"The horse boils under the rider, the saber whistles, the enemy falls … The battle ceased, and in the evening the ladle again moves."
Our fictional-historical books and films about the life of people of the times of tsarist Russia, to a greater extent, draw magnificent balls with handsome officers in hussar uniforms, desperate grunts on the battlefields. These are skilled cavalrymen, valiant warriors and hardened rakes, lovers of alcohol and romance.
“I love a bloody fight, I was born for the royal service!
Saber, vodka, hussar horse, With you my golden age!"
Denis Davydov
However, every officer of the tsarist army was previously educated. And this is what is surprising about the methods of training officers of that time. Along with the well-known disciplines, there was a "Textbook for the Tsarist Army Officers", where officers were given curious knowledge of cosmogonic significance.
Promotional video:
This textbook was published in 1897. Perhaps it was one of the subsequent editions.
The "Essence of Life" section contains several subsections: Life on Earth, Life on Venus, Life on Mars. I managed to find only these sections, but I think this is not a complete list of descriptions of intelligent life in our solar system. Who cares, these sections are publicly available on the Internet.
In this article I will focus on interesting features of life on Venus.
According to the official version of the history of the study of this planet, the atmosphere on it was first discovered by Mikhail Lomonosov, who was the first to notice that during the passage of the visible disk of Venus next to the Sun, a "hair-thin radiance" was observed around the planet. This discovery was made by the scientist in the summer of 1761 … A hundred years before the invention of spectral analysis to determine the composition of the atmosphere.
But Venus is always completely covered with clouds and for a long time no one could see its surface. The surface was first seen only with the help of a Soviet probe, which managed to transmit pictures of the Venusian panorama and the parameters of the atmosphere.
The textbook says that a person passes his first lives on Venus. In the modern concept, this life is explained as one of the forms of astral space, which has the same meanings as in our world. In other words, these are material living organisms that have a form similar to a person on earth, but adapted for the more difficult conditions of the Venusian atmosphere.
And here's what is surprising: the book unambiguously states that there is a huge atmospheric pressure on the planet, which makes the air as dense as water on Earth, and the water on Venus is so dense that it could be walked on.
According to modern data, indeed, atmospheric pressure on the surface of Venus is 92 times higher than on the surface of the Earth. And if there was such pressure on our planet, then a person could freely fly in this atmosphere, just like he floats in water.
However, I invite my readers to take a short trip to this planet on our spaceship and see the views of this planet from the pilot's cabin. If you don't have a space suit, you can order one. In the presence of both spacesuits and overalls, comfortable for flying in a starship. I highly recommend it, since long-term space expeditions are planned on the channel. In the meantime, you can fly in your own clothes.
Where did such knowledge about the parameters of the atmosphere come from in the 19th century? Without going into the religious and philosophical aspects of this textbook, another question arises: why did the officers of the tsarist army need to know about this?
This raises the suspicion that the science of those times was much more advanced than is commonly believed. The pressure on the surface of another planet cannot be calculated by modern methods, except for practical measurement using automatic interplanetary stations.
And our ancestors knew the parameters of the atmosphere of Venus. And for some reason this knowledge was necessary for people who wielded muskets, sabers and other technologies did not know.
And there is no logical explanation for this paradox.
And what do you think?