The remains of Yaroslav the Wise could end up in one of the churches in New York. “The remains of Yaroslav the Wise are most likely located in the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York “Once we were already accused of incompetence, but then applauded for the accuracy of our analysis”
The Sophia of Kiev National Nature Reserve received a letter from the United States, the author of which provides information about the location of the prince’s ashes
— American Loy Jones sent me a letter by e-mail in which he talks about a conversation with the priests of one of the Orthodox churches in America (which one is not specified in the letter),- says leading researcher at the Sofia Kyiv National Reserve, Candidate of Historical Sciences Irina Margolina. — The priests told Jones that the temple in which they serve contains the remains of Prince Yaroslav the Wise. We have reason to believe that we are talking about the Church of the Holy Trinity. It is located in New York in the Brooklyn area. The fact is that the search for the prince’s ashes, which began almost seven years ago, led us to this particular temple. It belongs to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. Unfortunately, in 2010, the priests of the Holy Trinity Church stopped contacts with representatives of Ukraine, citing the fact that pro-Russian forces had come to power in our country.
— Until 2009, we were sure that the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise rested in the St. Sophia Cathedral in a stone sarcophagus, because this was recorded in official documents (more precisely, in the copies at our disposal),- said last Tuesday at a round table dedicated to the search and return of the prince’s remains, General Director of the National Nature Reserve "Sofia Kyiv" Nelya Kukovalskaya. — We learned that there was no Yaroslav’s skeleton in the sarcophagus during the routine certification of museum objects. Before opening the marble tomb, they drew up an extensive plan for studying the remains. Before this, they were studied back in 1939. We planned to do it again, because science has come a long way since then. In particular, they were going to conduct genetic research to clarify at what age the prince died.
According to the documents, the sarcophagus contained the ashes of two people - a prince and a woman (presumably his wife, the Swedish princess Ingigerda). But we found only one skeleton there. Research has shown that it does not belong to Yaroslav the Wise. I note that all work was carried out through donations from patrons, and the scientists involved did not demand fees.
*This photo was taken in the St. Sophia Cathedral in 2009 during the opening of the sarcophagus. In Nelya Kukovalskaya’s hands is a box taken out from there, in which, according to documents, were the remains of Prince Yaroslav. But they weren’t there (photo by Sergei Tushinsky, FACTS)
When the commission of the Sofia Reserve first opened the sarcophagus in 1936, there were two skeletons inside, the bones were mixed. Specialists photographed them and wrote up the relevant papers. Three years later, the tomb was reopened to send the remains for research to Leningrad, to the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology. His employees Wolf Ginzburg and Dmitry Rokhlin then came to the conclusion that the man’s ashes belonged to Prince Yaroslav. The basis for this conclusion was that the man whose skeleton they studied was wounded in the head and leg in battle, limped, and died at about 65-70 years old. These data correspond to information about Yaroslav the Wise, which historians gleaned from written sources. The famous anthropologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov used the prince’s skull to make a sculptural portrait of him, which later became widely known (it is located in the St. Sophia Cathedral).
*Reconstruction of the face of Yaroslav the Wise, made from his skull by the famous sculptor and anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov
We thought that the remains might not have been returned from Leningrad. I went to St. Petersburg in the hope of finding information that would help in the search. The Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology did not have any documents on research into the prince’s ashes. The director of this research center said that they were probably lost during the siege of Leningrad. There remained hope that some information was in the archives of the Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology of Lomonosov Moscow State University. But they didn’t find anything there either.
Later, in Kyiv, they nevertheless found acts on the return of the remains from Leningrad to the Sofia Museum. According to documents after the war, in 1964, a wooden box with ashes was placed in a sarcophagus. The original documents relating to the contents of the tomb, as well as newspapers from that period, were also placed there. All this was officially documented, so we were sure that Prince Yaroslav rested in the sarcophagus.
— When it turned out that there was another person’s skeleton there (as research has shown, it belonged to a large woman who had been engaged in heavy physical labor all her life), we turned to the famous article by Metropolitan Hilarion (Ivan Ogienko), published in Canada in 1954,- speaks Irina Margolina. — It says that when the troops of Nazi Germany left Kyiv, the 11th century icon of Nicholas the Wet and the remains of Yaroslav the Wise were removed from the St. Sophia Cathedral. We knew: the icon is in one of the Orthodox churches in the USA. But they doubted the skeleton of Yaroslav. They thought that the respected metropolitan was mistaken. But when it turned out that the prince’s ashes were not in the sarcophagus, they took Hilarion’s message seriously.
