Татары и идентичность руси: взгляд Летописца Даниила Галицкого

Диалог со временем. 2026. № 94. С. 225–239.

Stefanovich P.

The author of article analyzes the story from the so-called Galician–Volhynian Chronicle about the trip of prince Daniel of Galicia to the residence of Khan Batu in early 1246. Based on textual studies of the chronicle, he reconstructs the original form of the story, written by the Volynian chronicler, probably soon after 1246. Then he reveals the symbolic meaning of the original story. In his opinion, the chronicler described the meeting of the Rus’ian prince and the Tatar khan as a clash of different cultures and pointed out the danger of losing his own identity, to which prince Daniil was exposed. The peculiarity of this story is that the chronicler distinguished between “his own” (the Rus’) and “foreigners” (the Mongols) not only according to religious and political criteria (as was usually done by the authors of other Rus’ian texts of the second half of the 13th–14th centuries), but also according to ethnocultural criteria. The author of the article reads this code of ethnic distinction in the scene of direct communication between the two rulers, when Khan Batu, offering Daniel the Mongolian drink (a special kind of kumis), claimed that the prince had already become one of "ours" - a Tatar. This interpretation is substantiated by comparison with other stories and episodes from earlier Rus’ian chronicles.

Keywords: history of Old Russia, история Древней Руси, Золотая Орда, Golden Horde, Russian identity, Даниил Галицкий, Daniil of Galich, русская идентичность

Publication based on the results of: Language, literature and culture in historical and social perspective (2025)