Publications in the Traditions section

“Father Ocean, Cold Sea.” Traditions of Pomors in fairy tales and epics

Pomeranians have long inhabited the coast White Sea. They were skilled shipbuilders and sailors and, according to legend, were the first to reach the polar archipelago of Spitsbergen. Their whole life is connected with the sea: crafts, traditions and folklore.

We read northern epics and fairy tales to understand how the Pomors lived and what they said about justice, fishing and about their wives.

“I’ll eat everything from the sea”

Vasily Perepletchikov. Pomors enter the Arkhangelsk port. 2nd half of the 19th century

The boat with the people of Willem Barents passes along the Russian ship. Engraving from 1598

Mitrofan Beringov. Pomeranian fisherman with sea bass. Year unknown. Photo: goskatalog.ru

The life of the Pomors was built around sea trades. During their voyages they caught fish and seals, and caught pearls. The old proverbs say: “Our field is the sea”, “Both joy and sorrow - I will drown everything from the sea”, “We live by the sea, we feed on the sea, the sea is our nurse.” Sea scenes also appeared in ritual folklore - for example, traditional fairy tales and epics. They were told during hard monotonous work or winter evenings for mending fishing nets.

“The North played an outstanding role in Russian culture. He saved us from oblivion Russian epics, Russian ancient customs, Russian wooden architecture, Russian musical culture, Russian labor traditions".

Dmitry Likhachev, philologist and academician

Many tales about sea ​​voyages began with a description of the scene - the coast: “It was a long time ago. Three brothers lived on the shores of the White Sea.". The Pomors considered swimming a test, from which the worthy returned home as winners, and those who saved before the elements perished. But what they said about them was not “drowned,” but “the sea took them.” It was not accepted to condemn such “decisions”: the sea personified justice.

“He menacingly stretched out his bloody hands to the sea and shouted with a strong cry:
- Father Ocean, Cold Sea! You yourself and now judge between me and my brother!
Like thunder, the Ocean thundered in response to Goreslav. He caused anger at sea. A gray, enormous shaft soared over the boat, picked up Likhoslav and carried him into the abyss.”

An excerpt from the Pomeranian legend “Anger” (Boris Shergin. “There were Pomeranian legends”)

According to legend, the owner of the sea - “Nikola - the god of the sea” - also loved fairy tales. Pomors often took an experienced storyteller on a hike. The luck of the fishermen depended on him: if he manages to lull the owner, the fish will be left unattended and fall into the net. Therefore, the storyteller spoke in a singsong voice, softly and monotonously.

“For songs and fables, from the age of eighteen I had a first name with a patronymic. They didn’t allow me to do any work at the fishery. Food from the kitchen, firewood from the ax - know, sing and talk... In the evening the people will gather, I say. There are crowds of men, there is nowhere to rush, there are no taverns. The evening is not enough - we’ll grab the night... Then one by one they will start to fall asleep. I will ask: “Are you sleeping, baptized ones?” - “We don’t sleep, we live! Keep talking."

From fish to pearls - Pomeranian crafts

Nicholas Roerich. Pomeranians. Morning. 1906

Valentin Serov. Pomors. 1894

Kliment Redko. Pomors fish for cod. 1925

Residents of the White Sea called themselves “cod eaters”: fish was the basis of their diet, and fishing- the main industry. In fairy tales, adventures often began with a trip to the tonya - that was the name of the seasonal fishing place.

“We went to the sinking, swept this net, and when they began to pull it to the shore, it turned out that the net was full of fish. The brothers fussed about all day, sucking fish out of the sackcloth, and in the evening, tired, they said: What a miracle, this has never happened before. One day they untied the seine, the second they untied it, but there were never so many fish!”

An excerpt from the Pomeranian fairy tale “Nikiforovo Miracle”

In February, spinners - hired workers - went to the tony. There were four people on each ship, the main one being the helmsman. He had to know the fishing spots, be able to cut and salt fish. The feedman received high salary and a significant part of the production.

