PERIODIZATION OF SOUTH-EAST SLAVIC RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL INTERACTION IN THE MIDDLE AGES: OVERVIEW OF MAIN APPROACHES
Authors:   Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, SHPYK Igor 
Published: January 2021

Background:The deepening of knowledge about the religious and cultural links between the southern and eastern Slavs during the Middle Ages requires deep scientific reflection, comprehensive understanding of all the best practices, especially from the point of view of modern methodological approaches. It has been done a lot at the level of narrow specializations, codicology, philology, paleography, art criticism, but in general, the significant changes have not happened in summarizing the results of these various studies, which makes it impossible to create a clearer picture of the process as a whole, in motion and variety of manifestations. An important step in this direction should be the development of general periodization, which would take into considerationthe key phenomena not only of literary and literary life, but also of all other spheres of these relations. An important step in this direction should be the development of general periodization, which would take into consideration the key phenomena not only of book and literary life, but also of all other spheres of these relations. Purpose: Taking into account the vastness of the research topic, it is worth noting that the author does not aim to deeply and comprehensively analyze all the works that in one way or another determine the chronology of the main stages of medieval religious and cultural relations between the Orthodox Slavs. Many of these publications, moreover, express their views on the temporal markers of the process in question, which largely coincide with already established periodization (sometimes partially modified by binding to the turning points of the history of the Balkan countries, or Rus, or taking into consideration specific features of the interaction process itself). Therefore, the object of our consideration was only those works that were most important for the development, supplementation, concretization or change of the periodization of the Southeastern Slavic relations in the Middle Ages as a whole or in some of its stages; as well as those that contain important considerations and remarks regarding the dating of the underlying phenomena of the process. Results: The problem of the periodization of South-East Slavic religious-cultural interaction during the Middle Ages remains actual and needs special and priority attention. The criteria and, in general, the schemes of chronological systematization of the material, developed by previous generations of scientists, are largely outdated and contain conflicting and incompatible points. Their productive revision is possible only if a comprehensive comparison and generalization of the results of the study of all major points of contact between the religious and cultural life of Rus and the South Slavic countries. In addition, in this context, time periods are particularly noticeable, such as the second half of the IX–X c., the second half of the XI – the end of the XII c.,the second half of the XIII–the first half of the XIV c., the second half of the XV – the beginning of the XVI c. of which we have too little information, so they seem to be partly lost, fall out of general narratives. Accordingly, a more thorough study of them is potentially able to adjust and refine the stages of this complex and time-consuming process. And, importantly, when it comes to Rus, especially during the late Middle Ages, it is also very important to take into account the local features of its development, in accordance with the borders of the states (Moscow State, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish Kingdom) that existed in its territory as well as the jurisdictional boundaries of the divided Kyiv Metropolitanate. Keywords: periodization schemes, religious and cultural relations, the Middle Ages, the southern and eastern Slavs, Rus, Bulgaria, Serbia.