Literature Ancient Rus' arose in the 11th century. and developed over seven centuries until the Petrine era. Old Russian literature is a single whole with all the diversity of genres, themes, and images. This literature is the focus of Russian spirituality and patriotism. On the pages of these works there are conversations about the most important philosophical, moral problems, about which heroes of all centuries think, speak, reflect. The works form a love for the Fatherland and one’s people, show the beauty of the Russian land, therefore these works touch the innermost strings of our hearts.
Significance ancient Russian literature as the basis for the development of new Russian literature is very great. Thus, images, ideas, even the style of writings were inherited by A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.
Old Russian literature did not arise out of nowhere. Its appearance was prepared by the development of language, oral folk art, cultural ties with Byzantium and Bulgaria and is due to the adoption of Christianity as a single religion. First literary works, appeared in Rus', translated. Those books that were necessary for worship were translated.
The very first original works, i.e. written by ourselves Eastern Slavs, date back to the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century. V. The formation of Russian national literature took place, its traditions and features were formed, determining its specific features, a certain dissimilarity with the literature of our days.
The purpose of this work is to show the features of Old Russian literature and its main genres.
II. Features of Old Russian literature.
2. 1. Historicism of content.
Events and characters in literature, as a rule, are the fruit of the author's imagination. Authors works of art, even if they describe the true events of real people, they conjecture a lot. But in Ancient Rus' everything was completely different. The ancient Russian scribe only talked about what, in his opinion, really happened. Only in the 17th century. Everyday stories with fictional characters and plots appeared in Rus'.
Both the ancient Russian scribe and his readers firmly believed that the events described actually happened. So the chronicles were a peculiar thing for the people of Ancient Rus' legal document. After the death of Moscow Prince Vasily Dmitrievich in 1425, his younger brother Yuri Dmitrievich and son Vasily Vasilyevich began to argue about their rights to the throne. Both princes turned to Tatar Khan so that he could judge their dispute. At the same time, Yuri Dmitrievich, defending his rights to Moscow reign, referred to ancient chronicles, which reported that power had previously passed from the prince-father not to his son, but to his brother.
2. 2. Handwritten nature of existence.
Another feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence. Even the appearance printing press in Rus' the situation changed little until the middle of the 18th century. Existence literary monuments in manuscripts led to special veneration of the book. What even separate treatises and instructions were written about. But on the other hand, handwritten existence led to instability ancient Russian works literature. Those works that have come down to us are the result of the work of many, many people: the author, editor, copyist, and the work itself could last for several centuries. Therefore, in scientific terminology, there are such concepts as “manuscript” (handwritten text) and “list” (rewritten work). The manuscript may contain lists of various works and may be written either by the author himself or by copyists. Another fundamental concept in textual criticism is the term “edition,” i.e., the purposeful processing of a monument caused by socio-political events, changes in the function of the text, or differences in the language of the author and editor.
Closely related to the existence of a work in manuscripts is the following: specific trait Old Russian literature as a problem of authorship.
The author's principle in Old Russian literature is muted, implicit. Old Russian scribes were not thrifty with other people's texts. When rewriting, the texts were processed: some phrases or episodes were excluded from them or inserted into them, and stylistic “decorations” were added. Sometimes the author's ideas and assessments were even replaced by the opposite ones. The lists of one work differed significantly from each other.
Old Russian scribes did not at all strive to reveal their involvement in literary composition. Many monuments remained anonymous; the authorship of others was established by researchers based on indirect evidence. So it is impossible to attribute to someone else the writings of Epiphanius the Wise, with his sophisticated “weaving of words.” The style of Ivan the Terrible’s messages is inimitable, boldly mixing eloquence and rude abuse, learned examples and the style of simple conversation.
It happens that in a manuscript one or another text was signed with the name of an authoritative scribe, which may or may not correspond to reality. Thus, among the works attributed to the famous preacher Saint Cyril of Turov, many, apparently, do not belong to him: the name of Cyril of Turov gave these works additional authority.
The anonymity of literary monuments is also due to the fact that the ancient Russian “writer” did not consciously try to be original, but tried to show himself as traditional as possible, that is, to comply with all the rules and regulations of the established canon.
2. 4. Literary etiquette.
The famous literary critic, researcher of ancient Russian literature, Academician D. S. Likhachev, proposed a special term to designate the canon in the monuments of medieval Russian literature - “literary etiquette”.
Literary etiquette consists of:
From the idea of how this or that course of events should have taken place;
From ideas about how one should behave actor according to your position;
From ideas about what words the writer should have described what was happening.
We have before us the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words. The hero is supposed to behave this way, and the author is supposed to describe the hero only in appropriate terms.
III. The main genres of ancient Russian literature.
The literature of modern times is subject to the laws of “genre poetics.” It was this category that began to dictate the ways of creating a new text. But in ancient Russian literature the genre did not play such an important role.
A sufficient amount of research has been devoted to the genre uniqueness of ancient Russian literature, but there is still no clear classification of genres. However, some genres immediately stood out in ancient Russian literature.
3. 1. Hagiographic genre.
Life is a description of the life of a saint.
Russian hagiographic literature includes hundreds of works, the first of which were written already in the 11th century. The Life, which came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity, became the main genre of Old Russian literature, the literary form in which the spiritual ideals of Ancient Rus' were clothed.
The compositional and verbal forms of life have been refined over the centuries. High theme - story about a life that embodies ideal service to the world and God - determines the image of the author and the style of narration. The author of the life tells the story excitedly; he does not hide his admiration for the holy ascetic and his admiration for his righteous life. The author's emotionality and excitement color the entire narrative in lyrical tones and contribute to the creation of a solemn mood. This atmosphere is also created by the style of narration - high solemn, full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures.
When writing a life, the hagiographer (the author of the life) was obliged to follow a number of rules and canons. The composition of a correct life should be three-fold: introduction, story about the life and deeds of the saint from birth to death, praise. In the introduction, the author asks for forgiveness from readers for their inability to write, for the rudeness of the narrative, etc. The introduction was followed by the life itself. It cannot be called a “biography” of a saint in the full sense of the word. The author of the life selects from his life only those facts that do not contradict the ideals of holiness. The story about the life of a saint is freed from everything everyday, concrete, and accidental. In a life compiled according to all the rules, there are few dates, exact geographical names, names of historical figures. The action of the life takes place, as it were, outside of historical time and specific space; it unfolds against the backdrop of eternity. Abstraction is one of the features of the hagiographic style.
