9 century

862-63 The Cyrillic alphabet owes its name to the 9th century Byzantine missionary St. Cyril, who, along with his brother, Methodius, created the first Slavic alphabet—the Glagolitic—in order to translate Greek religious text to Slavic.
Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia requested that Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch Photius from Constantinople (Byzantine) send missionaries to evangelize his Slavic subjects. The Emperor quickly chose to send Cyril, accompanied by his brother Methodius. In 863, they began the task of translating the Bible into the language now known as Old Church Slavonic and travelled to Great Moravia to promote it.
For the purpose of this mission, they devised the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet to be used for Slavonic manuscripts. The Glagolitic alphabet was suited to match the specific features of the Slavic language.
There are still no single opinion, when its descendant script, the Cyrillic alphabet, was developed. More likely it was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD by the followers of the brothers. The Cyrillic is still used by many languages today.
The brothers Cyril and Methodius wrote the first Slavic Civil Code, which was used in Great Moravia. The language derived from Old Church Slavonic, known as Church Slavonic, is still used in liturgy by several Orthodox Churches and also in some Eastern Catholic churches.
The brothers translated portions of the Bible. The New Testament and the Psalms seem to have been the first, followed by other lessons from the Old Testament.
For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the «Apostles to the Slavs».
After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs.
Both brothers are venerated in the Orthodox Church as Saints with the title of «equal-to-apostles».

10 century

This new cultural era dates back to the adoption of Christianity in 989, when the principalities of Kievan Rus' came under the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire, one of the most advanced cultures of the time.
Thus, Kievan Rus' became part of the broader Christian world, under Byzantium's influence. Byzantium remained the only direct successor of the Hellenistic world, which had applied the artistic achievements of antiquity to the spiritual experience of Christianity. Byzantine culture differed from the rest of the world by its refined taste and sophistication.
The absorbing of this foreign culture with its long traditions was an active, creative process in keeping with the internal requirements of the Old Russian state, and that it stimulated the emergence of an original literature.
The peculiarities of the first «Russian» works of art, created by the «visiting» Greeks, were the ambitions of the young Russian state and its princely authority. Byzantine influence, however, couldn't spread quickly over the enormous territory of Rus' lands, and their Christianization would take several centuries.
There are different concepts on the correlation of Christianity and pagan beliefs among the East Slavs. Popular culture has long been defined by pagan beliefs, especially in the remote regions of Kievan Rus'.
With the adoption of Christianity, the principalities of Rus' became part of a book culture. Although written language had been in use in the Russian lands for quite some time, it was only after the baptism of Rus' that written language spread throughout the principalities. The development of the local literary language was associated with Christianity, and strongly influenced by Old Church Slavonic.
Patristic (or patrology) - the writings of Roman and Byzantine theologians of the third to eleventh centuries who were revered as “Church Fathers” (Greek patros and Latin pater mean “father”, hence the name given to their writings—patristics).
The writings of the Church Fathers substantiated and commented upon the basic precepts of the Christian religion, carried on polemics with heretics, and expounded principles of Christian morality or rules of monastic life in the form of instructions and exhortations.
Parable came into Russian literature along with the first translations of the texts of Scripture.
Fable, parable, and allegory, any form of imaginative literature or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the fiction.
Preaching was also a literary form in Ancient Russia. The first sermons were translated works in the collections of Byzantine authors.
Apocryphal as a literary form (Apocrypha from Greek apokryptein, «to hide away»)- legends about Biblical personages, which differed from those contained in the canonical books of the Bible. For Ancient Russian mind «an easy understanding of Holy Scripture was unattainable», the Bible was in need for interpretation.
Originally there was a distinction between apocryphas intended for readers well versed in theological matters, who could interpret the apocryphal versions in line with the traditional ones, and the «proscribed books» containing heretical views which were clearly hostile to orthodox beliefs. But the borderline between apocryphal and proscribed books was not a strict one, different writers took different views of them, and therefore both groups of writing are usually considered within the framework of apocryphal literature as a whole.
The official Church at first prized, later tolerated, and finally excluded these writings.
Apocrypha texts were divided by related to Old Testament (story of Adam and Eve, kings Solomon and David), and New Testament (life of Jesus Christ).
At the time when Greek was the common spoken language in the Mediterranean region, the Old Testament—the Hebrew Bible—was incomprehensible to most of the population. For this reason, Jewish scholars produced a translations of the Old Testament books from various Hebrew texts into Greek.

