Some Internet users attribute the phrase to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs that, thanks to ISU, the country managed to maintain its original culture. We checked the origin of this quote.

In recent years, many publications can be found in social networks, the authors of which are given by the words of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the good of the Mongol-Tatar yoke for Russia. There are such posts in Facebook, "VKontakte", "Classmates", Twitter, Livejournal And on many other resources. Most often, the statement attributed to Lavrov is formulated as follows: "The Mongol-Tatar yoke saved Russia from dissolution in the West."

The verified phrase began to be attributed to Lavrov in early March 2016. On one of forumswhere users discussed the “statement” of the minister, the commentator brought a link to note In the publication Lenta.ru, calling it the primary source. This publication, entitled “At the Crossroads of Key Trends,” appeared on March 3, 2016 and for the most part is a text written by Lavrov for the journal “Russia in Global Policy”. On the same day, he appeared on site Foreign Ministry, and three days later - on site the magazine itself.

The phrase attributed to Internet users Lavrov, it was not possible to find in the original text. At the same time, the article has such a paragraph: “Numerous scientific studies indicate a high - often higher than in Western European states - the cultural and spiritual level of development of the then (XI century. - approx. Ed.) Of Rus'. Its inscription in the pan -European context is recognized by many prominent Western thinkers. But at the same time, the Russian people, having their own cultural matrix, their spirituality, never merged with the West. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the tragic and largely turning point for our people of the Mongol invasion. Alexander Pushkin wrote: "The barbarians did not dare to leave enslaved Rus' in their rear and returned to the steppe of their East. The Christian education was saved by the tormented and exhausting Russia." The alternative opinion of Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov is also well known that the Mongol invasion contributed to the formation of an updated Russian ethnic group, that the Great Steppe gave us an additional impulse in development. ”

Apparently, the verified statement is a gluing of several thesis mentioned by the Minister. At first, Lavrov says that even before the Mongol invasion "the Russian people ... did not merge with the West." Then he quotes Pushkin’s words that Russia “saved” Europe from continuing the conquests (it is noteworthy that the unfilled article by the poet, from where Lavrov took a quote, called "On the insignificance of Russian literature"). After laurels, it also represents another point of view on that historical period, expressed Leo Gumilyov. The creator of the passionate theory of ethnogenesis believed that Rus' existed with the Mongol-Tatars in some symbiosis, although many researchers on this topic on this topic criticize.

Thus, the approval attributed to Lavrov is the result of extremely sloppy generalization, when a whole paragraph from the article of the minister one of the Internet users or authors in small media decided to formulate more capaciously, but in pursuit of form distorted the content. Although in the head of Russian diplomacy, Rus' never merged with the West, in retelling a similar choice is associated with the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The thesis about Rus' that saved Europe from the Horde turned into the thesis about IS, which saved Russia from a deeper integration with the West. Gumilyov’s alternative opinion cited by the Minister, in turn, became the point of view of the diplomat himself.

Photo on the cover: press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation / TASS