The chronicle article of 6869 (1361): its texts and their possible roots

Abstract

The purpose of the research: In the article, the author examines the chronicle article of 6869 (1361) which tells about the struggle for Sarai among khans after the demise of Khidr-khan. The text of the chronicle report of 6869 is presented in different ways in Old-Russian chronicles. The article aims at revealing textual reliability of one of the most confusing places in the Old-Russian chronicling for the 14th–15th centuries – the description and the course of events for 1361 which have become described as a new phase of the events in the Ulus of Jochi, known as the “Great Troubles”. Research materials: The primary sources for this study were Old-Russian chronicles which focus closely on the described events, namely – the Rogozhsky and Simeonovskay Chronicles as well as the chronicles of the Novgorod-Sofia group. Important information was borrowed when referring to N.M. Karamzin’s comments on the «History of the Russian State», according to which, the lost Troitsk Chronicle is now being restored. Within the study, a number of other late chronicles are also involved in order to compare them textually with earlier ones. The results of the research and scientific novelty: Based on the results of the scrutinization of chronicles of the 15th–16th centuries, it can be stated that there are three primary versions of the related material, two of them being placed one after the other in the Rogozhsky Сhronicler. The author concludes that the first version of the chronicle tale belongs to the Troitsk Chronicle or an even earlier chronicle than “the Codex of 1408”. The second version of the text, which is placed only in the Rogozhsky Chronicler, belongs to a currently unknown source, while the third version goes back to the Novgorod-Sophia Codex, which in turn descends back to “the Codex of 1408”. Based on the chronicle evidence of the 15th – 16th centuries, the author concludes that Khidr-khan was killed by his son Timur-Khoja, and not by his brother Murad.

Keywords

• the great troubles
• the ulus of jochi
• old-russian chronicling
• the rogozhsky chronicler
• the troitsk сhronicle
• murad