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Glory to the Russian land
The Old Russian state, the beginning of which was usually dated to 862, in fact arose much earlier, but the systematic information in the chronicles begins with the calling of Prince Rurik, which is attributed to this year by the compilers of the chronicles included in the “Tale of Bygone Years.” Some legends about earlier times found their way into chronicles and other handwritten medieval works on Russian history.
The name “Ancient Rus'” is sometimes used broadly - in application to several periods of our history until the 18th century. This section of the site contains folklore reflections of a brilliant era - the Rus of Kyiv and Novgorod, when our state was one of the strongest and most cultural in Europe, and the united Russian people were not yet divided into Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians. For four centuries, the ancient Russian people, constantly repelling the onslaught of steppe nomads, adopted Christianity, becoming the focus of a distinctive culture, the heritage of which is still admired, and was a stronghold of civilization until it was flooded by the muddy wave of the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
Below is a song of glory to the Russian land. The Russian people's perception of the Motherland, reflected in this text, cannot be limited chronologically. Before us is a song that is a kind of epigraph to the entire Russian history in its folk interpretation. Historical self-esteem, reflected in the legends about the era preceding the rule of the Rurikovichs, partly consonant with this song, complements in essential terms the picture of the people’s general perception of the beginning of their history.
The sources for the chroniclers were oral traditions. Some of these legends survived in oral transmission until the time when folklore collectors began to write them down. The legends used by the chroniclers were mostly revised during the compilation and further alterations of the chronicles. But some have been preserved in a form that is obviously close to what the chroniclers heard from their contemporaries. Some of them survived only in the text of the “Tale of Bygone Years” from the beginning of the 12th century, but some came from the chronicle code used in it from the end of the 11th century.
The text of the song “Glory to the Russian Land” is given according to the publication of Nikiforov A.I. Folklore and “The Word of the Death of the Russian Land // From the history of Russian folklore. L., 1978, p. 197. The written text, created in the 13th century, quotes the song- glory, which obviously existed earlier. Already the discoverer of the monument, Kh. M. Loparev, believed that in ancient times it was performed by folk singers (Loparev X. “The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land,” a newly discovered literary monument of the 13th century. St. Petersburg, 1892. With 11). A. V. Solovyov came to the conclusion that this is an example of the creativity of druzhina singers (Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature / Chief editor D. S. Likhachev. M.; Leningrad, 1958. T. 15. P. 78 -115; M.; Leningrad, 1960. T. 16. P. 143-146). A. I. Nikiforov, who even before A. V. Solovyov noted the song size here, discovered in the records of Russian and Ukrainian folklore of the 19th century. seven parallel examples, some of which the researcher identified as later abbreviated versions of the very song that was preserved in a written monument of the 13th century. He concluded: “Not only the entire structure of the song, but also a number of literal coincidences in the text directly prove this” (Nikiforov A.I. Folklore and “The Tale of the Death of the Russian Land//From the history of Russian folklore. L., 1978, p. 194.). Here are fragments of one of the examples he gave:
Is our side...
She is decorated with everything:
And the divine church...
And wide lakes,
And a fast river...
As A.I. Nikiforov discovered, in Ukraine, ancient Russian song formulas of this glory were used in national thoughts, for example:
Hey, Turkish land,
Ti, viro busurmenska!
You have usim on top...
Let us add that the exclamation “Oh!” used at the beginning of historical songs until the 18th-19th centuries. It should be noted, however, that not all researchers perceived the commented text as a song. The first part of it has been published on the site, which, in our opinion, has no signs of literary processing by a scribe and is independent in content.

About the most ancient princes.
The legend is part of the Joachim Chronicle. It was quoted in detail in his work by V.N. Tatishchev, but the manuscript itself has not survived. It can be assumed that the compiler of the chronicle, in addition to folk legends, used in this part of his work contemporary historical works, the echoes of which can be heard in the interpretation of oral sources by the manuscript that was in the hands of Tatishchev. But the folklore basis of this text is quite obvious: it has correspondences both in shorter legends recorded among the Russians in modern times, and in a detailed saga, which was recorded in Western Europe back in the 13th century. There is a dispute about the location of Biarmia in science, but, apparently, it was located in the Baltic states. In legend, the city is called the Great Slovenian, now unknown, but mentioned in medieval Russian manuscripts that have reached us.
Prince Sloven, leaving his son Bastarn in Thrace and Illyria near the sea and along the Danube, went north, erected the Great City and named it Slovensk [...]
After the creation of the Great City, Prince Sloven died, and his sons and grandsons ruled over it for many hundreds of years. And there was Prince Vandal; owning the Slavs, going everywhere to the north, east and west by sea and land, having conquered many lands by the sea and conquered their peoples, he returned to the city of the Great [...]
He had three sons: Izbor, Vladimir and Stolposvyat. He built a city for each of them and called them by their names, and divided the whole land for them; he himself stayed in the Great City for many years and died in old age; after himself, Izbora handed over the Great City and its brothers to power; then Izbor and the Stolposvyat died, and Vladimir took power over the whole earth. He had a Varangian wife, Advinda, very beautiful and wise; Old people talk a lot about her and exclaim in songs.
After the death of Vladimir and his mother Advinda, his sons and grandsons reigned until Burivoy, who was ninth after Vladimir; the names of those eight, as well as their deeds, are unknown, remembered only in ancient songs.
Burivoy had a difficult war with the Varangians, defeated many of them and possessed all of Biarmia up to Kumen. Then he was defeated by this river, lost all his warriors and barely escaped in the city of Biarma - on an island, well fortified, where the subordinate princes lived; there he died. The Varangians, coming suddenly, subjugated the Great City and other cities, imposed a heavy tribute on the Slavs, Rus' and Chud.
People who suffered great oppression from the Varangians sent to Burivoya, asking him for his son Gostomysl to reign in the Great City. And when Gostomysl took power, he immediately destroyed some of the Varangians who were there, expelled others and canceled the tribute to the Varangians; going against them, he won and built a city by the sea in the name of his eldest son, Choice; and he created peace with the Varangians, and there was silence throughout the whole earth.

Founding of Kyiv
The legend included in the Initial Code of 1093 (Shakhmatov A.A., The Tale of Bygone Years. Introductory part. Text. Notes. St. Petersburg, 1916, T.1. pp. 8-9). Borichev rise ("Uvoz" - now Andreevsky Descent) connected the central part of Kiev, located on Starokievskaya Mountain, with Podol - the coastal part (see: Rybakov B. A. "Borichev Uvoz" in "The Tale of Igor's Host" // Russian Speech 1987. No. 2. P. 98-104).
There were three brothers: one named Kiy, another - Shchek and the third - Khoriv, ​​and their sister was Lybid. Kiy sat on the mountain where Borichev now rises, and Shchek sat on the mountain that is now called Shchekovitsa, and Khoriv on the third mountain, which was nicknamed Khorivitsa after him. And they built a town in the name of their elder brother, and called it Kyiv. There was a forest and a large forest all around the city, and they caught animals there. And those men were wise and sensible, and they were called Polyans, from them Polyans are still in Kyiv.

Tribute with swords
The legend included in the Initial Code of 1093 (Shakhmatov A.A., The Tale of Bygone Years. Introductory part. Text. Notes. St. Petersburg, 1916, T.1. pp. 16-17). The Khozars lived in the steppes between the Volga and Don. They professed the Jewish religion and at one time subjugated a vast territory. The Khozar Khaganate was defeated by Prince Svyatoslav in the 10th century.
And the Khazars found them sitting on these mountains in the forests and said: “Pay us tribute.” The glades, having consulted, gave each sword from the smoke. And the Khazars took them to their prince and to their elders and told them: “Behold, we have found a new tribute.” They asked them: “Where from?” They answered: “In the forest on the mountains above the Dnieper River.” They asked again: “What did they give?” They showed the sword. And the Khozar elders said: “This is not a good tribute, prince: we sought it with weapons that are sharp only on one side - sabers, but these have double-edged weapons - swords: they will someday collect tribute from us and from other lands.” . And what they said came true, because they did not speak of their own free will, but by God’s command.

About Svyatogor
Already the first researchers of Russian epic drew attention to the fact that epic heroes are divided into two types. At the same time, a division into senior and junior heroes was introduced.
“The image of this huge hero,” K. S. Aksakov wrote about Svyatogor in notes to the first edition of “Collected Folk Songs of P. V. Kireevsky” (1860), “who was burdened, overcome by his own strength, so that he became motionless, is very significant. It is obvious that he falls outside the category of heroes to which Ilya Muromets belongs. This is an elemental hero. It is impossible not to notice in our songs traces of the previous era, the titanic or cosmogonic era, where the force, receiving the outlines of a human image, still remains - a world force. The incarnation of these forces has its own stages; not all the heroes of this primordial era are equally spontaneous in nature; but one is more, the other is less, one is further, the other is closer to people... Shouldn’t they be understood by “senior heroes”?
The elders are Svyatogor, Volkh Vseslavyevich and Mikhailo Potyk (the oldest epic “trinity”, preceding Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich and Ilya Muromets). The images are titanic, preserving direct echoes of pagan ideas, myths, and legends. Compared to them, all the other heroes really look junior. With the younger heroes, a new page begins in the history of the Russian epic - its heroic period, when the deeply popular idea of ​​protecting the native land comes to the fore.
A slightly different, mythological interpretation of the image of Svyatogor belongs to A.N. Afanasyev. “Even if we,” he writes, “had no other data other than the poetic legend about Svyatogor, then this legend alone would serve as irrefutable proof that the Slavs, along with other related peoples, knew mountain giants. In the colossal, typical image of Svyatogor, the features of extreme antiquity are clear. His name indicates not only the connection with the mountains, but also the sacred nature of these latter...” Modern researchers adhere to a similar point of view (see: Myths of the Peoples of the World. M., 1982, vol. 2, p. 421).
In the famous "Collection of Kirsha Danilov", which until the middle of the 19th century was the only source of information about epics and epic heroes, the name of Svyatogor is mentioned only once in the general listing of heroes in the epic about Ilya Muromets. For the first time, four prosaic visits about Svyatogor were recorded by P.N. Rybnikov, and a decade later six more - A.F. Hilferding (not prosaic, but poetic). Judging by these records, the epic about the meeting of Ilya Muromets with Svyatogor once consisted of a number of episodes. “When I told Ryabinin an epic about Ilya and Svyatogor,” testifies P.N. Rybnikov, “he told me that his teacher, Ilya Elustafiev, sang an epic about the whole acquaintance of Ilya and Svyatogor.”
But such an epic about the entire acquaintance of these two central characters is neither P.N. Rybnikov and other collectors were never able to record it. Nevertheless, we can get an idea about this unsurvived folk poem: the existing fragments themselves form such a multi-story composition. And some episodes have been preserved in retellings. So, for example, the same Ryabinin recalled an episode from a poem told by Ilya Elustafyev, not found anywhere else.
Svyatogor the hero invited Ilya Muromets to visit him on the Holy Mountains and on the trip he punished Ilya: “When we arrive at my settlement and bring you to the priest, you can heat a piece of iron, but don’t give your hand.” How we arrived at the Holy Mountains to Svyatogorov’s settler and entered the white stone chambers, says the old man, Svyatogorov’s father: “Oh, you, my dear child! How far have you been?” - “And I was, father, in Holy Rus'!” - “What did you see and what did you hear, my beloved son, in Holy Rus'?” - “I didn’t see, I didn’t hear, but I just brought a hero from Holy Rus'.” Svyatogorov’s father was dark (blind), so he said to his son: “Bring the Russian hero to me to say hello.” Ilya heated up the iron, went to hit the hands and gave the old man a piece of iron. When the old man grabbed the iron, he squeezed it and said: “Your hand is strong, Ilya! You are a good hero!”
Many similar prose fragments have survived. Almost all of them are dedicated to the transfer of power, death and burial of Svyatogor. Since the first publications, researchers have been trying to “decipher” these stories. One of these “decipherments” belongs to V.Ya. Propp, who drew attention to the fact that out of more than a hundred epic plots, only a few are devoted to the death of heroes. “So, Danube and Sukhman,” he notes, “commit suicide. Both of these epics are deeply tragic in their content. Vasily Buslaev dies tragically. The rest of the heroes, in songs about them, never die or perish. On the contrary: receiving strength, Ilya, for example, simultaneously receives a prophecy that death in battle is not written for him."

Alexander Asov

Primordial Rus'. Prehistory of Rus'

© Alexander Asov, 2007

© AST Publishing House LLC, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Introductory word. About history and historians

Where are we from? Who are our ancestors? From what time should the history of the Slavic Russians be counted? Since the emergence of the first Slavic and more ancient Ruskolan and Aryan kingdoms? Or from an even earlier time, from a history common to all people on Earth?

These questions have been asked by our ancestors since ancient times. And in different eras they were answered differently. " Here is the story of past years, where the Russian Land came from and who became the first to reign in Kyiv.”- this is the beginning of the oldest chronicle of the Christian era, written by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor, who lived in the 12th century. From this monk comes the tradition of starting the legendary history of Rus' with the semi-fairy tale in his time, the first prince of Kyiv, Kiy, and counting the dated history, known in detail, with Prince Rurik, the founder of the Rurik dynasty that ruled in his time. Kievan Rus, known from the Nestor Chronicle, is now commonly called Ancient Rus. Meanwhile, Rurik lived in the 9th century - this is the time of the European Middle Ages. Antiquity is the era of antiquity, which ended in Europe, and therefore in Rus', in the 5th century AD, after the Great Migration.

Nestor described the history not of Ancient, but of Medieval Rus'. The ancient, pre-Christian history of the humble monk was of interest only to the extent that it was connected with the history of the ruling dynasty. Nestor, to please the Kyiv princes, did not even bring up legends about Slovenia and Rus, nor did he write about the Novgorod princely dynasties. And this has long detracted from the work of this chronicler in the eyes of historians. " Nestor the monk was not well informed about the Russian princes of old.”– wrote the first Russian historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev already at the beginning of the 18th century.

Fortunately, a lot of historical evidence about Ancient Rus' has survived to this day, which over the past centuries and millennia have intricately mixed with the “epic stories of this time.” But the history of any people should begin to be studied precisely from the times of the epics. For a long time, the epic for most Russians was history. And there was no other source from which one could draw information about ancient, pre-chronicle times.

