The Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle (, commonly transcribed Povest' vremennykh let (PVL), ) is a chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been originally compiled in or around Kiev in the 1110s, and has been traditionally ascribed to the monk Nestor.
The work's name Povest' vremennykh let ("Tale of Bygone Years") originates from the opening sentence of the Laurentian text, which reads: "These are the narratives of bygone years regarding the origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kiev, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning". The work has long been considered to be a fundamental source in the interpretation of the earliest history of the East Slavs.
The content of the chronicle is known today from several surviving editions and codices that have been revised over the years and evince a slight degree of variation from each other. Because of the work's several identified chronological issues and numerous logical incongruities that have been pointed out by historians over the years, its value as a reliable historical source has been placed under strict scrutiny by the contemporary experts in the field (see: ).
Authorship and composition
Authorship
Tradition long regarded the original compilation as the work of a monk named Nestor ( 1056 – 1114), who is known to have written other works at the time, such as Life of the Venerable Theodosius. Hence, writers spoke of the Chronicle of Nestor, and of the author as Nestor "the Chronicler". Based on the 1661 Paterik of the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, 17th-century writers started to assert that Nestor "the Chronicler" wrote many of the surviving Rus' chronicles, including the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Chronicle and the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle, even though many of the events described therein were situated in the entire 12th and 13th century (long after Nestor's death 1114). Another reason given for belief in Nestorian authorship has been the word нестера in the opening lines of the Khlebnikov Codex (discovered in 1809), which some readers took to refer to Nestor "the Chronicler", but Ostrowski (1981) pointed out: 'The word нестера was added in [the Khlebnikov Codex], and thus cannot be used as evidence for the name of the compiler of the PVL. It is not found in any of the other five main witnesses of the PVL, and thus represents an interpolation inserted into the text by an editor, who perhaps guessed the author's name. From the 1830s to around 1900, there was fierce academic debate about Nestor's authorship, but the question remained unresolved, and belief in Nestorian authorship had persisted. It is especially the internal evidence of the PVL and the known works of Nestor, which frequently contradict each other, while the contents barely coincide in places where that would have been expected, that has led modern scholars to conclude Nestor was not the author.
A more likely candidate as author is Sylvester of Kiev, hegumen (abbot) of the St. Michael's Monastery in Vydubychi (a village near Kyiv), who may have compiled several sources in the year 1116. This attribution is based on the fact that the Laurentian text ends on page 286, lines 1 to 7, with the colophon "I wrote down (napisakh) this chronicle", after which he requests the readers to remember him in their prayers. Alternately, the real author may have been some other unnamed monk from the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves mentioned in the title, and that Sylvester completed his work, or was a very early editor or copyist of the PVL.
Editions
Wladyslaw Duczko (2004) argued that one of the central aims of the Chronicle's narrative is to 'give an explanation how the Rurikids came to power in the lands of the Slavs, why the dynasty was the only legitimate one and why all the princes should terminate their internal fights and rule in peace and brotherly love.'
In the year 1116, Nestor's text was extensively edited by the hegumen Sylvester who appended his name at the end of the chronicle. As Vladimir Monomakh was the patron of the village of Vydubychi (now a neighborhood of Kyiv) where Sylvester's monastery was situated, the new edition glorified Vladimir and made him the central figure of later narrative. This second version of Nestor's work is preserved in the Laurentian codex (see ).
A third edition followed two years later and centered on the person of Vladimir's son and heir, Mstislav the Great. The author of this revision could have been Greek, for he corrected and updated much data on Byzantine affairs. This latest revision of Nestor's work is preserved in the Hypatian codex (see ).