudition. Nestor's codex was in this sense the pinnacle of early Russian chronicle writing.

In the first lines of his chronicle, Nestor posed the question “Where did the Russian land come from, who was the first to reign in Kyiv, and where did the Russian land come from?” Thus, already in these first words of the chronicle it speaks of the large-scale goals that the author set for himself. And indeed, the chronicle did not become an ordinary chronicle, of which there were many in the world at that time - dry, dispassionately recording facts, but an excited story of the then historian, introducing philosophical and religious generalizations into the narrative, his own figurative system, temperament, his own style. Nestor depicts the origin of Rus', as we have already said, against the backdrop of the development of the entire world history. Rus' is one of the European nations.

Using previous codes and documentary materials, including, for example, treaties between Rus' and Byzantium, the chronicler develops a wide panorama of historical events that cover both the internal history of Rus' - the formation of all-Russian statehood with its center in Kiev, and international relationships Rus' with the surrounding world. Whole gallery historical figures takes place on the pages of the Nestor Chronicle - princes, boyars, mayors, thousands, merchants, church leaders. He talks about military campaigns, the organization of monasteries, the foundation of new churches and the opening of schools, religious disputes and reforms of internal Russian life. Nestor constantly concerns the life of the people as a whole, their moods, expressions of dissatisfaction with the princely policies. On the pages of the chronicle we read about uprisings, murders of princes and boyars, and brutal social battles. The author describes all this thoughtfully and calmly, trying to be objective, as objective as a deeply religious person can be, guided in his assessments by the concepts of Christian virtue and sin. But, frankly speaking, his religious assessments are very close to universal human assessments. Nestor condemns murder, betrayal, deception, perjury uncompromisingly, but extols honesty, courage, loyalty, nobility, and other wonderful human qualities. The entire chronicle was imbued with a sense of the unity of Rus' and a patriotic mood. All the main events in it were assessed not only from the point of view of religious concepts, but also from the standpoint of these all-Russian state ideals. This motive sounded especially significant on the eve of the beginning of the political collapse.

In 1116-1118 the chronicle was rewritten again. Vladimir Monomakh, who was then reigning in Kyiv, and his son Mstislav were dissatisfied with the way Nestor showed the role of Svyatopolk in Russian history, on whose order the “Tale of Bygone Years” was written in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. Monomakh took the chronicle from the Pechersk monks and transferred it to his ancestral Vydubitsky monastery. His abbot Sylvester became the author of the new Code. Positive assessments of Svyatopolk were moderated, and all the deeds of Vladimir Monomakh were emphasized, but the main body of the Tale of Bygone Years remained unchanged. And in the future, Nestor’s work was an indispensable component both in the Kiev chronicles and in the chronicles of individual Russian principalities, being one of the connecting threads for the entire Russian culture.

Later, with the political collapse of Rus' and the rise of individual Russian centers, the chronicle began to fragment. In addition to Kyiv and Novgorod, their own chronicle collections appeared in Smolensk, Pskov, Vladimir-on-Klyazma, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, Ryazan, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl-Russky. Each of them reflected the peculiarities of the history of its region, bringing its own princes to the fore. Thus, the Vladimir-Suzdal chronicles showed the history of the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod the Big Nest; Galician chronicle beginning of XIII V. became essentially a biography of the famous warrior prince Daniil Galitsky; the Chernigov branch of the Rurikovichs was mainly narrated in the Chernigov Chronicle. And yet, even in the local chronicles, all-Russian cultural origins were clearly visible. The history of each land was compared with the entire Russian history, the “Tale of Bygone Les” was an indispensable part of many local chronicle collections, some of them continued the tradition of Russian chronicle writing of the 11th century. So, shortly before the Mongol-Tatar invasion, at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. In Kyiv, a new chronicle was created, which reflected the events that took place in Chernigov, Galich, Vladimir-Suzdal Rus', Ryazan and other Russian cities. It is clear that the author of the code had at his disposal the chronicles of various Russian principalities and used them. The chronicler also knew European history well. He mentioned, for example, III crusade Frederick Barbarossa. In various Russian cities, including Kiev, in the Vydubitsky monastery, entire libraries of chronicle collections were created, which became sources for new historical works XII-XIII centuries.

The preservation of the all-Russian chronicle tradition was shown by the Vladimir-Suzdal chronicle code of the early 13th century, which covered the history of the country from the legendary Kiy to Vsevolod the Big Nest.

The oldest work of Russian literature, “The Tale of Law and Grace,” was written between 1037 and 1050. priest Hilarion. Using the form of a church sermon, he created a political treatise on the relations of Kievan Rus with the Khazars and Byzantium.

One of the first hagiographic works, “The Tale of Boris and Gleb,” is very different in genre from the canonical hagiography of the Byzantine type. This work can be considered a historical story with the exact names of the persons, facts, and places where the events unfolded.

5. The influence of Christianity on ancient Russian architecture.

Came to Rus' with Christianity cross-domed type of temple, the rectangular interior of which was divided by rows of pillars into longitudinal parts - naves (3.5 or more), four central pillars were connected by arches that supported a light drum, ending in a hemispherical dome. The eastern part of the building had an extension for

altar in the form of semicircles - apse. The transverse space in the western part of the temple is called the porch or narthex. Here, on the second tier, there were choirs, where the prince and his entourage were present during the service.

