They don't need a princely gift. What does Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin warn us about?

How the prophetic Oleg is getting ready now
Take revenge on the foolish Khazars,
Their villages and fields for a violent raid
He condemned him to swords and fires;
With his squad, in Tsaregrad armor,
The prince rides across the field on a faithful horse.

From the dark forest towards him
An inspired magician is coming,
An old man obedient to Perun alone,
The messenger of the covenants of the future,
He spent his entire century in prayers and fortune-telling.
And Oleg drove up to the wise old man.

“Tell me, magician, favorite of the gods,
What will happen to me in life?
And soon, to the joy of our neighbors-enemies,
Will I be covered with grave soil?
Reveal to me the whole truth, do not be afraid of me:
You will take a horse as a reward for anyone.”

“The Magi are not afraid of mighty lords,
But they don’t need a princely gift;
Their prophetic language is truthful and free
And friendly with the will of heaven.
The coming years lurk in darkness;
But I see your lot on your bright brow.

Now remember my words:
Glory to the warrior is joy;
Your name is glorified by victory;
Your shield is on the gates of Constantinople;
Both the waves and the land are submissive to you;
The enemy is jealous of such a wondrous fate.

AND blue sea deceptive shaft
In the hours of fatal bad weather,
And the sling and the arrow and the crafty dagger
The years are kind to the winner...
Under the formidable armor you know no wounds;
An invisible guardian has been given to the mighty.

Your horse is not afraid of dangerous work;
He, sensing the master's will,
Then the humble one stands under the arrows of enemies,
Then he rushes across the battlefield.
And the cold and slashing are nothing to him...
But you will receive death from your horse.”

Oleg grinned - however
And the gaze was darkened by thoughts.
In silence, leaning his hand on the saddle,
He gets off his horse, gloomy;
And a faithful friend with a farewell hand
And he strokes and pats the cool guy’s neck.

"Farewell, my comrade, my faithful servant,
The time has come for us to part;
Now rest! no one will step foot
Into your gilded stirrup.
Farewell, be comforted - and remember me.
You, fellow youths, take a horse,

Cover with blanket, shaggy carpet;
Take me to my meadow by the bridle;
Bathe; feed with selected grain;
Give me spring water to drink.”
And the youths immediately departed with the horse,
And they brought another horse to the prince.

The prophetic Oleg feasts with his retinue
At the clink of a cheerful glass.
And their curls are white as morning snow
Above the glorious head of the mound...
They remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together...

“Where is my friend? - said Oleg, -
Tell me, where is my zealous horse?
Are you healthy? Is his running still as easy?
Is he still the same stormy, playful person?”
And he heeds the answer: on a steep hill
He had long since fallen into deep sleep.

Mighty Oleg bowed his head
And he thinks: “What is fortune telling?
Magician, you lying, crazy old man!
I would despise your prediction!
My horse would still carry me.”
And he wants to see the horse's bones.

Here comes the mighty Oleg from the yard,
Igor and old guests are with him,
And they see - on a hill, on the banks of the Dnieper,
Noble bones lie;
The rain washes them, the dust covers them,
And the wind stirs the feather grass above them.

The prince quietly stepped on the horse's skull
And he said: “Sleep, lonely friend!
Your old master outlived you:
At the funeral feast, already nearby,
It’s not you who will stain the feather grass under the ax
And feed my ashes with hot blood!

So this is where my destruction was hidden!
The bone threatened me with death!”
From dead head grave snake,
Hissing, meanwhile she crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around my legs,
And the suddenly stung prince cried out.

The circular buckets, foaming, hiss
At the mournful funeral of Oleg;
Prince Igor and Olga are sitting on a hill;
The squad is feasting on the shore;
Soldiers remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together.

Analysis of the poem “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” by Alexander Pushkin

The poem “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” was created by Pushkin in 1822, when he was in Chisinau (southern link). The source of inspiration for the poet was the chronicle testimony of the death of the ancient Russian prince Oleg. Folk tales and legends became indirect sources. Oleg was very popular in Ancient Rus'. Main positive features, which characterized great people at that time, were considered courage and bravery. Oleg was given the nickname Prophetic among the people, which meant respect for his mental abilities.

