Cossacks and Christian morality

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

Contemporary Christian propaganda has declared the Cossacks "a bulwark of the Christian faith." “Warriors of Christ” - Cossacks, perhaps, many do not even know, as well as the bulk of the deceived Russian people, about the true attitude of the Cossacks to the Church for many centuries.

Let's try on the basis of historical truth to analyze how it all happened *.

Don't go to church

and lead weddings around the birch, as the ancient customs dictate …"

From the instructions of S. Razin

The roots of the Cossack Family are very long and go back more than one thousand years. The falsifiers of Russian history deliberately accustom us to celebrating the "millennium of Russia", although the history of our Motherland goes back thousands and thousands of years, and the beautiful, rich cities of the Russians were known to all the near and far abroad long before the baptism of Russia, with which the emergence of statehood, writing, culture, and even Russia itself, these cynical provocateurs or profane from history.

The history of the Cossacks is also skillfully twisted, many facts are hushed up. Non-Russians, who have ruined and robbed our history to this day, are strenuously introducing the idea that the Cossacks are runaway slaves (!), Who gathered on the outskirts of Russia in mobs and were engaged in robbery and robbery. We will prove the opposite. The Kuban, Don, Penza, Terek Cossacks, living on a vast territory from the Don and Taman to the foothills of the Caucasus, are not newcomers, but the indigenous population of this land. Scythian (Proto-Slavic) tribes initially took part in the ethnogenesis of the Russian Cossacks, partly in the formation of this subethnos, related Aryan peoples also took part, in particular, the Alans and even the Turkic white peoples - the Polovtsians, Volga Bulgarians, Berendei, Torks, black hoods, which became Russified for many centuries of living together with the Slavs.

The ancestors of modern Cossacks, whom the ancient authors indicate under the names: "Cossacks", "Cherkasy", "Helmets", "Getae", lived their own free way, according to their own laws for thousands of years. The Cossack freemen, the Cossack Spirit, the Cossack brotherhood were also attractive for the neighboring peoples, who willingly became related to the Cossacks and went under the patronage of the ancient Cossack republics.

Especially in ancient times, when neither Christianity nor Islam divided kindred peoples into "God's chosen", "faithful", "Orthodox". In the Cossack environment, religious tolerance was normal, especially since all peoples professed their Motherland Natural cults (later Christians would label the Ancient Aryan cults as "filthy paganism"). The Cossacks were no exception. Together with the soldiers of the Great Svyatoslav, the Cossacks participated in the defeat of the Khazar Kaganate and the destruction of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.

Arab and Persian chroniclers often write about the Cossacks and Rus who raided Persian possessions and, describing the customs and customs of the Cossack clan-tribe, write about them as sun worshipers.

After the baptism of Rus, on all its outskirts, for centuries, adherence to the Ancient Prosthurova Faith remained - so until the accession of Alexei Romanov, the father of Peter the Great, the inhabitants of the Vyatka Territory and the Russian North adhered to the Slavic Faith.

Since ancient times, the lands of the modern Don and Kuban Cossacks were part of the Tmutarakan principality, while the Christian princes did not encroach on the customs and beliefs of the consanguineous Russian Cossack population, cut off from the main Russian lands by the Wild Field, inhabited by nomadic Turkic tribes, by the way, by the pagan Tengrians) (neboplans). The outskirts of Russia were defended by heroes, who were called Cossacks in the Russian folk epic: "… Glorious is the young Cossack Ilya Muromets …" It was later he was elevated to a "Christian saint", but Ilya Muromets was not a Christian and in Kiev even church domes were mace possibals. And the famous Slavic heroes-border guards Usynya, Dobrynya and Gorynya, who lived long before the "baptism" of Russia and whom the folk tradition considers the first of the famous founders of the Russian Cossacks?..

It was among the Cossacks that a kind of "heresy" took root, as the priests wrote about it: not only the Old Believers and supporters of the Old Orthodox Church found shelter among the Cossacks. On the Cossack land, a protest against the official church intensified in the form of such movements as "no priesthood" (!), Where all the sacraments were performed by the laity themselves, communicating with God without "mediators" -popov, "Netov's consent", which does not recognize the construction of churches and is rooted in native Slavic-Russian paganism.

But most of all, attention should be paid to the belief of the "holes" - the Cossacks who lived on the Yaik and in the Altai steppes. They called the Tengrian Cossacks (non-worshipers) "holes" because they cut holes in the roofs of houses so that even in inclement weather one could pray at home, but looking at the sky. The most valuable testimony was left to us by Deacon Fyodor Ivanov, who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century: "… many villagers, surviving in their villages, worship the Sun God, where the cross will not happen to them …" Another testimony from 1860, the case of Vasily Zheltovsky, who was judged because he did not go to an Orthodox church, but was baptized, looking at heaven and saying: "Our God is in heaven, but there is no God on earth."

