Rus' chronicles

The Rus' chronicles, or Russian chronicles, were the primary form of historical Old East Slavic literature in Kievan Rus' and its successors. Chronicles were composed from the 11th to the 18th centuries.

In the High Middle Ages, the main centres of chronicle writing were Kiev (modern Kyiv, producing the Primary Chronicle) and Veliky Novgorod (known for the Novgorod First Chronicle, containing elements of the Old Novgorod dialect). In the Late Middle Ages, the former was replaced by Galicia-Volhynia and especially present-day Belarus (where the (Belarusian-)Lithuanian Chronicles were composed in early Ruthenian), while the Novgorod and Pskov Republics continued their tradition, and Vladimir-Suzdal developed its own centres (with Nizhny Novgorod preserving the Laurentian Codex). Chronicles remained the main historical narrative in Muscovy until the mid-16th century reign of Ivan the Terrible, when they were superseded by Byzantine-style chronographs. In 16th- and 17th-century Ukraine, then contested between the Cossack Hetmanate and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Rus' chronicles gave way to what has been termed the "Cossack Chronicles" (Eyewitness, Hrabianka, and Velychko), which were strongly influenced by the new Polish Renaissance historiography (modelled on classical histories).