"Mythology is not a fable, but a truth, reality"
- N. Fedorov (Russian philosopher of the 19th century)
From the depths of the ancestral memory, the image of the “golden mother”, the mistress and mistress of the sacred ancestral home, the lost paradise, where our distant ancestors left … No one knows where she came from and where she went. There are only countless speculations about the fate of the golden statue, which was worshiped by many nations.
It was believed that this is a very ancient pagan idol, a figure of a naked woman cast from pure gold, about one and a half meters high. It was inherited from generation to generation and even from one nation to another. In honor of the "golden mother" (Golden - Golden - Baba) rich sacrifices were arranged, the best deer and other animals were slaughtered, whose meat was immediately roasted and eaten by the priests and the whole people. Expensive donations, mostly gold and silver, were piled into a bowl next to it.
Some say that the statue of the "golden goddess" was brought from China, others - from Iran or India, still others - from Ancient Rome during the fall of the Roman Empire, some consider it a work of local Siberian masters.
And the oldest mention of the statue in Russia we find in the Novgorod Chronicle for 1398. It was recorded after the missionary activity of Stephen of Perm. Stephen walked on the Perm land, in the sanctuaries of the Perm people argued with the priests. The chronicle says: "This teach the Perm land to the faith of Christ, and before that they bowed to the beast and tree, water, fire and the Golden Baba."
The main thing that makes researchers study the stories about the "golden goddess" is the influence (through ancestral memory) of a forgotten myth: after all, the "golden mother", Zlatogorka, according to Slavic mythology, is the daughter of Svyatogor, and he was the king of Atlantis. That is, to be consistent, we should talk about the introduction of the cult of the "golden goddess" from Atlantis, but what self-respecting scientist would risk such a statement? The kinship of the cults of the "great mother" really exists on all continents of the Earth.
The Slavic-Ural origins of the legend about the “golden mother” are also confirmed by her name among the Russians: “golden woman”. This is how the “Mother Goddess” was called in all Slavic lands.
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In ancient times, the cult of the "golden mother" could move to the Urals from the west: from Atlantis, Africa and Western Asia. The earliest ties between the Atlantic and Hyperborean (northern) civilizations are confirmed by the common cult of the "Mother of the World".
It is likely that its origin dates back to the time of matriarchy and to the worldwide cult of the "great goddess." It is believed that the two children, sometimes depicted next to her, are Artemis and Apollo, and, therefore, the "goddess" herself is their mother, the titanide Leto; according to the most archaic information, she conceived from the thunderer Zeus and gave birth to children in the North, in the Hyperborean limits.
Amazing parallels are found in other mythologies, both Finno-Ugric (including Karelian) and Indo-European. One way or another, the golden statue was considered the greatest treasure by both those who possessed it and those who hunted it. It was a powerful talisman, and its owner, explicit or secret, ascended to the highest level among practicing magicians and sorcerers.
The name of the country where the "golden woman" was especially revered - Biarmia - goes back to the name of the god Barma (Indian Brahma). Curious and mysterious is the message about the capital of Biarmia. It bore the same name as the whole country - Korela. The great Russian historian V. N. Tatishchev believed that this place could be an island between two branches of the Vuoksa River, which flows into Lake Ladoga; here, according to the chronicles, at the end of the 12th century, the Russian fortress Korela was built, which was renamed by the Swedes who subsequently captured it in Kexholm (now the city of Priozersk, Leningrad Region).
The name "Biarmia" is associated with the name of the people "Perm" (or "Komi"), in ancient times known as "Beormas". However, it is known that the Komi population in these places was insignificant, and the earliest inhabitants consisted of the “Zavolotsk Chudi”, that is, of the settlers of Vepsian and Karelian origin. Already in the literature of the 19th century, the issue of biarmach was closely related to the history of the Karelian people.
Biarmia stretched over almost the entire space of the present northern Russian provinces: Arkhangelsk, Karelian, Vologda, Vyatka and Perm. The Greek trade route was heading to Biarmia for gold. Greek historians pointed out that gold was obtained precisely from here, that is, from the "far north".
