Literacy in Rus' in the pre-Christian (pre-Kiev) period. How and when writing appeared in Rus'
Writing, literacy, schools
The basis of any ancient culture is writing. When did it originate in Rus'? For a long time there was an opinion that the letter came to Rus' along with Christianity, with church books and prayers. However, it is difficult to agree with this. There is evidence of existence Slavic writing long before the Christianization of Rus'. In 1949, Soviet archaeologist D.V. Avdusin, during excavations near Smolensk, found a clay vessel dating back to the beginning of the 10th century, on which was written “gorushna” (spice). This meant that already at that time writing was in use in the East Slavic environment, there was an alphabet. This is also evidenced by the testimony of the Byzantine diplomat and Slavic educator Kirill. While serving in Chersonesus in the 60s of the 9th century. he became acquainted with the Gospel written Slavic letters. Subsequently, Cyril and his brother Methodius became the founders of the Slavic alphabet, which, apparently, was in some part based on the principles of Slavic writing, which existed among the Eastern, Southern and Western Slavs long before their Christianization.
The history of the creation of the Slavic alphabet is as follows: the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius spread Christianity among the Slavic peoples of southeastern Europe. Greek theological books had to be translated into Slavic languages, but there was no alphabet corresponding to the peculiarities of the sound of Slavic languages. It was the brothers who decided to create it, since Kirill’s education and talent made this task feasible. A talented linguist, Kirill took the Greek alphabet, consisting of 24 letters, as a basis, supplemented it with sibilants characteristic of Slavic languages (zh, sch, sh, h) and several other letters. Some of them have been preserved in the modern alphabet - b, ь, ъ, y, others have long gone out of use - yat, yus, izhitsa, fita. So the Slavic alphabet originally consisted of 43 letters, similar in writing to Greek. Each of them had its own name: A - “az”, B - “beeches” (their combination formed the word “alphabet”), C - “lead”, G - “verb”, D - “good” and so on. The letters on the letter denoted not only sounds, but also numbers. “A” - number 1, “B” - 2, “P” - 100. In Rus' only in the 18th century. Arabic numerals replaced "letter" ones.
In honor of its creator, the new alphabet was called “Cyrillic”. For some time, along with the Cyrillic alphabet, another Slavic alphabet was in use - the Glagolitic alphabet. It had the same composition of letters, but with a more complex, ornate spelling. Apparently, this feature predetermined the future fate of the Glagolitic alphabet: by the 13th century. it has almost completely disappeared.
We must also remember that the treaties between Rus' and Byzantium dating back to the first half of the 10th century had “baking trays” - copies also written in the Slavic language. The existence of interpreters-translators and scribes who recorded the speeches of ambassadors on parchment dates back to this time.
The Christianization of Rus' gave a powerful impetus to the further development of writing and literacy. Since the time of Vladimir, church scholars and translators from Byzantium, Bulgaria, and Serbia began to come to Rus'. Numerous translations of Greek and Bulgarian books of both ecclesiastical and secular content appeared, especially during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise and his sons. In particular, Byzantine historical works and biographies of Christian saints are translated. These translations became the property of literate people; they were read with pleasure among princes, boyars, and merchants, in monasteries and churches, where Russian chronicle writing originated. In the 11th century such popular translated works as “Alexandria”, containing legends and traditions about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great, and “The Deed of Deugene”, which is a translation of the Byzantine epic poem about the exploits of the warrior Digenis, are becoming widespread.
Thus, a literate Russian person of the 11th century. knew much of what was available in the writing and book culture of Eastern Europe and Byzantium. The cadres of the first Russian scribes, scribes, and translators were formed in schools that were opened at churches from the time of Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise, and later at monasteries. There is a lot of evidence of the widespread development of literacy in Rus' in the 11th-12th centuries. However, it was widespread mainly only in the urban environment, especially among wealthy townspeople, the princely-boyar elite, merchants, and wealthy artisans. IN rural areas, in distant, remote places the population was almost entirely illiterate.
From the 11th century In wealthy families, they began to teach literacy not only to boys, but also to girls. Vladimir Monomakh's sister Yanka, the founder of a convent in Kyiv, created a school there to educate girls.
A clear indication of the widespread spread of literacy in cities and suburbs are the so-called birch bark letters. In 1951, during archaeological excavations in Novgorod, expedition member Nina Akulova extracted birch bark from the ground with well-preserved letters on it. “I’ve been waiting for this find for twenty years!” - exclaimed the head of the expedition, Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky, who had long assumed that the level of literacy in Rus' at that time should have been reflected in mass writing, which could have been, in the absence of paper in Rus', writing either on wooden tablets, as indicated by foreign evidence, or on birch bark. Since then, hundreds of birch bark letters have been introduced into scientific circulation, indicating that in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and other cities of Rus', people loved and knew how to write to each other. The letters include business documents, exchange of information, invitations to visit, and even love correspondence. A certain Mikita wrote to his beloved Ulyana on birch bark “From Mikita to Ulianitsa. Come for me...”
There remains one more interesting evidence of the development of literacy in Rus' - the so-called graffiti inscriptions. They were scratched on the walls of churches by those who loved to pour out their souls. Among these inscriptions are reflections on life, complaints, prayers. The famous Vladimir Monomakh, while still a young man, during a church service, lost in a crowd of the same young princes, scrawled “Oh, it’s hard for me” on the wall of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and signed his Christian name “Vasily.”
Birch bark is a very convenient material for writing, although it required some preparation. Birch bast was boiled in water to make the bark more elastic, then its rough layers were removed. The birch bark sheet was cut from all sides, giving it rectangular shape. Wrote on inside bark, squeezing out letters with a special stick - “writing” - made of bone, metal or wood. One end of the writing was pointed, and the other was made in the form of a spatula with a hole and hung from the belt. The technique of writing on birch bark allowed texts to be preserved in the ground for centuries. The production of ancient handwritten books was expensive and labor-intensive. The material for them was parchment - specially made leather. The best parchment was made from soft, thin skin of lambs and calves. She was cleared of wool and washed thoroughly. Then they pulled them onto drums, sprinkled them with chalk and cleaned them with pumice. After air drying, the rough edges were cut off from the leather and sanded again with pumice. The tanned leather was cut into rectangular pieces and sewn into notebooks of eight sheets. It is noteworthy that this ancient order of stitching has been preserved to this day.
The stitched notebooks were collected into a book. Depending on the format and number of sheets, one book required from 10 to 30 animal skins - a whole herd! According to the testimony of one of the scribes who worked at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, three rubles were paid for the leather for the book. At that time, you could buy three horses with this money.
Books were usually written with a quill pen and ink. The king had the privilege of writing with a swan and even a peacock feather. Making writing instruments required a certain skill. The feather was always removed from the left wing of the bird so that the bend would be convenient for the right one, writing hand. The feather was degreased by sticking it into hot sand, then the tip was cut off obliquely, split and sharpened with a special penknife. They also scraped out errors in the text.
Medieval ink, unlike the blue and black we are used to, was brown in color, as it was made on the basis of ferrous compounds, or, more simply, rust. Pieces of old iron were dipped into the water, which, rusting, painted it brown. Ancient recipes for making ink have been preserved. In addition to iron, oak or alder bark, cherry glue, kvass, honey and many other substances were used as components, giving the ink the necessary viscosity, color, and stability. Centuries later, this ink has retained its brightness and color strength. The scribe blotted the ink with finely crushed sand, sprinkling it onto a sheet of parchment from a sandbox - a vessel similar to a modern pepper shaker.
Unfortunately, very few ancient books have survived. In total there are about 130 copies of priceless evidence of the 11th-12th centuries. came to us. There were few of them in those days.
In Rus' in the Middle Ages they knew several types of writing. The oldest of them was the “charter” - with letters without slope, strictly geometric shape, reminiscent of a modern printed font. In the 14th century, with the spread of business writing, the slow “charter” was replaced by the “half-charter” with smaller letters, easier to write, with a slight slant. The semi-character vaguely resembles modern italics. Another hundred years later, in the 15th century, they began to write in “cursive script” - smoothly connecting adjacent letters. In the XV-XVII centuries. cursive writing gradually replaced other types of writing. To decorate manuscripts, titles in the Middle Ages were written in a special, decorative font - script. The letters, stretched upward, intertwined with each other (hence the name - ligature), forming a text similar to an ornamental ribbon. They wrote in script not only on paper. Gold and Silver vessels and fabrics were often covered with elegant inscriptions. Of all types of ancient writing until the 19th century. It is the ligature that has been preserved, although only in Old Believer books and decorative “antique” inscriptions.
On the pages of ancient Russian books, the text was arranged in one or two columns. Letters were not divided into lowercase and uppercase. They filled the line in a long sequence without the usual intervals between words. To save space, some letters, mainly vowels, were written above the line or replaced with the “title” sign - a horizontal line. The endings of words that were well known and often used were also truncated, for example God, Mother of God, Gospel, etc. The tradition of placing an accent mark on each word - “strength” - was borrowed from Byzantium.
For a long time there was no pagination. Instead, the word that started the next page was written at the bottom right.
