High level of culture of ancient Rus'. Culture of Kievan Rus: a brief description

Culture of Ancient Rus'(or Culture of Medieval Rus') - the culture of Rus' during the period of the Old Russian state from the moment of its formation to the Tatar-Mongol invasion.

Writing and education

The existence of writing among the Eastern Slavs in the pre-Christian period is evidenced by numerous written sources and archaeological finds. The creation of the Slavic alphabet is associated with the names of the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius. Cyril in the second half of the 9th century created the Glagolitic alphabet (Glagolitic), in which the first translations of church books were written for the Slavic population of Moravia and Pannonia. At the turn of the 9th-10th centuries, on the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, as a result of the synthesis of the Greek script, which had long been widespread here, and those elements of the Glagolitic alphabet that successfully conveyed the features of the Slavic languages, an alphabet arose, later called Cyrillic. In the future, this easier and more convenient alphabet replaced the Glagolitic alphabet and became the only one among the southern and eastern Slavs.

The Baptism of Rus' contributed to the widespread and rapid development of writing and written culture. It was essential that Christianity was adopted in its Eastern, Orthodox version, which, unlike Catholicism, allowed worship in national languages. This created favorable conditions for the development of writing in the native language.

The development of writing in the native language led to the fact that the Russian Church from the very beginning did not become a monopoly in the field of literacy and education. The spread of literacy among the strata of the urban population is evidenced by birch bark letters discovered during archaeological excavations in Novgorod, Tver, Smolensk, Torzhok, Staraya Russa, Pskov, Staraya Ryazan, etc. These are letters, memos, training exercises, etc. The letter, therefore, was used not only to create books, state and legal acts, but also in everyday life. Often there are inscriptions on handicraft products. Ordinary citizens left numerous records on the walls of churches in Kyiv, Novgorod, Smolensk, Vladimir and other cities. The oldest surviving book in Rus' is the so-called. "Novgorod Psalter" of the first quarter of the 11th century: wooden, wax-covered tablets with texts of 75 and 76 psalms.

Most of the written monuments before the Mongol period perished during numerous fires and foreign invasions. Only a small part of them survived. The oldest of them are the Ostromir Gospel, written by deacon Gregory for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir in 1057, and two Izborniks by Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich of 1073 and 1076. The high level of professional skill with which these books were made testifies to the well-established production of handwritten books already in the first half of the 11th century, as well as to the skills of “book construction” that were established by that time.

Correspondence of books was carried out mainly in monasteries. The situation changed in the 12th century, when the craft of "book describers" also arose in large cities. This speaks of the growing literacy of the population and the increased need for books, which the monastic scribes could not satisfy. Many princes kept copyists of books, and some of them copied books on their own.

At the same time, the main centers of literacy continued to be monasteries and cathedral churches, where there were special workshops with permanent teams of scribes. They were engaged not only in the correspondence of books, but also kept chronicles, created original literary works, and translated foreign books. One of the leading centers of this activity was the Kiev Caves Monastery, which developed a special literary trend that had a great influence on the literature and culture of Ancient Rus'. As chronicles testify, already in the 11th century in Rus', libraries with up to several hundred books were created at monasteries and cathedral churches.

Needing literate people, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich organized the first schools. Literacy was not only the privilege of the ruling class, it also penetrated into the environment of the townspeople. Letters found in a significant number in Novgorod, written on birch bark (from the 11th century), contain the correspondence of ordinary citizens; inscriptions were also made on handicrafts.

Education was highly valued in ancient Russian society. In the literature of that time, one can find many panegyrics on the book, statements about the benefits of books and “book teaching”.

Literature

With the adoption of Christianity, Ancient Rus' was attached to book culture. The development of Russian writing gradually became the basis for the emergence of literature and was closely connected with Christianity. Despite the fact that writing was known in the Russian lands before, only after the baptism of Rus' did it become widespread. It also received a basis in the form of a developed cultural tradition of Eastern Christianity. An extensive translated literature became the basis for the formation of a non-own tradition.

For original literature Ancient Rus' is characterized by great ideological richness and high artistic perfection. Its prominent representative was Metropolitan Hilarion, the author of the famous "Sermon on Law and Grace", dating from the middle of the 11th century. In this work, the idea of the need for the unity of Rus' is clearly manifested. Using the form of a church sermon, Hilarion created a political treatise, which reflected the pressing problems of Russian reality. Contrasting "grace" (Christianity) with "law" (Judaism), Hilarion rejects the concept of God's chosen people inherent in Judaism and affirms the idea of transferring heavenly attention and disposition from one chosen people to all mankind, the equality of all peoples.

An outstanding writer and historian was the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor. His “Reading” about the princes Boris and Gleb and the “Life of Theodosius”, valuable for the history of life, have been preserved. "Reading" is written in a somewhat abstract style, instructive and ecclesiastical elements are reinforced in it. Approximately 1113 is an outstanding monument of ancient Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years", preserved in the composition of later chronicles of the XIV-XV centuries. This work is compiled on the basis of earlier chronicles - historical works dedicated to the past of the Russian land. The author of the Tale, the monk Nestor, managed to vividly and figuratively tell about the emergence of Rus' and connect its history with the history of other countries. The main attention in the "Tale" is given to the events of political history, the deeds of princes and other representatives of the nobility. The economic life and life of the people are described in less detail. The religious worldview of its compiler was clearly manifested in the annals: he sees the ultimate cause of all events and actions of people in the action of divine forces, “providence”. However, religious differences and references to the will of God often hide a practical approach to reality, the desire to identify real causal relationships between events.

In turn, Theodosius, hegumen of the Pechersk Monastery, about whom Nestor also wrote, wrote several teachings and letters to Prince Izyaslav.

Vladimir Monomakh was an outstanding writer. His "Instruction" painted the ideal image of a prince - a just feudal ruler, touched upon the pressing issues of our time: the need for strong princely power, unity in repelling nomadic raids, etc. "Instruction" is a work of a secular nature. It is imbued with the immediacy of human experiences, alien to abstraction and filled with real images and examples taken from life.

The question of princely power in the life of the state, its duties and methods of implementation becomes one of the central ones in literature. The idea arises of the need for strong power as a condition for a successful struggle against external enemies and overcoming internal contradictions. These reflections are embodied in one of the most talented works of the 12th-13th centuries, which has come down to us in two main editions of the “Word” and “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik. A staunch supporter of strong princely power, Daniel writes with humor and sarcasm about the sad reality surrounding him.

A special place in the literature of Ancient Rus' is occupied by the "Tale of Igor's Campaign", dating from the end of the 12th century. It tells about the unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185 by the Novgorod-Seversky prince Igor Svyatoslavich. The description of this campaign only serves as an occasion for the author to reflect on the fate of the Russian land. The author sees the reasons for the defeats in the struggle against the nomads, the reasons for the disasters of Rus' in the princely civil strife, in the egoistic policy of the princes, thirsting for personal glory. Central to the "Word" is the image of the Russian land. The author belonged to the milieu. He constantly used the concepts of “honor” and “glory” characteristic of her, but filled them with a broader, patriotic content. The Tale of Igor's Campaign embodied the characteristic features of ancient Russian literature of that time: a living connection with historical reality, citizenship and patriotism.

The Batu invasion had a great influence on Russian culture. The first work devoted to the invasion - "The Word about the destruction of the Russian land." This word has not come down to us completely. Also Batu's invasion is dedicated to "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu" - an integral part of the cycle of stories about the "miraculous" icon of Nikola Zaraisky.

Architecture

Until the end of the tenth century, there was no monumental stone architecture in Rus', but there were rich traditions of wooden construction, some forms of which subsequently influenced stone architecture. Significant field skills wooden architecture led to the rapid development of stone architecture and its originality. After the adoption of Christianity, the construction of stone temples begins, the principles of construction of which were borrowed from Byzantium. The Byzantine architects called to Kyiv passed on to the Russian masters the extensive experience of the building culture of Byzantium.

The large churches of Kievan Rus, built after the adoption of Christianity in 988, were the first examples of monumental architecture in the Eastern Slavic lands. The architectural style of Kievan Rus was established under the influence of the Byzantine. Early Orthodox churches were mostly made of wood.

The first stone church of Kievan Rus was the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv, the construction of which dates back to 989. The church was built as a cathedral not far from the prince's tower. In the first half of the XII century. The church has undergone significant renovations. At this time, the southwestern corner of the temple was completely rebuilt, a powerful pylon appeared in front of the western facade, supporting the wall. These events, most likely, were the restoration of the temple after a partial collapse due to an earthquake.

Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, built in the XI century, is one of the most significant architectural structures of this period. Initially, St. Sophia Cathedral was a five-nave cross-domed church with 13 domes. On three sides, it was surrounded by a two-tier gallery, and from the outside - an even wider single-tier one. The cathedral was built by the builders of Constantinople, with the participation of Kyiv masters. At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, it was externally rebuilt in the Ukrainian baroque style. The temple is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Painting

After the baptism of Rus', new types of monumental painting came from Byzantium - mosaics and frescoes, as well as easel painting (icon painting). Also, the iconographic canon was adopted from Byzantium, the invariability of which was strictly guarded by the church. This predetermined a longer and more stable Byzantine influence in painting than in architecture.

The earliest surviving works of ancient Russian painting were created in Kyiv. According to the chronicles, the first temples were decorated by visiting Greek masters, who added to the existing iconography a system for arranging plots in the interior of the temple, as well as a manner of planar writing. The mosaics and frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral are known for their special beauty. They are made in a strict and solemn manner, characteristic of Byzantine monumental painting. Their creators skillfully used a variety of shades of smalt, skillfully combined the mosaic with the fresco. Of the mosaic works, the images of Christ the Almighty in the central dome are especially significant. All images are imbued with the idea of greatness, triumph and inviolability of the Orthodox Church and earthly power.

Another unique monument of the secular painting of Ancient Rus' is the wall paintings of the two towers of the Kyiv Sophia. They depict scenes of princely hunting, circus competitions, musicians, buffoons, acrobats, fantastic animals and birds, which somewhat distinguishes them from ordinary church paintings. Among the frescoes in Sofia are two group portraits of the family of Yaroslav the Wise.

In the XII-XIII centuries, local features began to appear in the painting of individual cultural centers. This is typical for the Novgorod land and the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. Since the XII century, a specific Novgorod style of monumental painting has been formed, which reaches a fuller expression in the paintings of the churches of St. George in Staraya Ladoga, the Annunciation in Arkazhy and especially the Savior-Nereditsa. In these fresco cycles, in contrast to the Kyiv cycles, the desire for simplification is noticeable. artistic techniques, to the expressive interpretation of iconographic types. In easel painting, Novgorod features were less pronounced.

In Vladimir-Suzdal Rus', fragments of frescoes of the Dmitrievsky and Assumption Cathedrals in Vladimir and the Church of Boris and Gleb in Kideksha, as well as several icons, have been preserved until the Mongol period. Based on this material, the researchers consider it possible to talk about the gradual formation of the Vladimir-Suzdal school of painting. The best preserved fresco of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral depicting the Last Judgment. It was created by two masters - a Greek and a Russian. Several large icons of the 12th - early 13th centuries belong to the Vladimir-Suzdal school. The earliest of them is the "Bogolyubskaya Mother of God", dating from the middle of the XII century, stylistically close to the famous "Vladimir Mother of God", which is of Byzantine origin.

Folklore

Written sources testify to the richness and diversity of the folklore of Ancient Rus'. A significant place in it was occupied by calendar ritual poetry: incantations, incantations, songs, which were an integral part of the agrarian cult. Ritual folklore also included pre-wedding songs, funeral laments, songs at feasts and feasts. Mythological tales, reflecting the pagan ideas of the ancient Slavs, also became widespread. For many years, the church, in an effort to eradicate the remnants of paganism, waged a stubborn struggle against "vile" customs, "demonic games" and "blasphemers". However, these types of folklore survived in folk life up to the 19th-20th centuries, having lost their initial religious meaning over time, the rites turned into folk games.

There were also such forms of folklore that were not associated with a pagan cult. These include proverbs, sayings, riddles, fairy tales, labor songs. The authors of literary works widely used them in their work. Written monuments have preserved numerous traditions and legends about the founders of tribes and princely dynasties, about the founders of cities, about the struggle against foreigners. So, folk tales about the events of the II-VI centuries were reflected in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign".

In the 9th century, a new epic genre arose - the heroic epic epic, which became the pinnacle of oral folk art and the result of the growth of national consciousness. Epics are oral poetic works about the past. Epics are based on real historical events, the prototypes of some epic heroes are real people. So, the prototype of the epic Dobrynya Nikitich was the uncle of Vladimir Svyatoslavich - the governor Dobrynya, whose name is repeatedly mentioned in ancient Russian chronicles.

