Sergey A. IVANOV
BYZANTIUM AND THE SLAVS: ONE THOUSAND YEARS TOGETHER
3 module
Course program
1. Fifth-Sixth centuries. What is Byzantium? What do linguists, ethnographers and historians
mean when they speak of the “Slavs”? “Primordialism” vs. “constructionism”. Ceramics, burials,
dwellings: can an archeological culture be “ethnic”? When did the Slavs emerge? “Scholarly
patriotism” and its deadlocks. Hypercriticism of Florin Curta and his critics. Were Veneti Slavs?
“Sklavenoi” and Antes: Byzantine sources on the earliest Slavs. Specific and general in the “Slavic
narrative”: Procopius, Pseudo-Caesarius, Malalas, Theophylact Simocatta.
2. Seventh-eighth centuries. Was the appearance of Slavs in the Balkans the result of a migration?
Did the Slavs identify themselves as such in the Balkans? The beginning of neighborhood
between Byzantium and Slavs. The earliest real evidence of the contacts: archeology and
onomastics. What can we learn from the Slavic toponyms in Greece? Which Slavic loan-words
survived in Modern Greek dialects? The traps of the “soft” and “hard” primitivisms”: how does
the stereotype of “barbarian” shape the image of Slavs in the Byzantine literature? “Miracles of
St.Demetrius” and the Slavs in the environs of Thessaloniki. “Chronicle of Monembasia” and the
Slavs in the Peloponnesus. The Byzantine “Reconquista” in the Balkans. The beginning of
Hellenization of the Slavic elite. Slavs in Byzantium.
3. Eighth-ninth centuries. Protobulgars and Slavs in the Northern Balkans. The role of the Slavs
within the Bulgarian Khanate. The wars and cooperation between Byzantium and Bulgaria. The
role of Constantinople in the formation of the Bulgarian concept of power. Slavicization and
Christianization of Bulgaria. The baptism of Prince Boris: different versions. Rome and
Constantinople in competition for Bulgaria. What does “Responsa Nicolai papae” tell about the
Byzantines and their politics in Bulgaria?
4. Ninth century. Thessaloniki and Slavs. The origin, career and mindset of the “Solun’ brothers”
Constantine-Cyril and Methodius. The Bulgarian “scholarly patriotism” and its critique.
Constantine- Cyril in Crimea: the enigma of the “Russian script”. Who invented the Slavic
alphabet and what for? What alphabet was created by Constantine-Cyril? The debates on
“Glagolitic” script. The “neo-pagan” critique of Cyril and Methodius: what is “marks and
notches”? Did the Slavs have a pagan literacy? Cyrillo-Methodian mission to Great Moravia: its
triumph and its catastrophe. The role of Byzantium and Rome. The “Orthodox” and “Catholic”
bias in their perception of the Cyrillo-Methodian mission. What did the brothers from
Thessaloniki translate? The Slavic literacy in the Czech lands. Cyril and Methodius: losers or
visionaries?
5. Ninth-tenth centuries. Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria: the admirer, the competitor or the enemy of
Byzantium? The moving of Bulgarian capital from Pliska to Preslav and the Byzantinization of
Bulgarian culture. The adventures of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius: from a slave-market
to Constantinople; from Byzantium to Bulgaria. Greek language and literacy in Bulgaria. Kliment
of Ochrid and Constantine of Preslav: the beginning of the “golden age” of Bulgarian book
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culture. The Monk Khrabr and his “treatise on letters”: the influence of Dionysios of Thrace.
Simeon and the Preslav school of translation from Greek into Slavic. What was and what was not
chosen for translation? The Byzantine influence on the original Bulgarian literature. Tsar Peter of
Bulgaria and the period of the long peace with Byzantium. The role of Greeks and Slavs in the
Christianization of Hungarians.
The tenth century. The emergence of Rus’ and its first inroads into Byzantium as seen by the
Byzantine authors. “Rus’” and “Russia”: the role of the Byzantine cultural snobbery in the
spelling of our country’s and our language’s names. Treaties between Rus’ and Byzantium:
where and in what form have they survived? Who translated them and when? Russian and
Ukrainian “scholarly patriotism”. Normanism and Anti-Normanism in historiography:
anachronisms, politicization, false implications. The Slavicization of the Scandinavian elite.
Princess Olga’s visit to Constantinople: the narrative of the Russian Primary Chronicle and the
Byzantine “Book of Ceremonies”. When did it happen? What goals did it have? Where, when
and what for did Olga accept baptism? Rus’ in the treatise “How to rule the Empire” by the
emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Prince Sviatoslav’s wars with Byzantium: the Greek and
Russian ways to tell about them. The Kievan Prince Vladimir and his role in the civil wars in
Byzantium.
