Archaic roots of traditional culture of the the Russian North. (Collection of scientific articles)

Translator Алексей Германович Виноградов

Editor Алексей Германович Виноградов

© Svetlana Vasilievna Zharnikova, 2025

© Алексей Германович Виноградов, translation, 2025

ISBN 978-5-0065-4205-1

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Svetlana Vasilievna Zharnikova

Svetlana Vasilievna Zharnikova

Introduction

One of the most important tasks set by the time for cultural workers is the task of restoring national identity, self-respect of the people. The solution to this problem is impossible without the study, restoration and propaganda of folk culture, the system of value orientations that took shape among the people during the millennia of its historical existence. In this regard, the problem of identifying the deep roots of the North Russian folk culture is extremely acute today. One of the main issues is the issue of temporal stratigraphy in connection with the latest data of paleo-climatology, paleo-anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology. So, at present, thanks to the discoveries of paleo-climatologists, the time frame of the period of the initial development of the territories of the Center and the North of the European part of Russia is being revised. It is assumed that already in the Mikulinsky inter-glacial epoch (130—70 thousand years ago), when the average winter temperatures were 8—12 degrees higher than at present, and the climate in a significant part of the Russian Plain up to the northern regions was identical to the modern climate of the Atlantic regions of Western Europe, human collectives came to the coast of the White and Barents Seas. During the ice-free Valdai period (70—24 thousand years ago), people with a sufficiently developed level of cultural traditions continue to inhabit the territory of the Center and North of Eastern Europe, as evidenced by the burials of the Sungir in the Vladimir region and the Mezinskaya Upper Paleolithic site in the Chernigov region (25—23 thousand BC). During the glacial Valdai (20—18 thousand years ago), as it has now been found out, by no means all the territories of the Russian Plain (in particular, the Russian North) were covered with a glacier, since its extreme eastern border ran along the Molosh-Sheksninsky boundary… Thus, to the east of this border (up to the Urals), mixed spruce-birch and birch-pine forests and meadow grass steppes, that is, territories suitable for human life, were distributed.

In the Mesolithic era (10—5 thousand BC), a period of warming begins in the vast expanses of the European North, and by the 7th millennium BC. here the average summer temperatures are 4—5 degrees higher than the modern ones, and the zone of mixed broad-leaved forests is advancing almost 550 km north of the modern border of its distribution. On the territory of the Vologda Oblast, the investigations of S. V. Oshibkina revealed a large number of monuments of the Mesolithic era. Anthropologically, the people buried in the burial grounds of this time are classical Caucasians without the slightest admixture of Mongoloid.

During this period, no movements of the population from the territory of the Urals and Trans-Urals (the zone of formation of the Finns-Ugric tribes) were revealed.

Similar conclusions were made by D. A. Krainov for the Neolithic era.

Similar shifts seem unlikely in the Bronze Age, when the movement of the population to the north of Eastern Europe is recorded, as a rule, from the lands of the Dnieper region, the Middle Volga region and the Volga-Ok interfluve.

Analyzing today the numerous finds of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze ages in the territories of the Center and North of the European part of Russia, we can assume with a considerable degree of confidence that up to the end of the Bronze Age (the end of the 2nd millennium BC) here lived tribes of Caucasians belonging to the Indo-European linguistic community. Already in the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze eras, a whole complex of ritual and mythological structures was formed in the Russian North, which in various transformed and often extremely archaic forms was preserved in the context of folk culture up to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and even up to now. These are ritual texts, a drawing of ritual dances, an ornament-amulet, etc. It is no coincidence that researchers believe that in Russian folk culture, elements have been preserved that are more archaic than not only ancient Greek ones, but also those recorded in the Vedas.

Thus, the previously accepted paradigm of the historical development of the European North of Russia, which asserted that these territories, starting from the post-glacial period, were populated by Finns-Ugric tribes who came from beyond the Urals (as a result of the pressure of the population surplus), which until the arrival of the Slavs here at the turn of 1—2 thous had a hunting-gatherer and fishing type of economy, is currently being revised.

