E Arkhipova

Alexey Tolochko

The article covers the key assumptions of N.N. Nikitenko’s hypothesis that St. Sophia cathedral in Kiev was founded on November 4, 1011. The hypothesis was not accepted by the scientifi c community and had no infl uence on the reconstruction of cultural and historical processes of the fi rst half of the 11th c. However, now that the millenary celebrations are scheduled to take place in 2011 and N.N. Nikitenko’s concept becomes more widely known to the general public, there is need for a critical overview of the conclusions reached by the scholar and of her method in general.