Spiritual traditions in ancient and modern Russian literature.

The concept of "Old Russian literature" is so familiar that almost no one notices its inaccuracies. Until about the middle of the 15th century, it would be more correct to call Old Russian literature Old East Slavonic. In the first centuries after the baptism of Russia and the spread of writing in the East Slavic lands, literature Eastern Slavs was one: the same works were read and copied by scribes in Kyiv and Vladimir, in Polotsk and Novgorod, in Chernigov and Rostov. Later, three different East Slavic peoples formed on this territory: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Formerly, the single Old Russian language is disintegrating: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages ​​are born, a new language is being formed in Ukraine - “prosta mova”, penetrating into bookishness, although not displacing the Church Slavonic language traditional for East Slavic literature.

Until the 15th century, Old Russian, or East Slavic literature formed a single whole with the literacy of other Orthodox Slavic countries. Like the book monuments of Ancient Russia, medieval Bulgarian and Serbian works were also written in Church Slavonic, which differed from the East Slavic version of Russian only in particulars. The main body of monuments is the vast majority of translations (and translations accounted for more than 90% of works in Old Russian literature, according to A.I. Sobolevsky, even about 99%), and many original works were common to Russia and Orthodox southern Slavs. National differences were not recognized by the scribes as the main ones: the community of faith was incommensurably more important for them. The Italian Slavist R. Picchio proposed to consider the bookishness of these three countries as a single phenomenon and called it “Litteratura Slavia Orthodoxa” - “Literature of the Orthodox Slavs”

Old Russian literature - it is still customary to use this term - arose in the 11th century. One of its first monuments, Metropolitan Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace," was created in the 1930s and 1940s. XI century, most likely at the very end of the 1040s. XVII century - last century ancient Russian literature. Throughout it, the traditional ancient Russian literary canons are gradually destroyed, new genres, new ideas about man and the world are born. Therefore, some researchers do not include the 17th century in the history of Old Russian literature, considering it as a special period.

Literature is also called the works of ancient Russian scribes, and the texts of the authors of the 18th century, and the creations of Russian classics. 19th century, and essays contemporary writers. Of course, there are obvious differences between the literature of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. But all Russian literature of the last three centuries is not at all like the monuments of ancient Russian verbal art. However, it is in comparison with them that she reveals much in common.

The term “literature” is usually used to denote the so-called “belles-lettres”, or artistic literature - works written by authors to evoke in readers aesthetic experiences. Such texts can pursue instructive, educational, ideological goals. But the aesthetic function remains the main, dominant in it. Accordingly, in fiction, first of all, art, the ingenuity of the author, and skillful possession of various techniques are valued. The installation of a literary text is primarily aimed not at the content, but at the way it is conveyed, at the expression. In European culture, fiction appears in ancient Greece and in Ancient Rome. The literary works of antiquity, the European Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th and 18th centuries (the era usually referred to as classicism) are very different from the works created at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. and later. These were works traditionalist, focused not on fundamental novelty, but on the recreation of samples, canons, dictated by the rules of a. Imitation in traditionalist literature was not condemned as epigonism or plagiarism, but was a normal phenomenon. The rules by which traditionalist literature “lived” were formulated in special guidelines for compiling written and oral texts - rhetoric - and in treatises devoted to literature — poetics.

The era of pre-romanticism and romanticism is considered to be the time of the “turning point”, when the individual style triumphs over the literary rules dictated by tradition. However, some researchers believe that the opinion about the triumph of the author's individuality over traditionalist literary attitudes (allegedly accomplished at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries) and about the fundamental difference between the "new" literature from the "old" is nothing more than an illusion: we are "inside" modern literature and therefore it is better to see the differences, and not the similarities, between the works of different authors; in the literature of other epochs, which we see “from the outside”, for us, on the contrary, the general is more distinct, and not the features of this or that individual style. This position was held by the largest Russian literary critic of the second half of the XIX - XX centuries. A.N. Veselovsky. Her supporter was the well-known researcher of ancient and Russian literature M.L. Gasparov.

Old Russian literature is no less traditionalistic than ancient literature or works of so-called classicism. But its traditionalism and canonicity are different. The culture of Ancient Russia did not know rhetoric and poetics. The scribes resorted to a variety of rhetorical devices: anaphora, syntactic parallelism, rhetorical questions and exclamations. But at the same time, they imitated texts inherited from Byzantine literature, and not at all the rules clearly formulated in special manuals. Until the 17th century rhetoric was not widespread in Russia, and the attitude towards them was, apparently, steadily negative. He spoke very sharply about rhetoric at the beginning of the 16th century. the elder (monk) of one of the Pskov monasteries Philotheus (we remember him as the creator of the historiosophical theory “Moscow is the third Rome”). Rhetoric was spoken of disparagingly and with condemnation in the 17th century. Old Believers who defended the age-old foundations of Russian Orthodoxy and Russian culture; among them was famous author own “Life”, Archpriest Avvakum. For the ancient Russian scribes, rhetoric was “alien knowledge”, belonging to the “Latin”, Catholic world. And Catholicism in Russia was considered heresy, a retreat from Christianity. The addressee of manuals on rhetoric was author, creator, a writer who treated the text as his creation. But for the ancient Russian religious and cultural consciousness, a scribe, a writer, is not an author in the proper sense of the word, but “ tool" in the hands of God, tool” Lord. He writes by the grace of God. It is no coincidence that the Kyiv scribe of the late XI - early XII centuries. Nestor, well-read in Byzantine hagiography (“hagiography” - the lives of the saints), writes in the Life of Theodosius of the Caves about himself that he is “rude and unreasonable”. The most educated Moscow hagiographer Epiphanius, nicknamed the Wise by his contemporaries, also apologizes for his ignorance and “unlearnedness”: in the brilliant and most skillful Life of Sergius of Radonezh, he self-deprecatingly writes about his own ignorance and inability for verbal mastery. The true Creator is one God who created heaven and earth. The word given by Him to man is sacred (sacred), and one cannot “play” with a word: this is blasphemy, a crime against the Creator. Meanwhile, the “rhetorical” attitude to the text presupposes just such a game and boldness: the writer creates an autonomous verbal world, like God who created the Universe. The writer "puffily" demonstrates his skill. Old Russian consciousness could not accept such an attitude to the text.

When rhetoric and poetics exist in some culture, this means that literature is aware of itself precisely as literature - an independent phenomenon. She reflects, “thinks” over herself. In this case, the role of the author's principle increases: the skill of the artist is valued, writers enter into competition with each other, who will write their work better and surpass some sample. Traditionalist literature, which "proclaimed" itself literature, is not like traditionalist literature, which has not yet realized its originality.

Among such literatures, which have not become an independent sphere of culture, do not reflect on their own specifics, is Old Russian literacy. Old Russian literacy is not yet artistic literature. The aesthetic function in it is not independent, it is subordinated to the utilitarian, instructive, cult. The absence of self-reflection in ancient Russian literature led to a relatively smaller role than in medieval Western Europe or in Byzantium, the role of the author.

What is it connected with? One could explain such a feature by the subordination of the individual to the “cathedral” principle inherent in Orthodoxy: the Catholic teaching about the salvation and justification of a person by deeds attaches greater importance to the individual. But in Orthodox Byzantium the situation was quite different: Byzantine literature in comparison with the Old Russian, it reveals more differences than in comparison with the literatures of the medieval West. It can be said that the whole point is in the properties of the “Russian soul”, alien to individualism and secular culture. But the literature of other medieval Orthodox Slavic countries - Bulgaria, Serbia - is similar in its type to Old Russian. If we declare that the root cause is in the nature of the "Slavic soul", then the example of the Catholic Slavic countries - Poland and the Czech Republic - will refute this assertion.

The reason is not in some features of ethnic psychology and not in the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism (although confessional differences in medieval culture are exceptionally significant in other cases). The specificity of Old Russian literature and other Orthodox Slavic literatures is indeed connected with faith. But not with religious differences, but with a special religious attitude to the word: bookishness, writing and the alphabet itself were sacred for the Orthodox Slavs. The Western world, the former barbarian tribes and states inherited the culture and its language - Latin - from the fallen Roman Empire. By the time of its fall in 475, the Western Roman Empire had already practiced Christianity for about one hundred and fifty years. The Latin language (as well as Greek and Hebrew) was revered by the Western Church as sacred: the gospel testimony was the argument that it was in these three languages ​​that the inscription on the cross of the crucified Jesus Christ was made. But Latin was never accepted in Western Europe only like a sacred language. Latin was also the language of Roman pagan literature inherited by the Christian West. The attitude towards the Roman writers of the pre-Christian era (primarily Virgil and Horace) in the Western medieval world was different - from enthusiastic acceptance to complete rejection. Sometimes in monastic writing workshops - scriptoria, the texts of pagan authors were washed off parchment manuscripts and pious Christian writings were written down in their place. But still, the works of ancient authors continued to be copied and read. Latin was also the language of pagan philosophy, by no means all of whose creations were rejected by the Christian West, and the language of jurisprudence. On the Latin in the Middle Ages, both church monuments and secular works were created.

