The Tale of Bygone Years is an ancient Russian chronicle created at the beginning of the 12th century. The story is an essay that tells about the events that took place and are taking place in Rus' at that time.

The Tale of Bygone Years was compiled in Kyiv, later rewritten several times, but was not greatly changed. The chronicle covers the period from biblical times up to 1137, dated articles begin from 852.

All dated articles are essays beginning with the words “In the summer such and such ...”, which means that entries were added to the annals every year and told about the events that took place. One article per year. This distinguishes the Tale of Bygone Years from all the chronicles that were written before. The text of the chronicle also contains legends, folklore stories, copies of documents (for example, teachings of Vladimir Monomakh) and extracts from other chronicles.

The story got its name thanks to its first phrase, which opens the narrative - "The Tale of Bygone Years ..."

The history of the creation of the Tale of Bygone Years

The author of the idea of ​​the Tale of Bygone Years is the monk Nestor, who lived and worked at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries in the Kiev Caves Monastery. Despite the fact that the author's name appears only in later copies of the chronicle, it is the monk Nestor who is considered the first chronicler in Rus', and The Tale of Bygone Years is considered the first Russian chronicle.

The oldest version of the annalistic code, which has come down to the present, is dated to the 14th century and is a copy made by the monk Lavrenty (Laurentian Chronicle). The original edition of the creator of the Tale of Bygone Years, Nestor, has been lost, today there are only revised versions from various scribes and later compilers.

Today, there are several theories regarding the history of the creation of The Tale of Bygone Years. According to one of them, the chronicle was written by Nestor in Kyiv in 1037. It was based on ancient legends, folk songs, documents, oral stories and documents preserved in monasteries. After writing, this first edition was rewritten and revised several times by various monks, including Nestor himself, who added elements of Christian ideology to it. According to other sources, the chronicle was written much later, in 1110.

Genre and features of the Tale of Bygone Years

The genre of the Tale of Bygone Years is defined by experts as historical, but scientists argue that the chronicle is neither a work of art nor historical in the full sense of the word.

A distinctive feature of the chronicle is that it does not interpret events, but only tells about them. The attitude of the author or scribe to everything that is told in the annals was determined only by the presence of God's Will, which determines everything. Causal relationships and interpretation from the point of view of other positions was uninteresting and was not included in the annals.

The Tale of Bygone Years had an open genre, that is, it could consist of completely different parts - from folk tales to notes about the weather.

The chronicle in ancient times also had a legal significance, as a set of documents and laws.

The original purpose of writing the Tale of Bygone Years is to study and explain the origin of the Russian people, the origin of princely power and a description of the spread of Christianity in Rus'.

The beginning of the Tale of Bygone Years is a story about the appearance of the Slavs. The Russians are presented by the chronicler as the descendants of Japheth, one of the sons of Noah. At the very beginning of the narrative, stories are given that tell about the life of the East Slavic tribes: about the princes, about the calling of Rurik, Truvor and Sineus to reign, and about the formation of the Rurik dynasty in Rus'.

The main part of the content of the chronicle is made up of descriptions of wars, legends about the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the exploits of Nikita Kozhemyaka and other heroes.

The final part consists of descriptions of battles and princely obituaries.

Thus, the basis of the Tale of Bygone Years is:

• Traditions about the resettlement of the Slavs, the calling of the Varangians and the formation of Rus';
• Description of the baptism of Rus';
• Description of the life of the Grand Dukes: Oleg, Vladimir, Olga and others;
• Lives of the Saints;
• Description of wars and military campaigns.

The significance of the Tale of Bygone Years can hardly be overestimated - it was it that became the first document in which the history of Kievan Rus was recorded from its very formation. The chronicle later served as the main source of knowledge for subsequent historical descriptions and research. In addition, due to the open genre, the Tale of Bygone Years has a high value as a cultural and literary monument.

