In Moscow's Shadows 260: Digging (Relics) For Victory

The war seems to be getting (even) nastier, in part perhaps - and this may be over-optimistic - as both sides seen an endgame almost in sight, as well as out of growing desperation on both sides. The desperation even extends to digging up Prince Dmitri Donskoi's bones for propaganda purposes.

Then again, in the second half this gives me an excuse to talk about a couple of archaeological stories that have no real political importance, but interested me...

The episode of the Peacemonger podcast I mentioned is here. The comments are, well, quite something.

The podcast's corporate partner and sponsor is Conducttr, which provides software for innovative and immersive crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, civil affairs and similar situations.

You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become one of the podcast's supporting Patrons and gain question-asking rights and access to exclusive extra materials including the (almost-) weekly Govorit Moskva news briefing right here. 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Welcome And What’s Ahead

MG 0:28

Hello, I'm Mark Galliotti, and welcome to my view of Russia in Moscow Shadows. This podcast of varying length, frequency and format, yet always reassuringly low production values, is supported by generous and perspicacious patrons like you, and also by the Crisis Exercise software company Conductor. Hello. Well look, today I'm going to be talking about current issues, and then well then I'm going to indulge myself with some archaeological news. So if you're only here for the current events, you may want to skip the second half. But I hope you'll not. All of which though nonetheless adds up to give a much more three-dimensional picture of this country. But yes, of course. For the moment, one can't get away from the immediacies of war and politics.

The War Turns More Brutal

MG 1:32

And I can't help feeling that the war is getting nastier. For example, it's not simply that the Russians are clearly gearing themselves up for another winter campaign of trying to strike Ukraine's already degraded energy infrastructure in order to essentially freeze them and render their cities uninhabitable. But we also, for example, on Friday had what was clearly a double tap strike on a shopping centre in Krivirich. In other words, they hit a shopping centre during the day, when clearly there were shoppers meant to be there, and then hit it a second time later at the point at which emergency workers had rushed to the scene. Now, many of the other attacks, I know I sometimes get into trouble for suggesting this, but anyway, many of the other attacks which have killed hit civilian targets actually look like they were either mistargeting or that they were essentially because of debris or a drone that was uh had its guidance system scrambled or whatever else. It's not that I'm saying that the Russians are good people, it's that on the whole they are not sending their missiles and drones against civilian targets when they have strategic military targets in the main. And yes, at the same time one can talk about not just the uh the whole winter campaign, which is a war crime in my opinion, even though I'm not a lawyer, but also clearly the horrors of the butcher massacres or the drone safaris where individual citizens are chased to be terrorized andor killed. Again, I I'm not trying to whitewash what the Russians are doing. I'm just trying to actually say where I think, until now, their strategic focus has been. And it does look as if, in fact, increasingly they are looking actively to creating terror and civilian casualties. And without in any way trying to pretend to some kind of moral equivalence between the two sides, I do think it is symptomatic of the way that both Kyiv and Moscow are in their own ways escalating.

AI Targeting And Drone Escalation

MG 3:39

After all, it's not just that the Ukrainians are pivoting their strikes now also to ozone warehouses, you know, the the rival to Wild Briz in the Russian online marketing space. But also we had the news broken by Simon Schuster in I think it was the Atlantic, that although, I think to his credit, Zelensky has let the idea well not die, but certainly fade from view with the ousting of its great champion and mastermind, former Defense Minister Mikhailo Fyodorov. But nonetheless, the idea of something called Operation MMs, which would involve sending drones swarming to Moscow airports to try and deny air traffic in the in the long term, but crucially that these drones would be targeted by terminal AI. In other words, there'll be no human being giving the final yes-no decision on where they strike, but simply the programming of the drones. Which raises the not the possibility, but the likelihood, quite frankly, given the limitations of AI systems and programming, that instead of always targeting empty airliners on the ground, they might well hit one that was already staffed and uh full of passengers, or you know, some other target which was entirely civilian, which would arguably make it a war crime. And as I said, to his credit, Zelensky apparently was always unhappy with the idea, but just allowed the planning to continue, but has, as I say, for the moment spiked it. Now, officially the Ukrainians are not admitting this. There was one person from the presidential administration saying that it's absolute nonsense, but does seem to be a little bit quiet, and again, I can't call this definitive confirmation, but certainly I've talked to a couple of people within Western establishments who have how can I put this? Who have suggested that they don't think this is not a story. Plus anyway, Simon Schuster is exceedingly well connected in Kiev. So I th I think for the moment we can think this quite likely that this was indeed a plan, and as I said, this would have been a definite escalation, and possibly one which could be described as a war crime. So these are very different approaches, obviously, in moral as well as practical terms, but nonetheless they do speak to the extent to which, on the one hand, they absolutely want the war to end sooner, both sides are feeling the pressure, but also because I think there is a suspicion that the war will end sooner. Both sides are getting more desperate to try and ensure that they are in the strongest position possible to dictate whatever terms eventually emerge. And by the way, for the record, I don't think anything's gonna happen this year. I think if nothing else, the Russians will be thinking, well, you know, we're heading up for winter, let's have another winter campaign in order to try and degrade Ukrainian morale further. So I think that there's no signs now that that there are gonna be any kind of movement, positive movement, as I say, this side of spring. Um and it's one of the reasons precisely why Zelensky had launched his much vaunted 40-day campaign to try and get the Russians to precisely end the war before winter. That wasn't, I don't think, gonna happen. And in part that was a campaign that was announced with an eye to affecting Western perspectives and making sure that they realize that Ukraine still has agency and such like. But still, that hasn't happened.

