The coat-of-arms of the city of Yaroslavl'.
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Fundamentals of Medvedievistics
This article appeared in Vlast analytical weekly’s editorial office about a year ago. Back then, we just laughed, and that was all. Now, in this landmark moment, we cannot help publishing the sensational historic research by famous medvedievist and Kommersant’s special correspondent Alexei Alexeev.
Every Day is not Maslenitsa for a Bear
In the first millennium, east-Slavic tribes worshipped bear [medved’ in Russian] as the master of forest and a kinsman of man. They saw relative traits in the animal’s behavior: bear likes mead, likes idling and sucking at its paw, but crushes everything around if people wake him up.
For the east-Slavic tribes, bear was not just a totem, but an incarnation of a major Slavic god of pagan pantheon, -- Veles (Volos, Weles, or Voloh). Some linguists believe the word ‘volhv’ [Russian for Magi in the singular case] derived from that god’s name. It meant a pagan sorcerer clad in bear skin.
In pre-Christian Rus, the holiday of nascent bear, celebrated right after the vernal equinox day, was the main one. It is now known as Maslenitsa [the Pancake Week]. Back then, participants of the feast danced around a fire burning a dummy of winter. They were clad in sheepskins turned inside out to imitate bear’s fur.
In the époque of Rus’ Christianization, god Veles was prohibited, and ‘volhv’ sorcerers paid for their beliefs with their lives. Maslenitsa holiday acquired a new meaning: it was interlinked with the Christian Lent. New religion preachers went as far as claiming that the bear is indeed of Christian beliefs and observes the Christmas fast by sucking at its paw and not eating anything.
Persecution of old religion led to ousting the animal’s original name from the language. Today, Russians call it medved’ [Russian for bear]. It was often a custom in primitive societies to make it a taboo to pronounce a totem’s real name. Instead, they used substitute words like ‘master’, ‘Toptygin’, ‘Potapych’, ‘mishka’, ‘medved’ [he who eats honey, or drinks mead]. Apparently, the animal’s original name sounded like ‘ber’ (bir, bur, byr, br). European peoples, free of totem superstitions, preserved the word (‘Bar’ in German, or ‘bear’ in English). However, some derivatives of the lost word have remained in the Russian language: noun ‘berloga’ = ‘logovo of ber’ [bear’s lair], and adjective ‘buryi’ [fulvous, brownish] which is the color of bear’s fur.
Besides, we cannot help noticing that ‘ursus’ (Latin for bear) reminds of the word ‘Rus’, a name under which Europe knew our ancestors.
Till the Last Riurikovich
Let us return to the confrontation of religions. In the period of bear paganism persecution, there might have appeared a secret society of bear-worshippers, who decided to aim for returning to power. The struggle was hard; it lasted for many centuries. The society’s activities were so hush-hushed that we can trace it just by hardly noticeable hints: there are word roots linked to the bear cult in the first and last names of bear-worshippers.
In late 13th century, a prince with a “bear” name Mikhail [Misha in short] ascended the throne of Tver’. He was to become the grand prince, but his main rival, Moscow’s Christian ruler Yuri Danilovich, wrote a false denunciation to the Golden Horde, and the bear-named prince was cruelly killed by Tatar-Mongols. So, the first attempt at returning to power failed.
Let us consider not only names, but also emblems. The sacred animal is depicted in the coats-of-arms of many old Russian cities. For instance, Yaroslavl’ has a coat-of arms which is “a golden shield with a black rising bear holding with his left paw on his left shoulder a silver poleax with a dark-red shaft”. According to the official version (and, as it is known, the official version in Russia never has anything to do with the truth), a wicked bear, probably hallooed by local residents, attacked Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise, who was leading his troop to Volga. The prince killed the bear with a poleax, founded a city named after him [Yaroslav –> Yaroslavl’] in honor of the event, and converted the local residents into Christianity.
Certainly, this story symbolizes Christianity’s victory over paganism represented by the bear. Yaroslavl’’s first coat-of-arms was a fish, a Christian symbol. It remained till the rule of Ivan the Terrible (16th century). The rising bear in the emblem of Yaroslavl’ first appeared in the Book of Titles of 1672. How come this symbol of pagan religion appeared? What if something important happened in the period between the old coat-of-arms and the new one?
