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58-541: The Oka river was the homeland of the Eastern Slavic Vyatichi tribe. By the 5th century the land around the Oka river was inhabited by different Slavic tribes. The Baltic tribe of Galindians also lived in the western part of the Oka basin. Turkic tribes also inhabited the Oka area. The Oka river was also inhabited by Vikings and other peoples from Scandinavia. Artifacts of Scandinavian origin were found along

116-567: A certain tribal leader Vyatko as the forefather of the tribe, who was a Lyakh brother of Radim from whom emerged the Radimichs. The Vyatichi were mainly engaged in farming and cattle-breeding . Between the 9th and 10th centuries, the Vyatichi paid tribute to the Khazars and later to Kievan princes . The tribe, however, was constantly trying to defend its own political independence until

174-520: A miscalculation found in the Short History of Nikephoros I of Constantinople . Moreover, a few sentences later, the text states: 'from the birth of Christ to Constantine, 318 years; and from Constantine to Michael, 542 years. Twenty-nine years passed between the first year of Michael's reign and the accession of Oleg, Prince of Rus'.' However, Constantine the Great acceded in 313, not 318, and

232-582: A more reliable English translation of the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle than how Cross translated the PVL. The 2001 German translation by Ludolf Müller has been called 'without doubt the best available rendering of the PVL into a modern language'. The 2015 Dutch translation by Hans Thuis (begun with Victoria van Aalst since 2000) was based on the main six textual witnesses, scholarly publications by Müller, Likhachev and Ostrowski, and by comparison to

290-634: A number of ancestors accounts and documents. In compiling the Chronicle , some of Nestor's original sources definitely included but were not limited to: There probably were no "earlier local chronicles". The hypothesis that a local chronicle was written before the late 980s at the St Elias church in Kiev "has to remain an unproven speculation". Linguistically speaking, the Primary Chronicle

348-512: A pioneering textological analysis of the narrative in 1908. Dmitry Likhachev and other Soviet scholars partly revisited his findings. Their versions attempted to reconstruct the pre-Nestorian chronicle, compiled at the court of Yaroslav the Wise in the mid-11th century. The early part of the PVL features many anecdotal stories, among them: The chronology offered by the Primary Chronicle ( PVL )

406-641: A political tool to justify rule. August Ludwig von Schlözer produced a German translation with commentary of the Povest' vremennykh let through 980 in five volumes ( Hecтopъ. Russische Annalen in ihrer Slavonischen Grund–Sprache . Göttingen, 1802–1809). In 1930, Harvard professor Samuel Hazzard Cross published an English translation of the Laurentian Codex's version of the PVL under the title The Russian Primary Chronicle. Laurentian Text. , which became very influential amongst American readers. Cross

464-466: Is believed to have been originally compiled in or near Kiev in the 1110s. Tradition ascribed its compilation to the monk Nestor beginning in the 12th century, but this is no longer believed to have been the case. The title of the work, Povest' vremennykh let ("Tale of Bygone Years") comes from the opening sentence of the Laurentian text : "These are the narratives of bygone years regarding

522-573: Is not meet for Christians to be given in marriage to pagans. If you are baptized, you shall have her to wife, inherit the kingdom of God, and be our companion in faith." The legend concludes with Vladimir's embrace of Christianity at the church of St. Basil in Korsun and his marriage to the Emperor's sister, Anna Porphyrogenita . For centuries after the Chronicle’s creation, the legend's factuality

580-483: Is preserved in the Hypatian codex (see § Surviving manuscripts ). The organization, style, and narrative flow of the Primary Chronicle shows signs of compilation, different historical elements are brought together into a single cohesive historical account. Studies by Russian philologist Aleksey Shakhmatov and his followers have demonstrated that the PVL is not a single literary work but an amalgamation of

638-593: Is sometimes at odds with that of other documents such as the Novgorod First Chronicle ( NPL ) and Byzantine literature . Sometimes the Primary Chronicle also contradicts itself, especially between narrative and chronological parts, which appear to have been written by two different authors. Several scholars including Aleksey Shakhmatov (1897), Mikhail Tikhomirov (1960), Ia. S. Lur’e (1970), and Constantin Zuckerman (1995) have concluded that

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696-551: Is thus an interpolation inserted into the text by an editor, perhaps guessing at the author's name. 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 persisted. The internal evidence of the PVL and the known works of Nestor often contradict one another, while the contents barely coincide in places where they seemingly should, so modern scholars have concluded that Nestor