Some features of Old Russian punctuation are also curious. Of the punctuation marks familiar to us, only the period, borrowed from Byzantine writing, was in use. They placed it arbitrarily, sometimes defining the boundaries between words, sometimes indicating the end of a phrase. In the XV-XVI centuries. writing became more complex. In books, for example, commas appeared to indicate pauses, and a semicolon replaced a question mark. The work of a scribe is not easy. The work moved slowly. On average, I managed to write only two to four sheets per day, not only without errors, but also beautifully.
Medieval handwritten books were elegantly decorated. Before the text, they always made a headband - a small ornamental composition, often in the form of a frame around the title of a chapter or section. The first, capital letter in the text - “initial” - was written larger and more beautiful than the others, decorated with ornaments, sometimes in the form of a man, animal, bird, or fantastic creature. Usually the initial was red. Since then they say - “write from the red line.” The section ended with an “ending” - a small drawing, for example, an image of two birds similar to peacocks. The most complex look The book's illustrations were miniatures. The artists painted the miniatures on text-free sheets of the book with a brush and red. Most often these were portraits of customers or the author of the book (for example, evangelists), illustrations for the text. Icon painting had a great influence on the art of miniatures. The best masters icon painters Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev painted book miniatures. Smaller sizes, compared to icons, required greater subtlety of artistic execution.
Chronicles
Chronicles are the center of history Ancient Rus', its ideology, understanding of its place in world history - are one of the most important monuments of writing, literature, history, and culture in general. For compiling chronicles, i.e. weather reports of events, only the most literate, knowledgeable, wise people were taken, capable of not only presenting various affairs year after year, but also giving them an appropriate explanation, leaving for posterity a vision of the era as the chroniclers understood it.
The chronicle was a state matter, a princely matter. Therefore, the order to compile a chronicle was given not just to the most literate and intelligent person, but also to the one who would be able to implement ideas close to this or that princely branch, this or that princely house. Thus, the chronicler’s objectivity and honesty came into conflict with what we call “social order.” If the chronicler did not satisfy the tastes of his customer, they parted with him and transferred the compilation of the chronicle to another, more reliable, more obedient author. Alas, work for the needs of power arose already at the dawn of writing, and not only in Rus', but also in other countries.
Chronicles, according to the observations of domestic scientists, appeared in Rus' shortly after the introduction of Christianity. The first chronicle may have been compiled at the end of the 10th century. It was intended to reflect the history of Rus' from the time of the emergence of the new Rurik dynasty there and until the reign of Vladimir with his impressive victories, with the introduction of Christianity in Rus'. From this time on, the right and duty to keep chronicles were given to church leaders. It was in churches and monasteries that the most literate, well-prepared and trained people were found - priests and monks. They had a rich book heritage, translated literature, Russian records of ancient tales, legends, epics, traditions; They also had the grand ducal archives at their disposal. It was best for them to carry out this responsible and important work: to create a written historical monument of the era in which they lived and worked, connecting it with past times, with deep historical origins.
Scientists believe that before chronicles appeared - large-scale historical works covering several centuries of Russian history, there were separate records, including church, oral stories, which initially served as the basis for the first generalizing works. These were stories about Kiev and the founding of Kyiv, about the campaigns of Russian troops against Byzantium, about the journey of Princess Olga to Constantinople, about the wars of Svyatoslav, the legend about the murder of Boris and Gleb, as well as epics, lives of saints, sermons, legends, songs, various kinds legends. Later, already during the existence of the chronicles, more and more new stories were added to them, tales about impressive events in Rus', such as the famous feud of 1097 and the blinding of the young prince Vasilko, or about the campaign of the Russian princes against the Polovtsians in 1111. The chronicle included and Vladimir Monomakh’s memoirs about life - his “Teachings to Children”.
The second chronicle was created under Yaroslav the Wise at the time when he united Rus' and founded the Church of Hagia Sophia. This chronicle absorbed the previous chronicle and other materials.
Already at the first stage of creating chronicles, it became obvious that they represent collective creativity, are a collection of previous chronicles, documents, and various types of oral and written historical evidence. The compiler of the next chronicle acted not only as the author of the corresponding newly written parts of the chronicle, but also as a compiler and editor. This and his ability to direct the idea of the arch in the right direction were highly valued Kyiv princes.
The next chronicle Code was created by the famous Hilarion, who wrote it, apparently under the name of the monk Nikon, in the 60-70s of the 11th century, after the death of Yaroslav the Wise. And then the Code appeared already during the time of Svyatopolk in the 90s of the 11th century.
The vault, which was taken up by the monk of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery Nestor and which entered our history under the name “The Tale of Bygone Years,” thus turned out to be at least the fifth in a row and was created in the first decade of the 12th century. at the court of Prince Svyatopolk. And each collection was enriched with more and more new materials, and each author contributed to it his talent, his knowledge, his erudition. Nestor's codex was in this sense the pinnacle of early Russian chronicle writing.
In the first lines of his chronicle, Nestor posed the question “Where did the Russian land come from, who was the first to reign in Kyiv, and where did the Russian land come from?” Thus, already in these first words of the chronicle it speaks of the large-scale goals that the author set for himself. And indeed, the chronicle did not become an ordinary chronicle, of which there were many in the world at that time - dry, dispassionately recording facts, but an excited story of the then historian, introducing philosophical and religious generalizations into the narrative, his own figurative system, temperament, his own style. Nestor depicts the origin of Rus', as we have already said, against the backdrop of the development of the entire world history. Rus' is one of the European nations.
Using previous codes and documentary materials, including, for example, treaties between Rus' and Byzantium, the chronicler develops a wide panorama historical events, which cover both the internal history of Rus' - the formation of all-Russian statehood with the center in Kyiv, and international relations Rus' with the surrounding world. A whole gallery of historical figures passes through the pages of the Nestor Chronicle - princes, boyars, mayors, thousands, merchants, church leaders. He talks about military campaigns, the organization of monasteries, the foundation of new churches and the opening of schools, religious disputes and reforms of internal Russian life. Nestor constantly concerns the life of the people as a whole, their moods, expressions of dissatisfaction with the princely policies. On the pages of the chronicle we read about uprisings, murders of princes and boyars, and brutal social battles. The author describes all this thoughtfully and calmly, trying to be objective, as objective as a deeply religious person can be, guided in his assessments by the concepts of Christian virtue and sin. But, frankly speaking, his religious assessments are very close to universal human assessments. Nestor condemns murder, betrayal, deception, perjury uncompromisingly, but extols honesty, courage, loyalty, nobility, and other wonderful human qualities. The entire chronicle was imbued with a sense of the unity of Rus' and a patriotic mood. All the main events in it were assessed not only from the point of view of religious concepts, but also from the standpoint of these all-Russian state ideals. This motive sounded especially significant on the eve of the beginning of the political collapse. In 1116-1118 the chronicle was rewritten again. Vladimir Monomakh, who was then reigning in Kyiv, and his son Mstislav were dissatisfied with the way Nestor showed the role of Svyatopolk in Russian history, on whose order the “Tale of Bygone Years” was written in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. Monomakh took the chronicle from the Pechersk monks and transferred it to his ancestral Vydubitsky monastery. His abbot Sylvester became the author of the new Code. Positive assessments of Svyatopolk were moderated, and all the deeds of Vladimir Monomakh were emphasized, but the main body of the Tale of Bygone Years remained unchanged. And in the future, Nestorov’s work was indispensable integral part both in the Kiev chronicles and in the chronicles of individual Russian principalities, being one of the connecting threads for all Russian culture.
Later, with the political collapse of Rus' and the rise of individual Russian centers, the chronicle began to fragment. In addition to Kyiv and Novgorod, their own chronicle collections appeared in Smolensk, Pskov, Vladimir-on-Klyazma, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, Ryazan, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl-Russky. Each of them reflected the peculiarities of the history of its region, bringing its own princes to the fore. Thus, the Vladimir-Suzdal chronicles showed the history of the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod the Big Nest; Galician chronicle of the beginning of the 13th century. became essentially a biography of the famous warrior prince Daniil Galitsky; the Chernigov branch of the Rurikovichs was mainly narrated in the Chernigov Chronicle. And yet, even in the local chronicles, all-Russian cultural origins were clearly visible. The history of each land was compared with the entire Russian history, the “Tale of Bygone Les” was an indispensable part of many local chronicle collections, some of them continued the tradition of Russian chronicle writing of the 11th century. So, shortly before the Mongol-Tatar invasion, at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. In Kyiv, a new chronicle was created, which reflected the events that took place in Chernigov, Galich, Vladimir-Suzdal Rus', Ryazan and other Russian cities. It is clear that the author of the code had at his disposal the chronicles of various Russian principalities and used them. The chronicler also knew European history well. He mentioned, for example, the Third Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa. In various Russian cities, including Kyiv, in the Vydubitsky monastery, entire libraries of chronicle collections were created, which became sources for new historical works of the 12th-13th centuries.
