Chud Perm. Mysterious people - Chud

On the eve of the celebration of Russia Day, it is interesting to look into the depths of centuries and see where the Russian people came from. The oldest Russian chronicle, The Tale of Bygone Years, reports the names of the peoples who, along with the Slavs, took part in the formation Old Russian state. These were the Varangians, Rus, Chud, Ves, Merya and a number of other peoples. There was no more accurate information then. Anthropological studies of ancient Russian burials showed that there were also representatives of Indo-Iranian peoples unknown to us.

In relation to the tribes that bore the names “Chud”, “Ves”, “Merya”, etc., it is known that they belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples, i.e. peoples speaking Finno-Ugric languages ​​and not related in language to the Slavs (Peoples of the Volga and Urals: Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Permyaks, Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts. - M.: Publishing house science (Series of Peoples and Cultures), 2000, - 579 s).

The Slavs called Chudya several Finno-Ugric tribes and nationalities in the north, northwest and northeast of the European part modern Russia.

This is a collective name. At first all northwestern Finns were called this. Then historians confused the Chud with the Estonians - the Finno-Ugric Baltic people. One of the versions of the origin of the word “Chud” is that the language of Chud was incomprehensible, “wonderful”. Regarding the Chud people in historical sources stable turnover was maintained. Chud Zavolochskaya - this is what they said in relation to their ancestors modern people Komi living on the territory of the Komi Republic Russian Federation(sometimes they said Chud Zavolotskaya). Chud Pskovskaya - this is the name of the Seto people (sometimes they say the Seto people), which belongs to the Finno- Ugric groups e peoples.

The Seto people live in the Pechora region of the modern Pskov region of Russia and in the adjacent regions of Estonia (Võrumaa and Põlvamaa counties), which until 1920 were part of the Pskov province of Russia. The historical area of ​​residence of the Seto people is called Setumaa (literally - Land of Seto).

It is difficult to establish the exact number of the set, since given people, not included in the lists of peoples living on the territory of Russia and Estonia, was subjected to strong absorption by other peoples (assimilation), but the data of 10 thousand people is more often voiced. In population censuses, Setos usually recorded themselves as Estonian or Russian.

Modern Chud are 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 Vepsian world, the Chud clearly separates itself from the Vepsians themselves, as well as from the Western Komi, who neighbored the Chud. In the 20th century, after the return of the majority of Finno-Ugric peoples to their indigenous names (Vadyalaiset, Bepsya, Izuri, Komi, Komi-Mort), the word “Chud” seemed to have lost its owner. Only this helped small groups of the Finno-Ugric population in the Arkhangelsk region find given name, using the word “chud” for self-designation. The authorities of Arkhangelsk were unpleasantly surprised the appearance of people, who designated their nationality during the 2002 census as “Chud”. Attempts were made to classify this fact as a curiosity, placing Chud self-determination on the same level as the marginal “elves, Cossacks, goblins.” However, today it is a generally accepted fact that the indigenous peoples of the Arkhangelsk region are not only Russians and Pomors, but also Chud.

Vesya was the name given to one of the most ancient peoples who lived in the northern part of the territory of the Russian state. All these people were called Slavs. There are many controversial points of view about the roots of this people. The people named “Ves” are considered to be of Chud origin; the similarity of the name of this people with the name “Vody”, unproven by historians, makes it possible to believe that they reached in the west the settlements of the “Vody” people, i.e., to Lake Ladoga and the Volkhov River. Our chronicle mentions that “the whole”, together with the “Varangians, Chud, Slovenians, Merya and Krivichi”, took part in Oleg the Prophet’s campaign against Smolensk and Kyiv against Askold and Dir.

According to the chronicles, tribes with the name “Ves” lived in the area of ​​​​White Lake in the territory of the modern Vologda region. According to historical toponymy, the Vesi tribes occupied the territory from the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga to White Lake. It is assumed that the “All” people were known to Arab geographers of the 10th-14th centuries. under the name of the “Visu” people, who lived north of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria (a state that existed in the 10th-13th centuries in the middle Volga region and the Kama River basin) and neighboring Ugra (the modern Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation).

