Where did it come from
Where did it come from
From the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" written by the Kiev monk-chronicler Nestor (XII century), where he writes, in particular, about the origin of the ancient Rus, that is, "where did the Russian land come from."
"There is gone" is an obsolete past tense of the verb "to go" (preserved in the Serbo-Croatian language).
encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M .: "Lokid-Press"... Vadim Serov. 2003.
See what is "Where it came from" in other dictionaries:
originate (from where)- ▲ follow (from what) (be) in, actual occur (this comes from inability). produce (# word name from what). derivative. lead [take] the beginning from whom what. give [start] the beginning of something. what roots (deep ... ... Ideographic Dictionary of the Russian Language
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Chronicle of the weather, more or less detailed story about events. Chronicles have survived in a large number of so-called copies of the XIV-XVIII centuries. A list means “rewriting” (“writing off”) from another source. These lists are in place ... Wikipedia
Chronicle is a more or less detailed account of the events. Russian chronicles are the main written source on the history of Russia in the pre-Petrine period. The beginning of the Russian chronicle dates back to the 11th century, when they began to do in Kiev ... ... Wikipedia
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Books
- Yes, we are Scythians! "Where did the Russian Land come from"
- Yes, we are Scythians! “Where did the Russian Land come from”, Abrashkin Anatoly Alexandrovich. Inconvenient for the West, the truth about the origin of the Russian people. Based not only on well-known sources, but also on the latest data from archeology and linguistics, this study proves: we ...
Rus was revived a hundred times, and a hundred times was defeated from midnight to noon (from north to south) ...
And then we came to this place and settled in Ognischans on the Russian Land. And so two darkness passed, twenty thousand years ...
"Book of Veles", Genus I, 1 Where are we from? How was the Russian Land born? How did our ancestors live and what did they believe?
Usually we recall in this connection the words of the first Russian chronicler of the Christian era, Nestor, who began his chronicle as follows:
"Behold the Tale of the time (past) years, where did the Russian Land come from, who in Kiev began the first princes, and from where the Russian Land began to eat ..."
Turning to such sources, we doom ourselves in advance to the study of Russian history, at best, since the founding of Kiev. And at the same time we see that pre-Christian history and faith by monks-chroniclers is described briefly and extremely reluctantly.
But are there other, actually "pagan" sources? Has the ancient Slavic pre-Christian (more precisely Vedic) tradition died?
No. Now we can say firmly: it did not perish. Tradition can only perish together with the entire people. It is the basis of life itself, language, songs and epics, folk Orthodox holidays and rituals. And the very ancient faith of the Slavs and the Rus from ancient times, long before the Baptism of Rus, was called Orthodoxy. The Russians called themselves Orthodox, for they glorified the Rule, followed the Paths of the Rule.
It was also called the Righteous Faith, for the Slavs knew the Truth, knew the Pra-Vedas, the most ancient Vedas, sacred legends about the source of the Vedic faith, which was the first faith of almost all the peoples of our planet.
And now we need to talk not about death, but about rebirth ancient tradition and faith, about the Russian Renaissance. The ancient faith never died, to this day many Slavic families keep the Vedic tradition.
In our time, the revival of the ancient faith began with the publication of the sacred Vedic books of the Slavic tradition. We are talking about books from the collection of "Russian Vedas" and above all about the "Book of Veles".
And these books speak of twenty thousand years, during which Russia was born, perished and revived again. These books tell about the ancient ancestral homelands, about the lands where the Russian clans were born, about the progenitors of different clans.
And the most ancient ancestral home of the ancestors of the Slavs (first Aryans) "Russian Vedas" see in the North, in the sacred Belovodye. Hence, the ancestors of the Slavs, led by the god of the Sun and the first prince Yar, moved first to the Urals and the Semirechye steppe, then to India and Iran. And here, from the Aryan (Indo-Iranian) clans, the Slavs proper emerged: those who glorified the gods and ancestors.
Russia itself, according to the Vedic tradition, was born after the exodus of the Slavic-Aryan clans from the Urals, India and Iran, thousands of years before the foundation of Kiev-on-Dnepr and the Baptism of Rus.
Russia was born in the Slavic-Aryan sea of peoples who lived in different eras in the lands from the Urals and Altai to the Balkans, from the Volga to the Black and Baltic seas. And the Rus was the name of the descendants of the mermaid Ros (as the Volga was called in ancient times). The Rus glorified Ros and her husband, the Sun-Tsar Dazhbog, as well as their son, the Sun God, and the first ancestor Yar (Aria). They gave birth to Russia, and they always protected Russia from troubles.
Russia was born many times, perished from invasions - and was reborn again. And I believe that now, after new trials, Russia will be reborn again and will be great and happy.
The beginning of the Russian Renaissance?
After the first editions of "The Book of Kolyada", "Velesovaya Kniga" and "Boyan's Anthem", many people began to ask questions to me, a translator, collector and publisher of ancient texts.
Someone comes with bewilderment: "Is it possible that in ancient times the Russian people created such beauty? Is it possible that they were worried about thoughts so close to us?"
Indeed, today, when the Russian Idea uniting the healthy forces of society is being sought, an appeal to the experience of generations, to Russian national traditions is thought of as the only possible way to save the Fatherland. The mental health of a nation can only be gained by falling into the pure source of the national spirit, contained in the great Russian language, in songs and epics, in the traditions that have been preserved since ancient times in Russia.
Can the texts of "The Book of Kolyada", "The Book of Veles" and "Boyan's Anthem" also be included in this series? After all, the "pagan" tradition was forgotten, destroyed in the old years? Do you need it today?
However, wasn’t this the case with the entire Russian national heritage?
After all, fairy tales, songs, and epics were not at all in the public domain even in early XIX centuries before they hit the press. The upper class did not know them at all. Raised by foreign governesses, they even spoke Russian with difficulty. Yes, and among the people, only a few knew fairy tales and epics, the wicked Orthodoxy, the serf system did not contribute to the strength of the national foundations. In each locality, separate songs and stories of fairy tales were stored, and already the songs of the neighbors were unknown.
Many epics were recorded by the last bearers of the tradition in the North and Siberia, not affected by serf bondage. And after the publication, these texts were also accused, and to this day they are accused of forgery, that they were composed exactly at the time when they were recorded and published. And large-circulation editions of fairy tales and epics usually passed over in silence the unique recordings of the "pagan" plots. And if in Europe, thanks to the works of the brothers Grimm, the "mythological school" won out in the interpretation of fairy tales, and the rare records of German and French heroic songs (epics), found by that time only on scraps of old parchments, began to be interpreted as pieces of ancient myths, in Russia, on the contrary , the "historical school" won. A much richer epic, a living tradition was often reduced to imitation of foreigners and retellings of events of the recent past.
