The Tale of Bygone Years, like most chronicles, is a collection, a work based on previous chronicle writings, which included fragments from various sources, literary, journalistic, folklore, etc. The Tale of Bygone Years, as a monument historiography, is permeated with a single patriotic idea: the chroniclers strive to present their people as equal among other Christian peoples, proudly recall the glorious past of their country, the valor of the pagan princes, the piety and wisdom of the Christian princes. The chroniclers speak on behalf of the whole of Russia, rising above petty feudal disputes, resolutely condemning the strife and "which", describing with pain and anxiety the disasters brought by the raids of nomads. In a word, "The Tale of Bygone Years" is not just a description of the first centuries of the existence of Russia, it is a story about great beginnings: the beginning of Russian statehood, the beginning of Russian culture, about the beginnings, which, according to the chroniclers, promise in the future power and glory of their homeland.

But "The Tale of Bygone Years" is not only a monument of historiography, it is also outstanding monument literature. Compositional originality"The Tale of Bygone Years" is manifested in the combination of many genres in this work. In the annalistic text one can distinguish, as it were, two types of narration, which are essentially different from each other. One type is weather records, i.e. brief information about the events that have taken place. So, article 1020 is one message: "Born a son to Yaroslav, and named his name Volodimer." It's a fix historical fact, no more. Sometimes a chronicle article includes a number of such fixations, a list various facts, sometimes they even report in sufficient detail about an event that is complex in its structure: for example, it is reported who took part in any military action, where the troops gathered, where they moved, how this or that battle ended, what messages were exchanged between enemy princes or princes -allies. There are especially many such detailed (sometimes multi-page) weather records in Kievskaya Chronicle XII in. But the point is not in the brevity or detail of the narrative, but in its very principle: whether the chronicler informs about the events that have taken place or talks about them, creating a plot narrative. The Tale of Bygone Years is characterized by the presence of just such plot stories.

"The Tale of Bygone Years" is complex in its composition and the diversity of its components, both in origin and in genre affiliation. The "Tale", in addition to brief weather records, includes the texts of documents, and retellings of folklore legends, and plot stories, and excerpts from monuments of translated literature. We will meet in it a theological treatise - "the philosopher's speech", and a hagiographical story about Boris and Gleb, and paterinic legends about the Kiev Caves monks, and a church eulogy of Theodosius of the Caves, and a laid-back story about a Novgorodian who went to tell fortunes to a magician .

The nature of the chronicle genre is very complex; the chronicle is one of the "unifying genres", subordinating the genres of its components - a historical story, life, teaching, words of praise and so on. Nevertheless, the chronicle remains an integral work, which can be studied both as a monument of one genre, as a literary monument.

From the text of The Tale of Bygone Years, we see how difficult it was for the chroniclers to create a coherent historiographic concept that would combine information about ancient history East Slavic tribes and legends about the first Kyiv princes with the fate of the Rurik dynasty. Far-fetched is the version according to which Igor is the ancestor of the entrenched from the tenth century. dynasty of Kievan princes - declared the son of Rurik. With difficulty, the chronicler explains the origin and meaning of the ethnonym "Rus", stubbornly trying to connect it all with the same Varangian concept. And, nevertheless, the story created by Nestor of calling the Varangians and strengthening their dynasty in Kyiv looks so convincing that all the "Normanists" drew their arguments from it up to the present day.

Tale of Bygone Years - literary monument Ancient Russia

Department of Literature

COURSE WORK

in the discipline "History of Russian literature"

"The Tale of Bygone Years" - a literary monument of Ancient Russia

Completed by a student

____________________________

St. Petersburg

ABOUT H A V L E N I E:

Introduction

1. The history of the emergence of the Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years"

2. "The Tale of Bygone Years" as a historical source and literary monument

3. Stylistic originality of The Tale of Bygone Years

4. The significance of The Tale of Bygone Years in the literary aspect

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Relevance of the work. The main source of our knowledge about ancient Russia is medieval chronicles. Currently, more than two hundred lists of chronicles are known. Most of them are published (in full or in the form of discrepancies to other lists) in the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles. One of the most ancient and famous - "The Tale of Bygone Years" - a chronicle that got its name from the first words "this is the story of bygone years ..." and tells about the events of Russian history in the middle of the 9th - beginning of the 12th centuries. According to the outstanding Russian scientist D.S. Likhachev, The Tale of Bygone Years, with its world-historical introduction, with its broad desire to justify the place of the Russian people among other peoples of the world, with its special attention to the heroic, to military exploits, to the glory of the Russian weapons introduces us into the atmosphere of an epic folk-song attitude to Russian history. Before us in The Tale of Bygone Years is a largely epic, poetic attitude to native history. That is why The Tale of Bygone Years is not only a work of Russian historical thought, but also of Russian historical poetry. Poetry and history are inextricably united in it. Before us is a work of literature and a monument of historical thought.

Tradition names Nestor, a monk of the Caves Monastery in Kyiv, as the author of the Tale. For a long time it was believed that Nestor was the founder of Russian chronicle writing, but later it was found that even before him there were chronicle codes. "Ancient", "Nikon's Vault", "Initial Vault".

The study of the "Tale" is still ongoing, however, despite a significant amount of literature devoted to this literary monument, researchers disagree on many aspects of the appearance and interpretation of the chronicle. V.N. Tatishchev was the first in Russia to study the chronicles. Having decided to create his own grandiose "History of Russia", he turned to all the chronicles known in his time, found many new monuments. After V.N. Tatishchev, A. Shletser studied The Tale of Bygone Years. If V.N. Tatishchev worked, as it were, in breadth, combining additional information from many lists in one text, and followed in the footsteps of an ancient chronicler - archer, then Schlozer worked in depth, revealing a lot of slips, errors, and inaccuracies in the text itself. Both research approaches, with all their external differences, had similarities in one thing: the idea of ​​a non-original form, in which the Tale of Bygone Years has come down to us, was fixed in science. This is the great merit of both remarkable historians. The next major step was taken by the famous archeographer P.M. Stroev. Both V.N. Tatishchev and A. Shletser imagined The Tale of Bygone Years as the creation of one chronicler, in this case Nestor. P.M. Stroev expressed a completely new view of the chronicle as a set of several earlier chronicles and began to consider all the chronicles that have come down to us as such sets. Thus, he opened the way not only to a more methodologically correct study of the annals and codes that have come down to us, which have not come down to us in their original form.

An unusually important step was made by A.A. Shakhmatov, who showed that each of the annalistic collections, from the 11th century to the 16th century, is not a random conglomeration of heterogeneous chronicle sources, but a historical work with its own political position, dictated by the place and time of creation. According to A.A. Shakhmatova, the chronicle, which is usually called the Tale of Bygone Years, was created in 1112 by Nestor - presumably the author of two well-known hagiographic works - Readings about Boris and Gleb and The Life of Theodosius of the Caves. Shakhmatov connected the history of chronicle writing with the history of the country. It became possible to mutually check the history of the state with the history of the source. The data of source study became not an end in itself, but the most important help in recreating the picture of the historical development of the entire people. And now, starting to study this or that period, they first of all seek to analyze the question of how the chronicle and its information are connected with reality. The disadvantage of the approach developed by L.A. Shakhmatov, however, lies in the fact that the critical analysis of the source was actually reduced to the study of the history of its text. A large complex of problems related to the history of meanings and meanings that existed during the creation of one or another annalistic code remained outside the researcher's interests. This gap was largely filled by the studies of such remarkable scientists as: I.N. Danilevsky, V.M. Istrin, A.N. Nasonov, A.A. Likhachev, M.P. Pogodin and many others.

Target work - to show the historical and artistic originality of the "Tale of Bygone Years", to assess the significance of the "Tale" as a literary monument of Ancient Russia.

1. The history of the emergence of the Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years"

An analysis of the literature on the history of the appearance of The Tale of Bygone Years shows its debatability in science. At the same time, in all publications about the Tale, the historical significance of the chronicle for the history and culture of Russia is emphasized. The very title of The Tale of Bygone Years contains the answer to the question about the purpose of the chronicle: to tell “where did the Russian land come from, who in Kyiv began first to reign, and where did the Russian land come from”2. In other words, to tell about Russian history from its very beginning to the formation of an Orthodox state under the collective name of the Russian Land.

