On the eve of the celebration of Russia Day, it is interesting to look into the depths of centuries and see where the Russian people came from. The oldest Russian chronicle, The Tale of Bygone Years, reports the names of the peoples who, along with the Slavs, took part in the formation Old Russian state. These were the Varangians, Rus, Chud, Ves, Merya and a number of other peoples. There was no more accurate information then.
Anthropological studies of ancient Russian burials showed that there were also representatives of Indo-Iranian peoples unknown to us there.
With regard to the tribes that bore the names “Chud”, “Ves”, “Merya”, etc., it is known that they belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples, i.e. peoples speaking Finno-Ugric languages and not related in language to the Slavs (Peoples of the Volga region and the Urals: Komi-Zyrians, Komi-Permyaks, Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts. - M.: Publishing house science (Series of Peoples and Cultures), 2000, - 579 s). The Slavs called Chudya several Finno-Ugric tribes and nationalities in the north, northwest and northeast of the European part.
modern Russia This is a collective name. At first all northwestern Finns were called this. Then historians confused the Chud with the Estonians - the Finno-Ugric Baltic people. One of the versions of the origin of the word “Chud” is that the language of Chud was incomprehensible, “wonderful”. Regarding the Chud people in historical sources stable turnover was maintained. Chud Zavolochskaya - this is what they said in relation to their ancestors modern people
Komi living on the territory of the Komi Republic
It is difficult to establish the exact number of Setos, since this people, not included in the lists of peoples living on the territory of Russia and Estonia, was subjected to strong absorption by other peoples (assimilation), but the data of 10 thousand people is more often voiced. In population censuses, Setos usually recorded themselves as Estonian or Russian.
Modern Chud are the descendants of the Zavolotsk Chud, which written sources place within the boundaries of the current Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions. Despite the similarities and family ties with the Vepsian world, the Chud clearly separates itself from the Vepsians themselves, as well as from the Western Komi, who neighbored the Chud. In the 20th century, after the return of the majority of Finno-Ugric peoples to their indigenous names (Vadyalaiset, Bepsya, Izuri, Komi, Komi-Mort), the word “Chud” seemed to have lost its owner. Only this helped small groups of the Finno-Ugric population in the Arkhangelsk region find given name, using the word “chud” for self-designation. The authorities of Arkhangelsk were unpleasantly surprised by the appearance of people who designated their nationality during the 2002 census as “Chud”. Attempts were made to classify this fact as a curiosity, placing Chud self-determination on the same level as the marginal “elves, Cossacks, goblins.” However, today it is a generally accepted fact that indigenous peoples Arkhangelsk region
There are not only Russians and Pomors, but also Chud.
Vesya was the name given to one of the most ancient peoples who lived in the northern part of the territory of the Russian state. All these people were called Slavs. There are many controversial points of view about the roots of this people. The people named “Ves” are considered to be of Chud origin; the similarity of the name of this people with the name “Vody”, unproven by historians, makes it possible to believe that they reached in the west the settlements of the “Vody” people, i.e., to Lake Ladoga and the Volkhov River. Our chronicle mentions that “the whole”, together with the “Varangians, Chud, Slovenians, Merya and Krivichi”, took part in Oleg the Prophet’s campaign against Smolensk and Kyiv against Askold and Dir.. According to historical toponymy, the Vesi tribes occupied the territory from the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga to White Lake. It is assumed that the “All” people were known to Arab geographers of the 10th-14th centuries. under the name of the people "Visu", who lived north of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria (a state that existed in the 10th-13th centuries in the middle Volga region and the Kama River basin) and neighboring Ugra (modern Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug Russian Federation).
In the old days, Yugra was the name given to the lands between the Pechora River and Northern Urals. Ugra was also called the ancient population of these lands of the Finno-Ugric people, who survived in the person of the Voguls and Ostyaks. The Ostyaks then began to be called Khanty by their self-name (hante - man), and the Voguls began to be called Mansi, also by their self-name: Mansi Makhum (Mansi people).
From the end of the 12th century to the 1470s, Ugra was owned by Veliky Novgorod - the Novgorod feudal republic - a state that existed in the North-West of the Russian Plain in the 12th-15th centuries. The population of Ugra paid tribute to the Novgorodians in furs and walrus ivory. Over time, as the power of the Moscow Grand Duchy grew, Ugra came into its possession.
Bulgarian merchants traded with the Ves people, exporting furs in exchange for metal products. The Belozersk group of “vesi” was already part of the Old Russian state from the 9th century ( Kievan Rus) and partially Russified.
The descendants of the “vesi” are the modern “Vepsians” and, presumably, the Ludic Karelians and Livvik Karelians. Although the Ludic Karelians or simply Ludics, and the Livvik Karelians or Olonets Karelians belong to the Karelian people, they differ significantly in culture and language (even to differences in alphabets) from the Karelians themselves. Ludics and Livviks live on the shores of Lake Onega. Vepsians are the Finno-Ugric people who have been living in the modern territory of the Republic of Karelia, Vologda and Leningrad regions of the Russian Federation since ancient times. Currently, these people have indigenous status small people
Northern or Onega Vepsians live on the southwestern coast of Lake Onega. In the south of Karelia, on the border with the Leningrad region, there was previously located the territory of the former Vepsian national volost with its capital in the village of Sheltozero, abolished in 2005.
