In the second half of the XV - early XVI centuries. Other stories are also being created in Moscow on the topic of the political continuity of the Byzantine inheritance by Russia. These are the stories about the Kingdom of Babylon and the natural continuation of these stories - “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir.” In stories about Babylonian kingdom We are talking about the founding of new Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent acquisition by the Byzantine king Basil from Babylon of signs of royal dignity. These stories were developed in Byzantium to substantiate the idea of the succession by Byzantium of world-historical royal power, the center of which was previously considered Babylon. The stories about the Babylonian kingdom came to Rus', perhaps in oral transmission, apparently at the end of the 15th century, just at the time of the emergence of the idea of Moscow - the third Rome. There is no doubt that already on Russian soil as actor a Russian person is mentioned who takes part in obtaining signs of royal dignity for the Greek Tsar Vasily. It is very curious that a tendentious story that arose on Byzantine soil and has nothing in common with Russian reality, in order to justify Moscow’s claims to the role of a world-historical state, adapts to the needs of Russian political reality. The first story about the Kingdom of Babylon tells that the Babylonian king Axerxes sent all those who fell ill with leprosy into the forest in order to protect Babylon from the spread of the infection. Their relatives communicated with the deportees, bringing them everything they needed to maintain life. When Axerxes died, the people who were in the forest, having learned that there was no king in Babylon, conspired to go to the city, since they did not now see any obstacle to their return. And so they find a boy under a pine tree, whom they give the name Nebuchadnezzar. Taking this boy with them, they go to Babylon. Meanwhile, princes and nobles gather to determine who will be king. It was decided that the king would be the one over whom the horn of myrrh hung over the gate would boil and spill. And when Nebuchadnezzar passes by this horn, the horn boils and the contents of the horn spill over his head. This was a sign that he should be the king of Babylon. The boy was brought into the royal palace, precious robes were placed on him, a scepter was given to him and he was seated on the royal throne. Despite his youth, Nebuchadnezzar was very wise and brave. Having decided to build a new Babylon, he gathered princes and nobles and ordered them to create new town about seven walls, about seven miles. Entry into and exit from the city was through one single gate, near which a stone serpent was sculptured. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the signs of the serpent to be made on all objects in the city: on weapons, on horses, on bridles, on saddles, on houses, on spoons, on saucers, on all vessels and on all livestock. Nebuchadnezzar took a queen from the royal family and brought Prince Vasily with her. For all enemies, Nebuchadnezzar was a thunderstorm. He was invincible, especially because he owned a samo-sword, which he used when facing enemies. The story describes one of Nebuchadnezzar's battles. The advantage was always on Babylon's side. But the Babylonians finally win when the king himself enters the battle. The self-cutting sword, the serpent asp, breaks out of his sheath and cuts off his enemies without mercy. Nebuchadnezzar reigned for many years. Before his death, he ordered that the self-cutting sword be walled up in the wall and not be removed until the end of the world, otherwise predicting the inevitable death of Babylon. Having learned that the formidable Nebuchadnezzar was no longer alive, many kings with great forces moved to Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar’s son Basil began to rule. Vasily opposes his enemies, but they get the better of him, and then he decides to break his father’s prohibition, take out the walled self-cutting sword and use it. But the sword breaks out of Vasily’s hands and begins to cut not only the enemy, but also the Babylonian army and kills all the Babylonians, and the snakes depicted on all objects suddenly come to life and finally devour the Babylonians. The large stone serpent sculptured at the city gate also came to life. Since then, Babylon has been completely deserted. Weeds grew around it, and there was no mention of a strong and glorious city. The second story tells how the signs of royal dignity, which were originally in Babylon, passed to the Byzantine king, i.e., in other words, how the transition of world-historical royal power from Babylon to Byzantium is documented . The Byzantine king Leo, in the baptism of Vasily, sends his Roslanites to take a “sign” from three youths - Ananias, Azarias and Misail, whose relics rest in Babylon. Vasily first wants to send two ambassadors - a Greek and an “Obezhanin” (Abkhazian), but, on the advice of those close to him, he sends a third one - “a Russian Slav”. Thus, the Russian also takes part in obtaining signs of royal dignity from Babylon. The king and his army set off after the ambassadors and stopped fifteen miles from Babylon, and the ambassadors headed to the city itself. They walk very slowly, since the path was narrow, they walk with “great need.” Along the road, “a great thing grows, like a thistle.” There is sixteen miles of this grass near Babylon. There are all sorts of reptiles and snakes here. But “by God’s will,” the ambassadors, unharmed, reached Babylon on the third day and, safely passing the sleeping serpent, passed through a staircase of eighteen steps to the city wall, and along another staircase they descended into the city. On this staircase, as on the first, they find inscriptions in Greek, Obezhan and “Slovenian and Russian”. These inscriptions encourage the ambassadors, advising them not to be afraid of the serpent and to boldly move on. Having arrived in the city, the ambassadors first of all go to the tomb of the three youths to bow to them and take a “sign” from them. They saw on the tomb a cup made of gold, decorated with pearls and various precious stones. This cup was full of myrrh and lebanon. The messengers drank from the cup and became “cheerful.” Then they fell asleep, and when they woke up and wanted to take the cup with them, a voice was heard from the tomb that forbade them to do this and ordered them to go to the royal chambers and take from there the signs of royal dignity. The messengers do so. They take the crowns of Nauvoo - Chodonosor and his wife and a letter written in Greek and explaining the origin of the crown and other jewelry. After this, they go to another chamber, where they see various jewelry and a carnelian “crab” (box), in which the royal porphyry is enclosed. Immediately they see caskets full of gold, silver and precious stones, and they take all this with them and go back to the church, to the tomb of the three youths, again drinking from that cup. stands on the tomb, feels cheerful again, falls asleep and, waking up, goes back. During the return journey, one of the messengers, an Ozhan, stumbled, fell on the snake and woke him up. The messengers were alarmed, fell to the ground and lay there. for a long time, like the dead, and then they woke up and went to the place where Tsar Vasily should have been waiting for them. But here they found complete confusion. The serpent's whistle was so devastating that a huge number of people from Vasily's army fell dead. Only a certain part, together with Vasily himself, managed to escape. Tsar Vasily thought that the ambassadors would not return, and was very happy when he saw them safe and sound. They hand over to Vasily the booty they took in Babylon, and Vasily gives part of this booty, gems and gold, he hands it over to the patriarch, but keeps the royal regalia for himself. Thus, the Byzantine king becomes a full-fledged representative of world-historical power, since he possesses such material signs of royal dignity that personify it. Thus, to establish the idea of the Byzantine world-historical monarchy, a legend is created that tells about the specific transfer of symbols and signs of royal dignity from Babylon to Byzantium. Both stories, which are based on fairy-tale motifs, were not preserved in the Greek text, despite the fact that they undoubtedly originated in Byzantium; but, judging by various reflections in Western literature, they were popular in medieval Europe. However, the acquisition of signs of royal dignity is discussed only in Russian stories and fairy tales, and this leads us to assume that the mention of the Babylonian crown was not primordial in the circle of corresponding legends. This mention turned out to be significant, obviously in connection with the developing idea of Moscow's succession to the Byzantine inheritance: in some copies of the second story it is said that “the carnelian crab with all the royal gypsum” came into the possession of Prince of Kyiv Vladimir. From here there is one step towards the direct transfer of Byzantine regalia to the Moscow Grand Dukes. * * * At the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. We are creating “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir,” which is a direct development and continuation of the stories about the Kingdom of Babylon. This same “Tale,” according to the established view in science, formed the basis of the “Epistle” of the monk Spiridon-Sava about the Crown of Monomakh, written under Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich in the first quarter XVI V. ", as well as the basis for the corresponding articles in the "Genealogy of the Grand Dukes of the Russians." The "Tale" gained particular popularity under Ivan the