The preservation of the all-Russian chronicle tradition was shown by the Vladimir-Suzdal chronicle code of the early 13th century, which covered the history of the country from the legendary Kiy to Vsevolod the Big Nest.
Writing Eastern Slavs existed even before the adoption of Christianity. Many sources reported on a kind of pictographic writing - “Russian writings”.
The creators of the Slavic alphabet (“Glagolitic” and “Cyrillic”) are traditionally considered to be the Byzantine missionary monks Cyril and Methodius, who lived at the turn of the 20th and 20th centuries. May 24 is celebrated in our country as their day of remembrance and a holiday of Slavic writing and culture.Adoption of Christianity in 988, which became the official religion Kievan Rus, contributed to the rapid spread of writing and written culture. A large amount of translated literature of religious and secular content appeared in Rus', and the first libraries appeared at cathedrals and monasteries. Original Russian literature began to be created - religious and secular (chronicles, words, teachings, lives, etc.)
The introduction of Christianity was also associated with the beginning of school education in Ancient Russia. The first schools in the Kiev state were created by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich. “He sent to collect the best people children and send them to book education,” the chronicle reported. Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, who went down in history as the Wise, expanded the circle of people who learned to read and write, ordering priests “in cities and other places” to teach people, because “the benefits of book learning are great.” In Novgorod, he created a school in which 300 children of the clergy and church elders studied. Russian historian V.N. Tatishchev wrote about the existence in Kiev at the St. Andrew’s Monastery of a special girls’ school, where “young girls” were taught writing, as well as crafts, singing, sewing and other useful crafts.”
The first Russian schools were created mainly in monasteries, and the clergy taught there. Primary schools taught reading, writing, singing and theology. Training was conducted on native language. In schools higher type for "ray-
children of our people,” where they prepared for state and church activities, and also gave them knowledge of philosophy, rhetoric, and grammar; Byzantine historical works, geographical and natural science works, and collections of sayings of ancient authors were used for training. Many prominent figures of ancient Russian culture came, in particular, from the school at the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery - the leading center of book learning. However, the most common thing in Kievan Rus was individual training.
Education in the Kyiv period was highly valued. “Books instruct and teach us,” books “are the essence of rivers that water the universe,” “if you diligently search for wisdom in books, you will find great benefit for your soul,” the literature of this period is filled with such sayings. The high level of professional skill with which the oldest Russian books that have come down to us were executed (primarily the oldest - “Ostromir Gospel”, 1057) testifies to the well-established production of handwritten books already in the 10th century! V.
Highly educated people were found not only among the clergy, but also in secular aristocratic circles. “My father, sitting at home, knew five languages, which is why he received honor from other countries,” Prince Vladimir Monomakh wrote in his “Teaching” to his sons. Such “bookish men” were princes Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, his father Vsevolod, Yaroslav Osmomysl, Konstantin Rostovsky and others.
Archaeological excavations of the mid-twentieth century. in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and other Russian cities most valuable material about the spread of writing in Ancient Rus'. The birch bark documents of various contents found there (letters, memos, educational records, etc.), along with numerous epigraphic monuments (inscriptions on stones, crosses, weapons, dishes, etc.) became evidence of the widespread spread of literacy among the urban population in Kievan Rus.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion had catastrophic consequences for Russian culture. The death of the population, the destruction of cities - centers of literacy and culture, the severance of ties with Byzantium and Western countries, the destruction of book wealth led to a decrease in the general cultural level of Ancient Russia. Although the traditions of writing and book literacy were preserved, the spread of literacy was concentrated ^
during this period it was mainly in the hands of the church. Schools were created in monasteries and churches, where children were taught by representatives of the clergy. Information about such schools is contained in the lives of Russian saints - Sergius of Radonezh, Alexander of Svir, Anthony of Siy, Zosima of Solovetsky and others. Preserved and maintained in the XIV-XV centuries. literacy among the trade and craft population of Novgorod and Pskov, which is confirmed by birch bark letters and “graffiti” (inscriptions on the walls of churches). Unique finds include birch bark “textbooks” of the Novgorod boy Onfim, which contain letters, syllables, phrases of prayers, songs and promissory notes. The centers of writing during this period were also veche and princely offices.
At the same time, the literacy level of the population of Ancient Rus' was very low, even among the clergy, for whom literacy was a craft. The appeal of the Novgorod Archbishop Gennady to Metropolitan Simon (late 15th - early 16th centuries) is known with a request to “sorrow” before the sovereign, “so that schools can be established”: “My advice is to teach in school, first of all, the alphabet, words under the title and the psalter: when will they learn this , then you can read all sorts of books. Otherwise, ignorant men teach the guys - they only spoil it. First, he will teach him Vespers, and for this they bring the master porridge and a hryvnia dene. The same is due for Matins, and for the hours there is a special fee. In addition, a wake is given, in addition to the agreed upon Magarych. And if (such a student) leaves the master, he doesn’t know how to do anything, he just wanders through the book. There is no other way to comprehend the meaning of a book than by learning the alphabet and the title.” As you can see, the “masters” - the teachers of Ancient Russia - were able to train candidates for clergy directly from the voice without real literacy training.
Half a century passed, but in 1551 at the Council of the Stoglavy the same complaints about the low level of literacy of the clergy were repeated. Meanwhile, the need for educated people in the 16th century increased significantly, which was associated with the development of the economy, the state apparatus of the united country, and international relations. The Council of the Hundred Heads decreed: “in the reigning city of Moscow and throughout the city... priests, deacons, and sextons should establish a school in their homes, so that priests and deacons and all Orthodox Christians in each city would hand over their children to them to learn to read and write and for the teaching of book writing."
The decision of the Stoglavy Council was not implemented. There were few schools, and education in them was limited to the acquisition of elementary literacy. Individual home-based learning continued to predominate. Teaching aids were liturgical books. In the second half of the 16th century. special grammars appeared (“A conversation about teaching literacy, what literacy is and what its structure is, and why such a teaching is glad to have been compiled, and what is gained from it, and what is appropriate to learn first”) and arithmetic (“Book, recoma in Greek Arithmetic , and in German Algorizma, and in Russian - digital counting wisdom").
In the middle of the 16th century, a major event took place in the history of Russian culture, which played an extremely important role in the development of literacy and book literacy - the emergence of book printing. On March 1, 1564, the “Apostle” came out of the Moscow printing house - the first Russian dated printed book. The deacon of the Kremlin church, Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets, became the head of the state printing house, created on the initiative of Ivan IV and Metropolitan Macarius.
In the 16th century, the number of highly educated people increased both among the clergy and among secular persons. These were not only individual aristocrats, but also people of intellectual labor - government officials, diplomatic service workers, military men, and scribes. A high degree of education in Ancient Russia was achieved by reading books or communicating with knowledgeable people. Thanks to the activities of these people, the rudiments of scientific knowledge developed, historical and literary works, the church’s monopoly on knowledge and education was shaken. Some thinkers of the 16th century. in Russia, those who dared to criticize the Russian Orthodox Church were declared heretics and executed.
XVII century further increased the need for literacy and education. The development of urban life, the revival of commercial and industrial activity, the complication of the state apparatus system, and the growth of ties with foreign countries required a large number of educated people.
The distribution of books acquired a much wider scale during this period. Extensive libraries of Russian and translated literature began to be compiled. The Printing House worked more intensively, producing not only religious works, but also books of secular content.
The first printed textbooks appeared. In 1634, the first Russian primer by Vasily Burtsev was published, which was reprinted several times. In the second half of the 17th century. More than 300 thousand primers, about 150 thousand educational “Psalters” and “Books of Hours” were printed. In 1648, the printed “Grammar” of Meletius Smotrytsky was published, in 1682 - the multiplication table. In 1678, Innocent Gisel’s book “Synopsis” was published in Moscow, which became the first printed textbook of Russian history. In 1672, the first bookstore opened in Moscow.
Throughout the 17th century. Many people from Ukrainian and Belarusian lands came to Moscow and began working as “reference officers” (editors) at the Printing Yard, translators, and teachers in schools and private homes. Okolnichy of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich F. M. Rtishchev, at his own expense, founded a school at the St. Andrew’s Monastery, where they taught Greek, Latin and Slavic languages, rhetoric, philosophy and other sciences 30 learned monks invited from Kiev. The school was led by the famous teacher and translator Epiphany Slavinetsky. A native of Belarus, scientist, poet, translator Simeon Polotsky taught the children of Alexei Mikhailovich and headed a school in the Zaikonospassky Monastery, which trained educated clerks for government agencies.
Issues of spreading literacy and organizing education became the subject of lively debate between “Latinists” and “Grecophiles.” Part of the higher clergy and nobility (“Grecophiles”) defended the inviolability of Byzantine Orthodox traditions and advocated a narrow theological direction in education. The ideologists of the “Latinophile” trend, Simeon Polotsky and Sylvester Medvedev, advocated broader secular education and familiarization with European science and culture through the dissemination of the Latin language and literature. The “Latinists” enjoyed patronage at court, they were supported by Princess Sophia, educated statesmen A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin,
V.V. Golitsyn. The “Grecophiles” relied on the support of Patriarch Joachim.
