Chud

Priest A. Grandilevsky, narrating in 1910 about the homeland of M. V. Lomonosov, gives legends about the sanctuary «Chud idol of the god Iomally or Yumala», known from the descriptions of the 11th century, in connection with the city of Burma, which was on the banks of the Dvina and was a trading center of the edge. The legend says that in the rich cemetery in the middle «stood the idol of the god Iomalla or Yumalla, made very skillfully from the best tree: the idol was decorated with gold and precious stones… A golden crown with twelve rare stones shone on Yumalla’s head, his necklace was valued at 300 marks (150 pounds) of gold. On his lap stood a golden chalice filled with gold coins – a chalice so large that four people could get drunk out of it to the full. His clothes were superior in price to the cargo of the richest ships.»

The Icelandic chronicler Shturlezon, as A. Grandilevsky notes, «describes the same thing, mentions a silver bowl; the scientist Kostren confirms the narrative of folk legends about the treasures of the glorious people. One of these legends is listed in the memorial book of the Kurostrov church (sheet 1887, sheet 4 -th) reads:

«The idol of Yumaly was fused from silver and attached to the largest tree.» The very name of Yumal, Yomall or Yamal (recorded in the story about the campaign of the Norwegian Gund in 1025—1026 in Biarmia), surprisingly close to the name of the Vedic god of death, Yama (Yima); the possibility of such parallels convinces finding the idol in the cemetery and the fact that he was «attached to the largest tree.» Here, it is probably appropriate to recall the words of one of the texts of the Rig Veda, namely, «Conversation of a Boy with a Dead Father: I. Where under the divnifolia tree drinks with all the gods Yama our parent is the head of the clan there passes dear ancestors. We are this abode of Yama worship the gods blowing reeds decorate with laudatory stump.» (R.V.X.13)

And since the «temple of Yumalla (Yamal) was worshiped by the» gods as a home», there is nothing surprising in the fact that» Chud, coming to pray, sacrificed silver and gold into the bowl «and that» it was impossible to steal money or idol, because Chud she took good care of her god, constantly there were sentinels near him, so that they wouldn’t miss any thieves, springs were drawn near the idol, who would touch the idol, although with one finger, now the springs will sparkle, ring all kinds of bells and you won’t go anywhere…».

Note that Chud in the legends about her is constantly called the «white-eyed», which does not at all indicate the classic Finno-Ugric character of appearance, but on the contrary emphasizes the specific, inherent to the Northern Aryans exceptional light-eyedness.

A. Grandilevsky notes that in the memorial book of the Kurostrov Church it is written: «Until recently, this spruce was the subject of many superstitions… they were afraid to pass and pass by the spruce, especially at night, and schismatics considered it a sacred grove and buried there until 1840 the dead.» Thus, the spruce was considered sacred until 1840 among the Old Believers, which is generally not peculiar to the specifically Finno-Urian shrines.

It must be said that A. Grandilevsky (being a priest), nevertheless draws the following conclusion: «Culturally, the ancient Zavolotsky Chud, when it became already historically known, hardly differed much from the Kiev or Novgorod Slavs, it could hardly be in the category of half-savages, in the strictest sense of the word, because its development was far ahead of all other tribesmen… lived settled, having a capital… serf suburbs, graveyards and large settlements… your religious ritual… had princes to protect against enemies, erected pretty good urban or serf embankments… from prehistoric times, it had a very wide trade with the Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxons, with all Chud and Finnish peoples… Already Shturlezon, the Icelandic chronicler wrote about the fabulous riches of Yumalla, Norwegians were even interested in farming, which had taken root in the life of Zavolotsky Chud, and talked about him as an item worth special attention… The Dvinsky Zavolochye constituted the center of general attention and it was such only in the first quarter of the 11th century».

Kur-ostrov

A. Grandilevsky derives from «Chudsky native dialect» such names as Dvina, Pechora, Kholmogory, Ranula, Kurya, Kurostrov, Nalostrov, etc. But today we know that such hydronyms as Dvina and Pechora are of Indo-European origin; Racula – finds parallels in Sanskrit, where – Ra – possessing, contributing, a kúla – herd, clan, flock, crowd, many, family, noble family, noble clan, union, household, home, home.

As for Kurya, Kur-islands and Nal-islands, their names are close to the names of the ancestors of the «northern Kuru» of Mahabharata (an ancient Aryan family) – Nalya and Kuru.