*This image of St. Nicholas the Wet is the first miraculous icon of Kievan Rus. Until 1943, it was located in Kyiv in St. Sophia Cathedral
— I know representatives of the older generation of the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA, I asked them to help unravel the story of the disappearance of the remains of the prince, - speaks Director of the Center for Research of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Ukraine Sergey Kot. — They are the same age as people who had information about how the miraculous icon of Nicholas the Wet and the remains of Prince Yaroslav ended up in America.
— Several Americans of Ukrainian origin responded to the request for help., continues Irina Margolina. — So, in 2010 we received a letter from the USA from Mikhail Gerets. He relayed the story of his friend Vyacheslav Vishnevsky: in the fall of 1943, shortly before the liberation of Kyiv, Archbishop Nikanor wanted to take some shrines of the St. Sophia Cathedral with him abroad, but the occupation authorities did not allow him to do this. Then he asked the German officer Paul von Denbach to take out the miraculous icon of Nicholas the Wet, the ashes of Prince Yaroslav and the personal belongings of the archbishop. It was agreed that the officer would give all this to the priest in Warsaw. However, when von Denbach brought the shrines to the capital of Poland, Nikanor was no longer there. Then the officer found Archbishop Palladius and gave him the icon and the box with the remains. Palladium exported them first to Germany, then to the USA. In New York, he gave the relics to another priest, Father Ivan Tkachuk. He lived in Manhattan, and kept the prince’s remains... under his bed. Tkachuk died a long time ago. Both of his daughters got married, and where they are now is unknown.
In the next letter, Mikhail reports that the remains of the prince may be located where the icon of Nicholas the Wet is - in New York, in the Church of the Holy Trinity. He went there and asked priest Vladimir Vronsky about Yaroslav’s bones, but he said nothing.
— In 2010, I went to New York in the hope of finding the remains of the prince, continues Nelya Kukovalskaya. — I was able to talk in America with 90-year-old Nina Bulavitskaya, who in 1941-1943 was the secretary of Oleksa Povstenko, who held the post of director of the Sofia Kyiv nature reserve during the Nazi occupation. Bulavitskaya, like Povstenko, left for the United States to avoid becoming a victim of Soviet repression. The interlocutor said that during Gorbachev’s perestroika she came to Kyiv as a tourist, visited St. Sophia Cathedral and informed the staff of our reserve about the relics that had come to the United States. Unfortunately, her words were ignored.
When I came to the consistory (the bishop’s institution for managing the diocese), Archbishop Anthony said: “Don’t look for relics, I know where they are. We will show them to you later." He didn’t say anything more, and it wasn’t exactly polite to ask. Then I asked the archbishop to receive me again. He started the conversation with the infamous Kharkov agreements(document between Ukraine and Russia on the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the territory of our country, signed on April 21, 2010. - Auto.). The Archbishop said: “What can we talk about if people who sign such agreements have come to power.”
The Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, Oleg Shamshur, came to me in New York from Washington and tried to talk about a matter that interested me with Metropolitan Daniel and Archbishop Anthony. But they told him that they do not speak Ukrainian very well, although this is not the case.
I didn’t give up: I found the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Brooklyn area, which houses the miraculous icon of Nicholas the Wet and, probably, the remains of Prince Yaroslav. I arrived at the church early on Sunday morning and found a service led by the rector of the church, Vladimir Vronsky, and his son. The book of Metropolitan Bolkhovitinov, published in 1825, gives a detailed description of the miraculous icon of Nicholas the Mokroy. I was convinced that this description fully corresponds to the icon that is located in the Church of the Holy Trinity. Unfortunately, the rector of the temple avoided talking about the remains of Yaroslav the Wise.
*Holy Trinity Church in New York belongs to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the USA
— In January 1943, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition signed the London Declaration on the return of cultural property to states, regardless of the reasons for which they were taken out during the war, - Sergey Kot comments on the situation. — Based on this and a number of other international documents, our country can initiate negotiations with the United States on the return of the miraculous icon of Nicholas the Wet and the relics of the prince. But you need to be prepared for the fact that it will not be possible to achieve your goal soon. A clear illustration of this is the story of the Pskov relics. During World War II, priests evacuated ancient church shrines from Pskov to the USA. The authorities of the former USSR failed to achieve their return. The issue was resolved only a few years ago thanks to the fact that the priests of Russia and the United States were able to reach an agreement among themselves.
