We figure out where the delusions came from, which humanity perceived as immutable truths
Napoleon complex
What they wrote in the textbooks: Napoleon was small in stature (most often called 157 cm), because of this he developed an inferiority complex, which he tried to overcome by doing great deeds one after another. Based on this idea, the German psychologist Alfred Adler coined the term "Napoleon complex". This expression means the desire of people of short stature to compensate for their lack through aggressive behavior and the desire for unlimited power.
In reality: The historian Bernard Chevalier, who once worked as the director of the Napoleonic-era museum in Malmaison, conducted his own investigation. He tracked down the report of the doctor Francesco Antommarchi, who, in the presence of 18 witnesses, opened the body of Napoleon immediately after his death on St. Helena. Among other things, he indicated that Napoleon's total height is 5 feet 2 inches 4 lines. Translated into the modern metric system, Bonaparte's height was 169 cm. For his contemporaries, he was a man of above average height. The fact is that the era of acceleration has not yet begun and people taller than 180 cm at the beginning of the 19th century were a rare exception. In particular, men with a height of at least 173 cm were taken to the grenadier regiments in France. In other words, the "short man" Napoleon was inferior to the grenadiers in height by only a few centimeters. Why did the myth about the small stature of the emperor arise? According to Chevalier, painters often depicted Napoleon in company with his marshals. And those were real giants. Marshal Mortier reached 195 cm, Murat with a height of 190 cm was only slightly inferior to him. Against their background, even Marshal Ney, with his 180 cm, looked like a shit.
General Raevsky and his sons
What they wrote in the textbooks: During the battle near Saltanovka (a village 12 kilometers from Mogilev), General Raevsky, wounded by buckshot at a critical moment of the battle, brought his sons (16 and 11 years old) ahead and turned to the soldiers with the words: “Soldiers! My children and I will show you the path to glory! Forward for the Tsar and the Fatherland! Inspired by the action of the general, who was ready to sacrifice his sons, the soldiers rushed after the Raevskys to attack and overthrew the French.
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As a matter of fact: Raevsky himself described this episode of the battle to the poet Batyushkov in a completely different way: “True, I was ahead. The soldiers backed away, I encouraged them. Adjutants and orderlies were with me. On the left side, everyone was interrupted and distorted, buckshot stopped on me. But my children were not there at that moment. The youngest son was picking berries in the forest (he was then a living child, and a bullet shot through his trousers). That's the whole anecdote composed in St. Petersburg. Your friend (Zhukovsky) sang in poetry. Engravers, journalists, nouvellists seized the opportunity, and I was granted a Roman. This is how History is written! Nevertheless, this legend was replicated in order to raise the patriotic spirit.
Marie Antoinette and pastries
What they wrote in the textbooks: When the Queen of France, Marie-Antoinette, was informed that the country was hungry and the peasants had no bread, she replied: "If they have no bread, let them eat cakes." This phrase was often used to emphasize the stupidity of aristocrats and their absolute ignorance of the elementary realities of life. It shows a lack of empathy for the suffering of the poor and a high degree of moral decay.
As a matter of fact: Marie Antoinette never said such words. For the first time this quote is mentioned in "Confessions" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and is attributed to some abstract princess. But at the time of writing (1769), Marie Antoinette was a 14-year-old girl living in her homeland in Austria. But the funny thing is that Rousseau's expression sounds in a different context. The author said that he only had money for bread. But I got in the way of eating bread … pride! Here is a genuine quote: “I would never have dared to buy myself. So that the important gentleman, with a sword, went to the baker to buy a piece of bread - how can you! Finally, I remembered what a princess had come up with; when she was told that the peasants had no bread, she replied: "Let them eat brioches," and I began to buy brioches. " However, brioches are by no means cakes. According to the Oxford Handbook of Culinary Arts, "brioche in the 18th century was only a slightly enriched (due to a modest amount of butter and eggs) bun, in fact not far removed from good white bread."
