COMPILATION OF DOCUMENTS IN THE TIMES OF KYIVAN RUS

Abstract

Various types of documents have come to us from ancient times. With their help, we get to know the history of our country, the peculiarities of everyday life and various relationships formed in those distant times. It is known that documents arose together with writing, initially as a means of property relations consolidating, and then, with the further development of writing, they became a means of communication and information transmission. Documents are one of the important “repositories” of human memory. Modern dictionaries explain that the word “document” comes from the Latin «documentum», and that, in turn, from the verb “docere” – “to teach”. After the creation of the ancient Rus state, writing became a vital necessity for establishing relations with foreign figures, concluding agreements with other countries. In the conditions of the formation of a class society, there was a need to draw up wills, write down debts, enter into trade merchant contracts, write inscriptions on things about their purpose, belonging, etc. Ancient Rus princes kept important documents more carefully than jewels. It is known that during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the collection of the most ancient documents and treaties of Kyivan Rus with other countries was housed in the St. Sophia Cathedral (an extension to an Orthodox church or a separate, dedicated part of the main building for the placement of an additional altar with a throne). The scientists assume that documents of the pre-Volodymyr era were also concentrated here. One of the most famous repositories of business papers was also the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, founded by Venerable Antony, a native of the town of Lyubech in Chernihiv region, during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. The clerkship in Kyivan Rus is characterized by its originality and uniqueness in relation to the chronicle sources of other countries of the same time, in particular, by the fact that they were written in the native language, if not completely identical to the spoken vernacular, then very close to it. Unlike the chronicles of most European countries, which are written in Latin, it is important to note that the importance of the annals lies in the fact that the history of this period was written by contemporaries and actors. Despite numerous fires, princely feuds and the Mongol-Tatar invasion, and the fact that most of the monuments of the ancient Rus era perished, some of them have reached us in a transcribed form, which is extremely valuable for our country and historical science in general. The purpose of the study: to investigate the Ukrainian documentation of the period of Kyivan Rus based on chronicle sources. To indicate the history of the creation of documentary studies on the territory of Kyivan Rus. Methods of scientific research: for the purpose of objective understanding of the topic, the following methods were used: periodization method, historical-comparative method, historical-typological method and problem-chronological approach. The main results of the research: the acquisition of the word “document” and some variants of the creation of this term were analyzed based on the conclusions of various researchers. The history of the creation of documentary studies on the territory of Kyivan Rus according to chronicle sources is indicated. Prospects for further studies consist in further research of historical sources of the times of Kyivan Rus, their comparison with other documents of the same time, but written by other law makers. Practical significance of the achieved results: the obtained results can be useful in the preparation of a scientific article, theses of a report at a scientific and practical conference, and the development of new optional courses. The originality of the research lies in the involvement of a large number of analyzed sources and opinions of various authors on this issue.