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51-530: The Old East Slavic name, Polotesk , derives from the Polota river, which flows into the neighboring Western Dvina . The Vikings rendered that name as Palteskja . Polotsk is one of the earliest mentioned cities of the Eastern Slavs . The Primary Chronicle mentioned Polotsk in the year 862 (as Полотескъ, /poloteskŭ/), together with Murom and Belozersk . However, an archaeological expedition from

102-578: A record of his adventures , which has been translated into English and published for the Hakluyt Society . A curious monument of old Slavonic times is the Pouchenie ("Instruction"), written by Vladimir Monomakh for the benefit of his sons. This composition is generally found inserted in the Chronicle of Nestor; it gives a fine picture of the daily life of a Slavonic prince. The Paterik of

153-788: A century before the adoption of Christianity in 988 and the establishment of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and literary language. Documentation of the Old East Slavic language of this period is scanty, making it difficult at best fully to determine the relationship between the literary language and its spoken dialects. There are references in Byzantine sources to pre-Christian Slavs in European Russia using some form of writing. Despite some suggestive archaeological finds and

204-536: A corroboration by the tenth-century monk Chernorizets Hrabar that ancient Slavs wrote in " strokes and incisions ", the exact nature of this system is unknown. Although the Glagolitic alphabet was briefly introduced, as witnessed by church inscriptions in Novgorod , it was soon entirely superseded by Cyrillic . The samples of birch-bark writing excavated in Novgorod have provided crucial information about

255-481: A curious Discourse to the Brethren . From the writings of Theodosius we see that many pagan habits were still in vogue among the people. He finds fault with them for allowing these to continue, and also for their drunkenness; nor do the monks escape his censures. Zhidiata writes in a more vernacular style than many of his contemporaries; he eschews the declamatory tone of the Byzantine authors. And here may be mentioned

306-472: A development of the old perfect. Note the style of punctuation. Слово о пълку Игоревѣ. c.  1200 , from the Pskov manuscript, fifteenth cent. Illustrates the sung epics , with typical use of metaphor and simile. It has been suggested that the phrase растекаться мыслью по древу ( rastekat'sja mysl'ju po drevu , to run in thought upon/over wood), which has become proverbial in modern Russian with

357-738: A faculty of theology in 1737. After the first partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, Polotsk became part of the Russian Empire . That saved the college from the suppression of the Jesuits as Russian Empress Catherine the Great did not follow papal decrees. After lobbying by Joseph de Maistre , the college was elevated to an academy (equivalent to a university) in 1812 by Tsar Alexander I of Russia only to be closed eight years later when Alexander I banished

408-714: A monument to honor the unique Cyrillic Belarusian letter Ў , which is not used in any other Slavic language. The original idea for the monument came from the Belarusian calligraphy professor Paval Siemchanka , who has been studying Cyrillic scripts for many years. The city has produced players for the Belarus national bandy team . In October 2011, the team planned to participate in the Russian Cup in rink bandy , but did not after all. Old East Slavic language Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian )

459-410: A number of Ukrainian linguists ( Stepan Smal-Stotsky , Ivan Ohienko , George Shevelov , Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo ), deny the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. According to them, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages. Following the end of the "Tatar yoke",

510-770: A standard reference until the appearance of a 24-volume academic dictionary in 1975–99. Jesuit College in Polotsk The Jesuit College in Polotsk ( Latin : Collegium Polocense ) was a college established by the Jesuit Order in Polotsk , then part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later occupied by the Russian Empire , and now in Belarus . It was established in 1580 and continued to function until 1820 when Jesuits were banished from

561-400: Is also traditionally known as Old Russian ; however, the term may be viewed as anachronistic, because the initial stages of the language which it denotes predate the dialectal divisions marking the nascent distinction between modern East Slavic languages, therefore a number of authors have proposed using Old East Slavic (or Common East Slavic ) as a more appropriate term. Old Russian

