For many centuries, scientists have been breaking their spears, trying to understand the origin of the Russian people. And if research in the past was based on archaeological and linguistic data, today even geneticists have taken up the matter.
From the Danube
Of all the theories of Russian ethnogenesis, the most famous is the Danube theory. We owe her appearance chronicle code“The Tale of Bygone Years,” or rather, the centuries-old love of domestic academics for this source.
The chronicler Nestor defined the initial territory of settlement of the Slavs as the territories along the lower reaches of the Danube and Vistula. The theory about the Danube “ancestral home” of the Slavs was developed by such historians as Sergei Solovyov and Vasily Klyuchevsky.
Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky believed that the Slavs moved from the Danube to the Carpathian region, where an extensive military alliance of tribes arose led by the Duleb-Volhynian tribe.
From the Carpathian region, according to Klyuchevsky, in the 7th-8th centuries Eastern Slavs settled to the East and Northeast to Lake Ilmen. The Danube theory of Russian ethnogenesis is still adhered to by many historians and linguists. The Russian linguist Oleg Nikolaevich Trubachev made a great contribution to its development at the end of the 20th century.
Yes, we are Scythians!
One of the most vehement opponents of the Norman theory of the formation of Russian statehood, Mikhail Lomonosov, leaned toward the Scythian-Sarmatian theory of Russian ethnogenesis, which he wrote about in his “Ancient Russian History.” According to Lomonosov, the ethnogenesis of the Russians occurred as a result of the mixing of the Slavs and the “Chudi” tribe (Lomonosov’s term - Finno-Ugric people), and the place of origin ethnic history He called the Russians the area between the Vistula and Oder rivers.
Supporters of the Sarmatian theory rely on ancient sources, and Lomonosov did the same. He compared Russian history with the history of the Roman Empire and ancient beliefs with the pagan beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, finding a large number of similarities. The ardent struggle with the adherents of the Norman theory is quite understandable: the people-tribe of Rus', according to Lomonosov, could not have originated from Scandinavia under the influence of the expansion of the Norman Vikings. First of all, Lomonosov opposed the thesis about the backwardness of the Slavs and their inability to independently form a state.
Gellenthal's theory
The hypothesis about the origin of Russians, unveiled this year by Oxford scientist Garrett Gellenthal, seems interesting. After spending great job By studying the DNA of various peoples, he and a group of scientists compiled a genetic atlas of migration of peoples.
According to the scientist, two significant milestones can be distinguished in the ethnogenesis of the Russian people. In 2054 BC. e., according to Gellenthal, trans-Baltic peoples and peoples from the territories of modern Germany and Poland migrated to the northwestern regions modern Russia. The second milestone is 1306, when the migration of Altai peoples began, who actively interbred with representatives of the Slavic branches.
Gellenthal's research is also interesting because genetic analysis proved that the time of the Mongol-Tatar invasion had virtually no effect on Russian ethnogenesis.
Two ancestral homelands
Another interesting migration theory was proposed by late XIX century Russian linguist Alexey Shakhmatov. His “two ancestral homelands” theory is also sometimes called the Baltic theory. The scientist believed that initially the Balto-Slavic community emerged from the Indo-European group, which became autochthonous in the Baltic region. After its collapse, the Slavs settled in the territory between the lower reaches of the Neman and Western Dvina. This territory became the so-called “first ancestral home”. Here, according to Shakhmatov, a great Slavic language, from which all Slavic languages originated.
Further migration of the Slavs was associated with the great migration of peoples, during which at the end of the second century AD the Germans went south, liberating the Vistula River basin, where the Slavs came. Here, in the lower Vistula basin, Shakhmatov defines the second ancestral home of the Slavs. From here, according to the scientist, the division of the Slavs into branches began. The western one went to the Elbe region, the southern one - divided into two groups, one of which settled the Balkans and the Danube, the other - the Dnieper and Dniester. The latter became the basis of the East Slavic peoples, which include the Russians.
We are locals ourselves
Finally, another theory different from migration theories is the autochthonous theory. According to it, the Slavs were an indigenous people inhabiting eastern, central and even part of southern Europe. According to the theory of Slavic autochthonism, the Slavic tribes were the indigenous ethnic group of a vast territory - from the Urals to Atlantic Ocean. This theory has quite ancient roots and many supporters and opponents. This theory was supported by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr. He believed that the Slavs did not come from anywhere, but were formed from tribal communities living in vast territories from the Middle Dnieper to Laba in the West and from the Baltic to the Carpathians in the south.