The Tale of Bygone Years occupies a special place in the history of Russian public consciousness and the history of Russian literature. This is not only the oldest of the chronicles that have come down to us, telling about the emergence of the Russian state and the first centuries of its history, but at the same time the most important monument of historiography, which reflected the ideas of ancient Russian scribes of the early 12th century. about the place of the Russians among other Slavic peoples, ideas about the emergence of Rus' as a state and the origin of the ruling dynasty, in which, as they would say today, the main directions of foreign and domestic policy are illuminated with extraordinary clarity. The Tale of Bygone Years testifies to the highly developed national self-consciousness at that time: the Russian land conceives itself as a powerful state with its own independent policy, ready, if necessary, to enter into single combat even with the powerful Byzantine Empire, closely connected by political interests and kinship relations of rulers not only with neighboring countries - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, but also with Germany, and even with France, Denmark, Sweden. Rus' conceives itself as an Orthodox state, already from the first years of its Christian history, sanctified by special divine grace: it is rightfully proud of its patron saints - princes Boris and Gleb, its shrines - monasteries and temples, its spiritual mentors - theologians and preachers, the most famous of which , of course, was in the XI century. Metropolitan Hilarion. The guarantee of the integrity and military power of Rus' should have been the dominion in it of a single princely dynasty - the Rurikovichs. Therefore, reminders that all princes are blood brothers are a constant motif of The Tale of Bygone Years, because in practice Rus' is shaken by internecine strife and brother raises his hand to brother more than once. Another topic is persistently discussed by the chronicler: the Polovtsian danger. The Polovtsian khans, sometimes allies and matchmakers of the Russian princes, most often nevertheless acted as leaders of devastating raids, they besieged and burned cities, exterminated the inhabitants, and led away lines of prisoners. The Tale of Bygone Years introduces its readers to the very thick of these political, military, and ideological problems that were relevant for that time.

THE LEGEND ABOUT THE APOSTLE ANDREY

When the glade lived on their own on these mountains, there was a path from the Varangians to the Greeks and from the Greeks along the Dnieper, and in the upper reaches of the Dnieper it dragged to Lovot, and along Lovot you can enter Ilmen, a great lake; Volkhov flows out of the same lake and flows into the Great Lake Nevo, and the mouth of that lake flows into the Varangian Sea. And by that sea you can even reach Rome, and from Rome you can come along the same sea to Constantinople, and from Constantinople you can come to the Pontus Sea, into which the Dnieper River flows. The Dnieper flows out of the Okovsky forest and flows south, and the Dvina flows from the same forest and goes north, and flows into the Varangian Sea. From the same forest, the Volga flows to the east and flows through seventy mouths into the Khvalis Sea. Therefore, from Rus' you can sail along the Volga to the Bolgars and Khvalisy, and go east to the lot of Sim, and along the Dvina to the Varangians, and from the Varangians to Rome, from Rome to the Khamov tribe. And the Dnieper flows into the Pontic Sea by three mouths; this sea is called Russian, - St. Andrew, Peter's brother, taught him along the shores.

As they say, when Andrei taught in Sinop and arrived in Korsun, he learned that the mouth of the Dnieper was not far from Korsun, and he wanted to go to Rome, and sailed to the mouth of the Dnieper, and from there he went up the Dnieper. And it so happened that he came and stood under the mountains on the shore. And in the morning, getting up, he said to the disciples who were with him: “Do you see these mountains? So the grace of God will shine on these mountains, there will be a great city, and God will build many churches. And having ascended these mountains, he blessed them and put up a cross, and prayed to God, and descended from this mountain, where Kyiv would later be, and went up the Dnieper. And he came to the Slavs, where Novgorod now stands, and saw the people living there - what is their custom and how they wash and whip, and marveled at them. And he went to the Varangians, and came to Rome, and told about how many he taught and whom he saw, and told them: “I saw a miracle in the Slavic land when I came here. I saw wooden bathhouses, and they would heat them up strongly, and they would undress and be naked, and douse themselves with soap, and take brooms, and start whipping, and they would finish themselves off so much that they would barely get out, barely alive, and douse themselves with icy water, and only in this way would they come to life. And they do this constantly, not tormented by anyone, but they torment themselves, and then they do not wash themselves, but<...>torment." Those, hearing, were amazed; Andrew, having been in Rome, came to Sinop.

"TALE OF TIME YEARS" AND ITS EDITIONS

In 1110-1113, the first edition (version) of the Tale of Bygone Years was completed - a lengthy chronicle that absorbed numerous information on the history of Rus': about the Russian wars with the Byzantine Empire, about the call to Rus' for the reign of the Scandinavians Rurik, Truvor and Sineus, about the history of the Kievan- Caves monastery, about princely crimes. The probable author of this chronicle is the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor. This edition has not survived in its original form.

