Mr. Veliky Novgorod, from which to the nearest sea (the Gulf of Finland) in a straight line as much as 162 km (quite a few by medieval standards) through a system of rivers and portages had access not only to the Baltic, but also to the Black, White and Caspian seas. And not only merchants went to these seas, but also dashing people - ushkuyniks, or (their other name) volunteers.
For the first time they declared themselves at the beginning of the 11th century (a campaign in Ugra, no later than 1032) and since then they constantly harassed their neighbors until 1489, when their main base, the city of Khlynov, was taken by the troops of Ivan III.
It should be said right away that all the sources telling about the ushkuiniks were thoroughly censored by the winners: some of the information was deleted, other stories were edited, so that all the volunteers usually turn out to be ordinary robbers and seditious in them. Therefore, it is impossible to compile a complete picture of their campaigns and their exploits now, but the information that has come down to us makes a very strong impression.
Many researchers point to a certain similarity between the gangs of volunteers and the Viking squads, which, in general, is not surprising - Novgorod had the closest ties with its Scandinavian neighbors. At the first stage, he had to compete with Aldeygyuborg (Old Ladoga), founded by immigrants from Uppsala, until Vladimir Svyatoslavich (Saint) conquered this city. And then came the time of the Condottieri - Norman mercenaries who fought on the side of the prince who invited them.
Like the Vikings, the ushkuiniks attacked suddenly - and just as suddenly disappeared with their prey. Just like the Normans, they often came under the guise of merchants or fishermen: if the forces of a potential enemy seemed to them significantly superior to their own, they left - often to return again, already more prepared. And, at every opportunity, they attacked towns and villages not expecting an attack by "partners", sellers and buyers.
In the Novgorod chronicles, the campaigns of the ushkuyniks are often called "youth". A. K. Tolstoy conveyed these moods well in the poem "Ushkuynik":
The strength-prowess overcame me, good fellow, Not someone else's, his own heroic prowess!
And even melting daring in the heart will not fit, And the heart will burst with prowess!
Let go play kids games:
Those are the carts to beat the grassroots, merchants, Luggage Urman ships at sea, Yes, on the Volga, burn the Basurmans' prison!"
No idealization of the hero, no "lofty motives": just passionarity, overflowing, which must find a way out - even in fights on the streets of the city, as in Vaska Buslaev, even in dashing ushkuynic raids on a bassurman, "urmans" or simply to rob merchant caravans …
The genetic memory of daring ancestors and the high intensity of passionarity are also heard in the lines of Velimir Khlebnikov's poem:
Not with your teeth - grind
Long night -
I will swim, I will sing
Don-Volgo!
I will send ahead
Evening plows.
Who will fly with me?
And with me - my friends!"
Novgorod chroniclers usually do not see anything wrong in the fact that the ushkuyniks beat and plundered their neighbors or the ships of rival merchants a little (or better, very well). Moreover, the neighbors were also not angels, and paid return visits at the slightest opportunity.
Earhooks and vatamans
Ordinary ushkuiniks usually became Novgorod poor people who were not assigned to any community (and therefore were not full-fledged citizens) and "grassroots" people (Muscovites, Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod and others), whom a difficult fate brought to Lord Veliky Novgorod. That, of course, did not exclude the participation in these campaigns and people from quite prosperous families, which "liveliness of character" did not allow them to lead a sedate way of life decent to their position. The expeditions of the Ushkuyniks were financed by boyar families or wealthy merchants, who appointed these "brigades" of experienced and authoritative commanders - "vatamans". There is heated debate about the origin of this word, many believe that this is a distorted hauptmann - a leader, a boss. However, it is quite possible that it comes from the Russian word "wataga": "watagan" or "watagman" in the original version.
The heads of the detachments of the ushkuiniks approached the recruitment of the mob very responsibly, and the requirements for the candidates were the most severe. In addition to physical strength and endurance, the earflap had to be able to handle weapons, ride a horse, swim, and row.
Bands of ushkuiniks were sent to explore new lands, were used to protect merchant trading posts, but they could, on the contrary, destroy the strong points of competitors, or plunder someone else's caravan. But the ushkuiniks were often distracted from the main task, if there was an opportunity to “work” for themselves.
