Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Belarus.

Vocational school No. 44 in Ufa

abstract

“Culture and spiritual life of Russia in the XIV-XVI centuries.

Completed by student

group number 5

Zinkov Alexander Valentinovich

Checked:

Garifullina Filza Yumadilovna

Ufa 2005

Introduction………………………………………………………………3

Chapter I……………………………………………………………………5

Chapter II………………………………………………………………...11

Chapter III………………………………………………………………..13

Conclusion……………………………………………………………15

References……………………………………………………...17

Introduction.

The formation of a unified Russian state found its vivid embodiment in the cultural and everyday appearance of the country. One can understand the legitimate pride of our ancestors, who sought to capture in the works of architecture, painting, literature the greatness and power of the state, which threw off the age-old yoke.

Not only domestic builders, but also overseas craftsmen, primarily from Italy, are involved in the creation of monumental structures in the capitals. Taking into account the experience of building the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, under the leadership of the Italian engineer and architect Aristotle Fioravanti, the Assumption Cathedral is growing in the center of the Kremlin, which has become the main temple of the capital. Other wonderful stone churches grew nearby - the Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals. The first of them became the native tomb of the princes and kings of the Moscow house. Here were the tombs of Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III, Ivan the Terrible and others.

Andrey Rublev's creations became a role model in icon painting. His main work, the icon of the Trinity, gave rise to many imitations. In the XVI century. the iconography of the master Dionysius was famous. The monasteries took care of decorating the walls of the temples with picturesque frescoes. There were several schools of church painting (Novgorod, Vologda, Stroganov, Moscow). About how to paint the icons were arguing at the Stoglav Cathedral. A realistic background (surrounding nature, buildings, animals, etc.) is increasingly being introduced into the practice of icon painting.

Do you remember that in Western Europe in the middle of the XV century. printing began to develop. It is well established that books began to be printed in Moscow ten years before the widely known "Apostle" by Ivan Fedorov. The beginning of book printing in Russia is March 1, 1564, when this legendary book was published. For the cultural growth of Russia, the introduction of printing was of great importance. It was more convenient to use a printed book and store it than a handwritten one, although the correspondence of books continued for a long time. The distribution of books opened up broader opportunities for communicating spiritual values.

16th century century gave rise to many literary works, which often had a sharp, polemical character. And in an allegorical form, on the examples of the successful activities of a certain Turkish sultan, Ivan Peresvetov, a supporter of the elevation of the nobility and an opponent of the boyars - "lazy rich", expressed his views.

A significant work that had a long and controversial response in public thought was the work of a monk from one of the Pskov monasteries Philotheus. Concerning the history of Rome and Constantinople, Philotheus explained their fall by a departure from the true Christian faith.

End of the 14th-16th centuries notable for the creation of general Russian chronicles. A grandiose "Face" (illustrated) annalistic work was prepared, designed to depict the entire history of Russia, starting with the first Kyiv princes. The artists did their best, creating for him up to 16,000 miniatures (small pictures) on historical themes.

Enormous work was done by church writers under the guidance of Metropolitan Macarius. They collected the lives of Russian saints and arranged them according to the months and days of commemoration. The work was called "Great Menaion-Cheti". They were guided by it during divine services, and as an informative and instructive reading they used it in the family circle.

A generalization of the cultural and everyday way of life of the Russian people was a set of rules called "Domostroy", compiled by Sylvester and approved by the church council. The writings "Naziratel" about agricultural work were translated into Russian.

Despite the decision of the Stoglavy Cathedral to create many schools in Russia, this was not implemented.

ChapterI.

Monasteries have existed in Russia since ancient times. Despite the fact that monasticism is an asocial phenomenon, that is, a person becomes a monk in order to leave the world and devote himself entirely to serving God, monasteries constantly performed very significant cultural and social functions in society. Moreover, these functions and their significance depend on the historical and cultural space. In this work, I tried to find out how the relations of the monastery with the outside world were built, what was their mutual influence on the example of the Ferapontov Monastery in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. During this period in Russia there is a surge of the monastic movement. One of its centers is the north of the Vologda region - Beloozero. Here, in a short period of time, several monasteries appear, including quite large ones, such as Kirillo-Belozersky. Along with such large monasteries, which later became the centers of Russian spiritual life, small monasteries arose, such as, for example, the Ferapont Monastery, which also played an important role in the life of this region.

The Ferapontov Monastery was founded in 1398 by the Monk Ferapont, who came to Beloozero together with Kirill, the founder of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Later, during the time of the abbess of the Monk Martinian, the monastery reached its greatest development, both in size and in weight in the outside world. I mainly considered these two periods of the monastery's existence, relying mainly on the texts of the lives of St. Ferapont and Martinian. These sources give the most complete picture of the existence of the monastery at that time.

The earliest list of the life dates back to the middle of the 16th century. “According to V. O. Klyuchevsky, the author of the life was the monk of Ferapont ... Based on the entry he discovered in the Trefologist manuscript from the collection of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, relating to the canon Martinian: “Behold the creation of Matthew the monk,” he admitted the possibility that the monk Matthew was also the creator of the Life, that is, the entire service to Martinian as a whole. Further, the literary historian noted the use of oral traditions as sources of the Life, the Life of Cyril Belozersky, as well as the chronicle.

However, no matter how carefully the hagiographer collected facts and stories, his task was to describe the life of the saint, glorify him, and not a historical narrative. Consequently, the historical context is described in the text only insofar as it directly concerned the life of the saint, and from the lives we can extract only that part of the relationship of the monastery with the outside world, in which the saint somehow participated.

I. It is obvious that, first of all, local residents, simple peasants who lived in the surrounding territories, came into contact with the monastery. The life of St. Ferapont says that the places where he settled were absolutely deserted, which is why he went here to be silent. “Although the place was deserted there, and the forest grew, but more than all the villages on earth, Ferapont rejoiced in his soul, thanking God and His Most Pure Mother that he had found a calm place.” However, soon the brethren gather around the hermit. They set up cells, and a little later, they erect a church. It remains unclear who were the people who came to live with the reverend at the very beginning. And if it is further said that “Many people began to come to the saint from everywhere: some for the sake of it, and others, wanting to live with him,” then one can only guess how the first monks appeared, where and for what purpose they came. Attention should be paid to the stable formula "benefit for the sake of", which largely determines the relationship between the saint and the people who go to him. This refers to the benefit for the soul, the desire to be saved, which is not at all small for a medieval person.

The brethren grew quickly enough. At first, the monks provided their own food on their own: they caught fish, baked bread, and prepared firewood. “Although there was a lot of work in the monastery, absolutely everything was done by the brethren themselves, without worldly helpers, and then it was impossible to see worldly people nearby.” The life of St. Ferapont tells about the tonsure of a man who later turned out to be a skilled fisherman, which apparently shows how necessary such people were for the monastery. Thus, dependence on the outside world and contact with it were minimized.

The life says that the fruits of the labor of the monks were shared by the brethren together, i.e. they did not run separate households, but lived in a hostel: “The commandment of these saints is this: in the cells of the brethren, drink, as well as food, do not keep ... only divine icons, a few books for divine singing and handicraft tools. I am not talking about that manual work that is done for the sake of self-interest or insatiable God-hating acquisitions... but for the sake of necessary monastic needs. But even then, everything that is done is commanded by the fathers to be brought to them and put into the treasury to meet the needs of the brethren and monastic service.

On the other hand, as the brethren grew, the monastery gained more and more fame. Common people and nobles began to come here, sent alms to the monastery to build a church and food for the brethren. The monastery church became another “bridge” between the monastery and the outside world. In addition to everything, not only the monks themselves, but also the nobles and residents of the surrounding villages came to the elder monks “for the sake of”, that is, for spiritual advice.

Another case of the interaction of the monastery with the laity, which is radically different from those described above, is the story of the robbers who attacked Ferapont Avenue at the very beginning of his hermitage. The life says that the robbers demanded wealth from the monk only "sometimes", but basically they did not like that the hermit settled near their dwellings, on the road that went through lakes and impenetrable forests. The robbers threatened him, but each time they left with nothing. If we assume that the monk really encountered robbers, then they probably did not see him as a potential organizer of a large settlement on “their territory”. Apparently, we can consider the mention of such a case as another confirmation of the poor population of these places, despite the presence of a road, which, quite possibly, could be a frequently used trade route.

II. Another aspect of the participation of the monastery in life outside its walls is contacts with other monasteries and clergy. First of all, Ferapont, as mentioned above, came to these parts together with St. Kirill, and at first, for a year, they lived together on the current territory of the St. Cyril Monastery. However, a year later, Ferapont leaves Cyril and founds his monastery 15 miles away. According to the text of the life, the monks parted because of Ferapont's desire to "keep silent separately", not because of any quarrel. On the contrary, after a while, Ferapont comes to tell Cyril about the place where he settled, he approves of his choice and blesses him. In his concerns about the brethren, the monk clearly turned to Cyril for advice. For example, Ferapont went to him for advice on living in private, church singing, and even received a monastery charter from him. Cyril and Ferapont were practically equal in their position: Cyril was hegumen of his monastery, and we can judge the nature of the position Ferapont occupied from the text of his life: “... and enlightened his flock with many teachings. For they were new plantings, like some "trees by the fountains of water" Ps. 1.3, and required a lot of care. In addition to this position, they were connected by the fact that they were tonsured in one (Simonov) monastery and came to this land together.

Etc. Martinian, who became abbot of the Ferapont Monastery after the death of Ferapont, also had close ties with Cyril. It was from Saint Martinian that he received tonsure and for a long time was a monk of his monastery, and at first he even lived with Cyril in the same cell, being under his constant supervision. After the death of Cyril, Martinian left his monastery and founded his monastery on the island of Lake Vozhe. Once, having come to pray at the Ferapontov Monastery, he promised the brethren, who persuaded him to stay, that someday he would come to live with them. After some time, Martinian, apparently, quarreled with the brethren of his monastery and left them for the Ferapontov Monastery. Soon Fr. Martinian becomes abbot here. After some time, Prince Vasily the Dark gives Martinian the hegumenship in the Sergius Monastery, however, after eight years, Martinian returns to the Ferapontov Monastery, where, at the request of the brethren, he holds the position of a builder. In accordance with the text of his life, he received all his positions really thanks to his personal qualities and was distinguished by his special zeal. Moreover, in each subsequent monastery, one way or another, the glory acquired in the previous one was taken into account. A similar situation happened with St. Ferapont: he was entrusted with the position of abbess in the Luzhitsky monastery thanks to the glory acquired in the Ferant's monastery. Thus, we see that the transition from the “leading position” of one monastery to some comparable position in another was a completely normal phenomenon for that time.

However, various kinds of documents could be concluded between monasteries, as between legal ones. We can draw this conclusion from documents of a later time than the stay in the monastery of St. Ferapont and Mavrtinian. For example, one of the documents that have come down to us is “Amicable boundary record of the elders of the Kirillo-Belozersky and Ferapontov monasteries about the boundaries between their lands in Sitka and in Rukina Slobidka, in Belozerye.” indicates the existence of such relations already by 1470-1480. Probably, such documents appeared later, for the reason that the population of the territory began to cause problems with the right to use the land and it became necessary to clearly fix what belongs to whom. Other letters directly speak of the dependence of one monastery on another. However, the possibility of this or that interaction between monasteries as legal entities was laid down in culture, undoubtedly, in an earlier period. Documents are important as a source of information about land relations between monasteries, since the lives describe only their spiritual relations and it seems that the interests of the monasteries in the sphere of worldly affairs did not intersect.

III. In the 15th century, the monastery closely interacted with secular authorities, but it is rather difficult to understand what these relations were. First of all, the princes, like the nobles, sent alms to the monastery, asking them to pray for their health and salvation. For example, in the life of St. Ferapont, it is said that Prince Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky not only sent alms and help to build a church, but also “freely gave them the lands of his fatherland and many waters, lakes and rivers to feed those cloisters.” “Blessed Ferapont did not promise to pray to God for him, but neglected his generous gifts, for he lived in poverty and cared more about the spiritual.” It turns out that there was no clear relationship between the monk’s subordination to the prince, since the monk could not only neglect gifts, but also not give a definite promise to pray for the health of the prince, on whose land his monastery is located.

However, in contrast to this, let us consider an excerpt from the same life, when Prince Andrei Dmitrievich wanted St. Ferapont to found a monastery not far from his capital, Mozhaisk. It should be mentioned that Prince Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky (1382–1432) was the third son of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy and in 1389, according to his father’s will, received Mozhaisk, Vereya, Medyn, Kaluga and Belozersk as inheritance. At first, the prince sends gifts and generous alms to the monastery, and only after a while sends an envoy to the monk, begging him to come for the sake of a “great spiritual cause,” about which he wanted to talk to him personally. Ferapont does not agree for a long time, not understanding the purpose for which the prince calls him to him, but, under pressure from the brethren and persuasion of the envoy, he nevertheless goes to Mozhaisk. There, the prince asks him for a long time about the monastery that he founded, and then reveals to him that he invited him to found a monastery near Mozhaisk. “I want with your prayers with God’s help to build a house for saving souls, so that for their salvation the Lord God will leave the sins of my soul and save me from eternal torment with your holy prayers.” Ferapont understands that it is impossible to "disobey" the prince, especially being "in his hands" and accepts his proposal. In gratitude, the prince and his children generously gave land and alms to the Ferapontov monastery. It turns out that while Ferapont was “on his territory”, he could avoid direct subordination to the prince, however, once he got to the capital and communicated directly with the prince, he willy-nilly was forced to obey the desires of the secular ruler.

There is a similar episode in the life of Martinian, where Prince Vasily the Dark gives Martinian the abbess in the Sergius Monastery. This happens under slightly different circumstances: in order to regain the grand duke's throne, captured by Dmitry Shemyaka, Vasily the Dark must violate the so-called "cursed letters", in which he himself cursed himself if he resumed the struggle for the throne. Vasily receives broad support from the church, the bishops release him from the oath, and he regains the Moscow grand-ducal throne. Thus, by appointing Martinian as abbot at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the prince fulfills his promise of a reward in the event of his victory, since Martinian was among those who blessed Basil. The prince sends for him "And although he did not want to, he persuaded him, took him, brought him to Moscow and gave him the abbess ...". Apparently, Martinian agrees without much pressure from the prince, especially since the prince personally did not persuade him, but only sent an envoy to him. From this episode it can also be concluded that the Grand Dukes had direct influence in the appointment and transfer of abbots from one monastery to another.