The first edition of the Tale of Bygone Years reflected the political interests of the then Kyiv prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich. In 1113, Svyatopolk died, and Prince Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh ascended the throne of Kiev. In 1116, the monk Sylvester (in the Promonomach spirit) and in 1117-1118. unknown scribe from the entourage of Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich (son of Vladimir Monomakh), the text of the Tale of Bygone Years was revised. This is how the second and third editions of the Tale of Bygone Years arose; the oldest list of the second edition has come down to us as part of the Laurentian, and the earliest list of the third - as part of the Ipatiev Chronicle.

EDITING THE "TALE OF TIME YEARS"

Having become the prince of Kyiv, Vladimir Monomakh retained his "fatherland" - the principality of Pereyaslavl, as well as Suzdal and Rostov. He recognized the power of Vladimir and Veliky Novgorod, obeying his orders and accepting princes from him. In 1118, Vladimir demanded to himself "all the boyars of Novgorod" to bring them to the oath. He sent some of them back to Novgorod, and “leave others with you.” Under Vladimir, the former military power of the ancient Russian state, weakened by the previous feudal strife, was restored. The Polovtsy suffered a crushing blow, and they did not dare to attack the Russian land ...

One of the measures during the reign of Vladimir Monomakh in Kyiv in 1113 was the correction of Nestor's "Tale of Bygone Years" in order to more correctly cover the reign of Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, hated by the Kyiv working people. Monomakh entrusted this matter to the abbot of the Vydubetsky monastery, Sylvester. The Vydubetsky Monastery was founded by the father of Vladimir Monomakh, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich, and, naturally, he took the side of this prince, and after his death - the side of his son. Sylvester conscientiously fulfilled the task entrusted to him. He rewrote The Tale of Bygone Years and supplemented it with several inserts about Svyatopolk's negative actions. So, Sylvester introduced into the "Tale of Bygone Years" under the year 1097 the story of the priest Vasily about the blinding of Vasilko Rostislavich. Then, in a new way, he outlined the history of the campaign of the Russian princes against the Polovtsians in 1103. Although this campaign was led by Svyatopolk, as the senior prince of Kiev, Sylvester's pen Svyatopolk was relegated to the background, and Vladimir Monomakh, who really participated in this campaign, but did not lead it, was put in the first place.

The fact that this version could not belong to Nestor, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, is clear from a comparison with it of a story about the same campaign that is available in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon, which probably follows the tradition from Nestor himself. In the story “Paterika”, Vladimir Monomakh is not even mentioned, and the victory over the Polovtsy is attributed to one Svyatopolk, who received a blessing before the campaign from the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery.

While editing Nestor's The Tale of Bygone Years, Sylvester did not continue it for a single year, but issued an indication of the authorship of the Kiev-Pechersk monk. Under the same year 1110, Sylvester made the following addition: “Hegumen Sylvester of St. Michael wrote these books, chronicler, hoping from God to receive mercy under Prince Volodimer, who ruled him Kiev, and at that time I was abbess at St. Michael, in the summer of 6624 (1116) indicta 9. And if you read these books, then be in prayers. Since Sylvester's edition received official recognition, it formed the basis of all further Russian chronicle writing and has come down to us in many later chronicle lists. Nestor's text of The Tale of Bygone Years, which remained the property of only the Kiev-Pechersk tradition, has not reached us, although some traces of differences between this text and the Sylvester edition have been preserved, as already mentioned, in separate stories of the later Kiev-Pechersk Patericon. In this "Paterik" there is also an indication of Nestor, who wrote the Russian "chronicler".

In 1118, the Sylvestrian edition of The Tale of Bygone Years was continued, apparently in connection with the inclusion of the well-known Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh written in that year. According to the convincing assumption of M. Priselkov, the addition was made by the son of Vladimir Monomakh Mstislav, who was then in Novgorod. Of great interest among these additions are two stories about the northern countries, heard by the author in 1114, when he was present at the laying of a stone wall in Ladoga. The Ladoga posadnik Pavel told him about the northern countries beyond Yugra and Samoyed. Another story about these countries, heard by the author from the Novgorodian Gyuryata Rogovich, is placed under the year 1096, indicating that he was heard "for the past 4 years." Since both stories are closely related in content, the words “previously 4 years” should be attributed to the time of writing this insert in 1118, when the author heard the first story as well .. Since the original manuscript of Mstislav has not come down to us, but only her later lists, then the only explanation for the resulting confusion may be a random rearrangement of the original sheets from which these lists were then made. Such an assumption is all the more admissible because in the available lists under the year 1096 there is also the "Instruction of Vladimir Monomakh", written no earlier than 1117.