Middle (Oyat) Vepsians live in the northeast of the modern Leningrad region and in the northwest of the Vologda region, in the upper and middle reaches of the river. Oyat, the left tributary of the Svir River, in the area of the sources of the Kapsha and Pasha rivers (emphasis on the last syllable). The Kapsha River is a right tributary of the Pasha River, and the Pasha River is a left tributary of the Svir River. Both rivers belong to the Lake Ladoga basin and flow through the territory of the modern Leningrad region.
The source of the Kapsha River is Kapshozero. From west to east, the lake has a highly elongated shape, its length is about 13 km and its width is less than 1 km.
Southern Vepsians live on the southern slopes of the Vepsian Upland. This hill is also called Vepsian. It is located between the Onega, Ladoga and White lakes, and is part of the watershed of the rivers of the Baltic and Caspian seas and reaches 304 m above sea level. The hill is composed of limestones, it is characterized by hilly terrain, and is replete with karst sinkholes, lakes and swamps. The Vepsian Upland occupies part of the territory of the east of the Leningrad region and the north-west of the Vologda region. Historians suggest that the Vepsians separated from other Baltic-Finnish peoples around the second half of the first millennium new era
and settled on the southeastern coast of Lake Ladoga.
The name of the people “Ves” is associated with the Baltic-Finnish tribes that lived around the 7th century BC. until the 7th century AD on the territory of modern Moscow, Tver, Vologda, Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Smolensk regions of Russia. This is evidenced by archaeological data from the remains of found Vesi settlements, which are associated with the so-called Dyakovo archaeological culture. These archaeological finds received their name from the Dyakov settlement near the village of Dyakovo (Moscow, on the modern territory of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve).
Excavations began back in 1864 and lasted forty years. They began with the Russian archaeologist Professor Dmitry Yakovlevich Samokvasov (1843-1911). Then they were continued by another Russian archaeologist Vladimir Ilyich Sizov (1840-1904), one of the founders Historical Museum in Moscow, member of the Moscow Archaeological Society. A generalization of the results of the excavations of the Dyakov settlement was made by the Russian-Soviet archaeologist Alexander Andreevich Spitsin (1858-1931).
A. A. Spitsin is known not only as a venerable archaeologist, but also as a school friend of K. E. Tsiolkovsky at the Vyatka gymnasium. In 1891, while in Borovsk for research purposes - A. A. Spitsyn conducted research on ancient human sites in the area of the St. Pafnutev Borovsky Monastery and at the mouth of the Isterma River - he stayed for several days with K. E. Tsiolkovsky, who was teaching at that time mathematics at the Borovsky School. Spitsin helped K. E. Tsiolkovsky publish his first book about a metal airship of an original design. Correspondence between scientists continued until 1931. Since 1892, Professor A. A. Spitsin was an employee of the Russian Imperial Archaeological Commission, transformed in 1919 into Russian Academy stories material culture. He was a unique specialist in medieval Russian inscriptions and dating of archaeological sites.
The carriers of the Dyakovo culture are usually considered the ancestors of the Meri and Vesi tribes, and the tribes of the related Gorodets culture were the ancestors of the Murom, Meshchera, and Mordovian people. Gorodets archaeological culture, according to the assumption of many researchers, starting in the 1930s. associated with the tribes of the Volga Finns (Mordovians and Mari). However, this is currently being revised in connection with the revision of the previously prevailing theory of the autochthonous origin of the overwhelming majority of peoples who inhabited the territory of modern Russia in ancient times. The term autochthonous comes from the Greek word local (aut chth n). IN scientific literature this term is widely used to denote the dominance of local phenomena as opposed to those introduced from outside.
On their main territory between Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga, the Vepsians lived from the end of the first millennium of the new era, gradually moving east. Some groups of Vepsians left these lands and joined other peoples, merging with other ethnic groups. For example, in the XII-XV centuries, the Vepsians, who penetrated into the areas north of the Svir River, became Karelians-Ludi and Karelians-Livviks. In contrast, the northern Vepsians are descendants of later settlers who were not mixed with the Karelians. The main part of the Vepsians until the last third of the 15th century lived within the boundaries of the Obonezh Pyatina of the Novgorod Land, and after the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow State, the Vepsians were included in the number of state (black-mush) draft peasants. This is how in Russia of the 16th-17th centuries they called personally independent (non-serf) peasants who bore taxes in favor of Russian state , and not in favor of the landowner. Tax was the name given to the system of monetary and in-kind state duties of peasants and townspeople in the Russian state in the 15th century. - early XVIII
century, and the basic salary unit of the tax population was called a plow. At the beginning of the 18th century, the northern Vepsians were assigned to the Olonetsky (Petrovsky) metallurgical and weapons factories, and the Oyat Vepsians were assigned to the shipyard in Lodeynoye Pole, a place located on the left bank of the Svir River 200 km from St. Petersburg. Lake Peipus retains in its name the memory of the tribe that participated in, but then gradually disappeared from the historical arena. In the Urals, and in Siberia, and in the north of Russia, and even in Altai, many legends say that once upon a time an ancient people called “Chud” lived in these places. Legends about the miracle are most often told in places where Finno-Ugric peoples live or previously lived, so in science it was customary to consider the Finno-Ugric people to be the miracle. But the problem is that the Finno-Ugric peoples, in particular the Komi-Permyaks, themselves tell legends about the Chud, calling the Chud another people.
When people who live here to this day came to these places, the Chud buried itself alive in the ground. This is what one of the legends, recorded in the village of Afanasyevo, Kirov region, tells: “...And when other people (Christians) began to appear along the Kama River, this miracle did not want to communicate with them, did not want to be enslaved by Christianity. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called the Peipsi Coast.”
