The anonymous The Life of Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Princess Olha of Rus, Baptized in Christianity as Elena, Grandmother of Holy Grand Prince Volodymyr dates back to the late 17th-early 18th century. Instead of focusing on the realities of Ukrainian life in those times, we will only pay attention here to some cultural phenomena that promoted literary pursuit.
Ukrainian culture in this period still remained largely medieval. The educated strata of the population mostly consisted of the clergy. It is no wonder that the literature read by educated Ukrainians consisted primarily of religious works, such as biblical texts, the writings of church hierarchs, theological (including polemical) treatises, etc. Of notable import were books that described the life (zhytiye) of saints. For example, the Kyivan Caves Monastery Paterik was quite a popular piece of literature in Ukraine during the period.
Contributors to the development of 17th-century Ukrainian culture (above all, literature), were predominantly anonymous. This trend is also a medieval relict. In a traditional sluggishly-developing society, an author is appreciated not for originality but for his ability to select and set forth the most valuable traditional views and ideas. Such an author creates nothing new: he only repeats old things and, as a rule, does not reveal his name. As a matter of fact, a “medieval author” is not an author at all in the present-day meaning of the word. In the Middle Ages, revealing one’s authorship was considered a sort of a false pride, both in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe.
Yet, it would be wrong to consider 17th-century Ukrainian literature entirely medieval. It quite clearly displays some modern tendencies, inspired mostly by the European Renaissance. Lay literature became a more common occurrence, including fictional texts that demonstrate an interest in the intimate life of man. Authored literary works were also appearing. For example, the literary polemic that broke out in Ukraine and Belorussia in the 1620s over the Church Union and reestablishment of the Orthodox hierarchy was mostly of an open nature, with the authors of polemic works, in fact, disclosing their names.
The above-mentioned peculiarities of 17th-century Ukrainian culture are traceable in The Life of Princess Olha. On the one hand, this is, at least in form, a purely medieval literary opus. It is an agiographic and, besides, anonymous text. However, by content, this piece is rather similar to Renaissance fiction.
The Life was based on lay, not religious, sources. These were, above all, Old Rus chronicles and the derivative texts, including Renaissance works. For instance, the author twice quotes the Polish Renaissance-era historian Marcin Kromer. He seems to have used his Chronicle..., which contained much information on the history of Ukraine. These types of sources gave The Life a secular, rather than religious, quality as a piece of literature.
The great attention paid to intimate episodes in the princess’s life can also be considered an influence of Renaissance literature. The first such episode involves the Princess meeting her future husband, Prince Ihor. The story tells how the prince was once hunting near Pskov, where Olha was born and raised. It is here that they met. Ihor was to cross a river. He saw somebody boating down the river and asked to be given a lift. The one on the boat turned out be a pretty girl, not a youth. It was Olha. The young prince “was engulfed with a lusty desire” and “began telling her shameful words.” However, having understood the prince’s intentions, the girl “cut his words short with her own words.” She remarked that it does not become a prince, who judges other people, to commit evil. She finally warns she would rather die than lose her chaste virginity. Listening to Olha, the prince became ashamed. He did not touch the girl. When the time came for him to get married, he formally proposed to her and took her as his wife in a manner that befits a man of honor.
The second episode from Princess Olha’s intimate life — the courtship of a Byzantine emperor — had even been mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. After the death of Prince Ihor, Olha went to Constantinople to embrace Christianity. Once there, she met the empire’s supreme ruler and “...when the king saw that she stood high above other women with her beauty and wisdom, he was struck and wanted to have her as his wife, for he was young and did not have a wife yet.” But Olha outwitted the emperor. She asked him to become her godfather. This was done and she was baptized. Thereafter, when the emperor proposed to her, she said she could not, by force of Christian canons, marry her own godfather. All the emperor could do was let Olha go in peace and lavish generous gifts on her.
The author also highlights the Princess’ highly moral behavior in line with Christian norms. He emphasizes that Olha behaved in the Christian way well before she was baptized. For example, describing the meeting of the future princess with Ihor, the author makes special note that, “This was a very good beginning for the blessed Olha: although she had neither known God nor heard His commandments, she still found Divine wisdom to preserve her chastity.”
Using the Old Rus chronicles as sources, the author could not sidetrack such a crucial episode in Olha’a life story as her vengeance on the Drevliany for the murder of her husband, Ihor. This is, in fact, the central point on which the princess’s story pivots in The Tale of Bygone Years. Yet, The Tale... and The Life... give different interpretations of this episode.