In the 10th century, after the Varangian dynasty came to power in Kyiv, and then the first baptism of Rus' by Prince Askold, and then by Prince Vladimir, the “pagan” chronicle writing was interrupted. And only with the appearance of the “Book of Veles” and other books of wisdom did we have the opportunity to judge the features of that original tradition.

Since then, the history before the Baptism of Rus' and before the Rurik dynasty came to power became a mystery. And therefore the chronicler Nestor was declared the first Russian historian. Earlier times were mentioned in passing, scant information gleaned from Byzantine sources, and a few local legends about events that occurred no earlier than the 5th century AD were retold.

The first chronicles were written by Christian monks who did not seek to delve into “pagan” times. This was the first break in tradition. And he determined the subsequent ones.

Russian chronicles, the first chronicles, are not yet historical works. History is not only a chronological description of events, it serves as a conductor of political ideas and is intended to form social ideals.

“History is the teacher of life,” the ancients said. The historian not only describes events, but also explains the reasons for what happened, sees in the past lessons for the present and the future. History is also part of the culture of the people. Images of historical figures accompany us in modern life, and not only in politics and public life, but also in literature and art, and often determine the very style of our life.

Historical science itself, in its modern understanding, began to emerge in Russia in the 17th century through the works of Metropolitan of Siberia Ignatius Rimsky-Korsakov and monk Sylvester Medvedev. They set themselves the task of an impartial description of the events of ancient and modern history, and stood in opposition to the opinions of those in power, for which they paid with their lives: Ignatius Rimsky-Korsakov was declared crazy and ended his days in prison, and Sylvester Medvedev was executed as a dangerous state criminal at Lobnoye Mesto in Moscow.

Not much has changed since then. Of course, nowadays a free-thinking historian is more often deprived of his position than of his life. But what is life for a thinking historian, deprived of the opportunity to defend his views and teach the truth? The domestic school of Russian historical thought was never born. Unlike Europe, we did not experience a Renaissance. Rus' continued to sleep, once lulled by Byzantium, and did not wake up even after Byzantium itself fell asleep forever.

But then the 18th century came, the great Russian Empire was born. And the empire, in order not to look backward in front of the West, needed new decorations: magnificent palaces built in the Dutch, German, French style, but in no case in the Russian style. Why is that? Yes, because it supposedly did not exist in European culture.

The European Empire style was rooted in the ancient Empire style, and therefore the palaces of the Russian nobility were decorated with countless Apollos and Venuses, but not with images depicting Slavic myths and ancient legends. Why did it happen? Because Europe experienced a Renaissance, but Russia did not. Yes, among the Russian nobles there were not so many Russians by birth, but still they existed, and sometimes had great power, and cared about the fatherland. But they also did not know about the existence of our ancient tradition.

The nobles shaved their chins and dressed in German clothes. The capital was moved to St. Petersburg, built on the model of European capitals. And of course, in imitation of the West, the capital needed its own university. And the university needed a history department. It was then, in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the first works on Russian history were published in Russia. And they were written, in the absence of their own, by German scientists: G. Bayer, G. Miller and A. Schlozer. It was they who gave birth to the notorious “Norman theory” in Russian historical science, the fruits of which we are still reaping today. From them comes the belief about the savagery of the ancient Slavs.

In many respects they were followed by such major historians as V.N. Tatishchev in his “Russian History” and then N.M. Karamzin in “History of the Russian State”. The Norman theory was also fully accepted by liberal historians of the late 19th century S.M. Soloviev and V.O. Klyuchevsky. This is the nature of “scientific schools”, which in their adherence to the authorities of the founders are akin to some closed sects, whoever those founders were and no matter what transient political and personal reasons their opinions on certain issues were determined. Once expressed, opinions are then canonized and determine the course of historical thought for centuries to come.

The opponent of the Norman theory in the 18th century was the brilliant M.V. Lomonosov. Then in the 19th century it was followed by S.A. Gedeonov, D.I. Ilovaisky, A.F. Hilferding (German by origin and Slavic in spirit) and others. The heir to these ideas and this trend in science was later the Cossack historian E.P. Savelyev, author of the famous “Ancient History of the Cossacks.” In the Slavic countries in the 19th century, the names of the greatest historians P.I. stood out. Safarik, Lyubora Niederle.

Among Russian and Soviet scientists of the 20th century in the field of ancient history, the names of academicians B.D. stand out. Grekova and B.A. Rybakov, who worked a lot and really advanced Russian historical science. Recently, remarkable works on ancient Slavic history and culture have also been published by academicians A.N. Sakharov, V.V. Sedov, also scientists and velesologists in Russia Yu.K. Begunov, and in Ukraine Yu.A. Shilov.

The most influential historian of Ancient Rus' who worked in the 20th century should be called the Russian emigrant, Yale University professor G.V. Vernadsky. Separately, we should also mention emigrant historians from the Veles historical school that emerged in the West - those who published and researched the pagan chronicle “The Book of Veles”: Alexander Kurenkov, Stefan Lyashevsky, Sergei Paramonov-Lesny.

Among the modern works of patriotic historians, special mention should be made of the books published in 2007 by Yu.D. Petukhov and N.I. Vasilyeva “Eurasian Empire of the Scythians” and “Rus of Great Scythia”. It summarizes the research of predecessors and gives a vision of the Slavic-Scythian issue, based on the study of extensive archaeological material and historical sources.

“Near Lukomorye there is a green oak
Golden chain on that oak tree..."
A.S. Pushkin

“Find the beginning of everything,
and you will understand a lot"
Kozma Prutkov
“Take history away from the people -
and in a generation he will turn into a crowd,
and after another generation they can be managed like a herd.”
Joseph Goebbels

The history of Rus' is not unplowed virgin land, overgrown with weeds and grasses; it is rather a dense, impenetrable, fairy-tale forest. Most historians are simply frightened by its thicket and do not try to go deeper into it than the marks set by the chronicler Nestor. Which grandmothers whispered fears to them about this enchanted forest? And it is strange that their childhood fear did not develop with age into youthful curiosity and, later, into the mature interest of a researcher.

For example, the stories of Arina Rodionovna not only did not frighten the evil Koshchei, but awakened the Russian soul in young Pushkin, which was reflected in his magnificent poetic fairy tales.

There were fairy tales, myths, legends - hitherto unused baggage, the historical and cultural source of our ancestors. These ancient layers of folk art made it possible to preserve the amazingly beautiful Russian language and the great culture of our people.

Where and when was Rus' born? The opinions of modern scientists are divided. Some believe that Rus' (and all of humanity) originated in the north, others - on the Black Sea coast, others in the Western Slavic lands, and others - in the “Arkaimov” east.

Yes, ancient Rus' left undeniable traces in different directions of the world. But it originated at a time when there was no division into north and south, west and east. Wherever Russians live today, it is impossible to say about them: northern Russians, southern Russians, etc. (compare, Eastern Slavs, North Koreans).

Because historically Russians are centrists. The place where they appeared and realized themselves became the center, the starting point for the development and formation of human civilization. And only then did they disperse to different directions of the world, forming new tribes and peoples.

This work is an attempt to prove just such a historical version. Each of the steps into which this research is divided is a small discovery, a small sensation. Each step is an invitation to move, to change angle or point of view. Only by walking around an object can one judge its size and shape.

If you, dear reader, consider the dense forest to be a friend rather than an enemy, if you are ready for any surprises and iron logic, and not imposed dogma, is the right argument for you, then I invite you on the journey. On a journey through our native land, through our hills, rivers, cities and towns, to find the traces and milestones of our great ancestors left to us, seemingly invisible at first glance. Be attentive and curious. And then ancient, amazing, almost forgotten secrets will be revealed to you.

And everything secret someday becomes clear.

In my distant childhood, when I was still at school, I became acquainted with the works of our famous fellow countryman, Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, much of which was devoted to the description of pre-revolutionary Nizhny Novgorod. A true artist helps to imagine, feel and empathize with what he describes. Reading his story “In People,” the chapter where he talks about hunting waders during the spring flood, which takes place in the area of ​​​​modern Meshchersky Lake, a resident of Nizhny Novgorod can easily imagine a picture of this flood of the spout of two rivers: the Oka and the Volga. If the flood described by the classic happened again today, we would see the buildings of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, the planetarium, the circus filled with water up to the second floor, a completely flooded metro, electric trains and trains that sank near the railway station up to the car windows.

The average water level near Nizhny Novgorod today is about 64–65 meters above sea level. Have the water levels of the Oka and Volga always been like this?

Of course not.

And it's not just about spring floods.

First, let's go down the beautiful Volga to the largest lake in the world - the Caspian Sea. The absolute level of this inland sea today is -27 m, and this level is falling annually. That is, the sea gradually dries up, increasing the difference between the source and the mouth of the rivers flowing into it. Thus, the Caspian Sea seems to absorb these rivers into itself, as a result of which they become less full-flowing and become shallower.

The pattern of river shallowing in the Volga water area is observed everywhere. Streams and small rivers dry up almost completely by the end of summer; previously navigable rivers become dangerous for ships and are used by river transport only during spring floods. All this speaks of the current instability of the Aral-Caspian waters as a whole.

But how long ago have these processes been taking place and what did the waters of these seas look like in ancient times? An interesting opinion is the opinion of Moscow geologist, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor Andrei Leonidovich Chepalyga, who believes that “in ancient times there was a Khvalynsk transgression (advance) of the Caspian Sea, which 10-17 thousand years ago extended to modern Cheboksary. The water level of the water area reached a height of 50 meters above sea level. Part of the water was drained through the Manych-Kerch Strait into the Black Sea and further through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles into the Mediterranean Sea.”

I will quote a paragraph from an article on a similar topic published in the journal “In the World of Science” No. 5 in May 2006: “When studying tectonically stable areas (Republic of Dagestan), it was possible to discover about 10 marine terraces that appeared as a result of significant fluctuations in water level... As noted in research by G.L. Rychagov (2001) and A.A. Svitoch (2000), the emergence of such terraces is associated with the phase of decline of the Khvalynsk (Caspian) Sea. The maximum level was such that its waves splashed in the area of ​​​​the Zhiguli and the mouth of the Kama.”

Unfortunately, scientists did not continue their research above the discovered sea terraces by another 40–50 m. But even the rise of waters assumed by scientists to an absolute height of 50 m allowed the waters of the Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral seas to merge together.

Let us now rise from the Caspian Sea up the Volga to the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Here nature has preserved ancient traces of a mighty reservoir unknown to us today.

Let’s open the book of our fellow countryman, Doctor of Philology, journalist Nikolai Vasilyevich Morokhin “Our Rivers, Cities and Villages” (Nizhny Novgorod, Knigi Publishing House, 2007). In the chapter “Parts of the Nizhny Novgorod Region” we find: “OCHELYE is a high left-bank terrace of the Volga, located several kilometers from the river and limiting the floodplain. The Russian name, associated with the word “chelo” - “forehead, high place”, indicates the shape of the terrace.”

This terrace is observed over a large territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region from the city of Gorodets to the village of Mikhailovskoye and lower in the Republic of Mari El (photo 1).

Photo 1. Left Bank Ochelye near the village of Lyapunovo

The same terrace exists on the Volga right bank from the Gorky hydroelectric power station dam to the villages of Rylovo, Zamyatino, Shurlovo and below (photo 2).

Photo 2. Right Bank Ochelye in the Shurlovo area

The width of the floodplain limited by these terraces reaches ten to fifteen kilometers or more.

A similar situation is observed with the riverbeds of the Oka and Klyazma rivers.

One can try to explain the presence of such wide floodplains of Nizhny Novgorod rivers by large spring floods at a time when water was not regulated by dams. However, to fill this floodplain with water, the river level would have to rise by twenty to thirty meters during the spring flood, which seems unlikely.

And here is what the famous Nizhny Novgorod local historian Dmitry Nikolaevich Smirnov writes in his book “Essays on the life and life of Nizhny Novgorod residents of the 17th-18th centuries” (Gorky, Volgo-Vyatka book publishing house, 1971): “The left bank of the Volga within the Nizovsky region contained “palace volosts”: Gorodetskaya, Zauzolskaya and Tolokontsevskaya. "Palace" villages - large and small - stretched in long formations along the upper terrace of the ancient river bank, right up to the "Sopchin backwater".

Ancient river bank!

The most understandable and logical characteristic of this terrace or, as it is popularly called “ochelya”.

Measurements of the levels of the tyn, the base of these terraces, regardless of their location: right bank, left bank, Gorodets or Ostankino area, show stable results - 85–87 m.

Very interesting information on this topic can be found in the book of Nizhny Novgorod geologists G.S. Kulinich and B.I. Friedman entitled “Geological travels through the Gorky land” (Gorky, Volgo-Vyatka book publishing house, 1990). We read: “High... above-floodplain terraces can be observed on the left bank of the Volga, near Gorodets... In the section of the Gorodets bank, two high basement terraces are visible... High above-floodplain terraces... V.V. Dokuchaev (a famous Russian naturalist, soil scientist - author's note) called the pine forest or ancient shore... Its surface (the most pronounced, third, terrace. - author's note) is located at the level of the 90-meter (!) mark. It was formed in the second half of the Middle Pleistocene era... (150-100 thousand years ago). This terrace stretches in a wide strip from Gorodets to the south, and many have seen its ledge near the village. Kantaurovo, where the Gorky-Kirov highway climbs sharply uphill.”

Further: “River terraces are found everywhere in the Volga valley. In Dzerzhinsky (Lake Pyra), Borsky (northeast of the village of Pikino), Lyskovsky districts (Lake Ardino) and other places on the left bank, both levels of high terraces are clearly visible.”

Over time, the formation of the so-called third terrace, or more precisely, as Dokuchaev characterized it, the ancient shore, is more or less clear. But what kind of body of water did this ancient shore serve? And when did this body of water leave its ancient shore?

The answer to the first question is clear: this ancient shore was the shore of the mysterious, mentioned in many Russian fairy tales, “ocean sea” or the Russian Sea, which consisted of the flooded single water area of ​​the Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral seas, which, in turn, rose along the beds of rivers flowing into them, far inland.

It was on the shores of the bays (estuaries) of this ancient, forgotten sea that the mysterious Rus' was first born and settled!

Dating of events is one of the most important and most difficult issues in historical science. Today there is not a single accurate method for determining them. Therefore, unfortunately, very often history is called its academic, but not always proven, version.