Indeed, there happened a change of the ruling dynasty. Isn’t it strange that Czarevitch Dmitry, a last Riurikovich, died in Uglich, a town in the Yaroslavl’ province? Boyar woman Xenia Shestova, whose son became the new ruling dynasty’s forebear, was born in the same town, Uglich. First czar of the Romanov dynasty had a “bear” name, Mikhail. Apparently, the bear emblem of Yaroslavl’ became a symbol of the return to power, while an image of murdered Czarevitch Dmitry was put on Uglich’s coat-of-arms as a malevolent mockery.
Beside Yaroslavl’, some more Russian cities have a bear depicted in their coats-of-arms (for instance, Perm’, as well as some cities of the Perm Territory, Ekaterinburg among them). Some have two bears (Novgorod). Isn’t it strange that it was Novgorod, with its established freedom-loving lifestyle, that resisted being annexed to Moscow longer than any other city?
From Misha to Medvedev
In the Romanov rule, bear-worshippers found themselves in a difficult situation. They ruled, but Christianity had become well-rooted in the Russian nation by that time. The situation was such: a small group of the ruler’s associates professed the traditional bear faith, and the rule was hereditary, while the nation was moving away from its rulers more and more. Just some insignificant hints let us trace the process of passing on the secret power. Thus, Empress Catherine’s favorite Prince Potemkin ate, almost daily, goose liver soaked in honey and milk. Shall an observer unaware of the secret give his attention to another favorite’s strange name – Biron?
Some representatives of broad popular masses kept worshipping the bear as well. However, they did not know that rulers were of the same religion with them, which led to a paradox event: bear-worshippers overthrew bear-worshippers. In 1917, the Romanov dynasty was overthrown. The last emperor and his family were shot to death in Ekaterinburg, a city with a bear coat-of-arms. State convulsion brought to power a man who had come from Swiss city of Bern (naturally, with a bear in its emblem). Although the man was wider known under a meaningless nickname of Lenin, his true last name – Ulyanov – clearly pointed out a hereditary connoisseur of the most “bearish” profession, bee-keeping. [Ulyanov --> ulei, Russian for ‘beehive’].
Anti-religion campaign initiated by Ulyanov and his comrades was to prepare the nation for the return of the truly Slavic bear cult. Many Ulyanov’s associates came from a little town of Berdichev. Moreover, VChK head Dzerzhinsky was born in a miniature Samogit principality, which had a “golden shield with a black bear with dark-red eyes and tongue” as its coat-of-arms.
These people created a new power, the Soviet Union. In many European languages (USSR, URSS), it sounded almost like the bear’s Latin name – ursus.
However, the large numbers law played a bad joke with the bear-worshippers again. Not all Bolsheviks and their supporters knew that the true ideology of the new Soviet state was the bear cult, and not Marxism at all. After Ulyanov the bear-worshipper died, Joseph Stalin, who had no relation to bears, became the new leader.
Suffering of paranoia and persecution mania, Stalin might have suspected there existed a secret bear cult. As if on purpose, bear-emblazoned cities were being turned into zones for political prisoners (Syktyvkar, Khabarovsk, Norilsk). A saying “taiga is the law, and bear is prosecutor here” sounded like a mockery of the bear-worshippers who had lost their power.
The situation changed during the WWII, the final of which was the battle for Berlin. After the victory, the bear-worshippers, represented in the Soviet government by man number two Lavrenty Beria, acquired a hope for their return to power. However, Nikita Khrushchev, who must have known the secret, took that hope away: Beria was executed due to a false denunciation, just like Prince Mikhail of Tver’ some centuries earlier.
In 1964, though, Brezhnev (unmistakable name!) came to power. For almost two decades, the country was enjoying a peaceful sleep with paw-sucking. The époque’s climax was the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, with the centuries-old totem as a mascot. Beside the Olympic Mishka, the popular Soviet cartoon about Winnie-the-Pooh might be regarded as another example of the prohibited cult’s secret propaganda. We should also notice the Pooh’s initials [V.P. in Russian]. They shall appear in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
After Brezhnev’s death and a short period of temporary rulers, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. That is when the bear-worshippers started coming out to light. In the time of Boris Yeltsin (who moved to Moscow from former Ekaterinburg, a bear-emblazoned city), a man called Berezovsky became head of the security council. Berezovsky’s further disgrace is a secret yet to be disclosed.
The original Russian totem has eventually appeared on the ruling party’s flag. In this situation, it is logical to suppose that a man with the most merited of Russian names should become the president of all Russians.
So, the time must have come. Now we can say loudly, without fear: dear Russians, happy Bear Day to you!
Alexei Alexeev
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 17, 2007
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