POPULAR UPRISINGS X-XII cc. was the territory of the present Sichuan province. Here back in 964, on the fourth

Suzdal. 1024 year.

In the Suzdal land, there was one of the first in ancient Russia, known to us from sources, a large popular uprising. The reason for it was the famine that engulfed the Suzdal land in 1024 and caused a "great rebellion" in it. The ancient Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" reports that the common people began to beat the "old child", that is, the local secular and church nobility, who hid stocks of bread from the people, and that this popular uprising was led by the Magi - the priests of the old, pre-Christian religion of the Slavs . The "old child", obviously, took advantage of the people's disaster - hunger, taking bread into their hands and selling it to the starving at an extortionate price on credit.
Thus, the church and the nobility enslaved the surrounding people, subordinated them to themselves, forced them to work for themselves in their feudal economy. Arriving in the Suzdal Territory, Prince Yaroslav captured the Magi, brutally executed some, and sent others into exile.

Rostov. 989 year.

The princely power of Rostov decided to baptize the local population. All the townspeople were brought into the waters of Lake Nero and they were divided into groups of 10-15 people each. Specially invited Byzantine priests rowed boats between the groups and baptized the inhabitants, giving them one name per group. Obviously, the priests were paid by the piece, not by the hour. The cult places of the pagans were destroyed, books were destroyed and magicians were burned.
At the same time, despite external obedience, for many years the population resisted innovations: they raised uprisings, restored their temples to Veles and Yarila. So, in 1071, the first bishop Leonty was killed in Rostov. But in 1073, Jan Vyshatich of Kyiv brutally crushed the last of the Rostov uprisings. The pagans had to abandon the open expression of their faith, disguising their rites in accordance with Christian teaching.

Novgorod.

Novgorod - the second largest city of ancient Russia after Kyiv - to a greater extent retained its pagan religion. Its large local population resisted both the Christian church and the Kiev princes, who sought to subjugate Novgorod, put their warriors in a particularly privileged position and force the Novgorodians to pay tribute. It is no coincidence that an ancient legend tells us that the governors of the Kiev prince Vladimir - Dobrynya and Putyata baptized the Novgorodians with "fire and sword."
The 1070s are marked in the history of Novgorod and all of Ancient Russia as a period of a surge of pagan unrest. The most "rebellious" region was the north-east of Russia - the lands around Rostov, Suzdal, Murom. Here, Christian priests for a long time felt themselves in a hostile environment. local population who adhered to the original Slavic religion. Control over the religious moods of the inhabitants of the territories of Russia remote from the urban centers remained in the hands of the Magi - pagan priests, soothsayers and healers (the word "magic" came from them).
In 1071 they made themselves felt in Novgorod. One of the Volkhov gathered Novgorodians around him and, on the wave of popular sentiment, staged an uprising. The vast majority of the townspeople were on the side of the original Slavic faith. But the authorities had already been converted to Christianity for a long time and did not really take into account the opinion of local residents.
To the question of the prince "what will the volkh be busy with today?", he, not feeling a dirty trick, answered that he would work "great miracles." Prince Gleb took out an ax from under his cloak and vilely hacked to death the Slavic sorcerer. After that, the Novgorodians, although not changing their minds, were forced to disperse.

Reasons for the uprisings:

Christianity, which supplanted the cult of the old gods through the cult of Byzantine saints, penetrated into Russia extremely hard. At the same time, the local ecclesiastical and secular nobility, using their wealth, enriching themselves as a result of the exploitation of the local population, enslaved their relatives.
Orthodoxy (from the words "praise Rule") was native faith Slavs, it successfully resisted the inculcated Christianity with the power of the sword.
Volkh is a representative of his native, familiar religion. He himself came out of the community, he is close to the rural people. In the view of the rural people, the sorcerer is associated with a free state, with the absence of princely tributaries, virniki and other princely "husbands". When there was a sorcerer, there were no tributes, no carts, no vir, the community members had the land, their property was land, fields, fields, crops and forests. They celebrated old holidays, adhered to their native customs, prayed to their native gods. Now, not only in the princely chambers and grid rooms, but throughout Russia, the sorcerer was supplanted by a priest and a princely danshik who had come from Byzantium.
Tributes and extortions, vira and wagons, the appearance of new owners on the communal lands - boyars and monasteries, the expropriation of communal lands and lands, enslavement by the local "old child", the introduction of Christianity and the appearance of temples and sacred groves of churches in place - all this is understandable reasons caused a fierce hatred of the Russians for the authorities and the imposed religion.