In turn, in the military estate, in the princely retinue environment, there was their own oral poetry. In squad songs, princes and their exploits were glorified. The princely squads had their own "songwriters" - professionals who composed songs - "glory" in honor of the princes and their soldiers.

Folklore continued to develop even after the spread of written literature, remaining an important element of ancient Russian culture. In the following centuries, many writers and poets used the plots of oral poetry and the arsenal of its artistic means and techniques. Also in Rus', the art of playing the harp was widespread, of which it is the birthplace.

Decorative and applied crafts

Kievan Rus was famous for its craftsmen in applied, decorative arts, who were fluent in various techniques: filigree, enamel, granulation, niello, as evidenced by jewelry. It is no coincidence that foreigners admired the artistic creativity of our craftsmen. L. Lyubimov in his book “The Art of Ancient Rus'” gives a description of star-shaped silver kolts from the Tver treasure of the 11th–12th centuries: “Six silver cones with balls are soldered to a ring with a semicircular shield. 5000 tiny rings with a diameter of 0.06 cm from wire 0.02 cm thick are soldered onto each cone! Only microphotography made it possible to establish these dimensions. But that's not all. The rings serve only as a pedestal for grains, so each one has another silver grain with a diameter of 0.04 cm! Jewelry was decorated with cloisonné enamel. Masters used bright colors, skillfully selected colors. In the drawings, mythological pagan plots and images were traced, which were especially often used in applied art. They can be seen on carved wooden furniture, household utensils, fabrics embroidered with gold, in carved bone products, known in Western Europe under the name "carving of the Taurus", "carving of the Rus".

Cloth

Modern researchers have numerous evidence of how princes and boyars dressed. Verbal descriptions, images on icons, frescoes and miniatures, as well as fragments of fabrics from sarcophagi have been preserved. Various researchers compared these materials in their works with references to clothing in written documentary and narrative sources - chronicles, lives and various acts.

in the discipline "Culturology"

on the topic: "Culture of Ancient Rus'"

INTRODUCTION

1. ORAL FOLK CREATIVITY

2. WRITING AND LITERATURE

3. ARCHITECTURE

4. PAINTING

5. ARTISTIC CRAFT

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

The culture of Ancient Rus' is a unique phenomenon. According to the researcher, "Old Russian art is the fruit of the feat of the Russian people, who defended their independence, their faith and their ideals on the edge of the European world." Scientists note the openness and synthesis (from the word "synthesis" - bringing together into a single whole) of ancient Russian culture. The interaction of the heritage of the Eastern Slavs with the Byzantine and, consequently, ancient traditions created an original spiritual world. The time of its formation and first flourishing is the X-first half of the XIII century. (pre-Mongol period).

The Russian people have made a valuable contribution to world culture, creating hundreds of years ago works of literature, painting and architecture that have not faded over the centuries. Acquaintance with the culture of Kievan Rus and the Russian principalities of the era of feudal fragmentation convinces us of the fallacy of the opinion that once existed about the primordial backwardness of Rus.

Russian medieval culture of the X-XIII centuries. earned high praise from both contemporaries and descendants. Eastern geographers pointed the way to Russian cities, admired the art of Russian gunsmiths who prepared special steel (Biruni). Western chroniclers called Kyiv an adornment of the East and a rival of Constantinople (Adam of Bremen). The learned presbyter Theophilus of Paderborn in his technical encyclopedia of the 11th century. admired the products of Russian goldsmiths - the finest enamels on gold and black on silver. In the list of countries whose masters glorified their lands with one or another type of art, Theophilus put Rus' in a place of honor - only Greece is ahead of it. The refined Byzantine John Tsetses was so fascinated by Russian bone carving that he sang in verse the pixida (carved box) sent to him, comparing the Russian master with the legendary Daedalus.

1. ORAL FOLK CREATIVITY

Oral folk art includes proverbs and sayings, songs and tales, ditties and conspiracies. An integral part of the art of Rus' was musical, singing art. The Tale of Igor's Campaign mentions the legendary storyteller-singer Boyan, who "put" his fingers on the live strings and they "rumbled glory to the princes themselves." On the frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral, we see the image of musicians playing woodwind and stringed instruments - lute and harp. Known from chronicles talented singer Mitus in Galicia. In some church writings directed against Slavic pagan art, street buffoons, singers, dancers are mentioned; There was also a folk puppet theater. It is known that at the court of Prince Vladimir, during feasts, those present were entertained by singers, storytellers, performers on stringed instruments.

An important element of the entire ancient Russian culture was folklore - songs, legends, epics, proverbs, aphorisms. Many features of the life of people of that time were reflected in wedding, drinking, funeral songs. So, in ancient wedding songs, they also spoke about the time when brides were kidnapped, “kidnapped”, in later ones - when they were ransomed, and in songs already of Christian times, it was about the consent of both the bride and parents to marriage.

A special place in the historical memory of the people was occupied by epics - heroic tales about the defenders of their native land from enemies, recorded on paper in the 19th century. Folk storytellers sing the exploits of Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, Volga, Mikula Selyaninovich and other epic heroes (in total, more than 50 main characters act in epics). They turn their appeal to them: “You stand up for the faith, for the fatherland, you stand up for the glorious capital city of Kiev!” It is interesting that in the epics the motive of defending the fatherland is supplemented by the motive of defending the Christian faith. The Baptism of Rus' was the most important event in the history of ancient Russian culture.

2. WRITING AND LITERATURE

With the adoption of Christianity, the rapid development of writing began. Writing was known in Rus' in pre-Christian times (the mention of "features and cuts", the middle of the 1st millennium; information about agreements with Byzantium drawn up in Russian; a clay vessel found near Smolensk with an inscription made in Cyrillic - the alphabet created by the enlighteners of the Slavs Cyril and Methodius at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries). Orthodoxy brought liturgical books, religious and secular translated literature to Rus'. The oldest handwritten books have come down to us - the Ostromir Gospel (1057) and two Izborniks (collection of texts) of Prince Svyatoslav (1073 and 1076). They say that in the XI-XIII centuries. 130-140 thousand books of several hundred titles were in circulation: the level of literacy in Ancient Rus' was very high by the standards of the Middle Ages. There is other evidence: birch bark writings (archaeologists discovered them in the middle of the 20th century in Veliky Novgorod), inscriptions on the walls of cathedrals and handicrafts, the activities of monastic schools, the richest book collections of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, etc.

There was an opinion that the ancient Russian culture was "dumb" - it was believed that it had no original literature. This is wrong. Old Russian literature is represented by various genres (chronicles, the lives of saints, journalism, teachings and travel notes, the wonderful "Tale of Igor's Campaign", which does not belong to any of the known genres), it is distinguished by a wealth of images, styles and trends.

In the XI-XII centuries. Chronicle appears in Rus'. The annals describe not only the sequence of events that took place, but also contain biblical texts, documents are recorded, and comments are given by the compilers of the annals. The oldest of the chronicles that have come down to us - "The Tale of Bygone Years" - was created around 1113 by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Nestor. The famous questions that open The Tale of Bygone Years: “Where did the Russian land come from, who in Kiev began first to reign, and how the Russian land began to eat” - they already speak of the scale of the personality of the creator of the chronicle, his literary abilities. After the collapse of Kievan Rus, independent chronicle schools arose in isolated lands, but all of them, as a model, turned to The Tale of Bygone Years.

Another genre of ancient Russian literature is life. Life (hagiography) tells about the holy life of a clergyman or secular person elevated to the rank of a saint. Life demanded from its author a firm adherence to established rules. The life composition was divided into three parts: introduction, central part, conclusion. In the introduction, the author had to apologize for his lack of skill in writing. And the conclusion was dedicated to the praise of the hero of life. The biography of the saint is described directly in the central part. Life refers to the pre-realistic genre, because. only the positive properties of the hero are described. Negatives are omitted. The result is a "sugary" image of the saint. In this case, life comes close to icon painting. According to legend, the chronicler Nestor is credited with the authorship of the life dedicated to the murdered Boris and Gleb, as well as the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Abbot Theodosius.

Of the works of the oratorical and journalistic genre, the “Word on Law and Grace” stands out, created by Hilarion, the first Russian-born metropolitan, in the middle of the 11th century. These are thoughts about power, about the place of Rus' in Europe. Wonderful is Vladimir Monomakh's Teaching, written for his sons. The prince must be wise, merciful, just, educated, indulgent and firm in protecting the weak. Strength and valor, faithful service to the country demanded from Prince Daniil Zatochnik, the author of the “Prayer”, brilliant in language and literary form.

The unknown author of the greatest work of ancient Russian literature, The Tale of Igor's Campaign (end of the 12th century), also called for the consent and reconciliation of the princes. A real event - the defeat of the Seversky prince Igor from the Polovtsians (1185-1187) - was only an occasion for the creation of the "Word", amazing with the richness of the language, the harmony of the composition, the power of the figurative system. The author sees “the Russian land from a great height, covers vast spaces with his mind's eye. Danger threatens Rus', and the princes must forget the strife in order to save her from destruction.

A significant difference between Russian culture and the culture of most countries of the East and West is the use mother tongue. Arabic for many non-Arab countries and Latin for a number of Western European countries were foreign languages, the monopoly of which led to the fact that vernacular states of that era is almost unknown to us. Russian literary language used everywhere - in office work, diplomatic correspondence, private letters, in fiction and scientific literature. The unity of the national and state language was a great cultural advantage of Rus' over the Slavic and German countries, in which the Latin state language dominated. Such a broad literacy was impossible there, since to be literate meant to know Latin. For the Russian townspeople, it was enough to know the alphabet in order to immediately express their thoughts in writing; this explains the widespread use in Rus' of writing on birch bark and on "boards" (obviously waxed).

3. ARCHITECTURE

A major contribution to the history of world culture is Russian medieval architecture. Rus' for many years was a country of wood, and its architecture, pagan chapels, fortresses, towers, huts were built of wood. In a tree, a Russian person, first of all, expressed his perception of building beauty, a sense of proportion, the fusion of architectural structures with the surrounding nature. If wooden architecture dates back mainly to pagan Rus', then stone architecture is associated with Christian Russia. Unfortunately, the ancient wooden buildings have not survived to this day, but the architectural style of the people has come down to us in later wooden structures, in ancient descriptions and drawings. Russian wooden architecture was characterized by multi-tiered buildings, crowning them with turrets and towers, the presence of various kinds of outbuildings - cages, passages, canopies. Intricate artistic woodcarving was a traditional decoration of Russian wooden buildings.

in the discipline "Culturology"

on the topic: "Culture of Ancient Rus'"

INTRODUCTION

1. ORAL FOLK CREATIVITY

2. WRITING AND LITERATURE

3. ARCHITECTURE

4. PAINTING

5. ARTISTIC CRAFT

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

1. ORAL FOLK CREATIVITY

Oral folk art includes proverbs and sayings, songs and tales, ditties and conspiracies. An integral part of the art of Rus' was musical, singing art. The Tale of Igor's Campaign mentions the legendary storyteller-singer Boyan, who "put" his fingers on the live strings and they "rumbled glory to the princes themselves." On the frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral, we see the image of musicians playing woodwind and stringed instruments - lute and harp. The talented singer Mitus in Galich is known from chronicles. In some church writings directed against Slavic pagan art, street buffoons, singers, dancers are mentioned; There was also a folk puppet theater. It is known that at the court of Prince Vladimir, during feasts, those present were entertained by singers, storytellers, performers on stringed instruments.

2. WRITING AND LITERATURE

A significant difference between Russian culture and the culture of most countries of the East and West is the use of the native language. Arabic for many non-Arab countries and Latin for a number of Western European countries were alien languages, the monopoly of which led to the fact that the national language of the states of that era is almost unknown to us. The Russian literary language was used everywhere - in office work, diplomatic correspondence, private letters, in fiction and scientific literature. The unity of the national and state language was a great cultural advantage of Rus' over the Slavic and German countries, in which the Latin state language dominated. Such a broad literacy was impossible there, since to be literate meant to know Latin. For the Russian townspeople, it was enough to know the alphabet in order to immediately express their thoughts in writing; this explains the widespread use in Rus' of writing on birch bark and on "boards" (obviously waxed).

3. ARCHITECTURE

Having already had experience in building fortresses, towers, palaces, wooden pagan temples, Russian architects mastered the new Byzantine brick building technique with amazing speed and decorated the largest Russian cities with magnificent monumental structures.

The first stone buildings were erected by Byzantine craftsmen. In 989, the construction of the Tithe Church of the Assumption of the Virgin began. She received a tenth of the princely income. Its total area was 900 sq. meters and had 25 chapters. It was destroyed in 1240 during the Batu invasion. In the future, the Byzantine style was increasingly mixed with local, original traditions. By the twelfth century in Kievan Rus, a cross-domed style developed.