Another interesting episode testifies that the approval of the prince, on whose land the monastery is located, was necessary for the appointment of hegumen. At the very beginning of Martinian's stay in the Ferapontov Monastery, when it was time to choose a new abbot, the brethren persuaded Martinian to accept this rank and, after Martinian was named abbot, they went for the approval of the prince, so that he "handed over" the monastery to the new abbot. Perhaps this procedure was purely formal, but it clearly shows that the monastery itself was in the power of the prince. This statement is confirmed by the spiritual diploma of Cyril Belozersky, who, dying, betrays the monastery founded by him “to God and the Most Pure Mother of God, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, and to the great prince, my son, Andrei Dmitrievich.” At the same time, Cyril also asks the prince to keep order in the monastery and even apply severe penalties to violators, up to expulsion from the monastery. Such a request implies the right of the prince-owner of the land to directly interfere in the internal life of the monastery.

In addition to intervening in the inner life of the monastery, the prince influenced the monastery, securing for him the right to use the land, freeing the monastery peasants from duties, giving the right to acquire land.

However, one should not lose sight of how the monastery influenced the authorities. A very striking example is the blessing given by Martinian to the Grand Duke Vasily the Dark when he went to reclaim his throne from Dmitry Shemyaka. When Martinian, together with the brethren, goes out to meet the prince and gives him a blessing to fight Shemyaka, the prince says: “Father Martinian! If the mercy of God and the Most Pure Theotokos and the great miracle workers prayer be on me, and with your prayers I will sit on my table, in the great reign, if God grants, then I will provide enough for your monastery, and I will take you closer to me. From these words it is obvious how important the support of the clergy was to the prince, and not so much before people, but before God. It is interesting that for intercession before the heavenly powers, even if it concerns worldly affairs, the prince promises a completely earthly “payment”, that is, what is within his competence. Another example, already discussed above, when Prince Andrei Dmitrievich persuaded St. Ferapont to found a monastery near Mozhaisk, also indicates that for a secular ruler, monasteries located on his territory are one of the ways to save the soul, a charitable deed: “I I want with your prayers with God's help to build a house for saving souls, so that for their salvation and me the Lord will leave the sins of my soul and deliver me from eternal torment with your holy prayers.

IV. So, let's draw conclusions. The relations of the monastery with the outside world in the late 14th and early 15th centuries can be divided into three main groups: with ordinary laity, with other monasteries, and with the authorities. Brothers are formed from ordinary laity, they use the church at the monastery, make donations. Their main goal is to receive spiritual benefit from the monastery, this is one of the ways to salvation. The Ferapontov Monastery at the beginning of its existence did without the help of the laity in providing for the brethren. Relations with other monasteries could be spiritual - the monks communicated with each other, received spiritual instructions and blessings - concerning the land holdings of the monasteries and their demarcations, as well as the transfer of monks from one monastery to another. As for the princely power, the monastery received generous alms from the ruler on whose land it was located, in addition, he could give land to the monastery. The prince-owner of the land also had influence in the appointment of hegumen. The monks prayed for the health of the prince and for the salvation of his soul. The main idea of ​​these relations can be drawn from the texts of the lives, however, since the purpose of the hagiographic texts is different, it cannot be said that these sources fully describe the relationship of the monastery with the outside world, therefore, it is necessary to involve other texts, such as documents containing decisions courts in disputes over land use.

Nowadays, the monastery is known for the frescoes of Dionysius, which this year celebrates 500 years. Dionysius painted the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in 1502, i.e. a century after the founding of the monastery. As you know, one of the previous works of Dionysius was the painting of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. It is surprising that the “capital master” works in the Ferapontov Monastery, a rather remote provincial place. One of the explanations for this fact can be that the monastery was the bearer of a single culture, which was equal for everyone and did not vary depending on the distance from the center. It is important that, in contrast to the secular culture, which, of course, depended on the structure of power, the spiritual culture of the fourteenth century, in general, was homogeneous.

ChapterII.

The religious worldview still determined the spiritual life of society. The Stoglavy Cathedral of 1551 regulated art by approving the patterns that were to be followed. The work of Andrei Rublev was formally proclaimed as a model in painting. But what was meant was not the artistic merits of his painting, but iconography - the arrangement of figures, the use of a certain color, etc. in each specific plot and image. In architecture, the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin was taken as a model, in literature - the works of Metropolitan Macarius and his circle. Socio-political thought of the problem of that time: about the nature and essence of state power, about the church, about the place of Russia among other countries, etc. Literary, journalistic and historical essay "The Tale of the Grand Dukes of Vladimir". The fact that the Russian princes are descendants of the Roman emperor Augustus, or rather, his brother Prus. And about the fact that Vladimir Monomakh received from the Byzantine kings the symbols of royal power - a hat and precious Brama-shoulders. In the church environment, the thesis was put forward about Moscow - the "third Rome" The First Rome "the eternal city" - died because of heresies; the "second Rome" - Constantinople - because of the union with the Catholics; "Third Rome" - the true guardian of Christianity - Moscow, which will exist forever. I.S. Peresvetov talked about the need to create a strong autocratic power based on the nobility. Questions concerning the birth and place of the nobility in the management of the feudal state were reflected in the correspondence of Ivan VI and A. Kurbsky.

Chronicle.

Russian chronicle writing continued to develop. "The Chronicler of the Beginning of the Kingdom", which describes the first years of the reign of Ivan the Terrible and proves the need to establish royal power in Russia. "The Book of Power of the Royal Genealogy". Portraits and descriptions of the reigns of the great Russian princes and metropolitans, the arrangement and construction of the text, as it were, symbolizes the inviolability of the union of the church and the tsar. Nixon Chronicle. A huge chronicle collection of Moscow chroniclers, a kind of historical encyclopedia of the 16th century (belonged to Patriarch Nikon). contains about 16 thousand miniatures - color illustrations, for which it received the name of the Facial Vault ("face" - image). Historical novels, which told about the events of that time. ("Kazan capture", "On the arrival of Stefan Batory to the city of Pskov", etc.)

Chronographs. They testify to the secularization of the Domostroy culture (in translation - home economics), which contains various (useful information of leadership, both in spiritual and worldly life), the author of which is Sylvester.

Beginning of typography.

1564 - the first Russian dated book "The Apostle" was published by the first printer Ivan Fedorov. However, there are seven books with no exact publication date. These are the so-called anonyms - books published before 1564. Printing works begun in the Kremlin were transferred to Nikolskaya Street, where printing houses were built. In addition to religious books, Ivan Fedorov and his assistant Peter Mstislavets in 1574 in Lvov published the first Russian primer - "ABC". For the whole-XVI in 20 books. The handwritten book occupied a leading place in both the 16th and 17th centuries.

Architecture construction of tent temples The tent temples do not have pillars inside, and the entire mass of the building rests on the foundation. The most famous monuments of this style are the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye, built in honor of the birth of Ivan the Terrible, the Pokrovsky Cathedral (St. Basil's), built in honor of the capture of Kazan. The construction of large five-domed monastic churches such as the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. (Assumption Cathedral in the Trinity-Sergeevsky Monastery, Smolensky Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent, cathedrals in Tula, Suzdal, Dmitrov) Construction of small, stone or wooden town churches. They were the centers of settlements, And they were dedicated to the patron of the craft. Construction of stone Kremlins.

ChapterIII.

From the 10th century Almost half of the European part of Russia became part of the feudal Old Russian state, where an original artistic culture developed with a number of local schools (southwestern, western, Novgorod-Pskov, Vladimir-Suzdal), which gained experience in building and beautifying cities, created wonderful monuments of ancient architecture, frescoes, mosaics, iconography. Its development was interrupted by the Mongol-Tatar invasion, which led Ancient Russia to economic and cultural decline and to the isolation of the southwestern lands that became part of the Polish-Lithuanian state. After a period of stagnation in the Old Russian lands located on the territory of Russia from the end of the 13th century. Russian (Great Russian) artistic culture begins to take shape. In its development, more tangibly than in the art of Ancient Russia, the influence of the urban lower classes, which became an important social force in the struggle for deliverance from the Mongol-Tatar yoke and the unification of Russian lands, was manifested. Leading already in the XIV century. Grand-ducal Moscow synthesizes this struggle from the achievements of local schools and from the 15th century. becomes an important political and cultural center, where the art of Andrei Rublev, imbued with a deep faith in the beauty of a moral feat, and the architecture of the Kremlin proportionate to man in its grandeur are formed. The apotheosis of the ideas of unification and strengthening of the Russian state was embodied in the temples-monuments of the 16th century.

After the Mongol-Tatar invasion, chronicles for a long time mention only the construction of wooden structures that have not survived to us. From the end of the XIII century. in North-Western Russia, which escaped ruin, stone architecture, primarily military architecture, is also being revived. Stone city fortifications of Novgorod and Pskov, fortresses on riverine capes (Koporye) or on islands are being erected, sometimes with an additional wall at the entrance, forming together with the main protective corridor - “zahab” (Izborsk, Porkhov). From the middle of the XIV century. the walls are strengthened by mighty towers, at the beginning above the gates, and then along the entire perimeter of the fortifications, which in the 15th century received a layout close to regular. The uneven masonry of rough-hewn limestone and boulders endowed the structure with painting and enhanced their plastic expressiveness. The masonry of the walls of small single-domed four-pillar churches of the late 13th - 1st half of the 14th centuries was the same, to which the plastering of the facades gave a monolithic appearance. The temples were built at the expense of the boyars, wealthy merchants. Becoming the architectural dominants of certain districts of the city, they enriched its silhouette and created a gradual transition of a representative stone kremlin to an irregular wooden residential building, following the natural relief. It was dominated by 1-2 storey houses on basements, sometimes three-part, with a passage in the middle.

From the XIV-XVI centuries. several wooden churches have been preserved. The earlier ones are "cage", resembling a hut with a gable roof and outbuildings. Churches of the 16th century - high, octagonal, covered with a tent, and extensions on two or four sides have curved roofs - "barrels". Their slender proportions, contrasts of figured "barrels" and a strict tent, severe chopped walls and carvings of the gallery and porches, their inextricable connection with the surrounding landscape are evidence of the high skill of folk craftsmen - "woodworkers" who worked as artels.

The growth of the Russian state and national self-consciousness after the overthrow of the Tatar yoke was reflected in the stone temples-monuments of the 16th century. Representing a high achievement of Moscow architecture, these majestic buildings, dedicated to important events, seemed to combine the dynamism of wooden hipped churches and the tiered completions of temples of the XIV-XV centuries. with the monumentality of the cathedrals of the XVI century. In stone churches-towers, the forms inherent in stone became the leading ones - tiers of zakomars and kokoshniks around a tent cut through by windows. Sometimes the tent was replaced by a drum with a dome, or towers with domes surrounded the central tower covered with a tent. The predominance of verticals endowed with jubilant dynamism the composition of the temple, directed to the heights, as if growing out of the open “ambulances” surrounding it, and the elegant decor gave the structure a festive solemnity.

In churches of the late XV and XVI centuries. the use of the so-called cross vault, which rested on the walls, relieved the interior of the supporting pillars and made it possible to diversify the facades, which received either a three-lobed, sometimes imitating zakomary completion, or were crowned with tiers of kokoshniks. Along with this, they continued to build four-pillar five-domed temples, sometimes with galleries and side chapels. Stone one-pillar refectory and residential monastery buildings of the 16th century. have smooth walls crowned with a simple cornice or a belt of patterned masonry. In residential architecture, wood dominated, from which houses of 1-2 floors were built, and boyar and episcopal palaces, which consisted of multi-frame groups connected by transitions on basements.

Conclusion.

The Mongol-Tatar invasion interrupted the powerful rise of Russian culture. The destruction of cities, the loss of traditions, the disappearance of artistic trends, the destruction of monuments of writing, painting, architecture - a blow, from which it was possible to recover only by the middle of the 14th century. In the ideas and images of Russian culture of the XIV-XVI centuries. the mood of the era was reflected - the time of decisive successes in the struggle for independence, the overthrow of the Horde yoke, unification around Moscow, the formation of the Great Russian people. The memory of a prosperous and happy country, which remained in the minds of the society of Kievan Rus (“light bright and beautifully decorated” - the words from the “Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land”, no later than 1246), was kept primarily by literature. Chronicle writing remained its most important genre; it was revived in all the lands and principalities of Russia. At the beginning of the XV century. in Moscow, the first all-Russian annalistic code was compiled - an important evidence of progress in the unification of the country. With the completion of this process, chronicle writing, subordinated to the idea of ​​justifying the power of the Moscow prince, and then the tsar, acquired an official character. During the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible (70s of the 16th century), an illustrated Chronicle of the Face was compiled in 12 volumes, containing more than 150,000 miniatures. In the XIV-XV centuries. the favorite topic of oral folk art is the struggle of Russia with the "infidels". A genre of historical song is taking shape (“The Song of the Click”, about the battle on the Kalka, about the ruin of Ryazan, about Evpaty Kolovrat, etc.). The most important events of the 16th century were also reflected in historical songs. - Kazan campaign of Ivan the Terrible, oprichnina, the image of the Terrible Tsar. The victory in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 gave rise to a cycle of historical stories, of which the “Legend of the Battle of Mamaev” and the inspired “Zadonshchina” stand out (its author Sophony Ryazanets used images and excerpts from “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”), the lives of the saints are created, in the 16th century . they are combined into 12-volume "Great Cheti-Minei". In the XV century. The Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin describes his journey to India and Persia (“Journey Beyond the Three Seas”). The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom, the love story of the prince of Murom and his wife, probably described by Yermolai-Erasmus in the middle of the 16th century, remains a unique literary monument. Domostroy, written by the confessor of Ivan the Terrible Sylvester, is remarkable in its own way - a book about housekeeping, raising and educating children, and the role of a woman in a family. At the end of the XV-XVI centuries. literature is enriched by brilliant journalistic works. The Josephites (followers of Igumen Joseph of the Volotsk Monastery, who defend the principle of non-intervention of the state in the affairs of a rich and materially strong church) and non-possessors (Nil Sorsky, Vassian Patrikeyev, Maxim the Greek, who condemn the church for wealth and luxury, for craving for worldly pleasures) argue fiercely. In 1564-1577. Ivan the Terrible and Prince Andrei Kurbsky exchange angry messages. “... Tsars and rulers who make cruel laws are dying,” Kurbsky inspires the tsar and hears in response: “Is it really light - when the priest and crafty slaves rule, the tsar is only a tsar in name and honor, and not at all with power better than a slave? The idea of ​​the "autocracy" of the tsar, the divinity of his power, acquires almost hypnotic power in Ivan the Terrible's messages. Differently, but just as consistently, Ivan Peresvetov writes about the special vocation of the autocratic tsar in Bolshaya Petition (1549): punishing the boyars who have forgotten their duty to society, the righteous monarch must rely on the devoted nobility. The significance of the official ideology is the notion of Moscow as a “third Rome”: “Two Romes (“the second Rome” - Constantinople, devastated in 1453 - Auth.) fell, the third stands, the fourth will not happen” (Filofey). It should be noted that in 1564 in Moscow Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets published the first Russian printed book - "The Apostle". In the architecture of the XIV-XVI centuries. the tendencies of the historical development of Russia-Russia were reflected with particular obviousness. At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. stone construction resumes - in Novgorod and Pskov, less affected by the Horde yoke. In the XIV century. in Novgorod, a new type of temples appears - light, elegant, bright (Spas on Ilyin). But half a century passes, and tradition wins: harsh, heavy structures reminiscent of the past are being erected again. Politics imperiously invades art, demanding that it be the custodian of the independence against which Moscow, the unifier, is so successfully fighting. Signs of the capital city of a single state, it accumulates gradually, but consistently. In 1367, the white-stone Kremlin was built, at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. new red-brick walls and towers are being erected. They are erected by masters Pietro Antonio Solari, Aleviz Novy, Mark Ruffo, ordered from Italy. By that time, the Assumption Cathedral (1479), an outstanding architectural monument, had already been erected on the territory of the Kremlin by the Italian Aristotle Fioravanti, an outstanding architectural monument in which an experienced eye will see both features traditional for Vladimir-Suzdal architecture and elements of the Renaissance building art. Next to another work of Italian masters - the Palace of Facets (1487-1489) - Pskov craftsmen are building the Cathedral of the Annunciation (1484-1489). A little later, the same Aleviz Novy completes the magnificent ensemble of Cathedral Square with the Archangel Cathedral, the tomb of the Grand Dukes (1505-1509). Behind the Kremlin wall on Red Square in 1555-1560. in honor of the capture of Kazan, the nine-domed Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral) is erected, crowned with a high multifaceted pyramid - a tent. This detail gave the name "tent" to the architectural style that arose in the 16th century. (Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, 1532). Zealots of antiquity struggle with "outrageous innovations", but their victory is relative: at the end of the century, the desire for pomp and beauty is reborn. Painting of the second half of the XIV-XV centuries is the golden age of Theophan the Greek, Andrei Rublev, Dionysius. The murals of the Novgorod (Savior on Ilyin) and Moscow (Annunciation Cathedral) churches of Theophanes the Greek and Rublev’s icons (“Trinity”, “Savior”, etc.) are turned to God, but they tell about a person, his soul, about the search for harmony and ideal. Painting, remaining deeply religious in themes, images, genres (wall paintings, icons), acquires unexpected humanity, softness, and philosophy.

