Humble yourself, proud Slav

Valeria Novodvorskaya continues the lessons of Russian history*

Lesson #4

The Scandinavian tradition, although a minority one, is firmly stuck in our genetic code. Odnodvortsy, farmers who took advantage of the reforms of Stolypin and Witte and escaped from the communal "collective farm", future "kulaks" who managed to get rich by their labor, yesterday's "scoops" who succeeded in cooperators and bravely started their business in the Yeltsin era, farmers who survived next to the collective farms 90 -x - all these are the heirs of the Scandinavian bonds, self-made men, individual representatives of the third estate, who were never enough for a solid parliamentary majority, from the First Duma of 1906 to the Constituent Assembly, from the Congress of People's Deputies to the current "enraged printer".

Three original traditions - Slavic, Scandinavian and Wild Field - created a strong, passionate and slightly crazy character. Blok described him best: “Overwhelmed by a mighty longing, I roam on a white horse. There are free clouds in the hazy silence of the night. Bright thoughts rise up in my torn heart, and bright thoughts fall, burned by dark fire. The adoption of Christianity could not be forced. In the end, Lithuania accepted it in the XIV century, and without prejudice to liberty. Among the Slavs and Varangians, a military deity arose, purely male, the god of courage and war, who was worshiped in secret. It was Perun, who at the same time was in charge of thunder and lightning, just like the Scandinavian Thor with his hammer Mjolnir. But Christianity promised contact with antiquity, promised knowledge unprecedented for northern barbarians. In addition, the Varangians, military specialists who led the future Gothic Rus', Oleg, Igor, Svyatoslav, Vladimir went “to the people”, to Christian Constantinople. These were the closest neighbors and partners, Rus' sold their furs to them, so the Slavs and the Varangians fought for the right to participate in the market, for commerce.

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Magical Christianity, Orthodoxy, involves humility, obedience to the highest, humility and the desire for a monastic way of life.

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By the way, then the term “Russian”, Rusich, appears. This is also a gift from the Varangians. Direct translation: "spearhead". Russian - meant "warrior".

But Tsargrad did not give either his “purple-born” princesses as wives, or trade benefits. It is also possible that the Byzantines wanted to subdue the spirit of their opponents. But the Russians fell into this trap, and, of course, it was not the anecdote about Islam, which forbade the cheerful drinking of drinks, that underlay the wrong, in our opinion, historical choice.

The adoption of Faustian, Catholic Christianity with its confrontational nature and the indispensable differentiation of secular and spiritual authorities (not every king, except Philip IV of France and Henry VIII of England, risked contacting the Pope) and the free air of antiquity would be very useful. We would not become isolants, stepchildren of Europe.

Magical Christianity, Orthodoxy, implies humility, obedience to the highest, humility and striving for a monastic way of life. Spengler is absolutely right here. In addition, the Byzantine tradition, the tradition of the absolute priority of the interests of the state over the rights of the individual, the tradition of autocracy, the primacy of Caesar and the most miserable groveling of subjects was disastrous for Rus'. It will manifest itself fully in the XIV century, but for the land that was expecting a tsunami of the Horde, it should have become a Trojan horse.

So far, Olga, her retinue, Vladimir and his squad were playing with toys: marveling at the marble, gilding, the luxury of the Constantinople churches and the golden robes of the hierarchs. The magical hypostasis of contemplative, humble Orthodoxy from the very beginning led to tragedy: the pure and righteous princes Boris and Gleb allowed themselves to be slaughtered like calves by their criminal brother, Svyatoslav the Accursed. The humble had no chance of surviving then or now.