Harp seals and walruses have long been hunted on the White Sea coast. For hunting Pomors united in an artel of 5–7 people or more large group, which was controlled by the ataman. In the Pomeranian fairy tale, “animal catches” were a test of both physical and moral qualities.

“In the month of February, industrialists go to sea to hunt animals. Kirik dressed up with a twist. He says to his brother:
- Oleshenka, we have an oath to listen to each other: get ready for fishing!
Olesha did not say a word, he quickly dealt with it. The anchors were rolled out, the sails were opened... The forefather of the sea fair wind was merciful to Kirik. Day and night - and Animal Island in your eyes. Ice island circle. There are seal beds on the ice floes. The Dvinian men confronted the beast and taught them to beat it.”

An excerpt from the Pomeranian legend “Love stronger than death"(Boris Shergin. "Dvina Land")

Pomors constantly improved in shipbuilding. They were skilled sailors: they went fishing in Norway and Eastern Siberia. The Pomors built kochi - light sailing ships for sailing the northern seas. Special shape made them maneuverable, and kochi almost never died in the ice. The skill of shipbuilders was a frequent motif in northern fairy tales, songs and epics.

...And everyone at the feast is drunk and happy,
And everyone at the feast began to brag.
Pomor fishermen with good skill:
What is in mother in the quiet Dvina Bay,
In the rich and wide Nizovsky land
Nizovshchanye, fishing estuaries
They make and rig vessels - trading boats.

Boris Shergin, excerpt from the book “Dvina Land”

Industrial salt mining The Pomeranians took over around the 12th century. “Pomorka” from the White Sea coast was considered the cleanest and highest quality. The royal charter of 1546 stated: “Which salt the Dvina people carry from the Dvina, in that salt kardehi [crushed stone] and no mixture lives”. Salt top quality obtained from underground “brine layers”, which were not easy to find. If the hero of a Pomeranian fairy tale came across a salt spring, this, as a rule, meant good luck and quick wealth.

“Whether it’s close, whether it’s far, whether it’s low, whether it’s high, they see: the mountain is white, like grains of grain. We arrived - Solyanaya Mountain. We went into the harbor and began rolling out salt in barrels. They rolled the full hatch."

Excerpt from the Pomeranian fairy tale “Salt”

Pearl fishing began in Pomeranian villages at the beginning of summer. Men dived into the sea for shells, and women and children collected them in baskets from dry rivers. Pomors wove beads and butterfly earrings from pearls, and decorated belts and headdresses with precious embroidery. They had a proverb: “A wife in a dress is a man who is her breadwinner.”

“Well, Ivan, merchant’s son, what do you want as a reward - gold or silver?
“I don’t need either gold or silver,” says Ivan. “Give me one bag of pearl sand.”

Excerpt from the Pomeranian fairy tale “Pearl Sand”

Pomeranian "big women"

Alexander Borisov. Spring polar night. 1897

Mitrofan Beringov. Pomors. Illustration. 1928

Arkhangelsk province. Pomeranian village. Postcard. 1912. Photo: goskatalog.ru

IN family life Pomors valued mutual respect. The couple had practically equal rights. When the husband went on a campaign for a long time - on the Murmansk harvest, on the Kedovsky way, on Norwegian voyages - the wife became the head of the family. The Pomors called such a housewife “big woman.”

Often the wives themselves went to sea. Some women became feeders in fisheries and managed male crews.

From the steep bank
The boat has left
You tell your dear one
That she went fishing.

Pomeranian ditty

The woman was the main character of many Pomeranian tales. A faithful friend helped her husband, passed all tests on an equal basis with him, and sometimes even surpassed him in endurance, strength or courage.

Not a prince, not an ambassador, not a warrior -
Little wife from Ryazan, orphan,
Crossed forests and deserts,
Climbed the pushing mountains,
Fearlessly came to the Horde...
Take yourself a brother and a husband,
Take your dear son with you too.
Return to Rus' and brag,
That it was not in vain that I went to the Horde.
Gay, Ryazan husbands and wives,
Why are you standing there, covered in melancholy?
Why do you look at Avdotya’s joy?
I’m letting you all go to Rus'.
Gay wife Avdotya Ryazanka!
Lead all Ryazan from fullness,
And be you a governor.

