Spiritual life in ancient Russia briefly. Cultural and spiritual life of Russia in the XIV - XV centuries

21.04.2020

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Russian culture of the XIV-XVI centuries retained its originality, but was strongly influenced by the Mongol-Tatars, which manifested itself in the borrowing of words (money - from the Turkic tanga), weapons (saber), technology in arts and crafts (gold embroidery on velvet).

As a result of the Mongol invasion, many cities perished, stone construction ceased, many technologies of decorative and applied arts were lost, and the educational level of the population decreased. To a lesser extent, Novgorod land was subjected to cultural ruin. Until the middle of the XIV century, Russian culture was in a state of decline. Since the second half of the 14th century, Russian culture has experienced a renaissance. She was inspired by two ideas: the struggle against the Horde and feudal fragmentation and the desire for unification and national revival.

Literature

The leading theme in literature is patriotism and the exploits of the Russian people. There is a rethinking of many epic stories. become a new genre songs and tales on historical themes (The legend of Evpatiy Kalovrat- about the heroic defense of Ryazan, The legend of Clicker- about the uprising in Tver in 1327). The theme of the fight against external enemies remains the main one in the 16th century. Monuments of this time describe such events as the capture of Kazan, the fight against the Krymchaks and Stefan Batory, the conquest of the Siberian Khanate by Yermak. The image of Ivan the Terrible in these songs is strongly idealized, and Malyuta Skuratov becomes the main culprit of the oprichnina.

Along with historical songs, hagiography(Sergius of Radonezh, Metropolitan Peter), walking- travel descriptions Journey beyond three seas Athanasius Nikitin). In the 14th and 15th centuries there was a flourishing annals by monasteries. In the 14th century, Moscow created unified Russian chronicle, and in the middle of the 15th century - " Chronograph” is an overview of world history, which also includes Russian history. Great work on the collection and systematization of Russian literature was carried out by an associate of Ivan the Terrible Novgorod Metropolitan Macarius.

V journalistic literature XV-XVI centuries, the idea of the legitimate supremacy of Moscow in the Russian lands is persistently carried out. Under Prince Vasily III, the monk Philotheus formulates theory "Moscow - the Third Rome". In this theory, Moscow is called the guardian of Orthodoxy after such world centers of Orthodoxy as Rome and Constantinople perished. This theory until the beginning of the twentieth century will determine the path of development of Russia. Ivan the Terrible and Andrei Kurbsky are trying to comprehend the nature of tsarist power in their correspondence. A prime example household genre becomes " Domostroy”, which contains tips on proper housekeeping.

Since the 14th century, paper appeared in Russia, which made it possible to create many textbooks for monastic schools. V 1533 the first printing house (Anonymous Printing House) opens in Moscow, and 1564 attributed to the first precisely dated printed book produced by Ivan Fedorov.

Craft

The revival of the craft begins at the end of the 14th century. By the 15th century, metalworking, wood carving and bone carving were actively developing. V In 1586, the foundry worker Andrey Chokhov cast the Tsar Cannon.

icon painting

In the XIV-XV centuries, icon-painting schools of individual lands finally took shape. Came to Novgorod from Byzantium Theophanes the Greek, which had a great influence on Russian icon painters. The images created by Theophan are imbued with great spiritual power. Theophanes was a student Andrey Rublev. Andrei is characterized by a special roundness, smoothness of lines, a light range of colors. The main idea of the icon painter is the comprehension of moral purity through the heavenly world. The pinnacle of ancient Russian painting is the icon " Trinity» created by Andrey Rublev.

In the 15th century, stories on historical themes increasingly penetrate into icon painting, portrait images of kings and queens appear.

Architecture

In the XIV century, after the Mongol pogrom, stone construction was revived. V 1327 Dmitry Donskoy surrounds the Kremlin with a white stone wall. Under Ivan III, large-scale construction began on the territory of the Kremlin, for which the best craftsmen from Novgorod, Pskov, Rostov, Vladimir and Italy were invited. Italian master Aristotle Theoravanti erects Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals, and the Pskov masters build Blagoveshchensky cathedral. The architectural composition of the Moscow Kremlin in the 16th century becomes a model for construction in other cities: Novgorod, Tula, Smolensk. In the 16th century, a new architectural style was formed - hipped roof.. Elements of the tent style are used in the architecture of the central church of St. Basil's Cathedral.

On the whole, by the end of the 16th century, Russian art was losing traces of local artistic traditions and turning into an all-Russian one.

Literature

Along with historical songs, hagiography(Sergius of Radonezh, Metropolitan Peter), walking- travel descriptions ( Journey beyond three seas Athanasius Nikitin). In the XIV-XV centuries there is a flourishing annals by monasteries. In the 14th century, Moscow created unified Russian chronicle, and in the middle of the 15th century - “ Chronograph» - an overview of world history, which also includes Russian history. Great work on the collection and systematization of Russian literature was carried out by an associate of Ivan the Terrible Novgorod Metropolitan Macarius.

V journalistic literature XV-XVI centuries, the idea of the legitimate supremacy of Moscow in the Russian lands is persistently pursued. Under Prince Vasily III, the monk Philotheus formulates theory "Moscow-Third Rome". In this theory, Moscow is called the guardian of Orthodoxy after such world centers of Orthodoxy as Rome and Constantinople perished. This theory until the beginning of the twentieth century will determine the path of development of Russia. Ivan the Terrible and Andrei Kurbsky are trying to comprehend the nature of tsarist power in their correspondence. A prime example household genre becomes " Domostroy”, which contains tips on proper housekeeping.

Craft

icon painting

In the XIV-XV centuries, the icon-painting schools of individual lands finally took shape. Came to Novgorod from Byzantium Theophanes the Greek, which had a great influence on Russian icon painters. The images created by Theophan are imbued with great spiritual power. Theophanes was a student Andrey Rublev. Andrei is characterized by a special roundness, smoothness of lines, a light range of colors. The main idea of the icon painter is the comprehension of moral purity through the heavenly world. The pinnacle of ancient Russian painting is the icon " Trinity» created by Andrey Rublev.

In the 15th century, stories on historical themes increasingly penetrate into icon painting, portrait images of kings and queens appear.

Architecture

In the XIV century, after the Mongol pogrom, stone construction was revived. V 1327 Dmitry Donskoy surrounds the Kremlin with a white stone wall. Under Ivan III, large-scale construction began on the territory of the Kremlin, for which the best craftsmen from Novgorod, Pskov, Rostov, Vladimir and Italy were invited. Italian master Aristotle Theoravanti erects Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals, and the Pskov masters build Blagoveshchensky cathedral. The architectural composition of the Moscow Kremlin in the 16th century becomes a model for construction in other cities: Novgorod, Tula, Smolensk. In the 16th century, a new architectural style was formed-tented. Elements of the tent style are used in the architecture of the central church of St. Basil's Cathedral.

On the whole, by the end of the 16th century, Russian art was losing traces of local artistic traditions and turning into an all-Russian one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources and literature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Mongol-Tatar invasion interrupted the powerful rise of Russian culture. The destruction of cities, the loss of traditions, the disappearance of artistic trends, the destruction of monuments of writing, painting, architecture - a blow, from which it was possible to recover only by the middle of the 14th century. In the ideas and images of Russian culture of the XIV-XVI centuries. the mood of the era was reflected - the time of decisive successes in the struggle for independence, the overthrow of the Horde yoke, unification around Moscow, the formation of the Great Russian people.

The memory of a prosperous and happy country, which remained in the minds of the society of Kievan Rus (ʼʼlight bright and beautifully decoratedʼʼ - words from ʼʼThe Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Landʼʼ, no later than 1246), kept primarily literature. Chronicle writing remained its most important genre; it was revived in all the lands and principalities of Russia. At the beginning of the XV century. in Moscow, the first all-Russian annalistic code was compiled - an important evidence of progress in the unification of the country. With the completion of this process, chronicle writing, subordinate to the idea of justifying the power of the Moscow prince, and then the tsar, acquired an official character.
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In the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible (70s of the 16th century), an illustrated ʼʼFocus Annalistic Codeʼʼ was compiled in 12 volumes, containing more than 15000 miniatures.
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In the XIV-XV centuries. the favorite topic of oral folk art is the struggle of Russia with the ʼʼʼʼʼʼʼ. The genre of historical song is taking shape (ʼʼSong about the Clickerʼʼ, about the battle on the Kalka, about the ruin of Ryazan, about Evpaty Kolovrat, etc.). Historical songs reflected and major events 16th century - Kazan campaign of Ivan the Terrible, oprichnina, the image of the Terrible Tsar. Victory in the Battle of Kulikovo 1380ᴦ. gave rise to a cycle of historical stories, from which the ʼʼThe Legend of the Battle of Mamaevʼʼ and the inspired ʼʼZadonshchinaʼʼ stand out (its author Sofony Ryazanets used images and excerpts from the ʼʼThe Tale of Igor's Campaignʼʼ). The lives of the saints are being created, in the 16th century. they are combined into a 12-volume set of ʼʼGreat Readings-Minœeyʼʼ. In the XV century. describes his journey to India and Persia, the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin (ʼʼJourney across three seasʼʼ). The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom, the love story of the prince of Murom and his wife, probably described by Yermolai-Erasmus in the middle of the 16th century, remains a unique literary monument. In its own way, wonderful ʼʼDomostroyʼʼ, written by the confessor of Ivan the Terrible Sylvester, is a book about housekeeping, raising and educating children, and the role of a woman in a family.

At the end of the XV-XVI centuries. literature is enriched by brilliant journalistic works. The Josephites (followers of Igumen Joseph of the Volotsk Monastery, who defend the principle of non-intervention of the state in the affairs of a rich and materially strong church) and non-possessors (Nil Sorsky, Vassian Patrikeev, Maxim the Greek, who blame the church for wealth and luxury, for craving for worldly pleasures) argue fiercely. In 1564-1577. Ivan the Terrible and Prince Andrei Kurbsky exchange angry messages. ʼʼ... Tsars and rulers who make cruel laws are dyingʼʼ, - Kurbsky inspires the tsar and hears in response: ʼʼIs it really light - when the priest and crafty slaves rule, the tsar is only the name and honor of the tsar, and the power is no better slave?ʼʼ The idea of the ʼʼautocracyʼʼ of the tsar, the divinity of his power, acquires almost hypnotic power in Ivan the Terrible's messages. Differently, but just as consistently, Ivan Peresvetov writes about the special vocation of the tsar-autocrat in ʼʼBig Petitionʼʼ (1549): punishing the boyars who forgot about their duty to society, the righteous monarch must rely on the devoted nobility. The significance of the official ideology is the idea of Moscow as the ʼʼthird Romeʼʼ: ʼʼTwo Romes (ʼʼthe second Romeʼʼ - Constantinople, devastated in 1453 ᴦ. - Auth.) fell, the third stands, the fourth - does not happen ʼʼ (Philotheos).

Note that in 1564 ᴦ. in Moscow, Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets published the first Russian printed book - ʼʼApostleʼʼ.

In the architecture of the XIV-XVI centuries. the tendencies of the historical development of Russia-Russia were reflected with particular obviousness. At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. stone construction is resumed - in Novgorod and Pskov, less affected by the Ordish yoke. In the XIV century. in Novgorod, a new type of temples appears - light, elegant, bright (Spas on Ilyin). But half a century passes, and tradition wins: harsh, heavy structures reminiscent of the past are being erected again. Politics imperiously invades art, demanding that it be the guardian of independence, which the unifier Moscow is so successfully fighting against. Signs of the capital city of a single state, it accumulates gradually, but consistently. In 1367ᴦ. the white-stone Kremlin is being built, at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. new red-brick walls and towers are being erected. They are erected by masters Pietro Antonio Solari, Aleviz Novy, Mark Ruffo, ordered from Italy. By that time, the Assumption Cathedral (1479) had already been erected on the territory of the Kremlin by the Italian Aristotle Fioravanti, an outstanding architectural monument, in which an experienced eye will see both features traditional for Vladimir-Suzdal architecture and elements of the Renaissance building art. Next to another work of Italian masters - the Palace of Facets (1487-1489) - Pskov craftsmen are building the Cathedral of the Annunciation (1484-1489). A little later, the same Aleviz Novy completes the magnificent ensemble of the Cathedral Square with the Archangel Cathedral, the tomb of the Grand Dukes (1505-1509). Behind the Kremlin wall on Red Square in 1555-1560. in honor of the capture of Kazan, the nine-domed Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral) is erected, crowned with a high multifaceted pyramid - a tent. This detail gave the name ʼʼhipʼʼ to the architectural style that arose in the 16th century. (Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, 1532). Zealots of antiquity struggle with ʼʼoutrageous innovationsʼʼ, but their victory is relative: at the end of the century, the desire for pomp and beauty is reborn. Painting of the second half of the XIV-XV centuries is the golden age of Theophan the Greek, Andrei Rublev, Dionysius. The murals of the Novgorod (Savior on Ilyin) and Moscow (Annunciation Cathedral) churches of Theophanes the Greek and the Rublev icon (ʼʼTrinityʼʼ, ʼʼSaviorʼʼ, etc.) are addressed to God, but they tell about a person, his soul, about the search for harmony and ideal. Painting, remaining deeply religious in themes, images, genres (wall paintings, icons), acquires unexpected humanity, softness, and philosophy.

Culture and spiritual life of Russia in the XIV-XVI centuries. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Culture and spiritual life of Russia in the XIV-XVI centuries." 2017, 2018.

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

The Mongol-Tatar yoke dealt a unique blow to the development of Russian culture. There is a decline in various spheres of culture. From the second half of the 14th century, a gradual rise in Russian culture began. The leading theme in culture was the idea of the unity of the Russian land and the struggle against the foreign yoke. The epic epic is characterized by an appeal to the era of independence. A new genre of oral folk art is being formed - a historical song. The advent of paper made books accessible. The Battle of Kulikovo had a special influence on the development of Russian literature. Works dedicated to the Battle of Kulikovo: "Zadonshchina", "The Tale of Mamaev's Massacre" - were very popular in Russia. At the beginning of the 15th century, the first all-Russian annalistic code appeared - the Trinity Chronicle. The Moscow princes paid great attention to compiling annals, which contributed to the unification of the lands. In In the middle of the 15th century, the World History was compiled with brief information on the history of Russia - the Russian chronograph. Result: many works of art appear in Russia, talented masters from other countries move here to live and create. In the 14th-15th centuries, painting received great development. : Feofan Grek (worked in Novgorod, Moscow. Andrey Rublev (worked in Moscow. The famous icon "Trinity"). Bottom line: the manner of painting of two talented masters had a strong influence on subsequent generations of Russian artists. Stone architecture revived very slowly. The traditions of regional architectural schools.In 1367, the white stone walls of the Kremlin were erected, later used red brick is being built. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in Zvenigorod, the Church of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and the Cathedral of the Andronnikov Monastery in Moscow were built. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries, the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin was created. Russian culture at the end of the 15th century - at the beginning of the XVI century, it develops under the sign of the state unification of the country and the strengthening of its independence. An official ideology is being developed Russian state. At the beginning of the 16th century, the idea "Moscow is the third Rome" was put forward. The Church ideologically substantiates the need to strengthen the centralized state. The church violently pursues heresies. One of the most common genres of oral folk art has become a historical song: The literature of that time is characterized by journalism in the form of messages and letters. The largest event in the history of Russian culture was the emergence of printing. In 1553, the publication of books began in Moscow. and Peter Mstislavets (published the first printed book "The Apostle") In the second half of the 16th century, about 20 large printed books were published in Russia. In 1560, Russian architects Barma and Postnik completed the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral (blinded). The tented style appeared in church construction. Painting is represented by paintings of temples and icon painting. The most outstanding master was Dionysius. The period of the end of the XV-XVI centuries is characterized by the accumulation of 1 theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of mathematics and mechanics. The traveler Afanasy Nikitin collected valuable geographical information - “Journey beyond three seas.” Maps of the territory of the Russian state appear. Foundry begins to develop:

the state cannon yard began to operate;
master Andrei Chokhov cast the Tsar Cannon (weight 40 tons).

