In the embroideries and weaving on canvas have survived
the most numerous and the most characteristic
remnants of national Russian artistry.
V. Stasov.
Ornamental prayers of the people
can only be properly understood through a thorough
study of the ideas underlying them.
V. Kharuzina.
Smolensk Province – this transit center, where the sources of three major rivers of the great Russian plain, the Dnieper, Western Dvina, and Volga converge, has historically, even in the deepest prehistoric times, been a place of movement for many tribes and peoples, some of whom settled here, or to a lesser extent, brought something “of their own,” original. Later, during historical times, the same Smolensk Province constantly experienced influences from Lithuania and Poland, and through them, the more distant West; the influence of the culture of already established northern Russian regions – Pskov, Novgorod, later Moscow, even Ryazan and Suzdal. The influence of Ukraine was also significant.
All these influences remain most vividly expressed in monuments of language, topographical nomenclature, as well as in visual and monumental art, and in the latter, of course, according to the peculiarities of ancient Rus, predominantly in ecclesiastical, but partly also in civil architecture.
The influence of the Polovtsians and Tatars, although the weakest, should still be considered existing, preserved only in local place names (the Polovetskiy area, the village of Bonokovo, the Kumovaya Yama; several Tatarshchinas, Ordyn, Baskakovo, Basurmanovo, Batyievo, Mamaevo, Kasimovo, Murzino, Tilyaluy, and some others).
Of course, all these influences, both in later and earlier times, were distributed far from evenly across the entire area of the province: in one part, some predominated, in another – others, which created a peculiar character of the districts, expressed mainly in their division into Belarusian and Great Russian districts, as it is commonly referred to, but in essence, only those closer to Belarus or to Great Russia.
The earliest, prehistoric influences create not only effects like the later ones but are the basis of the primary culture of Smolensk.
Such a basis should be considered to include elements: Sarmatian[1], ancient Lithuanian, Finnish, and finally, Slavic, which assimilated and cemented all the mentioned nationalities into one conglomerate.
Among the influences should be included: Khazar-Arab and Scandinavian, which we observe among burial mounds, especially in the great Gnezdovo burial ground near Smolensk.
Then – Gothic, slipping into the style of some burial mound items and in the so-called “kubray” language of the Drahobuzh merchants, which they still use today, wishing to remain misunderstood; finally, the Byzantine influence, which is partly reflected in the items of later burial mounds and funerary deposits, but especially – in ecclesiastical architecture of the 12th century, samples of which, preserved more or less intact, we have in the city of Smolensk in the churches – Svirskaya, Petropavlovskaya, and Ioanno-Bogoslovskaya.
As for the basic elements that served as the material for the entire local culture, we find them in geographical nomenclature, in language and archaeological objects obtained from settlements, burial grounds, and burial mounds, and finally in local art, especially in that branch which in folk speech is called “ukras,” i.e., decorations or ornaments, which everywhere and always are the most stable form of figurative art, transmitting ancient artistic traditions from generation to generation over countless centuries and only very sparingly absorbing later influences.
“In the embroideries and weaving on canvas have survived the most numerous, the most original, and the most characteristic remnants of national Russian artistry,” says V. V. Stasov[2].
Despite the fact that Smolensk Province has historically been a forest province, it cannot boast of wooden decorations, at least not in the wealth, diversity, and artistry that we find in the northern provinces, where not only household utensils but also temples, huts, and ships were usually covered with carvings.
In our locality, all ornamental folk creativity has expressed itself precisely in sewn and woven “ukras,” which thus are, although the only, yet very abundant and characteristic material, the study of which presents enormous interest.
When starting this study, it is first necessary to agree on what ornament actually represents and what its significance and purpose are. Summarizing in a few words the definition of the essence of ornament, it seems that this can be done as follows: “ornament is a rhythmic combination of graphic signs, lines, or figures, however they may be reproduced.”
However, all these definitions relate only to the external existence of the ornament. It is also necessary to clarify its internal essence.
Most scholars tend to rightly see in ornamental manifestations of human creativity not only decorations reproduced for the pleasure of the eye, so to speak, but mainly known symbols, magical signs, as well as stylized reproductions of totemic or sacred objects and representations.
“Ornamental motifs of the people,” says V. N. Kharuzina[3], “can only be properly understood through a thorough study of the ideas underlying them.”
