Monuments of ancient Russian literature of the 12th and 13th centuries. Works of Russian literature of the 13th century

By the beginning of the 13th century. Old Russian literature appears to us quite mature. In almost every genre, original works were created, which themselves could serve as models worthy of imitation and define further development this genre on Russian soil. Russian literature included such masterpieces that stood outside genre systems, such as “The Instruction” of Vladimir-Monomakh or “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Literary styles developed, and ancient Russian scribes were not inferior in the art of words to Byzantine or Bulgarian authors; An example of this is the high literary skill of Kirill Turovsky, the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, the authors of legends about the Kiev-Pechersk monks. Batu's conquest of Russian lands, which took place in bloody battles, was accompanied by the defeat and destruction of cities and villages. The human losses were extremely high. The cruelty and mercilessness of nomads towards Russian soldiers and towards the civilian population is noted in all the stories about Batu’s invasion of Rus'. These reports from Russian sources are confirmed by information from historians and writers from other countries.

The role that Rus' played in pan-European history, having taken upon itself the first blow of the Mongol-Tatar hordes, was perfectly expressed by A. S. Pushkin: “Russia was assigned a high destiny... Its vast plains absorbed the power of the Mongols and stopped their invasion at the very edge of Europe; The barbarians did not dare to leave enslaved Rus' in their rear and returned to the steppes of their east. The resulting enlightenment was saved by a torn and dying Russia...” The defeat in the fight against the conquerors and the policy of division of Rus' pursued by the Horde accelerated the process of feudal fragmentation and the isolation of individual principalities. But at the same time, the idea of the need to unite Russian lands became more and more mature, which found its most vivid embodiment in literary monuments. This idea was supported by the consciousness of the unity of language (in the presence of local dialects), the unity of religion, the unity of history and ethnic kinship, the consciousness that it was the lack of unity of the Russian principalities that led to the defeat and the establishment of foreign rule.

The fight against the invaders caused a rise in patriotism. And the patriotic theme became the main one in the literature of the 13th century. Military heroism and courage, loyalty to duty, love for one’s land, glorification of the former greatness and power of Russian princes and principalities, grief for the dead, pain and sympathy for everyone who was humiliated by the enslavers - all this was reflected in the chronicles and in monuments of solemn eloquence. Sounds sharp in the works of the 13th century. the theme of the need for strong princely power, princely feuds and lack of coordination of actions against enemies are sharply condemned. The ideal of a strong ruler is the prince - warrior and wise statesman. In memories of the past, Vladimir Monomakh is depicted as such a prince, and among the princes of his contemporaries - Alexander Nevsky. Old Russian chroniclers left several remarkable descriptions of individual episodes of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The very first response to the Mongol-Tatar invasion is “The Tale of the Battle of the Kalka River”, read in a number of chronicles, in particular in the Laurentian, Ipatiev, Novgorod First, etc. The beginning of this story is remarkable: The pagans appeared, of whom no one knew good news, who they are and what their language is, and what their tribes are, and what their faith is. And they are called Tatars, and some say Taurmen, and others Pechenesi, and others say that these are the essence, and Methodius the Patarian Bishop testifies about them, that they came from the Etrievsky desert, existing between the east and the north, as Methodius said: as to the end times will appear to those who drove Gideon, and will captivate the whole land from the east to the Euphrant and from the Tigris to the Poneta Sea, except for Ethiopia. God is the only one who knows them, who are the essence and the izidosh, men of wisdom who lead me well, who know how to read books wisely; We don’t know who they are, but we have written about them in memory for the sake of the Russian princes of the troubles that would have come from them... Next, the author of the story reports on the defeat of the Mongol-Tatars of the peoples neighboring the Russian lands: Yasov, Obezov, Kasogs and Polovtsians. The defeat of the Polovtsian lands, in his opinion, is retribution for the Polovtsians for all the troubles that they caused to the Russian people. The Russian princes decide to move against hitherto unknown enemies in response to requests from the Polovtsians. The Tatars send their ambassadors to the Russian princes to dissuade them from the campaign. They propose to conclude an alliance against the Polovtsians, but the Russian princes remain true to their word: the Tatar ambassadors are beaten, and the Russian troops set out on a campaign.