In 1681, on the initiative of Patriarch and Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, the Typographical School of “Greek Reading, Language and Writing” was opened at the Printing House. In 1685, 233 students studied there.
Throughout the 17th century. There were other schools in Moscow - in the German settlement, at church parishes and monasteries, and private ones. Under the Pharmacy Order, medical students received medical education.
In 1687, the first higher education institution was opened in Russia educational institution- Slavic-Greek-Latin school (academy), intended for training higher clergy and officials civil service. People of “every rank, dignity and age” were accepted into the academy. The number of students in the first intake was 104, and two years later it increased to 182. The academy was headed by the brothers Sophronius and Ioannikis Likhud, Greeks who graduated from the University of Padua in Italy.
The program of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was modeled on Western European educational institutions. The academy's charter provided for the teaching of civil and spiritual sciences: grammar, rhetoric, logic and physics, dialectics, philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, Latin and Greek, and other secular sciences. Many teaching aids were compiled by the Likhuds. In 1694, the brothers were dismissed, and the academy gradually lost its role as a center of education and science. Nevertheless, she made her contribution to the development of education, preparing many prominent figures in science and culture - F. F. Polikarpov, M. V. Lomonosov and others.
children of these people,” where they prepared for state and church activities, and also gave them knowledge of philosophy, rhetoric, and grammar; Byzantine historical works, geographical and natural science works, and collections of sayings of ancient authors were used for training. Many prominent figures of ancient Russian culture came, in particular, from the school at the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery - the leading center of book learning. However, the most common thing in Kievan Rus was individual training.
Education in the Kyiv period was highly valued. “Books instruct and teach us,” books “are the essence of rivers that water the universe,” “if you diligently search for wisdom in books, you will find great benefit for your soul,” the literature of this period is filled with such sayings. The high level of professional skill with which the oldest Russian books that have come down to us were executed (primarily the oldest - “Ostromir Gospel”, 1057) testifies to the well-established production of handwritten books already in the 19th century! V.
Highly educated people were found not only among the clergy, but also in secular aristocratic circles. “My father, sitting at home, knew five languages, which is why he received honor from other countries,” Prince Vladimir Monomakh wrote in his “Teaching” to his sons. Such “bookish men” were princes Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, his father Vsevolod, Yaroslav Osmomysl, Konstantin Rostovsky and others.
Archaeological excavations of the mid-twentieth century. in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and other Russian cities they provided the most valuable material about the spread of writing in Ancient Rus'. The birch bark documents of various contents found there (letters, memos, educational records, etc.), along with numerous epigraphic monuments (inscriptions on stones, crosses, weapons, dishes, etc.) became evidence of the widespread spread of literacy among urban population in Kievan Rus.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion had catastrophic consequences for Russian culture. The death of the population, the destruction of cities - centers of literacy and culture, the severance of ties with Byzantium and Western countries, the destruction of book wealth led to a decrease in the general cultural level of Ancient Rus'. Although the traditions of writing and book literacy were preserved, the spread of literacy was concentrated ^
during this period it was mainly in the hands of the church. Schools were created in monasteries and churches, where children were taught by representatives of the clergy. Information about such schools is contained in the lives of Russian saints - Sergius of Radonezh, Alexander of Svirsky, Anthony of Siysk, Zosima of Solovetsky and others. Preserved and maintained in the XIV-XV centuries. literacy among the trade and craft population of Novgorod and Pskov, which is confirmed by birch bark letters and “graffiti” (inscriptions on the walls of churches). Unique finds include birch bark “textbooks” of the Novgorod boy Onfim, which contain letters, syllables, phrases of prayers, songs and debt obligations. The centers of writing during this period were also veche and princely offices.
At the same time, the literacy level of the population of Ancient Rus' was very low, even among the clergy, for whom literacy was a craft. The appeal of the Novgorod Archbishop Gennady to Metropolitan Simon (late 15th - early 16th centuries) is known with a request to “sorrow” before the sovereign, “so that schools can be established”: “My advice is to teach in school, first of all, the alphabet, words under the title and the psalter: when They will study this, then you can read all sorts of books. Otherwise, ignorant men teach the children - they only spoil them. First, he will teach him Vespers, and for this they bring the master porridge and a hryvnia dene. The same is due for Matins, and for the hours there is a special fee. In addition, a wake is given, in addition to the agreed upon Magarych. And if (such a student) leaves the master, he doesn’t know how to do anything, he just wanders through the book. There is no other way to comprehend the meaning of a book than by learning the alphabet and the title.” As you can see, the “masters” - teachers of Ancient Rus' - were able to train candidates for clergy directly from the voice without real literacy training.
Half a century passed, but in 1551 at the Council of the Stoglavy the same complaints about the low level of literacy of the clergy were repeated. Meanwhile, the need for educated people in the 16th century. increased significantly, which was associated with the development of the economy, the state apparatus of the united country, and international relations. The Council of the Hundred Heads decreed: “in the reigning city of Moscow and throughout the city... priests, deacons, and sextons should establish a school in their homes, so that priests and deacons and all Orthodox Christians in each city would give them their children both for learning to read and write and for learning book writing.”
The decision of the Stoglavy Council was not implemented. There were few schools, and education in them was limited to the acquisition of elementary literacy. Individual education at home continued to predominate. Teaching aids were liturgical books. In the second half of the 16th century. special grammars appeared (“A conversation about the teaching of literacy, what literacy is and what its structure is, and why such a teaching is glad to be compiled, and what is gained from it, and what is appropriate to learn first”) and arithmetic (“Book, recommendation in Greek is Arithmetic, and in German is Algorism, and in Russian is digital counting wisdom”).
In the middle of the 16th century, a major event took place in the history of Russian culture, which played an extremely important role in the development of literacy and book literacy - the emergence of book printing. On March 1, 1564, the Apo-table, the first Russian dated printed book, came out of the Moscow printing house. The deacon of the Kremlin church, Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets, became the head of the state printing house, created on the initiative of Ivan IV and Metropolitan Macarius.
In the 16th century, the number of highly educated people increased both among the clergy and among secular persons. These were not only individual aristocrats, but also people of intellectual labor - government officials, diplomatic service workers, military men, and scribes. A high degree of education in Ancient Rus' was achieved by reading books or communicating with knowledgeable people. Thanks to the activities of these people, the rudiments of scientific knowledge developed, historical and literary works were created, and the monopoly of the church on knowledge and education was shaken. Some thinkers of the 16th century. in Russia, those who dared to criticize the Russian Orthodox Church were declared heretics and executed.
XVII century further increased the need for literacy and education. The development of urban life, the revival of commercial and industrial activity, the complication of the system of the state apparatus, the growth of ties with foreign countries required a large number of educated people.
The distribution of books acquired a much wider scale during this period. Extensive libraries of Russian and translated literature began to be compiled. The Printing House worked more intensively, producing not only religious works, but also books with secular content.
The first printed textbooks appeared. In 1634, the first Russian primer by Vasily Burtsev was published, and was reprinted several times. In the second half of the 17th century. More than 300 thousand primers, about 150 thousand educational “Psalms” and “Books of Hours” were printed. In 1648, the printed “Grammar” of Meletius Smotritsky was published, and in 1682, the multiplication table. In 1678, Innocent Gisel’s book “Synopsis” was published in Moscow, which became the first printed textbook of Russian history. In 1672, the first bookstore opened in Moscow.
Throughout the 17th century. Many people from Ukrainian and Belarusian lands came to Moscow and began working as “reference officers” (editors) at the Printing Yard, as translators, and as teachers in schools and private homes. Okolnichy of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich F. M. Rtishchev, at his own expense, founded a school at the St. Andrew's Monastery, where 30 learned monks invited from Kyiv taught Greek, Latin and Slavic languages, rhetoric, philosophy and other sciences. The school was led by the famous teacher and translator Epiphany Slavinetsky. A native of Belarus, scientist, poet, translator, Simeon Polotsky taught the children of Alexei Mikhailovich and headed a school in the Zaikonospassky Monastery, which trained educated clerks for government agencies.
Issues of spreading literacy and organizing education became the subject of lively debate between “Latinists” and “Grecophiles.” Part of the higher clergy and nobility (“Grecophiles”) defended the inviolability of Byzantine Orthodox traditions and advocated a narrow theological direction in education. The ideologists of the “Latinophile” movement, Simeon Polotsky and Sylvester Medvedev, advocated broader secular education and familiarization with European science and culture through the dissemination of the Latin language and literature. The “Latinists” enjoyed patronage at court, they were supported by Princess Sophia, educated statesmen A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin,
V.V. Golitsyn. The “Grecophiles” relied on the support of Patriarch Joachim.
In 1681, on the initiative of Patriarch and Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, the Typographic School of “Greek Reading, Language and Writing” was opened at the Printing House. In 1685, 233 students studied there.
Throughout the 17th century. There were other schools in Moscow - in the German settlement, at church parishes and monasteries, and private. Under the Pharmacy Order, medical students received medical education.