Research N.N. Voronin and M.K. Karger showed the evolution of Russian architectural thought and its connection with the stages of development of feudal relations and with princely or boyar-posad elements in the city. In some cases, the architecture very sensitively reflected political history countries: the short-term rivalry between Chernigov and Kyiv affected the simultaneous construction of monumental cathedrals (Chernigov - 1036, Kyiv - 1037). The Novgorod uprising of 1136 suspended the princely construction in Novgorod and opened the way for the boyars.

The early isolation of the Principality of Polotsk was reflected in the construction of its own St. Sophia Cathedral there with an unusual layout. The full-blooded development of cities that competed with Kiev led to the flourishing of architecture and the creation of local architectural schools in Galich, Smolensk, Novgorod, Chernigov, Vladimir-on-Klyazma. With all that, Russian architecture of the XII-XIII centuries. is a known unity. It cannot be said that the Russian architecture of this time was under any influence or influence, although Rus' had the broadest ties with the East, West and Byzantium. Having mastered at the turn of the X and XI centuries. Byzantine form, Russian architects very quickly modified it, introduced their own features and created their own, all-Russian style, which varied by region.

Appearance in the 12th century tower-shaped, slender buildings tending upwards (Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Pskov) especially clearly testified to the development of the Russian national style, born as a result of the impact of wooden construction.

The unstable borders of the feudal states were not barriers to mutual cultural communication. A striking indicator of such a commonality of the “style of the era”, which indicates that Romanesque art is not so much a geographical as a chronological concept, is the white-stone architecture of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' with its amazing proportions and fine decorative carvings, resurrecting wonderful ivory items in memory.

The buildings of Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod the Big Nest are quite Russian in their traditions and construction techniques, but in a number of details they are close to the architecture of the Romanesque style of the 12th century. The white-stone temples of Vladimir with their generous carved ornaments are rightfully compared by researchers in terms of overall harmony and richness of plots with the Tale of Igor's Campaign, where the folk, pagan, also overshadows the Christian.

A thorough study of the proportions of ancient Russian buildings made it possible to reveal the peculiar geometric techniques of Russian architects of the 11th-12th centuries, which helped them create buildings that were amazing in terms of the proportionality of parts.

Recent finds in Old Ryazan and Tmutarakan of geometric drawings from a system of inscribed squares and rectangles made it possible to reveal another method of mathematical calculations, a method that goes back to Babylonian architecture and came to Rus' through Transcaucasia and Tmutarakan.

Diverse and rich Russian architecture for a long time retained the power of artistic influence.

4. PAINTING

Painting of Kievan Rus is represented mainly by mosaics, frescoes and iconography. The mosaic in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, where the Eucharist, Our Lady of Oranta (praying), was placed in the most illuminated part of the temple, was especially pronounced. But already from the 12th century, the mosaic fades into the background, giving way to fresco and icon painting.

Frescoes (drawing on wet plaster) fill the entire interior of the church. The drawings are made mainly on biblical themes. However, the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral also contained frescoes for secular, everyday scenes (the Constantinople hippodrome, buffoons, hunting, members of the princely family, etc.).

Iconography received special development in Rus'. At first, Byzantine icons (Vladimir Mother of God) were distributed. However, with the development of culture, an evolution in icon painting also takes place - Russian icons appear, which are not inferior in depth and expressiveness of the image to Byzantine creations. And ancient Russian icon painting is more open to the world, cheerful, decorative than Byzantine.

By the middle of the XII century. differences became clear art schools Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod, South Russian lands. Joyful, light, lavishly decorated churches in Vladimir (Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, etc.) contrast with the squat, solid, massive churches of Novgorod (Churches of the Savior on Nereditsa, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa at the Market, etc.). The Novgorod icons “Angel of Golden Hair”, “The Sign” differ from the icons “Dmitry of Thessalonica” or “Bogolyubskaya Mother of God” painted by Vladimir-Suzdal masters.

5. ARTISTIC CRAFT

Kievan Rus was famous for its well-developed handicrafts. In those years, there were from 40 to 60 handicraft specialties. Already in the tenth century, the potter's wheel began to be used. Great success were achieved in the smelting and processing of metals. Iron was smelted from swamp ores in cheese-houses. Mass production of iron tools was established: axes, sickles, shovels, etc. Russian gunsmiths were famous for their skill: chain mail and straight Russian swords were highly valued in Europe. Archaeological finds show that forged swords made by Russian gunsmiths were also used abroad. Numerous artisans were engaged in processing leather and wood, making fabrics, clothes and shoes.

Jewelery craft, bordering on art, received special development. In Rus', there was no equal in the use of such original techniques as niello, cloisonne enamel, granulation (applying decorations from small balls), filigree (obtaining a pattern from silver wires). Very often these methods were used simultaneously. Elegant jewelry, genuine masterpieces were created by ancient Russian jewelers - gold and silver craftsmen. They made bracelets, earrings, pendants, buckles, tiaras, medallions. Utensils, dishes, weapons were trimmed with gold, silver, enamel, precious stones. With special diligence and love, craftsmen decorated the icon frames, as well as books. An example is the skillfully trimmed with leather and jewelry casing of the Ostromir Gospel, created by order of the Kyiv mayor Ostromir during the time of Yaroslav the Wise. Until now, earrings made by a Kyiv artisan (XI-XII centuries) are admired. These earrings have more than 500 silver rings with a diameter of only 0.06 cm. It is difficult to imagine how people did it without magnifying devices.

Over the course of many centuries, the art of wood carving, and later stone carving, developed and improved in Rus'. Wooden carved decorations generally became a characteristic feature of the dwellings of townspeople and peasants, wooden temples.

The white-stone carving of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus, especially the time of Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod the Big Nest, in the decorations of palaces and cathedrals became a remarkable feature of ancient Russian art in general.

Utensils and dishes were famous for their fine carving. In the art of carvers, Russians were most fully manifested. folk traditions, ideas of the Russians about the beautiful and elegant.

The art of Khokhloma painting has gained worldwide fame. Golden-colored wooden products of this craft with floral ornaments, flowery and festive, are simply called “Khokhloma”. Khokhloma is the name of an old trading village in the former Nizhny Novgorod province, where painted wooden utensils were brought for sale. For centuries, Khokhloma items were cheap wooden utensils, but they adorned the harsh peasant life, brought into it festivity, elegance.

CONCLUSION

The culture of Ancient Rus' reached significant heights. The features of its development lie in the organic combination of the Slavic-pagan and Byzantine-Orthodox principles. In addition, in the days of Ancient Rus', the separation of the privileged class from the people had not yet occurred, so culture developed in one direction. The period of feudal fragmentation of the XII-XIII centuries. not only did it not reduce the development of culture, but, on the contrary, contributed to its growth, since the emerging political centers helped the emergence of local schools.

Russian medieval culture was born without an ancient heritage, in harsh conditions of continuous struggle with the steppe, advancing on agricultural tribes, with the constant danger of enslavement by Byzantium. The Russian feudal state gained strength in this defensive struggle. Russian culture developed very quickly, using the rich potential of the Slavic farmers. The development of feudal relations and the emergence of cities accelerated the growth of the culture of the ancient Russian people.

The 11th-13th centuries is a time of high development of Russian culture, when it reaches the level of culture of the advanced countries of Europe and influences dozens of peoples neighboring Russia. Humanity, patriotism, restraint, rigor, constant awareness of the nation's tasks - these are the features of Russian culture.

Broad peaceful ties with East and West made Rus' an active participant in that common culture of the Old World, which took shape in the Middle Ages, neglecting feudal boundaries.

The depth of folk culture allowed Rus' to survive the difficult time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and retain inexhaustible strength to overcome the consequences of foreign domination. The people saved their culture, the bearer of the advanced ideas of their time, and carried it through the centuries, repeating with love and respect: “Oh, the Russian land is bright and beautifully decorated!”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bartenev I.A., Batazhkova V.N. Essays on the history of architectural styles. M.: Visual arts, 1983.

2. Maerova K., Dubinskaya K. Russian folk arts and crafts. M.: Russian language, 1990.

3. Rybakov B.A. Culture of Rus'. / Averyanov L.Ya. Reader on history. M., 2001.

4. Ryabtsev Yu.S. Journey to Ancient Rus': Stories about Russian Culture. M.: VLADOS, 1995.

5. Sakharova A.N., Novoseltseva A.P. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. M., AST, 2000.

THEME 16

Culture of Ancient Rus'

This topic is undoubtedly important for us, and it would not be surprising if it took up half the volume of the course. But it makes no sense to retell the history of Ancient Rus', all the necessary information can be gleaned from other books. Our goal is to study culture as a kind of human, and not just Russian, being. The difficulty in studying the life of one's own people is connected with the fact that it always seems to be something special. Indeed, Russian culture is unique, but precisely because of the combination of features that can be found in other cultures. The originality of Russian culture has been the subject of attention of many researchers. There were many ideological currents in which the attitude towards Russian culture was somehow expressed: Slavophilism, Westernism, Pan-Slavism, Slavophobia and Russophobia, the Young Russians, etc. And in the 20s. in emigration, Eurasianism, or the Eurasian movement, took shape, one of the founders of which was Prince N.S. Trubetskoy (1890–1938). This original teaching proclaimed the Asian element in the culture of Russia and condemned her desire to be like Europe. There were so many teachings and ideas about Russian culture that, on the whole, they almost surpass the ideological baggage of culture itself. Let us consider two questions directly related to Ancient Rus', and then we will make a general overview of the subsequent development of Russian culture in order to somehow decide on its features. The main questions of the topic:

1) historical conditions for the formation of the state and culture of Ancient Rus';

2) Slavic-Russian paganism and the baptism of Rus';

3) historical features of Russian culture.

"Ancient Rus'" is the common collective name of the Eastern Slavic principalities of the 9th-13th centuries. There is also the concept of "Kievan Rus", which coincides in meaning with the concept of "Old Russian state". According to legend, after the flood, Noah's sons Shem, Ham and Japheth divided the land among themselves. North and west went to Japheth, from whose sons the Slavs went. The first information about the Slavs mentions their settlement on the Danube, from there they settled in different sides, some of them settled along the Dnieper, its tributaries and further north. Among them were the tribes of Polyans, Drevlyans, Radimichi, Krivichi, Ilmen Slavs, etc. They made up the Eastern Slavs.

The word "Rus" was used to designate the squad of the Kyiv prince. An exact explanation of this word has not yet been found. It is believed that this was the name of the Varangian tribe, from which the first Russian princes came. In the X century. Rus was the name given to the highest stratum of Russian society, mainly the princely retinue, which consisted mainly of the same Varangians. The expression "Russian land" appeared in 945 and already had a geographical meaning: this was the name mainly of the Kiev land, where the newcomer Varangians settled more densely. In the XI-XII centuries. Russia and the Russian land were called the state, i.e. these words have taken on a political meaning. In the X century. Russian society included the upper layer (Rus), which included the Varangians, and the Slavic common people. Later it made up the lower strata of Russian society, differing in rights and obligations from the upper strata. The population of Kievan Rus was formed from local and alien tribes.

Natural factors in the formation of the culture of Ancient Rus'

Slavic-Russian tribes were located on the plains along the rivers. Forest, steppe and river were the main factors that determined the originality of Russian culture. The forest gave a lot to a person: food, building material, household utensils, shoes, a torch for lighting, firewood for heating. The forest served as a reliable shelter from external enemies. A lot of beliefs and legends were associated with the forest, a lot of mysterious and hostile things: there was a predatory beast, and robber nests were twisted. In addition, the forest often advanced, took away the cleared meadow and field with difficulty. The attitude to the steppe was different, it pleased with expanse and breadth, the possibility of viewing and openness. The southern Russian steppes were fertile for arable farming and cattle breeding. But the steppe was also an eternal threat to Rus', it was from there that the nomads came. At all times, Rus' was at enmity with them. But more than the forest and the steppe, the Russian man loved the river, his most affectionate words were addressed to it. She was both a breadwinner, and a reliable companion, and a winter road, and a source of peace of mind. He usually clung to her, placing his dwelling on the shore. Where there is a river, there are people; for a Russian person, it was a sign of salvation. The hiddenness of the forest, the expanse and expanse of the steppe, the carefree and life-giving course of the river - these impressions formed the basis of the Russian soul, determined the nature of the worldview and culture of the Russian people.

Psychological and everyday factors in the formation of the culture of Ancient Rus'

We saw that the word "Russians" united very heterogeneous tribes. No less heterogeneous tribes were united by the term "Slavs". It is believed that he came from the word "Slovene", which once meant "speaking" (intelligibly, understandably), in contrast to "Germans" - "indistinctly speaking". But the psychology of the ancient Slavs is more consistent with a different meaning of the word "Slovene" - "talking a lot." The Slavs have always had the ideas of peace and unification, which was explained and external causes? constant threats of attacks, and internal, the nature of the Slavs themselves. Their peace and unity were, as a rule, short-lived. Strife and discord are the most frequent and natural relations between the ancient Slavs. The Varangian element did not improve these relations, but brought with it an external deterrent in the form of the state.

