Available From UC Press

A Historical Chrestomathy of the Russian Language is designed as a resource for advanced students seeking to explore the historical evolution of modern Russian. This carefully curated collection combines texts from Russified Old Church Slavic (Old Bulgarian), chancery language, and the vulgate, reflecting the diverse linguistic influences that have shaped contemporary Russian. The compilation also includes regional samples from Pskov, Novgorod, and Galich, offering a glimpse into the dialectal variations that contributed to the language's development.

The selections prioritize coherence by presenting complete documents or logical units of longer works, sacrificing breadth for depth. Spanning texts from the eleventh to the seventeenth century, the chrestomathy emphasizes linguistic rather than literary excellence, retaining original features such as spelling, abbreviations, and accentuation. Modern spacing conventions are applied for readability. Based on paleographic editions and manuscript verifications, the material is organized chronologically by manuscript copy dates. While not intended to replace established textbooks, this collection serves as a practical tool for studying the historical grammar of Russian, with critical commentary and a vocabulary to follow. A complementary volume on modern Russian dialects is also forthcoming.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1950.