Peculiarities:

Handwritten character = inaccurate reproduction

The ecclesiastical character of literature

Historicism (accurate adherence to historical facts) / objectivity

Etiquette (cliche)

Periodization:

The connection of a certain period with historical events: ▬ the period of the emergence of literature at the end of the 10th century. - mid. 11th century ▬ XI century. - early 12th century (heyday of Kievan Rus), ▬ mid. 12th century - early 13th century (feudal fragmentation - the Tatar-Mongol invasion). ▬ ser. 13th century - con. 14th century (Tatar-Mongols). ▬ con. 14th century - con. 10th century (centralization of the Russian state). ▬ XIV c. ▬ (troubles) XVII century.

The dominant literary style is monumental historicism / historical monumentalism

Emotionally expressive, con. XIV - con. 15th century

The period of the second monumentalism / imperial rhetoric of the XI century.

Transition to the literature of the new time of the 17th century.

Translation literature of Kievan Rus. Genre system

The composition of translated literature, which was widespread in Kievan Rus, reveals the cultural connection of Rus with the highest civilization of the world of that time. The majority of not only literary genres, but also the very monuments that are common in translations in Rus', coincide with the selection of them that exists in the translated bookishness of Western Europe of the same eras. It is possible to install in this way common source literary impact on a number of states formed in Europe by the 8th-9th centuries. This source was the Mediterranean culture of the decaying Roman Empire.

The Christian literary culture transferred from Byzantium to Rus' did not have a narrow national character, since Byzantium itself was multinational in many respects.

This was due to the central position of Byzantium among the countries of the then world between the European North and West, the Asian East and the African South, in the ancient center of civilization created and developed here for centuries. Byzantium regarded itself as the heir and representative of the world history of Rome, considered itself the successor of its world policy and had a claim to lead world history. She took on the mission of Christianizing the pagan peoples of the world; Basileus considered himself not only the head of Christians, but also the political ruler of the states Christianized by Byzantium, as a sign of which he distributed to their rulers the ranks of the imperial Byzantine court. This state of affairs and the state of ideas was the reason why Byzantine literature acquired international significance. In promoting its culture to other peoples, Byzantium even sacrificed to a certain extent its national element and allowed the spread of Christianity in the native language of the nationalities it Christianized. She herself willingly accepted the cultural elements of the nationalities she patronized, and just as the most important routes of world trade crossed on her territory, various plots and literary forms of West and East, North and South were precipitated in her literature. Thanks to this, literary works not of a narrowly national, but of a world character, which in fact deserved to be distributed worldwide, penetrated the “newly enlightened” peoples through the Byzantine bookishness.

That is why the translated literature of Kievan Rus, received from Byzantium, turned out to be almost identical with the literature of other young peoples of the European Middle Ages. The difference was rather in the nature of the assimilation of the brought literature, rather than in its selection. And even the development itself, which distinguishes the West from the East, followed a common path in the main lines. Of course, it is not surprising if in the West and East

medieval Europe there is one and the same selection of translated books, which are the basis of the Christian religion. But, besides this, almost all books that shape the church cult, all genres of books related to churchness, turn out to be common. The translation library of theologians, interpreters and preachers, hagiographers and historians who are close to churchness is very related in the West and East of Europe. The same church novels, orthodox and apocryphal, circulated throughout Europe. The same images of Physiologists and Bestiaries were assimilated throughout its space: phoenix, salamander, echinus, etc. There is a similarity between works of non-church purpose; for example, the Deeds of Troy and the story of Alexander the Great were equally common in the West and East. Of course, most general translated works differ in edition, but all differ in language. Then, both the place of their departure and the paths of passage to the West and East were different.

Most of the original translated literature of Kievan Rus belongs to Byzantium, but does not belong to any one era and does not coincide in time with the moment when their translations appeared in Kievan Rus. Most of Byzantine literature was received here in the Yugoslav, Bulgarian translation, a smaller one was translated by Russians.

So, to a large extent, the translated literature of Kievan Rus was formed depending on the history of Byzantine and Bulgarian literature and on the circumstances that accompanied the transfer of their books to Rus.

The mass flow of these books began to flow to Rus' in connection with the transfer of Byzantine Christianity here as the state religion. But for the development of this religion by Russians, the Greek language of its books presented great difficulties. And even if in the X century. there were people who knew Greek in Rus', they were hardly so experienced in literary speech as to urgently translate the necessary texts, moreover, of complex content and special terminology. I had to resort to non-Slavic mediation. The Bulgarian Slavs served as such an intermediary, having adopted Christianity more than a hundred years before the Russians and, adhering to the Byzantine church rite, managed to develop a literary language for translating books. The beginning of the literary Slavic language was laid by the famous Greek missionaries in Moravia, Constantine-Cyril and Methodius, who translated into Slavonic the main books of the Christian doctrine, church rules and some lives. Some of Methodius's disciples and collaborators, who fled to Bulgaria after his death, continued their translation activity in it, which flourished especially under the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon (893-927). A well-educated man, who knew the Greek language himself, Simeon gathered around him a circle of translators, at the head of which, apparently, was John the Exarch of Bulgaria, a priest, the vicar of the bishop in Eastern Bulgaria. The translators worked in different parts of the Bulgarian land, so the vocabulary and syntax in their works are very diverse. Some were Greeks who had mastered the Slavic language, like John the Exarch and Constantine, Bishop of Bulgaria, others were Slavs who had gone through the Greek school.

By the end of the X century. in Bulgaria, a huge series of translations of Byzantine church literature was formed, starting with those Greek authors who studied in ancient schools. This literature reflected the main vicissitudes of Byzantine creativity in the creation of a state church. First of all, it should be mentioned that translations of the so-called " scripture”, dating back to the activities of Methodius, and some books of scripture have been translated again. For a better understanding of these basic books of doctrine, their “interpretations” were translated, which include the Shestodnev, an extensive treatise explaining the story of the Old Testament book of Genesis about the six days of the creation of the world and filled with information on astronomy, space and geography and ethnography, etc. One of the Six Days, which passed to Rus', is actually a reworking of John the Exarch. These interpretations of the creation of the world are not devoid of poetry, and this peculiarity was also reflected in Russian works of the 11th-12th centuries. (for example, Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh). From the books of "holy scripture" received from Bulgaria, comes the Russian Ostromir Gospel, copied from the Eastern Bulgarian original by deacon Gregory with assistants in Kiev in 1056-1057. for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir. The Bulgarian translation of the interpretations into the books of the sixteen Old Testament prophets was rewritten for the Novgorod prince Vladimir Yaroslavich by the priest Upirem Likhim in 1047.

Numerous church hymns, which were in use in the Byzantine church, were translated in Bulgaria almost all and received in Rus' along with the structural design in which they were included.

Byzantine "fathers and teachers of the church", outstanding theologians and preachers, theoreticians of asceticism and teachers of monasticism, apologists of the "orthodox" church against heresies were translated. John the Exarch translated the book of John of Damascus, containing a whole theological system. In Rus', this Bulgarian translation of Damascus was already known at the beginning of the 12th century. under the name Uverie or the Word about the right faith (quoted in the life of Boris and Gleb). A collection of sermons - words - by an eloquent student of the ancient school of John, the Patriarch of Constantinople, nicknamed "Chrysostom", appeared in a Bulgarian translation under Tsar Simeon, under the name Zlatostruy. The prologue to this book is dedicated to the glorification of Simeon, as having tested all the books of divine writing, old and new, external and internal, and who understood all teachers' morals, customs and wisdom. For the same Simeon, a collection of articles of various content, church, historical, instructive, interpretive, literary, was translated from Greek, which was then copied in Rus' for the Kiev prince in 1073 (the so-called Izbornik of Svyatoslav). Here is an even more magnificent praise I give to Simeon, who is compared with Ptolemy "not in faith, but in passion for books", with which he filled his chambers. The disciple of Methodius, Clement, Bishop of Slovenia, translated a collection of Greek words glorifying feasts and saints, known as the Solemn, which also spread early in Rus'.

The Byzantine Church abounded with the lives of the saints, which existed both separately and in collections of a certain composition, where the lives were arranged by months and days of the whole year. The most extensive of these collections was called the Menaion. In the circle of Simeon, the Menaion was, apparently, completely translated, but only a peculiar extract from it, supplemented by Russian articles, the so-called Assumption collection of the 12th century, has survived from Kievan Rus. (with the lives of Boris and Gleb and Theodosius of the Caves). Lives were also known in Rus', translated separately in Bulgaria or circulated there separately. Of these, for example, the Life of Basil the New (d. 944) was reflected in the Russian chronicle.

The Greeks also owned vast collections of small short stories from the life of saints, mainly ascetics, hermits in Asia Minor, Egyptian and Italian deserts, called pateriks. Of these patericons, at least three were translated in Bulgaria. Traces of translated patericons affected, for example, the work of the scribes of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, who also participated in the compilation of the Russian chronicle.

Many types of church literature were filled in Byzantium with content that was in opposition to the canonical, dominant church. In the forms of the Old Testament and the New - the Gospel, the Apostle, the lives of the saints, etc. - sectarians and "heretics" composed works similar in themes to the canonical ones. These works - "apocrypha", mainly of Asia Minor origin, also entered Bulgaria, were translated here and penetrated into Rus' in Bulgarian translations. Echoes of the apocryphal First Gospel of Jacob are, for example, in the life of Boris and Gleb and in the teachings of Cyril of Turov on the gospel parable of the paralytic, and Vladimir Monomakh used the images of the Testaments of the 12 patriarchs. From Bulgaria, Kievan Rus also inherited lists (indexes) of books of "true" and "false" (apocrypha), compiled in the office of popes and patriarchs.

From the actual historical writings of Byzantium in Bulgaria, mainly works on general history were translated, where Byzantine history occupies an honorable place in the world historical stream, which begins with the history of the Jews, as a people “chosen” by the deity. Some of the histories of the Christian church were also translated. Some of these translations appeared in Rus' no later than the 11th-12th centuries. and, for example, the chronicles of George Amartol and John Malala were used by the Russian chronicle, as well as the chronological list of events of Patriarch Nicephorus "The Chronicler Soon".

It can be assumed that in the X century. Bulgaria borrowed from Byzantium mainly ecclesiastical or ecclesiastical literature, which had accumulated by the time of the Christianization of Bulgaria, at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century. This bookishness reflects several eras of the literary history of Byzantium: the period of the 6th and 7th centuries, transitional from the ancient direction to the Christian-medieval; the period from the 8th to the half of the 9th century, marked by a fierce struggle for icon veneration and the flourishing of monasticism, accompanied by a decrease in education, and, finally, a period of literary revival, when, however, the ancient style degenerated into rhetoric. This literary variety, in conjunction with the moment and goals of introducing Bulgaria to Byzantine culture, affected the translated Bulgarian literature and the independent work of Bulgarian writers of the 10th century, and also affected the borrowings of Rus from Bulgaria. The Christianization of Rus' was apparently accompanied by an even greater legibility in literary borrowing from the Bolgars than the Bulgarian borrowing from Byzantium. This intelligibility turned out as a result of the dominance of the actual church interests of the governmental Christianizers of Rus'. But if in this era Rus' did not take away from Bulgaria samples of secular literature, which nevertheless penetrated into Bulgaria from Byzantium, the Russians nevertheless received some echo of antiquity, even if through the churched form of Byzantine-Bulgarian literature.

It is impossible, of course, to assert that non-Slavic literacy was obtained in Kievan Rus exclusively from Bulgaria. In the IX, X and even part of the XI centuries. there has not yet been a final split, "separation", of the Byzantine and Roman churches, there have been only temporary breaks in their peaceful coexistence and rivalry in the Christianization of peoples. It can be said that not one of the states with a Slavic population escaped this rivalry, not excluding Rus'. Although the Roman Church strove to transmit its rite to the Slavs in Latin, if necessary, it tolerated worship in national languages, however, always taking the opportunity to stop this indulgence. Byzantium, on the contrary, conducted its doctrine to the Slavs in their own or similar Slavic language and supported Slavic worship. So it was in Moravia and the Czech Republic, in Hungary, full of Moravian-Czech Slavs, in Poland, which was influenced by the Moravian-Czech culture, in Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. Traces of ecclesiastical texts of Western Slavic origin are reflected in the Russian literature of Kievan Rus, which had trade and dynastic ties with such neighbors as Czechs, Poles and Hungarians. But such monuments in Russian correspondence reached a very small number, and if there are some reflections of them in the Russian chronicle or in Russian hagiography (Nestor's reference to the life of Vyacheslav the Czech), then this did not happen during the period when Christianity was established in Rus' as the state religion, and at the end of the XI or in the XII century.

The absolute advantage of the Bulgarian participation in the creation of the initial Russian literature is confirmed by its language and writing, which adopted and steadily preserved the Bulgarian graphics and spelling. If authoritative evidence says that the alphabet for the Slavs was invented in 863 by Konstantin-Cyril, a Greek missionary, a native of Thessalonica, who knew the South Slavic language of the population of the Thessalonica region well, then one has to reckon with the presence in Slavic literature of not one, but two alphabets, of which one in the first half of the 11th century. was called in Rus' “kurilovitsa” (i.e., “Cyrillic”), and the other bore the name “Glagolitsa”, which was preserved in the everyday life of the Croats in the 14th century. The use of the term "Cyrillic" in Russian evidence of the XI century. is complicated by the fact that under it here were meant glagolitic inscriptions. Namely, the Novgorod priest Upir Likhoy thanks God for allowing him to “write this book in Kurilovice”, and in some places there are letters and whole words of the Glagolitic inscription in the book, as if left over from the Glagolitic original, “from which” the correspondence originated Upirya Dashing on a different alphabet. But be that as it may, the tradition established the name "Cyrillic" behind the Slavic, well-known alphabet of church books, which is a clear adaptation of the Greek statutory solemn handwriting. As for the "Glagolitic", this was the name of the Slavic alphabet, which, apparently, comes from the outlines of Greek cursive. The place of use of the Glagolitic takes us to Moravia, Croatia and Western Serbia; the territory of predominant existence of the Cyrillic alphabet is Bulgaria and Rus'. However, noteworthy is the fact that in the most ancient Russian spellings, against the general background of the Cyrillic alphabet, letters and individual words written in the Glagolitic alphabet are occasionally found. So, in addition to the list of Upir Dashing, two psalters of the XI-XII centuries. and a copy of the Words of Gregory the Theologian of the 11th century, the Glagolitic inscriptions were scratched in the 11th-12th centuries. among the Cyrillic ones on the still damp plaster of the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral.