Outcome. The creation of a centralized state, a fierce struggle against heresies and free thought led to the state's strict control over all forms of art.

2. Russia's participation in the First World War: causes, the role of the Eastern Front, consequences.

First World War 1914-1918 lasted 4 years, 3 months and 10 days, 33 states participated in it. More than 10 million people died and died from wounds, more than 20 million people were injured and maimed. For the first time, tank and chemical troops took part in the hostilities, aviation and the submarine fleet were used. Reasons for the war. War 1914-1918 was the result of a sharp aggravation of contradictions between the major powers: in connection with attempts to revise the results of the 20th century that had ended by the beginning of the 20th century. colonial division of the world, in connection with the fate of the decaying Ottoman Empire, etc. Occasion: murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo. Main participants: Entente (Russia, Great Britain, France) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy). Campaign 1914 on the Eastern Front. In the initial period of the war, the 1st and 2nd Russian armies advanced in the East Prussian direction, but by mid-September they were forced to retreat. In Galicia, Lvov was occupied and the Przemysl fortress was blocked. The situation on the Eastern Front forced German command transfer part of the troops from Western front, which eased the position of France and allowed her to defend Paris. Military operations began in the Caucasus. Campaign 1915. on the Eastern Front. In 1915, Germany switched to positional warfare on the Western Front, concentrating all efforts on the Eastern Front. The goal was to crush the Russian armies and take Russia out of the war. The last Germany and Austria-Hungary failed, but Russia suffered serious losses, left Galicia, Poland, Lithuania, part of Latvia and Belarus. The troops experienced an acute shortage of weapons. Campaign 1916 on the Eastern Front. On the Eastern Front, the war took on a positional character. Germany launched a broad offensive on the Western Front, its goal was the capture of Paris. At the insistent request of the allies, Russia stepped up its operations in Galicia (the offensive of the troops of the Southwestern Front under the command of General A. A. Brusilov). The famous Brusilov breakthrough put Austria-Hungary on the brink of military defeat, forced Germany to withdraw troops from the Western Front. The strategic situation as a whole has not changed. The war dragged on, by the beginning of 1917 the losses of the Russian armies amounted to 2 million killed and 5 million wounded

CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE OF RUSSIA INXIV – XVv.

“...Culture is true enlightened knowledge. Culture is a scientific and inspired approach to solving the problems of mankind. Culture is beauty in all its creative grandeur. Culture is exact knowledge beyond prejudice and superstition. Culture is the affirmation of the good in all its effectiveness. Culture is the song of peaceful labor in its endless perfection. Culture is a reassessment of values in order to find the true treasures of the people. Culture is established in the heart of the people and creates a desire for construction. Culture perceives all the discoveries and improvements of life, for it lives in everything that thinks and is conscious. Culture protects the historical dignity of the people.”

(Diary sheets.)

The development of ancient Russian art, disrupted in the first half of the 13th century by the Mongol invasion, changed the political and cultural significance of individual cities. Destroyed by Batu to the ground, Kiev was reborn with difficulty and had already lost its role as the center of the all-Russian state. The unified East Slavic statehood collapsed two centuries before the foreign yoke, and with the fall of Kiev, Southern Russia weakened and was completely devastated by the Tatars. However, the Tatar yoke did not break the creative spirit of the Russian people, but, on the contrary, contributed to the growth of Russian national identity. It can be said that the Horde domination was an important factor in the formation of domestic political culture, and, above all, because it initially acquired the features of a national liberation character. The intensive development of art in Moscow, Tver, Novgorod and other cities in the 14th-15th centuries was a kind of protest against the desire of the Tatars to assert their political domination over the Russian lands. Domestic culture in the Middle Ages was formed under the influence of a number of extreme factors.

Firstly, fragmented Russia opposed the heroism of the people to the Horde.

Secondly, the Horde's experience of conquering Russia, having tempered the ardor of the conquerors, led to the fact that the Horde did not occupy Russia, but introduced tributary dependence, supplemented by raids. This made it possible to preserve the existence of national culture, including political.

Thirdly, pastoral nomads could not adapt to the forests. In addition, they were conquerors military, but not cultural: their culture was already poorer, because the structure of their activities was already poorer.

The centers of the struggle for independence and the formation of political culture, as you know, were cities, and the alignment of historical forces is clearly reflected in the process of development of art. First of all, a new upsurge of artistic culture began in Novgorod, one of the few Russian cities that was not subjected to the Mongol invasion. Veliky Novgorod was the political center of the Novgorod feudal republic. Here, in the 14th-15th centuries, the contradictions between the church and the city authorities, which demanded a revision of religious dogmas on the one hand, and with trade and craft people, on the other, escalated. Life content grew in art, and the emotionality of images increased, and new means of artistic expression were sought. Architecture has been widely developed. In Novgorod in the 14th-15th centuries, temples were erected by order of the boyars, the archbishop, merchants, corporations, cultists,. Novgorod architects came from the urban craft environment and brought into their works a lively creative thought and folk tastes. the largest architectural structure, which became the starting point in the development of Novgorod temple architecture was the construction of the Church of St. Nicholas on Lipna. This is a square in plan, four-column, almost cubic one-domed building. This form of the church received its further development and in other Novgorod churches erected in the 14th century. However, in the first half of the 14th century, the search for the new still coexisted with the old traditions.

In the second half of the 14th century, with the growth of the economic and political power of Novgorod, monumental construction was widely developed. At this time, the classical type of the Novgorod church was taking shape, excellent examples of which are the churches of Fyodor Stratilat on the Ruche (1361) and the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyin Street (1374). These are large buildings that stand out sharply from the surrounding wooden buildings. Architects make temples emphatically elegant. Eminent customers - the Novgorod boyars - are primarily interested in the external effect.

The architecture of Pskov in the 14th - 15th centuries begins to differ significantly from Novgorod architecture, although until the 14th century the architecture of these two cities developed in the same direction, and one could say that Pskov architecture until the 14th century belonged entirely to the circle of Novgorod. In the 14th - 15th centuries, Pskovians built defensive buildings much more often than religious buildings. Stretched out in a narrow strip along the borders with Lithuania and the knightly Livonian Order, the Pskov land needed to constantly strengthen its borders.

One of the strongest stone fortresses was Izborsk, and now it strikes with the severe grandeur of its walls and towers. Pskov itself expanded and strengthened. From 1393 to 1452, all the wooden structures of the central part of the city - the ancient citadel, which the Pskovians called Krom - were replaced with stone walls.

In Novgorod, as well as in Pskov, the rise of ancient Russian painting began, which led to its flourishing in the second half of the 14th and early 15th centuries.

Novgorod monumental painting of the 14th century is characterized by a number of features that speak of a number of changes in the worldview of the Russian people of that time, an expansion of the range of ideas that have become the property of art, a desire to express new feelings and experiences by means of painting. The compositions of well-known biblical and gospel scenes were built more freely and naturally, the images of the saints became more vital, with much greater determination and force, the living aspirations and thoughts that agitated the person of that era made their way through the religious shell. This process was characteristic not only for Novgorod painting, but also for the art of Byzantium, the Balkans and other areas of the Eastern Christian world. Only in Russia did it acquire special forms.

The first pictorial monument of the new style is the painting of the St. Michael's Church in the Skovorodsky Monastery (c. 1360). In the saints of the Skovorodsky Monastery there is no straightforwardness of images characteristic of 12th century painting. They do not order, but think, do not intimidate, but attract. A new impression is achieved by new means. The expression of the eyes takes on a softness unfamiliar to the past. Free movement, which is enhanced by soft folds of clothes, the figures themselves acquire more slender proportions. The color becomes brighter.

The greatest achievement of Novgorod painting was a deeper understanding of man. Important ideological movements of the century were reflected here.

These tendencies manifested themselves with particular clarity in the work of Theophan the Greek. He moved to Russia from Byzantium. In Russia, his art took deep roots and bore fruit. Arriving in Novgorod, Feofan turned to the study of the artistic tradition already established there, he penetrated the spirit of the frescoes of Nereditsa, Staraya Ladoga, the Snetogorsk Monastery, and his own murals in the Church of the Savior on Ilyin develop this tradition to a certain extent, although in a very new and different way. - to his own.

“A wonderful sage, a very cunning philosopher… an excellent painter among icon painters.” So said about Theophanes the Greek, his contemporary, the Russian church writer Epiphanius the Wise. His brush belongs to the painting of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Ilyina Street. These are frescoes in the dome of Christ Pantokrator, figures of archangels with wide open wings, six-winged seraphim, and in the drum between the windows - full-length figures of forefathers.

The faces of the saints are painted with sweeping strokes of the brush, white highlights are lightly and confidently thrown over a dark red-brown tone. The folds of clothing break at sharp angles. The images are extremely concise. Such, for example, is Macarius of Egypt, an ancient old man with long white hair and a beard, a thin nose and sunken cheeks. Highly raised eyebrows are reduced to the bridge of the nose. The inner strength of Theophan's images, their passionate intensity and tremendous spiritual energy, the unique variety of individual characteristics that violate the conventions of iconography are an expression of the master's pictorial temperament.

The influence of Theophan the Greek was reflected in many works of monumental painting. For example, in the frescoes of the Novgorod Church of Fyodor Stratilat on the Brook, painted in the 70s-80s of the 14th century. The masters who painted the frescoes of this church, in all likelihood, went through the school of the great Greek, managed to brilliantly use the painting techniques of their teacher, and, at the same time, bring a lot of new things to the manner of their writing. The colors give the impression of being light and transparent. The contrasts of white highlights and the background are softened. Highlights become softer, they are laid lightly. However, there is a significant difference. It is in the nature of the images. The stern pathos of the Feofanovsky saints, gloomy, self-contained and lonely, gives way to softer and lyrical, or to simpler and more specific images and scenes.

The end of the 14th - the beginning of the 15th century was the time of a new rise in national self-consciousness. In the literature devoted to the Battle of Kulikovo (“Zadonshchina”), the motifs of “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” come to life. The weakening of Byzantium and the establishment of Turkish rule in the Balkans coincided with the growing importance of Moscow Rus as the largest power in the Slavic world. Novgorod and Pskov, which resisted the unification of all Russian lands under the rule of Moscow, were forced to yield.

The heyday of culture and art in the Moscow principality comes at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century. It is amazing how in a little over a hundred years Moscow turns from a small poor town into a capital city, which united the disparate principalities into a single state by the end of the 15th century.

An important factor that served the unification of Russia was Christianity. Even before the formation of a single Moscow kingdom, it actually assumed the role of a state religion. The church was an institution that ensured statehood.

In Russia, after being baptized by Saint Vladimir, there was one chief bishop, the metropolitan, who lived in Kiev and was therefore called Kiev and All Russia. He was usually chosen from among the Greeks and consecrated in Constantinople. As a Greek, a foreigner who could not speak fluent Russian, the metropolitan could not take an active part in the affairs that took place in Russia. With the fall of Kiev, the metropolitans began to travel north and stay there for a long time, and finally it became necessary to change their main residence. The choice of the city - the seat of the metropolitan was an important issue, since it meant the elevation of the chosen city and principality above all the others. The particular importance of this issue was also due to this time, the northern principalities waged a fierce struggle over which of them to be the strongest and conquer all the other principalities, and therefore gather all Russian lands under their rule. After all, there were many princes, but there was only one metropolitan, and he was called the metropolitan of all Russia. In which city he begins to live, that city will be looked upon by the clergy, and behind it by the whole people, as the main city of all Russia, and, therefore, the prince of this city will be looked upon as the main prince of all Russia. Yes, and the metropolitan will help the prince in whose city he lives. Even when Moscow was a small inconspicuous city, St. Peter the Metropolitan persuaded Ivan Kalita to build a stone church of the Assumption of the Virgin in it. Peter said to the prince: “If you obey me, son, if you build a church of the Most Pure Theotokos and calm me down in your city, then you yourself will be glorified more than other princes, and your sons and grandsons, and this city will be glorious, the saints will begin to live in it, and he will subjugate all the other cities to himself. Saint Peter died in Moscow in 1326 and was buried there. And following his example, subsequent metropolitans lived in Moscow. Other princes did not like this, and they tried in every possible way to prevent this.

Having strengthened Moscow, Ivan Kalita became the Grand Duke, and since then the Moscow principality has finally strengthened in front of the rest of the northern principalities. When Kalita died in 1341, not a single prince could argue with his son Simeon, who began to treat the princes not in the old way, as brothers, equal owners, but as subordinates, and therefore he was nicknamed Proud.

Simeon's grandson Ditrius, who later received the name Donskoy for the victory over the Tatars beyond the waters of the Don River, ascended the princely throne at an early age. If Moscow had not been a strong principality in those years, it would hardly have retained its importance over other principalities. There were people who knew how to use this power and did not allow Moscow to fall under the juvenile prince. One of these people was Metropolitan Alexy, whom Simeon the Proud bequeathed to his boyars to obey. He rendered great services to Moscow during the infancy of Prince Dimitri.

The spiritual mentor of the Russian people during these years was St. Sergius of Radonezh. “He was born when the last old people who saw the light around the time of the Tatar defeat of the Russian land were dying out, and when it was already difficult to find people who would remember this defeat. But in all Russian nerves, even painfully alive, was the impression of horror produced by this nationwide disaster and constantly renewed by repeated local invasions of the Tatars. It was one of those national disasters that bring not only material, but also moral ruin, for a long time plunging the people into a deadly stupor. People helplessly dropped their hands, their minds lost all vigor and elasticity and hopelessly gave themselves up to their deplorable situation, not finding and not looking for any way out "()

“One of the hallmarks of a great nation is its ability to rise to its feet after a fall. No matter how hard his humiliation is, but the appointed hour will strike, he will gather his confused moral forces and embody them in one great person or in several great people, who will lead him to the straight historical path he has temporarily abandoned. ()

The holy hermit Sergius of Radonezh became such a person. Even in his youth, at the age of 20, he went into a dense forest and began to live there alone, not seeing a human face. However, the rumor about him spread everywhere and the monks began to gather to him, despite the fact that he met everyone with the words: “Know first of all that this place is difficult, hungry and poor; prepare not for satisfying food, not for drinking and merriment, but for labors, sorrows, misfortunes. He built cells with his own hands, he himself carried firewood from the forest and chopped it, he carried water from the well and placed it at each cell, he himself cooked food for all the brethren, sewed clothes, boots, served everyone like a slave, sparing neither his physical strength nor having pride.

