What is the annals?

Expanding the question of what a chronicle is, it is necessary to say that it, being a documentary confirmation of the history of Ancient Rus, is a hand-written collection of works that reveal events in chronological order.

These documents are of interest to historians, linguists, ethnologists and philologists, as they are a source of study of past years, thanks to which we have the opportunity to learn the events of a certain era, as well as language, culture and customs. In addition, on their basis, modern history is written.

Chronicles of ancient Russia were written both by individuals (Nestor the Chronicler) and by whole groups (Ipatievsky monastery). To date, the historical vaults are not preserved in the original, they exist in copies copied from the source.

The most ancient document of Rus is considered to be the "Tale of Bygone Years", which was written in Kiev in the 12th century. The task of the compilers was to describe the historical events that took place throughout the country. Until the 17th century chroniclers wrote whole books at the monasteries and princes' courts. This profession was respected by people, because it was believed that it helps create a huge heritage for descendants.

Considering what a chronicle is, it should be noted that it takes its name from the words "In the summer ...", from which each story began. Such records were gradually collected in vaults, which were divided into categories depending on the place of their compilation or described events (Kiev, Pskov, Novgorod and others). All of them differed in expressions and selections of news, as a result of which they eventually began to be divided into so-called izvody.

Chronicles were written in many ancient Russian cities, the main ones are the following:

1. Laurentian list (origin unknown) - reveals the origin of Kievan Rus and describes the reign of Prince Vladimir. Most of its content is "The Tale of Bygone Years".

2. Nestorovsky or Khlebnikovsky list (the origin is unknown) - describes the reign of Alexander I.

3. Radziwill's list (written in the XV century) - has many illustrations, therefore called facial. The first copy was made in 1716, and in 1767 it was printed completely without any corrections.

Thus, knowing what a chronicle is, let's consider how it was compiled. So, the source for writing documents were small notes of incidents compiled in chronological order, as well as various legends and songs. All materials were processed by the compiler and based on them historical arches were written.

Depending on the place of the events described, Novgorod, Kiev, Pskov annals are distinguished, as well as Galician-Volhynian and chronicles of northeastern Rus.

Old Russian literature is - these are historical monuments that have survived to our days and played a great role in the formation of our Motherland. And although in times of wars the opponents massively destroyed the storehouses of books in manors and monasteries, we still have the opportunity to study the history of the copies made from primary sources.

However, not all the chronicles are official, many of them have private notes (for example, in the narrative of the campaign of Prince John Vasilievich to Ugra, one can meet Vasian's letter). Also, some people contributed to them the service time of their ancestors, and chronographs - Russian events.

Thus, figuring out what the record is And how it was created, we can conclude that to date, thanks to these historical and literary documents, we have an idea of the life, customs and culture of our ancestors. This heritage plays an important role in the development of modern society.