Execution of the Veche Bell

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

A long time ago, when the word "IMHO" did not exist in the vocabulary of Russians, and a can of mayonnaise cost seventeen rubles, I was lying on the sand "under the southern sun, like under Madame's chest, a little hot but nice to be stupid …" The surf tickled my weary feet, and over the heads of the vacationers of the Gelendzhik beach, echoed: - "Chuuurchkhlyaaa, haatchapuuurii, paakhlavaaa …"

In the neighborhood with us, every day, visitors from Novy Urengoy, ours and my wife, spread their blanket. Igor, of course, is a Gazprom employee, and his wife Lena is a history teacher in a secondary school. We met them during the first meeting, and immediately became friends. Probably Igor was jealous of his Lena to me, because, mainly, I communicated with her. History is my love, and Elena is a professional historian. In her, I found the perfect companion! In addition, I will not deny that she was not only smart, but also extremely charming.

During one of the conversations, I mentioned the medieval Pskov Republic. I will not forget the round eyes of the history teacher.

- Which republic?

- Pskov.

- Are you overheated? The republic was in Novgorod!

- Lena! My soul! You are a historian, is it really news to you that Novgorod was not the only city in which there was the rule of the shock law?

- What right?

Then I realized that I was faced with a phenomenon. Our children are still taught the history of their own country from textbooks written on the basis of the works of the Germans Bayer. Schloetzer and Miller. By the way, more than ten years have passed since then, but the situation has not changed to this day. Now they argue only about how the "yoke", "Tatar-Mongol", "Mongol-Tatar", or tolerant "Horde" was correctly called. The question that there was no yoke at all, and in principle could not be, is not even on the agenda!

Then I began to educate the educator about what a veche is, and on what principles it was based. I had to tell from the very beginning about who had the right to vote, how the voters were chosen, how the voting took place, and how the decision was carried out:

1) Only men had the right to vote. And this is not gender discrimination. A woman is married, and therefore, behind her husband's back, she expresses her will. He is a man and a man to be responsible for his wife and children, to be the spokesman for their will.

2) The holy fools, prone to crime, and without a home and family did not have the right to vote. This is also very reasonable. How can you make an important decision in the interests of the whole city if you cannot even create and support your own family? True, there were exceptions. The familyless had the right to vote if the family was lost for objective reasons. Pestilence, war, and everything that is now understood by the word "force majeure". In addition, respected citizens who proved that they are reasonable, courageous, and can be responsible for their actions were given the right to participate in the veche.

3) Voters were elected on the basis of representation. In fact, it is the fairest and most reasonable parliament. Each court represented, endowed with a voice, and the courts elected ten (the spokesman for the aspirations of ten households), and hundreds - elected, by voting of electors from a hundred households. All ten people gathered for a general assembly called by a veche bell. This is in the case of particularly important decisions affecting the interests of every citizen. For example, when the question of whether or not it was worth starting a military campaign was being decided.

The centennial resolved issues collegially, without nationwide discussion. The competence of such issues included, for example, decisions of an economic nature, whether to allow the Germans to trade in yuft, and how much duty to collect from the Tver merchants who brought potash to the Hansa.

The Tysyatskys were practically not elected. It was a boyar duma, professional politicians. They knew their ancestry since the Gods. The word "boyar" itself meant - God Yar (descendant). Boyars are carriers of Yarila's power, and their power on earth was supported directly from Navi, from where the souls of their ancestors went. It was the legislative and, at the same time, judicial branch.

4) But the executive authorities were elected, and were not a priority, but a heavy duty. If the veche decided that the husband of such and such will reign, then so it will be. Nobody will ask whether you want it or not, but you will have to take the responsibility of the helmsman. And a year later, if he didn’t cope with the tasks, “the stinking dog is gone”! And this was the most terrible punishment - the people's anger. Therefore, no one aspired to be princes. Prince Dovmont, three times asked the veche to release him from heavy duty, but three times the veche did not release Dovmont. And he had to rule Pskov for thirty-three (note the figure) years. Over the years, Pskov has become one of the largest and richest cities in the Hanseatic League.

What does the Pskovians have to do with fighting continuously all this time, and under the command of Macedonian, excuse me, Diocletian, oh, I made a reservation again, ugh, Alexander Nevsky! What is it with me today! …, Dovmont, we have not lost a single battle !. And the mothers of the soldiers prayed to the Gods for the health of the Holy Prince, because he took care of his soldiers as children of relatives. For example, during the capture of the fortress of Polotsk, not a single soldier from his squad was killed, but more than four thousand people were captured by the Polotsk. This is called an "effective manager".

It should be noted that no reprisals were applied to the prisoners. They did not sacrifice, they did not make them slaves. The only requirement is not to raise arms against the inhabitants of Pleskavia. Of the four thousand, only a couple of hundred returned to Polotsk, the rest either joined Dovmont's squad, or married women from Pskov, and engaged in peaceful creative work for the good of the newly acquired Motherland in the name of the prosperity of small and medium-sized businesses and the agrarian complex.

And then Lena was surprised to discover that Pleskavia had its own legislation, and its own developed banking system, which was filled with local currency. In general, I put my hand to the fact that another "tradition" seriously thought about whether science is history at all, or is it, rather, a reader of fairy tales for children of not very reasonable age.

And so smoothly we came to the story of the decline of true democracy in Pleskov in 1510. A very beautiful legend is connected with this event.

Bells are said to have a soul, just like humans. And individual bells can work wonders. The veche bell on the Trinity Belfry of the Pskov Kremlin, which is called "krom" in the local tradition, was also considered such a wonderful bell.

On the left is the Trinity Cathedral, on the right is a bell tower with a belfry

They say that in January 1510, a "resolver" came from Moscow, who brought the tsarist charter, which said that from now on "pagan outdated norms" were canceled, and progressive democratic innovations were introduced that would make the people truly free and happy.

The boyars listened to the speeches of the mishandled clerk and cried. Moscow is far away, but they could not disobey it. The veche bell rang for the last time, a full square of people gathered, and under groans and cry, they lowered the bell from heaven to earth.

A kat came with a huge ax, and with dashing blows of the butt cut off the "ears" so that no one would ever hang the bell on the belfry.

Then the vechevik was taken to On Snyatnaya Gora, and there they "imprisoned" like a tat in a deep hole for three days.

After "serving" the bell, the clerk ordered to load it on a sleigh, and took him to Moscow. to report to the Tsar's accounting department on the work done. But … I missed it.

Already in the middle of the journey, on Valdai, he met messengers from the capital itself, who passed the tsar's decree not to take the "troublemaker" to Moscow, but killed the bell on the spot. Then they found a blacksmith from the nearest village, and ordered him to smash the vechevik into small fragments with his hammer.

Valdai

The blacksmith, of course, did not dare to disobey, and he completed the task properly. The bronze fragments were scattered over the adjacent forests at a great distance from each other.

And then many who wandered into those places were surprised to find that in calm weather, the melodic sad ringing of many bells was heard from all sides. They say that to this day you can hear it, especially if you put your ear to the ground. But he hears it only to those who do not forget about their ancestors, and whose soul is as pure as that of a baby.

Check yourself. Go to Valdai. Hear the bells, then everything is in order. And if silence will be your interlocutor, then you need to figure out what is wrong, who was offended, what thoughts were black in your head …

How is it? Are we going? Isn't it scary to find out the truth about yourself? Maybe first correct something so as not to waste gasoline to Valdai?