The chroniclers describe the Slavs as vigorous, strong, tireless, easily enduring any need. They surprised the Greeks with their speed and courage with which they rushed into dangerous swamps and deep rivers, as well as carelessness in relation to their appearance, untidiness. There were swarthy Slavs and Russes. Their militancy was known to many other nations. The Greeks described them as cruel and predatory. In battles, the Slavs did not use military formations, they suppressed the crowd, following no unified plan but personal courage and fearlessness. They knew how to hide in the grass, lurk in the river, breathing through hollow canes. In everyday life, the Slavs appeared to be harmless, simple-hearted. Their hospitality and special love for the guest were known. Leaving home, the Slav left food for the wanderer and did not close the door. The Slavs had a blood feud. In marriage, the Slavs were faithful spouses, wives unquestioningly obeyed their husbands, and in the event of the death of a husband, the wife was usually burned with him.

In VII. V. the Slavs began to separate, part of them, leaving the Carpathians, went to the east and northeast. They settled to the east of the Dniester, along the Dnieper and the Don, in a deserted forest region, where they engaged in catching fur-bearing animals, forest beekeeping and arable farming. Places suitable for life were removed from each other, solitary courtyards, the so-called settlements, were placed on them. Such one-yard settlements later appeared in the upper Volga region. The city of Kyiv grew out of lonely courtyards. Thus, among the Eastern Slavs, life in the conditions of the tribal community was replaced by life in the conditions of the court. It has become a world of culture for a person, an environment for upbringing and life, a determining factor in the formation of his worldview. The courtyard was a consequence not only of the natural conditions of the places where the Eastern Slavs settled, but also of their disunity, a tendency to isolate.

Social factors in the formation of the culture of Ancient Rus'

In the 8th century Khazars conquered some tribes of the Eastern Slavs. But the yoke of the Khazars was not too heavy, in some respects it turned out to be even beneficial. The Khazars became the intermediaries of the trade exchange between the Arab East and the Russian Slavs. The result of successful eastern trade was the emergence of ancient cities in Rus': Kyiv, Lyubech, Novgorod, Pereyaslavl, Polotsk, Smolensk, Chernigov. Most of the cities stretched out in a chain along the river route "from the Varangians to the Greeks." Cities were built on the site of large markets located on especially important trade routes. Trade transformed the life of the Eastern Slavs, many of the same palaces and farmers turned into townspeople. But the emergence of cities also led to the need to arm, gird with walls, keep military people. Cities became military-industrial centers. A special military-industrial layer was formed, which was mainly made up of the Varangians-Scandinavians.

Varangians were called overseas aliens from the Baltic Sea. As a rule, these were armed merchants going to Rus' and further to rich Byzantium. There they traded, sometimes served as hired bodyguards for the emperor. Varangian newcomers stayed mainly in large trading cities. In the 8th century among the Eastern Slavs nothing was heard about Rus', and in the 9th-10th centuries. she was not yet among the Slavs. Then they wrote about Rus' as a special tribe dominating the Slavs. Most likely, the newcomers Vikings were from the Scandinavians. The names of the first Russian Varangian princes and their combatants are mainly of Scandinavian origin: Rurik, Truvor, Oleg, Igor, Askold, Dir, Svenald, etc. The chronicles indicate that they were called from across the sea. But that happened later. Initially, the Varangians settled among the Novgorodians, took tribute from them, then the Slavs expelled them. Having driven the Varangians away, they began to quarrel among themselves, in the end, the strife led to the fact that the Slavs sent an embassy across the sea, to the Varangians-Rus, to tell them: “Our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it, go reign and own us." Having defended their freedom, the Slavs failed to possess it. Calling on the Varangians, they renounced freedom in the name of order, thereby producing an act of national self-denial. Three brothers responded to the call of the Slavs: Rurik, Sineus and Truvor. IN. Klyuchevsky believed that they were called not to establish a state, but to protect the Novgorodians and their allied tribes from external enemies. In his opinion, the Slavs were not talking about the rule of the Varangians, but about the military hiring of the Varangian squads. Even if this is so, the Varangians quickly turned from mercenaries into masters.

Two years after the installation of Rurik in Novgorod, the townspeople began to fear that they could be turned into slaves, a conspiracy arose. Rurik killed the leader of the discontented and killed many Novgorodians.

But the center of the political unification of the Slavs was not Novgorod, but Kyiv, where the Varangian aliens had long been drawn to. Many cities were economically dependent on Kyiv, it was a collection point for Russian trade, trade routes were drawn to it from everywhere. For the sake of reigning in Kyiv, the Varangians exterminated each other. Askold and Dir, close friends of Rurik, were the first to settle there. Then Oleg, a relative of Rurik, who succeeded him in Novgorod, killed them and himself began to reign in Kyiv, saying at the same time: "This will be the mother of Russian cities." Because of Kyiv, Vladimir, who had previously reigned in Novgorod, killed his own brother. After the death of Vladimir, his eldest son Svyatopolk became the prince of Kyiv, who killed three of his brothers - Boris, Gleb and Svyatoslav. He decided to kill the rest of the brothers in order to own Russia alone. But Yaroslav, who lived in Novgorod and even during the life of Vladimir, wanted to fight with his father, defeated the army of Svyatopolk and himself sat down in Kyiv. “Great silence in the land” of Kiev came only after Yaroslav and his brother Mstislav, who also wanted to sit in Kiev, divided the Russian land along the Dnieper: Yaroslav took the right side, and Mstislav took the left. The Kiev Varangian principality, established on blood and violence, became the original form of the Russian state.

The founding of Kyiv and the establishment of princely power are reminiscent of the formation of ancient Rome. As well as there, the power in Kyiv did not grow out of the depths of the life of an individual people, it was not original, but artificial, completely superstructural. But the rule of the Etruscans for Rome was more fruitful than the rule of the Varangians in Kievan Rus. The Etruscans brought with them the culture of urban planning and civil life, the Varangians - only a passion for trade and robbery. As in Rome, in Kyiv there was a confrontation between the authorities and the people. But the struggle between the "patricians" and the "plebeians" in Kyiv did not end with an agreement between them and the recognition of the rights of the "plebeians" as legislative, as in Rome. The people were needed by the authorities as a tributary, as a means of robbery and protection from external enemies. With the advent of the Varangians, the foundations of the life of the people were changed: it was not the Varangians who defended the cities, but the townspeople defended the alien power, thus being hired by their own mercenaries. The traditions of perverted relations between the people and the authorities were strengthened during the Mongol-Tatar yoke and were adopted by the Moscow principality. Throughout the history of Russia, these traditions have not been interrupted, and after 1917 they became even stronger, although in recent years their effect has become less obvious. Moscow, which once gave hopes of becoming the "third Rome", could not justify these hopes, since the Moscow authorities did not dare to take the step taken by the Roman patricians in their time. Moscow accepted the ideas of dying Rome, it started from where it ended Ancient Rome, i.e. from the empire and its collapse. Therefore, the expression "republican Rome" still sounds more natural today than the expression "republican Moscow".

Interaction of factors in the formation of the culture of ancient Rus'

The natural, psychological and everyday factors in the formation of the culture of Ancient Rus' did not at all imply rigid and centralized power. The centralized method of government, established in Rus', paralyzed the spontaneous and free maturation of the natural and personal principles of ancient Russian man, caused their uncertainty, indistinctness of expression, as well as their rigid dependence on the environment, on sociality. Natural and psychological factors were captured by the social factor, since sociality was never perceived by the common man in Rus' as his business. own hands. Often the captivity of sociality was understood by him as a captivity of life itself, which weakened him and extinguished his interest in it. This could not but affect the development of culture, where natural, psychological, domestic spheres and relations between people turned out to be the most undeveloped. This also affected the corresponding needs, which were clearly underestimated for a person in Rus'.

material culture

Agriculture was quite stable in Rus'. Hunting, fishing, beekeeping played a subordinate role in the economy, developed mainly under the influence of trade relations with other peoples. Thanks to the rapid growth of cities, handicrafts developed. By the end of the period of antiquity, there were about 300 cities in Rus'. Metallurgical production flourished, most of all aimed at the manufacture of weapons and military armor. Jewelry craft also spread. Various techniques for making jewelry were mastered: forging, embossing, including relief, gilding, inlay, granulation, filigree, enamel. Woodworking and construction were widely developed. Masters in Rus' were also familiar with icon painting, among them were book scribes, bone cutters. Due to the fact that in Rus' important ways rivers and lakes were the main communications, the production of light river vessels with a low draft - rooks, canoes, plows was mastered. Russian people achieved true mastery when they did something for others, and not for themselves, when they worked “for show”, trying to outdo someone.

Folklore - folk wisdom

A significant place in the worldview of the people was occupied by pagan ideas about nature, life and death, the cult rituals of paganism. It was associated with holidays, with various events in people's lives: weddings, funerals, commemorations. Songs were widespread, including ritual ones. IN funeral rite included song lamentations, intended to arouse sympathy and sorrow among those present. Ancient divination, spells, conspiracies, proverbs, sayings, riddles were tenacious among the people. A special place in Rus' was occupied by the epic epic. Most of the epic stories were associated with the reign of Vladimir. They were based on the idea of the struggle of the people for their freedom. Most often, this idea was personified by heroes. There were about seventy of them, and, according to epic legends, they all died.

Numerous fairy tales depicted a variety of heroes worthy of respect or ridicule. Even the simplest tales were instructive. Fairy tales are allegory, they have a deep meaning. Here is the well-known Ryaba Hen. Why grandfather and woman could not break golden egg, and “the mouse waved its tail” and broke it. Why did grandfather and grandmother cry over a broken testicle, although they themselves wanted to break it? Why does the hen reassure them with the promise of laying a simple egg, which costs - everyone knows - less than a golden one? It is possible that the attitude of the ancient Slavs to gold is reflected in the fairy tale. N.M. Karamzin wrote that the Slavs raged in the Byzantine Empire, did not spare own life to acquire jewels, which they did not need, as they used to bury them in the ground. In his description one hears a reproach, quite justified if one takes the position of a civilized person. Meanwhile, in antiquity, according to the well-known culturologist A.Ya. Gurevich, treasures were buried so that no one could use them (this was mentioned in the topic of ideals). It is possible that the Slavs opposed baptism also because new faith came to them in the brilliance of gold and in magnificent robes, which the Byzantine priests did not disdain. The Slavs in their own way fought the "evil of this world", and long before the sermons of such a struggle by Christian missionaries. They could not fail to see that the priesthood did not always regard gold as a real evil. After all, it is known how brilliance and luxury are revered in the Orthodox Church. Consequently, in the fairy tale known to all, a completely different, unusual system of values is hidden.

Legend of the Pigeon Book

In Russian folklore, the idea of the unity of space and man is expressed. Here is what one of the folklore researchers wrote about it: “Myths and legends about the existence of a starry, heavenly book exist in many ancient cultures. In Russian folklore, this is the legend of the Pigeon Book. On the very first pages of it we read about the universal man, whose body is woven from the stars, the moon, the sun, whose breath is the wind. These ideas are rooted in deep antiquity.”113 In the Pigeon Book, not only the cosmos is man, but vice versa: man is also a cosmos, isolated from him by virtue of his earthly existence. And it is understood as the "inversion" of the cosmos as a result of the birth of man. Therefore, the cosmos is the inner essence of man, and the essence of the cosmos remains man, as he should be according to his prototype. Hence the conclusion about the need for an unearthly birth of a person in order to achieve a coincidence of internal and external existence. In the legend about the Pigeon Book there is a thought about Rus', similar to the one that Oleg, nicknamed the Prophetic, spoke about Kiev: Rus'-land is the mother of all lands. This idea was a persistent myth in Rus', reminiscent of the idea of the Jewish people being God's chosen people. The myth of Rus' being chosen by God helped endure many hardships, just like the myth of the cosmic essence of man. We will see that it has found its expression in Orthodox churches.