Not unimportant is the question of how Kievan Rus received Bulgarian books and when their mass flow to Rus ended. There is an opinion that Byzantium first took care of this, delivering the Slavic books necessary for the new Russian church from its central markets. But there seems to be no need to deny direct Russian relations on this occasion with Tsar Samuil's Bulgaria (d. 1014), after which the Bulgarian kingdom turned into a Byzantine province. The mass flow of Bulgarian books, which began at the end of the 10th century, grew in the first half of the 11th century, during the intensive book activity of Yaroslav Vladimirovich, the Grand Duke of Kiev, and ended under his sons.

Studying the literary language of the Yugoslav translations of church books, the Russians organized their speech according to this model both for independent translation and for writing. The Russians thus took advantage of the terminology already developed by the southern Slavs, covering creatures, things and concepts, partly still unfamiliar and not invented by non-bookish Rus, they used not only ready-made vocabulary, but also morphology, phraseology and syntax developed by Bulgarian translators according to the Greek originals. Of course, Russian translators did not slavishly follow the linguistic and literary methods of Bulgarian models in everything, they tried to follow the structure of their living language, but nevertheless, the Russian translated speech turned out to be so dependent on bookish Bulgarian that it is no small difficulty to distinguish Russian translation from Bulgarian. In relation to a number of translated monuments, researchers still do not agree on attributing the translation work to the South Slavic or Russian nationality. The question of the national timing of the translation is complicated by the possibility of editing the Yugoslav text by a Russian scribe and vice versa, or by the joint participation of a Bulgarian and a Russian Slav in the translation. For example, according to most scientists, the chronicle of George Amartol was translated from the Bulgarians, but edited by Russian; some miracles in the life of Nicholas were also edited. The abridged Greek Pilot (collection of church canons with interpretation), translated from Greek by a Russian monk in the 12th-13th centuries, was translated into Serbian by the son of the great zhupan of Serbia, Savva. The Greek collection of short lives of the saints, called the Prologue in translation, was translated in the 12th century. Bulgarian and Russian together. The joint work of the Slavs of different nationalities could be carried out and carried out within the walls of the multi-tribal monasteries of Byzantium, especially on Athos, which has long been an association of Greek, Slavic and Eastern monasteries, which had a kind of political independence. From the end of the XI century. a Russian monastery was founded here, apparently supported by the Russian government.

Under 6545 (1037) - the year of foundation in Kyiv "St. Sophia, metropolia "- The Tale of Bygone Years characterizes the educational activities of Yaroslav Vladimirovich:" And Yaroslav was loving church charters ... and diligently reading books, and I often read in the night and in the day. And I collected a lot of writing, and put it with them from Grchsk to Slovenian writing; and many books have been written off, in the image of learning faithful people enjoy the teachings of the divine. It’s like for someone to destroy the earth, others to sow, and to reap and eat food abounds, so it’s like this: the father of this Volodimer looks at the earth and softens it, enlightening him with baptism; but having sowed the hearts of faithful people with bookish words, and we reap, the teaching is accepting bookish. Here comes the dithyramb of books: “Yaroslav is here ... we love books, and having written off many, put them in St. If this praise of Yaroslav bears the traces of a panegyric to the book-lover Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, then the very timing of the book flourishing in Rus' at the time of the establishment of the metropolis at the Kiev church of Sophia (1037) is very significant and plausible.

The circle of scribes gathered by Yaroslav could indeed produce "many books", but it is difficult to decide whether there were many Russian translations among them. No more than four dozen such translations came from Kievan Rus, but not a single one of them can be confidently attributed to the first half of the 11th century. It is permissible to consider the earliest Russian translations of three works related to the activities of the legislator of Byzantine monasticism, Fyodor, hegumen of the Studian monastery in Constantinople (VIII-IX centuries), namely his charter, teachings and life. The Studian Rule was translated in the 70s of the 11th century. commissioned by the first Kiev-Pechersk abbot Theodosius (d. 1074), whose own sermons were compiled under the strong influence of the teachings of Theodore the Studite.

By the end of the XI - the beginning of the XII century. it is possible to attribute the Russian edition of the Amartol chronicle according to the original Greek and the Russian translations of the History of the Jewish War by Josephus Flavius ​​and the Christian topography of Cosmas Indikoplov, the lives of Andrei the Holy Fool and Stefan Bishop of Surozh, some hagiographic articles about Nicholas of Myra, George and Cosmas with Damian. Not from Greek, but from Syriac in the 11th-12th centuries. The Tale of Akira the Wise was translated into Rus'. By the XII century. include Russian translations of interpretations (palea) on the biblical books of Nikita of Heraclius, apocrypha about Moses, Solomon and Aphrodite, as well as stories about Alexander the Great and Digenis-Devgeny. The translation of the Prologue, made jointly by a Russian and a Bulgarian, belongs to the same century. Probably, the works of the Russian metropolitans of the Greeks of the XI-XII centuries were also translated by Russians.

If the boundaries of the Kievan period of literature continue in the first half of XIII c., which is perfectly acceptable, then we will have to mention the collection of sayings - the Bee, the Legend of the creation of St. Sophia of Tsaregradskaya and one of the types of the Physiologist, as Russian translations of this time. In addition, before the Mongol devastation, a kind of historical encyclopedia, a compilation chronograph, was created in Rus' from the previous Bulgarian and Russian translations.

Russian translations of the 11th-13th centuries, of course, not all were made in Kyiv or Chernigov. It is impossible, for example, to bypass the Galicia-Volyn region, which provided examples of skillful narration at the end of the 11th century. The work of the scribes of this area can be attributed to the translation of Devgeniev's Acts and the Bee and the compilation of a compilation chronograph.

For the establishment of general guidelines for the selection of monuments to be translated in Kievan Rus, there are still no sufficient grounds. Such an establishment is hampered primarily by the incompleteness of the translated literature that has come down, most of which perished from princely strife, from the devastation of the Polovtsians and from the Mongol invasion, as well as from the retreat of the southern and western regions to the Lithuanian-Polish state.

Genre system:

Secular

Chronicle - tells selectively about a specific moment

Historical story - a whole story about some event. Includes features: Byzantine story (entertainment character), annals. Features of the story: tells about the completed event. It is built in chronological order. Has: plot, development, climax, denouement.

Often the stories fit into the chronicle compositionally (the story of the battle on the kalka as part of the Novgorod chronicle).

Church

Oratory genres are dying

Lives of saints and princes (life of Alexander Nevsky)

Walking (decreased)

ancient chronicle. Tale of Bygone Years

11th century - the heyday of the political power of Kievan Rus, the heyday of Russian culture. Under Prince Yaroslav the Wise, the territory of the ancient Russian state was unified, and the independence of Rus' was strengthened. The 11th century is the time of active political and cultural ties between Rus' and all European countries. It was in Kyiv in the XI century. annalistic writing was born, which was carried out throughout Rus' until the 17th century. At Sophia Cathedral in the 11th century, a library was founded, where manuscripts were stored and copied. “Great is the benefit of the teaching of the book. These are the rivers that water the universe, in them are the source of wisdom, immeasurable depth, with which we console ourselves in sorrow. This is a hymn in honor of the book, indicating a high cultural level. Eastern Slavs 12th century

A central theme runs through all Russian literature - the theme of the Russian land and its historical destinies. Already in the first ancient Russian works the idea of ​​patriotism, pride in one's native land, its power, political and religious independence sounds.

After the adoption of Christianity in Rus', a variety of translated literature appeared: chronicles, historical stories, solemn words, teachings. But it would be wrong to think that it was the translated literature that became the basis of Old Russian literature, a model for Old Russian writers. It was greatly influenced by the rich traditions of oral folk art. When writing appeared, Russian scribes began to record all the most important events of their time. Thus, one of the first genres of Russian literature, the chronicle, arose. Chronicles - Russian historical works in which the narration was conducted over the years.

The Tale of Bygone Years, written in 1113 by Nestor, a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery, became the greatest historical and literary monument of ancient Rus'...

"The Tale of Bygone Years" as a literary monument

The greatest historical and literary monument of ancient Rus' was The Tale of Bygone Years, written in 1113 by Nestor, a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery. About this work, Acad. D.S. Likhachev wrote: “Nestor’s high literary education, his exceptional erudition in the sources, the ability to select everything significant in them, made The Tale of Bygone Years not just a collection of facts of Russian history and not just a historical and publicistic work, but a whole literary statement history of Rus'. (The Tale of Bygone Years-M., L., 1950).

However, The Tale of Bygone Years is not the oldest chronicle. For more than two centuries, many generations of scientists have been studying the issue of the origin and development of chronicle writing in Rus'. At present, thanks to the research of acad. Shakhmatova A.A. we can talk about the history of Russian chronicle writing. A.A. Shakhmatov applied the comparative-historical method. He proved that this historical and literary monument is based on more ancient chronicles, in particular, the Ancient Kyiv Code. A.A. Shakhmatov outlined the results of his research in the work “Investigations about the most ancient chronicles” (St. Petersburg, 1908), “The Tale of Bygone Years” (vol. 1, Pg. 1916)

Chronicle writing appears in the St. Sophia Monastery, but in the 70s. 11th century Chronicle was moved to Kiev Caves Monastery, the outstanding figures of which were its founders - Anthony, Theodosius and Nikon the Great. A.A. Shakhmatov believes that the author of the Kiev-Pechersk chronicle was Nikon the Great. At the end of the XI century. there is the Kiev-Pechersk or Initial set.

The initial set became the basis of The Tale of Bygone Years. The first edition was compiled by Nestor in 1113, the second by Sylvester in 1116, and the third by an unknown author in 1118.

Interesting refinements of A.A. Shakhmatov about the history of the emergence of chronicle writing are made by Acad. Likhachev in the book. ”Russian chronicles and their cultural and historical significance” (M., L., 1947) and in the study of acad. Rybakova B.A. "Ancient Rus'. Legends. Epics. Chronicle" (M., 1963).

The Tale of Bygone Years reflected the interest of the Russian people in the historical past of their Motherland. “Where did the Russian land come from, who in Kyiv began to reign first, and where did the Russian land come from” - this is the task that the chronicler set himself. The theme of the Motherland, its greatness and power, its unity, deep patriotism constitute the ideological and thematic content of the chronicle. Whatever the chronicler tells about - about the military campaigns of the Russian princes, about their activities aimed at strengthening the political and religious independence of Russia, about fratricidal feudal wars, about the events of bygone years - always the interests of the Motherland and the high patriotic idea determine the point of view of the author, his assessment of the actions of the princes and the events about which he narrates. Noting the ideological orientation of The Tale of Bygone Years, the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote that it is characterized by “the awakening in the whole society of the thought of the Russian land as something integral, inevitable, obligatory business of everyone and everyone.”

According to the chronicle, immediately after the adoption of Christianity by Russia, Vladimir Svyatoslavich “began to take deliberate children from [noble people] children, and start giving book learning” (PVL, p. 81). For training, books were brought from Bulgaria. Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) and Old Russian languages so close that Rus' was able to use the ready-made Old Slavonic alphabet, and the Bulgarian books, being formally foreign languages, essentially did not require translation. This greatly facilitated the acquaintance of Rus' with the monuments of Byzantine literature, which for the most part penetrated into Rus' in Bulgarian translation.

Later, during the time of Yaroslav the Wise, in Rus' they begin to translate directly from Greek. The chronicle reports that Yaroslav collected “many scribes and translations from Greek into Slovenian writing. And many books have been written off” (PVL, p. 102). The intensity of translation activity is confirmed both by direct data (lists of translated monuments that have come down to us or references to them in original works) and indirectly: the influx of translated literature at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries. was not only a consequence of the established cultural ties of Rus' with Bulgaria or Byzantium, but above all was caused by an acute need, a kind of state necessity: having adopted Christianity, Rus' needed literature for worship, to get acquainted with the philosophical and ethical doctrines of the new religion, the ritual and legal customs of the church and monastic life.

For the activities of the Christian Church in Rus', liturgical books were needed first of all. The obligatory set of books that were necessary for worship in each individual church included the Aprakos Gospel, the Aprakos Apostle, the Missal, the Trebnik, the Psalter, the Lenten Triodion, the Colored Triodion, and the Common Menaion. Considering that in the annals in the narrative of the events of the 9th-11th centuries. 88 cities are mentioned (data of B. V. Sapunov), each of which had from several units to several dozen churches, then the number of books necessary for their functioning will amount to many hundreds. Only a few copies of manuscripts from the 11th-12th centuries have come down to us, but they confirm our ideas about the above-mentioned repertoire of liturgical books.

If the transfer of liturgical books to Russian soil was dictated by the needs of the church service, and their repertoire was regulated by the canon of liturgical practice, then in relation to other genres of Byzantine literature one can assume some selectivity.

But it is here that we encounter an interesting phenomenon, which D.S. Likhachev described as the phenomenon of “transplantation”: Byzantine literature in its individual genres not only influenced Slavic literature, but through it on Old Russian literature, but was - of course, in some its part - simply transferred to Rus'.

Patristics. First of all, this applies to Byzantine patristic literature. In Rus', the works of the "fathers of the church", theologians and preachers were known and enjoyed high authority: John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria and others.