Polish scientists - Kleczewski, Potocki and Sestrentsevich - also adhered to the autochthonous theory. They even traced the ancestry of the Slavs from the Vandals, basing their hypothesis, among other things, on the similarity of the words “Vendals” and “Vandals”. Of the Russians, the autochthonous theory explained the origin of the Slavs Rybakov, Mavrodin and Greeks.
POPOV Flegont Petrovich
G. Chisinau, 1986
HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE.
We find the first information about our ancestors, the Slavs, in the ancient Russian chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years,” which the chronicler Nestor began with the words: “Behold the Tale of Bygone Years, where did the Russian land come from, who began in Kyiv?” before the principality, and where the Russian land began to eat from.”
The history of the Russian people goes back to the distant historical past, to the first settlements of the Slavs in Eastern Europe, and later to ancient Rus' of the 9th – 12th centuries, on the territory of which the feudal system, progressive for that time, grew and strengthened. Kievan Rus was the basis of the statehood and culture of three fraternal peoples - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.
From the Carpathian Mountains and the Western Dvina, from the upper reaches of the Oka and Volga, from Ilmen and Ladoga to the Black Sea and the Danube, in the vast expanses of Eastern Europe, among forests and swamps, in forests and along river banks, at the very edge of forests, on the border with the steppe and in the far North, Russian tribes lived on the eve of the formation of the Kyiv state. The Carpathian Croats, the Danube Ulichi and Tivertsy, the Pobuzhian Dulebs or Volynians, the inhabitants of the swampy forests of Pripyat - the Drezovichi, the Ilmen Slovenes, the inhabitants of the dense Oka forests - the Vyatichi, numerous Krivechs of the upper reaches of the Dnieper, the Western Dvina and the Volga, the Trans-Dnieper northerners and other East Slavic tribes made up a certain ethnic unity “Slovenian language in Rus'” (language - people). This was the eastern Russian branch of the Slavic tribes. Their ethnic proximity contributed to the formation of a single state, and single state united the Slavic tribes into an ethnic massif.
The Eastern Slavs included not only Proto-Slavic and Early Slavic tribes, but also other peoples. During the long process of the formation of the Slavs, different tribes of peoples were included in it, with their own customs, language culture, and it was not they who absorbed the Slavs, but the Slavs who dissolved them in their midst.
The first appearance of powerful Rus' on the stage of world history was the Russian attack on Surozh*. This was at the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century. In 813, the Russians attack the island of Schinu*. In the first third of the 9th century, the Russians made a campaign against the city of Aleastrida (on the southern coast of the Black Sea, near Sinop). The impression made by these campaigns of Russian squads was enormous.
They learned about Rus', they started talking about it, they began to respect its weapons, they were forced to reckon with it. People started talking about Rus' not only in Byzantium, it was well recognized in the East. At the same time, the West also learned about Rus'. And this happened because Rus' is not only a “wild and rude” people, as the frightened “Romeans” (Byzantines) characterize it, who were ready to award militant Rus' with any monstrous features, but also a people creating their own, albeit barbaric, primitive , but still its own state, resorting to diplomatic negotiations and agreements.
Arab writers of the 9th century speak of three centers of Rus'. Before us, pre-chronicle Rus' appears as a country with three political associations: Northwestern Slavia, southern Dnieper “Kuyava” * and southern or southeastern Artania *. Each of these pre-state political entities, according to information provided by Arab and Persian sources, has its own “king” and pursues an independent policy.
The chronicle also mentions the division of the Eastern Slavs according to their political destinies into two groups: northwestern and southeastern.
The Slavs, Krivichi, Chud, Merya and all form one political union - the northwestern one. In it, the Ilmen Slovenes are of primary importance.
The second political formation is made up of the Polyans, who, together with the Northerners, Rodimichs and Vyatichi, were part of the Khavar * group of Slavs. This is a southeastern association of Slavic tribes.
In the north-west the Varangians “violently deyhu”, in the south-east the Khazars. But when Ilmen Rus' and Dnieper Rus' accumulated forces, they threw off the rule of the “finders” from the lower Volga (Khazars) and from gloomy Scandinavia (Varangians). This is how “first two states” arose, Kyiv and Novgorod (K. Marx), and only later their history became closely intertwined, only later did they merge into the Kiev state.
In the first half of the 9th century, the Normans appeared in the north-west of Rus'; they tried to make Ladoga their stronghold. These were warriors and robbers, merchant robbers, hunters for furs and live goods, Arab girges, oriental jewelry, and the riches of the legendary Biarma. Robbing, killing, enslaving, trading, imposing tribute, they swept through the lands of the Slavic and Finnish tribes like a storm. They were more robbers than merchants, more enemies than rulers.
