Ancient Russian Research Articles

РАГУИЛ ДОБРЫНИЧ КАК ИСТОРИЧЕСКАЯ ЛИЧНОСТЬ

The article presents a historical reconstruction of the biography of one of the most prominent historical figures of Ancient Rus’ of the 12th century. – Novgorod boyar Raguil Dobrynich. During the research process, special methods of cognition were used (historical-analytical and problem-chronological). The materials that form the basis of the study were studied and analyzed taking into account the chronology of events and the need to obtain historical information from the scientific sources being studied. When comparing different theoretical views on the analyzed problems, the method of comparative and retrospective analysis was used.The authors conducted a historiographic analysis of the problem posed in the study and identified the main sources used in writing the article. Based on the texts of ancient Russian chronicles, as well as the contents of birch bark letter No. 831, the authors reconstructed the Novgorod period of the biography of Raguil Dobrynich, and also outlined his role in the historical events associated with the expulsion and murder of Prince Igor Olegovich.Particular attention in the article is paid to the analysis of the historical events of 1170 related to the revolt of the Novgorod squad against their prince Vladimir Mstislavich, in which Raguil Dobrynich played a key role.

Smolensk in the Book Tradition of Russia of the XVI Century

The article examines a number of ancient Russian works dating back to the XVI century, in which Smolensk is at the center of the narrative. On the basis of indirect data, the author concludes about the possibility of the appearance of these plots on the Smolensk land, possibly in the form of folk legends, and then the emergence of a literary version based on them, recorded in the sources of the XVI century. The appearance of these plots in the XVI century was not accidental. In 1514, Prince Vasily III of Moscow annexed Smolensk to his possessions. The annexation of an ancient Russian city with a rich history and tradition required legitimization. Literature has become a way of including Smolensk in the ethnocultural space of the Moscow state.

STATISTICALLY STABLE VERBAL-NOMINAL COMBINATIONS WITH THE COMPONENT ЖИЗНЬ IN THE ANCIENT RUSSIAN CHRONICLES

The article describes statistically stable verbal-nominal combinations with the component ‘жизнь’, functioning in the Old Russian language. The material for the study is an electronic collection of three ancient Russian Chronicles, published on the portal “Manuscript: Slavic Written Heritage” (URL: http://manuscripts.ru/). The study presents a statistical analysis of bigrams, which made it possible to identify statistically significant verbal-nominal combinations with the component ‘жизнь’ and qualify them as expressions that claim stable status. Analysis of the obtained statistical information makes it possible to identify connections between various linguistic elements, determine patterns in the development of certain phenomena, describe the functioning of complex processes in language and clarify the mechanisms of interaction of units in it. This study is carried out using special statistical indicators that allow us to determine the degree of stability of expressions, thereby avoiding subjectivity in assessing a particular construction from the point of view of ideomaticity. To identify collocations in the corpus of the oldest Russian Chronicles, the tools of the Manuscript IAS are used, in particular the n-gram module, which allows you to obtain text combinations with a different number of components. As a measure of association, the T-score measure is used, which allows us to determine how non-random the strength of connection between words in a phrase is. The selected bigrams and their statistical data demonstrate the presence in the Old Russian period of combinations that cannot be called phraseological units in the modern sense, but it is necessary to note their statistical stability in the text, which allows them to be qualified as stable combinations / collocations / statistically stable expressions.

Метафора света в сакральных образах орнаментов Востока и древнерусского искусства

The article presents a comparative analysis of the two phenomena of sacred and cult art that are empirically different in the method of execution, materials, style, and language: the ornaments of the Arab East and ancient Russian frescoes. Despite the differences in the external properties of these cultural objects, they express in their own language a single sacred image contained in the compositions in the domes of their temples, which allows us to complete the comparative analysis of the ‘different’ with the synthesis of the ‘similar’ hidden in the symbols of these cultures. The visual semiotics complements the research methods, revealing the levels of reading (interpretation) of the visual texts.

