An ancient settlement in the Urals Chud white-eyed. About the Ural miracle and its death (1927)

The breakdown of thieves' concepts and stripes, in particular, the definition of such a crowning title as "thief in law", in the post-Soviet space began in the 90s of the twentieth century - when, along with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the usual ideas about the criminal hierarchy were leveled.

The “old” thieves did not expect that even this status, like all other “traditional Soviet values,” could also be monetized. In fact, this is exactly what happened.

The parochialism of the “new” thieves"
In fact, the terms “lavrushnik” and “orange” in relation to the status of thief in law initially had territorial isolation - this was the name mainly given to Georgian thief in law, who received their crown thieves’ status thanks to merits unrelated to the previous, habitual , the “scale of values” of a real “lawyer.”

It’s just that, based on nationality, there were more such “thieves” in the post-Soviet space, and they were more noticeable than others. Only much later did these terms universally become synonymous with the illegitimacy of the status of thieves.

We didn't go through this
For a thief in law, there is a “primer book”, without which he is simply nothing - this is a set of certain life guidelines that confirm his status - like virtual insignia. A real thief in law must definitely serve time under the “correct” criminal offense, and preferably more than once. No home, no family, no wealth, no real estate, no anything else precious and burdensome - the necessary distinction of a thief in law. There are many such differences. And all of them are “correct”, thieves.

“Oranges” and “lavrushniks,” as the “thief in law” themselves say, do not know the taste of gruel, have no idea about thieves’ terminology - they “didn’t go through this and they weren’t asked this.” There is a category of thieves who have never been in prison at all, they have not even been convicted. The newly minted “oranges” have an “excuse” that supposedly levels out the concepts that should precede the “coronation” - the “orange”-“laurel earbud” seems to be able to do so much good for the world of thieves (financially, of course) that his criminal record as such doesn't matter.

Everything is bought and sold
Old thieves in law state with regret: with the collapse of the Soviet value system, oddly enough, the former thieves' traditions began to dissolve into oblivion, although they were in no way integral part communist ideology.

The ritual of crowning thieves in law has been thoroughly discredited today. And money played a major role in this. In the USSR thieves had them great amount. But they did not play a decisive role in such a closed, totalitarian state as Soviet Union. Then the vector for the functioning and development of the criminal world was determined by the concepts of thieves.

In the modern world of thieves, the dilemma has long been dominant - thieves in law, crowned according to the rules, who have served time, acquired authority in the criminal world, and - “money bags” - “oranges”, “lavrushniks” - who bought status for money. There's a fight going on ideologies. In the criminal world, of course, it is often associated with bloody showdowns.

Unlike Chud, Mary had a “more transparent story.” This ancient Finno-Ugric tribe once lived in the territories of modern Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Tver, Vladimir and Kostroma regions Russia. That is, in the very center of our country. There are many references to them; merins are found in the Gothic historian Jordan, who in the 6th century called them tributaries of the Gothic king Germanaric. Like the Chud, they were in the troops of Prince Oleg when he went on campaigns against Smolensk, Kyiv and Lyubech, as recorded in the Tale of Bygone Years. True, according to some scientists, in particular Valentin Sedov, by that time ethnically they were no longer a Volga-Finnish tribe, but “half Slavs.” Final assimilation apparently occurred by the 16th century.

One of the largest peasant uprisings is associated with the name of Merya Kievan Rus 1024 years. The reason was the great famine that gripped the Suzdal land. Moreover, according to the chronicles, it was preceded by “immeasurable rains,” drought, premature frosts, and dry winds. For the Marys, most of whose representatives opposed Christianization, this obviously looked like “divine punishment.”

The rebellion was led by the priests of the “old faith” - the Magi, who tried to use the chance to return to pre-Christian cults. However, it was unsuccessful. The rebellion was defeated by Yaroslav the Wise, the instigators were executed or sent into exile.

Despite the meager data that we know about the Merya people, scientists have managed to restore them ancient language, which in Russian linguistics is called “Meryansky”. It was reconstructed on the basis of the dialect of the Yaroslavl-Kostroma Volga region and the Finno- Ugric languages. A number of words were recovered thanks to geographical names.

It turned out that the endings “-gda” in Central Russian toponymy: Vologda, Sudogda, Shogda are the heritage of the Meryan people.