At the end of the life there should be praise to the saint. This is one of the most important parts of life, requiring great literary art, good knowledge of rhetoric.
The oldest Russian hagiographic monuments are two lives of princes Boris and Gleb and the Life of Theodosius of Pechora.
3. 2. Eloquence.
Eloquence is an area of creativity characteristic of ancient period development of our literature. Monuments of church and secular eloquence are divided into two types: teaching and solemn.
Solemn eloquence required depth of concept and great literary skill. The speaker needed the ability to construct a speech effectively in order to capture the listener, set him in a high mood corresponding to the topic, and shock him with pathos. Existed special term to denote a solemn speech - “word”. (There was no terminological unity in ancient Russian literature. A military story could also be called “the Word.”) Speeches were not only pronounced, but written and distributed in numerous copies.
Solemn eloquence did not pursue narrow practical goals; it required the formulation of problems of broad social, philosophical and theological scope. The main reasons for creating “words” are theological issues, issues of war and peace, defense of the borders of the Russian land, internal and foreign policy, the struggle for cultural and political independence.
The most ancient monument of solemn eloquence is the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, written between 1037 and 1050.
Teaching eloquence is teachings and conversations. They are usually small in volume, often devoid of rhetorical embellishments, and written in the Old Russian language, which was generally accessible to people of that time. Church leaders and princes could deliver teachings.
Teachings and conversations have purely practical purposes and contain the information a person needs. “Instruction to the Brethren” by Luke Zhidyata, Bishop of Novgorod from 1036 to 1059, contains a list of rules of behavior that a Christian should adhere to: do not take revenge, do not utter “disgraceful” words. Go to church and behave quietly in it, honor your elders, judge truthfully, honor your prince, do not curse, keep all the commandments of the Gospel.
Theodosius of Pechora is the founder of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. He owns eight teachings to the brethren, in which Theodosius reminds the monks of the rules of monastic behavior: not to be late for church, make three prostrations, maintain decorum and order when singing prayers and psalms, and bow to each other when meeting. In his teachings, Theodosius of Pechora demands complete renunciation from the world, abstinence, constant prayer and vigil. The abbot sternly denounces idleness, money-grubbing, and intemperance in food.
3. 3. Chronicle.
Chronicles were weather records (by “summers” - by “years”). The annual entry began with the words: “Into the summer.” After this there was a story about events and incidents that, from the point of view of the chronicler, were worthy of the attention of posterity. These could be military campaigns, raids by steppe nomads, natural disasters: droughts, crop failures, etc., as well as simply unusual incidents.
It is thanks to the work of chroniclers that modern historians have amazing opportunity look into the distant past.
Most often, the ancient Russian chronicler was a learned monk, who sometimes spent time compiling the chronicle long years. In those days, it was customary to start telling stories about history from ancient times and only then move on to the events of recent years. The chronicler had to first of all find, put in order, and often rewrite the work of his predecessors. If the compiler of the chronicle had at his disposal not one, but several chronicle texts at once, then he had to “reduce” them, that is, combine them, choosing from each what he considered necessary to include in his own work. When materials relating to the past were collected, the chronicler moved on to presenting the events of his time. The result of this great job the chronicle was forming. After some time, other chroniclers continued this collection.
Apparently, the first major monument ancient Russian chronicles became a chronicle compiled in the 70s of the 11th century. The compiler of this code is believed to have been the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nikon the Great (? - 1088).
Nikon's work formed the basis of another chronicle code, which was composed in the same monastery two decades later. IN scientific literature it received the code name “Initial Vault”. Its nameless compiler replenished Nikon's collection not only with news of last years, but also chronicle information from other Russian cities.
“The Tale of Bygone Years”
Based on the chronicles of the 11th century tradition. The greatest chronicle of the era was born Kievan Rus- “The Tale of Bygone Years.”
It was compiled in Kyiv in the 10s. 12th century According to some historians, its probable compiler was the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor, also known for his other works. When creating “The Tale of Bygone Years,” its compiler used numerous materials with which he supplemented the Primary Code. These materials included Byzantine chronicles, texts of treaties between Rus' and Byzantium, monuments of translated and ancient Russian literature, and oral traditions.
The compiler of “The Tale of Bygone Years” set as his goal not just to tell about the past of Rus', but also to determine the place of the Eastern Slavs among the European and Asian peoples.
The chronicler talks in detail about the settlement Slavic peoples in ancient times, about the settlement of territories by the Eastern Slavs that would later become part of the Old Russian state, about the morals and customs of different tribes. The Tale of Bygone Years emphasizes not only the antiquity of the Slavic peoples, but also the unity of their culture, language and writing, created in the 9th century. brothers Cyril and Methodius.
The chronicler considers the adoption of Christianity to be the most important event in the history of Rus'. The story about the first Russian Christians, about the baptism of Rus', about the spread of the new faith, the construction of churches, the emergence of monasticism, the success of Christian enlightenment occupies a central place in the “Tale”.
The wealth of historical and political ideas reflected in “The Tale of Bygone Years” suggests that its compiler was not just an editor, but also a talented historian, a deep thinker, and a brilliant publicist. Many chroniclers of subsequent centuries turned to the experience of the creator of the Tale, sought to imitate him and almost necessarily placed the text of the monument at the beginning of each new chronicle.
Medieval picture of the world.
Every period of history and cultural development has its own worldview, its own ideas about nature, time and space, the order of everything that exists, about the relationship of people to each other, i.e. what can be called pictures of the world. They are formed partly spontaneously, partly purposefully, within the framework of religion, philosophy, science, art, and ideology. Pictures of the world are formed on the basis of a certain way of life of people, become part of it and begin to influence it. strong impact. Medieval man proceeded from the picture of the world developed by Christianity, more precisely, its Western form, called Catholicism. IN Christian Symbol faith, compiled in the 4th century, the church is called one (unique), holy, Catholic (in Church Slavonic - cathedral) and apostolic.
The Church is Catholic (conciliar), since it has its followers in all countries of the world and contains in its dogmas the fullness of the truth, the same for all Christians. After the division of Christianity in 1054 into Western and Eastern, the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic churches appeared, and the latter more often began to be called Orthodox as a sign of the constant confession of the right faith.
