The Don Cossacks, who were under siege from the Turks in Azov, came to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. And they brought a painting to their seat:
In the summer of June 7149 (1640), on the 24th day, the Turkish Sultan sent a mighty army under the command of his plows to bury us alive and cover us with a high mountain. And there was no number of that army, and they still came Crimean Khan, yes, German hired people, masters of attacks and knowledgeable of underground wisdom.
And then the Basurman army came - where the steppe was clean, then in one hour the forests became like impenetrable, dark ones. Because of the multitude of people, the whole earth caved in, waves flowed from the Don River onto the shore, like in a spring flood. The Turkish tents were being set up, and musket and cannon fire began. And it hung over us like a terrible heavenly thunderstorm, when thunder comes from the Lord of the heavens. Because of the fire and smoke, even the sun darkened, turned to blood, and darkness fell. We felt trembling, but also marvelous to see their orderly arrival of the Basurmans: none of us in our lifetime had seen such a great army gathered in one place.
The same day they sent an ambassador and interpreters. And the ambassador said: “Oh, the Don and Volga Cossacks, fierce! Our neighbors are our closest! Crafty killers, merciless robbers! You angered the Turkish king, took his favorite patrimony, the glorious city of Azov, closed the blue sea, and do not allow ships to pass through the sea. Clear the city of Azov this night without delay. Take your silver and gold and go to your comrades. If you stay until the morning, we will hand you over to cruel and terrible torment. We will crush all your flesh into fractional crumbs. And if you want to serve the Sultan, then the sovereign will forgive your Cossack rudeness.”
Here is a Cossack answer from Azov: “We know about you, we often meet you at sea or on dry roads. Where has your Sultan gone with his mind? He spent the entire treasury, hired wise German soldiers and mine workers from so many lands. But no one took our Cossack coats for free. Our hope is in God and the Mother of God, and our sovereign is the Tsar of Moscow. Our eternal nickname is the great fearless Don Cossacks.” Having received the answer, the ambassadors drove off, but the soldiers sorted out their regiments and lined up all night until the morning.
At first, the German miners came under the walls, followed by the Janissary army; and then the entire horde rushed to the fortress with infantry. They began to cut down the walls and towers with axes. And many climbed the walls using ladders. All our secret tunnels, which we had prepared ahead of time from the city far into the fields, collapsed from untold force. But it was not in vain that we made them; thousands perished in the collapses, and the mines themselves began to explode, they were filled with gunpowder and shot. And twenty-two thousand Turks died in the first attack. The next day, as it began to get light, they again sent envoys and asked for the dead to be collected. And for each Janissary leader they gave a gold piece, and for a colonel one hundred thalers. But we answered them: “We never sell the corpse of the dead, eternal glory is dear to us!” There was no battle that day. They collected the dead until nightfall. They dug a deep ditch, piled up all the dead and buried them, placing pillars with an inscription.
On the third day they began to lead towards us an earthen rampart, a high mountain, much higher than the city of Azov. They wanted to cover us with that mountain. They brought her to us in three days; We, seeing her, realized that our death was from her, we asked God for help, said a final farewell to each other and went into direct battle, all exclaiming with one voice: “God is with us!” Hearing that cry, not one of them could resist us face to face; they all ran away from that destructive mountain. They took 16 banners and 28 barrels of gunpowder from them at that exit. Using the same gunpowder, they dug under a high mountain and scattered that entire mountain. Then they began to build a new mountain and, placing all the guns on that embankment mountain, began to attack Azov day and night. The guns did not fall silent for one hour, sixteen days and sixteen nights. From that cannon fire, all the Azov fortresses crumbled - walls, towers, the Church of the Predtechev, houses - everything was leveled to the ground. In the whole city, only half of the Church of St. Nicholas survived, which stood on the descent to the sea, down the mountain. We all sat in pits from the fire; we were not allowed to look out of the pits. Then we began to dig in the ground, under their ramparts, secret courtyards for ourselves, and from those secret courtyards we made twenty-eight tunnels under their camps. They went out at night to the Janissary infantry and beat them. Those forays caused them great damage and brought great fear upon them. They also began to dig in order to get into our tunnels and overwhelm us in numbers. But we guarded their tunnels and dispersed them with gunpowder.
And there were twenty-four attacks on us near the city of Azov, but there were no such large ones as on the first day. They began sending new people to attack every day. During the day some fight, at night others replace them until daylight, in order to overcome us with languor. And from such evil and cunning, from insomnia and serious wounds, from the stinking spirit of a corpse, we were tired and exhausted by severe diseases. They trusted only in God. Let us run, poor things, to the face of the Forerunner and cry bitter tears to him and Nikola: “How have we angered you? They have killed us with insomnia; we are constantly tormented by them day and night. Our legs have already buckled, our hands have already died, they do not serve us, we cannot hold any weapons.” They picked up the miraculous icons - Predtechev and Nikolina - and went on a sortie. And they suddenly came out and beat six thousand. They, seeing that the mercy of God stood over us, stopped sending people to attack.
Then they began to throw tags on the arrows, writing that they were asking for an empty seat in Azov, and for each young man who left, a ransom of 300 talers of pure silver and 200 talers of red gold. “Go with silver and gold to your comrades, leave us an empty place, Azov.” And we write: “Your dog gold is not dear to us, but eternal glory is dear to us!” Now know what it’s like to approach a Russian Cossack. On your bones we will build Azov better than before!” And our entire stay under siege was 93 days and 93 nights. On the 26th day of September, in the night, they unexpectedly left their camp and fled, not being chased by anyone. When we saw that they were leaving, our thousand went to the camps and took many tongues. From them they learned that they had a terrible vision at night, and that’s why they ran. Those who were beaten near Azov spoke in tongues, 96 thousand of them.
“We, who remained unharmed, were all wounded; we do not have a whole person who has not shed blood. And we ask Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to accept Azov-city from the hands of his slaves. We ourselves are not fighters now, but crippled elders; We have one desire - to take monastic vows in the Monastery of the Forerunner: we made such a promise before his image during the siege, if we survive.”
The current year 7150, at the request of the Turkish Sultan Ibrahim, the sovereign king and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich ordered the Don atamans and Cossacks to leave Azov-grad.
History is a very exciting and interesting science. The events of bygone days are impressive and amaze with their expressiveness and dynamism, make you think and teach by example.
On the other hand, historical sciences are very multifaceted and contradictory. For example, what was previously considered so simple and generally accepted is completely incomprehensible to us - modern people; or what in the old days seemed necessary and useful may now be considered stupid and reproachful.
However, in Russian history there are such bright moments and events that are still revered as heroic deeds, books are written about them and legends are made up, they are idealized and imitated.
One of these positive historical episodes is the Azov seat of the Don Cossacks (1637 - 1642). We will talk briefly about this incident in this article.
But in order to better understand the issue presented, let's first find out its reasons. What warring parties affected the Azov siege (1637 - 1642), and what preceded it.
Don Cossacks
The Don Cossack Army was located on the territory of modern Rostov and Volgograd regions, and also occupied part of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions. The Don Cossacks were considered the most numerous army of all the Cossack troops of the Russian Empire.
The first mentions of the Donets date back to 1550, that is, approximately a hundred years before the events discussed in this article. It is believed that in those days the Don Cossacks were absolutely independent in relation to the states surrounding them. Later, they began to cooperate more and more closely with the Russian Tsar, connecting their hopes and aspirations with the Russian Empire.
Religiously, the Don people were called Orthodox, but among them there were a considerable number of Old Believers, Buddhists and Muslims.
Turkish army
Another participant in the events of the Azov Seat were the Turks, who founded the great Ottoman Empire from several nationalities living in Asia Minor - Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Georgians, Assyrians and others.
The Turks were famous for their warlike character, territorial ambitions and the characteristic brutality of military operations. The majority of the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire were Muslims.
Now let's find out why the Don Cossacks and Turks decided to fight for the Azov fortress.
History of Azov
Azov is a city at the mouth of the Don River. Already in the 6th century BC, it could be assumed that serious military battles and clashes would be fought for him, one of which was the Azov seat of the Don Cossacks (1637-1642).
The founders of Azov are the Greeks, who built a city on a high hill and named it Tanais. Fifteen centuries later the city was part of the territory Kievan Rus, then was captured by the Cumans, and a little later by the Mongols. In the 13th-15th centuries, the Italian colony of Tana, famous for its trade and luxury, was located on the territory of Azov.
However, in 1471, the Ottoman army captured the city and turned it into a powerful fortress, surrounded by a high stone wall with eleven towers. The fortification structure controlled the steppe expanses of the North Caucasus and the Lower Don.
As you can see, from time immemorial Azov occupied an important strategic position, as it had a convenient location relative to the Sea of Azov.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Cossacks wanted to appropriate this territory for themselves, and therefore made an attempt to take away the city. The Seat of Azov (1637 - 1642) was a consequence of their attack on the fortress.
Raids and attacks
What provoked the Seat of Azov 1637-1642? You can learn about this briefly from historical reports of that time.
The fact is that Azak (as it was then called) was a constant source of military danger, both from the Crimean Tatars and from the Turkish Khan. Tatar-Turkish raids on the lands of the Russian state caused enormous damage to both the ordinary population and the economy of the state as a whole. Ruined fields and farms, captured residents, fear and confusion of the civilian population - all this undermined the power and splendor of glorious Russia.
However, it should be noted that, for their part, the Cossacks did not remain in debt to the neighboring aggressor. They responded to raids with raids, and to attacks with attacks.
Several times the Cossacks captured the fortified fortress, freed their prisoners and took enemy hostages with them. They plundered and devastated the city, exacting a considerable tribute from its inhabitants in the form of salt, money and fishing gear. Such campaigns prepared the brave Don people for the memorable and significant defense of Azak, which went down in history as the Azov Seat of the Cossacks (1637-1642). You can read briefly about the capture of the fortification itself below.
Start of operation
Who made the decision to capture Azov? In the winter of 1636, the general military council of the Cossacks decided that it was necessary to undertake a campaign against the enemy Azak in order to take possession of the fortress and all the privileges associated with its possession.
Messengers from the Cossack Circle went through all the villages to gather everyone who wanted to go on a warlike foray. Four and a half thousand Don Cossacks and one thousand Zaporozhye were ready for battle.
The military council, meeting in the Monastic Town, set a specific day for the attack, determined the plan of operation and chose a marching leader. He turned out to be Mikhail Tatarinov - a brave and wise Cossack, who, most likely, came from the Tatars or was once in their captivity.
Start of attack
How did the Seat of Azov begin (1637-1642)? You can learn briefly about this from the lips of the chieftain himself.
He called on his brothers in arms to go against the Busurmans not at night, stealthily, but during the day, with their heads held high.
And so it happened. On April 21, the Cossack army approached the walls of Azak from two sides - some of the soldiers sailed along the Don on ships, and some walked along the shore with cavalry.
The Turks were already waiting for the attackers. They were informed about the Cossacks' preparations by the Turkish ambassador Thomas Cantacuzene.
Therefore, the first attempts to capture the fortress were unsuccessful.
In addition, the structure itself was skillfully strengthened and equipped. The garrison was defended by a force of four thousand infantry and several galleys equipped with many cannons and other weapons.
Victory of the Cossacks
When did the famous Azov Sitting (1637-1642) begin? The siege of the city lasted two months. All sorts of methods and techniques have been tried. The Cossacks dug ditches and trenches, fired cannons at the powerful fortress walls, and repelled isolated attacks by the besieged.
