On the Val, on the Eletsky and Boldin mountains and in other places. Remains of Slavic ancestral settlements of the 7th-8th centuries were found on the territory of the modern city. The high bank of the Desna River, cut by deep ravines, was a natural (created by nature) fortifications, which made it possible to simultaneously create several protected settlements in this area. The further growth of these settlements led in the 7th century. to their merger and the formation of a city occupying an advantageous geographical position in the wide basin of the Desna River. Chernigov already in the IX century. becomes the center of the Seversk land, one of the largest cities of ancient Russia. The rapid growth of the city was facilitated by a favorable geographical position in the Desna basin and its tributaries, Snov and Seim. Along the Desna the city kept in touch with Kiev and further along the Dnieper with Byzantium. Desna opened access to the lands in the upper reaches of the Volga and Oka, as well as to Novgorod. On the Volga-Don route, Chernigov maintained contact with the Arab East. Crafts, agriculture and trade formed the basis of the economic activity of Chernigov.

Time of Kievan Rus (IX-XIII centuries)

Chernigov is an ancient settlement of the East Slavic tribe of the north. Oleg at the end of the 9th century conquered the country of the north, which lived along the Desna, this town, obviously, already existed, since on the stone, preserved in the oldest church of the city, there is a mark referring, in translation from the Greek chronology, to the beginning of the 10th century. Becoming in the IX century. the center of the Seversk land, already in the X century. Chernigov, along with other cities, is important in the defense of the ancient Russian state from external enemies. In the XI-XIII centuries. Chernigov is the capital city of the Chernigov-Seversky principality, which occupied vast areas of the left bank of the Dnieper. Along with Kiev and Novgorod, Chernigov is one of the centers of ancient Russian culture, a treasury of the architecture of ancient Russia. Outstanding architectural monuments of the 11th-13th centuries are still preserved here. Thus, during the X-XIII centuries. Chernigov was the second economic, political and cultural center of Kievan Rus after Kiev.

Since 1024, Chernigov has become the center of a grand principality, the western border of which was the Dnieper, in the South-East its lands extended to the North Caucasus, and in the North-East they reached the banks of the Oka and Moscow rivers. Almost half of the old Russian lands were part of the Chernigov principality.

Transfiguration Cathedral

The first Chernigov prince, about whom it is known not only from the excavations of the burial mounds, but also from the chronicles, was Mstislav, the brother of the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise. In the center of his capital city - "Detinets" (the territory of modern Val), he founded the princely court and began the construction of the Savior Cathedral, which has survived to this day.

After the death of Mstislav, in 1036, Chernigov again becomes subordinate to the Kiev prince Yaroslav. However, already in 1054 the old Russian land was divided among the sons of Yaroslav. The Chernigov principality went to Svyatoslav II, from which the continuous family of the Chernigov princes began.

At the end of the 11th century, in ancient Russia, princely feuds flared up again. The history of Chernigov of this period was marked by a number of bloody wars. The city has repeatedly passed from hand to hand. In 1078 it was taken by storm by Vladimir Monomakh, who reigned here until the age of 18. After the Lyubech Congress of Princes in 1097, Chernigov went to David Svyatoslavovich. From that moment on, the Chernigov land forever left the power of the Kiev prince.

During the period of feudal fragmentation of the XII and early XIII centuries. Chernigov retained the glory of one of the largest cities in Russia. It remained the capital city of the great principality, and the Chernigov princes were the owners of many appanage principalities.

The modern view of the Pyatnitskaya church

Chernigov at that time was the second largest city in Russia (yielding superiority to Kiev), an important political, economic and cultural center. It had its own monetary system. Architecture reached a special development. The buildings of that time have survived to this day: the Spassky, Borisoglebsky and Assumption Cathedrals; Ilyinskaya and Pyatnitskaya churches. During excavations in different parts of the city, foundations of a number of civil structures were discovered, including the ruins of stone princely and boyar buildings. For ancient Chernigov, the contrast between the mansions of the rich and the squalid dwellings of the common people is characteristic. The city was famous for its objects of applied art.

In the XI-XII centuries. Chernigov consisted of three parts, each of which occupied a natural protrusion of the river bank, was surrounded by a rampart and was separated from one another by deep ditches. Parts in the annals are indicated under the titles:

• "Detinets" (Kremlin) - the administrative and political center of the city, was located on a mountain at the confluence of the right tributary of the Strizhnya into the Desna (the territory of the modern nature reserve Val);
• "Roundabout city" - adjacent to Detinets from the South-West, occupied a large territory where the bulk of the population lived;
• The “suburb” was located behind the roundabout city. The total length of the rampart of the foreland reached 7 km. The ancient city was surrounded by suburban villages and boyar estates.

In Chernigov, the chronicle was stored, lived and wrote Vladimir Monomakh, Abbot Daniel, Prince Svyatoslav Davydovich. On the Chernigov land (about 1187) an immortal poem, a monument of Old Russian literature "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" was created.

The economic and cultural development of Chernigov took place in close proximity to Kiev, Novgorod and other ancient Russian cities. Chernigov played an important role in the formation and development of the state and culture of ancient Russia. In the XI-XII centuries, the city was ravaged several times during the princely feuds, as well as the Polovtsians.

Tatar-Mongol yoke (1239-1320)

The development of the city was interrupted for a long time by the invasion of the horde of Khan Batu. In October 1239, the Tatar horde led by Han Mengu attacked Chernigov. A fierce battle unfolded under the walls of the city, but the forces were unequal, and there was nowhere to wait for help. On October 12, the surrounded city fell. The Resurrection Chronicle reports: “th multitude from howl ( modern- warriors) he was beaten by byst and hail, taking and burning with fire. " Excavations fully confirm the literary notification of the tragedy. Chernigov was turned into ruins, most of the inhabitants were either killed or driven into slavery. The rest of the population of the principality went north. Nevertheless, the institution of princely power was preserved. Later, the heads (princes) of the city (Mikhail Vsevolodovich and his son Roman Mikhailovich Stary) were executed due to the refusal to perform a pagan rite, which they had to perform by order hana.

The times of the reign of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Chernigov in the second half of the XIV century was annexed to the State of Lithuania. The Lithuanians sought to turn Chernigov into an outpost on the southeastern border of their possessions. In the period 70-80s. 14th century a wooden fortress was built to protect against the raids of the Tatars. The city was ruled by the governors of the Grand Duchy. Due to the favorable geopolitical location, the city began to gradually revive. Chernihiv becomes a transit point not only for salt, resin and potash, but also for oriental goods: silk fabrics, carpets, brocade, fruits and spices.

As part of the principality of Moscow (Muscovy)

The war between Lithuania and Russia - years. secured Chernigov for the Moscow principality. In the city on the territory of the Chernihiv Detinets by the command of the great sovereign Vasily Ivanovich ... the city of Chernigov drevyan was cut down... A fairly powerful fortress at that time was a citadel castle.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the population of Chernigov was gradually growing. The vast majority of houses are wooden. The area of ​​obligatory stone buildings was limited to the Red (bazaar) square. The central streets were lit with gas lamps, and electric lighting was introduced in 1895. Cartage was dominant. The main cargo was transported along the Desna. At the beginning of the 20th century, horse-drawn coaches to Gomel and Kozelets run along the Kiev-Petersburg highway.

