Irina V. Erofeyeva

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor, Professor of the Department of the Russian Language and Methods of Teaching

Kazan Federal University

(Kazan, Russia)

Mariya A. Pilgun

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Leading Researcher of the Interdisciplinary research laboratory

Russian State Social University

(Moscow, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-2-94-105

Abstract. The article deals with the reconstruction of one of the most significant ethical dominants of medieval consciousness based on materials from surviving written sources, based on historical and literary data. The formation of love idea in the Russian Middle Ages worldview was important for the translation of the moral principles of the newly perceived Christianity. Therefore, the most significant in the content side of this concept is love for God and adherence to the principles he preaches. Since the ideological principles of Orthodoxy were in conflict with the social and political factors of extralinguistic reality, their propaganda was very important in the ideological sphere. High ethical principles, among which love occupies one of the leading places, were an important means of combating the rudeness and cruelty of the feudal state. The use of chronicle text as a material for research allows us to present the picture of the world of medieval man with the greatest completeness. The text of “The Tale of Bygone Years” contains works of different thematic and genre-stylistic orientation, in which the word love realizes different components of meaning: from love for God, as the most significant embodiment of this feeling in the ethical and philosophical picture of the world of the Middle Ages, to paternal, brotherly, friendly. In contexts of a historical, documentary, biographical nature, the semantic content of the concept of “love” in the Old Russian language turns out to be much closer to the concept of “friendship”. In the texts of treaties, the concept of “love” conveys the idea of peace and harmony between peoples. The medieval text does not reflect the perception of love as a feeling of attachment, sympathy for another person due to the lack of individualization of characters.
Keywords: Old Russian language, worldview, the Middle Ages, chronicles, ethics, philosophy, cultural categories.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Erofeyeva, IV & Pilgun, MA 2024, ‘Reconstruction of the Ethical and Philosophical Idea of Love in the Old Russian Language (Based on the Material of the Chronicle Text)’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (18), pp. 94–105, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-2-94-105 (in Russ.)

References

1. Adrianova-Peretts, VP 1972, ‘Chelovek v uchitelnoy literature drevney Rusi’ (Human in the educational literature of ancient Russia), Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoy literatury (Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature), vol. 27, Istoriya zhanrov v russkoy literature X-XVII vv. (History of genres in Russian literature of the 10th – 17th centuries), Nauka publ, pp. 3–68, Leningrad. (In Russ.)
2. Frolov, IT 2003, Vvedeniye v filosofiyu (Introduction to philosophy), Respublika publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)
3. Vendina, TI 2002, Srednevekovyy chelovek v zerkale staroslavyanskogo yazyka (Medieval humzn in the mirror of the Old Church Slavonic language), Indrik publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)
4. Gromov, MN 1997, Struktura i tipologiya russkoy srednevekovoy filosofii (Structure and typology of Russian medieval philosophy), Institut filosofii RAN publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)
5. Gurevich, AYa 1984, Kategorii srednevekovoy kultury (Categories of medieval culture), Iskusstvo publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)
6. Dmitriyeva, NM & Lintovskaya, EM 2016, ‘Eticheskiy smysl kontsepta «Lyubov» v russkoy yazykovoy kartine mira (na materiale slovarey XI – XIX vekov)’ (The ethical sense of the concept «Love» in Russian language picture of the world (on the material of dictionaries of the 11th – 19th centuries)), Vestnik of the Orenburg State University, no. 7 (195), pp. 44–49. (In Russ.)
7. Erofeyeva, IV 2016, ‘Funktsionalno-semanticheskiye osobennosti proizvodnykh substantivov v tekstakh letopisnogo zhanra’ (The functional-semantic peculiarities of derivative words in the texts of chronicle genre), Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 53–61. (In Russ.)
8. Kolesov, VV 2004, Yazyk i mentalnost (Language and mentality), Peterburgskoye vostokovedeniye publ, St. Petersburg. (In Russ.)
9. Kolesov, VV 2006, Russkaya mentalnost v yazyke i tekste (Russian mentality in language and text), Peterburgskoye Vostokovedeniye publ, St. Petersburg. (In Russ.)
10. Kolesov, VV 2011, Drevnyaya Rus: naslediye v slove. Mudrost slova (Ancient Russia: heritage in words. The wisdom of the word), Izd-vo filol. fak-ta SPbGU publ, St. Petersburg. (In Russ.)
11. Korlyakova, AV & Chebakov, RK 2014, ‘Filosofiya lyubvi v istoricheskom razvitii’ (Philosophy of love in historical development), Sistema tsennostey sovremennogo obshchestva, no. 38, pp. 49–53. (In Russ.)
12. Likhachyov, DS 1970, Chelovek v literature Drevney Rusi (Human in the literature of Ancient Russia Руси), Nauka publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)
13. Likhachyov, DS 1971, Poetika drevnerusskoy literatury (Poetics of Old Russian Literature), Khudozh. lit. publ, Leningrad. (In Russ.).
14. Magomedov, KM 2014, ‘O stepeni bogoobraznosti i bogopodobiya cheloveka v ratsionalnoy teologii’ (On the degree of godlikeness and image of God of man in rational theology), Islamic Studies, no. 4, pp. 58–65. (In Russ.)
15. Markov, VM 2001, ‘Pristavka vz- (voz-) v russkom yazyke’ (Prefix vz- (voz-) in Russian language), Opera Slavica, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 1–5. (In Russ.)
16. Likhachyov, DS 1999, Povest vremennykh let (The Tale of Bygone Years), ed. V.P. AdrianovaPeretts, Nauka publ, St. Petersburg. (In Russ.)
17. Slovar russkogo yazyka XI – XVII vv. (Dictionary of the Russian language of 11th – 17th centuries) 1975-2015, vols. 1-30, Nauka publ, Moscow (In Russ.).
18. Solovyov, VS, ‘Smysl lyubvi’ (The meaning of love), Russkaya filosofiya: istoriya, istochniki, issledovaniya (Russian Philosophy: History, Sources, Research), viewed 28 April 2024, https://philhist.spbu.ru/11-biblioteka/istochniki/150-solovev-v-s-smysl-lyubvi.html (In Russ.)
19. Uzhankov, AN 2008, Stadialnoye razvitiye russkoy literatury XI – pervoy treti XVIII veka. Teoriya literaturnykh formatsiy (Stage-by-stage development of Russian literature of the 11th – first third of the 18th century. Theory of literary formations), Literaturnyy institut im. A.M. Gorkogo publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)
20. Uzhankov, AN 2022, Kartina mira drevnerusskogo knizhnika. Kategorii russkoy srednevekovoy kultury (Picture of the world of an ancient Russian literator. Categories of Russian medieval culture), In-t Naslediya publ, Moscow. (In Russ.)