Everyday ideas of ancient Russian people - about nature, man, society. Miracles and signs Changing the perception of the world in Rus'

Old Russian literature, although it was a serious literature that did not allow any jokes or pranks, was simply full of stories about miracles, fantastic plots that we, modern people, perceive as something fictitious, fabulous. The belief in miracles was so deep and universal that it bewilders us, because ancient Russian literature is literature created by smart, believing, and not naive people.

It's all about the medieval man's perception of the world. This perception had many features. The fundamental feature was the complete absence of a strict opposition between the two worlds: earthly and divine. These two worlds were in constant contact. Human life could not be imagined without something supernatural; it affected all spheres of people’s lives. They believed in a miracle and did not forget about it so much that they performed all actions with the understanding that in everyday, worldly life, at any moment something miraculous, fantastic, not subject to the laws of human existence, could be encountered.

But along with the constant readiness to perceive miracles by ancient Russian people, it was not spontaneous, but rather meaningful, because in order to see miracles, identify this miracle from simple life, analyze it, and especially evaluate it, some kind of intellectual preparation was necessary. It probably happened that an amazing phenomenon itself caught the eye, be it an unusual natural phenomenon or a randomly lined up chain of facts that formed an apparent cause-and-effect relationship, etc., but in order for all of the above to become a “miracle” or “sign” ", it had to be meaningful.

Assuming that supernatural phenomena actually occurred in reality, this does not change the matter: in any case, they had to be, at a minimum, noticed, realized and perceived accordingly, otherwise they simply would not leave a trace in human consciousness and would disappear altogether. This awareness and comprehension was the more successful, and had the greater resonance, the higher the corresponding preparation of the interpreter.

Accordingly, the ability to mystically interpret earthly events required a certain intellectual skill. This skill was an integral part of ancient Russian book learning, which was based on the acquisition of the ability to comprehend hidden meaning things and the development of the ability to interpret the surrounding reality through the prism of Christian ideology. Representatives of the educated elite jealously guarded the exclusive right to comprehend, interpret and even perform miracles, signs and prophecies. And this is not surprising, because... The “monopoly on miracles” was very important for controlling the mass consciousness of ordinary people of that era. Therefore, it was important that it was a representative of the church or secular government who drew people’s attention to a certain phenomenon and explained that they were seeing a miracle or a sign, giving it an appropriate interpretation. It was this intellectual skill that was the result of special training that allowed the ideological leaders of society to influence the minds and consciousness of society.

So, the miraculous is an integral part of the picture of the world of man in the early Russian Middle Ages. The man of Ancient Rus' was characterized by psychological openness to the perception of the supernatural, a constant mood for miracles, and a readiness to believe in everything. This phenomenon can also be defined as a reduced, due to the battle with modern man, criticality towards supernatural explanations of the phenomena of the surrounding world.

1. Symbolic perception of the world of ancient Russian man.
2. Language of icons.
3. Animals - real and mythical.
4. Animals as symbols.
5. The moralizing meaning of stories about the world around us.
6. The primacy of symbolism over facts.

Today our conversation will be about the world in which the people of Ancient Rus' lived, we will talk about how what was called the created world was perceived. That is, what was created by God and what surrounded man. These are, first of all, various animals, stones, plants - the surrounding world as a whole. It must be said that the created world was perceived by our ancestors mainly symbolically. The basis of the worldview of ancient Rus' lies, in relatively later language, what was called silent theology. That is why in Rus' we do not come across theological treatises that tell in detail about how a person sees the world, how he perceives it, how he lives in it. An Orthodox believer sought to comprehend divine revelation not through scholastic reasoning or observation, not with reason, not with an external gaze, like, say, a Catholic, but with inner eyes. The essence of the world, it was believed, could not be understood. It is comprehended only by immersion in veritable texts, in canonical images, in statements approved by the authority of the church fathers and enshrined in tradition. That is why there are no theological treatises in Rus'. Moreover, in Ancient Rus' we do not encounter images that strive for illusoryness, photographic accuracy in conveying the external features of the visible world, like Western European painting. In Rus' until the end of the 17th century. Both in painting and in literature, the icon dominated - a special figurative perception and reflection of the world. Everything here is strictly regulated: plot, composition, even color. That is why, at first glance, ancient Russian icons are so “similar” to each other - despite the fact that they can be completely different, even if they are painted on the same subject.
It’s worth taking a closer look at them - after all, they are designed for a person to look at them during daily prayer for several hours - and we will see how different they are in their inner world, according to the mood, according to the feelings laid down by the nameless artists of the past. In addition, each element of the icon - from the character’s gesture to the absence of any required details - carries a number of meanings. But in order to penetrate them, one must master the language in which the ancient Russian “icon” speaks to the viewer, in the broad sense of the word - both texts and images. The texts that introduced the reader to the world around him, which directly explain to the reader what is meant by each specific image, speak best about the meanings that ancient Russian people laid in the world around him. Let me give you a few examples.
For example, in Rus' they perceived animals in a rather unique way. The people of Ancient Rus', of course, encountered real, ordinary animals, although not all of them. The people of Ancient Rus' read about animals that lived in other lands in various “Physiologists” and “Cosmographies”, which described distant countries. Let's take the lion for example. Naturally, ancient Russian people encountered a lion extremely rarely, except for the images that appear in ancient Russian churches in the 12th century. In The Physiologist they told extremely interesting things about the lion. In particular, they wrote that a lion has three natures, and when a lioness gives birth to a cub, this cub is dead and blind. And the lioness sits over him for three days. And after three days will come The lion blows into the cub's nostrils, and it comes to life. This had a symbolic meaning, which was explained in the Physiologist: the same should be said about converted pagans - before baptism they are dead, and after baptism they come to life from the Holy Spirit. As for the second nature of the lion, it was explained as follows: when the lion sleeps, his eyes watch. This also has a symbolic meaning: so the Lord says that I am sleeping, but my divine eyes and heart are vigilant, they are open to the world. The third nature of a lion: when a lioness runs away from her pursuers, she covers her tracks with her tail so that the hunter cannot find her by them. We know Russian fairy tales about a little fox-sister who covers her tracks with her tail. It would seem that this is a purely folk detail that appears in fairy tales, but it turns out that it has a book origin, going back to such “Physiologists”. Symbolic meaning The third property of the lion is also explained in the “Physiologist”: so are you a man, when you give alms, but you don’t know left hand yours, what the right one does - so that the devil does not interfere with a person’s thoughts, which have a positive meaning.
And here is another text - a story about a pelican or, as it was called in Rus', a tawny owl. The tawny owl was described as a child-loving bird; the female tawny owl pecks at her ribs and feeds (revives) the chicks with her blood: “They peck at their ribs, and the flowing blood revives the chick.” Thus, the symbolic meaning of this image was explained, and the Lord was pierced by a spear, blood and water came out of His body, and thereby the dead universe was revived. Therefore, the prophets likened Christ to such a desert owl, that is, a pelican. It is curious that even now the image of a pelican is used in a symbolic meaning: in particular, at the “Teacher of the Year” competition, teachers are given crystal pelicans that tear their bodies with their beaks - a hint that with their life the teacher gives life to his students.
Already from the given examples it is clear that in the system of traditional folk ideas about the world around us, animals simultaneously appear both as natural objects and as a type of mythological characters. In the book tradition there are almost no descriptions of real animals; even in “natural science” treatises the fabulous element predominates. It seems that the authors did not strive to convey any specific information about real animals, but tried to form in the reader ideas about the symbolic essence of the world that surrounds humans. These ideas are based on the traditions of different cultures recorded in treatises.
Animal symbols are not “doubles” of their real prototypes. The indispensable presence of fantasy in stories about animals led to the fact that the described animal could bear the name of an animal or bird well known to the reader, but differ sharply from it in its properties. From the prototype character, often only his verbal shell (name) remained. In this case, the image usually did not correlate with a set of features that corresponded given name and formed the image of the animal in everyday consciousness. This once again confirms the isolation from each other of two systems of knowledge about nature that existed simultaneously - the “practical” one, which a person encountered in his everyday life, and the “bookish” one, which formed symbolic ideas.
Within such a description of the animal, one can note the distribution of real and fantastic properties. Often an animal is described according to its biological nature; Such texts are most likely based on practical observations. For example, they wrote that the fox is very flattering and cunning: if she wants to eat and cannot find anything, then she looks for an outbuilding, a barn where straw or chaff is stored, lies down next to it, pretending that she is dead, and so “as if you had died, lie down.” And the birds that hover around think that she is dead, sit on her and begin to peck at her. Then she jumps up quickly, grabs these birds and eats them.
This is a fairly well-known plot, and it goes back to descriptions from The Physiologist. Or here's a story about a woodpecker. It is based on a description of the property of a woodpecker - the ability to chisel trees with its beak; in the description of the cuckoo, the emphasis was placed on the habit of this bird of laying eggs in other people's nests; the amazing skill of the beaver in building a dwelling was noted, and the swallows in constructing their nest.
But sometimes a real object was endowed with only fictitious properties. In this case, the connection between the character and the real animal was preserved only in the name. So, let’s say, in Rus' they knew very well what a beaver was - they hunted it, its skins were an important item of trade. At the same time, in “Physiologists” there is a description of the “Indian” beaver, from whose entrails musk is extracted, as well as a description of some kind of predatory animal, more like a tiger or wolverine; in any case, in miniatures he was sometimes depicted as striped, with huge claws and teeth. By the way, Vladimir Ivanovich Dal recorded the dialect name of the Ussuri tiger - “beaver”. Apparently, the idea that had already been formed among ancient Russian people was subsequently transferred to a new animal that the pioneers encountered when they went to the Far East.