11 century

from 11th to 18th centuries Ancient Rus' Chronicles (Letopisi) - the main type of Old Russian historical literature. The Chronicles are one of the leading genres Old Kievan Russ literature and among the most extensive monuments to it.
There were two centers of Russian Chronicle preparation in this early period: Kiev (the capital of early Rus') and Novgorod.
1016-1471 The Novgorod First Chronicle (The Chronicle of Novgorod) - the most ancient extant Old Russian chronicle of the Novgorodian Rus'.
The scholar named it «Primary Svod» (Collection) and dated as the end of 11th century. This svod was also a basis for Primary Chronicle of 12th century.
Letopises are the only historical source for Ancient Rus' scholars – they describe systems of power and relations between Slavic tribes and the rest of the world. It is the one and only tool to define the age of a city or township. The year the city appeared in a letopis was considered the year of its foundation.
Hagiography - the vitae, i.e., stories about the life, sufferings or pious acts of people canonized by the Church, that is, officially recognized as saints whom it was permissible to worship. A hagiographic account of an individual saint can consist of a biography (vita), a description of the saint's deeds or miracles, an account of the saint's martyrdom (passio), or be a combination of these.
Eventually the Bulgarians brought this genre to Kievan Rus' together with writing and also in translations from the Greek language. In the 11th century, the Rus' began to compile the original life stories of the first Russian saints.
11th century Lives of Boris and Gleb - a masterpiece of hagiography by Nestor the Chronicler and Jacob the Monk. Saint Nestor the Chronicler (~1056 – 1114 ) was a monk of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev.
11th century Paterica - collections of short stories usually about monks famed for their piety or asceticism, were well known in Kievan Russia.
In the Russian paterica and vitae (hagiography) episodes and descriptions often borrowed from Byzantine patericon legends.
Yaroslav the Wise - a notable patron of book culture and learning.
1051 Yaroslav the Wise proclaimed Hilarion of Kiev to be the metropolitan bishop of Kiev. Thus challenged the Byzantine tradition of placing Greeks on the Episcopal sees.
Hilarion's discourse on Yaroslav and his father Vladimir is frequently cited as the first work of Old East Slavic literature.
~1037-50 «Sermon on Law» (the Law given by Moses and the Grace and Truth which came by Jesus Christ) and Grace by the Kievan Metropolitan Hilarion - one of the earliest Slavonic texts available, having been written several decades before the Primary Chronicle. Since Hilarion was considered to be a writer worthy of imitation, this sermon was very influential in the further development of both the style and content of Kievan Rus' literature.
1091 The relics of Theodosius of Kiev or Theodosius of the Caves discovered by St. Nestor the Chronicler.
Theodosius of the Caves is an 11th-century saint who brought Cenobitic Monasticism to Kievan Rus' and, together with St Anthony of Kiev, founded the Kiev Caves Lavra (Monastery of the Caves). A hagiography of Theodosius was written in the12th century.
1099 Instruction (The Testament) by Vladimir Monomakh to his children - an example of teaching and didactic literature. Monomakh mentions that he conducted 83 military campaigns and 19 times made peace with the Polovtsi.
Vladimir Monomakh was also noted as a builder; he founded the city of Vladimir, which by the end of the 12th century replaced Kiev as the seat of the grand prince.
11-14 centuries Slavonic apocryphal pilgrimage literature - the widespread knowledge of literature through liturgical tradition and oral legends attested in a complex of «holy books» where the apocryphal and legendary motifs enrich and complete the understanding of sacred history characters and events.
Religious pilgrims (kaliki perekhozhie) traveled to Tsargrad (Constantinople) or the Holy Land, as a rule formed groups that choose a leader for themselves (and ataman), and may have received special dispensions from the church. They were often blind or handicapped, and performed their songs, especially on religious holidays, at churches, monasteries and fairs.

12 century

~1113 Primary Chronicle or Rus' (RPC) by St. Nestor the Chronicler (The Tale of Bygone Years) - a history of the Kyivan Rus' from about 850 to 1110.
The work is considered to be a fundamental source in the interpretation of the history of the East Slavs. The historical period covered in the Tale of Bygone Years begins with biblical times, and regards to the origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kyiv, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning.
Metropolitan 1147-55 Klim (Kliment) Smoliatich - Metropolitan of Kiev and All-Rus', an erudite sermonizer and philosopher. His best-known work is Poslaniie do presvitera Khomy (Letter to Presbyter Khoma), which has survived in two manuscript forms. It contains a symbolic explanation of the Holy Scriptures, and demonstrates his knowledge of Homer, Plato, and Aristotle.
DOB1130-82 Cyril of Turov (Kirill of Turov) - a writer, a bishop and saint, one of the first and finest theologians of Kievan Rus'; he lived in Turov, now southern Belarus'.
He was a master of Orthodox theology and the Byzantine style of writing. Cyril's sermon is one of his best known works. Cyril also exerted influence on subsequent generations of East Slavs (continuing through the 17th century).
late 12th century The Tale of Igor's Campaign - an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as The Tale of the Campaign of Igor, The Song of Igor's Campaign, The Lay of Igor's Campaign, The Lay of the Host of Igor, and The Lay of the Warfare Waged by Igor.
The poem gives an account of a failed raid of Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsians of the Don River region.
The descriptions show coexistence between Christianity and ancient Slavic religion. Igor's wife Yaroslavna invokes natural forces from the walls of Putyvl. Christian motifs are presented along with depersonalized pagan gods as among the artistic images.
~12 century Numerous translations of historical military events and wars.
The Slavonic Josephus is an Old East Slavic translation of Flavius Josephus' History of the Jewish War.
The Jewish War or Judean War - a book written by Titus Flavius Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian of the 1st century. The books of the History of the Jewish War against the Romans, which opens with a summary of Jewish history from the capture of JeRus'alem in 168 BC.