In the old days, Ugra was the name given to the lands between the Pechora River and the Northern Urals. Ugra was also called the ancient population of these lands of the Finno-Ugric people, who survived in the person of the Voguls and Ostyaks. The Ostyaks then began to be called Khanty by their self-name (hante - man), and the Voguls began to be called Mansi, also by their self-name: Mansi Makhum (Mansi people).

From the end of the 12th century to the 1470s, Yugra was owned by Velikiy Novgorod- Novgorod feudal republic - a state that existed in the North-West of the Russian Plain in the 12th-15th centuries. The population of Ugra paid tribute to the Novgorodians in furs and walrus ivory. Over time, as the power of the Moscow Grand Duchy grew, Ugra came into its possession.

Bulgarian merchants traded with the Ves people, exporting furs in exchange for hardware. The Belozersk group of “vesi” was already part of the Old Russian state from the 9th century ( Kievan Rus) and partially Russified. The descendants of the “vesi” are the modern “Vepsians” and, presumably, the Ludic Karelians and Livvik Karelians. Although the Ludic Karelians or simply Ludics, and the Livvik Karelians or Olonets Karelians belong to the Karelian people, they differ significantly in culture and language (even to differences in alphabets) from the Karelians themselves. Ludics and Livviks live on the shores of Lake Onega.

Vepsians are the Finno-Ugric people who have been living in the modern territory of the Republic of Karelia, Vologda and Leningrad regions of the Russian Federation since ancient times. Currently, this people has the status of an indigenous small people of Russia. The self-name of the Vepsians is Vepsya, bepsya, vepslyayzhed, bepslaajed, lyudinikad. Until 1917, the Vepsian people were officially called the “Chud” people, although the name Chud historically for Russians was a collective name for a number of Finno-Ugric tribes and peoples, because they spoke wonderfully. Depending on the historical chronology and the territory of use, the meaning of the word “chud” is somewhat different. Currently, there are three groups of Vepsians: northern, middle and southern Vepsians.

Northern or Onega Vepsians live in the south- west coast Lake Onega. In the south of Karelia, on the border with the Leningrad region, there was previously located the territory of the former Vepsian national volost with its capital in the village of Sheltozero, abolished in 2005.

Middle (Oyat) Vepsians live in the northeast of the modern Leningrad region and in the northwest of the Vologda region, in the upper and middle reaches of the river. Oyat, the left tributary of the Svir River, in the area of ​​​​the sources of the Kapsha and Pasha rivers (emphasis on the last syllable). The Kapsha River is a right tributary of the Pasha River, and the Pasha River is a left tributary of the Svir River. Both rivers belong to the Lake Ladoga basin and flow through the territory of modern Leningrad region. The source of the Kapsha River is Kapshozero. From west to east, the lake has a highly elongated shape, its length is about 13 km and its width is less than 1 km.

Southern Vepsians live on the southern slopes of the Vepsian Upland. This hill is also called Vepsian. It is located between the Onega, Ladoga and White lakes, and is part of the watershed of the rivers of the Baltic and Caspian seas and reaches 304 m above sea level. The hill is composed of limestones, is characterized by hilly terrain, and is replete with karst sinkholes, lakes and swamps. The Vepsian Upland occupies part of the territory of the east of the Leningrad region and the north-west of the Vologda region.
Historians suggest that the Vepsians separated from other Baltic-Finnish peoples around the second half of the first millennium AD and settled on the southeastern coast of Lake Ladoga.

Most early mentions Vepsians in historical sources belong to the Gothic historian Jordan, although he called the Vepsians by the name “you”. Russian chronicles in the 11th century called the Vepsian people “vesya,” but in the land inventories of the population (Russian scribal books), which appeared in the 14th century, the Vepsians were called Chudya. Arab travelers, for example, Ibn Fadlan (Ahmed ibn Almer Abbas ibn Rashid ibn Hammad), who lived in the first half of the 10th century and ended up in Volga-Kama Bulgaria and Khazaria as part of the embassy of his caliph, left notes in which he outlined and what I saw and what I heard. In particular, he mentions the Visu people, who brought beautiful furs.