And here is another animal that was well known to ancient Russian people - the ox. By this name they knew not only a domestic animal, but also an “Indian” ox, which had a curious property: fearing to lose at least one hair from its tail, it stands motionless if its tail gets caught in a tree. So they hunted him, exposing thorny branches of bushes so that, having caught on them, the Indian ox would stop. “Ox” was also the name given to a mythical sea creature. In addition, it was believed that in India there were huge oxen, between whose horns a person could sit (it is possible that this image was based on the impression of an elephant). Mention was made of oxen with three horns and three legs, and, finally, “reserve” oxen, whose long horns did not allow them to move forward, and therefore they could only feed by moving backwards.
The descriptions of elephants, in turn, are extremely interesting in the Physiologists and Cosmographies. Thus, it was believed that elephants do not have knee joints, so if an elephant lies down, it will no longer be able to get up. And he sleeps, leaning against a tree or some other tall and powerful object.
Animals that were completely unfamiliar to ancient Russian people, such as the salamander, were also described. By salamander they meant a lizard, sometimes a poisonous snake and an animal the size of a dog that could put out fire.
Depending on the semantic content, the same animal name could mean either a real animal or a fantasy character. A set of properties that, from the point of view modern reader, have no basis in reality, often correlated with the names of animals from distant countries and determined the medieval reader’s ideas about them. Thus, the “Physiologist” said that in order to produce offspring, an elephant needs mandrake root. It was also said there that panfir (panther, leopard) has the ability to sleep for three days, and on the fourth day to lure other animals to itself with its fragrance and voice. The giraffe, Velbudopardus, unknown to ancient Russian people, was considered a cross between a pard (lynx) and a camel.
The most widespread descriptions were those in which the animal was endowed with both real and fictitious characteristics. Thus, in addition to the addiction of crows to carrion and the custom of these birds to form mating pairs, ancient Russian descriptions included the story that the corvid does not drink water in the month of July. Why? Because he was punished by God for neglecting his chicks. It was claimed that the raven knew how to “revive” boiled eggs with the help of a herb known to him alone. How can one not remember fairy tales in which the raven brings living or dead water! It was believed that the erodius bird (heron) was able to distinguish Christians who knew Greek from people of “other tribes.” There was a story that an enudr (otter) kills a sleeping crocodile by reaching through its open mouth to its entrails. By the way, a crocodile could also be drawn in the form of an animal with a huge mane, a tail with a tassel, with claws and teeth. Given a fairly accurate description of the habits of a dolphin (it comes to the aid of people drowning in the sea, etc.), the author of such a treatise could call it “the zelphin bird,” and an ancient miniature depicts a pair of dolphins saving St. Basil the New, in the form of two dogs.
The coincidence of characters arising as a result of the redistribution of characteristics was eliminated by assigning one of them (most often the one in whose description fabulous properties predominated, or he correlated with “strangers”, an exotic region - India, Ethiopia, Arabia, etc.) unusual (foreign language ) name. This, as it were, removed the possible discrepancy between any properties of the object and the usual set of features, united under “its own” familiar name. Thus, the “Indian” beaver also bore the name “Muscow”.
It should be borne in mind that the free application of attributes to the character’s name played an important role in the symbolic interpretation of its properties. The most authoritative specialist in the field of studying the symbolism of animals in ancient Russian literature, Olga Vladislavovna Belova, notes cases when a set of characteristics completely passed from one name to another and an animal taking on someone else’s characteristics received a new property. Thus, having first found themselves united in their characteristics, the hyena and the bear subsequently “exchanged” their names. In the ancient Russian alphabet books, the word “owena”, along with the meaning of “a wild beast imitating a human voice”, “a mythical poisonous beast with a human face, entwined with snakes”, “an animal of the feline breed” has the meaning of “bear, she-bear”.
From the point of view of medieval bookishness, such descriptions were not examples of pure fiction. Any information was taken for granted, being supported by authoritative sources - if it was written about in books, then it was so, despite the fact that the ancient Russian man could not verify the stories. For a bookish, “scientific” description of animals, the real-unreal attribute is not decisive.
The names of animals were regarded as originally given by Divine Providence. Moreover, these names were given so successfully and so accurately reflected the essence of all creatures that God did not change them after that.
All animals and all their properties, real and fictitious, are considered by ancient Russian scribes from the point of view of the secret moralizing meaning contained in them. The symbolism of animals provided abundant material for medieval moralists. In The Physiologist and similar monuments, each animal is amazing in itself, be it a supernatural creature (a unicorn, a centaur or a phoenix; an exotic animal from distant lands (an elephant or a lion) or a well-known creature (a fox, a hedgehog, a partridge, a beaver;) All the creatures mentioned act in their hidden function, accessible only to spiritual insight. Each animal means something, and these symbols, often contradictory, can be classified as “unlike images”: they are not based on obvious similarities. , and on difficult-to-explain, traditionally fixed semantic identities, the idea of ​​external similarity is alien to them.
Ideas about animals were so unique that modern people often think, looking at this or that image, that this image dates back to pagan antiquity. For example, on many churches in the Vladimir-Suzdal land we see an image of a griffin. It is often written that this is a consequence of the ancient Russian stone-cutters turning to pagan origins. In fact, the griffin is a creature about which the Christian “Physiologists” wrote. The griffin meant a mythical creature that combines the features of a bird and a lion. He was depicted as a four-legged creature with a sharp beak, protruding tongue, wings and a tail similar to a lion. At the same time, it was written that the grypsos is a huge mythical bird that gathers the dawn of the sun with its wings. The griffin could be a symbol of the Archangel Michael and the Virgin Mary. And the lamb - usually a symbol of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice, atonement for human sins, also denoting martyrs for the faith - could at the same time depict the Antichrist. Is it true, appearance This lamb was somewhat unusual: it was depicted without a halo, its body was spotted, its paws had sharp claws, it had sharp ears, a toothy mouth with a protruding tongue, and a long tail. This lamb of the Antichrist was very different from the lamb - a symbolic image of Christ.
In the context of the culture of Ancient Rus', a living creature, deprived of its symbolic meaning, contradicts the harmonious world order, and simply does not exist in isolation from its meaning. No matter how interesting the properties of the animal being described may seem, the ancient Russian author always emphasized the primacy of symbolism over the actual description. For him, the names of animals are the names of symbols, and not of specific creatures, real or fantastic. The compilers of “Physiologists” did not set out to give more or less complete characteristics of the animals and birds they talked about. Among the properties of animals, only those with the help of which it was possible to find analogies with any theological concept or draw moral conclusions were noted.
Old Russian scribes perceived stones, their nature, properties and qualities, and color in approximately the same way. Here is how an ancient Russian author describes a ruby: “The Babylonian sardion (or ruby) stone is as red as blood, it is found in Babylon on earth by travelers to Assyria. This stone is transparent, it has healing powers, it is used to treat tumors, ulcers, and also abscesses; for this, this abscess must be anointed.” At the same time, it was said that this stone is likened to Reuben, the son of Jacob, because this stone is strong and strong in action. It must be said that the color designation of the stones and their symbolic meaning were then transferred to the colors that were used in miniatures and icon painting. Each of the colors had its own symbolic meaning and provided an extremely rich range of meanings that the author brought to his work. Precisely color ones symbolic meanings They allow us to clearly understand what is depicted on the icon, what kind of character is depicted and what qualities this character has.
The culture of Ancient Rus' is a multi-level culture. Every text, whether the text is written or depicted through visual elements, contains several meanings, at least five: explicit literal, hidden literal, symbolic, allegorical and moral. And therefore, each of the texts of Ancient Rus' that we read is always extremely deep. Deeper than we are used to thinking, focusing on modern literature. We, today, are more interested in the plot. The Old Russian reader was much more interested in the meanings behind what they read, what they saw, behind the animals, birds, stones and plants they encountered. This is a different world, and you need to listen to it very carefully to understand it

The perception of the world by medieval people was significantly different from ours. Man did not feel like a citizen of the universe; the nearest environment, and everything else seemed alien and hostile. He determined time approximately, by the sun or by the crow of a rooster, and did not value it. Even historians were satisfied with such insignificant “dates” as “when the days became longer” or “when such and such a king reigned.” At first, people treated themselves and others with disdain, because Christianity considered them sinful by nature. But gradually the idea matured that sins could be atone for through prayers, fasting and work. Since then, man began to respect himself and work. Those who did not work were subject to general condemnation. Man's self-esteem increased so much that God in his earthly incarnation began to be depicted in human likeness.

Social inequality seemed normal. It was believed that everyone should be satisfied with their place in society. To achieve more meant to show pride, to slide down the social ladder - to neglect oneself.

Medieval man was afraid of everything in the world. He was afraid of losing a piece of bread, he was afraid for his health and life, he was afraid of the other world, because the church frightened him, that almost everyone was destined for hellish torment. He was afraid of wolves, which sometimes attacked a person in broad daylight, strangers. The man saw the devil's machinations in everything. In the 12th century. There was an idea about the seven deadly sins (pride, stinginess, gluttony, luxury, anger, envy and laziness). They also invented a remedy against sins - confession. Confessed - and you can sin again... They also relied on the intercession of the Mother of God and the saints, of whom, for greater confidence, they strove to have as many as possible. Material from the site

Medieval people perceived the world through symbols. Individual numbers, colors, images, etc. were considered symbols. Thus, the purple color symbolized royal dignity, green - youth, yellow - evil, gold - power and domination, etc. The Middle Ages also believed in prophetic dreams, longed for a miracle . However, not everyone was racking their brains on how to avoid hellish torment and “save” their soul. There were also those who were only interested in having fun.

From the list of wonders in the kingdom of Arles

Lamia, or masks, or striae, are, as doctors believe, night ghosts, and as Augustine claims, they are demons. Larks also enter homes at night, cause nightmares in those sleeping, disrupt order in the house, and transport children from one place to another. This is exactly what happened to Umberto, Archbishop of Arles, when he was still a child.

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Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation

State Academy of Slavic Culture

Concept of time

in Russian medieval culture

XI-XVII centuries

course work

2nd year student of the Faculty of Cultural Studies

Leshchevich Pyotr Vladimirovich.

Scientific supervisor – Professor A.N. Uzhankov.

Moscow, 2004.