The new paradigm seems to be as follows: according to modern data of paleo-climatology, anthropology, linguistics, ethnography and other related sciences, at the time of the arrival of the Slavs, the descendants of the ancient Indo-European population lived mainly in the territories of the European North of Russia, preserving the most archaic general Indo-European cultural traditions, an archaic type of lexicon and an archaic archaic a type. Their contact and mutual influence with the Slavic groups advancing into these territories was facilitated by the presence of a similarity of language, anthropological type and many cultural traditions, inherited by both of them from their common Indo-European ancestors.

Eastern Europe as the native land of Indo-Europeans

Among the many legends preserved by the memory of mankind, the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata is considered the greatest monument of culture, science and history of the ancestors of all Indo-European peoples. Initially, it was a story about the civil strife of the Kuru peoples, who lived more than 5 thousand years ago between the Ganges and Indus. Gradually new ones were added to the main text – and the Mahabharata came to us containing almost 200 thousand lines in 18 books. In one of them, called «Forest», sacred sources are described – the rivers and lakes of the country of ancient Aryans, that is, the land on which the events told in the epic unfolded.

But speaking of this country, called Bharata, we note that the final event of the narrative was the grand battle at Kurukshetra in 3102 BC. However, according to science, Aryan tribes in Iran and Hindustan did not exist at that time, and they lived in their ancestral home – far enough from India and Iran.

Where was she where all these grandiose events were unfolding? This question worried researchers back in the last century. In the mid-19th century, the idea was expressed that the territory of Eastern Europe was such an ancestral home. In the middle of the 20th century, the German scientist Scherer returned to the idea that the ancestral home of all Indo-Europeans was on the lands of Russia.

As known, the great river of our country – the Volga up to the 2nd century AD bore the name by which the holy book of the Zoroastrians of the Avesta – Ranha or Ra – knew her. But the Ranha Avesta is the Ganges of the Rigveda and Mahabharata.

According to Avesta, on the shores of the sea of Voorukasha (the «Milk Sea» of the Mahabharata) and Ranha (Volga) there were a number of Aryan countries – from Aryan-Wedge in the far north to seven Indian countries in the south, beyond Ranha.

The same seven countries are mentioned in the Rigveda and Mahabharata as the land between the Ganges and the Yamuna, on Kuruksetra. They are said about them: «The glorified Kurukshetra. All living beings, one has only to go there, get 7 rid of sins,» or «Kurukshetra – the holy Altar of Brahma; there are holy brahmanas-sages. Those who settled on Kurukshetra will never recognize sorrows».

The question naturally arises: so what kind of rivers are the Ganges and the Yamuna, between which the country of Brahma lay? We have already found out that the Ranha Ganga is the Volga. But ancient Indian traditions call the Yamuna the only large tributary of the Ganges, flowing from the southwest. Let’s look at the map and it will immediately become clear that the ancient Yamuna is our Eye!

Is it possible? Apparently – it is possible. It is no accident that during the Oka River, here and there, rivers with names comes across: Yamna, Yam, Ima, and Imyev. And moreover, according to Aryan texts, the second name of the Yamuna River was Kala. So, still the mouth of the Oka is called by the locals the mouth of the Kala. In addition, the Yamuna in the middle reaches was called Vaka, and the Oka River is also called in the Ryazan Region.

Other major rivers are mentioned in the Rigveda and Mahabharata. So not far from the source of the Yamuna (Oka) was located the source of the Sindhu River flowing east and south and flowing into the Red Sea (Red Sea) in Sanskrit – stream, sea). Recall that in the Irish and Russian annals the Black Sea was called the Cheremny, that is, the Red. So by the way, a section of its water area in the north is still called. On the shore of this sea, the Sind people lived and the city of Sind (modern Anapa) was located. It can be assumed that the Sindhu of the ancient Aryan texts is Don, whose sources are not far from the source of the Oka.

Moreover, in the postdeantic and Roman texts, Don is sometimes called Sind.

In the Volga-Oksk interfluve there are many rivers over whose names millennia have not been dominated.