Sometimes it is also said that the Chud “went underground,” and sometimes that it went to live in other places: “We have the Vazhgort tract - Old village. Although we call it a village, there are no buildings there. And it is not clear that anyone lived there, but the old people claim that ancient, Chud people lived there. For a long time, they say, they lived in that area, but newcomers appeared, they began to oppress the old residents, and they decided: “We have no life, we need to move to other places.” They gathered their belongings, they said, took the guys by the hands and said. “Farewell, Old Village! We won’t be here - and there won’t be anyone!” And they left the village. They go, they say, they part with their homeland and roar. Every single one of them left. Now it's empty."
But when she left, the Chud left behind a lot of treasures. These treasures are enchanted, “cherished”: a covenant has been placed on them that only the descendants of the Chud people can find them. Chud spirits in different guises (sometimes in the guise of a hero on a horse, sometimes a hare or a bear) guard these treasures: “Sluda and Shudyakor are Chud places. The heroes lived there and were carried from village to village with axes. Then they buried themselves in the ground and took the gold with them. Pillow ingots are hidden at the Shudyakorsk settlement, but no one will take them: the horse warriors stand guard. Our grandfathers warned us: “Don’t walk past this settlement late at night - the horses will trample you!”
In the text of another ancient entry in the village of Zuikare, Vyatka province, it is written about the “Chudskaya treasure” in the Chudskaya Mountain on the right bank of the Kama. A huge, slightly crooked pine tree grows here, and at a distance from it, about four arshins away, stands a rotten stump up to two meters in diameter. They tried to find this treasure many times, but when they approached it, such a storm arose that the pine trees bent their tops to the ground, and the treasure hunters were forced to abandon their enterprise. However, they say that some treasure hunters still managed to penetrate the secrets of the underground inhabitants, but it cost them very, very dearly. The appearance of the “eccentrics” is so terrible that some treasure hunters, having met them in the dungeons, came out completely insane and could not recover for the rest of their lives. It was even worse for those who came across the bones of a “buried alive” miracle in the “miracle graves” - the dead, guarding their treasures, suddenly came to life as soon as someone approached their treasures...
In 1924-28, the Roerich family was on an expedition to Central Asia. In the book “The Heart of Asia,” Nicholas Roerich writes that in Altai, an elderly Old Believer led them to a rocky hill and, pointing out the stone circles of ancient burials, said: “This is where Chud went underground. When the White Tsar came to Altai to fight and how it bloomed White birch in our land, Chud did not want to stay under the White Tsar. Chud went underground and blocked the passages with stones. You can see their former entrances yourself. But Chud is not gone forever. When the happy time returns and people from Belovodye come and give great science to all the people, then Chud will come again, with all the treasures obtained.” And even earlier, in 1913, Nicholas Roerich wrote a painting on this topic “The Miracle Gone Under the Ground”
In the Urals, stories about miracles in to a greater extent widespread in the Kama region. Legends indicate specific places where the Chud lived, describe their appearance (and they were mostly dark-haired and dark-skinned), customs, and language. Legends have even preserved some words from the Chud language: “Once upon a time, a Chud girl appeared in the village of Vazhgort - tall, beautiful, broad-shouldered. Her hair is long, black, and not braided. He walks around the village and calls: “Come and visit me, I’m cooking dumplings!” There were about ten people willing, everyone went after the girl. They went to the Peipus spring, and no one else returned home, everyone disappeared somewhere. The next day the same thing happened again. It was not because of their stupidity that people fell for the girl’s bait, but because she had some kind of power. Hypnosis, as they say now. On the third day, the women from this village decided to take revenge on the girl. They boiled several buckets of water, and when the Chud girl entered the village, the women poured boiling water over her. The girl ran to the spring and wailed: “Odege! Odege! Soon the residents of Vazhgort left their village forever and went to live in other places..."
Odege - what does this word mean? In none of the Finnish Ugric languages there is no such word. What ethnic group was this mysterious miracle?
Since ancient times, ethnographers, linguists, and local historians have tried to solve the mystery of the miracle. There were different versions about who this miracle is. Ethnographers of local history Fedor Aleksandrovich Teploukhov and Alexander Fedorovich Teploukhov considered the Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi) a miracle, since there is documentary information about the presence of the Ugrians in the Kama region. Linguistic scientist Antonina Semyonovna Krivoshchekova-Gantman did not agree with this version, because in the Kama region there are practically no geographical names that can be deciphered using Ugric languages; she believed that the issue required further study. Kazan professor Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov believed that the Chud were the Komi-Permyaks before the adoption of Christianity, since some legends say that the Chud are “our ancestors.” Latest version became most widespread, and most ethnographers adhered to this version until recently.
Discovery in the Urals in the 1970s and 80s ancient city the Aryans of Arkaim and the “Country of Cities” of Sintashta somewhat shook the traditional version. Versions began to appear that the Chud were the ancient Aryans (in a narrower sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians, and in a broader sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans in general). This version found many supporters among scientists and local historians.
If linguists have previously recognized that there are many “Iranianisms” in the Finno-Ugric languages, then in last years an opinion emerged that the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages have a very large common lexical layer. A version has emerged that the names of the rivers Kama in the Urals and Ganges (Ganga) in India have the same origin. It is not for nothing that in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions) there are geographical names with the root “gang”: Ganga (lake), Gangas (bay, hill), Gangos (mountain, lake), Gangasikha (bay). It is not for nothing that geographical names in -kar (Kudymkar, Maykar, Dondykar, Idnakar, Anyushkar, etc.) cannot be deciphered using the local Permian languages (Udmurt, Komi and Komi-Permyak). According to legend, in these places there were Chud settlements, and it is here that bronze jewelry and other objects are most often found, conventionally united by the name Perm animal style. And experts have always recognized the “Iranian influence” on the art of the Perm animal style itself.