Homilet writers (authors of teachings and sermons) were highly valued throughout the Russian Middle Ages. Their creations not only helped shape moral ideals of the Christian world, but at the same time made us think about the properties of the human character, drew attention to various features of the human psyche, and influenced other literary genres with their experience of “human studies”.

Of the Homilet writers, John Chrysostom (d. 407) enjoyed the greatest authority. In his work, “the assimilation of the traditions of ancient culture by the Christian church has reached complete and classical completeness. He developed a style of preaching prose, which absorbed an incalculable wealth of expressive devices of rhetoric and brought with virtuosity of finishing to amazing expressiveness. The Teachings of John Chrysostom were included in collections starting from the 11th century. From the XII century. the list "Zlatostruya" has been preserved, containing mainly the "words" of Chrysostom, several "words" were included in the famous Assumption collection at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries.

In the lists of the XI-XII centuries. translations of other Byzantine homiletes have also been preserved - Gregory the Theologian, Cyril of Jerusalem, the "Ladder" of John of the Ladder, Pandects of Antiochus and Pandects of Nikon Montenegrin. The sayings and aphorisms of the "fathers of the church" (along with aphorisms extracted from the writings of ancient authors) made up a collection popular in Ancient Rus' - "Bee" (the oldest list of the turn of the 13th-14th centuries). In "Izbornik 1076" a significant place is occupied by "Stoslovets" Gennady - a kind of "moral code" of a Christian.

The works of the homiletic genre did not hide their instructive, didactic function. Turning directly to readers and listeners, homilete writers sought to convince them with the logic of their reasoning, extolled virtues and condemned vices, promised eternal bliss to the righteous, and threatened the negligent and sinners with divine punishment.

Lives of the Saints. Monuments of the hagiographic genre - the lives of the saints - also educated and instructed, but the main means of persuasion was not so much the word - sometimes indignant and accusing, sometimes insinuatingly instructive, but a living image. The action-packed narrative about the life of a righteous man, willingly using the plot and plot devices of the Hellenistic adventure novel, could not but interest the medieval reader. The hagiographer turned not so much to his mind, but to his feelings and ability to vivid imagination. Therefore, the most fantastic episodes - the intervention of angels or demons, miracles performed by saints - were sometimes described with detailed details that helped the reader to see and imagine what was happening. Sometimes the hagiographies reported accurate geographical or topographical signs, named the names of real historical figures - all this also created the illusion of authenticity, was intended to convince the reader of the veracity of the story and thereby give the hagiographies the authority of a "historical" narrative.

Lives can be divided into two plot types - lives-martyria, i.e., stories about the torment of fighters for the faith in pagan times, and lives that told about saints who voluntarily assumed the feat of seclusion or foolishness, distinguished by extraordinary piety, poverty-loving etc.

An example of the life of the first type is the Life of St. Irene. It tells how Irina's father, the pagan king Licinius, at the instigation of a demon, decides to destroy his Christian daughter; according to his sentence, she should be crushed by a chariot, but a miracle happens: the horse, tearing the traces, pounces on the king, bites off his hand and returns to its original place. Irina is subjected to various sophisticated tortures by King Zedekiy, but each time, thanks to divine intercession, she remains alive and unharmed. The princess is thrown into a ditch, teeming with poisonous snakes, but the "reptiles" immediately "press" against the walls of the ditch and die. They try to saw the saint alive, but the saw breaks and the executioners perish. She is tied to the mill wheel, but the water "by the command of God will flow around", etc.

Another type of life is, for example, the legend of Alexei the Man of God. Alexei, a pious and virtuous young man, voluntarily renounces wealth, honor, and female love. He leaves the house of his father - a rich Roman nobleman, his beautiful wife, having barely married her, distributes the money taken from the house to the poor, and for seventeen years lives on alms in the porch of the Church of the Virgin in Edessa. When the fame of his holiness spread everywhere, Alexei leaves Edessa and, after wandering, again finds himself in Rome. Recognized by no one, he settles in his father's house, feeds at the same table with the beggars, who are given daily alms by the pious nobleman, patiently endures the bullying and beatings of his father's servants. Another seventeen years pass. Alexei dies, and only then will the parents and the widow recognize their missing son and husband.

Pateriki. Patericons were widely known in Kievan Rus - collections short stories about monks. The themes of patericon legends are quite traditional. Most often these are stories about monks who became famous for their asceticism or humility. So, in one legend it is told how the elders come to the hermit for a conversation with him, thirsting for guidance from him. But the recluse is silent, and when asked about the reason for his silence, he answers that he sees the image of the crucified Christ in front of him day and night. “This is the best instruction for us!” - exclaim the elders.

The hero of another story is a stylite. He is so alien to pride that he even lays out alms for the poor on the steps of his refuge, and does not give them from hand to hand, claiming that it is not he, but the Mother of God who bestows the suffering.

The patericon tells of a young nun who gouges out her own eyes after learning that their beauty aroused the lust of a young man.

The omnipotence of prayer, the ability of ascetics to work miracles are the plots of another group of patericon short stories. The righteous old man is accused of adultery, but through his prayer, the twelve-day-old baby, when asked “who is his father”, points his finger at the real father. At the prayer of a pious shipbuilder, on a hot day, rain pours over the deck, delighting travelers suffering from heat and thirst. The lion, having met the monk on a narrow mountain path, stands on hind legs to give him way, etc.

If the righteous are accompanied by divine help, then sinners in the paterinic legends expect a terrible and, which is especially characteristic, not posthumous, but immediate punishment: the defiler of the graves is gouged out by the revived dead; the ship does not move from its place until a child-killer woman descends from its side into the boat, and the abyss immediately swallows the boat with the sinner; the servant, who planned to kill and rob his mistress, cannot leave the place and stabs himself.

So, in patericons a certain fantasy world where the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but exaltedly fanatical, where miracles are performed in the most everyday situations, where even wild animals confirm the omnipotence of faith with their behavior. The plots of translated patericons influenced the work of Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we will find direct analogies to episodes from Byzantine patericons.

Apocrypha. Apocrypha were also a favorite genre of Old Russian readers, the oldest translations of which also date back to the Kievan era. Apocrypha (from the Greek ???????? - “secret, hidden”) were works that tell about biblical characters or saints, but were not included in the circle of monuments revered as sacred scripture or officially recognized by the church. There were apocryphal gospels (for example, “The Gospel of Thomas”, “The Gospel of Nicodemus”), lives (“The Life of St. Andrew the Fool”, “The Life of Basil the New”), legends, prophecies, etc. The apocrypha often contained a more detailed account of events or characters mentioned in canon bible books Oh. There were apocryphal stories about Adam and Eve (for example, about the second wife of Adam - Lilith, about the birds that taught Adam how to bury Abel), about the childhood of Moses (in particular, about testing the wisdom of the boy Moses by the pharaoh), about the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The apocryphal “Walking of the Theotokos through Torment” describes the suffering of sinners in hell, the “Tale of Agapius” tells of paradise - a wonderful garden, where “beds and a meal decorated with precious stones” are prepared for the righteous, birds sing around with “various voices”, and plumage they have gold, and scarlet, and scarlet, and blue, and green ...

Often the apocrypha reflected heretical ideas about the present and future world, rising to complex philosophical problems. The apocrypha reflects the doctrine according to which God is opposed by a no less powerful antipode - Satan, the source of evil and the culprit of human disasters; so, according to one apocryphal legend, the human body was created by Satan, and God only “put” his soul into it.

The attitude of the orthodox church towards apocryphal literature was complex. The oldest indexes (lists) of “true and false books”, in addition to “true” books, distinguished between “secret”, “hidden” books, which were recommended to be read only by knowledgeable people, and “false” books, which were certainly forbidden to read, since they contained heretical views . However, in practice, it was almost impossible to separate the apocryphal plots from the plots found in the “true” books: apocryphal legends were reflected in the monuments that enjoyed the highest authority: in the chronicles, palaea, in collections used in worship (Teremonniki, Menaion). Attitudes towards apocrypha changed over time: some monuments that were popular in the past were subsequently banned and even destroyed, but, on the other hand, in the Great Menaion of the Cheti, created in the 16th century. Orthodox churchmen, as a set of literature recommended for reading, included many texts that were previously considered apocryphal.

Among the first translations carried out under Yaroslav the Wise or during subsequent decades, there were also monuments of Byzantine chronography.

Chronicle of George Amartol. Among them highest value for the history of Russian chronicle writing and chronography had the "Chronicle of Georgy Amartol". The author, a Byzantine monk, outlined in his work the entire history of the world from Adam to the events of the middle of the 9th century. In addition to the events of the biblical story, the Chronicle told about the kings of the East (Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius), Alexander the Great, about the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Costantius Chlorus, and then about the Byzantine emperors, from Constantine the Great to Michael III. Even on Greek soil, the Chronicle was supplemented by an extract from the Chronicle of Simeon Logothetes, and the presentation in it was brought to the death of Emperor Romanus Lekapenus (he was deposed from the throne in 944 and died in 948). Despite its significant volume and breadth of historical range, Amartol's work presented world history in a peculiar perspective, primarily as church history. The author often introduces lengthy theological arguments into his exposition, scrupulously sets out debates at ecumenical councils, himself argues with heretics, denounces iconoclasm, and quite often replaces the description of events with arguments about them. We find a relatively detailed account of the political history of Byzantium only in the last part of the "Chronicle", which describes the events of the 9th - first half of the 10th century. The "Chronicle of Amartol" was used in compiling a short chronographic code - "Chronograph according to the great presentation", which in turn was involved in compiling the "Initial Code", one of the oldest monuments of Russian chronicle writing (see below, p. 39). Then the "Chronicle" was again turned to when compiling the "Tale of Bygone Years"; it became part of the extensive ancient Russian chronographic codes - the Hellenic Chronicler, the Russian Chronograph, etc.

Chronicle of John Malala. The Byzantine Chronicle, compiled in the 6th century, had a different character. Greekized Syrian John Malalas. Its author, according to the researcher of the monument, "set out to give a moralizing, in the spirit of Christian piety, instructive, and at the same time entertaining reading for a wide audience of readers and listeners." In the Chronicle of Malala, ancient myths are retold in detail (about the birth of Zeus, about the struggle of the gods with the titans, myths about Dionysus, Orpheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus and Ariadne, Oedipus); the fifth book of the Chronicle contains the story of the Trojan War. Malala describes in detail the history of Rome (especially the most ancient - from Romulus and Remus to Julius Caesar), a significant place is also given to the political history of Byzantium. In a word, the "Chronicle of Malala" successfully supplemented the presentation of Amartol, in particular, it was through this "Chronicle" that Kievan Rus could get acquainted with the myths of ancient Greece. Separate lists of the Slavic translation of the Chronicle of Malala have not reached us, we know it only as part of the extracts included in the Russian chronographic compilations (Archive and Vilensky chronographs, both editions of the Hellenic Chronicler, etc.).

History of the Jewish War by Josephus Flavius. Perhaps already in the middle of the XI century. in Rus' was translated the "History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius ​​- a monument of exceptionally authoritative in the Christian literature of the Middle Ages. "History" was written between 75-79 AD. n. e. Joseph ben Mattafie, a contemporary and direct participant in the anti-Roman uprising in Judea, who then went over to the side of the Romans. The book of Joseph is a valuable historical source, although extremely tendentious, for the author very unequivocally condemns his fellow tribesmen, but glorifies the military art and political wisdom of Vespasian and Titus Flavius. At the same time, "History" is a brilliant literary monument. Josephus skillfully uses the techniques of storytelling, his presentation is replete with descriptions, dialogues, psychological characteristics; The "speech" of the characters in the "History" is built according to the laws of ancient declamations; even talking about events, the author remains a refined stylist: he strives for a symmetrical construction of phrases, willingly resorts to rhetorical oppositions, skillfully constructed enumerations, etc. Sometimes it seems that for Flavius ​​the form of presentation is no less important than the subject itself, about which he writes.

The Old Russian translator understood and appreciated the literary merits of the "History": he not only managed to preserve the refined style of the monument in translation, but in a number of cases enters into competition with the author, sometimes spreading the traditional stylistic formulas of description, sometimes translating the indirect speech of the original into direct speech, sometimes introducing comparisons or clarifications that make the narrative more lively and imaginative. The translation of the "History" is a convincing evidence of the high culture of the word among the scribes of Kievan Rus.

Alexandria. Not later than the 12th century. an extensive narrative about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great was also translated from Greek - the so-called pseudo-Kallisthenov "Alexandria". It is based on the Hellenistic novel, created, apparently, in Alexandria in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e., but later subjected to additions and revisions. Over time, the initial biographical narrative became more and more fictionalized, overgrown with legendary and fairy tale motifs, gradually turning into an adventure novel typical of the Hellenistic era. One of these later versions of "Alexandria" was translated into Rus'.

The real history of the actions of the famous commander is barely traced here, buried under layers of later traditions and legends. Alexander turns out to be no longer the son of the Macedonian king, but the illegitimate son of Olympias and the Egyptian sorcerer king Nektonav. The birth of a hero is accompanied by miraculous signs. Contrary to history, Alexander conquers Rome and Athens, boldly comes to Darius, posing as the Macedonian ambassador, negotiates with the queen of the Amazons, etc. mothers; the hero informs Olympias about the miracles he has seen: giant people, disappearing trees, fish that can be boiled in cold water, six-legged and three-eyed monsters, etc. Nevertheless, the ancient Russian scribes apparently perceived "Alexandria" as a historical narrative, about as evidenced by the inclusion of its full text in the composition of the chronographic codes. Regardless of how the novel about Alexander was perceived in Rus', the very fact that ancient Russian readers were acquainted with this most popular plot of the Middle Ages was of great importance: ancient Russian literature was thus introduced into the sphere of common European cultural interests, enriching their knowledge of the history of the ancient world.

