II. Match the following words with the words in bold from the text and use them in the sentences of your own:

1. неодобрение, осуждение

2. великодушный, благожелательный

3. напряжённый; неестественный

4. драка, стычка; ссора

5. недовольство

6. длительный, затяжной, продолжительный

7. подопечный

8. трудность, неприятность

9. сборище, толпа

10. лояльность, верность, преданность

11. подстрекать, побуждать; содействовать

12. восстановить

13. достаточно, в достаточной мере

14. настойчивая просьба, ходатайство

15. беспорядки, волнения

16. бунт; восстание, мятеж

17. относиться с пренебрежением; унижать

18. начинать; вступать (в дело, в войну)

19. повиновение, подчинение

20. затруднительное положение

21. фракция; группировка; интриги

22. пребывание (в должности)

23. уединение

24. больной, нездоровый, хворый

III. Answer the following questions using the information from the text:

1. Why did the reign of Aleksey Mikhaylovich begin badly?

2. What measures taken by Morozov brought the government to the brink of disaster?

3. What did the riot in Moscow in May 1648 result in?

4. How can you characterize the relations between tsar and Nikon?

5. What was the main event of Alexis’s reign?

6. How did Moscow become involved in a struggle with Poland and Sweden for the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Baltic territories? Why was it necessary to end the war with Sweden in 1661?

7. What was the role of Turks in the conflict in Ukraine?

8. What events led to Sophia’s regency?

IV. Match the words from two columns to make word combinations. Translate them and make your own sentences with them.

state to resist to plunge inner to reimpose military to abandon military

authority the patriarchate the opportunity apparatus into war circles caste assistance

V. You probably remember that Russia was the scene of a number of Peasants’ Revolts in the 17^th century led by Ivan Bolotnikov (1606–1608), Stepan Razin (1670–1671). Say what you know about these revolts, making use of the following words:

feudal oppression, great discontent, to rebel, to rise, against, serfdom yoke, to be at the head, the first peasant war, to spread, all over the Volga area, to collect big detachments, to join the rebels, Cossack(s), to inflict defeat on, the tsarist troops, to besiege Moscow, to crush, to capture, to put to death.

Text 5 Culture

I. Read the text and discuss the following questions:

1. What new tendency in Russian culture emerged in the 17^th century?

2. Give three reasons for the paradoxical development of Russian culture of that period.

No period of Russia’s cultural history has been as full of change, turmoil, creativity, failure, and sheer destructiveness as the 17^th century. Russian society emerged from the Time of Troubles shattered and unsure of itself, disoriented and impoverished. This shaken society was then subject to wrenching social and economic change and strong external influences.

The old culture, in its formal aspects, had been the culture of the monasteries. Art, literature, architecture, and music remained traditional, canonical, and orthodox until the end of the 16^th century. The 17^th century produced, first among the officials and boyars and later among the merchants and middle classes, a new elite that was increasingly interested in European culture and that had mainly secular interests. Yet the government of these same officials and boyars worked to stifle native cultural development, and many of these merchants and nobles were drawn into movements opposed to Westernization.

There were three reasons for this paradoxical development. First, Western culture had reached Muscovy largely through Polish and Roman Catholic mediation, which rendered it unacceptable to all but those sophisticated enough to take a very broad view of the events of the Time of Troubles. In the Ukrainian and Belarusian territories, the Polish Counter-Reformation had brought a national cultural revival. The books, ideas, and people flowing from these lands into Muscovy in the 17^th century, however, were hardly less suspect than those of Roman Catholic Poland, and, as these “aliens” acquired a dominant position in Muscovite cultural affairs, resentment was added to suspicion.

A second reason for the character of Muscovite cultural development in the 17^th century was the preponderant role of the church and, later, of the state, which took over at last the assets, liabilities, and responsibilities of the ecclesiastical establishment. From 1620, when the patriarch Philaret pronounced an anathema upon “books of Lithuanian imprint” (in effect, the only secular books in print for the Russian reader), until the end of the century, when the government turned to imposing Greek and “Lithuanian” (i.e., Ukrainian and Belarusian) views upon a resisting populace, the state and its ecclesiastical adjunct had a repressive and stultifying influence.

Finally, indigenous cultural forces were, for various reasons, unable to assert themselves. They were physically dispersed, socially diverse, and set at odds by cultural and political disaffection. The development of a vernacular literature, which can be seen in the synthetic “folk songs”, pamphlets, tales, and imitations produced for and by the growing educated class, remained a marginal phenomenon; they were unpublished because of the ecclesiastical monopoly of the press, and they were anonymous. The promising experiments of a group of noble writers who worked within the formal Slavonic tradition were ended by exile and repression.

Despite these negative influences, the court itself, especially in the time of Alexis, was a centre of literary and artistic innovation, and many of the leading men of the realm were considered cultured and cosmopolitan by Westerners who knew them.

II. Annotation: Write five or six summary statements about what you have just read. Then in groups share your ideas.

III. Quick quiz: Work with a partner and write a list of ten questions (with answers on the other side of the paper) about the text you have just read. Then quiz other students.

IV. Project: Compare Russian and English culture of the 17^th century. Cover the following spheres of culture in your project: art, literature, architecture, music.