The history of Rus', disseminated today to a wide audience - from schoolchildren to academics, portrays it as the history of a gray, undeveloped, wretched and wild country. However, to the caring and attentive (“he who has eyes, let him see”) researcher, our Fatherland is ready to reveal many amazing secrets, the answers to which can stun even the most prepared reader. The traces left to us by our ancestors, the facts that we stumble over, not wanting to notice them due to our own laziness or inattention, are waiting for their time. Let's bring this time closer, let's touch it with our hands, let's inhale its burning, tart smell.

The reservoir, traces of which geologists discovered near the city of Gorodets, was located at a level of about +90 m from the modern sea level and, apparently, occupied vast spaces. The disappearance of such a huge mass of water could not remain without a trace in the memory of people who lived on its banks or not far from it. This event was supposed to be a tragedy or a starting point for the civilization that existed at that time.

The traces of this event lead us to times that connect the stories described in the ancient myths and legends of many peoples, as well as by a few ancient historians, that is, the stories of the “global flood” and the “destruction of Atlantis.” Or, in other words, about global and tragic changes in vast water areas on the territory of modern Russia and other countries of the Aral, Caspian, Black Sea and Mediterranean regions. This time is assessed differently by different historians and researchers, within the X-IV centuries BC.

We entrust the precise determination of the time of events that interest us to professionals.

The main conclusion that the reader needs to make, and the proof of which this work is particularly devoted to, is the complete identity and coincidence in time of these two most important events in the history of all human civilization - the disappearance of the Russian Sea and the global flood. This means that all the myths, legends, and traditions about these events preserved by different peoples are just slightly different stories about the same story, about the same tragedy.

A tragedy that really happened.

A tragedy that divided the entire history of mankind into two, today seemingly non-contiguous parts - the ancient, “antediluvian” and “post-flood”, modern.

A tragedy, at the epicenter of which were our ancestors, the inhabitants of that “antediluvian”, at that time still maritime Rus'.

Let's look briefly into that “antediluvian” world.

At that time, the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits did not exist, and all four modern seas - the Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral - merged together to form a huge water area, which can be safely named after its geographical location, as well as in honor of its explorers and pioneer seafarers Russian sea.

At the same time, the single Russian Sea, rising along the beds of the rivers flowing into it, reached modern cities: Kiev along the Dniester, Voronezh along the Don, Yaroslavl and Kostroma along the Volga, Vladimir along the Klyazma, Vetluga along the Vetluga River, Alatyr along the Sura, Urzhum along the Vyatka, Sarapul along the Kama and Ufa along the Belaya River. On the shores of this sea or in its vicinity stood such modern cities as Chisinau, Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk, Cherkassy, ​​Poltava, Zaporozhye, Lugansk, Elista, Orenburg, Karakalpakstan, Grozny and even Ashgabat (today Ashgabat is located at altitudes of more than 200 m, but its territorial proximity to the ancient Russian Sea is obvious). Check, all these cities (their historical centers) occupy territories located at absolute heights of about 90 m. I repeat that the image of this sea, which embraced vast territories of modern Russia (and, of course, not only Russia), was reflected in many ancient Russian fairy tales called “ sea-okiyan”, which fairy-tale characters overcome or swim on.

At first glance, this sea was Mediterranean, since it did not have access to the ocean. But it is not so.

Firstly, it is possible that on the site of the modern Bosporus and Dardanelles straits there were small rivers or streams, thanks to which excess water could drain from the vast Russian Sea into the Mediterranean Sea and further through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean. Although the existence of these three modern straits, especially the Gibraltar Strait, was more than controversial at that time.

Secondly, on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, north of the Aral Sea, there is the so-called Turgai plateau, divided into two parts by the deep Turgai depression, at the bottom of which lie numerous salt marshes, salt and fresh lakes, in one of which it begins its journey north to A tributary of the Tobol River to the Arctic Ocean is the Ubagan River. It will take a little more time before the Aral Sea turns into a network of similar lakes, from the location of which it will be very difficult to guess the flooding area of ​​the once powerful Russian Sea and the route of water exiting it to the north. It was here, along the bed of the Turgai hollow, that in ancient times a river flowed, unknown to us today, connecting the great Russian Sea with the great Arctic Ocean. Thanks to this particular river (strait?) the Russian Sea remained more or less stable and was, in practice, as surprising and strange as it may sound, the sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean basin.

This means that the modern Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral seas are, by their origin, seas of the Arctic Ocean!

It was this circumstance that allowed our ancestors to develop and inhabit the vast northeastern territories for their future generations. Thanks to the stable supply of warm southern waters from the Russian Sea along the beds of the modern rivers Tobolu, Irtysh and Ob, the summer sea route along the northern coast of the continent may have been ice-free for much longer, which could also have played a role in the development of these lands in ancient times.

Traces of the ancient Russian Sea, which once washed the steep shores of the modern city of Nizhny Novgorod, can be seen with the naked eye along the right bank of the Oka (from the city of Gorbatov) and the Volga. At an altitude of more than 85 m, numerous terraces and landslides are visible, which are traces of the action of waves and currents of the departed sea.

There is another way to see a small part of the Russian Sea with your own eyes and almost in its original form. To do this, you need to go on an excursion to the mysterious city on the Volga - Gorodets, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The fact is that Soviet hydrobuilders chose the most suitable place from a geological point of view for the construction of the grandiose Gorky hydroelectric power station. Here, somewhat higher than Gorodets, they connected with a dam two “ochelyas”, the left bank and the right bank, or, as we have already found out, two ancient banks of the same reservoir that was once the Russian Sea. After the Gorky Reservoir was filled with water, the level of which today occupies 84 m of absolute height, a small “splinter” of that same “ocean sea” appeared on the map of our country. And even though, according to the calculations below, the level of that ancient sea was more than 87 m, that is, three to five meters higher than the level of the modern Gorky Reservoir, you can see its scale with your own eyes and imagine its significance for our ancestors even today, swimming in its updated waters

And in order to understand the tragedy of the destruction of such a universal reservoir, to feel the animal fear of its unbridled energy, it would seem necessary to do the impossible - to get to the border between the past and the present.

And this journey is possible!

If you drive along the dam of the Gorky hydroelectric power station from the city of Gorodets towards the Volga region, then a fascinating picture of the meeting of the deep past and present will open before the observer. On the right, an accidentally revived “splinter” of the Russian “ocean sea” will open its majestic expanses before him, on the left you can see the remnant of the former ancient greatness, but at the same time the no less majestic modern beauty of the Volga.

Two different worlds, separated by a thin partition. Gray-haired fairy-tale Rus' and modern twitchy Russia.

Let us think whether such a huge gap separates us today from our ancestors of yesterday, so as not to try to revive their history, their tragedy, their valor.

More precisely our history!

He who does not know the past has no future.

The reason for the rise in the water level of the single ancient sea was its filling with the waters of deep rivers flowing into it, and the lack of reliable flow into the world ocean jeopardized its future fate. The fact is that the northern rivers, including the Ob that interests us, are freed from ice in the spring much later than the rivers of the modern basins of the Black and Caspian Seas. Ice jams interfere with the spring flow of northern rivers, causing a significant rise in their water levels. The same thing happened with the flow of the ancient river passing through the Turgai hollow. The clogged, ice-dammed bed of this river created a natural dam, due to which the water level in the Russian Sea could rise alarmingly, and its waters looked for new drainage routes, which, perhaps, happened one day.

The Russian Sea existed in the central part of the Eurasian continent until approximately the 10th–4th centuries BC. It was a huge water area, the absolute height of which was 85–90 m above modern sea level. The Bosphorus Strait did not exist at that time. At the same time, four modern seas - the Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral - connected to each other by stable straits, were united into a single water area, which we called the Russian Sea.

It was the Russian Sea that was reflected in many Russian folk tales, describing the life of our amazing ancestors on its shores, under the beautiful melodious name - “Okiyan Sea”.

The Russian Sea consisted of three distinct parts.

The first - the Western part - consisted of the flooded Black and Azov Seas with the Black Sea Lowland and the low eastern coast of the Azov Sea flooded by them. Being bounded from the west by the Carpathians and the Balkans, from the south by the Pontic Mountains, the Western part of the sea had no natural restrictions from the north, which allowed the waters of this reservoir to penetrate far into the continent along the river beds flowing into it, turning them into picturesque sea bays. These bays extended to modern cities: Rybnitsa along the Dniester River, Pervomaisk along the Yuzh River. Bug, Kyiv along the Dnieper, Kharkov along the Seversky Donets, Voronezh along the Don and Voronezh rivers. The western part of the sea was separated from the second - its middle part - by the Ergeni hill, and merged with it through the Manych-Kerch Strait to the south of this hill.

The second, Middle, part of the sea was the modern Caspian Sea, which spilled far to the north. The Caspian lowland up to the General Syrt hill was completely flooded. From the south, this part of the sea was reliably limited by the Elburz mountains, and on the other side, the sea stretched along the valleys of the rivers flowing into it far to the north. So, on the shores of these bays there could be modern cities: Rybinsk along the Volga River, Bui along the Kostroma River, Manturovo along Unzha, Vladimir along Klyazma, Sharya along Vetluga, Khalturin along Vyatka, Perm along the Kama, Ufa along Ufa, Orenburg along the Urals.

In the southeastern region of the modern Caspian Sea, this part of the sea was connected by a channel that existed at that time with the third, Eastern, part of the Russian Sea. Additional evidence of the existence of this full-flowing channel-strait can be found in the mysterious valley of the legendary dried-up river Uzboy, which has survived today, which left traces of the connection of the waters of the Caspian and Aral seas in ancient times with its dry bed.

The third, eastern, part of the sea was a water area stretching from south to north for more than a thousand kilometers from the Kopetdag ridge to the Turgai plateau. From the west it was limited by the Ustyurt plateau, from the east by the Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts.

As a result, the total water area of ​​the Russian Sea extended in its maximum boundaries from 25 in the west to 65 degrees east latitude in the east and from 37 in the south to 59 degrees north latitude in the north. The approximate water area is about 2 million square meters. km.

This sea was not closed or internal, despite the absence of the Bosporus Strait that exists today. In the north of the Eastern part of the Russian Sea there is the Turgai depression (valley), which, like a knife, “cuts” the Turgai plateau from south to north. Today the valley contains a large number of salt and fresh lakes and salt marshes. The Turgai and Ubagan rivers (a tributary of the Tobol) flow through the Turgai depression. The valley connects the northern part of the Turan Lowland of Kazakhstan with the West Siberian Plain. Its length is about 700 km, width - 20–75 km.

It was along this hollow that during the existence of the Russian Sea a river flowed, which, flowing first into the Tobol, then into the Irtysh and further into the Ob, connected the Russian Sea with the Kara Sea. That is, the Turgai depression was the channel of the strait connecting the Russian Sea with the Arctic Ocean.

This fact suggests that the Russian Sea, by origin and by definition, was a sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean basin. And this, in turn, means that the modern seas: the Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral with the rivers flowing into them are, by origin, the seas of the Arctic Ocean.

The same fact explains the settlement of such a northern animal as the seal in the Caspian Sea.

Water access to Western Siberia and the coast of the Arctic Ocean made it possible, even during the existence of the Russian Sea, to begin the development of these vast uninhabited territories.

After the breakthrough of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, as well as the Strait of Gibraltar, water from the Russian Sea began to quickly flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. First, the Northern Strait, passing through the Turgai depression, dried up and lost its significance forever. The Russian Sea turned into the sea of ​​the Atlantic Ocean. After this, the Manych-Kerch Strait, which connected its Western part with the rest of the Russian Sea, ceased to exist. As a result, the Russian Sea split into two parts. A new closed sea has appeared - the Caspian-Aral Sea. Then the strait running along the bed of the Uzboy River began to dry up. The flow of water flowing through it washed out its valley that has existed to this day. The eastern part of the Russian Sea has turned into a closed Aral Sea, the fate of which is predetermined.

The level of the modern Caspian Sea constantly fluctuates and today is -27 m... The Caspian Sea today is the largest lake on earth and is completely dependent on the flow of the rivers flowing into it. The Black and Azov seas are connected to the world ocean and are stable. All the rivers that were once bays of the ancient Russian Sea have acquired their modern outlines and remind of their greatness only by wide valleys overgrown with dense forests.

The disappearance of the Great Ancient Russian Sea or the global change in its water area remained in the memory of the peoples inhabiting its shores, like myths about the great flood.

Thus, the most mysterious body of water ceased to exist, on the shores of which in ancient times the very first maritime state was born - gray-haired fairy-tale Rus'.

I repeat that the tragic history of this ancient sea directly echoes the history of the Flood and the history of the legendary Atlantis.

This is how Diodorus Siculus describes the flood: “The Samothracians declare that they had a great flood before all the floods that happened on other islands. And for the first time through the Cyanean mouth, and the second time through the Hellespont, the water flow followed. They say that the Pontus (Black Sea), being like a lake, was filled with so much from the rivers flowing into it that, unable to contain an immeasurable amount of water, it poured out into the Hellespont (the Dardanelles Strait), where it flooded a great part of coastal Asia and many flat covered places in Samothrace with sea waves.”

All that remains today of ancient Samothrace is the Greek island of Samothrace in the Aegean Sea. This means, according to the author, the waters broke through from the Black Sea, and not vice versa.

The fact is that there are numerous versions that the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits were formed as a result of the breakthrough of waters from the Mediterranean Sea, but they, in my opinion, do not stand up to criticism.

How, for example, can we explain the fact that today there are strong currents from the Black Sea to Marmara and, further, from Marmara to the Aegean, and in the time of the Argonauts they were even more powerful.

Here is what the writer and journalist Alexander Volkov writes about this in his book “Riddles of Ancient Times” (Moscow, “Veche”, 2006): “Until recently, scientists argued about what underlies the legend of the Argonauts - historical fact or fiction. The straits connecting the Aegean and Black Seas - the Dardanelles and the Bosporus - are characterized by treacherous countercurrents.

However, already in the 15th century BC, ships could sail from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea. Only the bravest sailors or desperate pirates got involved in such adventures.

The English writer and traveler Tim Severin undertook to prove this hypothesis. According to his plans, Greek shipbuilders made a working model of a Mycenaean ship. The length of the galley was sixteen meters. She was equipped with only twenty oars and a straight sail. It was on this new “Argo” that modern “rune detectors” rushed towards Colchis.

The most difficult thing was to enter the Dardanelles. The fragile little boat drifted to the side more than once, until finally, straining all their strength, the rowers, thanks to a tailwind, were unable to cope with the strong oncoming current.”

