Literature arose in Rus' simultaneously with the adoption of Christianity, but both the Christianization of the country and the emergence of writing were determined primarily by state needs: writing was necessary in all spheres of state and public life, in legal practice. The advent of writing created a field of activity for translators and copyists, and most importantly - the opportunity for the emergence of their own original literature, both for the church (teachings, solemn words, lives) and purely secular (chronicles). But the attitude towards niggas, as already mentioned, has developed in a special way. In article 988

The oldest Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years" immediately after the message about the adoption of Christianity says that the Kiev prince Vladimir, "sent, began to take children from the deliberate children of "noble people" and began to give them book studies." In Article 1037

Characterizing the activities of Vladimir’s son, Prince Yaroslav, the chronicler noted that he “was diligent in books, and “reading them,” often at night and during the day. And the scribe collected many and translated from Greek into Slovenian writing,” translating from Greek language"And having copied many books, in the image of people who learn faithfully, they enjoy the teachings of the divine." Further, the chronicler gives praise for the books: “Great can be the crawling from the teachings of the book: by books we show and teach the ways of repentance, “books instruct and teach us repentance,” for we gain wisdom and abstinence from the words of books. For these are the rivers that water the universe, the essence of the origin is the “sources” of wisdom; books have an unseeking depth,” and the first article from one of the oldest ancient Russian collections, “Izbornik 1076” states that, just as a ship cannot be built without nails, one cannot become a righteous person, without reading books, advice is given to read slowly and thoughtfully: do not try to quickly read to the end of the chapter, but think about what you have read, re-read the same chapter three times until you comprehend its meaning.

In the X and the first half of the XI century. A huge amount of work was done in Rus': a huge number of books were copied from Bulgarian originals or translated from Greek, and already during the first two centuries of the existence of writing, ancient Russian scribes became acquainted with all the main genres and main monuments of Byzantine literature. In the process of introducing Rus' to world literature, there are two characteristics: firstly, most literary works reached Russian scribes through intermediary literature: books already translated into Old Bulgarian were then translated into Old Russian: books of sacred scripture, liturgical books, works of church writers, historical works(chronicles), natural sciences ("Physiologist", "Six Days"), as well as - although to a lesser extent - monuments of historical narrative, for example, the novel about Alexander the Great and the story of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Roman emperor Titus - that is, mainly translations from Greek language, works of early Christian literature by authors of the 3rd-7th centuries. It should be noted that any ancient Slavic literature cannot be clearly divided into original and translated: translated literature was an organic part national literatures at an early stage of their development.

The second feature of the development of literature of the X-XII centuries. - the influence of ancient Bulgarian literature on Russian and Serbian. The fact that Ancient Rus' began to read someone else’s more primarily than to create its own does not mean that Russian culture is secondary: we're talking about about just one area artistic creativity and about one area of ​​the art of words, namely the creation of written texts: among them, at the initial stages, there were practically only highly specialized texts - works on theology, ethics, history, and works of literary art remained unwritten, folklore.

Literature arises only in the conditions of the development of class society. Necessary prerequisites for its emergence are the formation of the state, the emergence of writing, and the existence of highly developed forms of oral folk art.

The emergence of Old Russian literature is inextricably linked with the process of creating an early feudal state. Soviet historical science refuted the Norman theory of the origin of the ancient Russian state, proving that it arose not as a result of the calling of the Varangians, but as a result of a long historical process of decomposition of the tribal communal system of the East Slavic tribes.

A characteristic feature of this historical process is that the East Slavic tribes come to feudalism, bypassing the stage of slaveholding formation.

The new system of social relations, based on the class dominance of a minority over the majority of the working population, needed ideological justification.

This justification could not be provided either by the tribal pagan religion or by oral folk art, which previously served ideologically and artistically the basis of the tribal system.

The development of economic, trade and political relations created a need for writing, the existence of which is one of the most necessary prerequisites for the emergence of literature.

Data from Soviet linguistic and historical science indicate that writing in Rus' appeared long before the official adoption of Christianity. About the existence of some forms of writing among the Slavs already in the second half of the 9th century. The Monk Khrabr and the Pannonian Life of Cyril testify.