Indian sages believe that the sacred river Ganges begins its journey in heaven. Perhaps India is the ancestral home of many peoples.
It is no secret that there are parallels in the mythology of the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian peoples. The legends of the ancient Aryans preserve memories of a semi-mythical ancestral home located somewhere far to the north of India. The Aryans who lived in this country could observe amazing phenomena. There, seven heavenly sages-rishis move around the North Star, which the creator Brahma strengthened in the center of the universe above the World Mount Meru. Beautiful celestial dancers - apsaras - also live there, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, and the sun rises and shines for six months in a row. The seven rishis are probably the constellation Ursa Major, and the apsaras are the embodiment of the northern lights, which captured the imagination of many peoples. In Estonian myths, the northern lights are heroes who died in battle and live in the sky. In Indian mythology, only magical birds, including the messenger of the gods Garuda, can reach heaven. In Finno-Ugric mythology Milky Way, connecting north and south, was called the Bird Road.
There are similarities directly in the names. For example, the god of the Udmurts is Inmar, among the Indo-Iranians Indra is the god of thunder, Inada is the foremother; in Komi mythology, both the first man and the swamp witch bear the name Yoma; in Indo-Iranian mythology, Yima is also the first man; The name of the god is also consonant with the Finns - Yumala, and among the Mari - Yumo. “Aryan influence” even penetrated into the ethnonyms of the Finno-Ugrians: the Tatars and Bashkirs of the Udmurts, their neighbors, call the ethnonym “Ar”.
So who was called a miracle in the Urals? If Aryans, then the question again arises: why was there confusion about who was considered Chud, and why did the ethnonym Chud “stick” specifically and only to the Finno-Ugric peoples? What is the relationship between the Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric peoples? Apparently, here we should remember the opinion of Lev Gumilyov, who believed that a new ethnic group, just like a person, is born from two ethnic parents. Then it becomes clear why the legends call them either “another people” or “our ancestors.”
...And yet, what did the miracle girl scream, doused with boiling water? Maybe the word “odege” is in the Indo-Iranian languages? If we open the Sanskrit-Russian dictionary, we will find there a similar sounding word - “udaka”, meaning “water”. Maybe she was trying to run to the Peipus spring, the only place where she could escape?
Looking at the high-quality miracle work with bronze, which, in turn, required mastery of working with stone or ceramic molds and blacksmithing, you begin to understand that East Slavs met in the north and northeast of their primitive tribes who could not give them anything and could not teach them anything.
On the contrary, there was its own interesting culture. So this is a question of where the Russians got the Valdai bells, the subjects of northern embroidery, and the northern love for decorating homes, for example, wood carving.
Where did the miracle go?
The question is reasonable. And it seems to me that there are two main answers.
Probably, part of the Chud was forced out and knocked out by the Slavic population, because it is reported: “In the Shenkursky district of the Arkhangelsk province they said that “the indigenous inhabitants there, the Chud, desperately defending their land from the invasion of the Novgorodians, never wanted to submit to the newcomers,” with frenzy defended themselves from fortresses, fled into the forests, killed themselves, were buried alive in deep ditches (having dug a hole, placed posts in the corners, made a roof over them, put stones and earth on the roof, went into the pit with their property and, having cut down the stands, died).
Then the formula “going underground” looks literally: the death of the tribe. But part of the Chud probably still became Russified after baptism, as happened with many neighboring Finno-Ugric tribes.
That is why the question still remains: what in the art and life of the Russian north comes from the Russian population, what from the Chud. And there are a lot of skills here: wooden churches and huge northern houses, textiles and embroidery, metal work, decorating houses, including picturesque ones, ships and boats.
Let’s try and test this hypothesis using at least a few of the most accessible examples, and compare the products of the Perm Chud and the Russian northerners:
1. A magical bird with a human face.
In general, for comparison you need to take something quite unusual, unusual. Such motifs are found in folk art. For example, the magical bird Sirin.
Birds-Sirin Valance, detail. Olonets province, mid-19th V. And the amulet petition of the Perm miracle with a mask on its chest.
2. Slavic goddess Rozhana - or the miracle mother of all living things?
A detail repeated in variations of Olonets and Severodvinsk embroideries, which is interpreted as the image of the ancient Slavic goddess Rozhana, a woman in labor, as she wrote about
S. V. Zharnikova
And this is the motif of the goddess, which is constantly found among the Perm miracles.
She, judging by the variations of different creatures nearby, from moose to humans, is the “universal mother,” and the position of the next creature below is its birth. The similarity is obvious and it is aggravated by the fact that the goddess does not stand, but lies, which is especially visible on the last amulet. In addition, the second essence of this goddess is a bird, as on numerous amulets-obregs with the goddess bird, which is why the nose-beak is clearly emphasized.
It is interesting that the stylized motif of a woman in labor is found in Karelian embroidery, that is, among other Finno-Ugric people, and it is very similar to Kargopol embroidery.
3. Deer-Golden Horns.
Continuing the theme of amulets, we must remember the Kargopol toy. L. Latynin believes that archaic symbols are hidden in the images of traditional toys. Whether this is true or not, it is difficult to say from the toy itself - it is still changeable, although the main tradition must be “protected” - that is, what was the amulet is the oldest, traditional and replicated.