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………1

Time and eternity……………………………………………………………..3

Chronicles……………………………………………………………………………….…...13

The idea of ​​the future in Ancient Rus'…………………………………23

Evolution of plot time……………………………………………31

From the Middle Ages to the Modern Age………………………………………..34

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….38

List of used literature……………………………………………………41

Introduction

Introduction

This course work is devoted to the topic “The idea of ​​time in Russian medieval culture of the 11th-17th centuries.” The categories of time and eternity in Russian medieval culture are among the fundamental ones; they reflect religious historiosophy. In this work, I sought to show the perception of time, first of all, by ancient Russian scribes as representatives of the most educated stratum of medieval society, reflecting, however, a national view of the problems of time. An analysis of chronicles, which are the main historical source in medieval studies, is presented insofar as it is related to the main theme of the work. The main literature used were articles by A.N. Uzhankov “Russian Chronicles and the Last Judgment (“Conscience Books” of Ancient Rus')” and “The Future in the View of Writers of Ancient Rus'” and the work of D.S. Likhachev "Poetics of Old Russian Literature".

The main task was to show how the medieval Christian worldview, prone to a concrete sensory perception of reality, understood such concepts as time, history, and eternity. Modern thinking reduces these categories to abstraction, whereas in Ancient Rus' they were quite realistically felt by every person.

Studying the cultural history of your country is necessary not only at the level of studying material values, but also, above all, spiritual ones. The history of Medieval Rus' gives a complete picture of Orthodox Christian thought. The anthropological aspect of the study of history helps to provide answers to many questions that concern our time. This primarily concerns the negative anthropogenic factor of influence on the Earth's biosphere. The representative of global studies, José Artego y Gasset, wrote: “The world that surrounds a new person from the cradle not only does not force him to self-restraint, does not put ... restrictions on him, but, on the contrary, constantly stimulates his appetites, which, in principle, can grow endlessly." Representatives of the Club of Rome see a way out of this situation in a qualitative change in a person’s worldview. He must abandon the consumerist attitude towards nature that arose as a result of the secularization of consciousness. The period of harmony with nature for Russia was the 11th-17th centuries, the time of the heyday of spirituality, for, as Pavel Florensky wrote in his work “The Pillar and Ground of Truth” in the chapter “Creation,” “only in Christianity did creation receive religious significance.”

Thus, it is vital for humanity to study and understand the medieval view of life, to restore enduring values ​​in memory, to feel the categories of culture as they were understood and felt in those days.

“Who can number the sand of the seas and the drops of rain and the days of eternity?” 1

(Jesus, son of Sirach 1.2).

“In you, my soul, I measure time” 2

Augustine the Blessed "Confession"

Time and eternity

By nature, a person is not born with a “sense of time”; his temporal and spatial concepts are always determined by the culture to which he belongs. Our modern life is characterized by the “cult of time”; time has become an abstraction. Previously, the very thinking of people was predominantly concrete, objective-sensual, as evidenced by the works of medieval culture. Such consciousness embraces the world simultaneously in its synchronic and diachronic integrity, and therefore it is “timeless.” Throughout history, humanity has experienced changes from concrete mental categories to increasingly abstract ones.

In the pre-Christian period in Rus', the concept of the circulation of the temporal process within the framework of the annual cycle dominated. The cyclical nature of time is reflected in myths; it is inherent in most ancient religious ideas. With the myth of time regeneration, archaic culture gave man the opportunity to overcome the transience and one-time nature of his life. This is the “ever-existing” present tense. A completely clear distinction between the past, present and future becomes possible only when the linear perception of time, coupled with the idea of ​​its irreversibility, becomes dominant in the public consciousness. For antiquity, time is devoid of homogeneity and chronological sequence. But Roman historians are much more

1 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. P. 306.

2

susceptible to the linear flow of time. In different eras, different answers to the question: “What is time?” were possible.

In modern times, the Middle Ages were perceived as a “gap in time.” But this is not so, philosophy existed in the Middle Ages. However, the first philosophical ideas are not easily distinguished from pre-philosophical formations that include ideological elements. Happening gradual decomposition of myth, its naturalistic, allegorical and symbolic interpretation.

End of the 11th – beginning of the 12th centuries. in Rus' this is a period of struggle between Christianity and paganism, therefore a characteristic feature of ancient Russian social thought is ideological pluralism. Christianity began to penetrate back in the 9th century, as evidenced by the “Tale of Bygone Years,” which mentions how a certain Olma built the Church of St. Nicholas at the grave of Prince Askold, killed in 882, who, according to Byzantine sources, converted to Christianity. Of course, after the baptism of Rus', pagan resistance existed for a long time. In 1017, all the churches in Kyiv burned down. When a new religion is introduced, Christian holidays are “overlaid” on pagan ones.

Of course, disagreements also emerged regarding the perception of time. The Christian concept completely refuted cyclical ideas, for example, about the resurrection of Spring, because such an old concept is based on pantheism, worship natural phenomena, “created”, and not the Creator. New philosophical thought solved the problem of determining time in a different way. Time has a certain flow and framework of existence. It is initially opposed to eternity, being a “fallout” from it. This position is not accidental. Dualism is a characteristic inherent in many categories of Christian medieval culture. This is explained by the idea of ​​a binary picture of the world. Sacredness and materiality are contrasted, embodied in the concept of the “high” and “down” worlds. They are distinguished by the absence and presence of space, movement and time in these worlds. In the holy world there is no time, while in our worldly world there is almost no place for eternity, which, however, does not mean that eternity does not affect the “downstream world.” Eternity, as a characteristic of the Divine world, is associated with peace, it has no framework of existence, it has always been, which a person cannot understand due to the limitations of his own life and the living beings that surround him in everyday life (animals, plants). Time is a characteristic of the mortal, sinful world, separated from the “heavenly” world, which is in constant unilinear movement: from the Creation of the world in 5508 to the Nativity of Christ, when the first second passed, to the Last Judgment, the moment of transformation of the Earthly world into eternity. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “Eternity is the measure of abiding, time is the measure of movement.”

The direction of the movement of time is specifically comprehended within the limits of its linear representation. Here time is not perceived egocentrically (as it is now), but in the form of an unfolding line that has its beginning in the past, which is therefore located in front of the cause-and-effect series. “Front” time is the past, the most important, because it gives rise to “backward” (present in time) events, acting as their cause. Chronicles are “open” to the future. There are almost no ideas about the future, because it is conceptualized as a continuation of the present. But, of course, eschatology has its place. The element of time is thought of as a natural environment for humans. Chronicle history does not strive to surpass time, therefore only connections from the past to the present and from the present to the past are visible in the chronicles. The future is an “untapped” space. All subsequent events go back to the "Beginning". "Beginning" = "Law". Conclusion: in Rus' the time axis was located not horizontally, but vertically. The “forward” events of the past do not fade into oblivion.

Medieval consciousness is not limited to the Judeo-Christian concept of time. In an agrarian society, time was determined primarily by natural rhythms. The persisting “archaic” consciousness is ahistorical. Individuals here are reduced to an archetype, events to categories. In this system of consciousness, the new is of no interest; they only look for a repetition of what was before, that which returns to the beginning of time. It is also interesting that the day was divided not into equal hours, but into hours of the day and hours of the night (from sunrise to sunset and from sunset to sunrise). Crimes committed under the cover of darkness were punished especially severely. Christianity sought to overcome the idea of ​​the night as the time of the dominance of the devil. Christ was born at night in order to bring the light of Truth to those who wandered in the night of error.

Christian time, being the opposite of pagan time, in which “front” and “back” times are combined in an eternal rotation, presents the chronicle formula “we will return to what was before,” conceptually permeated with a biblical worldview. That is, a kind of cycle - the “eternal return” to the lost paradise - occurs, but in the soul of each person, and not in objectivity. To some extent, the relevance of the etymology of the word “time” from the verb “to twirl” remains.

“Orthodox time” consists of two cycles located in different time planes: a constant, calendar - “worship of time”, starting on September 1, and a variable, lunar calendar-oriented Easter cycle. The “worship of time” consists of daily, weekly and monthly circles. The basis is the services of the daily circle, which include material from the remaining circles and the Easter cycle. The result is a contradictory unity of the polysyllabic cyclical closure of “liturgical time” (two different cycles) and its historical extent. This concept largely determined the specifics of ancient Russian historiosophy.

There are assumptions about the spiral direction of time, implying a series of not closed, but, on the contrary, open turns, the beginning and end of which are marked by successive covenants, each of which covers a narrower circle of people than the previous one. The theory of the spiral direction of time is explored in more detail in the work of I.P. Weinberg "The Birth of History" 1 .

Time is understood in moral and ethical terms. Time is an internal reality that does not exist outside the spirit that perceives it. Time and Space characterize the earthly world and were themselves created by God. But Time and Space, which pre-existed in the Word of God before He realized them in the created world, are to be distinguished from earthly and transitory times and places. This idea of ​​time is directly related to Eternity.

This refers to the consideration of time from the point of view of Sacred history, Biblical. In the view of Christianity, the time of earthly kingdoms is not the only one, and only sacred time is genuine (real). Biblical time is not transitory; it represents absolute value. After Christ, the Kingdom of God already exists, but at the same time, time has not yet ended and the Kingdom of God remains a goal for people. In Christianity, historical time is subordinated to the sacred, but does not dissolve in it. Time is separated from eternity. Historical time acquires a structure and is clearly divided between before the twentieth century and after the twentieth century. So time becomes linear And irreversible. The countdown from the Nativity of Christ emphasizes the meaning of time - time is measured out to a person so that

to atone for sins and ultimately come to Christlikeness. Time is seen as the path of humanity, striving to get closer to God, but tempted by dark power. In the course of history, the evolution of the paths to the salvation of the soul given to man from above (from Eternity) is traced. During the Old Testament era

1 Weinberg I.P. The birth of history. – M., 1993. P. 282.

Through the mouth of the prophets the Lord spoke about the Ten Commandments and the birth of the Savior. Christ completely gave people the opportunity to purify themselves by giving the nine Beatitudes. By observing all 19 commandments, you can unite with God and become a saint.

The time of the Bible is an eternally lasting time, which manifests itself in earthly, mortal, current time. Manifested, event time is the embodiment of essential time. Earthly time is likened to the time of the Holy Scriptures, that is, a day in it can be considered as a millennium. For example, in the third hour after his creation, the man gave names to the animals, in the sixth hour the woman ate the forbidden fruit, and in the ninth hour the Lord expelled them from paradise.

So, there is a merging of biblical time with our own present. The main time is sacred, but event time was not perceived as genuine. Genuine time is compressible, expandable, heterogeneous, relative and even conditional. There is time " illogical human existence" 1 .