Chapter two. The first popular uprisings in Suzdal and Novgorod in the 11th century (Speech of the Magi)

The first major popular uprising broke out in Suzdal. It was directed against the local social elite - the "old child". At the dawn of Russian history, almost the entire territory of Suzdal was covered with dense forest. It stretched in a continuous array, concealing in itself numerous rivers, streams, lakes, swamps. Only in some places along the Oka and in Opole ( The land lying between Vladimir, Yuryev Polsky and Pereyaslavl Zalessky) lay treeless spaces - fields, spurs of distant steppes.

Oak, maple, linden, mountain ash, hazel, the farther north, the more and more often interspersed with pine and spruce forests, and in the north and northeast from the line running from the mouth of the Neva to Ilmen, and from there to the upper reaches of the Volga and The lower reaches of the Oka, the southern border of the Eastern European taiga stretches. Taiga spruce, pine, fir, juniper combined with birch, aspen, alder. And, finally, farther away, in the north of Suzdal, lay gloomy spruce forests, endless moss swamps and marshy lowlands, harsh but bright pine forests, cut through by cold, clean-streaming northern rivers. The Volga, Oka, Sheksna, Moskva River flowed through the Suzdal land and lakes lay: Nero, Kleshchino, Beloozero.

In ancient times, the Eastern Slavs settled in the wooded Suzdal region. The ancient population of the region - Merya, in the region of Rostov the Great, and the whole, who lived near Beloozero, had long ago entered into relations with Eastern Slavs and, having fallen under the influence of their more high culture, gradually became Russified and dissolved among the Russians who settled the region.

From the northwest, from the Priilmensky, Novgorod lands, the Slovenes moved into the Suzdal land, the Krivichi moved from the upper reaches of the Volga, and, finally, in the southwest, the settlements of the Vyatichi, the oldest Slavic inhabitants of the Moskva River basin, stretched.

The Russian and Finno-Ugric population of the region was engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, but fishing, hunting and beekeeping played a very significant role. Crafts and trade developed, cities arose and grew. The most ancient cities of the region were Suzdal and Rostov, where the "old" boyars sat.

It was here, in the Suzdal land, that the first major popular uprising known to us from sources took place in ancient Russia. The reason for it was the famine that engulfed the Suzdal land in 1024 and caused a "great rebellion" in it. The ancient Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" reports that the common people began to beat the "old child", that is, the local rich nobility, who hid the stocks of bread, and that this uprising of the rural people was led by the Magi - the priests of the old, pre-Christian religion.

Obviously, the famine was only the immediate cause for the uprising, which had a pronounced anti-feudal character. The fact is that the famine itself was caused not only by crop failure. In chronicles, especially in Novgorod, we often find indications of starvation of the population. Famine was usually a consequence of "immeasurable rains", droughts, untimely frosts, dry winds, etc. But it should be noted that such hunger strikes, caused by climatic conditions, become common only in the period from the end of the 13th century to early XVII c., when there is a known deterioration in the climate. As for the period before the 11th century, then, judging by the chronicle, as well as the data of paleobotany, paleozoology, archeology and geology, the climate of ancient Russia was warmer, milder and more constant than in later times. Of course, the famine of 1024 could have been the result of some natural disaster that befell the Suzdal land. But we must not forget that the peasant economy in those days was extremely unstable: the slightest crop failure caused famine, but the popular uprising is associated only with the famine of 1024.

What is the matter here? The chronicle says that the famine this year did not cover all segments of the population of Suzdal. The "old child" did not starve, she held in her hands stocks of bread - "gobinos". IN Old Russian the word "gobino" meant the harvest of cereals and fruits in general, but most often this term was applied to the harvest of grain breads. The chronicler emphasizes the fact that only "simple children" suffered from the famine that befell the Suzdal land in 1024. The “old child”, obviously, took advantage of the people's disaster - hunger: having taken bread into her hands and lending it to the starving, she enslaved the surrounding people, subjugated them, forced them to work for herself in her feudal economy. This one feudal exploitation and was the main cause of "the great rebellion and famine throughout that country", as the "Tale of Bygone Years" says under 1024. The famine stopped (people, in the words of the chronicler, "come to life", that is, came to life) only when the starving people of Suzdal traveled along the Volga to the land of the Kama Bulgarians and brought back bread ("zhito").

The uprising of the smerds of the Suzdal land against the "old child" made the ruling feudal elite alarmed. It was not famine, but precisely the “great rebellion” that forced Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who was then in Novgorod, to devote all his attention to the events in Suzdal. That is why Yaroslav with his army is not sent to Chernigov, where at that time his rival and competitor Mstislav sat on the princely table, but to the Suzdal land, where the "false magi" appeared, who raised an uprising of the "simple child" in the villages.

