The Icon and the Axe

Much more than most monastic chronicles of the medieval West, the , Russian chronicles are a valuable source of profane as well as sacred history. A miscellany of non-Christian elements, political and economic information, and even integral folk tales are often presented within the traditional framework of sacred history. In general, Kiev was a relatively cosmopolitan and tolerant cultural center. The chronicles frequently testify to the persistence of older pagan rites. The hallowed walls of the Santa Sophia in Kiev contain a series of purely secular frescoes. The first and most widely copied Russian account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land includes more dispassionate geographical and ethnographic description than do most contemporary accounts by Western pilgrims and crusaders.23 The famous epic The Lay of the Host of Igor is far more rich in secular allusions and subject matter than epics of the Muscovite period. If one considers it an authentic work of this period, both the worldliness and literary genius of Kievan Russia become

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even more impressive.2*

Secular literature no less than theology was infused with a sense of history. As a leading Soviet historian of old Russian literature has written:

Every narrative subject in Russian medieval literature was looked on as having taken place historically. . . .

The active figures of old-Russian narrative tales were always historical figures, orTigures whose historical existence-even when apocryphal -permitted,Qf no doubt. Even in those cases where a contrived figure was introduced, he was surrounded with a swarm of historical memories, creating the illusion of real existence in the past.

The action of the narrative always took place in precisely delineated historical circumstances or, more often, in works of old Russian literature, related directly to historical events themselves.

That is why in medieval Russian literature there were no works in the purely entertaining genres, but the spirit of historicism penetrated it all

in.in beginning to end. This gave Russian medieval literature tne stamp 01 Mrtleular seriousness and particular significance.25

The desire to find both roots and vindication in history grew partlyjput ?! the insecurity of the Eastern plain. Geography, not history, had tradi-

illy dominated the thinking of the Eurasian steppe. Harsh seasonal

¦ les, a few, distant rivers, and sparse patterns of rainfall and soil fertility mtrolled the lives of the ordinary peasant; and the ebb and flow of nomadic conquerors often seemed little more than the senseless movement of surface I ibjects on an unchanging and unfriendly sea.

Any steppe people who felt that time really mattered-and that they as « pcopleTiarTa mission to perform in time-was automatically distinct. Conversion to the profoundly historical creed of Judaism had prolonged the" life nl 1 he exposed Khazar empire to the south; and to the east, the Volga llulgars had attained an importance out of all proportion to their numbers by accepting Islam. Christianity had appeared in history midway in time I ui ween these two monotheisms, and the Christianity which took root amone ilie l.astern Slavs provided many of the same psychological satisfactions as tlic prophetic creeds adopted by their neighboring civilizations.

There is a historical cast to the most widely reproduced sermon of the Kievan period, Metropolitan Ilarion's "On Law and Grace." It was apparently first delivered on Easter in 1049, just two days after the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin in the church of the Annunciation, near the ‹ loldcn Gate of the city, to celebrate the completion of the walls around Kiev.2" After contrasting the law of the Old Testament with the grace made possible through the New, Ilarion rushes on to depict something rather like I he coming age of glory on Russian soil. He bids Vladimir rise from the dead and look upon Kiev transformed into a kind of New Jerusalem. Vladimir's son, Yaroslav the Wise, has built the Santa Sophia, "the great and holy lemple of Divine Wisdom;," within the walls of "the city of glory, Kiev," just as David's son Solomon had raised up a temple within Jerusalem in the time of the law.27 Like the people of Israel, the Kievans were called upon not just to profess the faith but to testify in deeds their devotion to the living (loci. Thus, churches were built and a city transformed under Yaroslav, not lor decorative effect, but for Christian witness. In response to God's gracious gilt of His Son, God's people were returning their offering of praise and thanksgiving. The forms of art and worship were those hallowed by the one "right-praising" Church in which His Holy Spirit dwelt.