The Peculiar 12th-Century Tale Of A Subterranean People Living Under The Mountains Of Northern Russia

The Russian Primary Chronicle, alternatively known as the Tale of Bygone Years, was revised around the year 1118 under the direction of Prince Mstislav, who eventually became Grand Prince Mstislav I Vladimirovich of Kiev (r. 1125-1132). In the revision was a peculiar tale, sourced by the text to a certain 12th-century man by the name of Giuriata Rogovich of Novgorod. This Giuriata, it was said, sent a servant or slave to a mountainous region (left unspecified) on the northern coast of Russia. While traveling through this area, Giuriata’s unnamed agent began taking notes on tales told to him by the local populations. He had the good fortune to run into a trader from the folklore-rich Yūrã people (also called Iughra and Yughra), who had long hunted and fished in the arctic and subarctic regions of Russia. From the Yūrā merchant, Giuriata’s servant or slave heard a bizarre tale about a community of subterranean beings who lived in the seaside mountains of the north.

As the story goes, the Yūrā hunters and fishermen suddenly began hearing odd noises from the coastal mountains of northern Russia around the beginning of the 12th century. The noises apparently were eerily similar to the sounds of digging and talking, yet the Yūrā could not understand the language coming from the underground. While exploring the odd mountain, the hunters and fishermen were said to have found a small, inaccessible tunnel into the slope. Although the passage was too little to allow humans to squeeze through, it was wide enough for tools to be prodded inside. According to folklore, the mysterious creatures of the mountain one day appeared at the tunnel, and, using hand signals, began to communicate with the Yūrā. Before long, the hunters and fishermen began trading with the mountain beings. Ironically, although the mountain creatures lived underground, they apparently were in much need of metal tools, and were said to have eagerly exchanged furs for any metallic objects brought by the Yūrā. Supposedly quoting the Yūrā trader directly, the Russian Primary Chronicle had this to say about the odd mountain beings:

“There are certain mountains which slope down to an arm of the sea, and their height reaches to the heavens. Within these mountains are heard great cries and the sound of voices; those within are cutting their way out. In that mountain a small opening has been pierced through which they converse, but their language is unintelligible.  They point, however, at iron objects, and make gestures as if to ask for them. If given a knife or an axe, they supply furs in return” (Russian Primary Chronicle, trans. Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, pg. 184).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Illustration of a troll by John Bauer (1882–1918), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Russian Primary Chronicle (Laurentian Text), translated by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. Cambridge, Medieval Academy of America and Crimson Printing, 1953.
• https://archive.org/details/TheRussianPrimaryChronicle/page/n193 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rurik-dynasty 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Russian-Primary-Chronicle 
• http://expositions.nlr.ru/LaurentianCodex/eng/manuscript4.html  

The Jewish Khaganate Of The Khazars

One of the most intriguing peoples of the Middle Ages were the Khazars, a Turkic tribe of obscure origin who long dominated the regions above the Black and Caspian Seas. The Khazar Khaganate was a major power that jostled with the Empire of Constantinople and the Arab Empire for influence on the eastern end of the Mediterranean. In the web of international politics, the Khazars often sided with Constantinople against threats such as the Rus, the Bulgars and the encroachment of Muslim forces into the Anatolian and Caucasus region. The Khazar friendship with Constantinople was most evident in the 8th century, when the Khazars provided brides to Emperor Justinian II (r. 685-695, 705-711) and Constantine V (r. 741-775)—Constantine’s son was called Leo the Khazar (r. 775-780). Meanwhile, the Khazars had spent much of the 8th century in a state of hostility against the Umayyad and then the Abbasid Caliphates, raiding as far as Mosul in 730 but finally making peace with the Abbasids in 798. As interesting as Khazar foreign policy may be, the true uniqueness of the Khazars shows most in their religion, specifically the sudden adoption of Judaism among the Khazar elites by the end of the 8th century.

