Theodore Illion: Darkness Over Tibet

[Benjamin]

...I scrolled through 100 pages of 'Iljin' in the 'Birth, marriage and death' collections. That's 5,000 entries, all in Cyrillic, having this exact name...

Just a clarification that those results for 'Iljin' had many different first names of which 'Feodor' constituted a handful by comparison.

Not knowing where else to go, I returned to the Die Furche newspaper list. With my free time-limited membership, I translated all 42 of Illion's articles using DeepL and Google (because DeepL kept booting me for 24hrs). Die Furche had already (machine) transcribed the articles so it was just a cut-n-paste job. Unfortunately, only a few of the articles are (seemingly) fully transcribed, the rest being incomplete and a few only having a paragraph or two. Nevertheless, some interesting things came out of this.

I'm not going to critique Illion's writings. I don't have the knowledge of Communist, Indian/Pakistani or Nigerian/Biafran history suitable to do so and, since the articles are incomplete, I don't know his conclusions if he made any. Rather, I'm going to focus on something a bit more general, in a way.

Illion's articles are exclusively about certain current events of his time. It becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly that he's critical of "Red China" which dominates the majority of his Die Furche articles. He seems to be well informed and keeps up with, at least, world events. But I found it interesting that he never adds anything historical. There is a mention of the 13 century Japanese Buddhist Nichiren and the Ming Dynasty but otherwise there are no references or parallels to historical events, nor are there any quotes from anybody of a historical nature. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a line from a Greek or Roman writer thrown in somewhere, or maybe a passage from the Bible, or anything from a more recent author. Unless he does so in the untranscribed parts, there is nothing at all. I started to think that he might not have a very strong knowledge base of history which made me wonder about his schooling. I'm going to guess that he went through some sort of elementary school, but after that? I could be wrong but I'm skeptical if he attended a university and that baffles me a bit because these are well written.

There is also a phrase that he uses a lot. Here are some examples:

• "Sources with good information..."
• "...the best-informed observers - including a leading French journalist these days..."
• "...the not too densely populated well-informed Asia experts wonder..."
• "...estimates by foreign experts vary widely. Japanese observers have proved to be more reliable than average in their assessment of the Red Chinese economic situation."
• "...some China experts are of the opinion..."
• " According to reports from impartial sources in areas close to China..."
• "Sources in Hong Kong, who are in regular contact with many people from Red China, claim..." [ I mean, come on!]
• "Good experts on Asia say..."
• "According to reports from Asian sources, whose information has repeatedly proved to be accurate..."
• "According to reports from sources in a number of non-communist Asian countries (India, etc.)..."
• "...quite a few impartial experts on Asia nevertheless consider..."
• "Reliable sources claim..."
• "The prevailing impression among the well-informed is..."
• "Sources based in northern India, who despite all border controls have good connections to various inner Asian areas, report..."
• "...in the opinion of good experts on Asia, whose predictions have repeatedly proven to be valid..."

Of course those sources are never named. I understand wanting to keep your sources safe but wouldn't one hear little bells ringing eventually?

But I noticed something else. Sometimes he uses the word 'we' in a certain way and, in very rare cases, uses the words 'us' and 'our'.

Where is Nigeria Heading?- May 21, 1969

The conflicting reports from observers from both camps are difficult to bring to a common denominator. Our informants tried to compare, among other things, numerous reports of bombings of civilians.

No Weapons for Nigeria- Sept. 17, 1969

A very well-informed, impartial expert on Africa told one of our sources: “The Pope's initiative is praiseworthy. However, should hostilities not cease despite this, the fighters for peace would have no choice but to appeal directly to the goodwill of the countries that supply the belligerents with weapons.”

Turning Point in the Nigerian War?- Oct. 8, 1969

The latest report from the area of secessionists says that they are aware of the great influence of Dr. Azikiwe's focus is primarily on the common people and his assurance that no extermination campaign has been launched against "Biafra" is viewed as a serious setback for the secessionists. And we have just learned from Owerri that the leaders of the secessionists there organized an impressive funeral with African imprecation rites, at which a Dr. The doll [?] depicting Azikiwe was solemnly cursed and buried in the presence of hundreds of simple Ibos.

The Pill - A Time Bomb?- Jun. 24, 1970

Also interesting are the statements made by some leading Africans about the dangers of loud propaganda for the “pill” in view of the increasing manipulation of people in our technological age. A letter we received in this context mentions newspaper reports that an Anglican clergyman had seriously advocated the introduction of a “reproductive license” in a sermon.

Before us is an article published in a black African newspaper with the title: “Islam is against birth control”, with quotations from the Koran, which, according to the authors, prohibit artificial contraception, such as: “Do not kill the (expectant) child for fear of poverty.”

Drilling in Formosa- Apr. 21, 1971

At the same time, we learn from Saigon that soon after this news became known, no fewer than 28 oil companies from various countries expressed their interest in participating in the South Vietnamese oil business.

Hunger and Power- Nov. 24, 1971

And while a major news magazine claims in a report that impartial experts describe as one-sided that “Sheikh Muribur Rahman is facing the death penalty,” we learn from well-informed sources that heads of state and government, including President Nixon, intervened on his behalf.

Most of the Awami League leaders who fled to India reside in Calcutta. We learn from impartial informants that their prestige has been tarnished because they are accused of having failed over the course of many months to initiate a “real mass uprising”.

The Dangerous Needles- Mar. 7, 1973

Henry A. Kissinger, one of the most prominent presidential advisors and secret diplomat in the USA, analyzed and reviewed Metternich's statesmanship in his 1972 paperback history work “Great Power Diplomacy”. We can rightly recognize Kissinger as Metternich's interlocutor.

The later 'we' references are possibly just a grammatical style used to address people collectively. But the highlighted selections that I've underlined are different. Unless Illion switches to a third-person perspective while writing (like he did with his 'Canadian' admission), these selections allude to more then one person or possibly a group.

And notice here:

Where is Nigeria Heading?- May 21, 1969

Most other black African states also fear the example of such progressive “Balkanization” on any similar currents that may exist in their own countries, so that so far only four of these many countries have recognized the secession of the Nigerian Eastern Province under the name “Biafra”. This is also clear from the author of this article's correspondence with some leading African statesmen.

No Weapons for Nigeria- Sept. 17, 1969

Other African statesmen, including the head of a black African state with which the author of this article is associated, express similar fears.

Add in the humorous 'letter to the editor' complaint Illion sent to the Salzburg Nachrichten paper where he reveals his correspondence with a person in Vienna and you get the impression that he is a connected guy with a seemingly well established information network that appears to, at least, extend to Japan, India and Nigeria. Additionally, reading many newspapers from around the world, whatever he hears on the radio and his personal experiences from travelling to 15/16 countries and Illion becomes quite the man in the know, at least on certain topics. Then there's this:

The Spectre of China- July 30, 1969

At a meeting of Western and Eastern European politicians, diplomats, university professors and freelance journalists in Grundlsee, which was not hindered by the Soviet side, the aim was openly to achieve closer cooperation between Western and Eastern European states, independent of ideologies. At this meeting, which received little public attention and to which the author of this article was invited, an official representative of Romania also confirmed the position of his and “other socialist countries” that “the division of the world into military blocs is an anachronism and an obstacle on the way to state cooperation”.

This admission implies that Illion travels in some pretty elite company. Remember the admission that he was a member of the Club of Rome? This isn't proof but is this support for it? I don't think so.

