Photo from open sources
In our rationalistic age, people are especially attracted to scriptures, ancient legends and chronicles. Why is the question separate. Perhaps due to a change in benchmarks and priorities, perhaps because of a desire to join the secrets of the universe. I wanted would believe that because of the inevitable search for the spiritual beginning of our of life.
Be that as it may, many enthusiastically read the Torah, the Bible, The Quran, refer to the Vedas and other holy books. One of the most great sensations in the field of historical discoveries of our time is the find of the “Veles book” – the pagan annals of the pre-leg Russia. This story resembles an adventure novel …
There was a civil war on the territory of the former Russian Empire – the time of great upheavals, troubles and hardships. Long-suffering empire divided into two warring camps. Many historical monuments then perished. In a blind rage to everything “lordly” destroyed masterpieces of world and Russian culture. But even in those terrible years there were people who were trying to save at least something. Among them turned out to be a colonel of the White Army, the commander of the battery division A.F. Isenbek, passionately interested in the ancient history of the fatherland. In 1919, after another battle, fate threw him into a loot the estate of the princes Kurakin near Orel. In the library of the ruined manor he accidentally noticed lying on the floor streaked with unknown written plaques, greatly destroyed by time. Many of them were crushed by soldier’s boots. Isenbek gathered interested his tablets and took them with him, not yet knowing what price they present.
After the Civil War, the colonel and the planks were in Brussels. In 1924, the writer and historian Yu.P. Mirolyubov found out about them, in Russian emigrant circles known as a researcher of religion ancient Slavs and Russian folklore. He is the first of the researchers suggested that the text of the tablets is written in an unknown Old Slavic language. Over the next fifteen years Mirolyubov tirelessly rewrites and decrypts planks. It was a painstaking job. The surface of the planks was scratched, in places they were completely spoiled by some stains and warped. The varnish covering them flew off in some places. Beneath it was dark wood wood. The boards were about the same size – 38 by 32 cm, 0.5 cm thick. “It seems that they were cut with a knife, and not a saw, ”wrote Mirolyubov. – The text was written or scratched with an awl, and then rubbed with something brown, darkened by time, after which it is coated with varnish or oil. Every time for line a line was drawn, rather uneven. On the other side the text is like a continuation of the previous one, so it was necessary flip a bunch of tablets (like sheets of a tear-off calendar). IN in other places, on the contrary, each side was like a page in the book. It is immediately clear that this is many years ago. On the fields some planks depict the heads of a bull, on others the rays of the sun, on third images of other animals, maybe foxes or dogs … The letters are not all the same size, the lines were small, but there were large. It can be seen that not one person wrote them. Exact amount we haven’t been able to install the boards yet.
The scientist understood the value of the find and repeatedly suggested Isenbek to show the tablets to specialists or photograph them, but Isenbek was constantly haunted by manic anxiety for fate relics, to the extent that he did not even allow Mirolyubov at all to take the planks out of your home. Mirolyubov rewrote them in the presence of the owner. The enthusiastic scientist agreed to work in any conditions, if only to have access to the most valuable historical to the material.
Fears were not empty: the fate of the planks tragic. After Isenbek’s death in German-occupied Brussels in 1943 they disappeared along with all his property and large number of paintings. She had a hand in this, according to witnesses, the Gestapo. Mirolyubov managed to copy about three quarters of the text, at present, historians have only records of Mirolyubov and accidentally preserved photograph of one of the tablets. Involuntarily a comparison with the original “Words about Igor’s Regiment” begs which was also lost during the Moscow fire of 1812.
