Russian literature is nearly a thousand years old. This is one of the oldest literatures in Europe. It is older than French, English, German literature. Its beginning dates back to the second half of the 10th century. Of this great millennium, more than seven hundred years belong to the period that is customarily called "ancient Russian literature."

“Old Russian literature can be regarded as the literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this topic is the meaning of human life,” writes D. S. Likhachev.

Ancient Russian literature is an epic that tells the history of the universe and the history of Russia.

None of the works of Ancient Russia - translated or original - stands apart. All of them complement each other in the picture of the world they create. Each story is a complete whole, and at the same time it is connected with others. This is just one of the chapters in the history of the world.

The adoption of Christianity by ancient pagan Russia at the end of the 10th century was an act of the greatest progressive significance. Thanks to Christianity, Russia joined the advanced culture of Byzantium and entered the family of European peoples as an equal Christian sovereign power, became “known and led” in all corners of the earth, as the first ancient Russian rhetorician and publicist known to us, Metropolitan Hilarion, said in his “Sermon on Law and Grace "(mid-XI century).

The emerging and growing monasteries played an important role in the spread of Christian culture. The first schools were created in them, respect and love for the book, “book teaching and reverence” were brought up, book depositories-libraries were created, chronicles were kept, translated collections of moralizing and philosophical works were copied. Here the ideal of a Russian monk, an ascetic who devoted himself to serving God, that is, to moral perfection, liberation from base vicious passions, serving the lofty idea of ​​civic duty, goodness, justice, and public good, was created and surrounded by a halo of pious legend. This ideal was concretely embodied in hagiographic (hagiographic) literature. Life has become one of the most popular mass forms of propaganda of the new Christian, moral ideal in Russia. Lives were read in the church during the service, introduced into the practice of individual reading, both monks and laity.

Ancient Russia inherited from Byzantium rich, widely developed traditions of hagiography. By the X century. certain canons of various types of lives were firmly established there: martyr's, confessor's, hierarch's, venerable, lives of pillars and "for Christ's sake" holy fools.

The martyr's life consisted of a series of episodes describing the most incredible physical torments to which the Christian hero was subjected by a pagan ruler, commander. The martyr endured all the tortures, showing willpower, patience and endurance, loyalty to the idea. And although he eventually perished, he won a moral victory over the pagan tormentor.

Of the translated lives of martyrs in Russia, the life of George the Victorious gained great popularity. In Russia, George began to be revered as the patron of farmers, the holy warrior-defender of the peaceful labor of the ratai. In this regard, his torment in his life fades into the background, and the main place is occupied by the image of a military feat: victory over a serpent - a symbol of paganism, violence, evil. The "Miracle of George about the Serpent" in ancient Russian literature and iconography was extremely popular during the period of the struggle of the Russian people with the steppe nomads, foreign invaders. The image of George slaying the dragon with a spear has become the coat of arms-emblem of the city of Moscow.

In the center of the confessional life is a missionary-preacher of the Christian dogma. He fearlessly enters into a struggle with the pagans, endures persecution, torment, but in the end he achieves his goal: he converts the pagans to Christianity.

Close to the life of the confessor is the life of the saint. His hero is a church hierarch (metropolitan, bishop). He not only teaches and instructs his flock, but also protects them from heresies, the machinations of the devil.

Of the Byzantine saintly lives, the life of St. Nicholas of Myra became widely known in Russia. Nicholas the Merciful acted as an intercessor for the unjustly persecuted and condemned, an assistant to the poor, he was a deliverer from captivity, a patron of sailors and travelers; he stopped sea storms, saved drowning people. His many miracles were legendary. According to one of them, Nikola, unlike Kasyan, was not afraid to get his bright clothes dirty and helped a man in trouble. For this, he received the encouragement of God, “So continue to do so, Nikola, help the peasant,” God tells him. “And for this you will be celebrated twice a year, and Kasyan will be celebrated for you only once every four years” (February 29). According to popular belief, the Kasyanov year (leap year) was considered bad, unlucky.

The biography of a monk, usually the founder of a monastery or his abbot, was dedicated to the life of a monk. The hero came, as a rule, from pious parents and from the moment of his birth strictly observed fasts, avoiding children's games; quickly mastered literacy and devoted himself to reading divine books, secluded, pondering the frailty of life; refused marriage, went to desert places, became a monk and founded a monastery there; gathered the brethren around him, instructed them; overcame various demonic temptations: malicious demons appeared to the saint in the form of wild animals, robbers, harlots, etc.; predicted the day and hour of his death and piously died; after death, her body remained incorruptible, and the relics turned out to be miraculous, granting healing to the sick. Such, for example, are the lives of Anthony the Great, Savva the Sanctified.

The lives of the pillars are close to the type of venerable life. Rejecting the "lying in evil" world, the pillars closed themselves in the "pillars" - towers, severed all earthly ties and devoted themselves entirely to prayer. Such, for example, is the life of Simeon the Stylite.

The lowest step in the hierarchy of saints was occupied by holy fools. They lived in the world, in city squares, markets, spending the night with beggars on church porches or in the open air along with stray dogs. They neglected their clothes, rattling chains, flaunting their ulcers. Their behavior was outwardly absurd, illogical, but concealed a deep meaning. The holy fools fearlessly denounced the mighty of this world, committed outwardly sacrilegious deeds, patiently endured beatings and ridicule. Such, for example, is the life of Andrei the Fool.

All these types of lives, having come from Byzantium to Russia, acquired their own special features here, clearly reflecting the originality of the social, political and cultural life of the Middle Ages.

The life of martyrdom was not widespread in Russia, because the new Christian religion was planted from above, that is, by the government of the Grand Duke. Therefore, the very possibility of a conflict between a pagan ruler and a Christian martyr was ruled out. True, the functions of Christian martyrs were assumed by princes Boris and Gleb, who were villainously murdered by brother Svyatopolk in 1015. But by their death, Boris and Gleb confirmed the triumph of the idea of ​​tribal seniority, so necessary in the system of princely succession to the throne. "The Tale of Boris and Gleb" condemned the princely strife, sedition, ruining the Russian land.

The type of martyr's life found real ground during the period of invasion and domination of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors. The fight against the wild hordes of steppe nomads was interpreted as a fight between Christians and the filthy, that is, pagans. The behavior of Prince Michael of Chernigov in the Horde was assessed as a high patriotic feat (“The Tale of Mikhail of Chernigov”). The Russian prince and his boyar Fyodor refuse to fulfill the demand of the impious king Batu: to pass through the cleansing fire and bow to the bush. For them, the performance of this pagan rite is tantamount to treason, and they prefer death.

The Prince of Tver, Mikhail Yaroslavich, who was brutally murdered by the Khan's minions in 1318, behaves steadfastly and courageously in the Horde.

The type of martyr's life received a new interpretation in Russia in the 16th century. : the martyr's crown is awarded to the victims of the bloody terror of Ivan the Terrible.

The venerable life also became widespread. The earliest original work of this type is The Life of Theodosius of the Caves, written at the end of the 11th century. Nestor.

The Kiev Caves Monastery, founded in the middle of the 11th century, played a big role in the development of the culture of the ancient Russian state. The first Russian chronicle, called The Tale of Bygone Years, was created in the monastery, it supplied church hierarchs to many cities of Ancient Russia, and literary activities of a number of prominent writers, including Nikon the Great and Nestor, took place within its walls. The name of the abbot and one of the founders of the monastery Theodosius, who died in 1074, enjoyed special respect and reverence.

The purpose of life is to create "praise" to the hero, to glorify the beauty of his deeds. Emphasizing the truth and reliability of the facts presented, Nestor constantly refers to the stories of “self-evident”: the cellar of the monastery Fedor, the monk Hilarion, hegumen Paul, the charioteer who carried Theodosius from Kyiv to the monastery, and others. the image of a pious legend created by a haze, and form the basis of The Life of Theodosius of the Caves.

The task of Nestor as a writer was not only to write down these stories, but also to process them in a literary way, to create an image of an ideal hero who “gives an image of himself”, that is, would serve as an example and a role model.

In the time sequence “according to the series” of events related to the life and deeds of Theodosius and his most prominent associates, it is not difficult to find traces of a kind of monastic oral chronicle, the milestones of which are the foundation of the monastery, the construction of the cathedral church and the deeds of the abbots: Varlaam, Theodosius, Stephen, Nikon the Great.

An important place in the life is occupied by an episode connected with the struggle of the lad Theodosius with his mother. According to Nestor, it was written on the basis of the story of the mother of the future hegumen. The desire of the son of a princely tiun (tax collector) to “pray”, that is, to strictly comply with the norms of Christian morality, following and imitating Christ in everything, meets with sharp resistance from the mother of Theodosius and all those around him. The mother, a pious Christian, tries in every possible way to turn her son away from the intention to devote herself to God: not only with kindness, persuasion, but also with cruel punishments and even tortures. in the eyes of society, not only themselves, but also their kind. A similar attitude causes in society and the behavior of the son of the boyar John. All this indicates that the “monastic rank” did not at first meet with respect and support from the ruling circles of the early feudal society. It is characteristic that Vladimir Monomakh, in his Teaching, does not recommend that children become monks.

The episode with the charioteer testifies to the attitude of ordinary working people towards the monks. Mistaking the famous abbot for a simple monk, the driver offers him to sit on the goats, because he, the driver, is tired of constant work, and the monks spend their lives in idleness.

Nestor contrasts this point of view in his life with the image of the works of Theodosius and the brethren around him, who are in constant care and "do the work with their own hands." The abbot himself gives the monks an example of exceptional diligence. He carries water from the river, chop wood, grinds livestock at night, spins yarn for weaving books, comes to church earlier than everyone else and is the last to leave it. Indulging in asceticism, Theodosius does not wash, wears a sackcloth on his body, he sleeps "on his ribs", puts on a "thin suit".

The "thinness of the vestment" of the Caves abbot is opposed by Nestor to the purity of his life, the lordship of the soul. "Lightness of the soul" allows Theodosius to become not only a teacher and mentor of the brethren, but also a moral judge of the princes. He forces Prince Izyaslav to reckon with the rules and norms of the monastery charter, enters into an open conflict with Svyatoslav, who illegally seized the grand prince's table and expelled Izyaslav. The Abbot of the Caves refuses the prince's invitation to dinner, not wanting "to partake of the brash of that blood and murder." He denounces the usurper prince in speeches that cause Svyatoslav to become furious and intend to imprison the obstinate monk. Only after lengthy persuasion did the brethren manage to reconcile Theodosius with the Grand Duke. True, Svyatoslav at first receives the hegumen without due respect. Theodosius is present at the princely feast, modestly sitting on the edge of the table, his eyes downcast, for the more welcome guests of the princely feast are buffoons who amuse the prince. And only when Theodosius threatened Svyatoslav with heavenly punishments (“whether it will still be in the next world”), the prince ordered the buffoons to stop their games and began to treat the abbot with great respect. As a sign of final reconciliation with the monastery, Svyatoslav grants him land (“his field”), where the construction of a stone monastery church begins, the foundation of which the prince himself “lay the beginning of digging”.

A large place in the life is given to the image of the economic activity of the abbot. True, the appearance of new supplies in the monastery storerooms, money "for the needs of the brethren" Nestor depicts as a manifestation of God's mercy, allegedly rendered to the monastery through the prayer of the monk.

However, under the mystical shell of a miracle, it is not difficult to discover the nature of the real relationship between the monastery and the laity, due to the offerings of which the treasury and storerooms of the monastery are replenished.

As a typical medieval ascetic, Theodosius happens to enter into a struggle with demons. They appear either in the guise of buffoons, or a black dog, sometimes invisibly doing small dirty tricks: they scatter flour in the bakery, spill bread sourdough, do not allow cattle to eat, settling in a barn.

Thus, the traditional canon of life is filled by Nestor with a number of specific realities of monastic and princely life.