In 1687, the first higher educational institution was opened in Russia - the Slavic-Greek-Latin school (academy), intended for training higher clergy and civil service officials. People of “every rank, dignity and age” were accepted into the academy. The number of students in the first intake was 104, and two years later it increased to 182. The academy was headed by the brothers Sophronius and Ioannikis Likhud, Greeks who graduated from the University of Padua in Italy.
The program of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was modeled after Western European educational institutions. The academy's charter provided for the teaching of civil and spiritual sciences: grammar, rhetoric, logic and physics, dialectics, philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, Latin and Greek, and other secular sciences. Many teaching aids were compiled by the Likhuds. In 1694, the brothers were dismissed, and the academy gradually lost its role as a center of education and science. Nevertheless, she made her contribution to the development of education, preparing many prominent figures in science and culture - F. F. Polikarpov, M. V. Lomonosov and others.
It is known that book culture in Rus' began to spread in the 10th century. This was due to the adoption of Christianity under Prince Vladimir the Baptist, who, as reported in the “Tale of Bygone Years,” “Sent, began to take children from deliberate children, and began to give them for book learning... By the same token, the books distributed for learning, the prophecy came true on the Russian land, saying: “In those days, you will hear the gloomy words of the book, and the language of the wicked will be clear...” Translated into modern language: “he sent to collect children from the best people and send them to book education... When they were sent to book teaching, then thereby the prophecy came true in Rus', which read: “In those days the deaf words of the book will be heard, and the tongue of the tongue-tied will be clear”). We can say that it was Prince Vladimir who was the founder schooling in Rus', but in our school, our modern teachers, unfortunately, neither know nor remember this.
The son of Prince Vladimir, Yaroslav Vladimirovich (and he went down in Russian history under the name Yaroslav the Wise), was known outside of Rus' as a man who “was diligent in books and revered them; often in the night and in the day." Translated into modern Russian, it sounds like this: “he loved books, reading them often both at night and during the day.” That is, he was a man who apparently received good education for that time. And the book business reached a special flourishing under him. There is such evidence of this: the wonderful preacher and writer of the 11th century - Hilarion, in the future - Metropolitan of Kiev - addresses the people of Kiev in his “Sermon on Law and Grace”:
We are not writing to the ignorant,
But to those who are overflowing with the sweetness of books.
This meant that Hilarion pronounced his Word, addressing well-read and educated people (of course, this refers primarily to the Kiev nobility). Let us note that this was said by Hilarion in the middle of the 11th century, literally 50 years after the adoption of Christianity, that is, book learning in Rus' spread very quickly after the adoption of Christianity. It is also known that while still Prince of Novgorod, Yaroslav the Wise (following the example of his father, Prince Vladimir) also collected “300 elders and priests’ children to teach books.” And in the chronicle under the year 1030 there is also the following entry: “and there were many book schools, and from them there were many wise philosophers.”
A little later, under Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1053-1125) - this was already the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise - education became even stronger. It is also known that Vladimir Monomakh’s sister created a school to educate girls. Generally speaking, the question of the level of book culture and literacy in Ancient Rus', of course, still needs detailed study. But even now we can say with confidence that in ancient Kyiv, Novgorod and some other Russian cities, literacy was quite high. The ability to read and write was not the privilege of only “learned men,” that is, monks. The Russian princes were literate at that time, and the representatives of the grand ducal squad were also literate, and it mainly, as we know from epics, consisted of strong, mighty people, who in our epics are always called heroes. And since the authenticity of our epics has been proven, it is in them that we often find messages about how Russian heroes attended “book schools” in childhood. It turns out that they were sent to school at the age of seven.
This is what it says, for example, about Vasily Buslaev:
The mother left behind is a widow,
Matera Amelfa Timofeevna,
And the dear child remained,
The young son of Vasily Buslaevich.
Vasenka will be seven years old,
My dear mother gave it,
Matera widow Amelfa Timofeevna,
Teach him to read and write:
And his literacy suited him well in science;
I made him write with a pen,
The letter to Vasily went to science;
She gave through singing [that is, singing - Z.D.] to teach the church,
Petya Vasily went to science.
And we don’t have such a singer
In glorious Novgorod
Against Vasily Buslaev!..
And now we will say a few words about Volga, about another Russian hero. And it is also said about him that “my dear mother, Marfa Vseslavyevna,” sent him to study. And it is said about Alyosha Popovich that he is “a learned man.” Dobrynya Nikitich was also taught to read and write. And it is noteworthy that everywhere it is said that it is mothers who “sit down” their children to write, read, and sing in the church way with a pen. That is, in Ancient Rus', mothers monitored the education of their children. It was their responsibility.
And how can one not be transported from Ancient Rus' to the 20th century and not remember the Altai Old Believers - the Lykovs, who were found by geologists in the 60s of the last, 20th century, in a completely remote place. The surprising thing is that in this family, which lived absolutely isolated from the outside world and had no communication with people (with rare exceptions), in this family there were books. And these books were read every day, because an Orthodox person begins his day with prayer and ends it with prayer. It turns out that the children in this Lykov family (and there were four of them: two sons and two daughters) were taught elementary literacy by their mother. That is, here we see this ancient Russian tradition: the mother teaches children to read and write (and writing, and reading, and singing). It is interesting that modern people perceive these hermit people as uneducated, unscientific and generally dark, but it turns out that they were literate, they had books that not only stood on the shelf, but were constantly read. These people had an idea (within the limits of the church books that they had) about the creation of the world, and about the calendar, and about geography, and about astronomy. Of the Old Believer Lykov family, Agafya is now the only one left. Many curious people visited there and asked her about everything, including even about the starry sky. And when asked if she knew where the constellation Ursa Major was, Agafya not only answered “it’s Elk,” but she even drew this constellation. It turns out that in her speech the ancient Russian name for the Big Dipper was preserved, that is, something that we have long lost. The question is, where does this knowledge of hers come from? Of course, books, book culture gave these people the most necessary knowledge about the world. Agafya is now corresponding with her friends, but she does not write in cursive, but in printed Church Slavonic letters, because she learned to read and write from books written only in Church Slavonic...
Also very interesting information cited at one time by V.I. Dal - about the Ural Old Believers-Cossacks, when he lived in Orenburg (this is the 30s of the 19th century). And he noted that they were also literate, and Cossack women were especially literate. It was they who taught the children, they had this responsibility - to give the children an initial book education...
And here we must also note that in Rus' the literary language was the Slavic language, understandable then to any person, which is why literacy gradually acquired a national character among us. And if we compare Rus' in this regard with other Western European countries, then we must say that the literary language there was Latin, incomprehensible and alien to the common people. In Rus', literacy was ensured by a school where they taught numeracy, provided basic historical, geographical and other useful information, but still the main attention was directed to mastering the Old Russian literary language. And this attitude flowed directly from the new Christian faith, which persistently glorified literacy: “every scripture is useful for learning,” “attend to reading,” “teach yourself,” “know the scriptures from childhood, which can make you wise.”
The discoveries of our archaeologists and historians of the 2nd half of the 20th century allow us to say that elementary literacy was a common phenomenon among ordinary Russian people. And not only in the pre-Mongol era, but also later. And here, first of all, we are talking about birch bark letters. They were discovered in Novgorod the Great during archaeological excavations starting in the late 40s of the 20th century. Later, birch bark letters were discovered in a number of other ancient Russian cities, including Moscow.
It is interesting that in the description of the books of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (we now call it the Trinity-Sergius Lavra), which was made in the 17th century, “packages on the tree of the wonderworker Sergius” are also mentioned. Joseph Volotsky, who lived at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, talking about the modesty of the monastery of Sergius of Radonezh, wrote: “I have so much poverty and lack of wealth, as in the monastery of Blessed Sergius and the very books are not written on charters, but on birch bark.” That is, this monastery was so poor that books in it were written not on parchment, but on birch bark.
Birch bark letters directly indicate that in Novgorod the Great all segments of the population - artisans, merchants, boyars, peasants - could read and write. The main type of these letters was a private letter. The boyars corresponded with each other, they also wrote to their managers, housekeepers, and they responded to their masters. Craftsmen corresponded with their customers, peasants with their masters. The husband wrote to his wife, and the wife wrote to her husband, the parents wrote to the children, and the children to the parents. Moneylenders wrote down their debtors. And this correspondence was a phenomenon of everyday life, that is, literacy was not an exceptionally rare phenomenon. The written word at that time was not a curiosity, it was a common means of communication between people, an opportunity to talk at a distance and an opportunity to record in notes what might not be retained in memory. Correspondence for Novgorodians was not an activity in some narrow sphere of activity, it was an everyday occurrence, that is, reading and writing for Novgorodians was as natural as eating, sleeping, mowing, making clay products, working with an axe, baking bread, etc. Although, it must be said, apparently the degree of literacy was different: illiterate people also lived next to literate people.
