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Еще раз о берестяной грамоте № 724
The article contains a critical assessment of two alternative interpretations of the birchbark letter № 724, proposed by the editors (V. L. Yanin and A. A. Zalizniak, 1995, 1996) and by P. V. Petrukhin (2009). According to the former, the document, in which the author describes the difficulties of collecting tribute in the north-eastern periphery of the Novgorod Land, was written in 1161-1167, this dating being based on the identification of Zakharia and Andrei mentioned in the text with Novgorod posadnik Zakharia (1161-1167) and Suzdal’ prince Andrey Bogolyubsky. However, as Petrukhin has convincingly shown, the editors’ treatment of the conflict doesn’t match to the political circumstances of this period as they are known from the chronicles. According to Petrukhin, the document was written half a century later and reflects a routine conflict between local administrators rather than political confrontation of Novgorod and Suzdal’. In the present paper I argue that the editors’ interpretation allows modification in the light of Petrukhin’s criticism which doesn’t presuppose re-dating of the document and retains valid identification of Zakharia and Andrey with historical figures of the 1160-s as well as the linguistic analysis proposed by Zalizniak.