Writing in Ancient Rus'

There is no definite opinion about whether the Slavs had a written language before the baptism of Rus'. But there are many facts indicating that the alphabet became widespread among the Eastern Slavs in the second half of the 9th century. It was created by the preachers of Christianity Cyril and Methodius, invited in 863 to the Great Moravian Principality (Western Slavs). They created two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. In Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet became the official alphabet. All manuscripts until the middle of the XIV century. were written on parchment, which was originally called "leather", "veal", "haratya". The oldest handwritten book is the Ostromir Gospel (mid-11th century). Two Izborniks are known, written a little later and containing moralizing articles. A true work of art is the Mstislav Gospel (beginning of the 12th century), in a luxurious binding, with headpieces and letters painted with gold and paints. The letter was also distributed among the people. In many Russian cities, private letters executed on birch bark were found. Some of the birch bark documents are dated to the 11th-12th centuries. It should be noted that the influence of Greek culture on Old Russian was insignificant precisely because Cyril and Methodius laid the foundations of Slavic writing. Activities of brothers-enlighteners fatally affected the development of Rus', since the richest heritage of Greek culture became inaccessible to its peoples. Translation literature, which penetrated into Rus' with the adoption of Christianity, was available to very few, and even then, as a rule, these were church books.

chronicle writing

Chronicle occupies a significant place among the written monuments of Rus'. Chronicle writing arose in the 11th century. and existed until the 17th century, but the chronicles came down to us as part of later chronicles, mainly the 14th-15th centuries. All of them are the result of repeated revision of the texts of earlier chronicles. This makes it difficult to clarify many issues related to the initial Old Russian annals. It can be assumed that already in the first half of the XI century. chronicles included weather records. The first mentioned date is considered to be the evidence of the victory of Svyatoslav over the Pechenegs in 968. The victory of Christianity in Rus' and the activities of the princes were the main subjects that occupied the compilers of the annals. It is believed that the first chronicle codes appeared in the 70s. 11th century A significant event was the compilation of the "Sermon on Law and Grace" by Hilarion, the first Russian to become the head of the young Russian Orthodox Church. The ideas of the Lay largely determined the existence of the myth of Rus' being chosen by God over the following centuries. Hilarion developed the idea of the universal nature of Christianity, from which the equality of Rus' with Byzantium, which claimed to lead the Christian world, followed. But from the truth about the universality of Christianity and the equality of all churches, the conclusion about the superiority or chosenness of Rus' should not at all follow. Christ called for humility and meekness, he directly said: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). However, the idea of the chosenness of Rus' by God developed in subsequent works. So, in the annals of the 90s. XI century. the author explained all the misfortunes of the Russian land by the fact that the Russians, chosen and especially loved by God, often sin, for which the Lord punishes them more severely than other peoples. The author did not notice that the main sin of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, into which they constantly drew the people, was precisely in the claim to be chosen by God.

Chronicle of the 90s. 11th century in the historical literature was called the Primary. It served as the basis for the compilation at the beginning of the XII century. "The Tale of Bygone Years". Until now, not a single manuscript has been found in which the Primary Chronicle would be in the form in which it came out from the hands of the compiler. Two lists of the annals are known - Lavrentiev and Ipatiev, which are annalistic vaults. The Tale of Bygone Years is one of the three parts of the chronicle. Its author is the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor. He brought the presentation of events to the death of Svyatoslav, i.e. until 1113. A few years later, the "Tale" was revised by Abbot Sylvester. It had a great influence on subsequent chronicle writing, and was included in the annals of many cities.

Education

Vladimir organized the first schools in Rus' on the advice of the Greeks. He believed, not without reason, that children, remaining in the care of their parents, would be brought up, like the parents themselves, in the pagan faith. According to the chronicle, the prince ordered to gather children from famous families for "book learning", and their mothers mourned them as dead, because they considered science a dangerous sorcery. Yaroslav organized a school in Novgorod for 300 children, mostly from clergy families. Teachers, as a rule, of a clergy rank, taught small groups of students in other cities as well. It is known that in the middle of the XI century. in the small town of Kursk, a teacher taught Theodosius of the Caves, who later became a writer and hegumen of the Kiev Caves Monastery. In Ancient Rus', there were two types of schools: at monasteries, where they trained clergy and, in addition to reading and writing, they taught theology, and schools of a higher type, for children from the nobility, where they also gave knowledge in philosophy and rhetoric. But the most common was individual training. The development of education was facilitated by the creation of libraries. The first of them was organized by Yaroslav the Wise at the Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. There were libraries in other cities, as well as in large monasteries. Some women from princely families also received education. For example, the daughter of the Chernigov prince studied Greek philosophy, rhetoric, grammar, Yaroslav's daughter Anna was also educated.

Literature

From literary works of the XI-XII centuries. few have come down to us. The Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh are known. It was preserved as an insert in the text of the Laurentian Chronicle. Monomakh was not only a well-educated person, but also a master of words. His "Instruction" is highly artistic. Monomakh urged children to be active and conscientious, to love God and the people, to take care of the fate of Rus'. He saw the painful state of the country, in which there was no peace because of the strife of the princes, and believed that the ruler for the sake of peace in Rus' should forgive his opponents all insults.

Annalistic stories about Russian travelers of the 11th-12th centuries have been preserved. They went mainly to Palestine "to the tomb of Christ." In 1113, Daniel's Journey was written about the journey of Abbot Daniel to the homeland of Christ. This work has become a literary monument and a model for writing travel notes.

Hagiographic literature was widely spread in Rus', in which the biographies of church saints were presented. The Russian pantheon of saints was taking shape, and legends about Olga and Vladimir were included in the first chronicles. In 1015, the "Lives" of Boris and Gleb appeared. Nestor, who owns The Life of Theodosius and Reading about the Life and Death of Boris and Gleb, did not ignore the hagiographic theme. The chronicler canonized his heroes. He moved away from the facts and paid more attention to the depiction of their holiness, wanting to create a vivid impression in readers.

Architecture

The Baptism of Rus' marked the beginning of the construction of temples and monasteries. They were originally made of wood. Stone construction, which arose under the influence of Byzantium, began in Kyiv at the end of the 10th century. The Church of the Tithes was built in the center of the city. Intensive construction was carried out under Yaroslav the Wise: St. Sophia Cathedral, the Golden Gate, the Church of the Virgin, Yuriev and Irininsky monasteries were erected. Following the Kyiv Sophia, St. Sophia Cathedrals are being built in Novgorod and Polotsk. Thus, the political and cultural unity of Rus' was emphasized. Cathedrals and churches were built in many cities. But Russian masters did not copy the church buildings of Byzantium. Kiev Sofia, whose design features served as a model for the cathedrals of the same name in Novgorod and Polotsk, is completely original, its design goes back to the national wooden architecture. Russian churches embody the idea of the cosmic nature of man and the humanoidness of the cosmos, which is characteristic of folklore. The temple is an unearthly world in the conditions of earthly existence, and the Russian person associates with it, first of all, the soul, which, based on the pagan worldview, is human-like. The Slavic-speaking cultural tradition was manifested in the structure of temples, which “symbolically reminded us of the structure of the Universe and the “small world” - man. Anthropomorphic features of the temple were found in the names of its individual parts: head, neck (drum), shoulders, sole, brow above the windows. Its device was oriented to the cardinal directions, and the paintings reminded of the Universe, its history - the Old and New Testaments, the future of mankind - the end of the world and the Last Judgment. The Church sought to raise a person above the vain concerns of the day and show him the world in its structure and history, penetrating the entire hierarchy of phenomena and events.”114

Art

The influence of pre-Christian ideas is noticeable in many types of ancient Russian art. Even in those whose roots in paganism could not be. Iconography, although entirely inherited from the Greeks, was reworked by Russian artists in the tradition of "pagan cheerfulness". Byzantine students became masters and created national art Ancient Rus'. Pagan symbols were used in arts and crafts, ornamental compositions applied to household items, weapons, jewelry. The sun was depicted in the form of a circle, water - in the form of wavy lines, animals and birds - as fabulous creatures. Thanks to paganism, the vision of earthly life and independence from the Christian worldview were preserved in art.

Slavic-Russian paganism

The Eastern Slavs had two cults: nature and ancestors. The surviving monuments have preserved traces of worship of the sky (Svarog), the sun (Dazhbog, Khores, Veles), thunder and lightning (Perun), air elements (Stribog), fire and other natural phenomena. Svarog was considered the god-father, his sons were Dazhbog and Svarozhich - the god of earthly fire. In the annals, Perun was named the main deity, they swore by his name, as well as by the name of Beles, or the "cattle god", the patron of domestic herds and wealth. There was also Lado, the god of fun, love, prosperity. Wooden sculptural images of the gods were placed in open places, near which rituals were performed, sacrifices were made, sometimes human. For example, in Kyiv, on a hill, there were images of the golden-whiskered Perun with a silver head and other gods, to whom the prince and people made sacrifices. It can be assumed that the Eastern Slavs had ideas about the hierarchy of the gods. The attitude of the gods to the world is depicted on the Zbruch idol, probably made in the 10th century. and found in 1848 in a tributary of the Dnieper. The idol is a four-sided pillar with images on each side. Three faces give an idea of the underground gods, of earthly life and of the four supreme deities crowned with one common cap. Accordingly, Mokosh, the goddess of fertility, Lada, the goddess of marriage and family, Perun and a male deity without attributes are depicted. Some researchers believe that the common cap reflects the idea of a single supreme god.

Transformation of the pagan pantheon

The cult of ancestors was expressed in the veneration of the Family, in which they saw the ancestor of life and the guardian of relatives and families. Women in labor were associated with him - female deities, patronesses of the family, the hearth and everything related to birth. The ancestor was called "chur" (shur), hence the ancestor (distant ancestor, ancestor). The dead were buried in the ground, later they began to be burned, and the bones were collected in a special vessel and placed on poles in places where paths or boundaries of different possessions crossed. The cult of ancestors was more enduring than the worship of natural forces, more closely associated with social change. Researchers believe that in ancient times, the Slavs made offerings only to evil and good spirits - ghouls and coasts. Later, the place of the spirits was taken by Rod and women in labor. With the advent of the state, Perun comes to the fore, and after the adoption of Christianity, pagan rites generally become secret, Rod and his retinue were revered for the longest time. The transformation of the pantheon reflected the trend towards monotheism in Slavic-Russian paganism. But pagan beliefs could not really compete with the monotheism of Christianity, since they were limited to the sphere privacy of people. In addition, the Kyiv authorities supported a single faith, which corresponded to the interests of a centralized state.

Baptism of Rus'

Vladimir, who won the bloody struggle for the throne of Kiev, wanted to reform the pagan cult, but soon realized that the reform of local cults would not give anything, but would only separate Rus' from Christian countries. However, he did not immediately lean towards Christianity. Ambassadors from Mohammedans and Jews came to the prince. Vladimir was fascinated by the story of the Greek nameless philosopher about the Christian faith. A weighty argument was the fact that Princess Olga, Vladimir's grandmother, accepted the Christian faith. But also inclined to Christianity, the prince chose between Rome and Byzantium. The Western Church stubbornly sought dominance over secular power, which could hardly arouse the sympathy of the power-hungry Vladimir. In Byzantium, spiritual power occupied a subordinate position. It was this that corresponded to the political views of the Kievan prince. In addition, the Roman hierarchs severely condemned the educational activities of Cyril and Methodius, which contributed to the spread of Slavic worship. The Roman Church recognized only three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The ban on Slavic worship corresponded to the general policy of the papacy in alliance with the Western European feudal lords to establish power over the Slavic peoples.

All this explains the choice of Byzantine orientation. The chronicle reports that Vladimir sent trusted people to different lands to get acquainted with the peculiarities of worship. The ambassadors were especially struck by the Greeks. In the St. Sophia Church of Constantinople, the patriarch himself performed the liturgy for the ambassadors. The splendor of the temple, the importance of the persons present, the mystery of the rites captivated the Russians. They were sure that God himself was in that temple, about which they told in Kyiv. In 988, after the overthrow of all the idols in Kyiv, Rus was baptized with the assistance of the Greek priests. The chronicler noted that the people of Kiev stood in the water, and Vladimir on the banks of the Dnieper asked God to bless the "new children" and establish the right faith in them: "The earth and heaven rejoiced that day."