"The Life of Theodosius of the Caves", written by Nestor, was, in turn, a model that determined the further development of the life of the monks in ancient Russian literature.

Based on this model, Ephraim builds the "Life of Abraham of Smolensk" (first third of the 13th century). The work reflects the spiritual life of one of the major political and cultural centers of North-Western Russia - Smolensk at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th centuries.

The reader is presented with an outstanding personality of an educated, learned monk. In the suburban Smolensk monastery, in the village of Selishche, he created a scriptorium, supervising the work of many scribes. Abraham himself is not limited to reading Scripture, the works of the Church Fathers, he is attracted by "deep books", that is, apocryphal works, which the official church included in the indexes of false, "renounced books". The scholarly studies of Abraham arouse the envy and indignation of the hegumen and the monks. For five years, he patiently bears the dishonor and reproach of the brethren, but in the end he is forced to leave the monastery in Selishche and move to the city, to the monastery of the Holy Cross.

Here Abraham plays the role of a skillful teacher-preacher, "interpreter" of Scripture. Ephraim does not say what the essence of this "interpretation" was, emphasizing only that the sermons of the learned monk attracted the attention of the whole city. At the same time, Ephraim turns filming to another side of Abraham's activity - he is a skilled painter.

The popularity and success of a talented person among the townspeople "offends selfish mediocrity", and ignorant priests and monks accuse Abraham of heresy.

It is very significant that the prince of Smolensk and nobles came to the defense of Abraham, his patrons were Bishop Ignatius of Smolensk and the successor of Bishop Lazar.

Glorifying the feat of "patience" of Abraham, Ephraim cites numerous analogies from the lives of John Chrysostom, Savva the Sanctified. He actively intervenes in the course of the narrative, gives his assessment of the behavior of the hero and his persecutors in rhetorical and journalistic digressions. Ephraim sharply denounces the ignorant who take the priesthood, argues that no one can live their life without misfortunes, hardships, and they can only be overcome with patience. Only patience allows a person to navigate the ship of his soul through the waves and storms of the sea of ​​life. In his life-concluding praise, Ephraim glorifies not only Abraham, but also his native city of Smolensk.

In the XV century. in Smolensk, on the basis of oral traditions, another remarkable work is being created - “The Tale of Mercury of Smolensk”, glorifying the heroic deed of a fearless Russian youth who sacrificed his life to save his native city from the hordes of Batu in 1238.

The traditions of the hagiography of Kievan Rus continued not only in the northwest, but also in the northeast - in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. Religious and historical legends served as an example of this: the legends about the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God, about the enlightener of the Rostov land, Bishop Leonty.

There is also a legend connected with Rostov about Prince Peter of the Horde, the nephew of Khan Berke, who converted to Christianity, settled on Rostov land, granted to him by the local prince, and founded a monastery there. The legend is probably based on a family chronicle that tells not only about Peter, but also about his descendants, sons and grandsons. The story clearly reflects the nature of the relationship between the Golden Horde and Russia in the 15th century. So, for example, according to legend, the ancestor of Boris Godunov was a native of the Horde, Prince Chet, who allegedly founded the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma.

"The Tale of Peter, Prince of the Horde" gives an idea of ​​the nature of those land litigations that had to be waged by the descendants of Peter with the specific Rostov princes.

A new stage in the development of ancient Russian hagiography is associated with the great Moscow, with the activities of a talented writer of the late XIV - early XV century. Epiphanius the Wise. He wrote two outstanding works of ancient Russian literature - the lives of Stefan of Perm and Sergius of Radonezh, which vividly reflected the rise of the national self-consciousness of the Russian people associated with the struggle against the Golden Horde yoke.

Both Stephen of Perm and Sergius of Radonezh are a model of perseverance and purposefulness. All their thoughts and actions are determined by the interests of the motherland, the good of the public and the state.

The son of the Ustyug cathedral cleric, Stefan, purposefully prepares himself in advance for future missionary work in the Perm Territory. Having learned the Permian language, he creates the Permian alphabet-letter and translates Russian books into this language. After that, Stefan goes to the distant land of Perm, settles among the pagans and influences them not only with a living word, but also with an example of his own behavior. Stefan cuts down the “purple birch”, which was worshiped by the pagans, enters into a fight with the sorcerer (shaman) Pam. In front of a large crowd of pagans, Stefan puts his opponent to shame: he invites Pam to enter together into the raging flames of a huge fire and get out of it, enter an ice hole and exit another, located far from the first. Pam categorically refuses all these trials, and the Permians see with their own eyes the impotence of their sorcerer, they are ready to tear him to pieces. However, Stefan calms the angry mob, saves Pamu's life, and only banishes him. Thus, willpower, conviction, endurance, Stephen's humanism win, and the pagans accept Christianity.

Epiphanius the Wise depicts Sergius of Radonezh (died in 1392) as the ideal of a new church leader.

Epiphany sets out in detail and in detail the facts of the biography of Sergius. The son of a ruined Rostov boyar who moved to Radonezh (now the village of Gorodok, two kilometers from the Khotkovo station of the Yaroslavl railway), Bartholomew Sergius becomes a monk, then the founder of the Trinity Monastery (now the city of Zagorsk), who played in the political and cultural life of the emerging centralized Russian state no less important role than the Kiev Caves Monastery in the life of Kievan Rus. The Trinity Monastery was a school of moral education, in which the worldview and talent of the brilliant Andrei Rublev, Epiphanius the Wise himself, and many other monks and laity were formed.

With all his activities, the abbot of the Trinity Monastery contributes to the strengthening of the political authority of the Moscow prince as the head of the Russian state, contributes to the cessation of princely strife, blesses Dmitry Ivanovich for the feat of arms in the fight against the hordes of Mamai.

Epiphanius reveals the character of Sergius by contrasting him with his brother Stefan. The latter refuses to live with Sergius in a deserted place, far from the main roads, where no food supplies are brought, where everything has to be done by hand. He leaves the Trinity Monastery for Moscow, for the Simonov Monastery.

Contrasted Sergius and his contemporary monks and priests, greedy and conceited. When Metropolitan Alexei, shortly before his death, offers Sergius to become his successor, the Trinity Abbot resolutely refuses, stating that he has never been and never will be a "gold bearer".

On the example of the life of Sergius, Epiphanius argued that the path of moral transformation and education of society lies through the improvement of the individual.

The style of the works of Epiphany the Wise is distinguished by lush rhetoric, "good words". He himself calls it "the weaving of words." This style is characterized by the widespread use of metaphors-symbols, similes, comparisons, synonymous epithets (up to 20-25 with one defined word). Much attention is paid to the characteristics of the psychological states of the characters, their "mental" monologues. A large place in the life is given to lamentations, praise-panegyrics. The rhetorical-panegyric style of the lives of Epiphanius the Wise served as an important artistic means of propagating the moral and political ideas of the state that was being formed around Moscow.

With the political and cultural life of Novgorod XII-XV centuries. Novgorod hagiography is inextricably linked. Here the lives of local ascetics-heavenly patrons of the free city are created: Varlaam Khutyisky, archbishops John, Moses, Euthymius II, Michael Klopsky. These lives in their own way reflect the originality of the life of the boyar feudal republic, the relationship between spiritual and secular authorities, certain aspects of the everyday and social way of life of the city.

The most interesting and significant works of Novgorod literature of the XV century. are legends associated with the name of Archbishop John (1168-1183). He is one of the central characters of The Tale of the Sign from the Icon of the Mother of God, which tells of the miraculous deliverance of Novgorod from Suzdal in 1169. The main idea of ​​the legend is that Novgorod is supposedly under the direct protection and patronage of the Mother of God and all attempts of Grand Duke Moscow to encroach on the free city will be stopped by the heavenly powers.

“The Tale of the Journey of Archbishop John of Novgorod on a Devil to Jerusalem” aims to glorify the famous saint. At the same time, its fantastic, entertaining plot reveals the real features of the life and customs of the princes of the church. V. is based on a typically medieval motif of the struggle of a righteous man with a demon and demonic temptations. The saint not only imprisons the demon who tried to confuse him in a vessel, but also forces the crafty tempter to take him to Jerusalem in a single night and bring him back to Novgorod.

The behavior of the archbishop becomes the subject of a nationwide discussion at the veche, which decides that a pastor leading such an obscene life has no place on the holy throne. The Novgorodians expel John by putting him on a raft. However, through the prayer of the saint, the raft swam against the current of the Volkhov. Thus, the holiness and innocence of the shepherd is proved, he is shamed, and the Novgorodians repent of their act and pray to John for forgiveness.

The amusement of the plot, the liveliness of the presentation drew attention to the "Tale of the journey of the Novgorod Archbishop John on a demon to Jerusalem" by the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, who began writing the poem "The Monk" in the Lyceum, and N.V. demon in the story "The Night Before Christmas".

An original work of Novgorod literature of the 15th century. is "The Tale of the Life of Mikhail Klopsky", clearly reflecting the originality of the political life of the urban boyar republic shortly before the final annexation of Novgorod to Moscow.

In the first half of the XVI century. in Moscow, the “Tale of Luka Kolodsky” is being written, written on the basis of a legend about the appearance in 1413 on the Kolocha River of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. However, the church legend recedes into the background in the story, and the main place in it is given to the fate of the peasant Luka, who found a miraculous icon in the forest and amassed enormous wealth from this due to the “voluntary donations” of believers. “Giftings” are enough not only for the construction of the temple. The “simple villager” Luka creates mansions for himself from the funds collected from the people and begins to compete in wealth with Prince Andrei Dmitrievich of Mozhaisk. And only after Luke was thoroughly dented by a bear released on his orders from the cage, he, having experienced the fear of death, repented and, renouncing his wealth, became a monk of the Kolochsky monastery founded by the prince. We find the reflection of the plot of this legend in the poem by I. A. Nekrasov “Vlas”.

The height of moral ideals, the poetry of hagiographic tales repeatedly attracted the attention of Russian writers of the 18th-19th centuries to them. The life in the work of A. N. Radishchev “The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov” becomes a means of promoting advanced educational ideals. The revolutionary writer saw in his fate similarities with the fate of Philaret the Merciful, whose life he edited.

A. I. Herzen found in the lives of "divine examples of self-denial", and in their heroes - a passionate, obsessive service to the idea. He refers to the life of Theodora in his early romantic story "Legend". In his mature years, Herzen compared noble revolutionaries - Decembrists with the heroes of hagiographic literature, calling them "ascetic warriors who deliberately went out to obvious death in order to awaken the younger generation to a new life and cleanse children born in an environment of butchery and servility."

L. N. Tolstoy saw “our Russian real poetry” in hagiographic literature. He was attracted by the moral and psychological side of ancient Russian works, the poetic nature of their presentation, and the places "naively artistic." In the 70-80s. of the last century, collections of hagiographic works - Prologues and Menaia - become his favorite reading. “Excluding miracles, looking at them as a plot expressing a thought, this reading opened the meaning of life to me,” wrote Leo Tolstoy in Confession. The writer comes to the conclusion that the so-called saints are ordinary people. “Such saints, so that they are very special from other people, those whose bodies would remain incorruptible, who would work miracles, etc., have never been and cannot be,” he noted.

F. M. Dostoevsky considered Theodosius Pechensky and Sergius of Radonezh as historical folk ideals. In the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" he creates a "stately positive figure" of the Russian monk - the elder Zosima, refuting the individualistic anarchist "rebellion" of Ivan Karamazov. “I took the face and figure of the ancient Russian monks and saints,” wrote Dostoevsky, “with deep humility, boundless, naive hopes about the future of Russia, about its moral and even political destiny. Didn't St. Sergius, Peter and Alexei Metropolitans always have Russia in mind in this sense?