It should be noted that it was believed that during services time was suspended, because During prayer, a person feels a connection with eternity, with all times. This is where prophetic visions come from, which only saints can contemplate. In any case, time and space seem to change their boundaries, thus becoming a kind of “travel” in time. Human existence was interpreted in Ancient Rus' as echo past events that were identified with eternity. The church year was a kind of echo of an endless series of years, a “renewal” of this series. The main event of Orthodoxy - the Resurrection of Christ - was then “renewed” throughout the entire church year, every seventh day, when the liturgy is celebrated and the resurrection is celebrated again. Easter, weeks, and finally, the year as such - these are all like “rolling” echoes from one event that simultaneously exists in

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1 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. P. 311.

eternity, in the historical past and in the present. The difference between the church year and the pagan year is that here we are not talking about simple repetition, but about an imprint, an echo. Formally, this is emphasized by the fact that direct repetition in church use occurs only once every 532 years, when the full indiction expires. In this large time span, some “echoic deformation” was inevitable. This refers to the chronological difference between holidays assigned to a specific date and holidays depending on the date of Easter. At the same time, the service on “fixed” holidays could change somewhat, because the elements of the church year accompanying the holiday changed: the relationship of this holiday to moving ones, etc.

“Update” was never meant as “innovation” in this concept; a break with tradition should not occur. This movement is not so much forward as an attempt to get closer to the ideal, an appeal to the past.

Man was also a kind of “echo.” Having been baptized, he became “namesake” of a certain saint, became a reflection, an echo of this saint. Just as Christ was considered the “new Adam” (i.e. Adam before the Fall, before the expulsion from the paradise wind city), a man of the Middle Ages in words of praise or hagiography could be called, for example, “the new Basil the Great” (if the name was Vasily and Angel's Day was on January 1st). People who fast, confess and partake of the holy mysteries are “renewed”, cleansed of sins, approaching the ideal, i.e. to the past. Thus, it turns out that it is not man who owns history, but history who owns man.

The cultural implications of this idea are extremely diverse. First of all, it should be emphasized that for the Middle Ages the historical distance (when, how long ago did this happen?) is not particularly important. Culture in this view is the sum of eternal ideas, a certain phenomenon that has a timeless and universal meaning. Culture does not age; it has no statute of limitations.

The future in the Orthodox worldview seems special. Being a continuation of the present, it always implies the End of the World. The future (“pre-future” (the term of the chronicler Nestor), i.e. the period of time between the present moment and the end of time) is known to the extent that it is described in the Bible. However, there is no fatalism in history, because man has free will and can, through his actions, influence the further flow of time. Medieval thinking is essentially eschatological thinking. The beginning of time and its end were quite clearly fixed in space. The beginning of human history, the earthly paradise, like the entire biblical past, is in the east, and it is not clear whether this past has passed or still continues to exist, but only in a slightly different spatial dimension. About the future, Aurelius Augustine said: “How could, for example, the prophets who predicted the future, see this future if it did not exist? For what does not exist cannot be seen 1 " Based on ideas about space, the Last Judgment will have to occur in the west. Note that in the representation of the cardinal directions, the west was at the bottom and the east at the top, thus this arrangement had a moral and philosophical overtones. The sign itself cross was an extremely simple, capacious geometric formula of the basic spatial, temporal and moral oppositions on which the medieval model of the world was built.

Russian icon painting can serve as a vivid illustration of the perception of eternity and time, as well as the role of eschatological themes. Icon– this is an image interpreted as an image of eternity for the momentary.

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1 Danilova I.E. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: the formation of the artistic system of Quattrocento painting. – M., 1975. P. 64.

Saints are always depicted at rest, because in the eternal world there is no movement. Having wings, angels do not move in the ordinary sense of the word, that is, remaining motionless, they can appear in different places. Absolute peace is shown in Andrei Rublev’s icon “Trinity” in the image of the clothing’s edges not falling.

Russian people had an inherent idea of ​​the concrete and sensual as a sign of the general; on icons, for example, in the compositions of the “Assumption” the soul of Mary was depicted in the form of a swaddled baby, the Jordan River - in the image of an old man, and the Church as an institution - in the form of a church building. In this regard, in culture Kievan Rus The problem of human ability to foresee the course of events in the future is acutely experienced.

The Middle Ages were characterized by a constant expectation of the End of the World, as evidenced by numerous images of the Last Judgment. The Russian icon “The Last Judgment” (XV century, Tretyakov Gallery) is a striking example of this. In the upper right corner of this icon there are angels rolling up a scroll of heaven with the moon and sun. Below - the angels of Light throw off darkness with long spears, thereby annulling the first act of creation - God's division of chaos into light and darkness - an act that was the beginning of earthly time, alternating days and nights. That is, the end of astronomical time is depicted here. But there is also an image of historical time: four apocalyptic beasts, enclosed in a circle, represented the four already accomplished earthly kingdoms, a sign that there will be no more history. A person faces a double end: the end of his life and the end of the World. He must always remember this and be prepared for it. However, the Last Judgment is also an obligatory image of eternity. The sign of eternity is the half-figure of God the Father, enclosed in concentric circles of the celestial spheres, between which are placed the sun, planets and small spheres with angelic faces - an image of endlessly lasting motionless movement. The icon contains three temporary s x layers: past, present and future. There is also an expectation of an event - an empty throne awaiting a judge, and nations awaiting judgment. Therefore, there is a future, because The icon also represents the very moment of judgment, when Christ separates the righteous from the sinners. In eternity all times and all spaces coexist.

The Russian hagiographic icon models the basic religious and moral position of a person in the Middle Ages - existence in anticipation of the end and in the face of eternity. On the icons, the scenes of life (stamps) are not located line by line, but in the form of a frame, in the form of a halo. Of course, here a clear chronology does not matter, which is emphasized.

Old Russian icons of the Christological and Theotokos cycles were called festive. According to the medieval concept, the holiday is thought of as a stop, pause in earth time. An event of sacred history is experienced, co-experienced at the moment of a church service (therefore, present tense verbs are inherent in services). The seventh day of creation is a prototype of the holiday. This is a break from the inexorable slipping of time. That is why there was a ban on acting or doing anything on holidays. At this moment, when the flow of time is interrupted and opened slightly, eternity is visible. And to act means to be in the flow of time. Therefore, the holiday icon was always devoid of dramatic action; it was supposed to create an image of eternal contemplation of primordial existence, once accomplished and, as it were, radiating, projecting into the present.

Just as form, “introducing itself” into matter, attached it to infinity, so the iconographic scheme, “introducing itself” into the image, deprived it of the random and transferred it to the rank of eternal. For the one praying, the gap between Now And Always, between the moment of human time and eternity. And a constant reminder of the End of the World to him was the picture of the Last Judgment, located on the western wall, opposite the altar, above the doors, which he contemplated every time he left the temple.

Chronicles

The most complete picture of the perception of eternity and the differentiation of time into the past, present and future can be drawn by considering the most important type of historical sources of the Middle Ages - chronicles and chronicles.

In Byzantine medieval theology, human time was viewed dialectically. “Eternity...is temporary and time is eternal 1 “, wrote John Kontakuzene in “Dialogue with a Jew.” How can this be understood? Eternity exists, time is a subjective illusion. This means that only eternity itself can be temporary. Past, present or future - time is illusory. Augustine the Blessed wrote: “...in essence there is nothing more incomprehensible and hidden 2 " than time.

In relation to the ancient heritage at that time, two trends could be traced. In the “Apostolic Epistles” and “Speech against the Pagans,” Athanasius of Alexandria comes out with a nihilistic rejection of the works of ancient thinkers “external” (in relation to Christianity). On the other hand, Clement of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Origen and others believed that ancient culture could be considered in the context of the biblical interpretation of the world history of mankind. Isidore of Seville (570-636), following Augustine, describes world history in “Etymology” in the form of a succession of six eras: 1) From Adam to Noah; 2) From Noah to Abraham; 3) From Abraham to David; 4) From David to the Babylonian captivity; 5) From the Babylonian captivity to the incarnation of the Word; 6) From the incarnation of the Word to the end of the world.

Russian philosophy was also largely influenced by Neoplatonism. Old Russian literature was closely connected with Bulgarian literature. Thanks to this in Rus' widespread received Slavic

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1 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. P. 309.

2 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. P. 310.

translations of Byzantine chronicles. Since the 11th century, the translation of the “Chronicle” of George Amartol, compiled in the 9th century and continued with the presentation of events up to 948 in the 10th century, and the “Chronicle” of John Malala, an Antiochian cleric who lived in 491 - 578, were known in Kievan Rus. These works were used in ancient Russian chronicles both directly and through the ancient Russian compilation compiled in the 11th century - “Chronograph according to the Great Exposition”. The Chronicles were a kind of connecting link between Rus' and another world. Many myths also circulated where heroes were described in the concept of biblical history (for example, Hercules was a contemporary of Jacob).

The main historical genre in Rus' was chronicles, however, and not chronicles (chronographs). The difference between them is that chronicles were kept by year, and chronicles by reign. This difference, which at first glance seems small, is actually huge, because these are two different emphases in the perception of history and time within the Christian concept. In the 16th century, chronicles completely dominated in Russia, replacing chronicles almost “overnight.” This was caused by the need to change the idea of ​​the philosophical content of history.

All works of Old Russian literature are Orthodox, and their main function is “extraliterary”, instructive, edifying. As for the chronicles, at first glance, the question arises as to whether they should be considered a secular genre, since they mainly describe facts from worldly life, or a church genre, since they were written in monasteries, and the authors were mostly monks.

An appeal to the idea of ​​the last times of this world, as narrated in the “Apocalypse” or “Revelation” of John the Theologian, can help to understand this issue. In particular, it says the following:

“And I saw a throne, great and white, and Him sitting on it, but the earth and heaven fled from its face, and no place was found for it. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were broken down, and another book was opened, even the living, and the dead received judgment from those who were written in the books according to their deeds” (Chapter 20; 11-12). The “other” book is the “book of life”, where the souls of the righteous, awarded eternal life in heaven, are inscribed. That is, at the Last Judgment there are two different types of books. This is a book of life and another type - books in which the earthly deeds of Christians are entered for judgment on them. Such books are also called “conscientious” in one of the troparions.