These facts indicate that even today the level of the Black Sea is slightly higher than the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and the straits between them can be considered as rivers, the currents of which are directed from the Black Sea.

There is further serious evidence that proves that the level of the ancient Mediterranean Sea was much lower. In 1991, a French scuba diver near Marseille at a depth of - (minus) 37 m discovered an underwater cave with drawings of ancient people who lived here about 20 thousand years ago. That is, the Mediterranean Sea reached its current level due to waters entering it from the outside.

I came across the most unexpected revelation on the topic of the geology of the ancient “antediluvian” world in a wonderful book by the English anthropologist, cultural scientist, folklorist and historian of religion James George Frazer (1854-1941) entitled “Folklore in the Old Testament.” Here he quotes the words of his compatriot, an excellent scientist, member of the Royal Society of London, Thomas Henry Huxley (Huxley) (1825-1895): “In an era not very distant from us, Asia Minor was inextricably connected with Europe through a strip of land on the site of the present Bosphorus, which served as a barrier several hundred feet high, blocking the waters of the Black Sea. The vast expanses of Eastern Europe and the western part of Central Asia thus represented a huge reservoir, the lowest part of its banks, probably rising more than 200 feet above sea level, coinciding with the present southern watershed of the Ob, which flows into the Arctic Ocean. The greatest rivers of Europe - the Danube and the Volga and the then large Asian rivers - the Oxus and Jaxartes (Amu Darya and Syr Darya - Author's note) with all the intermediate rivers poured their waters into this basin.

Moreover, it absorbed the excess waters of Lake Balkhash, which was then much larger than it is now, as well as the inland sea of ​​Mongolia. At that time the level of the Aral Sea was at least 60 feet higher than it is now. Instead of the separate current Black, Caspian and Aral seas, there was one vast Ponto-Aral Mediterranean Sea, which, apparently, had as its continuation bays and fiords in the lower reaches of the Danube, Volga (where Caspian shells can still be found right up to the Kama), the Urals and other rivers flowing into this sea, and it probably discharged its excess water to the north through the current Ob basin.”

How great it is to suddenly feel not like a crazy loner, but leaning on your shoulder, standing next to you even after physical death, like a like-minded person. Perhaps this is happiness.

This approach appeals to me.

The breakthrough of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus was provoked by an additional and powerful rise of water, for example, a huge wave, the possible appearance of which we will talk about in subsequent chapters of our study. The barrier was significantly expanded, huge masses of water rushed from the ancient sea, pushing apart the stones and eroding the shores several kilometers wide. The balance of the water system of the entire continent was disrupted. The ancient sea began to quickly become shallow and retreat from its usual shores. It split into several independent water areas: the Aral, Caspian, Azov and Black Seas. The waters of the Azov and Black Seas, being connected to the world ocean, after some time stabilized and took on their modern form; the waters of the Aral and Caspian Seas are not stable and are changing even today. (On quite a few ancient maps, which today can easily be purchased in almost any bookstore, on paper or electronic media, the Caspian Sea is depicted as one with the Aral Sea and the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers flow directly into it. For example, the Ides map, dating back to 1704 , or map by Nicholas Witsen).

Instead of huge sea bays stretching with their fjords far into the interior of the mainland, modern rivers appeared.

Thus, from the legendary mythical kingdom on the shores of the “ocean sea”, the Russian Sea, ancient Rus' turned into a mainland, roadless, lost and forgotten country.

By the way, I would like to note that the well-known Genoese fortress, built in the Crimea in the city of Sudak, is located not on the seashore, but on a mountain. If it was founded as a fortress-port, then it would be extremely unreasonable to make the entrance to it so far from the sea. It is inconvenient to trade, it is inconvenient to guard your merchant fleet and it is inconvenient, in the event of an enemy attack from the shore, to retreat to the sea. Any fortress, along with the safety of the people living in it, must not lose the comfort of use built inside the housing.

Most likely, it was founded in those ancient times, when the sea level near the Crimean coast was much higher and the fortress was closer to the water.

If today we conduct a fantastic experiment and build a dam north of Istanbul, blocking the Bosphorus Strait, 90 m above sea level, then in some hundred to two hundred years the Russian Sea will return to its former shores and connect with its distant “splinter”, neatly flooding the road , passing along the dam of the Gorky hydroelectric power station and leaving cranes sticking out of the water and a bridge over sunken sluices as a memory of the once grandiose structure. And in its northeastern part it forms a drainage through the Turgai depression, thereby connecting with its distant but “brother” the Kara Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

I would also like to comment on the fact that inexplicable horizontal traces of the action of water on it were discovered on the famous Egyptian Sphinx. In my opinion, the explanation is very simple - these are traces of the waters of the ancient Russian Sea breaking through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, which for some time (perhaps before the appearance of the Strait of Gibraltar) significantly raised the water level of the Mediterranean Sea, leaving their presence on the mysterious sculpture Egyptians

But let’s return to the facts confirming the existence of the Russian Sea and the first Russian cities on its shores in the middle reaches of the modern Volga.

Gardarika is a country of cities.

“Kurgan is a hill, a hill; mound, ancient grave, graveyard,” we read in the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by our outstanding fellow countryman Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl.

My acquaintance with the whole system of mounds, at first glance unrelated to each other, began with the majestic Kolychevsky mound.

It got its name from the ancient village of Kolychevo, located nearby on a noticeable hill. And I first learned about its existence from the work of the famous Nizhny Novgorod local historian and writer Alexander Serafimovich Gatsisky entitled “On Sundovik, in Zhary “on the City, on the river.”

In the first part of his story, the author talks about the May 1887 expedition to study the above-mentioned Kolychevsky mound, of which he was a participant. You can read about this in detail in Gatsisky’s book “The Nizhny Novgorod Chronicler”, published in the series “They were from Nizhny Novgorod” and published by the publishing house “Nizhny Novgorod Fair” in 2001. Let us dwell on some parts of the author’s story about the study of the mound.

“Kolychevo is located remarkably beautifully, on a hill washed on one side by the (southwestern) Kirilka River, in the quiet waters of which luxurious willows and willows look, across which a gracefully bridge is thrown, not far from the mill dam, and on the other (southeastern) descending onto a vast meadow, almost in the center of which stands a huge hill, the so-called Kolychevsky mound, and another smaller one, to the west of the large one; the meadow is bordered on three sides by the waters of the Kirilka River and the Sundovik River; on the edge of the hill, dominating the surroundings, with a view of the hills, standing as if on a green luxurious platter, on the Kirilka on the right hand, on Sundovik - in a straight line and located behind Sundovik, at the confluence with it from the opposite side of the Kirilka river, picturesquely scattered, also along the hills and hillocks, the village of Semovo - there is a Kolychevo church.

It was all charming in the last rays of the setting sun.”

“It seems to us that the dark top layer (of the mound) in those places where it is especially thick should be considered filled or applied. It may be, of course, that its rapid thickening towards the southwestern slope of the hill... depends partly on shedding, but the presence of shards and coals clearly indicates the action of a human hand; the same is confirmed by the looseness of this layer and its accumulation near only the western-southwestern edge of the upper platform. The bulk layer was subsequently covered with turf, which is why its upper horizon took on a more intense color and structure of chernozem. It should be noted that the turfy soil of the upper platform is generally darker than the gray loams of the surrounding areas, which also indicates a long-standing and vigorous accumulation of organic residues in it (the proximity of humans)…

There is no doubt that the Kolychevo hillock, now rising alone among the meadow lowlands, was once one with the heights on which the village of Kolychevo is located; the Sundovik and Kirilka rivers washed it away from the general massif and, repeatedly changing their course, flowing around the hillock first on one side, then on the other, moving away from it and approaching it again, gave it the outline of a rounded pyramidal mound. Local residents show the old bed of the Kirilka on the northwestern side of the hill, between it and the village of Kolychev, while now the river flows from the southwestern and southern sides of the mound; in addition, in the meadow, between Sundovik and the Kolychevsky hillock, you can see a riverbed, mostly dry, representing a side branch of Sundovik. These traces of old currents provide visual evidence of the variability of the beds of both rivers, between which the Kolychevsky mound currently stands.”

In the same note, only a little higher, Sibirtsev notes: “... and to this day the waters of Sundovik, spilling over the meadow during the spring flood, reach from the south-eastern side to the base of the mound.”

Let's return to an even more unexpected and very interesting part of Gatsisky's story. He notes: “...and to this day the waters of Sundovik, spilling over the meadow during the spring flood, reach from the south-eastern side to the base of the mound.”

Please note that only during the spring flood and only to the base of the mound. Moreover, traces of the old riverbed on the northwestern side of the hill have been preserved. But to rise to this old channel, the water had to occupy a height of more than 85 meters above sea level!

In this case, the level today of the small rivers Sundovik and Kirilka should have risen during the spring flood by at least five meters from its usual state, which seems unlikely.

Further, Gatsisky writes: “... in my youth, when I was just getting into the study of my dear Nizhny Novgorod Volga region, I read from E.K. Ogorodnikov (“List of populated places”, issue XXV, Nizhny Novgorod province, St. Petersburg, 1863, p. XXI preface), that the area of ​​the Bulgarian city of Oshlyuya (Oshel, Ashel) is believed to have been located downstream of the Volga, where the Kirilka River flows into it, on which, according to the “List,” there are the following villages: Smolino (No. 501), Kozhino (No. 3571) and Pochinok (No. 3571); This testimony was entered by me, without “checking in kind” in “Nizhny Novgorod” (page 20 of the 1877 edition), and then, accidentally checking it for other purposes on the map, I became convinced that it was not correct, since the Kirilka River flows into the Volga... only through the Sundovik flowing into the latter...".

Let's try to figure out this "error". It appeared from a publication of the Central Statistical Committee entitled “List of Populated Places” edited by Evlampy Kirillovich Ogorodnikov, to whose work Gatsisky dedicated an essay. Let's turn to him.

“Evlampy Kirillovich combined his statistical and geographical works with closely related studies in historical and geographical research...

The largest share of work, according to the work of Evlampy Kirillovich in the Central Statistical Committee, was devoted to the compilation and processing of the “List of Populated Places” - a publication that represents extremely valuable material not only in statistics, but also in ethnography and historical geography...

Almost from the time of the founding of the Geographical Society, the idea was raised in it about the need to develop, along with other historical and geographical materials, a very important, well-known, but almost unexplored monument to the geographical works of our ancestors, the so-called “Book of the Big Drawing”...

The initial intention of the society was to restore the lost ancient map of Russia according to the text of the “Book of the Great Drawing” that has come down to us in various copies, but then a completely natural desire arose to determine, if possible, the sources that served to compile the map and were gradually made in it contains corrections and additions.

Giving the “Book of the Big Drawing” the meaning of a Russian geographical chronicle that emerged at different times, as stated in one of the protocols of the ethnography department of the Geographical Society, Evlampy Kirillovich, by decomposing the text of the book on the basis of chronicle instructions and data found in ancient acts, had in mind to prove the possibility of discovering signs text of the original, and thus come closer to resolving the question of the time of the appearance of the drawing...”

As we see, Ogorodnikov, being an experienced researcher and an authoritative respected scientist, had the opportunity to study ancient acts, chronicles, as well as the famous “Book of the Great Drawing”, where the “error” probably came from. It is possible that the “error” was included in the “List of Populated Places” from some other ancient document that the scientist examined. In any case, the unknown source described the geography of the time of this document and, therefore, was not an “error”. And this document was so ancient that it described the place and time when the Kirilka River actually flowed not into Sundovik, but directly into the Volga or, more precisely, into the bay of the “Okiyan Sea”, leaving us with evidence that the height of the waters of the ancient Volga was more than 85 meters above modern sea level and the Volga (Russian Sea) had a completely different water area.

The old bed of the Kirilka River, which once flowed between the village of Kolychev and the mound, mentioned in Sibirtsev’s report, is the coastline of the ancient Volga (Russian Sea), which washed the mound of interest to us from all sides.

Gatsisky himself makes a similar conclusion: “... I believe that in the area of ​​​​the present village of Kolycheva and its floodplain, on which both hills stand, when the waters of Kirilka, not to mention the waters of Sundovik, washing the Kolychevo mountain (on which the village stands) were more abundant when all three rivers, perhaps, flowed in their ancient banks, when rich forests grew not only on the surrounding hills, but also on the floodplain, at the foot of the Kolychevskaya Mountain (the headman says that at this foot, on the northern part of the floodplain, there were not yet so long ago a dense forest grew, from which even the church was built; by the way: now the spring waters of Sundovik only flood the meadow to the south of the hill, there is no water between the hill and the Kolychevskaya Mountain), lived prehistoric peoples who, taking advantage of the natural huge hill, occupied their housing and its top, and while occupying it, they left behind traces, albeit very scanty, in the form of shards, bones and coals.”

What kind of prehistoric peoples are these? Wild half-humans, half-monkeys, climbing mounds out of trivial curiosity? And from the beginning of what history did they turn out to be “prehistoric”?

Or we still admit our ignorance and realize that the traces and artifacts that have survived to this day are the traces of a historical people unknown to us today, an ancient civilization unfamiliar to us today.

And there are not so few traces.

Very close to the Kolychevsky mound, fifteen kilometers down the Sundovik River, on a high picturesque hill called “Olenya Gora” there is an ancient settlement. From here, from its preserved earthen ramparts, there is a magnificent view of the flooded meadows, the Volga itself, the Trans-Volga dense forests and the Makaryevsky Monastery, famous for its former fair, which looks like a huge white steamship.

Today the city on Olenya Mountain stands a few kilometers from the Volga. Try to explain why the city was built so far from a navigable river? Because of dubious safety or because of the stupidity that forced ships to be kept three kilometers from the city and transported cargo along a dirty floodplain eroded by floods? The same Macarius was placed on the very banks of the Volga, which ensured his prosperity and wealth, and the ancient city on “Olenya Mountain” lost not only its former glory, but did not even leave its name to descendants. Do you think that “prehistoric” builders were stupider than “historic” ones?

Let me doubt it.

There is only one explanation. Both cities were founded on the banks of reservoirs.

Makariy - on the banks of the modern Volga.

And the city on “Olenya Mountain” many, many hundreds of years before it on the shores of the ancient Russian Sea!