Although stone construction in Rus' was carried out mainly by Byzantine architects, these buildings differed from the Byzantine ones. Visiting craftsmen had to reckon with customers brought up in the traditions of wooden architecture. We also had to use unusual building materials. As a result, ancient Russian architecture already at an early stage had a unique character and in the second half of the 11th century. developed its own traditions.

6. Painting of Kievan Rus.

The art of Kievan Rus is connected with religion in theme, content and form. Therefore it is typical for him following canon, i.e. use of a stable set of plots, types images and compositions. Among the fine arts of the Old Russian state, the first place belongs to monumental painting - mosaic and fresco. Russian masters adopted the system of painting churches from the Byzantines, but folk art also influenced the formation of the language of ancient Russian painting. The mosaics covered the more symbolically important and most illuminated part of the cathedral - the central dome, the space under the dome, and the altar. The rest of the temple was decorated with frescoes. They depicted scenes from the life of Christ, the Mother of God, images of preachers, martyrs, etc.

In the 11th century many works were created easel painting– icon. The Kiev-Pechersk Patericon even retained the name of the famous Russian icon painter Alimpiy, but most of the works of this period (XI - early XII centuries) have not survived.

A special phenomenon of ancient Russian painting was the art of book writing. miniatures. The oldest Russian manuscript “Ostromir Gospel” (1056 – 1057) is decorated with images of evangelists, whose figures are similar to those of the apostles of Sophia of Kyiv.

Having absorbed and creatively processed various artistic influences, Kievan Rus created a system of all-Russian artistic values, which predetermined the development of the art of individual lands during the period of feudal fragmentation.

Conclusion.

Above we examined the features of the development of ancient Russian culture from the 9th to the 12th centuries. Summarize. So, the origins of Old Russian culture go back to the original culture of the East Slavic tribes of the pre-Kievan period. If we also take into account the local peculiarities of the development of culture in various regions, the diversity of cultural phenomena and forms that have come down to us from that era will become clear. And yet they have a lot in common.

Among the most common features of ancient Russian culture is the strong influence of religion on all spheres of culture. Moreover, in the conditions of a long struggle between two structures, patriarchal and feudal, there was a struggle between two forms of religious worldview - pagan and Christian. This left a stamp of inconsistency and duality on the entire Russian culture.

Another significant feature is the traditionalism of ancient Russian culture - a feature associated with the dominance of conservative forms of management of the bulk of the agricultural population of Rus'.

As noted in previous chapters, Russian culture developed under the influence of external contacts. But, having adopted new forms, Russian architects, icon painters, chroniclers, and master craftsmen enriched them with their own national features.

Bibliography.

1. Balakina T.I. History of Russian culture. M., 1993.

2. Budovnits I.U. Socio-political thought of Ancient Rus' (XI – XIV centuries). M., 1960.

3. Vzdornov G.I. Byzantium and Rus'. M., 1989.

4. Rybakov B.A. World of history. M., 1984.

5. Issues of the formation of the Russian nationality and nation. Digest of articles. – Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, M-L., 1958;

6. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century / Ed. A.N. Sakharova, A.P. Novoseltsev. – M., 1996;

7. Ryabtsev Yu.S. Journey to Ancient Rus': Stories about Russian culture. – M., VLADOS, 1995.

Rybakov B.A. World of history. M., 1984.

They read and guessed (Staroslav.).

Writing Slavic words using the Greek alphabet.

Type of church literature - biographies.

The oldest form of accumulation of knowledge about the past was oral folk traditions: epics, fairy tales, legends, oral folk art. They may contain chronological inaccuracies, displacement of historical events, but they give a popular assessment of the event (from the position of the people).

The emergence of writing was of great importance for the accumulation of knowledge, which made it possible to record knowledge and transfer it to subsequent generations (calf skin, birch bark, the first library of Yaroslav the Wise).

Writing was concentrated in the hands of the ruling class – affected the assessment of events. With the adoption of Christianity, the church's monopoly on the creation of spiritual values is established. Written works were written in monasteries, later they began to be created in government institutions. The authors were clergy.

In Rus', the first works were chronicles, in which events were described by “years” - years. Establishing a chronology was a big step forward. Sometimes the chronicles included various stories, legends, tales that could exist separately from the chronicles. In Rus', chronicle writing began in the 11th century (at the end of the 10th century).

Around 1113, the largest work, PVL, was created in the Kiev-Pechora Monastery. In some lists the author is called monk Nestor. This is the largest work of pre-Mongol Rus'. Everything opens with a historical and ethnographic introduction, in which the author wrote about the settlement of the Slavs, about the life and way of life of tribes, about the fight against nomads.

The Tale of Bygone Years as a historical source

In the PVL under 862, a legend was given about the calling of the Varangians to Rus'. The legend was included for the following reasons:

1) The struggle of Rus' with Byzantium. The chronicler sought to show the groundlessness of Byzantium's claim to Russian lands.