They also provided services for the "protection" of merchant ships - mainly from their loved ones.
"And if you want to get calmly to us by the river, and save your goods, first agree with the ushers, otherwise you will lose all the load, and with it your belly,"
- says one of the letters of that time.
Sometimes detachments of ushkuyniks set off on a campaign without a definite, clearly set task - “for zipuns”. And grief was to everyone who got in their way. The nationality of the potential victims and their religion did not matter to the volunteers.
The Novgorod authorities, as a rule, distanced themselves from these "private military companies", but were almost always aware of the plans for the next campaign, not only without interfering, but often providing secret assistance.
Novgorod ear
Now let's talk a little about the ships, by the name of which these volunteers got their nickname.
The most famous Russian ship of those years to a wide circle of readers is, of course, the boat (plow): a rattleless vessel with a bottom made of hollowed out logs and boards upholstered with boards.
A boat with a deck was called uchan. In later times, starting in the 16th century, wuchang received cabins at the bow and stern. So, in the figure in the Nikon Chronicle, Uchan is depicted as a large ship with a sail and cabins on the bows and sterns (even the doors of these cabins are visible). One of the chronicles says that Volkhov in Novgorod was filled with students, and on these ships people escaped from the fire during a fire.
It was possible to sail on a boat and uchane only along the rivers.
The heel boat (naboy) had a higher carrying capacity - with an additional stripe on the sides. For military purposes, a nozzle was used - a heeled boat with a plank deck and rudders at the stern and bow - this made it possible, without turning, to move away from the shore and go in any direction.
The Novgorod ushkuy was a variant of the nest, from which it differed mainly in its external design.
Pines were used for the construction of the ears: a wide flat keel was hewn out of one trunk, extremities and frames were attached to it, the hull was sheathed with boards. The length of the ship ranged from 12 to 14 meters, width - about 2.5 meters, side height - about one meter, draft - about half a meter. A mast with a sail was set up with a fair wind. This vessel could carry up to 4-4, 5 tons of cargo and 20-30 people. Abalones were larger than river ones, in addition, they had holds on the bow and stern. The bow and stern of both river and abalone were symmetrical, often decorated with the wooden head of a polar bear, the Pomor name of which (oshkuy) may have given the name to this type of ships.
On the staff of the Bishop of Perm Stephen Khrap (end of the 14th century) there is an image of ships decorated with animal muzzles, probably ears, on which people in plate armor sail with weapons in their hands and a banner with a cross.
According to another version, the name of these ships comes from the Oskuya (Askuy) river - the right tributary of the Volkhov near Novgorod, where such boats were built. This version can be confirmed by the tradition of naming small ships along the rivers on which they were built: Kolomenki, Rzhevka, Belozerka, Ustyuzhny.
There is also a version that derives the word “ushkuy” from the Vepsian “uskoy” (as well as the Old Finnish wisko, Estonian huisk) - “small boat”. But, you must admit that it is difficult to call it a "small boat" that can accommodate up to 30 people.
Supporters of the fourth version believe that the name of the ships comes from the Turkic words "uchkul", "uchkur", "uchur", meaning "fast ship".
Ushkui were rather light ships, if necessary, the vigilantes could carry (or drag) them over a distance of several kilometers - in order to bypass the threshold or enter the system of another river.
Small campaigns of ushkuiniks were a common occurrence, to which the chroniclers did not pay special attention. They recorded only significant achievements of their fellow countrymen. As we remember, the first large campaign of the Ushkuyniks (to Ugra) was recorded by them at the beginning of the 11th century.
To the hostile West
The ushkuyniki organized the next large campaign in 1178, when, according to the chronicle of Eric Olay, they, in alliance with the Karelians, managed to take the Swedish capital - Sigtuna:
We walked without hesitation, by skerries of sveev, uninvited guests, cherishing anger.
Ships sailed to Sigtuna once.
The city was burned and disappeared into the distance.
They burned everything to the ground and killed many”.