We found out above: in order for the Kirilka River to flow directly into the Volga (Russian Sea) and for the Kolychevsky mound to be washed on all sides by water, that is, to be an island, the absolute height of the water of the reservoir washing it had to be at least 85 m.

In this case, everything falls into place. Height measurements confirm an unambiguous and sensational conclusion - the city on “Olenya Mountain” was washed on three sides by the Russian Sea, and from the rear it was protected by a canal dug and filled with water from the same sea. It had excellent strategic importance, blocking the entrance to a convenient and long bay.

Scheme of the water area of ​​the Russian Sea and the modern Volga in the area of ​​​​the settlement on Olenya Mountain.

Even today, the ancient city on Olenya Mountain (or rather, what remains of it) inspires respect and surprise with its grandeur, thoughtfulness and guessable former architectural beauty. On the northern side, facing the modern Volga, the city is protected by a high impregnable rampart (see photo 3).

Photo 3. The northern (overgrown with feather grass) and western ramparts of the ancient settlement on Olenya Mountain.

This shaft served as protection not only from enemy ships, but also from raging waves generated by the cold and angry north wind. The rampart in the east ends with the highest point of the city - an embankment tower, which offers a magnificent view of the entire Trans-Volga region, the Volga itself and, going to the right of Bald Mountain, the valley assumed by geologists to be the Pra-Sundovik River. However, this valley is eroded by a completely different, more powerful and full-flowing river. And the river that once flowed towards Sundovik, in the opposite direction of the Volga River, that is, against it (Opposite the ancient river Ra), bears, to this day, the name Sura. It was here that its ancient bed, sandwiched between the Olenya and Lysa mountains, passed (see diagram). This fact further strengthened the importance of the city on Olenya Mountain. From the west, a through canal was dug along the entire rampart, which separated the city from the only land. It was dug below the level of the water of the Proto-Sea surrounding the city and turned it into an impregnable man-made island. It is this canal-ditch that can serve us for a more accurate measurement of the water level of the fabulous Russian “ocean sea”. We proceed from the fact that the ditch, in order to fulfill its defensive purpose, had to be filled with water to at least 2–3 m. In this case, horsemen or warriors in heavy armor and with heavy weapons could not overcome it. The height of the canal bottom, measured with a special device, showed its maximum value equal to 106 meters above sea level, which was located in the northern part of the canal. In the southern part of the canal, the navigator showed the height of its bottom from 79 to 89 m. Due to the slope of the entire peninsula on which the settlement is located, from north to south, it can be assumed that snow and rain waters, eroding the high steep banks of the now dry canal, gradually washed it away in the northern part. In the southern part, the water rolled towards the slope towards Sundovik, gradually eroding the ancient channel and forming a kind of ravine. When walking around the perimeter of the low southern side of the settlement, using the same altimeter, measurements were taken of the heights of the tyn, the base of the ancient ramparts from the outside. The values ​​of these heights ranged from 82–90 m above sea level. Even these approximate measurements make it possible to determine the water level of the ancient Russian Sea with an accuracy of several meters, which, as we see, amounted to 85–87 m. Once again, I would like to note that the city on Olenya Mountain was maritime, that is, standing on the shore of a reservoir, and was surrounded on all sides by the waters of a sea invisible to us today and was a defensive, commercial and port fortress of our ancestors. Its trade significance, connecting Europe, India, China, the Mediterranean, and Persia, is evidenced by the famous Makaryevskaya Fair, which later appeared and existed almost to this day. Of course, it was not without reason and not out of nowhere that it was organized in a new, but already familiar location, after the city on Olenya Mountain was destroyed and the water flowed from its walls several kilometers to the north. The new place, practically without changing its geographical location, continued to attract merchants and travelers from all over the world, serving as a kind of bridge between west and east, between north and south, remaining a very important starting point of the annual trade cycle and water navigation of the entire ancient world civilization. Approximately in the middle of the western rampart, a land exit to the mainland was organized through a water-filled ditch, possibly equipped with a drawbridge. From the south, the city seemed to descend to a calm bay, washing the city on the southern side, closed from the northern waves and wind. Convenient berths for boats and ships were built here. Several deep ravines visible today on this southern shore of the city suggest ship canals may have been dug directly into the city. Probably, after the ships entered, the entrances to the fortress wall were closed with bars and chains. In general, the city on Olenya Mountain hides many more unexpected secrets. Its comprehensive study will bring many important discoveries for the history of Russia. But, apparently, everything has its time. On the south-eastern extremity of the city one can observe a preserved mound. Perhaps there was a 24-hour guard for the moored ships. From here the Kolychevsky mound, already known to us, was clearly visible. As we found out earlier, it was surrounded on all sides by water, that is, it was a small island. On it, in bad weather or at night, a fire was lit, which showed the way for merchant ships into the bay and further to the legendary city supposed by historians somewhere in these places, which among the Volga Bulgars was later called Oshel and which was mentioned by Gatsisky. From all of the above it follows that the Kolychevsky mound is nothing more than a real navigation island lighthouse! So much for “prehistoric peoples”! If they don't have a story, then it's not their fault, it's our fault. There is another preserved ditch and rampart on the banks of the modern and, of course, ancient Volga. These are fortifications of an undeniably grandiose settlement located on the territory of the modern city of Radilov-Gorodets. Measurements of the depth of the ditch, remarkably preserved in the south-eastern part of the settlement (near the village of Abrosikha), show values ​​that surprisingly coincide with the “Deer Settlement” values. Their values ​​range from 85 to 93 m above sea level (average value - 89 m)! Of course, the height of the rampart, its impressive dimensions and the ancient solidity of the “Gorodets earthen fortress”, the navigable width of its ditch cannot be compared with the “Olenaya Gora”. But the destruction of the rampart (and, as a consequence, shallowing of the ditch) by time and active human activity in Gorodets is more impressive than on Olenya Gora, which is why the difference in the considered modern depths of the ditch of 2-3 m is not significant. The height of the water in the ancient sea during the prosperity of both cities of our ancestors was, as we have already noted, 85–87 m above the level of the modern sea. The depths of the ditches at both settlements, located from each other in a straight line at a distance of 120 km and, moreover, on different banks of the river, can only coincide if the water of its ancient waters filled the ditches, protected and washed the banks of these ancient ones on all sides cities. That is, both ancient cities we are considering were founded on the shores of the same mysterious body of water - the Russian Sea. This is a fact that is difficult to dispute. And since the disappearance of the Russian Sea, as we found out earlier, is directly related to the biblical story of the Flood, these cities were founded before this tragic event. To put it literally, these are “antediluvian” cities in the very heart of modern Russia. This somewhat changes the generally accepted history of our Motherland, doesn’t it? Let me make one more remark. In the Volga water area of ​​Russia there are quite a few ancient settlements and settlements, but none of them are located at altitudes below 85 m. No one settles or builds under water, except mermen and mermaids. From here we can draw another logical conclusion. The first ancient (“antediluvian”) cities and settlements were built and developed on the shores of an ancient body of water, convenient for communication and rich in fish, which was the Russian “Sea-Okiyan”. The water level of its water area was approximately 87 m. This means that the antiquity of the city, the time of its foundation, can be preliminarily determined by its geological or geographical location (of course, in the river basins of the modern Black Sea, Azov, Caspian and Aral basins). If these settlements (their historical centers) are located at absolute heights of 85-90 m, then most likely they were founded before the disappearance of the ancient sea. If their centers are lower, then much later. Therefore, using only chronicle data to determine the time of the founding of a particular city, we deliberately distort our own history. Based on certain chronicles, we can only learn about the emergence of relatively new cities or the revival (use of old territories) of ancient ones. The very history of these ancient (“antediluvian”) cities requires urgent and comprehensive attention and study.

There are several, as one might assume, mounds-lighthouses for the navigation of ships in the ancient Volga waters on the territory of the modern Nizhny Novgorod region.

The mound near the village of Mezhuiki, today hidden from view by the forest, was located on an island on the left bank of the ancient Volga. It also served as a lighthouse for ships and was clearly visible from Olenya Mountain and from the water for many kilometers. Moreover, even today this mound stands inside a barely noticeable but preserved ancient settlement.

Two mounds, located on both banks of the Sheloksha or Staraya Kudma river, indicated the route for the passage of ships to the settlements that were located on the banks of the convenient Volga Bay. On the high left bank of the river, a barely noticeable hill remained from the mound. But on the right bank, not only the base of the mound has been preserved, but also complex earthworks consisting of several parts of a regular rectangular shape.

These traces of the ancient Volga navigation system, miraculously preserved to this day, indicate a developed fleet and a well-thought-out defensive system consisting of coastal fortified cities.

In the depths of the bays, protected from winds and uninvited guests, there were trading cities and settlements with convenient ports for loading and unloading bread, textiles, and building materials.

It is worth recalling that the traces of “prehistoric peoples,” in addition to “shards, bones and coals,” should also include a source of information with an “error” that Ogorodnikov brought from some ancient document. This document, as we found out earlier, was created at a time when there was no “mistake”, and the Kirilka River actually flowed directly into the sea. And this document (most likely a map or diagram) was created by those same “prehistoric peoples”.

But if there was trade, there was a fleet that made it possible to navigate both rivers and seas, an operating and maintained navigation system (mapped on maps!), well-placed defense cities and trading settlements - this means that all this was planned and controlled from one center, that is, it was united into a single state.

State of the "prehistoric people".

A state of the people with a lost history!

An epic, fabulous, amazing country!

The lost country of our ancestors on the shores of the lost Russian “sea-ocean” with a short and sonorous name - Rus'!

Primordial Rus'!

In Europe, this country was called “Gardarika - the land of a thousand cities.”

The name “Gardarika” itself is very interesting because it carries the root “ar” twice, which indicates the presence of the Aryans. The same word can easily be transformed into the word “tartar” - the end of the world, hell - and into the phrase “Mount Ararat” - the beginning of a new world according to the Bible.

Royal city.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I can’t wait to test the theory of determining the time of founding of ancient cities on the Volga using the methodology proposed in previous chapters, that is, through a preliminary determination of the absolute height of their historical centers.

Let's take the city at the confluence of two great Russian rivers, the Oka and the Volga, the author's homeland - Nizhny Novgorod.

The chronicle reads: “In the summer of 6729 (1221), the great prince Yuri Vsevolodovich founded a city at the mouth of the Oka and called it Nizhny Novgorod.” The founder of the city is Yuri Vsevolodovich, the son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, the grandson of the founder of Moscow Yuri Dolgoruky.

According to legends, there were some minor Mordovian settlements in this place, as well as minor skirmishes and battles. But the Mordovians soon left, leaving the Nizhny Novgorod lands to the conquerors.

Everything seems to be clear and understandable.

But if you, my friend, have been to Nizhny, if you have stood at a bird's eye view over the always charming sunset, if you have peered into the endless exciting horizon, then you could not help but fall in love forever with these mountains, and these rivers, and these distances. Even the “prehistoric” man could not help but appreciate this aching beauty.

Let’s try to take the trouble and look for traces of this man, especially since the height of the water of the Russian Sea, equal to 87–89 m, suggested sufficient space for ancient builders on the Dyatlov Mountains rising above this ancient sea.

In a developed, long-lived and disorganized city, it is quite difficult to find these traces. But they must be there. Let us, tuned in to this message, re-read the legends once again, look at the maps, and walk through the streets and alleys of our city, which has been traveled up and down thousands of times.

Maybe there is something we don’t notice or can’t see?

How many legends have been preserved in Rus' about invisible cities and entire countries. Some are invisible because they are difficult to reach, some because they have gone underwater or underground, some are revealed only to the worthy.

The latter seems completely unreal and fantastic.

But it is precisely this that is the main and, perhaps, the only reason for our strange myopia.

We ourselves, without much resistance, accepted the role of a certain historical inferiority. Studying events, achievements, exploits, philosophies, religions, moral values ​​of other peoples, sometimes completely alien to us, we completely forget about the no less significant, worthy and, I am absolutely sure, deeper and more ancient history of our great ancestors .

We live on the land where they lived, loved, fought for their (and our) happiness, the land where they are buried.

We have no right to forget about that.

Their story is our story. This is the basis, the foundation on which we must rely. History is the dignity of our ancestors, our dignity, the dignity of future generations. Without this, the only possible, support, we will always be tossed from side to side by any wind, any current, like a well-known object in an ice hole.

We are an amazing people. Each of us is individual, talented and bright. But we are so divided and scattered that we do not feel or understand each other even when communicating in the same language. Only an understanding of our historical community and pride in our common great ancestors can unite and unite us. And only by being worthy of them, we will be able to discover the mysterious Rus' with its fabulous invisible cities, and today’s confused reality, and a bright, happy future.

Let's return to the theory of measuring the heights of the historical part of the city.

Have you ever wondered why the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin has such a complex shape? From the central square of Minin, it descends in steps from a high impregnable hill 80 m down, closer to the Volga, but does not reach it even at its lowest point by a good hundred meters.

At the same time, the military Kremlin loses its inaccessibility, becomes vulnerable to the guns of enemy ships, without gaining access directly to the strategic river during the siege of the city and, on the contrary, allows itself to be surrounded by enemy ground forces without a fleet.

The lower part of the Kremlin - the Conception Tower - today was destroyed by a landslide; in its place there is a memorial sign announcing plans for its restoration. Try to guess at what absolute height this sign is located? You can check it several times - 89–90 m.

The lower part of the Kremlin should have stood exactly on the shore of the Russian Sea!

And since the modern stone Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin was built much later than the time when this sea disappeared, we can only assume that the Kremlin was built on the foundation of a fortification that already existed long before it and was carefully thought out by the ancient builders.

And this is the third city we have explored, standing on the shores of the “ocean sea.”

Unfortunately, the supposed artifact is today hidden under the walls of the Kremlin.

But we will not despair and will continue to search for traces of “prehistoric” man.

And these traces are there.