Finally, it was decided to make a tunnel (which lasted more than a month) and place a so-called “mine” under the wall. Because of powerful explosion a gap formed in the defensive wall (about twenty meters in diameter), through which the attackers broke into the fortress.
This happened on the eighteenth of June 1637.
However, getting into the city is half the battle. It still needs to be completely captured. Courageous Cossacks, not sparing themselves, fought for every inch of the long-awaited fortress.
They stormed all four towers of Azov, where stubborn enemies were holed up, and then in hand-to-hand battle they brutally dealt with everyone who resisted, and also exterminated all the inhabitants of the fortress.
Cossack Azak
Thanks to the capture of the fortress, the Cossacks freed about two thousand Slavs, captured the enemy's cannons and declared Azov a free city of Christians. The old temple of the fortress was re-consecrated, trade and political ties were established with Russian and Iranian merchants.
Who became the owner of Azak after the fall of the fortress, when the Azov Seat began (1637-1642)? The Russian sovereign himself briefly answered this question. He refused to accept the fortress as the property of Russia, fearing to violate peace agreements with Turkish Sultan. Therefore, the Don-Zaporozhye Cossacks were considered the rightful owners of the city.
They traded briskly, rebuilt and strengthened the fortress, realizing that the revenge of its former owners would not be long in coming.
And so it happened. At the beginning of 1641, the literal Seat of Azov began (1637-1642).
Turkish attack
Sultan Ibrahim made every effort to gather a strong and well-trained army. He called everyone into his army - Greeks, Albanians, Arabs, Serbs, in order to re-annex his beloved Azak fortress to his lands. According to various sources, the number of Turkish-Tatar attackers ranged from one hundred to two hundred and forty thousand well-coordinated warriors, who possessed two hundred and fifty galleys and one hundred battering guns.
The number of Cossacks at the time of the siege numbered about six thousand (including women, who also took an active part in the defense of the city).
The enemy troops were led by the experienced commander-in-chief Huseyn Pasha. The Cossacks elected Naum Vasiliev and Osip Petrov as atamans.
In early June, Azak was besieged from all sides. The Seat of Azov (1637-1642) was in full swing. The Donets defended themselves fiercely, but the forces were unequal.
The Turks dug many trenches near the walls, where they placed cannons and soldiers for attack. Such a cunning ploy made the attackers inaccessible to Cossack shelling.
Then the Cossacks began to use pre-dug trenches to organize unexpected forays into the enemy camp. This tactic claimed the lives of several thousand enemy soldiers.
From the end of June, daily shelling from heavy cannons began. In many places the walls of the fortress were destroyed to the ground. The Donets had to take refuge in the depths of the medieval building.
Lifting the siege
For some time, the Seat of Azov (1637-1642) was marked by a truce. The Turks needed to wait for reinforcements from Istanbul in the form of food, ammunition and manpower.
Faithful comrades also made their way to the Cossacks, risking being captured alive in the waters of the Don.
Regular negotiations were conducted on the voluntary surrender of the fortress. However, the Don people understood that their homeland stood behind them, which could be captured by the Janissaries, so they did not agree to any tempting persuasion and offers.
Then the Turks, losing heart, losing strength and self-confidence, decided to lift the encirclement and resume the siege only a year later.
End
How did the courageous Azov seat end (1637-1642)? The Donets, having caused enormous, irreparable harm to the enemy army, themselves suffered significant material and power losses: several thousand defenders were killed, the destroyed fortress became unsuitable for wintering, the lack of food and weapons reserves worsened, the Russian government continued to refuse assistance to the besieged. All this prompted the Cossacks to destroy the city to the ground and leave the fortress with their heads held high.
This happened in the summer of 1642. Thus ended the Seat of Azov (1637-1642) - a feat of the Cossacks worthy of praise and imitation.
Influence
What benefits did the heroic Azov Seat (1637-1642) bring to the Russian people?
- Thousands of Slavs were liberated.
- The enemy army suffered huge losses.
- Economic relations have been established between the Cossacks and other peoples.
- The moral and patriotic spirit of the entire Cossacks was strengthened.
- The Azov seat became one of the first steps for the unification of the Don Cossacks and the tsarist army.
Arkhangelskaya A.V.
Back in the 16th century, the strengthening of the Russian centralized state caused mass escapes of peasants from the central regions to the border lands. The largest community of refugees formed on the Don, where these people began to call themselves “Cossacks” (R. Picchio writes that this word of Turkic origin originally denoted the actual concept of “free people”). Over time, the Don Cossacks turned into a very serious military force, led by commanders chosen from among themselves - atamans. The object of military attacks was mainly the Turkish possessions between the Azov and Black Seas.
The constant stumbling block for the Don Cossacks was Azov, a powerful Turkish fortress at the mouth of the Don. In the spring of 1637, the Cossacks, taking advantage of the favorable balance of power when the Sultan was busy with the war with Persia, besieged Azov and, after two months of attacks, captured the fortress.
The Azov epic lasted 4 years, and both the Muslim and Christian world watched it with keen interest. The Cossacks understood that they could not hold Azov without Moscow’s help. Therefore, the Don army sought to take Azov “under the sovereign’s hand.” The Moscow government was afraid great war with Turkey, peace with which was a stable principle foreign policy the first Romanov tsars. Moscow did not dare to move troops to help the Cossacks and officially dissociated itself from them through the Russian ambassador in Constantinople. At the same time, it sent weapons and supplies to the Cossacks and did not prevent “willing people” from replenishing the Azov garrison.
In August 1638, Azov was besieged by mounted hordes of Crimean and Nogai Tatars, but the Cossacks forced them to leave. Three years later - in 1641 - the fortress had to fight off the Sultan's army of Ibrahim I - a huge army equipped with powerful artillery. A large flotilla of ships blocked the city from the sea. Mines planted under the walls and siege cannons destroyed the fortress. Everything that could burn burned out. But a handful of Cossacks (at the beginning of the siege there were five thousand of them against three hundred thousand Turkish army) withstood a four-month siege and fought off 24 attacks. In September 1641, the battered Sultan's army had to retreat. The Turks took the shame of this defeat very hard: residents of Istanbul, under pain of punishment, were forbidden to even utter the word “Azov.”
The events of the Azov epic were reflected in a whole cycle of narrative works, extremely popular throughout the 17th century. First of all, these are three “stories”, defined as “historical” (about the capture of the fortress by the Cossacks in 1637), “documentary” and “poetic” (dedicated to the defense of 1641). At the end of the century, the material was once again reworked and the so-called “fairytale” story about the capture and siege of Azov arose.
It was obvious that Ibrahim I would not yield to Azov, that a new campaign was just a matter of time. Under these conditions, Moscow also realized that the ambiguous policy had come to an end. In 1642, a Zemsky Sobor was convened, which had to decide what to do next: defend the fortress or return it to the Turks. Elected representatives of the Don Army came from the Don to the cathedral. The leader of this delegation was Captain Fyodor Poroshin, the fugitive slave of the prince. N.I. Odoevsky. Apparently, it was he who wrote the poetic “Tale of the Azov Siege” - the most outstanding monument of the Azov cycle. The "Tale" was designed to win over the Moscow people to the side of the Cossacks. public opinion, influence the Zemsky Sobor.
R. Picchio, characterizing the “Tale,” noted first of all its traditionalism: “Sometimes it seems that you are reading “The Tale of Bygone Years,” or “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev,” or “The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople”... the images of the Turks from the army of Sultan Ibrahim seem copied from the ancient Cumans or Tatars of Batu... The power of the tradition of ancient Russian literature informs the entire narrative moral strength, giving charm to every phrase and every gesture, which is not performed by chance, not on an instant impulse, but in accordance with paternal precepts. The Azov Cossacks are left to their own devices, formally they do not depend on the tsar and are able to choose their own destiny. And yet they have no doubt. The Orthodox faith and morality are strong in them. For them, patriotism and religion are one and the same. In the face of the Turkish threat, they know what accusatory speeches to address the infidels, what fiery prayers to offer to the Lord, the Mother of God and the saints, what miracles to expect from heaven, how to greet Christian brothers, the sun, rivers, forests and seas. If there were more improvisation in their actions, the charm of the picture painted in the old way would disappear."
Indeed, “The Tale” was composed by a very well-read person, who relied on a very wide range of book sources. From these sources, “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamaev” became especially important for him, from which, for example, techniques for describing enemy force were borrowed. However, as most researchers note, the artistic specificity of the monument is not determined by paraphrases or hidden quotations. The poetics of the story combines two organizing factors: an artistic rethinking of stationery genres and the use of folklore. The author widely uses the oral folk art of the Cossacks and also took primarily folklore motifs from book sources. In addition, the story attracts attention with its innovative portrayal of the main character: in the center of the story are not princes and sovereigns, but a collective, collective hero - the heroic Cossack garrison of the fortress as a single whole.
The story begins as a typical extract from a document: the Cossacks “brought a painting to their seat of siege, and this painting was submitted to the Ambassadorial Prikaz in Moscow... to the Duma clerk... and in the painting he writes them...” But the subject of this “painting” becomes a lengthy a list of troops sent to Azov by the “Turkish king Ibrahim-Saltan”, infantry regiments, cavalry and artillery, Crimean and Nogai Murzas, mountain and Circassian princes, European mercenaries, etc., etc. The tradition of business writing, at first glance , gives this list a documentary dispassionate tone. But at the same time, this list turns out to be emotionally charged. The author pursues a specific goal: methodically listing more and more new detachments of the Turks, he creates in the reader an impression of fear and hopelessness and he himself seems to be at the mercy of these feelings. He is horrified by what he wrote, and the pen falls out of his hand: “There are many thousands of those people gathered against us, black men, without number, and there is no letter for them (!) - there are so many of them.”
It is very important to remember that this is said by a person who knows very well about the successful outcome of the siege. This means that we have before us the skillful use artistic technique, which makes you see in the author not a factual clerical clerk, but an artist who knows full well that contrast creates emotional tension: the more hopeless the beginning looks, the more spectacular and weighty the happy ending. Apparently, this contrasting picture is the author’s main, but distant goal. In the meantime, he is preparing the ground for the transition from the clerical style to the semi-folklore style of a military story, to a hyperbolic etiquette depiction of countless enemy hordes. The subject of the story remains the same, but the documentary method of presentation is replaced by an epic style.
Pure fields suddenly turned out to be sown by Turkish and Nogai hordes (comparing battle with sowing is a traditional motif of battle descriptions in folklore and literature). There are so many enemies that the steppe expanses have turned into dark and impenetrable forests. Due to the large number of foot and horse regiments, the earth shook and bent, and water came out of the Don onto the shore. A huge number of different tents and tents are likened to high and terrible mountains. Cannon and musket fire is likened to a thunderstorm, lightning flashes and powerful thunderclaps. The sun darkened from the gunpowder smoke, its light turned into blood and darkness fell (how can one not recall the “bloody sun” of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”). The cones on the helmets of the Janissaries sparkle like stars. “We have never seen such people in any military country, and we have not heard of such an army since centuries,” the author sums up, but immediately corrects himself, because finds a suitable analogy: “just as the Greek king came under the Trojan state with many states and thousands.”
Transitions from clerical style to folklore will continue to remain the most characteristic feature of the author's style in the Tale. The author not only alternates clerical and folklore styles, he combines them, saturating the business genre with folklorisms and thus artistically rethinking it.
