Chud tribe. Mysterious people - Chud

The fate of the people under the strange name “white-eyed Chud” still remains one of the most controversial mysterious questions our history. Despite the fact that the Chud left their traces everywhere: in the names of lakes and villages, in fairy tales and sayings, in the archaeological cultural layer, this tribe simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

Who is Chud Zavolochskaya?

According to the overwhelming majority of historians, Chud is nothing more than a collective concept, by which our ancestors meant the totality of some Finno-Ugric tribes. The language of these strangers was incomprehensible and alien to the Russians, and therefore they were dubbed Chud. Representatives of this mysterious tribe lived in territories whose population is still dominated by representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples.

Chudya Zavolochskaya was the name of the inhabitants of Zavolochye - lands lying within the boundaries of the basins of two rivers - the Northern Dvina and Onega. In ancient times, ships had to be dragged from one river to another manually - by dragging. In the same way, areas of land between two bodies of water began to be called portages. Hence Zavolochye - behind the portage.

Soviet archaeologist A.Ya. Bryusov believed that the Zavolochsk region was inhabited by the first people about 3-4 thousand years ago. This is evidenced by the remains of tools and utensils found as a result of excavations. Moreover, according to historians, all the items were made very skillfully.

Reasons for the disappearance of the miracle

Many scientists claim that the Zavolochsk miracle has not gone away. It’s just that representatives of this tribe assimilated among other nationalities: Karelians, Vepsians, Russians. Being pagans, they nevertheless accepted Christianity along with others and, uniting with the newly converted, simply dissolved among them, accepting their writing, which the Chuds did not have at all.

However, some researchers believe that the Zavolochsk Chud did not want to be baptized, since these people were ardent pagans and did not want to deviate from their faith. Even many years after the spread of the new religion in Rus', representatives of the Chuds retained an appearance that testified (for example, loose hair on women) that they never abandoned paganism.

Folklore about the location of the miracle

Especially many references to miracles can be found in fairy tales and stories of Old Believers. So, one of these stories talks about a certain White Tsar who decided to conquer a mysterious tribe and gathered a huge army for this. However, the Chuds did not want to obey the king and descended deep underground, where they live to this day. They built roads and cities there. Only sometimes, in complete silence, can you hear the bells ringing in underground temples. But the day will come when the miracle will come to the surface again.

According to another legend, representatives of the Chuds actually rejected the new Christian faith, which was alien to them, and, realizing that they were doomed, they committed mass suicide. They dug a huge hole in the ground, installed pillars there, and put a roof on them, after which they went down into this hole and knocked out the supports. They were covered with fragments of the roof. None of the Chud tribe survived.

Chud white-eyed - ancient inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region

Chud Zavolochskaya- this is the ancient pre-Slavic population of Zavolochye, which to this day is in some way a historical mystery. This term was put into use by the 11th century chronicler Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years. Listing the peoples of Eastern Europe in his work, he named this nation among other Finno-Ugric tribes of that time: “... in the Afetov part there are Rus, Chud and all the pagans: Merya, Muroma, Ves, Mordva, Zavolochskaya Chud, Perm, Pechera , Yam, Ugra"

Residence map of Chudi Zavolochskaya.

Historians claim that they were an unliterate people and did not leave behind them any chronicles or any other documents.
They did not survive as a people, they did not leave their customs or language to this day, the Chud disappeared without a trace among the Russian newcomers and neighboring peoples. Only legends and names once given to the rivers and lakes among which they lived remind us of the Chud tribes.

We know that the people, called the Chud of Zavolotsk by the Novgorodians, lived in the basins of the Mezen and northern Dvina rivers, along the banks of the Luza, South, and Pushma. In terms of language and culture, the Chud belonged to the Finno-Ugric peoples. Once upon a time, Finno-Ugric peoples inhabited the entire northeast of Europe, the Urals and part of Asia.

They spoke a language close to the language of modern Vepsians and Karelians.

All information about the life, clothing and appearance of the Chud tribes is known only from the results archaeological excavations. Archaeologists usually search in areas with some “wonderful” name. They find either traces of a settlement, or a settlement, or a Chud burial ground - an ancient cemetery. Based on the finds, one can determine whether it was a Chud, or another Finno-Ugric tribe, or the Scandinavians and Slavs who came to this land later.

Chud and other Finns can be confidently distinguished from others by two types of finds: by the remains of their pottery and by jewelry. Clay dishes are usually molded without a potter's wheel, by hand, with thick walls; often they have a round bottom rather than a flat one, because food was cooked in them not in stoves, but in hearths, over an open fire. The outside of such dishes is decorated with ornaments pressed into wet clay using sticks and special stamps; such an ornament is called pit-comb and is found only among the Finno-Ugric peoples.

These were people of average and above average height, presumably fair-haired and with light eyes, in appearance most reminiscent of modern Karelians and Finns.

