What used to be called Russia before the advent of modern Russia. What used to be called constellations and where did their names come from

Until now, different versions of the origin of the name "Rus" are competing, but none of them has yet decisive evidence. However, it is reliably known that already in the middle of the tenth century, Rus was called the entire space of the Eastern Slavs from the Black to the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathians to the Upper Volga.
This is stated in the treaty between Prince Igor and Byzantium (944), where ambassadors from different cities - Kyiv, Novgorod, Rostov the Great, and others - collectively call themselves "the Russian family."

The annals also feature a narrower use of the term "Rus". Often they say that one of the princes "went to Russia" from the same Novgorod, Rostov or Galich. In this case, Russia means the lands around Kyiv, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Novgorod-Seversky, Kursk. This understanding of Russia is often found in sources dating back to the 11th-12th centuries. Academicians B.A. Rybakov and V.V. Sedov spent a lot of effort to prove that it was on this territory that the Slavic tribe Rus, unknown to sources, once lived.

The name "Russia" comes from the Greek language. This word - Ρωςια - in Byzantium also denoted the Old Russian state from the 10th century. From the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century in Western Europe, terms with the root Russ- (or Ruzz-, Rusc-) began to be used in relation to Kievan Rus. Since the 11th century, the name Russia has been increasingly used. Since the XII century, according to the then fashion to bring the names of modern peoples closer to the ancient ones, Russia in the West is often called Ruthenia (the Ruthenians were one of the Gallic tribes conquered by Julius Caesar).

Thus, the words "Rus", Russia, Ruthenia, Ρωςια were synonymous and denoted the same country, even at a time when it was split into many states, and then fell under the rule of the Mongol khans. The inhabitants of Russia themselves called themselves Rusyns, regardless of which principality they lived in (the name of the main city of the earth was used to indicate nationality - Novgorod, Suzdal, Smolensk, Ryazan, etc.). For the longest time, the name "Rusyns" (exactly in this sound) was retained in Western Ukraine, where back in the 30s of the XX century, many Slavs of Transcarpathia called themselves so.

The fragmentation of Russia and Mongol domination led to a reduction in ties between North-Eastern Russia (from which Russia later grew) and Western Europe. In the West in the XIV-XV centuries. used to call Russia the Slavic lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, of which this state consisted of more than 90%. And when, at the end of the 15th century, Moscow united the rest of the Russian lands under its rule, the West was surprised to find that, in addition to Lithuanian Russia (that is, present-day Ukraine and Belarus), there is also some kind of Moscow Russia.

Contrary to popular belief, the inhabitants of the Moscow kingdom never called themselves Muscovites. This is a Western term introduced in order to distinguish Russians - subjects of the Grand Duke of Moscow - from Russians - subjects of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland. At the same time, the self-name "Rusyns" also disappears from the everyday life of Moscow subjects. The latter usually refer to themselves by confession - Orthodox Christians, since it was believed that after the conquest of Constantinople and all the Balkan countries by the Basurmans (Turks), Muscovite Russia remained the only Orthodox kingdom in the world. But the official name - Muscovy - was used in Russian acts until the end of the 17th century (in particular, in the Cathedral Code of 1649). Along with this, and in the same documents, the name Rosia or Rusia, which was a tracing paper from the Greek Ρωςια, is increasingly common. It is necessary to distinguish between the use of the terms "Moscow state" and "Russia / Russia". For Russian tsars and their subjects of the XVI-XVII centuries. The Muscovite state is only a political unit under the rule of the Muscovite monarch. Russia / Rusia is a country where they speak Russian and profess the Orthodox faith; that is, Russia / Rusia included Ukraine and Belarus, which were part of the Commonwealth (created in 1569 by the final unification of Poland and Lithuania). The title of the Moscow sovereigns, added to the list of capitals and countries that belonged to them - "and all Russia (s)", first appeared under Prince Simeon the Proud (1340-1353) and symbolized their "patrimonial right" to the entire legacy of Rurik's house. The Romanovs, who reigned in 1613, did not renounce this “right”.

The royal title "and all Russia" was directly borrowed from the title of the head of the Russian Church. The Russian metropolis remained united until the middle of the 15th century. The metropolitans, formally called Kyiv, from 1299 lived in Vladimir, and from 1328 mainly in Moscow. When the Orthodox clergy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania managed to secure a special metropolitan for themselves in Constantinople, the Moscow metropolitans (since 1588 patriarchs) continued to add "and all Russia" to their title.

