Table Of ContentThe Russian Primary Chronicle
Laurentian Text
Translated and edited by
SAMUEL HAZZARD CROSS
AND
OLGERD P. SHERBOW1TZ-WETZOR
THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
The publication of this boo\ was made possible by a grant
from the Reisinger Fund of the Department of Slavic
Languages and Literatures of Harvard University.
Copyright by
THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
L ibrary of Congress C atalog N o:
53-10264
PRINTED AT CRIMSON PRINTING COMPANY
ß CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Table of Contents
Preface..............................................................................................
Note on Transliteration.................................................................... **
M a p s .............................................................................................x-xi
In tro d u c tio n .....................................................................................3
Laurentian Text....................................................................................51
Appendix I: The Testament of Vladimir Monomakh . . 206
Appendix II: A. Letter of Vladimir Monomakh to Oleg,
Son of Svyastoslav......................................216
B. Prayer attributed to Vladimir Monomakh . 218
Notes to Introduction.....................................................................220
Notes to the Russian Primary Chronicle......................................231
Notes to Appendix I .....................................................................285
Notes to Appendix I I .....................................................................287
Selected Bibliography..........................................................................288
Table of Princes.............................................................................297
Genealogy of the Rurikids. . . . . . following 298
Index of Names...................................................................... .299
Preface
This translation is based on the English version published by the late
Professor Samuel Hazzard Cross in Volume XII (1930) of the Harvard
Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, which was the first
English rendering of this highly important Slavic source. Professor
Cross, however, was not entirely satisfied with this first edition of his
translation and intended, for a long time, to prepare a new, revised
and enlarged, edition of this work, which was to be accompanied with
commentaries. But his many activities during World War II did not
allow him to prosecute this task with desired speed; and his premature
death occurred while he was still working on it.
1 have had the honor and the pleasure of being associated with
Professor Cross for many years in the domain of our common interest:
mediaeval Slavic texts. I regarded it, therefore, as a great privilege
when the Mediaeval Academy of America invited me, after his death,
to take over his unfinished work and to prepare it for publication. In
carrying out this task, the greatest attention has been given to the
identification and incorporation into the final text of everything that
had been left by Cross, even in scattered notes and remarks, and, even
while bringing it here and there up to date, to keeping the organiza
tion of the work along the lines envisaged by Cross.
For permission to use the 1930 version as a basis for this revised
translation both I and the Mediaeval Academy of America express
grateful appreciation to the President and Fellows of Harvard College
and to Dr. Thomas J. Wilson, Director of the Harvard University
Press.
P.
Georgetown University O lgerd Sherbowitz-W etzor
1 April 1953
N ote on Translitetation
The system of transcribing Russian names and terms adopted in
this volume is intended to reproduce exactly, in Latin letters, their
original spelling without, however, having recourse to symbols wholly
alien to the English usage. Hence combinations of letters (like sh, ch,
ts, etc.), rather than single letters, with or without diacritical marks (like
S, 6, c, etc.), are employed to represent various Russian letters and
sounds. Nevertheless, a few diacritical marks are still used. The
modern Russian orthography is adhered to throughout, except in some
quotations from old texts, ancient terms, and titles of works published
before 1917.
Only two diacritical marks are used: “ÿ” to represent the letter H as
distinct from the letter and sound represented by “y”, and * to repre
sent b or “soft sign.” In the few cases where the ancient régime ortho
graphy is used, “ë” represents the letter h. On the other hand, Œ» or
“hard sign” is not transcribed, nor are the rarer letters of the ancien
régime alphabet like i, v, 6. “Y” is used to represent the letter Û as
well as the first element in the iotated diphthongs SL = “ya” and K)
= “yu”.
Some traditional Western renderings of Russian names have been
retained, such, e.g., as “Olga” for “Ol'ga”, “Rurik” for “Ryurik”,
“Volhynia”, “Volhynian” for “Volyn* ”, “Volÿnian”, and, finally, the
ending—“sky” for “-skiy” in family names.
G
¥
4l
»
»
*
V
