by Eduard Dinikin
[REGNUM] We have previously examined how the distortion of facts led to the emergence of a story that Azerbaijanis are the “most ancient indigenous population” of Russia simply because they live in large numbers in the ancient Russian city of Derbent.
Derbent is indeed very old, it is the second oldest city in Russia after Kerch. Azerbaijanis have lived here since the late Middle Ages, but they certainly cannot be considered autochthons, although the former head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Tofik Zulfugarov insists on this.
The latest myth about Yugra is from the same series: the medieval Siberian Khanate was ruled by a native of Bukhara, which means that Siberia is the historical homeland of the Uzbeks. The last Siberian khan-usurper Kuchum was indeed born in Bukhara, but neither the dynasty he overthrew, nor the peoples subject to it had any relation to the Uzbeks. No matter how much the now former Yugra deputy Khalid Tagizade insists on this.
And there are also stories about how Moscow would have certainly fallen in the winter of 1941 if it weren’t for the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. Yes, the Panfilov Division, whose feat in November–December 1941 largely influenced the outcome of the Battle of Moscow, was indeed formed from residents of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSRs. But the authors and disseminators of distorted history are similar to those who believe that only Ukrainians fought in the Ukrainian Fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and Belarusians in the Belorussian Fronts.
There is clear data on the national composition of the division, from which it follows that ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz made up about 20% of its composition. Which, of course, does not in any way diminish their contribution to the overall victory.
All the above statements are not just lies, but much worse - intentionally distorted facts, when historical events are rewritten to suit a very specific ideology. The piggy bank of fictions can also include stories made up "from the head", which are not based on a single drop of truth.
"KAZAKH STANISLAV SOKOLOV, FOUNDER OF RUS'"
For example, the one in which Moscow was founded by Kazakhs in the 11th century. And even the name of the "legendary founder" is mentioned.
Kazakh philologist, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Mekemtas Myrzakhmetov (however, he preferred the de-Russified version of the surname - Myrzakhmetuly ) stated:
"One Bulgarian historian found information that the Kievan Rus was led by a Kazakh named Sunkar. His entourage called him Sokolov Stanislav. He lived in those places and married a Russian girl. He became the founder of the Russian state system. Later, in order to hide this fact, the Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh destroyed all the data, replacing it with false documents."
The same doctor of sciences Myrzakhmetuly wrote that in 1088 a Kazakh horseman was known, whose name was Asat Moskau. "The local people loved him and gave his name to the city. That is, the capital of Russia bears the name of a Kazakh," the prominent Kazakh philologist believes.
Myrzakhmetov-Myrzakhmetuly could not be called some kind of outsider in science. This Central Asian scientist, who died in January of this year at the ripe old age of 94, was the vice-rector of the Tashkent Pedagogical Institute named after Nizami back in the 1960s. In the 1970s, he taught at the Almaty Institute named after Abay, then worked at the Mukhtar Auezov Institute of Literature and Art of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR.
And throughout the 1990s, he headed the literature department of the International Kazakh-Turkish University, which was created in the year of the collapse of the USSR on the initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev and the then President of Turkey Suleyman Demirel.
For many years, the nationally minded humanitarian intelligentsia (which, in fact, forms ideologies – in this case, the ideology of pan-Turkism) was educated by a man who believed in the “Dzhigit Moscow”.
"SUBKHAN-OGLU, BUILDER OF THE KREMLIN"
Of course, there were also some “discoveries” concerning the construction of the Moscow Kremlin. From time to time, information about a Shemakhani, that is, again an Azerbaijani architect named Alis Subhan-oglu Keremli, emerges. Supporters of this version refer to the book “Shamakhi”, published in English by the Iranian architect Nadir Khalili and Elshan Fattahli, as well as the work of Ulfat Javad “The Kremlin was built by an Azerbaijani” (ANAS, Institute of History “Scientific Works”, Baku, 2009).
For example, such a story can be read in the October 2020 issue of the Dagestani magazine “Derband”.
Based on this version, the Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy, having heard about the talented architect, specially sent the boyar Baratynsky to Shemakha to the local ruler, the Shirvanshah, with rich gifts and a request to let Keremli go to Moscow.
The Shirvanshah did not want to let Keremli go, but he let him go under the prince's guarantee of personal immunity. In Moscow, the architect was given money, unlimited labor force, and promoted to boyar.
Muscovites really loved Keremli. And there was a reason for it. A wooden fence was erected around the construction site to prevent pollution of the surrounding areas. As the authors of the publication emphasize, supposedly this had never been done before on Russian soil. It is claimed that the city's population existed due to this construction, since the working conditions were extremely favorable.
In addition to the Kremlin, the architect allegedly built a princely palace, a meeting place, a boyar's house, many other buildings, as well as a network of secret catacombs.
On June 22, 1371, a farewell was arranged for the outstanding architect, and on the same day a Cossack (history has not preserved his name) cut off the genius's head. The reason for this was that Dmitry Donskoy did not want the architect to repeat his creation anywhere else.