Many believe that the main blow to Sigtuna was nevertheless inflicted not by the Karelians with ushkuiniks, but by the Swedish authorities, who accused the Slavs living in the city and its environs of complicity with the attackers, and executed many of them, resettling those who remained to other areas.
According to legend, the surviving inhabitants of Sigtuna decided to find a safer place to build a new city. They lowered the log into the water, and in the place where it washed ashore, Stockholm was founded (“stock”, translated into Russian - log, “holm” - “fortified place”).
However, historians believe that the founder of Stockholm, Birger, hardly relied on the will of God, and he took a more responsible attitude to the choice of the construction site for the future capital: such was the area near the strait leading from the Baltic Sea to Lake Mälaren.
But back to Russia. One of the trophies of that campaign was the church gate (made in 1152-1154 in Magdeburg), which the winners transferred to the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. In response, in the fall of 1188, Novgorod merchants were arrested in Sweden and Gotland.
And in the first half of the XIV century, the ushkuiniks made a number of high-profile campaigns to Finland, Norway and Sweden. So, in the city of Abo (Turku) in 1318, they managed to capture the church tax, which was collected for the Vatican for 5 years. The volunteers did not suffer losses in this campaign: "I came to Novgorod in good health," the chronicle reports.
In 1320, in response to the aggressive actions of the Norwegians, the ushkuiniks, led by a certain Luke, ravaged Finnmark (for this they had to cross the Barents Sea):
"Luke go to the Murmans, and the Germans beat the ears of Ignat Molygin" (Novgorod IV Chronicle).
And in 1323 Halogaland was attacked southwest of Tromsø by the ushkuyniki. The Swedes, impressed by their activity, concluded the Orekhovets peace with Veliky Novgorod that year. And the Norwegian government in 1325 appealed to the Vatican with a request to organize a Crusade against Novgorod and the Karelians.
In 1349 the ushkuiniks made a new campaign to Halogaland, capturing the Bjarkey fortress.
But the main direction of the ushkuyniks' campaigns was, nevertheless, the east: the northern rivers, the Volga and Kama.
Going East
For the Upper Volga region, Novgorod waged a stubborn struggle with Rostov, which was supported by other northeastern principalities. So the Novgorod ushkuyniki did not feel any sympathy for the lower ranks of the competitors. They reciprocated them.
Already in 1181, the ushkuyniks managed to take the Cheremis city of Koksharov (now - Kotelnich, Kirov region).
And in 1360, taking advantage of the weakening of the Horde ("Great Zamyatnya" 1360-1381), the ushkuiniks set off down the Volga, and further along the Kama, for the first time taking the Horde city - Djuketau (Zhukotin - not far from Chistopol) and killing many Tatars.
The archimandrite of the Nizhny Novgorod monastery at the Church of the Ascension of the Lord Dionysius (the future Orthodox saint) welcomed the beating of the "wicked Hagarians", but the secular authorities chose a different position. The Grand Duke of Vladimir Dmitry Konstantinovich (Suzdal), at the request of the Horde authorities, ordered the arrest in Kostroma of the ushkuiniks returning to Novgorod (who at that time "drank zipuns" in the noble places of this city) and handed them over to the khan. But the activity of the ushkuyniks has only increased. Until 1375, they made seven more large trips to the Middle Volga (no one counted small raids).
And in 1363, the volunteers, led by Alexander Abakunovich and Stepan Lyapa, went to the Urals and Western Siberia.
In 1365-1366. Novgorod boyars Esif Varfolomeevich, Vasily Fedorovich and Alexander Abakumovich financed the campaign of 150 ushkues (the Nikon Chronicle increases the number of ushkues to 200), which passed along the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod and Bulgar and went to the Kama. On their way, the ushkuyniks killed many Tatars and robbed a large number of merchant ships, most of which belonged to Muslims, but there were also Russians. In response to a formidable message from Prince Dmitry (who would later receive the nickname "Donskoy"), the Novgorod authorities said:
“Young people went to the Volga without our word and knowledge, but they didn’t rob your guests, they beat only the bastard.”