The work is written in the ballad genre. Pushkin gave it the character of a chronicle narrative. “The Song...” is presented in very beautiful musical language with an abundance of epithets and figurative expressions. The prince's victorious campaigns and his courage during battles are listed.

All colorful descriptions serve as a background for main topic works - the inevitability of fate in human destiny. The illustrious prince meets a sorcerer who knows the will of the gods. Old Russian Magi, even after the adoption of Christianity, for a long time enjoyed enormous authority. They were credited with the ability to see the future. Even Oleg, nicknamed the Prophetic, respectfully turns to the elder and asks him to reveal the secret of his fate.

In the image of the sorcerer, Pushkin symbolically depicts a poet-creator who is not subject to time and earthly power. Perhaps this is a hint of his own exile, which is not capable of influencing the poet’s beliefs. The proud old man rejects Oleg's reward for the prediction and reveals the harsh truth that the prince will die from his horse.

Oleg bitterly says goodbye to his comrade. Through long years Covered with victories and glory, the prince learns of the death of his horse. He curses the “lying old man,” but dies from a snake crawling out of a horse’s skull. Only before his death does he come to realize the truth of the prediction.

Oleg's death can be assessed in two ways. This is both the fulfillment of a prediction and the sorcerer’s revenge for the desecration of his own name. Pushkin again puts in place all the rulers and bosses who consider themselves omnipotent. He reminds us that no one has control over his own destiny. The ability to see, recognize millions of coincidences and try to predict the future is the destiny of creative people. They cannot be treated with disdain, since the key to the future is in the hands of the wise men, poets, and prophets.

“The Song of the Prophetic Oleg,” for all its artistic merits, is one of Pushkin’s first attempts philosophical understanding the place of the poet in the life of society.

“The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” was written by A.S. Pushkin in 1822. The plot was based on a chronicle story from the “Tale of Bygone Years,” given by N.M. Karamzin in Chapter V of Volume I of “History of the Russian State.” At this time, in addition to the historian N.M. Karamzin, Russian prose writers and poets paid great attention to the past of Russia. A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky writes historical stories, one of the thoughts of K.F. Ryleev is called “Prophetic Oleg”. In the context of interest in “the legends of deep antiquity,” one can explain the appearance of “Songs about the prophetic Oleg” in the work of A.S. Pushkin. However, from my point of view, there is another, perhaps more significant, reason for its creation.

The poet arrived in his first exile, in Chisinau, on September 21, 1820. The governor of the region was General I.N. Inzov, known for his sympathy for the Freemasons and personal participation in their meetings. At this time, the Masonic lodge “Ovid” operated semi-legally in Chisinau. On May 6, 1821, A.S. Pushkin was admitted to this lodge. But at the end of 1821, the Ovid lodge was banned by Alexander I - the first among all, since the Tsar became aware of the intentions of the future Decembrists to overthrow the autocracy. All Masonic lodges were prohibited by the Sovereign Rescript of August 1, 1822. It was in this interval, between the first prohibition of the Masonic lodge “Ovid” and the rescript of August 1, 1822, that “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” appeared.

Subject tragic fate the pagan prince did not in any way overlap with the current secular and passionate personal life of the poet, his spiritual quest in the mainstream of romanticism. The imagination of the singer of “heartfelt thoughts” was more excited by the theme of a captive, wanderer, exile, and the fate of the exiled poet Ovid was perceived by him as something deeply personal:

Ovid, I live near quiet shores,
Which exiled fatherly gods
You once brought and left your ashes.

And almost at the same time, from the depths of pagan Rus', the mighty image of the prophetic Oleg appears:

How the prophetic Oleg is getting ready now
Take revenge on the foolish Khazars,

He doomed him to swords and fires.

If it were not for this textbook poem by A.S. Pushkin, studied by many generations of students in the literature program in the fifth grade, we would not have known anything about some Khazars, because exactly two lines were written about them in history textbooks: “He [Svyatoslav] defeated the Khazar Kaganate and subjugated the Yas (Ossetians) and Kasogs (Circassians) tribes in the North Caucasus and the Kuban region.” All. What is the Khazar Kaganate? Not a word about this.

