History of the Ruthenians


History of the Ruthenians, or Little Russia, or more briefly History of the Ruthenians, is an anonymous historico-political treatise, most likely written at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. It had a great influence on the formation of the Ukrainian national identity and was even named "the most prominent historical work in Ukraine". It was written and originally published in Russian and describes the history of the Ruthenians and their state, Little Russia, from antiquity to 1769. It mostly focuses on the history of the Zaporizhian Sich and the Cossack Hetmanate.

Authorship and dating

The book was written as a political essay by an unknown author at the end of the 18th or early 19th century. It could not have been written before 1792, since it mentions the Tmutarkan stone, which was not discovered until 1792. According to Zenon Kohut, the author of the manuscript was strongly influenced by the events that had taken place after the Third Partition of Poland. The History circulated in manuscript form for a long time before it was finally published in print in 1846, by Osyp Bodianski at Moscow University.
The title page ascribed the work to "Georgy Konissky, Belarusian Archbishop". Subsequently, his authorship was seriously questioned, but the true author has not been established. One of the proposed authors is . The ideas and style of the History are similar to the Historical Reference, which Poletyka submitted to Empress Catherine II. Another candidate is her Grand Chancellor Alexander Bezborodko.

Publications