The Tale of Akira the Wise. If "Alexandria" genetically ascended to a historical narrative and told about a historical character, then "The Tale of Akira the Wise", also translated in Kievan Rus in the 11th - early 12th centuries, is by its origin a purely fictional monument - an ancient Assyrian legend of the 7th century. BC e. Researchers have not come to a unanimous conclusion about the ways in which the "Tale of Akir" penetrated into Rus': there are suggestions that it was translated from the Syrian or from the Armenian original. The story lived in Rus' long life. Its oldest edition (apparently a translation very close to the original) has been preserved in four lists of the 15th-17th centuries. In the XVI or early XVII V. The story has been radically revised. Its new editions (Short and Extended, ascending to it), which largely lost their original oriental flavor, but acquired the features of a Russian folk tale, were extremely popular in the 17th century, and the story continued to exist among the Old Believers right up to our time.

In the oldest edition of the Russian translation of the Tale, it was told how Akir, the wise adviser to King Sinagripp, was slandered by his adopted son Anadan and sentenced to death. But Akira's devoted friend, Nabuginael, saved and managed to securely shelter the convict. Some time later, the Egyptian pharaoh demanded that King Sinagripp send him a wise man who could solve the riddles proposed by the pharaoh and build a palace "between heaven and earth." For this, the pharaoh will pay Sinagripp "a three-year tribute." If the envoy of Sinagripp does not cope with the task, tribute will be exacted in favor of Egypt. All close associates of Sinagrippa, including Anadan, who has now become Akir's successor as the first noble, admit that they are unable to fulfill the demand of the pharaoh. Then Nabuginael informs the desperate Sinagripp that Akir is alive. The happy king forgives the disgraced sage and sends him under the guise of a simple groom to the pharaoh. Aqir solves the riddles and then cunningly avoids the last task - the construction of the palace. To do this, Akir teaches the eagles to lift a basket into the air; the boy sitting in it shouts for “stone and lime” to be served to him: he is ready to start building the palace. But no one can deliver the necessary cargo to the skies, and the pharaoh is forced to admit defeat. Akir returns home with a "three-year tribute", once again becomes close to Sinagripp, and the unmasked Anadan dies a terrible death.

The wisdom (or cunning) of a hero who frees himself from the need to perform an impossible task is a traditional fairy tale motif. And it is characteristic that with all the alterations of the Tale on Russian soil, it was the story of how Akir guesses the riddles of the pharaoh and by wise counterclaims forces him to renounce his claims, enjoyed unchanging popularity, it was constantly revised and supplemented with new details.

The Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph. If the "Tale of Akira the Wise" in many of its elements resembles a fairy tale, then another translated story - about Barlaam and Joasaph - closely approaches the hagiographic genre, although in reality its plot is based on the legendary biography of the Buddha, which came to Rus' through Byzantine intermediary.

The Tale tells how Prince Joasaph, the son of the Indian pagan king Abner, becomes a Christian ascetic under the influence of the hermit Barlaam.

However, the plot, potentially replete with "conflict situations", turns out to be extremely smoothed out in the Tale: the author seems to be in a hurry to eliminate the obstacles that arise or simply "forget" about them. So, for example, Avenir imprisons young Joasaph in a secluded palace precisely so that the boy could not hear about the ideas of Christianity and did not learn about the existence of old age, illness, and death in the world. Nevertheless, Joasaph nevertheless leaves the palace and immediately meets a sick old man, and the Christian hermit Barlaam enters his chambers without any special obstacles. The pagan sage Nahor, according to the plan of Abner, in a dispute with the imaginary Barlaam, should debunk the ideas of Christianity, but suddenly, quite unexpectedly, he himself begins to expose paganism. They bring to Joasaph beautiful princess, she must persuade the young ascetic to sensual pleasures, but Joasaph easily resists the charms of the beauty and easily convinces her to become a chaste Christian. There are a lot of dialogues in the Tale, but all of them are devoid of both individuality and naturalness: Varlaam, Joasaph, and pagan sages speak equally pompously and "learned". Before us is like a lengthy philosophical debate, the participants of which are as conditional as the participants in the conversation in the genre of "philosophical dialogue". Nevertheless, The Tale of Varlaam was widely circulated; especially popular were the parables-apologists included in it, illustrating the ideals of Christian piety and asceticism: some of the parables were included in collections of both mixed and permanent composition (for example, in Izmaragd), and many dozens of their lists are known.

Devgen's deed. It is believed that even in Kievan Rus, a Byzantine epic poem about Digenis Akritas was translated (warriors guarding the borders of the Byzantine Empire were called Akritas). According to the researchers, the time of translation is indicated by the data of the language - the lexical parallels of the story (in the Russian version it was called "Devgeny's deed") and literary monuments Kievan Rus, as well as the mention of Devgen Akrit in the Life of Alexander Nevsky. But the comparison with Akritus appears only in the third (according to the classification of Yu. K. Begunov) edition of the monument, probably created in the middle of the 15th century, and cannot serve as an argument in favor of the existence of the translation in Kievan Rus. Significant plot differences between the “Deeds of Devgenius” and the Greek versions of the epic about Digenis Akrita known to us leave open the question of whether these differences were the result of a radical reworking of the original during translation, whether they arose in the process of later alterations of the text on Russian soil, or whether the Russian text corresponds to the one that did not come down to us. before us the Greek version.

Devgeny (this is how the Greek name Digenis was rendered in the Russian translation) - a typical epic hero. He has extraordinary strength (even as a youth, Devgeny strangled a bear with his bare hands, and, having matured, he exterminates thousands of enemy soldiers in battles), he is handsome, knightly magnanimous. A significant place in the Russian version of the monument is occupied by the story of Devgeny's marriage to the daughter of a proud and stern Stratig. This episode has all the characteristic features of an "epic matchmaking": Devgeny sings a love song under the girl's windows; she, admiring the beauty and prowess of the young man, agrees to run away with him, Devgeny takes away his beloved in broad daylight, defeats her father and brothers in battle, then reconciles with them; parents of young people arrange a multi-day magnificent wedding.

Devgeny is akin to the heroes of translated chivalric novels that spread in Rus' in the 17th century. (such as Bova Korolevich, Eruslan, Vasily the Golden-haired), and, apparently, this proximity to the literary taste of the era contributed to the revival of the handwritten tradition of the "Acts": all three lists that have come down to us date from the 17th-18th centuries.

* * *

So, Kievan Rus in a short period of time acquired a rich and varied literature. A whole system of genres was transferred to the new soil: chronicles, historical stories, lives, patericons, "words", teachings. The significance of this phenomenon is increasingly being studied and comprehended in our science. It has been established that the system of genres of Byzantine or Old Bulgarian literature was not completely transferred to Rus': Old Russian scribes preferred some genres and rejected others. At the same time, genres arose in Rus' that had no analogy in “model literature”: the Russian chronicle is not similar to the Byzantine chronicle, and the chronicles themselves are used as material for independent and original chronographic compilations; completely original "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and "Instruction" by Vladimir Monomakh, "The Prayer of Daniil the Sharpener" and "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan". Translated works not only enriched Russian scribes with historical or natural science information, introduced them to the plots of ancient myths and epic traditions, they also represented different types plots, styles, manners of narration, being a kind of literary school for ancient Russian scribes, who were able to get acquainted with the ponderous verbose Amartol and laconic, stingy with details and details Malala, with the brilliant stylist Flavius ​​and with the inspired rhetorician John Chrysostom, with the heroic world of the epic about Devgeny and the exotic fantasy of "Alexandria". It was rich material for reading and writing experience, an excellent school of literary language; she helped the ancient Russian scribes visualize possible options styles, to refine the ear and speech on the colossal lexical richness of the Byzantine and Old Slavonic literatures.

But it would be a mistake to believe that translated literature was the only and main school of ancient Russian scribes. In addition to translated literature, they used the rich traditions of oral folk art, and above all - the traditions of the Slavic epic. This is not a conjecture and not a reconstruction of modern researchers: as we will see below, folk epic legends are recorded in early chronicles and represent a completely exceptional artistic phenomenon that has no analogy in the monuments of translated literature known to us. Slavic epic legends are distinguished by a special manner of constructing the plot, a peculiar interpretation of the character of the characters, their style, which differs from the style of monumental historicism, which was formed mainly under the influence of monuments of translated literature.

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A wide time frame is a forced condition, since the works of this period are preserved in later lists, the time of translation is determined only by indirect data.

The basis of the ancient Russian literature of the Christian faith and worldview was the biblical books (Holy Scripture), as well as the writings of the most authoritative theologians.

Bible: books of the Old and New Testaments (Psalms - collections of 150 psalms (prayers and hymns); 4 Gospels).

The Bible was fully translated into Rus' only in the 15th century, but individual books became known in wide translations. The most widely used books of the New Testament and the Psalter.

Bible books, dogmatic and instructive writings were intended for ancient Russian literature for independent reading by believers. In the church, during the service, other liturgical books specially designed for the church rite were read:

1) Gospels - aprakos (holiday) - selected readings from the gospel and apostolic acts and epistles, arranged in reading order in the order of reading from during church services (def. readings for holidays).

2) Service Menaia (praise to the saints), breviaries, books of hours, service books, etc.

Functions of liturgical books:

teaching

Service

Aesthetic: the bible contained bright plot stories with heightened emotionality.

Lives of the Saints.

If the monuments of instructive eloquence were built on direct didactics, extolling the virtues, condemning bails, etc., then the same idea, however, in the form of a plot narrative, carried the lives of the saints. Lives were called stories about the life, suffering and deeds of piety of people canonized by the church. recognized as saints and officially honored with veneration. hagiographic literature also called hagiographic. Complex plots - Byzantine hagiographers used the plots and techniques of ancient Greek adventure novels (The Life of Eustathius - Plakida). The life of Alexei, the man of God - in Syriac. He renounces wealth, leaves the house of a rich father, his newfound wife, lives in the porch of the church for 17 years, then settles in his father's house and only before his death after 17 years will he be recognized.

Features of Byzantine Lives:

Many details are fabulous, mythical

A Christian veil is thrown over fabulousness.

Apocrypha. (Greek - hidden).

Apocrypha are legends about the characters of biblical history, however, the plot is different from those contained in the biblical canonical books. Sometimes they considered the origin of the world, its structure and the question of the end of the world from other worldview positions. Apocryphal motifs could be included in the works of traditional genres = lives.

Apocrypha were known in the literature of the KR. In the lists until the 13th century, apocryphal legends about the prophet Jeremiah, “The Virgin's Passage through Torment”, etc., have been preserved.

Old Russian literature of the apocrypha is characterized by an abundance of miracles, fantasy, and exotericism. So, for example, in the apocryphal Chronicles of Jeremiah, it is told how the young man Abimelech, returning to the city with a basket of figs (figs), sat down in the shade of a tree and fell asleep. He slept for 66 years, but miraculously the figs he picked were so fresh that juice was still dripping from them.

Apocrypha satisfied not only literary but also theological interests. They posed problems that especially worried the minds of religious people: about the causes of the disorder of the world, which was created in the right of ancient Russian literature by a deity, about the future of the world, about fate after death, and so on. This topic is devoted to the apocryphal "HB in agony." . The plot of the Journey is quite simple: the Mother of God, accompanied by the Archangel Michael, visits the pictures of hellish torment that the Journey paints are bright and specific. They differ from the abstract generalized ideas of the canonical "scripture", which only said that "scum", "gnashing of teeth", "vigilant worm" awaits sinners in the next world.

Thematically, the apocrypha are divided into Old Testament, New Testament and eschatological. The Old Testament apocrypha develop the plots of the Old Testament books. Their heroes are Adam, Eve, forefathers Enoch, Melchizedek, Abraham, kings David and Solomon. The New Testaments are devoted to stories about Christ, apostolic "detours" and "acts." Eschatological apocrypha is associated with a fantastic story about the afterlife, the final destinies of the world.

Works that, for various reasons, were not included in the biblical canon. It's not a genre. Follows biblical genres.

Chronicle.

Among the first translations and the first books brought to Rus' from Bulgaria were Byzantine chronicles - works of historiography that set out world history. The chronicle of "George Amartol" played a particularly important role in the development of the Russian chronicle. Its compiler is a Byzantine monk. Amartol - in Greek - a sinner - a traditional self-deprecating epithet of a monk. From the creation of the world. Then the history of the Babylonian and Persian kings; about Roman emperors (from Caesar to Constantius Chlorus); about the emperors of Byzantium.

"History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius. (No later than the beginning of the 12th century it was translated into Rus'. - 7 books)

"Alexandria" is an adventure novel of the Hellenistic era, where the biography of the Macedonian king is colored with numerous legendary and fantastic details. Translation as part of chronographic vaults. It was perceived as a historical narrative about the famous commander of antiquity.

Tales.

"The Tale of Akira the Wise", translated in Kievan Rus in the 11th - early 12th centuries, is by its origin a purely fictional monument - an ancient Assyrian legend of the 7th century. BC e. Researchers have not come to a unanimous conclusion about the ways in which the "Tale of Akir" penetrated into Rus': there are suggestions that it was translated from the Syrian or from the Armenian original. In Rus', the Tale lived a long life. Its oldest edition (apparently a translation very close to the original) has been preserved in four lists of the 15th-17th centuries. In the 16th or early 17th century The story has been radically revised. Its new editions (Short and Extended, ascending to it), which largely lost their original oriental flavor, but acquired the features of a Russian folk tale, were extremely popular in the 17th century, and the story continued to exist among the Old Believers right up to our time.

