The Conference on the history of Russian culture

This volume contains the Chronicle of the Christmas Conference (4-5 January 1993), short summaries of its papers and the special articles. The topics of most of them are connected with Russian culture from antiquity to the 17th-18th centuries. Academician B. Rybakov studies the relations of ancient Slavs with Classic world; R. Simonov analyses scientific knowledge in Old Russia. The articles by A.Demin, O.Kniazevskaia, and G.Eliseev are centered on the problems of the literature and on the publication of manuscript monuments. I. Buseva-Davydova and A. Pavlenko highlight the history of Russian art in the 17th century. Religious polemics of this time are the subject of the article of I. Kurukina about the books “Osten” and “Shield of the Faith”. Other topics: Military commanders in the letters of Catherine II; the Moscow English Club; the nobility and the formation of the political culture; The work ethic of the Russian peasantry: tradition and modernization. In conclusion is an article in English presented at the Conference by the American professor Cathy J. Potter: “Preaching and teaching the faith in Seventeenth Century Russia”.