Creation Slavic alphabet Cyril and Methodius in 863 was an act of the greatest cultural and historical significance, contributing to the rapid cultural growth of both the southern and eastern Slavs.

Towards the end of the 9th and first quarter of the 10th century, ancient Bulgaria was experiencing a remarkable period of flourishing of its culture. During this period, outstanding writers appeared here: John the Exarch of Bulgaria, Clement, Constantine and Tsar Simeon himself.

The works they created played an important role in the development of ancient Russian culture. The closeness of the Old Russian language to the Old Slavic (“... the Slavic language and Russian are one,” the chronicler emphasized) contributed to the gradual assimilation of a new written language by the Eastern Slavs.

A powerful impetus to the wide dissemination and development of writing in Rus' was given by the official adoption of Christianity in 988, which helped to consolidate the ideologically new social relations of the emerging feudal society.

For the development of the original ancient Russian culture, the fact that Rus' adopted Christianity from Byzantium, which at that time was the bearer of the highest culture, was of no small importance.

Byzantine Orthodox Church, which had actually by that time separated from the Western Roman Catholic (the formal division of churches occurred in 1054), gave much more scope for the formation national characteristics culture.

If the Catholic Church put forward Latin as a literary language, the Greek Orthodox Church allowed the free development of national literary languages.

Literary church language Ancient Rus' became the Old Slavic language, close in character and grammatical structure to the Old Russian language. The original literature that emerged contributed to the development of this language, enriching it through colloquial oral folk speech.

From the end of the 10th century. we can talk about the emergence of a certain education system in Rus' - “book teaching”.

Christianity played a progressive role in the formation of the culture of Ancient Rus'. Kievan Rus is emerging as one of the leading states of Europe. At the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century, as Adam of Bremen testifies, Kyiv competed with Constantinople in its wealth and population.

In the 30-40s of the 11th century, there were already many skilled translators in Kyiv who “translated” books directly from Greek into “Slovenian”.

Yaroslav's son Vsevolod owns five foreign languages, his sister Anna, having become the French queen, leaves her own signature - “Anna Regina”, while her royal husband puts a cross instead of a signature.

In the development of book education, including literature, monasteries played a large role, which in the first years of their existence were the center of a new Christian culture. The role of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, created in the middle of the 11th century, was especially great in this regard.

So, the formation of the early feudal ancient Russian state and the emergence of writing were necessary prerequisites for the emergence of literature.

Kuskov V.V. History of Old Russian Literature. - M., 1998

The concept of “Old Russian literature” includes literary works XI-XVII centuries The literary monuments of this period include not only literary works themselves, but also historical works (chronicles and chronicle stories), descriptions of travel (they were called walks), teachings, lives (stories about the lives of people ranked among the saints by the church), epistles, works of the oratorical genre, some texts of a business nature. All these monuments contain elements of artistic creativity and emotional reflection of modern life.

The overwhelming majority of ancient Russian literary works did not preserve the names of their creators. Old Russian literature, as a rule, is anonymous, and in this respect it is similar to oral folk art. The literature of Ancient Rus' was handwritten: works were distributed by copying texts. In the course of the handwritten existence of works over the centuries, texts were not only copied, but often revised in connection with changes in literary tastes, the socio-political situation, in connection with the personal preferences and literary abilities of the copyists. This explains the existence of different editions and variants of the same monument in handwritten lists. Comparative textual analysis (see Textology) of editions and variants makes it possible for researchers to restore the literary history of a work and decide which text is closest to the original, author’s, and how it has changed over time. Only in the rarest cases do we have author's lists of monuments, and very often in later lists texts come to us that are closer to the author's than in earlier lists. Therefore, the study of ancient Russian literature is based on an exhaustive study of all copies of the work being studied. Collections of Old Russian manuscripts are available in large libraries in different cities, archives, and museums. Many works are preserved in a large number of lists, and many in a very limited number. There are works represented by a single list: “The Teaching” of Vladimir Monomakh, “The Tale of Woe-Misfortune”, etc., in the only list the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” has come down to us, but he also died during Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow in 1812 G.

