(Eleventh century; exact dates unknown), first native of Rus to be metropolitan of Kiev, author of the Sermon on Law and Grace.
Very little biographical information is known about Hilarion. In the Russian Primary Chronicle under 1051 it is reported that Prince Yaroslav of Kiev assembled the bishops in St. Sophia Cathedral and appointed Hilarion, a Carpatho-Rusyn (native of Rus), as metropolitan bishop. He is described as a devout man, learned in the Scriptures, and an ascetic, who served as one of Yaroslav’s priests in the church of the Holy Apostles at Berestovo, a favorite princely residence located just south of Kiev.
While a priest, Hilarion selected a spot on a hill above the Dnieper not far from Berestovo where he dug a small cave in which to chant the hours and pray to God in solitude. This cave was later occupied by Anthony of the Caves and served as the foundation for the Caves Monastery of Kiev. Hi-larion was the first native of Rus to be metropolitan. The only other Carpatho-Rusyn to serve as metropolitan in Kievan Rus was Klim Smolyatich in the twelfth century. Scholars have long debated Yaroslav’s motives for appointing Hilarion, and many maintain that the decision reflects an anti-Byzantine bias. There is no condemnation of the appointment in Byzantine sources, however, and Yaroslav’s purpose remains unclear. There is much speculation but no concrete information for Hilar- ion’s biography after his appointment. All that is known is that the First Novgorod Chronicle mentions a new metropolitan by 1055. Whether Hilarion’s tenure survived his patron Yaroslav (d. 1054) is not known.
Hilarion’s most significant contribution to Kievan culture is his Sermon on Law and Grace. A master of rhetoric and the oratorical tradition, Hi-larion expressed the pride of his newly converted nation as it joined the Christian community, and celebrated its past achievements. Utilizing the familiar Biblical contrast between law and grace, Hi- larion began by emphasizing the gift of grace through Christ, which ended humankind’s subservience to the law and through which Rus was converted. In the second part of the sermon, Hi-larion turned his attention to the apostle of Rus, Vladimir I, as well as to the works of his son, Yaroslav.
Scholars have often seen an anti-Jewish bias or evidence of a struggle with Byzantium in the sermon. There is little evidence of either, however, and it is best read as a sophisticated and effective attempt to establish the place of Rus in sacred history by moving from theological doctrine to the specific pious actions of the Kievan princes.
Although a number of works have been attributed to Hilarion, only the sermon and a confession of faith followed by a postscript can with any certainty be ascribed to his pen. See also: CAVES MONASTERY; YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Franklin, Simon. (1991). Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’. Cambridge, MA: Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University. The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. (1953). Edited and translated by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America.
His Majesty’s Own Chancery was formally founded by Paul I (r. 1796-1801) in 1796. Centralizing power further, Nicholas I (r. 1825-1855) greatly expanded the Chancery’s power and role in government, placing it above the regular bureaucracy and under his direct control. As the Russian bureaucracy grew during the nineteenth century, the emperors struggled to maintain personal control over it and to have it carry out the imperial will. The Chancery was one solution to this problem. It provided a mechanism for greater monarchical control over government and society, and it gave the emperor the opportunity to bypass bureaucratic inertia.
In 1826 two departments were added to the Chancery. The First Section prepared documents and papers for the emperor’s review and supervised the bureaucracy’s personnel. The Second Section worked on the codification of the empire’s laws, resulting in the publication in 1832 of The Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire. After the death of Empress Maria Fedorovna in 1828, a Fourth Section was established to handle her sizeable charitable endowments. In 1836, a Fifth Section studied the conditions under which the state peasants lived, and implemented reforms designed to improve them. In contrast to serfs, who were owned by the nobility, state peasants belonged to the emperor, which gave the government greater flexibility in regard to reform. More importantly, its research became the basis for the emancipation of the serfs legislation that was passed by Alexander II in 1861. In 1842, a Sixth Section was charged with the establishment of Russian administrative control in the Caucasus. These last two sections had a relatively short existence, and were closed when the tasks assigned to them were completed.
The Third Section, founded in 1826, became the most famous-or infamous-part of the Chancery, because of its police and supervisory functions that were equivalent to an internal intelligence service. It was a relatively effective state organ for the collection and analysis of information and for the implementation of the emperor’s will. Five subsections
HISTORICAL SONGS
handled wide ranging duties. The first of these was the most secret, and probably the most important from the government’s point of view. It conducted investigations into political crimes, and maintained surveillance of society, and it kept watch on groups and individuals that were deemed politically unreliable. After the revolutions of 1848 in several European countries, its activities intensified, reflecting the government’s, and Nicholas’s, growing fear of penetration of radical revolutionary ideas into Russia. A second subsection handled corruption and crime within the state apparatus. The third kept an eye on foreigners living in Russia. The fourth managed and controlled relations between peasants and landowners. Censorship and control over printed matter was assigned to the fifth subsection.
The Third Section also had an executive body known as the Gendarme Corps, who were personal representatives of the emperor. Members of the corps were assigned to individual governorships and large cities, where they played the role of arbiter between society and local governments while supervising both. The corps provided the emperor with reliable information on the condition of his empire. Nicholas could not completely control the bureaucratic machine that was his Chancery, however. For example, the Third Section maintained surveillance on the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, illegally and without his or the emperor’s knowledge.
In the 1880s, the Chancery underwent serious reorganization. Many of its functions were transferred to the ministries and the central bureaucracy. The Ministry of the Interior took over many of the responsibilities of the Third Section. The Gendarme Corps remained in existence until 1917 as an elite police force, but its central position did not survive after the death of Nicholas I. By the reign of Nicholas II, His Majesty’s Own Chancery handled only questions related to promotions and pensions of bureaucrats. See also: NICHOLAS I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1978). Nicholas I: Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias. London: Indiana University Press. Saunders, David. (1992). Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform. London: Routledge. Seton-Watson, Hugh. (1991). The Russian Empire 1801- 1917. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Yaney, George. (1973). The Systemization of Russian Government. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Folklorists apply this term to certain Russian oral epic songs tracing to a later period than the type of the bylina and dealing with known historical persons and events. Although Soviet specialists attempted to find earlier examples, the historical song as people know it most probably arose in Muscovy in the sixteenth century; the first clear examples have to do with the reign of Tsar Ivan IV but appear to have been composed somewhat after it. Historical songs are typically shorter than the bylina but continue many features of oral epic composition, including prosody. In place of the larger-than-life bogatyr, the hero of a historical song is often a common soldier or cossack. In this folklore genre from a relatively late period observers have one of their best opportunities to see how historical events became adapted and transformed in the minds of simple Russian people. What they produced were imaginative, poetic treatments of problems, persons, and happenings.
Two outstanding songs concerning Ivan the Terrible and known in many collected variants are those called “The Conquest of Kazan” and “The Wrath of Ivan the Terrible against His Son.” Both stress the dangerous anger of