Christianity- religion of salvation. For him, the essence of the history of the world is the fall of humanity (in the person of Adam and Eve) from God, which subjugated man to the power of sin, evil, death, and the subsequent return to the Creator of those who realized their fall prodigal son. This return is led by God's chosen descendants of Abraham, with whom God enters into a "covenant" (agreement) and gives them a "law" (rules of behavior). The chain of Old Testament righteous men and prophets turns into a ladder ascending to God. But even guided from above, even a holy person cannot be completely cleansed, and then the incredible happens: God incarnates, he himself becomes a man, or rather a God-man, by virtue of his miraculous birth “from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary”, free from sin. God the Word, the Savior, the Son of God appears as the Son of Man, a preacher from Galilee and voluntarily accepts a shameful death on the cross. He descends into hell, frees the souls of those who do good, resurrects on the third day, appears to the disciples, and soon then ascends to heaven. A few more days later, the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles (Pentecost) and gives them the strength to fulfill the covenant of Jesus - to preach the Gospel (“good news”) to all nations. Christian evangelism combines ethics based on love for one's neighbor with the feat of faith, which leads through the “narrow gates” to the Kingdom of Heaven. Its goal is the deification of the believer, i.e. transition to eternal life with God, is achieved through the cooperation (synergy) of human efforts and God's grace.
In the medieval consciousness, both popular and elite, great place was occupied by belief in magic, witchcraft. In the XI–XIII centuries. magic is relegated to the background, giving way to the anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. A new flowering of witchcraft, demonology, and the occult occurred in the 15th–16th centuries.
Overall medieval folk culture cannot be reduced only to the remnants of paganism and primitive beliefs. The world of images she created provided rich material for the art of the Middle Ages and Modern times, and became an important and integral part of European art. artistic culture.
Features of ancient Russian literature, its difference from modern literature.
Old Russian literature is the solid foundation on which the majestic edifice of national Russian artistic culture of the 18th-20th centuries is erected. It is based on high moral ideals, faith in man, in his possibilities of limitless moral improvement, faith in the power of the word, its ability to transform inner world man, the patriotic pathos of serving the Russian land - the state - the Motherland, faith in the ultimate triumph of good over the forces of evil, the worldwide unity of people and its victory over hated discord.
Chronological boundaries of Old Russian literature and its specific features. Russian medieval literature is initial stage development of Russian literature. Its emergence is closely connected with the process of formation of the early feudal state. Subordinated to the political tasks of strengthening the foundations of the feudal system, it in its own way reflected various periods of the development of public and social relations in Rus' in the 11th-17th centuries. Old Russian literature is the literature of the emerging Great Russian nationality, gradually developing into a nation.
The question of the chronological boundaries of ancient Russian literature has not been finally resolved by our science. Ideas about the volume of ancient Russian literature still remain incomplete. Many works were lost in the fire of countless fires, during the devastating raids of steppe nomads, the invasion of Mongol-Tatar invaders, and Polish-Swedish invaders! Yes and more late time, in 1737, the remains of the library of the Moscow tsars were destroyed by a fire that broke out in the Grand Kremlin Palace. In 1777, the Kyiv Library was destroyed by fire. During Patriotic War In 1812, handwritten collections of Musin-Pushkin, Buturlin, Bauze, Demidov, and the Moscow Society of Lovers of Russian Literature were burned in Moscow.
The main keepers and copyists of books in Ancient Rus', as a rule, were monks, who were least interested in storing and copying books of secular (secular) content. And this largely explains why the overwhelming majority of works of ancient Russian writing that have reached us are of an ecclesiastical nature.
Works of ancient Russian literature were divided into “secular” and “spiritual”. The latter were supported and disseminated in every possible way, since they contained the enduring values of religious dogma, philosophy and ethics, and the former, with the exception of official legal and historical documents, were declared “vain.” Thanks to this, we present our ancient literature in to a greater extent ecclesiastical than it really was.
When starting to study ancient Russian literature, it is necessary to take into account its specific features, which are different from the literature of modern times.
A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence and distribution. Moreover, this or that work did not exist in the form of a separate, independent manuscript, but was part of various collections that pursued certain practical goals. “Everything that serves not for the sake of benefit, but for the sake of embellishment, is subject to the accusation of vanity.” These words of Basil the Great largely determined the attitude of ancient Russian society towards written works. The meaning of this or that handwritten book assessed from the point of view of its practical purpose and usefulness.
“Great comes the benefit of bookish teaching, for we teach through books and teach us the ways of repentance, and we gain wisdom and abstinence from the words of books; for these are the rivers that feed the universe, these are the sources of wisdom, these are the sources of wisdom, these are the unsought depths, these are the comforts of us in sorrow, these are the bridles of self-control... If you diligently search for wisdom in the books, you will find great progress in your soul... "- the chronicler teaches in 1037.
Another feature of our ancient literature is the anonymity and impersonality of its works. This was a consequence of the religious-Christian attitude of feudal society towards man, and in particular towards the work of a writer, artist, and architect. IN best case scenario we know the names of individual authors, “copywriters” of books, who modestly put their name either at the end of the manuscript, or in its margins, or (which is much less common) in the title of the work. At the same time, the writer will not accept to provide his name with such evaluative epithets as “thin”, “unworthy”, “many sinners”. In most cases, the author of the work prefers to remain unknown, and sometimes hide behind the authoritative name of one or another “father of the church” - John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, etc.
Biographical information about ancient Russian writers known to us, the volume of their creativity, character social activities very, very scarce. Therefore, if when studying literature of the 18th-20th centuries. literary scholars widely use biographical material, reveal the nature of political, philosophical, aesthetic views of this or that writer, using the author’s manuscripts, trace the history of the creation of works, identify creative individuality writer, then the monuments of ancient Russian writing have to be approached differently.
In medieval society there was no concept of copyright, individual characteristics The writer's personality did not receive such a vivid manifestation as in the literature of modern times. Copyists often acted as editors and co-authors rather than simple copyists of the text. They changed the ideological orientation of the work being copied, the nature of its style, shortened or distributed the text in accordance with the tastes and demands of their time. As a result, new editions of monuments were created. And even when the copyist simply copied the text, his list was always somehow different from the original: he made typos, omitted words and letters, and involuntarily reflected in the language the features of his native dialect. In this regard, in science there is a special term - “izvod” (manuscript of the Pskov-Novgorod edition, Moscow, or, more broadly, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc.).
As a rule, the original texts of works have not reached us, but more than late lists, sometimes distant from the time of writing the original by a hundred, two hundred or more years. For example, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” created by Nestor in 1111-1113, has not survived at all, and the edition of Sylvester’s “story” (1116) is known only as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” written at the end of 80 s of the 12th century, was found in a list of the 16th century.
