"The experience of Narration about Russia" (originally called: "The Experience of a wise and political narration about the Russian state") - the work of Ivan Perfilevich Elagin (1725-1793/4), a poet and writer of the XVIII century, who at one time served as the manager of the imperial theaters, was not lucky either with the publication or with the later attention from historians. Only after the author's death, at the beginning of the 19th century, was the first part of his work published , 1 although his contemporaries were still aware that Elagin's work was continued .2 Later, traces of this continuation were lost, and Elagin remained in the literature as a historian who described events from biblical times to the death of the Kievan Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. In his" Forewarning to the Reader, " Elagin reported that he had begun his essay on the advice of friends. Here he also spoke about the general idea of his "Experience". The author's instructions and preserved lists of the continuation of Elagin's work allow us to present the structure of the "Experience". The first, published part (books 1 - 3) brought the narrative to 1015; the second (books 4-6) - contained a story about the events of 1015 - 1138; the third (books 7 - 9) and the fourth (Books 10 - 12), in the words of Elagin, - " from transfer of the strongest Grand ducal throne from Kiev to Vladimir ""before the invasion of the Tatars and the imposition of the yoke of the descendants of Genghis on the weakened members of Russia"; the fifth part (books 13-15) narrated the events of 1224 - 1425; the sixth (books 16-17) - 1425 - 1450; the seventh (books 18 - 20) described the reign of Ivan III; the eighth (at least two books) - Vasily III; the ninth told about the reign of Ivan the Terrible (from 1533 to 1564). The chronology of the author's classes in Opyt, judging by the notes on the surviving manuscripts of his work, was as follows. Elagin planned to start his story with the reign of Ivan III and hope ... Read more