Terrible, who was officially crowned king for the first time in 1547, reinforcing his authority as a sovereign with references to the "Tale" - autocrat. It was used in the time of Grozny as an indisputable official document, in particular in diplomatic practice, was widely reflected in Moscow chronicles of the 16th century and other popular monuments of the 16th-17th centuries. Latin language. The “Tale” is preceded by an introduction that begins the story from Noah and brings it to Augustus Caesar, who, “arranging the universe,” sends his sibling Prusa to the banks of the Vistula, to a country that was then named Prussian Land after his name (in ancient times it was inhabited by Prussians - Lithuanians). The Russian princes considered themselves descendants of the Roman Prus, and therefore Augustus Caesar. Hence the usual statement of Ivan the Terrible that he descends from Augustus the Caesar. Thus, the legend created on Russian soil connects the Moscow grand-ducal family with a representative of the oldest world monarchy, with Augustus Caesar. In the “Tale” it is said further that a certain Novgorod governor Gostomysl, approaching the end of his life, orders the Novgorodians to send a wise man to the Prussian land and call a prince from there. The Novgorodians obey him, and a prince named Rurik, a direct descendant of Augustus (“being from the line of the Roman King Augustus”), comes from the Prussian land and becomes a prince. His brothers Truvor and Sineus come with him and also become princes in the Russian land. After some time, the Russian prince Vladimir Vsevolodovich, the great-grandson of Grand Duke Vladimir, the fourth generation from him, “decided to go to Byzantium, citing precedents - the campaigns of Oleg and Svyatoslav Igorevich. He gathers nobles “well-skilled and prudent and prudent”, and also a large army and goes to Thrace, to the outskirts of Constantinople. Having captured many inhabitants of Thrace, he returns with rich booty. At this time, the pious Constantine Monomakh was king in Constantinople, who was then fighting with the Persians and Latins. He convenes a royal council and orders. to Vladimir Vsevolodovich, Metropolitan of Ephesus Neophytos and other ambassadors, giving them “a life-giving cross from the life-giving tree itself, on which Lord Christ is crucified,” a royal crown from his head, a carnelian crab, “from which Augustus, the king of Rome, rejoiced,” then barmas that he wore on his shoulders, a chain of Arabian gold and many other valuable gifts, and all this was sent to Vladimir with a request that he not fight Byzantium (the sending of gifts to Vladimir Monomakh by the Byzantine king Manuel is discussed, as we know, in the monument XIII century - “The Tale of the Death of the Russian Land”). “Take from us, God-loving and faithful prince, this honest gift, from the beginning of the eternal years of your kinship and generation of royal lots, for glory and honor, for the crowning of your wave and autocratic kingdom,” Konstantin addresses Vladimir Vsevolodovich . Vladimir accepts these gifts, is crowned with the crown of Constantine and from then on he himself is called Monomakh: “And from that time the great prince Vladimer Vsevolodovich was called Manamakh, king of the great Russia, and then the great prince Vladimer lived with Tsar Constantine in peace and love. From then until now, the great princes of Vladimir are crowned with that royal crown; it was sent by the Greek king Constantine Manamakh, when they are appointed to the great reign of Russia...” The royal regalia, taken from Babylon, thus fulfills its third and last way: they are installed by the Russian princes, who, thanks to this, are interpreted as the successors of the Byzantine kings. The legend resorts to such tendentious fiction in order to substantiate the rights and authority of the Moscow autocrats, who asserted their power in the fight against appanage princes and opposition boyars and established a successive connection between Moscow, through Vladimir, and Kiev. At the same time, they distort historical facts: Konstantin Monomakh died when Vladimir Vsevolodovich was only about two years old. This chronological inconsistency was noticed only in later chronicle collections, where Constantine Monomakh was replaced by Alexei Komnenos. Since, however, there was no historical confirmation of the indication of the “Tale” that from the time of Vladimir Vsevolodovich Russian princes were crowned with the Monomakh crown, then to eliminate the contradiction in some lists of the “Tale” it was said that Vladimir Monomakh before his death he bequeathed the royal regalia to his sixth son George, ordering him to take care of them like the soul or the apple of his eye, passing them on from generation to generation until a worthy autocratic king appears, whom God will “raise up” to possess Russian state, and so that until then the descendants of Monomakh do not assume royal regalia and are not crowned kings. The emergence of the “Tale” and its ideological content should be associated with South Slavic autonomist tendencies, adapted to Moscow political reality. Both the Serbs and the Bulgarians had fictitious genealogies of their kings, descended from the Roman emperors, in order to justify their aspirations for political independence from Byzantium. Thus, Serbian scribes asserted the relationship of Nemanja with Constantine the Great and with the family of Augustus Caesar; the Bulgarian kings Aseni also claimed origins from Rome. The author of the “Tale” turned out to be even bolder: he directly points to Augustus’s brother, Prus, as the ancestor of the Russian princes. I. N. Zhdanov suggests that this author could be none other than Pachomius Logofet, who worked hard to develop and strengthen Moscow political ideology. As for the question of the relationship between the Russian prince Vladimir and the Greek Constantine Monomachus appearing in the “Tale,” these relationships are most naturally explained as follows. In the XV-XVI centuries. In Rus', a folk-poetic legend about Vladimir’s war with the Greeks circulated. This legend was akin to the epics of Vladimir’s cycle that have come down to us and was an echo of the epic legend about Vladimir Svyatoslavich’s campaign against Korsun. In its original form, the ancient epic about the war of Vladimir with the Greeks has not reached us and is known only from book adaptations of the 15th-16th centuries, one of which talks about the war of Vladimir Vsevolodovich with Konstantin Monomakh. Subsequently, there was a convergence of the legend about the transfer of Byzantine royal regalia to Rus' with the translated story about the acquisition of royal utensils from Babylon by Tsar Leo (Vasily). This rapprochement is reflected in the monuments written literature, as well as in oral literature. So, in one song the Terrible boasts at a feast: And I have something to brag about to the Tsar: I brought the Tsar out of Tsar-grad, I put the Tsar’s purple on myself, I took the Tsar’s crutch into my hands, And I will bring treason out of stone Moscow... In another song , composed in connection with the conquest of the Kazan kingdom, Grozny says: He took the Kazan kingdom in passing, bowed Tsar Simeon to peace, I took the royal purple from the king, brought the purple to stone Moscow, I baptized the purple in stone Moscow, put this purple on myself, After This became the Terrible Tsar. The end of this song has the following version: I put this purple on myself, After that I became presbyter-tsar, the Terrible Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich. Here, as we see, the signs of royal dignity are transferred to Moscow from Kazan, and the very crowning of the Terrible kingdom is associated with the conquest of Kazan. The transfer of royal regalia to Moscow to Ivan the Terrible is also discussed in the tale of Borma Yaryzhka, or Fyodor Borma, which exists in several versions and is directly dependent on the stories about the Kingdom of Babylon. According to the Samara version, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich calls out the cry: “Who will get me from the Kingdom of Babylon a crown, a scepter, an orb and a book with them?” On the third day, Borma responds to the king’s cry, setting off on a ship with his companions to Babylon, presenting the same picture of desolation that is spoken of in written stories. The same snakes that appear there appear in the fairy tale, and, in addition, the “king-maiden”, the one-eyed giant and his sister, with whom Borma lived for twenty years and gave birth to a son. He gets what the king entrusted him with getting, skillfully fools everyone and leaves for Rus', where he ends up only thirty years after his absence. As a reward for the valuables he obtained, he asks Grozny to allow him to drink duty-free in all taverns for three years. According to another version, retold by E. Barsov, Borma goes to Babylon for the royal purple, crown, staff and scepter from Constantinople on behalf of the “high people” there. By using unknown person calling himself “Truth”, he ends up in Babylon. In the temple of St. George the Victorious and Dmitry of Thessalonica, he finds royal regalia and on a carpet, which is handed to him by a girl present at the temple, he sails back to Constantinople. “But there was great bloodshed in Constantinople; The Orthodox faith collapsed, the Orthodox Tsar was no more.” And Borma went to Rus', to Kazan, “and here the purple and crown from the city of Babylon fell on the head of the formidable king, the true believer Ivan Tsar Vasilyevich, who destroyed the kingdom of Prokhodim, the filthy king of Kazan.” As we see, oral tradition in all cases assigns the possession of the royal regalia taken from Babylon to Ivan the Terrible, who completed the process of the political rise of Moscow."