The ornament of the Smolensk region, reproduced in weaving and embroidery, and serving mainly to decorate clothing: shirts, headscarves, shawls, capes, belts, sashes, towels, whether woven, embroidered, sewn, or attached, bears the characteristic local name “ukrasy.”
This word is now gradually disappearing and is used only by very old women, which, of course, indicates its archaic nature.
All “ukrasy” must be classified as linear or geometric ornamentation. If among them there is a plant ornament, it is, comparatively, only a later borrowing, apparently penetrating from Ukraine.
Characteristic features of local “ukrasy” include: 1) absolute “duality,” i.e. not only a certain purity of the reverse side but its complete identity with the front – a requirement that has even passed to later cross-stitch embroidery and is characterized by the designation “on both sides.” 2) Every pattern is composed of separate independent “figures,” the repetition, combination, and symmetrical arrangement of which create the ornament itself. 3) The complete incrustation of the pattern, wherein the “earth” (i.e. background) is meaningfully filled and gives independent figures just like the pattern itself. All these characteristic features are lost as soon as it falls into the hands of outsiders: the pattern remains the same, but inevitably some changes and additions appear, as a result of which the “earth” can no longer provide independent figures and turns into a shapeless background[4]. Table XXIX*, fig. 19, 27.*
Such an understanding, or rather misunderstanding, of the pattern should be considered its decline. That is why one cannot agree with V. V. Stasov[5], who, for some reason, considers Russian ornament to be borrowed from Finnish tribes. It should, however, be presumed just the opposite.
“Do we have the right to assert,” says Stasov, “that the designs of our embroideries were purely of Russian origin and that they arose on our native soil? No, we do not have that right, even if we take into account only those items on which they are found. There are no purely Russian garments at all,” he states, and then describes the cut and lists the names of garments such as: “kaftan,” “zipun,” “armyak,” “saree,” “kika,” and dismisses, however, purely Russian names like “nasovka,” “rubakha,” “zarukavnik,” and many others.
“Moving on to the consideration of the patterns themselves,” continues Stasov, “we immediately notice that there is nothing independent in them, because all the main components exist among known nationalities of Asian origin, who have possessed them for many centuries and, of course, could not have borrowed them from the Russians.”
Here Stasov evidently forgets one of the fundamental laws of culture, that there is no people that has not borrowed something, and sometimes a lot, from others, but the individuality of each national art consists precisely in the fact that a gifted people processes all these borrowed forms and creates from them its own, already completely independent.
“Oriental patterns, with which ours have the most affinity, are divided into two main groups: Finnish patterns and Persian patterns,” says Stasov.
Regarding Finnish patterns, or rather Finnish influence, it has already been mentioned above, and in general, the very influence on Finnish patterns should be derived as much from Russian as from the same eastern source, which indeed is predominant in Russian patterns in general and in the “ukras” of the Smolensk region in particular.
Thus, the closeness of Finnish and Russian patterns is explained by the influence on both of the same primary source, and not by borrowing by Russians from Finns. As for the elements that are indeed very strongly expressed in Russian patterns and are of Iranian origin, they should not be considered as something foreign precisely because the Russian people, or rather “Russian Slavs,” are called “Russian” or “eastern” because they themselves, by their nature, consist of Slavs merged with Iranian tribes, mainly Sarmatians and Alans.
In turn, the Belarusians, who make up the predominant ethnic element of Smolensk Province, are the purest such mixture, i.e. without subsequent additions of Finnish and Tatar blood, which is very abundant among Great Russians.
Thus, Tatar influences are completely absent here, while Finnish ones are only weakly expressed, except in the southeastern part of the province, especially in Yukhnovsky District, where not only “ukrasy,” but also clothing bears the imprint of the Finnish tribes that once firmly resided there.
All “ukrasy” of the Smolensk region, both sewn and woven, can be classified into the following main types:
Circular.
Hooked.
Fingered.
Lobed.
Crossed.
The main figure is the “diamond,” invariably bearing the name “circle,” various combinations and modifications of which constitute the vast majority of patterns. In the last four types, transitions from one to another can be observed, but at the same time, all of them have a transition to “circular,” so that graphically they can also be depicted in the form of a radiating circle.
The most interesting and significant aspect of the study of “ukras” is their elements, i.e. those separate figures from which, as already mentioned, they are composed.
The study of these elements, firstly, leads us to the primary source, secondly, indisputably and visually confirms the position expressed by many scholars that all primary ornaments are symbols of purely religious or closely related meanings – totemic, magical, prophylactic, etc. Only later do they lose their original meaning and become merely decorative patterns.
