Abstract on the topic:

Imperial Guard ( Star Wars)

Plan:

1 History and traditions of the Guard
2 Training Center
3 Weapons and organization
4 Uniform
5 Insignia

Introduction

Imperial Royal Guard(English) Imperial Royal Guard listen)) is a fictional unit of the Imperial army from the Star Wars universe. This unit served as bodyguards under Emperor Palpatine.

1. History and traditions of the Guard

The predecessors of the Imperial Guardsmen were the Guardsmen of the Senate of the Old Republic. When Palpatine became Supreme Chancellor, he created an entire order of bodyguards that answered only to him personally. The guards did not take all the people who wanted to. Most of the future guardsmen were battle-hardened fighters of the elite stormtrooper units. The Imperial Guard is the pinnacle of an Imperial stormtrooper's career. With the exception of the Emperor himself and a few of Palpatine's closest advisors, no one knew the exact number of the Guard.

Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard is one of the most formidable military formations. She obeys only the Emperor himself and is fanatically devoted to him personally. The Emperor's Guard does not seek orders and privileges. Their life purpose and most desired cause of death is service to Emperor Palpatine and his Empire.

The Imperial Guard never openly took part in hostilities. However, in order to maintain combat readiness, some Guardsmen served in ordinary units under the guise of simple stormtroopers and wore the same uniform as ordinary soldiers of the Empire. Usually all the guardsmen served in one unit, and were not scattered in different parts. It is said that not a single guardsman died in battle during the "training".

While some Guardsmen served in the Empire's assault squads, others carried out Palpatine's orders: they organized covert attacks, eliminated assassins, and eliminated the enemies of the Emperor. They protected the emperor's palaces and temples and the cloning cylinders on Byss. Only the Emperor himself knew about their assignments, and he very rarely appeared without at least two guards accompanying him. Occasionally, the guards accompanied the most important persons of the Empire, for example, one of the twelve grand admirals or grand moffs. But such escort was only if there was a corresponding order from Emperor Palpatine.

2. Training Center

The training center and headquarters of the guard is located on the planet Yynhorr (Eng. Yinchorr). Future soldiers of the Guard had to be tall, have excellent physical training, outstanding intelligence. Also, and most importantly, all Guardsmen must be loyal to Emperor Palpatine. Future guardsmen were subjected to a mass of tests to determine their endurance and reflexes in battle. Each new guardsman learned to fight, using two short knives with pointed blades in battle. The education and training of a guardsman lasted one standard year. The Imperial Guards fought each other in endless duels, honing and improving their skills in this way. Defeat for a guardsman, even in training, most often meant his death. Seeing the skill and strength of his partner, the Imperial Guardsman had to reach his level, and seeing his weaknesses, he had to overcome his own shortcomings. Trainings were held at the arena "Shkval". Of more than 40 candidates, only a small part of them survived to the last test in the face of Emperor Palpatine himself. In this test, candidates for the Guard had to prove their loyalty to the Emperor by fighting their partner to the death of one of them.

The training center on Yinhorr was headed by master Ved Kennede, who himself served in the guard at one time. Palpatine recognized him as one of the best warriors and honored him with becoming the senior instructor of his entire guard. The identity of the guardsman for ordinary people is a secret. Their faces and names are known only to Emperor Palpatine and other guardsmen. According to tradition, the guardsmen called each other brothers.

3. Weapons and organization

The Imperial Guard has its own ranks. The best of the guardsmen are called High Imperial Protectors. Imperial Sovereign Protectors). Their armor looks much more ceremonial than that of the regular guardsmen, and is also decorated with ornaments. Some say that the abilities of the Protectors have been enhanced by the dark side of the Force.

The usual weapon of the Imperial Guardsman is a two-meter power lance, more like a harmless addition to ceremonial armor, but in the capable hands of any of the Imperial guards, it turns into a deadly weapon - as deadly as heavy blaster pistols hidden in the folds of red cloaks. Sometimes the Imperial Royal Guards were armed with light poles.

After the death of Emperor Palpatine, the ranks of the Guard quickly dispersed. The Rebel Alliance had long believed that virtually the entire Guard had perished along with their overlord on the second Death Star. But the Imperial Guard survived. Some of the guards followed the warlords, who became the new leaders of the Empire. The other warriors of the Guard retreated to the worlds at the center of the galaxy, only to take their place next to the resurrected Emperor. Little is known about the further fate of the guardsmen. It is said that they tried to seize power in some worlds of the Core, committed mass suicide, etc. It is possible that some guardsmen serve in the assault units of the Empire, others could hide in the Outer Regions.

4. Dress code

The robes of the Imperial Guard are red in color and consist of a wide cloak, helmet and armor. The flowing ceremonial cloaks were designed in such a way as not to interfere with the movements of warriors in battle. The uniforms of the Guardsmen were taken from the uniforms of the Solar Guard from Thyrsus and the Deathguard from Mandalore. These ancient associations of warriors are famous for their ferocity and courage. The brilliance of the armor of the Imperial Guard made even the most daring opponents tremble with fear. The external, ceremonial, appearance of the armor of the guards is deceptive. Although it is thin and smooth, it is far superior in strength to the armor of stormtroopers.

5. Insignia

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This abstract is based on an article from the Russian Wikipedia. Synchronization completed 07/18/11 06:21:52
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The forerunners of the Imperial Guards were those of the Senate of the Old Republic. When Palpatine became Supreme Chancellor, he created an entire order of bodyguards that answered only to him personally. The guards did not take all the people who wanted to. Most of the future guardsmen were battle-hardened fighters of the elite stormtrooper units. The Imperial Guard is the pinnacle of an Imperial stormtrooper's career. With the exception of the Emperor himself and a few of Palpatine's closest advisors, no one knew the exact number of the Guard.

File:ImperialGuard.JPG

Imperial Guard

Training Center

The training center and headquarters of the guard is located on the planet Yinhorr (eng. Yinchorr). Future soldiers of the Guard had to be tall, have excellent physical training, outstanding intelligence. Also, and most importantly, all Guardsmen must be loyal to Emperor Palpatine. Future guardsmen were subjected to a mass of tests to determine their endurance and reflexes in battle. Each new guardsman learned to fight, using two short knives with pointed blades in battle. The education and training of a guardsman lasted one standard year. The Imperial Guards fought each other in endless duels, honing and improving their skills in this way. Defeat for a guardsman, even in training, most often meant his death. Seeing the skill and strength of his partner, the Imperial Guardsman had to reach his level, and seeing his weaknesses, he had to overcome his own shortcomings. Trainings were held at the arena "Shkval". Of more than 40 candidates, only a small part of them survived to the last test in the face of Emperor Palpatine himself. In this test, candidates for the Guard had to prove their loyalty to the Emperor by fighting their partner to the death of one of them.

The training center on Yinhorr was headed by master Ved Kennede, who himself served in the guard at one time. Palpatine recognized him as one of the best warriors and honored him with becoming the senior instructor of his entire guard. The identity of the guardsman is a mystery to ordinary people. Their faces and names are known only to Emperor Palpatine and other guardsmen. According to tradition, the guardsmen called each other brothers.

Weapons and organization

The Imperial Guard has its own ranks. The best of the guardsmen are called Supreme Imperial Protectors (eng. Imperial Sovereign Protectors). Their armor looks much more ceremonial than that of the regular guardsmen, and is also decorated with ornaments. Some say that the Protectors' abilities have been enhanced by the Dark Side of the Force.

The usual weapon of the Imperial Guard is a two-meter power lance, more like a harmless addition to ceremonial armor, but in the capable hands of any of the guards of the Empire, it turns into a deadly weapon - as deadly as heavy blaster pistols hidden in the folds of red cloaks.