The story with the Pskov relics shows that the church needs to be involved in negotiations on the return of the shrines of the St. Sophia Cathedral. Maximum delicacy should be exercised so as not to offend the feelings of the Ukrainians in the diaspora: those who took the relics from Kyiv believed that they were saving them from the Stalinist regime. By the way, the already mentioned Oleksa Povstenko saved the St. Sophia Cathedral from destruction. The first time this happened was in 1941, before Kyiv was surrendered to the Nazis. NKVD sappers arrived with two tons of explosives to mine the temple. They demanded that Povstenko take them to the basements. He deceived the security officers by declaring that there were no basements. He pointed to the cast-iron floor and said: “If you want, go ahead.” The sappers did not have time, and they mined one of the houses nearby. During the occupation, the Nazis decided to blow up the shrine. Povstenko had a friend, a German officer, who was compiling lists of Ukrainian cultural property for export to Germany. This German brought the officer on whom the fate of the cathedral depended to the temple, showed him an image of an inverted swastika (it is located on the top of the walls outside the Royal Gate) and asked: “Will you really destroy evidence of the Aryan presence in Kyiv 1000 years ago?” I will add that during the retreat from Kyiv, Soviet sappers mined the Vladimir Cathedral. By a lucky coincidence, he remained unharmed.
For the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church of the USA, the miraculous icon of Nicholas the Mokroy and the relics of Yaroslav the Wise (he is canonized) are the most valuable relics, so it will not be easy for it to part with them.
It makes sense for us to start by raising the question of restoration of the icon, because this ancient image needs it. Offer to carry out the restoration in Kyiv, while giving clear guarantees of its return to New York. It will be possible to talk, for example, about exchanging an icon for a copy and returning the relics when a truly trusting relationship is established between the parties.
“Today, when Ukraine suffers from enemy aggression, when the Ukrainian people need protection, these ancient shrines will be the amulets of our Motherland. The ceremonial return of the relics will be a grand event that will support our struggle for peace and independence, notes Irina Margolina.
In the story of the disappearance of the relics of Yaroslav the Wise, the “American trace” is being increasingly studied. There is a version that the remains of the prince were secretly taken out of Kyiv during the Great Patriotic War, and through Europe they came to the United States, Sedmitsa.Ru reports.
The Church of the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn does not deny that the trace of Yaroslav the Wise reaches out to them. Archpriest Vladimir willingly demonstrates the shrines that were taken overseas during the Second World War. This canopy (tent on pillars), built inside the temple in the shape of a prince's helmet, was erected in the 40s of the last century. It was at this time, as they believe in Kyiv, that the relics of Prince Yaroslav the Wise came to the United States. But in the tomb under the ancient lamps it is not the remains of Yaroslav Vladimirovich that are kept, but a gold-embroidered shroud that was taken from Russia during the war. The abbot admits: if the prince is present in this temple, it is only spiritually.
"This is the first time I have come across this theory that we have these relics. I am pleased. The physical presence of the relics of Yaroslav is not here, but we feel the spiritual presence of Yaroslav the Wise, because for more than 100 years in this place the development of Russian or Slavic culture has continued, at the origins where Yaroslav the Wise stood,” says Archpriest Vladimir Alekseev, rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn.
When a loss is discovered in Kyiv - in the sarcophagus in the St. Sophia Cathedral it is not a prince, not even a man, the skeleton belongs to a woman, or rather two, and they lived in different eras - they remember the article of Metropolitan Hilarion Agienko, who was the first to point out: the remains were stolen. Since the lid of the sarcophagus is two tons, historians know exactly when it was lifted.
The remains of the prince were studied in 1939 by Academician Gerasimov, but with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the ashes disappeared and, as Kyiv is now sure, were exported to the USA through Poland and Germany. This is indicated by the church shrine - the icon of St. Nicholas “Wet”, which at the same time and along the same route gets from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv to the temple in New York.
“It is logical to assume that if the icon was taken out along with the remains of Prince Yaroslav, then they must be somewhere in pairs in the same room or with the same person,” says the Deputy General Director of the Sophia of Kiev National Nature Reserve. Irina Margolina.
