The Rus' chronicle,[1][2][3]Russian chronicle[4][5]: 51 [6] or Rus' letopis (Old East Slavic: лѣтопись, romanized: lětopisʹ) was the primary Rus' historical literature. Chronicles were composed from the 11th to the 18th centuries, generally written in Old East Slavic (and, later, Ruthenian and Muscovite Russian), about Kievan Rus' and subsequent Rus' principalities and history.[7][8] They were one of the leading genres of Old Rus' literature in medieval and early modern Eastern and Central Europe.[9]
The Old East Slavic лѣтопись (lě́topisʹ) has given rise to a number of Slavic-language derivatives (Belarusian: летапіс, romanized: ljétapis; Czech: letopis; Polish: latopis; Russian: летопись, romanized: létopisʹ; Serbo-Croatian: lȅtopīs/ljȅtopīs / ље̏топӣс, litopīs / литопӣс; Ukrainian: літо́пис, romanized: litópys), and was translated into Lithuanian as metraštis. It is translated into English as "chronicle".[4][5]: 51 [11][12][13][3][14] The record of an event usually begins with the words "Въ лѣто ..." (Vŭ lě́to ..., "In the year..."; from them, the terms litopys, letopis and latopis were derived.[15][14] The chronicles contain historical documents, oral traditions (often of a mystical nature), excerpts from previous chronicles, and text by the chronicler.[7]
Origin
The construction of the oldest Russian chronicle generally accepted by modern scientists was developed by Alexey Shakhmatov. In Shakhmatov's view, the origin of the Russian chronicle was compiled c. 1039 (Mikhail Priselkov dated it to 1037) in the Kiev metropolis. According to scholarly consensus, the chronicles were originally a complete work and not divided into years.[8]
Attention, especially in the northern chronicles, was paid to the Old Rus' knyazi; despite the clerical composition of most of the chronicles, many texts depict them as chosen by pagan gods. The Rurikids were emphasized.[17]
Folk legends and stories were sources. Historical distortions were not permitted; according to Shakhmatov, any mystical motives or phenomena in a chronicle was because the author believed in their truth or significance.[8]
During the 1850s and 1860s it was thought that the Rus' chronicle originated as annals and evolved into a narrative, a view supported by Michael Sukhomlinov and Izmail Sreznevsky. This theory has been revived by Alexey Gippius and Alexey Tolochko), who believe that the chronicle was written as svods (annals) until the Primary Chronicle. The annals were brief, factual, and lacked complex narrative structure. Over time their accuracy increased, dates appeared, the volume of information expanded, and narrative additions were made.[18]
The late-13th- and early-14th-century Hypatian Codex survives in 15th-to-18th-century сopies.[21] A 1377 copy of the 14th-century Laurentian Codex survives.[22]
Fourteenth-to-sixteenth-century Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicles such as the Suprasl, Bykhovets, and Barkulabovo chronicles continued the tradition of Rus' chronicles.[26][27][28] A group of 17th- and early-18th-century Ukrainian chronicles have survived, including the Hustynia, Lviv, Mezhyhiria, and Ostrih chronicles, the Chroniclers of Volhynia and Ukraine collection, the Eyewitness Chronicle, and the Chronicles of Hryhorii Hrabianka [uk] and Samiilo Velychko.[29] These chronicles describe the rebellions, society, policies and international relations of the Cossack Hetmanate and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and their wars with the Crimean Khanate and Ottoman Empire.[29]
After the 12th and 13th centuries, Rus' chronicles were usually produced by monasteries or at the courts of princes and bishops.[14] Later editors were increasingly concerned with compiling and revising existing writings.[26]
Textual comparison indicates a pronounced political orientation and abrupt changes.[32] Shakhmatov and his colleagues sought to establish the identity and views of their authors and to place a chronicle in its contemporary political struggle.[8]D. S. Likhachev, V. G. Mirzoev, and A. F. Milonov wrote about the educational and didactic purposes of the old Russian chronicles.[33][34][35]
According to Igor Danilevsky, the chronicles had an eschatological purpose. Since the second half of the 11th century, they were "books of life" which would appear at the last judgment.[36] According to Timothy Himon, Danilevsky's arguments are indirect. Himon suggests that the chronicles had several goals, including the recording of sacred and unusual events and reinforcing power; the chronicle is considered a tool of political power.[37]
Сharacteristics
The chroniclers were primarily clergy. Rus' chronicles were composed in monasteries, at the courts of princes, the tsars of Moscow and the kings of Galicia-Volhynia, and in the offices of metropolitan bishops. The chronicles (often contradicting each other) typically consisted of collections of short factual entries for the preceding year and speeches and dialogues by princes. The Rus' chronicles contain narratives about the settlement of the Eastern Slavs and neighbouring peoples, how Kievan Rus' was founded and developed, and its diplomatic relations, society, culture, and religion.[14] The chronicler would sometimes provide an extended, embellished narrative on the most significant events of Rus' history.[9]