Here it makes sense to cite the text of A. Grandilevsky, who delightfully described these parts at the beginning of the 20th century: «And, one legend says, in the region where the city of Kholmogory and its suburbs is now, a half-wild man of chudin came in the name of Kur, with him his mother, and probably a wife and some of his relatives or fellow tribesmen. The aliens really liked the delightful terrain of the future Kholmogory, everything here was the best for them. in the vicinity, many lakes, magnificent spruce groves and impenetrable wilds of black wood, gloomy wooded ravines, grassy islands provided convenient places for animal hunting, and for fishing, and for bird hunting, and for peaceful domestic work, and to protect against the enemy. Here, in the summer and in the winter, the water expanse opened beautiful paths to anywhere; in short, whatever the half-wild son of nature would have wished for himself, ready-made stocks opened up for him everywhere. Huge herds of wild moose and deer ran in here; here constantly lived bears, wolves, foxes, ferrets, martens, ermines, arctic foxes, lynxes, wolverines, squirrels, hares, in countless numbers; Ducks, geese, swans, pockmarks, black grouse, cranes, partridges, etc.; rivers and lakes were teeming with fish; immense numbers of mushrooms and berries were born. In deep troughs there could be natural and convenient pens for catching animals, for baiting moose and deer. In countless lake reservoirs, in straits and inlets, there were magnificent places for fishing with wicker, tops and just for killing anything, and catching a water or forest bird with snares asked for any savage in its own hands, as an easy task… The courageous Kur of his loneliness was not horrified; he liked the new area so much that he decided to stay here forever, not inviting anyone except his few companions. And so he occupied a high round hill in the bend of the Strait of Dvina, which since then has received his name along with the hill. Kur lived with his mother and others, until his own family grew up; then the children remained with their father, and their grandmother and those who had come with him earlier moved west to the high hills beyond the Bystrokurka River, than the folk tradition explains the origin of the Matigorsk region… Due to special life conveniences, and the fact that the Chud tribe was never exterminated here, as happened in neighboring regions, it was never driven out by anyone, it did not wage war, and it lived a settled working life, the future Kholmogorsky district was quickly filled with a population that has grown into a whole powerful independent semi-wild people – Chud Zavolotskaya.»

Kholmogory

It should be noted that further A. Grandilevsky describes this «half-wild» people in such a way that this definition becomes completely inappropriate. He writes: «He was so isolated among his fellow tribesmen as a separate way of life, and a noticeable increase in mental development, and a prominent authority in the field of religious cult, that without any struggle he took a weighty front-line position and, having spread its borders throughout the Dvina coast from The Wagoy River, was such an impressive force, even the wild Ugra, countless at that time, didn’t dare to measure it».

The desire, so characteristic of the authors of the beginning of our century, to show Zavolotskaya the Chud a semi-wild Finnish tribe, then assimilated by the Dnieper and Novgorod Slavs, who are at a higher cultural level, quite often leads to glaring contradictions. So Grandilevsky writes that according to legend, the descendants of the Kura (Kuru?) Were powerful people («representing an impressive force») and at the same time, speaking of the stone arrows, knives and axes found in the area of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogor, he concludes that Chud «had nothing but stone tools».

For us today, these stone tools testify to the fact that people («in the initial stage of development of Zavolotskaya Chud» – according to A. Grandilevsky) inhabited these lands as far back as the Stone Age, and the educated Orthodox priest in 1910 considered that: «Almost this helplessness (among the people whose neighbors didn’t dare to measure strength) developed for Zavolotskaya Chud that amazing trick about which all kinds of stories circulate among the masses, weren’t these needs prompted by a small tribe („spread – its limits throughout the Dvina from the lower reaches and ending with the Vaga River “) to live, straining her forces in the struggle for self-preservation, didn’t she temper their body in such a powerful nature that among the people they are now amazed at the stories about the heroic strength of Zavolotskaya Chud, and these stories, it must be assumed, have some truth».

And further: «… traditions point to the heroic growth and strength of the ancient Chud and attribute to it the ability to talk to each other at enormous distances; from Kurostrov to Matigory, to Ukht-ostrov, and from there to Chukhchenemu.»

We must pay tribute to A. Grandilevsky, he was somewhat puzzled by the fact that the description of the heroic appearance of Chud did not match what he saw among the Kholmogory peasants – «eyes are dark brown, hair is black, sometimes like tar, dark complexion and usually low growth». One can agree with him that «the Finnish origin of the Chudian tribes does not speak at all in favor of powerful growth,» but it is difficult to imagine that «Chud Zavolotskaya herself could fall as an accidental exception, in special conditions that, however, were not included into a positive law for posterity».

Mati-gory

Havro-gory

Pomors

Indeed, the progress of the early Iron Age, when in the second half of 1 thousand BC the climate of the North of Eastern Europe changed dramatically and dark-coniferous taiga and tundra are replacing broad-leaved and mixed forests, the composition of the population has somewhat changed, and aliens from the Urals, Finno-Ugric tribes, are more actively involved in the process of ethnogenesis.