13 century

Mongol-Tatar invasion made a huge impact on Russian architecture, literature, arts.
Russian architecture, which achieved grandeur in the pre-Mongol period, suffered severely from the invasion. Masonry construction ceased entirely for half a century for lack of the material means and of master builders. Numerous cities were destroyed, including Ryazan, Kolomna, Moscow, Vladimir and Kiev.
The damage done to literature by the Mongol-Tatar invasion was not limited solely to destruction of written legacies: the very character of works of literature changed.
Many of the surviving monuments of the literature of ancient Rus' reached us via Novgorod, which was not destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars.
The literature of the this period was reflecting the events connected with the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The majestic emotion pervaded works about the Mongol invasion, which combined in these works with the epic grandeur of the events to create a kind of monumental emotionality.
The feudal disunity of Russia, which was particularly strong during Mongol overlordship, promoted the development of local and regional chronicle-writing. This helped to strengthen people’s awareness of the unity of Russia. The chronicles recount the history of the whole Russian land. In this way they reminded people of the unity of the Russian principalities and aroused memories of the glorious past and former might of Russia.
Spiritually the Russian people was neither destroyed nor enslaved. The struggle against the invaders produced an upsurge of patriotism. And the patriotic theme became the main theme in 13th-century literature. Military heroism and courage, devotion to duty, love of one’s native land, praise of the former greatness and might of the Russian princes and principalities, grief for the fallen, pain and compassion for all those abased by the enslavers - all this was reflected both in chronicle-writing, hagiography and ceremonial rhetoric. The theme of the need for a strong princely power is stressed urgently in 13th-century works. The ideal of the strong ruler is the prince, both warrior and wise statesman. In reminiscences of the past Vladimir Monomachos is portrayed as such a prince as Alexander Nevsky.
~1220S «The Battle on the River Kalka» from The Novgorod First Chronicle - military chronicle tale, one of chronicles of Batu’s invasion and the establishment of Mongol overlordship.
Novgorod is the only Russian state, or city, of importance, which escapes full subjugation by the Mongols of the 13th century. And even Novgorod becomes the vassal of the Tartars.
~1230S «The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan» - tells of the outnumbered Russians fight fiercely against Batu army. The accursed Batu successfully storms Ryazan and kills all of its inhabitants. This tale has also stylistic features found in Russian byliny.
~1270S Serapion of Vladimir - a fine master of oratorical genre in the 13th century. Oratorical mastership is one of the main genres of Old Russian literature.
The main theme of Serapion’s sermons are the disasters that have befallen the Russian land as a result of the Mongol invasion, which was Divine punishment to Russia for people’s sins. According to Serapion, only repentance and moral self-perfectionment can save the Russian land. Serapion’s vivid descriptions of the disasters that have befallen the Russian land and his depth of feeling for his people’s sufferings, which he himself shared, give his sermons great patriotic meaning.
~1260S-80S «The Tale of the Life of Alexander Nevsky» - the work devoted to Alexander as the wise statesman and great military leader, hagiographic literature by genre. The work was written in the Monastery of the Nativity in Vladimir, where Prince Alexander was buried (he died on his way back from a journey to the Horde).
The Lives of princes written during this period reflected the events of the Mongol invasion and rule.
A characteristic feature of hagiography of this period was the desire to observe the canons which had grown up over the many centuries of hagiographic literature. Real life was injected into hagiographical works with a publicistic elements, literary variety and exciting subject matter.
1238-46 «The Lay of the Ruin of the Russian Land» - poetic and lyric tale of the period.
In its poetic structure and ideology «The Lay of the Ruin of the Russian Land» is close to «The Lay of Igor’s Host». Both works contain a high degree of patriotism, a strong sense of national awareness, hyperbolisation of the strength and military valour of the warrior prince, a lyrical attitude towards nature, and a rhythmic structure.

14 century

During the destruction of Russian towns a large number of manuscript books had perished. Mongol rule led to a drop in literacy among the population. The revival of book culture was promoted by the appearance in Russia during the second half of the 14th century of paper, a cheaper writing material than parchment. Book production started to revive.
By the beginning of the 14th century the disrupted relations of the Russian lands with other countries began to be resumed. Pilgrimages to JeRus'alem and Constantinople were resumed, and in this connection the genre of the travel story describing journeys and places visited by pilgrims was also revived.
In the period when Russia was ruled by the Mongols the style of monumental historicism continued but did not produce any great or impressive individual works. There was not the radical change of literary styles. The features of the new style developed slowly within the old one.
In the14th century the emotional element became stronger in Russian literature, when the lyrical, emotional element was combined with minor themes, about the day-to-day events of foreign rule. Increasingly more space was devoted in literature to dreams of a better future, of distant happy lands, of an earthly paradise as yet undiscovered.
The Pre-Renaissance phenomena that emerged in the 14th century in Russian cultural life became particularly evident at the end of the century and in the first half of the following one. The upsurge of national awareness after the Battle of Kulikovo produced a flowering of culture, arousing intense interest in the country’s past and the urge to revive national traditions and to strengthen Russia’s cultural contacts with other states. Russia’s traditional contacts with Byzantium and the Southern Slav countries were revived.
In the late 14th and early 15th century the great mediaeval painter Theophanes the Greek worked in Russia, whose painting emDOBied the ideals of the Pre-Renaissance.
The great Russian painter Andrei Rublev was working at the end of the 14th and in the first quarter of the 15th century. His activity is connected with Moscow and the towns and monasteries around Moscow.
During the period of the unification of the lands around the Moscow principality the literature reflected uprising of Russia in spiritual and state unity.
1314-92 St Sergius of Radonezh - a spiritual leader and monastic reformer of medieval Russia. Together with Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, he is one of the Russian Orthodox Church's most highly venerated saints. He started the history of the great Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra.
DOB 1336-1406 Cyprian Bulgarian - Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus' with the Metropolitan's residence in Moscow.
Cyprian is remembered as a wise and experienced church administrator who fought for the unity of the Russian church. In fact, he is mainly responsible for uniting the Church in Russia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Cyprian was an erudite person and oversaw the copying and creation of a number of important works, including the «Troitskaia Chronicle» (or Troitskaya letopis') and, probably, «the Metropolitan Justice». He also rewrote the «Life of Metropolitan Peter», originally written around 1327. He also corrected biblical books and translated a number of ecclesiastic works from Greek into Old Church Slavic.
DOB 14th century-1420 Epiphanius «the Most Wise» - a monk in a Rostov monastery. Because of his erudition and literary skill he became known as .
1396-98«The Life of St Stephen of Perm» - Epiphanius hagiographer strives to use the ordinary devices of language so as to make the reader see the saint as a person of a completely different spiritual type from other people. Therefore linguistic artifice is a device with the help of which the author is able to extol the hero of his narrative in worthy fashion.
1417-18«The Life of St Sergius of Radonezh» - Epiphanius master of the narrative with a distinctive lyrical quality.
starting 1390 «The Book of Degrees» (Stepénnaya kniga) , which grouped Russian monarchs in the order of their generations, was started by Cyprian in 1390 (but completed only in 1563).
late 14th century «Zadonshchina» - a Russian literary monument of the late 14th century, which tells of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.
«Zadonshchina» presents a detailed description of the Battle of Kulikovo against the Tatars led by Mamai. The leader of the Muscovy hosts was prince Dmitry Ivanovich (entered in history as Dmitry Donskoy). The story propagates the importance of the unification of Russian principalities in order to defeat the common enemy – the Golden Horde. This epic also reflects the rise of the Moscow principality and stresses that the Muscovy princes were successors to the Kievan princes.

