Lake Peipus retains in its name the memory of the tribe that participated in Battle on the Ice, 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 an ancient people called “Chud” once 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 tells Kirov region: “...And when other people (Christians) began to appear along the Kama, this monster 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 - Peipus 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 - the Old Village. Although we call it a village, there are no buildings there. And it is not visible that someone lived there, but the old people claim that ancient, miracle 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. "Goodbye,
Old village! We won't be here - and there won't be anyone!" And they left the village. They go, they say, they are leaving their homeland and they roar. Every single one of them left. Now it is empty."
"Wonderful" secrets.
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, were thrown from village to village with axes. Then they buried themselves in the ground and took the gold with them. They took away the ingots-pillows at the Shudyakorsk settlement, but no one will take them: the horsemen are standing 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 underground inhabitants, but it cost them very, very dearly. The sight 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 Chud 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 the white birch tree blossomed 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. Only when the happy time returns and the people from Belovodye come and give all the people great glory. science, then Chud will come again, with all the treasures he has obtained." And even earlier, in 1913, Nicholas Roerich wrote a painting on this topic, “The Miracle Has Gone Under the Ground.”
Riddles and more riddles.
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 in the village of Vazhgort a Chud girl appeared - tall, beautiful, broad-shouldered. Her hair was long, black, and not braided. She walks around the village and calls: “Come 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 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 miracle girl entered the village, the women poured boiling water on her. 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 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 Semenovna Krivoshchekova-Gantman did not agree with this version, because in the Kama region there are practically no geographical names, 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 1970-1980s 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 Kama rivers in the Urals and the 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). No wonder the geographical names are Nakar
(Kudymkar, Maykar, Dondykar, Idnakar, Anyushkar, etc.) are in no way decipherable using 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 the “Iranian influence” on the art of the Perm animal style itself has always been recognized by experts.
Another people.
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, Iima 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 a 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?
In the PVL, Chud is mentioned among the peoples of the Aphet tribe, i.e. among the peoples of the midnight and western countries: “In Afetov’s part there is Rus', Chud and all the languages: Merya, Muroma, Mordva, Zavolochskaya Chud, Perm, Pechera, Yam, Ugra, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Letiegola, Lyub. Lyakhov, and Prusi, will go to the Varangian Sea. Along this same sea the Varangians travel east to the limit of Simov, along the same sea they travel west to the land of Agnyanski and to Voloshskiy.” In the chronicles, the Chud appear as a large people, localized over vast spaces: both on the Russian Plain in the Volga region, where “the Volga already goes east, to the part of Simov,” and in the Russian North as the Zavolochskaya Chud, and on the southern Baltic coast, along with Poles and Prussians, but before the Varangians, who “sit” in the western corner next to the Jutlandic Angles.
The commentary to the PVL provides a description of the chronicle miracle accepted in modern science: “ Chud- Estonian tribes. It is important to note the role that the chud played in the state life of Rus'. According to the chronicler, the Chud, together with the Russians, expels enemies, calls upon princes: this means that the chronicler did not separate Rus' from the Chud in the state destinies of the Russian land. The chronicler talks about the participation of the Chud in Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople, and that Vladimir Svyatoslavich led the population of the southern cities from the Chud. The chronicle repeatedly mentions the boyar Chudin (1068, 1072, 1078), who took part in the compilation of the Truth of Yaroslav (see in the title: “The truth was established by the Russian land, when Izyaslav, Vsevolod, Svyatoslav, Kosnyachko, Pereneg, Mikifor Kyyanin, Chudin, Mikula"). In Novgorod, Chudintseva Street and Chudintsevo Gate are famous. All this testifies to the close peaceful ties of both peoples" ( PVL. Preparation of the text, translation, articles and comments by D.S. Likhachev / Edited by V.P. Adrianova-Peretz. 3rd edition. St. Petersburg, 2007.S. 383-384). Regarding the above explanation, the question immediately arises: what are these “Estonian tribes”?
But keeping in mind that in the same comments to the PVL regarding the expression “to the land of Agnanski”, localized in the western corner of the Varangian/Baltic Sea, it is explained that it means to the “English” land, although even in school geography it is known that the Baltic Sea did not wash England, simply a commentary on miracles, born of modern science, cannot be accepted on faith. It may turn out that the explanation “the Chud are Estonian tribes” has a scientific value adequate to identifying the “land of Agnanski” with the “English land”. Therefore, given the importance of the issue, it is worth starting to consider all the information about the miracle anew.
There are many important toponyms associated with the name Chud. Their dense accumulation is revealed in the Leningrad and Pskov regions, such as Lake Peipus, the villages of Chudskie Zahody and Chudskaya Mine, the village of Chudinovo, the village of Chutkovo near the Cherekha River, the village of Chutka, which in the 16th century. was called Chudka, the village of Chudinkovo, the Chutkovskaya Grove tract, the villages of Chudskaya Gora in both regions, etc. Toponyms with the name Chudskaya Mountain occupy a special place, at least in terms of the vastness of their distribution area. Thus, the Chudskaya Mountain in the Perm region near the Ozernaya River is known - “the Chud people were buried there”, as well as the Chudskaya Mountain in the Omsk region on the left bank of the Irtysh, north of the Tara River. This Peipus Mountain is an outstanding archaeological monument of the Bronze Age (discovered relatively recently, in 1974). The appearance of the first inhabitants here is recorded in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. It has been suggested that this Peipus Mountain was a cult place for holding ceremonies in honor of deceased ancestors.
When comparing this brief overview of information about the Chuds with the given definition of the Chuds as “Estonian tribes,” the question again arises: what does “Estonian tribes” have to do with it and what kind of “tribes” are they?
As already said, many legends about miracles have reached us. I will give here a fragment of one of them. In Altai, the story of the miracle was written down by Nicholas Roerich in 1924-28. According to his story, 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 as the white birch blossomed in our region, 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" ( Roerich N.K. Heart of Asia // Favorites. M., Soviet Russia. 1979. pp. 178-198). N.K. Roerich’s interest in the legends about miracles in Altai in the 20s is not accidental. Ten years earlier, in 1910-1913. he painted the painting “The Miracle Gone Under the Ground,” i.e. the historical destinies of this ancient people already occupied his attention.
There is no need to cite here other legends about the miracle - there are quite a lot of them, and therefore a conversation about them can be the topic of a separate work. The objectives of the series of articles about Chud planned here are to show the fallacy of identifying the chronicle Chud as a Finno-Ugric people, to identify the origins of this error, introduced into science, like Normanism, by the same Rudbeckianism, and to show Chud as a carrier of IE. The Russian historiographical tradition, which stored information about the Indo-European roots of the chudi, existed until the 18th century, i.e. until the darkness of Rudbeckian utopias thickened over Russian historical science. This is revealed by a careful reading of well-known monuments, in particular, Northern Russian chronicles and literature.
Let us consider as an example such a monument as “Chronographic story about Sloven and Rus and the city of Slovensk”, published as an Appendix to the Kholmogory Chronicle late XVI V. (without being part of it). The contents of this monument are well known. It tells about the settlement of Russian ancestors in Eastern Europe, starting in 2409 BC. or from the summer of 3099 from the creation of the world. Then, according to the Legend, the families of the princes Sloven and Rus moved from “Euxinopont” to Prilmenye, where they and their descendants created a powerful power: “possessing the northern countries and throughout Pomorie,” and also “to the limit of the Arctic Sea, along the great rivers Pechera and Vym”, ... “behind the high and impassable mountains in the country ... along the great river Obva ... There, they take the animals along the fast road, the said haze, that is, the sable.”
According to the legend, the millennia-long history of the people, who began to be called “Slavs and Rus” or Slavic Russians, was interrupted in Prilmenye under the influence of various disasters and was naturally divided into several periods, specifically three periods. About the end of the first or ancient period of this story, it is told that after time, “the righteous wrath of God sent to the Slovenian land came, destroying the number of people in all cities and towns... The people who remained in the void for the sake of escaping from the cities to distant countries, to the White Waters, which is now called White Lake... but in other countries it is called by different names. Ovii returned to the Danube to his former family, to his old country. And the great Slovenesk and Rusa will be desolate until the end for many years...” Note that the Chud people are not mentioned within this ancient period.
The descendants of the Slavic-Russians, over time, returned to the land of their ancestors and began to revive it: “After some time, the Slavs again came from the Danube and brought a lot of Scythian Bulgarians with them, and they began to populate the cities of Slovenesk and Rus.” Since Bulgarians are mentioned in this part of the Legend, this period corresponds to the early Middle Ages or from the 4th to the 7th centuries. This is confirmed by the fact that this part of the Legend mentions wars with the White Ugrians, who are usually identified with the Huns: “...the White Ugrians came against them, and fought them to the end, and dug up their cities, and laid the Slovenian land in final desolation.” . The history of the Huns in Eastern Europe dates back to the period from the end of the 4th century to the end of the 7th century. Let us note here that the name Chud is also not mentioned within this period of the history of the Slavic-Russians.
This name appears only in the third period of Slavic Russian history, in the chapter entitled “ Second desolation of Slovensk» ( highlighted hereinafter by me – L.G.): “After many times of desolation, I heard the Scythian inhabitants about fugitives of Slovenia from the lands of their forefathers, as if it lay empty and was not cared for by anyone, and the great people began to think about this and began to think within themselves how they could inherit the land of their fathers. And packs came from the Danube a multitude of them without number, with them the Scythians and Bulgarians and foreigners went to the Slovenian and Russian lands, and settled down again near Lake Ilmerya and renovated the city in a new place, from old Slovensk down the Volkhov as a field and more, and called Novgrad the Great. And she appointed an elder and a prince from his family in the name of Gostomysl. In the same way, you put Rusa in its old place, and you renovated many other cities. And I lost my heart with my family from birth, and some are northern, and some are lopi, and some are Mordovians, and some are Muram, and some are called by different names. And so the country began to expand, it is great, and I am called by the common name. The son of the oldest prince of Novgorod Gostomysl, called young Sloven, this one is separated from his father in Chud and there build a city in your name over the river in a place called Khodnitsa, and he called the name of the city Slovenesk, and reigned in it for three years, and died. His son Izbor, this is the name of his city and is called Izborsk. This same prince Izbor was eaten away by the serpent. The land is Russian then throwing off the garments of lamentation and packs clothed in purple and fine linen, and besides, no longer a widow, lamenting below, but again for this reason the children also dissolved and rested for many years with the wise Gostomysl ( PSRL, vol. 33. Kholmogory Chronicle. Dvinsk chronicler. Publishing house "Science". L., 1977. S. 141-142).