The “Khazar theme” was under an unspoken ban among Soviet historians. M.A. Artamonov’s book “History of Khazaria”, where for the first time it is shown as one of the “superpowers” of Eastern Europe IX-X centuries, not published for more than 10 years.

It is also surprising that in pre-revolutionary popular studies on the history of Ancient Rus' there is either no mention of the Khazars at all, or they are mentioned in passing, or a distorted assessment is given: “The Khazar yoke was not heavy for the Slavs.” Then why were Oleg’s campaigns and Svyatoslav’s feat necessary? Historians are silent about this. And N.M. Karamzin himself mentions the defeat of the Khazar Kaganate in passing, but this event changed the course of Russian history: “ Ancient Rus' seized hegemony from the Khazar Khaganate in the 10th century. Consequently, until the 10th century, hegemony belonged to the Khazars."

Why do we know so little about Khazaria? And not only us. Western researchers, in particular, Benjamin Friedman, in his work “The Truth about the Khazars,” expresses sincere surprise that “some mysterious, mystical force turned out to be able, throughout the lives of countless generations and throughout the world, to prevent the history of the Khazars and the Khazar Kaganate ended up in history books and in school programs on this subject" .

But A.S. Pushkin probably knew this material, because he immediately included the Khazar theme in the fate of his hero and gave, at first glance, a strange definition of the Khazars, which seems to be “taken out” of the context, from the epic-epic style of narration in the spirit of Russian storytellers. Indeed, why are the Khazars called “unreasonable”? After all, they were enemies of the Slavs, they committed “violent raids.” Is it really So talking about enemies? Why didn’t A.S. Pushkin write, for example: “Take revenge on the restless Khazars, treacherous, hated”? This would probably be no less correct! But nothing “wrong,” let alone accidental, happens with geniuses.

The poet wrote exactly this way to convey to us not only the deep meaning of Oleg’s fate, but also the tragic meaning of Russian history.

So, three questions in the text of this work will interest us:

1. Why does A.S. Pushkin call the Khazars “unreasonable”?
2. What do the symbols “horse” and “snake” mean for understanding the meaning of Oleg’s fate?
3. What does the poet want to convey to us with the “Khazar theme”?

Let us turn to history and set ourselves the goal of understanding the special intended meaning of such a historical phenomenon as Khazaria. This is also important because, as the famous Russian philosopher-futurologist A.S. Panarin rightly noted, “since the emergence of the great world religions world history includes mystical component as a hidden spring and vector» .

The state of Khazaria existed from the middle of the 7th century to the end of the 10th century. The indigenous ethnic group is Turks. The territory of Khazaria included North Caucasus, Azov region, most of Crimea, steppe and forest-steppe from the Lower and Middle Volga to the Dnieper, the northern border passed through the lands of modern Voronezh and Tula regions. The capital of this huge state was the city of Semender, which was located on the territory of modern Dagestan, and from the beginning of the 8th century - Itil. There are two assumptions about the location of Itil: present-day Volgograd (Stalingrad, Tsaritsyn) or Astrakhan. In both cases, the location was very advantageous, as it made it possible to control the movement of cargo and passenger flows along the river in order to collect tribute, which amounted to 10% of all goods transported along the Volga. In addition, the Khazars very often carried out “violent raids” on neighboring Slavic tribes in order to seize property and people, who were enslaved and sold in slave markets. Khazaria contained a powerful multi-tribal hired army. The head of state was the Kagan, later also the Tsar Bek. From the middle of the 8th century, Judaism became the state religion.

An invaluable contribution to the history of Khazaria was made by L.N. Gumilyov, who devoted a lot of research to this topic, and, moreover, to the history of the Rus and other peoples Great Steppe, as well as certain trends in world history, were considered in close connection with the problem of the Khazar Kaganate. The outstanding scientist considers this “zigzag of history”, a “chimera state”, which has embodied itself in an “anti-system”, a “hidden component of the world historical process”, to be precisely the problem.