Arriving in the Suzdal Territory, Yaroslav captured the Magi, executed some, and sent others into exile ( See "The Tale of Bygone Years", part 1, pp. 99-100, 299). The Novgorod Chronicle contains some additional information about the uprising of 1024. It tells that some of the rebels against the "old child" were killed, apparently during a clash with the prince's warriors, the property of the executed and exiled participants in the uprising was looted ( See "Novgorod IV Chronicle", St. Petersburg, 1915, p. 112). Thus ended the first major peasant uprising in Russia. Unfortunately, the chronicles did not preserve its details.

The originality of this popular movement lay in the fact that at the head of the smerds who rebelled against the "old child" were the Magi, who sought to use the anti-feudal uprising of the people to return to the former pre-Christian cults.

This was not the only attempt by the Magi to regain their former influence. In the "Tale of Bygone Years" under 1071 follows a story about the speeches of the Magi in Kyiv, Novgorod and Suzdal land, in particular in Belozerye.

It should be noted that the chronicle date - 1071 - is incorrect. Notable explorers Russian chronicles - A. A. Shakhmatov and M. D. Priselkov convincingly proved that these uprisings took place in different time between 1066 and 1069

Under 1071, they were placed by the chronicler who compiled this part of the Tale of Bygone Years, who recorded the story of the uprising in Suzdal from the words of Jan Vyshatich, a wealthy and influential boyar, a prominent combatant of the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (son of Yaroslav the Wise).

Jan Vyshatich was an eyewitness to this uprising; it was he who suppressed the movement of smerds in the Suzdal land and dealt with their leaders - the Magi. The chronicler under one year placed in the annals both the story of Jan Vyshatich and all the speeches of the Magi known to him. He could not date them exactly, and therefore in his story such expressions are constantly encountered: "at the same time", "once", "under Prince Gleb".

The first time was the performance of the sorcerer in Kyiv. A. A. Shakhmatov believes that it may have taken place in 1064. The Magus appeared in Kyiv and began to prophesy that in the fifth year the Dnieper would flow in the opposite direction, and the lands would begin to move - Greek land would take the place of Russian, and Russian - Greek; other lands will also change their location.

The chronicler reports that the "ignorant" (that is, the ignorant, by which one should mean the people of Kiev, who had not yet renounced the usual, so-called pagan beliefs) listened to his sermon, and the baptized people of Kiev, that is, those who had converted to Christianity, laughed at him .

We must not forget that Christianity in Russia became the official state dominant religion only at the end of the 10th century, 80 years before the events we are describing, and at the same time, acting as a force strengthening the feudal social order and the feudal state, it naturally met with rebuff and hostility from the working people of the cities and villages of ancient Russia. And the failure of the sorcerer, who, as the Tale of Bygone Years says, went missing one night, is explained by the fact that in the Middle Dnieper region, in Kyiv, feudal statehood has long been established, the princely military-druzhina organization has strengthened, and the Christian church has become a mighty force. Therefore, the preaching of the sorcerer in Kyiv could not be successful, although it represented a certain danger for the Kiev feudal lords. And, obviously, not without their participation, the Kyiv sorcerer suddenly disappeared, moreover, he disappeared at night, when Kiev "ignorant people" from the "simple child" could not intercede for him ( "The Tale of Bygone Years", part 1, pp. 116-117, 317).

A similar situation developed at the other end of Russia, on the banks of the Volkhov, in Novgorod. Here, under Prince Gleb, the son of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, the sorcerer also once spoke.

Novgorod - the second largest city after Kyiv in ancient Russia - to a greater extent retained the old, pre-Christian beliefs. His numerous "simple child" resisted both the Christian church and the Kiev princes, who sought to subjugate Novgorod, put their warriors in a particularly privileged position and force the Novgorodians to pay tribute. It is no coincidence that an ancient tradition, recorded, however, in a late chronicle, tells that the governors of the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich - Dobrynya and Putyata baptized the Novgorodians with fire and sword.