Bibliography.

3. ITU"Soviet Encyclopedia" (Third Edition 1958)

4. I. U. Budovnits - “Monasteries in Russia and the struggle of peasants against them in the XIV-XVI centuries.” M., 1966.

5. T. V. Ilyina - “History of Arts”.

Kievan Rus existed from the 9th century. before its conquest in the middle of the thirteenth century. Mongol-Tatars. Today we have more than a thousand years of Slavic folk art, writing, literature, painting, architecture, sculpture, music.

The development of urban planning. More than a thousand years many Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Chernigov, Vladimir-Volynsky, Galich, Pereyaslav, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. These are all cities of the IX-X centuries. In the XI century. in written monuments there is a mention of another 62 cities in the XII century. - More about 134 cities, and at the beginning of the XIII century. (before the conquest of Kievan Rus by the Tatar-Mongols) - about 47 more cities. In fact, there were much more cities, but not all of them were included in the annals. Most of these cities have survived to this day. And then artisans, architects, bogomazs, writers and copyists of books worked in them, mental life was in full swing.
With its global significance, Slavic culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. owes much to its thousand-year development, to the forces accumulated over the centuries, to the wisdom and experience that their powerful and wise ancestors passed on to their distant descendants.

Kievan Rus X-XI centuries. - The time of the unity of the Slavs, the time of its glory and power. Kievan Rus was the largest state of medieval Europe. Already in the X and XI centuries. in Kievan Rus, the feudal system with its two classes became stronger: peasant farmers and feudal landowners. The oppression of the peasants became more and more, and in the XI century. became simply unbearable. Chroniclers of the 11th century. note a number of peasant uprisings, which were supported by the urban lower classes. The uprisings were suppressed, and the feudal lords, frightened by them, made concessions. By that time, even the preaching of a gentle attitude towards "orphans" (as the peasants were then called) had developed, and at the same time more and more new principalities continued to emerge.

Craft development. Archaeologists have discovered up to 150 different types of iron and steel products of Kievan Rus artisans today. Of the most famous types of applied art of the Slavs, pottery, silver products with niello, and gold products with cloisonné enamel are known today. There were about 60 handicraft specialties, many of which reached the heights of perfection. So, Slavic padlocks were exported to many countries of Western Europe. Glass colored bracelets, glazed ceramics, bone carving, widely known in Western Europe under the name "Tauri carving" or "Rus carving", which was especially praised by the Byzantine writer of the 12th century, were distinguished by high art. Tsetses.

In the cities there were areas entirely populated by potters, blacksmiths, Kozhemyak, coopers, silver and gold craftsmen.

The highest forms of culture of the late X-XIII centuries. - Writing, public opinion, religious and secular literature, painting, architecture - were closely connected with the main cultural event of that time - the adoption and spread of Christianity.

The introduction of writing and the development of education. A huge cultural revolution, which made extremely important changes in the development of culture and made it possible to accumulate the necessary experience, knowledge, develop the artistic word, consolidate and preserve verbal works for posterity and distribute them among the broad masses, was the introduction of a single written language. There were also "devils and cuts" of the Slavs in the 10th century. Arab travelers and geographers remember them.

In the X century. from Bulgaria, the monks brothers Cyril and Methodius brought the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets to Russia. The rapid development of the book art of Kievan Rus began. Christianity, unlike paganism, was a highly literate religion. It possessed its own storehouse of books, obligatory for sending various kinds of divine services, for monastic readings, which were obligatory for the promotion of Christianity, for the training of church ministers. There were works of historical, church singing, theological, preaching and others. All of them required not only a single alphabet, but also a highly developed writing system as a whole.

There was already a high art of translation. Under Yaroslav the Wise, the "History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius, a Roman Jewish writer of the 1st century BC, was translated. n. e., wrote in Greek.

Patronage in Kievan Rus. Following the example of the Byzantine nobility, which was engaged in patronage, Russian princes also regularly performed charitable events aimed at the development of science, culture and art.

The feudal lords not only owned land and exploited the peasants. They concentrated in their hands huge material resources and made it possible to carry out extremely expensive activities - from huge temples and princely choirs to luxuriously decorated manuscripts and expensive jewelry. The feudal lords acted mainly as customers, employers and demanding ideological leaders. And the executors of their orders were artisans of cities and villages.

The most common in Russia at that time was the right to "submit" or "Submission" to the construction of the church. So, a well-known fresco, which depicts Prince Yaroslav the Wise with a model of the church in his hand. In those days, throughout Europe, a donor (Latin of a donor, giver), a temple builder in the sense of a ktitor (guardian of the property that he donated to the church), or a customer of another work of art, was portrayed in this way. And Prince Yaroslav the Wise was a well-known patron of art and science. In this case, perhaps, we can say that patronage begins to acquire the formal meaning of state patronage in the form of the foundation of libraries, schools, widespread encouragement in rewriting books, annals, etc.

If nothing had come down to us from Kievan Rus, except for the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", then this one work would be enough to imagine its high culture. This chronicle is a real encyclopedia of the life of the Slavs of the 9th-11th centuries. He made it possible to learn not only about the history of Kievan Rus, but also about its language, the origin of writing, religion, beliefs, geographical knowledge, art, international relations and the like.

Indeed, not a single Slavic country and not a single country of northwestern Europe possessed in the 11th - early 12th centuries. such a brilliant work on the history of his homeland, which was "The Tale of Bygone Years". Only Byzantium and Italy had historical works compiled on the basis of centuries-old traditions of historical work, which surpassed in their learning the works of Nestor the chronicler.

The Tale of Bygone Years was not the only historical work of its time. Even earlier, the "Ancient Kyiv Chronicle" appeared in the 11th century, named so by Acad. A.A. Chess, then a chronicle in Novgorod, chronicle records began to appear in Volhynia, and then, in the XII century. - In Pereyaslav South, in Chernigov, Vladimir, Smolensk and many other cities and principalities.

The high development of literature in Kievan Rus should not surprise us, because it was combined with a high development of education. There were various kinds of educational institutions. Chronicle 988 speaks of one of them.

After the baptism of the people of Kiev, Prince. Vladimir "sent and began to take children from noble people and give them to book teaching." Judging by Nestor's life of Theodosius of the Caves, even in such a suburban city as Kursk, in the middle of the 11th century. there was something like a school: about a ten-year-old child was sent to be trained by a teacher, from whom the child soon "learned all the grammar." There is reason to believe that in the third quarter of the XI century. in the large monasteries of Kyiv, book education rose within the framework of the church to the highest level of the then European science. So, Orthodoxy and book education as the essence of Byzantine culture were adopted and creatively reworked on Slavic soil.

Temples of Kievan Rus were not only religious buildings. They received foreign ambassadors. They "put on the table" the princes, that is, they put them to reign. The treasury, the library were stored in the choir stalls, book scribes worked. A veche of selected citizens gathered in and around the temple, and the most valuable goods were stored in the commercial areas of the city and in some churches to prevent fires and theft. In Novgorod, bratchinas (societies of merchants) gathered in temples, loud banquets were held, residents of the street or the “ends” of the city united around the temples. The secular plots of the stair towers of the Church of St. Sophia in Kyiv, in particular, testify to the half-light-dark church purpose of the temples of Kievan Rus. Images of hunting, competitions at the hippodrome, buffoon games, music, etc. have been preserved here. It turns out that churches in Kievan Rus were important public buildings. That is why they were built not only by monasteries and bishops, but sometimes also by princes, merchants, or an association of residents of one or another part of the city, streets.

Yaroslav the Wise, the church of St. Sophia, which has no analogues, has survived to this day. The Russian Metropolitan Hilarion said about him without any exaggeration: "The Church is Divna and glorious to all surrounding states, as if it will not turn into earth all midnight from east to west."

The capital of the state Kyiv favorably differs from other similar large cities of the Slavs by the splendor of its front entrances, huge rich squares and markets. As the chronicles recall, at the Babi marketplace in Kyiv there were "four copper horses" (a copper quadriga of horses), brought by Prince Vladimir from Korsun, and two antique altars. According to the testimony of the medieval German chronicler Titmar of Merseburg, in Kyiv at the beginning of the 11th century. there were more than 400 churches and 8 markets.

On the wide cultural ties of Kievan Rus XI-XII centuries. we can learn from side data. The French medieval epic often mentions "beautiful Russia" - her horses, her beauties, handicrafts and wonderful chain mail, which were made in our country already in the 9th century, while in Western Europe they began to be produced only in the 12th century. Russ chain mail was widely exported and was in great demand in Europe.

The Scandinavian sagas also speak of Russia as a fabulous and powerful country. The monk Theophilus, who lived in the 11th-12th centuries, in his treatise "On Various Crafts" puts Kievan Rus behind the development of crafts in second place directly after the most cultured country of Europe at that time - Byzantium - and ahead of such countries as Germany and Italy.

The dynastic connections of the princes also tell us a lot. The sister of Yaroslav the Wise was married to the Polish king Casimir, and the sister of Casimir was the woman of the son of Yaroslav. Yaroslav's second son was married to the sister of Bishop Buchardt of Trier. Two other sons of Yaroslav were married - one of the daughter of Leopold, Count Stadenskaya, and the second - with the daughter of the Saxon margrave to drive away. Yaroslav's daughter Anna was married to King Henry I of France. After her husband's death, she married Comte de Crecy, and after the death of the count, she lived with her son, the French King Philip, and at one time ruled France. Many cultural undertakings are associated with the name of Anna in France. The second daughter of Yaroslav - Elizabeth - was married to the famous Viking Harald the Bold - in the future, the king of Norway. The fame of his military campaigns thundered throughout Europe. He died in England.

Harald was, as befits a knight, a poet, and when he stubbornly and for a long time sought the hand and heart of Elizabeth, he composed a song in her honor. Each of the 16 stanzas of the song, however, told about the exploits of Harald, ended with the words: "Only a Russian diva with a golden hryvnia despises me." On the frescoes of St. Sophia in Kyiv, Elizabeth can still be recognized among the other daughters of Yaroslav by this very golden hryvnia around her neck.

The dynastic ties of the princes of Kievan Rus with many of the most noble and sovereign rulers of Europe were preserved after Yaroslav. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Evpraksia Vsevolodovna, was married to the German Emperor Henry IV. The daughter of the Kyiv prince Svyatopolk - Predslava became the wife of the Hungarian prince, and the Hungarian king Koloman was married to the daughter of Vladimir Monomakh - Euphemia. Vladimir Monomakh himself took as his wife the daughter of the last Anglo-Saxon king Harald, defeated by William the Conqueror in the famous battle of Hastings.

The son of Monomakh - Mstislav had a middle name, Anglo-Saxon -

Harald in honor of his grandfather, whose tragic fate reminded both Monomakh and Mstislav the Great of the need for joint resistance to the enemies of Kievan Rus.

The broad dynastic ties of Russia were preserved in the 12th century. with Byzantium, Hungary, the North Caucasus.

Kyiv saw the embassies of Byzantium and Germany, Poland and Hungary, the Pope and the states of the East. Rus merchants constantly appeared in Constantinople, in Krakow, in Prague. In Regensburg, the most important center of Germany's trade with Russia, there was even a special corporation of merchants - "Rusariiv", that is, those who traded with Kyiv.

That is why Metropolitan Hilarion of Kyiv, in his famous sermon "The Sermon on Law and Grace", offering to him in the church of St. Sophia in the presence of Yaroslav the Wise and his entourage, could say about Russia that she "is known and heard at all ends of the earth", and a Kievan chronicler at the end of the 11th century, comforting his contemporaries who survived the terrible Polovtsian raid, wrote: "Yes, no one dares to say that we are hated by God. For whom, if not us, does God love so much ... whom did he present like that? Nobody!" ".

Sources and literature

Chronicle Ruskiy.- K., 1989 Leo Deacon. History. - M., 1988.

Braichevsky M.Yu. The affirmation of Christianity in Russia. - K., 1989,

Vysotsky S. Princess Olga and Anna Yaroslavna - glorious women of Kievan Rus. - K., 1991.

Gumilyov L.N. Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe.-M., I989.

