A.D. 1445. A.M. 6953. The same winter the [Great Prince] Vasili went against the Tartar Tsar Mahmed; many Christians died from cold, others were slain by the Tartars who laid waste the country. But God aided the [Great Prince] Vasili and the Tartars fled, others being slain.

Bread was dear in Novgorod, and not only this year but during ten whole years: one [half-roublel for two [baskets]; sometimes a little more, sometimes less; sometimes there was none to be bought anywhere. And amongst the Christians there was great grief and distress; only crying and sobbing were to be heard in the streets and market place, and many people fell down dead from hunger, children before their parents, fathers and mothers before their children; and many dispersed, some to Lithuania, others passed over to Latinism, and others to the Besermeny and to the Jews, giving themselves the traders for bread.

At the same time there was no law or justice in Novgorod; calumniators arose and turned obligations and accounts and oaths to falsehood; and began to rob in the town and in the villages and districts; we were exposed to the rebukes of our neighbours, who were around us. There was much confiscation, frequent demands for money, throughout the districts, with weeping and anguish and with outcries and curses on all sides against our seniors and our town: because there was no grace in us, nor justice.