A culture between tradition and change
Russian culture in the 1600s was still based on the Orthodox Church. But trade grew, towns grew and contacts with Ukraine, Poland and western Europe increased. Because of this, art and writing began to talk about everyday life, the person and beauty. Historians call it a time of change between the old Muscovite world and the new age of Peter I.
A sharp argument in the Church also happened: the reforms of Patriarch Nikon from 1653 changed church books and rites. Those who refused, the Old Believers, split away. Archpriest Avvakum, who was burned in 1682, became their famous leader and writer.
Architecture
Builders made churches with tent roofs (shatyor): tall pointed roofs that rise like a tent. Later, churches had many bright onion domes, rows of coloured tiles and carved white-stone decoration. This is often called the decorative style.
- Church in Putinki in Moscow (1649–52), a tent-roof church with decoration.
- Churches of Yaroslavl, with rich colour and painted walls.
- In Moscow the Kremlin got the Terem Palace (1635–36). The tsar's wooden palace at Kolomenskoye was a masterpiece of carving.
More stone houses were built for rich merchants and nobles, and new Siberian towns got wooden forts and churches.
Painting
Painting was mainly icons, holy pictures. Most painters worked in workshops, and the best in the tsar's Armoury Chamber in the Kremlin. Simon Ushakov (1626–86) is the best known. He painted faces with shade and light as in real life, and showed space and depth, which was new. His famous icon is the Saviour Not Made by Hands (1658).
At this time the first portraits of real persons, called parsuna, appeared. They were still flat in style, but they show real people, and not only saints.
Printing and literature
The Moscow Print Yard printed church books. In 1634 Vasily Burtsev printed the first Russian ABC book, the Primer. Grammar books and law books, including the 1649 Law Code, also came out in print. More books made it easier for children to learn to read.
- Life of Archpriest Avvakum: one of the first life stories in Russian, written in lively, spoken language.
- Satirical tales, such as the one about the unjust judge Shemyaka, make fun of bad judges, greedy priests and the rich.
- Simeon Polotsky (a scholar from Belarus) wrote verse for the court and taught the tsar's children.
- Court theatre opened in 1672, with plays for Tsar Alexei.
Education
Most children learned reading, writing and counting from priests or from private teachers, using the Primer, a Book of Hours and the Psalter. In the 1640s–50s nobleman Fyodor Rtishchev invited scholars from Kyiv to teach in Moscow. In 1687 the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy opened at the Zaikonospassky monastery, the first higher school of Russia, teaching grammar, Greek, Latin, rhetoric and philosophy. Its teachers were the Greek brothers Likhud.
Key formulas and definitions
- Architecture: tent roofs and the decorative style (Church in Putinki 1649–52)
- Painting: Simon Ushakov, Armoury Chamber, first portraits (parsuna)
- Printing: first Primer by Burtsev in 1634; Moscow Print Yard
- Literature: Life of Avvakum, satires, Simeon Polotsky, court theatre 1672
- Education: Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy 1687, first higher school in Moscow
Worked examples
1. How many years passed between the first Primer (1634) and the opening of the Academy (1687)?
1687 − 1634 = 53 years.
2. What was new about Simon Ushakov's icons compared with older ones?
He painted faces and bodies with light and shade as they look in real life, and showed depth. Older icons were flatter and more symbolic.
3. Name one 17th century Russian writing that tells a real person's life.
The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by himself.
4. Why did the Church have a split in the 1600s?
Patriarch Nikon changed church books and rites from 1653. Some people, the Old Believers, refused to accept the changes and split away.
Common mistakes
- Saying the first Primer was printed in the 1800s. It was 1634.
- Confusing tent-roof churches with onion domes. A tent roof is a tall pointed roof; an onion dome is round and pointed at the top.
- Saying the Academy was founded by Peter I. It opened in 1687, before his rule on his own.
- Thinking portraits were common. They were the first ones, and few.