Luck will smile on you!
Even from school, we know that Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich baptized Rus' in the tenth century. However, the process of Christianization of Rus' and the departure from pagan religion was begun by Princess Olga. These are the official data. But, of course, the adoption of a new religion is a large-scale, global event affecting the entire population of Kievan Rus. And the transition took place very difficult, hard, long. After all, it is impossible to fundamentally change the worldview of the population in a short period of time, much less easily.
Paganism in Rus'
Definition 2
Slavic paganism is a system of beliefs of the Eastern Slavs about the structure of the world and man, based on pre-Christian mythology.
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Slavic paganism is a fragment of Indo-European religion.
Slavic paganism should be understood as a stage of the worldview of the Slavs before the start of Christianization, and as a special typological cultural model, semantic categories and forms continued to exist after the adoption of Christianity.
Written and archaeological evidence suggests that the Slavs used idols for worship.
Definition 3
Idols are sculptural images of pagan deities.
Idols were made of wood or stone. East Slavic idols were distinguished by their roughness and simplicity of execution.
The Slavs worshiped idols in temples - open sanctuaries. The role of temples could be played by the forest. The presence of temple premises has not been recorded, but they could have been made of wood and left no traces. Rituals of idol worship took place at the temples. The temples were fenced, and their obligatory element was a fire. In addition to idols, the Slavs worshiped boulders. On the eastern outskirts, before the arrival of the Slavs, some Finno-Ugric tribes worshiped sacred stones.
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The difference between Christianity and paganism
-Paganism is polytheistic, Christianity is monotheistic. -Christians seek the Savior, pagans glorify the Gods, live in harmony with nature. -In paganism there is an offering to the gods in the form of food, in Christianity this does not seem to exist, the sacrifice there is in the form of money, in any church they sell it, and there is also an urn for money. Although Christ himself drove the traders out of the temple... -For Christians, God is a synonym for love. Pagan gods for justice, for truth, for truth, for kindness and love - Pagans praise the Gods and live in harmony with nature. Christians believe that all forces of nature are subject to the One God. -In paganism, witchcraft, witchcraft, sorcery and other magical rituals are encouraged. In Orthodoxy this is considered a sin. Although Jesus himself practiced sorcery - he healed people and explained the essence of nature. -Pagans wear amulets, Christians (except Protestants) wear a cross. We can say that they are one and the same. -There are many amulets and idols in pagan houses. Christians use signs of Christian symbolism and icons for this purpose. Only the names have changed, the attributes are the same. -Pagans believe in omens and are superstitious. Christianity is rejected, but Christians themselves believe in omens and are superstitious.
We can say that although Christianity came to Rus', the signs and attributes remained folk. Any fortune teller uses Christian attributes, many go to their grandmothers to remove any ailment, and that grandmother reads Christian prayers and slander.
Baptism of Prince Vladimir and the people of Kiev
According to the chronicles, before Vladimir’s baptism there was a “test of faith.” In 986, ambassadors from the Volga Bulgars arrived to the prince and invited him to convert to Islam. When they spoke about the rituals that should be observed, including the ban on drinking wine, Vladimir responded with the phrase: “Rus' has joy in drinking,” and rejected the proposal of the Bulgars.
Then the Germans came from Rome, sent by the Pope. They declared that they were fasting according to power: “if anyone drinks or eats, then everything is for the glory of God.” But Vladimir told them: “Go where you came from, for even our fathers did not accept this.”
Then there were the Khazar Jews who invited Vladimir to convert to Judaism. In response, he, knowing that Khazaria was defeated by his father Svyatoslav, asked where their land was. The Khazars admitted that they did not have their own land - God scattered them throughout the countries. Vladimir then abandoned Judaism.
Then a Byzantine arrived, whom the chronicler called the Philosopher for his wisdom. The philosopher told the prince about the Christian faith and biblical history. However, Vladimir did not make a decision and consulted with his closest boyars. It was decided to test faith by attending services among the Greeks, Muslims and Germans. When the envoys returned after visiting Constantinople, they reported with delight: “They did not know where we were - in heaven or on earth.” As a result, Vladimir chose the Greek model of Christianity.
According to the Tale of Bygone Years, in 6496 from the creation of the world (in 988 AD), the Kiev prince Vladimir decided to be baptized by the Church of Constantinople. After which the clergy sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople baptized the residents of Kyiv in the waters of the Dnieper.
Many historians date Vladimir's baptism to 987. According to Arab and Byzantine sources, in 987 Constantinople entered into an alliance with Russia to suppress the rebellion of Bardas Phocas. Vladimir's condition was the hand of Princess Anna, the imperial sister. Then, at the height of the war, Vladimir attacked Korsun. The emperors agreed to give Anna as a wife to the prince, provided that he was first baptized under the name of Vasily - in honor of the successor of Emperor Vasily II.
In the Byzantine chronicles, only “Anonymous Banduri” reports about the “baptism of Rus'”, which conveys the story about the choice of faiths, and the “Vatican Chronicle”:
In the summer of 6496, Vladimir, who baptized Russia, was baptized.
The last message is most likely a reverse translation from The Tale of Bygone Years. In general, the event of 988 went almost unnoticed in Byzantine literature, since, in the minds of the Greeks, the conversion of Rus' occurred a century earlier.
The fight between paganism and Christianity
After baptism in Rus', the struggle between Christianity and paganism began and continued for several centuries.