The Cossacks scold the Sultan in every possible way: he will hire a “thin pig shepherd”, and a “stinking dog”, and a “stingy dog”. This abuse is akin to the literary abuse that is found in a number of monuments of this era, which also artistically interpret business genres: in the legendary correspondence with the Turkish Sultan of Ivan the Terrible, and then of the Zaporozhye and Chigirin Cossacks.
From song lyricism to “literary abuse” - this is the stylistic range of the story. It is all built on contrasts, because it historical basis there was also a contrast - a contrast between the handful of defenders of Azov and the huge number of besiegers.
It is noted that the Turks not only threaten the Cossacks, they tempt them, offering to save their lives and go over to the side of the Sultan, promising great joy and honor for this: remission of all guilt and reward with untold wealth. The mention of this shifts the focus of the narrative from the battlefield to the moral realm.
After a series of attacks that hit the city, the Cossacks, feeling that their strength was running out and the end was approaching, appealed to the heavenly patrons, the patron saints of the Russian land. Christian Cossacks do not surrender to the power of infidels. In response to this, the consoling and uplifting words of the Mother of God are heard from heaven, the icon of John the Baptist in the church sheds tears, and an army of heavenly angels descends on the Turks.
THE TALE ABOUT THE AZOV SIEGE OF THE DON COSSACKS
Old Russian version
On the 28th day of the summer of October 7150, the Don Cossacks came to the Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich of all Russia to Moscow and the Don from the Azov cities: Cossack ataman Naum Vasilev and Yasaul Fedor Ivanov. And with him there were 24 Cossacks who were in the city of Azov under siege from the Turks. And they brought paintings to their siege seat. And he writes them in painting.
In the past, in the 149th year of June, on the 24th day, the king of Tur Ibrahim Saltan sent to us, the Cossacks, four of his pashas, and two of his colonels, the Captain and Mustafa, and his neighbors for his secret thoughts, for the peace of his servant and Ibremya the eunuch The pashas will look over them instead of themselves, the tsar, their battle and trade, how his pashas and colonels will hunt over the city of Azov. And with them the pashas sent many of his assembled Busurman army to us, collecting twelve lands on us with his henchmen. Military people, rewritten their army, according to the lists, two hundred thousand fighting people, besides Pomeranian and Kafim and black men, who on this side of the sea were collected from the entire Crimean and Nagai hordes to bury us, so that they could rake us alive with them, cover us with a mountain of them high, as they are raked by the Persian people. And they would bring eternal glory to themselves through our death, and eternal reproach to us. There are many thousands of those people gathered against us, black men, and there are countless letters to them. Yes, later the Crimean king came to them, and his brother the people of the Crimea, Tsarevich Girey, with his entire Crimean and Nagai horde, and with him the Crimean and Nagai princes and Murzas and Tatars led, besides the hunters, 40,000. Yes, with him, the king, came mountain princes and Cherkasy from Kabarda 10,000. Yes, with them, the pashas, there were hired people and they had two German colonels, and with them 6000 soldiers. Yes, with them, the pashas, there were many German people, city-dwellers, appropriators, for the trades over us and the underground wise inventors of many states: from Resh Hellen and Opaneia the Great, Vinetsya the Great and Stekolni and the French Narshiks, who are able to make all sorts of approaching and underground wisdom and fiery cannonballs. Along with the pashas, there were 129 great dray guns near Azov. Their cannonballs were as large as a pood, half a container, and two poods. Yes, along with all the cannons and mattresses, there were 674 cannons, besides the mounted fiery cannons, there were 32 mounted cannons. And their entire outfit was chained, fearing that when we went out on a hunt, they wouldn’t take it. And it was with the Turkic pashas of the people of the different lands under us: the first Turks, the second Crimeans, the third Greeks, the fourth Serbs, the fifth Araps, the sixth Muzhars, the seventh Budans, the Osmy Bashlaks, the ninth Arnauts, the tenth Volokhs, the first for ten Mityanya, the second for ten Cherkasy, third by ten Germans. And in total there were 256,000 people with the pashas of people near Azov and with the Crimean king, according to the lists of their brave military men, besides the fictional Germans and black men and hunters.
And the king of Tours attacked us across the sea and thought for exactly four years. And in the fifth year he sent his plows to us near Azov. On the 24th day of June, in the early afternoon, his pasha and the Crimean king came to us and they attacked with great Turkish forces. All our fields were clear from the Nagai horde, where we had a clean steppe, here we suddenly became surrounded by many people, like great impenetrable dark forests. Because of their Turkish strength and because of the decline of the horses, our land near Azov bent and our rivers from the Don water showed waves on the shore, giving way to their places in the water fields. They, the Turks, set out across our fields to set up their Turkish tents and many tents and great tents, like the terrible mountains turned white. In their regiments there began to be great trumpets, great trumpets, many games, great unspeakable squeaks, in their terrible insurman voices. After that, their regiments began to have musket and large cannon fire. As it is, a terrible heavenly thunderstorm stood over us, like lightning, since terrible thunder lives from the lord in the sky. From their fiery arrows there was fire and smoke up to the sky, all our city fortresses shook from their fiery arrows, and the bright moon darkened in those days, turned to blood, just as dark darkness set in. We felt terribly good from them at that time, and it was trembling and wonderfully indescribable to see their harmonious arrival of the Busurman. It was incomprehensible to the human mind at our age to hear that, not only to see such a great and terrible and assembled army. Due to its proximity to us, the station was placed half a mile from the city of Azov. Their Janissary heads, in their Janissary formation, are coming to us near the city in great large regiments and in formations of sharenki. They have many banners, all Janice, great, indescribable, black banners. Their alarm bells are ringing, and trumpets are blown and drums are beaten into great unspeakable sounds. Twelve of their Janyan heads. And they came to us very close to the city, flocking, they stood around the city to Shempova in eight rows from the Don, holding hands to the sea. The wicks of all the Janissaries are boiling at their muskets, so that the candles are burning. And each Janissan regiment has twelve thousand heads. And everything about them is fiery, and the dress on them, on all the heads of the Janits, is golden-domed, on the Janits, on all their fences, the same red, as if it were dawn. They all squealed for long tours with fires. And all the Janissans have bumps on their heads, like stars. Their formation is similar to that of Saldatsk. Yes, two German colonels with soldiers stood in a row with them. They have 6,000 soldiers in their regiment.
The same day in the evening, when the Turks came to our city, the pashas of their Turkish interpreters sent their Busurman, Persian and Hellenic interpreters to us. And with them, the interpreters, they sent the Janice head, the first from the ranks of their infantry, to talk to us. The head of their Janits began to speak to us in the word of their king of Tours and from the four pashas and from the king of the Crimea in the smooth speech:
O people of God, the king of heaven, led or sent by anyone in the deserts. Like eagles soaring, you fly through the air without fear, and like lions driven ferociously in the deserts, you roar, the Don and Volsk Cossacks, ferocious, our neighbors, fickle morals, crafty, you desert dwellers are crafty killers, merciless robbers, your unsatiated eyes, your incomplete the belly will never be filled. To whom do you bring such great and terrible rudeness? You have stepped on such a high right hand, on the king of Tours. It’s not really that you are still Svetorian heroes in Rus'. Where can you now leak from the hand of evo? You have angered Murat Saltan's Majesty, the Tsar of Tours. Yes, you took the Tsar’s estate, the glorious and red city of Azov, from his beloved. You attacked him like smooth wolves. You did not spare any man of any age or age, and you beat every single one of the children. And you have given yourself the cruel name of bestiality. They divided the sovereign Tsar of Tours with his entire Crimean horde through their theft and that city of Azov. And that Crimean horde is his defense on all sides. You killed his ambassador from Turkey, Foma Katuzin, you killed an Armenian and a Greek with him, and he was sent to your sovereign. The second terrible thing: you separated him from his ship’s shelter. You closed the entire Blue Sea to them with the city of Azov: you did not allow passage through the sea for either ships or Cathars to any kingdom, Pomeranian cities. If you are so brutally rude, why are you waiting for the end of it? Clear the patrimony of Azov City this night without delay. Whatever silver and gold you have in it, then take it from the cities of Azov with you to your Cossack towns, without fear, to your comrades. And when you leave, we won’t touch you with anything. And if you don’t leave the city of Azov this night, you can’t be alive with us tomorrow. And who can you, murderous villains, hide or intercede from the hands of those so strong and from the great, terrible and invincible forces of him, the king of the Eastern Turks? Who will stand up to him? There is no one equal or similar to him in majesty and strength in the world, he is the only one who is responsible to the god of heaven, he is the only faithful guardian of the tomb of God: by the will of God he was chosen by the only god in the world from all the kings. Provide for this night with your belly.
You will not die from the hand of him, the Tsar of Tours, a cruel death: by his great will, he is the sovereign of the East, the Tsar of Tours, not a murderer of your brother, the thief, the Cossack robber. It is an honor worthy of him, the Tsar, that he will defeat a great Tsar, equal to his honor, but your blood is not dear to him. And if you have already sat through this night in the city of Azov through the Tsarina’s merciful speech and commandment, tomorrow we will receive the city of Azov and you in it, thieves and robbers, like a bird in our hands. We will hand you over, thieves, to fierce and terrible torment. We will crush all your flesh into fractional crumbs. At least there were 40,000 of you thieves in it, but more than 300,000 forces were sent under you with the pashas. There are as many of your hairs on your heads as there are forces of Turks near the city of Azov. You yourself, foolish thieves, see before your eyes its great, indescribable power, how it covered the entire great steppe. I bet your eyes cannot see from the heights of the city the other edge of our strength, just letters. No soaring bird can fly over our Turkish strength: from the fear of its people and from the multitude of our forces, the Valitsa are all falling from above to the ground. And then you, the thief, let you know that from your powerful kingdom of Moscow there will be no Russian help or revenue from anyone to you. Are they reliable, are the thieves stupid? And they don’t send you any supplies of grain from Rus'. And if you really want to serve, fierce Cossacks, the sovereign king of the water army of Saltan’s majesty, just bring him, the king, your guilty heads of robbers in obedience to eternal service. Our sovereign Turkish king and pasha will release to you all your past Cossack rudeness and the current capture of Azov. Our sovereign, the Turkish king, will grant you, the Cossacks, great honor. He, the sovereign, will enrich you, the Cossacks, with many indescribable riches. He, the sovereign, will give you, the Cossack, great peace in Constantinople. He will forever put on you, on all the Cossacks, a golden-domed robe and heroic seals in gold, with his royal mark. All ages will bow to you, Cossacks, in the sovereign’s Constantinople. Your Cossack glory will become eternal throughout the entire region from east to west. All the hordes of Busurmans and Yenchens and the Persian Svetoru heroes will forever call you, because you, the Cossacks, were not afraid of such small people of yours, seven thousand, of such terrible invincible forces of the Tsar of Tours - 300,000 written. You waited for them to come to your regiments near the city. How glorious and strong and populous and rich is the Shah, the king of Persia, before you, the Cossacks. He owns all the great Persia and rich India. He has many armies, like our sovereign, the Turkish king. And that Shah, the Persian king, really is not worth a single shot on the field against the strong king of Turkey. And the Persian people do not sit against us, the Turks, many thousands in their cities, knowing our ferocity and fearlessness.”