In the 17th century, Muscovy/Russia's ties with Western Europe were strengthened. The familiar name, under the influence of the term Russia, is again undergoing a transformation. A second "s" appears in the word. Since the beginning of the 18th century, the spelling "Russia" has become predominant. It was finally approved when, in 1721, after the victory in the Northern War, Peter I officially named the state the Russian Empire. At the same time, in all Russian documents, and soon in the West, the concept of the Muscovite state, Muscovy, disappears.

In the XVIII - early XX century. (until 1917) Russia had three meanings: 1) the entire state under the authority of the All-Russian Emperor; 2) a country inhabited by the Russian people in the broadest sense of the word (i.e., including Ukrainians / Little Russians and Belarusians), but without the “foreign” outskirts of the empire; 3) a country of only the Great Russian tribe (excluding Little Russians and Belarusians).

It is curious that at that time the Chinese Tatar Republic was part of the Russian Mongol-Tataria, fig. 138. It captured a part of modern China, included "Great Tibet". We will tell about the history of China and about its true content and chronology in the following chapters. Then we will once again return to these wonderful maps of the 18th century.

"Tatar" geographical terminology was preserved on our domestic maps until the 18th century. Here, for example, in Fig. 141 shows a map of Asia from the "first world Russian atlas". It was called like this: “Atlas, composed for the benefit and use of youth and all readers of statements and historical books”, St. Petersburg, Acad., Nauk, 1737, 1 map 18, p. 48. There are numerous Tatars on the map. Namely, just TATARIA, then FREE TATARIA, CHINESE TATARIA, RUSSIAN TATARIA, fig. 141. A. V. Postnikov, compiler of the atlas, Reproducing this map of the 18th century, could not resist a skeptical comment: “Obviously, the sources of maps were foreign maps of low quality in different languages”, p. 48.

GREAT TATARIA is also marked on the Russian map of the middle of the 18th century, a fragment of which we present in fig. 142.

RM By the way, on the map of 1737, fig. 141, it is present - in the area of present-day Burma (Myanmar), fig. 143 is a notable name for PERU. Isn't it a trace of the Piebald Horde, which was in these places in the 16th-17th centuries and gave, in particular, its name to the capital of modern China, the city of Beijing, as well as Pakistan (the Stan of the Piebald Horde)? See "Empire", ch. 6.

7. What used to be called Lithuania?

We take a collection of geographical maps by E. E. Shiryaev “Belarus: White Russia, Black Russia and Lithuania in maps”.

R1) It turns out that until the 19th century, LITHUANIA was called SO TEMPORARY BELARUSIA. AND MODERN LITHUANIA WAS DIFFERENTLY CALLED: ZHEMAITIA or ZHMUDIYA.

P2) It turns out that the LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GREAT PRINCIPALITY OF LITHUANIA WAS NOT USED AS THE STATE LANGUAGE. And the RUSSIAN LANGUAGE was USED, more precisely, the old Belarusian - the western dialect of the old Russian language.

Let us quote E. E. Shiryaev on this subject: “The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed ON THE TERRITORY OF BELARUS with the capital in the city of Novogrudok in 1240 ... title). And it appeared as an autonomous principality within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as can be seen from many of the old maps cited in the book. And its citizens were called ZHMUDINS.

THE MODERN NAME (that is, "Lithuania" for modern Lithuania - Auth.) IS USED ONLY FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY. THE STATE LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF LITHUANIA WAS OLD BELARUSIAN UP TO THE END OF THE 17TH CENTURY, then it was replaced by Polish. It should be noted that the LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE WAS NOT THE STATE LANGUAGE FOR THE ALL TIME OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE PRINCIPALITY. THE GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF LITHUANIA WAS CONSIDERED SLAVIC NOT ONLY IN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE, BUT ALSO IN THE PREDOMINATION OF THE SLAVIC POPULATION”, p. 5.

Rice. 144. Fragment of an old map allegedly dated 1507. Map of Central Europe by M. Beneventano and B. Vanovsky (revised by Nicholas of Cuza) from Ptolemy's Geography, 1507, p.114. Taken from, map 2, p. 21

When did the name change take place? E. E. Shiryaev clearly answers this question “In the 19th century, the course of events led to a shift in the historically established concepts and names of ethnic territories and populations. Thus, the former ethnic territory of Samogitia began to be called LITHUANIA. A TRADITIONAL TOPONIM “LITHUANIA”, IDENTIFIED DURING THE PREVIOUS! CENTURIES WITH NORTH-WESTERN BELARUSIA (including the Vilensk region), COMPLETELY LOST ITS FORMER ETHNO-HISTORICAL CONTENT ", p. 5.