The name of the people “Ves” is associated with the Baltic-Finnish tribes that lived around the 7th century BC. until the 7th century AD on the territory of modern Moscow, Tver, Vologda, Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Smolensk regions of Russia. This is evidenced by archaeological data from the remains of found Vesi settlements, which are associated with the so-called Dyakovo archaeological culture. The name is archaeological finds received the Dyakov settlement near the village of Dyakovo (city of Moscow, on modern territory Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve).

Excavations began back in 1864 and lasted forty years. They began with the Russian archaeologist Professor Dmitry Yakovlevich Samokvasov (1843-1911). Then they were continued by another Russian archaeologist Vladimir Ilyich Sizov (1840-1904), one of the founders of the Historical Museum in Moscow, a member of the Moscow Archaeological Society. A generalization of the results of the excavations of the Dyakov settlement was made by the Russian-Soviet archaeologist Alexander Andreevich Spitsin (1858-1931).

A. A. Spitsin is known not only as a venerable archaeologist, but also as a school friend of K. E. Tsiolkovsky at the Vyatka gymnasium. In 1891, while in Borovsk for research purposes - A. A. Spitsyn conducted research on ancient human sites in the area of ​​​​the St. Pafnutev Borovsky Monastery and at the mouth of the Isterma River - he stayed for several days with K. E. Tsiolkovsky, who was teaching at that time mathematics at the Borovsky School. Spitsin helped K. E. Tsiolkovsky publish his first book about a metal airship of an original design. Correspondence between scientists continued until 1931. Since 1892, Professor A. A. Spitsin was an employee of the Russian Imperial Archaeological Commission, transformed in 1919 into Russian Academy stories material culture. He was a unique specialist in medieval Russian inscriptions and dating archaeological sites. It was A. A. Spitsin who gave a general description of the Dyakovo archaeological culture.

The carriers of the Dyakovo culture are usually considered the ancestors of the Meri and Vesi tribes, and the tribes of the related Gorodets culture were the ancestors of the Murom, Meshchera, and Mordovian people. Gorodetskaya archaeological culture according to the assumption of many researchers, since the 1930s. associated with the tribes of the Volga Finns (Mordovians and Mari). However, this is currently being revised in connection with the revision of the previously prevailing theory of the autochthonous origin of the overwhelming majority of peoples who inhabited the territory of modern Russia in ancient times. The term autochthonous comes from the Greek word local (aut chth n). In the scientific literature, this term is widely used to denote the dominance of local phenomena as opposed to those introduced from the outside.

On their main territory between Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga, the Vepsians lived from the end of the first millennium of the new era, gradually moving east. Some groups of Vepsians left these lands and joined other peoples, merging with other ethnic groups. For example, in the XII-XV centuries, the Vepsians, who penetrated into the areas north of the Svir River, became Karelian-Ludic and Karelian-Livviks. In contrast, the northern Vepsians are descendants of later settlers who were not mixed with the Karelians. The main part of the Vepsians before last third In the 15th century, she lived within the boundaries of the Obonezh Pyatina of the Novgorod Land, and after the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow state, the Vepsians were included in the number of state (black-mush) draft peasants. This is how in Russia of the 16th-17th centuries they called personally independent (non-serf) peasants who bore taxes in favor of Russian state, and not in favor of the landowner. Tax was the name given to the system of monetary and in-kind state duties of peasants and townspeople in the Russian state in the 15th century. - early XVIII century, and the basic salary unit of the tax population was called a plow. At the beginning of the 18th century, the northern Vepsians found themselves assigned to the Olonetsky (Petrovsky) metallurgical and weapons factories, and the Oyat Vepsians were assigned to the shipyard in Lodeynoye Pole, a place located on the left bank of the Svir River 200 km from St. Petersburg.

Article by A.V. Schmidt from "Notes of UOLE" 1927

Every resident of the Ural region knows about the white-eyed Chudi. The population has firmly established the view that Chud is a tribe that lived in the Urals and the Kama region before the arrival of the Russians. When the Russians arrived, the Chud hid in the pits, cut down the pillars on which the covering of these pits was reinforced, and thus buried itself alive. Often various things found in the ground are the remnants of this Chudi’s property.