An excerpt from the Pomeranian legend “About Avdotya Ryazanochka”

Women on the White Sea coast were more independent than in other areas of pre-revolutionary Russia. One of the Pomeranian legends told about a woman who sailed alone to visit her husband. On a large seaworthy boat - a karbas - the Pomeranian circumnavigated the coast of the White Sea, went out to Barentsevo and reached her husband.

Watch the tale about the Pomors from the Soyuzmultfilm film studio (1987)

March 24th, 2017

If you happen to be born in an empire,
It's better to live in a remote province by the sea
(I. A. Brodsky)

The order I named of these three villages reflects the movement back to Belomorsk. That is, the closest to the city is Sukhoi (18 kilometers), then Virma (35 km), and already 50 kilometers east of the city is Sumsky Posad (in everyday life it is simply called Sumposad). We are with andrew_rewsr We made a bike ride along the Pomeranian coast along a dirt road: in the morning we rode with our bikes by train from Belomorsk to Sumposad, and then rode back towards the city on bikes.

As already mentioned, in Belomorsk there is a tripartite railway junction: to the east of the city there is a line to Obozerskaya station, connecting the Murmansk Mainline with Arkhangelsk. It was from there, and in the same direction, that we went to Sumposad. The Kem-Malenga train takes us there, and the drive to Sumposad is 50 kilometers, or a little over an hour. There are not many people on the morning train, and most of the passengers are railway workers.

2. Here is Sumsky Posad. Quite a large station, which in 1994-2003 was the final point of electrification. There used to be a wooden station here, but it burned down a couple of years ago. Quite a lot of passengers get off, and we unload with our bicycles. The train has moved on - in two hours it will be at the Malenga station near the border with the Arkhangelsk region, after which it will go back to Kem.

And we get on our bikes and go to the village, which is a little away from the station. Officially, there are two settlements here - the village of Sumsky Posad, and the village of the Sumposad railway station. Moreover, the station itself is called Sumsky Posad, and the station village is called Sumposad, officially. However, in fact, the entire Sumsky Posad is perceived as one whole.

3. Sumposad is a village, by local standards, quite large (about seven hundred inhabitants, and a hundred years ago there were one and a half thousand), the center rural settlement. In addition, with rich history. For the first time the village was mentioned under the name WITH at ma in 1436 in the context of the founding of the Solovetsky Monastery. Here was the patrimony of the Novgorod mayor Martha Boretskaya, who gave the village into ownership in 1450.

4. From here it’s only 4 kilometers to the White Sea, but in summer time You can’t just go out to it - the banks are swampy. The village is picturesquely stretched along the banks of the Suma River, which gave it its name. Solid Pomeranian huts, many of which are over a hundred years old, face the river with their facades. When viewed from the Sumposad bridge, it reminded me of Karelian.

The river originates from Lake Sumozero, and here, almost immediately beyond the village, it flows into the sea. And the sea is the basis of local life. All around are dense forests and swamps - rich in the gifts of nature, but at the same time unsuitable for agriculture. The main trade of Pomors is fishing sea ​​fish. They catch with nets - they usually go out to sea in the morning with the tide, and then in the evening, in high water, they return. And they have been living here for centuries. It must be said that Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” most often comes to mind precisely in these parts.

5. However, you might not even guess that the sea is nearby if you don’t know about it. Outside the village, only the forest is visible. But, however, a cool wind blows from the sea.

In the 16th century, Suma was already one of the largest and most prosperous villages of the Pomeranian coast (just like Soroka - present-day Belomorsk), being also a center for salt production - several salt breweries operated here. However, life was often turbulent - the region was borderland, and the Swedes ravaged it several times. In 1576, in Livonian War, they burned Suma, having previously managed to get into trouble in the “Kemskaya volost”. And in 1583, a wooden Sumsky fort was erected here, which consisted of six towers - Vorotnaya, Belaya, Mokhovaya, Nizovskaya, Rybnaya and Mostovaya. In 1613, the Swedes besieged it, but were unable to take it. In the 1680s, the fort was rebuilt, and a hundred years later it was abolished, began to deteriorate, and by the 20th century it almost collapsed. The partially preserved Mokhovaya Tower was transported to the Moscow Kolomenskoye Museum in 1931, where it now stands in restored form.