G. I. Uspensky referred Russian ascetics to the type of “people's intelligentsia”. In the cycle of essays "The Power of the Earth", he noted that this intelligentsia brought "divine truth" into the people's environment. “She raised the weak, helplessly abandoned by heartless nature to the mercy of fate; she helped, and always by deed, against the too cruel pressure of zoological truth; she did not give this truth too much space, she put limits on it. her type was the type of God's saint. No, our people's saint, although he renounces worldly concerns, lives only for the world. He is a worldly worker, he is constantly in the crowd, among the people, and does not rant, but actually does the deed.

Ancient Russian hagiography organically entered the creative consciousness of such a remarkable and still truly invaluable writer as I. S. Leskov.

Comprehending the secrets of the Russian national character, he turned to legends.

The writer approached these books as literary works, noting in them "pictures that you cannot imagine." Leskov was struck by the "clarity, simplicity, irresistibility" of the story, "the narrowing of the faces."

Creating the characters of the "righteous" - "positive types of Russian people", Leskov showed the thorny path of the Russian man's search for a moral ideal. With his works, Leskov showed how "magnificent Russian nature is and how beautiful Russian people are."

The ideals of the moral spiritual beauty of the Russian people have been developed by our literature throughout its nearly thousand-year development. Ancient Russian literature created the characters of ascetics who were persistent in spirit, pure in soul, who devoted their lives to serving people and the public good. They complemented the folk ideal of a hero - the defender of the borders of the Russian land, worked out by folk epic poetry.

Having studied the poetics of individual works of ancient Russian literature, we can conclude about the features of the genre of hagiography. Life is a genre of ancient Russian literature that describes the life of a saint.

In this genre, there are different hagiographic types:

Life-martyria (a story about the martyrdom of a saint)

Monastic life (a story about the whole life path of a righteous man, miracles he performed, etc.)

The moment of miracle, revelation (the ability to learn is a gift from God) is very important for the genre of monastic life. It is the miracle that brings movement and development into the biography of the saint.

The genre of life is gradually undergoing changes. The authors depart from the canons, letting the breath of life into literature, decide on literary fiction (“The Life of Mikhail Klopsky”), speak a simple “peasant” language (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”).

Old Russian literature developed and took shape along with the growth of the general education of society. Old Russian authors conveyed to modern readers their views on life, reflections on the meaning of power and society, the role of religion, shared their life experience. The works of ancient Russian literature have found a new life in our days. They serve as a powerful means of patriotic education, instill a sense of national pride, faith in the indestructibility of the creative, vitality, energy, moral beauty of the Russian people, who have repeatedly saved the countries of Europe from barbarian invasion.

Of the literature intended for reading, hagiographic or hagiographic literature (from the Greek word agios - saint).

Hagiographic literature has its own history connected with the development of Christianity. As early as the 2nd century, works began to appear describing the suffering and death of Christians who were victims of their beliefs. These works were called martyrdom martyrs. All of them had the same form, while the central part was the interrogation of the martyr, which was transmitted in the form of a dialogue between the judge and the defendant. The final part consisted of the verdict and the announcement of the death of the martyr. It should be noted that the martyrias did not have any introductions, reasoning or closing words. The martyr, as a rule, did not say anything in his defense.

From 313, the persecution of Christians ceased, and there were no more martyrs. The very concept of the ideal Christian has changed. The author, who set a goal to describe the life of a person who somehow stands out from the crowd, faced the tasks of a biographer. Thus, in the literature hagiography. Through the lives of the church, the church sought to give its flock models for the practical application of abstract Christian concepts. Unlike martyria, life aimed to describe the whole life of the saint. A hagiographical scheme was worked out, which was determined by the tasks pursued by life. The life usually began with a preface in which the author, usually a monk, spoke humbly about the insufficiency of his literary education, but immediately gave arguments that prompted him to “try” or “dare” to write a life. What followed was a story about his work. The main part was the story dedicated to the saint himself.

The outline of the story is:

• 1. Parents and homeland of the saint.
• 2. The semantic meaning of the saint's name.
• 3. Training.
• 4. Attitude towards marriage.
• 5. Asceticism.
• 6. Death instructions.
• 7. Death.
• 8. Miracles.

The life ended with a conclusion.

The author of the life pursued, first of all, the task of giving such an image of a saint that would correspond to the established idea of ​​an ideal church hero. Those facts that corresponded to the canon were taken from his life, everything that was at odds with these canons was kept silent. In Russia in the 11th-12th centuries, the translated lives of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Anthony the Great, John Chrysostom, Andrei the Holy Fool, Alexei the Man of God, Vyacheslav the Czech, and others were known in separate lists. But the Russians could not limit themselves only to the translation of existing Byzantine lives. The need for church and political independence from Byzantium interested in creating their own church Olympus, their saints, who could strengthen the authority of the national church. Hagiographic literature on Russian soil received a peculiar development, but at the same time, of course, it was based on Byzantine hagiographic literature. One of the earliest works of hagiography in Russia is The Life of Theodosius of the Caves, written by Nestor between 1080 and 1113. Here is given a vivid and vivid image of an advanced man, shaped by the conditions of the social struggle in Kievan Rus, the struggle of the young feudal statehood with the obsolete tribal system of the East Slavic tribes. In The Life of Theodosius, Nestor created the image of the hero of the ascetic life and the leader of the monastic squad, the organizer of the Christian monastery, dispersing the "demonic darkness" of paganism and laying the foundations for the state unity of the Russian land. The hero of Nestor was very close to becoming a martyr of the faith he professed - humility, brotherly love and obedience. Such martyrs were the heroes of another work by Nestor, Readings on the Life and Destruction of the Blessed Passion-Bearer Boris and Gleb.

In ancient Russian literature there are two Tales of Boris and Gleb - anonymous, dated 1015, attributed to Jacob, and "Reading", written by Nestor.

"The Tale of Boris and Gleb" (“The Tale and Passion and Praise of the Holy Martyr Boris and Gleb”) is the first major work of ancient Russian hagiography. The theme itself suggested the genre of the work to the author. Nevertheless, the "Tale" is not a typical work of hagiographic literature. The style of the Tale was influenced by translated Byzantine hagiography. But the Tale deviates from the traditional three-part form of Byzantine hagiographies (introduction, biography of the saint, final praise). The author overcomes both the form and the basic principles of Byzantine hagiography, which he himself is aware of, calling his work “Tale”, and not “Life”. The "Tale" does not have what we usually find in lives - a detailed introduction, a story about the hero's childhood. In the center of the Tale are hagiographically stylized portraits of Boris and Gleb and a story full of tense drama about their tragic death. Perhaps the most revealing feature of the Tale as a literary work is the extensive development of the internal monologue in it. The peculiarity of the monologues of works of this genre is that they are pronounced by the characters as if “mutely”, “in the heart”, “in oneself”, “in one’s mind”, “in one’s soul”. In the "Tale" we have an internal monologue, no different from direct speech, spoken aloud. The author of the Tale did not attach much importance to the historical authenticity of his narrative. Here, as in any hagiographic work, much is conditional, the historical truth is completely subordinated to the moral, political and ecclesiastical ritual tasks set by the author in this work. And, as N.N. Ilyin notes, the "Tale" from the side of fidelity differs little from "real lives". Boris and Gleb were the first Russian saints, therefore, "the first own representatives for her (for Russia) before God and the first guarantee of God's good will towards her." Boris and Gleb were not quite martyrs in the proper and strict sense of the word, for although they suffered martyrdom, it was death not for the faith of Christ, but for political reasons that had nothing to do with faith. The author needed the recognition of Boris and Gleb as saints of the Russian Church, therefore he adheres to the obligatory condition for canonization of saints - miracles and devotes the main part of his work to describing the miracles performed by the relics of Boris and Gleb. As N.N. Ilyin points out, the “Tale” really does not represent a strict canonical life compiled according to Byzantine patterns. It was a different kind of attempt to unite and fix in literary form scattered and contradictory fragments of oral traditions about the death of Boris and Gleb, the circumstances of which were veiled by the religious haze that formed around their Vyshegorodsk tombs.

"Reading about the life and destruction of the blessed martyr Boris and Gleb", compiled by the author of The Life of Theodosius of the Caves, Nestor, a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery, is a life of the type of Byzantine hagiographic works. Nestor took up the description in the spirit of Byzantine monastic and martyr lives. He begins the "Reading" with a prayer and with a recognition of the "rudeness and foolishness" of his heart, about the "wickedness" of the author. Then he talks about the atonement of human sin by Christ, a parable about the slaves is given, then the story about Boris and Gleb follows. And here, unlike the Tale, we get acquainted with the details of the biography of the brothers, the author speaks of their love of reading, that both brothers gave alms to all those in need; that young Boris married, only yielding to the will of his father; that Gleb was with his father and, after his death, tried to hide from Svyatopolk "to the midnight countries." That is, "Reading" was written according to strictly established hagiographic schemes. The influence of Byzantine hagiographic patterns also affected the literary language of the Readings, in the manner of replacing specific proper names with symbols and epithets. In other cases, personal names and geographical names disappear altogether: the names of the Alta and Smyadina rivers, the names of the murderers, and even the name of Georgy Ugrin do not occur. In contrast to the bright, rich and emotional style of the Tale, Nestor's presentation is pale, abstract, dry, the images of the dead are schematic and lifeless, and therefore, as prof. S.A. Bugoslavsky, "Reading" by Nestor, which gave a hagiographic solution to the historical theme, could not supplant the more vivid historical story of the anonymous "Tale". “Reading” is a real life, a literary work, the form of which the author formed an idea from reading translated lives. But "Reading" was not just a life of the church type. It was a work of a philosophical and historical nature.

At the end of the 12th century or a little later, shortly before the collapse of the Kievan state, "The Life of Leonty of Rostov" was written. The hero of this life is a missionary penetrating into the deaf wilds inhabited by tribes that have not yet emerged from the state of savagery and "pagan darkness". Too poor in the facts of the hero's ascetic activity, the "Life" gives an image of him depleted in content, far inferior, in terms of completeness and brightness of the image, to the heroes of Nestor's lives. The image of a missionary, developing virgin lands, is barely outlined here, not presented clearly. He is a pale sketch of what he will become later, in the lives of the XIV-XV centuries. This work is brought closer to life by the presence in its composition of an extensive afterword, characteristic of works of the hagiographic genre, with a story about posthumous miracles that took place around the tomb of the hero, and with a concluding vocabulary.

In the 20s of the XIII century, the successors of that line of the hagiographical genre appeared, the beginning of which was laid by The Life of Theodosius of the Caves. The monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Simon and Polycarp write legends about the miracles of the heroes of ascetic asceticism, creating the main body of that collection of hagiographic tales, which will later be called the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon. When creating their collection, Simon and Polycarp gave it the form of a compositionally unified work - the form of correspondence, during which a string of mechanically adjoining legends about miracles that took place in the Kiev-Pechersky Monastery unfolded. The characters appearing in these legends are representatives of ascetic asceticism. These are all “fasters”, like Eustratius and Pimen; "recluses" - Athanasius, Nikita, Lavrenty, John; the martyrs of chastity - Jonah, Moses Ugrin; "non-possessors" who distributed their property - the Chernigov prince Svyatosha, Erasmus, Fedor; the "gratuitous" doctor Agapit. They all received the gift of miracles. They prophesy, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, enslave them, forcing them to do their assigned work, feed the hungry, turning quinoa into bread and ashes into salt. In the epistles of Simon and Polycarp, we have an expression of the genre of Patericons, as collections of hagiographic character, which, not being in the strict sense of the word hagiography, repeated in their legends the motifs and forms of the style already represented by The Life of Theodosius of the Caves.

