Stroev, Pavel Mikhailovich

Born July 27 (Aug. 7), 1796, in Moscow; died there Jan. 5 (17), 1876. Russian historian and archaeographer. Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1849).

Stroev studied at Moscow University from 1813 to 1816. In 1814 he published the school text A Brief Russian History for Russian Youth and began contributing articles on Russian history to the journal Syn otechestva (The Son of the Fatherland). In 1815 he became supervisor of the Commission for the Printing of Government Documents and Treaties.

In 1817 and 1818, Stroev and K. F. Kalaidovich visited the monasteries of Moscow Province and studied their archives. These visits resulted in the discovery of works by Metropolitan Ilarion and Kirill of Turov, the Izbornik of 1073, and the Sudeb-nik (Code of Law) of Ivan III. In 1820, Stroev published the Sofiia Chronicle.

Stroev was elected a member of the Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities in 1823. On his initiative, the work of the Archaeographic Expeditions was begun in 1828 and the work of the Archaeographic Commission, in 1834. From 1829 to 1834, Stroev investigated archives in Russia’s northern oblasts, and later in the Volga Region and in Moscow, Viatka, and Perm” provinces. As a result, some 3,000 documents of the 14th to 18th centuries were collected, as well as many other source materials.

Stroev’s indexes to the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles and his descriptions of manuscript collections are still of value to scholars.