It should be added that the cross was revered in Russia long before "baptism" and it was an equilateral cross, a runic cross, or as the priests said: "a pagan kryzh" (pagan cross), and the symbol of Christians is not a cross, but a crucifix, an instrument of execution! And the Khazars crucified the captured Slavs on crosses, for which the crucifixion among the ancient Russians was always a symbol of death, execution and misanthropy.

See also: Stolen symbols: the cross and Christianity

The state and the Church fiercely persecuted any free-thinking and encroachment on the foundations of the Orthodox faith - the main instrument for enslaving the people. "Heresies" (and it was in this form that the rejection of cynicism and lies of Christianity could be manifested) were brutally suppressed, people fled to the most remote parts of the country, but even here they were persecuted and supporters of the "popular faith" were burned, as was customary everywhere and in all centuries among Christian inquisitors. Even children were not spared. With fire and blood Christianity was introduced in Russia, with fire and blood it passed through the cities and villages of Russia and at the times to which I would like to pay more attention …

A little more than half a century has passed since the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov, whom the Church cursed and anathematized for leading the uprising of the people and destroying the hated palaces and temples. (By the way, the people's leader was treacherously seized and executed by the tsar's lackeys after cruel torture. The last thing the executioners told him was the following: "You will fall into hell, apostate."). The Christian Orthodox Church split into Old Believers and New Believers, bonfires blazed with heretics burnt "in the name of the Lord". The people looked at the gentlemen with hatred and waited for the people's protector. And he came. And he came from the place where the free-loving Slavic Spirit lived for centuries and will live forever!

Stepan Razin was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. His father, Timofey Razya, taught his son from childhood:

Take care of the honor of the Cossack youth. Do not rot your hat in front of the strong, but don’t leave your friend in trouble.

I saw a young Cossack, to whom and how he lives in Russia, and the millennia-old Slavic folk foundations were close to him and it was not in vain that he liked to say: "I am for this Russia: there are neither poor nor rich. Equal to one!"

One of the researchers of the life of the ataman Razin noted: "As you know, the Cossacks were not distinguished by piety …" These words accompanied the description of one of the first appearances of the young Cossack leader in the historical arena: the Cossack freeman Razin took Yaitsky town without a fight. Unable to take the town with a small detachment, Razin and his comrades stripped two dozen pilgrim monks, despite all their prayers, and entered the city in monastic robes … In 1670 Stepan Razin revolted. His army includes not only Cossacks, but also fugitive slaves, peasants, miners, Bashkirs, Tatars, Mordovians, and other disadvantaged people. And boyar estates and churches burned in a large part of the Russian state. Razin sends his "lovely letters" to all the surrounding territories, where he bestows "old liberties" on the people and promises equality and justice.

From the very first months of the uprising, the Church took the side of the ruling class and called for reprisals against the "blasphemer and thief" Stenka Razin.

… The storming of Astrakhan. From the city walls, Metropolitan Joseph daily curses the rebels "by thieves and impious, who have committed a disgusting deed." After the Razin people burst into the fortress, the metropolitan takes the remaining soldiers to one of the temples, turned into a fortress, and says to the voivode Prozorovsky: "They will not go to the holy place." The Razintsy broke in and destroyed the temple, and the governor was thrown from the bell tower. Having established his own order in the city, Razin ordered the clerk from the Order Chamber to bring all the scrolls and burn them, and it was announced to the people: "There will be freedom for you all, people of Astrakhan. Stand up for your freedom, for our great cause!" Metropolitan Joseph became a stronghold of resistance to Razin in Astrakhan, secretly sending letters with information about the rebels, and in the city he sowed confusion and blasphemed Razin and all (!) The people of Astrakhan, who supported the ataman and his comrades. The chronicle of a contemporary of those events P. Zolotarev "The Legend of the City of Astrakhan and the suffering of Metropolitan Joseph of Astrakhan" said that "Joseph, Metropolitan of Astrakhan threatened with heavenly punishment, God's wrath, the curse of the archangels …"

Joseph's confrontation and his machinations against the rebels continued during the subsequent occupation of the city by Razin's associate Vasily Usom. Us was the first of Razin's comrades-in-arms to introduce civil marriage in the city he occupied (!). Although the churches were not closed, he sealed marriages on paper with the city seal, the symbols of which were a sword and a crown. The discontent of the clergy intensified, and the metropolitan again began to conduct active subversive activities. The Cossacks saw this and demanded that Ataman Usa execute the vile metropolitan.