The icon of St. Nicholas is in the temple of the Ukrainian Church, which is currently under repair. The parish is huddled in a former courthouse, filming is prohibited there, and they refuse to discuss the fate of the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise. At the nearby Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, the rector asks: “Were there any remains?”
“If we look at this situation soberly, then imagine how long ago Yaroslav the Wise lived, how many years have passed since he was buried. What could remain there in this climate?” - asks the rector of the Brooklyn temple.
Archpriest Victor admits that nothing is known about the remains of Yaroslav, Prince of Kyiv, in the most influential and numerous Orthodox community in North America, because the relics are a shrine that cannot but make itself known. The number of church relics that were exported to the United States in the 20th century is incalculable: that is why many of them survived.
“Here is an icon that was taken out of Russia during the first emigration,” says Viktor Potapov, rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington.
Historians came from Kyiv to New York, trying to trace the remains of Yaroslav the Wise, but the historical hypothesis was not confirmed: either it is incorrect, or the new owners of the relics do not want to return them.
A detail that eludes the seekers of the remains of the great Kiev prince, during the period when his ashes disappeared from Kiev, that is, in the middle of the 20th century, Yaroslav the Wise was not revered as a saint, he was not canonized, that is, he was not canonized. This happened only in 2004. Therefore, is it worth looking for his relics in the rich tombs in Orthodox churches in America? Rather, his ashes are in museum storage or in a church graveyard, if the remains of Yaroslav the Wise actually crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
The son of Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, Yaroslav Vladimirovich reigned for more than 40 years (in Rostov, Novgorod and Kyiv). He is responsible for the creation of “Russian Truth”, the founding of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and many other merits, for which the prince received the name “Great”. The remains of this extraordinary man were kept for a long time in Sofia of Kyiv, which many years ago was turned into a national museum-reserve.
The prince is not alone in the sarcophagus
Yaroslav the Wise continued the construction of the St. Sophia Temple following his father. The prince was buried in it in 1054. In 1936, the sarcophagus with his remains was opened, but the tomb also contained women’s and children’s bones. Deputy director of Sofia Kievskaya Irina Margolina said that a number of studies were carried out then, which confirmed that it was Yaroslav the Wise in the sarcophagus.
Scientists from the Leningrad Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology established that the first skeleton belonged to a lame man about 70 years old. This is exactly what Yaroslav the Wise was. The female skeleton presumably belonged to his wife Irina. It was not possible to establish what kind of baby was buried with these people.
The war made its own adjustments
At the beginning of World War II, the relics of the ruler of Kyiv were transported to Leningrad so that the sacred relic would not fall to the Nazis. She was returned to Sofia in 1940. The bones were kept in a small wooden box. He was not immediately placed in the sarcophagus. Special equipment was needed to lift the two-ton stone slab. For some time, the remains in that same box simply lay on a shelf in the storage room.
In 1964, museum staff decided to restore order to the sarcophagus. The relics were placed in place. But many years later, after Perestroika, it was discovered that the bones stored in the tomb were only female. Probably, these are precisely the remains of Princess Irina that originally lay with the relics of Yaroslav the Wise. The last ones from Sofia disappeared. Whether this happened during the military moves or afterward still remains a mystery.
American version
According to Nina Bulavitskaya, the relics of Yaroslav are now in the USA. During the war, this woman worked as the secretary of the director of Sofia Kievskaya, Oleks Povstenko. She said that then the relics of the Grand Duke were taken from the tomb by the Archbishop of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church Nikanor. He took the relic out of the Soviet Union, using the help of a German gendarme.
In Poland, Nikanor gave the remains of Yaroslav the Wise to another priest of Ukrainian origin, Bishop Palladius. The latter, together with Povstenko, who fled from Ukraine, transported the sacred cargo to Germany. After the war, it passed into the hands of another holy father, Ivan Tkachuk, who emigrated to the USA, taking with him the relics of the prince.
According to Irina Margolina, they can really be kept in the Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, located in Brooklyn. The director of Sophia of Kyiv made a request regarding this possibility to the Archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the States, Anthony. The latter categorically denied the possibility of finding the relics of Yaroslav the Wise in the United States. No one still knows where they actually are.
In the capital of Ukraine, local researchers, having opened the crypt in the St. Sophia Cathedral, where the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise rest, were surprised by an unexpected discovery.
Scientists discovered there an issue of the Pravda newspaper dated April 9, 1964. The centerfold of the newspaper was Khrushchev's speech. The publication, according to experts, was left by anthropologists of the late “Thaw” era.