The myth of the "golden maiden" was formed among the ancestors of the Karelians and Finns long before they adopted Christianity, and her cult was quite widespread among the ancient Karelians, as evidenced, in particular, by the texts of the academic edition of the "Karelian-Finnish folk epos" published by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1994 year.
"The Karelian-Finnish folk epos" is the first scientific bilingual edition of the song epic poetry that exists among the Karelians and Finns. The book includes the best examples of runes, thanks to which we see a fairly complete picture of the Karelian-Finnish epic, reflecting the history, ethnography, psychology and customs of the people.
The creator of the world, the god of order and harmony, Väinämöinen, or the deity of air, fire and water, the blacksmith Ilmarinen, are most often depicted as making (forging) the “golden maiden”. By the way, the plot of the epic song about how the "golden maiden" was forged was used by Lennrot in the 37th rune of the complete edition of "Kalevala" and in the composition of this epic, prepared by academician O. Kuusinen.
Surprisingly, the memory of the "golden goddess" is still preserved in remote taiga corners of Karelia. Otherwise, how to treat the fact that the authors of the article recently recorded a unique legend about the "golden woman", which is currently in the village of Kuganavolok, Pudozh district. It was told by one of the local old-timers, an 80-year-old man who himself learned about it from his father and grandfather.
In general, the Pudozh region is the most ancient territory inhabited by people in Karelia. The evidence of this is the stone painting, the so-called petroglyphs of the Besov Nose. Drawings of birds, fish, animals, objects of human use, carved on granite rocks, allow our contemporary to visualize the life and environment of the tribes that lived here three, four thousand years ago.
Since 1227, during the reign of the Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the efforts of the Novgorod boyar squads introduced and strengthened the Christian faith here. However, pagan beliefs proved to be so tenacious that they survived until the 50s of the twentieth century.
The legend tells that in the distant past the "golden goddess" was kept on one of the islands of the picturesque Vodlozero, on the banks of which, many years later, the village of Kuganavolok appeared. It is believed that “sacred trees” still grow on this island, which occupied an important place in the religious beliefs of the peoples living on the territory of modern Karelia and demanded special reverence.
But even more reverence was surrounded by the sacred "golden goddess".
In the X-XI centuries, Christian missionaries came to North-West Russia. To honor a naked woman, albeit made of gold, was not part of their plans. With the advent of Christianity, the ancient cult of "Mother" was supplanted by the cult of the Mother of God. And the local priests of the Magi took away their shrine. Allegedly to fellow pagans on the banks of the Kama.
There is one remarkable detail in the legend. Despite all the precautions, during the crossing the "golden goddess" for some reason broke the little finger on his hand and fell into the water and, allegedly, for a fairly long time, a glow appeared over this place, absolutely uncharacteristic for these places. It was a pillar of light emerging from the depths of the waters and dissolving in the air.
In the XIII century, Christians began to baptize Perm and Zyryans. And again the priests sent the Golden Woman away. This time to the Urals, to the Mansi tribes. And then the Cossacks came to Siberia. The idol was hidden from them in a secret temple somewhere on the Ob. It is known that Ermak Timofeevich himself hunted for this artifact. In 1552, one of his detachments, led by ataman Ivan Bryazga, captured one of the Khanty settlements, where, as the scouts reported, shamans brought the Golden Woman on occasion of some local holiday. The town was burned down - Baba was not found. According to legends, the shamans managed to hide it, then to move it to the very north at the mouth of the Ob. But as Christianity spread, the artifact had to be hidden further and further east. And, according to the latest information, it is supposedly safely hidden somewhere behind the Yenisei, on Taimyr.
Such is the legend, and whatever our attitude to it, it once again testifies to the rich reserved history of our region and complements one more page in the research devoted to the "golden goddess".
Andrey Moiseenko, KP correspondent, Photo by A. Kara