As part of the USSR

Times of independent Ukraine

According to the last census in 2001, the population was 312.0 thousand people.

• Population as of 01.01.2006 - 299 600 inhabitants.

Notes (edit)

Literature

• Yatsura M.T. Chernigov. Reference guide. Kiev region book and newspaper vidavnistvo, 1961 (ukr.)

see also

Links

History of settlements in the Chernihiv region
Avdeevka | Anisov | Baturin | Bakhmach | Bezuglovka | Bobrovitsa | Borzna | Varva | Vedilians | Great Zagorovka | Vertievka | Vykhvostov | Gorodnya | Degtyari | Zhovtnevoe | Ichnya | Kozelets | Korop | Koryukovka Kulikovka | Lyubech | Little Maid | Mena | Monastery | Nizhyn | New Basan | Novgorod-Seversky | New Borovichi | Sock | Oster | Pekurovka | Sands | Fire victims | Priluki | Turnip | Sednev | Semyonovka | Sosnitsa | Silver | Stolnoe | Talalaevka | Trostyanets | Hills | Red Partisans | Chernihiv| Shapovalovka | Shchors

CHERNIGOV

Chernigov is one of the oldest Russian cities, the time of its foundation is lost in ancient times. The oldest authentic documents are already known to Chernigov, as one of the largest cities in Russia. Oleg's treaty with the Byzantine emperors Leo and Constantine in 907 places Chernigov immediately after Kiev in the list of cities receiving indemnity from Byzantium. In the middle of the 10th century, Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions it among the most important cities of Russia.

In 1024, Prince Mstislav Tmutarakansky gives his brother Yaroslav Kiev, and chooses Chernigov for himself, turning it into the capital of the entire Dnieper left bank, the entire forest-steppe belt, the Don steppes and the strategic key of the Black Sea region - the Tmutarakan land (Russian principality on the Kuban River).

Chernigov land has always been open from the side of the steppe, and warriors from the far southeast often appeared near the steppes of its capital: either the Yases (Alans) and Kasogs (Circassians), then the mysterious "Tatrans were, may have been."

At the end of the 11th century, Vladimir Monomakh reigns in Chernigov, and in the 12th century the city passes into the hands of the descendants of Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich - first the Davydovichs, and then the restless Olgovichs, whose ancestral nest Chernigov became for a whole century.

Detinets is the Kremlin, the fortified central part of the ancient city.

ANCIENT CHERNIGOV

The burial mounds in Elovsh are not

.- ^ Old cemetery

Plan of ancient Chernigov and plan of Vshchizhsky settlement Both plans are given on the same scale

Along with Kiev, Chernigov firmly entered the Russian epic epic. In Chernigov, its own literature was created, known to us, unfortunately, only in fragments.

Chernigov was the center of a large principality, the boundaries of which in the north passed through the Vyatka forests, and in the south coincided with the general boundaries of the settlement of Russians. The Chernigov diocese extended all the way to Ryazan. The presence around ancient Chernigov of a vast necropolis with princely and boyar mounds, the richest in Russia, the preservation of the most ancient of Russian architectural monuments on the territory of the city - all this gives Chernigov a special value as an important object of versatile study.

The city of Chernigov is located on the high hilly bank of the Desna River, in the place where it makes a sharp turn to the south-west, towards Kiev.

Local historians count on the territory of Chernigov up to four ancient settlements, which formed a characteristic nest of ancestral fortresses. Here the later chronicle Chernigov could develop. It was by the fusion of several small family fortified settlements that such ancient cities as Kiev or Isko-Rosten were formed. The banks of the Desna, cut by deep ravines, made it possible to simultaneously create several fortifications adjacent to each other.

Detinets is located at the mouth of the Strizhnya River, which flows into the Desna on the right.

An ancient settlement adjoins its northwestern side, which is twice the area of ​​Detinets; the eastern border of the posad also rests on Strizhen. From the west, the third part of the city, which bore the name "Tretyak", adjoins the settlement and the Detinets, which is equal in area to the Detinets, but stretches along the coast from east to west. Even further to the west, as if continuing the Tretyak, is the territory of the Eletsky Assumption Monastery, founded in the 11th century. Each of the sections of the city occupies a natural spur of the coast and is separated from the neighboring ones by deep and wide ravines.

The last belt of Chernigov fortifications began from the Yeletsky monastery. The rampart, traces of which are still preserved in some places, goes from the monastery to the north, perpendicular to the line of the coastal cliff, and then / turns to the east, covering a significant territory in the north of the listed coastal parts of the city (Tretyak, Detinets, etc.). The line of these fortifications crosses the Strizhen River and goes along Zastry-zhenya, then turning south and joining the settlement near the northeastern corner of Detinets. The total length of this shaft is about 6.5 kilometers. Inside this northern half-ring of fortifications is

the church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa na Torgu, built at the very end of the 12th century, the remains of two large 10th century burial mounds - "Princess Cherny" (dug in 1851) and the famous "Black Tomb" (pagan burial in the mound of a Slavic prince).

Outside the northern semicircle (I will call it conditionally the second posad), a number of mound groups remained until the 19th century, stretching far to the sides from Chernigov and representing the remains of a huge cemetery that surrounded the city from all sides.

On the left bank of the Desna, not far from the Church of Elijah, on a sandy hill, surrounded on all sides by canals and swamps, was the "Holy Grove" 1. The ancient city was surrounded by suburban villages, boyar estates, and burial mounds.

The terms used by the chronicle to designate various parts of the city are explained as follows:

1. "Detinets", or "dneshniy grad", is what in the 17th-18th centuries was called an old fortress, a fortress.

2. "Okolny Grad" - the second belt of city fortifications, adjoining from the north to Detinets, and possibly extending far to the west (Tretyak) to the Yeletsky monastery, which arose in the second half of the 11th century. Traces of the fortifications of the "roundabout town" were noticeable as early as the 18th century.

In the east, the Okolny Grad rested on the Strizhen River, and there was a gate here.

3. "The front of the city with a prison." By the middle of the XII century, the volume of the capital of the Chernigov principality was to expand greatly. Judging by the fact that the front of the city was taken by some Polovtsians (poor masters of storming cities), without the participation of the main troops of Prince Dolgoruky, one must think that the prison was not a particularly strong fortification barrier.

The indisputable confinement of the annalistic terms to the parts of the Chernigov fortifications known to us is hardly possible. In terms of its absolute size, the Chernigov Detinets, together with the roundabout city (including the Tretyak in its composition), is equal to Kiev in the time of Yaroslav the Wise.