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612-561: Is also used to describe the written language in Russia until the 18th century, when it became Modern Russian , though the early stages of the language is often called Old East Slavic instead; the period after the common language of the East Slavs is sometimes distinguished as Middle Russian , or Great Russian . Some scholars have also called the language Old Rus'ian or Old Rusan , Rusian , or simply Rus , although these are

663-466: Is represented under the form of spring, Paganism and Judaism under that of winter, and evil thoughts are spoken of as boisterous winds. There are also the works of early travellers, as the igumen Daniel , who visited the Holy Land at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century. A later traveller was Afanasiy Nikitin , a merchant of Tver , who visited India in 1470. He has left

714-524: The Golden Horde . But in 1240, it became a vassal of the Lithuanian princes. The Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytenis annexed the city by military force in 1307, completing the process which the Lithuanian princes had begun in the 1250s. Polotsk received a charter of autonomy guaranteeing that the grand dukes "will not introduce new, nor destroy the old". It was the earliest to be so incorporated into

765-751: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania . By doing so, the Lithuanians managed to firmly grasp the Dvina trade route in their hands, securing an important element for the surrounding economies. Magdeburg law was adopted in 1498. Polotsk functioned as a capital of the Połock Voivodship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1772. Captured by the Russian army of Ivan the Terrible in 1563, it

816-665: The Polish–Soviet War . and by Nazi Germany between 16 July 1941 and 4 July 1944 during World War II . In August 1944, there were serious considerations to transfer Polotsk and its surrounding areas (18,000 square kilometers) with ~400,000 people from the Byelorussian SSR to the Russian SFSR , however Joseph Stalin , persuaded by Panteleimon Ponomarenko , eventually rejected to approve the already prepared transferring documents and subsequently Polotsk functioned as

867-745: The Russkaya Pravda of Yaroslav the Wise , which is preserved in the chronicle of Novgorod; the date is between 1018 and 1072. The earliest attempts to compile a comprehensive lexicon of Old East Slavic were undertaken by Alexander Vostokov and Izmail Sreznevsky in the nineteenth century. Sreznevsky's Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian Language on the Basis of Written Records (1893–1903), though incomplete, remained

918-452: The episcopal see and the controller of vassal territories among Balts in the west. Its most powerful ruler was Prince Vseslav of Polotsk , who reigned from 1044 to 1101. A 12th-century inscription commissioned by Vseslav's son Boris may still be seen on a huge boulder installed near St. Sophia Cathedral. During the Mongol invasion , Polotsk avoided being invaded or paying tribute to

969-566: The 12th or 13th century. Thus different variations evolved of the Russian language in the regions of Novgorod, Moscow , South Russia and meanwhile the Ukrainian language was also formed. Each of these languages preserves much of the Old East Slavic grammar and vocabulary. The Russian language in particular borrows more words from Church Slavonic than does Ukrainian. However, findings by Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak suggest that, until

1020-596: The 13th century, ь and ъ either became silent or merged with е and о, and ѧ and ѫ had merged with ꙗ and у respectively. Old East slavic retains all the consonants of Proto-Slavic , with the exception of ť and ď which merged into č and ž respectively. After the 11th century, all consonants become palatalized before front vowels. The language was a descendant of the Proto-Slavic language and retained many of its features. It developed so-called pleophony (or polnoglasie 'full vocalisation'), which came to differentiate

1071-573: The 14th or 15th century, major language differences were not between the regions occupied by modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, but rather between the north-west (around modern Velikiy Novgorod and Pskov) and the center (around modern Kyiv, Suzdal, Rostov, Moscow as well as Belarus) of the East Slavic territories. The Old Novgorodian dialect of that time differed from the central East Slavic dialects as well as from all other Slavic languages much more than in later centuries. According to Zaliznyak,

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1122-634: The Academy's library of 40,000–60,000 volumes, the richest collection of 16th- to 18th-century books — the books went to St. Petersburg, Kiev and other cities, 4000 volumes (along with books from other closed Jesuit schools) going to the St. Petersburg State University Scientific Library. Polotsk came under occupation by the German Empire between 25 February 1918 and 21 November 1918 during World War I , by Poland between 22 September 1919 and 14 May 1920 in

