Any national literature has its own distinctive (specific) features.

Old Russian literature (DRL) is doubly specific, because in addition to national traits bears the features of the Middle Ages (XI – XVII centuries), which had a decisive influence on the worldview and human psychology Ancient Rus'.

Two blocks can be distinguished specific features.

The first block can be called general cultural, the second is most closely connected with the inner world of the personality of a person in the Russian Middle Ages.

Let's talk about the first block very briefly. Firstly, ancient Russian literature was handwritten. In the first centuries of Russian literary process the writing material was parchment (or parchment). It was made from the skin of calves or lambs and therefore it was called “veal” in Rus'. Parchment was an expensive material, it was used extremely carefully and the most important things were written on it. Later, paper appeared instead of parchment, which partly contributed, in the words of D. Likhachev, to “the breakthrough of literature to the masses.”

In Rus', three main types of writing successively replaced each other. The first (XI - XIV centuries) was called the charter, the second (XV - XVI centuries) - semi-charter, the third (XVII century) - cursive.

Since writing material was expensive, the book’s customers (large monasteries, princes, boyars) wanted the most interesting works of various subjects and the time of their creation to be collected under one cover.

Works ancient Russian literature usually called monuments.

Monuments in Ancient Rus' functioned in the form of collections.

Particular attention should be paid to the second block of specific features of DRL.

1. The functioning of monuments in the form of collections is explained not only by the high price of the book. Old Russian man in his quest to acquire knowledge about the world around him, he strove for a kind of encyclopedicism. Therefore, ancient Russian collections often contain monuments of various themes and issues.

2. In the first centuries of the development of DRL, fiction had not yet emerged as an independent field of creativity and public consciousness. Therefore, one and the same monument was simultaneously a monument of literature, a monument of historical thought, and a monument of philosophy, which existed in Ancient Rus' in the form of theology. It is interesting to know that, for example, Russian chronicles until the beginning of the 20th century were considered exclusively as historical literature. Only thanks to the efforts of Academician V. Adrianova-Peretz did the chronicles become the object of literary criticism.

At the same time, the special philosophical richness of ancient Russian literature in subsequent centuries of Russian literary development not only survive, but will actively develop and become one of the defining national features of Russian literature as such. This will allow Academician A. Losev to state with certainty: “Fiction is a storehouse of original Russian philosophy. In the prose works of Zhukovsky and Gogol, in the works of Tyutchev, Fet, Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky<...>The main philosophical problems are often developed, of course, in their specifically Russian, exclusively practical, life-oriented form. And these problems are resolved here in such a way that an unbiased and knowledgeable judge will call these solutions not just “literary” or “artistic,” but philosophical and ingenious.”

3. Old Russian literature was anonymous (impersonal) in nature, which is inextricably linked with another characteristic feature - the collectivity of creativity. The authors of Ancient Rus' (often called scribes) did not strive to leave their name for centuries, firstly, due to Christian tradition(scribe-monks often call themselves “unreasonable,” “sinful” monks who dared to become creators of artistic expression); secondly, due to the understanding of one’s work as part of an all-Russian, collective endeavor.

At first glance, this trait seems to indicate a poorly developed personal element in the Old Russian author compared to Western European masters of artistic expression. Even the name of the author of the brilliant “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is still unknown, while Western European medieval literature can “boast” of hundreds of great names. However, there can be no talk of the “backwardness” of ancient Russian literature or its “impersonality.” We can talk about its special national quality. Once D. Likhachev very accurately compared Western European literature with a group of soloists, and Old Russian literature with a choir. Is choral singing really less beautiful than the performances of individual soloists? Is there really no manifestation of human personality in him?

4. The main character of ancient Russian literature is the Russian land. We agree with D. Likhachev, who emphasized that the literature of the pre-Mongol period is the literature of one theme - the theme of the Russian land. This does not mean at all that ancient Russian authors “refuse” to depict the experiences of an individual human personality, “get fixated” on the Russian land, depriving themselves of individuality and sharply limiting the “universal” significance of the DRL.

