For my work, I chose the theme “Old Russian literature as an outstanding cultural phenomenon”. In the library, I found a small amount of literature about this period. But, looking through books on ancient Russian literature, I learned a lot of new things for myself, and also drew attention to the fact that many famous people, scientists, academicians were interested in the literature of this period. Old Russian literature occupies seven centuries (the period of the 11th-18th centuries), and this is a very long period. I will tell you about a short period of the XI-beginning of the XIII century. I learned that Peter I was interested in ancient Russian literature, he even issued a decree on the collection of various manuscripts on parchment and paper from monasteries and churches. On the personal instructions of the king, a copy of the Radzivilov Chronicle was made. Companion of Peter I historian V.N. Tatishchev continued to collect manuscripts and annals. I learned about many other scientists who devoted their lives to the study of ancient Russian literature. These are such scientists as: Rumyantsev, Stroev, Buslaev, Pynin, Orlov, Chess, Likhachev and others. But they were not only engaged in the study, they collected manuscripts, tried to study them and bring them to people, write and publish their works.
I learned that Russian literature of the X-XVII centuries. developed under unique conditions. She was handwritten. And printing has hardly changed the way literary works are distributed. Until the 17th century, all works were distributed by correspondence. I also learned that the scribes who copied made their own corrections, changes, shortened manuscripts, or added their own to what was written.
Cognition, study of the past is very responsible, the heroic pages of history are dear to us.
In my work, I will consider the issue of the emergence of ancient Russian literature, which will help to find out the historical conditions and causes of its occurrence. Knowing this, I will try to explain its genre system, talk about the complex relationship of literature with the church. I will touch on writing a little, talk about the Slavic alphabet and literacy schools. Also, using the example of The Tale of Bygone Years and The Tale of Igor's Campaign, I will tell about the heroic pages in literature, about the ideas that found their expression in the descriptions of the heroic struggle of Russian people against foreign invaders, about the views of writers of that time, about their wisdom and optimism . I will tell you about the diversity of genres of ancient Russian literature, the periodization of history, the broad outlook of writers and readers. And also about the high skill of ancient Russian writers, about the peculiarities of the poetics of literature.
Without knowing this, it is impossible to correctly assess the level of literature of the Russian Middle Ages. There were no fictions in ancient Russian literature: its heroes were historical figures (princes, tsars, church ministers, warrior heroes), and real events (battles, battles) were the subject of the image.
And in conclusion of my work I will describe the world of ancient Russian literature. Where the main idea is highlighted that literature was a means of knowledge and a means of educating a person. Literature is the art of the word, it enriches the aesthetic experience of a person, helps a person to know himself, reveals the reasons for human actions and words. On the heroic examples of this literature, we learn to be truthful, courageous, to be obedient, to respect elders.
There have been and still are many peoples on earth, each of which has its own special and unique culture.
Chapter 1. Old Russian literature as part of culture.
1.1 The emergence of Old Russian literature.
At the end of the 10th century, the literature of Ancient Rus' arose, the literature on the basis of which the literature of the three fraternal peoples developed - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Old Russian literature arose along with the adoption of Christianity and was originally called upon to serve the needs of the church: to provide a church rite, to disseminate information on the history of Christianity, to educate societies in the spirit of Christianity. These tasks determined both the genre system of literature and the features of its development.
The adoption of Christianity had significant consequences for the development of books and literature of Ancient Rus'.
Old Russian literature was formed on the basis of a unified literature of the southern and eastern Slavs, which arose under the influence of Byzantine and ancient Bulgarian culture.
Bulgarian and Byzantine priests who came to Rus' and their Russian students needed to translate and rewrite books that were necessary for worship. And some books brought from Bulgaria were not translated, they were read in Rus' without translation, since there was a closeness of the Old Russian and Old Bulgarian languages. Liturgical books, lives of saints, monuments of eloquence, chronicles, collections of sayings, historical and historical stories were brought to Rus'. Christianization in Rus' required a restructuring of the worldview, books about the history of the human race, about the ancestors of the Slavs were rejected, and Russian scribes needed essays that would set out Christian ideas about world history, about natural phenomena.
Although the need for books in the Christian state was very great, the possibilities to meet this need were very limited: in Rus' there were few skilled scribes, and the writing process itself was very long, and the material on which the first books were written - parchment - was very expensive. . Therefore, books were written only for rich people - princes, boyars and the church.
But before the adoption of Christianity in Rus', Slavic writing was known. It found application in diplomatic (letters, treaties) and legal documents, there was also a census between literate people.
Before the emergence of literature, there were speech genres of folklore: epic tales, mythological legends, fairy tales, ritual poetry, lamentations, lyrics. Folklore played an important role in the formation of national Russian literature. Legends are known about fairy-tale heroes, heroes, about the foundations of ancient capitals about Kyi, Shchek, Khoriv. There was also oratorical speech: the princes spoke to the soldiers, delivered a speech at feasts.
But literature did not begin with the recordings of folklore, although it continued to exist and develop with literature for a long time to come. For the emergence of literature, special reasons were needed.
The impetus for the emergence of ancient Russian literature was the adoption of Christianity, when it became necessary to acquaint Rus' with the sacred scripture, with the history of the church, with world history, with the lives of the saints. Churches under construction could not exist without liturgical books. And also there was a need to translate from the Greek and Bulgarian originals and distribute a large number of texts. This was the impetus for the creation of literature. Literature had to remain purely ecclesiastical, cult, especially since secular genres existed in oral form. But in fact, everything was different. Firstly, the biblical stories about the creation of the world contained a lot of scientific information about the earth, the animal world, the structure of the human body, the history of the state, that is, they had nothing to do with Christian ideology. Secondly, chronicles, everyday stories, such masterpieces as “Words about Igor's Campaign”, “Instruction” by Vladimir Monomakh, “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik turned out to be outside the cult literature.
That is, the functions of literature at the time of its emergence and throughout history are different.
The adoption of Christianity contributed to the rapid development of literature for only two centuries; in the future, the church hinders the development of literature with all its might.
And yet the literature of Rus' was devoted to ideological issues. The genre system reflected the worldview typical of Christian states. “Old Russian literature can be regarded as the literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life” - this is how D. Likhachev formulated the features of the literature of the most ancient period of Russian history in his work.
There is no doubt that the Baptism of Rus' was an event of great historical importance, not only politically and socially, but also culturally. The history of ancient Russian culture began after the adoption of Christianity by Russia, and the date of the Baptism of Rus' in 988 becomes the starting point for the national historical development of Russia.
Beginning with the Baptism of Rus', Russian culture now and then faced a difficult, dramatic, tragic choice of its path. From the point of view of cultural studies, it is important not only to date, but also to document this or that historical event.
1.2 Periods of the history of ancient literature.
The history of ancient Russian literature cannot but be considered in isolation from the history of the Russian people and the Russian state. Seven centuries (XI-XVIII centuries), during which ancient Russian literature developed, are full of significant events in the historical life of the Russian people. The literature of Ancient Rus' is evidence of life. History itself established several periods of literary history.
The first period is the literature of the ancient Russian state, the period of the unity of literature. It lasts a century (XI and early XII centuries). This is the age of the formation of the historical style of literature. The literature of this period develops in two centers: in the south of Kyiv and in the north of Novgorod. A characteristic feature of the literature of the first period is the leading role of Kyiv as the cultural center of the entire Russian land. Kyiv is the most important economic link on the world trade route. The Tale of Bygone Years belongs to this period.
