English

Vilkul, Tatyana Leonidovna; Nikolaev, Sergey Lvovich. Rus’ within and without the lists of peoples in the Primary Rus’ Chronicle

Published Date:

For citation: Vilkul, Tatyana Leonidovna; Nikolaev, Sergey Lvovich. Rus’ within and without the lists of peoples in the Primary Rus’ Chronicle, in Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2020. № 1. Pp. 138-160. DOI https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu19.2020.107

Title of the article Rus’ within and without the lists of peoples in the Primary Rus’ Chronicle 
Authors

Vilkul, Tatyana Leonidovna — Doctor in History, Leading Researcher, Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0003-2737-8372;

Nikolaev, Sergey Lvovich — Doctor in Philology, Leading Researcher, Institut for Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0001-7974-7278. 
In the section  Miscellanea / Miscellanea
Year 2020 Issue  1 Pages  138-160
Type of article RAR Index UDK; BBK  947.02; 63.3 (0) Index DOI  https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu19.2020.107
Abstract Scholars usually try to clear up the origine of the word Rus’, scantly attending the peculiarities of distribution of this name within the Primary Chronicle. At the same time endless discussion concerning the meaning of the ethnonym Rus’ to a large degree bound to the complex textual history of the chronicle. There are many textual discrepancies in this compilation, which arose as a result of discord in its sources. Compilers of the Chronicle have at their disposal previous writings, oral tradition and the Byzantine texts translated into Slavic. Considering the mention of Rus’ as ethnonym and politonym, we can distinguish two kinds of records. First, Rus’ along with other ethnonyms occurs in several lists of peoples. Second, Rus’ appears alone in the Chronicle’s narrative. The aim of this paper is to explore the peculiarities of use of Rus’ in both cases. Rus’ alone is found mainly in the borrowings from the Byzantine sources and correlated with them texts in the chronical entries of the 9th–10th centuries. These are description of the campaigns against Constantinople and the treaties with the Greeks (about 60 mentions). While impact of translated texts onto the Chronicle is weakening, Rus’ alone appears from the last third of the 10th century also in the non-Byzantine narrative. Simultaneously, frequency of occurance is faded away: 11th and the beginning of the 12th century include about 15 mentions. Thus, it seems that the Byzantine texts, including the Chronicle of George Hamartolos, the Life of Basil the New, as well as the treaties with Greeks, contributed to preserve the ethnonym Rus’. A paradox is that the layer with the borrowings from Byzantine sources is believed to belong to the posterior constituent of the Primary Chronicle. As for the lists of peoples, which are found chiefly at the beginning of the Chronicle, some of them have apparently late origin, but others demonstrate unexpected depth of memory. The latter include enumeration of the descendants of biblical Japheth, inhabitants of the northern part of the universe, found in the Introduction of the Primary Chronicle. Early «Japhethic Lists» enumerate Fenno-Ugric tribes, followed by the Baltic and West European peoples dwelling along the Baltic sea on the way from the mouth of Western Dvina to the Scandinavian coast, and thence past England and Spain to the Mediterranean. Rome mentioned several times as the end of the journey, as well as some others details, might suppose a textual source or oral tradition preceding the Great Schism of the 1054. It is important that the lists of peoples demonstrate mess of use of the ethnonyms Rus’ and Varangians in the Chronicle, which overlap each other and demonstrate change of meaning. 
Keywords Old Rus’, medieval chronicles, ethnonym Rus’, politonym Rus’, ethnic categories, ethnicity
Full text version of the article. Article language Russian 
Bibliography

  • Aristov, Vadim Yurieyvich. Koli і yak vinik Pochatkoviy lіtopisniy zvіd? [When and how was the ‘Initial compilation’ created?], in Ukrainskiy іstorichniy zhurnal. 2015. No. 2. Pp. 148–162. (in Ukrainian).

    Bauer, Adolf; Helm, Rudolf (eds). Hippolytus Werke. Bd IV. Die Chronik [Hippolytus works. Vol. IV. The Chronicle]. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag Publ., 1955. 218 р. (in German).

    Eremeev, Ivan Igorevich; Dzyuba, Olga Fedorovna. Ocherki istoricheskoy geografii lesnoy chasti puti iz varyag v greki: Arkheologicheskie i paleogeograficheskie issledovaniya mezhdu Zapadnoy Dvinoy i ozerom Il’men [Essays on the historical geography of the forest part of the way «from the Varangians to the Greeks»: Archaeological and paleogeographic studies between the Western Dvina and Lake Ilmen]. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya Publ., 2010 (Institute for the History of Material Culture Proceedings. Vol. XXXIII). 670 p. (in Russian).