Differentiation of responsibility for crimes against the person: evolution in Russian criminal legislation

The subject of the study is to consider the issues of the evolution of Russian criminal legislation in terms of the differentiation of responsibility for crimes against the person. As the materials of the study, criminal law monuments of national history were selected, in the content of which the differentiation of responsibility for crimes against the person was carried out. The article presents a historical and legal review of the main sources of criminal law of the X-XX centuries in terms of the approach reflected in them to the differentiation of responsibility for crimes against the person and analyzes the formation of an appropriate mechanism of criminal law protection. Using the example of the monuments of Russian criminal law of the X–XX centuries, the features of the construction of qualified and privileged elements of crimes against the person, the ways of their construction and presentation in the text of the criminal law are considered. To conduct an objective and comprehensive review of the chosen topic, the article used such general scientific and private scientific methods as analysis, generalization, historical, formal legal, comparative legal. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that, taking into account the retrospective approach, the historical experience of the formation of the institution of differentiation of criminal liability for attacks on life, health, freedom, honor, dignity and other protected values is traced and the process of consistent regulatory and legal registration of differentiating criminal liability features is reflected. In conclusion, the author concludes that the process of constructing differentiating criminal liability features dates back to the legislation of Ancient Russia, and their subsequent regulation maintained a certain continuity throughout the development of Russian criminal legislation. The differentiation of responsibility, despite its long history, currently remains the main method of criminal law policy, the application of which, including to the crimes under consideration, requires further reflection and improvement.

Specificity of Translating Icononyms into Diverse Structural Languages (English, French, and Tatar)

This study examines proper names functioning as titles of iconographic works (such as ‘Pokrov Bogomateri’ (the Protection of the Mother of God), ‘Voskreseniye Khristovo’ (the Resurrection of Christ), ‘Soshestviye vo ad’ (the Descent into Hell) etc.) in the context of exploring their translation into English, French, and Tatar. A comparative analysis of artionyms (icononyms) is conducted. The sources for this research include catalogs of ancient Russian painting, particularly those from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan (Kazan). The paper discusses the challenges involved in translating terms such as ‘umileniye’ (compassion), ‘pokrov’ (protection), and ‘успение’ (dormition) etc. On one hand, doctrinal discrepancies are noted in the target languages, which are attributed to extralinguistic factors (differences in approaches to key Christian doctrines among Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and Catholicism, as well as the absence of cultural elements from the source language in the target language). On the other hand, semantic inconsistencies are identified, which can be explained by attempts at generalization or, conversely, specification of the content of terms aimed at facilitating recipient comprehension. One of the most frequent translational transformations observed is calquing, with identified differences in word formation patterns explained by the distinct typological models of the languages being compared (synthetic, analytic, agglutinative).

Analysis of the order of marriage in Russia (based on the materials of the Pilot book)

The relevance of the research is determined by the fact that, based on the analysis of the Pilot Book, knowledge about the genesis of ancient Russian family law is expanding, allowing to reveal the historical roots of modern legislation in this area and to identify the influence of cultural, religious and social factors on the formation of norms and principles of family law. The scientific discussion on this issue contributes to a deep understanding of the history of the Russian state and law, the actualization of issues of marriage and family relations in the context of modern challenges and changes in society.The purpose of the study is to reveal the features, conditions and procedure of marriage in Russia.The objectives are to identify the factors influencing the order of marriage, identify obstacles to marriage, and establish the religious and legal basis of marital and family relations.Methodology. The methodological basis is determined by the historical and legal nature of the research, based on the principles of historicism, a systematic approach and objectivity in understanding the legacy of the Pilot Book.Results. In the course of the study, the foundations of family legislation were determined, among them are: the chaste nature of premarital relations, which does not violate the foundations of family values and life in marriage; the definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman, with the aim of legitimate childbearing and avoiding a sinful life; the consent of both spouses to marry, the absence of obstacles to marriage (kinship, nepotism, etc.); the obligatory wedding of the spouses and the blessing of the priest of the couple; the responsibility of the husband for the wife.Conclusion. In the conditions of modern Russia, the appeal to the historical and legal heritage of the past is dictated by the need to strengthen the authority and support the institution of the family and basic family values. The analysis of the norms of the Steering Book (Nomocanon), which laid the foundations of family legislation, helps to understand the values and principles that have been formed in society over the centuries and influence modern legislation.