Meanwhile, current burial studies are being carried out on the initiative of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. Scientists intend to reveal the secret of the tomb of Yaroslav the Wise and find out who was buried with him. In 1939, anthropologists established that other people, besides Yaroslav, were buried in the sarcophagus.
This time, scientists intend to find out using DNA testing.
Until yesterday, September 10, the sarcophagus with the remains of Yaroslav the Wise was opened three times: twice before the war and once again after - in 1964. Then anthropometric studies of the remains of the prince were carried out, his approximate height was established - about 175 cm, and the famous Soviet anthropologist Gerasimov reconstructed the portrait of Yaroslav the Wise based on his skull.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich , born around 978 - died on February 20, 1054 in Vyshgorod. Prince of Rostov (987-1010), Prince of Novgorod (1010-1034), Grand Duke of Kiev (1016-1018, 1019-1054).
Yaroslav Vladimirovich - the son of the baptist of Rus', Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich (from the Rurik family) and the Polotsk princess Rogneda Rogvolodovna, in baptism he had the name Georgy (or Yuri - a later form of the name Georgy, widespread in the ancient Russian language; in the 11th-12th centuries it had the form Gyurga).
During his father's lifetime, he received control of Novgorod. While ruling there, Yaroslav had to annually pay Kyiv 2000 hryvnias of silver. In 1014, feeling strong enough, Yaroslav refused to pay this tribute. His desire coincided with the desire of the Novgorodians, who were always burdened by dependence on Southern Rus' and the tribute imposed on them. This caused sharp dissatisfaction with Yaroslav's father, who began to gather an army in order to punish his rebellious son. The death of Grand Duke Vladimir Svyatoslavich spared Yaroslav from a clash with his father.
After the Death of Vladimir, a brutal internecine struggle for the Kiev throne began. Vladimir's eldest son Svyatopolk treacherously killed his brothers Boris, Gleb and Svyatoslav and at the cost of his brothers' blood became the Grand Duke of Kyiv.
The plans of Svyatopolk, popularly nicknamed the Accursed, also included the elimination of Yaroslav. Having received news from his sister Predslava about Svyatopolk’s intentions, Yaroslav with the Novgorodians and Varangians set out for Kyiv. At Lyubech, after a 3-month confrontation, Yaroslav defeated Svyatopolk, who managed to escape under the protection of his father-in-law, the Polish king Boleslav the Brave.
In 1018, the army of Boleslav and Svyatopolk invaded Russian soil and approached Kyiv. After a short siege, Kyiv fell. Yaroslav gathered a fresh army of Varangians and Novgorod militiamen in Novgorod and again moved towards Kyiv with the goal of regaining the grand-ducal table and punishing the “sacrilegious brother-killer.” The decisive battle between Yaroslav and Svyatopolk took place on the Alta River (1019), where Svyatopolk was defeated. Having become the Grand Duke of Kyiv, Yaroslav entered into a fight with his other brother - Mstislav, Prince of Tmutrakan. In 1023 Mstislav invaded the domains of Yaroslav. The war lasted three years. In 1025, by mutual agreement, the entire left bank of the Dnieper was given to Mstislav, and Chernigov became the capital of his principality. After the division of possessions, lasting peace was established between the brothers.
Later, Yaroslav restored the integrity of the Old Russian state.
The people called Grand Duke Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise. He is rightfully considered the great educator of Rus'. He founded the first public school in Novgorod and laid the foundation for the grand ducal library. As a legislator, Yaroslav ordered to write down the first set of civil laws in history - “Russian Truth”. Under Yaroslav the Wise, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was founded, which became the center of chronicle writing in Rus' and for the first time in the history of Russian Orthodoxy, a metropolitan was elected by decree of the prince, independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople. He became Hilarion, the great ancient Russian writer, one of the founders of Russian literature.
Grand Duke Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise, surrounded by veneration and popular love, died peacefully on February 20, 1054. His ashes rest in the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral.
Scientists decided to disturb the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise. From the crypt in Sophia of Kyiv they will take out an oak coffin where the remains of the prince are buried, under whom Kievan Rus became famous throughout Europe.
To use the latest techniques to reveal a mystery that has troubled the minds of historians for many years: who was buried with Yaroslav? In January 1939, when the tomb was opened for the last time, it turned out that along with the bones of the prince it contained the skeleton of a woman and the skull of a man. And in 1939 the world war began...