That's what the masses say. Many educated Urals, even teachers, accept this story as a legend about a real fact and consider the Chud tribe to be the ancient inhabitants of the Urals, who tragically disappeared from the face of the earth when the Russians appeared. This is all the more surprising because most of stories about Chudi are clearly fantastic in nature and are repeated in exactly the same form in areas located at great distances from each other. It is strange that at least these circumstances did not force us to take a more critical view of the legends about Chud. Meanwhile, at present it is possible to prove that not only the legends about the Ural Chud are folk fiction, but even a people with the name Chud never existed in the Urals. Everything related to Chudi may be very interesting for a student of Russian folk literature, but for a historian and archaeologist it has absolutely no meaning.

As a result of this, of course, questions like whether Ural Chud Finns, or Ugrians, or some other people.

I will start my work with the name Chud. The word is not Finnish: it does not appear in any of the modern Finnish languages. As has been repeatedly pointed out by many outstanding linguists, including, for example, the late academician A.A. Shakhmatov, this name comes from one of the Germanic languages, namely Gothic. "Chud" represents the Slavic pronunciation of the Gothic tjuda, meaning "people". Of course, the Goths often used this word when speaking, which is why the Slavs nicknamed the Goths tjuda - Chud, which probably happened in the 2nd-4th centuries AD, when the Goths sat in what is now Ukraine, and the Slavs lived on Wed. The Vistula, in present-day Poland, were their neighbors. Many of the Finnish tribes, who at that time inhabited large areas of European Russia north of Kyiv, were subordinate to the Goths. It is believed that the Slavs indifferently called both the Goths and the Finns subject to them Chud, just as not so long ago the Russians equally called real Germans and the Latvians and Estonians subject to them Germans.

In the 5th century According to R.Ch., under the pressure of the ferocious hordes of Hun riders, the Goths moved west, first to Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula, then to Spain and Italy. Thus, they left the neighborhood of the Slavs. The Finns remained in their places; The Slavs retained the name Chudi for them.

By the way, such Russian words as wonderful, miracle, etc. come from this word Chud.

From the 6th-7th centuries, the Slavs penetrated the Russian plain and pushed the Finns to the north and northeast. In the 8th-9th centuries, one of the East Slavic tribes, the so-called Ilmen Slavs, settled on the land in the area where Novgorod the Great was soon founded. The word “Chud” continues to be preserved in their language; Novgorodians call their neighbors the Finns of the Baltic states, Finland, the shores of Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and partly the Northern Dvina basin. These peoples belong to a group of Finnish tribes, scientifically called Western Finns. Other Finnish tribes, for example, Meryu, who lived in the 9th century. in the area of ​​Yaroslavl and Vladimir, the neighboring Slavs never called Chudya.

Thus, only the Western Finns were called Chud by the Slavs. This name, judging by the chronicle, was firmly in place during the era of the pre-Tatar invasion, i.e. in the X-XIII centuries.

Western Finns never penetrated into the Urals. The northern part of the Perm Kama region, part of the river basin. Vyatka and the river basin Vychegda was inhabited, at least since the 14th century, and very likely earlier, by Votyaks, Permyaks and Zyryans, belonging to the so-called German group Finnish tribe; closer to the Ural ridge and in the Kama region south of Chusovaya lived, at least since the 15th century, and possibly also earlier, Voguls and Ostyaks belonging to Ugric tribe. Therefore, it remains to find out whether the peoples of the Perm or Ugric groups were ever called Chud. It has already been said that with this word used by the Slavs not a single Finnish tribe did not name itself. But maybe the Russians gave this name to one of the mentioned East Finnish tribes? Let's look in historical documents. East Finnish peoples have been mentioned since the 11th century. In the chronicle, in various charters, Novgorod, princely, royal, in the life of St. Stefan and some other monuments, only Ugra, Permians or simply Permians, Vogulichs, Ostyaks, Votyaks and Zyryans are found. The last three names appear only in more later monuments. There are no other names. Thus, when the Russians appeared in the Urals, they did not meet any Chudi and did not call any of the peoples living at that time by this name.