The very ideas about good and evil have changed dramatically. Everything pagan (“filthy” in English paganism), called diabolical, began to be considered evil. Instead of opposition: winter - summer, day - night, God - devil. The forces of good and evil become more otherworldly, and the sun turns from a supreme intelligent being into one of the natural bodies.
Monks become the vanguard in the struggle between good and evil, as evidenced by their clothes. Monastic attire is a kind of mystical analogue of a military uniform. The belt is a sign of readiness for service, the special “paraman” plate is a symbol of the “sores of Christ”, the black mantle is excommunication from the world, the hood is a helmet. The monks fight an invisible enemy - the devil and his servants. Monastic virtues are their spiritual weapons. Women nuns are the spiritual “brides of Christ,” and rusalia, girls who took part in pagan games, began to be called the brides of Satan.
In general, the struggle of Christianity with paganism ended in a replacement; this is clearly visible on holidays.
One of the main holidays, Kupala, was replaced by the Nativity of John the Baptist, and turned into Ivan Kupala.
The New Year was changed to the Nativity of Christ and subsequently a Christmas tree appeared as a symbol of the heavenly tree of life, on which golden apples and nuts grow.
The carols have been preserved as Christmas carols.
The holiday of Perun was commemorated on Elijah's day (July 20).
The holiday of the end of the harvest is on Spas (August 6).
The holiday of “first shoots” was combined with Boris and Gleb Day (May 2)
blessings of the loaves - Merry Christmas to the Virgin Mary.
The names of the former gods, transformed into angels and saints, were also preserved: Veles became Saint Blaise, the patron saint of cattle.
The pagan perception of nature was largely adopted by Christianity, A.P. wrote about this. Shchapov in “Historical Sketches of the People’s Worldview and Superstition,” church teachers inspired the people, on the basis of the Greek-Eastern Christian worldview, that God placed special spirits, angels over each element, over each natural phenomenon.” Elijah the prophet (Perun), who rides across the sky in a fiery chariot and sheds rain on the earth.
Christianity comes into especially close contact with paganism in apocryphal literature, which is very widespread in Rus'. In the verse about the “Dove Book” we read:
“For us, the white free light was conceived from the judgment of God; the sun is red from the face of God, Christ the King of Heaven himself; The month is young and bright from his breasts; the stars are frequent from the garments of God; the nights are dark from the thoughts of the Lord; the morning dawns from the eyes of the Lord; violent winds from the Holy Spirit; we have the mind-mind of Christ Himself, Christ Himself, the King of Heaven; our thoughts are from the clouds of heaven; We have a world-people from Adamia; bones are strong as stone; our bodies are from damp earth; Our blood is our ore from the black sea.”
In the “Conversation of the Three Hierarchs”, St. Gregory “speech: from how many parts was Adam created? Vasily said: from eight parts: from the earth the body, from the sea the blood, from the sun the eyes, from the stone the bones, from the cloud of thought, from the fire warmth, from the wind breath, from the light... spirit.” Here is a combination of ancient Indian legends with Christian ideas.
Or Yegor the Brave from folk verse. This is Saint George the Victorious, on the coat of arms of Moscow slaying the serpent, and the personification of the ancient virtue - courage. His mother is Sophia, named after another ancient virtue - wisdom. The image of Sophia the Wisdom seems to combine the pagan idea of wisdom with Christianity. In Russia, churches (otherwise mansions, as the princely houses were called from “horo” - circle) in honor of Sophia were the main ones in many cities (in Kyiv, Novgorod).
All natural phenomena (signs, etc.) retained their magical meaning, but began to be perceived most often as God's punishment. The pagan attitude towards nature as an active force has reached modern poetry.
Christian ideas about good and evil, coming into contact with more ancient ones, strengthened in Rus', relegating pagan views to the realm of fairy tales and legends. The spread of Christian morality was helped by those people who followed it to the greatest extent and were subsequently declared saints by the church.
Gods
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Russian paganism was a polytheistic religion. This has been proven. The supreme god was Perun, which immediately puts the paganism of the Slavs in a row of religions with the Thunder God at the head of the pantheon (remember Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Hinduism). The so-called “Vladimir Pantheon”, compiled in 980, gives us an idea of the main pagan gods.
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In the “Laurentian Chronicle” we read: “And Volodya began to reign as one in Kyiv • and placed idols on a hill • outside the dark courtyard. Perun is woody • and his head is silver • and otss is gold • and Kharsa Dazhba • and Striba • and Simargla • and Mokosh [and] ryakhu named after the honorable god... and ryakhu demon”…. There is a direct listing of the gods: Perun, Khors, Dazhdbog, Stribog, Simargl and Mokosh.
Characteristics of Russian pagan religion
The pagan religion of the ancient Russians was closely connected with reverent adoration of nature, with the worship of the great forces of nature.
It was characterized by the animation of objects and natural phenomena - animism, the recognition of the thinking force behind the objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. The worship of the ancient inhabitants of Rus' to the sun, earth, sky, wind, water, birds, trees, stones, etc. reflected in folk tales, songs, fables, rituals, festivals and beliefs based on the adoration of nature.
Religious rituals were expressed in the worship of idols; the people did not yet have temples and priests; There was still no developed idea of the afterlife - life after death was presented to them as a continuation of earthly life. They worshiped their dead ancestors, made sacrifices to them, and asked for protection and patronage.
Old Russian pagan beliefs were characterized by fetishism and belief in magic, in secret knowledge and the magical power of things.