Revealing the issues of chronicle terminology, I.N. Danilevsky wrote that historical works are traditionally called chronicles in a broad sense, the presentation of which is strictly by year and is accompanied by chronographic (annual), often calendar, and sometimes chronometric (hourly) dates. By species characteristics, they are close to Western European annals (from Latin annales libri - annual reports) and chronicles (from Greek chranihos - related to time). In the narrow sense of the word, chronicles are commonly referred to as chronicle texts that have actually come down to us and have been preserved in one or several lists similar to each other.3 But scientific terminology in chronicle materials is largely arbitrary. This is due, in particular, to the “lack of clear boundaries and the complexity of the history of chronicle texts”, with the “fluidity” of chronicle texts, allowing for “gradual transitions from text to text without visible gradations of monuments and editions”4. Until now, "in the study of chronicles, the use of terms is extremely vague." At the same time, “any elimination of the ambiguity of terminology should be based on the establishment of this ambiguity itself. It is impossible to agree on the use of terms without, first of all, finding out all the shades of their use in the past and present,” D.S. Likhachev believes5.

According to M.I. Sukhomlinov, “all Russian chronicles by the very name of “chronicles”, “chroniclers”, “timers”, “tales of temporary years”, etc. reveal their original form: none of these names would be appropriate for them if the time of each event were not indicated in them, if summers and years did not occupy the same important place in them as the events themselves. In this respect, as in many others, our chronicles are similar not so much to Byzantine writers as to those temporaries (annales) that have been kept for a long time, from the 8th century, in the monasteries of Roman and German Europe - regardless of the historical examples of classical antiquity. The original basis of these annals was the Easter tables.”6

Most authors believe that the idea for the title of The Tale of Bygone Years belongs to Nestor, a scribe with a broad historical outlook and a great literary talent: even before working on The Tale of Bygone Years, he wrote The Life of Boris and Gleb and The Life of Theodosius of the Caves. In The Tale of Bygone Years, Nestor set himself a grandiose task: to decisively rework the story about the most ancient period in the history of Russia - "where the Russian land came from."

However, as A. A. Shakhmatov showed, The Tale of Bygone Years was preceded by other chronicles. The scientist cites, in particular, the following fact: The Tale of Bygone Years, preserved in the Lavrentiev, Ipatiev and other chronicles, differed significantly in the interpretation of many events from another chronicle that told about the same initial period of Russian history - the Novgorod First Chronicle of the younger version. In the Novgorod Chronicle there were no texts of treaties with the Greeks, Prince Oleg was called the governor under the young Prince Igor, otherwise it was told about the campaigns of Russia against Constantinople, etc.

A. A. Shakhmatov came to the conclusion that the Novgorod First Chronicle in its initial part reflected a different chronicle code that preceded The Tale of Bygone Years7.

A prominent researcher of Russian chronicles, V. M. Istrin8, made unsuccessful attempts to find a different explanation for the differences between The Tale of Bygone Years and the story of the Novgorod First Chronicle (that the Novgorod Chronicle allegedly shortened The Tale of Bygone Years). As a result, the conclusions of A. A. Shakhmatov were confirmed by many facts obtained both by himself and by other scientists9.

The text of the Tale that interests us covers a long period - from ancient times to the beginning of the second decade of the 12th century. It is quite reasonably considered that this is one of the oldest chronicle codes, the text of which was preserved by the chronicle tradition. There are no known lists of him. On this occasion, V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote: “In libraries, do not ask for the Primary Chronicle - they will probably not understand you and will ask again:“ What list of the chronicle do you need? Then you, in turn, will be perplexed. Until now, not a single manuscript has been found in which the Primary Chronicle would be placed separately in the form in which it came out from the pen of the ancient compiler. In all known lists, it merges with the story of its successors, which in later collections usually reaches the end of the 16th century. In different chronicles, the text of the Tale reaches different years: before 1110 (Lavrentiev and related lists) or until 1118 (Ipatiev and related lists).

At the initial stage of studying the chronicles, the researchers proceeded from the fact that the discrepancies found in the lists are the result of distortion of the original text during repeated rewriting. Based on this, for example, A.L. Schlozer set the task of recreating the "purified Nestor". An attempt to correct the accumulated mechanical errors and rethink the chronicle text, however, was not successful. As a result of the work done, A.L. Schlozer became convinced that over time the text was not only distorted, but also corrected by scribes and editors. Nevertheless, the non-original form in which The Tale of Bygone Years has come down to us has been proven. This actually raised the question of the need to reconstruct the original form of the chronicle text.

Comparing all the lists of annals available to him, A.A. Shakhmatov revealed discrepancies and so-called common places inherent in the annals. Analysis of discrepancies found, their classification made it possible to identify lists that have coinciding discrepancies. The researcher grouped the lists by editions and put forward a number of complementary hypotheses that explain the occurrence of discrepancies. A comparison of hypothetical codes made it possible to identify a number of common features inherent in some of them. So the supposed source texts were recreated. At the same time, it turned out that many fragments of the annalistic presentation were borrowed from very early sets, which, in turn, made it possible to proceed to the reconstruction of the oldest Russian annals. Conclusions A.A. Shakhmatova received full confirmation when the Moscow Code of 1408 was found, the existence of which was predicted by the great scientist. In full, the path that A.A. Shakhmatov, became clear only after the publication by his student M.D. Priselkov of his teacher's workbooks11. Since then, the entire history of the study of chronicle writing has been divided into two periods: pre-chess and modern.

When editing, the original text (the first edition of the Tale of Bygone Years) was changed so much that A.A. Shakhmatov came to the conclusion that it was impossible to reconstruct it. As for the texts of the Lavrentiev and Ipatiev editions of the Tale (they are usually called the second and third editions, respectively), then, despite later alterations in subsequent collections, Shakhmatov managed to determine their composition and presumably reconstruct them. It should be noted that Shakhmatov hesitated in assessing the stages of work on the text of the Tale of Bygone Years. Sometimes, for example, he believed that in 1116 Sylvester only rewrote Nestor's text of 1113 (the latter was sometimes dated 1111), without editing it.

If the question of the authorship of Nestor remains controversial (the Tale contains a number of indications that are fundamentally at odds with the data of the Readings and Life of Theodosius), then in general the assumption of A.A. Shakhmatov about the existence of three editions of the Tale of Bygone Years is shared by most modern researchers.

Based on the idea of ​​the political nature of ancient Russian chronicle writing, A.A. Shakhmatov, followed by M.D. Priselkov and other researchers believe that the origin of the chronicle tradition in Russia is associated with the establishment of the Kyiv Metropolis. “The custom of the Byzantine church administration demanded, at the opening of a new see, episcopal or metropolitan, to draw up on this occasion a note of a historical nature about the causes, place and persons of this event for the clerical work of the patriarchal synod in Constantinople”12. This allegedly became the reason for the creation of the Ancient Code of 1037. The researchers present the later codes, compiled on the basis of the Tale of Bygone Years, either as purely journalistic works written, as they say, on the topic of the day, or as some kind of medieval fiction, or simply texts that systematically amazing perseverance and perseverance "finish" - almost by inertia.

At the same time, the entire history of the study of the Tale shows that the goal of creating chronicles should be significant enough so that for a number of centuries many generations of chroniclers continued the work begun in Kyiv in the 11th century. Moreover, "authors and editors adhered to the same literary techniques and expressed the same views both on social life and on moral requirements"13.

It is believed that the first edition of The Tale of Bygone Years has not reached us. Its second edition, compiled in 1117 by the abbot of the Vydubitsky monastery (near Kyiv) Sylvester, and the third edition, compiled in 1118 by order of Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, have been preserved. In the second edition, only the final part of The Tale of Bygone Years was revised; this edition has come down to us as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377, as well as other later chronicles. The third edition, according to a number of researchers, is presented in the Ipatiev Chronicle, the oldest list of which - Ipatiev - dates from the first quarter of the 15th century.