Aleksey Shakhmatov was the leading expert in the textual criticism of Rus' chronicles. Shakhmatov considered the main part of the chronicle texts svods (collections of records from different sources), with every new chronicle a collection of previous chronicles and newly-added historical records.[19][20]
Many of the chronicles have become viewed as annals produced in state or church offices. The hypothetical Novgorod Archbishop Chronicle is believed to have been prepared at the office of the Diocese of Novgorod from the 12th to the 14th centuries, and was the basis of the 15th-century Novgorod First Chronicle.[38]
Sources
Sources for the oldest chronicles include Byzantine and South Slavic texts on sacred history and other subjects, the chronicle of George Hamartolos on the Generations of Noah in the Primary Chronicle,[39] legends, legal documents (such as the Rus'–Byzantine Treaties in the Primary Chronicle and a short version of Russkaya Pravda in the Novgorod First Chronicle), and historical records.[19][20]
Copies
Rus' chronicles survive in codices. Some chronicles have several versions, but others are known from only one copy. Every chronicle was a collection of materials from earlier chronicles. Individual chronicles were revised, shortened or expanded with entries on the events of the last year (or decade), and dozens of such collections may exist.[9]
Timeline
The early-12th-century Primary Chronicle, describing the early history of Kievan Rus', is the oldest surviving Rus' chronicle. Aleksey Shakhmatov noted that a number of entries about 11th-century Novgorod are present in the 15th-century Novgorod First Chronicle but absent from the Primary Chronicle. This led Shakhmatov to theorize that the beginning of the Novgorod First Chronicle includes text older than that in the Primary Chronicle. He called it the "Primary Svod", and dated it to the end of the 11th century as a basis for the Primary Chronicle. If two or more chronicles coincide up to a particular year, one chronicle is copied from another (rare) or they had a common source. Shakhmatov developed a timeline of the old Rus' chronicles, connecting most of them and demonstrating that the extant 14th-to-17th-century chronicles date back to the Primary Svod, earlier, hypothetical 11th-century and late-10th-century historical records. His method and theories became a mainstay of Rus' chronicle studies.[19][20][38][42]
An estimated 5,000 svods exist.[43] Most have not been preserved as originals; only copies and partial revisions created between the 13th and 19th centuries, including the oldest 11th- and 12th-century chronicles, are known.[44]
Nikolai Prokofiev and Rosalia Shor noted an occasional dream-vision motif in old Russian chronicles.[46] In her article, "The Genre of Visions in Ancient Russian Literature", Alla Soboleva notes the chronicles' unusual worldview.[47] An illustration c. 1495 in the Slavic manuscript of Cosmas Indicopleustes' sixth-century Christian Topography depicts the sun going underground at sunset and, according to Yegor Redin, was incorporated into the Old Russian chronicles.[48]
Historian Igor Froyanov cites a scene in the Novgorod First Chronicle and the Primary Chronicle where volkhvs (wizards) talk about the creation of humanity:
Yan Vyshatich asked, "How do you think man came to be?" The volkhvs answered, "God bathed in the bath and sweated, wiped himself with a rag and threw it from heaven to the earth; and the devil created man, and God put his soul into him. Therefore, when a person dies, the body goes to the earth, and the soul goes to God".[49]
Two wizards reportedly appeared in Novgorod in 1071 and began to sow unrest, saying that the Dnieper would soon flow backwards and the land would move.[50] Most chronicles have digressions which predict the future, describe strange phenomena, and discuss their meaning from a mystical point of view.[51]
Historiography
Most scholars view the chronicles as historical sources as well as works of art. Vasily Klyuchevsky used them as a historical source along with the lives of the saints.[52]
Early period
Study of the history of Old Russian chronicles was begun by Vasily Tatishchev and Mikhail Shcherbatov, whose work impacted the emergence of source criticism as a science. Using Tatishchev and Stroev's method, Mikhail Pogodin discovered how the chronicles were constructed. Mikhail Sukhomlinov's 1856 On the Ancient Russian Chronicle as a Literary Monument attempted to establish the literary sources of the initial chronicle. Bestuzhev-Ryumin's 1868 On the Composition of Russian Chronicles Until the End of the 14th Century deconstructed chronicle text into annual records and legends.
