Studying the photos of the unique golden royal pectoral of Great Scythia (4th century BC), when I wrote a book about it, and then some ancient frescoes in St. Sophia of Kiev, I wondered if they had some secret meaning indicating the presence of underground structures under the floor of the most ancient cathedral in Ukraine.
In the summer of 1998, inviting a well-known Ukrainian biolocation specialist, academician and professor I. N. We decided to study this issue more thoroughly directly in Sophia Kievskaya itself, having secured preliminary support and permission from the then director of this world-famous national state reserve, Mrs. VN Achkasova.
(Later, Pavlovts I. N. and I, using his methods, as well as pectorals and local ethnographers, found giant underground structures near Melitopol, Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, located, taking into account data and other specialists, approximately on an area of about 9 square kilometers! (But, more on this will be written in other articles.).
So, after waiting for the weekend, when there were no visitors in Sofia, we proceeded to special. research. For a long time the devices were "silent", but then special telescopic tensors and other special. the equipment began to provide the necessary information … (By the way, dowsing research both in Ukraine and abroad, give quite good results and are successfully used in the search for minerals, water, underground voids, etc. since ancient times / remember dowsers /,
(biolocation, i.e. finding something using biological indicators, has been known for several millennia) to this day, sometimes saving significant funds, which makes them quite effective and very reliable.
So, in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, more than 70% of various mineral deposits were discovered using biolocation. I recall that in Ukraine there was even a special Department in the Ministry of Geology with a specific name - “Ukrbiolocation”. For skeptics, it will also be useful to know that biolocation was first recognized at the state level and in Ukraine.
Thus, by the order of the State Standard of Ukraine No. 257 of 27.7.1995. in the classifier of professions officially introduced: "operator of dowsing" (3111) and "master of dowsing" (1222.2), etc. / Nowadays, so-called. georadars, which are constantly being improved. /)
As a result of these special studies of the floor of Sofia Kievskaya, we were able to identify at great depths a previously unknown complex of underground passages and draw up their plan, which was officially registered as a discovery (Author's certificate (UFAMT) No. 670 dated 02.16.1999), (see photo, dark the line on the sidewalk roughly "indicates" where the revealed underground passage goes from under the cathedral building).
Promotional video:
At the same time, in the far right corner of the entrance at a great depth (approx. 11 m - this is the height of a 4-storey building!) There is a secret room of about 120 cubic meters. m.! These data were later rechecked by two more scientists, serious specialists in biolocation, academicians (I. Batulin and A. Shevchenko), who also confirmed our finding. (see. Plan-diagram of St. Sophia of Kiev in the context).
What if it is in it that the famous LIBRARY (book depository) of Yaroslav the Wise is kept !? (After all, it is not for nothing that Ivan the Terrible's similar blouse has long been considered the treasure of the Russian Empire number 1. But Ivan the Terrible, like Yaroslav the Wise, who built St. It is possible that ancestral secrets, including the preservation of ancient texts, books and values, were solved in a similar way, and from time immemorial.
So, for example, it is known that the foundation of the Intercession Cathedral in Moscow, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, - (basement) during the reign of Ivan the Terrible served as a place for keeping the city treasury, money and valuables of wealthy citizens, which almost became the reason for the burning of Moscow in 1595 year, during which the robbery was supposedly supposed to take place.
Apparently, other ancient Russian cathedrals, etc. had similar storage facilities.
It should not be forgotten that all Russian tsars had extensive connections with other royal courts, as well as a lot of relatives at those courts. This was due to interstate royal marriages. It has long been believed that Sophia Paleologue brought a very valuable library with her along with her rich dowry.
It is noteworthy that Sofia's wedding caravan consisted of 30 carts (sometimes they say there were 70) filled with books from the Byzantine imperial library. (Sofia Fominishna Paleologue, / Zoya Paleologue / (died 7.4.1503), niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus, since November 1472 the wife of Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich.
She received the name Sophia in Russia. Ivan III used the marriage with Sophia Palaeologus to strengthen the prestige of Russia in international relations and the authority of the grand ducal / royal / power within the country.)
Sophia's library contained antique manuscripts, Greek and Hebrew books, clay tablets and texts on gold sheets. But this was not the most valuable thing. Most likely, the library included tablets and a casket-ark with manuscripts, there were also Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, Hebrew manuscripts.
The books were allegedly kept in three vaulted cellars near the king's chambers. Several sources testify to this. But the famous library mysteriously disappeared and has not yet been found. It is generally accepted that her trail ends in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Aleksandrovsk). When the library came to Russia in the 16th century, the book collection was called “antique Liberia”.
In the "Legend of Maxim the Philosophus" by the famous author, the moment of his entry into the book depository is described: "Sovereign Grand Duke Vasily (father of Ivan the Terrible) opened the royal treasury … and found in some books innumerable Greek books, the Slovenian people are not at all reasonable …" It is also known that that at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries the library suddenly disappeared.