All this requires from the researcher of ancient Russian literature unusually thorough and painstaking textual work: studying all available lists of a particular monument, establishing the time and place of their writing by comparing various editions, variants of lists, as well as determining which edition the list most matches original author's text. These issues are dealt with by a special branch of philological science - t e x t o l o g i a .
When solving complex questions about the time of writing of this or that monument, its lists, the researcher turns to such an auxiliary historical and philological science as paleography. Based on the characteristics of letters, handwriting, the nature of writing material, paper watermarks, the nature of headpieces, ornaments, miniatures illustrating the text of a manuscript, paleography makes it possible to relatively accurately determine the time of creation of a particular manuscript and the number of scribes who wrote it.
In the XI-first half of the XIV century. The main writing material was parchment, made from calf skin. In Rus', parchment was often called “veal” or “haratya”. This expensive material was, naturally, available only to the propertied classes, and artisans and traders used birch bark for their ice correspondence. Birch bark also served as student notebooks. This is evidenced by the remarkable archaeological discoveries of Novgorod birch bark documents.
To save writing material, the words in the line were not separated, and only the paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with a red cinnabar letter - the initial, the title - a “red line” in the literal sense of the word. Frequently used, widely known words were written abbreviated under a special superscript - t and t l o m. For example, lithargy (verb - says), bg (god), btsa (Mother of God).
The parchment was pre-lined by a scribe using a ruler with a chain. Then the scribe placed it on his lap and carefully wrote out each letter. Handwriting with a regular, almost square outline of letters was called u st a v o m. Work on the manuscript required painstaking work and great art, therefore, when the scribe completed his hard work, he celebrated it with joy. “The merchant rejoices when he has made the purchase, and the helmsman in the calm of the bailiff and the wanderer having come to his fatherland, the book writer rejoices in the same way when he reaches the end of his books...”- we read at the end of the Laurentian Chronicle.
The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were intertwined into wooden boards. Hence the phraseological turn - “read a book from board to board.” The binding boards were covered with leather, and sometimes covered with special frames made of silver and gold. A remarkable example of jewelry art is, for example, the setting of the Mstislav Gospel ( beginning of XII V.).
In the XIV century. paper replaced parchment. This cheaper writing material adhered and speeded up the writing process. The charter letter is replaced by slanted, rounded handwriting with a large number of extended superscripts - poluustav. In the monuments of business writing, cursive appears, which gradually replaces the semi-ustav and occupies a dominant position in manuscripts of the 17th century .
The emergence of printing in Russia played a huge role in the development of Russian culture. mid-16th century V. However, until the beginning of the 18th century. Mostly church books were printed, but secular and artistic works continued to exist and were distributed in manuscripts.
When studying ancient Russian literature, one very important circumstance should be taken into account: in the medieval period, fiction had not yet emerged as an independent area of public consciousness; it was inextricably linked with philosophy, science, and religion.
In this regard, it is impossible to mechanically apply to ancient Russian literature the criteria of artistry with which we approach when assessing phenomena literary development new time.
Process historical development ancient Russian literature represents a process of gradual crystallization fiction, its isolation from the general flow of writing, its democratization and “secularization,” i.e., liberation from the tutelage of the church.
One of the characteristic features of Old Russian literature is its connection with church and business writing, on the one hand, and oral poetic folk art, on the other. The nature of these connections at each historical stage of the development of literature and in its individual monuments was different.
However, the wider and deeper literature used the artistic experience of folklore, the more clearly it reflected the phenomena of reality, the wider the sphere of its ideological and artistic influence.
Feature Old Russian literature - and history. Its heroes are mainly historical figures, it almost does not allow fiction and strictly follows the fact. Even numerous stories about “miracles” - phenomena that seemed supernatural to a medieval person, are not so much the invention of an ancient Russian writer, but rather accurate records of the stories of either eyewitnesses or the people themselves with whom the “miracle” happened.
The historicism of ancient Russian literature has a specifically medieval character. Progress and development historical events explained by God's will, the will of providence. The heroes of the works are princes, rulers of the state, standing at the top of the hierarchical ladder of feudal society. However, having discarded the religious shell, the modern reader easily discovers that living historical reality, the true creator of which was the Russian people.
Related information.
Russian literature before the 18th century is traditionally called “ancient”. Old Russian literature represents 2/3 of all literature. During this time, many monuments were created (about 40 thousand), most of which have not reached us. In the initial period (10th-11th centuries), the books of the 11th century were based on the books of the 10th century: treaties between the Russians and the Greeks and with other peoples. There were books written on wood and ceramics. No earlier texts have been found.
Framework- Beginning of the 10th-11th century - before the reforms of Peter (late 17).
Specific features of Old Russian literature:
1. medieval character
-religiosity – main topic– religion. Literature is authoritarian, trace. idea of the world: the world is binary, nature is also binary.
-the earthly world is secondary>>> the purpose of literature is to bring man closer to the heavenly world
Double sense organs (smart eyes - bodily eyes, smart ears - bodily ushima, etc.) >>> the task of literature is a spiritual view.
-etiquette- a set of ideas about how events should have developed, how the characters should have behaved, and what words should be used to describe events. (Likhachev). >>> Features of medieval artistic consciousness. (description of princes, saints - description by types of images).
Consciousness is different than a person of modern times. New is heresy. The main thing is authority - the Bible, the gospel.
It was important set of ideas about the world– did not notice the passage of time, did not proceed from ideas of progress, time in the past (paradise) is better. The future must return to the past. The passage of time and the change in man were not noticed; the images also did not change. And in the 19th century we see the dynamics of images.
Official status of a person– status in the secular hierarchy (prince) or church (saints, metropolitans).
Anonymity– we don’t know the names, or we know them if the hero had extra-literary authority.
(Metropolitan Hilarion) Syncretism. This is a combination of various qualities inherent in different cultural formats. For example, for a medieval person, the world around us is a world of symbols (7,12 - symbols of Christ, 4 - earth, 3 - divine). The symbol depends on the context: actual meaning, allegorical, tropological, anagogical. Previously, books were addressed to anyone, but now they are not. Then descriptions of people’s appearance were conventional, there were no landscapes, descriptions everyday scenes
, paintings. (Rublev’s icon is a symbol) Handwriting - books were created in a single copy and copied >>> variability
texts>>> a large role for textual criticism.