Dmitry was not satisfied with this answer, and he sent an army that ravaged the Novgorod volosts along the Dvina, South and Kupin. The Moscow prince, carrying out the Horde order, did not forget about himself either, having taken a hefty "ransom" from these regions. In addition, the Novgorod boyar Vasily Danilovich and his son Ivan returning from the Dvina were arrested in Vologda. They were released in 1367 after the reconciliation of Novgorod with Dmitry.
In 1369, the ushkuiniks on 10 ships made a raid along the Volga and Kama, again reaching the Bulgar. In 1370 they took revenge on Kostroma and Yaroslavl, where in 1360 their comrades-in-arms were seized, plundering them fairly. In 1371, the ushkuyniki attacked these cities again.
In the same year, the ushkuyniki attacked Saray Berke for the first time:
“The same summer, at the same time, Vyatchana Kama went to the bottom and to the Volgou in Soudekh and she went taking the castle of the Tsar Sarai on the Volza and many Tatars fromsekosh, their wives and children in full poimash and a lot of full of us take, returning. The Tartars of Kazan, took them over to the Volza, the Vyatchane fought with them and went to health with all the fullness, and many of them from both fell."
(Typographical chronicle. PSRL. Vol. 24, p. 191).
“In the same summer, the Vyatchans went to the Volga in army. Voivoda was with them Kostya Yuriev. Yes, they took the Saray and is full of countless numbers of Sarai princesses."
(Ustyug chronicle. PSRL. Vol. 37, p. 93).
Settlements of ushkuiniks in Vyatka and Zavolochye
In the upper and middle reaches of the Vyatka and in the basin of the Northern Dvina (Zavolochye), ushkuiniks began to build small forts, which became bases for the development of territories and for their new raids.
These two groups of Novgorod colonists already felt independent from the metropolis, and often coordinated their actions: two fleets simultaneously descended to the Volga: one from Kostroma, others from the Kama and Vyatka.
The ushkuiniks came to Vyatka from the Kama (from Iskor and Cherdyn) and Vychegda, where they had already built a small city of Ust Vym. The saint of the Novgorod settlers on Vyatka was Nikolai, called Vyatsky, Velikoretsky, or even Nikola-Babai. The fact is that the Church of St. Nicholas was built in a town founded by a certain Gazi Babay (after this church the town was called Mikulitsyn, now it is the village of Nikulchino). They say that here the ushkuiniks found many "boobies" (or "women") carved from wood. On the staff of Stephen of Perm, which we have already mentioned, there is an image in which the bishop strikes with an ax on a bearded wooden idol sitting on the "throne" in long clothes and with a crown on his head.
Traces of paganism have been preserved here for many years. Back in 1510, Metropolitan Simon, in his "Epistle to Prince Matvey Mikhailovich and all Permians, great people and less," speaks of the worship of the Permians "Golden woman and the idiot Voypel."
It is believed that the carvings of Christian saints, first of all, Nicholas, so characteristic of Perm and Vyatka, were put in order to facilitate the perception of the new faith - Christianity - by the local pagans. That is why Mikulitsyn was sometimes called “the dumb city”. Until the end of the 19th century, carved sculptures of saints were popularly called "women" in those places. According to the inventory of 1601, it is known, for example, that in the Vyatka Trifonov Monastery there were two full-length carved images of Nikola. In 1722, such images were banned, so they were removed to a separate room, where they were kept with a carved statue of Paraskeva Friday and an icon on which Saint Christopher was depicted with a dog's head.
But in other Russian cities, wooden images of saints caused bewilderment. So, in Pskov in 1540, similar images of St. Nicholas and Paraskeva Pyatnitsa caused a murmur, since the zealots of the faith saw in them "dumb worship."
There were also traveling icons of this saint, which were raised on a pole before the battle. One of the Muslim sources about the defeat of the Vyatchans in 1579 says the following:
“Most of the Russians were killed, but one of their detachments was able to retreat to Chulman in good order and fiercely defending themselves. When our prisoners asked the prisoners what could explain such resilience, they replied that they were entrusted with the protection of a particularly expensive image of one of the Russian gods."
It is interesting that a wooden sculpture of St. Nicholas after the final victory of Ivan III by the Vyatka ushkuiniks appeared on one of the towers of the Moscow Kremlin, which was named Nikolskaya. Perhaps it was a trophy of Muscovites. Or a symbol of victory over Vyatka?