15 century

In Russian history 15th century was a period of «discovery of man», of his inner life, his virtues, his historical significance , etc. In Western Europe this discovery took place with the development of commodity-money relations.
In Russia the conditions for the liberation of the individual were created, on the one hand, by economic growth and the development of trade and handicrafts which led to the rise of the «town-communes» of Novgorod and Pskov, and on the other hand, by the fact that at the time of Mongol overlordship inner qualities became valued increasingly: a person’s fortitude, devotion to his homeland and his prince.
This explains why literature, and particularly hagiography, describes the inner life of an individual and pays increasing attention to the emotional sphere. This leads to expressive style and dynamic description.
This was roughly the period of the Renaissance and a little later the Reformation in Western Europe . The Renaissance was, first and foremost, the victory of the secular trend in culture over the religious.
In Russia this period should not be identified with the Renaissance, for religion dominated the spiritual culture of Old Russia right up to the 17th century. But the end of the 15th certain in Russian literature distinctly resembled those of the Renaissance and Reformation in Western Europe.
beginning of 15th century «The Tale of the Battle Against Mamai» - the most lengthy work of the Kulikovo cycle. It contains the most detailed account of the events of the Battle of Kulikovo.
The Tale was frequently copied and revised right up to the beginning of the 18th century and has survived in 8 redactions and a large number of versions.
«The Tale of the Battle Against Mamai» gave a detailed description of the Battle of Kulikovo. The Tale also has the elements of an exciting story. Not only the actual event, but also the fate of the individual characters and the development of the plot produced an emotional response to the account.
1433-1508 St Nil Sorsky - a leader of a tendency in the medieval Russian Orthodox Church known as the «Non-possessors» which opposed ecclesiastic landownership.
In his teachings, he developed mystical and ascetical ideas, asking the believers to concentrate on their inner world and personal emotional experiences of faith as means for achieving unity with God. Nil Sorsky demanded that monks participate in productive labor and spoke in support of monastic reforms on a basis of a secluded and modest lifestyle.
1460s-1470s «The Voyage Beyond Three Seas» by the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin - a description of Afanasy Nikitin’s journey to India. It resembles the accounts of pilgrimages to the Holy Land which had existed since the 12th century or the description of journeys to church councils. Nikitin’s voyage was not a pilgrimage to Christian lands, however, but a trading mission to distant India.
The autobiographical and lyrical elements in the «Voyage Beyond Three Seas», which conveys the emotional suffering and mood of the author , were new features in Old Russian literature and characteristic of the 15th century.
late 15th century Euphrosyne, a monk at the White Lake Monastery of St Cyril - man who lovingly collected and copied this secular literature . He transcribed the oldest extant manuscripts of «The Trans-Doniad», «The Tale of the Indian Empire», «Solomon and Kitovras», the «Alexandreid», «The Tale of Dracula». Euphrosyne does not appear to have been a heretic or opponent of the church, but the range of his interests extended far beyond the limits set by official church ideology.
The15th century saw a sharp increase in the number of secular works in Old Russian literature. There appeared translations (mostly Russian adaptations of South Slavonic texts) of mediaeval tales of chivalry and adventure.
late 15th - early 16th centuries Fyodor Kuritsyn - one of the chief heretics (Novgorodian-Muscovite heresy of the Strigolniks), who dealt with foreign policy matters under Ivan 3. As other heretics, he showed great interest in secular culture; the books that circulated among heretics included Greek and Roman works.
The heretics were attacked by the leading churchmen , such as Abbot Joseph and Nilus of Sora. They defended monasticism and monasteries (the most important element of heresy was the rejection of monasticism and monasteries).
«The Enlightener» - the literary anti-heretical work of Nilus of Sora and Abbot Joseph.