Apparently, the role of “conscientious” books in Ancient Rus' was assigned to chronicles, as indicated by their ideological content. This may also be confirmed by the fact that the chronicles necessarily speak about the death of princes and saints, without noting the date of birth.

The Laurentian Chronicle includes the “Message” of Vladimir Monomakh, which is the final part of the three-part “Instruction for Children”, addressed to Oleg Svyatoslavich, Prince of Chernigov, whom he addresses as the murderer of his son Izyaslav. The main message of this work is this: being perishable, one should think not so much about today as about the coming Last Judgment, at which one can be forgiven only through forgiveness of one’s neighbors, repentance and humility. Monomakh himself does not condemn Oleg Svyatoslavich, but calls him to repentance and advocates for an end to internecine hostility. In what happened to his son, he sees the will of God: “Judgment came to him from God, and not from you.” He writes: “And what do we represent? People are sinful and evil! Today they are alive, in the morning they are dead; today in glory and honor, and tomorrow they are forgotten in the grave... Look, brother, at our fathers: what did they take (with them) or how were they disgraced? Only that or that which they created for souls yours." Monomakh, who wrote this in old age, repented to his brothers and called them to repentance. Historical facts show that he himself built his entire life according to Christian commandments, achieving power through humility. The power of the prince was perceived at that time as a sacred duty to protect his people, to bear responsibility for them before the Almighty. The “Teaching” was not intended for the general public (it was never copied or read separately); it was written not so much to his brother as to the Supreme Judge at the Last Judgment, before whom Monomakh himself denounced without accusers, hoping that he would be judged by his deeds (or, at least, his acquittal will somehow be taken into account). Based on this understanding of the purpose of writing this work, it becomes clear why it was included in the chronicle list - the “book of conscience.”

The chronicles had their own specific criteria for selecting the recording of historical facts; they recorded not only what happened by the will of God without human participation, but precisely what was done by will people. Most of the information is about the unrighteous deeds of princes, but the “Lives” of saints are also included, which can be interpreted as an example of the behavior of a Christian. While condemning evil as such, the chronicler, however, must not forget the commandment “do not judge, lest you be judged.” The sin of judgment and opinion was unacceptable for monks who wrote chronicles devoid of subjectivity. Many chronicles (unlike Western chronicles) are anonymous, and self-deprecation of the chronicler at the beginning of the manuscript was common, because he takes responsibility for reporting events not out of his own interests, but in the name of the general idea of ​​chronicling, which is above all. The monk writes out of obedience, and “obedience is better than prayer.”

Chroniclers also left some weather articles “blank.” “Blank” dates are present in the chronicles due to the change in time space in each year. V.I. Mildon saw here the principle of “separation of time from events” 1 . The Latin chronicler saw himself accomplice of the events described, which is why we know the authors of most Western chronicles.

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1 From the history of Russian culture // Ancient Rus'. – M., 2000. T. I. P. 326.

The highest value for the ancient Russian scribe was the preservation of authenticity as the Truth established by God. The one who lies will be punished. That is why in ancient Russian works of the XI-XV centuries. there was no fiction; it was possible to write in the sacred - Church Slavonic - language of the divine service only about truth and Truth. The attitude towards words in general, as well as towards the Word, was sacred, therefore foul language is considered a sin. In the Old Church Slavonic language, as in Greek, for example, there was a sacred past tense, which subsequently remained only in Church Slavonic. This is an aorist denoting the perfective aspect of the verb, but was perceived as the present tense. Therefore, when translating sacred books, this was always taken into account. When Maxim the Greek discovered that the Russian language does not clearly indicate the past tense and replaced the form “sede” (simple aorist, 3rd person, singular) of the verb referring to the Lord as the subject of action with “sel” in one of the texts, then he was sent to a monastery prison for 18 years for distorting sacredness. This form could only be translated as “sat down and abides.” After repentance, however, Maxim the Greek was subsequently canonized. The Cyrillic alphabet itself also had a similar sacred meaning, so letters of a secular nature and various documents were written in cursive, and during the time of Peter I the Russian civil script appeared.

The use of the “device of retrospective analogy” with the Bible by ancient Russian chroniclers is related to the understanding of time as Biblical time; parallels are constantly drawn between biblical heroes and their deeds and their princes and events in Russian history. For example, in the Tale of Bygone Years, the legend about the Khazar tribute says that the Khazars, having found clearings after the death of Kiy, Shchek and Horeb, imposed tribute on them. “I thought of the clearing and threw my sword away from the smoke,” seeing a new tribute, an unfamiliar weapon, “deciding on the elders’ tricks: “It’s not a good tribute, prince!” We searched for weapons with one side sharp, like sabers, and these weapons were sharp on both sides, like swords; “Here, you can impose tribute on us and on other countries.” This prediction came true, “for the Kozars and the Russian princes have gone on a rampage to this day,” which was similar to the biblical story. “As during the time of Pharaoh, the kings of Ejupet, when they brought Moses before Pharaoh, and the elder of Pharaoh decided: this one wants to humble the region of Eyupet, as it was: the Eupites perished from Moses, and the first one who worked for them was 1 " Comparisons of the actions of Old Testament heroes with the actions of princes are not accidental, but are endowed with deep historical meaning. The events of sacred history give meaning to present events and explain the state of the universe and the position of humanity in relation to God. These events belonging to the past are at the same time, to some extent, facts of the present. The fact is that Old Testament history was perceived as the era of the Law, regulating earthly life by the commandments received through Moses, not leading to salvation; New Testament history is the era of Grace. Hilarion’s work “The Word on Law and Grace” is dedicated to this concept, where he writes that the Old Testament only prepares for the perception of the Truth, and the saving teaching comes only with the Son of God - Christ, consisting of baptism and following the 19 commandments. Moreover, it was the presence of the Savior, the holy and righteous fathers in the world below that brought sacral meaning into human history, where everything became not accidental, but providential. Thus, a connection was revealed between two worlds, above and below, and history acquired a salutary, eschatological meaning. This direct influence of Eternity is explained by the fact that by his coming to this world in the flesh, Jesus Christ connected both worlds: from above - down - up. The saints connected them from the bottom up. In the minds of chroniclers, Old Testament events act as prototypes of New Testament ones and carry prophecies about them. Old Testament books written

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1 Reader on ancient Russian literature of the 11th-17th centuries. / Comp. N.K. Gujii. – M., 2002. P. 6.

the prophets are historical, while the New Testament, written by the apostles, is Christological. Therefore, the chroniclers referred to the New Testament in matters of faith.

In almost all literary works of Ancient Rus' there are not only comparisons with the Old Testament, but its hidden citation. For example, you can compare quotes from The Tale of Bygone Years with the Third Book of Kings:

Moreover, cases of quoting other chroniclers are not uncommon. This was not perceived as plagiarism, since there were no ideas about copyright in its modern sense. Chronicles are not written by the will of the author, but

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1 Danilevsky I.N. Ancient Rus' through the eyes of contemporaries and descendants. – M.:, 1998. P. 12.

according to Providence, if a thought has already been expressed by someone and expressed beautifully, then it can well be repeated in the same words, for it is written to the Almighty.

There are a lot of correlations between New Testament Russian history and Old Testament Jewish history in The Tale of Bygone Years. Chroniclers lead readers to a simple conclusion: there is nothing new(in moral and ethical terms) in new history, which was not previously the case in the Old Testament. And just as the deeds and deeds of biblical characters are assessed, so will the deeds of the princes contemporary to the chronicler be assessed. Any choice of a person between good and evil is assessed through the Holy Scripture, for such an assessment has already been given to Old Testament persons and will be given - at the Last Judgment to New Testament persons, as evidenced by the “Revelation” of John the Theologian. Russian chroniclers sought to constantly remind us of this; this allowed them to write objectively, without expressing their personal opinions. That is, the Russian chronicles were a kind of “Books of Genesis”, telling within the framework from the Nativity of Christ to the Last Judgment, just as the books of the Old Testament did from the Creation of the world to the coming of the Savior into the world.

Christians of Western Europe in the XII – XIII centuries. They also acutely felt the “shadow of the future.” To ensure that the meaning of the story was clearly understood, they did not limit their presentation to a description of contemporary events and ended with a picture of the Last Judgment.

All ancient Russian chronicles are fundamentally, as we see, no less eschatological. However, less is said about the future here than in Western chronicles. Eschatology stands, as it were, “above” the work, existing in it, just as eternity exists in time. The Apocalypse is not noted as a separate topic in the chronicles, but everything that is written is directly related to it. For example, signs were a direct warning in the chronicles about the End of the World.

Metropolitan Hilarion’s work “The Sermon on Law and Grace” says the least about the future. There is something else here, namely praise to the “new people”, “new times” that have already arrived. There is a clear sense of the progressive development of human history. “The old past, and the new I announce to you 1 “- Hilarion persistently strives to introduce these words of the Apostle Paul into the consciousness of his listeners. The rhythm and direction of historical development, as well as the final goal, are considered “predetermined” by God. The future is comprehended with the help of memory, turning to the prophecies of the past. These prophecies contain a symbolic outline of the destinies of historical development. According to Hilarion, history is full of deep meaning, which gives it a timeless world of eternity, as if framing the movement of transient earthly life. The eternal precedes the beginning of history, it is reflected in its present and determines the final point of movement, where the temporal will merge into the eternal.

We can talk about the multi-layered nature of “The Word of Law and Grace.” The first layer, addressing the sphere of the “eternal”, is episodes of Old Testament history. The second layer is the interpretation of the meaning of Old Testament history in the context of the world-historical development of mankind. The third layer is dedicated to the Russian people, in whose history the history of all mankind is repeated. The fourth layer is praise to Prince Vladimir.

The subsequent development of feudalism in Rus' exacerbated the socio-economic contradictions inherent in this society and, naturally, diminished the optimism in characterizing the present in the views of subsequent ancient Russian scribes. In their minds, the present was increasingly moving away from the future. After Hilarion, the epic perception of time spreads. “Island time” - the absolutization of a certain time process as an ideal, epic world, brought to complete autonomy.