The fate of the bookish language among the Orthodox Slavs was quite different. In the middle of the ninth century Byzantine missionaries brothers Konstantin (in monasticism - Cyril) and Methodius created the Slavic alphabet. Constantine and Methodius preached Christianity in the Moravian Principality, later Methodius was forced to leave Moravia and settled in Bulgaria. According to the vast majority of researchers, it was not the Cyrillic alphabet (the name "Cyrillic" comes from the name of Constantine - Cyril), which underlies the modern alphabets of the Eastern Slavs, Bulgarians and Serbs, but another alphabet - Glagolitic (however, there is an opinion that Constantine compiled first Glagolitic and then Cyrillic). The Slavic alphabet was created specifically for the Slavic translation of sacred Christian texts. Constantine and Methodius were also the creators of the bookish Slavic language, and the first translators of sacred texts from Greek into this language. The bookish Slavic language (it is customary to call it Old Slavonic) was created, apparently, on the basis of the South Slavic dialects of Macedonia. It included words composed by analogy with the words of the Greek language, and some original words acquired new meanings that convey the meaning of the Christian dogma. The Old Church Slavonic language became the unified liturgical language of the Orthodox Slavs. In the same language, priests in churches offered prayers to God on the banks of the Danube, and on the spurs of the Rhodope Mountains, and in the dense forests of the Novgorod North, and on the Solovetsky Islands lost in the cold sea ...

Over time, in different Orthodox Slavic countries developed their own versions of the liturgical language, which lost some of the features characteristic of the language that existed under Constantine and Methodius. The liturgical language of the Eastern Slavs, Bulgarians and Serbs is usually called Church Slavonic.

The acquisition of writing was perceived by the Orthodox Slavs as a sacred event: Constantine and Methodius created Slavic writing by the grace of God. In the Bulgarian essay of the late 9th - early 10th centuries, “The Legend of the Letters” by Chernorizets the Brave (this work was well known in Ancient Russia as well), it was said: “After all, before the Slavs, when they were pagans, they did not have letters<...>.

Then God, the philanthropist, who rules over everything and does not leave the human race without knowledge, but leads everyone to knowledge and salvation, had mercy on the Slavic race and sent them St. Constantine the Philosopher, named (in tonsure) Cyril, a righteous and true man.<...>... For the Slavs, one saint Constantine<...>and translated books in a few years<...>. And therefore (still) the Slavic writings are more holy and [more worthy of reverence], for they were created by a holy man, and the Greek ones by the pagans of the Hellenes.<...>After all, if you ask the Greek scribes, saying: who created the writings or translated the books for you and at what time, then few among them (this) know. If you ask the Slavic scribes who created the letters or translated the books for you, then everyone knows and, answering, they say: St. Constantine the Philosopher<...>he created letters and translated books, and Methodius, his brother” (Tales of the beginning of Slavic writing. M., 1981. S. 102-105, translated by B. N. Flory).

Medieval Slavic scribes revered Church Slavonic as a sacred language and could not imagine that it should serve other purposes than expressing the revealed truth of Christianity. Therefore, Church Slavonic could not become the language of fiction, secular literature, and therefore the writing of the Orthodox Slavs for centuries had an almost exclusively religious character.

The famous philologist S.S. Averintsev, delimiting the Hebrew writing, represented by sacred texts (in Christian tradition the corpus of these texts was called the Old Testament), and ancient Greek writings, proposed to call religious literature “literature”, leaving the term “literature” only for works similar to ancient Greek. We cannot call the Jewish king David, to whom the authorship of one of the biblical sacred books - the Psalter, is attributed - the author in the same sense of the word in which we call them, for example, the Greek lyricists. It is no coincidence that for the biblical religious tradition it is not so important whether all the psalms really belong to David: it is not the authorship that matters (the psalmist does not seek to express precisely his individual feelings or demonstrate his own skill), but the authority of the name. Old Russian literature can also rightfully be called “literature”.

The main feature of literature is fiction. The artistic world of literary works has a special status, “fictionality”: a statement in a literary text is neither a lie nor the truth. The role of fiction in narrative and plot works is especially distinct. Works with fictional plots and characters existed in medieval Europe(for example, chivalric novels), and in Byzantium (for example, romance novels). But ancient Russian literature, up to the 17th century, did not know fictional heroes and plots. From our outside point of view, much Old Russian works appears to be fiction. For example, when, under the year 1096, in the annals known as the Tale of Bygone Years, a story is given by a certain Novgorodian Gyuryata Rogovich. The envoy of Gyuryata Rogovich was told by people from the northern tribe of Yugra about a certain people imprisoned in the mountains: “<...>The essence of the mountain is zaiduche in the bow of the sea, their height is as high as heaven, and in the mountains of those they cry great and speak, and cut the mountain, wanting to be carved; and in that mountain a small window was cut through, and there to speak, and there is not understanding their language, but they look at the iron and wave (waving. - A.R.) with a hand, asking for iron; and if someone gives them a knife, or an ax, and they give against the ambulance (furs. - A. R.)“. To modern man, who has a rationalistic consciousness, the miracles described in the lives of the saints also seem to be fiction. But both ancient Russian scribes and their readers believed in the events described.

Alien was fiction and South Slavic Orthodox literature. An interesting fate in Russia and among the southern Slavs of "Alexandria" - a translation of an ancient Greek novel about the great king and commander of antiquity Alexander the Great. "Alexandria" was translated into Church Slavonic in Russia in the 12th century. and in Serbia in the XIII-XIV centuries. (Serbian translation, the so-called “Serbian Alexandria” spread in Muscovite Russia in the 15th century). “Alexandria” reported that Alexander’s father was not the Macedonian king Philip II, but the Egyptian wizard Nectanav: he entered the chambers of the queen of Olympias, Philip’s wife, taking the form of a huge snake. The fantastic creatures that Alexander the Great met in his campaigns are described in detail in Alexandria: six-armed and six-legged people and people with dog heads, one-legged people and half-humans-half-horses - centaurs. It is told about a wonderful lake, in the water of which dead fish came to life.

For educated Byzantines, "Alexandria" was an entertaining read, a fairy tale novel. They distinguished the novel about the Macedonian king from the historical works devoted to him, and when they wanted to know the truth about the campaigns of Alexander, they read, for example, his biography, which belongs to the ancient Greek historian Plutarch. But ancient Russian scribes (as well as Bulgarian and Serbian ones) treated "Alexandria" in a different way: as a reliable historical source. Greek novel in Russia was included in the composition of historical works - chronographs.

Old Russian literature until the 17th century. does not describe love experiences and as if he does not know the very concept of “love”. She talks either about the sinful "prodigal passion" leading to the death of the soul, or about a virtuous Christian marriage (for example, in "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia").

In the 17th century in Russia, fiction works are gradually spreading - love-adventure, adventurous stories. The first stories with fictional plots and characters were translations-reworkings. The most famous among them are “The Tale of Bova the King”, which goes back to the French novel about the knight Beauvais d’Antono, and “The Tale of Yeruslan Lazarevich”, the source of which was the eastern legend of the valiant hero Rustem (this story served as one of the sources of Pushkin’s poem “ Ruslan and Ludmila"). These works caused discontent among conservative-minded people who were accustomed to works. Thus, the courtier, stolnik Ivan Begichev sternly pronounced in a message to readers of adventurous stories:<...>and about other other such fabulous stories and ridiculous letters - they didn’t read any divine books and theological doctrines ”(Yatsimirsky A.I. Epistle of Ivan Begichev about the visible image of God .... // Readings in the Society of Russian History and Antiquities. 1898 Book 2. Section 2. P. 4). Begichev was accustomed to seeing “soulful reading” in literature, and he could not comprehend that lovers of “unprofitable stories” were not at all deceived, did not take them for “soulful reading”: they reveled precisely in their “unusefulness”, the intricacies of events, bold deeds and love adventures of the characters.

