THE NOVGOROD CHRONICLE

INTRODUCTION
One of the most important and best known of the basic written sources of early Russian history is The Chronicle of Novgorod. As with the other Rus chronicles, it was compiled by monks on a year-by-year basis, sort of like diary entries of the year's main events. Often the events described were witnessed by the chroniclers, though not always. Because the earliest compilations are lost, we cannot know for certain who the authors are or exactly when they are entering their descriptions. The compilation that survived dates from the late 15th century. The following selections consist of samples taken from the Chronicle, exemplifying the various types of entries from the 11th, beginning with Iaroslav the Wise, through the 15th centuries, when Novgorod was conquered by the expanding Muscovite state. {NOTE: as with the previous texts of this nature, do not get bogged down in the details of all the names of places and people, but rather pay attention to the main themes: How does religion influence these accounts? What evidence is there of infighting among the various princes of Kievan Rus? To the extent that the lives of common people are dealt with, what can you surmise about living conditions for the masses? Is there any suggestion for why Novgorod emerged as a powerful city-state in the first place, or any evidence to suggest what its weaknesses were and why it was eventually conquered and absorbed by Muscovy? Refer to Worksheet 2 for the specific questions to answer, but keep these general themes in mind as you read as well}.

1016 AD (CE).  [There was] a fight at Lyubets, and [the sons of Vladimir] won; and Svyatopolk fled to Poland. And at that time Iaroslav was keeping many Varangians [Vikings] in Novgorod, fearing war; and the Varangians began to commit violence against the wives of the townsmen. The men of Novgorod said: "We cannot look upon this violence," and they gathered by night and fell upon and killed the Varangians in Poromon's Court; and that night Prince Iaroslav was at Rakomo. And having heard this, Prince Iaroslav was wroth with the townsfolk, and gathered a thousand soldiers in Slavno, and by craft falling on those who had killed the Varangians, he killed them; and others fled out of the town. And the same night Iaroslav's sister, Peredslava, sent word to him from Kiev, saying: "Thy father is dead, and thy brethren slain." And having heard this, Iaroslav the next day gathered a number of the men of Novgorod, and held a veche [an assembly] in open air, and said to them: "My beloved and honourable [bodyguard], whom yesterday in my madness I slew, I cannot now buy back even with gold." And thus he said to them: "Brethren my father Vladimir is dead, and Svyatopolk is Prince in Kiev; I want to go against him; come with me and help me." And the men of Novgorod said to him: "Yes, Prince, we will follow thee." And he gathered 4,000 soldiers: there were a thousand Varangians, and 3,000 of the men of Novgorod; and he went against him.

And Svyatopolk having heard this, gathered a countless number of soldiers, went out against him to Lyubets and encamped there in the open country a number of soldiers. And Iaroslav having come, halted on the bank of Dnieper; and they stood there three months, not daring to come together in conflict. Svyatopolk's General by name of Wolf's Tail, riding along the river-bank, began to reproach the men of Novgorod: "Wherefore have come with that builder of wooden [houses]? You are carpenters, and we shall make you build houses for us." And the Dnieper began to freeze. And one of Iaroslav's men was on friendly with Svyatopol. And Iaroslav sent one of his attendants to him by night, and he spoke to him. And this is what he said to him: "What dost thou advise to be done now? There is but little mead brewed, and the [bodyguard] is large." And that man said to him: "Say thus to Iaroslav, if there is little mead, but a large [bodyguard], then give it in the evening." And Iaroslav understood that he was advising him to fight at night; and that evening Iaroslav with his troops crossed the other bank of the Dnieper, and they pushed the boats away from the bank, and prepared to make battle that night. And Iaroslav said to his [bodyguard]: "Put a mark on you, wind your heads in kerchiefs." And there was a terrible fight, and before dawn they conquered Svyatopolk, and Svyatopolk fled to the Pecheneg people [a nomadic herding tribe in the southern steppe region]. And Iaroslav went to Kiev, and took his seat on the throne of his father Vladimir. And he began to distribute pay to his troops: to the [elders] ten [half pounds of silver each], to the [foot soldiers] one [half pound of silver] each and to all the men of Novgorod ten each, and let them all go to their homes. . . .

1068 AD (CE). The wrath of God came on us; the Polovtsi people came and [raided] the Russian land. . . .

1107 AD (CE). The earth trembled on February 5.

1109 AD (CE). The water was high in the Dnieper, the Desna and the Pripet. And they finished the refectory in the Pechersk monastery. The same year a church was founded at Kiev by Prince Svyatopolk.

