fitions; thus tranfmitting the rays of learning to illuminate future ages and a diftantpofterity*.
Though Ruffia hitherto abounded in chronicles and annals relative to detached pe-riods ; yet, excepting a dry detail of fa&s compiled for the ufe of Alexey Michaelovitch,it poffeffed no regular and connected hiftory. The firft attempt towards fuch a workwas undertaken by Prince Khilkof. This nobleman f, defcended from an ancientfamily, had diftinguiffied himfelf as embaffador to feveral foreign courts, before he wasdeputed, in 1700, to Stockholm. He accompanied Charles XII. in his defcent uponthe Ifle of Zealand; and on the enfuing truce of Travendhal, between Sweden andDenmark, returned to Stockholm , on the 17th of September, at the eve of the rup-ture which broke out between the Swedifh and Ruffian monarchs. His character ofembaffador, deemed facred by the law of nations, could not prated him from the re-fentment of Charles XII. ; and, on the 20th of the fame month, he was arrefted andimprifoned.
As an amufement during his captivity, which was long and rigorous, and at the re-queft of his fellow-prifoner prince Trubetfkoi, he began an abridgment of the Ruffianhiftory, from the earlieft period to his own time ; and after a confinement of eighteenyears, expired in his prifon of Wefteros, when he was on the point of being releafed.
His work called the “ Kernel of the Ruffian Hiftory,” is a mere abridgment, andwas publifhed in 1770 by Mr. Mullen It forms only one volume in o&avo, and containsfeven books: the firft commences with the creation of the world, and ends with thefoundation of the Ruffian empire under Ruric; the remaining fix carry down the hiftoryto the year 1713* During fomepart of his confinement he was permitted to receivefrom Mofcow, books, extrafts from chronicles, and a few ftate-papers; but as he couldnot obtain the neceffary documents lo well as on the fpot, his performance unavoidablycontains occafional errors, many of which he judicious editor has corrected.
In 1720, Vaffili Tatifchef, who had more opportunities of obtaining information,began to colle& materials for a complete hiftory of Ruffia, and continued his refearcheswithout intermiffion for thirty years. The indefatigable compiler finiffied his account tothe reign of Feodor Ivanovitch, and was bringing it down to this century, when deathput a period to his labours. Part of this great work was confumed by fire, and the re-mainder was publiffied after the author’s death by Muller. It confifts of three volumesin quarto. The firft contains feveral curious differtations relative to the antiquity of theSclavonian nation; the fecond and third comprife the hiftory of the Ruffian empire,from its earliefl: origin to 1237. It can hardly be called a regular hiftory, but is rathera connetted feries of chronicles, whofe antiquated Sclavonian diale&s are merelychanged into the Ruffian idiom; and the author is juftly cenfured for not regularly ci-ting the various annalifts as he abridges or new models them, and for not affigning thereafons which induced him to prefer the writers whofe relations he has adopted, to thofewhich he has reje&ed
Since Tatifchef, feveral writers § have publiffied colledtions of ftate-papers and otherdocuments; but the honour of compofing a complete hiftory of this country is proba-bly
* For tlie hiftory of Theophanes I have followed implicitly Muller, whofe fidelity and accuracy always-appear to me unqueftionable. See S. R. G. V. p. 564.
t See Bach. Ruff. Bib. for 1777, p.78-87. T -
± Bach. Ruff. Bib. for 1774, p. 43; alfo for 1775, p. ?io. i. Evefque, vol. 1 p. xxxi.
6 Particularly Novikof, in his ancient Ruffian Library, in ten volumes, a work thus charaflerifed by 'L’Evefque • “ Recueil de pieces originales et authentiques, tirees des cabinets ct deg archives; on y trouve
5 deg