1 - Modern Kremlin. 2 - The Lower City is a fortress defended by Abram. 3 - Upper town - fortress on Ilyinskaya Mountain. 4 - An ancient monastery on the site of the tomb of the fabulous Zlatogorka. 5 - Svyatogor Residence. 6 - Eastern gate of the ancient Kremlin. 7 - Southern gate of the Kremlin. 8 - Western gate of the Kremlin. 9 - Eastern gate of Constantinople. 10 - Southern gate of Constantinople. 11 - Western gate of Constantinople. Modern streets: P - Piskunova, S - Sergievskaya, BPech - Bolshaya Pecherskaya, BPok - Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, I - Ilyinskaya, PS - Pokhvalinsky Congress, MYA - Malaya Yamskaya, 3Ya - 3rd Yamskaya, PlG - Gorky Square, MG - Maxima Gorky, Bel - Belinsky, K - Krasnoselskaya, R - Rodionov, G - Gagarin

In the 19th century, the famous Nizhny Novgorod local historian and historian Nikolai Ivanovich Khramtsovsky wrote a work entitled “A Brief Essay on the History and Description of Nizhny Novgorod.” This invaluable and talented work is dedicated to Nizhny Novy - a city that began its history with the arrival of Western princes to these lands. But as a historian based on real facts, Khramtsovsky could not help but tell, albeit a small, backstory of this city in the first chapter of his narrative, which is called: “Events that preceded the founding of Nizhny Novgorod.”

Here he cites an old legend that somewhat lifts the veil over the unknown history of our mysterious city.

Firstly, this legend indicates the exact dimensions of its fortifications.

We read: “This fortification covered from north to south the entire space from the Cow Transport... to the present Lykovsky Congress, and from east to west - from the Kovalikhinsky stream to the Pochayna River.

In this fortification, Abram (the elected ruler of the Mordovian people) built two gates: one on the southern side of the rampart, wide, with oak gates, which he covered with earth, the other secret, in the north, near the Korovievo Vzvoz... (Cow Vzvoz - a congress that existed before 1850 -ies at the end of modern Piskunova Street before the construction of the Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment (in the 1860s), walked along one of the ravines, now filled in; the name is due to the fact that the exit led to one of the pastures located in the Middle Ages in semi-mountain of the modern Alexander Garden. - Note from the book by N. Morokhin “Our Rivers, Cities and Villages”).”

That is, the old city, which existed here before the arrival of the Orthodox military princes, occupied territories at least twice the area of ​​the modern Kremlin. The southern gate was located at the intersection of modern Piskunov and Bolshaya Pokrovskaya streets. From here began the road to the ancient capital of the Mordovians - the city of Arzamas. The northern gate (it would be more correct to call it the eastern gate) was built at the intersection of modern Piskunova and Bolshaya Pecherskaya streets. This is where the road to the east began.

Secondly, the legend says that Prince Mstislav Andreevich, the son of Andrei Bogolyubsky, came to the walls of Abramov’s town with an army of fourteen thousand (the princes’ troops were professional and well versed in fortifications and sieges of enemy cities) against five hundred civilians holed up in the fortifications. But, apparently, the walls of this fortification were so large and impregnable, and the size of the city was so impressive that Mstislav did not even try to take this fortress by attack and, moreover, could not control its perimeter, which allowed the Mordovians to bring small reinforcements. Without waiting for the fortress to be stormed, Abram led his army out through the southern gate and attacked the enemy, who outnumbered him almost three times. All the defenders died in an unequal battle with the well-armed princely army.

All this suggests that back in the 12th century, on the territory of modern Nizhny Novgorod, a fortification structure, huge even by today’s standards, was preserved, which was used by the Mordovian ruler Abram in defense against the enemy. The new owners of these lands could not (and did not even try) to develop such a large territory. The new fortress, built by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, was significantly smaller in size than the former fortifications, and it was erected, as one might assume, in its northern and western part along the slopes of the Dyatlov Mountains on the existing foundation of an old, solid fortification. It is possible that this part of the fortress was simply reconstructed, and the newly built section from Koromyslova to the St. George Tower only reduced the former power of the ancient city, unfamiliar to us today, with its new wall.

Khramtsovsky himself comments on the above legend as follows: “This legend, like almost all legends, diverges far from historical data in detail, but fundamentally it does not contradict chroniclers and historians and confirms that on the site of present-day Nizhny Novgorod there was a city or small a village of the natives, which, in all likelihood, was devastated in 1171...”

So, we found out that a new smaller city was built on the site of the larger old city. This event was reflected in the name of the city - Novgorod. The first part of the city's name - Nizhny - is discussed below.

Let us now walk along the walls of the ancient invisible city. The only section of it that has survived today is the rampart along Piskunova Street from Bolshaya Pecherskaya Street to Minina Street. It may be small in size, but it is a significant artifact confirming the existence of the ancient city.

Here, on one side of the rampart, at the intersection of Piskunova and Bolshaya Pecherskaya streets, there was once the Eastern Gate of the city (in the legend they are called Northern, which is not entirely true). From here, along the modern streets of Bolshaya Pecherskaya, Rodionova, Kazan Highway, an endless road to the east began, which could lead travelers to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

How many people have walked along it over the centuries-old history of mankind!

Even today it is the most direct and practically the only road connecting East and West.

From the other end of the rampart that has survived today began the Cow Cart, which went along the now filled-in ravine. This ravine, as one can safely assume, was a continuation of the ancient fortification and was an artificial terrace created by ancient builders. Now let's walk along Piskunova Street (don't forget that we are walking along the walls of an ancient city) towards Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street. At the intersection with Osharskaya Street we find ourselves in an area called Black Pond. A pond is an artificial reservoir. Who dug it and why? To store drinking water? We read from Morokhin in the book “Our Rivers, Cities and Villages”: “At this place there was a pond connected to the riverbed. Kovalikhi, which served as a resting place for the townspeople. It is called black because of the dark color of the water. Its other old name is Pogany. Filled up in the 1930s. as a source of malaria, a park has been laid out in its place.” Agree, the water near this pond is not very tasty.

Another version. The Black Pond was created by ancient builders near the very walls of the former fortress to accumulate water, which in turn filled a ditch dug along these walls. And this is obvious.

Another interesting fact should be noted here. The Kovalikha River, which gave the name to Kovalikhinskaya Street, flows into the Starka River. This same Starka has a double name. In its upper course it is called Kova, and after the Kovalikha River flows into it, it is called Starka. What does this name mean? Morokhin derives its name from the word “oxbow - an old river bed that has no current.” Very interesting, but in my opinion, not entirely accurate. What, having the configuration of a river (long length with small width), except for an oxbow lake, has no flow?

This is a channel!

Star-ka - old channel.

Measurements of the heights of the banks of this canal confirm this version. The canal, which began somewhere in the area of ​​modern Vysokovsky Proezd, connected with the Russian Sea in the area of ​​​​the village of Rzhavka. I believe that it was conceived for a secret retreat from the city by water, in the event of the enemy blocking land roads. It is not for nothing that the nearby gates of the city are called secret in legend.

Let's continue our way along Piskunova Street. At its intersection with Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, as the legend says, there were the main, Southern Gates of the ancient city. From here began the road to Arzamas and further to the ever-restless and hot south.

Is this the end of our journey?

Let's not rush.

Piskunova Street, along which we passed, had an old name - Osypnaya. We read from Morokhin: “Osypnaya Street. The old name of the western part of Piskunova Street. The street runs along the city’s defensive line of the 15th century, which was an earthen rampart - a scree with gates at the intersection with the roads.”

Everything is correct. But where, according to the plans of the ancient builders, was the western part of this defensive line supposed to end?

Let's take a look at the map again.

From Minin Street to Varvarskaya Street, Piskunova Street forms an arc, and then its completely straight section begins.

Let's put a ruler and see where our street (read defensive line) would have been heading if the Pochainsky ravine had not blocked its way?

In this case, exactly on the path of the defensive line lie: the stairs to the Zelensky Congress, the Lykovaya Dam and... Sergievskaya Street, which with its western end almost abuts a steep ravine, in which, in turn, a descent, noticeable even today, was dug exactly in the direction of this street and a noticeable terrace.

Here it is - a continuation of our imaginary, and once really existing, fortress wall of our invisible city!

The staircase, the Lykovaya dam, and the modern Sergievskaya street itself were laid along its destroyed foundation.

From the eastern end of modern Piskunov Street, the ancient fortress descended into the Pochainsky ravine. Measurements of heights from the northern side of the dam show that the modern Pochainsky ravine was a bay of the Russian Sea, which reached with its waters exactly to the modern Lykova dam. That is, the ancient fortress (its southern part) ran along the shore of this bay or estuary. Then the fortress rose upward, coinciding in its geometry with modern Sergievskaya Street. At the intersection of this street and modern Ilyinskaya, as one can assume, another one, the Western Gate of the city, was built. Further, the fortress abutted a ravine, along which, turning its walls to the north, it sank to the water and, repeating the contour of modern Rozhdestvenskaya Street, only higher, in the half-mountain, it returned to Pochainsky Bay.

Just imagine what a grandiose structure it was!

And it was built by our ancestors on the shores of the still existing Russian Sea, that is, in “antediluvian” times!

There are legends according to which the small, insignificant Pochaina River, flowing in a deep ravine near the city, may one day flood Nizhny Novgorod. How can a river that carries its waters straight to the Volga threaten a city? Most likely it will be flooded by the Volga itself.

But, as we determined earlier, the Pochaina River flowed almost through the middle of the city and, since the southern city wall passed at the very mouth of the river, the Pochaina could dangerously flood this wall every spring. This circumstance was preserved in people's memory as legends.

And further. The Pochayna River divided the city into two parts - the Upper City (on Ilyinskaya Mountain) and the Lower City on (Chasovaya Mountain).

The upper city had important sacred significance for our ancestors. Here, in an open, picturesque place, the territory of which is a wedge, bounded on one side by modern Ilyinskaya Street and Pochtovy Descent on the other, a church has been preserved.

It was built on the site of a former monastery, which, in turn, undoubtedly had a very ancient history. This church, like the monastery that stood there, has the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God, which is also no coincidence. We will return to this topic in other chapters of our story.

The lower city, a city on Chasovaya Mountain, was a business center. Merchants and craftsmen lived here, fairs and holidays were held. The Upper City, as we see, has not been preserved, but the memory that the ancient city consisted of two parts (Upper and Lower) remained and was transformed into the name of the newly rebuilt city on the site of the old Lower City - Nizhny. Nizhny new city. Nizhny Novgorod.

But we have not yet discovered all the secrets of our amazing city. The fact is that this ancient city consisted not of two, but of three parts.

The third (more likely the first) part of the city was its main part. It was it that was its administrative and cultural center. The supreme ruler lived here, received receptions, and studied science - compiling calendars, studying the starry sky, and mathematics. It was here that the royal palace was located, the palace of the first king of people - the fabulous Svyatogor, which we will talk about later. It is from here (or here) that even more amazing and inexplicable traces of our mysterious ancestors lead.

This part of the ancient city is today undeservedly lost and forgotten.

However, finding its location is quite simple.

Take a map of the Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir regions, a ruler, a pencil, temporarily remove the burden of doubt and skepticism from the table and rise like a bird above the ground, above our amazing and so unpredictable Motherland.

As you know, roads in Rus' (and not only in Rus') have never been straight. They meandered from one village to another, from ford to bridge, around ravines and steep slopes.

However, there is a surprising exception.

This old highway is the road between Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod.

If you drive from Nizhny towards Vladimir, then the absolutely direct Moscow Highway begins from the Nizhny Novgorod Metallurgical Plant.

Despite repeated rebuilding, reconstruction, expansion, etc., it has retained its original shape.

So, from the plant we move over an arrow-straight road. Only sixty kilometers later, near the village of Zolino, the road turns left, passes through the city of Gorokhovets and, repeating the shape of the flow of the Klyazma River, describing an arc, returns to the right to the city of Vyazniki, from where, coinciding, as if by magic, with its original direction, it retains the shape of an ideal straight line until intersection in the village of Penkino with the Klyazma River.

Do you believe in magical coincidences?

Two straight sections of roads, Nizhny Novgorod - Zolino and Vyazniki - Penkino, lie on the same straight line. But what does this line connect?

If you trace the path of an arrow shot from Nizhny Novgorod along the Moscow Highway, then it will, having previously pierced the center of the modern city of Vyazniki, stick into Vladimir in the area of ​​​​the ensemble of the St. Constantine and Helena Church, located on the high left bank of the Klyazma.

Let's take a closer look at this place.

The temple ensemble itself is located at an absolute altitude of about 125 m. However, two roads, encircling the complex on both sides, descend to the railway track, located at an absolute altitude of about 90 m. The Klyazma River, as noted above, was also a gulf of the Russian Sea, and The railway near Vladimir is practically laid along the surf strip of this ancient reservoir. The fact that the area of ​​the ensemble of the St. Constantine-Eleninsky Church was surrounded on both sides by ditches filled with water is evidenced by the remaining noticeable ravines and preserved dams. In addition, it is from the gates of the temple ensemble that the road to the second city of the Vladimir region begins - Suzdal. These facts speak in favor of the fact that the ancient (“antediluvian”) center of the city of Vladimir was located right here, at the tip of our arrow. The white-stone Vladimir Kremlin, which looks magnificent from the city's railway station, is located significantly higher and further from the river bed, which indicates its relatively young age (the official year of foundation of Vladimir is 990).

Now let's fire a return arrow from Vladimir. It will repeat the path we took in the opposite direction and, without turning left from the metallurgical plant, where the Moscow Highway goes, it will fly straight according to the laws of physics, sticking into the high remarkable peninsula of the Dyatlov Mountains, surrounded on both sides by ravines, above the Kazan (Romodanovsky) station.

The ideal straightness of the road (most of it) between Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod is amazing and carries with it a certain mystery, the solution to which we will definitely return to.

Let's look at the place where our arrow fell. It is not difficult to get to the above-mentioned peninsula today. The only street approaching it from Malaya Yamskaya Street is 3rd Yamskaya. If you are curious enough and walk this street to the end and a little further, you will find yourself in one of the most amazing places in our city. From here, even with the naked eye, you can see how the Moscow Highway (a straight ancient clearing) goes beyond the horizon. To the right and left of the hillock there are two huge ravines (one of the ravines is called Yarilsky), along the bottom of which two streams rang until quite recently. The outer sides of the ravines on both sides descend in symmetrical arcs to the Oka and only at the very bottom, towards the observed running away Moscow highway, do they leave a passage to a protected place from the side of the graceful Oka.

And again, the absolute height of the bottom of this passage-channel is about 85 m, which allowed the water of the Russian Sea to approach the base and surround the peninsula we found on both sides!

These further prove that you are in the center of the lost and found, thanks to our arrow, the royal part of the ancient city!

Time, landslides, water and people did not spare him. Everything is distorted, torn, wounded.