Despite the fact that mentions of the Merya completely disappeared in sources back in the pre-Petrine era, today there are people who consider themselves to be their descendants. These are mainly residents of the Upper Volga region. They claim that the Meryans did not dissolve over the centuries, but formed the substrate (substratum) of the northern Great Russian people, switched to the Russian language, and their descendants call themselves Russians. However, there is no evidence of this.

Door to the kingdom of Chudi

By opening the list of languages ​​and nationalities of the Russian Federation approved by the State Statistics Committee of Russia, you can learn a lot of interesting things. For example, the fact that in Russia there are people who consider themselves to be among the mythical people of wizards is a miracle.

Most likely this is a misunderstanding. After all, according to the legends of the north of Russia, these people went to live underground more than a thousand years ago. However, in Karelia and the Urals, even today you can hear eyewitness accounts of a meeting with representatives of the Chud. The famous ethnographer of Karelia, Alexey Popov, told us about one of these meetings.

Alexey, how plausible is the story of the existence of the Chud, this mythical people?

Of course, the miracle really existed, and then went away. But it’s not known exactly where. Ancient legends say that underground. Moreover, surprisingly, there is a mention of this people even in Nestor’s “Tale of Bygone Years”: “... the Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on the Chud, Slovenes, Merya and Krivichi, and the Khazars from the glades, northerners, and Vyatichi took tribute in silver coins and the verite (squirrel) from the smoke.” It is also known from the chronicles that in 1030 Yaroslav the Wise made a campaign against Chud “and defeated them and established the city of Yuryev.” Today it is one of the largest cities in modern Estonia - Tartu. At the same time, on the territory of Russia there is a huge number of toponymic names reminiscent of the people who once lived here. mysterious people, only the people themselves are not there, as if they never existed.

What did the chud look like?

According to most researchers, ethnographers and historians, these were creatures that looked very much like European gnomes. They lived on the territory of Russia until the ancestors of the Slavs and Finno-Ugrians came here. In the modern Urals, for example, there are still legends about unexpected helpers of people - short, white-eyed creatures that appear from nowhere and help travelers lost in the forests Perm region.

You said that the chud went underground...

If we summarize numerous legends, it turns out that the miracle descended into dugouts, which it itself dug in the ground, and then blocked all the entrances. True, the dugouts could well have been entrances to caves. This means that it was in the underground caves that this mythical people hid. At the same time, they most likely failed to completely break with the outside world. For example, in the north of the Komi-Permyak Okrug, in the Gain region, according to the stories of researchers and hunters, you can still find unusual bottomless wells filled with water. Local residents believe that these are wells of ancient people leading to the underworld. They never take water from them

Are there any known places where the miracle went underground?

Today no one knows the exact places; only numerous versions are known according to which similar places are located in the north of Russia or in the Urals. It is interesting that the epics of the Komi and the Sami tell the same story about the departure of the “little people” into the dungeons. If you believe ancient legends, then the Chud went to live in earthen pits in the forests, hiding from the Christianization of those places. Until now, both in the north of the country and in the Urals, there are earthen hills and mounds called Chud graves. They supposedly contain treasures “sworn” by miracles.

N.K. Roerich was very interested in the legends of miracles. In his book “The Heart of Asia,” he directly tells how one Old Believer showed him a rocky hill with the words: “This is where the Chud went underground. This happened when the White Tsar came to Altai to fight, but the Chud did not want to live under the White Tsar. The chud went underground and blocked the passages with stones...” However, as N.K. Roerich stated in his book, the chud should return to earth when certain teachers from Belovodye come and bring great science for humanity. Allegedly, then the miracle will emerge from the dungeons along with all its treasures. Great traveler He even dedicated the painting “The Miracle Has Gone Under the Ground” to this legend.

Or maybe the Chud meant some other people, whose descendants still live happily in Russia?

There is also such a version. Indeed, legends about the miracle are most popular precisely in the places of settlement of the Finno-Ugric peoples, which include the Komi-Permyaks. But! There is one inconsistency here: the descendants of the Finno-Ugric peoples themselves always spoke about the Chud as about some other people.

Legends, just legends... Are there real monuments left by the miracle that you can touch with your hands?