Manifestation of paganism in legends, fairy tales and epics
These ideas permeated the entire spiritual life of the inhabitants of Ancient Rus'. The archaic worldview is reflected in folklore, rituals, conspiracies and spells. There was great faith in the secret power and power of the word. Magi, who were considered the owners of secret knowledge, were held in high esteem: various fortune-telling, whispering and conspiracies were widespread, which have survived to this day. Fairy tales, epics, legends and traditions are invaluable sources of folk art, which reflect all the pristine charm of ancient Russian paganism.
The imagery and vitality of these ideas became the basis of folk art. One of the brightest, most characteristic folk heroes is Ilya Muromets, beloved by the people. In the character of this hero, natural freedom, spontaneity and love of freedom are combined with the Christian faith and awareness of the need for strong state power.
The epic hero clearly demonstrates the consciousness of the unity of the people and the fatherland. He considers himself a Christian and a defender of the poor and disadvantaged people. At the same time, Ilya Muromets is the personification of the powerful forces of nature, the unity and strength of the Russian people.
Ilya Muromets, addressing the Russian heroes, called on them to defend the Russian land, to fight the enemies who want to capture the capital city of Kyiv. Ilya told them that he was going to serve for the Russian land, for the Christian faith, for poor people, widows and orphans. Here he acts as a defender of the Motherland, Christian values and the common people.
Priests
According to some scientists, the leader (who holds the post of prince) in the ancient Slavs simultaneously possessed administrative, military and religious functions.
Already by the second half of the 1st millennium AD, the Slavs occupied too large a territory, and therefore there was a difference in their social development:
- Residents of the southern regions find themselves under the strong influence of the Byzantine Empire (in particular, the Christian religion), so their priesthood is gradually being eliminated.
- The Slavs living in the western regions are ahead of their fellows in their development. Ancient sources talk about the great influence of their priesthood, which subsequently owned all political power.
- As for the eastern category, their priesthood was just being formed, but was interrupted by the establishment of the Christian faith. There is an opinion that the Eastern Slavs also had priests in pre-Christian times.
True, it is likely that fortune tellers, sorcerers and healers predominated. In ancient Russian sources they are called sorcerers, witches, sorcerers, sorcerers, sorcerers, and so on.
Such people were engaged in witchcraft, that is, they treated with the help of incantations, rituals and natural medicines. At the same time, they practiced everyday magic (of a love and protective nature). They performed various rituals, made special potions, talismans, amulets and other mystical objects. Fortune telling was done in various ways: with the help of bird and animal calls, on wax, and tin.
Mokosh
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The only woman in the Vladimir pantheon is Mokosh. According to various sources, she was revered as the goddess of water (the name “Mokosh” is associated with the common Slavic word “get wet”), as the goddess of fertility and birth. In a more everyday sense, Mokosh was also the goddess of sheep breeding, weaving and women's husbandry. Mokosh was revered for a long time after 988. This is indicated by at least one of the 16th century questionnaires; During confession, the clergyman was obliged to ask the woman: “Didn’t you go to Mokosha?” Sheaves of flax and embroidered towels were sacrificed to the goddess Mokosha (later Paraskeva Pyatnitsa).
Apologist
Analysis of the main anti-Christian tenets of the beliefs of neo-pagan groups
Almost all neo-pagan sects and groups have doctrines that are not particularly original and necessarily contain a standard set of provisions that supposedly prove the negativity of Orthodoxy and Christianity in general. But these statements can only convince an ignorant person. It is advisable to examine several main areas of attack on Orthodoxy. Moreover, in order to avoid claims against the author, it makes sense to cite the opinion of authoritative experts.
1. “Why do we need Orthodoxy? This is the Jewish faith!”
Priest Alexey Ostaev: “Only an ignoramus or an attacker can think this way. More precisely, the criminals of Russia invented this idea and spread it among ignorant people who, for one reason or another, fell away from the Faith of their fathers into unbelief, that is, fell into neo-paganism. Let's say more: Orthodoxy is the only Faith that not only has nothing in common with Judaism, but directly opposes itself to Judaism. The whole pathos of not only the New, but also the Old Testament is precisely aimed at denouncing Jewry for betrayal, falling away from the True Faith, from the True God. Read the Bible and you will see this for yourself. What is the essential difference between Orthodoxy and Judaism? Orthodoxy is the true Faith in One God the Father and in His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, Whom God the Father sent into the world to save all nations from eternal death and bring them into His Kingdom, from which they fell as a result of the Fall. Thus, the first Orthodox was Adam and his pious descendants; only before the coming of Christ they believed in the expected Christ, and after the coming of Christ - in the Crucified and Risen Christ. The Jews, not only those of today, but also those of the Old Testament, constantly and persistently betrayed the true Orthodox Faith and were carried away into paganism even more than other peoples. Repeatedly the Lord (the Bible testifies to this) wanted to destroy this people and transfer the Covenant to other people, and only thanks to the intercession of saints and righteous people He did not do this until time. But why are Jews exactly “God’s chosen” people? The Apostle Paul speaks about this (1 Corinthians 1:27-29): “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong things; And God chose the base things of the world and the base things, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should boast before God.” So God's chosen does not mean the best. God wanted to bring everyone to Him, starting from the bottom.”
2. “Prince Vladimir is the son of the Jewish woman Malka. With the help of Orthodoxy, the Jews enslaved Rus'.”
