Nestor
born c. 1056, Kiev [now in Ukraine]
died Oct. 27, 1113, Kiev
a monk in Kievan Rus of the Monastery
of the Caves in Kiev (from about 1074),
author of several works of hagiography
and an important historical chronicle.
Nestor wrote the lives of Saints
Boris and Gleb, the sons of St. Vladimir
of Rus, who were murdered in 1015, and
the life of St. Theodosius, abbot of the
Monastery of the Caves (d. 1074). A
tradition that was first recorded in the
13th century ascribes to him the
authorship of the Povest vremennykh let
(“Tale of Bygone Years”; The Russian
Primary Chronicle), the most important
historical work of early medieval Rus.
Modern scholarship, however, regards the
chronicle as a composite work, written
and revised in several stages, and
inclines to the view that the basic
(though not final) version of the
document was compiled by Nestor about
1113. The chronicle, extant in several
medieval manuscripts, the earliest dated
1377, was compiled in Kiev. It relates
in detail the earliest history of the
eastern Slavs down to the second decade
of the 12th century. Emphasis is laid on
the foundation of the Kievan
state—ascribed to the advent of
Varangians (a tribe of Norsemen) in the
second half of the 9th century, the
subsequent wars and treaties between Rus
and Byzantium, the conversion of Rus to
Christianity about 988, the cultural
achievements of the reign of Yaroslav
the Wise of Kiev (1019–54), and the wars
against the Turkic nomads of the steppe.
Written partly in Old Church
Slavonic, partly in the Old Russian
language based on the spoken vernacular,
The Russian Primary Chronicle includes
material from translated Byzantine
chronicles, west and south Slavonic
literary sources, official documents,
and oral sagas. This borrowed material
is woven with considerable skill into
the historical narrative, which is
enlivened by vivid description, humour,
and a sense of the dramatic.
The Russian Primary Chronicle
also called Chronicle of Nestor or Kiev
Chronicle, Russian Povest vremennykh let
(“Tale of Bygone Years”)
medieval Kievan Rus historical work that
gives a detailed account of the early
history of the eastern Slavs to the
second decade of the 12th century. The
chronicle, compiled in Kiev about 1113,
was based on materials taken from
Byzantine chronicles, west and south
Slavonic literary sources, official
documents, and oral sagas; the earliest
extant manuscript of it is dated 1377.
While the authorship was traditionally
ascribed to the monk Nestor, modern
scholarship considers the chronicle a
composite work.
