The centuries-old threat of Tatar raids has become so ingrained into the Russian people that it makes it very difficult to correctly perceive the Russian past, when these Tatars were not even in sight.

And Byzantium then still fought with Russia to Rurik!

The origin and purpose of the Serpentine Shafts continues to be the subject of heated scientific and online discussions.
There are two main versions:
1. Roman fortifications built by Emperor Trajan.
2. Russian fortifications, built to protect against nomads - the Khazars, Pechenegs and Polovtsians, who were attacking Kievan Rus.

Other versions are not considered at all.
Although, what’s easier? Circle the edges of the fortifications, place arrows across the ramparts and walls, and by the totality of the arrows you will see where the enemy came from.
No one will just build a wall or a shaft like that - they are built strictly across the direction of the impact. Small deviations may be due to folds of the terrain - river, forest, swamp, mountain range.

Let's look at the Siegfried line:

Some lines face west, some face southwest, some face south. But for some reason it never occurs to anyone to say that the Germans built the Siegfried Line to protect against attacks from Switzerland.
We look at the Mannerheim line:

Near Ladoga, part of the fortifications looks all the way to the southwest. But it never occurs to anyone to say that Mannerheim built his line to protect against the attack of the Poles!
But why doesn’t anything stop historians from thinking this way in relation to the Serpentine Ramparts?!
At the same time, the Serpentine Shafts are shown on the map in a very small segment, without reference to a larger map.
I've said enough - look at the map.
Here is the usual map that is given everywhere:

As you can see, the fortifications are perfectly linked to the riverbeds - natural barriers. And they close Kyiv from the southwest, south, and southeast.
That is, we leave the Roman emperor alone - the fortifications were built by Russian princes.
What remains - for protection from nomads, that is, Pechenegs, Polovtsians or Khazars?
And here let's take a little look at the map.
The more lines of defense, the bolder the arrow I will put.

Let's look at the map again:

Let me explain.
The following experiment was carried out on rats: they placed a piece of cheese and placed a narrow gate between the cheese and the rat hole, through which the rat could not crawl through, but which it could freely bypass. Not a single rat went around the gate to take a piece of cheese immediately and completely. Only along the shortest path from the hole to the piece, pinching off a piece at a time.
Actually, the raid should be carried out in the same way - they attacked along the shortest path and quickly wound back along it. Any extra mile is a loss. Losses to feed themselves, their horses, and captured prisoners. Any hook is open flanks, this is an opportunity for the chase to intercept halfway and repel their own. Up to the complete blocking of the path to their native nomads.
But those who claim that the Serpentine Ramparts were built by nomads suggest that these nomads enter from the south. While the entire eastern side of Kyiv is almost completely open - there is only one row of fortifications. Why enter from the south, open the sides, and then drag yourself into the notorious Wild Field, in which all these nomadic tribes have settled since time immemorial, when there is a direct road from this Wild Field to Kyiv? There were no forests there even a thousand years ago!

Let's move on to a large map with an overlay of a picture with shafts:

Or were the nomadic camps of the Pechenegs and Polovtsians located south of Kyiv?
But then, what prevented these guys, having once rested against the walls of the fortifications, to migrate to the other side and rush in from the almost open eastern steppe side? Especially from the same Khazaria?
Nothing got in the way. If the ramparts were built by nomads, then Kyiv would be surrounded by rows of fortifications on the side of the steppes. But the eastern side, open to the Wild Field, is weakly fortified. Unlike the many ramparts covering Kyiv from the south and southwest, on the eastern side the ramparts are present only to prevent a direct raid and force them to make such unprofitable detours. Therefore, the nomadic threat was clearly not the main one, since so little attention was paid to it.
Since the nomads are a secondary threat, then who is the main one?
It's obvious!
The same one with which the Kyiv princes constantly fought - Byzantium.
If we forget about the nomads and remember who Oleg the Prophet nailed a shield to on the gates of the capital (“so that they remember”), then everything falls into place:
1. The direction of the main attack is blocked by several rows (Kursk Bulge, Siegfried Line - there are countless examples)..
2. As you move away from the direction of the main attack, the number of fortifications decreases. And this is justified - the enemy stretches along the fortifications and is constantly open to attacks. When he gets to the weak point, he will be exhausted. And even if he breaks through the line, he still has to drag and drag to Kyiv - there are many opportunities to both seriously annoy him and to gather troops to the “mother of Russian cities” and arrange a “pleasant” meeting.

Let's not forget that the Serpentine Shaft is not only a wall, but it is also... A road!

