Memory and Politics in the Chronicle Lists of Princes, 12th–15th Centuries

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the lists of princes that can be found in the East Slavic chronicles compiled from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, including the Primary Chronicle and the Novgorodian chronicles. For the first time in the historiography, this work studies the corpus of princely lists as distinctive texts with specific cultural functions. The lists of princes were not reference tools but rather charters that validated political arrangements and shaped collective identities. On the basis of textual and formal analysis, the article demonstrates that the chronicle lists of princes legitimised kingship and served as a form of recorded collective memory for members of princely families and their Novgorodian allies. In a group of princely lists from the first half of the fifteenth century, the genealogical concepts of the Riurikid and Danilovichi dynasties appeared for the first time in East Slavic literature. These concepts reflected intensified contacts among literati in the East Slavic republic of letters and political changes caused by the expansionism of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the growth of the principalities of Moscow and Tver’.