Abstract: Russian literature was consistently independent from the advancement of world literature from the 10^th century to the 17^th century A.D. The 17^th century marked the end of “the old Rus' literature” (old Russian literature), and it was a century in which Russian literature went through its transition from antiquity to modern literature. But did the modern Russian literature, as Aleksandr Pushkin said, develop without ancestors and genealogies? By taking the historical cultural transformation of Russian literature in the 17^th century as a point of departure, this essay tries to respond to this issue and explore the special historical reasons for the end of old Rus' literature, arguing that the transformation of Russian literature is closely related not only to the Russian socio-historical context and its traditional culture, but also to the advancement of world literature and, particularly, the Russian translation of a large number of secular works from Western European literature. It was these two factors that prompted Russian literature to shift gradually away from the religious themes and the heroic themes about wars against foreign nations. Consequently, it began to stick close to the daily life and extract its subject matter out of social realities, thus laying a solid foundation for the subsequent development and prosperity of the modern Russian literature.

Key words: old Russian literature, modern literature, historical cultural transformation