Six workers installed it around the oldest (about a thousand years old!) sarcophagus of the forest. Pegs were driven under the two-ton lid so that the lid could then be moved manually using a winch.
The head of the research, head of the scientific and historical department of the reserve, Doctor of Historical Sciences Nadezhda Nikitenko, said that Yaroslav’s tomb had already been opened three times - in the terrible years of 1936 and 1939, as well as in 1964. However, the ashes themselves were taken out only in 1939. Anthropologists from Leningrad assembled two skeletons from bones - male and female. There were no problems with the first one - he corresponded to the chronicle descriptions of Yaroslav the Wise in terms of height, age, and special features. But the female skeleton has become a huge mystery for scientists! Until a certain time, it was believed that it belonged to Yaroslav’s wife, Ingerda. But it has been proven that her ashes rest in Sofia Novgorod! According to another version, a woman may be Sophia’s protector. Judging by the fact that no jewelry was found in the tomb, the prince’s grave could have been robbed.
“The skeleton belongs to a woman about 50 years old. But the head there is a man’s! It may well be that this is the skull of Vsevolod, the son of Yaroslav, and the female skeleton appeared there after another plunder. Finding out who Yaroslav’s “neighbors” are is one of the main tasks,” says Nadezhda Nikitenko. “The research will be carried out using DNA.”
The sarcophagus of the Wise itself is shrouded in mystery. It was probably made in Byzantium and brought to Chersonesus, from where it came to Kyiv. Yaroslav’s father, Vladimir, ordered it. The walls of the sarcophagus are decorated with Christian paintings. There are also inscriptions - more than 20. One of them, according to an expert on Kyiv history Mikhail Kalnitsky, translated means: “Jesus Christ is the winner, the light of Christ conquers everyone.”
However, the Armenian scientist Zhirayr Norairovich Ter-Karapetyan believes that there are also Armenian letters on the lid of the sarcophagus: A, M, Th, K, B. This is the beginning of the Armenian words “Amenaimastun mets takavori Kievi bnakchutyunits”, which are translated as “To the all-knowing great king from the inhabitants Kyiv".
And the third secret. There is damage on one of the walls of the sarcophagus. It looks as if someone knocked down the inscription - the remains of an ornament and some letters are very vaguely visible. What was it? Let us remember how ominously the opening of Tamerlane’s grave coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The researchers were not stopped by the inscription on the conqueror’s grave: “Whoever violates Timur’s covenant will be punished, and cruel wars will break out all over the world.” The words turned out to be prophetic. Perhaps there was a similar warning on Yaroslav’s sarcophagus? Six months after his ashes were disturbed, World War II broke out.
The research will be carried out for about a year, during which time the ashes will be kept in a special room on the territory of the reserve. It is planned to study samples of the remains in genetic laboratories in Sweden, Great Britain and the USA.
“We hope to use new techniques to restore the true appearance of Yaroslav the Wise. Based on DNA examination, it will be possible to determine his genotype and finally understand the pedigree of the Rurikovichs,” says Nadezhda Nikitenko.
The preliminary estimate of research costs is 60 thousand hryvnia.
Yaroslav the Wise, son of Vladimir the Baptist, ruled Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Under him, Kyiv began to be compared with Constantinople. He founded the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, completed the construction of Sophia of Kyiv, begun by his father, and collected a unique library. During his time, the copying of Byzantine books into Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages began, and the first large school was opened.
Based on materials from MIGnews, UNIAN.
Now parts of these skeletons will be returned to the tomb and the search for Yaroslav’s ashes will continue - presumably during the Second World War, the box with bones was taken from Kyiv and is now in the USA
When in September 2009, scientists opened the sarcophagus of Yaroslav the Wise (remember, it is kept in the St. Sophia Cathedral), almost no one in Kyiv had any doubts that the remains of the prince were buried inside. Tour guides have been telling numerous visitors to the cathedral about this for decades. The fact that it was in St. Sophia of Kyiv, the oldest surviving Christian temple in Eastern Europe, that the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise are located, was written in history textbooks. Experts decided to disturb the marble grave in order to conduct research using the latest technology. Perhaps it would be possible to unambiguously answer the question of who the Rurikovich rulers of Kievan Rus were (Prince Yaroslav is one of them) - Scandinavians or Slavs. And what more blood flowed in the veins of Yaroslav himself, because his father, Vladimir, who baptized Rus', had many wives and concubines. The patron provided 56 thousand hryvnia for research. But it turned out that there were no remains of the prince in the sarcophagus!