After the death of Emperor Palpatine, the ranks of the Guard quickly dispersed. The Rebel Alliance has long believed that virtually the entire Guard perished along with their overlord on the second Death Star. But the Imperial Guard survived. Some guardsmen followed the warlords, who became the new leaders of the Empire. The other warriors of the Guard retreated to the worlds at the center of the galaxy, only to take their place next to the resurrected Emperor. Little is known about the further fate of the guardsmen. It is said that they tried to seize power in some worlds of the Core, committed mass suicide, etc. It is possible that some guardsmen serve in the assault units of the Empire, others could hide in the Outer Regions.

Dress

Insignia

The code	Insignia	Ranks
1	-	-
2	-	-
3		General of the Guard (FG)
4	-	-
5	-	-
6		Colonel General (CG)
7		Lieutenant General (LG)
8		Major General (MG)
9		Brigadier General (BG)
10		Oberst (HC)
11		Colonel (COL)
12		Lieutenant Colonel (LC)
13		Major (MAJ)
14		Captain (CPT)
15		Lieutenant (LT)
16		Sub-lieutenant (SL)
17		Corporal (CPR)
18		Sergeant (SRG)
19		Private (PRV)
20a	-	-
20b	-	-

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The Roman emperor had personal bodyguards. Several cohorts of 1000 warriors each. They were called Praetorians. These were the only people who were allowed to be in Rome with weapons in their hands.

The army usually fought on the outskirts of the empire and the Praetorians pretty soon realized that there was no one in the capital who could resist them. Already the second Roman emperor, Tiberius, was faced with a conspiracy by the head of the Praetorian guard Sejanus, and the third, Caligula, was simply killed by conspirators led by the Praetorian tribune Cassius Hereia.

And from that moment on, not a single emperor could become one or hold his power for any long time without the support of the Praetorian Guard. Moreover: many emperors came from Praetorians.

Something similar was in Russia for almost the entire 18th century after the death of Peter the Great. The guard overthrew the Russian emperors, put others in their place, and this continued until the Decembrist uprising, which, as you know, was also an uprising of part of the guard.

Beginning with the reign of Nicholas I, who just crushed the Decembrist uprising, the authorities never allowed the guards to be omnipotent. She always had something to oppose: since then, troops and Cossacks have been stationed in the capital, the police have been strengthened, a secret investigation has been established, etc.

Since then, the supreme Russian government has always professed the principle of "divide and conquer" and never again allowed such a concentration. military force in the capital and its environs within the framework of one department.

The Bolsheviks also understood this well. Therefore, contradictions and competition between the troops of the GPU / NKVD and the army have always been inspired. And after the division of the NKVD into the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs - between them.

Suffice it to recall how much Brezhnev paid attention to keeping parity between Andropov (KGB) and Shchelokov (MVD) and never allowed either of them to take over.

Even Yeltsin, forgetting for a moment these basics of power, was about to create a monster in the form of a united KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the leadership of Barannikov, but he immediately came to his senses and abandoned this idea.

And only our wise leader Putin went to recreate the Praetorian, sorry, Russian Guard: the only serious armed forces in the capital and in the vicinity of 100 km around it. Who can oppose something to her in the capital?

Police? Not! After the internal troops and OMON were taken away from her, and they were transferred to the Russian Guard, she does not have serious forces. It is impossible to take seriously the operatives of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, armed with PM.

FSB? Where is it: from the strength of a special forces battalion ...

Army? Her main forces are far away. Much further than the Kadyrovites, who are part of the National Guard, by the way. The Kadyrovites will be in the capital on their cayennes during daylight hours: they left in the morning and in the evening they are already in Moscow. This is not counting those who are already in the capital ...

FSO? The main forces are scattered at security sites throughout Russia. I think that in Moscow no more than three or four battalions can be brought into battle.

This is against the Peresvet detachment (the former 55th division of the MVD), located right in Moscow, on the Leningradskoe highway. And a few more divisions of the Russian Guard, standing a couple of hours away from Moscow!

And if Zolotov has not yet come up with the idea that he is the only support and guard of the throne, then he has especially intelligent assistants and subordinates from Chechnya who will soon explain this to him. If not already explained.

And if so, this means that he, Zolotov, the head of the emperor's Praetorian Guard, can demand from Putin much greater privileges and consideration of opinion than it is now.

And what can Putin object to him when he points the barrel at him? Ask, as in your favorite joke: "What time is it?" Hehe… Security, as they say, quickly turns into an escort…

Zolotov himself, judging by what they say about him, frankly speaking, is not an intellectual. And it is unlikely that he will dopret before this. But it is precisely because of this position that he is in Moscow in a certain vacuum of communication.

It is clear that the leadership of others law enforcement agencies- also not Schopenhauers, but their self-esteem does not allow them to seriously communicate with a man who, as his former boss Korzhakov (who hired him from locksmiths) says, "forgot the letters."

And that's what I think ... Here is his "challenge to a duel" Navalny. This is a purely Chechen approach: "Let's go out and talk like a man to a man." Russian generals don't behave like that. Especially in relation to those arrested ...

The vacuum of communication was filled by Zolotov with glorious Chechen fans of MMA, masters of pankration, broken ears and stabbing. This is their code of honor. It was in front of them that he considered himself humiliated, slandered, and according to their rules, this insult can only be washed away by scuffle ...

Characteristically, the first (and so far the only!) official who supported Zolotov on this issue was Ramzan Kadyrov.

But, unlike Zolotov, Kadyrov, Delimkhanov and Daudov are smart, experienced guys with colossal endurance and deceit. The Chechens have not forgiven the Russians for anything. Neither the 19th century, nor the Stalinist deportation, nor the two Chechen wars in our time. No need for illusions.

And I cannot be particularly worried about this, being myself, in some way, a victim of a similar deportation. In a sense, I understand this mood of theirs ...

And why, in fact, could a Georgian rule over the Russian people, but a Chechen cannot? Anyone can rule these people. Even Putin.

Chapter 1
Horde

1.1. Who are the Mongols and Tatars?

L. Gumilyov writes: “According to the testimonies of contemporaries, the Mongols were a tall, bearded, fair-haired and blue-eyed people.” The Steel Emperor himself ("Genghis Khan") "... was very tall, with a large forehead and a long beard".

In the "Church-Historical Dictionary", published in late XIX century, edited by Archpriest L. Petrov, it says: "The Mongols are the same as the Tatars - the Ugric tribe, the inhabitants of Siberia, the ancestors of the Hungarians, the founders of Ugric or Hungarian Russia, inhabited by Rusyns." For a long time, historians simply ignored this information because they could not understand it. From the point of view of the doctrine of Eurocentrism that prevailed in the past, this information looks ridiculous. However, if we get rid of false political attitudes and accept that the names "Mongols", "Tatars", "Ugrians" ("Huns") belong to the Cossacks (Scythians) - the ancestors of the modern Russian people - everything falls into place.

The specified dictionary, the reliability and authority of which has never been disputed by anyone, also contains other important information for us: “The Rosses, a Varangian tribe, lived in southern Russia; with Byzantium they either did trade or fought. From them, they say, St. Cyril borrowed the letters. Thus, summarizing all the above data into one whole, we come to the conclusion that it is the Scythian-Cossacks who are the direct ancestors of the modern Russian people, nicknamed the "Varangians", who inhabited the territory from ancient times. modern Russia, including the southern one, are the primary source of the modern Russian language and alphabet!

