Russian annals: from appearance to content
View of the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma. Photo: A. Savin (Wikimedia Commons)
Learn my son: science cuts
We have the experiences of a fast-moving life -
Someday, and soon, maybe
All areas that you are now
Portrayed so cunningly on paper,
All will be yours
Learn, my son, both easier and clearer
Sovereign labor you will comprehend.
A.S. Pushkin. Boris Godunov
We have the experiences of a fast-moving life -
Someday, and soon, maybe
All areas that you are now
Portrayed so cunningly on paper,
All will be yours
Learn, my son, both easier and clearer
Sovereign labor you will comprehend.
A.S. Pushkin. Boris Godunov
You can become a communist only when you enrich your memory with knowledge of all the wealth that humanity has developed.
“Tasks of Youth Unions” (text of a speech by V. I. Lenin at the III Congress of the Komsomol on October 2, 1920)
“Tasks of Youth Unions” (text of a speech by V. I. Lenin at the III Congress of the Komsomol on October 2, 1920)
Historical science against pseudoscience. This is the third material devoted to ancient Russian chronicles. It will talk about how some of them look, since huge numbers of people will never get to their storage places, as well as about the contents. Indeed, some readers of VO believe that this all lies somewhere, no one translates old texts into the new Russian language, does not study authenticity, doesn’t analyze linguistic types, and only Professor Petukhov alone makes all discoveries in this area and does. Therefore, we will begin, perhaps, with the Manuscripts Department of the Russian National Library, where, together with other valuable manuscripts of our ancestors, the chronicle, called Lavrentievskaya, is also stored. And she was named after the person who rewrote it in 1377, and at the end, on the very last page, left such an interesting autograph: “Az (I) is a thin, unworthy and many-sinful servant of God Laurentius of mine (monk)” .
Page of the Laurentian Chronicle, turnover 81 sheets. Contains part of the teachings of Vladimir Monomakh with a description of his military campaigns, 1377. Source: website of the Russian National Library
To begin with, this manuscript is written on a “charter”, or, as this material was also called, “veal,” that is, parchment, or specially made calfskin. They read it a lot, since it is clear that its sheets not only dilapidated, but also numerous traces of drops of wax from candles are visible on the pages. That is, in its six hundredth century, this book has seen a lot.
The Ipatiev Chronicle is kept in the Manuscript Department of the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. She came here in the XVIII century from the Ipatiev Monastery, which is located near Kostroma. It belongs to the XIV century and looks very solid: the cover is wooden, covered with dark leather. It is believed that it was written in four (five!) Different handwritings, that is, several people wrote it. The text goes in two columns, written in black ink, but the capital letters are written in cinnabar. The second sheet of the manuscript is all written in cinnabar and is therefore especially beautiful. The capital letters on it, on the contrary, are made in black ink. Obviously, the scribes who worked on him were proud of their work. “The Russian chronicler repairing with God. Good Father, ”one of the scribes wrote before the text.
As for the oldest list of Russian annals, it is also made on parchment in the XIV century. This is the Synodal list of the Novgorod First Annals, which is stored in the State Historical Museum, that is, the Historical Museum in Moscow. It was just that before he was in the Moscow Synodal Library, and now she was named after her name.
A very interesting monument of the past is, of course, the famous illustrated Radzivilovskaya, or Konigsberg, chronicle, because there are so many color illustrations in it. It was named so because for some time it was in the possession of the Radziwills, and they call it Konigsberg because Peter the Great found it in Koenigsberg. It is located in the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. For some reason, it is she who causes suspicions, so to speak, of her “insolvency”, because, they say, the bad Radziwills just faked her. But it was written at the end of the XNUMXth century, and not just anywhere, but ... in Smolensk. It was written in half-mouth, that is, the handwriting is somewhat faster and simpler than a much more solemn and thorough charter, although this font is also very beautiful.
But the main thing is the miniatures of the Radzivilov annals, of which 617! Just think: 617 drawings are made in color, and all colors are bright, very cheerful and well illustrate what is written in the text. and troops marching under fluttering banners, and pictures of battles, sieges - in short, war in all its then forms. We see the princes seated on the “tables” that served them as a throne, and foreign ambassadors with letters in their hands. Bridges, fortress towers, and walls, "logs" - dungeons, "vezhs" - these were the names of nomad wagons in Russia. According to the drawings of the Radzivilov Chronicle, we can clearly imagine all this. The same can be said about weapon and armor, there are not many, but just a lot. And all the drawings are combined with the text. And the conclusion: such a number of figures, coupled with the text, is fake physically impossible. And most importantly, such a fake would not make sense, since it would be easily established by cross-comparison with other texts, and errors in illustrations - by archeological data. Wherever you throw, everywhere a wedge! Or do you fake one to one, they say, they found another list previously unknown and want to sell it for a lot of money (there is still at least some hope that they will not get it, although it’s very weak), or we’ll make changes there, and here we are exposes the first specialist! That is, in any case, the money spent will not pay off. Only 617 miniatures ... well ... 500000 p. for each + text ... expensive comes out pleasure, right? And most importantly, why?