A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is the repetition of certain situations, characteristics, comparisons, epithets, and metaphors in different works of different times. The literature of Ancient Rus' is characterized by “etiquette”: the hero acts and behaves as he should, according to the concepts of that time, act and behave in the given circumstances; specific events (for example, a battle) are depicted using constant images and forms, everything has a certain ceremoniality. Old Russian literature is solemn, majestic, and traditional. But over the seven hundred years of its existence, it has gone through a complex path of development, and within the framework of its unity we observe a variety of themes and forms, changes in old and creation of new genres, a close connection between the development of literature and the historical destinies of the country. All the time there was a kind of struggle between living reality, the creative individuality of the authors and the requirements of the literary canon.

The emergence of Russian literature dates back to the end of the 10th century, when, with the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in Rus', service and historical narrative texts should have appeared in Church Slavonic. Ancient Rus', through Bulgaria, where these texts mainly came from, immediately became familiar with the highly developed Byzantine literature and the literature of the South Slavs. The interests of the developing Kyiv feudal state required the creation of its own, original works and new genres. Literature was called upon to cultivate a sense of patriotism, to affirm the historical and political unity of the ancient Russian people and the unity of the family of ancient Russian princes, and to expose princely feuds.

Objectives and themes of literature XI - beginning of the 13th V. (issues of Russian history in its connection with world history, the history of the emergence of Rus', the struggle with external enemies - the Pechenegs and Polovtsians, the struggle of princes for the Kiev throne) determined the general character of the style of this time, called by academician D. S. Likhachev the style of monumental historicism. The emergence of Russian chronicles is associated with the beginning of Russian literature. As part of later Russian chronicles, the “Tale of Bygone Years” has come down to us - a chronicle compiled by the ancient Russian historian and publicist monk Nestor around 1113. The “Tale of Bygone Years” is based on, which includes the story of world history, and year-by-year records about events in Rus', and legendary legends, and stories about princely feuds, and laudatory characteristics of individual princes, and philippics condemning them, and copies of documentary materials, there are even earlier chronicles that have not reached us. Studying lists of ancient Russian texts makes it possible to restore lost names literary history ancient Russian works. XI century The first Russian lives also date back (of princes Boris and Gleb, abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Theodosius). These lives are distinguished by literary perfection, attention to pressing problems of our time, and the vitality of many episodes. Maturity of political thought, patriotism, journalisticism, and high literary skill are also characterized by the monuments of oratorical eloquence “The Sermon on Law and Grace” by Hilarion (1st half of the 11th century), the words and teachings of Cyril of Turov (1130-1182). The “Instruction” of the great Kyiv prince Vladimir Monomakh (1053-1125) is imbued with concerns about the fate of the country and deep humanity.

In the 80s XII century an author unknown to us creates the most brilliant work of ancient Russian literature - “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” The specific topic to which the “Tale” is devoted is the unsuccessful campaign in 1185 in the Polovtsian steppe of the Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavich. But the author is concerned about the fate of the entire Russian land, he recalls the events of the distant past and the present, and the true hero of his work is not Igor, not Grand Duke Kiev Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, to whom a lot of attention is paid in the Lay, and the Russian people, the Russian land. In many ways, “The Lay” is associated with the literary traditions of its time, but, as a work of genius, it is distinguished by a number of features unique to it: the originality of the processing of etiquette techniques, the richness of the language, the sophistication of the rhythmic structure of the text, the nationality of its very essence and the creative rethinking of oral techniques. folk art, special lyricism, high civic pathos.

The main theme of the literature of the period of the Horde yoke (1243, XIII century - end of the XV century) was national-patriotic. The monumental-historical style takes on an expressive tone: the works created at this time bear a tragic imprint and are distinguished by lyrical elation. Great importance The idea of ​​strong princely power acquires in literature. Both chronicles and individual stories (“The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu”), written by eyewitnesses and going back to oral traditions, tell of the horrors of the enemy invasion and the infinitely heroic struggle of the people against the enslavers. The image of an ideal prince - a warrior and statesman, defender of the Russian land - was most clearly reflected in the “Tale of the Life of Alexander Nevsky” (70s of the 13th century). A poetic picture of the greatness of the Russian land, Russian nature, the former power of the Russian princes appears in the “Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land” - in an excerpt from a work that has not survived in full, dedicated to the tragic events of the Horde yoke (1st half of the 13th century).