16 century

The 16th century was the period of the final formation and establishment of the Russian centralized state with the strict centralization of culture and literature. During this period Russian architecture and painting continued to develop and book printing began.
The heretical movement that had been put down at the beginning of the 16th century reemerged in the middle of the century after the large-scale popular revolts of the 1540s. And again heresy was cruelly repressed. One heretic, a nobleman Matfei Bashkin, acclaimed that no one had the right to own «Christ’s servants» and freed all his serfs. Another heretic, a serf called Theodosius Kosoy, declared that all people were equal irrespective of nationality and creed.
beginning 16th century Ivan Peresvetov (professional soldier) - the secular writer, publicist, who breaks with the traditions of earlier writing styles.
Arriving in Russia in the late 1530s from Poland when Ivan 4 was still a child and the boyars were ruling for him, Peresvetov became a firm opponent of the arbitrary rule of the boyars. In content it is a publicistic work in which Peresvetov suggests that Ivan 4 should introduce some major political reforms.
The influence of folklore and oral speech can be seen clearly in Peresvetov’s works. His aphorisms are constructed like proverbs: «A kingdom without terror is like a king’s horse without a bridle» (this idea was taken up by Tsar Ivan 4 - Ivan the Terrible.); «God loves not faith, but truth».
~1524 The manuscript of Philotheus, a monk in the Pskov Crypt Monastery - in this manuscript Philotheus expressed the view, quite common in Russian publicistics, that the whole Latin (Catholic) world was sinful and that the «first Rome» and the «second Rome» (Constantinople) had lapsed into heresy and ceased to be the centres of the Christian world. They would be replaced by Russia, the «third Rome».
1530s-1540s «The Great Menology» - compilation consisted of 12 volumes, one for each calendar month. The book was compiled under the supervision of Macarius, Archbishop of Novgorod and later Metropolitan of All Russia.
Each volume contained the Lives of all the saints whose feast days came in that particular month. Macarius’ intention was that The Great Menology should cover all books intended for reading and to cover all the works (apart from chronicles and chronographs) that were permitted reading in Old Russia. Each of its huge volumes (in folio) contains 1,000 printer’s quires.
before the middle of 16th century«The Household Management» (rules for domestic life) - a work consisting of three parts: on worship of the Church and the Tsar, on «wordly management” (relations within the family) and on «household management» (economy).
The main theme: austerity and strictness in private life, compulsory handiwork for members of the family, thriftiness even to the point of stinginess, guarding against dangerous relations with the outside world and the strictest keeping of all family secrets.
1551 «The Council of the Hundred Chapters» - a special book consisting of the tsar’s Ivan the Terrible questions and the council’s answers to these questions.
«The Council of the Hundred Chapters» reaffirmed the ecclesiastical cult established in Russia as inviolable and final. At the same time the council’s decisions were aimed against all reformatory heretical doctrines.
1560-63 «The Book of Degrees» of the Tsar’s Genealogy - an official, publicistic work. Its theme is of the ruling dynasty, its style—solemn and monumental.
All the Russian princes (ending with Ivan IV himself) appeared in «The Book of Degrees» as men full of «virtues pleasing to the Lord». It set out the whole history of Russia in the form of lives of «sceptre-holders” princes as a «rung» on the «ladder» to heaven, like the ladders described in Bible stories or hagiographical literature.
1564-66 «The History of Kazan» - the combination of literary and publicistic invention, when the emotional style that developed in Russian literature of the Pre-Renaissance is formalized.
This book dealt mainly with the capture of Kazan in 1552; but at the same time The History of Kazan was not a separate historical tale like «The Tale of the Battle Against Mamai». The author sought to give the whole history of the Kazan state.
1564-79 The Correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Kurbsky - literary polemic, a dispute as to which style befits an epistle.
Andrew Kurbsky (his family related to the princes of Yaroslavl) in 1550s was a member of the Select Council. In 1564 he fled from Russia to Poland, fearing the tsar’s disfavor.
The Correspondence started by Kurbsky to the tsar accusing him of unjustly persecuting the loyal generals who had conquered «the proudest of realms» for Russia, and the tsar replied with an epistle almost as long as a book; and that was the beginning of this famous correspondence.
From political standpoint Kurbsky frequently got the better of the tsar, ridiculing the most absurd of the accusations made against his now executed advisers. Ivan 4was better with his literary style: the scenes of the tsar’s orphaned childhood are particularly vivid; they have frequently been used by historians and artists. The tsar declared that he lacked food and clothing and, most important, the care and attention of elders.

17 century

On the Time of Troubles the role of the spoken and written word increased greatly. The victory of Pseudo-Dmitry I was secured not so much by arms, as by «anonymous sheets», skilful propaganda that won popular opinion over to his side. All rulers and pretenders to the throne, Vasily Shuisky, Pseudo-Dmitry II and the Boyars’ Duma, circulated appeals. The gramotas of the Time of Troubles not only informed - they also sought to persuade, to act not only on the reader’s mind, but also on his heart; they are characterized by a heightened emotionality.
The Time of Troubles was also a time of no censorship. The writer’s freedom did not depend on non-literary factors. The writer began to reflect freely on the behavior of the people he portrayed, rejecting the traditional mediaeval schemes.
Before the cycle of writers consisted mainly of learned monks who engaged, now laymen of all different ranks and estates took up the pen, princes, nobility from the capital and the provinces, and government officials. Whereas before there had been a division between the oral and written tradition, now folklore found its way into manuscript books. The democratic literature of the lower strata of society was beginning to appear. They spoke out in the independent and free language of parody and satire. The comic, absurd, distorted world became the tragic world of everyday life. The Polish satirical literature also was flowering to Russia in the 1st half of the 17th century.
Up to the 17th century Russian literature had been oriented primarily on the literature of South-Eastern Europe (the Greeks and the Balkan Slavs). Now contacts with the Ukraine, ByeloRussia and Poland became paramount. Many Ukrainian and ByeloRussian intellectuals , who didn't want to accept Catholicism, emigrated to Moscow.
17th century in Russia is the Age of revolts . The upper classes of Russian society chose the path of Europeanization, the path of reorganizing the cultural system inherited from the Middle Ages.
The percentage of authorial works, primarily fiction, rose sharply in 17th-century literature. The links with Europe produced the translated tales of chivalry and novella . It did not exhort, but entertained.
In the 1st half of the 17th century the «geography» of Russian literature expanded : Siberia and the Don joined in the literary movement. The beginning of Siberian literature is connected with the founding of the Tobolsk archbishopric in 1621.
«The Tale of the Good Life» - the oral genre of the Utopia. In 17th century there were many rumors of distant free lands, with «unploughed land and no one levies taxes»; thousands of poor people, whole villages, would leave hearth and home and flee they knew not where.
1637 «The Historical Tale of the Capture of Azov» - a set of a «historical» tales of the siege of Azov by Cossacks.
2nd half of the 17th century «The Poetic Tale of the Siege of Azov» - on the basis of the «historical» tale of the siege of Azov, a «folk tale» about Azov was created, which belongs to a new genre in Russian literature - the genre of historical fiction.
1650s The greatest blow to cultural unity was dealt by the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon , who introduced many changes into liturgical practice and ritual. These reforms led to a Schism in the Russian Orthodox Church .
All educated and thinking people realized that the Church needed reform. The idea of transforming church life inspired the movement of the God-lovers (a revolt of the lower ranks of the clergy against the bishops and the parish priests) and Old believers (those who did not accept Nikon’s reforms).
At the time of Nikon reforms and a Schism in the Russian Orthodox Church 2 hostile parties emerged, the Graecophile («Old Muscovite») and Westerniser («Latiniser») parties.
It was the «Latinisers» who created the professional community of writers in Moscow. It produced a special type of writer fashioned on the Ukrainian-Polish model.
second half of 17th century The Writings of Archpriest Avvakum - Archpriest Avvakum (1621-1682) was famous leader of the Old Believers. He became a writer somewhat late in life.
Avvakum never changed his convictions. In spirit and temperament he was a fighter, a polemicist, a denouncer, and he exhibited these qualities throughout his life and labours.
In his exile in Siberia the preacher became a brilliant writer . The ideas that he had conceived way back in his youth, he now defended in his writings.
The demand for exiles works was tremendous. The words of Avvakum and his followers possessed great moral authority for Old Believers. They were surrounded by the aura of martyrdom for the faith. Their works were copied and disseminated secretly.
Avvakum’s ideology is full of democratic spirit. Having lost faith not only in Tsar Alexis, but also in his heir and realizing that the Moscow rulers had renounced the «old belief» once and for all, Avvakum turned to openly anti-governmental propaganda . This is why he was burnt at the stake—not only for the Schism but also «for greatly abusing the tsar’s house».
Avvakum was a «true son of his people» ,spiritual son, careless and diligent, sinful and righteous, weak and strong at one and the same time. His readers were peasants or artisans with whom Avvakum had dealings in his younger years.
last third of the 17th century From Europe, primarily Poland, through the Ukraine-ByeloRussian intermediacy, Russia borrowed Baroque that was destined to be the style of Moscow courtly culture.
The art of Baroque revived mysticism, the danse macabre, the themes of the Last Judgment and infernal torment. At the same time Baroque did not break with the heritage of the Renaissance. In Russia Baroque performed the function of the Renaissance. Russia is indebted to the style of Baroque for the emergence of regular syllabic poetry and the theatre.
1672-73 «The Comedy of Artaxerxes» - the play in first Russian professional theatre. This court theatre was the creation of Tsar Alexis.
The actors included not only foreigners from the German settlement, but also Russian youths, mainly young scribes from the Ambassadorial Chancery. The life on the stage was changeable life, in which transitions from grief to joy, merriment to tears, hope to despair and vice versa were quick and sudden.
1629-80 Simeon of Polotsk - the founder of an unbroken tradition of syllabic poetry in Moscow.
He studied the «seven free arts» in the Kiev-Mogila Academy.
In Moscow Simeon of Polotsk continued the profession of teacher begun in his native land. He educated the tsar’s children and opened a Latin school.
Simeon of Polotsk’s heritage is very big. It is estimated that he left at least fifty thousand lines of poetry.