Kyiv Turmoil And Putin’s Calculus

MG 7:20

And the current political turmoil in Ukraine, I think, again, unfortunately, does embolden Putin. Remember, this is a man who, despite the lessons of years of not just dogged Ukrainian resistance, but striking unity in terrible times, I think nonetheless is informed by this deeply prejudiced notion of Ukrainians as being ultimately not just not a real people, but also an intrinsically incompetent one. I I've mentioned this in the past, but I do think the best encapsulation was this was back in I f I forget to my sins whether it was 2015 or 2016, but I remember talking to a Russian diplomat who was essentially saying that Moscow should not have gone in overtly to support the Donbass pseudo-people's republics back in the summer of 2014. Why? Well he said actually we should have just sat back and waited for the Ukrainians to screw everything up the way they always do. Now I'm reporting, not subscribing to that view, but I think that is a that is a view that is quite widely held within the Russian political elite, and certainly Putin and his circle. That sense that ultimately give the Ukrainians time and they'll mess things up. And what we now see, well, the whole fury around the dismissal of both Fyodorov and his main nemesis, commander of the armed forces, General Syrsky. We see the protests in in Kyiv in support of Fyodorov. Fyodorov's call for elections, which kind of rule again plays to the Russian narrative line that says that Zelensky is essentially illegitimate because he has not held elections, even though it's always worth noting that not only are there huge practical issues with trying to hold elections in the middle of a ghastly war like this, but also actually under Ukrainian law. So long as martial law is in force, which it is at the moment, there cannot be elections. Anyway, and then we've also got the rolling corruption scandals, which, you know, really are pretty close to Zelensky in terms of the people who get arrested or dismissed or anything like that. So in those circumstances, given that Putin wants to believe that the Ukrainians are on the verge of self-destructing, I think that he will be telling himself that. And that again is a reason for continuing the campaign rather than anything else. So, you know, we're going to see the a winter campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and remember it's already been two-thirds degraded from previous years. So unfortunately, you know, there's that much more chance that the Russians will be able to do some truly devastating damage. And also possibly against other kind of infrastructures like water to try and make the cities all but unlivable. And also we we still see the assault on the Donbass. Territorially speaking, the Russians are moving terribly slowly, but the point is they they do seem on them in the main to be slowly and painfully and bloodily grinding forward. And it's I'm left with a sense really that this is a war that is in some ways on autopilot. There's not really much that the Ukrainians can do other than strike new targets. I see they've now pivoted from wild barriers to its main competitor, Ozone. I don't think it's in the interest of ensuring an equitable market share. Again, I think it's to keep keep the Russians guessing about their main strategic target. Um and obviously, meanwhile, hold the line as far as they can in the ground fighting. Putin at the moment sees no reason to shift his strategy. He may well feel once again that victory is within sight. I mean, it may well be just as much of a mirage as in previous times, but so long as he believes it so be it. And the West, I see no political will really to do anything differently at the moment. I discussed this on Ian Proud's Peacemonger podcast. And just by the way, little sideline, I'll I'll I'll leave a link to the conversation in the programme notes if people want to go and and listen to that. Um, you know, Ian Proud comes to the whole issue from a very different perspective, and I think I would say one that is rather more critical of the Western Ukraine than Russia. And it was fascinating just to see actually the comments under that particular podcast, because I often get hammered by sort of the Napoites and so forth, um, who accuse me of being um a Russian stooge and everything else. And in this one I am described as, well, don't we just take one particular uh quote? One of the foremost Russo haters in the UK. It seems I'm not sure if I can say you can't satisfy everyone all the time, but you certainly can alienate everyone all the time, it seems. But anyway, as I say on that, I I don't see any at the moment real serious political will in the West to try and change the situation. So in some ways, everyone is just sitting back and hoping things break their way. And it's noteworthy that uh in an interview with his usual servile stenographer of choice, that's uh the journalist I use the term in the loosest sense, Pavel Zarubin, Putin said that he thought that talks were now premature.