6. On the road from the station to the village, a rural school is visible:

After the abolition of the fort, the settlement became the village of Sumskoye. In 1806, it was transformed into a posad as part of the Kemsky district of the Arkhangelsk province, receiving modern name— Sumsky Posad.

8. In the southern part of the village there was a manufactured goods store with a still Soviet bilingual sign. On the right is written in Finnish: "Teollisuustavaroita". Although almost everything indigenous people here it’s Russian, we’re still in Karelia, where Soviet times the signs were duplicated in Finnish, not Karelian (this has been the case since the times of the Karelo-Finnish SSR).

9. This is him, Sumposad. Among the huts there are five-walled buildings, but not of such a severe appearance as can be seen in Arkhangelsk region. Here the houses are usually more elongated.

10. House of merchant Ivan Shuttiev, who owned a store located in it:

This is what the house looked like a hundred years ago:

Now half of the house is occupied by a church (you can see it by the crosses). After taking the picture, we were noticed by a resident of the house - a rather handsome and very talkative grandfather, who, according to him, helps with the housework at this church. He managed to tell us a lot - about how he worked in Moscow in the dashing nineties and almost got into clashes with bandits, then about how he lives here in his old age, and clean air It gives me so much strength that I don’t even have to go to the doctor:
“When you’re sick, you need to come here and go over there behind the forest to drink water.”
- From the swamp?
- From the swamp! Then you will live a long time.

In general, it must be said that Sumposad (like Belomorsk) is distinguished by some kind of intelligence local residents. In addition, a village with such a rich history and traditions is a kind of cultural center Belomorsky district (as, for example, in the Babaevsky district in the Vologda region).

11. Near the house with the church there is a memorial to famous fellow countrymen:

Two people stood out in particular here. Captain Vladimir Voronin (1890-1952) - a native Pomor by origin, one of the Soviet conquerors of the Arctic, who participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites. He became especially famous for the fact that in 1932, on the icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov", he passed the Northern Sea Route for the first time in one navigation. The ethnographer Ivan Durov (1894-1938), who studied Pomeranian culture and folklore, but came under repression and was shot in 1938, was also immortalized here. In one of his essays he wrote: “The harsh nature of the north hides many such corners, about the life of which much more needs to be said and written. Our Pomerania belongs to one of these corners, stretching in a narrow strip for several hundred miles along west coast White Sea".

12. Next door is a memorial to the Sumlyans who died in the Great Patriotic War:

13. And on the other bank stands the oldest surviving building in the village - the wooden Solovetsky barn, built in 1757. The pier of the Solovetsky Monastery was also located here. The monument is unique, but apparently there are no funds for restoration, and it is gradually deteriorating.

14. Around the darkened log walls there is the smell of grass wet from the morning rain, and thick thickets of raspberries.

15. Such an inscription has been preserved above the entrance to the barn. The Solovetsky Monastery, although located on an island, was at one time one of the main centers of Pomerania, and owned many villages of the Pomeranian coast until the Catherine era.

16. And on the wall of the barn there is such a rare tablet from the times of the Karelo-Finnish SSR (of course, again, with the inscription in Finnish). The only pity is that if the barn is restored, it will probably be removed - this is not yet appreciated in our time.

17. Nearby stands the brand new Church of St. Elisha of Sumy, built in 2006-2013. By the way, this is the only temple in honor of this saint.

The place was not chosen by chance. There used to be a churchyard-tee here - the stone Assumption Church (1693), the wooden Nikolskaya Church (1768) and the tented bell tower. The furniture of the St. Nicholas Church contained many gifts from the Solovetsky archimandrites. The temples, unfortunately, were demolished in the 1930s.

