Culture of Ancient Rus

The period of the Middle Ages has a special meaning in history of the Russian culture. In Russia, this epoch lasted longer than in other European countries and it experienced its "repercussions" up to the early 19th century.

The beginning of this new cultural era is dated back to the times of adoption of Christianity in 989, when the Russian principalities became a part of the Byzantine sphere of influence and grasped one of the most advanced types of culture in the world at that time. Vladimir the Great's choice predetermined the subsequent development of the Russian culture.

Byzantine masters built their first cathedrals in Russia and decorated their interiors with mosaic and murals. First samples of pictorial art, such as icons and miniatures of illuminated manuscripts, came to Kiev and other cities from Constantinople. After the completion of the most important cathedral of Kievan Rus – Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev (named after the principal cathedral of the Byzantine capital) – the Russian clergy in the person of metropolitan Ilarion wrote his work On Law and Grace (Слово о законе и благодати, or Slovo o zakone i blagodati) with the purpose of confirming the basics of the new Christian world outlook.

Thus, the Kievan Rus became a part of the Christian world, finding itself under Byzantine's influence. The metropolitan of Kiev subordinated to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian principalities adopted the Byzantine culture in the time, when the flourishing apogee of the Eastern Roman Empire had already been overcome, but its decline was still far ahead. The Byzantium remained the only direct successor of the Hellenistic world, which had applied the artistic achievements of the antiquity to the spiritual experience of Christianity. The Byzantine culture differed from the rest of the world by its refined taste and sophistication. The Byzantine art differed by the depth of religious substance and virtuosity of formal methods. The principal achievement of the Byzantine theology were the ecclesiastic writings of the holy fathers. Such high cultural level of the Greek teachers posed difficult tasks before the Kievan Rus.

The art of the Russian principalities of the 10th century, nevertheless, differed from the Byzantine prototypes of the same period. The peculiarities of the first "Russian" works of art, created by the "visiting" Greeks, included magnitude and representativeness, which demonstrated the ambitions of the young Russian state and its princely authority. The Byzantine influence, however, couldn't spread quickly over Russia's enormous territory. This was exactly why the Christianization of the Russian lands would last for several centuries. For example, there have been numerous pagan uprisings in principalities of Suzdal and Rostov until the 12th century, led by the volkhvy (волхвы, or pagan priests).

The study of the pagan culture of the Early East Slavs is based on excavations. One of the most interesting finds was the Zbruch Idol, a stone figure of a deity with four faces. Dobrynya i zmiy (Dobrynya and the Dragon) was one of the monuments of the ancient Russian epic literature.

There are different concepts on correlation between Christianity and pagan beliefs in Ancient Russia. Among them is the concept of a "double faith", i.e. coexistence and mutual penetration of two religions – "popular" and "official". Popular culture has long been defined by pagan beliefs, especially in the remote regions of the Kievan Rus. Subsequently, it was defined by a simplified interpretation of Christianity and by superstitions, as it had happened in the Western European culture. However, Russian historians’ idea of the popular culture after the Christianization is mostly based on indirect data and suppositions. At the same time, the culture of ecclesiastical and secular elite is known for its monuments, which do not allow historians to make confident conclusions on pagan penetration of religious beliefs of Ancient Russia. Historians prefer to speak of a parallel development of popular and "elitist" cultures. They certainly give credit to the ancient traditions of the Early East Slavs and Finno-Ugric tribes without, however, overestimating their significance in forming the specifics of culture of Ancient Russia.

With the adoption of Christianity, the Russian principalities became a part of a book culture. The development of Russian written language was also associated with Christianity, although written language had already been in use in the Russian lands for quite some time. It was only after the baptism of Russia, however, that Russian written language spread over the principalities. The abundance of translated literature laid the foundation for the development of Russia's own writing traditions. At its early stages, the most typical genres were sermons, lives of the saints (e.g., Life of Boris and Gleb), descriptions of military campaigns (famous the Tale of Igor's Campaign), and composition of chronicles (Primary Chronicle).

Having become a part of the Christian world, Russian principalities gained a wide range of opportunities for developing their political and cultural ties not only with Byzantium, but with the European countries, as well. By the end of the 11th century, Russia gradually fell under the influence of the Roman architecture. The whitestone cathedrals, decorated with sculptures, appeared in the principality of Vladimir due to Andrei Bogolyubsky's invitation of architects from "all over the world". According to a Russian historian Vasili Tatischev, the architects were sent to Vladimir by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. These cathedrals, however, are not identical with the Roman edifices of Catholic Europe and represent some sort of a synthesis of the Byzantine cruciform cathedrals with cupolas and the Roman whitestone construction and decoration techniques. Such mixture of Greek and Western European traditions became possible only in Russia. One of its results was a famous Vladimirian architectural masterpiece and a true symbol of cultural originality of Ancient Russia – the Church of Pokrova na Nerli.

