Letopis (genre)

The letopenists themselves very rarely reported any direct information about themselves or their work, so in most cases, references in the literature to the time, place, and, especially, the purpose of creating letopis monuments are assumptions or the results of reconstruction.

Comparison of letopising texts reveals the presence of their pronounced political orientation and sharp changes in the latter when comparing texts.[3] Alexey Shakhmatov and his followers, in addition to reconstructing the history of the creation of chronicle vaults, sought to establish the identity and views of their authors, as well as to determine the place of the chronicle in the political struggle of their time.[4] D. S. Likhachev and V. G. Mirzoev, and A. F. Milonov wrote about the educational and didactic tasks of the old Russian letopises.[5][6][7] According to the most common opinion, the Russian chronicle is a kind of journalism that has the form of literary and historical works.

According to Igor Danilevsky, the letopises had an eschatological purpose. Since the second half of the XI century, they acquire the function of "books of life", which were supposed to appear at the Last judgment.[8] His arguments, according to Timothy Himon, are indirect, however, The latter does not reject the possibility of an apocalyptic understanding of the letopises, which can be evidenced by the presence of a second, eschatological plan in a number of letopising texts and the very form of the letopis, recording facts from people's lives, as well as information about natural phenomena (signs).

Gimon suggests that the Letopis had several goals at the same time: the recording of sacred and unusual events, the appeal of power, and the eschatological purpose of the letopis. The written word enjoyed greater authority than the spoken word in connection with ideas about the sacredness of writing. For this reason, strong political corporations sought to acquire their own Letopises in order to ensure their own and their members ' future, both in earthly life and at the Last judgment. The letopis is thus considered as one of the functions of political power.[9]

Genealogical scheme of the main Russian Chronicles[10][11]

The record of a particular event in the annals usually began with the words: "Въ лѣто..." ("In the year...")- hence the letopises got their name.[12] The number of preserved letopising monuments, according to conditional estimates, is about 5000.[13]

Most of the letopisses in the form of originals have not been preserved, only their copies and partial reworkings (so—called spisoks) created in the XIII-XIX centuries are known. Only in these reworkings were preserved, including the oldest Chronicles of the XI-XII centuries.[14] All revised texts are classified by type, (editions), and type. Many parts of the letopising narrative are known as separate works, and the text of the letopis often traces connections from different sources. All these features suggest that the surviving Letopises are collections of various materials, many of the original sources of which have not reached our time. This idea, first expressed by Pavel Stroyev, now forms the General opinion. It is now recognized that most of the surviving Letopises are collections of previous texts.

The oldest surviving lists (manuscripts) of the letopises are the parchment "The letopenist soon" by patriarch Nikephoros with Rostov news (the last quarter of the XIII century), Synodal list of the Novgorod first letopiss of the elder izvod (second half of the XIII century, second quarter of the XIV century), the Laurentian letopis (list of 1377) and the paper Hypatian letopis (1420s). Earlier letopis vaults are reconstructed by scientists based on the study of preserved written monuments.

Each Letopis or letopising svod is considered an independent whole literary work, which has its own structure, intent and ideological orientation.

As a rule, the letopises tell Russian history from its beginning, sometimes relying on pagan ideas about the creation of the world. New Letopises were often created as collections of previous letopis monuments and various materials (historical tales, lives, Epistles, etc.) and included records of contemporary events. Most Russian letopises contain documents (international agreements, private and public acts), independent literary works ("stories", "words", lives of saints and other hagiographic texts, legends) or their individual fragments, records of folklore origin.
Literary works were often used as historical sources. Many works of old Russian literature have been preserved in the letopis texts: "The teachings of Vladimir Monomakh", "the Legend of the battle of Mamaev", "Walking across the three seas" by Afanasy Nikitin, etc.

The scheme of construction of the oldest Russian chronicle, generally shared by modern scientists, was developed by Alexey Shakhmatov. In Shakhmatov's concept, the initial stage of the Russian chronicle was the "Oldest svod", compiled around 1039 at the Kiev Metropolitan see (Mikhail Priselkov dated its writing to 1037). Presumably, in 1073, this arch was continued and supplemented by the hieromonk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, Nikon Pechersky.