To prove this, no special effort is required: it is enough to compare the names of the Pochye Rivers with the names of the «sacred krinits» of Mahabharata, more precisely, that part of it, which is known as the «Walking through the Krinitsa». It is in it that a description of more than 200 sacred reservoirs of the ancient Aryan land of Bharat in the basins of the Ganges and the Yamuna (as of 3150 BC) is given:

Krinitsa – River in the Oka River Basin

Agastya – Agashka

Aksha – Aksha

Apaga – Apaka

Archika – Archikov

Asita – Asata

Ahalya – Akhalenka

Wadawa – Wad

Vamana – Vamna

Vansha – Vansha

Varaha – Varah

Varadana – Varaduna

Kaveri – Kaverka

Kedara – Kidra

Kubja – Kubja

Kumara – Kumarevka

Kushika – Kushka

Manusha – Manushinskoy

Pari-plava – Plava and Plavitsa

Plaksha – Plaksa

Rama (Lake) – Rama (Lake)

Sita – Siti

Soma – Somi

Sutirtha – Suterki

Tushni – Tushina

Urvasi – Urvanovsky

Ushanas – Ushanets

Shankhini – Shankini

Shona – Shana

Shiva – Shivskaya

Yakshini – Yakshina

It is also surprising that we are dealing not only with the almost literal coincidence of the names of the sacred krinits of the Mahabharata and the rivers of Central Russia, but even with the correspondence of their relative position. So, in Sanskrit and in Russian, words with the initial «F» are extremely rare: from the list of Mahabharata Rivers, only one has an «F» at the beginning of the name – Falguna, which flows into Sarasvati. But according to ancient Aryan texts, Saraswati is the only big river, flowing north of the Yamuna and south of the Ganges and flowing into the Yamuna at its mouth. Only the river Klyazma located to the north of the Oka and south of the Volga corresponds to it. And what? Among hundreds of its tributaries, only one bears a name beginning with

«F» – Falyugin! Despite 5 thousand years, this unusual name practically has not changed.

Another example. According to the Mahabharata, south of the sanctified Kamyaka forest, the river Praveni flowed into the Yamuna (that is, the Pra River), with Lake Godavari (where «vara» is a Sanskrit circle). What about today? As before, south of the Vladimir forests, the Pra River flows into the Oka River and Lake Gode lies.

Or another example. Mahabharata tells how the sage Kaushika during the drought flooded the river Paru, renamed for it in his honor. But further the epic reports that the ungrateful locals still call the river Para and it flows from the south to the Yamuna (Oka). And what? The river Para still flows from the south to the Oka River and, like many thousands of years ago, the locals call it.

In the description of the krynitsa five thousand years ago, it is said, for example, about the Pandya River, flowing near the Varuna River, a tributary of Sindh (Don). But the Panda River today flows into the largest tributary of the Don – the Vorona River.

Describing the pilgrims path, the Mahabharata reports: «There is Jala and Upajala, the rivers flowing into the Yamuna.» Is there now anywhere nears the Jala River («jala – the river in Sanskrit) and Upa-jala?

There is. This is the Jala (Tarusa) river and the Upa River, flowing nearby into the Oka.

It was in Mahabharat that the first mentioned west of the upper Ganges (Volga), the Sadanapru River (Great Danapr) – Dnieper.

But if the names of the rivers have been preserved, if the language of the population has been preserved, then the peoples themselves must probably be 10 preserved? And, indeed, they are. Thus, the Mahabharata says that to the north of the country of Pandya, lying on the banks of Varuna is the country of Martiev.

But it is to the north of Panda and Crow on the banks of Moksha and Sura that the land of Mordva (Mortva of the Middle Ages) lays Finnish-Ugric speaking people with a huge number of Russian, Iranian and Sanskrit words.

The country between the rivers Yamuna, Sindh, Upadzhala and Para was called A-Vanti. Exactly so – Vantit (A-Vantit) called the land of Vyatich between the Oka, Don, Upoya and Para rivers Arab travelers and Byzantine chronicles.

Mahabharata and Rigveda mention the people of Kuru and Kuruksetra.

Kurukshetra – literally, «Kursk Field», and it is in the center of it that the city of Kursk stands, where the «Word of Igor’s Campaign» places the Kursk – noble warriors.

An ally of the Kauravas in the Great War with the Pandavas was the Sauvir people living in the country of Sindhu. But just like that – with Sauvirs up until the 15th century, they called Russians – Saveryans. This people is mentioned – the Sauvirs and Ptolemy in the 2nd century.

The Rigveda reports the warlike people of Krivi. But Latvians and Lithuanians call all Russians that way – «Krivi», by the name of the neighboring Krivichi ethnic group, whose cities were Smolensk, Polotsk, Pskov, and today’s Tartu and Riga.