Firstly, ancient Russian authors always, even in the most tragic moments national history, for example, in the first decades of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, they sought through the richest Byzantine literature to become familiar with the highest achievements of the culture of other peoples and civilizations. Thus, in the 13th century, the medieval encyclopedias “Melissa” (“Bee”) and “Physiologist” were translated into Old Russian.

Secondly, and this is the most important thing, we must keep in mind that the personality of a Russian person and the personality of a Western European are formed on different ideological foundations: the Western European personality is individualistic, it is affirmed due to its special significance and exclusivity. This is due to the special course of Western European history, with the development of the Western Christian Church (Catholicism). A Russian person, by virtue of his Orthodoxy (belonging to Eastern Christianity - Orthodoxy), denies the individualistic (egoistic) principle as destructive both for the individual himself and for his environment. Russian classic literature- from the nameless scribes of Ancient Rus' to Pushkin and Gogol, A. Ostrovsky and Dostoevsky, V. Rasputin and V. Belov - depicts the tragedy of the individualistic personality and affirms his heroes on the path to overcoming the evil of individualism.

5. Old Russian literature did not know fiction. This refers to a conscious orientation towards fiction. The author and the reader absolutely believe in the truth of the literary word, even if we are talking about fiction from the point of view of a secular person.

A conscious attitude towards fiction will appear later. This will happen at the end of the 15th century during a period of intensified political struggle for leadership in the process of unifying the original Russian lands. Rulers will also appeal to the unconditional authority of the book word. This is how the genre of political legend will arise. In Moscow there will appear: the eschatological theory “Moscow - the Third Rome”, which naturally took on a topical political overtones, as well as “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir”. In Veliky Novgorod - “The Legend of the Novgorod White Cowl.”

6. In the first centuries of DRL, they tried not to depict everyday life due to the following reasons. First (religious): everyday life is sinful, its image interferes to earthly man direct your aspirations towards the salvation of the soul. Second (psychological): life seemed unchanged. Both grandfather, father, and son wore the same clothes, weapons did not change, etc.

Over time, under the influence of the process of secularization, everyday life penetrates more and more into the pages of Russian books. This will lead to the emergence in the 16th century of the genre of everyday stories (“The Tale of Ulyany Osorgina”), and in the 17th century the genre of everyday stories will become the most popular.

7. DRL is characterized by a special attitude to history. The past is not only not separated from the present, but is actively present in it, and also determines the fate of the future. An example of this is “The Tale of Bygone Years”, “The Story of the Crime of the Ryazan Princes”, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, etc.

8. Old Russian literature wore teacher character. This means that the ancient Russian scribes sought, first of all, to enlighten the souls of their readers with the light of Christianity. In DRL, unlike Western medieval literature, there was never a desire to entice the reader with a wonderful fiction, to take him away from life’s difficulties. Adventurous translated stories will gradually penetrate into Russia from early XVII century, when Western European influence on Russian life will become obvious.

So, we see that certain specific features of DID will gradually be lost over time. However, those characteristics of Russian national literature that determine the core of its ideological orientation will remain unchanged until the present time.

The problem of authorship of literary monuments of Ancient Rus' is directly related to the national specifics of the first centuries of the development of the Russian literary process. “The author’s principle,” noted D.S. Likhachev, “was muted in ancient literature.<…>The absence of great names in ancient Russian literature seems like a death sentence.<…>We are biased based on our ideas about the development of literature - ideas brought up<…>centuries when it flourished individual, personal art is the art of individual geniuses.<…>The literature of Ancient Rus' was not the literature of individual writers: it, like folk art, was supra-individual art. It was an art created through the accumulation of collective experience and making a huge impression with the wisdom of traditions and the unity of all - mostly nameless- writing.<…>Old Russian writers are not architects of free-standing buildings. These are city planners.<…>Every literature creates its own world, embodying the world of ideas of its contemporary society.” Hence, anonymous (personal) the nature of the creativity of ancient Russian authors is a manifestation of the national originality of Russian literature and in this regard namelessness“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is not a problem.

