On which lake was the Battle of the Ice? Ice slaughter: date, description, monument

In the famous film by Sergei Eisenstein there is an episode with the Crow Stone. According to an ancient legend, he rose from the waters of the lake at times of danger to the Russian land, helping to smash enemies. So it was in 1242. This date appears in all domestic historical sources, being inextricably linked with the Ice Slaughter.

We do not accidentally focus your attention on this stone. After all, it is on him that historians are oriented, who are still trying to understand on which lake the Battle of Ice took place . After all, many specialists who work with historical archives, still do not know where our ancestors actually fought with the knights of the Teutonic Order.

The official point of view is that the battle took place on the ice of Lake Peipsi. Today it is reliably known only that the battle took place on April 5. The year of the Battle of Ice is 1242 from the beginning of our era. In the annals of Novgorod and in the Livonian chronicle there is in general not a single coinciding detail: the number of soldiers participating in the battle varies, and the number of wounded and killed.

We do not even know the details of what happened. Only information has reached us that a victory was won on Lake Peipsi, and even then in a considerably distorted, transformed form. This contrasts strikingly with the official version, but in recent years, the voices of those scientists who insist on full-scale excavations and repeated archival research are getting louder. All of them want not only to know about which lake the Battle of Ice took place on, but also to find out all the details of the event.

Official description of the course of the battle

Opposing rats met in the morning. It was 1242, Chudskoe Lake has not yet opened from the ice. The Russian troops had many shooters who courageously stepped forward, accepting the main burden of the German attack. Notice how the Livonian Chronicle says: "The banners of the brothers (the German knights) have penetrated the ranks of the firing ... a lot of people killed from that side and the other fell on the grass (!)".

Thus, the "Chronicles" and the manuscripts of the Novgorodians at this moment completely converge. Indeed, before the Russian army was a detachment of light riflemen. As the Germans later found out in their sad experience, it was a trap. "Heavy" columns of German infantry broke through the ranks of lightly armed soldiers and went on. We did not just write the first word in quotes. Why? We will speak about this below.

The Russian mobile units quickly surrounded the Germans from the flanks, and then began to destroy them. The Germans fled, and the Novgorod army pursued them about seven versts. It is noteworthy that even in this moment there are disagreements in various sources. If to describe the Battle of the Ice briefly, then in this case this episode raises some questions.

The Importance of Victory

So, most witnesses do not say anything about "drowned" knights. Part of the German army was surrounded. Many knights were taken prisoner. In principle, about 400 fallen Germans are reported, and another half hundred people were taken prisoner. Chudis, according to the chronicles, "fell without a number." That's all the Ice Battle briefly.

The Order was painfully affected by defeat. In the same year, peace was concluded with Novgorod, the Germans completely abandoned their conquests not only in the territory of Rus, but also in Letgol. There was even a complete exchange of prisoners. However, the Teutons tried again to capture Pskov in a dozen years. Thus, the year of the Battle of the Ice became an extremely important date, since it allowed the Russian state to somewhat calm its belligerent neighbors.

About common myths

Even in the local lore museums of the Pskov region are very skeptical about the widespread statement about "heavy" German knights. Allegedly, because of their massive armor, they almost drowned at once in the waters of the lake. Many historians with rare enthusiasm say that the Germans weighed "three times more" than the average Russian warrior in their lats.

But only any armament specialist of that era will tell you with confidence that the warriors on both sides were almost equally protected.

Armor is not for everyone!

The fact is that the massive armor, which everywhere can be found on the miniatures of the Battle of the Ice in the history books, appeared only in the 14th-15th centuries. In the thirteenth century, soldiers dressed in a steel helmet, chain mail or plate armor (the latter were very expensive and rare), on the limbs they wore bracers and leggings. It was all about twenty kilograms high. Most of the German and Russian soldiers did not have such protection at all.

Finally, there was not much point in the heavily armed infantry on the ice, in principle. They fought all on foot, it was not necessary to be afraid of the attack of the cavalry. So why once again take risks, leaving on thin April ice in such quantity of iron?

But the school is studying the Battle of the Ice Class 4, but because of such subtleties, no one just does not give.

Water or land?

According to the generally accepted conclusions made by the expedition under the USSR Academy of Sciences (head Karaev), a small area of the Warm Lake (part of Chudskoye) is considered to be the battle site, which is located at a distance of 400 meters from the modern Cape Sigovets.

Almost half a century in the results of these studies no one doubted. The fact is that then the scientists did a really great job analyzing not only the historical sources, but also the hydrology and geology of the site. As explained by the writer Vladimir Potresov, who was a direct participant of the same expedition, it was possible to create a "whole vision of the problem". So which lake did the Battle of Ice take place on?