A WORD ABOUT BABYLON(from the 16th century - The Tale of Babylon) is a legendary and political work of the turn of the 14th - 15th centuries, written by an unknown ancient Russian scribe and included in the 17th - early. XVIII century in a revised form into the cycle Tales of the Kingdom of Babylon.

The full title of the monument contains a double genre definition - “Word” and “Message” (meaning embassy): “The Word about Babylon, about the 3rd youth. A message from King Leukias, and at the baptism of the named Basil, the hedgehog ambassador to Babylon to experience the signs of the three holy youths - Onanya, Ozarya, Misail.

The plot of S. is the description of the embassy that the “Greek” king Leo (“Leuky”, “Levky”, “Ulevui”) sends to Babylon for a “sign” to the tomb of the Babylonian youths. The Tsar's envoys are representatives of three Christian Orthodox countries: “Grechin Gugriy”, “Obezhanin (resident of Abkhazia) Yakov”, “Rusin Laver”. It was as if it had already been foreseen in advance that each of them, in his own language, would be able to read the corresponding part of the trilingual inscription on the stairs leading to the city of Babylon. The king’s envoys receive the “sign” not in the church, but in the royal chambers, guided by a “voice from above,” for the “sign” is the royal regalia: the crowns of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and the queen with a letter accompanying the crowns in Greek. The circumstances are foreseen in such a way that the envoys will be able to obtain the regalia only by acting together. The Patriarch placed the regalia of the Babylonian kings brought by the messengers “on Tsar Vasily and Queen Alexandria,” and the Tsar, keeping his promise to be a faithful champion of the Orthodox faith if he received a “sign,” sent gifts to the Patriarch of Jerusalem and refused to go to India in order to fight against “non-religious” enemies threatening from the northern (“midnight”) countries.

To give his presentation a semblance of authenticity, the author completely reproduces in S. the sequence of the embassy ceremony: first there is a discussion of the composition of the embassy, then the king’s “order” to the ambassadors and their fulfillment of the mission - visiting the church and royal chambers, finding out what the “signs” are, and receiving royal crowns, then, upon returning from Babylon, a ceremony of greeting the king by each envoy and the presentation of gifts by the king before the dissolution of the ambassadors to their homes. The main points in the monument are indications of the divine holiness of the symbols of Byzantine royal power, received under the patronage of three Babylonian youths, the theme of solidarity of three representatives of Orthodox countries not conquered by Turkey: Rus', Byzantium and Obesia-Georgia, the theme of the Byzantine king’s fidelity to the Christian Orthodox faith. All means of symbolism serve to reveal these themes: meaningful names, beginnings-riddles and images of folk poetry.

The Russian scribe creates the ideal image of a “Greek” king, a faithful champion of the Orthodox faith. However, this ideal was far from consistent with the actual behavior of the Byzantine emperors at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries: in fear of the Turkish threat, they prepared and then concluded a union with the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Florence in 1438-1439. The need to remind about the ideal image of the “Greek” king in a Russian work could have arisen much earlier than this act, perhaps already in the 90s. XIV century: in any case, these ideas are consonant with the views of the Byzantine Patriarch Anthony, who, in a letter of 1393 addressed to the Moscow prince Vasily Dmitrievich, glorified perfect image Byzantine emperor, who remained a “champion and defender” of the Orthodox faith, despite the fact that his land was surrounded by “pagans.” The appearance among the tsar’s envoys of a “Rusyn” with the name “Laurel”, who (in accordance with the meaning of his name) crowns the matter by reading in the Russian part of the inscription where to get the regalia, reflects not only the patriotic sympathies of the author, but, apparently, what -the claims of the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily I, which Patriarch Anthony clearly hints at in the same letter of 1393.

An analysis of S.’s literary sources allows us to judge the author’s erudition in biblical history, apocryphal, translated and original literature, Byzantine chronicles, Russian chronicles and works of oral folk poetry, as well as his awareness of topical issues of international life at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, his knowledge subtleties of the ancient

the rite of crowning of the Byzantine emperors and the ambassadorial ceremony.

In the 16th century S., after some stylistic editing, under the title “The Tale of Babylon” was included in the Great Menaion of Chetya on December 17, the day of remembrance of the three Babylonian youths. After the crowning of Ivan the Terrible, S.’s text was revised and new attributes of the royal wedding were included in the list of royal regalia: “carnelian crab”, and then “Monomakh’s cap”. In the cycle of Tales about the Kingdom of Babylon at the beginning of the 17th century. (in connection with the election of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the kingdom) the final article appears for the first time about the transfer of “honor for the sake of his” by the Greek king to the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir Monomakh all the same “crabs” and “hats”. These texts, completely unrelated to the theory of “Moscow - the third Rome,” develop state ideas Tales of the princes of Vladimir. At the end of the XVII- early XVIII V. new, entertaining stories about the Babylonian kings arise. The later cycles include: parables about Nebuchadnezzar and his son Basil Nebuchadnezzar (with fabulous interpretations of the meaning and origin of his name), about Artaxerxes, Nimrod and John, legends about the Queen of South (Malkodushka), a legend about the construction of a clay snake around the city of Babylon, came to life and swallowed up all its inhabitants, including King Nebuchadnezzar and the queen.