Radzivilov Chronicle. A miniature depicting the battle between the regiments of Mstislav Romanovich and Vasilko Volodarevich Minsky; the capture of Mstislav Vasilkom, 1197 Description of the event in a miniature in the text of the chronicle: “in the summer of 6705. ... The same winter, the ambassador of Davyd from Smolensk, his son Mstislav, the matchmaker of the Grand Duke Vsevolod, to help my son-in-law to Vitbesk, and I defeated Vasilko from Chernigov , and Mstislav, the matchmaker of the prince, took and led him to Chernigov "
These are the most ancient lists of Russian annals. By the way, they are called “lists” because they were “written off” from much more ancient manuscripts that did not reach us.
The texts of any chronicle were written according to the weather, so the entries in them usually begin like this: “In the summer, such-and-such (that is, a year) speed this-or-such ... or don't speed anything, or don't speed nothing,” and then goes a description of what happened. The chronicle was “from the creation of the world”, that is, to translate that date into a modern chronology, you need to subtract either 5508 or 5507 from the chronicle date. Some messages were very short: “In the summer of 6741 (1230) the church was signed (painted) the Holy Mother of God in Suzdal and paved with diverse marble "," In the summer of 6398 (1390) there was a pestilence in Pskov, as it was (like) never; where they dug more than one, put five and ten in a row ”,“ In the summer of 6726 (1218) silence is quick ”. When there were many events, the chronicler used the following expression: "that same summer" or "that same summer."
A text that refers to one year is called an article. Articles in the text are in a row, they are highlighted only by a red line. The headings were given only to particularly significant texts dedicated, for example, to Alexander Nevsky, the Pskov prince Dovmont, the Battle of Kulikovo and a number of other important events.
But it is wrong to think that the chronicles were kept exactly that way, that is, records were made year after year. In fact, chronicles are the most complicated literary works devoted to Russian history. The fact is that their authors-chroniclers were simultaneously monks, that is, they served the Lord, and publicists, and historians. Yes, they kept weather records of what the witnesses were, inserted instructive additions to the records of their predecessors, which they learned from the same Bible, the lives of saints and other sources. And so they got a “vault”: a complex “mix” of biblical motifs, edifications, direct instructions of a bishop or prince standing above the chronicler, and his personal attitude. Only highly qualified specialists can analyze the chronicles, otherwise you can easily go after that to search for the grave of Svyatopolk the Cursed on the Polish-Czech border.
Radzivilovsky Chronicle. The Polovtsians withdrew part of the Russian population into captivity, 1093. Description of the event in miniature in the text of the annals: “... and the people of division and vedzha, in the honor of their compassion and relative. Many kind of Christian ... "
As an example, consider the message of the Ipatiev Chronicle about how Prince Izyaslav Mstislavich fought with Yuri Dolgoruky for reigning in Kiev in 1151. Three princes appear in it: Izyaslav, Yuri and Andrei Bogolyubsky. And each had his own chronicler, and the chronicler of Izyaslav Mstislavich openly admires the mind and its military cunning; Yuri the chronicler described in detail how Yuri launched his boat bypassing through Dolobskoe Lake; Well, the chronicler Andrei Bogolyubsky extols the valor of his prince.
And then after 1151 they all died and the annals devoted to them fell into the hands of the chronicler of the next Kiev prince, for whom they no longer represented personal interest, because they had become a distant past. And he combined all three of these stories in his body. And the message came out full and bright. And cross-referencing is easy to check where it came from.
How do researchers manage to extract older texts from later annals? The fact is that the attitude towards literacy at that time was very respectful. The written text had a certain sacred meaning, not without reason there was a saying: written with a pen - you can’t cut it with an ax. That is, scribes of ancient books with great respect for the works of their predecessors, since for them it was a “document”, the truth before the Lord God. Therefore, they did not redo the texts they received for rewriting the chronicles, but merely selected events of interest to them. That is why the news of the XI-XIV centuries remained almost unchanged in the later lists. That allows them to compare and highlight.
In addition, the chroniclers indicated the sources of information: “When I came to Ladoga, Ladoga told me ...”, “Behold, I heard from a seer.” Such postscripts are found constantly in texts. It was also customary to indicate: "A se from another chronicler" or "A se from another, old." For example, in the Pskov annals, which tells about the campaign of the Slavs against the Greeks, the chronicler wrote in the margin: "This is written in the miracles of Stefan of Sourozh." Some chroniclers participated in princely councils, were at the veche, and even fought with the enemies “beside the stapes” of their prince, that is, went on campaigns with him, were eyewitnesses, and direct participants in the sieges of cities, and most often, even having left the world, occupied a high position in society. Moreover, the princes themselves, their princesses, prince warriors, boyars, bishops, and abbots participated in the annals. Although among them were simple monks and humble priests of the most ordinary parish churches.
Radzivilov Chronicle. The construction of the city of Belgorod by order of Vladimir Svyatoslavich, 990. Description of the event in a miniature in the text of the chronicle: “In the summer of 6498. Lay Belgorod and chop the stench from other cities, and many people will introduce a stench. Be bo loving this city "
And do not think that the annals were written “objectively”. On the contrary, whoever “saw”, he wrote like that, remembering, however, that God for a lie, let alone a written one, “a document, by the way,” will be doubly punished. The conflict of interest in the annals is again very clearly seen. Chronicles also told about the merits of the same princes, but they also accused them of violating rights and laws. That is, not everything and then (as now!) Was bought for money and by force of coercion!
PS Recommended article for additional reading: Schukina T.V., Mikhailova A.N., Sevostyanova L.A. Russian annals: features and problems of study // Young Scientist. 2016. No2. S. 940-943.
To be continued ...
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