Abstract
The present study analyses several fragments from the History of Scythians authored by Andrei Lîzlov in 1692. The History is a rather ample polemic work which circulated in manuscript form, initially among the Moscow elites, and which was intended to determine members of this elite to start a campaign against the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. Through his work, Lîzlov brought the necessary arguments for a “crusade” against the two. Borrowing information from the Polish chroniclers, which he combined with various other Russian writings of a historical character, Lîzlov presents also, besides the history of the Scythian lands, events from the lives of the ones who fought either against the Tatars or the Ottomans, placing alongside each other events that happened at large time intervals. Thus he gives examples of rulers who defended Christendom, among them, Stephen the Great, voivode of Moldavia. That fight had to be continued, and the only ones who could do it were the “right-believing emperors from the East”.
Keywords
Andrei Lîzlov, late chronicle, Ottoman Empire, propaganda, Russia