Chernigov in the era of the formation of the ancient Russian state

Ancient Chernigov of the 9th-10th centuries is not yet known to us enough; the remains of his dwellings, streets and palaces are hidden under later layers, and only here and there during excavations at great depths are adobe ovens, houses cut into the ground and stucco (i.e. made simply by hand, without the use of a potter's wheel) ceramics VIII-IX centuries. Remnants of the cultural layer of this era are traced in the Chernigov Detinets on

There are similar tracts associated with the pagan cult of "groves" in almost every ancient Russian city. Near Novgorod the Great, at the exit from Volkhov to Lake Ilmen, there was "Perunya Roshcha", and later the Perynsky skete. According to legend, this place is associated with the cult of Perun.

b Ancient Russia

Boyar burial mounds of the 9th-10th centuries on the Boldin Hills near Chernigov

A significant area up the Strizhnya River and in other parts of the city.

Judging by the fact that two rich princely graves of Chernigov of the 10th century are located at the very walls of the "Okolny Grad", one can think that the emergence of this line of fortifications refers to the same time. The city was made up of a number of ancient settlements that arose on the picturesque spurs of the high bank of the Desna, and the earthen rampart of the "roundabout city" united the hill of the Eletsky monastery, and the Tretyak, and the "present city" at the mouth of the Strizhnya river.

Knowing little about the city itself and its buildings, we can form an idea of ​​its population from the vast necropolis.

The famous Chernigov burial mounds once framed the city walls in a wide arc and diverged in beams in the direction of the most important

roads - to the southwest, to the northeast and to the north. The dimensions of the necropolis at the present time do not lend themselves to any precise definition, since thousands of mounds that existed in the 19th century were destroyed and razed to the ground.

We cannot determine how close the necropolis came to the walls of the Detinets, but we can assert that the area of ​​the Knyazhny Cherny and Black Tomb barrow in the 10th century was already outside the city walls.

An analysis of the Chernigov necropolis makes it possible to highlight a number of important historical issues, such as, for example, about boyar and princely life, the topography of suburban villages and boyar estates and the time of their emergence, about pagan rituals, etc. The answer to all these questions can be obtained only in as a result of dating the burial mounds and a comprehensive study of inventory and burial rites. Sometimes it is possible to catch age differences from the burial inventory.

In the 9th-10th centuries, two burial rites existed simultaneously: cremations and burials in a spacious pit with a frame. Log tombs found in the immediate vicinity of Chernigov contained the burials of a warrior with a horse. Consider a mound near the village of Gushchina. A saddled and bridled horse is placed in the northern part of the burial chamber, and in the southern part - the warrior himself with a battle ax, spear and other items of warrior's equipment. At the feet of the deceased, according to the Slavic custom, a pot, decorated with a linear-wavy ornament, and a wooden bucket were placed.

Log tombs of Russian soldiers are reflected in epics; such is, for example, the epic about Mikhail Potok.

Age differences in the decorations found in the mounds of the XI-XII centuries at the city cemetery of Chernigov

And then they began to dig a grave,

They dug a grave deep and great.

Deep, twenty fathoms wide,

And then Potok Mikhailo Ivanovich With a horse and a harness of war Sinked into that deep grave.

And twirled the ceiling with oak And covered with yellow sands.

In the Chernigov necropolis, cremations were also common.

Both of these burial rites among the Rus are described by Arab writers of the 10th century.

Chernihiv burial mounds of the 1st - 10th centuries with cremations are the most precious historical source. They, firstly, introduce us into the Complex world of pagan ideas and rituals, and secondly, they reveal to us the life of warriors, boyars and princes with such completeness that is inaccessible to all other types of sources, and, thirdly, they allow us to make a number of very important conclusions about the nature of the placement of vigilantes and boyars in the vicinity of the capital city, that is, the placement associated with boyar country estates.

The funeral rite was complex and varied depending on the social status of the deceased. The burial mound cemetery located to the north of the 12th century Chernihiv "prison" can be considered as examples of the burials of the warriors of the 9th-10th centuries.

The mounds of these mounds with a height of 3 to 7 meters and a diameter of 10 to 25 meters covered the remnants of fires formed from the burning of "dominoes", or, as the chronicler called them, "pillars" - small burial houses built of thin, flammable logs ...

The idea of ​​the “house of the dead” is equally inherent in burials in pits, when a grave is dug in the form of a large house, and in cremations, when only logs remain of the house. The boyar and princely burial mounds of Chernigov, which have their own special names, are of exceptional interest. I will dwell on two of them - "Gulbische" and "Black Grave".

The burial ceremony was carried out as follows: on the site of the future burial mound, in its center, an embankment was erected in the form of a truncated cone, about 1.5 meters high and 10 meters in diameter. A house for the deceased and his wife was built on this embankment (which may have been called in antiquity "theft"); all the things necessary for the ceremony (weapons, dishes, horses, bulls, saddles, tools) were packed into the house, and all this, surrounded by brushwood and straw, was set on fire during the funeral lamentation and cries of numerous relatives.

After the fire burned out, the relatives of the deceased removed his remains from the fireplace: chain mail with half-burnt bones stuck to it and a helmet with the remains of a skull. All this was temporarily taken to the side and a huge embankment with a thickened top was erected on the site of the fire. The circumference of such an embankment in the "Black Tomb" reached 125 meters.

Armors from the fireplace, and ceremonial things put on the funeral time

Second clay mound

Primary embankment (from the ditch)

Adding h. ^ Estimated

under the fire place "Yadyn" -

Domoviny's caste *

Campfire

Section of the Chorna Mogila burial mound according to updated data

Reconstruction of the prince's burial in the "pillar" according to the excavations of the "Black Mogila" mound in Chernigov (mid-10th century)

the moat and inside it could fit, for example, the Cathedral of Chernigov (Savior Cathedral, 1036) and two churches.

Above, an area of ​​about 1,000 square meters was formed. meters, in the center of which armor was laid, or, more precisely, the remains of the deceased along with armor, removed in advance from the fireplace.

The area around these remains is heavily rammed; this suggests that it served as a place for performing some part of the funeral ritual. In all likelihood, at this time, "strava" and "funeral" were performed for the deceased. Strava is a commemoration, a funeral feast, for which there was enough space at the top of the embankment. Trize-

on - this is a fight, a competition, festing - war games in honor of a deceased warrior.

Trizna managed obviously when the top of the embankment was crowned with armor.

After these celebrations, the burial mound was almost doubled, up to g, bringing its height to 11-12 meters, and the volume to 6,000 cubic meters. meters of earth and clay.

At the very top of the finally poured mound, a pillar was erected with the name of the deceased. The remains of such a pillar have been preserved in the Black Tomb.

The Gulbische burial mound on the Boldin Hills in the vicinity of Chernigov can serve as an example of a rich boyar burial. Its date is the end of the 9th-beginning of the 10th century. To the top of the half-buried mound, the relatives carried here not only the remains of the deceased (in chain mail and in a helmet), but also weapons: a huge sword in a sheath, a spear, large stirrups, a bit, arrows, an ax and a shield.