Before analyzing what in this chapter, in my opinion, sheds light on the history of the miracle, let me remind you that the historicity of this Legend in relation to Russian history is denied by “academic science” under the well-known pretext: Russians simply cannot have such ancient history. IN Lately However, one may encounter a reservation that the approximate time of settlement of a significant part of the ancestors of the population of Eastern Europe or representatives of the R1a – Z280 branch coincides with the date of the Legend.
I.L. Rozhansky kindly shared information that representatives of haplogroup R1a already lived, at least, in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, which became known from recently published data on fossil DNA from pile settlements with dates of 5120 ± 120, about 4500 and 2700-2400 years ago ( Chekunova E.M., Yartseva N.V., Chekunov M.K., Mazurkevich A.N. First results of genotyping of indigenous people and human skeletal remains from archaeological sites Upper Podvina / Archeology of lake settlements of the IV-II millennium BC: Chronology of cultures and natural-climatic rhythms. St. Petersburg, 2014. pp. 287-294).
But, despite all this, the information from the Legend is still not taken into account when studying Russian history. Why? Because Russian history, in the dim view of “academic science,” cannot have ancient origins! Therefore, let’s abstract from “academic science” and consider the data that would confirm that the Legend contains historically verifiable information.
First of all, this, of course, is DNA genealogy data on the settlement of representatives of haplogroup R1a in Eastern Europe, who can conditionally be called Proto-Slavs or ancient Slavs. This convention, as explained by A.A. Klyosov, is determined by the fact that the descendants of representatives of haplogroup R1a, in addition to Eastern Europe, are found in different parts of the world: they have been identified in small numbers among the Irish, Belgians or Uyghurs; in addition, according to different estimates, there are approximately 100-200 million Indian males with haplogroup R1a. All of them are not Slavs, but all of the listed peoples had common ancestors, hence their conventional name Proto-Slavs or ancient Slavs.
According to DNA genealogy, the Proto-Slavs or ancient Slavs moved to the Central Russian Plain approximately 4900-4600 years ago. About 4,500 years ago, they began to disperse in different directions as the legendary Aryans - to the south, through the Caucasus to Mesopotamia, to the Middle East (Mitannian Aryans) and the Arabian Peninsula; to the southeast, to Central Asia and further, after 500 years, that is, approximately 3500 years ago - to the Iranian plateau (Avestan Aryans).
After the departure of the Aryans to the east approximately 4500 years ago, the R1a-Z280 branch remained in Eastern Europe, to which the majority of modern ethnic Russians belong; accordingly, according to my proposal, the ancient Rus should be seen in this branch. These representatives of the R1a-Z280 branch or the ancient Rus, as well as that part of the Aryans that remained on the Russian Plain and joined the Rus, became the most ancient ancestors of the Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Therefore, as A.A. emphasizes. Klyosov, “Slavs”, “Aryans”, “Scythians” - these are basically the same people, one genus, but different historical eras. They are related by direct inheritance within the R1a genus. The settlement of R1a representatives on the Russian Plain is the initial milestone of our history, from which we must count. And it is precisely this boundary that is indicated in the Legend of Sloven and Rus.
Secondly, in addition to the results of research in the field of DNA genealogy, the existence of the ancient polity of the Rus, spread over vast territories from “Euxinopontus” to the “limit of the Arctic Sea” and “throughout Pomorie”, as well as in the Trans-Urals and Siberia “behind the high and impassable mountains... according to the great river Obva...", is confirmed by my historical research in the field of ancient Russian sun worship. In particular, they show that toponyms with the stem cola like a ray of sunshine, they outline a gigantic territory from the Kola Mountains in the North Caucasus to the numerous Kolo Mountains in Kola Peninsula, as well as from Kołobrzeg and Kolyvan in the Baltic to Kolyvan in Altai, .
Here it is important to remember that in the Russian oral tradition the name “Sunflower Kingdom” / “Solar Kingdom” / “kingdom under the Sun” (i.e. kingdom under Kola) has been preserved, which easily applies to the indicated territory and suggests that the giant ancient The polity of Slavic-Russian sun worshipers was created by them in a multi-ethnic environment, uniting representatives of the Indo-European and Altai language families on the basis of a single sacred tradition (in other words, connecting different peoples within the framework of common faith) - sun worship, the former " business card» IE carriers. Therefore, probably, the name of the most ancient polity of the Slavic Russians was not chosen according to the name of the titular one, i.e. the largest ethnic group, and by the name of their great god - the Sun. In the Russian oral tradition, the image of the Sunflower Kingdom showed amazing rootedness until the 16th century. acted as a popular synonym for the Russian state ( see, for example, Veselovsky A.N. The legend of the beauty in the mansion and the Russian epic about the Sunflower Kingdom // Journal of the Ministry of Public Education. St. Petersburg, April 1878. pp. 183-238. The article contains links to “Songs collected by P.N. Rybnikov,” published in four parts. Petrozavodsk, 1861-1867. III. pp. 319-328).
To this we can add that the “northern countries” of the princes of Sloven and Rus with “Pomorie” were united by and. Science knows about the deep archaic nature of these cults. Toporov and Ivanov pointed to such an attribute of Perun as a club, which showed similarities with the vajra - the club of Indra. In addition, the content of the cult of Perun and even his very name echo the name and elements of the cult of the Vedic deity of thunderclouds and rain Parjanya. The time of the emergence of the cult of Perun the Thunderer, taking into account such attributes as stone arrows (“thunder arrows” in ancient Russian tradition), weapons made of bronze, etc., can, in their opinion, be dated to “the beginning of the heroic era of the settlement of the Indo-Europeans, apparently from the end of the 3rd millennium BC.” ( Ivanov V.V., Toporov V.N. East Slavic Perun(ъ) in connection with the reconstruction of Proto-Slavic, Baltic and pan-European texts about the thunder god // Research in the field of Slavic antiquities. M., 1974. P. 4-30).
As we can see, there is quite enough data for historical verification of the ancient period of the history of the Slavic Russians in Eastern Europe from the middle to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. or the first period, according to the “Tale of Sloven and Rus”. But as noted above, the Chud people have not yet been mentioned within this ancient period, so let’s move on.
The beginning of the next or second period in the history of the Slavic Russians, according to the Legend, can be attributed to the end of the 4th century, as noted above. Consequently, regarding the first centuries of our era preceding this period, it can be assumed that, at least in the Ilmen region, they were a continuation of the period of desolation of the “great Slovensk and Rusa”, when people left either to the north/northeast (“Belo Ezero”) , or to the south (to the Danube). According to DNA genealogy, in the last centuries BC – the first centuries AD there were migrations of representatives of haplogroup N1c1 to Eastern Europe from the Trans-Urals, i.e. Finno-Ugric peoples and those who are today Balts.
According to A.A. Klyosov, carriers of the parental genus N1 walked from Southern Siberia along the northern geographic arc through the Northern Urals and further to Eastern Europe up to the Baltic states. Along this migration trajectory, they had descendants everywhere, including, for example, the Yakuts, then the peoples of the Urals, and so on to the Baltic states. Representatives of haplogroup N1c1 came to Eastern Europe as two different streams and different times. The first stream of N1c1 came to Eastern Europe about 2500-2000 years ago; its representatives adopted the IE language already in Europe and became the ancestors of the current Baltic peoples. And the second stream reached Finland 2000-1500 years ago and preserved the languages of the Uralic language group.
But as it clearly follows from DNA genealogy data, both migration flows of representatives of the N1c1 haplogroup came to Eastern Europe, which had already been developed by its inhabitants - representatives of R1a, i.e. Aryans and ancient Rus. However, it can be assumed that the resettlement of the first stream of migrants - the future Balts - occurred during the period of prosperity of the Slavic Russian state or the Sunflower Kingdom, when the princes of the Slavic Russians “ruled the northern countries and throughout Pomorie,” as well as up to the Siberian regions “along the great river Obva.” From which it logically follows that the migrations of future Balts to Eastern Europe took place within the framework of one polity or, in modern terms, within the framework of one power. Hence, it seems natural that the first Trans-Ural settlers wanted to adopt the “titular” language and culture. The following is also clear: the pestilence came like the wrath of God in the Ilmen region, which caused an outflow of population from the center, but “Pomoria”, apparently, was not affected, therefore the population of the Southern Baltic, remaining in place, could preserve both the archaism of IE and the ancient sacred traditions.
The resettlement of certain groups of Finno-Ugric peoples to the north of Eastern Europe in the first centuries of our era coincided with a period of desolation, which is indirectly confirmed by Tacitus’ story about the “Fennas”, in which it is customary to see the Sami/Lapps, considered one of the first Finno-Ugric settlers in the north of Eastern Europe. Europe. In the dismissive description of Tacitus, one can guess the fact that the “fennians” during Tacitus’s time retained their hunting way of life, which they lived in the Trans-Urals. For a Roman, anyone who is not wrapped in a toga or dressed in armor is pitiful and wretched: “The Fenni have amazing savagery, pitiful squalor; they have neither defensive weapons, nor horses, nor permanent shelter over their heads; their food is grass, their clothing is skins, their bed is earth; They place all their hopes on arrows, which, due to a lack of iron, are tipped with bone. The same hunt provides food for both men and women; for they accompany their husbands everywhere and claim their share of the spoils. And small children have no other shelter from wild animals and bad weather, except for a hut somehow woven from branches and providing them with shelter; Fennas of mature age return here, and here is a refuge for the elderly. But they consider this a happier destiny than exhausting themselves with work in the fields and laboring over the construction of houses and tirelessly thinking, moving from hope to despair, about their own and other people’s property: careless in relation to people, careless in relation to deities, they achieved the very The difficult thing is not to feel the need even for desires.”
The conservation of the hunting way of life among the first Finno-Ugric settlers was clearly facilitated by the desolation of the region, since descriptions of the migrations of the Slavic Russians usually included stories about the creation of cities by them. Each of the three periods of the history of the Slavic Russians in “The Tale of Sloven and Rus” begins with such descriptions.
With this, let’s move on to consider the story about the history of the Slavic Russians in the 4th-7th centuries. Here it should immediately be noted that in addition to the Legend, information that such a period existed in Russian history is also present in other sources, namely, in the Novgorod Joachim Chronicle (NIL), in addition, in the works of the early medieval German epic - the High German poem “ Ortnit" and in the Saga of Thidrek of Berne (Thidrexaga), recorded in Norway around 1250, but compiled, as it says, from ancient German prose tales and songs.