It is customary in textbooks and lecture courses to distinguish between religious and secular Old Russian literature; this distinction persists in many scientific research. In fact, it reflects the features of the researcher's consciousness rather than the structure of ancient Russian literature. Of course, the liturgical hymn (canon) to a saint, the word (a genre of solemn eloquence) for a church holiday or the life of a saint are works of religious content. But both the military tale and the chronicle, most often referred to as monuments of secular literature, depict and interpret events from a religious point of view. Everything that happens is explained by the participation of Providence, the realization of the divine plan: events take place either by the will and grace of God (these are good events), or by the permission of God, as punishment for the sins of Russian princes and their subjects (these are unkind, “evil” events - invasions of foreigners, crop failures , natural disasters). The causal relationship in the history of the chronicler is not interested - he is not a historian, but a "registrar".

In the annals, Russian history was inscribed in a series of events in world history and was considered within the framework of ideas about the movement of time inherited from the Bible. Landmarks of sacred history - the creation of the world, the flood and the resettlement of peoples after the flood, the incarnation, the death on the cross and the Resurrection of Christ, the spread of Christianity and - in the eschatological perspective - the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment - these are the milestones of history for the chroniclers. They constantly draw analogies between contemporary events and the deeds described in the Bible. Not coincidentally, most of them were monks. Some researchers (I.N. Danilevsky, A.N. Uzhankov) tend to believe that the chronicles were created as a list of good and evil deeds intended for God himself, as books by which the Lord will judge people on the day of the last judgment, but no direct there is no evidence of this. The books by which the Lord judges the human race in the Revelation of John the Theologian are not chronicles written by people.

Actually, ancient Russian literature did not know secular genres until the 17th century. She didn't have any love lyrics, similar to the poetry of the minnesingers and troubadours in Western Europe, nor stories of exploits and love affairs, like chivalric romances in the West. There were no historical writings whose authors offered their own interpretations, detailed analysis events. Such authorial historical works were widespread in Byzantium (the works of Michael Psellos, Nikita Choniates, and others). In Russia, “author's” stories appear only in the 16th century. (“The Story of the Grand Duke of Moscow” by Andrei Kurbsky) and are widely distributed in the next century. Over the previous centuries, ancient Russian scribes from the rich Byzantine historiographical heritage got acquainted only with the chronicles - works in which the events of world history were simply and artlessly set out in chronological order; the compilers of the chronicles, like the Russian chroniclers, explained what was happening by Divine Providence.

In the West and in Byzantium, the same material, the same plots and motifs could be described both in sacred and secular texts: not only the Gospels and lives, but also poems told about the earthly life of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints. and dramatic writings. About the life of the rulers, if they were canonized as saints, both lives and secular biographies were told.

In Russia it was different. Only sacred texts narrated about Christ and the saints. If the chronicle told about the saint, then the description of his life was either directly borrowed from hagiography, or was sustained in a hagiographic style. When ancient Russian scribes described the life of rulers, under their pen it invariably turned into a life: ancient Russian literature did not know secular biography until its decline.

Of course, secular motifs existed in Russian folklore (however, we have very rough ideas about the composition of ancient Russian oral folk art, since the oldest records of Russian folklore are not older than the 17th century). But folk literature was a special sphere of culture, not like ancient Russian literature.

In relation to ancient Russian literature, it would be more correct to speak not about the delimitation of the religious and secular spheres, but about the boundaries between sacred divinely inspired texts and works of a lower religious status. The Bible (Holy Scripture), Holy Tradition (the writings of the saints - the Fathers of the Church - who formulated the foundations of Christian doctrine, dogmatics), liturgical (liturgical) texts constituted the core or - if we use another spatial image - the pinnacle of ancient Russian literature. Unauthorized editing, interference in the texts of Holy Scripture and liturgy were not allowed. In 1525, a Greek, a native of a Greek monastery on the famous Mount Athos (there was a kind of “monastic republic”, an “inflorescence” of Orthodox monasteries - Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian) Maxim was condemned by the Russian church authorities and sent to prison for repentance; the reason for the harsh decision was the translations of Maxim the Greek from the Old Testament, which contained deviations (in grammar!) from the tradition established in Russia.

monuments church eloquence, lives, walks (descriptions of pilgrimages), patericons (collections of stories about the monks of a monastery or area) had less authority. Scribes often edited, supplemented or shortened their text. Works devoted to real, everyday events were still “a step below”.

Thus, ancient Russian literature does not represent a rigid system with clearly delimited spheres: there are not boundaries between different areas of literature, but gradual, “smooth” transitions.

Old Russian literature did not know comic, comical, parodic works, although they existed both in the West and in Byzantium. There are only a few ironic phrases or satirical “sketches”. Talking about the defeat of governor Pleshcheev, the chronicler noticed that he ran, turning his “splashes” (shoulders). In the story of the terrible and humiliating defeat of the Russian army by the Tatars on the Pyan River in 1377, the chronicler accuses the Russians, who spent time in feasts and, due to carelessness, did not prepare for an attack by the enemy. “Truly, get drunk on a drunk,” wrote an ancient Russian scribe. But these separate ironic or satirical fragments are part of completely “serious” works. “Laughter leads to sin,” says a Russian proverb. Laughter, unbridled joy in ancient Russian Orthodox culture was considered a matter not only sinful, but also blasphemous. Laughter and fun accompanied the folk holidays of pagan origin. The Church condemned these holidays invariably.

Only in the 17th century comic literature is born in Russia. At the same time, in the 1670s, the Russian theater was created, staged on the court stage, and the first plays were composed. Acting and acting were considered sinful occupations. First, it's empty entertainment. Secondly, and most importantly, playwrights and actors created their own illusory world, as if encroaching on the rights of God, the only Creator. Artists renounced their personality, their own fate, given to them by God, and played other people's lives and roles. Archpriest Avvakum, who fiercely defended the blessed antiquity, wrote about the court theater of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and about the actors as follows: the child is playing an angel, but he does not know that it is not he who portrays the angel, but the demon himself plays it.

“What you don’t miss, you don’t have anything,” this caustic remark of one of the characters in Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, at first glance, is ideally applicable not only to Soviet shortages, but also to ancient Russian literature. But the differences between ancient Russian literature and contemporary literature of the Latin West or Byzantium do not at all speak of its inferiority, “second-rate”. Just ancient Russian culture - in many ways different. Culturologist and semiotician B.A. Uspensky explained the originality of ancient Russian literature in the following way. The word, according to semiotics (the science of signs), is a conditional (conventional) sign in which the signified (a particular concept, meaning) and the signifier (the sound “shell”, the sound composition of the word) are connected arbitrarily. There is no inner relationship between sounds and concepts. No wonder in different languages different signifiers correspond to the same signified, and in the same language a concept can be denoted by different synonymous words. But to ancient Russian religious and cultural consciousness, the connection between signifieds and signifiers seemed involuntary, indissoluble. Sacred texts were conceived as a “message” coming from God himself. Words - conventional signs - were perceived in Ancient Russia as iconic signs (in semiotics, this term refers to signs based on the similarity or similarity between the signified and the signifier - photographs, road signs with images, painting, sculpture, cinema). With such an attitude towards literature, the aesthetic “play” inherent in fiction turned out to be impossible.

Old Russian literature is not “fine literature”. Old Russian literature, in a completely different way than the literature of the New Age, is connected with everyday life, with ritual, with the practical needs of society. Church hymns were sung in certain time at divine services, samples of church eloquence and brief lives of the saints sounded in the church. (they were called probable, according to the Slavic name of the collection of short lives - Prologue; these texts were read on the sixth ode of the liturgical hymn - the canon). The reading of lengthy lives was listened to by the monks at the meal; information from the lives of the posthumous miracles of the saints served to justify the canonization (establishment of church veneration) of these saints. Chronicles were a kind of legal document for the people of Ancient Russia. After the death in 1425 of the Moscow prince Yuri Dmitrievich, his younger brother Yuri Dmitrievich and son Vasily Vasilyevich began to argue about their rights to the Moscow throne. Both princes turned to the Tatar Khan to judge their dispute. At the same time, Yuri Dmitrievich, defending his rights to reign in Moscow, referred to ancient chronicles, which reported that power had previously passed from the prince-father not to his son, but to his brother.

Nevertheless, ancient Russian literary monuments have undoubted aesthetic properties. In a culture that does not distinguish between artistic and non-artistic, aesthetic properties are found in works that have utilitarian functions: everything became involved in divine beauty.

In ancient Russian literature, the events and things that surround a person are symbols and manifestations of a higher, spiritual, divine reality. The world is dominated by two forces - the will of God, who wants the good of man, and the will of the devil, who longs to turn man away from God and destroy him with his machinations. Man is free in his choice between good and evil, light and darkness. But having succumbed to the power of the devil, he loses his freedom, and resorting to the help of God, he acquires the Divine grace that strengthens him.