The primary source of any ornament and of visual art in general is considered by naturalists to be “the play of technique,” i.e., the pleasure experienced in repeating a successful, purely technical action. Such is, for example, the view of physiologist Ferworn[6].
He divides primitive art into physioplastic and ideoplastic. The former conveys – visible objects, as we now call it naturalistically, in the form in which they are. Such was the art of the Paleolithic or ancient stone period, which astonishes us with its abundance and certain perfection.
The subsequent Neolithic era, i.e. the new stone age, gives already ideoplastic art, i.e. derived from human conceptual representations of objects. This process is depicted by Dr. Ferworn as follows[7]. “Primitive art is all the more physioplastic the stronger the sensory perception, and all the more ideoplastic the more vividly the abstracting, theorizing life of representations manifests itself. The first powerful impetus to the development of the theorizing life of representations was given in prehistoric times by the concept of the idea of the soul. The religious representations arising from this idea provided, in turn, the general prerequisites for the emergence of ideoplastic art.”
Thus, the source for explaining our “ukras” should be the time of this ideoplastic art, i.e. the new stone age; where we can already trace the beginnings of all those elements that we see in our “ukras” as well as their current flourishing in the last copper-bronze age.
When starting to study the elements of our “ukras,” it should be noted that their basis is the circle, which not only heads but seems to draw in all other elements and, in this case, is not a disk, as we now understand a circle, but a diamond.
Such a transformation of the circle – disk into a circle – diamond occurred, undoubtedly, according to the conditions of technique, due to one of the fundamental laws of culture, that the art and technique of each people are entirely dependent on the material available to the people under given conditions and in a given locality.
The material for “ukras,” in our case, has historically been canvas, which consists, as is known, of threads intersecting at right angles, which, following their direction, allow reproducing only geometric patterns. The oldest method of sewing, as far as we have been able to trace, was prodrzhka, i.e. the removal of certain threads and the covering of the remaining ones with others, predominantly in red, which is called “povodka.” “The threads are laid in red.”
Alongside this, the oldest embroidery consists of passing, sewing colored thread between the white threads of the canvas, and finally, even later cross-stitching (without canvas, counting threads) allows for the depiction of only geometric elements. Thus, the “circle,” i.e. the concept of a space limited in a certain way, could be depicted by two figures: a square and a diamond. But in our “ukras,” while diamond elements constitute the overwhelming majority, “squares” are extremely rare, almost unique, and are called “okoshki.” Table XXVIII, fig. 11, 23[8].
In view of this, the diamond figure in this case should be recognized as equivalent, i.e. equal to the circle-disk, which follows from the very name – “circle.”
The replacement of the disk with nothing other than a diamond can also be indicated in the oldest Caucasian cultures, whose Iranian elements are particularly close to ours. There, in Ossetian cemeteries, in the form of monuments, as well as at crossroads in memory of the deceased or those who died outside the territory, stone hewn pillars called “tsyrt-tseveny” are erected Table XXX*, fig. 3.* They are an extremely schematic representation of a human figure, the head of which is expressed as a flat disk attached to a very short neck to the shoulders of the torso, in the form of a flat pillar driven into the ground.
These board-like heads of tsyrt-tseveny are usually decorated with rosettes or radiating stars, which already in the oldest cultures of the East are emblems of the sun god – Shamash among the Babylonians, Ra among the Egyptians, Assur among the Iranians. “In tsyrt-tseveny,” says P. S. Uvarova, “the face of the deceased is replaced by the solar disk”[9].
Alongside this, on a leather pouch found by Uvarova in Komunt, in one of the oldest Caucasian burial grounds, the usually disk-shaped form of the head is replaced by a diamond[10]. Table XXX*, fig. 4.* Here we actually have, due to the very technical conditions, the replacement of the disk of the head with a diamond. The same should have happened regarding the disk – the sun.
Due to this, diamond stamps, often found alongside circular ones on the bottoms of burial urns, for example, from the Gnezdovo burial ground (table XXXI*, fig. 4, 6)*, should be considered alongside circles as symbols of the sun.
We also have information that in the oldest Egyptian graves with burials of curled skeletons, clay boxes were found containing plates of schist in the shape of elephants, fish, ostriches, and diamonds.
By analogy and all probability, considering these items placed with the deceased as images of “totems,” it can be assumed that here too the diamond was a symbol and most likely of the sun[11].
