chapter 5 Our reconstruction of the Russian history before the battle of Kulikovo 1. All the astronomical data contained in Russian THE ORIGINS OF THE RUSSIAN HISTORY chronicles can only be confirmed starting with the XIV century and on. According to our hypothesis, the more or less doc- Our hypothesis is as follows: the Povest Vremennyh umented period in Russian history (that is to say, Let has absorbed events from Byzantine chronicles, Russian history that relies upon written sources that coated by a layer of later Russian events, primarily dat- have survived until the present day) only begins with ing from the XVI century. We shall cite plenty of ex- the XIV century a.d. Unfortunately, we can only give amples below. a very general outline of the pre-XIV century Russian Thus, we find no traces of documented Russian history; apparently, there are no surviving documents history that predate the XIII century; it is possible in existence that could assist one here. that no historians had existed outside Byzantium back Let us turn to the Povest Vremennyh Let,which fol- then. lows Russian historical events up until 1204 – the fall The power of Byzantium, even if regarded as a of Constantinople after the fourth crusade. Morozov purely formal or a wholly religious institution, cov- reports his study of this chronicle’s various copies in ered enormous territories, which were often at a great [547] and shares his opinion that the Povest Vremen- distance from the capital. The dominant role of Byz- nyh Let is most likely to relate Byzantine events and antium in the epoch of the XI-XIII century is ex- have little in common with the Russian history. For plained by the fact that, according to our recon- instance, Morozov mentions frequent references to struction, the historical character known as Jesus earthquakes, which never happen on the territory of Christ had lived (and been crucified) in the XI cen- historical Russia. Morozov had also studied all the tury Czar-Grad = Jerusalem – Troy. Conquered re- references made to solar and lunar eclipses in the gions, or themae, as they were called in Byzantium, Russian chronicle, and made the following corollary: comprised the entire world that was known to Byz- Not a single eclipse predating the end of the XI antine chroniclers, beyond which lay bizarre regions century and mentioned in the Povest Vremennyh Let that they failed to comprehend and called “deserts”, can be verified by astronomical calculations; the first populating them with fictional characters – giants, solar eclipse that was confirmed by calculations, one people with canine heads etc. that took place on 8 April 1065, could not have been After the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire in observed from Kiev, unlike Egypt and Northern Africa. 1204, its parts became independent, complete with chapter 5 our reconstruction of the russian history before the battle of kulikovo | 129 nascent statehood and new historians. This didn’t functional and active for many years; Kartashev re- happen at once, and so the old Byzantine chronicles ports that some of the “Mongolian” = “Great” Khans were used as the ground layer for the Russian his- (or the Slavic rulers of Russia, as we are beginning to tory.This is also natural, since the countries that were realise) occasionally married the daughters of the formed from shards of the Byzantine Empire had all Byzantine emperors. been governed by former governor-generals, or mem- For instance, Abaka-Khan was married to the bers of Byzantine aristocracy. They eventually be- daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael Palaio- came independent rulers, keeping the old Byzantine logos ([372], page 281); Nogai-Khan, a famous char- chronicles in their possession all the while. Their off- acter in Russian history, was married to Euphrosinia, spring had deemed these chronicles to be the “be- the daughter of a Byzantine emperor ([372], page ginning of the local history”, and would start with 282). Tokhta-Khan, the predecessor of Uzbek-Khan, them. was married to the daughter of Andronicus the Elder, This situation is typical for virtually every coun- also a Byzantine emperor; Uzbek-Khan himself was try – for instance, the same happened to the old Eng- married to the daughter of Emperor Andronicus the lish history, qv in Part 2; once again, old Byzantine Younger; however, it is assumed that Uzbek had al- chronicles of the XI-XIII century were subsequently ready been converted into Islam. included into the ancient English history by the his- Below we shall be discussing the fact that when one torians from the British Isles. The same process took reads mediaeval Western sources, one finds it very place in Russia and in Italian Rome, whose old hard to understand whether the authors refer to the “chronicles” reflect the