And first of all, it disappeared from the inventory of the property of the royal court. It mentions only fifty-three handwritten and printed books in Church Slavonic. And it's all. And where did the clay tablets go with cursory writing and so on? By the way, the chronicles mention that the tsar slept in his treasury (and "Liberia" was part of it).
That is, in an underground storage.) Before her death, Sophia revealed the secret of this cache to her son Vasily, who attracted the monk Maxim the Greek to translate the books. Many years later, Ivan the Terrible often descended into the cherished dungeon, and he brought his son Ivan there too … Dorpat to Moscow.
The pastor was an educated person, knew several languages, including Greek. He, as a scientist, was greatly respected by the Grand Duke. He ordered to show him his library, hoping for help in translation. Wetterman admired the books so much that he said that he was ready to give up all his property in order for these books to be in Protestant universities, for they would bring enormous benefits to Christianity.
In 1819 in the archives of Pärnu, Professor H. Dobelov found a list of books from the library of Ivan the Terrible. It was a rough draft of a translator's note that listed 800 books, many of which were reportedly bound in gold. Legends have survived to this day that on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin there is an underground passage and all kinds of hiding places in which the royal library is hidden, which was unsuccessfully searched from Peter 1 to Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1934, a closed entrance to an underground tunnel was found. But by November 7, the government ordered to stop work, brick up the passage and prepare Red Square for the festive parade. In 1963, a public commission for the search for the library was created, headed by Academician Tikhomirov.
A wonderful plan was even made, but then it was all over.
I recall that Moscow researchers, while searching for the library of Ivan the Terrible, found in the old texts a mention that every time they had to open this hidden book depository they had to … "break through the ceiling"! In other words, this is such a "stone bag" at great depths, which could only be reached by opening the stone dome of this underground book depository.
Apparently something similar is under the floor of St. Sophia of Kiev. This is how experts usually talk about the attitude of Yaroslav the WISE to books: “Yaroslav loved books very much and read them often. Gathering many book writers and translators, he multiplied the number of books in Russia and gradually introduced them into use. Since that time, book wisdom has become firmly established among Russians."
It should be noted that book collections arose in Kiev before Yaroslav. For example, his father Vladimir Svyatoslavich, according to the chronicler, "loved the words of the book and apparently owned a library …".
The word "library" itself was almost never used in Ancient Rus. In different cities of Russia, the premises for books had very different names: "book keeper", "book depository", "book depository", "book depository", "treasury treasury", "book crate", "book chamber", etc.
For the first time the word "library" is found in the famous Gennadiy Bible of 1499. The term "library" was still unfamiliar to the Russians, so in the margin opposite it the translator made an explanation - "book house".
And here is an excerpt from the "Interesting Newspaper": The chronicle article of 1037 "The Tale of Bygone Years" tells about the founding of the first library in Russia by the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise. This was a significant event in the life of the entire ancient Russian state.
At first glance, the question of the time when the library of Yaroslav the Wise was founded may seem purely rhetorical. The chronicle speaks of this event under the year 1037, and, therefore, this date should be considered the only correct one. But in fact in the chronicle article we are not talking about the completion of the construction of St. Sophia Cathedral, but only about the foundation: “In Summer 6545 (1037). Found Yaroslav the Church of St. Sophia, Metropolitan. Where, then, was Yaroslav's library placed?
According to many researchers, the founding or laying of the central temple of Russia took place (as it is said in the "Tale of Bygone Years") in 1037, and its completion was related to the 40s and even 50s of the 11th century. Taking this point of view (it was she who was a textbook for a long time), scholars were forced to doubt the story of the chronicle about the foundation of the library in 1037.
Recent research - archaeological, architectural and historical - has convincingly proved that in the Russian chronicle under the year 1037 it is not about the beginning, but about the completion of the construction of St. Sophia of Kiev. Consequently, the first Old Russian library was founded in the same year.
What books were in the library of St. Sophia Cathedral or came out of her book-writing workshop?
The chronicle emphasizes their exclusively ecclesiastical character. The need for such literature was dictated by the wide spread of Christianity in Russia. However, along with the church ones, undoubtedly, books containing information on world history, geography, astronomy, philosophical and legal treatises, and journalistic works were translated.
They served as the basis for the transformation of St. Sophia of Kiev into the center of chronicle writing, the focus of advanced thought in Russia in the 11th century. Here the first ancient Russian annalistic collection of 1037-1039 was compiled, the famous "Word of Hilarion" was written and proclaimed, the foundations of the first collection of laws of the Old Russian state - "Russian Truth", were created, "Izbornik Svyatoslav" and "Epistle to Thomas to Presbyter Smolensky" and many others works.
Acquaintance with the works of two Russian metropolitans - Hilarion and Klim Smolyatich convinces us that their authors knew the main provisions of the philosophical teachings of Homer, Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers of antiquity. It is known that one of the daughters of Yaroslav 1 the Wise - Anna Kievskaya, after marriage became Queen of France, where she brought a very expensive gospel from her father's library at that time.
(She was called “Anna of Russia - Queen of France.” It is noteworthy that she personally signed all the state papers of France, because her husband, King of France Henry 1 the kings of France swore an oath on this ancient gospel, once brought from ancient Kiev.