Of course have! For example, this is good famous mountain Sekirnaya (local historians also call it Chudova Gora) on the Solovetsky archipelago. Its very existence is surprising, because the glacier, passing these places, cut off, like a sharp knife, all the unevenness of the landscape - and big mountains It simply can’t be here! So the 100-meter-high Miracle Mountain looks on this surface like an obviously man-made object of some kind ancient civilization. At the beginning of the 2000s, scientists who examined the mountain confirmed that it is partly of glacial origin, and partly of artificial origin - the large boulders of which it consists are not laid chaotically, but in a certain order.

And what, the creation of this mountain is attributed to a miracle?

Archaeologists have long established that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to local residents centuries before the monks came here. In Novgorod they were called Chudya; their neighbors called them “Sikirtya”. The word is curious, because translated from ancient local dialects “shrt” is the name of a large, long, elongated mound. Thus, an elongated haystack is directly called a “stack”. It is obvious that ancient people neighbors called them sikirtya for their life in “mounded hills” - houses built from improvised materials: moss, branches, stones. This version is also confirmed by the ancient Novgorodians - in their chronicles they note that the Sikirtya live in caves and do not know iron.

You mentioned mysterious encounters with miracles in Karelia and the Urals these days. Are they real?

To be honest, knowing many similar stories, I always treated them with a fair amount of skepticism. Until, at the end of the summer of 2012, an incident occurred that made me believe in the real existence of this mythical people in the mountains or underground. Here is how it was. At the end of August, I received a letter with a photograph from an ethnographer who, in the summer months, works part-time as a tour guide on a ship on the Kem-Solovki route. The information was so unexpected that I contacted him. So. The photo showed a rock in which the outline of a large stone door could be discerned. To my question: “What is this?” - the guide told an amazing story. It turns out that in the summer of 2012, he and a group of tourists sailed past one of the islands of the Kuzov archipelago. The ship sailed close to the shore, and people looked at it with pleasure. picturesque rocks. The guide at this time told them stories about mysterious encounters with the mythical miracle-sikirtya. Suddenly one of the tourists screamed heart-rendingly, pointing to the shore. The whole group immediately turned their gaze to the rock to which the woman was pointing.

The whole action lasted a few seconds, but the tourists managed to see a huge (three meters by one and a half meters) stone door closing in the rock, hiding the silhouette of a small creature behind it. The guide literally tore the camera from his neck and tried to take a few pictures. Unfortunately, the shutter of his camera clicked when only the silhouette of a stone door remained visible. A second later he disappeared too. This was the first case of mass observation of the entrance to the dungeons of the Chud. After this event, doubt the reality of existence in the rocks and underground of this legendary people don't have to!

Lake Peipsi retained in its name the memory of the tribe that participated in Battle on the Ice, but then gradually disappeared from the historical arena. In the Urals, and in Siberia, and in the north of Russia, and even in Altai, many legends say that once upon a time an ancient people called “Chud” lived in these places. Legends about the miracle are most often told in places where Finno-Ugric peoples live or previously lived, so in science it was customary to consider the Finno-Ugric people to be the miracle. But the problem is that the Finno-Ugric peoples, in particular the Komi-Permyaks, themselves tell legends about the Chud, calling the Chud another people.

When people who live here to this day came to these places, the Chud buried itself alive in the ground. This is what one of the legends recorded in the village of Afanasyevo tells Kirov region: “...And when other people (Christians) began to appear along the Kama, this miracle did not want to communicate with them, did not want to be enslaved by Christianity. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called the Peipsi Coast.”

Sometimes it is also said that the Chud “went underground,” and sometimes that it went to live in other places: “We have the Vazhgort tract - Old village. Although we call it a village, there are no buildings there. And it is not clear that anyone lived there, but the old people claim that ancient, Chud people lived there. For a long time, they say, they lived in that area, but newcomers appeared, they began to oppress the old-timers, and they decided: “We have no life, we need to move to other places.” They gathered their belongings, they said, took the guys by the hands and said. “Farewell, Old Village! We won’t be here - and there won’t be anyone!” And they left the village. They go, they say, they part with their homeland and roar. Every single one of them left. Now it's empty."

But when she left, the Chud left behind a lot of treasures. These treasures are enchanted, “cherished”: a covenant has been placed on them that only the descendants of the Chud people can find them. Chud spirits in different guises (sometimes in the guise of a hero on a horse, sometimes a hare or a bear) guard these treasures: “Sluda and Shudyakor are Chud places. The heroes lived there and were carried from village to village with axes. Then they buried themselves in the ground and took the gold with them. Pillow ingots are hidden at the Shudyakorsk settlement, but no one will take them: the horse warriors stand guard. Our grandfathers warned us: “Don’t walk past this settlement late at night - the horses will trample you!”