Because of appearance, there is another name for this people - White-eyed Chud.
The Chud tribes were masters of pottery and blacksmithing, and knew how to weave and process wood and bone. They were familiar with metal not so long ago: many tools made of bone and flint are found in settlements.

They lived by hunting and fishing. They were also engaged in agriculture, growing unpretentious northern cultures: oats, rye, barley, flax. They kept domestic animals, although during excavations of settlements in Zavolochye they find more bones of wild animals than domestic ones. They hunted not only for meat, they also hunted fur-bearing animals. Fur in those days was in use along with money. It was also just a commodity; it was traded with Novgorod, and with Scandinavia, and with Volga Bulgaria.

In connection with the development of trade in Zavolochye, ancient portage routes arose. Most likely, they were laid not by Russian newcomers, but by the local population, and only then were they used by the Novgorodians and Ustyugans.

Chud disappeared with the advent of Christianity. Their own religion was pagan.

All the legends about the miracle say something like this. Chud lived in the forest, in dugouts, and had her own faith. When they were asked to convert to Christianity, they refused. And when they wanted to baptize them by force, they dug a large hole and made an earthen roof on the pillars, and then everyone went in there, cut down the pillars, and they were covered with earth. So ancient miracle went underground.

Official science claims that the Chud of Zavolotsk shared the fate of the Finnish tribes, dissolved among the Russian newcomers and neighboring peoples: the Muroms, Meris, Narovs, Meshchers, Vesi. They were all once mentioned in Russian chronicles next to the miracle. Some of them that resisted the Russian invasion were apparently exterminated; some accepted the Christian faith and merged with the Russian population, gradually losing their language and almost all customs; and a considerable part united with neighboring, largely related peoples.

In the old days and in the Urals, a legend was born about the “white-eyed Chud” - a nameless people who lived in ancient times along the banks of the Ural rivers and lakes. When plowing the land, peasants often found “Chudi” things: tools, weapons, jewelry, shards of dishes. So, at the end of the last century, iron and silver daggers were found in arable land near the Kamenka River, and in 1903, the peasant P. Fedorov found a bronze knife with a copper handle in these places.

Traces of the “white-eyed miracle” were found in almost every village or hamlet. These were ancient settlements with ramparts and ditches - fortifications, like the villages of Ipatovskoye on Iset and Zyryanovskoye on Sinar, or burial mounds, like the villages of Travyanskoye, Khromtsovskoye, Kamenno-Ozernoye, near the lakes Shablish, Tygish and Bolshoi Sungul.

Ancient graves - mounds or "hillocks" in Ural - attracted the attention of people, causing them superstitious fear. There were rumors among the people about countless treasures buried in the mounds. In the 17th century, during the period of settlement of the Urals and Siberia by Russians, “bumping”, i.e., became widespread among peasants. predatory excavation of mounds in order to search for gold. Finding in the graves the skeletons of the buried and objects placed with the dead, people believed that the “hillocks” they excavated were not the graves of the ancient Urals, but dugouts, the dwellings of an unknown, wonderful people.

The legends about the “white-eyed Chudi” say that the Chudi were a small people. These people lived in dugouts. When the Chudtsy learned that the White Tsar wanted to conquer them, they cut down the pillars of their dugouts and buried themselves.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the Hyperboreans, Issedons, and Sarmatians live in the Hyperborean Mountains, as he called the Ural Mountains. Perhaps the legendary Chud belongs to these mythical peoples.

Chud tribe. Chud White-Eyed

The Chud tribe is one of the most mysterious phenomena on the territory of our country. Its history has long been overgrown with secrets, epics and even rumors, both quite plausible and completely fantastic. Not much is known about this tribe to judge from this information the complete history of its representatives, but quite enough to give rise to the most incredible legends. Scientists and researchers have tried and are trying to unearth evidence of that era, to decipher that amazing world, full of mysteries, which was given to us by the Chud tribe.

The Chud tribe is sometimes compared to the Mayan tribe American Indians. Both those and others suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only memories. In official history, the term “Chud” is considered the ancient Russian name for several Finno-Ugric tribes. The very name of the tribe Chud“It’s also not entirely clear. It is popularly believed that the representatives of these tribes were named this way because of their incomprehensible language, which they spoke and which other tribes did not understand. There is an assumption that the tribe was originally Germanic or Gothic, which is why they were called Chud. In those days, “Chud” and “Alien” not only had the same root, but also had the same meaning. However, in some Finno-Ugric languages, the name Chud was used to name one of the mythological characters, which also cannot be discounted. (In addition, there is a version that CHUD is the Finnish word TUDO (people) distorted by Russians - ed.)

This tribe, which suddenly disappeared, is mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years, where the chronicler directly narrates: “ ...Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on the Chud, Ilmen Slavs, Merya and Krivichi...". However, not everything is so simple here either. For example, the historian S.M. Solovyov made the assumption that in the Tale of Bygone Years the inhabitants of the Vodskaya valley of the Novgorod Land pyatin - Vod - were called Chud. Another mention dates back to 882 and refers to Oleg’s campaign: “ ... went on a campaign and took with him many warriors: Varangians, Ilmen Slavs, Krivichi, all, Chud and came to Smolensk and took the city...».