Kostomarov N.I. Prince of Kyiv Yaroslav Vladimirovich.-In the book: Kostomarov N.I. Historical works. Autobiography. - K., 1990.

Kotlyar N.F., Smely V.A. History in zhittepisah.-K., 1994. Pasternak Ya. Help of a trident.- Uzhgorod, 1934. Pritsak Emelyan. Origin of Russia. - Chronicle 2000. Our land. Vip.1-6.-K., 1992-1993.

Tolochko P. Ancient Kiev.- K., 1983.

Chmykha N.A. Ancient culture. Textbook K., 1994. Yushkov SV. Socio-political system and law of the Kyiv state. - M., 1949.

The East Slavic culture of the pre-literate period is little known and mainly in its material expression (house building, clothing, jewelry), since it is restored primarily from archaeological materials.

Public consciousness was formed by paganism with a developed pantheon and mythology, numerous cults, some of which, apparently, went to the sanctuaries. At the head of the pantheon, judging by later sources, was Perun, the heavenly god of thunder, who was opposed to the only female deity - Mokosh (Makosh), obviously the goddess of water (earth). An important place was occupied by the solar deities Xopc (of Iranian origin?) and Dazhbog (“Russians” are named in the Tale of Igor's Campaign as Dazhbog's grandchildren). Agricultural cults were associated with Veles, the "cattle god". The functions of other gods, Simargl, Stribog, etc., are unclear. The discovered sanctuaries and the carved images of gods installed on them (such as the Zbruch idol) were obviously associated with the cults of one or more gods, but such connections cannot be determined, just as mythological narratives have not been preserved. In Slavic paganism, of course, there was veneration of ancestors (Lada, Rod and women in childbirth), including the first ancestors of tribes and noble families, an echo of such a legend is the legend of Kyi, Schek and Khoriv.

The emergence of the Old Russian state, headed by the military elite of Scandinavian origin, caused the formation of a new, "retinue" culture, which marked the social status of the elite. She initially synthesized several ethno-cultural traditions: East Slavic, Scandinavian, nomadic, which is vividly demonstrated by burial mounds of the 10th century. in Kyiv, Chernigov and Gnezdov. At this time, a layer of retinue tales was being created (perhaps in poetic form) about the deeds of leaders and rulers: their transcriptions formed the basis for the reconstruction by the chroniclers of the 11th-early 12th centuries. early history of Russia from Rurik to Svyatoslav. The most significant was the cycle of legends about Prince Oleg, which, being moved to the north, was reflected in Old Norse literature.

The most important influence on the formation of ancient Russian culture was the spread of Christianity in Russia in its Byzantine version. By the time of the baptism of Russia, Christianity was an established religion with its own worldview, a system of literary and liturgical genres and art, which were immediately planted in the newly converted country by the Greek hierarchs.

Even in the pre-Christian era, Slavic writing penetrated into Russia (from Bulgaria?) - Glagolitic (invented by Cyril) and Cyrillic (founded by Methodius). The oldest ancient Russian inscription - “Goroukhsha” or “Gorouna” - was scratched on a vessel found in a burial in Gnezdovo and dates back to the middle of the 10th century, but finds of this kind are extremely rare, since writing was widely distributed only after the adoption of Christianity and, above all, in church environment (such is the "Novgorod Psalter" - a cera (wax tablet), on which several psalms were written; found in Novgorod in the layers of the beginning of the 11th century). Both inscriptions are made in Cyrillic - the Glagolitic alphabet has received little distribution in Russia.

The emergence of writing and acquaintance with Byzantine culture caused the rapid emergence of literature in Russia.

The oldest work that has come down to us belongs to Metropolitan Hilarion. Written between 1037 and 1050 (the time of writing is debatable), The Word on Law and Grace insisted on the equality of the newly converted peoples and glorified Prince Vladimir as the baptizer of Russia. Probably, at the same time or even earlier (at the end of the 10th century), historical writings appeared, at first, perhaps in the form of separate entries on Easter tables. However, the need to recreate and comprehend the national past found expression in chronicles. Its initial stage, it is believed, was the compilation of a summary legend about the first Russian princes, where historical narratives of different origin were combined - about Rurik (Ladoga-Novgorod), Oleg (Kiev), etc. The oldest one that has come down to us, although it is part of later chronicles (the earliest lists of which date back to the end of the 14th century), - "The Tale of Bygone Years". It was written at the beginning of the 12th century. and was the result of the work of several generations of chroniclers - monks of the Kiev Caves Monastery. The reconstructed chronicle preceding the "Tale" - the so-called "Initial Code", is considered to be more accurately reflected in another early chronicle - the Novgorod First. Along with the oral tradition, the chroniclers of the 11th-12th centuries. used Byzantine historical writings, which served as a model of historical writing for them, as well as Holy Scripture, paraphrases of which they willingly included in their text. From the middle of the XII century. keeping weather records begins in Novgorod, somewhat later in Suzdal, in Galich and other major centers of Ancient Russia.

The development of both church and traditional genres of literature and literature gave rise to the richest library of Ancient Russia. On the one hand, one of the most common types of Christian

Novgorod birch bark

literature - the lives of the saints, which were known in Russia in translations from the Greek language. Own hagiographic literature appears from the middle of the 11th century: in the lives of Anthony of the Caves and Theodosius of the Caves, the founders of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery are told. Of great political and ideological significance were the lives of Boris and Gleb (“Reading about Boris and Gleb” by Nestor and the anonymous “Tale of Boris and Gleb”), dedicated to the sons of Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who were killed in 1015 during the struggle for the Kyiv table by their half-brother Svyatopolk . On the other hand, apparently, the historical epic continues to exist, the only surviving monument of which is the "Tale of Igor's Campaign". Based on real events in 1185 - the unsuccessful campaign of the Novgorod-Seversky prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsy, this work is saturated with folklore motifs and pagan images and directly appeals to the oral poetic tradition. In the conditions of fragmentation and princely civil strife, it glorifies Igor as the savior of Russia from the Polovtsy and calls on the Russian princes to unite. Another social environment that was in dire need of writing was the urban population, consisting of artisans and merchants, as well as the princely and city administration.

Already from the middle of the XI century. in Novgorod, the first birch-bark letters appear (12 of those found by 2011 1005 date back to the 11th century), the number of which increases sharply in subsequent centuries. The vast majority of letters related to the management and economic activities of Novgorodians: these are debt records, business orders, reports. Among them are many everyday letters, as well as records related to the church (lists of holidays, prayers). The first birch bark was found on July 26, 1951 by the archaeological expedition A.B. Artsikhovsky (today this day is celebrated as a holiday in many archaeological expeditions). In a small number (perhaps due to their poor preservation), birch bark letters were also found in eleven other Russian cities: Staraya Russa, Torzhok, Smolensk, Moscow, etc.

The influence of Christian culture can be traced in many areas of the life of Ancient Russia, but especially in its art. Predominantly monuments of church art have come down to us, which were created at first by Greek masters and then served as role models. The introduction of Christianity was accompanied by the mass construction of temples - stone in the cities and wooden both in the cities and in the countryside. The wooden architecture of the Old Russian period has been completely lost, although the overwhelming majority of churches were built of wood and only later some of them were rebuilt in stone. The oldest stone churches - the Tithes Church in Kyiv, St. Sophia Cathedrals in Kyiv, Novgorod and Polotsk - were built according to Byzantine models and decorated, like Byzantine churches, with icons, frescoes and mosaics.

ACCEPTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

When studying the third question, one should consider the reasons for the adoption of Christianity by Russia and the consequences of this event for the cultural development of Kievan Rus. It should be noted that it was Christianity that put Russia on a par with such a developed and powerful state of that era as Byzantium. In cultural terms, writing, architecture, an ancient form of painting - iconography came to Russia through Byzantium. Get acquainted with the characteristic features of each genre of the artistic culture of early Russia.

Materials for study

Acceptance of Christianity. Religion determined the worldview of ancient and medieval people, permeated all spheres of social and cultural life.

The formation of a single state among the Eastern Slavs, feudal relations, the desire for close contacts with more developed peoples prompted the Kyiv princes to embark on the path of religious reforms. Reforms began Prince Vladimir. First, he tried to create a single common Slavic pantheon of gods. By his order, on the hill near the princely palace in Kyiv, the idols of Perun, Dazhdbog, Stribog, Khors and Mokosh were placed. Similar groups of idols were installed in Novgorod and other cities. However, the unity turned out to be formal. The combatants honored mainly Perun, the blacksmiths - Svarog, the merchants - Veles, the peasants revered the gods associated with the cult of fertility.

Then Vladimir abandoned paganism and turned to a fundamentally new form of religion - monotheism. This form was professed by all the neighboring states of Kievan Rus. Christianity dominated in Byzantium, Judaism dominated in Khazaria, Islam dominated in Volga Bulgaria.

Vladimir chose Christianity in its Byzantine version -

orthodoxy. Christianity was a religion with a single god, a hierarchy of saints, the idea of ​​posthumous retribution, a developed moral code that included the doctrine of domination and submission, reverence for earthly authorities, the commandments of the Old and New Testaments. Such a religion contributed to the development of ancient Russian society in all respects.

The adoption of Orthodoxy was due to the long-standing vigorous activity of Byzantine missionaries in the lands of the Slavs, which began from the time of Princess Olga.

Vladimir was baptized in 987. The inhabitants of Kyiv were baptized in 988. By order of the prince, pagan idols were destroyed. The statue of Perun was tied to a horse's tail and dragged to the river, and then thrown into the water. Then the Greek priests baptized the people of Kiev in the Dnieper. After that, the process of Christianization of Russia began, which went on for a long time and met with resistance in some places (for example, in Novgorod). Yet the majority of the population was baptized during the reign of Vladimir.

At the same time, there were frequent cases of a return to paganism, especially in the Northeast, where the new faith was finally established only by the end of the 11th century.

In an effort to facilitate the adoption of Christianity, the church agreed to merge some pagan holidays with Christian ones. For example, the Kupala holiday, which marked the arrival of summer, merged with the day of John the Baptist. The worship of Perun under the guise of Elijah the Prophet, etc., has also been preserved. Belief in lower deities - goblin, brownies, mermaids has been preserved.

The adoption of Christianity was of great importance for the development of Russia. It became part of the European Christendom.

Christianity influenced the development of art, education, and also contributed to the softening of morals. In addition, Christianity was an ideology that contributed to the strengthening of princely power, strengthening the international position of Russia. It contributed to the further consolidation of the East Slavic tribes into a single ancient Russian people.

Great was the role of the church in the development of Russian culture in the spread of writing and education, in the creation of stone architecture. At the same time, the church did not subjugate the entire culture, therefore, during the period of Kievan Rus, the process of cultural development continued, which was nourished by the traditional roots of the culture of the pre-state period.

Folklore. Old Russian oral folklore originated in close connection with pagan cults (agrarian, family, tribal). A significant place in it was occupied by calendar ritual poetry: incantations, incantations, ritual songs; wedding songs, funeral laments - lamentations, songs at feasts and feasts; mythological legends that reflected the pagan worldview of the ancients. Archaic types of folklore survived in folk life until the 20th century, despite the stubborn struggle of the church against such “manifestations” of paganism, but over time they lost their original religious meaning.

There were also widespread forms that were not directly related to the pagan cult, but lay in the general mainstream of the pagan worldview: proverbs, sayings, riddles, fairy tales, labor songs. With the development of writing, they were reflected in written literature.

There were also historical genres of folklore: legends about the founders of tribes and princely dynasties, about the founders of cities, about the fight against enemies, etc. For many centuries, the people created, kept and passed on to the next generations a kind of “oral chronicle” about the past. It preceded the written chronicle and served as one of its main sources.

In the tenth century the heroic epic epic, which became the pinnacle of oral folk art, received special development. Epics are oral poetic works about the past, they are based on real historical events. They often lost their actual accuracy, but reflected the historical position of the people, their concepts and ideals.

Most epic stories are connected with the era of the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun - the time of the unity and power of Russia. The main characters, the true heroes of the epics are the heroes Ilya Muromets with Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich, the peasant plowman Mikula Selyaninovich. Derived in epics and an allegorical image of the enemy-steppe Nightingale the Robber. The main theme of the epics is the struggle of the people against foreign invaders.

In Novgorod, an epic was born about Sadko, a wonderful gusler, who charmed with the game of the “water king”, who rewarded him with wealth. Another hero of the Novgorod epic is Vasily Buslaevich, a representative of the Novgorod freemen.

The epic epic is imbued with patriotism and optimism, which predetermined the longevity of this genre, which survived until the 20th century.

In the princely retinue environment, i.e. in the feudal elite, there was also oral poetry, such as squad songs, glorifying the exploits of the princes and their associates. Even individual names of songwriters, "songwriters" Boyan and Mitusa have come down to us.

Music. Poetic creativity was closely connected with music, since epics were often performed to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The list of musical instruments of Ancient Russia included: tambourines, horn, trumpet, surna (zurna), horn, ocarina, pipe, zhaleyka, harp, whistle or smyk.

The use of musical instruments varied. For example, the trumpet and horns were signal instruments during the military

business, hunting, in the hands of shepherds; trumpet salute was played on various solemn occasions at the conclusion of peace, the meeting of ambassadors, the return of soldiers from campaigns, etc.

Very early among the people stood out talented performers who became professional musicians. Some of them became singers-narrators of epics, others formed wandering troupes of buffoons. Folk art carried with it the features of paganism, so buffoons were persecuted by the church.

An important stage in the development of the musical culture of Ancient Russia was the emergence of church singing art. In Russia, their own chant was created, melodically different from Greek. Church singing in Russia, as in the entire Eastern Christian Church, was unanimous. The melody was written in special characters. From the word "sign", "banner" this system received the name "famous letter", "famous chant". According to the name of one of the main signs - "hook", it is also called "hook letter". Hence, ancient Russian church singing is called Znamenny or Kryukov singing. However, this kind of recording did not indicate the pitches and their position in the scale. Old Russian singers had to have an absolute ear for music and memory.

Writing. The appearance of writing occurs at the stage of the emergence of a class society and the state and is due to the internal needs of society. Writing is a qualitative leap in the development of culture, since it is the most important means

in the consolidation and transmission in time and space of the total amount of cultural values ​​of society.

In the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. among the Slavs, a primitive pictographic writing arises - “features and cuts”, according to the definition of the Chernorite Khrabr (the legend “About Letters”, late 9th - early 10th centuries): counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, generic and personal signs, signs of property (brands) , signs for divination, calendar signs. The scope of their application was very limited, they were unsuitable for recording detailed and complex texts.

