Old Russian literature short works to read. Tales of Old Russian
Old Russian literature can rightfully be considered the basis of all genres and all books ever written in Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian.. From the moment the alphabet was invented by Cyril and Methodius, from the moment when civilized writing replaced the archaic devils and resi, this literature marked the beginning of all book, printed and educational work in our country. Therefore so it is important to pay attention to it and get to know the works of ancient Russian literature closer. On our website you will find best books of this interesting and ancient genre.
History of the genre of ancient Russian literature
Old Russian literature started development, as already noted, with the invention of a convenient and practically modern alphabet. Thessalonians did it brothers Cyril and Methodius who were even canonized for such a high achievement. Indeed, it is difficult to overestimate their contribution to the history of all Slavic countries.
The genre of Old Russian literature is heterogeneous. In it you can find legends about the lives of saints, annalistic data, office records and much more. For example, you can often find chronicle data that is a myth, legend or legend, written down as if it were in fact. This is of great interest and uniqueness. Old Russian works for the modern reader. Especially such books. carefully collected on our website (they can be read online) will be relevant for historians, philologists, students and schoolchildren.
Features of Old Russian literature
First of all, it is language. Old Russian legends, annals and(lives of saints) not written topics easy to understand language to which the modern reader is accustomed. This ancient the language is rich in comparisons, hyperbole and many other tricks, behind which it is sometimes difficult to understand the meaning of the story. That's why our online library contains only adapted, translated into modern language texts, which retained some of the terms available for understanding. Thus, you can safely read books online and learn ancient history free. You may also be interested in reading books about Ancient Rus' in the popular science genre.
Another a feature of ancient Russian literary works was the absence of idleness, that is, the books were not secular. They were serious, they have neither humor nor too extended plots. This is partly due to the psychology of the ancient monk writers. who had to write down certain events on paper for the first time. But most often the stinginess and severity of the genre is explained by the high cost of materials for books. Thus, writers simply did not have the opportunity to record jokes and other “frivolous” things.
The development of the genre of the lives of the saints, also called hagiography, served as a kind of catalyst for ancient Russian literature. Lives replaced the ancient reader and, and, and even. By the way, all these genres originate precisely from the innocent biblical and gospel stories about the life and adventures of the saints.
The best books of the genre of ancient Russian literature
Despite all the interestingness and originality of the genre, not so many books have been preserved in it. Thematically, they can be divided into several groups.
Library of Russian classics. Ten centuries of Russian literature
Volume 1
Old Russian literature
Secrets of the literature of Ancient Rus'
Old Russian literature is not literature. Such a formulation, deliberately shocking, nevertheless accurately characterizes the features of the first period of Russian literature.
Old Russian literature is the beginning of Russian literature, its ancient period, which includes works written from the 11th to the 17th century, that is, over the course of seven centuries (and all subsequent literature takes only three centuries). The life of a person in Ancient Rus' was not like the life of a citizen of Russia in the 18th-20th centuries: everything was different - the habitat, the forms of the state structure, ideas about a person and his place in the world. Accordingly, ancient Russian literature is completely different from the literature of the 18th-20th centuries, and it is impossible to apply to it the criteria that define this concept over the next three centuries.
OLD RUSSIAN LITERATURE IS RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. The greatest value for a man of Ancient Rus' was his faith. The value of the state and the value human personality seemed insignificant compared to the value of religion, and each special person was judged not by how useful he is to society or how unusual he is. The most important thing was what he was like before God. For example, the favorite heroes of Ancient Rus' - the princes Boris and Gleb - did not show themselves to be such good rulers as theirs. brother Yaroslav the Wise. But it was they who were declared saints, unsuccessful politicians, but perfect people, ready to give their lives in the name of the religious demands of brotherly love and in imitation of the sacrifice of Christ.
And in literature, those genres that were closer to the church service, such as preaching and life, enjoyed special respect. They were intended not to entertain the reader, as they are today, not to glorify the power of the empire and statesmen, as in the 18th century, but to tell about life in the name of God.
OLD RUSSIAN LITERATURE - ESTATE LITERATURE. In Ancient Rus', completely specific ideas about the place of a person in the world developed: the concept of personality, individuality - in modern meaning- was then unknown. A person's opinion about himself and those around him depended on which class he belonged to: rulers, warriors, clergymen, merchants or "simple" - ordinary residents of cities and villages. Warriors and priests were considered the most respected, and they became central characters in ancient Russian literature. Moreover, the warrior had to be physically handsome, developed, healthy and take care of his health. So, Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh proudly recalls his hunting exploits, because the prince does not rest on the hunt, but keeps himself in good physical form and the prince's health is the common good of all the people. On the contrary, a monk in ancient Russian literature almost always turns out to be middle-aged: although Theodosius of the Caves died before he was fifty years old, in people's memory he remained a wise old man. In addition, the holy ascetics often refused treatment, considering the disease a manifestation of the will of God.