From our point of view, the final point in the study of the question of the origin of the "Tale" has not yet been set, this is shown by the entire history of the study of the chronicle. It is possible that scientists, based on newly discovered facts, will put forward new hypotheses regarding the history of the creation of the greatest monument of ancient Russian literature - The Tale of Bygone Years.

2. "The Tale of Bygone Years" as a historical source and literary monument

Scientists have established that chronicle writing was carried out in Russia from the 11th to the 17th centuries. Back in the 19th century it became known that almost all surviving chronicle texts are compilations, sets of previous chronicles. According to D.S. Likhachev, “in relation to the annals, the set is a more or less hypothetical monument, i.e., a supposed monument, underlying its lists or other supposed sets”14. Nestor "The Tale of Bygone Years" owes its broad historical outlook, the introduction to the annals of the facts of world history, against which the history of the Slavs unfolds, and then the history of Russia. Thanks to the state view, breadth of outlook and literary talent of Nestor, The Tale of Bygone Years was "not just a collection of facts of Russian history and not just a historical and journalistic work related to the urgent, but transient tasks of Russian reality, but an integral, literary exposition of the history of Russia" , notes D.S. Likhachev15.

The introductory part of the "Tale" describes the biblical legend about the division of the earth between the sons of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japhet - and the legend of the Babylonian pandemonium, which led to the division of the "one kind" into 72 peoples, each of which has its own language: "After the flood, three The sons of Noah divided the land - Shem, Ham, Japheth ... "16

Having determined that the “language (people) of Slovenian” is from the tribe of Japheth, the chronicle further tells about the Slavs, the lands they inhabit, about the history and customs of the Slavic tribes. Gradually narrowing the subject of its narrative, the chronicle focuses on the history of the meadows, tells about the emergence of Kyiv. Speaking about the ancient times, when the Kyiv glades were tributaries of the Khazars, The Tale of Bygone Years proudly notes that now, as it was destined for a long time, the Khazars themselves are tributaries of the Kyiv princes.

Precise indications of the years begin in The Tale of Bygone Years from 852, since from that time, according to the chronicler, Russia is mentioned in the “Greek chronicle”: this year, the Kyiv princes Askold and Dir attacked Constantinople. A chronological calculation is also given here - a countdown of the years that have passed from one significant event to another. The calculation of the years from “the death of Yaroslavl to the death of Svyatopolchi” (i.e., from 1054 to 1113) completes the calculation, from which it follows that the Tale of Bygone Years could not have been compiled earlier than the beginning of the second decade of the 12th century.

Further in the annals, the most important events of the 9th century are narrated. - "calling of the Varangians", the campaign against Byzantium Askold and Dir, the conquest of Kyiv by Oleg. The legend about the origin of the Slavic literacy, included in the chronicle, ends with an important statement for the general concept of The Tale of Bygone Years about the identity of the "Slovene" and Russian languages ​​- another reminder of the place of the meadows among the Slavic peoples and the Slavs among the peoples of the world.

In subsequent annalistic articles, Oleg's reign is described. The chronicler cites the texts of his treaties with Byzantium and folk legends about the prince: a story about his campaign against Constantinople, with spectacular episodes, undoubtedly of a folklore nature (Oleg approaches the city walls in boats moving under sail on land, hangs his shield over the gates of Constantinople, "showing victory").

The chronicler considered Igor the son of Rurik. Two campaigns of Igor against Byzantium are reported and the text of the agreement concluded by the Russian prince with the Byzantine co-emperors: Roman, Constantine and Stefan is given. Igor's death was unexpected and inglorious: on the advice of his squad, he went to the land of the Drevlyans to collect tribute (usually tribute was collected by his voivode Sveneld). On the way back, the prince suddenly turned to his soldiers: “Go with tribute to the house, and I will return, I will look like it again.” The Drevlyans, having heard that Igor intends to collect tribute a second time, were indignant: “If you put a wolf (if a wolf gets into the habit) in a sheep, then take out the whole herd, if not kill him, so and so: if we don’t kill him, then we will all be destroyed” . But Igor did not heed the warning of the Drevlyans and was killed by them.

Olga avenged the Drevlyans three times for the death of her husband. Each revenge corresponds to one of the elements of the pagan funeral rite. According to the customs of that time, the dead were buried by placing them in a boat; a bath was prepared for the deceased, and then his corpse was burned; on the day of burial, a trizna was held, accompanied by war games17.

The chronicler of Igor's son, Svyatoslav, enthusiastically depicts his militancy, chivalrous directness (he allegedly warned his enemies in advance: “I want to go to you”), unpretentiousness in everyday life.

After the death of Svyatoslav, an internecine struggle broke out between his sons - Oleg, Yaropolk and Vladimir. The winner of it was Vladimir, who in 980 became the sole ruler of Russia.

In the section "The Tale of Bygone Years", dedicated to the reign of Vladimir, the theme of the baptism of Russia occupies a large place. The chronicle reads the so-called "Speech of the Philosopher", with which a Greek missionary allegedly turned to Vladimir, urging the prince to accept Christianity. The "Speech of the Philosopher" was of great cognitive importance for the Old Russian reader - it briefly outlined the entire "sacred history" and reported the basic principles of the Christian faith.

After the death of Vladimir in 1015, internecine strife flared up again between his sons. Svyatopolk - the son of Yaropolk and a captive nun, whom Vladimir, having killed his brother, made his wife, killed his half-brothers Boris and Gleb. The annals read a brief story about the fate of the martyr princes, about the struggle of Yaroslav Vladimirovich with Svyatopolk, which ended in the latter's military defeat and terrible divine retribution.

The last decade of the 11th century was full of stormy events. After internecine wars, the instigator and indispensable participant of which was Oleg Svyatoslavich (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” calls him Oleg Gorislavlich), the princes gather in 1097 in Lyubech for a congress, at which they decide from now on to live in peace and friendship, keep the father’s possessions and do not encroach on other people's inheritances. However, immediately after the congress, a new atrocity happened: the Volyn prince Davyd Igorevich convinced the Kyiv prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich that the Terebovl prince Vasilko was plotting against them. Svyatopolk and Davyd lured Vasilko to Kyiv, captured him and gouged out his eyes. This event shocked all the princes: Vladimir Monomakh, according to the chronicler, complained that there was no such evil in Russia "neither under our grandfathers, nor under our fathers." In the article of 1097 we find a detailed story about the dramatic fate of Vasilko Terebovskiy.

A brief review of the composition of The Tale of Bygone Years shows the complexity of its composition and the diversity of its components, both in terms of origin and genre. The Tale, in addition to short weather notes, includes the texts of documents, and retellings of folklore legends, and plot stories, and excerpts from monuments of translated literature18. There is also a theological treatise in it - “the speech of a philosopher”, and a hagiographical story about Boris and Gleb, and paterinic legends about the Kiev-Pechersk monks, and a church eulogy of Theodosius of the Caves, and a laid-back story about a Novgorodian who went to tell fortunes to a magician.

If we talk about the historicism of the Tale, then it should be emphasized that artistic generalization in Ancient Russia was built mainly on the basis of a single concrete historical fact. Almost all events are attached to a specific historical event or a specific historical person. As you know, Ancient Russia during the IX-X centuries. from a fragile tribal union, it turned into a single early feudal state. The campaigns of the Kyiv princes Oleg, Igor and Svyatoslav brought Russia into the sphere of European politics. Close diplomatic, trade and cultural relations of Ancient Russia with its southern neighbors - with the Bulgarian "kingdom and especially with the largest state of South-Eastern Europe - Byzantium paved the way for the adoption of Christianity. Which is reflected in the "Tale". Obviously, the Christianization of Russia required a radical restructuring of the worldview; the former pagan ideas about the origin and structure of the universe, about the history of the human race, about the ancestors of the Slavs were now rejected, and Russian scribes were in dire need of works that would set out Christian ideas about world history, would give a new, Christian interpretation of the world order and natural phenomena. Characterizing Literature Kievan Rus, D.S. Likhachev notes that it was devoted mainly to ideological issues. Its genre system reflected the worldview typical of many Christian states in the early Middle Ages. “Old Russian literature can be regarded as the literature of one theme and one plot. This story is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life.”19

We also note the high citizenship and patriotism of the considered literary monument. The patriotism of ancient Russian literature is associated not only with the pride of the authors for the Russian land, but also with their grief over the defeats suffered, with the desire to reason with princes and boyars, and sometimes with attempts to condemn them, to arouse the anger of readers against the worst of them.20

Thus, The Tale of Bygone Years is not only a unique historical source and literary monument, but also an example of the true patriotism of the Russian people, love for their Motherland.