At the time when the future Saint Sergius was building his first cell in a dense forest, in Ustyug, a son was born to a poor cathedral clerk, the future enlightener of the Perm land, St. Stephen.

Three great people - Metropolitan Alexy, St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Stefan, with his actions, laid the foundation for the political and moral revival of the Russian land. They were bound by close friendship and mutual respect. Metropolitan Alexy visited Sergius in his monastery, and consulted with him, wanting to make him his successor. Passing by the Sergius Monastery of St. Stefan of Perm called out to his friend, and at a distance of more than 10 miles they exchanged fraternal bows. All these three men did one common thing - the strengthening of the Russian state, on the creation of which the Moscow princes of the 14th century worked in their own way. This work was the fulfillment of the covenant given by the great hierarch of ancient Russia, Metropolitan Peter.

With the strengthening of the Moscow principality and the beginning of the centralization of a single state, life in Russia became calmer and, finally, silence came, which had not been experienced in the Russian land for a long time. For the first time in a hundred years of slavery, the people could breathe easy.

Prince Dmitry, having matured, began, like his grandfather, to collect the Russian land and annex other principalities to Moscow. In 1367 he built a stone Kremlin, and until then Moscow had only wooden walls. These measures were very timely, since soon Moscow had to defend the collected Russian land from numerous strong enemies attacking from different sides. Western Russian lands, together with Kiev, now belonged to the Lithuanian prince Gediminas. Russia was divided into two parts: northeastern, gathered near Moscow under the rule of ancient princes, descendants of St. Vladimir, and southwestern, subordinate to the princes of Lithuania. The Lithuanian princes, wanting to expand their possessions, attacked the Moscow principality and persuaded the Tatar Khan to help them conquer Moscow.

At a time when Russia began to strengthen, uniting into one powerful state, the Tatar Horde, on the contrary, began to weaken, and began to disintegrate into small possessions of individual khans. The time has come for Russia to free itself from the Tatar yoke, and Dmitry saw this and considered it possible to fight against the Tatars.

After long troubles in the Horde, Mamai seized the power of the khan, who was very angry with the Grand Duke Dmitry for the fact that he, in his wars with other princes, did not pay any attention to his labels.

In 1380, Mamai, having gathered a large army, in alliance with the Lithuanian prince Jagiello, the Russian prince Oleg Ryazansky, went to Dmitry. The time for Russia has come formidable. Metropolitan Alexy had already died, and there was no new metropolitan yet, as there were unrest in the church. At this time, the Monk Sergius appeared in all the strength of his charm. He was able to raise the whole people and breathe into them unshakable faith in the rightness of the cause, and, consequently, in victory. The peaceful ascetic, a stranger to any violence, without hesitation blessed the prince and the army for a feat, for a just cause.

Before the performance, the Grand Duke went to the Trinity - Sergius Monastery. The holy abbot blessed Dmitry for the war, and promised him victory, albeit not an easy one. “The Lord God is your helper. The time has not yet come for you to wear the crown of this victory with eternal sleep, while for many of your other co-workers weave crowns of martyrdom with eternal memory. He released on a campaign with the prince two monks, Alexander Peresvet (former boyar of Bryansk) and Andrei Oslyabya (boyar Lyubetsky), who had previously distinguished themselves in the world for their courage. They delivered Sergius's handwritten letter to Dmitry. Sergius chose these monks as assistants to the prince, so that with their courage, as wholly giving themselves to God, they would serve as an example to his army.

When Dmitry approached the Don, his commanders hesitated whether they should cross the Don or not. “... Some said: “Go, prince, beyond the Don,” and others: “Don’t go, because there are many enemies, not only Tatars, but also Lithuania and Ryazan.” Dmitry obeyed the first; he also obeyed the letters of St. Sergius, who wrote to him: “Certainly, sir, go, God and the Holy Mother of God will help you.” On September 8, in the morning, the Russians crossed the Don and lined up at the mouth of the Nepryavda River. Soon the Tatars appeared; the Russians moved towards them and met with them on the wide field of Kulikovo. A battle began, which had never happened before: they say that blood flowed like water, horses could not step on corpses, warriors suffocated from crowding ”(yov)

The predictions of the great old man came true. Big losses victory was given to the Russian army, but its significance was great.

The art of that era - the period of exaltation of Moscow, the Battle of Kulikovo reflected the contemporary mood and heroic pathos. In the Moscow principality, culture and art flourished in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The life icon "Archangel Michael" vividly reflected the heroic moods of the people. It depicts the Archangel Michael - the leader of the heavenly host, the winner of Satan. He was considered in Russia as an assistant in battles and the patron of Russian princes. Spreading his wings wide, turning vigorously to the left, the archangel drew his sword from its scabbard and raised it menacingly; a bright scarlet cloak falls from the shoulders in heavy folds. In the hallmarks located around the main image, the theme of the feat is revealed.

Several excellent icons have been preserved from the end of the 14th century, such as "Descent into Hell", "Annunciation", "Holidays". Different in color and manner of execution, they are at the same time imbued with a special emotional tension, embodied in the increased dynamics of postures, gestures, and folds.

From 1395 Theophanes the Greek also worked in Moscow. The icon of Our Lady of the Don is associated with his name. The head of the Mother of God receives special expressiveness due to the strongly accentuated contour of a long, slender neck, which, turning into the outlines of the cheek and temple, forms a long line. The movement of the head is rhythmically reflected in the sharply broken, as if agitated outlines of the golden border of the maforium. Not only the traditional iconographic scheme is unique, but also the coloring: the usual in the icons of the Mother of God, the dark cherry color of the maforium is enlivened around the face by a bright cornflower blue bandage. From this contrast, the painting of the faces of Mary and the baby, filled with energetic strokes of red, blue, green, white, becomes especially sonorous. Just as in the frescoes of Theophanes, highlights are used not so much to correctly mold the shape of the face, but to make the features more expressive. On the reverse side of this icon is an image of the Dormition of the Mother of God. And here, in general terms, the traditional iconographic scheme is preserved, but at the same time the compositional accents are so changed that the scene receives an unusual, dramatic interpretation. The dark figure of the Mother of God seems small, as if shrunken, in contrast to the wide light bed and the huge ocher-gold figure of Christ growing behind it. The motif of a candle burning alone at the bed takes on the character of a kind of poetic metaphor that reinforces the theme of death. The sharp movements of the apostles, their gloomy faces, bright and at the same time mournful color enhance the intense sound of the icon.

In the summer of 1405, Feofan the Greek, together with two Russian masters - Prokhor from Gorodets and Andrei Rublev, painted the Moscow Annunciation Cathedral. The old temple was rebuilt in subsequent years and only the iconostasis was preserved from the cathedral. This is the oldest surviving ancient Russian iconostasis. The emergence of a high iconostasis is, apparently, attributed to the end of the 14th century. Byzantine art, to which Russia owes most of the systems of fresco paintings and iconographic translations of individual subjects, does not know the developed form of the iconostasis, and therefore its creation is considered an achievement of Russian art.

Since the 15th century, the iconostasis has become an obligatory part of the interior decoration of every church. It is a whole system of icons placed in several rows, forming a high wall separating the altar from the rest of the temple. In the center of the iconostasis were the royal doors leading to the altar. The icons were arranged in a strict order. Following the lower tier, where the local temple icon of the saint or holiday to which this temple was dedicated, was placed, there was the main row, called the deesis tier. In the center of it is depicted Christ sitting on the throne. Mary and John the Baptist stand on either side of him, bowing their heads and prayerfully holding out their hands. This is the original core of the iconostasis. The Archangel Michael follows the Mother of God, and the Archangel Gabriel follows the Forerunner. Then, respectively, the apostles Peter and Paul, and others. Above this main tier there is a row of smaller icons - "Holidays", which depict gospel events, starting with the Annunciation and ending with the Assumption of Mary. Even higher was placed a row of icons depicting the prophets. Above them later began to have a number of icons depicting the forefathers.

In the semantic and pictorial terms, the iconostasis is a single, logically constructed composition and figurative expression of the main dogmas of faith. All figures of the iconostasis act as majestic and impressive silhouettes against a light or golden background.

The composition of the iconostasis was based on the idea of hierarchy, supremacy and subordination. Since the tenth century, there have been established canons, here and there violated in the work of individual artists.

Color was of great importance in Ancient Russian icon painting. Like all of it as a whole with its plots and forms, color had several meanings in it.

First of all - figurative, literal. Color allowed the artists to convey to the viewer what was depicted in the icons, and thereby raise their pictorial significance. Color is an additional characteristic of things by which people, animals, trees, mountains and buildings can be recognized. In this respect, the icon does not differ from the painting of modern times. However, in icon painting, unlike painting, the task of authentic and accurate transmission the colors of objects or the colorful impression of them.

It is enough for an icon painter that an object can be recognized by color. According to the dark cherry cloak - the Mother of God, according to the light crimson - the Apostle Paul, according to the ocher - the Apostle Peter, according to the bright red cloak - the martyrs George or Dmitry, according to the fiery red background - Elijah the Prophet, who ascended alive into the heavenly ether, and according to the same red color - eternal fire in hell, in which Satan reigns over condemned sinners.

Color is, to a certain extent, the most conspicuous external sign of individual objects of the real or imaginary world. This is an image identification mark. By patterned brocade fabrics in the Novgorod icon "Boris, Gleb and their father Vladimir" we recognize Novgorod noble merchants.

However, icon painters did not always adhere to this meaning of color. They couldn't help but back away from him. Icons contain colors that reproduce what exists in the world. But there are also those that do not exist anywhere and which make objects unrecognizable, although beautiful. Snow-white church buildings are similar to Novgorod churches, which can still be seen on the banks of the Volkhov. Multi-colored, multi-colored, colorful buildings - such buildings have never existed anywhere. This is an outlandish fabulous color, these are the colors of the invisible city of Kitezh. And such an outlandish color can be a variety of objects: these are the multi-colored classic

cloaks and chitons, purple slides, blue and pink horses. Among this fairy world there is nothing strange in the bright scarlet cherubs, in the red light of a candle, in the bright blue reflections that fall from the snow-white robes of Christ on the clothes of the apostles on Mount Tabor. In the world of icons, everything is possible. This world pleases with a sense of freedom.

One of the most high tasks Russian icon painting was the creation of a colorful symphony of pure, unadulterated and unclouded colors. The purity and brightness of colors in icon painting was understood as an expression of liberation from darkness, from colorlessness, from hopelessness, as a lofty goal that every pious soul aspired to.

The ideas that captivated the advanced Russian people during the years of liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke and overcoming feudal fragmentation and creating a single all-Russian state found the most complete expression in the work of the brilliant Russian artist Andrei Rublev. His life is known only in the most general terms. He was a monk of the Moscow Andronnikov Monastery, closely associated with the Trinity - Sergius Monastery. Perhaps he did not witness the Battle of Kulikovo, but he probably knew those who took part in it. The years of Rublev's creative formation were filled with the joy of the first victory over the Tatars and the prospects for the coming final liberation of Russia. This largely determined the nature of his work.

Collaborating with Theophan the Greek when painting the Cathedral of the Annunciation, Rublev could not help but feel the influence of a remarkable master. The imperious, stern, emotionally rich pictorial language of Feofan, the unusualness of his bold images that violated traditional iconographic schemes, could not but make a deep impression on Rublev. Nevertheless, from the very beginning he acts as a bright and independent creative individual.

Rublev's early works include miniatures depicting the symbols of the evangelists in the so-called Khitrovo Gospel. One of the best miniatures depicts an angel with wide open wings (the symbol of the Evangelist Matthew). In his hands - the big Book. The slender figure of an angel is inscribed in a golden circle. The soft combination of the blue color of the chiton with a lilac cloak and a golden background testify to the outstanding coloristic talent of the artist.

In 1408 Andrei Rublev, Daniil Cherny and his assistants painted the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. From all this painting, the main frescoes, located on vaults, pillars and arches, have come down to us.

Remaining within the traditional iconographic scheme, Rublev and his assistants deprived the painting of medieval asceticism. The artist brings something new to the methods of constructing the image. Light, light strokes discreetly, delicately model the shape. But the main artistic technique a strongly accented line becomes, expressing movement, flexible and generalized, imparting a special rhythm to the figures.

A huge role is played by the movements of the arms and wings, the turn of the head, the tilt, the soft outlines of the oval of the face and hairstyles.

The brushes of Rublev, Daniil Cherny and their followers are also attributed to the Iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir.

The works of Rublev himself, made, obviously, shortly after the frescoes of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, created before the icon "Trinity", include three surviving icons of the half-length deesis tier from the Assumption Cathedral on Gorodok in Zvenigorod.

"Trinity" by Andrei Rublev is the most famous work of Russian icon painting. In this creation of Rublev, in its purest form, all the versatility of ancient Russian art was revealed: philosophical depth, religious basis, symbolic nature of images, perfection and ambiguity of pictorial form, composition, rhythm and color.

Rublev's "Trinity" was the fruit of a genuine and happy inspiration. At first glance, she conquers with incomparable charm. But inspiration lit up the master only after he had passed the path of persistent quest; apparently, he tested his heart for a long time and exercised his eye before taking up a brush and pouring out his feelings ...

An old legend tells how three young men appeared to the ancient elder Abraham, and he, along with his wife, treated them under the canopy of the Mamreian oak, secretly guessing that the three faces of the “Trinity” were embodied in them. This legend was based on the belief that the deity is unattainable to the consciousness of a mortal and becomes accessible to him only by acquiring human features. This conviction directed artists to create images woven from life experiences and expressing their ideas of the sublime and beautiful.

With Rublev, the icon becomes the subject of philosophical, artistic contemplation. At the other pole of Russian culture of that time, the icon is just an object of worship, endowed with magical powers. Two worlds, two representations, two aesthetics. One must not forget this antagonism in order to understand the enormous significance of the master, underestimated by his contemporaries.

In Rublev's Trinity, all the same slender, beautiful young men are represented, “which can be found in all its prototypes, but the very circumstances of their appearance are passed over in silence; we remember them only "because we cannot forget the legends. But this understatement gives the images a multifaceted meaning that goes far beyond the myth. What are the three winged youths doing? Either they eat food and one of them holds out his hand for a bowl? - one speaks imperiously, the other listens, the third obediently bows his head? Or are they all just thinking, carried off into the world of dreams, as if listening to the sounds of unearthly music? conversation, and a pensive state, and yet its content cannot be summed up in a few words. What does this bowl on the table of the dining room of the sacrificial animal mean? Is it not a hint that one of the travelers is ready to sacrifice himself? Is this why the table looks like an altar And the staves in the hands of winged creatures - is not it a sign of wandering, to which one of them doomed himself on earth?