The first full meeting of the Club of Rome was at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy in 1968. It was considered a "monumental flop". The second full meeting was sponsored by Pierre Trudeau and the Canadian Government and held in April, 1971 at the Seigniory Club in Chateau Montebello (which is for sale, btw), Quebec. At this meeting, "members heard the outline of a global “Systems Dynamics” model that would become the basis for The Limits to Growth", which was published in 1972. The Club of Rome was not a big deal in 1969, so to have a meeting of such significant participants as described by "the author of this article" (a phrase he uses seven times throughout the articles) is unlikely Club of Rome members.

Now, this meeting may have happened. However, I could find three articles in the SN about the The Fifth World Congress of the Theosophical Society (mentioned earlier) in Salzburg, but I couldn't find a reference to this gathering in Grundlsee on Grundlsee Lake in the SN or Die Furche. And this is what bothers me: "At this meeting, which received little public attention..." is reported by Illion. I'm leaving it open, but I wonder if he's controlling the narrative.

I took a look at Illion's biography again (found in the Darkness Over Illion article) where he mentions:

As a child he ran away from home and lived roughly like Kipling's "Kim" (by the way, the applicant knew "Kim", whose real name was Hastings Palmer, quite well).

Hastings Palmer? Yeah right. But I wonder if Illion got some inspiration from that book?

It's interesting that, throughout his biography, he refers to himself in the third-person exclusively. Unlike his books In Secret Tibet and Darkness Over Tibet where he uses 'I' and 'my', Illion doesn't us 'I' in his newspaper articles or biography (he does use 'my' once in the first article Dangerous Vacuum). He has 'plurals' and 'third-persons'. Is he dissociating? (see: The Myth of Sanity)

On a sidenote he also mentioned:

...stayed several times at the house of Vidunas, the Lithuanian national poet...

Looking at his wikipage, I find that Vydūnas was a pioneer of pagan revival and one of the leaders of the theosophical movement in East Prussia.

 

[Benjamin]

As suggested by Altair, I looked around for Altai legends and it seems like the 'big one' (7738 verses) is called the Maadai-Kara. I cannot find an English translation of it anywhere (there's a 4-part reading of the epic starting here, in Turkish, no CC). There was one published in 1986 with the title Māday Qara: An Altay Epic Poem, translated by Ugo Marazzi, but I can only find the Italian version. One 'complete' English version I could find is a savagely edited, low-budget animation that has been hacked to 3:30 minutes.

Piecing it together, here's a bit more about the epic:

Kögüdei Mergen, who is the hero of the epic and son of Maadai Kara, goes to the underground to unlock the secret of life, to bring his mother and father back to the world from the world of the dead and save his livestock and people from death. The epic takes place in three different dimensions called the world, the underground and the heavens. The world is the place of the living creatures. The underground is the world of spirits and the dead. The heaven is unknown and beyond what man knows. The portals of these three dimensions are not closed to each other and it is possible to pass through one from another and return.

In a pdf by Lauri Harvilahti titled Altai Oral Epic (2000), there is a description of the Maadai-Kara. Lauri mentions that there are many different versions of this poem to begin with. But out of all of the one's that I have seen in English (like the two examples above) this one is the most thorough. (I've uploaded the pdf because the link is weirdly porn-sketchy.)

The Epic of Maadai-Kara and the World Tree

The following is a short fragment from the Maadai-Kara poem
performed by A. Kalkin: (11)

Jeten airy kök talaidyη beltirinde
Jeti jaan köö taiganyη koltugunda
Jüs budaktu möηkü terek. . .

By the shores of a blue river with seventy still waters
By the loins of seven matched black mountains,
(Grew a) hundred-branched eternal poplar. . .

The eternal poplar described in the poem is the world tree. The road to the lower and higher levels of the world runs, according to the elder Kalkin, up and down an eternal tree. It may be a single iron tree trunk or there may be one hundred trunks. The eternal poplar thus unites the upper and lower world by passing through the middle world, where humans dwell. It is believed that the world tree both brings forth and maintains life, as well as controls human destiny.

In Altai epics the eternal poplar marks the center of the world. This mythical tree is also characteristically a dwelling place for a number of mythical animals. These animals have various functions: they determine destinies, guard the tree, and caution those who have taken the wrong road. When the tree leans towards the moon, it begins to shed golden leaves; when it leans towards the sun, it begins to shed silver leaves. The treetop is the home of two golden cuckoos, who call out the number of days that remain for the living; they also know where the souls of the dying will go. In the middle of the tree perch two identical diamond-clawed eagles, the protectors of the firmament. Their breath is like the wind, and they shriek warnings to lost heroes on dangerous roads. At the base of the tree are two black dogs with flecked and flashing eyes who gaze in the direction of the underworld. Gnashing their teeth, the dogs bark to Erlik Kaan, the lord of that realm.

In addition to the iron poplar, or any other tree symbolizing the center of the world, the iron mountain also functions as a symbolic center of the world in Altai mythology. The task of the shaman was to take the souls of the dead to the base of the world tree or mountain, that is, to the tortuous path leading to the Erlik’s realm.

Another symbolic center of the world is the hitching post described in the Altai and Yakutian shamanistic epic. This pole runs through the lower, middle, and upper levels of the earth. The upper part belongs to the god of the heavens, generally known in the poems as Üc-Kurbustan, (12) while the middle belongs to the poem’s hero, Maadai-Kara, and the lower part to Aibystan, the god of the underworld: (13)

Togzon kyrlu tas örgöödiη ezigi alty
Togus kyrlu möηgün caky bar boluptyr.
Altyy ucy altyy oroon —
Aibystannyη bu cadany,
Üstin ucy üstin oroon —
Üc-Kurbustan bu cakyzy.
Tal ortozy
Kara kaltar jaksy attu
Maadai-Kara baatyrdyη
Bu cadany bu boluptyr.

At the mouth of the ninety-sided stone yurt
Stands a ninety-sided silver hitching post.
Its lower part is in the underworld,
It is Aibystan’s hitching post.
The upper part extends to the upper world,
It is  Üc-Kurbustan’s hitching post.
The middle part belongs to
The one who rides the dark gray steed,
It is the hitching post of the hero Maadai-Kara.

In the narrative poetry of the Yakutians (a Siberian ethnic group), the top of the world tree serves as a hitching post for the highest god. During Buryat shamanistic funeral rites, participants would place three posts on the way to the burial site, posts where the shaman’s spirit might tie his horse. (14)

Uno Harva shows the close link between the shaman’s tree and its guardian. According to the Yakutian myths, the supreme god ajyy tojon [Aisyt] brought the blossomless tree into the world and taught the first shamans their incantations and powerful techniques. Each shaman had his own tree that would begin growing as soon as the sorcerer found his calling. When the shaman died, the tree would also begin to decay. The belief that chopping down a shaman’s tree also spelled the death of the shaman is widespread among the peoples of Siberia. (15) According to local Altai researchers, a deceased shaman would customarily be entombed in the hollow of a deciduous tree. The shaman’s final resting place and the surrounding woodlands were highly venerated. Even today, the multi-branched tamaracks at an old sacrificial site are surrounded by a thick log fence. According to one explanation, this practice also prevents animals from digging at the roots of the sacred trees.

The beginning of Maadai-Kara is a typical description of the mythical time and golden age. The epic begins with familiar elements from the mythical landscape, including the holy poplar as a symbol of eternal life. Maadai-Kara is an old hero who has already lost his power. He sleeps for sixty days. When he finally wakes up, he notices that a hostile kaan (lord or ruler) is approaching in order to seize him and capture his livestock, people, and property. When his wife gives birth to a son, Kögüdei Mergen, Maadai- Kara hides the boy in the black mountain and leaves him under the protection of the birch trees of Altai. The hostile Kara-Kula Kaan arrives and enslaves the white-faced people of Maadai-Kara.