1111 AD (CE). Svyatopolk, Vladimir and David and the whole Russian Land to a man went against the Polovtsi people and defeated them and took their children, and rebuilt the fortified towns of Surtev and Sharukan. . . .

1124 AD (CE). On the 11th day of August before evening service; the sun began to decrease and it totally perished; oh, there was great terror and darkness! There were stars and the moon; then it began to re-appear and came out quickly in full; then all the city rejoiced.

1127 AD (CE). A blizzard fell thick over land and water and houses during two nights and four days. . . . The same year the water was high in the Volkhov and snow lay until St. James' Day [May 1]. And in the autumn the frost killed all the corn and the winter crop; and there was famine throughout the winter. . . . and the cost of rye [was very high]. . . .

1128 AD (CE). This year it was very cruel. The cost of rye [was very high]; the people ate lime trees, birch bark, pounded wood pulp mixed with husks and straw; some ate buttercups, moss, horsh flesh; and thus many dropping down from hunger, their corpses were in the streets, in the market place, and on the roads, and everywhere. They hired hirelings to carry the dead out of the town. The serfs could not go out; woe and misery on all! Fathers and mothers would put their children in boats as gift [as slaves] to [foreign] merchants [in exchange for food], or else put [their children] to death [because they could not feed them]. . . . Thus did our country perish on account of our sins. . . .

1135 AD (CE). [Mayor] Miroslav went from Novgorod to make peace between the people of Kiev and those of Chemigov, and he came back without having achieved anything; for the whole Russian Land was in great disorder; Yaropolk called the men of Novgorod to his side; and the [Prince] of Chernigov to his; and they fought, and God helped the son of Oleg with the men of Chernigov and he cut up many of the men of Kiev and others they captured in the month of August. And this was not the whole of the evil; the Polovtsi people and everyone began to muster fighting men. The same year, Vsevolod with [Arch-Bishop] Nifont founded a stone church of the Holy Mother of God in the Market Place. The same year, Irozhnet founded a church to St. Nicholas in Yakov Street. The same year in the winter, [Arch-Bishop] Nifont with the best men went into Russia, and found the men of Kiev and the men of Chernigov ranged against each other, and a quantity of troops, and by the will of God they were reconciled. And Miroslav died before the return of the [Arch-Bishop] in January 28; the Bishop came on February 4. And they gave the [Mayor]-ship in Novgorod to Kostyantin Mikultsits.

1136 AD (CE). . . . The men of Novgorod summoned the men of Pskov and Ladoga and took counsel how to expel their Prince Vsevolod, and they confined him in the Court of the Bishop, together with his wife and children and mother-in-law, on May 28, and guards with arms guarded him day and night, thirty men daily; and he sat two months and they let him out of the town on July 15, and they received his son, Vladimir. And they made these his faults: I. He has no care for the serfs. II. Why didst thou wish to take thy seat in Pereyaslavl? III. Thou didst ride away from the troop in front of all, and besides that much vacillation, ordering us first to advance against Vsevolodko and then again to retreat; and they did not let him go till another Prince came. . . .

1141 AD (CE). On April 1 there was a very marvellous sign in the sky; six circles, three close about the sun, and three other large ones outside the sun, and stood nearly all day. The same year they came from Vsevolod from Kiev for his brother Svyatoslav to take him to Kiev; "and receive my son as your Prince," he said. And when they sent the Bishop and many best men for his son, they said to Svyatsoslav "Thou wait for thy brother, then thou shalt go." But he, fearing the men of Novgorod, "whether they are going to deceive me," fled secretly in the night; Yakun fled with him. And they took Yakun on the [river] Plisa, and having brought him hither with his brother Procupi, they nearly did him to death, having stripped him naked, as his mother bore him, and they threw [him over] the bridge; but God saved him, he waded to the bank, and they beat him no more, but took from him 1,000 [half pounds of silver] and from his brother 100 [half pounds of silver], likewise they took from others. And they exiled Yakun with his brother to the Chud people [a Baltic tribe], having chained their hands to their wives from Novgorod, and kept them by him in favour. And Vsevolod was wroth, and he detained all the emissaries and the Bishop and the Merchants.

