Conclusions

Nicholas Zharkikh

The previous review of the sources value of the genealogical books allows us to draw the following conclusions:

1. Genealogical books were created only in the Moscow state and only from the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 17th century.

2. They were the result of the activities of the government institution – the Razrjadnyj Prikaz (military ministry) – and related to its official documentation. The private element in these books plays an insignificant role.

3. The ancestors of the dynasty ruling in Moscow is an abbreviated account of the chronicle and does not cause any doubts, although it does not provide any new information.

4. Records of other kinds are expedient to divide into parts – historical, fabulous and mythical.

5. The historical part begins indisputably with the 4th quarter 15th cent. and can reach 2 quarter 15th cent. A significant part of the names here can be compared with other documents, so the reliability of these records is high.

6. The fabulous part precedes the historical and can generally be dated from the mid-13th to the mid-15th century. Only a few names here can be compared with chronicles and a few acts, and most names are unknown. This opens a large field for inventions, respectively, the reliability of this part is low.

7. In the mythical part, the authors of the genealogical records attempted to drag the "chain of memory" into the Old Russian or in an undefined ancient time. This part of the information has no source value and should be considered from the point of view of historiography and the history of social thought.

8. For a specific definition of these parts, it may be advisable to establish a history of the text of individual genera records and highlight the oldest core of information.