2010 was marked by a very important event for specialists studying Ancient Russia and just lovers of history: Ivan the Terrible's Personal Chronicle (popularly called the Tsar-Book) was posted on the Internet for open access. It was scanned and placed on the worldwide network by representatives of the Society of Lovers of Ancient Writing.
What is the importance of this event?
Agree that the most important thing in the work of every historian is the primary sources: written, works of art, architecture, household items and other artifacts. Unfortunately, in our time, not many researchers of the past turn to them. Often they study and cite the works of other historians, and those third, and so on. As a result, if you start to understand, most of these scientists have never used primary sources, and created all their works on the basis of other people's words and opinions. It turns out that these works can be compared with a bad copy of a copy of some "blockbuster". If you open and read what is written in an ancient document,and compare the information with what modern historians write, you can often find not only minor inaccuracies, but sometimes completely opposite facts. That's it, and it happens all the time.
Ancient artifacts of Russia
Unfortunately, not as many authentic primary sources have survived to this day as we would like. If we consider architectural monuments, then there are very few of them left, and besides, most of them belong to the 18-19 centuries, because in Russia the main building material is wood, and regular wars and fires do not spare such structures. If we take household items and jewelry, it’s not so simple either: what we managed to save are all artifacts of the 15th-19th centuries. And this is also quite understandable, because precious metals and stones have always been the goal of various kinds of profit lovers and black archaeologists. Almost all ancient graves (mounds, etc.) on the territory of our country were plundered during the time of Catherine II.
Oral Traditions
The most complete historical information about the history of our land is preserved in the memory of the people - these are legends, traditions, fairy tales, epics, etc. However, scientists categorically deny the possibility of considering oral creativity as a source of information, at least in relation to, which is connected with the former Russia, although they are ready to fully accept the legends of, say, the Scandinavian or British peoples. But in our fairy tales and legends, many interesting facts have been preserved, a certain interpretation of which confirms one of thepopular modern theories (A. Sklyarov "Inhabited Island Earth"). For example, we all know about such a fabulous curiosity as a magic saucer with a pouring apple, in which the whole world is visible - why is it not an iPhone with its logo - a bitten fruit? And carpets-airplanes, and boots-walkers? But you never know what else…
However, we are very distracted, it's time to return to the main topic of our article, and this, we recall, the Facial vault of Tsar Ivan (iv) the Terrible.
Written sources
The main written sources of Ancient Russia are chronicles. Since the 19th century, the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles began to be published. Anyone who wished to get acquainted with this printed edition by contacting the library. However, now work is underway within the framework of the project "Manuscript Monuments of Ancient Russia" to transfer it to digital format, and in the near future it, like the Facial Code of Ivan the Terrible, will be posted on the Internet for public use. Novice researchers should be aware that in ancient manuscripts, the source of information is not only text, but also drawings. These are illustrated documents. The main one of them is the Facial vault. It consists of ten thousand sheets and seventeen thousand illustrations.
Front Chronicle
This document is the largest chronicle-chronographic code of Ancient Russia. It was created by order of the tsar in the Alexander Sloboda in the period from 1568 to 1576. The front vault contains a presentation of world history from the creation of the world to the 15th century and Russian history until the year 67 of the 16th century. AmosovA. A. calculated that this ancient artifact consists of ten volumes with a total of 9745 sheets, which are decorated with 17,744 colored miniatures. Historians rightly believe that the King's Book also contained the eleventh volume. Now it is lost, and this is understandable, because it de alt with the most controversial period of Russian history - until 1114.
Facial vault: content
The first three volumes contain the texts of biblical books such as the Pentateuch, the books of Judges, Joshua, Kings, as well as the books of Ruth, Esther, the prophet Daniel. In addition, they present the full texts of Alexandria, two narratives about the Trojan War (“The Tale of the Creation and Capture of Troy”, extracted from the Russian Chronograph, and “The History of the Destruction of Troy” - a translation of the novel by Guido de Columna) and the work of Josephus “History of the Jewish War. For subsequent world events, the sources of information were the work "Chronographer Illinsky and Roman" and "Russian Chronograph".
The history of Russia is described in 4-10 volumes, the source was mainly the Nikon chronicle. According to researchers (for example, Kloss B. M.), starting from the events of 1152, additional sources are also found in the document, such as the Novgorod Code (1539), the Resurrection Chronicle, the Chronicler of the Beginning of the Kingdom, and others.
Ancient editing
The King-book has a number of edits, it is believed (there is no evidence for this, however) that they were made approximatelyin 1575 at the direction of Tsar Ivan the Terrible himself. The revision of the already finished text affected mainly the period from 1533 to 1568. An unknown editor made annotations in the margins of the document, some of which contain accusations against persons repressed and executed during the oprichnina.
Unfortunately, work on the Facial Vault was not completed: some of the miniatures were made only in ink sketch, they did not have time to color them.
Conclusions
The facial vault of Ivan the Terrible is not only a monument of the book art of Russia, but also a very important source of historical events: miniatures, despite their conventionality and rather symbolic nature, provide rich material for researching the realities of that time. In addition, the study of the editorial changes that were made to the last volume (The King's Book) provides an opportunity to get more in-depth information about the political struggle of the post-oprichne period. They also make it possible to judge the king's changed assessments of the activity of one or another of his associates. And also about new views on the events themselves during his reign.
In closing
Thanks to the activities of the Society of Ancient History Lovers, now everyone can get acquainted with this priceless artifact. Indeed, in the past, in order to gain access to this document, it was necessary to make a lot of efforts, and only historians could get it. But today it is available to everyone. All that is needed is access to the worldwide network, and you can immerse yourself in the fascinating worldstudying our past. To see everything with your own eyes, to add up your opinion about certain events, and not to read ready-made stamps of historians, who, perhaps, never even opened the original source.