And the people of Novgorod went without a Prince nine months; and they summoned Sudila, Nezhata and Strashko from Suzhdal, who had fled from Novgorod on account of Svyatoslav and Yakun; and they gave the [Mayor]-ship of Novgorod to Sudila; and they sent to Suzhdal for Gyurgi to be Prince and he did not go, but sent his son, Rostislav, who had been before. The same year Rostislav assumed the throne at Novgorod, on November 26.

1153 AD (CE). All this autumn was rainy, from Our Lady's day of Nativity until the winter solstice it was warm and wet. The water was very high in the river Volkhov, and it carried away hay and wood. The lake froze, and there was great coldness in the night. And the wind broke up the ice and carried it into the river Volkhov, where it broke the bridge and carried away four of the bridge piles. In the same year Sviatopolk married in Novgorod. He brought in his bride between Christmas and Epiphany. . . .

1157 AD (CE). There was a bad tumult in the people, and they rose against Prince Mstislav Gyurgevits, and began to drive him out of Novgorod; but the [merchants] stood up in arms for him; and brother quarreled with brother, they seized the bridge over the Volkhov, and guards took their stand at the town gates, and [so did] the others on the other side; and they were within a little of shedding blood between them. And then Svyatoslav Rostislavits and David entered, and that night Mstislav fled out of the town. After three days Rostislav himself entered, and the brothers came together, and there was no harm at all.

1203 AD (CE). Rurik with the sons of Oleg and the heathen Polovtsi people, with Kontsyak and Danila Byakovits captured Kiev, on January 1, St Vasil's Day; and whomever their hands reached, whether monk or nun, priest or priest's wife, these they led off to the heathen; and all foreign merchants and foreigners of every country shut themselves up in the churches, and they granted them their lives; but their merchandise they divided with them by halves; but everything in the monasteries and in all the churches, all valuables and ornaments and icons the pagans tore off and carried away into [their] own land; and they set fire to the town. Then, too, the Russian princes Rurik, Roman, Mstislav and many others Princes went against the Polovtsi people. And then the winter was very cruel; and they took much plunder and drove away their herds. The same year Roman sent Vyacheslav ordering him to have Rurik shorn [a monk]. The same year the sons of Oleg defeated the Lithuanians, and did to death seven hundred and a thousand of them. The same year Miroshka; [Mayor] of Novgorod died, he was shorn in St. Georgi's, and then they gave the [Mayor]-ship to Mikhalko Stepanits. The same year for our sins all the horses died in Novgorod and in the villages so that it was not possible to go anywhere for the stench.

1210 AD (CE). The men of Novgorod with [Princel Vladimir and Mayor Tverdislav], having pursued and found the Lithuanians in Khodynitsy, killed them. The same year Vsevolod went against Ryazan and said to them: "Come to me and my son Iaroslav over the Oka to deliberate." And they went over to him and there be seized them all and sent troops to take all their wives and children and set fire to their town. . . . The same winter [Prince] Mstislav Mstislavits came against Torshok, and seized Svyatoslav's courtiers and put the [Mayor] in chains and whoever could lay hands on their goods [took them]; and he said to Novgorod: "I bow down to St. Sophia and to the tomb of my father and to all the men of Novgorod; I have come to you having heard of the violence [done you] by the [Prince] and I am sorry for my patrimony." Having heard this the men of Novgorod sent for him with great honour: "Come, [Prince] to the throne." And they sent Svyatoslav with his men in the Arch-Bishop's court until the settlement with his father. Mstislav came to Novgorod and they set him on his father's throne, and the men of Novgorod were glad; and Mstislav went with the whole army against Vsevolod, and they were at Ploskeya and Vsevolod sent to him: "Thou art son to me and I father to thee; let go Svyatoslav with his men; and all that thou hast confiscated, make good, and I will let go the merchants and merchandise." And Mstislav released Svyatoslav and his men and Vsevolod released the merchants and their merchandise. They both kissed the Cross and took peace, and Alstislav came to Novgorod.

1224 AD (CE). [Note: this entry refers to the first, small-scale invasion of the Mongols/Tartars into Southern Russia, when they defeated and absorbed the Polovtsy and other nomadic peoples in that region but did not invade the northern Russian city states. They did so in a later, much more devastating invasion in 1237-8 that is described below] . . . The same year for our sins, unknown tribes came, whom no one exactly knows, who they are, nor whence they came out, nor what their language is, nor of what race they are, nor what their faith is; but they call them Tartars. . . . God alone knows who they are and whence they came. Very wise men know them exactly, who understand books; but we do not know who they are, but have written of them here for the sake of the memory of the Russian Princes and of the misfortune which came to them from [these people]. For we have heard that they have captured many countries. . . .