In the text of another ancient entry in the village of Zuikare, Vyatka province, it is written about the “Chudskaya treasure” in the Chudskaya Mountain on the right bank of the Kama. A huge, slightly crooked pine tree grows here, and at a distance from it, about four arshins away, stands a rotten stump up to two meters in diameter. They tried to find this treasure many times, but when they approached it, such a storm arose that the pine trees bent their tops to the ground, and the treasure hunters were forced to abandon their enterprise. However, they say that some treasure hunters still managed to penetrate the secrets of the underground inhabitants, but it cost them very, very dearly. The appearance of the “eccentrics” is so terrible that some treasure hunters, having met them in the dungeons, came out completely insane and could not recover for the rest of their lives. It was even worse for those who came across the bones of a “buried alive” miracle in the “miracle graves” - the dead, guarding their treasures, suddenly came to life as soon as someone approached their treasures...

In 1924-28, the Roerich family was on an expedition to Central Asia. In the book “The Heart of Asia,” Nicholas Roerich writes that in Altai, an elderly Old Believer led them to a rocky hill and, pointing out the stone circles of ancient burials, said: “This is where Chud went underground. When the White Tsar came to Altai to fight and how it bloomed White birch in our land, Chud did not want to stay under the White Tsar. Chud went underground and blocked the passages with stones. You can see their former entrances yourself. But Chud is not gone forever. When the happy time returns and people from Belovodye come and give great science to all the people, then Chud will come again, with all the treasures obtained.” And even earlier, in 1913, Nicholas Roerich wrote a painting on this topic “The Miracle Gone Under the Ground”

In the Urals, stories about miracles in to a greater extent widespread in the Kama region. Legends indicate specific places where the Chud lived, describe their appearance (and they were mostly dark-haired and dark-skinned), customs, and language. Legends have even preserved some words from the Chud language: “Once upon a time, a Chud girl appeared in the village of Vazhgort - tall, beautiful, broad-shouldered. Her hair is long, black, and not braided. He walks around the village and calls: “Come and visit me, I’m cooking dumplings!” There were about ten people willing, everyone went after the girl. They went to the Peipus spring, and no one else returned home, everyone disappeared somewhere. The next day the same thing happened again. It was not because of their stupidity that people fell for the girl’s bait, but because she had some kind of power. Hypnosis, as they say now. On the third day, the women from this village decided to take revenge on the girl. They boiled several buckets of water, and when the Chud girl entered the village, the women poured boiling water over her. The girl ran to the spring and wailed: “Odege! Odege! Soon the residents of Vazhgort left their village forever and went to live in other places..."

Odege - what does this word mean? There is no such word in any of the Finno-Ugric languages. What ethnic group was this mysterious miracle?

Since ancient times, ethnographers, linguists, and local historians have tried to solve the mystery of the miracle. There were different versions about who the Chud was. Ethnographers of local history Fedor Aleksandrovich Teploukhov and Alexander Fedorovich Teploukhov considered the Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi) a miracle, since there is documentary information about the presence of the Ugrians in the Kama region. Linguistic scientist Antonina Semyonovna Krivoshchekova-Gantman did not agree with this version, because in the Kama region there are practically no geographical names that can be deciphered using Ugric languages; she believed that the issue required further study. Kazan professor Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov believed that the Chud were the Komi-Permyaks before the adoption of Christianity, since some legends say that the Chud are “our ancestors.” Latest version became most widespread, and most ethnographers adhered to this version until recently.

Discovery in the Urals in the 1970s and 80s ancient city the Aryans of Arkaim and the “Country of Cities” of Sintashta somewhat shook the traditional version. Versions began to appear that Chud were ancient arias (more in the narrow sense- the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians, and in a broader sense - the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans as a whole). This version found many supporters among scientists and local historians.

If linguists have previously recognized that there are many “Iranianisms” in the Finno-Ugric languages, then in last years an opinion emerged that the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages ​​have a very large common lexical layer. A version has emerged that the names of the rivers Kama in the Urals and Ganges (Ganga) in India have the same origin. It is not for nothing that in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk region) there are geographical names with the root “gang”: Ganga (lake), Gangas (bay, hill), Gangos (mountain, lake), Gangasikha (bay). It’s not for nothing that geographical names in -kar (Kudymkar, Maykar, Dondykar, Idnakar, Anyushkar, etc.) cannot be deciphered using local Permian languages(Udmurt, Komi and Komi-Permyak). According to legend, in these places there were Chud settlements, and it is here that bronze jewelry and other objects are most often found, conventionally united by the name Perm animal style. And the “Iranian influence” on the art of the Perm animal style itself has always been recognized by experts.