1173-638: The Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus suggests that Polotsk existed in the first half of the 9th century. The first known prince of Polotsk was Rogvolod (ruled 945–978). He had two sons and a daughter named Rogneda . Rogvolod promised Rogneda to the prince of Kiev , Yaropolk , as a wife. But Yaropolk's brother, Vladimir , had attacked Polotsk before Yaropolk came. He killed Rogvolod, his wife and sons, and married Rogneda. Vladimir and Rogneda had five children and

1224-740: The Jesuits from the Russian Empire and closed their schools. Academy's library, which held up to 60,000 volumes, was dispersed among various institutions in Eastern Europe. The Polotsk State University and the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw , established in 1998, both claim historical heritage of the Polotsk College. In 2005, former buildings of the college were partially reconstructed and transferred to

1275-636: The Kievan Caves Monastery is a typical medieval collection of stories from the life of monks, featuring devils, angels, ghosts, and miraculous resurrections. Lay of Igor's Campaign narrates the expedition of Igor Svyatoslavich , the prince of Novgorod-Seversk, against the Cumans . It is neither epic nor a poem but is written in rhythmic prose. An interesting aspect of the text is its mix of Christianity and ancient Slavic religion . Igor's wife Yaroslavna famously invokes natural forces from

1326-583: The Polish king Stefan Batory , with the Jesuit Piotr Skarga (1536–1612) as its first rector) into the Połock Academy (1812–1820), with three faculties (Theology, Languages and Liberal Arts), four libraries, a printing house, a bookshop, a theatre with 3 stages, a science museum, an art gallery and a scientific and literary periodical, and a medical-care centre. The school was also the patron of

1377-668: The Russian Empire. Polish King Stephen Báthory captured Polotsk in 1579 during the Livonian War and invited Jesuits to the city in hopes to lessen the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church . The Jesuits established a college (equivalent to a secondary school), modeled after the Jesuit Academy in Vilnius , in 1580. Its first rector was Piotr Skarga . A faculty of philosophy was added in 1649 and

1428-610: The Russian language developed as a convergence of that dialect and the central ones, whereas Ukrainian and Belarusian were continuation of development of the central dialects of the East Slavs. Also, Russian linguist Sergey Nikolaev, analysing historical development of Slavic dialects' accent system, concluded that a number of other tribes in Kievan Rus' came from different Slavic branches and spoke distant Slavic dialects. Another Russian linguist, G. A. Khaburgaev, as well as

1479-792: The Slavic languages that were, after all, written down) was influenced as regards style and vocabulary by religious texts written in Church Slavonic. Surviving literary monuments include the legal code Russkaya Pravda , a corpus of hagiography and homily , The Tale of Igor's Campaign , and the earliest surviving manuscript of the Primary Chronicle – the Laurentian Codex of 1377. The earliest dated specimen of Old East Slavic (or, rather, of Church Slavonic with pronounced East Slavic interference) must be considered

1530-707: The Society of Jesus (1773–1814), the Jesuit branches in these lands were not disbanded, and Połock became the European centre of the Order , with a novitiate opening in 1780, and with the arrival of distinguished Jesuits from other parts of Europe who brought with them valuable books and scientific collections. Jesuits continued their pastoral work and upgraded the Jesuit College in Polotsk (opened in 1580 by decree of

1581-504: The article on Slavic liquid metathesis and pleophony for a detailed account). Since extant written records of the language are sparse, it is difficult to assess the level of its unity. In consideration of the number of tribes and clans that constituted Kievan Rus' , it is probable that there were many dialects of Old East Slavonic. Therefore, today we may speak definitively only of the languages of surviving manuscripts, which, according to some interpretations, show regional divergence from

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1632-471: The beginning of the historical records. By c.  1150 , it had the weakest local variations among the four regional macrodialects of Common Slavic , c.  800  – c.  1000 , which had just begun to differentiate into its branches. With time, it evolved into several more diversified forms; following the fragmentation of Kievan Rus' after 1100, dialectal differentiation accelerated. The regional languages were distinguishable starting in