1230 AD (CE). And we will return to the preceding, to the bitter and sad memory of [the famine of] that spring. For what is there to say, or what to speak of the punishment that came to us from God? How some of the common people killed the living and ate them; others cutting up dead flesh and corpses ate them; others ate horseflesh, dogs and cats; but to those found in such acts they did thus--some they burned with fire, others they cut to pieces, and others they hanged. Some fed on moss, snails, pine-bark, lime-bark, lime and elm-tree leaves, and whatever each could think of. And again other wicked men began to burn the good people's houses, where they suspected that there was rye; and so they plundered their property. Instead of repentance for our wickedness, we become more prone to wickedness than before, though seeing before our eyes the wrath of God; the dead in the streets and in the market-place, and on the great bridge, being devoured by dogs, so that they could not bury them. They put another pit outside at the end of the Chudinets Street, and that became full, there was no counting [the number of bodies in it]. And they put a third at Koleno beyond the Church of the Holy Nativity, and that likewise became full, there was no counting the bodies. And seeing all this before our eyes we should have become better; but we became worse. Brother had no sympathy with brother, nor father with son, nor mother with daughter, nor would neighbor break bread with neighbor. There was no kindness among us, but misery and unhappiness; in the streets unkindness one to another, at home anguish, seeing children cry for bread and others dying. And were buying a loaf [of bread at inflated prices], for a grivna and more, and a fourth of a barrel of rye for one silver grinva. Fathers and mothers gave away their children into servitude to merchants for bread. This distress was not in our land alone; but over the whole Russian province except Kiev alone. And so has God rewarded us according to our deeds.

            The path of the Mongol Invasion of Russia, 1237-8
1238 AD (CE). The wife of Semen Borisovich made a monastery at the Church of St. Paul. That same year foreigners called Tartars came in countless numbers, like locusts, into the land of Ryazan, and on first coming they halted at the river Nukhla, and took it, and halted in camp there. And thence they sent their emissaries to the Princes of Ryazan, a sorceress and two men with her, demanding from them one-tenth of everything; of men and princes and horses of everything one-tenth. And the Princes of Ryazan, George Ingvor's brother, Oleg, Roman Ingvorevich, and those of Murom and Pronsk, without letting them into their towns, went out to meet them to Voronazh. And the Princes said to them: "Only when none of us remain then all will be yours." And thence they let them go to Yuri in Vladimir, and thence they let the Tartars at Voronazh go back to the Nukhla. And the Princes of Ryazan sent to Yuri of Vladimir asking for help, or himself to come. But Yuri neither went himself nor listened to the request of the Princes of Ryazan, but he himself wished to make war separately. But it was too late to oppose the wrath of God, as was said of old by God, to Joshua, son of Nun, when leading them to the promised land, then he said: 'I shall before you send upon them perplexity, and thunder, and fear, and trembling.' Thus also did God before these men take from us our strength and put into us perplexity and thunder and dread and trembling for our sins. And then the pagan foreigners surrounded Ryazan and fenced it in with a stockade. And Prince Yuri of Ryazan, shut himself in the town with his people, but Prince Roman Ingorovich began to fight against them with his own men. Then Prince Yuri of Vladimir sent Yeremei as Voyevoda [Provincial Governor or Military Commander] with a patrol and joined Roman; and the Tartars surrounded them at Kolomno, and they fought hard and drove them to the ramparts. And there were they killed Roman and Yeremei and many fell here with the Prince and with Yeremei. And the the men of Moscow ran away having seen nothing. And the Tartars took the town on December 21, and they had advanced against it on the 16th of the same month. They likewise killed the Prince and men, women and children, monks, nuns and priests, some by fire, some by the sword and violated nuns, priests' wives, good women and girls in the presence of their mothers and sisters. But God saved the Bishop, for he had departed the same moment when the troops infested the town. And who, brethren, would not lament over this, among those of us left alive when they suffered this bitter and violent death? And we, indeed, having seen it, were terrified and wept with sighing day and night over our sins, while we sigh every day and night, taking thought for our possessions and for the hatred of brothers.