Yaroslav the Wise undertook a victorious campaign against Chud in 1030: “and defeated them and established the city of Yuryev.” Subsequently it turned out that the miracle was called whole line tribes, such as: Esta, Setu (Chud Pskov), Vod, Izhora, Korely, Zavolochye (Chud Zavolochskaya). In Novgorod there is Chudintseva Street, where noble representatives of this tribe previously lived, and in Kyiv there is Chudin Dvor. It is also believed that the names were formed on behalf of these tribes: the city of Chudovo, Lake Peipus, and the Chud River. In the Vologda region there are villages with the names: Front Chudi, Middle Chudi and Back Chudi. Currently, Chudi’s descendants live in the Penezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. In 2002, Chud was included in the register of independent nationalities.

Of particular interest, in addition to the historical, is folklore, in which the tribe appears as the White-Eyed Chud. Strange epithet " White-eyed“, which the representatives of the Chuds were dubbed, is also a mystery. Some believe that the white-eyed miracle comes from the fact that it lives underground, where there is no sunlight, while others believe that in the old days, gray-eyed or blue-eyed people were called white-eyed. Chud white-eyed, as a mythological character, is found in the folklore of the Komi and Sami, as well as the Mansi, Siberian Tatars, Altaians and Nenets. To explain it in a nutshell, the White-Eyed Chud is a vanished civilization. Following these beliefs, the legendary white-eyed Chud lived in the north of the European part of Russia and the Urals. Descriptions of this tribe include descriptions of short people who live in caves and deep underground. In addition, chud, chud, shud is a monster, and meant a giant, often a cannibal giant with white eyes.

One of the legends that was recorded in the village of Afanasyevo Kirov region, reads: " And when other people began to appear along the Kama, this miracle did not want to communicate with them. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called - Peipus Coast". The mistress of the copper mountain, the tale of which was told to us by the Russian writer P.P. Bazhov, is considered by many to be one of that same Chudi.

Judging by the legends, a meeting with representatives of the white-eyed miracle, who sometimes appeared out of nowhere, came out of caves, appeared in the fog, could bring good luck to some and misfortune to others. They live underground, where they ride dogs and herd mammoths or earthen deer. The mythical representatives of the white-eyed miracle are considered good and skilled blacksmiths, metallurgists and excellent warriors, which can be compared with the belief of the Scandinavian tribes in gnomes, who are also short in stature, are good warriors and skilled blacksmiths. Chud white-eyed (they are also Sirtya, Sikhirtya) can steal a child, cause damage, and scare a person. They know how to suddenly appear and disappear just as suddenly.

V.N. was once puzzled by the same question. Chernetsov, who wrote about the miracle in his reports of 1935-1957, where he collected many legends. In addition, he discovered the Sirtya monuments in Yamal. Thus, the existence of a tribe that actually existed in these places once is documented. The Nenets, whose ancestors witnessed the existence of a mysterious tribe in these places, claim that it went underground (into the hills), but did not disappear. And to this day you can meet people of small stature and with white eyes, and this meeting, most often, does not bode well.

After the Chud went underground, after other tribes came to their lands, whose descendants live here to this day, they left many treasures. These treasures are enchanted and, according to legend, only the descendants of the miracle itself can find them. These treasures are guarded by miracle spirits, who appear in a variety of guises, for example, in the form of a hero on a horse, a bear, a hare and others. Due to the fact that many would like to penetrate the secrets underground inhabitants and take possession of untold riches, some are still taking various steps to find these caches full of gold and jewelry. There are a huge number of legends, tales and stories about daredevils who decided to search for miracle treasures. All, or most of them, end, alas, in tears for the main characters. Some of them die, others remain crippled, others go crazy, and others go missing in a dungeon or caves.

A year earlier (1913) of these events, Nicholas Roerich, being a wonderful artist, painted the painting “The Miracle Has Gone Under the Ground.” Be that as it may, the mystery of the Chud tribe still remains open. Official story represented by archaeologists, ethnographers, and local historians, ordinary tribes, for example, Ugrians, Khanty, Mansi, who were not different in anything special, are considered miracles, and left their habitats due to the arrival of other tribes on their lands. Others consider the White-Eyed Chud to be a great people who have the gift of sorcery and magic, who live deep in caves and underground cities, which from time to time appear on the surface to warn people, warn, punish or protect their treasures, the hunters for which will never decrease.

« “But somewhere to this day,” says Vasily, “the Lapps believe not in Christ, but in “chud.” Eat high mountain, from where they throw deer as a sacrifice to the god. There is a mountain where a noid (sorcerer) lives, and deer are brought there to him. There they cut them with wooden knives, and hang the skin on poles. The wind shakes her, her legs move. And if there is moss or sand below, then the deer seems to be walking. Vasily has met such a deer more than once in the mountains. Just like alive! It's scary to watch. And it can be even worse when in winter a fire sparkles in the sky and the abysses of the earth open, and monsters begin to emerge from the graves“- this is what Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin wrote in the story “Kolobok”.