Priest Alexey Ostaev: “This speculation that is now being spread that the mother of Prince Vladimir, Svyatoslavov’s concubine, was a Jew, has not yet been proven by anyone, and it is unlikely that anyone will be able to prove it. In The Tale of Bygone Years there is no evidence of her nationality. “The Tale of Bygone Years” is the only reliable historical source. There are simply no others. And if it doesn’t say anything about Malka’s nationality, then why not call her Yakut or French? According to the authors of this speculation, the name Malka is similar in consonance with the Hebrew word “melkha,” which means “queen” in Hebrew. This is such a blatant and ridiculous stretch that it would be strange to refute this anti-scientific version. There is not enough time to refute all the nonsense and nonsense. But be that as it may, Prince Vladimir accepted the Faith not of his father, not of his mother, but of his grandmother, Princess Olga, for “She was wise and noble” and accepted the Faith not out of her own lusts, but in truth and for the benefit of Rus'. It is known that she refused to become the wife of the Byzantine king, refused to become the Empress, and preferred to be his goddaughter. Look how deep the meaning is. If she became the wife of the Emperor, then Russia would become a Byzantine province, for the Empress does not inherit the throne. Having become the goddaughter of the Tsar, and therefore a princess, she thereby became the guarantee of Russia's future inheritance of the status of an independent great Empire - the Third Rome. What kind of enslavement is this? Before the adoption of Christianity, Rus', or more precisely, a conglomerate of small fragmented East Slavic tribes, was truly enslaved, firstly, by its internal passions, and secondly, by external greedy enemies. Prince Igor robbed the Drevlyans, the Drevlyans brutally killed him. His wife Olga (before she was baptized) took revenge on them even more cruelly. Polovtsians, Pechenegs, Khazars - all and sundry - ruled the fragmented land, and only with the adoption of Orthodoxy did Rus' mature and become so strong that the great Byzantium faded next to it. It’s scary to think what would have happened to our people if they had not accepted Orthodoxy with all their souls.”
3. “We must have our own Russian Faith!”
Priest Alexey Ostaev: “Faith should not be Russian, not Jewish, not Japanese, but True. You cannot choose Faith based on any criterion: convenient faith, pleasant faith, useful faith... Faith must be saving. The Lord says to the disciples and apostles: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). The Lord chooses a person, and a person is free to either accept the Faith and be saved, or reject it and perish. The Russian Faith is the Orthodox Faith, because the concepts of Russia, Russian, Rus' took shape and were exalted precisely thanks to Orthodoxy. If there were no Orthodoxy in Rus', there would be no Rus' itself, but in its place there would be fragmented tribes, warring among themselves and worshiping various pagan idols. It is clear that these tribes would not have had any connecting principle, and they would have been enslaved by their powerful neighbors. Isn’t this the picture we see in Africa and America? There, scattered tribes, not united by a common Faith, were unable to resist strong external enemies.”
G. Shimanov: “The very image of the gods that the pagans worshiped was, as a rule, unpleasant. Take, for example, the Aztecs. Their goddess Coatlicue looked like a three-meter man with two snakes instead of a head. Instead of hands there were also snakes. Compared to this monster, gods like Zeus and Apollo looked decent. But they were homosexuals (one had Ganymede, the other Hyacinth). And somehow, in my opinion, it’s not entirely convenient to worship homosexual gods. Or, even more so, to worship God in the form of a phallus. Or even in the form of a bull or pig. Or worship a witch like the Indian goddess Kali with her fangs protruding from her mouth and a necklace of human skulls. Or Baal’s sister Anat, who organized a victory feast after the massacre, but during the feast she again thirsted for blood and attacked the guests... Our saints are somehow closer to me.”
4. “With the help of Christianity, the Aryans were divided into Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, etc. If we were pagans, we would now live as one Aryan family.”
Priest Alexey Ostaev: “The very word “paganism” came to us from the Bible and it means a national faith, inherent in one and only one people, but in many gods. And the first pagans, as has already been said, are Jews who believe in their national god Yahweh and call him God Most High. This is not surprising, since the devil is precisely what he is doing: pretending to be God, the Creator, the Maker of the Universe. In the ancient world, not only every nation, but even every city had its own patron god, and the pagan gods, as already said, are demons, and the fact that they quarrel among themselves and their peoples quarrel with each other is not surprising, for they , demons, led by their leader - the devil - are haters by nature. They hate not only each other, but also their peoples, whom they “protect,” and want their speedy destruction. As for the Aryans, they were dismembered not with the help of Christianity, but much earlier and precisely with the help of paganism. How many divisions were there? Ancient Iranian and Avestan Aryans, Vedic Aryans, fire worshipers, sun worshipers and Zarathustra worshipers, and often the gods in the pantheon of some Aryans were demons in the pantheon of other Aryans. It was with the help of paganism that the Aryans fought with each other and, with the help of pagan gods, destroyed themselves. In later times, the descendants of the Aryans: Scythians, Alans, Goths, Vandals - were at enmity with each other, professing, among other things, all kinds of paganism. It got to the point that in the famous “Battle of the Nations,” the Alans, for example, fought on the side of the great Hun Attila and on the side of the Gauls Aetius and frantically exterminated each other. And these are all pagans, what does Christianity have to do with it? And not at all with the help of Christianity, but in spite of it, the apostate from Christianity, the occult puppet Hitler raised his people against Stalin and pitted two great peoples against each other - the Germans and the Russians.”
5. “Before Christianization, Rus' was a great state, and Christianization is the cause of all Russian troubles.”