But in the 13th-14th centuries, when Russia found itself under the yoke of conquerors of other faiths, this type of religious ascetic was not as close to the heart of the Russian reader as the type of Christian martyr, represented in the literature of the pre-Tatar period by the heroes of hagiographic works about Boris and Gleb. In the XIII century, the hagiographical genre was enriched by a work whose hero has no predecessors in hagiographic literature. This is "The Life and Patience of Abraham of Smolensk", whose hero accomplishes the feat of a saint persecuted by enemies, representing a kind of passion-bearing that is still unfamiliar to us. The hero goes through a life path common to all ascetics, and therefore, in the narrative about him, the author uses the common places of the hagiographic genre. Drawing the image of Abraham, the author especially emphasizes his ascetic devotion to the study and assimilation of the literature of Christian enlightenment, stemming from the conviction that an ignorant pastor of the church is like a shepherd who has no idea where and how the flock should graze, and can only destroy it. Attention is drawn to his talent, the ability to interpret the meaning of the sacred books. Abraham has sympathizers and enemies, such as the older clergy. They lead the persecution of Abraham, accuse him of heresy, bring down on him a stream of slanderous fabrications, incite the hierarchs of the church against him, who forbid him from clergy, seek to commit him to a secular court in order to finally destroy him. Abraham appears before us as a victim of blind malice and slanderous fabrications. This is a completely new motivation for the passionate fate of the hero in hagiographic literature, indicating that the conflict between the hero of the "Life" and his pursuers is caused by conditions of social reality that are significantly different from those in which the hagiographies of the Kyiv period were created. The hagiographical heroes of this period opposed the "darkness of demons", contrasted the ideals of a Christian righteous life with the concepts and skills of the pagan past. In the XIV century, it was not the “darkness of demons” that opposed the bearer of Christian enlightenment, but the darkness of the ignorant, “taking the rank of priesthood,” and this clash gave rise to a new type of ascetic, represented by the image of Abraham of Smolensk, persecuted by slanderers for the “deep” study and “interpretation” of Christian wisdom. Abraham follows the hard path of a persecuted righteous man, patiently striving for his righteousness to become public. This is the originality and novelty of the literary image of Abraham. "The Life of Abraham" is not so much an epic story about the hero's life as his apology, the justification of his personality from unjust accusations, and this is a completely new form of life.

A peculiar stage in the development of the hagiographical genre in Russia is the creation of the so-called princely hagiographies. An example of such lives is "The Life of Alexander Nevsky". The name of Alexander Yaroslavich, the winner of the Swedish feudal lords on the Neva and the German "dog-knights" on the ice of Lake Peipus, was very popular. About the victories won by him, stories and legends were composed, which, after the death of the prince in 1263, were reworked into a life. The author of the "Life", as established by D.S. Likhachev, was a resident of Galicia-Volyn Rus, who moved with Metropolitan Cyril III to Vladimir. The purpose of the life is to glorify the courage and bravery of Alexander, to give the image of an ideal Christian warrior, defender of the Russian land. In the center is a story about the battles on the Neva River and on the ice of Lake Peipus. The reasons for the attack of the Swedes on the Russian land are explained very naively: the Swedish king, having learned about the growth and courage of Alexander, decided to captivate the “land of Alexandrov”. With a small retinue, Alexander enters the fight against the superior forces of the enemy. A detailed description of the battle is given, a large place is given to the exploits of Alexander and his warriors. The battle on Lake Peipsi with German knights is depicted in the traditional stylistic manner of military stories. In this battle, Alexander showed the skill of military maneuver, unraveling the tactical plan of the enemy. The main content of the "Life" consists of purely secular episodes, but elements of the hagiographic style are used in it very widely. A small introduction is written in hagiographic style, where the author speaks of himself as a “bad, sinful, unworthy” person, but he begins his work about Alexander, because he not only heard about him “from his fathers”, but also personally knew the prince. The origin of the hero from pious parents is emphasized. When characterizing the hero, the author resorts to biblical characters. Religious-fiction pictures are introduced into the descriptions of battles. In a conversation with papal ambassadors, Alexander operates with the text of the "Holy Scripture" from Adam to the seventh Ecumenical Council. The pious death of Alexander is described in hagiographical style. "The Life of Alexander Nevsky" becomes a model for the creation of later princely biographies, in particular the life of Dmitry Donskoy.

At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, a new rhetorical-panegyric style appeared in hagiographic literature, or, as D.S. Likhachev calls it, “expressive-emotional”. The rhetorical style appears in Russia in connection with the formation of the ideology of a centralized state and the strengthening of the authority of princely power. The rationale for new forms of government required a new form of artistic expression. In search of these forms, Russian scribes first of all turn to the traditions of Kievan literature, and also master the rich experience of South Slavic literatures. A new expressive-emotional style is developed initially in hagiographic literature. Life becomes a "solemn word", a magnificent panegyric to the Russian saints, who manifests the spiritual beauty and strength of his people. The compositional structure of the life changes: a small rhetorical introduction appears, the central biographical part is reduced to a minimum, lamentation for the deceased saint acquires independent compositional significance, and finally praise, which is now given the main place. A characteristic feature of the new style was close attention to various psychological states of a person. The psychological motivations for the actions of the characters began to appear in the works, the image of the well-known dialectic of feelings. The biography of a Christian ascetic is considered as a history of his inner development. An important means of depicting a person's mental states and motives is his lengthy and ornate speech-monologues. The description of feelings obscures the depiction of the details of events. Facts from life were not given much importance. The author's lengthy rhetorical digressions and arguments of a moral and theological nature were introduced into the text. The form of presentation of the work was designed to create a certain mood. For this purpose, evaluative epithets, metaphorical comparisons, comparisons with biblical characters were used. The characteristic features of the new style are clearly manifested in "A Sermon on the Life and Repose of Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsar of Russia" This solemn panegyric to the conqueror of the Tatars was created, apparently, shortly after his death (he died on May 19, 1389). The “Word about Life” pursued, first of all, a clear political task: to glorify the Moscow prince, the conqueror of Mamai, as the ruler of the entire Russian land, the heir to the Kyiv state, to surround the prince’s power with an aura of holiness and thereby raise his political authority to an unattainable height.

A great role in the development of the rhetorical panegyric style in the hagiographic literature of the late 14th and early 15th centuries was played by the talented writer Epiphanius the Wise. Two works belong to his pen: "The Life of Stephen of Perm" and "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh". The literary activity of Epiphanius the Wise contributed to the establishment of a new hagiographic style in literature - “word weaving”. This style to a certain extent enriched the literary language, contributed to the further development of literature, depicted the psychological state of a person, the dynamics of his feelings. The further development of the rhetorical-panegyric style was facilitated by the literary activity of Pachomius Logofet. The lives of Sergius of Radonezh (reworking of the life written by Epiphanius), Metropolitan Alexy, Cyril of Belozersky, Varlaam Khutynsky, Archbishop John, and others belong to Pachomius. amplifying the rhetoric, expanding the description of "miracles".

In all the above works, as well as in ancient Russian literature in general, a person, a person, did not occupy a large place. Personality usually dissolved in a kaleidoscope of events that the author tried to convey with protocol accuracy, while he pursued primarily informational goals. Events were made up of the actions of certain people. These actions were the focus of the author. A person in itself, his inner world, his way of thinking rarely became the object of the image, and if he did, then only when it was necessary for a more complete and comprehensive presentation of events, while this was done along the way, along with other facts. and events. The person became the central figure of the narrative only when the author needed him to fulfill the main artistic task: i.e. it was necessary to make a person the bearer of his author's ideal. And only in this case, in the world of the ideal, did a person acquire all the characteristic features of an artistic image. But it should be noted that in building his image, the ancient Russian writer composed, invented, rather than conveyed reality.

Speaking about ancient literature, O. Balzac noted that the writers of antiquity and the Middle Ages "forgot" to depict private life. But the point, of course, is not forgetfulness, but the fact that the structure of ancient and feudal society in itself does not provide grounds for private life. "Every private sphere," said K. Marx, "has here a political character or is a political sphere."

In the same way, in ancient Russian literature, private life could not become the object of the writer's portrayal. The main characters are "representatives of the elements of statehood: kings, heroes, military leaders, rulers, priests", and they were primarily characterized from the point of view of their political, official existence. As D.S. Likhachev notes, ancient Russian literature, in its official and solemn line, sought to abstract the phenomena of reality. Old Russian authors tried to extract an “eternal” meaning from phenomena, to see in everything around them symbols of “eternal” truths, a God-established order. The writer sees an eternal meaning in everyday phenomena, therefore, the ordinary, material things are not of interest to ancient Russian writers, and they always strive to depict the majestic, magnificent, significant, which, according to them, is ideal. This is the reason why literature in ancient Russia is predominantly built on conditional forms, this literature is slowly changing and consists mainly in combining certain techniques, traditional formulas, motifs, plots, and repetitive provisions. This is precisely what is seen when considering hagiographic literature written according to a certain hagiographic formula. Sometimes one or another author can see some deviations from the canon, but these deviations are not significant, they do not go beyond the “hagiographic formula”.

But, calling Old Russian literature “abstracting, idealizing reality and often creating compositions on ideal themes” (D.S. Likhachev), it should be noted that Old Russian literature is characterized by deviations from the canon and exceptions in the nature of this or that genre. These deviations and exceptions can be noticed already in the literature of the 17th century, at least in the same genre of hagiographic literature.

By the 17th century, the hagiographies were departing from the established pattern, striving to fill the exposition with real biographical facts. These lives include "The Life of Yuliana Lazarevskaya", written in the 20-30s of the 17th century by her son, the Murom nobleman Kalistrat Osoryin. It is rather a story, not a life, even a kind of family chronicle. This life, unlike all previous lives, was written by a secular author who knows the details of the hero's biography well. The work is written with love, without cold, stereotyped rhetoric. In it, we are faced with a reflection of the life and historical era in which Yuliana Lazarevskaya lived. Life is not devoid of traditional elements, here we meet with the demon, which acts as an active force. It is the demon that causes severe disasters to the family of Juliana - it kills her sons, pursues and frightens Juliania, and retreats only after the intervention of St. Nicholas. A certain role in the work is played by elements of a miracle. Juliana renounces the temptations of worldly life and chooses the path of an ascetic (refuses intimacy with her husband, strengthens fasting, increases her stay in prayer and work, sleeps on sharp logs, puts walnut shells and sharp shards in her boots, after the death of her husband she stops going to the bath). She spends her whole life in labor, always takes care of the serfs, patronizes her subjects. Juliana refuses the usual services, is distinguished by delicacy and emotional sensitivity. The most significant thing in this image, as an image of life, is that she leads a pious life being in the world, and not in a monastery, she lives in an atmosphere of everyday worries and everyday troubles. She is a wife, mother, mistress. She is not characterized by the traditional biography of the saint. The idea is carried through the whole life that it is possible to achieve salvation and even holiness, not shutting up in a monastery, but piously, in work and self-sacrificing love for people, living the life of a layman.

The story is a vivid evidence of the growing interest in society and literature in the private life of a person, his behavior in everyday life. These realistic elements, penetrating into the genre of life, destroy it and contribute to its gradual development into the genre of a secular biographical story. "Holiness" here acts as a statement of kindness, meekness, selflessness of a real human person living in worldly conditions. The author managed to embody the real human character of his era. He does not seek to make it typical, he sought a portrait resemblance, and this goal was achieved by him. "Filial Feeling" helped the author overcome the narrowness of hagiographic traditions and create a biography of his mother, a portrait of her, and not an icon, which was truthful in the basis.

Artistic merits also include the fact that the heroine is depicted in a real everyday environment of a landowner family of the 17th century, the relationship between family members and some legal norms of the era are reflected. The process of destruction of traditional religious idealization was reflected in the fact that the author connected life with the church ideal.

