Culture of Ancient Rus - Kievan Period

Kievan Period

This new cultural era dates back to the adoption of Christianity in 989, when the principalities of Kievan Rus’ came under the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire, one of the most advanced cultures of the time. Vladimir the Great's political choice determined the subsequent development of the Russian culture.

Byzantine masters built their first cathedrals in Rus’ and decorated their interiors with mosaics and murals. Samples of pictorial art, such as icons and miniatures of illuminated manuscripts, came to Kiev and other cities form Constantinople. After the completion of the most important cathedral of Kievan Rus’—Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, named after the principal cathedral of the Byzantine capital—a Russian clergyman, the metropolitan Ilarion, wrote his work On Law and Grace (Slovo o zakone i blagodati), confirming the basics of Russia's new Christian world outlook.

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

Nevertheless, art of the Rus’ principalities of the tenth century differed from Byzantine prototypes of the same period. The peculiarities of the first "Russian" works of art, created by the "visiting" Greeks, included a magnitude and representativeness which demonstrated the ambitions of the young Russian state and its princely authority. Byzantine influence, however, couldn't spread quickly over the enormous territory of Rus’ lands, and their Christianization would take several centuries. For example, there were numerous pagan uprisings in the principalities of Suzdal and Rostov until the twelfth century, led by the volkhvy (волхвы, or pagan priests).

It is interesting to note that the Rus had this significant contact with the Byzantine Empire, and chose to have various parts of the Bible translated from the Greek into Church Slavonic, they did not seem to be interested in other cultural resources that contact with Constantinople would have provided them. That is, although the Rus would have had access to the vast libraries of Greek philosophy, mathematics, and science housed there; there is no evidence that they translated any of these into Slavonic. Since access to these same documents is what is most often cited as giving rise to the Renaissance in Western Europe, this disinterest on the part of the Rus seems to fly in the face of the argument that it was the Mongol invasions which caused Russia to "miss" the Renaissance. D. S. Likhachev notes that "the 'intelligentsia' of Kievan possessed very great mobility, and constantly traveled from principality to principality. Bands of builders, fresco-painters, and churchmen were continually moving from one principality to another, even in the years immediately following the Tatar-Mongol invasion".

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

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

With the adoption of Christianity, the principalities of Rus’ became part of a book culture. Although written language had been in use in the Russian lands for quite some time, it was only after the baptism of Rus’ that written language spread throughout the principalities. The development of the local literary language was associated with Christianity, and strongly influenced by Old Church Slavonic. An abundance of translated literature laid the foundation for the development of Russia's own writing traditions. At its early stages, the most typical genres were sermons, lives of the saints (for example, Life of Boris and Gleb), descriptions of military campaigns (the famous Tale of Igor's Campaign), and composition of chronicles (Primary Chronicle).