What information can one discover about early Russian society from the Primary Chronicle excerpt? I really like this assignment for the midterm exam, although it has proven to be one of the least favored essay questions by students over the last few years. The Russian Primary Chronicle is one of the few surviving historical documents that we have about the origins of early Rus' and Russian civilization, and I have asked you a relatively open-ended question that involves historical analysis of this document. You should read the Chronicle, pause and then re-read it while thinking about the essay question. When you actually began to write your answer, make sure that you do not just end up retelling the story that is in the Primary Chronicle. What you want to do is analyze the information in the document and present it in an analytical, explanatory fashion so that the reader can understand what sort of conclusions you have reached about early Russian society. While there is no absolute right or wrong answer to this question, there are unsubstantiated conclusions that do not receive much credit. You cannot take any notes into the testing center, but you can prepare ahead of time, and you will have a copy of the Chronicle when you take the text. You should go to the center ready to write your answer, which will have an introduction and specific paragraphs for each point of interpretation. Again the most important thing in doing this assignment is not to merely retell the story but to analyze the document and explain what you have learned about early Russian society. For example it is obvious that you could come to some conclusions about the preferred manner of entertainment among the early Russians from reading this document. Finally, you absolutely must consider authorship of the document when analyzing the Chronicle, as this is crucial to understanding what is contained in the document and what is missing.