ALEKSEEV A.I. “A Detailed Chronicle of the History of Russia from Ancient Times to the Battle of Poltava,” the So-Called “Notes” by Count A.A. Matveyev and “A Brief Description of the Blessed Deeds of Emperor Peter the Great” by P.N. Krekshin
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2026.1.19
Alexey I. Alekseev,
Doctor of Sciences (History), Deputy Director General for Research, Russian National Library, Sadovaya St, 18, 191069 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation; Senior Researcher, Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodskaya St, 7, 197110 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation,
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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4372-516X
Abstract. Introduction. Collections of historical content of the 18th century retain in their compositions a sufficient number of little-studied monuments of historical narrative with stories about the Peter the Great era. “A detailed chronicle from the beginning of Russia to the Battle of Poltava” is one of the largest projects of late chronicle writing and a valuable source on the history of Russia in the late 17th – early 18th centuries. Methods and materials. Since its introduction into scientific circulation in 1798–1799, N.M. Karamzin, K.N. BestuzhevRyumin, A.N. Nasonov, M.V. Nikolaeva, A.V. Sirenov, and others have turned to the study of this monument. In the collections of the OR RNB, it was possible to identify a copy of the “Detailed Chronicle,” which, based on the watermarks on the paper, should be dated to 1720. Analysis. The discovery of this list allows us to significantly change traditional ideas about the work of the compilers of the “Detailed Chronicle.” We have to admit that work on its compilation began during the life of Peter the Great. Comparison of the texts of “The History of Two Tsars in the Russian Tsardom and the First Revolt from the Streltsy” according to the list we identified with later lists allows us to discover important discrepancies. The early copy does not include the story of Simeon Polotsky’s miraculous prediction of the conception and birth of Peter, the speech of the dying Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, or the story of the Streltsy revolt, which does not mention the attempts of Princess Sophia to persuade the Patriarch to elect Ivan as Tsar, etc. Results. A comparative analysis of the texts of the early edition in the list from the Collection of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy No. 300 with the “Story of the Streltsy Revolt” published by A.P. Bogdanov allows us to discover that the text of the latter is a greatly abbreviated account of the corresponding places of the early version of the “Detailed Chronicle.” Priest I.L. Poborsky, when compiling the “History of the Streltsy Revolt,” knew about the existence of the “Detailed Chronicle.” P.N. Krekshin, in his work dated June 1742, used the text of the “Detailed Chronicle” as the main source. Funding. The study was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation under project No. 23-18-00420, “New People of New Russia: Anthropology of a Sea Power in the First Half of the 18th Century.”
Key words: Peter I, “A Detailed Chronicle of the History of Russia Before the Battle of Poltava”, “Notes” by Count A.A. Matveyev, “History” by P.N. Krekshin, Moscow uprising of 1682, source study, textual criticism.
Citation. Alekseev A.I. “A Detailed Chronicle of the History of Russia from Ancient Times to the Battle of Poltava”, the So-Called “Notes” by Count A.A. Matveyev and “A Brief Description of the Blessed Deeds of Emperor Peter the Great” by P.N. Krekshin. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2026, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 223-231. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2026.1.19
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