Second period, mid-twelfth century. - first third of the thirteenth century This is the period of the emergence of new literary centers: Vladimir Zalessky and Suzdal, Rostov and Smolensk, Galich and Vladimir Volynsky. During this period, local themes appeared in literature, various genres appeared. This period is the beginning of feudal fragmentation.
Then comes a short period of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. During this period, the stories “Words about the destruction of the Russian land”, “The Life of Alexander Nevsky” are created. During this period, one topic is considered in the literature, the topic of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar troops into Rus'. This period is considered the shortest, but also the brightest.
At the end of the 10th century, the literature of Ancient Rus' arose, the literature on the basis of which the literature of the three fraternal peoples developed - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Old Russian literature arose along with the adoption of Christianity and was originally called upon to serve the needs of the church: to provide a church rite, to disseminate information on the history of Christianity, to educate societies in the spirit of Christianity. These tasks determined both the genre system of literature and the features of its development.
The adoption of Christianity had significant consequences for the development of books and literature of Ancient Rus'.
Old Russian literature was formed on the basis of a unified literature of the southern and eastern Slavs, which arose under the influence of Byzantine and ancient Bulgarian culture.
Bulgarian and Byzantine priests who came to Rus' and their Russian students needed to translate and rewrite books that were necessary for worship. And some books brought from Bulgaria were not translated, they were read in Rus' without translation, since there was a closeness of the Old Russian and Old Bulgarian languages. Liturgical books, lives of saints, monuments of eloquence, chronicles, collections of sayings, historical and historical stories were brought to Rus'. Christianization in Rus' required a restructuring of the worldview, books about the history of the human race, about the ancestors of the Slavs were rejected, and Russian scribes needed essays that would set out Christian ideas about world history, about natural phenomena.
Although the need for books in the Christian state was very great, the possibilities for satisfying this need were very limited: in Rus' there were few skilled scribes, and the writing process itself was very long, and the material on which the first books were written - parchment - was very expensive . Therefore, books were written only for rich people - princes, boyars and the church.
But before the adoption of Christianity in Rus', Slavic writing was known. It found application in diplomatic (letters, treaties) and legal documents, there was also a census between literate people.
Before the emergence of literature, there were speech genres of folklore: epic tales, mythological legends, fairy tales, ritual poetry, lamentations, lyrics. Folklore played an important role in the formation of national Russian literature. Legends are known about fairy-tale heroes, heroes, about the foundations of ancient capitals about Kyi, Shchek, Khoriv. There was also oratorical speech: the princes spoke to the soldiers, delivered a speech at feasts.
But literature did not begin with the recordings of folklore, although it continued to exist and develop with literature for a long time to come. For the emergence of literature, special reasons were needed.
The impetus for the emergence of ancient Russian literature was the adoption of Christianity, when it became necessary to acquaint Rus' with the sacred scripture, with the history of the church, with world history, with the lives of the saints. Churches under construction could not exist without liturgical books. And also there was a need to translate from the Greek and Bulgarian originals and distribute a large number of texts. This was the impetus for the creation of literature. Literature had to remain purely ecclesiastical, cult, especially since secular genres existed in oral form. But in fact, everything was different. Firstly, the biblical stories about the creation of the world contained a lot of scientific information about the earth, the animal world, the structure of the human body, the history of the state, that is, they had nothing to do with Christian ideology. Secondly, chronicles, everyday stories, such masterpieces as “Words about Igor's Campaign”, “Instruction” by Vladimir Monomakh, “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik turned out to be outside the cult literature.
That is, the functions of literature at the time of its emergence and throughout history are different.
The adoption of Christianity contributed to the rapid development of literature for only two centuries; in the future, the church hinders the development of literature with all its might.
And yet the literature of Rus' was devoted to ideological issues. The genre system reflected the worldview typical of Christian states. “Old Russian literature can be regarded as the literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this topic is the meaning of human life” - this is how D. Likhachev formulated the features of the literature of the most ancient period of Russian history in his work.
There is no doubt that the Baptism of Rus' was an event of great historical importance, not only politically and socially, but also culturally. The history of ancient Russian culture began after the adoption of Christianity by Russia, and the date of the Baptism of Rus' in 988 becomes the starting point for the national historical development of Russia.
Beginning with the Baptism of Rus', Russian culture now and then faced a difficult, dramatic, tragic choice of its path. From the point of view of cultural studies, it is important not only to date, but also to document this or that historical event.
1.2 Periods of the history of ancient literature.
The history of ancient Russian literature cannot but be considered in isolation from the history of the Russian people and the Russian state. Seven centuries (XI-XVIII centuries), during which ancient Russian literature developed, are full of significant events in the historical life of the Russian people. The literature of Ancient Rus' is evidence of life. History itself established several periods of literary history.
The first period is the literature of the ancient Russian state, the period of the unity of literature. It lasts a century (XI and early XII centuries). This is the age of the formation of the historical style of literature. The literature of this period develops in two centers: in the south of Kyiv and in the north of Novgorod. A characteristic feature of the literature of the first period is the leading role of Kyiv as the cultural center of the entire Russian land. Kyiv is the most important economic link on the world trade route. The Tale of Bygone Years belongs to this period.
Second period, mid-twelfth century. - first third of the thirteenth century This is the period of the emergence of new literary centers: Vladimir Zalessky and Suzdal, Rostov and Smolensk, Galich and Vladimir Volynsky. During this period, local themes appeared in literature, various genres appeared. This period is the beginning of feudal fragmentation.
Then comes a short period of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. During this period, the stories “Words about the destruction of the Russian land”, “The Life of Alexander Nevsky” are created. During this period, one topic is considered in the literature, the topic of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar troops into Rus'. This period is considered the shortest, but also the brightest.
The next period, the end of the XIV century. and the first half of the 15th century, this is a period of patriotic upsurge in literature, a period of chronicle writing and historical narrative. This century coincides with the economic and cultural revival of the Russian land before and after the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. In the middle of the XV century. new phenomena appear in literature: translated literature, the “Tale of Dracula”, “The Tale of Basarga” appear. All these periods, from the XIII century. by the 15th century can be combined into one period and defined as a period of feudal fragmentation and the unification of North-Eastern Rus'. Since the literature of the second period begins with the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders (1204), and when the main role of Kiev has already ended and three fraternal peoples are formed from a single ancient Russian people: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.
The third period is the period of literature of the Russian centralized state of the XIV - XVII centuries. When the state plays an active role in the international relations of its time, and also reflects the further growth of the Russian centralized state. And from the 17th century a new period of Russian history begins. .
Old Russian literature- "the beginning of all beginnings", the origins and roots of Russian classical literature, national Russian artistic culture. Its spiritual, moral values and ideals are great. It is filled with patriotic pathos 1 serving the Russian land, the state, and the motherland.
To feel the spiritual riches of ancient Russian literature, you need to look at it through the eyes of its contemporaries, to feel like a participant in that life and those events. Literature is a part of reality, it occupies a certain place in the history of the people and fulfills enormous social obligations.
Academician D.S. Likhachev invites readers of ancient Russian literature to mentally travel back to the initial period of the life of Rus', to the era of the inseparable existence of the East Slavic tribes, in the 11th-13th centuries.