Indian sages believe that the sacred river Ganges begins its journey in heaven. Perhaps India is the ancestral home of many peoples.

It is no secret that there are parallels in the mythology of the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian peoples. The legends of the ancient Aryans preserve memories of a semi-mythical ancestral home located somewhere far to the north of India. The Aryans who lived in this country could observe amazing phenomena. There, seven heavenly sages-rishis move around the North Star, which the creator Brahma strengthened in the center of the universe above the World Mount Meru. Beautiful celestial dancers - apsaras - also live there, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, and the sun rises and shines for six months in a row. The seven rishis are probably the constellation Ursa Major, and the apsaras are the embodiment of the northern lights, which captured the imagination of many peoples. In Estonian myths, the northern lights are heroes who died in battle and live in the sky. IN Indian mythology Only magical birds, including the messenger of the gods Garuda, can reach the sky. In Finno-Ugric mythology Milky Way, connecting north and south, was called the Bird Road.

There are similarities directly in the names. For example, the god of the Udmurts is Inmar, among the Indo-Iranians Indra is the god of thunder, Inada is the foremother; in Komi mythology, both the first man and the swamp witch bear the name Yoma; in Indo-Iranian mythology, Yima is also the first man; The name of the god is also consonant with the Finns - Yumala, and among the Mari - Yumo. “Aryan influence” even penetrated into the ethnonyms of the Finno-Ugrians: the Tatars and Bashkirs of the Udmurts, their neighbors, call the ethnonym “Ar”.

So who was called a miracle in the Urals? If Aryans, then the question again arises: why was there confusion about who was considered Chud, and why did the ethnonym Chud “stick” specifically and only to the Finno-Ugric peoples? What is the relationship between the Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric peoples? Apparently, here we should remember the opinion of Lev Gumilyov, who believed that a new ethnic group, just like a person, is born from two ethnic parents. Then it becomes clear why the legends call them either “another people” or “our ancestors.”

...And yet, what did the miracle girl scream, doused with boiling water? Maybe the word “odege” is in the Indo-Iranian languages? If we open the Sanskrit-Russian dictionary, we will find there a similar sounding word - “udaka”, meaning “water”. Maybe she was trying to run to the Peipus spring, the only place where she could escape?

Looking at the high-quality miracle work with bronze, which, in turn, required mastery of working with stone or ceramic molds, blacksmithing skills, you begin to understand that East Slavs in the north and northeast they met not at all with primitive tribes who could not give them anything and could not teach them anything.

On the contrary, there was its own interesting culture. So this is a question of where the Russians got the Valdai bells, the subjects of northern embroidery, and the northern love for decorating homes, for example, wood carving.

Where did the miracle go?

The question is reasonable. And it seems to me that there are two main answers.

Probably, part of the Chud was forced out and knocked out by the Slavic population, because it is reported: “In the Shenkursky district of the Arkhangelsk province they said that “the indigenous inhabitants there, the Chud, desperately defending their land from the invasion of the Novgorodians, never wanted to submit to the newcomers,” with frenzy defended themselves from fortresses, fled into the forests, killed themselves, were buried alive in deep ditches (having dug a hole, placed posts in the corners, made a roof over them, put stones and earth on the roof, went into the pit with their property and, having cut down the stands, died).

Then the formula “going underground” looks literally: the death of the tribe. But part of the Chud probably still became Russified after baptism, as happened with many neighboring Finno-Ugric tribes.

That is why the question still remains: what in the art and life of the Russian north comes from the Russian population, what from the Chud. And there are a lot of skills here: wooden churches and huge northern houses, textiles and embroidery, metal work, decorating houses, including picturesque ones, ships and boats.

Let's try and test this hypothesis using at least a few of the most accessible examples, compare the products Permian miracle and Russian northerners:

1. A magical bird with a human face.
In general, for comparison you need to take something quite unusual, unusual. Such motifs are found in folk art. For example, the magical bird Sirin.