Thidrexagu and the poem “Ortnit” were studied by such major epic scholars as A.N. Veselovsky and S.N. Azbelev. Thidrexaga conveys an epic heritage dating back to the events of the 5th century. - the wars of the Huns led by Attila and the Goths led by Theodoric. This saga aroused the interest of Russian researchers because it featured the Russian knight Ilya and the Russian king Vladimir ( Azbelev S.N. Oral history in the monuments of Novgorod and the Novgorod land. St. Petersburg, 2007. P. 37).
In NIL and in the saga, emphasized S.N. Azbelev, both the name of the Russian prince (or king) Vladimir and the time of his reign coincide - a historical stage of extreme significance: Prince Vladimir was the ruler of Rus' during the period when it was subjected to the invasions of the Huns: “This was, obviously, an era of maximum tension of the people’s forces, “ epic time,” which was supposed to leave a deep mark in people’s memory. The saga calls Vladimir king. The use of this term here is justified: the territory, subject, according to the saga, to the epic Vladimir, included lands from sea to sea, stretching far to the east (in which, by the way, the data of the saga and the NIL agree) and apparently exceeded the size of the later Kyiv state X century This explains the interest in Vladimir and Rus' in Thidrexag, the main topic of which, it would seem, made it possible not to mention them" ( Right there. pp. 38-40).
Azbelev recalls that Veselovsky, defining the conditions most favorable for the emergence of a folk epic, characterized them as “an entry into history” and named among them such events as the Trojan War, the migration of peoples, the fight against the Saracens, reflected in the Old French epic, the fight against the Tatars -Mongol yoke in Russian history. According to Veselovsky, the fight against the Tatars overshadowed another, more ancient struggle that lay at the basis of the ancient epic.
“This more ancient struggle,” according to Azbelev, “is comparable in scale and intensity to the struggle against the Golden Horde... the “emergence into history” of the ancient Russian ethnos should obviously be correlated not with the calling of Rurik, but with the great migration of peoples. This was manifested not only in the fact that, in terms of their typology and a number of specific features, some plots and characters of epics gravitate back to the 3rd-4th centuries. In the Russian epic one can see echoes of the social structure characteristic of those times and the really grandiose interethnic cataclysms that took place at that time, fateful for the peoples who withstood these historical trials. It is significant that Thidrexaga was not the only one to depict major military clashes in which the Huns and Russians took part ( Right there. pp. 47-48).
Very interesting in the context of this article is the criticism that S.N. Azbelev subjected the opinion established in science that historical prototype The epic prince Vladimir and the Russian king Vladimir from Tidreksaga served as the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich (980-1014). Azbelev draws attention to the fact that Tidreksaga’s narratives about the actions of Vladimir have no correspondence in the chronicle biography of Vladimir the Saint. In addition, modern studies of the main collections of epics have established that the patronymic “Vseslavich” dominated as the patronymic of the epic Prince Vladimir. Veselovsky analyzed the genealogy of the Russian characters in the saga and established that the name of Vladimirov’s father in the saga also corresponded to the name Vseslav. Thus, Azbelev concludes, the epic prince of Rus' Vladimir Vseslavich corresponds in Tidrexag to the king (prince) Vladimir Vseslavich - it was he who served as the first prototype of the epic prince Vladimir ( Right there. pp. 44-46, 56).
These Azbelev conclusions are of particular interest to the article, and here’s why. The epic prince Vladimir was known as Vladimir the Red Sun. And taking into account the above conclusions, this nickname did not mean at all a manifestation of the affectionate attitude of the people towards him (they say, you are our sunshine, golden fish!), but marked his confessional characteristic - sun worship, i.e. a system of pre-Christian beliefs dating back to the tradition of the Sunflower Kingdom. And Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich went down in history as a Saint, i.e. as the Baptist of Rus' and as a conductor of Christianity. It is quite obvious that these were two different historical figures who belonged to different eras of Russian history, and popular memory distinguished them, but historical science, starting from the Enlightenment, began to confuse the two historical figures into one. And the reason for this is clear: modern science is tired of the fact that Russian history could not have had a period older than the 9th century.
And a little more about folk memory. Azbelev, studying the works of the Russian oral tradition, cites the recording of the answer of the Russian messenger in Rome Dmitry Gerasimov, produced in 1525 by Pavel Joviy Novokomsky (Paolo Giovio), to the question whether the Russians had “any word of mouth passed on from their ancestors about Goths or whether there is no recorded memory of this people, who, a thousand years before us, overthrew the empire of the Caesars and the city of Rome, having previously subjected it to all kinds of insults.” According to the transmission of Jovius, Azbelev continues, Gerasimov “replied that the name of the Gothic people and King Totila is glorious and famous among them and that for this campaign many peoples gathered together, and mainly the Muscovites before others. Then, according to him, their army increased due to the influx of Livonians and Volga Tatars, but they were all called Goths because the Goths who inhabited the island of Iceland or Scandinavia (Scandauiam) were the instigators of this campaign" ( Right there. P. 49).
Pavel Jovius’ interest in the memories of the Goths in the Russian historical tradition was quite understandable: after all, at that time Gothicism flourished in the countries of Northern Europe, and the bickering between Italian humanists and German-speaking thinkers about the role of the Goths in Western European history was gaining momentum. Mentions in Gerasimov’s story of “Muscovites”, Tatars and Livonians in relation to the 5th century. do not interfere with its credibility, since often in reports about ancient times the names of peoples and places were used as they were known at the time in which the narrator belonged.
So, information about the second stage of the history of the Slavic Russians of the 4th-7th centuries, briefly given in the Legend, is confirmed by a number of other sources: NIL, works of the early medieval German epic and, finally, Russian oral tradition, reflected in the story of the Russian messenger in Rome Dmitry Gerasimov about the Goths and how their presence in Eastern Europe was preserved in popular memory. The early medieval period of the history of the Slavic Russians ended by the end of the 7th century. the fact that the Huns “... conquered them to the end, and dug up their cities, and laid the Slovenian land in final desolation.”
A new revival of the history of the Slavic Russians after overcoming the devastation and desolation as a result of the wars with the Huns can, logically, be attributed to the 8th century. Then “after the many times of this desolation... a multitude of them came from the Danube without number, and with them the Scythians and Bulgarians and foreigners went to the Slovenian and Russian lands, and settled again near Lake Ilmer and renovated the city in a new place...”. Only in this part of the story does the Chud appear, which came to Priilmenye along with everyone “from the Danube”.
And here I would like to highlight two particularly important points. The first is the unconditional multi-ethnicity of the described society. The second is a fairly clear picture of the socio-political structure of a given society, based on the ramified structure of princely power. Both of these points help to clarify the place of the Chud in the polity of the Slavic Russians.
I will dwell first on the second point. In the context of this article, it is interesting to pay attention to the fact that the “fugitives of Slovenia” return from the Danube to the lands of “their forefathers”, and a supreme prince-ruler is elected from their family: “...And they appointed an elder and a prince from his birth in the name of Gostomysl...", after which " ... burst into tears with my family according to the breadth of the earth, and the Ovii gray-haired in the fields and the mowed glades, that is, the Poles, the Ovii Polochans of the river for the sake of Polota, the Ovii Mazovshans, the Ovii Zhmutyans, and the other Buzhans along the Bug River, Ovii Dregovichi, Ovii Krivichi, Ovii Chud, some Merya, some Drevlyans, and some Moravians, Serbs, Bulgarians from birth...».
The phrase “everyone has become weary with his kindred” echoes the phrase from the PVL: “...and each one lives with his own kindred and in his own place, each possessing his own kindred” ( PVL. St. Petersburg, 2007. P.9). AND I. Froyanov, in one of his works, quite rightly noted that in this context of the chronicle the term “clan” should not be understood as a structural unit of a tribal community and that behind this term was hidden a princely clan, a princely dynasty ( Froyanov I.Ya. Rebellious Novgorod. St. Petersburg, 1992. P. 74). I fully share this point of view, which I wrote about in one of my first publications on the genesis of the ancient Russian institution of princely power ( Grotto L. How did Rurik become the great Russian prince? Theoretical aspects of the genesis of the ancient Russian institution of princely power // History and historians. 2006. Historiographic Bulletin. M. "Science", 2007. P. 87).
In general, it should be noted that I.Ya. Froyanov is one of the few modern scientists (if not the only one!) who defends the existence of the institution of ancient Russian princely power before the calling of Rurik and points out that “the Slovenes had their own princes, whose power was constant. ...The idea of the Novgorod princes as an institution grafted from outside must be rejected... The Ilmen Slovenes had their own leaders (princes) even before the arrival of the Varangians. Their institutionalization of power followed the same path as that of other ancient peoples known to ethnographic science ( Froyanov I.Ya. Op. op. pp. 60-62). But the Normanists, who today make up the overwhelming scientific majority among workers and workers of the Russian university and academic system, are impervious to such considerations. Their denial of the princely institution of power in Russian history before the arrival of Rurik is one of the strongholds of the creed of Normanism.
However, the phrase of the Legend that Gostomysl was staged “ from his birth"as an elder and a prince, testifies precisely to the establishment of the institution of supreme power, based on the patrimonial hereditary principle of transfer of power through the male line. Thanks to this institution, the community acquired the character of a socio-political organization capable of providing people with the necessary living conditions even over vast territories: “And so the country began to expand, it was great, and I am called by the common name».
Thus, the “elder and prince” Gostomysl led a community of many families that had their own princes, but under the leadership of the princely family of Slovenes. However mutual arrangement local princely families in relation to the supreme power and in relation to each other, as a rule, changed in time and space, so the phrase “And each one fell apart with his clan across the breadth of the earth...” could hide not only the vastness of the territory, but also the variability of the structure of the community. For some time, the local princely families of Polyan, Polotsk, Mazovshan, Zhmudi, Buzhan, Dregovichi, Krivichi, Chud, Meri, Drevlyans, etc. could be subject to the “elder and prince”, but in some periods - not, which , apparently, was reflected in the PVL, when we read that the Drevlyans had their own reign, “and the Dregovichs had theirs, and the Slovens had theirs in Novgorod,” i.e. some princely families could leave the community or, conversely, new princely families could join it.