The Russian land is vast, settlements in it are rare. A person feels lost among the impenetrable forests or, on the contrary, among the endless expanses of the steppes, too easily accessible to his enemies: "land of the unknown", "wild field", as our ancestors called them. To cross the Russian land from end to end, one must spend many days on a horse or in a boat. Off-road in spring and late autumn takes months, making it difficult for people to communicate.
In boundless spaces, a person with a special force was drawn to communication, sought to celebrate his existence. Tall light churches on hills or on steep banks of rivers mark the places of settlements from afar. These structures are distinguished by their surprisingly laconic architecture - they are designed to be visible from many points, to serve as beacons on the roads. The churches are as if fashioned by a caring hand, keeping the warmth and caress of human fingers in the unevenness of their walls. In such conditions, hospitality becomes one of the basic human virtues. Kiev Prince Vladimir Monomakh calls in his "Instruction" to "welcome" the guest. Frequent moving from place to place belongs to no small virtues, and in other cases even turns into a passion for vagrancy. The same desire to conquer space is reflected in dances and songs. About Russian lingering songs it is well said in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign": "... the girls sing on the Danube, - voices wind through the sea to Kyiv." In Rus', even a designation was born for a special kind of courage associated with space, movement - "daring".
In the vast expanses, people felt and appreciated their unity with particular acuteness - and, first of all, the unity of the language in which they spoke, in which they sang, in which they told the legends of ancient times, again testifying to their integrity, indivisibility. In those conditions, even the very word "language" acquires the meaning of "people", "nation". The role of literature becomes especially significant. It serves the same purpose of unification, expresses the people's self-awareness of unity. She is the keeper of history, legends, and these latter were a kind of means of space exploration, noted the holiness and significance of a particular place: a tract, a mound, a village, and so on. Traditions informed the country of historical depth, they were the "fourth dimension" within which the entire vast Russian land, its history, its national identity was perceived and became "visible". The same role was played by chronicles and lives of saints, historical novels and stories about the founding of monasteries.
All ancient Russian literature, up to the 17th century, was distinguished by deep historicism, rooted in the land that the Russian people occupied and mastered for centuries. Literature and the Russian land, literature and Russian history were closely connected. Literature was one of the ways of mastering the surrounding world. Not without reason, the author of praise for books and Yaroslav the Wise wrote in the annals: "Behold the essence of the rivers that water the universe ...", he compared Prince Vladimir with a farmer who plowed the land, while Yaroslav was compared with a sower who "sowed" the earth with "bookish words." The writing of books is the cultivation of the land, and we already know which one is Russian, inhabited by the Russian "language", i.e. the Russian people. And, like the work of a farmer, the correspondence of books has always been a holy deed in Rus'. Here and there sprouts of life were thrown into the ground, grains, the shoots of which were to be reaped by future generations.
Since rewriting books is a sacred thing, books could only be on the most important topics. All of them, in one way or another, represented the "teaching of the book." Literature was not of an entertaining nature, it was a school, and its individual works, to one degree or another, were teachings.
What did ancient Russian literature teach? Let us leave aside the religious and ecclesiastical matters with which she was preoccupied. The secular element of ancient Russian literature was deeply patriotic. She taught active love for the motherland, brought up citizenship, and strove to correct the shortcomings of society.
If in the first centuries of Russian literature, in the 11th-13th centuries, she called on the princes to stop strife and firmly fulfill their duty of protecting the motherland, then in the subsequent ones - in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries - she no longer cares only about the defense of the motherland, but also about reasonable government. At the same time, throughout its development, literature has been closely connected with history. And she not only communicated historical information, but sought to determine the place of Russian history in the world, to discover the meaning of the existence of man and mankind, to discover the purpose of the Russian state.
Russian history and the Russian land itself united all the works of Russian literature into a single whole. In essence, all the monuments of Russian literature, thanks to their historical themes, were much more closely connected with each other than in modern times. They could be arranged in chronological order, but as a whole they set out one story - Russian and at the same time world. Works were more closely interconnected as a result of the absence of a strong authorial principle in ancient Russian literature. Literature was traditional, the new was created as a continuation of what already existed and on the basis of the same aesthetic principles. The works were rewritten and reworked. They reflected the reader's tastes and requirements more strongly than in the literature of modern times. Books and their readers were closer to each other, and the collective principle is more strongly represented in the works. In terms of the nature of its existence and creation, ancient literature was closer to folklore than to the personal creativity of modern times. The work, once created by the author, was then changed by countless scribes, altered, acquired various ideological colors in different environments, supplemented, overgrown with new episodes.
"The role of literature is enormous, and happy is the nation that has great literature in its native language... To perceive cultural values in their entirety, it is necessary to know their origin, the process of their creation and historical change, the cultural memory embedded in them. In order to deeply and accurately to perceive a work of art, one must know by whom, how and under what circumstances it was created.In the same way, we will truly understand literature as a whole when we know how it was created, formed and participated in the life of the people.
Russian history without Russian literature is just as hard to imagine as Russia without Russian nature or without its historical towns and villages. No matter how much the appearance of our cities and villages, monuments of architecture and Russian culture as a whole changes, their existence in history is eternal and indestructible.
Without ancient Russian literature, there is not and could not be the work of A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, moral quest L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky. Russian medieval literature is the initial stage in the development of Russian literature. She passed on to subsequent art the richest experience of observations and discoveries, the literary language. It combined ideological and national characteristics, created enduring values: chronicles, works of oratory, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "Kiev-Pechersk Patericon", "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom", "The Tale of Grief-Misfortune", "Compositions of Archpriest Avvakum" and many other monuments.
Russian literature is one of the most ancient literatures. Its historical roots date back to the second half of the 10th century. As noted by D.S. Likhachev, out of this great millennium, more than seven hundred years belong to the period that is commonly called Old Russian literature.
“We have before us a literature that rises above its seven centuries, as a single grandiose whole, as one colossal work, striking us with its subordination to one theme, a single struggle of ideas, contrasts entering into a unique combination. Old Russian writers are not architects of separate buildings. urban planners. They worked on one common grandiose ensemble. They had a wonderful "sense of the shoulder", created cycles, vaults and ensembles of works, which in turn formed a single building of literature ...
This is a kind of medieval cathedral, in the construction of which thousands of freemasons took part over several centuries ... "3.
Ancient literature is a collection of great historical monuments, created for the most part by nameless masters of the word. Information about the authors of ancient literature is very scarce. Here are the names of some of them: Nestor, Daniil the Sharpener, Safony Ryazanets, Yermolai Erasmus, and others.
The names of the actors in the works are mostly historical: Theodosius Pechersky, Boris and Gleb, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Sergius of Radonezh ... These people played a significant role in the history of Rus'.
The adoption of Christianity by pagan Russia at the end of the 10th century was an act of the greatest progressive significance. Thanks to Christianity, Rus' joined the advanced culture of Byzantium and entered as an equal Christian sovereign power into the family of European peoples, became "known and led" in all corners of the earth, as the first Old Russian rhetorician 4 and publicist 5 known to us, Metropolitan Hilarion, said in his "Sermon on the Law and Grace" (monument of the middle of the XI century).
