Russian philology
A popular folk saying claims Russians are "the world's
most reading nation".
Old Russian literature
Old Russian literature consists of several masterpieces written in the Old Russian language
(i.e. the language of Rus', not to be confused with the contemporaneous Church Slavonic nor
with modern Russian). The main type of Old Russian historical literature were chronicles,
most of them anonymous. Anonymous works also include The Tale of Igor's Campaign and
Praying of Daniel the Immured. Hagiographies (Russian: , zhitiya svyatykh,
"lives of the saints") formed a popular genre of the Old Russian literature. Life of Alexander
Nevsky offers a well-known example. Other Russian literary monuments include
Zadonschina, Physiologist, Synopsis and A Journey Beyond the Three Seas. Bylinas oral
folk epics fused Christian and pagan traditions. Medieval Russian literature had an
overwhelmingly religious character and used an adapted form of the Church Slavonic
annaabi.ee 