In the events of the beginning of the 11th century, in particular in the inter-princely strife between Yaroslav the Wise and Svyatopolk the Accursed, Novgorod smerds and especially ordinary people from the townspeople played big role. They helped Yaroslav to defeat Svyatopolk, who was supported by the interventionists - the troops of the Polish king Boleslav, consisting of Poles ("Poles") and mercenaries - Germans and Hungarians ("Ugrians"). For this help, Yaroslav generously endowed the Novgorodians: Novgorodians and elders, as it is written in the Novgorod Chronicle, received 10 hryvnia each, and smerds - each hryvnia. In addition, and even more importantly, Yaroslav gave the "Russian Pravda" (the so-called "Ancient Truth"), in which the Novgorodians were equated with princely men, and some other charter that has not come down to us.

All this gave a certain confidence to the actions of the sorcerer in Novgorod under Gleb Svyatoslavich. Talking to people, the sorcerer claimed that he could work miracles, for example, the Volkhov crossed in front of everyone, that he knew in advance what would happen, and blasphemed the Christian faith. The speeches of the sorcerer had an effect. The majority of Novgorodians sided with the sorcerer. They were already planning to kill the Novgorod bishop. Putting on a vestment, the bishop went out to the people of Novgorod and addressed them with a speech: "Whoever wants to believe the sorcerer, let him follow him, whoever truly believes, let him go to the cross." The result was unexpected for the bishop: “And the people were divided in two: Prince Gleb and his retinue went and stood near the bishop, and the people all went and stood behind the sorcerer.

Prince Gleb did not lose his head. Hiding an ax under his cloak, he approached the sorcerer and, after a brief verbal skirmish, killed the sorcerer with an ax blow. Having lost their leader, "people dispersed" ( "The Tale of Bygone Years", part 1, pp. 120-121, 321).

Thus ended the performance of the Novgorodians. The most significant uprising of the smerds, led by the Magi, known to us from the sources, was the uprising in the Suzdal land, dated by the annals of 1071. Jan Vyshatich told the chronicler how once, when for some time (after 1067) Belozerye belonged to his prince, Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, he went there, to the far North, to collect tribute, accompanied by twelve combatants ("youths") and a priest ("priest").

In those days, there was such an order. The "prince's husband", who collected tribute ("tributor") or monetary fines - "virs" ("virnik"), together with his warriors and servants, transferred to the maintenance of the population of those lands where he acted. At that time, the tributary considered the smerds, from whom he collected tribute, not only princely, but also his own people, since part of the tribute collected from them went in his favor.

Arriving at White Lake, Jan Vyshatich, from the words of Belozersk, learned about the uprising of the Magi. This uprising began in the Rostov region, in the Suzdal land. The reason for it, as in 1024, was the lack of crops ("poverty") and the famine that followed it. Two wise men came to the starving region from Yaroslavl and declared that they knew who was holding food supplies ("abundance") in their hands. An uprising broke out. The smerds, led by the Magi, moved along the Volga and along the Sheksna. Coming to one or another graveyard, where the "carriages" were sitting, bringing tribute, that is, the very "old child" mentioned by the "Tale of Bygone Years" under 1024, they pointed to the "best wives", saying, that one holds a rye, another holds honey, a third holds fish, and so on.

The chronicler talks about the consequences of the denunciation of the "best wives" by the Magi, who accumulated large stocks of food. In The Tale of Bygone Years we read:

"And they began to bring their sisters, their mothers and their wives to them. The Magi, in a suggestion, cutting their shoulders, took out either live or fish from there and thus killed many women, and seized their property for themselves" ("The Tale of Bygone Years", part 1 (translated by D. S. Likhachev and B. A. Romanov))

A little further we will explain this strange story chronicles of the massacre of the "best wives", and now we will focus primarily on social content led by the Magi, the movement of smerds, which engulfed the Suzdal region, the vicinity of Sheksna and the Belozersky Territory.

M. N. Tikhomirov drew attention to the Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal, which provides a number of important details indicating that the story of the uprising in the Suzdal land, placed in the Chronicler, is more ancient and reliable than in The Tale of Bygone Years .

From the "Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal" we learn that the Belozersk, who told Yan Vyshatich about the uprising of the smerds who came to them from the Volga and Sheksna, were not on the side of the rebels; they lamented that the smerds had “many wives and killed a husband,” and that as a result of this, “there is no one to take tribute from.”

It follows from this that the informants of the princely tributary Jan Vyshatich were those Belozersk who were responsible for collecting tribute, took it to the graveyards, where the "princely men" arrived for tribute, acted as "carriers", that is, they were not close to smerds, but to the "best husbands" and "best wives" who suffered from smerds.

In addition, the "Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal" makes it possible to establish one more feature of the uprising of smerds.