2. national specifics
Military-patriotic issues
The fate of the little man
The idea of forgiveness (Monomakh - Tolstoy)
Great role of satire, criticism
Criticism is a mediator between literature and life
Russian literature – literature of large spaces (panoramic view)
The historical path of Russian literature (there was no Renaissance, European literature was noticed selectively). Literature - the legacy of Byzantine literature
3. literariness
Performed many different functions >>> not literature itself
There is no description of the appearance of people, landscapes >>> interaction with painting
Also, the main features of culture and literature include:
International language of culture. In Slavic countries it was Church Slavonic, in European countries it was Latin. Dr. Russian literature was written in Church Slavonic.
Connection with extraliterary functions . There was a connection with church rituals. If in Europe there were: theology, philosophy, art. lit. In Russian traditions there is a lack of differentiation of these forms. Even in the 19th century, Russian philosophy and theology were not completely separated from culture and literature.
The originality of the historical and literary process in Rus' : There was no revival. Baroque.
A special idea of space. The space is huge, endless (for example, the word about Igor's campaign).
Criticality. Satire of the 19th and 20th centuries played a big role. (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - critical)
Old Russian literature in our sense is moreliterature . The specific features of ancient Russian literature were:
Texts are handwritten, i.e. in one copy
In Ancient Rus', the language changed faster. The scribe could have corrected something
Dialects of different regions also influenced and made their own amendments to the text
These features make ancient Russian literature similar to folklore.
The texts were in a complementary relationship. The texts were universal, for truth. There is no individualization of a person, no description of appearance, no description of the landscape. The miniatures complemented the verbal descriptions.
Attitude to texts and books – a book expressing a value system. 19th century - change of value system - 20 years (Fathers and Sons). 20th century - decades. The book connected generations. 20-30 thousand ancient Russian books have survived. Anti-market attitude (not an item of trade) – cannot be bought or sold. You can bequeath, donate.
Rewriting was honorary (princes, princesses, monks, bishops). The books were priceless. They couldn't be bought ideally. They were passed down from generation to generation. Many books are based on the calendar principle, since reading was timed to coincide with religious holidays. For example, the Gospel exists in aprokost form (according to the calendar).
Spread of bookishness in Rus' in the 10th and early 11th centuries. faced considerable difficulties. There were still very few literate people, and even less skilled scribes. The oldest extant manuscripts that reach us date back to the second half of the 11th century: this Ostromir Gospel, rewritten from the Bulgarian original " Izbornik", a small collection of words and teachings. The creation of the oldest literary monuments known to us can also be attributed to this time: “ Words about Law and Grace»Metropolitan Hilarion, chronicle vaults, etc. However, all of them were preserved only in later lists.
We can, however, imagine character of literature that time. Her the genre system met spiritual needs, typical of Christian states in the Middle Ages. Literature was devoted mainly to ideological issues.“Old Russian literature can be considered as literature of one theme and one plot. This story - world history, and this topic is the meaning of human life", - so briefly formulated characteristic features of literature of the most ancient period of Russian history D.S. Likhachev.
The basis for Christian doctrine and worldviews were bible books(or Holy Scripture), as well as the writings of the most authoritative theologians. The Bible includes the books of the Old and New Testaments. The popularity of the Psalter, a collection of 150 psalms (prayers and hymns), was enormous. The entire Bible was translated into Rus' only in the 15th century, but individual biblical books became known in Slavic translations already in Kievan Rus.
Genres: sermons (for church use), life, walking, chronicle (PVL), sermons (“the word about the law and grace of Hilarion”, hagiography (The Tale of Boris and Gleb), walking (“across the three seas by Athanasius Nikitin”).
Genres that gave a spiritual view of the world (sermons, lives, teachings). The sermon is sacred in nature and unites two time layers. Teachings are a didactic genre. Vladimir Monomakh writes his teaching based on his biography. And genres that depict the world in a physical form (the walks of Hegumen Daniel (water touches everything), Military Tale (battle, battle)).
Simple and complex genres. The chronicle could include the life (of Boris and Gleb). PVL – military story, folklore genres (family legends, toponymic). Small genres (Princess Olga asks riddles). The circulation came down as part of the chronicle, and may include small genres (folklore writings, af Nikitin about monkeys, Daniel - a description of apocryphal legends that he heard in the holy land).
"A Word on Law and Grace" » , written by the Kyiv priest Hilarion (future metropolitan), was first pronounced by him in 1049 in honor of the completion of the construction of Kyiv defensive structures. Hilarion’s “Lay” is a kind of church-political treatise in which the Russian land and its princes are glorified.
In addition to the “Sermon on Law and Grace,” the works of Kliment Smolyatich and Kirill of Turov and the “Teaching” of Prince VM have reached us.
"Teaching" of Prince Vladimir Monomakh united four independent works: this is the “Teaching” itself, an autobiography and “Letter to Oleg Svyatoslavovich”, a prayer.
“Teaching” by Vladimir Monomakh - for now the only example in ancient Russian literature of political and moral instruction created not by a spiritual leader, but by a statesman.“The Instruction,” like later “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” was not so much based on the traditions of certain literary genres, but rather met the political needs of its time. Monomakh included his autobiography in the Instructions.
The most ancient Russian chronicle. The emergence of writing made it possible to record oral historical traditions. This is how chronicle writing arose. It was the chronicle that was destined, until the 18th century, to become one of the leading literary genres, in the depths of which Russian plot storytelling developed.
The history of the oldest chronicles is to a certain extent hypothetical. We have only lists of chronicles from very late times (the Novgorod Chronicle of the 13th-14th centuries, the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377, the Ipatiev Chronicle of the early 15th century), reflecting not the most ancient chronicle codes, but their subsequent processing.
Initial chronicle . The oldest chronicle that has actually reached us is the “Tale of Bygone Children,” presumably created around 1113. Chronicle writing as a genre appears, apparently, only during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054.
The next stage in the development of Russian chronicles occurred in the 1060-70s, associated with the activities of the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nikon. "Initial vault". Around 1095, a new chronicle was created, which A.A. Shakhmatov called it “Initial arch”. The compiler of the “NS” continued Nikon’s collection, bringing the account of events from 1073 to 1095, and gave his narrative a more journalistic character.
Further development is characterized by a mixture of genres from the 13th century to the end of the 15th century. Regional versions of literature appear (Tver, Novgorod), a softening of accents, and the main genre is the story. Lives play a big role (the style changes, the role of the author increases (Life of Sergius of Radonezh, Stefany of Perm)
Tue. floor 15-16 century.– epistolary type (letters from Ivan the Terrible). The Age of Journalism. Journalism of Maxim the Greek.
