Eyewitness Chronicle

The Eyewitness Chronicle^[a] is one of the three so-called Cossack chronicles written in late Ruthenian (Middle Ukrainian).^[1] The text is one of the fundamental sources on the history of Eastern Europe in the 17th century, particularly the period of the Khmelnytsky Uprising and The Ruin in Cossack Ukraine, a distinctive and original monument of the Ukrainian language and literature. The chronicle claims to be written by an eyewitness to the events, a veteran from the Zaporizhian Host's senior officers. According to Frank Sysyn (1990), it is "the earliest extant Ukrainian account of the history of Ukraine in the second half of the seventeenth century."^[1]

The Eyewitness Chronicle was written in Middle Ukrainian (late Ruthenian),^[1] which was close to the vernacular (the prosta mova or "simple speech").^[2][3] This contrasts the Eyewitness Chronicle and Velychko Chronicle with the Hrabianka Chronicle, which was written in late Church Slavonic, the literary standard in the Tsardom of Russia, far removed from the everyday language spoken by Ukrainians and Belarusians living in the Cossack Hetmanate.^[3] The author of the chronicle is not known by name, but he belonged to the Cossack elite and held a prominent position in the Ukrainian government for some time. Researchers have long tried to establish his name. In 1846, the amateur historian D. Serdyukov was the first to attribute the authorship to Roman Rakushka-Romanovsky [uk] (c. 1622–1703), general treasurer under Ivan Briukhovetsky, and in the last decades of his life, a priest in Starodub.^[2][b] However, he could not prove it. This became possible after the works of Vadim Modzalevsky [uk] on Rakushka-Romanovsky in 1919. In the 1920s, a number of authors (Viktor Romanovsky [uk]; Oleksander Ohloblyn and especially Mykola Petrovsky [uk]) independently of each other, based on an analysis of autobiographical material in the Chronicle, came to the conclusion that the author of the Eyewitness Chronicle was indeed most likely Roman Rakushka-Romanovsky.^[2]

This opinion was accepted by most historians (Dmytro Bahalii, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Dmytro Doroshenko, Ivan Krypiakevych and others, and in particular modern historiography).^[2] But some authors have named other candidates for authorship: Ivan Bykhovets [uk], military clerk (according to Lev Okinshevych [uk]), Fedir Kandyba [uk], colonel of Korsun (according to Mykola Hryhorovych Andrusiak and Mykhailo Voznyak), and others. Frank Sysyn noted in 1990: "Time, place, and authorship of composition have remained hotly debated, with Roman Rakushka as the favored candidate for author on the basis of internal evidence. (...) Whether its compiler witnessed the events of Khmel'nyts'kyi's uprising himself and wrote them down later or whether he incorporated an earlier account into his text remains uncertain. In either case, the laconic Eyewitness Chronicle is the only Cossack chronicle still credited with containing some primary information on the Khmel'nyts'kyi period."^[1]

The original Chronicle, written at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century, has not survived.^[1] Several copies made in the 18th century or later have been preserved. The oldest and most complete are the manuscripts of H. Iskritsky (first half of the 18th century) and Yakov Kozelsky (second half of the 18th century), which form the basis of scientific publications on this monument. In total, six copies (two of which from the first half of the 18th century, the rest later) were known to the publishers of the 1846 and 1878 editions.^[1]

As of 1992, there were 7 known manuscripts, 4 of which were kept in the manuscript department of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, and one each in the manuscript departments of the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, the Kharkiv Korolenko State Scientific Library, and the Vasyl Tarnovsky Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum.^[5]

For the first time, having received it from Panteleimon Kulish (who gave it the name "Eyewitness Chronicle"), it was published by Osip Bodyansky in 1846 in Readings of the Moscow Society of Antiquities.^[2] A more scientifically prepared edition was published in 1878 by the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission, edited and with an introductory article by Orest Levytsky based on Kozelsky's manuscript under the title "Chronicle of an Eyewitness based on newly discovered lists with the addition of three Little Russian chronicles: Khmelnytsky, 'Brief Description of Little Russia' and 'Collections of History'".^[2] It was published again by Yaroslav Dzyra at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1971,^[2] based on the manuscripts of Iskritsky, Kozelsky and Mykhailo Sudiyenko, and by "Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies" in 1972.^[6]

The Eyewitness Chronicle consists of an introduction, which describes the state of Ukraine before the Khmelnytsky Uprising, and two main parts:^[2]

• The first part is devoted to the times of Khmelnytsky and the Ruin (up to and including 1676). It was probably written much later than the events described.^[2]
• The second part, brought up to and including the year 1702, is a chronicle in the strict sense of the word. It was written in Left-Bank Ukraine, and most complete (in terms of local news) in Starodub.^[2]

• History of the Ruthenians (Istoriya Rusiv)
• Samijlo Velychko Chronicle
• Hrabianka Chronicle
• Huklyv Chronicle
• Lviv Chronicle

Ukrainian Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Літопис Самовидця

• Sysyn, Frank E. (1990). "The Cossack Chronicles and the Development of Modern Ukrainian Culture and National Identity". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 14 (3/4). Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute: 593–607. ISSN 0363-5570. JSTOR 41036403. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
• Dzyra, Yaroslav Ivanovych (2009). "Літопис Самовидця" [Eyewitness Chronicle]. Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Vol. 6. Kyiv: Institute of History of Ukraine. p. 790. Archived from the original on 10 February 2026. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
• Dzyra, Yaroslav Ivanovych, ed. (1971). Літопис Самовидця [Eyewitness Chronicle]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka/Izbornyk. p. 208. Archived from the original on 10 February 2026. Retrieved 10 February 2026. djvu
• Летопись Самовидца по новооткрытым спискам с приложением трех малороссийских хроник: «Хмельницкой», «Краткого описания Малороссии» и «Собрания исторического» with a foreword by Orest Levytsky. Kyiv, 1878

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Litopys Samowydcia.

• Самовидця Літопис // // Шевченківська енциклопедія [Shevchenko Encyclopedia] : in 6 volumes / Гол. ред. М. Г. Жулинський. Kyiv: Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2015. Volume 5 : Пе—С. p. 637.
• Літопис Самовидця Archived 7 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine // Юридична енциклопедія [Legal Encyclopedia], Volume 3.
• Самовидець // Українська мала енциклопедія [Small Ukrainian Encyclopedia]: in 16 books : in 8 volumes. / проф. Є. Онацький. Накладом Адміністратури УАПЦ в Аргентині. Buenos Aires, 1964. Volume 7, Book XIII : Letters Риз — Се. p. 1667.