Birds-Sirin Valance, detail. Olonets province, mid-19th V. And the amulet petition of the Perm miracle with a mask on its chest.

2. Slavic goddess Rozhana - or the miracle mother of all living things?

A detail repeated in variations of Olonets and Severodvinsk embroideries, which is interpreted as the image of the ancient Slavic goddess Rozhana, a woman in labor, as she wrote about
S. V. Zharnikova

And this is the motif of the goddess, which is constantly found among the Perm miracles.

She, judging by the variations different creatures nearby, from elk to man, is the “universal mother,” and the position of the next creature below is its birth. The similarity is obvious and it is aggravated by the fact that the goddess does not stand, but lies, which is especially visible on the last amulet. In addition, the second essence of this goddess is a bird, as on numerous amulets-obregs with the goddess bird, which is why the nose-beak is clearly emphasized.

It is interesting that the stylized motif of a woman in labor is found in Karelian embroidery, that is, among other Finno-Ugric people, and it is very similar to Kargopol embroidery.

3. Deer-Golden Horns.

Continuing the theme of amulets, we must remember the Kargopol toy. L. Latynin believes that in the images traditional toys hidden archaic symbols. Whether this is true or not, it’s hard to tell from the toy itself - it’s still changeable, although main tradition must be “protected” - that is, what was a talisman is the oldest, traditional and replicated.
For example, a deer with golden antlers and its changeable faces, half-man - half-deer.

In this Kargopol toy you can compare the man-moose of the Permian miracle.

4. Horse on the house, Deer and Bird.

In the north, peasants said: “A horse on the roof is quieter in the hut,” considering these images as “amulets,” good forces that protected from any misfortune. It is interesting that in the Russian north, the deer-elk was often found as a talisman for the house; it was placed on an ohlupenka instead of a skate. Or they simply nailed deer antlers there: “On the Mezen there is another type of decoration of the ohlupnya - with deer antlers. Usually this decoration was not carved like a skate, but real deer antlers were simply attached to the end of the ridge. This decor is more common in the Mezen region. In all likelihood, one can see in it traces of the veneration of the deer, the cult of which, perhaps to a lesser extent than the horse, was characteristic of certain Russian regions." There could also be a bird, like a swan, in the same place.

It’s hard for us to say what the miracle house looked like. But it is obvious that the heads of the skates were used as amulets.

This arrangement had a certain magical meaning: doubling the symbol enhanced the protective effect of the amulet. It can also be assumed that the dead man, if he rose from the grave, would find himself making a noise. So it could also be the protection of the living

Interesting to note crow's feet at the end of the last amulet in the row - this completes the image of the horse-goose, which is also known for the Russian north

5. Bells

Based on the previous part with noisy pendants, we can turn to the following evidence of the miracle: “One of the possible “traces” of the miracle is considered in the 19th century. unusual, mysterious place Kholmogory spruce forest (on Kurostrov, near the town of Kholmogory). According to the mentioned II. Efimenko legend, in the spruce forest there was once supposedly a “Chiplus idol”. The idol, cast from silver, “was attached to one of the most seasoned woods and held a large golden cup in its hands.” It seemed impossible to steal the idol and the treasures surrounding it: “Chud guarded her god tightly: sentries stood constantly near him, and springs were installed near the idol itself. Whoever touches the idol, even with just one finger, immediately these springs will begin to play and various bells will ring, and you will not go anywhere; The guards will immediately take it away, and the accursed miracle will fry it in a frying pan and sacrifice it to its idol.” The Russians, of course, stole the idol, they had such talent. The first case of opening an anti-theft device, so to speak. But the point is not this, but the bells of the miracle

Bells, of course, cannot be associated exclusively with Chud culture.
Bells and bells are associated with traditional folk culture different nations. But it is interesting to listen to the testimonies of Russian residents of the North about bells and bells, about their role:

P. S. Efimenko cites the following beliefs about the ringing of bells that existed among peasants in the North: “Having heard the ringing of bells, the devil runs away from a person. They also notice that if you leave the house, enter it, or finish something at the very beginning of the ringing, there is a harbinger of good.”

“In order to protect themselves from predatory animals, the Russians of the Vologda district. on Maundy Thursday they went into the forest and shouted: “Wolves, bears, out of earshot; hares and foxes are in our garden!” At the same time, they knocked on frying pans and rang cow bells.”