Duality in Rus'

With the introduction of Christianity in Rus', there were two faiths, each of which was rooted in different layers of culture. Paganism and Christianity not only coexisted, but intertwined and penetrated each other. At the beginning of the XV century. one of the Catholic hierarchs reported to Rome that it was difficult to understand the religion of the Russians: whether it was pagan Christianity, or whether it was Christian paganism. Yes, and Nestor the Chronicler lamented the people's preference for various spectacles, where they "crush each other", while the churches are empty. Two mutually exclusive faiths can enrich each other in art, as evidenced, for example, by Russian temple architecture. But in the individual consciousness, these same two faiths do not enrich each other, but rather neutralize one another, exist as inferior faiths. Just as any believer experiences distrust towards another religion, so a person who has two faiths can only experience distrust towards each of them, which over time can become a character trait. Dual faith in Rus' did not divide society into adherents of one or another faith, but cut individual consciousness, forcing the individual to seek a common basis for both faiths. Such a basis can only be distrust or lack of faith, but in essence - unbelief. It is clear that this is a very uncertain state of man. In unbelief, a person does not allow anything higher than himself, because he does not believe in anything. At the same time, he can be dependent on any little thing, because he is ready to believe anything. In this state, a person does not trust anything external, but at the same time is ready to be satisfied with a purely external, ostentatious effect. Dual faith in Rus' gave rise to disbelief and an ambiguous attitude not only to religion, but also to power, to the fatherland, to its role and fate. On the one hand, the Orthodox ideal of the monarch was affirmed, on the other hand, the pagan image of the eastern despot, “crushing the foreheads” of his subjects, as the ancient Egyptians used to say about their pharaoh. The Christian idea of the equality of all peoples before God was extolled, but the idea of the God-chosenness of Rus' and its people was also cherished. The same was manifested in relation to the most essential thing in Christianity - to the image of Christ. He aroused sympathy with his suffering, but no more. The general meaning that God offered a sacrifice to man remained outside popular consciousness, which was characterized by a pagan understanding: sacrifices are not made to a person, but he himself is sacrificed. Human sacrifice has turned into self-sacrifice, and this is all that remains in the minds of the people from the Son of God. As a result, Christ became understandable and close, but ceased to be a Christian image. The worldly image of Christ was supplanted by the image of the Mother of God, who resurrected the Family and women in childbirth in memory. In the fact that the image of the Mother of God became closer than the image of the Christ who was born by her, one can see traces of the cult of ancestors, when they honored the memory of parents, not particularly honoring children.

The image of Jesus Christ and the image of the Virgin

In Russian icon painting, the Mother of God occupied a central place, she was assigned the role of the Queen of Heaven. Sophia, the Wisdom of God, had the same place. But the icons of the Mother of God, as the Russian philosopher believed E.N. Trubetskoy(1863–1920), in artistically fuller, more colorful and perfect. He explained it this way: “The icon of St. Sophia of the Wisdom of God expresses the yet undiscovered mystery of God's plan for creation. And the Mother of God, who gathered the world around the eternal Child, personifies the fulfillment and revelation of the same plan. It was this catholic, united universe that God intended in His Wisdom: it was this that He wanted; and it is precisely by her that the chaotic realm of death must be conquered.”115 The veneration of the Mother of God is associated with ideas about the female essence of Rus', which are found in Russian folklore. They obligated to love Rus' in a special way, but at the same time they aroused the desire to always be under her protection, never to go beyond the age when you can still be in your mother's arms. These same ideas gave rise to fears of violence against Russia, abuse of it by "strangers", "aliens".

Views of Theodosius Pechersky

All this indicates that the choice of faith in Rus' never happened. This could not but excite the ancient Russian thinkers, who lived mainly in a monastic environment. Among such thinkers was Theodosius (died in 1074). From a young age he was imbued with the ideas of Christianity, in 1032 he was tonsured a monk and tortured his flesh for thirty years, following the call of Christianity to leave the world and not take care of the body. In 1062 he became hegumen of the Pechersk Monastery. Theodosius preached the idea of the chosenness of monasticism and considered necessary monastic supervision over society and secular power. The latter, Theodosius believed, should only be an instrument for the defense of faith and the Church, which is the true guardian of "orthodoxy". He believed that Rus' would be united not by secular power, but by a common faith. The views of Theodosius Pechersky served as the beginning of the formation of church ideology.

Historiosophy of Nestor the Chronicler

His views were shared and developed by Nestor, a monk of the same monastery, the author of the first edition of The Tale of Bygone Years. Nestor was undoubtedly familiar with the ideas of the Caves abbot, he has a work called The Life of Theodosius of Caves. He came to the idea of common faith from a more general idea of the unity and God's chosenness of the Slavic people. He convinced readers that the Apostle Paul was a teacher for the Slavs, and since Rus' is also the Slavs, therefore, the Apostle Paul is a teacher for the Russian people. According to Nestor, history is controlled and directed by God, and those who violate church commandments, even if they are entire nations, will be punished. The misfortunes of Rus' are a punishment for the "evil belief" and "cunning" of the rulers, but in this way Rus' is brought to the "truth". So, Svyatopolk, the son of Vladimir, wanted to kill all the brothers in order to own Russia alone, but was defeated by Yaroslav and as a result spent the rest of his life in loneliness and illness. The lesson here was obvious to Nestor: the accursed Svyatopolk was ruined by the desire for autocracy. The conclusion was no less obvious to him: the specific system of the principality is a God-established form of government in Rus', it comes from the sons of the Old Testament Noah, who divided the land among themselves. Secular specificity can be balanced in Rus' by common faith. The power of the church should be one, and not princely power.

The idea of Slavic unity, which Nestor persistently developed, did not at all correspond to the historical reality of his time. The Slavs were disunited, and a significant part of them were enslaved. Western Slavs were influenced by the Catholic Church. Nestor insisted on the domination of Orthodoxy, seeing the reason for disunity in the departure from the true faith. Like Theodosius of Pechersk, he reduced the social process to the action of two forces - church and secular authorities. The people were mentioned in chronicles only in connection with anti-feudal uprisings. He was perceived as an indefinite and threatening force, but not equal to the ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Three forces - the church, the princely power and the people - remained disunited in the culture of Ancient Rus'. The need for their unity was not understood by the chroniclers, which left an imprint on the understanding and development of Russian culture. She always lacked a third force that matured, as it were, away from the general direction of the development of Russian culture. Connected with this is the feeling that Russian culture has not yet manifested itself, that it is always on the road, in the future, and not in the present. But this provision did not contribute to solving the problems of culture. In one of the books on the history of Russian culture we read: “A sore point for schools in the 18th century. there was a lack of teachers.”116 But the same problem carried over into the 19th century, and little has changed today. It could not have been otherwise in Rus' in the absence of universities and higher school education, which entailed a lag in the development of science and philosophy.117

Difficulties in determining the nature of Russian culture

Due to the traditional unresolved nature of some problems, one could, following the classification of K. Levi-Strauss, classify ancient Russian culture as “cold”. But such a conclusion is superficial, does not express the essence of things, since upon closer examination it can be seen that the ideology, namely, it should be sufficiently developed in the “cold” culture, was very vague and ambivalent in Ancient Rus'.

In the subsequent history of Russia, the brightest pages are associated with the breaking of traditions, and in general, anti-traditionalism was inherent in Russian statehood: if traditions were preserved, then at the level of family and community life. But this level (and the culture of everyday life associated with it) has always been perceived in Rus' as something secondary, although it is at this level that the foundations of human cultural development are laid.

Monologuery of ancient Russian culture

The worldview of the ancient Russian man was characterized by patriarchy. A woman-mother in Rus' was called a "beregina", but she had to take care of a way of life that was entirely dependent on her father. Relations between the people and the government were also patriarchal. The people are not even children, who were ordinary Chinese in relation to their emperor, among the ancient Russian princes the people were a silent supplier of tribute. Like bees, obliged to give honey to their owner every year. The “children” of the princes were combatants who helped their patron to rob the people in the most predatory ways. There was no question of any cooperation between the authorities and the people. Self-will, arbitrariness, treachery - this is how the actions of the first Russian princes can be characterized in relation not only to the people, or to smerds, as they were called, but also to each other. This type of relationship led to the existence of a monological type of culture, i.e. a culture of "one-voiced", one-dimensional, egocentric, where everyone hears mostly only himself. The people, withdrawn in Russia outside the boundaries of cultural life, for a very long time did not even belong to society, and their activities were not perceived as cultural activities. This is evidenced by the calls to “bring culture to the people”, which were so rich in the second half of the 19th century. At the same time, calls were made to help the people, and the calls were addressed not only to the authorities, but also to society, which, therefore, the people did not enter. So, the Russian philosopher B.C. Solovyov wrote at the end of the last century, in connection with the terrible famine of 1891–1892, about the situation in the state: “The people are starving, the government is trying in every possible way to help them, but society is doing nothing.”118

Monologism, one-dimensionality of ancient Russian culture also affected the perception of a person. It was not voluminous, a person was seen as a scheme, his psyche, character, inner world were beyond the border of a sensual image. The perception of a person resembled his image in the ancient Egyptian art of the XIV century. BC. But the self-perception of a person in ancient Russian culture was different, he perceived himself as a completely sufficient person. However, in comparison with power, the value of which was the highest measure in ancient Russian culture, the life of an individual was worth nothing. In particular, the life of smerds, who were perceived by the princes as objects of nature. It is generally accepted that there was no slavery in Rus', but smerds in Rus' were hardly revered as people, and anyone who did not have power was a potential slave and serf.

We should not be surprised by the discrepancy just noted in the perception of the person of Ancient Rus' himself and the other. If the relations of power and subordination determined the culture as a whole, then these same relations determined the culture of the individual. As a rule, people in their attitudes towards others only reproduce the attitudes they experience towards themselves. Based on this, in ancient Chinese philosophy and Christianity, a principle was formulated that prescribes a person to treat other people not as they treat him, but as he would like them to treat him. But Christianity seduced the envoys of the Kyiv prince not with its ethical side, but with its external beauty and brilliance. This outward side of the Byzantine liturgy contributed little to the inner transformation of the man of Ancient Rus', his protest against baptism was expressed in the desire to preserve the faith of his ancestors - paganism.

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2.1 Writing and education

Writing existed in Rus' even in the pre-Christian period. There are references to "features and cuts" in the legend "On Writings" (the turn of the 9th-10th centuries). The author, Khrabr, a Chernorian, noted that the pagan Slavs use pictorial signs, with the help of which they "chitah and gadah" (read and guessed). Evidence of the presence of pre-Christian writing among the Slavs is a broken clay pot discovered in 1949 in the Gnezdovsky pagan burial mounds near Smolensk, on which the inscription "goroukhshcha" ("gorushna") has been preserved. In addition to Gnezdovskaya, fragments of inscriptions and numerical calculations were found on amphoras and other vessels of the 10th century. in Taman (ancient Tmutarakan), Sarkel and Black Sea ports. Writing based on various alphabets (Greek, Cyrillic, runic) was used by the diverse population of the most ancient cities and proto-cities located on important trade routes. Trade became the soil that contributed to the spread throughout the territory of Rus' of the Cyrillic alphabet adapted for Slavic speech and convenient for writing. The Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century. Cyril the Philosopher (827-869). Cyril took the Greek alphabet, consisting of 24 letters, as a basis, supplemented it with hissing sounds of the Hebrew alphabet and some letters created individually (b, g, b, s). The Cyrillic alphabet originally consisted of 43 letters close in spelling to Greek. Letters denoted not only sounds, but also numbers. "A" - the number 1, "B" - 2, "P" - 100. And only in the XVIII century. Arabic numerals have replaced "alphabetic" numerals. 3

With the adoption of Christianity, the written period of the culture of ancient Rus' began. After baptism Kyiv prince Vladimir ordered "to collect children from the best people and give them to book education." The first schools known to us in Rus' were created by Prince Vladimir to educate children from families of noble and middle fortunes, as well as children of "wretched and poor parents." From the biography of the hegumen of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Theodosius, it is known that in 1023 there was a school for the training of clergy in Kursk. Around 1030, Prince Vladimir's son Yaroslav the Wise opened a school in Novgorod "gathering 300 children from elders and presbyters and ordered them to teach books." 4 In 1086, Princess Anna Vsevolodovna opened at the Andreevsky Monastery in Kyiv the first women's school known to us in Rus', where students studied "writing, crafts, singing, sewing." In pre-Mongol Rus', there were schools in Vladimir-on-Klyazma, Rostov, Polotsk, and Galich. They studied theology, philosophy, rhetoric, grammar based on the works of ancient authors, Byzantine literature, Bulgarian sources. Translation books were used for the "bookish teaching": the biography of Alexander the Great "Alexandria", "The History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius, treatises on the six days of Creation, collections of instructive content - "Golden Jet", "Margaret", "Izmaragd"; stories (patericons) about visions of the afterlife ("The Virgin's Walk through the Torments"), about the "details" of the creation of the world, the Sinai patericon and other writings. The range of translated literature was also varied - from church theological to historical, natural science and apocryphal.

2.2 Book writing in Rus'

The first mention of book writing in Rus' refers only to the second quarter of the 11th century. Under 1037, The Tale of Bygone Years reports on the organization by Yaroslav the Wise at the Kiev Sophia Cathedral of works on the translation of liturgical books from Greek into Old Church Slavonic and their correspondence. From handwritten books of the XI-XII centuries. units are preserved. The sensational discovery in Novgorod of a fragment of the Old Russian Psalter written on wax tablets (codices) is dated by historians to the early 990s - late 1010s, although it does not contain direct data on the time of its manufacture. Information about the production of parchment books is also very scarce. The earliest dated parchment book on 294 sheets, the Ostromir Gospel, was rewritten by deacon Gregory in 1056-1057.

