by James Millar
DOMOSTROI
Terrible (1533-1584). Sylvester has proven to be a shadowy figure, his authorship of Domostroi is unlikely, and his friendship with Ivan the Terrible has often been questioned. Nevertheless, the possibility that Domostroi could somehow explain the Terrible Tsar continues to fascinate.
More recent research suggests that Domostroi was compiled in Moscow, probably in the 1550s, a period when Russian society was undergoing reform and reestablishing its links to Europe. One manuscript refers to an original written in 1552. Two copies (representing different versions) have watermarks from the 1560s or 1570s; and information in Sylvester’s letter to his son, usually found at the conclusion of the type of Domostroi associated with him, suggests a date for the letter of approximately 1560. One copy of the Sylvester type also includes a reference to Tsaritsa Anasta-sia, Ivan the Terrible’s first wife, who died in 1560. Therefore the text was probably circulating in the capital by the late 1550s.
This early period produced four major variants: a Short Version (associated with Sylvester), a Long Version, and two intermediate stages. All cover the family’s obligations from three angles: its duties toward God, relationships between family members, and the practical tasks involved in running a large household. “Family,” in Domostroi, means not only a husband, a wife, and their children but also dependent members of the extended family and servants, most of whom would have been slaves in the sixteenth century. Although slaves often had their own homes and practiced a craft, they were still considered dependent members of the family that owned them.
Domostroi seems to address not the highest echelon of society-the royal family and the great boyar clans-but a group several steps lower, particularly rich merchants and people working in government offices. In the sixteenth century Russia underwent rapid change; its social system was relatively fluid, and these people had quite varied backgrounds. Whereas boyars could learn essential skills from their parents, groups lower in the social hierarchy required instruction to function successfully in an environment that was new to them. The prescriptions in Domostroi are best understood from this standpoint.
The chapters detailing a household’s responsibilities before God were mostly copied from standard religious texts and are remarkable primarily for their unusually practical approach. Men were to attend church several times each day, to supervise household prayers morning and evening, and to observe all religious holidays (which in pre-imperial Russia exceeded one hundred). The text also supplies instructions for taking communion and behavior in church (“do not shuffle your feet”). Women and servants attended services “when they [were] able,” but they, too, were to pray every day.
Within the family, Domostroi defines sets of hierarchical relationships: husbands, parents, and masters dominate (supervise); wives, children, and servants obey. Disobedience led to scolding, then physical punishment. The master is counseled to protect the rights of the accused by investigating all claims personally and exercising restraint; even so, this emphasis on corporal punishment, the best-known admonition in Domostroi, gives modern readers a rather grim view of family life.
This impression is partly undercut by the third group of chapters, which offers rare insight into the daily life of an old Russian household. Exhaustive lists of foodstuffs and materials, utensils and clothing, alternate with glimpses of women, children, and servants that often contradict the stern prescriptions. Wives manage households of a hundred people and must be advised not to hide servants or guests from their husbands; children require extra meals, dowries, training, and other special treatment; servants steal the soap and the silverware, entertain village wise women, and run away, but also heal quarrels and solve problems. These are the stories that won Domostroi its reputation as a leading source of information on sixteenth-century Russian life. See also: IVAN IV; NOVGOROD THE GREAT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Domostroi: Rules for Russian Households in the Time of Ivan the Terrible. (1994). Ed. and tr. Carolyn Johnston Pouncy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. Khorikhin, V. V. (2001). “The Late Seventeenth-Century Tsar’s Copy of Domostroi: A Problem of Origins.” Russian Studies in History 40(1):75-93. Kolesov, V. V. (2001). “Domostroi as a Work of Medieval Culture.” Russian Studies in History 40(1):6-74. Pouncy, Carolyn Johnston. (1987). “The Origins of the Domostroi: An Essay in Manuscript History,” Russian Review 46:357-373.