2) A tribute to the then tradition, since at that time an explanation for every new event was sought outside the country, or sent by God.

During the period of feudal fragmentation, local chronicles also appeared (more than a dozen centers - in almost all principalities and lands). In the local chronicles appear and specific features, but there were also common points. The Pskov chronicles are similar to military chronicles (but this was the main one due to the specific geographical location). The Novgorod chronicles are more like a city chronicle. The Vladimir-Suzdal chronicles were of a distinctly religious nature, which was then adopted by the Moscow chronicles (XIV century).

During the formation of a unified Moscow state, local chronicles disappeared, giving way to a single Russian chronicle. In the era of Ivan the Terrible, a written order appeared, where all documents from the field were received.

Historical events were also contained in many other literary works of Ancient Rus' - “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, military stories - “The Tale of the Battle of Mamayev”, “The Tale of Batu’s Ruin”.

In the XIV – XV centuries. All-Russian works appeared, which were called “chronicle collections”. This is also a chronicle, but somewhat broader. The most famous are the Nikon and Resurrection Chronicles (all-Russian works).

In the 16th century, absolutism gradually emerged - the need for a historical justification for its emergence and dominance. Chronicles in these conditions did not meet the requirements of the time - chronicles gradually disappeared.

New works: in the era of Ivan the Terrible, the “Book of the Powerful Royal Genealogy” was created (author unknown). For the first time, the question of the emergence of royal power was raised (the idea of the divine origin of power was pursued). For many years, the topic of the origin of power took first place in historical science.

At the same time, the Facial Code was created in 10 volumes - an illustrated code of world history, starting from the birth of Christ to the last years. There were 16,000 illustrations. Author unknown

In the era of Ivan the Terrible, a number of historical works, designed to justify the royal power and its actions: “History of the Kazan Kingdom.” The letters of Elder Philotheus from the Elizarov Monastery were significant - he sent letters to the Moscow princes with the idea “Moscow is the third Rome.”

A turning point in the development of historical knowledge began at the beginning of the 17th century. This was expressed in a series of journalistic works devoted to the events of troubled times. They wore mixed character– among them were stories and eyewitness accounts of the events. They were actively covered in chronographs (the chronograph appeared at the end of the 16th century, developed in the 17th century, it is close to the chronicle, but there the events of Russian history were closely linked with world history). At the center of the authors of works of the 17th century is the question of the reasons for what happened, the reasons for the Time of Troubles. Very often, authors attributed the cause of the Time of Troubles to the dynastic crisis. This trend was especially evident in the chronograph of 1617. He gave the official interpretation. The culprit of the troubles was called Boris Godunov, who killed Tsarevich Dmitry. As a result, the people became disobedient (there was no legitimate government), uprisings began, and then the interventionists came. This is still a rationalistic approach. Only the restoration of legitimate power through the popular election of Mikhail Romanov returned order to Russia. Here the idea of popular election (new for history) was added to the question of the origin of power.

It was clearly evident that history was becoming more and more pragmatic - “edifying”. People had to learn lessons from the past. At this time, a church schism also occurred, which led to the appearance of schismatic texts from the official church (differences in assessments of events). The schismatics or Old Believers were the first critics of official historiography (the most striking work is “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by himself”).

In the 17th century, the country was approaching a new milestone.

Lecture 4. ANCIENT RUSSIAN LITERATURE (XI – XVII centuries)

Chronological framework and periodization of ancient Russian literature.

Features, themes, genres of Old Russian literature.

Russian chronicles as a unique phenomenon of world culture. “The Tale of Bygone Years.”

“The Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion.

Today we, according to the author of the late XII - early XIII centuries. Daniel the Sharper, “Let us sound, brothers, like a golden trumpet, into the mind of our mind, and begin to beat the silver organs for the message of wisdom, and let us strike the tambourines of our mind, singing into God-inspired pipes, so that soulful thoughts may cry out in us.” (According to Troitsky) Literature is literature in Russian, the art of words. “Russian literature has always been one of those sacred things, in communication with which a person became purer and better.<...>she was always the pulpit from which the teaching word was heard.<...>Russian literature is the center of manifestation of the Russian spirit, the focus in which the best qualities of the Russian mind and heart converge,” wrote the prominent Russian scientist S.A. Vengerov in 1907. In language and domestic literature they focus internal forces people and basic principles national identity, against which the actions of the destroyers of Russia are directed.

1. Chronological framework and periodization of ancient Russian literature.

(According to Bychkov) Old Russian literature is the literature of the Russian Middle Ages. The concept of “Middle Ages” (medium aevum) established itself in the period separating late antiquity from modern times, and arose in the circles of Italian humanists. Both in Western Europe and in Rus' under medieval culture is understood as a culture that was formed under the influence of the Christian worldview and expressed it with the utmost completeness in all its main phenomena, those. This is a fundamentally religious, Christian, Orthodox culture. The identity of the Russian Middle Ages is determined by:

1) ethnic and national features of the development of ancient (pre-Christian) East Slavic culture;

2) the originality of the socio-political history of Rus' in the ancient and medieval periods;

3) adoption of the Orthodox religion.