Kremlin Rhetoric And Talks Stalled

MG 12:46

Um though it's quite interesting, this is the week, I mean this Friday was the 35th anniversary of the end of the 1991 August coup by the hardliners against Gorbachev and his reforms. And again it does raise the question of yes, they failed, but in the grand historic sweep, did they really fail? I can't help thinking that the uh the Gak HP, the emergency committee that uh basically put itself forward as the uh voice of the hardliners, they might well applaud Putin. And speaking of of Soviet parallels, by the way, certainly Dmitry Medvedev at the moment is is channelling the sort of his inner propagandist of the worst Soviet eras. Um in a recent speech, he described Ukraine as country 404, you know, after the internet code that comes up if a webpage isn't there, aggressive, cynical scoundrels, remnants of Nazi scum, drug addicts, Christs sellers, which actually is has it's worth holding on to that because it has some interesting parallels, something else in the moment, and you know, friends with russophobia. And the leaders of the collective West are variously described as degenerates, direct descendants and ideological heirs of fascists and morons. I can't help thinking that his thesaurus had become perhaps sort of fallen apart, how richly thumbed it at him by that stage. Um so again, at the moment, absolutely no signs of of any give on the Russian part. Um

Russia Downgrades London Diplomacy?

MG 14:34

and in that context, just briefly, it's news in the Times today that the Russian longtime Russian ambassador in in London, Andri Kilin, had been withdrawn, and there is no at the moment new ambassador, no new ambassador even named. So at the moment the embassy is in the hands of a charge d'affaire. Now it's it's not entirely um un unknown for there to be sort of interregna without an ambassador in place. But on the on the other hand, I mean I think it is concerning, and there is this sense of it might mean that in fact the Russians are going to very demonstrably and symbolically downgrade their diplomatic representation in London and not appoint an ambassador, at least not for the moment. I mean, I hope not. Again, it would be a classic example of Russia acting in ways that are performative but ultimately self-destructive. I mean, this is the irony. On the one hand, they say Britain, oh, it's a has been country, it doesn't matter, it's just living on its imperial dreams. There's a little bit of truth there. But at the same time, they also accuse us of being their terrible enemy, that we essentially run Zelensky, that every single Ukrainian gain is because they were advised by MI6 or the British Ministry of Defence or whatever else. Um so we wait and see. The interesting thing is, Mikalian is, I'm sure, not being withdrawn in uh ignominy. I got the sense that actually he was regarded very highly, and particularly his embassy's social media game, very um I think it's worth it's worth saying, actually. I mean, it was often quite good, in a, you know, saying horrible things, but nonetheless saying so in a sort of zappy, again, social media friendly manner. And and generally the way Killian had sort of pivoted to using, even given that he wasn't in a position really to be talking to HMG, uh his Majesty's government and so forth, um, but you know, reaching out, having interviews and that kind of thing. Um he he played the whole kind of how can I characterize it? Abrasive avuncularity, um, with which he sort of tried, tried to look just like a sort of, you know, charming, twinkly-eyed old chap, even while he often said some of the most outrageous and disgraceful things. Um, you know, again, that's that's frankly what what Moscow looks for in its ambassadors these days. So we shall wait and see, A, where he ends up, and B, who ends up in Moscow.

Regional Budgets Under War Strain

MG 17:13

Anyway, if we move from international relations froth to real politics, been an interesting shift this week in terms of a lot of stress uh within Moscow on regional policy. On Wednesday we had Putin ordering the government to stabilize the finances of regional government by issuing 100 billion rubles, that's what one a billion pounds, 1.2 billion dollars, in short-term loans. Because after all, you know, regional authorities are facing a serious uh deficit. In the first six months of this year, their expenditures went up by 5.9%. And then on Thursday, we had Prime Minister Mishustin saying that the Duma that was going to be election elected next month has to focus on the regents and that he expects it to approve deferring the repayment deadlines for regional budget loans. And I do apologize, I know this doesn't sound exciting, but it is important, hold on. From 2027 to 29 to 2031 to 2033. And according to Finance Minister Anton Silowanov, this will free up nearly 300 billion rubles in regional budgets over the next three years. Now, why on earth do I find myself talking about regional budget and loan deferments? Well, I mean, it is precisely because of all sorts of reasons that make this actually really rather important. First of all, regional expenditures, the way taxation works, largely I mean there's variations, but essentially speaking, regions raise taxes, send it to Moscow, and Moscow decides how much it's going to send out to the region. So very much it emphasizes this sort of centrality of the federal authorities. But the point is a lot of the increased expenditures of late are coming down onto the regional level. And so there's all sorts of direct challenges now, like for example, putting together anti-drone units to try and secure the skies against the new Ukrainian attacks, but also a concern that there is going to be a big additional regional demand, regional budget demand coming down the line. And that is what happens if the war ends. Because again, it's almost certain that the main cost of dealing with all the veterans, their psychosocial problems, the need to retrain them, etc., is going to fall on regional budgets. This is why 2030-31, again, I think there is that sense that that is enough time to cover the end of the war and the immediate aftermath. We'll wait and see. There's also, I mean, just for the regions, are demonstrating the accumulating impact of the war economy and its effects on local employers that are already hit by things like the high base rates. So, you know, again, it's the degree to which regional authorities are actually having to pick up the slack in that respect. And then thirdly, it's because of precisely the election campaign. The regional level is often where the real positive, but on the whole, these days negative results of government policy are being felt. And therefore, given that it's also the regional authorities that are taking the lion's share of the role in trying to ensure that the vote gets out and it's the right vote, again, this attempt to realise it actually the degree to which, having, let's be honest, neglected the regional level of politics for so long, suddenly now the Kremlin realizes it needs it. So there's real pressures in the system, and it's the regional level at which it is both manifest and also needs to be addressed. And that's why suddenly it's all talk about the regions. But the point is the effects of both historic underfunding and then try to sort of rebalance this take