Under vague circumstances, the khagan (leader) of the Khazar Khaganate, as well as his administrative lieutenant and nearly every chieftain under the khagan’s influence, decided to convert of Judaism between 740 and 800. In the early 9th century, the Khazars took a further step to release a coin that praised Moses. Despite their adoption of Judaism, the Khazar leadership maintained some of their traditional customs, such as the existence of the khagan’s harem, which, according to the Abbasid diplomat Ibn Fadlān, numbered a total of twenty-five wives in the 10th century. As with their willingness to tolerate the harem, the Khazar leaders were also fairly lenient to the many subjects in their domain who did not adopt Judaism. Nevertheless, the Khazar leaders were known to take vengeance against any community that dared harm a synagogue in the Khazar Khaganate.

The downfall of the Khazar Khaganate occurred simultaneously with the rise of the Kievan Rus. The Rus appeared as an emerging power in the 9th century. They showed their boldness and strength by making direct assaults against Constantinople in 860, 907 and 941. Sviatoslav I, who became the Grand Prince or king of the Kievan Rus in the early 940s, would be the man to eventually topple the Khazar Khaganate. From 965-969, Sviatoslav relentlessly campaigned against the Khazars, invading deep into the khaganate, where he sacked the Khazar capital and demolished Khazar political influence in the region. Besides the Rus, the Ghuzz Turks and the Volga Bulgars also profited from the fall of the Khazar Khaganate.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Volga River trade negotiations between Rus and Khazars, painted by S. V. Ivanov (1864–1910), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Risala by Ibn Fadlān, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012. 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khazar 
• https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/khazars 
• https://www.historytoday.com/archive/khazaria-forgotten-jewish-empire 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kievan-Rus 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Svyatoslav-I  

The Crazed Fish-Woman Of The Yūrā People

Word-of-mouth stories can produce incredibly odd tales when passed from culture to culture over the span of many years. One such gem of folklore fell into the hands of Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī, a 12th-century traveler from Granada who wandered all the way to the convergence of the Volga and Oka rivers, in what is now Russia. While he was in these regions, Abū Hāmid was told a bizarre tale, which he recorded in a text called the Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West. His chain of evidence, however, was a bit gossipy. Abū Hamīd learned the tale from a Volga Bulgar informant, who heard it from a trader from the northern Yūrā region, who, in turn, was probably told the tale by a Yūrā elder.

Abū Hāmid led up to this ‘wonder’ by describing the fishing practices of the Yūra people, who hunted and fished in the arctic and subarctic regions of Russia. He described a ritual where the fishermen would drop a sword into the sea, and this would cause huge fish to rise to the surface—some modern historians propose this to be an embellished or misinterpreted description of harpoon-fishing. Whatever the case, the northern peoples of medieval Russia did indeed hunt large sea creatures, as goods like narwhal tusks were known to be bought and sold on the Volga River trade route.

According to Abū Hāmid, one such party of Yūrā whalers caught more than they expected during one of their fishing trips. As the story goes, the Yūrā did their ceremony of dropping a sword (or harpoon) into the sea and consequently a gigantic sea animal, supposedly the size of a mountain, came to the surface of the water. Perhaps the mountainous fish was too large to haul to shore, or maybe they could hear an odd sound coming from inside the creature—whatever the case, the whalers decided to butcher the creature immediately. Abū Hāmid described the peculiar scene: “Then they opened the ear of the fish and from within emerged a kind of girl, who looked like a human—white, with pink cheeks, black hair and plump buttocks, like the most attractive of women” (Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West, Penguin edition pg. 73).

Evidently, the rescued woman found the creature’s ear to be quite comfortable, or she had been driven insane by the experience, for she began kicking and screaming and showing all the signs of dismay when she was pulled free of her fleshy cage. Nevertheless, the Yūra fishermen were able to convey the crazed woman back to land and adopted her into their way of life. After her supposed discovery in the ear of a giant fish, the woman apparently had a normal, uneventful life among the Yūrā. Abū Hāmid ended the story by simply stating “They kept that girl among them until she died. Truly, the power of God on High knows no limits!” (Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West, Penguin edition pg. 73).