The Slavs tried to use Greek letters (the so-called “proto-Cyrillic alphabet”) for records in their native languages, but the Greek alphabet was not adapted to Slavic phonetics. Meanwhile, the penetration of Christianity into the Slavic lands required the creation

Slavic alphabet for the translation of Holy Scripture, since the eastern, Byzantine version of Christianity (Orthodoxy) allows worship in national languages.

Therefore, the creation of the Slavic alphabet by the Byzantine monks-enlighteners Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius became logical. Modern science believes that Cyril created both known Slavic alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. First, in the second half of the ninth century. Glagolitic appeared, and the first translations of church books for the Slavs of Moravia were made in it. At the turn of the IX ─ X centuries. on the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, as a result of the synthesis of Greek writing and the most successful elements of the Glagolitic alphabet, an alphabet was created, later called "Cyrillic", a more convenient and easy alphabet, which replaced the Glagolitic alphabet and became the only one among the Eastern and Southern Slavs, forming the basis of modern Russian writing. changes. The day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, canonized for their missionary work, is celebrated on May 24 as the day of Slavic writing and culture.

Cyrillic already at the beginning of the tenth century. penetrates into Russia, but the widespread use of writing began with the introduction of Christianity. With liturgical and theological books, the first all-Slavic literary language penetrates into Russia from Bulgaria - Church Slavonic, so called because it became the language of church worship. At the same time, the Old Russian literary language was formed on the local East Slavic basis, serving various spheres of secular life: business writing, legal and diplomatic documents, historical and narrative literature.

Among the urban population, literacy was widespread in everyday life, as evidenced by Novgorod birch bark letters, inscriptions on handicrafts, graffiti on the walls of churches.

School education in ancient Russia has been known since the time of Vladimir, who ordered that the children of the “deliberate child” (that is, vigilantes) be given to “book teaching”. Yaroslav the Wise at the beginning of the 11th century. created a school in Novgorod for the children of elders and clerics, and later at his court there were princely workshops for correspondence and translation of books from Greek into Russian. The training was conducted in the native language. At the monasteries there were schools of the highest type, preparing for state and church activities.

In princely families, even women were taught to read and write, which was atypical for the European Middle Ages. Education was highly valued, and the chronicles call the princes Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, etc.

The attitude to “bookishness” is conveyed by statements well-known from the literature of that time: “books are rivers that water the universe”, “the estate of books is more than gold”, etc.

Books were written on expensive material - parchment, specially dressed calfskin. Each letter was practically drawn according to strict rules - the charter, hence the name of the main type of Russian writing of the 11th - 13th centuries. - charter. The books were richly illustrated with colorful miniatures. Since the 11th century libraries are known at monasteries and cathedral churches. The craft of "book describers" was honorable.

Only a small part of the book wealth of Ancient Russia has survived to our time - about 150 books. The oldest of them are the "Ostromir Gospel" written by deacon Gregory for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir a in 1057, and two "Izborniks" by Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich in 1073 and 1076. Meanwhile, the book fund of Kievan Rus was quite extensive and diverse: these are primarily liturgical books and books of Holy Scripture, as well as translated and original literature of religious and secular content (works of the Church Fathers, lives of saints, apocrypha; historical writings, books reflecting medieval natural-scientific representations, military in adventurous stories, works of a fabulously didactic nature, etc.).

Russian original written literature arose on the basis of

folklore traditions. A characteristic feature of ancient Russian literature is its sharp publicism, therefore literary monuments are at the same time monuments of socio-political thought.

One of the first and main genres of Russian literature is chronicle writing. Chronicles are the largest monuments of the entire spiritual culture of the Middle Ages, a kind of encyclopedia of medieval knowledge and views. They played an important role in the political and cultural life of the country.

Russian chronicle arose in the first half of the 11th century. The oldest chronicle that has come down to us, based on previous texts, was created in 1113 by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor. This is the "Tale of Bygone Years", which has come down to us as part of later chronicles (XIV - XV centuries).

The Tale of Bygone Years is notable for its complex composition: it contains brief weather records, more detailed stories about political events, and texts of diplomatic and legal documents, and retellings of folklore tales, and excerpts from translated literature, and records of unusual natural phenomena, and independent literary works of a small volume (lives, historical stories, teachings, etc.).

But this is not a simple summary of heterogeneous material, but an integral work, distinguished by the unity of the theme and ideological content. The author's task is to show the history of Russia and the Russian state. The main idea is deeply patriotic - the unity of the Russian land. Princely strife and feudal strife are unconditionally condemned. The author's worldview is feudal, and for him the prince is the bearer of the highest idea of ​​legality, and the combatants are the prince's fighting friends.

The religious worldview of its compiler was clearly manifested in the annals: the ultimate cause of all events and actions of people he

sees “providence” in action, although he often tries to identify real causal relationships between events.

The Tale of Bygone Years served as the basis for local annals of the period of feudal fragmentation: in addition to Kyiv and Novgorod, chronicles were kept in Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Polotsk, Smolensk, Vladimir, Rostov, Ryazan and other cities. Local chroniclers considered the history of their lands as a continuation of the history of the Russian state and kept the "Tale of Bygone Years" in

composition of their chronicles.

"The Word about Law and Grace" is also one of the oldest monuments of Russian literature. It was written in 1049 by the priest Hilarion, the future first Russian Metropolitan of Kyiv. This is a political treatise written in the form of a church sermon. It is directed against the claims of Byzantium to cultural and political hegemony in Eastern Europe and defends the idea of ​​equality of all Christian peoples, regardless of the time of their baptism.

World history, according to the author, is the gradual and equal introduction of all peoples to Christianity. Russia, having adopted Christianity, took a worthy place in the world. The Word is deeply patriotic; it praises the Russian land, which is "known and heard by all four corners of the earth."

The emergence of original hagiographic literature is connected with the struggle of Kievan Rus for the assertion of church independence. One of the first works of this kind were the lives of the first Russian saints Boris and Gleb: “The Tale of Boris and Gleb” and “Reading about the Life and the Destruction of the Blessed Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb” (the latter was written by Nestor), in which the main political trend is condemned fratricidal strife and recognition of the need for the obedience of the younger princes to the elders in the family. Nestor also owns the "life" of the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra - Theodosius.

The new genre was the "Journey" of Abbot Daniel - a description of his journey to the "holy land" of Palestine, committed in 1106 - 1108.

Important problems are touched upon in Vladimir Monomakh's Teachings. Under this title, three independent works are combined: the Instruction itself, the autobiography and the Letter to Oleg Svyatoslavich. This is a political and moral testament of an outstanding statesman, imbued with deep anxiety for the fate of Russia, which has entered a difficult period in its history - a period of fragmentation of Russian lands.

Monomakh's "instruction" was an attempt by ideological and moral means to prevent princely strife and preserve the political unity of Russia. The main idea of ​​the "Instruction" is a call to the princes to be guided by state interests, and not by personal or family interests, to strictly observe the feudal legal order: to live in peace with other princes, unquestioningly obey the "stand-

to the best”, not to oppress the younger ones, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

Monomakh reinforces his instructions with examples from his own life: for example, he turned with a proposal for reconciliation to his old enemy and the murderer of his son, Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich of Chernigov for the sake of the triumph of the common cause. The "Instruction" also sounds a true hymn to knowledge and culture: the author advises his children not to forget the "good" that they know how, and what they do not know how to "teach".

The ingenious work of ancient Russian literature is the "Word of Igor's Campaign", which tells about the unsuccessful campaign of the princes, led by the Novgorod-Seversky prince Igor Svyatoslavich, against the Polovtsy in 1185. But the description of the campaign serves only as an excuse for the author to reflect on the fate of the Russian land. The reasons for the defeats from the nomadic steppe inhabitants and the disasters of Russia, the author sees in the princely civil strife, in the short-sighted and selfish position of the princes. “A gloomy hour arose” when “princes began to forge sedition on themselves; and filth from all countries come with victories to the Russian land.

"The Tale of Igor's Campaign" is an all-Russian work, it does not have local features. It testifies to the high patriotism of the author, who managed to rise above the narrowness of the interests of his principality to the height of all-Russian interests. Central to the "Word" is the image of the Russian land.

The author of The Lay is a brilliant artist, a master of poetic metaphor and rhythmic prose. "The Word" - a secular work - is closely connected with oral folk art, it widely uses pagan symbols and images of pagan mythology, forms and artistic means typical of folklore. Reread

"The Tale of Igor's Campaign", give examples of such techniques.

Academician D.S. Likhachev writes: "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" is so good that one wants to ask oneself: can such beauty exist in the world? This work embodied a living connection with historical reality, citizenship and patriotism, it testifies to the high level of development of ancient Russian literature in culture in general.

One of the most interesting literary works of pre-Mongolian Russia is “The Word of Daniil the Sharpener” (also known in another edition under the name “Prayer ...”), written by a certain innocent

condemned by the prince's combatant Daniel, imprisoned at Beloozero, from where he appeals to the prince with a prayer.

Through the mouth of Daniel, Russia was oppressed, serving, suffering from boyar strife, dependent on the lord's favors, acutely feeling social injustice. The author praises the strong princely power, but demands from her kindness and indulgence towards "lesser people." He writes with humor and sarcasm about the sad reality surrounding him, filled with the power of wealth, stupidity, theft, stinginess, hypocrisy, where it is hard for a smart, talented and honest person. The author is clearly a well-read person who owned bookish wisdom and splendidly called the element of folk art. His work is full of aphorisms, well-aimed characteristics, book and folk comparisons: “You won’t make a dead man laugh, but you won’t teach a stupid one”; “They don’t sow fools, they don’t reap, they don’t gather them into granaries, but they will give birth to themselves,” etc. The image of Daniil Zatochnik is the image of the first intellectual in Russian literature, a seeker of truth, for whom it is better to die in poverty than “having perceived the angelic image, lie to God ".

Old Russian literature created a variety of works that served the needs of their time, but retained their significance for posterity in their best examples.

Architecture. In Russia, there have long been rich traditions of wooden architecture.

The wooden buildings of pre-Mongolian Rus have not been preserved, so they can only be judged by extant fragments and information from written sources.

The most massive was housing construction, which knew two types of buildings: ground with log walls and semi-dugouts with wooden walls, often covered with earth outside.

Probably, wooden pagan temples also existed, and in the first half of the 10th century, even before the “baptism of Russia”, the first wooden Christian church, the Church of Elijah, was built in Kiev.

Stone architecture came to Russia from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity. Byzantine architecture created the classical type of cross-domed church, the principles of construction of which were also widespread in Russia.

The basis of the cross-domed church is a rectangular room with four pillars in the middle, dividing the interior of the building into 9 parts. The space between the pillars and

kovy walls were called naves (from the Greek. nave - ship). The pillars were connected by arches supporting the drum of the dome. Thus, the center of the temple was the domed space, flooded with light, penetrating from above through the windows placed in the drum.

Cells adjoining the square under the dome, covered with barrel vaults, formed the cruciform basis of the plan. The corner parts were covered with domes or barrel vaults.

On the east side there were three faceted or semicircular ledges - apses. The middle housed an altar, separated from the main building of the temple by a low altar barrier in the form of an arcade (the beginning of a later iconostasis).

In the western part of the building there were rooms on the second floor - the choirs, where the nobility stayed during the service. Often, another articulation was added from the west (narthex), then the temple became six-pillared.

If the building was expanded due to two side aisles, then it turned out not a three-nave, but a five-nave temple.

The external appearance of the temple reflected its internal structure: on the facades, the internal pillars corresponded to flat vertical ledges-blades. Each articulation (spinner) of the facade ended with a zakomara - a semicircle of the upper part of the wall, usually corresponding to the shape of the inner vault.

The building was built of thin tile-like bricks (plinths) and stone with lime mortar. The solution was pink from the addition of finely ground bricks (chickweed). The seams of the mortar are thick, equal to the thickness of the brick. Thus, a kind of striped surface was obtained, usually not covered with plaster. Striped rose-red walls were enlivened by narrow window openings and rows of decorative niches.

Inside the church, on the walls, pillars and vaults, religious images united in a strictly canonized system, made in the technique of mosaics and frescoes, were placed.

The polished, inlaid and carved decoration stone and precious utensils completed the synthesis of arts associated with Christian worship.

The first stone building in Russia was the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin, better known as Tithes (for its maintenance was

the church tithe was released, i.e., a tenth of the income of Prince Vladimir), built by Byzantine craftsmen in 989 - 996. on the main square of Kyiv. It collapsed during the Batu invasion in 1240 and stood in ruins for a long time, and in the 19th century. a new church was erected in its place. From the Church of the Tithes, only the foundations have survived, allowing us to assert that it was a monumental six-pillar temple, to which galleries adjoined on three sides.

During the excavations, fragments of marble columns with carved capitals, the remains of slate (slate) slabs covered with carved ornaments, tiles from typeset floors, fragments of frescoes and mosaics were also found - in all likelihood, the church had a magnificent and rich decoration.

In 1031 - 1036. in Chernigov, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral was erected by Greek architects - the most "Byzantine", according to experts, the temple of Ancient Russia.

Under Yaroslav the Wise, a new defensive line was erected in Kyiv with powerful earthen ramparts 3.5 km long, 14 m high, and even with wooden walls above them. Three gates led to the fortress - Golden, Lvov, Lyadsky.

The main ones are the Golden Gate, completed in 1037. This is a majestic brick tower with a high passage arch and the gate church of the Annunciation. The heavy gates were bound with gilded copper - hence the name. In 1982, a structure was built over the original ruins of the gate, which only in general terms corresponded to the alleged appearance of the ancient monument.

The pinnacle of South Russian architecture in the 11th century. is St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv - a huge five-nave temple, built in 1037-1054. Greek and Russian masters. In ancient times, it was surrounded by two galleries of different levels. The cathedral has survived to this day almost completely, but outside it was significantly rebuilt in the 17th - 18th centuries.

The construction of the cathedral, lit in the name of Sophia the Wisdom of God, was of great political importance: after all, the Cathedral of St. Sophia was the main temple of Constantinople, and thus Kiev, as it were, proclaimed its equality with Constantinople (see a similar motif in Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace").

The Kievan Sophia was already significantly different from the Byzantine models by the stepped composition of the plan, the presence of 13 domes crowning it, which was probably due to the traditions of wooden construction.

The many domes, which gave the temple an extraordinary solemnity, also had a functional meaning: the windows of the drums of the domes perfectly illuminated the central space of the cathedral and the huge (588 m²) choirs that served as the main princely halls. The light-filled central space and the choirs contrasted with the semi-darkened rooms under the choirs, which was one of the most important elements of the artistic design of the interior.

