Poloni and Rutheni, Catholics and Orthodox Christians, natio and confession in Medieval chronicles of Eastern Europe

  • Mikhail V. Dmitriev Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia; National Research University «Higher School of Economics», 20 Myasnitskaya Street, Moscow 101000, Russia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4101-8755
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33581/2520-6338-2022-1-5-18

Abstract

This article analyses evidence from Old-Russian, Ukrainian-Belarusian and Polish chronicles of the 12th–16th centuries, which displays how confessional and ethnic elements interacted, when authors were constructing their representations about Poles, Russians and Ruthenians. Analysis has shown that in the Old-Russian chronicles confessional references were somehow effacing discourses of tribal and ethnic belonging, whereas in Polish and Ukrainian-Belarusian texts Christian references were not in odds with ethnic ones.

Author Biography

Mikhail V. Dmitriev, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia; National Research University «Higher School of Economics», 20 Myasnitskaya Street, Moscow 101000, Russia

doctor of science (history), full professor; professor at the department of Southern and Western Slavic history, faculty of history, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and chief researcher at the laboratory of Medieval studies, National Research University «Higher School of Economics»

References

  1. Anderson B. Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso; 1991. 256 p.
  2. Miller AI. «Ukrainskii vopros» v politike vlastei i russkom obshchestvennom mnenii (vtoraya polovina XIX v.) [«The Ukrainian question» in state policy and public opinion (second half of the 19th century)]. Saint Petersburg: Aleteiya; 2000. 260 p. Russian.
  3. Rogov AI, Florya BN. [Formation of selfawareness of the old-Russian nation (according to the texts of the old-Russian literature)]. In: Korolyuk VD, editor. Razvitie etnicheskogo samosoznaniya slavyanskikh narodov v epokhu rannego srednevekov’ya [The development of the ethic identity of the Slavic peoples in the early Middle Ages]. Moscow: Nauka; 1982. p. 96–120. Russian.
  4. Danilevskii I. [Old-Russian statehood and «nation Rus’»: possibilities and ways of a adequate description]. Ab Imperio. 2001;3:147–167. Russian.
  5. Danilevsky IN. [Could Kyiv be a «new Jerusalem»?]. Odissei. 1998;10:134–150. Russian.
  6. Danilevsky IN. Povest’ vremennykh let: germenevticheskie osnovy izucheniya letopisnykh tekstov [«Tale of the bygone years»: hermeneutical basis in studies of the chronicles]. Moscow: Aspect-press; 2004. 383 p. Russian.
  7. Dmitriev MV. [Confessional and ethnic components in «the strategy of distinction» in the «Tale of the bygone years»]. Dialogue with Time. 2007;21:345–363. Russian.
  8. Dmitriev MV. [«Russian people» or «God’s people»? About peculiarities of the protonational discourses in culture of Muscovy]. In: Boitsov MA,Voskoboinikov OS, editors. Polystoria. Bog, Rim, narod v srednevekovoi Evrope [Polystoria. God, Rome, people in Medieval Europe]. Moscow: Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics; 2021. p. 256–306. Russian.
  9. Povest’ vremennykh let [Tale of the bygone years]. In: Dmitriev LA, Likhachev DS, editors. Pamyatniki literatury Drevnei Rusi. XI – nachalo XII v. [Monuments of literature of Ancient Russia. 11th – the beginning of the 12th century]. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura; 1978. p. 23–279. Russian.
  10. Lvov AS. Leksika «Povesti vremennykh let» [Lexics of the «Tale of the bygone years»]. Moscow: Nauka; 1975. 368 p. Russian.
  11. Lavrent’evskaya letopis’ (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom I) [Lavrentyevskaya chronicle (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 1)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 1997. 496 p. Russian.
  12. Ipatyevskaya letopis (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom II) [Ipatyevskaya chronicle (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 2)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 1998. 648 p. Russian.
  13. Novgorodskaya pervaya letopis’ starshego i mladshego izvodov (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom III) [Novgorodskaya first chronicle of the older and younger redaction (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 3)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 720 p. Russian.
  14. Novgorodskaya chetvertaya letopis’ (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom IV, chast’ 1) [Novgorodskaya fourth chronicle (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 4, part 1)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 728 p. Russian.
  15. Pskovskie letopisi (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom V, vypusk 1) [Pskovskiye chronicles (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 5, issue 1)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2003. 256 p. Russian.
  16. Pskovskie letopisi (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom V, vypusk 2) [Pskovskiye chronicles (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 5, issue 2)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 364 p. Russian.
  17. Sofiiskaya pervaya letopis’ starshego izvoda (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom VI; vypusk 1) [Sofyskaya fisrt chronicle of the older redaction (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 6, issue 1)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 581 p. Russian.
  18. Rogozhskii letopisets. Tverskoi sbornik (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom XV) [Rogozhsky chronicle. Tverskoy collection of chronicles (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 15)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 432 p. Russian.