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (modified and cropped public Domain mermaid illustration, via needpix.com and Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West by Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012. 
• https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/abu-hamid-al-gharnati-SIM_0191?s.num=6  

Alexander Pushkin, The Father Of Russian Literature, Was Killed As A Result Of A Duel

(Portrait of Alexander Pushkin by Orest Kiprensky  (1782–1836), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

An eerie amount of artists and creative geniuses often have wild personalities and lifestyles that, unfortunately, can all too easily lead to early deaths. Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), the father of Russian literature, was one of these brilliant people who met an early end.

Pushkin was a Russian noble who belonged to a prestigious noble family. From an early age, he was exposed to the great works of literary powerhouses from France and Britain. Throughout the rest of his life, Pushkin would combine what he learned from the literary masters of Europe with the history and folklore of Russia. He would also create new styles of poetry and prose, as well as set the standard for future Russian literary works.

Pushkin was a prolific writer, even from his earliest days—by the time he graduated from the Lyceum of Tsarkoe Selo in 1817, he had already written around 130 poems. Few of these, however, were published. The first major work that brought Alexander Pushkin any nationwide acclaim was his epic poem published in 1820, Ruslan I Liudmila or Ruslan and Ludmila.

That same year, in 1820, Pushkin was sent into exile in southern Russia because of challenges to authority present in his poetry. His years of exile officially ran from 1820-1823, but he would remain under government suspicion for the rest of his life. During these years of exile, Pushkin’s wild side became more pronounced—he drank, gambled and dueled. In 1823 and 1824, Alexander Pushkin spent time in Odessa practicing the vices listed above, as well as pursuing the wife of the local lord, Count Vorontsov. Around this time, he also began his seven-year endeavor of writing his highly-acclaimed masterpiece, Evgeny Onegin or Eugene Onegin, which was finally published in 1833.

As Alexander Pushkin grew older, everything in his life escalated. On the one hand, his writing continued to improve, but on the other, his relationship with the other Russian nobility grew more tense and bitter. One would have hoped that Alexander Pushkin’s marriage to Natalia Goncharova in 1831 would calm down the great poet’s life, but it unfortunately seemed to have the opposite effect. Although the two had three children together, most believe the marriage was not happy for either party.

By 1837, the last year of Pushkin’s life, the poet had already been involved in an estimated 28 duels. In January of that year, Alexander Pushkin and his wife, Natalia, attended a party with other Russian nobles, as well as foreign guests. Among the crowd was a French noble and military officer, named George D’Anthès-Heeckeren, who had long fancied Natalia Goncharova. When, during the course of the party, Alexander Pushkin discovered that his own wife and the Frenchman, D’Anthès, were exchanging flirtatious banter, the great poet decided it was time for a 29th duel.

George D’Anthès accepted the duel and the two men met at a predesignated location to settle their dispute with loaded pistols. The men took their required steps away from each other and prepared to fire. Alexander Pushkin, a veteran duelist, was reported to usually keep calm in his duels. Yet, this time, he charged against the Frenchman to get a closer, deadlier shot. Unfortunately for the father of Russian literature, George D’Anthès was the first to shoot, hitting Alexander Pushkin in the abdomen. Though injured, legend claims that Pushkin still fired his pistol, grazing D’Anthès, but not seriously injuring the man. Pushkin’s own injuries, however, were serious and eventually fatal.

Alexander Pushkin died on January 29, 1837, only two days after the duel. He was buried near the grave of his mother at the Svyatye Gory Monestary. The Russian people immediately mourned his death. Many of Pushkin’s fellow nobles, however, supported George D’Anthès.

Writeen by C. Keith Hansley.