Therefore, a definite conclusion emerges: a people bearing the name Chud never lived in the Urals. Where did this word come to the Urals? From Novgorod. How? We already know that it was applied by the Novgorodians to the Western Finns. Novgorodians in IX-X centuries, in the era of the beginning of Rus', of course, they still remembered that the Chud Finns not long before sat on the plains and hills occupied by the Slavs in the vicinity of Lake Ilmen. Therefore, they, partly quite correctly, attributed to the miracle various copper jewelry and other objects that came across in the ground during arable land. Indeed, many of these things belonged to the Finns. When Novgorod settlers entered the river basin. Dvina, they, out of old habit, continued to attribute objects found in the ground to Chud.

Since the 16th century, settlers from the river basin. The Dvina, from Vologda, Totma, Ustyug, Solvychegodsk and other places, began to penetrate into Verkhokamye, to Cherdyn and Solikamsk. In the Kama region, the plow also quite often discovered various objects. The finders naturally had a question: to what people did these things belong? From their grandfathers, the settlers firmly adopted the habit of considering all kinds of human handicrafts found in the earth to be miraculous. It is not surprising that when they got to the Kama River, they also began to call such things Chud, although a people with that name never lived on the Kama, as we already know. The memory of Chudi, which was a factual legend on the banks of the Volkhov, became pure legend on the banks of the Kama. Something similar happened in Germany, where the word “Hunengraber” - “graves of the Huns” - is used by the general public to refer to mounds in places where the Huns never existed.

Attribution of finds in the land to the Chud people spread beyond the Urals. Migrants from the Kama and Dvina, former first The Russians who came to Tura and Iset transferred this name there too. Then it penetrated into Western Siberia, and then further, all the way to Lake Baikal. Even in Transbaikalia, finds in the ground are considered miracles. The same thing in Altai and Southern Urals, up to the Kyrgyz steppe.

By the way, such a wide distribution of this name in itself speaks of its legendary status. After all, it would never seriously occur to anyone that there was once one people living from the Baltic Sea to the Amur.

Thus, the name Chud penetrated into the Urals (and beyond) thanks to emigration from the Novgorod land. The habit of attributing all sorts of finds in the earth to Chudi was brought from there. In the belief about the existence of Chudi there is no memory of the actual past of the Urals or Siberia.

It was not Chud who sat in the Urals and Kama in prehistoric eras, but various peoples; of these, the Permyaks, Voguls and Ostyaks, as well as the Bashkirs, were the immediate predecessors of the Russians, and about others we can only guess and then with a very low degree of reliability.

The prehistoric antiquities of the Urals and surrounding areas belong to eras that in their entirety lasted about four thousand years. There can be no doubt that over such a long time many peoples have changed in this territory. The presence of a number of prehistoric cultures and the sharp differences between them certainly speak in favor of this. Therefore, I cannot in any way agree with A.F.’s conclusion. Teploukhov, who, in his very interesting and meaningful work (“Notes of UOLE”, vol. XXXIX, 1924), seems to want to consider all Perm prehistoric things Ugric. Among these items there are Ugric ones - in this I completely agree with A.F.T. – but along with them there are undoubtedly also ancient Permian ones. In general, the question of whether certain antiquities belong to certain peoples is very complex. In this work I will limit myself to pointing out that objects from the 11th to 14th centuries. from b. Solikamsk, Cherdynsky and northern parts of Perm districts, apparently, ancient Permyak; things from the 6th-8th centuries from the same territory are probably Ugric; It is still difficult to say about the affiliation of objects from the 9th-10th centuries. Then there can be no doubt that many cultural remains belong to peoples completely unknown to us (for example, the remains of the Bronze Age).

Now it remains to analyze individual legends about Chudi. There are very few of them; three of them are repeated with tedious monotony throughout the Urals and Trans-Urals.

The first legend describes Chud as a small people. The weirdos seemed to be much smaller modern people. This story can be explained very simply: various iron and bronze prehistoric axes, knives and other objects are often much smaller in size than those of modern ones. One peasant woman from the village of Vakina b. Timinsky volost b. Solikamsk district definitely told me that on the arable land near Vakina they often found Chud axes, knives and other small tools. “Apparently Chud were a small people,” she concluded her story.

Another legend talks about throwing copper and iron axes from one mountain to another. This story is confined to very many hills, separated from one another by a distance of sometimes up to ten miles. Chudi, according to this legend, had only one hatchet for all the miracles who lived in various mountains. If necessary, this single ax was transferred from one hill to another.