But let us now concentrate on the question of what place Chud occupied in the structure of the Slavic Russian polity. In the list of those clans that, after the second desolation of Slovensk, “came from the Danube” and returned “to the land of their fathers,” the Chud are named along with the Dregovichi and Krivichi, i.e. included in the very core of the Slavic-Russian tribes and clearly remained so throughout the entire time until the calling of Rurik and his brothers. In addition, the Legend reports on the close connection of the Chud with the leading princely family of the Slovenes in the story that the son of the supreme ruler of Gostomysl, “called the young Sloven, this one left his father in Chud and there build a city in your name over the river in a place called Khodnitsa, and he called the name of the city Slovenesk, and reigned in it for three years, and died. His son Izbor, this is the name of his city and is called Izborsk.”
It seems that the two noted points contained in the Legend: the inclusion of Chud in the composition of the known Slavic tribes without any reservations and the control of Chud by Slovenian princes - can be taken as initial milestones on the path to reconstructing the history of the Chud people as carriers of IE. I believe that over time, the historical identification of other chronicle peoples, for example, such as the Merya and Muroma, who were allegedly “assimilated” by the Slavs and therefore “disappeared” from history, should be rethought again. Modern research will help clarify which of the chronicled ethnic groups were “foreigners” and which were “from the birth” of Slovenian Russian princes. But more on that later, in future publications.
Now I want to turn to the results of research on the historical identification of the chronicle miracle as a carrier of IE, obtained by Russian scientists back in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Chud as a carrier of IE was identified by the largest Russian linguist, paleographer, literary historian, Slavist A.I. Sobolevsky (1856-1929), and he came to this conclusion at the end of his creative path, considering the problem from the top of colossal scientific experience. I will give an excerpt from his work “The names of rivers and lakes of the Russian North” - one of his last works, where A.I. Sobolevsky also wrote about miracles. This work presents the work of other Russian scientists who also challenged the established view in the mid-19th century. Russian science postulate about Chud as a Finno-Ugric people. Therefore, I considered it legitimate to simply quote a large fragment from Sobolevsky’s article:
“The comparisons we made of the names of rivers and lakes of the Volga region, the Kama region and the Russian north, in general and in parts of these names, lead us to the conclusion that we are dealing with words of the same Indo-European language, the language that belonged to the autochthon of the Eastern and central Europe and a large part of central Asia - the dolicocephalic Scythian people.
Legends about this people - the Chuds - still live in the Russian north. In the districts of Arkhangelsk province. Kholmogorsky and Shenkursky, closest to the Northern Dvina, tell how desperately the Chud defended itself from the Russians and how it was defeated and exterminated. One detail is provided. Chud lived in pits; the dug holes were covered with roofs on pillars; earth and stones were placed on the roofs. In Nikolsky district of Vologda province. They remember the “filthy” people who hid in holes covered with earth. In Vyatka province. as if there are traces of miracles in local names. Eastern Finns - Cheremis, Votyaks, Permyaks, Zyryans consider themselves not autochthons, but newcomers to places previously occupied by another people - the Chud. Their legends, with remarkable agreement, depict the Chud pits: these are depressions dug in the ground and covered with a wooden roof, on which earth was poured. ...In “Russian-Scythian Etudes” ...we cited the observations of A.P. Bogdanov that dolichocephals were buried in the mounds of the Yaroslavl provinces (Yaroslavsky, Rostov, Mologsky districts), Tver, Vladimir, and Moscow. The same A.P. Bogdanov identified skulls from the shores of Lake Ladoga, delivered to him by A.A. Inostrantsev, and from the Borichsky district of the Novgorod province, from the Peredolsky excavations, as belonging to dolichocephalic skeletons. N.M. Maliev, having examined 20 skulls from the Ananyevsky burial ground, Chistopol district, Kazan province, found that they belonged to dolichocephalians. The same scientist, having examined the “Bulgarian” skulls obtained from Babii Hill near the ancient Bolgar, came to the conclusion that these skulls “have the most similarities with the kurgan skulls of the Moscow province, belong to the long-headed type, have the same cephalic index, and also strongly developed in height." It is completely natural to “assert that in the east of Russia, on the Kama and Volga, in the Bolgars, in ancient times there lived a long-headed tribe, similar in its anatomical structure and, perhaps, genetically related to the tribe that inhabited the central zone of Russia.” Maliev’s data, according to anthropologists, “confirms the dolichocephaly of the primitive inhabitants of the (Russian) east.” We said above that we will not stop at miracles. But on one detail of her life, about which legends speak, it is not superfluous to say a few words. Chud, according to legend, lived in pits covered with roofs and earth. In “Russian-Scythian Etudes” we cite Mela’s words about the contemporary inhabitants of Tauris, the Scythian satarchs and, by the way, the following: “Digging dwellings in the ground, they live in caves or dugouts.” Another valuable evidence relates to the area where the Scythians also lived in ancient times. In “Description of the Glorious Rivers of the Irtysh”, compiled around 1675, Spafariy says: “And on right side, down the Irtysh River, between Tara and the Salt Lakes there is Lake Baraba and near that lake and further near the Tomsk city is called Barabinskaya volost; and in that Barabinskaya volost there live the Tatars, who previously paid yasak to the great sovereign and Ablai-taisha, but now they pay only to the great sovereign. And those Tatars speak Kalmyk and Tatar, but they have a home - they dig cellars in the ground; and they have princes, and dug towns; and they hunt all sorts of animal trades.”
The current Finns of the Russian north and the Volga region - Ostyaks, Permyaks, Votyaks, Cheremis - still retain the use of something similar to Chud pits, as can be seen from the stories of I.N. Smirnova. In one of his works, he says: “In the Lugovaya Side, in the garden or on the threshing floor of Cheremisin, you can find a small conical structure made of thin poles, rising above a rather deep pit. Currently, this building serves as a barn, a drying sheaf... There was a time when this building had more important- served as a human dwelling. She represents exact copy the Western Finnish Kota, which Finnish poetry says was the first dwelling. Hints that the kota once fulfilled its primary purpose on the Volga are available from Arab travelers who visited Volga Bulgaria. Ibn-Dasta says that for the winter the neighbors of the Bolgars climb into pits, above which rise roofs lined with earth, reminiscent of the roofs of Christian churches.” In another work by I.N. Smirnov says: “This is how Dobrotvorsky describes ancient Permian housing, from the words of Permians: “many dug their homes in the ground, covering it from above with twigs and poles. There was no floor in such dugouts; For sleeping, hay was spread on the ground. The caves were heated with the help of a “greenhouse”, which was laid out in the middle of the pit... The dugouts were usually dug out in a high place, somewhere on the river bank, on a hillock in the middle of the forest.” The character of such underground dwellings was preserved among the Permians even now in those huts that were built for logging. Dobrotvorsky himself saw the remains of such dwellings in the form of pits on the mountain bank of the Letka River. They are also seen in large numbers in the Vologda province; there they are found in groups of 10-15, representing entire disappeared villages.”
Western Finnish cat, than. Where- undoubtedly the descendants of ancient Iranian. and Scythian kata, which goes back to *kt- V Rekta, Okhta and so on. and Poland and Little Russian hut.
Obviously, the Finns in ancient times, and then the Tatars, having occupied the territory of Chud, took advantage of its cultural experience. But of course, in the Cheremis or Permyak buildings we have no right to see a copy of the dwelling of the ancient miracles - the Scythians of the far north.
A few more words about the miracle. We, perhaps, have a trace of one of its customs, now found among the former neighbors of the Chud in the far north... In “Russian-Scythian Studies” (fl. IV) we cited Mela’s message about the tattooing of the face and limbs by Agathyrsians, i.e. arms and legs. Among the peoples of Europe, the Voguls know the tattoo of limbs. This is what the Russian learned traveler N.V. says. Sorokin: “I’ll mention the so-called Vogul tamga. Most Voguls (both men and women) have various patterns on their arms (above the hand) and legs, consisting of dark blue lines, squares and dots. Depending on the combination of these figures, you get either crosses or quadrangles with rays in all directions, etc. This body tattoo, as far as I have been able to find out, has various reasons. In most cases, young women or girls decorate themselves with it for the sake of coquetry... Men have a slightly different goal. During a hunt, wandering through the forests of the Urals, a Vogul from time to time carves on tree trunks the patterns that he has on his arms or legs, and since each family has its own tamga, every hunter walking through the forest and noticing carvings on trees, one can be confidently sure that a Vogul from such and such a family passed through these places...”
...We know that the Vogulichs, a once numerous and warlike tribe, occupied the northeast of Europe, descending south below Vyatka and Perm. Anthropologically a mixture of two or more peoples, they appear to be descendants of the Chud - to a certain extent. By the way, they (and the Ostyaks) are dolichocephalic...
An excellent connoisseur of Cheremis, born among them, I.N. Smirnov says: “The country in which the Cheremis finally settled was not a desert when they appeared in it. The main waters of the territory from the Volga to the Vyatka were known to man long before the beginning of the Cheremis colonization. All of them have names that do not correspond in composition to the Cheremis... From the fact that small rivers bear Votyak names, we can conclude that the Votyaks, like the Cheremis, found the region... already with traces of humans. A variety of names that are inexplicable neither from the Cheremis nor from the Votyak language... cannot yet be explained from living Finnish dialects and belong, judging by the similarity or even identity, to the people who occupied a huge space from the meridian of Moscow to the meridian of Perm "...
N.M. Maliev reports: “Mordva of Samara province. Belongs to two varieties of this tribe - Moksha and Erza. Differing from each other in language and clothing, they differ from each other, although with difficulty, in their external physical features. In general, the Mordovians represent a population with mixed types. Between them there are both brunettes and blondes; however, between Moksha there are more subjects with white skin, with blond or red hair and blue eyes, in a word, typical Finns, while the Erzyans have darker skin, dark hair, and large beards.” According to N.M. Maliev, Mordovians are known in Samara and Simbirsk provinces. “by its physical stature” and differs “from other puny tribes Finnish tribe strength of physique." “Mordovians are a strong, healthy, broad-shouldered people, with a highly developed skeletal and muscular system”... “Places near Tarnoga, which flows into the Kokshenga on the left side, are, according to legend, memorable for the attack of some unbaptized miracle. Tradition claims that the inhabitants of the seven Koksheng volosts, having heard about the approach of the enemy, gathered at the churchyard of the Shendinskaya volost to pray... The black miracle approached... The miracle overpowered... broke into the churchyard and robbed the church treasury in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.” In our opinion, the legend refers to the Cheremis raid. It distorted this name into a black miracle.