It's hard to tell. All this is well explained by our concept, according to which LITHUANIA IS THE OLD NAME OF WHITE RUSSIA, SHE IS MOSCOW.

This fact is confirmed by old maps. On the map of allegedly 1507, given in the book of E.E. Shiryaev, it is clearly written: Russia Alba sive Moscovia, which means “White Russia or Muscovy”, fig. 144. See the right side of the map. However, the modern commentator V. Ostrovsky translates this ABSOLUTELY CLEAR INscription for some reason like this: "Greek Orthodoxy or Muscovy."

Rice. 145. Medieval map of Russia allegedly of the 16th century

Rice. 146. Medieval map of Russia allegedly of the 16th century. The modern Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, is called the Bosphorus (Bosphor) - just like the strait on which Istanbul stands (Constantinople, Troy, Gospel Jerusalem) is called. Therefore, it is possible that part of the legends about Troy refers to the Crimean peninsula, to TAVRIA (Troy-Tavria). And chroniclers could confuse two straits with the same name "Bosphorus" (or "Bosporus"). Taken from, p. 325

Rice. 147. Fragment of a map of Russia with the name "Cossacks Horde"

You can see this fantastic translation pearl in the book by V. Ostrovsky. Cit. by , p. 9. What can you do to save the Scaligerian-Romanov history.

Further, as part of our reconstruction, it turns out that the city of Novogrudok, with the capital in which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed in 1240, is, most likely, GREAT NOVGOROD = YAROSLAVL. After all, 1240, according to the Scaligerian-Romanov chronology, is just the year of the “Mongolian” invasion.

The name Samogitia also comes from here, that is, simply SAMO-GOTHIA, “Gothia proper”, used on old maps. Another explanation is possible: SAMOGITIA - Land of the Goths, since, for example, the Polish ziemia - “land” (read “earth”) could easily turn into SAMO. We have already said that the TATARS were called GOTHS, see the book by S. Herberstein.

On fig. 145 we present an old map of Russia allegedly from the 16th century from Sebastian Münster's Universal Cosmography, allegedly published in 1544, p. 325. At the right edge of the map, between Yaik and Ob, we see the image of tents with the inscription KOSAKIORDA, that is, the HORDE OF COSSACKS, Fig. 147. So, on this old map it is directly stated that the COSSACK TROOPS WERE EARLIER CALLED HORDS.

Which, in particular, we affirm in our reconstruction of Russian history.

On fig. 146 shows another old map of Russia allegedly from the 16th century. In the center of the map it is written that it depicts TARTARIA OR SCYTHIA - Tartaria olim Scythia, fig. 148. Thus, on the ancient map the names TARTARIA and SCYTHIA are simply identified. We have already talked about this a lot, referring to old authors. Here we see that the identification is directly depicted on the map. Moreover, it is RUSSIA that is named Tartaria or Scythia. We also note that to the east of the Volga there is an inscription SARMATIA ASIATICA, that is, ASIAN SARMATIA. This means that Russia was also called SARMATIA.

Rice. 148. Fragment of a map of Russia with the name "Tartaria or Scythia". Taken from, p. 325

Until now, different versions of the origin of the name "Rus" are competing, but none of them has yet decisive evidence. However, it is reliably known that already in the middle of the tenth century, Rus was called the entire space of the Eastern Slavs from the Black to the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathians to the Upper Volga. This is stated in the treaty between Prince Igor and Byzantium (944), where ambassadors from different cities - Kyiv, Novgorod, Rostov the Great, and others - collectively call themselves "the Russian family."

The annals also feature a narrower use of the term "Rus". Often they say that one of the princes "went to Russia" from the same Novgorod, Rostov or Galich. In this case, Russia means the lands around Kyiv, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Novgorod-Seversky, Kursk. This understanding of Russia is often found in sources dating back to the 11th-12th centuries. Academicians B. A. Rybakov and V. V. Sedov spent a lot of effort to prove that it was on this territory that the Slavic tribe Rus, unknown to sources, once lived. [S-BLOCK]

Thus, the words "Rus", Russia, Ruthenia, Ρωςια were synonymous and denoted the same country, even at a time when it was split into many states, and then fell under the dominion of the Mongol khans. The inhabitants of Russia themselves called themselves Rusyns, regardless of which principality they lived in (the name of the main city of the earth was used to indicate nationality - Novgorod, Suzdal, Smolensk, Ryazan, etc.). For the longest time, the name "Rusyns" (exactly in this sound) was retained in Western Ukraine, where back in the 30s of the XX century, many Slavs of Transcarpathia called themselves so. [S-BLOCK]

