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348 €OXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
On the final expulfion of the Tartars by Ivan Vaifilievitch I. in the middle of the
sth century, Ruflia gradually emerged from this ftate of darknefs, and continued im-
proving in civilization and culture, under the patronage of the fucceeding fovereigns,
particularly Ivan II. Boris Godunof, the two firft tzars of the line of Romanof, and
the princefs Sophia. But it was not tillthe ra of Peter the Great that letters, which
had been chiefly confined to the regular clergy, began to be cultivated by the laity; a
fure fign that the nation was advancing to a more general {late of improvement.
A review of the lives and works of the moft eminent writers, who have contributed
to refine the language, and diffufe a tafte for icience, will affift in tracing the progrefs
of literature, and afcertaining its prefent ftate.
In this inquiry I fhall confine myfelf principally to Hjftory and Poetry.
Ruflia can boat the earlieft hiftorian of the North; for, at a period when Poland,
Sweden, and Denmark, were unlettered; when even the annalifts of Iceland were
mute; a monk of the convent of Petcherfki at Kiof was compiling the hiitory of
Rufiia.
This annalift, whofe fecular name is not known, was’ born in 1046, at Bielozero,
and in the nineteenth year of his age aflumed the monaftic habit, and took the name
of Neftor*. At Kiof he made a confiderable proficiency in the Greek language, but
feems to have formed his ftyle and manner rather from the Byzantine hiftorians, Cerde-
nus, Zonaras, and Syncellus, than from the ancient claffics. The time of Neftor’s
death is not afcertained; but he is fuppofed to have attained an advanced age, and to
have died about the year 1115.
His great work is his Chronicle with an introduation, which contains a fhort fketch of
the early {tate of the world, taken from the Byzantine writers, a geographical defcription
of Rufiia, and an account of the Sclavonian nations. He then enters upon a chrono.
logical feries of the Ruffian annals, from the year 858 to about 1113. His ftyle is fimple
and unadorned, fuch as fuits a mere recorder of facts; but his chronological exa€tnefs,
though it render his narrative dry and tedious, contributes to afcertain the ara and
authenticity of the events which he relates its
* For the account of Neftor, fee principally Muller, S. R. G. V. p.63 and Schloetzer’s Probe Ruff
che Annalen ; which accurate and interefting work I have chiefly followed, as the great fource of informa-
tion relative to the early annalifts of Ruflia.
+ A competent judge thus expreffes himfelf with regard to this performance :
“© Neftor’s chronicle is uaigue in its kind. For all the other Sclavonian people, fuch as the Poles, Bohe-
mians, Illyrians, &c. cannot produce any writer who can in the {maileft degree contend with the Ruffian an-
nalift in antiquity, minutenefs, accuracy, and truth. He was fo highly efteemedin Ruffia, and the fubfe-
quent writers were fo convinced of his fidelity, that in fpeaking of the fame times, they adopt his very
words, or make only the fmalleft alterations. ;
« J will not prejudice the readers in their judgment concerning the authenticity of this annalift; and I
am convinced, that whoever perufes his work, will at once do him the juftice which he deferves. I allude
to thofe readers only who do not acknowledge any other hiftories than thofe which are derived from the molt
efteemed fources; and who know how to diltinguifh with eritical exa€tnefs the purity of thofe fources.
But I donot addrefs myfelf to thofe who have not hitherto been acquainted with any other writers on the
carly times of the Ruffian hiftory than Herberitein and Petreius; place the introduftion of the art of
writing into Ruffia fo late as the 13th century; who hold the fucceffion of the Ruffian fovereigns to be
unknown, at leaft uncertain, until the time of Ivan Vaflilievitch ; who confider this long pertod as totally
obf{eure, in which no chronicle affords a clue to the difcerning hiftorian ; who draw their whole knowledge
of Ruffian hiftory from Strahlenberg, Voltaire, La Combe, and from the ftill more wretched compilers ‘of
the article Ruffia in the Univerfal Hiltory. Thefe readers will not indeed be eafily induced to efteem, as
authentic, the relations of a monk, whofe writings fhow the inaccuracy of the above-mentioned authors,
and confute at once their whole account of Ruffia during the middle ages.”? Schloetzer, Ruff. Ann, p. 32.
It
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