The son remains in the mountain, however, and becomes the real hero of the epic. The old mistress of Altai finds him, takes good care of him, and soon the boy starts his heroic exploits. First he shoots two gigantic wolves and ravens with his bow and arrow. Then he rides his heroic steed toward the domain of Kara-Kula Kaan and kills all of the monsters on the way. His horse jumps over a yellow poisonous sea and through two continuously opening and closing mountains. After multiple adventures, Kögüdei Mergen finds out that Kara-Kula Kaan’s soul is hidden in the form of a quail’s chick in a gold coffer in the abdomen of one of the heavenly reindeer. Finally Kögüdei Mergen is able to shoot the middle reindeer, causing the golden coffer to fall out. In the struggle between the hostile kaan and the hero the quail chick is injured, and Kara-Kula dies. With the help of seven identical heroes Kögüdei Mergen is able, after a long wooing competition, to win the daughter of Ay Kaan, Altyn Küskü, as his bride. Finally he is able to kill Erlik by burning him into coal. Then he sets free all the just prisoners from Erlik’s domain, but the unjust remain there. As a result, a golden era returns to Altai.

At the end of the epic Kögüdei Mergen and Altyn Küskü, as well as the seven identical heroes, turn into stars. In the night sky the seven kaans (the Great Bear) are the seven heroes going to the wedding, the North Star is Altyn Küskü, and above the constellation of the Three Reindeer (Orion) is a red star. That is the arrow of Kögüdei Mergen. In the Altai language the Great Bear is Jeti-kaan, “Seven kaans,” and Orion Üc myjgak, “Three reindeers,” and the North Star is called Altyn-Kazyk, “The Golden Pole.” This summary is in brief the main content of this fantastic mythical epic, a total of 7,738 verses in Aleksej Kalkin’s version.

According to Ugo Marazzi the epic of Maadai-Kara is an example of the cosmogonic theme of “heavenly hunt,” with a heroic plot borrowed from a shamanistic initiation experience. It serves as a tale of origin for the constellations Orion and the Great Bear, and the hero K güdei Mergen is a great proto-shaman. (16)

(11) Surazakov 1973b: verses 45-47.

(12) In Altaic epic poetry, Üc-Kurbustan is the god of the heavens and corresponds to Ülgen. Kurbustan refers to the Persian god of the sky Ahura Mazda. As it was adopted by Buddhism, this divinity was identified with Sakra (Indra) and in the Mongolian Lamaist cosmology it became the leading divinity of the group of 33 divinities of the sky (teηgri). It was also adopted with varying significance in shamanistic concepts, in particular as the highest god of the sky, but among the peoples of the Altai mountains it also applied to spirit beings (körmös) from shamanism in general. The first part of the name appearing in the poem, üc, which means three, may allude to Buddhism (the number three in place of the original 33). For more details, see Harva 1933:97-98; Nekljudov and ›ukovskaja 1991:594.

(13) Surazakov 1973b:verses 156-65. Aibystan (“sable-fur-blanket”) is a euphemism for Erlik, the lord of the underworld (see Puhov 1975:24; Kazagaceva 1997:638).

(14) Harva 1933:53, 201; see Puhov 1975:24.

(15) Harva 1933:319-20.

(16) Marazzi 1986:7-8.

Earlier in the article, she publishes a short selection of an interview recorded by Z. S. Kazagaceva and herself on Sept. 1996 in Jabagan, Altai Republic. I found this part to be interesting.

...
Lauri Harvilahti: What is your religion?
Elbek: Among us—the real Altaians—the religion is a heathen one.
Lauri Harvilahti: Where does the epic come from? Does it originate from—what do you think?
V. M. Gacak: Who gave people the epic? [refering to the Maadai-Kara]
Lauri Harvilahti: Does it come from a god, or the ancestors? What would you say?
Elbek: I think it comes from, from the ancestors. Well, as heathens we worship the mountains . . . poetically, the Altai Eezi. That is the spirit of the mountain. Altai Eezi may also, how to put it—I mean, transmit the epics. (9)
...

(9) See Potapov (1991:200), who states that in epics the god of Altai is called Altai Ääzi, “the lord of Altai.”

The epic is meant to be sung, which apparently can take over 8 hours to do. Here is a 2 minute example by the above mentioned Kai singer Elbek Kalkin, the son of the most prominent of the last masters of the Upper Altai region's Kai singers, Aleksej Grigorevic Kalkin (the "A. Kalkin" mentioned at the beginning of the section):

I also started reading Shamanism by Mircea Eliade (recommended books section). It now seemed like a logical progression after Darkness.

 

[Benjamin]

Just going to put this here. Thanks Altair for asking! Would've like to have asked a little more but I didn't expect even this much.

Q: (Altair) In one of the previous sessions, the C’s said that Theodore Illion (author of 'Darkness Over Tibet') didn't visit Tibet but traveled to Siberia. Was this part of Siberia the Altai region?

A: No. He did not make it that far.

Q: (Altair) If not, what part of Siberia did he travel to?

A: Western edges.

Q: (Altair) When did he do so?

A: 1936 or so.

Only to the Western edges of Siberia, huh?
And, 1936. That late, huh? I had figured pre-1931. Interesting.

1935

• Feb. 7 - Sweden
• May 3 - Luxembourg
• Aug. - Illion is broadcast in Germany regularly through recordings. No idea if he's actually in Germany.
• Aug. 29 - Iceland
• Sept. 10 - Norway
• Nov. 11 - Transiting through Sweden to Central Europe [On his way into Russia?]

1936

• Unknown until July. [Western edges of Siberia.]
• July 20 - ‘Baltic Tour’ - Riga, Latvia - In the interview, it is mentioned that Illion has been twice to Central Asia and Tibet. (I don’t know when the first time was since Turkey is not part of ‘Central Asia’. Was he there before 1930?)

 

[Keit]

The C's said the following in the latest session:

Q: (Altair) In one of the previous sessions, the C’s said that Theodore Illion (author of 'Darkness Over Tibet') didn't visit Tibet but traveled to Siberia. Was this part of Siberia the Altai region?

A: No. He did not make it that far.

Q: (Altair) If not, what part of Siberia did he travel to?

A: Western edges.

Q: (Altair) When did he do so?

A: 1936 or so.

Based on the above answer, here's a speculation regarding the group Illion possibly was in contact with, and who could possibly provide him with this kind of information.

Note that almost all the links are in Russian. I tried translating the links to English, as it was possible to do before on Google translate, but for some reason it doesn't work.

First, here is a map of Western Siberia:



And here's some information:

In Russia not so long ago documents were discovered which testify that more than 100 years ago the Old Believer communities had secret connections with the ministers of Tibetan monasteries and tried to get unique ancient Eastern knowledge.[...]

Kostroma Old Believers somewhere from the middle of the XVII century organized their sect called "Wanderers".[...]

"Wanderers" sent their people to Tibet and according to little-studied facts one of them - elder Nikitin achieved the most important goal - he was admitted by the monks to the secret knowledge.

For a very long time Nikitin lived in several Tibetan monasteries, whose monks revealed to him some mysterious teachings of Dunkhor-Kalachakra. This teaching consisted in the study of knowledge of the cosmos, hidden phenomena of nature, the unique abilities of man, as well as methods that give power over the human mass.

In the early XX century, the elder Nikitin returned to Russia with unique knowledge, but apparently the Old Believers were not able to use the knowledge he had gained. Or maybe they did not try to use the knowledge to make a revolution, but simply affirmed their faith even more strongly. In any case, the revolution took place in the country, and history took place in the way everyone knows.