In addition to mistranslation, the distortion of meaning arose from ignorance of French laws. The fact is that in the 18th century, a baker was obliged to sell expensive baked goods (including brioches) at the price of ordinary bread, if it suddenly did not appear in the shop. In this case, the phrase "Let them eat the brioches" means that the merchants are instructed to sell expensive baked goods at a cheap price. However, this did not stop the French from chopping off Marie Antoinette's head.
Slaves and the Egyptian pyramids
What they wrote in the textbooks: The pyramids were erected by slaves by order of the Pharaoh. So, according to the assessment of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who was the first to describe the process of building these huge tombs, 100 thousand slaves were rounded up to build the pyramid of Cheops. During the construction, slaves died in the thousands from hunger and from the scourge of cruel overseers.
What it really is: More recently, Egyptologists have unearthed a town of pyramid builders in the Giza Valley. It was located 400 meters south of the Sphinx statue. The workers who built the pyramid of Pharaoh Menkaur lived there. It turned out that the builders lived in very good living conditions, comfortable houses for those times were built for them. The camp was designed to accommodate 10 thousand people. A huge number of bones of cattle and small ruminants were found nearby. According to Egyptologists, 11 cows and 37 goats or sheep were slaughtered every day to feed the workers, which amounted to about 1,600 kilograms of meat. Thus, the pyramid builders ate significantly better than the Egyptian peasants. Another surprising discovery archaeologists made by excavating a builders' cemetery. They looked primarily for skeletons with trauma marks,to understand what kind of medical care was provided to the ancient Egyptian laborers. Most fractures (including complex ones) have completely healed. The medical techniques that were used were identical to those of the ancient Egyptian aristocracy! The head of archaeological work on the Giza plateau, Dr. Zahi Hawass, came to the conclusion that the pyramids were not built by slaves, but by free people. There were two categories of workers: artisans and seasonal workers. The first lived in construction camps permanently, received wages, had families (some were buried next to their spouses). The second came for 2-3 months, when unskilled labor was needed in order, for example, to move huge blocks to the construction site. Most likely, they were peasants,who thus served labor service (analogue of the construction battalion). The workers were divided into teams, between which a competition was arranged. Each had its own motto and name, for example "Endurance" or "Perfection". This suggests that the pyramids were a kind of great construction sites of socialism, such as the BAM.
Battle of Kulikovo and chronicles
What they wrote in the textbooks: The Battle of Kulikovo became the greatest battle of the Middle Ages. The Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy gathered under his banners from 300 to 400 thousand soldiers (the last figure is called by the Nikon Chronicle), 800 thousand people took the side of Mamai.
In reality: Most historians are inclined to believe that the number of Russian troops hardly exceeded 30 thousand warriors. And recently, more and more often they call the figure of 10 thousand soldiers. The calculations take into account the small size of the battlefield and the real demographic situation in the Russian lands: for example, the population of Moscow at that time did not exceed 50 thousand people, and the number of combat-ready men was, naturally, several times less. Why do the chroniclers, whose task is to preserve history for posterity, give such absurd figures? In the chronicle sources of such incredible data on the number of troops - a huge amount. According to Andrey Desnitsky, a leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there are several explanations for this phenomenon.
- In ancient times, the figure did not have its almost mystical meaning today, - explains Desnitsky. - The numbers conveyed more meaning than quantity. There were no numbers in the annals, everything was written in words. According to the structure, the army was divided into thousands, hundreds, tens. But we know from recent history that a Cossack “hundred” does not necessarily contain 100 Cossacks. There may be fewer of them. Perhaps by "hundreds" were meant detachments, in which there could be 10 people? In turn, the word "thousand" can also mean not a number. Then there was not a conscript army and not a professional one, but a militia. When the war began, adult men took weapons and went to fight. But this does not mean that they were built and divided. Maybe a thousand is a few units of "hundreds." And there are not a hundred of them either. Then how many are there in this thousand? Unknown. There is another explanation as well. When used, manuscripts deteriorate and are rewritten. And since this is a sacred sublime story, the numbers increase during rewriting, especially when the old manuscript is poorly read and the scribe hesitates and cannot understand what is written: a hundred or a thousand.
Yaroslav KOROBATOV