The emerging and growing monasteries played an important role in the spread of Christian culture. The first schools were created in them, respect and love for the book, "book learning and reverence" were brought up, book depositories-libraries were created, chronicles were kept, translated collections of moralizing and philosophical works were copied. Here the ideal of the Russian monk-ascetic was created and surrounded by a halo of pious legend, who devoted himself to serving God, moral perfection, liberation from base vicious passions, serving the lofty idea of civic duty, goodness, justice, and the public good.
Artwork description: "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu", "Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh", etc. These works belong to ancient Russian literature. The literature of antiquity is based on real events and reflects Rus', its position at one time or another. Old Russian literature reflects the character of Rus' and its inhabitants. It, like the history of Rus', contains information about its relations with other countries and within the country. This literature is rich in discussions about kings, princes and the common people. We are simply obliged to protect and study its riches.
Russian literature is a thousand years old. We know our great classical writers well, but know little of our literature of the first seven centuries. Every Russian person is well aware of only "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". Meanwhile, our ancient literature is rich in works of various genres. Chronicles told about the history of our country, starting from ancient, pre-literate times and ending with the events of the turbulent 17th century. Biographies ("lives") told about the lives of individuals. In ancient Russian literature there are works of oratory, descriptions of travels (“journeys”) to the East or Western Europe, essays aimed at eradicating social evil and injustice, calling for truth and goodness. There are a number of so-called "military tales" dedicated to the struggle of the Russian people with foreign enemies: with the Pechenegs, Polovtsy, Mongol-Tatars, German knights. There are stories that tell about princely civil strife and crimes. These stories are full of pain for untruth, for the suffering brought to people and the whole country. In the 17th century, everyday stories appeared. At the end of the same century, dramatic and poetic compositions appeared.
Old Russian literature, as you can see, is rich in written monuments. She was even richer. After all, only a small part of its entire treasury has come down to us, the rest was destroyed in the fire of fires, plundered by enemies, died from the storage of damp rooms, because of negligence and indifference of people.
Old Russian literature seems to us especially significant, because it has features that are consonant with our era. The works of our antiquity are marked by high citizenship, sincere love for the motherland. The writers, separated from us by many centuries, were proud of the greatness of Rus', its vastness, beauty, the “bright lordship and red ornamentation” of its fields and forests, the “impudence” of the Russian people, and high moral qualities. The true patriotism of ancient Russian authors was also manifested in the fact that they boldly wrote about the shortcomings and crimes of the princes.
The works of Ancient Rus' captivate with chastity and purity. Old Russian literature does not linger on descriptions of atrocities, does not cherish the dream of retribution against enemies. She calls for the sublime, the good. In it we find noble ideals. Almost every writer of Ancient Rus' could, like A. S. Pushkin, say about himself that he "awakened good feelings" with his work. He could declare, together with N. A. Nekrasov, that he "sowed the reasonable, the good, the eternal." Therefore, the works of ancient Russian authors so vividly respond to our time and the need for kindness and kindness that has grown in our country.
For ancient Russian literature, as well as for Russian literature as a whole, life-affirmation, lightness and clarity are characteristic. Let's take, for example. The most tragic "The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu". What could be worse! The army was defeated, all the princes perished on the battlefield, the city was taken, plundered, burned, almost all the inhabitants were killed. Only "smoke, earth and ashes" remained. But in the story there is no despair, no despondency. Lamentation for the Russian princes, glorification of their valor, pride that there were such princes. And the story ends with a major chord: one of the Ryazan princes, who accidentally survived, arrives, pays tribute to the dead, buries them with honor, gathers the surviving residents, restores the city, and everything ends with general appeasement. This fortitude is amazing.
Another property of ancient Russian literature is especially attractive in our time: ancient Russian writers treated other peoples, their customs, and their beliefs with deep respect. Tolerance is manifested in the relationship between the Russian governor Pritech and the Pecheneg prince in The Tale of Bygone Years, in the Tale of the Emshan Grass, which conveys the Polovtsian tradition, in the sermons of the Bishop of Vladimir Serapion, who wrote about the torments of the Russian people under the Tatar oppression, lamented the loss of the former the glory of Russia and at the same time spoke about the moral virtues of the Tatars. Respect for other peoples, sympathy for their troubles sounds with particular force in Afanasy Nikitin's Journey Beyond the Three Seas.
Even in stories describing the fight against enemies, for example, in The Tale of the Battle of Mamaev, the author notes the combat prowess of the enemies and considers both Russians and Tatars to be children of the same Mother Earth. Absolutely surprising is the admiration for the courage of the enemies in Kazan History, a work dedicated to the centuries-old struggle between Russians and Kazanians.
The best traditions of ancient literature continue in the new Russian literature of the 18th-20th centuries. However, ancient literature has its own characteristics that distinguish it from the literature of modern times.
In the art of the word of the new time, we are dealing with individual authors, and ancient literature, although it retained a number of names of writers - Illarion, Nestor, Kirill Turovsky and many others - as a whole was a collective work. If in modern times the works of classical literature are printed in the form in which the author wrote them, then the works of ancient writers have been changed over the centuries by different scribes. Each new scribe either shortened the text somewhat, or sought to “decorate” the presentation, or changed the general direction of the work. He adapted the work of his predecessor to the literary taste and ideological requirements of his time. Thus, new types, or, as they say, editions of the same monument arose. This situation is close to oral folk art: each storyteller sang the same epic in a different way, adding or omitting something.
In all new editions, the monuments of ancient Russian literature lived, retaining the main original features and acquiring new ones. Rare monuments have survived to us in the form in which they were first written, most of them came down in later correspondence, "lists".
Old Russian literature, unlike the new one, did not know fictional characters or plots. In ancient stories, historical figures always acted, historical events were described. Even if the author introduced the miraculous, the fantastic into his narrative, it was not a conscious fiction, because the writer himself and his readers believed in the veracity of what was being described. Conscious fiction appeared only in the literature of the 17th century. And even then, as a rule, he covered himself with references to historical events. So, the fictional character of one of the stories of the 17th century, Savva Grudtsyn, is shown in the Russian army of the boyar Shein, who besieged Smolensk.
We are used to the works we read being entertaining. Amusement for us is mainly connected only with the rapid development of a complex plot. The writers of Ancient Rus' also, of course, sought to interest the reader. But their plot is simple, the narration is calm, not hastily.
The people of Ancient Rus' read books earnestly, slowly, rereading the same work several times, reverently looking for instructions, advice, or images of significant events from the history of their country or other countries. It is not for nothing that books were figuratively compared with the depths of the sea, and the reader with a pearl seeker.
One of the achievements of modern literature was that it began to depict the ordinary, that its characters were the same people as each of us. In ancient Russian literature there are no mere characters, there are heroes who perform great feats on the battlefield and moral perfection.
Like folklore, literature stopped only at exceptional events; it did not condescend to the reader, but sought to raise him to his heights.
In ancient literature there were no verses, but there was poetry. Only the imagery of this poetry is different than in modern times, we need to get used to it, to understand it. Images were born as if by themselves. We would say: “I will come in the spring,” and a person of the 11th-17th centuries wrote: “I will come as soon as a leaf breaks on the trees.” The ancient authors did not write that someone did a lot for their homeland, they wrote: “I lost a lot of sweat for my homeland”; we would say: "The enemies fled," and the ancient scribe wrote: "They showed their shoulders." They loved hyperbole: the name of Alexander Nevsky, according to his biographer, was glorified "throughout all countries to the Sea of Egypt and to the mountains of Ararat." Old Russian authors often resorted to comparisons: warriors were compared with falcons, flying arrows - with rain, enemies - with ferocious beasts.