The chronological framework of Ancient Rus' (and Old Russian literature) is the period from Christianization (the turn ofX – XIcenturies) until the reign of PeterI(frontierXVII – XVIIIcenturies) Sometimes the last 17th century. considered as transitional (within the medieval period) to the New Age. In cultural terms, this is a time of active familiarization of Rus' with Christian values, and through them with the values accumulated and created by the ancient peoples of the Middle East, Greece, Rome, Byzantium; this is the time of the formation of national spiritual foundations, the formation of an original worldview and high artistic culture.LiteratureXI – XVIIcenturies - Orthodox literature intended to nourish the new Orthodox people.

Unlike Western Europe, where a prominent, if not the main, place was occupied by theological and philosophical thinking - scholasticism, in Rus', rational-verbal forms of expressing the essential content of culture, its deep wisdom, did not find application. Religious and artistic-aesthetic forms turned out to be the most adequate for this purpose, therefore they received special development on Russian soil and reached an amazing flowering. Among religious phenomena, the main one is holiness, which became a kind of “face” of the entire ancient Russian culture: it firmly entered history as Holy Rus', although there was no less unholy and blasphemous in it than in other regions. However, in Rus' holiness received such clear forms and such a height and purity of sound that it eclipsed, or rather, removed and transformed many negative phenomena for subsequent generations.

In the artistic and aesthetic sphere the essence of ancient Russian culture is most fully expressed by two phenomena: spirituality(inherited from Byzantium) and sophia – the unity of wisdom, beauty and holiness, which arose on the basis of a synthesis of mythological (non-verbalizable, i.e. non-verbal) consciousness and the main paradigms of Christian spiritual culture.

Periodization:(according to Kuskov)

1) literature of Kievan Rus (XI– 1st halfXIIIc.), during this period great importance has translated and liturgical literature;

2) literature from the period of the struggle for unification (2nd halfXIII – XVc.), the main ideas of the period are patriotism, the need for strong princely power;

3) literature of a centralized state (XVI – XVIIcenturies), unification takes place regional literature into a single all-Russian one, the concept of “Moscow - the Third Rome” is formulated, all-Russian chronicle and hagiographic vaults are created (“Front vault”, “Step Book”, “Great Chetya-Menaion” of Metropolitan Macarius); At the same time, there is a growth in secular tendencies, secularization and desacralization of literature are taking place.

2. Features, themes, genres of Old Russian literature.

(According to Likhachev) Books in Ancient Rus' were extremely highly valued. “The benefit of bookish teaching is great; through books we learn the path of repentance, we gain wisdom and abstinence. These are the rivers that water the universe, these are the sources of wisdom, they have innumerable depths, we are comforted by them in sorrow, they are the bridle of abstinence,” wrote the ancient Russian scribe (PVL, under 1037) Preparation for reading occupied a serious place in Rus': as it is written in one of the words of Izmaragda, when preparing to read or listen to a book, one had to pray to God so that “the eyes of the heart” would be opened and in order to fulfill what was read in one’s life. Lengthy titles and emotional warnings (“the story is touching”), and sometimes prefaces to works served to set the reader or listener in the right mood: “Come, honest and holy fasting class, come fathers and brethren, come idle lovers, come spiritual sheep, come Christ-named flock ....” Reading books was part of everyday life, in many cases it was associated with ritual and custom, so not every work could be read at all times. Medieval literature was closely connected with its use in everyday life - ecclesiastical and secular. The main keepers and copyists of books were monks.

Features of Old Russian literature determined by the conditions of its development. The most important feature is the lack of differentiation and unity of literature with other spheres of knowledge - religion, philosophy, science. Hence its connection with folklore, with church and business writing, with elements of historiosophy and philosophy, science. Another feature is handwritten character existence and distribution. At the same time, works of ancient Russian literature existed in the form of more or less large associations - collections, among them: Paterik (Fatherland), Chetii-Minea (readings by month, according to the calendar principle), Chronograph (chronicle), Chronicle, Vertograd (garden), Chrysostom , Zlatostruy, Golden Chain, Bee, Izmaragd (collections of moralizing content), etc. Anonymity– copyright, as in folklore, did not exist). The names of some “scribes” (copyists of books) are known, who were not copyists, but editors, everyone added something, omitted something. But sermons, as a rule, are original.

Features of the artistic method:

1)symbolism, conditioned by the doubling of the world inherent in medieval thinking (the visible world and the world comprehended by “spiritual eyes”); as the pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite taught, “manifest things are truly images of invisible things,” natural phenomena, historical events, human actions are filled with symbolic meaning, a symbol is a means of finding truth, this determines the role of symbolic metaphors and comparisons; Christian symbolism is intertwined with folk poetry, an example from the Lay of Igor’s Campaign:

“Isn’t it foolish for us, brethren,

start with old words of difficult stories

about Igor's regiment, Igor Svyatoslavlich?

Let that song begin according to the epics of this time,

and not according to Boyanu’s plans.