But it’s worth turning on at least a little imagination, and you’re already standing on the balcony of a sun-drenched royal palace. There are magnificent houses and gardens all around. From somewhere, from behind, from the picturesque hills, two cheerful brother streams run down, filling with their waters the cascades of dams going down to the sea, and the sea itself, hospitably let in through the western sea gate into the sparkling bay, affectionately licks the stone pier with a silent wave.

Incoming ships with traveling ambassadors moor to the piers. On the outer side of the cascade of dams on the circular city wall a guard is on duty. The only bridge leading from the peninsula through the southeastern gate is lowered, and vigilant guards inspect the arriving strangers.

And here is the royal palace of the epic fairy-tale hero, the first ruler of people, the first king - Svyatogor!

We read in the book “Our Rivers, Cities and Villages” by Nikolai Morokhin: “CITY. The common name for the central part of Nizhny Novgorod, approximately within the boundaries of Belinsky Street, is more often used among residents of the Zarechnaya part: “I’ll go to the City.” Etymologically: a populated area surrounded by a wall for its protection.”

It’s just that names never appear and disappear. In the most surprising way, old names remain in people's memory. This means that Belinsky Street, which connects, like a canal, the modern Oka and Volga rivers, could also serve as a fortified border of our ancient city.

There is another difficult-to-dispute artifact of the activity of “prehistoric” man. This is an old boundary boundary line, running (and preserved! See Photo 4) along the entire modern Volga right bank.

Photo 4. The boundary line is a ditch up to 5 m deep and up to 10 m wide. The ditch overgrown with forest stretches through fields, forests and swamps for hundreds of kilometers.

It begins in the area of ​​the mouths of the Kitmar and Sundovik rivers (practically from the settlement on Olenya Gora), passes in a huge arc through modern Lyskovsky, Kstovsky, Dalnekonstantinovsky, Bogorodsky, Sosnovsky, Pavlovsky, Volodarsky and Chkalovsky districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region and ends in the area of ​​​​the village of Katunki.

The boundary line is a ditch, five to ten meters wide, three to five meters deep, and stretches for hundreds of kilometers. It is unlikely to encounter anything like this.

It is difficult to judge its original size and characteristics, since over many years it was subjected to various natural (rain, snow, wind) and human (construction of roads, overpasses and power lines, plowing) influences.

Surprisingly, this ancient border line was used in the construction of a modern anti-tank ditch during the Great Patriotic War.

Thus, almost exactly, the tasks of the ancient border patrol and modern military engineers coincided with each other.

The goal of military engineers is to protect the city of Gorky in case of a possible breakthrough of the front by the German army.

It would be logical to assume that the goal of the ancient warriors was to protect their city, the location of which should coincide with the military Gorky.

Let's return to the straight line connecting the centers of two ancient cities of Rus' - Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir. It is another artifact of the activities of our ancient ancestors.

But how can we explain today why our ancestors needed to build a technically very difficult clearing road between two cities?

One thing is clear: ancient Nizhny had a symmetrical twin brother, the ancient city of Vladimir, two hundred kilometers to the west of it. They both stood on the shores of the Russian Sea and had similar architecture.

If we recall the wonderful words of the artist Ilya Efimovich Repin about Nizhny Novgorod: “This city, royally placed over the entire east of Russia...”, then when applied to ancient Vladimir, his statement could be paraphrased as follows: “This city, royally placed over the entire west of Russia...” .

And let's not forget about Vyazniki. This city lies almost in the middle of a straight line connecting the two “royal cities”. Its meaning for our ancestors today is also not clear.

The main mysteries that must be solved first are the following: what happened to the ancient civilization, for what reason did the Russian Sea disappear, what happened to the cities and settlements on its shores, where did people and the memory of them disappear?

To answer these questions, it is necessary to travel from the shores of the Russian Sea to the shores of another mysterious river, which today is called very briefly - Oka.

Ocean.

Let's ask ourselves a question: why is it not the sea that is mentioned in Russian fairy tales, but the “Okiyan sea”? “Sea” and “Okiyan” - two different bodies of water or is it one body of water? And why does the double name of an ancient, seemingly single, water area sound?

I didn’t think about this question until, quite by chance, on the Internet, I came across material about the construction of the Kudma - Metallist (Pavlovo) railway.

It is interesting to note that it was laid using the proposals of the writer Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky as a recognized expert on the Volga region.

Most of the road passes through a fairly wide valley. We read: “The Kishma River flows along it, but, according to geologists, the lowland was not mined by it: several tens of thousands of years ago, the bed of the Oka River itself ran along it, which once flowed into the Volga fifty kilometers below modern Nizhny Novgorod.”

Geology is a serious science that is difficult to “fake.” Of course, there may be mistakes. For example, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish an ancient man-made canal from a naturally formed old river bed. But even such mistakes are rare. And in order to distort historical events, it is enough to tear out something, add something, destroy something, slander someone, exalt someone. Even one person can do this. But it is impossible to change geology with a pen in hand. Even with a shovel and a pick, it will be hard and useless work.

We find traces of the old riverbed of the Oka in the same book by Morokhin. Here is what he writes about the small river Velikaya: “The Velikaya is a river, the left tributary of the Kudma... According to legend, the name is due to the fact that this now small river was large in the past... Geologist?B.?I.?Friedman notes that on In the place of the Great, indeed, in the past a significant river flowed, as evidenced by the disproportionate “dead valley” of the Great, along the bottom of which its bed runs.”

The legend itself, given in the book “Legends and Traditions of the Volga River” by the same author, sounds like this: “...There was a time when the Great River carried its waters from afar, from the southwest, for hundreds of miles (the length of the modern Oka is about 1500 km. - Author's note) towards Nizhny Novgorod. At that time, various ships sailed along this river, and it fed the population of coastal villages and hamlets...”

Then: “And the big river withered away, it began to wither and soon dried up, and its valley from hundreds of miles turned into five miles. Now only children bathe in it; there is not a single boat on it now...”

Without a doubt? This legend speaks of the ancient Oka. But why did it have such a strange course?

Let's take a close look at the topographic maps of the modern Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir regions. Fadeev Mountains, Dyatlov Mountains, Starodubye, Dudenevsky Mountains, Meshchersky Mountains, Peremilovsky Mountains, Gorokhovetsky Spur.

The modern Volga River from Nizhny Novgorod flows along the high right bank, which people used to call mountains. If you look upstream of the Volga, these mountains depart from it and run along the right bank of the Oka River. In the area of ​​the modern city of Gorbatov, the mountain system disintegrates into two parts: the Peremilovsky Mountains, running along the right bank of the Oka River, and the Gorokhovetsky spur, which runs along the right bank of the Klyazma River. The Meshchersky Mountains, which, turning 180 degrees, flow around the Oka, having managed to receive the left tributary of the Klyazma River into their waters, act as an appendix in the area of ​​​​the city of Gorbatov towards the Gorokhovetsky spur.

It is obvious that the Gorokhovetsky spur was once in a single mountain system with the high Meshchersky Mountains, on which the city of Gorbatov is picturesquely located.

Lyrical digression.

If you draw a map of the shore of the supposed ancient sea from the modern city of Vyazniki to the modern city of Nizhny Novgorod, almost exactly coinciding with the right bank of the modern rivers: Klyazma, Oka and Volga, only with smoother, smoother forms, then this shore will resemble in its bend a bow with a taut string (an imaginary straight line connecting these cities and on a significant part coinciding with the Moscow Highway).

We read in Morokhin’s book “Our Rivers, Cities and Villages”: “STARODUBYE - an area on the right bank of the Oka. In the past it was rich in old oak forests. The name has been known since the 14th century. In the Middle Ages there was an ancient Russian city there - Starodub Vachsky.”

In order to find its flow into the Russian Sea, the Oka had to overcome the watershed between the modern rivers Kishma (Vorsma) and Kudma, the absolute height of which is about 130 m. This provoked the flood of the ancient Oka many kilometers wide. Even preliminary measurements show that the reservoir that was formed was enormous. Compared to the rather narrow bay of the Russian Sea, which in the territory of the modern middle reaches of the Volga was mainly 15–20 km, the Oka was a huge lake (or system of lakes), which ancient people associated with the Ocean.

Dmitry Kvashnin, Primordial Rus' - a lost history, or a few steps in the search for truth // "Academy of Trinitarianism", M., El No. 77-6567, pub. 16151, 11/10/2010

Introduction

Until now, in our official science and school textbooks on the history of Russia, almost the only source of information about ancient and medieval Rus' is considered to be the 12th century chronicle collection “The Tale of Bygone Years,” written by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor and incorporating family traditions, stories, tales, legends of a historical and fairy-tale nature lives of the first Russian saints. Unfortunately, much has not reached us in handwritten originals. Even “The Tale of Bygone Years” is only a shadow of Nestor’s creation, it is so distorted by revisions, insertions, and additions that it needs similar studies in order to predict past warnings, describing deliberate distortions and conjectures that help to recreate, as if from fragments, an objective and truthful mosaic of Rus' The original, the appearance of which is still largely hidden in a shroud of mystery. The set tasks will help reveal the essence of the formation of future tribal unions, i.e. the further establishment of statehood among the Slavs, as well as their emergence and settlement in contact with the Eastern Slavs and other ancient civilizations.

This work examines various versions of the process of formation of the Russian state, where one can imagine a more authentic history of its emergence.

“The Tale of Bygone Years” - true or false?

Historians know that Nestor’s first editor was the monk Selvester. His works have also reached us in lists of which the most complete and oldest is the Laurentian Chronicle (337), and the third edition, the so-called Ipatevsky Chronicle, early 15th century, does not even mention the name of Nestor.

The only copy of the original “The Tale of Bygone Years” was preserved in Poland until the end of the 18th century; some fragments were preserved in Russian chronicles, and then only in remote monasteries far from the center. The scribes in these monasteries treated the texts of their predecessors very freely: the original information was either omitted altogether or modified to please some influential princes. All this explains all the inconsistencies, “blank spots” in our ancient and medieval history, as well as in the dating of historical events. As V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote “... in a historical question, the less data, the more diverse the possible solutions and the easier they are.”

Such an example of an approach is the “Norman theory” of the origin of Russian statehood, which was based on the legend contained in Selvistor’s version of “The Tale of Bygone Years” about the alleged calling of the Novgorodians in 1862. Varangians to reign. The inconsistency and unscientific nature of this theory was proven by Soviet historians back in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century.

The emergence and settlement of Slavic tribes

Speaking about the appearance of the Slavs, it is necessary to say from what time do we begin to count the origin of their appearance? Have the Slavs always lived in Eastern Europe or did they come from other lands? And if they came, where did they come from?

Alas, science can answer many of these questions only tentatively. The decisive, distinctive feature of a people is language, but to find out what language the inhabitants of Eastern Europe spoke in the 1st century AD. e., without touching on more distant centuries, it is not so simple. After all, primitive tribes did not know writing, and archaeological monuments do not allow us to judge the language of their creators.

Much of science remains controversial. Some scientists identify the Scythian ploughmen, whom Herodotus, the father of history, spoke about, while others object, considering the Chimerians, et-Russians and Sarmatians to be Proslavs. The first undoubtedly Slavic monuments appeared in Eastern Europe on the banks of the Dnieper in the 6th century AD. The oldest Russian chronicle of the 12th century, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” preserved the story of the arrival of the Slavs to the Dnieper from the Danube through the Carpathians, where in the 6th century there was a strong tribal union of the Dulebs.

According to modern scientists, the path of the Slavs to Eastern Europe lay not only through the Carpathians, but also the second stream went from the southern shores of the Baltic to the shores of Volkhov and Ladoga - where Novgorod would later stand. Most specialists tend to look for the most ancient pan-Slavic ancestral home in central Europe, in the upper reaches of the Danube, Vistula, Oder and Elbe.

The hypothesis about the arrival of the Slavs from Asia, widespread in the last century, has now been rejected by official science.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Slavs already made up a significant part of Eastern Europe; they gradually mastered the space of the center of the European part of our country. The Slavs brought to these uninhabited and sparsely populated regions a higher agricultural culture developed in the fertile South; gradually, the proximity to the earlier Baltic and Finno-Ugric population led not only to the exchange of experience, wintering achievements, but also to the mutual assimilation of the Finno-Ugric and Slavs.

The chronicle tells about the settlement of the Slavs in Eastern Europe. Compiled in Kyiv, it tells with particular sympathy about the ancestors of the Kiev-Polyans, their neighbors the Northerners and Drevlyans, who lived on the Dnieper. Between the Pripyat and the western Dvina there lived the Dregovichs, along the banks of the Polota River - the Polochans, and in the area of ​​Smolensk the Krivechs. On the shores of Lake Ilmen, settlements of the Ilmen Slavs, the future Novgorodians, arose. The territory east of the Dnieper was developed by the Radimichi, who lived along the Sosho River, and the most distant Slavic tribe, the Vyatichi, who settled in the Oka basin. Finally, to the South-West of Kyiv, in the Carpathian region, the Volynians, Ulichs and Tevertsy settled down.

So we have come to an answer to the question of who the Pre-Cyrussian people were. As you can see, it is not so obvious, but it is not superficial. It turns out that the ancestors of Russian Ukrainians and Belarusians were, along with the Slavs, Finno-Ugrians and Balts. Moreover, their ratios in different regions of the country were different, this is confirmed by anthropological data. Even today, the appearance of Russian people living in regions remote from each other is not the same.

Establishment of statehood among the Eastern Slavs

The Eastern Slavs had statehood long before this date, which is clear from the Bertian charters, known in the scientific world, where the mention of Kievan Rus dates back to 839. If there was “recognition” of the Norman theory, it was only in the calling of the Varangians by the Novgorod Council, so that they would serve as defenders and not touch political power, which means in this case the formation of the ancient Russian state cannot be associated with the Varangians.

This is precisely the interpretation of events according to the latest research and analysis of all the fragments of Nestor’s “Tale of Bygone Years” that have reached us. A closer study of the non-creation suggests that the Varangian princes were not elected to rule Russia, but the capture of Northern Rus' by them, and, perhaps, by Rurik alone, since the version of the origin of the names Sinius and Truvor is from the chronicler’s incorrect translation of the foreign words “sine-khus” - clan, household members and “work-cooking” - squad is most likely true.