Here the conclusion is one - on Chudskoye. The battle was, and it happened somewhere in those parts, that's only with the definition of exact localization so far there are problems.

What did the researchers find out?

First of all, they once again read the chronicle. There it was said that the sword was "on the Uzmet, at the Voronei Kameni." Imagine that you are telling your friend how to get to the stop, using understandable terms and to you. If the same thing is repeated to a resident of another area, he may not understand. We are in the same position. What kind of Uzmen? What Voroniy stone? Where was all this at all?

Since then, more than seven centuries have passed. The rivers changed their channels in less time! So from the real geographical coordinates there was absolutely nothing left. Assuming that the battle in one way or another did take place on the ice surface of the lake, finding something becomes even more difficult.

German version

Seeing the difficulties of their Soviet colleagues, in the 1930s a group of German scientists hastened to declare that the Russians ... invented the Battle of the Ice! Alexander Nevsky, they say, just created an image of the winner, in order to give his figure a greater weight in the political arena. That's just an episode of the battle told and the old German chronicles, so that the battle really was.

The Russian scientists were real verbal battles! Everyone was trying to find out the place of the battle that took place in ancient times. Everyone called the "that" part of the territory on the western or the eastern shore of the lake. Someone argued that the battle took place in the central part of the reservoir. With Crow stone in general there was trouble: for him the mountains of small pebbles were taken at the bottom of the lake, then someone saw it in every ledge of rock on the banks of the reservoir. There was a lot of controversy, but that was not the case at all.

In 1955, everyone was sick of it, and the same expedition set out on its way. Archaeologists, philologists, geologists and hydrographers, specialists on Slavic and German dialects of that time, cartographers appeared on the shores of Peipsi Lake. Everyone was interested in where was the Battle of the Ice. Alexander Nevsky was here, it is known for certain, that's only where his troops met with the adversaries?

At full disposal of scientists were given several boats with the teams of experienced divers. Worked on the shores of the lake and many enthusiasts, schoolchildren from local historical societies. So what gave the researchers Lake Peipsi? Was Nevsky here with the army?

The Vorony Stone

For a long time among the native scientists there was an opinion that Voroniy stone is the key to all the secrets of the Battle of the Ice. His search was given special significance. Finally it was discovered. It turned out that it was a fairly high stone ledge on the western tip of the Gorodets island. For seven centuries, not too dense rock was almost completely destroyed by winds and water.

At the foot of the Crow Stone archaeologists quickly found the remains of Russian guard fortifications, which blocked the passages to Novgorod and Pskov. So those places to contemporaries were really well-known because of their importance.

New contradictions

But only the determination of the location of such an important landmark in antiquity did not at all mean establishing the place where the massacre took place on Lake Peipsi. Quite the opposite: the currents here are always so strong that ice itself does not exist in principle. Fix here the battle of the Russians with the Germans, they would have drowned everything, regardless of armor. The chronicler, as was his custom at that time, simply pointed out Voroniy stone as the nearest landmark that was visible from the battlefield.

Event Versions

If you go back to the description of the events, which is given at the very beginning of the article, then you will probably remember the expression "... many people killed from that and the other side fell on the grass." Of course, the "grass" in this case could be an idiom, which denotes the very fact of a fall or death. But today, historians are increasingly inclined to search for archaeological evidence of the battle should be on the banks of the reservoir.

In addition, no armor has been found at the bottom of Lake Peipsi. Neither Russian nor Teutonic. Of course, armor as such was in principle very small (we already talked about their high price), but at least something should remain! Especially considering how many diving dives were produced.

Thus, it is possible to draw quite convincing conclusion that the ice under the weight of the Germans, who were not too armed with weapons, differed from our soldiers, did not break. In addition, the finding of armor even on the bottom of the lake is unlikely to prove anything: more archaeological evidence is needed, since border skirmishes in those places happened all the time.

In general terms it is clear on which lake the Battle of Ice took place. The question of where exactly was the sword, still worries domestic and foreign historians.

Monument to the sign battle

The monument in honor of this significant event was set in 1993. It is located in the city of Pskov, installed on Mount Sokolikha. From the theoretical place of battle, the monument was removed more than a hundred kilometers. This stele is dedicated to the "Friends of Alexander Nevsky". The money was collected by sponsors, which in those years was incredibly difficult. That is why this monument is of great value for the history of our country.

Artistic Incarnation

In the very first sentence, we mentioned a film by Sergei Eisenstein, which he shot in the distant 1938. The tape "Alexander Nevsky" was called. That's just to consider this magnificent (from the artistic point of view) film as a historical aid is definitely not worth it. Nonsense and obviously unreliable facts there are abundant.