Our Cossack’s answer from the city of Azov to the interpreter and Janyan head:
We see all of you and we know about you to this point, we all know the strength and power of the Tsar of Tours. And you and I, Turks, often see each other at sea and overseas on dry routes. We are already familiar with your Turkish forces. We have been waiting for you to visit us near Azov for many days. Where did your Ibrahim, the king of Tours, go with his mind? Ali novo, the king, lost across the sea the silver and gold that he sent to us, the Cossacks, for our bloody Cossack zipuns, four of his pashas, and with them, they say, that he sent his Turkish army to us 300,000. Then we and we ourselves really see and know that there is so much of his strength under us, with three hundred thousand fighting people, besides the black man. Yes, he, your Turkish king, hired six thousand German soldiers from four lands and many wise mine workers, and gave them his great treasury for this. And you, a Turk, yourself know that to this day none of our zipuns have been taken from us for nothing. Although he, the Turkish king, will take us in the city of Azov with his great Turkish forces, hired people, German intelligence, providence, and not with his royal nobility and reason, it will not be a great honor for the king of the Turkish name to take us, the Cossacks into The city of Azov, it will not be plagued by Cossack nicknames, it will not flood the Don with our heads. There will be all the hammers from the Don to collect ours. Your pashas go from them across the sea. If only God delivers us from the hand of his mighty one, we will only sit away from you in the siege in the city of Azov from his great forces, from three hundred thousand, with his people so small, all of us Cossacks in Azov are sitting selected weapons 7590, he will have a robe for your king eternal from his brethren and from all kings. He called himself as if he were higher than the kings of the earth. And we are people of God, our entire hope is in God, and in the Mother of God, the Mother of God, and in their saints, and in our fellow brothers who live in our towns along the Don. And we are the natural servants of the Tsar of the Christian Kingdom of Moscow. Our eternal nickname is the Great Don Cossacks, fearless. Let us become with him, the king of Tours, like a thin pig mercenary. We, the wave Cossacks, are buying death into our stomachs. Wherever your great armies are, many corpses lie there. We are led by people who are not the Shah of Persia: you’re like a little bastard, you’re covering them up in their cities with high mountains. Although we, the Cossacks, are sitting with these thousand five hundred and ninety people, and with God’s help we are not afraid of your great Tsar of Tours three hundred thousand and German crafts. To his proud Busurman, the Tsar of Tours, and to your pashas, God is opposed to him for such lofty words. He is equal, stinking dog, to your king of Tours, written to the heavenly god. He, the filthy and stingy busurman, did not put in God his helper. He hoped in his great perishable wealth. Soton, his father, lifted him up with pride to the sky, but for that God will let him fall from the heights into the abyss forever. From our Cossack hand, a small soromata will be eternal for him, for the king. Where his great army is in our fields, they roar and glorify, tomorrow here his people will lie down from us under hail and many corpses. God will show us for our Christian humility before you dogs, like furious lions. For a long time now, gray eagles have been flying in our fields, waiting for you, slurping and black crows playing near the Don, brown foxes are always scurrying about, and they are all waiting for your corpse of the Busurman. We fed them with your heads, just as we took Azov from the Turk king, but they still want your flesh again, so we’ll feed them enough of you. We took Azov from the new Tsar of Turks not by Taty’s craft, but by our virtue and intelligence to experience what the Turkish people in the cities are like from us. And we sat down in it as a small group of people, dividing ourselves into two, for the sake of experience: let’s see your Turkish strength and intelligence and crafts. And yet we are applying ourselves to Jerusalem and Tsaryugrad, so we are lucky to take Tsargrad from you. That kingdom was Christian. Yes, you, Busurmans, are scaring us that there will be no supplies and revenue from Rus' for us, as if this was written about us to you, Busurmans, from the state of Moscow. And we ourselves, even without you dogs, know what kind of dear people we are in the state of Moscow in Rus' and why we are needed there. We know our own turn. The great and spacious state of Moscow is populous, it shines in the midst of all the states and hordes of Busurmans and Hellenists and Persians, like the sun. They don’t even consider us in Rus' to be a stinking dog. We escaped from that state of Mosov from eternal work, from complete servility, from the boyars and nobles of the sovereign, and here we settled in impassable deserts, we live, looking to God. Who is there to bother about us? For the sake of our end there. And our grain supplies never come from Rus'. The heavenly king feeds us, Molottsov, in the field with his mercy: wondrous beasts and sea fish. We feed like the birds of the air: we neither sow, nor harvest, nor gather into barns. This is how we eat near the Sinyago Sea. And you have silver and gold overseas. And we choose any red wives for ourselves, but we get them from you. And behold, we took the city of Azov from you by our Cossack will, and not by the sovereign’s command, for our Cossack zipuns and for your fierce ones. And for this reason, our sovereign, the servant of his distant ones, is kind to us. We are afraid from him, the sovereign tsar, that he will be executed to death for taking Azov. And our sovereign, the great, blessed and righteous king, Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich of the weight of Russia, autocrat, sovereign and possessor of many states and hordes. He, the sovereign king, has many such Busurman kings serving him, the sovereign king, in great servitude, like your king Ibrahim of Tours. If he, our sovereign, the great and bright king, repairs according to the tradition of the holy fathers, he does not want the blood of your Busurman to be spilled. The sovereign is full and rich from God with his own and royal dues, and without your stinking busurman and dog wealth. And if this was the order of his sovereign, he, the great sovereign, would have wanted the blood of your Busurmans to spill and your Busurman cities to be ruined for your Busurman non-correction towards him, the sovereign, even if he, our sovereign, ordered all the Busurmans against you to be the war of his own Ukraine, which sits with him, the sovereign, from the field, from the Nagai hordes, otherwise the people of his sovereign’s Russians from one of his Ukraine alone would have gathered more than a legion of a thousand. Yes, such are the sovereign people, the Russian Ukrainians, that they are like you and are greedy for you, like furious lions, they want to explain the living of your Busurman flesh. May the king’s right hand hold them and not command them to do so, and in all cities, under the fear of death, the sovereign’s commanders hold them under the king’s command. Your Ibrahim, the king of Tours, would not have hid from the hand of his sovereign and from the hard-heartedness of his sovereign’s people in his mother’s womb, and from there he would have been ripped apart, drunk out, and placed in front of the king. The high and blue sea would not have protected him, the king of Tours, from the hand of his sovereign, nor would the Blue Sea have held back his sovereign’s people. It would have been for him, the sovereign, in one summer Jerusalem and Tsargorod would have remained the same, and in the Turkish cities in all of yours not one stone could stand against the stone from the Russian providence. You call us by the word of the king of Tours, so that we can serve him, the king of Tours. And promise us from him great honor and much wealth. And we are people of God, servants of the sovereign of Moscow, and we are called Orthodox Christians after baptism, how can we serve the unfaithful king, leaving the bright light of this and the future? I don’t want to go into darkness! We, the Tsar of Tours, will really need us as servants, and we, having sat and been alone from you and from your forces, will visit him, the Tsar, across the sea, under his Tsaremgrad, and see the buildings of his Tsaremgrad, with our blood. There, with him, the Tsar of Tours, we will talk all sorts of things, if only he would like our Cossack speech. We will serve him with Cossack arquebuses and our sharp sabers. And first of all, we have no one to talk to, your pashas. As your ancestors, the Busurmans, committed over Tsaremgrad - they took it, killed its sovereign, the brave Tsar Kostyantin, blessed, beat many thousands of Christians in it, stained all the church thresholds with our Christian blood, completely eradicated the entire Christian faith, so would We will do this to you today according to your example. We would take it, Constantinople, we would take it from your hands, we would kill your Ibrahim, the king of Tours, and with all your Busurmans in it, and shed your unclean Busurman blood, then you and I would have peace in that place, And There is nothing more for us to talk to you about, as we firmly know. And what do you hear from us, then tell our speech to your pashas. We cannot put up with or trust a busurman with a Christian. What a transformation! A Christian will swear by his Christian soul, but he will stand on that truth forever, and your brother, the Busurman, will swear by the Busurman faith, and your Busurman faith and your Tatar life are equal to a mad dog. Otherwise, what should your dog brother believe? For your sake, tomorrow we’ll give you something to eat, which God sent us Mollotsov to do in Azov. Leave us for your stupid pashas without taking aim. And don’t come to us again with such stupid speech. You deceive us, otherwise you will waste your days. And whoever comes to us from you with such stupid speech again in the future will be killed under our wall. Live by what you were sent to us by the King of Tours.
We took Azov from you with our brave few heads. And you are already accessing it from our Cossack hands with Turkish heads, many of your thousands. Will God help any of us? You will lose many thousands of your Turkish heads near Azov, and you will not see them from the hands of our Cossacks forever. Having taken away something from us, our servants, our sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich, the ruler of Russia, will grant you to them, the dogs, as before, then it will be yours: that is the will of the sovereign.”
How from the city of Azov the head and interpreters arrived in their Turkish forces to their pashas, and their army began to blow the great trumpets assembled. After that, their trumpets began to sound their great horns and the alarms and horns and tsebylgi began to play kindly and pitifully. And everyone sorted out their regiments and formed all night until daylight. As it was already one o'clock in the yard, the Turkish forces began to emerge from their camps. Their banners bloomed on the field and ensigns, like there are many flowers across the field. From the great trumpets and their alarms came an indescribable sound. It’s amazing and scary when they come to our city.
Two German colonels with soldiers came to attack. Behind them came a line of Janis infantry - one hundred and fifty thousand. Then the entire horde of infantry approached the city and attacked, they shouted boldly and cruelly at their arrival first. They bowed all their banners towards the city towards us. Our entire city of Azov was covered with banners. They began to cut down the towers and walls with axes. And at that time many of the right hands climbed the walls. We have already started shooting from the besieged city: until those places they were silent to them. It is no longer possible for us to see each other in the fires and in the smoke. On both sides there was fire and thunder from the shooting, fire and smoke rose to the sky. Somehow, there was a terrible thunderstorm from heaven, when it comes from heaven, terrible thunder and lightning. Our mines were set aside outside the city for their time of attack, and those secret mines of ours, due to the multitude of their ineffable forces, did not stand, they all collapsed: the land could not withstand their strength. On those precipices, many thousands of Turkish forces were defeated by us. We brought our entire outfit to that dig site and it was filled with shotgun pellets. They killed under the city wall during the attack on that first day of the Turks six heads of one Janyan and two German colonels with all their soldiers with six thousand. That same day, when we went out, we carried out a large banner on the outskirts of the Tsar of Tours, with which our pashas of Tours first approached us, that first day with all our people until the very night and dawn all evening. They killed on that first day from us near the city, besides the heads of their Janits and two colonels, twenty and a half thousand Janits alone, besides the wounded.
The next day, at dawn, the Turks again sent their interpreters to us near the city, so that we could let them take away their corpse from the city, which was beaten near Azov, under the city wall. And they gave us a gold red piece for every killed Janice head, and for the colonel’s heads they gave us a hundred thalers. And the army did not stand up for them, they did not take silver and gold from their broken heads: “We never sell the corpse of a dead man, but eternal glory is dear to us. Then from us from the city of Azov, to the dogs, the first toy, since we cleaned our guns with hammers. All of you, Busurmans, will get it from us, we have nothing else to subdue you with, our case is a siege.” On that other day we did not have a battle with them. They took away their beaten corpse until nightfall; They dug a deep ditch for him, his corpse, three miles from the city and covered it with a high mountain and placed over him many signs of the Busurman and signed them with pink tongues.