754-465: Is vibrant with Christian themes and biblical allusions, which are often said to reflect the text’s monastic authorship. Aleksandr Koptev remarks that the Chronicle belongs to the genre of Christian literature . In the introduction, the chronicler explores the biblical origin of the Slavic people, and traces their heritage back to Noah. On numerous occasions throughout the text, the chronicler discusses

812-594: Is written in Old East Slavic , with strong Old Church Slavonic (early South Slavic) elements. Although these two languages were quite similar up to the early 12th century, with few phonological, morphological and lexical differences at that point, scholars have noted a general pattern of religious passages and moral teachings featuring strong Old Church Slavonic elements, whereas entries on events in specific years are dominated by Old East Slavic elements. Nevertheless, there are no clear linguistic boundaries between

870-601: The Chronicle just preceding the conversion of Volodimer , the Prince took possession of the Greek city of Korsun ( Chersonesus ) in the Crimean Peninsula , in an attempt to gain certain benefits from Emperor Basil . Following Vladimir's successful conquest of the city, he demanded that the Emperor's 'unwedded' sister be given up for marriage with him. Upon hearing the news from Korsun, emperor Basil responded that "It

928-450: The Chronicle . Unlike many other medieval chronicles written by European monks, the Tale of Bygone Years is unique as the only written testimony on the earliest history of East Slavic people. Its comprehensive account of the history of Rus' is unmatched in other sources, but important correctives are provided by the Novgorod First Chronicle . It is also valuable as a prime example of

986-599: The Crimean-Nogai Raids . It was south of the original line along the Oka. The river gave its name to the Upper Oka Principalities , situated upstream from Tarusa . In 1221 Grand Duke Yuri II of Vladimir founded Nizhny Novgorod , later to become one of largest Russian cities, to protect the Oka's confluence with the Volga. The Qasim Khanate , a Muslim polity, occupied the middle reaches of

1044-696: The Old East Slavonic literature . However, its reliability has been widely called into question and placed under careful examination by contemporary specialists in the field of the Old East Slavonic history. The first doubts about trustworthiness of the narratives were voiced by Nikolay Karamzin in his History of the Russian State (1816–26), which brought attention to Nestor's questionable chronology and style of prose. Building upon Karamzin's observations, further inquiries into

1102-559: The Rus Primary Chronicle an outstanding work of literature with an untrustworthy story and concluded that "there is absolutely no reason to continue basing our knowledge of the past on its content." Paul Bushkovitch (2012) from Yale University writes “the author was serving his rulers, identifying princes and people and leaving historians with a muddle virtually impossible to sort out.” He also mentions that there are discrepancies when overlapping Scandinavian history with

1160-576: The Rus Primary Chronicle was more concerned with exploring the religious significance of the events rather than conveying to the reader the information about how it actually happened. As a result, a sizable portion of the text was directly borrowed from earlier works that contained a religious undertone like some Byzantine sources, and most notably, the Bible . The protagonists are frequently identified with biblical personages and so are ascribed certain relevant qualities and deeds that did not necessarily match

1218-737: The ruins of Chersonesos , archaeologists unearthed the foundations of three churches and determined that the one containing the richest findings was allegedly used for the baptism of the Kievan Prince. The unearthed material evidence proved sufficient to pinpoint the real location of the legend's events with reasonable accuracy. In the early 1860s, the Eastern Orthodox Church began construction of The Saint Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesos , which has been destroyed on three separate occasions after first being erected and

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1276-463: The 9th- and 10th-century dates mentioned in the PVL were not added to the text until the 11th century, unless directly copied from the Chronicle of George the Monk . The historical period covered in the Tale of Bygone Years begins with biblical times , in the introductory portion of the text, and concludes with the year 1117 in the chronicle's third edition. Russian philologist Aleksey Shakhmatov

1334-851: The Earth: The Varangians , the Swedes , the Normans , the Rus , and others were named as descendants of Japheth. In the very beginning, humanity was united into a single nation, but after the fall of the Tower of Babel , the Slavic race was derived from the line of Japheth, “since they are the Noricians, who are identified with the Slavs.” According to the so-called "Korsun legend", presented in