The Slow Squeeze On Services

MG 20:54

time. I've often used the example of ambulances. I think it's a good way of trying to think about the effect of cuts. In that, you know, we have seen real-time shrinkage of the federal funds available to support healthcare. And obviously, if you happen to be in Moscow, you're still going to get a lot better than you are out in the regions. But the point is, one of the ways it affects it is actually in the kind of cuts that don't have immediate and visible impacts. Again, this is sometimes expectation. People think, oh, well, cuts, therefore, people are immediately going to feel it and therefore feel the anger. Well, they don't. It's more of a case of you know the frog being slowly boiled. So, you know, hospitals get deep cleaned less often, and therefore you have an increase in MRSAs and other kind of ailments. Or ambulances. You know, you have your hospital has an ambulance park of, I don't know, let's say six vehicles. And because of cuts, when one of those six breaks down, you can't afford to actually have it repaired or replaced. So You're down to five. Now there's still five ambulances that are going around. However, with only five instead of six, it means that probably the wait time before you are collected by an ambulance is that much longer, which means that more people are going to die before they get to hospital. Not dramatically, but bit by bit. And then another ambulance breaks down, and so it goes. And it's interesting that, as I said, to me, that's that's one of the ways in which people only slowly begin to realize that the level of service is not what it was a year ago, five years ago, and so forth. Well, it was interesting that at the same government meeting that I was talking about, at which Mishustin and Silovanov were speaking, they also decided to commit over one billion rubles for the purchase of ambulances. So the idea is by the end of this year, nearly two dozen regions will receive approximately 200 Russian-made ambulances. So again, it's one of these things where suddenly it's even the government comes to realise the degree to which underfunding is beginning to have a degrading effect on local services, and that has a degrading effect on the legitimacy and the satisfaction of local populations. So these are all signs of slowly increasing pain. But maybe Russians should should have no fear, because after all, God will provide.

