History

The literature of Ancient Rus’ is divided into translated and original works. Translated literature appeared in Kievan Rus’ with the adoption of Christianity and had Byzantine and South Slavic (Bulgarian) origins. First and foremost, this included the biblical books of the Old and New Testaments, apocrypha, lives of the saints (hagiographic literature), religiously infused historical…

For centuries, it remained a persecuted body of literature. On the one hand, this meant that its authors were not subject to state censorship and therefore enjoyed a high degree of creative freedom; on the other hand, it also meant they had to pay a very high price for the ability to write in accordance…