Aleksii
(c.1293–1378)From 1354 metropolitan of Kiev (residing in Moscow). Aleksii strove with intermittent success to unite East Slavic dioceses under Moscow, to suppress the rival Lithuanian hierarchy, and ...
Alexis of Moscow
(died 1378)Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' (1354–1378), of Russian origin, and residing like his two predecessors at Moscow, St Alexis worked to strengthen the Church. He favoured monasticism ...
Alimpij
Late 11th-C. Kievan painter. The Paterik describes Alimpij as helping painters from Constantinople who came to decorate a church (of the Dormition) in the monastery of the Caves when Vsevolod ...
Art and Architecture of Rus᾽
The Byz. tradition was the primary inspiration of “high” art in medieval Russia. While examples of Byz. art penetrated Rus᾽ before the nation's conversion to Christianity, the major Byz. impact ...
art and architecture: Russian
Receiving Christianity only in 988/9, the East Slavic Rus’ expressly appropriated art and architecture based on Byzantine models and elaborated their own styles. Kiev, Novgorod, and Vladimir ...
Belarus
A territory formerly also known as Belorussia (White Russia) which had been under Polish and Lithuanian domination for centuries, until it came under Russian control in the late eighteenth century. ...
Boris and Gleb
(d. 1015),martyrs. Sons of Vladimir by Anne of Constantinople, these two princes were killed at the instigation of their elder half-brother, Svyatopolk, whose aim was to ‘exterminate all his brothers ...
Caucasus
By Caucasus we generally understand Subcaucasia, i.e. the territories situated south of the Great Caucasus chain as far as the Taurus and the steppes of Azerbaijan, hence including the historic ...
Chernigov
Chernigov, on the river Dnieper, first appeared in the Primary Chronicle under the year 907. In the 11th–13th centuries it was the capital of a powerful, expansionist principality, whose princes ...
Church Plan Types
The classification of religious architecture by type was first established around the turn of the 20th C. and served as a chronological taxonomy. Although this method of dating has largely ...
Cyprian of Kiev
(died 1408)Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' (1375–1408), this Bulgarian monk, in the service of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, sought to make the Church's interests triumph amidst ...
Daniel of Halych
(1201–1264)Daniel of Halych (Galicia) (Danylo Romanovich Halytskyi) was prince, then king (from 1253) of Galicia and Volhynia. After the death in 1205 of his father Roman Mstislavich, Daniel and ...
Dnieper
(Δάναπρις, also Βορυσθένης), river flowing south from the Valdai hills to the Black Sea west of the Crimea. Tributaries and portages link the upper Dnieper to the Volga for eastern ...
Drang nach Osten
The former German policy of eastward expansion, especially that espoused under Nazi rule. The phrase is German, literally ‘pressure towards the east’.
Galitza
Or Galič (Γάλιτζα, also “Galatikon” in Theodore Prodromos—A. Kazhdan in Okeanos 356), town on the Dniester and center of one of the principalities of Rus᾽. Vladimirko of Galič (1141–53) was ...
Grigorii Tsamblak
(c.1365–1419?)Prominent cultural and religious figure, and outstanding representative of the ‘Trnovo Literary School’, Grigorii was consecrated metropolitan of Kiev in 1415. His best-known ...
Hilarion of Kiev
(11th c.)First Russian metropolitan of Kiev, Hilarion was raised to that dignity by Prince Iaroslav in 1051, perhaps without the approval of Constantinople. Hilarion's name is attached to the ...
Iaroslav the Wise
(c.978–1054)Son of Vladimir I and Rogneda, Iaroslav occupied the throne of Kiev in 1019, and in 1036 reigned alone over Rus'. Under his aegis, Kievan Rus' enjoyed a political ...
icon
(From Gk., eikōn: ‘likeness’).An image of a saint or other holy personage, particularly when the image is regarded by the devotee as sacred in itself and capable of facilitating contact between him ...