Yes! While the Byzantine horses knead the steppe mud with their hooves, the Kyiv warriors calmly ride on the flooring right along the wall, covered by a palisade from enemy eyes. You can transfer significant forces in any direction - they will arrive at the site fresh, without even inhaling the steppe dust.
Did the Byzantines climb the rampart in one place?
Another such wall awaits behind it. And to the right and left of the breakthrough, the passages in the watchtowers are simply closed - attack, try!
They go over the shaft and end up in a “bag”. In front is the second row of ramparts, to the right and left are the same ramparts, behind is the ditch that has just been overcome. Everyone has long since left the space that can be captured. And to reach Kyiv, you need to take one more line, then another...
And there, too, except for the armed and ready-to-fight vigilantes, there is no one else. And in Kyiv they are already waiting for dear “guests” - the resin is being boiled. How can we do without a treat?
And then all the fortifications taken with much blood will have to be abandoned if the goal is to capture slaves and property. To gain a foothold, pull supplies from Bulgaria across the open steppe, and ultimately spend the winter, having a serious enemy in front of you who can pull up forces from the rear? It's hard!
Therefore, Kyiv with its fortifications was like a bone in the throat of Byzantium - it completely blocked the possibility of any campaign to the north.
And judging by how zealously the fortifications were erected, there were plenty of people willing to “take a walk” in this direction.
And it was precisely this that the Prophetic Oleg put an end to, saying his “Behold, be the mother of the Russian city.” That is, not the “mother of Russian cities,” but the support of Russian fortifications - the Serpentine Ramparts.
Now about how these fortifications were built.

As is known from excavations, the shafts are wooden frames filled with earth and sprinkled with it on all sides. The volume of the earth is millions of cubic meters.
The imagination pictures many slaves, driven from all the lands subject to Rus', plowing over these fortifications. The accountants were already counting the number of cubes, the number of shovels, the number of people, and so on.
One can, of course, imagine that the population in the regions adjacent to Kyiv was several million people, as it is now, then immediately these millions of cubic meters of land become a completely feasible task.
Or we assume that each employee had a tractor or excavator.
Joke? Not really. If you still look at all this through the eyes of a villager, then every builder of the Serpentine Shafts had a tractor with a capacity of one horsepower.
Throw out of your head all these pictures of men with axes in their hands, sitting on a stockade, or lifting something into towers - the HORSE lifted all the weights. With its help, they probably trimmed the logs, placed them in the rows of the palisade and placed them in cages. No one tore the navel there - the rope was made of the strongest Russian hemp and the required number of horses.
In the same way, no one swung a wooden shovel with an iron tip from morning to evening, deepening the ditch and filling the shafts. The land was simply plowed. Then the loose layer was removed with some kind of scoop (bucket, scraper or something else like that - such devices are a dime a dozen), and the horse calmly dragged it along the platform and tipped it into the cage.
Handles were used to give the shafts their final “marketable” appearance.
Who did all this?
Firstly, generously paid carpenters, with a trained eye and a steady hand.
Secondly, ordinary vigilantes. As you know, in order for a warrior to be ready for battle, he must be loaded. And if a warrior can sweat during training fights, strengthening his muscles, then what about horses? You can, of course, drive across the steppe until you foam at the mouth. Or you can use it moderately for heavy work. Strength training in its purest form. Gives the warhorse a much-needed muscle burst.
Thirdly, the villagers of nearby villages, who were directly affected by all this.
The wood was floated down rivers from the north. How were they delivered to the construction site?
Again - hemp rope, horse and gallop. At the same time, all the bark will rub off on the ground or snow, along with all rot and infection.
Our ancestors were very prudent people. Remember this!
But even taking into account the possible large population and the use of horses and oxen, what has been done is amazing!
Imagine the fierceness of the confrontation between the two powers, which required such costs on the Russian side...
And now about the most important thing. The first ramparts were erected long before Rurik and Oleg. The connection of the ramparts into a single trapping net for the Byzantine invasion leaves no doubt about the existence of a powerful single state in the vastness of the Russian Plain, capable of protecting itself from uninvited guests in every sense of the word. And Kyiv was just the tip of a hardened Russian spear pointed south. Whether someone likes it or not.
A developed state existed here, on the Russian Plain, long before Rurik. Therefore, only an uneducated person can talk about some kind of “bringing of the state by Rurik” or, moreover, by the Varangians. And also suffering from blindness on top of everything else.

Why was it necessary to hide Byzantium as the main worst enemy?
There is one reason.
It turns out that in the midst of the confrontation, the Kiev prince Vladimir accepted the ideology of the enemy and forced his subjects to accept it...