G. Shimanov: “But if so, if Christianity is the original sin of the peoples who accepted it, then how can we explain our defeats before Baptism? How to explain, for example, the Avar yoke, reporting about which the Frankish chronicler wrote that the Avars came to the Slavs every year, took their wives and children and collected tribute from them. The Russian chronicler illustrated this yoke with such an expressive picture: if an obrin wanted to go somewhere, he did not harness a horse, but harnessed Slavic women. But in our pagan past there was also tribute to the Jews who enslaved pagan Khazaria. There was a displacement of the Slavs from vast territories that now belong to Austria and Germany. There was much more that in no way corresponds to the myth about the prosperity of the Slavs before their Baptism. The chronic strife of the Slavs alone was worth it. Which weakened them and made them victims of predatory neighbors. If we follow your logic, according to which everything that happens to a people depends on its religion (and not on its ideology, i.e. the whole set of ideas working in its life, which are the product of not only its religion, but also its character, historical and geographical circumstances etc.), it turns out that the root cause of our troubles was not Christianity at all, but the religion that you praise so much - that is, paganism. It was under his complete dominance that all of the above happened. Little of. It was under his complete dominance that the pagans themselves, comparing their religion with the Christian one, increasingly chose Christianity. If this free conversion to Christianity did not exist, if the number of pagan Christians did not constantly grow and grow into a significant force, then there would be no one to rely on in such a grandiose task as the baptism of the Eastern Slavs.”
6. “The Russians were forcibly driven into Christianity, shedding rivers of Russian blood, killing a huge number of Russian people who did not want to convert to Christianity.”
Priest Alexey Ostaev: “As for the thesis about forced baptism, that people were forced to be baptized with sticks, this is from school history textbooks of the Bolshevik period. And if we turn to true historical sources, the following will become clear: “If anyone respects me, he will go and be baptized!” This was said by Prince Vladimir, who, judging by the number of those who received Holy Baptism, was respected by the absolute majority.”
G. Shimanov: “There was not only a religious reason for the Baptism of Rus', but also a political reason, which was superimposed on the purely religious one, both strengthened each other. This political reason had nothing to do with Marxist falsification. The fact is that the Baptism of Rus' was a logical continuation of the enterprise begun by the calling of the princes, who created a fragile state, based on tribes that retained their peculiarities and tendency towards separatism. It was not possible to melt them into a single people based on the synthesis of tribal religions or any one of them, for the same reason that the Novgorod tribes were unable to overcome their discord and were forced to look for a unifying principle on the side. If from today's point of view the differences between the tribal religions of the Slavs may seem insignificant, then for the Slavs of that time this was not the case. These differences were associated with local interests, which were already incomprehensible to us and, apparently, irreconcilable on local soil. Only a new religion, far superior to them in its spiritual structure, which, despite all its novelty, would correspond to the deep disposition of the Slavs, could reconcile or even humble them. The situation in their religious life was thus similar to the situation in their political life. By analogy with the calling of princes, a “calling” of a new religion was required. As a result, tribal religions were doomed, no matter what new religion would establish itself in their place.
But! If they had been replaced by a religion internally alien to the Slavs, then it would not have been grafted onto the Slavic tree. At the first political unrest (and in the pre-Mongol period there was plenty of strife), they would have gotten rid of it first. That is why the Kyiv elders had something to think about before deciding on Baptism. For they were not only God-seekers, but also statesmen, obliged to foresee the consequences of their choice. However, the continuing increase in the number of Christians from the pagans suggested to them which religion most corresponded to the deep Slavic disposition.
As the further course of history has shown, the political system with which the formation of the Russian people began relatively quickly exhausted its positive possibilities and began to reveal its vices as time went on and more and more. Instead of cultivating Russian unity, she began to tear it apart in princely strife, which had the same pagan nature (lust for personal power and personal material acquisitions that darkened consciousness). Therefore, it was swept away by the well-organized Mongols. It is significant that Christianity not only did not collapse, but, on the contrary, became the spiritual support of the Russian people and a sign of their unity. The Mongols, as you know, patronized any religion and therefore willingly, being pagans themselves, would take our paganism under their protection if it turned out to be in demand by the Russian people. But there were no more attempts to return to him.
The state necessity of Baptism, which we were talking about, precisely explains why it, being voluntary in its essence, was accompanied by violence, similar to the violence of a midwife. This violence did not come from the Christian religion, but from the nature of state power, nurtured by paganism. The state cannot carry out its tasks solely by reasoning about what should be done and calling for it. It combines the method of persuasion with the method of coercion within reasonable limits. How was this compulsion expressed during Baptism? The fact is that in cities, these centers of political life, pagan temples were demolished, and in their place Christian churches were built and schools were established. In addition, it was announced to the pagans that those who refused to be baptized would be considered enemies of the prince. Thus, they were invited to clear public life of their presence and retire to the provinces, so that there they could think at their leisure about which religion is better. This discrimination on religious grounds was absolutely justified under the conditions of that time. Firstly, because here violence was committed against rapists who recognized someone else's freedom only when they feared retribution for an attempt on it. In other cases, they robbed, captured and killed without the slightest doubt that they were showing their youth. For example, the soldiers of Svyatoslav in 971, after the Battle of Dorostol, sacrificed not only prisoners, but also their wives to their gods. Worse than that. They sacrificed innocent babies to their gods. And in 983, the Kyiv pagans decided to sacrifice a Christian youth to Perun. When the father of this young man refused to give them his son, they killed both. This is justice in a pagan way. It must always be kept in mind when dealing with pagans. In order not to take seriously their hypocritical outrage at the violence of Christians. If they really loved justice, they would remember their own crimes and calm down. They would understand that the state used their own practice against the pagans, which was common at that time. And he even softened it, without resorting to extreme measures, which the pagans themselves were willing to do. This, I repeat, is the first thing. And secondly, the state was obliged to act the way it did in order to prevent the politicization of the pagan opposition and, as a consequence, dual power with subsequent war on religious grounds. Which would lead to victims immeasurably greater than those that were the result of a solid state policy. Such an internal war could become a “permanent” war and so weaken the Slavs that their predatory neighbors would become their masters.