The cup of patience was overwhelmed by the news that the Metropolitan is compiling lists of Cossacks and townspeople who have sided with Razin for the subsequent transfer of the lists to government troops. Joseph made a speech before the Cossacks, where he called them "heretics and apostates" and threatened with death if they did not surrender to the Tsar's troops. The Cossacks gathered a circle and made a decision: "All the troubles and misfortunes are repaired from the Metropolitan." They accused the Metropolitan of lying and treason, after which they executed him. On the same day, pogroms of the homes of the rich and the clergy took place throughout the city.

Interesting evidence has been preserved about Razin's arrival in Tsaritsyn, which he conquered. A young guy Agey Eroshka approached Razin and asked for help: the priests refused to marry him, for the bishop ordered to refuse to marry those who met and helped Razin. All local priests harbored anger. Razin ordered: "Popov - on the rack! I will pull up by the beards. Harmful seed." But then he calmed down and said to the guy: "To hell with the long-maned! We will play the wedding like a Cossack: a wedding in freedom. Under the sky, under the Sun."

At the wedding, bowls of wine and salting beer were put in a circle, as has been done for thousands of years! So the Cossacks remembered the ancient customs of their ancestors! At the celebration in honor of the young, Razin threw up a drunken bowl to the sky: “Let the free will. May everyone be happy. For our boundless free Russia! "And he ordered from now on the priests not to listen, but to marry the young by his ataman name:" Weddings are not God's, but human's business. Let not priests, but people mending the court here."

In the historical chronicles, other authentic words of the ataman have been preserved: "… Do not go to church, but lead weddings around the birch, as the ancient customs command …"

One of Razin's associates had a daughter. The Cossack turned to his chieftain, what for the name of his daughter to take. Razin said: "Will, Volyushka." The Cossacks doubted that there was no such name in the calendar, to which the ataman fervently replied: "So what. We will write this name!"

The attitude of the Cossacks to the "long-maned" licimers and to the genuine Ancient Faith (which in their worldview was an interweaving of the Slavic Faith with Orthodox Christianity) can be traced in other moments: when Razin ordered two young Cossacks to learn to read and write from the priest-defrocked, they muttered: "Why torment in vain? That we are a priest's clan-tribe?"

With the army of Razin, there was a witch-lady who, with one word, could inspire a cowardly soldier or a faint-hearted person to a feat of arms. During the storming of Simbirsk, the young warrior sat all day in the bushes, saying: "Mother of God, Queen of Heaven …" The Mother of God did not help, so he missed the whole battle. But as soon as the grandmother-witch said the cherished word and then the guy went to the heroes: he climbed the fortress walls first. Perhaps this is a legend, a folk fiction that always surrounds figures of such a scale as Razin. But it is worth recalling that Razin's comrades-in-arms themselves considered him a sorcerer.

In Cossack legends, sorcery (witchcraft, magic) is an inalienable gift that distinguishes Razin from other folk heroes: "Pugachev and Ermak were great warriors, and Stenka Razin was a great warrior, and a wizard, so, perhaps, more than a warrior …" rumor long after Razin's death talked about his miraculous salvation, about his service to the people already in Yermak's gang. Yes, Razin really remained alive - in the heart of the people …

Was considered a sorceress and one of his bravest companions - the old woman Alena, the governor of the Arzamas peasants, the Russian Jeanne d'Arc. This courageous Russian woman, a simple peasant woman, led the struggle of the common people for freedom and justice. In her childhood, her fellow villagers with a pitchfork drove the greedy monks out of their lands, who were trying to seize the communal land. She knew firsthand about the licimeria and the abomination of monastic customs. Alena was a sorcerer, a herbalist, that is, a herbalist: she healed with herbs and conspiracies, and the priests usually declared such people "witches" (although "witch" previously meant "knowing", "knowing" woman).

In her "lovely letters" Alena urged not to believe the priests, who announced that serfdom was "approved by the Holy Scriptures and is pleasing to God." When the boyar troops took Alena prisoner, they declared her a witch and, after fierce torture, executed her so beloved by the Christian Inquisition: they burned her alive at the stake (remember Joan of Arc!).

Folk legends about Razin and his companions, songs, and fables were imbued with the original Slavic spirit. In contrast to them, state and church records were hostile to the insurgent people, were filled with a religious and mystical spirit, ideologically tried to justify the victory over the Cossack army and the people themselves.

