Afanasy Nikitin's feat summary. The feat of a scout, or what Afanasy Nikitin was looking for in India

- Russian traveler, merchant and writer, was born in 1442 (the date is not documented) and died in 1474 or 1475 near Smolensk. He was born into the family of the peasant Nikita, so Nikitin, strictly speaking, is not the traveler’s surname, but his patronymic: at that time, most peasants did not have surnames.

In 1468 he undertook an expedition to the countries of the East and visited Persia and Africa. He described his journey in the book “Walking across Three Seas.”

Afanasy Nikitin - Biography

Afanasy Nikitin, biography who is only partially known to historians, was born in the city of Tver. There is no reliable information about his childhood and youth. It is known that at a fairly young age he became a merchant and visited Byzantium, Lithuania and other countries on trade matters. His commercial enterprises were quite successful: he returned safely to his homeland with overseas goods.

He received a letter from the Grand Duke of Tver, Mikhail Borisovich, which allowed him to develop extensive trade in the area of ​​​​present-day Astrakhan. This fact allows some historians to consider the Tver merchant a secret diplomat and spy for the Grand Duke, but there is no documentary evidence for this assumption.

Afanasy Nikitin began his journey in the spring of 1468, traveling by water past the Russian cities of Klyazma, Uglich and Kostroma. According to the plan, upon reaching Nizhny Novgorod, the pioneer's caravan was supposed to join another caravan, led by Vasily Papin, the Moscow ambassador, for safety reasons. But the caravans missed each other - Papin had already gone south when Afanasy arrived in Nizhny Novgorod.

Then he waited for the arrival of the Tatar ambassador Hasanbek and, with him and other merchants, went to Astrakhan 2 weeks later than planned. Afanasy Nikitin considered it dangerous to set sail in a single caravan - at that time Tatar gangs ruled along the banks of the Volga. The caravans of ships safely passed Kazan and several other Tatar settlements.

But just before arriving in Astrakhan, the caravan was robbed by local robbers - these were Astrakhan Tatars led by Khan Kasim, who was not embarrassed even by the presence of his compatriot Khasanbek. The robbers took away all the goods from the merchants, which, by the way, were purchased on credit. The trade expedition was disrupted, two ships out of four were lost. Then everything turned out not in the best way either. The two remaining ships were caught in a storm in the Caspian Sea and washed ashore. Returning to their homeland without money or goods threatened the merchants with debt and shame.

Then the merchant decided to improve his affairs, intending to engage in intermediary trade.

Thus began the famous journey of Afanasy Nikitin, described by him in his literary work “Walking across Three Seas.”

Information about the travel of Afanasy Nikitin

Persia and India

Nikitin went through Baku to Persia, to an area called Mazanderan, then crossed the mountains and moved further south. He traveled without haste, stopping for a long time in villages and engaging not only in trade, but also studying local languages. In the spring of 1469, he arrived in Hormuz, a large port city at the intersection of trade routes from Asia Minor (), China and India.

Goods from Hormuz were already known in Russia, Hormuz pearls were especially famous. Having learned that horses were being exported from Hormuz to the cities of India, which were not bred there, he decided on a risky commercial venture. I bought an Arabian stallion and, in the hope of reselling it well in India, boarded a ship heading to the Indian city of Chaul.

The voyage took 6 weeks. India made a strong impression on the merchant. Not forgetting about the trade affairs for which he, in fact, arrived here, the traveler became interested in ethnographic research, recording in detail what he saw in his diaries. India appears in his notes as a wonderful country, where everything is not like in Rus', “and people walk around all black and naked.” Athanasius was amazed by the fact that almost all the inhabitants of India, even the poor, wear gold jewelry. By the way, Nikitin himself also amazed the Indians - local residents had rarely seen white people here before.

However, it was not possible to sell the stallion profitably in Chaul, and he went inland. He visited a small town on the upper reaches of the Sina River and then went to Junnar.