So, there was violence against pagans during the Christianization of Rus', but it did not have the brutal nature that distinguished pagan violence. It was expressed in the fact that the pagans, especially the noble ones, lost their political rights and were dispersed into forests and villages. But they were not forced to believe under pain of death. There was nothing even remotely reminiscent of the ritual murders of Christians by pagan Slavs, nor of what happened for three centuries in pagan Rome, where Christians for their loyalty to Christ were tortured to death, sawed off with saws, their heads cut off, crucified on crosses, living torches, poisoned by wild beasts for the amusement of the pagan public. Precisely because the state did not introduce a new religion “by fire and sword” (which would have been simply physically impossible, not to mention the fact that it would inevitably provoke mass armed resistance), but limited itself to the above measures and left its further spread to time and effort Christian preachers, this precisely explains the extension of Christianization over centuries and its incompleteness. Christianity was adopted only to the extent that people were ready for it.
That during Baptism there could have been isolated deviations from this rule is indisputable. It could not have been otherwise, given the gigantic scale of what was happening. And also the fact that far from sinless people opposed each other on both sides. Christianity was spread by yesterday's pagans, who could not completely get rid of their usual habits and ideas. Now it is no longer possible to say how many excesses there were during Epiphany and which side provoked them more. The pagan side was more aggressive in its religious make-up, the Christian side in its connection with the domineering nature of the state. Judging by the chronicle account of the events in Novgorod, the obvious provocateurs were pagans. It was they who swore not to allow legitimate representatives of the authorities into the city, came out against them with weapons in their hands, plundered Dobrynya’s house, “beat up” his wife and relatives, and then scattered the Christian church. After which the authorities would have become a universal laughing stock if they had not used force against the rioters. This is what was hidden behind the words that the Novgorodians were baptized “with fire and sword.” These words did not condemn the actions of the authorities. These words pricked the eyes of the Novgorodians, reminding them of their former foolishness.
Speculating on such incidents and inflating the significance of crimes committed by Christians (if there were such crimes) is the same as inflating the significance of individual crimes of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. It is clear that such crimes were just a concomitant element of any great war and that for our soldiers they were precisely the least characteristic. Only very unscrupulous or completely confused people can inflate their significance in order to sully the true nature of the war. But the same must be said about those who try to slander the true nature of Baptism. Their efforts are the same as trying to spit on the sky.”
7. “Paganism was a bright and very highly moral religion of worship of bright gods, and Christianity that came to Rus' ruined everything.”
Priest Igor Ryabko: “Speaking of paganism, it should, of course, be noted that pagan religions were often devoid of a positive ethical principle. They often amazed us with their immorality of cult, ritual, and moral demands. For example, in the story of Krishna we read that he had eight legitimate wives and 16,000 illegitimate ones. From them he had 180,000 sons (women, of course, do not count). And the exploits of this “god” consisted of murders and promiscuous sexual relations. Antisthenes, a friend of Socrates, says: “If I could catch Aphrodite, I would pierce her with a throwing spear because she has seduced so many respectable and beautiful women.” Plutarch tells us that dirty words when performing a cult and depraved actions were one of the best means to appease the gods, i.e. demons. Manutius Felix wrote that fornication developed more freely in pagan temples than in open brothels. Lucian mentions one disgraceful praise of pederasty, which was pronounced in the form of a speech in temples during worship. Well, one can only guess what happened during the celebration in honor of the god of fertility and wine Dionysus (Bacchus). The one who drank more pleased this god. However, the cult of this god has still not lost its relevance. In the pagan world we see that passion is elevated to a cult and called natural. What Christianity calls the source of passions and sin, in paganism is called shrine and norm.”
G. Shimanov “The Christianization of our people, despite all its incompleteness, cleansed our land from such filth as legalized human sacrifices. Modern pagans keep silent about them, pretending that they did not exist or that they are not related to the essence of paganism. But here is what a contemporary author writes: “The sacrifice of a child, especially a baby, is a widespread phenomenon in pagan society, including Slavic... The pagan Rus believed that the body of the murdered person returned to the earth the vital force that was in it. This power is transmitted to the living. But how much vital force - not yet wasted - does the body of a newborn possess. After all, it is as if he had not yet finally entered the world of adults... They say, for example, that the legendary Scandinavian king Aun extended his life by sacrificing his own sons to the god Odin and thus taking away their life force. For the community as a whole, any chosen child could become such a victim. And in Russian beliefs, the blood of babies was endowed with special supernatural powers. The bloody custom of “cutting off the firstborn” is mentioned in the ancient Russian “Word of St. Gregory... about how the first filthy pagans bowed to idols and laid demands on them.” This author writes about human sacrifices: “it was known for a long time - from chronicles and church teachings of the 11th-14th centuries, aimed at eradicating pagan cults. Archaeological research in recent years has shown that the accusations contained in these teachings are not at all polemical exaggerations of Christian preachers; they reflected the real practice of ancient Russian priests. Numerous remains of people who were sacrificed were found in pagan sanctuaries on the Zbruch River in the Carpathian region, explored quite recently, in 1982-89... Surprisingly, these sanctuaries were in operation and sacrifices were made until the middle - second half of the 13th century.” Of course, not only babies were sacrificed to the gods. After victories over foreigners, sacrifices of prisoners were common. They also killed their fellow tribesmen, sometimes by lot, and sometimes by the choice of the priest. The Arab writer Ibn Ruste wrote about the Rus healers: “It happens that they order to sacrifice to their creator whatever they want: women, men, horses. And if the healers give orders, then it is impossible not to carry out their orders. Having taken a person or animal, the medicine man puts a noose around his neck, hangs the victim on a log and waits until he suffocates, and says that this is a sacrifice to God.” The increase in human sacrifices after 988 is explained, in my opinion, not only by the bitterness of defeated paganism, but also by the fact that the best part of the pagans converted to Christianity, therefore the worst part of them was concentrated in paganism, which cultivated the worst customs and fell out over time precipitated in the form of witches, warlocks, vampires, etc.”