The earthworks are considered part of the Kurgan culture and have been controversial for many hundreds of years. The Kurgan culture is associated with the spread of the equestrian Aryan culture from the interfluve of the Dnieper and Don to Western Europe and the steppes of Eurasia. There is a lot of research on burial mounds; they are relatively well studied. Mounds and elongated earthen hills are also described in North America; they are associated with the culture of some Indian tribes. However, who, when and why made the earthworks has not been clarified either in America or in Europe.
Most of all long earthen structures are located in Kyiv, Kharkov and other forest-steppe lands of Ukraine. They're called Serpentine shafts according to the epic about the Kiev hero Nikita Kozhemyak. Widely known Trojan's shafts in the territory of present-day Romania and Bulgaria.
These ramparts are often associated with defensive structures across the Kerch Peninsula, which combined long walls and towers, on an earthen rampart and many kilometers of ditches. But there is no reason to compare " Cimmerian ditches"and Serpentine Shafts. The only difference is that both of them have a natural basis.

Serpentine shafts.
One of the maps that shows all groups of shafts. But we must remember that most of them are plowed.

There is also such a strange thing that the ditches are located relative to the ramparts only on one side, and not always on the side of the potential enemy. This is also observed on the Trojan Ramparts - their direction of defense seems to prevent the Roman invasion to the east and north, and on the Serpentine Ramparts near Kyiv or Kharkov. In theory, they were supposedly built by the Slavs for defense against attacks by nomadic tribes from the steppe. However, ditches are often located just on the north side from the side of the forests.
I would like photos and links to routes along those near the Nikolaev region.
My version is this: the basis of such shafts is natural , the result of moraines (glacial deposits of soil), as well as floods and floods.
I saw small ramparts of soil and upturned trees in the Crimean Foothills on very small rivers.
On the basis of such ramparts, defensive structures were then made against nomads. Why Zmievs? The first version is because the shafts, as a rule, are not straight.
The second version is related to the combat tactics of the Crimean raids, that is, relatively recent (the Crimean Khanate was formed in the mid-15th century). Serpent (Dragon)in Ukrainian and Russian folklore triceps , nine-headed, etc.

Crimeans went on large military campaigns against Moscow three columns. The central column was collected by the Crimean Khan from Bakhchisarai and further to Perekop, the left column was collected by Nuretdin, the khan’s governor in Evpatoria for the lands of Western Crimea. The right column was the army of the Kalga Sultan, plus at some intervals a separate army of the beylik Shirin was still marching, their capital was in Karasubazar (Belogorsk), and their lands were all the Sivash region, Eastern Crimea and the Kerch Peninsula.

Tumens (ten thousand horsemen) gathered in villages called Tyumen. Each warrior led several spare mares (mares do not stop when they urinate). Six mares walked in a column, tied by their tails. Before the campaign against Moscow and other distant lands, they were fed oats and barley for forty days. For two or three days they could do without water and fodder. The messengers were simply trampled by such a column. The Tatars did not get off their horses during the campaign for several days. They performed minor and major needs only while sitting in the saddle at an angle, leaning on one leg and tucking the other.

It was the most advanced army of the Middle Ages, until the Kalmyks came to serve the Moscow kings. What I mean is that neither the Serpentine Shafts nor the Russian heroes who chopped off 3, 6, or 9 heads of the Serpent Gorynych at once (by the way, among the Chinese, Japanese and British dragons with only one head ) they really couldn’t do anything about the Tatar raids for slaves. The Crimean Khanate was demoralized precisely by the raids of the Kalmyks, who simply stole cattle from the Sivash region and Eastern Crimea and burned villages.

Video: TV movie The riddle of the serpent shafts
Alexander Mikhailov

Published: Feb 27 2015
“Serpentine Ramparts” is the popular name for ancient, grandiose defensive ramparts. The fortifications are artificially created earthen ramparts, at the foot of which ditches were dug. They are located along the banks of the Dnieper tributaries south of Kyiv. The total length of the shafts is more than a thousand kilometers.
Scientists still cannot unambiguously answer the question: who and when built these grandiose fortifications. There are several versions. It is believed that the ramparts could have been built by the Scythian tribes, the ancient Goths, and the ancient Slavs. And all versions have their pros and cons.

Interactive map Shukach | Serpentine shafts
Wonderfully done work based on the free Google Maps service

In discussions about the word Gardarika, those who like to talk about the Serpentine Ramparts often interpret this word as the Land of Fences.

Gardarika is a country of cities in Scandinavian languages; by the way, the name is very important because it shows the cultural superiority of Eastern Europe over Northern Europe. The Varangians were only mercenaries, and not the creators of statehood in the Russian lands. Guard (guard) is protection, strengthening, obstacle. Rick (Reich) - country, state, power. The first urban communities on the current Russian lands appeared in the time of Herodotus (5th century BC). The cities were multinational trading cities. There is a dual administration - a merchant headman (radogast, gostomysl, birdie bey, hadji bey) and a hired prince with his retinue (Cherkas bey).

It is important that archaeologists did not find any real log houses at the base of the ramparts. Only poorly preserved oak log material was found. I repeat once again, I believe (and have seen this) that during floods rivers carried uprooted trees along with stones, rubble, sand, and silt. It is quite natural that such material was deposited on hills in the form of ramparts. Then these ramparts were supplemented by a ditch on one side or the other, where it was more convenient to take soil for constructing defensive lines.

