… and may the Lord reward everyone according to his righteousness and according to his truth …
First Kings 26:23
Historical science versus pseudoscience. This is the last material on the topic of our chronicles. Surely, under this material, as in the comments to the previous article, there will again appear statements in the spirit, they say, "The Germans wrote them for us." I just want to exclaim: how long! But I decided to do it differently. Better. Since there is absolutely nothing in the texts of the chronicles that would hurt our honor and dignity, I decided to rewrite one of the chronicles myself - in the same language, in the same words. This is an example of what could be done with texts if you wanted to screw us up. True, I have never seen such texts.
They will say to me: what about the notorious "Vocation …" However, if you read it carefully, it becomes clear: there is nothing reprehensible there either. In Russia there is an institute of reign, and hence an early feudal state. There are cities … And so a foreigner is invited to the place of the prince, and … that's all. And from this someone made a whole theory? That is, a circumstance that is just right not to mention, it is so insignificant, for someone it serves as a source of "theory". It’s funny if it weren’t so sad. But, however, we will now talk about something else. About how the text of the story about the same Battle on the Ice could have been changed if the "evil-minded German academics" wanted to do this.
The most detailed and detailed story about the Battle of the Ice is in the Novgorod 1st Chronicle of the older edition - and we will rewrite it …
It turned out well, didn't it ?! That's how the "Germans" should write. And they?..
And now we continue the story about what our most famous chronicle works are. The most important thing is their content, which is different in each chronicle. Which, again, could not be reproduced by any "forgers". Even our people are able to get confused in the peculiarities of language and content, styles and manner of presentation, and for foreigners all these subtleties and nuances are a continuous filkin literacy. Moreover, even for a lot of money, they would not have been able to find people in Russia who would have done this work with a soul. No, they would have taken money from foreigners, of course, but they would have done the job somehow. We often do it for ourselves somehow, and even try for infidels, but it will do for them anyway - and this is the opinion of the people in relation to foreigners we have always had! In addition, there are just a lot of subtleties in the content of the chronicles.
For example, here is how things were in Novgorod, where the boyar party won. We read the entry of the Novgorod First Chronicle about the expulsion of Vsevolod Mstislavich in 1136 - and what do we see? A real indictment against this prince. But this is just one article from the whole collection. Because after 1136, the entire chronicle was revised. Before that, it was conducted under the auspices of Vsevolod and his father Mstislav the Great. Even its very name, "Russian time", was remade into "Sophia time" to emphasize that this chronicle is being kept at the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod. Anything to emphasize the independence of Novgorod relative to Kiev, and the fact that he can elect princes and drive them out of his own free will. That is, one article was simply overlooked, right? It turns out so!
In each chronicle, the political idea was often expressed in a very specific way. So, in the vault of 1200, compiled after the completion of the construction of the stone wall to protect the Vydubitsky monastery from erosion of its foundation by the Dnieper waters, Abbot Moses commendably spoke out to the Kiev prince Rurik Rostislavich, who gave money for it. According to the customs of that time, the abbot addresses the prince in him: "Accept our scripture as a gift of words to praise the virtue of your reign." And his "autocratic power" shines "more (more) than the stars of heaven", and "not only is it known in the Russian ends, but also to those in the sea far away, for the glory of Christ-loving deeds has spread throughout the earth," and "kyans" (that is Kievites), "now stand on the wall" and "joy enters their souls." That is, when necessary, they wrote anything to the princes, including open flattery. But how can this "fake" in relation to the construction of this wall? To rewrite the chronicle and indicate that he did not build it? So here she is … And if he built, then well done in any case!
Interestingly, the annals were an official document. When the Novgorodians, for example, entered into a "row", that is, the most common agreement with the new prince, they always reminded him of the "Yaroslavl letters" and the rights that belonged to them and were recorded in the Novgorod chronicles. The Russian princes took the chronicles with them to the Horde and there, in accordance with them, proved which of them was entitled to. So, Prince Yuri, the son of Dmitry Donskoy, who reigned in Zvenigorod, proved his right to the Moscow reign "by chroniclers and old lists, and by the spiritual (testament) of his father." Well, people who could “speak the chronicle”, that is, they knew the content of the chronicles very well, were in high esteem.
Moreover, it is very important that the chronicles unwittingly give us valuable information about everyday life, and sometimes help us to understand the spiritual world of people at such a distance from us. For example, it is believed that the role of women at that time was diminished. But here is the letter of the Volyn prince Vladimir Vasilkovich, who was the nephew of Prince Daniil Galitsky. His will. He was terminally ill, understood that his end was not far off, and wrote a will concerning his wife and stepdaughter. Note that in Russia there was such a custom: after the death of her husband, the princess usually tonsured into a nun. But what do we read in Prince Vladimir's letter?
The letter first lists the cities and villages that he gave to the princess “in his belly,” that is, after death. And at the very end he writes: “If he wants to go to the blue women, let him go, if he does not want to go, but as she likes. I will not rise up to see what someone will fix (do) on my stomach. " Although Vladimir appointed his stepdaughter a guardian, however, he ordered: "not to give her in marriage involuntarily to anyone." So much for the tradition, here for you disenfranchised women in Russia.
There was one more feature of the chronicles, which at the same time makes them difficult to understand and to fake. The fact is that the chroniclers used to insert excerpts from other people's works, and of a variety of genres, into their vaults. These are teachings, sermons, lives of saints, and historical stories. Those who liked what they liked put in, sometimes having some kind of intention, or even simply “showing their education”, wanting to. That is why the chronicles are downright a huge and diverse encyclopedia of ancient Russian life. But you need to take it to study skillfully. “If you want to find out everything, read the chronicler of the old Rostov one,” wrote the Suzdal Bishop Simon at the beginning of the 13th century in his essay “Kiev-Pechersk Patericon”.
It happens (although this is uncharacteristic) that the chroniclers report in the text the details of their personal life: "That summer they made me a priest." Such a clarifying record about himself was made by the priest of one of the Novgorod churches, Herman Voyataya (Voyata - short for the pagan name Voeslav).
There are also quite common expressions in the chronicle texts, and often about princes. "And he lied," - it is written about the prince in one Pskov chronicle.
And, of course, they all the time contain samples of oral folk art. When, for example, a Novgorodian chronicler tells how one of the mayor was removed from office, he writes: "Whoever digs a hole under another will fall into it himself." "Will fall in", not "fall down". That's what they said then.
Writing the texts of the chronicles was hard work, and rewriting them was even more difficult. And then the scribes-monks made notes in the margins (!) In which they complained about fate: "Oh, oh, my head hurts, I can't write." Or: "A dashing pen, involuntarily write to them." We don't need to talk about a lot of mistakes made through inattention!
A very long and very unusual postscript was made by the monk Lavrenty, at the end of his work:
“The merchant rejoices when he has made the tribute, and the helmsman is the police officer, and the wanderer has come to his fatherland; the book writer rejoices in the same way, having reached the end of books. Likewise, I am the thin unworthy and sinful servant of God Lavrenty me … And now, gentlemen, fathers and brothers, if he has described or rewrote or did not finish writing where, honor (read), correcting God doing (for God's sake), and not swear, since early (since) the books are dilapidated, and the mind is young, has not reached."
In order for the young mind to "reach" everything that has to be reached, it is necessary to begin with reading the complete collection of Russian chronicles published long ago in our country. Their texts are available in both print and digital versions. Their study requires a lot of work, but the result will not keep you waiting. Fate itself helps those who are daring!