СКЕЛЕТ МУЖЧИНЫ С ТЕРРИТОРИИ ДРЕВНЕРУССКОГО ГОРОДА-КРЕПОСТИ КРОМЫ

During the development of the scientific topic «Verkhovskie Principalities» of the XIV - early XV centuries (by A.V. Erokhin and D.S. Vukolov) a burial was found on the territory of the medieval fortress city of Kroma (modern Oryol region), which can date from both ancient Russian and modern times (before the XVIII century). The article presents an individual paleoanthropological description according to classical craniological, odontological and osteological methods. To sum up, in the burial there was an adult man of 40-45 years old, Caucasian appearance, below medium height, with massive tibia. The distinctive features of the man’s appearance were the protruding right upper canine, the congenital absence of the left second upper incisor and the lifetime loss of the right upper incisors. Moreover, the individual belongs to the Western odontological trunk, groups with strongly differentiated first lower premolars. The man suffered from osteochondrosis, had carious lesion9s of the teeth. There is hypoplasia on the tooth enamel, lifetime chips and strong deposits of tartar. The role of the city of Kroma in the development of Russian history is extremely important, so additional research is required to identify bone remains in the near future.

АРХЕОЛОГО-АНТРОПОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ДРЕВНЕРУССКОГО НЕКРОПОЛЯ ГОРОДИЩЕ УНОРОЖ

The burial ground is being formed in two stages. The first corresponds to the time of the ancient Russian development of the region, and is characterized by burials of small depth, with little expression of the filling of the pits, the presence of some things associated with the burials, and paired burials. Its chronological boundaries, due to the scarcity of material accompanying the burials, have not been fully determined, but, apparently, can fit into the historical framework of Old Russian times in the second half of the 11–14th centuries. The second is associated with monastic history (15–18th centuries). The latter may include deeper burials Nos. 17, 20, 21 in wooden coffins (blocks)

Russian Pravda as a primary source of administrative law and process in ancient Russia

Russian Truth is the oldest monument of the law of feudal Rus’. It reflects the growth of princely power and the expansion of the princely court. This study is devoted to identifying the features of law and legal proceedings in this era. Like the ancient Laws of the XII tables in Ancient Rome and the Babylonian laws of King Hamurabi (Hamurabi), to which our study was devoted. Russian Truth is also a judge. In it we meet the rules of law, which we now call administrative law and process. Separate historical epochs are mixed up in Russkaya Pravda, there is no systematization of norms. A separate part of the truth is called “The Court of Yaroslav Vladimirovich.” Russkaya Pravda does not give us a complete account of the organization of the princely court. Separate princely decisions became the norm for subsequent court decisions. So, the prince sets penalties for killing people depending on their position. Pravda Yaroslavichi forbids blood feuds and introduces a fine instead. Litigation under Russkaya Pravda is adversarial, which establishes pre-trial procedures. The relationship between the plaintiffs and the defendants is clarified. This order is called “arching” and “persecution of the trace.” Competitiveness arises from those forms of struggle that existed even in a tribal society, when relations were sorted out by force. The study showed that the law according to Russian Pravda has gone ahead of the primitive customs of more ancient times and represents a developed system, where there was a court, a process, a system of evidence and punishments.