This story prepared the literary direction of a completely new genre - an autobiography, the hero of which is even more closely connected with everyday life and historical circumstances, and his conflict with the official church reaches unprecedented sharpness. Such a work is a monument of the second half of the 17th century - "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, Written by Himself". Avvakum Petrov (1621-1682) - the son of a simple village priest, a writer who struggled with the ritual side of literature, with all sorts of conventions, who sought to reproduce reality not in conventional forms, but closer to it. Avvakum tried to find the real reasons, driving forces of this or that event. Avvakum's work, imbued with elements of "realism" (D.S. Likhachev), had a progressive significance, since it shook the inviolability of the medieval structure of literature, and loosened the conventionality of literature. Archpriest Avvakum, the ideologist of the religious and social movement, which went down in history under the name of "schism", was born in 1621 in the village of Grigorov, Nizhny Novgorod Territory. In the middle of the century, Avvakum became a prominent figure in the church and passionately devoted himself to his work.

The Russian state and Russian society in the 17th century experienced a turbulent period of their development. At the beginning of the century, the tsarist government, under the rule of the new Romanov dynasty, made great efforts to overcome the devastation and confusion in the country after many years of wars and internal struggles. By the middle of the century, there was a church reform, prepared by the activities of the “spiritual brethren”, which developed around Archpriest Stefan Venifatiev. The "brethren" included the young and energetic Avvakum. The “Brotherhood” set itself the task of carrying out legislative measures to strengthen church piety, with their reforms they wanted to establish strict and uniform church orders, with the direct introduction of these orders into the life of the people.

Peru Avvakum Petrov wrote more than eighty works, and the vast majority of them are in the last decades of his life, mainly in the years of Pustozero exile. It was here, in the "Pustozersky log house" that Avvakum's fruitful activity began. The written word turned out to be the only way to continue the struggle to which he devoted his whole life. Avvakum's works were not the fruit of idle reflection or contemplation of life from an "earthly" prison, but were a passionate response to reality, to the events of this reality.

The works of Avvakum "The Book of Conversations", "The Book of Interpretations", "The Book of Reproofs", "Notes", his wonderful petitions and the glorified "Life" - the same sermon, conversation, teaching, denunciation, only not oral, but written, in which he still screams. Let us dwell on the central work - "Life".

In all the works of Avvakum, one feels a great interest in Russian life, in reality, in them one feels a strong connection with life. In "Life" the logic of reality, the logic of reality itself, as it were, dictates to the writer. Like any ancient social religious movement, the schism movement also needed its "saints". The struggle, suffering, "visions" and "prophecies" of the ideologues and leaders of the schism became the property of first word of mouth, and then the object of literary depiction. The commonality of ideological goals pushed individual writers to interact. The works of this order reflected not only the ideas of its creators, but also their destinies, while being saturated with elements of living biographical material. And this, in turn, made it possible to move on to autobiographical creativity in the proper sense of the word. The need for autobiographical creativity arose when the leaders of the movement began to be subjected to cruel persecution and executions, and halos of martyrs for the faith were created around them. It was during this period that abstract ideas about the martyrs and ascetics of Christianity came to life, filled with topical social content. Accordingly, hagiographic literature also revived, but under the pen of Epiphanius, and in particular Avvakum, this literature was revived and changed and retreated from the previously established “hagiographic formulas”. The emergence of autobiography as a literary work was accompanied in the field of ideas and artistic forms by a sharp clash of innovation and tradition. On the one hand, these are new features of the worldview, expressed in the realization of the social significance of the human personality, a personality that has always fallen out of sight of ancient Russian writers; on the other hand, still medieval ideas about a person and traditional forms of hagiography.

The "Life" of Avvakum, pursuing propaganda tasks, was supposed to reflect those circumstances of life that were the most important and instructive in his opinion. This is exactly what the authors of ancient Russian lives did, which described and revealed those episodes from the life of the "saints" that were the most important and instructive, losing sight of everything else. Avvakum selects material for his narration in a completely different way, sharply different from the selection of material in traditional hagiographies. The central place is given to the description of the struggle against Nikon's reforms, the Siberian exile and the continuation of the struggle after this exile. He tells in great detail about his life in Moscow, full of clashes with enemies. The narrative in this part is very detailed, and the image of Avvakum himself reaches its highest development. Conversely, autobiographical material dries up as soon as Avvakum finds himself in prison. Unlike hagiographers, Avvakum covers more and more objects of reality in his work. Therefore, sometimes his autobiography develops into the history of the first years of the split. In hagiographic literature, which set itself the task of showing the "holiness" of the hero and the power of "heavenly" forces, "miracles" and "visions" occupy an important place. But they are depicted there for the most part outwardly descriptively, as they appear to the hagiographer. The result of the “miracle” is revealed rather than the process of its formation. Autobiographical narration creates very favorable opportunities for the revival of traditional "miracles". "Miracles" and "visions" become one of the forms for depicting reality. Here, the process of the formation of the “miracle” is revealed as if from within, since the author acts as a direct eyewitness and participant in the “miracle” and “vision”. In his autobiography, the author achieves overcoming hagiographic abstraction and materializes "miracles" and "visions". In Avvakum, always turned to reality itself, the “miracle” is autobiographically revealed to readers as a result of the author’s conscious activity (Abvakum’s meeting with demons does not occur in a dream, as in Epiphanius, a contemporary of Avvakum, but in real reality and the fight against them, this is not direct struggle, but the struggle with people in whom the "demons" sit). In addition, Avvakum does not impose his "miracles" on the reader, as the hagiographers did, but, on the contrary, he denies his involvement in them. Speaking about the innovation of the "Life" of Avvakum, about the deviation from the "hagiographic formulas", it should be noted that the vivid innovation of Avvakum is the depiction of a person, especially the main character. The image of this autobiography can be considered the first completed psychological self-portrait in ancient Russian literature. Avvakum showed this image in all its inconsistency and heroic integrity, in eternal connection with a certain environment. Avvakum is never alone. The author's attention is focused on the central figure, but this image does not overwhelm the other characters of the "Life" with its superiority, as is typical of hagiographic literature. The image of the central character is always surrounded by other characters.

Avvakum's close connection with the democratic strata of the population who participated in the schismatic movement determined the democracy, innovation and significance of the Life.

Avvakum's "Life" is considered the "swan song" of the hagiographic genre, and Gusev called this work "the forerunner of the Russian novel."

Life, hagiography is one of the main epic genres of church literature, which flourished in the Middle Ages. The object of the image is life - a feat of faith performed by a historical person or group of persons (martyrs of the faith, church or statesmen). Most often, the whole life of a saint becomes the feat of faith, sometimes only that part of it, which constitutes the feat of faith, is described in the life, or only one act turns out to be the object of the image. Hence the two main genre subtypes of life: martyry (martyrdom) - describing the martyrdom and death of a saint, bios life - telling about the entire life path from birth to death. A special subspecies of life is a patericon short story (see). The origins of the hagiographic genre lie in ancient times: in myth, ancient biography (Plutarch), funerary speech, fairy tale, Hellenistic novel. However, the hagiographic genre itself is formed under the influence of the Gospel (the story of the earthly life of Christ) and the Acts of the Apostles. The life in South Slavic translations came to Russia from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity in the 10th century. Soon their own translations of Byzantine lives appeared, and then the genre was mastered by ancient Russian spiritual writers (the first Russian lives - the Tale and Reading about Boris and Gleb, the life of Theodosius of the Caves, 11th century; the life from the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon of the first third of the 13th century).

Destination life

The main purpose of life is edifying, didactic: the life and deeds of the saint are regarded as an example to follow, his suffering as a sign of Divine chosenness. Based on the Holy Scriptures, life usually raises and answers from Christian positions the central questions of human existence: what predetermines the fate of a person? How free is he in his choice? What is the hidden meaning of suffering? How should suffering be treated? Solving the problem of freedom and necessity from a Christian standpoint, life often depicts a situation where a saint can avoid torment, but does not consciously do this, on the contrary, he gives himself into the hands of tormentors. The first Russian holy princes-martyrs Boris and Gleb voluntarily and consciously accept death, although (this is also demonstrated by the anonymous author of the Tale of Boris and Gleb, and Nestor, author of the Reading about Boris and Gleb) death could have been avoided. A whole group of lives stands out with clearly entertaining plots: love and hatred, separations and meetings, miracles and adventures, the manifestation of extraordinary human qualities (J. Eustathius Plakida, J. Alexy, a man of God, J. Galaktion and Epistimia, etc.). Capturing the feat of a particular person, life can also tell at the same time about the foundation of the monastery or the history of the construction of the temple or the appearance of relics (relics). The foundation of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery is narrated in the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the events of historical life, princely strife are also told by hagiographic monuments dedicated to Boris and Gleb; about the time of the invasion of the Livonian Order and complex political relations with the Horde - the life of Alexander Nevsky; the tragic events caused by the Tatar-Mongol conquest are mentioned in the lives dedicated to the princes killed in the Horde (Zh. Mikhail of Chernigov, 13th century and Zh. Mikhail-Tverskoy, early 14th century).

The canon, that is, the examples of the genre fixed by church and literary tradition, determines the artistic structure of the life: the principle of generalization when creating the image of a saint; type of narrator, construction rules (composition, set of topoi), own verbal templates. Often life includes such independent genres as vision, miracle, praise, lamentation. The author of the life is focused on showing the pious life of the saint, whom he knew either personally or from oral or written testimonies. Based on the requirements of the genre, the author had to admit all his "unreason", emphasizing in the introduction that he is too insignificant to describe the life of a man marked by God. On the one hand, the narrator's view of his "hero" is the view of an ordinary person on an extraordinary personality, on the other hand, objectively, and the narrator is not an ordinary person. A bookish person, not only well-versed in the works of his predecessors, possessing a literary gift, but also able to interpret Divine Providence by analogies, mainly from Holy Scripture, could undertake the compilation of a life.

Life could be read in the temple(special short lives as part of collections - Prologues (Greek: Synaxarei) - were read during the service on the 6th song of the canon), at the monastery meal and at home. Lengthy lives, as well as short ones in the Prologues, were distributed by months in Byzantium in collections that came with the adoption of Christianity to Russia - Menaion-Cheti. In the 16th century, Metropolitan Macarius united all the lives written by that time, recognized by the church, into a common code, called the Great Menaion-Chetii. In the 17th-18th century, following Metropolitan Macarius, largely following his work, Ivan Milyutin, German Tulupov, Dimitry Rostovsky compiled their own versions of the codes of life - the Menaion of the Fourth. Dm.Rostovsky not only relies on the experience of his great predecessor, Metropolitan Macarius, but also edits Chet'i-Mi nei anew, referring to different ones, incl. to Latin sources. Over time, the genre developed and could acquire local features, for example, in regional literatures.

In the 17th century, the medieval genre of life began to undergo significant changes: it became possible to write an autobiographical life (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”) or a combination of a life and a biographical story (“The Life of Julian Lazarevskaya”). In church practice, life as a biography of an ascetic - a locally revered saint or canonized by the church - is preserved until modern times ("Tales of the life and exploits of blessed memory of Father Seraphim" - Seraphim of Sarov (1760-1833), canonized by the Russian Church in 1903). Genre signs of life can be used in modern literature: F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov" (1879-80), L.N. Tolstoy "Father Sergius" (1890-98), N.S. Leskov "Soboryane" (1872 ), L.N. Andreev “The Life of Vasily of Thebes” (1904), I.A. Bunin “Matthew the Perspicacious” (1916), “Saint Eustathius” (1915), Ch. Aitmatov “The Block” (1986).

LIFE, hagiography came from Greek hagios - saint and grapho, which means - I write.

The emergence of ancient Russian writing

The hagiographic genre arose in Ancient Russia along with writing. The emergence of ancient Russian written culture was of a special nature; it arose as a result of the transplantation of Byzantine culture into Russia. It is known that the latter had a significant impact on Russian culture at the initial stage of its formation. Moreover, in relation to Russian literature, as D.S. Likhachev, we can talk not about the influence, but about the transfer of Byzantine literature to Russian soil. Indeed, we cannot say that the Byzantine religion "influenced" the Russian one, that Byzantine Orthodoxy had an "influence" on Russian paganism. Byzantine Christianity not only influenced the religious life of Russians - it was transferred to Russia. It did not change, did not transform paganism - it replaced it and, ultimately, destroyed it. Also, Byzantine literature could not influence Russian literature, since the latter essentially did not exist - in Russia they did not know written works before the advent of translated literature. That is why it is more correct to speak not about the influence of Byzantine literature, but about its transfer, transplantation on Slavic soil.

