John Fennell (1983 – 1987)
Nicholas Zharkikh
Shortened text of the section. Full text in ukrainian version.
The British historian John Fennell (1918 – 1992) was a Slavologist by profession and in 1983 he published the book "The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200 – 1304" in New York. Since the emasculated guards of the harem of Soviet historical science could not produce anything like that (and nothing at all), in 1989 its Russian translation was printed [Fennell J. : 1200 – 1304 – M.: Progress, 1989 – 296 p.; for this edition D. F. submitted his foreword, written in December 1987].
This morning (I am writing March 5, 2022 at 9:37 a.m.) :
"The enemy did not stop bombing Kharkiv all night. Residential areas were the most affected – Saltivka, KhTZ, Kholodna Gora and the center. After the bombings, 40 residential buildings caught fire."
In such conditions – I continue…
The interesting stuff starts right from the 1987 preface.
The history of the Chernihiv principality is peripheral to J. F. The term "crisis" in the title shows us the main concept of J. F.: Rus’ faced enormous difficulties, but in the 14th century and later began to come out of it – and that was it the same Rus’, as in 1200. J. F. did not want to talk about a radical change in the composition of the political subjects in Eastern Europe, for which I think the expression "catastrophe (death) of ancient Rus’" is more appropriate.
On the background of the sounds of very distant explosions, which have become common these days, I continue (March 6, 2022 at 10:45 a.m.). Let no one think that Muscovites have already disappeared. They will disappear, but later.
Another an unfortunate guess J. F. is connected with the battle of Kalka:
Emphasizing the role of Mstislav Svyatoslavich, who inherited the princely throne in Chernihiv after his brother Gleb, and the considerable attention paid to the Chernihiv principality and its minor princes, leave no doubt that the story contained in the Hypatian chronicle is based primarily on another chronicle that has not preserved, namely Chernihiv one [p. 102 – 103].
(Everything is exactly the opposite. This mythical "Chernihiv chronicler" did not even know the name of the son of Mstislav Svyatoslavich, who died during the escape, so later fantasists had to invent this name on their own.)
Until Muscovites don’t wake up (I am writing on March 7, 2022 at 8:15 a.m.) and it is quiet here in Kyiv, we must continue to write.
Muscovites fired at the nuclear object in Kharkiv (Physical and Technical Institute) with MLRS – such we are on the third day of a world nuclear war.
Describing the events of 1239, J. F. relied on the dates of the fall of Pereyaslavl and Chernihiv from the "Avraamka" chronicle [p. 122] – in my opinion, in vain.
In general, it must be admitted that J. Fennell’s book was, for its time, a very good, balanced review of history North-Eastern Rus’ in the 13th century in its connections with other Rus’ lands, but by no means the history of Rus’ in the 13th century in general. It is very important that it gave the English-speaking reader at least some idea about this land at that time, because the language barrier cannot be underestimated in any way. No one wanted to translate the social-Marxist-feudal works of Soviet historians either into English or into other languages of the world, and this is another form of manifestation of the barrenness of the emasculated Soviet science.