The history of the Russian people has not been interrupted since the prehistoric era and goes back many thousands of years. And all this time, the Russian people lived on their ancestral lands - on the territory of modern Russia, which until the 17th century was called "Scythia" or "Scythia" on Western European maps and in scientific encyclopedias. Great Tartary».

As follows from the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1771, on the site of present-day Russia there was a huge country, the provinces of which were of different sizes. The largest area of this empire was called "Great Tartaria" and covered the lands of Western and Eastern Siberia and the Far East. In the southeast, it adjoined the "Chinese Tartary" (Chinese Tartary). To the south of the "Great Tartary" there was the so-called "Independent Tartary" in Central Asia. "Tibetan Tartaria" (Tibet) was located southwest of the "Chinese Tartaria". In the north of modern India was the "Mongolian Tartaria" (Mogul Empire). "Uzbek Tartaria" (Bukaria) was sandwiched between "Independent Tartaria" in the north, "Chinese Tartaria" in the northeast, "Tibetan Tartaria" in the southeast, "Mongolian Tartaria" in the south and Persia (Persia) in the southwest . In Europe, there were also several Tartaria: “Muscovy”, or “Moscow Tartaria” (Muscovite Tartary), “Kuban Tartaria” (Kuban Tartars) and “Little Tartaria” (Little Tartary) on the site of the future Little Russia. As you can see, all these were regions of a single country that had a thousand-year tradition and in the 20th century almost completely recovered within its historical borders under a new name - the USSR.

1.2. Mono-ethnic composition of the troops of the "Golden Horde"

We have a sufficient amount of data on the ethnic composition of the Golden Horde armed forces in the period of the XIV-XVI centuries.

The mono-ethnic composition of the horde army under the Grand Duke Uz (from his name the Russian surnames Uzov, Uzin, Uzkov, etc. originated), who ruled in 1313-1341, can be characterized from the words of el-Omari: “The Sultan of the Golden Horde Uzbek rati Circassians, Russians and Yasses. These are residents of well-maintained, crowded cities and forested, prolific mountains. They grow sown grain, livestock and produce fruits.

According to Sheref-ad-Din Yezidi, the Horde army under Tokhtamysh in 1388 looked like this: “A fairly large army gathered from the Russians, Circassians, Bulgars, Kipchaks, Alans, Crimea with Kafa and Azak, Bashkirs.”

Let's bring full list these supposedly "tribes and peoples", from which there was a mobilization into the army-horde:

1) Russians,

2) Alans (Ases, Yases),

3) Eastern Cumans (called Rashid ad-Din and Yezidi "Kipchaks"),

4) Magyar Hungarians,

5) Bulgars (future Kazan Tatars),

6) Circassians,

7) population of Crimea,

8) Bashkirs,

It should be noted that all of the above authors adhered to a single position, referring Russians, Yass-Alans, Cumans-Kipchaks, Hungarians-Huns, Bulgars, Circassians to one large Scythian people with a common cultural tradition. The allocation of these groups occurs only on a territorial or religious basis. Thus, the messages are primarily about the geography of the settlement of this single people and their religion, and not about different ethnic groups or tribes. The Scythian-Cossacks in these sources are listed according to their place of origin, residence and beliefs at that time, as they were drafted into the ranks of the armed forces of the horde troops. M. Mekhovsky writes about the Circassians: “Further south there are still some remnants of the Circassians (Circassorum). This is a very wild and warlike people, Russian in origin and language. Armenian sources also report that the army of the horde was made up of Russians, Cumans (Polovtsy) and Cherkasy (Cossacks). And all of them, according to the authors, were Scythians.

For Western European authors, the Russian people have always remained "Tartars" - Scythians. However, we do not find the term "Tartar" among Eastern researchers - instead, the same people are often called "Rus". Western Europeans always put a purely negative meaning into the name tartar and made this name itself synonymous with the word “hell”: “So that the joy of mortals would not be eternal, so that they would not stay for a long time in worldly fun without groaning, in that year people were satanically cursed, namely, countless hordes of tartars , suddenly appeared from his terrain, surrounded by mountains, breaking through the solidity of motionless stones, coming out like demons liberated from Tartarus (which is why they are called tartars, as if "[immigrants] from Tartarus") ".

It is not surprising that, following the European authors, the Russian Eurocentric historical tradition proper began to use the name "Tartar" in a purely negative context, leaving this common name only for those descendants of the Cossacks who did not accept the Christian faith. At the suggestion of European researchers of the 18th century, the opinion was initially established that there was one human race on earth - the white ("yellow" and "black", according to the ideas of these "great scientists" were not full-fledged races), which in turn is divided into "pure - beautiful - creative", which originated in Western Europe, and "impure - destructive", formed on the territory of modern Russia by mixing with Asians. This misanthropic doctrine passed into the "history of Russia", which, unfortunately, is still being studied in our schools. Through the pages of textbooks, in illustrated fairy tales, feature films and animated films, in the paintings of artists, the mythical hordes of Asian Mongoloids, necessarily terrifying in appearance, have been jumping ever since - ugly, evil, incomprehensible and undeveloped, destroying everything in their path. And according to this tradition, they are opposed by the civilized inhabitants of Western Europe, in particular, and the Slavic tribes, who allegedly were enslaved for three hundred years by this " evil spirit". In the first, still Miller's edition of the "History of Russia", the main positive "heroes" were the Germans (since it was they who wrote the history of the state), who came to the lands of the Slavs, on the territory of modern Ukraine and Belarus (Kievan Rus), and, having trained the local supposedly wild tribes of civilization, gave them their own name "Rus". The question immediately arises: why has our language not been German or Swedish since then? In the 19th century, when the inconsistency of this theory became obvious, additional historical heaps appeared: they say, the Norman Varangians, perhaps, came from Scandinavia - and this seems to be not quite Germans. The Slavophiles went even further and came up with the idea that the "civilizers" were their own nationalities - some kind of "Baltic Slavs". But in general, the main idea remained unchanged: the Russians are a purely European people, who descended from Slavic tribes that originated somewhere in central Europe, and have nothing to do with the terrible Scythians. This absurd attempt to hide its true history by any means in Europe itself has always aroused a smile, because there they never doubted who the Russians were and where they came from. And just as “our” modern racists from history invent images of half-devils, half-savages, for some reason necessarily with Asian features, from the time of the mythical “Tatar-Mongol yoke”, this is exactly how, distortedly, Western Europeans imagine modern Russians.

1.3. The myth of the "Tatar-Mongol yoke"

Perhaps the authors of the multi-volume historical works of the past, devoted to the resettlement of the Cossacks of the Central Horde (under the code name "Kalmyks"), were honestly mistaken, describing them as a small Mongoloid ethnic group of peaceful nomadic shepherds. This could be due to the lack of historical knowledge accumulated by that time, in connection with which the proposed hypotheses did not correlate with the real scale of the events taking place. But we should not forget that these authors were influenced by ideas about such a fantastic "historical monster" as the "Tatar-Mongol yoke". “Kalmyks” and “Mongols” are different historical names of the same ethnic group, and they called themselves Cossacks or Aryans (distorted versions of “Oirats”, “Arats”, “Ariats” have survived to this day). Cossacks is the only correct name for this people. This people has always been Caucasoid and remains so to this day, now called the "Russian people." Until the second half of XVIII For centuries, Caucasoid Cossacks inhabited vast expanses of the Eurasian continent from the Black Sea to the Yellow River. The population of the Mongoloid racial type appeared massively in modern Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan only after the occupation of these ancestral lands of Caucasoid Cossacks by the troops of Qing China and the transfer of a multi-million population from China to these territories. The history of the Cossacks, who settled Russia in the 17th century and founded the Volga (Kalmyk) army in the south of Russia, is inextricably linked with the history of the Mongols of the 13th century and the founding of the world empire of the Steel Emperor from the Blue-eyed (Borjigids) family. This circumstance is the key to understanding the events of the 17th century and the history of Russia and the Russian people as a whole.

