N.E.Brandenburg: General, Polemologist and Archeologist

     By the end of the XIX century Nikolay Efimovich Brandenburg (1839-1903) achieved the most outstanding results in research of Old Ladoga. This lieutenant general, noble man was also a historian, an archeologist and a military writer.

     In 1858 Brandenburg graduated from Konstantinovsky Cadet Corps, in 1860-1870 he was a chamber-deacon of the faculty of the eastern languages of the University of St. Petersburg. During the Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878 Nikolay Efimovich detached to the acting army to collect materials about the acts of artillery in the battles and other historical data. He fought near Ruschsuk, Nikopol, Plevna. After he had returned to St. Petersburg he accomplished an astounding amount of work under the systematization of the museum collections entering the new items into them including the archive documents of the XVIII century. In 1879 Brandenburg founded the historical library and pre historical department of the Artillery Museum of History and brought in a free access for the visitors of its rooms. In order to collect new historical records he moved around the convents. In 1878-1902 Brandenburg carried out the archeological excavations. He published the results of the ground works in St. Petersburg and Novgorod regions in his tractate “The burial hills of southern Prilodozhye” (1895) and in his numerous articles.


               N. E. Brandenburg and Old Ladoga



     Among 29 historical and architectural scientific works of Brandenburg 20 are inscribed to Old Ladoga and Priladozhye.

     After he had been elected an official member of the Russian Royal Archeological Society (1878), Nikolay Efimovich constantly went with archeological expeditions to Priladozhye. Since 1878 till 1884 he explored about 150 burial hills situated mostly along the current of the river Pasha and along its influents. The results of the excavations were described by the scientist in his book “The burial hills of southern Prilodozhye”, published by the Royal archeological committee.
Brandenburg described all the burial hills precisely in details both materialistic objects, configuration of the burials and the conformation of the hills. 1004 units is the amount from the list of ancient objects found in the burial hills of Priladozhye.
Nikolay Efimovich wrote: “The burial hill culture of southern Priladozhye of the IX-XII centuries has become almost the first culture of the kind that was given an archeological amplification. Although it doesn’t refer to the Slavic culture, by the time it had been discovered it turned to be one of the first burial hill communities discovered by the followers of the Slavic-Russian archeology. There were many objects of Scandinavian origin among the finds: arms, fibulas, and bracelets.”

     A series of works by Brandenburg were published as precis in the archeological editions: “About the crania at the excavations near Ladoga Lake”, “About the traces of the Stone Age in southern Priladozhye”, “Revisited the question about the types of fibulas found at the ancient graves of European Russia”, “About the conjecturable excavations of the burial hills” on the Volhov, “The excavations of the supposed grave of Oleg the Oracle”, “The report about Mihailovskaya sugar loaf at the Volhov”. This is a small part of the Brandenburg works dedicated to the archeological monuments of Priladozye.


               The excavations at the fortress of Riurik



     In the process of excavations of 1878-1884 Brandenburg paid attention to an old town in Old Ladoga known as “The fortress of Riurik”. By the end of the XIX century only ruins left from this construction, the ancient stone walls and towers were left without care and security and were being destroyed constantly by the local citizens.

     The Royal Russian Archeological Society accepted the proposal of Brandenburg to initiate the excavations in Old Ladoga. Nikolay Efimovich was appointed the leader of the expedition of1884-1885 and got funds designated for the archeological excavations; the report concerning this matter was published merely 11 years later.
At the meetings in Archeological Society Nikolay Efimovich consistently insisted on the preservation of the monuments in Old Ladoga as well as on the necessity of the continuation of the research works. However there were not enough funds for the preservation of the old fortress. Although the requests and proposals of the scientist were constantly considered by different governmental authorities, they didn’t always fully approved them.

     Brandenburg continued his research of the ancient monuments in Old Ladoga in the ensuing years.

     In May 1886 he got an official permission for research works in Novolodozhsky uesd (dsitrict) of St. Petersburg region. In summer of the same year Nikolay Efimovich discovered the demolitions of an ancient church that could be attributed to the XII-XIII centuries. Because of the awfully stormy weather the research works were stopped. They had managed to dig out only a small part: the altar and a diaconicum from the ruins of the church. (The archive of the Institute of the artefactual culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

     His wish to continue the excavations of the church Brandenburg reported to the Royal Archeological committee and motivated like “from archeological aspect the mentioned ruins are considered to be the new material for the study of the ancient Russian church architectonics of one of the most remote periods, the circumstance moreover meaningful because according to some specialists’ opinion the construction of the Russian churches of the XII century can not be considered fully clarified…” The scholar reported that there were some grounds to think that the remains of the Savior’s church had been found and the nearest area used to be the Savior’s border of Ladoga”.

     After Brandenburg’s request painter Maksimov drew two pictures of the uncovered part of the church as well as some color pictures of the church ornament. In general 10 pictures and 8 photographs are stored in the archive of the Institute of the artefactual culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

     In Old Ladoga Brandenburg explored the remains of two old churches. “The church No. 1 is situated on the bank of Volhov near the embouchment of the Ladozhka…The church No. 2 is located on the left bank of the river Ladozhka, near the confluence with the river Zaklyuka close to a steep bluff leading to Ladozhka…”

     A big bronze chandelier, two iron trivet candelabra and the silver objects: a necklace, 6 earrings, 6 composed plaques with glass-like insets, the chaplet from an icon, a ring and two Novgorod coins of the XV century were found in the process of excavations of the aforementioned churches (1887-1888). The smaller coin was found outside of the church in the excavation of its foundation.

     The research of Nikoly Efimovich Brandenburg in Old Ladoga is an outstanding tribute into the study of the ancient land. His book “Old Ladoga” is still tabletop for those who try to consider the history of the past.




The series of articles about Brandenburg by L. Nazarova was used for this material.