Attracts attention and wedding ceremony. In Pinega, as in most other places in the North, a wedding train is unthinkable without bells. Bells with their ringing protect young people from “ evil spirits» on the most important road to to the crown and from the crown: “In front of the entire ceremonial procession, consisting of a huge train of betrothed and village relatives, with many bells, shufflers, bells, vertebrae buzzing under the arches, on the shafts and on the necks of horses, riding in sleighs, carts or on horseback cart drivers with ribbons down on their sleeves.”
Wedding rituals, like calendar rituals, are distinguished by the most archaic symbols.
And so on - bells had a magical function, both among the Russians and the Chuds.

So, we felt the closeness of Chud and Northern Russian objects and beliefs.

But, in fact, who were the Russians in the North - by blood and customs?

We now know that the admixture of Finno-Ugric “blood”, that is, Finno-Ugric DNA markers among the Pomors is significant, mainly in the female line. But there are population groups that clearly originated without strong mixing from the Finno-Ugric people, because there are markers along the male and female lines. Both groups probably originated from the Chud. But at the moment of transition they probably did not abandon their
ideas about the world.

And this commonality is also revealed by a comparison of the beliefs of the Pomors and the Chuds, which is manifested through objects material culture. Therefore, we can say that the Chud not only went underground, but also turned into new people, enriching it.

Ethnographers, local historians and linguists today do not have precise definition to such people as Chud.

Kazan professor Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov believed that the Chud were the Komi-Permyaks before the adoption of Christianity, since some legends say that the Chud are “our ancestors.”

Ethnographers of local history Fedor Aleksandrovich Teploukhov and Alexander Fedorovich Teploukhov considered the Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi) to be a miracle, since there is documentary information about the presence of the Ugrians in the territory of the Kama region in the Urals.

Ural legends indicate specific places where the Chud lived, describe their appearance (and they were mostly dark-haired and dark-skinned), customs, and language.

With the discovery in the Urals in the 1970-80s of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta, versions began to appear that the Chud were the ancient Aryans - the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans.
It is interesting that the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages ​​have a very large common lexical layer. It is not for nothing that in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions) there are geographical names with the root “gang”: Ganga (lake), Gangas (bay, hill), Gangos (mountain, lake), Gangasikha (bay). And the art of the Perm region itself clearly has an “Iranian influence”, which is characterized by an “animal style”.
There are parallels in the mythology of the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian peoples. The legends of the ancient Aryans preserve memories of a semi-mythical ancestral home located somewhere far to the north of India.

According to the latest census of Russia, the descendants of the Zavolotsk Chud, who written sources is located within the borders of the current Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions. Despite the similarities and family ties with the Vepsians, the Chud clearly separates itself from the Vepsians themselves, as well as from the Western Komi, who neighbored the Chud along the Verkola River.

So what kind of people are they, after all?

If Aryans, then why did the ethnonym Chud “stick” specifically and only to the Finno-Ugric peoples? What is the relationship between the Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric peoples?

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S. Zharnikova POSSIBLE SOURCES OF THE IMAGE OF THE HORSE-GOOSE AND HORSE-DEER IN INDO-IRANIAN (ARYAN) MYTHOLOGY
Efimenko P. S. Materials on the ethnography of the Russian population of the Arkhangelsk province, vol. 1. M., 1877
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Dwellings and material remains of Chud and Sirtya