The Mongol-Tatar invasion suspended the development of crafts. Such types of applied art as cloisonné enamel, niello, granulation, stone carving, glassmaking disappeared for a long time. Many masters were taken prisoner. At this time, cultural ties with Byzantium and other countries died out.

As in architecture and painting, the arts and crafts of Novgorod and Pskov, which escaped the ruin of the Tatars, developed, showing the people's democratic principle much more widely. Instead of the abstract speculative-symbolic in the artistic representation, the living immediacy of feeling and at the same time materiality came into play. The Vladimir-Suzdal system of sculpture, which was mainly cosmogonic, has lost its significance. Big themes of the human world were now being developed in sculpture.

Although the church still did not allow the use of round sculpture, the idea of statuary was gaining more and more popularity. In the 14th-15th centuries, it turned out to be one of the main plastic ideas of art. First, crucifixes appeared with a very large, high relief interpreted figure of Christ, and then statuary works. Carved from wood, the figure of Nikola Mozhaisky is an almost round sculpture. The statue was located above the city gates of Mozhaisk, the saint was considered its guardian. Nikola is depicted with a raised sword in one hand and a model of the city in the other. The image expresses the strength and greatness of the people's intercessor. He later became popular in the arts.

Since the middle of the 14th century, with the beginning of a new upsurge of national culture, artistic craft has come to life. The skill of forging, filigree, and embossing is developing rapidly, decorating both massive items and things made to special orders: icon frames, book bindings, chalices and panagias.

Of great interest is the silver frame of the Gospel, created in 1392 by order of the boyar Fyodor Andreevich Koshka. Massive figures of saints in keeled arches against a background of blue enamel are placed surrounded by the finest openwork of flexible scrolls of filigree ornament. In the center of the composition is Christ sitting on the throne, in the corners of the salary are the evangelists.

It is not only this gospel that is framed in this way. This design became characteristic of all the Gospels until the 16th century.

Objects of decorative and applied art were more connected with church life. In the richly decorated frames of icons, gospels, all the perfection of Russian jewelry technology of that time was manifested.

Moscow of the 14th - 15th centuries is one of the largest cities inhabited by artisans of various specialties. Golden crosses, chains, icons are often mentioned in princely charters. The names of the remarkable jewelers of this time are known - Paramon (Paramsha) and Ivan Fomin. The outstanding works of the 15th century include the jasper chalice he created in a gold filigree frame with the inscription: “Ivan Fomin did it.” The shapes, the proportions of the chalice, the harmony of the rounded smooth line of the silhouette, the rhythmic clarity of divisions bear the mark high culture era of Rublev.

At that time, facial sewing (pictorial) and small plastic arts rose to a high artistic level. The main center for the creation of these works were monasteries and workshops at the grand ducal court. Facial sewing was most often done with satin stitch, multi-colored silks. Before the 16th century, gold and silver were introduced little, and only as a color enriching bright and pure colors.

The Russian embroiderer possessed such a perfect line and color, had such a subtle sense of material that she created works that were not inferior to picturesque ones. A variety of techniques, depending on the smooth or rough surface of the fabric, achieved the subtlest coloristic effect. The form seemed to be molded by stitches of threads, forming an exquisite, airy web of pattern.

For Russia, sewing was one of the most primordial types of artistic creativity. From the annals it is known that in Kiev in the 11th century a school of sewing and weaving was organized. Centuries-old Russian sewing traditions were so strong that lush decorative Byzantine fabrics did not have any influence on the art of Russian embroiderers. They were not fascinated by either the techniques or the colors of foreign samples. Byzantine compositions were processed creatively. The drawing for sewing was most often done by a "flagman" or an experienced embroiderer. Shrouds, covers, shrouds, "airs" repeated icon-painting images.

Russian sewing reached artistic perfection in the works of the Moscow School. The famous shroud of Princess Mary, the widow of Simeon the Proud, has in the center an image of the Savior not made by hands, on the sides of which stand the Mother of God, John the Baptist, archangels and Moscow saints.

An outstanding monument of early Moscow sewing is a cover depicting Sergius of Radonezh (beginning of the 15th century). Sergius is depicted in full growth in a dark purple monastic robe. He holds a scroll and blesses with the other hand. In the face there is so much strict and kind, strong and beautiful, and, at the same time, alive, individual, that there is an assumption about the portrait image.

Popular views and artistic ideals of the Rublev era were reflected not only in sewing, but also in small plastic.

From wood, bone, metal, works were created at the same time sculptural and jewelry. The development of the plastic qualities of carved bone was in close contact with the skill of wood and stone carving. An outstanding phenomenon in ancient Russian art is the work of the remarkable Russian master Ambrose, who worked in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and led the workshop here.

The language of plasticity in the works of Ambrose is so rich and imaginative that it can only be understood in the light of the general achievements of the artistic culture of that time.

In the 80s of the 15th century, the formation of the Russian centralized state was basically completed, the last remnants of dependence on the Mongol-Tatar khans disappeared. Moscow became the capital of the mighty Russian state, a symbol of its strength and greatness.

References:

1. History of Russian art, edited by Rakov.

2. M. Alpatov. Paints of Old Russian painting.

3. Old Russian art.

(. A Brief History of Arts, M, "Art", 1986)

4. The formation of Russia in the mirror of political culture

V. Trushkov, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor

5. History of the Russian Church. ()

6. yov. Public Readings on Russian History

7. Banner of St. Sergius of Radonezh (collection of articles)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Having placed in the "Instruction" a long list of his military campaigns and exploits in war and hunting, Monomakh writes that, honoring God, he successfully passed all the tests and therefore turns to his sons: "Fearing death, children, not fighting, not fighting, not from beasts, but do a man's work, "that is, fight bravely.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ACCEPTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

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

Materials for study

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

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

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

Vladimir chose Christianity in its Byzantine version -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Russian original written literature arose on the basis of

folklore traditions. Feature Old Russian literature is characterized by its acute publicism, which is why the monuments of literature are at the same time monuments of social and political thought.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

composition of their chronicles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

animals serve as the personification of princely power.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

is considered one of the main Orthodox shrines of Russia.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

technology appeared in Russia in the X-XI centuries.

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

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

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

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

Topics of reports and abstracts

1. The Norman question in the history of Russia.

2. Foreign policy of the Kiev state.

3. Novgorod Republic.

4. Paganism of the ancient Slavs.

5. Baptism of Russia.

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

7. Old Russian secular literature.

8. Architecture of Kievan Rus.

9. Pre-Mongolian icon in Russia.

10. Life, manners and customs of Kievan Rus.

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Karamzin N.M. Traditions of the Ages. Moscow: Pravda, 1988.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spiritual culture of Kievan Rus. adoption of Christianity and

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

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

An important milestone in the history of Kievan Rus is the adoption of Christianity in 988. This event is of great historical significance: it had a significant impact on the further development of the Old Russian state. Christianity strengthened the international prestige of Russia. With its adoption, it turned into one of the most developed states in Europe at that time. Political and economic ties with other Christian countries expanded significantly. Baptism strengthened the state power and territorial unity of the Kievan state. The adoption of Christianity played an important role in the development of Russian culture. It contributed to the establishment of cultural ties with Western European states, raised the ancient Russian culture to a new, higher level of development.

In this regard, the question arises: what was the spiritual state of the Russian land of the pre-Christian period? Was Ancient Russia spiritually ready for the adoption of Orthodoxy?

We consider the situation, which was noted, for example, by I.I. Lyapushkin and the essence of which boils down to the fact that "the spiritual life of the Slavs of the 8th - the first half of the 9th century has not yet been reflected in the monuments known to us and remains inaccessible to us. To say anything about it, except that the Slavs buried the dead in the period under study according to the rite of cremation and were pagans, nothing is impossible.

In recent decades, the works of many scientists have reconstructed the manners and customs of the ancient Slavs. Certain material about the spiritual culture of our distant ancestors is contained in archaeological data. There are also written sources, which help to reconstruct East Slavic antiquity. We are talking about texts written as if from outside, from another system. These are various teachings against paganism belonging to church authors, chronicle evidence and inserts in translated texts, as well as notes foreign writers and travelers.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the issues outlined, it is necessary to define the concepts of "spirituality", "spiritual culture", "spiritual life of society".

At present, there are many approaches to the problem of spirituality in science. But from the whole variety, two main ones can be distinguished. The essence of the first is to search for the roots of spirituality not only in the person himself and the characteristics of his personality, but also in the products of his life: in creativity, ancient monuments, works of science and art. The spirituality of the subject is considered as the result of his familiarization with universal values. An important source of spirituality is ethical norms, which the subject is guided by in everyday life. Samples of human culture are enshrined in ethical, aesthetic, legal and other norms. And if the subject assimilates, experiences them as internally obligatory patterns of behavior, then he joins the highest spiritual values of being. Thus, the origins of spirituality lie in the deepest sense of the actions of people and the products of their life, historical events etc.

The second approach to the problem (although historically it is the first one) is the religious direction. It has clearly defined boundaries: in it the spiritual acts only as Divine revelation: God is spirit, and spiritual life is life with God and in God. Those. spirituality is nothing but religiosity. The religious essence of spirituality is associated with faith in God, with the religious regulation of human behavior.

Thus, in the cultural and anthropological aspect, spirituality can be both secular and religious. However, these two approaches diverge only in one point - in the question of the primary source of the spiritual (God or man). Otherwise, there are many similarities: the main focus is on the features inner world man, his self-consciousness and subjective ways of ascent to the spiritual heights of being.

In our opinion, to reduce spirituality only to religious foundations not entirely legal. There is one "but" - unbelievers. Apparently, they also cannot be denied spirituality. Consequently, religion (and this is shown by the history of culture) is not a complete and exhaustive source of spirituality. She is, rather, her level.

In my work, dealing with problems spiritual development Ancient Russia, we will proceed from the principles of both approaches, because they complement each other, and it is wrong to deny their relationship.

Spirituality is a comprehensive concept included in the life of a person as a whole in its most diverse manifestations. Spirituality refers to generic definitions of the human way of life. It gives meaning to life for an individual person, in it a person seeks and finds answers to questions: why does he live, what is his purpose in life, what is good and evil, truth and error, beautiful and ugly, etc. One of the dimensions of human spirituality is morality. A person is spiritual to the extent that he acts in accordance with the highest moral values of the human community, is able to act in accordance with them. So, from the point of view of V.I. Slobodchikova and E.I. Isaev, the spirituality of the subject is a natural acceptance and adherence to the highest standards of human culture, the experience of the moral norms of the hostel as an internal "categorical imperative", the acceptance of the highest values of human existence as one's own.

V.G. Fedotova believes that spirituality is "a qualitative characteristic of consciousness (as an act, deed, life) or, more precisely, a characteristic of its heterogeneity. This characteristic reflects the dominant type of values ...".

We also tend to define spirituality as a quality of a person's consciousness, indicating his ability to transcend, to go beyond his elemental subjectivity, the ability to take care of the problems of another, society and the universe as a whole.

As for the spiritual culture and spiritual life of society, they represent, respectively, the process of reproduction of the above consciousness and the process of translating into reality the awareness of one's attitude to the world and to oneself.

By the time of the adoption of Christianity, Ancient Russia had a centuries-old pagan culture. The term "paganism" in historical science denotes "a huge complex of primitive beliefs, views and rituals that has evolved over many millennia and served as the basis on which all world religions were formed."

The paganism of the ancient Russians was not only a set of religious beliefs, but also a system of spiritual and moral values.

As an ideological system of pre-Christian Russia, paganism reflected the dependence of people on the surrounding natural conditions. G.A. Nosova rightly notes that in the pagan worldview there is a consciousness of inseparability, fusion of "natural prerequisites" and the people themselves, that "identity of nature and man", which K. Marx and F. Engels paid attention to.

Nature, according to L.A. Shumikhina, was "an inexhaustible source of Russian spirituality and the basis of those sociocultural factors that shaped the originality of Russian spiritual processes." It is no coincidence that V.O. Klyuchevsky begins his "Course of Russian History" with discussions about the peculiarities of Russian nature and its influence on the formation of the Russian character. The fact that natural (landscape, climatic, biospheric) factors underlay the birth of Russian spirituality is also noted by L.N. Gumilev.

Thus, if we follow the logic of the above authors, nature was a kind of primary source of the spirituality of the Rus, and one of the main factors in the formation of spiritual and moral principles among the ancient Slavs was precisely the relationship "man - nature".

The ancient Russians were characterized by confidence in the animation of the entire surrounding world - the Universe, nature, earth, animals, manifested in the form of animism, fetishism and other forms of primitive beliefs.

Eastern Slavs worshiped rivers, lakes, wells, groves, individual trees, stones unusual shape who were endowed with supernatural properties. The worship of the forces of nature is captured in numerous fantastic creatures - goblin, water, mermaids. All Slavic gods symbolized the main natural elements: Perun - the god of thunder and lightning (later the god of war and weapons), Dazhdbog and Hora - solar deities, Stribog - the god of the winds, Mokosh - the deity of the feminine principle of nature and women's work, etc.

But the cult of nature did not free the ancient Slavs from the fear of her, of her mysterious forces. And therefore, the life and spiritual and moral principles of our distant ancestors simultaneously reflect love for nature, a sense of the beauty of the surrounding world and fear of nature, to the forces of which they opposed not a liberated human personality, but conspiracies, spells, purely mystical rituals, faith in various deities and spirits .

The earth, which was personified in the form of a female deity of fertility, enjoyed special reverence. She was called "nurse", "mother" ("mother of cheese earth"). Farmers, before starting plowing, bowed to the earth, turned to it, as to a living being, with a request for a harvest. It was forbidden to beat the ground with a stick or something else, to spit on it. It was believed that the earth does not tolerate untruth, punishing with drought, crop failure for perjury, for lies and deceit. The one who committed the murder had to ask for forgiveness from the earth, because. she, as the mother of the murdered, can forgive the murderer. The custom of swearing by the earth, kissing the earth was widespread. D.S. Likhachev notes that "agriculture and military affairs, many ethical ideas were built on faith in the land, on respect for the land."

The earliest evidence of earth worship among the Eastern Slavs is "seen" in a Russian insertion into a polemical article against the Latins, entered into the annals at the end of the 11th century. (read under 988): "Packs and the earth to speak matter. Yes, if they have mother earth, then their father is heaven, since God created the sky, and also the earth."

ON THE. Berdyaev emphasizes such a feature of Russian culture, national Russian self-consciousness as "the mysticism of the earth", a kind of national and natural flavor of the Russian people. "The Russians," he wrote, "have a different sense of the earth, and the earth itself is different than that of the West. The mysticism of race and blood is alien to the Russians, but the mysticism of the earth is very close."

According to L. Lebedev, the veneration of "mother earth" by Russian pagans is by no means naivety, but evidence of a high level of development of religious consciousness.

From here, the transition in the later popular consciousness of the mythological image of the "mother earth" into the image of the Mother of God the Intercessor is quite logical.

The high level of religious consciousness of the ancient Russians is also evidenced by the fact that all the pagan gods of Ancient Russia were associated only with heavenly-unearthly existence. Another argument in favor of the stated position is the presence of several levels (a kind of hierarchy) of mythological characters.