In ancient Russian works you will find many examples of rhythmic speech.
The poetry of ancient Russian literature is largely associated with its closeness to oral folk art. In our time, literature and folklore are strictly demarcated. Writers of the 18th-20th centuries turn to folklore, but never become storytellers. In ancient Russian literature it was different. Writers, like storytellers, created epic works. Epic is not only the initial tales of The Tale of Bygone Years, based on oral traditions - about Oleg, Igor, Olga, Vladimir, about the youth-kozhemyak and Belgorod wells. Later works of the 15th, 16th, and even 17th centuries are also epic. Many narratives that are examples of high rhetoric organically include epic parts. Such is the story about Yevpaty Kolovrat in "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu", about six brave men in "The Life of Alexander Nevsky". Folk songs are woven into the fabric of many works, for example, in The Tale of Prince Skopin-Shuisky. As a lyrical song, the literary basis "The Tale of Woe-Misfortune" is built. And what wonderful folk laments can be found in chronicles and stories! In addition to lamentations in literature, there are also glorifications - “glories”. Ritual in origin, pagan poetry was a living source to which writers turned all the time.
It is not necessary to exaggerate the importance of oral folk art in the literature of Ancient Rus'. With all its closeness to folklore, it was written literature (the word "literature" from the Latin "litera" - a letter), while literature is very high, skillful, artistic. It arose as early as the 10th century, along with the adoption of Christianity under the influence of the needs of the church and state.
With the adoption of Christianity (988) from Slavic Bulgaria, which was experiencing a cultural dawn at that time, books were brought to Rus'. Some of the books were rewritten into Bulgarian. The ancient Bulgarian language, called Church Slavonic in Rus', because liturgical books were written in it, was close to Old Russian and was well understood by Russian readers of that time. The Church Slavonic language, flexible and subtle, capable of expressing the most complex abstract ideas, greatly enriched the ancient Russian language and made it more expressive. Until now, synonyms live in our language: Russian-eyes, Slavic-eyes, and so on. Western Catholic countries were united by Latin, Slavic countries - Church Slavonic. From the end of the 10th to the beginning of the 11th century, translated books of a wide variety of genres, styles and purposes appeared in Rus'. Here are biblical historical books, and Byzantine chronicles, and lyrical chants, sometimes joyful, sometimes full of sorrow and sadness. There are collections of oratorical works included in the art of eloquence of antiquity, and collections of aphorisms. Natural history and historical books were brought to Rus'.
In the first half of the 11th century, “words” (speech) appeared in Rus'. From the forties of the XI century, Metropolitan Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace" has been preserved, remarkable for its harmony and development of oratory techniques. Illarion was a “Rusin” (Russian) by birth, a priest of the country church of the Savior in the village of Berestovo near Kiev (this church has survived to this day). Yaroslav the Wise appointed him metropolitan, head of the entire Russian church. In the "Sermon on Law and Grace", delivered in the presence of Yaroslav the Wise and his family, Hilarion gives a peculiar overview of world history and affirms the equality of the "new people", that is, the Russians who have recently been converted to Christianity, with the rest of the peoples of the Christian world.
The peak of the literature of the XII century is "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" - a work characteristic of this century, when the art of the word reached a high development, and the consciousness of the need to preserve the unity of the Russian land was especially strong.
We do not know the names of the authors of the legends about Oleg's campaigns, about Olga's baptism or Svyatoslav's wars. The first known author of a literary work in Rus' was the priest of the princely church in Berestov, later Metropolitan Hilarion. In the early 40s of the 11th century, he created his famous “Sermon on Law and Grace”. It speaks of the Church of the Annunciation at the Golden Gate, built in 1037, and mentions Irina (Ingigerda), the wife of Yaroslav the Wise, who died in 1050. The Word introduces us to the struggle between the religious and political ideas of the 11th century. Hilarion speaks in it about the baptism of Rus' and praises Vladimir, who baptized the Russian land: “Let us praise our teacher and mentor, the great kagan of our land, Vladimir, the grandson of old Igor, the son of the glorious Svyatoslav, who in his years I rule, having courage and courage to listen to many countries and victories and fortresses are now commemorated even a word. Not in thine battles, not in the unknown land dominating, but in Ruska, even known and audible, there are all ends of the earth. Illarion appeals to Vladimir with a call to look at the greatness of Kyiv under Yaroslav, which the glorious city of Kyiv "like a crown overlaid with majesty." These words, apparently, should be understood as an indication of the newly built and majestic fortifications that surrounded the capital of the Kyiv princes. In the second half of the 11th century, other bright literary and journalistic works appeared: “The Memory and Praise of Vladimir” by monk Jacob, in which Hilarion’s ideas are further developed and applied to the historical figure of Vladimir I. At the same time, the “Legend of the initial spread of Christianity to Russia”, “The Tale of Boris and Gleb”, patron saints and defenders of the Russian land.
In the last quarter of the 11th century, the monk Nestor began to work on his compositions. Chronicle was his final fundamental work. Prior to that, he created the famous "Reading about the life of Boris and Gleb." In it, as in Hilarion's “Word,” as later in the Tale of Bygone Years, the ideas of the unity of Rus' are heard, and tribute is paid to its defenders and guardians. Already at that time, Russian authors were worried about this growing political enmity in the Russian lands, in which they guessed a harbinger of a future political catastrophe.
Literature of the 12th century continues the traditions of Russian writings of the 11th century. New ecclesiastical and secular works are being created, marked by a vivid form, a wealth of thoughts, and broad generalizations; new genres of literature emerge.
In his declining years, Vladimir Monomakh wrote his famous Teaching to Children, which became one of the favorite readings of Russian people in the early Middle Ages. The teaching draws us in relief the life of the Russian princes of the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th century. Vladimir Monomakh talks about his campaigns and travels. His whole life was spent in continuous wars with the Poles, then with the Polovtsy, then with hostile princes. It has 83 large campaigns, not counting small ones, as well as 19 peace treaties with the Polovtsy. To characterize the feudal ideology, the image of the ideal prince, drawn by Monomakh, is interesting. The prince should keep an eye on everything in the house, and not rely on a tiun or a combatant (“lad”), so that they would not laugh at the order in the house and at dinner. During military campaigns, excess food and drink, as well as long sleep, should be avoided. By nightfall, appoint watchmen yourself, Monomakh instructs, and everyone, having settled around the army, go to bed, and get up early; and do not quickly take off your weapons from yourself, without looking out of laziness, “suddenly a person dies.” The prince's life is filled with wars and hunting, death is on the heels of a warrior. And this knightly ideology is perfectly expressed by the words of Monomakh, addressed to his second cousin Oleg Svyatoslavovich Chernigov. Monomakh offers him peace and friendship and promises not to avenge the death of his son, who was killed in battle with Oleg: “Is it wonderful that my husband died in the regiment” (is it any wonder that the warrior died during the battle). The teaching provides a lot of historical information that is not available in the annals; it is a valuable historical source.
At the beginning of the 12th century, one of Monomakh's associates, hegumen Daniel, creates his own, no less famous, "The Journey of Abbot Daniel to the Holy Places."