For example, a deer with golden antlers and its changeable faces, half-man - half-deer.
In this Kargopol toy you can compare the man-moose of the Permian miracle.
4. Horse on the house, Deer and Bird.
In the north, peasants said: “A horse on the roof is quieter in a hut,” considering these images to be “amulets,” good forces, protecting from any misfortune. It is interesting that in the Russian north, the deer-elk was often found as a talisman for the house; it was placed on an ohlupenka instead of a skate. Or they simply nailed deer antlers there: “On the Mezen there is another type of decoration of the ohlupnya - with deer antlers. Usually this decoration was not carved like a skate, but real deer antlers were simply attached to the end of the ridge. This decor is more common in the Mezen region. In all likelihood, one can see in it traces of the veneration of the deer, the cult of which, perhaps to a lesser extent than the horse, was characteristic of certain Russian regions." There could also be a bird, like a swan, in the same place.
It’s hard for us to say what the miracle house looked like. But it is obvious that the heads of the skates were used as amulets.
This arrangement had a certain magical meaning: doubling the symbol enhanced the protective effect of the amulet. It can also be assumed that the dead man, if he rose from the grave, would find himself making a noise. So it could also be the protection of the living
It is interesting to note the crow's feet at the end of the last amulet in the row - this completes the image of the horse-goose, which is also known for the Russian north
5. Bells
Based on the previous part with noisy pendants, we can turn to the following evidence of the miracle: “One of the possible “traces” of the miracle is considered in the 19th century. an unusual, mysterious place, the Kholmogory spruce forest (on Kurostrov, near the town of Kholmogory). According to the mentioned II. Efimenko legend, in the spruce forest there was once supposedly a “Chiplus idol”. The idol, cast from silver, “was attached to one of the most seasoned woods and held a large golden cup in its hands.” It seemed impossible to steal the idol and the treasures surrounding it: “Chud guarded her god tightly: sentries stood constantly near him, and springs were installed near the idol itself. Whoever touches the idol, even with just one finger, immediately these springs will begin to play and various bells will ring, and you will not go anywhere; The guards will immediately take it away, and the accursed miracle will fry it in a frying pan and sacrifice it to its idol.” The Russians, of course, stole the idol, they had such talent. The first case of opening an anti-theft device, so to speak. But the point is not this, but the bells of the miracle
Bells, of course, cannot be associated exclusively with Chud culture.
Bells and bells are associated with traditional folk culture different nations. But it is interesting to listen to the testimonies of Russian residents of the North about bells and bells, about their role:
P. S. Efimenko cites the following beliefs about the ringing of bells that existed among peasants in the North: “Having heard the ringing of bells, the devil runs away from a person. They also notice that if you leave the house, enter it, or finish something at the very beginning of the ringing, there is a harbinger of good.”
“In order to protect themselves from predatory animals, the Russians of the Vologda district. on Maundy Thursday they went into the forest and shouted: “Wolves, bears, out of earshot; hares and foxes are in our garden!” At the same time, they knocked on frying pans and rang cow bells.”
Attracts attention and wedding ceremony. In Pinega, as in most other places in the North, a wedding train is unthinkable without bells. The bells, with their ringing, protect the young from “evil spirits” on the most important road - to the crown and from the crown: “In front of the entire ceremonial procession, made up of a huge train of betrothed and village relatives, with many bells buzzing under the arches, on the shafts and on the necks of horses, sharkuns, bells, vertebrae, - cart drivers ride in sleighs, carts or on horseback with ribbons hanging down on their sleeves.”
Wedding rituals, like calendar rituals, are distinguished by the most archaic symbols.
And so on - bells had a magical function, both among the Russians and the Chuds.
So, we felt the closeness of Chud and Northern Russian objects and beliefs.
But, in fact, who were the Russians in the North - by blood and customs?
We now know that the admixture of Finno-Ugric “blood”, that is, Finno-Ugric DNA markers among the Pomors is significant, mainly in female line. But there are population groups that clearly originated without strong mixing from the Finno-Ugric people, because there are markers along the male and female lines. Both groups probably originated from the Chud. But at the moment of transition they probably did not abandon their
ideas about the world.
And this commonality is also revealed by a comparison of the beliefs of the Pomors and the Chuds, which is manifested through objects of material culture. Consequently, we can say that the Chud not only went underground, but also turned into a new people, enriching them.
Ethnographers, local historians and linguists today do not have an exact definition of such a people as Chud.
Kazan professor Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov believed that the Chud were the Komi-Permyaks before the adoption of Christianity, since some legends say that the Chud are “our ancestors.”
Ethnographers of local history Fedor Aleksandrovich Teploukhov and Alexander Fedorovich Teploukhov considered the Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi) to be a miracle, since there is documentary information about the presence of the Ugrians in the territory of the Kama region in the Urals.
Ural legends indicate specific places where the Chud lived, describe their appearance (and they were mostly dark-haired and dark-skinned), customs, and language.
With the discovery in the Urals in the 1970-80s of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta, versions began to appear that the Chud were the ancient Aryans - the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans.
It is interesting that the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages have a very large common lexical layer. It is not for nothing that in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions) there are geographical names with the root “gang”: Ganga (lake), Gangas (bay, hill), Gangos (mountain, lake), Gangasikha (bay). And the art itself Perm region has a distinctly "Iranian influence" which is characterized by an "animal style".
