Dates proposed for the composition of the ''Tale of the Destruction of the Rus' Land'' range from 1238 (the beginning of the Mongol-Tatar invasion) to 1246 (the year of the death of
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (1191–1246).
Alexander Solovyov argued that prince Yaroslav is mentioned in the text as if he were still alive. Scholars disagree about where and when exactly it was written, with some arguing it was written somewhere in the northeast of the Rus' principalities after the initial Mongol campaign of 1237–1238, while others maintain it was penned down later in Kyiv right after
the Mongols sacked it in 1240. The reason for writing was the news from
Vladimir-Suzdal about the invasion of
Batu and the death of
Yaroslav's brother
Yuri in the
battle on the Sit River against the Mongols. Some researchers believed that the ''Tale of the Destruction of the Rus' Land
was originally a preface to the secular biography of Alexander Nevsky that has not come down to us. Alexander Solovyov categorically disagreed with this, referring to the fact that the Tale'' was conceived and written during Yaroslav's lifetime. "The task [of the poetic work] was to sing of the former glory of the motherland in contrast to the terrible Tatar invasion; Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodich, to whom the author was close, was to play the main role in this work". Some assume that the description of the greatness and power of the Rus' land provided in the
Tale preceded the story about the invasion of Batu, which has not been preserved. This character of the introduction to the text, which was supposed to tell about the sorrows and troubles of the country, is not accidental. This feature of the ''Tale of the Destruction of the Rus' Land'' finds a typological correspondence with the works of ancient and
medieval literature.
Views of scholars Professor
Mikhail Tikhomirov (1956), writing that the author of the
Tale accurately reveals to readers a map of the Rus' land in the first half of the 13th century, concluded that 'the geographical terms of the author and his political hints lead us ... to the second or third decades of the 13th century', so that the
Tale was created after the
Battle of the Kalka River and that Novgorod was the “far away” from where its author looked at the Rus' land. It was written "even before the Batu campaigns, during the reign of Yaroslav Vsevolodich in Novgorod," the current Yaroslav "(according to the author of the manuscript), maybe around 1225". This opinion was already expressed in 1929 by Alexei Sobolevsky. Professor N. K. Gudziy believes that the
Tale was written not in Novgorod, but most likely in Pereyaslavl, before the battle of the Sit river on 4 March 1238, since in it Yuri, and not Yaroslav, is called the Prince of Vladimir. The philologist
Alexander Solovyov, opposing the versions about the writing of the
Tale in Novgorod, notes that the author is very accurate in designating the southwestern border of Rus' with the Ugrians, Czechs, Poles, Yatvyaz and Lithuanians. However, when approaching Novgorod and Pskov, its accuracy disappears.
The Tale of Bygone Years knows within these limits the neighbors and tributaries of Rus':
Korshi, narowa,
lib,
zimegola,
chud, wes, jääm. The author of the
Tale does not name any of these tribes, although they should have been known in Novgorod, he only says "to the Germans" and from the Germans makes a leap across the
Gulf of Finland "to the Korels." Meanwhile, the Novgorod chronicles constantly mention the Chud (Ests) as their neighbors, besides, the Chud was subordinate at that time not to the Germans, but to the Danes, whom the author of the
Tale did not mention either. Alexander Solovyov also draws attention to the last words of the passage: "from the great Yaroslav and to Volodimer (Monomakh) and to the present Yaroslav and to his brother Yury Prince Volodimersky." According to Solovyov, the present is a living ruler, protagonist of the work. Therefore, the author of the
Tale of the Destruction intended to praise, against the backdrop of the past greatness of the Rus' land, its current Grand Prince Yaroslav. “The fact that his older brother Yuri Vsevolodich is modestly called the ‘Prince of Volodimer’, is not called the ‘current’ and is placed after his younger brother Yaroslav, makes it possible to conclude that the
Tale was written after the battle of the Sit river on 4 March 1238. After this catastrophe, in the midst of the terrible “destruction of the Rus' Land”,
Yaroslav survived, remained the legitimate heir to the listed grand princes, the organizer of the devastated homeland. The author wants to praise him, mentioning his brother Yuri only because he wanted to touch on the battle of the Sit river and the tragic death of this prince and all his troops", the scholar concludes.
Charles J. Halperin (1976, 1981) argued that the text was not written in Northeastern Rus', and
Serhii Plokhy (2006) stated that he believed 'that Halperin offers sufficient evidence to rule out this [option]'. == Content ==