In ancient - pre-Mongol - Russia, Russians went to bewitch the Finns, from which it follows that they were recognized as more skilled in magic than their healers. This belief was very tenacious. It is known that Vasily III Ivanovich, wishing to have children from Elena Glinskaya, was looking for sorcerers "right up to Karela", that is, the Finns.
Before his death, Tsar John the Terrible sent for sorcerers to the north, that is, to the Finns. The unnamed handwritten monuments also speak of this. So, in the manuscript of the Chernigov Seminary of the early 19th century, "magic in fire" is mentioned.
Sorcery by means of fire was common among the Finns. It consisted in the following: a teenage child, most often a girl, was forced to stare at a brightly blazing flame. The child fell into a special state and gave answers to the proposed questions based on what he saw in the fire.
Lapps are also mentioned in the same manuscript. The Lopari, or Sami, inhabited a territory called Lapland. It covers the northern regions of the Scandinavian Peninsula countries and Finland and the Kola Peninsula. The Russians met the Lapps in the 13th century.
Christianity among the Russian Lapps began to spread from the 16th century. From time immemorial, Lapland is considered a country inhabited by sorcerers. The Lapps, who practiced pagan rites as early as the 16th century, were viewed as dangerous sorcerers and sorcerers.
It was believed that they have power over the winds: they tie 3 knots, when they untie one - winds of moderate strength rise, when they untie two - stronger winds begin to blow when they untie three - a storm and thunderstorm rises.
It was said that the Lapps could keep ships moving so that no amount of wind force could move them. According to legends, Lapps can send illness and death with the help of a magic tambourine. Sorcerers, with the help of a drum or while performing certain actions, could learn about what was happening in a foreign country.
The glory of the Lapland sorcerers was so great that Finns, Swedes, and Norwegians were sent to them to study witchcraft.
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The Tatars had a very strong influence on Russian life. If before the overthrow of the Tatar yoke, relations between Russians and Tatars were hostile, then since the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, the Tatar element in Russian life, especially in the upper strata of society, has intensified.
Many Tatar aristocratic families adopted Orthodoxy and became related to the Russian aristocracy. Noble Tatars were at the court of Ivan the Terrible, and Boris Godunov was a descendant of noble people from the Horde.
Settling among the Russians, the Tatars instilled in society their views. They were very superstitious and devoted to magic. In 1246, Prince Mikhail of Tver was killed in the Horde for refusing to go through the fire spread out in front of the Khan's headquarters, which the Tatars demanded of him.
It was a cleansing agent: fearing that someone approaching the khan, especially a non-believer, could bewitch him, inflict damage on him, the Tatars forced such people to pass among two fires, since fire, according to their convictions, had the power to destroy evil spells.
The Mongols did not always punish for refusing to go through the sacred fire, but this time Batu gave the Russian prince a tough test of loyalty. About the murder of Prince Mikhail and his companion, the boyar Theodore, there are several ancient Russian chronicles, a short and complete life, as well as the story of the Franciscan monk Plano Carpini, who visited Batu's headquarters soon after the murder of the martyrs.
Carpini talks about two cleansing fires burning before headquarters:
“They believe that everything is purified by fire, and when ambassadors or nobles or any other persons come to them, then they themselves, and the gifts they bring, must pass between two fires in order to undergo purification, so that they do not arrange any some kind of poisoning and did not bring poison or any evil."
In "The Legend of the Murder in the Horde of Prince Mikhail of Chernigov and His Boyar Theodore," it is said that everyone who came to Batu was forced to go through the fire, and also bow to "a bush and an idol." It is not clear what the ancient Russian author meant by the word "bush", perhaps it is a question of some sacred tree that stood in front of the headquarters.