Khazaria became a problem, according to Gumilyov, after the resettlement of Jews there who moved to the Caucasus and the Khazar steppes due to clashes with the Byzantines, Arabs and Persians. Western researcher Arthur Koestler, in his book “The Thirteenth Tribe,” generally believes that the flow of Jewish migration to Europe came largely from Transcaucasia through Poland and Central Europe. The thirteenth Israeli tribe, the tribe of Dan (from which, according to legend, the Antichrist should appear!), he calls that part of the Jews who went to the North through Caucasus ridge after the fall of Israel in 722 BC, they subsequently mixed with the Khazarian Turks and lost their Jewish identity. About how and why the Tribe of Dan ended up at the origins of the Khazar Kaganate, you can read in detail in the book by T.V. Gracheva “Invisible Khazaria” (Ryazan, 2010. pp. 187-189).

The Bible says that “Dan will be a serpent in the way, an adder in the way, biting the horse’s leg, so that his rider falls back. I hope for Your help, Lord!” (Gen. 49: 17-18). According to the heraldry of the tribes of Israel, the symbols of the tribe of Dan are considered to be a serpent and a horse. Among the amulets found in Khazar cemeteries, these two predominate: a snake (in various modifications, including in the form of sixes enclosed in a ring - an image close to what we have in modern Russian passports) and a horse (sometimes also in the ring).

“In the middle of the 8th century, the events that took place throughout the entire Eurasian continent changed the world in a way that no one could have predicted,” with these words Gumilyov begins the story about the birth of Khazaria, an artificial state, as a result of the resettlement of “traveling” Jews there, who immediately “turned around” and took power into their own hands. “The Turkic khans from the Ashina dynasty, due to the religious tolerance and complacency characteristic of the steppe inhabitants, believed that their power was gaining hardworking and intelligent subjects who can be used for diplomatic and economic assignments. Rich Jews presented luxurious gifts to the Khazar khans and beks, and beautiful Jewish women replenished the khan's harems. This is how the Jewish-Khazar chimera arose." In 803, Obadiah, an influential Jew in the Khazar Kaganate, took power into his own hands and turned the khan (khagan) into a puppet, declared Talmudic Judaism the state religion, and he himself became tsar-bek, that is, the real ruler. This is how dual power was born in Khazaria, this is how the chimera was born. Gumilev calls this artificial state a chimera, because the head of another people sits on the body of one people, as a result of which Khazaria has dramatically changed its appearance. “From systemic integrity it has turned into an unnatural combination amorphous mass subjects with the ruling class, alien to the people by blood and religion", into a community of people with a "negative attitude." L.N. Gumilyov states that “negative formations exist due to positive ethnic systems, which they corrode from the inside, like cancerous tumors.”

Judaism, in the apt expression of L.N. Gumilyov, spread in Khazaria “sexually”, that is, through mixed marriages. Moreover, children from such families were considered among the Khazars (where nationality was determined by the father) and among the Jews (if the mother was Jewish). That is, in any case, such a Jew was “suitable” for conducting profitable and large businesses.

What about the rest? Indigenous majority? And in its own country it turned into powerless and amorphous mass. The work of the Khazars was paid minimally, the natives were in awe of the formidable tax collectors, they prayed in the same huts in which they lived, simple Khazars-men, however, were given the right to protect Jewish merchants, the heads of Jewish communities squeezed funds from the Khazars for mercenaries who were supposed to in case of revolts of these Khazars, suppress. Thus, the Khazars themselves paid for their enslavement.

Jews exported from Slavic countries not only wax, furs and horses, but mainly Slavic prisoners of war for sale into slavery, as well as young men, girls and children for debauchery and harems. Trade in castrated Slavic youths and children was practiced. For castration, Jews equipped special institutions in Kaffa (Feodosia).

For some time, the Khazar Jews subjugated the tribes of the Eastern Slavs, forcing them to pay tribute. In Russian folklore, for example in epics, the memory of Kozarin and Zhidovin, of the struggle with “the king of the Jews and the power of the Jews” has been preserved.