From a discussion on FB:

Vasil Selyavin: the word Gard somehow echoes Gard on the Bug, maybe the story is a little older than the Zaporozhye Cossacks?

Bogdan Star: I wrote that the guard is security. The word is Gothic, ancient Germanic. Or older. Guard. The Goths came to our area in the 2nd-3rd century. But the fact is that their ancestors lived on the lands of the current Black Sea shelf before the Black Sea Flood. So the word may have a history of 6-8 thousand years.

Guard, hail, fence. Including customs. But Gardarika is precisely a country of cities, not a country of fences. Only effective trade created the opportunity to supplement the natural ramparts with additional fortifications. Since ancient times, Ukraine has been a country of a fishing economy, and not just a manufacturing one. With a huge surplus product that was going on sale. Therefore, it was possible to hire Cherkasy and Varangians.

Their construction probably began around the middle of the 10th century. and continued in some areas a century later, but, according to recent research, the bulk of the work was carried out during the reign of Vladimir. From the words of the German missionary Bruno of Querfurt about the “strongest and longest fence” erected by Vladimir along the entire steppe border of Rus', we can conclude that by 1008 (the time when Bruno visited Kyiv) the Serpentine Ramparts had acquired a completely finished appearance. Having cut the entire Middle Dnieper basin lengthwise and crosswise, they formed three barriers on the approaches to Kyiv with a total length of about 500 kilometers. Their outer line, running along the banks of the Sula, the left-bank valley of the Dnieper, the lower and middle reaches of the Ros, practically coincided with the then natural border of the forest and steppe. The second line, originating in the lower reaches of Trubezh, stretched up the Dnieper to the Stugna estuary and, having crossed to the Dnieper right bank, went further west in three branches along the interfluves of the Stugna, Irpen and Zdvizhi all the way to Teterev. The last barrier, located two to three hours away from Kyiv, rested on the Dnieper and Irpen.

Archaeological research has shown that the Serpentine Ramparts were strong, durable structures. The compacted earthen embankment along its entire length was reinforced on the outer sides with horizontal rows of logs resting on cruciform supports; From the inside, additional strength was given to the shafts by the log cages built into them.

But, apparently, it was not the intention of the ancient Russian builders to use the Serpentine Ramparts directly for military purposes, as a constantly guarded defensive fortification on the path of the Pechenegs’ movement deep into the Russian land. It is possible that there were outposts in some of their areas, but we have no evidence that the ancient Russian defensive strategy was ever designed to contain the enemy on the line of ramparts itself. In the 10th century such an intention was doomed to failure in advance, because the Pecheneg cavalry, which had an advantage in speed of movement over the Russian foot army, could easily retreat several transitions and overcome the rampart in another, unprotected place. But even in later times, when numerous cavalry squads appeared as part of the Russian army, written sources do not mention a single battle on the ramparts. According to chronicles dating back to the 11th-12th centuries, if the Russian army happened to meet an enemy near the ramparts, it took a position between the ramparts, adjoining them with both wings of its battle formations; however, this could only be done in two places— near the mouth of the Stugna near Trepol (see the chronicle article under 1093) and at Pereyaslavl (article under 1149), where the gaps between the lines of the shafts were quite narrow. With this formation of troops, the ramparts served as flank cover against outflanking maneuvers of the steppe cavalry.

The main military purpose of the Serpentine ramparts, which in combination with river beds formed a complex system of labyrinths and completely enclosed spaces, was, apparently, to eliminate the surprise of Pecheneg raids (contemporaries considered the speed of the Pecheneg attacks to be one of their undeniable military advantages; Bulgarian Archbishop Theophylact likened their raid to a lightning strike), to slow down the advance of the nomadic hordes to Kyiv as much as possible, and also make it difficult for them to retreat to the steppe. And here the main obstacle to the steppe inhabitants was created not so much by the ramparts themselves, which were not particularly high— on average no higher than four meters,— how many twelve-meter-wide ditches dug in front of them (the earth taken out of the ditch was used to fill the rampart).

During the time that the Pechenegs overcame man-made and natural barriers, the population of the border regions managed to “come to their senses” and organize resistance to the invasion. Large and small military settlements, scattered in large numbers along the Serpentine Ramparts, became centers of resistance. Archaeologists have discovered here about forty ancient Russian cities and fortresses built in pre-Mongol times; at least two dozen of them, including those whose names were first mentioned only in chronicles of the 12th century, have a cultural layer of the end of the 10th century— beginning of the 11th century So “The Tale of Bygone Years” is absolutely right in linking mass urban development on the southern defensive lines with the name of Vladimir: “And Volodimer said: “This is not good, even a small city near Kiev.” And they began to build cities along the Desna and along the Vostri [Ostra River] and along Trubezhevo [Trubezh] and along the Sula and Stugna.”