Old Russian literature is the literature of usefulness. Modern literature sets as its main goal to entertain the reader - it is even customary to teach while entertaining. In ancient Rus', the religiosity of literature, if not excluded, then relegated entertainment to second place. Benefit was the main moral attitude, that is, the praise of virtues and the denunciation of sins, as well as in public - a sermon is useful, because it is delivered in the temple and without it the service will be incomplete, life is also useful, because without knowledge about the life of a saint it is impossible to remember him in church. The chronicle preserved customs, patterns of actions, laws for posterity.
All these factors led to the fact that the Old Russian scribe refused fiction in his works, and although fiction - and sometimes the most incredible - Old Russian literature abounds, both the author and the reader perceived it as pure truth.
Thus, in Ancient Rus' there was no difference between fiction and non-fiction (documentary) literature, that is, there was no literature in its modern sense. On the one hand, the writers did not aim to create works of art, since there is no fiction in their writings. On the other hand, everything they created turned out to be literature - and historical essay(“The Tale of Bygone Years”) and a guide to housekeeping (“Domostroy”), and polemical messages (correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and A. M. Kurbsky).
OLD RUSSIAN LITERATURE IS TRADITIONAL LITERATURE. The Old Russian scribe - in contrast to the modern writer - avoided innovation, preferring to follow patterns.
Without a twinge of conscience, he allowed schematism in the depiction of heroes. Thus, in The Tale of Bygone Years, the princes of the Christian era are strikingly reminiscent of each other: tall, handsome, brave, wise, merciful. “He was handsome in body, tall, round in face, broad shoulders, thin at the waist, kind in the eyes, cheerful in face<…>he is brave on the armies, wise in advice and reasonable in everything ... ”(“ The Tale of Boris and Gleb ”about St. Boris); “Mstislav was powerful in body, handsome in face, with big eyes, brave in armies, merciful ...” (“The Tale of Bygone Years” about Mstislav Vladimirovich); “But Izyaslav’s husband was handsome in appearance and great in body, gentle in disposition, he hated lies, loving the truth” (“The Tale of Bygone Years” about Izyaslav Yaroslavich). It seems that if the prince did not correspond at all ideal scheme, the writer either turned him into evil incarnate (Svyatopolk the Accursed in the stories about Boris and Gleb), or tried to do without characterization altogether. For example, Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years, informing about the death of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, simply writes that the prince died "from cutting the nodule" - during a surgical operation. The presentation of the fact is not accompanied by a description of the appearance of the sovereign, nor by an analysis of his virtues. This is not accidental: the chronicler condemned Svyatoslav Yaroslavich for the illegal seizure of the throne, and therefore reported that he died unexpectedly, which means that he did not repent of his sins.
The traditionalism of ancient Russian literature was also expressed in the fact that writers used a special symbolic language that readers had to master. Any phenomenon of the surrounding world could act as a symbol. So, in Rus', the book “Physiologist”, translated from Greek, was very popular, containing descriptions different breeds animals and their symbolic interpretation: “The hedgehog looks like a ball and consists entirely of needles. The physiologist says about the hedgehog that he climbs the vine, gets to the bunch and shakes the bunch, drops the berries to the ground. And lying on his back, he pierces the berries on his needles, and carries them to the children, and leaves the bunch empty.<…>And you, city dweller<…>do not allow the hedgehog, the spirit of deceit, to climb on your heart and leave you, like a vine, devastated ... ". The author does not care about authenticity - his hedgehogs crawl along the vine: the habits of the beast are not self-sufficient (as in contemporary literature about animals), but are symbolic, in this case alluding to the relationship of man with the devil. Symbolism also implied constant references to the Bible: as soon as the Russian prince violated the covenant of brotherly love, he was immediately called the “new Cain”. And in the life of Sergius of Radonezh, according to Epiphanius the Wise, the author of the life of the saint, the sacred number "three" played a special role. He even shouted three times in his mother's womb, which was a divine sign of veneration for the Trinity, in whose name Sergius then founded the monastery.
Finally, traditionalism determined the observance of the laws of the genre. Using the experience of his predecessors, the writer tried not to introduce anything new into the structure of his work. (True, he did not always succeed - for example, Archpriest Avvakum decided to write a traditional life, but, contrary to all the rules, he made himself a hero, thereby declaring a saint.)