    Filipchuk, Oleksandr Mikhaylovich. Skhіdniy shlyakh rusіv u De Administrando imperio [The eastern path of Rus’ in De Administrando imperio], in Χερσωνος θεματα: «imperiya» i «polis». Sevastopol, 2013. Pp. 127–136. (in Ukrainian).

    Gimon, Timofey Valentinovich. Letopisanie i razvitie pismennoy kul’tury (Novgorod, XI – pervaya polovina XII v.) [Annalistic writing and the development of written culture (Novgorod of the 11th and the first half of the 12th centuries)], in Slovĕne: International Journal of Slavic Studies. 2015. Vol. 4. No. 1. Pp. 94–110. (in Russian).

    Gippius, Aleksey Alekseevich. Dva nachala Nachal’noy letopisi: k istorii kompozitsii Povesti vremennykh let [Two beginnings of the Primary Chronicle: On the history of composition of the Tale of Bygone Years], in Verenitsa liter: K 60-letiyu V. M. Zhivova. Moscow: «Languages of Slavic Сulture» Publ., 2006. Pp. 56–96 (in Russian).

    Gippius, Aleksey Alekseevich. Do i posle Nachal’nogo svoda: Rannyaya letopisnaya istoriya Rusi kak ob’ekt tekstologicheskoy rekonstruktsii [Before and after the Initial Compilation: The early annalistic history of Rus’ as an subject of textual reconstruction], in Rus’ v IX–X vekakh: Arkheologicheskaya panorama. Moscow; Vologda: Drevnosti severa Publ., 2012. Pp. 37–63. (in Russian).

    Glazyrina, Galina Vasilyevna; Jackson, Tatyana Nikolaevna (eds). Drevnerusskie goroda v drevneskandinavskoy pismennosti. Teksty. Perevod. Kommentariy [Old Russian towns in the Old Skandinavian literature. Texts. Translations. Comments]. Moscow: «Nauka» Publ., 1987. 209 p. (in Russian).

    Gorskiy, Anton Anatolyevich. Rus’ «ot roda frankov» [Rus’ «from the Francs’ genus»], in Drevnyaya Rus’: Voprosy medievistiki. No. 2 (32). 2008. Pp. 55–59. (in Russian).

    Gorskiy, Anton Anatolyevich; Pleterskiy, Andrey; Puzanov, Viktor Vladimirovich; Shuvalov, Petr Valeryevich. «Plemya» v slavyanskom mire v rannee srednevekov’e (FORUM) [«Slavic World» in the early Middle Ages: search of a form (Forum)], in Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2016. No. 1. Pp. 3–11. (in Russian).

    Istrin, Vasiliy Mikhaylovich. Knigy vremen’nyya i obraznyya Georgiya Mnikha. Khronika Georgiya Amartola v drevnem slavyano-russkom perevode [Books of Times and Characters by George Monk. The Chronicle of George Hamartolos in the Old Slavic-Russian translation]. Vol. 1: Text. Petrograd: Russian State Academic Printing House, 1920. 612 p. (in Russian).

    Kostromin, Konstantin. K voprosu ob avtorstve letopisnogo skazaniya ob apostole Andree [On the problem of authorship of Apostle Andrew legend in the Primary Сhronicle], in Khristianskoe chtenie. No. 6. 2015. Pp. 22–38. (in Russian).

    Lukin, Pavel Vladimirovich. Vostochnoslavyanskie «plemena» i ikh knyazya: konstruirovanie istorii v drevney Rusi [East Slavic «tribes» and their princes: constructing history in Old Rus’], in Slavyane i ikh sosedi: XXV konferentsiya. Predaniya i mify o proiskhozhdenii vlasti epokhi Srednevekovya i rannego Novogo vremeni: Materialy konferentsii. Moscow, 2010. Pp. 257–285. (in Russian).

    Melnikova, Elena Aleksandrovna. Drevneskandinavskie geograficheskie sochineniya [Old Skandinavian geographical literature]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1986. 194 p. (in Russian).

    Melnikova, Elena. The lists of Old Norse personal names in Russian-Byzantine treaties of the 10th century, in Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica. Tidskrift for personnamnsforskning. Vol. 22. 2004. Pp. 5–27.

    Melnikova, Elena Aleksandrovna; Petrukhin, Vladimir Yakovlevich. Nazvanie «Rus’» v etnokul’turnoy istorii Drevnerusskogo gosudarstva [The name «Rus’» in ethnocultural history of the Old Russian state], in Voprosy istorii. 1989. No. 8. Pp. 24–38. (in Russian).