Publisher: Zhdanov I N Russian epic epic: Tales of Babylon and the Legend of the Princes of Vladimir - St. Petersburg. 1895 - pp. 1-151; appendix 6.- pp. 575-587; The Legend of Babylon / Prep. text by M. O. Skripil, Translation by B. A Larin, Note by N. And Totubalin // Russian stories of the XV-XVI centuries. - M.; L., 1958 - P. 85-87, 251-253, 407-413, The Legend of the Babylonian Kingdom / Prep. text, translation and comm. N. F. Droblenkova // PLDR. Second half of the 15th century - M., 1982.- P. 182-187: 596-597.

Lit.: Veselovsky A. N. Excerpts of the Byzantine epic in Russian. The Tale of the Babylonian Kingdom // Slavic collection. - Petersburg, 1876.- T. 3 - P. 122-165, 3imin A. A. Echoes of the events of the 16th century in folklore // Research on domestic source studies: Collection of articles dedicated to the 75th anniversary of S. N. Zalka - M.; L. 1964 - P. 404-414, Droblenkova N.F.; 1) Regarding the genre nature of “The Tale of Babylon” // TODRL. - 1969 - T. 24 - P. 129-135, 2) The relationship between literature and business writing in the 15th century // Paths of study ancient Russian literature and writing - L., 1970 - P. 56-65; 3) The Legend of Babylon // Dictionary of Scribes - Vol. 2, part 2 - pp. 351-357.

Droblenkova N.F. Literature of Ancient Rus': Biobibliographic Dictionary / Ed. O. V. Tvorogova. M., 1996.

"The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople" by Nestor-Iskander

The fall of Constantinople under the attacks of the Seljuk Turks in 1453 receives philosophical historical understanding in “The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople,” written by Nestor-Iskander. In the story of the founding of the city by Constantine Flavius, a symbolic sign of the struggle between the serpent (symbol of Islam) and the eagle (symbol of Christianity) is introduced: the victory of the serpent over the eagle is temporary, and ultimately Christianity will triumph. The fall of Constantinople is the fulfillment of the first part of the prophecy. will appear “The Russian race with the former creators of all Ishmael will defeat and Sedmokholmago will first accept it as lawful, and they will reign in it.” This was interpreted as a reference to the Russian people, whose mission is to liberate Constantinople from "infidels". All this gave the Tale a journalistic edge.

The main focus of the story is on the description of the siege of the city. The author conveys psychological condition besieged, the behavior of Constantine. This is a courageous warrior who despises death, duty and honor are above all else for him. Despite the terrible, menacing signs foreshadowing the fall of Constantinople, Constantine refuses to leave the city in order to save his life. He dies heroically in an unequal battle. Constantine's faithful ally, the Genoese prince Susteney (Justinian), also dies with arms in his hands.

The Turkish Sultan Magmet is depicted in the story as a courageous and brave warrior. He is cruel, but fair, and appreciates the military valor of the enemy. This portrayal of the enemy was a new step in the development of the historical story genre. Descriptions of battle scenes are full of dynamism, tension and artistic expressiveness. The author's sympathy is on the side of the besieged. “Who will not weep and weep for this?”- he asks, describing the destruction of the city by the conquerors.

"The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople" was an important stage in the development of the genre of historical story. The combination of a specific description of military events with artistic fiction (heavenly signs, fictional monologues revealing the internal state of heroes, emotional assessment, broad philosophical and historical understanding of events) constitutes distinctive feature the story that prepared the historical justification political theory Russian state: Moscow is the third Rome. The story was very popular among readers and served as a model for historical stories of the 16th - first quarter of the 17th centuries.

Tales of the Babylonian Kingdom

On the change in the forms of historical narration in the 15th century. evidenced by the appearance of stories about the Babylonian kingdom, which played an important role in the creation of the political theory of the Moscow state. The stories include “The Parable of the City of Babylon,” which provides legendary information about King Nebuchadnezzar, his creation of a new Babylon and the desolation of this world power, and “The Tale of the City of Babylon.”

Both stories probably originated in Byzantium during the period when Constantinople justified its rights to world primacy.

The “Tale of Babylon the City” tells the story of three young men: a Greek, an Abkhazian and a Russian, who obtain signs of royal dignity from desolate Babylon for the Greek king Vasily. The equal participation of representatives of three Christian nations in this feat emphasized the idea of the equality of three Christian powers: Greece (Byzantium), Georgia and Russia. And when Constantinople fell and Georgia almost lost its independence, all rights to the signs of royal dignity should belong to the Russian Grand Dukes.

Thus, “The Tale of the City of Babylon” prepared the appearance of “The Tale of Monomakh’s Crown.”

The stories about the Babylonian kingdom are fairy tale character: here we see a magical self-cutting sword, a giant sleeping serpent guarding the riches of desolate Babylon; a wonderful cup with a divine drink, a mysterious voice giving instructions to the young men, etc. All this brings the stories about Babylon closer to a fairy tale. Only the names of kings Nebuchadnezzar and Basil are historical in these stories, everything else is fiction.

Cm.: Droblenkova N. F. Regarding the genre nature of “The Tale of Babylon” // TODRL. L., 1969. T. 24, pp. 129–135.