"The Tale of Bygone Years" reports that the victims of the rebellious smerds were women, "the best wives", that is, the mistresses of wealthy houses. The Novgorod Chronicles also speak of this, and the Novgorod IV Chronicle transfers the story of the actions of the rebels who beat the "old child of the woman" (i.e., the women of the "old child"), placed under 1071, to the events of 1024. All this gave a reason to express the idea of ​​preserving the maternal clan, matriarchy in the north-east of Russia, when the head of the family was not a man, but a woman who was also the distributor of all property belonging to the clan or family.

The Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal, in contrast to The Tale of Bygone Years and the Novgorod Chronicles, reports that during the uprising, not only wives were killed, but also "a lot ... the husband killed", i.e. among those who died at the hands of the rebels were not smerds only women, but also men.

And this is quite understandable, since, of course, there can be no question of any maternal clan in Russia in the 11th century. The point is, as we shall see, that the products accumulated by wealthy families in certain cases were actually disposed of by the "best wives."

The reprisals against the "best wives" and "best husbands", as a result of which the property of the rich local elite, the "old child" went to the smerds suffering from hunger and bondage, led to the fact that when the rebel smerds came to Beloozero, their detachment numbered 300 human. Here they were met by Jan Vyshatich. First of all, he asked whose smerds the leaders of the uprising, the Magi, were. Upon learning that they were the smerds of his prince, Svyatoslav, Jan Vyshatich demanded that the people of Belozersk extradite them.

"Give these Magi here, because they are my and my prince's stinkers," he declared to the people of Belozersk. The inhabitants of Belozersky did not listen to him, obviously not daring to go into the forest where the rebels were. Then Jan Vyshatich decided to act himself. In the beginning, he wanted to go to the rebellious smerds alone, without weapons, but his warriors ("youths") advised him against, and soon the whole well-armed squad of Jan, numbering twelve people, moved to the forest, and with it the priest ("popin"). The rebels, regarding whom the "Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal" emphasizes that they were smerds ("... a smerda took up arms against"), left the forest and prepared for battle. Jan Vyshatich moved towards them with an ax in his hand. Then three smerds separated from the detachment of the rebels, approached Jan and said: "You see for yourself that you are going to your death, do not go." Jan ordered his warriors to kill them and moved on, to the smerds who were standing and waiting for him. Then the smerds rushed at Jan, and one of them swung an ax at him. Yang snatched the ax from the hands of the smerd, hit him with a butt and ordered his warriors to cut down the rebels. The smerds retreated to the forest, having managed to kill the priest Jan along the way. Jan Vyshatich did not dare to enter the forest after the smerds and engage in battle with them. He preferred a different way of dealing with the rebels. Returning to the city of Beloozero, Yan told the people of Beloozero that if they did not seize the Magi who had come from the Suzdal land (“if you do not bring these smerds”), then he would not leave them for at least a year. The prospect of feeding and watering Jan and his retinue and collecting tribute to them all year round smiled little at the White Lakers. They had to act on their own. The Belozersk managed to capture the Magi and hand them over to Jan.

During the interrogation, the Magi held firm. They explained the murder of so many people by the fact that the dead had large reserves ("abundance") and if they were exterminated, then everyone would have abundance ("gobinos"). The Magi entered into a theological dispute with Jan, stubbornly refusing to recognize Jan's right to judge them, declaring that they were only under the jurisdiction of their prince, Svyatoslav. Apparently, they were well aware of Russkaya Pravda, which said that it was impossible to “torment a smerd without a prince of the word,” that is, smerds are under the jurisdiction of the prince only and no one but the prince can punish them. The Magi courageously withstood the torture that Jan Vyshatich subjected them to.

Having made fun of the powerless Magi, Yang gave them to the "carriages", whose wives, mothers, sisters and daughters ("the best wives") died at their hands. The “carriage workers” dealt with the Magi according to the old custom of blood feud, according to which the relatives of the murdered man took revenge on the murderers. Here in the North, blood feud was still widespread and even recognized by the princely court as something coming "from God in truth." Revenging for the death of their relatives, the wagoners killed the Magi, and their corpses were hung on an oak at the mouth of the Sheksna ( "The Tale of Bygone Years", part 1, pp. 117-119, 317-319; "Chronicler Pereyaslavl of Suzdal", M., 1851, pp. 47-48). Such is the chronicle story about the uprising of the Magi in Suzdal, which engulfed the Rostov region, Yaroslavl, Sheksna, Beloozero.