The onset of Soviet power and its consolidation also did not leave the Old Believers' communities without attention. Lenin, as is well known, sought to do away with undesirable bearers of theological knowledge. Gleb Bokii, a member of the OGPU, also actively tried to obtain the secret knowledge of the Old Believers and was supported by the Russian scientist Bekhterev. Academician Bekhterev was interested in human telepathic abilities, and was looking for new sources in the knowledge of the Old Believers.

The Bolsheviks induced the Old Believers to cooperate, and as a consequence they also began to possess artifacts brought from Tibet. The secret laboratory of Bolsheviks on the basis of the received materials, organized an expedition, the main purpose of which was to search for Shambala, sung in legends, but all initiators and participants of the expedition were sentenced to execution.

At the same time by order of Stalin all known at that time clairvoyants and astrologers of the country were sentenced to repression. It is very likely that the same fate befell the Old Believers.

To date, it remains unclear what happened to the artifacts brought from Tibet, whether they were preserved or irretrievably lost. This story is still a mystery.

It's unclear if the above information is factual or entirely accurate. Here's another article that talks about it. Here's a wiki link (in English) about Old believers (old ritualists).

Now, Kostroma isn't near Siberia or Ulars, but near Moscow, so that doesn't fit. But apparently a lot of "Old Believers" lived in the Urals region:



And also in the "Trans-Urals" region (which is the Western edge of Siberia).

According to the census of 1897, the Old Believers...made up from 1.5 to 8% of the population of the Ural provinces. The distribution of Old Believers within the provinces was not even.

Historically, the main Old Believers' centers in the Urals were mining and factory settlements, as well as settlements lying on the way from the Central European part of the country and from the Pomorie to Siberia and the Far East.

Census materials show that the specific weight of the Old Believer population was the highest in Perm province (except for Solikamsk and Irbit counties) - from 2.3 to 11%, as well as in the Trans-Urals - in the south of Tobolsk province - in Kurgan, Ishim and Yalutorovsk counties.

The census data in Yalutorovsky uyezd of Tobolsk province recorded the highest density of the Old Believers in the region under consideration - 24.19%, i.e. almost a quarter of the county's population as a whole.

And Tobolsk in the past was called the capital of Western Siberia, before the title moved to Tyumen and later to other cities.

Anyways, Old Believers were persecuted by the Soviet authorities and had to migrate deeper into Siberia, specifically the Altai and Baikal regions, and also to Far East. But they also did it willingly in hopes to find a mystical land of Belovodye. Looks like Belovodye is something similar to Shambhala or Agartha.

It is known that the legends about the country Belovodye and its search originated in the Old Believers. But it turns out that the Old Believers besides legends had a concrete book with maps, describing in detail the way to this blessed land. This book was called "Traveler" and it was very widespread among the Old Believers of Obva in 1840-1850.

In the legendary country of Belovodye according to the Old Believers' ideas, the Old Orthodox piety was preserved in its original form: with the blessed sovereign and the holy patriarch at the head.

It was assumed that Belovodye is located in the East, according to some versions of "Traveler" in the mountains of Tibet, according to others - in the Oponsky (Japanese) kingdom.

In 1844, one of the peasants of the Chelvinskaya volost, who fled from the estate in search of Belovodya and was caught behind Perm, was found with a handwritten "Traveler".

As Fyodor Volegov wrote: "The main content of it consists in the description of the way through Siberia and Chinese possessions to Tibet, where there are many ancient Christian churches, there is a patriarch of Antioch of Antioch, also metropolitan and bishops of Russia, who left by the Arctic Sea on ships from the Solovetsky monastery during the persecution of schismatics".

Here's more about Belovodye:

...The Tibetan expedition did not bring the expected result. But later, already in the Altai Verkh-Uymon, Roerich would again hear stories about a righteous country in the center of Asia called Belovodye. By the way, when Russian fairy tales talk about milk rivers with sour shores, they mean Belovodye.

The trail of Russian Old Believers

The path of the Old Believers to Altai passed through the Urals. They hid in local forests and caves...

The dream of Belovodie leads Russian Old Believers to the Urals, and then beckons further to the mountains of Altai. And all this time their long journey is somehow connected with the legends of the ancient people of the Chud, who went underground in search of a better lot. In the book "The Heart of Asia" Roerich quotes the story of his guide - an Altai Old Believer. And again it is about the unknown underground kingdom, about how the Chud went underground, not willing to submit to the White King who came to Altai with a war.

Thus the artist unexpectedly returns to the origins of his expeditions. Back in 1913, ten years before he began traveling to the mountains of Tibet, and then Altai, Nicholas Roerich wrote the painting "The Chud under the earth went away".
The story of Belovodye - the Russian analog of Herodotus' Hyperborea and Tibetan Shambhala - gets a new turn already in our times, after the sensational discovery on the Ukok Plateau. It overturns all ideas about the past of these places and makes us listen anew to the ancient legends about the land of universal happiness and its guardians.

And also this:

The Staroverites (Old Believers), who searched for Belovodye in 1840 in the number of 130 people, came to the south of the Gobi desert, to the lake Lobnor. Here they settled down, built a settlement. They communicated with the locals using the Kazakh language.

Archaeologists consider this area one of the most important on earth. It is believed that Lake Lobnor changes its position. At the same time, its surroundings were highly saline, with small poplar forests concentrated only in oases. These places bore little resemblance to Belovodye.[...]

Siberian researcher A.N.Beloslyudov in 1914 interviewed one of the participants of the [search for] Belovodye, undertaken in 1861, Asson Emelyanovich Zyryanov and concluded: "At present the participants do not believe in the existence of Belovodye, although it is not rare to meet an old man who, believing piously, will tell you that on Belovodye, on the sea, on the islands live holy people, that if you get there, you can become a saint and ascend to heaven; will even add that holy people were seen by those who went to Belovodye; holy people on horseback on the waters approached them and called, but the horses of those who went to Belovodye sank, and holy people went back". In this connection, many Old Believers had a firm belief that not everyone is given to get to Belovodye: "it is necessary that the soul was pure".

According to N.K. Roerich, the Altai Old Believers also assumed that Belovodye is located in the region of the Himalayas. They also tried to look for Belovodye in Afghanistan and India. When N.K. Roerich visited Altai in 1926, he learned that a whole group of Old Believers went in search of the sacred place six years ago and has not returned yet.

The journey of the Altai Old Believers under the leadership of the Bobrov brothers, Semyon and Khrisanf, is well known. They left the Bukhtarmin valley with their families. The detachment rode on horseback and was armed. They were able to cross the Altyntag Mountains and cross the Tsaidam in Northern Tibet. The Old Believers also traveled to Mongolia.

The wanderers carried special secret maps with them.They were written in a complex encrypted language, so the police could not read them. In these maps, real geographical names were intertwined with mythical and legendary ones.[...]

Altai Old Believers also recalled: "Many people went to Belovodye. Our grandfathers also went. They disappeared for three years and reached the holy place. Only they were not allowed to stay there and had to return. They told many miracles about this place. And even more miracles they were not allowed to tell."

In the late summer of 1930, a mysterious incident described by Soviet Chekists took place in those parts. In deserted and remote places where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and the Chinese province of Kashgar converge, a maneuvering detachment of Red Army soldiers pursued the remnants of the detachment of Kurbashi Dzhantai.

Suddenly they came through a narrow passage between steep cliffs into a vast valley. In it, "to the right and below, stood a very real town. Not some miserable kishlak, not a district center - it was a city, at least a couple of miles long and wide". It was a city "that resembled neither Kashgar, nor Chinese, nor Bukhara or Samarkand".

But the city turned out to be deserted. It was surrounded by walls made of long stone blocks and towers in the form of high truncated cones with teeth. In front of the gates, on either side, stood two huge stone bulls.

