On the reconstruction and translation of the Russian Primary Chronicle

The Russian Primary Chronicle still has no modern Russian translation that would be consistent with the contemporary level of Russian historical linguistics. This is partly due to the fact that such a translation, at least to some extent, must be based on the textological reconstruction of the original text of the Chronicle. However, until recently there has been hardly any cooperation between textological studies and the work of translators. The best translation of the Russian Primary Chronicle is undoubtedly the recent German translation by Ludolf Müller. In the present study, some differences between Müller’s translation and earlier ones are analyzed and some new considerations as to the reconstruction and translation of the Chronicle are proposed.