Piskarev Letopisets

a Russian chronicle of the early 17th century that contains information concerning the period from the origin of the Old Russian state to 1615.

The manuscript of the chronicle is kept in the D. V. Piskarev collection at the V. I. Lenin State Library. The chronicle was probably begun during the reign of V. I. Shuiskii and was completed soon after 1615 in Nizhny Novgorod. Its author writes favorably of the Shuiskiis as statesmen of the 16th and early 17th centuries, while he denigrates Tsar Ivan IV, Ivan’s heirs, and potential claimants to the Russian throne. The Piskarev Letopisets is a compilation from various sources: chronicles, tales, rumors, legends, official documents, and personal reminiscences of the author and accounts by his older contemporaries. Its most valuable information concerns the oprichnina, the Livonian War, the struggle against Crimean Tatar incursions, the intervention by Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish feudal lords, and the Peasant War of the early 17th century.