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The Evangelist John, a miniature from the Ostromir Gospel, mid-XI century

Old Russian literature or old Rus' literature is a collection of literary works of Old Russian authors, which includes all the works of ancient Russian theologians, historians, philosophers, translators, etc., and written in Old Russian. It is a general term that unites the common literary heritage of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus of the ancient period.

Most of the monuments of Old Russian literature have been preserved in the form of manuscripts. The most common type of manuscript was literary collections. Notebooks written by a single scribe could then be bound by the scribe or binder himself. Such collections can be of a certain ("Zlatostruy", "Izmaragd", "Solemn", etc.) or indefinite content, reflecting the individual tastes and interests of one or another scribe who selected materials for himself or for his customer.

Unlike other traditionalist literatures, the Old Russian is characterized by syncretism, lack of clearly expressed poetological reflection, conscious rejection of rationalism and specification of theoretical knowledge. It differs from the Byzantine one by its emphasized irregularity, the blurring of genres and boundaries between the prosaic and the poetic, the lack of a clear conceptual apparatus.

Voluminous works could be copied and intertwined into separate books: some letopises, works on world history, paterics, works of a church-service nature, prologies, etc. Small compositions, for example, "Praying of Daniel the Immured" or "The Word about the Destruction of the Russian Land" did not make up separate books, but were distributed in collections.

The history of the origin

Izmaragd, the beginning of the XVII century

Pre-Christian period

The early examples of pre-Christian Old Russian literature should primarily include the oral epic: legends, myths and fairy tales (мost of the Old Russian oral folklore was recorded only in the 18th-19th centuries.).

Among the oral works, stories about the meeting of a person with an otherworldly force were particularly distinguished. Such a story by genre was divided into a "bailichka", where a meeting with evil spirits is told on behalf of an "eyewitness", and a "byvalschina", an oral story about a case that allegedly took place in reality, without focusing on the personal testimony of the narrator. Bailichka and byvalschina were often told in the villages to friends or children in order to wean them to walk far from home, and, according to Yevgeny Meletinsky, they became the prototype of "scary fairy tales".

Later, a special type of druzhina poetry began to take shape - bylina, ancient Russian epic poems about heroic or myphological events or remarkable episodes of national history. In some ways, bylina are similar to skaldic poetry: both are divided into songs of praise and blasphemy and glorify some historical event. Bylines, as a rule, are written in tonic verse with two or four accents.

Early period: translated Apocrypha

Almost all the literature of Ancient Russia - original and translated - was handwritten. Handwritten works were distributed by copying by scribes or ordinary people.

In ancient Russia, the apocrypha about the Last Judgment was especially popular. Among such works, a special place was occupied by the life of Basil the Younger, the second part of which (scenes from the vision of Vasily Gregory's pupil about the Last Judgment and a lengthy story about Theodore) spread as independent works.

Later, the original Old Russian apocrypha began to be created, the most famous of which is "The Walking of the Virgin through the Torments". Its plot is similar to the Greek "Revelation of the Most Holy Theotokos", but it also has many original features: pagans who worship Troyan, Veles and Perun are in the first circle of hell, there are a lot of anti-Semitic statements in the text itself, etc.

According to the philosopher Sergei Bulgakov, the special popularity of apocryphal literature in Ancient Russia is indicated by the fact that of the 7 most important monuments of the Jewish apocalyptic (except for the books of the prophet Daniel), 3 were preserved exclusively in Old Slavonic translations.

Early original compositions

Presumably, both epics and folk tales were not recorded by contemporaries for the reason that Russia inherited from Byzantium a ban on literary fiction and the presence of a purely artistic function in the works. Back in 1073, the compilers of the "Izbornik Svyatoslav" warned against worldly writings based on artistic imagination. Fiction developed only in the late period.

However, despite some limitations, scientific and artistic works had to answer questions related to natural history (the origin of the world, cosmology) and the development of human society (the settlement of peoples, the origin of power, the state, the meaning and purpose of human history).

