History writing and late Muscovite court culture: a study of Andrei Lyzlov's History of the Scythians

Abstract

This dissertation studies Andrei Lyzlov's History of the Scythians, a work composed in 1692 by a Muscovite nobleman that is part of the late seventeenth century polemical campaign urging war against the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold: to study the impact of European, particularly Polish, models of history writing upon a Muscovite historian and to establish what the History of the Scythians reveals about the values of Lyzlov's audience, the Muscovite political elite. I conclude that Lyzlov imitated the external features of his European models in order to appeal to his audience which was increasingly conversant with products of Polish culture. Lyzlov, however, was not interested in historical method. Lyzlov's posting of fame (slava) as the reward for the participants in military campaigns against the Crimean Tatars and the Ottomans reflects a new value among the Muscovite aristocracy. The dissertation concludes by suggesting a link between the rise to prominence of fame and the decline of the traditional system of mestnichestvo.