Although, upon closer examination, the story of how the architect Keremli was beheaded - so that he would not build anything else - looks like a "creative borrowing" from the film "Andrei Rublev" by Andrei Tarkovsky. There, let us recall, the Moscow prince Vasily Dmitrievich orders the blinding of the artel workers so that they could not decorate the palace of his brother, the Zvenigorod prince Yuri Dmitrievich.
Needless to say, “information” about Alis Subhan-oglu Keremli’s participation in the construction of the Kremlin is circulating on social networks under headlines in the style of “You definitely didn’t know that...” (and, as a rule, these are reprints from Azerbaijani websites).
It is claimed that documents confirming this story are allegedly hidden in Moscow archives. As reported: "They were personally seen in 1977 by the now deceased Fyodor Afanasyev, who worked at that time at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU." But then the papers mysteriously disappeared. But "the truth is out there" - which is what the authors of such publications would have us believe.
All these statements by figures from Russia and the near abroad sound like a joke for now. Therefore, we will allow ourselves to continue the topic by quoting a satirical work, although not a domestic one, but a British one.
"AMAR BIN BOZ, FOUNDER OF THE ADMIRAL BENBOW TAVERN"
In G.K. Chesterton's novel The Flying Tavern, published 111 years ago, there is an episode in which a young woman from high society, Joan Brett, listens to a sermon on the seashore from an old man in a red fez named Mr. Ammon, who tries to prove that all the names of English drinking establishments have an oriental trace.
For example, "The Saracen's Head" is "Our Head is a Saracen", "The Green Chump" is "The Green Turban", "Admiral Benbow" is named after the warrior Amar Ali ben Boz. Ammon's argumentation seems to him absolutely infallible, probably because he decided for himself that "the teaching of Misisra Ammon is true because it is true".
This is how he “proves” that the Royal Albert Hall, London’s Royal Hall of Arts and Sciences, has traces of the Arabic word for “alcohol” in its name.
"You will find traces of Asiatic words," he continued, "in the names of all your establishments. Moreover, you will find them in the names of all the objects that give you joy and relaxation. My dear friends, even the substance that gives strength to your drinks you call by the Arabic word "alcohol." This particle occurs in many words that you associate with merriment - such as "ale," a corruption of "al," or "Albert Hall."
In 1914, Chesterton thought he was writing a satirical grotesque. He could hardly have imagined that in 2025 the Daily Mail would publish an article about “London is over,” which, among other things, would include the following lines:
"London has already changed irreversibly. The native population, white British, is now only a third of the city…. Only 22% of children in Greater London schools are white British, and in one school in Whitechapel, all pupils are not native English speakers…. Four out of ten current Londoners were born abroad. Almost one in seven is Muslim. And almost a quarter of Londoners do not speak English as their first language."
For the native Londoner Chesterton, the name Whitechapel, translated as White Chapel, might have been associated with the Jewish ghetto, the scene of Jack the Ripper's crimes, but it is highly doubtful that he saw any connection with the schools filled with students from the former British colonies. And certainly, he, a devout Catholic, hardly thought that the White Chapel, also known as the Church of St. Mary Matfelon, would be demolished and replaced by a park named after Altab Ali, a Bangladeshi migrant killed on this site in 1978.
New residents of the English capital who do not use English as their main language can very easily be processed by modern “Ammons”, for whom the British Isles are nothing more than “dar-al-harb”, a territory of war, whose destiny is to become part of “dar-al-Islam”, the world of Islam (we wrote about this distorted understanding of religion earlier).
"KAZAKH CAPITAL"
The words of the comic character from Chesterton's novel are reminiscent of what can be heard from time to time from modern "Ammonians" in the territory of the post-USSR.
But, as we know, very often big problems start with little things. Today, one Russian deputy says that Siberia historically belongs to the Uzbeks. Tomorrow, another intellectual will “remind” that Orenburg was the Kazakh capital. This is another half-truth – Orenburg was indeed the center of the Kirghiz (Kazakh) ASSR, but it was only for five years, in 1920–1925.
And the day after tomorrow someone else will claim that since the word "mosque" in English sounds like mosque ("mosk"), it means that Moscow was built as a large religious Islamic center. And it is unlikely that he will be confused by the English word. The character in the novel "The Migratory Tavern" was not confused by English words.
No less significant for English culture than Chesterton, the English poet and preacher John Donne wrote: "No man is an island by himself; every living thing is a piece of a continent; and if the sea wash away the cliff, will not all Europe be the less: a rock, a friend's estate, or your own house? Every man's death makes me the less, for I am one with all mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, for it tolls for thee also."
The bell of Whitechapel Chapel has not rung for a long time, and we do not care about its ringing, as well as about who is behind the migrations of peoples in Europe, but we are obliged to hear the alarm bells of the consequences of not only uncontrolled migration, but also pseudo-historical fabrications.