Boyan is prophetic, if anyone wants to create a song,

then the thought spreads across the tree, (verbose)

like a gray wolf on the ground, (pulled from everywhere)

like a crazy eagle under the clouds. (pompous)

2) traditionalismand hindsight - references to texts of Scripture that are interpreted not only historically, but also allegorically and analogically, i.e. the events of the Old Testament are analogues of modern times; this leads, as in folklore, to a special improvisational nature of literary creativity, to its collectivity; This is how Metropolitan Hilarion glorifies Prince Vladimir:

Oh, like the great Constantine,

equal-minded, equally loving of Christ,

who equally honors His servants!

He and the holy fathers of the Council of Nicaea established the law for people,

but you, often meeting with our new fathers, bishops,

conferred with deep humility,

how to establish a law among these people who have newly come to know the Lord.

He conquered the kingdom of the Hellenes and Romans to God, but you - Rus'.

And not only among them, but also among us, Christ is called king.

He and his mother Elena brought the cross from Jerusalem,

Having spread it all over the world, he confirmed the faith.

You and your grandmother Olga,

bringing the cross from the new Jerusalem, the city of Constantine,

Having placed it throughout his entire land, he established the faith,

for you are like him.

Participant in the same honor and glory with him

The Lord created you in heaven,

according to your good faith,

what have you had in your life?

3) canonicity, etiquette, ritualism; looking at the samples, the author does not allow “self-thinking”, fiction, his task is to convey the image of the Truth; it is as if he is performing a certain ritual, he strives not to amaze the reader with novelty, but to calm and “bewitch” familiarity; surprises are also undesirable, as in any rites and ceremonies; decorum, orderliness - characteristics public life Middle Ages, maintaining order - decorum, beauty, otherwise disorder - withoutó ugliness and disgraceá arrogance;

4) historicism as the absence of fiction and as a connection with history; fiction, from a medieval point of view, is equal to a lie, which is unacceptable, hence the attachment to a specific historical fact or person; This is how the Tale of Bygone Years begins:

“After the flood, the three sons of Noah divided the earth - Shem, Ham, Japheth. And Shem got the east: Persia, Bactria, even to India<...>Ham got the south: Egypt, Ethiopia, neighboring India<...>Japheth got the northern and western countries: Media, Albania, Armenia Lesser and Greater<...>In the Afetova part sit Rus', Chud and all the languages: Merya, Muroma, Ves, Mordovians, Zavolochskaya Chud, Perm, Pechera, Yam, Ugra, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Letgola, Lib (Livs). The Poles and the Prussians seem to live by the Varangian Sea.<...>Afetov is also that tribe: Varangians, Swedes, Normans, Goths, Rus', Angles, Galicians, Volokhs, Romans, Germans, Korlyazis, Venetians, Fryags and others, they are adjacent to the southern countries in the west and neighbors with the Ham tribe.”

5) citizenship and patriotism– the idea of serving one’s native land (“a poet in Russia is more than a poet”), special seriousness, attention to the main issues of life and high ideals; Here is an example from Metropolitan Hilarion’s “Sermon on Law and Grace”:

He praises with praiseworthy voices

Roman country of Peter and Paul,

from them they believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

Asia and Ephesus and Paum - John the Theologian;

India - Thomas, Egypt - Mark.

All countries, cities, and people

everyone honors and glorifies their teachers,

that he taught them the Orthodox faith.

Let us also praise, according to our strength,

with small praises he has created great and wondrous things

our teacher and mentor

the great sovereign of our land Vladimir,

grandson of old Igor,

the son of the glorious Svyatoslav.

Those in the years of their dominion

they became famous for their courage and bravery in many countries,

and victories and strength are now remembered

and are glorified.

For they did not rule in a bad and unknown land,

but in Russian,

that is known and heard

all four ends of the earth.

As D.S. Likhachev wrote, “Old Russian literature can be considered as literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life.”

The problem of genres.(According to Likhachev) Common ideas that Rus' borrowed the genres of its literature from Byzantium and Bulgaria are only partly true: Rus' borrowed what suited its social needs and created something independently. Thus, Rus' did not borrow either poetic genres or court chronicles from Byzantium.

Genre indications in the manuscripts are extremely diverse: alphabet book, alphabet, conversation, being, memoirs (about signs and wonders of the icon), chapters, double words, act, dialogue, life, life and life, testament, covenants, election, selection, confession, history, chronicle, chronicle, chronicler, prayer, denunciation, description, answer, memory, story, disgrace, testimony, praise, debate, parable, reflection, speech, legend, word, dispute, creation, interpretation, reading, etc. (within a hundred ). In addition, under the same name there can be completely different works (The Lay of Igor's Campaign and the Lay of Law and Grace). Finally, Old Russian works often combined several genres and were composite. The reason for this is that the basis for the genre was not the literary features of the presentation, but the subject itself, the theme of the work: Vision of Gregory, Torment of Varvara, Walking of Afanasy Nikitin. Only gradually did the subject of the story acquire literary features, which should have been associated with according to medieval etiquette, i.e. became its own genre definition.