In the oldest edition of the Russian translation of the Tale, it was told how Akir, the wise adviser to King Sinagripp, was slandered by his adopted son Anadan and sentenced to death. But Akira's devoted friend, Nabuginael, saved and managed to securely shelter the convict. Some time later, the Egyptian pharaoh demanded that King Sinagripp send him a wise man who could solve the riddles that the pharaoh married in pre-Old Russian literature and build a palace "between heaven and earth." For this, the pharaoh will pay Sinagripp "a three-year tribute." If the envoy of Sinagripp does not cope with the task, tribute will be exacted in favor of Egypt. All close associates of Sinagrippa, including Anadan, who has now become Akir's successor as the first noble, admit that they are unable to fulfill the demand of the pharaoh. Then Nabuginael informs the desperate Sinagripp that Akir is alive. The happy king forgives the disgraced sage and sends him under the guise of a simple groom to the pharaoh. Aqir solves the riddles and then cunningly avoids the last task - the construction of the palace. In ancient Russian literature, Akir teaches eagles to lift a basket into the air; the boy sitting in it shouts for “stone and lime” to be served to him: he is ready to start building the palace. But no one can deliver the necessary cargo to the skies, and the pharaoh is forced to admit defeat. Akir returns home with a "three-year tribute", once again becomes close to Sinagripp, and the unmasked Anadan dies a terrible death.

The wisdom (or cunning) of a hero who frees himself from the need to perform an impossible task is a traditional fairy tale motif. And it is characteristic that with all the alterations of the Tale on Russian soil, it was the story of how Akir guesses the riddles of the pharaoh and by wise counterclaims forces him to renounce his claims, enjoyed unchanging popularity, it was constantly revised and supplemented with new details.

A kind of medieval "natural science" encyclopedia was "Shestodnev" and "Physiologist". Providing information about flora and the animal kingdom, these works included a lot of fabulous, fantastic and at the same time poetic.

So, for example, "Physiologist"

Describes the fantastic beast unicorn, which is like a "goat" and very meek, but the hunter cannot approach him, because

that the unicorn is very strong, having one horn in the middle of its head.

"Physiologist" is not limited to a simple description of animals, he gives a symbolic interpretation of their properties.

The physiologist explains the described properties of animals as certain states of the human soul.

A rotten tree that a woodpecker hammers, arranging a nest inside itself, is a symbol of a person’s spiritual weakness, this weakness is used by the devil, who takes possession of the soul and nests there.

Conclusion: translated literature contributed to the emergence of its own, original literature.

Origins and traditions of publishing translated literature in Russia

Each national literature asserts its own tradition of perception and assimilation of foreign literature. For Russian literature, the starting point in this regard was the literature of Bulgaria and Byzantium. Entirely handwritten, ancient Russian literature begins with translations: translations in the 11th - 12th centuries. in some cases preceded the creation of the same genre. In general, Rus' began to read someone else's before writing its own. However, this should not be seen as some evidence of the "inferiority" of the culture of the Eastern Slavs. All European medieval states "learned" from the heir countries of the centuries-old ancient culture - Ancient Greece and Rome. In essence, all European civilization is a Hellenistic civilization. In Ancient Rus', the perception of a foreign culture was active, creative, and stimulated the emergence of original literature.

With the adoption of Christianity in Rus', a significant part of the books - and, in particular, liturgical ones - were brought from Bulgaria. The grammatical structure and vocabulary of the Russian and Old Church Slavonic languages ​​of this period were so close that Old Church Slavonic was perceived not as foreign language, but only as a more bookish language. Rus' was able to use the ready-made Old Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet. Bulgarian books, being formally "foreign languages", essentially did not require translation. Separate features of the Bulgarian morphological system, as well as part of the vocabulary of the Old Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) language, entered the Old Russian system. The Old Church Slavonic language on Russian soil loses the specifics of a “foreign” language and is included in the system of the Russian literary language as one of its varieties.

At the same time, translations are being made directly from Greek.

When considering the issue of the mutual influence of the literatures of Byzantium, Bulgaria and Ancient Rus', it would be more correct to speak not about influence, but about a peculiar process of transplanting the literature of one country into another - about the transfer of Byzantine literature to Russian soil. Prior to the adoption of Christianity in Ancient Rus', there was no literature, and at first after the adoption of Christianity, Byzantine literature - directly or through Bulgarian mediation - was simply transferred to Rus' (transplanted). However, this transfer was by no means mechanical: the books were not simply translated or rewritten, they continued their literary history: new editions of works were created, their plot changed, the original translation language was Russified. This was especially true of secular and historical works of narration. The writings of the Church Fathers or the biblical books largely retained their canonical text.

Therefore, the selection of translated literature in the literature of Ancient Rus' is significant only in the sense that we point to the origin of the monument, and not to its place in Old Russian literature.

The phenomenon of transplantation turned out to be extremely progressive: in a short time, Rus' received literature with an extensive system of genres, literature represented by tens and hundreds of monuments. A few decades after the start of this process in Rus', on the model of translated monuments, their own, original works began to be created.

Considering the earliest stage in the formation of the genres of translated literature in Ancient Rus', one should turn to the period of the 11th-13th centuries. Such a wide time frame is primarily due to the fact that the works of this period, as a rule, have been preserved only in later lists, and we can only determine the time of their translation or penetration into the literature of Ancient Rus' based on indirect data.

Separate books of the Old and New Testaments became known in Slavic translations already in Kievan Rus. The most widely used books (for example, rewritten in 1056-1057 for the Novgorod posadnik) and (a collection of 150 psalms - prayers and hymns, the author of which the church tradition considers mainly). According to indirect data, it can be established that the chronographic code of the middle of the 20th century included all the books, the books of Joshua, Judges, the books of Kings and excerpts from some other Old Testament books.

In Old Russian, as in any other medieval Christian literature, patristics enjoyed great authority - the writings of Roman and Byzantine theologians of the 3rd-11th centuries, revered as "fathers of the church." In these writings, the dogmas of the Christian religion were substantiated and commented on, polemics were conducted with heretics, and the foundations of Christian morality were expounded.

The works of the outstanding Byzantine preacher (344-407) were widely distributed in Rus', the works of the Byzantine preacher (329-390), (c.330-379), the author of a book popular in the Middle Ages, (293-737) - a fighter for the dogmas of Orthodoxy, also enjoyed authority etc. Patriotic literature played important role in the formation of the ethical ideals of the new religion.

Also brought up and instructed in Christian virtues and monuments of another genre - the lives of saints, stories about life, suffering or pious deeds of people canonized by the church. Such hagiographic literature is called hagiography. In the lives we often meet with an action-packed narrative. The miracles performed by the saints were described in their lives with vivid and detailed details.

Many Byzantine hagiographies were translated in Kievan Rus. Lists or references by Russian authors to the lives of Alexei, the Man of God, Eustathius Plakida, Basil the New, Savva the Sanctified, Irina, Anthony the Great, Theodora, and others have been preserved.

The favorite work of the hagiographic genre in Rus' was, in which the motive of renunciation of earthly goods and wandering was developed.

Patericons became widely known in Kievan Rus - collections of short stories, mostly about monks who became famous for their piety or asceticism. The plots of translated patericons influenced the work of ancient Russian scribes. Separate patericon legends were used in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century. - ,

In medieval writing, apocrypha - legends about the characters of biblical history, but differing in plot from those contained in biblical canonical books, became widespread. Apocryphal legends about the prophet Jeremiah, apocrypha, and a number of others have been preserved in the lists until the 13th century. Apocrypha is characterized by an abundance of miracles, fantasy, and exoticism. At the same time, the apocrypha satisfied not only literary, but also theological interests. They raised questions about the future of the world, about the fate of man after his death, and so on. This topic is devoted, for example, to the popular apocrypha "The Virgin's Passage Through Torment".

Among the first translations and the first books brought to Rus' from Bulgaria were Byzantine chronicles- works of historiography, setting out world history. A Byzantine monk played a particularly important role in the development of the original Russian chronicle. In this work, the same Greek word can be transmitted by a whole series of synonyms: conjecture, conjecture, intention, thought, thought, reflection, reason, understanding, meaning, mind, feeling, etc. This rich Old Slavonic synonymy passed into the Russian language, interacting with the original East Slavic words, forming new synonymic rows.

Not later than the 20th century an extensive novel about life and exploits was translated from Greek

For the first time, the translation business becomes systematic and requires the intervention of the state. The emperor himself, expressing dissatisfaction with the poor quality of many translations, formed the requirements for translators and instructed them: one must “beware” in order to translate more clearly, and it is not necessary to keep speech from speech in translation, but as if understanding the sense, into your own language write as clearly as possible.

In preparation for the publication of translated books, the difficulties of translating special terms were practically insurmountable: there were practically no such words in the Russian language of that period. The problem was so acute that the state was forced to issue a special decree, which read: “To translate books, translators are badly needed, especially for fiction, because no translator, without having the art that he translates, cannot translate; For this reason, it is necessary to do this in advance in this way: those who know languages, but do not know how to do arts, send those who know how to do arts, but do not know how to speak language, send those to learn languages ​​... The arts are the following: mathematical ... mechanical, surgical, architekur civilis, anatomical, botanical, militaris, and the like” (Decree of January 23, 1724). This particular document emphasized the idea that the translator, working with a book, is forced to deeply study the subject, branch of knowledge, topics that are considered in this book. It is worth mentioning the translation and publishing activities, which during the time of Peter's reforms headed the Moscow Printing Yard and the Synoidal Printing House. F. Polikarpov was the author of Slavic-Greek-Latin.

In the post-Petrine era, almost all prominent figures of Russian classicism - M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov, V.K. Trediakovsky, A.D. Kantemir, G.R. Derzhavin - paid tribute to translation activities.

Translation activity was mainly manifested at the level of language practice - in his literary and scientific writings.

The publication was planned and carried out in two series. One was for the advanced reader, the other for broad circles. The scale of the work begun by Gorky, lofty goals which he staged were unprecedented in the history of human culture. At the same time, one should not lose sight of the fact that such activities were, from a certain point of view, very favorable for the Bolshevik regime, since they allowed the world to present a kind of “showcase” of cultural well-being in a country torn apart by civil war and shaken by political repressions, partly directed and against cultural figures who did not want to cooperate with the authorities. wrote in the book: “In this incomprehensible Russia, at war, cold, hungry, experiencing endless hardships, a literary undertaking is being carried out, unthinkable in rich England and rich America ... In starving Russia, hundreds of people are working on translations; the books translated by them are being printed and will be able to give the new Russia such an acquaintance with world culture that is inaccessible to any other nation.

Unfortunately, under those conditions, the Gorky publishing house did not manage to publish as many books as planned. In Russia, there was a shortage of money, paper, and a printing base. Difficulties arose with the work of selecting works and their evaluation, writing introductory articles. The progressive reaction in the country could not help but influence the very heterogeneous composition of the publishing house's staff.

Subsequently, the baton of the publishing house "World Literature" was accepted by others. More and more collections of works by foreign classics were published. Those tasks that Gorky tried to solve in his publishing house became the subject of research by an army of scientists of various profiles - theorists and historians of literature, textual critics, theorists and practitioners of translation.

Against the backdrop of a huge array of books by foreign authors, “(1967-1978) stands out in its scope and significance. It brought readers two hundred volumes, each of which was published in a circulation of slightly more than 300,000 copies, in total - over six hundred million copies.

The high scientific level of the "Library" was determined by the active creative activity the editorial board of the publication, which included many of the largest domestic scientists and writers. Each volume was accompanied by an introductory article (in some cases several articles) and notes. The total volume of articles is about 270 printed sheets, and the volume of notes - more than 450 printed sheets. In fact, these are multi-volume volumes world literature. Scientists from England, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany and Czechoslovakia took part in the work on this enormous collective work. About 26 thousand works of authors of all countries and peoples were included in the BVL. A considerable part of these works for the first time became the property of a wide readership.

The publication consisted of three series: Literature of the Ancient East, the ancient world, the Middle Ages. Renaissance, XVII and XVIII centuries; Literature XIX century and Literature of the XX century. It should be emphasized that in the given volume the compilers managed to do a lot. However, it is also necessary to take into account the fact that - especially when working on the third series of the publication - the compilers were dominated by the ideological factor of the selection of works, so many wonderful works of world literature of the 20th century remained "overboard" of this edition. The ideological setting was as follows. They took "undoubtedly the best, most significant works that make it possible to trace the main patterns of the literary process of the 20th century", which "convincingly show that in the system of artistic values ​​of our century the decisive role belongs to realistic art, that realism is the main path of development of contemporary art." "Militant materialism" as the main methodological principle of selecting works of literature of the current century for inclusion in a publication as representative and authoritative as the BVL, determined the circle of "refusenik" authors. They were many writers, whose work is now deservedly ranked among the peaks of European and, more broadly, world culture of the artistic word.

