LITERATURE 



315 



form and strength and performing gigantic 

 deeds. Vladimir introduced the forms of Chris- 

 tianity after his connection with the Church at 

 Constantinople, during the last half of the Sev- 

 enth Century, but no note of its spirit is promi- 

 nent in the recital of his valorous performances 

 as given in these lales. 



The great commercial success of Novgorod, 

 and its influence on the country, seems to mark 

 a period in the history of Russia and a third 

 cycle hi the literature. In this are found the 

 stories of Sadko, the great merchant, and of 

 Yer.Mlii Buslaevich, of daring ventures and 

 grand results. 



The period following belongs to Moscow, 

 which became the capital of the future empire 

 in 1300 A. D., and during these years the litera- 

 ture busied itself with the autocracy and its 

 doings. The destruction of Kazan by Ivan the 

 Ternme, the conquest of Siberia, the iron rule 

 of Ivan, himself, with its cruelty and supersti- 

 tion, are the foundations of the popular tradi- 

 tions which, strangely, show no hatred or call 

 for revenge. Mingling with these in the later 

 years are stories of the Cossacks, which almost 

 make a literature in themselves. The Cossack 

 songs laud the glories of the day, while they 

 also record the sufferings of the people during 

 Turkish invasion, the devastation carried by the 

 Mongols, and the final overthrow of the Cossack 

 republic. 



The arrival of Peter the Great on the scene is 

 marked as plainly in literature as it is in history. 

 The spirited poem on the death of Ivan the 

 Terrible, the pathetic story of Xenia, the tale 

 of Yermak, the conqueror of Siberia, were fol- 

 lowed by songs in abundance celebrating the 

 wonderful Czar. The religious poems of Russia 

 are numerous, and in them may be found many 

 curious legends with beliefs of the Middle Ages. 

 Many of these poems, with a large department 

 of folk-lore, belong to antiquity and offer a fine 

 field for the student of comparative mythology. 

 Belonging to the more modern period some of 

 these songs rehearse the death of Peter the 

 Great and the deeds of Napoleon. The greater 

 amount of all this poetry was not written, but 

 belonged to oral tradition until an Oxford stu- 

 dent, sent as chaplain with an embassy, early 

 in the Seventeenth Century, collected a few old 

 songs and tales and put them into writing. 



According to authorities, the earliest specimen 

 of the written literature of Russia is a Codex 

 based on the Slavonic gospels. This was written 

 by order of the Governor of Novgorod, and dates 

 1056 A. D. About twenty y< a sort 



of Russian encyclopedia compiled from the 

 Greek. This bears the name of Prince Sviato- 

 slaff, son of Olga, the first Christian sovereign, 

 and the work was done for him by his diak, or 

 deacon. The style is said to be simple and 

 clear. What seems a strange mixture is found 

 in a work considered one of the best written m 

 the language at that time, known as a " I M 



i oiieeniing the < >M an. I New Testament s " 

 an>l containing a |>:r Vladimir. 



'I hat he wa< the hero o| s <> much of the popular 

 poetry of Russia in that century. lain 



the connection. The not.-.l monk, Theodo 

 wrote his "Instructions," discussions concerning ! 



the faith of the Church and exhortations to 

 better living. Most of the writing of those 

 years seems to have been done by monks and 

 churchmen, and this confirms the statement so 

 often met, that the " beginnings of Russian liter- 

 ature are contemporaneous with the introduc- 

 tion of Christianity." In this connection are 

 mentioned the missionaries, Cyril and Method. 



The earliest Russian code of laws, the " Russ- 

 kai Pravada," is found in the Chronicle of Nov- 

 gorod, and was first published during the reign 

 of the son of Vladimir, Yaroslaff, who died in 

 the year 1054. Both form and subject-matter 

 of this code show that Russia then stood on a 

 level in civilization with other European coun- 

 tries. Nestor, who is known as the patriarch of 

 Russian literature, wrote his "Chronicle" dur- 

 ing this century, and it proved to be the first of 

 a long series of Russian annals recorded of many 

 towns and written by many authors, mostly by 

 the cloistered monks. These would be as dry 

 reading as the Anglo-Saxon chronicles but for 

 the romantic stories and sagas bountifully in- 

 cluded in them. Travelers who visited the 

 Holy Land and India left records of their adven- 

 tures, and the sermons of Cyril and other bish- 

 ops, written in allegorical style, are also pre- 

 served with many lives of the saints and the 

 Fathers. Some of these have been edited in 

 later years. 



At the end of the four dreary centuries, the 

 period of the appanages followed by the yoke 

 of the Mongols, the literature of the country 

 began a slow revival. The "Story of Igor," 

 the manuscript of which was carefully preserved 

 until the burning of Moscow in 1812, has been 

 of much note, ft is the story of the early part 

 of the Tenth Century, but it has poetic spirit 

 and holds interest for the general reader. To 

 the time of the terrible Ivan i:.:>()-1584) be- 

 longs the curious "Domostroi, the Book of 

 Household Management." which became popu- 

 lar. It is said to be the work of a monk, and 

 it faithfully pictures the ignorance and barbar- 

 isms of the time. At this date we also find the 

 "Chetii Minei," which is said to have taken 

 twelve years in compiling from the Greek. It 

 was made up of extracts from writings of the 

 Fathers, arranged for every day of the year. 



The print ing- press was set up in MOM-OW in 

 the year l.V:i. ami ten years later the first book 

 was printed. This was called the "Apo-tel." 

 and contained the Acts of the Apostles and the 

 I -'pi-ties of the New Testament. Prinee Kurb- 

 ski was a fluent writer of this time who olied in 

 exile. Karly in the E ith Century ap- 



peared the "Chronograph " of Sergius Kllbasoff, 

 a history from the creation of the world to the 

 day of Michael Romanoff (1617 A. I>A But 

 the most important writing of that j>eriod was 

 the "Account of Russia" by Gregory Kotushik- 

 hin, who fled to Poland about the year 1664. 

 He wrote his work in S\ve<l< . the mat 

 was preserved until 1840 and then printed. 

 These books are considered an important record 

 of Russian life before the time ,>f Peter the 

 Great. Works on philology anil other educa- 

 tion.-^ sulij. :1 the authors 

 generally bani-l patriarch Nil 

 well-known through his struggles with the Czar 