There are parallels in the mythology of the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian peoples. The legends of the ancient Aryans preserve memories of a semi-mythical ancestral home located somewhere far to the north of India.
According to the latest census of Russia, the descendants of the Zavolotsk Chud, who written sources is located within the borders of the current Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions. Despite the similarities and family ties with the Vepsians, the Chud clearly separates itself from the Vepsians themselves, as well as from the Western Komi, who neighbored the Chud along the Verkola River.
So what kind of people are they, after all?
If Aryans, then why did the ethnonym Chud “stick” specifically and only to the Finno-Ugric peoples? What is the relationship between the Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric peoples?
S.V. Zharnikova ABOUT SOME ARCHAIC MOTIFS OF EMBROIDERY OF SOLVYCHEGDA KOKOSHNIKS OF THE SEVERODVINSK TYPE
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A.B. Permilovskaya Peasant house in the culture of the Russian North (XIX - early XX centuries). – Arkhangelsk, 2005.
S. Zharnikova POSSIBLE SOURCES OF THE IMAGE OF THE HORSE-GOOSE AND HORSE-DEER IN INDO-IRANIAN (ARYAN) MYTHOLOGY
Efimenko P. S. Materials on the ethnography of the Russian population of the Arkhangelsk province, vol. 1. M., 1877
A. N. Davydov Bells and bell ringings in folk culture In the book “Bells. History and modernity." Comp. Yu.V.Pukhnachev, M Nauka 1985
M.M. Valentsova On the magical functions of the bell in the folk culture of the Slavs In the collection: “The sounding and silent world: Semiotics of sound and speech in traditional culture Slavs" / Rep. ed. CM. Tolstaya - M.: Publishing house "Indrik", 1999, p. 283-293.
Pylyaev M. Historical bells. - “Historical Bulletin”, vol. XY1, 1890, p. 174. B.A.Malyarchuk, M.V.Derenko Structure of the Russian gene pool “Nature”, No. 4, 2007
The ancient people mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind legends, place names and treasures. In the Urals, and in Siberia, and in the north of Russia, and even in Altai, many legends say that once upon a time an ancient people called “Chud” lived in these places. Legends about the miracle are most often told in places where Finno-Ugric peoples live or previously lived, so in science it was customary to consider the Finno-Ugric people to be the miracle. But the problem is that the Finno-Ugric peoples, in particular the Komi-Permyaks, themselves tell legends about the Chud, calling the Chud another people.
N. Roerich “The miracle went underground”
When people who live here to this day came to these places, the Chud buried itself alive in the ground. This is what one of the legends, recorded in the village of Afanasyevo, Kirov region, tells: “...And when other people (Christians) began to appear along the Kama River, this miracle did not want to communicate with them, did not want to be enslaved by Christianity. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called the Peipsi Coast.” Sometimes it is also said that the Chud “went underground,” and sometimes that it went to live in other places. But when she left, the Chud left behind a lot of treasures. These treasures are enchanted, “cherished”: a covenant has been placed on them that only the descendants of the Chud people can find them. Miracle spirits in different guises (sometimes in the guise of a hero on a horse, sometimes a hare or a bear) guard these treasures. What kind of people are these - “White-eyed Chud”, “Wonderful People”, “Sirts”? Why do they avoid contact with ordinary, “ground” people?
Vladimir Konev “Mistress of the Copper Mountain”
Many facts speak in favor of the fact that the “White-Eyed Chud” is not a mythical people, it really exists, apparently having somehow adapted to life underground. Stories of people who met with people from a mysterious people were recorded. The Russian scientist A. Shrenk talked with many Samoyeds, and this is what one of them told him: “Once,” he continued, “one Nenets (that is, Samoyed), while digging a hole on some hill, suddenly saw a cave in which they lived sirty. One of them told him: “Leave us alone, we are keeping away sunlight, which illuminates your country, and we love the darkness that prevails in our dungeon...” Often lost hunters and fishermen meet a tall, gray-haired old man who leads them to a safe place and then disappears. Local residents call him the White Old Man and consider him one of the underground inhabitants who occasionally comes to the surface.
In the Urals, stories about miracles are more common in the Kama region. Legends indicate specific places where the Chud lived, describe their appearance (and they were mostly dark-haired and dark-skinned), customs, and language. Legends have even preserved some words from the Chud language: “Once upon a time, a Chud girl appeared in the village of Vazhgort - tall, beautiful, broad-shouldered. Her hair is long, black, and not braided. He walks around the village and calls: “Come and visit me, I’m cooking dumplings!” There were about ten people willing, everyone went after the girl. They went to the Peipus spring, and no one else returned home, everyone disappeared somewhere. The next day the same thing happened again. It was not because of their stupidity that people fell for the girl’s bait, but because she had some kind of power. Hypnosis, as they say now. On the third day, the women from this village decided to take revenge on the girl. They boiled several buckets of water, and when the Chud girl entered the village, the women poured boiling water over her. The girl ran to the spring and wailed: “Odege! Odege! Soon the residents of Vazhgort left their village forever and went to live in other places...” Odege - what does this word mean? There is no such word in any of the Finno-Ugric languages. What ethnic group was this mysterious miracle? Since ancient times, ethnographers, linguists, and local historians have tried to solve the mystery of the miracle. There were different versions about who the Chud was. Ethnographers of local history Fedor Aleksandrovich Teploukhov and Alexander Fedorovich Teploukhov considered the Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi) a miracle, since there is documentary information about the presence of the Ugrians in the Kama region. Linguistic scientist Antonina Semyonovna Krivoshchekova-Gantman did not agree with this version, because in the Kama region there are practically no geographical names that can be deciphered using Ugric languages; she believed that the issue required further study. Kazan professor Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov believed that the Chud were the Komi-Permyaks before the adoption of Christianity, since some legends say that the Chud are “our ancestors.” The latter version became the most widespread, and most ethnographers adhered to this version until recently. The discovery in the Urals in the 1970-80s of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta somewhat shook the traditional version. Versions began to appear that the Chud were the ancient Aryans (in a narrower sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians, and in a broader sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans in general). This version found many supporters among scientists and local historians.