Literature of the 14th century - 50s XV century reflects the events and ideology of the time of the unification of the principalities of north-eastern Rus' around Moscow, the formation of the Russian nationality and the gradual formation of the Russian centralized state. During this period, ancient Russian literature began to show interest in the psychology of the individual, in his spiritual world (though still within the limits of religious consciousness), which leads to the growth of the subjective principle. An expressive-emotional style emerges, characterized by verbal sophistication and ornamental prose (the so-called “weaving of words”). All this reflects the desire to depict human feelings. In the 2nd half of the 15th - early 16th centuries. stories appear, the plot of which goes back to oral stories of a novelistic nature (“The Tale of Peter, Prince of the Horde”, “The Tale of Dracula”, “The Tale of the Merchant Basarga and his son Borzosmysl”). The number of translated works of a fictional nature is significantly increasing, and the genre of political legendary works (The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir) is becoming widespread.

In the middle of the 16th century. Ancient Russian writer and publicist Ermolai-Erasmus creates “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” - one of the most remarkable works of literature of Ancient Rus'. The story is written in the tradition of an expressive-emotional style; it is built on the legendary legend about how a peasant girl, thanks to her intelligence, became a princess. The author widely used fairy-tale techniques; at the same time, social motives are acute in the story. “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is in many ways connected with the literary traditions of its time and the previous period, but at the same time it is ahead of modern literature, is distinguished by artistic perfection and bright individuality.

In the 16th century the official character of literature is strengthening, its distinctive feature becomes pomp and solemnity. Works of a general nature, the purpose of which is to regulate the spiritual, political, legal and daily life. The “Great Menaion of Chetya” is being created - a 12-volume set of texts intended for everyday reading for each month. At the same time, “Domostroy” was written, which sets out the rules of human behavior in the family, detailed advice on housekeeping, and the rules of relationships between people. In literary works, the individual style of the author is more noticeably manifested, which is especially clearly reflected in the messages of Ivan the Terrible. Fiction is increasingly penetrating historical narratives, making the narrative more interesting. This is inherent in the “History of the Grand Duke of Moscow” by Andrei Kurbsky, and is reflected in the “Kazan History” - an extensive plot-historical narrative about the history of the Kazan kingdom and the struggle for Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.

In the 17th century the process of transforming medieval literature into modern literature begins. New pure ones arise literary genres, the process of democratization of literature is underway, its topics are significantly expanding. Events of the Time of Troubles and the Peasant War at the end of the 16th century - early XVII V. change the view of history and the role of the individual in it, which leads to the liberation of literature from church influence. Writers of the Time of Troubles (Abrahamy Palitsyn, I.M. Katyrev-Rostovsky, Ivan Timofeev, etc.) try to explain the acts of Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, False Dmitry, Vasily Shuisky not only by the manifestation of divine will, but also by the dependence of these acts on the person himself, his personal characteristics. In literature, the idea of ​​the formation, change and development of human character under the influence of external circumstances arises. A wider circle of people began to engage in literary work. The so-called posad literature is born, which is created and exists in a democratic environment. A genre emerges democratic satire, in which state and church orders are ridiculed: legal proceedings are parodied (“The Tale of the Shemyakin Court”), church services (“Service for the Tavern”), and Holy Scripture (“The Tale of peasant son"), office work practice ("The Tale of Ersha Ershovich", "Kalyazin Petition"). The nature of the lives is also changing, which are increasingly becoming real biographies. The most remarkable work of this genre in the 17th century. is the autobiographical “Life” of Archpriest Avvakum (1620-1682), written by him in 1672-1673. It is remarkable not only for its lively and vivid story about the harsh and courageous life path the author, but with an equally vivid and passionate depiction of the social and ideological struggle of his time, deep psychologism, preaching pathos, combined with full revelation of confession. And all this is written in a lively, rich language, sometimes in a high bookish language, sometimes in a bright, colloquial language.