During the time of Sitsevo, the parable of the city of Babylon was told

In the kingdom of Babylon, King Axerxes had glory and majesty above many great kings, reigning for many years in the reigning city of Babylon. The character in his heart was as follows: if a prince, or a boyar, or a nobleman, or from ordinary people sees red on his forehead, the size of a kopeck, and King Axerxes orders those people to be sent out of the city to the forest twenty fields from the city, Yes, let them live there, but even if they die, King Axerxes kept the city from the pestilence: that is a sign of a pestilence. Having passed that designated moon for a long time, the parents of those people brought food to them from the city and laid it on the stumps, but did not agree with their parents. The same King Axerxes departed from his kingdom and died. The same people are very tenacious in the forest, they have not seen any birds or animals. Those people heard that the king was gone in Babylon, and they began to gather, wanting to go to the city. And she found an owl on a pine tree, and there was a baby under the pine tree, and a wild goat near the same pine tree. And those people, not knowing how to give the baby a name, named the owl Nosor, and the goat the name Akha, and the baby the name Navhod. And give to the baby [middle name] Navchadnezzar. And he took the baby, and began to feed him, and all the people, countless in number, went down into the city of Babylon, and all the people came down into the city from the forest, and there was great joy in the city of Babylon, that all the relatives were descended, and many of them died in the forest. The princes and bolyars and nobles and all the Babylonians lived for a short time, until they were no longer alive than the king. On a certain day, the princes and bolyars and nobles and all the knights of Babylonia descended to the place of execution and made a council on how they could find a king for themselves in Babylon, so that there would be one great king over them. And all the princes and bolyars and nobles and all the Babylonians said: “It is impossible for us to choose a king from the princes and from the bolyars and from the nobles, but there are many great and noble.” And having thought up everything, and condemned all the Babylonians, that they should place the horn of Izmir at the gates of the city, and commanded all the princes and bolyars and nobles and all the Babylonians to go and ride out of the city and into the city, and over whomever the horn boils, he will be the king. above us in Babylon. And having done this, he placed the horn with the myrrh in the gates of the city. In the same hour, all the princes and bolyars and nobles and all the Babylonians rode on horseback and on foot from the city and to the city many times, and the horn did not boil over anyone. As the born baby Navchadnezzar rode from the city and to the city, that hour the horn was mixed with Izmir. The princes and bolyars and nobles and all the Babylonians saw such a great miracle, and descended from their horses, and were with the foot soldiers together, and bowed together to Navchadnezzar, and all said: “Rejoice, Navchadnezzar, king of Babylon, reigning on the throne, sitting in a scepter great glorious state. And be a champion and intercessor for us and for the entire Babylonian state with your great sense and great courage from the presence of great kings." And you brought him into the royal house, and put the royal robe on him, and put the royal crown on his head, and the royal scepter in his hand give it to him and make him sit on royal throne, and all the princes, the nobles, the nobles, and all the Babylonian knights bowed down. And he said: “Rejoice, great, strong and brave and great, Nechadnezzar, king of Babylon, reigning in the sceptre-holding Babylonian state.” The same Nechadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was very young, but old with great wisdom and courage, he began to reign and became very wise.
On a certain day, the king commanded Navchadnezzar to be all the princes, and the nobles, and the nobles, and all the Babylonians at that time. And they all came together, King Navchadnezzar began to say: “princes, and bolyars, and nobles and all the knights of Babylonia, create for me a new city, Babylon, with seven walls, on seven miles, and the entrance and exit are one gate, and around the city you will create great serpents. the head of the serpent would enter the city." All of them, the princes, and the bolyars, and the nobles, and all the Babylonian knights, and all the Babylonians, did not disobey the king, creating the new city of Babylon. The new city of Babylon fell in love with the king. And King Navchadnezzar went to the new royal house, and all the princes, and nobles, and nobles, and their new houses. And King Nechadnezzar commanded that throughout the whole city of Babylon a banner should be placed on clothes, and on weapons, and on horses, and on bridles, and on saddles, and on mansions, on every log, and on doors, and on windows, and on ships, on on the stalls, and on the platters, and on the horses, and on all kinds of ships, and on all the livestock, the banner is all serpents. The king fell in love with that banner and ordered himself to make a sword that cut off the asp snake. And he took the queen from the great royal family as his wife, and brought with her the son of a prince named Vasily. On some great day, King Navhodnezzar commanded that at the gates of the city, at the head of the serpent, on both sides of the grid, copper bars should be made, and behind those grids he ordered coal to be placed. And as during the arrival of the ambassador, when ambassadors come from great kings or from great countries, and then the king of Babylon, Navhodnezzar, will command his formidable commanders outside the city and on the field, twenty versts to the city to organize the great regiments and the banners of Lviv along the regiments, and in all half the workshop sounded alarms, and sounds, and many-voiced trumpets. Whenever the ambassadors go straight through the great regiments, then the governors will command all the regiments to sound all the alarms and alarms and the many-voiced trumpets, and then the ambassadors will march merrily. And when they arrive near the city gates, three hundred blacksmiths begin to blow bellows, lighting coal. And then smoke and sparks. And when the ambassadors enter the gate at the head of the serpent, then fire and blast will shower the ambassadors. And then the ambassadors will be filled with great horror and, having come to the great king Navchadnezzar, they will bow and tremble with their hearts and barely complete the embassy...

[Next we talk about the fact that many kings went to Babylon with great strength. The battles of the Babylonians with their enemies are described. The advantage is always on the side of the Babylonians. They finally win when Nebuchadnezzar himself enters the battle: his self-cutting sword, the serpent asp, flew out of the king’s scabbard and began to cut everyone around without mercy. After this, Nebuchadnezzar reigned for many years and before his death he ordered the self-cutting sword to be walled up in the city wall, conjuring it not to be removed until the end of time. After Nebuchadnezzar, his son Basil Nebuchadnezzar became king.]

On some days, many kings heard that the king of Babylon, Navhodnezzar, was no longer there, and his son, King Basilei, was reigning in Babylon, and many kings united with great forces and went to Babylon. And when he entered the Babylonian borders, then he announced to Tsar Vasily Navkhodnosorovich about the coming of many great kings with great forces, that same hour Tsar Vasily Navkhodnosorovich commanded his formidable commanders to organize large regiments, as if there were 30,000, and ordered them to fight. They, under the threat of the governor of Babylonia, began to fight, but beyond their power, they were forced back to the city. The formidable governors, princes, and bolyars, and nobles, approached the great Tsar Vasily and said everything in a loud voice: “Great Tsar Vasily Navchodnosorovich, it is not in our power to fight with many great kings. Take out, Sovereign Tsar, from the city wall of your father sword of self-cutting, asp of the serpent, for the present time of war, protect us and the Babylonian state from the presence of many foreign kings.” Tsar Vasily spoke to them: “My father’s sword was cursed until the end of the age; he did not order it to be taken out.” All of them, all the Babylonians, said in a loud voice: “You, sir, for the present time, and when the military time has passed, you, the king, preserve it again.” He, the great king, took pity on the Babylonians, commanded them to fight, and the great king Vasily himself, taking out the sword of his father, took out the sword of his father, and commanded himself to saddle the great horse, and put on the gold-plated royal military armor, and the girdle of the self-cut sword on his thigh, and always on great horse, and taking with him the brave knights of Babylon, and went from the city to his own help. When Tsar Vasily Navkhodnosorovich entered his regiments, wanting to fight, that same hour the self-cutting sword, the asp of the serpent, flew out of the sheath from the king and cut off the head of Tsar Vasily and cut off the great kings with great forces, and the Babylonian knights had everything they had. there was a banner on the dress, and on the weapons, on the horses, and on the bridles, and on the saddles, and all kinds of military serpents, all the serpents became alive, the Babylonian army ate everything, and in the city that was the banner of the serpent, they ate the wives and children and all kinds of livestock, and that there were great serpents near the city of stones, and it became alive, whistling and roaring. From the same places to the now reigning Babylon, the new city became empty, and that’s the end of this matter.

Message FROM LEO, KING OF THE GREEK, AT THE HOLY BAPTISM OF BASILI, WHO SENT HIS MESSENGERS TO THE CITY OF BABYLON TO TEST AND TAKE THE SIGN THERE FROM THE HOLY THREE YOUTHS - ANANIA, AND AZARIA, AND MISAIL