But the most interesting thing was that, according to all scientific and geographical information, such a large settlement could not have existed in these places. An experienced guide was with the party. He shrugged his shoulders: "I don't know... I have never heard of any town in my life... If there were people living here, old men or hunters would know about them. Old men and hunters know everything. But no one knows anything about this..." .

To disprove the assumption of a mirage, the squad leader fired three times from a carbine at the stone bull. Everyone saw how the three bullets knocked a crumb out of the bull. It was all real. Except that there was no more news or information about this town.

Old Believer poet Nikolai Klyuev, talking about the Russian Shambhala - Belovodye, spoke about a certain "golden path" from Solovki to Altai and further to Tibet. He considered this secret road to be the axis of life of the Russian people and that it was paved by the Old Believers, who had preserved the deep traditions of true folk beliefs.

There is also this long article:

Tibetan Medicine in the Old Believers of Baikal Siberia in the 30s-50s of the 20th Century

"The appeal of Old Believers of Baikal Siberia for help in curing hard-to-cure diseases (repeatedly confirmed by the Old Believers of Baikal Siberia themselves) to Buryat lamas - representatives of a religious confession alien to Christianity - is of great interest to us, as researchers of the spiritual culture of the Semeiskie people...

So there is a clear and obvious connection between Russian orthodox Old Believers and buddism. Looks like at the core the concepts they believed in transended limitations set by specific religions.

Now, the main problem I see with this speculation is that the C's said the following:

(L) Was the place that he really traveled to a place that was positive that was telling about a place that was negative?

A: Yes.

I haven't looked deeper into Old Believers stories (if it's possible to find them) in order to see if they do have something negative to say about a specific place or a location. But it's possible to see that they had similar stories and legends about a mystical and wonderful place. i.e positive. So I am not sure if it is a hit, but it is at least very interesting.

 

[Voyageur]

First, here is a map of Western Siberia:

Here is a map of the Siberian Republic from 1936 that can be found from here (from this link the text can be zoomed in if it can't be read here). Had not realized how deep the Japanese had attacked and held in the region, occupiers since 1920:

 

[thorbiorn]

I haven't looked deeper into Old Believers stories (if it's possible to find them) in order to see if they do have something negative to say about a specific place or a location. But it's possible to see that they had similar stories and legends about a mystical and wonderful place. i.e positive. So I am not sure if it is a hit, but it is at least very interesting.

Interesting to read your findings about the Old Believers. I once met a Russian woman who during Soviet times had been secretly baptized by her grandmother into the Old Believer faith, (her father was a member of the Communist Party, so it had to be kept quiet). She later revolted and was influenced by more Asian belief systems, but she had a developed intuition, high-strange experiences, while also remaining reasonably knowledgeable about the events in our world. If what she experienced was a function of a genetic and soul predisposition, then it would not surprise me the least if a few others, including among the Old Believers, know more than they let on.

 

[Benjamin]

I came across a great article from Russia Beyond. It's an easy (and disturbing) read and only 10-15 mins of time.

What I have been finding is the Old Ritualists (as they're actually known, 'Old Believers' is the Western version that works with search engines) began as a result of the Raskol, the split within the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-17th century which was triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon between 1652-1658.

How Russia's Old Believers used to burn themselves alive

The tradition of self-immolation among Russian Old Believers spanned two centuries and remains a unique phenomenon in contemporary history.

www.rbth.com

If you read it, you'll have run into the name Avvakum Petrovich (Nov 20, 1620/21 – Apr. 14, 1682) who was the leader and revered saint of the Old Ritualists. The article mentions him in 1682 when he died but there is a bit more about him that's interesting.

Something that is not mentioned in the article is a group that formed in the late 1640's - early 1650's around Stefan Vonifatiev, the Archpriest of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Kremlin and confessor to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich (Alexei I). The group was called the Zealots of Piety and formed from the belief that the massacres and violence during the Time of Troubles in Russia from 1598 to 1613 was the manifestation of a wrathful God who was angry with the Russian people's lack of religious adherence. As well, from the article, there was also this going on:

“Cyril’s Book” was a compendium of religious texts, popular in the 17th century. It contained predictions about the End of Days that would happen “during the 8th millennium from Adam” (6999/7000 from Adam came in 1492 AD; 1666 AD was 7173/7174 from Adam). It also said the Pope was the predecessor of the Antichrist who would rule in Jerusalem...

In 1654, a devastating plague epidemic struck Russia, killing up to 800,000 people. In the middle of it, the solar eclipse of August 1654 happened, further proving the “end of the world” as nigh. Finally, the Great Comet of 1680 appeared in the skies, ... It stayed in the sky from November 1680 to February 1681. ... Even Patriarch Nikon himself later recalled the solar eclipse amidst the plague struck him cold to the marrow. People were convinced that the world was ending.

So the Zealots of Piety called for a rebirth of religious piety of the Russian public. They sought to correct church and civil life in Russia by establishing piety on the basis of strict adherence to church statutes and the decisions of the Stoglav Council of 1551.

Zealots of Piety members included:

• Stefan Vonifatiev- Archpriest of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Kremlin and Confessor to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich
• Nikon of Moscow- Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia
• Boris Ivanovich Morozov- Boyar
• Fyodor Rtishchev- Gentry man
• Simeon Potemkin- Gentry man
• Prince Alexei Mikhailovich Lvov- Head of the Printing Office
• Mikhail Rogov- Archpriest at the Archangel Cathedral
• Ivan Nasedka- Priest at the Dormition Cathedral
• Shestak Martemianov- Layman
• Ivan Neronov- Archpriest of the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow in 1649
• Avvakum Petrovich of Yurev- Archpriest
• Daniil of Temnikov- Archpriest
• Login of Murom- Archpriest
• Daniil of Kostroma- Archpriest

By the sounds of it, these guys actually ran Russia for a short period of time. But, by around 1653, Avvakum Petrovich, a self proclaimed zealot, and others began to oppose the reforms aggressively implemented by Nikon. His first banishment was to the historical capital of Siberia, Tobolsk. While there, he joined an exploration expedition under the local military governor Afanasii Pashkov to the Chinese border (Dauriya, Transbaikalia). Later, after he was banished a second time to Mezen, he was imprisoned at Pustozersk, north of the Arctic Circle, for 14 years writing most of his works, his most famous being Zhitiye (“Life”), said to be Russia’s first autobiography.

Avvakum appears to be the initiator of the 'Baptism by Fire' thesis here. And with so many log house deaths that makes me think of Jonestown and Heaven's gate, he seems to be a death cult leader.

Here is a photo from the Pustozersk wiki showing the memorial to Avvakum, said to be the place where he was 'baptised by fire' in a log house apparently against his will. Western articles say he was burned at the stake.


Now, moving away from the self-immolation business, this might be a bit of a stretch, but in a very long article (that I haven't read completely), (The Life Written by Himself: Archpriest Avvakum's Engagements with Kenoticism & Holy Foolishness Enabling Antithetical Inversions) Xenya Currie talks about Avvakum’s views of which I'm just going to focus on one:

Kenosis is a “uniquely Russian type of spirituality, centered on the humanity of Christ” (“Penitential Journey” 201). The idea of kenosis derives from the account, described in Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2:7, of how “Christ emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (New Revised Standard Version). That Christ emptied Himself for the sake of humanity constitutes His kenosis, and His death on the cross constitutes the fullest expression of His kenotic love of mankind. This kenotic self-emptying, in accordance with which Christ “ma[de] [H]imself ‘of no reputation’ [...] represented a deliberate debasement or loss of status, challenging the worldly notion of hierarchy” (“Penitential Journey” 202).

Literally, kenosis is ‘the act of emptying’.