“In the huge bend formed by (the Kama), ... embracing parts of the Glazovsky, Slobodsky and Okhansky districts, amazingly monotonous legends are heard everywhere about the miracle that was here, which disappeared completely without a trace when the Russian tribe appeared. You come across a lot of Chud settlements, on the site of which in most cases there are Russian villages with a Finnish-Permyak ending -va. But there are settlements in deserted areas, covered with dense forests. You find a significant amount of mostly copper, iron, and occasionally silver items, debris, etc. original, characteristic miracle work. In Perm and the distant Slobodsky district, these copper finds are similar both in appearance and in the chemical composition of the metal, which indicates that the Chuds of the Perm, Vyatka and, probably, Vologda provinces belong to the same era, to the same tribe, similar life habits and historical past”... N.M. Maliev gives information about the appearance of the Voguls living along the Lozva River: “skin color is different, some are dark, others are lighter; There are quite a few who are completely blond. The hair on the head is long, black or blond, soft; I saw only one person with very curly hair, and it was blond... Eye color is gray, blue, brown...”
From an article by V.N. Mainov “The first anthropological exhibition in Moscow”: “... two skulls from the mounds of the Podolsk district of the Moscow province, which aroused considerable interest, since they are contradictory with their long heads to generally accepted opinions”... “In the Moscow province. ... around the 9th century we meet a very characteristic long-headed people, whose anthropological characteristics are very similar to the Kurgan tribe of the kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Minsk provinces... The Kurgan tribe especially densely populated Podolsk, Moscow, Bronnitsky districts "... "The greatest interest from the entire craniological collection is represented by several skulls found by prof. Foreigners in the trench of the new Syassky Canal and undoubtedly belonged to representatives of the Stone Age”... “In Olonets province. excavations were carried out by Barsov in Lodeynopolsky district... The skulls here too turned out to belong to the long-headed type"... "Northern ancient cemeteries were studied by Zenger... We have before us two types: the Chud, rather purely brachycephalic, and the stone Zolotitsa (from the village of Nizhnyaya Zolotitsa, Arkhangelsk province), apparently trying to claim to be dolichocephalic. Which people these last skulls belonged to is still shrouded in the darkness of uncertainty, although everything suggests that before the Finns through the northern and western Russia some mesatichyphal tribe was passing through”... “Prof. Samokvasov exhibited his collection of long-headed skulls from the Sudzhansky district of Kursk Gubernia... The Sudzhansky tribe stood closest to the Moscow tribe... Sharp dolichocephalians during the Kurgan period reached south to the limits of the present Kursk Gubernia."...
The vast Western Siberia, by the names of its rivers, lakes, and mountains, is undoubtedly connected with Russia. ...The Russians also brought their legends about miracles to Siberia. The names Chudskaya grave, Chudskaya mine (in Altai), etc. owe their origin to them. About miracles as owners of rich graves in Tobolsk province. say the documents of 1669, published by P.P. Pekarsky in Izvestia R. Archaeologist. General, vol. V.
A.F. Likhachev in the report “Scythian elements in the Chud antiquities of the Kazan province.” says “the remarkable analogy of the Ananyevsky Kurgan (Vyatka province): on the one hand, with the Chud burial mounds in Siberia, and on the other with the mounds in southern Russia, is a reason to classify this monument as a miracle Scythian.” ( Sobolevsky A.I. Names of rivers and lakes of the Russian north. M., 1927).
So, the Volga region, the Kama region and the Russian north, according to Sobolevsky and his colleagues, were inhabited by speakers of the Indo-European language - the language of the autochthonous population of Eastern Europe, which Sobolevsky calls Scythian (“until a more suitable term is found,” he explains at the beginning of the article) and to which treated Chud. To continue the study of the issue of the Chud people as carriers of IE, it is necessary to take into account such a feature as the change in the name of the people during migrations, which is also noted in the Legend, and it is noted throughout the entire story, starting from the ancient period, that diverging to different countries, the tribes “were nicknamed different names."
This feature also applied to the miracle. In legends and other works of oral history, the chronicle miracle appeared under a different name, and work with this name gave additional material to study the problem. This material will be presented in the second part of the article.
Lydia Grot,
Candidate of Historical Sciences
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82 comments: Rus' and Chud in Old Russian history (part one)
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N.K. Roerich. Chud underground
The Chud tribe is one of the most mysterious phenomena in our country. Its history has long been overgrown with secrets, epics and even rumors, both quite plausible and completely fantastic. Not much is known about this tribe to judge from this information full history its representatives, but quite enough to give birth to the most incredible legends. Scientists and researchers have tried and are trying to unearth evidence of that era, to decipher that amazing world, full of mysteries, which the Chud tribe gave us.
The Chud tribe is sometimes compared to the Maya tribe of American Indians. Both those and others suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only memories. In official history, the term “Chud” is considered the ancient Russian name for several Finno-Ugric tribes. The very name of the tribe Chud“It’s also not entirely clear. It is popularly believed that the representatives of these tribes were named this way because of their incomprehensible language, which they spoke and which other tribes did not understand. There is an assumption that the tribe was originally Germanic or Gothic, which is why they were called Chud. In those days, “Chud” and “Alien” were not only of the same root, but also had same value. However, in some Finno-Ugric languages, the name Chud was used to name one of the mythological characters, which also cannot be discounted.
This tribe, which suddenly disappeared, is mentioned in ““, where the chronicler directly narrates: “ ...Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on Chud, Ilmen Slovenes, Merya and Krivichi...". However, not everything is so simple here either. For example, the historian S.M. Solovyov made the assumption that in the Tale of Bygone Years the inhabitants of the Vodskaya valley of the Novgorod Land pyatin - Vod - were called Chud. Another mention dates back to 882 and refers to Oleg’s campaign: “ ... went on a campaign and took with him many warriors: Varangians, Ilmen Slavs, Krivichi, all, Chud and came to Smolensk and took the city...«.
Yaroslav the Wise undertook a victorious campaign against Chud in 1030: “and defeated them and established the city of Yuryev.” Subsequently, it turned out that a number of tribes were called Chud, such as: Estonians, Seto (Chud of Pskov), Vod, Izhora, Korely, Zavolochye (Chud of Zavolochskaya). In Novgorod there is Chudintseva Street, where noble representatives of this tribe previously lived, and in Kyiv there is Chudin Dvor. It is also believed that the following names were formed on behalf of these tribes: the city of Chudovo, Lake Peipus, and the Chud River. In the Vologda region there are villages with the names: Front Chudi, Middle Chudi and Back Chudi. Currently, Chudi’s descendants live in the Penezhsky region Arkhangelsk region. In 2002, Chud was included in the register of independent nationalities.
Of particular interest, in addition to the historical, is folklore, in which the tribe appears as the White-Eyed Chud. Strange epithet " White-eyed“, which the representatives of the Chuds were dubbed, is also a mystery. Some believe that the white-eyed miracle is because it lives underground, where there is no sunlight, while others believe that in the old days, gray-eyed or blue-eyed people were called white-eyed. Chud white-eyed, as a mythological character, is found in the folklore of the Komi and Sami, as well as the Mansi, Siberian Tatars, Altaians and Nenets. To explain it in a nutshell, the White-Eyed Chud is a vanished civilization. Following these beliefs, the legendary white-eyed Chud lived in the north of the European part of Russia and the Urals. Descriptions of this tribe include descriptions of short people who live in caves and deep underground. In addition, chud, chud, shud is a monster, and meant a giant, often a cannibal giant with white eyes.
One of the legends, which was recorded in the village of Afanasyevo, Kirov region, says: “ And when other people began to appear along the Kama, this miracle did not want to communicate with them. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called - Peipus Coast". The mistress of the copper mountain, the tale of which was told to us by the Russian writer P.P. Bazhov, is considered by many to be one of that same Chudi.
Judging by the legends, a meeting with representatives of the white-eyed miracle, who sometimes appeared out of nowhere, came out of caves, appeared in the fog, could bring good luck to some and misfortune to others. They live underground, where they ride dogs and herd mammoths or earthen deer. The mythical representatives of the white-eyed miracle are considered to be good and skilled blacksmiths, metallurgists and excellent warriors, which can be compared with the belief of the Scandinavian tribes, who are also short in stature, are good warriors and skilled blacksmiths. Chud white-eyed (they are also Sirtya, Sikhirtya) can steal a child, cause damage, and scare a person. They know how to suddenly appear and disappear just as suddenly.
Testimonies from missionaries, researchers and travelers have been preserved about the earthen settlements of Chud. For the first time, A. Shrenk spoke about orphans in 1837, who discovered Chud caves with the remains of a certain culture in the lower reaches of the Korotaikha River. Missionary Benjamin wrote: “ The Korotaikha River is remarkable for its abundance of fisheries and Chud earthen caves, in which, according to Samoyed legends, 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 - “Chudskaya Mountain”". I. Lepekhin wrote 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 mountains and hills like caves with openings like doors. In these caves they found ovens and found fragments of iron, copper and clay household items.". V.N. was once puzzled by the same question. Chernetsov, who wrote about the miracle in his reports of 1935-1957, where he collected many legends. In addition, he discovered the Sirtya monuments in Yamal. Thus, the existence of a tribe that actually existed in these places once is documented. The Nenets, whose ancestors witnessed the existence of a mysterious tribe in these places, claim that it went underground (into the hills), but did not disappear. And to this day you can meet people of small stature and with white eyes, and this meeting most often does not bode well.
After the Chud went underground, after other tribes came to their lands, whose descendants live here to this day, they left many treasures. These treasures are enchanted and, according to legend, only the descendants of the miracle itself can find them. These treasures are guarded by miracle spirits, who appear in a variety of guises, for example, in the form of a hero on a horse, a bear, a hare and others. Due to the fact that many would like to penetrate the secrets of the underground inhabitants and take possession of untold riches, some are still taking various steps to search for these caches full of gold and jewelry. There are a huge number of legends, tales and stories about daredevils who decided to search for miracle treasures. All, or most of them, end, alas, in tears for the main characters. Some of them die, others remain crippled, others go crazy, and others go missing in a dungeon or caves.