“We were once accused of incompetence, but then applauded for the accuracy of our analysis.”
The sarcophagus contained only the skeleton of a woman. Last year, FACTS told how employees of the Sophia of Kiev National Nature Reserve managed to track down the trail of the loss - a box with princely bones, apparently, taken from Kyiv during the Second World War. According to one of the most likely versions, she is now in the United States. But so far it has not been possible to find her.
Meanwhile, radiocarbon dating of the female skeleton removed from the sarcophagus in 2009 was carried out in order to determine the age of the bones. The result was sensational - the remains of two different women were buried in the tomb. Moreover, one of them could have been a contemporary of Yaroslav the Wise, the other lived one and a half thousand years before the emergence of Kievan Rus!
The research was carried out at the Kyiv Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine.
— I heard from historians that they doubt the reliability of the age of the bones you determined.
“We once heard similar statements when we were determining the age of remains from an ancient Viking settlement located on the territory of modern Poland,” answers laboratory researcher Vadim Skripkin, who participated in the radiocarbon analysis. “At first we were accused of making a mistake, but then we were applauded for the accuracy of the analysis. Then the following story came out: we determined that the age of the Viking skeleton was about 1100 years. But under his vertebrae lay a piece of wood that was only 400 years old. As in the case of the remains from the sarcophagus of Prince Yaroslav, the difference in dating is very large. They began to accuse us of incompetence. Fortunately, historians soon managed to find an explanation: in the north of Poland, in ancient church books, they found information about an epidemic that claimed many human lives, and a legend was born in connection with this. There was a rumor among the peasants that the remains of the Vikings were to blame for the mass diseases. They say that at night skeletons rise from their stone tombs and attack sleeping people, drinking their blood.
According to popular belief, the surest way to reason with a witcher is to drive an aspen stake into his heart. That's what the peasants did. A stake was driven into the remains, which they believed belonged to the Viking leader. This happened exactly 400 years ago. The wooden stick, of course, had long since decayed, but a small piece of it, found under the Viking’s vertebrae, was preserved.
Our laboratory has been operating for 40 years. The method we used was tested by an American laboratory headed by one of the creators of the radiocarbon dating method, Austin Long. We have few orders in Ukraine; we mainly cooperate with foreign partners. Regarding the reliability of the radiocarbon method, I will say that it is time-tested - it has existed for half a century. In the United States alone, about one hundred thousand dating sessions are conducted annually for archaeologists, geologists, paleontologists and ecologists.
- Let's return to the remains that rested in Sophia of Kyiv. The report from your laboratory states that radon was found in the bones of a woman who lived one and a half thousand years before the emergence of Kievan Rus.
— The bones of the upper and lower parts are even different in color. And the presence of radon means that a person lived in an area where a lot of radium gas leaks from the ground into the upper layers of soil and water. In Ukraine, this is the Zhelti Vody region in the Kirovograd region; there are such areas in Poland and the Caucasus. Radium enters the body with food. We found its decay product, radon, in the bones. So the results of the analysis added mysteries for historians.
In the photo: In September 2009, scientists opened the tomb of Yaroslav the Wise to examine the remains using the latest technology. In the photo: in the hands of the general director of the Sofia Kyiv nature reserve, Nelya Kukovalskaya, a box with bones. And the employee who climbed into the sarcophagus demonstrates the scientific materials lying there
“The ashes of the prince were taken from Kyiv by a German officer”
— How could it happen that the bones of women who lived in different historical eras ended up in the sarcophagus?
“I admit that they ended up there in the 17th century under Metropolitan Peter Mogila,” says head of anthropological research of the prince’s tomb, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Szegeda. - After all, he tried to find and improve the tombs of the princes of Kievan Rus. He could well have opened Yaroslav’s sarcophagus and completed the missing parts of the skeleton. On behalf of Mogila, among the ruins of the Church of the Tithes (the first stone church in Kyiv - author), they looked for the burials of Prince Vladimir the Baptist and his grandmother, Princess Olga. Then they managed to find fragments of a skull that supposedly belonged to Vladimir. They were sent to Moscow, but where they are now is unknown.