The special role of Soviet literary and art journals of the post-war period as "pioneers" in the publication of works by contemporary foreign writers should be emphasized. The most significant journals publishing translations of classical and modern masters of foreign poetry and prose were, etc. The leading journal in this series of publications was (and still is) "Foreign Literature" ( long years headed by scientist, diplomat, writer and translator N.T. Fedorenko). It was on the pages of literary and art magazines that breakthroughs of the "ideological blockade" of the Soviet reader occurred. The censorship requirements for journal publications were as strict as for

Chapter 1. LITERATURE OF THE XI - BEGINNING OF THE XIII CENTURY

2. Translated Literature XI - early XII 1st century

We begin our consideration of Old Russian literature of the older period with a review of translated literature. This is not accidental: translations in the XI-XII centuries. in some cases preceded the creation of original works of the same genre. In general, Rus' began to read someone else's before writing its own. But one should not see in this some kind of evidence of the "inferiority" of the culture of the Eastern Slavs. All European medieval states "learned" from the countries, heirs of the centuries-old ancient culture - the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome. For Rus', the most important role in this respect was played by Bulgaria and Byzantium. We also emphasize that the perception of a foreign culture, with its centuries-old traditions, was active, creative among the Eastern Slavs, met the internal needs of the developing Ancient Rus', and stimulated the emergence of original literature. Byzantine and Bulgarian books in Rus'. The phenomenon of "transplantation". Before considering the question of what works and genres of translated literature became known in Ancient Rus' in the first centuries after the creation of writing, let's take a closer look at the nature of the work of Old Russian translators. A significant part of the books, and in particular liturgical ones, was brought in the 10th-11th centuries. from Bulgaria. The Old Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) and Old Russian languages ​​are so close that Rus' was able to use the ready-made Old Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet, created by the great Bulgarian enlighteners Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century, and the Bulgarian books, being formally “foreign languages”, essentially did not require translation; separate features of the Bulgarian morphological structure, as well as part of the vocabulary Bulgarian (the so-called Old Slavonicisms) entered the system of the Old Russian literary language. Simultaneously, translations are carried out directly from Greek, while the Old Russian translators not only managed to create accurate translations adequate to the original, but also preserved the style and rhythm of the Greek originals. Less often, translations from other languages ​​were made. Features of the relationship of ancient Slavic literatures among themselves and their relationship with the literature of Byzantium were sometimes considered as a process of influence of one literature on another. Old Russian literature, which is younger compared to the literature of Bulgaria and, even more so, to the literature of Byzantium, appears in such a formulation of the question as a passive object of such influence. It would be more correct to speak, however, not about “influence”, but about a peculiar process of transplantation (“transplantation”) of the literature of one country into another - about the transfer of Byzantine literature to Russian soil. The fact is that before the adoption of Christianity in Ancient Rus' there was no literature (the art of the word was represented by folklore) and, therefore, Byzantine literature had nothing to influence. Therefore, at first after the adoption of Christianity, Byzantine literature - directly or through Bulgarian mediation - was simply transferred to Rus' (transplanted). This transfer, however, was not mechanical: the works were not simply translated or rewritten, they continued their literary history on new ground. This means that new editions of works were created, their plot changed, the original language of translation was Russified, and new compilations were created on the basis of translated works. This was especially true of secular and historical works of narration; liturgical works, writings of the "fathers of the church" or biblical books to a greater extent retained their canonical text. Therefore, the division of ancient Russian literature into original and translated literature can only be significant in the sense that we point to the origin of the monument, and not to its place in the literature of ancient Rus'. The phenomenon of transplantation turned out to be extremely progressive: thanks to it, Rus' in a short time received literature with an extensive system of genres, literature represented by dozens or even hundreds of monuments. Already a few decades after the start of this process in Rus', on the model of translated monuments, their own original works began to be created - lives, solemn and instructive words, stories, etc. d. Literature mediator. Medieval literature is also characterized by another specific feature- the existence of intermediary literatures, i.e., literatures whose “book fund” (in other words, the sum of their literary monuments) turns out to be largely common to different national literatures. For the southern and eastern Slavs, the function of such intermediary literature was performed by ancient Bulgarian literature. It included both monuments of ancient Christian literature (translations from Greek), and monuments created by Bulgarian authors in Moravia and the Czech Republic, and in subsequent centuries, monuments created in Rus' and Serbia. Literature-intermediary united the bookishness of the Slavic peoples (especially Bulgaria, Serbia and Rus') for a very long time, almost until the beginning of the new time, although, of course, it grew more and more specific gravity"their" works in each of the individual national literatures. Genres of translated literature. Bible books. Let us now turn to the main genres of translated literature of the 11th-13th centuries. Such a wide time frame is a forced condition, since the works of this period, as a rule, have been preserved only in later lists, and we can only determine the time of their translation or penetration into the literature of Ancient Rus' using indirect data. The basis for the Christian doctrine and worldview was the biblical books (or Holy Scripture), as well as the writings of the most authoritative theologians. The Bible includes the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament includes the so-called "Pentateuch of Moses" (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), which tells about the creation of the world, about the ancient history of the Jewish people; the main religious and moral prescriptions are given. In subsequent books: the book of Joshua, the book of Judges and the four books of Kings - the history of the Jews in Palestine is set out until the destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Of the prophetic books, the books of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were the most famous in Ancient Rus'; the rest of the books are usually referred to as the books of the minor prophets. Huge was the popularity of the Psalter - a collection of 150 psalms (prayers and hymns). The church tradition considers the author of the psalms to be mainly King David, but in fact they were composed over a long time, belong to various authors, and some ultimately go back to folklore. Didactic teachings and aphorisms are contained in the books: “Parables of Solomon”, “Wisdom of Solomon” and “Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach”. In the book of the prophet Daniel, prophecies of an eschatological nature were set forth, that is, prophecies about the death of the world and the advent of the kingdom of justice. The New Testament included four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostolic Epistles, and the Apocalypse. Gospels (from the Greek. evangelion - good news) were attributed to the disciples of Christ - the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; they told about the earthly life of Jesus and expounded his teachings. The preaching of Christianity by the apostles is described in the book of Acts; in the "Apocalypse" of John the Theologian, the near end of the world is depicted in symbolic images. The Bible was fully translated into Rus' only in the 15th century, but individual biblical books became known in Slavic translations (through Bulgarian mediation) already in Kievan Rus. The books of the New Testament and the Psalter were most widely used at this time. Probably, certain books of the Old Testament were also known (the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, the books of Judges and Kings, some of the books of the prophets, the book of Ruth). It is difficult to judge the time of their appearance in Rus', since the oldest lists that have come down to us date back to the 14th century, but at the same time, according to indirect data, we can establish that, for example, in the chronographic code of the middle of the 13th century. all the books of the "Pentateuch", the books of Joshua, Judges, the books of Kings and passages from some other Old Testament books were included. Russian readers could also get acquainted with the content of the Old Testament books through the Greek chronicles (especially through the “Chronicle of Georgy Amartol”), through Paley, who expounded and interpreted the text of the Old Testament, and, finally, through the Paremiion, a collection of passages from various books of the Bible. Biblical books, Paley, chronicles, writings of the "fathers of the church" were intended for independent reading by believers. In the church, during the service, other liturgical books specially designed for the church rite were read. These included, firstly, the gospels-aprakos and the apostle-aprakos (from the Greek. apraktos - festive) - selected readings from the gospels and apostolic acts and epistles, arranged in the order of reading them during church services (certain readings on certain days of the week or on church holidays). In the church, the Paremiynik, service menaion (books containing praises to the saints), various kinds of service books, books of hours, breviaries, troparia and other books were read. The books of sacred scripture and liturgical books, in addition to purely teaching and service functions, also had considerable aesthetic significance: the Bible contained vivid plot stories, the books of the prophets were distinguished by increased emotionality, vivid imagery, passion in exposing vices and social injustice; the psalter and service menaias were brilliant examples of church poetry, although their Slavic translations were prosaic. Patristics. In ancient Russian, as in any other medieval Christian literature, patristics enjoyed great authority - the writings of Roman and Byzantine theologians of the 3rd-11th centuries, revered as the "fathers of the church" (in Greek. pater - father, hence the name of their works - patristics). In the writings of the “fathers of the church”, the dogmas of the Christian religion were substantiated and commented on, polemics were conducted with heretics, and the foundations of Christian morality or the rules of monastic life were presented in the form of teachings and instructions. In Rus', the writings of John Chrysostom (344-407), an outstanding Byzantine preacher, were widely disseminated. In his “words” and sermons, Chrysostom instructed believers in Christian virtues, vividly and temperamentally denounced vices, sometimes discussing the most important social problems. From the works of John Chrysostom, collections were compiled - "Chrystal Stream" (the oldest of the surviving lists belongs to the XII century), "Chrysostom"; his "words" were part of the "Triumphants", and at a later time - in the collections "Margaret" (in Greek. pearl). The works of the Byzantine preacher Gregory of Nazianzus (Theologian) (329-390), Basil of Caesarea (ca. on the themes of the Bible story about the creation of the world), Ephraim the Syrian (d. 373), Athanasius, author of Pareneses (parenesis- exhortation, a set of instructions for people who converted to Christianity), John of Sinai (d. 649), author of the Ladder (teachings on the self-improvement of monks), Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373) - a fighter for the tenets of Orthodoxy against various early heresies Christianity. Patristic literature played an important role in shaping the ethical ideals of the new religion and in strengthening the foundations of Christian dogma. At the same time, the works of Byzantine theologians, most of them brilliant rhetoricians who mastered the best traditions of classical ancient eloquence, contributed to the improvement of the oratory of Russian church writers. In Kievan Rus, collections are also known in which; along with the works of the "fathers of the church", other monuments of various contents were read. The oldest collections that have come down to us are the collections of the 70s. 11th century One of them, Svyatoslav's "Izbornik" of 1073, is a copy from a Bulgarian collection compiled at the beginning of the 10th century. for the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon. In Rus', Izbornik was rewritten for the Kyiv prince Izyaslav, but then the prince's name was scraped out and replaced with the name of Svyatoslav, who seized the throne in 1073. The collection is a large format folio with luxurious decoration. The frontispiece of the book (left side of the first sheet) depicts Svyatoslav surrounded by his family. Among the articles of the "Izbornik" there is a treatise on poetics - an article by George Hirovoska (VI-VII centuries) "On Images", which explains the meaning of various tropes (allegories, metaphors, hyperbole, etc.), while they are illustrated with examples, extracted, in particular, from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Svyatoslav's "Izbornik" subsequently corresponded more than once. At present, 27 copies of it dating back to the 15th-17th centuries have been discovered. Russian edition. Another collection - "Izbornik 1076", simply designed, in a small format, was compiled, as the manuscript says, "in the summer of 6584 (1076) ... under Svyatoslav, the princes of the Russian land." Among the works of this "Izbornik" is an article glorifying the reading of books, as well as "Stoslovets Gennady" - a set of sayings of the Patriarch Gennady of Constantinople (d. 471). Collections of sayings appeared in Rus' at a later time. Among them, the collections “The Wisdom of Menander the Wise”, “The Sayings of Hesychius and Barnabas” and especially “The Bee”, a collection of sayings ancient philosophers and writers, as well as quotes from the Bible and the work of the "fathers of the church." Basic research collections of sayings and aphorisms belongs to M. N. Speransky. Lives of the Saints. Collections of sayings and aphorisms had an openly edifying, didactic purpose. Speaking directly to readers and listeners, preachers and theologians extolled the virtues and condemned the vices, promised the righteous eternal bliss after death, and threatened the negligent and sinners with divine punishment. They also brought up and instructed in Christian virtues and monuments of another genre - the lives of saints, stories about the life, suffering or pious deeds of people canonized by the church, that is, recognized as saints and officially honored with veneration. Hagiographic literature is also called hagiography (from the Greek. agios - saint and graph - writing). In hagiographies, we often meet with an action-packed narrative, as their authors willingly used the plot and plot devices of ancient Greek adventure novels. Hagiographers, as a rule, also spoke about the miracles performed by the saints (which was supposed to confirm their holiness); at the same time, these miracles, or the intervention of miraculous forces - angels or demons - were described in the lives with vivid and detailed details; the authors of the lives strove and were able to achieve the illusion of the plausibility of the most fantastic episodes. Already in Kievan Rus many Byzantine hagiographies were translated. Lists or references by Russian authors to the lives of Alexei, the Man of God, Basil the New, Savva the Sanctified, Irina, Anthony the Great, Theodora and others have been preserved. An example of a life-novel (the term of the researcher of Byzantine hagiography P. Bezobrazov) can be "The Life of Eustathius Plakida". Eustathius was a "stratilate" (military leader), glorified both by military prowess and "righteous deeds." However, Placis was a pagan. Once, while hunting, he met a wonderful deer, who, in a human voice, called Plakida to be baptized. Immediately, Eustathius heard a voice announcing that he would have to prove the sincerity of his faith by his deeds and endure all the suffering that would fall to his lot. Indeed, Plakida soon loses all her wealth and, ashamed of her poverty, leaves her native city. He is separated from his wife, his children are kidnapped by a wolf and a lion, and the father considers them dead. For 15 years, Evstafiy, not knowing anything about his relatives, lives in a certain village, where he guards "zhita" (bread). But here enemies attack Rome, and the emperor sends to find Plakida, who was famous in the past for his valor. The soldiers accidentally find Eustathius and bring him to Rome. At the head of the army, Eustathius goes on a victorious campaign. In the meantime, the brothers, the sons of Plakida, also accidentally meet and recognize each other, and they meet in the house of a mother they did not recognize at first (and also at first did not recognize them). Then the wife and children find Eustace himself. However, the life does not end with this happy denouement: following the canon of the life-martyria (that is, the story of the martyr saint), the hagiographer tells