This is what the temple ensemble looked like:

18. Near the church there is a memorial sign to the sailors of Sumsky Posad:

As already mentioned, the sea is the basis of life here. There was a small shipyard in Sumposad; local residents sometimes went to fisheries in the Barents Sea and New Earth. There was a nautical school here, which gave the country several dozen captains, including the aforementioned Vladimir Voronin.

19. Karelian nature is visible in the landscape of Sumposad. Above the bridge on Suma there is a rapid, rustling with a stormy stream among granite rocks.

20. Karelia!

22. Here, on one of the rocks, under a canopy, stands a karbas - a seaworthy boat, donated to Sumposad in 1870 by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (son of Alexander II), who visited the village. About ten years ago the boat was damaged by a canopy collapse. It hasn’t been restored yet, but a new canopy has been built.

23. Overall, Sumposad is a good product northern village with a pleasant antique atmosphere.

24. Suddenly, a narrow-gauge railway carriage near the shore. Until the 1980s, there were two narrow-gauge railways operating nearby - at timber industry enterprises in the villages of Virandozero and Malenga, which are located on the railway, even further to the east. Apparently the car is from there.

At the northern end of the village there used to be a port - one of the centers of trade in Pomorie, including foreign trade. Pomerania had long-standing trade relations with Norway - they traded salt, furs, but mainly, of course, fish. In the second half of the 19th century, the trade turnover of fish in Sumposad amounted to thousands of poods. There was also a passenger pier here - by the beginning of the 20th century there was regular steamship service with Arkhangelsk and Solovki, Onega and Kemya, as well as between villages.

26. Some houses in the village look completely new:

Here we encountered northern hospitality. After taking this picture, a woman of about 60 noticed us and invited us to her house to drink tea and look at the antiquities that she had been collecting for several years. We saw old newspapers and documents, and a couple of pieces of furniture (I think a mirror and a bed), and things like an old kettle and a samovar. Basically, the owner buys all this from local residents (including drunkards), and makes in her house almost a living museum of Pomeranian life. By the way, she is not from here, but from Western Belarus, and, according to her, she is half Polish and Catholic. Here it was quite unexpected.

We stayed in Sumposad for more than three hours and then left this interesting place, riding bicycles towards Belomorsk. In fact, to the east of Sumposad there is interesting places. For example, the Pomeranian villages of Kolezhma and Nyukhcha. From Nyukhcha began the Osudareva Road - a drag from the White Sea to Lake Onega, laid in 1702 through the Karelian forests by decree and with the participation of Peter I, when he was returning from Arkhangelsk. On the railway there are the already mentioned Soviet villages (formerly PGT) Virandozero and Malenga. Perhaps someday I will visit that side, but now we are driving towards the city, and our next goal— the village of Virma, 15 kilometers from Sumposad.

27. The whole road here is like this - a grader dirt road, with forests and swamps around. And somewhere very close, behind the forest, there is the sea.

28. For all 15 kilometers to Virma - not a single one settlement. It’s almost a classic road for Karelia among forests. What I remembered most here was the Suojärvi - Suistamo - Lyaskelä road, where I traveled by bus three years ago.

We were lucky with the weather. The day turned out to be calm and cloudy - no heat, no rain. Along the way, we cross forest streams with peat water several times over bridges. At one of the stops, we heard a strange rustling and whistling from above - it turned out that a flock of birds was flying over the forest. Probably, from a bird's eye view you can clearly see both the road and the sea. And from the road you won’t even understand how close the sea is here.

29. There are a lot of swamps here:

Gradually the road became more cars who were driving towards us. It was Friday, and in the afternoon people were heading to the dacha. A couple of times we passed menacing-looking timber trucks, and a PAZik with a sign “Belomorsk - Sumposad - Khvoyny” drove towards us. And at some point we heard the whistle of an electric locomotive and the roar of a freight train on the left side.

30. Just before Virma, the road comes very close to the parallel railway. A freight traffic it is very busy - cargo flow to the Murmansk port, export of ore from Kola Peninsula. Almost like a highway in the Karelian wilderness.