1392-633: The Oka (around the city of Kasimov ) in the 15th and 16th centuries. Before the construction of the railways in the mid-19th century and the building of the Moscow Canal in the 1930s, the Oka, along with its tributary Moskva , served as an important transportation route connecting Moscow with the Volga. Due to the Oka's and Moskva's meandering courses, travel was not particularly fast: for example, it took Cornelis de Bruijn around 10 days to sail from Moscow down these two rivers to Nizhny Novgorod in 1703. Traveling upstream may have been even slower, as

1450-586: The Oka–Volga route. There is no consensus opinion where the name Oka originated from. It could, however, be cognate with Sanskrit ओघ ogha , meaning 'stream' or 'current'. From the Mongol conquest until about 1633, the Oka was the last line of defense against steppe raiders. Later Zasechnaya cherta , a chain of fortification lines, was created to protect Grand Duchy of Moscow and later the Tsardom of Russia from

1508-473: The Vyatichi people built kurgans on territory which belongs now to the modern Russian state. The 12th-century Primary Chronicle recorded that the Vyatichi, Radimichs and Severians "had the same customs", all lived violent lifestyles, "burned their dead and preserved the ashes in urns set upon posts beside the highways", and they did not enter monogamous marriages but practiced polygamy , specifically polygyny , instead. The Primary Chronicle names

1566-564: The Vyatichi. Their fortified settlements of the 11th century were located in the historical center of today's Moscow, namely the Borovitsky Hill , Kolomenskoye (the spot of the former Diakovskoye village), Kuntsevo (a district of Moscow) and others. One may also find traces of Vyatich settlements in Brateyevo, Zyuzino, Alyoshkino, Matveyevskoye and other localities of Moscow. Burial mounds with cremated bodies have been found along

1624-465: The Wise being more than just "a patron of Slavonic books" – are reconstructed and the logical incongruities of the text are faced. Polish historian Wladyslaw Duczko (2004) concluded that the compiler of the Primary Chronicle 'manipulated his sources in the usual way: information that was not compatible was left aside, while the elements that should be there but did not exist, were invented.' Russian historian and author Igor Danilevsky mentioned that

1682-748: The author as Nestor "the Chronicler". Based on the 1661 Paterik of the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves , late 17th-century writers began to assert that Nestor "the Chronicler" wrote many of the surviving Rus' chronicles , including the Primary Chronicle , the Kievan Chronicle and the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle , even though many of the events they described took place in the 12th and 13th century, long after Nestor's death c. 1114. Another reason given for belief in Nestorian authorship

1740-502: The boats had to be pulled by burlaks . The banks of the river are dotted with historical and cultural sites, including the medieval monasteries of Murom , the mosques and minarets of Kasimov , the fortified kremlins of Kolomna and Serpukhov , the memorial houses of Vasily Polenov and Sergey Yesenin , the excavated ruins of Old Ryazan and the Oka Shukhov Tower . The Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve lies along

1798-458: The early 12th century. By the 11th century, the Vyatichi had already populated the Moskva basin and the area of today's Moscow . In the 11th and 12th centuries, the tribe founded a number of cities due to developing handicrafts and increasing trade , including Moscow, Koltesk , Dedoslav , Nerinsk and others. In the second half of the 12th century the land of the Vyatichi was distributed among

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1856-513: The fact that "the ruling Princes of Kiev had their own propagandists who rewrote the annals to make political claims that best suited their own purposes." Shakhmatov further described the Tale of Bygone Years as a literary creation that fell under heavy influence of the Church and the State. Dmitry Likhachov famously wrote in his 1950 critique of the Rus Primary Chronicle , "No other country in

1914-433: The lands of the Slavs, why the dynasty was the only legitimate one and why all the princes should terminate their internal fights and rule in peace and brotherly love.' In the year 1116, Nestor's text was extensively edited by the hegumen Sylvester who appended his name at the end of the chronicle. As Vladimir Monomakh was the patron of the village of Vydubychi (now a neighborhood of Kyiv) where Sylvester's monastery

1972-575: The left bank of the river opposite the town of Pushchino and is known for its wisent breeding nursery. The Oka appears as the title and main theme in a popular, nostalgia-filled military field song written by Leon Pasternak of the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division , which was founded near the river in 1943. The song compares the river to the Vistula river in Poland . The unit fought all

2030-648: The lost 12th-century Kievan Chronicle and 13th-century Galician–Volhynian Chronicle . The language of this work is the East Slavic version of Church Slavonic language with many additional irregular east-slavisms (like other east-Slavic codices of the time). Whereas the Laurentian (Muscovite) text traces the Kievan legacy through to the Muscovite princes, the Hypatian text traces the Kievan legacy through

