The Kievan Chronicle or Kyivan Chronicle[lower-alpha 1] is a chronicle of Kievan Rus'. It was written around 1200 in Vydubychi Monastery as a continuation of the Primary Chronicle.[1] It is known from a single copy in the 15th-century Hypatian Codex, where it is sandwiched between the Primary Chronicle and the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle.[2] It covers the period from 1118, where the Primary Chronicle ends, until 1200, although its final entry is misdated to 1199. A final short notice mentions the start of the reign of Roman the Great as "autocrat of all Russia" in 1201.[3]

Composition

Among the sources used by the anonymous chronicler were:

There is evidence that a redactor added material from the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century.[1] Because its sources, save for the monastic chronicle, are secular and were probably not written by monks, the Kievan Chronicle is a politico-military narrative of the disintegration of Kievan Rus', in which princes are the main players.[4] It contains a historiographical account of the events celebrated in the epic Tale of Igor's Campaign, in which the basic sequence of events is the same.[5] It also contains a passion narrative of the martyrdom of the prince Igor Olgovich in 1147.[6]

Authorship

Based on the 1661 Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery, 17th-century writers started to assert that Nestor wrote many of the surviving chronicles of Kievan Rus',[7] including the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Chronicle and the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle,[8] even though many of the events described therein were situated in the entire 12th and 13th century (long after Nestor's death c. 1114).[8] From the 1830s to around 1900, there was fierce academic debate about Nestor's authorship, but the question remained unresolved, and belief in Nestorian authorship had persisted.[9]

Contents

Structure

Lisa Lynn Heinrich (1977) divided the Kievan Chronicle into the following chapters:[10]

  1. Last years of Vladimir II Monomakh; reign of Mstislav Vladimirovich (Mstislav I of Kiev, 1118–1126)
  2. Reign of Vsevolod Olgovich (Vsevolod II of Kiev, 1140–1146)
  3. Reign of Iziaslav Mstislavich (Iziaslav II of Kiev, 1146–1147)
  4. Reign of Iziaslav Mstislavich (Iziaslav II of Kiev, 1148–1149)
  5. Reign of Yuri Vladimirovich (Yuri Dolgorukiy, 1149–1150)
  6. Reign of Yuri Vladimirovich (Yuri Dolgorukiy, 1151)
  7. Reign of Yuri Vladimirovich (Yuri Dolgorukiy, 1152–1154)
  8. Reigns of Rostislav Yuryevich (of Novgorod), Yuri Vladimirovich, and Iziaslav Davidovich (III of Kiev) (1154–1160)
  9. Reign of Rostislav Mstislavich (Rostislav I of Kiev, 1160–1169)
  10. Reigns of Mstislav Iziaslavich (Mstislav II of Kiev), Gleb Yurievich (Gleb of Kiev), Vladimir II Yaroslavich (of Halych), and Roman Rostislavich (Roman I of Kiev) (1169–1174)
  11. Reign of Yaroslav Iziaslavich (Yaroslav II of Kiev, 1174–1180)
  12. –15. Reigns of Sviatoslav Vsevolodovych (Sviatoslav III of Kiev), and Rurik Rostislavich (1180–1200)

Style and events

The Kievan Chronicle is a direction continuation of the Hypatian text of the Primary Chronicle.[11]

Unlike the Primary Chronicle, in which the Lithuanians were portrayed as a people which had been subdued by Yaroslav the Wise, and paid tributed to Kievan Rus' until at least the early 12th century, the Kievan Chronicle narrates about a 1132 campaign in which a Rus' army burnt down Lithuanian settlements, only to be ambushed by Lithuanians on the way back and taking heavy losses.[12]

The Kievan Chronicle contains references to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 and the death of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa on the Third Crusade in 1190, considering the former—and the failure of the crusade—divine punishment for sin and the latter a martyrdom.[13]

The (pen)ultimate entry of the Kievan Chronicle is the year 1200 (erroneously named "1199" in the text), which contains a long panegyric praising Rurik Rostislavich (intermittently Grand Prince of Kiev between 1173 and 1210, died 2015), ending with "Amen".[11]

There is some disagreement amongst scholars[14] whether the entry of the year 6709 (1201),[lower-alpha 2] which is not found in the Khlebnikov Codex or the Pogodin text,[14] should be considered the final sentence of the Kievan Chronicle (Perfecky 1973,[14] Heinrich 1977[11]), or the first sentence of the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle (earlier scholars such as Bestuzev-Rjumin, A. Galaxov 1863,[14] and PSRL 1908[15]). Perfecky stated: 'I believe that [the entry of 6709] and not Roman's quarrel with his father-in-law Prince Rjurik of Kiev under 1195–96 (Hruševs'kyj, Istorija, p. 2) is the last information about Roman in the Kievan Chronicle, of which it is an integral part (or more specifically "abrupt-ending" - to which the chronicler perhaps planned to return or possibly even returned, but that fragment never reached us).'[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Russian: Киевская летопись, romanized: Kievskaya letopis; Ukrainian: Київський літопис, romanized: Kyivskyi litopys
  2. ↑ Church Slavonic: В лѣт̑ . ҂s҃ . ѱ҃ . ѳ҃ . начало кнѧжениӕ великаго кнѧзѧ Романа како держєв̑ бывша всеи Роускои земли кнѧзѧ Галичкого[15], romanized: V lět̑ . ҂s҃ . ѱ҃ . ѳ҃ . načalo knęženiӕ velikago knęzę Romana kako deržєv̑ byvša vsei Rouskoi zemli knęzę Galičkogo, lit. 'In the year [6709 (1201)] was the beginning of the reign of grand prince Roman, formerly the holder of all the Rus' land, the Prince of Galicia.' Heinrich 1977: "In the year 1201 was the beginning of the reign of Grand Prince Roman, prince of Galič, as autocrat of all Russia."[11] Perfecky 1973: "The beginning of the reign of Great Prince Roman, prince of Halyč, whose domain was the entire Land of Rus'".[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Heinrich 1977, p. v.
  2. ↑ Tolochko 2007, p. 47–48.
  3. ↑ Heinrich 1977, pp. ii–viii.
  4. ↑ Heinrich 1977, pp. v–vi.
  5. ↑ Børtnes 1989, p. 17.
  6. ↑ Børtnes 1989, p. 21.
  7. ↑ Tolochko 2007, p. 31.
  8. 1 2 Tolochko 2007, p. 47.
  9. ↑ Tolochko 2007, p. 32–33.
  10. ↑ Heinrich 1977, pp. x–xi.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Heinrich 1977, p. iv.
  12. ↑ Plokhy 2006, p. 90.
  13. ↑ Isoaho 2017.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Perfecky 1973, p. 127.
  15. 1 2 Izbornyk 1908, p. 715.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Izbornyk (1908). Кіевскій лЂтописный сводъ. Літопис Руський за Іпатіївським списком (видання 1908 року) Kievskij lЂtopysnыj svod". Litopys Rus'kyj za Ipatijivs'kym spyskom (vydannja 1908 roku) [The Kyivan Chronicle's Svod". The Rus' Chronicle according to the Hypatian Codex (1908 edition)]. Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (PSRL). Volume 2. 3rd Edition. Col. 15. (in Church Slavic). Saint Petersburg: Typography of M. A. Aleksandrov / Izbornyk. pp. 285–715. Retrieved 19 May 2023.

Literature

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