The rapprochement of literature with everyday life, the appearance in the narrative of a love affair, and psychological motivations for the hero’s behavior are inherent in a number of stories of the 17th century. (“The Tale of Misfortune-Grief”, “The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn”, “The Tale of Frol Skobeev”, etc.). Translated collections of a novelistic nature appear, with short edifying, but at the same time anecdotally entertaining stories, translated chivalric novels(“The Tale of Bova the Prince”, “The Tale of Eruslan Lazarevich”, etc.). The latter, on Russian soil, acquired the character of original, “their” monuments and over time entered the popular print market. folk literature. In the 17th century poetry develops (Simeon Polotsky, Sylvester Medvedev, Karion Istomin and others). In the 17th century The history of the great ancient Russian literature as a phenomenon characterized by common principles, which, however, underwent certain changes, came to an end. Old Russian literature with all its development prepared the Russian literature of modern times.

Literature arose in Rus' simultaneously with the adoption of Christianity, but both the Christianization of the country and the emergence of writing were determined primarily by state needs: writing was necessary in all spheres of state and public life, in legal practice. The advent of writing created a field of activity for translators and copyists, and most importantly - the opportunity for the emergence of their own original literature, both for the church (teachings, solemn words, lives) and purely secular (chronicles).

But the attitude towards niggas, as already mentioned, has developed in a special way. In article 988 of the oldest Russian chronicle - “The Tale of Bygone Years”, immediately following the message about the adoption of Christianity, it is said that the Kiev prince Vladimir, “sent, began to take children from the deliberate children [of noble people], and began to give them book studies.” In an article in 1037, characterizing the activities of Vladimir’s son, Prince Yaroslav, the chronicler noted that he “was diligent in books, and read [reading them], often at night and during the day. And the scribe collected many and translated from Greek into Slovenian writing [ translating from the Greek] And having copied many books, in this way people who study faithfully enjoy the teachings of the divine.” Further, the chronicler gives praise for the books: “Great is the benefit from the teachings of books: for by books we show and teach the ways of repentance [books instruct and teach us to repentance], for we gain wisdom and abstinence from the words of books. For these are the rivers that water the universe, these the essence of the origin [sources] of wisdom; books have an unseeking depth,” and the first article from one of the oldest ancient Russian collections, “Izbornik 1076” states that, just as a ship cannot be built without nails, so one cannot become a righteous person, without reading books, advice is given to read slowly and thoughtfully: do not try to quickly read to the end of the chapter, but think about what you have read, re-read the same chapter three times until you comprehend its meaning.

In the X and the first half of the XI century. A huge amount of work was done in Rus': a huge number of books were copied from Bulgarian originals or translated from Greek, and already during the first two centuries of the existence of writing, ancient Russian scribes became acquainted with all the main genres and main monuments of Byzantine literature.

In the process of introducing Rus' to world literature, two characteristic features are distinguished: firstly, most literary works reached Russian scribes through intermediary literature: books already translated into Old Bulgarian were then translated into Old Russian: books of sacred scripture, liturgical books, works of church writers, historical works (chronicles), natural sciences ("Physiologist", "Six Days"), as well as - although to a lesser extent - monuments of historical narrative, for example, the novel about Alexander the Great and the story of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Roman emperor Titus - that is, mainly translations from Greek, works of early Christian literature by authors of the 3rd-7th centuries. It should be noted that any ancient Slavic literature cannot be clearly divided into original and translated: translated literature was an organic part of national literatures at the early stage of their development.

The second feature of the development of literature of the X-XII centuries. - the influence of ancient Bulgarian literature on Russian and Serbian.

The fact that Ancient Rus' began to read someone else’s more primarily than to create its own does not mean that Russian culture is secondary: we are talking about only one area of ​​artistic creativity and one area of ​​the art of words, namely the creation of written texts: among them in the initial stages were practically only highly specialized texts - works on theology, ethics, history, and works of literary art remained unwritten, folklore.

