Book of Veles

However, professional linguists and historians, particularly the specialists in ancient Slavic, question many features of its language — vocabulary (modern or medieval Slavic words occasionally and unwittingly used in place of their ancient equivalents), spelling, phonetics (distinct reflections of the nasal vowels, both following Polish and Serbian patterns in different places, the haphazard handling of reduced vowels, etc., etc.

These features seem to indicate that the text was artificially "aged" by someone with superficial knowledge of ancient Slavic, and cannot be adequately translated because of lack of any consistent grammar system.

[7][needs update] In 1919, a lieutenant of the White Russian Army, Fedor Arturovich Izenbek, found a bunch of wooden planks written in strange script in a looted mansion of Kurakins near Kharkiv (Ukraine).

[citation needed] According to the Book of Veles, in the 10th century BC ("thirteen hundred years before Ermanaric"), pre-Slavic tribes lived in the "land of seven rivers beyond the sea" (possibly corresponding to Semirechye, southeastern Kazakhstan).

Many references to Ermanaric and his relatives are present (placing this section of Book of Veles in the same historical context as the story of Jonakr's sons, referenced in numerous European legends and sagas).

Their life is just as ours, only there are no Huns nor Greeks...[citation needed] First two lines, literal text: влескнигусіуптщемокіуншемоукіекоестепрібезищасіла воноіврмѣноібяменжякоібяблгадблѣіжерщенбящотцврсі Probable spacing (Mirolyubov): влескнигу сіу птщемо кіу ншемо у кіе ко есте прібезища сіла.

][citation needed] Modern Russian interpretation: Велесову книгу эту посвящаем богу нашему, который есть наше прибежище и сила (lit.

Large-scale production and active dissemination of counterfeits and their propaganda and advertising in the media introduce scientifically designed false information into the public consciousness.

[10] The controversy in the USSR around the Book of Veles began with an article by neo-pagan[11] authors Valery Skurlatov and N. Nikolayev, published in 1976 in the popular weekly newspaper Nedelya.

These authors argued that the work allegedly represents a "mysterious chronicle," allowing a fresh look at the time of the emergence of Slavic writing, revising scientific ideas about ethnogenesis, the level of social development, and the mythology of the Slavs.

Also in 1976, Nedelya published rave reviews about the Book, including accusations against persons who allegedly sought to "dismiss" readers and writers from an outstanding work by silence.

In the 1970s, Yemelyanov wrote the book Dezionization, first published in 1979 in Arabic in Syria in the Al-Baʽath newspaper at the behest of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

Under the influence of Yemelyanov, several marker terms entered the fantastic and parascientific literature about the ancient Slavs, the mention of which indicates to those in the know that they are talking about a specific ideology but allows them to avoid accusations of antisemitism or racism: "Scorched camp" (Palestine); "Siyan Mountain" (Zion); "Rusa Salem" (Jerusalem); steppe ancestors who traveled throughout Eurasia in ancient times; Khazaria as a parasitic state (Khazar myth), etc.

[14] In response, the philologist Nikolai Bogomolov (1987) explained the reasons for the inappropriateness of promoting a fake text and showed the complexity of studying Slavic mythology and the need for its critical scientific analysis.

[21] Thus, Nikolai Slatin,[10] a supporter of the authenticity of the Book of Veles and the author of his own "translation," who shares the "Hyperborean idea" of Valery Dyomin,[22] tried to refute the arguments of scientists, in particular, reproaching them for their lack of patriotism.

[11] The Ukrainian author Boris Yatsenko considered the Book of Veles proof that in the early Iron Age, if not earlier, "one Slavic people, the Ukry," lived in Central Europe.

Asov considers Jesus Christ a descendant of Arius Osednya, the grandson of Dazhbog, mentioned in the Book of Veles (a variation of Aryan Christianity).

[18] To date, among a significant part of the Rodnovers, the point of view prevails that, despite the falsity of the Book of Veles, its author conveyed some echoes of tradition.

[19] Supporters of the authenticity of the Book of Veles are, in particular, the author of pseudo-historical ideas about the history of the Ukrainian people, Boris Yatsenko (magazine Chronicles 2000, No.

From the point of view of academician Andrey Zaliznyak, concerning these authors, "we are actually talking about people who only admit some doubt about the falsity of the Veles Book, and do not directly and reasonably defend the version of its authenticity."

He attributed the creation of the Book of Veles to the end of the 9th - the beginning of the 10th century, but, unlike most other supporters of the authenticity of this work, he believed that the protographer of the famous text of the Book of Veles was created not in Novgorod, but in Western Polesia, reflecting the dialect features of this region, later than the time to which supporters of authenticity usually date it, and the list (plates) that has come down to Mirolyubov belongs to the 17th century and was created by a Ukrainian.

According to Alekseyev, Yatsenko's work fulfills a "national order" in Ukraine since it was published at the expense of I. G. Kislyuk, whose biography, together with a portrait, completes the publication, and it is also reported that the philanthropist considers the Book of Veles "sacred for our people" and that "Ivan Kislyuk and his like-minded people stubbornly spread national ideas and assets among the turbulent sea of low-quality foreigners.

[33] The ethnographer and candidate of historical sciences Svetlana Zharnikova, who developed a pseudoscientific arctic hypothesis of the origin of the Indo-Europeans ("Aryans"), was a supporter of the authenticity of the Book of Veles.

Vitaly Dovgich, a journalist and candidate of philological sciences, wrote that "the history of Indo-Europe begins in Ukraine," one of the proofs of which, in his opinion, is the Book of Veles.

In this edition, Dovgych and Yatsenko argued that the Ukrainians descended from the ancient "Ukry," who settled in deep primitiveness from the Elbe to the Dnieper and Danube.

[11] Yuri Shilov, an archaeologist by education and a candidate of historical sciences, quoted the Book of Veles based on Asov's translation and put forward his version of its origin: it "could have been created by the descendants of the priests of the Veneti-Etruscans at the end of the 9th century, somewhere in the Crimea.

Following Shilov, Professor of the Precarpathian National University (Ivano-Frankivsk), philosopher L. T. Babiy argues that Ukraine is the ancestral home of the "Aryans," "the creators of the Tripillia archaeological culture with the states of Aratta and Ariana."

And the message of O. Skurlatova that A. V. Artsikhovsky “considered it quite probable”, that VK “reflects the true pagan past of the Slavs”, appeared after the scientist's death and seems highly doubtful.Asov also refers to a personal conversation with Rybakov but claims that he told him otherwise.

However, we can only guess about the nature and content of his words since the archaeologist did not devote a single work to the VK [Book of Veles], and indications of his positive assessment of the monument are somewhat similar to a historiographic myth.The following are publications that are claimed to be "translations" but have not been verified in scientific literature.

According to Oleg Tvorogov and Igor Danilevsky, the unsystematic and arbitrary nature of the language of the Book of Veles makes it impossible to translate this work.