URAL MIRACLE - WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

Historians and folklorists have long been arguing about the unusual and mysterious people, the so-called. “White-eyed Chudi,” whose representatives, according to legends and tales, were distinguished by their special beauty, article, possessed yogic abilities and possessed extensive and deep knowledge about nature. This people, connected by mysterious ties with the Russian people, mysteriously disappears, and its traces are lost in the Altai mountains.

Below is an attempt to penetrate the mystery of this amazing people Famous Russian artist, scientist and writer N.K. Roerich in his book “The Heart of Asia” talks about a legend widespread in Altai. The legend tells that there once lived in the coniferous forests of Altai people with dark color skin. It was called a miracle. Tall, stately, knowledgeable secret science land. But then white birch began to grow in those places, which meant ancient prediction the imminent arrival here of the white people and their king, who will establish his own order. People dug holes, set up stands, and piled stones on top. They went into the shelters, tore out the posts and covered them with stones.
This completely incomprehensible ethnographic incident of the voluntary destruction of one people before the arrival of another is somewhat clarified by another version of the legend given in the same book. Chud didn’t bury herself, but went into secret dungeons into an unknown country “only Chud didn’t leave forever, when the happy time returns and people from Belovodye come and give great science to all the people, then Chud will come with all the treasures they have obtained.”
In the legend, writes creativity researcher N.K. Roerich artist L.R. Tsesyulevich, - there is a hint of the existence to this day somewhere, perhaps in a hidden place, of a people with high culture and knowledge. In this regard, the legend of Chudi echoes the legend of the hidden country of Belovodye and the legend of the underground city of the Agarti people, widespread in India.
Similar legends are very widespread in the Urals, which is like a connecting link between the northwestern part of our country and Altai, where legends about Chudi also existed.

It can be noted that legends associated with Chud places - mounds and fortifications, underground caves and passages - having arisen in the north-west of Rus', then moved after the Russian settlers, first to the Urals, and then to Altai. This strip crosses the Urals, mainly through the Perm, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions.
In different variations, the legend of the Chud in the Urals says that some dark-skinned people lived here, familiar with the “secret power.” But then white birch began to grow in these places, then Chud dug caves, fixed the roof on pillars, and poured earth and stones on top. She all gathered in these dwellings with her property and, cutting down the pillars, buried herself alive underground.

Some legends even tell about real contacts early settlers with the “messengers” of Chudi - the “Wonder Maidens”. They say that before going underground, Chud left a “girl” for observation so that she would guard treasures and jewelry, but she showed the white people everything, and then the “old people” hid all the gold and metals.
This legend surprisingly has something in common with the legend given by N.K. Roerich in the book “Heart of Asia”: “A woman came out of the dungeon. She is tall, has a stern face and is darker than ours. I walked around help to the people did, and then went back into the dungeon. She also came from the holy country.”
The interaction of Chudi’s “envoys” with the settlers was not limited only to contacts in reality; the legend also recorded completely unusual contacts and influences through dreams. Thus, Sverdlovsk researcher A. Malakhov, in one of his articles published in the Ural Pathfinder for 1979, cites a bright and beautiful legend about the Chud woman ruler: “Once Tatishchev, the founder of Yekaterinburg, had a strange dream. A woman came to him unusual looking and wondrous beauty. Was dressed in animal skins, gold jewelry sparkled on her chest. “Listen,” the woman said to Tatishchev, “you gave the order to dig mounds in your new city. Don't touch them, they're mine brave warriors. You will have no peace in either this or this world if you disturb their ashes or take expensive armor. I am Princess Anna of Chud, I swear to you that I will destroy both the city and everything that you are building if you touch these graves.” And Tatishchev ordered not to open the burials. Only the tops of the mounds were discovered.

Along with data about Chudi’s contacts with settlers, the legends contain quite clear and distinct characteristics appearance and the spiritual appearance of the “eccentrics”, so that the features of a real people appear before us.

In one of the first stories by P.P. Bazhov’s “Dear Little Name” - Chud or “old people” are tall, beautiful people living in the mountains, in unusually beautiful dwellings built inside the mountains, living almost unnoticed by others. These people do not know self-interest and are indifferent to gold. When people appear in their remote habitats, they leave through underground passages, “closing the mountain.”

Ural ore explorers report that almost all the ore deposits on which the Demidovs built their factories were indicated by Chud marks - overburden, and the discovery of even later deposits was also associated with such marks, which suggests a certain cultural mission of Chud in the Urals.