Tenth-eleventh centuries. Prince Vladimir and his baptism: conflicting versions, contradictory
dates. Who baptized and who christened Rus’? The career of a traitor: Nastas Korsunianin and
the role of Cherson. When did the Church Metropolitanate emerge in Rus’? The shadowy figures
of the first metropolitans: Michael? Leon? Theophylact? The problem of the Tithe church in
Kiev: who erected it? What for? Where did the institution of tithe come from? The first Rus’
coins: what can they tell us about the ideological divergence between the concepts of power in
Rus’ and Byzantium. The first Rus’ martyrs Boris and Gleb: what their cult can tell about the Rus’
perception of Greek Orthodox cult of saints? Prince Yaroslav the Wise and the “bookish
teaching”. The birth of the Rus’ literature: Metropolitan Hilarion. “The Sermon on Law and
Grace” and its Byzantine overtones. The enigma of the Novgorodian Psalterium: the layers, the
tentative readings, the mysterious sect in Early Rus’. The St.Sophia Cathedral in Kiev: the
problem of the Byzantine influence on the Old Rus’ architecture. The birth of the icon-painting
in Rus’. The Slavic translations from Greek in Rus’: Preslav? Okhrid? Athos? Kiev? Novgorod?
Eleventh century. The Bulgarian wars of Emperor Basil II. The incorporation of Bulgaria into the
Empire and its cultural consequences. What is “Rhomaiozation” and did it really happen? The
role of Bulgarians in the Byzantine society. The creative activities of Theophylact of Okhrid and
the specific traits of Greek cultural snobbery. The Life of Kliment of Okhrid – a Byzantine
panegyric to the Slavic saint. The “Franks”, Rome and Constantinople in the Western Balkans.
Christianization of Serbia and Chroatia: unclear dates, unspecified directions. The strange case
of “Croatian Glagolitic script”. Greek loan-words in Croatian and Serbian. The short-lasting
Byzantine domination in Serbia. The ascent of Venetia and its relations with Byzantium. From
Chernogoria to Montenegro: the Latinization of Dalmatia.
Eleventh-twelveth centuries. The translation activities of the Slavic literati. The theory of an
“average Byzantine monastery library”, professed by Francis Thomson: its strength and its
weakness; the polemics around it. The Bulgarian “scholarly patriotism” vs. the Russian one: how
should we sort out facts from emotions? The switch of interest in the translation activity from
“classics” to the “latest freak of fashion”. The Slavic versions of the Lives of Andrew the Fool,
Basil the Younger and Niphon of Constantia. The contemporary literature: Theophylact of
Okhrid, Niketas of Herakleia. The strange fate of the writings of Nikon of the Black Mountain on
the Slavic soil. Russian chronicles vs. Byzantine history writing: common features and different
mindsets. The level of knowledge of Greek in Rus’ and of Russian in Byzantium. “The Tale of
Igor’s campaign” and the Byzantine epos of Digenes Akritas. South-Western Rus’ and Byzantium:
political and cultural relations.
10. Twelfth –thirteenth centuries. The liberation of Bulgaria from Byzantine domination. The
Second Bulgarian Tsardom: its ideology, culture, architecture and literature. The presence of
Byzantium in the cultural landscape of Rus’ on the eve and during the Mongol invasion. The
pilgrimage of Anthony of Novgorod to Constantinople: what did Russian pilgrims see and
understand in the empire’s capital? How was Greek reality transformed in the perception of
Rus’? What did the Byzantines know about Rus’? John Tzetzes on the Russian language.
Byzantine “duplicity” and “craftiness” – the stereotype of the Russian world-outlook.
11. Fourteenth-fifteenth centuries. Byzantium’s role in the political and ecclesiastical strife in Rus’,
the Empire’s relations with Kiev, Vladimir, Moscow, Tver’. The Greek influence on the Russian
icon-painting, frescoes, book illumination. The Byzantine master-builders in Rus’. How Rus’
supported the aging Empire. The Bulgarian and Serbian receptions of the Byzantine culture:
tsars Ivan-Alexander and Stephen-Dushan. The theory of Tyrnavo as the “New Constantinople”.
The literati school of translation in Tyrnavo. The role of Athos in the Slavic-Byzantine relations.
Hesychasm and the Slavs. The fate of this current of thought in the Slavic lands. The Paroria
“International”. The fall of Constantinople and the reaction of the Slavic world. The lamentation
on Tsar’grad.
12. «Byzance après Byzance”. The strange revival of Byzantium in the Danube princedoms. The
image of Byzantium in Muscovite Rus’: the writings of Afanasii Nikitin, Ivan the Terrible, Ivan
Peresvetov, starets Filofej. Who developed the theory “Moscow – the Third Rome”, when and
what for? Greeks and Bulgarians under the Ottoman yoke: the role of the Oecumenical
Patriarchate. The “Greek project” of Catherine the Great. The emergence of nationalist theories
in the Balkans and the role of Byzantium. Pushkin, Chaadaev and Byzantium. “The Eastern
Question”. Russian imperialism and Byzantium. The image of Constantinople by Fyodor
Tiutchev, Konstantin Leont’iev, Vladimir Soloviev, Vasilii Rozanov. The “neo-Byzantine” style in
the Russian architecture. The “Cross over St.Sophia”. The First World War and the “Byzantine
factor”. The short-lived Stalin’s renaissance of “Byzantinism”. The role of Byzantium’s image in
contemporary ideological struggle in the post-Soviet Russia: phantoms and speculations. What
did Byzantium really bequest to the posterity?