3. Stylistic originality of The Tale of Bygone Years

The stylistic originality of the Tale deserves special attention, since the chronicle genre is absent in the modern literary tradition. The nature of the chronicle genre is very complex; the chronicle is one of the “unifying genres”, subordinating the genres of its components - a historical story, life, teaching, a laudable word, etc. 21 Nevertheless, the chronicle remains an integral work that can be studied as a monument of literature In The Tale of Bygone Years, as in any other chronicle, two types of narration can be distinguished - weather records proper and chronicle stories. Weather records contain reports of events, while chronicles offer descriptions of them. In the chronicle story, the author seeks to depict the event, to bring certain specific details, to reproduce the dialogues of the characters, in a word, to help the reader imagine what is happening, to arouse his empathy.

So, in the story about the youth who fled from Kyiv besieged by the Pechenegs in order to convey the request of Princess Olga to the governor Pretich, not only the very fact of transmitting the message is mentioned, but it is told about how the youth fled through the Pecheneg camp with a bridle in his hand, asking about allegedly the missing horse (at the same time, an important detail was not missed that the youth could speak Pecheneg), about how, having reached the banks of the Dnieper, he “overthrew the ports” and rushed into the water, how Pretich’s warriors sailed out to meet him on a boat; the dialogue between Pretich and the Pecheneg prince is also transmitted. This is precisely a story, and not a brief weather record, such as: “Vyatichi defeat Svyatoslav and pay tribute to them”, or “Queen Volodimeraya Anna died”, or “Mstislav went to Yaroslav from the goats and from the cassocks”, etc.

At the same time, the chronicle stories themselves belong to two types, largely determined by their origin. Some stories tell about events contemporary to the chronicler, others about events that took place long before the compilation of the chronicle; these are oral epic traditions that were only later included in the chronicle.

In the stories, either strength or cunning triumphs. So, the Pecheneg prince, who fought with Russia, suggested that Vladimir put out a warrior from his army who would measure his strength with the Pecheneg hero. Nobody dares to accept the challenge. Vladimir is saddened, but then a certain “old husband” comes to him and offers to send for his youngest son. The young man, according to the old man, is very strong: “From childhood, no one hit him” (i.e., threw him to the ground). Somehow, the father recalls, the son, having become angry with him, “pretorted with his hands” (he tore the skin that he was crushing at that moment with his hands: father and son were tanners). The young man is called to Vladimir, and he shows his strength to the prince - he grabs a bull running past by the side and pulls out "the skin from the meat, if he has a hand." But nevertheless, the young man is “medium in body”, and therefore the Pecheneg hero who went out with him for a duel - “great and terrible” - laughs at his opponent. Here (as in the story of Olga's revenge) surprise awaits the negative hero; the reader knows about the strength of the young man and triumphs when the kozhemyak is “strangled” by the hands of the Pecheneg hero.

Some stories of the chronicle are united by a special, epic style of depicting reality. This concept reflects, first of all, the narrator's approach to the subject of the image, his author's position, and not just the purely linguistic features of the presentation. In each such story in the center there is one event, one episode, and it is this episode that makes up the characterization of the hero, highlights his main, memorable feature; Oleg (in the story about the campaign against Tsargrad) is, first of all, a wise and brave warrior, the hero of the story about the Belgorod jelly is a nameless old man, but his wisdom, which at the last moment saved the city besieged by the Pechenegs, is the characteristic feature that won him immortality in people's memory.

Another group of stories was compiled by the chronicler himself or by his contemporaries. It is distinguished by a different manner of narration, it does not have an elegant completeness of the plot, there is no epic brevity and generalization of the images of the characters. At the same time, these stories can be more psychological, more realistic, literary processed, since the chronicler seeks not just to tell about the event, but to present it in such a way as to make a certain impression on the reader, to make him relate to the characters of the story in one way or another. Among these stories

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Inner world works verbal art. The world of reality in a creative perspective. The social and moral structure of the world in the work. Art world in A. Akhmatova's poem "Muse". Temporal and spatial characteristics.

The Tale of Bygone Years is a collection, and therefore we will not find here ideas that cover all annual articles without exception. And yet, there are several points that the compilers of the "Tale" refer to again and again. Whole line information included in the chronicle has a pronounced anti-Byzantine orientation. The idea of ​​independence from Byzantium, after the conversion of Russia to Christianity, which probably expressed some claims not only to church leadership, but also to secular vassalage, according to researchers, was one of the central ones in the code of Nikon the Great. It was precisely at the peak of Byzantium that stories about campaigns against Tsargrad by Igor, Svyatoslav and especially Oleg, who defiantly hung his shield on the gates of the Byzantine capital, could get into the Russian chronicle.

Describing any contacts of Russian princes with the Byzantines, the chronicler is most concerned about how not to drop the authority of the Slavic rulers. In any situation, he invariably depicts them not as modest petitioners, but as equal partners, often surpassing the intelligence and ingenuity of the stiff Byzantine basileus. For example, according to the chronicle story, Princess Olga, who went to Tsargrad, allegedly declared there to the ruling Constantine Porphyrogenitus "if you want to baptize me ...", thereby turning the matter around as if she had not come to ask for baptism, namely the emperor was very much seeking him. In his further narration, the chronicler will not forget to mention the cross name of the Slavic princess - Elena, “like the ancient queen, mother of the Great Constantine”, and the fact that it was Olga, who had barely had time to be baptized, reminded the Byzantine ruler who wished to marry her with a living wife about the Christian custom, according to for whom marriage between godparents is not possible. The author did not forget to place in his narrative a kind of recognition by the emperor of Olga's moral superiority, as well as a recollection of how, having arrived in Kyiv, the resolute princess sent slurping Byzantine messengers, asking them to remind the emperor of how disrespectfully they treated the Kyiv embassy in Constantinople.

Anti-Byzantine sentiments were reflected in a peculiar way in those articles of the annals, which tell about the adoption of Christianity by Vladimir. It seems that the author is doing everything possible to belittle the role of Byzantium in this event. According to the chronicle, before accepting the faith from the Greeks, the Kyiv prince listens to the messenger of several religions, then sends a special embassy to Europe. The chronicler diligently emphasizes the special honors that were given to the Russians in Constantinople.

To top it all off, the chronicle recounts the so-called "Korsun legend". In this episode, the tone of the dialogue conducted by the chronicle Vladimir with the Byzantine brother-emperors is especially indicative, since it is not about baptism at all, but about a wedding. Having captured Chersonesus, the largest Greek colony in the Northern Black Sea region, the steppe pagan, who would not have been taken seriously in the Byzantine capital earlier, does not ask for anything. On the contrary, he threatens the rulers of the empire with a new campaign against Constantinople and demands their sister, the purple princess Anna, as his wife. In these negotiations, with a significant flavor of blackmail, baptism turns out to be a kind of concession, to which Vladimir agrees, going towards the Byzantine rulers. The legend ends with one more detail, designed to elevate Vladimir above the Greeks: as a "vein" - the price for the bride laid down according to Slavic customs - the cunning Kievan prince gives the Byzantines the city of Korsun captured from them, having thus managed to observe the customs, and not go broke much.