First, the Greek king Vasily sent two people of different languages, of Christian origin, to the city of Babylon, but they asked the king: “It is not worthy for us to be two youths, since the path is narrow; and you, king, send from the Greek a Greek, and from the Obezhans, from the Russians Slovenian". And this word was pleasing to Tsar Vasily: he did as his envoys desired, and sent three pious men: the first of the Christian family, named Yuri, the second of the Greek Iyakov, the third of the Slavic Esau. When she had sent them, Tsar Vasily himself gathered his army and set off in pursuit of his envoys; and King Basil reached the city of Babylon 15 miles away, and called his envoys, and said to them: “Listen to me: I say to you, George, Esau and Jacob, now go from me to the city of Babylon, led by God. If you find the verb sign from the three holy youths, bring this to the place, then I myself will not leave this place, but I will be a champion against the enemies of the Orthodox faith and for the Christian race.”
The three men heard the words spoken by the king and bowed down to the ground and left the king on their way to the city of Babylon. The messenger walked slowly, since the path was narrow, and she walked with great need; and they have already arrived near the city, and they see nothing, neither hail nor fields. And they let their horses go into the field and found a small beast; because the former great things have grown up, like thistles, undesirable grass, the circle of the whole city of Babylon; and in the distance from the city of Babylon there is grass 16 versts; Therefore there were two grasses, and against those grasses there were all sorts of creeping things, snakes and great toads, and various growths, of which there was no number, like great haystacks, waving from the ground to the top: ovi whistled, and some hissed, and from others It was freezing cold, just as it was freezing cold in winter. By the will of God and the prayers of the holy three youths, they were not a messenger of fear and not a single one from those reptiles, but all the reptiles themselves were running away from them with great noise, covering their heads, and running along the paths into the valleys, into the grass of that past. The same messenger, on the third day, came to that great serpent, which lies around the circle of the entire city, and turned around, just as the small serpent lies bent over. A ladder from a cypress tree was laid along the wall through that great serpent on the city wall; and who put that ladder, no one knows, except Christ himself knows; and the height of the ladder is 18 steps; on the same ladder there are three letters written: the first in Greek, the second in Obezhan language, the third in Slovenian and Russian. And it is written: in Greek: “Whoever God brings, go to the ladder”; and in Obezhan language he says: “Climb this ladder without fear through the great serpent”; and in Slovenian he says: “Go up the other stairs into the city and to that very church, without fear.” There came to be inside the city through that great serpent; That great serpent itself circled around the entire city of Babylon, and bent its trunk from another country to the same gate where the head lies. The messengers, out of fear, walked onto the ladder through that great serpent and walked along the second ladder inside, where it was placed, from the city walls and to the church, and there on that ladder three letters were written, as on the first ladder; commands those reptiles not to be afraid of that great serpent itself, nor of his majesty.
The messengers entered the church of the three holy youths, and the saints were filled with fragrance, and in the church of the three holy youths, many of their writings and deeds were written in the lyceum on the church walls. These three pious men bowed down to the grave of the three youths and said: “With this breath we bow down to you, the holy youth Ananias, and Azarias, and Misail, by God’s will of our sovereign Greek king Leo, in the holy baptism of Basil, to bring from you to him, since you are if you please." And seeing the messenger, the cup standing on the tomb was beautiful, made of gold and decorated with pearls and precious stones; That cup is full of peace and Lebanon. The messengers took that cup, drank from it, were happy and fell asleep for a long time, and arose from their sleep, and wanted to take that cup with that fragrance and carry it to the king. At that time, a voice came from the graves at the ninth hour: “Do not dare to take this cup, but you will go to the royal treasures, this speech goes to the royal court, and there you will take a sign.” The messengers were terrible. Then the third voice came to them: “Do not be afraid, but go to the king’s chambers.” They are up and down. The courtyard of the kings stands from the church as if it were easy to shoot from a bow; in the courtyard of the king there are many, many things laid out. One coat was very large and was decorated with many things more than the previous coats. The messengers went inside that coat, and in that chamber there stood a royal bed made of precious patterns and decorated, on it were two royal crowns: the first Nechadnezzar, the king of Babylon and the whole universe, [the other] his queen; and immediately I saw a letter lying there, written in Greek; say: “These crowns were made when Nechadnezzar the king created a golden body, at that time he arose from his sleep and wanted to take Deira to the field, and these crowns were made from samphire stone, and from bysar dragago, and from Arabian gold. and hitherto a god, but now be upon the Greek king Leo, in the holy baptism of Basil, and upon his queen Alexandra through the prayers of the holy youths.” The messengers took the crowns and the letter, and went to the second half, and there they saw the precious cufflinks, and this said the royal veil. The messengers wanted to take them with their hands, and the cuffs crumbled into dust, lying there for many years. In the same one I saw a gray crab, and in it there was a royal scarlet, this word is purple; Yes, right there you saw two caskets filled with gold, and silver, and precious beads, and valuable stones, and right there you saw a golden cup, the same as in the church of saints on the tomb of St. Ananias. The messengers took up the crab, and the gold, and that cup, and the royal purple robe, and crowns, and 25 precious stones, and other such things as could be carried to Tsar Vasily, and returned from the royal court; and he came back to the church of the three holy youths and bowed down to their graves, and there was no longer a voice to them from those graves. For this reason, the messengers were in great sadness, and approached with fear to the tomb of the holy youth Ananias, and took the cup, drank from that cup, and began to rejoice, as before, and fell asleep all night.
Tomorrow I'll see you Sunday days At the 1st hour, there was a voice for them, with a second verb: “Wash your faces.” The messengers quickly rose up and saw the church cup standing with water; They took it up, and washed their faces, and gave praise to God and the holy three youths; and when the morning singing was completed, then a voice came to them saying: “You have taken a sign from us, and now go on your way, led by God, to Tsar Vasily.” They, having heard this, bowed down to the grave of the holy three youths, and also drank three cups from that cup; But that cup, by God’s grace, remains full: it does not empty. Then the messengers went to the ladder and carried their heavy burdens, which they had taken in the city of Babylon, and walked on the ladder from the city and the second ladder through that great serpent. One of them, Jacob the Obezhanin, stepped from the top to the third step and fell from the ladder onto that great serpent and awakened him from sleep. That great serpent heard him, and scales rose up on him, like the waves of the sea, and began to waver; The messengers took their third friend Jacob and soon ran to Tsar Vasily, and found their former selves, and already around noon they fled, and found their horses in the place where they had left them, and laid both their burdens on their horses. And at that same hour a great serpent hung down, and such a sound could not be heard anywhere. The messengers were thrown from their horses by the whistle and lay on the ground for a long hour of death; After a little time, they woke up and mounted their horses, and went to the place where Tsar Vasily stood with his army, and there was no king in that place, no army, no news about him, just seeing a lot of dead people. At one time that great serpent hung down, and at that time a great misfortune was created in the Tsar’s camp for Tsar Vasily and his people: his people and all the army fell from their horses, they died from his whistle, and many horses died. King Vasily was afraid of this and retreated from that place for 15 miles to the second place from the city of Babylon for 30 miles. Tsar Vasily was sad about those three men, their ambassador to the city of Babylon, saying about them: “My children have already died from the whistling of that serpent.” So the king asked about these messengers and his children, and then King Vasily said: “Let us wait for them in this place for a short time: they have been preserved by the living God and the prayers of the three holy youths.”
The messengers came in second place to Tsar Vasily and his army, and came and bowed to Tsar Vasily. Tsar Vasily saw his messengers, and rejoiced greatly, and glorified God and the holy three youths. The messengers told Tsar Vasily everything that happened in a row, and the wonder of the cross among the holy youths, and about the great serpent, and about themselves, how they suffered from that serpent, and gave Tsar Vasily a letter that he had taken from the Tsar’s courtyard in a coat. The king, having taken it from the envoys, went to the patriarch; The Patriarch took the royal crowns from the envoys and placed them on the head of Tsar Vasily, and the other of Queen Alexandra, and blessed them. Tsar Vasily took from his envoys 20 stones, and 5 stones, and a cup and an ambassador to Jerusalem and kept five stones for himself, and what they envoys brought was gold and silver and precious beads and all sorts of royal designs, and then he announced everything to the Tsar Vasily. Tsar Vasily did not take anything from them, but gave them and, on top of that, gave them his gift of 50 pieces of gold; and this is what Tsar Vasily said: “Come with me and ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you according to your request.” The messengers, having heard this from Tsar Vasily, bowed to him and came together to glorify God and the pious Tsar Lev, in the holy baptism of Vasily. Glory to our God.