System of genres of ancient Russian literaturehierarchical, at the highest level is liturgical literature, for which writing was created:

1) liturgical literature - Holy Scripture, hymnography, words,related to the interpretation of Scripture, clarification of the meaning of holidays (Celebrants);

2) transitional genres from church to secular ones - Words-sermons, lives (Prologues, Patericon, Chetia-Minea, the original genre of princely life), Walking (pilgrimage literature);

actually worldly genres:

3) historical story, legend, legend;

4) educational literature (Teachings, Domostroy);

5) educational collections (Physiologist, Cosmography of Kozma Indikoplova,“Confession in brief, how and for the sake of which the Latin was excommunicated from us...”).

D.S. Likhachev owns such a visible image: if we compare literary genres with the types of weapons in the army, then we can say that the army of medieval literature was distinguished by the abundance and variety of weapons. All types of weapons bear various signs: here are banners, external crosses and icons of church genres; and various banners and banners - secular. Each type of weapon is dressed in its own uniform, i.e. has its own stylistic structure, “uniform”. The literary army had enormous power of resistance and did not admit works of alien genres, protecting itself from the influx of genres of translated literature that were not related to the book circulation of Ancient Rus'.

The oldest Russian handwritten books that have reached us date back to the 2nd half of the 11th century: this Ostromirovo (Novgorod mayor) Gospel 1056 - 1057, Izbornik 1073, Izbornik Svyatoslav 1076,

3. Russian chronicles are a unique phenomenon of world culture.

For several centuries they have been the ideological core connecting the past and the present, supporting the idea of the unity of the people and statehood. The chronicle tree branched across cities and lands, the eternal and the transitory alternated on parchment sheets. Much perished, but even now it is a huge wealth. “Boris Godunov” by Pushkin, the image of a chronicler.

One more, last saying -

And my chronicle is finished.

The duty commanded by God has been fulfilled

Me, a sinner. No wonder many years

The Lord has made me a witness

And taught the art of books.

Someday the monk is hardworking

Will find my diligent, nameless work,

He will light his lamp, like me -

And, shaking off the dust of centuries from the charters,

He will rewrite true stories,

May the descendants of the Orthodox know

The native land has a past fate,

They commemorate their great kings

For their labors, for glory, for good -

And for sins, for dark deeds

They humbly implore the Savior.

“The Tale of Bygone Years." Chronicles are books of judgment. The chronicle is a record of events over the years, analogues are Byzantine chronicles and Western European annals. The chronicle is a collection. The basis is PVL. The oldest lists are the Lavrenievskaya (end of the 14th century) and Ipatievskaya (beginning of the 15th century) chronicles. There are many questions: why did you write? Why did you correspond? secular genre or church? If secular, why then were they conducted in monasteries and episcopal sees? If church, why do they primarily describe events of a worldly nature? On the other hand, there are many signs, constant reminders of sins. Why “empty” years-lines when nothing happens: “In the summer of 6530. In the summer of 6531. In the summer of 6532...” History - from the Creation of the world to the Last Judgment.

From the Apocalypse: “And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it.<...>And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were desecrated<...>and judgment was received by the dead from those written in the books according to their deeds (Ap., ch. 20, 11 - 12). Everyone faces a small judgment (by death) and a Last Judgment. When? Last Judgment was expected in 7000 from S.M., i.e. in 1492, before this year the Paschalia was compiled. Those. the chronicle, like the Easter tables, had a time limit of 1492. After it - the end of the world and the Last Judgment. The chronicle had the character of preparation for the end of the world. Chronicles are books about the earthly deeds of Christians; the task is to record what was done, done by the will of people, and above all princes, endowed with power from God, for God’s judgment is carried out according to actions. Chronicles are judgmental, conscientious, knowing, proclaiming books. The main goal is to convey news before the Last Judgment. Therefore, lies and fiction are impossible; only the truth could be written.

Chronicles - the books of Genesis. Temporary (final, transitory) or temporary (former)? Not eternally existing, transitory, ending.

From the 16th century – another historical concept is spreading: not 7 millennia, but three kingdoms. History begins by kingdom - chronograph, another genre.

4. “The Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion.

Full title.

Introduction. The Law of Moses and the Grace of Christ.

1 hour Law (unfreedom) and Grace (freedom)

2 hours New people– Russians

3 hours. Praise to Prince Vladimir.

4 hours Prayer of Hilarion to Prince Vladimir

Literature

Bychkov V.V. Russian medieval aesthetics of the 11th – 17th centuries. M., 1992.

History of Old Russian literature of the 11th – 17th centuries. Ed. Likhacheva D.S. M., 1985.

Kuskov V.V. History of Old Russian Literature. M., 1989.

Likhachev D.S. Development of Russian literature X – XVII centuries. L., 1987.

Uzhankov A.N. Russian Chronicles and the Last Judgment. M., 1995.

Uzhankov A.N. A Word about Law and Grace by Hilarion of Kyiv. M., 1995.

Lecture 5. RUSSIAN CITY

The main features of Russian urban planning.

Symbolic images Kyiv.

Moscow is the ancient center of the Vyatichi Slavs.

Moscow is a monument of urban planning art.