He also writes about the legendary miracle Roerich in his book "Heart of Asia". There he describes his meeting with an Old Believer in Altai. This man took them to a rocky hill where there were stone circles of ancient burials and, showing them to the Roerich family, told the following story: “ This is where Chud went underground. When the White Tsar came to Altai to fight and as the white birch blossomed in our region, 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". A year earlier (1913) of these events, Nicholas Roerich, being an excellent artist, painted the painting “The Miracle Has Gone Under the Ground.” Be that as it may, the mystery of the Chud tribe still remains open. Official history, represented by archaeologists, ethnographers, and local historians, consider ordinary tribes, such as the Ugrians, Khanty, and Mansi, as miracles, who were no different in anything special and left their habitats due to the arrival of other tribes on their lands. Others consider the White-Eyed Chud to be a great people who have the gift of sorcery and magic, who live deep in caves and underground cities, who from time to time appear on the surface to warn people, warn, punish or protect their treasures, the hunters of which are never will decrease.
« “But somewhere to this day,” says Vasily, “the Lapps believe not in Christ, but in “chud.” There is a high mountain from where they throw deer as sacrifices to the god. There is a mountain where a noid (sorcerer) lives, and deer are brought there to him. There they cut them with wooden knives, and hang the skin on poles. The wind shakes her, her legs move. And if there is moss or sand below, then the deer seems to be walking. Vasily has met such a deer more than once in the mountains. Just like alive! It's scary to watch. And it can be even more terrible when in winter a fire sparkles in the sky and the abysses of the earth open, and monsters begin to emerge from the graves.«
The fate of the people under the strange name “white-eyed Chud” still remains one of the most controversial mysterious issues in our history. Despite the fact that the Chud left their traces everywhere: in the names of lakes and villages, in fairy tales and sayings, in the archaeological cultural layer, this tribe simply disappeared from the face of the earth.
Who is Chud Zavolochskaya?
According to the overwhelming majority of historians, Chud is nothing more than a collective concept, by which our ancestors meant the totality of some Finno-Ugric tribes. The language of these strangers was incomprehensible and alien to the Russians, and therefore they were dubbed Chud. Representatives of this mysterious tribe lived in territories whose population is still dominated by representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples.
Chudya Zavolochskaya was the name of the inhabitants of Zavolochye - lands lying within the boundaries of the basins of two rivers - the Northern Dvina and Onega. In ancient times, ships had to be dragged from one river to another manually - by dragging. In the same way, areas of land between two bodies of water began to be called portages. Hence Zavolochye - behind the portage.
Soviet archaeologist A.Ya. Bryusov believed that the Zavolochsk region was inhabited by the first people about 3-4 thousand years ago. This is evidenced by the remains of tools and utensils found as a result of excavations. Moreover, according to historians, all the items were made very skillfully.
Reasons for the disappearance of the miracle
Many scientists claim that the Zavolochsk miracle has not gone away. It’s just that representatives of this tribe assimilated among other nationalities: Karelians, Vepsians, Russians. Being pagans, they nevertheless accepted Christianity along with others and, uniting with the newly converted, simply dissolved among them, accepting their writing, which the Chuds did not have at all.
However, some researchers believe that the Zavolochsk Chud did not want to be baptized, since these people were ardent pagans and did not want to deviate from their faith. Even many years after the spread of the new religion in Rus', representatives of the Chuds retained an appearance that testified (for example, loose hair on women) that they never abandoned paganism.
Folklore about the location of the miracle
Especially many references to miracles can be found in fairy tales and stories of Old Believers. So, one of these stories talks about a certain White Tsar who decided to conquer a mysterious tribe and gathered a huge army for this. However, the Chuds did not want to obey the king and descended deep underground, where they live to this day. They built roads and cities there. Only sometimes, in complete silence, can you hear the bells ringing in underground temples. But the day will come when the miracle will come to the surface again.
According to another legend, representatives of the Chuds actually rejected the new Christian faith, which was alien to them, and, realizing that they were doomed, they committed mass suicide. They dug a huge hole in the ground, installed pillars there, and put a roof on them, after which they went down into this hole and knocked out the supports. They were covered with fragments of the roof. None of the Chud tribe survived.
Chud white-eyed - ancient inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region
Chud Zavolochskaya- this is the ancient pre-Slavic population of Zavolochye, which to this day is in some way a historical mystery. This term was put into use by the 11th century chronicler Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years. Listing the peoples of Eastern Europe in his work, he named this nation among other Finno-Ugric tribes of that time: “... in the Afetov part there are Rus, Chud and all the pagans: Merya, Muroma, Ves, Mordva, Zavolochskaya Chud, Perm, Pechera , Yam, Ugra"
Residence map of Chudi Zavolochskaya.
Historians claim that they were an unliterate people and did not leave behind them any chronicles or any other documents.
They did not survive as a people, they did not leave their customs or language to this day, the Chud disappeared without a trace among the Russian newcomers and neighboring peoples. Only legends and names once given to the rivers and lakes among which they lived remind us of the Chud tribes.
We know that the people, called the Chud of Zavolotsk by the Novgorodians, lived in the basins of the Mezen and northern Dvina rivers, along the banks of the Luza, South, and Pushma. In terms of language and culture, the Chud belonged to the Finno-Ugric peoples. Once upon a time, Finno-Ugric peoples inhabited the entire northeast of Europe, the Urals and part of Asia.
They spoke a language close to the language of modern Vepsians and Karelians.
All information about the life, clothing and appearance of the Chud tribes is known only from the results of archaeological excavations. Archaeologists usually search in areas with some “wonderful” name. They find either traces of a settlement, or a settlement, or a Chud burial ground - an ancient cemetery. Based on the finds, one can determine whether it was a Chud, or another Finno-Ugric tribe, or the Scandinavians and Slavs who came to this land later.
Chud and other Finns can be confidently distinguished from others by two types of finds: by the remains of their pottery and by jewelry. Clay dishes are usually molded without a potter's wheel, by hand, with thick walls; often they have not a flat, but a round bottom, because food was cooked in them not in stoves, but in hearths, over an open fire. The outside of such dishes is decorated with ornaments pressed into wet clay using sticks and special stamps; such an ornament is called pit-comb and is found only among the Finno-Ugric peoples.
These were people of average and above average height, presumably fair-haired and with light eyes, in appearance most reminiscent of modern Karelians and Finns.
Because of appearance, there is another name for this people - White-eyed Chud.
The Chud tribes were masters of pottery and blacksmithing, and knew how to weave and process wood and bone. They were familiar with metal not so long ago: many tools made of bone and flint are found in settlements.
They lived by hunting and fishing. They were also engaged in agriculture, growing unpretentious northern crops: oats, rye, barley, flax. They kept domestic animals, although during excavations of settlements in Zavolochye they find more bones of wild animals than domestic ones. They hunted not only for meat, they also hunted fur-bearing animals. Fur in those days was in use along with money. It was also just a commodity; it was traded with Novgorod, and with Scandinavia, and with Volga Bulgaria.
In connection with the development of trade in Zavolochye, ancient portage routes arose. Most likely, they were laid not by Russian newcomers, but by the local population, and only then they were used by the Novgorodians and Ustyug residents.
Chud disappeared with the advent of Christianity. Their own religion was pagan.
All the legends about the miracle say something like this. Chud lived in the forest, in dugouts, and had her own faith. When they were asked to convert to Christianity, they refused. And when they wanted to baptize them by force, they dug a large hole and made an earthen roof on the pillars, and then everyone went in there, cut down the pillars, and they were covered with earth. So the ancient miracle went underground.
Official science claims that the Chud of Zavolotsk shared the fate of the Finnish tribes, who disappeared among the Russian newcomers and neighboring peoples: the Muroms, Meri, Narovs, Meshchers, Vesi. They were all once mentioned in Russian chronicles next to the miracle. Some of them that resisted the Russian invasion were apparently exterminated; some accepted the Christian faith and merged with the Russian population, gradually losing their language and almost all customs; and a considerable part united with neighboring, largely related peoples.
In the old days and in the Urals, a legend was born about the “white-eyed Chud” - a nameless people who lived in ancient times along the banks of the Ural rivers and lakes. When plowing the land, peasants often found “Chudi” things: tools, weapons, jewelry, shards of dishes. So, at the end of the last century, iron and silver daggers were found in arable land near the Kamenka River, and in 1903, the peasant P. Fedorov found a bronze knife with a copper handle in these places.
Traces of the “white-eyed miracle” were found in almost every village or hamlet. These were ancient settlements with ramparts and ditches - fortifications, like the villages of Ipatovskoye on Iset and Zyryanovskoye on Sinar, or burial mounds, like the villages of Travyanskoye, Khromtsovskoye, Kamenno-Ozernoye, near the lakes Shablish, Tygish and Bolshoi Sungul.
Ancient graves - mounds or "hillocks" in Ural - attracted the attention of people, causing them superstitious fear. There were rumors among the people about countless treasures buried in the mounds. In the 17th century, during the period of settlement of the Urals and Siberia by Russians, “bumping”, i.e., became widespread among peasants. predatory excavation of mounds in order to search for gold. Finding in the graves the skeletons of the buried and objects placed with the dead, people believed that the “hillocks” they excavated were not the graves of the ancient Urals, but dugouts, the dwellings of an unknown, wonderful people.
The legends about the “white-eyed Chudi” say that the Chudi were the people vertically challenged. These people lived in dugouts. When the Chudtsy learned that the White Tsar wanted to conquer them, they cut down the pillars of their dugouts and buried themselves.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the Hyperboreans, Issedons, and Sarmatians live in the Hyperborean Mountains, as he called the Ural Mountains. Perhaps the legendary Chud belongs to these mythical peoples.
Chud tribe. Chud White-Eyed
The Chud tribe is one of the most mysterious phenomena in our country. Its history has long been overgrown with secrets, epics and even rumors, both quite plausible and completely fantastic. Not much is known about this tribe to judge from this information the complete history of its representatives, but quite enough to give rise to the most incredible legends. Scientists and researchers have tried and are trying to unearth evidence of that era, to decipher that wonderful world full of mysteries that the Chud tribe gave us.
The Chud tribe is sometimes compared to the Maya tribe of American Indians. Both those and others suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only memories. In official history, the term “Chud” is considered the ancient Russian name for several Finno-Ugric tribes. The very name of the tribe Chud“It’s also not entirely clear. It is popularly believed that the representatives of these tribes were named this way because of their incomprehensible language, which they spoke and which other tribes did not understand. There is an assumption that the tribe was originally Germanic or Gothic, which is why they were called Chud. In those days, “Chud” and “Alien” not only had the same root, but also had the same meaning. However, in some Finno-Ugric languages, the name Chud was used to name one of the mythological characters, which also cannot be discounted. (In addition, there is a version that CHUD is a distorted Russian Finnish word TUDO (people) - ed.)