After that, on the third day, the Turks again came to us under the city with all their forces, only they were already far away from us, but there was no attack on us. Their people on foot began that day to lead to us a high mountain, a great earthen rampart, higher than many of the cities of Azov. They wanted to cover us with that high mountain in the city of Azov with their great Turkish forces. They brought her to us in three days. And we, seeing that high mountain, our eternal grief, that our death will be from it, ask God for mercy and the Most Pure Mother of God for help and the Forerunner of the image, and calling for help the miracle workers of Moscow, and making among ourselves the final funeral forgiveness for each other. friend and with all the Orthodox Christians, our small squad of seven thousand, we went out of the city into direct battle against their three hundred thousand.
Lord, creator, heavenly king, do not give up the creation of your hands to the wicked: we see their strength in the face of their fierce death. They want to cover us alive with a high mountain, seeing our emptiness and powerlessness, that all Orthodox Christians abandoned us in the deserts, they were afraid of their terrible face and their great Turkish strength. But we, the poor, did not despair of your master of mercy, knowing your great generosity, for your God’s help, dying for the Christian faith, we fight against three hundred thousand more people and for the churches of God, for the entire state of Moscow and for the royal name.”
Having put on all the images of mortals, we went out to them to fight, unanimously we all shouted, going out to them: “God is with us, understand, infidel pagans, and submit, as God is with us!” When the infidels heard the word from our lips that God was with us, not one could stand against our face; they all fled from their high mountain. We killed many of them at that hour, many thousands. At that time, on the way out, at that battle near that mountain, we took from them sixteen Janyan banners and twenty howling barrels of gunpowder. With that we used gunpowder, digging under that high mountain of theirs, and with that gunpowder we scattered it all over. Many thousands of them were beaten by it, and their Janits, through our digging, threw one thousand five hundred people alive into the city. Yes, their earthly wisdom has passed from those places. They had already built another mountain behind it, a larger one, three archery ranges in length, and a height much higher than the city of Azov, and its breadth was like throwing a stone at it twice. On that mountain they stationed their entire cannon squadron and brought all their Turkish infantry, one hundred and fifty thousand, and killed the entire Nagai horde from their horses. And from that mountain they began to strike the city of Azov day and night, incessantly. There was terrible thunder from their cannons, fire and smoke rose from them to the sky. For sixteen days and sixteen nights, their outfit did not remain silent for a single hour of cannon fire. In those days and nights, all our Azov fortresses fell apart from their cannon fire. All the walls and towers and the Church of the Predtechev and the floors were beaten down to the very bottom.
And our entire cannon outfit was broken. There is only one church in the entire city of Azov, Nikolina, who remained on the floors, that’s why it remained because it stood at the bottom, right downhill towards the sea. And we sat in the pits from them. They didn’t let us all look out of the pits. And at that time we made great chambers for ourselves in the ground under them, under their ramparts: great secret courtyards for ourselves. And from then on, we built 28 tunnels under them in our secret courtyards, under their camps. And by doing this, we have created help for ourselves, great deliverance. Every now and then the Janissans came out against their infantry, and we killed a lot of them. With our nightly attacks on their Turkish infantry, we put great fear on them, we caused great damage to their people. And after that, the Turkish pashas, looking at our wise mine siege crafts, led 17 of their mines from their camp to us opposite. And they wanted to come to us with those tunnels into our pits, so that they would crush us with their great people. And by the grace of God we guarded all those tunnels, gunpowder blew them all up, and we dumped many thousands of them in them. And from those places, their undermining wisdom was all gone, they were already fed up with those undermining crafts.
And there were 24 attacks from the Turks to us near the city of Azov by all people. In addition to Bolshov's first attack. They were so cruel and dared not to attack us: we cut ourselves with knives during that attack. They have already begun to throw repaired fiery cannonballs and all sorts of German attack wisdom into our pits. They caused us even more severe attacks of cramped conditions. They beat many of us and burned us. And after those fiery cannonballs, having invented over us with their minds, putting aside all their wisdom, they began to overpower us and approach us with direct combat with their own forces.
They began to send their people, the janits, to attack us every day; ten thousand comes to us all day long until night; and when the night comes, another ten thousand will come to replace them; and they come to us all night long until daylight: they will not give us peace for a single hour. And they fight with change day and night in order to overcome us with that languor. And from such evil towards themselves and cunning craftiness, from insomnia and from our grave wounds, and from all sorts of fierce needs, and from the spirit of the stinking corpse, we were all aggravated and exhausted by the fierce diseases of the siege. And everyone was left in their small squad, there was no one to change, they wouldn’t let us rest for a single hour. At that time, we had already despaired with all our lives in the city of Azov, and we became hopeless about our revenue from people, only ourselves and the hope of help from the Most High God. Let us run, poor ones, to our only helper, the Forerunner image, before him, the light, we will cry with bitter tears: “Sovereign light, our helper, the Forerunner Ivan, by your appearance, the light, we destroyed the nest of the serpent, we took the city of Azov. We beat all the Christian tormentors and idolaters there. Yours, Svetov, and Nikola’s house were cleansed, and we adorned your miraculous images from our sinful and unworthy hands. To this day we have never had a song in front of your images, but we, the lights, have angered you with something, so that you are again going into the hands of the Busurmans? We, the lights, relied on you, and sat down in it under siege, leaving all our comrades. And above all, we see our own death from the Turks. They have killed us with sleeplessness, and we are constantly tormented with them day and night. Already our legs have buckled under us and our hands no longer serve us in defense, they are dead, our eyes are no longer looking from languor, our eyes are burned out from the incessant shooting, gunpowder is being shot at them, the tongue of our ears in our mouths is not a collar to close the busurman - such is our powerlessness, we cannot hold any weapons in our hands. We consider ourselves to be a dead corpse. 3 In two days, I believe, our seat will no longer be under siege. Now we, the poor, grow up with your miraculous icons and with all Orthodox Christians: we will no longer be in Holy Rus'. And our death as sinners in the deserts is for your miraculous icons, and for the Christian faith, and for the royal name, and for the entire kingdom of Moscow.” We started to say goodbye:
Forgive us, slaves of your sinners, our sovereign Orthodox Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich of the weight of Russia! Command us to remember the souls of sinners! Forgive me, sirs, you are the universal patriarchs! Forgive me, sirs, all metropolitans, and archbishops, and bishops! And forgive all archimandrites and abbots! Forgive me, sirs, all the archpriests, and priests, and deacons! Forgive me, sirs, all Orthodox Christians, and remember our sinful souls with their parents! Do not disgrace the Moscow state in any way! We, poor people, think with our minds that we will not die in pits and that after death we will achieve good glory.” Having raised the miracle-working icons, Predtechev and Nikolina in our hands, and went with them against the busurmans in a sortie, by their obvious mercy we beat them in a sortie, suddenly leaving, six thousand. And, seeing that the Turkish people had the mercy of God over us, that they could not overcome us with anything, from those places they did not begin to send their people to attack us. They rested from those mortal wounds and from their languor at that time. After that battle, three days later, their interpreters again began shouting to us to tell them to speak in our dreams. We no longer had a conversation with them, and therefore our tongue will not return from our languor. And they began throwing arrows towards us. And in them they write to us, asking us for an empty place in Azov, and for it they give us a ransom for each hammer of three hundred tarels of pure silver and two hundred tarels of red gold.
And this is why our pashas and colonels are angry at you with their souls, because now they won’t touch you with anything when you’re leaving, go with your silver and gold to your towns and to your comrades, and give us the empty place of Azov.”
And we write to them opposite: “Your dog silver and gold are not dear to us, we have a lot of our own in Azov and the Don. It is dear to us, good fellows, that our glory be eternal throughout the world, that your pashas and Turkish forces are not afraid of us. First we told you: we will let you know about ourselves and know in memory forever and ever in all the land of the Busurmans, so that you can show, having come from us, across the sea to your stupid Tsar of Tours, what it is like to approach a Russian Cossack. And how many bricks and stones have you broken in our city of Azov, we have already taken so many of your Turkish heads from you for the damage to Azov. In your heads and in your bones we will build Azov, the city of the former putsch. Our brave glory will flow forever throughout the whole world, so that we will build cities in your heads. Your Turkish king found shame and reproach for himself forever. We will inevitably have six times every year.” After that, we felt sick from them, they no longer attacked us, they were afraid of their strength, because many thousands of them were beaten near Azov. And in our seat of siege we, sinners, had in those days fasting and great prayer and purity of body and soul. Many of us, people who were skilled in siege, saw in a dream, and outside of a dream, a beautiful and radiant woman standing in the air in the middle of the city of Azov, and an ancient-haired husband in bright robes, looking at the Busurman regiments. Ino is our mother Mother of God did not betray the Busurmansky. And they clearly give us help, saying out loud to many of us in a tender voice: “Take courage, Cossacks, and don’t be horrified! This city of Azov was cursed by the lawless Hagarians with their evil faith and the throne of the Forerunners and Nikolin was desecrated by the severity of their wickedness. Not only did you desecrate the land in Azov or the thrones, but also the air above it was darkened, the marketplace here and Christian torment were committed, separating husbands from their lawful wives, sons and daughters from their fathers and mothers. And because of this much crying and sobbing, the entire Christian land groaned from them. But about pure virgins and immaculate widows and living sinless children, even my lips cannot utter, looking at their curses. And God heard their prayers and cried, seeing the creation of his hands, Orthodox Christians, perishing in evil, and gave you vengeance on the busurman: he delivered this city to you and them into your hands. The evil one does not say: “Where is your Christian God?” And you, brothers, do not worry, drive away all fear from yourself, no Busurman sword will be belted around you. Place your trust in God, receive an incorruptible crown from Christ, and God will accept your souls, and you may reign with Christ forever.”
Many atamans saw from the image of Ivan the Baptist the flow of many tears from his eyes throughout the attacks. And on the first day, during the attack, I saw a lompad full of tears from his image. And on our outings from the city, everyone saw busurmans, Turks, Crimeans and naked people, a brave and young man in military clothes, walking naked in battle with one sword, beating many busurmans. They didn’t see the marijuana, but we know against the murdered man that it was God’s work, and not our hands. The Turkish people have been slain, and their halves have been slashed: victory has been sent to them from heaven. And the Busurmans asked us about this many times: “Who of you comes out of the city to fight with a sword?” And we tell them: “Then our commanders are coming out.”
And our entire stay in Azov from the Turks under siege was from June 24, 149 to September 26, 150. And in total we were under siege for 93 days and 93 nights. And on the 26th day of September, in the night from the city of Azov, the Turkish Pashas with the Turks and the Crimean Tsar with all their forces, four hours before daylight, infuriated and alarmed, ran, driven by us by no one. With eternal shame, the Turkish pashas went to their homes overseas, and the Crimean king went to his horde, the Cherkassy went to their Kabarda, the naked people all went to the uluses. And when we heard them leaving their camps, there were a thousand of us Cossacks going to their camps at that time. And we took from them in their camps at that time languages, Turks and Tatars alive, four hundred people, and we found two thousand sick and wounded.
And our tongues in question and torture spoke to us all unanimously, and in the night their pashas and the Crimean king with all their forces fled from the hail. “That night that evening we had a terrible vision. In heaven, over our Busurman regiments, there was a great and terrible cloud from Rus', from your kingdom of Moscow. And she stood against our camp itself. And in front of her, like a cloud, two scary young men walk through the air; and they hold naked swords in their hands, and threaten our Busurman regiments. At that time we recognized them all. And that night the terrible commanders of Azov, in military clothing, went out to fight in our attacks from the city of Azov. They cut us in two in our fences. This is the terrifying vision of the Turkish pashas and the Crimean Tsar running from their camps.”