Genre originality of "The Tale of Bygone Years"

Unlike folklore, which is not characterized by a mixture of different genres within the framework of one work, The Tale of Bygone Years was set of primary genre formations. The ensemble of the chronicle included legends and traditions, legends and military stories, teachings and parables, signs and wonders.

The simplest and oldest form of chronicle narration was the weather record, which recorded single facts of history. Its main features are documentary accuracy, extreme conciseness, lack of emotional coloring and author's commentary. The message was introduced into the chronicle narrative using traditional formulas: " In summer6596 . Sacred was the church of St. Michael of Vsevolozh Monastery... Same summer go Svyatopolk from Novgorod to Turov to reign. It's summer Died Nikon, hegumen of the Caves. In the same summer taking the Bulgarians Murom".

Ns claimed to be "literary", pursuing an informative goal, and a chronicle story, which, unlike the weather record, had the character of an extended documentary message: "In the summer of 6534. Yaroslav bought a lot of howling and came to Kiev, and make peace with his brother Mstislav near Gorodets. And the Russian land was also divided along the Dnieper: Yaroslav added to this country, and Mstislav to him. Written in the fresh wake of the event, the chronicle message retained the lively intonations of the oral story and reflected the author's assessment of what happened.

The chronicle tales in The Tale of Bygone Years are a literary adaptation of an oral source, to which the chronicler turned if there was no more reliable material at hand. They restore the pre-literate period of Russian history on the basis of folk legends, toponymic legends or heroic epic retinues. These stories of the chronicle are characterized by a plot and an attempt by the author to create the illusion of authenticity by enclosing the legendary basis in a "historical frame".

For example, in the chronicle tale about the death of Oleg from his horse, dates, both real and symbolic, serve as a means of documenting the narrative. The chronicler, including the story of Oleg's death in the article of iodine 912, reports that he "stayed in summer" in the war with the Greeks, and "the life of all his reign was 33". The history of the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Greek land and Russia, extracts from the "Chronicle" of Georgy Amartol about cases when the predictions of sorcerers came true - the entire historical context was intended to testify to the reliability of the description of the death of the great commander from a snake bite (according to other chronicle versions, he died, " going beyond the sea", and was buried in Ladoga). In the legend, the author's assessment of what is depicted is manifested, no matter how dispassionate the narration may seem. The attitude of the chronicler to the triumphant commander, whose shield flaunted on the gates of the conquered Constantinople, is ambivalent. On the one hand, he captured the people's attitude towards Oleg through the nickname "Prophetic", reflected the "great cry" about his death and the memory of the burial place of the prince on Mount Shchekovitsa, which survived the centuries. On the other hand, respect for Oleg’s military victories fades in the mind of the chronicler before the unbelief of a man who imagines himself to be invincible enemies and fate itself, who laughed at the prediction of the Magi and reproached them: I'm alive." The horse, according to the ancient beliefs of the Slavs, is a sacred animal, a helper and friend of man, a talisman. Stepping on the skull of his beloved horse with his foot, Oleg doomed himself to an "evil" death, death is a punishment. The reader is warned about the inevitability of a tragic denouement by the opening lines of the story. The chronicler connects the action with the arrival of autumn, which sets the theme of death, and with the period when Oleg lives, "having peace to all countries", i.e. when a hundred talent commander is unclaimed.

Proximity to hagiographic literature discover the stories of the "Tale of Bygone Years" about two Varangian martyrs, about the founding of the Kisvo-Pechersky monastery and its ascetics, about the transfer of the relics of Saints Boris and Gleb, about the repose of Theodosius of the Caves. Glorifying the spiritual feat of the first Saints of the Caves, who “like shone in the Russian land to this day,” the chronicler cannot hide the shady sides of monastic life. From the annalistic "word" about Matthew the Perspicacious, it is known that some of the brethren during the church service "having committed any guilt, leaving the church, and going to the cell and saving, and not returning to the church until the funeral service." Others, like Mikhail Tolbekovich, fled the monastery, unable to endure the harsh monastic life. The ancient Russian writer explained these cases of deviation from the norms of Christian piety by the eternal intrigues of the devil, who then takes on the appearance of a "Polyakh" (Pole, Catholic) and, invisibly to everyone except the saint, walks around the church, scattering "moldings" - flowers that make the monks sleep during worship, then appears in the monastery in the form of a demon sitting on a pig in order to "rapture" those who yearn to return to the "world".