But the Slavic and Finnish population were not going to tolerate the violence of the Varangians and their robbery in their native land.
By this time, the existence of individual volosts was relegated to the realm of legend. A powerful tribal union is taking shape. The tribes that were part of it took up arms and “rose from Slovenia and Krivichi and Merya and Chud to the Varangians, and I drove them overseas, and began to rule for themselves and build cities.”
From this moment on, the very role of the Norman in Rus' changes. These are no longer robbers seeking glory and booty, warriors-rapists, merchants-robbers, the Normans in Rus' act as “Varangians” - merchants trading with the East, West and Byzantium. Most of the Normans acted as hired soldiers, Varangians, and warriors of Russian tribal princes. From the middle of the 9th century, the Varangian freemen irrevocably entered the service of the Russian semi-feudal nobility - the “great” and “bright” princes.
Chronicles report on the struggle between the tribes and cities of the northwestern association of Slavic and Finnish tribes. Having put an end to the predatory invasions of the Varangians, “they began to fight among themselves,” the princes and elders of Slovens and Krivichi, Chuda and Meri began an internecine struggle, “and generation after generation arose,” “they began to fight against each other, and there was great strife between them, and hail upon hail rose, and there was no truth in them.”
Given this situation, it is quite understandable for the Slavs, Chud, Vesya, Krivichi and other tribes to invite the Varangian mercenary squad. This invitation from the squad of the Norman King was reflected in the famous chronicle story about the invitation of the Varangians.
RURIK - according to legend, the first Russian prince (830 - 879), who came to Novgorod in 862 along with the brothers Sineus and Truvor.
SINEUS - Russian prince, brother of Rurik, with whom he arrived in Russian land in 862; settled in Belozersk; died 864; after his death, his possessions passed to Rurik.
TRUVOR - according to legend, he was called to reign in Rus' with the brothers Rurik and Sineus; took over the Krivichi region and founded the capital in Izborsk. Died 864; his possessions passed to Rurik.
The Kyiv princes who followed Rurik began to be conventionally called Rurikovichs.
The chronicle tells that supposedly the envoys of the Slovenians, Chuds, Krivichis and Vesi went “overseas the sea to the Varangians,” to the tribe of Rus', and addressed them with words, pointing out that their land was great and abundant, but there was no order in it, and asked to come reign and rule over them. And at the call of the envoys, three brothers appeared - Varangians from the Rus tribe - Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, who laid the foundation for Russian statehood and the very name Rus, and the Russians, “before Besha Slovenia.”
These lines gave rise to the creation of countless Norman and pan-Norman theories about the Varangians, their invitation or conquest by them, the origin of the term “Rus”, all those problems that worried researchers from the 18th century to the present day.
Traditions preserved in Novgorod and included in the chronicles speak of the Novgorod “elder” GOSTOMYSL. The folk tale in this form preserved until the time of the chronicle the memory of those times when Novgorod was ruled by “elders”.
One of these rulers invited some Varangian King, whom the chronicle legend called Rurik, to help in the fight against other “elders.” “And he came to the Slovenes first and cut down the city of Ladoga and sede the oldest Ladoga Rurik."
But the Varangian Viking found the prospect of capturing Novgorod itself tempting, and he and his retinue arrived there, carried out a coup, eliminated or killed the Novgorod “elders,” which was reflected in the chronicle story of the death of Gostomysl, and seized power into his own hands. The usurper met with long and strong resistance from the Novgorod “men”, the best men from the “Slovenian Thousand” - the ancient Novgorod military organization.
Soon after the coup in 864, “kill Rurik Vadimi the Brave and many other Novgorodians who were his companions.” The fight against the Varangian usurper lasted a long time. Three years have passed and “...you will beat many Novgorod men from Rurik from Novgorod to Kyiv.”
Since Rurik’s reign in Novgorod occurred as a result of a coup, against the will and desire of the Novgorod men and even in spite of them, this naturally gave rise to a struggle between the Varangian usurpers and the Novgorodians, who sought to overthrow the power of the Varangian Viking imposed on them by force.
The history of ancient Rus' indicates that the Varangians more than once tried to do something similar to what happened in Novgorod. This was the case under Vladimir, when they captured Kyiv. A similar phenomenon happened under Yaroslav the Wise in Novgorod, when the Varangian warriors robbed and raped the Novgorodians, which caused a revolt against themselves and the massacre of the Varangians.
After coming to Russian soil in 862, Sineus settled in Belozersk, and his brother Truvor founded the capital in Izborsk. Both princes died in 864. Their possessions passed to Rurik.