Stereotypes-images and symbols-signs of a bee in the projection of the conceptual plane of linguistic consciousness

This article has several purposes: 1. analyse and identify stereotypical images of the entomological concept of bee in the Russian national linguistic consciousness; 2. reveal the symbolic content of linguistic consciousness by extracting semantic and symbolic signs attached to the stereotypical images of the entomological concept of bee; 3. establish the dynamic invariance (stability) and temporal relevance of the identified stereotypical images in the Russian linguistic picture of the world; 4. confirm the archetypal nature of bee images as universal “products” of the collective unconsciousness and indicators of being structure. According to the study results, stereotypical images of the concept of bee and its symbolic signs were revealed: the stereotype image «hard worker»: ‘hard work’, ‘painstaking’, ‘indefatigability’, ‘distinctness’, ‘purposefulness’, ‘endurance’, ‘perseverance’, ‘fruitfulness’, ‘diligence’, ‘organization’, ‘persistence’, ‘perseverance’, ‘concentration’; The stereotype image «social being»: ‘communism / collectivism’, ‘socialism’, ‘justice’, ‘equality’, ‘teamwork’ / ‘camaraderie’, ‘unity’, ‘autocracy / power’, ‘hierarchy’, ‘self-sacrifice’, ‘fearlessness / bravery’; the stereotype image «deity / divine creation»: ‘pleasing in goodness’, ‘divine love’, ‘divine message’, ‘divine gift’, ‘Last Judgment’, ‘suffering of Christ’, ‘purity (of the soul)’, ‘chastity’, ‘faithfulness’, ‘righteousness’, ‘punishment (of sinners)’, ‘God’, ‘immortality’, ‘power’, ‘divine blessing’, ‘abundance’, ‘prosperity’, ‘intuition’; stereotype image «female person / goddess»: ‘mother’, ‘care (warmth)’, ‘woman’, ‘meekness’, ‘virtue’, ‘diligence’, ‘chastity’, ‘motherhood’, ‘matriarchy’, ‘primacy’, ‘offspring / fertility’; the stereotype image «wise creature»: ‘eloquence’, ‘prudence’, ‘wisdom’, ‘morality’, ‘mathematical thinking / mind’, ‘expediency’, ‘(life) experience / knowledge’, ‘temptation’ / ‘self-control’. Symbolic signs reflect the idea of understanding God as the supreme being and mainly appeal to the anthropomorphic moral sphere. The time span of the illustrative material (from Ancient Russia to Modern times) testifies to the archetypality, temporal relevance and dynamic invariance of the highlighted stereotypical images of concept of bee in the linguistic consciousness of native Russian speakers and in the Russian language picture of the world. This demonstrates both ethnic and socio-cultural affiliation and kinship in the innate and instinctive perception of the being structure between human race representatives and the animal world.

Особенности функционирования конструкций с модальным значением обусловленности в «Русской Правде»

The article deals with the analysis of conditional complex sentences in the body of ancient Russian laws “Russkaya Pravda”. The aim of the study is to identify the basic principles of the grammatical structure and functioning of the constructions with the modal meaning of conditionality. The scientific novelty of the undertaken research lies in considering complex sentences with conditional clauses as the main text-forming structure in the organization of the Old Russian legal written monument. The results obtained showed that the text of “Russkaya Pravda” consistently uses syntactic constructions with the modal meaning of conditionality, which are implemented using complex sentences with the meaning of condition. The study identified three groups of constructions with the modal meaning of conditionality. The cause-and-effect relationship is clearly visible in these constructions: the first group is complex sentences with the meaning of condition, expressed using the conjunctions ‘аще’, ‘аже’, ‘оже’, ‘иже’; the second group is represented by sentences in which the meaning of conditionality is expressed using the connecting conjunction ‘a’; the third group is syntactic constructions with a conjunction ‘или’ meaning ‘if’, as well as sentences conveying conditional relations without using any conjunctions.