The highest level is characterized by the most generalized type of functions of the gods, as well as their connection with the official cult. Two deities belonged to the highest level - Perun and Veles. These deities embody the military and economic-natural functions, respectively. In addition to the named gods, the full composition of the Proto-Slavic gods of the highest level could include Svarog (the god of fire) and Dazhdbog (the solar deity).

The lower, middle, human world was represented by deities associated with economic cycles and seasonal rites - Rod, Chur, etc. Most female deities, for example, Mokosh, as well as the spirits of ancestors - good (grandfathers) and evil ( ghouls).

The lowest level included different classes of non-individualized evil, spirits, animals: brownies, goblin, mermaids, water, etc. Fairy tale characters - Baba Yaga, Kashchei, Miracle Yudo, Forest King, Sea King - were, apparently, the leaders of those classes of creatures that themselves belonged to the lowest level.

An attempt to fix the highest circle of pagan deities at the national level was first undertaken by Prince Vladimir in 980 "... And Vladimir began to reign in Kiev alone, and set idols on a hill outside the terem courtyard: a wooden Perun with a silver head and a golden mustache, then Khorsa , Dazhdbog, Stribog, Simargl and Mokosh". The main deities of the pantheon were the Thunderer Perun and the "cattle god" Veles (Volos), opposing each other topographically (the idol of Perun towered on a hill, the idol of Veles was located below - on the Kiev Hem.) and in social function (Perun - the god of the princely squad, Veles - the god of all the rest of Russia.). Historians explain this position of Veles in the hierarchy of the gods by the fact that "Vladimir from the very beginning had in mind to abandon the old practice of his ancestors - overseas campaigns related to trade affairs." The only female character of the Kiev pantheon - Mokosh - was associated with characteristic female activities (especially spinning). Other gods of this pantheon were related to the most common natural functions: Stribog was associated with the winds, Dazhdbog and Hora - with the sun. The functions of the last god are not entirely clear, meaning Simargl. Some researchers consider this character borrowed from Iranian mythology (Simurgh in Iranian mythology is a prophetic bird.); others interpret him as a character that unites all the gods of the pantheon.

The connections between the gods within the pantheon and their hierarchy are revealed when analyzing the patterns of enumeration of the gods in the annalistic lists: a connection is found between Perun and Veles, Stribog with Dazhdbog and Svarog, a peripheral place of Simargl and Mokosh.

As many researchers of the history and culture of Ancient Russia note, by the time Christianity was adopted, paganism was at a level close to monotheism. In this regard, the position of the Genus, the question of which is still open, is very indicative. Some authors consider him the patron of tribal relations, the god of the hearth, almost a brownie. B.A. Rybakov, on the other hand, suggested interpreting Rod as a deity belonging to a host of powerful gods, as the Creator of all things, giving life, fertility, longevity. According to B.A. Rybakov, "Rod is the god of the sky and rain, blowing life into people. He, as it were, combines all other gods in himself." This circumstance gave rise to I.Ya. Froyanov to call Rod "the equivalent of the Christian god."

In ancient times, the cult of ancestors arose in Russia. It was based on the belief that human life continues after physical death, but in a slightly different capacity. The importance of those problems that were associated with the death of a relative, according to V.Ya. Petrukhin, confirm the physical efforts that the ancient Russian society expended on the construction of mounds - monuments to their ancestors.

The Eastern Slavs divided the dead into two categories: the "clean" dead who died of natural causes, who were called "parents", and the "unclean" dead, who died an unnatural death. The last category included suicides, drunkards, sorcerers. The attitude towards both was different. The "unclean" dead evoked superstitious fear, and dangerous, harmful properties were attributed to them. "Parents" were revered as good patrons of the family. The fate of the descendants was placed in direct dependence on the benevolence of the "grandfathers". It was believed that the ancestors constantly exercise moral guardianship over the living.

The veneration of dead ancestors was widespread in pagan Russia everywhere. A plentiful commemoration was arranged for them, they were honored on special days of the year. With the approval of Christianity, memorial days were assigned by the church to certain dates of the Orthodox calendar and were called "parental" days.

Faith in brownies was an element of the cult of ancestors. Often, the "brownie" was thought of as a deceased ancestor. And to this day, the "brownie" is called the "master", which goes back to very ancient times.

The idea of the other world was closely connected with the cult of ancestors. In the minds of the ancient Russians, he was within the boundaries of spatio-temporal existence. Life beyond the "coffin" seemed to be a continuation or parallel to earthly existence.

The Russians also had an idea of paradise, which was called "iry" or "vyry". It was conceived as "the eternal blissful existence of dead people", as "a beautiful garden in the visible sky or somewhere in the unknown, warm Eastern countries(lands), from which birds fly to people every spring. "Confirmation of this we meet in the "Teaching" of Vladimir Monomakh: "And we will marvel at how the birds of heaven come from Irya ...".

"Sending" a person to heaven, the Russian pagans supplied him with everything that is necessary in earthly life: they put clothes, shoes, utensils in the coffin. Despite the fact that the custom of burning the dead in the Slavs persisted for quite a long time, as Nestor says, describing the funeral rites of the Radimichi, Vyatichi, Krivichi, Severyans ("And if someone died, they arranged a feast for him, and then they made a large deck and laid they burned the dead on this deck, and then, having collected the bones, they put them in a small vessel and placed them on poles along the roads"), nevertheless, archeological data also testify to the widespread custom of burial in the earth in those days in Russia. Here it should be noted that the correct observance of the funeral rite was given Special attention, because it guarded the separation of the living and the dead. Items that served the deceased were left by his relatives at the turn, on the border of the village. This is explained by the fact that the pagans identified death with the border, it was located on the border of the world of the living and the world of the dead. They were afraid of her, being wary of the actions of evil forces. At the same time, in the ancient Slavic pagan cult, death was not included in the circle of cognizable phenomena. Vyach.V. Ivanov and V.V. Toporov noted among the Slavs "an abundance of mysteries about death."

If the funeral rites were violated, then the souls of the dead began to visit the living. Hence the numerous traditions, legends, fairy tales, beliefs in werewolves, etc. The world of the living was protected from this invasion. East Slavic pagans have always sought to protect themselves from death. Here is how A.N. Afanasiev: "In Russia, whoever touches the corpse of a dead person should not sow, because the seeds thrown by his hand will die and will not bear fruit; if someone dies during sowing, then in some villages they still do not dare to sow until the funeral is performed... On the other hand, since the grain, the seed is a symbol of life, then when the dead is taken out, the shop where he lay and the whole hut are sprinkled with rye. death and close the entrance to her familiar dwelling.The pot from which the deceased was washed, the straw that was laid under him, and the comb with which they combed his head are taken from the house and left at the turn of another village or thrown into the river, believing that in this way, death is removed outside the family (rural) possession or descends down the water. All those present at the burial are obliged, upon returning home, to look into the trough or put their hands to the hearth in order to cleanse themselves from the harmful influence of death. "

Ancient Russia did not have idol temples, but pagan sanctuaries occupied an honorable place in the settlements of the Eastern Slavs. The temple (altar) was surrounded by idols - statues of pagan gods made of wood, stone and metal.

Archaeological data are known about the remains of pagan sanctuaries. The most famous of these sanctuaries was discovered in the Peryn tract near Novgorod and was apparently dedicated to the god Perun.

"The central part of the sanctuary was a horizontal platform raised above the surrounding surface in the form of a regular circle with a diameter of 21 m, surrounded by an annular moat up to 7 m wide and more than 1 m deep. Exactly in the center of the circle, excavations revealed a pit from a pillar with a diameter of 0.6 m. Here stood a wooden idol of Perun, which, according to the chronicle, was cut down and thrown into the Volkhov in 988. In front of the idol there was an altar - a circle made of cobblestones. petals. This shape was given to it by eight arched protrusions, located correctly and symmetrically. In each such protrusion at the bottom of the moat, during pagan holidays, a ritual fire was lit, and in one of them, the eastern one, facing Volkhov, judging by the amount of coal and the calcination of the soil, "unquenchable fire" burned. Eight bonfires pointed to the cardinal points, and the idol in the center corresponded with the World Axis. often bloody sacrifices were made."

Many sanctuaries of more modest sizes are known, located in the Smolensk region, Pskov region and other places. Usually these are round platforms with a diameter of 14 to 30 m, even, sometimes convex or concave in the middle, surrounded by an annular ditch and a low rampart, sometimes by one ditch, sometimes by two ramparts, between which there is a shallow ditch. Artificially built sanctuaries are also known.

Archaeologists have also found ancient Slavic idols. Traditionally, they were wooden or stone pillars, the upper part of which depicted a human head, often wearing a hat. Their average height is about 0.7 m. The most famous is the so-called Zbruch idol. He was found near the town of Gusyatin, at the tributary of the Dniester - the river. Zbruch. This is a 4-sided limestone pillar, about 3m high. Each side is divided into 3 tiers: the upper one is dedicated to the gods, the middle one - to people and the earth, the lower one - to the underworld. On the sides of the pillar - under one cap - there are four full-length figures, two of them are female. What deities are depicted on the pillar remains a mystery. The Zbruch idol dates back to the 10th century. Now this monument is in the Krakow Museum.

Residents of neighboring places flocked to the sanctuaries to perform treb - religious rites, prayers, solemn funeral feasts. The most important and serious part of the requirements were sacrifices. Written monuments have preserved evidence of a terrible custom - human sacrifices. We find a story about one such event in the annals under the year 983. After a successful campaign, Prince Vladimir wanted to mark the victory with a sacrifice in gratitude to the gods. The elders and boyars decided that a human sacrifice was needed. The lot fell on a "beautiful face and soul" young man, the son of a Christian Varangian who lived in Kiev. When they came for him, his father resisted and delivered a diatribe to the pagan gods: “These are not gods, but just a tree. Today they are, but tomorrow they will rot. They do not eat, drink or speak, but are made by human hands from wood .. I will not give a son ... ".

The custom of sacrificing livestock and poultry persisted for a long time in different places in Russia even after the adoption of Christianity. Even in the middle of the XVI century. the archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov complained to Ivan the Terrible about this.

We have not received clear information about the existence of a professional priesthood among the Eastern Slavs. Although in the presence of numerous sanctuaries, it most likely existed. In addition, there is news about sorcerers, sorcerers who could perform priestly functions. It is possible that these functions could be performed by the oldest of the kind.

Pagan magic was developed in Russia. It covered almost all aspects of family and social life and later (after the adoption of Christianity.) proved to be especially tenacious. Folk magic was based on the notion that with the help of images - verbal, pictorial, sculptural, object - it is possible to establish a real connection with the prototypes, i.e. with those natural and cosmic forces of a different order (from physical to spiritual), which a person wants to use in his own interests. Both in everyday life and in everyday life, the ancient Slavs turned to the natural elements, spoke to them. The pagan knew that if you say the word - "to speak", then the forces of nature will respond, help. However, the conspiracies had another side. They were needed not only by man, but by the whole world as a whole, because through conspiracies the "establishment" of this world was strengthened. "To speak" - to confirm with a word, to protect by deed each half of the world in its purity, so that good remains with good, evil with evil, the living with the living, and the dead with the dead. For example, if suddenly frosts occurred in the summer, and rains in the winter, then here the conspiracies were supposed to protect, preserve, return the world to its already measured state.

Conspiracies were created as life itself, from generation to generation. They formed as if by themselves. Sorcerers, sorcerers, healers, sorcerers knew, knew, owned the order of words and could, if necessary, transfer this knowledge to other members of their kind.

The magic of Ancient Russia pursued quite worldly, rational goals. She never shied away from knowledge about nature, its phenomena, properties of matter. As L. Lebedev notes, it was relatively "pure magic".

Such are the religious beliefs of the ancient Slavs. However, not only they constituted the essence of the spiritual culture of the pre-Christian era. O.A. Platonov generally believes that "paganism for our ancestors is rather a system of spiritual and moral concepts than a religion." Therefore, let us turn to the analysis of paganism as a set of spiritual and moral values.

CM. Solovyov, relying on the news of the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Arabs, notes that the Eastern Slavs were characterized by simplicity of morals, namely, kindness, gentleness, and straightforwardness. "... In general, the Slavs with their morality made a favorable impression on them (contemporaries-foreigners): the simplicity of Slavic morals was in contrast to the corrupted morals of the then educated or semi-educated peoples. So, we meet reviews that evil and crafty come across very rarely among the Slavs. " However, such evidence should not give rise to the idealization of Slavic antiquity. "Kindness did not exclude, however, ferocity and cruelty in certain cases." And although there were cases of violence, nevertheless, Russia of that time was more characterized by fraternal and friendly relations.

In personal qualities, righteousness, courage, fidelity to duty and word, love for the native land were especially valued. In relations between people, unhypocritical brotherly love, fidelity in friendship, responsiveness to other people's grief, readiness to help, respect for elders, especially parents, have always been welcomed. All this found its vivid expression in artistic creativity: epics, legends, proverbs.

Ancient writers note such a feature of the Slavs as hospitality. The owner was responsible for the safety of the guest and was obliged to treat and warm him. Slav, leaving home, left open door and food for the wanderer. The Byzantine emperor Mauritius (582-602) testifies: "They (Slavs) are affectionate with strangers, they receive them at home, they escort them from one place to another, where he needs to, and even if some misfortune happens to the guest through the fault of the host, then the one who received the guest after him opposes the negligent, considering it an honor for himself to intercede for the guest. The Arabic author writes: "Rus honors the foreigner and affably treats those who surrender themselves under her care, or who often visit her, and protects them from any adventures."

According to Eastern observers, the ancient Russians have always been distinguished by a cheerful disposition. Holidays in Russia have always been accompanied by games, songs, dances, round dances. They loved intoxicating drinks, but they did not know intoxicating drinks. Drinking was light.

However, the blessings of life have never been put in the forefront by Russians. This is evidenced by the simplicity of the life of our ancestors, a striking example of which is the camp life of Prince Svyatoslav:

Svyatoslav did not carry carts or cauldrons behind him, he did not cook meat, but, having thinly sliced horse meat, or animal meat, or beef and roasted it on coals, he ate it like that; he did not even have a tent, but slept, spreading a sweatshirt with a saddle in his head - the same were all his other soldiers. "It should be emphasized that this chronicle evidence was made with clear approval.

In the stories of the Primary Chronicle about Prince Svyatoslav, one can see the ideal of military behavior that developed in Russia in the era of paganism. A warrior should have the following traits: selfless devotion to his homeland, contempt for death in battle, democracy and a Spartan way of life, directness in addressing even the enemy. Perhaps nothing was valued in ancient Russia as highly as personal courage. Therefore, to the highest degree, the high moral qualities of the Slavs of Russia manifested themselves in the form of heroes - mighty and kind defenders of their native land, the best representatives of the people.

