The Tale of Igor's Campaign

The Tale of Igor’s Campaign, also called The Song of Igor’s Campaign (Слово о полку Игореве in Russian), is a masterpiece of Russian literature that tells the story of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich of Novgorod-Seversk’s failed campaign against the Polovtsians (the Cumans) in 1185. According to the tale, after the Russians had an initial success, the Polovtsians prevailed and Igor was captured, but then he managed to escape. However, both the author and the publication date of the story are unknown, creating a debate over the authenticity of the work. 

The text was discovered in 1795 by Aleksei Musin-Pushkin, and he later published it in 1800. Unfortunately, the original manuscript was burnt in the fire of Moscow 1812 during the Napoleonic Invasion, together with Musin-Pushkin’s library. Only a copy made for Catherine the Great survived. Since we can’t analyze the original document, many claim that the document isn’t original, although most people believe that it was written shortly after the events took place. 

The main argument used by those who doubt its authenticity is that the language used in the text contains expressions that were not used in the 12th century. However, most linguists and historians nowadays agree that the document is original and was written around 1185, mainly because they discovered other documents from the same period that use the same language as the manuscript. Nevertheless, the author of the Russian masterpiece is still a mystery.