The Dnieper south, Kyiv, lived its own special life at that time and was still weakly connected with Novgorod. Relations with Byzantium continued.
The relationship between Russians and Greeks was determined by agreements and treaties. But apparently, shortly before 860, the Greeks violated the agreements and killed Russian ambassadors and “guests” (merchants). The response to Byzantium's violation of the treaty with Russia was the Russian campaign against Byzantium. On June 18, 860, 200 Russian ships unexpectedly attacked Constantinople, the outskirts of the capital were burning. The week-long siege of the city, after negotiations, was lifted. The Russians won and took with them a treaty of “peace and love” with the defeated empire.
A new agreement between Rus' and Byzantium dates back to 866-867. By distributing rich gifts to the Russians, they managed to persuade them to “friendship and agreement” and even accept Christianity and the bishop “shepherd” from Constantinople.
Our chroniclers associate this agreement with the name of ASKOLDA and DIRA.
Byzantine sources they say that in 866–867 the leader of the Russians (or, as the Byzantines call them, “Russians”) also converted to Christianity.
Our chronicle reports that the Church of St. Nicholas stood on Askold’s grave, emphasizing that Askold was a Christian.
Dir, “the first of the Slavic kings,” is also known by the Arab historian of that time, Masudi (d.956). Masudi’s message about “many inhabited countries” subject to Dir, and the testimony of Patriarch Photius of Constantinople that Rus' “subjugated its neighbors” even before the campaign of 860, confirm the news of later Russian chronicles about the war of Askold and Dir with neighboring peoples and tribes (Derevlyans , streets, etc.).
The first campaigns of the Russians in Transcaucasia date back to the time of Dir. Askold and Dir were still remembered in chronicle times. Their graves were shown in Kyiv.
The Rus' of Askold and Dir covers only the region of glades, the Kyiv land. The remaining tribes act more as allies than subjects. But Rus' is already powerfully entering the international arena. The West and the East are fighting for influence on Rus'. The Byzantine emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople enter into a fight with the German emperor and the Pope, who tried to spread Christianity (Catholic) in Rus' back in 854.
But she goes her own way, independently solves the problems facing her. This Rus' is still divided into two parts: Novgorod and Kyiv. We are at the threshold of the Kyiv state. But it hasn’t worked out yet. Its origin is from the merger of both Russian centers on the great waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks” - Kyiv and Novgorod.
The formation of the Kyiv state should be considered the moment of complete merger of Kyiv and Novgorod; this happened during the time of Oleg in 891.
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People are children of gods, but you cannot remain children forever.
Yu. D. Petukhov.
The question of the origin of the Russian people and the Slavic group of peoples is one of the cornerstones in the history of Europe and Russia. The chronicler Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years raised this question: “Where did the Russian land come from?” And he answered it quite correctly: he began the countdown of Russian history from the mythical Japheth-Iapetus, then after a long period of time he located Rus' on the banks of the Danube River in Norik. And only then did he lead Rus' to the banks of the Dnieper and Lake Ilmen, already known from school course– Kievan-Novgorod Rus'. Thus, even in the heavily edited Tale of Bygone Years, there are two ancestral homelands of the Russian people - the Middle East and the Balkans.
In a rather controversial and not recognized source by all historians, the “Veles Book”, vast territories are indicated as the zone of settlement of Slavic-Russian tribes: Siberia, the Urals, the steppes of Southern Russia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea region, including Crimea-Tavria, the Balkan Peninsula, the Carpathians, Central Asia(Semirechye), Mesopotamia - the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Syria, India, the lands of the future Novgorod Rus'.
Classic version
The classic hypothesis about the origin of the Russian people - Rusov, is very Russophobic in its content and is very close to the heart of any Westerner or liberal. They say that Russian history begins in the 8th-9th centuries, with the calling of the Varangian Germans to Novgorod, some remove the boundary of the beginning of the “civilized” history of Rus' until the 10th-11th century - when Christianity became the dominant form of faith.
And before this milestone, the Rus were supposedly in a “wild state”, they did not know God, almost in a “primitive state”. Yes, and they were “aliens” on the Russian Plain, who came from nowhere (possibly from the Pripyat swamps) and displaced the Finno-Ugric and Balt tribes. This classic scheme was founded by German scientists who were in the service of the Russian state in the 18th century - G. Z. Bayer (1694-1738), G. F. Miller (1705-1783), A. L. Schletser (1735-1809).
