Conrad Bussow

Title page of a handwritten version of the Muscovite Chronicle (Codex Guelph 125.15 Extravagantes, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel).

Conrad Bussow (* 1552 or 1553, probably in Ilten near Hanover ; † 1617 ) Neither date can be proven. The dates of birth for Ilten only exist from 1648 onwards (information from the Sehnde City Archives; Ilten is now a district of Sehnde from August 2018), to whom was a German officer and adventurer and the author of the Muscovite Chronicle (original title: Confused State of Russian Empire ... ), a chronicle of Russia at the time of the Smuta (German time of turmoil ). Despite the fact that it is sometimes not reliable in its reproduction of facts, Bussov's Muscovite Chronicle is considered one of the most important non-Russian sources for the history of Russia between 1584 and 1613.

Life

Little is known about Bussow's origins. Mostly it is assumed that he came from a Lutheran pastor family from Ilten, southeast of Hanover (today part of Sehnde ). The frequent use of Latin phrases in his chronicle and the interspersed quotations from the works of the Jewish general and historian Josephus and the Roman comedy poet Plautus suggest that he had a good knowledge of Latin.

In 1569 Bussow left his homeland at the age of 16 and entered the military. From the time of his early military career it is known that he was initially in the service of the Polish King Stephan Báthory .

Later he entered the service of Duke Karl von Södermannland, who later became King Karl IX. of Sweden. In the 1590s Bussow went to Riga , where he probably got married. Nothing is known about his wife, but he had at least two children and in his chronicle mentions family ties to Livonia several times . On the front page of his chronicle he calls himself “Caroli IX. King's in Sweden auditors or directors about the countries, cities and castles in Liefland conquêtirte by the Cron Poland ”.

If one believes the Swedish diplomat and historian Peer Peerson de Erlesunda (1570–1622), who wrote under the name “Petreius” , Bussow was conspiratorially active in Narva from 1599 for the Russian Tsar Boris Godunow , to whom he handed over the city in April 1601. While a number of his co-conspirators were subsequently executed, Bussov fled to Moscow to the court of Boris, where he was rewarded with several lands.

During the Smuta ("Time of Troubles") Bussow served both Boris Godunow and the first pseudo-Dimitri . His successor as tsar, Vasily Shuiski , dismissed him in 1606, the year he took office, and allowed him to retreat to his property. At the time of the Bolotnikov uprising - about which Bussov delivered the most detailed contemporary report - Bussow lived near Kaluga, southeast of Moscow. Bussov's son Conrad, who served the rebel leader Ivan Issajewitsch Bolotnikow , was banished to Siberia with other Germans after the failure of the uprising and returned from there only a short time before Bussov's death.

After the Russian popular uprising of 1611 Bussow returned to the Polish-held Riga, where he lived for a time with his wife's relatives. Together with his son-in-law Martin Beer, Bussow prepared the first version of his chronicle, which he completed in the spring of 1612, either in Riga or in Dünamünde (today a district of Riga as Daugavgrīva ) under the title Summaric Relatio . Then he returned to his homeland.

In November 1613 he sent the manuscript of his chronicle from Hanover to Duke Friedrich Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . The accompanying letter of November 28, 1613 shows that Bussow could not pay for the printer and was therefore in a financially strained position. After receiving no answer from Friedrich Ulrich, Bussow turned to his chancellor Johannes Peparinus in a letter of appeal dated February 3, 1614 and asked to "enjoy a free table in the princely house". At the same time he was writing a second version of his chronicle.

While Bussow was revising his text, the text of the original version came into the hands of Petreius, who adopted large parts of it almost verbatim and without specifying the actual author in his own publications on Russian history and at the same time portrayed Bussow as a traitor to the Swedish cause.

Around 1617 Bussow had completed a final version of his chronicle and commissioned a printer in Lübeck to print it. However, Bussow died before the work went to print, so that the publication of his work under his own name was no longer possible during his lifetime.

