The Battle of Kulikovo became one of the most outstanding turning points in Russian history. It would seem that we know a lot about her.
And yet … There is an alternative version, which says that the legendary battle did not take place on the Kulikovo field, but … on the territory of present-day Moscow!
New chronology of Russia
Traditionally, it is believed that the Kulikovo field is located between the Nepryadva and Don rivers, now the Kurkinsky district of the Tula region, about 300 kilometers south of Moscow. Indications of this are allegedly contained in the story "3a-donshchina" (a monument of ancient Russian literature of the XIV century), which is considered the primary source of information about the Kulikovo battle.
However, here is a strange thing - during excavations on the mentioned field, it seems that no traces of the battle that once raged there were found! No ancient weapons, no military graves … Besides, as experts believe, the size of the field is too small for a battle of this scale. Maybe the fight took place in a completely different place?
Gleb Nosovsky and Anatoly Fomenko put forward their rather original, however, supported by some facts version in the work "New Chronology of Russia". According to this work, the Battle of Kulikovo took place not at all near Tula, but almost on Red Square - literally at the very Kremlin walls!
This is indirectly evidenced by the name of the historical district of Moscow in the eastern part of the White City - Kulishki, as well as the Church of All Saints on Slavyanskaya Square, near the current metro station Kitay-Gorod, according to legend, built by Dmitry Donskoy in memory of the soldiers who died in the Battle of Kulikovo. Solyanka Street, also located in the Kitay-Gorod metro area, used to be called Kulizhki.
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Geographic charades
By the way, information that the Moscow name Kulishki came from the Kulikov field is also found in the collection Old Moscow, published at the end of the 19th century. True, this assumption is disputed there, but it is mentioned that "Kulishki existed before Moscow."
In "Zadonshchina", according to Nosovsky and Fomenko, there are many indications of the true location of the Kulikov field. So, Mamai's headquarters during the Kulikovo battle was located "on the Red Hill". As the source testifies, before the start of the battle, the Russian "watchmen of Melik withdrew gradually under the pressure of the Tatars to Nepryadva, to the Red Hill, from the top of which the whole neighborhood was visible." In Moscow, near the Yauzsky gate, there is Red Hill, at the very top of which Taganskaya Square is now located. Nearby - Krasnokholmskaya embankment and Krasnokholmsky bridge. And not far from the Kremlin is Krasnaya Gorka, on which the old building of Moscow University stands.
Many of the names mentioned in the annals related to the Battle of Kulikovo echo the names of Moscow streets and districts: Kuzmina Gat - Kuzminki, Trumpet Glasses - Trubnaya Square, Maiden Field - Novodevichy Convent, Kolomna - Kolomenskoe, Sword "- Mocha (a tributary of the Moskva River)," Kotel "- the Kotlovka River near Kolomenskoye … Then what does the Don have to do with it? And the fact is that "don" in Old Church Slavonic means simply "river". In addition, the river, now called Don, in the old days was called differently - Tanais …
In Moscow, there are also names derived from the root "don" - at least the Donskoy Monastery on "Shabolovskaya". The Nepryadva river is the Naprudnaya (Samoteka) river, located just in the Kulishek region!
Remains in the Simonov Monastery
Another burning question - where are the soldiers who died in the Kulikovo battle buried? According to chronicle sources, about 250 thousand people were killed on the Kulikovo field. After the end of the battle “Prince the Great stood behind the Don on the battlefield for eight days, until the Christians were separated from the wicked. The bodies of Christians were buried in the ground, the wicked bodies were thrown to beasts and birds to be torn apart."
At the same time, it is absolutely certain that the most famous heroes of the Kulikovo massacre - warriors-monks Peresvet and Oslyabya - were buried near the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Moscow Simonov monastery. Why then there, and not in their "native" Trinity (now Trinity-Sergius) monastery? But if we assume that the battle took place on the territory of modern Moscow and the bodies of the dead were buried there, then everything immediately falls into place. Nosovsky and Fomenko suggest that the fallen heroes were not taken away anywhere, but right on the site of the battle they laid the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, since it was on this holiday that the battle took place …
The authors of the alternative version are convinced that it is the Simonovsky Monastery that serves as the mass grave of the ancient soldiers who died in the Kulikovo battle. On June 15, 1994, Nosovsky and Fomenko visited this monastery to find traces of military graves. And their instincts did not deceive them!
“We did not have time to enter the site in front of the church, when our attention was attracted by a huge wooden box, already lowered into a fresh grave and prepared for burial,” the researchers recall. - Before our eyes, the worker began to fill the grave with earth. When asked who he was burying, the church headman and workers who were present at the ceremony willingly told us the following. It turns out that all the ground around the church within a radius of about one hundred meters and to a depth of several meters is literally crammed with human skulls and bones."
Warriors die young …
As the researchers found out, the box contained bones recently dug from the ground during the construction of the cellar. The worker who was in charge of the burial graciously allowed the scientists to photograph the contents of the "coffin".
During the conversation, the same workers said some interesting things. First, the remains were lying in the ground in a completely disordered manner. One of the skeletons was even placed vertically upside down. Most likely, it was about a mass grave, and done in a hurry …
Second, almost all skulls had healthy and intact teeth. It is clear that among the warriors there are no feeble old people …
Thirdly, there were also found stone tombstones of the same shape and size, devoid of any inscriptions. At the same time, all the tombstones had the same pattern: in the center there was a plaque, from which three stripes extend: a straight line - down and two arcs - up. It looks a lot like a warrior's shield.
It is interesting that on the boards there was no image of a cross, which is familiar to us. The fact is that the custom of baptizing babies appeared in Russia only in the 15th century. Before that, baptism was carried out in adulthood, so many soldiers could remain unbaptized.
Fourthly, no remains of coffins, metal objects, clothing, and other things were found. Only bones. This indicates that the burial is so ancient that wood, metal and fabrics over many centuries managed to completely decay, rot or corrode, which turned everything into dust. By the way, the archaeologists who visited the burial site confidently dated it to the XIV century!
Ashes near Tula
At the same time, recent research still speaks in favor of the traditional version of the Battle of Kulikovo. In 2006, in the area of the alleged battle in the Tula region, archaeological excavations were carried out, accompanied by georadar surveys. They were carried out by the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Mechanized Building Tools, the State Museum-Reserve "Kulikovo Pole" and the Foundation for Underwater Archaeological Research named after V. D. Blavatsky.
In soil samples taken during the excavation, particles of organic dust were found, similar to those usually found at burial sites. So far, it has not been possible to establish who the ashes belong to - people or animals, but since it was found at a rather shallow depth - no more than one meter, then with a high probability it can be argued that this is not a cattle burial ground. But deeply burying a huge number of dead bodies after the battle would be problematic.
But where did the bones of the warriors go? There is no answer to this question yet. Only further excavations, as well as physicochemical analysis of the soil, can give it.
Source: Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 16. Maria Podoletskaya