And we, the Cossacks, that same night, in the evening, everyone saw this: along the Busurman rampart, where their outfit stood, two men of ancient times were walking here, one wearing priestly clothes, and the other a shaggy hair shirt. And they point us to the Busurman regiments, and tell us: “The Cossacks, the Turkish Pashas and the Crimean Tsar fled from the camp, and the victory of Christ, the son of God, came to them from heaven from the power of God.” Yes, those tongues told us about some of their people, that they were beaten at our hands near the city of Azov: the people were beaten in writing, only the Murzas and Tatars, their Janices, ninety-six thousand, besides the black peasant and the hunter of those Janices. And there were only 7,367 of us Cossacks in the besieged village in Azov. And those who remained, we, the sovereign’s servants, were all wounded from that siege; we don’t have a single person who has not shed his blood, sitting in Azov, for the name of God and for the Christian faith. And we, as an entire army, ask for mercy from the sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich of the weight of Rus', the prisoners of Azov and who live along the Don and in their towns, to grant favor to his servants and to order him to take from our hands that sovereign estate of his, the city of Azov , for the light of the Forerunner and Nikolina images, and what is suitable for them, the light, here. He will protect this city of Azov, sir, from the war throughout his entire Ukraine; there will be no war from the Tatars forever, as long as they settle in the city of Azov.
And we, the slaves who remained under the siege of the Azov forces, are all already crippled elders: from providence and from battle we will no longer be. And this is the promise of all of us, the forerunner of the image in the monastery, to take monastic vows, to accept the image of Mnishe. For him, the sovereign, we will pray to God forever and for his sovereign nobility. It was God who defended us through state defense, through faith, from such Turkish forces, and not through our brave courage and providence. And if the sovereign does not favor us, slaves of his distant ones, he does not order us to take the city of Azov from our hands, weeping and leaving it. Let us, sinners, lift up the icon of the Forerunner and go with him, the light, where he tells us. We will tonsure our chieftain at His image, he will be our abbot over us, and we will tonsure Yasaul, he will be our builder over us. And we, poor people, although we are all decrepit, if we do not deviate from His Forerunner image, we will die here, every single one. The Lavra of the Baptist will be forever glorious.
And after the same atamans and Cossacks, they need 10,000 people, 50,000 supplies, 20,000 pounds of potion, 10,000 muskets in Azov for a siege, and 221,000 rubles are needed for everything.
This year, 150, at the request and sending of the Tsar Ibrahim Saltan of Tours, he, the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich, granted Ibrahim Saltan the Tsar of Tours, and ordered the Don Ataman and the Cossack to leave the city of Azov.
Among the historical stories of the 17th century. Of particular literary interest are the stories about Azov, created immediately after the events themselves. These are the “historical” story about the capture of Azov by the Don Cossacks in 1637, the “documentary” and “poetic” (in the terminology of A.S. Orlov) story about the Azov siege in 1641. The “poetic” story has come to us in four editions and written in the form of a military Cossack reply - a report to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich - clothed in an artistic form, partially due to the influence of epics and Cossack songs. This story is the most artistic in the entire cycle of Azov stories.
The “poetic” story about Azov was written in Moscow in the winter of 1641-1642, when Zemsky Sobor There were fierce disputes over the Azov issue. This story arose as a propaganda work, whose main goal was to evoke the greatest sympathy for the Cossack heroes among Moscow readers, to convince them of the need to annex Azov to the Russian state.
The form of military Cossack unsubscribe, chosen by the author of the story for his story, was familiar to contemporaries, and at the same time, in an atmosphere of ardent interest among Muscovite readers in the events in distant Azov, it was this form that turned out to be the most convincing, since it created the impression of a lively, excited the story of the Cossacks themselves, the heroes of the siege, about their experiences.
The author of the story undoubtedly belonged to the democratic environment of the Don Cossacks. There is every reason to believe that this work was written by the esaul of the “stanitsa” of the Cossacks, who arrived in 1642 with a report about the heroic defense of Azov, Fedor Ivanov Poroshin.
Poroshin occupied the position of military clerk (chief of the military chancellery) on the Don. Poroshin’s authentic replies, one of which even aroused the tsar’s anger with its overly insistent demand for assistance to the Cossacks in the fight for Azov, turn out to be very close to the story both in content and style.
THE TALE ABOUT THE AZOV SIEGE OF THE DON COSSACKS
In the year 7150 (1641) of October, on the twenty-eighth day, the Don Cossacks came to the Tsar Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus' Mikhail Feodorovich in Moscow from the Don from Azov-city: Cossack ataman Naum Vasiliev and Yesaul Fyodor Ivanov. And with them there were twenty-four Cossacks who were sitting in the city of Azov under siege from the Turks. And they brought a description to their siege seat. And in that description it is written.
On the 24th day of June, before noon, his pasha and the Crimean king came to us, and great Turkish forces surrounded us.
On the same day that the Turks came to our city, in the evening the Turkish pashas sent us translators of their Basurman, Persian and Greek. And they sent the eldest of the Janissary infantry colonels to talk to us with the interpreters.
“...And we let you, thieves, know that you will not receive any help or revenue from the powerful kingdom of Moscow, your Russian people. What do you, stupid thieves, hope for, if grain supplies from Rus' are never sent to you? And if only you, the fierce Cossacks, wanted to serve as an army to the free sovereign Tsar, his Sultan Majesty, you would bring him, the Tsar, your guilty robber heads, swear to him eternal service. Our sovereign, the Turkish king, will release you and plow him all your past Cossack rudeness and the current capture of Azov.”
Our Cossack from Azov-city answered the interpreters and the Janissary colonel:
“We see all of you and to this day we know everything about you, all the forces, all the threats of the Turkish king are known to us.
Let him, the Turkish king, now take us by storm in the city of Azov, take us not with his royal greatness and reason, but with those great Turkish forces and the cunning of hired German people, it will be a small honor for the name of the Turkish king that he will take us, the Cossacks, in Azov-city. He will not rid himself of the Cossack nickname, and the Don will not be emptied of Cossacks. Everyone from the Don will be great for our vengeance. Your pashas should flee from them across the sea! And if God delivers us from him strong hand, if we sit out from your siege in the city of Azov, from his great forces, from three hundred thousand, with our own small forces (all of us, selected Cossacks, sit in Azov with weapons), - the shame will be eternal for him, your king, and from his brethren and from all kings.
And we ourselves know about this without you dogs: what kind of dear people we are in Rus', in the State of Moscow, and why we are needed there! You and I know our turn. The State of Moscow is great, spacious and populous, it shines among all states and hordes - Basurman, Hellenic, and Persian - like the sun. They don’t regard us there, in Rus', as a stinking dog.
And we took the city of Azov from you by our own Cossack will, and not by the sovereign’s command, for the sake of our Cossack zipuns and for your arrogant, fierce thoughts. For this reason, the sovereign is deeply offended by us, his distant slaves. We are afraid from him, the sovereign tsar, that for taking the Azov battle we will receive the death penalty.
You call us with the speech of the Turkish king to serve him, the Turkish king, and promise us great honor and much wealth from him. And we, the people of God, slaves of the sovereign Tsar of Moscow, are called Orthodox Christians by baptism. How can we serve an unfaithful king!
How from the city of Azov the colonels and interpreters returned to their Turkish forces, to their pashas, many great trumpets began to blow in their troops. The crows and animals began to scream pitifully.
It was as if a terrible thunderstorm had begun, as there is terrible thunder and lightning from the heavens.
We killed them on that first day, in addition to six Janissary colonels and two German colonels, the Janissaries alone were twenty-five thousand, in addition to the wounded.
Having completed all the death rituals, we went out to fight with them, and unanimously we all shouted as we went out to them: “God is with us!” Understand, foreigners and infidels, and submit, for God is with us!”
The unfaithful ones heard from our lips those words that God was with us, and not one could stand before our face, they all ran away with high mountain his. We killed many of them at that hour, many thousands.
And in total there were 24 attacks from the Turks against us near the city of Azov with all their strength. But after the first big attack there were no more such cruel and brave people.
And there are very few of our squad left; We have no one to change with; we won’t be given a single hour to rest. At that time, we completely despaired of our lives and in the city of Azov, we lost hope for help from people, only waiting for help from the Almighty God.
We picked up the miraculous icons - the Forerunner and Nikolina - and went with them on a sortie against the infidels. And by their obvious mercy, we beat six thousand infidels in that sudden attack. And the Turkish people saw that the mercy of God was protecting us, that they could not overcome us with anything, and from then on they did not send their people to attack us.
In total, we sat in Azov under siege from the Turks from June 24, 149 to September 26, 150, 93 days and 93 nights. And on the night of the 26th day of September, the Turkish pashas with all the Turks and the Crimean king with all his forces, four hours before daylight, ran, cursed, in confusion and trembling, from the city of Azov, not driven by any of us.
And we, the Cossacks, when we heard about their retreat, attacked their camps with a thousand people. And we took four hundred people alive from their camps, Turks and Tatars, and we found two thousand sick and wounded.
And during interrogations and torture, those tongues were all spoken to us unanimously, which is why the pashas and the Crimean king with all their forces fled from the city in the middle of the night. “That night, in the evening, we had a terrible vision. In the heavens above our Basurman regiments a great and terrible cloud was coming from Rus' from your kingdom of Moscow...”
And those tongues also told us about the loss in their people. Of their main forces, they killed only the Murzas and Tatars and the Janissaries, ninety-six thousand, besides those black men and willing people. And in total, only 7,367 of us Cossacks were under siege in Azov. And those who survived among us, the sovereign’s slaves, after the siege are all wounded. Not a single person among us is whole; not a single one who would not shed his blood, sitting in Azov in the name of God, for the Christian faith. And now we, with all our troops, ask the Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus', Mikhail Feodorovich, for mercy.
And if the sovereign does not favor us, his distant slaves, and does not order us to take the city of Azov from our hands, then we should leave it, crying! Let us, sinners, raise the icon of the Forerunner and go with him, our light, where he leads.
In the current year 7150, at the request and embassy of the Turkish Tsar Ibrahim Sultan, the Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhailo Feodorovich granted him, the Turkish Tsar Ibrahim Sultan, and ordered the Don atamans and Cossacks to leave Azov-city.
A TALE OF Grief and Misfortune
The wonderful “Tale of Grief and Misfortune, how Grief-Misfortune brought a young man to monastic rank", written in folk verse, stands among the significant creations of world literature. She came to us first in the only list half of the XVIII century, but apparently arose around the half of the 17th century.
In all previous Russian literature we will not find works that would tell about the fate of an ordinary worldly person and set out the main events of his life. “The Tale of Woe and Misfortune” talks about the fate of an unknown young man who violated the commandments of antiquity and paid heavily for it.
The image of “Grief-Misfortune” - fate, fate, as it appears in the story, is one of the most significant literary images. Grief simultaneously symbolizes an external force hostile to man and internal state man, his spiritual emptiness. It's like his double.
The oral poetic element colors “The Tale of Woe and Misfortune” almost throughout its entire length: the almost complete identity of the metrical structure of the story with the structure of the epic verse; epic commonplaces (coming to a feast and boasting at the feast); the technique of repeating individual words (“hope, trust in me, brother named”, etc.); the use of tautological combinations “steal-rob”, “clan-tribe”, etc.); the use of constant epithets (“wild head”, “fast river”, “green wine”, “oak table”, etc.).
But next to the indicated elements of the oral poetic tradition in the story, the book tradition also clearly makes itself felt. It is found primarily in the introduction to the story, which sets out the origin of sin on earth after Adam and Eve violated God’s commandment not to eat the fruit of the vine. Both the introduction and conclusion bring it closer to works of the hagiographic genre.
