The first printing press was established in Moscow during the reign of
Ivan the Terrible, and the first book was printed in 1564. But
literature was still under the direct control of the Church, and the
Church looked upon all innovations and all foreign learning with the
deepest mistrust. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Peter
the Great had a strange forerunner in the shape of that enigmatic
historical personage, the false Demetrius, who claimed to be the
murdered son of Ivan the Terrible, and who, in spite of his western
ideas, Polish manners, and Latin culture, succeeded in occupying the
throne of Moscow for a year. His ideal was one of progress; but he
came too soon, and paid for his prematurity with his life.
But it was from Kiev and Poland that the fruitful winds of
enlightenment were next to blow. Kiev, re-risen from its ruins and
recovered from its long slumber, became a centre of learning, and
possessed a college whose curriculum was modelled on the Jesuit
schools; and although Moscow looked upon Kiev with mistrust, an
imperative demand for schools arose in Moscow. In the meantime a
religious question had arisen fraught with consequences for Russia:
namely that of the revision of the Liturgical books, into the text of
which, after continuous copying and recopying, errors had crept. The
demand for revision met with great opposition, and ended ultimately in
producing a great schism in the Russian Church, which has never been
healed. But, with the exception of the Little Russians, there was no
one at Moscow capable of preparing texts for printing or of conducting
schools. The demand for schools and the decision to revise the texts
were simultaneous. The revision was carried out between 1653-7, and a
migration of Kiev scholars to Moscow came about at the same time. In
1665 Latin was taught in Moscow by SIMEON POLOTSKY, who was the first
Russian verse-maker. It is impossible to call him a poet; he wrote
what was called syllabic verse: the number of syllables taking the
place of rhythm. As a pioneer of culture, he deserves fame; but in the
interest of literature, it was a misfortune that his tradition was
followed until the middle of the eighteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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