According to Nestor, the Russian land began with Prince Kiy, the founder of Kyiv, from the chronicle data the construction can be dated back to 430. The historicity of Kiy and his brothers Shchek and Khorev is confirmed by the discovery of the current century Veles Book, also known as the “Isenbek Tablets”. Their texts tell how Kiy and his tribe of Russov settled on the Dnieper, the territory they occupied was called “ZemeRuska” (Russian land), and Kiy himself appears as a successful commander, which mentions Kiy’s campaign against Constantinople (Constantinople), his war with the Kama-Volga Bulgarians. The Book of Veles lists a whole dynasty of his descendants, who ruled the Russian land for almost a century.

Nestor reports about four princes of the Kiya family, after whom Kyiv and the lands subject to it ended up in the hands of foreign finders, who are represented by the expansion of the Varangians from Novgorod to the South, after the arrival of the reign of Rurik and his retinue.

Let's say a few words about Rurik and the “Norman theory” of the emergence of statehood among the ancient Slavs. A huge number of studies are devoted to the founder of the Rurik dynasty. Hypotheses often contradict each other. It is known that adherents of the “Norman theory” considered many Norwegian and Swedish princes to be his prototype, but, apparently, there were disputes about the origin of Rurik during his lifetime. Obviously, Rurik, who claimed to reign in Novgorod, argued that he was not just a “Russian”, but a direct descendant of Slaven, the first Novgorod prince. He had reasons for this. It is no coincidence that in all the lists of the Tale of Bygone Years, Rurik and his companions are called Varangians-Rus.

According to the medieval legend, Rurik is the son of Godoslav, the prince of the Bodrichi Slavic tribe who lived on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Apparently, Gostomysl (the Novgorod prince who invited the Varangians to reign), married his daughter to Godoslav and she gave birth to Rurik. Rurik is a Varangian, but Varangianism is an occupation, and not the name of an ethnic group, i.e. he is not a Norman, but a bodrich - a Slav, “Varyag-Rus”. Rurik's rights to the throne were based on the fact that he was the grandson of Gostomysl and a descendant of Slaven, which means his power was illuminated by God.

In 882 Rurik's warriors Askold and Dir liberated the glade tribes from tribute to the Khazars and remained to rule Kiev. Rurik's relative, Prince Oleg, tricked Askold and Dir out of the city, killed them, and then united the Novgorod and Kiev principalities, making Kyiv the capital of the new state. The unification of Southern and Northern Rus' at the end of the 9th century is the starting point of the formation of Kievan Rus as a new stage of the Old Russian state.

A new look at establishing statehood

But there is another view precisely at this stage of the unification of Northern and Southern Rus'. The liberator from the “finders” (Askold and Dir) was not Rurik’s relative, Prince Oleg, but the Prophetic Oleg, who came to Kyiv from the South, but as it turns out, also from Novgorod. The fact is that the analysis of scattered messages contained in medieval sources (Latin, Byzantine, Arabic, Persian, Khorezm) allows us to conclude that in those days there was a state formation formed around the city of Ros (Rus), which stood at the mouth of the Don. This state formation, under the onslaught of the “finders”, withered away, and its center moved to Crimean Naples (which had an older name - Kirchadash) and these names in translation mean the same thing: New City (Novgorod).

Oleg came from this southern city. In the correspondence that has come down to us, the Khazar prince with the Latin nobleman Oleg is called by his real name X "Elgu, which means “wise”, “prophetic”, with whom everyone reckoned, including the insidious and obstinate Greece.

This begs the question: why did Oleg, having possessions in Crimea, suddenly move to the North? A convincing answer is provided by studies of data stored in the synodal library, a fragmentary chronicle kept in Novgorod. Based on its material, the events of that time are recreated. Kievan Rus is tormented from the East by the Khazars and the Kama-Volga Bulgars, and squads of Varangian explorers rush towards it from the West and North. It is quite possible that representatives who found themselves under the foreign yoke of the Slavic tribes gathered somewhere in the north, where the hands of the finders did not reach, to discuss how to end their dominance and decided to turn for help to Rus', which exists on the banks of the Pontaeuxis, as it was called in Greek Russian (Black Sea). These events were noted in the year 859 in the unsurvived parchment chronicle.

The ambassadors are sent to the Prophetic Oleg, asking the Slavic tribes for help against their oppressed “finders”. Having accepted the offer, Oleg kills the Varangians, killing their leaders Askold and Dir, and then moves north to Novgorod, with the Slavic tribes helping him in this. This explains the reasons for the appearance of his squad in Kyiv.

As we see, there is not even a hint of kinship between Rurik and the Prophetic Oleg. It is no coincidence that Selvester, in his edition of The Tale of Bygone Years, does not mention Oleg’s treaties with Byzantium, where he called himself the eldest of the Russian princes, the master of the Russian Land, Perunov swears and Veles accepts the company, i.e. swears oath in Russian. It is reliably known that Oleg’s main treaty with the Greeks in 911 was drawn up on it; among other things, Igor’s name was never mentioned in it, which would look unnatural if he really was the son and legal heir of Rurik, as the Vydubetsky abbot (chronicler) represents all this ). Igor, from whom the entire genealogy of Russian princes is traced in history, by law inherited the reign from his Russian predecessor Oleg, and Rurik has nothing to do with it.

But why, one asks, was it necessary to tie the entire genealogy of the later rulers of Kievan Rus to him, mercilessly cutting off the ancient domestic roots?

It turns out that Sylvester is not original. It was fashionable to infer the foreign origin of the ruling dynasties in order to convey greater political weight, justifying its legitimacy by the right of “universal kinship” with outstanding personalities and peoples who played a role in world history was in the tradition of scientific medieval historiography. For example, the French already in the 16th century traced the origin of their kings to the Trojans; The Germans derived their dynasty from ancient Rome, the Swiss from the Scandinavians, the Italians from the Germans. The 10th century historian Vedukint of Corvey conveys the legend of the calling of the Saxons (Germanic tribes) Henegst and Khors by the Britons (English), very reminiscent of our chronicle saga in Rurik. By the way, it is by no means one-variant. According to the version recorded in the “tale of the princes of Vladimir”, and then recounted in the Resurrection Chronicle and “The Sovereign Rodoslavets” (16th century). Rurik is not a Scandinavian at all, but a native of Prussia, where his noble ancestor, the legendary Prussus, allegedly once ruled, whose genealogy stretches back to the Roman emperor Octovian Augustus. This is how Russian autocrats justified their patrician origins.

Unconventional theory on the history of Rus' by academician A.T. Fomenko

Our generally accepted chronology, created in the 16-17th century AD, according to Fomenko, is not correct. He considers his chronology of ancient and medieval Rus' with mathematical calculations developed by a group of mathematicians to be correct. Several points contributed to the new chronology:

1. Natural science. Associated with astronomical problems. These are solar and lunar eclipses and temporary fluctuations that are associated with these problems.

2. historical, where, by comparing the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New Testament, he came to some materialistic conclusions.

3. chronological. According to Fomenko, history has an independent system for dating events, and does not rely on “artificial dates” preserved in ancient written sources.

4. psychological - this is when the events of the past seem to repeat each other, but not in reality, but in descriptions, from this it is concluded that there are much fewer historical events than is commonly thought.

In his very extensive scientific and artistic work, which resulted in his book “Empire,” Fomenko riskily asserts that history was falsified in the 17th century at the request of the Romanov kings, who burned with a grim determination to destroy all evidence of the Mongol Empire with its capital in Yaroslavl, i.e. in Novgorod the Great.

According to his version of the Mongol Empire, “Tatar-Mongolia” is a foreign term designating medieval Rus' until the 17th century (from the Latins). In general, Fomenko notes that Batu is probably a slightly distorted name for “father” - father. The Cossacks still call their leader dad. So, Batu is a Cossack dad, i.e. a Russian prince. Using this example, Fomenko draws some conclusions. According to which, medieval Rus' and the Mongol Empire are one and the same.

He believes that Russia was once a powerful power with possessions on the Apennine Peninsula, by the name of the et-Russian tribes who lived there, whose civilization once preceded the Roman one, and based on the name interpreted as Russian and linguistic similarities, he draws his fantastic conclusions. (see appendix) What is this? Truth or absurdity...

And why then did the Russian tsars need to catch up with this turmoil, which had obscured all our memory of their own majestic civilization? This question can only be answered with guesses, which in turn will contradict each other.

Traditional historians, in turn, believe that Fomenko preaches heresy, but more than twenty years of work by the academician, calculated with mathematical accuracy, cannot be refuted, because people simply do not have enough time to refute his hypothesis.

Academician Fomenko is a romantic mathematician, he deals with science in its purest form and is not very interested in what will happen next with his works, although he is not against as many people as possible learning about them.

The great Aryan civilization is the mother of the Russian tribe

From the depths of centuries, the great Aryan civilization, the mother of the Russian tribe, shines on us with a clear light, which is confirmed in the Book of Veles, as well as in the light of the latest archaeological discoveries in the southern Urals and allows the history of the enthogenesis of the Russian people for more than 3.5 thousand years. Let's look through the thickness of time into the 17th century BC, it was during this period of time that the dawn of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim, discovered by Russian archaeologists in the southern Urals, occurred. The city received its name due to its geography. It is located near a mountain range called Arkaim. On old Cossack maps, the entire valley in which the city is located was called Arkaim (see appendix).

We will not touch on all the archaeological finds, but only touch on the observatory temple (diameter 160 m). Its structure is an exact copy of the zodiac and resembles a huge horoscope: 28 divisions - lunar stations, 18 points of sunrise and sunset of the sun and moon, on the days of equinoxes and solstices. Describing the temple-observatory, scientist K. Bystrushkin says the following: “The geometry of the monument is perfect. The preservation of the ruins makes it possible to measure the arc of most details with an accuracy of up to a centimeter and a minute of arc. The key to understanding the details was given by Stonehenge (an ancient observatory in southern England). Stonehenge is located at 51 degrees 11 minutes north latitude. Arkaim at 52 degrees 36 minutes northern latitude. Both structures are geometric circles, the radius of the ring of holes of Stonehenge is equal to the radius of the inner ring of Arkaim, up to a centimeter. The main axes and a number of smaller parts coincide exactly.”

What is the reason for the similarity of ancient observatories located at a great distance from each other?

There are two reasons:

1. Both objects were built by our ancestors to reveal the secrets of the universe, which are universal for everyone

2. The observatories were built by representatives of the same culture of the Aryan people, whose direct descendants are both the British and the Russians.

It is assumed that Arkaim is the place of origin of the Proto-Slavic group of Aryan people, i.e. our Russian ancestral home. This is exactly the conclusion you come to when reading Veles’s book and comparing its contents with materials from excavations in the southern Urals. The fact is that Arkaim is located in the basin of seven rivers tributaries of the Urals and Tambol, and in the Book of Veles created in the 9th century AD, it is clearly written: “Those clans were created in Semirechye, where we lived beyond the sea in a green land, when we were cattle breeders and it was thousand years before Hermonaric", i.e. the time of the exodus can be determined precisely - 9th century BC. (Hermonarch is the leader of the tribal union led by the Ostrogoths).

This is the first basis of the hypothesis. Her second indication in the Book of Veles is on the region of the Volga and Ural rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, as the region of the Russians’ exodus to the Black (Gothic) Sea, the Dnieper and the Carpathians. “We came from the green land to the Gothic Sea and here we trampled the Goths, who were a forebear on our path. And so we fought for these lands and for our lives, and before that our fathers were on the shores of the sea near the Ra River (Volga). The Goths were then in the green and were a little ahead of our fathers, coming from the Ra River. Ra is a great river, it separates us from other people and flows into the Fasiste (Caspian) Sea.”

Now about the third basis of the hypothesis. The Riphean mountains of the Russian epics of the Jerusalem scroll, located at the gates of Iria - the Russian paradise - are, obviously, “The Ripheans of the northern country - hyperboles,” as the Ural Mountains were called in the ancient world. This is, in brief, one of the hypotheses about Primordial Russia. From which it should be noted that there were much more tribes and they were all at enmity with each other, but they were connected by a single symbolism - the swastika, the ancient Russian swastika, a connection between the elements. In magical operations, this sign connected the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. (see Attachment).

The Great Slavic Race, the mother of the greatest civilization on earth, is today everywhere spiritually dependent on a culture alien to it. Carried away by the teachings of the East, which stemmed mostly from the prophet Moses, it does not remember that it once had its own culture, more noble and powerful than the one that is revered now. Stealthily following in the footsteps of foreign tribesmen, deceived and democratized, she invents her own “bicycles,” forgetting that she once had them.

Conclusion

At first glance, everything that is said in this abstract is a denial of our official science, but everything that is said is a temptation to see not only the official, what is on the surface, but also what is in Svetonov’s discoveries.

Interest in Russian history in general and the history of the Slavs in particular arose as an intuitive impulse towards resistance and liberation from rejection of that official course of presentation of the material, often far-fetched adopted even under the “Tsar Pea”, and the more ancient and truthful thing that was somehow forgotten is “Songs” birds of Gamayun" and the Book of Veles, which is a translation of the sacred texts of the Novgorod Magi of the 9th century AD.

New hypotheses brought to life historical memory, just as peoples’ search for a new meaning of their roots was not realized. All this can turn back the tide of life in Europe, this can become a time of illumination of people's consciousness.

As a result, the world can see the flourishing of historical science, which has entered new frontiers of knowledge of the laws of history. But until the consciousness of people and scientists switches to solving the problems of getting rid of old views on history, then the struggle for the consciousness of people will be the essence of the current intellectual war.

Literature

1. D.A. Karamzin “Tales of the Ages” volume 1, Pravda Publishing House, 1988.

2. A.T. Fomenko “Empire” book one, Moscow publishing house DMK, 1998.

3. Kresen Bus (restoration translation and commentary) Russian Vedas (Songs of the Gamayun bird, Veles book) Kitezhgrad 3000. from the outcome of the seven rivers Moscow publishing house Pravda 1992

4. A.A. Radugin “History of Russia” (Russia in world civilization) almamater textbook for universities, published by Center, 1998.

6. monthly “Questions of History” 1/98 Moscow ed. "Progress".

8. newspaper “For the Russian Cause” article “Vori Viking” No. 6 1994

Plan

I.Introduction

II. Main part:

1. “The Tale of Bygone Years” - true or false?

2. The emergence and settlement of Slavic tribes

3. Establishment of statehood among the Eastern Slavs

"Norman theory"

4. A new look at establishing statehood

5. Unconventional theory on the history of Rus' academician

A.T. Fomenko

6. The great Aryan civilization is the mother of the Russian tribe.

III.Conclusion

IV.Appendix