The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan

The Tale of the Destruction of Riazan (Russian: Повесть о разорении Рязани Батыем) is an early Russian work about the capture of the city of Ryazan by the Mongols in 1237.

When events described in the tale took place, Ryazan principality was a rather prosperous border settlement whose inhabitants were actively engaged in trade traveling along the rivers Oka and Volga to the East and by the river Don and the Black Sea to the South. Archeological evidence suggests lively trading relationships between the Northern Caucasus and with peoples of the Black Sea coast. Crafts were relatively well developed, especially famous being Ryazan jewelry making. The principality was often engaged in conflicts with neighboring Chernigov and Vladimir; by the time of the Mongol invasion, their relationships were relatively peaceful. Ryazan is first mentioned in a chronicle of 1096 in connection with Prince Oleg Gorislavovich’s move to Ryazan after he was rejected in Smolensk. The ruling family of Ryazan starts with Oleg Gorislavovich’s younger brother—Yaroslav Sviatoslavovich of Chernigov. As a border principality, this city was one of the first to be conquered by Batu Khan (a military leader of Mongol Khans) who led a united army of various nomadic steppe peoples. In Russian texts, they were called “tatars” (татаре). According to various chronicles and this military tale, Ryazan was attacked in 1237.

Тhis military tale survived in several sixteenth and the seventeenth century redactions and is thought to be a part of a miscellany that was composed and revised by the clergy of the Church of St. Nikholas of Zaraisk. According to the legend, the church is located on the spot where the princess Eupraxy killed herself. Given a form of a military tale, the later version of The Tale of Batu’s Capture of Ryazan is a fictionalized account with some historical inaccuracies suggesting that the Tale was composed sometimes after the described events and was subsequently further edited. Tracing its provenance, textual analysis, and dating of various redactions have been conclusively resolved by Soviet scholars. Originally, The Tale of Batu’s Capture of Ryazan was a part of a cycle dedicated to the icon of St Nicholas of Zarazsk. This cycle included several parts or tales, each with a differing thematic emphasis. Having absorbed details from these various parts, a more popular version ---a military tale—still manifests stylistic and thematic heterogeneity. The Tale of St Nicholas of Zarazsk (in 1225) and The Tale of Batu’s Capture of Ryazan (in 1237) in their earlier serving manuscripts versions are dated to the second third of the sixteenth century. For the first time, The Tale of Batu’s Capture of Ryazan was published by I. P. Sakharov in 1841. It was based on the late sixteenth century redaction. The whole cycle was published by D. C. Likhachev in 1947. In his canonical study, Likhachev (basing it on the research by V. L. Komarovich) dated, analyzed, and classified 34 variants dating from the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. Surviving in the earliest dating redactions, the first cycle-variant of The Tale of St Nicholas of Zarazsk is centered on the wonder-working icon of St Nicholas. The subject matter of transferring sacred objects (crosses, icons, relics) was very common in medieval literature. After the icon was brought to Ryazan, the Mongol invasion described in the second tale began. The second tale (The Tale of Batu’s Capture of Ryazan proper) was about initial unsuccessful negotiations, a battle and then ransacking of Ryazan and finally the return of the Prince Ingvar to his destroyed homeland. The final part The Encomium of the Princely House of Ryazan included a long lament, added much later as Zenkovsky points out, and a panegyric to Ryazan princes. The final part would have been the “family tree of the “keepers” of the icon.

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