The myth of the "Tatar-Mongol yoke" is rooted in the theory of such European scientists as S. Morton, J. Nott, J. Gliddon, who, despite their undeniable scientific achievements, unfortunately, were subject to racism in its most extreme and disgusting manifestations. The creators of “Russian history” were also under pressure from their strongest scientific authority: G. F. Miller, G. Z. Bayer, A. L. Schletser and other “scientific Germans”. They were specially invited to the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences to write a new history with generous funding and on the political order of the ruling German dynasty of Holstein-Gottorp - the House of Romanov. A private fantasy, called the "Tatar-Mongol yoke", within the framework of the broader doctrine of Eurocentrism, proceeds from the presence of two opposing principles: the European (beautiful, creative) force of peace and goodness and the hostile Asian (ugly and destructive) force of death and darkness . A race called "Mongol-Tatars" was chosen for the role of the latter, which allegedly captured the vast expanses of Russia, surging from the unknown depths of Asia, establishing a yoke and discarding the enslaved peoples in development for centuries ago. All sorts of vices, bloodthirstiness and a pathological craving for the destruction of everything around were attributed to these mythical "Tatar-Mongols", as opposed to the noble mission of the Europeans - to create good things and enlighten the rest of the world.

The "ugly appearance" of these mythical "Asiatics" was described in the same way. Somewhat later, the real type of the modern Mongoloid race, which at that time was called "yellow", was adjusted to their image. The catchphrase "scratch any Russian - you will find a Tatar" is well known, said by one of the European scientists - researchers of Russia. It was understood that inside any Russian, who only looks like a European, there is a “tartar from Tartarus-Hell” hiding - a destructive, ugly force of chaos that opposes the European creative principle. Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882), in his On the Inequality of the Races (1853), tried to explain the superiority of white Europeans over all other peoples by biological and genetic "predestination." He also said that only a certain circle of people of the superior race is its true representative. These ideas were supported by the world-famous scientists E. Haeckel and F. Galton, who tried to substantiate them scientifically. Under the dictates of the same utopian ideology of Eurocentrism, another postulate was formulated: the homeland of the “white” race is Europe. And Asia and, in particular, Russia (Asia in the views of European scientists began from the borders of modern Ukraine) was proclaimed the source of everything destructive and terrible.

Although racial theories in their extreme forms are a thing of the past, their basis, including their attitude towards Russia, has remained the same. Perhaps, in the 21st century, the time has finally come to get rid of the theories of opposition, which literally permeate the scientific European thought of the past and present. In the entire history of mankind, the race now called "Mongoloid" has never opposed the Caucasoid race militarily, politically or in any other way, has not seized any land by force. Outside their original habitat, in particular beyond the borders of China, they were forced to move exclusively as labor migrants. Perhaps there are no more peaceful, hardworking and law-abiding people on earth than representatives of the Mongoloid race.

The world power of the Steel Emperor was created by the Caucasoid Cossacks, who originated on the territory of modern Russia and still live on their own land to this day. The whole history of civil and religious conflicts and self-destruction of this great empire- this is the result of internal contradictions among the Cossacks themselves and military clashes between their armies-hordes. Attempts to find the culprits in the mythical "Asian hordes of the Tatar-Mongols" and shift the responsibility to some "Mongoloid" conquerors are immoral, unhistorical and have initially false racial motives.

While a large-scale internecine conflict flared up among the Cossacks, which eventually led to the isolation of many regions and the formation of new small peoples of Russia, the inhabitants of Western Europe remained on the sidelines. In a relatively calm region (in relation to the rest of the Eurasian continent), all those who wanted peace and tried to stay away from the devastating fire rushed civil war. First of all, these were merchants and entrepreneurs, carriers of a special worldview, which we now know as the liberal ideology of capitalism. In the conditions of decentralization and the war of all against all, these European businessmen were left to their own devices. Having created quite effective self-governing city-states, and later the first capitalist republic - the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands - they gradually changed the political landscape of Europe.

What does the brief history of "Muscovy", invented by the Romanov writer Miller, have to do with the true chronicle of the existence of our state?

The history of Russia is the history of the emergence and development of the Russian people, called Scythians in antiquity and divided according to religious principles in the 16th-17th centuries into Muslims, Orthodox and Buddhists. Then, from the rest of the surviving Cossacks - the ancestors of the Russian people - various small ethnic groups separated and gradually took shape.

Russian culture and the tradition of military communist democracy reached the beginning of the 20th century in the form of free Cossack troops, and then took shape in the state - the USSR. It was a barracks country with a warrior people. Tsars - military leaders and atamans - were always only elected, although the electoral procedure was sometimes observed only formally. The most important issues were resolved by a collegial governing body - the Cossack Circle. Therefore, the slogan of the beginning of the 20th century “All power to the Soviets!” was not empty at all - this is the formula of historical culture and tradition that has existed in Russia-Scythia for thousands of years. The Cossack Circle is the council at which the assembled Cossacks approved or disapproved of the political line pursued by the central government or the ataman (leadership). This scheme of power is fundamentally different from the Western European model. This is a different democracy - a communist, military type. From the point of view of a Western European, this is not democracy at all, but totalitarianism with formal signs of approval by the people, but without a real opportunity to choose. However, for us, the political regime in the countries of Western Europe is nothing more than a set of tricks and electoral tricks, riddled with deceit and behind-the-scenes deals. This mutual rejection manifests the difference in our mentalities, rooted in the depths of our genotype. In principle, the ideal models of social order in the views of a warrior and a merchant cannot coincide, and attempts to impose their models of democracy on each other and force them to live by their own rules will not end in anything good. It is for this reason that the international policy of the USSR was doomed to failure, and the modern foreign policy of the United States also seems unpromising.

1.4. Turks

“Turks” is a term synonymous with the word “Cossacks”, which means “warriors” in translation. The Scythians began to be called Turks even before the adoption of Islam. Immediately after the Scythian-Hunnic empire of Attila, the time of the “Eternal El” begins, that is, the era of the same Scythian state, but under the rule of another noble Cossack family - the Yasinov (in the Chinese reading “Yaashina” or “Ashina”), who named themselves and their subjects "Turks", that is, "victorious warriors". In the Turkic Empire, all religions were equal, but by the 9th century, a third of the noble Cossack families had already become Muslims. In the XIII-XIV centuries, in the era of the Empire of the Steel Emperor, when the Yasin dynasty - "Clear" ("Shining") - was replaced by the "Blue-eyed" ("Borji-guides") dynasty, the Turks, called by many authors "Tartars" or " Polovtsy", still retained their Aryan genotype.

The modern descendants of the Cossacks, called "Turkic peoples", are characterized by Mongoloid and Negroid genetic characteristics. These racial differences are explained by the fact that after the religious split of the 16th-17th centuries, the Cossacks, who retained their early medieval name "Turks", remained in the southern, richer part of the world power of the Steel Emperor and very quickly assimilated with the predominant local, non-Cossack population. This was facilitated by Islam, which proclaimed all equal and did not allow caste barriers or the preservation of "blood purity". This is how the “memory” of all modern Turkic peoples that they were once white Aryans is explained, although outwardly and according to the genotype this is far from being the case. No one wrote the history of the conquered peoples - the victorious Cossacks created only their own. Ironically, this written history of the Cossacks was inherited by the conquered peoples, in which the genes of the Cossacks were dissolved almost without a trace.