Who rose to the call of the Magi to exterminate the "best wives" in the churchyards, because they keep "gobinos", "abundance", and "let the famine"? Who "takes away for himself" "their possessions"? Obviously, those who did not have this "abundance", from whom the "old child" - the backbone of princely power - charged all kinds of products and "goods" in order to pay them as tribute to the prince or "prince's husband", the same Jan Vyshatich. These were those whom the owners of "gobin houses" enslaved in various "rows" and "kupas", those who became feudally dependent and exploited people.

It was a "rural land", simple smerds. And Jan Vyshatich had every reason to consider not only three hundred rebels who came with the Magi to Beloozero, but also the Magi themselves as stinks. That is why in the hands of the rebels a typical weapon of the peasants is an ax, that is why in the miniatures of the Radzivilov (Koenigsberg) chronicle, the feudal lord Jan, armed with a sword, is depicted in long-skirted clothes, dressed in shirts and trousers and armed with axes. The later chronicler was right, illustrating the story of Jan Vyshatich recorded by the chronicler in this way. The "Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal" was also right, insistently emphasizing that both the Magi, and those who exterminated the "best" wives and husbands, and the three hundred rebels whom Yan Vyshatich encountered in the forests of Belozerye, were all smerds.

The uprising in the Suzdal land had a large scale and this differed from the performance of the sorcerer in Kyiv. The explanation for this is not difficult to find in the specifics of the social life of the far North. If for the south of Russia, for the Dnieper region, the time has already passed when the vassals - boyars, combatants received from their master, prince, awards in the form of a part of the tribute collected by him, if the “boyarization” of the lands was quickly going on there, and with it the transformation of tribute into a permanent feudal rent, things were different in the northeast. Here, in the land of the ancient local population - Meri and Vesi and the Krivichi and Slovil who came from the west, only fiefs (i.e., princely awards) appeared, consisting only in the right to collect tribute for themselves, behind which "princely men" wandered around in the polyudya; here the rich, noble, influential and arrogant boyars of the "old cities" - Rostov and Suzdal - were just beginning to grow from the local "old child".

That is why the rebellious magicians so stubbornly defended their right to "stand before Svyatoslav". They considered themselves tributaries (subjects in the literal and figurative sense) only of the prince, recognized the right of "princely husbands" - tribute-payers to collect tribute from them, but they refused to consider themselves at the same time smerds, "princely husband", by the will of the prince receiving tribute from their land.

Smerd cannot be "tormented" "without the prince's word" - the rebellious sorcerers knew this for sure and therefore boldly quarreled with Jan Vyshatich, invoking their gods and referring to the authority of the princely legislation - "Russian Truth".

The uprising of the Magi suppressed by Jan Vyshatich was not the last in Suzdal. In 1091, again "the sorcerer appeared in Rostov, but soon died" ( "The Tale of Bygone Years", part 1, pp. 141, 342).

Although the uprisings of the smerds, led by the Magi, took place in Kyiv and Novgorod, why is there more information about the uprisings that broke out in Suzdal, in the north-east of Russia?

The fact is that on the territory of the Middle Dnieper they took place in more early times when chronicle writing was not yet so developed. Therefore, they did not get into the annals. Concerning northeastern Russia, then here is the time for this kind of social movements came a little later, in the 11th century, when chronicle writing had already reached high development And important events, which took place even far from Kyiv, were reflected in the annals.

In addition, this peculiar character of the movement of smerds is explained by the fact that the northeast, inhabited not only by Russians, but also by tribes of the Finno-Ugric languages, in the X-XI centuries. lagged behind in its development from the Dnieper region. Ethnic diversity of this region, slower pace community development its population, the slower spread of a new, class ideology, Christianity - all this contributed to the fact that the uprisings of the smerds that took place here were more long time retained the form of the movement of the Magi.

Indeed, how to explain the incomprehensible passage from the annals, which says that the Magi inflicted wounds on the "best wives" and took out of the wounds life, fish, furs?

Back in the middle of the last century, the Mordovians had a ritual reminiscent of a chronicle story about the strange actions of the Magi in Suzdal. This rite consisted in the fact that special collectors went around the yards and collected supplies for public sacrifices from women who kept these supplies in special bags worn over their shoulders. After praying, the collector cut off the sack and at the same time lightly stabbed the woman in the shoulder or back several times with a special sacred knife.

Apparently, the chronicler tied religious rite, common at that time in the northeast, with the movement of the Magi.

Did the magicians really perform their ritual functions during the uprising, did the chronicler consider the murdered wives of the "best husbands" seen by Jan Vyshatich as victims of the rite, during which the magicians did not stab, but killed (for which, as we saw, there were reasons) , is difficult to determine.