Sources:

• Museum Secrets Revealed, “Moscow” S2/E8, 2014.  
• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alexander-pushkin
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aleksandr-Sergeyevich-Pushkin 
• http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pe-Pu/Pushkin-Aleksandr.html 
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/pushkingenealogy.html
   

In The Late 19th Century, China Was Divided Like A Pie Between Imperialist Powers

(French Political Cartoon "China -- the cake of kings and... of emperors," c. 1898, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The diplomatic relationship between China and the colonizing powers of Europe and the United States underwent a dramatic plummet from the start to the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the century, the Chinese thought the Western powers were little more than brutish barbarians. Western merchants were quarantined to the port of Guangzhou and any messages that the foreigners wanted to send to the Chinese authorities had to be funneled through a long arduous system of bureaucracy.

The tense balance of power, however, began to shift once the West’s desire to expand trade fused with their growing impatience over not being respected in China. Soon, the Westerners came to the conclusion that the threat of military force could achieve much more in China than debate and diplomacy, leading to events like the Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1857-1860). As a result of the Opium Wars, Britain took control of Hong Kong and opened up more Chinese ports for trade.

Yet, even though China was defeated in the Opium Wars and suffered from repeated revolts and rebellions, the Western powers continued to regard Chinese leadership, led by Empress Dowager Cixi, with an underlying tone of respect. All of that respect vanished, however, when the small island-nation of Japan (which only really began modernizing in the 1850s) walloped China in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). When the war ended with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China relinquished its control of large swaths of land, including Taiwan, Korea, and parts of Manchuria. Russia, Germany and France worked together to force Japan to return Liaodong, Manchuria, back to China, but it would provide no relief for the Chinese, because after the First Sino-Japanese War, the imperialist powers disregarded all of their former inhibitions regarding expanding into China.

Below are lists, organized by country, detailing what the various imperialist countries took from China during the late 19th century:

Japan

• (1895) In the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China gave Japan land, money and trade ports.

• (1896) Japan was allowed to develop industry within designated Chinese trade ports. The Western powers were given the same capability.

• Japan built up an economic sphere of influence in Fujian.

Russia

• Russia, with French and German help, had Japan release control of Liaodong.

• Russia obtained permission to construct the Tran-Siberian Railway through Chinese territory.

• (1898) Russia leased Port Arthur and Liaodong from China for twenty-five years.

• (1895) Russia lent the Chinese government around 400 million francs, or 15.8 million pounds, in a race against other powers to control China through debt.

Germany

• (1896) Together with Britain, Germany lent China around 16 million pounds, followed by another 16 million in 1898.

• (1897) After an incident of banditry, Germany seized the Jiaozhou Bay and the city of Qingdao. China later leased the land to Germany for ninety-nine years.

France

• (1895) France was given rights to operate in the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong.

• (1896) France was allowed to construct a railroad from Vietnam to Guangxi, China.

• (1898) France leased the Guangzhou Bay for ninety-nine years.

Britain

• (1897) Britain was permitted to operate in the Yunnan province and expand the Burmese railroad into the region.

• Britain had China officially recognize British economic interests in the Yangtze Valley region.

• Britain leased the area of Kowloon, near Hong Kong, for ninety-nine years.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Source:

• China’s Path to Modernization: A Historical Review from 1800 to the Present (Third Edition), by Ranbir Vohra. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, The New Bolshevik Leaders Handed Over A Huge Amount Of Territory And Resources To Germany

(Approximate German and Austria-Hungary gains from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, created by Esemono, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

At the time of the Russian Revolution, most major world powers (including Russia) were brawling in the First World War. Once the Russian revolutionaries overthrew and killed their monarch, they had a lot of problems to deal with—namely, implementing their new government and defeating the Russian generals who resisted communism. The leaders of the revolutionary government believed they could not accomplish their agenda in Russia while they were still fighting in the trenches of WWI. Therefore, the revolutionaries signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, ending the war between Russia and Germany.