31. But when the next cargo ship departs, it becomes quiet again at the small Wyrm station. Passenger traffic here is limited to the Kem - Malenga train and the Vologda - Murmansk train, which passes here at night.

32. I remember that on the station building (which is on the right) there was a sign “No entry with fire.” Prometheus would probably be upset.

Plans to build a railway along the Pomeranian coast existed even before the revolution. In 1916, after the opening of the Murmansk Mainline, there was a project for the line Soroka - Sumposad - Onega - Kholmogorskaya station, which would connect it with Arkhangelskaya. As a result, however, the steel track was laid here only in 1941, and on a slightly different route - past Onega, and to Obozerskaya station. During the war, it played a role as the only land connection between Murmansk and the mainland (since the Murmansk highway was cut by the Finns).

34. A couple of kilometers after the station, the Virma itself is already visible. Again long huts and barns, and a little further - a slightly mysterious fog. There is the White Sea!

35. Virma is a small village, located almost right next to the sea and is not even closed from it by a forest. It got its name from the river of the same name, which flows into the sea. At its mouth, in fact, there is an estuary - it comes here sea ​​current, and therefore, at low tide, viscous greenish silt, called “nyasha,” is visible along the river banks.

36. Almost every house has its own boat dock. And behind the houses you can see the wooden Church of Peter and Paul, to which we will come closer.

37. View upstream:

38. And here too there are many good old huts. Virma is also an ancient village, first mentioned in 1459. And in the 16th and 17th centuries, here, as in Suma, salt breweries operated.

39. At the entrance to the village there is a monument to fellow countrymen:

40. The Church of Peter and Paul, built in the mid-17th century, rises majestically above Virma - one of the masterpieces of wooden architecture of the Russian North. The first church on this site has been known since 1526.

41. The composition of the church in Virma is a five-domed structure on a cube (like, for example, the church in Kargopol Archangel).

42. Nice places they knew how to choose for churches. The temple is surrounded by mighty fir trees and Karelian rocks.

43. And the landscapes around are beautiful. The landscapes throughout Karelia are similar and easily recognizable - approximately the same wooded cliffs can be seen somewhere near Vyborg.

44. Mosses underfoot...

45. ...and blueberries:

46. ​​And Virma looks something like this. There are very few permanent residents left in the village, and mostly there are summer residents here - some from Belomorsk, and some even from Murmansk.

47. And from behind the outskirts the sea wind blows, and a foggy suspension hangs in the air.

48. There is already a sea there. Virma is located in a bay, which is from open sea covers Sumostrov and a number of smaller islands.

50. All around are the same pine trees on granite rocks. And very clean and fresh air who want to breathe deeply.

51. Shortly before Sukhoi, the road again comes out close to the seashore. There are boulders in the swamp, and in the distance you can see sea ​​water. The horizon shrouded in fog, from which the wind blows, looks mysterious.

Towards the end, I took little photographs, since my attention was less and less distracted by the surrounding views. Of course, traveling such a distance along a dirt road on bicycles in one day was very difficult for us, and even with rest stops, we were already approaching Sukhoi pretty tired. To our delight, we found the insertion of an asphalt road for as much as three hundred meters! It was a bridge over the Kuzreka River (in Karelian Kuuzijogi - spruce river), at the mouth of which the village of Sukhoe is located.

53. The dry land stands right next to the seashore, and not along the banks of the river, like Virma. Actually, the name of the village is connected with the location: if the seashore here is mostly marshy, then it is here that is almost the only one in many surroundings dry place directly on the shore. The original name of the village was Sukhoi Navolok or Sukhonavolotskoe. It was mentioned for the first time in 1539 in the “Charter of the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich Solovetsky Monastery to a patrimony in the Spassky churchyard of Vygozersky district." This was also a monastic village.

Local legend says that initially they wanted to rebuild the village on Kuzrek upstream, and they brought an icon there to consecrate the place, but the icon was carried away by the river several times to the seashore, which was then perceived as a divine sign, and the village appeared where it stands now.