If we take into account that the region where the uprising of the Magi unfolded has long been inhabited by the whole and measure, among which similar customs were common, observed among the Mordovians eight centuries later, then we will understand some strange at first glance features of the uprisings of the Magi.

The half-Russian - half-Finno-Ugric, "Chudsky" North was very attached to primitive beliefs, to the Magi, sorcerers. It is no coincidence that under the same year 1071, the chronicler also placed the story of a certain Novgorodian who visited the "chud", that is, the region of the Komi-Zyryans, where he observed the scene of a real shamanship of a magician who fell into a frenzy, who was lying in convulsions ("shibe im demon" ).

Christianity, which supplanted the cult of the old gods through the cult of saints, penetrated the northeast of Russia extremely slowly. The Christian world was too far from Sheksna and Sukhona; the Christian church had earlier and rather strengthened itself on the banks of the Dnieper than in the distant desert forests of Belozerye.

Based on the analysis of all the messages of the chronicle and using ethnographic material, we will try to characterize the uprisings of the smerds. The "old child" was the local feudalizing elite, asserting its dominance on the fragments of the decaying primitive communal system. Judging by archaeological materials and ethnographic data, one part of it belonged to the Russified remnants of the ancient Eastern Finno-Ugric population of the region, and the other part was made up of Krivichi, Slovene and Vyatichi settlers. Among the descendants of the original population of this region are Mary, still long time there were some customs that were different from Russians and brought them closer to the neighboring and related Mordovians. This "old child" helped the princely tributaries to collect tribute, carried the "wagon", delivered the collected to special princely "places", was the support of the "princely husbands" during the "polyudya".

At the same time, the local nobility, using their wealth, and perhaps relying on the remnants of tribal institutions, enriching themselves as a result of the exploitation of the servants, enslaved their relatives. Establishing feudal forms of dependence and holding "gobino", "abundance" and "zhito" in her hands, she became the arbiter of the destinies of her less well-to-do neighbors. And every "happiness" (hunger) she used in order to subjugate the surrounding population with loans and enslaving deals. That is why she was accused of holding "gobinos and rye" and "smoking gladly." This was the reason for the uprising and the extermination of the "old child".

But how to explain the fact that these uprisings appear before us as movements of the Magi? The long-term domination of primitive tribal cults, which stubbornly resisted, especially here, in the northeast, by force of the sword, Christianity being introduced, the spread of sorcery, which is so characteristic mainly for the northern lands of Russia, and, finally, the peculiarities of the very structure of the communal organization were the reason that the first uprisings of a dependent or semi-dependent rural people against the feudal lords take the form of uprisings of the Magi. The Magus is a representative of the old, familiar religion, the religion of primitive communal times. He himself came out of the community, he is close to the rural people, he himself is often stinky. In the view of the rural people, the sorcerer is associated with a free state, with the absence of princely tributaries, virniki and other princely "husbands". When there was a sorcerer, there were no tributes, no carts, no vir, the community members had the land, their property was land, fields, fields, crops and forests. They celebrated old holidays, adhered to ancient customs, prayed to the old gods. Now, not only in the princely rooms and grid rooms, but throughout Russia, the sorcerer was supplanted by the priest.

Tributes and requisitions, vira and wagons, the appearance of new owners on the communal lands - boyars and monasteries, expropriation of communal lands and lands, enslavement by the local "old child", the introduction of Christianity and the appearance of temples and sacred groves of churches in place, and instead of the Magi - priests - all this, for quite understandable reasons, in the imagination of the people of distant northeastern villages merged into one, into something that brought the end of their usual communal life. To take a swing at the "old child" meant to oppose the prince, to rebel at the head of the sorcerer, meant to start a fight with the church, with the priest, that is, ultimately with the same prince. Therefore, at the head of the movements of smerds are sorcerers, servants of the old gods, strict guardians of ancient customs, leaders of religious festivities that have been celebrated from generation to generation, keepers of miraculous mysteries and supernatural knowledge, sorcerers and sorcerers who communicate with the gods, who know how to propitiate them, asking them for blessings for people - "dazhbozh's grandchildren."

The movements of the smerds, led by the Magi, are complex. The goals of the rebellious smerds and the Magi are different. Smerds are struggling with feudalization, which is inevitably approaching them. For them, the uprising against the "old child" and the prince with his "husbands" is nothing but a struggle against the strengthening of feudalism. For the Magi, this is a struggle for the restoration of the old way of life, for the preservation of the old, pre-class religion, and with it the position that they previously occupied in society. The Magus is a fragment of a dying world, a supporter of the dying old order. He calls back, his aims are reactionary. The smerds are still listening to the voice of the sorcerer. The authority of the sorcerer is still high. As later, religious motives play an important role in the struggle of the rural people against the feudal lords. When the sorcerer calls on the smerd to oppose Christianity, the fight against christian church develops into a speech against the prince, the boyars and vice versa. close union ruling class with the church creates a similar specificity of the first anti-feudal movements. Feudalization and Christianization coincided in time.