It is believed that around 1093–1095, on the basis of the "Oldest svod" and a number of other sources, the Abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery compiled the so-called "Initial svod" (the supposed original title is "Vremennik" )

According to the scheme of Shakhmatov, a little later, a "Tale of Bygone Years" was created, which was based on the "Initial svod", supplemented by extracts from old Russian written documents, folk legends and materials of the Kiev princely archive (Russian-Byzantine treaties).

Presumably, the original (not preserved) edition of the "Tale of Bygone Years" was created around 1113 by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor (authorship is disputed). In 1116, this chronicle was revised by the abbot of the Kiev Vydubychi Monastery, Sylvester, and its Second edition was created. This second edition (or Sylvester's edition) is preserved as part of the Laurentian letopis. In 1118, the third edition was created by an unknown author on behalf of the Novgorod knyaz Mstislav Vladimirovich (It was preserved as part of the Hypatian letopis). In later letopises, the "Initial svod" and the "Tale of Bygone Years" were often used as a source.

In the 1850s and 1860s, the concept appeared that the Russian letopis appeared in the form of annalistic notes, and then underwent a gradual narrativization (this version was supported by Michael Sukhomlinov and Izmail Sreznevsky). Currently, in the works of a number of researchers (Alexey Gippius, Alexey Tolochko), this theory is revived. According to the views of these scientists, the Russian chronicle appeared in Ancient Russia at a very early turn and was conducted in the form of short "svods" (annual records) until the creation of the"Tale of Bygone Years". The annual records were brief, factual, and lacked complex narrative structures. Over time, their accuracy increased, accurate dates appeared, the volume of information increased, the subject matter expanded, narrative inserts and additions were made.[15]

Dmitry Likhachov, following Nikolay Nikolsky, deduced the beginning of the Russian letopis from the West Slavic (Moravian) legends.[16]

Illustration from the Slavic edition of "Christian Topography". Caption at the bottom: "World on the other side of the door"

In many old Russian letopises, as was noticed by Nikolai Prokofiev and Rosalia Shor, there is a motif of "visions", which is atypical for this historical genre.[17]

Alla Soboleva in her work "The genre of visions in ancient Russian literature" draws attention to the idea of the letopenistes about the creation of the world and their unusual worldview in general.[18] Great attention is drawn to the illustration of the Slavic manuscripts of the "Christian topography" of Cosmas Indicopleustes. Unlike the original, the Old Russian editions are full-fledged reworkings, in which there are also rather strange illustrations that are not related to the content.
In the Uvarov and archival editions (created in Novgorod around 1495), in one Thumbnail (conventionally called "the movement of the sun"), the artist depicted his view of the structure of the world: according to his idea, the sun goes underground at sunset. In the center of the miniature is a "world mountain", the meaning of which is not clear. The Uvarov editorial office is the oldest; it is named in honor of Aleksey Uvarov, who opened it. According to Yegor Redin, from the later editions of the Christian Topography, the thumbnail also got into the Old Russian letopises.[19]

Historian Igor Froyanov cites as an example a scene from the Novgorod first letopis and the Tale of Bygone Years, where the Volkhvs (Magi) talk about the creation of man. According to legend, under the year 1071, two Magi appeared in Novgorod and began to sow turmoil, claiming that soon the Dnieper will flow backwards and the land will move from place to place.[20]

Yan Vyshatich asked: "how do you think man came to be?" The Magi 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"

— Novgorod first letopis[21]

In most letopises there are digressions where it is said about the future, describe the strange phenomena that have occurred, and discuss their meaning from a mystical point of view. According to Nikolai Prokofiev, these digressions are "Signs" (the name of a literary genre that existed in ancient Russia), inserted by the author in the text of the chronicle or written by him personally.[22]

• D.S.Likhachov, N. Ponyrko (1986). Izbornik: The Stories Of Ancient Russia (in Russian). Moscow: Художественная литература. p. 410. ISBN 3-515-07560-7.
• Timothy Himon (1998). What was written in the Russian Letopises? № 1 (2) (in Russian). Moscow: «ФИПП». p. 8–16.
• Mikhail Tikhomirov (1978). Letopiss // Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia.
• Aleksey Shakhmatov (1938). Review of Russian letopising svods of the XIV-XVI centuries. Moscow: АН СССР.
• D.S.Likhachov (1947). Russian letopises and their cultural and historical significance (in Russian). Moscow: АН СССР. p. 410.