historiography, the opinion was established that the supreme god of the Eastern Slavs on the eve of the adoption of Christianity was Perun. While the eastern, western and ancient Russian written sources say that the ancient Rus believed in a single God - the creator. He was called by two names: God and, more ancient form, Svarog. Its material symbol was fire, which was sacred, and to which altars were erected in temples.
In 980, after the end of civil strife between the sons of Svyatoslav, his youngest son Vladimir created a new church in Kiev, in which six idols were installed. "And Vladimir began to reign in Kiev alone, and set idols on the hill behind the terem courtyard: the wooden Perun with a silver head and golden mustache, and Khors, Dazhbog, and Stribog, and Simargla, and Makosh." In that and in a number of other chronicles, Perun was mentioned as the first of the gods to whom the ancient Russians made sacrifices, which led the researchers to the conclusion: it was Perun who was the supreme god of the ancient Russian pagan pantheon. At the same time, there are a number of written and archaeological monuments that give rise to doubts about this conclusion.
Procopius of Kessaria wrote about the religion of the Eastern Slavs:
Several centuries later, the German missionary Helmond, who took an active part in the Christianization of the Baltic Slavs, wrote:
Thus, two authors, one - Byzantine, the other - German, both Christians, well versed in theological intricacies, write about the same thing - about the monotheism of the Eastern and Baltic Slavs.
Not only Christian, but also Muslim authors, when they first met the ancient Russians, drew attention to their monotheism Ibn-Rust:
Promotional video:
As we can see, Eastern authors also testify to the conversion of the Russians in their prayers to a single God - "my Lord." But unlike Christians Procopius and Helmond, they point to another important detail of the religion of the ancient Russians - "they are all fire worshipers." Procopius and Helmond did not pay attention to this. Why? Ibn-Rust, Ibn-Fadlan and others, as Muslims - monotheists, were well acquainted with the Zoroastrian fire-worshipers. Not long before them, Persia was conquered by the Arabs and was subjected to violent Islamization, but among the population of medieval Iran there were still Zoroastrians, whom the Arabs called - fire worshipers. Knowing what role fire plays in Zoroastrianism, they noted this detail of the religion of the ancient Russians. Being themselves monotheists, they drew attention to the fact that the Rus in their prayers always turned to one God, the oneabout which Procopius and Helmond wrote.
But God must have a name. We know the names of the gods whose idols were installed by Vladimir Svyatoslavich. To them you can add Rod, Svarog and Volos-Veles. These are the most frequently encountered gods in the annals. Perun, whom most historians consider the supreme god, was one of the older gods along with Khors and Dazhbog, but not the Creator. In the XIX century. Hilferding, analyzing the well-known testimony of Procopius of Kessaria about the religion of the Slavs, came to the conclusion:
Obviously, in Proto-Slavic antiquity, this God-Creator was Svarog - heavenly fire. The assumption that Svarog was not the God-Creator of the Eastern Slavs was expressed at the end of the 19th century. HER. Golubinsky: “Among the multitude of their gods, they recognized the one God of the universe. This one God … was called by the Slavs names that have been preserved, like the well-known names of almost all other gods, from the ancient primary language of the Indo-European peoples - Svarog. During the period of the Slavic-Iranian symbiosis, Svarog was supplanted by a more universal concept of God, of Iranian origin. But the memory of Svarog, as the god-father, was preserved for a long time until the appearance of the Christian chronicle, and was recorded by him. It is also obvious that the Proto-Slavic Svarog was anthropomorphic. But the influence of North Iranian Zoroastrianism on the religious philosophy of the Pre-Slavs led to the replacement of the anthropomorphic Svarog with the abstract universal category of God, while retaining one of its most important attributes - fire, light as a source of life.
In 1975, a temple built by the Grand Duke Vladimir was excavated in Kiev. Its design consisted of six bases with a diameter of 0.8 m to 1.8 m, on which, as B. A. Fishermen, the idols of the six above-mentioned gods were installed, five of the largest were on a single foundation. A few meters south of the main foundation was the largest - three meters in diameter - the foundation intended for the sacrificial fire. Fire (Indoor - Agni) is one of the most revered deities of all Indo-European peoples. The ancient Iranians showed him special respect. According to the Vedic and Avestan traditions, “anywhere, in any thing, Agni is at home. The whole hymn is dedicated to his identification with most of the gods …, it is threefold in relation to the three levels of the Universe and to the gods of these levels:Agni for the divine sacrifice, when it is performed, Agni first in prayer; Agni in battle; Agni for fertility. " In this universalism of the god of fire lay the possibility of monotheism, to which the great Iranian prophet came. In Zoroastrianism, the essence (Amesha Spenta) Asha Vakhishta corresponded to fire - Order, Truth, for the observance of which in the Indo-Iranian religion Varuna was responsible. Truth and Order, although divine, are only essences, the creations of Ahura-Mazda. According to the Avestan tradition, the creator Ahura Mazda is "mixed" with six entities, the creation of which is compared to the lighting of one lamp from another. In Zoroastrianism, the essence (Amesha Spenta) Asha Vakhishta corresponded to fire - Order, Truth, for the observance of which in the Indo-Iranian religion Varuna was responsible. Truth and Order, although divine, are only essences, the creations of Ahura-Mazda. According to the Avestan tradition, the creator Ahura Mazda is "mixed" with six entities, the creation of which is compared to the lighting of one lamp from another. In Zoroastrianism, the essence (Amesha Spenta) Asha Vakhishta corresponded to fire - Order, Truth, for the observance of which in the Indo-Iranian religion Varuna was responsible. Truth and Order, although divine, are only essences, the creations of Ahura-Mazda. According to the Avestan tradition, the creator Ahura Mazda is "mixed" with six entities, the creation of which is compared to the lighting of one lamp from another.
This theological principle was used by the ancient Russian magi-theologians when creating the Kiev Pantheon. Six functional gods, representing the three levels of the universe, are placed on a single foundation, which should have emphasized their unity before the Creator God. The emergence of functional gods should not dissuade us from the monotheism of the Eastern Slavs, this phenomenon was convincingly explained by the famous researcher of the Vedas and Avesta S. Dumezil:
Based on written evidence (Byzantine, German, Arab and Old Russian), we can conclude that the Eastern Slavs, on the eve of the adoption of Christianity, believed in a single Creator God, the material embodiment of which was fire. (Svarog is heavenly fire).
Klimov Evgeny Viktorovich, candidate of historical sciences