And finally, most likely, it was precisely at the peak of Byzantium that the legend of the walk of the Apostle Andrew got into the Tale of Bygone Years. It seems that the search for a worthy heavenly patron for Russia seriously occupied the compilers of the first Russian chronicles, at least they included in their narrative a legend about Slavic writings, Moravian in origin, where Paul was named the teacher of Russia. However, this was not enough for later editors, and in the text of the chronicle there is a story about Andrew - the apostle from the twelve and, most importantly, heavenly patron Byzantium. And it doesn’t matter that this story from a historical point of view looks more than doubtful: it is completely incomprehensible why the apostle, who, according to his biography, never went further than the Scythians, would go deep into the wilds of the Dnieper forests, absolutely deserted in the middle of the 1st century AD. Yes, the description legendary path“From the Varangians to the Greeks” is given in the annals to the eyes of a person who is somewhere in the center of the Central Russian plain, in the “Okovsky Forest”. But the churches of the two powers could henceforth consider themselves equal in status.

Another constant concern of the compilers of The Tale of Bygone Years was the description, evaluation of deeds and justification of the legitimacy of the power of the ruling Rurik dynasty. This is explained not only by the fact that the chronicle was created in monasteries closely associated with the Grand Duke's throne (Kiev-Pechersk and Vydubitsky), and, apparently, had the status of a state official document - it was simply that the very idea of ​​​​Slavic statehood was associated with princely power in the XII century. . Let me remind you that in the title of the Tale, the question of the origin of Russia and the emergence of princely power in it are put side by side.

The degree of reliability of the information provided by the chroniclers of the 12th century about the first Russian princes can be assessed in different ways. Most likely, narrating about the events of 200-300 years ago and relying to a large extent on the material of oral legends, the ancient historiographers do not recreate the material appearance of historical persons, but fix the princely portraits as they have developed in the popular consciousness. Another thing is certain: despite the fact that the chronicle was compiled and edited mainly by monastics, the descriptions of Kievan rulers often come to the fore not Christian, but precisely princely virtues - military prowess, the ability to strengthen the power of the country by subordinating the surrounding peoples, the ability to honorably go out from difficult diplomatic situations. The compilers of the chronicle endow these qualities equally to both the ancient pagan princes and the Christian rulers who succeeded them.

1) The history of the creation of "The Tale of Bygone Years".

"The Tale of Bygone Years" is one of the oldest chronicle works of Russian literature, created at the beginning of the 12th century by a monk Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Nestor the chronicler. The chronicle tells about the origin of the Russian land, about the first Russian princes and about the most important historical events. The peculiarity of The Tale of Bygone Years is poetry, the author masterfully mastered the style, the text uses various artistic means to make the story more compelling.

2) Narrative features in The Tale of Bygone Years.

In The Tale of Bygone Years, two types of narration can be distinguished - weather records and chronicle stories. Weather records contain reports of events, while chronicle stories describe them. In the story, the author seeks to depict the event, to give specific details, that is, he tries to help the reader imagine what is happening and causes the reader to empathize. Russia broke up into many principalities and each had its own chronicles. Each of them reflected the peculiarities of the history of their region and was written only about their princes. "The Tale of Bygone Years" was part of the local chronicles, which continued the tradition of Russian chronicle writing. "The Tale of Temporary Lies" determines the place of the Russian people among the peoples of the world, draws the origin Slavic writing, the formation of the Russian state. Nestor lists the peoples paying tribute to the Russians, shows that the peoples who oppressed the Slavs have disappeared, and the Slavs remained and decide the fate of their neighbors. "The Tale of Bygone Years", written in the heyday of Kievan Rus, became the main work on history.

3) Artistic Features"The Tale of Bygone Years". How does Nes Horus the chronicler narrate historical events?

Nestor narrates about historical events poetically. The origin of Russia Nestor draws against the backdrop of the development of the entire world history. The chronicler unfolds a wide panorama of historical events. A whole gallery of historical figures passes through the pages of the Nestor Chronicle - princes, boyars, merchants, posadniks, church servants. He talks about military campaigns, about the opening of schools, about the organization of monasteries. Nestor constantly touches the life of the people, their moods. On the pages of the annals, we will read about the uprisings, the murders of princes. But the author describes all this calmly and tries to be objective. Murder, betrayal and deceit Nestor condemns; honesty, courage, courage, fidelity, nobility he extols. It is Nestor who strengthens and improves the version of the origin of the Russian princely dynasty. Its main goal was to show the Russian land among other powers, to prove that the Russian people are not without family and tribe, but have their own history, which they have the right to be proud of.

From afar, Nestor begins his story, with the biblical flood itself, after which the earth was distributed among the sons of Noah. This is how Nestor begins his story:

“So let’s start this story.

After the flood, the three sons of Noah divided the earth - Shem, Ham, Japheth. And Shem got the east: Persia, Bactria, even to India in longitude, and in breadth to Rinokorur, that is, from east to south, and Syria, and Media to the Euphrates River, Babylon, Korduna, Assyrians, Mesopotamia, Arabia the Oldest, Eli-mais, Indy, Arabia Strong, Colia, Commagene, all of Phoenicia.

Ham got the south: Egypt, Ethiopia, neighboring India ...

Japheth got it northern countries and western: Media, Albania, Armenia Lesser and Greater, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Gapatia, Colchis...

Simultaneously, Ham and Japheth divided the land by casting lots, and decided not to enter into the share of a brother to anyone, and each lived in his own part. And there was one people. And when people multiplied on earth, they planned to create a pillar to the sky - it was in the days of Neggan and Peleg. And they gathered in the place of the field of Shinar to build a pillar to heaven, and near it the city of Babylon; and they built that pillar for 40 years, and did not finish it. And the Lord God came down to see the city and the pillar, and the Lord said: “Behold, one generation and one people.” And God confused the nations, and divided them into 70 and 2 nations, and scattered them over all the earth. After the confusion of the peoples, God destroyed the pillar with a great wind; and its remains are located between Assyria and Babylon, and are 5433 cubits high and wide, and these remains have been preserved for many years ... "

Then the author tells about the Slavic tribes, their customs and mores, about the capture of Constantinople by Oleg, about the foundation of Kyiv by the three brothers Kiy, Shchek, Khoriv, ​​about Svyatoslav's campaign against Byzantium and other events, both real and legendary. He includes in his "Tale ..." teachings, records of oral stories, documents, contracts, parables and lives. The leading theme of most chronicles is the idea of ​​the unity of Russia.

1. New!

   name distinctive features life genre. Who was the hero of life? What was the goal pursued by the creators of the hagiographic genre? The genre of life arose and developed in Byzantium, and in Ancient Russia it appeared as a translation. Based on borrowed texts in XI...

The hero of the chronicle narrative: "The Tale of Bygone Years." It turns out that from the chrono-event "bricks" the chronicler managed to put together a plot, to pass through this plot the idea of ​​punishment for pride, while this idea was not directly expressed or declared anywhere ...

1) Until 1564, Russian literature was handwritten. The problem of printing books existed for a very long time, until the 18th century, so the creation of a book was a long-term affair. Printing has hardly changed the way it is distributed. literary writings....

THE STORY ABOUT THE BATTLE ON KALKA - chronicle story, telling about the first clash of the Russians with the Mongol-Tatars. In 1223, a thirty-thousandth detachment of Mongol-Tatars, led by Jebe and Subedei, went through the Transcaucasus to the steppe and defeated the Polovtsy, ...

Poetics

Over the course of many centuries, peculiar techniques have been developed that are characteristic of the poetics of the epic, as well as the way they are performed. In ancient times, it is believed that storytellers played along on the harp; later epics were performed in recitative. Epics are characterized by a special purely tonic epic verse (which is based on the commensurability of lines by the number of stresses, which achieves rhythmic uniformity). Although the storytellers used only a few melodies when performing epics, they enriched the singing with a variety of intonations, and also changed the timbre of the voice.