And this school to this day educates mythologists and writers who are sincerely convinced that Slavic paganism is limited to those ideas that were popular in scientific literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
But most of all, at all times, the living pagan tradition itself was persecuted. In tsarist Russia, since the time of the Code of Alexei Mikhailovich, there was a law according to which for the "blasphemous", that is, "pagan" faith, hard labor was supposed to be imposed, and until the 18th century even a fire was rare).
Is it any wonder that even after the publication of "pagan" texts, for example, the "Veda of the Slavs" in 1881, these monuments were surrounded by silence or accusations of forgery. And yet, fate was favorable to some monuments of ancient writing. Thus, a copy of the "Book of Veles" was preserved by Russian emigrants, a copy of "Boyan's anthem" was preserved in the Department of Manuscripts of the Public Library in St. Petersburg. And now they are published ..
Other monuments were confiscated and disappeared without a trace. So, in the last century in St. Petersburg, an entire library of runic books that belonged to the collector A.I. Sulakadzev (and the mysterious "White Community").
And in the XX century the "Polovtsian" plaques, the so-called "Leaf of Ivan Smery, Polchapin". After they were declared fake, they were no longer mentioned in the scientific literature, and now there is no way to get acquainted with this monument, despite the fact that any document, even (and even more so) of the 16th century, is legally considered a national treasure.
Finds of archaeologists who do not fit into the generally accepted picture of ancient Slavic history are subject to the same default. Thus, the ruins of the Buzh pagan temple with inscriptions and reliefs, discovered in the last century, are not being studied today, despite the fact that they were mentioned in special literature, and by such an authority as academician B.D. Grekov. Why? Precisely because of the reliefs and runic inscriptions.
And is it any wonder that, to this day, disputes about the authenticity of the great monument of Russian culture "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" do not cease. Until now, the only authentic parchment copy of this monument, made by A.I.Bardin, has not been published or studied. The reason for this is claimed to be that he made forgeries in his workshop. But this parchment, made masterfully, and not from the first edition, but from the original manuscript, should be considered the earliest and most accurate copy of the monument?
Therefore, there are disputes around the now published monuments of the Slavic Vedic tradition. Now they are trying to convince us again that the Russian people have nothing to be proud of, they say, neither in antiquity, nor now we have not created anything remarkable, but only learned from foreigners.
They are trying to convince us that this tradition does not matter. As if all science is against the authenticity of the ancient Slavic monuments. People with titles and scientific degrees claim from television screens that there is no subject for research and that only Orthodox Christian literature should be studied.
But remember that in the recent past, these same people opposed Christian literature. It is for this that they received their scientific degrees. They have always served the "general line", but not the Truth.
And who now defines this line in domestic science? It is no secret that now numerous foreign political science centers are engaged in this. In particular, W. Lucker, professor at the Washington University of Strategic Studies (author of the book "Black Hundred", Moscow, 1993), is against the "Book of Veles". V. A. Shnirel'man, Doctor of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who works at the Hebrew University in Moscow and Jerusalem ("Myths of neo-paganism" and "The Book of Veles", Jerusalem, 1998) also opposed it. They are echoed by many of our domestic "specialists" who are successfully fulfilling a quite definite political order.
Our opponents argue that in defense of the monuments of the ancient Slavic writing only amateurs perform. But this is not the case.
The list of scientists who supported the study of the "Veles Book" and other monuments can be continued. I think that the time is not far off when it will coincide with the list of all honest and significant Slavic scholars. Then it will be those who rushed after the “generals” of our “official science” to speak out “against” without delving into the problem or not thinking that the truth will triumph anyway.
Many explain this attitude towards the Slavic Vedic tradition primarily by the fact that the "pagan Orthodox idea" can blur the "Christian Orthodox idea".
However, no one in the world renounces their roots, their ancient history and culture, on the grounds that this erodes any modern national idea.
For example, in Orthodox Greece, ancient culture is also honored, and they do not throw Homer's poems into the fires at all, do not destroy the Acropolis. I'm not even talking about the fastest growing country in the world - Japan, in which the national faith "Shintoism" is the essence of a pagan faith. I will also note that the Buddhists and Shintoists of Japan are not at all at odds with each other.
And how can the Russian "pagan", more precisely "Vedic", Orthodox idea contradict, if in Ancient Russia Prav was glorified and Truth was in command?
And how beneficial can be the upbringing of a modern person, based on the "Veles Book", "Boyan's Hymn", "The Word about Igor's Host" and the oral folk tradition! A person who has embarked on the path of Rule, otherwise he will see himself and what he is doing. Raised on love for the Fatherland, he will become a true patriot, he will clearly distinguish between good and evil, truth and falsehood. He will feel like a part of Nature and will no longer be able to destroy the living world around him. The consciousness of a person will expand, forgotten words and concepts will appear in the language, the world will acquire new colors.
The Russian Vedic spiritual tradition contains both the doctrine of the spirits that patronize Russia, and the oldest in the doctrine of the Almighty. And I am sure this teaching will enrich the treasury of world spiritual thought. If we support a little the still flickering light of the Vedic Russian faith, then the world will see all the great diversity of our ancient culture- and martial art, and ethnoscience, and music, and architecture, and crafts, for all this is alive today. And this will be the beginning of the era of the Russian Renaissance.
What is the Slavic tradition today? And is it correct to call it paganism?
Vedism and Russian paganism
Many things are now called paganism: the faith of the ancient Greeks and Romans, Hindus, the faith of Siberian shamans and African sorcerers. And I think that such a multiple-valued definition would be wrong to apply to the Russian Vedic tradition.
Russian Vedism, or righteousism, is the oldest monotheistic faith, that is, belief in the existence of the Most High, spiritual knowledge that has come down to us in the form of folk Orthodox traditions, in the form of oral traditions and sacred texts.
Unlike Vedism, paganism (including Russian) cannot have a single ideological basis. More often, paganism is understood as a belief in the existence of many gods and a denial of the existence of the Most High (polytheism).
Paganism is also called pantheism, that is, the veneration and spiritualization of Nature while denying the God of the Family (the Most High). In ancient times, paganism was also understood as belief in alien gods, or worship of demigods, denial of religion as such (atheism). In the Christian era, any non-Christian creed was called paganism.
The interpretation of paganism as a popular faith (from "languages" - peoples) is now widely used, which leads to many misunderstandings. For then it turns out that, for example, Christianity is not a popular faith, but it is not. In addition, everyone from atheism to Vedism is called one by this name. Therefore, we refuse such an interpretation of "paganism" and Russian Vedism, the ancient monotheistic faith, is opposed to paganism (polytheism, pantheism, atheism).
This does not mean that all Russian paganism, understood as a combination of popular non-Christian beliefs and superstitions, does not represent spiritual value. In Russian paganism, you can find many precious fragments of the ancient Russian Vedic faith - put together, they represent the Russian Vedic faith in its entirety. Therefore, following the usual word usage, here sometimes the Russian Vedic tradition will also be called paganism (based on the fact that it also includes the Vedic faith).