1.5. Mission and ideology of the Horde

If you believe the vaults of Yasa (translated as “law” or “code”), the surviving evidence of the “Blue-eyed” (“Genghisids”) themselves and research data, the goal of the Horde was to the highest degree noble: putting things in order, establishing inter-religious peace and justice throughout the world.

G. Vernadsky in the book “Mongols and Russia” noted: “The Mongol Emperors waged their wars with the obvious goal of achieving universal peace and international stability. In the event of achieving this goal, the price of the security of mankind was the constant service to the state of each and all; this was to establish order of life and social equality. The rich will serve the state as well as the poor; and the poor must be protected from injustice and exploitation by the rich.”

Armenian historian Gregory Akantsu argues that the basis of Yasa's law was "respect for the old and the poor". Ibn al Atir says that the Mongols were only cruel to the rich. The basis for understanding the nature of imperial power was clearly expressed in the letters of the first great rulers of the world state of the Steel Emperor to the leaders of the powers of the West.

As an example, Guyuk's letter to the Pope (1246), brought to Europe by the monk John de Plano Carpini, and Möngke's letter to Saint Louis (1254), delivered by the monk Williams from Rubruk, as well as Möngke's edict, supplementing his message .

Möngke's letter to King Louis IX is only known in Latin. The accompanying edict set the general legal formula upon which the international documents of the heirs of the Steel Emperor were to be based. As Eric Voegelin points out, this formula comes from Yasa.

Letter: Per virtutem eterni Dei, per magnum mundum Moallorum, preceptum Mangu chan.

V English translation VV Rockhill documents read as follows.

Edict: “[This is] the command of the Eternal God. In Heaven there is only one eternal God, and on Earth there is only one ruler, Genghis Khan, the Son of God. This is what you've been told."

Letter: “Through the virtue of the eternal God, through the great world of the Mongols. This is the word of Möngke Khan.”

On the basis of these documents and other letters of the Mongolian monarchs of this period, it is possible to establish a hierarchy of three main elements of the concept of power: God - the Eternal Sky, the Steel Emperor (the founder of the world empire) bestowed on people and the current ruler - the heir to the Steel Emperor.

The Mongol Empire, in the understanding of its rulers, was God's instrument for establishing order on earth. As Eric Voegelin says: “The Khan bases his claim to rule over the world on the Divine Order to which he himself is subject. He has only a right derived from the Divine Order, but he acts in accordance with duty.

Feeling himself an instrument of God, the Mongol emperor, in addressing his enemies, does not brag about the strength of the army, but simply refers to the will of the Almighty. The Great Yasa of the Steel Emperor recommended the following formula: “If you resist, what can we know from our side? The eternal God knows what will happen to you.” It was this form that Guyuk Khan used in his letter to the pope. Even if, in fact, some nations did not recognize the power of the Mongols, then legally, from the point of view of the heirs of the Steel Emperor, all states on planet Earth were still their subjects. In accordance with this principle, in their letters to the pontiff and kings, the supreme leaders of the Cossacks insisted that the Western rulers recognize themselves as vassals of the Steel Emperor and his descendants.

It is quite obvious that the Empire of the Steel Emperor had a powerful ideological base and united around a central doctrine. This ideology was shared by both the elite and the entire population of each autonomous Cossack horde that was part of the empire. The main idea was not invented by the Steel Emperor - it was formed before him and is still part of the Russian mentality, clearly manifesting itself in the messianism of the Russian-Soviet people of the 20th century. However, the most striking historical evidence remained precisely from the time of the Steel Emperor, who systematized and formulated the ideology of the scientific order, described in the book - the code of laws, and called "Yasa".

In fact, this doctrine boiled down to the following: the entire world, without exception, is the responsibility of the Cossack people, that is, the Horde is the army of the world, and any injustice in any part of the world directly and directly concerns the Steel Emperor and the Cossack people as a whole. In our time, a similar situation developed with the communist ideology. Soviet Union, which had the same messianic meaning of supreme justice, which was to triumph on the entire planet. Thus, we see that the dominant and truly state idea was embedded in the genes of the Russian people from the time of their inception, when our people were still called Scythians, and before that - Aryans. During the era of the Steel Emperor, this doctrine was scientifically described and actively introduced into everyday life. She was guided by all those close to the ruler, the elite of the empire and all the Cossacks up to the rank and file. Russian Cossacks of the 17th and 18th centuries, just like their distant ancestors, went on military campaigns with the confidence that they rightfully take for themselves what God himself has given them, and thus establish divine order in the world.

Letters from Mongol emperors have been preserved testifying to their faith. Here, for example, is an excerpt from a letter sent on November 11, 1246 by the great Emperor Guyuk to Pope Innocent IV:

“The words of the ruler, who became the khan of the great people by the will of the Eternal Sky… By the will of God, all territories from East to West are under our rule. If it were not for the will of God, how could this happen? Now you must say with all your heart: we will be your subjects, we will give you our strength. You, in person, at the head of kings, all together and without exception, must come to us, offer your service and pay respect ... And if you do not obey the will of God, then you will become our enemies.

Rubruk quotes a letter from the Great Khan Möngke to Saint Louis, written in 1254:

“This is the commandment of the eternal God. There is only one God in heaven and only one master on earth, Genghis Khan ... When, by the will of the Eternal Heaven, the whole world, from the very east, where the sun rises, to the very west, where it sets, will be united in joy and peace, then it will be clear what we have to do."

Rubruk witnessed another interesting statement by Möngke: "We Mongols believe that there is only one God ... He gave man many fingers, and in the same way he gave him many ways." What is meant here is that God has given humanity many religions to find its way to.

To all subjects, without exception, from senior officials and chieftains to the rank and file, the Steel Emperor and the institutions of power he created made very strict moral requirements, comparable to the “code of an aristocrat” or “communist code”. The fact is that in the Cossack empire, in fact, everyone was an elite, even simple warriors, and everyone was equal to each other. There is a persistent delusion that the aristocracy is the ruling class in the states of past eras, which was formed directly from the peoples inhabiting them. In fact, the aristocracy was formed on a global scale almost exclusively in the territory historical Russia and only as a result of campaigns in adjacent territories and the construction of states in these principalities, kingdoms and empires did the Cossacks become an elite. Thus, the segregation of society took place: the population living on the conquered lands played the role of productive forces, and the Cossacks - the builders of the new state - were the aristocracy and bearers of a special creative ideology of state building. At the same time, their code of conduct, outlook on life, mentality remained the same (communist) until they assimilated with the local population to such an extent that they lost the moral code embedded in them. As a result of natural assimilation, the genetic foundations were lost, the aristocracy degenerated and degraded, then a new wave of Cossacks came, which military force swept away the old elite and completely replaced it, thereby reviving the Code of the Aristocrat. This was typical for the Ottoman and Qing empires, the Mughal empire, and before that - for all countries of the world without exception. Of course, there was a center of such a social phenomenon in which there was no division into classes, because in the Horde everyone was by birthright aristocrats and there simply were no other classes, with the exception of an extremely small group of invited hired workers - foreigners (no more than 5% of the number Cossacks). We can say that the world elite was structured according to the geographical principle. From the point of view of the Steel Emperor and his predecessors, the world was not divided into independent territories - states. There was no such thing as a "sovereign state" in the modern sense of the word until the formation of the bourgeois powers. The Steel Emperor and his predecessors considered a segregated geographic model. There was a global center inhabited by the aristocracy - the Horde - and the periphery, which were more densely populated and consisted of productive forces, that is, labor resources - from the common population in need of patronage, protection and the establishment of a fair order. It was precisely such protection that the Horde-Army provided, in which everyone lived according to communist rules and were equal among themselves. Authority in such a society was based solely on military achievements and valor, which guaranteed a special attitude towards the hero. This Code of the aristocrat and hero was a kind of charter of life and activity for the entire Cossack society within any of the hordes and for each Cossack separately.