And the compilers of lives and sermons, and chroniclers, and authors of historical stories invariably turn to the Bible. Old Russian writings are a kind of fabric. The unchanging basis and “red thread” of these texts, their leitmotifs are symbols, metaphors, sayings borrowed from biblical books. So, “The Tale of Boris and Gleb” (XI - the beginning of the XII century) - a hagiographic narrative about the holy brothers, the sons of the baptist of Russia, Prince Vladimir, who voluntarily and innocently accepted martyrdom at the hands of his half-brother Svyatopolk - opens with the lines: “Bless the right family, - the prophet said, - and their seed will be a blessing. This reminiscence from the biblical book Psalter is one of the semantic keys to the text. But sometimes the allusions to the Holy Scriptures, pointing to the symbolic meanings introduced into the text by the Old Russian scribe, are not so obvious to us. And ancient Russian readers recognized them without difficulty. The lad Gleb in the same “Tale ...” touchingly prays to the killers: “Do not cut the vines, not to the end of your life, but the fruit of your possessions!” The young vine is not just an emotional metaphor, but a Christological symbol: in the Gospel of John (ch. 15), Jesus Christ calls himself the vine. Gleb is ruthlessly killed on the orders of Svyatopolk's messengers by his own cook:<...>". Comparison with a lamb (lamb) not only testifies to the gentleness and meekness of the saint; The Lamb, the Lamb of God is a metaphorical name for Christ in Holy Scripture. Comparing Gleb with a lamb, the compiler of the “Tale ...” likens him to Christ, who accepted an innocent death.

Time and space in ancient Russian literature are not physical categories. They have special semantics. Eternity shines through the temporal. Church holidays repeating every year: the Nativity, death and Resurrection of Christ were not just a memory of the events of the Savior's earthly life, but a mysterious and real repetition of these very events. Believers experienced each feast of the Nativity of Christ as the birth of the baby Jesus, and each feast of Easter was for them a new resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is no coincidence that the ancient Russian preacher of the 12th century. Cyril of Turovsky, remembering the resurrection of Christ, constantly uses the word "today" ("now").

Biblical events were interpreted as types of what is happening in the present. The events of the past for the ancient Russian people did not disappear without a trace: they gave rise to a long “echo”, repeating themselves, being updated in the present. An echo, an echo of the biblical story about the murder of Abel by brother Cain for the ancient Russian scribes was the treacherous murder of the holy princes brothers Boris and Gleb by the “new, second Cain” - half-brother Svyatopolk. In turn, the later Russian princes were likened to Svyatopolk, who, like him, took the lives of their relatives.

The space for the ancient Russian man was not just geographical concept. It could be “ours” and “alien”, “native” and “hostile”. Such, for example, are Christian and especially “holy places” on one side of the earth (Palestine with Jerusalem, Constantinople with its shrines, Athos monasteries in the Balkans). The semantics of space in ancient Russian literature was studied by Yu.M. Lotman. “Holy”, “righteous” lands were located in the east, “at sunrise” (not by chance, the main part Christian temple, his "holy of holies" was always turned to the east). "Sinful lands" and the most were in the west and north. But the concepts of "east" and "west" in the ancient Russian religious consciousness had, first of all, not a geographical, but a value-religious meaning.

The city with its temples and walls was opposed to the Wild Steppe, from where foreigners - Polovtsy and Tatars - raided. The mundane territory of the city, village, field was opposed to the sacred space of temples and monasteries.

The style in ancient Russian literature depended not on the genre of the work, but on the subject of the narrative. In describing the life of the saint, a stable set of expressions was used - “cliches” and biblical quotations. The saint was usually called “an earthly angel and a heavenly man”, “wonderful and miraculous”, it was said about the “light” of his soul and deeds, about a steady, thirsty love for God. He was likened to the glorified saints of the past. These same “stencils”, “ common places” are used when depicting a saint and in a chronicle fragment, and in a laudatory word.

Invariable in various works was the image of the ideal prince: he is pious, merciful and just, brave. His death is mourned by all people - rich and poor.

Another set of "stencils" was characteristic of the military style. This style was used to describe battles in chronicles, historical stories, and lives. The enemy acted "in the power of gravity", surrounded Russian army like a forest; Russian princes before the battle offered up prayers to God; arrows flew like rain; the warriors fought, clutching their hands; the battle was so fierce that blood flooded the valleys, and so on.

In the culture of modern times, everything that is not banal, not yet known, is highly valued. The main advantage of the writer is his individuality, inimitable style.

In ancient Russian literature, the canon dominated - the rules and patterns by which the scribes compiled their works. The role of the canon in other areas is no less significant. ancient Russian culture, in particular, in icon painting: images of various plots of sacred history had a stable composition and color scheme. The icon represented this or that saint in an unchanged form, and not only the features of the face were repeated, but also the robe, and even the shape of the beard. In the 16th-17th centuries, special manuals for painting icons became widespread - icon-painting originals.

Researcher of Old Russian literature academician D.S. Likhachev proposed a special term to denote the role of tradition, the canon in the monuments of medieval Russian literature - "literary etiquette". Here is how the scientist himself explains this concept: “The literary etiquette of a medieval writer was composed of ideas about: 1) how this or that course of events should have taken place, 2) how the character should have behaved in accordance with his position, 3) what words he should have describe the author of what is happening.<...>

It would be wrong to see in the literary etiquette of the Russian Middle Ages only a set of mechanically repeating patterns and stencils, a lack of creative invention, “ossification” of creativity, and to confuse this literary etiquette with the patterns of individual mediocre works of XIX in. The whole point is that all these verbal formulas, stylistic features, certain recurring situations, etc., are applied by the medieval writer not at all mechanically, but precisely where they are required. The writer chooses, reflects, is preoccupied with the general “beautifulness” of the presentation. The most literary canons vary by him, change depending on his ideas about "literary propriety". It is these ideas that are the main ones in his work.

Before us is not a mechanical selection of stencils, but creativity, in which the writer seeks to express his ideas about what is due and befitting, not so much inventing the new as combining the old ”(Likhachev D.S. Poetics of Literature // Artistic and Aesthetic Culture of Ancient Russia. XI - XVII century. M., 1996. P. 66).

The term "literary etiquette" has become generally recognized in studies on the history of ancient Russian literature.

Yu.M. Lotman called canonical art (which includes ancient Russian literature) an "information paradox". The new text should convey new information However, this does not happen in the case of canonical art: it is the message, the content that is “clichéd”, repetitive. Thus, the lives of various saints are, in a certain sense of the word, one text with the same “character” and series of events (the image of the saint and his deeds are similar in numerous lives). In the works of canonical art, according to the researcher, the form, the “plan of expression”, and not the repetitive content, is palpable. Yu.M. Lotman saw the function of the texts of canonical art in communicating to the perceiver (reader, contemplator, listener) the principles on which these texts are built. Such principles are a code (“language”, a system of techniques that transmits information), with the help of which the reader could interpret other texts in a new way. These include, according to Yu.M. Lotman, and the surrounding world, and ideas about it of a person of canonical culture. (Yu.M. Lotman uses the concept of “text” in an expansive, semiotic sense: reality is also a text that has a certain meaning that needs to be comprehended.) But mastering this code does not require big number texts (as it really is), and therefore Yu.M. Lotman believes that canonical art contains and transmits not only codes, but also new messages. According to the researcher, these new messages are created due to the fact that when creating texts, there is a violation of the rules declared by traditionalist cultures (see: Lotman Yu.M. 1) On two models of communication in the cultural system; 2) Canonical art as an informational paradox // Lotman Yu.M. Selected articles: In 3 vols. Tallinn, 1992. Vol. 1. P. 84-85; 243-247). However, this interpretation threatens to blur the distinction between traditionalist and anti-traditionalist cultures. More typical for canon-oriented cultures, and in particular for Old Russian literature, are probably other cases.

What is new in a traditionalist text can be created not because of the originality of the message, but because of the peculiarities of the code that expresses this message. The life of Sergius of Radonezh (1417-1418) by Epiphanius the Wise is an example when given, familiar content is transmitted using codes, the interaction of which in the text is unpredictable and original. The reader of the Life knows that he will be informed about the mystical connection between the life of Sergius and the Holy Trinity. But he cannot predict how this will be done: at the phrasal level (with the help of triple repetitions of some words or expressions), at the event level (and it is not known through what events), with the help of the hagiographer's explanations and retrospective analogies with the biblical righteous , in the narrative of which there are also three times repeated events. The elements of triple repetitions in the Life often do not form single blocks, but are separated by significant fragments of the text. The reader must discover these rows. The reading of the Life turns out to be a re-creation of the saint's life as a whole that has meaning. The text of the Life leads the reader to the deep meaning of the dogma of the Holy Trinity - the meaning is many-valued and hidden ...

