ENThe paper examines the so-called Shorter Volhynian Chronicle fi rst published in 1836. Despite being in scholarly circulation quite a long time it is still understudied as well as the “Tale about the Battle of Orsha” it contains. Author analyzes the literary sources of the latter and the outlook of its anonymous author as revealed by the “Tale”. She identifi es him as Danila Khodykin, a scribe of Prince Konstantin Ostrozhski who gloriously won the battle of Orsha. This attribution of the “Tale” is based on the data of Kiev Cave Monastery’s sinodik and chronicle entries about siege and fall of Smolensk in 1514. [From the publication]