8. “Claims about human sacrifices performed by pagans and their consumption of human blood are lies invented by Christians.”
G. Shimanov: “That’s the strength of paganism, that it indulges the lower desires that destroy the soul. The pagans knew that sacrificial animal blood was only a surrogate for human blood. Although, perhaps, they preferred not to think about it. But in difficult times, they understood: their gods needed nutritious food, and they fed them with human blood. Egyptian priests even branded the sacrificial animal with a seal on which a man was depicted kneeling with his hands tied behind his back and a sword pressed to his throat. But if human blood is so useful (and even the Talmud recommends it as a remedy), if it gives strength, then, one might ask, why didn’t the Caribs infect all of humanity with their cannibalism? If the gods of the Eastern Slavs helped them so much, then why did the pagans not resist the Russian Christians, who did not have this help from idols? The thought suggests itself that in the strength that the pagans received from their gods, there was some kind of secret impotence. That this power was of a narcotic nature. Drugs also give people a lot, but only temporarily and only due to their internal destruction. Drugs have something in common with gold obtained from evil spirits. It turns out to be shards in the end, and the person who is flattered by it usually goes crazy. If there was such a narcotic power in the blood sacrifices that deceived the pagans (and our Lord said of the devil that he was a deceiver and a murderer), then one can understand why they believed so much in their idols. Behind these idols were hidden, just like today behind banknotes, very real forces. And the narcotic power of blood, and the behind-the-scenes power of the spirits of evil, who used human weaknesses to strengthen their power over people.
And here is what the famous author of the book “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature” A.N. Afanasyev writes: “On a par with other peoples: the Greeks, Romans, Scythians, Germans and Lithuanians, the Slavs also made human sacrifices. “I bring my sons and daughters,” says Nestor, and the beast of the devil”... Metropolitan Hilarion (11th century), contrasting what was established by St. Vladimir brings Christianity to the old paganism, notes: “We are no longer called idolaters - Christians... we no longer bury each other with demons, but Christ is burying us for us.” The Poles, according to Dlugosz, sacrificed people captured in war to the gods. Dietmar says about the Baltic Slavs: “the terrible wrath of the gods is softened by the blood of people and animals,” and Helmold, according to whose testimony Christians were sacrificed, and their blood, as enemies of the folk Slavic religion, was especially pleasant and delightful for the gods; the choice of persons to be slaughtered was determined by lot. Such a sacrifice was made to Svyatovit annually, and the ritual was performed by a priest. Helmold, Adam of Bremen and other German chroniclers cite several cases of human sacrifices by the Slavs.
Peering into the evidence presented, we draw the following conclusions: firstly, captives were sacrificed to the gods. We see the same thing among other nations. Among the Scythians, says Herodotus, during important public festivals, not only animals, but also people, usually captives, were chosen for sacrificial slaughter; some of the blood of the murdered man was mixed with the food prepared for the religious feast, which is why Greek historians revered them as cannibals. According to Tacitus, in Britain the altars were watered with the blood of captured soldiers, and the pagans used the entrails of their corpses to ask the gods about future events. During the fight against the crusaders, the Lithuanians tortured and killed Christian captives in front of their idols... Secondly, human sacrifices were propitiatory sacrifices. During various public disasters, the gods seemed irritated by human sins, punishing some kind of wickedness, and only the blood of the criminal, his children and relatives could deflect their righteous anger... According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, the Gauls, in the event of an important danger and widespread diseases, sacrificed people caught in robbery, theft and other crimes, and only for lack of them they killed innocent people. Once, during a terrible famine, the Swedes sacrificed their king Olaf to Odin, as the producer of the harvest: being the supreme representative of the people, the king had to atone for the sins of his subjects with his own life and reconcile them with the deity. The Greeks resorted to human sacrifice during solar eclipses, crop failures, epidemic diseases and other national disasters. Since crop failure, famine and pestilence, according to the pagans, were mostly the work of evil demons, human sacrifices were offered to underground demonic deities to ward off such misfortunes. Thus, it was the custom of the Germans to bury living children in the ground during a pestilence” (vol. 2, 1995, pp. 135-136).
Another author says that the Aztecs, being pagans, sacrificed 50 thousand people a year to their gods. That is, every ten minutes there is a person. And the Mayans, inferior to the Aztecs in the number of victims, surpassed them in the quality of rituals. After torturing the victim, tearing out her nails, etc., they opened her chest and tore out her heart, which was eaten. The body was thrown from the pyramid. Below, the priests removed the skin from the body and, wearing it, danced. They ate the meat (Terry Diary “Fierce Aztecs”, 1998, p. 30). If they tell me that there is no point in presenting these extremes of paganism as its essence, then I will answer that the sting of a snake is also an “extreme”, because it does not sting with its entire body. But depriving her of this “extreme” is the same as castrating a person.”