The originality of the ancient Russian scribe (and Epiphanius was undoubtedly a skilled and original writer) is manifested not in neglecting tradition, not in violating it, but in “building on” his own additional principles of ordering and organizing the text above its rules.

The style of some ancient Russian scribes is easily recognizable and has striking distinctive features. So, it is impossible to attribute to someone else not only the works of Epiphanius the Wise, with his sophisticated “weaving of words”. The style of Ivan the Terrible's epistles is inimitable, impudently mixing eloquence and rude abuse, learned examples and the style of a simple conversation. But these are rather exceptions. Old Russian authors did not consciously try to be original, did not boast, did not “flaunt” beauty and grace or novelty of style.

The authorial principle in ancient Russian literature is muted, implicit. Old Russian scribes were not careful with other people's texts. When rewriting the texts, they were reworked: some phrases or episodes were excluded from them or some episodes were inserted into them, stylistic “decorations” were added. The ideas and assessments of the author were replaced by the opposite ones. Lists of one work that differ significantly from each other are called “editions” by researchers. Old Russian scribes rarely indicated their names in manuscripts. As a rule, the authors mention their names only when it is necessary to give the narrative authenticity, documentary. Thus, the compilers of the lives often said that they were eyewitnesses of events from the life of the saint. The authors of stories about pilgrimages, describing their own travels to the great Christian shrines, reported their names. First of all, it was not authorship that was valued, but the authority of the writer. To some of the Greek theologians—fathers of the church—St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom—Russian scribes even ascribed teachings against paganism, actually created in Russia. The authority of the name gave these texts greater influence and weight. Among the works attributed to the famous preacher St. Cyril of Turov, many, apparently, do not belong to him: the name of Cyril of Turov gave additional authority to these works.

The concept of authorship in the modern sense appears only in the 17th century. Court poets Simeon Polotsky, Sylvester Medvedev, Karion Istomin already consider themselves the creators of original creations, emphasizing their literary skills. They receive monetary rewards from the kings for their compositions. Their contemporary Archpriest Avvakum, a zealous adherent of the traditions of antiquity, nevertheless constantly violates established rules and writes an autobiographical narrative - his own biography in the form of the life of a saint (not a single scribe past centuries couldn't even think of it). Avvakum likens himself to the apostles and to Christ himself. He freely moves from book language to colloquial vernacular.

Modern literature is characterized by an awareness of its own dynamics and development: both writers and readers distinguish between the recognized, authoritative "fund" of literature - the classics - and today's works that create new artistic languages, transforming reality in a new way, causing controversy. Such self-consciousness is alien to Old Russian literature. For a Moscow scribe of the 15th or 16th century, the works of the Kievan chroniclers or hagiographers of three and four centuries ago and modern texts do not fundamentally differ. Old texts can be more authoritative than new ones, sometimes less understandable than modern ones, and therefore, for example, their language needs to be updated when rewritten. Ancient works were sometimes subjected to both ideological and stylistic editing. However, the same thing happened with texts created recently. Ancient and new texts were equally read and often included in the same manuscript collections. Works at different times are thought of as synchronous, belonging to the same time. All literature, as it were, is "achronous", has a timeless character.

The literature of the New Age is a kind of system, all elements (genres, texts) of which are interconnected. When a literary movement or direction is formed, its inherent features appear in a variety of genres. For example, researchers write about romantic poem, and about a romantic elegy, and about a romantic tragedy or story. The evolution of one genre or group of genres, the discoveries made in these genres, are also perceived by works belonging to completely different literary spheres. So, the methods of the psychological novel of the middle - the second half of the 19th century are inherited by lyrics; under the influence of the dominant prose, poetry is “prosaic” (lyrics and poems by N.A. Nekrasov); the dominant role of poetry in the literature of symbolism leads to the “lyricization” of symbolist prose.

In ancient Russian literature, such a connection between different types bookishness, which scholars traditionally also call genres, does not exist.

Also in XVII century When historical narratives are undergoing dramatic changes and previously unknown genres are emerging, scribes continue to create the lives of the saints according to the old schemes. Some genres are developing faster, others are slower, and others are “stuck” in immobility. Naturally, genres whose structure is determined by the rules of worship do not evolve. Lives have changed little, for they tell of the eternal—of the revelation and presence of holiness in the earthly world. For different genres, there is and man's denial. At the same time, for example, a hagiographic “character”, a saint, will be depicted in other genres differently than ordinary, sinful people, a prince - invariably differently than a commoner. Similarly, saints, the Mother of God and Christ, servants, sinners, demons are always depicted on icons in different ways, regardless of their position in space: Christ and the Mother of God are much taller than the apostles, standing side by side; more shorter servants. Demons are invariably shown in profile.

In the literature of the New Age, works of various genres “speak” about different things, create different artistic worlds: the world of elegy is different world than the world of romance or comedy. The world of ancient Russian literature is one - it is a reality created by God. But it is seen in different genres from different points of view; genre in and The writing of the chronicle is unlike hagiographic: the chronicler fixes and selects events differently than the hagiographer. But these different approaches to reality are compatible: for example, a hagiographic story is often inserted into a chronicle text. A brief mention in the annals of the saint or a story about the exploits of the prince in the name of the land and faith in the annals can be transformed into a hagiographic narrative. Ideas about man and the world are not created by the ancient Russian scribe, but are set, “found” in church teaching. In the literature of the New Age, however, these ideas have a different origin: they are dictated to varying degrees by the genre, era, and worldview of the author.

Now some Russian (for example, V.M. Zhivov) and many foreign (G. Lehnhoff, R. Marti, R. Picchio and others) researchers believe, not without reason, that such a category as genre is not applicable to Old Russian literature at all: the selection of genres is associated with the awareness of poetics, style as self-valuable artistic phenomena, and this was not the case in Ancient Russia. Works of various types were not separated from each other by distinct boundaries, they "crossed", "flowed" into each other. The number of exceptions - works that are not traditional in terms of genre - almost exceeds the number of "correct" texts from the genre point of view. This is not accidental: genre consciousness presupposes the isolation of texts from each other. The monuments of ancient Russian literature, designed to express, carry the only Divine Truth, constituted a single semantic space.

Religion determines not just a set of themes of ancient Russian literature, faith determines the very essence of ancient literature.

The reforms of Peter I marked a new path for Russian culture and literature: secular, worldly art triumphed, and the works of Western European authors became a model. Ancient traditions were broken own literature forgotten. The gradual discovery, the “second birth” of Old Russian literature took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. A special world appeared before researchers and readers, beautiful and mysterious in its dissimilarity to modern literature.

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Old Russian literature Completed by: teacher of the Russian language and literature Kurilskaya Irina Alexandrovna

Ancient Russian literature and folklore poetic creativity. the greatest role folk epic plays in its formation: historical legends, heroic tales, songs about military campaigns. The princely squads in Ancient Russia made numerous military campaigns, had their own singers who composed and sang glory songs in honor of the winners, called the prince and the soldiers of his squad. Folklore for ancient literature was the main source that gave images, plots, artistic poetic means penetrated into it through folklore. folk poetry, as well as people's understanding of the world.

Genres and Images of Old Russian Literature Folklore genres were part of literature in all periods of its development. Writing turned to such genres of folk art as legends, proverbs, glories and laments. Both in writing and in folklore, especially in chronicle writing, old traditional figurative expressions, symbols, allegories were used. The image of Boyan, the singing of glory to the princes, the song and rhythm of the system, the use of repetitions, hyperbole, the relationship of the images of heroes with epic heroes, the widespread use of folk poetic symbols (the idea of ​​battle as sowing, threshing, wedding feast) is typical for Old Russian literature. Comparisons of heroes with a cuckoo, an ermine, Bui-Tur are close to symbolic images. Nature in ancient literature, as in folk poetry, mourns, rejoices, helps heroes. The motif of the transformation of heroes, as in fairy tales, into animals and birds is characteristic. The same expressive and visual means are used: parallelisms (“the sun shines in heaven - Igor prince in the Russian land”), tautology 3 (“trumpets blow”, “bridges to bridge”), constant epithets (“greyhound horse”, “black earth”, "green grass").

Secular and spiritual beginnings The main keepers and scribes of books were monks. Therefore, most of the books that have come down to us are ecclesiastical in nature. Ancient literature combines secular and spiritual beginnings. In many genres, there is often an appeal to God as a “savior”, “almighty”, relying on his mercy .... Mention of divine providence and destiny, a sense of the world in its dual essence, “real and divine”, is characteristic of this literature. The works of ancient writers include fragments of monuments of Christian book culture, images from the Gospel, the Old and New Testaments, Psalms. After the adoption of Christianity, the ancient Russian scribes needed to be told about how the world works from a Christian point of view, and they turned to the books of Holy Scripture.