Emphatically solemn style of presentation of the epic narrating about heroic and often tragic events, determined the need to slow down the action (retardation). For this, a technique such as repetition is used, and not only individual words are repeated ... from far, far away, marvelously marvelous ( tautological repetitions), but also injection of synonyms: fight-rattling, tribute-duties, (synomimic repetitions), often the end of one line is the beginning of another: But they came to Holy Russia, / To Holy Russia and even near Kyiv city ..., there are often three repetitions of entire episodes, going with increased effect, and some descriptions are extremely detailed. Characteristic of the epic and availability of common areas», when describing situations of the same type, certain formulaic expressions are used: TO " common places”also include a description of the feast (for the most part, at Prince Vladimir), the feast, the heroic ride on a greyhound horse. A folk narrator could combine such stable formulas at his own will.

The language of epics is characterized by hyperbole, with the help of which the narrator emphasizes the character traits or appearance of the characters worthy of special mention. Determines the attitude of the listener to the epic and another technique - epithet(mighty, Holy Russian, glorious hero and filthy, evil enemy), and often occur fixed epithets(violent head, hot blood, frisky legs, burning tears). A similar role is played by suffixes: everything related to the heroes was mentioned in diminutive forms (hat, little head, little thought, Alyoshenka, Vasenka Buslaevich, Dobrynushka, etc.), but negative characters were called Ugryumishch, Ignatishch, Tsar Batuishch, Ugarishch filthy. Takes up a lot of space assonances (repetition of vowel sounds) and alliteration(repetition of consonant sounds), additional organizing elements of the verse.

Epic stories and heroes in art and literature. Since the publication of Kirsha Danilov's collection, epic stories and heroes have been firmly established in the world of modern Russian culture. Traces of acquaintance with Russian epics are easy to see in the poem A.S. Pushkin Ruslan and Lyudmila and in the poetic ballads of A.K. Tolstoy. N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov(1844-1908) twice turned to the image of the Novgorod "rich guest". First, he created the symphonic musical picture Sadko (1867), and later, in 1896, the opera of the same name. V.M.Vasnetsov(1848–1926), mainly known to the public from paintings, the subjects for which are taken from the Russian heroic epic, it is enough to name the canvases The Knight at the Crossroads (1882) and Bogatyrs (1898). M.A. Vrubel(1856–1910). The decorative panels Mikula Selyaninovich (1896) and Bogatyr (1898) interpret these seemingly well-known images in their own way.

"The Tale of Bygone Years". The main ideas and types of chronicle narrative

The history of the creation of "The Tale of Bygone Years"

"The Tale of Bygone Years" is one of the oldest chronicle works of Russian literature, created at the beginning of the 12th century by Nestor the Chronicler, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The chronicle tells about the origin of the Russian land, about the first Russian princes and about the most important historical events. The peculiarity of The Tale of Bygone Years is poetry, the author masterfully mastered the style, the text uses various artistic means to make the story more convincing.

Nestor was a scribe with a broad historical outlook and great literary talent: even before working on The Tale of Bygone Years, he wrote The Life of Boris and Gleb and The Life of Theodosius of the Caves. In The Tale of Bygone Years, Nestor set himself a daunting task: not only to supplement the "Initial Code" with a description of events turn XI-XII centuries, of which he was a contemporary, but also in the most decisive way to rework the story about the most ancient period in the history of Russia - "where did the Russian land come from."

Thanks to the state view, breadth of outlook and literary talent of Nestor, The Tale of Bygone Years was "not just a collection of facts of Russian history and not just a historical and journalistic work related to the urgent, but transient tasks of Russian reality, but an integral, literary exposition of the history of Russia" .

It is believed that the first edition of The Tale of Bygone Years has not reached us. Its second edition, compiled in 1117 by the abbot of the Vydubitsky monastery (near Kyiv) Sylvester, and the third edition, compiled in 1118 by order of Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, have been preserved. In the second edition, only the final part of The Tale of Bygone Years was revised; this edition has come down to us as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377, as well as other later chronicles. The third edition, according to a number of researchers, is presented in the Ipatiev Chronicle, the oldest list of which - Ipatiev - dates from the first quarter of the 15th century.

Features of the narrative in "The Tale of Bygone Years".

Types of annalistic articles in PVL:

* The weather record is the oldest, simplest and shortest record, which only states the fact.

* An annalistic legend is an oral historical tradition recorded in the annals, literary processed by a scribe (Foundation of Kyiv, Prophetic Oleg, Princess Olga, Nikita Kozhemyaka, Belgorod Kissel).

* The chronicle story is distinguished by its veracity and documentary quality, as a rule it was created by an eyewitness or from the words of an eyewitness (The Blinding of Prince Vasilko Terebolsky).

* The chronicle story is the most detailed and voluminous and chronicle article, the main thing in it is the military theme (the struggle between Yaroslav the Wise and Svyatoslav the Accursed).

* Annalistic story - obituary - a story about death historical person(prince), designed in the form of lamentation for the deceased and praise to him.

PVL became the source for all subsequent chronicles, up to the 16th century. In addition, PVL is a source of plots, motives, images for the literature of subsequent centuries (18-19 centuries).

The main idea is the unity of the Russian land, a high patriotic feeling.

In The Tale of Bygone Years, two types of narration can be distinguished - weather records and chronicle stories. . Weather records contain reports of events, while chronicle stories describe them. In the story, the author seeks to depict the event, to give specific details, that is, he tries to help the reader imagine what is happening and causes the reader to empathize. Russia broke up into many principalities and each had its own chronicles. Each of them reflected the peculiarities of the history of their region and was written only about their princes. "The Tale of Bygone Years" was part of the local chronicles, which continued the tradition of Russian chronicle writing. "The Tale of Temporary Lies" determines the place of the Russian people among the peoples of the world, draws the origin of Slavic writing, the formation of the Russian state. Nestor lists the peoples paying tribute to the Russians, shows that the peoples who oppressed the Slavs have disappeared, and the Slavs remained and decide the fate of their neighbors. "The Tale of Bygone Years", written in the heyday of Kievan Rus, became the main work on history.

Artistic Features of The Tale of Bygone Years.

Nestor narrates about historical events poetically. The origin of Russia Nestor draws against the backdrop of the development of the entire world history. The chronicler unfolds a wide panorama of historical events. A whole gallery of historical figures passes through the pages of the Nestor Chronicle - princes, boyars, merchants, posadniks, church servants. He talks about military campaigns, about the opening of schools, about the organization of monasteries. Nestor constantly touches the life of the people, their moods. On the pages of the annals, we will read about the uprisings, the murders of princes. But the author describes all this calmly and tries to be objective. Murder, betrayal and deceit Nestor condemns; honesty, courage, courage, fidelity, nobility he extols. It is Nestor who strengthens and improves the version of the origin of the Russian princely dynasty. Its main goal was to show the Russian land among other powers, to prove that the Russian people are not without family and tribe, but have their own history, which they have the right to be proud of.

From afar, Nestor begins his story, with the biblical flood itself, after which the earth was distributed among the sons of Noah. This is how Nestor begins his story: “So let's begin this story.

After the flood, the three sons of Noah divided the earth - Shem, Ham, Japheth. And Shem got the east: Persia, Bactria, even to India in longitude, and in breadth to Rinokorur, that is, from east to south, and Syria, and Media to the Euphrates River, Babylon, Korduna, Assyrians, Mesopotamia, Arabia the Oldest, Eli-mais, Indy, Arabia Strong, Colia, Commagene, all of Phoenicia.

Ham got the south: Egypt, Ethiopia, neighboring India ...

Japheth got the northern countries and the western

Simultaneously, Ham and Japheth divided the land by casting lots, and decided not to enter into the share of a brother to anyone, and each lived in his own part. And there was one people. And when people multiplied on earth, they planned to create a pillar to the sky - it was in the days of Neggan and Peleg. And they gathered in the place of the field of Shinar to build a pillar to heaven, and near it the city of Babylon; and they built that pillar for 40 years, and did not finish it. And the Lord God came down to see the city and the pillar, and the Lord said: “Behold, one generation and one people.” And God confused the nations, and divided them into 70 and 2 nations, and scattered them over all the earth. After the confusion of the peoples, God destroyed the pillar with a great wind; and its remains are located between Assyria and Babylon, and are 5433 cubits high and wide, and these remains have been preserved for many years ... "

Then the author tells about the Slavic tribes, their customs and mores, about the capture of Constantinople by Oleg, about the foundation of Kyiv by the three brothers Kiy, Shchek, Khoriv, ​​about Svyatoslav's campaign against Byzantium and other events, both real and legendary. He includes in his "Tale ..." teachings, records of oral stories, documents, contracts, parables and lives. The leading theme of most chronicles is the idea of ​​the unity of Russia.