For the most part, these were simply fenced villages with an area of ​​4-7 hectares, suitable only for sitting out a few days of siege while waiting for the main forces to arrive. But on each line of the Serpentine Ramparts, in strategically important places, more powerful fortresses were erected, which supported the entire line of defense, and also served as a gathering place for the princely squad and militia sent from Kiev to repel a raid or to march into the steppe. On the outer border, these included the fortress-harbour at the mouth of the Sula with the eloquent name Voin and the ancient settlement of Korsun on the Ros River. Along the Trubezh line— There were three strongholds in Stugna— Pereyaslavl, Trepol, Vasilev. The closest approaches to Kyiv were covered by Belgorod - Vladimir's favorite brainchild, according to the chronicler, a huge city-camp, whose eight-meter-high ramparts topped with a palisade embraced an area of ​​several hectares. It is possible that Vladimir recruited military engineers and builders from Byzantium to build some fortresses. This is indicated both by individual elements of Byzantine fortification technology used in the construction of city fortifications, and by the Greek names of many southern Russian fortifications.

“People know that times are hard
will bring the flow of the River of Time to
Holy land of the Great Race..."

In almost all countries that had an ancient culture, there are legends that claim that knowledge was brought to them by white gods who came from the north. In Egypt these were 9 white gods, who then ruled there for some time. In India, these were 6 white rishis (sages) who came from the north... White people also brought knowledge to China. There is nothing strange about this! These people were the RUSSIANS, who colonized this planet more than half a million years ago...

*****

If you take a closer look at the map that shows the system of “Chinese” walls, you will notice that it is similar to the system of other walls that are located almost on the other side of the world. We mean the so-called “Serpentine Ramparts” - fortifications in Eastern Europe, which are almost unknown to the world community. In terms of their characteristics, these fortifications surpass the notorious “Chinese” wall, and the volume only on the territory of Ukraine is comparable to the volume of all the Egyptian pyramids combined.

The reason for keeping silent about the presence of such amazing structures is, in general, understandable - these colossuses were and are on the territory of the Slavic states, and it is very difficult to attribute their construction to the world-accepted “founders of civilizations” - the Chinese, Egyptians or Sumerians. True, their construction is attributed to the ancient Romans, and they even give another name for them - “Trajan’s Ramparts”. There is a version that they were named after the ancient Roman emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajan (98-117 AD), because supposedly in his time the construction of ramparts reached the widest scope. Questions about why the Romans got it into their head to do mega-construction near Kiev (Ukraine) and Bendery (Moldova), and whether they were there at all, do not arise for such scientists. They also do not take into account the following facts from Slavic history:

“...The name of Troyan is mentioned many times in ancient Russian literary monuments. Thus, in the Apostle, published by the greatest historian of Russian literature, Professor N.S. Tikhonravov, according to a 16th-century manuscript, says: ... supposedly there are many gods Perun and Khors, Dyya and Troyan and many others...; in the anacrypha of the Virgin Mary's journey through torment (XII or XIII century): ...from that stone the creation of Troyan, Khors, Veles, Perun...; in a 12th-century monument, The Lay of Igor’s Campaign – the name of Troyan is mentioned four times: risha on Troyan's path..., ...there were Troyan's eves..., ...on the land of Troyan... And ...on the seventh century of Trojan... In all these books, the name of Troyan appears as a symbol of the deity of the times of ancient paganism. Indeed, in ancient Slavic mythology there was a deity who was one of the Slavic deities, along with Veles, Khors, Perun and Dyi, and bore the name Triglav, Troyak or Troyan. Obviously, his worship existed in the very early stages of Slavic paganism, since much less information about him has reached us than about other pagan gods, such as Svyatovit, Dazhdbog, Dy, Yarovit, Belbog, Khors, Perun, Veles, Lada, and etc.

It is only known that ancient admirers depicted Triglav-Troyan as an idol with three heads on one body. He was a warrior god, a rider, the attributes of his sanctuary were a sword and a black horse, which, like the white horse of the god Svyatovit (by the way, Svyatovit was depicted with four heads), was considered prophetic. These and a number of other information about Troyan that have reached us give reason to assume that Troyan, along with his other divine functions, was a military god, a representative of valor and strength, a guardian of the people... Later, the pagan deity Trojans were forgotten, and the outstanding construction, military and The political activities of Emperor Trajan remained in the people's memory for a long time. The buildings built during the time of Trajan received his name. The consonance of the names Troyan - Trayan led to the fact that many years later all the ramparts in the southwestern part of Ukraine, in Moldova and in the east of modern Romania began to be called Trayanov ... " ()