Donskoy’s Relics As War Messaging

MG 23:18

And here we come to the whole point about Christ selling that I mentioned. Well, what about saint exploiting? Because we've had the case the fortuitous, and I would suspect rather suspiciously fortuitous, you know, news of the unearthing of the relics of Dmitry Donskoy, 14th century Grand Prince of Moscow, one of the great state-making heroes. And the story was last week in the course of restoration work in the crypt of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, inside the Kremlin, three sarcophagi were discovered, one of which turned out to hold Donskoy's remains. And look, Donskoy is a big deal. I mean he is one of the one of the great figures of Russian history, the prince who struck the first serious blow against the Mongol Tatar Golden Horde after a century of their rule in 1380 at Kulikova Field on the banks of the Don River. By dint of combination of hard fighting and some cunning deception, he broke the forces of the Golden Horde. And that is commemorated thereafter, and it's a sort of a big big deal. Now, that said, first of all, some, even Russian scholars, actually call Mamai, who was the leader of the Golden Horde force, not actually the leader of the Horde, but a traitor to it. This is not really the case. Yes, he wasn't a Khan because he didn't come from the right bloodline, but in practice he was the dominant force within the Golden Hall at that time. But more to the point, Donskoy himself was actually heir to a dynasty of Quislings. I mean Moscow had risen, after all, during the period of the Golden Horde, precisely because they were the most effective and, shall we say, morally flexible, and were happy to essentially do the Mongol Khan's dirty work, particularly in terms of the census, taxation and the like, and punishing any who chose to challenge the so-called Mongol yoke. When Mamai had sent the Russians an outrageous demand for tribute, Donskoy's first instinct was actually to try and pay it. He only mustered his army when it was clear that actually Mamai had sent that demand really as a pretext and planned to invade anyway, because Mamai needed to have a victorious war to demonstrate his credentials as leader of the Golden Horde. So, you know, ultimately Donskoy would much rather have paid than fought. And yes, although it was a genuine victory, it this was not actually the end of the Mongol yoke. It was going to take another century for Russia, Muscovy, truly to be free of the Mongols. And in fact, two years after Kulikova, the Khan who had taken over, who was Mamai's main rival, Tokhtamish, burned Moscow down. Perhaps because precisely Moscow's forces were still sapped by the Battle of Kulikova. So, you know, again, one one can throw in ambiguities. But still, he was elevated as a hero at the time. It helped that he had the Russian Orthodox Church in his pocket, so in some ways his heroism and his triumph was proclaimed from every pulpit. And in 1988 he was canonized as a Russian Orthodox saint, the holy blessed grand prince. Now, look, this was of course elevated into a story of divine providence and favour. You had Vladimir Medinsky, now presidential aide, former culture minister, and in some way pseudo-historian, court, pseudo-historian-in-chief, who in his time as minister pumped loads of money supporting books and plays and films and so forth that all give the right kind of, and indeed video games actually, that give the right state-approved, sort of patriotic spin on the country's history. Anyway, he he called this a smile from God, a great symbol of divine approval. And unsurprisingly, Konstantin Malofeev, owner of the Orthodox Nationalist news site Sagrat, was even more foolsome. In the midst of our fateful confrontation with a collective West, by God's providence, Saint Dmitry Donskoy himself once again stands at the head of the Russian army. This is a slight exaggeration. And Putin himself was clearly keen to associate himself with this whole palava visiting the site on Thursday. Now the truth of the matter is, of course, surprise, surprise, rather more complex. It had actually had long been well known where Donskoy's tomb was in the cathedral. What was actually new was that the sarcophagus could be accessed and opened safely in order to get at the remains. Now, it's because basically the grave stood on a brick platform, and there was another white sarcophagus that was sort of essentially blocking access, which they had originally thought belonged to Don Scoy, but turned out not to. And they were then able to remove that and and get at the real one. Well, one could say that was just handy and fortuitous that it happens just at this moment, or one could say it was a miracle. You be the judge. Still, it's it's very clear the degree to which they're eager to build this up as some kind of great moment of spiritual validation of Russia's case. I mean speaking to Rospalt news agency, we had Vladimir Rudakov, who's editor in chief for the magazine Historic Historian, saying it's remarkable that in a situation where our country is facing such serious external challenges, the relics of a man who in Russian history embodies the successful resistance to such external challenges and the genuine struggle for the country's sovereignty have been recovered. Yeah, okay, fair enough. And then we have Vyachislav Kilinin, who is a veteran of the Special Military Operation and a member of the Ministry of Defence's public council, who called the discovery of these relics a true miracle that once again draws, you know, should should draw everyone's attention to the great moral value of the defenders of the fatherland. Today, when Russia defends its values and sovereignty, the discovery of the Grand Duke's relics is not just an archaeological find, but a sign of spiritual support for the whole country. There is, that said, though, a lot of scepticism and a lot of ribald scepticism in social media, especially with the news that the relics may well be entirely or in part sent to the front, or to the front, just as that of another sainted Russian hero, Alexander Nievsky, were earlier this year. And there was there was I I particularly liked the reply of someone who's on recounting that A said that it's clear that uh Donskoy was being mobilized, but saying, My God, they're even mobilising the dead now. So I'm not quite sure how successful this this really will be, but it's as I said, it's uh it's it's a real archaeological find, but it's clearly being maybe time, but certainly spun for political value. But not all archaeology is about politics. And so in the second half, as I said, I'm going to talk about matters archaeological, not necessarily political, there might be the odd mention, there might not. So if that's not your thing, then you may not want to listen, but I I do hope you'll stay, because look, apart from the fact that this podcast is clearly an exercise in unabashed egotism, um, it is also, from my point of view, an opportunity to delve into a whole variety of subjects that that fascinate me. And the slow emergence of a more comprehensive picture of medieval Russia, I think, is one of those subjects. Anyway, that comes after the break.

Sponsor Break And How To Support

MG 31:20

Just the usual mid-episode reminder that you're listening to the In Moscow Shadows podcast. Its corporate partner and sponsor is Conductor, which provides software for crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, and civil affairs. But you can also support the podcast yourself by going to patreon.com slash in Moscow Shadows. And remember that patrons, as well as knowing that they're supporting this peerless source on all things Russian, get a variety of additional perks depending on their tier, including articles I've written, the most weekly Gavarit Moskvar press briefing, and other bonus content like the Chronicles of a Different Russia alternative histories. And you can also follow me on Twitter at Mark Galliotti or on Facebook, MarkGaliotti on Russia. Now back to the episode. So you're still here? Wonderful! Well thank you for indulging an old nerd.

