Foreigners in Russia: the Fate of the Slavic Translation Stichera

The article examines several stichera to find errors that appeared in hymnographic texts as a result of translation from Greek into Slavic or those that arose during the existence of texts on Slavic soil. The article traces the changes that appeared in the stichera during the 11th – 21st centuries. It is concluded that a) some stichera were brought to ful compliance with the Greek original by the 21st ; b) others containe some inaccuracies that do not correspond to the original Greek text, are absent in the most ancient lists and were borrowed from late 17th century manuscripts, even though the inaccuracies only slightly affect the meaning of the stichera; c) and, finally, some modern, edited hymns actively used in the liturgical services hymns, which sometimes are farther from the Greek original than most ancient translations, where the meaning of the text is significantly distorted.