The pious Russian man went to the tomb of the Lord and made a long and difficult journey - to Constantinople, then through the islands of the Aegean Sea to the island of Crete, from there to Palestine and to Jerusalem, where at that time the first crusader state was founded, headed by King Baldwin. Daniel described in detail his entire journey, spoke about his stay at the court of the Jerusalem king, about the campaign with him against the Arabs. Daniel prayed at the tomb of the Lord, set up a lamp there from all the Russian land: near the tomb of Christ, he sang fifty liturgies "for the princes of Russia and for all Christians."
Both "Instruction" and "Walking" were the first genres of their kind in Russian literature.
XII - beginning of the XIII century. gave a lot of other bright religious and secular works, which replenished the treasury of Russian culture. Among them are “The Word” and “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik, who, having been in prison, having experienced a number of other worldly dramas, reflects on the meaning of life, on a harmonious person, on an ideal ruler. In the Lay, the author himself calls himself Daniil a sharpener, that is, a prisoner, an exile. The word is addressed to Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. The message (Prayer) is addressed to Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.
The word gives a curious characterization of feudal relations in the twelfth century. First of all, an indication of the importance of the personality of the prince as a feudal sovereign, to whom, depending on his personal qualities, “servants” - vassals gather, is striking: “Fingers harp, and the body is based on veins; the oak is strong with many roots; so our city is your power. Zane the prince is generous, the father is for many servants: many more leave the father and mother, resort to him. Serving a good master, you will earn a settlement, and serving an evil master, you will earn more work. The prince is glorious by those who surround him: “Pavoloka (expensive fabric) is more speckled with many sholkas and red, the face shows: so you, prince, are honest and glorious in all countries with many people.” The word of Daniil Zatochnik is the most valuable source for studying the class struggle in ancient Russian society. It repeatedly emphasizes the antagonism between the rich and the poor. The word vividly characterizes the orders of the patrimony of the period of feudal fragmentation: do not have a court near the tsar's court, Daniel exclaims, and do not keep a village near a princely village; his tiun is like a covered fire, and his “rankers” are like sparks. If you avoid fire, then you cannot “avoid yourself” from sparks and from burning clothes. The word of Daniel the Sharpener is woven from a number of aphorisms and teachings. It was this feature that made him very popular in medieval Rus'.
In the Word we also come across a constant theme of many ancient Russian writings - about evil wives. The ascetic nature of church writing contributed to the view of a woman as a "vessel of the devil." Here are a few attacks of the Sharpener against malevolent wives, if any husband looks at the beauty of his wife and at her affectionate and flattering words, but does not check her deeds, then God forbid he better get sick with a fever. Or in another place: “What is the wife of evil - the inn is indestructible, the blasphemer of demons. What is an evil wife? Worldly rebellion, blindness to the mind, leader of all malice, etc.
No less interesting is the second work associated with Daniil Zatochnik, the so-called Epistle (Prayer). The letter begins with an appeal to Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, whom researchers consider Pereyaslavsky, and later Grand Duke Yaroslav, son of Vsevolod the Big Nest. The message is extremely interesting in its social orientation. The author draws us the appearance of a prince of the era of feudal fragmentation, which is in good harmony with the biography of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, a warlike, intelligent and at the same time cruel prince: “The troops are wise, strong and strong cities; the brave regiments are strong and mad: on those there is a victory. Multitudes bo take up arms against large cities and from their own, from smaller ones, sit down. In this characterization of the prince, historical features are involuntarily felt. Such was Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who chased the Novgorod table and often lost it. In the Epistle we read an unusually harsh review of monastic life: “Or you will say, prince: take the veil. So I did not see a dead man riding a pig, not a damn thing on a woman, I did not eat figs from oaks. Indeed, many, having departed from this world into monasticism, again return to worldly life and to worldly race, like dogs on their vomit: they go around the villages and houses of the glorious world of this world, like dogs caressing. Where there are weddings and feasts, there are blacks and blues and lawlessness. They wear an angelic image on themselves, but a dissolute disposition, a saintly one, have a dignity on themselves, and the custom is obscene.
Addressing his prince in the “Supplication”, Daniel says that a real person must combine the strength of Samson, the courage of Alexander the Great, the mind of Joseph, the wisdom of Solomon, the cunning of David. Turning to biblical stories and ancient history helps him convey his ideas to the addressee. A person, according to the author, should strengthen the heart with beauty and wisdom, help his neighbor in sorrow, show mercy to those in need, and resist evil. The humanist line of ancient Russian literature firmly asserts itself here as well.
An interesting monument of the XII century is the Epistle of Metropolitan Clement. Kliment Smolyatich, originally from Smolensk, was elected in 1147 by a council of Russian bishops as metropolitan of all Rus' without the appointment of a patriarch, while other metropolitans were appointed patriarch in Constantinople. “The Epistle was written by Clement, Metropolitan of Russia, Thomas to the Presbyter, interpreted by Athanasius Mnich” was preserved in a manuscript of the 15th century. The authorship of Clement is attributed only to the first two parts, and the last to the monk Athanasius. The Epistle provides interesting material for characterizing the level of education in Kievan Rus. The author turns to Thomas with an answer to his message, which denounced Clement as proud of his philosophical knowledge, since Clement made references to Homer, Aristotle and Plato in his writings. Averting reproaches of pride from himself, Clement at the same time attacks those bishops who attach “house to house, villages to villages, and expel and syabry, and board, and reap, lyada and antiquity, from them the accursed Klim is very free."
In his “Parable of the Human Soul” (end of the 12th century), the Bishop of the city of Turov Kirill, relying on the Christian worldview, gives his own interpretation of the meaning of human existence, discusses the need for a constant connection between soul and body. At the same time, in his “Parable” he raises questions that are quite topical for Russian reality, reflects on the relationship between church and secular authorities, defends the national-patriotic idea of the unity of the Russian land, which was especially important, while the Vladimir-Suzdal princes began to implement centralization policy on the eve of the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
Simultaneously with these works, where religious and secular motifs were constantly intertwined, scribes in monasteries, churches, in princely and boyar houses diligently copied church service books, prayers, collections of church traditions, biographies of saints, and ancient theological literature. All this wealth of religious, theological thought also constituted an integral part of the general Russian culture.
But, of course, the synthesis of Russian culture, the interweaving of pagan and Christian features, religious and secular, universal and national motives in it, sounded most clearly in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. The Word tells about the campaign of the Seversk princes in 1185, led by Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich against the Polovtsians. Shortly before this, the princes of Seversk refused to participate in the campaign against the Polovtsy, which was undertaken by their relative, Prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. From the very beginning, the participants of the campaign were embarrassed by bad signs - an eclipse of the sun occurred. However, the princes decided to move on. The first battle was successful for the Russians. But things soon took a different turn. The Polovtsy defeated the Russian troops, and Igor Svyatoslavovich was taken prisoner, from which he escaped with the help of a certain Ovlur.
The word about Igor's regiment beautifully depicts princely relations at the end of the 12th century. In particular, the power of the two princes stands out, who, in terms of strength, are on a par with Svyatoslav of Kyiv or even higher than him. This Galician Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl and Vsevolod the Big Nest. Yaroslav sits high on his gold-forged table, he propped up the Carpathian (Hungarian) mountains with his iron regiments, closing the path for the Hungarian king and shutting the Danube gate for him, dominating all the way to the Danube. “Your thunderstorms are flowing across the lands, shooting a hundred gold of the saltani table behind the lands. Shoot, sir, Konchak, filthy koshcheya, for the Russian land, for the wounds of Igor, the bully Svyatoslavovich. This praise of Yaroslav of Galicia is confirmed in the annals. He was a wise, eloquent, God-fearing prince, revered in other lands, glorious in battles, we read in the annals about Yaroslav Galitsky.