Depiction of a person in ancient Russian literature The ideal hero in the annals was the prince. It was created by the chronicler in "monumental grandeur", as on mosaics and frescoes of the 11th-13th centuries. The chronicler was interested in the official image of the prince, his significant deeds as a historical figure, and human qualities remained outside of attention. Perfect Look the hero was created in accordance with certain canons: the virtues and virtues of the prince were listed, which were supposed to cause worship (powerful, independent, handsome in face, brave, skilled in military affairs, courageous, crusher of enemies, guardian of the state). The prince is presented in a halo of power and glory. He is a statesman and a warrior. Fearlessness in battle, contempt for death - one of the features of the ideal hero Patriotism was not only a duty, but also the conviction of Russian princes, the characters were historical figures, not fiction author.

Themes and ideas of ancient Russian literature D.S. Likhachev considered ancient Russian literature as literature of one theme and one plot. "This plot is world history, and this topic is the meaning of human life". Old Russian literature, inextricably linked with the history of the development of the Russian state, the Russian people, is imbued with heroic and patriotic pathos. The theme of the beauty and grandeur of the motherland, the "light-colored and red-decorated" Russian land, which is "known" and "known" in all parts of the world, is one of the central themes of ancient Russian literature. It glorifies the creative work of our fathers and grandfathers, who selflessly defended the great Russian land from external enemies and strengthened the mighty sovereign state “great and spacious”, which shines “bright”, “like the sun in the sky”. It contains a sharp voice of condemnation of the policy of the princes, who sowed bloody feudal strife, weakened the political and military power of the state.

Genres of Old Russian Literature In Old Russian literature, a system of genres was defined, within which the development of original Russian literature began. Genres in ancient Russian literature were distinguished according to somewhat different characteristics than in modern literature. Chronographs told about the history of the world; about the history of the fatherland - chronicles, monuments of historical writing and literature of Ancient Russia, the narration in which was conducted over the years. They told about the events of Russian and world history. There was an extensive literature of moralistic biographies - the lives of the saints, or hagiography. Collections of short stories about the life of monks were widely distributed. Such collections were called pateriks. The genres of solemn and instructive eloquence are represented by various teachings and words. In the solemn words pronounced in the church during the service, Christian holidays were glorified. In the teachings, vices were denounced, virtues were glorified. The walks told about travels to the holy land of Palestine. A special place among examples of worldly genres is occupied by Vladimir Monomakh's "Teachings", "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land" and "The Tale of Daniil the Sharpener". They testify to high level literary development, achieved by Ancient Russia in the XI-first half of the XIII centuries. The development of ancient Russian literature of the 11th-17th centuries proceeds through the gradual destruction of the stable system of church genres and their transformation.

Traditions of Old Russian Literature in the Works of Writers The traditions of Old Russian literature are found in the works of Russian writers of the 18th century. In part, they can be identified in the works of M.V. Lomonosov, A.N. Radishcheva, N.M. Karamzin and others. New level the assimilation of the traditions of ancient Russian literature reveals the work of A.S. Pushkin. “The great Russian poet not only used the plots, motifs, images of ancient Russian literature, but also resorted to its styles and certain genres to recreate the “zeitgeist”” 1 . Repeatedly Pushkin turned to the Russian chronicles, he was struck by the “simplicity and accuracy of the depiction of objects” in them. Under their impression, the "Song of the Prophetic Oleg" was created. The Old Russian text prompted the poet to philosophical reflections on the appointment of the poet.

Peculiarities of Old Russian Literature Ancient literature is filled with deep patriotic content, heroic pathos of service to the Russian land, state, and motherland. The main theme of ancient Russian literature is world history and the meaning of human life. Ancient literature glorifies the moral beauty of the Russian man, who is capable of sacrificing the most precious thing for the sake of the common good - life. It expresses a deep belief in strength, the ultimate triumph of good, and the ability of man to elevate his spirit and conquer evil. A characteristic feature of ancient Russian literature is historicism. Heroes are predominantly historical figures. The literature strictly follows the fact. A feature of the artistic creativity of the ancient Russian writer is the so-called "literary etiquette". This is a special literary and aesthetic regulation, the desire to subordinate the very image of the world to certain principles and rules, to establish once and for all what should be depicted and how. Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state, writing, and is based on Christian book culture and developed forms of oral poetry. At this time, literature and folklore were closely connected. Literature often perceived plots, artistic images, visual means of folk art. The originality of ancient Russian literature in the image of the hero depends on the style and genre of the work. In relation to styles and genres, the hero is reproduced in the monuments of ancient literature, ideals are formed and created. In ancient Russian literature, a system of genres was defined, within which the development of original Russian literature began. The main thing in their definition was the "use" of the genre, the "practical purpose" for which this or that work was intended. The traditions of Old Russian literature are found in the work of Russian writers of the 18th-20th centuries.

Thank you for your attention

Peeva M.V. The role of ancient Russian literature in the modern literary education of schoolchildren // D.S. Likhachev and Russian culture: materials of regional scientific readings dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Academician D.S. Likhachev, Kemerovo, November 9, 2006 / ed. E.L. Rudneva.-Kemerovo: Publishing house KRIPKiPRO, 2007.

The Role of Old Russian Literature in the Modern Literary Education of Schoolchildren

Appreciating the beautiful in the past, protecting it, we thus follow the testament of A.S. Pushkin: “Respect for the past is the feature that distinguishes education from savagery ...”. This quote fully reveals the role of Old Russian literature in the modern education of schoolchildren.

“Monuments of Old Russian literature influence the formation of our primary ideas about Ancient Russia and about the sources of knowledge of Russian culture. They effectively influence in general the formation in the young - school - years of our artistic taste, concepts of artistic values, general aesthetic concepts of what a perfect work of literature is, helps to learn how important it is for us today to turn to a very old cultural heritage" one .

“It is striking that already in the texts of the 16th century. we discover features typical of the great Russian classical literature, and elements of thinking, as if anticipating our modern train of thought, historicism with a rare breadth of the chronological, as well as spatial and geographical range, the richest, at the same time very specific and symbolically - refined associativity, the idea of "sign" - a historically specific image, which is at the same time a symbol. In the ingenious monument of literature of the 12th century, “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, we already see both synthetic perception and reflection in the relationship of man and nature, lyrical and epic, that is, the beginning of that line of development of great literature that goes back to “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy 2 . According to Tolstoy, the great texts of the distant past open up a new world for a person, make him "without knowledge ... fall in love with knowledge." "Each of these books for the first time recognizes all the beauty of the epic in inimitable simplicity and power."

In this regard, the educational literature of Ancient Russia, which was subordinated to the tasks of moral description and moral teaching, plays an important role in shaping the boundless moral perfection of a person. “Her etiquette and “good manners” in life are closely related. So, for example, "Reading about the life and destruction of Boris and Gleb", studied at school, is permeated from beginning to end with a heightened sense of etiquette. “Blessed, bow down to your father and kiss his honest nose, and get up again, we’ll kiss his neck, kissing with tears” (Reading about the life and destruction of Boris and Gleb). Thus, a special, national ideal of beauty opens up for students. First of all, it is spiritual, inner beauty, the beauty of a Christian merciful and loving soul.

It is especially important that in the literature of Ancient Russia there is no place for hatred and contempt for other peoples (which is usual for many other works of the Middle Ages); it brings up not only patriotism, but, in modern terms, internationalism as well.

“Sustainable etiquette features are formed in literature into hieroglyphic signs, into emblems. The emblem is close to the ornament. The “weaving of words”, which has been widely developed in Russian literature since the end of the 14th century, is a verbal ornament. It is possible to graphically depict the repeating elements of the "weaving of words", and we will get an ornament close to the ornament of handwritten headpieces - the so-called "weaving" 5 .

Here is an example of a relatively simple “weaving” from the Tale of the Coming of Khan Temir Aksak to Moscow, which was part of the annals. The author strings long rows of parallel grammatical constructions, synonyms - not in a narrow language, but more broadly - in a logical and semantic sense. News comes to Moscow about Temir Aksak “how he is preparing to fight the Russian Land and how he boasts of going to Moscow, although taking it, and captivate the Russian people, and destroy the holy places, and eradicate the Christian faith, and drive the Christians, tomiti, torment, and swords seshchi ... ". Focusing their attention on such examples, students absorb a sense of harmony and unity of literature, preparing for the study of the solemn, lofty word of M.V. Lomonosov, G.R. Derzhavin, A.S. Pushkin, etc.

“An important role is also played by the study of a particular word in Old Russian literature. The word appears here not only in its sound essence, but also in a visual image. It is also "timeless" to some extent.