It is necessary to distinguish Russian Vedism from other faith Vedic roots: all varieties of Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and others, for Russian Vedism is the essence of the Russian national variety of the Vedic faith. Accordingly, Russian Vedic culture is a Russian national variety of Vedic culture. Russian Vedism is international in content as much as the Vedic faith itself is international, and national in image, language and origin.
The Vedic religion, in the form of various ramifications of Iduism and Zoroastrianism, folk faiths, is now professed by a quarter of humanity. We are talking not only about India and the countries of Indochina. In Europe, America, Australia, various oriental religious societies based on the Vedic worldview, and the "neo-pagan" communities themselves, cover up to a tenth of all believers. Zoroastrians (Gebras and Parsis) are represented in the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran and in the Parliament of India.
The developed types of Vedic religions are based on the spiritual basis of the Indian Vedic and Iranian Zoroastrian (Avestan) literature, which includes thousands of volumes of ancient writings and their modern interpretations.
The most famous books of the Vedic religion of India are the Vedas. There are four of them. "Rig Veda", "Veda of hymns", Samaveda, "Veda of tunes". And also two additional Vedas created for the needs of priests and healers - Yajurveda, "Veda of sacrificial formulas" (there are white and black), and Atharvaveda ("Veda of spells"). Later the Vedas compiled commentaries on them - hundreds of philosophical treatises: Brahmanas and Upanishads.
Additional Vedic literature in India is the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Puranas. The heroic poem Mahabharata is revered by the Indians as the fifth Veda, this is the world's largest poem, including one hundred thousand quatrains. In essence, the Mahabharata is a separate literature (the famous Bhagavad-Gita is a part of the Mahabharata).
Ramayana is a poem about ancient hero and the king of India Rama, the embodiment of the Supreme. Puranas are a collection of stories about the incarnations of the Supreme, about the life of the demigods.
The Zoroastrian literature of Ancient Iran is represented primarily by the Avesta. The Avesta has four parts - Yasnu ("worship"), Vispered ("all the main chapters"), Videvdat ("the law against the devas-demons") and Yashta ("hymns").
Here, only the sacred books of the currently active confessions were mentioned, no less extensive literature is given by archaeological, ethnographic research in different countries of the East. Also, later works based on priestly books that have not come down to us (for example, "Shah-Nama" by the poet Ferdowsi). And it would be wrong to believe that these texts have nothing to do with the Russian Vedic tradition. Vice versa. Many of these texts tell about the lands lying to the North of India and Iran. These are the most important and very ancient descriptions of the lands of Ruga, which was revered and revered as the ancestral home of the Aryans, the source of the Vedic faith by both Hindus and Zoroastrians.
Attention should be paid to the commonality of many texts, mythological plots of Russian and other Vedic traditions. You can put alongside the texts of Russian folk songs, spiritual poems and the texts of Indian and Iranian Vedic literature repeating them.
This comparison will certainly lead to the conclusion that in Russia songs are no less, and often even more archaic, than in India and Iran. This is justified by the fact that it is Russia that is the source of the Vedic faith.
The great spiritual heritage of Vedic Rus can rightfully be placed next to the living Vedic tradition of the countries of the East.
Scripture and sacred tradition of the Russian Vedic faith
The oldest songs and epics in the oral tradition of Russia have been well preserved. They are poetic, accessible. Where, for example, the Puranas give a short retelling of the plot of an ancient myth, the Russian tradition gives the very ancient song, very beloved by the people and almost not distorted by time.
Many ancient Vedic hymns, sacred songs and partly myths have been preserved by the oral and written tradition of Orthodox mystical sects. You can call the revered Old Believers, Dukhobors, "God's people" (whips, eunuchs), bogumils and others "Pigeon Book", "Animal Book", " Secret book"," Golden Book "and many other folk books.
A complete collection of Slavic folk songs, epics, fairy tales and legends, spiritual verses - these are thousands of volumes. And they contain the very Primordial Vedas lost by the Aryans who came from the North to India and Iran. Other collections of Russian folk songs and epics contain tales that are older and better preserved than the tales of the Puranas.
Now I have published a complete set of the Primordial Vedas, named by the ancient name of this collection of myths and traditions of the Slavs: "The Star Book of Kolyada". Each text of this book has a prototype in oral tradition and in the folk books of the Slavs (also in close traditions). I have done work on the collection of texts, translation into modern Russian, ordering, collation, highlighting the ancient basis. The "Book of Kolyada" should be considered a source according to the ancient faith of the Slavs, for every text, figurative expression, thought of this book can be certified by a folk song, an epic, a tale.
Brief retellings of myths from the "Star Book of Kolyada" are included in the first part ("Slavic myths") of this book, and the main sources are indicated in the comments to the texts.
One of the most important sources on Slavic mythology and the ancient Vedic faith of the Slavs should also be considered the book "Veda of the Slavs", a collection of songs of the South Slavic people of the Pomak Bulgarians. This book (in two volumes) was published at the end of the last century in Belgrade and St. Petersburg by Stefan Ilyich Verkovich. The Veda of the Slavs contains ritual songs and prayers to the Slavic gods, it is no less significant for the Slavs than the Rig Veda is for the Hindus. It has not yet been translated into Russian, but the main Slavic myths from this book were included in the "Book of Kolyada".
In addition to thousands of volumes of Slavic folklore, Russian Vedic literature is also represented by monuments of ancient writing. First of all, it is the "Book of Veles", then "Boyan's Hymn" and "The Word about Igor's Regiment". Already these monuments are enough to talk about the great Russian Vedic literature and written culture.
Most of all is now known "The Lay of Igor's Regiment", created, as Academician B.A. Rybakov, boyar Peter Borislavich in the XII century. His nephew Bishop Theodore advocated the unity of the Russian Vedic and Christian traditions, for which he was executed, and the books he wrote were burned. This family kept the Russian Orthodox Vedic faith, they were the successors of the tradition dating back to Boyan and Zlatohor, the singers of Ancient Russia.
"Boyan's Hymn" is the oldest monument of Slavic writing, created in the 4th century. It has come down to us, like The Lay of Igor's Campaign, in a copy of the early 19th century (kept in the Public Library in St. Petersburg), but the original may still exist. It tells about the victory of the Slavs in the war against the Goths of Germanarech. Contains news about the princes Bus and Slovenia, the singers Boyana and Zlatohor.
"The Book of Veles" is the sacred scripture of the Slavs. It was written on wooden tablets (43 boards) in the 5th-9th centuries by the priests of Ruskolani and Ancient Novgorod. Contains the mythology of the Slavs, prayer texts, legends and stories about the ancient Slavic history from the XX millennium BC to the IX century AD. "The Book of Veles" has been known since the beginning of the 19th century, but has come down to us in a copy of the beginning of the 20th century.