Khazaria, from the point of view of L.N. Gumilyov, was not only a state, but also an ethnic chimera, which was formed as a result of the invasion of representatives of one ethnic group into the area of ​​​​residence of another, incompatible with it. This chimera is even more terrible, since in place of a single mentality comes complete chaos of views and ideas, creating cacophony and general perversity. “It (the chimera, the anti-system) draws out passionarity from the ethnic group that hosts it, like a ghoul.” In such unnatural (anti-system) conditions, everything perishes, including culture. In fact, nothing remains of the Khazars, while other mounds still amaze during excavations with their masterpieces. You will not find the “masterpieces” of Khazaria in any museum in the world. Their vessels are devoid of ornament, their structures are primitive, and there are no images of people at all. Why were these steppe dwellers worse than others? Here's what. They, "unreasonable", either out of the kindness of soul, or out of spiritual blindness allowed themselves to be turned into a chimera. From a living people who warmed a snake on their chest (remember the symbolism of the Khazars!) and was poisoned by it, life was gradually leaving, as she left the mighty body of Prince Oleg, who never recovered from the snake bite, “as a result he got sick and died.” A people in whom will, reason and spirit are alive can reproduce culture. Through works of art, he strives to achieve immortality in history. In Khazaria, only rich Jews could be the “customer” of culture. And they didn't need art. Their religion (Talmudic Judaism) fundamentally denied art, the beauty of realism. They did not have their own artists, and if any appeared, they were engaged in drawing symbols and geometric shapes in the texts of Kabbalah (the prototype of abstractionism) or calligraphy, that is, they rewrote the Talmud.

The Khazars' own art in the Khazar Kaganate could not find not only a customer, but also a buyer, because the Khazars were poor. They even stopped erecting grave monuments, they simply laid the dead on mounds, where they were covered with steppe dust...

The common people of the former Khazaria, who did not belong to Judaism, came under the protection of Rus', while the Jewish elite and the trading and usurious class, who bound themselves to the faith of Talmudic Judaism, left these lands and, according to a number of European historians, moved to the western lands of Russia, to Poland , Germany and further, further... These settlers formed a branch of the so-called Eastern Ashkenazi Jews, the thirteenth tribe of Dan, “a hidden component of the world historical process.”

The Khazar kingdom disappeared like smoke. It disappeared into the Polovtsian steppe sea. Nothing remained of it: no ethnic group, no significant cultural monuments, no language, no gravestones, and the capital Itil turned into a ghost town, still inaccessible to archaeologists.

The time has come for the Baptism of Rus'. In The Tale of Bygone Years, the chronicler talks about how Khazar Jews came to Prince Vladimir with an offer to accept their faith - Talmudic Judaism. “And Vladimir asked: “What is your law?” They answered: “Be circumcised, do not eat pork or hare, and keep the Sabbath.” He asked: “Where is your land?” They said: “In Jerusalem.” He asked again: “Is she really there?” And they answered: “God was angry with our fathers and scattered us throughout various countries for our sins, and gave our land to Christians.” Vladimir said to this: “How come you teach others, but you yourself are rejected by God and scattered: if God loved you and your law, then you would not have been scattered across foreign lands. Or do you want the same for us??» .

This episode records the attempt of the Khazar Jews to take over the Kyiv Kagan, just as it happened with the Itilian. Then the Russians would quickly find themselves in the position of the Khazars. But Vladimir showed himself to be a very reasonable, far-sighted ruler, he knew about the recent past of the Khazar Kaganate, doubted the veracity of the words of the Khazar Jews that their land was in Jerusalem: “Is it really there?” - he asked again. Vladimir turned out to be more insightful and smarter gullible, " unreasonable" Turk Ashin and preferred an alliance with the Orthodox Greeks to dubious Khazar promises.