In the 19th century, this concept was enshrined in the 12-volume work of N. M. Karamzin (1766-1826) “History of the Russian State,” which consolidated the German conclusions with the phrase: “This great part of Europe and Asia, now called Russia, in its moderate climates was originally inhabited, but by wild, ignorant peoples who did not mark their existence with any historical monuments of their own.” Karamzin’s conclusions were continued by the historian S. M. Solovyov (1820-1879) in “History of Russia since Ancient Times” in 29 volumes, and the historian V. O. Klyuchevsky in “The Complete Course of Russian History” in 4 volumes.
They consolidated the “classical” version of Russian history: its essence is that the History of Russia goes from the 4th (6th) – 8th (10th) centuries, with the calling of the Varangians and the adoption of baptism, and before that there were “dark ages”, “savagery”, "desolation". This scheme continued to dominate in the 20th century, at the beginning of the 21st century with minor modifications, it is studied in schools and higher education. educational institutions, as the only and uncontested Truth.
Position of the state and church
The state supported this version, because it was not interested in information that went beyond the framework of state legal structures. The emergence of the state and law was associated with the emergence of the Rurik dynasty. The arrival of the “Varangians” was also beneficial to the authorities for foreign policy reasons, connecting the Rurikovichs and then the Romanovs with “enlightened Europe” common origin and dynastic alliances. Particularly important was the connection with the German ruling houses and England. The Romanovs became famous for their love for these countries.
The church organization is more than satisfied with the thesis about the “savagery” of the Slavic-Russian tribes, before the arrival of Christian missionaries and the baptism of Rus'. After all, it gives the Church the right to assert that the development of culture (writing alone is worth it) is connected with the establishment of Christianity in Rus'.
Modernity
This concept, cherished and encouraged in every possible way, occupies a dominant position today - in schools, higher educational institutions, popular science literature, the media, and cinema. Only a few ascetics are trying to break through the veil of lies and convey at least part of the historical Truth.
The statement about “young Russia”, the “backwardness” of Russians is one of the weapons of the Information War - with the aim of undermining historical memory Russian people, weaken the Will and kill the Spirit of the Russian World. Therefore, the Vatican, historical schools in England and Germany also support the “academic” version of world history.
The approaches of this version are rather shaky; researchers, in most cases, take as a basis the thesis that the first written monuments speaking about the Slavs appeared in the 4th-6th centuries AD. But it is well known that “written evidence” is a very subjective category, while people are objective; peoples exist even without the will of writers and chroniclers. For example: Indian cultures existed outside of chronicles for thousands of years.
Only one fact deals a strong blow to the “classical” scheme - the number of Slavs and Russians. The Russian people, after the most terrible upheavals of the 20th century - participation in 2 world wars, 4 revolutions, including the December 1991, civil war, liberal-democratic genocide of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a huge number of regional wars and conflicts, are one of the most numerous ethnic groups on the planet. So, according to the calculations of the Russian genius D.I. Mendeleev (1834-1907), if there had not been a catastrophic 20th century in its consequences, in the middle of the 20th century there would have been 400 million Russians, and in the middle of the 21st century 800 million. But even now the Russians and Slavs are the largest language group, an ethnic community in Europe.
A thousand years ago, there were approximately 10 million Slavs and, as in modern times, they were the largest ethno-linguistic community in Europe. A legitimate question arises: how did a large part of the European population appear out of “nowhere”?
Russian (Slavophile) concept of history
Fortunately for us, many researchers have sought the answer to this question based on common sense, and not dead truisms. They looked for the origins of Russian identity at the very beginning human history, finding the roots of our ancestors in the most different parts Eurasia. The tradition of the Russian concept of history goes back to the Croatian (Italian?) researcher Mavro Orbini (? – 1614), who in his work “Historiography of the Slavic People” written in 1606 (published in St. Petersburg in 1722), relying on those that have not reached us sources (apparently seized by the Vatican), directly wrote: “The Russian people are the most ancient people on earth, from which all other peoples descended. The Empire, with the courage of its warriors and the best weapons in the world, kept the entire universe in obedience and submission for thousands of years. The Russians have always owned all of Asia, Africa, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Illyria, Moravia, the land of Slön, the Czech Republic, Poland, all the shores Baltic Sea, Italy and many other countries and lands..."
This concept was supported by two Russian geniuses V. N. Tatishchev (1686-1750) in “Russian History” and M. V. Lomonosov (1711-1765) in “Ancient Russian History”. Research on the ascetics was published only after their death. However, the main thing is that both thinkers came to the same conclusion, counting separately from each other: the roots of the history of the Slavs and Russians go back thousands of years and concern many ancient peoples who have lived in Eurasia since time immemorial. They are known under different names to ancient and other authors (compilers of the Bible, Arabic, Persian, Chinese chroniclers).