In translated chronicles there is a “straightening” of the idea of

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1 V.S. Gorsky. Philosophical ideas in the culture of Kievan Rus of the 11th – early 12th centuries. – Kyiv, 1988. P. 141.

time. In them, the historical fact in itself has value. This idea of ​​time characterizes The Tale of Bygone Years. However, in the apocrypha “The Book of Enoch the Righteous,” time, developing in a linear sequence, marking the segments of a person’s earthly life, could not be used to measure eternity. Earthly history as a whole, in relation to eternity, appears as complete cycle, at the end of which man and the earthly world return to their Creator, time turns to eternity. Time is replaced, having exhausted itself, by eternity. The boundary between the eternal and the temporary seemed very fluid. Eternity could invade the temporal, and in prophetic visions man became familiar with the eternal.

The pathos of “The Tale of Bygone Years” is primarily etiological, start Russian Christian history, the history of a new people - the Russian Orthodox. Its main task was to show the connection of the Russian people, the Slavs in general, with world history. The Pechersk chronicler Nikon first created the history of Rus' in the 11th century. His student was Nestor, the author of “The Tale...”. In The Tale of Bygone Years, Russian history is tied to the universal year 6360 (852). A clear attachment to chronology also explains the “empty years” of the chronicle. The editor of the Galician-Volyn Chronicle, who tried to break it down by weather in the 14th century, replaced the lack of information in that year with the phrase “It would not be anything.” Inscribed in biblical history as the descendants of Japheth, the son of Noah, the Slavs “received the right, identification” in the Christian world, that is, they strengthened their positions and the “eleventh hour workers” - the Russians. N.S. Trubetskoy writes: “History, as it is interpreted when compiling chronicles, is fundamentally devoid of beginning and end. 1 " In the chronicles, the essence of time is conveyed as “elemental force.” However, the event does not dissolve into infinity, but becomes a precedent, to which the chronicler and the “consumers” of the chronicle constantly return. IN

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1 From history Russian culture// Ancient Rus'. – M., 2000. T. I. P. 327.

“The Tale of Bygone Years” perceives modern existence as historical, and the historical acts as the most significant hypostasis of the existence experienced by the chronicler. Medieval scribes had a “panoramic” vision of history. The idea of ​​the Last Judgment, a cross-cutting one, is already visible from the very name of Nestor’s creation. “The Tale of Bygone Years” has a double reading: with an emphasis on the first and with an emphasis on the last syllable in the word “temporary”. On the one hand, “temporarily s“e summer” - past years, past (in this sense this word is used in the translation of the Chronicle of George Amartol). On the other hand, reading this word as “vr e variable years" defines the "framework of action" of the chronicle associated with its main, providential function 1 . Chronicles are written for a time, until the Second Coming. So why did they cease to exist in the 16th – 17th centuries, and were replaced by chronicles?

Idea of ​​the future in Ancient Rus'

As already mentioned, the whole life of a medieval Christian man came down to the process of cleansing the soul from sins, existence according to the principle of memento mori, remembering the end of his life and the end of times, when everyone will be rewarded according to his deserts. All his life, man waited, being in “fear and trembling” in the face of Eternity, the coming Judgment Day. Therefore, it is worth devoting a separate section of this work to the idea of ​​the providentially inevitable Last Judgment and the future (“the pre-future,” in particular).

When will the Day of Judgment come? There have been hundreds of answers to this question, based on various assumptions and sources for their nomination.

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1 Uzhankov A.N. Russian chronicles and the Last Judgment (“Conscience Books” of Ancient Rus').

Irenaeus of Lyon, a church father of the 2nd century, believed that Christ would come in the year six thousand. In his opinion, the Antichrist will reign in 5997 from the Creation of the world, and his name contains the number 666.

Hippolytus of Rome believed that the End of the World would occur 500 years after the Nativity of Christ. The forerunners of Christ revealed for the second time will be Enoch and Elijah, who will preach 1260 days before the coming of Christ.

The eschatological system was first created by Clement of Alexandria and Origen. A big role for the perception of time in Rus' was played by the writings of Basil the Great, who believed that the Last Judgment would come on the eighth day, as well as Gregory the Theologian, who said that the Savior would appear for the second time in human form, but especially Gregory of Nyssa. On the issue of the second coming of Christ, there are and previously existed different points of view. Adherents of chiliasm, for example, Lyonsky, believe that there will be 2 resurrections of the dead. Clement of Alexandria and Origen are representatives of spiritualistic eschatology. In their opinion, Christ will appear as Divine energy, and hellish punishments are not eternal. The church point of view is the teaching of Gregory of Nyssa, which says that the second time Christ will appear as an image of Divine glory, and not a slave. This theory refutes the idea of ​​two resurrections of the dead.

About life after the End of Times, it is said in “Diopter” that the world will not disappear, but will be transformed, the flesh will become different. “They will all be at the same age... There is no male sex, no female sex, no childbearing, masculinity and femininity for a mixture of prodigal and nasty, no slaughter 1 ».

Initially, in Rus', natural phenomena and signs were perceived as indications of the last times (droughts, floods, epidemics). That is why the Tatar-Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 13th century, in

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1 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. P. 312.

which the wicked biblical tribe of Gog and Magog saw, was perceived as the End of the World. Regarding eschatological pathos ancient Russian literature of that period, it turned out to be partly prophetic - the ancient Russian “pre-Mongol” culture as an integrity perished. The pre-Mongol period in the history of Rus' can be considered both completed and incomplete - “open” for further development. Chronicle writing did not stop, which indicates the continuation of Russian history. The Mongol-Tatar yoke itself was subsequently interpreted in Russian religious thought as a punishment for strife between the princes, as a providential allowance from the Lord in the name of the unification of Rus' before a common enemy. When the unification took place, the Tatars retreated, as evidenced by the “standing on the Ugra” in 1480, when no blood was shed, and the Russian state became sovereign not only in fact, but also formally.

From Byzantium, with the adoption of Christianity, the idea of ​​the year 7000 as the time of the Second Coming penetrated into Rus'. In the 14th century, the Patriarch of Constantinople Nicephorus Xanthopoulos wrote about this. God created the visible world in six days, the seventh was the day of rest - Resurrection. The week was perceived as a symbol. Since 1000 years before God are “like one day” (Ps. 89.5), it was precisely the 7 days of creation that became the prototype for those awaiting Parousia. In “Revelation” (“The Word of the Kingdom of the Language in Last Times and the Legend from the First Man to the End”) Methodius of Patara also writes about the end of the world after seven thousand years.

When the end of the world did not come in the 13th century, the sprouts of rationalism and pragmatism pushed for more accurate mathematical calculations. 7000 years were counted from the date of the Creation of the world, from 5508 BC. e., therefore the Coming had to take place in 1492. Paschals were calculated before this date. Metropolitan Photius (1410-1431) calls the 15th century, when time in his view is, as it were, compressed, thickened, “this age is short of time” and calls: “Let us do the works of light,

Bye our life is still worth 1 " Even earlier (1390-1405), Metropolitan Cyprian, in a letter to Abbot Athanasius, writes: “...now there is lately, and in the summer death comes, and the end of this age 2 ».

Since the 11th century, the chronicle (that is, initially) had a chronological basis with a time limit of 1492. The entire 15th century was a time of preparation for the Apocalypse, and all global historical events were perceived in this aspect. After the fall of the stronghold of Orthodoxy, Constantinople, to the Turks, the end of the world became a self-evident event. Facts say that in the second half of the 15th century there was an unprecedented exodus of entire princely and boyar families to monasteries. The vast majority of chronicles ended their narration in the middle of the 15th century or a little later - on the eve of a fateful event for the world. Chronicle writing and compilation of chronicles at this time was not local, but all-Russian in nature.

This answers the question about the disappearance of chronicles on the previous scale in the 16th century. There is, however, another explanation for this phenomenon of Russian culture. The principle of chronicle writing in The Tale of Bygone Years is the compilation of weather articles. This is a principle that seems natural for the Russian tradition, but in reality has almost no analogues, including in Byzantium, where chronicles described history according to the periods of the reign of emperors, within these periods noting indicts, years and days. Traces of such a chronographic manner of presentation are also inherent in the initial chronicles, which also mark the beginning of the reign of the Russian princes. The first event in Russian history dates back to the beginning of the reign of Emperor Michael III, and the last (in the Tale of Bygone Years according to the Ipatiev List) - to the end of the reign of Alexei I Komnenos. Starting with the Yaroslavichs, tables and reigns have multiplied in Russian history,

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1 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. P. 321.

2 Yurganov A.L. Categories of Russian medieval culture. – M., 1998. pp. 320-321.

This means that such a system becomes difficult to implement. Accordingly, in the 16th – 17th centuries, when a single state with autocratic power was formed around the Principality of Moscow, chronicles naturally became the most convenient historical genre. The unification, strengthening and development of Russia was also seen as Divine Providence and providentialism.

This is directly related to the change in the concept of the date of the End of the World in Rus' after the “fateful” year of 1492. Ancient prophecies spoke of three Christian kingdoms preceding the universal end, successively replacing each other. The first kingdom was the Roman one. Christ was born in it, Christianity arose and grew stronger, and under Constantine the Great (306-337) it became the state religion. But under Julian the Apostate (361-363), Christianity was again persecuted. After the division of the Great Roman Empire into Western and Eastern at the Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381, it was proclaimed the “new Rome”. This is how the second kingdom arose, where God’s grace passed. Its role especially increased after the division of Christianity into Catholic and Orthodox in 1054. In 1437-1439. at the Council of Ferraro-Florence there was an attempt by union to reunite the two churches. Thanks to the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Vasilyevich, the Russian metropolitanate achieved autocephaly and the right to elect their own metropolitan. Thus, the union was not accepted by the Russian people. The second Christian kingdom died in 1453 for apostasy from the truth, according to the Russians. The Russian state freed itself from a two-hundred-year yoke soon, in 1480, and became the most powerful Orthodox state at that time. At the beginning of the 16th century, works appeared that traced the genealogy of the Russian tsars from Augustus Caesar, the founder of the Roman Empire, through Prus and Rurik. This reinforced the emerging eschatological idea “Moscow is the third Rome”, expressed by Elder Philotheus to Vasily III.