The center was decorated with precious mosaics, and the side parts were painted with frescoes - new types of monumental painting for Russia. As well as easel painting (icon painting), they came to Russia from Byzantium.

Byzantium not only introduced Russian artists to a new painting technique for them, but also gave them an iconographic canon, the immutability of which was strictly guarded by the church, which predetermined a longer and more stable Byzantine influence in painting than in architecture. The mosaics and frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral are made by Greek masters in a strict and solemn manner, full of severe beauty and distinguished by their monumentality.

Of the mosaic works, the images of the Mother of God Oranta (“praying”, popularly called the “Indestructible Wall”) in the central altar apse and the chest image of Christ Pantocrator (“Almighty”) in the central dome are especially significant. All images are imbued with the idea of ​​greatness, triumph and inviolability of the Orthodox Church and earthly power. The floor of the cathedral was also mosaic.

The two towers of St. Sophia of Kiev are painted with completely secular images: here are scenes of princely hunting and circus competitions, musicians, buffoons, acrobats, fantastic animals and birds. Among the frescoes in Sofia there are two group portraits of the family of Yaroslav the Wise.

The central temple of the new powerful state, in comparison with the Byzantine temples of the same time, is more grandiose and monumental.

Following the Kyiv Sophia, Sophia Cathedrals were built in Novgorod and Polotsk. Novgorod Sophia (1045 - 1050) - the most significant building of this period outside Kiev. There is a clear continuity between the Kiev and Novgorod Sophia, it is even possible that both temples were built by the same artel of craftsmen, but there are also significant differences: Sophia of Novgorod is simpler, concise

her, stricter than her original. Instead of 13 picturesque domes of the Kyiv Cathedral, there are only five domes arranged in a clear symmetrical order. Novgorod Sofia is characterized by some constructive and artistic solutions unknown to either Byzantine or South Russian architecture: masonry walls are not made of plinth, but of huge, irregularly shaped stones (limestone), gable ceilings, an arched belt on a drum, etc. This is partly due to the connections of Novgorod with Western Europe and the influence of Romanesque architecture. There are no bright mosaics in the interior, but only frescoes, which are also more severe and calm. Sophia became a symbol of Veliky Novgorod: "Where is St. Sophia, that Novgorod."

Novgorod Sofia served as a model for subsequent Novgorod buildings of the early 12th century.

From the second half of the XII century. Byzantine influence noticeably weakens, which was marked by the appearance in ancient Russian architecture of temples of a tower-like shape, unknown to Byzantine architecture (the Cathedral of the Spaso-Ephrosyne Monastery in Polotsk, the Cathedral of Michael

Archangel in Smolensk, Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa in Chernigov). The influence of the Romanesque style becomes more noticeable.

In the XII century. in Novgorod, a new type of temple appears - a four-foot cubic temple with one dome and three apses, small in size, with simply decorated facades. The Church of the Savior on Nereditsa, built in 1196, also belonged to this type. It was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, but completely restored (with the exception of the frescoes, most of which have been irretrievably lost). We know the name of one of the main masters who painted Spas-Nereditsa, a native of Byzantium, the Novgorod priest Olisey Grechin.

The oldest monument of Pskov architecture is the Church of the Savior in the Mirozhsky Monastery (mid-12th century), which has survived to this day, differing from the Novgorod buildings in the absence of pillars.

Churches of the 12th century have been preserved in Staraya Ladoga. St. George and the Assumption, architecturally close to the Novgorod churches.

Stone architecture in the Vladimir-Suzdal land began at the turn of the 11th - 12th centuries. since the erection of the cathedral in Suzdal by Vladimir Monomakh. It reaches its peak in the second half of the 12th - early 13th centuries. In contrast to the harsh Novgorod architecture, Vladimir-Suzdal architecture wore a ceremonial and solemn

character, distinguished by the sophistication of proportions, the elegance of lines.

Vladimir-Suzdal architecture was especially affected by the influence of Romanesque both in construction methods and in the artistic decoration of buildings. The outer and inner surfaces of the walls were laid out from precisely fitted and smoothly polished white stone limestone blocks, and the gap was filled with stones and poured with a solution of lime.

This typical Romanesque masonry was decorated on the facades with relief stone carvings. Construction in Vladimir under Andrei Bogolyubsky reached a particularly large upsurge. From the city fortifications, the Golden Gate (heavily rebuilt) has been preserved. In the country residence of the prince - Bogolyubovo - a castle was built, surrounded by walls with white stone towers. In 1158 - 1161. Assumption Cathedral was built, richly decorated with carved stone.

The masterpiece of Russian medieval architecture is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (1165), distinguished by the perfection and lightness of proportions, harmony and aspiration upwards. This is the first church dedicated to the new, purely Russian, feast of the Intercession of the Virgin. The political meaning of the dedication of the temple to the Intercession of the Mother of God was that the patronage of the Mother of God equated Russia with Byzantium, and Vladimir with Constantinople.

The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl is inseparable from the landscape. It is placed on an artificial hill at the confluence of the Nerl and Klyazma. The church has reached our days without the magnificent arcade that surrounded it, there is no white stone facing of the hill, the frescoes have been lost. Crowned with one slender dome, the church is decorated with an arched belt, a carved portal, thin columns, slit-like windows and sculptural decorations above them.

A special place in the architecture of Vladimir of the XII century. occupies the Dmitrievsky Cathedral, built in 1194 - 1197. in the center of the princely palace.

It is distinguished by the richness of white stone carving and is a magnificent synthesis of architecture, white stone sculpture and painting. The entire upper half of the cathedral, the portal and the domed drum are covered with exceptionally fine and incredibly intricate carvings, which are largely secular in nature: out of 566 carved stones, only 46 images are associated with Christian symbols. There are many fantastic plants, birds and animals, scenes of struggle, hunting, a sculptural illustration for the story about Alexander the Great, popular in Ancient Russia; lions, leopards, eagles and fabulous two-headed

animals serve as the personification of princely power.

The carved decor of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral is called "a poem in stone".

In the Dmitrievsky Cathedral, a fresco depicting the Last Judgment is well preserved. It was created by two masters - a Greek and a Russian. The intense psychologism inherent in the manner of the Greek master is combined with the sincere and kind faces of the apostles and angels, which belong to the brush of the Russian artist.

Almost before the Mongol invasion, St. George's Cathedral was built in Yuryev-Polsky (1230 - 1234). Complex and fine stone carvings, in which ecclesiastical, antique and Russian folk motifs are bizarrely intertwined (like a centaur in a Russian caftan), have already covered the entire cathedral - from the foot to the roof.

Like the Cathedral of St. Demetrius, St. George's Cathedral was dedicated to glorifying the power of princely power. The cathedral has not been preserved in its original form: after its vaults and the upper parts of the walls collapsed, it was rebuilt in 1471, while the blocks of white stone were partially lost and mixed up. St. George's Cathedral is the last monument of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, the "swan song" of Russian architecture of the pre-Mongol period.

Painting. Under Byzantine influence, the main types of ancient Russian painting also developed: icon painting, fresco, mosaics and book miniatures.

An icon is an image of saints on specially prepared boards. The most famous icon of pre-Mongolian Russia that has come down to us is the Our Lady of Vladimir, painted at the beginning of the 12th century. in Constantinople and almost immediately brought to Russia. At first it was kept in Vyshgorod - the princely castle in Kiev. This type of depiction of the Mother of God with the Child, as in this icon, was called in Russia "Tenderness": the Son sits in the arms of the Mother, pressing his face to Her cheek, His eyes are fixed on the Mother. And She looks into the distance, and mental anguish froze in her eyes - She knows that the baby will grow up and accept a martyr's crown for people, and she tries timidly to protect Him from the fate prepared for Him. The ingenious perfection of execution gave rise to the legend that the icon painter was the Evangelist Luke, who painted the icon from life, during the life of Mary. The icon itself was considered miraculous in Russia.

The son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Prince Andrei, later nicknamed Bogolyubsky, took the icon from Vyshgorod to Vladimir, and gave the icon a name. Subsequently, she was transported to Moscow and is still

is considered one of the main Orthodox shrines of Russia.

The earliest known icon of the Russian school is considered to be the “Our Lady of Bogolyubskaya” (mid-twelfth century), stylistically close to the “Our Lady of Vladimir”.

The icon "Dmitry of Thessalonica" (second half of the 12th century - beginning of the 13th century) also belongs to the Vladimir-Suzdal school. Dmitry is depicted sitting on a throne in expensive clothes, in a crown, with a half-naked sword in his hand. It is believed that this is a portrait image of Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest.

Other masterpieces have also been preserved - icons of the 12th - 13th centuries. This is the shoulder “Deisus” (in Greek, “prayer” or “petition”), where on both sides of the young Christ, mournful angels replace the traditional figures of the two main saints (Mary and John), interceding before Christ for the human race.

“Yaroslavl Oranta” - the mosaic Oranta of Kyiv Sophia served as the prototype of this icon, but the Yaroslavl Mother of God is softer, more humane, there is nothing harsh, oppressive in her, her figure is light and slender against a golden background, and a blush plays on her cheeks. This is an intercessor, not only powerful, but tender, promising people help and compassion.

The spread of writing, the appearance of books led to the emergence of another type of painting - book miniatures.

The oldest Russian miniatures are in the Ostromir Gospel, which contains images of the three evangelists. The bright ornamental surroundings of the figures of the evangelists and the abundance of gold make these illustrations look like a piece of jewelry.

Prince Svyatoslav's "Izbornik" (1073) contains a miniature depicting the prince's family, as well as drawings in the "margins", resembling the secular painting of Kyiv Sophia. This book also contains four miniatures depicting group "portraits" of bishops - the authors of the book's chapters. The portraits are included in patterned colored frames in the form of schematically depicted three-domed temples.

A great contribution to the development of the culture of Ancient Russia in the 10th - 13th centuries. made by Russian artisans. Metallurgists-blacksmiths were the first to separate themselves. It was their people that surrounded them with various beliefs and legends. Blacksmith-sorcerer, "cunning", he could not only forge a sword, but also "forge" happiness. Russian craftsmen had swamp and lake iron ore in abundance. Village blacksmiths forged shovels with an iron handle up to 1 m, axes, spears.

The ubiquity of clay ensured the widespread development of pottery. The molding of the vessel, regardless of the method of its molding (by hand or on a circle), was carried out using a tape, rope method. The clay was rolled into long rollers, then they were laid in a spiral according to the desired shape of the vessel. When sculpting by hand, without a circle, the vessel always has an irregular shape. By the X century. in Russia, the potter's wheel was established everywhere. Among pottery, the pot is the most widely used. Its form has survived to this day.

Under subsistence farming, the principle of which was “everything is born at home,” a lot was produced in each household: shoes, clothes, utensils. This required simple tools: an ax, an adze, a needle, a knife. Carpentry work was carried out with an ax, which was a universal tool. The saw and chisel were not used. With the help of an adze (something like a hoe) they hollowed out a boat and a trough. The adze retained its importance for working boards until the 17th century, when it was replaced by a rip saw.

Home production was the processing of leather and fur. The most important branch of home production was the manufacture of fabrics from linen and hemp. Sheep yarn was spun using a spindle, to speed up the rotation, a slate ring was put on it - a whorl. Badges and inscriptions were made on the whorl, confirming that it belonged to its owner. Simple, single-color and multi-color yarn was woven on a loom.

In the processing of non-ferrous and precious metals, Russian craftsmen had access to all the techniques known in the advanced countries of that time. Bells, chandeliers, candlesticks, weights and fighting weights, bells were cast from copper. Along with casting, forging and chasing were used.

Filigree, which in Russia was called filigree (from "skati" - to twist), also came from Byzantium and is a twisted wire that forms some kind of pattern. Scani has always been accompanied by the grain technique, when the smallest grains of metal were soldered onto the plate. On some moons (earrings) soldered up to 2250 tiny silver grains, each 5-6 times smaller than a pinhead. There were 324 grains per 1 cm². They used gilding and inlay with gold and silver. The pinnacle of excellence of ancient Russian jewelers was niello, blackening of silver items. Niello - molten by incandescent powder from an alloy of silver, lead, copper and sulfur. This

technology appeared in Russia in the X-XI centuries.

One of the pinnacles of the decorative and applied arts of Ancient Russia is colored enamels. Masters from Byzantium were teachers of enameling.

Thus, an analysis of the history of the development of ancient Russian culture shows that the adoption of Christianity and the establishment of close contacts with Byzantium sharply accelerated the development of all types and genres of artistic creativity. Writing, stone architecture, mosaics, frescoes, iconography, and various types of crafts come from Byzantium to Russia. The knowledge received from the invited Greek masters is soon mastered and processed by Russian craftsmen on the basis of the traditions of the culture of the East Slavic tribes.

The formation of separate principalities on the territory of the Kievan state in the 11th-12th centuries. contributes to the formation of a number of local schools in which national elements acquire a stronger significance.

Summing up the above, it should be noted that during the time of Kievan Rus, an interesting and original culture arose, which gave the world at an early stage of its development the magnificent creations of architects, icon painters and writers.

Topics of reports and abstracts

1. The Norman question in the history of Russia.

2. Foreign policy of the Kyiv state.

3. Novgorod Republic.

4. Paganism of the ancient Slavs.

5. Baptism of Russia.

6. The Tale of Bygone Years as a source for the history of Ancient Russia.

7. Old Russian secular literature.

8. Architecture of Kievan Rus.

9. Pre-Mongolian icon in Russia.

10. Life, manners and customs of Kievan Rus.

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Platonov S.F. Lectures on Russian history. St. Petersburg: Stroylespechat, 1993.

Solovyov S.M. Readings and stories on the history of Russia. Moscow: Pravda, 1989.

Tereshchenko A.V. Life of the Russian people. Moscow: Russian book, 1997.

Reader on the history of Russia. T.1. M.: Intern. relations, 1994.

History of Russian art. T.1. M.: Image. art, 1981.

Ilyina T.V. Art history. Domestic art. M.: Higher. school, 1994.

Kornilovich K. From the chronicle of Russian art. L.; M.: Art, 1960.

Kurbatov G.L., Frolov E.D., Froyanov I.Ya. Christianity: Antiquity. Byzantium. Ancient Russia. L.: Lenizdat, 1986.

Kuskov V.V. History of ancient Russian literature. M.: Higher. school, 1982.

Likhachev D.S. Great legacy. Classical works of literature of Ancient Russia. M.: Sovremennik, 1975.

Lyubimov L. D. The Art of Ancient Russia. Moscow: Education, 1974.

Muraviev A.V., Sakharov A.M. Essays on the history of Russian culture in the 9th – 17th centuries. Moscow: Education, 1984.

