This review article summarizes the answers given by scholars of
Old Russian literature to the question of how it became possible to create rhetorical works of the highest level of technical perfection in Ancient Rus'
as early as the twelfth century. The author, relying mainly on the reasoning
of V.M. Zhivov and S. Franklin, suggests extending the existing scheme of
borrowing rhetorical art from Byzantium to the area of studying other borrowed cultural phenomena as well. V.M. Zhivov describes two interrelated
elements of Byzantine culture – ascetic and humanistic, noting that Russian
culture borrowed mainly the first element. S. Franklin, in his analysis of
Russian culture's reception of classical rhetoric, proposes two understandings of rhetoric: in the narrow and broad senses. The essence of the reasoning of the historians of ancient Russian literature comes down to the fact that
when borrowing only one cultural tradition or only one side of a cultural
phenomenon, the entire fullness of culture or a specific cultural phenomenon
can be revealed on the soil of another culture. We are convinced of the validity of such reasoning by the example of the reception of rhetorical prowess.
The level of the ancient Russian writers' command of the art of eloquence
can be judged from the works of Cyril Turovsky, an outstanding Russian
rhetorician of the 12th century, whose works have been analyzed, in particular, by I.P. Yeremin. All that remains is to study the peculiarities of the operation of the mechanism of this reception, as well as to make sure that its
results are authentic.