Birch bark letters are very diverse in their content - they are both everyday letters and business notes for memory. As Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin writes in his book “I sent you birch bark...”, “birch bark letters were a common element of Novgorod medieval life...” The Novgorodians called them letters, letters, or simply birch bark (“... I sent you birch bark, writing...”). They wrote these letters constantly, and after reading them, they tore them up and threw them, as unnecessary, onto the ground, into the dirt, just as we now tear up and throw away papers we don’t need. So they were preserved in the ground, bringing to us this simple speech of the inhabitants of Novgorod. Along the way, let’s note how birch bark was made suitable for writing. This is also very interesting. It turns out that it was boiled in water to make it elastic, then it was exfoliated, removing the coarsest layers. And they wrote on the inside of a birch bark leaf, that is, on the surface of the bark, which then, when rolled into a scroll, ended up on the outside. They did not write on birch bark with ink, otherwise these texts would not have been preserved in the damp soil. The letters were scratched, or rather, they were squeezed out on the surface of birch bark with a sharpened instrument, the so-called “writing,” which was made either of metal (there are writings made of bronze), or they were made of bone or wood. The writing looked most like a rod or a large nail, the top of which was thickened so that it could be more convenient to hold the writing in the hand. It was inserted into leather case and hung it from the belt. So it was the most common accessory, perhaps even of every Novgorodian, along with such household items as a comb or a knife, which were also carried with them constantly. Moreover, the writing was worn by both adults and children, both men and women.
The Novgorod birch bark charters have been published, and we will present some of their texts. Here is one of the letters (No. 17): “Bow from Mikhail to his master Timothy. The earth is ready, we need seeds. They came, sir, for no reason, but we do not dare to make rye without your word.” As we see, here we are talking about the fact that the land is plowed, and the steward asks his master, boyar Timofey, to send one of the servants with orders to take seeds for sowing, that is, any task was not carried out without the blessing of the elder...
Another letter (No. 53): “Bow from Potra to Marya. I mowed the harvest, and Ozeritsi took the hay from me. Write down the list with the purchase letter and let it come; Wherever you take the letter, give it wisely.” Here, in this short text of the letter, there is a whole story about how Peter apparently bought land near the village of Ozery or Ozeritsy, went there to mow, but the local residents most likely did not know about this purchase and sale of land. They considered him an impostor and took the mown hay from him. And so Peter asks his wife Marya to urgently make him a copy of the deed of sale for this land. Apparently, these simple townspeople were literate, if the husband simply addresses his wife like this: “write the list with the purchased letter and let them come...” For a philologist teacher, another detail will be interesting here - this is the spelling of the name Peter. Since in the Russian language of that time, in place of the stressed vowel [E], which stood after a soft consonant, the sound [O] was pronounced, the author of this letter conveys the pronunciation of this name through the spelling Potr. As you can see, the letter E was not yet in the alphabet (it would appear only in 1783, its author was Ekaterina Dashkova), but there was already a need to convey such a sound.
All Novgorod charters are numbered by archaeologists. Here is letter No. 49 - with very sad news: “Bow from Nastasya to the master, to my brother. I don't have Boris in my stomach. How, Lord, will you care for me and my children.” A resident of Novgorod, a certain Nastasya, reports that her husband Boris has died, “There is no Boris in her stomach,” and she asks to sympathize with her and her children... Here, perhaps, the word will not be entirely clear. The fact is that these letters reflect dialectal speech, and Novgorod dialects are characterized by the so-called tsokanie. That is, if you care - “be sad”! This is exactly what Nastasya, who wrote the letter, asks for.
It is interesting that among the birch bark letters there are even children’s writing exercises. For example, alphabet letters were found among birch bark letters. Particularly noteworthy is the letter No. 199. The letters are inscribed on it in alphabetical order, and the syllables are also given. This letter, according to archaeological scientists, belongs to a boy named Onfim, and it dates back to the 2nd quarter of the 13th century, that is, these records are 7 centuries old! And this is not an ordinary birch bark leaf, it has the shape of an oval. It turns out that this is the bottom of the tueska. Apparently, children were given obsolete birch bark products for writing exercises. A tuesok is a birch bark vessel for liquid substances (water, kvass), and when the tuesok served its term, the bottom of it was given to the boy Onfim. This bottom (when making the tuesk) was reinforced with two intersecting strips. It is these strips that are filled with the boy’s notes. On the first page he carefully wrote the entire alphabet, and then he began to write the syllables: ba, va, ga and so on. Then there are syllables with another letter: be, ve, ge and again - do sche. But there was not enough space on the first strip, and the boy moved to the second strip, where the writing exercise was continued: bi, vi, gi, di. And so it was brought only to si. The exercises end here, because there was not enough space further on this birch bark oval. And on the reverse side of it the boy drew a terrible beast: with protruding ears, with a protruding tongue, similar to a spruce branch or the feather of an arrow, and with a tail twisted into a spiral. And he made the following signature: “I am a beast,” translated - “I am a beast.” And at the top of this drawing he also wrote: Bow from Onfim to Danila. This was apparently also a written exercise, but it was from this recording that the scientists learned the boy’s name. He owns several more birch bark letters, on which he left several drawings, exercises in digital writing, that is, attempts to write numbers. It is known that in Rus' numbers were also designated by letters, and it was also not easy to learn to write numbers. And, of course, the boy Onfim also writes down the letters in other birch bark letters in the order they appear, that is, first the alphabet, and then writes the syllabaries. Here, it seems to me, it is necessary to comment on the boy’s name - Onfim. Before us is a typical Novgorod (okay) pronunciation of the Christian name Anfim, although it may be a derivative of such church name, like Euthymius (Enfim; Onfim). For comparison, we can give another Greek name- Eutropius, which on Russian soil gave the name Ontrop (but with the initial vowel And this name already appeared as Anthrop).
Speaking about literacy in Rus', it should be noted that our distant ancestors learned to read and write in syllables. According to experts, this ancient Russian method of teaching reading was quite effective. Although, as V.L. Yanin writes, “it was extremely difficult for the child to realize that az means the sound A, beeches mean the sound B. And only by memorizing syllabic combinations (buki + az = ba; vedi + az = va), the child came to ability to read and understand what is written." This was the so-called “warehouse” reading. We learn about him, albeit indirectly, for example, from the Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh: “When he grew up... until he was seven years old, when his parents tried to teach him to read and write.” Translated into modern Russian, it sounds like this: “The boy grew up until he reached the age of 7, when his parents sent him to learn to read and write.” But from the Life we know that at first reading and writing “didn’t suit him well,” and only after his miraculous meeting with the holy elder did he “begin to write poetry very well,” that is, he began to read quickly.
In general, it must be said that this method of teaching literacy by warehouses existed in Russia until the beginning of the 20th century. And in this case, we can recall how M. Gorky describes his learning to read and write (that is, reading in different ways) in the story “Childhood”.
* * *
And wall writings - graffiti - also testify to the widespread spread of literacy in Rus'. And among them there are completely unique ones. For example, in the mid-20th century, S.A. Veselovsky discovered inscriptions on the walls of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, which date back to the 11th-12th centuries. They were made by ordinary townspeople and represent simple, short everyday recordings. It is curious that such “creativity” was not encouraged then. Moreover, in the “Charter” drawn up under Prince Yaroslav the Wise, such “letters” that were “cut on the walls” were even subject to church court. But cutting various inscriptions - and mainly on interior walls temples,” people continued. And it must be said that with all the negative attitude towards this type of creativity, these inscriptions, which are classified as forbidden and punishable, perfectly indicate that literacy in Rus' was high, and many Russian people knew writing. And if we talk about the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, then almost all of its parishioners, including children, were probably literate. Let's also note this interesting detail: Researchers even found a bill of sale among the graffiti of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. Moreover, this is one of the oldest bills of sale, and it dates back to the 12th century.
The same records were discovered in Veliky Novgorod - also on the walls of the St. Sophia Cathedral. Here, first of all, you need to point out the following entry: “They started doing things on the s(v)taago of Constantine and Helena.” It turns out that this is nothing more than information about the foundation of the St. Sophia Cathedral. Historians note that the foundation stone of this temple actually falls on May 21 (old style), that is, on the feast of Constantine and Helena. In the same Novgorod temple there are many different records. For example, “Oh, it’s so bad, Vladyka, there is no order for the clerk, but why don’t I cry? Oh, a married clerk." This is a kind of appeal-complaint to the bishop, apparently from a married deacon. And there is also a simple prayer inscription: “Lord, help your servant Nezhata Ivanich.” But here is a recording, most likely inspired by the reading of the penitential canon of Andrew of Crete, which is read during Great Lent: “O my soul! Why are you lying? Why don't you rise up? Why don’t you pray to your Lord?... why do you envy goodness, but don’t do good yourself?” But there are also purely business entries, for example: “On Lukin’s Day, the marshmallow took wheat.”
