THE EARLIEST BODY OF MESTNICHESTVO DOCUMENTS (CIRCUMSTANCES OF CREATION AND CONTENTS)
Istorians of the 19th century introduced a body of genealogical documents of the 15th century and identified their nature. A part of the documents were connected to mestnichestvo of the 15th century. It remained unclear how certain acts and persons mentioned are connected to it. Historians of the 20th century disregarded the results of their predecessors. This had negative impact on the understanding of a very important social institute: the time of emergence of mestnichestvo and the extent of its development until the 16th century was ascertained incorrectly. In this paper the work on identifying the connection between the documents and the persons mentioned is completed which clears the way for the subsequent comprehension of the acts’ contents and revision of the established views on mestnichestvo.