(The dotted line is what is dictated and written down)

1. The main features of Russian urban planning.

In the Scandinavian sagas, Rus' is called Gardarika - the country of cities. “City” then meant a fortified place; cut down a city - surround a place with a fence, wooden or stone wall. In Rus', cities were built from the 10th century, to the middle of the 13th century. there were about 300 – 400 cities. The most ancient Russian cities: Kyiv, Chernigov, Smolensk, Belgorod, Pereyaslavl, Ladoga, Novgorod, Suzdal, Tver, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Pereslavl Zalessky, Yuryev Polskoy, Dmitrov, Mozhaisk…

Recorded in a medieval city two main parts: the internal fortified core (Detinets, Krom, Kremlin, called the Kremlin from the 14th century) androundabout town, foothills, posad, with an outer belt of fortifications. From a functional point of view, the city is a control center. Parts of a medieval city :

fortress,

The fortress houses:

cathedral church,

boyars' yards,

administrative institutions,

outside the fortress are:

crafts garden,

bargain.

Features of the Russian city :

the presence of a subordinate agricultural volost, which is the material basis for the growth of the city;

close ties with the agricultural district (even some of the townspeople were engaged in agriculture, the peasants of the surrounding villages hid in the city fortifications in case of danger);

boyars, owners of vast estates, lived in the city, not in castles(as in feudal Europe);

growth of the city due to the suburbs, new suburbs, and not due to new centers(as in feudal Europe - a polycentric structure);

unity with nature and the rural environment - through-plane buildings, earthen ramparts, wooden walls and houses, several gates, front gardens on estates(while in feudal Europe, the shortage of land led to multi-story and close-knit – wall to wall – buildings: “stone bag”);

suburban monastery - a miniature model of a city, which included suburban agricultural land (gardens, meadows).

Sensitivity to beauty is reflected in the news of the chronicles about the creation of some cities that were built where “the place is beautiful.” In Dytinets, the main monumental building is the cathedral, where services were held, the treasury and library were kept; Here they placed the prince on the throne, gathered to resolve important issues, and carried out other worldly functions. It is not for nothing that in Russian churches refectories have developed so much, which sometimes exceed the area of the liturgical premises themselves. As a rule, the cathedral occupied an exceptional position: it stood on an outstanding, sanctified by tradition, beautiful place and was a spiritual and spatial landmark, a social center, the embodiment of the unity of parishioners. This is the main public building that belonged to the entire city, a common last refuge, a citywide symbol: “Where St. Sophia is, there is Novgorod,” the Novgorodians said. Detinets did not resist the posad, opened up to him, communicated with him through the fortress gates. Between the Kremlin and the posad there was a trade market - a connecting link between the city elite and the broad craft and trade strata; Often there was a church at the auction, the presence of which restrained passions; trade standards were kept in the church. Surrounded by low wooden, see-through buildings (the houses did not stand close to each other), churches were noticeable landmarks throughout the city, landmarks. Streets are paths. The center was sometimes marked by the intersection of main roads, often at cardinal points.

Most common in the 10th – 13th centuries. cape-type cities, at the confluence of rivers or the connection of ravines, they attached special importance to strengthening the floor side. Types of planning schemes:

cross-shaped intersection of main roads directed to the cardinal directions- this type was common in ancient cities and in Byzantium, in Rus', it is represented by the layout of the center of Kyiv (the city of Yaroslav, which was created by “Greek masters”);

linear plan - subordination to the main direction along natural lines– river banks, ravine, hill ridge (layout of Kyiv Podil);

radial-concentric, branched type: the street network formed like rays from the detinets, trades and gates, the rays were connected to each other by concentric directions; in the gate areas, secondary beams of rays appeared from radius streets; the most common type in Rus' .

Most often there was a combination of different systems. At the same time, Rus' is characterized by picturesqueness, irregularity, avoidance of parallelism and right angles, and consideration of ensemble even when oriented in churches, the altars of which are often not placed exactly to the east.

2. Symbolic images of Kyiv.

The Russian city arose and was built from functional and pragmatic needs, but it also embodied symbolic functions. The Greek word "symbol" is a sign, sign, purpose, celestial phenomenon. The symbol has a conventional meaning for those who know its content, i.e. you need to become familiar with the content and form of the symbol. Many phenomena of the pagan world had a symbolic nature, the conventionality and mystery of the meanings of cultural phenomena, i.e. symbolism are also characteristic of the Christian Middle Ages. With the adoption of Christianity, symbolic ideas about the temple, city, earth as the creation of God were transferred to Rus'; they were embodied in the first Christian capital of Rus' - ancient Kyiv.