This idea is supported by another observation. When people come to new places, they usually find themselves in a kind of weightlessness—the absence of an oriented living space. This did not happen to the settlers in the Urals. Someone gave mountains, rivers, lakes, tracts, and mounds amazingly accurate names. They contained, as it were, a spiritual vector, which later brilliantly materialized. And it’s not for nothing that the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras believed that “everyone who wants to, but who sees the mind and essence of things, cannot form names.” Moreover, the Chud places themselves became a kind of “magnets”. On the Chud mounds stands the city of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and the city of Kurgan arose next to the huge mound. And how accurately and as if it is no coincidence that cities and villages are located where they need to be: in communication nodes, near mineral deposits, surrounded by beautiful nature. Orenburg was somewhat unlucky at first. It was placed in the places indicated by the Germans, and had to be rearranged several times.

How many centuries ago Chud lived in the Urals and where she went to her underground cities is unknown. It is possible that they lived here back in the days of the ancient Greeks. Thus, the famous ancient Greek myth tells about the Hyperboreans who lived somewhere beyond the Riphean (Ural) mountains. These people lived happy life: he did not know strife and disease, death came to people only from satiety with life. This is what the ancient Greek writer Lucian, who was skeptical about everything unusual, says about his meeting with one of the Hyperboreans: “I considered it completely impossible to believe them, and, however, as soon as I first saw a flying foreigner, a barbarian - he called himself a Hyperborean - I believed and was defeated, although he resisted for a long time.

And what really could I do when, before my eyes, during the day a man rushed through the air, walked on water and slowly walked through fire?

Where did Chud go?

Is it not to those underground cities with which N.K. Roerich connects the lives of the wise and beautiful inhabitants of Agartha and who were told about by the Chelyabinsk writer S.K. Vlasova, Ural workers: “I recently heard in an old Ural plant that all the caves that exist in the Urals communicate with each other. It’s as if there are holes hidden between them, sometimes wide, like the Kungur pits, these earthly sinkholes, sometimes thin, like golden threads. They also say that once in ancient times it was not difficult to move from cave to cave - there was a paved road. True, who carried it out is unknown - either people, miraculously unknown, or evil spirits... Only in our time, people, penetrating into those caves and those passages where they can go, find many traces: where the house was set up, where the amethyst stone lies , and where the footprint of a human foot was imprinted..."

IN Perm region There are similar legends about the Chud heroes who sleep in underground caves under the Ural Mountains until the appointed hour. Also, the Para-hero guards the miracle wealth. The Ural land holds many still unsolved miracle secrets, but as P.P. Bazhov predicted, the time will come when these secrets will be revealed, and, gifted with treasures hidden for the time being, people will live a bright, happy life: “There will be a time in our side when there will be no merchants, no king, not even a title left. Then people on our side will become big and healthy. One such person will approach Mount Azov and loudly say “dear little thing,” and then a miracle will come out of the ground with all human treasures.”

V.V.SOBOLEV

http://www.alpha-omega.su/index/0-389

Chud white-eyed - legends and facts

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

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

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

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

- What did the chud look like?

According to most researchers, ethnographers and historians, these were creatures that looked very much like European gnomes. They lived on the territory of Russia until the ancestors of the Slavs and Finno-Ugrians came here. 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 of the Perm region.

- You said that the chud went underground...

If we summarize numerous legends, it turns out that the miracle descended into dugouts, which it itself dug in the ground, and then blocked all the entrances. True, the dugouts could well have been entrances to caves. This means that it was in the underground caves that this mythical people. 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. Locals They believe that these are wells of ancient people leading to the underworld. They never take water from them.

- Are there other places where the miracle went underground?

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

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

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

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

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

Of course have! 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.

- So, the creation of this mountain is attributed to a miracle?

Archaeologists have long established that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to local residents centuries before the monks came here. In Novgorod they were called Chudya; their neighbors called them “Sikirtya”. The word is curious, because translated from ancient local dialects “shrt” is the name of a large, long, elongated mound. Thus, an elongated haystack is directly called a “stack”. It is obvious that 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. (As one researcher believes, “CHUD is the Finnish TUDO (people) distorted by the Russians. Not all Chud became glorified. Chud was divided into white-eyed (Ests) and Zavolotskaya (behind the revolving). Now these are the Komi-Zyryans. There is also the Komi-Perm, but This tribe was called Perm, not Chud. The underground Chud is a legend about the ancient population of the Northern Urals - Sirtya" - ed.)

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

To be honest, I, knowing a lot similar stories, 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, there is no doubt about the reality of the existence of this legendary people in the rocks and underground!

https://www.kramola.info/vesti/neobyknovennoe/chud-beloglazaja-legendy-i-fakty

The Chud tribe is one of the most mysterious phenomena in our country. Its history has long been overgrown with secrets, epics and even rumors, both quite plausible and completely fantastic. Not much is known about this tribe to judge from this information the complete history of its representatives, but quite enough to give rise to the most incredible legends. Scientists and researchers have tried and are trying to unearth evidence of that era, to decipher that wonderful world full of mysteries that the Chud tribe gave us.