Due to the same traditionalism, many works of ancient Russian literature are anonymous, and if the author's name was not forgotten, readers did not show any interest in his biography and individual specifics of creativity. Information about ancient Russian writers is, as a rule, scarce: according to a person of Ancient Rus', the writer fulfills the will of God, he is not a creator, but only an instrument of the Creator.
OLD RUSSIAN LITERATURE - HANDWRITTEN LITERATURE. Typography in Rus' arose - through the efforts of Ivan Fedorov - only in the second half of the 16th century, but even after that, mainly church books were printed.
In ancient Rus', works were usually distributed by rewriting, and errors and omissions inevitably crept into the text. There are almost no autographs of ancient Russian writers left: Maxim Grek, Avvakum, Simeon Polotsky are a rare and happy exception to the rule - however, they lived and worked relatively late. Most of the monuments of ancient Russian literature have reached the modern reader only in copies that can be separated from the time of the creation of the original version by several centuries (Hilarion's Word about Law and Grace, Zadonshchina, as far as is known - "The Word about Igor's Campaign"). In addition, the scribe did not just have the opportunity to change the text: he did not consider it shameful, arguing something like this: since what is composed is composed according to God's will, then an improving correction is pleasing to God. Therefore, sometimes it is very difficult to restore the original, author's view of the composition. For example, neither The Tale of Bygone Years nor Daniil Zatochnik's The Word have survived in the form in which they were created. Scientists also argue about what belongs to the author Epiphanius the Wise in the famous “Life of Sergius of Radonezh”, and what belongs to the editor Pachomius Serb.
If a work with...
Old Russian literature is a historically regular First stage development of all Russian literature as a whole, and includes literary works ancient Slavs, written from the 11th to the 17th century. The main prerequisites for its appearance can be considered a variety of forms oral art, legends and epics of the pagans, etc. The reasons for its occurrence are associated with the formation of the ancient Russian state Kievan Rus, as well as with the baptism of Rus', it was they who gave impetus to the emergence Slavic writing, which began to contribute to a more accelerated cultural development East Slavic ethnic group.
The Cyrillic alphabet, created by the Byzantine enlighteners and missionaries Cyril and Methodius, made it possible to open for the Slavs Byzantine, Greek and Bulgarian books, mostly church books, through which Christian teaching was transmitted. But due to the fact that in those days there were not so many books, for their distribution there was a need for their correspondence, this was mainly done by the ministers of the church: monks, priests or deacons. Therefore, all ancient Russian literature was handwritten, and at that time it happened that texts were not just copied, but rewritten and reworked for completely different reasons: literary tastes of readers changed, various socio-political rearrangements arose, etc. As a result of this, on this moment survived various options and editions of the same literary monument, and it happens that it is rather difficult to establish the original authorship and a thorough textual analysis is required.
Most of the monuments of Old Russian literature have come down to us without the names of their creators, in essence they are basically anonymous, and in this respect this fact is very similar to the works of oral Old Russian folklore. Old Russian literature is distinguished by the solemnity and majesty of the style of writing, as well as traditionalism, ceremoniality and repetition. storylines and situations, various literary devices (epithets, phraseological units, comparisons, etc.).
The works of ancient Russian literature include not only the usual literature of that time, but also the historical records of our ancestors, the so-called annals and chronicle narratives, notes of travelers, according to ancient walking, as well as various lives of saints and teachings (biography of people ranked by the church as saints) , essays and messages of oratorical character, business correspondence. All monuments literary creativity ancient Slavs are characterized by the presence of elements artistic creativity and emotional reflection of the events of those years.
Famous Old Russian works
At the end of the 12th century, an unknown storyteller created a brilliant literary monument of the ancient Slavs "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", it describes the campaign against the Polovtsy of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich from the Novgorod-Seversky Principality, which ended in failure and had sad consequences for the entire Russian land. The author is concerned about the future of all Slavic peoples and their long-suffering homeland, past and present historical events are recalled.
This work is distinguished by the presence only of its inherent characteristic features, here there is an original processing of "etiquette", traditional techniques, the richness and beauty of the Russian language surprises and amazes, the subtlety of rhythmic construction and special lyrical elation fascinates and inspires the essence of the people and high civic pathos.