A new stage in the study of Russian chronicles was begun by Alexey Shakhmatov (1864-1920). His comparative textual method compared lists and analyzed text. Shakhmatov sought to learn about the circumstances of the creation of each chronicle through chronology, printing and language errors, and dialectic.
Modern period
Starting with Shakhmatov, the main analysis of the text of the chronicles recognizes the comparison of two or more chronicles throughout their length, and not fragmentary observations. The method of Shakhmatov was developed by Mikhail Priselkov, who placed more emphasis on the historical aspect ("History of Russian Chronicles of the XI—XV centuries", 1940).
Shakhmatov's genealogy was developed and revised by his followers, among whom the greatest contribution to the study of Russian chronicles was made by Nikolai Lavrov, Arseny Nasonov, Lev Cherepnin, Dmitry Likhachev, Sergey Bakhrushin, Alexander Andreev, Mikhail Tikhomirov, Nikolai Nikolsky, Vasily Istrin, etc. Shakhmatov's methodology formed the basis of modern textology.[53]
The study of letopis texts has become widespread in modern Russia and other countries. Among the researchers of the second half of the XX century, the greatest contribution to the study of old Russian letopises was made by I. A. Tikhomirov, D. S. Likhachev, Ya. S. Lurie, V. I. Koretsky, V. I. Buganov, etc.[54]
The study and publication of the Belarusian-Lithuanian letopises were carried out by scientists from Poland (I. Danilovich, S. Smolka, A. Prohaska, S. Ptashitsky, Ya. Yakubovsky, E. Okhmansky), Russia (I. A. Tikhomirov, A. A. Shakhmatov, M. D. Priselkov, V. T. Pashuto, B. N. Florya), Ukraine (M. S. Grushevsky, F. Sushitsky), Belarus (V. A. Chemeritsky, N. N. Ulashchik), Lithuania (M. Yuchas, R. Yasas).[10]
Novgorod First Chronicle (NPL;[57] one of the oldest and most important Rus' chronicles, contains information older than the Primary Chronicle, and sometimes differs from it[57])
^Lunt, Horace G. (1988). "On Interpreting the Russian Primary Chronicle: The Year 1037". The Slavic and East European Journal. 32 (2): 251–264. doi:10.2307/308891. JSTOR308891.
^ abcdAlexey Shakhmatov All-Russian letopis svods of the XIV and XV centuries // Журнал Министерства народного просвещения. 1900. № 9, pp. 90—176; № 11, pp. 135—200; 1901. № 11, pp. 52—80; Search for the oldest Russian letopis vaults. SPb., 1908.
^ abcdefghiLurye, Yakov. Chronicles // Literature of Old Rusʹ. Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary / ed. by Oleg Tvorogov. - Moscow: Prosvescheniye ("Enlightenment"), 1996. (Russian: Лурье Я.С. Летописи // Литература Древней Руси. Биобиблиографический словарь / под ред. О.В. Творогова. - М.: Просвещение, 1996).
^Lunt, Horace G. (1988). "On Interpreting the Russian Primary Chronicle: The Year 1037". The Slavic and East European Journal. 32 (2): 251–264. doi:10.2307/308891. JSTOR308891.
^Alexander Zamaleev[in Russian] (2005). History of Russian culture (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Official Publishing House of Saint Petersburg University. pp. 71–72. ISBN5-288-03632-2.
