More than a millennium ago, the princes of Medieval Rus’, the lands of the East Slavs, accepted the Orthodox Christian faith. In so doing, they brought their lands (today parts of the Baltic States, Belarus, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine) into the Orthodox Christian world. Their pagan belief system, with its emphasis on the cycles and movements of the natural world, gave way to a form of Christianity rooted in powerful sacred images, ritual, and text. In this course, we will examine the evolution of the cultures of medieval Rus’ from the Viking Age, through the reign of Ivan IV “The Terrible,” and the Time of Troubles, and finally to the rise of the Romanovs and the founding of the Russian Empire in 1721. We will examine changing conceptions of time and discourses of light and darkness in works of folklore, literature, and history, as well as architecture, sacred art, and ritual, to understand the evolving forms of life and worldview in medieval Rus’. A field trip to the Museum of Russian Art (Minneapolis, Minnesota) is planned.

Coming Fall 2025.