In my travel notes did not miss everyday details, and also described local customs and attractions. This was hardly the first truthful description of the life of the country not only for Rus', but even for the whole of Europe. The traveler left notes about what food is prepared here, what they feed domestic animals, how they dress and what goods they sell. Even the process of making local intoxicating drinks and the custom of Indian housewives to sleep with guests in the same bed are described.

I had to stay in the Junnar fortress against my own will. The “Junnar Khan” took the stallion from him when he learned that the merchant was not an infidel, but an alien from distant Rus', and set a condition for the infidel: either he converts to the Islamic faith, or not only will he not receive the horse, but will also be sold into slavery. Khan gave him 4 days to think. The Russian traveler was saved by chance - he met an old acquaintance Muhammad, who vouched for the stranger to the khan.

During the 2 months spent by the Tver merchant in Junnar, Nikitin studied the agricultural activities of the local residents. He saw that in India they plow and sow wheat, rice and peas during the rainy season. He also describes local winemaking, which uses coconuts as a raw material.

After Junnar, he visited the city of Alland, where there was a large fair. The merchant intended to sell his Arabian horse here, but again it didn’t work out. At the fair, even without his stallion, there were many good horses for sale.

Only in 1471 Afanasy Nikitin I managed to sell my horse, and even then without much benefit for myself, or even at a loss. This happened in the city of Bidar, where the traveler arrived after waiting out the rainy season in other settlements. He stayed in Bidar for a long time, becoming friends with the local residents.

The Russian traveler told them about his faith and his land, the Hindus also told him a lot about their customs, prayers, and family life. Many entries in Nikitin's diaries concern issues of Indian religion.

In 1472, he arrived in the city of Parvat, a sacred place on the banks of the Krishna River, where believers from all over India came for the annual festivals dedicated to the god Shiva. Afanasy Nikitin notes in his diaries that this place has the same meaning for Indian Brahmins as Jerusalem for Christians.

The Tver merchant traveled around India for another year and a half, studying local customs and trying to conduct trade business. However, the traveler’s commercial endeavors failed: he never found goods suitable for export from India to Rus'.

Africa, Iran, Türkiye and Crimea

On his way back from India, Afanasy Nikitin decided to visit the east coast of Africa. According to entries in his diaries, in the Ethiopian lands he barely managed to avoid robbery, paying off the robbers with rice and bread.

He then returned to the city of Hormuz and moved north through war-torn Iran. He passed the cities of Shiraz, Kashan, Erzincan and arrived in Trabzon (Trebizond), a Turkish city on the southern shore of the Black Sea. It seemed that the return was close, but then the traveler’s luck turned away again: he was taken into custody by the Turkish authorities as an Iranian spy and deprived of all his remaining property.

According to the traveler himself, which has come down to us in the form of notes, all that was left with him at that time was the diary itself, and the desire to return to his homeland.

He had to borrow money on his word of honor for the journey to Feodosia, where he intended to meet fellow merchants and with their help pay off his debts. He was able to reach Feodosia (Cafa) only in the fall of 1474. Nikitin spent the winter in this city, completing notes on his journey, and in the spring he went along the Dnieper back to Russia, to his hometown of Tver.

However, he was not destined to return there - he died in the city of Smolensk under unknown circumstances. Most likely, the years of wandering and hardships suffered by the traveler undermined his health. Afanasy Nikitin's companions, Moscow merchants, brought his manuscripts to Moscow and handed them over to clerk Mamyrev, adviser to Tsar Ivan III. The records were later included in the chronicles of 1480.

In the 19th century, these records were discovered by the Russian historian Karamzin, who published them in 1817 under the author’s title. The three seas mentioned in the title of the work are the Caspian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Black Sea.

A merchant from Tver ended up in India long before representatives of European states arrived there. The sea route to this country was discovered by a Portuguese merchant several decades later than the Russian trade guest arrived there. What did he discover in distant lands and why are his records so valuable to posterity?

Although the commercial goal that prompted the pioneer to undertake such a dangerous journey was not achieved, the result of the wanderings of this observant, talented and energetic man was the first real description of an unknown distant country. Before this, in Ancient Rus', the fabulous country of India was known only from legends and literary sources of that time.