Folklorist scholar Lyubov Sviridova: “The basis of pagan rituals has always been bloody sacrifices, and very cruel ones at that. Calendar rites and fairy tales provide very clear ideas about the rituals of sacrifice. Let's remember the well-known fairy tale about sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka. This is nothing more than the memory of the holiday of Ivan Kupala, preserved in the people's memory, when sacrifices were made - the priest slaughtered a kid, and the virgin girl was drowned in the waters of the river. Later, the ritual became more humane - instead of a girl, a young broom tree was thrown into the water. The effigy that we still burn on Maslenitsa is the same substitute for human sacrifice. An integral part of pagan rituals has always been their erotic orientation - from ritual foul language and nakedness of intimate parts to real sexual sin, which is now called group sex. As for the funeral feast, this ritual, if carried out according to all the rules, is simply ugly. Our ancestors did not mourn the deceased. Around the funeral pyre, a feast with gluttony and copious libations, equestrian lists, and wrestling competitions were held. And again an obligatory sacrifice, especially if a man was dying. His beloved wife or concubine went with him to the next world. The woman had to make this decision herself, but so that she would not suddenly change her mind, she was not left alone for a minute and was constantly given drugs. The death of the victim was terrible: before throwing the body into the fire, the priest plunged a knife into her heart, and the women literally crushed the unfortunate head with blows of logs.”
9. “Christianity is the religion of the weak and wretched, it is the religion of slaves.”
M. Nazarov: “To prove the “slavery” of Christianity, it is always reduced to the thesis: “turn the other cheek to the enemy.” But we are only talking about your “cheek” - this means: forgive your personal enemy, do not take revenge on him and do not multiply evil; however, under no circumstances turn your neighbor’s “cheek” to the enemy - protect him even at the cost of your life! And he will protect you in the same way.
Christian humility is humility not before evil, but before God. The expression “slave of God” means both recognition of God’s omnipotence and readiness to defend His plan for the world - and here the “slave” must even turn into a courageous “warrior” in the battle against the forces of evil. Our saint, Theodosius of Pechora, said in this regard: “Live peacefully not only with friends, but also with enemies, but only with your enemies, and not with the enemies of God.”
The combination of such “slavery,” freedom and courage of a Christian is visible in the words of the Apostle Peter, who taught: “Be submissive to every human authority for the Lord: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to rulers, as those sent from him to punish criminals and to encourage those who do wrong.” good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good we should stop the ignorance of foolish people, as free men, not as those who use freedom to cover up evil, but as servants of God” (I Pet. 2:15-16).
These same words also show the falsity of the statement that Christianity commands “slavish” submission to any authority, for “there is no authority except from God.” After all, the apostles spoke about the very principle of power, as opposed to anarchy, and meant the kind of power that itself serves God: when “the ruler is God’s servant, it is for your good”; such “rulers are not a terror to good deeds, but to evil ones” (Rom. 13:1-6). The attitude of Christians towards unworthy power can be judged by the words of Christ about Herod or the holy fathers - about Julian the Apostate. And our Rev. Joseph of Volotsky (one of the most “right-wing ideologists” of the tsarist government) directly asserted that the unrighteous king is “not God’s servant, but the devil” and should be resisted even under the threat of death. Saint Metropolitan Philip, who boldly denounced Ivan the Terrible, is a clear example of this.
Thus, Christianity is not a weak religion at all, but a noble and courageous one. It is enough to look at Russian history to see what our “Christian weakness” was: we united a sixth of the land into one state. And not so much by force as by goodness, carrying a higher morality, but without encroaching on the identity of the peoples whose lands they entered.”
Article taken from: Kulikov I. New religious organizations of Russia of a destructive, occult and neo-pagan nature: Directory. — Third edition, expanded and revised. — Volume 3. Neopaganism. - Moscow, 2000.
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Simargl
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Among the gods listed in the chronicle, whose idols stood on Starokievskaya Mountain, the essence of Simargl is not entirely clear. Some researchers compare Simargl with the Iranian deity Simurgh (Senmurv), a sacred winged dog, guardian of plants. According to Boris Rybakov, Simargl in Rus' in the 12th–13th centuries was replaced by the god Pereplut, who had the same meaning as Simargl. Obviously, Simargl was the deity of some tribe, subject to the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir.
Veles
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In the book by Ivanov and Toporov, the relationship between Perun and Veles goes back to the ancient Indo-European myth about the duel between the God of Thunder and the Serpent; in the East Slavic implementation of this myth, “the duel between the Thunder God and his opponent occurs due to the possession of a lamb.” Volos, or Veles, usually appears in Russian chronicles as a “cattle god”, as a god of wealth and trade. “Cattle” - money, tax; “cowwoman” – treasury, “cowman” – tribute collector. In Ancient Rus', especially in the North, the cult of Volos was very significant. In Novgorod, the memory of pagan Volos was preserved in the stable name of Volosovaya Street. The cult of Hair was also in Vladimir on the Klyazma. The suburban Nikolsky-Volosov monastery, built according to legend on the site of the temple of Volos, is famous here. There was also a temple of Volos in Kyiv, down on Podol near the trading piers of Pochayna. Scientists Anichkov and Lavrov believed that the temple of Volos in Kyiv was located where the boats of the Novgorodians and Krivichi stopped. Therefore, Veles can be considered either the god of the “wider part of the population” or the “god of the Novgorod Slovenes.”