No less powerful for the singer of the Word is the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Vsevolod the Big Nest. He addresses him with the words: “You can scatter the Volga with oars, and pour the Don with helmets.” If we recall that the Word about Igor's regiment was compiled in southern Rus', then such princely characteristics acquire special significance for us. They show the true balance of power between the princes of feudal Rus' at the end of the 12th century, when the Galicia-Volyn and Vladimir-Suzdal lands were especially strengthened.
"The Tale of Igor's Campaign" has another remarkable feature. Created in the era of feudal fragmentation, it nevertheless testifies to the unity of the Russian people. The entire content of the Lay about Igor's Campaign rests on the notion that the Russian land can only fight against the Polovtsian raids as a whole. Patriotic words, full of ardent love for the motherland, about the Russian land hidden behind the hills sound like a constant chorus (“Oh, Russian land, you are already behind the Shelomian”).
The word unusually vividly depicts the feudal strife and strife of the princes, grieving that they are weakening the Russian land.
The Tale of Igor's Campaign is of great interest for studying the beliefs of ancient Rus'. Nature is personified in Yaroslavna's lament: “About the wind, the sail! - Yaroslavna turns to the wind. - “What, sir, are you forcibly weighing? Why are the Khino arrows mooing on your easy wings in my own way howling? You never know how grief blows under the clouds, breezing ships on the blue sea. The river Dnieper appears in the same living creature in Yaroslavna's lament. She even calls him with a patronymic - Slovutich. The Word also mentions the ancient Slavic deities. Bayan, named the grandson of Veles, the god of cattle and abundance, the patron saint of singers; Russians are the children of Dazhd-God, the great god of the sun.
Unlike other monuments of ancient Russian literature, the Word about Igor's Campaign does not reflect church ideology. Only once it mentions the Church of the Virgin Pirogoshcha, to which Igor goes when he returns to Kyiv.
The word about Igor's regiment included many legends unknown to us from other works. One of the sources for the author was Boyan's songs, to which he refers. Boyan recalled "the first days of strife." He sang songs about old Yaroslav, about the brave Mstislav, who slaughtered Redea in front of the Kasozhian regiments, about the beautiful Roman Svyatoslavovich.
We do not know the sources of the Word about Igor's regiment. But its author undoubtedly used a large number of oral traditions. This is confirmed by many epithets that find their analogy in the monuments of oral literature: “golden table”, “golden stirrup”, “gray eagle”, “blue sea”, “green grass”, “sharp swords”, “clear field”, “black crow".
A remarkable feature of the Lay about Igor's Campaign is its orientation. While the chronicles preserved mainly the Kievan tradition, the Tale of Igor's Campaign mainly reflects the Chernigov and Polotsk traditions. The singer's sympathies are on the side of the Chernigov princes. He writes about the "offense" of the Chernigov prince Oleg Svyatoslavovich, a young and brave prince, expelled by Vladimir Monomakh from his principality. But Vladimir himself is depicted as a cowardly prince plugging his ears from the ringing of Oleg's golden stirrups. The nickname “Gorislavich”, which the singer gives to Oleg, is an epithet denoting a person who became famous for his grief and misadventures.
The high artistic skill of the Lay is based not only on the folk tradition, but also on the Russian script known to the author. It is impossible not to see what pearls the author has selected in the annals and other works known to him! All this puts the "Word" next to the greatest monuments of Russian culture of the XII century.
The development of literature in the 15th century was facilitated by the cheapening of writing material: at that time, instead of expensive parchment, specially dressed calfskin, they began to use paper, which was imported from the West.
Serious changes are taking place in the literary manner of works. The upsurge that followed the Kulikovo victory led to the development of the so-called panegyric style: a style of pomp and solemnity, ornate and complex; it was figuratively called "weaving words" (meaning that the authors weaved word wreaths to the glory of ascetics and warriors). The most sophisticated writer who worked in this direction was Epiphanius the Wise and Pachomius Logofet, a native of Serbia. Both were writers - professionals, connoisseurs of the art of the word.
Such a delicate and elegant work as "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom", "The Life of Sergei Radonezh" dates back to the 15th century.
For the history of literature, the Book of Powers, a collection of biographies of the rulers of the Russian state, is of considerable interest. There are many legends in biographies, often of a romantic nature.
Among the interesting works of the middle of the 16th century is Domostroy; its creation is attributed to Sylvester, a priest of the Annunciation Church in the Kremlin.
Old Russian literature is valuable both for its own artistic achievements and for the fact that it paved the way for the emergence of the great Russian literature of modern times. Knowledge of ancient Russian literature helps to understand the literature of the 19th-20th centuries more fully and deeply.
But the value of ancient Russian literature is not only in this. For us, it is that pure and life-giving source to which we turn in times of trouble and trial, “in days of doubt, in days of painful reflection,” as well as in times of upsurge. We draw deep thoughts from it, find high ideals, beautiful images in it. Her faith in goodness and the victory of justice, her ardent patriotism strengthen and inspire us. M. V. Lomonosov called the Russian chronicles "books of glorious deeds." The same can be said about most of the Old Russian stories.
Old Russian literature is that solid foundation on which the majestic building of the national Russian artistic culture of the 18th-20th centuries is being erected.
It is based on high moral ideals, faith in a person, in his possibility of unlimited moral perfection, faith in the power of the word, his ability to transform the inner world of a person, the patriotic pathos of serving the Russian land - the state - the Motherland, faith in the final triumph of good over the forces of evil, universal unity of people and its victory over hated strife.
Without knowing the history of ancient Russian literature, we will not understand the full depth of the work of A. S. Pushkin, the spiritual essence of creativity
N. V. Gogol, the moral quest of L. N. Tolstoy, the philosophical depth of F. M. Dostoevsky, the originality of Russian symbolism, the verbal quest of the futurists.
Chronological boundaries of ancient Russian literature and its specific features.
Russian medieval literature is the initial stage in the development of Russian literature. Its emergence is closely connected with the process of formation of the early feudal state.
Subordinate to the political tasks of strengthening the foundations of the feudal system, it in its own way reflected the various periods in the development of public and social relations in Rus' in the 11th-17th centuries. Old Russian literature is the literature of the emerging Great Russian people, gradually taking shape into a nation.
The question of the chronological boundaries of ancient Russian literature has not been finally resolved by our science. Ideas about the volume of ancient Russian literature still remain incomplete.
Many works perished in the fire of countless fires, during the devastating raids of the steppe nomads, the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar invaders, the Polish-Swedish invaders! And at a later time, in 1737, the remains of the library of the Moscow tsars were destroyed by a fire that broke out in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
In 1777, the Kiev library was destroyed by fire. During the Patriotic War of 1812, manuscript collections of Musin-Pushkin, Buturlin, Bause, Demidov, and the Moscow Society of Russian Literature Lovers burned down in Moscow.
The main keepers and copyists of books in Ancient Rus', as a rule, were monks, who were least of all interested in storing and copying books of worldly (secular) content. And this largely explains why the vast majority of the works of Old Russian literature that have come down to us are of a church nature.