A man of the 15th century saw the legendary country with his own eyes and managed to talentedly tell his compatriots about it. In his notes, the traveler writes about the state system of India, the religions of the local population (in particular, about the “belief in the buts” - this is how Afanasy Nikitin heard and wrote down the name of Buddha, sacred to the majority of the inhabitants of India at that time).

He described the trade of India, the armament of the army of this country, talked about exotic animals (monkeys, snakes, elephants), local customs and Indian ideas about morality. He also recorded some Indian legends.

The Russian traveler also described cities and areas that he himself had not visited, but which he had heard about from the Indians. So, he mentions Indochina, places that at that time were still completely unknown to Russian people. The information carefully collected by the pioneer allows us today to judge the military and geopolitical aspirations of the Indian rulers of that time, the state of their armies (down to the number of war elephants and the number of chariots).

His “Walking across Three Seas” was the first text of its kind in Russian literary literature. The fact that he did not describe only holy places, as pilgrims did before him, gives the work a unique sound. It is not the objects of the Christian faith that fall into the field of his attentive vision, but people with a different religion and a different way of life. His notes are devoid of any officiality and internal censorship, and this is why they are especially valuable.

A story about Afanasy Nikitin and his discoveries - video

Journey Afanasia Nikitina began in Tver, from there the route ran along the Volga River through Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan to Astrakhan. Then the pioneer visited Derbent, Baku, Sari, and then moved overland through Persia. Having reached the city of Hormuz, he again boarded the ship and arrived on it at the Indian port of Chaul.

In India, he visited many cities on foot, including Bidar, Junnar and Parvat. Further along the Indian Ocean he sailed to Africa, where he spent several days, and then, again by water, returned to Hormuz. Then on foot through Iran he came to Trebizond, from there he reached the Crimea (Feodosiya).

In 1458, presumably the merchant Afanasy Nikitin left his native Tver for the Shirvan land (in the territory of present-day Azerbaijan). He has with him travel documents from the Grand Duke of Tver Mikhail Borisovich and from Archbishop Gennady of Tver. There are also merchants with him - they are traveling on two ships in total. They move along the Volga, past the Klyazma Monastery, pass Uglich and get to Kostroma, which was in the possession of Ivan III. His governor lets Athanasius pass further.

Vasily Panin, the Grand Duke's ambassador in Shirvan, whom Afanasy wanted to join, had already passed down the Volga. Nikitin has been waiting for two weeks for Hasan Bey, the ambassador of the Shirvanshah of the Tatar. He is riding with gyrfalcons “from Grand Duke Ivan, and he had ninety gyrfalcons.” Together with the ambassador, they move on.

Along the way, Afanasy makes notes about his journey across three seas: “the first sea is Derbent (Caspian), Darya Khvalisskaya; second sea - Indian, Darya Gundustan; the third Black Sea, Darya Istanbul” (Darya no-pers. - sea).

Kazan passed without obstacles. Ordu, Uslan, Sarai and Berenzan passed safely. The merchants are warned that the Tatars are lying in wait for the caravan. Hasan Bey gives gifts to informants to guide them through a safe route. The wrong gifts were taken, but news of their approach was given. The Tatars overtook them in Bogun (on the shallows at the mouth of the Volga). There were killed on both sides in the shootout. The smaller ship, which also contained Afanasy's luggage, was plundered. The large ship reached the sea and ran aground. And it was also plundered and four Russians were captured. The rest were released “naked heads into the sea.” And they went, crying... When the travelers came ashore, and then they were taken prisoner.

In Derbent, Afanasy asks for help from Vasily Panin, who safely reached the Caspian Sea, and Khasan-bek, so that they would intercede for the people captured and return the goods. After much hassle, people are released and nothing else is returned. It was believed that what came from the sea was the property of the owner of the coast. And they went their separate ways.