17th century- the medieval system of genres is destroyed, lives disappear, turn into stories (the lives of Archpriest Avvakum, about Martha and Mary), the military story becomes a historical story, the historical story absorbs folklore and features of utopia (in reality one thing, but the author creates a different reality).
P. S. Girls, I don’t know if it’s necessary to talk about translated literature, I’ll leave it just in case, it’s never too late to delete it!!
Translated literatureXI- XIIIcenturies.Chronicles. Among the first translations and the first books brought to Rus' from Bulgaria were Byzantine chronicles. Chronicles are works of historiography that present world history. The Chronicle of George Amartol played a particularly important role in the development of original Russian chronicles and Russian chronography. Its compiler is a Byzantine monk. Amartol in Greek is a sinner; it is a traditional self-deprecating epithet for a monk.
No later than the 11th century. The Chronicle of Joanna Malala also became known in Rus' - it was valuable for ancient Russian historiographers and scribes primarily because it significantly complemented the Chronicle of George Amartol.
Stories. "The Tale of Akira the Wise." This story originated in Assyro-Babylonia in the 7th century. BC. This story is interesting as an action-packed work.
Apocrypha.(gr. apocrypha– hidden). In medieval writing, apocrypha became widespread - legends about characters from biblical history, but the plots differed from those contained in the biblical canonical books. Finally, apocryphal motifs could be included in works of traditional genres, for example, in hagiographies, for example, the popular apocrypha - “The Virgin’s Walk through the Torment”. Apocrypha was found in ancient Russian writing throughout its history.
The most ancient Russian lives: “Legend” and “Reading” about princes Boris and Gleb, “The Life of St. Theodosius of Pechersk” by Nestor.
Two main groups of hagiographic plots: some lives were “entirely devoted to the theme of an ideal Christian hero who left “worldly” life in order to earn “eternal” life (after death) through exploits, while the heroes of the other group of lives strive to justify by their behavior not only general Christian, but also the feudal ideal.
In ancient Russian literature, which knew no fiction, historical in large or small ways, the world itself was presented as something eternal, universal, where events and people’s actions are determined by the very system of the universe, where the forces of good and evil are forever fighting, a world whose history is well known ( after all, for each event mentioned in the chronicle, an exact date was indicated - the time that had passed from the “creation of the world”!) and even the future was destined: prophecies about the end of the world, the “second coming” of Christ and the Last Judgment awaiting all people on earth were widespread.
Obviously, this could not but affect literature: the desire to subordinate the very image of the world, to determine the canons by which this or that event should be described led to the very schematicism of ancient Russian literature that we talked about in the introduction. This sketchiness is called subordination to the so-called literary etiquette - D.S. Likhachev discusses its structure in the literature of Ancient Rus':
1) how this or that course of events should have taken place;
2) how the character should have behaved in accordance with his position;
3) How should a writer describe what is happening?
“What we have before us, therefore, is the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words,” he says.
To explain these principles, consider next example: in the life of a saint, according to the etiquette of behavior, it should have been told about the childhood of the future saint, about his pious parents, about how he was drawn to church from infancy, shunned games with peers, and so on: in any life this plot component is not only necessarily is present, but is also expressed in every life in the same words, that is, verbal etiquette is observed. Here, for example, are the opening phrases of several lives belonging to different authors and written in different time: Theodosius of Pechersk “with his soul drawn to the love of God, and going to God’s church all day long, listening to divine books with great attention, and also not approaching children playing, as is the custom, and abhorring their games.. . Therefore, devote yourself to the teaching of divine books... And soon all grammar will be forgotten"; Nifont of Novgorod “was given by his parents to study divine books. And soon I became completely unaccustomed to book teaching, and was not at all like children’s games with my peers, but was more devoted to the church of God and revered the divine scriptures to my heart’s content”; Varlaam Khutynsky “at the same time was given the ability to quickly teach divine books, and also soon indiscriminately [quickly] learn the divine scriptures... not for any reason shying away from some games or disgraces [spectacles], but even more so from reading the divine scriptures.”
The same situation is observed in the chronicles: descriptions of battles, posthumous characteristics of kings or church hierarchs are written using practically the same limited vocabulary.
The attitude towards the problem of authorship among the scribes of Ancient Rus' was also somewhat different from the modern one: for the most part, the name of the author was indicated only to verify events, in order to certify the reader of the authenticity of what was being described, and authorship itself had no value in modern concept. Based on this, the situation is as follows: on the one hand, most of the ancient Russian works are anonymous: we do not know the name of the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, or of many other works, such as “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev”, “The Tale of the Destruction” Russian Land" or "Kazan History". On the other hand, we encounter an abundance of so-called falsely inscribed monuments - its authorship is attributed to some famous person in order to make it more significant. In addition, the insertion into one’s works not only of individual phrases, but also of entire fragments was not considered plagiarism, but testified to the scribe’s erudition, high book culture and literary training.
So, getting acquainted with historical conditions and some principles of work of authors of the XI-XVII centuries. gives us the opportunity to appreciate the special style and methods of presentation of the ancient Russian scribes, who built their narrative according to accepted and justified canons: they introduced a fragment from exemplary works into the narration, demonstrating their erudition and describing events according to a certain stencil, following literary etiquette.
Poverty of details, everyday details, stereotypical characteristics, “insincerity” of the characters’ speeches - all these are not literary shortcomings at all, but precisely features of the style, which implied that literature is intended to tell only about the eternal, without going into passing everyday trifles and mundane details.
On the other hand, the modern reader especially appreciates the deviations from the canon that were periodically allowed by the authors: it was these deviations that made the narrative lively and interesting. These digressions were at one time given a terminological definition - “realistic elements”. Of course, this in no way correlates with the term “realism” - there are still seven centuries before it, and these are precisely anomalies, violations of the basic laws and trends of medieval literature under the influence of living observation of reality and the natural desire to reflect it.
Of course, despite the presence of a strict framework of etiquette, which significantly limited the freedom of creativity, ancient Russian literature did not stand still: it developed, changed styles, etiquette itself, its principles and means of its implementation changed. D. S. Likhachev in his book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” (Moscow, 1970) showed that each era had its own dominant style - either the style of monumental historicism of the 11th-13th centuries, or the expressive-emotional style of the 14th - XV centuries, then there was a return to the previous style of monumental historicism, but on a new basis - and the so-called “style of second monumentalism” arose, characteristic of the XVI century.