Based on the above, it follows that the “circle” of our “ukras,” depicted due to technical conditions in the form of a diamond, is nothing other than a symbol of the god – the Sun.
It should be assumed that the circle, certainly in the form of a disk, has been, since ancient times, precisely from the era of ideoplastic art, exclusively a symbol of the sun, for in nature, apart from the sun, a person could see nowhere a correctly constructed circle. Even the moon, with its phases, disrupted its unchanging existence, while only the sun, both at its zenith and in the halo of its rays, as well as on the horizon, always unchangingly preserved the correctly disk-shaped form of a circle. But why did a person, for the sake of technical necessity, replace the circle – disk with another geometric figure, depicting precisely a diamond, and not a square?
We currently have no specific data to answer, but it seems that a figure limited on four sides with right angles, which is a square and a cube in human representation, was something heavy, necessarily resting on one of its flat surfaces on something material, while a diamond, also a square-limited figure, but set on its corner, gave the impression of something lighter, as if not requiring a material surface for its support, and therefore corresponded more to the symbol of the sun, floating in the boundless ocean of the sky.
Another clear proof that the diamond figure is a fiery symbol is found in the Sumerian ideogram for “fire.”
Moreover, a factual confirmation of the above can be provided by a towel of local (Smolensk) work in the Smolensk State Historical and Ethnographic Museum, where almost three human figures, apparently solar gods, are depicted, with the middle head not being round, but rhomboidal, illuminated by hooked rays; while the heads of the other two are completely diamond-shaped and also illuminated by rays, Table XXX*, fig. 1*.
In Vyazemsky District, where the collection was predominantly gathered, records of the ancient names of patterns have mostly been lost. It was difficult to restore some of them. It should be noted that all patterns are decisively performed by heart and borrowed by embroiderers or weavers from each other, which is why they are sometimes named after the village from which they were obtained, for example, “pattern of Gorodishchenskaya,” or “pattern of Zhukovshchina,” etc.
The best and most characteristic names have been preserved in Dukhovshchinsky District, where completely identical patterns are observed, and therefore they have to be predominantly applied. Some individual figures, whose names could not be established, had to be given new names corresponding to their shapes, necessary for their designation.
The most widespread patterns are “circular,” which are divided into “large circles” (table XXVIII*, fig. 13*) and “small circles.” Table XXVIII*, fig. 20.* Both large and small, apart from being independent figures, very often serve as outlines for other figures, as if absorbing them, serving as a banner. Table XXVIII, fig. 5, 15, 19.
The same circles, filling edge gaps, appear in the form of halves, i.e. actually triangles, and this form bears the characteristic name “raskovka,” which often becomes a completely independent pattern, alternating triangles set on the corner with triangles set on the edge. Table XXVIII*, fig. 3, 22*.
Such a “raskovka,” alongside the diamond, is found on many burial mound antiquities: bracelets, earrings, lobed rings (lobed), pendants (brektyats), even beads.
Moreover, most of all diamond varieties are found in Eastern and mainly Persian ornamentation[12].
“Large circles” are usually composed of several, nested within each other, all decreasing diamonds. Table XXVIII*, fig. 13.* Sometimes diamonds are divided by solid or already composed of “shashki”[13], or “lepeshki”[14] by oblique crosses. U. t., fig. 19.
Sometimes diamonds only touch U. t. fig. 10, sometimes they overlap each other. U. t. fig. 5, 16[15].
“Large circles” are occasionally jagged and stepped. U. t. fig. 19. Moreover, “large circles” very often have “marks” on the outer side and then they are called “gribenkas.” U. t. fig. 6. With double marks on both the outer and inner sides, they are called “double gribenkas,” in Dukhovshchinsky, “kolotovki.” U. t., fig. 21. A special name is given to a circle with a larger or smaller (from one to four) number of external marks, wherein the end marks, i.e. those at the corners, are connected by triangular overlaps, which gives a link, again of diamond shape. Such figures are called “gorodok.” U. t. fig. 9, 10.
A very close analogy to “gorodok” can be indicated in the ornament of one pendant found by Glazov in the Gdov burial mounds[16], which A. A. Spitsin dates to the 11th century. Table XXXI*, fig. 2.* Considering it merely an imitation of coins, which were prototypes of round pendants. Probably, this extremely widespread linked “circle” (diamond) with rays – marks was some special symbol, the meaning of which remains unsolved[17].
