It is impossible to imagine medieval Europe without knightly orders. At the same time, it is rather strange that similar military formations did not officially exist in Russia in those years. The famous historian and writer Andrei Sinelnikov claims that this is not so. Such structures did not just exist, one of them was even headed by Alexander Nevsky.
Nevsky order
After a long work in the archives, Sinelnikov in his lectures repeatedly pointed out that the nickname of the Novgorod Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich - "Nevsky" - was received by him not only thanks to the defeat of the German knights on the Neva River, but also because he led the military structure, which was called the Nevsky Order … In Russia, practically nothing is known about this order, while in the West it is quite popular. As confirmation of his words, the historian cites a book published in Spain about the military-monastic orders of the world. The first five orders include the Nevsky Order. Moreover, it is important to note that this structure existed even before Alexander Yaroslavovich became its head. At the same time, Andrei Sinelnikov notes that calling this organization an order is not entirely correct, since it was a military monastic brotherhood.
The fact is that in the world since the XI century there have been orders that can be conditionally divided into three groups: nursing, praying and fighting. Later, two more types of orders were added to them: various secret societies, as well as military monastic brotherhoods. The same Teutonic Order was a brotherhood. Its full name sounds like the Brotherhood of the Horsemen of the German House of Mary the Virgin of the Teutonic Temple. There were similar orders in Russia. In particular, in the chronicle "The Walking of Abbot Daniel from the Russian Land" (to the Holy Land, to the city of Jerusalem), it is said about the presence of two Russian squads on Mount Zion: Vladimirskaya and Suzdal. In fact, they were an example of Russian military-monastic orders. At the same time, representatives of the Templar Order were located nearby.
Extra men
The most interesting thing is that the appearance of military-monastic orders in Russia was, according to the historian, dictated in fact by living conditions. The fact is that women in Russia strove to live with adults who were men in all respects. Therefore, many young men were left out of family and social life. And so that social explosions did not arise, some boys from large families from the age of eight were assigned to military orders, called wolf unions. They recruited those children for whom it would be difficult in the future to learn a craft or go into trade. At the age of 13, such young men received the right to carry weapons. Subsequently, these orders took part in religious campaigns and defended the Russian land from enemies. Alexander Yaroslavovich was the Grand Master of one of these orders called Nevsky. At the same time, in the European chronicles one can find a mention of the fact that the masters of military orders of Europe, friendly to Russia, came to the celebration dedicated to the birth of the son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel.
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Fortress of the Nevsky Order
In Europe, it was customary for each order to have its own fortress, and sometimes even several. The Nevsky Order was no exception. Its main fortress, Nyenskans, was located at the mouth of the Okhta River, on the site of modern St. Petersburg. The name of the fortress was Swedish (translated as "Nevsky Fortification"), since until 1300 it belonged to the Swedes, who, according to the "Chronicles of Erik", were expelled from it by the representatives of the Nevsky Order, at that time headed by the son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei Gorodetsky. This was after the death of Alexander Nevsky, although during his lifetime the order also possessed a number of fortresses on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
Dmitry Sokolov