Speaking about the history of Eastern Europe, archaeologists and historians in general, the period from 10 to 3 thousand BC not particularly detailed. This is Mesolithic-Neolithic, with their archaeological cultures.

But the archaeological culture in a certain sense is abstract, but real people lived here, who were born and died, loved and suffered, fought and were related, and somehow they evaluated themselves, their lives, they called themselves by some specific names. That past, far from us, was present for them. And it is the ancient Aryan sources that make it possible to shed light on some of the dark pages of these seven millennia (from 10 to 3 thousand BC).

One of the tales of Mahabharata tells: «We heard that when Samvarana, the son of Raksha, ruled the land, great disasters came for the subjects. And then, from all kinds of calamities, the kingdom was destroyed, struck by hunger and death, drought and disease. And the enemy troops defeated the descendants of Bharat. And, causing the earth to shake on their own, consisting of four types of troops, the king of the Panchals quickly passed through the whole country, conquering her. And with ten armies, he won the battle of that.

Then the king of Samvaran, along with his wife, advisers, sons and relatives, fled in great fear. And he began to live by the great river Sindhu (Don) in a grove located near a mountain and washed by a river. So the descendants of Bharata lived for a long time, settled in a fortress. And when they lived there for a thousand years, the great sage Vasistha visited the descendants of Bharat. And when he lived there for the eighth year, the king himself turned to him: «Be our house priest, for we seek the kingdom.» And Vasistha gave his consent to the descendants of Bharata. Further, we know that he appointed the descendant of Puru the autocratic king over all the ksatriyas (warriors), throughout the earth.

And he again took possession of the capital, which was previously inhabited by Bharat and made all the kings pay him tribute. The powerful lord of the country Ajamidha, having taken possession of the whole earth, then made sacrifices.»

This is what Mahabharata tells about the affairs of days gone by. But when and where did this happen?

The reign of Samvaran refers, according to the chronology adapted in the Mahabharata, to 6.4 thousand BC. Then, after defeat and exile, the people of Samvarana live in the basin of the Don River in the fortress of Ajamidha for a thousand years, up to 5.4 thousand BC. All this millennium in their native lands is dominated by other conquering people and alien’s panchals. But after 5.4thousand BC the kauravas conquer their homeland from the Panchals and again live on it.

It would seem that the veracity of this ancient tradition cannot be confirmed or refuted these days.

But this is what modern archaeological science tells us. L.V. Koltsov writes: «Butovo culture was one of the major cultural manifestations in the Mesolithic of the Volga-Oka interfluve. The localization of the described monuments of Butovo culture in the western part of the Volga-Oka interfluve is noteworthy. The absolute chronology of the early stages of the Butovo culture is determined by the framework from the middle of the 8th millennium BC until the second half of the 7th millennium BC» (this is the time of the reign of King Samvarana – 6400 BC).»

In the second half of the 7th millennium BC another group of the Mesolithic population invades the Volga-Oka interfluve which is located in this region, in its western part, leaving an archaeological culture that we call Yenevsky.

With the advent of aliens, the population of Butovo culture first departs to the east and south of the region. Under the pressure of the Yenev culture, the Butovo population probably split into several isolated groups.

Some of them, apparently, even left the Volga-Oka basin, as evidenced by the facts of the appearance of typically Butov elements in other neighboring regions. Such are the monuments with Butovo elements in the Sukhona basin or the Borovichi site in the Novgorod region.«As for the Jenevites, their origin seems to archaeologists» is not entirely clear“. They note that: „Apparently, somewhere in the second half of the boreal period (6.5 thousand BC), part of the population of the Upper Dnieper moved to the northeast and settled part of the Volga-Oka interfluve, ousting Butovo tribes.

But «the isolation of the Yenevsky population, lack of peaceful contacts with surrounding cultures, ultimately led to a decline in culture and its reverse crowding out by strong Butovites. Thus, at the end of 6 thousand BC «the Late Butov population again begins to «reconquista "– the re-seizure of its original territory».

So, «Yenev culture, hostile to Butovo and having lost touch with the «mother» territory, apparently degenerated which subsequently led to facilitating the movement of Butovites back west and their assimilation of the remnants of the Yenevites. In any case, in the early Neolithic Upper Volga culture, formed in the region in the 5th millennium BC, we almost no longer find elements of the Yeni culture. Butovo elements dominate sharply.