But let us return to what was before us. The pagan and godless Tartars, then, having taken Ryazan, went to Vladimir, a host of shedders of Christian blood. And Prince Yuri went out from Vladimir and fled to Iaroslavl, while his son Vsevolod with his mother and the [Arch-bishop] and the whole of the province shut themselves in Vladimir. And the lawless Ishmaelites [pagans or Muslims] approached the town and surrounded the town in force, and fenced it all around with a fence. And it was in the morning Prince Vsevolod and [Arch-bishop] Mitrofan saw that the town must be taken, and entered the Church of the Holy Mother of God and were all shorn into the monastic order and into strictest monastic order, the Prince and his daughter and daughter-in-law, and good men and women, by [Arch-bishop] Mitrofan. And when the lawless ones had already come near and set up battering rams, and took the town and fired it on Friday before Sexagesima Sunday, the Prince and [Arch-bishop], seeing that the town was on fire and that the people were already perishing, some by fire and others by sword, took refuge in the Church of the Holy Mother of God and shut themselves in the Sacristy. The pagans breaking down the doors, piled up wood and set fire to the sacred church; and slew all, thus they perished, giving up their souls to God. Others went in pursuit of Prince Yuri to Iaroslavl. And Prince Yuri sent out Dorozh to scout with 3,000 men; and Dorozh came running, and said: "They have already surrounded us, Prince." And the prince began to muster his forces about him, and behold, the Tartars came up suddenly, and the prince, without having been able to do anything, fled. And it happened when he reached the river Sit they overtook him and there he ended his life. And God knows how he died; for some say much about him. And Rostov and Suzhdal went each his own way. And the accursed ones having come thence took Moscow, Peryaslavl, Yurev, Dmitrov, Volok, and Tver; there also they killed the son of Iaroslav. And thence the lawless ones came and invested Torshok on the festival of the first Sunday in Lent. They fenced it all round with a fence as they had taken other towns, and here the accursed ones fought with battering rams for two weeks. And the people in the town were exhausted and from Novgorod there was no help for them; but already every man began to be in perplexity and terror. And so the pagans took the town, and slew all from the male sex even to the female, all the priests and the monks, and all stripped and reviled gave up their souls to the Lord in a bitter and wretched death on March 5, the day of the commemoration of the holy Martyr Nikon, on Wednesday in Easter week. And there, too, were killed Ivanko the [Arch-bishop] of Novitorg, Yakim Vlunkovich, Gleb Borisovich, and Mikhailo Moisievich. And the accursed godless ones then pushed on from Torshok by the road of Seregeri right up to Ignati's cross, cutting down everybody like grass, to within 100 versts [66 miles] of Novgorod. God, however, and the great and sacred apostolic cathedral of St. Sophia, and St. Kyuril, and the prayers of the holy and orthodox [Arch-bishop], of the faithful [Princes] and of the very reverend monks of the hierarchical [assembly], protected Novgorod. And who, brothers, fathers, and children, seeing this, God's infliction on the whole Russian Land, does not lament? God let the pagans on us for our sins. God brings foreigners on to the land in his Wrath, and thus crushed by them they will be reminded of God. And the internecine war comes from the prompting of the devil: for God does not wish evil amongst man, but good; but the devil rejoices at the wicked murder and bloodshed. And any other land which has sinned God punished with death of famine, or with infliction of pagans, or with drought, or with heavy rain, or with other punishment, to see whether we will repent and live as God bids; for He tells us by the prophet: "Turn to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping." And if we do so we shall be forgiven of all our sins. But we always turn to evil, like swine ever wallowing in the filth of sin, and thus we remain; and for this we receive every kind of punishment from God; and the invasion of armed men, too, we accept at God's command; as punishment for our sins.

1240 AD (CE). [Note: the Vod and Chud peoples inhabited what are today the Baltic States Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia]. In the winter of the same year Prince Alexander [Nevsky] went out from Novgorod with his mother and his wife and all his court, to his father in Pereyaslavl, having quarreled with the men of Novgorod. The same winter the German [Tuetonic knights] came against the Vod people with the Chud people and ravaged them, and laid tribute upon them, and made a fort in the village of Koporya. Nor was this the only evil; but they also took Tesov and pushed to within thirty versts of Novgorod, attacking merchants, and hitherwards to Luga and up to [the village of] Sablya. And the men of Novgorod sent to Iaroslav for a Prince, and he gave them his son Andrei. And then the men of Novgorod having taken counsel sent the Archbishop with others again for Alexander; and the Lithuanians, Germans and the Chud people invaded the Novgorod district and seized all the horses and cattle about Luga, and in the villages it was impossible for anyone to plough and nothing to do it with, till Iaroslav sent his son Alexander again. . . .

