Everyone probably knows the opera "Sadko" by Rimsky-Korsakov, many people remember this epic about a Novgorod merchant since childhood, according to which a large colorful cartoon was shot back in Stalin's times. In 2018, a new fantasy of domestic animators appeared on the screens, in which the motive of the epic is guessed more than approximately, but this is not about that now. The question is different: did Sadko have a real prototype and where did the merchants from the ancient Russian city sail during the golden era of Novgorod trade?
Epic
The epic about Sadko belongs to the Novgorod cycle, the origin of which researchers date back to the 12th century, that is, the time of the decline of Kievan Rus and the flourishing of Novgorod. Veliky Novgorod was the largest Russian trading city. The hero of the epic Sadko is not a familiar warrior-hero, but a merchant. Once he was poor, of all the good he had only "gusli bells", with whom he attended banquets, entertained the people. Delighted with the skill of the songwriter, the Sea King presented the guslar playing on the shore with three fish - golden feathers. Having won a dispute with some merchants, Sadko, for the money received in exchange for fish, bought all kinds of goods, apparently invisibly. And he became a rich guest-merchant of the lord of Veliky Novgorod.
With the goods, he sails to the Golden Horde, where he sells them with profit. On the way back, a terrible storm rises to the sea, and Sadko is volunteered to become a victim of the Sea King, to whom he has not paid tribute for a long time. Once in the underwater kingdom, the hero of the epic, by order of the king, plays the harp for three days in a row, and he dances with his retinue. Because of the dancing on the sea, there is a strong excitement and many people die. Saint Mikola Mozhaisky comes to Sadko, he is also Nikolai the Wonderworker, on whose advice the merchant breaks the strings on the harp. The Sea King, having fun with glory, offers Sadko to marry any of his daughters. On the advice of the saint, the merchant chose Chernavushka. Waking up the next morning, the hero of the epic was at home. In gratitude, he builds a cathedral to St. Mikola Mozhaisky.
Supporters of the historical school believe that the oldest basis of the epic about Sadko was the song about the chronicle Novgorod merchant named Sadko Sytinich (Sodko Sytinets), whom twenty-one chronicles in 1167 mention as the builder of the church of Boris and Gleb in Detinets in Novgorod. It has not survived to this day, having existed somewhere until the 16th century.
Foreign courtyards
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Such legends do not arise just like that, they always in a poetic form reflect the historical experience of the people who created these epics. Information from the epics is confirmed by historical chronicles, annals, archaeological finds. Veliky Novgorod, one of the most ancient Russian cities, due to its extremely favorable geographical position at the junction of waterways in the direction of west-east and north-south, already in the 9th century became an important center of trade with eastern countries - Volga Bulgaria, Khazar Khaganate and even the Arab world, and then with the West, with the Baltic countries. Moreover, if until the XI century the main part of overseas trade passed through Kiev, then from that time the role of the main center passes to Novgorod. And in the future, for several centuries, a significant part of foreign trade remained in the hands of Novgorod merchants.
In the most frequently visited foreign Baltic ports, Novgorodians established their trading posts. So, in Visby - the main city of the island of Gotland in the Central Baltic - they had their own houses, warehouses and a church. According to some reports, this was the church of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of all floating and traveling. In the city of Garda on Gotland, fresco paintings were discovered on the walls of an Orthodox church, most likely by Russian masters. Historians suggest that this was the church of the Russian colony. The stone Russian church of St. Nicholas also stood in the ancient capital of Sweden - the city of Sipun.
Russians also lived permanently in Lindanis (Kolyvan), an Estonian city located on the site of modern Tallinn. There was also a Novgorod guest yard in Kiev. The early appearance in it of the Gothic and German "guest" trading houses also testifies to the intensity of sea trade relations between Veliky Novgorod and the West.
Lodey sail west
Novgorod ships sailed westward in a way that largely coincided with the one indicated in the epic about Sadko. Scientists believe that sea vessels, due to the relatively large draft, could not overcome the rapids on the Volkhov and get directly to Novgorod, while the Neva “Ivanovskie rapids” were accessible to them. Therefore, it was the Russian city of Ladoga, located 13-14 kilometers from the confluence of the Volkhov into Lake Ladoga, that was the place from where the ships sailed. This is evidenced by the Icelandic sagas about the Norse kings. The results of archaeological excavations indicate that Ladoga was probably both a port of transshipment and transfer from river vessels to sea ones, and a center for the construction and equipment of sea vessels.