real XI-XIII century history of Muslims or to the Orthodox Christians, since they Byzantium transferred to Italy and woven into the often proved reluctant to distinguish between the two, Italian chronology. using the term “infidels” for referring to both – there- Therefore, the XIII century marks a break point in fore, the “infidels” one might encounter in such texts Russian history; we know next to nothing about the may well have adhered to the Orthodox faith, de- epochs that had preceded it. The dawn of Russian pending on the persuasion of the author. history as we know it falls on the period when there’s a large number of principalities or Hordes scattered 2. all across the territory of Russia; they must have been THE INVASION OF THE TARTARS AND THE built upon the ruins of the former Byzantine Empire MONGOLS AS THE UNIFICATION OF RUSSIA of the Romean Greeks. under the rule of the Novgorod = Yaroslavl Let us briefly list the most important horders: The dynasty of Georgiy = Genghis-Khan and then his Greater Horde, the Lesser Horde, the White Horde brother Yaroslav = Batu-Khan = Ivan Kalita and the Blue Horde. Novgorod the Great = Yaroslavl, as well as Suzdal, Ryazan, Smolensk, Kiev (or Cher- Above we have already referred to the “invasion of nigov), Tver, Azov, Astrakhan and an number of oth- the Tartars and the Mongols” as to the unification of ers had still been independent capitals, whereas Mos- Russia (see our analysis of the report written by a cow simply didn’t exist. These Hordes had not yet Hungarian missionary and a contemporary of the unified into a single state and kept fighting against events in question). This epoch (the first half of the each other. XIV century) is the furthest we can trace documented These independent states were governed by distant history of Russia to (bear in mind that the epoch of offspring of the Byzantine governor-generals from the Great = “Mongolian” conquest falls over the XIV aristocratic clans, all of which used to trace their an- century after the compensation of the centenarian cestry back to Augustus and were perfectly correct in chronological shift inherent in Russian history and doing so, no matter how much sarcasm and vitriol discovered by the authors. this notion might provoke from the part of a learned The situation in Russia had largely resembled the historian. chaos of independent principalities that had reigned The ties with the Byzantine court had remained over the entire Western Europe, with larger stately 130 | history: fiction or science? chron 4 | part 1 structures emerging therefrom. This process began ramzin’s “History”,which contains the following pas- in Russia; the first centre to unite all the other Russian sage about Rostov: principalities around it had been Rostov the Great. Let “The towns competed in antiquity, just like old us relate our reconstruction in more detail. aristocratic clans would. The inhabitants of Rostov were proud of just how ancient their city had been, 2.1. Genghis-Khan = Georgiy = Ryurik calling Vladimir a suburb and its inhabitants, ma- sons, builders and servants. The former implied that 2.1.1. His original in the XIV century is Youri = Georgiy the latter weren’t even worthy of having a Prince of Danilovich of Moscow their own and suggested to send them a governor- In 1318 the Great Prince Georgiy Danilovich = general” ([363],Volume 3, Chapter 2, page 375). His- Genghis-Khan ascended to the Rostov throne in the torians date this dispute between Rostov and Vladimir territory that would later become the Vladimir and to the end of the XII century, when Vladimir had al- Suzdal Russia. His phantom duplicates are Prince ready been capital of the Russian state according to Georgiy Vsevolodovich from the alleged XIII cen- the Romanovian-Millerian chronology. Rostov had tury, Youri Dolgoroukiy of Rostov in the alleged XII tried to regain its status of a capital. century, Mstislav Oudaloi (“The Daring”), brother and co-ruler of Yaroslav the Wise in the alleged XI 2.1.2. The identity of Ryurik, the founder of the royal century. dynasty of the Russian princes, the dating of his life- Georgiy (Youri) Danilovich = Genghis-Khan ini- time and the localization of his endeavours. tiates the unification of Russia. He captures the Volga 1) What does the chronicle tell us? region first, and proceeds to move to the West step The name of the legendary Ryurik, who was sum- by step. The details of this conquest aren’t known to moned to Russia in order to “help restore order”, is us all that well, but their significance isn’t all that known to every Russian from a very early age. Many great. Romanovian historians have stretched this pe- scientific works have been written about this legend, riod of conquest over several decades; it had been a and disputes about its real meaning take place to date.