The chronicler Nestor is one of the heroes of our initial story. Probably everyone has heard his name, but so little is known about his real biography that for most he has long turned into a semi-mythical figure. Meanwhile, Nestor is an outstanding writer of Ancient Rus'. He is the author of the first Russian lives that have come down to us - “Readings on the life and destruction” of the first Russian saints, princes Boris and Gleb, and the Life of St. Theodosius, abbot of Pechersk. And the author of the chronicle? Yes, definitely. But what kind of chronicle? Textual scholars, historians and philologists have been struggling with this question for more than a century. The “riddle of Nestor” and the history of the composition of the “Tale of Bygone Years”, the events witnessed by our monk-chronicler, are described in the book.