This tribe, which suddenly disappeared, is mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years, where the chronicler directly narrates: “ ...Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on the Chud, Ilmen Slavs, Merya and Krivichi...". However, not everything is so simple here either. For example, the historian S.M. Solovyov made the assumption that in the Tale of Bygone Years the inhabitants of the Vodskaya valley of the Novgorod Land pyatin - Vod - were called Chud. Another mention dates back to 882 and refers to Oleg’s campaign: “ ... went on a campaign and took with him many warriors: Varangians, Ilmen Slavs, Krivichi, all, Chud and came to Smolensk and took the city...».
Yaroslav the Wise undertook a victorious campaign against Chud in 1030: “and defeated them and established the city of Yuryev.” Subsequently, it turned out that a number of tribes were called Chud, such as: Estonians, Seto (Chud of Pskov), Vod, Izhora, Korely, Zavolochye (Chud of Zavolochskaya). In Novgorod there is Chudintseva Street, where noble representatives of this tribe previously lived, and in Kyiv there is Chudin Dvor. It is also believed that the following names were formed on behalf of these tribes: the city of Chudovo, Lake Peipus, and the Chud River. In the Vologda region there are villages with the names: Front Chudi, Middle Chudi and Back Chudi. Currently, Chudi’s descendants live in the Penezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. In 2002, Chud was included in the register of independent nationalities.
Of particular interest, in addition to the historical, is folklore, in which the tribe appears as the White-Eyed Chud. Strange epithet " White-eyed“, which the representatives of the Chuds were dubbed, is also a mystery. Some believe that the white-eyed miracle is because it lives underground, where there is no sunlight, while others believe that in the old days, gray-eyed or blue-eyed people were called white-eyed. Chud white-eyed, as a mythological character, is found in the folklore of the Komi and Sami, as well as the Mansi, Siberian Tatars, Altaians and Nenets. To explain it in a nutshell, the White-Eyed Chud is a vanished civilization. Following these beliefs, the legendary white-eyed Chud lived in the north of the European part of Russia and the Urals. Descriptions of this tribe include descriptions of short people who live in caves and deep underground. In addition, chud, chud, shud is a monster, and meant a giant, often a cannibal giant with white eyes.
One of the legends, which was recorded in the village of Afanasyevo, Kirov region, says: “ And when other people began to appear along the Kama, this miracle did not want to communicate with them. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called - Peipus Coast". The mistress of the copper mountain, the tale of which was told to us by the Russian writer P.P. Bazhov, is considered by many to be one of that same Chudi.
Judging by the legends, a meeting with representatives of the white-eyed miracle, who sometimes appeared out of nowhere, came out of caves, appeared in the fog, could bring good luck to some and misfortune to others. They live underground, where they ride dogs and herd mammoths or earthen deer. The mythical representatives of the white-eyed miracle are considered to be good and skilled blacksmiths, metallurgists and excellent warriors, which can be compared with the belief of the Scandinavian tribes in gnomes, who are also short in stature, are good warriors and skilled blacksmiths. Chud white-eyed (they are also Sirtya, Sikhirtya) can steal a child, cause damage, and scare a person. They know how to suddenly appear and disappear just as suddenly.
Testimonies from missionaries, researchers and travelers have been preserved about the earthen settlements of Chud. For the first time, A. Shrenk spoke about orphans in 1837, who discovered Chud caves with the remains of a certain culture in the lower reaches of the Korotaikha River. Missionary Benjamin wrote: “ The Korotaikha River is remarkable for its abundance of fisheries and Chud earthen caves, in which, according to Samoyed legends, Chud once lived in ancient times. These caves are ten miles from the mouth, on the right bank, on a slope, which from ancient times was called Sirte-sya in Samoyed - “Mountain Peipus”. I. Lepekhin wrote 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 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.”.
V.N. was once puzzled by the same question. Chernetsov, who wrote about the miracle in his reports of 1935-1957, where he collected many legends. In addition, he discovered the Sirtya monuments in Yamal. Thus, the existence of a tribe that actually existed in these places once is documented. The Nenets, whose ancestors witnessed the existence of a mysterious tribe in these places, claim that it went underground (into the hills), but did not disappear. And to this day you can meet people of small stature and with white eyes, and this meeting, most often, does not bode well.
After the Chud went underground, after other tribes came to their lands, whose descendants live here to this day, they left many treasures. These treasures are enchanted and, according to legend, only the descendants of the miracle itself can find them. These treasures are guarded by miracle spirits, who appear in a variety of guises, for example, in the form of a hero on a horse, a bear, a hare and others. Due to the fact that many would like to penetrate the secrets of the underground inhabitants and take possession of untold riches, some are still taking various steps to search for these caches full of gold and jewelry. There are a huge number of legends, tales and stories about daredevils who decided to search for miracle treasures. All, or most of them, end, alas, in tears for the main characters. Some of them die, others remain crippled, others go crazy, and others go missing in a dungeon or caves.
He also writes about the legendary miracle Roerich in his book "Heart of Asia". There he describes his meeting with an Old Believer in Altai. This man took them to a rocky hill where there were stone circles of ancient burials and, showing them to the Roerich family, told the following story: “ This is where Chud went underground. When the White Tsar came to Altai to fight and as the white birch blossomed in our region, 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«.
A year earlier (1913) of these events, Nicholas Roerich, being an excellent artist, painted the painting “The Miracle Has Gone Under the Ground.” Be that as it may, the mystery of the Chud tribe still remains open. Official history, represented by archaeologists, ethnographers, and local historians, consider ordinary tribes, such as the Ugrians, Khanty, Mansi, as miracles, who were not different in anything special, and left their habitats due to the arrival of other tribes on their lands. Others consider the White-Eyed Chud to be a great people who have the gift of sorcery and magic, who live deep in caves and underground cities, who from time to time appear on the surface to warn people, warn, punish or protect their treasures, the hunters of which are never will decrease.
« “But somewhere to this day,” says Vasily, “the Lapps believe not in Christ, but in “chud.” There is a high mountain from where they throw deer as sacrifices to the god. There is a mountain where a noid (sorcerer) lives, and deer are brought there to him. There they cut them with wooden knives, and hang the skin on poles. The wind shakes her, her legs move. And if there is moss or sand below, then the deer seems to be walking. Vasily has met such a deer more than once in the mountains. Just like alive! It's scary to watch. And it can be even worse when in winter a fire sparkles in the sky and the abysses of the earth open, and monsters begin to emerge from the graves“- this is what Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin wrote in the story “Kolobok”.
URAL MIRACLE - WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
Historians and folklorists have long been arguing about the unusual and mysterious people, the so-called. “White-eyed Chudi,” whose representatives, according to legends and tales, were distinguished by their special beauty, article, possessed yogic abilities and possessed extensive and deep knowledge about nature. This people, connected by mysterious ties with the Russian people, mysteriously disappears, and its traces are lost in the Altai mountains.
Below is an attempt to penetrate the secrets of this amazing people. The famous Russian artist, scientist and writer N.K. Roerich in his book “The Heart of Asia” talks about a legend widespread in Altai. Legend tells that people with dark skin color once lived in the coniferous forests of Altai. It was called a miracle. Tall, stately, knowing the secret science of the earth. But then white birch began to grow in those places, which, according to ancient prophecy, meant the imminent arrival here white people and their king, who will establish his order. People dug holes, set up stands, and piled stones on top. They went into the shelters, tore out the posts and covered them with stones.
This completely incomprehensible ethnographic incident of the voluntary destruction of one people before the arrival of another is somewhat clarified by another version of the legend given in the same book. Chud didn’t bury herself, but went into secret dungeons into an unknown country “only Chud didn’t leave forever, when the happy time returns and people from Belovodye come and give great science to all the people, then Chud will come with all the treasures they have obtained.”
In the legend, writes creativity researcher N.K. Roerich artist L.R. Tsesyulevich, - there is a hint of the existence to this day somewhere, perhaps in a hidden place, of a people with high culture and knowledge. In this regard, the legend of Chudi echoes the legend of the hidden country of Belovodye and the legend of the underground city of the Agarti people, widespread in India.
Similar legends are very widespread in the Urals, which is like a connecting link between the northwestern part of our country and Altai, where legends about Chudi also existed.
It can be noted that legends associated with Chud places - mounds and fortifications, underground caves and passages - having arisen in the north-west of Rus', then moved after the Russian settlers, first to the Urals, and then to Altai. This strip crosses the Urals, mainly through the Perm, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions.
In different variations, the legend of the Chud in the Urals says that some dark-skinned people lived here, familiar with the “secret power.” But then white birch began to grow in these places, then Chud dug caves, fixed the roof on pillars, and poured earth and stones on top. She all gathered in these dwellings with her property and, cutting down the pillars, buried herself alive underground.
Some legends even tell about real contacts of early settlers with the “messengers” of Chudi - the “Miracle Maidens”. They say that before going underground, Chud left a “girl” for observation so that she would guard treasures and jewelry, but she showed the white people everything, and then the “old people” hid all the gold and metals.
This legend surprisingly has something in common with the legend given by N.K. Roerich in the book “Heart of Asia”: “A woman came out of the dungeon. She is tall, has a stern face and is darker than ours. I walked around help to the people did, and then went back into the dungeon. She also came from the holy country.”
The interaction of Chudi’s “envoys” with the settlers was not limited only to contacts in reality; the legend also recorded completely unusual contacts and influences through dreams. Thus, Sverdlovsk researcher A. Malakhov, in one of his articles published in the Ural Pathfinder for 1979, cites a bright and beautiful legend about the Chud woman ruler: “Once Tatishchev, the founder of Yekaterinburg, had a strange dream. A woman of unusual appearance and wondrous beauty appeared to him. She was dressed in animal skins, and gold jewelry sparkled on her chest. “Listen,” the woman said to Tatishchev, “you gave the order to dig mounds in your new city. Don't touch them, my brave warriors lie there. You will have no peace in either this or this world if you disturb their ashes or take expensive armor. I am Princess Anna of Chud, I swear to you that I will destroy both the city and everything that you are building if you touch these graves.” And Tatishchev ordered not to open the burials. Only the tops of the mounds were discovered.
Along with data about Chudi’s contacts with settlers, the legends contain quite clear and distinct characteristics appearance and the spiritual appearance of the “eccentrics”, so that the features of a real people appear before us.