D. S. Likhachev also considers several main directions leading to the development of ancient Russian literature into the literature of modern times: the increase in the personal element in literature and the individualization of style, the expansion of the social circle of people who can become heroes of works. The role of etiquette is gradually decreasing, and instead of schematic images of the conventional standards of a prince or saint, attempts appear to describe a complex individual character, its inconsistency and variability.
Here it is necessary to make one reservation: V. P. Adrianova-Peretz showed that understanding the complexity of human character, the subtlest psychological nuances was inherent in medieval literature already at the very early stages of its development, but was the norm for depiction in chronicles, stories, and lives there was still an image of etiquette, conventional characters depending on social status their owners.
The choice of plots or plot situations became wider, fiction appeared in literature; genres that do not have a primary need are gradually entering literature. Works of folk satire begin to be written down, chivalric novels are translated; moralizing, but essentially entertaining short stories - facets; in the 17th century syllabic poetry and dramaturgy emerge. In a word, by the 17th century. In literature, features of the literature of modern times are more and more revealed.
The literature of Ancient Rus' arose in the 11th century. and developed over seven centuries until the Petrine era. Old Russian literature is a single whole with all the diversity of genres, themes, and images. This literature is the focus of Russian spirituality and patriotism. On the pages of these works there are conversations about the most important philosophical and moral problems that heroes of all centuries think, talk about, and reflect on. The works form a love for the Fatherland and one’s people, show the beauty of the Russian land, therefore these works touch the innermost strings of our hearts.
The significance of Old Russian literature as the basis for the development of new Russian literature is very great. Thus, images, ideas, even the style of writings were inherited by A.S. Pushkin, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy.
Old Russian literature did not arise out of nowhere. Its appearance was prepared by the development of language, oral folk art, cultural ties with Byzantium and Bulgaria and due to the adoption of Christianity as a single religion. The first literary works to appear in Rus' were translated. Those books that were necessary for worship were translated.
The first original works, that is, written by the Eastern Slavs themselves, date back to the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries. V. The formation of Russian national literature took place, its traditions and features were formed, determining its specific features, a certain dissimilarity with the literature of our days.
The purpose of this work is to show the features of Old Russian literature and its main genres.
Features of Old Russian literature
1. Historicism of content.
Events and characters in literature, as a rule, are the fruit of the author's fiction. Authors of works of fiction, even if they describe the true events of real people, conjecture a lot. But in Ancient Rus' everything was completely different. The ancient Russian scribe only talked about what, in his opinion, really happened. Only in the 17th century. Everyday stories with fictional characters and plots appeared in Rus'.
Both the ancient Russian scribe and his readers firmly believed that the events described actually happened. Thus, chronicles were a kind of legal document for the people of Ancient Rus'. After the death of Moscow Prince Vasily Dmitrievich in 1425, his younger brother Yuri Dmitrievich and son Vasily Vasilyevich began to argue about their rights to the throne. Both princes turned to the Tatar Khan to arbitrate their dispute. At the same time, Yuri Dmitrievich, defending his rights to reign in Moscow, referred to ancient chronicles, which reported that power had previously passed from the prince-father not to his son, but to his brother.
2. Handwritten nature of existence.
Another feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence. Even the appearance of the printing press in Rus' changed the situation little until the middle of the 18th century. The existence of literary monuments in manuscripts led to a special veneration of the book. What even separate treatises and instructions were written about. But on the other hand, handwritten existence led to the instability of ancient Russian works of literature. Those works that have come down to us are the result of the work of many, many people: the author, editor, copyist, and the work itself could last for several centuries. Therefore, in scientific terminology, there are such concepts as “manuscript” (handwritten text) and “list” (rewritten work). The manuscript may contain lists of various works and may be written either by the author himself or by copyists. Another fundamental concept in textual criticism is the term “edition,” i.e., the purposeful reworking of a monument caused by socio-political events, changes in the function of the text, or differences in the language of the author and editor.
Closely connected with the existence of a work in manuscripts is such a specific feature of Old Russian literature as the problem of authorship.
The author's principle in Old Russian literature is muted, implicit. Old Russian scribes were not thrifty with other people's texts. When rewriting, the texts were processed: some phrases or episodes were excluded from them or inserted into them, and stylistic “decorations” were added. Sometimes the author's ideas and assessments were even replaced by the opposite ones. The lists of one work differed significantly from each other.
Old Russian scribes did not at all strive to reveal their involvement in literary composition. Many monuments remained anonymous; the authorship of others was established by researchers based on indirect evidence. So it is impossible to attribute to someone else the writings of Epiphanius the Wise, with his sophisticated “weaving of words.” The style of Ivan the Terrible’s messages is inimitable, boldly mixing eloquence and rude abuse, learned examples and the style of simple conversation.
It happens that in a manuscript one or another text was signed with the name of an authoritative scribe, which may or may not correspond to reality. Thus, among the works attributed to the famous preacher Saint Cyril of Turov, many, apparently, do not belong to him: the name of Cyril of Turov gave these works additional authority.
The anonymity of literary monuments is also due to the fact that the ancient Russian “writer” did not consciously try to be original, but tried to show himself as traditional as possible, that is, to comply with all the rules and regulations of the established canon.
4. Literary etiquette.
Well-known literary critic, researcher of ancient Russian literature, Academician D.S. Likhachev proposed a special term to designate the canon in the monuments of medieval Russian literature - “literary etiquette”.
Literary etiquette consists of:
From the idea of how this or that course of events should have taken place;
From ideas about how the actor should have behaved in accordance with his position;
From ideas about what words the writer should have described what was happening.
We have before us the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words. The hero is supposed to behave this way, and the author is supposed to describe the hero only in appropriate terms.
Main genres of ancient Russian literature
The literature of modern times is subject to the laws of the “poetics of the genre.” It was this category that began to dictate the ways of creating a new text. But in ancient Russian literature the genre did not play such an important role.
A sufficient amount of research has been devoted to the genre uniqueness of ancient Russian literature, but there is still no clear classification of genres. However, some genres immediately stood out in ancient Russian literature.
1. Hagiographic genre.
Life - a description of the life of a saint.
Russian hagiographic literature includes hundreds of works, the first of which were written already in the 11th century. The Life, which came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity, became the main genre of Old Russian literature, the literary form in which the spiritual ideals of Ancient Rus' were clothed.
