The mythical "conquest of Kiev" by Gedimin
Nicholas Zharkikh
Shortened text of the article.
Full text in ukrainian version.
Gedimin did not had any battle on Irpen river with anyone else – neither with the Russian princes, nor with the Tatars. Neither in 1323 nor in any other year.
If you, the reader, know this and agree with this statement – you does not need to read my article, because you already have a correct idea of the subject.
The meaning of reading the article is only when you want to get an idea of how this fantasy originated and developed in our "historiography". Also, if you believe in the reality of the battle – you can look at the article (starting from the conclusions), although I doubt very much that I will be able to convince someone of the Ipren-battle-lovers.
Since mythical, fictitious events can not have real sources, the article will be devoted exclusively to the historiography of the question. We will read the thoughts of "historians", beginning with the first news in the 1530s and ending with the year 2017, and then we’ll see if something instructive can be extracted from this.
The extracts use colors and symbols:
- with the number (1) and green background – marked works, whose authors completely deny the reality of the "battle", giving for this arguments;
- with the number (2) and green background – marked works, whose authors completely deny the reality of the "battle", without giving arguments (simple statement);
- with the number (3) and yellow background – marked works, whose authors expressed the reasoned doubts in the reality of the "battle", but did not exclude it categorically;
- with the number (4) and yellow background – marked works, the authors of which simply stated the doubtfulness of the "battle", but did not exclude it categorically;
- with the number (5) and red background – marked works, which gave full faith to fantasies about the "battle" and made attempts to "argue" these fantasies;
- with the number (6) and red background – marked works, which gave full faith to fantasies about the "battle" without argumentation (simple statement)
- with the number (7) and purple background – I highlighted the works in which I hoped to find statements about the "battle", but they are not there (which means that the author’s position is not clear).
Kyiv, May 1 – June 2, 2018
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