ON THE PROBLEM OF THE FORMATION OF THE OLD RUSSIAN BOOK TOPIC

One of the characteristic features of the poetics of medieval texts is the widespread use of traditional phrases and semantic commonplaces, which have been considered from different positions by medievalists since the beginning of the 20th century. Already in The Tale of Bygone Years (the oldest Russian chronicle) these elements of poetics are clearly revealed, although the genre design of the historical narrative at this early stage is not yet completed. The answer to the question about how the body of topoi was composed and the range of its sources is ambiguous. The article attempts to trace the penetration of a number of stable stylistic formulas into the ancient Russian historical narrative. They should be classified as laconic, non-poetic traditional phrases, devoid of epithets or comparisons that give the statement a certain emotionality. This element of military poetics simultaneously has a clear terminology, formed in a professional military environment, and is based on certain iconic gestures. The work expresses the idea of a connection between such book topoi and kinetic manifestations. These are, first of all, the gestures of princes as leaders of squads, as well as other elements of nonverbal communication. The phenomenon under consideration is only one aspect of the poetics of the military narrative of ancient Russian texts, which arose under the influence of extraliterary reality.

Individual from the kurgan burial of the XII century in the Middle Oka — experience of complex archaeological and genetic research

For the first time, this paper presents a complex study of the burial of the ancient Russian woman from the classic “Vyatich” mound from the Kremenyie burial site (Moscow region). The mounds and synchronized ground cremation burials are combined at this unique 12th-century burial site. The aim of this research is to examine the historical details of the person from the mound using conventional archaeological, anthropological, and archae-oparasitology methodologies along with modern paleogenetics methods. The burial site is characterized by a general “archaic” rite, manifested in the late preservation of the cremation rite along with the burial. According to anthropological data, an elderly woman, over forty, was buried there. She was identified as a member of the local population by radiogenic strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) study. Rich grave content and the fact that the body was buried in the middle of the mound indicate the woman's high social standing in the community. According to ar-chaeoparasitological data, the eating habits of the woman appear to be characterized by the consumption of un-cooked or insufficiently thermally prepared freshwater fish. The complete mtDNA sequence reconstruction indi-cates that it belongs to haplogroup V1a1, one of the Western Eurasian haplogroup V branches. To date, this represents the first case of the V1a1 mitogroup being found in the Russian Plain during ancient times. A repre-sentative of the Danish Viking clan from the Oxford burial site of the XI century was the closest of the ancient samples to the mtDNA of the studied woman, which indicates a genetic relationship on the maternal lineage with the medieval Northwestern European population. Single nucleotide substitution A7299G in the mitogenome of the woman clusters her with present-day Russians from the Belgorod and Pskov regions and shows the continuity of the modern Russian population with the Ancient Russians. Thus, the results of our study demonstrate the private details of the individual as common historical features, which include the ceremonial side of burial and belonging to the maternal genetic lineage preserved in the modern gene pool of the Russian population.

The semantics of landscape vocabulary in the Lives of the Assumption Collection

The purpose of the work is to describe the semantics of words nominating parts of the landscape in hagiographic texts that existed in Ancient Russia. The object of the study is words with spatial semantics denoting objects of nature. The subject of the study is the semantics of these lexical units. The material chosen for the analysis is the hagiographic texts included in the Assumption collection. To systematize the material, a classification of landscape vocabulary by semantic groups is proposed. The theoretical part of the work is an analysis of the already available methods of thematic ideography of landscape vocabulary, on the basis of which a classification of landscape vocabulary for the considered language material is proposed. The practical part of the article is devoted to the description of the meanings of words that represent a group of landscape vocabulary. Attention is drawn to the meaning of the word, the frequency of its use, and the connection with the event semantics of texts. The lexical material was obtained by the continuous sampling method. Lexicographic, contextual, and quantitative analyses were used to identify semantics. The article describes the words with their basic meanings that characterize the landscape in the lives of the Assumption collection: elevations: mountain, hill; flat spaces — coincide with open spaces; depressions: deep, ditch, pit, cave (pechera); overgrown areas: boron, lѣs, squabble; open areas: field, deserts; water spaces and land areas next to it: source, rѣka, sea, mouth, brѣg, island. It is noted that the group of landscape vocabulary is few and infrequent in use. The author comes to the conclusion that the semantics of landscape naming in the considered hagiographies includes elements of various linguistic Slavic systems. It is emphasized that the formation of metaphorical meanings in landscape vocabulary occurs under the influence of biblical contexts. The novelty of the research lies in the chosen source of linguistic facts: the hagiographic texts of the Assumption Collection did not become the subject of systematic lexical and semantic analysis. It can also be noted that the analysis of spatial vocabulary based on the material of texts that existed in Ancient Russia was not carried out. The work can be useful in studies of the category of locativity in the Old Russian language, as well as in the study of images of space in Slavic hagiographic texts.