“The Tale of the Battle of Kalka” was written in the tradition of Russian military chronicles of the 12th century, apparently by a participant in the battle. Its author is far from glorifying feats and officially glorifying feudal princes. His the main idea consists in condemning the princes for their discord, for their inability to guard against all-Russian state and popular interests. The only way out of this chaos seems to him to be the unification of all the forces of the Russian people around the great Prince of Kyiv. The story preserved for many years the bitter memory of the Russians about their first clash with the Mongol-Tatars. It was repeatedly rewritten and revised when compiling various chronicles; in addition, it was turned to when the Battle of Kalka was remembered in connection with other legends about the struggle of the Russian people against the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

Another remarkable literary monument is “The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu” dedicated to the events of 1237. This work consists of two ideologically and artistically interconnected parts. First, it tells about the events that happened in the Crimean city of Korsun twelve years before the destruction of Ryazan. Korsun, together with Surozh, Kerch and Tmutarakan, has long played a large role in the trade of the ancient Russian state. Through these port cities all Russian trade was with Byzantium, Balkan countries and the Caucasus. Despite the fact that these cities were captured by the Cumans back in the 12th century, they still retained their commercial importance and were largely inhabited by Russian people. Therefore, when in 1222 the Mongol-Tatars invaded Crimea and plundered Surozh, a certain Korsunian named Eustathius, a priest of the very church in which, according to legend, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich was baptized, decided to leave hometown to the Russian land. Taking his family, as well as the especially revered icon of St. Nicholas, he set off to Rus' by a roundabout route, for it was dangerous to travel through the Black Sea steppes. Eustathius traveled by sea around all of Europe and arrived in Novgorod almost three years later. From there he headed to the Ryazan borders, since Ryazan, being a rich trading city, was at that time firmly connected with the Crimea. This, in fact, is where the first part of the “Tale” ends.

The second part begins with the words: In the summer of 6745 (1237), in the second ten years after the bringing of the miraculous Nikolin image from Korsun, the godless Tsar Batu came to the Russian land with many Tatar warriors and a hundred on the river on Voronezh near the Ryazan land... Having learned about the invasion Tatar, Ryazan Prince Yuri Igorevich, turned to to the Suzdal prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, but he did not want to help him. The princes of Chernigov and Seversk also did not help the Ryazan people under the pretext that the Ryazan people did not participate in the battle with the Tatars on the Kalka River. Only the closest relatives of Yuri Igorevich, local Ryazan princes Yes, the Pron prince Vsevolod Mikhailovich and one of the Murom princes responded to his call. In this unequal and hopeless struggle with a powerful enemy, the Ryazan people showed such heroism, such greatness of spirit that tragic fate small Russian principality has become over the centuries a symbol of Russian valor and selfless love to the fatherland.

"The Tale" belongs to the best examples ancient Russian military prose. It is written very expressively, full of excited lyricism, permeated with passionate patriotic pathos, it mournfully and dramatically tells about the death of all the daredevils and frolics of Ryazan, who drank to the end the single circular cup of death in last battle with the Tatars. The author of the story created wonderful images of Russian people. Such, for example, are the images of Prince Fyodor Yuryevich and his wife Eupraxia, a truly good wife. Ryazan Prince Yuri sent his son Fedor along with other princes to the godless Tsar Batu with gifts and a request that he not fight Ryazan land. Tsar Batu, having accepted the gifts, promised not to go against Ryazan only if the Ryazan princes sent their daughters and sisters to him. One of Ryazan nobles out of envy and probably wanting to curry favor with Batu, he told him that Fyodor had a wife from royal family, Princess Eupraxia, an extraordinary beauty. Batu said to the prince, Fyodor Yuryevich: Give me, prince, the beauty of your wife. But Prince Fyodor laughed in response: It is not good for us, Christians, for you, the wicked king, to lead your wives to fornication. If you overcome us, then you will begin to dominate our wives. Batu, in anger, ordered to kill Prince Fyodor, and ordered his body to be thrown to animals and birds to be torn to pieces. Fedor's companions were also killed. Only one of them was able to escape. He delivered the news of what had happened to Princess Eupraxia. The princess at that time was in her lofty mansion, holding her son Ivan in her arms. Having learned that her husband had died defending her honor, she jumped out of the window with her son and fell to her death: And the whole city of Rezansky cried for many hours. At the same time, the story gives an explanation for the name of the place where the icon of St. Nicholas brought from Korsun stopped: the princess and her son were killed, that is, they became infected, therefore the place of her death began to be called Zaraz, and accordingly the icon was called “Zarazskaya”.

A special place in the “Tale” is occupied by the description of the feat of Evpatiy Kolovrat, stylistically close to both the oral-poetic epic tale and the biblical narrative. Here, for example, is a fragment: And they chased after the godless king, and barely drove him into the lands of Suzdal, and suddenly attacked Batu’s camps, and began the slaughter without mercy, and swept away all the Tatar regiments...

