Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-469-482 Research Article Articles WAS THERE CHRONICLE WRITING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY’S SUZDAL? Belov Nikita V. old-rus@imli.ru 2024 23 469 482 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article examines the question about the existence of chronicle writing in Suzdal in the 16th–17th centuries, which was raised not so long ago by Alexey V. Sirenov, and which was resolved with the discovery of a previously unknown literary monument — the Brief Suzdal Chronicle. Most likely, the chronicle was created in 1645–1652 in the entourage of the Archbishop Serapion of Suzdal. Its text is composed of two parts: the list of bishops of Suzdal up to 1634 and the all-Russian chronicle with records for 1530–1645. The source of the oldest part of the Suzdal Chronicle was the Lvov Chronicle. In the part from 1530 to 1619 it shares a common protograph with the Yaroslavl Chronicle of the 1640s. The original records of the Suzdal Chronicle are based on the records of local synodics, tomb inscriptions and other epigraphic monuments, possibly the papers of the Suzdal Bishop’s House, and the author’s observations. The chronicle contains two reports on the Suzdal’s history: about the building of the Deposition Cathedral (Rizopolozhensky Sobor) in 1583–1584 (this date was unknown) and about the transfer to Suzdal of the Shuisky Princes’s remains in 1635. The chronicle was apparently the first experience of writing the history of the Suzdal land, which was placed in the context of the development of the Russian state and the Russian Church.