Gniezdovo And A Viking Age Elite Grave

MG 32:11

Anyway, I want to start by talking about Gniezdova and a particular discovery there. Gniezdova is a location near what is now Smallensk. That back in the 9th to the 11th centuries, the Viking Age, was a thriving little town and well, I say little, I mean by the standards of the time, it was actually huge, had a population of up to a thousand people, which was a big deal then. Anyway, so it was it was a thriving port on the trade routes from Scandinavia all the way down to Byzantium, i.e., what is now Istanbul, which is after all, this was one of the key trading routes through Russia, and it's because of the trading routes that the the Varyagi, the Vikings, the Varangians actually decided to move into the area just a century before and start creating their city-states that essentially is the beginnings of what we think of as the Rus. So river vessels laden with all sorts of goods and plunder passed along the Dnipa River and through Gnyzdava. So it was a you know international trade hub, we'd call it now. Now these days, Gnyzdava is an archaeological complex where there's thousands of burial mounds, making it actually one of the richest and largest early medieval, or as I Viking Age sites in Europe. And they found all sorts of interesting stuff there, which again gives a sense of life at the times, but also actually that even then, you know, in an age long before globalisation, but nonetheless the degrees of interconnectivity we had. Well, there is the oldest Cyrillic inscription in in ancient Rus that was discovered, which is a single word that is scratched on a clay amphora, a clay jug. And its meaning, it has to be said, remains something of a mystery. They're not quite sure, again, in part because it's so weathered and in part because languages morph and change over time. It could be Garushna, mustard. It could be Garusha, peppercorns, which was a very valuable spice at the time, or it could actually be the name of the clay pot's owner, one Gorun or Gorunsha. But still, hey, it's exciting. There's a red robe that is made of Chinese broccade embroidered with dragons, clearly made its way all along the Silk Route. There are Arabic and Byzantine coins, you know, all of these signs are of the interconnectivities of trade routes. But now archaeologists have unearthed the grave of a high status Rus man who was buried with a woman and a horse, dating back to probably the mid-tenth century. So in other words, very early years of the Rus, when the the Varyagi were still very much establishing their territories, beginning the process of intermarriage, which is a polite way of saying interbreeding, with the local Slavic populations and so forth. And by the way, the the archaeologists have named the two figures Thoralf and Brunhild. So this is 30 square meter burial chamber, red floor, white walls, within which they found, first of all, the remains of a man, well built, 35 to 45 year old, wearing silver embroidered clothes, which again says something about status. His right arm is especially muscled, it's his sword arm, so again a warrior. This is a time when when the warriors were also the aristocracy, shall we say. Most importantly, though, his head had been cut off, and it was been placed on the right side of his chest. This was not a combat wound. It's not done in battle, so he was possibly executed, whether as a punishment or whether during a ritual. Now the woman, she seems to be seventeen to nineteen year olds, with with beads and trinkets, could have been wife, could have been a slave, and also could have actually been killed to accompany the man into the afterlife. These are rough times, because the way she was sort of laid, you know, drawn towards him and knees turned towards him, holding his arm. Then there's a horse. Now, a couple of interesting things about the horse. First of all, it had not horseshoes on, but ice cleats, so presumably this burial had happened in winter. But also this was not a local horse, but an imported one. The local ones were actually quite short, fortress dwelling, uh not fortress, forest dwelling ones. Not quite Shetland ponies, but definitely sort of relatively light ones. But this is a this is tall, you know, probably a metre and a half at the Withers. And so it'd have been imported, probably from the east. And there's all sorts of other grave goods. A sword broken in half without a scabbard, so again, probably symbolic rather than actually just simply his his normal weapon. A quiver with arrows, the remains of a shield to get all sort of attesting to the fact that this was a warrior aristocrat. A very opulently decorated bucket. Now I know that sounds oh wow, it's a bucket. But as I said, it had all sorts of I think it was iron and bronze on it. And this is a time in which individual possessions really mattered. You don't just simply go down to the local supermarket to pick up mass-produced goods. You know, everything was handmade, custom made, so actually individual goods like a decorated bucket, it's a big deal. There was a whetstone, a round brooch with needle and so forth. And also the bones of sacrificed animals, a dog and a rooster. Now these were probably psychopomps, animals that are there killed in order to act as the guides to lead the souls to the afterlife. Again, it's something that's been attested to in other archaeological finds and in literature of the time. And also the remains of a funeral feast. So in other words, you know, your mates come along, they have a feast in your honour, and then they bury you. Now, these kind of rich burials are very rare. It sort of attests to the man's status and provide a lot of interesting information. Oh, and by the way, just a minor point. The archaeologists used a robot dog to record the progress of the work, scanning and photographing the whole thing, you know, you know, with a small compact little thing that can actually therefore move around with creating minimal disturbance to the ruins as it does so. So I thought, yeah, it was quite a cool sign of uh archaeology to come. So, you know, what this is is telling us again, it it's showing the way that.