The basis for this legend is the discovery of axes (or other objects: sometimes they talk about throwing copper spoons, etc.) on certain neighboring elevated places, as I was able to verify, for example, in relation to the villages of Galkina and Turbina (on the Kama, to north of Perm), about which there is also a similar legend. This legend is of interest to the archaeologist because he can sometimes use it to determine the location of finds of prehistoric objects.

Now we just have to sort out the most famous legend, namely the legend about the death of Chudi. It is repeated in almost the same form both in the Urals and in the Trans-Urals, and has been recorded countless times. I will repeat its detailed contents.

Once upon a time there was a Jew in the region, the people of Chud. When the Russians first appeared and the bells began to ring, Chud was worried. She did not want to convert to Orthodoxy or live under Russian rule. Then she with all her property retired into the forests and dug herself underground shelters, the covering of which was fixed on pillars. When the Russians penetrated deep into the forests, Chud cut down the pillars. The roof, covered with earth on top, collapsed and buried Chud and all her goods, which were also carried into the dugout. According to the perception of the peasant masses, various items, found in the ground, are the remnants of this good.

How was this legend created? I think it is not so difficult to explain this. Obviously, the story was formed under the influence of some finds that allowed the possibility of the stated interpretation. There is nothing suitable in the Kama region. The same is true in parts of the Trans-Urals immediately adjacent to the ridge. The plains are more interesting to us Western Siberia. They abound in mounds. Starting from the lower reaches of Iset and Tobol, endless groups of mounds stretch far to the east. Many of these mounds were built in the following way. Thick pillars placed in a semicircle or quadrangle are strengthened on the surface of the earth. The pillars support a roll of logs or poles. Sometimes there is a similar pillar in the center for better support of the covering. The deceased is placed on the surface of the earth. Next to it are placed grave goods, sometimes very rich. From above, the entire structure is covered with earth. Mounds of this type were discovered, for example, by the Finnish scientist Geikel in the Tyumen-Yalutorovsk region.

In the second half of the 17th century, Russian settlers began intensively excavating these mounds, locally known as “bumps”. The mound workers - that's what the diggers were called - searched in the mounds precious metals, products from which were found quite often in them. These excavations began with the mounds of lower Iset and Tobol, and then they spread to the Ishim-Tara-Omsk region.

The picture of the skeleton with rich decorations, pillars, and ramparts, often collapsing from the weight of the thrown earth, obviously created the well-known legend about self-burial.

Not understanding what is unusual for them funeral rite, leaving entire wealth along with the deceased, Russian diggers explained the kurgan graves in their own way.

The legend could only have arisen in the Tobol-Irtysh basin, because burials of this type are not found either in the Kama basin or in general in central or northern Russia.

True, similar or similar burials are known in Ukraine, the northern Caucasus, and the Kyrgyz steppe, but these areas are too far from the Urals. In addition, Russian settlers, at least some of them, penetrated only in the 18th century and even later. Therefore, it is not surprising if we find one of the first mentions of the legend of Chudi’s self-burial precisely in a work compiled in Western Siberia, precisely in the work of the monk Gr. Novitsky “A Brief Description of the Ostyak People,” written in 1715 in Tobolsk.

Once created, the legend was, of course, connected with the Miracle, to which, as we know, all finds - products of human hands - were attributed, and began to spread everywhere. It penetrated the Urals, the Kama, even the Dvina, following the same Siberian-Moscow route, through Verkhoturye - Solikamsk - Ustyug - Vologda, along which the settlers moved and all communications took place.

This is how I imagine the origin of this dramatic legend. I would also like to say a few words about the stories of certain natives, Permyaks and Votyaks, about their origins from Chud.

First of all, it's pretty rare stories. Most likely, they do not belong to the natives themselves at all, but simply arose as a result of some thoughtlessness of researchers who did not know the native languages. Let us assume, however, that they are written down from the words of the natives. But even in this case there is no reason to consider them an original native tradition. The legends about Chudi penetrated to the natives from the Russians in the same way as fragments of Christian ideas and legends, like the Slavic pagan idea of ​​the creature Poleznitsa - Poludnitsa, living in the rye, which is told, for example, by the Zyryans, and like many other elements of Russian spiritual culture. In these stories we have best case scenario the same processing of Russians folk tales, as, for example, in some Vogul myths told by N.L. Gondatti.