The Chud tribe is sometimes compared to the Mayan tribe of American Indians. Both those and others suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only memories. In official history, the term “Chud” is considered the ancient Russian name for several Finno-Ugric tribes. The very name of the tribe Chud"is also not entirely clear. It is popularly believed that representatives of these tribes were named this way because of their incomprehensible language, which they spoke and which other tribes did not understand. There is an assumption that the tribe was originally Germanic or Gothic, which is why they were called Chud. In those days, “Chud” and “Alien" were not only of the same root, but also had the same meaning. However, in some Finno-Ugric languages, the name Chud was used to name one of the mythological characters, which also cannot be discounted.

This tribe, which suddenly disappeared, is mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years, where the chronicler directly narrates: " ...Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on Chud, Ilmen Slovenes, Merya and Krivichi..."However, not everything is so simple here either. For example, the historian S.M. Solovyov made the assumption that in the Tale of Bygone Years the inhabitants of the Vodskaya valley of the Novgorod Land pyatina were called Chud. Another mention dates back to 882 and refers to Oleg’s campaign: " ... went on a campaign and took with him many warriors: Varangians, Ilmen Slavs, Krivichi, all, Chud and came to Smolensk and took the city...".

Yaroslav the Wise undertook a victorious campaign against Chud in 1030: “and he defeated them and established the city of Yuryev.” Subsequently, it turned out that a number of tribes were called Chud, such as: Estonians, Seto (Chud of Pskov), Vod, Izhora, Korely, Zavolochye (Chud of Zavolochskaya). In Novgorod there is Chudintseva Street, where noble representatives of this tribe previously lived, and in Kyiv there is Chudin Dvor. It is also believed that the names were formed on behalf of these tribes: the city of Chudovo, Lake Peipus, and the Chud River. In the Vologda region there are villages with the names: Front Chudi, Middle Chudi and Back Chudi. Currently, Chudi’s descendants live in the Penezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. In 2002, Chud was included in the register of independent nationalities.

Of particular interest, in addition to the historical, is folklore, in which the tribe appears as the White-Eyed Chud. Strange epithet " White-eyed", with which representatives of the Chud were dubbed, is also a mystery. Some believe that the white-eyed Chud is because it lives underground, where there is no sunlight, while others believe that in the old days, gray-eyed or blue-eyed people were called white-eyed. White-eyed Chud, as a mythological character found in the folklore of the Komi and Sami, as well as the Mansi, Siberian Tatars, Altaians and Nenets. To explain in a nutshell, the white-eyed Chud is a vanished civilization. Following these beliefs, the legendary white-eyed Chud lived in the north of the European part of Russia and the Urals . In the descriptions of this tribe there are descriptions of people of short stature who live in caves and deep underground. In addition, Chud, Choud, Shud is a monster, and meant a giant, often a cannibalistic giant with white eyes. People are often called Chud who, with the adoption of Christianity in Rus', did not accept new religion and went underground. Thus, it turns out that the white-eyed Chud is a demonized tribe that did not accept Christianity and is therefore considered unclean.

One of the legends, which was recorded in the village of Afanasyevo, Kirov region, says: " And when other people began to appear along the Kama, this miracle did not want to communicate with them. They dug a large hole, and then cut down the pillars and buried themselves. This place is called - Peipus Coast". The mistress of the copper mountain, the tale of which was told to us by the Russian writer P.P. Bazhov, is considered by many to be one of that same Chudi.

Judging by the legends, a meeting with representatives of the white-eyed miracle, who sometimes appeared out of nowhere, came out of caves, appeared in the fog, could bring good luck to some and misfortune to others. They live underground, where they ride dogs and herd mammoths or earthen deer. The mythical representatives of the white-eyed miracle are considered to be good and skilled blacksmiths, metallurgists and excellent warriors, which can be compared with the belief of the Scandinavian tribes in gnomes, who are also short in stature, are good warriors and skilled blacksmiths. Chud white-eyed (they are also Sirtya, Sikhirtya) can steal a child, cause damage, and scare a person. They know how to suddenly appear and disappear just as suddenly.

Testimonies from missionaries, researchers and travelers have been preserved about the earthen settlements of Chud. For the first time, A. Shrenk spoke about orphans in 1837, who discovered Chud caves with the remains of a certain culture in the lower reaches of the Korotaikha River. Missionary Benjamin wrote: " The Korotaikha River is remarkable for its abundance of fisheries and Chud earthen caves, in which, according to Samoyed legends, Chud once lived in ancient times. These caves are ten miles from the mouth, on the right bank, on a slope, which from ancient times was called Sirte-sya in Samoyed - “Chudskaya Mountain”". I. Lepekhin wrote in 1805: " The entire Samoyed land in the Mezen district is filled with desolate dwellings of the once ancient people. They are found in many places: near lakes, on the tundra, in forests, near rivers, made in mountains and hills like caves with openings like doors. In these caves they found ovens and found fragments of iron, copper and clay household items.". This same question was once puzzled by V.N. Chernetsov, who wrote about the Chud in his reports of 1935-1957, where he collected many legends. In addition, he discovered monuments of the Sirtya in Yamal. Thus, the existence of a tribe that really existed in these places once, it is documented. The Nenets, whose ancestors witnessed the existence of a mysterious tribe in these places, claim that it went underground (into the hills), but did not disappear. And to this day you can meet people of small stature and with with white eyes, and this meeting most often does not bode well.