  19. Moskovskii letopisnyi svod kontsa XV veka (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom XXV) [Moskovsky compiled chronicle of the end of the 15th century (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 25)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2004. 488 p. Russian.
  20. Letopisnyi sbornik, imenuemyi Patriarshei ili Nikonovskoi letopis’yu (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom XI) [Collection of chronicles called Patriarshy ili Nikonovsky chronicle (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 11)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 264 p. Russian.
  21. Gall Anonim. Khronika i deyaniya knyazei ili pravitelei pol’skikh [Chronicle or deeds of the Polish princes or rulers]. Moscow: Nauka; 1961. 172 p. Russian.
  22. Shchaveleva NI. Pol’skie latinoyazychnye srednevekovye istochniki [Polish Latin Medieval sources]. Moscow: Nauka; 1990. 208 p. Russian.
  23. Yanin VL, editor. «Velikaya khronika» o Pol’she, Rusi i ikh sosedyakh. XI–XIII vv. [«The Great chronicle» on Poland, Rus’ and their neighbors. 11th–13th centuries]. Moscow: Publishing House of the Moscow Lomonosov State University; 1987. 264 p. Russian.
  24. Isaevich YaD. [Old-Polish nation and its ethnic selfawareness]. In: Korolyuk VD, editor. Razvitie etnicheskogo samosoznaniya slavyanskikh narodov v epokhu rannego srednevekov’ya [The development of ethic self-consciosness of the Slavic peoples in the early Middle Ages]. Moscow: Nauka; 1982. p. 144–167. Russian.
  25. Florya BN. [Selfawareness of the Polish nation in the 15th century]. In: Zueva LA, editor. Etnicheskoe samosoznanie slavyan v XV stoletii [.Ethic identity of the Slava of the 15th century]. Moscow: Nauka; 1995. p. 38–77. Russian.
  26. Krzyżaniakowa J. Pojęcie narodu w «Rocznikach» Jana Długosza. Z problemów świadomości narodowej w Polsce XV wieku. W: Skubiszewski P, redaktor. Sztuka i ideologia XV wieku. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe; 1978. s. 135–153.
  27. Gawlas S. Świadomość narodowa Jana Długosza. W: Gieyszyor A, Ihnatowisz I, Kiersnowski K, Kurbis B, Labuda G, redaktory. Studia źródłoznawcze. Tom 27. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe; 1983. s. 3–67.
  28. Borkowska U. Treści ideowe w dziełach Jana Długosza: Kościół i świat poza Kościołem. Lublin: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski; 1983. 203 s.
  29. Letopisnyi sbornik, imenuemyi letopis’yu Avraamki (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom XVI) [Collection of chronicles, called Avraamka’s chronicle (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 16)]. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury; 2000. 252 p. Russian.
  30. Letopisi belorussko-litovskie (Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei; tom XXXV) [Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicles (Full collection of Russian chronics; volume 35)]. Moscow: Nauka; 1980. 306 p. Russian.
  31. Dmitriev MV, Shpirt AM. [Rus’ and «rus’» identity in written texts of the Ruthenian Orthodox culture in the 15th –16th centuries: remarks on historiography]. In: Doronin AV, compiler. Narrativy rusi kontsa XV – serediny XVIII vv.: v poiskakh svoyey istorii [Narratives of Russia of the end of the 15th – the middle of the 18th centuries: in search of its own history]. Moscow: Politicheskaya entsiklopediya; 2018. p. 332–384. Russian.
  32. Dmitriev MV. [The Orthodox and the «Russian» in representations about «Ruthenian people» of the Rzech Pospolita (late 16th – middle 17th centuries)]. In: Doronin, compiler. Drevnyaya Rus’ posle Drevnei Rusi: diskurs vostochnoslavyanskogo (ne)edinstva [Ancient Russia after Ancient Russia: the discource of East Slavic (non)unity]. Moscow: Politicheskaya entsiklopediya; 2017. p. 193–215. Russian.
  33. Dmitriev MV. [«People of Ruthenian piety»: on confessional and ethnic in representations of the «Ruthenian people» of the Rzech Pospolita]. In: Turilov AA, editor. «Vertograd mnogotsvetny». Sbornik statey k 80-letiyu Borisa Nikolayevicha Flori [«Multicolor Vertograd»: a collection of articles dedicated to 80th anniversary of Boris Nikolaevich Florya]. Moscow: Indrik; 2018. p. 453–463. Russian.
  34. Dmitriev M. Le confessionel et l’ «ethnique» dans la construction des discours proto-nationaux en Russie Moscovite aux XVIe – XVIIe siècles. Istina. 2005;2:137–162.
  35. Dmitriev MV. [Confessional factors in formation of representations of «the Russian» in culture of Muscovy]. In: Dmitriev MV, editor. Religioznye i etnicheskie traditsii v formirovanii natsionalnykh identichnostei v Evrope. Srednie veka – novoe vremya [Religious and ethic traditions in the formation of national identities in Europe. Middle Ages – Modern Times]. Moscow: Indrik; 2008. p. 218–240. Russian.
Published
2022-02-04
Keywords: Old-Russian, Ukrainian-Belarusian, Ruthenian, Polish, Medieval chronicles, ethnicity, confession, Christianity
Supporting Agencies Acknowledgements. This article was written as a result of the research project «East Euporean studies in a transnational perspective», supported by the foundation «Studies in humanities» of the faculty of humanities of the Higher School of Economics in 2021.
How to Cite
Dmitriev M. V. Poloni and Rutheni, Catholics and Orthodox Christians, natio and confession in Medieval chronicles of Eastern Europe // Journal of the Belarusian State University. History. 2022. 1. PP. 5-18.
Issue
No 1 (2022): Journal of the Belarusian State University. History
Section
Belarusian History

Copyright (c) 2022 Journal of the Belarusian State University. History

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  2. The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
  3. The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)