On the Problem of the Formation of the Old Russian Book Topic

One of the characteristic features of the poetics of medieval texts is the widespread use of traditional phrases and semantic commonplaces, which have been considered from different positions by medievalists since the beginning of the 20th century. Already in The Tale of Bygone Years (the oldest Russian chronicle) these elements of poetics are clearly revealed, although the genre design of the historical narrative at this early stage is not yet completed. The answer to the question about how the body of topoi was composed and the range of its sources is ambiguous. The article attempts to trace the penetration of a number of stable stylistic formulas into the ancient Russian historical narrative. They should be classified as laconic, non-poetic traditional phrases, devoid of epithets or comparisons that give the statement a certain emotionality. This element of military poetics simultaneously has a clear terminology, formed in a professional military environment, and is based on certain iconic gestures. The work expresses the idea of a connection between such book topoi and kinetic manifestations. These are, first of all, the gestures of princes as leaders of squads, as well as other elements of nonverbal communication. The phenomenon under consideration is only one aspect of the poetics of the military narrative of ancient Russian texts, which arose under the influence of extraliterary reality.