Composition "The Tale of Bygone Years

The introductory section sets out biblical legend about the division of the land between the sons of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japhet - and the legend of the Babylonian pandemonium, which led to the division of the "single clan" into 72 peoples, each of which has its own language. Having determined that the "language (people) of Slovenes" is from the tribe of Japheth , the chronicle further tells about the Slavs, the lands they inhabit, about the history and customs of the Slavic tribes. Gradually narrowing the subject of its narrative, the chronicle focuses on the history of the meadows, tells about the emergence of Kyiv. Speaking about the ancient times, when the Kyiv glades were tributaries of the Khazars, The Tale of Bygone Years proudly notes that now, as it was destined for a long time, the Khazars themselves are tributaries of the Kyiv princes.

Precise indications of the years begin in The Tale of Bygone Years from 852, since from that time, according to the chronicler, Russia is mentioned in the “Greek chronicle”: this year, the Kyiv princes Askold and Dir attacked Constantinople. A chronological calculation is also given here - a countdown of the years that have passed from one significant event to another. The calculation of the years from “the death of Yaroslavl to the death of Svyatopolchi” (i.e., from 1054 to 1113) completes the calculation, from which it follows that the Tale of Bygone Years could not have been compiled earlier than the beginning of the second decade of the 12th century.

The chronicle goes on to tell of major events 9th century - "calling of the Varangians", campaign against Byzantium Askold and Dir, the conquest of Kyiv by Oleg. The legend about the origin of the Slavic literacy, included in the chronicle, ends with an important statement for the general concept of The Tale of Bygone Years about the identity of the "Slovene" and Russian languages ​​- another reminder of the place of the meadows among the Slavic peoples and the Slavs among the peoples of the world.

Subsequent chronicle articles tell about the reign of Oleg. The chronicler cites the texts of his treaties with Byzantium and folk tales about the prince: a story about his campaign against Constantinople, with spectacular episodes, undoubtedly of a folklore nature (Oleg approaches the walls of the city in boats moving under sail on land, hangs his shield over the gates of Constantinople, “showing victory”). There is also a well-known legend about the death of Oleg. The sorcerer predicted the prince's death from his beloved horse. Oleg decided: “Nicole is everywhere on n, I don’t see him more than that.” However, he later learns that the horse has already died. Oleg laughed at the false prediction and wished to see the bones of the horse. But when the prince stepped with his foot on the “forehead” (skull) of the horse, he was stung by a snake that “came out” “from the forehead”, fell ill and died. The chronicle episode, as we know, formed the basis of A. S. Pushkin's ballad "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg."

Oleg inherited on the Kiev "table" Igor, whom the chronicler considered the son of Rurik. Two campaigns of Igor against Byzantium are reported and the text of the agreement concluded by the Russian prince with the Byzantine emperors-co-rulers is given. Igor's death was unexpected and inglorious: on the advice of his squad, he went to the land of the Drevlyans to collect tribute (usually the tribute was collected by his governor). On the way back, the prince suddenly turned to his soldiers: “Go with tribute to the house, and I will return, I will look like it again.” The Drevlyans, having heard that Igor intends to collect tribute a second time, were indignant: “If you put a wolf (if a wolf gets into the habit) in a sheep, then take out the whole herd, if not kill him, so and so: if we don’t kill him, then we will all be destroyed” . But Igor did not heed the warning of the Drevlyans and was killed by them.

The story of Igor's death in the annals is very short; but legends about how Igor's widow, Olga, avenged the Drevlyans for the murder of her husband, have been preserved in the people's memory. These legends were reproduced by the chronicler and are read in the "Tale of Bygone Years" in the article of 945.

After the murder of Igor, the Drevlyans sent ambassadors to Kyiv to Olga with a proposal to marry their prince Mal. Olga pretended that she “loved” the words of the ambassadors, and ordered them to appear the next day, and not on horseback or on foot, but in a very unusual way: by order of the princess, the people of Kiev were to bring the Drevlyans to the princely court in boats. At the same time, Olga orders to dig a deep hole near her tower. When the triumphant Drevlyansky ambassadors (they sit in the boat “proudly,” the chronicler emphasizes) were brought to the princely court, Olga ordered them to be thrown into the pit along with the boat. Approaching its edge, the princess asked with a grin: “Are you good honor?” “Worse than we (worse for us) Igor's death,” the Drevlyans answered. And Olga ordered them to fall asleep alive in a pit.

The second embassy, ​​consisting of noble Drevlyansk "husbands", Olga ordered to be burned in a bathhouse, where the ambassadors were invited to "wash themselves." Finally, the squad of the Drevlyans, sent to meet Olga, in order to honorably introduce her to the capital of Mala, the princess ordered to be killed during the funeral feast - a memorial feast at the grave of Igor.

A close look at the legends how Olga took revenge on the Drevlyans three times, reveals the symbolic meaning of the subtext of the legend: each revenge corresponds to one of the elements of the pagan funeral rite. According to the customs of that time, the dead were buried by placing them in a boat; a bath was prepared for the deceased, and then his corpse was burned, on the day of burial a feast was arranged, accompanied by military games. This story about Olga's three revenges was already read in the "Initial Code". Another legend was added to The Tale of Bygone Years - about the fourth revenge of the princess.

Having killed the squad of the Drevlyans, Olga nevertheless could not take their capital - the city of Iskorosten. Then the princess again resorted to cunning. She turned to the besieged, convincing them that she was not going to impose a heavy tribute on them, as Igor once did, but asked for an insignificant ransom: three sparrows and three doves from the house. The Drevlyans again did not guess about Olga's deceit and readily sent her the required tribute. Then Olga's warriors, on her orders, tied “tser” (burned tinder, dried tinder fungus) to the paws of the birds and released them. The birds flew to their nests, and soon the whole city was on fire. People who tried to flee were captured by Olga's soldiers. So, according to legend, the princess avenged the death of her husband.

The chronicler enthusiastically depicts son of Igor - Svyatoslav, his militancy, chivalrous directness (he seemed to have warned his enemies in advance: “I want to go to you”), unpretentiousness in everyday life. The chronicle tells about Svyatoslav's campaigns against Byzantium: he almost reached Constantinople and, having conquered the Balkan countries, suggested moving his capital to the Danube, because there, according to him, “there is the middle of the earth”, where all the blessings flow - precious metals, expensive fabrics , wine, horses and slaves. But the plans of Svyatoslav were not destined to come true: he died, falling into an ambush of the Pechenegs at the Dnieper rapids.

After the death of Svyatoslav between his sons - Oleg, Yaropolk and Vladimir - internecine struggle broke out. Came out a winner Vladimir, who became in 980 the sole ruler of Russia.

In the section "The Tale of Bygone Years", dedicated to the reign Vladimir, the theme of the baptism of Russia occupies a large place. The chronicle reads the so-called "Philosopher's Speech" with which a Greek missionary allegedly turned to Vladimir, urging the prince to accept Christianity. "The Philosopher's Speech" was of great importance for the Old Russian reader. cognitive value- it summarized the whole "sacred history" and reported the basic principles of the Christian faith.

Various folk legends were grouped around the name of Vladimir. They were also reflected in the annals - in memories of the generosity of the prince, his crowded feasts, where almost all combatants were invited, about the exploits of unknown heroes who lived during the time of this prince, - about the victory of the kozhemyaki youth over the Pecheneg hero or about the old man, with his wisdom liberated the city of Belgorod from the siege of the Pechenegs. These legends will be discussed below.