2088-646: The narrative of the Primary Chronicle . For example, “archeological evidence does not fit the legends of the Primary Chronicle” such as: “in Scandinavia itself, there were no sagas of Viking triumphs and wars in Russia to match those recounting the conquest of Iceland and the British Isles”. The credibility of the Primary Chronicle should be taken with a grain of salt for its undertone of being

2146-537: The origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kiev, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning". The work is considered a fundamental source for the earliest history of the East Slavs . The content of the chronicle is known today from the several surviving versions and codices, revised over the years, slightly varying from one another. Because of several identified chronological issues and numerous logical incongruities pointed out by historians over

2204-673: The original of the chronicle as well as the earliest known copies are lost, it is difficult to establish the original content of the chronicle. The six main manuscripts preserving the Primary Chronicle which scholars study for the purpose of textual criticism are: The Laurentian Codex was compiled in Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal by the Nizhegorodian monk Laurentius for the Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich in 1377. The original text he used

2262-439: The pagan Slavs in a condescending manner, saying “for they were but pagans, and therefore ignorant.” Later in the Chronicle , one of the most pivotal moments of the narrative is Vladimir the Great 's conversion to Orthodox Christianity , which ignited extensive Christianization of Kievan Rus' . The Primary Chronicle traces the history of the Slavic people all the way back to the times of Noah , whose three sons inherited

2320-399: The philology of the Rus Primary Chronicle shined more light on various weaknesses in the text's composition. According to Dmitry Likhachov (1950), the chronicle exhibits the presence of plentiful "fillers" that were added post factum and, in effect, "destroyed the narrative's logical progression." According to Aleksey Shakhmatov (1916), some of the incongruities are a direct result of

2378-555: The princes of Suzdal and Chernigov . The last direct reference to the Vyatichi was made in a chronicle under the year of 1197. Indirect references, however, may be traced to the early 14th century. Saint Kuksha of the Kiev Caves was a missionary who converted many Vyatichi to Christianity (in 1115), being beheaded by their chiefs August 27 ca. 1115. There are numerous archeological monuments in Moscow that tell historians about

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2436-474: The readers to remember him in their prayers. Alternately, the real author may have been some other unnamed monk from the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves mentioned in the title, and Sylvester completed his work, or was a very early editor or copyist of the PVL. Wladyslaw Duczko (2004) argued that one of the central aims of the Chronicle's narrative is to 'give an explanation how the Rurikids came to power in

2494-494: The reality. Ukrainian historian Oleksiy Tolochko in 2015 upheld the conclusion reached by his many predecessors that the Chronicle’s contents are more or less fictional. Tolochko argued that some of the tales, like the story of the Rurikid clan's entry into Kiev, were invented "so as to produce a meaningful reconstruction of past events and include these well-known names" in the author's "historical scenario." Tolochko called

2552-485: The resulting sum of 318+542 years leads to another erroneous accession of Michael III, this time in 860. This then leads to an internal contradiction, when "Michael the Emperor" is said to have mounted a campaign against the Bulgars in 853–858 (6361–6366), which could not have happened before he became Byzantine emperor in 860 according to the latter accession date. Chronology of major events: The Primary Chronicle

2610-601: The rulers of the Halych principality. The Hypatian codex was rediscovered in Kiev in the 1620s, and a copy was made for Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozhsky. A copy was found in Russia in the 18th century at the Ipatiev Monastery of Kostroma by the Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin. Numerous monographs and published versions of the chronicle have been made, the earliest known being in 1767. Aleksey Shakhmatov published

2668-655: The two, as profane (secular) passages sometimes feature Old Church Slavonicisms, while devotional passages sometimes feature Old East Slavicisms. In the view of many modern linguistics, the authors (and editors) of the Primary Chronicle probably considered the language they wrote in to be one single language. However, this literary language likely differed significantly from the Old East Slavic spoken lingua franca in contemporary Kiev, which appears to have been an amalgamation of several Old East Slavic dialects, with relatively few Old Church Slavonic influences. Because

2726-476: The upper reaches of the Oka and Don . Primary Chronicle The Primary Chronicle , shortened from the common Russian Primary Chronicle ( Church Slavonic : Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ , romanized:  Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyxŭ lětŭ , commonly transcribed Povest' vremennykh let ( PVL ), lit.   ' Tale of Bygone Years ' ), is a chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It

