From a literary point of view, the best work of Old Russian literature is the Slovo o polku Igoreve (The Song of Igor's Campaign (Igor's Campaign, The Song of)), a sort of epic poem (in rhythmic prose, actually) dealing with Prince Igor's raid against the Polovtsy (Kipchak), a people of the steppes, his capture, and his escape. Composed between 1185 and 1187, the Igor Tale, as it is generally known, was discovered in 1795 by Count Musin-Pushkin. The manuscript was destroyed in the Moscow fire of 1812; however, a copy made for Catherine II the Great survived. The poem's authenticity has often been challenged but is now generally accepted. Its theme is the disastrous fratricidal disunity of the Russian princes.
From the 14th to the 17th century
Moscow's ascendancy
Beginning in the 1230s, the Tatars (Tatar) conquered most of the Russian lands, thus destroying the hegemony of Kiev and initiating a period in which political and cultural power was dispersed among numerous principalities. Eventually the grand princes of Moscow succeeded in defeating the Tatars (1480) and subduing the principalities. (The exception was the lands under the rule of the Lithuanian-Polish kingdom, and this division initiated the development of separate Ukrainian and Belarusian cultural traditions.) Once the Russian lands were united, Tsar Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible; reigned 1533–84) undertook a campaign against the remaining power of the old aristocracy (boyars). Reflecting these political facts, chronicles (chronicle) and saints' lives served the interests of particular local powers. A series of works in various genres, known as the Kulikovo cycle, celebrated the first (but by no means definitive) Russian victory over the Tatars in 1380 under the leadership of Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (“Donskoy”). A rather weak imitation of the Igor Tale, the Zadonshchina (attributed to Sofony of Ryazan and composed no later than 1393) glorifies Dmitry Donskoy.
The Second South Slavic Influence
The Ottoman occupation of the Balkans at the end of the 14th century, and later the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, drove a number of prelates to Russia, thus initiating the “Second South Slavic Influence.” Schooled in an Eastern Christian theological movement, Hesychasm, these men brought with them a style of writing closely linked to their theological doctrines. Known as “word weaving,” this ornamental style played with phonic and semantic correspondences. It appears in the most notable hagiography of the period, Zhitiye svyatogo Sergiya Radonezhskogo (“Life of Saint Sergius of Radonezh”) by Epifany Premudry (Epiphanius the Wise; d. between 1418 and 1422).
Possessors and Nonpossessors
A theological and political controversy of great significance took place between St. Joseph of Volokolamsk (Joseph of Volokolamsk, Saint) (1439–1515) and his followers, known as the “Possessors,” or “Josephites,” and Nil Sorsky (Nil Sorsky, Saint) (1433–1508) and his followers, known as the “Nonpossessors.” Joseph justified the killing of heretics and the church's possession of lands (thus the name “Possessors”). These positions were disputed by Nil and his followers, especially Vassian Patrikeyev (d. before 1545) and Maximus the Greek (c. 1475–1556). The Nonpossessors called for greater tolerance and an inner, more spiritual religion, a view that left its mark on a tradition eventually embodied in Dostoyevsky's ideal monk, Father Zosima, in his novel The Brothers Karamazov. With the Josephites' triumph, the division between church and state dissolved; apostasy and treason became inseparably linked.
Works reflecting Muscovite power
Accompanying Moscow's rise were a series of writings on the theme of translatio imperii (“translation of empire”), which constructed genealogies and described the transmission of imperial and ecclesiastical regalia to Russia. Particularly important is the monk Philotheus' (Filofei's) epistle to Vasily III (written between 1514 and 1521), which proclaimed that, with the fall of Constantinople (the second Rome), Moscow became the third (and last) Rome. Along with the title tsar (caesar) and the claim that Orthodox Russia was the only remaining true Christian state, the doctrine of the Third Rome came to justify Russian imperial ambitions and to legitimize the idea that it was Russia's destiny to save and rule the world.
Reflecting the consolidation of Muscovite power were a series of encyclopaedic works, including the enormous Velikiye Minei-Cheti (“Great Martyrologue”) of 1552, the Ulozheniye(“Code of Laws”), and other collections or codifications. Encyclopaedic writing also includes the famous Domostroy, or rules for household management, which later became a byword for oppressive narrow-mindedness. The 16th century also saw the first examples of polemical writing by laymen. Ivan Peresvetov (rather superfluously) urged Ivan the Terrible to inspire fear. From a literary point of view, the most remarkable work of this period is the correspondence between Andrey Mikhaylovich, Prince Kurbsky (Kurbsky, Andrey Mikhaylovich, Prince) (1528–83) and Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV). In a series of letters Kurbsky, who escaped from Russia and entered the service of the Polish king, denounced Ivan's tyrannical rule and developed a theory justifying rebellion against unjust power. In a simple but polemically powerful style, which included citations from Cicero, he also denounced Russian cultural backwardness, thus earning a reputation as Russia's first “ Westernizer” (as well as first “dissident” and first “émigré” writer). In his vituperative replies, Ivan exhibits the psychology of a victim (self-pitying in accounts of his childhood) turned victimizer.
Among the other noteworthy works of this period are some tales of entertainment, including Povest o Petre i Fevroni (mid-16th century; “Tale of Peter and Fevroniya”). In hisKhozhdeniye za tri morya (“Journey Beyond Three Seas”) a merchant, Afanasy Nikitin, describes his travels to India and Persia during 1466–72. However, what is most striking about this period is what did not take place: Russia experienced no Renaissance and became quite isolated from the West. With nothing resembling Western secular literature, philosophy, or science, it remained a land remarkable for its lacks.