Chronicler’s personslity through lens of text: worldview and self-identification of Kyrylo Ivanovich - one of the authors of Kyiv Chronicle of first quarter of the 17th century

Abstract

The goal of the research. To investigate the peculiarities of worldview and self-identification of one of the authors of the Kyiv Chronicle of the first quarter of the 17th century — Orthodox priest, charter keeper of the Cathedral Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Pyrohoshcha, Kyrylo Ivanovych. Methodology. Critical and comparative-historical methods, historicalanthropological approach, hermeneutic and microhistorical analysis were used. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the worldview and multiple identities of Kyrylo Ivanovych — author of the Kyiv Chronicle — have been studied based on analysis of his authorial reflections and source selection strategies. Conclusions. Analysis of the chronicle narrative made it possible to approach an understanding of the chronicler’s worldview and identify his inhe rent identities. Kyrylo is an Orthodox priest, an active fighter against Uniates. At the same time, his confessional hostility is selective: it is directed exclusively against Uniates and does not extend to Catholics. He is a burgher, a bearer of burgher ideology that permeates the entire chronicle text. This manifests itself in the chronicler’s attention to the economic component of religious conflicts, care for the rights of the Kyiv urban community, and ideas about ideal relations with Kyiv voivodes. The author of the Kyiv Chronicle is a Kyivan with characteristic Kyiv-centrism, which primarily found expression in his interpretation of the symbol of the “God-saved city” as a city of Orthodox Kyivans under God’s protection. The sacred center of the “chosen” city of Kyiv for Kyrylo is the Cathedral Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God Pyrohoshcha, which after the transfer of St. Sophia Cathedral to the Uniates became a symbol of continuity of church tradition. The chronicler is a Kyivan who is aware of Kyiv’s special border status and the associated challenges and dangers that threatened the inhabitants of the “borderland” city. This was manifested in his perception and reflection on the pages of the chronicle of external enemies — Muscovites, Tatars, Turks. Kyrylo Ivanovych is not an impartial chronicler, but a true Kyivan intellectual who skillfully wields the pen, has his own authorial style, using irony and sarcasm as weapons in the struggle against religious opponents.