Княгиня Гертруда и русское летописание XI в.

Graphosphaera. Письмо и письменные практики. 2024. Т. 4. № 1. С. 26–43.

Dobrowolski D.

At the year 6538 (AD 1030), the entry on an uprising occuring in Poland after the death of King Boleslav the Brave reads in many Rus chronicles. This entry is inaccurately dated and shortens the events of about fifteen years to as little as two phrases of text. However, even such a reference of Old Rus bookmen to details of the history of a neighbouring country seems to be a significant phenomenon, and makes us wonder how the information about the events in Poland could reach the historiographers based in the Kievan Cave Monastery. From the lexicological point of view the entry in question is close to the entry on pagan uprising on the upper Volga, found at the year 6579 (AD 1071), and to fragments of entries for 6523 (AD 1015) and 6532 (AD 1024), which show signs of interpolation. Accordingly, the entry on the Polish uprising could not be based on the information of contemporaries. A. A. Shakhmatov suggested that the source of the chronicle was the now lost life of St Anthony of Pechersk, but this hypothesis raises a number of questions. Also controversial is the argument of V. D. Korolyuk, who assumed that the chroniclers relied either on a ‘secular narrative’ about the life of Princess Predslava Vladimirovna, or on some written source of Polish origin. Most likely, chroniclers of the last quarter of 11th century had got their knowledge from conversations with the widow of Kievan Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich (1054-1078, with interruptions), Princess Gertrude, originated from the Piast dynasty of Poland. This hypothesis allows us to expand our ideas about the circle of communication of the early Rus chroniclers and possible sources of their awareness.

Keywords: текстология, textual criticism, древнерусское летописание, prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich, князь Изяслав Ярославич, Old-Rusian chronicles, 11 c., Rus and Poland, princess Gertrude, XI в., Русь и Польша, княгиня Гертруда