2784-542: The way to Berlin in subordination to the Red Army . The largest tributaries of the Oka are, from source to mouth: Vyatichi The Vyatichs or more properly Vyatichi or Viatichi ( Russian : вя́тичи ) were a tribe of Early East Slavs who inhabited regions around the Oka , Moskva and Don rivers. The Vyatichi had for a long time no princes, but the social structure was characterized by democracy and self-government . Like various other Slavic tribes,

2842-633: The world is cloaked in such contradictory myths about its history as Russia, and no other nation in the world interprets its history as variously as do the Russian people." The need to interpret the Chronicle , mentioned by Likhachov as essential to making sense of its narrative, stems from the facts that the text was initially compiled and edited by multiple authors with different agendas and that it had to be translated from Old East Slavic language, which proved to be an arduous task. Harvard linguist Horace G. Lunt (1988) found it important to "admit freely that we are speculating" when tales – such as Yaroslav

2900-473: The years, its reliability as a historical source has been strictly scrutinized by experts in the field. (See § Assessment and critique .) Tradition long regarded the first compilation as the work of a monk named Nestor ( c. 1056 – c. 1114), known to have written other works such as Life of the Venerable Theodosius . Writers of the time spoke of the Chronicle of Nestor , and of

2958-644: Was a codex (since lost) compiled in 1305 for the Grand Prince of Vladimir, Mikhail of Tver . The account continues until 1305, but the years 898–922, 1263–83 and 1288–94 are missing for reasons unknown. The manuscript was acquired by the famous Count Musin-Pushkin in 1792 and subsequently presented to the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg . The Hypatian Codex dates to the 15th century. It incorporates much information from

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3016-522: Was not the author. A more likely candidate as author is Sylvester of Kiev , hegumen ( abbot ) of the St. Michael's Monastery in Vydubychi (a village near Kyiv ), who may have compiled several sources in the year 1116. This attribution is based on the fact that the Laurentian text ends on page 286, lines 1 to 7, with the colophon "I wrote down ( napisakh ) this chronicle", after which he requests

3074-669: Was renovated each time thereafter. The cathedral last faced destruction during the October Revolution and was not restored until the fall of the Soviet Union . It has been argued that by honoring Vladimir the Great and his contribution to the Eastern Orthodoxy, the cathedral serves the purpose of validating Russia's historical ties with the Crimean Peninsula, the accounts of which are preserved by

3132-460: Was situated, the new edition glorified Vladimir and made him the central figure of later narrative. This second version of Nestor's work is preserved in the Laurentian codex (see § Surviving manuscripts ). A third edition followed two years later, centered on Vladimir's son and heir, Mstislav the Great . The author of this revision could have been Greek, for he corrected and updated much data on Byzantine affairs. This revision of Nestor's work

3190-452: Was subject to extensive debate. Many historians, antiquarians , and archaeologists had attempted to determine the actual location of Vladimir's conversion by synthesizing textual evidence of the Chronicle with material evidence from Crimea. Their efforts became known in the realms of historical discipline as the “archaeology of the Korsun legend.” This search culminated under Archbishop Innokentii's diocesan administration (1848–57), when in

3248-573: Was the first one to discover early on that the chronology of the Primary Chronicle opens with an error. The Laurentian text of the Chronicle says: "In the year 6360 (852), the fifteenth of the indiction, at the accession of the Emperor Michael, the land of Rus' was first named". It is thus claimed that the reign of Byzantine emperor Michael III began in this year, but Byzantine sources (such as 11th-century Greek historian John Skylitzes ' account ) point out that it began on 21 January 842. Shakhmatov (1897) demonstrated that an editor based himself on

3306-406: Was the word нестера in the opening lines of the Khlebnikov Codex (discovered in 1809 ), which some readers took to refer to Nestor "the Chronicler". But as Ostrowski (1981) pointed out: 'The word нестера was added in the Khlebnikov Codex , and thus cannot be used as evidence for the name of the compiler of the PVL. The word is not found in any of the other five main versions of the PVL, and

3364-438: Was working on a revised edition when he died; it was completed and published by Georgetown University professor Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor in 1953. By the early 21st century, Primary Chronicle had become the common shortened English name for the text shared by the surviving five main manuscripts of the PVL. Nevertheless, Cross' translation was often found inaccurate, with Waugh (1974) writing that Perfecky (1973) had produced

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