The authenticity of the Veles Book is still debated to this day. Official science without bothering to study thoroughly material, hastily evaluates the planks as an ingenious counterfeit. The press repeatedly appeared “revealing” articles on this topic. But all this sounds extremely unconvincing. First difficulty with which the researchers of the Veles Book encountered – its language. Opponents of the book claimed that it was not up to standard Church Slavonic language. The argument is artificial. Hardly possible to judge this pagan monument in terms of norms is the only we know the ancient Slavic language in which they wrote Christian authors. But there are many arguments in favor of that writing in Russia existed long before adoption Christianity. In the settlements of Chernyakhov culture on the Dnieper (III-IV centuries n e.) find runic inscriptions on clay spindles and vessels. In ancient Khazaria, according to Arab scholars, used the “Russian letter”. The famous Cyril, brother of Methodius, saw in 860 in Crimea whole books, “written in Russian letters.” Now no one will deny that the pagan ancestors of the Slavs are quite could create their own letter. The ancient Slavians actively communicated on west and northwest with Germanic tribes enjoying runic, and in the east and southeast – with Turkic peoples with such the same writing. It is hard to imagine that Slavic tribes, who were then at the same level of development, did not know the runes.
Thus, more and more evidence is accumulating. that the Veles book could have been written in just such a language and then rewritten on wooden tablets. It is striking that the correctness of historical information contained in Velesova book, “more and more confirmed by the latest archaeological research.
Russian emigrants not only themselves studied the text of Velesova books “, but also shared the results of their research with scientists – Slavists of the whole world. Historians and philologists showed interest Canada, Australia, Belgium, USA and other countries. In the mid-50s. decrypted texts were sent to the USSR, where, unfortunately, there were greeted by Soviet historians wary and more than cool. Then with caution and prejudice were generally related to everything “white emigrant”. In 1963, research enthusiasts made comprehensive report on the Veles Book at the V International Congress Slavists in Sofia. It was mainly emigrants, not Soviet scientists. It was emphasized that the “book of tablets” sheds new light on layers of a very ancient history of Russian tribes, many of which before this was not known to scientists. For example, it turns out that Greek and the Roman chroniclers were mistaken in calling Roxolanus an Alanian tribe. In fact, they were Slavs. Authors of these annals most likely – priests of pagan religion, ancient Rus before the era Oleg.
The compilers of the Veles Book did not forget to mention that Russes were pastoralists, hunters, and agriculture played for them auxiliary role. It is the occupation of cattle breeding that makes it clear the large coverage of the territory noted in the book – from the Volga to the Carpathians, from the shores of the Sea of Azov to the Danube. Such details are permanent movements are very realistic, as well as reliable information about contacts with the Goths, Huns, Greeks and other peoples. And in this the Veles book plan is original – it doesn’t imitate anyone, it’s nothing repeats, but historically reliable.
From the names of cities and their leaders, it is easy to establish that the “book tablets “tells of a very ancient time. It gives a rich material for the reasoning and revision of many historical provisions. The process of dealing with established opinions is always painful. But with a conscientious attitude to the facts, you can find other objective evidence of the existence of Slavic state entities for 400-500 BC on the Dnieper and in Carpathians, and to the east – and even earlier. Documents with such facts is in the archive of Georgian annals, at the University of Tartu, in Yerevan Matenadaran, in some Austrian libraries monasteries, as well as in Greek chronicles. In the Veles Book contains information that is interesting for historians, ethnographers, linguists, and just for curious people. For example, we learn from the text that among the tribes hostile to the ancient Slavs, many annoyed them, there were yagis. The book attributes cannibalism to them. So it turns out that Baba Yaga may have got into Russian fairy tales from harsh reality and this is not just a mythical image a witch feeding on humanity, and the image of a real old woman from a tribe I’m ready…
So, the “Veles book” introduces us to ancient history Slavs, which is still not covered by Russian science. Of course, all the historical information contained in the book is quite brief, – unlike later chronicles and annals. But that’s the point, what to attribute the “book of tablets” specifically to some genre is very hard. It does not and cannot be harmonious presentation. Maybe, that the found writing boards consist of several completely independent from each other parts. Most likely, they are united fragments from several different ancient purpose Slavic manuscripts.