Until recently, other sacred texts of the ancient Slavs were also known, about two dozen sources. The most extensive and significant of them are as follows: "Perunitsa" (Perun and Veles broadcasting in the Kiev temples to the priests Moveslav, Drevoslav and others), judging by the description; consisted of 12 books. Further: "About Kitovras. Fables and Koshchuny" (conditional name, this is Slavic Vedic mythology), 143 boards of the 5th century. "White Book", which includes legends about Kolyada Venedsky, funeral feasts of Zlatogor, Bus Beloyar, Novgorod legends from the times of Burivoy and Vladimir the Ancient. There were also essays on geography, fortune-telling books, and so on.
The pompkon communities of Bulgarians ("The Golden Book", "The Bird Book", "The Book of Wanderings" and so on) have also preserved the memory of many books. These books were also destroyed not so long ago.
Now these books are not available to us. Some of them, apparently, are in closed state storage facilities in Russia. Russian Empire, mainly to Austria. Now these manuscripts are scattered across the libraries of Europe and America, and are revered in secret writing.
At the heart of our ideas about the "vocation of the Varangians" is the message "The Tale of Bygone Years" under the year 862: “In the summer of 6370. Exile the Varangians across the sea, and didn’t give them a tribute, and you’ll be able to do it yourself, and you don’t have any truth in them, and you will be born to your kin, and there was a strife in them, and fight more often on your own. And deciding in ourselves: "Let's look for a prince, who would be like us and judge by right." And I went across the sea to the Varangian, to Russia. Sice is afraid of zvakh tyi varyazi rus, as if some friends are going to be svie, friends are urmane, anglyane, druzii gte, tako and si. Solve rus, chyud, slovenia, and krivichi and all: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no outfit in it. Yes, you go to reign and govern us. " And 3 brothers got out of their clans, belted out all of Russia, and came; the oldest, Rurik, is in Sede Novgorod, and the other, Sineus, is on Lake Bela, and the third is Izbor'ste, Truvor. And from those Varangians they called themselves the Rus land, Novgorodtsi, they are the people of the Nougorodtsi from the Varazhsk clan, pre-same, there is mad Slovenia. "
The chronicler not only told about the fact of inviting foreigners to Russia, the reason for which was the endless civil strife in the local tribal confederation of Slavs, but also precisely determined who the Varangians of Rurik were and where they came from. He emphasized the ethnic difference between the Varangians-Rus and the Swedes, Normans, Angles, and Gotland.
Rurik has fulfilled the historical mission assigned to him. Through his efforts and the efforts of his successors in Europe, a powerful East Slavic state was formed. It was from Rurik that the Russian princes up to the suppression of the ruling dynasty in late XVI v. kept their genealogy.
After in the middle of the XVIII century. the story of the vocation of the Varangians became an object scientific research, it quickly outgrew the framework of a strictly scientific problem, turning into one of the key issues of the ideological struggle. It took more than 150 years to separate the actual historical issues of the initial stages of the Russian state from political and ideological layers.
Modern historical science has achieved significant results in the study of the early stage of the formation of Russian statehood on the basis of a comprehensive study of written and archaeological sources.
The presence of the Scandinavians in Russia in the 9th - 11th centuries and their great role in the life of East Slavic society is a well-established fact. This is evidenced by both chronicle news and numerous archaeological finds. The historicity of Rurik himself should also hardly raise doubts (but his brothers Sineus and Truvor are quite mythical figures that appeared only under the pen of the chronicler, who thus personified the words of the ancient Swedish language "sine hus" - "his kind" and "thru varing" - " faithful squad "). The chronicle story about Rurik's "vocation", apparently, reflects the fact of the conclusion of an agreement with the invited prince.
It should be borne in mind that 862 BC is a fairly conditional date. For the first time, dates in the annals (the so-called "weather grid") appear only in the XI century. For events of an earlier time, the chronicler had to choose the most suitable dates by means of calculations. Therefore, we know in advance that the date of the "vocation of the Varangians" is calculated. But it fits well with our modern ideas about the level of development of East Slavic society in the 9th century. and is confirmed by archaeological data. That's why possible error in a few years in the dating of the event itself does not seriously affect general views about the formation of the Russian state.
In addition to the chronology of any historical event, important issue is its geographical location. With regard to the "vocation of the Varangians", this question can be formulated as follows: to which point of the East Slavic lands was Rurik invited "with his family and faithful squad"? In modern historical science, there are two answers to this question: Ladoga and Novgorod.
To justify the choice of these two points, you should find out for what tasks each of them was convenient. Ladoga, which arose in the 8th century, was located in the lower reaches of the Volkhov and was convenient for controlling the trade route along this river in the area closest to the Baltic. But it lay far from the main areas of Slavic settlement in the North-West; settlements in its immediate vicinity were extremely rare. Novgorod, in addition to being located at the intersection of trade routes along the Volkhov and Msta, was located among a large cluster of rural settlements and had a convenient connection with other regions of the North-West. Therefore, Ladoga could only serve to control transit trade, while Novgorod added to this the possibility of exercising control over the vast territory of East Slavic settlement. Thus, for the purposes of managing the newly formed state territory, Novgorod was much more suitable than Ladoga. And Ladoga could only be an intermediate point of stay of the invited Scandinavian prince, and Novgorod was to be its main place.
As is known, in the course of archaeological research, no layers older than the first half of the 10th century have been found on the territory of modern Novgorod. At the same time, there are not only layers of the 9th century on the Settlement, but also a large number of items of Scandinavian origin have been discovered. Therefore, it is the Settlement that is the territory on which Novgorod first arose. And it was here that Rurik was supposed to come in the middle of the 9th century.
Legend has it that two tribal leaders - Sloven and Rus - left the old lands with their peoples and began to look for more convenient places in the universe for life. After forty years of difficult wanderings, they reached the great lake. The city of Slovensk - Veliky Novgorod was built on its bank, "... and from that time the newcomers began to be called Slovenes."
Scientists believe that the ancestral nest of the Slavic peoples was Eastern Europe... There is an opinion that our ancestors came from the foothills of the Himalayas, and they also think that there are direct connections between the Proto-Slavs and the disappeared Scythian state, the Etruscans, even the Celts.
Ancient authors (the geographer Ptolemy, in particular) testify that at the beginning of the 1st century. AD In dense, impenetrable forests between the Carpathians and the Baltic, the tribes of the Suobens lived - boar hunters. Gradually, they began to be called Slovens, some Slavs, some chipped. Herodotus wrote that
Sklovens-skolots worship rivers, nymphs and all sorts of other deities, make sacrifices to them ... They live in miserable huts at a great distance from each other, often changing their place of residence. They go into battle with a shield and a dart, they never wear armor. Others do not wear shirts or raincoats, but only pants ... They are tall and of great strength. Their lifestyle is rough, without any comforts. They are always covered in mud, but in essence they are not bad and not at all evil.