The Black Grave mound, dating from the Byzantine gold coin of 945-959, contained three burials: men, boys and women. A number of considerations make us think that not just a noble and rich man was buried here, but a prince. This is supported by the purpose of the things that were erected on the half-filled mound.

During the filling of the Black Tomb, the people leading the funeral rite did not bother to pull up all the weapons; they left many weapons in the fire. But on the other hand, they were very attentive to envisioning the connection between the buried and the cult in a richer way. Here we see two turih horns (obligatory attributes of Slavic deities), two sacrificial knives and, finally, a bronze idol. The contemporaries of the deceased made it clear to us that under the embankment of the "Black Tomb" lie people endowed with the rights of not only military leaders, but also priests, people who may need in the next world knives for slaughtering victims and sacred rhytons 1 to proclaim prosperity to their fellow tribesmen.

Helmets and parts of a bow from the Chernigov burial mounds of the 9th-10th centuries

1 Rhytons are drinking vessels from the horn.

Such a combination of a warrior and a priest could only be in the person of the prince. We know that among the Slavs, princes often performed the functions of high priests. I think that we have the right to recognize only two as the princely mounds of Chernigov - the mound of Princess Cherny, where a noble warrior equipped with a tur'i horn was buried, and the Black Grave, where one or two noble warriors with turi horns were buried.

Mounds "Gulbische" and "Black Tomb", as well as a number of other close to them Chernigov mounds of the 9th-10th centuries, gave science hundreds of the most valuable things, allowing to restore the types of clothing and weapons of the Russian boyars and princes of that time. Let us dwell on such rare objects as the horns of the Black Grave (mid-10th century).

The ancient Russian feasts sung in epics are in themselves a remnant of a pagan ritual; it is possible that drinking from the horns, as the most archaic type of dishes, was one of the elements of the pagan festival.

Turius horn later becomes an obligatory attribute of the Slavic gods.

The brightest and most interesting in terms of artistic performance are undoubtedly two horns from the "Black Tomb". These antlers first became known from the works of D. Ya. Samokvasov (in 1874). Since then, they have often attracted the attention of art historians. These horns are of various sizes: one of them is 54 centimeters in length, and the other is 67 centimeters. There are no traces of fire on the thin silver rim of the horns. The terrible heat of the grandiose funeral pyre, which melted all the ornaments of the deceased into glassy ingots, did not touch the fragile silver of the Turkish horns. In all likelihood, they were laid after all the funeral rites were completed. It is possible that, saying goodbye to the deceased, before finally covering his remains with earth, the relatives, remembering him, drank from the horns and put them next to the weapon. Both horns are equally bound in silver around the mouth and decorated with square patches in the middle. One of the horns (the smaller one) is ornamented with a rich floral pattern woven into garlands. This pattern, close to the Iranian one, was very common in ancient Russia and is found on things not of Eastern but of local origin. Such is, for example, the hilt of a sword found in Kiev, near the Golden Gate.

Another large turium horn is ornamented much more complicatedly. The master chaser has made a wonderful frieze here from various monsters, birds and people.

The central place in the ornamentation of the frame is given to a composition of two human figures and an eagle. This composition is located just at the opposite end of the frame from the separating palmetto; it is facing the face of the drinker from the goblet and is central and main.

The attention of researchers has long been attracted by two small figures of people lost among huge monsters, flowers and herbs, covered

in the field of a silver frame. They were considered either hunters or children lost in the forest. Both figures are facing to the right, and to the side of the eagle with its head bowed.

The left figurine depicts a bearded man in obscure clothes like a long shirt (chain mail), without a hat. The right hand is extended forward and, as it were, catches something. In the left hand is a large bow of a complex system with a clearly marked method of attaching the bowstring; near the hunter, behind him, there are two whole arrows in the air and one broken in half. One arrow, as it were, is directed at the back of the man's head.

The right female figurine, with a quiver at the belt, holds a bow in her left hand, and her right arm is bent in such a way as if the hunter had just lowered the bowstring.

The difference between this figurine is the long braids that go down from the right temple to the thigh. You can even see something like two temporal rings in the place where the hair meets the braid. Judging by the braids, it is. young woman.

The eagle is shown disproportionately large; his head is bent to the right, his wings are spread. With a general look at the entire compositional group of two hunters and an eagle, the following impression is created: the hunters shoot at the bird of prey; but neither in the bird, nor near it there are no arrows - they seem to return back to the hunters and are depicted behind their backs flying in the opposite direction, in disorder, plumage forward and partially broken. All this reminds of fairy tales about an enchanted bird and returning arrows. In Russian fairy tales and epics, we will find many episodes, the heroes of which are a bird (prophetic) "a man and a girl. Often a man or a swan frees a girl from the claws of a predatory sorcerer kite.

But the most complete analogy to the Chernigov horn is the Chernigov epic about Ivan Godinovich. The scene in all versions of the epic is Chernigov. The plot of the epic is as follows: a young Kiev warrior Ivan Godinovich came to Chernigov for Nastasya (or Marya Dmitrievna), whom he liked - the daughter of a Chernigov guest, already betrothed to Kashchei Bessmertny. Ivan takes Nastasya to Kiev by force and threats. On the way, he is attacked by Kashchei, who, with the help of Nastasya, defeats Ivan and ties him to an oak tree.

Here a new element is introduced into the epic:

At that time, at that time, a bird flew, a black lie,

He sat down, a lie, on a damp oak tree,

He spoke with human language:

“And not to own Marya Dmitrievna to Tsar Kaschey Tripetov,

And to own Ivan Godinovich. "

Kashchei tries to shoot the bird with a bow, but the arrows he fired, without touching it, return and hit Kashchei himself in the head and death. Ivan frees himself.

Sacred vessel - turium horn from the "Black Grave"

Carved stones of the 12th century from the Borisoglebsk cathedral in Detinets

The fabulous motif of the return of arrows to the shooter, so well depicted by the chisel of the turkey's horn, is one of the central moments in the epic. It is found in all versions of this epic (researchers count them up to 30).

On the Chernihiv Turi horn, there is depicted a bearded man in a long shirt or chain mail, who has just lowered the bowstring of his bow - Kashchei the Immortal, shooting at a prophetic bird. A girl with long braids and a quiver over her shoulder is the Chernigov beauty Nastasya (Marya), the subject of a dispute between two men. Here she is also depicted with a bow in her left hand. A prophetic lie (or an eagle), as it were, is going to take off. Its wings are spread and one of them is raised.

Silver binding of the turiy's horn from the "Black Grave"

Above is a general expanded view of the forging; below - detail (enchanted arrow strikes the shooter himself)

Three arrows were shot at the prophetic bird in the image, as it should be in a real epic or fairy tale, and they all ended up behind Kashchei's back.

One of the arrows broke "napola" behind Kashchei's back. Another flew straight into the sky. The third arrow flies into the back of the head of Kashchei, who ran out to shoot a bird without a helmet, without a hat, with an uncovered head. The heart of the killed Kashchei should go to the wolves, and on the turkey's horn, a wolf with an open mouth, as it were, awaits prey.