When comparing the text of the epic and the data of archeology, the coincidence of both the chronology of the entire event and its individual episodes is striking. And a logical question arises: whether the descendants of the Puru-paurava are hiding behind the Butovites, and behind the «Yenevites» – their enemies are panchals?

Especially since it’s not strange but over these events time was not dominant.

And today, at the source of the Don (by the river Donets), near the cities of Kimovsk and Epifan, on a hill stands a tiny village retained its ancient name – Ajamki. Maybe someday archaeologists will find here the ruins of the ancient fortress of King Samvarana – Ajamidha.

But in this case, we can assume that the names of other settlements of ancient Aryans have survived to this day.

So at the confluence of the Upa and Plava rivers is the city of Krapivna. But one of the books of Mahabharata tells about the city of Upaplava – the capital of the Matsyev people who lived in the kingdom of Virata. And the word «virata» in Sanskrit means – «bast plant, nettle».

The greatest of the seven sacred cities of the ancient Aryans was the city of Varanasi – the center of learning and the capital of the kingdom of Kashi, which is, «shining.» The epic claims that Varanasi was founded in antiquity, with the grandson of the great-ancestor of the people of Manu, who escaped from the flood. According to the astronomical chronology of Mahabharata, Varanasi as a capital existed already 12 thousand 300 years before our days. Its name is produced either from the word «monitor», which means «forest elephant» (mammoth), or from the name of the rivers Varana and Asi, on which this city stood, or it’s possible that it comes from the combination «vara-nas», which means «our circle (fortress)».

If you look at the banks of the Vorona River, then we will not see such a city there. However, we recall that until the 18th century the present Voronezh River was called the Great Vorona, was navigable and even more full-flowing of the upper Don. Today, the largest city in southern Russia, Voronezh, stands on this river. When it is founded, we do not have any exact data. Voronezh is mentioned both under 1177 and in 1237. It is believed that the fortress of Voronezh was restored in 1586. In the 17—18 centuries the city was wooden, about however, as far back as 1702, there were ruins of some stone structures in its line, called locals «kazarskie». Now in Voronezh there are at least, four ancient Russian fortifications. There are monuments of previous eras. But could Voronezh be ancient Varanasi?

This question should be answered positively.

Firstly, the very name Voronezh is closer to the ancient Aryan Varanasi (Varanashi), than modern Indian Ben-Ares (Ares city), especially since in the 16th century the fortress was called Voronets.

Secondly, the ancient Aryan epic indicates a number of geographical objects in the Varanasi region, absent in India. In addition to the Varana River (Great Vorona), the Asi, Kaveri, and Deval rivers flowed near Varanasi. But near Voronezh itself the rivers Usman, Kaverye, Devitsa still flow. Not far from Varanasi were the Vai-durya reservoir («durya» – a mountain) and the Deva-sabha Mountains («sabha – a hill). But even now, the Bai-Gora (Bai-mountain) river flows in the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions, and the hills south of Voronezh, near the Sosny and Don rivers, are called Devogorye (Devo-hill).

One of the books of Mahabharata speaks of Varanasi as a city in the region of Videha. But the epic country of Videha with the capital Mithila was located at the edge of the seven estuaries of the Ganges (Volga) and thousands of lotus lakes and as Sanskrit commentators thought, had nothing to do with the kingdom of 15 Kasha. (By the way, even now, many lotuses are growing in the Volga delta, and 5—6 thousand years ago, the level of the Caspian Sea was 20 meters lower than the modern one and the Volga delta merged with the deltas of the Terek and Ural rivers into one huge lake region). This apparent contradiction is simply explained.

At Voronezh, the Veduga River flows into Don, by whose name as it appears, and the region of Videha was named.

Near the city of Varanasi as Mahabharata testifies, the city of Khastin was located, which became the capital of the Aryans after the battle of Kurukshetra (Kursk Field) in 3102 BC. And what? Next to Voronezh is the village of Kostenki (a city in the 17th century), famous for its archaeological sites, the oldest of which date back to 30 thousand BC. The cultural layers of this village come from ancient times to our days without interruption, which indicates the succession of culture and population. So that, we think, it can be argued, that Voronezh and Varanasi, like Kostenki and Khastin, are one and the same.