Andrey Rublev. Four kingdoms: Babylonian, Macedonian, Roman and Antichrist. Fresco from the cycle " Last Judgment

"in the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir. 1408 By a coincidence of historical circumstances - or according to the Creator's plan - Rus' took over the baton of power of the Orthodox Tsar from Byzantium, crushed by the military power of the Ottoman Turks, the burden of its own sins and mistakes, and the unbearable weight of betrayal of imaginary friends. Historical fate Rus' has developed in such a way that, having gone through the terrible trials of enemy invasions, preserving and strengthening Orthodox faith

under the conditions of foreign yoke and, in the end, having again acquired state power, a new strong Rus' appeared to the world in order to carry further the cosmic fire of Christ’s “right confession” on the path to the universal Kingdom of grace. This theme of salvation is primordial Christian faith

Legends about the transfer of universal power:

from ancient Babylon to Byzantium

Oral tradition, genetic memory expressed in folk culture, stores and transmits through many, many generations the truth about the events of long-gone eras and relatively recent times. Ancient works make it possible to establish historical truth, determine the place, role and relationship of peoples in the general process of development of world civilization.

Babylonian cycle of tales

From the end of the 15th century. extend to Rus' legends about the Babylonian kingdom, among them- “The Parable of the City of Babylon” ", or», « "Tale of the City of Babylon" Message from Leo to Babylon" And "

About the marriage of Nebuchadnezzar." Nebuchadnezzar the foundling ( character out of historical context ), by the will of fate having reigned in – Babylon the first world "center of power" - ordered to do “ sign of the serpent "on all city utensils, on clothes, weapons, banners, mansions. A stone serpent was built at the gates of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar made himself a self-cutting sword, a werewolf sword - “ Asp-serpent

", characterized by the fact that during the battle he himself flew out of his scabbard and began to chop down his enemies without mercy. Before his death, the king of the “sceptre-holding Babylonian state” bequeathed that a terrible destructive weapon should be walled up in the city wall and begged never to take it out. Under Nebuchadnezzar's son Basil, "many kings with great forces" attacked Babylon. Vasily sent his commanders with a large army against them, but the army could not withstand the onslaught. The nobles began to force Vasily to take out a self-cutting sword. Vasily did not dare to violate his father’s prohibition: “My father’s sword was cursed until the end of the age; I did not command it to be taken out.” , - but they told him: “You, sir, for the present time, and as soon as the military time passes, you, the king, preserve it again.” The king took out a self-cutting sword and rode out with it to the army. The sword flew out of its sheath and cut off the king's head and cut down many soldiers. And the serpents depicted on various objects suddenly descended and devoured all the Babylonians. “From the same places to the now reigning city, the new city of Babylon became empty”

. Wild animals and all kinds of monsters settled in it. A monstrous serpent, a living stone statue, lay spread out around Babylon. The Orthodox Tsar Leo (Levky), in the baptism of Vasily, decided to obtain from Babylon “signs” belonging to the three holy youths (according to the Bible, friends of the prophet Daniel) - Onania, Ozaria and Misail. Having gathered an army, the Greek king headed towards Babylon. Fifteen days on the way to Babylon, the king decided to send “three men” there: the Greek Gugriy, the “Obezhanin” (Abkhazian) Yakov and the Rusyn Lavr. “...and we traveled to Babylon for three weeks. And when they arrived there, they did not see the hail: everything was so overgrown with the former that the palace could not be seen. They set off their horses and found a path along which small animals walked. In those thickets there was only part grass, and two parts reptiles;

but they had no fear. And they went that way and came to the serpent.” « Having read the inscription above the serpent, composed of phrases in three languages - Greek, "Obez" and Russian - with great difficulty, passing by all the monsters and climbing over the serpent, the envoys entered the dead city of Babylon, bowed to the relics of the saints and drank from the cup that stood on the coffin. And the “voice from the grave” of the holy youths directed them to the king’s chambers, where the ambassadors found two crowns - one of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and the whole universe,” and the other is his wife. With the crowns there was a letter in Greek, it said:“Until now, these crowns were hidden, but now, through the prayers of the three holy youths, they should be placed on the God-protected Tsar Basil and the blessed Queen Alexandra.” . The ambassadors took the crowns with a letter and, together with the captured jewelry, including"carnelian crab" With " royal scarlet"

, delivered to Byzantium. The holy “sign” - signs of royal power - was handed over to the patriarch.

“The Patriarch took two crowns and, after reading the letter, placed them on Tsar Vasily and Queen Alexandria, originally from Armenia.”

Nebuchadnezzar is a prototype of the universal king Babylon in Russian folk art - this is an archetype, the personification of non-aggressive power, fabulous wealth, and glorious heroic deeds, rooted in the Russian consciousness. During its two-thousand-year history, the ancient city of Babylon twice became the capital of a great empire. Babylonian kingdom in the 19th-6th centuries. BC. became the cradle of significant scientific and intellectual progress. Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) in Rus' - a legendary character, he was revered on a par with epic heroes.

In the minds of the people, he is an ideal ruler, victorious, wise and fair.

Nebuchadnezzar was one of the greatest rulers in history. He was the son of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar's conquests were all aimed at one goal: strengthening the new state within the borders of the former Assyro-Babylonian kingdom, destroyed by nomads and internal uprisings. For this purpose, it was necessary to fight with the Egyptians, who invaded Syria. Egypt's repeated and insidious attempts to create an anti-Babylonian coalition with local kings in violation of all agreements resulted in the conquest of Judea, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon (586 BC), the Babylonian captivity and the devastating campaign of Nebuchadnezzar himself in Egypt (568 BC). BC.). The kingdom he founded extended from Suez to Iran. It was announced that the god Marduk gave the entire earth to Nebuchadnezzar, so that “from horizon to horizon he would have no rivals.” He reigned for 43 years.

Nebuchadnezzar was a gifted commander and talented diplomat. But his most glorious deeds are associated with his peaceful initiatives. Babylon owes its restoration as the capital of the world to him. The technocrat king used new technologies for the construction of palaces, temples, and city fortifications. He introduced new materials (enameled brick, asphalt in combination with natural materials), advanced defensive and engineering solutions (drainage and irrigation systems, ditches, hanging parks, multi-story construction of residential buildings, a seven-story 91st ziggurat - the Tower of Babel), built roads, complex defensive complexes. The prayers he addressed to Marduk have a monotheistic-biblical flavor. “Marduk, lord, grant us eternal life!” However, the role of “the destroyer of the city of God” and the Temple of Jerusalem was the reason that his name was for a long time the subject of horror and even disgust, or was generally taboo in literature.

Nebuchadnezzar. Color engraving. Tate Gallery, London.1795

In the Bible, the Jewish prophets (Isaiah, 14; Daniel, 4) created the image of a proud villain, who at the end of his life went crazy and began to eat grass like an animal. But this information is doubtful. As “The Encyclopedia Americana” writes (“American Encyclopedia”, vol. 20), “Nebuchadnezzar until the end of his days was the type of perfect monarch" In modern sources he is sometimes compared to Napoleon and Stalin.

