"Zadonshchina": the year of creation. Monument of Old Russian literature of the late 14th - early 15th centuries

The purpose of this article is to provide information about such a great monument of ancient Russian literature as "Zadonshchina". The year of creation, the author, compositional and artistic features - all these questions we will discuss with you.

Historical conditions

In 1380 an event took place that played a big role in the life not only of Russia, but of the whole world. This refers to the Battle of Kulikovo, in which the Tatars were defeated. This event once and for all dispelled the rumors about the invincibility of the enemy, and Russia was hopeful of getting rid of the long-standing yoke. It also served as a prerequisite for the unification of principalities around the center, Moscow, which marked the beginnings of the future state. So it's no surprise why the great victory was so often covered in the literary monuments of the Old Russian era. The researchers talk about the Kulikovo cycle, which includes the work of interest to us.

"Zadonshchina": the year of creation, general information

A glorious monument of literature, a highly artistic creation ... An undeniable proof of the authenticity of the "Word ..." - all these characteristics are applicable to the military story called "Zadonshchina". Who wrote it - a controversial issue and hardly solvable. There are suggestions that the author was Sofoniy Ryazantsev. This text is indicated by the text of the Zadonshchina and another work - "Tales of the Mamai Battle". Literature scholars have no other information about Ryazantsev. But a reference to his name suggests that Sofonius created a literary monument that did not reach us. An unknown author was guided by him, from which the "Zadonshchina" came out. The year of the creation of this military story is not exactly known (which is not surprising for Old Russian literature). Assume that: the product was a direct response to events, which means that the creation of "Zadonshchina" is at the turn of the 80's and 90's of the XIV century.

The story is represented by six lists. The earliest, surviving to us, scientists date to 1470-mi years. Another name for it is Efrosin's list. The variant is a shortening of some original long text and is therefore distinguished by a large number of errors, distortions, omissions. By the way, only in the list of Euphrosyn the name "Zadonshchina" is used. The year of the creation of the latest version of the story is also not established (circa XVII century), and there the work is designated as "The Word of ... Prince Dmitri Ivanovich". The same applies to all other variants of the literary monument. They are also defective, but they allow literary scholars to reconstruct the original text.

Composition and plot

Glorification of the victory of the Russian troops over the enemy - such a plot canvas is "Zadonshchina". The author consciously draws a parallel with the "Word ...", but the appeal to the great monument is due not to blind imitation, but to a deliberate comparison of the present and the past (and not in favor of the latter). The mention of "Words ..." makes it clear that the exceptionally disagreement of the princes led to woes on the Russian land. But this remained in the past, and now a victory over the conquerors was won. Roll calls with the "Word ..." are found at the level of individual techniques (transfer in one instant of the narrator from one geographical point to another), and the plot components. For example, Dmitry Donskoy on the way before the battle the sun shines - as the "Zadonshchina" narrates. The author of "The Words ..." (by the way, also unnamed) mentions eclipse as a bad omen.

The story consists of two parts. They are preceded by an introduction through which the author sets the reader to a special, solemn mood, and also communicates to him the true goals pursued by the creation of the Zadonshchina. The introduction also emphasizes the optimistic mode of the story, it is pointed out that Moscow - as the current center of statehood - is the continuation of Kiev, etc. The first part of the work is "pity". The narrator depicts the defeat of the Russian troops, the mourning of the princesses and boyars who perished. However, nature prompts: soon "filthy" will be defeated. So it happened in "praise", when the enemies rushed to run, and the Rusich received a rich booty.

Artistic features

Poetics "Zadonshchina" is largely determined by its similarity with the "Word ...". The reader encounters the same anthropomorphic images, epithets, which have a clearly folklore origin. At the same time, here there are more images of religious significance, and references to paganism are completely absent. This story is very different from the pretext. The work "Zadonshchina" is very heterogeneous in style. So, along with poetic texts there are fragments, which really remind business prose. Her tracks also appear in chronological detail, close attention to the titles of princes.

"Zadonshchina" and "The Word ..."

As already mentioned, "Zadonshchina" is also valuable in that it is a proof of the authenticity of the "Word". The latter is called into question not only because before the sudden discovery of the monument by Musin-Pushkin in 1795, "The Word ..." nobody saw into the eyes, but also because of the extraordinary artistic value of the poem. This prompted the idea of a fake (and there were precedents). Her mention in the Zadonshchina was supposed to put an end to the dispute, but ... There were speculations that this "Word ..." was created following the example of a supposedly subsequent monument. Well, the question of the origin of both works of Old Russian writing remained unresolved.