Nevertheless, the content of the book is multifaceted, original and unusual. It has information, both historical and religious, and mythological. One of the tablets says that 1300 years before Germanrich (the leader is ready, conquered in the middle of the 4th century A.D. spaces of Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from the Volga to the Danube) the ancestors of the Rus still lived in Asia, in the “green land”. About it narrated in the most poetic passage – in the so-called legend about Bogumir. In a free retelling, it sounds like this: “Bohumir had three daughters and two sons. In the steppes they raised cattle, learning this from fathers and grandfathers. They were obedient to the gods and intelligent. Has come time, and their mother Slavunya told Bohumir: “We need to marry daughters to see the grandchildren. “Bohumir went to the field and came to an oak tree standing in a field, and here tonight he saw three husbands on horses. They drove up to Bogumir, and he told them about his care, and they told him that they themselves were looking for wives. And Bogumir returned to his steppe, and brought three husbands to his daughters. And from them went three glorious clan – Drevlyane, Krivichi and meadow. Because the first daughter the name of the Tree, the second – Skreva, and the third – Poleva. Sons The name of the god was Seva and Rus. From them come the northerners and Rus. AND those births were formed in Semirechye, in the green land. And it was for one thousand three hundred years before Germanrich. ”
It turns out that Bogumir lived in the 9th century. BC. Thus, version of the steppe Central Asian origin of Russian ancestors people every year becomes more convincing. Maybe not for 1300, and for 1500 (or more) years “before Germanrich” these ancestors separated from other European tribes and went to all doomsday seek your happiness. Italian archaeologists, excavators in Swat Valley (Pakistan) found for example, that at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, on the eve of the Trojan War, powerful shifts of Eurasian shepherds took place. And to the North Hindustan and the Danube came at that time from Central Asia warlike nomads of a single, possibly of origin. IN The Veles Book is described in detail as part of the Slavic the ancestors from Semirechye went through the mountains to the south (apparently, to India), and the other part went west, “to the Carpathian mountain.” If the book was falsification, how could the author predict this a striking and unexpected fact in the history of ancient herders, confirmed by archeology recently?
Book information about the ancient wanderings of the ancestors of the Russian people by open spaces of Eurasia allow us to understand the many mentions of Rus in Oriental and ancient sources. If we consider the native Russian steppe people, it must be recognized the centuries-old participation of Rus in all crucial events of all time. When we read in ancient sources about the great campaigns of the mysterious Cimmerians, and then the Scythians on Middle East, to Africa, to Southern and Western Europe, we can hope to find among these Cimmerians and Scythians their direct ancestors.
Ancient sources of the beginning of the era definitely indicate that the Slavic tribe Serb (Serbs) was engaged in cattle breeding between Azov and Caspian seas, and another Slavic tribe Horouatos (Croats) grazed their herds somewhere near the Lower Don. Nearby, apparently, the Russians wandered. No wonder the Roman geographers of the first centuries AD knew the Volga in its steppe part as Rus, the “river of Russes”. “Veles book” describes in detail the clashes of the Slavs with Alans (Persian-speaking population of the Eurasian steppes), Goths and the Huns. In the great battles in the bend between the Volga and the Don 1800 years the fate of Europe was decided back. Described in the book of Russian victory over Goths, Alans and Huns explain why the Slavs succeeded defend their positions in the era of the great migration of peoples.
But the content of the “book of tablets” is not limited to this. She also tells about the humanity of Russian ancestors, their high culture, about the deification and veneration of the forefathers, about love for the native land. The version of human sacrifice is completely rejected. Here for example, what is said in tablet 4: “The gods of the Rus do not take sacrifices human and not animals, the only fruits, vegetables, flowers, grains, milk, cheese drink (whey), infused herbs, honey, and never a live bird and not a fish, but the Vikings and Alans give the gods another sacrifice – terrible, human, we must not do this, for we are the Dazhbogov’s grandchildren and cannot go in the footsteps of others …
The original, previously unknown mythology system is revealed in this unique book. The universe, according to ancient Rus, It was divided into three parts: The reality is the visible, real world; Nav – other world, unreal, posthumous; Rule is the world of laws governing everything in the world …
What was the purpose of the Veles Book? This is not a chronicle, not a a chronicle in our understanding, and a collection of pagan teachings and legends, which were read to the people, obviously, during divine services. Them listened and memorized, for the veneration of ancestors was part religious cult. Acts of ancestors, i.e. history, became thus, a universal, national heritage, tradition generations.