Bussov's Muscovite Chronicle

The chronicle as a source for the time of turmoil

Bussow's chronicle is considered the "most valuable foreign representation" (Gottfried Sturm) of the time of turmoil . This is due on the one hand to the fact that the chronicle covers a long period of time and on the other hand, because of his biographical background, research sees Bussow as a competent reporter, particularly for the military-historical aspects of the presentation. In addition, he was not the only eyewitness, but seems to have often found himself in the middle of the action, especially in later years. For example, he reproduces a personal conversation with Peter Basmanow , a military commander of the first pseudo-Dimitri , had a close relationship with Prince Adam Wisniowiecki and lived during the Bolotnikov uprising in Kaluga , which temporarily served as the insurgents' headquarters , where his house was a meeting point of the Germans living in Russia.

Bussow does not always reliably reproduce numbers and data, sometimes names too; Numbers in particular seem to be more aimed at impressing the reader than providing reliable information. Even his knowledge of Russian culture does not stand up to modern scrutiny in parts. For example, his remarks on the Russian Orthodox Church are described by the Canadian historian G. Edward Orchard as "simply grotesque" ("utterly bizarre"). Another point of criticism of the research concerns Bussov's negative attitude towards the ordinary Russian people, whom he describes in his chronicle with a disparaging undertone as "Mr. Omnis". Bussow always highlights atrocities committed during acts of war when they were committed by the common people. Bussow, on the other hand, is remarkably positive about his own German compatriots, whose military skills and reliability he praises.

Versions, transmission history and reception

During Bussow's lifetime, a total of four versions of the chronicle were created between 1612 and 1617. The original version was completed by Bussow on March 1, 1612. The first editorial work was carried out in the same year by his son-in-law Martin Beer. A second revision, based on the original version, from 1613 was again by Bussow himself. Bussow made a final revision based on this version shortly before his death in 1617.

In 1817 the Russian statesman and collector Nikolai Petrovich Rumjanzew came into possession of a copy of the chronicle from the branch of the first editing by Martin Beer. A handwritten version was used as a template, which is still to this day as Codex Guelph 86 Extravagantes (also Wolfenbüttel I ) in the Wolfenbüttel Herzog August Library . This version, of which - based on Rumyantsev - it was long assumed that Beer was the main author, was used as the central source by the Russian writer and historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamsin in the last three volumes of his History of the Russian State, completed in 1819 (История государства Российского) used for the time of turmoil. Via the detour of Karamsin's portrayal, Bussow's chronicle formed the subject of the drama Boris Godunow by Alexander Pushkin from 1825 . Pushkin's literary processing, in turn, was used by Modest Mussorgsky for his musical folk drama Boris Godunov , which premiered in 1874 and was later revised by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . In this way, Bussow's chronicle had a great artistic impact in the 19th century.

In addition to the Wolfenbüttel I manuscript, there are other versions stored in the Herzog August Library, including the Codex Guelph 125.15 Extravagantes (also Wolfenbüttel II ). The Wolfenbüttel lawyer, historian and archivist Christoph Schmidt (1803–1868), known as Phisildeck , quoted him extensively, albeit under the name Newe Zeitung from Moscowiter Landt . The fact that he later mentions the full title of the manuscript leaves - according to Orchard - no doubt that this is Codex Guelph 125.15 Extravagant .

The second strand of manuscript is based on a Dresden copy that goes back to the second edition in 1613. This manuscript - long regarded as the authoritative version - was destroyed in an air raid on Dresden on February 13, 1945. The German literary researcher Friedrich von Adelung , who worked at the Russian court, had a copy made of the version from 1613 in the early forties of the 19th century and the Russian Minister of Justice Viktor Nikititsch Panin had one made in 1851. These copies are called Adelung or Panin manuscript known.