Representatives of the skeptical school of literary criticism (the first half of the 19th century) proceeded from the fact that “backward” Ancient Rus' could not “give birth” to a monument of such a level of artistic perfection as “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

Philologist-orientalist O.I. Senkovsky, for example, was sure that the creator of the Lay imitated examples of Polish poetry of the 16th – 17th centuries, that the work itself could not be older than the time of Peter I, and that the author of the Lay was a Galician who moved to Russia or was educated in Kyiv. The creators of “The Lay” were also called A.I. Musin-Pushkin (the owner of the collection with the text “Words”), and Ioliy Bykovsky (the one from whom the collection was purchased), and N.M. Karamzin as the most gifted Russian writer of the late 18th century.

Thus, the “Lay” was presented as a literary hoax in the spirit of J. Macpherson, who allegedly discovered in the mid-18th century the works of the legendary Celtic warrior and singer Ossian, who according to legend lived in the 3rd century AD. in Ireland.

The traditions of the skeptical school in the 20th century were continued by the French Slavist A. Mazon, who initially believed that the “Word” was supposedly created by A.I. Musin-Pushkin to justify the aggressive policy of Catherine II on the Black Sea: “We have here a case when history and literature deliver their evidence at the right time.” In many ways, the Soviet historian A. Zimin agreed with A. Mazon, calling Ioliy Bykovsky the creator of the Lay.

The arguments of supporters of the authenticity of the Lay were very convincing. A.S. Pushkin: the authenticity of the monument is proven by “the spirit of antiquity, which cannot be imitated. Which of our writers in the 18th century could have had enough talent for this? V.K. Kuchelbecker: “in terms of talent, this deceiver would have surpassed almost all the Russian poets of that time, taken together.”

““Attacks of skepticism,” V.A. rightly emphasized. Chivilikhin, “were to some extent even useful - they revived scientific and public interest in the Lay, encouraged scientists to look more closely into the depths of time, and generated research done with scientific care, academic objectivity and thoroughness.”

After disputes related to the time of creation of the “Word” and “Zadonshchina”, the overwhelming majority of researchers, even, ultimately, A. Mazon, came to the conclusion that the “Word” is a monument of the 12th century. Now the search for the author of the Lay has focused on the circle of contemporaries of the tragic campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, which took place in the spring of 1185.

V.A. Chivilikhin in his novel-essay “Memory” gives the most complete list of the supposed authors of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and indicates the names of the researchers who put forward these assumptions: “they named a certain “Grechin” (N. Aksakov), the Galician “wise scribe” Timofey (N. Golovin), “folk singer” (D. Likhachev), Timofey Raguilovich (writer I. Novikov), “Notorious singer Mitus” (writer A. Yugov), “thousand’s Raguil Dobrynich” (V. Fedorov), some unknown courtier singer, close associate of the Grand Duchess of Kiev Maria Vasilkovna (A. Solovyov), “singer Igor” (A. Petrushevich), “merciful” Grand Duke Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, chronicle Kochkar (American researcher S. Tarasov), unknown “wandering book singer” (I. Malyshevsky), Belovolod Prosovich (anonymous Munich translator of the Lay), Chernigov voivode Olstin Aleksich (M. Sokol), Kiev boyar Peter Borislavich (B. Rybakov), the likely heir of the family singer Boyan (A. Robinson), the nameless grandson of Boyan (M Shchepkin), in relation to a significant part of the text - Boyan himself (A. Nikitin), mentor, adviser to Igor (P. Okhrimenko), an unknown Polovtsian storyteller (O. Suleimenov)<…>».