Although military prowess, courage, strength, and fidelity to duty were greatly revered, nevertheless, the cult of famous generals, leaders of victorious squads was not peculiar to Russia. Our chroniclers tell about the campaigns of the Russian princes, sometimes simply brilliant, rather restrainedly, as if letting the reader know that the true honor and glory of the people are not in military successes. Moreover, in the annals, the biblical Serug is directly condemned for putting up statues of soldiers. “The first to make idols was Serug, he created them in honor of the dead people: some he set for the former kings, others for brave people, and wise men, and adulterous wives. Serug gave birth to Terah, Terah gave birth to three sons: Abraham, Nahor and Aaron Terah made idols, having learned this from his father... Abraham turned to his father: "Father! Why are you deceiving people by making wooden idols? The god who created the heavens and the earth."

Russia often fought, but these wars were predominantly and mainly defensive in nature. They were sent to protect their land from restless neighbors - the Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians. As for the campaigns of the Kiev princes against Byzantium, many historians have tried and are trying to interpret them as a kind of "diplomatic" action: the task of these campaigns was supposedly to achieve the establishment of very valuable and even necessary for Russia diplomatic relations with Constantinople.

Special mention should be made of Oleg's campaign against Constantinople in 911. in two copies - in Greek and Russian. "... We created this peace treaty with Ivan's writing on two charters - your king and with our own hand ...". This fact confirms that writing in Russia appeared even before the adoption of Christianity. This circumstance once again testifies that the level of culture of pre-Christian Russia was quite high.

Absence excessive affection Russian people to earthly values and well-being are also emphasized by the idea of a clear conscience. This spiritual value was placed by the Slavs above all else. No blessings of life, temptations, not even death should have forced a person to change her. A sense of duty to the Earth and the people prevailed over personal interests. This is explained by the fact that Ancient Russia, as we noted above, was constantly in the ring of hostile forces (Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy).

According to L. Lebedev, conscience turned out to be "the spiritual center, the core of all the laws and moral institutions of the Old Russian state." The author draws this conclusion based on the fact that the whole variety of personal, social and economic relations in Ancient Russia was regulated by the concept of "truth". This does not mean that the truth has always won in everything. This means that the Eastern Slavs were constantly striving for its implementation, and "the thirst for truth gave rise to positive spiritual and moral efforts."

The name of the first set of laws in Russia ("Russian Truth") testifies to the peculiar nature of the legal principle in Russian legislation. Russian law and law are rooted in truth. The truth is the main thing in the law, it is above the law. If the law is adopted, but does not correspond to the truth, then this is an unrighteous, worthless law that needs to be repealed or corrected.

Typical Russian expressions are: "to act according to the truth", "to judge and dress according to the truth", "to live by the truth", etc. L. Lebedev believes that if in these expressions the word "truth" is replaced by the word "conscience", then the meaning will not will change.

Here it is appropriate to say a few words about the legislation of Ancient Russia. "Russian Truth", the compilation of the first articles of which dates back to the beginning of the 11th century. (the time of the reign of Yaroslav the Wise) is a complex legal monument based on the norms of customary law (unwritten rules that have developed as a result of their repeated application) and on previous legislation. In this case, we consider it necessary to emphasize that the legislation in Russia was formed even before baptism. We find confirmation of this in the agreements between the Rus and the Greeks at the beginning of the 10th century, where the “Russian Law” is mentioned, according to which the inhabitants of Kievan Rus were judged. "We are from the Russian family, sent from Oleg, the Grand Duke of Russia, and from all who are under his hand, we judged with justice, swearing by our weapons, to establish such friendship (between Christians and Russians) and certify it according to faith and according to our law" .

An important indicator of the spiritual development of our distant ancestors is such a moral principle as love for goodness (philokalia). In ancient Russian views, the idea of perfection, the transformation of the human soul on the basis of goodness and harmony is clearly seen.

It is very difficult to say whether the Russian pagans had a correct idea of good and evil, but they always had an accurate feeling of their real existence and presence in the lives of people and the world around them. The dualistic principle of opposition "favorable - unfavorable" was realized in mythological characters endowed with positive or negative functions. In this regard, let's pay attention to such as ghouls and beregini.

The ghoul in the view of the Russians is a mysterious, terrible creature that can bring a lot of evil to a person. Therefore, they tried to appease them with food offerings ("requirements") or defended themselves from them with various conspiracies and spells. Later, Christian methods were added to the pagan methods of protection from evil spirits - prayers, appeals to the Virgin and saints, the laying of the cross.

Beregini, on the contrary, seemed to be good creatures. They resisted evil spirits and protected people from the tricks of all evil spirits, assisted in business and life, patronized honest people, with an open soul and a kind heart. The coastline includes the Firebird, the Phoenix bird, Sivka-burka, and the Humpbacked Horse. These creatures are active in the affirmation of good, come to the aid of people in difficult situations, because understand their worries and anxieties.

The belief in evil spirits and coastlines reflects the ideas of the ancient Slavs that evil and good spirits live around them, who constantly fight among themselves, helping or harming a person.

Speaking about the moral state of pre-Christian Russia, it should be said that a peculiar moral ideal of a person was formed in the Middle Dnieper region with the center in Kiev. The meadows, by their behavior, created an ideal image of a person who was captured in epics, legends, fairy tales. Nestor, analyzing the moral state of the tribes, is based on 3 criteria:

1. attitude towards people, especially to parents and relatives,
2. attitude to food,
3. attitude towards marriage.

"The meadows have the custom of their fathers meek and quiet, they are bashful in front of their daughters-in-law and sisters, mothers and parents; before mothers-in-law and brothers-in-law they have great bashfulness; they also have a marriage custom: the son-in-law does not go for the bride, but they bring her the day before, and the next day they bring for her - who will give what. And the Drevlyans lived an animal custom, lived like a beast: they killed each other, ate everything unclean, and they did not have marriages, but they kidnapped girls by the water. And the Radimichi, Vyatichi and Northerners had a common custom: they lived in the forest, like animals, they ate everything unclean and dishonored in the presence of their fathers and daughters-in-law, and they did not have marriages, but games were arranged between villages, and they converged on these games, on dances and on all sorts of demonic songs, and here they kidnapped their wives by agreement with them; and they had two and three wives." A detailed description of the mores of the Eastern Slavs in the "Tale of Bygone Years" indicates that moral problems for our ancestors of that time were very relevant.

Separately, I would like to say about the religious tolerance of the Rus in relation to those of other faiths, whether they are foreigners or even fellow tribesmen. It is religious tolerance that explains the fact that in Kiev, half a century before the baptism of Russia, a Christian community was formed and the Church of St. Elijah was built.

The first adherents of the Christian faith among Russians began to appear after the treaty of 911. The most expressive data about Russian Christians came down to us in the treaty between Russia and Byzantium in 944, where among the ambassadors who took an oath in Tsargrad, both pagans and Christians appear: "We are those of us who were baptized swore in the cathedral church by the church of St. Elijah ... And the unbaptized Russians lay down their shields and naked swords, hoops and other weapons ... ". We observe a similar picture in Kiev: Prince Igor, together with his pagan entourage, swore on the hill in front of the idol of Perun, and Christians swore allegiance in the church of St. Elijah. "The next day, Igor called for ambassadors and came to the hill where Perun stood; and they laid down their weapons, and shields, and gold, and Igor and his people swore allegiance - how many pagans were among the Russians. And Russian Christians were sworn in in the church of St. Elijah ...".

The participation of Christians in the conclusion of the treaty of 944, the presence in Kiev of the Church of St. Elijah indicate the significant role of the Christian element in the life of the capital. However, according to I.Ya. Froyanov, this does not mean that Christians have already "morally prevailed over the pagans." In particular, Princess Olga was baptized as a private person, and not as "ruler of the Kiev state", "head of Kiev policy", "head of state and Kiev government". At the proposal of the baptized Princess Olga to follow her example, son Svyatoslav refuses: "How can I accept a different faith alone? Will my squad laugh?" However, the reaction of the inveterate pagan Prince Svyatoslav to the conversion of his compatriots to Christianity was very, very good-natured: "... But if someone was going to be baptized, he did not forbid, but only mocked him."

New faith in the beginning - the middle of the X century. It also affected the trading people - the so-called "guests" who visited Constantinople, because belonging to Christianity provided them with better conditions in a Christian country compared to pagans.

As for the philosophical and aesthetic ideas of Ancient Russia, the following should be noted here. Aesthetic ideas originate even before the adoption of Christianity. In particular, in the era of pagan Russia, the idea of beauty appears. Confirmation is the fact that the beauty of the Byzantine liturgy struck the Russian ambassadors and was one of the factors that determined the choice of faith. "... And we came to the Greek land, and led us to where they serve their God, and did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth: for there is no such sight and beauty on earth, and we do not know how to tell about We only know that God dwells there with people and their service is better than in other countries. We cannot forget such beauty." Of course, the beauty of worship is not the only and not the main point that decided the fate of the choice of religion (the main thing was that Orthodoxy corresponded to the character of our people and allowed it to preserve its traditions, customs, ideals), but it cannot be discounted.

Aesthetic ideas were also reflected in the artistic practice of our distant ancestors. Before the adoption of Christianity, the Eastern Slavs had their own fairly developed culture in the field of artistic crafts and construction. Archaeological excavations confirm that pre-Christian Russia knew casting and chasing, ceramics and embroidery, and mastered the fine craftsmanship of enamels. She produced skillful jewelry - bronze amulets and jewelry: star-shaped pendants, buckles, kolts, hryvnias (ancient earrings and necklaces). Bird, animal and human figures were woven into the patterns of these products - a Slavic version of the late barbarian "animal style".

Pagan Russia was most skillful in the processing of wood, which was the main building material. Mansions of princes and huts of peasants were made from it, fortress walls were laid from oak logs. The main household items: a plow, a spinning wheel, bast shoes, a spoon, a tub, a sled - all this was provided by a generous and kind forest for a person.

Thus, aesthetic moments occupied a very significant place in the life and art of pre-Christian Russia. Subsequently, they had a significant impact on the formation of the aesthetics of the Old Russian state.

Speaking about the philosophical views of Russian pagans, it should immediately be noted that most researchers are of the opinion that Christianity was the first impetus for the emergence of Russian philosophy. So, from the point of view of A.F. Zamaleev, "philosophy could not be born in the depths of Slavic paganism." This is explained by the fact that the mythology of the ancient Russians remained a purely "spontaneous religion" with an undeveloped dualism of the divine and the natural. Moreover, from the standpoint of the author, "in the bosom of Slavic paganism, not only philosophy, but even a secularized worldview could not have been born." Here we consider it appropriate to dwell on the features of the worldview of the ancient Russians.

Firstly, in Slavic mythology, as noted above, the world is divided into several levels, i.e. a kind of hierarchy of the surrounding world can be traced. Man correlates with all levels of Slavic mythology. The universal image that synthesizes all human relations with the hierarchical world is the world tree. This function in Slavic folklore is usually played by birch, oak, pine, mountain ash, apple tree. Various animals are confined to the three main parts of the world tree: birds, as well as the sun and moon, are associated with the branches and top; to the trunk - bees; to the roots - snakes, beavers, etc. The whole tree as a whole is compared with a person, especially with a woman. Moreover, the concept of the soul distinguishes a person from other creatures. Before the adoption of Christianity, the Eastern Slavs were characterized by an elementary idea of the soul, i.e. its identification with breathing (from the root "breath", "spirit"). The cessation of breathing was a clear sign of the cessation of life (for example, "give up the spirit" - to die). Thus, with the help of the world tree, the triple vertical structure of the world is modeled - three kingdoms: heaven, earth and the underworld.

Secondly, Russian pagans describe the world as a system of binary oppositions, or binary oppositions, which determine its spatial, temporal, social and other characteristics: "life - death", "male - female", "heaven - earth", "sacred - worldly", etc. Let's take a look at some of them.

"Life death". In Slavic mythology, the deity bestows life, fertility and longevity. Among the Eastern Slavs, this deity was Rod. However, the deity can also bring death. The motives for the murder are associated with Chernobog or Perun. The symbols of life and death are living water and dead water; green, flowering tree and dry tree, etc.

The opposition "right - left" is the basis of ancient law (right, truth, justice, etc.), as well as the basis of divination, rituals. This opposition is reflected in the personified images of Truth in heaven and Falsehood on earth.

The opposition "male - female" correlates with the opposition "right - left" in wedding and funeral rituals, where women are to the left of men. The difference between male and female characters in terms of functions and number is quite significant: it is important to note the small number of female characters in the pantheon, as well as their decisive role in magic and witchcraft.

The opposition "top - bottom" is interpreted as the opposition of heaven and earth, top and roots of the world tree. In ritual terms, this is manifested in the location of Perun on the hill and Veles in the lowland.

The opposition "heaven - earth" is embodied in the confinement of the deity to the sky, and man to the earth.

The opposition "south - north", "east - west" emphasizes the presence of ideas among the ancient Russians about the spatial structure of the surrounding world. This is confirmed by the special attraction of the Rus to movement and the development of new space - the desire for "freedom". According to L. Lebedev, "will" among Russians is not the same as "freedom" in the sense of independence from any moral or civil laws or from power. "Will" is the ability to move. If we talk about pre-Christian antiquity, then the category of "will" is more related to movement and movement in space. We are talking about the development of free, unoccupied and sparsely populated lands. However, in some cases, "will" also implied a desire to comprehend the meaning of being. In this regard, in both cases, the thirst to learn, comprehend, spiritually and culturally master the wondrous, wisely arranged world is obvious.

The opposition "close - distant" also points to the structure of space and time. For example, "one's own home" - "far away kingdom" in Russian fairy tales, images of the way-road, bridge, distance, old and new times, etc. One of the options for the opposition "near - distant" is the opposition "house - forest". Space and time in the view of the pagans were "marked". It was believed that evil spirits: devils, goblin, water, mermaids and similar evil spirits - cannot go beyond the boundaries of their night time, they disappear with the crow of roosters at dawn. Swamps, deaf thickets, lowlands, crevices, ditches, ravines - the domination of evil forces; mountains, hills, high towers, wide fields, endless expanses - the predominance of the forces of good.

In contrasting "land - sea", the sea is of particular importance as the seat of numerous negative characters. It is considered as a dwelling of death, diseases, where they are sent in conspiracies. The positive aspect is embodied in the motifs of the arrival of spring and the sun from across the sea.

In the opposition "spring - winter" a special place is given to Spring. It is associated with mythological characters embodying fertility - Yarila, Kostroma, etc., as well as with the rites of the funeral of Winter and the unlocking of Spring.

The opposition "old - young" emphasizes the difference between maturity, maximum productive forces and decrepitude. This opposition is associated with the opposition "ancestors - descendants", as well as rituals of commemoration of ancestors, "grandfathers".

In Slavic mythology, there was also an opposition "sacred - mundane", where a clear line is drawn between the sacred sphere, endowed with special power, and the everyday sphere, devoid of this power.

Thus, in the view of Russian pagans, the world has a triple vertical structure - heaven, earth and underworld, and also is a system of binary oppositions, i.e. doubles: "life - death", "good - evil", "right - left", "top - bottom", "ancestors - descendants", "older - younger", etc.