It is noteworthy that in the summer of 2005, the Queen of France from the Rurik dynasty Anna of Kiev, on the personal order of the President of Ukraine V. A. Yushchenko was erected in France (Senlis) a beautiful monument.
In the enlightenment of Russia, the book-writing workshop and library played no less a role than Sophia herself in the spread and establishment of Christianity. The books that came out of its walls served as the basis for the emergence of new libraries, including the huge library of the Pechersky Monastery, which since the end of the 11th century has been turning into the largest center of the cultural life of Kievan Rus.
"The seeds of book wisdom" sown by Yaroslav gave lush shoots throughout the country. " Here I want to add that probably once in St. Sophia of Kiev there was also a kind of state archive, where treaties with Byzantium, other letters and treaties, etc. were kept. state documentation of the Old Russian state. And further: “… And, finally, about the further fate of the library of St. Sophia Cathedral.
Can we find traces of her book collection, which consisted of more than 950 volumes, or did it perish during the terrible December days of the Mongol-Tatar invasion of 1240 for Kiev? On this score, the opinions of the researchers were divided. Some believed and still believe that the books of the library of Yaroslav the Wise were distributed among the libraries of various cathedrals and monasteries, and later joined the state and private collections."
A number of researchers believe that the book collection of St. Sophia Cathedral did not perish and is kept somewhere in the Kiev underground. Since there are many cave labyrinths in Kiev (more than 50!), There are many versions about which of them the library of Yaroslav the Wise is hidden in. (I remember, as a well-known Ukrainian historian and archaeologist, ex-vice-president of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, (former Deputy President of NASU Academician B. E. Paton), and now People's Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (now in the BYuT faction), Academician of NASU, Mr. P. P. Tolochko (see photo 8) at one time led a search expedition exploring the ancient Kiev dungeons, including around Sophia Kievskaya. I even have his famous book "Secrets of Kiev Dungeons", where he gives a lot interesting facts about Kiev, etc.
According to the ex-director of this reserve, no serious studies of the floor of St. Sophia of Kiev have been carried out since the war, when it was briefly examined by sappers after the liberation of Kiev. On December 1, 1999, I even had to hand over the plan of the underground structures of Sophia of Kiev, drawn up by us, to the representatives of the State Security Directorate of Ukraine protecting the President of Ukraine, who feared that during his inauguration in Sofia Kievskaya, with a large number of people, the floor would not fall under the guarded persons, foreign delegations, etc.
But during the inauguration and later, the floor of Sofia passed the test - once again confirming that in the old days they were built thoroughly, for centuries!
Recently in Kiev, a special document was approved, which clearly delimits the protection zone of St. Sophia of Kiev, in which, in particular, the following is noted: “St. Sophia Cathedral was built in the first half of the 11th century. It was with him that the development of stone architecture in Kievan Rus began.
The universal significance of this monument lies in the fact that the architecture of the cathedral has survived to this day almost unchanged. On the walls of the cathedral there is a unique ensemble of monumental painting: 260 sq. m of mosaics and about 3 thousand sq. m of frescoes. The first library in Russia was created in the Sophia Cathedral, which, according to the assumptions of some archaeologists, may still be preserved in the depths of the labyrinth of underground passages of Sophia.
The burials of the Kiev princes, metropolitans of Russia and the very founder of the cathedral, Yaroslav the Wise, are located on the territory of the reserve. Since 1990 St. Sophia Cathedral has been included in the UNESCO World and Natural Heritage List. Thus, the version about the possible location of the legendary library was again confirmed, I think that our version was also reflected here, which we have repeatedly reported both to the management of the reserve and to other interested persons and organizations.
But it is possible that there may be a cache of the hetman Mazepa, etc., who is also known as the restorer of St. Sophia of Kiev. It is the characteristic Ukrainian baroque that Mazepa left us after rebuilding the ancient buildings. In our opinion, the secret passage found can be easily accessed from the courtyard, where it comes out from under the building (the foundations of which are only about 50 cm) towards the Refectory.
Every day thousands of tourists and museum visitors pass over it along a small path, heading to the famous bell tower of ancient Sofia or to the monument to Bohdan Khmelnitsky, etc. It is possible that one of the passages leads to the Dnieper River (to the area of the administrative building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the upper station of the Kiev funicular).
Naturally, with appropriate excavations with the participation of archaeologists and specialists, it is necessary to take all the necessary safety and security measures, since a monument to everything is also protected by UNESCO. Probably, it is best to make a small dig not in the cathedral itself, but in an open area of the adjacent territory between the building of St. Sophia of Kiev and the refectory and try to enter from above into the area indicated in the diagram, revealed by the underground passage leading to a secret room under the floor of the cathedral building.
Now, as they say, "the autopsy will show!"
More details about this can also be found in my book "Secrets of the Golden Pectoral", in separate articles and on the Internet. (The author expresses personal gratitude to Mrs. N. M. Tsurkan for providing advice and other assistance in the creation of this and other articles).