On the sea, Novgorodians sailed on "overseas" boats (the so-called boats in the northern dialects), which were relatively large deck ships, equipped with an "attic", that is, a superstructure. Their hull was based on a powerful keel and frames made of so-called cocor, that is, crooked tree trunks. Plank sheathing was attached to them. The design of these ships has developed as a result of the interaction of the traditions of both East Slavic and Norman shipbuilders. It is believed that the overseas lodges of Novgorodians had approximately the following parameters: the maximum length was about 20 m, the width was 4.5-5.5 m, the draft was up to 2 m. Their displacement could reach 100 tons. On a removable mast, a square sail with an area of 70-80 sq. m. The steering paddle was installed on the starboard side.
From Ladoga the lodges went out into Lake Nevo (now Ladoga Lake) and sailed to the sources of the Neva River. Further along the Neva, they went to Lake Kotlin (Gulf of Finland) and entered the island of Kotlin, where Russian pilots were stationed. From Kotlin, the Novgorod guests sailed south along the coast of the Peipsi land to Kolyvan. There the ships were preparing to sail across the sea. Those merchants who needed to go to the island of Gotland or to German Lubeck continued their journey west along the coast, which at that time was mainly controlled by the Slavic tribes. Having passed the island of Saaremaa, the ships reached Visby on Gotland, and after stopping they continued on to Lubeck. Novgorodians heading for the Swedish Sigtuna or Denmark, from Kolyvan turned north towards the coast of Finland. From Porkkala-Udda they sailed along the coast to Abo (now Turku) and, passing south of the Aland Islands, reached Sigtuna. Following along the Swedish coast, Sadko's contemporaries reached Denmark.
Not always peaceful
Competitors, primarily Danes and Swedes, often opposed Novgorod's trade in the Baltic. So, in 1142, three Novgorod boats, sailing with valuable goods, met at sea a whole Swedish flotilla of 60 ships, which followed to the shores of Finland. At the same time, a Swedish prince and a bishop were on the flagship, who, obviously, ordered an attack on the Russian "schismatics". The Swedes attacked and, despite the fierce resistance of the Novgorodians, captured Lodya. According to the Novgorod Chronicle, 150 Russians were killed. In 1157, the Danish king Sven III captured Novgorod merchant ships near Schleswig, and distributed the goods on them as a salary to his army. And from the letter of grant of the Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the city of Lübeck knows that among the merchants who came to this city from the east,most of all were Novgorodians.
In 1164, the Swedes laid siege to Ladoga, but they were repelled with great damage and retreated to the Voronoi River (now Voronezhka), which flows into Lake Ladoga. Prince Svyatoslav, who came to the aid of the besieged, with the Novgorod warriors completely defeated the aggressors. At the same time, out of 55 Swedish ships, the Novgorodians captured 45. In response to the siege of Ladoga, in 1178 they defeated the Swedish coastal cities in southern Finland, which resulted in the persecution of the Novgorodians in Gotland and Sweden. In response, the Novgorodians closed all their harbors to Swedish and Gotlandic ships, so for some time trade was conducted only along the southern shores of the Baltic, inhabited up to the Jutland Peninsula mainly by Slavic tribes.
In 1188, the Novgorodians, together with the Estonians and Karelians, did manage to storm and destroy the Swedish capital Sigtuna. Professor Vladimir Vasilyevich Mavrodin noted that it was possible to reach Sigtuna, located at the farthest from the sea on the coast of Lake Melar, 30 kilometers from the coast, only knowing the fairway well, through the Stokesund channel, at which Stockholm was later built, and Lake Melar itself … The capture of the Swedish capital, perfectly fortified by high walls and towers, surrounded by impenetrable swamps and rocks, also testifies to the presence of a strong fleet and a large army among the Novgorodians and their allies. It is also curious that the Novgorodians took away from Sigtuna the large copper gates of one of the temples and erected them in the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral.
Such was the golden age of Novgorod trade in the Baltic, famous not only for great profits, but also for extraordinary adventures, sometimes with the participation of the Sea Tsar himself, and great military upheavals.
Andrey CHINAEV