For the first time, authentic Nenets legends about the Sirtya - nomadic hunters of the tundra and sea coast, who hunted wild deer, fish and sea animals, spoke a language different from Nenets, and hid forever underground, were recorded by A. Shrenk, who made a long trip to Bolshezemelskaya tundra. During this trip, in the lower reaches of the Korotaikha River, which flows into the Barents Sea east of Varandey and west of the Yugra Peninsula and the Pai-Khoi ridge, he discovered “Chud caves” with the remains of material culture, unfortunately, irretrievably lost to science).
In the notes of the missionary Benjamin (1855) we find: " The Korotaikha River is remarkable for its abundance of fisheries and Chud earthen caves, in which, according to legend, Chud once lived in ancient times. These caves are ten miles from the mouth, on the right bank, on a slope, which from ancient times was called Sirte-sya in Samoyed - “Mountain Peipus”.
Academician I. Lepekhin, knowing the common European North legends about the “Chud people”, tried to find their real traces in the form archaeological sites. Thanks to reports from informants, I. Lepekhin was able to make the following remarkable entry in 1805: “The entire Samoyed land in the Mezen district is filled with desolate dwellings of the once ancient people. They are found in many places: near lakes, on the tundra, in forests, near rivers, made in the mountains and hills like caves with openings like doors.In these caves they find ovens and find fragments of iron, copper and clay household items".
IN Soviet time the problem of orphans was developed by V.N. Chernetsov, who, having visited Yamal, not only collected various legends about the Sirtya, but also discovered monuments of ancient culture left by the Sirtya rather than by the later Nenets. According to the legends he published, the Nenets who came to Yamal met a population there who lived on the coast in earthen houses and hunted sea animals. These were the Sirtya, who did not know reindeer herding, with whom the Nenets had to fight, and sometimes even marry. The Nenets were convinced that the last Sirtya, 4-6 generations before the present day, were found here and there in Northern Yamal, and then completely disappeared. V.N. Chernetsov twice published (1935, 1957) important archaeological material from dugouts on Cape Tiutei-sale at the confluence of the Ser-yakha and Tiutei-yakha rivers (at west coast Yamal at 71°30" N), which he dated to the 6th-9th centuries and attributed to Sirtya.

Unique finds of the Yamalo-Ob expedition

Further searches for evidence of Sirtya were carried out by the Yamalo-Ob expedition of the Department of Ethnography of Moscow State University under the leadership of L.P. Lashuk in 1961.
An abandoned sacred place. According to local residents, in this hill they once hidstrange "little people" , which have long since “gone” to another more distant hill, leaving in the same place only “syadeev” - images of gods and various things. Old women even now do not allow children to run along the hill: " Trample, they say, sitting down, and this is a sin"The very name of the hill indicates that there was once not only a sacrificial place on it, but also housing.
As a result of the excavations, it turned out that in addition to finds dating back to late times (bone artifacts, wooden objects, remains of vessels, etc.), some discovered objects have typological similarities with finds from the pre-10th century. dugouts on Cape Tiutei-sale, left by people of non-Samoyed origin, although involved in the formation of modern Nenets. The main finds made on the Kharde-Sede hill were attributed to the era of the developed Iron Age. On the hill, traces of metallurgical production were discovered in the form of iron slag and sand fused into a glassy mass, underlying the upper peat layer. Structural analysis showed that the slag comes from a raw iron furnace.
The study of the strata on the Kharde-sed temple clearly shows the continuity of its use from the 1st millennium AD. e. and until the early 30s of the 20th century, which could hardly have happened if there had been no genetic connection between the early inhabitants of these places (Sirtya) and the later ones (Nenets).

The Tiutey-Salinsky and Khard-Sedeysky monuments arose in the subpolar tundra at a time when there was no hint of the reindeer herding way of life of the population or any traces new culture, brought from the southern part of the Ob-Yenisei interfluve - the most likely ancestral home of the reindeer. There is no particular reason to count the latter among the creators of the Tiutei-Sala culture of tundra wild deer hunters and seaside hunters, although, having spread over time throughout the Far North, the Samoyeds, through the mediation of the aborigines (Sirtya), became the successors of this culture.

In the same Nakhodka, the expedition of L.P. Lashuk recorded the following tales about the natives of Yamal. The Sirtya are people of very short stature, but stocky and strong, who lived a thousand years ago. In everything they differed from the Nenets: they did not keep domestic reindeer, they hunted “savage” deer, they wore different clothes: for example, yagushkas (swing women's clothing made of reindeer skin), like the Nenets, did not have, they dressed in otter skins (a hint of deaf outerwear). One day appeared big water, which flooded all low-lying places in Yamal. The subsoil of the elevated hills-sed became the dwellings of the sirty.
According to another version, the Sirtya “went to the hills” because with the advent of “real people” - the Nenets - the former land turned upside down.Becoming underground inhabitants, the Sirtya were henceforth afraid to go out into the daylight, which made their eyes burst. They began to consider the day as night, and the night as day, because only at night could they leave the hills, and even then when everything in the surrounding area was quiet and there were no people.Now there are few orphans left, and they come to the surface less and less often. Only a shaman can determine which hill has Sirtya and which does not.
As L.P. points out. Lashuk (1968), there is undoubtedly a realistic basis in these legends and is confirmed by scientific data, but the legends do not give a specific answer about the ethnicity of the Sirtya.