17 century

After taking the throne at the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great's influence on the Russian culture would extend far into the 18th century. Peter promoted a new type of culture, with the idea of usefulness . Whereas for the «Latinisers» who created Moscow Baroque poetry was the queen of the arts, now in the Baroque of St Petersburg it was the servant of the natural sciences and practical disciplines . Poetry turned into an embellishment of «useful» books, such as Arithmetic in which mathematical rules were attired in rhythmical speech.
Under Peter Russia produced many new things for the first time in its history— a fleet, a theatre open to the general public, an Academy of Sciences, parks and park sculpture ; it also produced new clothes, new manners, a new style of social behavior.
At the same time literature ceased to be professional and dilettantes multiplied rapidly (dilettantism is a symptom of decline). There was a deterioration in style, language became macaronic and borrowing and barbarisms abounded. The Empress Elizabeth herself was active in the field of pursuit of poetry.
The positive elements of this period: the secularization of culture , its freeing from the control of the Church. Literature not only served practical aims; it also entertained, and under Peter the bans were lifted on humor, merrymaking and the theme of love.
DOB 1708-1744 Satirist Antiokh Kantemir - distinguished Russian statesman, who was his country’s first secular poet and one of its leading writers of the classical school.
He also wrote a philosophical work, «Letters on Nature and Man», and a tract on the old syllabic system of Russian verse composition (1744).
DOB 1703-1769 Vasily Trediakovsky - a poet, playwright, essayist, translator, Russian literary theoretician whose writings contributed to the classical foundations of Russian literature. Trediakovsky's approach to writing is often described as highly erudite.
The son of a poor priest, Trediakovsky became the first Russian not of the nobility to receive a humanistic education abroad, at the Sorbonne in Paris.
DOB 1717-1777 Alexander Sumarokov - Russian Neoclassical poet and dramatist, director of the first permanent theatre in St. Petersburg (1756–61) and author of several comedies and nine tragedies, including an adaptation of Hamlet.
DOB 1711-1765 Mikhail Lomonosov - first Russian scientist-naturalist of universal importance . He was a poet who laid the foundation of modern Russian literary language, an artist, an historian and an advocate of development of domestic education , science and economy. On his initiative the Moscow University was founded in 1755.
Lomonosov was the son of a poor fisherman. His ambition was to educate himself to join the learned men on whom the tsar Peter 1 the Great was calling to transform Russia into a modern nation.
DOB 1749-1802 Alexander Radishchev - writer who founded the revolutionary tradition in Russian literature and thought. Radishchev, a nobleman, was educated in Moscow, at the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages, and at Leipzig, where he studied law.
«A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow» (1790) - in which he collected, within the framework of an imaginary journey, all the examples of social injustice, wretchedness, and brutality he had seen. Though the book was an indictment of serfdom, autocracy, and censorship , Radishchev intended it for the enlightenment of Catherine the Great, who he assumed was unaware of such conditions. Its unfortunate timing (the year after the French Revolution) led to his immediate arrest and sentence to death . The sentence was commuted to 10 years’ exile in Siberia, where he remained until 1797.
DOB 1766–1826 Nikolay Karamzin - Russian historian, poet, and journalist who was the leading exponent of the sentimentalist school in Russian literature. He was educated at home, at Simbirsk, and studied at the University of Moscow. Karamzin’s friendship with the emperor Alexander I resulted in his appointment as court historian.
«Poor Liza» (1792) - sentimental style tale, about a village girl who commits suicide after a tragic love affair, soon became the most celebrated work of the Russian sentimental school.
«History of the Russian State» (1816–29) - 12-volumes of his work based on original research, a great number of documents, including foreign accounts of historical incidents. It remains a landmark in the development of Russian literary style. Karamzin in his work supported Russian autocracy.
DOB 1743-1816 Gavrila Derzhavin - Russia’s greatest and most original 18th-century poet, whose finest achievements lie in his lyrics and odes. Born of impoverished nobility, Derzhavin joined the army as a common soldier, became an officer, later became a provincial governor at Olonets and Tambov, senator, and minister of justice.
DOB 1745-1792 Denis Fonvizin - playwright who satirized the cultural pretensions and privileged coarseness of the nobility ; he is considered his nation’s foremost 18th-century dramatist. Fonvizin was educated at the University of Moscow and worked as a government translator until 1769.
«The Minor» («Nedorosl») (1783) - this masterpiece considered the first truly Russian drama. It deals with a gentry family so ignorant and brutish that they survive only through the industry of their ill-treated serfs. The plot centres on the tyrannical mother’s attempts to educate her spoiled and loutish son for the civil service and to marry him to an heiress. The characters are portrayed with a realism unknown at the time , and the play is still performed. His works were banned , and his last years were spent in travel.
DOB 1769-1844 Ivan Krylov - fabulist, which innocent-sounding fables that satirized contemporary social types in the guise of beasts. Although some of his themes were borrowed from Aesop and La Fontaine, they altered in Krylov’s hands. His foxes and crows, wolves and sheep, whether wise or foolish, were always recognizable Russian types. His salty, down-to-earth parables emphasized common sense, hard work, and love of justice and made him one of the first Russian writers to reach a broad audience.

