Sergei Khodnev on how Russian statehood celebrates its 1150th anniversary

The diplomatic corps, the highest clergy and, of course, a host of high officials led by the president are expected to attend the official celebrations in Veliky Novgorod. Everything is very serious, according to the highest level of state ceremonial, as it is customary to present it today, with an obvious eye to the 19th century: the liturgy in the St. Sophia Cathedral, the religious procession, the ceremonial parade of the presidential cavalry honorary escort, bell ringing, the opening of monuments, theatrical performances in the open air and fireworks over Volkhov.

However, everything is not limited to Novgorod. Well, we remember: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. Let you come and reign over us” - and Rurik sat down to reign in Novgorod, Sineus on Beloozero, Truvor in Izborsk. At the same time, Rostov the Great, also first mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years under the same year, celebrates its 1150th anniversary this year. And a few more events went to Pskov, Vladimir, Kostroma and Moscow.

150 years ago, under Alexander II, the question of the geography of anniversary celebrations was also raised; both Kyiv and Moscow were proposed, but they settled on Novgorod, and there in 1862 the famous monument “Millennium of Russia” appeared. Naturally, no one knows on what day the notorious calling of the Varangians took place (even the year of this event was disputed, not to mention the exact calendar date), but then, in 1862, by a willful decision they chose September 8 of the old style, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the day of Kulikovskaya battle and the birthday of Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, son of Alexander II, who was supposed to inherit the throne, but died three years after that anniversary. So now they decided not to reinvent the wheel and use the same date, although if you are completely literal, you will notice that September 8, 1862 corresponded to September 20 in the new style, and not the 21st.

This monument to the “Millennium of Russia” actually has an interesting story. It is somehow not considered the main achievement of our monumental sculpture of the 19th century, but still it is much better in every sense than the awkward monument to Susanin in Kostroma, erected in 1851 - there was a gigantic bust of Mikhail Fedorovich on a column, at the foot of which he awkwardly stood on his knees is little Ivan Susanin. But we still need to pay attention to how this Novgorod monument was created. Firstly, Novgorod itself: for us now this is not always clear, but in the minds of the educated public of the first half of the 19th century the word “Novgorod” itself was quite firmly associated with the republican idea, and who only then did not appeal to Novgorod liberties, trying to prove that Russian statehood is not at all synonymous with autocratic monarchy. And this suspicious city is chosen with the highest approval for anniversary celebrations. Moreover, according to the plan of Mikhail Mikeshin and Ivan Schroeder, the composition of the monument, although built around a huge royal power, is in such a way that from a distance the power is not very readable, but it is clear that the general outline of the monument resembles a bell, and the combination of the words “Novgorod” and “bell” "Again, could only evoke one association - veche. Further: the list of historical characters who needed to be sculpted, of course, was agreed upon at all sorts of high government levels right up to the emperor, but it’s not like it was sent down to the sculptors in the form of an order. No, there was even a kind of public discussion, and, for example, a completely official consensus arose that Ivan the Terrible should not be included in the list of the best representatives of Russian history. And as a result, the Grozny era is represented on one of the high reliefs by Archpriest Sylvester, Alexei Adashev and Tsarina Anastasia. The feeling of some kind of completely unthinkable social situation ten years earlier is completed by the fact that Mikeshin flatly refused to include the late Nicholas I in the program of the monument. And here is the reaction - Alexander II calls him to a confidential conversation: “The Emperor asked: “What about the priest?” I stood up from the chair and was silent. He saw my embarrassment, my torment. I continued until the end, and when I finished, he took me by the shoulder and brought me closer to him.” In a conversation on the same topic with the emperor’s brother, the sculptor, if you believe him, was no longer silent, but honestly spoke out in plain text: “Your Highness, the personality of the late sovereign is so close to our time that it is impossible to treat it impartially. There are many people who find oppression of Russian thought under his rule, while others passionately praise him. It’s too early to place him on a monument. However, there are people who will do this if they are paid.” In any case, Mikeshin was not forced into captivity, and Nicholas I was indeed sculpted by another sculptor.