Two characteristic historical documents of that era have survived, describing the events taking place through the eyes of the clergy - the most reactionary part of Russian society. In the "Legend of the invasion of the monastery of our venerable father Macarius, who was from thieves and traitors to the thieves' Cossacks" and in the "Tales of the Miracles of the Icon of Our Lady of Tikhvin in Tsivilsk," the Cossacks were declared the bearer of "theft and blasphemy."

The archimandrite of the Spasov Monastery testified in the monastery chronicle: "… they came (ie. Cossacks - author) to the Spasov Monastery and all sorts of fortresses and letters of gratitude, but the debt records were torn in order to confirm their peasant truth … "So, then, what's the matter! Monasteries and the Church were large owners: they owned huge land plots, forests, water areas, millions of serfs.”In his grammatics, Razin granted the peasants by will and promised them land, his slogan (and later Pugachev would have a similar one) was:“Land. Will. Truth."

In unison with the church proclamations, the tsarist letters also everywhere emphasized not only the "robbery" beginning of the rebellious people, but also the "apostasy": … "From the very first days of the uprising, the royal letters declared him apostasy, and one of the arguments indicated that he introduced civil marriages instead of the church rite and led the newlyweds" around a tree "- willow or birch.

In official documents, written in a heavy, bureaucratic language, often incomprehensible to those to whom he was addressed (as opposed to the "charming letters" of the rebels, written in a simple, vivid, understandable language), Razin was declared as a "devil-pleaser" and "breeder of every evil. " And then, when Razin was treacherously captured, brutally tortured, he was sentenced to the most fierce execution: "Execute with an evil death: quartered."

The Church believed that the Holy Scriptures could not be correctly interpreted without her mediation, because the Bible is replete with a number of formal contradictions. For example, the law of Moses and the word of Jesus differ. The position of the churchmen was firm - they represent the institution of public life, which is called upon to teach a person the law of God. After all, without this it is impossible to find salvation, to understand the Lord and his laws. At the beginning of the 17th century, these ideas were formulated by the leader of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Roberto Bellarmine. The Inquisitor believed that the Bible for an ignorant person is a collection of confusing information.

In other words, if the society no longer needs the mediating mission of the church in the knowledge of the Bible, then the church hierarchy will also be unclaimed. That is why the overwhelming majority of medieval heretical movements in Western Europe opposed church organization as an institution of social life.

Southern Europe: the main region of the anti-church movement

Towards the end of the 12th century, two powerful anti-church heretical movements arose in the mountainous regions of northern Italy and southern France. We are talking about the Cathars and supporters of Pierre Waldo. The Waldensians became a real scourge of the Toulouse County at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The church here found itself in an unenviable position. At first, the "poor people of Lyons" did not seek to conflict with the clergy, but their sermons about the free reading of the Bible by the laity provoked the clergy. The Cathars also posed a serious threat to the church in southern France.

One of the main ascetics in the struggle against heresies then became Saint Dominic, who went with his companions to the troubled region with sermons. The center for the spread of heretical movements was the Occitan city of Montpellier. The emergence of the communities of St. Dominic and his active work as a preacher did not convince the dissent. In 1209, an armed conflict began: a crusade was declared against the heretics, led by the Count of Toulouse Simon IV de Montfort.

He was an experienced warrior and a seasoned crusader. By 1220, the Waldensians and Cathars were defeated: the Catholics managed to cope with the main centers of heretical movements in the territory of the County of Toulouse. Dissenters were burned at the stake. In the future, the royal administration will finally deal with the Waldensians.

The monastic orders also made a significant contribution to the victory over the heretics in the south of France. After all, it was they who became the main ideological opponents of the apostates - the mendicant monks were engaged only in preaching. In the face of the Dominicans and Franciscans, heretics were opposed by the idea of a mendicant church.

4th Lateran Cathedral

The apotheosis of the power of the church was the main event of 1215 - the Fourth Lateran Cathedral. The canons and decrees of this assembly determined the entire further path of development of the religious life of Western Europe. The council was attended by about 500 bishops and about 700 abbots - it was the most representative church event for Catholics in a long time. Delegates from the Patriarch of Constantinople also arrived here.

During the entire period of the cathedral's work, about 70 canons and decrees were adopted. Many of them dealt with the internal church life, but some also regulated the daily life of the laity. The cycle of life from birth to burial - each of its elements has undergone rigorous analysis and development of church norms. It was at this council that the provision on the ecclesiastical court was adopted. This is how the Inquisition was born. This tool of the church's fight against dissent will be the most effective. Historians believe that 1215 is the date of the complete Christianization of Western European civilization.

Alexey Medved