19 century

The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the «Golden Age» of Russian literature. The century began with the rise of Romanticism, which permitted a flowering of especially poetic talent. It ended with the dominance of Russian Realist novelists.
Russian literature thrived independently of politics. It set its roots during the stifling reign of Nicholas I, continued to grow during the Era of Great Reforms begun under the Tsar-Liberator Alexander II, blossomed during the reactionarily conservative final years of his rule, and continued to bloom in fits under Alexander III. The literature engaged and influenced the social debates of the era.
1820S-80S A Golden age of Russian literature - does not refer to any particular school or movement (e.g., Classicism, Romanticism, Realism); rather, it encompasses several of them.
1820S-30S A Golden age of Russian poetry - 1st period: lasted from G.Derzhavin until A.Pushkin's «turn to prose» around 1831 (or as late as M.Lermontov's death in 1841).
Romanticism permitted a flowering of especially poetic talent of A.Pushkin. Pushkin is credited with both crystallizing the literary Russian language and introducing a new level of artistry to Russian literature. An entire new generation of poets including M.Lermontov (generally considered Russia's 2nd-greatest poet), Y.Baratynsky, K.Batyushkov, N.Nekrasov, F.Tyutchev and A.Fet followed in Pushkin's steps.
1840s-1850s The superfluous man - Russian literary concept derived from the Byronic hero. Superfluous man is a byproduct of Nicholas I reign, when the best educated men would not enter the discredited government service and, lacking other options for self-realization, doomed themselves to live out their life in passivity: Onegin (A.Pushkin, Pechorin (M.Lermontov), Rudin (I.Turgenev), Oblomov (I.Goncharov).
1830-80S A Golden Age of Russian prose - 2nd period, which petered out sometime during the last decades of the 19th century.
One constant characteristic of all the works of this period is their distinctive Russian nature. All of the authors were fluent in the conventions and heritage of Western European literature, but they frequently and consciously rejected its traditions.
The first great Russian novel was «Dead Souls» by N.Gogol. The realistic school of fiction can be said to have begun with I.Turgenev. It was the twin giants L.Tolstoy and F.Dostoyevsky whose work exploded out of Russia in the 1870s to overwhelm Europeans with their imaginative and emotional power. M.Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote prose satire,while N.Leskov is best remembered for his shorter fiction.
Most of the literature during 19th century (and late 18th century) criticized or satirized in some way the conditions of serfs and the socio-economic structure of serfdom: N. Gogol «Dead Souls», A.Radishchev «A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow», N.Karamzin «Poor Liza», L.Tolstoy «Anna Karenina». Many works of this time were censored.
Accused of political subversion as a young man, F.Dostoyevsky was sentenced to 4 years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp. I.Turgenev was put in prison for a month for praising N.Gogol, and then banished to his estate. Although none of Tolstoy's works (before 1884) treated politics and social conflict in the direct manner of F.Dostoyevsky or I.Turgenev, they were nonetheless socially engaged, treating obliquely historical or philosophical questions present in contemporary debates.
Golden Age excludes A.Chekhov, whose short stories and plays in many ways defined the genres for the 20S century: by the 1890s he was one of the most popular writers in Russia; M.Gorky, whose half-century career writing wildly popular, provocative and much-imitated stories and plays depicting the social dregs of Russia.
Other important 19th-century developments included non-fiction writers such as the critic V.Belinsky and the political reformer A.Herzen; playwrights such as A.Griboyedov, A.Ostrovsky and the satirist K.Prutkov (a collective pen name).
1880s-1920s Silver age of Russian literature starts with the publication of S.Diagilev's and A.Benois's «The World of Art» with its bold, syncretic program of music, theater, painting, and sculpture, idealistic metaphysics, and religion. The appellation suggests that while the era did not quite attain the dramatic breadth and scope of the Golden Age, it was not far behind.
Well-known poets of the period include: A.Blok, S.Yesenin, V.Bryusov, K.Balmont, M.Kuzmin, I.Severyanin, S.Chorny, N.Gumilyov, M.Voloshin, I.Annensky, Z.Gippius.