The analysis carried out convinces us that before the adoption of Christianity, Ancient Russia had a fairly high level of spiritual culture. This is evidenced by the development of religious beliefs, and the system of spiritual and moral values inherent in the ancient Russians, and philosophical and aesthetic ideas, albeit unsystematized, that arose in that period. Despite the fact that in theological literature ancient Russian paganism is interpreted as "dark, embittered, vindictive", and pre-Christian society as "a stinking and cruel world", we have no right to deny the fact that many elements of the spiritual and moral sphere of Russian people arose long before the baptism of Russia, which was facilitated by certain climatic, household, political and other conditions that befell the Eastern Slavs.

The adoption of Christianity and the transformation of the pagan culture of the Eastern Slavs

The baptism of Russia had a noticeable impact on the cultural life of the Slavs. Christianity in Kievan Rus became the conductor of the culture of Byzantium. At the same time, it should be noted that Byzantium in the era of the adoption of Christianity by Russia was in the prime of its cultural creativity. The empire realized itself as the center of all the highest spiritual values - the Christian religion and classical Greco-Roman culture. Beyond its borders lay "a world at the same time heterodox (infidel), foreign culture (barbarian) and, moreover, lawless, as if not the world, not the cosmos, but chaos, outer darkness." The Byzantines perceived their state as the first, moreover, as the only one in the world, incomparable to anything.

S.S. Averintsev points to three criteria by which the Byzantines differed from other peoples: firstly, it is a correctly-orthodox-professed Christian faith; secondly, it is a highly civilized style of state and diplomatic practice, supplemented by the literary and philosophical culture of the ancient world; thirdly, this is the legitimate succession of imperial power (of Constantine the Great) in relation to Christian-imperial Rome.

The perception of peoples baptized in the correct faith as dependent gave rise to a natural desire to expand their sphere of influence through the spread of Eastern Christianity.

When deciding on the choice of a new faith, the Slavic rulers and their warriors relied on other factors than a deep knowledge of the Christian cultural tradition and the conviction of its deep cultural superiority over the pagan tradition.

First of all, it is necessary to point out the great similarity between Christianity and the pagan beliefs of the Slavs. Both in Christianity and in the religious beliefs and rites of the Eastern Slavs, many homogeneous elements were contained, which were various manifestations of primitive forms of social consciousness. This similarity boiled down to the following main points:

1. the world is controlled by a higher power that created it (for the Slavs, this is Rod);
2. there are many secondary forces that govern various sections of nature and the community of people;
3. these forces are dualistic, i.e. are divided into good and evil spirits;
4. means of influencing a higher power are magical rites or sacrifices;
5. the deity of nature is constantly reborn;
6. In addition to the real world, there is the afterlife of human souls.

On the basis of this commonality, the combination of East Slavic paganism and Byzantine Christianity took place. Thus, L. Lebedev concludes, "Rus turned out to be especially prepared for the acceptance of Christianity."

As we have already noted above, the Christian element in the public life of Kievan Rus was already evident at the beginning of the 10th century. The first proposal in history to arrange a general baptism of Russia belongs to Princess Olga. Prince Svyatoslav refuses the step proposed to him.

In 969 Princess Olga died. Her burial was performed in a Christian way. “Three days later, Olga died, and her son, and her grandchildren, and all the people, wept for her with a great cry, and carried her and buried her in an open place. Olga bequeathed not to perform funeral feasts for her, since she had a priest with her - he buried the blessed Olga.

In the second half of the X century. the spread of the Christian faith makes a clash with paganism inevitable. In 980, Prince Vladimir carried out a reform of paganism, which was not crowned with success. The reason for the failure of reforming the pagan faith lies in the fact that paganism was deprived of the universalism that was inherent in Christianity. It could not act as a regulator of social development and social relations. The paganism of the Eastern Slavs of the Vladimir era is often considered an obsolete faith, powerless and not satisfying the "changed requirements of the time." CM. Solovyov wrote on this occasion as follows: "Christianity had long been familiar in Kiev due to frequent relations with Constantinople, which amazed the Russians with the greatness of religion and citizenship. After the miracles there, those who visited Constantinople with contempt had to look at the poor Russian paganism and extol the Greek faith."

At the same time, one should not forget that there were not so many who visited Byzantium. And the described situation of religious and cultural influence is typical to a greater extent for the southern cities, primarily Kiev. Considering the second most important center of the Eastern Slavs after Kiev - Veliky Novgorod, one should already talk mainly about the Scandinavian influence (Varangian), as well as the influence of the Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes, i.e. purely pagan influence, which created a completely different situation than in Kiev. And the population outside the cities - both in the south and in the north - could hardly even think about abandoning the faith of their ancestors, even if they lived on the same territory with non-Slavic tribes.

Nevertheless, 983-986. were marked by a kind of lull in religious and spiritual terms. This is explained by the origin of Prince Vladimir - the grandson of the Christian Olga and the son of the pagan Svyatoslav. Apparently, in the soul of the prince there is a struggle - the struggle of the pagan and Christian beginnings.

In 988, Prince Vladimir and his squad were baptized. However, Christianity in Russia is spreading rather slowly. How can this state of affairs be explained? AND I. Froyanov gives two reasons:

1. The predominance of voluntary methods of conversion to Christianity. He believes that, at least in Kiev, only those who wished were baptized. From his point of view, the prince and the squad did not have the means for mass violence to force the people to be baptized from under the stick. As for the resistance to the introduction of Christianity in other regions, it was associated with opposition to Kiev.
2. The well-known tolerance of Byzantine Christianity towards paganism. According to the historian, the rapid success of Christianity in ancient Russian society was also hindered by the persistence of pagan customs among the Russian people.

Even in the princely environment of the XI-XII centuries. tenaciously held the cult of the Family and the earth.

With this point of view, the opinion of Fr. Georgy Florovsky, who rightly noted that the baptism of Russia "by no means can and should not be imagined ... as a single event for which a specific date can be named. It was a complex and very diverse process, long and interrupted, stretching not even for decades, but for centuries."

Christianity in Russia has undergone in many respects a pagan rethinking - this is the position of many authors. V.Ya. Petrukhin believes that the Russian Middle Ages were characterized by "a syncretic worldview, combining Christian ideology with remnants of paganism." A.F. also declares about "dual faith" among the people. Zamaleev.

Here we should pay attention to the fact that the term "dual faith" did not originally mean Christians who preserved pagan rites. It was first used in the Teachings of Theodosius of the Caves - "The Sermon on the Christian and Latin Faith" (1069) - in relation to Christians who hesitated in choosing between the Greek and Latin rites. In another Old Russian Teaching - "The Word of a certain Christ-lover and zealot for right faith"- the concept of "dual faith" is associated with idolatry. "Priests and scribes" are declared "double-faithly" who do not comply with church prescriptions, primarily related to the meal. In modern science, the term "dual faith" is used to denote the "syncretic" worldview of the Russian Middle Ages. In this meaning it will be used by us.

P.A. Florensky is of the opinion that Russian Orthodoxy was formed by the interaction of three forces:

1. the Greek faith brought to us by the monks and priests of Byzantium,
2. Slavic paganism, which met this new faith,
3. Russian folk character, which in its own way adopted Byzantine Orthodoxy and reworked it in its own spirit.

Quite original is the concept of N.M. Tolstoy and S.M. Tolstoy, who believe that in relation to Ancient Russia one can speak of triverity. According to them, Byzantine Christianity itself, having come to Russia, already carried the legacy of all kinds of pagan influences - Dionysian and other Asia Minor and Balkan cults. Therefore, "medieval traditional spiritual culture among the Slavs consisted of three genetically different components:

1. Christianity associated with church dogma,
2. paganism inherited from the Proto-Slavic period,
3. "anti-Christianity", most often again paganism, but of non-Slavic origin, which penetrated into the Slavic folk environment along with Christianity or in another ... way.

Given all of the above, it should be noted that the culture of all of Russia after the adoption of Byzantine Orthodoxy has undergone significant changes. As V.Ya. Petrukhin, at the turn of the X-XI centuries. there is a kind of "cultural revolution". This revolution was expressed in the fact that after the baptism of Russia, a process of transformation of traditional pagan culture unfolded throughout the state. In particular, there was a transformation of the funeral rite.

At the turn of the X-XI centuries. the custom of cremation of the dead is everywhere replaced by the rite of inhumation. Moreover, these changes affect not only urban necropolises, where the pagan rite of burial under the barrow disappears immediately after the baptism of Russia, but also the rural outback, where the barrow rite is preserved, but the dead are already buried, not burned. The spread of the rite of inhumation of a corpse was facilitated by the fact that the traditional "pagan" orientation of the deceased with his head to the West (including on the funeral pyre) coincided with the Christian one. However, initially, inhumation in grave pits with a head to the West spread in the Middle Dnieper, with centers in Kiev, Chernigov and Pereyaslavl (within the Russian land in the narrow sense). As for other areas, here the Christianization of the rite was slow. At first, the dead began to be buried not in graves, but on the surface of the earth, under mounds; from the 12th century the rite of burial in grave pits spreads, and by the end of this century mounds begin to disappear.

The evolution of the funeral rite testifies to the fact that Christian ideas associated with ideas about the afterlife and the salvation of souls are spreading among the population of Ancient Russia in a non-violent way. Here we should pay attention to the following fact. Yes, pagan burning was supplanted by burial in the ground. But at the same time, they continued to put and write in the grave. This is a clear sign of the preservation of pagan ideas about the soul and the other world.

To a lesser extent, Christianization affected communal rites - calendar and family, associated with "this world" being. As V.Ya. Petrukhin, these rituals - "feasts and games" - were the main "subject of denunciation" in the ancient Russian teachings against paganism, the basis for accusations of "idolatry" and dual faith.

In Christian cults, the ancient Slav found analogies to his former rites and views: in the cult of "miraculous" relics, icons, relics - features of a fetishistic veneration of objects, in the cult of "holy places" - the worship of mysterious objects of nature, in mysterious church rites - the magical actions of the Magi, in the images of Orthodox saints - the old patron gods.

From the old pagan rituals, a special attitude towards ancestors and grandfathers entered Orthodoxy. Up until the beginning of the 20th century. in indigenous Russian families, the elderly enjoyed special honor and respect, their opinion was considered decisive in many everyday affairs. With the adoption of Christianity, the cult of ancestors was timed to coincide with "parental days", when commemorations were held for the dead.

The cult of the Mother of God acquired paramount importance. It was based on traditional ideas about a beneficent female being - the progenitor of the Slavic Family - Rozhanitsa.

With the baptism of Russia, the pagan structure of the world is destroyed. Now the divided world turns out to be God's immeasurable creation, in which there is everything: both good and evil; both rich and poor; and peace, and war, etc. Christianity "establishes" a new world, divided into the divine and the created. Christ generates faith that overcomes death. Appears new way resurrection - personal faith in God. God saves to eternal life only those who love, are virtuous, obedient, submissive. "God shows the way," the way of salvation.

With the name of Boris and Gleb, a new, Christian, type of death enters Russian culture as an affirmation of eternal life. The death of Boris is not a gloomy sacrifice, but a consciously chosen feat, repeating the torments of Christ. The meaning of Boris' feat lies in an attempt to overcome death, to connect earthly life with eternal. The feat of Boris and Gleb consists not only in extraordinary obedience to the will of the elder brother, expressed in non-resistance to the murderers, but also in understanding their behavior as a voluntary imitation of the death of Jesus Christ. G.P. Fedotov notes: “It seems that, in full agreement with the ancient legend, we can express Gleb’s dying thought: every disciple of Christ is left in the world to suffer, and every innocent and free suffering in the world is suffering for the name of Christ ... The feat of non-resistance is a national Russian feat , a genuine religious discovery of the newly baptized people ... Through the lives of the holy martyrs, as through the Gospel, the image of the meek and suffering Savior entered the heart of the Russian people forever as its most cherished shrine ... ".

Overcoming death by resurrection to eternal life turned out to be very difficult to perceive and was the most difficult for the pagan world. But, despite this, the assertion of the Christian idea of eternal life led to the overcoming of the pagan opposition of life and death.

The pagan bondage of soul and body received a different interpretation in Christianity: now the soul and body were separated. Caring for the body, its speedy burial was for the pagan at the same time caring for the soul of the deceased, because. The soul remained with the body even after death. If there was a rite of cremation, then, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, the soul, even after burning the body, retained a connection with the material: it either took on the images of wind, fire, steam, clouds, smoke, etc., or moved into a new body - into a butterfly , a bat, into some animal or plant, and finally into planets or stars. The Christian separation of the soul and body "after death" changes the attitude not only to the soul - concern for its salvation to death by righteous deeds is a guarantee of "joy" after death - but also to the body. It, left by the soul, is not scary, moreover, it is sacralized - it is able to work miracles. This is the manifestation of the will of God. Evidence of the fear of the dead, fears of the possible return of the deceased (belief in werewolves) is a legacy of the pagan world. Christianity brought to Russia a different attitude towards the dead, his body and his soul. Thus, the Christianization of the ancient Russian people destroys the idea of the ancient Russians about the duality of the world.

From the point of view of Byzantine Orthodoxy, evil can only be overcome through strict asceticism and mystical quest. It should be noted that with the adoption of Christianity, the Eastern Slavs received a ready-made monastic organization. However, mysticism in the sense of "a personal meeting with God" was alien to the broad masses of the ancient Rus. The path of a Russian person to God to a greater extent went not just through inactive prayer or prayerful ecstasy, but through a living deed of kindness and work done with prayer. The scale of the spread of religious asceticism in Russia was not so great. Asceticism as a means of combating world evil in the Russian people's consciousness was allowed only for a few monastics. Conscious "withdrawal from the world" contributed to the formation of a high moral authority of monasticism among the population, but it did not yet mean victory over evil. It was much more important to fight him every day in everyday life. Moreover, this struggle was no less important than ascetic service, and for the majority of Russians it was the only acceptable one.

As rightly noted by O.A. Platonov, the first Russian Christians sought in Orthodoxy for confirmation of those spiritual values by which they lived before. The Russian person comprehends Christian piety in a different way. The pious in Russia was considered not the one who spends time in fasting and prayers, but the one who is virtuous in life. In particular, the following moral crimes were considered sinful: lies, slander, envy, anger, pride, violence, theft, fornication, stinginess. “Only before those will the “gates of heaven” open, who consciously do good deeds, bring good to their neighbors, for the very ignorance of good is “evil is a sin.”

But despite the above moral principles, characteristic of the Eastern Slavs in the first centuries of the spread of Christianity in Russia, there were exceptions. For example, church marriage was not always obligatory. There are cases of polygamy among Christian princes. A vivid confirmation of this is the fact that Yaroslav Osmomysl even bequeathed the throne to his son from a concubine. And the "spiritual fathers" were rarely an example of high morality for their parishioners. Suffice it to recall at least the Rostov Bishop Theodorets.

In The Tale of Bygone Years, earthly life is seen as a confrontation between good and evil, and not only as a struggle between the messengers of God and the servants of Satan, but also as a confrontation between good and evil people. The struggle for goodness, love for goodness existed in Russia as a kind of cult even in the pre-Christian period, but after baptism they receive additional justification and higher consecration, but at the same time they come into conflict with Christian dogma in some places. Thus, Jacob Mnich praised the good, believing that holiness is achieved not by miracles, but by good deeds, i.e. good deeds were the criterion of true Christian life and holiness.