Among the varieties of “small circles,” it is necessary to mention: 1) “small circles,” having one long mark on each side. They can be called circles with four rays. Table XXIX*, fig. 33, Table* XXVIII fig. 8, Table XXXI*, fig. 9, 12.* 2) “Small circles,” having two leaf-like protrusions at each corner, which already brings them closer to lobed patterns. Such circles in Dukhovshchinsky are called “kucheryavy,” i.e. curly. Table XXIX, fig. 3.
There are significantly fewer varieties of “hooked” patterns than circular ones.
Among them, the most common are “staples,” straight and bent in the form of the Slavic zelo. U. t. fig. 32. Table XXVIII*, fig. 12, 4* (stylized horse heads). Table XXXI*, fig. 7.* This pattern is very often found in the ornamentation of Finnish tribes and generally in the North.
Next come “froglets,” simple and “twisted,” which consist of a combination of a staple and a circle Table XXVIII*, fig. 14*.
Sometimes staples are “gribenkati,” i.e. with inner and outer marks. An interesting figure is “sechki,” usually connected with a circle. They closely resemble those iron pendants of Gnezdovo grivnas, which V. I. Sizov, due to their similarity, calls “Thor’s hammer”[18] Table XXIX*, fig. 31, 7. Table* XXXI*, fig. 10.* Hooked patterns also include “kliny,” or (in Dukhovshchinsky) “kolyuki,” “vyuny,” and “kozyulki.” U. t. fig. 17. The “kolyuki” pattern consists of a series of broken lines entering one into another. Essentially, this is a half-pattern or “raskovka” of continuous diamonds. Such “muses in three postizha” (i.e. in three stripes) – this is the easiest pattern to execute, which is why precisely on it girls learn “shviva.” It is mainly found in narrow ends, but reaches even very wide ones. Sometimes simple “kolyuki” are transformed into gribenevy, i.e. with marks, sometimes into hooked, i.e. with bent marks. This pattern is extremely complex, and therefore almost always “rebellious” (with errors) in execution.
Particularly outstanding interest is represented by types of hooked figures already known in the oldest cultures of the East under the name of “swastikas.”
The swastika represents a figure of a cross with bent ends – “crux gammata,” i.e. a glagolitic cross of Christian times.
Swastika – an ancient Indo word meaning good wishes. In the “Vedas,” it was used either in the meaning of the noun “bliss” or in the meaning of the adverb “health.” According to some scholars, the form of the sign originated from two pieces of wood laid crosswise, with the help of which sacred fire was obtained. According to others, it is a stylized depiction of flying birds, then an emblem of spring, and further – an emblem of the sun and fire. Among the ancient Indians, the swastika was considered an emblem of the god of fire – Agni. Images of the swastika have been found on a golden crown discovered in the sarcophagus of the Egyptian princess Khnumit, belonging to the 3rd or 4th dynasty, which ruled at the end of the 4th millennium BC[19]. It is also found in the oldest layers of Troy.
An interesting connection between the swastika sign and the depiction of a flying bird is found among the items of the Mezinskaya Neolithic settlement, where a bird carved from bone is entirely covered with swastika figures, intertwining with each other and forming an extremely beautiful patterned net[20].
Nevertheless, it should be assumed that originally the swastika sign was an emblem of fire and precisely of lightning, while the flying bird, in turn, was a symbol of the same lightning, which it resembled with the swiftness of its flight in the heavenly heights. If the swastika sign depicted only those wooden sticks, laid crosswise, from which fire was obtained, then why give them bends? Meanwhile, it is precisely these bends, turned in different directions, that most closely convey the broken line of lightning; when laid crosswise on each other, they form, although not a closed, but still a diamond-shaped figure, undoubtedly a symbol of fire – the sun.
The swastika appears in patterns not too often and mainly in “cutouts,” while in “perforations,” both sewn and woven, very rarely. It is mainly executed in wide patterns, but it is always inscribed in a diamond: smooth, “gribenkati” (table XXVII*, fig. 5, 15, 16*), even a special type of “hooked” with swastika-like marks. U. t. fig. 4. All this, again, directly merges with the circle – the sun.