Some remained in Shemakha, others went to work in Baku. Afanasy independently goes to Derbent, then to Baku, “where the fire burns unquenchable,” from Baku across the sea to Chenokur. Here he lives for six months, a month in Sari, a month in Amal, about Rey he says that the descendants of Muhammad were killed here, from whose curse seventy cities were destroyed. He lives in Kashan for a month, a month in Ezda, where “the livestock is fed dates.” He does not name many cities, because “there are still many big cities.” By sea he gets to Hormuz on the island, where “the sea comes on him twice every day” (for the first time he sees the ebb and flow of the tides), and the heat of the sun can burn a person. A month later, “after Easter on the day of Radunitsa,” he sets off on a tava (an Indian ship without an upper deck) “with horses for the Indian Sea.” They reach Kombey, “where paint and varnish are born” (the main export products, except spices and textiles), and then go to Chaul.

Afanasy has a keen interest in everything related to trade. He studies the state of the market and is annoyed that they lied to him: “they said that there was a lot of our goods, but there was nothing for our land: all the goods were white for the Besermen land, pepper, and paint.” Afanasy brought the stallion “to Indian land,” for which he paid one hundred rubles. In Junnar, the khan takes away the stallion from Afanasy, having learned that the merchant is not a Muslim, but a Rusyn. The Khan promises to return the stallion and give a thousand gold pieces in addition if Afanasy converts to the Muslim faith. And he set a deadline: four days on Spasov Day, on the Assumption Fast. But on the eve of Spasov's Day, the treasurer Muhamed, a Khorasanian (his identity has not yet been established), arrived. He stood up for the Russian merchant. The stallion was returned to Nikitin. Nikitin believes that “the Lord’s miracle happened on Savior Day,” “The Lord God took pity... did not forsake me, a sinner, with His mercy.”

In Bidar, he is again interested in goods - “at the auction they sell horses, damask (fabric), silk and all other goods and black slaves, but there is no other goods here. The goods are all from Gundustan, but there is only edible vegetables, and there are no goods here for the Russian land”... Nikitin vividly describes the morals and customs of the peoples living in India.

“And here is Indian country, and simple people they walk naked, and their heads are not covered, and their breasts are naked, and their hair is braided in one braid, and everyone walks with their bellies, and children are born every year, and they have many children. Of the common people, the men and women are all naked and all black. Wherever I go, there are many people behind me - they are amazed at the white man.”

Everything is accessible to the curiosity of the Russian traveler: and Agriculture, and the state of the army, and the method of waging war: “The battle is being fought more and more on elephants, in armor and on horses. Large forged swords are tied to the elephants’ heads and tusks... and the elephants are dressed in damask armor, and turrets are made on the elephants, and in those turrets there are twelve people in armor, all with guns and arrows.”

Athanasius is especially interested in issues of faith. He conspires with the Hindus to go to Parvat - “that is their Jerusalem, the same as Mecca for the Besermen.” He is amazed that in India there are seventy-four faiths, “but people of different faiths do not drink with each other, do not eat, do not marry...”.

Athanasius grieves that he has lost his way with the Russian church calendar; the sacred books were lost during the looting of the ship. “I don’t observe Christian holidays - neither Easter nor Christmas - and I don’t fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. And living among non-believers, I pray to God, may he protect me..."

He reads the starry sky to determine the day of Easter. On the “fifth Easter” Afanasy decides to return to Rus'. And again he writes down what he saw with his own eyes, as well as information about various ports and trades from Egypt to the Far East, received from knowledgeable people. He notes where “silk will be born”, where “diamonds will be born”, warns future travelers where and what difficulties await them, describes wars between neighboring nations... Wandering around the cities for another six months, Afanasy reaches the port - the city of Dabhola. For two gold pieces, he goes to Hormuz by ship through Ethiopia. We managed to get along with the Ethiopians, and the ship was not robbed.

From Hormuz, Afanasy goes overland to the Black Sea and gets to Trabzon. On the ship, he agrees to go to Kafa (Crimea) for gold. Mistaken for a spy, he is robbed by the city security chief. Autumn, bad weather and winds make crossing the sea difficult. “We crossed the sea, but the wind carried us to Balaklava itself. And from there we went to Gurzuf, and we stood here for five days. By the grace of God I came to Kafa nine days before the Philippian fast. God is the creator! By the grace of God I crossed three seas. God knows the rest, God the patron knows. Amen!"

