In the department of history, this portion of the first period was surprisingly productive.  Not only were the Annals of the venerable Nestor, the basis of all Slavic history, continued by the monks with fidelity and zeal; but a whole series of other annals, biographies of single princes, and chronographies, were produced; and even some foreign nations received their share of attention.[13] The reader however must not expect to find a vestige of philosophical genius, nor a philosophical representation of the events.  Entirely unacquainted with classical literature, the Greek writers of the Byzantine age were their only models.  The best that can be expected is a dry and faithful narrative of facts.[14]

The weakest part of the literature of this later portion of the period, is the theological branch; a sketch of which however may not be inappropriate here.  It is true, that the Improvement of the old church books was executed with much zeal; but in what spirit this was done, in a philological respect, we have mentioned above in the history of the Old Slavonic literature, to which the labours of the translators properly belong.  Nikon, patriarch of Russia, ob. 1681, carried on this work with the greatest activity; and besides this set on foot a collection of historical annals.[15] The light of the Reformation, which at that time spread its beneficent beams over all Europe, and exerted particularly such a strong influence on Poland, did not penetrate into the night of the Russian church; the gloom of which, however, had always been mitigated by a spirit of meekness and Christian charity.  Still, we notice among the pulpit productions of this time somewhat of the polemic genius of the age.  It was not, however, against the bold innovations of Lutherans or Calvinists, that the clergy found occasion to turn their weapons, but against the Jewish heresy![16] A translation of the Psalms of David, Moscow 1680, deserves to be distinguished among similar productions.  The writer was the monk Simeon of Polotzk, author of the above-mentioned spiritual dramas, and instructor of the Tzar Fedor.  Still more remarkable is the first attempt to translate the Bible into the Russian language.  Francis Skorina, the translator, likewise a native of Polotzk, where the Polish influence was stronger than in any other quarter, was a doctor of medicine; but the time had now come when it began to be felt over all Europe, that the holy volume did not belong exclusively to the clergy.  Some parts only of his translation have been printed.[17]

In the course of the sixteenth century, several printing offices had been established in Russia, almost exclusively for the benefit of theological works.  Nearly all the historical writings were preserved in manuscript; and have been first printed in modern times.  The awkward appearance of Cyril’s alphabet seemed to add an unnecessary difficulty to the diffusion of the knowledge of reading.  Towards the end of the seventeenth century Elias Kopiovitch made some improvement in the appearance of the Slavic letters; it was however reserved to Peter’s reforming hand, to give to them a fixed and permanent shape.