Love for goodness as the moral core of Orthodoxy, according to O.A. Platonov, in the conditions of preserving the remnants of paganism, it also had a negative side. The negative point was that only moral perfection was proclaimed true faith, the sacraments and the ritual side were denied. On the basis of this, heretical teachings arose, for example, Theodosius Kosoy. However, these were extreme points vision.

For the truly Orthodox, goodness and labor were a source of piety, a means of approaching God, but through the church, and not outside it.

Before the adoption of Christianity in Russia, there was an ideal of military behavior, which can be seen in the stories of the Primary Chronicle about Prince Svyatoslav. But already in Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction" the fusion of the pagan ideal of the prince's behavior with Christian instructions is evident. “First of all, for the sake of God and your soul, have the fear of God in your heart and give generous alms, this is the beginning of all good ... Do not compete with the evil ones, do not envy those who do lawlessness ... Honor the old like a father, but the young, like brothers ... Beware of lies, and drunkenness, and fornication ... ".

We find the same precepts of Christian love a little earlier in Yaroslav the Wise - in his political testament sons: “Behold, I depart from this light, my sons; have love in you, because you are brothers of one father and mother. ; if you live hatefully, in strife and which (feuding. -D. Likhachev), then you yourself will perish and destroy the land of your fathers and grandfathers, even having climbed with your great labor; but stay peacefully, obedient brother brother.

One of the main consequences of the adoption of Christianity was that the road to the development of the cultural heritage of the Christian world was opened. However, a simple, mechanical transfer of this heritage to Slavic soil was out of the question. There was a complex process of selecting from this heritage everything that met the needs of the Slavic society and could be assimilated at the level of social and cultural development at which this society was located.

The baptism of Russia laid down the traditions of Russian enlightenment. After the adoption of Christianity in Russia, the creation of schools began, in which the monuments of the new cultural tradition were studied. Among the Slavic translations, the works of the authors of the "golden age" of Byzantine rhetoric - John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, John of Damascus - prevail. The translation, first of all, of the works of the early Byzantine preachers is explained equally by their high artistic merit, and by the fact that their eloquence was addressed to yesterday's pagans. The Words of John Chrysostom were especially popular in Russia. His style had a strong influence on the work of ancient Russian preachers - Metropolitan Hilarion and Kirill of Turov.

The baptism of Russia became an impetus for the emergence of ancient Russian literature - this is the point of view of many authors.

Although writing in Russia has been known since the beginning of the 10th century. (remember the agreement with the Greeks in 911), nevertheless, it was used exclusively for business purposes. A few Christians still had books. The owners of books, therefore, were a very limited circle of people. We do not have any information about the existence of "pagan literature" at all. Verbal genres of folklore, historical legends, pagan myths, legends, fairy tales undoubtedly existed. Moreover, we can get acquainted with them almost in the "original", since they were later included in the chronicles. We are talking about the legends about the death of the Prophetic Oleg, the death of Prince Igor and revenge for him by Princess Olga, etc. But after all, only after the adoption of Christianity did the records of the texts appear.

At first, in Russia, literature was predominantly cult and exclusively translated: without it, neither the practical activities of the church nor the spiritual enlightenment of the clergy, monks and laity could be carried out. From the 11th century in the Old Russian state, numerous works of Byzantine Christian literature, translated in Bulgaria by figures of the "golden age" of Bulgarian literature, were distributed. The development of the traditions of the Byzantine cultural circle, which came from Bulgaria, begins.

Acquaintance with the monuments of Byzantine and ancient Bulgarian Christian literature gave the opportunity and the need to create literary works themselves. In the XI century. the first original creations of Russian authors appear, for example, Metropolitan Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace". Medieval literature was closely connected with church practice or social needs. After the Christianization of Russia, Byzantium persistently emphasized its patronal attitude towards it. All the metropolitans in Russia in the 11th-12th centuries, with the exception of Hilarion and Kliment Smolyatich, were Greeks; Many of the bishops were also Greeks. Under these conditions, for such a young state as Kievan Rus, it was extremely important to proclaim its attitude towards Byzantium.

Metropolitan Hilarion raises the most important question for the emerging national self-consciousness in his work. Arguing on a theological topic - about the superiority of the New Testament over the Old Testament - Hilarion brings listeners and readers to the main idea of his "Word", to the idea of the equality of Christian Russia and Christian Byzantium. Hilarion emphasizes this equality especially insistently: Vladimir is like Constantine, equal to him in mind, equal in love for Christ. The son of Vladimir - Yaroslav, who created the St. Sophia Cathedral, is likened to the biblical Solomon, who created the Jerusalem Temple. "Oh, like the great Constantine, equal to his mind, equal to the love of Christ ... He (Yaroslav) completed what you did not complete, like Solomon - undertaken by David; he created the house of God, great and holy, the church of his wisdom ...".

In the XI century. Old Russian scribes mastered one of the leading genres of Christian literature - hagiography. Very relevant for Ancient Russia, geographically remote from the Holy Land and the center of Orthodoxy - Constantinople - was the genre of "walking" - descriptions of a pilgrimage to Palestine or trips to Constantinople. As an example, we can cite "The Life and Walking of Abbot Daniel", referring to the XII century.

The above-mentioned monuments of ancient Russian literature of the XI-XII centuries. fit perfectly into the system of genres of Byzantine Christian literature. Russian masters generally followed the canons prescribed for these genres. Those. in this regard, we can talk about the influence of Byzantium.

However, in one of the genres, Russian scribes from the very beginning, from the moment of its inception, showed originality. We are talking about the chronicle that arose in Russia in the XI century. (This is the point of view of most scientists). Having arisen, the chronicle immediately becomes a defining phenomenon in Russian socio-political life (the chronicle acts as a document), in science (the chronicle as a presentation of historiosophical ideas), in literature (the chronicle is not only a historical chronicle, but also a highly artistic literary monument). Chronicle writing combined some elements of Slavic traditions with a new philosophical, historical and moral concept, which included Russia in the framework of world history and culture.

At one time in Russian historiography there was an opinion about the dependence of Russian chronicle writing on Byzantine chronography. But such notions have long been abandoned. This is explained by the fact that the form of the Byzantine chronicles was different from that of the annals. Dates are rarely found in the chronicles, but a complete list of rulers who succeeded each other on the throne pops up before us. From reports about "reigns" and about events that happened in each kingdom, the narrative of the chronicle is formed. As for the annals, here the events are described by years. At the same time, the chronicles present the history of the Russian land as a whole, and not the history of the princely dynasty. And this is despite the well-known processes that took place in the Old Russian state in the XII-XV centuries. (meaning the fragmentation of the country). At the same time, it is impossible not to mention the shortcomings of the annals. Firstly, the characteristics of this or that prince in the annals are contained in obituary praise, short and etiquette. Secondly, the activities of the prince are sometimes mentioned in dozens of weather articles, interspersed with information about events that had nothing to do with the Grand Duke, which took place in other principalities and even states.

Here is what he writes about the first Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years" - V.F. Petrov-Stromsky: “Already one title: “Behold the tales of the time years, where did the Russian land come from, who in Kiev began first to reign, and where did the Russian land come from” - says that we have an original and talented combination of ethical poetry with historical chronicle ".

Later, literary genres unknown to other peoples were formed in Russia. First of all, these are teachings devoted to the problems of everyday ethics, in particular Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction" - one of the first Russian original works on morality (Monomakh devotes his "Instruction" to the presentation of his life credo: to follow the idea of justice in relations with both subjects and relatives -princes); political legends - "The Legend of the Princes of Vladimir", "Moscow the Third Rome"; historical and everyday stories - "About Peter and Fevronia", "The Tale of Dracula the Governor".

During this period of time, oral folk art continued to live and develop, influencing literature and remaining an essential element of the culture of Ancient Russia, which was formed long before the appearance of writing. Hence the tales of a flying carpet, walking boots, self-assembly tablecloths, etc.

Nevertheless, in the culture of Ancient Russia, literature assumed the main moral burden, the role of a unifying center in the phenomenon of "dual faith" that had really taken shape and rooted in the public consciousness. She deeply assimilated the oral folk tradition, at the same time her own leading role I saw in the enlightenment of the masses, in the preaching of a holy life, high moral behavior.

In this respect, the importance of monasteries is great (in the first half of the 13th century there were about 70 of them), where chronicles were kept, essays of a political and moral nature were written, icons were copied and painted, and sciences were practiced.

Thus, in the field of literature, Byzantium had a great influence on Russia. The merit of the Byzantine spiritual culture is that it gave impetus to the development of writing, books, and school work. But one cannot discount the fact that on the ancient Russian soil, on the one hand, there was a process of not only mastering, but also enriching the genres traditional for Byzantine literature, and on the other hand, original, completely original genres of literature are being formed.

The influence of Byzantium is also manifested in the fact that many old political ideas that existed in Russia before its Christianization were supplanted.

Instead of the Slavic-Varangian idea of a prince as the main leader of a dashing squad, conquering everyone who meets on its path with fire and sword, the idea of \u200b\u200ba "grand prince" came as a God-sent lord, called to take care of his subjects.

Instead of the Varangian idea of the state, suggesting that the princely family can endlessly split up between the heirs of the land with the people as their specific property, the Byzantine idea of the state came as an indivisible entity. The Christian religion, having connected people with the unity of faith, thereby contributed to the formation of the Russian ethnos.

But, recognizing the great influence of Byzantium on the development of statehood, the entire political life of Ancient Russia, it should be emphasized that Kiev, Novgorod, and Moscow Rus were not the spiritual and cultural periphery of Byzantium. Local traditions have made Russia a completely independent entity.

With the adoption of Christianity in Russia, philosophy is born as a worldview system. It develops on a Christian Orthodox basis. It was the Christian ideology that became the source of Russian philosophical thought as an integral system, and not as a collection of individual philosophical views.

By the time of the adoption of Christianity, the ancient Russians were at such a level of spiritual and cultural development that they were quite ripe in order not only to perceive something new for themselves, but also to choose the most suitable from it. This is most clearly manifested in icon painting. As you know, the icon Christian art occupies a special place. The icon-painting face is conceived not only as an image, but also as a window into the supersensible world, showing its true reality, possessing a magical identity with this reality. Much attention was paid to icon painting in Russia. This is evidenced by the decision of the church council on the requirements for an icon painter.

However, unlike Byzantium, Russian Orthodoxy looks at the world optimistically. It does not have the gloomy tones and feelings of hopelessness that pervade the Byzantine church. Russian icon painting, reflecting the attitude of the Russian people, is a life-affirming view of the world. As V.N. Lazarev, this view of the world was expressed "in the highlighting of the palette, which acquired extraordinary brightness and cheerfulness, in the steady growth of the meaning of the line, especially the silhouette sketch so valued by Russian icon painters." Comparing Byzantine and Old Russian icon painting, A.P. Rogov notes: "The Byzantines have everything harsh and angry, the Russians - affectionate and kind."

With the adoption of Christianity, the construction of churches began. Moreover, they were often built on the site of pagan sanctuaries, as if inheriting the sacredness of their places. The first churches in Russia were built in the image and likeness of the Greek ones. And the masters were Greek by origin. However, the wooden architecture of Russia in the pre-Christian period had a great influence on church construction (the first churches were wooden). In addition, purely national self-consciousness is also manifested in temple construction. For example, the Church of the Tithes was built and consecrated in the name of the Mother of God in the image of one of the churches of the Grand Palace of the Byzantine emperors. Apparently, in choosing the dedication of the main temple, there was also some calculation for the approach of the new religion to pagan beliefs, in which the worship of the ancient female deity - "mother of damp earth" occupied a huge place. In the popular environment, this rapprochement arose immediately. It is no coincidence that Russia began to be revered as "the inheritance of the Mother of God." It is no coincidence that Sophia of Kiev is named after Sophia of Constantinople. Here, the desire of the Kiev prince to oppose his own claims to equality and independence, even in matters of faith, was manifested by the constant attempts of Byzantium to extend its church supremacy to interstate relations.

From the foregoing, the question arises: what determined the worldview of ancient Russian society to a greater extent - paganism or Christianity? AND I. Froyanov, not afraid of exaggeration, declares: paganism. He argues his answer by the existence in Russia of the XI-XII centuries. "paganized" Christianity, i.e. dual faith, on the one hand, and pure paganism, on the other. According to him, only in the XIII-XV centuries. paganism as an independent religion has become a thing of the past. V.F. is on the same positions. Stromsky. From his point of view, Christianity in Russia was comprehended through the already existing related ideas, which were filled with new content. B.N. Putilov, on the other hand, believes that with the adoption of Christianity, the entire external form of religious life has changed; the inner content was also different. These changes, in his opinion, boiled down to the following:

the place of pagan temples with idols was occupied by churches with sacred images on icons and frescoes;

pagan feasts with sacrifices were replaced by worship and prayers;

instead of priests and magicians, priests appeared;

instead of pagan polytheism, the concept of a single God came and was established;

pagan culture, as a rule, is a non-literate culture; Christianity brought books, primarily religious: the Bible, the lives of the saints, the teachings of the Church Fathers, etc., and after them - works of historical content, about nature, about foreign countries;

Christianity supplanted pagan mythology;

new, Christian, holidays and rituals were introduced into everyday life; often they seemed to adjust to the old, pagan ones (this is how couples arose in the folk holiday calendar: Kolyada - Christmas, Ivan Kupala - John the Baptist, etc.);

people included among their miraculous patrons and helpers (pagan deities and spirits) new forces - God and the Mother of God, angels and saints;

habitual, traditional pagan beliefs were mixed with new Christian ones; stratification occurred: the properties and deeds of pagan characters were transferred to Christian saints.

With the opinion of B.N. Putilov echoes the point of view of B.A. Rybakov, who emphasizes that "evolution religious beliefs was not full shift some forms with others, but layering the new on the old. "This is due to the fact that the people, for the most part, could not accept the Orthodox religion in all the complexity of its dogma. This was possible only for a relatively small circle of educated people. For the majority, the new religion acted as rather simplified forms (the people turned out to be close to many moral norms of Christian teaching, for example, the commandments of Moses, the Sermon on the Mount of Christ).

In conclusion, I would like to draw attention to the following. With the adoption of Christianity, the culture of the Old Russian state rose to a higher level of its development. The spread of literacy and book learning began, philosophy was born as a worldview system. Many new things were introduced into artistic practice. However, the very fact of the transformation of the pagan culture of the Eastern Slavs and the vitality of pagan elements in the culture of Kievan Rus testify that, firstly, Christianity and paganism had much in common, and secondly, a qualitative leap in the development of the culture of the Old Russian state was a logical result of a long development in the pre-Christian period. The baptism of Russia united two related attitudes, and the choice of faith was due to the fact that Orthodoxy most closely met the spiritual and moral needs of our ancestors. Russia made a conscious, and not imposed from the outside, choice of faith. The adoption of the Orthodox Christian faith was the logical conclusion of the development of the spiritual and moral values of the ancient Russian people. Orthodoxy in this sense crowned the spiritual and moral outlook of our people, giving it a more sublime character.