Afanasy Nikitin is the author and hero of “The Walk,” a Tver merchant (died before 1475 on the road to Rus', before reaching Smolensk). A.N. went on a trip for a commercial purpose, but apparently did not initially intend to end up in India. Having received the credentials of the Tver prince Mikhail Borisovich, A.N. went to Shirvan (Northern Azerbaijan). A.N. wanted to join the caravan of the Moscow ambassador in Shirvan Vasily Panin, but missed him. This played a fatal role in the life of A.N. Near Astrakhan, he and his comrades were robbed by the Nogai Tatars, and all of A.N.’s goods were lost. Having reached Derbent and meeting Panin there, the merchants asked him and the “Shirvanshah” (head of the Shirvan principality) for help and intercession. The merchants needed the means to at least get back to Rus', but they were denied this. This circumstance forced A.N. to move on, as they say, wherever his eyes look, because he had nothing left in Rus', moreover, he owed it, and returning meant a debt hole for him. Further, A.N.’s path lay through Baku to Persia (“Praise”, i.e., Caspian Sea), and from there through Gurmyz and the “Indian Sea” to India.

A.N., the hero-storyteller, notes with interest the unusual aspects of the life of another people, describes not only his adventures, but also the peculiarities of the life and morals of people. One can immediately feel in “Walking” the “professional” interest of A.N.: he notes where the goods are brought from (“And horses are brought from the Khorasan land, some from the Arab land, others from the Turkmen land, others from the Chagotai land, but they all bring by sea in tawas - Indian ships"). A.N. does not place himself at the center of the narrative. The hero of “Walking” turns out to be an attentive and curious person, receptive to any information. For example, it is very typical for A.N. to quickly transition from the description of the fair, where “the whole Indian country” comes to trade, to the mention of the local legend about the gukuk bird.

In “Walking” it is clearly visible that the hero is very homesick for his native land. Describing the new lands, A.N. compares them with Tver (“Great Butkhana, half of Tver is made of stone...”). A.N. tries to calculate time using Orthodox calendar, counting the years by Easter, but admits that he lost count and could not celebrate this holiday correctly.

One of the most interesting features of “Walking” can be considered the fact that it reflected the discrepancy between the ideal image of India and the real country where A.N. ended up. In Ancient Rus', India seemed like a blissful, rich land, located not far from paradise, this is how it appears, for example , in “The Tale of the Indian Kingdom.” In “Walking” there is no mention of A.N.’s acquaintance with this particular monument, but it is likely that these ideal ideas were the reason why A.N., having lost all his property, went to India. Here he is faced with the fact that he constantly feels like a foreigner. Moreover, A.N., being Orthodox, finds himself in a difficult situation, since he has to communicate with representatives of different faiths: Muslims and Hindus. But if Hindus did not claim the uniqueness of their religion, then for Muslims, as well as for Christians, the idea of ​​​​the truth of only their religion is the basis of religion. In the scientific literature, various points of view were expressed regarding A.N.’s solution to the question of faith, that is, whether he converted to Islam or not. Regardless of how the real A.N. acted in life, the hero A.N. in “The Walk” appears as a man who strives with all his might to preserve the purity of the Orthodox faith. Yu. M. Lotman notes that in “Walking” there are no medieval ideas about geographical space as different stages of goodness and sin, that is, the opposition of “pure”, “blessed” and “wicked” places. The moral potential of the hero depends on himself, and not on where he is in this case.

In the scientific literature con. XIX - early XX century the dominant view was of A.N. as a figure of national importance, a traveler who came to India with a specific mission as a “trade intelligence officer.” Based on this opinion, the Soviet myth about the pioneering hero A.N. was formed, which was used as the basis for the feature film “Walking across Three Seas” (1958, scriptwriters A. Abbas, M. Smirnova, production by X. Abbas and V. Pronina). In this film, A.N. appears as an opponent of the Portuguese Miguel, who competes with A.N. over the priority of opening India and plays all sorts of dirty tricks on the Russian traveler.

