HOW LONG WAS THE 12th CENTURY OF ANCIENT RUS'?

Abstract

The idea of short and long centuries is quite firmly established in contemporary historiography, including Russian one. In relation to Ancient Rus', its 12 century, this idea was first applied by A. S. Shchavelev, who determined the duration of the “long 12 century” from the era of Yaroslav the Wise to the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Considering the attempt of such an expansion of the chronological boundaries of the century unsuccessful, N. D. Nikolaeva proposed limiting the “long 12th century” of Ancient Rus' to 1096/1097-1204/1205. That is, the time from the preparation and holding of the Lyubech Congress to the death of Roman Galitsky - events that she correlated, respectively, with the beginning of the crusader movement in Europe and the conquest of Constantinople by the crusaders. This article raises doubts about the validity of such a correlation. It is shown that neither the Lyubech Congress, nor even the death of Roman Mstislavich had such an important significance in the history of Rus'. More natural chronological borders of the "long 12 century" of Ancient Russia are recognized as the death of Yaroslav the Wise (1054) and the Mongol-Tatar invasion of 1237-1240/1241, which in itself was an important event in the world history.