Describing the princess’s revenge in The Tale..., the chronicler wanted, firstly, to show that Olha had the qualities (intellect, willpower, resoluteness...) allowing her to occupy the princely throne. For, from the viewpoint of our remote forebears, principality was not a woman’s job. So, one way or another, it was necessary to justify this exceptional case. Secondly, assuming what can be called a “Kyiv-centric” attitude, the chronicler tried to humiliate the Drevliany as rivals of the neighboring Poliany tribe. He was in fact marketing the following idea: the Drevliany were allegedly so awkward that even a woman managed to deceive and subjugate them.
The story of Olha’s revenge on the Drevliany appears very pagan. In all probability, The Life’s author was aware of this. He does not focus on this episode in such detail as the chronicler did. At the same time, he tries to stress that, by wreaking this vengeance, the princess “taught a lesson,” thus ensuring order and stability in society. This interpretation is clearly felt in the words put into the princess’ mouth by The Life’s author. “Destroy all the rebels and murderers of my husband all over the earth,” she says to her servants, “let those who come out against or lay hands on their masters and other troublemakers in Rus, hearing about their (the Drevliany’s — Ed.) death, be afraid and serve their masters obediently and in fear, instead of attacking them.” This interpretation can well be treated in terms of Christian ideology, including the teaching of the Apostle Paul who called on slaves to obey their masters.
The Life’s author always tried (which is quite natural) to emphasize Princess Olha’s Christianity. She specially goes to Constantinople to be baptized. Once there, she behaves in a more Christian way than the emperor himself. After being baptized, Olha spends a day and night fasting and praying, gives generous alms to beggars, and guards her bodily and spiritual purity.
The Life especially focuses on the philosophical and denominational conflict between Olha and her son, Sviatoslav. It is worth noting that, while The Tale of Bygone Years mentions this conflict as a minor incident, The Life makes it the culmination of the story, richly painted in dramatic colors. The author quotes Olha as delivering a sort of a sermon. She says in condemning tones that Sviatoslav goes to foreign lands in search of happiness, forgetting about his own country. She claims idol-worshipping is the root cause of his unwise behavior. Olha beseeches her son not to go fighting to alien lands until she dies. Quite moving are the following words she speaks to Sviatoslav, “So I implore you not to go anywhere till I die; and when you commit my sinful body to the ground, please go wherever you want. When I die, do not perform any pagan and ungodly rites on me, but let my priest bury my sinful body according to the Christian custom. I want neither a mound over my grave nor a post-funeral repast. Instead, send a lot of gold to the Holy Patriarch of Constantinople, and let him pray to the Lord for my sinful soul and instruct other priests to conduct church services in my memory and give alms to the needy.” These words create a “homey” and “family- like” image of Christianity. This image is an obvious contrast to the image of “aggressive missionary” Christianity being brought to the Ukrainian lands by Jesuit fathers.
In general, we can conclude that Christianity, as presented in The Life of Princess Olha, is painted in Renaissance colors. Unlike most other agiographic opuses — for example, the popular Life of Feodosy of the Caves and other agiographic pieces of the Kyivan Caves Monastery Paterik — The Life does not view ascetic behavior as the sense of Christianity. It views the sense of Christianity in highly moral conduct and preservation of the spiritual and bodily purity. Renaissance humanists, including the Socinians whose teaching was quite influential in Ukraine, always emphasized this view. The Life of Princess Olha imparts a tolerant and non- aggressive nature to Christianity, which was also quite in the spirit of the humanist Renaissance.
At the same time, The Life’s Christianity also “sounded lyrical and sad,” so to speak. This is especially evident in the princess’s deathbed will, when she asks her son, Sviatoslav, to give her a Christian funeral. The sad lyricism that permeates the princess’s words is further emphasized by the following sentence, “Hearing this, Sviatoslav wept bitterly and promised to do all that she requested, but he still refused to believe in Christ.” This sad lyricism is, on balance, not typical of Renaissance-time humanism. It must be a peculiar manifestation of a Ukrainian mentality. It is also possible that the religious and philosophical conflict between the mother and the son, as described in the Life, is an unintentional reflection of denominational conflicts in families — a very wide- spread phenomenon in 17th-century Ukraine. We can make a general conclusion that The Life of Princess Olha is a token of 17th-century Ukrainian culture that vividly expresses the philosophy and views of our ancestors who lived in those troubled times.