Domestic annalistic vaults call the lands of the Roman province of Norik the homeland of the Slavs. Once upon a time, in prehistoric times, the tribes of the meadows lived here. The lands of their habitation were called Rus, therefore the glades were subsequently called Rus. Settling between the Black and Caspian Seas, they reached the banks of the Volga and established their own settlements here. These settlements laid the foundation for the formation of tribal unions of Vyatichi, Rodimichi, Drevlyans, Dregovichi, etc.
Herodotus believed that the Scythians were involved in the history of the appearance of our ancestors on Earth. According to his testimony, the cleaved Scythians arrived beyond the Don in 720 BC. They had no equal neither in military strength, nor in the number of troops in the then known world. The Scythians led a nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life, the economy was poorly developed. But the Scythians owned magnificent herds of horses. For their sake (with the aim of capturing pastures) they waged wars.
According to the testimony of the same author, the customs of these peoples were cruel: they drank the blood of slain enemies, their heads were brought to the king, since according to the number of those killed they received their share of the spoils and honors. The scalps were used like a towel. They were usually tied to a horse's bridle and proudly flaunted them.
In a word, the Volga River basin became the settlement area of Slavic-Russian tribes and unions somewhere in the II - III century. AD And this happened long before this union was talked about at the state level of different countries. Subsequently, the lands inhabited by these tribes became the basis the old Russian state.
Our ancestors found writing early. At first it was a kind of runic writing - symbols: "with the lines and cuts of the gadaahu". Arab Ibn Fodlan in his memoirs described the burial in the X century. AD notable Russian warrior with an inscription on the monument. “First they made a fire and burned the body on it, and then they built something like a round hill and erected a large piece of poplar in the middle of it, wrote the name of this husband and the name of the Tsar of the Rus on it, and left.” The texts of agreements with Byzantium, written in both Greek and Slavic. These treaties were drawn up in 907, 911, 945 AD.
The most ancient settlements of our ancestors, which arose among forests and lakes, plains and steep slopes, were the cities of Chernigov, Polotsk, Vladimir, Kiev, Novgorod, the village of Gnezdovo. The settlements were surrounded by fences with towers. To defend against an attack, the inhabitants of the settlements used all the possibilities of the terrain: hills, ravines, swamps.
The Slavs had a subtle sense of nature and understood it. Spiritualizing every forest, river, steppe, stones, animals, they brought them food - sacrifices. It was also grain, wine, Domestic bird, even people. On the shore of Lake Pleshcheevo near the town of Pereslavl-Zalessky, a boulder-stone is still preserved. He has a name - Xin-stone. Once upon a time this twelve-ton stone was worshiped by our ancestors. Oaths were pronounced near him, vows were made, etc.
The Slavs also venerated the gods. There were many of them: Yarilo, Hora, Dazhdbog, Svarog, Stribog, Veles, Zhel, chMakosh, etc. The first name of God, the father of all gods, was not pronounced by the pagan Slavs aloud, but they knew. It was Svarog. It was he who threw pincers, nails and a hammer from heaven so that his children had something to work with.
It is no coincidence that blacksmithing is considered the most ancient craft. Slavic blacksmiths owned forging iron. They made bows, knives, swords, hammers, clubs, axes, earrings, bracelets. The weapon was decorated with gold, silver, niello. Household utensils were amazed with rich ornaments - clay and wooden dishes, spinning wheels, benches, etc. Wood processing required special skill. It was widely used in the construction of cities, carts, sledges, chariots, light ships, canoes, plows, bridges. This is evidenced by chronicles, fairy tales, epics, myths. The plots of the painting were given a magical meaning. In the painting ancient man saw a means of salvation from troubles and the evil eye. The red images of horses were given the meaning of goodness and happiness. Black - sorrow. For birds - the beginning of life. The masters used a bright color scheme: blue, green, blue, red.
The lifestyle of our ancestors was deeply ritualized. It was the rule in every home and in the service to worship the sword, the oath on the sword. Recorded in the folk tradition of the myth making of the princely tonsure, the planting of a young prince on a horse at the age of three, a meeting of princes on a carpet, a saddle, as well as the adoption by the townspeople of a prince for reign. In everyday life, it was compulsory for an ordinary person to participate in funeral rituals, matchmaking, naming, etc. Among the warriors, the ritual moments of life included the worship of the banner, the transfer of the sword, initiation into the members of the squad. In 900, Prince Vladimir introduced a new stream into the process of the spiritual development of the Slavs. He decided to create a single pantheon of gods for all of Russia. Perun became the first, and therefore the most revered. On the temples - places for sacrifices - they began to install idols - a volumetric statue of one or another god. Indeed, in addition to Perun, idols were established for Khors, Dazhdbog, Mokosh, Stribog, Simergle. Oaks were planted near the temples, believing that in the branches of the most spreading Perun was building his temple. Bonfires were always burning on the temples. If the minister did not "light up" the fire and it went out, he was punished with death.
But time pressed paganism, and Prince Vladimir took the next important step towards strengthening the state and spiritual power of the prince in ancient Russia. In 988 he introduced Christianity. It was adopted according to the Greek (Orthodox), and not the Latin order. The choice was influenced by the long-standing traditions of cooperation between Byzantium and Rus.
Orthodoxy had a tremendous impact on all aspects of the life of the ancient Russian state. The rules for planning the construction of fortified settlements have changed. Stone churches began to be built near the square in the center of the city. They raised their domes next to the stone chambers of the princes and their warriors, and on the outskirts of the cities, near the entrance to them, the domes of Orthodox monasteries rushed to heaven.
Under the influence of the new religion, customs, mores, and views on society changed. Kiev prince became an autocrat, he obviously liked it! The Church, taking the sick and the poor under its guardianship and protection, asserted its necessity in society, and therefore for the princely power too.
Divine services in the national language contributed to the further spread of writing, its improvement. While creating Slavic alphabet brothers Cyril and Methodius relied on ancient Russian letters. Initially, they created the Glagolitic alphabet, then the Cyrillic alphabet appeared. Literacy has become a need for everything ancient Russian society... This is evidenced by birch bark letters found in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, as well as household records scrawled on the walls of ancient churches in Kiev, Vladimir and other cities.
Under the princes Vladimir and Yaroslav the Wise, the "teaching" of the bookish children of the "ostentatious child", as well as the elders and priest children, began. The first schools for girls were established.
The main centers for the spread of education were monasteries and temples. Here books were not only copied, but also translated from foreign languages into Cyrillic. According to the evidence of the chronicles, we can assume the existence in the XI century. libraries in Russia.
