Nestor the Chronicler
Nestor (c. 1056 - c. 1114 Kyiv) was the reputed author of the earliest East Slavic chronicle, the Lives of St Theodosius and of Boris and Gleb, and of the so-called Reading.
Nestor was a monk of the Kiev Monastery of the Caves from 1073. The only other detail of his life that is reliably known is that he was commissioned with two other monks to find the relics of St Theodosius, a mission which he succeeded in fulfilling. It is also speculated that he supported the reigning prince Svyatopolk II and his pro-Scandinavian party and disliked Greek influence in Kiev.
His chronicle begins with the deluge, as those of most chroniclers of the time did. The compiler appears to have been acquainted with the Byzantine historians; he makes use especially of John Malalas and George Hamartolus. He also had in all probability other Slavonic language chronicles to compile from, which are now lost. Many legends are mixed up with Nestor's Chronicle; the style is occasionally so poetical that perhaps he incorporated bylinas which are now lost.
As an eyewitness he could only describe the reigns of Vsevolod I and Svyatopolk II (1078-1112), but he could have gathered many interesting details from the lips of old men, two of whom could have been Giurata Rogovich of Novgorod, who could give him information concerning the north of Rus, Pechora River, and other places, and Yan Vyshatich, a nobleman ninety years of age, who died in 1106. Many of the ethnological details given by Nestor of the various races of the Slavs are of the highest value.
The current theory about Nestor is that the Chronicle is a patchwork of many fragments of chronicles, and that the name of Nestor was attached to it because he wrote the greater part or perhaps because he put the fragments together. The name of the hegumen Sylvester is affixed to several of the manuscripts as the author.
The great historian Sergey Solovyov remarked that Nestor cannot be called the earliest Russian chronicler, but he is the first writer who took a national point of view in his history, the others being merely local writers. The language of his work, as shown in the earliest manuscripts just mentioned, is Palaeo-Slavonic with many Russisms.
The reputed body of the ancient chronicler may be seen among the relics preserved in the Kiev Pecherski Monastery.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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