The works of ancient Russian literature were divided into "worldly" and "spiritual". The latter were supported and disseminated in every possible way, as they contained the enduring values of religious dogma, philosophy and ethics, and the former, with the exception of official legal and historical documents, were declared "vain". Thanks to this, we present our ancient literature to a greater extent ecclesiastical than it really was.
When embarking on the study of Old Russian literature, it is necessary to take into account its specific features, which differ from the literature of modern times.
A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence and distribution. At the same time, this or that work did not exist in the form of a separate, independent manuscript, but was part of various collections that pursued certain practical goals.
“Everything that serves not for the sake of benefit, but for the sake of embellishment, is subject to the charge of vanity.” These words of Basil the Great largely determined the attitude of the ancient Russian society to the works of writing. The value of this or that handwritten book was evaluated in terms of its practical purpose and usefulness.
“Great is the crawl from the teachings of the book, with books we show and teach us the way of repentance, we gain wisdom and restraint from the words of the book; this is the essence of the river, soldering the universe, this is the essence of the source of wisdom, the books have an inexhaustible depth, with these we are comforted in sorrow, this is the bridle of restraint ... If you diligently look for wisdom in the books, you will find the great crawl of your soul ... "- teaches the chronicler under 1037.
Another feature of our ancient literature is the anonymity and impersonality of its works. This was a consequence of the religious-Christian attitude of feudal society to man, and in particular to the work of a writer, artist, and architect.
At best, we know the names of individual authors, "writers" of books, who modestly put their name either at the end of the manuscript, or in its margins, or (which is much less common) in the title of the work. At the same time, the writer will not accept to supply his name with such evaluative epithets as "thin", "unworthy", "sinful".
Biographical information about the Old Russian writers known to us, the scope of their work, the nature of social activity is very, very scarce. Therefore, if in the study of literature of the XVIII-XX centuries. literary scholars widely draw on biographical material, reveal the nature of the political, philosophical, aesthetic views of a particular writer, using author's manuscripts, trace the history of the creation of works, reveal the creative individuality of the writer, then the monuments of ancient Russian literature have to be approached differently.
In medieval society, there was no concept of copyright, the individual characteristics of the personality of the writer did not receive such a vivid manifestation as in the literature of modern times. Scribes often acted as editors and co-authors, rather than mere copyists of the text. They changed the ideological orientation of the rewritten work, the nature of its style, shortened or extended the text in accordance with the tastes and demands of their time.
As a result, new editions of monuments were created. And even when the scribe simply copied the text, his list was always somewhat different from the original: he made mistakes, omissions of words and letters, involuntarily reflected the features of his native dialect in the language. In this regard, in science there is a special term - "review" (manuscript of the Pskov-Novgorod edition, Moscow, or - more broadly - Bulgarian, Serbian, etc.).
As a rule, the author's texts of works have not come down to us, but their later lists have been preserved, sometimes separated from the time of writing the original by a hundred, two hundred or more years. For example, The Tale of Bygone Years, created by Nestor in 1111-1113, has not survived at all, and the edition of Sylvester's "Tale" (1116) is known only as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377. The Tale of Igor's Campaign, written at the end of 80 -s of the 12th century, was found in the list of the 16th century.
All this requires an unusually thorough and painstaking textual work from a researcher of Old Russian literature: studying all the available lists of a particular monument, establishing the time and place of their writing by comparing different editions, variants of the lists, and also determining which edition of the list most closely matches original author's text. These questions are dealt with by a special branch of philological science - textual criticism.
Solving difficult questions about the time of writing a particular monument, its lists, the researcher turns to such an auxiliary historical and philological science as paleography.
According to the peculiarities of lettering, handwriting, the nature of writing material, paper watermarks, the nature of headpieces, ornaments, miniatures illustrating the text of the manuscript, paleography makes it possible to relatively accurately determine the time of creation of a particular manuscript, the number of scribes who wrote it.
In the XI-first half of the XIV century. The main writing material was parchment, made from the skin of calves. In Rus', parchment was often called "veal", or "haratya". This expensive material was, of course, available only to the propertied classes, and artisans and merchants used birch bark for their ice correspondence. Birch bark also served as student notebooks. This is evidenced by the remarkable archaeological discoveries of Novgorod birch bark writings.
To save writing material, the words in the line were not separated, and only the paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with a red cinnabar initial - the initial, the title - "red line" in the literal sense of the word. Frequently used, well-known words were abbreviated under a special superscript sign - title. For example, glet (verb - says), bg (god), btsa (mother of God).
The parchment was preliminarily lined by the scribe using a ruler with a chain. The scribe would then lay him on his knees and carefully write out each letter. The handwriting with the correct almost square lettering was called the charter.
The work on the manuscript required painstaking work and great skill, therefore, when the scribe completed his hard work, he noted it with joy. “The merchant rejoices, having made a purchase and the helmsman in peace, the bailiff and the wanderer has come to his fatherland, so the book writer rejoices, having reached the end of books ...” - we read at the end of the Laurentian Chronicle.
The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were bound into wooden boards. Hence the phraseological turn - "read the book from board to board." The binding boards were covered with leather, and sometimes they were clothed in special salaries made of silver and gold. A remarkable example of jewelry art is, for example, the frame of the Mstislav Gospel (beginning of the 12th century).
In the XIV century. parchment was replaced by paper. This cheaper writing material clung to and accelerated the writing process. The statutory letter is replaced by an oblique, rounded handwriting with a large number of external superscripts - a semi-charter. In the monuments of business writing, cursive writing appears, which gradually replaces the semi-ustav and occupies a dominant position in the manuscripts of the 17th century.
A huge role in the development of Russian culture was played by the emergence of printing in the middle of the 16th century. However, until the beginning of the XVIII century. mainly church books were printed, while secular, artistic works continued to exist and were distributed in manuscripts.
When studying ancient Russian literature, one very important circumstance should be taken into account: in the medieval period, fiction had not yet emerged as an independent area of social consciousness, it was inextricably linked with philosophy, science, and religion.
In this connection, it is impossible to mechanically apply to ancient Russian literature those criteria of artistry with which we approach when evaluating the phenomena of the literary development of modern times.
The process of historical development of ancient Russian literature is a process of gradual crystallization of fiction, its separation from the general flow of writing, its democratization and "secularization", i.e., release from the tutelage of the church.
One of the characteristic features of ancient Russian literature is its connection with church and business writing, on the one hand, and oral poetic folk art, on the other. The nature of these connections at each historical stage in the development of literature and in its individual monuments was different.
However, the wider and deeper literature used the artistic experience of folklore, the more vividly it reflected the phenomena of reality, the wider was the scope of its ideological and artistic influence.
A characteristic feature of ancient Russian literature is historicism. Her heroes are predominantly historical figures, she almost does not allow fiction and strictly follows the fact. Even numerous stories about "miracles" - phenomena that seem supernatural to a medieval person, are not so much the fiction of an ancient Russian writer, but accurate records of the stories of either eyewitnesses or the persons themselves with whom the "miracle" happened.
The historicism of Old Russian literature has a specifically medieval character. The course and development of historical events is explained by God's will, the will of Providence.
The heroes of the works are princes, rulers of the state, standing at the top of the hierarchical ladder of feudal society. However, having discarded the religious shell, the modern reader can easily discover that living historical reality, the true creator of which was the Russian people.
Kuskov V.V. History of ancient Russian literature. - M., 1998
