Westminster History Professor Claims Byzantine Literature Changed Russian Culture

Dr. Russell Martin, associate professor of history at Westminster College, will deliver the Bleasby Colloquium, Thursday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. in Hoyt Science Resources Center room 166.

"Cinderella Czarina: Notes on the Origin and Transmission of a Literary Commonplace" will explore a literary commonplace - the search for a worthy bride for a young and handsome prince - in both Byzantium and Medieval Russia.

"Specifically, this lecture will examine how bride shows, found in stories like Cinderella, actually existed in the eighth and ninth century Byzantium," said Martin. "These shows fell into disuse after a time, but they entered Byzantine literature as a common literary theme.

"This literature was translated into Slavonic and migrated to Russia, where it was reincarnated into a political practice," continued Martin. "This argument provides literary evidence, which is often underutilized by historians, that the early Russians borrow from as much, if not more, from the Byzantium rather than the Mongols as is often alleged."

Martin appeared on A&E Biography in a broadcast on Ivan the Terrible as an expert on the controversial ruler, and has been an expert witness in a Canadian civil trial about the Russian royal family. He is the co-founder of the Muscovite Biographical Database, a Russian-American computerized register based in Moscow of early modern Russian notables. The Neville Island, Pa. Native is not only fluent in Russian, but also reads Old Church Slavonic/Russian, French, German, Latin, and Polish.

Martin, who has been with Westminster College since 1996, earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his master's and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

For more information, contact Martin at (724) 946-6254 or e-mail martinre@westminster.edu.