Epics are patriotic songs-tales, they tell about the life and exploits of heroes, describe events in the life of the Slavs in the 9th-13th centuries, express their high moral qualities and spiritual values. The famous epic "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber" written by an unknown storyteller tells about the heroic deeds of the famous defender of the common Russian people mighty hero Ilya Muromets, whose meaning of life was to serve the motherland and protect it from the enemies of the Russian land.
Main negative character epics - the mythical Nightingale the Robber, half man, half bird, endowed with a destructive "animal cry", is the personification of robbery in Ancient Rus', which brought a lot of trouble and evil ordinary people. Ilya Muromets acts as a generalized image the perfect hero, howling on the side of good and defeating evil in all its manifestations. Of course, there are a lot of exaggerations and fabulous fiction in the epic, with regard to the fantastic strength of the hero and his physical capabilities, as well as the destructive effect of the whistle of the Nightingale-Rozboynik, but the main thing in this work is the highest goal and meaning of the life of the protagonist of the hero Ilya Muromets - to live and work peacefully on native land, V Hard time always be ready to help the Fatherland.
A lot of interesting things about the way of life, way of life, beliefs and traditions of the ancient Slavs can be learned from the epic "Sadko", in the image of the main character (merchant-guslar Sadko) all the most best features and features of the mysterious “Russian soul”, this is nobility, and generosity, and courage, and resourcefulness, as well as boundless love for the Motherland, a remarkable mind, musical and singing talent. In this epic, both fairy-tale-fiction and realistic elements are surprisingly intertwined.
One of the most popular genres of ancient Russian literature is Russian fairy tales, they describe fantastic fictitious plots, unlike epics, and in which morality is necessarily present, some obligatory teaching and instruction for the younger generation. For example, the fairy tale “The Frog Princess”, well-known since childhood, teaches young listeners not to rush where it is not necessary, teaches kindness and mutual assistance and the fact that a kind and purposeful person on the way to his dream will overcome all obstacles and difficulties and will definitely achieve what he wants. .
Old Russian literature, consisting of a collection of the greatest historical manuscripts, is National treasure several peoples at once: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, is "the beginning of all beginnings", the source of all Russian classical literature And artistic culture generally. Therefore, every modern person who considers himself a patriot of his state and respects its history and the greatest achievements of his people is obliged to know her works, be proud of the great literary talent of his ancestors.
But otherwise opens secret... (A. Akhmatova) Who says we will die? - Leave these Judgments in themselves - Falsehood twists in them: We live for many centuries In this world, And for many centuries we still have to live. We did not come from the void, And in years We are not destined to go into the void One day. We are part of Nature, We are part of the Universe, part of the world - Specifically, everyone! Billions of years ago We already breathed, I don’t know what, I don’t know how, But it was the case. The universe arose, We didn’t interfere with it, We did who, what could In other limits. And billions of years will pass - In the corona of the Sun The weary Earth will burn In its greatness, We will not burn! We will return to another life, We will return to ourselves In a different guise! I tell you: a person does not disappear! I tell you: a person is invested in immortality! But we still don’t know the evidence, And we can’t confirm immortality yet. But after a few years Oblivion weights We will throw off our memory And boldly remember: Why did we end up here - In the sublunar world? Why immortality is given to us And what to do with it? Everything that we will do in an hour, In a week and even a year, All this is not far from us In its own world lives. many floors, In one - we are going to Mars, In the other - we have already flown. Awards, praise and more ranks are waiting for us, lining up, And with them - our slaps in the neighboring worlds are burning. We think: life in hundreds of years This is God knows him: where? And it's nearby - invisible light Those years are scattered everywhere. Try to pierce the moon with your finger! It won’t work - the hand is short, It’s even more difficult to touch the country, Abandoned for centuries. But it’s so arranged: every moment From the streets, offices and apartments We move with the whole world To the real neighboring world. Wandering through space with the Earth With ideas fresh and old, We are new time - layer by layer - We rent from the world. And we are not in a hurry to live on loan, We do not speed up the year, We know with a distant memory That we have come to life forever. That our borders are not in milkiness, That our era is not an hour, In stock We have infinity, and Eternity is in store for us. And as on an excursion - only forward, Encrypting and theorem days, The Universe leads us by the hand Along the corridor of time. Turn on the light in the past and future! And you will see with a new vision how the city, which does not yet exist, is already appearing in time. In the future time, where