^ abcdefghAleksey Shakhmatov. Review of Rusʹ chronicle svods of 14th—16th Century. Moscow / ed. by A.S. Orlov, Boris Grekov; Academy of Sciences of USSR, Institute of Literature. — Moscow, Leningrad: Publisher of Academy of Sciences of USSR, 1938. — 372 p. (Russian: Шахматов А.А. Обозрение русских летописных сводов XIV—XVI вв. / отв. ред.: А.С. Орлов, акад. Б.Д. Греков; АН СССР, Институт литературы. – М.; Л.: Издательство АН СССР, 1938. — 372 с.).
^ abЛихачева О.П. Летопись Ипатьевская // Словарь книжников и книжности Древней Руси / АН СССР. ИРЛИ; Отв. ред. Д.С. Лихачев. — Л.: Наука, 1987. — Вып. 1 (XI – первая половина XIV в.). — С. 236; Лихачева О.П. Летопись Ипатьевская // Литература Древней Руси. Биобиблиографический словарь / под ред. О.В. Творогова. - М.: Просвещение, 1996
^Марченко М. І., Українська історіографія (З давніх часів до сер. XIX ст.), К., 1959; Українські письменники. Біо-бібліографіч. словник, т. 1, К., 1960.
^Dmitry Likhachov Russian letopises and their cultural and historical significance. М. ; L., 1947, pp. 71, 97.
^Vladimir Mirzoev Social function of history: According to the "Primary letopis" // Questions of historiography and methodology of history. Rostov-on-Don, 1976, pp. 8, 16—17.
^Andrey Kylunov. On the question of the moralism of the old Russian letopis // Russian social thought of the middle ages: Historical and philosophical essays. Kiev (1988), p. 141.
^Igor Danilevsky The idea and title of the Primary Letopis // National history. 1995. No. 5, pp. 101—110; Он же. «Добру и злу внимая равнодушно»...? (Нравственные императивы древнерусского летописца // Альфа и омега. M., 1995. No.3 (6), pp. 157—158. He is "Listening to good and evil indifferently"...? (Moral imperatives of the old Russian chronicler) // Alpha and Omega. (in Russian)
^ abГиппиус А.А. К истории сложения текста Новгородской первой летописи // Новгородский исторический сборник. — СПб., 1997. — Вып. 6 (16) / Рос. акад. наук, Институт рос. истории, С.-Петербургский филиал; отв. ред. В.Л. Янин. — C. 3—72; Гиппиус А.А. К характеристике новгородского владычного летописания XII–XIV вв. // Великий Новгород в истории средневековой Европы: К 70-летию В.Л. Янина. – М.: Русские словари, 1999. — С. 345–364; Гимон Т.В. События XI — начала XII в. в новгородских летописях и перечнях // Древнейшие государства Восточной Европы: 2010 год: Предпосылки и пути образования Древнерусского государства / отв. ред. серии Е.А. Мельникова. Институт всеобщей истории РАН. – М.: Рус. Фонд Содействия Образ. и Науке, 2012. — С. 584–706.
^Petrukhin, Vladimir. Rusʹ in the 9-10th centuries. From Varangians Invitation to the Сhoice of Faith / 2nd edition, corrected and supplemented. — Moscow: Forum; Neolit, 2014. — 464 p. Russian: Петрухин В.Я. Русь в IX—X веках. От призвания варягов до выбора веры / Издание 2-е, испр. и доп. — М.: Форум; Неолит, 2014. — 464 с.).
^Yakov Lurie The history of Russia in the chronicle and perception of the New time// Ancient Russia and New Russia: (favorites). SPb. : Dmitry Bulanin (publishing house), 1997.
^Nikolai Prokofiev. Vision as a genre in Old Russian literature // Scientific Notes of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V. I. Lenin. Moscow, 1964. - Vol. 231: Questions of the style of fiction. - p. 47
^Piotrovskaya E. K. To the study of the Old Russian version of the" Christian Topography " of Kozma Indicoplov / / Byzantine vremennik. - M., 1991. - Vol. 51. - pp. 106-111
^Nikolai Prokofiev. Vision as a genre in ancient Russian literature. // Scientific notes of the Moscow state pedagogical Institute named after V. I. Lenin. - M., 1964. - Vol. 231: Questions of the style of fiction. - Pp. 37-38
^Zinkus, Jonas; et al., eds. (1986). "Lietuvos metraščiai". Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Vol. 2. Vilnius: Vyriausioji enciklopedijų redakcija. pp. 584–585. OCLC20017802.
