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Mykola Zharkikh (Kyiv)

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Compilation methods of Gustynja Chronicle author

Nicholas Zharkikh

What can we say about the methods of the author’s work with his sources?

1, he is a rationalist with a European education.

2, he tried to combine Polish and Russian sources in his work, as can be seen from the following diagram:

Distribution of sources of the…

Distribution of sources of the Gustynja Chronicle for the 14th century.

(In accordance with NATO standards, Polish sources, allegedly "ours", are marked in blue, and Russian, as hostile, is red.)

3, the author of the GL ordered the collected records on a chronological basis. Here and there in his chronology we have gross mistakes, but at the level of the knowledge that he had, it turned out quite smoothly.

4, the author GL not simply copied his sources – he selected some news, and the selected news mostly reduced greatly, often giving as if a summary of extensive stories of sources.

5, in selecting and shortening the author seems to have been guided by the idea of Kyiv-centrism.

6, in his Kyiv-centrism the author of the GL did not stop before attributing to the real historical princes – reigns in Kyiv.

7, the author of the GL paid much attention to Orthodoxy. As well as with Kyiv-centrism, some inventions were made here too.

8, his political credo, the author of the GL expressed in the episode GL-71: "So that no one can violate them in the faith."

I repeat once again: these observations are made on limited material (only 14th century), and they require further confirmation on the material of the whole chronicle.