Rapatskaya L.A. Russian artistic culture: Proc. allowance. M.: Humanitarian publishing center "VLADOS", 1998.

Rappoport P.A. Architecture of Ancient Russia. L.: Nauka, 1986.

Rybakov B.A. Paganism of Ancient Russia. Moscow: Nauka, 1987.

Eastern Slavs in the conditions of the tribal system………………………………….3

ancient Russian state. The social system of Kievan Rus……………6

Spiritual culture of Kievan Rus. adoption of Christianity and

value……………………………………………………………………………………13

Topics of reports and abstracts………………………………………………………..31

Spiritual life of ancient Russian society before baptism. In the X century. culturally, ancient Russian society was still quite homogeneous, despite the separation of the princely squad with its special way of life, sharply different from the way of life of the rest of the population, and special interests. All the Eastern Slavs were united by the already traditional ideas about the structure of the world, closely related to their religious beliefs. The world was filled with a large number of gods, large and small, who controlled the various forces of nature, maintaining order in the natural world and society and influencing people's lives. Subject to certain norms of behavior in relation to the gods, it was possible to achieve their support. Of particular importance was the cult of ancestors - Rod and Rozhanitsa, who were revered by the population for a long time after the adoption of Christianity. Among the deities, those who controlled the main natural elements stood out. At the head of the East Slavic pantheon was, as in the VI century, the "creator of lightning" Perun. The god of fire was Svarog. The fire in the hearth, which also served as an object of reverence, was called Svarozhich - the son of Svarog. The Sun, revered under the name of Dazhbog, was also the son of Svarog. Veles occupied a special place in this pantheon. If the successful growth of cereals depended on Perun - the god of thunder, then the ancient Russian chroniclers call Veles the "cattle god", that is, the preservation and reproduction of livestock depended on him. The princely retinue swore by Perun and Veles when concluding agreements with the Greeks. There was no special layer of the priesthood that possessed special secrets that were inaccessible to the uninitiated. The functions of the priests were often performed by the rulers themselves, who made sacrifices to the gods, which were supposed to provide the country with peace and harvest. There were no pagan temples, the images (statues) of the gods mentioned in the sources, sometimes richly decorated (the statue of Perun in Kyiv had a silver head and a golden mustache) stood in the open air. Apparently, the Eastern Slavs did not have any other monuments of fine art associated with the pagan cult.

Christians in Russia before the baptism of the country. An important facet in the spiritual life of ancient Russian society was the adoption by Ancient Russia in the late 80s. 10th century Christian religion. True, information about the baptism of the Rus back in the 60s. 9th century preserved in a number of Byzantine sources, but this step had no consequences at that time. In the middle of the X century. There were quite a lot of Christians in Kyiv. When concluding an agreement with Byzantium in 944, part of the squad of Prince Igor took the oath not in front of the statue of Perun, but in the church of Elijah the Prophet in Constantinople. After Igor's death, his widow Olga converted to Christianity. The Kievan princess even visited one of the main centers of the Christian world - Constantinople. In the Cathedral of St. Sophia in this city at the end of the XII century. they showed “a dish of great gold”, donated by Olga to this temple. In the late 1950s, probably after some complication in relations with Constantinople, Olga sent ambassadors to the German king Otto I with a request to send a bishop to Kyiv. Now, obviously, it was not about the baptism of the princess, but the population of the country. However, the bishop's trip to Russia ended in failure. Olga's son Svyatoslav and his team refused to accept Christianity.

Probably, thanks to the first Christians, even before baptism, Slavic writing became known in Russia (the archaic language of the Slavic texts of the treaties of Russia with the Greeks, which is sharply different from the language of the annals in which the texts of these treaties are placed, indicates that these translations from Greek are contemporary with the conclusion of the treaties themselves ), but only after the official adoption of Christianity by Ancient Russia as the state religion, Christian teaching could become widespread here, take a leading position in the religious consciousness of society, and Slavic writing become an important tool in the hands of Christian missionaries.

Reasons for adopting Christianity. For a correct understanding of the events that followed the baptism of Russia, one should dwell on the motives that prompted the ruling elite of Ancient Russia to decide on a change of faith. In Soviet historiography, the idea was widespread that such a decision was due to the need for an ideological sanction for the new social relations that developed with the formation of the state and the emergence of a dominant social group in society. This view seems to be one-sided. Ancient history knows such large states with a society of complex social composition, such as the Hellenistic kingdoms or the Roman Empire, which successfully developed under the rule of pagan polytheism. It was something else. Pagan statehood could not function successfully in a world dominated by such monotheistic religions as Christianity and Islam. Only the adoption of the Christian faith made it possible for the rulers of Ancient Russia to maintain equal relations with powerful neighbors - the rulers of the Ottonian Empire in the west and the rulers of the Byzantine Empire in the east of Europe. The very values ​​of Christian teaching, initially quite far from the way of life and ideals of the Kyiv squad, did not play a decisive role in this choice. The team chose the Christian god not because he was the embodiment of the Christian ideal, but because the Christian god - the patron of the rich and powerful Byzantine Empire seemed to her more powerful than the pagan Perun.

Christianity and the elite. However, after the corresponding decision was made, the Christian doctrine began to exert an ever stronger influence on the way of thinking of the ancient Russian ruling elite and its behavior towards subjects. The very idea of ​​the structure of society, its institutions and customs has changed. In a pagan society, both its very structure and the norms governing its life were perceived as something eternal, unchanging, created with the direct participation of the gods. With the adoption of Christianity, the idea began to assert that the social order - the creation of people, like their other creations - is imperfect and can be improved and changed for the better. It is no coincidence that the adoption of Christianity was followed by a number of monuments of the legislation of ancient Russian rulers. It was under the influence of Christianity that the rulers of Ancient Russia began to form the idea that the ruler is not just the leader of the squad, but the head of state, who must maintain order in society and take care of all his subjects, and not just the squad. Under the influence of Christianity, the idea began to form that, while maintaining public order, the ruler should take special care of the weak, unprotected members of society. On the pages of the chronicle, when creating the image of Vladimir, who, as an ideal ruler, was to serve as an example for posterity, it was emphasized that he not only fed all the poor and beggars in the princely court, but also ordered carts with food to be transported around Kyiv in order to feed those who was able to get there. The idea was also formed that the ruler should protect weak, unprotected members of society from arbitrariness on the part of the strong. At the beginning of the XII century. in his

In his “Instruction” addressed to his sons, Vladimir Monomakh wrote: “Do not forget the poor, but feed them as much as possible in strength, and give to the orphan and widow, justify yourself, and do not push the strong to destroy a person.”

Evidence of the spread of Christianity. For ordinary people who were forced to be baptized on the orders of the prince and the squad, baptism was only the beginning of a long process of assimilation of the Christian hierarchy of values ​​and the Christian worldview. The changes in the burial rites of the Eastern Slavs traced by archaeologists make it possible to judge how the process of subordinating wide circles of the population to the formal prescriptions of the Christian religion proceeded. In pagan times, the Slavs burned their dead on funeral pyres, with the adoption of Christianity, such a practice, which sharply contradicted the prescriptions of the new religion, began to be replaced by the burial of the dead in the ground. In ancient Russian cities, the old pagan rite was supplanted by the end of the 11th century. In rural areas in the south of Russia, pagan funeral rites were obsolete by the end of the 12th century, in the north - by the end of the 13th century. Pagan funeral rites were preserved for a particularly long time in the land of the Vyatichi.

Archeological data find confirmation in the evidence of written sources, which show that it was in the north of Russia, in the lands most distant from Byzantium, where the Slavic population coexisted with the Finno-Ugric tribes that had long preserved pagan beliefs, the spread of Christianity was slower and faced serious difficulties. Above, data on the performances of the "Magi" in the Rostov-Suzdal land have already been cited. But in Novgorod in the 70s. 11th century a sorcerer also appeared, who managed to attract the population of the city to his side, so that “all the faith in him and even destroy the bishop,” whom only the prince and his retinue managed to protect. In the land of the Vyatichi at the turn of the XI-XII centuries. the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Kupsha, who went to baptize them, was killed. In the text of the Novgorod royal chronicle, evidence of the construction of Christian churches in Novgorod has been preserved: in the 11th century. two of them were built, in the XI century. - 68, in the XIII century. - 17. Obviously, it was the XII century that was the century when Christianity really took root in Novgorod.

Features of Old Russian Christianity in the X-XII centuries. Christianity, formed in the minds of the broad circles of the population of Ancient Russia, was a kind of fusion of views and ideas that came from the Christian world with those traditional ideas with the help of which a person in the pagan world determined his place in the world and his relations with neighbors and nature. For rural residents, the complex of rituals of agrarian magic was of particular importance, which, in their opinion, ensured the natural change of seasons, in which the earth regularly gave its fruits to man. Although the Christian idea of ​​a single almighty God, the creator of the world, developed and was quite firmly assimilated, the surrounding world continued to be filled with many different forces, in dealing with which, as before, it was still necessary to use traditional ways of influencing them. In the role of patrons of the main of these forces, instead of the gods of the East Slavic pagan pantheon, Christian saints acted. So, instead of the pagan Perun, Ilya the Prophet now sent rain and lightning to the earth. Other such forces were still in charge of lower-level pagan deities (mermaids, goblin), who continued to be revered along with the saints. The old and the new in the minds of the Russian people of that time could be closely intertwined in the most bizarre way. So, it is known that in the middle of the XII century. the inhabitants of Novgorod, according to custom, setting a meal for the spirits of their ancestors - the Family and Rozhanitsy, accompanied this procedure by singing the troparion to the Mother of God.

A peculiar fusion of the old and the new, when the new religious teaching was layered on a powerful layer of traditional ideas, determined the appearance of folk culture up to the invasion of the traditional rural world of capitalism. In the era of the early Middle Ages and later, the Christian church, having achieved the cessation of the practice of open veneration of the characters of pagan mythology, generally put up with this state of affairs, and only from the middle of the 17th century. the highest ecclesiastical and secular authorities began to make systematic attempts to cleanse the customs of Russian Christians from pagan accretions.

The peculiarity of the early Middle Ages was that at that time such a mixture was fully inherent in people who belonged to the social elite. An illustrative example is the discovery by archaeologists of pots of food (a detail of a pagan funeral rite) in the graves of Novgorod posadniks. XII -XIII centuries, buried in the Yuriev Monastery. A vivid parallel to such a fusion of Christianity and paganism can be the Novgorod epics that originated in this era (the real popular name is “old times”) about the Novgorod merchant Sadko who played the harp wonderfully. He is patronized by the king of the sea, whom Sadko plays the harp at a feast in the underwater kingdom. When the king begins to dance and a storm begins on the sea, the play of the harpman is interrupted by his miraculous intervention by the Christian saint Nicholas of Myra, the patron saint of seafarers. Thus, in the world of the creators of these epics, both pagan and Christian forces acted simultaneously.

A similar situation is found in such an ancient Russian monument, created at the end of XII in., as "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". Its author is a convinced Christian, calling on the reader to war with the "filthy" - pagan Polovtsy, but the presence of pagan gods is still felt behind the phenomena of the world around him: the winds for him are the grandchildren of Stribog, after the defeat of the Russian army, the messenger of trouble - Zhlya rushes across the Russian land sowing grief from a fiery horn.

"The Tale of Igor's Campaign"."The Tale of Igor's Campaign" is a monument unique in ancient Russian literature, reflecting the views and interests of the secular elites of ancient Russian society. The author's views and ideas about the past and the present have much in common with the views of ancient Russian chroniclers, who mourned the collapse of the Old Russian state and recalled the past heyday during the reign of the "old princes", but his artistic language is based on the traditions of folk heroic poetry, which have changed over a long period of time. living in a friendly environment. In his work, the author of the Lay mentions one of his predecessors, the singer Boyan, who in his songs glorified the deeds of the princes of the second half of the 11th century. and grieving for their defeat. The works of this tradition have not come down to us. But the Tale of Igor's Campaign gives an idea of ​​this poetic language, when its author glorifies the skill and courage of his heroes in the fight against enemies or mourns their defeat. Both the circle of concepts that characterize the ethics of the combatant warrior and the warrior-prince, and the poetic formulas in which the approval or condemnation of certain actions characteristic of this environment found expression, found an unusually vivid expression in the text of the Lay. This side of the work of the author of the Lay was continued in the military stories of the subsequent time. It has already been said that the culture of the retinue environment was not separated from the culture of the broad circles of the people by any clear barriers. The text of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" shows the close connection between the poetic language of the author and the traditions of oral folk art, as they appear before us in the records of folklore collectors. So, the features of the people's lamentations are clearly seen in the lamentation of the wife of the protagonist of the work - Igor - Yaroslavna about the fate of him and other participants in the campaign.

The connection with the traditions of folk art should also explain the attitude of the author of the "Lay" to the natural elements, which act as active participants in the action, either echoing what is happening, or interfering in the course of events.

(The reflection in the Tale of Igor's Campaign of the traditions of social thought of his time will be discussed elsewhere.)

Elite culture. Reconstruction of the cultural image of the secular elites of ancient Russian society is a complex task that has not yet been solved by researchers. Certain material for its solution is contained in sources of various origins, but it is far from easy to extract it from them. First of all, let us name the ancient Russian chronicles, the compilers of which drew their information from this very environment. So, according to one of them, he talked a lot with the Kyiv boyar Yan Vyshatich and from him "I heard many words, hedgehogs and inscribed in this annals." These statements have come down to us in the interpretation given to them by the compilers of the codes - the clergy.

The most important source that makes it possible to judge the culture of the secular elites of ancient Russian society is Vladimir Monomakh's Teaching to Children, written by him at the end of his life, when he already occupied the Kyiv table, and addressed to his sons. The "Instruction" begins with extracts from the Psalter, the teachings of Basil the Great and a number of other texts, from where the prince who knows them well chooses what his sons will need when they begin to rule the earth: they should not envy those who do lawlessness and encroach on other people's property, as they will be punished God will exalt the righteous; one should not abuse food and drink, talk with "absurd" wives, but one should "listen to the wise, repent to the elders"; be able to manage their feelings, do good deeds, protect the poor and offended.

Further, Monomakh describes the deeds of his life as a person who sought to follow these principles. He repeats the advice contained in the "divine" words from himself, but adds to them many instructions that reflect not the general norms of Christian morality, but his personal experience. And here we are talking about the knowledge and concepts that have developed in the squad environment. So, in a war one should always be vigilant, check the guards yourself, do not remove weapons without making sure that there is no danger. When moving with a retinue across the territory of the principality, one should not let the “lads”-druzhinniks “dirty” “dirty”. Guests should be received well (but not because a Christian should do this): such people “passing by, glorify a person in all lands”, will create a certain reputation for him. The prince must, without relying on his subordinates, arrange “all the attire in his house” and even take care of the “attire” of the church.