After the Chud went underground, after other tribes came to their lands, whose descendants live here to this day, they left many treasures. These treasures are enchanted and, according to legend, only the descendants of the miracle itself can find them. These treasures are guarded by miracle spirits, who appear in a variety of guises, for example, a hero on a horse, a bear, a hare and others. Due to the fact that many would like to penetrate the secrets of the underground inhabitants and take possession of untold riches, some are still taking various steps to search for these caches full of gold and jewelry. There are a huge number of legends, tales and stories about daredevils who decided to search for miracle treasures. All, or most of them, end, alas, in tears for the main characters. Some of them die, others remain crippled, others go crazy, and others go missing in a dungeon or caves.

He also writes about the legendary miracle Roerich in his book "Heart of Asia". There he describes his meeting with an Old Believer in Altai. This man took them to a rocky hill where there were stone circles of ancient burials and, showing them to the Roerich family, told the following story: " This is where Chud went underground. When the White Tsar came to Altai to fight and as the white birch blossomed in our region, Chud did not want to stay under the White Tsar. Chud went underground and blocked the passages with stones. You can see their former entrances yourself. But Chud is not gone forever. When happy times return and people from Belovodye come and give great science to all the people, then Chud will come again, with all the treasures obtained". A year earlier (1913) of these events, Nicholas Roerich, being an excellent artist, painted the painting “The Chud went underground.” Be that as it may, the mystery of the Chud tribe still remains open. The official history in the person of archaeologists, ethnographers, and local historians believe Chud are ordinary tribes, for example, Ugrians, Khanty, Mansi, who were no different in anything special and left their habitats due to the arrival of other tribes on their lands. Others consider the White-Eyed Chud to be a great people who have the gift of magic and magic, who live deeply in caves and underground cities, which from time to time appear on the surface to warn people, warn, punish or protect their treasures, the hunters for which will never decrease.

"“But somewhere to this day,” says Vasily, “the Lapps believe not in Christ, but in “chud.” There is a high mountain from where they throw deer as sacrifices to the god. There is a mountain where a noid (sorcerer) lives, and deer are brought there to him. There they cut them with wooden knives, and hang the skin on poles. The wind shakes her, her legs move. And if there is moss or sand below, then the deer seems to be walking. Vasily has met such a deer more than once in the mountains. Just like alive! It's scary to watch. And it can be even more terrible when in winter a fire sparkles in the sky and the abysses of the earth open, and monsters begin to emerge from the graves."

The ancient people mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind legends, toponyms and treasures. 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, therefore 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.

N. Roerich “The miracle went underground”

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, Kirov region, tells: “...And when other people (Christians) began to appear along the Kama River, 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. 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. Miracle spirits in different guises (sometimes in the guise of a hero on a horse, sometimes a hare or a bear) guard these treasures. What kind of people are these - “White-eyed Chud”, “Wonderful People”, “Sirts”? Why do they avoid contact with ordinary, “ground” people?

Vladimir Konev “Mistress of the Copper Mountain”

Many facts speak in favor of the fact that the “White-Eyed Chud” is not a mythical people, it really exists, apparently having somehow adapted to life underground. Stories of people who met with people from a mysterious people were recorded. The Russian scientist A. Shrenk talked with many Samoyeds, and this is what one of them told him: “Once,” he continued, “one Nenets (that is, Samoyed), while digging a hole on some hill, suddenly saw a cave in which they lived sirty. One of them told him: “Leave us alone, we shun the sunlight that illuminates your country, and love the darkness that dominates our dungeon...”. Often lost hunters and fishermen meet a tall, gray-haired old man who leads them to safe place and then disappears. Local residents call him the White Old Man and consider him one of the underground inhabitants who occasionally comes to the surface.

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? In none of the Finnish Ugric languages there is no such word. What ethnic group was this mysterious miracle? Since ancient times, ethnographers, linguists, and local historians have tried to solve the mystery of the miracle. There were different versions about who the Chud was. Ethnographers of local history Fedor Aleksandrovich Teploukhov and Alexander Fedorovich Teploukhov considered the Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi) a miracle, since there is documentary information about the presence of the Ugrians in the Kama region. Linguistic scientist Antonina 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. The discovery in the Urals in the 1970-80s of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim and the “Land 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 previously recognized that there are many “Iranianisms” in the Finno-Ugric languages, in recent years an opinion has 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 (Ganges) 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.