20 century

1880s-1920s The Silver Age is a term traditionally applied by Russian philologists to the first two decades of the twentieth century.
The Silver Age was dominated by the artistic movements of Russian Symbolism, Acmeism, and Russian Futurism. Nonetheless, there flourished innumerable other poetic schools, such as Mystical Anarchism. There were also such poets as I.Bunin and M. Tsvetayeva who refused to align themselves with any of these movements. The poets most often associated with the Silver Age: S.Esenin, A.Blok, A.Akhmatova, M.Tsvetaeva, O.Mandelstam, B.Pasternak. The Silver Age ended after the Russian Civil War.
Soviet era.
1920s The Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 radically changed Russian literature. Russian poets and writers were instrumental in producing a new type of literature in which politics played a major part. After a brief period of relative openness in the 1920s, literature became a tool of state propaganda.
late 1920s-1930s The Stalin era - the decade beginning with Stalin’s ascendancy in the late 1920s was one of unprecedented repression. The «war in the countryside” to enforce the collectivization of agriculture cost more than 10 million lives, about half of them by starvation. Purges took the lives of millions more.
Socialist realism - the predominant trend in Russia(«realism of people who are rebuilding the world», M.Gorky) displaying the selflessness and compassion for the working poor, as well as discipline and dedication.
Some 1930s writers, such as M.Bulgakov, and Nobel Prize-winning B.Pasternak continued the classical tradition of Russian literature. Their major works were not published, and the Soviet authorities forced Pasternak to renounce his 1958 Nobel prize.
1932 The Union of Soviet Writers - an institution to replace all independent literary groupings. The union became the state’s instrument of control over literature, and expulsion from it meant literary death. In 1934 Socialist Realism was proclaimed the only acceptable form of writing. The literature was to be governed by a series of official directives regarding details of style and content
1932-34 «How the Steel Was Tempered» by Nikolay Ostrovsky's novel has been among the most successful works of socialist realism, with tens of millions of copies printed in many languages around the world (10 million copies just in China).
1940s The need to rally support in World War II brought a loosening of Communist Party control. After War period from 1946 until the death of Stalin in 1953 was one of severe repression known as the zhdanovshchina. During this campaign, attacks on «rootless cosmopolitans” involved anti-Semitism and the rejection of all foreign influences on Russian literature. The Soviet practice of samokritika (public denunciation of one’s own work) was frequent.
1954-64 The Khrushchev th A w - period when repression and censorship were eased. KhRus'hchev's th A w allowed some freedom of information in the media, arts, and culture; international festivals, foreign movies, uncensored books, and new forms of entertainment on the emerging national television, ranging from massive parades and celebrations to popular music and variety shows, satire and comedies, and all-star shows, like «Goluboy Ogonek». Poetry became a mass-cultural phenomenon: B.Akhmadulina, R.Rozhdestvensky, A.Voznesensky, Y.Yevtushenko, read their poems in stadiums and attracted huge crowds.
Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology: V.Shalamov, Nobel Prize-winning novelist A.Solzhenitsyn, V.Grossman. Such writers, dubbed «dissidents», could not publish their major works until the 1960s.
1970s-80s End of KhRus'hchev th A w (Brezhnev rule) - period, when «dissidents» were banned and prosecuted (for parasitism). Many had to emigrate to the West.
Popular genres of Soviet era.
starting 1920s Children's literature in Soviet Union - a major genre because of its educational role. For talented writers children’s literature and translation were safer areas: K.Chukovsky, S.Marshak, A.Barto, V.Mayakovsky, S.Mikhalkov, A.N.Tolstoy, A.Volkov, N.Nosov.
Soviet Science fiction - inspired by scientistic revolution, industrialization, and the country's space pioneering, was flourishing, albeit in the limits allowed by censors: A.Belyayev, M. Bulgakov, G.Adamov, A.N.Tolstoy, Y.Zamyatin, A. and B. Strugatsky.
Mystery was another popular genre. Detectives by brothers A. and G. Vayner and spy novels by Y.Semyonov were best-selling.
1960s-80s Village prose - writers, who treated the clash of rural traditions with modern life in a realistic idiom: V.Rasputin, V.Shukshin.
Historical fiction - in the early Soviet era included a large share of memoirs, World War II novels were based on the authors' own war experience.
Magic realism - introduced magic and mystical creatures into contemporary Soviet reality to satirize it: M.Bulgakov («Master and Margarita»), Strugatskies, A.Grin.
Émigré literature.
1st wave of émigré literature - the early years following the Revolution, writers who left or were expelled from the Soviet Union included K.Balmont, I.Bunin (Nobel Prize for literature), V.Nabokov, Z.Gippius, V.Ivanov, A.Kuprin, D.Merezhkovsky. Émigrés also included the poets V.Khodasevich, G.Ivanov, M.Tsvetayeva -regarded as one of the great poets of the 20S century.
2nd wave of émigré literature - during World War II the control Communist Party was loosened, what created opportunity for «second wave» of emigration.
3rd wave of émigré literature- the years that followed KhRus'hchev rule (Brezhnev rule), when well-known writers were arrested or expelled from the Soviet Union: I.Brodsky (Nobel Prize for literature), A.Sinyavsky, A.Solzhenitsyn, V.Aksyonov, G.Vladimov, V.Voynovich, A.Zinovyev.
The end of the 20S century The end of the 20S century proved a difficult period for Russian literature, with relatively few distinct voices. Although the censorship was lifted and writers could now freely express their thoughts, the political and economic chaos of the 1990s affected the book market and literature heavily. The book printing industry descended into crisis. During this period, readers and writers sought to understand the past, both literary and historical, and to comprehend the chaotic, threatening, and very different present.
Citizenship was restored to émigré writers. «Doctor Zhivago» and «We» were published in Russia, as were the works of V.Nabokov, A.Solzhenitsyn, V.Voynovich, and many others.
A Russian form of postmodernism arose, along with various forms of radical experimentalism: V.Pelevin, etc. Detective stories and thrillers have proven a very successful genre of new Russian literature: B.Akunin, etc. Science fiction and fantasy - these genres boomed in the late 1990s, with authors like S.Lukyanenko, etc.