Sulakadzev and the history of "falsifications"

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

This name has been humiliated and ridiculed for more than a century. For example, V. P. Kozlov in the book "Secrets of Falsification":

Alexander Ivanovich Sulakadzev is the most famous domestic falsifier of historical sources, whose “creativity” is devoted to more than a dozen special works. To this it must be added that he is the most ambitious manufacturer of counterfeits. At least three circumstances give us grounds for such a conclusion: the incomprehensible audacity in the manufacture and propaganda of forgeries, the scope and the “genre”, or specific, variety of products that came out from under his pen.

Others echoed this opinion, and this assessment became generally accepted.

And in our time, when conversations about the runic script of the ancient Slavs have been going on for quite a long time, the topics are wide and open, there are enough followers and propagandists of the culture of the ancient Slavs, to be honest, I was discouraged by the information that Wikipedia gives out or the first lines of the Internet when you enter the name of Alexander Ivanovich Sulakadzeva - they echo the "goat". And a small number of people are trying to get to the truth, giving to the work, research, finds of Sulakadzev. And there really is something to think about.

For instance:

In 1956, the USSR issued a stamp marking the 225th anniversary of the world's first balloon flight, do you think it was an event? I suppose it was. The publishers believed Sulakadzev and it was not a private shop that produced the brand.

In the 1900-1950s, a number of researchers considered the flight of Kryakutny as a genuine historical event, it was actively promoted during the period of the "struggle against cosmopolitanism" (late 1940s - early 1950s) penetrated into literature, cinema and popular culture

And this is a link that denies this flight, tk. Apparently times are different today

The name of Sulakadzev came across to me when I was familiarizing myself with the topic of Valaam. Working in the archives of the monastery, he got acquainted with the historical writings of the brethren and offered his services to the monastery in search of the necessary evidence of the ancient origin of the monastery and scientific processing of historical materials. Proposed by A. I. Sulakadzev's historical work is a handwritten composition, 41 pages in volume. A. I. Sulakadzev gives the main geographical characteristics of the location of the Valaam Islands and pays attention to two "mysterious" phenomena: "carved signs" on the surface of stone luds and caves "carved in distant antiquity." This is followed by a detailed analysis (with a large number of examples and assumptions) of the etymology of the name Balaam. Suddenly, the main version of the origin of this name sounds on behalf of the "Son of Assarov", which Sulakadzev justifies with the following quote from the "Opoved": "and Valaam was nicknamed after the son of Assari from a country like the runaway of exile and need and put on this island a great sign and nicknamed him" …

It should be noted that until today the question of the origin of the name "Valaam" in domestic science has not been resolved. It is interesting that in the monastic editions based on the version of A. I. Sulakadzeva about the deep antiquity of the monastery, the quotes given by him were never used in full. So, for example, the obvious absurdity about the erection of not only stone crosses by the Apostle Andrew on Valaam, but also "… the man of stone" is not found anywhere.

But were Sulakadzev's works on Valaam “false”, if in his works he gives references to 189 ! source and among them the Ancient Religion of the Slavs. Mitava, 1804; The Core of Russian History, K. Khilkov. Moscow, 1784; Zizania, legend about the ABC of Cyril the Philosopher. in 8 kn. Vilna, 1596; The life of Alexander Svirsky in a sheet, in pictures, written in the charter, from the library of the Valaam monastery, etc.?

Alexander Ivanovich collected antiquities, he was most of all interested in ancient books, and primarily those related to national history. His library began with the collection of his grandfathers, one of them kept "notes of his life, which are very precious, about reigns and incidents", the second had a significant library of manuscripts and printed books.

At present, the manuscript is known, which was listed in his collection under the number 4967, which indicates the minimum of written and printed materials in the collection. On one of the manuscripts A. I. Sulakadzev wrote that he had "more than 2 thousand manuscripts of all kinds, except those written on bargaments."

However, as is commonly believed, such an extremely noble occupation as the collection of ancient books and manuscripts, AI Sulakadzev combined with the manufacture of forgeries for his collection.

Let's name some of Sulakadzev's forgeries. It is believed that one of the most frequently used tricks for falsification was the additions to original manuscripts in order to "age" them.

This kind of forgeries include the "prayer book" of Prince Vladimir.

The first place in the list of such falsifications belongs to Boyanov's Hymn. The first is even chronologically, for it is generally believed that this is one of the earliest forgeries of Sulakadzev, made by him around 1807 or 1810.

Around the same time, "Perun or Veles broadcasting", or "Utterances of Novgorod priests" were born. "Knigorek", as well as "Catalog of Russian and partly foreign books, printed and written, the libraries of Alexander Sulakadze" give us a whole list of ancient books and manuscripts, which scientists unanimously declare to be Sulakadzev's forgeries: "Sbornostar", "Rodopis", "Kovcheg Russian Truth "," Idolovid "and others (II, 34; 178-179). And here's an interesting fact. If "Boyan's Hymn" is known at least in a copy made by Sulakadzev for G. R. Derzhavin, "Perun and Veles Broadcasting" is known in excerpts published by Derzhavin in 1812 in his own translation, then none of the scientists have even seen the rest of the monuments. They disappeared without a trace when, after the death of A. I. Sulakadzev, his collection was dispersed. More precisely, scientists of the first third of the 19th century could see them, but they did not leave any descriptions, they did not express any opinions about them. Therefore, all that we have at our disposal is the descriptions of these monuments by Sulakadzev himself in "Knigorek" and "Catalog". And these descriptions give dates from the 1st to the 10th century AD. Considering this dating and adding to it the reputation of Sulakadzev as a "daring" forger, modern researchers en masse classify all these manuscripts as falsifications.