The first original works in ancient Russia were instructive collections, which are the most common type of manuscripts (even after the beginning of printing in Russia in 1569, manuscripts have not lost their popularity). The scribe copied various works according to some attribute or genre in a notebook. Notebooks written by one scribe could then be bound by the scribe himself or the bookbinder into a separate book. The bookbinder could collect notebooks of different times and different scribes and connect them because they were of the same format or were combined by them according to content. Such collections are currently called convolutes. Such collections of teachings as Izmaragd, Golden Chain, Bee, Palea, Solemn, Zlatostruy (origins), Pchela (of Byzantine origin) were originally intended for home and cell reading. Of these, the most interesting is Palea (also Explanatory Palea), which is a collection of several interconnected ancient Russian works that set out Old Testament history with additions from apocryphal monuments, as well as with theological reasoning.

Already in the early period of the development of ancient Russian literature, one can trace the understanding of Russia not only as an ethno-political and religious community, but also as the Kingdom of Christ. In the Sermon on Law and Grace of the middle of the 11th century (the future Metropolitan Hilarion), the newly baptized Russian people are called new. The perception of the people who were baptized in the “last times” (before the Last Judgment) as new, endowed with special grace, was characteristic of Ancient Russia. The widespread idea of ​​an imminent dreadful judgment was strongly reflected in the old Russian literature of that period; ascetic creations and instructive literature became an introduction to soteriology (the doctrine of the salvation of the soul).

Literature reflects, in particular, the idea of ​​the divine patronage of Russia, and later a single Russian state and its capitals, Kiev and Moscow. Already in the «Tale of the Miracles of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God» of the second half of the 12th century, the idea of ​​​​the patronage of the Mother of God over Vladimir-Suzdal Russia and the entire Russian land is carried out.

Mathematics and Cosmology

Mathematical-Easter essays

"The Hand of John of Damascus". Medieval method for calculating the Paschal calendar. On the left: "the hand of Damaskin", on it 28 circles to the Sun — red Slavic numbers Old Slavonic alphabet, under each of them "vruceleto", each circle of the Sun — black Slavic numbers. On the right: "the zhyder hand", on it 19 lunar circles — red Slavic numbers, under each of them the Easter border, each circle of the Moon — black Slavic numbers.

In the early period after the adoption of Christianity in Russia, there was no special church calendar, and the Old Slavic calendar was not suitable for calculating church holidays. Therefore, many authors had to make their own calculations in their works, which ranked their works among not only Paschal, but also mathematical treatises. For complex calculations, schoty was often used.

The earliest mathematical work of ancient Russia is considered to be "the doctrine of numbers" by Kirik the Novgorodian, a treatise on the calculus of time, combining an essay on mathematics, chronology and Paschalistics.

However, later mathematical treatises did not receive a proper development in Russia. Among the works equal to the "doctrine of numbers", scientists include the "Charter of military Affairs" created in the XV - XVI century, which set out the tasks of triangulation on the ground, and the "Book of soshny writing", dedicated to land surveying. Later works include an extensive manuscript entitled "Synodal No. 42", the first textbook in Russian on theoretical geometry.

Cosmology works

The early cosmological works of ancient Russia were partially influenced by apocryphal writings, mixed with pre-Christian ideas about the structure of the world.

Thus, much attention is paid to the creation and structure of the world in two of the most significant early works: the Depth Book and "About the whole creation". Both works have a complex structure and are probably based on Old Russian apocryphal legends that existed for the early period after the baptism of Russia.

It is also interesting that in the "Depth Book", as in two other ancient Russian monuments - "The Conversation of the Three Saints" and "The Conversation of Jerusalem" - for some reason, whales are endowed with supernatural power. In the "Conversation of the Three Saints", the Earth floats on top of the great sea on three large whales and 30 small whales; the latter cover 30 sea windows; "The Conversation of Jerusalem" and "Depth Book" connect the movement of the whale with the end of the world. According to the "Depth Book" — "The Whale-fish is the mother of all fish. On the Whale-fish the earth is founded; when the Whale-fish turns, then our white light is finished (the end of all things will come)»

Theological literature

Very popular in ancient Russia were the lives of saints (Russian: житие, zhytie), a kind of genre of hagiography that describes the life, deeds and miracles of ancient Russian saints, martyrs and miracle workers.