The compositional and verbal forms of life have been refined over the centuries. The high theme - a story about life that embodies ideal service to the world and God - determines the image of the author and the style of the narrative. The author of the life tells the story excitedly; he does not hide his admiration for the holy ascetic and his admiration for his righteous life. The author's emotionality and excitement color the entire narrative in lyrical tones and contribute to the creation of a solemn mood. This atmosphere is also created by the style of narration - high solemn, full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures.
When writing a life, the hagiographer (the author of the life) was obliged to follow a number of rules and canons. The composition of a correct life should be three-fold: introduction, story about the life and deeds of the saint from birth to death, praise. In the introduction, the author asks for forgiveness from readers for their inability to write, for the rudeness of the narrative, etc. The introduction was followed by the life itself. It cannot be called a “biography” of a saint in the full sense of the word. The author of the life selects from his life only those facts that do not contradict the ideals of holiness. The story about the life of a saint is freed from everything everyday, concrete, and accidental. In a life compiled according to all the rules, there are few dates, exact geographical names, or names of historical figures. The action of the life takes place, as it were, outside of historical time and specific space; it unfolds against the backdrop of eternity. Abstraction is one of the features of the hagiographic style.
At the end of the life there should be praise to the saint. This is one of the most important parts of life, which required great literary art and a good knowledge of rhetoric.
The oldest Russian hagiographic monuments are two lives of princes Boris and Gleb and the Life of Theodosius of Pechora.
2. Eloquence.
Eloquence is an area of creativity characteristic of the most ancient period of the development of our literature. Monuments of church and secular eloquence are divided into two types: teaching and solemn.
Solemn eloquence required depth of concept and great literary skill. The speaker needed the ability to construct a speech effectively in order to capture the listener, set him in a high mood corresponding to the topic, and shock him with pathos. There was a special term for a solemn speech - “word”. (There was no terminological unity in ancient Russian literature. A military story could also be called “the Word.”) Speeches were not only pronounced, but written and distributed in numerous copies.
Solemn eloquence did not pursue narrow practical goals; it required the formulation of problems of broad social, philosophical and theological scope. The main reasons for creating “words” are theological issues, issues of war and peace, defense of the borders of the Russian land, domestic and foreign policy, the struggle for cultural and political independence.
The most ancient monument of solemn eloquence is the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, written between 1037 and 1050.
Teaching eloquence is teachings and conversations. They are usually small in volume, often devoid of rhetorical embellishments, and written in the Old Russian language, which was generally accessible to people of that time. Church leaders and princes could deliver teachings.
Teachings and conversations have purely practical purposes and contain the information a person needs. “Instruction to the Brethren” by Luke Zhidyata, Bishop of Novgorod from 1036 to 1059, contains a list of rules of conduct that a Christian should adhere to: do not take revenge, do not utter “shameful” words. Go to church and behave quietly in it, honor your elders, judge truthfully, honor your prince, do not curse, keep all the commandments of the Gospel.
Theodosius of Pechora is the founder of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. He owns eight teachings to the brethren, in which Theodosius reminds the monks of the rules of monastic behavior: not to be late for church, make three prostrations, maintain decorum and order when singing prayers and psalms, and bow to each other when meeting. In his teachings, Theodosius of Pechora demands complete renunciation from the world, abstinence, constant prayer and vigil. The abbot sternly denounces idleness, money-grubbing, and intemperance in food.
3. Chronicle.
Chronicles were weather records (by “years” - by “years”). The annual entry began with the words: “Into the summer.” After this there was a story about events and incidents that, from the point of view of the chronicler, were worthy of the attention of posterity. These could be military campaigns, raids by steppe nomads, natural disasters: droughts, crop failures, etc., as well as simply unusual incidents.
It is thanks to the work of chroniclers that modern historians have an amazing opportunity to look into the distant past.
Most often, the ancient Russian chronicler was a learned monk who sometimes spent many years compiling the chronicle. In those days, it was customary to start telling stories about history from ancient times and only then move on to the events of recent years. The chronicler had to first of all find, put in order, and often rewrite the work of his predecessors. If the compiler of the chronicle had at his disposal not one, but several chronicle texts at once, then he had to “reduce” them, that is, combine them, choosing from each what he considered necessary to include in his own work. When materials relating to the past were collected, the chronicler moved on to presenting the events of his time. The result of this great work was the chronicle collection. After some time, other chroniclers continued this collection.
Apparently, the first major monument of ancient Russian chronicle writing was the chronicle code compiled in the 70s of the 11th century. The compiler of this code is believed to have been the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nikon the Great (? - 1088).
Nikon's work formed the basis of another chronicle, which was compiled in the same monastery two decades later. In the scientific literature it received the code name "Initial arch". Its nameless compiler replenished Nikon's collection not only with news from recent years, but also with chronicle information from other Russian cities.
"The Tale of Bygone Years"
Based on the chronicles of the 11th century tradition. The greatest chronicle monument of the era of Kievan Rus was born - “The Tale of Bygone Years”.
It was compiled in Kyiv in the 10s. 12th century According to some historians, its probable compiler was the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor, also known for his other works. When creating The Tale of Bygone Years, its compiler used numerous materials with which he supplemented the Primary Code. These materials included Byzantine chronicles, texts of treaties between Rus' and Byzantium, monuments of translated and ancient Russian literature, and oral traditions.
The compiler of “The Tale of Bygone Years” set as his goal not just to tell about the past of Rus', but also to determine the place of the Eastern Slavs among the European and Asian peoples.
The chronicler talks in detail about the settlement of Slavic peoples in ancient times, about the settlement of territories by the Eastern Slavs that would later become part of the Old Russian state, about the morals and customs of different tribes. The Tale of Bygone Years emphasizes not only the antiquity of the Slavic peoples, but also the unity of their culture, language and writing, created in the 9th century. brothers Cyril and Methodius.
The chronicler considers the adoption of Christianity to be the most important event in the history of Rus'. The story of the first Russian Christians, the baptism of Rus', the spread of the new faith, the construction of churches, the emergence of monasticism, and the success of Christian enlightenment occupies a central place in the Tale.
The wealth of historical and political ideas reflected in The Tale of Bygone Years suggests that its compiler was not just an editor, but also a talented historian, a deep thinker, and a brilliant publicist. Many chroniclers of subsequent centuries turned to the experience of the creator of the Tale, sought to imitate him and almost necessarily placed the text of the monument at the beginning of each new chronicle.