I read an article by Viktor Gribkov-Maisky in NG-EL (05.08.10) .

The author himself is, of course, an attentive person, but the walking (this is the form of this word that was adopted in the time of Afanasy Nikitin) of the Tver merchant is fraught with so many mysteries that they have been struggling with them for several centuries.

Academician Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky wrote: “Nikitin’s notes on his travels to Persia and India in 1466–1472 are a monument of its kind and for its time (until other similar ones were discovered), as unique and important as “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” ", - were discovered by Karamzin and he alone until now (written in the 19th century. - V.V.) are assessed by their significance in the history of Old Rus' in the 15th century."

Indeed, the list of “Walks” discovered by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin in the archives of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery amazed the great historian: “Until now, geographers did not know that the honor of one of the oldest described journeys to India belongs to Russia... While Vasco da Gama was the only one thinking about the possibility of finding a way from Africa to Hindustan, our Tverite had already traveled along the coast of Malabar...”

It is worth remembering that Vasco da Gama's ships were led to India by the Arab pilot Ahmed ibn Majid (1498). Later, however, he bitterly repented, for the Portuguese destroyed the coastal cities with cannons and plundered them.

Nikitin walked the unknown path on his own, without anyone accompanying him.

Much has been written about “Walking,” but one question, the most important, is still unanswered: what was he looking for at the ends of the Earth?

Most researchers - from Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin to academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev - believed that Afanasy Nikitin accidentally ended up in India.

A Tver merchant was walking with goods to Astrakhan. On the Volga, pirates robbed boats with goods, sold the merchant into slavery in Shirvan, where he extracted oil, then joined the merchants in Persia, there he saw Indian traders - and so, by chance, he ended up in India.

I'm not happy with the "random" version.

Viktor Gribkov-Maisky’s answer is also not convincing: “Nikitin has found his product – diamonds.” Why were you looking for them? They were sold everywhere then, as today.

What kind of unprecedented and marvelous thing was the Tverite looking for?

Mystery!

But Athanasius himself gave the answer in “Walking.” At the same time, the key was disassembled into three parts and hidden in different places in the manuscript. They must be found and collected.

I'll try.

First.

“And the Grand Duke of Tver (Mikhail Borisovich), the Great Voivode (Boris Zakharyich Borozdin) and Bishop Gennady (Kozha) advised me.”

Did the top of the Tver principality, which at that time competed with Moscow, really give such parting words to every merchant? Of course not. This means that Afanasy had a special task.

So the author of “EL”, citing the words of Nikitin himself (“And he came to the Kalyazin Monastery to the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, to the holy martyrs Boris and Gleb, and received a blessing from Abbot Macarius and the holy brethren”), notes: “The blessing of such a person was worth a lot.” .

Right! Hegumen Macarius (1400–1483) – son of the boyar Vasily Kozha. After the death of his parents and wife, he became a monk and founded a monastery. In 1521 he was canonized by the Russian Church.

To give instructions at that time meant “to give something needed for the journey.” What could the abbot and brethren give to Athanasius? One: to ask him for God’s mercy, to bless him for a feat, and not for stuffing his purse.

Second.

Nikitin, according to him, presented himself in Persia as Haji Yusuf from Khorosan.

How?!

And how the Ural resident Nikolai Kuznetsov was able to transform into Chief Lieutenant Paul Siebert. Gauleiter Erich Koch, having given an audience to Siebert, was absolutely sure that he was speaking with a fellow countryman, also a native of East Prussia.

The worst thing for an illegal immigrant is to meet a fellow countryman. “Hadji Yusuf” from Tver met the Khorosans, and they had no doubt that they had met a fellow countryman. The “legend” of Athanasius-Yusuf was prepared impeccably, considering that the Bahmanid Sultanate (one of the most powerful states of Hindustan) was then under the rule of Muslim rulers, and the Grand Vizier Mahmud Gavan was himself a Khorosani.

Third.

