Who were the Khlynovsky ushkuyniks and how they founded Vyatka
By the 835th anniversary of the beginning of the development of the Vyatka land by the Russians, a monument was erected in Kirov to the Khlynovsky ushkuyniks, who founded the capital of this region. "Russian Planet" decided to tell who the ushkuyniks were, what role they played in history, and for what the Moscow princes ordered all mention of them to be erased from the chronicles.
A terrible dream of the dogs-knights
The first earhooks appeared in the 9th-11th centuries in the Novgorod Republic. So they began to call professional soldiers who united in armed squads.
- Some researchers call ushkuyniks the first Russian special forces that served the Novgorod Republic, protecting it from external threats. Others - the Russian version of the Vikings, who, as a result of close contacts, adopted their style of behavior, in fact - pirates, guided exclusively by their own interests and working for profit. Still others see in the earhooks the discoverers and conquerors of new lands, the predecessors of Ermak with his Cossack detachments. Fourth - professional mercenaries, who were financed by Novgorod merchants to collect tribute in the territories under their control and to guard trade caravans, - historian Anatoly Lysenko tells the RP correspondent. - In my opinion, the most grounded point of view is that the ushkuiniks were a passionate part of the inhabitants of Novgorod the Great, which, depending on the circumstances, could play a variety of roles.
The ushkuyniki got their nickname by the name of the ships on which they sailed - ushkuyev. They were light, maneuverable and high-speed vessels that could be steered with both oars and sails. Their name, according to one version, comes from the Pomor word "oshkuy" - polar bear. The head of this particular animal carved out of wood flaunted on the high nose of the ears. One boat could fit up to 30 people. On these ships, the ushkuyniks made their swift campaigns, many of which changed the course of history.
- If you list the most impressive deeds of the ushkuyniks of the early period of their existence, then it was they who forced the Kingdom of Sweden in 1323 to sign the Orekhovsky Peace Treaty with the Novgorod Republic. And a century and a half earlier, in 1187, having united with the Karelians, they plundered the ancient capital of Sweden Sigtun so thoroughly that the city could not fully recover from the destruction. So they took revenge on the Swedes, who were the first to attack Novgorod. Please note: some researchers believe that the ushkuin squads were very small. - But in this case, could they take cities? - Anatoly Lysenko continues the story. - Ushkuiniks for several centuries dreamed in terrible dreams of all the Scandinavian neighbors of Veliky Novgorod, on whose lands they raided with enviable consistency. By the way, there is an opinion that one of their leaders was the mayor Vasily Buslaev, the main character of the Novgorod epic epic.
In 1348, the Swedish king Magnus decided to break the Orekhovsky peace and again attacked the Novgorod Republic. He even managed to take the Oreshek fortress. And then, in response, the ushkuyniki invaded the Swedish province of Halogaland and captured the well-fortified fortress of Bjarkey. This astonished the Swedish king so much that he immediately stopped the war, and in his will he wrote: “I order my children, my brothers, and the whole Swedish land: do not attack Russia if the cross was kissed in this; we have no luck in this …"
By the middle of the 16th century, largely due to the efforts of the ushkuiniks, serious military operations in the north of Russia had actually ceased. The Livonian Order no longer attempted to organize new crusades, as did Sweden, Lithuania and Norway. And then the Novgorod soldiers who were left without work found themselves a new enemy - the Golden Horde.
“In 1360, the ushkuyniks along the Volga reached the Horde town of Zhukotin, which was located not far from modern Chistopol, on their boats, and killed almost all of its inhabitants,” Anatoly Lysenko says. “This campaign of theirs delighted Saint Dionysius of Suzdal, but, as one would expect, it aroused the ardent indignation of the Golden Horde. Khizr Khan, who ruled at that time, demanded from the Grand Duke Dmitry of Suzdal to seize and hand over the ushkuyniks to him. And when those on the way home "drank zipuns" in Kostroma, the Russian princes seized the winners, tied them up and sent them to the Horde, where they were sold into slavery. Of course, this outcome did not suit their comrades who remained at large. They organized several new campaigns, forcing the Horde khans to regret their decision. And after 14 years, the ushkuyniki captured the very capital of the Golden Horde, the city of Sarai. And in the same year, the city of Khlynov was founded, which later became Vyatka, and then - Kirov.
Ushkuynik. Painting by N. Roerich.
Pirate state
Historian Nikolai Kostomarov wrote: “There is nothing in Russian history darker than the fate of Vyatka and its land. The chronicler of the Vyatka Land refers to the beginning of this colony in 1174 and contradicts himself somewhat: in one place he says that the inhabitants of Novgorod set off on their own and separated from Veliky Novgorod, and in another - that they set off with the consent of Veliky Novgorod. Probably the first, because this colony did not recognize the power of Novgorod, several times was hostile to Novgorod, never interacted with it and felt against itself - according to the legend of the same local chronicle - the anger of its metropolis”.
- If we do not forget that Khlynov was founded by the ushkuyniks, then there is no mystery in this. Novgorod, which has been using their services for many centuries, of course, could not like that they decided to separate and live on their own, - historian Viktor Khokhrin tells the RP correspondent. - Moreover, the free Khlynov grew very quickly. Ushkuyniki arranged everything in it to their liking: many researchers call the state created by them the Vyatka Veche Republic. In fact, the order in Khlynov was the same as in Veliky Novgorod. It had its own veche, but there were no mayors and princes. In order to preserve its independence, the small state periodically united with some or other princes, but did not obey them, which categorically did not suit either Veliky Novgorod or Moscow.
Having received their own state at their disposal, the ushkuiniks did not abandon their previous habits, did not settle in place and continued to go hiking. So, in 1471, they made another raid on the capital of the Golden Horde - the city of Saray - led by the governor Kostya Yuriev. This is even said in the Typographical Chronicle. After the plundering of the capital, the economic power of the Sarai horde was finally undermined, and the Moscow princes finally stopped paying tribute to the khans.
Ancestors of the Don Cossacks
The end of the existence of the Vyatka veche republic was put by the Moscow princes. In 1489, Grand Duke Ivan III, who had dealt with Veliky Novgorod earlier, sent a 64,000-strong army led by boyars Daniil Shcheny and Grigory Morozov to capture Vyatka. They laid siege to the city. The Vyatichi tried to bribe the governor, but all that they managed to achieve with generous gifts was to delay the surrender. True, this also turned out to be not useless - some of the residents managed to escape during this time. But the rest faced no less severe punishment than the residents of Novgorod had previously. Some were executed, the rest were resettled in other cities of the Moscow principality. Even the very name of the city of Khlynov disappeared from all documents for several decades.
Some of the ushkuyniks who survived the defeat went to live on the Don and Volga. Soon the Volga Cossacks formed there, whose customs strikingly resembled the customs of the ushkuiniks, and the desire for a free life and river trips was no less than theirs. And linguists see similarities in the dialects of Novgorodians, Vyatichi and Don Cossacks. By the way, the very word "Cossack" was first mentioned in chronicles in 1489, fatal for Khlynov.
- The historian Vadim Teplitsyn gives another weighty argument - the leaders of the ushkuiniks were called vatamans, - Anatoly Lysenko says. - This word reminded him of the English word waterman, which can be translated as "rower", "a man who lives by the water." It is difficult to say how justified the parallel with the English word is, but the similarity with the Cossack "chieftain" is difficult to refute.
In the annals, very few mentions of the ushkuiniks have survived - the victors, the Moscow princes, ordered to blot out any mention of them in their chronicles. Therefore, much more information about these warriors can be found in the epics "On the Kulikovo Field" and "Standing on the Ugra River".