In this regard, another interesting question arises: why was the Roman emperor called almost the same as the old Slavic warrior god? But this is a subject for a completely different discussion. And the fact that the ramparts were precisely a mega-construction is beyond any doubt, despite the fact that the chronicles available to the general public do not mention the fact of construction itself, as well as the builders themselves. Judge for yourself. The diameter of the base of the shafts is 20 meters, original height – 12 meters. The total length of the shafts is approx. 1000 kilometers. The ramparts stretch parallel to each other for many kilometers, connecting with neighboring protective structures. Individual sections of the ramparts consisted of several lines of fortified ramparts and ditches with separation to a depth of over 200 km. Often the ramparts were reinforced on the upper platforms with a wooden palisade (sometimes walls) with loopholes and watchtowers. The length of individual shafts ranged from 1 to 150 km.

The ramparts themselves were originally built as an earthen embankment, including on the basis of a wooden frame. Moreover, the wood was burned to prevent rotting, which also gave it additional hardness. In addition, the Serpentine Shafts were not built all at once, but over the course of almost a millennium (presumably from the 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD. Radiocarbon dating showed that of 14 samples taken from various sections of the ramparts, the oldest was a 30 km long shaft dating back to 150 BC) So the version of their construction by the Romans disappears completely. Moreover, research shows that the ramparts were turned frontally to the south - the Slavs defended themselves from various “guests” from the south, invading their rich lands at different times. So, it was not the Romans who defended themselves from the northern “savages”, but the latter from the Romans, if we consider the version of the construction of ramparts by the Romans.

Archaeologists were able to identify about a dozen different designs for building shafts, depending on the landscape, soil, etc. In addition, they discovered the remains of settlements and sentinel points behind the line of ramparts, every 6-8 km. This simple defensive system made it possible not to keep a large army on the border. It was enough to set up patrols on the ramparts themselves and light warning signal fires when there was an alarm. (Remember that the “Chinese” wall had the same fast signaling system.)

It is believed that the name “Serpent Val” comes from folk legends about ancient Russian heroes who pacified and harnessed the Serpent into a giant plow, which was used to plow a ditch-furrow that marked the borders of the country. In particular, the epic about Nikita Kozhemyak is widely known.

“...It was a difficult battle, but having won, Nikita made a plow of three hundred pounds, harnessed the Serpent to it and dug a furrow across the whole world from sunrise to sunset, marking the border of the Russian lands, and drowned the Serpent in the sea. Having completed the holy deed, Nikita returned to Kyiv and began to wrinkle the skin again. And Nikitin’s furrow is still visible here and there across the steppe; It stretched for a thousand miles with a deep ditch and a rampart two fathoms high. Those shafts are called the Serpentine ones. All around the men are plowing, but they don’t plow the furrows, they leave them in memory of Nikita Kozhemyak...”

Currently, the following classification of Serpentine shafts located on the territory of Ukraine is accepted:

Crimean ramparts - a three-row fortification system between the Azov and Black Seas on the Kerch Peninsula () .

Similar structures exist in Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Poland.

These colossal structures could only be mastered by a powerful centralized state. Judging by the maps of the Serpentine Shafts, they were built according to a single plan. The logical conclusion is that only a strong state formation is capable of conceiving and implementing such a plan over many hundreds of years. And it existed for thousands of years on the territory of Eurasia “from sea to sea,” that is, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. At different times it was called differently - Great Tartaria, Great Scythia, Great Russenia, Great Asia - Great Empire of the Slavic-Aryans.

The last combat use of the Serpentine Ramparts, created by the genius of our great ancestors, was in 1941, when the bunkers of the Kiev Fortified Area, built into separate sections of the ramparts, being already behind enemy lines that had broken through to Kiev, held back large forces for weeks until the last cartridge, until the last fighter enemy in mortal combat...

D. Wortman

In the Middle Dnieper region, on the territory of modern Kyiv, Zhitomir, Cherkasy and Poltava regions of Ukraine, you can see the Serpentine Ramparts - ancient earthen fortifications, the name of which is associated with a folk legend.

The shafts have long attracted the attention of scientists. The purpose of these structures was not controversial: since they stretch in a general direction from east to west in the forest-steppe regions, it was clear that these were defensive lines built by the agricultural population to protect themselves from nomads. But this grandiose fortification system remained mysterious, since there was no reliable information about who exactly built it and why. For a long time, researchers limited themselves to analyzing historical sources mentioning ramparts, drawing up maps (mainly based on literary data) and only occasionally examining individual sections of ramparts on the ground.