The treaty, however, was enormously one-sided in favor of Germany. Russia ceded approximately ¼ of its land to Germany. Around 44% of Russia’s population in 1918 lived in those regions. Besides land and manpower, the Russians also handed over more than half of some of their important resource-producing regions—the Russians lost 73% of its iron ore and 75% of its coal because of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. For context, some of the regions that Russia ceded to the Central Powers of WWI are now known as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.  Russia also gave land to Turkey, and was forced to grant independence to Ukraine, Georgia and Finland.

Of course, when the Allied Powers won WWI and imposed the Treaty of Versailles on the Central Powers, Germany lost all of the land it gained from Russia. The independent nations of Poland, Finland and Georgia, however, remained independent.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Source:

• Warfare in the Western World: Military Operations Since 1871 (Volume II), by Robert A. Doughty and Ira D. Gruber et al. Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company, 1996. 

Though Officially Neutral In WWII, Spain Sent A Division To Germany To Help Fight The USSR

(Replacements for the Spanish Blue Division march to their assignment, c. 1942, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

During World War Two, one of the most decorated divisions on the side of the Axis Powers was from Spain. The German 250^th Infantry Division (otherwise known as the Blue Division) began as a company of veterans from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Though Spain was officially neutral in WWII, the Spanish Generalissimo Francisco Franco would later send conscripted men to replenish the ranks of the Blue Division. Spain even sent the Blue Squadron, a group of Spanish airmen, to defend Germany against Soviet aircraft.

The initial Blue Division consisted of 18,000 volunteers, but at its greatest, it expanded to 50,000 Spanish troops. The Division would suffer around 16,000 casualties during the war. Approximately 4,500 died in combat. The Blue Division participated in twenty-one known major battles during WWII.

As the Allied Powers began to gain the advantage in WWII, they increasingly put pressure on Spain to recall the Spanish volunteers. In 1943, Franco reluctantly reduced his force in Germany—the Blue Division was demoted to a Blue Legion of around 3,000 men. The Blue Legion, too, was withdrawn back to Spain in 1944. Many Spanish troops, however, refused to leave. These stragglers were often adopted into Germany’s Waffen SS. There were still Spanish volunteers fighting in Berlin when the city fell.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources

• The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain by Paul Preston. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• Churchill and Spain: The Survival of the Franco Regime, 1940-1945, by Richard Wigg. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2008.
• Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, by Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.

Japan Won The First Major War That Began In The 20th Century, And Their Foe Was A Behemoth

(Japanese assault against Russian forces, c. October 10,1904, from Le Patriote Illustré, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The 20^th century was filled to the brim with wars, including two world wars and multiple communist revolutions. A slew of conflicts were caused by the Cold War between capitalist democracies and communist regimes, which made the 20^th century a tense and weary hundred years. The first nation to win a major war that began and ended in that fateful century, however, was none other that the newly modernized country of Japan.

After the 1850s, Japan shed its isolationism and leaped toward modernization. With land forces trained in German strategy, a navy modeled after Britain and an education system inspired by the United States, Japan quickly became a power to be reckoned with. The Japanese proved their newfound capabilities by defeating a major western power in warfare.

The conflict was the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), where Russia and Japan faced off to determine who would control Korea. The Japanese struck fast. They blockaded a Russian Fleet in Port Arthur and occupied Korea. Next, the Japanese pushed up towards Mongolia and Manchuria. The armies of Japan and Russia finally met in the great Battle of Mukden (February-March, 1905). In one of the largest battles in history, approximately 292,219 Russians faced off against 208,342 Japanese. Japan won the day, but both sides lost tens of thousands of men. Japan sealed its victory over Russia when it destroyed another large Russian fleet in May, prompting Russia to concede defeat on September 5, 1905.

Source:

• Warfare in the Western World: Military Operations Since 1871, by Robert A. Doughty and Ira D. Gruber et al. Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company, 1996.