We must start with what the official history operates with. This is from the annals. There are many contradictions. Take Prince Oleg for example. According to the Tale of Bygone Years based on the Kiev Chronicle, Prince Oleg dies from a snakebite and is buried in Kiev on Mount Schekovitsa. In the year 912.
According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, everything is different. Prince Oleg dies from a snakebite in Ladoga, where he is buried. Moreover, 922 is indicated, 10 years later.
The Novgorod Chronicle differs from the Kiev one in the same way that according to it Oleg is not a Kiev prince, but is a Novgorod prince. Kiev is ruled by Igor. This discrepancy gave rise to a lot of versions-explanations from historians who just did not come up with this issue. I will not dwell on this, it is a very long time. There are about a dozen versions, if not more. The Kiev version is now in circulation in school textbooks; they prefer to keep silent about Novgorod in recent years.
What's important here. Between Kiev on the Dnieper and Ladoga 1100 km in a straight line, and all 1500 km along the roads. Not close to be honest. The chroniclers' error of three cubits on the map is surprising, to put it mildly. I would also like to note that in the Novgorod Chronicle, Prince Igor of Kiev is at war with Uglich. And Uglich, by the way, near Yaroslavl, on the Volga River. The distance from Ladoga to Uglich is two times less than from Kiev to Uglich. That is, approximately 500 and 1000 km, respectively (in a straight line). At the same time, there is a direct trade waterway from Ladoga to Uglich; this is the well-known route from the Varangians to the Arabs (the Volga-Caspian route). That is, in principle, there is something to fight for. Control over trade routes has always been a tidbit. For what in this case Kiev would have fought with Uglich is completely incomprehensible, and the most incomprehensible is how the troops would get from Kiev to Uglich.
Separately, I would like to note such a detail that the Novgorod Chronicle indicates that Oleg was bitten by a snake in Ladoga on the way across the sea. It is not specified where Oleg was heading, but there is a sea near Ladoga. And not just one. There, in addition to Lake Ladoga itself, there is also the Baltic Sea, and indirectly you can take Lake Onega with access to the White Sea (Arkhangelsk, etc.). The Kiev chronicle does not have such a detail, just as we do not know the sea near Kiev either. At least according to the official history, while recognizing the modern position of geography.
Now let's move on from the annals to the maps. Let's take a look at Kiev on ancient maps.
Promotional video:
Here is a map of Ortelius from 1570 (all dates and names are official). By the way, on the Internet, this map on a number of resources is signed as a map by François de Belfort dated in 1575.
As we see, there is no Kiev on the Dnieper. Moreover, there is Vyshgorod (Vysehrad). Now Vyshgorod is a suburb of Kiev. Strange, isn't it? By the way, many princes of the chronicles do not have the title of princes of Kiev, but of Vyshgorod, in particular such a famous person as Andrei Bogolyubsky. This fact also blows the minds of historians, and on this score there are no fewer versions-explanations than with Igor-Oleg.
We look at other cards. Again Ortelius and also 1570, map of Europe.
As we can see there is Kiev on it. But in parallel, two Vyshgorods emerge at once. One is higher than Kiev, the other is downstream. But in fact, Vyshgorod is north of Kiev. What a bad luck. How so?
One gets the feeling that this Ortelius has not yet decided whether Kiev should be and, if so, where. About two Vyshgorods I don't even have any assumptions. In any case, the status of Vyshgorod according to Ortelius is higher than that of Kiev, because it is Vyshgorod that is reflected on the world map.
Let's see what else we have. 1548 year. There is no Kiev. And there is no Vyshgorod.
Map of 1565. There is no Kiev.
Map of 1457. There is no Kiev. It's south up here. On the upper edge of the edge of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. True, some cities along the Dnieper are marked, but we do not find the toponym Kiev or Vyshgorod.
Map of 1387. There is no Kiev.
I will end on this. There are not so many maps, but in general the situation is clear. We do not find Kiev on the Dnieper on any map earlier than the middle of the 16th century. In any case, no matter how much I looked, I did not find it. In the late period Kiev was present on the Dnieper.