Collections of prayers, the works of the church fathers, leading literary genre the chronicle became. It included various works of authors from different eras, as well as many myths. The main question that the works collected here were trying to answer included reasoning about where the Russian land came from and is, principality of Kiev why both heroes and traitors coexist on earth. The chronicles reflected military stories and the "lives of saints" people. The "Tale of Bygone Years" by the richness of the factual material contained in it remains today the most important source of knowledge about the first steps of the history of the ancient Russian state from deep pagan times. Scientific literature was widely developed. These were also chronicles. But they were filled with observations of solar and lunar eclipses, lunar phases, fallout of meteorites. The works of the most ancient astronomer of Russia, the hieromonk of the Antoniev Monastery, Koriki of Novgorod, have survived to this day.
The proverb that was born "The language will bring to Kiev" emphasized the growing popularity of this city. By the XI century. it had up to 400 churches, 8 markets, an abundance of squares. From the Kiev princely. The dynasty was considered an honor to be related to the sovereigns of Byzantium, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, etc. St. Sophia Cathedral has become a symbol of the political and economic power of Kievan Rus. Located on the steep bank of the Dnieper, it conquered everyone who came to Kiev with its grandeur. Its interior painting and icons even experienced shopping people did not leave you indifferent. The icon in Russia became the same symbol as for Hellas - a statue, for Byzantium - a mosaic, for Egypt - a relief. Elements of folk culture and worldview were actively manifested in this form of art. Already in those distant times such cities as Vladimir, Suzdal, Novgorod were famous for their icon-painting skills. In particular, Novgorod was famous for its temples. At the end of the XI century. one foreign author argued that "only Rome could equal wealth with Novgorod." Its wealth was in many respects made up of temples. In the XI century. The Novgorod Sophia, built by the northern princes, was supposed to exalt the Russian land and its glory.
A special place in the history of the ancient Slavs and the history of Russia is occupied by the art of hand-made sewing, colorful, graceful and refined. They studied it in monasteries, at princely courts, in embroidery parlors. Women were engaged in sewing. Traded fabrics with sewing with France, Greece, India, China. Sewing was widely included in everyday clothes. In the village of Martynovka, during the excavation of the treasure, silver figurines of dancing people were discovered. These mustaches in ankle-length pants were dressed in shirts, decorated with various embroidery, especially on the chest there was very abundant embroidery. Even stones, pearls, and amber were sewn into embroidered women's clothing.
In pagan times, musical art became widespread in Russia. There were known musical signs - signs. To create melodies, they used tambourines, argon, cover, horn, horn, pity, gusli, whistle, bow.
Gradually Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Vladimir-Suzdal land, Galicia-Volyn principality became, along with Kiev, great centers of Slavic Russian culture, the concentration of all the best traditions, literary, musical, pictorial, performing skills of their people.
Russian mythology was highly appreciated in the European and Asian world: stories, stories, legends, legends about heroes and gods. Reading deeply into the plots of myths, friends and enemies of our ancestors tried to understand the mysterious soul of the Slavs, the secret of their spiritual strength and greatness.
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that school teachers should be able to tell students different points of view on historical facts and events, and notes the importance of continuing professional discussion around the most controversial events in history.
So, the first persons of the Russian state have finally started talking about the need to free the real "tree" of Russian history from the husk of lies and conjectures. How important this is in our time, it is difficult to overestimate.
Today we are witnessing with our own eyes how history is being rewritten in those countries that received their "independence" after the collapse of the USSR. Vivid examples Georgia and Ukraine, the leaders of these countries have made a lot of efforts in order to blot out real events from history, replacing them with fictional ones. So Saakashvili, being the president of Georgia, announced to the whole world about the alleged colonization of it by tsarist Russia. Falsification is obvious, historical fact- For several centuries the Georgian tsars asked for the strong "hand" of Moscow, because only she could protect their country from the incessant aggression from Turkey. The small state was exhausted in an unequal struggle, losing its best sons.
Rewriting of history, as a rule, goes in all directions, but first of all it affects the younger generation, it is difficult to convince people of mature age that what was not, young people absorb any information from scratch and take it as true.
Watching the shuffling of the history of events that happened very recently, one involuntarily thinks about how the events were covered a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, in the first decades after the birth of Christ, when the apostles of the Messiah went to preach the word of God to all ends of the earth. One can only guess how many times views on certain historical events have changed and distorted.
Unfortunately, the world has such a state of affairs when each new government rewrites history for himself. You are more and more convinced that in the end, after many centuries, it does not matter who won this or that battle, it is important how historians will summarize the events. And it was on this very field that the fiercest struggle was always unfolding. There are a great many examples of this. I would like to dwell on some aspects of the historical process of the development of Russia and the future Russian Empire. To make an attempt to highlight the individual nodes of tension, where the intellectual efforts of minds are focused, carrying various spiritual concepts to this or that event concerning the history of our Motherland.
The explicit goal of self-respecting peoples is not to get into the margins of history, to be its creators. This attitude is highly characteristic of Russia.
As an Orthodox person, I am very interested in the issue of the origin of Rus on the modern geographic and political map of the world. Where did the Slavs come to Russia, as they were called before, what was in the place of Russia, before the emergence of statehood?
From what point of reference should the history of Russia begin? It is unlikely that we will ever find the answer to this question. Since there is no handwritten evidence of this and cannot be. At first, people settled or conquered the land, and only later, and sometimes significantly, they began to write a chronicle of the history of their people, their conquests.
The fierceness of the dispute about the beginning of Russia is not accidental. Many in the West, and even in Russia, are trying to prove that, as a nation, the Slavs are not wealthy, they did not and do not have passionaries in their midst - leaders capable of leading the people. Their destiny is to be constant led, or rather a herd, for which a shepherd with a carrot and a stick is needed.
One of the key issues of our history is the question of the origin of our statehood. When and how did the formation of Rus go, independently or with the involvement of the passionary leaders of other peoples? Who are the Vikings? Where does the collector of the Russian lands Rurik come from?
There are many versions of the "beginning" of Russia, however, all of them are reduced to two main ones: the first, the so-called "Norman theory" asserts that the founder of the Russian state was a people different from the Slavs, Scandinavians or Normans, and they were called the Varangians - the Rus;
The second version claims that the founders of the Russian state were the Slavs themselves, and the Varangians were also Slavic by origin. The first and second versions have a great variety of options. In my work, I will try to highlight the main ones.
“The fierceness of the dispute over the beginning of Rus for two and a half centuries stems from the political importance of the issue. It is no coincidence, for example, Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels joined the controversy, ranting about peoples "capable" and "incapable" of maintaining "order", of creating their own statehood. "Organization of Russian public education- Hitler was infuriated in "Mein Kampf" - was not the result of the state abilities of the Slavs in Russia; on the contrary, it is a marvelous example of how the Germanic element manifests in the lower race its ability to create a state ... For centuries, Russia lived off this German core of its upper ruling classes "And from here followed the practical conclusion:" fate itself wants to show us the way with its finger: having entrusted the fate of Russia to the Bolsheviks, it deprived the Russian people of that reason, which gave rise to and still supported its state existence. " (AG Kuzmin. Preface to the book "Where did the Russian land come from" book one. The origin of the people. P. 6).