    Mikheev, Savva Mikhaylovich. Kto pisal «Povest’ vremennykh let»? [Who wrote the Tale of Bygone Years?]. Moscow: Indrik Publ., 2011. 280 p. (in Russian).

    Moravczik, Gyula (ed.); Jenkins, Romilly James Heald (transl.) Constantine Porphyrogenitus De administrando imperio. New, revised edition. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1967. 341 p.

    Nasonov, Arseniy Nikolaevich (ed.). Novgorodskaya pervaya letopis’ starshego i mladshego izvodov [Novgorod I Chronicle of seniour and younger editions]. Moscow; Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR Press, 1950. 641 p. (in Russian).

    Nasonov, Arseniy Nikolaevich. Russkaya zemlya i obrazovanie territorii Drevnerusskogo gosudarstva: Istoriko-geograficheskoe issledovanie [Russian land and formation of the Old Russian state’s territory: Historical and geographical studies]. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR Press, 1951. 282 p. (in Russian).

    Nazarenko, Aleksandr Vasilyevich. Drevnyaya Rus’ na mezhdunarodnykh putyakh: Mezhdistsiplinarnye ocherki kul’turnykh, torgovykh, politicheskikh svyazey IX–XII vv. [Old Rus’ on international routes: Interdisciplinary sketches about cultural, commercial, political ties in the 9th–12th centuries]. Moscow: «Languages of Russian Culture» Publ., 2001. 784 p. (in Russian).

    Nikolaev, Sergey Lvovich. K etimologii i sravnitel’no-istoricheskoy fonetike imen severogermanskogo (skandinavskogo) proiskhozhdeniya v «Povesti vremennykh let» [Etymology and comparative phonology of North Germanic personal names in the Primary Chronicle], in Voprosy onomastiki. Vol. 14. No. 2. 2017. Pp. 7–54 (in Russian).

    Ostrowski, Donald. The Nachalnyj Svod Theory and the Povest’ vremennykh let, in Russian linguistics. Vol. 31. 2007. Pp. 269–308.

    Ostrowski, Donald. The Povest’ vremennykh let: An interlinear collation and paradosis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003. Parts 1–3. 2166 p.

    Petrukhin, Vladimir Yakovlevich. Rus’ v IX–X vekakh. Ot prizvaniya varyagov do vybora very [Rus’ in the 9th–10th centuries. From the calling of Varangians to the choice of faith]. Moscow: Forum; Neolit Publ., 2014. 464 p. (in Russian).

    Petrukhin, Vladimir Yakovlevich. «Rus’ i vsi yazytsi». Aspekty istoricheskikh vzaimosvyazey: Istoriko-arkheologicheskie ocherki [«Rus’ and all peoples». Aspects of historical relationships: Historical and archaeological essays]. Moscow: «Languages of Slavic Сultures» Publ., 2011. 384 p. (in Russian).

    Podskalsky, Gerhard. Khristianstvo i bogoslovskaya literatura v Kievskoy Rusi (988–1237) [Christianity and theological literature in Kievan Rus’ (988–1237)]. St. Petersburg: Vizantinorossika Publ., 1996. 572 p. (in Russian).

    Scheel, Roland. Skandinavien und Byzanz: Bedingungen und Konsequenzen mittelalterlicher Kulturbeziehungen [Scandinavia and Byzantium: Prerequisites and Consequences of Medieval Cultural Relations], in Historische Semantik. Bd 23. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Publ., 2015. 1343 p. (in German).

    Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich. Povest’ vremennykh let: Vvedenie. Tekst. Kommentarii [The Primary Chronicle. Introduction. Text. Comments]. Vol. 1. Petrograd, 1916. 402 p. (Reprint: Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich. Istoriya russkogo letopisaniya [History of the Russian chronicle writing]. Vol. 1. Book 2. St. Petersburg, 2003. Pp. 527–977). (in Russian).

    Shchavelev, Aleksey Sergeevich. V samykh zhe verkhov’yakh reki Dnepr obitayut Rosy… (DAI. 42. 60–61): K voprosu o pervom upominanii torgovo-remeslennogo poseleniya rusi u d. Gnezdovo [On the higher reaches of the Dnieper river live the Rhoses… (DAI. 42. 60–61): About the first reference of emporia near the village Gnezdovo], in Mіsta Davnoi Rusi. Kyiv, 2014. Pp. 369–373. (in Russian).