Tatishchev traced the genealogy of the Slavic-Russian tribes from the Scythian clans. The Skolote Scythians and related tribes have been known since the 1st millennium BC. and occupied a vast territory from the Danube to the Pacific Ocean. Interestingly, the Byzantines were called “Scythians.” "Tauroscythians" warriors of the Russian princes Askold, Oleg, Igor, Svyatoslav. And Rus' was often called “Great Scythia-Skuf.”
M.V. Lomonosov in “Ancient Russian History” believed that Slavic-Russian tribes inhabited a huge region from the Baltic and Central Europe to the Black Sea and the Caucasus, and they were known under the names of Vends-Venet, Varangians-Ros, Sarmatians, Roxolans. Lomonosov refuted the fabrications of German historians that Rurik and the Varangians were of German descent, proving that Rurik and the Varangians were Western Rus. Even the name “Rurik” has a Russian root and means “rarog” - falcon.
Lomonosov and Tatishchev were not the only ones who carefully studied the question of the origin of the roots of the Russian people. This problem was analyzed in great detail and carefully by V.K. Trediakovsky (1703-1769) in his historical work: “Three discussions about the three most important Russian antiquities, namely: I about the primacy of the Slovenian language over the Teutonic, II about the origins of the Russians, III about Varangians-Russians, Slovenian rank, family and language." An excellently educated scientist and writer, who studied at the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, in Holland, France, who spoke many living and dead languages fluently, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Latin and Russian eloquence, an outstanding Russian educator who stood with M.V. Lomonosov at the origins of Russian grammar and versification. Trediakovsky supported and developed Tatishchev’s idea about the Russian beginning of the “Scythians”, and proved and Russian origin their self-names. “Scythians-Sketes” are “wanderers,” that is, people leading a rather active lifestyle, “nomads.”
The Russian concept of history, coming from thinkers of the 18th century, was continued and consolidated in the works of researchers of the 19th and 20th centuries: Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Wolansky (1785-1865), A.D. Chertkov (1789-1858), E.I. Klassen ( 1795-1862), Y. Venelina (1802-1839), F. L. Moroshkina (1804-1857), A. S. Khomyakova (1804-1860), I. E. Zabelina (1820-1909), D. I Ilovaisky (1832-1920), D. Ya. Samokvasov (1843-1911), A. I. Sobolevsky (1857-1927), G. V. Vernadsky (1877-1973) and a number of other devotees.
G.V. Vernadsky in the book “ Ancient Rus'", began the history of the Russian people from the Stone Age and led through the Cimmerian, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnic-Antian periods. Archaeologist and historian D. Ya. Samokvasov defended the Scythian roots of the Russian people, calling the ancestral home of Rus' “Ancient Wandering.”
Bulgarian historian, Slavist, devotee of the Slavic national revival Yu. I. Venelin believed that Attila was the Grand Duke of the Rus. He was the first to suggest that the first ruling dynasty of France, the Merovingians, was founded by the Russian prince Merovey.
Of great importance for Russian self-awareness are the works of the President of the Society of Russian History and Antiquities A.D. Chertkov: “Essay on the Ancient History of Proto-Words”, “Pelasgo-Thracian Tribes that Inhabited Italy”, “On the Language of the Pelasgians who Inhabited Italy”. Based on his deep knowledge of ancient languages and the huge number of sources available to him, Chertkov pointed out the linguistic and ethnocultural affinities between the Slavs and Pelasgians, Etruscans, Scythians, Thracians, Getae, ancient Greeks and Romans. The discovery of Chertkov did not become an event of great importance and significance in Russian and world history, since it did not correspond to the generally accepted concept of world history.
Chertkov's discovery that the Etruscan-Rasens are related to the Slavs was supported in his research by the Polish ascetic T. Wolansky. He deciphered a large number of Etruscan inscriptions; in deciphering he was based on Slavic languages. T. Volansky also studied the inscriptions of other civilizations and made a sensational conclusion that the zone of settlement of Slavic-Russian clans in the south in ancient times extended from North Africa (Egypt, Carthage) to Persia and India. Indirectly, the correctness of his path is proven by the fact that the works of F. Volansky in 1853 were listed in the Vatican’s “Index of Prohibited Books” and sentenced to immediate burning. Wolansky challenged the Western concept of world history and the papacy responded immediately.
Subsequently, Volansky’s research was used by various types of researchers, supporters of the kinship of the Etruscans and Slavs. Modern researcher V. Chudinov (born 1942) believes that the Slavic-Russian Vedic civilization and Slavic runic writing were the first on the planet.