By the way, the history of the remains of Prince Igor is no less mysterious. Let me remind you that the Drevlyans killed him when he tried to take tribute from them beyond what was due. The Drevlyans lived on the territory of Right Bank Polesie. There, near their capital, Iskorosten (modern Korosten), they buried Igor, building a high mound. During the First World War, battles took place in those places. One of the officers found in the mound an ancient Russian sword and the decaying remains of a man, presumably Prince Igor. They were placed in a wooden box and placed in the chapel. The sword was preserved, but no one knows where the bones went.
— Why do scientists confidently declare that this sarcophagus contained the remains of Yaroslav the Wise?
“In 1936, experts opened it and saw that there was nothing inside except bones piled up in a pile. These bones were used to make two skeletons - male and female. A detailed report was compiled. Three years later, a commission headed by the famous anthropologist Wulf Ginzburg arrived in Kyiv from Leningrad. Members of the commission, in the presence of employees of the Sophia of Kiev Nature Reserve, reopened the tomb and took away the remains for study in the laboratory of the Leningrad Medical Institute and the Institute of the History of Material Culture. Chronicles were brought up that clearly stated that Yaroslav lived 70-75 years, was lame from birth, and was wounded in the head and leg in battles. The male skeleton corresponded exactly to these data. Therefore, there was not the slightest doubt that these were the remains of Yaroslav. Based on his skull, anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov created a sculptural portrait that can be found in any textbook on the history of Kievan Rus.
Now about the second skeleton. It contained both male and female characteristics. But women still prevailed. It was measured and a detailed description was drawn up. We compared the skeleton removed from the sarcophagus in 2009 with this document. And they came to the conclusion that these were the same remains.
— There was a version that they belonged to Yaroslav’s wife Ingigerda...
— It is quite possible, although in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod they will show you another burial of the wife of Prince Yaroslav.
DNA analysis should help to understand this story. At our request, scientists at Lomonosov Moscow State University are studying this issue. They took samples. One part of the material will be transferred to a genetic laboratory in Germany, the other to a similar laboratory in Rostov (specialists who studied the remains of soldiers who died in the Chechen war work there). If it turns out that these are the ashes of a Scandinavian woman, then there will be reason to believe that this is Ingigerda.
By the way, when we manage to find the remains of Yaroslav the Wise, it will be interesting to try to isolate his DNA. This will finally allow us to determine who the Rurikovichs were. Some researchers believe that the legendary Rurik came from Jutland (Denmark). But perhaps this is not the case. After all, the northern Slavic Obodrites, who lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the territory of modern Poland and Germany, took part in the Viking campaigns. So the Rurikovichs could well have been one of these Slavs. This version is supported by the fact that they very quickly integrated into the local environment.
And take the story about the location of the grave of Yaroslav’s daughter Anna, who became Queen of France. There is a known tomb where her ashes supposedly rest, but there is no reliable evidence of this. If we compare the DNA of Prince Yaroslav and these bones, it will be possible to accurately determine whether Queen Anne is actually buried there.
— How is the search for Yaroslav’s remains going in America?
“Let me remind you that specialists from the Sophia of Kiev National Nature Reserve managed to find people among Ukrainians in the United States who know the fate of the box with Yaroslav’s bones. At the request of Archbishop Nikanor, a German officer took him out of Kyiv. It was in the fall of 1943, when Soviet troops were approaching the city. Along with the ashes, the officer took away from the St. Sophia Cathedral the icon of Nicholas the Wet, which is considered the first miraculous icon of Kievan Rus. Now she is in New York, in the Church of the Holy Trinity. But so far it has not been possible to find out where the box with the prince’s remains is located.
The management of the National Reserve "Sofia of Kiev" transferred information about the situation with the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise to the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine. This gives reason to hope that the issue of returning the prince’s skeletal remains will be resolved at the state level.
“It’s good that we opened the sarcophagus and carried out scientific research, because if the truth about its contents had become known 15-20 years later, we would no longer be able to find people who know the story of the removal of the remains abroad,” he enters into the conversation. Deputy Director of the National Reserve "Sofia of Kiev" Irina Margolina. “For example, we received important information from Nina Bulavitskaya, who during the years of the occupation of Kyiv worked in the Sofia Nature Reserve as the secretary of the director.
We continue the search for the remains of Yaroslav, and the already studied bones will be placed in a special wooden box with a memorial plaque, an inscription and documents about the research results and returned to the sarcophagus.