The matches are extremely complete. Only the second hero, Ivan Godinovich, is missing. The Chernigov master focused all his attention on the moment of punishment of Kashchei the Immortal by higher powers for encroaching on a bird.

Who is Kashchei? What bird enjoys such protection of witchcraft? Why exactly the death of Kashchei is depicted on the sacred rhyton of the Chernigov prince of the 10th century?

In the epic, the antiquity of which is a thousand years old, we have the right to look not for a genre scene, but for some hidden, deeper meaning. Perhaps the engraved illustration for the epic will allow us to establish its literary history.

The most important character in the drawing of a turkey's horn is a prophetic bird hostile to Kashchei. It is she who personifies the higher powers that defeat Kashchei the Immortal. On the horn, she most of all resembles an eagle.

The eagle is known as the coat of arms of the city of Chernigov. The deep antiquity of many Russian city coats of arms, proved by the Soviet scientist, Doctor of Historical Sciences A.V. Artsikhovsky, forces one to take a closer look at this coincidence. The eagle, due to which Kashchei the Immortal finds his death on the horn of the Turi, is the prophetic bird of the Chernigov epic, and the eagle is the coat of arms of Chernigov. All this suggests that in ancient times the eagle was especially revered by the Chernigov people, perhaps as the patron saint of a city or a tribe.

Tsar Kashchei the Immortal, Kashchei Tripetovich is, perhaps, one of the images of the steppe nomads, the image of a khan leading a raid, eluding death and hiding a full Russian beauty. In the XII century, khans were sometimes called "koshchei"; so, for example, Konchak is called in "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" "a filthy bastard."

Maybe the whole scene, engraved on the sacred rhyton, is a depiction of a simple, historically justified thought: the rotten "koshchey-Pechenezhin" raised his hand to the Chernigov eagle, but the power of the bird's things sent arrows back to the offender.

The master chaser, who reckoned with the ritual nature of the horn, wanted to show not so much the real death of Kashchei, but the action of the invisible, but imperious power of the spell.

Regardless of the correctness of the above considerations, the turiy horn from the "Black Tomb" will remain one of the most interesting objects of ancient Russia, which for a long time will attract the attention of art historians, connoisseurs of everyday life and researchers of Slavic paganism.

Chernigov burial treasure.

<бища IX-X веков свидетельствуют о важном значении Чернигова в древнерусском государстве. В распоряжении черниговского князя были тысячи дружинников. По. пытки норманистов объявить часть курганов вокруг Чернигова скандинавскими потерпели полную неудачу.

Both ceremonies - the cremation and burial in log cabins - are attested by written sources of the 10th century as Russians.

Summing up the results of a cursory review of the mounds of the 9th-10th centuries, I would like to dwell on the question of the resettlement of warriors and boyars in Chernigov and its environs.

In the 9th-10th centuries, the population of Chernigov buried their dead not at the very walls of the Detinets or the roundabout city, but somewhat further, on the exit routes from the city. Kladbyce is divided into several separate troupes, which are spread over a very large area, and down the Desna stretch for 18 kilometers to Sheetovice. Such dispersion of black. -Nigov squad burials can be explained by the appearance of land holdings around the city among the guards, some of which are known to us by name (Gyurichev, Semyn, etc.). It is noteworthy that in each kurgan group there are many ordinary small graves and several large kurgans with a rich inventory.

Let's make an approximate comparison of the Chernigov kurgan groups surrounding the city with the ancient chronicle names of the villages.

1. Mounds to the east of Chernigov, among which there are several IX-X centuries, - this is the necropolis of the chronicle Gyurichev, a suburban village.

2. Duty barrows of the 9th-10th centuries “in the old cemetery in Berezki” - this is the cemetery of the ancient village of Semyn, mentioned in the chronicle. Several large mounds prevailed in this group.

3. The neighboring group of 10th century burial mounds near the "Five Corners" is, possibly, the necropolis of that ancient village, which in the 12th century came to be called the village of St. Spas.

4. Mounds on Olegovoye Pole, grouped around a huge oval grave, perhaps, should be associated with some princely village, which later took the name of Oleg (the modern village of Olgovo). Here, on the land of the village of Olgova, a treasure of princely silver things of the 12th century was found.

5. In the ancient tract of Boldino, there was a mound of a rich and noble boyar of the late IX - early Khvek ("Gulbische"), surrounded by less significant embankments.

Swords of the X century from the boyar mounds in the vicinity of Chernigov (Shestovitsy)

6. The neighboring Trinity group also had its own boyar mound. It can be brought closer to the ancient suburban village of Gostynichy.

7. The necropolis of the village of Gushchina (near which there is a village with the meaningful name of Kienki) is headed by a large mound with a carcass tomb. Here, in this village, in 1934, a treasure of silver jewelry of the 10th century nesting type was found.

Expanding the radius of our observations, moving along the ancient roads from Chernigov to Kiev, to Lyubech, to Starodub, we will see that the necropolises of suburban villages imperceptibly turn into urban ones with large and small mounds: Orgoshch in the north-west, Sednev in the north-east, Shestovi - people in the southwest.

This whole picture does not fit into the idea of ​​the Chernigov prince as the only center of attraction for the vigilantes. On the contrary, we see around Chernigov a kind of "solar system": the city - the residence of the prince - is surrounded by several secondary centers, the boundaries of which come almost to the city itself; these secondary boyar centers have their own "satellites" surrounding them, entering their orbit.

Only the ownership of land, the need to be in the villages, a strong connection with the suburban estates could create such a vivid picture of the feudal dispersal of the Chernigov necropolis. There is no single aristocratic cemetery here. Huge boyar mounds such as "Gulbische", Bezymyanny and large mounds of Gyurichev are dispersed in separate groups, as if leading them. Archaeological materials allow us to draw the following conclusions about the social structure. The Chernigov boyars-warriors of the 9th-10th centuries are not a crowd of landless princes surrounding the prince - they are landowners, overlords of their warriors, masters of villages known to us from the chronicles. Vassalage without land grants was, obviously, a stage already passed by the beginning of the 10th century for the feudal lords of the second city in ancient Russia - Chernigov, second only to Kiev. The Chernigov boyars, far outside the city, exercised power over the surrounding villages, over the land, turning it into their feudal property, which was the basis of the feudal system.

The princely burial mounds - the burial mound of Princess Cherny and the "Black Tomb", which the local legend always wanted to associate with the founder of the city of Chernigov, Prince Cherny, are not associated with any of the suburban villages. They, as befits princely mounds, are associated with the sakh / shm city, near the walls (or maybe at the gates) of which they grew up.

