IMC 2014: Sessions

Paper -a:
Studies on the genesis of Rus' often point to two main cultural influences: the Byzantine and the Scandinavian. Although disagreement remains among scholars, the translation of Byzantine, mostly religious, literature in Rus' has long been studied and established. The Scandinavian imprint has been traced not only in the ruling class of the early decades of Rus', but in the saga-like narrations inserted in the Primary Chronicle. Compiled in the second decade of the twelfth century, this chronicle stands out for the amount of legendary material that it includes as part of its purportedly historical narration of the early years of Rus'.

Some of these legends find almost identical versions in the Scandinavian world. It has been suggested that they arrived in Rus' as the result of the Scandinavian expansion. However, some of the motifs reproduced in the Primary Chronicle already appeared in the Greco-Roman tradition. How did Greek and Scandinavian non-religious narrations make it into the Primary Chronicle? Did the compilers understand these languages? Were they translated for them? If so, who did it?

This paper will reflect on how language and culture travelled in Rus in the 10th-12th centuries based on the evidence available. To do so, it will work with the term 'translation' in its literary and in its literal meaning.

Paper -b:
Since the end of the15th century in Muscovy, an especial form of the state documentation appeared. There were books that contained investigation of peasant farms: their size, taxation possibilities, and lord revenue. The books about Novgorod area are the oldest that survived. Among them the book of Derevskaya pyatina (one fifth part of the area) is the earliest (1499). It preserved many archaic features of Novgorod rural life. The presentation is devoted to description of it's paleography, codicology, structure, the methods of it’s compounding, sources of information as well as administrative, financial, and landowning systems in which the book was used.