1242 AD (CE). Prince Alexander [Nevsky] with the men of Novgorod and with his brother Andrei and the men of the Lower country went in the winter in great strength] against the land of the Chud people, against the Germans, that they might not boast, saying: "We will humble the Slav race under us," for Pskov was already taken, and its [Prince and his followers] in prison. And Alexander occupied all the roads right up to Pskov; and he cleared, seized the Germans and the Chud men, and having bound them in chains, sent them to be imprisoned in Novgorod, and himself went against the Chud people. And when they came to their land, he let loose his whole force to provide for themselves. And Domash Tverdislavich and Kerbet were scouring [the country] and the Germans and the Chud men met them by a bridge; and they fought there, and there they killed Domash, . . . an honest man, and others with him, and others again they took with their hands, and others escaped to the troops of Prince Alexander. And Alexander turned back to the lake and the Germans and Chud men went after them. Seeing this, Alexander and all the men of Novgorod drew up their forces by Lake Chud and Uzmen by the Raven's rock; and the Germans and the Chud men rode at them driving themselves like a wedge through their army; and there was a great slaughter of Germans and Chud men. And God and St. Sophia and the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb, for whose sake the men of Novgorod shed their blood, by the great prayers of those Saints, God helped Alexander. And the Germans fell there and the Chud men gave shoulder, and pursuing them fought them on the ice, seven versts short of the Subol shore. And there fell of the Chud men a countless number; and of the Germans 450 they took with their hands and brought to Novgorod. And they fought on April 5, on a Saturday, the Commemoration Day of the Holy Martyr Feodul, to the glory of the Mother of God. The same year the Germans sent with greeting, in the absence of the Prince: "The land of the Vod people, of Luga, Pskov, and Lotygola, which we invaded with the sword, from all this we withdraw, and those of your men whom we have taken we will exchange, we will let go yours, and you let go ours." And they let go the Pskov hostages and made peace. . . .

1311 AD (CE). The men of Novgorod went in war over sea to the country of the [Germans], against the Yem people, with Prince Dmitri Romanovich and having crossed the sea they first occupied the Kupets river, they burned villages, and captured people and destroyed the cattle. And there Konstantin the son of Ilya Stanimirovich was killed by a column that went in pursuit. They then took the whole of the Black river, and thus following along the Black river they reached the town of Vanai and they took the town and burned it. And the [Germans] fell back into the citadel--for the place was very strong and firm, on a high rock, not having access from any side. And they sent with greeting, asking for peace, but the men of Novgorod did not grant peace, and they stood three days and three nights wasting the district. They burned the large villages, laid waste all the cornfields, and did not leave a single horn of cattle; and going hence, they took the Kavgola river and the Perna river, and they came out on the sea and returned all well to Novgorod.

The same spring, on May 19, a fire broke out at night in Yanev Street, and forty less three houses were burnt and seven people. Then in the night of June 28 Glebov's house in Rozvazha Street caught fire, and the Norev quarter was burnt, . . . and forty churches were damaged by fire and several good houses. Oh, woe, brethren, the conflagration was fierce, with wind and hurricane! And wicked and bad men having no fear of God, seeing peoples run, plundered men's property. Then on July 16 a fire broke out at night in the Ilya street and here likewise was a fierce conflagration with a high wind, and crashing noise; the market place was burnt, and houses up to Rogatitsa Street, and the churches burnt were seven wooden churches . . . and six stone churches were damaged by fire, and the seventh was the Varangian Church. And accursed men likewise having no fear of nor remembering the judgement of God, and having no pity for their fellows, plundered other people's property. Repay them, Lord, according to their deeds!

1327 AD (CE). The same winter a very great force of Tartars came, and they took Tver and Kashin and the Novi-torg district, and to put it simply, laid waste all the Russian Land, God and St. Sophia preserved Novgorod alone, and [Prince] Alexander fled to Pleskov, and his brother Kostyantin and Vasili to Dadoga. And the Tartars sent envoys to Novgorod, and the men of Novgorod gave them 2,000 in silver, and they sent their own envoys with them, with numerous presents to the [Generals].

1349 AD (CE). The King of Cracow [Poland] with a large force seized the country of Volynia by deceit, and did much injury to the Christians, and he converted the sacred churches to the Latin [Catholic] service hated of God.

1379 AD (CE). The same year the Tartars came into the Russian Land, against the Great Prince Dmitri. And the Prince went out against them, and it was on the Ovosha river, and there both forces met and God aided the Great Prince, and the Tartars turned shoulder and fled. . . .