^Jonynas, Ignas (1934). "Bychovco kronika"(PDF). Lietuviškoji enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Vol. 3. Kaunas: Spaudos fondas. OCLC1012854.
Aleksey Shakhmatov. Review of Rus' Chronicle Svods of 14th—16th Century. Moscow / ed. by A.S. Orlov, Boris Grekov; Academy of Sciences of USSR, Institute of Literature. — Moscow, Leningrad: Publisher of Academy of Sciences of USSR, 1938. — 372 p. (Russian: Шахматов А.А. Обозрение русских летописных сводов XIV—XVI вв. / отв. ред.: А.С. Орлов, акад. Б.Д. Греков; АН СССР, Институт литературы. – М.; Л.: Издательство АН СССР, 1938. — 372 с.).
Suhomlinov Сухомлинов М.И. О древней русской летописи как памятнике литературном. — СПб., 1856.
Дмитриева Р.П. Библиография русского летописания. — М.; Л., 1962
Творогов О.В. Сюжетное повествование в летописях XI—XIII вв. / Истоки русской беллетристики: Возникновение сюжетного повествования в древнерусской литературы. — Л.: Наука, 1970. — С. 31—66.
Лурье Я.С. К изучению летописного жанра // Труды Отдела древнерусской литературы. — 1972. — Т. 27. — С. 76—93.
Лурье Я.С. Общерусские летописи XIV—XV вв. — Л., 1976.
Корецкий В.И. История русского летописания второй половины XVI — начала XVII века. — М., 1986.
Лурье Я.С. Две истории Руси XV века. — СПб., 1994.
Literature of Old Rusʹ. Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary / ed. by Oleg Tvorogov. - Moscow: Prosvescheniye ("Enlightenment"), 1996. (Russian: Лурье Я.С. Летописи // Литература Древней Руси. Биобиблиографический словарь / под ред. О.В. Творогова. - М.: Просвещение, 1996).
Бобров А.Г. Новгородские летописи XV века. — СПб.: Дмитрий Буланин, 2000. — 287 с.
Гиппиус А.А. К характеристике новгородского владычного летописания XII–XIV вв. // Великий Новгород в истории средневековой Европы: К 70-летию В.Л. Янина. — М.: Русские словари, 1999. — С. 345–364.
Гимон Т.В. События XI – начала XII в. в новгородских летописях и перечнях // Древнейшие государства Восточной Европы: 2010 год: Предпосылки и пути образования Древнерусского государства / отв. ред. серии Е.А. Мельникова. Институт всеобщей истории РАН. — М.: Рус. Фонд Содействия Образ. и Науке, 2012. — С. 584–706.
Сергеев В.И. Сибирские летописи // Жуков Е.М. Советская историческая энциклопедия: В 16 т. - М.: Государственное научное издательство «Советская энциклопедия», 1961-1976.
Alexander Zamaleev[in Russian] (2005). History of Russian culture (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Official Publishing House of St. Petersburg University. p. 256. ISBN5-288-03632-2.
Рассказы русских летописей XII—XIV вв. / Перевод и пояснения Т.Н. Михельсон. — М., 1968; 2-е изд. — М., 1973.
Рассказы русских летописей XV—XVII вв. / Перевод и пояснения Т.Н. Михельсон — М., 1976,
Севернорусский летописный свод 1472 года / Подг. текста и комм Я.С. Лурье; Перевод В.В. Колесова // Памятники литературы Древней Руси: Вторая половина XV века. — М., 1982. — С. 410—443, 638—655.
The Rus' Primary Chronicle, Laurentian Text. Translated and edited by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953.
A collation of Primary Chronicle by Donald Ostrowski in Cyrillic is available at https://web.archive.org/web/20050309022812/http://hudce7.harvard.edu/~ostrowski/pvl/ together with an erudite and lengthy introduction in English. This is an interlinear collation including the five main manuscript witnesses, as well as a new paradosis, or reconstruction of the original.