Origins, Conquest, And Myth-Making

MG 38:45

And here's a little political note that one can throw in. You know, Putin talks about this sort of grand, unbroken thread of historic inevitability of Russia's great power status. It's also always worth reminding ourselves that the lands of the Rus began with conquest, that in fact there were scattered Slavic tribes surround the sort of the forested territories of what is now European Russia and indeed Ukraine and much of Belarus. But it took the arrival of the Norsemen, the raiders and traders who were the Vikings, who decided, having got used to taking the Great River routes through this to basically well what what they called Emperor City, um, Constantinople, Byzantium, that actually thinking, ha, this territory actually is quite promising, there's no no one really to stop us, let's start conquering and colonizing. So, you know, first of all, Russia's history begins with foreign conquest. Secondly, you know, at this point there was no distinction between the Varyagi who were settling in, you know, take Kyiv for example, and those who were settling in Novgorod, what the great northern trade city. Now, Putin has spun this to mean, well, there you go, that's proof that Ukraine was Russian, and you have Ukrainian nationalists who are proving, well, actually that's proves that, because Kyiv was the greatest of the cities, that in fact Russia was Ukraine. Actually, it tells us something much more, much more basic, which is in fact that countries rise and fall, that borders ebb and flow and morph and move, and any attempt to create this kind of deep historical precedent for whatever perspective you bring up is ultimately in vain. But as I said, basically, yeah, we can't read all that much, this is just me editorializing now. But nonetheless, you know, a fascinating find. And

Birch Bark Letters And Daily Life

MG 40:40

the other uh particular example I want to talk about is birch bark correspondence. Now in medieval and early medieval times, the people of the Rus, they kept their records and they sent their messages on sheets of birch bark, on which was written, well, you know, etched, with um words with a pisal, which is a sort of metal stylus. And as you'd imagine, given that we're talking about pieces, basically pieces of wood, many of them have not survived. And the first of those, though, were found about 75 years ago in Novgorod. And it's worth noting, Novgorod, as I say, I mentioned it as the sort of one of the great cities. It was always the most cosmopolitan for reasons which I'll come to in a moment. But also as a result, it was it was a big trading city, and therefore there's much more literacy, but also you know, record keeping. Since then, though, they've also been found in Paskov, in Tver, Moscow, Smolensk, elsewhere. And these birch bark letters, I think, provide us some absolutely fascinating examples of how the Russians or the people of the Rus were like us. I mean, the grave in some ways emphasizes the differences. Clearly, it was, you know, again, especially if it had been sacrificial ritual that led to the man being killed and perhaps the woman to accompany him, as well as the sacrifice of the dog and the rooster and the symbolism of all the various goods that are left around. In some ways they they do speak to a certain degree of kind of cultural alienness. Well, actually, a lot of the correspondence reminds us of just how similar they were, as well as providing invaluable information about governance and economy, trade and taxes at the time. And they've also helped actually revolutionise some of the notions about the role of women in the ancient Rus, at least around Novgorod. I mean, Novgorod, again, as a much more cosmopolitan business centre, clearly actually had much greater roles for women, that they could be literate, they could be quite independent, they could manage their own finances, own property. I mean, there's even cases of them sending shopping lists to their husbands, which is rather rather fun. And in fact, um, you know, Lord Novgorod, it was called Lord Novgorod because it essentially the idea was true sovereignty laid with the city, not with the prince, again, unlike most other Rus cities, also at one point in this era actually had a female mayor, which again, very, very distinctive. So this is not necessarily about the Rus, but certainly about the Novgorodian Rus. But these various correspondents have told us all kinds of things. For example, about law. There's one in which the wife of a man called Boris begs him to return to Novgorod, writing, The prince arrested me and your children, and your son-in-law secured my release. Now what it seems to have happened is actually Boris was being pursued for some crime, and they couldn't get hold of him, they couldn't find him, so the prince arrested his wife and children in his place. So in some ways this is almost that uh I mean, although relatives then posted bail essentially to get them out of Durin's file while Boris is still wanted. But it shows how in some ways we actually had hostage taking as a an instrument of law. Um tells us something about diets. Let me have a look. Yeah, here's a a fun one from the mid twelfth century. From the Clark and from Ilka. We sent sixteen baskets of honey and three pots of butter, and on Wednesday two pigs, three hares, black grouse, sausage, and two horses. We're doing well. Well that does sound it actually. It's a fairly decent diet, one could almost say, building up on that. What else can we get from the birch bar letters? Well, lots of names that have since fallen into disuse. We've got names like Bratila, uh Bratogost, Jidil, Nyersadil, Snovid. I mean I must admit most of these I'm actually quite glad they fallen in into disuse. But again, it shows how fashions, languages, and customs change. And in fact, speaking of names, the first of the letters that was actually found in Moscow was discovered as recent as 1988, actually on Red Square, under clearly Red Square. And there's now four of them from the capital. And one of them that was actually discovered inside the Moscow Kremlin, which is the longest of all of them that's known, probably a bit later, probably around the 14th century. And it's actually written in ink rather than being scratched out like most of them. And it's dedicated to a detailed description of the wealth of a certain Turbay. And it includes of the riding horses, a stallion, two dun horses, two ponies, a grey one, and a bay one. The bay mare and the other grey one were left to Turabe's wife, so clearly this is a will. Two cows in the yard, two oxen, and six cows from which the workers drank milk. And in this cellar an iron beer kettle and an iron pot and a copper bucket, and a copper kettle with two buckets and a tin chest. So again, attesting to the value of individual crafted items. But this this letter also names his staff, who may well have been his slaves, but we don't know. But again, not just names that have fallen from use today, like Onikeiko, which actually sounds Japanese to me, umignatko mosei, ontash, um, but also the names Bairam and Ahmed. Ahmed is not what one would regard as a traditional Rus name, and again, presumably is a slave or a servant who's come from the Middle East, again attesting to the kind of connectivities. But I think one of the most demonstr you know demonstrative signs of similarities between times then and times now, is actually the behaviour of a child.