This is how a faith appeared in Rus', which directly pointed to the fighter against God and the enemy of the human race - the devil - and his “children” who had fallen away from the Lord: “Your father is the devil, and you want to fulfill the lusts of your father; he was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him... He is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

By providence or by God's permission, how often human wisdom and common sense stumble upon temptations of gullible carelessness or pride of self-will! Throughout his life, this struggle went on in Pushkin. From his youth until his last breath, people were constantly around him who, as they say, led him astray. And the true path is the path to God. Alexander Sergeevich found it difficult to find him. And in Chisinau, among the diverse Masonic “brothers”, he experienced “a kind of fall..., passed through dark gorges, where evil forces were circling, attacking, overpowering... Something was tormenting, covered the innate strength of his spirit." This is the description internal state The poet perfectly explains the appearance in his work of the image of the prophetic Oleg. All these dark Masonic “gorges” with their gloomy rituals and ominous symbolism (and among them a snake and a horse) caused the poet to have disturbing thoughts about the connection of human destiny and human history with certain mystical powers, who even bring down a hero.

“Mighty Oleg”!.. Behind him is a whole series of glorious victories, but he dies by accident, from a snake bite.

Let's make a small digression and clarification. Above we said that the part of Jewry that represented the tribe of Dan (“the asp on the way, biting the horse’s leg”) migrated to the Khazar Kaganate. But part of this tribe went to the British Isles, to England, about which there are records in historical chronicles. And on the royal coat of arms of Great Britain there are those symbols that personify Dan: a lion, a horse and a serpent and the inscription below: “No one will harm me with impunity.” That is, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Where is the prophetic Oleg going? “Take revenge on the foolish Khazars”! And as a result, “they” took revenge on him. Here is the answer to the question about the tragic accident of his death. There is nothing accidental in this world, where there is an ongoing struggle between the devil and God, “and the battlefield is the human heart” (F.M. Dostoevsky). “The inspired magician” reminds the prince-warrior that “the deceptive shaft in the hours of fatal bad weather”, as well as the “crafty dagger” “spares the winner for years”, as long as “ invisible guardian given to the able.” One cannot help but remember this, because the voice of the “magician” is “friendly with the will of heaven”!

Years will pass... The sorcerer's prediction will be forgotten.

The prophetic Oleg feasts with his retinue
At the clink of a cheerful glass.
And their curls are white as morning snow
Above the glorious head of the mound...
They remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together...

What a sad feast. Two ellipses instead of two exclamation marks. The prince doubted the veracity of the magician. With a bitter smile he recalls his “despicable” prediction:

“So this is where my destruction was hidden!
The bone threatened me with death!”

But here, on the contrary, there are two exclamation point. The prince was indignant. And then what was said in the Bible came true: “The asp is on the way.” Prince Oleg does not see the snake, his mind is blinded by the carelessness of pride and glory. Therefore, the “invisible guardian” is taken away from the “mighty”.

Oleg is called “prophetic” in “The Tale of Bygone Years” because he is a soothsayer. He predicted to Kyiv: “May this be the mother of Russian cities.” But in Pushkin Oleg is “prophetic” also because he sends us, “as now” (that is, always), the news of an asp hidden somewhere in the dead head. Encroached on the “foolish Khazars” - remember the asp and his goal: “No one will harm me with impunity.”

This snake always crawls out from the depths of the lower world to a hero who is confident in his rightness and takes revenge on him for his daring exploits.

How black ribbon, wrapped around my legs,
And the suddenly stung prince cried out.

By the way, what color was Oleg’s horse? Pushkin does not write about this. We see Oleg’s “bright brow”, the “white curls” of the prince and his warriors, but the horse... The great Russian artist V.M. Vasnetsov was inspired by the poet’s idea. The horse, of course, is white in his illustrations for “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg.” And Oleg says goodbye to this white horse...

And the youths immediately departed with the horse,
And they brought another horse to the prince.

But another horse means a different fate for a warrior...

Prophetic Oleg. Prince-legend, prince-mystery... A great ruler, a great warrior, a great sorcerer, he brought the disunited Slavic tribes together with an iron hand. He conquered new lands, “took revenge on the foolish Khazars” and nailed his shield to the gates of Constantinople, forcing proud Byzantium to recognize Rus' as its equal. He ruled for so long that many began to consider the prince not only prophetic, but almost immortal, and his mysterious death inspired the poet to create a poem - a prophecy, a poem - a warning, because Oleg’s death was not accidental.