The ancient Ukrainian city of Chernigov is located at the intersection of the borders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, at the crossroads of water, rail, road and air transport routes.
Chernigov settled in the north of Ukraine, in the eastern part of the Chernigov Polesye, on the right bank of the Desna River, in its middle reaches, where the Desna Valley goes to the Lyubech-Chernigov Plain.
The surrounding relief is predominantly low and flat, which is typical for the Dnieper lowland. The right slope of the Desna valley is quite steep, and there is noticeable manifestation of erosion and the development of ravines. The width of the river within the city reaches 140 m.
In addition to the Desna, flowing in the southern part of the city, within the city limits of Chernigov there are its right tributaries: the small rivers Strizhen in the center and Belous in the west.
The local climate is characterized by short, moderately mild winters and warm, long summers.
The most common version of the origin of the name of the city from the word "black". Perhaps this is somehow connected with the black earth or the name of the semi-mythical river Chernigi.
People began to populate the Chernigov region back in the Paleolithic era, about 100 thousand years ago. And the active development of this territory began in the Late Paleolithic, as evidenced by more than 20 settlements with an age of 10-35 thousand years.
A permanent settlement on the site of Chernigov appeared around the 7th century. At that time, the Seversk Slavs lived in the city. The first written mention of Chernigov is contained in a chronicle dating back to 907, when Chernigov became the center of the Seversk land and one of the largest cities in Ancient Rus. At the end of the IX century. Kiev prince Oleg seized the lands of the tribal union of the northerners, and the city began to expand rapidly, which was facilitated by the favorable geographical position on the Desna River. Along the river, the Chernigovites maintained trade relations with Kiev, Novgorod and even the Arab East - along the Volga-Don route.

In the XI century. the city was the capital of the Chernigov principality and continued to grow. During the Olgovichi dynasty, the city reached its greatest prosperity, when its area exceeded 450 hectares, and the population approached 40 thousand. At that time, Chernigov was one of the largest cities in Europe.
It is not known how the fate of the city would have developed, which could have become the capital of the entire Russian land, if not for the Mongol-Tatar invasion of the 13th century, which interrupted the development of Chernigov. The city was destroyed and burned by nomads and forever lost its leading position in Ancient Rus.
Freed from the Tatar-Mongol yoke, Chernigov became part of the Moscow state, in the middle of the 16th century. becoming a strong point on the border. Chernigov was repeatedly attacked by Lithuanian and Polish troops, during the Time of Troubles of the 17th century. was captured and plundered by False Dmitry I, and then burned by the Poles, who killed many civilians.
The city temporarily ceded to the Commonwealth, but at the end of the 17th century, after an uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, it returned to the Russian state. In memory of these victories, a monument to Khmelnytsky was erected in the city.
At the beginning of the XIX century. Chernigov received the status of the administrative center of the Chernigov province.
In the first half of the 20th century, during the years of Soviet power, Chernigov became a large industrial center, and mass housing construction was carried out in the city. In 1941, German troops captured the city. Over the two years of occupation, more than 50 thousand civilians were killed. On September 21, 1943, the almost completely destroyed city was liberated and rebuilt in five years.
Currently - the northernmost regional center of Ukraine.
In Chernigov, the economy and industry are quite highly developed; in terms of the standard of living of the population, it occupies the seventh place in the republic. But in terms of the number of outstanding architectural and historical monuments, Chernihiv is one of the first among the cities of Ukraine.
Monuments of the pre-Mongol period alone are here about a third of all Ukrainian ones.
The oldest part of the city is Val, the former Chernigov Detinets, the place where the city arose, from where it expanded, the cultural and administrative center of Chernigov. The main part of the city's historical buildings and museums is also collected here, the main of which is the oldest surviving in Russia, the Transfiguration Cathedral, founded in 1033 by Mstislav Vladimirovich, the first known Chernigov prince. Here, in the cathedral, is the burial of the Novgorod-Seversky prince Igor Seversky, sung in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign".
For many centuries Val remained the most protected part of Chernigov, its main and only fortress. Previously, there were many buildings here, but only the archbishop's palace, built in 1780, has survived to this day.
Near Val stands the Borisoglebsk Cathedral, built in the 12th century. The cathedral was practically destroyed during the German occupation, but was rebuilt in the 1950s in its original form. At present it is part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernigov". This reserve includes more than 30 buildings, including the Church of the Annunciation, the Church of Elias, and the building of the collegium.
The city has many monuments to famous personalities, including the poets A.S. Pushkin and T.G. Shevchenko: they both visited Chernigov.
Among the many churches, the Church of St. Catherine stands out, standing on the Kiev highway and has become a kind of symbol of Chernigov. The church was built in 1715 by the Cossack Yakov Lizogub in memory of his grandfather Yakov Lizogub and his comrades in arms, who showed themselves in 1696 during the assault on the Turkish fortress of Azov, which was reputed to be impregnable.
The city center is Red Square, which appeared in the 18th-19th centuries. and formerly called the Pyatnitsky field, after the nearby church of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, built at the end of the 12th century.
Where the southern slopes of Boldina Mountain descend, the highest part of the urban landscape, right below the Ilyinsky Church, there are the Anthony Caves with three underground churches: St. Theodosius, St. Anthony and St. Nicholas the Svyatosha. The Anthony Caves is a Christian monastery founded in 1069 by Anthony of the Caves, the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. They are a complex of underground corridors and rooms 350 m long at a depth of 2 to 12 m. The Anthony Caves are also part of the Ancient Chernigov Reserve. From this place, a panorama of the ancient part of Chernigov opens and the Holy Grove is clearly visible, where, according to another Chernigov legend, in 992 the inhabitants of the city were baptized.
In the immediate vicinity of the Anthony Caves, there are two Slavic burial mounds, created in pre-Christian times and popularly nicknamed Gulbische and Bezymyanny. In Chernigov, another burial mound has survived - the Black Grave, where the first Chernigov princes were buried in pagan times.

general information

Location: Eastern Europe, northern Ukraine.
Administrative center and Chernihiv region (not part of the region).

Administrative division: 2 districts (Desnyanskiy and Novozavodskiy).

Historic districts: Bobrovitsa, Zabarovka, Kordovka, Koty, Krasny Khutor, Leskovitsa, Masany, Staraya and Novaya Podusovki, Sherstyanka.
Languages: Ukrainian, Russian.

Ethnic composition: Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Jews.
Religions: Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Baptism, Judaism.
Currency unit: Ukrainian hryvnia.

Largest rivers: Desna, Strizhen, Belous.

Largest lake: Glushets.

Numbers

Population: 296,896 (2011).
Population density: 3758 people / km 2.

Height above sea level: 136 m.

Distance: 139 km north of Kiev.

Economy

Industry: chemical, light, food, pulp and paper, printing, metallurgical, metalworking, building materials, woodworking.

Handicraft products: products from the vine.
Service sector: tourism, transport, trade.

Climate and weather

Average temperature in July:+ 18.7 ° C.

Average annual rainfall: 600 mm.

sights

■ Boldina Mountain.
■ Pagan burial mounds: Black grave, Nameless, Gulbische.
■ Collegium (XVIII century).
■ Regimental office (Lizogub's house, late 17th century).
■ Red Square (XVIII-XIX centuries).
■ House of Mazepa (end of the 17th century).
■ Light and music fountain.

