Borovkov D.A. Critical interpretations of Yaroslav I's Testament in the Historiography of the 20th – 21st Centuries (from the Svod of Nikon to the Nachalnyi Svod)

Abstract: The object of research is the analysis of the critical interpretations of the chronicle tale about the testament ("ryad") of Yaroslav I (Yaroslav the Wise) in the Tale of Past Years ("Povest vremennyh let") under the year 1054, formulated in the source-study works of N. V. Shlyakov, A. A. Shakhmatov, L.V. Cherepnin, A. A. Gippius, V. Y. Petruhin and others. Particular attention is given to the question of the attribution of the chronicle tale to the year 1054 between the two development stages of the ancient Rus chronicle tradition, conventionally named the Svod of Nikon and the Nachalnyi Svod. By means of a comparative-contrastive analysis of the historiographical sources the author identifies the main and particular features in the formation of the critical perception on the testament of Yaroslav I and corrects the existing historiographical views on interpreting this phenomenon. As a result of the conducted research, it is demonstrated for the first time in historiography that in 20th-century works on history of the Ancient Rus chronicle writing dominated the attribution of the chronicle tale of Yaroslav I's testament to the Svod of Nikon in 1072-1073, as suggested in 1907-1908 by N. V. Shlyakov and A. A. Shakhmatov. In the beginning of the 21st century began a gradual transformation of this historiographical perception that resulted in the dominant attribution of this chronicle tale being made to the Nachalnyi Svod of 1090s, an attribution that traces back to the hypothesis formulated by L. V. Cherepnin in 1948.

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