The circular buckets, foaming, hiss
At the mournful funeral of Oleg;
Prince Igor and Olga are sitting on a hill;
The squad is feasting on the shore;
Soldiers remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together.

Our heroes are back at the top of the hill. Well! Life goes on. There are new battles ahead, a different story. Will she be suddenly caught or slowly, “through indirect action” overcome? secret forces, that “they blow like hostile whirlwinds” and “viciously oppress”? And the One who “on the shore of the desert waves” “stood... full of great thoughts and looked into the distance”? Did he sense these forces when he incorporated Masonic-Khazar symbolism into the construction plan for the city and its architecture?

All flags will be visiting us, and we will lock them up in the open air!

The Bronze Horseman and the Serpent Under rear horse hoof. When you stand facing the monument, the snake is not visible. The rider too Not sees asp, his gaze turned into the distance.

What a thought on the brow!
What power is hidden in it!
And what fire there is in this horse!
Where are you going? proud horse,
And where will you put your hooves?

Or will you throw it away? This monument was also called the “Horseman of the Apocalypse”.

But St. George the Victorious on white horse sees an asp. He hits him right in the head with a spear. (By the way, this snake is never depicted as dead. It wriggles, crushed, tries to bite the victim, but it is alive!). Will it happen that St. George the Victorious, Saint Yegor, as he is also popularly called, the hero of numerous legends and songs among all Christian peoples and Muslims, will kill the serpent, the dragon that devastates the earth?

George is the Victorious because he is inspired by the knowledge of the Savior and His enemies. He himself accepted martyrdom for our Lord Jesus Christ. “You have chosen the Most High as your refuge. No evil will befall you, and no plague will come close to your dwelling... You will step on the asp and the basilisk; You will trample upon the lion and the dragon” (Ps. 91:9-13). “The Lord is my hope” (Ps. 91:9).

Elijah, the most revered Old Testament prophet in Rus', is also considered a “serpent fighter.” Ilya Muromets, famous for his numerous military exploits in the fight against the enemies of the Fatherland, defeated the terrible serpent: a “filthy idol” was prowling in the steppes, and the “Cursed Jew” threatened from the Khazar side. After his death, Ilyushka became a saint.

A.S. Pushkin knew already in 1822 what spiritual blindness, what mental confusion there was Russian society, seduced by “enlightenment,” blinded by the glory of past victories (1812) and imagining himself so right that he lost the need for an “invisible guardian.” “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” is a prediction of our tragedy in 1917 and the collapse in 1991 - two Khazar coups. From our dead, empty heads crawled that “coffin snake” that now threatens us with death. And we still see ourselves on the top of the hill and “at the clink of a merry glass” we “remember the days gone by.” Only this funeral service can be the last. After all, there was nothing left of the Khazars.

... And then I woke up and screamed: “What if
Is this country truly my homeland?
Wasn’t it here that I loved and died here?
In this green and sunny country?
And I realized that I was lost forever
In empty transitions of space and time,
And somewhere the native rivers flow,
To which my path is forever prohibited, -

This is what the Russian poet N.S. Gumilev wrote, who was executed in August 1921 in Petrograd as part of a fabricated counter-revolutionary conspiracy.

Pushkin did not just write poems and poems. Pushkin prophesied in rhyme. He told us in 1822 that when we forget about Main, then the Khazar snakes bite us. They sting not only directly, like Oleg, but through various kinds of temptations: “what is good for food is pleasant to the eyes and desirable” (Gen. 3: 6).

As now, as now... Why exactly these verses, almost a hundred years later, became the unofficial anthem of the Russian army in the First World War, and then in the Civil War:

How the prophetic Oleg is getting ready now
Take revenge on the foolish Khazars,
Their villages and fields for a violent raid
He doomed him to swords and fires.
So louder the music! Play win!
We have won: the enemy is running, running, running.
So for the Tsar, for the Motherland, for the Faith
We will ring out a loud “hurray!” hooray! hooray!".