The correspondence of books, at least until the middle of the 16th century, remained the exclusive prerogative of the church. In the XI-XIII centuries. "book business" was mainly carried out by representatives of the middle and lower levels of the clergy and their children. Frequent use in the sources of the late XIII century. the word "scribe" may indicate that at that time book writing was taking shape as a craft specialty. The material for writing, books and letters in Rus' at that time was parchment - specially dressed cow, calf or pig skin. Since it took one skin to make one parchment sheet, the production of books, which often exceeded 200 sheets, was very expensive.

Handwritten books were elegantly designed. Before the text, they always made a headband - a small ornamental composition in the form of a frame around the title of a chapter or section. The first, capital letter in the text - "initial" - was decorated with an ornament, and sometimes in the form of a figure of a person, animal, bird or fantastic creature. Usually the initial was red. Since then they say - "to write from the red line." The section ended with an "ending" - a small drawing, for example, an image of two birds that looked like peacocks. by the most complex view illustrations of the book were miniatures. The miniatures were painted by the artists on the pages of the book free from text with a brush. Most often these were portraits of customers or authors of the book, illustrations for the text. In the XI-XIII centuries. in Rus', there were about 130-140 handwritten books in circulation, about 80 have come down to our time. 5

2.3 Literacy rate of the population

After the adoption of Christianity, writing begins to spread rapidly in ancient Rus'. Within a few decades, not only their own "scribes" appeared, but also competent icon painters, gunsmiths, harpists, warriors, tax collectors, women from princely families. Later, in the second half of the 11th and especially in the 12th-13th centuries, literacy gradually penetrated into the wider strata of the urban population. Birch bark letters discovered by archaeologists in 1951 in Novgorod testified to the level of literacy of the population. It was conducted on birch bark business correspondence, records of debts and duties, petitions and training assignments were written. The literacy of the population is also evidenced by inscriptions made on various objects. They were performed by people of different social strata - from the prince to the lad (junior combatant), from the bishop to the sexton, from the professional scribe to the barely literate child.

The most numerous, quantitatively comparable with the number of birch bark letters, are graffiti - inscriptions drawn on the walls of ancient temples, cave monasteries, etc. The first researchers most often explained the appearance of inscriptions on the walls with "mischief, childish pranks and boredom of the church rite." This opinion was supported by the church charter of Prince Vladimir, where the "cutting" of inscriptions on the walls was condemned and equated with such grave sins against religion and morality as digging up graves and destroying crosses. The norms of church law and ordinary life did not always coincide, and the walls of many medieval buildings are covered with many inscriptions. Only a study of graffiti in St. Sophia Cathedrals in Kyiv and Novgorod helped to explain and understand this phenomenon. It turned out that the vast majority of them are either commemorative, or prayerful, or in one way or another connected with the Christian religion and worship. Probably, in the view of the inhabitants of ancient Rus', such a record was equated with a prayer written on a church wall and from this, as it were, constantly acting.

Invaluable information contains prayer autographs left by the artists - performers of the fresco painting of the Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod in the middle of the 11th century. and in 1108. Thanks to these inscriptions, the names of artists become known, which are not reported by any chronicle. Evidence of the literacy of the population was also monumental inscriptions that were carved on crosses located at crossroads and convenient stops on trade routes; often they were ordinary prayer or memorial, but they also performed another function: informational. They appear around the middle of the 11th century. The oldest of them is a memorial inscription to a certain John on a two-meter stone cross from the village of Pregradnoye in the Stavropol Territory.

2.4 Themes and genres of literature

In ancient Rus', along with translated literature, the works of local authors were widely used. According to academician D.S. Likhachev, "the leap into the realm of literature occurred simultaneously with the advent of Christianity and the Church in Rus', ... was prepared by all previous cultural development ... Old Russian literature can be compared with one colossal work, the plot of which is world history, and the theme is the meaning of human life, therefore, ancient Russian literature can be considered as the literature of one theme and one plot. "6

Books in ancient Rus' were usually read aloud, and the principle of normativity extended to all genres of literature. The choice of genre was dictated not so much by the individual intention of the author, but by the purpose of his statement. For liturgical use, a solemn or accusatory sermon, teaching, hymnography (kontakion, canon, troparion), gospel (Ostromir gospel, Mstislav gospel, etc.) were created. For pious home reading - a patericon, which was a collection of short moralizing and entertaining stories (the most famous of them after the translated "Sinai" - "Kiev-Pechersk Paterikon", compiled in the 13th century), as well as parables ("The Parable of human soul"Bishop Cyril of Turov (end of the 12th century); walking - a note about visiting the Holy Land or a revered shrine, later - and outlandish pagan countries" Walking Abbot Daniel to holy places "(beginning of the 12th century). If the book was intended to rest from prayer and other works, the scribe resorted to one of the less rigorous genres - stories: about the military exploits of princes, about the fabulous adventures of ancient heroes, etc. The apocrypha had their own specifics - stories about visions of the afterlife ("Walking of the Virgin through the torments"), about visiting earthly paradise ("The Tale of Our Father Agapius"), about the "details" of the creation of the world ("The Tale of How God Created Adam"). This genre of ancient Russian literature is the result of religious folk fantasy, non-canonical, but not necessarily heretical, ideas about the Divine Cosmos.

The first and perhaps the most striking evidence of the artistic level of ancient Russian literature is the solemn "Sermon on Law and Grace" by Metropolitan Hilarion of Kyiv (c. 1049). The "Word" leads to the idea that Rus' was baptized not according to the law given by the Greeks, but according to the grace revealed to it through the holy prince Vladimir and the ruling prince Yaroslav the Wise, with whose praise Hilarion completes his work. Hilarion's ideas were further developed in the second half of the 11th century. in other literary and publicistic works: "The Memory and Praise of Vladimir" by the monk Jacob, "The Tale of the Initial Spread of Christianity in Rus'", "The Tale of Boris and Gleb", in the writings of the preacher of the late XII century. Bishop Cyril of Turov ("The Tale of the Belorizitsa and the Mnishchestvo", "The Tale of the Chernoriz Rank") and Bishop Serapion of Vladimir ("On the Executions of God and the Hosts"). Around 1096, the image of an ideal statesman, politician, and commander was created in Vladimir Monomakh's Teachings to Children.

All the complexity and inconsistency of the life of society was reflected in his works "Word" and "Prayer" Daniil Zatochnik. Some researchers consider him a nobleman of noble origin, others - a princely combatant, others - a simple serf, or maybe even a prisoner (hence the word "Sharpener" itself). A feature of the style of the "Words" is the widespread use of everyday vocabulary, parodies, free interpretation of quotations from the psalms.

The "Lives" of the saints were different in terms of vocabulary and literary devices. It is assumed that the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor was the "founding father" of ancient Russian hagiography (from the Greek "agios" - saint). In the hagiographic literature of the XI-XII centuries. The authors paid special attention to the search for a religious justification for princely (then royal) power as not just "set by God" and divinely sanctified, but precisely God-like, corresponding to the sacred status of Rus' ("The Life of Avraamy Smolensky", "The Life of Varlam Khutynsky"). Close to this idea is the author of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" - about the unsuccessful campaign of Prince Igor in 1185 against the Polovtsians. This poem, called "the pearl of Russian poetry", is unique. It falls out of all genres and stylistic definitions of Old Russian literature. For more than 200 years, it has been worrying about the mystery of its origin and mysterious images, unlike any other.

2.5 Chronicle writing

Chronicles occupied a special place in spiritual culture. Their appearance dates back to the 11th century, and they were compiled until the 17th century. and were one of the most striking manifestations of ancient Russian culture. Traditionally, a chronicle in the broad sense of the word is called historical essay, in which the presentation was carried out strictly by year, began with the words "In summer" and was accompanied by annual, calendar, and sometimes hourly dates. In the narrow sense, chronicles are usually called texts that have actually come down to us, preserved in one or more lists similar to each other.

The originals of the first chronicles have not been preserved, but they are restored with a certain degree of reliability on the material of later chronicles. Currently, more than 200 chronicle lists have been introduced into scientific circulation, which include "weather" records, documents, fragments of literary works. Separate records of memorable events were kept in Rus' from the 10th century, developing into princely chronicles and annals of monasteries. Based on this information at the end of the XI century. in the Kiev-Pechersky Monastery, an annalistic code "Vremennik" was compiled, which included information about the history ancient Russian state, some facts world history and data on the Kiev Caves Monastery. It can be assumed that the author of the "Vremennik" was the monk of the monastery Nikita Pechersky, who later became the Metropolitan of Kyiv.

The Tale of Bygone Years, compiled no earlier than 1113 by the monk Nestor, is considered to be the clearest example of ancient Russian chronicle writing. The leitmotif of the chronicle was the first lines of the work: "behold the tales of bygone years, where did the Russian land come from, who in Kyiv began before the princes, and where did the Russian land come from." 7 Nestor the chronicler was a well-educated man, he knew literature well different origin, possessed extensive geographical knowledge. In his chronicle, he used the works of his predecessors, including Vremennik, and the events of the late 11th - early 12th centuries. described as an eyewitness. Chronicle, along with information about the most important political events, contains many poetic legends and traditions: about the calling of the Varangians, about the campaigns of Prince Oleg against Constantinople and against the Khazars, about the revenge of Princess Olga on the Drevlyans for the death of Prince Igor, etc.

From the 12th century chronicles have become more detailed, they already clearly show the sympathies and positions of the authors and their customers. In the future, the "Tale" was an indispensable part of both the Kiev annals and the annals of individual Russian principalities, being one of the connecting threads for the entire culture of Rus'. Their own chronicles appeared in Smolensk, Pskov, Vladimir-on-Klyazma, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, Ryazan, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl-Russian. Each of them reflected the peculiarities of the history of their region, the reigns of local princes were brought to the fore. The oldest code compiled in Novgorod is the Novgorod First Chronicle, presented by the Synodal list of the XIII-XIV centuries.

2.6 Architecture and construction

Diverse and rich Russian architecture for a long time retained the power of artistic influence. Like ancient Russian literature, architecture was associated with the life of the state, and the most important stages of its development basically coincide with the periodization of Russian history.

Pre-Christian Rus' had an ancient tradition of wooden architecture. In housing construction, two types of buildings have developed. In the north, the dwellings were above ground, with a wooden floor, log walls, a gable roof and a large stone oven. The southern type of dwelling can be conditionally called a semi-dugout. The wooden walls were partially covered with earth, the ovens were made of clay. The princely and boyar towers consisted of several log buildings connected by covered passages and covered with high roofs. The ceremonial role was played by a large and bright hall - a gridiron: a place for receiving guests and feasting for the prince and his squad.

Practically nothing is known about the religious buildings of pagan Rus', except for evidence of tremies. The very first wooden Christian church (the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Kyiv) was built in the first half of the 10th century.

The intensive development of wooden architecture was caused by the growth of cities in Kievan Rus. Chronicles mention the construction of numerous "cities", "gorodtsy", "detinets", "kremlin". A huge role in the X-XI centuries. played defensive construction; an indispensable attribute of any settlement was reliably fortified "prisons" - earthen ramparts with ditches in front of them and wooden walls at the top. By the middle of the XII century. with the formation of specific principalities, the construction of cities and the strengthening of borders reached an unprecedented scale. This is evidenced by written sources and archaeological data. If until the middle of the XII century. archaeologists discovered 37 settlements, then from the middle of the XII - the middle of the XIII century. 425 remains of settlements have already been recorded.

A sharp increase in the number of urban settlements occurred primarily due to the so-called "small towns", the area of which ranged from 0.2 to 2 hectares. The growth in the number of just such cities, fortified with ditches and ramparts and surrounded by wooden walls, is explained by the fact that the principalities, having achieved political independence, began to strengthen their borders. This is how Moscow, Tver, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Kolomna, Poltava (Ltava) appeared, which initially did not play any significant economic or political role, but performed the functions of frontier fortresses.

With the adoption of Christianity, the ancient Russian masters mastered the most complex architectural design of the cross-domed church adopted from the Byzantine architects. At the same time, the process of adapting a foreign culture to local traditions was going on, and the search for their own system of architecture began. So, if the first stone temples of Kiev (Church of the Tithes; 5-nave St. Sophia Cathedral), Chernigov (3-nave Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior), Polotsk (5-nave St. Sophia Cathedral) technique and special elegance of patterned masonry, formed by alternating rows of stone and plinths , stepped pyramidality, extensive internal choirs for princely families resembled examples of Byzantine architecture, then buildings erected in the XI-XII centuries. in Novgorod, demonstrate a completely original version of ancient Russian architecture.

