Vasily Tatishchev

Having retired from active service, the elderly statesman dedicated himself to scholarly pursuits. Feeling that the Russian historiography had been neglected, he discovered and published several legal monuments of great interest, e.g., the Russkaya Pravda and the Sudebnik of 1550. His magnum opus was the first sketch of Russian history, entitled Russian History Dating Back to the Most Ancient Times and published in 5 volumes after his death. He also compiled the first encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language.

The scientific merits of Tatishchev's work were disputed even in the 18th century. German historian August Ludwig von Schlözer (1735–1809) wrote that '[Tatishchev had] no training, did not know a single word of Latin, and did not even understand any modern language other than German'. However, American historian Edward C. Thaden (1986) said this criticism was somewhat exaggerated, given his knowledge of German and Polish, but poor understanding of French and Latin; nevertheless, his military and administrative training and experience did bring him some expertise in those fields.

Russian historian Nikolay Karamzin (1766–1826) called all unsourced or poorly sourced claims by Tatishchev "inventions" and "fantasies". It is true that he used some chronicles that have since been lost, but most of them, most notoriously the Ioachim Chronicle, were of dubious authenticity, and may never have existed in the first place. This led Soviet historian Iakov S. Lur'e (1968) to write of "Tatishchev information", which he defined as "data found only in that historian", that should be approached with skepticism and extreme caution. It is also true that he could never tell a genuine work from a fake, and some incidents inserted in his history could have been products of his own fancy.