1683-578: The center of Polotsk Region between 20 September 1944 and 8 January 1954. A reorganisation of the area between Vitebsk and Molodechno Regions left Polotsk part of the former. The city's Saint Sophia Cathedral (1044–1066) was a symbol of the independent-mindedness of Polotsk, rivaling churches of the same name in Novgorod and Kyiv . The name referred to the original Hagia Sophia in Constantinople , and thus claims imperial prestige, authority and sovereignty. The cathedral had been ruined by

1734-931: The college in Petersburg, the mission to Saratov and an expedition to Canton. During the French invasion of Russia the district saw two battles, the First Battle of Polotsk (August 1812) and the Second Battle of Polotsk (October 1812). In 1820, pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church influenced the Russian Emperor Alexander I to exile the Jesuits and to close the Polock Academy, there were 700 students studying there. The Russian authorities also broke up

1785-468: The eldest of them, Izyaslav , became Prince of Polotsk (ruled 989–1001). Between the 10th and 12th centuries, the Principality of Polotsk emerged as the dominant center of power in what is now Belarusian territory, with a lesser role played by the Principality of Turov to the south. It repeatedly asserted its sovereignty in relation to other centers of Kievan Rus' , becoming a political capital,

1836-500: The least commonly used forms. Ukrainian-American linguist George Shevelov used the term Common Russian or Common Eastern Slavic to refer to the hypothetical uniform language of the East Slavs. American Slavist Alexander M. Schenker pointed out that modern terms for the medieval language of the East Slavs varied depending on the political context. He suggested using the neutral term East Slavic for that language. Note that there were also iotated variants: ꙗ, ѥ, ю, ѩ, ѭ. By

1887-608: The many lives of the saints and the Fathers to be found in early East Slavic literature, starting with the two Lives of Sts Boris and Gleb , written in the late eleventh century and attributed to Jacob the Monk and to Nestor the Chronicler . With the so-called Primary Chronicle , also attributed to Nestor, begins the long series of the Russian annalists. There is a regular catena of these chronicles, extending with only two breaks to

1938-461: The meaning "to speak ornately, at length, excessively," is a misreading of an original мысію , mysiju (akin to мышь "mouse") from "run like a squirrel/mouse on a tree"; however, the reading мыслью , myslǐju is present in both the manuscript copy of 1790 and the first edition of 1800, and in all subsequent scholarly editions. The Old East Slavic language developed a certain literature of its own, though much of it (in hand with those of

1989-661: The meanings of many words found in it have not been satisfactorily explained by scholars. The Zadonshchina is a sort of prose poem much in the style of the Tale of Igor's Campaign , and the resemblance of the latter to this piece furnishes an additional proof of its genuineness. This account of the Battle of Kulikovo , which was gained by Dmitry Donskoy over the Mongols in 1380, has come down in three important versions. The early laws of Rus’ present many features of interest, such as

2040-444: The newly evolving East Slavic from other Slavic dialects. For instance, Common Slavic *gȏrdъ 'settlement, town' was reflected as OESl. gorodъ , Common Slavic *melkò 'milk' > OESl. moloko , and Common Slavic *kòrva 'cow' > OESl korova . Other Slavic dialects differed by resolving the closed-syllable clusters *eRC and *aRC as liquid metathesis ( South Slavic and West Slavic ), or by no change at all (see

2091-1053: The original excerpt has been partly modernized. The translations are best attempts at being literal, not literary. c.  1110 , from the Laurentian Codex , 1377: [REDACTED] In this usage example of the language, the fall of the yers is in progress or arguably complete: several words end with a consonant, e.g. кнѧжит , knęžit "to rule" < кънѧжити , kǔnęžiti (modern Uk княжити , knjažyty , R княжить , knjažit' , B княжыць , knjažyc' ). South Slavic features include времѧньнъıх , vremęnǐnyx "bygone" (modern R минувших , minuvšix , Uk минулих , mynulyx , B мінулых , minulyx ). Correct use of perfect and aorist : єсть пошла , estǐ pošla "is/has come" (modern B пайшла , pajšla , R пошла , pošla , Uk пішла , pišla ), нача , nača "began" (modern Uk [почав] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |3= ( help ) , B пачаў , pačaŭ , R начал , načal ) as