The "Varangian question" is the central place of the inglorious "Norman theory", which for more than two hundred years has been trying to deduce Russian history from foreign history.
When was the so-called "Norman story" born?
Here is what A.G. Kuzmin: “During the Bironovschina (30s of the 18th century), Z. Bayer and later G. Miller put forward a hypothesis stating that under the Varangians one should mean the Scandinavians, and under the Varangians-Rus - the Swedes. This is how the "Norman theory" was born, which has many adherents in modern literature - historical, linguistic, archaeological. "
This version is based on one single chronicle presentation - in the "Tale of Bygone Years". But it was this chronicle that underwent the most fundamental corrections and revisions - after all, the Kiev chronicles were, as it were, courtiers. Constantly being in sight of the state and spiritual authorities. (The presence of obvious corrections and inconsistencies in the "Tale" was noted by Tatishchev).
Watching how famously "rewrite" the history of modern chroniclers from the "Maidan", one involuntarily comes to the idea that restoring the chronicle of real events a thousand years ago will be, in Lenin's language, "extremely difficult."
So, it is known that the modern version of Russian history dates back to XVIII century... Its founders are:
Tatishchev Vasily Nikitich (1686 - 1750) - Russian historian and statesman.
Bayer Gottlieb Siegfried (1694 - 1738) - German historian, philologist, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1725. The founder of the Norman theory.
Miller Gerard Friedrich (1705 - 1783) - German historian. In Russia - since 1725. “Gathered a collection of copies (where did the originals disappear to?) Of documents on Russian history (the so-called Miller's portfolios)”.
Schletzer August Ludwig (1735 - 1800) - German historian, philologist; in Russian service from 1761 to 1767. Since 1769 - a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was the first to study the original of the oldest Radziwill Chronicle, that is, the famous Tale of Bygone Years. We will talk a little further about what he did to her.
What was known about Kievan Rus before them? It turns out nothing.
Miller begins researching Russian history under Elizaveta Petrovna. He was the first scholar to publish the full version of Russian history as it exists today.
Thus, the concept of Russian history, imposed on us today, of a very late origin, was put forward exclusively by foreigners. Our history is written by people who do not know our language, our customs. A natural question arises: where were the Russian historians? Why was Russian history written by foreigners?
Even a superficial analysis of Russian history revealed serious mistakes... Which forces us to look completely differently at the “activity” of these “founders” of Russian history. However, the distortion of true Russian history in this version receives a natural explanation as one of the most important tasks of the ruling Romanov dynasty. The invited German historians fulfilled the order given to them by the Romanovs, at the same time confiscating and destroying the original manuscripts from the monastery libraries.
As an example, let us cite the fate of Radziwill's list of The Tale of Bygone Years.
Modern commentators testify: "The Radziwill Chronicle, one of the most important chronicles of the pre-Mongol era ... The oldest that has come down to us - its text ends in the first years of the XIII century."
"The Radziwill Chronicle did not have a full-fledged scientific publication" until 1989.
The chronicle became widely known only in 1711, when Peter I visited the royal library in the city of Konigsberg. Having learned about the existence of the chronicle, he ordered to make a copy. The original manuscript did not reach Russia until 1758, after the end of the seven-year war between Russia and Prussia.
In 1761, the original list ended up in the library of the Academy of Sciences. A.L. Schletser, a professor who has just arrived from Germany. Then the paradoxes begin. In a German translation, this scholar prepared an edition; it was published in Göttingham in 1802 - 1809. But for Russia, he did not manage to publish this work. All materials of the publication were destroyed in a fire in 1812.
The original manuscript in 1812-1814 was kept by the privy councilor N.M. Muravyov, from whom he got to the director of the Imperial Public Library A.N. Olenin.
Historians believe that Radziwill's "Tale of Bygone Years" was subjected to repeated and very significant revisions. So, the chronicle lacks a very important sheet in which the entire chronology of Kievan Rus was set forth in relation to Byzantine and Roman chronologies. Without this sheet, the Russian chronology of The Tale of Bygone Years hangs in the air and loses its connection to the world Scaligerian history. Therefore, the events described in the annals can be interpreted in a variety of interpretations.
In addition, on the first pages of the manuscript, which describes the beginning of Russian history - chronology, the origin of the Slavic tribes, the foundation of Kiev, etc. - numbering is either missing or made in different handwritings.
It seems that the beginning of the Radziwill Chronicle underwent a significant correction in the second half of the 18th century, after the works on Russian history by Miller, Schletzer, Bayer and others were written. The presence of edits and corrections in the story was noted by Tatishchev.
So, according to A. Bushkov, in the 18th century, there were at least a dozen chronicles of Nestor. At the same time, he refers to the statement of Schletzer, who writes: “In 1720, Tatishchev was sent to Siberia ... ancient list Nestor! He thought, like me at first, that there is only one Nestor and one chronicle. Little by little Tatishchev collected a dozen lists, based on them and the other options reported to him, he made the eleventh ... ".
One can imagine the extent to which the falsification of history reached at that time. If from all the variety of versions of the Tale of Bygone Years collected by Tatishchev, there is only one canonical text left - “the one” about which we are told to think that it was written in 1106 and is the only correct one.
Let us now imagine the "Norman theory" proper, the author of which is August Ludwig Schletzer:
Here are its main points:
1. "The founder of the Russian state was a people different from the Slavs."
2. "They were Varangians and distinguished themselves from other Varangians by the name of the Russians."
3. "Varangians and Scandinavians, or Normans, are one and the same."
4. "Consequently, the founding of the Russian state took place in the same way as the founding of states in Sicily and England" (That is, through the establishment of a foreign, Norman dynasty. - V.D.)
1.The founder of the Russian state was slavic tribe Slovene, that is, the inhabitants of the city of Slovensk on the Volkhov, founded by the leader of the Protorussians Sloven in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Most likely, a common generic concept of all Slavs was formed from this antonym.
2. The Varangian-Rus were one of the branches of the Slavic ethnolinguistic community, which separated from it at an early stage of development, which had a caste division and a special, mainly military and commercial way of life inherited from even more ancient Hyperborean times.
3. The Russian Varangians as an ethnos had nothing to do with the Scandinavian Vikings (Normans), although they coexisted side by side, exerting cultural, military and economic influence on each other.
4.The emergence of the Russian state did not occur by inviting foreign rulers, but as a successive development state forms, formed long before the appearance of the Kiev princely dynasty of Rurikovich. Subsequently, in order to please the Rurikovichs, who had established themselves as the new masters of Russia, the entire past history was redrawn: the old chronicles were destroyed, and the new ones were rewritten in such a way that the mention of Dokievian, that is, Slovenian Rus, disappeared from them altogether.