In different epochs, apparently, new boards were added to the old tablets, covering either old times, but in a new aspect, or speaking about new times, but in comparison with the old. Hence the numerous repetitions of historical content mixed with calls for honor, courage, an appeal to heaven for the sending of blessings, etc. So Thus, religion, history and life merged into one indissoluble whole. So the character of the Veles Book becomes clear: this is not a course history, this is a collection of religious teachings, and the work It was written not by one author, but by several. But in general, “Velesova the book “gives a rather unexpected picture of Russian paganism.
Further study of the material contained in it will give us clearer ideas about the history of Ancient Russia doolegova period. The historical aspect of the Veles Book is a complex knot. His one must not deny how some strive, but unravel. After all, if the authenticity of the tablets will be proved – all ancient history Russian people will rise to a new, undoubtedly higher level.
The Veles Book did not contain any over-sensational information, but, nevertheless, at one time was subjected to total defamation. Sentence of scientists hastily pronounced by Velesova book, “was harsh: sheer falsification. The main creator of texts “Veles book” recognized emigrant, chemical engineer, poet and historian Mirolyubov (according to other sources, he studied in Kiev on medical faculty and was engaged in Ukrainian and Don dialectology). What for would he need it? Soviet researcher O.V. Tworogov in his work “Veles book” (1990), summarizing the previous The results of the study of the monument, claims that its findings Mirolyubov built mainly on a very rich personal imagination.
The Veles Book has considerable volume and complex content. The creation of such a falsification, especially for an amateur, is an occupation very laborious. Why in these conditions it was necessary to make text for allegedly existing dozens (!) of tablets, while a few pieces would be enough to reinforce the imagination. All this is not very clear … But it’s not even surprising, but that the historical data of the Veles Book are by no means reinforced, but directly contradict the constructions of his very alleged creator. The whole tone of the historical content of the “tablets” contradicts peace-loving constructions: Russian blood flows like a river, every success paid by the stress of all forces. Losses, wanderings, losses much more than success. The tone of the tablets is also tragic as the tone of “Words about Igor’s regiment”, in fact, it’s crying for the suffering of the people, who endured the immeasurable burdens. This does not at all fit with the drawing we have. optimistic image of the ancient history of frivolous contender for the authorship of the tablets and his own fantasies.
Another obsession of Mirolyubov was his belief in kinship Slavs with Vedic arias. But judging by the published translations, and in this case the texts practically do not give grounds for rapprochement of the Rus with the ancient Indians. Reasons for Mirolyubov to pore as we see, there was no fake over the refutation of his arguments. IN what is the matter?
Editors of the expatriate magazine “Firebird” (San Francisco) in its announcement of a unique find dated planks of the VI century. AD It is highly doubtful that fragile tablets survive for many centuries: depending on the storage conditions they would have to update from time to time. What will happen in such a case? Suppose by the XIII century. IX century list came in shabby state. And here is a keeper of the heirloom endures ancient texts on a new basis. Many archaic words and phrases while he is obscure. Something he translates in his mind in the language of the XIII century., some part of the words unknowingly copies into more spelling familiar to him, introduces a fair amount along the way descriptions, errors and omissions.