Prince N. Trubetskoy describes the Steel Emperor and his associates in the following words:

“A special code always lives in their minds, a charter of actions that are permissible and unacceptable for an honest and self-respecting person; they value this charter most of all, treating it religiously, as divinely established, and they cannot allow its violation, because if it were violated, they would despise themselves, which for them worse than death. Respecting themselves, they respect others who keep the same inner charter.<…>A person of the type under consideration is always aware of himself as a part of a certain hierarchical system and is ultimately subordinate not to a person, but to God.<…>Genghis Khan himself belonged to this type of people. Even after he defeated everyone and everything and became the unlimited ruler of the most enormous state that ever existed on earth, he continued to constantly vividly feel and realize his complete subordination to the highest will and look at himself as an instrument in the hands of God.

Loyal and wild. The legend of the Varangian Guard tells of warriors descended from the Vikings who traveled to Constantinople in search of wealth and glory starting from the 10th century to serve the Byzantine emperors. Military experience and an oath of allegiance made them the most intimidating warriors of that time, for which some rulers - like Basil II - brought them closer to themselves. Like no one else. The Varangians had to cross their axes even with the crusaders, who during the fourth crusade laid siege to the richest city in the world at that time.

Meanwhile, the Varangian guards were the embodiment of not only loyalty and courage. Their reputation was somewhat undermined by the fact that they drank to unconsciousness (for which they were nicknamed "the emperor's wine barrels"), did not get out of the city brothels and played to smithereens on the hippodromes in anticipation of the next campaign. In general, they were real Vikings who performed a wide variety of functions - from police officers in peacetime to heavy infantry in wartime.

“The last battle in which the Varangian guard is mentioned is the battle of Pelagonia in 1259 during the wars between the “fragments” of the Byzantine Empire (countries formed as a result of the division of its territory by the crusaders). Although their detachments will exist until the Ottoman conquest in 1453, but already with purely ceremonial functions, ”says ABC, Rouge Loscertales, secretary of the Heirs of History cultural association, which deals with historical reconstructions of the era when these warriors fought in the service of Byzantium .

Origin

What is the true origin of the Varangians? There are several theories on this. Authors such as Carlos Canales and Miguel Del Rey in their last book(“Northern Demons. Viking Expeditions”) argue that, despite the common name, the Vikings came from different places: “They had different origins, but used the same language to communicate with each other - Old Norse. The terms "Rus" and "Varangians" became synonymous, applied to all "northern warriors" without distinction.

Professor of History Maria Isabel Cabrera-Ramos, author of The Varangians in Constantinople: The Origin, Rise, and Epigones of the Mercenary Guard, explores the roots of this phenomenon by placing it in 9th-century Eastern Europe. She believes that these were Russian merchants who inhabited Sweden, who in the region of the 9th century left the shores of the Varangian Sea and descended into the steppes in search of furs and slaves. “There they traded, piracy and served as mercenaries for decades,” she writes in her study.

But besides this, the Varangians founded their own small state, having previously conquered the surrounding settlements. And then they began to improve relations with Constantinople. This is stated by Professor Michel Alain Ducelier in the book “The Near Medieval East”: “Toward the middle of the 9th century, Russian traders appeared in Constantinople, in other words, the Varangians who crossed Eastern Europe along Lakes Ladoga and Onega to arrive in the capital of the Empire” . “This path connected the Byzantine Empire with the northern countries,” the expert adds.

At first, the Varangians did not draw their swords and used this route to trade with Constantinople. But gradually a thirst for profit took possession of them, and in 860 they besieged the city and, although they were defeated, managed to make a frightening impression on its defenders.

Patriarch Photius of Constantinople described the attack of these soldiers as follows: “The people living somewhere far away from us, barbaric, nomadic, proud of their weapons, unexpected, unnoticed, without military art, so menacingly and so quickly rushed to our borders, like a sea wave and exterminated dwelling on this earth, like the wild beast on the grass, or the reeds, or the harvest. One could see how babies, torn from the nipples, were deprived of milk and life itself, and a ready-made coffin for them were, alas, those rocks on which they were smashed, and mothers sobbed pitifully and were stabbed together with those torn and trembling before death. babies. In the rivers, water turned into blood, springs and reservoirs were littered with dead bodies. This was one of the first contacts between the two civilizations, which can hardly be called harmonious.

In the following decades, however, many of our heroes, without hesitation, decided to make money by hiring themselves as defenders of the very capital that they had previously tried to conquer. In the end, they have already won the glory of cruel and bloody warriors. According to Velasco, before the creation of the Watch, 425 northerners were already in the Byzantine mercenaries during the expedition to the Italian peninsula, and 692 - in the expedition to Crete. Thus, relations between both peoples gradually strengthened, and the Vikings showed their fighting abilities even brighter.

Arrival in Constantinople

Historians Julián Donado Vara and Ana Echevarria Arsuaga ("Medieval History I: V-XII centuries") argue that the Varangian Guard owes its origin to a curious international pact of the late tenth century. Then Basil II finally settled on the throne of the Byzantine Empire and was considered "the highest authority of the civilized world." This title, however, did not prevent numerous rulers of a smaller caliber from going to him with weapons to take away power.

The title of emperor, untold riches and an impressive army did not help, and Vasily had to turn to the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir I for help. This prince was famous for two things. First, he was baptized in 987 (according to other sources, between 988 and 989). Secondly, by his cruelty, because he executed and killed right and left without the slightest reason, just to inspire horror in his subjects.

Despite the controversial nature of this character, Basil II turned to him for help to suppress the unrest that threatened his empire. And he got it, although not for free. Alejandro Muñoz says in his book "The Tsars of Russia": "The Kiev prince was able to help the Byzantine, but in return he demanded the hand of Princess Anna, the sister of Emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII."

Byzantium responded with a decisive refusal. At least at first. But when a citizen of Kiev decided to turn to the true God (in the form of Orthodox Christianity), everything changed dramatically. So much so that the wedding was played, and both rulers entered into an unshakable alliance. To reinforce him, Kiev sent about 6,000 soldiers to Constantinople in order to “repel the constant raids of the powerful landowners of Asia Minor,” as he explains in his work “ Short story Vikings" writer and expert on the history of the northern peoples Manuel Velasco Laguna.

Cabrera-Ramos is a supporter of the version that the Varangians quickly occupied a special position in Constantinople. Not only because of the legendary cruelty of the Vikings (although because of it too), but also because, coming from distant lands, they had no connection with the treacherous local nobility. All this added to their once again legendary devotion. "Basil II was the first who trusted these "Scythians" more than the Greeks," the researcher writes. From the moment they arrived in the city until the 13th century, their number fluctuated between 5,000 and 6,000, although later it was reduced to negligible numbers.

personal guard

The decisive role of the Varangians in defeating the enemies of Basil II, as well as their subsequent assistance in expanding the boundaries of Constantinople, became the reasons why the emperor elevated the guard to the rank of an elite army. This was partly due to their loyalty and courage, but to a large extent also the fact that they had no personal or political ties with the unreliable metropolitan "bigwigs" who thought more about seizing power as soon as the opportunity presented itself than about the service homeland.

Although the guard was formed by Basil II, one of its curious characteristics was that the soldiers took an oath of allegiance not to a specific emperor, but to the imperial title, as Velasco recalls. This distinguishing feature made them ideal soldiers in the imperial service, because when one ruler died, they automatically passed into the jurisdiction of the next. “That is why they did not take part in the endless strife and struggle for power in the Byzantine court,” the expert adds. However, over the two centuries of its existence, this army several times betrayed the one to whom it promised unconditional protection.