The cultural horizon of the world is constantly expanding, and in modern society there is a decline in morals. The desire to switch to the Western perception of the world destroys the national system of worldview, leads to the oblivion of traditions based on spirituality. Fashionable imitation of the West is detrimental to Russian society, and, therefore, needs to be "treated" through history. Thanks to it, the unity of the world becomes more and more tangible. The distances between cultures are shrinking, and there is less and less room for national enmity. it greatest merit humanities. One of the urgent tasks is to introduce into the circle of reading and understanding of the modern reader the monuments of the art of the word of Ancient Russia, in the great and peculiar culture of which the fine arts and literature, humanistic culture and material, wide culture are closely intertwined. international relations and pronounced national identity. If we preserve our culture and everything that contributes to its development - libraries, museums, schools, universities - if we preserve our unspoiled richest language, literature, art, then we will certainly be a great nation. That is why it is so important that the school teacher be worthy of his subject of teaching.

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1 Schmidt S.O. "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and the formation and development of the concept of a cultural monument "// Monuments of the Fatherland. - No. 1.- 1986, p. 160.

2 Schmidt S.O. "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and the formation and development of the concept of a cultural monument "// Monuments of the Fatherland. - No. 1.- 1986, p. 160.

3 Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 vols. T. 1. - L .: Khudozh. lit., 1987, p. 286.

Traditions of Old Russian Literature found in the works of Russian writers of the XVIII century. In part, they can be identified in the works of M.V. Lomonosov, A.N. Radishcheva, N.M. Karamzin and others.

A new level of assimilation of the traditions of ancient Russian literature is revealed by the work of A.S. Pushkin. "The great Russian poet not only used the plots, motifs, images of ancient Russian literature, but also resorted to its styles and individual genres to recreate the "spirit of the times"" 1 . In his work on "Ruslan and Lyudmila", the poet used the name of the main character of the old Russian story about Yeruslan Lazarevich - Ruslan - and the motive of his meeting with the heroic head holding the sword.

Repeatedly Pushkin turned to the Russian chronicles, he was struck by the “simplicity and accuracy of the depiction of objects” in them. Under their impression, the "Song of the Prophetic Oleg" was created. The Old Russian text prompted the poet to philosophical reflections on the appointment of the poet. A poet is a Magus, a sorcerer-soothsayer, a prophet. He is "not afraid of mighty lords" and does not need a princely gift. From here, from this Pushkin ballad, threads are drawn to the program poem "The Prophet", as well as the image of the chronicler-Pimen in the tragedy "Boris Godunov". Pushkinsky Pimen - a wise old man, an eyewitness to many historical events writing only the truth about them. “The character of Pimen is not my invention,” Pushkin wrote. - In it I collected the features that captivated me in our old chronicles, touching meekness, innocence, something infantile and at the same time wise, zeal, one might say, pious for the power of the king given to him by God, a complete absence of vanity, passions breathe in these precious monuments of the times long gone" 2. Following old Russian traditions, Pushkin recreates "the touching good nature of the ancient chroniclers".

A modern researcher noted that Pushkin's annalistic and hagiographic styles appeared in a new way in the 1830s in such works as "The Genealogy of My Hero", "The History of the Village of Goryukhin", "Belkin's Tales" 3 .

The romanticism of Lermontov's poetry also relied on the heroic-patriotic motifs of ancient Russian historical legends and legends, which manifested itself in the development of the theme of Ivan the Terrible, demonological motifs ("Demon").

In a new way, N.V. Gogol. It is noted that in the early works of the writer ("Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", "Mirgorod"), folklore motifs are linked with motifs ancient Russian legends and believe. In the mature period of creativity, he draws attention to the monuments of the instructive eloquence of Ancient Russia (“Selected passages from correspondence with friends”).

In the second half of the 19th century, a new stage in the development of the artistic traditions of ancient literature is associated with the names of L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky.

In ancient Russian literature, Dostoevsky sees a reflection of the spiritual culture of the people, an expression of their ethical and aesthetic ideals. It is no coincidence that the writer considered Jesus Christ to be the highest moral ideal of the people, and Theodosius of the Caves and Sergius of Radonezh to be the historical folk ideals. In the novel The Brothers Karamazov, refuting Ivan Karamazov's individualistic anarchic "rebellion", he creates the "dignified positive figure" of the Russian monk, the elder Zosima. “I took the face and figure of the ancient Russian monks and saints,” wrote Dostoevsky, “with deep humility, boundless, naive hopes about the future of Russia, about its moral and even political destiny. Didn't the Metropolitans St. Sergius, Peter and Alexei always have Russia in mind in this sense? four "

Putting the philosophical and moral problems of the meaning of life, good and evil at the center of the novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Teenager, The Brothers Karamazov, the writer transferred their solution from the temporary plane to the sphere of "eternal truths" and resorted to this aiming at the methods of abstraction characteristic of Old Russian literature.

L.N. Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace" uses epic tradition ancient Russian chronicles and military stories. The writer is interested in ancient Russian hagiography, in which he saw "our real Russian poetry", and uses the material of literary monuments in his pedagogical activity ("ABC").

Old Russian works are also used by Tolstoy in other works of art (“Father Sergius” is an episode from “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”). Gospel parables and symbols are widely used by the writer in philosophical and journalistic treatises. He was attracted by the moral and psychological side of ancient Russian masterpieces, the poetic nature of their presentation, and the places "naively artistic." In the 70s and 80s XIX years century compilations hagiographic works- Prologues and Menaions - become his favorite reading. Tolstoy wrote in "Confession": "Excluding miracles, looking at them as a plot expressing a thought, this reading revealed to me the meaning of life" 5 . The writer comes to the conclusion that saints are ordinary people: “There have never been and cannot be such saints, so that they are very special from other people, those whose bodies would remain incorruptible, who would work miracles, etc. » 6 .

G.I. Uspensky. In the cycle of essays "The Power of the Earth", he noted that this intelligentsia brought "divine truth" into the people's environment. “She raised the weak, helplessly abandoned by heartless nature to the mercy of fate; she helped, and always by deed, against the too cruel pressure of zoological truth; she did not give this truth too much scope, set limits to it ... her type was the type of God's saint ... No, our people's saint, although he renounces worldly cares, but lives only for the world. He is a worldly worker, he is constantly in the crowd, among the people, and does not rant, but actually does the deed.

Old Russian hagiography organically entered the creative consciousness of the remarkable and still truly unappreciated writer N.S. Leskov. Comprehending the secrets of the Russian national character, he turned to the tales of the Prologue, the Chet-Meney. The writer approached these books as literary works, noting in them "pictures that you cannot imagine." Leskov was struck by the "clarity, simplicity, irresistibility" of the narrative, "plots and faces." The stories of the Prologue allowed him to learn "how people imagine the deity and his participation in the destinies of men." Creating the characters of the "righteous" 8, "positive types of Russian people", Leskov showed the thorny path of the search for a moral ideal. His heroes are inextricably linked with the vast expanses native land, its centuries-old long-suffering history. They are filled with genuine humanity, dedication, talent and diligence.

Writers of the 20th century also master the traditions of ancient Russian literature: Russian symbolists, M. Gorky, V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin and others.

The ideals of the moral spiritual beauty of the Russian man have been worked out by our literature throughout its almost millennium-long development. Old Russian literature created characters of strong spirit, pure soul ascetics who dedicated their lives to serving people, the public good. They complemented the folk ideal of the hero - the defender of the borders of the Russian land, worked out by epic poetry. D.N. wrote about the close connection between these two ideals. Mamin-Sibiryak in a letter to N.L. Barskov on April 20, 1896: “It seems to me that the “heroes” serve as an excellent complement to the “hierarchs”. And here and there representatives of their native land, behind them one can see that Russia, on whose guard they stood. Among the heroes, the predominant element is physical strength: they defend their homeland with a broad chest, and that is why this “heroic outpost” is so good (we are talking about the painting “Heroes” by V.M. Vasnetsov. - Auth.), advanced to the battle line, in front of which historical predators roamed ... "Saints" show the other side of Russian history, even more important, as a moral stronghold and the holy of holies of the future multi-million people. These chosen ones had a premonition of the history of a great people...” 9

The works of ancient Russian literature have found a new life in our days. They serve as a powerful means of patriotic education, instill a sense of national pride, faith in the indestructibility of the creative life force, energy, moral beauty of the Russian people. As correctly and deeply noted by A.I. Herzen: “Humanity in different epochs, in different countries, looking back, sees the past, but by the very way of perception and reflection of it reveals itself... Consistently looking back, we look at the past differently every time, every time we look at it new side, each time we add to its understanding the whole experience of the newly traversed path. By becoming more fully aware of the past, we understand the present; going deeper into the meaning of the past, we reveal the meaning of the future; looking back, we step forward” 10 .