Linguist G. S. Grinevich (born in 1938) compiled a summary table of Proto-Slavic writing. I concluded that a significant part of the ancient inscriptions - Terterian, ancient Indian, Cretan, Etruscan - were made in the Proto-Slavic language.
Modern research in the field of DNA genealogy is of great importance; A. Klyosov pushed back the border of the origin of the Russian people by 12 thousand years.
Currently, the most complete concept of True Russian history, from the 40th millennium BC to the present day, as the main core of the World historical process, was compiled by the Russian thinker, philosopher, historian Yu. D. Petukhov (1951-2009). In his work “The Roads of the Gods,” published back in 1990, he answered the question on the basis of comparative myth analysis and linguistics. the most important question– who were the mysterious Indo-European Aryans. He proved that the ancestors of the Indo-European language family were the Slavs-Aryans-Russians.
In 1994-2000, Petukhov made a series of trips around the basin Mediterranean Sea, the Middle East, Egypt, Asia, studying the most important archaeological excavations in this territory, studying the collections of leading museums in these regions. And having received a huge material database confirming his conclusions, in 2000 he began publishing the multi-volume “ True story Rusov" (from 40 thousand BC), unfortunately, the strange death that interrupted the life of the Russian titan Spirit did not allow the completion of the publication of the work; the thinker gave basic data from 40 to 3 thousand BC. e. But most importantly, he concluded that “the Rus people are incredibly ancient, almost eternal, they gave birth to many other peoples.”
And the work of Russian historians, patriots, to continue what was started by Russian ascetics of the 18th-20th centuries, to break through the conspiracy of silence.
Sources
Vasilyeva N.I., Petukhov Yu.D. Eurasian Empire of the Scythians. M.: Veche, 2007.
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Enter the territory of the future Old Russian state Christianity began long before Prince Vladimir - back in the 9th century. At this time, paganism reigned in these lands, and almost every tribe had its own pantheon. But, according to some sources, the priests who arrived from Byzantium even baptized the princes Askold and Dir along with their boyars.
Around 957, during an official visit to Constantinople, Princess Olga of Kiev, the grandmother of Prince Vladimir, also became a Christian and took the name Elena at baptism. However, at the same time, she was unable to obtain from the basileus (a monarch with hereditary power in Ancient Greece) a number of trade, economic and political preferences. But after the princess pretended to be thinking about establishing a church in Rus' according to the Western rite, official Constantinople hastened to conclude an agreement with Russia that was extremely beneficial for Kyiv, similar to those that in modern diplomatic practice are called “treaties of friendship and cooperation.” And already from about the middle of the 10th century, more and more pectoral crosses began to appear in burials in Rus'.
- F. A. Bruni “Arrival of the Bishop in Kyiv” (1839)
Paganism hindered Rus' in a political and even socio-economic sense. Tribal cults served as an obstacle to the creation of a single people and a powerful centralized state. The ruler of Rus', Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich, did not want to accept Christianity and allegedly told his mother Olga that because of this he could lose his authority in the eyes of the squad. He was unable to create a centralized power.
Svyatoslav’s son Yaropolk, according to historians, allegedly had sympathy for Christianity, but his brother Vladimir, who defeated him in the struggle for power, first became a supporter of the spiritual “reaction” and even tried to establish a single pagan pantheon in the country, but felt that this was not at all what he wanted. what Rus' needs. And then, according to the chronicles, the prince became preoccupied with the “choice of faith.”
Choosing Faith
According to legend, Vladimir personally talked with preachers of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity of the Western rite, and only a Greek philosopher convinced the prince to choose Christianity of the Eastern rite. Scientists see a certain symbolism in this story.
“In fact, Vladimir had two real options: Christianity of the Western and Eastern rites. However, it was Christianity of the Eastern rite that had long roots among the Slavs. It began to penetrate Rus' back in the 9th century; many local residents, including representatives of the nobility, had already been baptized. By this time, many realized that the adoption of Christianity from Rome would lead to inevitable political dependence on it,” shared in a conversation with RT the head of the Center for Source Studies of Russian History of the Institute of Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. historical sciences Anton Gorsky.
- I. E. Eggink " Grand Duke Vladimir chooses faith"
According to the professor of the Faculty of Political Science of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Perevezentsev, the activities of Christian preachers Cyril and Methodius, who created the Old Slavonic alphabet in the 9th century and preached among the Slavs and other peoples living on the shores of the Black Sea, played an important role in the choice of Prince Vladimir.
“Cyril and Methodius, who came from Byzantium, translated liturgical texts and the Gospel into Slavic. In the West, services were initially conducted in Latin, the Bible was read in Latin, and thanks to Cyril and Methodius, Christianity, namely the Eastern rite, became clear to the Slavs, and most of the Slavs at that time, accordingly, turned out to be oriented towards the Eastern tradition,” he noted.