As noted by A.A. Medyntseva, a researcher of graffiti at St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, many are scratched on the walls of this cathedral male names: Radko, Khotets, Olisei, Peter, Fedor, Ivan, Ostromir, Bozhen, Vasily, Nikola, Vlas, Mestyata, Dan, Yakov, Galeb, Michal, Domashka, Tverdyata. As you can see, here there are Christian names mixed in (in popular versions), as well as names of the pagan era, which at that time (11-12-13-14 centuries) were still in use in Rus' as a second name (Domashka is a derivative of the ancient the Slavic name Domazhir; Tverdyata is a derivative of Tverdislav, Bozhen - from Boguslav, Radko - from Radimir). Common folk forms of names are also of interest, for example, Khotets is a derivative of the name Photius (here the alien sound F is replaced by the sound X). The name Elisey in Russian sounded with the initial vowel sound O: Olisey. We also see the completely Russified names Vlas (from Vlasiy), Michal (from Mikhail), Dan (from Daniel), Nikola (from Nikolai).
Speaking of graffiti, it should be said that, judging by the distance from the church floor, many of them were scratched by children. That is, Novgorod residents always had “writing” with them (both adults and children), it was hung from their belts and could be taken out at any time and write something (on the wall or on birch bark).
In the 19th century and even at the beginning of the 20th century, historians believed that literacy in Rus' was insignificant. And even high school students memorized this thesis in their textbooks, where the following was written: “... then [that is, in Ancient Rus' - Z.D.] writing was limited to copying someone else’s (text), since few schools... served only for the preparation of priests...” . But some of our historians and philologists of the 19th century (for example, I.I. Sreznevsky) and the beginning of the 20th century (academician A.I. Sobolevsky) with their research proved that pre-Petrine Rus' was literate. And discoveries made in the 20th century (especially the discovery of birch bark letters and graffiti wall inscriptions) directly indicate that the ability to read and write in pre-Petrine Rus' was an everyday matter. Although it must be said that after Mongol invasion, when Batu’s troops swept through in a powerful wave, much was simply erased, razed from the face of the Russian land, including education that fell into decay. But Rus' gradually rose and straightened out. And it is no coincidence that in the resolutions of the Hundred-Glavy Council of 1551, held by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible and Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, it is mentioned that “And before this, there were schools in the Russian reign in Moscow and Veliky Novgorod and in other cities, many wrote letters and honors they taught, that’s why literacy was much better then.”
And on this score there are interesting calculations made by Academician A.I. Sobolevsky. It turns out that in the 17th century all monks were literate, 70% of landowners were literate, 70% of merchants were also literate. Literacy was considered commonplace, and, very importantly, scholarship was praised rather than basic knowledge. As academician wrote. A.I. Sobolevsky, “Old Rus' is often accused of being illiterate and not loving books. And completely in vain. It is worth looking into the first old Russian collection that comes to hand, and we will find some article about the benefits of reading books or about how books should be read. “Book veneration” is diligently recommended to the Russian people and a whole series of words dedicated to him, with the names of either John Chrysostom (Byzantine Christian writer, about 344-354 - 407), or Ephraim the Syrian (Syrian Christian writer, about 306-378), then simply the holy father(s), words, mostly translated from Greek, carefully copied by Russian scribes from the 11th to the 17th centuries. Written in 1076, under Grand Duke Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, the collection of edifying articles for the laity begins with “the word of a certain kalegur (monk) about reading (reading) books.” “Goodness is brethren,” says the author, “book reverence. Bridle - konevi (for a horse) the ruler is and abstinence; to the righteous - books. For fear a ship cannot be built without nails, nor a righteous man without the reverence of books. Beauty is a weapon for a warrior, and sails for a ship; This is also the righteous man’s book veneration.” Compiled in the 13th or 14th century, another collection of edifying articles for the laity, which survived in a number of copies of the 14th-16th centuries, “Izmaragd”, contains a few words about reading books. “The essence of books is like the depths of the sea,” we read in one of them, “diving into which they wear out expensive beads...”
It should also be noted that Russian people looked at reading books as a matter of great importance. And, for example, a teacher who taught a student to read and write was considered his benefactor. “If someone in trouble receives help (help) from someone,” says one teaching, “or books from someone he learns, it is appropriate to keep such in his (his) heart and in his mind, and until the day of his departure (death) his name in prayers to remember..."
And here it is appropriate to ask the following question: if in ancient times Russian people loved books so much, is it possible to calculate how many books there were in Ancient Rus'? Some modern scientists (L.P. Zhukovskaya, E.M. Vereshchagin), who have been and are studying ancient Russian written monuments, presumably believe that approximately 500 complete or fragmentary manuscripts have reached us from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries ( from 100 thousand Slavic books). And this amounts to only 0.5% of the real number of books that were then in circulation (gospels, psalters, books of hours, service books, missals, solemn books, chroniclers, tracts, collections, teachings, walks, etc.), that is From the 11th, 12th, 13th centuries, negligible amounts of the book wealth that was created in the first three centuries, after writing came to Rus', have reached us. It was very difficult to protect the book: a lot of books were lost in fires, they were also stolen, disappeared due to neglect, or were simply “read to death.” And here we should think about this expression - read it to the holes. It seems to us now that this is an exaggeration, that this is just hyperbole, but the book really could have reached such a stage when its pages were worn out, like a dress - to holes. And the paper wasn’t the same at all, it didn’t crumble over time like modern paper, it just wore out and tore.
Among the monuments of Russian writing that have reached us, there are completely unique ones. And first of all, these are dated books, that is, those whose scribes left us records about when and by whom the books were written. For example, relatively recently we celebrated the 950th anniversary of the Ostromir Gospel, written, according to researchers, in 1057 in Kyiv for the Novgorod mayor Ostromir. Even earlier, in 1992, the 900th anniversary of the Archangel Gospel was celebrated. It was brought to Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century from the Arkhangelsk land, which is why it is called that. There are other ancient Russian handwritten books, but we’ll talk about them next time.
So, Novgorod birch bark letters, as well as various inscriptions scratched on the walls of ancient Russian churches, not to mention ancient Russian books, directly indicate that literacy in pre-Petrine Rus' was high. But, unfortunately, in the 18th century, not only ordinary Russian people, but also nobles turned out to be illiterate, and this was perfectly described by D.I. Fonvizin in his comedy “The Minor.” Let us also add that it was in the 18th and especially in the 19th centuries that the myth of a dark, backward and illiterate Rus' was born. The origin of this myth was, of course, associated with the exaltation of the reforms of Peter 1. But it is known that Peter 1 was oriented towards Europe and, above all, towards the fact that by that time it had become secular, that is, secularization had occurred, the separation of the church from the world. And our king passionately wanted the same. But before Peter 1, all school education in Rus' was closely connected with the church. Literacy was taught from the Psalter and the Book of Hours, that is, the main texts for reading were church texts. And these texts were spiritual and moralizing, that is, literacy and, what is very important, spiritual education went in parallel. Strictly speaking, there was never a question of how to teach a child what is good and what is bad, because church texts did this unobtrusively, but in such a way that all this entered into the person’s consciousness for the rest of his life. It is no coincidence that I. Kireevsky said this about the Church Slavonic language: not a single harmful book has been written in it. The secularization of the Russian Church carried out by Peter 1 is essentially the separation of the Church and the state. It was not the Bolsheviks who separated the church from the state in the 20th century; this happened much earlier. And this separation of the church from secular life led to a complete decline in spirituality. And first of all, the Russian nobility, which very quickly followed the secular path of education, adopted a foreign language (French), which alienated it even more from the people. And what is most important, our nobility (for the most part) gradually left the church...
The Tale of Bygone Years // Monuments of literature of Ancient Rus'. The beginning of Russian literature. X1 - beginning of the XII century. M.: Khudozh.lit., 1978. p.133-134
The Tale of Bygone Years // Monuments of literature of Ancient Rus'. The beginning of Russian literature. X1 - beginning of the XII century. M.: Khudozh.lit., 1978. p.166-167
Hilarion. A Word about Law and Grace. Translation by V.Ya. Deryagin. M.,: Stolitsa; Scriptorium, 1994. p. 33.
Vasily Buslaev and the men of Novgorod // Epics. M., 1957. p. 346
Yanin V.L. I sent you birch bark... M., 1975. p. 36
Yanin V.L. I sent you birch bark... M., 1975. p. 37
Yanin V.L. I sent you birch bark... M., 1975. p. 47-49
Yanin V.L. I sent you birch bark... M., 1975. p. 48
Medyntseva A.A. Old Russian inscriptions of the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral of the 11th-14th centuries. M., 1978
Sobolevsky A.I. Slavic-Russian paleography. 2nd edition, St. Petersburg, 1908
Combined catalog of Slavic-Russian handwritten books stored in the USSR. 11th-13th centuries M., 1984
A huge cultural revolution, which made extremely important changes in the development of culture and helped to accumulate the necessary experience, knowledge, the opportunity to develop the artistic word, consolidate and preserve verbal works for posterity and distribute them among the broad masses, was the introduction of a unified written language.
The factor that prepared the adoption of Christianity by Russia was the creation in the second half of the 9th century. Slavic writing based on the Greek statutory letter with the addition of a few letters. The creation of writing is associated with the names of the brothers Cyril (827-869) and Methodius (815-885), who arrived from Byzantium to the Great Moravian state at the invitation of Prince Rostislav for missionary purposes in 863. They not only created the Slavic alphabet, but also translated it into from the ancient Greek language of the book of Holy Scripture. In the 10th century There is already evidence of the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in Rus'. The 911 treaty between Oleg and Byzantium was written in two languages - Greek and Slavic. There is numerous chronicle and archaeological evidence of the widespread spread of literacy among different strata of society. So Novgorod birch bark letters are found everywhere, starting from the XI century 11 History of Ukrainian culture. -- K., 1993..