It comes from the Greek κενόω (kenóō), meaning "to empty out". The Liddell–Scott Greek–English Lexicon gives the following definition simplified for the noun:

• emptying, depletion, emptiness (of life) (Vettius Valens)
• depletion, low diet, as opposed to plerosis, fullness (Hippocrates)
• waning (of the moon) (Epicurus)

This idea of “emptying” sounds very similar to the Bodhisattva Path of the Tibetan Buddhists:

The Bodhisattva path

• A central schema for spiritual advancement used in Tibetan Buddhism is that of the five paths (Skt. pañcamārga; Tib. lam nga) which are:[99]
• The path of accumulation – in which one collects wisdom and merit, generates bodhicitta, cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness and right effort (the "four abandonments").
• The path of preparation – Is attained when one reaches the union of calm abiding and higher insight meditations (see below) and one becomes familiar with emptiness.
• The path of seeing – one perceives emptiness directly, all thoughts of subject and object are overcome, one becomes an arya.
• The path of meditation – one removes subtler traces from one's mind and perfects one's understanding.
• The path of no more learning – which culminates in Buddhahood.

I can't help but think of the powerful monk described in Darkness who sits infront of the audience and allows himself to supposedly become possessed by a demon. I also remember some of the descriptions in Shamanism of initiates lying on graves to attract spirits. Ick!

As a side note, I ran into this other German guy from around the same time when I was searching on Avvakum. He also died, possibly by 'Baptism by Fire', in Russia.

Quirinus Kuhlmann (Feb. 1651 - Oct. 4, 1689)

• 1669 - Typhoid?
• 1669 - Kuhlmann states he experiences a prophetic vision of an illumination vision of Jesus Christ after reading Jakob Böhme’s Mysterium Magnum
• 1673 - converts to Chiliasm and Mysticism, proclaimed himself to be a millenniarist, a “son of the Son of God” and missionary to men of all faiths. He was apparently described as “a representative of one of the main movements of religious fanaticism”.
• He is unsuccessful in his attempts to find adherents to his ideals of religious union and utopianism in Eastern and Western Europe
• His poetry was written with the messianic goal of having the Protestant powers and the Ottomans join forces to destroy Catholic Europe, the House of Habsburg, and the Pope and establish the "Kingdom of Jesus”.
• Found to be theologically and politically dangerous, was arrested and imprisoned in Moscow where he was tortured. Found to be a heretic, he was burned at the stake (or burned in a log cabin? See here. The date of his death is different though.)

 

[Benjamin]

I came across a great article from Russia Beyond. It's an easy (and disturbing) read and only 10-15 mins of time.

I got this wrong. There was no 'death cult' or Samson protocol. The people who were burned in the 'log cabins' were plague victims.

 

[Tuatha de Danaan]

I came across a great article from Russia Beyond. It's an easy (and disturbing) read and only 10-15 mins of time.

Thank you for the articles which were very educational, but I missed where it says they were plague victims that were being burned. What have I missed?

 

[Voyageur]

Incidentally, the wiki page mentions that "According to Professor Herbert Novak, a longtime friend of Theodore Illion, the latter was born in Canada in a wealthy family descended from a branch of the British royalty, the Plantagenets."

Related to a possible home in Canada, which had been said was perhaps in Quebec, there is a Plantagenets township (more curious by name than anything) that was established between Montreal and Ottawa (near Hawkesbury) - of old, transitioning from Lower to Upper Canada.

From @Benjamin reference a statement:

Illion is one strange guy but it does seem that his eventual home was the 'Salzburg area', and when you read the tribute, you'll get it. His obituary says 'Prof." but I don't know if he was actually a tenured professor or anything like that. There is no mention of specific family except that they were Quebec aristocratics, though, to run away at the age of 12 to Japan, I would think, is a bit tough to do in 1910. 'Orphan' also comes to mind but... Idk. When I looked on Ancestry, I didn't find anything specific, but there are a lot of records for 'Illion' all over the world, even a (very) few in Quebec. The Plantagenets are mentioned in the last paragraph but I think it's a bit weak when one alludes to bear a remarkabe resemblance to Henry V.

Plantagenet North Twp. in historical PRESCOTT (-RUSSELL) Co.

Opened in 1798. the first land grant being made to Peter Lukin on July 10th, 1801.
Jesse E. Middleton, The Province of Ontario: a History: 1615-1927, published 1927

There seemed to be an amalgamation of the township which takes it closer to Ottawa.

In 1997, North Plantagenet Township was amalgamated into a two tier system with the Municipality of Alfred and Plantagenet (lower tier of government) and the United Counties of Prescott and Russell (upper tier of government). The former Township of North Plantagenet is comprised of the following villages and towns: Curran, Wendover, Treadwell, Pendleton, and a small portion of Plantagenet. The population is predominantly French-speaking, although most residents are bilingual. The study area is largely Franco-Ontarian and exhibits a sense of pride in being distinct from the French of Québec.
[...]
- small family farms gone, influx of German/Belgian/Swiss (huge farms) to the area

 

[Benjamin]

Thank you for the articles which were very educational, but I missed where it says they were plague victims that were being burned. What have I missed?

You didn't miss anything because nothing was mentioned. This is an interpretation of mine which, after calming down from my lament, may or may not be a factor.

This is the abstract from the article.

There were Russian people who chose death rather than give up their faith. The harsh tradition of collective suicides by fire was born among the Russian Old Believers in the 17th century and continued into the 19th century.

It then opens with a quote from Tolstoy's book Peter the First (found on page 487) to set the stage of these collective suicides. From the same book, I found this paragraph:

On p. 109:

The taxes levied for the Crimean campaign had impoverished everyone. It was said that for the second expedition people would be stripped of all they had. The towns and boroughs were becoming depopulated. The people fled in their thousands beyond the Ural Mountains, to the Pomorye, to the Volga or the Don. And the others, the Old Believers, were expecting Antichrist; some had actually seen him. Dissenting preachers were going from village to village urging people to burn themselves alive in barns and bath-houses, so that at least their souls might be saved. They shouted that the Tsar, the Patriarch and the entire clergy were emissaries of Antichrist. They shut themselves up in monasteries and fought the Tsar’s army which was sent to bring them back in irons. In the Paleostrov monastery the Old Believers had killed two hundred Streltsi and, when they could fight no more, had shut themselves up in the church and burnt themselves alive. Near Hvalinsk, in the hills, thirty dissenters barricaded them¬ selves with harrows in a barn, set fire to it and were also burnt alive. In the forests near Nizhni-Novgorod, too, people burnt themselves in log huts. On the Don, on the Medveditsa river, a runaway serf, Kuzma, called himself Pope, crossed himself at the sun and said ; “Our God is in heaven, for there is no God on earth any more; on earth there is now Antichrist: the Tsar of Moscow and the Patriarch and the boyars are his servants.” The Cossacks were rallying to this Pope and accepting his teaching. The whole of the Don country was mutinous.

And a supporting mention on p. 214:

“Shove hard, shove, push. . . !”
“Where are they all running?”
“To see a fellow being burnt.”
“Is it an execution?”
“Well, he didn’t ask for it.”
“There are people who burn themselves.”
“That’s for their faith: the Old Believers.”
“And what about this one?”
“He’s a foreigner.”
“Thank God, they’re dealing with them too at last!”
“It’s about time; the damned tobacco-smokers. They’ve grown fat on our sweat.”
“Look, it’s smoking already!”

Then there's this exchange on p. 470-471, where the story is told of a man named elder Nektary, who was blessed by Avvakum, travels around and administers these mass immolation suicides. Are some of the numbers of the dead coming from here?