But you can’t say that in the Russian North (and especially among the Pomors) the same type of «lotus-blue-eyed, reed-haired, light-bearded» warriors sung by the «Mahabharata» or «golden-haired, blue-eyed arimasp of the ancient Greeks is so rare that it is so close to the descriptions of the mighty» white-eyed «Chud Zavolotskaya Russian chronicles and folk traditions. «Chud» (chudnyy, chudesnyy, chudo -miraculous, wonderful, miracle) – nothing in this name speaks of the Finno-Ugric affiliation of this people, it only indicates that it caused surprise among its neighbors, seemed to them «miraculous» or «miraculous» -«chudesnym» or «chudnym».

A. Grandilevsky writes further: «The mental power of the prehistoric Chud is not directly indicated in popular rumor, for it can already be said more thoroughly than the legends that Zavolotskaya Chud initially claimed to be human idol sacrifices, ferocious cruelty to enemies, inability to invent more the best adaptations for domestic life and work, but on the other hand it’s nowhere to be seen that she had a sympathy for wandering life, or did not allow open relations with other peoples, or had the inclinations to quickly assimilate the beginnings of cultures, is not visible in it «conquest, but there is evidence hinting at her particular desire for better public amenities, which later gave her extreme stability and widespread fame.»

The Kurostrovsky sleeve of the Dvina at the Kur village is known, at Kholmogor – Kuropolka. In the old days, the posad itself and the hillfort Kholmogor was called Kuropol. In the 19th century he was considered miraculous.

Richard James, in the early 17th century, recorded that in Kholmogory «Chud lived before, and she spoke a language different from the language of the Lapps and Samoyeds, but now she is no longer there.»

Pomors

Kevrola

Kargopol

According to the calculation of 1850, there was no Chud in the Arkhangelsk province, although 25 Gypsies, 1186 Germans and 570 Jews were noted.

According to the lists of settlements of the Arkhangelsk province in 1861 (information from parish lists), Chud lived with Russians in Arkhangelsk, Kholmogorsky and Pinezh counties.

In the Arkhangelsk district in the villages – Bobrovskaya (Bobrovo), Yemel’yanovskaya (Arkhangel’sko), Stepanovskaya (Kumovskaya, Kukoma), Savinskaya (Zarechka), Tsinovetskaya (Tsenovets), Filimonovskaya (Abramovshina), Uvarovskaya (Uarovskaya), Samyshevskaya (Boloto), Petrushevskaya (Peshkovo), Durasovskaya 1 (Mal’gina Gora) and Durasovskaya 2, Chukharevskaya (Chukarenskaya), Kondrat’yevskaya, Aleksandrovskaya, Yeletsovskaya, Ust’lyyadovskoye (Amosovo), Nefed’yevskaya, Burmachevskaya, Olodovskaya (Gorka), Mitrofanovskaya, Chukhchinskaya, Patrak’yevskaya, Ivaylovskaya.

In Kholmogorsky district in villages – Annina Gora (Vavchugskaya, Belaya Gora), Rogachevskaya (Surovo), Tikhanovskaya (Tikhnovskoye, Shubino), Matveyevskaya (Neverovo), Marikovskaya (Marilov Pogost), Perkhurovskaya (Pergurovskaya, Shagino), Petrovskaya (Petrovo), Danilovskaya (Churkino), Kosnovskaya (Puginy), Trekhnovskaya (Kuchin navolok), Boyarskaya, Andriyanovskaya (Tyshkunovo), Verkhnemategorskom-Yemetskom, Shil’tsova (Shal’tsova), Kozhevskaya gora (Kozhina Gora), Khvosty, Korchovskaya, Yursobitskaya, Goroncharovskaya (Goroncharovo), Sukhareva, Zapol’ye, Oseredskaya, Andreyanovskaya, Bereznik, Zaozerskaya, Filippovskaya, Perdunovskaya (Chasovenskaya-Kuznetsovka), Karzevskaya, Terebikha, Oshchepova (Yakimovskaya), Gorka (Zinov’yevskaya), Terent’yeva, Nizhniy Konets (Polumovskaya), Brosachevskaya (Brosachikha), Kul’minovskaya, Kyazmezhskaya (Kyazlish) (along the rivers Boyar-Kurya, Kurostrovka, Emtsa, Dvina, Vaimuga, Lake Kulmino).

In Pinezhsky County, a Chud place with Russians was in the villages of Verkhnekonskaya and Valtegorskaya (Valteva) (along the rivers Nemnyuga, Ezhuge and Pinega).