According to the expert, Western rites were treated coolly in Rus'. “In Kyiv at that time there lived people from Western Slavic peoples, baptized according to the Eastern rite, who already had negative experience of communicating with the Germans, and they shared it with the inhabitants of Rus',” emphasized Sergei Perevezentsev.
Land of Chersonesos
According to historical sources, late 980s Byzantine emperor Vasily entered into an alliance with Prince Vladimir against the rebellious commander Varda Phokas, who laid claim to the throne of the empire. One of key points the contract was marriage Prince of Kyiv on the emperor's sister Anna.
The details of further events are known from later retellings and cause debate among historians today. According to one of the most common versions, at a certain stage the Byzantine basileus tried to evade fulfilling his obligations. Then Vladimir’s squad besieged and captured the outpost of Constantinople in the Northern Black Sea region of Korsun-Chersonese (located on the site of modern Sevastopol).
After this, the emperor decided that the agreement still needed to be fulfilled, and the Byzantine princess Anna went to Crimea, where her groom was waiting for her. Vladimir was baptized and married Anna according to Christian rites.
- V. M. Vasnetsov “The Baptism of Vladimir”
“Vladimir and his retinue were baptized in Korsun and took many Christian shrines from here. The first priests who baptized Rus' were from Chersonesus. It is believed that Anastas, the priest who later became the rector of the Church of the Tithes, is also from Chersonesos. The spirit of the Christian faith, coming from the Eastern Mediterranean, from Byzantium, reached Chersonese-Kherson-Korsun and became the bridge through which faith came to Rus'. And under Vladimir, the most important thing has already happened - this is the gathering of Russian lands by a single spiritual force, the Orthodox faith,” said the chairman of the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol, historian and writer Ekaterina Altabaeva in an interview with RT.
The emergence of the Russian people
Returning with his legal wife to Kyiv, Vladimir ordered to throw the pagan idols into the river and baptize first the people of Kiev, and then the rest of the inhabitants of Rus'. Contrary to myths, baptism took place calmly in the central regions of Rus'. Clashes took place only in the north of Rus', and in the east the process simply took place gradually.
“The picture of the Christianization of Rus' in our days is complemented by archeology. Pectoral crosses have been appearing since the middle of the 10th century, and in the 11th century, judging by archaeological finds, the process of spreading Christianity in Rus' became widespread. People cared about saving their souls and thought about the afterlife. And we see that the transition to a new funeral rite happened extremely quickly,” the chief said in an interview with RT researcher Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Vladimir Petrukhin.
According to Sergei Perevezentsev, baptism played a decisive role in Russian ethnogenesis.
“The adoption of Christianity, in fact, created the very Russian people, who then built the great Russian civilization.
Before this, the population of Rus' was a heterogeneous union of tribes and ethnic groups. It is quite possible that if the Eastern Slavs had not been baptized, they, like the Polabian Slavs, would not have been able to unite and would have died at the hands of the Germans. And so, thanks to the adoption of Christianity, the Russian people arose,” the expert emphasized.
The influence of baptism on the formation of the Russian people is also noted by Vladimir Pervukhin.
“Before the adoption of Christianity there were Vyatichi, Krivichi, Dregovichi. And after baptism, the people united into a completely new community,” he explained.
Anton Gorsky draws attention to the impact the adoption of Christianity had on the culture of Rus'. “Along with faith, writing also came to Rus'. It was known as a phenomenon earlier, but the emergence of book culture was associated precisely with the adoption of Christianity,” the expert noted.
The head of the press service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', priest Alexander Volkov, in an interview with RT, stated that the entire history of Rus' and Russia is connected with Christianity.
- Monument to Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir on Borovitskaya Square © Evgeniy Novozhenina
- RIA Novosti
“It is impossible to separate the secular history of Russia from the church history. It all started with being made a saint prince equal to the apostles Vladimir of Christianity. This decision became the starting point from which we can count our history. If we look at the history of Russian culture, we will see that its core was the Orthodox faith. Orthodoxy played a crucial role in our history both in the Middle Ages, in modern times, and in the troubled twentieth century,” he emphasized.
According to Ekaterina Altabaeva, the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' - important event in our lives. “For us, the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' is a special date, which we experience together with all Orthodox Christians, with the Russian world, as a very important stage in the formation of the spiritual development of our Russian people,” she said.
Anton Gorsky also emphasizes the most important civilizational role of baptism in the history of Russia. “What can I say? The cultural code of Rus' was set by Eastern Christianity,” the expert concluded.