Having placed in the "Instruction" a long list of his military campaigns and exploits in war and hunting, Monomakh writes that, honoring God, he successfully passed all the tests and therefore turns to his sons: "Fearing death, children, not fighting, not fighting, neither from the beasts, but do a man's work, "that is, fight bravely.

Monomakh is an adherent of Christian moral ideals, he wants to live in accordance with them, to be humane and fair, but at the same time, ideas about the relationship between the prince and the squad, when the prince must be brave and command the army, occupy a strong place in his mind.

Another type of sources that should be named in this connection is the folk heroic epic, which was reflected in very few and fragmentary medieval texts, and mainly in the records of collectors of the 18th-19th centuries. In them, the tradition, the origins of which lead to the retinue environment, was transformed due to a long existence in the grassroots folk environment.

The main theme of the recorded texts is stories about "heroes" (in pre-Mongolian Russia they were called "brave") who perform their feats in the service of the prince, or get him a bride, or defend his country from the enemy, or prove their military superiority in disputes with others. heroes, - definitely indicates the environment in which this tradition was formed.

The existence of such an epic tradition among the Eastern Slavs is also preserved in the text of the so-called "Tidrek saga" - a story about the hero of the German epic Tidrek of Bern, recorded in the 13th century. according to the stories of "German men" from the cities of Northern Germany. In a number of episodes of this work, the Kyiv prince Vladimir and the hero "Ilya the Russian", his maternal uncle, who gets Vladimir a bride, appear. Since records of epic texts made in the 17th-19th centuries do not know such a plot with such characters, it is obvious that at that time the epic tradition was seriously different from later forms of its existence. Do not find a match in the records of folklore collectors and preserved in the texts of the XV-XVI centuries. stories about the military exploits of Alexander Popovich, later one of the main characters of the Russian heroic epic. Alexander Popovich appears in these stories, which were formed in the squad environment, as a combatant of the Rostov prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich, performing his military exploits in the war with his brother Yuri, a participant in the battle on Lipitsa in 1216. In the epics that have come down to us, Alexander (Alyosha) Popovich appears completely in another role. In the form that has come down to us, the Old Russian epic was formed in the XIV-XV centuries. - the era of the struggle for liberation from the Horde yoke and the unification of Russian lands, but stable situations repeated in different epics characterizing the relationship of the heroes with the prince, the feats that they perform, probably reflect the tradition that developed in an earlier era.

The emergence of the Old Russian translation of the Byzantine knightly epic about Digenis Akrita is also associated with the special interests of the squad environment. This example shows that the formation of the culture of the tops of the secular society of Ancient Russia was influenced by contacts with the secular elite of neighboring countries. Another example of such influence on the part of Byzantium is the frescoes of the stair tower of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, which connected the temple with the princely palace, where images of the Byzantine emperor and his court are placed, watching the games at the hippodrome in Constantinople. Contacts with the emerging chivalric culture in the west of Europe are evidenced by the messages of the Ipatiev Chronicle of the middle of the 12th century. about the jousting tournament arranged at the "Yaroslavl Courtyard" in Kyiv, and that the Polish prince who was in Kyiv "shepherded the sons of the boyars with a sword of many", i.e. knighted them.

Writing in Ancient Russia. Birch letters. An important feature of the way of life of the upper classes of the secular society of Ancient Russia was the acquaintance with the art of writing and its rather widespread use in everyday life. This was explained by the fact that even before its baptism, writing in an understandable Slavic language came to Russia from the First Bulgarian Kingdom, the mastery of which did not require special long efforts. Initially, writing was taught, as in the Mediterranean region, on a wooden board covered with wax, on which words were written, which could then be erased. Such a board was recently found in Novgorod in the layers of the late 10th - early 11th century. It contained verses from the Psalter, a book used to teach literacy in the Middle Ages. A cheap material for writing was also found - birch bark (birch bark), on which the letters were scratched with a special tool - writing. Such texts scratched on birch bark - birch bark letters - were found during archaeological excavations in a number of ancient Russian cities (Torzhok, Staraya Russa, Smolensk, Zvenigorod - that is, not only in the north, but also in the south of Russia). To date, more than a thousand various texts of the 11th - the first half of the 15th centuries have been found, providing unique material about the life of our ancestors. The vast majority of birch bark writings found come from excavations in Novgorod, where they were well preserved in the water-saturated soil of this city. If the texts of the XI century. relatively few in number, then by the XII century. many dozens of texts already belong. Some of these texts are related to the needs of management - records of tax evaders, administrative orders, complaints addressed to judges, the earliest surviving peasant petitions. But a significant part of the texts are private letters in which people discuss a variety of issues. Here we meet both complaints about the injustice of her husband, and declarations of love. Philologists are especially attracted by the lively colloquial language of letters spoken by the Novgorodians, which differs markedly from the literary language of the annals and from the clerical language of documents.

Numerous inscriptions on handicrafts and graffiti on the walls of Christian churches testify to the fairly wide distribution of writing in ancient Russian society. In this regard, the situation in Russia differed from the situation in the countries of Western Europe, where the language of writing was Latin, a language the development of which required long and careful preparation, therefore, knowledge of writing, literacy for a long time was the monopoly of clerics there - clergy.

It should be borne in mind that in the era of the early Middle Ages, the culture of the retinue environment and the general population had much in common, one was not separated from the other by any insurmountable barriers. This is best evidenced by the penetration into the folk environment of the traditions of the heroic epic, created in the environment of the retinue.

"Scientific" culture of the clergy. Along with the traditional folk culture in its Christianized form and the culture of the retinue environment close to it, in Ancient Russia there were also traditions of Christian culture in the form in which they were transferred to the ancient Russian soil from Byzantium. The bearer of this culture was the clergy (first of all, the educated upper strata) and some educated representatives of the top of the secular society, like Yaroslav the Wise, who, according to the chronicle, "Gathered many scribes and converted from Greek to Slovenian writing, and copied many books."

Initially, the alien, Greek element prevailed among the clergy. In the first Christian temple built by Vladimir, the Church of the Tithes, served the "priests of Korsun", Greek priests brought from Korsun-Chersones, a Byzantine city in the Crimea on the site of modern Sevastopol. But from the very beginning, the princely power was concerned with the preparation of educated people from their own environment. So, Vladimir, according to the chronicle, "beginning to take children from deliberate children (i.e., from the best people) and give them a start for book teaching." Already under Vladimir, a wide range of Christian monuments could be used to educate these young people. They were translated into Slavic after the creation of the Slavic alphabet by Cyril and Methodius in other Slavic states - in Great Moravia and mainly in the First Bulgarian Kingdom. A significant part of these translations has come down to us thanks to the Old Russian lists. They were supplemented by original works created already in Bulgaria, such as the “Words” for Christian holidays by Kliment Ohridsky or the Alphabet Prayer and the “Instructive Gospel” by Constantine of Bulgaria. New translations were made by the scribes who surrounded Yaroslav the Wise. Researchers associate the translation of such a major monument of ancient literature as the “History of the Jewish War” by Josephus Flavius ​​with their activities.

Monuments of ancient Russian literature. Already in the middle - the second half of the XI century. in ancient Russia, educated spiritual people appeared who were able to create their own works that lay in line with the Christian tradition.

The earliest work of Old Russian Christian literature, showing the mastery of the ancient Russian scribe's mastery of the rich traditions of Byzantine theology and the art of preaching, is Hilarion's Sermon on Law and Grace, read by the author in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv in the presence of Yaroslav the Wise and members of his family. Proclaiming the superiority of the Christian teaching - "Grace" over the decrepit Jewish Law leaving the historical scene, the author simultaneously contrasts this "Law", which was preserved only by the Jews, with the Christian teaching, which extends "to all lands of the earth." The Jews, who were the first to receive the "Law" from God, did not accept the "Grace", and the Christian teaching spread to new "languages" - peoples who previously did not know God at all. Now Russia has also entered the family of these peoples professing the Christian doctrine ("and we, with all Christians, glorify the Holy Trinity"). Revealing the full significance of the fact that Russia joined the Christian doctrine, which replaced pagan polytheism and the dilapidated "Law", Hilarion ended his sermon with praise to Vladimir, thanks to which Russia joined the true faith, and Yaroslav, a worthy successor to his work. The opposition of "Law" and "Grace", the glorification of the new values ​​of Christian teaching is created in the sermon according to all the rules of Byzantine rhetoric due to the constant opposition and comparison of complex symbolic images. Hilarion was sure that the listeners could understand and appreciate his art, since he was not addressing "the ignorant", but "the overflowing sweetness of books". Hilarion's "Word" also reflected his pride in his land. Speaking about the ancestors of Vladimir, he wrote that they “are not in thinness, but in the unknown land of your dominion, but in Ruska, even known and audible, there are all four ends of the earth.”

The traditions of Hilarion were continued in the works of writers of the 12th century: Kliment Smolyatich, who lived in the middle of the century and occupied in the second half of the 12th century. episcopal see of Cyril of Turov. Kliment Smolyatich, in his letter to Presbyter Thomas, acted as an adherent of a “learned”, allegorical interpretation of Holy Scripture, when a secret meaning is revealed in certain specific messages of the Old or New Testament. Well acquainted with the Greek education of his time, he strove to follow the interpretations of the 11th century writer. Nikita of Heraclius on the writings of Gregory the Theologian. Clement rejected the accusations of Thomas that he was doing something bad, using in his symbolic interpretations, like Nikita of Heracles, the images of ancient mythology.

Hilarion's brilliant oratorical skill was continued in the "eulogies" written by Cyril of Turov on the main Christian holidays. Using all the variety of techniques developed by ancient and then Byzantine rhetoric, Cyril of Turovsky created vivid emotional images of those events in the gospel history to which the corresponding holiday is dedicated, structured his speeches in such a way as to evoke a jubilant, festive mood in the audience. His words were highly appreciated very early, and they began to be included in collections along with the works of John Chrysostom and other prominent Greek preachers.

Not all examples of ancient Russian preaching were of such a high level. Many of them are quite simple in their construction and vocabulary, they repeatedly repeated the same provisions, stated as simply as possible - they appealed to an audience that needed the most basic knowledge of Christian doctrine.

Another literary genre, in which already in the second half of the XI century. original works were created that are in no way inferior to Byzantine models - this is hagiography, the lives of the saints. The first Old Russian Lives of the Saints were created by the outstanding Old Russian scribe, monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor. He wrote the life of Theodosius of the Caves - hegumen of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery in Kyiv. It became a model for the lives of saints created in subsequent centuries - ascetics, founders of monasteries and organizers of monastic life. Using as a model the life of Savva the Sanctified, one of the founders of Palestinian monasticism, Nestor creates an original image of a man who first strives with all his might to take the tonsure, breaking even with his own mother for this, and then purposefully fights against the vices not only of the monastic brethren, but also of those around him. society. At the same time, he was not stopped by the high position of the bearers of supreme power. As the life tells, when Svyatoslav Yaroslavich drove his elder brother Izyaslav from the Kyiv table, Theodosius refused to commemorate the new prince in the service and sent him a “great epistle”, in which he compared him with Cain the fratricide.

The works dedicated to the first Russian saints - Boris and Gleb, the sons of Vladimir, are very far from the Byzantine samples. This is "Reading about Boris and Gleb" by Nestor, written in the 80s. XII century, and "The Tale of Boris and Gleb", created among the clergy of the church dedicated to these saints in Vyshgorod near Kyiv in connection with the transfer of their remains to a new church in 1072. And the very problem that is in the focus of attention of the authors of the works - what should be the fair relations between members of the princely family, and the glorification of the heroes of the work - the princes for not raising arms against the "oldest brother", who attempted on their lives, preferred to die, but not to plunge the Russian land into the horrors of internecine war - all this has neither parallels nor examples in the monuments of Byzantine hagiography.

The first monuments of ancient Russian hymnography were the "services" to Boris and Gleb, in which the saints are glorified not only as martyrs, but also as miraculous defenders, patrons of the Russian land, protecting it with their miraculous intervention from external enemies and princely strife.

Christian culture of ancient Russian society and the spiritual heritage of Byzantium. In order to determine the originality of the Old Russian version of Christian culture, one should find out to what extent the cultural heritage of Byzantium was assimilated by the educated circles of Old Russian society.

The heritage of Byzantium, as is known, included not only monuments of Christian culture proper, but also a very significant range of monuments belonging to an earlier ancient civilization. As in earlier times, the traditional system of education was built here (as in the west of Europe) on the study of the texts of ancient authors.

This most important component of the Byzantine cultural heritage was not transferred to the Old Russian soil - the ancient Russian people remained unknown to the texts of ancient authors, and the education system based on their study. The Old Russian reader could draw information about antiquity only from the explanations of Byzantine scribes to those places in the writings of the church fathers in which pagan gods or customs were mentioned, and from Byzantine historical chronicles created in a monastic environment, such as the chronicles of John Malala or George Amartol, in which spoke about the beliefs of the pagans. The "Chronicle" of George Amartol was well known to the ancient Russian chronicler of the early 12th century. - the creator of The Tale of Bygone Years, we find quotes from the Chronicle of John Malala in the Galicia-Volyn Chronicle of the 13th century.

Properly Christian literature also passed to the ancient Russian soil from Byzantium, far from being in full. Thus, some important manuals outlining Christian dogma were translated very early (first of all, the most authoritative manual, John of Damascus), but the vast majority of Byzantine theological literature remained unknown to the ancient Russian reader.

On the contrary, monuments were widely translated and distributed in numerous lists, containing characteristics of the truths of Christian doctrine and Christian ethical norms, given in a form more accessible to the reader and listener in lively, vivid images on the pages of sermons, teachings and words of praise. Especially widely recognized were the works of the famous preacher of the 4th century. John Chrysostom. His works included the collection "Golden Jets", translated in Bulgaria in the first half of the 10th century. under Tsar Simeon. Abundant and numerous were translations of the lives of the saints, in which the Christian ideal was revealed on a vivid concrete example of the life of a person in whose actions he found his embodiment. The lives of the saints were transferred to the Old Russian soil in the form of whole collections of texts intended for reading at the monastery meal throughout the year. These are collections of short lives - the so-called Synaxarion (or Prologue) and collections of lives of the full composition - the so-called Chet's Menaion. A number of collections of the lives of saints are also known as patericons - collections of the lives of saints of a particular area or country. It was precisely in creating commendable words and the lives of saints that the ancient Russian scribes most successfully competed with their Byzantine teachers.