The theory of the third kingdom in the person of Orthodox Russia, “Holy Rus'”, after the fall of which the Day of Judgment will come, demanded that the genre of chronicles be changed to chronicles. Thus, chronographs and chronicles had different tasks, and, as it turned out, the difference between them is therefore deeper than is noticeable at first glance. The first Russian chronograph appeared already in 1512, followed by others.

Having dealt with eschatological ideas in the medieval worldview, it is worth returning to the perception of the “pre-future,” the time preceding the Last Judgment. It comes after the “back” (present), but, nevertheless, located “in front” of the future. The future was a new concept, an idea about it was formed and its name was determined. In Ancient Rus' XI-XII centuries. There were expressions “future century”, “future time”. In the writings of Hilarion, the “future age” is the time after the Last Judgment. Based on this understanding of the future, the ancient Russian scribes especially did not talk about it - they could not and did not dare to talk.

They rarely remembered the future, more often they talked about “the two sexes of this time” - the past and the present. And the grammatical expression of the future tense was not unified. In the “Tale of Bygone Years” under the year 912 about the death of Oleg, the future is conveyed by the form of the infinitive: “What are we going to die from?” - Oleg asks the magician, and the fortuneteller answers him: “Prince! Horse, if you love him and ride him, you will die.” And above, in the same article, when retelling Oleg’s agreement with the Greeks, the future is conveyed by verbs of the perfect form: “If someone kills...if he commits murder...if he hits...if he steals... 1 »

Why is the indefinite form of the verb used for a specific thing - the death of the prince, and the supposed actions that can

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1 Uzhankov A.N. The future as imagined by writers of Ancient Rus' of the 11th-13th centuries // Russian speech. – 1988, No. 6. P. 78.

not happen, are described in perfect form?

The circular (cyclical) and epic times of Pre-Christian Rus' were “closed” and were preserved as such in oral history. folk art. Ritual calendar holidays are a striking example of a time circle closed within the present. The most ancient epics about Volga and Mikul Selyaninovich, about Svyatogor were in the present tense. In later epics related to the events of the XI-XIII centuries. and localized is the past epic tense. Any event had a beginning and an end and could not be repeated - it became the past:

“So here is the Cossack Ilya Muromets

Turned the heroic horse

And I drove across the open fields of Razdolitsa... 1 »

Christian time is not closed, years can be counted, time can be measured. It was possible to draw a straight line from the present to the past and constantly overcome it at the expense of the future. This is precisely the direction in which the movement of time was in the imagination of the ancient Russian writer. The ancestors walked ahead, he followed them. In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the Svyatoslavichs wanted to steal the “front” glory for themselves and share the “back” (the last in time) glory for themselves.

The chroniclers did not note the cause-and-effect relationships of the facts (although they are present in the epics). The “openness” of linear time is relative, because there is a limitation - the End of the World.

Nestor called the predictions of the Magi about the date of the End of the World, about the future in general, “cunning,” a reprehensible activity. The specific future of a person is known only God, therefore Nestor tries not to look ahead in specific life cases and not to use the future tense form of the verb to be. Fate is entrusted to the will of God, so it is impossible, for example,

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1 Uzhankov A.N. The future as imagined by writers of Ancient Rus' of the 11th-13th centuries // Russian speech. – 1988, No. 6. P. 79.

say: “I will do something.”

However, in the “Tale of Bygone Years” under the year 971, about the treaty of Svyatoslav with the Greeks it is written: “If anyone else thinks about your country, yes, will I’m disgusted with him and I fight with him.” Further, the Russians swear that if they do not keep what they promised, then “with their weapons and the expiration we will" This future is conditional, it is unreal. The event is equally possible and impossible.

When the chronicler does not name any conditions, then next to the form of the future tense, as a rule, a reference to God’s will is placed: “If the truth be, then God will be truly great.”

The best evidence that “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” belongs to the era of the 12th century is that there is only one example of the future tense, which precedes the condition: “If he is entangled in a red maiden, neither the falcon nor the red maiden is in us, then the birds will begin to beat her in the Polovtsian field."

Writers here are only making assumptions in which a cause-and-effect relationship is already outlined. But the condition again does not depend on the person.

A new approach to understanding time and history was reflected in the Galician Chronicle, or more precisely, in the princely biography of Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, written in the middle of the 13th century. There is no system of weather records; we are presented with a complete narrative with a cause-and-effect relationship. In a number of cases, the presentation violates the chronology, which was not previously allowed. This indicates that Galician chroniclers even then noticed pragmatism in history.

With a completely different force, the pragmatism of history will manifest itself already in the 17th century in the work of the head of the Old Believers, Archpriest Avvakum, who dared to write himself a “Life”, propounding this very concept, which will already be the bell of a new culture that has arisen in the process of secularization of consciousness. In literary works there is always another aspect of the perception of time - story time. The change in plot time in the 17th century clearly shows how the idea of ​​time has changed from medieval to close to modern.

Evolution of story time

Artistic time is not a look at the problem of time, but time itself, as it is reproduced and depicted in a work of art.

In folk lyrics, the time of the author and the time of the reader are connected in the time of the performer, since there is neither an actual nor a depicted author; the performer takes his place. The exhibition presents the past as an explanation of the present. There is a “repetition” of the present tense, because it is exhausted by the plot. Folk lyrics in the present tense.

A closed time appears in a fairy tale. A break in time means a pause in the development of the plot. Time in a fairy tale never does not go back, the story always moves it forward, there are no static descriptions. The tale ends with the absence of events.

Epic times are typical for epics. There is no author's time either. A.A. Potebnya wrote: “Lyrics – praesens,... epic – perfectum.” The time of epics is strictly localized in the past; all the action took place in it. Characterized by isolation and straightforwardness. In the narration itself there is a belief in the possibility of repeatability of the action.

The ritual time of lamentation is the present. Lamentation is a work about what is happening, its time is the present artistic and the present real. What is happening is depicted.

As for Old Russian literature, to characterize the plot time, it should be taken into account that it is not characterized by the desire to update the style. Traditions are strictly observed. Intervention by scribes in the text of a work was not allowed when it belonged to the authorship of the Father of the Church, metropolitan, saint, prince, bishop or tsar (for example, Ivan the Terrible). Until the 17th century, there were no literary movements in Rus'. The first movement that appeared in our country was Baroque.

Comparing medieval translated texts with Russian ones, it is easy to notice that the former represent complete plot narratives, whereas in ancient Russian works this was not the purpose of writing. For translated texts, therefore, literary interest prevailed over historical interest. In the chronicles, much greater importance was attached to entertainment, i.e., than in the annals. story genre. An example is the Chronicle of John Malala.

The literary etiquette of a medieval writer was composed of ideas about how this or that course of events should have taken place, how one should behave character in accordance with his position and in what words the author should describe what is happening.

In medieval literature, the two advantages of a conditional and non-conditional depiction of life's realities were expressed with particular clarity. The ideal world and the real world not only opposed each other, but to a certain extent were inseparable. The ideal world was represented by a medieval parable, and the chronicle, reflecting the real world, recorded individual moments of changing life, it is connected with the area and certain dates.

The subjective aspect of time, in which it seems either to flow slowly, or to run quickly, or to roll in an even wave, or to move spasmodically and intermittently, was not yet discovered in the Middle Ages. If in new literature time is very often depicted as it is perceived by the characters in the work or presented to the author or the author’s “replacement” - to the lyrical hero, “the image of the narrator” and so on - then in ancient Russian literature the author sought to depict objectively existing time, independent of one or another of its perceptions. Time seemed to exist only in objective reality. Therefore, there was no attempt to create the “mood” of the story by changing the pace of the story. Narrative time slowed down or sped up depending on the needs of the narrative itself. Slowing down occurred during monologues or to create a picturesque description. Time was subordinate to the plot and did not stand above it.

Time in the Middle Ages was narrowed in two ways: by separating a whole range of phenomena into the category of “eternal” or by the absence of ideas about the changeability of a whole range of such phenomena. It should be noted that even from “low” life many phenomena seemed unchanged over time. They were, for example, the way of life, the economic and social system, the general structure of the world, technology, language, art, even science, etc.

In art, the law of image integrity reigned, according to which the object of the image can only be represented as a whole. It also operated in literature (as an example of compactness in the use of artistic time). In the presentation, only that which can be described in full is selected, and this selection is also “reduced.” An event is told from its beginning to its end (for example, in the life of a saint). A feature of artistic time was one-pointedness. Narration never does not go back and does not run ahead. And predictions, etc. are not violations of chronology, but an attempt to show the timeless meaning of events.

A literary work also has a timeless existence. The books were designed to be read multiple times, like reading prayers.

Unlike the epic in chronicles and chronographs, the construction enfilade. In the epic there is plot time, in the chronicles time continues.

The chronicle is the literary genre that for the first time came into sharp conflict with the closedness of plot time. Epic time was torn into separate time series; the chronicle presents the struggle between epic time and time in new historical concepts. The latter's victory occurred only in the 16th century.

The chronicler shows the “vanity” of history by recording events. This is his goal. The eternal in the chronicle is given in the aspect of the temporal.

The earthly, temporary world has a timeless, supermundane meaning. This is a real meaning. In the accidental and temporary, the writer of Ancient Rus' saw signs of the eternal, and in the unchangeable and constant - the temporary and earthly that did not deserve attention.

Artistic time in ritual poetry is present. The present time of worship is performed now and at the same time a depiction of “eternity.” The present time was perceived as the time necessary for a person to do everything possible for his salvation. Ultimately, the number of souls of the righteous in heaven must fill the number of fallen angels.

From the Middle Ages to the Modern Age

In its history, Rus' had two transition periods. These are the 11th-12th centuries, when the process of Christianization took place, and the 17th - first half of the 18th centuries, marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age. The adoption of Christianity completed the period of “cosmic corporeality” (the term of A.F. Losev) and opened the period of the “soul”. At the same time, the transformation of a person into a subject occurred. Transitional periods are characterized by the antithesis “old” and “new”.