That is, on the one hand, a pious, solemn monument, the Uvarov triad in its own rights, and on the other hand, there are still few official artistic phenomena with such a liberal provenance in our 19th century. And now the main ceremonial events will take place around this monument.

No, this is not the only reason for surprise. The schedule of anniversary events officially approved by the government also gives many reasons. In total, according to this estimate, 450 million rubles were allocated from federal and local funds for the celebration—quite modest when compared with the APEC summit. The most significant amounts - 10, 15, 20 million - are allocated for repair and restoration work in the cities affected by the anniversary. It’s a good thing, there’s no doubt, but with what efficiency and rationality such appropriations are usually spent locally, everyone can imagine, and it seems that this year’s festivities are no exception - judging by the news from Izborsk, where, hastily and barbarously creating beauty The forces of the unfortunate Tajiks destroyed several landmarks and archaeological sites. There is also “the production of a multi-part documentary film about the role of the peoples of Russia in the formation of Russian statehood” (15 million) and “the creation of a non-fiction national film dedicated to the 1150th anniversary of the Russian state” (1 million 300 thousand) - neither of which is about audible. The release of several scientific monographs is also planned (apparently, these have not yet been published) and many, many low-budget gatherings, festivals and folk festivals. Some names exude a wonderful aroma of Komsomolism - for example, “holding the All-Russian meeting of patriotic youth and children’s associations on the topic “Patriotic education as an element of personality formation”” (1 million). And there are all sorts of fairs of folk crafts, festivals of historical reconstruction and other children's drawing competitions, also events that are probably very necessary and, in any case, quite natural for tourist cities, only through the prism of a large government obligation all this looks both funny and pathetic. “And she will squeal (my God!) / “Come to my golden palace!..”” Well, the poetry festival “Slovenian Field” was supposed to take place in Izborsk, but somehow the weather didn’t work out there, and the poets, in the words of news agencies, “because of the rain we moved to the gazebo of the Izborsk pancake house.” A sports competition and a bicycle race were also held - what is this for, for the greater glory of statehood? To the glorification of Rurik and his brothers? Apparently, the festive concert in Veliky Novgorod will be especially good. News feeds inform us that Tanya Bulanova, Marina Khlebnikova and the group “White Eagle” will perform at the walls of the St. Sophia Cathedral, and “the headliner of the evening will be singer Lev Leshchenko.” Somehow you try to correlate with all this the fact that this is the 1150th anniversary of national history, “where did the Russian land come from” and all that, but it doesn’t work. We moved to the pancake house's gazebo.

And this is if we do not touch upon the actual historical issues. In disputes about the Norman question, both sides sometimes drew such dramatic conclusions from their position that one can only sympathize with the president (or rather, his speechwriters), who will have to give some kind of speech and in it clarify his views on this issue. However, for a person who once casually determined the true place of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan, this may be a trifle. Especially considering that we now have as Minister of Culture a Doctor of Historical Sciences, who was caught for plagiarism and complete scientific inconsistency and who, without hesitation, answers the zoils that historical facts, they say, are nonsense, no one is interested in your excavations and birch bark letters, but the state is interested , ideological consistency is the main thing. Is it any wonder that although the above-mentioned list contains several scientific conferences of varying degrees of academic significance, the “scientific and public” conference “Russian Statehood: Historical Traditions and Challenges of the 21st Century” will apparently be held with the greatest fanfare. At the time the issue was put to press on the official website of the conference, no program with a list of reports was announced, but there was only a list of topics - where there are very few normal academic problems, regular, human, but only statehood this, statehood that, "USSR as a stage of Russian statehood" and "the origins of modern Russian phobia". On the other hand, with such enthusiasm they could announce that we are celebrating not the 1150th anniversary, but, say, the 3000th anniversary. They didn’t announce it, and thank you for that.

Calling to the pancake gazebo