As you can see, the points of view are diametrical. Below we give a few more versions.
In the meantime, let us dwell on the origin of the word "Varangian". Here is what V. Makarenko writes on this topic in his work "Where Russia Came From" (p.217).
“What is the etymology of the word“ Varangians ”? If we take the words "knight", "prince" that are close in time, then, most likely, initially the word sounded like "var + ide" or in plural"Varyazi" For example, in the original "The Tale of Bygone Years": "I'm afraid of the zvakh ti Varyazi." By the way, the version of the word "varyaz" in modern Russian has remained almost unchanged: "var-ide" = "queen" (a chess piece designed to defend the king).
According to Makarenko, "Varazi" = (Varangians) are an estate of warriors. He further writes: “... I would venture to draw a line a little further from the word“ Varangian ”to the word“ barbarian ”(“ Berber ”), which is based on a doubling of the root“ var ”with the same meaning“ war ”. This is most likely another variant of the name of the Vikings. In the same series, such terms as "varins", "varia", "vagry" ... ". All these words have a common root "var". Sigmund Herberstein gives interesting data: “... the region of the vandals once bordered on the famous city of Vagriya with Lubeck and the Duchy of Holstein, so it is believed that the Baltic Sea got its name from this Vagria ...“ the sea of the Varangians ”... the vandals then not only differed in power, but and had a common language, customs and faith with the Russians "(Herberstein S. Decree. Op., p. 60. - Quoted from Nosovsky, Fomenko, Decree. Op., p. 18.).
Under the conditions of mass resettlement, "Varyazi" played the role of a kind of "special forces", forward detachments that conducted reconnaissance of the area at a great distance and, if necessary, occupied the territory on the eve of the approach of the main army. In the face of a massive wave of resettlement, stretching over several centuries, this function became socially significant and led to the isolation of the military class. The last "varas" in Russia were the teams of Ermak Timofeevich (? -1585), Semyon Dezhnev (1605-1673), Erofei Khabarov (c. 1610-1667), Stepan Razin (c. 1630-1671). G.).
And here is how the word "Varangian" is deciphered by V.N. Demin and S.N. Zelentsov in his book "The Mysteries of Russian Civilization" on page 56: "... A variety of assumptions have been made about the meaning and etymology of the word" Varangian ". In Russian (see V. Dahl's Dictionary) “Varyag” means “small merchant”, “distributor of goods” (in Ukrainian the word “thief” also means “fighter”, “strong tall man”). Therefore, there is no reason to insist on the foreign origin of the word "Varangian", quite recently it meant "merchant guest", "merchant". In this sense, the Novgorodian Sadko and Solovey Budimirovich were the classic Varangians. "
“... V. Dahl's dictionary gives three meanings of the word“ cooking ”: 1)“ brew ”,“ cooking ”,“ portion of cooked ”; 2) "crowd", "heap", "darkness", "many"; 3) "the whole camp of a man", "mug". The Russian language has dozens of words with the root "var", which goes back to the Indo-European community of languages and the system of cosmogonic-divine concepts: hence the words meaning "creation", including "the creation of the world and man", as well as the names of the gods - Indian Varuna and Russian Svarog. And this already takes us to the very depths of human prehistory.
Further, the authors turn to the "Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language" M. Vasmer. It gives a rather curious explanation of the word "Varangian", it turns out that in the past it had a synonym for "kalbyag" (it is used in a lengthy edition of "Russkaya Pravda" dating back to the XII century), meaning "Varangian is a member of the [brotherhood] union." This coincides with the interpretation of the Vikings not as an ethnos, but as a society.
"... Synonym for" Varangian "-" kolbyag "breaks down into two root bases:" stake "+" byag ". Where the root "stake" is the oldest lexical basis. Kolo is one of the names of the ancient solar deity, namely, the winter sun. There was also a spring sun god - Yarilo, summer - Kupalo.
"Kolo" in Old Russian means "wheel". That is why one of the most ancient names for the Sun was also Kol (o).
The name of the pagan sun god among the Slavs was reflected in the name of the Kola River, and from it the entire Kola Peninsula. In the Russian north there are also two other rivers with a similar root and the same name - Kolva: in the Perm region - a tributary of the Vishera and in the Nenets National District - a tributary of the Usa. Kolguev Island is well known in the Barents Sea. And so on up to the Kolyma. There used to be and male name Kol (it is found, for example, in the Ipatiev Chronicle): all current Kolis (to Christian name Nicholas, they were tied much later).
And what does the root "byag" mean? In a number of Russian dialects, it means "running." Therefore, in modern interpretation the word "kolbyag" means "sun-colo" + "run", that is, "solar run" (by analogy with "brace - solstice"). Hence, "kolbyagi", according to the original essence of this concept, means "runners" or, perhaps, "run after the sun." In any case, the "solar" lexical principle is there. And immediately I remember the Sunflower Kingdom of Russian epics, fairy tales and conspiracies - it was located in the Far North, where the polar sun does not set in summer for months. " (P. 58 VN Demin, SN Zelentsov. Mysteries of the Russian civilization).
“... So, perhaps, the Russian Varangians, even in the self-name of which contains a hint of the most ancient Aryan roots, are the last Hyperboreans, keepers of the traditions of the lost arctic ancestral homeland? No wonder, after all, on the coast Arctic Ocean and in the Barents Sea, toponymic traces of the past and long stay of the Varangians have been preserved. These are the Varang Bay (Varanger Fjord), washing the Russian Rybachiy Peninsula from the west, and the Norwegian Varanger Peninsula. Then you can continue: Varangsky = Varangian = Hyperborean ... ".
This is the theory put forward by Russian historians Demin and Zelentsov. Moreover, the version is well-reasoned, evidence-based. It can be seen how deeply the authors studied the problem, how high their qualifications are not only as historians, but also as specialists in the archeology of language and the reconstruction of meaning. Comparing the arguments of Karamzin, Schletzer and Miller, you come to the conclusion how superficial and biased they were and how favorably V.N. Demin and S.N. Zelentsov.
The adherents of the "Norman theory" over the past decades have not been able to give a single convincing argument or fact in favor of their "theory" from beginning to end.
“... The roots of Russia go back to the unattainable depths of the Indo-European past. It was born, experienced a heyday, catastrophic upheavals and decline in the North, where the climate at that time was different than now. Many Indo-European ancestors of modern ethnic groups (Indians, Iranians, Spaniards, Italians, Armenians, Ossetians, etc.) gradually migrated to the south due to unfavorable living conditions. Closer to the northern latitudes, a part of the Slavs settled, from which the Russian nation subsequently emerged. The Varangians - the last passionaries of the North - who flashed across the Eurasian sky like a shining fireball, left an indelible mark on Russian history! " (VN Demin, SN Zelentsov. Mysteries of the Russian civilization P.63).
N Ludnikov
To be continued