54. The wind was rustling from the sea, and near one of the houses a dog sitting behind the fence barked loudly at us.

55. In the center of the village is the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. It was built in 1899, but during the Soviet years its bell tower and dome were dismantled, and to this day it has been preserved in this form. IN white it was painted recently, and, in my opinion, in vain.

56. Monument to fellow countrymen:

57. And here comes the sea. We reached Sukhoi in the evening, when the tide began to rise. A grandmother and her grandson were walking near the shore and watching the sea: “You see, the tide was low in the morning, the water went away. And now, in the evening, it’s back again.”

Interestingly, a few kilometers from here there is also railway station Dry. But it is actually not connected with the village in any way, and there is not even access from the road.

58. Last look at Sukhoi and its sea bay:

The bike ride took us the whole day, and, as already said, we were very tired, to put it mildly (I still remember the pleasant feeling when you go to bed after such a ride). That’s why after Sukhoi I ​​almost didn’t take pictures anymore—I wanted more to either pedal continuously to get there faster, or to sit and relax. Finally, I’ll show you just a couple more frames.

59. Another road exit close to the sea:

60. And this is the Bolshaya Ketmuksa River just before its mouth. As in Virma, the sea current enters here, so with the tide the silt is no longer visible, and the river has high water. And also - a slightly unusual lilac shade of the cloudy sky is noticeable. evening sky. This is typical of northern latitudes with their brighter sunlight.

On this note, I will conclude the story about the Pomeranian coast and its villages. It was Belomorsk with its surroundings that became for me the final destination of a long journey around northern regions in the summer of 2016. And the story of this journey has almost come to an end. Next time I’ll finally say a little about the way back home.

Every year in Arkhangelsk, wooden buildings collapse, houses fall off their stilts, and their residents are constantly at risk of finding themselves under the rubble. According to local researchers of the unknown, it’s not at all a matter of the meager budgets of the mayor’s office or poor housekeeping. This is a parting gift ancient tribe Chud, who supposedly lived on the Pomeranian land thousands of years ago.

Arkhangelsk can hardly be called a concrete jungle. Most of the houses are built of wood: log buildings, wooden walkways, carved gazebos evoke affection among tourists tired of concrete and glass major cities. But not all Arkhangelsk residents share this affection of city guests. They made sure own experience that romantic antiquity is fraught with many dangers.

The news of a collapsed house will not surprise the residents of Arkhangelsk: every year in Arkhangelsk several residential buildings come down from their piles. Considering that most buildings are wooden, then the scale of the housing disaster becomes threatening. Nobody feels safe. And almost no one remembers the ancient ban of the mysterious tribe that once lived in the local forests. A taboo that was often violated by local lumberjacks when they were building the capital of Pomerania.

Arkhangelsk is a truly Russian city. Russian cities were all entirely wooden. At the end of the 19th century, Arkhangelsk was the largest wooden city in the world!

, for the program “Urban Legends”

With proper construction and proper care, a wooden house will last for more than a hundred years, but in our time, the wooden flavor is expensive for the city. According to rescue service employees in the Arkhangelsk region, especially dangerous period For houses falling off their stilts and collapses, this is the winter-spring off-season. It is at this time that you should be especially vigilant when living in a wooden house.

Today in the Arkhangelsk region there are 289 thousand square meters housing is considered unsafe. Just think about this figure! Despite the fact that the total dilapidated fund, according to our data, is almost two and a half million square meters. Of course, the lion's share of it is occupied by major cities: in first place regional center, then Severodvinsk and Novodvinsk.

Valentina Prilepina, acting Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Arkhangelsk Region, news29.ru

Old-timers say that the reason that some houses stand for a long time, while others collapse, is most likely because during construction they used wood from sacred groves, which were never allowed to be used for domestic needs: a house built from such wood burned down, a boat - she was drowning, the lumberjack was dying in terrible agony. However, if you choose the right area for felling outside the sacred grove, then the tree will only bring benefits to a person.