1380 AD (CE). The same year, in the month of August, news came to the Great Prince Dmitri and to his brother Prince Vladimir from the Horde that the pagan race of Ishmaelites [Ishmael was the son of Abraham by his wife Hagar, believed to be the ancestor of all Arabs; for the Christian monks writing these Chronicles, Islam and paganism were synonymous] was rising against the Christians; for there was some weak man Tsar [Khan or ruler of the Tartar Golden Horde] among them, and Prince Mamai was controlling all their affairs and he was savagely enraged against the Great Prince and all the Russian Land.

And having heard this, that a great Tartar force was coming against him, the Great Prince Dmitri Ivanovich gathered many soldiers and went against the godless Tartars, trusting in the mercy of God and in His Immaculate Mother, the Mother of God, the eternal Virgin Mary, calling to his aid the honourable Cross. For he entered their country beyond the Don [River], and there was there a clean field at the mouth of the river Nepryadva, and there the pagan Ishmaelites had ranged themselves against the Christians. And the Muscovites, of whom many were inexperienced, were frightened and in despair for their lives at sight of the great numbers of Tartars, others turned to flight, forgetful of the Prophet's saying that one shall reap one thousand, and two shall move ten thousand, if God does not abandon them.

And the Great Prince Dmitri with his brother Vladimir ranged their troops against the pagan Polovtsi [Tartar] people, and raising their eyes humbly to heaven, and sighing from the depth of their hearts, said, in the words of the psalm: "Brothers, God is our refuge and our strength." And both forces immediately met, and there was a fierce battle for a long time, and God terrified the sons of Hagar [Tartars; again the author is associating them with Islam] with an invisible might, and they turned their shoulders to wounds, and they were routed by the Christians, and some were struck down with weapons, and others drowned in the river, a countless number of them. . . . And this was because of our sins: the aliens take up arms against us that we might renounce our wrong-doings and hatred of our brethren, from our love of silver, and from wrong judging and violence; but God is merciful and man-loving; He is not angry with us utterly, and is not at enmity for ever. . . .

1420 AD (CE). The men of Novgorod began to trade with silver coins, and sold the [Swedish copper coins] to the Germans, having traded with them nine years.

1432 AD (CE). The Russian [Princes] Vasili Vasilievich and Yuri Dmitrievich came away from the Horde; Tsar [Khan--ruler of the Tartar "Golden Horde"] Mahmed gave the title of [Great Prince] over the whole Russian Land to [Prince] Vasili Vasflievich.

1434 AD (CE). Prince Yuri Dmitrievich seized the town of Moscow and took his seat as Great Prince.

1441 AD (CE). . . . The same winter the Metropolitan Isidor returned to Russia from the Eighth [Assembly] in Rome, and began calling himself Legatos from the rib of the Apostolic seat of Roman power, and Roman Metropolitan: he also began the naming of the Pope of Rome in his services, and other new things which we had never heard since the baptism of the Russian Land; and he ordered Russian priests to perform his service in the Polish churches, and chaplains to serve in Russian churches. But Lithuania and Russia did not support this.

1445 AD (CE). . . . Bread was dear [scarce and expensive] in Novgorod, and not only this year but during ten whole years: one half-rouble for two [baskets]; sometimes a little more, sometimes less; sometimes there was none to be bought anywhere. And amongst the Christians there was great grief and distress; only crying and sobbing were to be heard in the streets and market place, and many people fell down dead from hunger, children before their parents, fathers and mothers before their children; and many dispersed, some to Lithuania, others passed over to Latinism [Catholicism], and others . . . to the Jews, giving themselves to the traders for bread. At the same time there was no law or justice in Novgorod; calumniators arose and turned obligations and accounts and oaths to falsehood; and began to rob in the town and in the villages and districts; we were exposed to the rebukes of our neighbours, who were around us. There was much confiscation, frequent demands for money, throughout the districts, with weeping and anguish and with outcries and curses on all sides against our seniors and our town: because there was no grace in us, nor justice. . . .