In the archives of the poet Derzhavin there is a runic fragment of Boyan's Hymn. The fragment tells about an episode of the struggle of Ant-glades with the Goths of the 4th century. n. e. In 1812, our great compatriot G. Derzhavin published two "runic" excerpts from the Sulakadzev collection. In Derzhavin's collected works of 1880, the Slavic runic is also reproduced. One passage, as a result of the mention of Boyan and Sloven in it, is called "Boyan's hymn to Sloven", and the second - "Orakul" - the sayings of the Magi. Karamzin also knew about the passages and asked him to send the originals.

In 1994, in the 39th volume of Derzhavin's archive, the entire text of Boyan's Hymn was found. The protograph was also restored, which is often called the "Staroladozhsky runic document" in order to distinguish it from a part of the "Boyan's Hymn" falsified by Sulakadze. "Runic" and the telegraphic, extremely compressed style of the document (as well as the aforementioned "Orakul") surprisingly resembles "Velesovitsa". According to one of the versions, the document is a correspondence between two magi-kobas (who read the flight of a bird). One of them is a priest of Old Ladoga, and the second sorcerer is from Novgorod.

The dating of the document proceeds from the fact that it contains such lines according to V. Torop's translation:

… gnu kobe sweet hrsti ide vorok ldogu mlm sacrifice orota slave a degree of cb speech pupupe gnu mmu kbi str mzhu term chaa false grmtu m kimru rus and to kimr to vrgo room and to you stilhu blrv to the warrior mkom and to you to drunk the groove to the same eruek to the warrior a klmu aldorogu mru dee and burn the god of mrchi to the grdnik vchna Borus on the bone of the stau of the beads to doriu nobubsur….

… "To mister light cob: Christians are coming, enemies, to Ladoga-city. We pray, we offer sacrifices so that they don't work and destroy the city. I send Perun's speeches to my master, cob-old man. were Kimrs and lived before the Kimrs. Were enemies to Rome and you, Stilicho; Bolorev;. Deer the warrior was for us torment, he was a barbarian, and he was a Greek by birth. Otuarich. Then Izhodrik, then the deceitful Erik the warrior; the accursed Aldorg sowed death, our god was burned, killing the townspeople. Eternal Struggle, stands on the bones. Suffers from Bus to Deer …."

In this way, the "Ladoga Runic Document" confirms the information of the Veles Book that Deer was a Greek by birth. But Sulakadzev, despite numerous alterations of the protograph, did not write it himself, just as he did not write the Velesov Book.

At that time, few people doubted the authenticity of the parchment. He did not arouse much mistrust among N. M. Karamzin, who on October 16, 1812 wrote to PA Vyazemsky: “I thank the Right Reverend (Evgeny Bolkhovitinov - AA), you and the princess for the so-called“Boyan's Hymn”. Please ask and notify me, who has the original, written on parchment, as it is said? And Evgeny Bolkhovitinov, the future Metropolitan of Kiev and the largest paleographer of his time (who laid the foundations of the science of determining the authenticity of ancient texts), in a letter dated May 6, 1812 to Professor Gorodchaninov wrote about the Boyan Hymn and the oracles: some of them believe that they are uncomplicated,”and in a letter addressed to Derzhavin, he fully approved the publication of the texts and at the same time advised Gavrila Romanovich not to insist on dating the parchment to the 4th century in order to avoid criticism from ill-wishers. “This is more interesting for us than Chinese poetry,” he assured the poet.

Fifteen years later, in his Historical Dictionary of Writers of the Clerical Order who were in Russia, the Metropolitan places both the story of Boyana and the retelling of the literal translation of the Boyan's Anthem, made by A. I. Sulakadzev. For almost two hundred years this publication and the eight-line passage quoted by Derzhavin remained the only source by which one could judge the content of Boyan's Anthem.

Based on "Boyan's Anthem" by G. R. Derzhavin wrote the ballad "The Novgorod Magus Zlogor". Then in the next issue of "Readings" he was going to publish the full text of "Boyan's Anthem", in this connection, he was looking for a copy of it, but it mysteriously disappeared, and therefore on June 8, 1816 he wrote from his estate Zvanka to St. Petersburg to the poet Kapnist:

Having begun to finish my lyrical reasoning, I do not find here the end of Boyanova's song to Oden, which is written in runic letters and, as far as I remember, lay in my table, which is by the sofa, along with papers on the wine ransom … And for that, look for her, brother, between my papers … And if you can't find that Boyanova song, then find in the Semenovsky regiment a retired officer Alexander Ivanovich Selatsiev (GD - AA error), who, I think, knows where the doorman lives …

History is silent as to whether the poet Kapnist fulfilled Gavrila Romanovich's wish, but in any case Derzhavin did not have time to prepare Boyan's Hymn for publication, for exactly a month later he died … In fact, this letter turned out to be his will.

The river of times in its striving

Takes away all the affairs of people

And drowns in the abyss of oblivion

Peoples, kingdoms and kings

And if that remains

Through the sounds of lyre and trumpet,

That eternity will be devoured by the gullet

And the common fate will not go away.

There is no Sulakadzev in this world, there are no his contemporaries, there is no opportunity to "touch" the artifacts, but the disputes do not subside and this pleases, because the legacy of the Russian land is not attached to oblivion!

In conclusion, I would like to note that the international symposium "Destruction and Renaissance of Slavic Civilization" held in London in 1992 recognized the "Veles Book" as an important link in the system of common Slavic values.