with the genre grave words of praise linked in the annals are obituary articles that contain verbal portraits of deceased historical figures. Such is the chronicle characterization of the Tmutarakan prince Rostislav, who was poisoned during a feast by a Byzantine warrior: "Because Rostislav is a good husband to the army, but of old age and a red face, merciful to the poor." The chronicle article of iodine 1089 contains a panegyric to Metropolitan John, who was "cunning to books and learned, merciful to the poor and widows, caressing everyone, rich and poor, humble in mind and meek, and silent, speaking with holy books, comforting the sad , and this was not before in Rus', neither will it be like that. Creating a portrait of the hero, the chronicler observed the principle of the priority of spiritual beauty over external beauty, focusing on the moral qualities of a person.

The landscape sketches found in The Tale of Bygone Years are symbolic. Unusual natural phenomena are interpreted by the chronicler as signs- warnings from above about future disasters or glory. The ancient writer explained the fire in Novgorod not by the internecine struggle of the princes, but by the fact that before that "Ids Volkhovo went back 5 days. This is a bad sign: on the 4th summer, the whole city will burn." The sign of 1113, when "there was little left of the sun, like a month down by its horns," also foreshadowed trouble - the death of Prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and the uprising in Kyiv.

In the depths of The Tale of Bygone Years, a military tale begins to take shape. Elements of this genre formation are already present in the story of Yaroslav's revenge on Svyatopolk the Accursed. The chronicler describes the gathering of troops and the march, preparations for the battle of the opponents separated by the Dnieper, the climax - the "evil slash" - and the flight of Svyatopolk. Stylistic formulas typical of a military story permeate the chronicle story about the battle of Yaroslav with Mstislav in 1024: “Mstislav, in the evening, serve the squad, and put the north [northerners] in front of the Varangian, and he himself with his squad on krill.<...>And Mstislav said to his retinue: "Let's go to him." And Mstislav and Yaroslav went against ... And the battle was strong, as if shining brightly and shining weapons, and the thunderstorm was great and the battle was strong and terrible.

The mosaic structure of the chronicle led to the fact that messages of very different content were placed in it under one year. For example, in an chronicle article of 1103, it was told about the princely congress in Dolobsk, about the invasion of locusts, about the foundation of the city of Yuryev by Prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, about the battle of the Russian army with the Mordovians. What turns such a "mosaic" of historical information into a coherent and harmonious literary whole?

First of all, this unity of thematic range: before us are separate milestones in the history of Rus'. In addition, the presentation of the material regulates weather principle: the strict attachment of each fact to a certain year connects the links into a single chain. It should be noted that the compiler of the "Tale" used the medieval system of chronology, in which the "creation of the world" was the starting point (to transfer to the modern system, where the calculation is from the Nativity of Christ, it is necessary to subtract 5508 from the chronicle date). The desire of the chronicler to "put the numbers in a row", i.e. the material selected by him to be presented in a strict temporal sequence, according to scientists, is associated with such characteristic features of the social life of the Middle Ages as "decency" and "orderliness". The ancients saw beauty and harmony in the observance of order, while the violation of the usual rhythm in the life of nature, society, and literature was perceived by them as a manifestation of the ugly and immoral. The chronological connection of events in the annals was supported by the genealogical one - the idea of ​​the succession of the power of the Rurikovichs. The chronicler is always attentive to what kind of "father and grandfather" glory the ruler of Rus' inherits, whether he is a descendant of Oleg Gorislavich or belongs to the family of Vladimir Monomakh.

The weather principle of the presentation of events had certain costs. Combining heterogeneous news to one year, the chronicler was forced to break the unity of the narrative series in the story of an event that lasted several years: under one year there was a story about the preparations of the Russian army for a campaign, under another a description of the decisive battle was given, under the third was placed the text of the peace treaty. Fragmentation in the presentation of historical events hindered the development of Russian fiction, an entertaining and action-packed story. The structure of The Tale of Bygone Years is characterized by a confrontation between two trends: the desire for isolation, independence of each chronicle story, on the one hand, and the ability to “open” the narrative, stringing new works on a historical theme on a single chronological rod, on the other.