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

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 an ancient people called “Chud” once lived in these places. Legends about the miracle are most often told in places where Finno-Ugric peoples live or previously lived, therefore 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.

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. "Goodbye,

Old village! We won’t be here - and there won’t be anyone!" And they left the village. They go, they say, they’re leaving their homeland and they roar. Every single one of them left. Now it’s empty."

"Wonderful" secrets.

But when she left, the Chud left behind a lot of treasures. These treasures are enchanted, “cherished”: a covenant has been placed on them that only the descendants of the Chud people can find them. Chud spirits in different guises (sometimes in the guise of a hero on a horse, sometimes a hare or a bear) guard these treasures: “Sluda and Shudyakor are Chud places. The heroes lived there, were thrown from village to village with axes. Then they buried themselves in the ground and took the gold with them. they took it away. At the Shudyakorsk settlement there are ingots-pillows hidden, but no one will take them: the warriors on horseback 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 Chud graves - the dead, guarding their treasures, suddenly came to life as soon as someone approached their treasures...

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

Riddles and more riddles.

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

The discovery in the Urals in the 1970-1980s of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta somewhat shook the traditional version. Versions began to appear that the Chud were the ancient Aryans (in a narrower sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians, and in a broader sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans in general). This version found many supporters among scientists and local historians.

(Kudymkar, Maykar, Dondykar, Idnakar, Anyushkar, etc.) are in no way decipherable using local Permian languages (Udmurt, Komi and Komi-Permyak). According to legend, in these places there were Chud settlements, and it is here that bronze jewelry and other objects are most often found, conventionally united by the name Perm animal style. And the “Iranian influence” on the art of the Perm animal style itself has always been recognized by experts.

Another people.

There are similarities directly in the names. For example, the god of the Udmurts is Inmar, among the Indo-Iranians Indra is the god of thunder, Inada is the foremother; in Komi mythology, both the first man and the swamp witch bear the name Yoma; in Indo-Iranian mythology, Iima is also the first man; The name of the god is also consonant with the Finns - Yumala, and among the Mari - Yumo. “Aryan influence” even penetrated 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?

Lake Peipsi retained in its name the memory of the tribe that participated in the Battle of 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 then 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, therefore 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.

Sometimes it is also said that the Chud “went underground,” and sometimes that it went to live in other places: “We have the Vazhgort tract - the Old Village. Although we call it a village, there are no buildings there. And it is not 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 as the white birch blossomed in our region, Chud did not want to stay under the White Tsar. Chud went underground and blocked the passages with stones. You can see their former entrances yourself. But Chud is not gone forever. When the happy time returns and people from Belovodye come and give great science to all the people, then Chud will come again, with all the treasures obtained.” 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 are more common in the Kama region. Legends indicate specific places where the Chud lived, describe their appearance (and they were mostly dark-haired and dark-skinned), customs, and language. Legends have even preserved some words from the Chud language: “Once 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.” The last version was most widespread, and most ethnographers adhered to this version until recently.

The discovery in the Urals in the 1970-80s of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta somewhat shook the traditional version. Versions began to appear that the Chud were the ancient Aryans (in a narrower sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians, and in a broader sense, the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans in general). This version found many supporters among scientists and local historians.

If linguists previously recognized that there are many “Iranianisms” in the Finno-Ugric languages, in recent years an opinion has 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 (Ganges) in India have the same origin. It is not for nothing that in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions) there are geographical names with the root “gang”: Ganga (lake), Gangas (bay, hill), Gangos (mountain, lake), Gangasikha (bay). It is not for nothing that geographical names in -kar (Kudymkar, Maykar, Dondykar, Idnakar, Anyushkar, etc.) cannot be deciphered using the 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.

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”.

...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 Chud work with bronze, which, in turn, required skill in working with stone or ceramic molds, blacksmithing, you begin to understand that the Eastern Slavs did not meet in the north and northeast with primitive tribes who could not They gave nothing and could teach nothing.

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 local inhabitants, 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, and compare the products of the Perm Chud and the 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, magic 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 of different creatures nearby, from moose to humans, 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 the crown and from the crown: "Ahead 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, they go to 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. Consequently, we can say that the Chud not only went underground, but also turned into a new people, enriching them.

Ethnographers, local historians and linguists today do not have an exact definition of such a 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 modern Chud consider themselves to be the descendants of the Zavolotsk Chud, which written sources place within the boundaries 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?

S.V. Zharnikova ABOUT SOME ARCHAIC MOTIFS OF EMBROIDERY OF SOLVYCHEGDA KOKOSHNIKS OF THE SEVERODVINSK TYPE
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A.B. Permilovskaya Peasant house in the culture of the Russian North (XIX - early XX centuries). – Arkhangelsk, 2005.
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
A. N. Davydov Bells and bells V folk culture In the book. “Bells. History and modernity." Comp. Yu.V.Pukhnachev, M Nauka 1985
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