The sign itself is depicted quite diversely. 1) In the form of a simple cross with bends. U. t. fig. 4, 24. 2) In the form of a cross with double bends, forming a diamond in the middle. U. t. fig. 7-16. (Such a swastika can conveniently be called complex). 3) In the form of a simple cross with double bends and also hooked marks. (u. t. fig. 17, 7-5) and straight marks. Table XXX*, fig. 6.* (Such a swastika must be called complicated). 4) Finally, the swastika is “split,” wherein the middle forms a diamond, and the bends remain only at one end of the four crossbars or “fingers,” while each opposite end of the finger has no bend. U. t. fig. 7, -15. This last form suggests that one of the most widespread patterns, not only of “cutouts” but also of “perforations,” called “double diagonal cross,” or “baranchik,” is a split swastika that has lost its bends.
This thought is further confirmed by the fact that in Dukhovshchinsky patterns, in many respects, apart from the selection of colors, similar to Vyazemsky, the “baranchik” appears on knitted caps and is called “khrest,” while the split swastika is called “zavivasty khrest.” Likewise, the “baranchik,” already relating to finger patterns, sometimes appears at the top and bottom as “zavivasty,” which also brings it closer to the “split” swastika. Table XXIX*, fig. 5, B.* Sometimes in the intervals between the fingers of the “baranchik,” “lepeshki” (tiny diamonds) are placed, which at times merge with the finger of the baranchik, resulting in a pattern very close to the split swastika. This, so to speak, “transitional” pattern gives the right to see in the baranchik a modified swastika that has lost its bend. On the other hand, precisely the “baranchik,” in the form of two crossbars laid on a cross, most likely symbolizes those sticks that were used to obtain sacred fire.
Apart from the Dukhovshchinsky name “zavivasty khrest,” no other name for the swastika figure has yet been traced, and its meaning, apparently, like the name, has been lost.
Unfortunately, it has not been possible to determine whether there were any specific patterns or figures accompanying certain ritual actions, for example, at weddings, funerals, and offerings (ex voto) in chapels and churches – these remnants of pagan offerings to wells, springs, trees, etc. We only know that towels, which were mainly “nabiralis”[21] with sewn and woven “ukras,” have been and even to this day are items of a cultic nature and, as an undeniable legacy of pre-Christian beliefs, have become an essential attribute of altars, icons, and generally the “red corner.”
“Fingered” patterns are the least numerous of all. These are “simple baranchik,” “twisted,” “Tula,” and “curly” and “fingers.”
The pattern “fingers” or “in fingers” is again included in a diamond, in the middle of which, parallel to all four sides, stripes of three run, and then it is called in 12 fingers, four – in 16 fingers.
The simple and “twisted” baranchik has been discussed in connection with the swastika. V. V. Stasov[22], as is his custom, derives this figure from eastern Finns. Meanwhile, we can trace it among the Iranians, mainly, and also in all Eastern cultures, even to Japan.
The “baranchik” in its variations often merges with other patterns, creating transitional forms. For example, the “double baranchik” (“Tula” Table XXIX*, fig. 30, 7. Table* XXXI*, fig. 5*), forms a linked diamond with fingers (“otmerami”) in its middle and thus approaches the “circular” patterns; sometimes, due to its solid density, it approaches the “flower” (u. t. fig. 13), i.e. gives a transition to “lobed” patterns. The hooked patterns have been discussed above. The “baranchik” is always colonized with “circular” and “hooked” patterns.
“Lobed” patterns are called “melnits” (Table XXIX*, fig. 20*) and “goose feet.” U. t. fig. 13. The basis of all their various modifications is the eight-pointed star – one of the favorite motifs of the East, which Stasov[23] considers a stylized flower. This is especially easy to trace in a whole series of “strips.” While some give a typical eight-pointed star (white) with a red “okoshko” (“square”) in the middle, inscribed in a red diamond with white diamonds at the corners. (These diamonds – circles are divided by a massive oblique cross made up of red okoshki with a white oblique cross inside). In such an interpretation, this pattern is encountered most often. Table XXIX*, fig. 20.* Other strips give the same eight-pointed star, but with less angular lobes, outlined with a red border, which generally gives it a more rounded shape and brings it closer to the “flower.” Table XXIX*, fig. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.*
Furthermore, the eight-pointed star is placed upright, with the angles of the lobes cut off, which also gives a certain roundness, which in other strips already reaches the full illusion of a flower, where the “povozhennye” black centers further emphasize this impression. U. t. fig. 14.