During the second transition period, unlike the first, there is no such a sharp change in the Absolute, it is impossible to draw a chronological boundary. The period of “soul” begins to give way to the era of “reason”. The specificity of Russian culture of that time was the “compression” of the Renaissance. The beginning of the crisis of medieval culture is associated with the completion of the development of the previous concept of man, with the exhaustion of the ideas and forms contained in it. The most important incentive this process became the events of the Time of Troubles, which required rational explanations. However, even before this, the prepared nationalization of man and culture began. The first quarter of the 17th century can be assessed as the initial stage of the “transition period”. The sad events of the beginning of the century are no longer assessed as God’s punishment for sins. The “Lament for the Captivity and Final Ruin of the Moscow State,” written in 1612, openly blames all Russian rulers for the tragedy that befell the country.

The fact is that providentialism did not provide an answer to the painful question: what to do? Thus, the attitude towards the supreme power is rationalized. The historical cataclysm forced us to reconsider the criteria for perceiving and assessing reality. This gives rise to two approaches.

In 1617 "Chronograph" was written. Among other things, it shows an interest in pagan times (for “knowledge”), information about the discovery of America is gleaned from Catholic chronicles... There is a realistic narrative about the events of the Time of Troubles, in which there are two layers. One is eternal, timeless and spaceless, flowing as a background in the background of history; and the other is real, concrete, having a temporary s e and spatial parameters and controlled by earthly people in accordance with their individual aspirations, drives, and goals. This coexistence of the “sensual” and the “supersensible” is a clear indicator transitivity culture.

Russian culture of the 17th century is still devoid of the antagonism of “oldness” and “newness”, because Church dogmas are not violated. This antagonism reveals a split.

In the 17th century, the greatest variety of literary genres appeared in Rus'. The emancipation of the human personality occurs in the course of the secularization of consciousness. In the literature of the 17th century, the artistic time. In the “Life” of Archpriest Avvakum, it is actually on the threshold of new literature. There is no continuity of historical time here, as in chronicles, there is no isolation, typical of a historical story dedicated to one plot. Datings are rare. Internal time, psychological and subjective time, significantly predominates. In his perception of time, Habakkuk is self-centered. For him, the uncertainty of time, its instability, fluidity, and tedious duration are more important. He tells not how it was, but how it happened. For himself, Avvakum uses the imperfect form of the verb or the aorist form, the sacred meaning of which has not yet been forgotten. Time is not unidirectional, although the beginning is traditionally from birth. The author resorts to the past to explain the present, and the “egocentrism of the present” permeates his entire “Life”, in which the present passes judgment on the past. The interest in the past and present here is by no means “historical”, but “philosophical”. The time perspective is what makes this work a narrative that comprehends the situation of Habakkuk at the moment when he wrote in an earthen prison, at the most pathetic moment of his life.

In the historical narrative of the 16th and 17th centuries. The grammatical present tense is beginning to be used more and more often, but it does not transfer the historical work into the present. Striving for depiction, the narration slows down the pace, which creates the illusion of the reader’s “presence” at the event.

The difference between the literature of Habakkuk and the literature of the New Age is in the special description of the present time, perceived in the light of the general movement of the world towards its end. The Old Believers were generally characterized by eschatological expectations. There were thoughts about the end of the World in 1666, then in 1699... The literature of the New Age was based on the Western perception of time, and for a person of the Renaissance, a highly intense experience was characteristic not of the end of time, but of its beginning.

With the advent of the theater, time began to be perceived completely differently from Avvakum’s. Unlike ritual performances, theater brings the past into the present. The present tense of the ceremonial ritual referred to the truly present tense (weddings, funerals...). An example of one of the very first performances in Rus' is “The Artaxerxes Action.” This is not a story about the past, but a representation of the past, a depiction of the past. The characters seem to persistently remind the audience of this. But the elements of the story are also preserved here. Theater was impossible until the prerequisites were created for the emergence and understanding by the audience of the theatrical present time, that is, the resurrection of time when the viewer must forget that the past is in front of him. According to the new historiosophy, history is memory, therefore it is owned by a person who is able to revive it and put it to his service. Undoubtedly, the emergence of the theater brought a turning point in the further development of literature.

In Baroque culture, the theme of the Last Judgment is one of the leading ones. But the new historiosophy was not afraid of him; in a Europeanized culture, the idea of ​​the Apocalypse turned into just an idea, became something infinitely distant, “insensitive”; from an object of faith, the Last Judgment became an object of art. In connection with this, the attitude towards the present has also changed. It is no longer an echo of the eternal, past, but has become the embryo of the future. Baroque “novelty” is overcoming the past, and in Russian conditions it is a complete and decisive break with it.

Time began to be perceived as it is now. A typical human trait regarding time is the fear of procrastinating, not being on time, not being able to cope with time. Under Peter I, it transformed into the practice of constant reforms.

Conclusion

To summarize, regarding the concept of time, it can be noted that, differing in its linear orientation from modern concepts, time had a meaning, a purpose, was opposed to eternity, but was completely dependent on it. The entire history of this period in the eyes of medieval scribes was covered by providentialism and connections with the biblical history of the Old Testament. At the same time, the order of nature in Christianity was determined by its subordination not only to God the Creator of the world, but also to man, who was considered the actual object of divine world governance, the ultimate goal of the world order. He was responsible for nature, was a “co-creator” of the world, therefore, with every action, thought, and choice between good and non-existent evil from the evil one, he influenced the future, which he could not know. However, he knew more. He knew the ultimate goal of history, its task; knew about his task in earthly life and strove to fulfill it, saving his soul through prayers, which would have to go through two judgments of God. Such is the life of a Christian of the Middle Ages, “thinking about death” and putting the idealized past ahead of himself. Historical movement in the Russian medieval consciousness is a movement backwards, backwards, approaching those persons and events that no longer exist on Earth. There is also " short story”, limited within the life cycle of an individual person. There is nothing behind the visible “external” events; all “history” is hidden in the invisible, “internal” world.

There were many examples of honoring and valuing the past. Mature medieval culture, starting from the 16th century, persistently declared loyalty to antiquity, an appeal to the ideal, to the truth discovered by early Christianity and constantly being lost. For example, Ivan III repeatedly emphasized that he was annexing to Moscow the lands that belonged to him “in ancient times,” and thereby only restoring antiquity as the truth. Vasily III and Ivan IV persistently traced the roots of their family to Augustus (through Prus and Rurik). According to Ivan the Terrible, “to rule in the old way” meant to be God’s deputy on earth. The “older” the idea, the closer it is to the truth. Hence the special veneration of ancient icons. There were often cases when new icons were deliberately darkened to make them more “antique.” Simeon of Polotsk believed that such an action was akin to paganism. Under Peter I, there is a complete abandonment of antiquity, a boom in “foreign insanity.”

Historicism that came with Christianization was with backward perspective. “History” has already been completed: Christ has already walked his path, endured his suffering and ascended to Heaven to the heavenly Father. With him, history moved from Earth to Heaven. People can only try to “repeat” the exploits of Christian drama, and their own earthly life is a constant expectation of the second coming of the King of Heaven, a moral preparation for this final act of “history.” Thus, the effect gives rise to the cause, and not vice versa. Any events on Earth are only a consequence of the sinfulness of the world; the reasons that gave rise to it are neither in the present nor in the past, they are only in the future - in the second coming of the Savior.

Being in a state of prayer in the temple, a person could “travel” through time and space, joining eternity and the “heavenly world.” The period of the XI-XVII centuries in Ancient Rus' was a time when people's worldview consistently changed. Indeed, to some extent, the history of Russia reflects the history of all countries. And this primarily concerns the transition of thinking from the concrete to the abstract. The eternity and immediacy of time, so clearly felt at a level close to the physiological, which did not raise doubts or questions among a medieval Christian, is a feeling that is increasingly lost in the life of modern man. He lives in a world of abstract concepts, a world that is “unreal” in its essence, when culture is at the highest point of its confrontation with nature. In an effort to learn something new, that is, “new” in the sense of “other than the old,” a person forgets and ceases to understand what happened before. In a post-industrial society, working for the machines that ensure his existence, man has driven himself into the framework of inevitability, where the free will given to him by God does not matter. At this stage of development of society, harmony with nature and, speaking about humanity as a whole, any positive connection with it is severed. Harmony with nature is the time of that very “dark” Middle Ages. A time when a person, feeding on the fruits of his labors, firmly knew who he was, where he was, what the meaning of his life was. A person’s isolation from a concrete perception of reality, perception at a sensory level has led to a kind of disorientation in space and time flow. A person without his “roots”, without clear, inviolable concepts becomes helpless and cowardly, as was the case in the pre-Christian era. There is only one difference: then people were afraid of nature, did not know what to expect from it; now the same can happen to machines. In order to prevent the concept of God from developing into something abstract, we should better understand what thoughts a person of a medieval mindset had during the most spiritually enriched period in his history. For the history of Russia this is the XI-XVII centuries.

List of used literature

Uzhankov A.N. Russian chronicles and the Last Judgment (“Conscience Books” of Ancient Rus').

Uzhankov A.N. The future as imagined by writers of Ancient Rus' of the 11th-13th centuries // Russian speech. – 1988, No. 6.

Artistic and aesthetic culture of Ancient Rus' XI-XVII centuries. / Ed. V.V. Bychkova. – M., 1996.

Likhachev D.S. Poetics of Old Russian Literature. – M.: Nauka, 1979.

V.S. Gorsky. Philosophical ideas in the culture of Kievan Rus of the 11th – early 12th centuries. – Kyiv, 1988.

Danilova I.E. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: the formation of the artistic system of Quattrocento painting. – M., 1975.

From the history of Russian culture // Ancient Rus'. – M.: Languages ​​of Russian Culture, 2000. T. I.

A.M. Panchenko. Russian culture on the eve of Peter’s reforms // From the history of Russian culture. – M.: Languages ​​of Russian Culture, 1996. T. III.

M., 1996. Cherny V. D. Russian art culture transformation of Europe in the body of Russia Abstract >> Culture and art

European middle ages, that... in VIII- XI v.v., when the peoples... performance surviving to our day time architectural monuments of that time. By the beginning of the 80s XVIII ... Russian culture first quarter XVIII century. Leading figures Russian culture ...

1. Russian truth and the Pskov charter

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   X-XX centuries"(T. 1. M., 1984), “Monuments Russian rights... are developing Russian culture, statehood... arch medieval Russian feudal... time after 1462. The title gives some indication performance...isada. Dictionary Russian language XI-XVII centuries (...