“You see, I’ve been everywhere; all over the Vyga, lived for weeks in the Vyga hermitage. I know retreats that can be reached only by one path that you follow with fear. I can t find out where the elder Nektary is hiding. They conceal him and won’t tell. If you so much as mention him to any dissenter, he’ll fall silent and won’t speak even if you carved him to pieces. Yet it would be useful for your business to see him; he might let some two hundred young fellows go with you. Oh, he s a power!”

“What is he among them?” Alevey asked. “Is it something like a Patriarch?”

“He’s an elder. The Archpriest Avvakum blessed him in Pustozersk before his execution. Some twelve years ago he burnt two and a half thousand dissenters in the Paleostrov monastery. They came up to the monastery at night over the ice, broke down the gates, locked up the monks and the superior in the cellar, and broke open the storerooms. He gave everyone plenty of food and drink. They took the treasure. Then they washed the icons in the church with holy water, lit the candles and held a service after their own manner. There weren’t so many men with them, but lots of women and children. The governor came with Streltsi over the ice from Povenets. ‘Surrender!’ For three days the peasants threatened to fight, but the Streltsi had a cannon. So they dragged a lot of straw, tar and saltpetre into the church and in the night—it happened to be Christmas Eve— they burnt themselves to death. But Nektary got out, and some of the men with him. Three years later he burnt fifteen hundred people in Pudozhesk parish. Quite recently again there was burning in the woods near Lake Vol. They say it was he who did it. Now there are rumours of war, of recruiting for the army; there’ll be a big immolation soon, believe me. The people are rallying to him in great numbers.”

Alexey and the soldiers listened to him with wonder :

“To burn oneself to death voluntarily! Where do such people come from ?”

“It’s very simple,” Yakim said. “Serfs and peasants paying quit-rent, and bondsmen, flee to him from Novgorod and Tver, from Moscow and Vologda abandoning their homes and stock. These forests are strewn with human bones. Thousands come to the hermitages; how to feed them all? There’s no grain here. They begin to moan and waver. So, to put a stop to their needless sinning, Nektary sends them straight to heaven.”

‘‘You’re joking!”

“Alexey Ivanich, I never tell lies. There are even people who let themselves be buried alive. Over there, towards the White Sea, there’s a little old man who administers raisins as Holy Communion: when he puts a raisin into someone’s mouth, it means that he has given that person his blessing to lie down alive in a coffin.”

“Get along with your stories! And at night time too!"

On p. 25-26 Avvakum is quoted twice:

“Wait till I get my breath—I’ll call him back,” said Danila. “Oh, things are bad, my lads. Each year’s worse than the last. Children are getting out of hand, there’s no more of the old piety. The Tsar hasn’t paid our wages for two years. There’s nothing to eat. The Streltsi are threatening to set fire to Moscow on all four sides. There’s great unrest among the people. Soon there’ll be an end of us!”

The pockmarked, sharp-nosed scripture-reader, Foma Podshchipayev, said :

“The Nikonites* have broken the old faith, and by that faith” —he raised a finger—“the country lived. There is no new faith. The children are born in sin; even if you beat them to death, what of it? There’s no soul in them. They are the children of this age. ... Nikonites. A flock without a shepherd, a prey for the devil. Archpriest Avvakum^ wrote : ‘You, Nikonite, strive to lead astray Christ’s followers and deliver them, along with yourself, to your father, the devil.' To the devil!” He raised his finger again. “And further : ‘Who are you, you Nikonite? You are dirt, you stink, you are a filthy cur’.”

“Curs!” Danila exclaimed, thumping the table.

“The Nikonite priests and archpriests go about in silken cassocks and their cheeks are bursting with fat, the accursed dogsI” the priest Filka joined in.

Foma waited until they had finished cursing and went on :

“And about this, too, Archpriest Avvakum has written: ‘My friend Ilarion, Archbishop of Riazan! Remember how Melchisedek lived in the thickets of Mount Tabor. He ate the shoots of trees and for drink licked the dew from the leaves. He was a true priest: he sought not after Rhenish and sweet wines, or vodka and strained wines, or beer with cardamoms. My friend Ilarion, Archbishop of Riazan! Observe how Melchisedek lived. He did not seek pleasure riding in carriages drawn by fine horses. And he was of royal blood. But who are you, priestling? Yet you take your seat in your carriage, swelling like a bladder on the water. You loll on cushions, your hair combed like a girl’s, arid you drive along exhibiting your face in the public square to win the love of faithless nuns. Oh, poor fellow! It is clear that Satan has blinded you. And you have never seen and do not know the meaning of the spiritual life!’ ”

The priest Filka closed his eyes and his cheeks shook with laughter. Danila poured out more liquor. They drank.

“The Streltsi are already tearing up the Nikonite books and scattering them to the winds,” he said. “May God grant that the Streltsi rise for the defence of the old faith.”

• Term used by the Old Believers to designate those who accepted the reforms of Patriarch Nikon.
^ Leader of the Old Believers.

Then there is another third-party quote from Avvakum on p. 476:

Audrey’s frozen feet ached on the hot stones; hunger made him dizzy. He lay on his stomach, gnawing the coverlet under him with his teeth. To stop himself from screaming he kept repeating to himself a quotation from Avvakum: “Man is pus and excrement. It is good for me to live with dogs and pigs; they stink in the same way as my soul stinks, with a foul stench. I stink because of my sins, like a dead dog.”

Now, this is a work of historical fiction, so I don't know it's accuracy.

I took another look at the Old Believers wiki. The group seems to be divided into two classes, priested and priestless. Within those classes are many sub-sects. One sect of the priestless class is known as the Fillippians, named after an elder named Philip (Photii (Fotii?) Vasiliev (Фотий Васильев), 1672-1742). He was a monk with a priestless class in the Vygoretskaya (Vygovski) monastery. (I'm not sure where this monastery was located exactly (it was destroyed in 1885 by Nicholas I) but was somewhere along the Vyg River in Karelia. (Выгореция) He became fed up and split away from this order and created his own.

Soon many like-minded people gathered around him. The Vygovites, having learned of the newly formed crowd, began to call Philip back to themselves, but he did not agree; then they came upon him "with an army"; not wishing to surrender alive, Philip and seventy of his followers burned themselves before the eyes of those who came. This was on October 14, 1742. From that time suicide, in various forms, came to be regarded by the Philipists as a means of keeping the faith intact.

Apparently Philip's group further fractured into smaller sects later on. So, I guess there was a 'death cult', of sorts, centred around this Fotii Vasiliev guy rather then Avvakum. But the above article and book lead me to think this was a practice that was across the Old Believer board when it was just one small sect. Also the date of the 'first occurrence' is later then the death of Avvakum (1682). So could some/all the previous deaths actually be executions? Or burning plague victims? I'm not sure. But let me add something else here.

Before I looked into the Old Believer stuff, originally I was searching for folklore tales on the Chud, as mentioned in Keit's post:

And again it is about the unknown underground kingdom, about how the Chud went underground, not willing to submit to the White King who came to Altai with a war.

The reason I chose to search for the Chud first was because (and this is a bit weird) for about a month before I read that, I had been looking for an old movie from the 80's which scared the crap out of me... I think. The thing is, I can't remember seeing it. I think I did but... So, I wanted to find that movie (working on locating past trauma points) but had no success other then to buy it, which I did. It's a low-budget horror from 1984, set in New York City called C.H.U.D., and has since gained cult-status for it being one of the better B-movies. The title is an acronym for 'Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal', but had a second acronym created by fans: 'Cannibalistic Human Underground Dweller". So, when I read "Chud went underground" I thought it was a bizarre coincidence.

Anyway, my search into finding Chud folklore resulted in an article published in The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. XII, No. 2 from 1968 titled, Legends of the Chuds and Pans, by Felix J. Oinas of Indiana University.