The feudal lords fell upon the community member, ruined him, turned the entire community as a whole into an organization of the dependent rural population subject to the feudal lord and, robbing the smerd, turned him into a bonded person.

At the same time, Christianity, penetrating everywhere along with the "princely men", displaced the old communal gods, destroyed places of worship, places of prayer, gatherings and gatherings, expelled the emerging and, the further north, the more powerful and influential priesthood, breaking the ideology of the primitive communal system. The struggle for the old ideology, the struggle against Christianity became a form of revolt of the smerds. Not being able to resist the feudal lord in an open struggle, the smerd sought to repulse him, organizing around the old communal principles, communal life, customs, and beliefs. But this struggle of the rural people of Russia had a different character, different from the aspirations of the Magi. Final Goals the Magi and the Smerds dispersed. The Magi have been thrown overboard in history. They looked back, into the past, and gone into the past. The people, the rural people, could not become a thing of the past. His uprisings could not lead to the elimination of the emerging and growing feudalism, but they were a link in the general stubborn struggle of the masses of the people against feudalism, with the church and the Christian religion for communal orders, for land without boyars, for their original culture, colored by ancient beliefs.

What were the results of the smerd uprisings?

Sources have not preserved any indications that the performances of the Magi influenced at least to some extent the socio-political system of ancient Russia. Of course, the defeat of the uprisings of the smerds led to an increase in oppression, to the strengthening of feudal relations and princely power. However, the uprisings of the smerds were progressive, popular movements because they were directed against feudalism. And although the smerds looked back to the "golden age" of the primitive communal system, with its communal property, their struggle reflected the spontaneous discontent of the peasantry, which, in the end, led feudalism to death. The uprisings of the smerds were the first link in the chain of peasant uprisings.

Together with the withering away of primitive communal relations, tribal life, the tribal system, along with the growth of feudal relations, the specific form of uprisings of the smerds disappears - the performances of the Magi. They could take place in the world of communities, in the semi-natriarchal-semi-feudal village of the first decades after the baptism of Russia, but they no longer had a place in the city, there was no place in Russia for victorious feudalism and strengthened Christianity.

The magicians also disappear. In the "Chronicle of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal" there is one very interesting place. Narrating the massacre of the Magi with "wives", the chronicler reports that they "dream" (i.e. symbolically), "like buffoons", did their ritual action (See "Chronicler Pereyaslavl of Suzdal", p. 47). In this way, the chronicler brings the Magi closer to buffoons and sorcery with buffoonery.

The buffoon, like the sorcerer, with whom he becomes close and who, going into the past, bequeaths to him some of his functions, acts as a denouncer of "untruth", building oppression and violence. His "mockery" from chants and games (the ancient meaning of the term "glum") degenerates into satire. He uses the ancient epic, idealizing the "golden age" of the primitive communal system, and plays on its opposition to the new, feudal society.

The buffoon "glum" is dangerous for the authorities: "Laughter run dashing buffoon." Their "babble" about a glorious time long gone, and therefore even more idealized; buffoon, and for "people". And this was already a "stand up", "mutiny", from the point of view of the feudal nobility.

Thus ended the uprisings of the smerds, which took place in the shell of the movement of the Magi, ended without making any significant changes in public life ancient Russia.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible, the country plunged into real chaos. The heir to the throne, Fyodor Ivanovich, was not able to conduct political affairs in the country, and Tsarevich Dmitry was killed in infancy.

This period is called the Time of Troubles. For several decades, the country was torn apart by potential heirs to the throne, seeking to gain power by any means. And only with the coming to power of the Romanovs in 1613 did the Troubles begin to subside.

What uprisings took place at this time, and is it possible to highlight their key moments?

As a result of several decades of the Time of Troubles, the situation in the country was worse than ever. Internal uprisings weakened the state, making Ancient Russia a tasty morsel for foreign invaders. The establishment of the power of a new royal family was inevitable, and after a long debate, the Romanovs were in power.

Ahead of the country was 300 years under the rule of the Romanovs, technological progress and the Age of Enlightenment. All this would have been impossible if the Troubles had not been suppressed in time, and the disputes for the throne would have continued.