- •Contents
- •Introduction
- •Chapter 1. Giles fletcher’s ‘of the russe commonwealth’
- •1.1. Historical background
- •1.2. Giles fletcher's biography
- •1.3. ‘Of the russe commonwealth’
- •1.4. Analysis of ‘of the russe commonwealth’
- •1.4.1. The descriptions of the country
- •1.4.2. Description of the Tsar’s family
- •1.4.3. The state and form of the Russe government
- •1.4.4. Description of common people
- •1.4.5. Religious attitude
- •Chapter 2. Silvestr’s ‘domostroy’
- •2.1. About ‘domostroy’
- •2.2. Analysis of ‘domostroy’
- •2.2.1. The relationship between Russian people and the Tsar
- •2.2.2. Religious practices
- •2.2.3. The mode of life of Russian people
- •Chapter 3. The conclusions on the accounts
- •3.1. Fletcher’s account
- •3.2. The ‘domostroy’ clichés
- •Overall conclusions
- •Biblography
3.2. The ‘domostroy’ clichés
The second angle is Silvester’s ‘Domostroy’. Archpriest Silvester, who edited ‘Domostroy’ in the 16th century, was an influential advisor to young Ivan IV – therefore the narration in the edited version might seem a little idealised. All the traditions and customs, undoubtedly, were not always followed properly by the Russe – ‘Domostroy’ was a kind of model for people to keep up to.
Anyway ‘Domostroy’, as I’ve already mentioned in the 2nd chapter, is a precious monument of Russian literature, which gives a minute account of Russian society and the life of wealthy boyars and merchants; it helped me a lot in my research work in eliciting the main values and customs of Russian people.
Overall conclusions
Upon analysing both monuments of English and Russian historical literature, if we compare the two radically different accounts, we will elicit one fundamental difference. Both authors are subjective – they tend to oblige their monarchs due to different reasons: Giles Fletcher – mostly due to his patriotism, Silvester – due to his court position. Thereby Fletcher’s narration is ‘blackened’ and negatively exaggerated, Silvester’s is idealised and ‘softened’.
To sum everything up, some barbarous traits can definitely be spotted, but the main idea of Fletcher’s off-scale exaggeration is due to a range of reasons, which have been analysed in my research work: the state and social structure, national values and customs, religious beliefs and, importantly, historical circumstances.
Giles Fletcher’s ‘Of the Russe Commonwealth’ may be considered a pearl in English historical and political literature; anyway, people reading it should be aware of the fact that the way it was written was to some extent affected by the conditions that encircled the author and should not treat it as completely veracious.
Biblography
Домострой / перевод с др.-русского В. В. Колесов – ЗАО «ОЛМА МЕДИА Групп», 2012 – 303 стр.
Н. Карамзин, История государства российского – ОЛМА-ПРЕСС, том 9, гл. 7, 2003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Fletcher_(the_elder)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domostroy
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сильвестр_(священник)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_England