The story of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453

• "The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453" by Nestor Iskander (presumably). Known in the only Trinity list of the XVI century ^[4] .
• "Chronographic" novel (as part of the Russian Chronograph ).
• A short story "On the capture of Constantinople from the godless Turks." (In the lists of the Western Russian edition of the Russian Chronograph, it is a translation of the Latin novel by Aeneas Sylvia, carried out by Maxim Grek ).
• the so-called "Weeping about the fall of Constantinople" (the final chapter of the story as edited by the Russian chronograph of 1512) ^[1] .

Late Processing

• As part of the Degree Book ^[5] .
• As part of the Russian Chronograph in its editions of the XVII century.

It is read as part of the Nikonovskaya ^[6] and Voskresenskaya annals ^[7] , the Golitsynsky volume of the Personal annals ^[1] .

Additional texts

In addition, the collections along with "The Tale ..." included:

• "The Legend of the Origin of Byzantium "
• "The Legend of the Origin of Constantinople"
• an article about the origin of the "Turkish kings".

The Tale of Nestor Iskander

Known in the only Trinity list of the XVI century, without a title. At the end of the text there is a record where Nestor Iskander is named its author.

Composition:

• a story about the foundation of Constantinople
• siege and capture
• prophecy about the fate of Constantinople

Sources of the Story:

• Chronicler of Greece and Rome ; The legend of the construction of the church of St. Sophia
• The "Revelation" of Methodius of Patara
• Apocryphal Revelation of Daniel
• the prophecies of Leo the Wise

The author reports about himself that he is about himself, that “Izmlada” was captured and “circumcised” (converted to Islam ^[2] ), “suffered a lot of suffering in military walks”, was an eyewitness and participant in the siege and capture of Constantinople, and every day He wrote down the “acts being done outside the city from the Turks”, and after the capture of the city he collected information “from reliable and great men” and all this, “briefly” setting out, he transmitted to the Christians “as a reminder of this terrible and God’s deliberate deed”. It is assumed that Nestor Iskander was Russian in origin and was a direct witness to the described events ^{[2] [8]} . I. I. Sreznevsky and Archimandrite Leonid did not doubt that he was the author of the Story. G.P. Belchenko, N.A. Smirnov, M.O. Skripil believed that, in its current form, the Story is a processing of Nestor Iskander's notes by another scribe. However, the Story is characterized by a stylistic unity that impedes its division into the text of Nestor Iskander and his editor. A. I. Sobolevsky and M. N. Speransky doubted the reliability of the information specified in the afterword of the Story. O. V. Tvorogov also admitted that the afterword is a literary hoax . The story is marked by high literary skill within the framework of the Russian written tradition, doubtful for a prisoner, who had been torn away from Slavic book culture from his youth. The scientist suggested that Nestor Iskander is not the author of the Story, but a source of information for writing it ^[9] .

Tvorogov notes the following: “Although the Tale contains a lot of reliable information, in general it is still a purely literary work, not a documentary chronicle. Some spectacular plot collisions turn out to be fiction: for example, there was no patriarch in Constantinople during the siege, and in The Tale he is one of the main characters; the last Byzantine emperor Konstantin XI Paleolog was a widower, and in the "Tale" tells about tonsure, and then about the successful flight of the empress from the besieged city; the story of Mehmed's respectful attitude to Christian shrines and to the townspeople is completely untrue; the fact of decisive importance for the fate of Constantinople is not mentioned - the transfer of part of the Turkish fleet overland through the isthmus, as a result of which the enemy ships unexpectedly ended up directly under the walls of the city ” ^[3] .

As the researchers note, this Tale is primarily “a literary work subject to a certain ideological plan: the author seeks to show the inevitability of the death of Constantinople, mired in sins, while glorifying the courage and heroism of the city’s defenders; the plot is created by a targeted selection of historical facts in combination with frankly fictional plot episodes ” ^[3] . In the Tale, the idea is drawn that Byzantium as a power completed its development, and its fall is predicted in the legend of the struggle of the serpent with the eagle (Islam and Christianity) associated with the founding of Constantinople. With reference to the same legend, the author writes about the appearance in the future of a “fair-haired kind” that will save Constantinople from the power of the conquerors. The work skillfully used the style of a military novel ^[8] .