Contrary to popular belief, the inhabitants of the Moscow kingdom never called themselves Muscovites. This is a Western term introduced in order to distinguish Russians - subjects of the Grand Duke of Moscow - from Russians - subjects of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland. At the same time, the self-name "Rusyns" also disappears from the everyday life of Moscow subjects. The latter usually refer to themselves by confession - Orthodox Christians, since it was believed that after the conquest of Constantinople and all the Balkan countries by the Basurmans (Turks), Muscovite Russia remained the only Orthodox kingdom in the world. But the official name - Muscovy - was used in Russian acts until the end of the 17th century (in particular, in the Cathedral Code of 1649). Along with this, and in the same documents, the name Rosia or Rusia, which was a tracing paper from the Greek Ρωςια, is increasingly common. It is necessary to distinguish between the use of the terms "Moscow state" and "Russia / Russia". For Russian tsars and their subjects of the XVI-XVII centuries. The Muscovite state is only a political unit under the rule of the Muscovite monarch. Russia / Russia is a country where they speak Russian and profess the Orthodox faith; that is, Russia / Rusia included Ukraine and Belarus, which were part of the Commonwealth (created in 1569 by the final unification of Poland and Lithuania). The title of the Moscow sovereigns, added to the list of capitals and countries that belonged to them, - “and all Russia (and)”, first appeared under Prince Simeon the Proud (1340-1353) and symbolized their “patrimonial right” to all the legacy of Rurik’s house. The Romanovs, who reigned in 1613, did not renounce this “right”. [S-BLOCK]

The royal title "and all Russia" was directly borrowed from the title of head of the Russian Church. The Russian metropolis remained united until the middle of the 15th century. The metropolitans, formally called Kyiv, from 1299 lived in Vladimir, and from 1328 mainly in Moscow. When the Orthodox clergy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania managed to secure a special metropolitan for themselves in Constantinople, the Moscow metropolitans (since 1588 patriarchs) continued to add "and all Russia" to their title.

On the same topic:

What was called Russia before the appearance of our country How did the inhabitants of Ukraine call themselves before joining Russia

We take a collection of geographical maps by E. E. Shiryaev “Belarus: White Russia, Black Russia and Lithuania in maps”.

1) It turns out that until the 19th century Lithuania was called modern Belarus. And modern Lithuania was called differently: Samogitia or Zhmud.

2) It turns out that Lithuanian was not used as a state language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And the Russian language was used, more precisely, Old Belarusian - the Western dialect of the Old Russian language.

Let us quote E. E. Shiryaev.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed on the territory of Belarus with the capital in the city of Novogrudok in 1240 ... The main part of modern Lithuania, its western half, was not called Lithuania, but Samogitia - Zhmudya, or Samogitia (Latin name). And it appeared as an autonomous principality within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as can be seen from many of the old maps cited in the book. And its citizens were called Zhmudins. Modern name(that is, "Lithuania" for modern Lithuania - ed.) used only from the second half of the 19th century. The state language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was Old Belarusian until the end of the 17th century., then it was replaced by Polish. It should be noted that the Lithuanian language was not the official language for the entire existence of the principality. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was considered Slavic not only in terms of language and culture, but also in terms of the predominance of the Slavic population., p.5.

When did the name change take place?

Shiryaev clearly answers this question.

“In the 19th century, the course of events led to a shift in the historically established concepts and names of ethnic territories and populations. Thus, the former ethnic territory of Samogitia began to be called Lithuania, and the traditional toponym "Lithuania", identified over the previous centuries with northwestern Belarus(including the Vilensk region), has completely lost its former ethno-historical content”, p.5.

It's hard to tell.

All this corresponds our concept that Lithuania is the old name of White Russia, it is also Muscovy.

This fact is confirmed by old maps. On the map of allegedly 1507, given in Shiryaev's book, it is clearly written:

Russia Alba sive Moscovia, which means "White Russia or Muscovy". The modern commentator Ostrovsky translates this clear inscription for some reason So :

"Greek Orthodoxy or Muscovy".

You can see this fantastic translation gem in Ostrovsky's book. Cit. by , p.9. What can you do to save the Scaligerian-Romanov history.

Further, within the framework of our concept, it turns out that the city of Novogrudok, with the capital in which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed in 1240, is most likely Veliky Novgorod – Yaroslavl. After all, 1240, according to the Scaligerian-Romanov chronology, is just the year of the “Mongolian” invasion.

From here comes the name of Samogitia, that is, simply Samo-Gothia, "Gothia proper", used on maps. We have already said that Gotami called Tatars. See Herberstein's book.

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