"The pestilence vicious was…": "The Black Death" of XIV century in Rus

Abstract

The pandemic of plague, that affected Eurasia in middle of 40s - early 50s of XIV century and remained in history as as "The Black Death", became one of the most death-dealing epidemics that ever stroke humankind and recorded in historical sources. Owing to that many documentary and narrative sources remained intact, the history of this pandemic is considered as well examined. This is evidenced by enormous historiography of the problem, including works of the most different character and orientation. Yet, it should be admitted that in national Russian historiography the issues related to history of this pandemic on the Russian land remain to be insufficiently studied. This condition is related to limitation of source base from one hand and to inadequate development of comprehensive approach to exploration of this page of national history. The article, on the basis of analysis of chronicle texts, reconstructs general picture of the pandemic in the Russian land and characterizes its consequences.