Let me now summarize the findings:

1) The Chud people never lived in the Urals.

2) The word Chud was absent from the Finns at the time of their contact with the Slavs. Among the latter it has been known for a long time and was borrowed from the Goths.

3) The idea of ​​​​Chudi penetrated into the Urals along with settlers from the Novgorod region.

4) Chud in the Urals are a legendary people, to whom the antiquities of all eras found in the earth are attributed.

5) The legend of self-burial was created on Tobol, or in Western Siberia in general, in the second half of the 17th century.

6) The prehistoric antiquities of the Urals belong to various nationalities that succeeded each other over many millennia.

A.V. Schmidt
“Notes of UOLE”, volume XL, issue. 2nd, 1927
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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 legends about the “Chud people” widespread in the European North, sought to find their real traces in the form of archaeological monuments. 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 times, the problem of orphans was developed by V.N. Chernetsov, who, having visited Yamal, not only collected various legends about Sirtya, but also discovered monuments ancient culture, left rather by the Sirtya 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 (on the western coast of Yamal at 71 ° 30 "N), which he dated VI-IX centuries and attributed 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, this hill 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 not even a 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 closed 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.Having become 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.

From the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains - in the north European Russia Numerous Finnish and Ugric tribes lived there. Some of these peoples have survived to this day, while others have disappeared, leaving behind legends, traditions and ancient burial mounds from the Volga and Vyatka to the Urals!

One of these peoples is the ancient Chud, which is known from Lake Peipus in the west to the Peipus settlements and caves in the Northern Urals. There are many legends about both the miracle itself and underground cities of this people, about their mysterious treasures, burials and mysteries. The Chud are often remembered in the legend about their departure to the underworld, where they supposedly closed themselves until other times...

The popular version says that the Slavs dubbed some tribes Chudya, because their language seemed strange and unusual to them. In ancient Russian sources and folklore Many references to the “chud” have been preserved, which “the Varangians from overseas imposed tribute on.” They took part in Prince Oleg’s campaign against Smolensk, Yaroslav the Wise fought against them: “and defeated them, and established the city of Yuryev,” legends were made about them, like the white-eyed miracle - ancient people, akin to European “fairies”.

They left a huge mark on the toponymy of Russia; Lake Peipus, the Peipsi shore, and the villages: “Front Chudi”, “Middle Chudi”, “Back Chudi” are named after them. From the northwest of today's Russia Their mysterious “wonderful” trace can still be traced to the Altai Mountains to this day. For a long time it was customary to associate them with the Finno-Ugric peoples, since they were mentioned in places where representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples lived or still live. But the folklore of the latter also preserves legends about the mysterious ancient Chud people, whose representatives left their lands and went somewhere, not wanting to accept Christianity.

There is especially a lot of talk about them in the Komi Republic. So they say that the ancient tract Vazhgort “Old Village” in the Udora region was once a Chud settlement. From there they were allegedly driven out by Slavic newcomers. In the Kama region you can learn a lot about miracles: local residents describe their appearance (dark-haired and dark-skinned), language, customs.

The Chud settlements were located on hills, recorded in modern toponymy as “Chudi” (there is also information about Chud lakes). The dwellings of the Chud were caves, often dugouts or pits, the roof of which was supported by four pillars.

There is even a legend that “the Chud went underground”: they dug a large hole with an earthen roof on pillars, and then collapsed it, preferring death to captivity. But none popular belief, no chronicle mention can answer the questions: what kind of tribes were they, where did they go and whether their descendants are still alive. Some ethnographers attribute them to the Mansi peoples, others to representatives of the Komi people who chose to remain pagans. The boldest version, which appeared after the discovery of Arkaim and the “Land of Cities” of Sintashta, claims that the Chud are ancient arias.

In general, the history of this people is somewhat reminiscent of V. Maigre’s books about the Vedrussians. Many people perceive these books as a miracle.

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 of Kievan Rus in 1024 is associated with the name of Merya. 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.