LECTURE No. 2. Christian culture of Russia

1. Achievements of the Christian culture of Russia

By the time of the adoption of Christianity, Russia was already a country with a distinctive culture. Crafts and wood construction techniques reached a high level.

Not later than the end of the XNUMXth - beginning of the XNUMXth centuries. Slavic alphabets - Cyrillic and Glagolitic - are spreading in Russia. Created in the second half of the XNUMXth century by the brothers Cyril (Konstantin) and Methodius and having an initial distribution in the West Slavic state of Great Moravia, they soon penetrate into Bulgaria and Russia.

The first Russian monument of Slavic writing is the Russian-Byzantine treaty of 911.

The appearance in Russia after the adoption of Christianity of literature in the Slavic language, on the one hand, and the complication of public life with the development of feudal relations, the formation of a state structure, on the other, contributed to the widespread spread of literacy. A clear evidence of this is birch bark letters - letters on birch bark of various (mainly business) content. They were discovered during excavations already in nine ancient Russian cities (the bulk of the finds come from Novgorod).

In the XI - early XII centuries. a large number of translated works (mainly from Greek) of both religious and secular content are distributed in Russia. The latter include, in particular, historical writings, among which one can single out the translation of the Byzantine Chronicle of George Amartol. At the same time, the formation of original literature takes place.

The earliest of the works of ancient Russian literature that have come down to us is Illarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace". It was written in the middle of the 1051th century. Metropolitan Hilarion, the first (and the only one in the period from the adoption of Christianity to the middle of the XNUMXth century), Russian by origin, the head of the Russian Church. (Since XNUMX, being appointed by Yaroslav the Wise without the sanction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and, shortly after the death of Yaroslav, forced to leave this post). The main idea of ​​the "Sermon on Law and Grace" is the entry of Russia after the adoption of Christianity into the family of Christian peoples, in which the author sees the merit of Prince Vladimir and his son Yaroslav, who continued the work of spreading the new faith. At the same time, the pre-Christian past of Russia in the eyes of Illarion does not look like "dark ages", on the contrary, he emphasizes that Vladimir, his father Svyatoslav and grandfather Igor "dominated not in a thin and unknown land, but in Russian, which is known and heard in all four corners earth". In the second half of the XI - the beginning of the XII century. a number of original works arose in Russia, among which stands out a cycle of legends about the first Russian saints - princes Boris and Gleb and the "Life" of the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Theodosius, written by the monk of this monastery Nestor.

2. Genre chronicle

The most important place in ancient Russian literature is occupied by the chronicle genre. Some researchers believe that its appearance can be attributed to the end of the XNUMXth century, when the first annalistic code was created. The Tale of Bygone Years unfolds a wide canvas of Russian history, which is considered as part of world history (biblical and Roman-Byzantine history). The author used a number of translated Byzantine sources, oral legends (about the founding of Kyiv, about the calling of the Varangian princes, about Princess Olga and a number of others: works belonging to the hand of Prince Vladimir Monomakh - "Teaching children" and a list of "paths" - campaigns and trips that Monomakh committed during his life).

3. Construction of churches

From Byzantium, Russia adopted the construction of its churches in the image of the cross-domed temple of the Greeks: a square divided by four pillars forms its basis; the rectangular cells adjacent to the dome space form an architectural cross. The first Russian churches, including the Church of the Tithes, at the end of the XNUMXth century. were built by Greek masters in strict accordance with Byzantine traditions, but St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv reflected a combination of Slavic and Byzantine traditions: thirteen cheerful domes of the new temple were placed on the basis of the cross-domed church. This stepped pyramid of St. Sophia Cathedral resurrected the style of Russian wooden architecture. Sophia Cathedral, created at the time of the assertion and rise of Russia under Yaroslav the Wise, showed that construction is also politics. With this temple, Russia challenged Byzantium, its recognized shrine - the St. Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople.

4. Church art

The Christian Church introduced a completely different content into painting, sculpture, and music. Church art is subordinated to the highest goal - to sing the Christian God, the exploits of the apostles, saints, church leaders. It was created mainly according to church canons, where everything that contradicted the highest Christian principles was cut off. Asceticism and rigor in painting (icon painting, mosaics, frescoes), sublimity, "divinity" of Greek church prayers and hymns, the temple itself, which becomes a place of prayerful communication of people - all this was characteristic of Byzantine art. If this or that religious, theological theme was strictly established in Christianity once and for all, then its expression in art, in the opinion of the Byzantines, should have carried this idea only once and for all in an established manner; the artist became an obedient executor of the canons dictated by the church.

Author: Konstantinova S.V.

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