how, after the death of the emperor Trajan, who loved Eustathius, his successor demands that Placida make sacrifices in the temple of Apollo. He refuses and, together with his wife and sons, perishes after terrible tortures. Another type of life can be considered on the example of "The Life of Alexei, the Man of God." Alexei, a pious and virtuous young man, voluntarily renounces wealth, honor, and female love. He leaves the house of his father - a rich Roman nobleman, a beautiful wife, having just married her, distributes the money taken from the house to the poor, and for seventeen years lives on alms in the porch of the Church of the Virgin in Edessa. When the fame of his holiness spread everywhere, Alexei leaves Edessa and, after wandering, again finds himself in Rome! Recognized by no one, he settles in his father's house, feeds at the same table with the beggars, who are given daily alms by the pious nobleman, patiently endures the bullying and beatings of his father's servants. Another seventeen years pass. Alexei dies, and only then do the parents and the widow find out that the missing son and husband lived near them. Pateriki. Patericons were widely known in Kievan Rus - collections of short stories, mostly about monks who became famous for their piety or asceticism. The Sinai patericon, translated into Rus' in the 11th century, tells, for example, about a stylite, who is so alien to pride that even alms for the poor are laid out on the steps of his refuge, and do not give from hand to hand, claiming that it is not he, but the Mother of God bestows on the suffering. The patericon tells of a young nun who gouges out her own eyes after learning that their beauty aroused the lust of a young man. The righteous old man is accused of adultery, but through his prayer, the twelve-day-old baby, when asked “who is his father”, points his finger at the real father; at the prayer of a pious shipbuilder, on a hot day, rain pours over the deck, quenching the thirst of travelers suffering from the heat. A lion, having met a monk on a narrow mountain path, stands up on its hind legs to give it way, etc. If the righteous are accompanied by divine help, then the sinners in the paterinic legends are in for a terrible - and which is especially characteristic - not a posthumous, but an immediate punishment. : a thief, a defiler of graves, is gouged out by a revived dead man; the ship does not move from its place until a woman child-killer descends from its side into the boat, and this boat with the sinner is immediately swallowed up by the abyss; the servant, who planned to kill and rob his mistress, cannot leave the place and stabs himself. The patericons depict a certain fantastic world in which the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but pious to the point of frenzy and exaltation, where miracles are sometimes performed in the most everyday environment. The plots of translated patericons influenced the work of ancient Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we sometimes find similar episodes and characteristics borrowed from Byzantine patericon legends. Separate patericon legends were used in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century. - L. N. Tolstoy, N. S. Leskov, V. M. Garshin. Apocrypha(gr. apocrypha- hidden). In addition to the traditions included in the canonical, biblical books, i.e., in the Old and New Testaments, apocrypha - legends about the characters of biblical history, but differing in plot from those contained in the biblical canonical books, became widespread in medieval writing. Sometimes in the apocrypha, from other worldview positions, the origin of the world, its structure, or the question of the "end of the world" that worried the minds in the Middle Ages was considered. Finally, apocryphal motifs could be included in works of traditional genres, such as hagiographies. Initially, there were apocrypha, designed for the most sophisticated readers in theological matters, who could harmonize apocryphal versions with traditional ones, and "renounced books", which contained heretical views unconditionally hostile to orthodox views. But these differences were not always strictly recognized, the line between apocryphal and renounced books was very shaky, different scribes evaluated them differently, and therefore both groups of monuments are usually considered within the same apocryphal literature. It is sometimes very difficult to single out the apocrypha from among the “true” (the term of the ancient Russian scribes) books: there is complete unanimity on this issue in medieval literature did not have. Strictly speaking, some of the biblical books (“The Wisdom of Solomon”, “The Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach”, “Tobit”, etc.) should also be recognized as apocryphal. Apocryphal plots are found in chronicles, annals, paley, and the apocrypha themselves - in collections, along with authoritative and revered works. The lists of banned books (“indexes”) compiled in Byzantium and among the Slavs did not always correspond to each other, and sometimes in practice their recommendations were often bypassed. Apocrypha were already known to the literature of Kievan Rus. In the lists until the XIII century. apocryphal legends about the prophet Jeremiah, the apocrypha "The Walking of Agapius to Paradise", "The Tale of Aphroditian", "The Walking of the Virgin through the Torments" and a number of others have been preserved. We will also meet apocryphal legends in the Primary Chronicle: there are, for example, apocryphal details in the story about the childhood of the prophet Moses (how he, while playing, dropped the crown from the head of the Egyptian pharaoh), and in the answer of the Magi cited in the chronicle (in the article of 1071) , the leaders of the uprising in the Rostov land, governor Yan Vyshatich, Bogomil's ideas about the creation of man are expounded: "the devil create a man, and God put his soul into it." In the description of his journey to Palestine at the beginning of the XII century. Abbot Daniel also mentions some apocryphal legends. Apocrypha is characterized by an abundance of miracles, fantasy, and exoticism. So, for example, in the apocryphal Chronicles of Jeremiah, it is told how the young man Abimelech, returning to the city with a basket of figs (figs), sat down in the shade of a tree and fell asleep. He slept for 66 years, but miraculously the figs he picked were so fresh that juice was still dripping from them. Another apocrypha tells how the pious abbot Agapius went in search of paradise. Paradise is described as a wondrous garden filled with a radiance that is seven times brighter than sunlight. The bread received by Agapius in paradise is capable of working miracles: it satiates shipbuilders dying of hunger, resurrects a youth who died two weeks before, and Agapius himself feeds on the “ukruh” (slice) of this bread for forty years. At the same time, the apocrypha satisfied not only literary, but also theological interests. They posed problems that especially worried the minds of religious people: about the causes of disorder in this world, which, as the church taught, was created and controlled by an omnipotent and just deity, about the future of the world, about the fate of a person after his death, etc. This topic dedicated, for example, to the popular apocrypha - "The Walking of the Virgin through the torments." It tells how the Mother of God, accompanied by the Archangel Michael and angels, descends into hell. She sees the torment of sinners there: some are constantly “in great darkness”, because they did not believe in God, others are immersed in a fiery river, because during their lifetime they were cursed by their parents, or they violated the oath on the cross; gossips and lazy people who overslept matins, slanderers and lechers, drunkards and money-lovers are in terrible torment in hell. The Mother of God sheds tears, seeing the terrible torments of sinners, and decides to ask God to have mercy on them. But God the Father refuses to take pity on them, for he cannot forgive people for the crucifixion of Christ. And only after a new request, with which the prophets, evangelists, apostles and all angels turn to him together with the Mother of God, God the Father sends Christ to descend into hell, and he, having severely reproached people for not observing the divine commandments, grants them deliverance from torment in for two months a year. Unlike the Apocrypha of Jeremiah and Abimelech, which contains all the elements of an entertaining story of miracles, the Apocrypha of the Mother of God raises, thus, the question of divine justice, calls into question the “inexpressible love of mankind” of God: after all, the Mother of God with angels and saints is forced to persistently beg for mitigation of the terrible torments of sinners, and God for a long time remains relentless and stern. Perhaps it was precisely this idea that put The Walk in a series of apocryphal works, although the tendency to frighten people with divine retribution for their sins, it would seem, fully corresponded to the spirit of church teachings and instructions. Apocrypha met in Old Russian writing throughout its history, and in the future we will have to return to the apocryphal stories that became widespread at a later time. Chronicles. Among the first translations and the first books brought to Rus' from Bulgaria were Byzantine chronicles. Chronicles or chronographs are works of historiography that set forth world history. The Chronicle of George Amartol played a particularly important role in the development of original Russian chronicle writing and Russian chronography. Its compiler is a Byzantine monk. Amartol in Greek - a sinner; is the traditional self-deprecating epithet of a monk. "The Chronicle of George Amartol" begins the narrative from the "creation of the world"; then he recounts biblical history, the history of the Babylonian and Persian kings, tells about the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Constantine Chlorus, and then about the emperors of Byzantium - from Constantine the Great to Michael III. Thus, initially the "Chronicle" was brought to the events of the middle of the 9th century, but later, still on Greek soil, it was supplemented by an extract from the "Chronicle of Simeon Logothetes", and the narrative was brought to the middle of the 10th century. The chronicler was most interested in church history. He constantly gives lengthy theological arguments, tells in detail about church councils, about heresies and about the struggle of various currents in the Byzantine church; actually historical events are presented by him very briefly, and only in the final part of the work (belonging to the pen of Amartol's successor - Simeon Logofet) does the reader get acquainted with the complex political life of Byzantium in the 9th-10th centuries. The Old Russian scribe, on the other hand, was largely interested in history as such: the fate of the great powers of antiquity, information about their most prominent rulers, as well as various entertaining stories from the life of prominent tsars, emperors or sages. For example, the story of the boys Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf and later became the founders of the great city, and the description of the deeds of Alexander the Great, who subjugated almost the whole world to his power, were especially popular among medieval scribes. Back in the 11th century. Russian scribes, on the basis of extracts from the Chronicle of Georgy Amartol, compiled an abbreviated chronographic code, which was called, as they believe, the Chronograph according to the great exposition. It contained very brief information about the kings and emperors of the countries of the East, Rome and Byzantium, included several entertaining historical legends and stories about miracles and heavenly signs, expounded the decisions of church councils. "Chronograph according to the great presentation" was used in compiling the Russian chronicle. The Chronicle of George Amartol was distributed in separate lists, and also almost completely became part of the extensive chronographic code of the 13th - 14th centuries. - "Chronicler of the Hellenic and Roman". The Old Russian translation of The Chronicle of Georgy Amartol was researched and published by V. M. Istrin. Chronicle of John Malala. Not later than the 11th century. in Rus', the “Chronicle” of John Malala, who lived in the city of Antioch (in the Byzantine province of Syria) in the 6th century, also became known. n. e. Unlike George Amartol, John Malala wrote simply and artlessly, destining his work not for learned monks, but for the broad masses of readers, striving for an entertaining presentation. The Chronicle of John Malala consists of 18 books. Four of them (the first, second, fourth and fifth) outlined ancient myths and the history of the Trojan War. Further in the "Chronicle" tells about the eastern kings, the history of Rome and, finally, the history of Byzantium, up to the time of the reign of Emperor Justinian (VI century). The “Chronicle of John Malala” was of value to ancient Russian historiographers and scribes primarily because it significantly supplemented the “Chronicle of George Amartol”: it was Malala who contained detailed and entertaining stories about the Persian kings, the history of Romulus, Remus and the first Roman kings, the history of reign of some Byzantine emperors. Therefore, in the ancient Russian chronographic codes, the text of Malala not only supplemented, but also partially replaced the sparse story of the Chronicle of Georgy Amartol. In addition, in the "Chronicle of John Malala", as already mentioned, some ancient myths were retold (albeit very briefly); these retellings were used by Russian chroniclers and chroniclers. For the first time, the "Chronicle of John Malala" was involved already in the preparation of the "Chronograph according to the great exposition" in the 11th century. The full text of the Slavic translation of the "Chronicles of John Malala" has not been preserved, we can reconstruct it only from extracts from the Russian chronographic codes. "History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius. Not later than the beginning of the XII century. in Rus' was translated "History of the Jewish War", a monument extremely popular in European medieval literatures. "History" was written between 75-79. Joseph, the son of Mattathia - a participant in the uprising in Judea against Rome, who then went over to the side of the Romans and received the right to bear the family nickname of the emperors Flavius. The "History" consists of seven books (or "words"). The first two books deal with the history of Judea from 175 B.C.E. e. and ending with 66 AD. e. - the time of the uprising against Roman rule, in the third - sixth books tells about the suppression of the uprising by Vespasian, and then his son Titus, about the siege, capture and destruction of Jerusalem; finally, in the last, 7th book, the triumph of Vespasian and Titus in Rome is told. The works of Josephus Flavius ​​are by no means a dry historical chronicle - they are rather literary and journalistic work. The author is tendentious, he does not hide his admiration for the power of the Roman emperors and dissatisfaction with his political opponents - the common people of Judea, whom he considers guilty of the failure of the uprising, but he cannot hide his admiration for the courage of the rebels and sympathy for the suffering that befell them. The journalistic spirit of the work is manifested, in particular, in the speeches of the characters - Vespasian, Titus and Joseph himself (the author speaks of himself in the third person); the main purpose of these speeches, built according to all the rules of ancient recitations, is to convince the rebels of the pernicious intentions and glorify the nobility and valor of the Romans. The stylistic art of Josephus Flavius ​​is manifested not only in the monologues and dialogues of the characters, but also in the descriptions - whether these are descriptions of the nature of Judea or its cities, battles or terrible scenes of famine in besieged Jerusalem; rhythmic syllable, vivid comparisons and metaphors, precise epithets, concern for euphony (clearly manifested in the original "History") - all this indicates that the author attached great importance to the literary side of the work. The Old Russian translator managed to preserve the artistic merits of the original, the richness of its vocabulary, the emotionality of speeches, and the liveliness of descriptions. The translation also preserved the rhythmic articulation of phrases and the parallelism of syntactic constructions inherent in the original. Moreover, the translator independently expands and concretizes the descriptions, replaces the indirect speech of the original with direct speech, adds new comparisons, metaphors, figurative expressions traditional for Russian original monuments. Thus, the translation of the "History" testifies to the high skill of the ancient Russian scribes of the 11th-12th centuries. The popularity of the "History" was very great. And not only because it told about one of the important events world history: saturated with combat episodes, it was in tune with the Russian reader, who himself had repeatedly experienced the hardships of wars and enemy invasions. It is no coincidence that the chroniclers of the XII-XIII centuries. used in their story the images they loved or turns of speech from the battle scenes of the "History". More than 30 copies of the Old Russian translation of the History have been preserved, the oldest of them are read as part of the Archiv and Vilna chronographs (end of the 15th-16th centuries), dating back to the chronographic code of the middle of the 13th century. . Chronographic Alexandria. Not later than the 12th century. an extensive novel about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great, the so-called “Alexandria” of Pseudocallisthenes, was translated from Greek (Callisthenes, the historian who accompanied Alexander on his campaigns, was erroneously considered its author). The original historical and biographical outline of the story about Alexander in "Alexandria" is barely traceable: this is already a typical