Children’s Doodles And Medieval Magic

MG 46:31

There's a cache of twelve Birchbark letters, in which a Novgorod boy named Onfim, who, judging by his penmanship and his artistic talents, was probably six to seven years old, but was nonetheless doing homework, schoolwork, writing out syllables, and then clearly getting bored in the process, drawing funny little stickmen figures in the margins. And there's even one of them that actually seems to be a note that he's written to a friend. Again, it's fascinating. I mean, apart from the fact that this is twelfth century DMs or WhatsApps or whatever. Um, but that you know, you've got a six to seven year old who is sufficiently literate and has a friend who is sufficiently literate that they'll actually write notes to each other. But anyway, he signs it with a picture of some kind of beast next to which he writes as if in a speech bubble. I'm an animal. You know, one could imagine that now. So again, as the burial mound shows, they absolutely have all sorts of beliefs that are different from ours, whether it's in terms of murdering people in sacrifice or well actually that that there is a you know that magic clearly is a still a strong part, magic slash religion, they're one and the same. Um still a strong part that we see actually with the Birch Bar letters, one of the Birchbark sort of missives that has been discovered, is an incantation against lightning. And interestingly, well, let me let me tell you what it is, and then I'll tell you what struck me. God's arrow, ten of your names, arrow flash, arrow shoot. And it's basically written in what look very much like uh Norse runes. Um and it's written at a time of prevailing paganism, but it talks about God, not say Perun, the Slavic uh sort of thaw equivalent. So again, it shows even at those times you've already got this increasing interpenetration, this syncretic nature of religion, in that what happens is Christianity ends up absorbing many of the precepts and even the figures within earlier paganism. So,

Why Not Everything Is The War

MG 48:38

okay, I'm going to end now. And I suppose this is where I meant to conclude by drawing some kind of connection, however tenuous to current political developments, I don't know, paralleling Putin to some medieval monarch. Well, I have to say, I've already talked in the past about my sense of the parallels between Putin and Ivan the Terrible, but that's another matter. Um, or I don't know, comparing the Ukraine war to a Viking Age conflict. But I'm I'm not going to do it this time. And in some ways, that is my big picture point. Yes, this is a terrible, terrible war, and a massive factor that is shaping, distorting Russia today. But not only has Russia been through a hell of a lot in past centuries, but also not everything is about the war. For every pseudo discovery like Dmitry Dunskoy's sarcophagus, there are myriad workaday, but arguably much more interesting discoveries about this country's past. Reminders that, well, sometimes we don't need to talk about Putin. And for ordinary Russians, yes, this war affects them all. But it is not the be all and the end all of their lives. But I dare say we will be talking about Putin and the war next week. Cheerio. Well, that's the end of another episode of the In Moscow Shadows podcast. Just as a reminder, beyond this, you can follow my blog, also called In Moscow Shadows. You can follow me on Twitter at Mark Galliotti or Facebook, MarkGaleotti on Russia. This podcast is made possible by generous and enlightened patrons, and you too can be one. Just go along to my Patreon page, that's patreon.com slash in Moscow Shadows, and decide which tier you want to join, getting access to exclusive materials and other perks. However, whether or not you contribute, thank you very much indeed for listening. Until next time, keep well.