The Babylonian captivity and the power of Babylon left such a mark on historical memory Jews, that in later written monuments his name was pronounced in a negative context - it became a symbol of a terrible, rich and immoral city. The Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse) says: "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:3-6). It should be said, however, that reading from the Book of Revelation has never been part of the liturgical practice of the Eastern Church.

Babylon is mentioned in the first letter of the Apostle Peter, where he says that he “welcomes the chosen church in Babylon.” Some Latin writers claimed that under this name ap. Peter means Rome. The claims of the popes as successors of the Apostle Peter, therefore, correlate with the transfer of the universal “center of power,” which was Babylon, to Rome.

Symbolism of "Tales of Babylon"

The Babylonian stories are full of symbols, everything seems to be encrypted in them. Participation in the campaign for the “sign” of three representatives Greece (Byzantium), Abkhazia (Georgia) and Rus' indicates the unity of the three peoples in their Christian asceticism. But when Constantinople fell, the Georgian kingdom (with Abkhazia as part of it) disintegrated, and the separated Abkhazia, as well as Armenia, fell under oppression Ottoman Empire, all rights to the signs of royal dignity were to be transferred to the Russian Grand Dukes.

It is interesting that the Tale does not localize the main geopolitical threat to Orthodoxy in exotic southern countries : “From there the king wanted to go to India. David, the king of Crete, said: “Go against the northern countries, against the enemies of other faiths, for the Christian race!”

* * * * * * * * *

“Babylonian legends” developed in Byzantium before the 13th century. and symbolically conveyed the idea of natural succession precisely by Byzantium to royal power from the rulers of Babylon - the greatest and most ancient “universal kingdom”.

* * * * * * * *

It is difficult to say how they got to Rus': the Greek original of these legends has not reached us. Perhaps the legends about Babylon were brought by pilgrims from the East. It is also known that at the beginning of the 13th century. Novgorod Bishop Anthony (Dobrynya Andreikovich) traveled to Constantinople and saw there a “dear stone”, according to legend, brought to Emperor Leo (probably Leo VI the Philosopher) from Babylon. Be that as it may, the cycle of legends was included in the hagiographic collection “Great Menaions of Chetiy,” especially revered by the Old Believers. "Tales of the Grand Dukes of Vladimir“It is said that the Byzantine king Constantine Monomakh sent Vladimir Vsevolodovich, the Russian prince, purple and the royal scepter, “carnelian crab with all the royal fine linen” and Monomakhov's hat, " like taken from Babylon»: "and from that hour they heard Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev Monomakh, and to this day throughout all Russia the kings of Moscow have been crowned in the present century with royal purple and royal purple and the Monomakh’s cap.”

Thus, “The Tale of the Kingdom of Babylon” substantiates the historical transfer of “universal” power to the Russian Tsar and the head of the Russian Church and gives this act a sacred character.

The motifs of the Babylonian story became popular among the people and spread to many Russian medieval works (for example, the life of St. Cyric and Julitta). The tales are filled with folklore and fairy-tale images that came from ancient myths: here is a serpent guarding the city and emitting a terrible whistle, and a cup with a magic drink;

a wonderful self-cutting sword, a journey for jewelry in a city inhabited by monsters.

The Serpent and other reptiles inhabiting Babylon are mentioned in the Bible - the Books of Genesis tell about the struggle of the god Yahweh with the monstrous serpent of the depths, Leviathan. The image of the serpent has the most ancient origin - cuneiform Sumerian texts tell about the battle of the supreme god of the Sun and light Enlil (Marduk) with the dragon goddess Tiamat - the Serpent of Darkness, personifying chaos, deceit and vice; about the god Ea - the tempting snake, about the white king of all snakes - the healing seven-headed white snake Shahmer. God Marduk and the dragon serpent The deadly serpent appears in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh (3 thousand BC), where the demigod king Gilgamesh searched for and found a flower

eternal life

, but the serpent stole his immortality:

“The snake smelled the flower,

She rose from the hole and stole the flower,

Returning back, she shed her skin.” The image of the serpent later passed into the Christian tradition. The serpent or dragon is Satan, the enemy of God and a participant in the Fall. He personifies the forces of evil, death, destruction, deceit, and the enemy. In the snake of the stories about Babylon one can discern the image of Ouroboros (

Greek

Ouroboros is one of the first symbols of infinity in the history of mankind, a symbol of eternal rebirth, the cyclical nature of the Universe: creation from destruction, Life from Death. This is a symbol of immortality and time, which has neither end nor beginning. The successful overcoming of the obstacle in the form of the Babylonian Serpent by the Greeks and Rusyns in the legend symbolizes what time itself hands to these peoples "the Omen» power for the sake of eternal life.

Fairy-tale images and symbols that have come down to us from ancient times are evidence common origin and the common historical past of many peoples. Studying their transition from one cultural layer to another makes it possible to recreate a picture of the development of mankind. The roots of the Russian people go back thousands of years to ancient Sumer-Babylon.

V.M. Vasnetsov. Fight with the snake

From Nebuchadnezzar to Ivan the Terrible

The legend about the transfer of spiritual and temporal power acquired new accents and branched into new plots along with how Rus' itself developed. Folk tales about traveling to Babylon Theodora Bormy (Bormy Yaryzhka) the royal crown and scepter are linked to the transfer of royal signs from Babylon to Rus' with the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible and his adoption of the royal title. In the fairy tale, the envoy of Emperor Leo Fyodor Borma, a pious, pious man, brings purple, a crown and other royal regalia from Babylon to Constantinople, but finds a war there, sees that the Orthodox Tsar is gone, the Christian faith is crumbling, and therefore takes the regalia to the conquered Terrible Kazan: “And here the porphyry and the crown from the city of Babylon fell on the head of the Terrible Tsar, the Orthodox Ivan, Tsar Vasilyevich, who destroyed the kingdom of Passable, the filthy prince of Kazan.”

The tale captures the events of the moment: the capture of Kazan with the help of mines and explosions of gunpowder is symbolically depicted in Borma’s fight against the “reptiles”, when he burns the snakes attacking his ship with the explosion of twenty-seven barrels of gunpowder. The kingdom where the royal regalia was kept is called in the fairy tale "serpentine"and is associated with the Kazan kingdom, which in the chronicle story about the capture of Kazan and other sources the authors call "the city of the serpent" saturated with Russian blood (repeating the legend that Kazan was founded on the place where there used to be a “serpent’s nest”), and the “besermism” expelled from Kazan is depicted in the form of a fiery serpent flying away from the city.

This is how the Byzantine legend developed in Russian folklore, and in fabulous symbolic images a cosmogonic picture of the emergence, development, fall of world civilizations and their revival in new forms was created. Rus' was becoming a new Ecumenical Kingdom, which was entrusted with a special historical mission: to become an Orthodox “center of power” so that the Divine Plan for the endless development of human civilization would not be interrupted and would continue to be implemented.

The Legend of the Kingdom of Babylon Translation by N. Droblenkova

"The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople" by Nestor-Iskander

Tales of the Babylonian Kingdom