Tale of past years

The work of the chronicler has come down to our time with revisions and refinements by later scribes and editors. They removed Nestor's name from the title of the annals. However, the list was preserved, which was marked: "The story of the past years of Nestor, the black friar of the Feodosiiv monastery of Pechersk, where the Russian land came from...".
The main themes of the annals are the struggle between good and evil, condemnation of civil strife, fraternity of princes and all people. The great power of words and books is recognized in the work. "Book learning is a great benefit: books instruct and teach us, ... we find wisdom in book words. These are the rivers that fill the universe, they are the sources of wisdom, because there is an immeasurable depth in books, they comfort us in sadness, they are a guide for restraint", - these words can be read on one of the pages of the annals.