Until the middle of the 19th century, Bussow's son-in-law Martin Beer was the author of the chronicle. The first edition that Bussow listed as an author was published by Ernst Kunick in Saint Petersburg in 1851 . From this point onwards, Bussow's authorship was generally recognized. The Russian historian Sergei Michailowitsch Solowjow correctly named Bussov as the author of the chronicle in his Russian History , published in the second half of the 19th century . The same applies to the historian Sergei Fjodorowitsch Platonow , whose study on the Time of the Troubles (English Notes on the History of the Troubles in the Muscovite State in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries ) is one of the classics on the subject today.

Almost exactly a hundred years after the publication of the Kunick edition, the Soviet historian Ivan Ivanovich Smirnov published a work on the Bolotnikov uprising, in which he relied largely on Bussov's chronicle. In this context, he published a new critical edition which, in addition to the text of the original, also contained a translation into Russian. This edition appeared in 1961 and was based primarily on the Adelung handwriting , but also took into account variants of other versions.

In 1994 a translation of the Chronicle into English, edited by the Canadian historian George Edward Orchard , was published. Orchard relied on the Russian translation of Smirnov from 1961 and used the Wolfenbüttel II manuscript for comparison , which he considered to be the "most authentic" since it was the last version that was written during the author's lifetime.

literature

To Bussow

• George Edward Orchard: Introduction , in: The disturbed state of the Russian realm , translated and edited by G. [eorge] Edward Orchard, Montreal [u. a.] 1994, pp. xiii – xxxvii (here in particular the section The Chronicler , pp. xxix – xxxiii).

Modern text editions of the Muscovite Chronicle

• The disturbed state of the Russian realm , translated and edited by G. [eorge] Edward Orchard, Montreal [u. a.] 1994, ISBN 0-7735-1165-2 (on this the review by Joseph L. Wieczynski in the Canadian Journal of History (August 1995), available online ).
• Time of Troubles: Muscovite chronicle of the years 1584 to 1613 , translated from the Early New High German by Marie-Elisabeth Fritze, ed. and commented by Jutta Harney and Gottfried Sturm, Berlin [u. a.] 1991, ISBN 3-7338-0064-8 .
• Moskovskaja Chronika: 1584–1613 , ed. by Ivan I. Smirnov, Moscow [u. a.] 1961 (German text on pages 199–331; in the appendix the transcription of a letter from Bussow to Duke Friedrich Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel on November 28, 1613 and to his chancellor Johannes Peparinus on February 3, 1614).
• Relatio: This is a summary narrative of the actual origin of this bloody, bloody war being in Moscowite country or Reussland ... , ed. by Ernst Kunick, Saint Petersburg 1851.

Remarks

1. ^ Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , pp. Xxix.
2. ↑ As Orchard suspects, out of sympathy for his support for the Counter Reformation and his dynastic relations with Germany (Karl was married to Christine von Holstein-Gottorp for the second time ). Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , p. Xxx and p. 184f.
3. ↑ The accompanying letter to Friedrich Ulrich dated November 28, 1613 is printed in: Harney / Sturm (ed.), Zeit der Wirren , pp. 237–238.
4. ↑ Bussow's letter is printed in Harney / Sturm (Ed.), Zeit der Wirren , p. 239.
5. ^ Gottfried Sturm, foreword , in: Zeit der Wirren: Muscovite Chronicle of the Years 1584 to 1613, Berlin [u. a.] 1991, pp. 9-18, here p. 15.
6. ^ Gottfried Sturm, foreword , in: Zeit der Wirren: Muscovite Chronicle of the Years 1584 to 1613, Berlin [u. a.] 1991, pp. 9-18, here p. 15.
7. ↑ Orchard comments: “The older Bussow seems to have had all the instincts of an investigative reporter. He always seemed to be where the action was. "Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , p. Xxxi.
8. ↑ Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , pp. Xxxii.
9. ↑ Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , pp. Xxxii.
10. ^ Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , pp. Xxxv.
11. ↑ "... which in my opinion represents the most authentic of the Bussow manuscripts, being the latest original document compiled during the autor's lifefime", Orchard, The disturbed state of the Russian realm , p. Xxxvii.