In the literature of the seventeenth century, unlike that of the Middle Ages, it is impossible to discern common stylistic principles. The seventeenth century is the age of the emergence, establish­ment and struggle of different literary schools and trends, both those deriving from Russian traditions and those based on West […]

The founder of an unbroken tradition of syllabic poetry in Moscow was the Byelorussian’ Samuil Sitnianovich-Petrovsky (1629-1680), who at the age of twenty-seven took monastic vows and the name of Simeon and became known in Moscow as Simeon of Polotsk, his native town where he had tought in the school […]

Born in Kursk, Sylvester Medvedev was a scribe in the Privy Office who later, urged by Simeon, took monastic vows.66 After the death of his teacher, Sylvester inherited his post, that of court poet. He also inherited Simeon’s library and his plans. The main plan was to found a university […]

Like Sylvester Medvedev, Karion Istomin (Zaulonsky) (mid-seventeenth century-after 1717) was born in Kursk.69 He came to Moscow not later than 1679, having already taken monastic vows. Here he worked as a redactor at the Printing House. The turbulent events of 1689 had little effect on Karion Istomin’s career, but the […]

The Russian professional theatre appeared in 1672, the year of Peter I’s birth, as a court theatre.70 Already in the early 1660s Tsar Alexis made attempts to hire in the “German lands” and settle in Moscow a troupe of actors, “masters to make comedy” (the word “comedy” at that time […]

1 For a study of this work see: Кузьмина В. Д. Рыцарский роман на Руси. Бова, Петр Златых Ключей. Moscow, 1964.

Let us now attempt to sum up Russian literary development. Like most other European peoples, Russia bypassed the slave-owning stage. For this reason Russia did not have an antique stage in the development of its culture. The Eastern Slavs went straight from the commun­al-patriarchal stage to feudalism. This transition took […]