The texts that reached us are most likely a copy of the first half of the XX century from a document, a reliable biography of which unknown. They may contain laminations of various eras. You can approach their study only from these positions. Philologists who have studied the Veles book, speak out against her authenticity. However, consideration of their arguments shows that they are not took into account the factor of simultaneous inclusions, which, incidentally, is present in almost any ancient historical document! Their data freed from biased interpretation, draw exactly the same the picture that we observe when studying the “Words about Igor’s regiment”. Then, if you take the position of critics of the “Isenbek tablets”, you need to “Word …” recognize one hundred percent fake. This unforgivable for critics-professionals, miss practically destroys all of them argumentation. In order to somehow justify his position of obstruction in relation to the Veles Book, apparently, the critical school needs start research from the very beginning.
It must be added that in the works of Mirolyubov there are citations from “Veles book”, which in the published texts of the tablets are not it turned out. Texts of several tablets found in the archive Mirolyubova only after his death, i.e. they were hidden by him from the wide reviews. A legitimate question arises: are all hidden from publishing texts found? Are some materials stored in one of the executives of the historian in a neat wrapper with romantic inscription: “Open 50 years after my death”? After all, Mirolyubov could not destroy them. Apparently, it was a patriot and deeply decent man. Perhaps in this way he wanted to save the most reliable, according to his opinion, part of Isenbek’s legacy. Having made the decision to hide, Mirolyubov makes heroic efforts for independent entering into scientific circulation this information, backing it up with our own explorations.
The historians of the “Veles book” have hardly been studied. Cause this lies in undivided dominance in the Soviet historical science of the concept of Normanism. According to this theory, the Russians came to the Slavs allegedly at their request-appeal in 862 from the north and were Scandinavian Germans. With this approach, the statement “Velesova books “about the residence of Russians in the Northern Black Sea region for many centuries before their annalistic appeal, the conviction of their kinship with the Alans can cause only skepticism among proponents of the Scandinavian theory a smile.
However, the complex of information of medieval Arab authors draws a very definite picture of the presence of Russians in the Caucasus and in Northern Black Sea region long before the calling of Rurik. So, al-Khwarizmi, who wrote in the 30s. IX century., Puts the region of Rus in area of the Darial passage and near the Kerch Strait. Other informants know medieval Rus as indigenous inhabitants Of the Caucasus. The Veles Book covers events from the 9th century. BC. IX in. AD It tells about the ancient life of the Rus in the Volga region, stay in Western Asia, the Black Sea region, etc.
The basis of the historical information of the Veles Book is quite coherent logical and chronological consistent historical story. After compiling it, apparently, was edited. Traces of deep study are visible, in particular, in the texts of some planks. At the same time, some editors do not understood. So, on two tablets, events IV and VII are mixed centuries, or an early story about Russo-Gothic relations is not very skillful adapts to the description of later events. On some the planks next to them were pieces of different times, which can be explained transferring texts from different places of the previous one to a single tablet edition of the monument. Editors carry out feasible translation words with outdated meanings.
If we assume the falsity of the texts of the tablets, then in this the case should be recognized: the work on their manufacture is completed extremely talented author. Lack of any substantial arguments in favor of the falsity of the Veles Book in the most serious way raises the level of the problem. When authenticity of texts they will be a unique historical source on the pagan history of the Slavs and other peoples, questioning the prevailing Scandinavian concept, which boils down to helpless appeal: “Come and rule us! ..” The question is, who needs this in the presence of the richest history of Russia?
To date, none of the generation of first publishers and enthusiastic researchers of the book are almost gone. Them archives are in the possession of the heirs or lost. Now to this thread in emigrant circles interest finally fell, which is not surprising with such a long wait for Russian support for the defenders the monument.
The meager data on the Veles Book issue introduced in scientific turn in Russia, speak more likely in favor of authenticity texts. Final conclusions can only be made after comprehensive study of the monument at a truly professional level. Although almost a few decades late, it’s need to do. Scientists are waiting for any of the heirs to shed additional light on the fate of Isenbeck’s legacy in Belgium and Mirolyubova in Germany.
O. BURAKOVSKAYA
The article was prepared based on the materials of V.D. Zakharchenko and Yu.P. Mirolyubova
War Time Life India Birds Russia