The state of affairs changed when the study of the Serpentine Shafts in the late 1960s. local historian Arkady Bugai (a teacher of mathematics by specialty) took up the task. Having almost no support (except for the help of students of the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute), for ten years he explored almost all the known ramparts of the Middle Dnieper region and for the first time compiled a consolidated diagram of the ramparts, which records the results of their direct inspection on the ground. A. Bugai believed that the ramparts were built by the ancient Slavs long before the formation of Kievan Rus. This preliminary conclusion of his was seemingly confirmed by the results of radiocarbon analysis of coal from burnt logs found in the body of the shafts. A. Bugai’s research aroused wide interest among the pseudo-scientific public and forced professional archaeologists to study the shafts. The latter traditionally considered the Serpentine Ramparts to be monuments unpromising for excavations, and only the desire to verify the results of interesting, but amateurish research by a local historian changed the position of the professionals.

In 1974, an archaeological expedition began to work, formed specifically to study the Serpentine Ramparts. The results of her many years of work were published in 1987 in the monograph “The Serpentine Ramparts of the Middle Dnieper,” written by the expedition leader Mikhail Kuchera, an experienced archaeologist and specialist in ancient Russian fortifications. Based on an analysis of the works of his predecessors, written sources and, most importantly, the results of excavations, M. Kuchera convincingly proved that the main part of the ramparts was built during the reign of the Kyiv princes Vladimir Svyatoslavich and Yaroslav Vladimirovich at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries. to protect the borders of Rus' from the Pechenegs. The scientist examined the defense system, the elements of which were ramparts, reconstructed their original appearance and even calculated that 72 people could build a rampart 1 km long in one season. (As the researcher suggests, the shafts were erected in three stages over 19 years, and about 3.5 thousand people worked on their construction annually.)

Nevertheless, among people who are interested in history, but are not specialists, the views on the Serpentine Shafts expressed by A. Bugai are still widespread. Unfortunately, this is a typical example of a situation where the ideas of “geniuses of the third kind” are more popular than the comprehensively substantiated conclusions of “ordinary” scientists. What is the value of a passage that can be read in one collection of scientific (!) articles. After a short presentation of A. Bugai’s opinion about the time of construction of the Serpentine Shafts, the authors (not archaeologists by profession) write: “Of course, one cannot agree with the opinion of some archaeologists about the construction of ramparts during the times of Kievan Rus. This hypothesis was first put forward due to lack of awareness, and was supported by those who objected against the antiquity of high culture and statehood in Ukraine before the times of Kievan Rus. After all, build a whole system of powerful defensive structures...(we skip the short list of components of this system - D.V.) "could a people who had certain elements of statehood."

Let us not criticize the views of the cited authors, who seem to believe: the more cultured a people was in ancient times, the more reason they have to respect themselves today. Let’s just say the following: M. Kuchera’s conclusions about the time of construction of the Serpentine Ramparts are based on a set of specific facts, and not on the archaeologist’s opinion about the level of culture of the Proto-Ukrainians and their ability to create a state. What are these facts?

First of all, it must be pointed out that on the territory of the Middle Dnieper, in addition to the Zmievs themselves, there are other ramparts: the so-called large Scythian fortifications, built in the 6th-5th centuries. BC.; fortifications of the late Middle Ages, built on the Russian-Polish border, as well as against the Crimean Tatars; ramparts of the 18th-19th centuries, which marked the boundaries of individual land holdings and forest excavations made in the modern era. Research has shown that these types of structures differ from each other in their appearance, structure and location features (although they are often combined under the general name of Serpentine Shafts). Serpentine ramparts (in the narrow sense) are always linearly elongated (unlike the Scythian ramparts, which form semi-closed rings), built using the protective properties of the terrain; only they have wooden structures inside.

In our time, the Serpentine Ramparts have survived only in certain areas, mainly in forests. The height of the embankments reaches 1-2.5 m, and the width in the lower part is 8-14 m. The ramparts are accompanied by ditches, from which the earth for the embankments was taken and which formed an additional obstacle for the enemy. Careful research made it possible to reconstruct the original routes of the ramparts and establish that their total length was 969.5 km, of which only a quarter can now be traced on the ground.

Excavations revealed that the Serpentine Shafts were built using a wooden frame, which has two varieties. The first is a log structure, that is, a wall of four-walled log frames, which are placed in one or several rows, filled with earth and have external earthen slopes. In its original form, such a fortification looked like a rampart up to 3.5 m high, above which, presumably, a wooden wall rose. The described design is identical to that used at the ancient Russian settlements of the Dnieper region. The second type is a relay structure, which consists of tiers of longitudinal and transverse logs covered with earth. Initially, such a fortification took the form of a rampart with very steep slopes up to 3.5 m high, and sometimes not lower than 3.7 m. The relay structure is not found on the settlements of the Dnieper region, but is known in the West Slavic fortresses of the 9th-12th centuries. and in the ancient Russian fortifications of Novgorod, Minsk, Moscow.

