The Fourth Crusade in the historical memory of the Eastern Orthodox Slavs

"he Fourth Crusade in the Historical Memory of the Eastern Orthodox Slavs addresses the unexplored area of the Eastern Orthodox Slavs’ documented attitudes towards the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Snezhana Rakova has amassed and analyzed all the relevant documents known today originating from Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldova, that give the picture as seen by contemporaries, followed by its evolution (or lack of such), making it influential until the 18th c. Comparisons are made with relevant Greek and West European sources. The author deals with a rich variety of narratives, i.e. chronicles, hagiography, prophecies, official and ecclesiastical correspondence, and epigraphy; she infers on the historical consciousness of the Mediaeval Slavs, their political propaganda and religious identity. Five of the most revealing texts are appended, both in their original Old Slavonic version and in English translation: The Anonymous Russian Account of the Capture of Constantinople by the Franks, Archbishop Antony of Novgorod’s Pilgrim’s Book [Kniga Palomnik (A description of Constantinople in 1200)], The Nikon Chronicle (Excerpts), A Serbian Sixteenth-Century Chronograph (Excerpts), and The Brancović Chronicle (Excerpts)."