A TALE ABOUT GRIEF AND MISTAKE, HOW Grief and Misfortune Took Hammer to the Monastic Order
By the will of the Lord God and our Savior
Jesus Christ Almighty,
from the beginning of the human age.
And at the beginning of this perishable century
created heaven and earth,
God created Adam and Eve,
commanded them to live in holy paradise,
gave them a divine commandment:
did not command to eat the fruit of the vine
from the great tree of Eden.
He will be a good guy already in his mind, in his goodness.”
and his father and mother loved him,
taught him to teach, to punish,
to instruct in good deeds:
“You are our dear child,
listen to your parents' teachings"
Don’t go, child, to feasts and fraternities,
don't sit in a bigger seat,
Don’t drink, child, two spells for one!
Also, child, don’t give your eyes free rein,
do not be seduced, child, by good red wives,
father's daughters!
Don’t lie down, child, in a place of imprisonment,
don't be afraid wise, fear foolish
so that the stupid people don't think about you
Yes, they wouldn’t take away other ports from you...
Well done at that time he was so small and stupid,
not in full mind and imperfect in mind:
your father is ashamed to submit
and bow to your mother,
but wanted to live as he pleased.
...and he drank, well done, drunk beer,
he got drunk without memory
and where he drank, here he went to bed:
He relied on the named brother.
...well done, the fellow awakens from sleep,
at that time the young man looks around,
and that other ports have been removed from it,
charms and stockings - all taken off:
shirt and trousers - everything is peeled off,
and all his cattle were robbed...
There is no friend in my head and not even close.
It became shameful for the hammer to appear
to your father and mother,
and to your family and tribe,
and to his former dear friend.
He went to a foreign country, far away, unknown.
Don't be arrogant on the other side,
submit to friend and foe,
bow to the old and the young,
and don’t announce other people’s affairs,
and what you hear or see, don’t say...
“Don’t boast, well done, about your happiness,
Don't brag about your wealth -
there were people with me, Grief,
and wise you and idle 21 , -
and I, Woe, have outwitted them:
bring upon them a great misfortune...
The young man did not believe that dream.
Another evil that grief has deceived -
Woe to the Archangel Gabriel the hammer
still again the misfortune has become attached...
Well done, he believed that dream,
he went down to drink his bellies,
and he took off his living room dress,
he put on a tavern gunka,
He covered his body with white.
And what does the good fellow see [trouble] that never changes,
submitted to the unclean grief -
bowed to Gore to the damp earth.
Good people say to the hammer:
“What are you, good fellow,
come to your side
to any honest parents,
say goodbye to your parents,
take your parental blessing from them!
The good fellow flew like a clear falcon, -
and Grief is behind him like a white merlin;
the fellow flew like a rock dove, -
and Woe follows him like a gray hawk...
The fellow will remember the saved path -
and from then on the young man went to the monastery to take monastic vows,
and grief remains at the holy gates,
I will no longer be tied to the hammer!
THE TALE ABOUT SAVVA GRUDTSYN
“The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn” is a Russian secular story of the 17th century. It supposedly dates back to the 1660s (one of the arguments is that the events of the story are considered as an episode from the recent past), known in several lists.. The work reflected the historical events of the first half of the century and many everyday features of that time. However, these are minor, accompanying details of the story. At the center of the work, as in “The Tale of Woe-Misfortune,” is the fate of a young man. Like the young man from “Grief-Misfortune,” Savva Grudtsyn, who, due to his youth and inexperience, became dependent on a hostile otherworldly force, finds salvation in the monastery.
In its style, the story about Savva Grudtsyn represents a peculiar combination of elements of the old narrative, in particular hagiographic, tradition with elements of literary novelty. The main meaning of the story is the salvation of a sinner through prayer and repentance. The behavior of a person who has fallen into sin is not so much a consequence of his natural individual qualities as the result of the influence of extraneous forces on him - evil or good. There is no personal initiative of the hero; it is completely subordinated to outsiders, elements located outside of it.
The combination in the “Tale” of a romantic theme with detailed descriptions life and customs of Rus' in the 17th century. gave grounds to a number of researchers to see in this work the experience of creating the first Russian novel.
P The news is very wonderful and worthy of surprise about what happened in the city of Kazan with a certain merchant Foma Grudtsyn and his son Savva
That Thomas had an only-begotten son named Savva. Foma had the custom of traveling down the Volga River on trade matters. He taught this to his son Savva, ordering him to engage in this business without laziness, so that after his father’s death he would become the heir to the entire estate.
After hesitating for several days, his son, on equipped ships, at the command of his father, set sail to the Kama Salt.
Bazhen the Second found out that the son of Foma Grudtsyn had arrived from Kazan, and said to himself: “His father has a strong friendship with me, but it turns out I offended the young man! I’ll take him to my house: let him live with me and eat with his family for one meal.” table."
And Bazhen the Second had a wife, brought by the third marriage, taken in marriage by a virgin. The adversary the devil, who hates the human race, seeing that husband’s virtuous life and wanting to cause disturbance in his house, offended the young wife with a lustful desire for the young man, and constantly tempted the young man himself with flattering words to fall.
Although he was young, he was wounded by the arrow of the fear of God and feared the judgment of the Lord, thinking: “How can we do such a nasty thing on such a holy day?” And, thinking this way, he began to renounce her with an oath.
And then she poured the prepared poisoned potion to Savva. He, suspecting nothing, drank this fierce potion. And then a certain fire began to burn in his heart.
He walked across the field alone, not thinking about anything else but his sad separation from that wife, and an evil thought came into his head, and he said to himself: “If only some person, or even the devil himself, would help me get back again. that woman, so I would have served the devil."
No, give me some kind of receipt, and I will fulfill your wish. Savva, being unable to write poorly, at the instigation of the demon, without reflecting on what he was writing, renounced Christ, the True God, and surrendered to the service of the devil, his imaginary brother.
She again sends him a second and a third letter - and begs him with prayers and vows to immediately return to Kazan. But Savva, not at all heeding his mother’s prayer and oath, did not value them at all and only practiced himself in lustful passion.
Thomas, having heard such words from his wife, was very confused in his mind and immediately, sitting down, wrote a message to Savva with fervent requests to return to Kazan without any delay, “to see me, child, the beauty of your face.” Savva received the message and read it, but did not regard it as anything, and in order to return to his father, he did not even think about it, but only practiced frantic fornication.
The demon, having learned that Father Savvin was moving to Solya Kamskaya in order to return Savva to Kazan, suggested to Savva: “Brother Savvo, how long will we live in this small town forever?” Let's go, we'll walk around other cities, and then we'll come back here.
Many days passed, and then Savva fell ill, and his illness was so severe that death was already approaching him. The wife of the centurion with whom he lived was prudent and feared God, and had every concern for Savva. She told him many times to call the priest, confess his sins and partake of the Holy Mysteries. Savva refused, saying that “even though I suffer greatly, this illness does not lead to death.” But day by day his illness became stronger. And finally Savva was forced by that God-loving wife to call the priest to her.
And when all the people left the house, the priest began to confess to the sick man, and then suddenly the sick man saw that a huge crowd of demons was entering the house.
His imaginary brother, or better yet, a demon, appeared with them, but not in a human form, but in his bestial form and, standing behind the demonic crowd and, gnashing his teeth and shaking with anger, began to show Savva his apostate receipt with the words : “Oathbreaker! Do you see what this is? Didn’t you write this? Or do you think you are avoiding us through repentance? No, don’t even think about it, but I will fall upon you with all my might!” - and stuff like that. The patient saw them as if in reality, was horrified and, in the hope of the power of God, told the priest everything in detail.
And for a considerable time our patient was in the hands of demonic forces.
“Listen, Savva, when the feast of the Appearance of My Kazan Icon begins, you come to my temple, which is on the square near the Vetoshny Rows, and I will perform a miracle on you in front of all the people!” Having said this, She became invisible.
When the Divine Liturgy began, Sava was laid on a carpet outside the church. And when they sang “Cherubimskaya”, a voice like thunder was heard: - Savva! Get up, why are you delaying?! Go to church and you will be healthy. And sin no more! - and from above, an apostate receipt fell from above and disappeared, as if it had never been written.
Then Savva distributed all his property to the poor, as much as he had, and he himself went to the monastery of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael, in which lie the relics of the holy hierarch of God, Metropolitan Alexei (this monastery is called Chudov). There he became a monk and began to live in fasting and prayer, constantly praying to the Lord about his sin. He lived in the monastery for many years and went to the Lord in the holy monasteries.
THE TALE ABOUT FROL SKOBEEV
The complete opposite, both in content and language, of the stories about Grief and Misfortune and about Savva Grudtsyn is “The Story of the Russian nobleman Frol Skobeev,” which tells about the adventures of a rogue and a sneak.
The language of the story reveals a fundamental difference from the traditional language of previous monuments of Russian literature. He approaches the language of secular stories of the Peter the Great era and at the same time abundantly uses modern clerical jargon.
The story included fashionable foreign words such as “publication”, “register”, “apartment”, “person”, “banquets”, “natural”, and such pretentious expressions that were also in fashion, such as “there is no service of mine for you” ", "pleasure evenings called Christmastide", etc. The author, apparently, tried to write in the language that seemed to him most appropriate to his contemporary requirements, which were presented by a secular story, but in his attempts at fashion he should probably have seemed naive even to his more educated contemporaries. He himself, obviously, belonged either to the clerical order or to the petty nobility and, despite his undoubted talent, was a man of very moderate literary literacy.
The action of the story in one of the lists dates back to 1680, in another list its very writing dates back to this year. Judging, however, by the language and by the fact that some facts are spoken of in the story as if they were matters of the past, the story should be dated to the very end of the 17th century. or the beginning of the 18th century. - the eve of Peter's reforms. Later, stories of a gallant-romantic style, such as the story of Vasily Kariotsky, became characteristic.
The story of Frol Skobeev is a typical example of the picaresque short story genre
THE STORY ABOUT THE RUSSIAN NOVGOROD NOBLEMAN FROL SKOBEEV, THE CAPITAL DAUGHTER OF NARDIN-NASHCHEKIN ANNUSHKA
In 1680, the nobleman Frol Skobeev lived in the Novgorod district, and in the same Novgorod district there were the estates of the steward Nardin-Nashchokin; and his daughter Annushka lived in those estates.
At the time of Yuletide entertaining evenings, when girls gather to have fun, the daughter of steward Nardin-Nashchokin, Annushka, ordered her teacher to go to all the nobles living near their estate and who have maiden daughters, and ask them to come to her for a Yuletide party.
However, she did not disobey her brother’s will, she brought him a girl’s dress, and Frol Skobeev, dressed in a girl’s dress, went with his sister to Annushka.
The teacher cannot recognize Skobeev in him. He took out five rubles and gave it to her. She took it with great reluctance. Skobeev sees that the teacher cannot recognize him in any way, fell to his knees in front of her and announced that he is a nobleman Frol Skobeev and that he came in a girl’s dress for the sake of Annushka, because he needs to make love with her at all costs!
Skobeev stayed with Annushka and announced that he was Frol Skobeev, a Novgorod nobleman, and not a girl. Annushka did not know what to answer and was in great fear. And our Frol, despite the danger, behaved very bravely and mastered it. Then Annushka began to ask Skobeev not to disgrace her in front of others.
