RUSSIAN CHRONOGRAPHIC CONCEPT UNTIL THE 1660S

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Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 24
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Abstract:

The article examines the place of the Russian Chronograph, an outstanding monument of historical thought of the 16th–17th centuries, in the Russian book literature of the “rebellious” century, from overcoming the shock of the Time of Troubles to the early 1660s. We are talking about the Chronographs of the 2nd and especially the 3rd edition, the idea of the richness of the manuscript tradition of which we managed to double. And about the author’s chronographs of Pakhomiy Astrakhansky and Arseny Sukhanov based on them, which became key for subsequent reflections of chroniclers on the course of world and Russian history. The study of more than fifty major codices showed that the Russian Chronograph, although it entered the all-Russian annals in the 16th century, although it was twice radically altered in the first half of the 17th century, after the Time of Troubles it remained, as it was conceived in 1516–1522. Dosifey Toporkov, a unique historical library, with its own stable concept of the development of Rus’ and the world, which could be enriched, but not radically changed. It is possible to understand the extremely stable chronographic concept and the meaning of the changes introduced into it by 17th-century scribes only within the framework of the history of the text of the Russian Chronograph and the development of all-Russian chronicle writing as a whole. We make such an attempt, explaining the meaning of the Chronograph for scribes and readers of the 17th century, comparing its editions and interpreting the changes in the text taking into account the entire array of chronicle monuments and historical and journalistic works created at that time.
Keywords: Russian Chronograph, Chronograph editions, Dosifey Toporkov, Pakhomiy Astrakhansky, Arseny Sukhanov, Simon Azaryin, Nikon Chronicle, Sloven and Rus.
Author: Andrey P. Bogdanov
Information about the author:

Andrey P. Bogdanov, DSc in History, Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, 117036 Moscow, Russia.

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For citation:

Bogdanov, A.P. “Russian Chronographic Concept until the 1660s.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 24. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova, sci. ed. M.V. Kaplun. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 549–589. https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-549-589 (In Russian)
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/CEDSWB
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-549-589
Received: 26.02.2025
Approved after reviewing: 15.04.2025
Date of publication: 13.07.2025

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