The real and, now, archaic term 'Chud' has been applied to Balto-Finnic peoples generally and could possibly be specifically applied to Votes, Vepsians (Bjarmians) and/or Karelians. It's a bit of an unknown who they were but the term is focused to people living in the northwestern part of Russia though they may have moved into Russia and Siberia since there are legends saying they are the aboriginal people of the land before the Russians and Tungus moved in. The earliest attestation of their existence is in 859 where a group called 'Chuds' (Ĉjudi) are paying tribute to the Varangians.

In the opening paragraph, Felix begins:

In Northern Russia there are several popular sayings about Chuds: "Chuds went into the earth," "Chuds buried themselves alive," "Chuds perished under the earth."(1) They come from legends known in North Russia and Siberia about the Chuds' destruction under the earth, caused either by themselves or by their conquerors. The Chuds in these legends are sometimes replaced by Lapps, Mordvins, "pans," and Barguts. In those Lapp legends, it is the Chuds who oppress the Lapps. Sometimes those persecuted do not perish, but merely leave their native areas. In the legends the birch tree may either function as a signal of impending danger or may treacherously lead the attackers to the hiding places of their victims. Several types of these legends exist.

This is one of several stories recorded with the 'birch tree variant'.

In parts of Siberia, the legends are connected with the appearence of a white birch or another omen which predicts the arrival of the white tsar or some new people. In Tjumen district, West Siberia, Chuds are said to have been the ancient nation who lived on the slopes of hills but disappeared at the arrival of the Russians. They were small, just half the height of the Russians. They lived in mud huts, but must have been rich, since bits of dishes of silver and copper have later been found by Russian peasents in these areas. "In those times only a coniferous forest grew here; deciduous woods and especially birch trees were completely unknown. In time the white tree - birch - appeared in the forests, and the Chuds began pondering the significance of this unprecedented phenomenon. Upon deliberation, they decided that the white tsar had appeared and would take possession of the places, just as the white tree was spreading its dominion in the forest. The Chuds became horrified over this situation and decided it would be better to die by their own hands than to receive death at the hands of the foreign newcomers. On the same day all the Chud families gathered into their mud huts. They took their belongings and treasures and cut down the pillars - the roof fell in and crushed the savages. Thus the Chuds ended their existence."(12) P.A. Gorodcov points out that the legend has an enormous distribution in Tobl'sk province and is known in almost every village.

This version has an element of trickery to it that made me think of a Trojan Horse story.

This legend, with a strong religeous bent, has been recorded even to the east of the Ural mountains as early as 1715: "For formerly there lived here down the Ob river and in all this region the Chud (Čjutckij) people. But they perished so that they left no memory of themselves; only some big pits have remained as signs of their destruction, which are to be found in these areas of the Siberian empire. They were led to this destruction by the devil, the murderer of men since the beginning, for he made them blindly believe that a feast with some gods had been prepared for them in the other world. Those who wished it, darkened with the pride of their hearts, made some extensive pits for themselves. Above them they put a roofing on poles and on it much dirt and stones. And when the pride of their hearts induced them to settle in the other world and to hasten to feast shamelessly with the multitude of gods, they, gathering their possessions, household, and children, all went into these pits and cut the pillars. They were killed by dirt and stones and went down by a dark road to pitch darkness and to eternal torture instead of a feast."(10)

This one has a very 'Exodus' feel about it.

A special type of legend ... is found among the Mordvins, a Finno-Ugric nation living around the middle course of the Volga. It appears as part of a song reflecting the Mordvins' flight before the Russians.

The Mordvin song, of which there are numerous variants,(18) tells that the people elect a rich peasent, Tjuštan' (t'ušt'an'), as their ruler.(19) Following the occurrence of a miracle (a staff stuck into the earth begins to grow), Tjuštan' consents to becoming the tsar. Tjuštan' rules the people in a valley between two mountains. At first their life is safe: "On the earth there is no birch tree, / Among the people there is no Russian." But then "Tjuštan' hears that a birch tree has grown, / That a birch tree has grown, that a Russian is born. / Tjuštan' thinks to leave the land."(20) Tjuštan' travels around his land summoning the people to follow him and to go to the other side of the sea. The song ends with the sea forming two walls.

Towards the end, 'giants' get a mention:

The term "pan" has acquired in Jaroslav province a mythological meaning: "Paný. The legend calls by this name those mythical heroes or giants who lived in forts and had a hostile attitude toward the population. The last pan, according to legend, was killed in Dem'janov village, near Pečegodsk fort."(63) In the Northwestern province of tsarist Russia, pan means "devil in German clothes."(64)

The semantic development of the term pan is not unexpected. The terms for partisans and robbers (the role of the "pans" often had in Russia) tend to be applied also to mythical beings; cf. Russ. šiš 'partisan, brigand, thief,' which together with its derivatives, has in Russia widely mythological meanings: šiš 'house spirit, evil spirit, devil,' šiško 'evil spirit,' šišiga 'house spirit, devil, evil spirit,' šišigan id. (65) The tendency toward mythologizing is noticeable also in the names of foreign nationalities. Thus, Russ. žid 'Jew' has become židi 'forest spirits' and žid 'devil' in Kolyma. (66) Polish chochlik 'devil' is connected with the nickname for Ukrainians (cf. Russ. xoxol). According to Kurt Lück, the devil can appear as a German, an Englishman, a Jew, or a Pole.(67)

At the beginning of the article, a story is recounted:

"Already at that time the Chuds had so frightened the Lapps that they had deliberated [how to find] places of saftey from the Chuds. And then they build huts under the earth. First a pit was found in which a hut was built, and above the hut a level roof [was made]. On it were pieces of turf, so that it looked like the surface of the ground. ... In the pit grew a big birch, a real big one. To the birch was fastened a kind of 'leather mill' (speãrkku). The mistress was sewing leather leggings and began to soften the hides. She took a hide and began drawing it around the instrument for softening. Well, the birch began moving, the top of the birth [that was] there. The Chuds happen to be near at the time. When they noticed that the birch was moving, they thought there must be something there, since the tree was moving and it was otherwise calm. Thus they began to investigate and saw that there was a human habitation there. And they killed all the Lapps who were in the hut."(3)

I'm not sure, but I vaguely remember a children's fairytale (from Scandanavia maybe?) of children having to be very quiet otherwise the giants would find them and eat them, or something like that.

The Chud legends, wether it be from north Russia or east or west Siberia, have one element in common, that being the Chuds taking their families and belongings into a pit with a roof of dirt and stones on top supported by pillars which are then collapsed bringing the roof down on top of themselves alluding to their deaths. This sounds very simiar to the 1600/1700's 'log cabin' suicides practiced by the Old Believers, only without the fire. This makes me wonder if the stories of these 'Baptisms by Fire' actually happened the way we're told they did.

I've uploaded the 14 page pdf if you want to read the whole thing. There's more in there but the text is not searchable.

 

[Tuatha de Danaan]

This is an interpretation of mine which, after calming down from my lament, may or may not be a factor.

Thank for your reply Benjamin. What a mix of tales told, I suppose, by traumatised people for one reason or another.

The Chuds are an example. In some stories they are referred as outsiders, any outsiders. In others they are frightened by outsiders and bury themselves. We can call them ignorant and superstitious but life must have been bordering on insane if you found yourself born into those wild harsh wildernesses. With no education or idea of what was over the next hill must have scared them witless with climate cold damp and grey.

Going through the Little Ice Age at that time at such latitudes must have caused cases of insanity in many instances especially of the religious kind.

Just random thoughts I always get when I read such articles as I seem to have an affinity with these bleak landscapes. maybe I experienced something similar in a previous life. Thoroughly enjoyed reading and thank you again.