The story, despite the fact that it tells about the death of Ryazan and the Ryazan people, is surprisingly optimistic, its author seems to be completely confident in the final victory of the Russians over the hated invaders. The Russian warriors, princes and squad in the story are selflessly courageous and valiant, they are connected by knightly relations. The princes are proud of their squad, take care of it and mourn the soldiers killed in battle. And the daredevils and spirited men of Ryazan, loyal to their leaders, fight the enemies of the Russian land firmly and mercilessly, just as the earth groans, they are ready to drink the mortal cup with their sovereigns equally. The heroic-patriotic motif sounds very strongly in the story: It is better for us to buy our belly with death than with the filthy will to be. This main motive“The Tale” gave the Russian people support in their subsequent struggle against the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

The Galician-Volyn Chronicle also preserves a small “Tale of the destruction of Kyiv by Batu”, which undoubtedly dates back to an oral poetic folk song about this sorrowful event. Despite the fact that this song of the 13th century ended up in the chronicle in a book adaptation, it retained its striking closeness to the Russians folk epics, recorded only in the 18th-19th centuries, but telling about the siege of Kyiv by the Tatars. In the “Tale” of the 13th century, the appearance of Batu’s hordes near Kiev is described as follows: Batu came to Kiev in heavy strength, with a great multitude of his strength, and surrounded the city, and overwhelmed the Tatar power, and the city became great in its containment. And Batu was not near the city, and his youth greyed out the city, and he would not have heard the sound of the creaking of his carts, the multitude of roars of his lords, and the neighing of his horses at the sound of his herds. And the Russian land was filled with warriors. Further in the “Tale” it is told how Batu ordered the installation of battering guns and continually hit the walls of the city day and night. Having broken the walls, the Tatars rushed into the city, but met fierce resistance. During the battle, the sun was not visible behind the cloud of arrows, and from the crackling of spears and blows on shields, no human voice could be heard. The Tatars managed to knock the Kyivans off the broken walls. But overnight the townspeople built another wall near the Tithe Church. The next day, the Tatars resumed their onslaught; under their pressure, people in despair rushed to the church, filled it all, climbed onto the church vaults, taking property with them. The weight of the church vaults collapsed, crushing many people. The city was captured by the Tatars and a significant part of its population was mercilessly destroyed. By the way, produced in Kyiv in Soviet time archaeological excavations This was confirmed by literary evidence from the 13th century.

1. The concept of chronicle

Chronicle- More or less detailed story about events. Russian chronicles are the main written source on the history of Russia in pre-Petrine times. The beginning of Russian chronicles dates back to the 11th century, when historical records began to be made in Kyiv.

Russian chronicles were usually kept in the form of weather records beginning with the words "Into the summer". The number of surviving chronicle monuments, according to conventional estimates, is about 5,000.

1. The concept of chronicle

The chronicles have been preserved in a large number of so-called lists of the 14th-18th centuries. The list means “rewriting” (“writing off”) from another source. These lists, based on the place of compilation or the location of the events depicted, are exclusively or predominantly divided into categories.

1. The concept of chronicle

Lists of the same category differ from each other not only in expressions, but even in the selection of news, as a result of which the lists are divided into editions (editions). Such differences in the lists mean that the chronicles are collections and that their original sources have not reached us. Different editions may have significantly different assessments of the same events.

2. Classification of chronicles

Tale of Bygone Years(also called "Primary Chronicle" or "Nestor's Chronicle") - the earliest of the ancient Russian chronicles that have come down to us from the beginning of the 12th century. Known from several editions and lists with minor deviations in the texts introduced by copyists. Was compiled in Kyiv.

Nestor the Chronicler 11-12 centuries.

2. Classification of chronicles

The period of history covered begins with biblical times in the introductory section and ends with the year 1117. Dated part of history Kievan Rus starts in 852.

Page from The Tale of Bygone Years

This collection is distinguished by a special title:

“all the tales of bygone years (in other lists added: the monk of the Fedosiev Pechersk Monastery), where the Russian land came from, who was the first to reign in Kyiv, and where the Russian land began to eat.”

2. Classification of chronicles

Also highlighted are:
- Novgorod Chronicles
- Pskov Chronicles
- Kyiv Chronicles
- Galicia-Volyn Chronicles
- Chronicles of North-Eastern Rus'
- Moscow Chronicles

Chronicler

A Word about Law and Grace · The Tale of Bygone Years · The Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh · The Sixth Day of John, Exarch of Bulgaria · The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk · The Legend of Boris and Gleb

11th century