About the book: 2015 / At the dawn of its birth, Rus', as a young Christian state, needed books that explained God’s structure of the world, God’s providence. Medieval authors, through biblical parallels, positioned the power of Russian princes, emphasizing their chosenness by God. The first ancient Russian books became the basis of statehood and the beginning of the Russian Land. Being the successor of Byzantine and Western traditions, ancient Russian literature had an all-encompassing internal unity, unity of theme and unity of view on world history. The book by historian O. Plotnikova talks about the era of the formation of Russian literature, the influence of Christian rhetoric on the Russian literary tradition, as well as the philosophy and secret meaning of the ancient Russian book.