V.A. himself Chivilikhin is sure that the creator of the word was Prince Igor. At the same time, the researcher refers to a long-standing and, in his opinion, undeservedly forgotten report by the famous zoologist and at the same time a specialist in the “Word” N.V. Charlemagne (1952). One of the main arguments of V. Chivilikhin is the following: “it was not for the singer or the warrior to judge the contemporary princes, to indicate what they should do; this is the prerogative of a person standing on the same social level with those to whom he addressed"

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 have a strong impact on it. Medieval man proceeded from the picture of the world developed by Christianity, more precisely, its Western form, called Catholicism. In the Christian Creed, 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 did 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 Jesus’ commandment - 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 the initial stage in the 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! And at a later 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 Kiev Library was destroyed by fire. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the 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 Old 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 as more ecclesiastical than it actually 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 value of a particular handwritten book was assessed from the point of view of its practical purpose and usefulness.

“Great is the benefit of the teachings of books, for we teach through books and teach 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 the ancient Russian writers known to us, the volume of their creativity, and the nature of their social activities is very, very scarce. Therefore, if when studying literature of the 18th-20th centuries. Literary scholars widely use biographical material, reveal the nature of the political, philosophical, aesthetic views of this or that writer, using the author's manuscripts, trace the history of the creation of works, reveal the creative individuality of the writer, then they have to approach the monuments of ancient Russian writing in a different way.

In medieval society, the concept of copyright did not exist; the individual characteristics of 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 author's texts of works have not reached us, but their later lists have been preserved, sometimes distant from the time the original was written 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 Host,” 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 c t o l o g y .

Deciding difficult 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 letters.

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 the letters was called u st a v o m. Work on the manuscript required painstaking work and great skill, 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 (early 12th century).

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 the mid-16th century played a huge role in the development of Russian culture. 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 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 the phenomena of literary development of modern times.

The process of historical development of ancient Russian literature is 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 was 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. The course and development of historical events is 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.

In ancient times, on the territory modern Russia lived numerous tribes with different pagan beliefs and rituals associated with the worship of many gods. The Slavs were among the first to live in this territory. The Slavs carved idols from wood. The heads of these idols were covered with silver, and the beard and mustache were made of gold. They worshiped the god of thunderstorms - Perun. There was a sun god - Dazhdbog, Stribog - he gave orders air elements, winds. Idols were placed in a high place, and bloody sacrifices (birds, animals) were brought to appease the gods. By the 9th century, tribal alliances of the Eastern Slavs formed principalities, which were headed by princes. Each prince had a squad (rich high nobility). Relations between the princes were complex, and internecine wars often broke out.

In the I X - X centuries. various principalities of the Eastern Slavs united and created a single state, which became known as the Russian Land or Rus'. The central city was Kyiv, the head of state was Grand Duke Kiev The founder of the dynasty of Kyiv princes was Rurik. The Slavic tribes fought with each other and then decided to invite one of the foreigners. The Slavs went to the Varangians who lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea. One of the leaders named Rurik was offered to come to the Slavic lands and rule. Rurik came to Novgorod, where he began to reign. He founded the Rurik dynasty, which ruled Rus' until the 16th century. Slavic lands, ruled by Rurik increasingly began to call Russia, and the inhabitants Rusichs, and later Russians. In the language of the Varangians, the detachment of rowers that sailed, led by Rurik, on a large boat to Novgorod was called Rus. But the Russians themselves understood the word Rus differently: bright land. Light brown meant fair. The princes who began to rule after Rurik (Igor, Princess Olga, Oleg, Vladimir Svyatoslav, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, etc.) sought to end civil strife within the country, defended the independence of the state, strengthened and expanded its borders.

A significant date in the history of Russia - 988. This is the year of the adoption of Christianity. Christianity came to Rus' from Byzantium. Writing spread with Christianity. In the second half of the 9th century, the brothers Cyril and Methodius created Slavic alphabet. Two alphabets were created: the Cyrillic alphabet (named Kirill) and the Glagolitic alphabet (verb-word, speech); the Glagolitic alphabet did not become widespread. The brothers are revered by the Slavic peoples as educators and are recognized as saints. Writing contributed to the development of ancient Russian literature. The literature of Ancient Rus' has a number of features.