Science is developing at a rapid pace, but many questions still do not have clear answers, just like thousands of years ago. Where did life on Earth come from? Where did Man come from? Nowadays, many are trying to challenge the theory of origin from a monkey. Although Darwin did not say that man descended from apes. He argued that we have a common ape-like ancestor. How did a person learn to speak? There are also theories here. Some are more or less reasonable, others are not, like the Japhetic theory of Nicholas Marr, who argued that all words come from four roots - “sal”, “ber”, “yon” and “rosh”. Marr forced his students to look for these roots in all words. As a result, the words red, Etruscan, red. Linguists did not like this theory, but Soviet officials really liked it, since Marr argued that language has a “class nature” and stages of language development can be distinguished by analogy with the stages of development of society, as Marx saw it. His theory fit perfectly with the ideology of “class struggle.”

This theory was untenable, so in May-June 1950 it was crushed, and former Marrists began to write open letters of “repentance” for their mistakes to newspapers.

This was in the last century, but in this sense it is “still there,” and we now know no more about the appearance of language than Marr.

Scientists also tried to study the history of literature. When did she appear? And why? And there is something to think about. As in the matter of Art in general.

What had to happen for a primitive man, who almost yesterday climbed down from a tree, resting after hunting in a cave, suddenly took something - a stone or something else - walked up to the wall and began not just to scribble, but to DRAW? Depict an animal seen during a hunt and everything experienced? This was a step more important than the invention of the stone ax - the ax has practical significance. But it is from this moment that the beginning of Man can be counted in principle. An emotion that craves expression in creativity, in creation.

It's from this primitive man, who for the first time tried to depict something on the wall of a cave, and the creatures he painted, Art began in principle. And not only picturesque - this can also be called a kind of literature! He was telling a story - the story of a hunt.

But when did verbal literature begin?

James Fraser (1854 - 1941) - British scientist, religious scholar, argued that the source of everything is ritual. The ritual, according to Fraser, is in some way an imitation of the desired result - for example, wishing the death of an enemy, they mutilate his image, “kill” the animal depicted on the wall before hunting. From ritual, according to Fraser, myth arises (and not vice versa). Myth is the verbal consolidation of a ritual. And then the myth becomes the “building material” of a work of art. He sees the concept of the origin of literature as follows: Ritual - Myth - Piece of art. Gilbert Merey also agrees with this, seeing elements of ritual in a number of plots. So he deduces the abduction of Elena from the ritual of bride kidnapping. Jessie Weston continued this theory, explaining the medieval legend of the Holy Grail as a ritual basis. The researcher derives it not from the Christian legend about the sacred cup, but from the ancient rite of initiation. American scientists developed this theory, linking certain seasonal rituals to certain genres. The American Northrop Frye tried to determine the role of mythology as a source of archetypes. According to Frye, literary works are created from the same archetypal models.

The obvious vulnerability of this theory is visible. Where did the rituals come from then? After all, not everyone, one way or another, copies the desired result. Moreover, such an approach completely excludes both the individual author’s understanding of reality and reality itself, which could also become a source of mythology? Stories about exploits in hunting or war. For example, ancient Greek stories about heroes. Why couldn’t the achievements of certain warriors become a source of myth and exist already exaggerated in the popular consciousness? This, by the way, is where the statements about the “divine” origin of the hero or heroine come from. It was difficult for people to imagine that a warrior with incredible physical strength, the same as them. Or try ancient man answer yourself the question, why does thunder thunder, why does it rain and why does the sun rise and set?

The only type of literature that can be classified as myth, other than drama, is folklore. Folk tales really came out of the myth. Here are Koschey the Immortal - the image of death, and Perun, who defeats him, and Baba Yaga, whom many researchers consider to be a kind of guardian of the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead. And the children she is trying to “bake” in the oven are a reflection of initiation, which was supposed to symbolize the “death” of a person as a child and his new “birth” as an adult.

This topic is extremely interesting. But one thing is clear - art from the very beginning was individual. Even when it was folklore. It expressed the emotions of an individual in whom everyone else recognized their own. No matter what they said in Soviet times. And what is a collective if not a multitude of individuals?