The 5-nave, 5-domed Novgorod church of St. Sophia, monolithic integrity and rigor of composition - the 5-domed Nikolo-Dvorishchensky Cathedral, the 3-domed cathedrals of Antoniev and St. George's monasteries. St. George's Cathedral of the St. George's Monastery, built by one of the first known by name of ancient Russian architects - master Peter. In the 2nd half of the 12th century, the monumental cathedrals in Novgorod were replaced by relatively small, compact 1-domed churches: George in Staraya Ladoga, Peter and Paul on Sinichya Gora, the Savior on Nereditsa. A somewhat simplified version of the Novgorod monumental churches was used in the architecture of Pskov (the 3-domed cathedral of the Ivanovo Monastery), and here around 1156 the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery was built - a temple of the so-called type unique for ancient Russian architecture. "Greek cross" (with lowered western cells and side apses).

In the XII century. local architectural schools took shape in Chernigov, Ovruch, Galich, Smolensk, Polotsk. The most interesting are the Smolensk Cathedral of the Archangel Michael; Chernihiv Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa; Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral of the Euphrosyne Monastery in Polotsk 1159, Church of John Chrysostom in the capital of the Galician Principality 1259

One of the brightest schools of ancient Russian architecture - Vladimir-Suzdal - appeared in the middle of the 12th century. The independent policy of the princes of Vladimir (especially Andrei Bogolyubsky), who sought to turn Vladimir into the administrative and spiritual center of North-Eastern Rus', stimulated an unprecedented outbreak of building activity. The static and severe sparseness of the decor of the early buildings (the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Pereslavl-Zalessky; the Church of Boris and Gleb in Kideksha near Suzdal) were replaced by new architectural forms, in which the classical perfection of structures and construction techniques, the clarity of proportions, the richness of the carved white stone decor are organically merged. The resemblance to the Romanesque art of Europe is characteristic of the Cathedral of the Assumption and the austere fortified Golden Gate in Vladimir, the magnificently decorated princely palace in Bogolyubovo, the slender and graceful Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River, the solemnly monumental, in the upper parts completely covered with white stone carvings of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir. The art of white stone carving reached its peak in the sophisticated decor of the last monument of the Vladimir-Suzdal school - St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky: ornamental and plot reliefs that completely covered its walls, multi-figured compositions recreated the Christian-Slavic picture of the universe.

Byzantine architects brought to Rus' the technique of masonry with a hidden row, in which the rows of bricks on the facade of the building came out through one, and the intermediate row was pushed back and covered with a layer of pinkish mortar with an admixture of crushed ceramics (tartar). With a lower cost of building materials, the wall of the temple turned out to be more durable and decorative and practically did not need additional decoration. The combination of ancient Russian traditions proper and Byzantine innovations created a unique architectural style.

2.7 Painting

In the culture of pagan Rus', picturesque images were quite common, but only with the adoption of Christianity did the ancient Russian masters master the secrets of an absolutely new figurative system of fine art for them - church mosaics, murals, book miniatures. Easel painting came to Rus' - icon painting. Byzantium not only introduced the ancient Russian masters to a new painting technique for them, but also revealed to them the iconographic canon, the absolute implementation of which was monitored by the church. The icon was called "theology in colors"8 and they saw in it a means of turning the feelings and thoughts of believers to the divine world. The conventionality of the writing was to emphasize their unearthly essence in the appearance of the faces depicted on the icon, so the figures were painted flat, motionless, a special system of depicting space was used - a reverse perspective. The figures on the icon were not supposed to cast shadows, but were illuminated with a radiance, which was achieved using the general golden background of the icon. In addition, the icon had to be ascetic. The emaciated faces of the saints on the icon were called upon to form a new form of life relations among believers, opposing them to worldly feelings and aspirations.

The earliest surviving works of ancient Russian fine art were created jointly by Byzantine and local masters, among whom Alympius, a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery (end of the 11th century), stood out. The most developed was the art of mosaics and frescoes. In the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv, mosaics covered the most important and illuminated parts of the temple - the central dome (Christ the Almighty) and the altar (Our Lady of Oranta). The rest of the cathedral was decorated with frescoes: scenes from the life of Christ,

Mother of God, Archangel Michael. Frescoes were also created in the temple on secular topics: two group portraits of Yaroslav the Wise with his family, figures of buffoons, musicians, scenes of hunting and court life.

A special place in ancient Russian painting occupied book miniature. The images of the evangelists, for example, were decorated with the Ostromir Gospel. Portrait images of the grand-ducal family were placed in the Izbornik of Svyatoslav in 1073; portraits of Yaropolk and his family in the "Mstislav Gospel" were painted in Novgorod by the master Aleksa.

With the weakening of the political power of Kyiv and the formation of specific principalities, artistic regional schools reached their peak. From the 2nd half of the XII century. in the frescoes of the churches of St. George in Staraya Ladoga and especially the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa, the Novgorod style proper began to take shape. The most typical features of Novgorod painting were the sharpness of the characteristics of the images (impressiveness, enlargement, severity); a combination of contrasting colors, the lack of Byzantine sophistication and the use of folklore ideas: icons of the late 11th - 12th centuries.

Fine harmony of colors distinguishes the icons of the Vladimir-Suzdal school ("Bogolyubskaya Mother of God" of the middle of the 12th century, "Dmitry of Thessalonica", the end of the 12th - the beginning of the 13th centuries). The fine arts of North-Eastern Rus' are known only from a small number of monuments. The murals of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir are exceptional in terms of artistic merit (the scenes of the Last Judgment, performed around 1197 by Byzantine and local masters, have been preserved), in which freedom of composition and a silver color of remarkable subtlety are combined with sharply individual characteristics.

The icon of Our Lady of Vladimir is closely connected with the culture of North-Eastern Rus'. Among the most famous images of the Mother of God, she is perfect in her artistic expression of the feeling of maternal suffering and maternal greatness. The icon was painted, according to most modern scholars, in the 1130s. in Constantinople and, according to legend, goes back to the image of the Mother of God, written by the apostle and evangelist Luke. An unknown Byzantine icon painter managed to embody the ideal of motherly love. The icon got its name from the new capital of North-Eastern Rus' - Vladimir-on-Klyazma. In 1237, during the invasion of the Batu hordes on Vladimir, the icon suffered from fire and robbery, but remained intact. This icon is called "The Sovereign Protector of the Russian Land".

2.8 Music

Vocal and instrumental music was an integral part of various rituals. There were musical instruments of various types, an important place in family and social life was occupied by folk songs and ritual folklore.

In ancient Rus' there were no developed forms of professional secular music, the song existed among the people, being also an invariable accessory of princely and retinue life. A high position in society was occupied in the X-XI centuries. princely "songwriters" who glorified the princes and their squads. The representative of the "songwriters", apparently, was Boyan, whose image is known from the "Tale of Igor's Campaign".

The epics depict the names of musicians from Novgorod. This is the magic harper Sadko, who made the king of the sea dance with his game. These are the heroes who played the harp - Vasily Buslaev, Dobrynya Nikitich. Professional unnamed buffoon musicians also performed. Possessing the gift of composers, they were at the same time connoisseurs and keepers of the oral traditions of ritual folk music. The church condemned the participation of buffoons in folk games, ritual folk songs and accompanying instruments - a trumpet, nozzle, harp, tambourine - were alien to it. However, a huge number archaeological finds gives a picture of their favorable existence.

After the adoption of Christianity, church music began to develop. From Byzantium, together with the clergy, the leaders of church choirs, the regents, arrived in Rus'. Church singing was a compulsory subject in monastic schools. With the collapse of the state into separate principalities, Novgorod became the main custodian of the ancient Russian folk song tradition. As a result of the reconstruction of ancient signal and musical instruments, it became possible to classify them: self-sounding (beat, dish, botalo, bell, jew's harp, bell, bell, rattle, clicker, beater); membrane (tambourine); wind (brunchalka, snot); stringed (gusli).

Old Russian craftsmen were skilled blacksmiths and gunsmiths, tanners and potters, jewelers and wood carvers, masons, and glassblowers. In the arts and crafts of ancient Rus', images of pagan mythology were especially tenacious. Carved ships, wooden utensils, furniture, gold-embroidered fabrics and jewelry are permeated with the poetry of mythological images. The things found in the treasures are decorated with images of animals that had a symbolic meaning. An example of Russian arts and crafts with origins dating back thousands of years is the Thuriy horn from the princely burial mound Chernaya Mohyla in Chernihiv. The turium horn was used by the ancient Slavs as a sacred ritual vessel.

They had a ritual significance or served as a talisman for women's jewelry with symbolic images. Gold chains, star-shaped silver kolts - temporal pendants (Tver treasure of the XI-XII centuries), a monisto of elegant medallions, colored beads, pendants, crosses, studded with grains with the finest filigree, wide silver bracelets, precious rings - all this gave a festive female outfit versatility and richness. Birds, snakes, dragons woven into floral patterns of a chased ornament on a 13th-century silver bracelet. from Kyiv, heads of a lion and a lioness on a bracelet from a treasure in Chernigov of the 12th-13th centuries. also had the meaning of incantational magic.

The arts and crafts of Ancient Rus' reached one of the peaks in colored enamels - cloisonné and champlevé. Women's headdresses, chains, kolts, book bindings, and scapulars were decorated with enamel. Old Russian craftsmen were skilled in jewelry technique: in filigree, granulation, niello. Facial (pictorial) sewing and small plastic arts reached a highly artistic level. The main centers for the creation of these products were monasteries and workshops at the Grand Duke's court. Facial sewing was most often done with satin stitch, multi-colored silks. Gold and silver were used until the 16th century. little and only as a color enriching clear and pure colors. Embroiderers created works that were not inferior to picturesque ones, they were not attracted by either the techniques or the color scheme of foreign samples. Byzantine compositions were creatively processed.

2.10 Material culture

In the material culture of the ancient Slavs (tools, household items, weapons, jewelry, clothes, etc.), traces of ancient, Scythian, Sarmatian cultures have been preserved. In the Dnieper region, the production of ceramics, iron and bone processing reached a high level. Blacksmithing and jewelry crafts developed on the Oka. In the VIII-IX centuries. foundry, pottery, jewelry and bone-carving crafts become independent branches of production. New techniques and types of production appeared: chasing, granulating, and from the second half of the 10th century. - production of helmets and chain mail, filigree, enamel, glass, decorative building ceramics. In the 12th century, during the period of rapid development of cities, handicraft production was differentiated both by profession and by social characteristics. The patrimonial artisans worked for the princely court, the townsman artisans worked for the city. At the princely retinue feasts, luxurious items and jewelry amazed the guests. The names of the best masters of that time have come down to us - Flor Bratila and Konstantin Costa from Novgorod, Lazar Bogsha from Polotsk, Maxim from Kyiv. The altar cross from the Spassky Monastery in Polotsk, created by Lazar Bogsha in 1161, is of great interest.

The daily life of the urban population is evidenced by a collection of objects collected during excavations in Novgorod in 1932-2002. It has a total of more than 150 thousand products from all materials known in Ancient Rus': iron, non-ferrous and precious metals, bone, stone, clay, glass, amber, leather, wood, birch bark. Various natural-science and technical research methods (metallographic, structural, spectral and other analyses) made it possible to reveal the production technology, the level of technical development of crafts, the techniques and methods of jewelers and blacksmiths, woodcarvers, bone and stone carvers, shoemakers and weavers, potters and carpenters. When studying the technology of handicraft production, its change from more complex techniques and methods in the X-XII centuries was established. to simpler ones in the XII-XV centuries. Even utilitarian items - details of dwellings and sledges, ladles and spoons, knife handles, combs, writing boards, shoes, children's toys and leisure items for adults - are made with great artistic taste and professional skill.

Archaeologists in Novgorod also collected a huge collection of men's, women's and children's shoes. It has been established that the inhabitants of Novgorod, before joining the Muscovite kingdom, wore only leather shoes. Bast shoes made of bast or birch bark have never been found in the layers of the 10th-15th centuries, although both bast and birch bark are well preserved in the cultural layer of Novgorod. Almost all types of shoes that existed in the Middle Ages are represented in the Novgorod collection: pistons, soft shoes with soles, boots and half boots.

The first written mention of the term "chess" is contained in the Novgorod Synodal helm at the end of the 13th century. During the years of excavations, more than 130 pieces of figurines were collected, containing a complete chess set: king, queen, knight, bishop, rook, pawn. Most of the chess is made of wood, and only a few pieces are made of bone. In contrast to Western Europe, where pictorial chess pieces were widespread, in Novgorod all chess known to date is of an abstract nature.

Excavations in Novgorod revealed the unknown world of wooden things and buildings of ancient Rus': ships, houses, utensils, etc. Products of masters were often called "patterned". They were highly valued abroad, they were willingly bought in Western Europe and in the East.