I. Feature – syncretism i.e. compound. This feature is associated with the underdevelopment of genre forms. In one Old Russian genre It is possible to identify features characteristic of other genres, i.e., in one genre elements of several genres are combined, for example, in “Walking” there are descriptions of geographical and historical places, and sermons, and teachings. A striking manifestation of syncretism can be traced in the chronicles; they contain a military story, a legend, samples of contracts, and reflections on religious topics.

II.Feature - monumentality. The scribes of Ancient Rus' showed the greatness of the world, they were interested in the fate of the Motherland. The scribe strives to depict the eternal; eternal values ​​are determined by the Christian religion. Hence there is no image of appearance, everyday life, because... it's all mortal. The scribe strives to narrate the entire Russian land.

III. Feature - historicism. In ancient Russian monuments, historical figures were described. These are stories about battles, about princely crimes. The heroes were princes, generals, and saints. In ancient Russian literature there are no fictional heroes, there are no works on fictional plots. Fiction was equal to lies, and lies were unacceptable. The writer's right to fiction was realized only in the 17th century.

IV.Feature – patriotism. Old Russian literature is marked by high patriotism and citizenship. The authors always mourn the defeats suffered by the Russian land. Scribes always tried to put boyars and princes on the true path. The worst princes were condemned, the best were praised.

V. Feature – anonymity. Old Russian literature is mostly anonymous. Very rarely, some authors put their names at the end of manuscripts, calling themselves “unworthy”, “great sinners”; sometimes ancient Russian authors signed the names of popular Byzantine writers.

VI. Feature - Old Russian literature was entirely handwritten. And although printing appeared in the middle of the 16th century. Even before the 18th century, works were distributed by correspondence. When rewriting, scribes made their own amendments, changes, shortened or expanded the text. Therefore, the monuments of ancient Russian literature did not have a stable text. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the main writing material was parchment, made from calf skin. Parchment from the name of the ancient city (in Greece) Pergamum, where in the 2nd century BC. began to make parchment. In Rus', parchment is called “veal” or “haratya”. This expensive material was available only to the propertied class. Craftsmen and traders used birch bark. The recordings were made on birch bark. Wooden tablets were fastened together in the form of student notebooks. Famous birch bark letters are monuments of writing from the 11th to 15th centuries. Birch bark letters - a source on the history of society and Everyday life medieval people, as well as on the history of East Slavic languages.

They wrote on birch bark or parchment with ink. Ink was made from decoctions of alder or oak bark and soot. Until the 19th century enjoyed quill pen, since parchment was expensive, to save writing material, the words in the line were not separated, everything was written together. Paragraphs in the manuscript were written in red ink - hence the “red line”. Frequently used words were written abbreviated - under a special sign - “title” For example, lithargy (short for the verb, i.e. to speak) Buka (Virgin Mary)

The parchment was lined with a ruler. Every letter was written out. Texts were copied by scribes either across the entire page or in two columns. There are three types of handwriting: charter, semi-charter, cursive. The charter is in the handwriting of the 11th - 13th centuries. This is handwriting with regular, almost square letters. The letter is solemn, calm, the letters were written in wide, but not tall, letters. Working on the manuscript required painstaking work and great skill. When the scribe completed his hard work, he happily noted it at the end of the book. Thus, at the end of the Laurentian Chronicle it is written: “Rejoice, book writer, having reached the end of the books.” They wrote slowly. Thus, “Ostromirovo Gospel” took seven months to create.