In the transplantation of Byzantine literature on Russian soil, ancient Bulgarian literature played a special role. Russia received the Byzantine cultural experience not only in its direct state, but also in the form “adapted” by Bulgaria. Ancient Bulgarian literature reached a high development earlier than the literature of other Slavic peoples. It was a century older than Russian literature. The early Christianization of Bulgaria allowed Bulgarian literature to adopt relatively complex works from Byzantine literature and develop its own original writing system. Ancient Bulgarian literature became the basis for a kind of "mediator literature" - the supranational literature of the southern and eastern Slavs, which existed in the sacred Church Slavonic language common to all of them. Slavic "intermediary literature" was created in many countries, was the common property of these countries, served their literary communication. It had a special interethnic fund of monuments and existed simultaneously on the territories of a number of South Slavic and East Slavic countries as a single developing entity uniting these countries. It was this literature that was transferred to Russia in the 10th century, simultaneously with the adoption of Christianity by the Russian tribes.

However, this transfer was not mechanical, and it did not end the life of the phenomenon. On the new soil, the transferred literature continued to live, develop, and acquire local features. The translation of a work in the Middle Ages was associated with the continuation of its literary history, with the appearance of new editions, sometimes with its adaptation to local, national conditions. As a result, the Byzantine work turned out to be, to a certain extent, a work of local, national literature.

Speaking about the reception of Byzantine literacy by the Eastern Slavs, it should be noted that in parallel with the translated works, original Russian texts arose. At the same time, it is important that the appearance of the first literary monuments created in Kievan Rus was associated with the Church from the very beginning. The first Russian literary work is written in 1049-1050. "Sermon on Law and Grace" by Metropolitan Hilarion of Kyiv. The main content of the Lay is an apologia for the Russian land, which, after the adoption of Christianity, joined the family of European Christian peoples. Already at the end of the 11th century, the first Russian hagiographies appeared. This is the life of St. Theodosius of the Caves, written by the Monk Nestor the Chronicler (1050s - early XII century), as well as two versions of the lives of Sts. martyrs Boris and Gleb - "The Tale of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb" and "Reading about the Life and Destruction of the Blessed Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb"; The author of the latter was also Rev. Nestor.

About the Rev. Nestor in the life of St. Theodosius is reported that he was tonsured at the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery under Abbot Stephen (1074-1078) and elevated to the diaconate by him, and that the "Reading" of Sts. Boris and Gleb were written to them before the life of St. Feodosiya. However, the question of the exact time of writing both lives remains controversial: different researchers attribute them either to the 80s. XI century, or to the beginning of the XII century; in the latter case, the writing of "Reading" dates back to about 1109. "Reading" was widely distributed in ancient Russian writing. The oldest of the lists known to us is part of the Sylvester collection of ser. 14th century Life of St. Theodosius became part of the Kiev-Pechersk patericon and in this form became widespread in ancient Russian literature, starting from the 15th century. There are relatively few separate lists of life; the oldest of them is part of the Assumption collection of the XII-XIII centuries.

In the same Assumption collection there is also an older list of "Tales of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb." In this collection, it is titled as “On the same day, saying and passion and praise to the holy martyr Boris and Gleb” and consists of two parts. The first part tells about the martyrdom of Sts. brothers, about Yaroslav's struggle with Svyatopolk, about the transfer of Gleb's body under Yaroslav from Smolensk to Vyshgorod and his burial next to Boris. It ends with praise to the saints. The second part, which has its own title - "The Tale of Miracles of the Holy Martyr of Christ Roman and David" - is a story about the miracles performed by the saints, about the construction of churches dedicated to them in Vyshgorod, about the transfer of their relics in 1072 and 1115. Thus, if the "Tale" from the very beginning consisted of two parts, then it could not have been written earlier than 1115. However, many researchers believe that the original version of the "Tale" did not contain the second part, and date it to the beginning of the second half of the 11th century. The "Tale" has come down to us in a large number of lists (more than 160), which indicates the popularity of this work in Ancient Russia. From the "Tale" it is clear that its author knew a number of monuments of translated hagiographic literature: he refers to the Torment of Nikita, the Life of Vyacheslav Czech, the Life of Barbara, the Life of Mercury of Caesarea, the Torment of Demetrius of Thessalonica.

Church Slavonic as the language of ancient Russian literature

Ancient Russia, having adopted Byzantine culture from Bulgaria, received from it not only a relatively complete set of works of Christian literature, but Bulgaria also gave Russia the literary language in which these works were written. Therefore, speaking about the verbal culture of Ancient Russia, first of all, it is necessary to say about the language of this culture.

The main condition for the style of high, solemn literature of the Middle Ages, and especially church literature, is that its language is isolated from everyday speech. Church Slavonic language of Kievan Rus X-XI centuries. was delimited, differed from the Old Russian folk language not only in reality ... but also in the minds of people, ”writes the researcher of Old Russian literature L.P. Yakubinsky.

B.A. Uspensky described such a specific relationship between Church Slavonic and Old Russian as a situation of diglossia. Diglossia implies “the coexistence of a bookish language system associated with a written tradition ... and a non-bookish system associated with everyday life. In the most clear case, the bookish language acts not only as a literary (written) language, but also as a sacred (cult) language, which determines both the specific prestige of this language and the especially carefully observed distance between bookish and colloquial speech; that is exactly what is happening in Russia.”

The "other" language of ecclesiastical literature was supposed to be a language elevated and, to a certain extent, abstract. The habitual associations of the high literary language of the Middle Ages are separated from everyday speech, elevated above it and cut off from concrete everyday life and everyday speech. The greater the gap between literary speech and everyday speech, the more literature satisfies the tasks of abstracting the world. Hence the desire to make the language of high literature a “sacred” language, inviolable to everyday life, not accessible to everyone, scientists, with complicated spelling, passing through the entire Middle Ages.

The influence of the language of monuments of past eras constantly affected the language of new monuments. Separate, especially authoritative works retained their language for many centuries. This is the originality of the history of the Church Slavonic language, traditional, stable, inactive. It was the language of traditional worship, traditional church books.

At the same time, it is very important that the high language of traditional church literature was part of the so-called culture of the “ready word”. This strengthened its traditional character, fidelity to the canons. This problem should be considered in more detail.

VOLGOGRAD STATE INSTITUTE

ARTS AND CULTURE

CHAIR OF LIBRARY STUDIES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Literature abstract

on the topic:

"Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature"

Volgograd 2002

Introduction

Every nation remembers and knows its history. In traditions, legends, songs, information and memories of the past were preserved and passed on from generation to generation.

The general rise of Russia in the 11th century, the creation of centers of writing, literacy, the appearance of a whole galaxy of educated people of their time in the princely-boyar, church-monastic environment determined the development of ancient Russian literature.

“Russian literature is almost a thousand years old. This is one of the oldest literatures in Europe. It is older than French, English, German literature. Its beginning dates back to the second half of the 10th century. Of this great millennium, more than seven hundred years belong to the period that is commonly called "ancient Russian literature"

Old Russian literature can be regarded as the literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this topic is the meaning of human life,” writes D. S. Likhachev.

Ancient Russian literature up to the 17th century. does not know or almost does not know conventional characters. The names of the characters are historical:

Boris and Gleb, Theodosius Pechersky, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Sergius of Radonezh, Stefan of Perm...

Just as we talk about the epic in folk art, we can also talk about the epic of ancient Russian literature. The epic is not a simple sum of epics and historical songs. Epics are plot-related. They paint us a whole epic era in the life of the Russian people. The era is fantastic, but at the same time historical. This era is the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun. The action of many plots is transferred here, which, obviously, existed before, and in some cases arose later. Another epic time is the time of independence of Novgorod. Historical songs depict us, if not a single era, then, in any case, a single course of events: the 16th and 17th centuries. par excellence.

Ancient Russian literature is an epic that tells the history of the universe and the history of Russia.

None of the works of Ancient Russia - translated or original - stands apart. All of them complement each other in the picture of the world they create. Each story is a complete whole, and at the same time it is connected with others. This is just one of the chapters in the history of the world.

The works were built according to the “enfilade principle”. Life was supplemented over the centuries with services to the saint, a description of his posthumous miracles. It could grow with additional stories about the saint. Several lives of the same saint could be combined into a new single work.

Such a fate is not uncommon for the literary works of Ancient Russia: many of the stories eventually begin to be perceived as historical, as documents or narratives about Russian history.

Russian scribes also act in the hagiographic genre: in the 11th - early 12th centuries. the lives of Anthony of the Caves (it has not survived), Theodosius of the Caves, two versions of the life of Boris and Gleb were written. In these hagiographies, Russian authors, undoubtedly familiar with the hagiographic canon and with the best examples of Byzantine hagiography, show, as we shall see below, an enviable independence and display high literary skill.

Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature.

In the XI - the beginning of the XII century. the first Russian lives are created: two lives of Boris and Gleb, "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves", "The Life of Anthony of the Caves" (not preserved until modern times). Their writing was not only a literary fact, but also an important link in the ideological policy of the Russian state.

At this time, the Russian princes persistently sought the rights of the Patriarch of Constantinople to canonize their Russian saints, which would significantly increase the authority of the Russian Church. The creation of a life was an indispensable condition for the canonization of a saint.

We will consider here one of the lives of Boris and Gleb - "Reading about the life and destruction" of Boris and Gleb and "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves." Both lives were written by Nestor. Comparing them is especially interesting, since they represent two hagiographic types - martyria hagiography(the story of the martyrdom of the saint) and monastic life, which tells about the whole life path of the righteous man, his piety, asceticism, miracles performed by him, etc. Nestor, of course, took into account the requirements of the Byzantine

hagiographic canon. There is no doubt that he knew translated Byzantine hagiographies. But at the same time, he showed such artistic independence, such an outstanding talent, that the creation of these two masterpieces alone makes him one of the outstanding ancient Russian writers.

Features of the genre of the life of the first Russian saints.

"Reading about Boris and Gleb" opens with a lengthy introduction, which outlines the whole history of the human race: the creation of Adam and Eve, their fall, the "idolatry" of people is denounced, it is recalled how Christ taught and was crucified, who came to save the human race, how they began to preach a new teaching of the apostles and a new faith triumphed. Only Russia remained "in the first [former] charm of the idol [remained pagan]." Vladimir baptized Russia, and this act is portrayed as a universal triumph and joy: people in a hurry to accept Christianity rejoice, and not one of them resists and does not even “say” “against” the will of the prince, Vladimir himself rejoices, seeing the “warm faith” newly converted Christians. Such is the prehistory of the villainous murder of Boris and Gleb by Svyatopolk. Svyatopolk thinks and acts according to the machinations of the devil. "Historiographic"

the introduction to life corresponds to the ideas of the unity of the world historical process: the events that took place in Russia are only a special case of the eternal struggle between God and the devil, and Nestor looks for an analogy, a prototype in past history for every situation, every act. Therefore, Vladimir's decision to baptize Russia leads to a comparison of him with Eustathius Plakida (the Byzantine saint, whose life was discussed above) on the grounds that Vladimir, as "ancient Plakida", God "has no way (in this case, illness)" after which the prince decided to be baptized. Vladimir is also compared with Constantine the Great, whom Christian historiography revered as an emperor who proclaimed Christianity the state religion of Byzantium. Nestor compares Boris with the biblical Joseph, who suffered because of the envy of his brothers, etc.

The peculiarities of the life genre can be judged by comparing it with the annals.

The characters are traditional. The chronicle says nothing about the childhood and youth of Boris and Gleb. Nestor, according to the requirements of the hagiographic canon, tells how, as a youth, Boris constantly read "the lives and torments of the saints" and dreamed of being honored with the same martyr's death.