Kyiv is the oldest Russian city, “the mother of Russian cities,” which is a tracing paper (i.e., translation by component parts) of the Greek word “metropolis.” He stood on the high banks of the Dnieper, at the intersection of great waterways, connecting Byzantium with the West, was the capital of a powerful state that owned a vast territory. The people of Kiev ("kiyans", i.e. descendants of the legendary Kiy) conducted extensive trade, sending honey, amber, wax, furs down the rivers, and from Constantinople they brought silks, luxury goods, and works of art. In the X – XI centuries. Great Kyiv was one of the richest cities in Europe - larger than Paris (80 thousand inhabitants) and twice as large as the then small London. Kyiv reached its true prosperity under Yaroslav the Wise (1016 – 1054), under him Kyiv became the largest center of the arts. Yaroslav the Wise knew 5 languages, read “day and night,” and collected a library of hundreds of volumes. His wife is the daughter of the Swedish king Olaf, and his daughters were married to the Norwegian, Hungarian, and French kings. Anna Yaroslavna, Queen of France, knew 3 languages, signed the marriage contract herself (unlike the groom, who signed a cross). Written literacy in pre-Mongol Rus' was generally quite common, as evidenced by the prevalence and content of birch bark letters, among which there are messages from husbands and wives to each other, business and economic records of traders, artisans and peasants, study notebooks of a 13th-century Novgorod boy. Onfima, love messages. Yaroslav the Wise launched a grandiose construction project in Kyiv, the purpose of which was to build the young capital in the image of the house of the Wisdom of God. Here began the embodiment of the idea of the Russian land as an image of the “promised land” of the Kingdom of Heaven, “New Jerusalem”, which received its complete embodiment in Moscow.

Everyone knows that Kyiv was built in the image of Constantinople and Constantinople. But in certain ways he imitated Jerusalem. In his “Sermon on Law and Grace,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev directly called “Constantine City” the “New Jerusalem,” and compared Yaroslav the Wise with Solomon: after all, Yaroslav in Kiev did the same as Solomon in Jerusalem - he built new fortress walls with four gates and in the center of the walls - a majestic temple (St. Sophia Cathedral). Such comparisons tell us that the city as a whole and its structural elements acquired, in addition to the usual, sacred, symbolic meaning . Fortress walls are not only defensive structures, but also an image of divine power, spiritual protection. At the same time, the configuration of the walls, the number of towers, the number of gates, and the dedication of gate or tower churches had a spiritual and symbolic meaning. As a rule, the number of gates was determined by the sacred number: one, two, four, eight, twelve. The gates (sometimes the towers) had icons on the outside and inside, and lamps often burned in front of them. Thus, the walls of the city seemed to testify to hopes not only for the strength of the material walls, but also for the strength of God and the prayers of the saints who invisibly guard this city.

The Golden Gate of Kyiv in the minds of the Russians had as its prototype not only, as everyone knows, Constantinople, but also Jerusalem: through the Golden Gate Christ entered Jerusalem a week before the Resurrection. They were not only and not just the main ones, ceremonial, but also saints (sometimes they were called that); On the Golden Gate in Kiev, the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected: the event of the Good News to the Virgin Mary about the birth of the Savior - the beginning of the Gospel (Annunciation), the “entry” of the Son of God into the human world. The Golden Gate led to the main shrine of Kyiv - St. Sophia Cathedral. In this regard, Kyiv began to be imitated by Novgorod (with its Sofia), the second capital of Rus' - Vladimir (with “Kyiv” names, the Assumption Cathedral of the “Sophia” type, the Golden Gate), other princely centers, and finally Moscow.

They compared the ancient Russian Christian city to the Palestinian Jerusalem and the worship mountains, were in Kyiv, Vladimir, Novgorod, Moscow and almost all large Russian cities and monasteries. This is a clear parallel to the “worship” mountain near Jerusalem, described by the Russian pilgrim Abbot Daniel at the beginning of the 12th century in his “Walking”: “...And there is a flat mountain there near the road, at a distance of about a mile from Jerusalem, - on "All the people dismount from their horses on that mountain, bow down there, and worship the Holy Resurrection at the sight of Jerusalem. And then there is great joy for every Christian at the sight of the holy city of Jerusalem, and tears flow here from the believing people." The Poklonnye Mountains of Russian cities are also hills from which travelers first saw the city in its entirety and where they, too, getting off their horses and carts, prayed and worshiped the city. From Poklonnaya Mountain, the traveler had a beautiful panorama dominated by the domes and bell towers of temples, monasteries, fortress walls with gate churches and towers. The ancient Russian city was perceived by people not just as a residential, commercial or craft center(where they went with ordinary everyday needs) , but also as a shrine, a holy city, an object of prayerful worship, similar to Jerusalem. Thus, the city was the place of the mysterious presence and stay of the Heavenly King of Glory, in other words, an architectural image of the Heavenly City and the Heavenly Church.

The city had its own geometric or symbolic center, which was marked by a certain open, frontal place, which is also a translation from the Greek “Golgotha”. Festive prayers were served here, and sermons, princely messages and decrees were addressed to the people. In Rome, such a city center was the Milliarium, from which all distances in the empire were measured. In Kyiv, the place of execution was located on the square near St. Sophia.

But Constantinople was built not only “in the image” of Jerusalem, but, above all, “in the image” of Rome as the traditional capital of the empire. Therefore, Constantinople is the “New” or “Second Rome”, and Moscow will be the “Third Rome”. So, Russian capitals from time immemorial acquired a double meaning - church, saint and political, power centers. Two “images”—Jerusalem and Roman—corresponded to the dual unity of spiritual and carnal nature in man, the dual unity of church and state power in Christian society. Since ancient times, the Russian city has been consciously organized - in the image of real historical holy cities, and through them - in the image of the coming Heavenly Kingdom.