“The Secret History of the Mongols”: compilation, study of the literary monument and the information on the Alans it contains

The purpose of the study is to present the relationship between the structural features of the chronicle “The Secret History of the Mongols” and the history of its compilation by Mongolian historiographers and the history of its use in the Chinese historiographic tradition. The relevance of the study is determined by the obscure of these aspects for researchers of medieval Alanian history, which falls during the period of the Mongol Eurasian expansion. The result of the study is the general conclusion that the only complete Russian-language translation of the chronicle available today, presented by S.A. Kozin, contains a number of factual inaccuracies made in the interpretation of information related to Alania and to the Alans. Conducting research using this source, one should use not only the Russian translation by S.A. Kozin, but also its Mongolian text in a modern edition, as well as other available translations, comparing the information obtained with the corelating information from other sources and their interpretation in scientific literature. In the study used a number of general scientific methods, as well as comparative-historical, historical-genetic, system-chronological and retrospective-analytical methods of historical analysis.