The second half of the fifteenth century saw the forma­tion of a united Russian state. Novgorod and the extensive Novgorodian lands (which had an outlet for the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean) were joined to Muscovy, together with Tver, Yaroslavl, and other lands, and also Vyazma, Gomel and Cher­nigov, […]

Historical Narrative. As in the preceding period the main works of historical narrative in the fifteenth century were the chronicles, the compilations of Russian history. Fifteenth-Century Chronicle Compilations. Unlike those of previous years, the fifteenth-century compilations have come down to us not only in later manuscripts, but often in the […]

The most noteworthy of the fifteenth-century chronicle stories are those of Moscow’s victory over Novgorod in 1471. Several of these stories have survived. One of them is Novgorodian (in a redaction of The Novgorod Fourth Chronicle) and two are Muscovite: the story in the grand prince’s compilations of 1472 (the […]

Interest in world history, evident in Russia from the eleventh century when the Russian scribes first acquired translations of the Byzantine chronicles of Georgios Hamartolos and John Malalas, was particularly strong in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It was during this period that the lengthy Russian Chronograph was […]

The Tale of Tsargrad (Constantinople).15 One interesting specimen of historical narrative was The Tale of Tsargrad» whose author humbly describes himself as “the much-sinning and wayward Nestor-Iskander”. In the sixteenth century the Tale was included in an additional section of The Russian Chronograph of 1512; but it has also survived […]

The hagiographical works of the latter half of the fifteenth century are closely linked with those of the preceding period. The traditions of Epiphanius the Most Wise were continued by hagiographers throughout the century; one of the most important representatives of this tradition, Pachomius the Logothete, con­tinued to write until […]

Unlike the record of Innocentius, the Novgorodian Life of St Michael of Klopsk was not an account by an eyewitness, but a story based on oral legends about the life and miracles of this Novgorodian saint and yurodiviy (fool-in-Christ) who supported the princes of Moscow. But this vita too is […]

The Life of St Peter, Prince of the Horde was also a vita-cum-tale, based on oral tradition. The hero is a pious Mongol prince who lived in the Horde, heard a sermon by an Archbishop who had come to visit the Mongols, and was baptised and given the Christian name […]

Translated Tales. Fifteenth-century tales, unlike earlier ones, not only tell of historical events and famous figures in Russian history, but of all sorts of people whose lives contain events of interest to the reader. They were works of fictional prose, intended for reading, without any official or religious purpose. Translated […]

The Alexandreid was not the only work in Old Russian literature that had classical roots. In the late fifteenth and the early sixteenth century, several lengthy tales about the Trojan War came to Russia. Before the fifteenth century the myths of the Trojan cycle as retold in Book Five of […]