so far only clouds of our hopes and our dreams float almost without color and outlines. the pulp of blue life smiled at warmth and light, turning on the lighting, you will meet a hedge that no longer exists. when eccentrics in a good mood turn on the sound in the past and future, turn on the light in the future and the past. And life, as if circles on water, knits links for millennia, and there are no dead people anywhere, there are only those who fell asleep for a moment. Peace is only temporary silt .People are eternal! Look at their faces on each page - in the past and in the future - the same faces. There are no other people in nature, and the same people walk in circles of past and future squares, grinding stones with elastic steps. Turn on the light in the past and future, and you will see doubts instead, that in the future, where you are not yet, a place has already been prepared for you. https://www.stihi.ru/avtor/literlik&;book=1#1
Tell Old Russian news, literary works (11th-17th centuries), covering various types of narration. Translated stories with moralizing tendencies and developed plots were widespread in the literature (the story of Akira the Wise; the story "About Barlaam and Joasaph"; the military narrative "History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius; "Alexandria"; "Deed of Devgen," etc.). The original Russian stories were originally of a legendary-historical nature and were included in the annals (about Oleg Veshchem, about Olga's revenge, about the baptism of Vladimir, etc.). In the future, P. d. developed in two main directions - historical-epic and historical-biographical. The first cultivated the principles of narration about the events, mainly military ones (tales about internecine wars of princes; about wars with the Polovtsians of the 11th-12th centuries; about the Tatar-Mongol invasion of the 13th-14th centuries; “The Tale of Mamaev massacre", 15th century). Military tales often turned into extensive fictionalized “stories” (“The Tale of Tsar-Grad”, 15th century; “The History of the Kazan Kingdom”, 16th century, etc.), in some cases acquired a folklore-epic coloring (“The Tale of about the ruin of Ryazan by Batu”, 14th century; “The Tale of the Azov Seat”, 17th century, etc.). The stories of this type include retinue-epic (12th century) and (14th century). Military stories are characterized by patriotic ideals, colorful battle descriptions. Among the narratives about events, there are also stories dedicated to the problems of statehood. Legendary and historical narratives of the period of formation of the Russian centralized state were devoted to the succession of world monarchies and the origin of the Rurik dynasty (the stories “On the Kingdom of Babylon”, “On the Princes of Vladimir”, etc., 15-16 centuries). Then main theme stories becomes a historical and journalistic description of the crisis of Moscow statehood in the "Time of Troubles" and the change of reigning dynasties ("The Tale of 1606", "The Tale" by Avraamy Palitsyn, "Chronicle Book" by I. Katyrev-Rostovsky, etc.)..
Another direction of P. d. developed the principles of narrative about heroes, originally based on a Christian providential, solemnly rhetorical description of the deeds of prominent princes in the struggle against external enemies (the lives of Alexander Nevsky, Dovmont of Pskov, 13th century; Dmitry Donskoy, 15th century) ; these works occupied an intermediate position between traditional military stories and the lives of saints. Gradually, the historical and biographical narrative began to move its heroes into everyday situations: the story of Peter and Fevronia of Murom (15-16 centuries), imbued with fairy-tale symbols; the story of the noblewoman Juliana Lazarevskaya (17th century), etc. Interest in the exploits of the heroes is supplanted by attention to the relationships of people, to the behavior of the individual in everyday life, which, however, was still determined by church ethical norms. The stories of the biographical type branched into instructive autobiographical lives (the lives of Avvakum, Epiphanius) and narratives of a semi-secular, and then secular nature, imbued with medieval-traditional morality (the folklore-lyrical "The Tale of Grief-Misfortune", the book-fictional "The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn ", 17th century). The narrative increasingly breaks away from the historical canvas and masters the art of plotting. At the end of the 17th century there are satirical stories with an element of literary parody ("The Tale of Yersh Ershovich", "Shemyakin Court", etc.). Acute difficult everyday situations are equipped with naturalistic details characteristic of the early short story (the stories about the merchant Karp Sutulov and his wife, 17th century; The Tale of Frol Skobeev, early 18th century). Translated stories are again in vogue, the characters of which are Russified in a fairy-tale spirit (“About Bova-Korolevich”, “About Yeruslan Lazarevich”, etc.), collections of Western European short stories (“Great Mirror”, “Facetia”, etc.). P. d. make a natural evolution from the medieval historical narrative to the fictional story of the new time.
Lit .: Pypin A. N., Essay literary history old Russian stories and fairy tales, St. Petersburg, 1857; Orlov A. S., Translated stories of feudal Rus' and the Moscow state of the XII-XVII centuries, [L.], 1934; Old Russian story. Articles and research. Ed. N. K. Gudziya, M. - L., 1941; The origins of Russian fiction. [Resp. ed. Ya. S. Lurie], L., 1970; History of Russian literature, vol. 1, M. - L., 1958 ..