adventure novel of the Hellenistic era, where the biography of the Macedonian king is colored with numerous legendary and fantastic details, and perhaps the main theme of the work is a description of outlandish lands that he allegedly visited Alexander during his campaigns. One of the editions of "Alexandria" was translated into Rus'. This translation is found mainly in the composition of chronographic codes, therefore it is called chronographic "Alexandria", in contrast to the other, the so-called Serbian "Alexandria", which came to Rus' through South Slavic mediation in the 15th century. As already mentioned, "Alexandria" is not so much historical novel or a fictionalized biography of the hero, how much an adventure novel, and the personality of Alexander itself acquires some completely legendary features. So, he is declared not the son of the Macedonian king Philip, but the son of the former Egyptian sorcerer king Nektonav, who appeared to Philip's wife Olympias under the guise of the god Ammon. The birth of Alexander is accompanied by miraculous signs: thunder rumbles, the earth shakes. Contrary to history, "Alexandria" tells about Alexander's campaign in Sicily, about the conquest of Rome by him. This is no coincidence: the Macedonian commander appears in the novel not only as the winner of the great Persian state, but also as a hero who managed to conquer the whole world. Characteristic, for example, is the interpretation of the episode of the death of Darius: mortally wounded by his satraps, the king himself gives Alexander power over Persia and gives him his daughter Roxana as a wife; while in reality Roxana, one of Alexander's wives, was not the daughter of Darius, but of a Bactrian satrap. There are a lot of sharp plot conflicts in the novel. So, Alexander goes to Darius under the guise of his own ambassador and only accidentally escapes exposure and captivity. Another time, he, posing as his associate Antigonus, comes to Queen Candace, whose son is eager to deal with Alexander, for he killed his father-in-law, the Indian king Por. Candace recognizes Alexander, and he manages to avoid danger only because the queen decides to hide the secret of her guest in gratitude for saving her other son. Alexander's death is also surrounded by mystery. The hero becomes aware of the imminent death from a sign; when he dies, the sky darkens, lights up bright Star and descends into the sea, the “idol of Babylon” hesitates. "Alexandria" was read as part of Russian chronographic codes and, therefore, was perceived as a historical narrative about the famous commander of antiquity. But in fact, ancient Russian scribes got acquainted with the most popular in medieval Europe literary plot, which formed the basis of numerous prose novels and poems created in the X-XII centuries. in Italy, Germany, France and other countries. In the second edition of "Alexandria" (which became part of the second edition of the Hellenic Chronicler), the element of entertainment was even more strengthened: stories about Alexander's campaigns in unknown lands inhabited by strange creatures were supplemented with new details, an episode was added in which the hero rises into the sky or descends into the sea. bottom, etc. "Alexandria" of various editions is one of the essential components of all Russian chronographic codes and chronographs up to the 17th century. . Devgenian act. In the XI-XII centuries. a translation of the Byzantine epic legend about the hero Digenis Akrita was also carried out. The Greek original of the translation has not been preserved, only lists of the XIV-XVI centuries have come down to us. Greek poem about Digenis, reflecting, apparently, the later processing of this epic. In the Old Russian translation of the story about Digenis, usually referred to as the "Deed of Devgen", it is told how the Arabian king Amir abducts a young beautiful Greek woman. Three of her brothers, who went looking for the girl, overcome the king. He decides to be baptized and move to the Greek land after his beloved. From the marriage of Amir and a Greek woman, Devgeny is born. From childhood, he amazes everyone with his strength and courage: while hunting, Devgeny strangles a bear with his hands, cuts a lion in two. Further, it tells about the victory of Devgeny over Philippa and the heroic maiden Maximiana; Devgeny learns from Maximiana that by marrying her, he will live 16 years, and by marrying Stratigovna, 36, this prompts him to seek Stratigovna's hand. The "Acts" tells in detail about the marriage of Devgeny. In the Greek poem, his chosen one bears the name of Evdokia, in the old Russian story she is named after her father - Stratigovna (strategist - military leader, here the name of the military rank turns into its own name). Devgeny arrives in the city where the girl lives, on a richly dressed horse, prancing under her windows, singing a "sweet song"; the young people get to know each other, and Devgeny persuades Stratigovna to run away with him. She agrees, but Devgeny believes that by kidnapping the girl in the absence of her father and brothers (they left to hunt at that time), he will cover himself with shame. Therefore, the young man waits for the return of the relatives of his chosen one, openly takes her away literally in front of his father: the Stratig is warned by the servants, but refuses to believe in the possibility of such a daring kidnapping. Devgeny waits at the walls of the city, while the Stratig and his sons set off in pursuit of him, and overcomes them in battle. Stratig agrees to the marriage of his daughter with Devgen. The families of the bride and groom exchange gifts and celebrate a magnificent wedding. The final part of Devg.eniev's deeds tells about the hero's victory over Tsar Vasily. "Devgeny's deed" has all the features of an epic tale: the hero is not only a handsome and daring warrior - his strength and courage (as well as his mother's three brothers, by the way) acquires absolutely fantastic features: in one "race" Devgeny kills several thousand enemy soldiers . The scene of Stratigovna's abduction is very effective, for all its implausibility: Devgeny has been rampaging in her father's yard for three hours, challenging him to a duel, breaking the gates with a spear, but Stratig stubbornly insists that even a bird does not dare to fly into his yard! However, the strength of Devgen’s opponents is also depicted in hyperbolic proportions: for example, the “kmetis” (knights-heroes) of King Amir are able to go out alone against a thousand, and two against the “darkness” (ten thousand, countless). Although the translation of the Byzantine legend about Digenis Akrita was carried out, apparently, as early as the 11th-12th centuries. (this is indicated by the vocabulary data and the similarity of some phraseological phrases of the "Deeds of Devgen" with the Galicia-Volyn chronicle of the 13th century), only three very late lists of the monument have come down to us: Tikhonravovsky - the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, Titovsky and Pogodinsky - the middle of the 18th V. At the same time, the Tikhonravovsky list represents one edition of "Devgeniev's deeds", called the first by the researchers, and the other two lists - the second, with significant updates in vocabulary and abbreviations. None of the Russian lists has preserved the full text of "Devgeniev's deeds": the Tikhonravovsky list contains a description of the exploits of Devgeny on the hunt, tells about the abduction of Stratigovna by him and about the victory over Tsar Vasily. The Pogodinsky and Titovsky lists tell the story of Amir, tell about the victory of Devgeny over Philippa and Maximian, but the story of the hero’s matchmaking with Stratigovna is shorter, and the story of the victory over Tsar Vasily is completely omitted. The Tale of Akira the Wise. In Kievan Rus, the translation of The Tale of Akira the Wise was also known. This story arose in Assyro-Babylonia in the 7th century. BC e. . The "Tale" tells how Akir, adviser to the king of the Adora and Naliva countries (i.e., Assyria and Nineveh) Sinagripa, by divine direction, adopts his nephew Anadan. He raised and educated him, taught him all the wisdom (the story contains a long list of Akira Anadana's instructions) and, finally, introduced him to the king as his student and successor. However, Anadan begins to run amok in Akir's house, and when he tries to curb him, he carries out an insidious plan: by forging Akir's handwriting, Anadan writes forged letters that will have to convince Sinagrip that Akir is plotting treason. The king is shocked by the imaginary betrayal of his adviser, and Akir cannot justify himself from surprise and only manages to ask permission so that the death sentence passed on him at the insistence of Anadan is carried out by his old friend. Akira manages to convince his friend of his innocence, he executes the criminal instead of Akira, and hides Akira himself in the dungeon. The Egyptian pharaoh, having heard about the execution of Akir, sends envoys to Sinagrip demanding that one of his close associates build a house between heaven and earth. Synagrip in despair: Anadan, whom he counted on, refuses to help, saying that only a god can accomplish this task. Then a friend of Akira informs the king that the disgraced adviser is alive. The king sends Akira to Egypt, where he solves all the ingenious riddles that the pharaoh offers him. Akir forces the pharaoh to refuse the demand to build a house: the eagles trained by Akir raise a boy in the sky, who asks for stones and lime, and the Egyptians, of course, cannot do this. Having received tribute for three years, Akir returns to Sinagrip, chains Anadan at the porch of his house and begins to reproach him for his evil deeds. In vain Anadan prays for forgiveness. Unable to withstand Akira's caustic reproaches, he swells up, "like a jug", and bursts with anger. This story is interesting as an action-packed work: the cunning and deceit of Anadan, who slanders his adoptive father, and the wisdom of Akir, who finds a worthy way out of all the difficulties in which the pharaoh is trying to put him, create many sharp collisions in the work. On the other hand, almost a quarter of the story is occupied by the instructions with which Akir addresses Anadan: here are maxims on the topics of friendship, justice, generosity, etiquette of behavior, and denunciation of "evil wives". Medieval scribes were fond of wise sayings and aphorisms. In various editions and lists of The Tale of Akira, the composition of maxims changes, but nevertheless they remain an indispensable part of its text. The only complete list of the oldest edition of the "Tale of Akira" from the collection of the Society of Russian History and Antiquities (in the State Library named after V.I. Lenin) refers to the 15th century; the other two - Vakhrameevsky (XV century) and Khludovsky (XVII century) are incomplete. In the Solovetsky list (now lost) only half of the text of the "Tale" according to the older edition was read. The same edition was read in the Musin-Pushkin collection (together with The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Devgeniev's Act), which died in 1812. Later, in the 17th century. (or in the second half of the 16th century) a new edition of the Tale of Akira is being created. In essence, this is a rather free retelling of the ancient edition of the story, while both the plot and its images are strongly Russified, moving closer to the plot and characters of the folk tale. The oldest edition of The Tale of Akira was researched and published by A. D. Grigoriev. Natural science essays. Byzantine science early medieval was closely associated with theology. The world of nature, information about which Byzantine scientists could draw both from their own observations and from the writings of ancient philosophers and naturalists, was considered primarily as a clear evidence of the wisdom of God who created the world, or as a kind of living allegory: natural phenomena, the habits of living beings or the world of minerals - all this seemed to be a kind of embodiment in living and material images of some eternal truths, concepts or morals. Russian scribes also got acquainted with the works of Byzantine scientific thought of the early Middle Ages. Although it is not possible to establish the exact time of the penetration of some translations into Rus', it is possible that they became known in Rus' even before the Mongol invasion. Six days. Six days were very popular in medieval Christian literature. These are works that comment on a brief biblical story about the creation by God of the sky, stars, luminaries, earth, living beings, plants and man for six days (hence the name of the book - "Six Days"). This commentary turned into a collection of all the information about animate and inanimate nature that Byzantine science had at that time. Of the many six-days that existed, for example, in Byzantine literature, in Rus' were known the “Shestodnev” of John, Exarch of Bulgaria, the “Shestodnev” of Severian Gevalsky, and later the “Shestodnev” of George Pizida. The Six Days by John, Exarch of Bulgaria is a compilation work based on the Six Days by Basil the Great and Severian of Geval, but the author used many other sources along with this and supplemented the work with his own reasoning. It consists of a prologue and six "words". They tell about the heavenly bodies and the Earth, about atmospheric phenomena, about animals, plants, about the nature of man himself. All this information, sometimes reflecting the natural science ideas of that time, sometimes frankly fantastic, is permeated with one and the same idea: admiration for the wisdom of God, who created such a beautiful, diverse, rationally arranged world. This idea from "Shestodnev" attracted the attention of Vladimir Monomakh, who in his "Instruction" quotes the monument and expresses his admiration for "how the sky is arranged, how is the sun, how is the moon ... and the earth is laid on the waters", how variety of animals and birds. "Shestodnev" John, Exarch of the Bulgarian - the most common in Russian writing. The oldest of the lists stored in our libraries is Serbian (1263), Russian lists date back to the 15th century. and subsequent, but the appeal to the "Shestodnev" by Vladimir Monomakh and the presence of fragments from it in the chronographic code of the XIII century. testify that the translation of the monument was known in Rus' much earlier. "Physiologist". If the "Six Days" told about nature as a whole - from the luminaries to plants and animals, then in another monument, of a natural science nature, the "Physiologist" was told mainly about living beings, as real ones (lion, eagle, ant, whale, elephant and etc.), and fantastic (phoenix, sirens, centaur), and only about some plants or precious stones(diamond, flint, magnet, etc.). Each story reported on the properties of a creature or object, and then gave a symbolic interpretation of these properties. However, as a rule, both the habits of animals and the features of plants or stones in the presentation of the "Physiologist" are completely fantastic, because its main goal is to find an analogy between the properties of a creature or object and some theological concept. So, for example, it is said about the pelican that, barely born, its chicks begin to peck at their parents until they, exhausted, kill them. But, having mourned the ruined children for three days, the parents decide to revive them. To do this, the mother punches her rib, and the chicks, sprinkled with her blood, come to life. The behavior of the pelican, says the Physiologist, symbolizes the fate of the human race, which fell away from God, but was saved by the blood shed for it by Christ. Similarly, the fantastic story about the custom of lions (that the lioness gives birth to a cub dead, and the father revives him three days later by blowing on him) also correlates with the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ. Nevertheless, the stories about the animals themselves are, as a rule, very entertaining: thus, the same lion is reported as if he sleeps with his eyes open; the crocodile cries as it devours its prey; the phoenix bird itself burns itself on the fire of the altar, but a "worm" is born in the ashes, which on the second day turns into a chick, and on the third - into an adult bird. It tells about the habits of the fox: she pretends to be dead, and as soon as the birds sit down and start pecking at her, she jumps up and grabs them. Salamander (a species of amphibians), according to the "Physiologist", entering the fire, extinguishes it. In some editions of the monument, it is said that after the death of the “husband” (i.e., the male), the turtledove (forest pigeon) remains alone: ​​she sits on a dry tree, “crying her friend (friend, beloved)”. We know the lists of the "Physiologist" only from the 15th century, but we can assume that the monument was already translated in Kievan Rus: it is characteristic that in the letter of the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh (died in 1125) there is the same image of a weeping woman on a dry tree turtledoves in relation to the widow of his dead son. "Christian Topography". Famous in ancient Rus' and "Christian topography" Cosmas Indikoplova. Cosmas was a merchant who traveled around 530 to Egypt, Ethiopia and Arabia. In India itself, despite his nickname - Indikoplova (i.e., sailing to India), Cosmas, it is believed, was not, and he cites information about this country from other people's stories. The monument consists of 12 "words" (chapters), which contain an argument about the structure of the Universe. In particular, Cosmas claims that the Earth is flat; she and the sky covering her are likened to a room with a vaulted ceiling. The sky we see consists of water, and above it another sky stretches, invisible to us. The movement of the luminaries and atmospheric phenomena are controlled by angels specially assigned for this. Equally legendary is the information about the animal and plant world of those countries about which Cosmas speaks. Extracts from the "Christian topography" of Cosmas are already found in manuscripts of the 13th century, however complete lists The monument has come down to us only from a later time.