Abstract
The article is focused on ideas and rhetoric of freedom in Old Rus from Eleventh to Fifteenth centuries. The author examines two concepts of freedom in Old Russian Language: volya and svoboda, and traces their evolution. Svoboda was a latitude or priviledge given to a serve by a master. Svoboda existed in one or more areas of life, but was not a universal freedom. The author of Word of Daniil Zatochnik dreamt simultaneously of becoming a serve (kholop) of a mighty prince and being granted svoboda in his servile status. Volya initially meant desire and will, but later, apparently in the late Twelfth and early Thirteenth century, took a meaning of freedom. As opposed to svoboda, volya became a political and even legal term for full independence of a man (e. g. boyars in Muscovite Rus in Fourteenth century) or a community (e. g. Novgorod the Great from Thirteenth to Fifteenth centuries) from any external authority. Anyone making a claim for his own volya made an act of political self-determination. Following the rise of power of Moscow princes volya of anyone but prince left political vocabulary.
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