But especially vividly expressed is such a starry flower on a very old “end” (by sewing – the first half of the 19th century), where the lobes of the white-stroked star are so rounded that they completely lose their starry shape. Somewhat separately in the type of this same pattern stand large, very effective four-lobed stars, where each lobe has two full and two half-toothed edges. Inside are inscribed red solid windows, and the star itself is placed in a red diamond, with interlocking corners also filled with a colored diamond. U. t. fig. 18.
An interesting variant of the same pattern is given by strips “povozhennye” with oil, and therefore very ancient: here the starry flower is inscribed in a wide, red diamond with marks on the outer side, which is why the white strip dividing the diamonds winds around in the form of a city-like angular ribbon. In the red half-patterns filling the void between the diamond, a large figure resembling a flower with two leaves is inserted – an element completely unusual for our patterns. U. t. fig. 8.
In all “lobed” patterns, the inter-pattern figures that separate the starry flowers are very remarkable. For example, a red figure between the lobes of the fleeting stars, outlined by a white narrow strip, apparently to highlight this figure more clearly. U. t. fig. 10.
Essentially, such inter-pattern figures are merely various expressions of the same thought, which especially vividly appears in “perforations,” where it is invariably interpreted in the form of a double funnel, which can be particularly closely related to the figure of a Buddhist altar[24], in ancient times intended to ward off the evil eye. U. t. fig. 9, 7, 11, 6, (figure in the center).
From this interesting series of lobed stars (“flowers”), particularly noteworthy is the pattern, which with white forks and a separating figure, sewn for distinction with another seam (stars by stitching, and forks – by twisting), connects together with the white main stars one common weave, so that a white patterned sash is obtained. U. t. fig. 29.
Finally, on one pattern (baranchik), in the wide forks of the separating figure, a resemblance to a heart-shaped petal is inscribed, though not everywhere accurately conveyed. U. t. fig. 5.
If we take into consideration that wings are a symbol of prayer, as Savenko[25] says in his report on the ancient monuments of visual art on the Yenisei, then the winged mills of such a series of patterns, also divided by figures of altars, are precisely patterns of a “votive” nature, i.e. dedicatory, prayerful, perhaps – funerary.
This last message is further confirmed by the angular ribbon, as a symbol of a funerary band, as well as the heart-shaped petals, the meaning of which has been so beautifully elucidated by Stasov in his description of the Kerch catacomb, discovered in 1872[26].
V. I. Sizov in his work on the Gnezdovo burial ground[27] also points out that motifs of borders made of hearts are usually found on the fabrics in which it was customary to wrap the relics, i.e. the remains of deceased ascetics of the Christian cult. We also have confirmation of this in the motifs of the frescoes of the small church of the 12th century on Semyadina, which, according to historical research[28], if not the repository of the bodies of the slain Boris and Gleb, then, in any case, their graves. There, the entire painting of the surviving walls and floor consisted almost exclusively of various combinations of heart-shaped figures, sometimes also connected with a diamond. Table XXX*, fig. 9, 10.*
Heart-shaped ornament is found on burial shawls in Coptic tombs[29]; it also decorates the pedestal of the statue of Samaladavi, the wife of Yama (Table XXX*, fig. 7*) – the ancient Hindu goddess of the underworld[30]. As for wings, they still symbolize prayer in the consciousness of the people, which is confirmed by the question of a praying mantis, who addressed I. I. Orlovsky in the Smolensk Ascension Monastery, upon seeing a tombstone with cherubs: “What is that, father, behind the children – the gospel,” i.e. meaning prayer.
To the “lobed” patterns, the rosette should also be attributed, whose folk name could not be established.
This pattern is not too often encountered, takes the form of a directly placed broad-ended cross, and seems to form a transition from “lobed” patterns to “crossed” ones. Stasov quite reasonably identifies such a pattern with an eastern rosette, i.e. again with a stylized flower of Persian ornamentation. Table XXIX*, fig. 28, 26*.
The crosses of the “rosette” are mostly white with a red, more or less wide outline. The center occupies a diamond (circle) with a “lepeshka” or four “shashki” inside; occasionally, a “linked cross” consisting of four diamonds is inscribed.
Patterns of the “crossed” type are very numerous and often encountered, but predominantly in combination with others.
They can be divided into the following types: 1) straight crosses, 2) oblique crosses, 3) linked and lobed crosses.