Русское гражданское право в эпоху Древней Руси

The article represents a description of the civil law of the Ancient Rus’ on the basis of the norms of the Russkaya Pravda and other sources of the ancient Russian law. The author reviews such institutions of civil law as its subjects, objects of property rights, the right of ownership, its acquisition and termination, forms of transactions, types of contracts, ways to ensure the fulfillment of obligations.

Midwifery: legends and myths of Ancient Russia through the eyes of contemporaries

The article presents some data on maternity care in Ancient Russia. The connection of myths and legends of Ancient Russia, Ancient Greece and Rome with modern elements of medical care for women in labor and newborns is traced.

Возрождение (середина XIII – середина XVI столетия). Грани гуманизма. Часть I

The essay is dedicated to exploring the art and culture of the Renaissance period, heralding Modern times, spanning from the mid-13th to the mid-16th century. This part of the work highlights the artistic achievements of the Middle East during the specified period, particularly in architecture, poetry (including the rise of humanism). Turning to European culture, the author specifically addresses the art of the Orthodox world (primarily focusing on church painting and, to a lesser extent, on the Ancient Russian Znamenny chant), noting its influence on the currents of the Renaissance. The author delves into the Gothic style, somewhat contrasting traditional notions of the Renaissance period (a kind of “counterculture”), across its various manifestations in visual arts, music and literature. Special attention is given to the central part of Renaissance art, tracing its evolution from the Early Renaissance (masterpieces of sculpture in Gothic cathedrals) to the Proto-Renaissance (paintings and frescoes by Italian masters, the emergence of psychologism in painting, the literary movement of Dolce stile nuovо marking the transition from the Middle Ages to Modern times, Ars Nova in musical art). The exploration of this theme will continue in the next part of the essay.

Rebekah Hyneman’s The Black Izba: The Moscovite Jews and the Tzar’s Jewish Doctor’s Triumph over an Anti-Semitic Plot

ABSTRACT Rebekah Hyneman, born in Pennsylvania in 1816, played a significant role in documenting Jewish existence. Beyond her unique historical novel, The Black Izba: A Tale of Ancient Russia,1 serialized in 1855 in The Masonic Mirror and Keystone, she made a noteworthy contribution through her extensive oeuvre. Raised by a Jewish-German father and a Christian mother, Hyneman converted to Judaism in 1845. Despite her multifaceted literary output, her substantial contributions have been overlooked. This paper seeks to rectify the historical neglect surrounding Hyneman's work by shining a light on her novel, The Black Izba. This novel stands out as a rare piece by a nineteenth-century Jewish female writer. It offers a unique perspective on Jewish women, exploring a female literary culture documenting its own story, its relationship with prevailing Christian norms, and striving to uphold religious and cultural values in restrictive contexts. Through an examination of Hyneman's work, the paper underscores her portrayal of Jewish women and their role in preserving their identity. Hyneman's poetry and prose extend beyond mere artistic expression; they harbor political and social agendas. She believed that Christians' unfamiliarity with Jewish traditions fostered alienation. Through her writings, Hyneman endeavors to bridge this gap, emphasizing mutual recognition.

Sedel'niki kak maloizvestnaya kategoriya voinov Kievskoj Rusi

For the first time in Russian historical science, the article raises the question of the existence of another category of ancient Russian warriors. Substantiation of this point of view is given.