Byzantium and Rus

Byzantium and Rus were closely connected for several centuries. The Byzantine state was not simply the heir of the culture of antiquity and the Roman Empire, it was independently enriched by the Orthodox faith and subsequently enriched it all the world. Orthodox culture came to Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and many other countries, precisely thanks to Byzantium.

The Russians, along with faith, also accepted its canons and dogmas, but to a greater extent our ancestors adopted from the Greeks the beauty of worship - church singing, temple-building, icon painting, and the principles of Christian ascetic life. New-rooted Russia was most attracted by precisely these aspects of Orthodoxy, which, having fallen on fertile soil, developed independently and with high activity.

Christianity has become logical from a historical point of view, a substitute for Old Russian paganism, which was typical of the tribal society. Paganism filled the followers with fear and a sense of powerlessness over the power of nature. Christianity, however, brought a directly opposite viewpoint, placing man in the center of nature and revealing the divine expediency of the latter. The first monuments and works of culture of Orthodox Russia are filled with joy and admiration of the world and man.

Ancient Russia and Byzantium

The first books that appeared in Russia were delivered from Byzantium. The holy brothers - Cyril and Methodius (some of the outstanding figures of Byzantine culture) became enlightener of the Slavic people. The first schools that opened in Novgorod, Kiev and other cities were arranged according to Byzantine models. Russian masters learned to build churches, decorate them with frescoes and mosaics, learn icon painting, create book miniatures from Byzantine ones. Not only church terminology, but also names from Orthodox saints were borrowed: a considerable part of the names common in Russia today are of Greek origin (Peter, Galina, Andrey, Irina, etc.).

Especially close relations between Byzantium and Rus established after the visit of Grand Duchess Olga to Constantinople, which went there to receive baptism. Other activities that have strengthened the relationship between the two powerful states include the Orthodox mission sent to Prince Vladimir, as well as the Russian Embassy to the Greeks.

Byzantium and Rus: fruitful interaction

By adopting Orthodoxy, Russia determined the main direction of the cultural and historical development of its territories for many centuries to come.

About 450 years (from 988 to 1448), the Russian Orthodox Church was a metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and most of the Metropolitan of Kiev at that time was represented by the Greeks, as they were elected and approved in Constantinople. Thus, the cultural and, to a large extent, the political influence of Byzantium in the territory of Russia strengthened the church-administrative dependence.

Among the Byzantine emigrants in Russia, icon painters, church builders, scientists, writers were valued. The Likhud brothers, one of such figures, in 1685, at the request of Patriarch Joachim, opened the first higher educational institution in the capital - the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy at the Zaikonospassky Monastery.

Due Byzantium was given in the second half of the 19th century, when universities began to teach Byzantology - the course of history and literature of Byzantium. Ancient Greek became compulsory for study in gymnasiums, academies and seminaries, since the Holy Scripture of the New Testament, liturgical texts and most of the works that came out of the hands of the Fathers of the Ancient Church, were still preserved in their ancient Greek writing. Children in the parish schools learned about Byzantium from the first years of schooling.

Thus, Byzantium and Rus is a fine example of the positive influence of the culture of one state on another.