The structure of the ramparts alone is enough to confirm that they belong to the times of Kievan Rus. This conclusion is confirmed by other archaeological evidence: finds of things in separate shafts, data from stratigraphic sections of the shafts in places where the Old Russian cultural layer was discovered, the presence of settlements and fortified points along the lines of the shafts, founded at the end of the 10th - first half of the 11th centuries.

But what about the results of radiocarbon analysis obtained by A. Bugai? Indeed, in accordance with them, the Serpentine Shafts date back to the 2nd century. BC. until the 7th century AD! The fact is that the radiocarbon method has a very wide range of permissible discrepancies; the results of the analysis are influenced by many unforeseen factors that distort its results. Therefore, it is advisable to use it, for example, when dating Stone Age monuments, for which the accuracy of “plus or minus a millennium” is considered sufficient. But the radiocarbon method is almost never used in archeology when studying late monuments, for which the difference of one century is significant.

Those who disagree with the ancient Russian origin of the Serpent Shafts refer to the great antiquity of the legend about the Serpent, as well as to the fact that the chronicles, without reporting their construction, mention them as no longer functioning structures. How are these arguments refuted? The name "Serpentine Shafts" is recorded in written sources only from the 18th century. - thus, the legend of the Serpent may not be so ancient. Chroniclers called these embankments simply “ramps” and clearly distinguished them from the existing fortress defensive lines, which were also ramparts (with wooden walls on the crest), but were always hidden in the language of that time behind the term “city.” Indeed, the chronicle does not write about the construction of shafts. However, the chronicle article of 988 says that in connection with the Pecheneg raids, Vladimir Svyatoslavich began “to build cities along the Desna, and along Ostro, and along Trubezh, and along Sula, and along Stugna.” It is quite possible that here we mean not only numerous fortresses, but also ramparts (in a functioning state), which together with the fortresses formed a single defense system. In addition, it should be taken into account that the story about the reign of Vladimir, which came to us in the Tale of Bygone Years, was not compiled by his contemporary (chronicle records were made no earlier than the 1060s) and therefore cannot claim completeness and accuracy. But we have evidence from a contemporary of Vladimir. The German missionary Bruno of Querfurt, who around 1007 traveled through Kyiv to the Pechenegs, writes: a Russian sovereign with an army “I accompanied him for two days to the borders of his state, which he (the sovereign) surrounded from the nomadic enemy with a very strong and very long fortification.”

To understand why the ramparts at the time of the first chronicle mention of them (1093) were no longer used for military purposes, it is necessary to reveal their role in defense against nomads against the background of historical events.

At the end of the 10th century. Pecheneg attacks on the southern borders of Rus' intensified, and protecting the country from nomads became a priority for Vladimir Svyatoslavich. As you know, the best defense is an attack. However, it is possible to fight nomads with the help of preventive strikes only if they have permanent bases - winter roads and summer roads. The Pechenegs constantly moved in wagons with their families and were almost elusive. The only successful method of defense against the Pechenegs was passive. Therefore, human and material resources from the entire territory of the Kyiv state were aimed at building a grandiose defense system, which consisted of fortresses (where permanent garrisons were stationed), mounds for monitoring the area and several lines of ramparts. The ramparts were not intended for direct combat; their task was to delay the enemy, deprive him of his main advantage - speed and surprise, gain time to gather troops, and prevent the enemy from quickly escaping pursuit or avoiding an oncoming battle.

A deeply echeloned fortification system made it possible to repel the Pecheneg offensive. Gradually their raids stopped. A new opportunity to come to the territory of Rus' with war appeared for them only because they were invited as mercenaries by the Russian princes themselves - the sons of Vladimir, who began to fight among themselves after the death of their father. But in 1017, the Pechenegs were completely defeated by Yaroslav Vladimirovich under the walls of Kyiv. During the reign of Yaroslav, the state border was moved further south, to the Ros River, along which a new defense line was built. The ramparts built under Vladimir ended up deep in the rear and, without maintenance, quickly fell into a dilapidated state.

When Rus' encountered a new wave of nomads - the Polovtsians, a new tactic for protecting borders emerged in the fight against them. The main burden of defense was placed on “their filthy ones” - the Turkic tribes, who went into the service of the Russian princes and received from them lands in the border strip. The Polovtsians, unlike the Pechenegs, had winter roads and summer roads, and therefore successful campaigns were carried out against them deep into the steppes. Moreover, with the division of Rus' into semi-independent principalities, maintaining a unified system of fortifications became impossible (however, in the 12th century, new ramparts were erected in small areas along the Russia, as well as in the area between the Sula and Seim rivers). But in due time, the Serpentine Ramparts justified the work spent on them, protecting Rus' from the devastating Pecheneg raids. The inconspicuous-looking mounds that still rise here and there among the forests of the Middle Dnieper region have an interesting history, although not as ancient and mysterious as some would like.