The University of New Mexico's Institute for Medieval Studies presents “Medieval Russia,” for its annual spring lecture series March 29-April 1, in Room 101 of Woodward Hall on the main UNM campus.
A team of six acclaimed experts will deliver a total of seven lectures exploring the richness and the complexity of early Russian history and culture. The lectures will cover history, archaeology, religion, gender studies, music, art and architecture. All lectures are free and open to the public. Free parking and a shuttle service are available.
“'Medieval Russia' is the 19th spring lecture series offered by the Institute for Medieval Studies. As in previous years, the lectures should appeal to a large cross-section of the community,” said Tim Graham, director, Institute for Medieval Studies.
The seven presentations will reveal the complex origins of the Russian state and highlight the extraordinary cultural achievements characterizing Russia's medieval history. Individual lectures will describe the respective contributions of Vikings and Slavs to the formation of the Russian state, will survey the Novgorod, Kiev and Muscovy phases of Russian history, and will underscore the major impact that the conversion to Christianity had upon the flowering of the arts in Russia. Art, music and architecture all came under the strong influence of the Greek culture of Byzantium, but it will emerge that what resulted was a distinctively Russian culture of strongly independent character. The lectures will also bring to light the complex ethnic and social tensions that underlay Russia's historical development and that resonate even today.
The topics of the lectures:
Monday, March 29, 7 p.m.
Robert O. Crummey, “The Origins of Medieval Russia”
The opening lecture establishes the essential background for the rest of the series. Crummey, professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Davis, will describe the events that led to the creation of Kievan Rus by Viking invaders who subdued but were ultimately assimilated by the local Slavic population. His lecture will highlight the political structure, the economy and the society that characterized this earliest phase of Russian history and will establish that the turning point in the history of the region came with the decision of its rulers to adopt Eastern Orthodox Christianity as their official religion. Crummey will discuss the consequences of this choice and will complete his lecture by focusing on the Mongol conquest and its impact on the future development of Russia in the Middle Ages.
Tuesday, March 30, 4 p.m.
Eve Levin, “Men's Religion/Women's Religion: The Christianization of Medieval Russia”
Levin, professor of history at the University of Kansas, will address two assumptions that have become almost axiomatic in accounts of early Russia: that Russians accepted Christianity slowly, and only superficially; and that women surreptitiously rejected Christianity, finding it to be a misogynistic religion. She will demonstrate that documentary and archaeological evidence that tells a different story. Christianization took place in Russia at much the same pace as in Western Europe, and penetrated popular culture to the same depth. Both men and women embraced a Christian identity, although Orthodoxy mandated different sorts of empowerment and restrictions for the two sexes. Levin will show that the most vocal pagan opposition arose from men, not women. It will also emerge from her lecture that Russia did continue to have a visible pagan presence throughout the medieval period and, indeed, into the modern age, because it continually annexed new territories inhabited by non-Russian, non-Christian peoples.
Tuesday, March 30, 7 p.m.
Evgenij Nosov, “The Formation of Ancient Russia: Geographical Background, Trade Routes, and First Towns”
The respective roles of Vikings and Slavs in the foundation of Russia have long been a topic of contentious debate, but scholars have often paid insufficient attention to archaeological evidence when contributing to this debate. Nosov, director of the Institute for the History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg and Russia's foremost medieval archaeologist, will present archaeological evidence that he has accumulated over some 30 years. He will discuss the impact on the early Russian state of the significant cultural interchanges that resulted from the establishment of major trade routes and will focus especially on the case of Novgorod. This important city was Russia's first major political center: it was to Novgorod that Slavic and Finnic tribes are said to have invited the Viking leader Rurik around the year 860.
Wednesday, March 31, 4 p.m.
Vladimir Morosan, “The Exotic World of Medieval Russian Music: The Znamenny, the Strochny, and the Demestvenny”
Whereas the sacred choral works of Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and others are now well known in the West, the world of Russian medieval music - the liturgical chant that was sung in Russia for more than 600 years, from the Baptism of Rus in 988 to the middle of the 17 th century - remains mysterious for most people. In this lecture, Morosan, president of Musica Russica and one of America's leading specialists in Russian Orthodox music, will explore this strange and wonderful world of sound, using recorded examples. By the end of his lecture, terms such as “znamenny,” “kondakarian,” “demestvenny,” “strochny,” and “partesny” will have become familiar and listeners will have gained an appreciation for the serene and other-worldly sound of this music, created, like medieval icons, by largely anonymous artists whose aim was to evoke heaven on earth.
Wednesday, March 31, 7 p.m.
Scott Ruby, “Reawakening to a Spiritual Past: The Holy Icons of Medieval Russia”
For some, a Russian icon represents the precious inheritance of a distant past; for others, it is the object of aesthetic delight; and for yet others, the icon conveys spiritual light. Icons are considered an integral part of the fabric of Old Russia. Ruby, University of London's Courtauld Institute of Art, will show how the rediscovery of icons in the 19th and 20th centuries reintroduced the world to the startling beauties of Russia's medieval past. His lecture will demonstrate how appreciation and understanding of medieval icons developed and in the process will introduce the audience to key aspects of medieval iconography. He will focus especially on some of the superlative works of the monk Andre Rublev, considered by many to be the greatest of all painters of icons.
Thursday, April 1, 4 p.m.
Robert G. Ousterhout, “Kiev and the Origins of Russian Architecture”
Early Russian architecture was intimately linked with the Christianization of Kievan Rus. In his lecture, Ousterhout will describe how in the year 987, the ambassadors of Prince Volodymyr were overwhelmed by the visual splendor of the liturgical celebrations they witnessed in the churches of Constantinople. As a result, Russia converted to Orthodox Christianity and the earliest masonry buildings in Kiev were constructed by Byzantine masons brought from Constantinople. The dedications of the earliest churches and monasteries in Kiev replicated those of the most important foundations in Constantinople, Hagia Sophia and St. Irene. Similarly, Kiev's famous ceremonial entrance, the Golden Gate, was named after one of the gates in Constantinople. Architecturally, however, none of the foundations in Kiev finds a direct counterpart in Byzantium. Ousterhout's lecture will clarify the exact nature and extent of the Byzantine contribution to early Russian architecture, the Russian response to Byzantine architectural forms and the distinctive role of Kiev in the formation of Russian architecture.
Thursday, April 1, 7 p.m.
Robert O. Crummey, “The Emergence of Muscovite Russia”
Crummey's second lecture closes the series by describing the historical process by which Russia first emerged as a major international power, although one troubled by deep social and cultural divisions that were to continue into modern times. After considering how the princes of Moscow first achieved political hegemony, he will discuss the remarkably rapid territorial consolidation and political integration of the Muscovite monarchy during the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505). The lecture will also weigh the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in legitimizing the authority of the Grand Princes of Moscow as successors of the Byzantine emperors. One of the most famous episodes in Russian history of this time is the Oprichnina, the bloody experiment in absolute rule in the later years of Ivan IV (1533-84). Crummey will connect the Oprichnina with the expansion of the Muscovite realm into a multiethnic empire whose diversity resulted in problems of social control. The lecture will highlight the complexities in Russia's past that continue to resonate today.
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920
Posted by kwentworth at March 23, 2004 04:31 PM