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The Chronicle is a record of events and a
collection of various information presented on a yearly basis. As such it
should be considered as the first venture of Russian historiography. It was
written by several authors, mainly unknown monks; some of whom were
contemporaries of the events they described. It covers a period of several
centuries, from the middle of the 9th to the 18th centuries. The early periods
were copied several times and this is basically why parts of the scripts
contain some unintentional errors. As a whole the Chronicle stands favorable in
comparison with the information recorded in the Greek Chronographs, which
obviously served as a model to the first Russian authors. Regrettably the
earliest part of the Chronicle came to us incomplete and in a much later form,
since the original scripts of that period had not been found. We can only
assume that in some instances certain parts of the earlier Chronicle had been
rewritten to present more favorably the policy of the prince who had
commissioned the later edition. Nevertheless, the Chronicle has tremendous
value as a most comprehensive source of the early Russian historical
development.
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