THE GOSPEL TEXT IN DESCRIBING THE HISTORY OF THE KIEVAN RULE IN THE 12TH CENTURY (ACCORDING TO THE HEGUMEN MOISEI'S CHRONICLE AND THE NIKON CHRONICLE)

Abstract

This article studies the Gospel quotations in the description of the history of the 12th century Kievan rule in two compillations of East Slavic chronicles. An important problem concerning the principles of representing historical reality in a literary and historical narration is studied through the example a 12th century Kiev cronicle (compiled by hegumen Moisei (Moses)), which is interpreted as the author's text. Images of the princes created by the purposeful selection of certain literary means by the author, among which the Gospel quotes and reminiscences play the main role, provided moral accents in the stories about different episodes of almost a century-long history of Russia. It was how hegumen Moisei sought to prove legality of inheritance of the grand prince throne by Rurik Rostislavich, the great-grandson of Vladimir of Monomakh, to whom the chronicle is devoted in general. In the Nikon Chronicle, a massive chronicle compilation of the 16th century, images of the same princes as well as the history of the great Kievan rule are presented differently. In some of the plots the Gospel presentations add some strokes to the images of princes, while leading to the loss of “topical character” typical for the hegumen Moisei’s Cronicle.

Keywords

• the Gospel
• quotations
• author
• Kievan rule in the 12th century
• prince images