Having finally reached India, having seen all its treasures, Nikitin stubbornly repeats: there is no product he needs. Apparently, something that was kept secret. Just as the Chinese kept the secret of making gunpowder, porcelain, and silk, so the Indians kept the secret of damask steel (not to be confused with Damascus, which was inferior to damask steel) from strangers.

In the Tver Principality there were only two damask blades. They easily cut iron swords and chain mail. To find out, to obtain the secret of damask steel for Rus' was the same as for Soviet Union get the plans for the atomic bomb.

Surprisingly, after Nikitin’s presence in India, the secret of damask steel was lost and has not been solved to this day.

Metallurgist Pavel Petrovich Anosov (1799–1851), who produced wonderful steel in Zlatoust, not inferior to Damascus, still did not repeat damask steel.

The closest to the solution was, paradoxically, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

In the poem "Poltava":

But in the temptations of long punishment,
Having endured the blows of fate,
Rus' has grown stronger. So heavy bastard
Crushing glass, forges damask steel.

"Mlat" - hammer. What does glass have to do with it? I asked Pushkinists.

They didn’t know, they themselves were perplexed.

Professor Navrotsky, a great expert in blacksmithing, helped me. And this is what turned out.

Pushkin, traveling around the Urals, himself observed the forging of Zlatoust steel and, apparently, noted that the hot steel is sprinkled with powder, which, boiling, becomes glassy when cooling, a glaze that the hammer breaks to smithereens when the blade is forged again.

This is the composition of borax, additives, and secret Indian powder that Nikitin had to obtain.

It is clear that not only the Russians were hunting for the secret of damask steel. Powerful steel was needed by everyone who fought wars. And then everyone fought with everyone.

The news of the mysterious wanderer who reached India excited Moscow and Tver, Vilnius and Kyiv, Rome and Lisbon, Paris and Dijon. The spies of Pope Sixtus, Sultan Muhammad II, Emperor Ivan Vasilyevich, Khan Uzun-Hassan, ruler of Lithuania and Poland Casimir IV, Venetian Doge Nicolo Trono, Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat, Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold were looking for him.

They were looking for Afanasy.

An ordinary merchant is, of course, an interesting person. But not so important that intelligence agencies around the world were hunting for him.

This means that Afanasy Nikitin had something important, something unknown, but extremely necessary for entire states.

I’m sure Nikitin discovered the secret of damask steel. Perhaps he encrypted it in his notes, but on the way back, having been searched, robbed, robbed, poisoned more than once, he entrusted the secret of the damask steel to his memory alone.

No, no, no!

Athanasius’s contrition (“My faith is lost... woe to me, the accursed one, I have strayed from the true path and I no longer know which path I will take”), on the contrary, demonstrate a deep, strong faith.

To reproach Nikitin for apostasy is as absurd as blaming Maxim Isaev, a security officer and a communist, for why he exchanged the CPSU(b) for the NSDAP and rose to the rank of Standartenführer. The hero of Yulian Semenov handed over his party card and military awards in Moscow to those who should. But you can’t put faith in storage.

I was lucky enough to participate in the opening of the monument to Afanasy Nikitin in the summer of 2008 in Feodosia. I’m ashamed to say, but I was the only Russian there. Even from Tver no one could get to Crimea. Far!

Here, after long wanderings, Nikitin came down to the shore of the Black Sea - his last - the sea. “By the grace of God I came to Kafa 9 days before Philip’s fast” (that is, November 5, 1474). Nikitin still measures time by Orthodox holidays. And this is very important.

Here, in an ancient city inhabited by Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Tatars, Nikitin was finally able to pray in an Armenian church. This is acceptable for the Orthodox.

Nikitin was ill for a long time in the Cafe. This is where he may have written his “Walking.”

Tver by that time had fallen under the hand of Moscow. Afanasy did not know about this. And one can only guess in whose favor the confrontation between Tver and Moscow for the All-Russian throne would have been decided if Afanasy had reached Tver earlier and conveyed the secret of damask blades to the Grand Duke of Tver. The secret of forging damask steel.

But Tver lost its independence, Russia was ruled by Ivan the Great. All Russian roads now led only to Moscow.