    Shchavelev, Aleksey Sergeevich. «Plemena» vostochnykh slavyan: etapy zavoevaniya i stepen’ zavisimosti ot derzhavy Ryurikovichey v X v. [East Slavs «tribes»: stages of conquest and degree of dependence from the Ryurikovichi state in the 10th century], in Rus’ epokhi Vladimira Velikogo: Gosudarstvo, tserkov’, kul’tura. Moscow; Vologda, 2017. Pp. 24–48. (in Russian).

    Stefanovich, Petr Sergeevich. K voprosu o ponyatii rus’ v drevneyshem letopisanii [On the problem of the name rus’ in the earliest Rus’ian chronicles], in Slověne. 2018. Vol. 7. No. 2. Pp. 356–382. (in Russian).

    Tvorogov, Oleg Viktorovich (ed.) Povest’ vremennykh let, in Likhachev, Dmitriy Sergeevich; Dmitriev, Lev Aleksandrovich; Alekseev, Anatoliy Alekseevich; Ponyrko, Natalya Vladimirovna (eds). Biblioteka literatury Drevney Rusi. RAN. IRLI [The Library of Ancient Rus’ Literature. Institute of Russian Literature (RAS)]. St. Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 1997. Vol. 1: XI–XII veka. 543 p. (in Russian).

    Tvorogov, Oleg Viktorovich. Povest’ vremennykh let i Nachal’niy svod (tekstologicheskiy kommentariy) [The Primary Chronicle and the Initial Compilation (textological commentary)], in Trudy otdela drevnerusskoy literatury. Vol. XXX. 1976. Pp. 3–26. (in Russian).

    Tolochko, Aleksey Petrovich. Ocherki nachal’noy Rusi [Essays on Early Rus’]. Kyiv; St. Petersburg: Laurus Publ., 2015. 336 p. (in Russian).

    Vvedenskiy, Anton Mikhaylovich. Vremya vneseniya v letopis’ legendy ob Andree Pervozvannom i ee sostav [The time of the insertion of the legend about Andrew the First-Called into the Chronicle and its composition], in Rossica Antiqua. 2012. No. 2 (6). Pp. 3–23. (in Russian).

    Vedyushkina, Irina Vitalyevna. «Rus’» i «Russkaya zemlya» v Povesti vremennykh let i letopisnykh stat’yakh vtoroy treti XІІ – pervoy treti XІІІ v. [«Rus’» and «Russian Land» in the Primary Chronicle and other chronicles from the second third of the 12th to the first third of the 13th century], in Drevneyshie gosudarstva Vostochnoy Evropy. Materialy i issledovaniya. 1992–1993 gg. Moscow, 1995. Pp. 101–116. (in Russian).

    Vilinskiy, Sergey Grigoryevich. Zhitie sv. Vasiliya Novogo v russkoy literature [The Life of St. Vasily the New in Russian literature]. Part ІІ: Teksty Zhitiya. Odessa, 1911. 1018 p. (in Russian).

    Vilkul, Tatyana Leonidovna. Ladoga ili Novgorod? [Ladoga or Novgorod?], in Palaeoslavica. Vol. XVI. No. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2005. Pp. 272–280. (in Russian).

    Vilkul, Tatyana Leonidovna. Letopis’ i khronograf: Tekstologiya domongol’skogo kievskogo letopisaniya [The Chronicle and Chronograph. Textology of pre-Mongol Kievan writings]. Moscow: Kvadriga Publ., 2019. 467 p. (in Russian).

    Vilkul, Tatyana Leonidovna. Novgorodskaya pervaya letopis’ i Nachal’niy svod [The Novgorod First Chronicle and the Initial Compilation], in Palaeoslavica. Vol. XI. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003. Pp. 5–35. (in Russian).

    Vries, Jan de. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Old Norse Etymological Dictionary]. Leiden: E. J. Brill Publ., 1977. 589 p.

    Zotsenko, Vladimir Nikolaevich. Istoriko-ekonomicheskie svyazi Kieva s Yugo-Vostochnoy Pribaltikoy v IX – nachale XIII vv. [Historical and economic relations of Kiev with the South-East Baltic in the 9th – early 13th centuries]: Thesis for a PhD in History degree. Kyiv, 1984. 448 p. (in Russian). 

 

Tags: Source studies, sources, ethnicity, Old Rus, tribes, medieval studies, chronicles, MISCELLANEA / MISCELLANEA, old russian chronicles, Slavic ethnicity, Communication, ethnic categories

  • Hits: 811
  English