Chronographic Edition

MN Speransky assumed the existence of a common source at the Trinity list (“Iskander” edition) and a “chronographic” edition, textually close to the first, but shorter ^[1] .

The discovery by S. N. Azbelov of a fragment of the “chronographic” edition in the manuscript of the 15th century ^[10] allows one to date the creation of the archetypal text of the Tale by the 15th century ^[1] .

The fall of Constantinople made a great impression on all European peoples. Among the numerous literary responses to this event, this ancient Russian historical Tale is of particular importance, which is not only a talented literary work, but, despite a number of fictional plot elements, an important historical source, standing along with descriptions of the same event belonging to the Greeks Duke , George Sfrandji and Laonik Halkokondil . The story is the work of an outstanding Russian writer of the XV century, well aware of the circumstances of the death of Constantinople ^[11] .

The story in two main editions had a great influence on the Russian historical narration of the XVI - beginning of the XVIII centuries ^[1] . They imitate her:

• Kazan history
• Chronicler of the beginning of the kingdom
• "The story of the book sowing from previous years," attributed to I. M. Katyrev-Rostovsky
• Abraham Palitsyn in his Tale
• compiler of one of the revisions of the Tale of the Beginning of Moscow
• The “Chronographic” edition of the Story entered the Scythian History by A. Lyzlov (1692)
  • through her, in the book “The History of the Last Ruin of the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Roman Cesar Titus the son of Vespasianov, the second about the capture of the glorious capital city of Greek Constantinople (like Izgar and Tsargrad) from the Turkish Sultan Mahomet the Second” (M., 1713), reprinted 1723, 1745, 1765, 1769 and beyond, until the beginning of the 19th century
• the Bulgarian story, found in the Damaskines of the second half of the 18th century, dates back to this edition
• the author of The History of the Tsargradskaya I.V. Pause (died in 1735) was also based on ancient Russian sources.
• at the beginning of the 18th century, the plot motifs of the Story were used by the author of the anonymous essay “On the Conception and Building of the Reigning City of St. Petersburg”.
• the plot of the “sign” - the struggle of an eagle with a snake - was widely used in monuments of applied art of the 17th - early 18th centuries.

• The Tale of Constantinople (its foundation and capture by the Turks in 1453) of Nestor Iskander of the 15th century / Communication. Archimandrite Leonid . - SPb., 1886 (Monuments of ancient writing and art, No. 62). Trinity list ;
• Monuments of literature of Ancient Russia. The second half of the XV century. - M.: Hudozh. lit., 1982. - S. 216-267; 602-607;
• The story of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 / Text preparation, translation and comments by O. V. Tvorogov // Library of literature of Ancient Russia / RAS. IRLE; Ed. D. S. Likhachev, L. A. Dmitriev , A. A. Alekseev , N. V. Ponyrko. SPb. : Science, 1999. Volume 7 (Second half of the 15th century). Electronic version . Electronic publications of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) RAS. Trinity list .

• Sreznevsky I.I.Tale of Constantinople. - SPb., 1855 (depart. Ott. Uchen. Zap. II div. Imp. Academy of Sciences. - SPb., 1854. - Prince. 1);
• Destunis G. Newly published list of the story of Constantinople // Journal of the Ministry of Education . - 1887. - Feb. - S. 373-374;
• Sobolevsky A.I. Translated literature. - S. 13;
• G. Belchenko. On the Composition of the Historical Tale of the Take of Constantinople // Collection of Articles on the 40th Anniversary of the Scientific Activity of Academician A. S. Orlov. - L., 1934. - S. 507-513;
• Smirnov N. A. The historical significance of the Russian "Tale" by Nestor Iskander about the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 // Byzantine time-book . - M., 1953.- T. 7 (32). - S. 55-56;
• Skripil M. O. “History” about the capture of Constantinople by the Turks Nestor Iskander // Transactions of the Department of Old Russian Literature . - M.; L., 1954. - T. 10. - S. 166-170, 180-183;
• Speransky M.N. Tales and legends about the capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453) in Russian writing of the XVI-XVII centuries // Transactions of the Department of Old Russian Literature . - M.; L., 1954. - T. 10. - S. 138-151.

• Manuscript No. 773. (1867.) Collection, semi -ust. different, XVI century, a quarter, 285 liters. The main collection of the library of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius . (Ibid.). The full text of the list .
• The text of the Iskander story in Old Russian and translated into modern .