In the fourteenth century, as in the preceding period, a bitter struggle continued between the Russian principalities for political and economic supremacy. This internecine strife profited the Horde, because it undermined the forces that could have re­sisted Mongol oppression. The khans of the Horde encouraged this internal struggle between the […]

No substantial changes or new phenomena appeared in chronicle-writing during this period, by comparison with the preceding one. The beginning of the fourteenth century is the date of the Synodal manuscript of The Novgorod First Chronicle, a compilation of earlier Novgorodian chronicles brought up to date with additional entries (this […]

In 1327 there was an uprising in Tver against the khan’s baskak4 Chol-Khan (Shevkal, Shchelkan). Chol- Khan was killed together with all the Mongols (Tartars) who had come with him. This event was reflected in chronicle tales. The earliest Tale of Shevkal is in The Rogozh Chronicle and in the […]

Hagiography. As with chronicle-writing, in the first half of the fourteenth century we find the same phenomena in hagiography as in the preceding period. Vitae of both princes and churchmen were written. The Lives of princes continued the traditions both of the heroic type (the Pskov Tale of Dovmont) and of […]

In November 1318, during the political struggle between the princes of Tver and Moscow for the grand principality of Vladimir, Prince Michael of Tver was killed in the Horde due to the intrigues of the Moscow Prince Yuri, son of Daniel. This event formed the subject of The Tale of […]

The Life of Metropolitan Peter was most likely written in the first half of 1327 by someone close to the metropolitan and the Grand Prince of Moscow. The Life was commissioned by Ivan the Money-Bag: it was essential to canonise and extol the person who had transferred the Metropolitan See […]

During the period of the Mongol invasion and rule Russia’s relations with foreign centres of culture became far more difficult, but were not broken off completely, as we can see from the appearance of translated literary works in North-Eastern Russia during this period. We referred above to Bulgarian literature as […]

Ever since ancient times India was reputed to be a wonderful, immensely rich land inhabited by strange creatures. One legend said that India was ruled by a mighty ruler called John, who was both emperor and presbyter. To the mediaeval mind remote, mysterious India was a land where people knew […]

For the people of the Middle Ages, whose thinking was dominated by religious ideology, paradise must have seemed even more splendid than idyllic India. They longed to see this paradise on earth. Therefore the search for an earthly paradise was a most popular theme in mediaeval literature. The Tale of […]

The Lay of the Twelve Dreams of Emperor Shakhaishi originates from an Oriental source. This source is unknown, but motifs of a similar character and content have been found in a Tibetan legend, a Buddhist tale and a number of other Oriental works.20 The Lay became known in the South-Slavonic […]