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2142-496: The pure tenth-century vernacular in North-West Russia , almost entirely free of Church Slavonic influence. It is also known that borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the vernacular at this time, and that simultaneously the literary language in its turn began to be modified towards Eastern Slavic. The following excerpts illustrate two of the most famous literary monuments. NOTE: The spelling of

2193-442: The seventeenth century. Besides the work attributed to Nestor the Chronicler , there are the chronicles of Novgorod , Kiev , Volhynia and many others. Every town of any importance could boast of its annalists, Pskov and Suzdal among others. In the 12th century, we have the sermons of bishop Cyril of Turov , which are attempts to imitate in Old East Slavic the florid Byzantine style. In his sermon on Holy Week , Christianity

2244-420: The territory of former Kievan Rus' was divided between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow , and two separate literary traditions emerged in these states, Ruthenian in the west and medieval Russian in the east. The political unification of the region into the state called Kievan Rus' , from which modern Belarus , Russia and Ukraine trace their origins, occurred approximately

2295-471: The troops of Peter I of Russia . Hence the present baroque building by Johann Christoph Glaubitz dates from the mid-18th century. Some genuine 12th-century architecture (notably Transfiguration Church ) survives in the Convent of Saint Euphrosyne, which also features a neo-Byzantine cathedral , designed and built in 1893—1899 by Vladimir Korshikov . Cultural achievements of the medieval period include

2346-602: The walls of Putyvl . Christian motifs present along with depersonalised pagan gods in the form of artistic images. Another aspect, which sets the book apart from contemporary Western epics, are its numerous and vivid descriptions of nature, and the role which nature plays in human lives. Of the whole bulk of the Old East Slavic literature, the Lay is the only work familiar to every educated Russian or Ukrainian. Its brooding flow of images, murky metaphors , and ever changing rhythm have not been successfully rendered into English yet. Indeed,

2397-432: The work of the nun Euphrosyne of Polotsk (1120–1173), who built monasteries, transcribed books, promoted literacy and sponsored art (including local artisan Lazarus Bohsha's famous " Cross of Saint Euphrosyne ," a national symbol and treasure lost during World War II ), and the prolific, original Church Slavonic sermons and writings of Bishop Cyril of Turaw (1130–1182). The first Belarusian printer, Francysk Skaryna ,

2448-617: The written Sermon on Law and Grace by Hilarion , metropolitan of Kiev . In this work there is a panegyric on Prince Vladimir of Kiev , the hero of so much of East Slavic popular poetry. It is rivalled by another panegyric on Vladimir, written a decade later by Yakov the Monk. Other 11th-century writers are Theodosius , a monk of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra , who wrote on the Latin faith and some Pouchenia or Instructions , and Luka Zhidiata , bishop of Novgorod , who has left

2499-429: Was a language (or a group of dialects) used by the East Slavs from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century, until it diverged into the Russian and Ruthenian languages. Ruthenian eventually evolved into the Belarusian , Rusyn , and Ukrainian languages. The term Old East Slavic is used in reference to the modern family of East Slavic languages . However, it is not universally applied. The language

2550-411: Was born in Polotsk around 1490. He is famous for being the first to print the Bible in the Old Belarusian language (East Slavic language) in 1517, several decades after the first-ever printed book by Johann Gutenberg and just several years after the first Czech Bible (1506). In September 2003, as " Days of Belarusian Literacy " were celebrated for the 10th time in Polotsk, city authorities dedicated

2601-422: Was returned to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania just 15 years later. It was again captured by Russia on 17 June 1654, but recaptured by Poland–Lithuania on 30 October 1660 during the Russo-Polish War (1654–67) . In 1772, Russia seized Polotsk (then Połock) as part of the First Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Since the Russian Empress Catherine II did not acknowledge the Papal suppression of

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