CAROLYN JOHNSTON POUNCY
DONATION BOOKS
DONATION BOOKS
Donation books first appeared in Muscovite Russia in the middle of the sixteenth century. The “Hundred chapters church council” in 1551 in the presence of Tsar Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) obliged monasteries to secure proper liturgical commemoration of donors. This instruction served as an impetus for the composition of numerous Donation books. As for donations from former times, the Donation books relied upon older documentation, particularly deeds and lists of donations in appendices to other books. In addition, many Donation books match names with lists for liturgical commemoration, and indicate the days on which a commemorative meal, a korm, was to be held. Since the Books frequently taxed the value of an object, they serve as sources about the development of prices. The order of entries differs: Usually the donations of the tsar are registered at the beginning of the book; other entries are arranged principally in chronological order. Some Donation books from the seventeenth century are strictly organized on the basis of donor families. Eventually monasteries kept different Donation books at the same time, depending on the value of the donations and the expected liturgical services in return. So far one donation book is known in which a clan registered its donations to churches and monasteries over some decades. Donation books from the seventeenth century indicate that donations for liturgical commemoration lost their importance for the elite, while the circle of donors from the lower strata was widening. See also: FEAST BOOKS; SINODIK; SOROKOUST
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Steindorff, Ludwig. (1995). “Commemoration and Administrative Techniques in Muscovite Monasteries.” Russian History 22:433-454. Steindorff, Ludwig. (1998). “Princess Mariya Golenina: Perpetuating Identity through Care for the Deceased.” In Culture and Identity in Muscovy, 1359-1584, eds. A. M. Kleimola and G. D. Lenhoff. Moscow: ITZ-Garant.
LUDWIG STEINDORFF
DONSKOY, DMITRY IVANOVICH
(1350-1389), prince of Moscow and grand prince of Vladimir.
Dmitry earned the name “Donskoy” for his victory over the armies of Emir Mamai at the Battle of Kulikovo Field near the Don River (September 8, 1380). He is remembered as a heroic commander who dealt a decisive blow to Mongol lordship over the Rus lands and strengthened Moscow’s position as the senior Rus principality, preparing the way for the centralized Muscovite tsardom. Unofficially revered since the late fifteenth century, Dmitry was canonized by the Orthodox Church in 1988 for his selfless defense of Moscow. Modern historians have re-examined the sources on the prince’s reign to offer a more tempered assessment of his legacy.
Following the death of his father, Ivan II (1326-1359), the nine-year-old Dmitry inherited a portion of the Moscow principality but failed to keep the patent for the grand principality of Vladimir. In 1360 Khan Navruz of Sarai gave the Vladimir patent to Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal and Nizhni Novgorod. A year later, Navruz was overthrown in a coup, and the Golden Horde split into eastern and western sections ruled by rival Mongol lords. Murid, the Chingissid khan of Sarai to the east, recognized Dmitry Donskoy as grand prince of Vladimir in 1362. In 1363, however, Dmitry Donskoy accepted a second patent from Khan Abdullah, supported by the non-Chingissid lord Mamai who had taken control of the western Horde and claimed authority over all the Rus lands. Offended, Khan Murid withdrew Dmitry Donskoy’s patent and awarded it to Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal. Dmitry Donskoy’s forces moved swiftly into Vladimir where they drove Dmitry Konstantinovich from his seat, then laid waste to the Suzdalian lands. During that campaign Dmitry Donskoy took Starodub, Galich, and pos
sibly Belozero and Uglich. By 1364 he had forced Dmitry Konstantinovich to capitulate and sign a treaty recognizing Dmitry Donskoy’s sovereignty over Vladimir. The pact was sealed in 1366 when Dmitry Donskoy married Dmitry Konstantinovich’s daughter, Princess Yevdokia. To secure his seniority, Dmitry Donskoy sent Prince Konstantin Vasile-vich of Rostov to Ustiug in the north and replaced him with his nephew Andrei Fyodorovich, a supporter of Moscow. In a precedent-setting grant, Dmitry Donskoy gave his cousin Prince Vladimir Andreyevich of Serpukhov independent sovereignty over Galich and Dmitrov. The grant is viewed as a significant development in the seniority system because it established the de facto right of the Moscow princes to retain hereditary lands, while disposing of conquered territory. In 1375, after a protracted conflict with Tver and Lithuania, Dmitry Donskoy forced Prince Mikhail of Tver to sign a treaty acknowledging himself as Dmitry’s vassal.
DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH
With the defeat of Tver, Dmitry’s seniority was recognized by most Russian appanage princes. Growing divisions within the Horde and internecine conflicts in Lithuania triggered by Olgerd’s death in 1377 also worked to Moscow’s advantage. Dmitry moved to extend his frontiers and increase revenues, imposing his customs agents in Bulgar, as Janet Martin has shown (1986). He also curtailed payment of promised tribute to his patron Mamai. Urgently in need of funds to stop his enemy Tokhtamysh, who had made himself khan of Sarai in that year, and wishing to avenge the defeat of his commander on the River Vozha, Mamai gathered a large army and issued an ultimatum to Dmitry Donskoy. Dmitry made an eleventh-hour effort to comply. But his envoys charged with conveying the funds were blocked by the advancing Tatar forces. On September 8, 1380, the combined armies of Mamai clashed with Dmitry Donskoy’s army on Kulikovo field between the Don River and a tributary called the Nepryadva. The Tatars seemed about to prevail when a new force commanded by Prince Vladimir Andreyevich of Serpukhov surprised them. Mamai’s armies fled the scene. As Alexander Presniakov and Vladimir Kuchkin point out, the gains made in this battle, though regarded as instrumental in breaking the Mongol hold on Moscow, were quickly reversed. Tokhtamysh, who seized the opportunity to defeat Mamai, reunified the Horde and reasserted his claims as lord of the Russian lands. In 1382 Tokhtamysh’s army be-seiged Moscow and pillaged the city. Dmitry Don-skoy, who had fled to Kostroma, agreed to pay a much higher tribute to Tokhtamysh for the Vladimir patent than he had originally paid Mamai.
Dmitry Donskoy skillfully used the church to serve his political and commercial interests. He sponsored a 1379 mission, headed by the monk Stephen, to Christianize Ustiug and establish a new bishop’s see for Perm which, Martin documents, secured Moscow’s control over areas central to the lucrative fur trade. Metropolitan Alexis (1353-1378) and Sergius (c. 1314-1392), hegumen (abbott) of the Trinity Monastery, supported his policies and acted as his envoys in critical situations. After Alexis’s death, Dmitry moved to prevent Cyprian, who had been invested as metropolitan of Lithuania, from claiming authority over the Moscow see. Instead he supported Mikhail-Mityay, who died under mysterious circumstances before he could be invested by the patriarch. Dmitry’s second choice, Pimen, was invested in 1380 and with a brief interruption (Cyprian was welcomed back by Dmitry after the Battle of Kulikovo until Tokhtamysh’s siege of 1382) served as metropolitan of Moscow until his death in 1389.
In May 1389 Dmitry Donskoy died. He stipulated in his will that his son Basil should be the sole inheritor of his patrimony, including the grand principality of Vladimir. As Presniakov (1970) notes, the khan, by accepting the proviso, acknowledged the grand principality as part of the Moscow prince’s inheritance (votchina), even though, in the aftermath of the Battle of Kulikovo, Russia’s subservience to the Horde had been effectively restored and the grand prince’s power significantly weakened. In contrast to other descendants of the Moscow prince Daniel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Donskoy did not become a monk on his deathbed. Notwithstanding, grand-princely chroniclers eulogized him as a saint. The 1563 Book of Degrees, written in the Moscow metropolitan’s scriptorium, portrays him and his wife Yevdokia as chaste ascetics with miraculous powers of intercession for their descendants and their land, thereby laying the ground for their canonizations. See also: BASIL I; BOOK OF DEGREES; GOLDEN HORDE; IVAN II; KULIKOVO FIELD, BATTLE OF; SERGIUS, ST.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lenhoff, Gail. (1997). “Unofficial Veneration of the Dani-ilovichi in Muscovite Rus.’” In Culture and Identity in Muscovy, 1359-1584, eds. A. M. Kleimola and G. D. Lenhoff. Moscow: ITZ-Garant. Martin, Janet. (1986). Treasure of the Land of Darkness: The Fur Trade and Its Significance for Medieval Russia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Presniakov, Alexander E. (1970). The Formation of the Great Russian State, tr. A. E. Moorhouse. Chicago: Quadrangle Books. Vernadsky, George. (1953). A History of Russia, vol. 3: The Mongols and Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
GAIL LENHOFF
DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH
(1821-1881), preeminent Russian prose writer and publicist.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born into the family of a former military physician, Mikhail Andreye-vich Dostoyevsky (1789-1839), who practiced at the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. Dos-toyevsky’s father was ennobled in 1828 and acquired
DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH
moderate wealth; he and his wife, Mariya Fyodor-ovna (1800-1837), had three more sons and three daughters. As a youth, Dostoyevsky lost his mother to tuberculosis and his father to an incident that officially was declared a stroke but purportedly was a homicide carried out by his enraged serfs.