But it all ended in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

“I hope for Your help, Lord!” (Gen. 49:18). And I always hold my spear towards the snake.

P.S. I was prompted to collect, summarize and present this material about the prophetic Oleg, the Khazars and the serpent by reading the article “They want to declare Russia the “successor” of the Khazar Kaganate” in the newspaper “Russkiy Vestnik”, N5 (2011), where it is said that the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and The Interaction of Civilizations Foundation held a round table on the topic: “Khazars: myth and history.” Its active participants were the following scholars: President of the Foundation Rakhamim Yashaevich Emanuilov, leading researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies Vladimir Yakovlevich Petrukhin, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Vyacheslavovich Naumkin, President of the Institute of the Middle East Evgeniy Yanovich Satanovsky, historian Viktor Aleksandrovich Shnirelman and member of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on interethnic relations and freedom of conscience, director of the scientific and educational center “Al-Vasatiy” Farid Abdullovich Asadulin. What were they talking about? That “Rus' was created not by Russian people through many, including bloody, sacrifices and the efforts of Russian princes and warriors, but by some kind of multinational conglomerate with the Jewish elite at the head.” The author of the article, Philip Lebed, exclaims, not without surprise: “The Khazars, therefore, turn from enemies into the first gatherers of Russian lands, and Judaism into the first state religion on the territory of Rus'!” . “Scientists” also proposed discussing the possibility of introducing a memorial date “on the adoption of Judaism in Rus'” (?!). “Afro-Russian” Pushkin was cited as an example of multiculturalism, “ which could would introduce Ethiopian literature» (?!?) .

What can I say? The serpent never sleeps! This commentary to A.S. Pushkin’s poem “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” is my spear into the mouth of this serpent!

Evgenia Timofeevna Dmitrieva , Russian philologist, member of the Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgorod Gracheva T.V. Invisible Khazaria: Algorithms of geopolitics and strategies of secret wars of the world behind the scenes. Ryazan, 2010. pp. 156-157. The Tale of Bygone Years // Fiction Kievan Rus XI-XIII centuries. M., 1957. P. 20.
The Tale of Bygone Years // Fiction of Kievan Rus of the 11th-13th centuries. M., 1957. P. 44.
Tyrkova-Williams A.V. Life of A.S. Pushkin. Volume I. M., 2010. P. 294.
There were rumors among the people that after returning from Europe, “the tsar was replaced by a filthy German or a damned Jew.”
Russian Bulletin, No. 5 (2011). P. 13.
Right there. P. 13.

How the prophetic Oleg is getting ready now
Take revenge on the foolish Khazars...

A. S. Pushkin

The Khazars, mentioned by the great Russian poet in “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg,” are another mystery of history. It is known that the Kyiv prince had quite compelling reasons for revenge: at the beginning of the 10th century, the Khazars defeated and imposed tribute on many Slavic tribes. The Khazars lived east of the Slavs. The Byzantines write about Khazaria as a state allied to them (even the protege of the kagan, i.e. the king, Lev Khazar, sat on the throne in Constantinople): “Ships come to us and bring fish and leather, all kinds of goods... they are with us in friendship and we eat...possess military force and power, hordes and troops." Chroniclers talk about the greatness of the capital Itil. Surrounded by large settlements, castles standing on trade routes grew into cities. Itil was exactly such a city, which grew out of the Kagan’s castle, which, as we know from sources, was located somewhere in the Volga delta. Many attempts to find its ruins over time have come to nothing. It appears to have been completely washed away by the often changing river bed. Several fairly detailed, although sometimes contradictory, ancient descriptions of this city have come down to us (mainly by Arab authors). Itil consisted of two parts: a brick palace-castle, built on an island, connected to the castle by floating bridges and also fenced with a powerful wall made of mud bricks. The Kagan's fortress was called al-Bayda, or Sarashen, which meant "white fortress". It had many public buildings: baths, bazaars, synagogues, churches, mosques, minarets and even madrassas. Randomly scattered private buildings were adobe houses and yurts. Merchants, artisans and various ordinary people lived in them.