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«Убийцы великого князя Андрея»: Надпись об убийстве Андрея Боголюбского из Переславля-Залесского
The present paper deals with a long inscription which was uncovered in the autumn of 2015 on t he external wall of t he southern apse of t he 12th century Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky. It contains an almost fully
legible list of assassins of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrey Yuryevich, who was murdered in Bogolyubovo on June 29th, 1174. The writer places a curse on the murderers and wishes eternal memory to the prince. The graffito probably dates from 1175–1176 when Andrey’s younger brother Vsevolod Yuryevich ruled in Pereyaslavl. It is the oldest inscription from the North-Eastern Rus’ to have a fairly precise dating. The discovery corroborates the general accuracy of the chronicles in respect to the murder and serves as a source for the study of Old Russian princely titles and other terms of social hierarchy. Andrey Yuryevich is called the grand prince and his murderers are collectively given the pejorative name of parobki (servants) despite t he h igh s ocial s tatus o f at l east some of them. As the first example of anathematising state c riminals i n Rus’, the inscription has relevance for church history as well.