From the second half of the 15th century, paper came into use and the charter gave way to semi-charter, a more fluent letter. The division of the text into words and the use of punctuation marks are associated with the semi-charter. The straight lines of the charter are replaced by oblique lines. The charter of Russian manuscripts is drawing, calligraphically clear writing. In the semi-charter it was allowed a large number of abbreviations of words, emphasis. A semi-statutory letter was faster and more convenient than a statutory letter. Since the 16th century, semi-statutory writing has been replaced by cursive writing. “Cursive writing” is a tendency to speed up writing. This is a special type of letter, differing in its graphics from the charter and semi-charter. This is a simplified version of these two types. Monuments of ancient writing indicate high level culture and skill of ancient Russian scribes, who were entrusted with the copying of texts. They tried to give handwritten books a highly artistic and luxurious appearance, decorating them various types ornaments and drawings. With the development of the statute, geometric ornament develops. It is a rectangle, arch and others geometric figures, inside of which patterns in the form of circles, triangles and others were applied on the sides of the title. The ornament could be one-color or multi-color. Ornaments depicting plants and animals were also used. Painted capital letters, used miniatures - that is, illustrations for the text. The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were intertwined into wooden boards. The boards were covered with leather, and sometimes covered with frames specially made of silver and gold. A remarkable example of jewelry art is the setting of the Mstislav Gospel (XII). In the middle of the 15th century, printing appeared. Church works were published, and artistic monuments were copied for a long time. The original manuscripts have not reached us; their later copies of the 15th century have been preserved. Thus, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” written in the late 80s of the 12th century, was found in a copy of the 16th century. Textualists study monuments, establish the time and place of their writing, and determine which list is more consistent with the original author's text. And paleographers use handwriting, writing material, and miniatures to determine the time of creation of the manuscript. In Ancient Rus', the word book in the singular was not used, since the book consisted of several notebooks bound together. They treated books with care; they believed that mishandling a book could harm a person. On one book there is an inscription: “Whoever spoils books, whoever steals them, let him be damned.”

The centers of book writing, education and culture of Ancient Rus' were monasteries. In this regard, the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery played a major role. Theodosius of Pechersk introduced the duty of monks to write books. In his life, Theodosius of Pechersky describes the process of creating books. Day and night the monks wrote books in their cells. The monks led an ascetic lifestyle and were educated people. They not only copied books, but also translated the Bible, the Psalter (songs of religious content) from Greek, church prayers, explained the meaning church holidays. Several books have survived from the 11th century. They are decorated with great taste. There are books trimmed with gold and pearls. Such books were very expensive. In Rus', book printing was considered a state matter.

The first printing house was founded by Ivan Fedorov in 1561 in Moscow. He creates a printing press, a typeface, and according to his scheme, a Printing Yard is being built not far from the Kremlin. 1564 is the year of birth of Russian book printing. Fedorov publishes the first Russian primer, which was used to teach both adults and children to read and write. Books and ancient manuscripts are stored in the libraries of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Yaroslavl, Kostroma. Few parchment manuscripts have survived, many in one copy, but most were burned during fires.

Old Russian literature (DRL) is the foundation of all literature. 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 Old Russian writing that have reached us are of an ecclesiastical nature. A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is handwritten the 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 value of a particular handwritten book was assessed from the point of view of its practical purpose and usefulness. Another feature of our ancient literature is anonymity, the impersonality of her 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. At best, 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 In most cases, the author of the work prefers to remain unknown, and sometimes hide behind the authoritative name of one or another “church father” - John Chrysostom, Basil the Great. 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 was the sphere of its ideological and artistic influence. A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is and s t o r i z m. Its heroes are predominantly historical figures; it allows almost no 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. The course and development of historical events is 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. Themes are also connected with historicism: the beauty and greatness of Rus', historical events. The DR writer creates within the framework of an established tradition, looks at models, and does not allow artistic invention.

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, so 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 was 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 was taking place, its traditions and features were taking shape, 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. 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. 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 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 various works and can be written either by the author himself or by scribes. 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 have remained anonymous; the authorship of others has been 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 Old 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 ancient Russian literature, that 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 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, 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.

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. 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 information necessary for a person. “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 “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: do not be late for church, put three prostrations, observe 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 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 recounting 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 The ancient Russian chronicle was compiled by a 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 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 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'. A story about the first Russian Christians, about the baptism of Rus', about the spread new faith, the construction of churches, the emergence of monasticism, and the success of Christian enlightenment occupy 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.