After the death of Vladimir in 1015, internecine strife flared up again between his sons. Svyatopolk is the son of Yaropolk and a captive nun, whom Vladimir, having killed his brother, made his wife, killed his own stepbrothers Boris and Gleb. The chronicle reads short story about the fate of the princes-martyrs, about the struggle of Yaroslav Vladimirovich with Svyatopolk, which ended in a military defeat of the latter and a terrible divine retribution. When Svyatopolk, defeated in battle. turned to flight, the demon “attacked” him, “and weakening his bones, he could not sit on horses.” It seems to Svyatopolk that a chase is following him, he hurries his warriors, who carry him on a stretcher. "We are persecuted by God's wrath", Svyatopolk dies in the "desert" (in a remote, uninhabited place) between Poland and the Czech Republic, and from his grave, according to the chronicle, "comes ... the stench of evil." The chronicler takes the opportunity to emphasize that the terrible death of Svyatopolk should serve as a warning to the Russian princes, to save them from the resumption of fratricidal strife.

In 1037, the chronicle tells about the construction activities of Yaroslav(in particular, about the laying of the famous St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the fortress walls with the Golden Gate, etc.). Of great importance is the dying testament of Yaroslav, placed in the article of 1054, urging his sons to live in peace, to protect the land "of their fathers and grandfather”, which they acquired “by their great labor”, to obey the eldest in the family - the Kyiv prince.

The last decade of the 11th century was full of stormy events. After internecine wars, the instigator and indispensable participant of which was Oleg Svyatoslavich (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” calls him Oleg Gorislavlich), the princes gather in 1097 in Lyubech for a congress, at which they decide from now on to live in peace and friendship, keep the father’s possessions and do not encroach on other people's inheritances. However, immediately after the congress, a new atrocity happened: the Volyn prince Davyd Igorevich convinced Kyiv prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich that the Terebovl prince Vasilko is plotting against them. Svyatopolk and Davyd lured Vasilko to Kyiv, captured him and gouged out his eyes. This event shocked all the princes: Vladimir Monomakh, according to the chronicler, complained that there was no such evil in Russia "neither under our grandfathers, nor under our fathers." In the article of 1097 we find a detailed story about dramatic fate Vasilko Terebovskiy; it was probably written specifically for the chronicle and is fully included in its composition.

We do not know exactly how the final part of The Tale of Bygone Years, second edition, looked like. In the Laurentian Chronicle, the text of the article of 1110 is artificially cut off: the chronicler Sylvester's entry immediately follows the story of a miraculous sign in the Caves Monastery, which is regarded as the appearance of an angel; at the same time, in the Ipatiev Chronicle, after the description of the sign, there is a discussion about angels, which, undoubtedly, was included in the original text of the article of 1110, that is, it should have been present in the text of the second edition of The Tale of Bygone Years. In addition, it is not known whether the article of 1110 was the last in this edition: after all, Sylvester's postscript says that he wrote the "books of the chronicler" in 1116. The question of the relationship between the second edition of The Tale of Bygone Years and the third edition remains controversial. , as well as with what kind of text the second edition of the Tale ended.

"The Tale of Igor's Campaign". Idea content, art form, connection with folklore.

"Words about Igor's Campaign" was opened famous collector of ancient Russian manuscripts Count A.I. Musin-Pushkin at the end of the 18th century. Since that time, an intensive study of this outstanding monument began. ancient Russian literature.

The researchers analyzed the text of the Lay, its artistic merits, language, considered the ideological concept of the monument, the historical outlook of its author, found out the circumstances of the discovery of the manuscript of the Lay and the principles of its publication. Most of these issues are currently sufficiently deeply and comprehensively studied.

Controversy about the time of writing the Lay

In the research literature on the "Word" a significant place is occupied by the controversy about the authenticity of the monument or about the time of its creation.

Distrust of the antiquity of the Lay arose after the destruction of the manuscript in a fire in 1812. There were several reasons for the emergence of a “skeptical view” on the antiquity of the Lay. First, at the beginning of the 19th century. scientists knew too little about the literature of Ancient Russia, and therefore the "Word" seemed to them unnaturally perfect for the level of artistic culture of Kievan Rus. Secondly , confused obscure, "dark places" of the "Words", an abundance of incomprehensible words in it, which at first they tried to explain on the basis of other Slavic languages. But the main reason for the emergence of distrust in the "Lay" was that trend in Russian historiography of the early 19th century, which is called "skeptical school". Doubt about the authenticity of the "Word" was only a particular episode in this trend: "skeptics" also questioned the antiquity of Russian chronicles, a collection of ancient Russian laws - "Russian Truth", the writings of Cyril of Turov, etc.

In the middle of the 19th century after opening "Zadonshchina" (about Dmitry Donskoy and Mamai "Golden Horde"), eldest of known lists which dates back to the end of the 15th century, there is no longer any doubt about the antiquity of the Lay. However, in the 90s. same century Louis Léger put forward the hypothesis that it was not the author of the Zadonshchina who imitated the Lay, but, on the contrary, the Lay is an imitation of the Zadonshchina. This assumption was developed by L. Leger in the works of the French scientist, academician A. Mazon, and later in the works of the Soviet historian A. A. Zimina . A. A. Zimin believed that the Lay was written on the basis of the Zadonshchina in the 18th century. and its author was Joel Bykovsky, the Yaroslavl archimandrite, from whom A.I. Musin-Pushkin acquired the collection with the Lay.

Subsequent studies of the entire sum of issues raised in the hypothesis of A. A. Zimin: the relationship between the Lay and Zadonshchina, the language and style of the Lay, the history of the discovery of the collection and publication of the Lay by A. I. Musin-Pushkin, personality characteristics and creativity of Joil Bykovsky - with all obviousness approved the authenticity and antiquity of the Lay.

The time of writing the "Lay" and the question of its author - the monument could have been created no later than October 1, 1187 - the time when Yaroslav Osmomysl died, since he is mentioned in the "Word" as alive.

The historical basis of the word and its main idea:

The word is based the story of the unsuccessful campaign of the Novgorod-Seversky prince Ig. St. in 1185 to the Polovtsians. The prince went on a campaign alone, resorting to the help of only three close princes (brother Buitur Vsevolod, son of Vladimir and the tribe of Svyatoslav). He did not inform the ruler of Kyiv, his elder cousin Prince Svyatoslav of Kyiv. The campaign ended in a major failure (the Polovtsians won, all the princes were captured, the honor of the whole family was desecrated, the Russian lands again began to suffer due to the Polovtsian raids (southern). The word is not a documentary accurate, consistent historical story about the campaign, but a lyric-epic response to the events of that time, i.e. the narration is conducted through the author’s personal perception and deep emotional attitude.The word poetically evaluates historical events. sounds the main idea of ​​the monument. it - Call for unity of the Russian princes(The story of an unsuccessful campaign for the author was a reason for reasoning about the tragic consequences of the disunity of the princes in Russia). The political ideal for the author of the word is a strong and authoritarian princely power. It is the throne of Kyiv that should unite the Russian princes.

Composition "Words"

The Word begins with an extensive introduction in which the author remembers the old singer "Slav" Boyan, wise and skillful, but nevertheless declares, that he will not follow this tradition in his work, he will lead his "song" "according to the epics of this time, and not according to Boyan's plan."

Having determined the chronological range of his narrative (“from the old Vladimer to the current Igor”), the author tells about Igor's daring plan to "bring" his regiments to the Polovtsian land, "drink the Don's helmet". He, as it were, "trying on" Boyan's poetic style to his theme.

Genre "Words"

The composition of the Lay is unusual for a historical story. We see that the focus of the author not so much a consistent story about the events of the campaign itself, butreasoning about him, an assessment of Igor's act, reflections on the causes of the "tightness" and sadness that has engulfed the entire Russian land in the present, an appeal to the events of the past with its victories and misfortunes. All these features of the "Word" lead us to the question of the genre of the monument. This question is all the more important because in ancient Russian literature, with its strict system of genres, the "Word" (like a number of other monuments) seems to be outside the genre system. A. N. Robinson and D. S. Likhachev compare the "Word" with the genre of the so-called "chanson de gesture" - "songs about exploits", in this case, analogies to it are, for example, "The Song of Roland" or other similar works of Western European feudal epic.