From all this, what conclusions can be drawn. Very strange. The city, which is credited with a 1,500-year history, is in fact not reflected on maps. Moreover, on the same old maps we find cities well known to us. At Belfort and Ortelius, among other things, Kholmogory and Solovki and other not so significant settlements are indicated. And there is no capital of Kievan Rus. In this case, a certain Vyshgorod emerges as the primary one.
What if we look for another Kiev? As it turned out, we can find something similar. Do you know where? Near Ladoga. Exactly where St. Petersburg is now. There is such a Swedish map, officially dated 1678. On it, the mouth of the Neva is signed as Kiev (Kief or Kiel).
This is a copy from some old card. In Swedish. Naturally, all the names are corrected. There is a similar one in the Izhora and Russian languages. It is called the Geographic Drawing of the Izhora Land. And for some reason it dates back to 1704.
In the vicinity of St. Petersburg, there are other place names reminiscent of ancient Kiev. For example, the village of Kuyvozi, in the old days Kuivosha. An interesting fact is that "Russian" in Finnish still sounds like kuivo or kaivo. That is, the mouth of the Neva signed on the maps by the Finns and Swedes is dialectical variants denoting Russians. Or Russian lands. And most likely there was once a certain Russian center, that is, Kiev. Antediluvian Kiev. When old Kiev went into the abyss (according to my calculations, it is most likely in the 13-14 centuries), someone revived it on the Dnieper in the 16th century.
By the way, there may be another explanation. Kiev is kifa, and kifa is a stone. And Peter is also a stone. Ancient Arabic and Ancient Greek. By the way, Jesus named Peter, his companion (disciple, apostle), Cephoi. Petersburg, as you know, is all made of granite, stone, the only such city in the world. There was Kiev grad (Kif or other dialects), Petrov grad became. In modern terms - Stone City.
Now let's get back to Vyshgorod. If we take the Novgorod Chronicle as a basis, then all the events described are spinning somewhere in the northwest. This is Uglich, this is Novgorod, this is Pskov, this is Kiev at the mouth of the Neva, etc. This means that Vyshgorod should be found somewhere in these parts. Is it logical? Then let's search. And we will find it! There is such a city called Kingisepp. In the Leningrad region. Previously, it was referred to as Yam, Yama, Yamburg, Yamgorod. This city is on the banks of the Luga River. There is an ancient fortress. Moreover, this fortress has two circuits, old and new, one inside the other. The new one is of course relatively, officially its construction dates back to the middle of the 15th century. But the old one. The old one is unknown who and when built. But the most interesting thing is that it has the name Vyshgorod, by the way, until now. Here is a diagram of the fortress. The small fortress inside is Vyshgorod.
But that's not all. There is also Vyshgorod in the Pskov region. By the way, from there Princess Olga, Igor's wife. Yes, I’ll digress, few people know that she became Olga only when she got married, and in Pskov, as a girl, she was called the beautiful name of Preslav. So Pskov Vyshgorod is also a fortress, which stands on the Lada River. The history of this Vyshgorod is extremely vague, but certainly very ancient. Anyone interested can read here. By the way, do you remember the famous phrase of Vladimir Putin about donkey ears? That someone will get there. So this is just about the Pskov Vyshgorod. Latvia claims these lands and demands them from Russia.
And that is not all. There are many Vyshgorods, as it turned out. There are also in the Moscow region. There is also in Tallinn. Part of old Tallinn is still called Vyshgorod. Tallinn is known as the former Russian city of Revel. And all this is northwest, Very far from Kiev on the Dnieper, but very close to Pskov, Novgorod, Ladoga and Kiev on the Neva. Rather, Kiev on the Tosna River, for the Neva will appear later, at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, and will follow the Tosna river bed. Do you know what's the catch? The fact that now in Tallinn Vyshgorod, in one of the castles the Estonian parliament is sitting. Here are the things.
Now it becomes clear why Andrei Bogolyubsky and other princes had the title of Vyshgorodsky, and not Kievsky. Vyshgorod was not a suburb of Kiev on the Dnieper as modern official historians think, but was an independent city, an independent land. The truth is, you still need to determine its location. But exactly what is not on the Dnieper.
Author: zodchi1