The finest hour of the ushkuiniks
In 1374, when a whole army of Ushkuiniks of 2,700 people robbed Vyatka on 90 ships, after which they took a ransom of 300 rubles from Bulgar residents. Here, the ushkuyniki were divided into 2 groups. The first, numbering about 1200 people, went on 40 ears, ruining everything in its path, up the Volga to Vetluga and Vyatka. Some sources report that at that time the city of Khlynov was founded at the mouth of the Khlynovitsa river by the ushkuyniks, but modern historians are skeptical about this information.
Since it was impossible to return the previous way - numerous Tatar detachments were already waiting for them near the Volga, they burned their ships, got on horses "and walked, there were many villages along the Vetluza pograbish."
The second detachment of ushkuiniks on 70 ships under the command of a certain Prokop again captured Kostroma and for 2 weeks plundered this city.
In 1375, these ushkuiniks again went down the Volga, robbing Christian merchants and killing Muslim merchants (and not only merchants). The fear of them was so great that the Tatars did not resist and fled at the mere news of their approach. Sarai Berke, the capital of the Horde, was taken by storm and plundered. Not satisfied with this triumph, the Novgorodians reached the mouth of the Volga, where they took tribute from Khan Salgei, who ruled Khaztorokan (Astrakhan).
The Ushkuiniks were let down by their self-confidence and a penchant for strong drinks: during a feast arranged for them by the Khan, armed Tatars attacked the Novgorodians who had lost their vigilance and killed them all.
In 1378, the Tatar prince Arapsha from the Volga horde killed Russian merchants and seized their goods, explaining this as revenge for the campaigns of the ushkuiniks in 1374-1375.
In 1379 g.the inhabitants of the Kolyvan volost (the right bank of the Vyatka), dissatisfied with the ushkuyniks who settled nearby, organized an attack on the prison they built:
"That same winter, the Vyatka residents marched in armies to the Arskoy land, and killed the robbers ushkuiniks, and took away their son, Ivan Ryazanets, and killed their commander."
In 1392, the ushkuyniks captured Zhukotin and Kazan, in 1398-1399. fought for the Northern Dvina. In 1409. a new surge of their activity is noted: Voivode Anfal brought 250 ships to the Volga. Later this detachment was divided into two: one hundred ears went up the Kama, 150 - down the Volga.
In 1436, at the mouth of the Kotorosl River, the Vyatchan Ushkuyniki (a total of 40 people) captured the Yaroslavl prince Alexander Fedorovich, nicknamed Bryukhaty, who, by the way, was at the head of the army, numbering up to seven thousand people. The prince was let down by inappropriate voluptuousness in the campaign: he took with him his young wife, with whom he tried to retire away from his troops.
The capital of the ushkuyniks was the city of Khlynov, in which the orders were very similar to those of Novgorod. But there were no princes or mayors. This independence of Khlynov greatly annoyed both Novgorod and Moscow.
The fall of Khlynov and the end of the era of ushkuyniks
In 1489, the Grand Duke Ivan III laid siege to Khlynov with a huge army. Its inhabitants tried to agree on the payment of tribute, but achieved only one day's postponement of the decisive assault. After Khlynov's surrender, the most implacable of the ushkuyniks were executed, the merchants were ordered to move to Dmitrov, the rest were settled in Borovsk, Aleksin, Kremenets and a settlement near Moscow, which became the village of Khlynovo. In Khlynov itself, people from Moscow villages and cities were settled (from 1780 to 1934 Khlynov was called Vyatka, in December 1934 he was named Kirov).
But some of the ushkuiniks, who did not agree with the new order, went east - to the Vyatka and Perm forests. It is believed that some of them managed to escape to the Don and Volga. Some linguists talk about the similarity of the dialects of the Don Cossacks, Novgorodians and residents of the Vyatka Territory.
Traditions of ushkuyny campaigns did not die in Russia: the Persian expedition of Stepan Razin, for example, is very similar to the campaign of Prokop's volunteers to the lower reaches of the Volga in 1375.