The chronicle does not mention the marriage of Boris. Nestor has

the traditional motive is that the future saint seeks to avoid marriage and marries only at the insistence of his father: "not for the sake of bodily lust", but "for the sake of the Caesar's law and the obedience of his father."

Further, the plots of the life and the annals coincide. But how different are the two monuments in the interpretation of events! The annals say that Vladimir sends Boris with his soldiers against the Pechenegs, the Reading speaks abstractly about some “military” (that is, enemies, enemy), in the annals Boris returns to Kyiv, because he did not “found” (did not meet) enemy army, in "Reading" the enemies take flight, as they do not dare to "stand against the blessed."

Vivid human relations are visible in the annals: Svyatopolk attracts the people of Kiev to his side by giving them gifts (“estate”), they are reluctant to take them, since the same people of Kiev (“their brothers”) are in Boris’s army and - how completely natural in the real conditions of that time - the people of Kiev fear a fratricidal war: Svyatopolk can raise the people of Kiev against their relatives who went on a campaign with Boris. Finally, let us recall the nature of Svyatopolk’s promises (“I will give you to the fire”) or his negotiations with

"Vyshegorodsky boyars". All these episodes in the chronicle story look very vital, in "Reading" they are completely absent. This shows the tendency dictated by the canon of literary etiquette to abstraction.

The hagiographer seeks to avoid concreteness, lively dialogue, names (remember, the chronicle mentions the river Alta, Vyshgorod, Putsha, apparently, the elder of Vyshgorodtsy, etc.) and even lively intonations in dialogues and monologues.

When the murder of Boris and then Gleb is described, the doomed princes only pray, and they pray ritually: either quoting the psalms, or - contrary to any real life plausibility - urging the murderers to "finish their business."

On the example of "Reading" we can judge the characteristic features of the hagiographic canon - this is cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence (and the inevitable formal construction) of such elements of the saint's life, about which the hagiographer did not have the slightest information: an example of this is the description of the childhood years of Boris and Gleb in the Reading.

In addition to the life written by Nestor, the anonymous life of the same saints is also known - "The Tale and Passion and Praise of Boris and Gleb."

The position of those researchers who see in the anonymous "Tale of Boris and Gleb" a monument created after the "Reading" seems to be very convincing; in their opinion, the author of the Tale is trying to overcome the schematic and conventional nature of the traditional life, to fill it with vivid details, drawing them, in particular, from the original hagiographic version that has come down to us as part of the chronicle. The emotionality in The Tale is subtler and more sincere, despite the conditionality of the situation: Boris and Gleb meekly surrender themselves into the hands of the killers and here they have time to pray for a long time, literally at the moment when the killer’s sword is already raised over them, etc., but at the same time, their replicas are warmed by some sincere warmth and seem more

natural. Analyzing the "Legend", a well-known researcher

In ancient Russian literature, I. P. Eremin drew attention to the following stroke:

Gleb, in the face of the killers, “losing his body” (trembling, weakening), asks for mercy. He asks, as children ask: "Don't hurt me... Don't hurt me!" (here "deeds" - to touch). He does not understand what and why he must die for... Gleb's defenseless youth is very elegant and touching in its way. This is one of the most "watercolor" images of ancient Russian literature. In “Reading”, the same Gleb does not express his emotions in any way - he reflects (hopes that he will be taken to his brother and that, having seen Gleb’s innocence, he will not “destroy” him), he prays, and at the same time rather impassively. Even when the killer "yat [took] Saint Gleb for an honest head," he "is silent, like a fire without malice, all the mind is named to God and roaring up to heaven praying." However, this is by no means evidence of Nestor's inability to convey living feelings: in the same scene, he describes, for example, the experiences of the soldiers and servants of Gleb. When the prince orders to leave him in the boat in the middle of the river, then the soldiers “sting for the saint and often look around, wanting to see that he wants to be a saint”, and the youths in his ship, at the sight of the killers, “put down the oars, gray-haired mourning and weeping for the saints”. As you can see, their behavior is much more natural, and, therefore, the dispassion with which Gleb is preparing to accept death is just a tribute to literary etiquette.

"The Life of Theodosius of the Caves"

After "Reading about Boris and Gleb" Nestor writes "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" - a monk, and then hegumen of the famous Kiev-Pechersk monastery. This life is very different from the one discussed above by the great psychologism of the characters, the abundance of lively realistic details, the plausibility and naturalness of replicas and dialogues. If in the lives of Boris and Gleb (especially in the "Reading") the canon triumphs over the vitality of the situations described, then in the "Life of Theodosius", on the contrary, miracles and fantastic visions are described so clearly and convincingly that the reader seems to see what is happening with his own eyes and cannot don't "believe" him.

It is unlikely that these differences are only the result of Nestor's increased literary skill or a consequence of a change in his attitude towards the hagiographic canon.

The reasons here are probably different. First, these are lives of different types. Life of Boris and Gleb - martyr's life, that is, the story of the martyrdom of the saint; this main theme also determined the artistic structure of such a life, the sharpness of the opposition between good and evil, the martyr and his tormentors, dictated a special tension and "poster" directness of the culminating scene of the murder: it should be painfully long and up to

moralizing limit. Therefore, in the lives of martyrs, as a rule, the tortures of the martyr are described in detail, and ero death occurs, as it were, in several stages, so that the reader empathizes with the hero for a longer time. At the same time, the hero turns to God with lengthy prayers, in which his steadfastness and humility are revealed and the whole gravity of the crime of his killers is exposed.

"The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" - a typical monastic life, a story about a pious, meek, hardworking righteous man, whose whole life is a continuous feat. It contains many everyday collisions: scenes of the saint's communication with monks, laity, princes, sinners; in addition, in the lives of this type, the miracles performed by the saint are an obligatory component - and this introduces an element of plot entertainment into the life, requires considerable art from the author so that the miracle is described effectively and believably. Medieval hagiographers were well aware that the effect of a miracle is especially well achieved by combining purely realistic everyday details with a description of the action of otherworldly forces - the phenomena of angels, dirty tricks perpetrated by demons, visions, etc.

The composition of the "Life" is traditional: there is both a lengthy introduction and a story about the saint's childhood. But already in this story about the birth, childhood and adolescence of Theodosius, an involuntary clash of traditional clichés and life's truth takes place. The piety of Theodosius’ parents is traditionally mentioned, the scene of naming the baby is significant: the priest calls him “Theodosius” (which means “given to God”), since he foresaw with his “hearted eyes” that he “wanted to be given to God from childhood.” Traditionally, there is a mention of how the boy of Theodosius “goes all day to the church of God” and did not approach his peers playing on the street. However, the image of the mother of Theodosius is completely unconventional, full of undeniable individuality. She was physically strong, with a rough male voice; passionately loving her son, she nevertheless cannot come to terms with the fact that he, a boy from a very wealthy family, does not think of inheriting her villages and “slaves”, that he walks in shabby clothes, categorically refusing to put on “bright” and clean, and thus brings reproach to the family that he spends his time in prayer or baking prosphora. The mother stops at nothing to break the exalted piety of her son (this is the paradox - the parents of Theodosius are presented by the hagiographer as pious and God-fearing people!), She severely beats him, puts him on a chain, tears the chains from the body of the child. When Theodosius manages to leave for Kyiv in the hope of getting a haircut in one of the monasteries there, the mother announces a large reward to the one who will show her the whereabouts of her son. She finally discovers him in a cave, where he labors together with Anthony and Nikon (later the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery grows out of this dwelling of hermits). And here she resorts to a trick: she demands from Anthony to show her her son, threatening that otherwise she will “destroy” herself “in front of the doors of the oven.” But, seeing Theodosius, whose face “has changed from his much work and restraint”, the woman can no longer be angry: she, embracing her son, “weeping bitterly”, begs him to return home and do whatever he wants (“according to her will”) . Theodosius is adamant, and at his insistence, the mother is tonsured in one of the women's monasteries. However, we understand that this is not so much the result of the conviction that the path to God he has chosen is correct, but rather the act of a desperate woman who realized that only by becoming a nun can she see her son at least occasionally.

The character of Theodosius himself is also complex. He possesses all the traditional virtues of an ascetic: meek, industrious, adamant in the mortification of the flesh, full of mercy, but when a princely strife occurs in Kyiv (Svyatoslav drives his brother from the grand prince's throne -

Izyaslav Yaroslavich), Theodosius is actively involved in a purely worldly political struggle and boldly denounces Svyatoslav.

But the most remarkable thing in the Life is the description of monastic life and especially the miracles performed by Theodosius. It was here that the “charm of simplicity and fiction” of the legends about the Kyiv miracle workers, which A. S. Pushkin so admired, manifested itself.

Here is one of such miracles performed by Theodosius. To him, then hegumen of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, the elder over the bakers comes and informs him that there is no flour left and there is nothing to bake bread from. Theodosius sends a baker: “Go, look in the bottom, how little flour you find in it ...” But the baker remembers that he swept the bottom of the bottom and swept a small pile of bran into the corner - three or four handfuls, and therefore answers Theodosius with conviction:

“I’m telling you the truth, father, as if I myself had a litter of that sap, and there’s nothing in it, except for a single cut in a corner.” But Theodosius, recalling the omnipotence of God and citing a similar example from the Bible, sends the baker again to see if there is any flour in the bin. He goes to the pantry, goes to the bottom of the barrel and sees that the bottom of the barrel, previously empty, is full of flour.

In this episode, everything is artistically convincing: both the liveliness of the dialogue, and the effect of a miracle, enhanced precisely thanks to skillfully found details: the baker remembers that there are three or four handfuls of bran left - this is a concretely visible image and an equally visible image of a bin filled with flour: there is so much of it that she even spills over the wall to the ground.

The next episode is very picturesque. Theodosius was late on some business with the prince and must return to the monastery. The prince orders that Theodosius be brought up in a cart by a certain youth. The same, seeing the monk in “wretched clothes” (Theodosius, even being abbot, dressed so modestly that those who did not know him took him for a monastery cook), boldly addresses him:

"Chrnorizche! Behold, you are all day long, but you are difficult [here you are idle all the days, and I work]. I can't ride horses. But having done this [we will do this]: let me lie down on the cart, you can go on horses. Theodosia agrees. But as you get closer to the monastery, you meet more and more people who know Theodosius. They respectfully bow to him, and the boy gradually begins to worry: who is this well-known monk, albeit in shabby clothes? He is completely horrified when he sees with what honor Theodosius is met by the monastery brethren. However, the abbot does not reproach the driver and even orders him to feed and pay him.

Let's not guess whether there was such a case with Theodosius himself. Another thing is undoubted - Nestor could and knew how to describe such collisions, he was a writer of great talent, and the conventionality with which we meet in the works of ancient Russian literature is not the result of inability or special medieval thinking. When it comes to the very understanding of the phenomena of reality, one should only talk about special artistic thinking, that is, ideas about how this reality should be depicted in monuments of certain literary genres.

Over the next centuries, many dozens of different lives will be written - eloquent and simple, primitive and formal, or, on the contrary, vital and sincere. We will have to talk about some of them later. Nestor was one of the first Russian hagiographers, and the traditions of his work will be continued and developed in the writings of his followers.

Genre of hagiographic literature in XIV-XVIcenturies.

The genre of hagiographic literature became widespread in ancient Russian literature. "The Life of Tsarevich Peter Ordynsky, Rostov (XIII century)", "The Life of Procopius of Ustyug" (XIV).

Epiphanius the Wise (died in 1420) entered the history of literature primarily as the author of two extensive lives - "The Life of Stephen of Perm" (the bishop of Perm, who baptized the Komi and created an alphabet for them in their native language), written at the end of the 14th century, and "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh", created in 1417-1418.