In one of the first stories by P.P. Bazhov “Dear little name” - Chud or “old people” is a tall beautiful people living in the mountains, in unusually beautiful dwellings built inside the mountains, living almost unnoticed by others. These people do not know self-interest and are indifferent to gold. When people appear in their remote habitats, they leave through underground passages, “closing the mountain.”
Ural ore explorers report that almost all the ore deposits on which the Demidovs built their factories were indicated by Chud marks - overburden, and the discovery of even later deposits was also associated with such marks, which suggests a certain cultural mission of Chud in the Urals.
This idea is supported by another observation. When people come to new places, they usually find themselves in a kind of weightlessness—the absence of an oriented living space. This did not happen to the settlers in the Urals. Someone gave mountains, rivers, lakes, tracts, and mounds amazingly accurate names. They contained, as it were, a spiritual vector, which later brilliantly materialized. And it is not for nothing that the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras believed that “anyone who wants to, but who sees the mind and essence of things, cannot form names.” Moreover, the Chud places themselves became a kind of “magnets”. On the Chud mounds stands the city of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and the city of Kurgan arose next to the huge mound. And how accurately and as if it is no coincidence that cities and villages are located where they need to be: in communication nodes, near mineral deposits, surrounded by beautiful nature. Orenburg was somewhat unlucky at first. It was placed in the places indicated by the Germans, and had to be rearranged several times.
How many centuries ago Chud lived in the Urals and where she went to her underground cities is unknown. It is possible that they lived here back in the days of the ancient Greeks. Thus, the famous ancient Greek myth tells about the Hyperboreans who lived somewhere beyond the Riphean (Ural) mountains. These people lived happy life: he did not know strife and disease, death came to people only from satiety with life. This is what the ancient Greek writer Lucian, who was skeptical about everything unusual, says about his meeting with one of the Hyperboreans: “I considered it completely impossible to believe them, and, however, as soon as I first saw a flying foreigner, a barbarian - he called himself a Hyperborean - I believed and was defeated, although he resisted for a long time.
And what really could I do when, before my eyes, during the day a man rushed through the air, walked on water and slowly walked through fire?
Where did Chud go?
Is it not to those underground cities with which N.K. Roerich connects the lives of the wise and beautiful inhabitants of Agartha and who were told about by the Chelyabinsk writer S.K. Vlasova, Ural workers: “I recently heard in an old Ural plant that all the caves that exist in the Urals communicate with each other. It’s as if there are holes hidden between them, sometimes wide, like the Kungur pits, these earthly sinkholes, sometimes thin, like golden threads. They also say that once in ancient times it was not difficult to move from cave to cave - there was a paved road. True, who carried it out is unknown - either people, miraculously unknown, or evil spirits... Only in our time, people, penetrating into those caves and those passages where they can go, find many traces: where the house was set up, where the amethyst stone lies , and where the footprint of a human foot was imprinted..."
In the Perm region there are similar legends about the Chud heroes who sleep in underground caves under Ural mountains until the appointed hour. Also, the Para-hero guards the miracle wealth. The Ural land holds many still unsolved miracle secrets, but as P.P. Bazhov predicted, the time will come when these secrets will be revealed, and, gifted with treasures hidden for the time being, people will live a bright, happy life: “There will be a time in our side when there will be no merchants, no king, not even a title left. Then people on our side will become big and healthy. One such person will approach Mount Azov and loudly say “dear little thing,” and then a miracle will come out of the ground with all human treasures.”
V.V.SOBOLEV
http://www.alpha-omega.su/index/0-389
Chud white-eyed - legends and facts
By opening the list of languages and nationalities of the Russian Federation approved by the State Statistics Committee of Russia, you can learn a lot of interesting things. For example, the fact that in Russia there are people who consider themselves to be among the mythical people of wizards is a miracle.
Most likely this is a misunderstanding. After all, according to the legends of the north of Russia, these people went to live underground more than a thousand years ago. However, in Karelia and the Urals, even today you can hear eyewitness accounts of a meeting with representatives of the Chud. The famous ethnographer of Karelia, Alexey Popov, told us about one of these meetings.
- Alexey, how plausible is the story of the existence of the Chuds, this mythical people?
Of course, the miracle really existed, and then went away. But it’s not known exactly where. Ancient legends say that underground. Moreover, surprisingly, there is a mention of this people even in Nestor’s “Tale of Bygone Years”: “... the Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on the Chud, Slovenes, Merya and Krivichi, and the Khazars from the glades, northerners, and Vyatichi took tribute in silver coins and the verite (squirrel) from the smoke.” It is also known from the chronicles that in 1030 Yaroslav the Wise made a campaign against Chud “and defeated them and established the city of Yuryev.” Today it is one of largest cities modern Estonia - Tartu. At the same time, on the territory of Russia there is a huge number of toponymic names reminiscent of the mysterious people who once lived here, but the people themselves are not there, as if they never existed.
- What did the chud look like?
According to most researchers, ethnographers and historians, these were creatures that looked very much like European gnomes. They lived on the territory of Russia until the ancestors of the Slavs and Finno-Ugrians came here. On modern Urals For example, there are still legends about unexpected helpers of people - short, white-eyed creatures that appear from nowhere and help travelers lost in the forests of the Perm region.
- You said that the chud went underground...
If we summarize numerous legends, it turns out that the miracle descended into dugouts, which it itself dug in the ground, and then blocked all the entrances. True, the dugouts could well have been entrances to caves. This means that it was in the underground caves that this mythical people hid. At the same time, completely break with outside world they most likely failed. For example, in the north of the Komi-Permyak Okrug, in the Gain region, according to the stories of researchers and hunters, you can still find unusual bottomless wells filled with water. Local residents believe that these are wells of ancient people leading to the underworld. They never take water from them.
- Are there other places where the miracle went underground?
Today no one knows the exact places; only numerous versions are known according to which similar places are located in the north of Russia or in the Urals. It is interesting that the epics of the Komi and the Sami tell the same story about the departure of the “little people” into the dungeons. If you believe ancient legends, then the Chud went to live in earthen pits in the forests, hiding from the Christianization of those places. Until now, both in the north of the country and in the Urals, there are earthen hills and mounds called Chud graves. They supposedly contain treasures “sworn” by miracles.
N.K. Roerich was very interested in the legends of miracles. In his book “The Heart of Asia,” he directly tells how one Old Believer showed him a rocky hill with the words: “This is where the Chud went underground. This happened when the White Tsar came to Altai to fight, but the Chud did not want to live under the White Tsar. The chud went underground and blocked the passages with stones...” However, as N.K. Roerich stated in his book, the chud should return to earth when certain teachers from Belovodye come and bring great science for humanity. Allegedly, then the miracle will emerge from the dungeons along with all its treasures. The great traveler even dedicated the painting “The Miracle Has Gone Under the Ground” to this legend.
Or maybe the Chud meant some other people, whose descendants still live happily in Russia?
There is also such a version. Indeed, legends about the miracle are most popular precisely in the places of settlement of the Finno-Ugric peoples, which include the Komi-Permyaks. But! There is one inconsistency here: the descendants of the Finno-Ugric peoples themselves always spoke about the Chud as about some other people.
- Legends, just legends... Are there real monuments left by the miracle that you can touch with your hands?
Of course have! This is, for example, the well-known Sekirnaya Mountain (local historians also call it Chudova Gora) on the Solovetsky archipelago. Its very existence is surprising, because the glacier, passing through these places, cut off, like a sharp knife, all the unevenness of the landscape - and there simply cannot be large mountains here! So the 100-meter-high Miracle Mountain looks on this surface as clearly a man-made object of some ancient civilization. At the beginning of the 2000s, scientists who examined the mountain confirmed that it is partly of glacial origin, and partly of artificial origin - the large boulders of which it consists are not laid chaotically, but in a certain order.
- So, the creation of this mountain is attributed to a miracle?
Archaeologists have long established that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to local residents centuries before the monks came here. In Novgorod they were called Chudya; their neighbors called them “Sikirtya”. The word is curious, because translated from ancient local dialects “shrt” is the name of a large, long, elongated mound. Thus, an elongated haystack is directly called a “stack”. It is obvious that the neighbors also called the ancient people Sikirtya because of their life in “mounded hills” - houses built from improvised materials: moss, branches, stones. This version is also confirmed by the ancient Novgorodians - in their chronicles they note that the Sikirtya live in caves and do not know iron. (As one researcher believes, “CHUD is the Finnish TUDO (people) distorted by the Russians. Not all Chud became glorified. Chud was divided into white-eyed (Ests) and Zavolotskaya (behind the revolving). Now these are the Komi-Zyryans. There is also the Komi-Perm, but This tribe was called Perm, not Chud. Underground Chud is a legend about the ancient population of the Northern Urals - Sirtya" - ed.)
- You mentioned mysterious encounters with miracles in Karelia and the Urals these days. Are they real?
To be honest, knowing many similar stories, I always treated them with a fair amount of skepticism. Until, at the end of the summer of 2012, an incident occurred that made me believe in the real existence of this mythical people in the mountains or underground. Here is how it was. At the end of August, I received a letter with a photograph from an ethnographer who, in the summer months, works part-time as a tour guide on a ship on the Kem-Solovki route. The information was so unexpected that I contacted him. So. The photo showed a rock in which the outline of a large stone door could be discerned. To my question: “What is this?” - the guide told an amazing story. It turns out that in the summer of 2012, he and a group of tourists sailed past one of the islands of the Kuzov archipelago. The ship sailed close to the shore, and people looked at the picturesque rocks with pleasure. The guide at this time told them stories about mysterious encounters with the mythical miracle-sikirtya. Suddenly one of the tourists screamed heart-rendingly, pointing to the shore. The whole group immediately turned their gaze to the rock to which the woman was pointing.
The whole action lasted a few seconds, but the tourists managed to see a huge (three meters by one and a half meters) stone door closing in the rock, hiding the silhouette of a small creature behind it. The guide literally tore the camera from his neck and tried to take a few pictures. Unfortunately, the shutter of his camera clicked when only the silhouette of a stone door remained visible. A second later he disappeared too. This was the first case of mass observation of the entrance to the dungeons of the Chud. After this event, there is no doubt about the reality of the existence of this legendary people in the rocks and underground!
https://www.kramola.info/vesti/neobyknovennoe/chud-beloglazaja-legendy-i-fakty
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 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.