Poetics

Simeon of Polotsk. The poem in the form of a star "Greeting to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on the occasion of the birth of Tsarevich Simeon".

The scientist Alexander Panchenko refers to the earliest forms of Old Russian versification as the so-called "penitential poems" (the metrical nature of which is not yet clear), single poetic texts written by the monk of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Efrosin, as well as separate chapters "Words about Igor's regiment" and "Words about the destruction of the Russian Land" containing a metric constant.

Despite this, versification in ancient Russia was most often not approved, because was considered inherent only in "Latins". This position was most consistently expressed by Archpriest Avvakum: “Do not look for rhetoric and philosophy, or eloquence, but live with a sound true verb. Therefore, а rhetorician and philosopher cannot be a Christian. Alexander Panchenko pointed out that the Old Russian church poetry was strongly influenced by West Slavic, especially Polish literature. Simeon Polotsky, releasing his "Rhymed Psalter" (1680), wrote that in Moscow they loved "the consonant singing of the Polish Psalter".

Syllabic verse

Main article: Syllabic verse

Some of the earliest representatives of Old Russian silabbic poetry are such poets as Karion Istomin, Simeon of Polotsk, Theophan Prokopovich, Antiochus Kantemir, Sylvester Medvedev and Mardary Khonykov. The principle of syllabic symmetry was dominant. A twelve-syllable verse with a caesura after the fifth or sixth syllable was used; such, for example, complex schemes: 5-6-8|8-6-5|7-7-4-5-3-5 (12 verses of Irmos "Земьнъ къто слыша таковая"...) or 8|5-5-5|8-8|5-5-5 (9 verses of Irmos "Вьсъ еси желание"...) There were also schemes where the number of syllables in each verse was a multiple of three (from St. Trinity, the sacred number "three" for Christians).

The detailed life in the monastery can be judged by the syllabic poem by Karion Istomin "About speaking from people, how monks live in the monastery":

Мънози глаголют, что монахи деют,

где в монастыре дела не имеют.

Бутто так сидят, ничего не знают,

како ли Богу честь, поклон взношают .

Надобно кому себе искусити ()

и в монастыре хоть время прожити (and live in the monastery for a while.).

Узнает, как кто в кельи пребывает,

како помыслы, страсти отвергеет...

(Many say that the monks do, where in the monastery they idle. As if they are sitting like that, they do not know anything, only honor and bow to God.)

Acrostics

Main article: Acrostics

The acrostic form became very popular in Ancient Russian poetics. It was also widely developed there. The earliest work in the genre of acrostic in ancient Russia is considered to be the "Azbuchna Prayer", translated from Old Bulgarian. The acrostic in the Old Russian book poetry was also known in later times. Thus, the acrostic is found in one of the" greetings " of Karion Istomin to Tsarevich Alexey Petrovich:

Аминь буди слава,

Любовь чиста, права
Единому Богу,
К себе в слогах многу.
Исраиль нелестный,
Избранный и честный
Царев сын, царевичь
Алексий Петровичь,
Радуйся блаженно,
Емли жизнь спасенно,
В Господе изрядствуй,
Излестно отрадствуй,
Человеком в ползе,
В златых летах долзе.
Езди умне в книгах,
Чти мудрость в веригах:
Ности она златы,
Общит в любовь браты.
Жити с нею благо,
Имство всем предраго.
Взрасти тя Бог в славе,

Имети ю здраве!

Here the acrostic is "Alexy Tsarevich live forever" (Алексий царевич вечно живи; in the fourth verse in the original, the first letter is the Slavic "xi").

Old Russian law, documentation

In ancient Russia, there were a number of canonical and legal statutes and rights. The special charters, judicial books, contractual, spiritual certificates and contribution certificates were common for the people and for the church. Most collections of ancient Russian law are strictly divided into civil and ecclesiastical. The exception is the Merilo Pravednoye, which is both a collection of church-canonical and civil legal legal nature.