The main principle from which Epiphanius the Wise proceeds in his work is that the hagiographer, describing the life of a saint, must by all means show the exclusivity of his hero, the greatness of his feat, the detachment of his actions from everything ordinary, earthly. Hence the desire for an emotional, bright, decorated language that differs from ordinary speech. The lives of Epiphanius are full of quotations from Holy Scripture, for the feat of his heroes must find analogies in biblical history. They are characterized by the demonstrative desire of the author to declare his creative impotence, the futility of his attempts to find the necessary verbal equivalent to the depicted high phenomenon. But it is precisely this imitation that allows Epiphanius to demonstrate all his literary skill, to stun the reader with an endless series of epithets or synonymous metaphors, or, by creating long chains of words with the same root, make him think about the erased meaning of the concepts they denote. This technique is called "word weaving".

Illustrating the writing style of Epiphanius the Wise, researchers most often turn to his "Life of Stephen of Perm", and within this life - to the famous praise of Stephen, in which the art of "weaving words" (by the way, here it is called exactly that) finds, perhaps, the clearest expression. Let us cite a fragment from this praise, paying attention both to the game with the word “word” and to the series of parallel grammatical constructions: Collecting praise, and acquiring, and dragging, I say again: what will I call thee: the leader (leader) of the lost, the finder of the lost, the deceived mentor, the leader of the blinded mind, the defiled purifier, the exactor wasted, the guards of the military, the sad comforter, the feeder of the hungry, the giver of the demanding. .."

Epiphanius strings a long garland of epithets, as if trying to more fully and accurately characterize the saint. However, this accuracy is by no means the accuracy of concreteness, but the search for metaphorical, symbolic equivalents to determine, in fact, the only quality of a saint - his absolute perfection in everything.

In the hagiography of the XIV-XV centuries. the principle of abstraction also becomes widespread, when “everyday, political, military, economic terminology, job titles, specific natural phenomena of a given country are expelled from the work ...” The writer resorts to paraphrases, using expressions such as “some nobleman”, “ruler hail to that ", etc. The names of episodic characters are also eliminated, they are referred to simply as "someone's husband", "some wife", while the additions "some", "some", "one" serve to remove the phenomenon from the surrounding everyday environment, from a specific historical environment.

The hagiographic principles of Epiphanius found their continuation in the work of Pachomius Logothetes. Pachomius Logothete. Pachomius, a Serb by origin, arrived in Russia no later than 1438. In the 40-80s. 15th century and his work is accounted for: he owns at least ten lives, many laudatory words, services to saints and other works. Pakhomiy, according to V. O. Klyuchevsky, “none showed any significant literary talent ... but he ... gave Russian hagiography many examples of that even, somewhat cold and monotonous style, which was easier to imitate with the most limited degree of erudition ".

This rhetorical style of writing by Pachomius, his plot simplification and traditionalism can be illustrated at least by such an example. Nestor very vividly and naturally described the circumstances of the tonsure of Theodosius of the Caves, how Anthony dissuaded him, reminding the young man of the difficulties awaiting him on the path of monastic asceticism, how his mother tries by all means to return Theodosius to worldly life. A similar situation exists in the Life of Cyril Belozersky, written by Pachomius. The young man Kozma is brought up by his uncle, a rich and eminent man (he is a roundabout with the Grand Duke). The uncle wants to make Kozma treasurer, but the young man longs to be tonsured a monk. And now, “if it happened to come to the Abbot of Makhrishch Stephen, the husband of the land in virtue is done, we all know the great for the sake of life. Having seen this coming, Kozma flows with joy to him ... and falls to his honest feet, shedding tears from his eyes and tells his thought to him, and at the same time begs him to lay on the monastic image. “For you, speech, oh, sacred head, you have desired for a long time, but now God vouchsafe me to see your honest shrine, but I pray for the Lord’s sake, do not reject me as a sinner and indecent ...” The elder is “touched”, comforts Kozma and tonsures him as a monk (giving him the name Cyril). The scene is labeled and cold: the virtues of Stefan are glorified, Kozma pathetically prays to him, the hegumen willingly meets his request. Then Stefan goes to Timothy, the uncle of Kozma-Cyril, to inform him about the tonsure of his nephew. But here, too, the conflict is only barely outlined, not depicted. Timothy, having heard about what had happened, "heavyly understands the word, and at the same time he was filled with sorrow and some annoying utterance to Stefan." That insulted one leaves, but Timothy, ashamed of his pious wife, immediately repents "about the words spoken to Stephen", returns him and asks for forgiveness.

In a word, in the "standard" eloquent expressions, a standard situation is depicted, which in no way correlates with the specific characters of this life. We will not find here any attempts to arouse the reader's empathy with the help of any vital details, subtly noticed nuances (rather than general forms of expression) of human feelings. Attention to feelings, emotions, which require an appropriate style for their expression, the emotions of the characters and, to no lesser extent, the emotions of the author himself are undeniable.

But this, as already mentioned above, is not yet a true penetration into

human character, this is only the declared attention to it, a kind of "abstract psychologism" (D.S. Likhachev's term). And at the same time, the very fact of an increased interest in the spiritual life of a person is already significant in itself. The style of the second South Slavic influence, which was embodied initially in the lives (and only later in the historical narrative), D. S. Likhachev proposed to call

"expressive-emotional style".

At the beginning of the XV century. under the pen of Pachomius Logothetes, as we remember,

a new hagiographical canon was created - eloquent, "decorated" lives, in which lively "realistic" lines gave way to beautiful, but dry paraphrases. But along with this, lives of a completely different type appear, boldly breaking traditions, touching with their sincerity and ease.

Such, for example, is the Life of Mikhail Klopsky. "The Life of Mikhail Klopsky". The very beginning of this life is unusual. Instead of the traditional beginning, the story of the hagiographer about the birth, childhood and tonsure of the future saint, this life begins, as it were, from the middle, and at the same time from an unexpected and mysterious scene. The monks of the Trinity on Klop (near Novgorod) monastery were in the church for prayer. Pope Macarius, returning to his cell, finds that the cell is unlocked, and an old man unknown to him sits in it and rewrites the book of the apostolic deeds. The pope, "thrown up", returned to the church, called the hegumen and the brethren, and together with them returned to the cell. But the cell is already locked from the inside, and the unfamiliar old man continues to write. When they begin to question him, he answers very strangely: he repeats word for word every question put to him. The monks could not even find out his name. The elder visits the church with the rest of the monks, prays with them, and the abbot decides: “Be an elder with us, live with us.” All the rest of the life is a description of the miracles performed by Michael (his name is reported by the prince who visited the monastery). Even the story of Michael's "departure" is surprisingly simple, with mundane details, and there is no traditional praise for the saint.

The singularity of the "Life of Michael of Klopsky", created in the age of the creations of Pachomius Logofet, should not, however, surprise us. The point here is not only in the original talent of its author, but also in the fact that the author of the life is a Novgorodian, he continues in his work the traditions of Novgorod hagiography, which, like all the literature of Novgorod, was distinguished by greater immediacy, unpretentiousness, simplicity (in the good sense of this words), comparatively, for example, with the literature of Moscow or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus.

However, the "realism" of the life, its plot amusingness, the liveliness of scenes and dialogues - all this was so contrary to the hagiographic canon that the life had to be reworked in the next century. Let us compare only one episode - the description of the death of Michael in the original edition of the 15th century. and in the alteration of the XVI century.

In the original edition we read: “And Michael fell ill in the month of December on Savin's day, going to the church. And he stood on the right side of the church, in the courtyard, opposite the tomb of Theodosius. And the abbot and the elders began to speak to him: “Why, Michael, are you not standing in the church, but standing in the yard?” And he said to them: “I want to lie down here.” ... Yes, he took with him a censer and temyan [incense - incense], and Shol in the cell. And the abbot sent him nets and threads from the meal. And they unlocked it, and he was smoking agiotemyan [temyan is still smoking], but he was not in his stomach [died]. And they began to look for places, the earth froze, where to put it. And remember

blacks to the abbot - test the place where Michael stood. Ino from that place looked through, even the earth was melting. And they bury him honestly.”

This laid-back, lively story has undergone a drastic revision. So, to the question of the hegumen and the brethren, why he prays in the courtyard, Michael now answers as follows: “Behold my rest forever and ever, as if the imam will dwell here.” The episode when he leaves for his cell is also reworked: “And he burns the censer, and having laid incense on the coals, he departs to his cell, but the brethren who marvel at seeing the saint are so much exhausted, and yet so much the fortress is received. The abbot departs for the meal and sends a meal to the saint, commanding him to taste it.

They came from the hegumen and went into the cell of the saint, and having seen him departed to the Lord, and having their hands bent in the shape of a cross, and in a way, as if sleeping and emitting a lot of fragrance. Further, weeping is described at the burial of Michael; moreover, not only the monks and the archbishop “with the whole sacred council”, but also the whole people mourn him: people rush to the funeral, “like the rapids of the river, the tears are incessantly shedding”. In a word, under the pen of the new editor, Vasily Tuchkov, the life acquires exactly the form in which, for example, Pakhomiy Logofet would have created it.

These attempts to move away from the canons, to let the breath of life into literature, to decide on literary fiction, to renounce straightforward didactics, were manifested not only in the lives.

The genre of hagiographic literature continued to develop in the 17th - 18th centuries: "The Tale of a Luxurious Life and Fun", "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum" 1672, "The Life of Patriarch Joachim Savelov" 1690, "The Life of Simon Volomsky", the end of the 17th century, "The Life of Alexander Nevsky »

The autobiographical moment is fixed in different ways in the 17th century: here is the life of the mother, compiled by her son (“The Tale of Uliania Osorgina”), and the “ABC”, compiled on behalf of “a naked and poor man”, and “Message of a noble enemy”, and autobiographies proper - Avvakum and Epiphany, written simultaneously in the same earthen prison in Pustozersk and representing a kind of diptych. "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum" is the first autobiographical work of Russian literature in which Archpriest Avvakum himself spoke about himself and his long-suffering life. Speaking of the work of Archpriest Avvakum, A.N. Tolstoy wrote: “These were brilliant “life” and “messages” of the rebel, frantic Archpriest Avvakum, who ended his literary activity with terrible torture and execution in Pustozersk. Avvakum's speech is all about gesture, the canon is shattered, you physically feel the presence of the narrator, his gestures, his voice.

Conclusion:

Having studied the poetics of individual works of ancient Russian literature, we have drawn a conclusion about the features of the hagiography genre.

Life is a genre of ancient Russian literature that describes the life of a saint.

In this genre, there are different hagiographic types:

- life-martyria (the story of the martyrdom of the saint)

• monastic life (a story about the whole life path of a righteous man, his piety, asceticism, miracles he performed, etc.)

The characteristic features of the hagiographic canon are cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence of such elements of the saint's life, about which the hagiographer had not the slightest information.

The moment of miracle, revelation (the ability to learn is a gift from God) is very important for the genre of monastic life. It is the miracle that brings movement and development into the biography of the saint.

The genre of life is gradually undergoing changes. The authors depart from the canons, letting the breath of life into literature, they decide on literary fiction (“The Life of Mikhail Klopsky”), they speak a simple “peasant” language (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”).

Bibliography:

1. Likhachev D. S. Great heritage. Classical works of literature of Ancient Russia. M., 1975, p. 19.

2. Eremin I. P. Literature of Ancient Russia (etudes and characteristics). M.-L., 1966, p. 132-143.

3. Likhachev D. S. Human Literature of Ancient Russia. M., 1970, p. 65.

4. Eremin I. P. Literature of Ancient Russia (etudes and characteristics). M.-L., 1966, p. 21-22.

5. Pushkin A. S. Full. coll. op. M., 1941, v. XIV, p. 163.

6. Likhachev D. S. Culture of Russia in the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise. M.-L., 1962, p. 53-54.

7. Klyuchevsky V.O. Ancient Russian Lives of Saints as a Historical Source. M., 1871, p. 166.