And Skobeev stayed with Annushka for three days (all in a girl’s outfit - so that the servants in the house would not recognize him), had fun with her, and after three days went with his sister to his home. Annushka gave Skobeev several ducats, and from that time on, the poor Skobeev got rich, began to live luxuriously and organize banquets for his fellow nobles.
Skobeev found out that Annushka had left for Moscow, and thought: he didn’t know what to do - he was not a rich nobleman and earned money only by conducting court cases in Moscow. Finally, he decided to pawn his estates and go to Moscow to marry Annushka.
Well, mother-sister, please don’t worry about anything: even if I lose my life and meet my end there, but I won’t leave Annushka behind - either I’ll be a colonel or a dead man!
And the steward did not visit his sister for a long time and thought that Annushka was in the monastery. And Frol Skobeev has already married her! Then one day Nardin-Nashchokin went to visit his sister in the monastery and sat there for a while, but did not see his daughter.
The steward went to the sovereign and announced that his daughter had gone missing. And the sovereign ordered a publication to be made about his daughter: if anyone is keeping her secretly, then let him show up, and if he doesn’t show up, but is found, then he will be executed by death.
“And if you don’t defend me,” said Skobeev, “then I’ll say a word about you too.” I would have to tell you that you gave me horses and a carriage, and if you hadn’t given me, I wouldn’t have done anything!
Skobeev saw that a man was coming from his father-in-law and ordered his wife to lie down on the bed and pretend to be sick. Annushka did as her husband wanted.
Look, my friend,” says Skobeev, “how healthy she is: such is her parents’ anger - they scold and curse her behind her back, that’s why she lies on the verge of death. Convey their mercy so that they may at least bless her in absentia during her lifetime.
Stop, - says the steward, - stop, you rogue, wandering around the courts - I have an estate in the Simbirsk district of three hundred households, and in the Novgorod district of two hundred households. Guide them after you and live like people.
And, having lived for some time, steward Nardin-Nashchokin, in extreme old age, eternal life moved, and made Skobeev the heir of all his movable property and real estate. After some time, his mother-in-law passed away. And so Frol Skobeev, having lived his life in glory and wealth, left heirs and died.
THE TALE ABOUT ERSH ERSHOVICH
The story of Ruff Ershovich, the theme of which is a land dispute between fish over the ownership of Lake Rostov, has come to us in four significantly different editions. More than 30 copies of the story are known; it is also accompanied by a rhyming buffoon joke about Ruff.
In all editions of the story, Ruff is portrayed as a notorious rogue, an insolent, cunning swindler who, thanks to his arrogance, combined with cunning, knows how to dodge in difficult circumstances. He manages to fool such noble, but narrow-minded persons as Sturgeon and Catfish, whom he not only brings to trouble, but also mocks them evilly, unwittingly causing, if not sympathetic, then at least a condescending attitude towards himself from the outside reader.
It is impossible to talk about the story as a whole as an artistic phenomenon - each of its editions, while having a common plot, is completely independent in language and artistic organization of the text. The senior editors are largely focused on the document, on the judicial procedure; in the second, more attention is paid to the sound organization of the text (text rhythm, rhyme, paronomasia, tautology, etc.).
The Tale of Ersha Ershovich is a monument of satirical literature, created at the end of the 16th century or the beginning. XVII century Over the subsequent time - throughout the XVII-XVIII centuries. – the story continued its literary history in the handwritten tradition, found its way into popular popular literature, was reworked into a folk tale and was reflected in folk proverbs and sayings.
In the sea, in front of the big fish, the legend about Ruff, about Ershov’s son, about bristles, about a sneaker, about a thief, about a robber, about a dashing man, how the fish Bream and Golovl, peasants of the Rostov district, competed with him
In the summer of December 7105, the judges of all cities gathered in the large lake of Rostov, the names of the judges: Beluga Yaroslavl, Salmon Pereyaslav, boyar and governor Sturgeon of the Khvalynsky Sea, the okolnichi was Som, the great Volsky limit, the court men, Sudok and Trepetha Pike.
Residents of the Rostov Lake beat with their foreheads, Bream and Golovl, Ruff with stubble, according to the petition.
And that thief Ruff settled down in our estates in Lake Rostov, and lived far away from us and bred with children, and gave his daughter to Vandyshev’s son and bred with his tribe, and we, your peasants, were killed and robbed, and kicked out of the estate , and they took possession of the lake by force with their fiancé and their children, and he wants to starve us to death. Have mercy, gentlemen, give us justice and justice for him.
And the defendant Ruff before the judges said: “My gentlemen the judges, I answer them, but I will seek my dishonor against them, and they called me a bad man, but I did not beat them or rob them, and I do not know or know. And then Rostov Lake is directly mine, and not theirs, from the old days to my grandfather Ersha Rostov tenant. And I am an ancient man by birth, a child of boyars, small boyars nicknamed Vandyshevs, Pereslavtsy. And those people, Bream and Golovl, were my father’s slaves... And I, the Lord, by God’s mercy and my father’s blessing and my mother’s prayer, did not disgrace, neither a thief, nor a thief, nor a robber, and they did not take away anything that was too much from me, I live with his fatherly strength and truth, and then they didn’t come to me and didn’t pay any lies.
And the judges asked Ruff: “Tell me, Ruff, do you have ways and data for that Rostov Lake and what fortresses?” And Ruff said this: “Gentlemen, I’ll tell you, I had ways and gifts and all sorts of fortresses for that Rostov lake. And sin for my sake in the past, my gentlemen, that year Rostov Lake burned from the days of Ylyin until the days of Semenya, the leader of the summer, and at that time there was nothing to put out, because the old straw held on, and the new straw did not ripen at that time. My paths and data have burned.”
Yes, I trust that the governor of the Sturgeon of the Khvalynsk Sea and the Catfish with a big mustache knows that he, Ruff, is an age-old deceiver and trickster and a driven thief.”
And the judges asked the truth and sentenced Bream and his friend to give him a certificate of justice. And Bream and his comrades gave Ruff the stubble of his head. Trouble from troubles, but Ruff did not leave Bream and turned his tail to Bream, and he himself began to say: “If they gave me away to you with my head, then you, Bream and my comrade, swallow me from the tail.”
And Bream, seeing Ruff's cunning, thought to swallow Ruff's head, otherwise he was bony and had bristles on his tail, like fierce spears or arrows could not be swallowed. And they released Ruff, and began to own Rostov Lake as before, and Ruff lived with them as a peasant. They, Leshch and his comrade, took a letter of right against Ruff so that from now on there would be no trouble, and for the theft of Ershevo they ordered him to be mercilessly beaten with a whip in all the fish fords and in the fish pools.
And the court was judged: the boyar and the governor Sturgeon of the Khvalynsk Sea and the Catfish with a big mustache, and the Trepetush Pike, and right there in court the fish Nelma and Salmon were judged, and the bailiff was Okun, and Yazev’s brother, and the executioner beat Ruff with a whip for his guilt - Kostrash fish. Yes, the court huts were the watchman Men Chernyshev and another Terskaya, and the witnesses were the headman Sazan Ilmenskaya and Rak Bolotov, and the kisser copied bellies, and five or six Red-feathered Poduses, and Forty and ten, and from a handful of small I pray, and over those government kissers , which the Ershevs' bellies copied in the Rozryad, the names of the kisser - Cod Zherebtsov, Konev brother. And they gave Ruff a rightful certificate.
THE TALE OF THE SHEMYAKA COURT
The story is based on the plot of a legal battle between two peasant brothers, rich and poor. The story exposes an unfair court in Rus' in the 17th century, telling about the behavior of a bribe-taking judge, whose nickname is associated with the personality of a judge closer to us, who bore the name Shemyak, very common in the 16th-17th centuries.
The titles of some lists of “Shemyakin’s Court” indicate that the story was “extracted from Polish books.” A Polish version is known, belonging to the 16th century writer Nikolai Rey from Naglowice. The Russian origin of the story is proven primarily by the fact that it contains characteristics Russian life, Russian legal terminology of the 17th century, and also found a very broad reflection of the Russian judicial process and arbitrage practice that time. Judging by the fact that the story depicts a voivodeship court, established in our country only in the second half of the 17th century, the origin of the story should be dated no earlier than the 60s of this century.
The handwritten texts of the story, obviously, should be derived from the records of Russian oral tales, which chronologically should be considered older than the handwritten texts, judging by the fact that they talk about a righteous judge, without even referring to Shemyaka. Based on Russian fairy tales, a written story was created, which turned didactic material into satirical material, turning the matter around in such a way that it was about an unrighteous judge.
In the 18th century the story of the Shemyakin trial was translated into verse, passed into popular literature and then underwent further literary processing by some writers.
THE TALE OF THE SHEMYAKA COURT
In some places there lived two farmer brothers: one rich, the other poor. The rich man lent money to the poor man for many years, but could not correct his poverty.
And so the poor man brought a horse without a tail to his brother. And his brother saw that the horse had no tail, and he began to abuse his brother, saying that, having begged the horse from him, he had ruined it. And, without taking back the horse, he went to beat him with his forehead in the city, to the judge Shemyaka.
He was thinking about how to get rid of the misfortune and what to give to the judge. And, not finding anything, he thought of this - he took the stone, wrapped it in a scarf, put it in his hat and stood before the judge.
The poor man, not knowing what to say, took a wrapped stone from his hat, showed it to the judge and bowed. And the judge, believing that the poor man had promised him a bribe, said to his brother: “If he tore off the tail of your horse, do not take your horse from him until the horse grows a tail. And when the tail grows, then take it.” he has his own horse."
The poor man again took the same knot out of his hat and showed it to the judge. The judge saw and thinks that in another case another bundle of gold promises, he says to the priest. “If he kills your son, give him your wife’s hit, until he gets you a child from your hit; at that time, take the hit from him along with the child.”
And then the third trial began for the fact that, throwing himself from the bridge, he killed the old man's father from his son. The poor man, taking a stone wrapped in a scarf from his hat, showed it to the judge for the third time. The judge, believing that for the third trial he will promise him a third knot, says to the one whose father was killed: “Get onto the bridge, and let the one who killed your father stand under the bridge. And you yourself fall from the bridge on him and kill him in the same way, like he is your father."
The rich brother gave him five rubles for his horse, so that he would give it to him, even without a tail. And he took five rubles from his brother and gave him the horse.
And so the poor man took for himself from all three.
Then the servant says to him: “Why are you talking about the stone?” And the defendant said: “This is to the judge. I say, whenever he decided not to judge by me, I killed him with that stone.”
The servant returned and told everything to the judge. The judge, having listened to the servant, said: “I thank and praise God for judging by him. If I had not judged by him, he would have killed me.”
THE TALE OF THE CHICKEN AND THE FOX
In the first half of the 17th century, judging by one documentary reference, “The Tale of the Chicken and the Fox” was known in Rus', which has come down to us in prose and poetry, as well as mixed adaptations in copies of the 18th-19th centuries, which passed into popular print literature and a folk tale and a satire on external, formal piety.
The oldest edition of “The Tale of the Chicken and the Fox” is prose; As for the poetic and mixed ones, they arose no earlier than the beginning of the 18th century.
The use of “holy scripture” for satirical and parodic purposes in its ridiculous application, which is present in this story, once again testifies to the general decline of church prestige, especially in the environment from which the story came - among the service class or the townspeople. The story is a skillful combination of church and book quotations in general with elements of vernacular and oral poetic proverb and saying material.
THE TALE OF THE CHICKEN AND THE FOX