If linguists previously recognized that there are many “Iranianisms” in the Finno-Ugric languages, in recent years an opinion has emerged that the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages have a very large common lexical layer. A version has emerged that the names of the rivers Kama in the Urals and Ganges (Ganga) in India have the same origin. It is not for nothing that in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions) there are geographical names with the root “gang”: Ganga (lake), Gangas (bay, hill), Gangos (mountain, lake), Gangasikha (bay). It is not for nothing that geographical names in -kar (Kudymkar, Maykar, Dondykar, Idnakar, Anyushkar, etc.) cannot be deciphered using the local Permian languages (Udmurt, Komi and Komi-Permyak). According to legend, in these places there were Chud settlements, and it is here that bronze jewelry and other objects are most often found, conventionally united by the name Perm animal style. And experts have always recognized the “Iranian influence” on the art of the Perm animal style itself.
It is no secret that there are parallels in the mythology of the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian peoples. The legends of the ancient Aryans preserve memories of a semi-mythical ancestral home located somewhere far to the north of India. The Aryans who lived in this country could observe amazing phenomena. There, seven heavenly sages-rishis move around the North Star, which the creator Brahma strengthened in the center of the universe above the World Mount Meru. Beautiful celestial dancers - apsaras - also live there, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, and the sun rises and shines for six months in a row. The seven rishis are probably the constellation Ursa Major, and the apsaras are the embodiment of the northern lights, which captured the imagination of many peoples. In Estonian myths, the northern lights are heroes who died in battle and live in the sky. In Indian mythology, only magical birds, including the messenger of the gods Garuda, can reach heaven. In Finno-Ugric mythology, the Milky Way, connecting north and south, was called the Road of Birds. There are similarities directly in the names. For example, the god of the Udmurts is Inmar, among the Indo-Iranians Indra is the god of thunder, Inada is the foremother; in the Scandinavian epic, Ymir is the first man; in Komi mythology, both the first man and the swamp witch bear the name Yoma; in Indo-Iranian mythology, Yima is also the first man; The name of the god is also consonant with the Finns - Yumala, and among the Mari - Yumo. “Aryan influence” even penetrated into the ethnonyms of the Finno-Ugrians: the Tatars and Bashkirs of the Udmurts, their neighbors, call the ethnonym “Ar”. So who was called a miracle in the Urals? If Aryans, then the question again arises: why was there confusion about who was considered Chud, and why did the ethnonym Chud “stick” specifically and only to the Finno-Ugric peoples? What is the relationship between the Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric peoples? Apparently, here we should remember the opinion of Lev Gumilyov, who believed that a new ethnic group, just like a person, is born from two ethnic parents. Then it becomes clear why the legends call them either “another people” or “our ancestors.” ...And yet, what did the miracle girl scream, doused with boiling water? Maybe the word “odege” is in the Indo-Iranian languages? If we open the Sanskrit-Russian dictionary, we will find there a similar sounding word - “udaka”, meaning “water”. Maybe she was trying to run to the Peipus spring, the only place where she could escape?
For a long time it was customary to associate them with the Finno-Ugric peoples, since they were mentioned in places where representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples lived or still live.
But the folklore of the latter also preserves legends about the mysterious ancient Chud people, whose representatives left their lands and went somewhere, not wanting to accept Christianity.
They talk especially a lot about them in the Komi Republic. So they say that the ancient tract Vazhgort “Old Village” in the Udora region was once a Chud settlement. From there they were allegedly driven out by Slavic newcomers. In the Kama region you can learn a lot about the Chud: local residents describe their appearance (dark-haired and dark-skinned), language, and customs. They say that they lived in dugouts in the middle of the forests, where they buried themselves, refusing to submit to more successful invaders.
There is even a legend that “the Chud went underground”: they say they dug a large hole with an earthen roof on pillars, and then collapsed it, preferring death to captivity. But none popular belief, no chronicle mention can answer the questions: what kind of tribes were they, where did they go and whether their descendants are still alive.
Some ethnographers attribute them to the Mansi peoples, others to representatives of the Komi people who chose to remain pagans. The boldest version, which appeared after the discovery of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta, claims that the Chud are ancient arias. But for now one thing is clear, the Chud are one of the aborigines of ancient Rus' whom we have lost.
Merya
Unlike Chud, Mary had a “more transparent story.” This ancient Finno-Ugric tribe once lived in the territories of modern Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Tver, Vladimir and Kostroma regions of Russia. That is, in the very center of our country. There are many references to them; merins are found in the Gothic historian Jordan, who in the 6th century called them tributaries of the Gothic king Germanaric. Like the Chud, they were in the troops of Prince Oleg when he went on campaigns against Smolensk, Kyiv and Lyubech, as recorded in the Tale of Bygone Years. True, according to some scientists, in particular Valentin Sedov, by that time ethnically they were no longer a Volga-Finnish tribe, but “half Slavs.” Final assimilation apparently occurred by the 16th century.