Yuri Popov, Arkhangelsk researcher of anomalous phenomena, “Urban Legends”

Reference

Chud (white-eyed Chud, eccentrics, Chutskys) is a character in Russian folklore, an ancient people, aborigines of the area. It should not be confused with the historical name of the real Finno-Ugric peoples. This mythological character is close in meaning to European elves and gnomes, and is found not only in Russian folklore, but also among the Komi and Sami. Similar legends are known in Siberia among the Siberian Tatars and Mansi about the Sybyrs, among the Altaians about the Buruts, and among the Nenets about the Sikhirtya. People's memory preserved information about the Chud past of the remains of earthen fortresses, burial grounds and settlements. They had names equipped with the adjective “Chudskoy” - for example, the tract where the fortress formerly stood could be called Chudskaya town.

While studying the city archives, the researcher even found some facts that he considers to confirm his version. It's about about sacred places around Arkhangelsk, where magnificent forests grew. According to legend, the mysterious Chud white-eyed tribe lived here, the existence and origin of which has no documentary or archaeological evidence. They lived in forests, where they chose areas with the most powerful energy and considered them sacred. The tribe disappeared long ago, but the spell remained.

The Arkhangelsk region is one of the greenest territories in Russia; forest land here amounts to more than 22 million hectares. It is not surprising that the region historically developed on the basis of logging and wood processing, but even here there are sacred places where no one would think of cutting down a forest. For example, in national park“Kenozero” has preserved more than 40 untouchable groves.

We have lost the culture of perceiving living nature. Residents of the outback still acutely feel contact with nature and feel its influence. Stand under a tree, feel its spirit - special property of a person, which is dulled in the city. Not everywhere there are warnings, for example, crosses are a sign of more late culture, a sign of Orthodoxy that replaced paganism. Before the arrival of the Slavs, Finno-Ugric tribes lived on these lands, and before them the white-eyed Chud lived - they are considered the indigenous inhabitants of Pomerania.

Yuri Barashkov, local historian

Even before the revolution, an ancient legend about how the Chud died was passed down from mouth to mouth. Unable to defend their lands from the Novgorodian invasion, this mysterious tribe buried itself alive. According to legend, at dawn all the Chud people gathered in the sacred grove and began to dig holes. When the sun rose over the forest, the terrible refuge for the exiles was ready. Along the edges of the pits there were numerous pillars, over which a flimsy kind of roof made of boards was laid, and these boards were covered with stones on top. And then the Chud people climbed into the pits with all their property and, cutting down the columns, filled themselves up.

Now no one knows why and why they accepted death in this particular way. Today almost nothing is known about the white-eyed monster: what kind of people they were, what they believed in, what magical abilities they possessed, the support of what forces of nature they used, and most importantly, why they chose such a terrible one for themselves. painful death- burial alive.

The places of their burials are considered to be forests with spreading tree crowns, under which many mounds can be observed. Some even believe that the souls of the dead find refuge in these majestic trees. But these are the forests that surround Arkhangelsk.

Deep in the root system of the northerners, Chud blood is still present one way or another, if only because everything geographical names in the Russian North - of Finno-Ugric origin. Therefore, when the Slavs came here, and these were primarily Novgorodians, there were individual tribes, the region was very sparsely populated. All kinds of incest began, and nothing remained of this miracle.

Yuri Barashkov, local historian

Indirect confirmation of the theories of anomalists is provided by the practice of cabinetmakers. Arkhangelsk woodcarvers have their own method for calculating “Chudi trees”. Since ancient times, Pomeranian craftsmen have carved the so-called chipped bird of happiness from wood and sat it on a pole. She was considered a talisman and always turned to the side kind person. According to beliefs, it brought good luck only if it was made with good intentions and from good wood. And being made of cursed wood, it could play a sinister role. Only a professional can understand what material a bird is made of.

When you make a cut on wood, you clearly see the texture of the fibers. With unsuitable material it is discordant, as if twisted. Often fantastic drawings are clearly visible on the cut: animals, fish and other unknown images.

Igor Stoiko, wood carver