Del Rey and Canales specify that the Varangians "accompanied the emperor in all movements and military campaigns" as "an elite personal guard." In the same capacity, they participated in public ceremonies in the capital and guarded key city sites (as the residence of the emperor). Thus, gradually, they won the reputation of his most devoted servants.

At the same time, 6 thousand warriors of the Varangian guards performed a huge number of functions. Chief among them was the protection of the emperor in the palace. In addition, they were responsible for the inviolability of members of the imperial family and the treasury, as well as for the safety of the ruler in battle "by forming a real human shield around him" (writes Velasco). The guards could act as advanced heavy infantry during battles, as well as carry out police functions in Constantinople. Plus, small units of the Varangians were used to “hunt for pirates” on the high seas, as “special forces”, spies, and even to “demonstrate strength in the face of subjects or foreign envoys,” as Carrera-Ramos notes.

For practical purposes, the guards were divided into "urban Varangians", who worked in the capital, and "outsiders", who performed tasks outside of it. Carrera-Ramos describes the structure of the unit as follows: “The soldiers subordinated to their immediate commander of the detachment, who received orders from the “heteriarch” and “akoluf” (head of the detachment of foreign mercenaries in the imperial guard), who did not have to be a Varangian. In addition, the title of the “great translator of the Varangians” is also known by name.

Good reputation

The reason why the Varangians decided to join the personal guards of Vasily II is now, centuries later, obvious: glory and gold. The grateful emperor for devotion and courage gave them a salary worthy of a noble person in that era, and also provided best weapon. And not only so that they fought well, but also with the aim of impressing their subjects with the brilliant appearance of their guards. “The appearance of these mercenaries made an impression even on the Byzantines, who were accustomed to watching them on the walls and streets of the city. Both the ferocious expression of their faces and their bulging eyes burning with rage, as well as the weapons, were shocking, ”adds the author.

The income that the warriors of the Varangian guard could count on was so high that other princes and other noble Vikings traveled half the world to Constantinople in order to enter the service of the emperor there, make a fortune and return to their native lands with gold and glory. Canales and Del Rey write about it this way: “Serving in the Varangian Guard was an honor for thousands of Vikings. This opened the way for them to wealth, respect and fame. Both ordinary soldiers and princes and future kings sought to get into it.

The same opinion is shared by Cabrera-Ramos and Velasco. Cabrera-Ramos points out that "the fact of serving in the ranks of the Varangian Guard was considered truly honorable and served as an example for the rest" to such an extent that it was necessary to control the outflow of young people abroad. Velasco writes that the salary was "huge" and included spoils of war. Few historians are surprised that hundreds of soldiers were heading to Constantinople. After all, in addition to certain wealth and the desired reputation of the Varangians, an exotic and promised city awaited, where they were revered (almost) as heroes.

Revelry and drunkenness

With its legendary origin, exotic appearance and luxurious military equipment, the Varangian guards were the talk of the town. But, as they say, not all that glitters is gold - and the mighty northern warriors had flaws. Their exorbitant salaries allowed them to spend huge sums on earthly pleasures. So, for example, in city taverns they got drunk to unconsciousness, for which they were nicknamed "the emperor's wine barrels." “Many chronicles of that time describe Varangian drinking,” adds Varela.

Cabrera-Ramos even reports that the excessive drinking of his compatriots put to shame such prominent figures as the Danish king Eric I, who visited Constantinople in the 12th century. However, drunkenness was not the main entertainment of the Varangians. They literally did not get out of the city brothels and hippodromes. Cabrera-Ramos confirms this in his study: "They had a certain propensity for rowdy parties, brothels, horse races and drinking."

Against the crusaders

The Varangian Guard fought for the Emperors of Constantinople until the 13th century. Then her warriors were gradually replaced by the Anglo-Saxons. The most common theory claims that this happened after the almost complete defeat of the Varangians at the Battle of Manzikert.

This battle, which took place in 1071, was a serious test for the Byzantine Empire. “It was a complete and decisive defeat of Constantinople, anticipating its fall four centuries later,” says Francisco Veiga in The Turks: Ten Centuries at the Gates of Europe (Atril ed.). That day, powerful Varangian axes could not stop the onslaught of the Seljuks. Emperor Roman IV himself was captured after a horse was killed under him.

The renewed Varangian Guard had to defend Constantinople from the Christian army during the Fourth Crusade. Initially, the crusaders were not going to enter the capital of the empire on the way to Jerusalem. But when Emperor Alexei II offered them untold riches for help in returning the throne, the knights accepted the offer and appeared in front of the walls of the city. With luck, they would have received a hefty sum of money that would have helped them achieve their ultimate goal - to recapture the Holy City from the Muslims.

In 1203, the Varangian guards entered their most significant battle. Here is how Hans Eberhard Mayer puts it in his History of the Crusades (Istmo ed.). “Some time after the arrival of the crusaders launched an offensive against Constantinople. On July 17, 1203, they attacked the city from land and sea, which was saved thanks to the British and Danes from the Varangian guard. Despite this, the stoic defense of the city yielded nothing. Alexei III, who reigned then, preferred to escape, saving his life, than to continue participating in the battle. In the end, the invaders stormed the walls of the city on April 12, 1204, and a day later the capital was completely in their power.

And then the crusaders gave vent to themselves to roam. “For three months, indescribable murders and robberies took place in the city,” the author of the book writes. Violence and cruelty reigned all around, which did not spare either the Orthodox Christians of Constantinople or their treasuries.

“Western knights seized priceless relics, which were in abundance in the Byzantine capital, arguing that they could not remain in the hands of schismatics,” writes Jacques Le Goff in An Argumented Dictionary of the Medieval West (ed. Akal) ). This was the last nail in the coffin of the Varangian guards. And although from 1261 this elite guard was formally recreated and existed until the 14th century, its role was insignificant.

Three questions for Maria Isabel Cabrera-Ramos

- Did the Varangian guards fight with Christians during all the Crusades?

- The Varangians did not fight the Christians during the first three campaigns. They were supposed to protect Constantinople from the excesses of the crusaders, which were expressed in provoking the population, raids on the surrounding villages and other atrocities of the participants in the first and second campaigns during their stay in the Greek capital. The matter did not come to a fight even when Gottfried of Bouillon with his knights laid siege to Constantinople in 1096. The mere appearance of the Varangians, armed to the teeth, stopped the crusaders, who were expelled from the city and quickly sent to Asia, where they began their long-awaited campaign. The Varangian guard fought fiercely against the Christian knights during the fourth campaign, becoming the only defense and hope of the city for the entire time of the siege: from the moment the crusaders appeared under the walls on July 5, 1203, until the early morning of April 13, 1204, when Constantinople was at the mercy of the barbarism of the crusaders.

Why was the guard abolished after decades of existence?

- The Varangian guard ceased to exist on the same day, more precisely overnight - at midnight from April 12 to 13, 1204. Fighting off the crusaders besieging Constantinople during those difficult hours for the Byzantine capital and its inhabitants, the Varangians realized that they were not only surrounded, but also betrayed by the Greeks. This happened after exhausting months of battles with superior enemy forces, during which the Varangians were the only force capable of resisting the enemy, while being controlled by weak-willed emperors, again and again leaving their people and their personal guards to their fate. The Varangian guard disappeared after so many years of successful battles, not only because of physical and moral "wear and tear" in the face of a more powerful enemy, it became, first of all, a victim of betrayal and the absence of a strong and intelligent leader, whom she could follow as faithfully as throughout its existence.