Dwellings and material remains of Chud and Sirtya
For the first time, authentic Nenets legends about the Sirtya - nomadic hunters of the tundra and sea coast, who hunted wild deer, fish and sea animals, spoke a language different from Nenets, and hid forever underground, were recorded by A. Shrenk, who made a long trip to Bolshezemelskaya tundra. During this trip, in the lower reaches of the Korotaikha River, which flows into the Barents Sea east of Varandey and west of the Yugra Peninsula and the Pai-Khoi ridge, he discovered “Chud caves” with the remains of material culture, unfortunately, irretrievably lost to science).
In the notes of the missionary Benjamin (1855) we find: " The Korotaikha River is remarkable for its abundance of fisheries and Chud earthen caves, in which, according to legend, Chud once lived in ancient times. These caves are ten miles from the mouth, on the right bank, on a slope, which since ancient times was called Sirte-sya in Samoyed - “Mountain Peipus”.
Academician I. Lepekhin, knowing the legends about the “Chud people” widespread in the European North, sought to find their real traces in the form of archaeological monuments. Thanks to reports from informants, I. Lepekhin was able to make the following remarkable entry in 1805: “The entire Samoyed land in the Mezen district is filled with desolate dwellings of the once ancient people. They are found in many places: near lakes, on the tundra, in forests, near rivers, made in the mountains and hills like caves with openings like doors. In these caves they find ovens and find fragments of iron, copper and clay household items.".
IN Soviet time the problem of orphans was developed by V.N. Chernetsov, who, having visited Yamal, not only collected various legends about the Sirtya, but also discovered monuments of ancient culture left by the Sirtya rather than by the later Nenets. According to the legends he published, the Nenets who came to Yamal met a population there who lived on the coast in earthen houses and hunted sea animals. These were the Sirtya, who did not know reindeer herding, with whom the Nenets had to fight, and sometimes even marry. The Nenets were convinced that the last Sirtya, 4-6 generations before the present day, were found here and there in Northern Yamal, and then completely disappeared. V.N. Chernetsov twice published (1935, 1957) important archaeological material from dugouts on Cape Tiutei-sale at the confluence of the Ser-yakha and Tiutei-yakha rivers (on the western coast of Yamal at 71 ° 30 "N), which he dated VI-IX centuries and attributed to Sirtya.
Unique finds of the Yamalo-Ob expedition
Further searches for evidence of Sirtya were carried out by the Yamalo-Ob expedition of the Department of Ethnography of Moscow State University under the leadership of L.P. Lashuk in 1961.
An abandoned sacred place. According to local residents, in this hill they once hidstrange "little people"
, which have long since “gone” to another more distant hill, leaving in the same place only “syadeev” - images of gods and various things. Old women even now do not allow children to run along the hill: " Trample, they say, sitting down, and this is a sin"The very name of the hill indicates that there was once not only a sacrificial place on it, but also housing.
As a result of the excavations, it turned out that in addition to finds dating back to late times (bone artifacts, wooden objects, remains of vessels, etc.), some discovered objects have typological similarities with finds from the pre-10th century. dugouts on Cape Tiutei-sale, left by people of non-Samoyed origin, although involved in the formation of modern Nenets. The main finds made on the Kharde-sede hill were attributed to the era of the developed Iron Age. On the hill, traces of metallurgical production were discovered in the form of iron slag and sand fused into a glassy mass, underlying the upper peat layer. Structural analysis showed that the slag comes from a raw iron furnace.
The study of the strata on the Kharde-sed temple clearly shows the continuity of its use from the 1st millennium AD. e. and until the early 30s of the 20th century, which could hardly have happened if there had been no genetic connection between the early inhabitants of these places (Sirtya) and the later ones (Nenets).
The Tiutey-Salinsky and Khard-Sedeysky monuments arose in the subpolar tundra at a time when there was not even a hint of the reindeer herding way of life of the population or any traces new culture, brought from the southern part of the Ob-Yenisei interfluve - the most likely ancestral home of the reindeer. There is no particular reason to count the latter among the creators of the Tiutei-Sala culture of tundra wild deer hunters and seaside hunters, although, having spread over time throughout the Far North, the Samoyeds, through the mediation of the aborigines (Sirtya), became the successors of this culture.
In the same Nakhodka, the expedition of L.P. Lashuk recorded the following tales about the natives of Yamal. The Sirtya are people of very short stature, but stocky and strong, who lived a thousand years ago. In everything they differed from the Nenets: they didn’t keep domestic reindeer, they hunted “savage” deer, they wore different clothes: for example, yagushki (woolly women’s clothing made from deer skin), like the Nenets, did not have, they dressed in otter skins (a hint of deaf outerwear). One day, big water appeared, flooding all the low-lying places in Yamal. The subsoil of the elevated hills-sed became the dwellings of the sirty.
According to another version, the Sirtya “went to the hills” because with the advent of “real people” - the Nenets - the former land turned upside down.Becoming underground inhabitants, the Sirtya were henceforth afraid to go out into the daylight, which made their eyes burst. They began to consider the day as night, and the night as day, for only at night could they leave the hills, and even then when everything in the vicinity was quiet and there were no people.Now there are few orphans left, and they come to the surface less and less often. Only a shaman can determine which hill has Sirtya and which does not.
As L.P. points out. Lashuk (1968), there is undoubtedly a realistic basis in these legends and is confirmed by scientific data, but the legends do not give a specific answer about the ethnicity of the Sirtya.