The Tale of Bygone Years is a collection in the broadest sense of the word; a monument that combines works of different times, different authors, having different sources and political orientation, differing in genre and style. It cements the monumental, but harmonious building of the chronicle, despite the heterogeneity of the events described in it, commonality of historical subjects products-terms and chronological principle of material organization in the vault. The main ideas of the chronicle are the idea of ​​the independence of Rus', the assertion of the superiority of the Christian faith over paganism, the inseparability of Russian history from the general historical process, a call for unity of action, for the catholicity of the spirit of the Russian people.

The meaning of "The Tale of Bygone Years" in the history of Russian chronicle writing

The following generations of Russian chroniclers began the presentation of Russian history with The Tale of Bygone Years. Already in the XII century. the geography of chronicle writing is expanding, differences are emerging between specific chronicle collections. For example, scholars consider the anti-princely orientation as distinctive features of the Novgorod chronicle, since after the political upheaval of 1136 Novgorod turned into a boyar republic, as well as the rarity and stinginess of all-Russian messages. Unlike the Vladimir-Suzdal chroniclers, the Novgorodians avoided church rhetoric; the style of their weather articles is concise and businesslike. If they depicted a natural disaster, they provided data on the strength of the hurricane or flood and the damage caused by them. The Vladimir Chronicle, on the other hand, sought to substantiate the claims of its principality to ecclesiastical and political hegemony, and therefore was attentive to events of both local and national scale, while the South Russian chroniclers were absorbed in describing the turbulent history of their destinies. The main form of the South Russian chronicles of the XII century. was a weather record; the plot of the story is preserved only by some stories about boyar and princely crimes (about the murder of Andrei Bogolyubsky, 1175) and military stories (about the campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsians, 1185).

"The Tale of Bygone Years" had a decisive influence on the formation of regional and all-Russian chronicle codes, which included it in their composition. The oldest copies of the Tale are found in the Lavrentiev (XIV century), Ipatiev and Radzivilovskaya (XV century) chronicles. "The Tale of Bygone Years" served as a source of poetic plots and images for many writers of the New Age: it is enough to recall the historical tragedies of A. P. Sumarokov and Ya. B. Knyazhnin, "Duma" by K. F. Ryleev. The chronicle tales, which A. S. Pushkin appreciated for the poetry of touching innocence, inspired him to create the historical ballad "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg", the image of Pimen in the tragedy "Boris Godunov".

All historians of Russia and Ukraine always recall The Tale of Bygone Years with particular trepidation. This is a kind of collection about the life and exploits of the Russian princes, about the life of Kievan Rus ... "The Tale of Bygone Years" was created on the basis of the Kiev Caves and the information of the annals (in 1097 they were combined into the Kiev Caves information). It was on the basis of these annals that this chronicle known throughout the world appeared.

During 1113-1114, a famous work was created on the basis of all previous codes. He himself writes that he wants to tell about the princes famous throughout Europe and their exploits. Taking the work of his predecessors as a basis, Nestor added from himself an outline of the resettlement of peoples after the flood; gave an outline of the Proto-Slavic history (bringing the Slavs out of the Danube), Slavic settlement and the geography of Eastern Europe itself.
He dwelled in particular detail on the ancient history of Kyiv, because he wanted to perpetuate his native in history. The historical part of this chronicle begins in 852 and ends in 1110. Nestor calls the Russians the Varangian (Scandinavian) tribe, which was brought by the famous Rurik. According to Nestor, Rurik came to the call of the Slavs themselves and became the ancestor of the Russian princely dynasty. The Tale of Bygone Years ends in 1112.

Nestor was well acquainted with Greek historiography and most likely had access to the prince's archive, from which he quotes the text of treaties with the Greeks. Nestor's work is marked by great literary talent and is imbued with deep patriotism, pride in which was famous all over the world.

Subsequently, in 1116, the second edition of Nestor's Tale of Bygone Years appeared, created by Sylvester, hegumen of the Mikhailovsky Monastery in Kyiv. It is worth saying that this chronicle is the main source for studying the political, economic, cultural and partially social history of Kievan Rus, as well as the history of Russian lands during the period of feudal fragmentation.

Using the official annual records of events, foreign sources, mainly Byzantine, folk legends and traditions, the compilers of the chronicles told about events related to the life of secular and spiritual feudal lords. Chroniclers sought to show the history of Rus' in connection with the history of neighboring tribes and peoples of non-Slavic origin.

Also, the chronicles were largely reflected in the fact that they were written, the causes of the events were explained by the intervention of divine forces. Due to the fact that chronicle lists are the construction of a number of chronicles, their testimony is often contradictory.