1471 AD (CE). The Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich [Ivan III "the Great"] marched with a force against Novgorod the Great because of its wrong doing and lapsing into Latinism [Catholicism]. . . . That tempter the devil entered in their midst into the wily Marfa Boretskaya, widow of Isaak Boretski, and that accursed woman entangled herself in words of guile with the Lithuanian Prince Mikhail. On his persuasion she intended to marry a Lithuanian Boyar, to become Queen, meaning to bring him to Great Novgorod and to rule with him under the suzerainty of the King over the whole of the Novgorod region. The accursed Marfa beguiled the people, diverting them from the right way to Latinism, for the dark deceits of Latinism blinded her soul's eyes through the wiles of the cunning devil and the wicked imaginings of the Lithuanian Prince. And being of one mind with her, prompted to evil by the proud devil Satan, Pimin the monk and the almoner of the old Archbishop, the cunning man, engaged with her in secret whispering and helped her in every wickedness, seeking to take the place of his lord as Archbishop of Great Novgorod during his life, having suffered much punishment for his rogueries; his desire had not been gratified, inasmuch as the Lord God had not favored him in the drawing of the lot, and he was not, therefore, accepted by the people for the high office. . . .

This cunning monk Pimin sought his appointment by the apostate Grigori, spreading it among the people that he should be sent to Kiev where he would receive his confirmation, being unmindful of the words in the Holy Gospels spoken by the lips of our Lord: "He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." Now this cunning man not only sought like a wolf to climb over the fence into the sheep-fold of the house of Israel, but to scatter and to destroy God's church; and he in this wise ruined the whole of the Novgorod land, the accursed one. According to the Prophet: "He made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness." This Pimin did similarly trust in the abundance of his riches, giving of them also to the crafty woman Marfa, and ordering many people to give money to her to buy over the people to their will; and this accursed wicked serpent fearing not God and having no shame before man, has spread destruction throughout all the Novgorod land and destroyed many souls. . . .

To his patrimony Pskov the Grand Prince [of Muscovy] sent to say that the men of Pskov should release themselves from their engagement on oath to Great Novgorod, and take to horse in his service against Novgorod which had abjured Orthodoxy and was giving itself to the Latin king [Catholic Pope]. They issued forth at once all the men of Pskov. . . . The Novgorod country is filled with lakes and swamps, for which reason mounted forces were never employed against Novgorod by former Grand Princes and the wicked people . . . dwelled in security during the summer after, following their own evil ways from the autumn to the winter, and even up to spring time, by reason of the inundation of the lands. By the beneficence of God, vouchsafed by God from on high to the Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich of all Russia to the detriment of the Novgorod land, not a drop of rain had fallen during the summer, from the month of May to the month of September the land was dry and the heat of the sun had dried up all the swamps. The troops of the Grand Prince found no impediments and could ride in every direction over the country, driving the cattle over dried ground; thus did the Lord God through this dessication punish the men of Novgorod for their evil-doing and subject them to the strong hand of the pious sovereign and Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich of all Russia. When the men of Novgorod heard that the Grand Prince was marching upon them with a large army, those cunning men sent to him professions of duty and again asked for guarantees of security while proceeding with their evil doing. At the same time they sent forces from Novgorod the Great by the Ilmen lake in boats against the advancing columns of the Grand Prince, and fought them; but God aided the Grand Prince, and 500 men of Novgorod were killed and others were captured or drowned, while others fled back to the town informing the townsmen that they had been defeated by the Grand Prince of all Russia. . . .

The pious Grand Prince was gladdened by the unspeakable mercy of God in the aid given to him from on high against his cunning enemies. Praising God and the most pure Mother of God for having frustrated their wicked design of corrupting the sacred churches of God, of causing agitations and of producing hostilities between great sovereigns to the utter discomfiture of all Orthodoxy. He found among the documents the draft of a treaty with the king, by the terms of which the men of Novgorod agreed to surrender all the towns and districts of the Grand Prince, with his lands and waters and with all the taxes of Novgorod the Great, setting forth the names of the envoys to be sent to the king . . . and naming him "our honorable king and sovereign." It is written that their sickness shall turn upon their heads and their untruth shall descend upon them. So may it be with them for their craftiness and evil counsels. . . .

When the men of Novgorod were brought before the Grand Prince, he, the pious one, with a godly wisdom accused the crafty men of their cunning and dishonorable proceedings, of departing from the light of the true worship and giving themselves up to Latinism, of surrendering themselves to the Latin king while being the patrimony of himself, the Grand Prince; and of surrendering to the Latin king according to the draft of a treaty with him all the towns, districts, lands and waters which belonged to him the Grand Prince of Muscovy together with the taxes. Having found them guilty of all this, and being thus stirred against the men of Novgorod, he ordered them to execution by the sword, [including] Dmitri the eldest son of the charming Marfa, and she was also to lose her life by decapitation.