People's law

The legal basis of the Old Russian state was the Russkaya Pravda, Lithuanian statutes and Moscow Sidebniks. In 1649, the Sobornoye Ulozheniye was added to these written laws.

The so-called Russkaya Pravda is of great importance for the study of Old Russian Law. Russkaya Pravda is a collection of legal norms of ancient Russia, dated from various years, starting from 1016, the oldest Russian legal code. Russian Pravda contains the norms of criminal, compulsory, hereditary, family and procedural law. It is the main source for studying the legal, social and economic relations of the Ancient Russian state.

Russian Pravda is similar to earlier European legal collections, including the so — called Germanic (barbarian) truths, for example, the "Salic law" - a collection of legislative acts of the Frankish state, the oldest text of which dates back to the beginning of the VI century.

The short version consists of the following parts:

• The Oldest Pravda or the truth of Yaroslav (Articles 1-18), 1016, is usually associated with the activities of Yaroslav the Wise;
• The Pravda of the Yaroslavichs (Izyaslav, Vsevolod and Svyatoslav, sons of Yaroslav the Wise, who were part of the Yaroslavich triumvirate) (articles 19-41), the youngest of the three princes Vsevolod is named before the middle Svyatoslav), does not have an exact date, often refers to 1072;
• Pokon virny (Article 42) - determination of the order of "feeding" of virniks (princely servants, collectors of vir-court fines[3]), 1020s or 1030s;
• Urok to mostniks (Article 43) - regulation of the remuneration of bridge builders, or, according to some versions, bridge builders, 1020s or 1030s.

As many researchers have noted, the most ancient part of the Russian truth (the oldest pravda) preserves the custom of blood feud, characteristic of the laws of pre-Christian Russia, although it limits it to the circle of closest relatives.

The lengthy version includes about 121 articles and consists of two parts-the Charter of Yaroslav Vladimirovich and the Charter of Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh. According to most researchers, the Lengthy Truth is based on the Short text, which was amended and supplemented, including those adopted during the Kiev reign of Vladimir Monomakh.

Ecclesiastical law

With the adoption of Christianity in the Old Russian state, church law arises. The most important source of church law in ancient Russia was the sudebniki, the most famous of which is the Zakon Sudnyi Liudem (the South Slavic legal Code of the IX—X centuries, although some scholars consider it a reworking of some Byzantine and Jewish laws). However, most often in the ecclesiastical sphere of ancient Russia, they used kormchies books, legal collections that contained both church rules and the decisions of the Roman and Byzantine emperors about the church.

From the translated Byzantine collections of ecclesiastical law in Russia, nomocanons, eclogues, prohiron, and Zanon books (translation of Byzantine laws) were used. However, despite the widespread existence in the written tradition, Byzantine law did not have a significant application in legal practice, and its full reception did not occur. Russian ecclesiastical law was based primarily on the ecclesiastical statutes issued by the knyazes, based on local law and only limited borrowing of Byzantine law.

Later, in 1551, the comprehensive religious collection Stoglav was created, combining the norms of judicial, criminal and ecclesiastical law. Stoglav tried to solve the following pressing issues:

• strengthening of church discipline among the clergy and the fight against the vicious behavior of representatives of the church (drunkenness, debauchery, bribery), usury of monasteries,
• unification of church rites and services,
• powers of the ecclesiastical court,
• combating the remnants of paganism among the population,
• strict regulation (and, in essence, the introduction of a kind of spiritual censorship) of the order of correspondence of church books, the writing of icons, the construction of churches, etc.

"Books of law" and "Merilo Pravednoye", one of the first ancient Russian collections of a civil and ecclesiastical-legal nature, contain both excerpts from Byzantine legislation and identical articles of Russian origin, probably included in collections from an older one that did not come down to us of the collection of ancient Russian law.

See also

• Ukrainian literature
• Russian literature
• Belarusian literature