In this article we will consider the features of Old Russian literature. The literature of ancient Russia was primarily church. After all, book culture in Russia appeared with the adoption of Christianity. Monasteries became centers of writing, and the first literary monuments were mainly works of a religious nature. So, one of the first original (that is, not translated, but written by a Russian author) works was Metropolitan Hilarion's Sermon on Law and Grace. The author proves the superiority of Grace (the image of Jesus Christ is associated with it) over the Law, which, according to the preacher, is conservative and nationally limited.

Literature was not created for entertainment, but for teaching. Considering the features of ancient Russian literature, it should be noted its instructiveness. She teaches to love God and her Russian land; she creates images of ideal people: saints, princes, faithful wives.

We note one seemingly insignificant feature of ancient Russian literature: it was handwritten. Books were created in a single copy and only then copied by hand when it was necessary to make a copy or the original text became unusable from time to time. This gave the book special value, gave rise to a respectful attitude towards her. In addition, for the Old Russian reader, all books originated from the main one - Holy Scripture.

Since the literature of Ancient Russia was basically religious, the book was seen as a storehouse of wisdom, a textbook of a righteous life. Old Russian literature is not fiction in the modern sense of the word. She in every possible way avoids fiction and strictly follows the facts. The author does not show his individuality, hiding behind the narrative form. He does not strive for originality, for the Old Russian writer it is more important to stay within the framework of tradition, not to break it. Therefore, all lives are similar to one another, all biographies of princes or military stories are compiled according to general plan, in compliance with the "rules". When The Tale of Bygone Years tells us about the death of Oleg from his horse, this beautiful poetic legend sounds like historical document, the author really believes that everything was so.

The hero of ancient Russian literature does not possess neither personality nor character in our current view. The fate of man is in the hands of God. And at the same time, his soul is the arena of the struggle between good and evil. The first will win only when a person lives according to moral rules given once and for all.

Of course, in Russian medieval works we will not find either individual characters or psychologism - not because the ancient Russian writers were not able to do this. In the same way, icon painters created planar, rather than three-dimensional images, not because they could not write “better”, but because they faced other artistic tasks: the face of Christ cannot be similar to the usual human face. An icon is a sign of holiness, not an image of a saint.

The literature of Ancient Russia adheres to the same aesthetic principles: it creates faces, not faces, gives the reader pattern of correct behavior rather than portraying the character of a person. Vladimir Monomakh behaves like a prince, Sergius of Radonezh behaves like a saint. Idealization is one of the key principles of ancient Russian art.

Old Russian literature in every possible way avoids being grounded: it does not describe, but narrates. Moreover, the author does not narrate on his own behalf, he only conveys what is written in the sacred books, what he read, heard or saw. There can be nothing personal in this narrative: neither the manifestation of feelings, nor individual manner. (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in this sense is one of the few exceptions.) Therefore, many works of the Russian Middle Ages anonymous, the authors do not assume such immodesty - to put their name. And the ancient reader cannot even imagine that the word is not from God. And if God speaks through the mouth of the author, then why does he need a name, a biography? Therefore, the information available to us about ancient authors is so scarce.

At the same time, in ancient Russian literature, a special, national ideal of beauty, captured by ancient scribes. First of all, it is spiritual beauty, the beauty of the Christian soul. In Russian medieval literature, in contrast to the Western European of the same era, the knightly ideal of beauty is much less represented - the beauty of weapons, armor, victorious battle. The Russian knight (prince) wages war for the sake of peace, and not for the sake of glory. War for the sake of glory, profit is condemned, and this is clearly seen in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. The world is valued as an unconditional good. The ancient Russian ideal of beauty presupposes a wide expanse, an immense, “decorated” land, and temples decorate it, because they were created specifically for the exaltation of the spirit, and not for practical purposes.

The attitude of ancient Russian literature is also connected with the theme of beauty. to oral-poetic creativity, folklore. On the one hand, folklore was of pagan origin, and therefore did not fit into the framework of the new, Christian worldview. On the other hand, he could not but penetrate into literature. After all written language in Russia from the very beginning there was the Russian language, and not Latin, as in Western Europe, and there was no impenetrable border between the book and the spoken word. folk performances about beauty and goodness also generally coincided with Christian ones, Christianity penetrated into folklore almost without hindrance. Therefore, the heroic epic (epics), which began to take shape back in the pagan era, presents its heroes both as patriotic warriors and as defenders of the Christian faith, surrounded by "filthy" pagans. Just as easily, sometimes almost unconsciously, ancient Russian writers use folklore images and plots.

The religious literature of Russia quickly outgrew the narrow church framework and became a truly spiritual literature that created a whole system of genres. Thus, the “Sermon on Law and Grace” belongs to the genre of a solemn sermon delivered in the church, but Hilarion not only proves the Grace of Christianity, but also glorifies the Russian land, combining religious pathos with patriotic.

Genre of life

The most important for ancient Russian literature was the genre of life, the biography of the saint. At the same time, the task was pursued, by telling about the earthly life of a saint canonized by the church, to create the image of an ideal person for the edification of all people.

AT " Lives of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb" Prince Gleb appeals to his killers with a request to spare him: "Do not cut the ear, which is not yet ripe, filled with milk of malice! Do not cut the vine, which is not fully grown, but bears fruit!" Abandoned by his retinue, Boris in his tent “weeps with a contrite heart, but is joyful in his soul”: he is afraid of death and at the same time he realizes that he is repeating the fate of many saints who were martyred for their faith.

AT " Lives of Sergius of Radonezh"It is said that the future saint in adolescence had difficulty comprehending reading and writing, lagged behind his peers in teaching, which caused him a lot of suffering; when Sergius retired to the desert, a bear began to visit him, with whom the hermit shared his meager food, it happened that the saint gave the beast the last piece of bread.

In the traditions of life in the XVI century was created " The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, but it already sharply diverged from the canons (norms, requirements) of the genre and therefore was not included in the collection of lives “Great Menaion” along with other biographies. Peter and Fevronia are real historical figures who reigned in Murom in the 13th century, Russian saints. The author of the 16th century did not turn out a life, but an entertaining story built on fairy tale motifs, glorifying the love and loyalty of the heroes, and not just their Christian exploits.

BUT " Life of Archpriest Avvakum”, written by himself in the 17th century, turned into a vivid autobiographical work filled with reliable events and real people, living details, feelings and experiences of the hero-narrator, behind which stands the bright character of one of the spiritual leaders of the Old Believers.

Genre of teaching

Since religious literature was called upon to educate true christian, one of the genres was teaching. Although this is a church genre, close to preaching, it was also used in secular (secular) literature, since the then people's ideas about a correct, righteous life did not differ from church ones. you know" Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh", written by him around 1117 "sitting on a sleigh" (shortly before his death) and addressed to children.

Before us appears the ideal old Russian prince. He cares about the welfare of the state and each of his subjects, guided by Christian morality. Another concern of the prince is about the church. All earthly life should be considered as a work for the salvation of the soul. This is the work of mercy and kindness, and military work, and mental. Diligence is the main virtue in the life of Monomakh. He made eighty-three large campaigns, signed twenty peace treaties, studied five languages, did what his servants and vigilantes did.

Annals

A significant, if not the largest, part of ancient Russian literature is the works of historical genres that were included in the annals. The first Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years"created in early XII century. Its significance is extremely great: it was proof of Russia's right to state independence and independence. But if the chroniclers could record the recent events "according to the epics of this time", reliably, then the events of pre-Christian history had to be restored from oral sources: traditions, legends, sayings, geographical names. Therefore, the compilers of the chronicle turn to folklore. Such are the legends about the death of Oleg, about Olga's revenge on the Drevlyans, about Belgorod jelly, etc.

Already in The Tale of Bygone Years, two most important features of Old Russian literature appeared: patriotism and connection with folklore. Literary-Christian and folklore-linguistic traditions are closely intertwined in the Tale of Igor's Campaign.

Elements of fiction and satire

Of course, ancient Russian literature has not been unchanged throughout all seven centuries. We saw that over time it became more secular, elements of fiction intensified, more and more often satirical motifs penetrated into literature, especially in the 16th-17th centuries. These are, for example, " The Tale of Woe-Misfortune"showing to what troubles disobedience can bring a person, the desire to "live as he pleases", and not as the elders teach, and " The Tale of Ersh Ershovich", ridiculing the so-called "voivodship court" in the traditions of a folk tale.

But in general, we can talk about the literature of Ancient Russia as a single phenomenon, with its own cross-cutting ideas and motives that have passed through 700 years, with its own general aesthetic principles, with a stable system of genres.