In the early Middle Ages, Russian principalities were similar to other European countries by the type of culture and direction of their historical development. Later on, however, Russia and Europe parted their ways. The East-West Schism of 1054 was one of the reasons for this. Barely noticeable in the 11th century, it became very obvious two centuries later during the resistance of the citizens of Novgorod to the Teutonic Knights. Also, the middle of the 12th century saw the beginning of disintegration of the Kievan Rus (some historians do not consider it possible to even call it a state in a modern sense of the word). In 1155, Andrei Bogolyubsky practically transferred the seat of the Grand Prince from Kiev to Vladimir, together with the famous icon of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Vladimir). From this time on, almost every principality began forming its own architechtural and art schools.

The invasion of Batu Khan and subsequent subjecting of the Russian lands to the Golden Horde were the turning point in history of Russian culture and statehood. The Mongolian rule imposed its own principles of state system on Russia, different from those of Western Europe. In particular, Russia adopted a principle of universal subordination and undivided authority, which drastically differed from this time on.

Russia was only able to recover from the ravaging by the late 13th century. The first ones to recover from the consequences of the Mongolian invasion were Novgorod and Pskov, which had been spared the Tatar raids. These cities-republics with parliamentarian rule created an original kind of culture, which had formed under some influence from their western Baltic neighbors. In the early 14th century, the leadership in the northeastern lands was being transferred from the Principality of Vladimir to that of Moscow, which, in turn, would have to fight for its leadership with Tver for another century. Moscow was a part of the Vladimirian lands and functioned as one of the border fortresses of northeastern Russia. In 1324, Metropolitan Peter left Vladimir and settled down in Moscow, thus, transferring the residence of the Russian Orthodox Church (interestingly enough, Metropolitan Maximus moved the residence from Kiev to Vladimir not long before that, in 1299). In the late 14th century, the principal object of worship of the "old" capital – the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir – was transferred to Moscow. Vladimir became a model for the Muscovy. Emphasizing the succession, the Muscovite princes took good care of Vladimir's sacred places. In the early 15th century, Andrei Rublev and Prokhor from Gorodets painted the ancient Assumption (Uspensky) Cathedral. In the mid-1450s, they restored the Cathedral of St.George in Yuriev-Polsky under the supervision of Vasili Dmitriyevich Yermolin. The architecture of Muscovy and its surrounding lands in the 14th – early 15th century, usually referred to as the early muscovite architecture, inherited the technique of whitestone construction and typology of four-pillar cathedrals from Vladimir. Art historians, however, notice that the early muscovite architecture was influenced by the Balkans and European gothic architecture.

The Russian painting of the late 14th – early 15th century is characterized by two major phenomena, namely the Byzantine artist Feofan Grek and Russian icon-painter Andrei Rublev. Feofan's style is distinguished by its monochrome palette and uncommon expressiveness of laconic blots and lines, which send a message of a complex symbolic implication close to the then widely spread doctrine of hesychia of Byzantine origin. The soft-colored icons of Rublev are closer to the late Byzantine painting style of the Balkan countries in the 15th century.

The late 14th century was marked by one of the most important events in Russian history. In 1380, Dmitry Donskoy and his army dealt the first serious blow to the Golden Horde. The founder and hegumen of Troitse-Sergiyev monastery Sergii Radonezhsky played an exceptional role in gaining this victory. Saint Sergii's name, who became the protector and patron of the Muscovy, has an enormous significance for the culture of Russia. Radonezhsky himself and his followers founded more than 200 monasteries, which would become the basis for the so-called "monastic colonization" of the little-developed Northern lands. The Life of Sergii Radonezhsky was written by one of the outstanding writers of that time – Epifaniy the Wise. Andrei Rublev painted his Trinity – the greatest masterpiece of the Russian Middle Ages – for the cathedral of Sergii's monastery.

The mid-15th century in Russia is known for bloody internecine wars for the Moscow seat of the Grand Prince. Ivan III managed to unite the Russian lands around Moscow (at the cost of ravaging Novgorod and Pskov) only by the end of the 15th century and put an end to Russia’s subordination to the Golden Horde after the Great standing on the Ugra river in 1480. The river was later poetically dubbed the "Virgin Belt" (Пояс Богородицы, or Poyas Bogoroditsy). This event marked the birth of the sovereign Russian state, headed by the Grand Prince of Moscow.