The raging development of book art in Kievan Rus began. Christianity, unlike paganism, was a religion with a highly developed written language. It owned own composition books obligatory for the performance of various kinds of worship, for monastic readings, which were obligatory, for the propaganda of Christianity, for the training of church ministers. These were works of history, church singing, theology, preaching and others. All of them required not only a single alphabet, but also a highly developed writing system as a whole.
The high art of translation already existed. Under Yaroslav the Wise, Josephus Flavius's History of the Jewish War was translated.
The most widespread literacy was among the urban population. The townspeople left inscriptions - "graffiti" on the walls of churches in Kyiv, Smolensk, Novgorod. Among such inscriptions are thoughts about life, complaint, and prayer. Vladimir Monomakh, as a young prince, during a church service wrote on the wall of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv - “Oh, it’s hard for me” - and signed the Christian name Vasily.
So, the introduction of Christianity intensified the processes of spreading education and served as the reason for the organization and development of school affairs. However, at first “book writing” did not gain more or less significant distribution and was limited to a small number of “best people” or “deliberate children.” There is information that after the baptism of Rus' in 988, Vladimir created the first school for the children of the local aristocracy in Kyiv at the Church of the Tithes. It is known from the chronicle that Vladimir's son Yaroslav the Wise in Novgorod in 1054 created a school for 300 children of elders and clergy. Education was conducted in the native language, and at this school they taught reading, writing, the basics of Christian doctrine and arithmetic.
The circumstances of that time and the needs of life required certain knowledge, since enlightened people were needed for the church and the state, to fill church positions and various administrative positions, to maintain wide trade relations, run large farms on boyar estates, etc.
The raging castle and temple construction that unfolded after the introduction of Christianity required highly skilled artists for framing them, and singers for church services. Therefore, in addition to general education schools in Rus', they began to create separate schools of singing, painting, carving, guitar making, artistic blacksmithing, etc. .
Diplomatic and trade relations between Rus' and Byzantium and other countries required Ukrainians to high education with mandatory knowledge of Greek and Latin. Its study was necessary for the practical activities of the then diplomatic corps and various trade, cultural and other relations between Rus' and abroad. For this purpose, in the newly built Sofia of Kyiv, Yaroslav created a school in 1037, which, continuing the best traditions of the Vladimirov and Byzantine schools, was essentially a school of a new type. This is the first domestic institution of higher education, which, by the way, appeared a century earlier than the first universities Western Europe. The level of knowledge that children received here was no lower than that of Byzantine higher schools. The children of the nobility studied at this school: the future Metropolitan Hilarion, the mayors Ostromir and Ratibor, the codifiers (who brought together the codes of “Russian Truth”) Kosnyachko and Nikifor of Kiev, the children of Yaroslav himself, from dozens of noble foreigners - contenders for the crowns of kings. According to some reports, in different times The children of the English king Edmund Ironside, the Hungarian prince Andrei, the successor to the Danish throne Herman, the Norwegian king Harald, the son of the Norwegian king Olaf and other foreigners studied at Yaroslav's school.
What sciences were studied in this high school? The chronicle names philosophy, rhetoric, grammar, history, next to theology, Greek, statements of ancient authors, geography and natural sciences. Many figures of Ukrainian culture emerged from its walls.
After the death of Yaroslav the Wise, schools were created at the courts of bishops to train the clergy. They taught reading, writing, church singing, the basics of faith and morals needed for priests. There were schools in parishes and churches primary education for children of ordinary people.
The processes of spreading education in Rus' had their own characteristics. The most important of them was that not only male children were involved in education, but also mastered it. Schooling expanded, although not to the same extent, among female children. Regarding this, there is interesting evidence from the famous historian of the 18th century. Tatishchev, who gives the following example from a chronicle dated 1085: the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, Yanka (Anna) Vsevolodovna, in the same year opened a special school in Kyiv for 300 girls, in which, in addition to literacy, they also taught various handicrafts. The Chernigov princess Paraskeva, Paraskeva of Polotsk and other women in the princely families were extremely highly educated. Moreover, they studied and knew well not only the “Athenaean wisdom,” but also “philosophy, rhetoric and all grammar.” They were taught here singing, noble behavior, sewing, embroidery, and tailoring.
The Kiev-Pechersk Monastery contributed a lot of useful things to the development of education. Already in the 11th century. here a center for training the highest clergy, artists, doctors, calligraphists, and translators arose. Only up to Tatar-Mongol invasion Over 80 bishops emerged from the walls of the monastery. The phenomenon of chronicle writing appeared and developed here. Famous chroniclers Nestor, Nikon, Sylvester worked in this monastery; in the XII century. the "Kievo-Pechersk Patericon" was compiled - an outstanding work, the historical first-born of Kievan Rus 11 Ukrainian culture. / For ed. D. Antonovich. - K.: Libid, 1993..
In addition to literacy in the narrow sense of the word - the ability to read and write - arithmetic was also well known in Rus'. The chronicle brought to us this interesting example: Novgorod deacon Kirik in 1136 calculated how many days had passed since the creation of the world - 29,120,652. In "Russkaya Pravda" calculations of livestock offspring amounting to hundreds of thousands were given. In addition to knowledge of the four rules of arithmetic, in Rus' they also knew fractions and used them in a variety of calculations.
The emergence and spread of writing and the development of education in Rus' had a positive impact on the processes of development of scientific knowledge. Scientific centers in Rus' during the heyday of the Kievan state were primarily Kyiv, Novgorod, great value had Polotsk, Chernigov, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky. There were schools there, primarily founded by the clergy. Among them were many teachers, writers, speakers, artists, chroniclers, creators of the then Ukrainian science, which, like all ancient culture, was at first completely dependent on Byzantium, which by that time, next to Rome, had the glory of the second world center of science and literature.
The heart of the science of that time was, of course, theology, often colored by philosophical content. Her works were associated not only with the thoughts of the holy fathers of the Church and ancient philosophy (characteristic of this is Klim Smolyatich’s polemic with Thomas around 1147 about the use of the theology of Homer, Plato and Aristotle), but also with her own folk wisdom and her original worldview. Based on theology and mythology, the science of that time also processed other areas of knowledge - history, law, natural history, mathematics, astronomy - in more or less the same volumes as it was in Byzantium and Western European countries. In historical knowledge, translations of the Byzantine chronicles by I. Malali, G. Amartoli and G. Sinkel, “History of Palestine” by Josephus Flavius stand out; The “Six Days” of Basil the Great and revised by the Bulgarian Exarch John are dedicated to natural history, in which individual kingdoms of nature are characterized according to the days of their creation according to the Bible; "Physiologist" tells about various animals, in particular about plants and stones, and "Cosmography" by Kozma Indikoplov gives general characteristics world creation. Church law was developed in many "helms" books.
Domestic original scientific experiments at that time began, as a rule, in areas of science in which Byzantium was not interested and could not give us anything, since the Slavic lands there were known only superficially. Therefore, our ancestors began to write about themselves. We see an attempt at this already on the first pages of the found chronicle. The chronicler is widely engaged in the history of mankind from the creation of the world and to the information that he gleaned from the Bible and Greek sources, he adds his account of the origin of the Slavs, their language, ethnographic affiliation, their wanderings and describes the customs of the tribes that were part of the Kievan state.
Historical science developed successfully. Similar to the historical chronicles of Byzantium, the historiography of that time, which dealt with the history of our state, was chronicles. The most ancient of those that have come down to us are, of course, the “Book of Veles” and others, which were preserved in later copies, in particular the chronicle of 1039, probably compiled at the court of the Kyiv monastery by such monks as Nikon and the famous Nestor the chronicler, author of the Tale seasonal years"The chronicle work was also carried out by the monks of the Vydubitsky monastery - for example, Abbot Sylvester; other monasteries were also engaged in this work. Along with the monasteries, there were also private chronicler historians at the princely courts 11 Ukrainian culture. / Edited by D. Antonovich. - K.: Libid, 1993..
The most ancient Slavic legal code XI-XII Art. - "Russian Truth" - testifies to his long-term preparation and comparative studies of Byzantine, Western European and own, Old Russian, customary law. This collection of laws of Prince Yaroslav and his successors formed the basis of the Lithuanian Charter and the legislation of the hetman's era. It is also interesting for its almost pure East Slavic language, without Church Slavonic elements, transparent structure of sentences and a dictionary of words and terms that are no longer commonly used today.
You should also remember medicine. The first doctors in Rus' were “enchanters” and healers, various “sorcerers” and “magicians” - men and women. They treated with incantations and spells. There was also a kind of medicine, which, in addition to various ointments, powders, etc., also included hydrotherapy, thermotherapy (heating, warming up the body, cooling it), etc. There are single references to surgical intervention in the patient’s body.