Smooth straight crosses, for the most part, are inscribed in city-like or stepped diamonds. Table XXVIII*, fig. 19.* Sometimes their ends have crossbars, which gives a twelve-pointed cross. Table XXXI*, fig. 8. Table* XXVIII*, fig. 9 (small).* A very rare pattern gives a flourishing cross with whiskers at the ends, inscribed in a “rosette.” Table XXIX*, fig. 26.* A completely special pattern is in the form of a straight equilateral cross, enclosed in touching double circles (diamonds). “Poduzorniki” are filled with such semi-crosses. U. t. fig. 21. This image strikingly coincides with the pendants, as indicated by A. Spitsin[31], found everywhere in burial mounds of the 12th century.
Particularly identical is the pendant depicted on table XXXI*, fig. 3*, which astonishingly repeats this image[32].
A lobed cross usually consists of 5 touching “lepeshki” (solid diamonds) at the corners. The central diamond, around which the other four are arranged, is either larger, equal, or smaller. U. t. fig. 25.
Lobed crosses are less frequently found in burial pendants, but they are very common in buckles, which Spitsin exclusively calls Russian antiquities and dates to the 11th-12th centuries[33]. An openwork pendant from the Gdov burial mounds[34] dated to the 14th century is an extraordinarily close prototype of lobed crosses.
Thus, in lobed crosses, we have grounds to see an element that is purely Russian.
A linked cross is composed of the same 5 touching diamonds at the corners, but not solid, but having the appearance of links. U. t. fig. 24, Table XXVII*, fig. 7, 6.* Linked cross elements are especially often found in pendants discovered in burial grounds: Ostyak, Kamchatka Chud[35]; in the mounds of Leningrad Province[36] (table XXXI, fig. 1), in the excavations of Bulichev along the Ugra River[37], in short, where Finnish elements predominate, but alongside them and among Alan enamels[38].
Oblique crosses, executed in white, red, sometimes variegated, are predominantly placed in diamonds. Table XXIX*, fig. 32, 33, 35.* Large oblique crosses with crossbars at the ends are called “kurya’s paws.” U. t. fig. 24.
Oblique crosses made of four brackets touching at a sharp angle are encountered. U. t. fig. 29.
An interesting pattern consists of a combination of a small white “dirkastiy” oblique cross, divided and surrounded by red figures consisting of two links laid crosswise. This is the so-called sign or symbol of “snake-urrea,” very often found in the oldest Egyptian culture and almost in all countries of the Asian East. Table XXX*, fig. 8.* Linked crosses are generally a very widespread pattern. All these cross elements have absolutely no relation to the Christian symbol of the cross, as they are abundantly found among almost all Muslim and pagan peoples, among whom they often serve as a schematic representation of the human figure. Thus, the analysis of our folk “ukras” is quite predominantly, but by no means gives the right to attribute them to Finns, as V. V. Stasov does, for Finns themselves borrowed and then distorted similar elements from Eastern Aryans.
Clear evidence that the characteristic curls (spirals, tendrils) of Finnish patterns are completely not Russian ornament, but that precisely “diamonds” (circles) are the original Russian ornament, is definitively given by the descriptions of Ostyak embroideries made by V. N. Kharuzina[39]. Curls and other decorations are sometimes applied so abundantly that they overshadow the main motif.
“Ruth-hanch” – Russian embroidery consists of a series of small squares touching at the ends – diagonally, hence what we call circular patterns.
At the same time, although the close affinity of our “ukras” with the East is undeniable, nevertheless, purely Russian decorations reveal a quite definite processing, which makes them completely original, both in the general technique – duality and meaningful filling of the “earth” (background), and in the interpretation of their main element – “circle,” which in Eastern cultures is predominantly elongated, while in our “ukras” it is invariably square.
As for the ideoplasticity of our “ukras,” we must conclude that they, by their essence, are by no means merely ornament, but undoubtedly express certain abstract ancient pagan religious concepts, finally, that these concepts mainly relate to the cult of the heavenly sun and its earthly representative fire, which they symbolize, both in most of their individual figures and in their combinations. These symbols, in their images, repeated by hundreds of generations, tell us that the Russian people, formed from the merging of Slavs and Sarmatians, and especially in the face of its purest representatives, the Belarusians, invariably bore the symbol and regarded themselves as grandchildren of Veles – this synonym of the Greek Helios, and children of Dazhdbog – Khors, the bright radiant Sun.
Kletnova E.N. The Symbolism of Folk Decorations of the Smolensk Region // Proceedings of the Smolensk State Museums. Issue 1. Smolensk. 1924, pp. 111-131.