The Byzantine Empire and its economy never recovered from the blow inflicted on it by the participants of the fourth campaign, and never again Constantinople could afford to maintain such an expensive guard, so militant Cretans were now hired to protect the emperor.

- Did the Varangian guard consist mainly of the Varangians in last years existence?

“Definitely not. This military unit was originally formed from 6,000 Swedes sent prince of Kiev Vladimir I Vasily II in 988-989. Then it was one hundred percent Varangian in composition. But in recent years, and even centuries of its existence, the soldiers of the guard were mostly Anglo-Saxons. The Swedes, and therefore the Varangians, were no longer among them. If there were any northerners at the Constantinopolitan court during the Fourth Crusade, then they were Danes, as follows from their archaeological finds and Latin chronicles.

Roger Loscertales, secretary of the cultural association "Heirs of History": "The formation of the Varangian Guard marked the emergence of a power structure devoted to the title of emperor, and not to a specific ruler."

- What weapons and means of protection did the warriors of the Varangian guard wear?

- We can’t say anything with accuracy about the weapons and equipment of the members of the Varangian guard due to the lack of descriptions of contemporaries. In addition, this unit adapted to its time, which means that the equipment of the warriors of the X century could not be the same in the XIV century. The only thing that can be established from the Byzantine textbooks of military art is the general trend in the equipment of soldiers, bearing in mind that the Varangian guards were part of the Byzantine army, consisting exclusively of people of Germanic culture. The evolution of their equipment has gone through several stages.

- What are these stages?

– At first, the Varangians, sent by the Bulgar king, were apparently dressed in Western fashion: pants, low boots or boots, woolen or linen tunics, protective armor made of padded fabric or leather (including scaly) and rarely helmets. Their weapons were also meager, acquired, as a rule, at their own expense. Probably, these were an ax, a dagger, a shield and sometimes a sword. Helmets at the initial stage could afford only wealthy warriors.

At the second stage, the clothes of the Varangians, who were in the service of the powerful emperor, had to change their cut to Byzantine, and probably acquired some uniformity.

We believe that they wore scaly armor, and also (which, however, cannot be said for sure) plate. In many Byzantine sources (not only the Viking era) they are referred to as warriors armed with axes. Considering their origin, it can be assumed that these were rather large axes with long handles, which were struck with two hands, like those of a similar elite guard in Scandinavia and England - the housecarls. Some theories claim that we are talking about another type of handled weapon - romfey, a two-handed sword with a blade curved like a scythe.

At this stage, the guards should have already been better equipped, including helmets (both with and without nose guards) and shields of a different type than round German ones. These were probably almond-shaped wrist shields with a bend along the central axis.

In one of the Byzantine sources that have come down to us, where the warriors of the Varangian guard are supposedly depicted (the Skylitsa manuscript), they are dressed in full armor and round helmets with butt pads and without nose pads. However, in the same manuscript there is another scene where a woman kills a guard who does not have any protective clothing...

From the 12th century until the 14th century, the equipment of the Varangian guard had to undergo significant changes under the influence of clashes between the Byzantine army and the crusaders, the Venetians, the Muslims from the former Persia and the emerging empire of the Turks. But mainly under the influence of the development of metallurgy, which led to the appearance of armor from metal plates superimposed on each other. And so on until the advent of firearms.

- How did the Varangians come into contact with the Byzantine Empire?

- Already in antiquity there was a legend about German military honor. The rulers of Rome and Byzantium highly valued the Germanic warriors for their legendary loyalty.

There are known facts of episodic service of the Varangians (as the Swedes were commonly called in the eastern direction of the expansion of the Vikings) and the Rus (descendants of the Slavic and Scandinavian peoples, residents Kievan Rus) in the years 874-988 in the Byzantine army. Including as sailors during sea voyages against the Emirate of Crete.

Throughout the 9th century, the Byzantine Empire waged continuous wars, including against Kievan Rus. In the end, around 971, a peace agreement was signed, one of the conditions of which was the free transfer of part of the Russian army to the service of the Byzantine emperor.

- Why did the Vikings take such a strong position at the court of Vasily II?

- Prince Vladimir I took advantage of the request for help from the Emperor of Byzantium, Basil II, in order to fulfill the terms of the agreement in 988, and at the same time get rid of too warlike elements of northern origin. And he sent 6,000 people to serve the emperor, thus fulfilling his obligations under the peace treaty.

By this, and also by his conversion to Orthodoxy, Vladimir I succeeded in marrying Anna, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, and at the same time got rid of the need to pay pensions to Varangian veterans sent to Constantinople.

“What did it mean to be a member of the emperor’s personal guard?”

It was a very honorable position, but at the same time very dangerous because of the constant political intrigues. At the same time, the formation of the Varangian Guard marked the emergence of a power structure devoted to the title of emperor, and not to a specific ruler, which was extremely necessary.

The Varangian guards invariably accompanied the emperor. Its elite part - the palace Varangians - were with him constantly.

The guards took an oath of allegiance to death to the imperial title itself, avoiding the very possibility of "favoritism" from any of the political factions, in contrast to what usually happened with the Greek palace guards.

To what extent did loyalty to the emperor extend?

She was absolute. One day, the guards were informed of an attempt on the life of Emperor Nicephorus II. When the guards reached the bedroom of the ruler, his murderer John Tzimisces had already proclaimed himself the new emperor, and the guards swore allegiance to him. They did not avenge a specific person, but re-swear an oath to the title they guarded.

- They say they drank a lot and acted outrageously?

- The Varangian guards were well paid, they were well fed and supplied with the best weapons.

For their addiction to drinking, they received the nickname "wine barrels of the emperor." The Vikings gave special preference to wine, which was practically unknown in their homeland.

Although it may seem surprising today, prostitution has always gone hand in hand with the military. Members of the Varangian Guard (as well as their Greek counterparts) were frequenters of brothels, left the lion's share of their salary in them and accompanied their visits with rivers of wine.

- What was the participation of the Varangians in the opposition to the Crusaders?

- Usually, when they talk about the Varangian Guard, they mean the 10th and 11th centuries, when it consisted mainly of northerners, and one of its captains was the future king of Norway, Harald the Severe. In reality, the guards existed for another four centuries and more than once clashed with the troops of the crusaders.

During the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), the combined forces of the crusaders, supported by the Venetian fleet, attacked Constantinople to overthrow the reigning emperor and transfer power to someone who would protect their interests.

The Varangian guards distinguished themselves in the defense of the city, furiously repulsing the attacks of the crusaders in hand-to-hand combat. Nevertheless, the victory remained with the attackers, and they were able to elevate their protege to the throne.

— What is your job as a historical reenactment club?

— Our tasks are popularization of historical knowledge, interpretation of historical heritage, consulting, research, historical reconstructions.

We usually hold our events in cultural and educational centers, universities, museums, schools... We also participate in lectures and medieval fairs, which are designed to recreate the atmosphere of the Middle Ages on the streets of a modern city. We are trying to do it differently than is customary. So that the viewer has the opportunity of physical and visual contact with the details characteristic of that era.

Sometimes we hold events tied not only to time, but also to a specific place. We conduct relevant research and recreate a picture of the desired era. A vivid example of such work is the medieval festival in the town of Aiguaviva (Girona) "Aquaviva Medievalis", which will be held on October 21-22 this year.

How many people are in your association?

There are fifteen of us now. The idea of creating a club was born as a collective initiative of several of us. We were already members of other historical clubs, but our views on history and historical reconstruction were very different: someone looked at it from an academic point of view, someone was more interested in folk art, military affairs ... We joined our forces and ideas and created their own club.

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