Curious facts

The section is very easy to use. In the proposed field, just enter the desired word, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Also here you can get acquainted with examples of the use of the word you entered.

Chernihiv

Chernihiv in the crossword dictionary

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

chernihiv

city ​​in Ukraine, center of Chernihiv region. Railway junction, port on the river. Gum. 306 thousand inhabitants (1991). Light industry (worsted-cloth factory, etc.), food industry, machine-building (including production of radio devices), chemical (PA Khimvolokno) industry; factory of musical instruments, etc. Pedagogical Institute. 2 theaters. Museums: historical, art, literary-memorial M. M. Kotsyubinsky. Known since 907. Cathedrals: Transfiguration of the Savior (11th century), Borisoglebsk (12th century); Pyatnitskaya church (late 12th - early 13th centuries), Lizogub's house (1690s, Ukrainian baroque); ensembles of the Eletsky (founded in the 17th century) and Trinity (17-18 centuries) monasteries.

Chernihiv

city, center of the Chernigov region of the Ukrainian SSR, a port on the right bank of the river. Gum. Railway junction lines (to Gomel, Ovruch, Nizhyn) and highways. 233 thousand inhabitants (1977; 69 thousand in 1939; 90 thousand in 1959; 159 thousand in 1970). There are 2 urban districts in Ch.

Ch. Is one of the most ancient cities of Rus. In the 9th century. was the center of the East Slavic tribes of the northerners. From the end of the 9th century. as part of Kievan Rus. It was first mentioned in the chronicle under 907. In the 10th-12th centuries. was a large craft and trade city. In the 11th and 13th centuries. the capital of the Chernigov principality. In 1239 it was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars. From the 2nd half of the 14th century. under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1503 it was annexed to the Moscow state. In 1611 it was captured by Poland. The population of Chechnya took an active part in the War of Independence of the Ukrainian people from 1648-54. Since 1654 as part of the Russian state. From 1782 the center of the Chernigov governorate, from 1797 - the Little Russian province, from 1802 - the Chernigov province. Developed as a local trade center. At the end of the 19th century. connected by railway with Kiev through Bakhmach.

Soviet power was established on January 19 (February 1), 1918. During the Civil War, Ch. Was captured by Austro-German troops, the Ukrainian Directory, and the Denikinites. Soviet power was restored on November 7, 1919. From 1932, Ch. ≈ obl. town. From September 9, 1941 to September 21, 1943 it was occupied by the German fascist troops, which caused enormous damage to the city. Rebuilt after the war.

The chemical industry (the Khimvolokno association), the light industry (the worsted and cloth combine, factories for the primary processing of wool, sewing, footwear), food (meat-packing plant, dairy and breweries, confectionery and pasta factories, etc.) are developed. Factories: auto parts, tooling; large-panel housing construction plant, musical instrument factories (piano), cardboard, etc.

The city has preserved architectural monuments of Kievan Rus: Spaso-Preobrazhensky (11th century: see. ill.), Borisoglebsk (12th century), Assumption (12th century) cathedrals, Ilinskaya (late 11th - early 12th centuries) and Paraskeva Pyatnitsa (late 12th - early 13th centuries) churches; architectural monuments of the 17th and 18th centuries (Ukrainian baroque): Lizogub's house (1690s), collegium (1702), cathedral (1679-89) and refectory (1677-79) of Trinity Monastery, Catherine's Church (1715). At the beginning of the 19th century. Ch. Was built up according to a regular plan with buildings in the style of classicism - the house of the governor-general (since 1975 - Historical Museum; 1804, architect A.D. Zakharov), etc. , 1958 and 1966), the development of the center was carried out (1950--55, architects P.F.Buklevsky, I.D. Yagodovsky), theater buildings were built (1958, architect D.S.Fridlin, S.P. , Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the House of Political Education (1974). Monument to V.I.Lenin (bronze, granite, 1967, sculptors A.E.Belostotsky, O.A. Suprun, architect V.M. Ustinov), memorial to the victims of fascism (granite, 1974, architect A.A. Karnabed, sculptor G.P. Gutman).

In Ch. Pedagogical Institute. TG Shevchenko, a branch of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, evening mechanical and technological, cooperative, Soviet trade, legal technical schools, medical and music schools. 2 museums (historical, literary-memorial M. M. Kotsyubinsky); branch of the reserve "Sophia Museum". Regional music and drama theater, regional puppet theater, philharmonic society.

Lit .: Logvin G. N., Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky, Glukhov, Putivl, M., 1965; Karnobod A.A., Chernigiv. [Narisputnik, Key © in, 1969]; Chernigiv. [Photo album. Text by M. Romanika, photo by V. Sichov, Ki © v, 1967]; Chernigov 1050 pokiv. Recommended lists of literature, Chernigiv, 1957; Istory mict i strong Ukrainian © РСР. Chernigivska oblast, Ki © v, 1972.

N.N. Ostryanko, S.K.Kilesso.

Wikipedia

Chernihiv (station)

Chernihiv- railway station of the South-Western Railway, located in the city of Chernigov in Ukraine.

It was rebuilt and acquired a new look after the Great Patriotic War.

Renovated in 1999. It does not close at night, the waiting room is quite large, but not lit.

Chernihiv (disambiguation)

• Chernihiv- an ancient city in the north-east of Ukraine, the regional center of the Chernigov region. The historical center of the Left-Bank Ukraine, one of the largest cities of Kievan Rus.
• Chernigov is a railway station of the South-Western Railway.
• "Chernigov" - a corvette of the Naval Forces of Ukraine (1996-2005).
• "" - a sea minesweeper of the Naval Forces of Ukraine.

Chernigov (minesweeper)

Chernihiv (U-310) - Project 266-M sea minesweeper (code "Aquamarine", according to NATO classification), mine defense ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy. As part of the Black Sea Fleet, the USSR Navy was called " Antiaircrafter"And had side numbers С-923 (in 1986) and С-924 (in 1984 and 1990), in the Ukrainian Navy it was called since 1997" Yellow Waters", In 2004 it was renamed to" Chernihiv».

Chernihiv

Chernihiv- a city in the north of Ukraine, the administrative center of the Chernigov region, as well as the Chernigov region. The northernmost regional center of Ukraine. The historical center of the Seversk land, one of the largest cities of the Old Russian state.

Examples of the use of the word chernigov in literature.

Svyatoslav Yaroslavich after the expulsion of his brother received seniority along with the main Kiev table, then the next brother on him, Vsevolod, who had reigned in Pereyaslavl before, moves to the place of Svyatoslav in Chernihiv.

Vsevolod sat down in Kiev, on the table of his father and brother, took over all the Russian volosts, put his son Vladimir in Chernigov, and the nephew of Yaropolk Izyaslavich - in Vladimir-Volynsky, giving him Turov.