After spending several years at private boarding schools (1833-1837), Dostoyevsky studied Military Engineering in St. Petersburg (1838-1843) while secretly pursuing his love for literature. He worked for less than a year as an engineer in the armed forces and abandoned that position in 1844 in order to dedicate himself fully to translating fiction and writing. Dostoyevsky’s literary debut, Bednye liudi (Poor Folk, 1845), was an immense success with the public; a sentimental novel in letters, it is imbued with mild social criticism and earned enthusiastic praise from Russia’s most influential contemporary critic, Vissarion Belinsky. But subsequent short stories and novellas such as “Dvoinik” (The Double, 1846)-an openly Gogolesque story of split consciousness as well as an intriguing experiment in unreliable narration-disappointed many of Dostoyevsky’s early admirers. This notwithstanding, Dostoyevsky continued to consciously resist attempts to label him politically or aesthetically. Time and time again, he ventured out from grim social reality into other dimensions-the psychologically abnormal and the fantastic-for which St. Petersburg’s eerie artificiality proved a most intriguing milieu.
In April 1848, Dostoyevsky was arrested together with thirty-four other members of the underground socialist Petrashevsky Circle and interrogated for several months in the infamous Peter-Paul-Fortress. Charged with having read Belin-sky’s letter to Gogol at one of the circle’s meetings, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death. Yet, in a dramatic mock-execution, Nikolai I commuted the capital punishment to hard labor and exile in Siberia. A decade later, Dostoyevsky returned to St. Petersburg as a profoundly transformed man. Humbled and physically weakened, he had internalized the official triad of Tsar, People, and Orthodox Church in a most personal way, distancing himself from his early utopian beliefs while re-conceptualizing his recent harsh experiences among diverse classes-criminals and political prisoners, officers and officials, peasants and merchants. Dos-toyevsky’s worldview was now dominated by values such as humility, self-restraint, and forgiveness, all to be applied in the present, while giving up his faith in the creation of a harmonious empire in the future. The spirit of radical social protest that had brought him so dangerously close to Communist persuasions in the 1840s was from now on attributed to certain dubious characters in his fiction, albeit without ever being denounced completely.
Eager to participate in contemporary debates, Dostoyevsky, jointly with his brother Mikhail (1820-1864), pu
blished the conservative journals Vremya (Time, 1861-63) and Epokha (The Epoch, -65), both of which encountered financial and censorship quarrels. In his semi-fictional Zapiski iz mertvogo doma (Notes from the House of the Dead, 1862)-the most authentic and harrowing account of the life of Siberian convicts prior to Chekhov and Solzhenitsyn-Dostoyevsky depicts the tragedy of thousands of gifted but misguided human beings whose innate complexity he had come to respect. One of the major conclusions drawn from his years as a societal outcast was the notion that intellectuals need to overcome their condescension toward lower classes, particularly the Russian muzhik (peasant) whose daily work on native soil gave him wisdom beyond any formal education.
An even more aggressive assault on mainstream persuasions was “Zapiski iz podpol’ia” (“Notes from the Underground,” 1864); written as a quasi-confession of an embittered, pathologically self-conscious outsider, this anti-liberal diatribe was intended as a provocation, to unsettle the bourgeois consciousness with its uncompromising anarchism and subversive wit. “Notes from the Underground” became the prelude to Dostoyevsky’s mature phase. The text’s lasting ability to disturb the reader stems from its bold defense of human irrationality, viewed as a guarantee of inner freedom that will resist any prison in the name of reason, no matter how attractive (i.e., social engineering, here symbolized by the “Crystal Palace” that Dostoyevsky had seen at the London World Exhibition).
The year 1866 saw the completion, in a feverish rush, of two masterpieces that mark Dostoyev-sky’s final arrival at a form of literary expression congenial to his intentions. Prestuplenie i nakazanie (Crime and Punishment) analyzes the transgression of traditional Christian morality by a student who considers himself superior to his corrupt and greedy environment. The question of justifiable murder was directly related to Russia’s rising revolutionary movement, namely the permissibility of crimes for a good cause. On a somewhat lighter note, Igrok