If Nikitin had reached Moscow, he would probably have appeared before Ivan III, handed over the secret of damask steel to the sovereign and gone on his last great journey - to a monastery, for repentance and prayer.

However, fate decreed otherwise. The chronicler wrote this about Afanasy: “And they say that, de, and (they say - V.V.) Smolensk died before reaching.”

He died without “reaching” Tver and not even reaching the borders of Rus' - Smolensk was under Lithuania for a long time (from 1404 to 1514). Few people pay attention to this detail.

But the last words of “Walking” are saturated with wormwood bitterness: “Let the Russian land be established, otherwise there is little justice in it. God, God, God, God!” (Athanasius encrypted these lines in Turkic, Persian, and Arabic).

It is unknown where Nikitin died and where he was buried. It’s good that at least his “notebooks” were saved.

And the feat is still underestimated, underestimated neither by his homeland, nor by the Russian Church (I hope the time will come when he will be honored like the monastic warriors of Peresvet and Oslyabya, like the naval commander Fyodor Ushakov), or even by the Service foreign intelligence, which Nikitin, in fact, laid the foundation for.

It is wisely noted: “One life is enough to gain immortality.” Nikitin rightfully gained it with his feat, his faith, his service to the Fatherland.

And even by his name - Athanasius (from the Greek atanasos - immortal).

1. In 1466, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin decided to go on a long journey. From the city of Tver, he descends along the Volga and travels to Astrakhan, and then goes by dry route to the vast, vast expanse of the Indian Ocean. Imagine this long, difficult path! Nikitin has been traveling around India for several years. More than once he has to risk his life. He either gets rich or goes broke. He overcomes various obstacles, struggles with hardships, but carefully looks at the unknown country, diligently writes down everything he sees and hears. When you read Nikitin’s diary, you feel his boundless love for his homeland. He saw and heard a lot, a lot struck him with its fabulousness, but under no circumstances did he forget his homeland. Nor was he seduced by oriental luxury, which he colorfully describes. In 1472 Nikitin set off on his return journey. However, he was not destined to return to his hometown. On the way he dies. Some believed that the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama was the first to pave the way to India, but in fact, Afanasy Nikitin completed this extraordinary journey twenty-five years earlier.

2 I wandered around the Urals for many days. One autumn I had the opportunity to spend the night with an old man I knew on Lake Urzhenskoye, located in the mountains. Imagine that on a cold night you find shelter in a fisherman's hut. The hut is warm and clean, and outside the window the moaning October wind that every fisherman hates so much. It seems that some animals are fighting furiously in the yard. Restless splashes of waves can be heard from the lake. Some groans and the noise of dry reeds are heard. Ducks are chilly, cannot calm down all night and are always worried about something. My poor Sharik is not feeling well today. He spins around, squeals and from time to time begins to bark. IN senyakha The hare is sleeping and tapping its paw on the floor in its sleep. An old man at the stove is fiddling with a samovar. Finally we sit down to drink tea. I ask the old man about the hare. The fisherman loves to talk and willingly tells me interesting story. This hare saved the old man's life during a forest fire. The old fisherman takes care of it now and never parts with it. How could a cowardly hare save a person’s life? Here is how it was. One day, when it was just dawning, grandfather went hunting and climbed into the thick of the forest. Suddenly he sees smoke and hears a crash. Grandfather realized that a forest fire was starting. Gusts of wind drive the fire at high speed. If you don't get out of the forest, you'll die. We must try to save ourselves. The old man runs, stumbles, breathes with difficulty. We have to hurry, as the fire is growing. The branches of the fir trees are pricking, branches on the ground are tearing boots, trees are falling down. The old man loses his way and gets scared. Suddenly, a little bunny jumps out from under a bush and starts running along the road. His paws are singed, he runs slowly. Grandfather tries to keep up with the hare. He knows that animals understand the direction of the spread of fire better than humans and usually escape. The old man was not mistaken: the hare led him out of the fire. Having emerged from the forest, both were barely breathing from fatigue. The old man took the hare in, cured him, and since then they have been great friends.