Kiev brother Vladimirka, having crossed the Dnieper and became between Chernihiv skoy and Pereyaslavl volost, Izyaslav sent to Chernihiv his boyar Uleb to find out what is going on there.

Davydovich and Roman were already in Vyshgorod, at night they were transported across the Dnieper, and in the morning the next day they arrived at Chernihiv where Izyaslav, having buried his brother, sat down on the table.

The Novgorodians saw that the danger from Vsevolod was close and great, and to help from Chernigov bad hope and therefore, having driven out Vladimir Svyatoslavich, they sent for the prince to Vsevolod: he gave them his brother-in-law, Yaroslav Vladimirovich, the landless son of the landless father Vladimir Mstislavich.

Novgorod will be behind Kiev, Tmutorokan and the lands east of the Dnieper - for Chernigov, Rostov land, Beloozero and Volga - beyond Pereyaslavl.

When Bogushevich lived in Chernigov, served as an assistant clerk in the provincial administration, he and Peter spent almost daily evenings together in companies where young ladies also happened - they were bachelors then.

And so, forgetting that he had an unfinished murder case on his table, Bogushevich thought not about him, but about Chernigov and how to move there.

The brothers met in Volhynia and made peace: Vsevolod ceded seniority and Kiev to Izyaslav, and he himself remained in Chernigov.

This remark of the chronicler is very curious: Oleg lost Chernigov and Murom as a result of the war that his cousins ​​began against him, therefore, according to the concepts of his contemporaries, the war itself was unfair: otherwise the chronicler would not have reigned Oleg, because then the seizure of the volost would only be a worthy punishment for his untruth.

Putivl, which had about the same defense system as Kozelsk, had a protected area of ​​only 1-3 hectares, Vshizh - 6, Lyubech - 5-10, Novgorod-Seversky - from 20 to 40, Chernihiv- over 40 hectares.

At the same time, he sent at least two infantry divisions along the western bank of the Desna to Chernihiv.

You, Evpatiy, go to Chernihiv, bow down there earthly to Prince Michael and bring his army to our aid.

No big rivers, no important roads, except for the forgotten highway coming from Chernigov to Ovruch, Yelsk, Mozyr.

On the Left Bank, fortresses were needed because there were fewer natural forest barriers and the steppe reached almost to the very Chernigov.

The first settlements, according to the data obtained during the excavations, appeared on the site of Chernigov as early as four thousand years BC. Due to its advantageous geographical position, next to a large river, which made it a commercial and transport center, the city began to grow rapidly in the first millennium BC. According to the chronicles, in 907 the Kiev prince Oleg conquered Chernigov. At that time, it was already a fully formed city of great strategic and economic importance. At the beginning of the 11th century, two large monasteries were built in the city, making it the religious and cultural center of the entire northern part of Kievan Rus. During the period of fragmentation, Chernigov expanded to an area of ​​about 4.5 square kilometers and had a population of 40 thousand inhabitants, which made it the largest city in Europe at that time. In 1239, the hordes of the Tatar-Mongols who invaded the Russian lands coveted a large and wealthy city. Despite the Russian army that came to help, the city fell and was plundered. In the future, foreigners constantly tried to capture Chernigov. As a result of the Russian-Lithuanian war, in 1503 the city was annexed to the Moscow principality. In 1618, Chernigov was captured by the Poles and, following the results of the treaty, went to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then in 1649, thanks to the efforts of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, who raised the uprising, Chernigov was recaptured from the Poles and returned to Russia.

sights

Any guidebook will tell you: you should start your acquaintance with the city from Val - the former Chernigov Detinets, an ancient princely court. It is the spiritual and administrative center of the city. It is here that the largest number of historical buildings and museums are concentrated.

Spassky cathedral

The Savior Cathedral is the oldest surviving in Russia. It was founded in the 11th century by the first known Chernigov prince Mstislav the Brave - the son of the baptist of Russia Vladimir Svyatoslavich. Since 1967, the Savior Cathedral has been part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Old Chernigov".

Borisoglebsky Cathedral

Borisoglebsky Cathedral was erected around 1123, dedicated to the heavenly patrons of the Yaroslavich family and was conceived as an honorary burial vault. The temple stands only tens of meters from the Spassky Cathedral. Initially, there were palace buildings between them, from which nothing remained, except for the archaeological foundation. During its existence, the Borisoglebsk Cathedral was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Today it is a museum, concerts of sacred music are held here and two exhibitions are constantly working - "Fresco of Chernigov temples" and "Architecture and craft of Chernigov 11-13 centuries".

Catherine church

This church of extraordinary beauty is located on a high promontory and is separated from Val by a ravine. It is considered a visiting card of Chernigov, although it was built much later than Spassky and Borisoglebsky - in the 18th century, on the remains of a medium-sized temple from the times of Kievan Rus. Now in the church you can see an exhibition of Ukrainian decorative folk art.

the Red Square

Yes, yes, Chernigov also has its own square, and it is also red. From the beginning of the 19th century to the present day, it has been the administrative and cultural center of the city. You can get to the square from the Catherine's Church along the Alley of Heroes decorated with fountains. Previously, this place was called the Pyatnitsky field. The name comes from the nearby church of St. Paraskeva Friday, built at the end of the 12th century.

Eletsky and Trinity-Ilyinsky monasteries

The emergence of both monasteries is associated with the name of the Monk Anthony of the Caves. In ancient Russian times, they were located outside the city. The Eletsky Monastery, located closer to the center, includes the Assumption Cathedral, erected in the 12th century, a bell tower, cells, Peter and Paul Church and a stone fence. Also on the territory there is still the only wooden structure of the Cossack time - the house of Theodosius Uglitsky (late 17th century). The famous dungeons of the monastery did not appear until the 18th century. There are several other historical buildings nearby: the prison castle, built in 1803-1806, and the two-story building of the former men's school. Here, opposite the monastery fence, a huge earthen embankment rises. This is one of the most famous ancient Russian pagan burial mounds - "Black Grave". According to legend, the founder of Chernigov, Prince Black, is buried under it. Although excavations have proved that the mound was poured already in the 10th century, when Chernigov already existed.

The Trinity-Ilyinsky Monastery is located on Boldin Mountain (the name comes from the Old Russian "bold" - oak). Historians do not exclude that in pre-Christian times there was a temple of the Slavic god Perun on the mountain. At first the monastery was a cave monastery, then the one-domed Ilyinsky church was erected here, which has survived in a rebuilt form to this day. Next to it is the entrance to the famous Anthony Caves - they are open to tourists. At the end of the 17th century, a grandiose architectural complex, headed by the Trinity Cathedral, consecrated in 1695, began to be erected on a spacious site on the west side of the Elias Church. He gave the present name to the monastery.

Museums

For lovers of historical values ​​under glass, seasoned with the stories of a guide, there are several good-quality museums in Chernigov at once. This is the historical name of Tarnovsky, and the military, and the artistic name of Galagan, and the literary name of Kotsyubynsky.