History is a science that is more influenced by political conditions than others. The generation of births in the USSR was convinced of this by personal experience. And today, attempts to rewrite textbooks and interpret proven facts in their own way, both for achieving various goals, including redrawing borders, and in pursuit of cheap sensations and dubious scientific fame, continue throughout the world. One of the scientists who actively promotes the need for a revision of world history is academician Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko. This article is devoted to his scientific activity and the theory of the “New Chronology”.
Brief curriculum vitae
Fomenko Anatoly Timofeevich was born in 1945 in Donetsk. His parents were educated people (father - candidate of technical sciences, mother - philologist) and were interested in studying the mysteries of history. By the way, already retired, the spouses Fomenko repeatedly became co-authors of the son and participated in the creation of his “New Chronology”.
In 1959, Anatoly graduated from high school in Lugansk with a gold medal. In addition, during his studies at school, he repeatedly became the winner of mathematical olympiads of various levels.
In 1967, Fomenko graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics of Moscow State University. There he was taught such famous representatives of Soviet mathematical science as professors P.K. Rashevsky and V.V. Rumyantsev.
After receiving the diploma, Anatoly Timofeevich remained to continue his scientific work at the department of differential geometry of his faculty. In 1970 and 1972, the scientist defended his candidate and doctoral dissertations, and in 1981 received the title of professor at Moscow State University.
After 9 years, the scientist was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and a little later became its full member in the department of mathematics.
For many years, the scientist is a member of the editorial boards of leading Russian journals devoted to the problems of mathematical sciences, as well as several dissertation and academic councils.
Scientific activity
The main research area of the academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Fomenko is mathematics. He owns works on calculus of variations, the theory of Hamiltonian systems of differential equations, computer geometry, and other promising scientific fields.
The research results of academician Fomenko are reflected in more than 280 scientific publications in mathematics, including 27 monographs, 10 textbooks and teaching aids. The scientist’s books have been translated into English, Serbian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Italian.
At the same time, the Russian mathematician Fomenko was repeatedly criticized by reputable colleagues. In particular, the Abel Prize laureate (an award comparable in level of prestige to the Nobel Prize) has repeatedly pointed out that the presentation of the results in the introductions of his works has nothing to do with the true content of these articles and monographs.
The devastating article devoted to the mathematical works of Fomenko was published by the American scientist F. Almgren. The latter accused the Russian counterpart of the mismatch of the declared achievements with real results.
Project "New Chronology"
Academician Fomenko was not limited to the study of mathematics. In the 90s, he became interested in the problems of world history and questioned the truth of the generally accepted chronology of the presentation of events that took place in the world over the past millennia. In the wake of the denial of everything and all these ideas resonated with some of the scientists who did not achieve recognition in the field of official science and decided to become famous thanks to "sensational discoveries."
Forerunners of Fomenko's Theory
The followers of the academician consider as their predecessors as much as Isaac Newton himself. In the last years of his life, a brilliant scientist tried to subject to scientific revision the historical chronology accepted at that time. At the same time, he considered religious texts to be the ultimate truth, therefore, any discrepancies between historical documents and the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the church fathers were for him evidence of a deliberate distortion of facts in order to present these or other peoples more ancient than they really are.
These ideas were criticized by both contemporaries and scientists of subsequent generations, although many researchers recognized the correctness of the methodology applied by Isaac Newton.
Even earlier, the same questions were the subject of study by the Jesuit scientist Jean Garduin, who considered contemporary historical science to be the result of a conspiracy against the true faith. In particular, this medieval philologist was sure that the native language of Christ and his apostles was Latin.
The development of the denial of traditional historical chronology in Russia
Among Russians, Nikolai Morozov was the first to reconsider the views on dating events that took place in the world over the past 2-3 millennia .
This revolutionary populist, who had a wide field of scientific interests, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for the attempt on Alexander the Second. The only book that appeared in his hands was the New Testament. In the process of studying the Apocalypse, the scientist came across the idea that the description of the cataclysms that should precede the end of the world are very similar to natural phenomena known to him from the course of geophysics. Comparing the facts known to him, Morozov came to the conclusion that the book was written not in the 1st, but at the end of the 4th century AD. This view was later refuted. However, in the mid-1960s, the idea of Morozov was revived by professor at Moscow State University Mikhail Postnikov, known for his work in the field of algebraic topology. The scientist suggested using mathematical methods to solve chronological problems, but was not supported by the mathematical community.
The emergence of the "New Chronology"
Anatoly Fomenko was familiar with the ideas of Postnikov, and they were extremely interested in him. He had long puzzled over the paradox discovered by the American physicist Robert Newton, according to which around the 9th century AD there was a jump in the acceleration of the apparent motion of the moon. This conclusion was made by a scientist from the USA on the basis of analysis of information about lunar eclipses observed over several millennia. Fomenko suggested that there is no jump, and the reason for the fluctuation of this parameter is the incorrect dating of celestial phenomena. Subsequently, it was proved that the jumps in the acceleration of the apparent motion of the moon are associated with the inhomogeneous rotation of our planet.
By the beginning of the 1980s, a circle of like-minded people had formed around the future academician of the RAS, who were engaged in promoting the ideas of their theory.
Essence
The main idea of the "New Chronology" is that the history of mankind can be considered reliable only from the 18th century. Information regarding the period from the 9th to the 17th century is recognized as doubtful, since there are few written sources, it is impossible to draw conclusions by comparing several documents. Everything that is known about the period before the 9th century is proposed not to be taken as a fact, since the authors believe that writing did not exist until the middle of the 1st millennium AD.
In addition, Fomenko and his followers argue that non-European civilizations are not as ancient as is commonly believed. In their opinion, both Chinese, Japanese, and Indian history have no more than 10 centuries.
The generally accepted chronology is the result of large-scale falsification, which was carried out massively and simultaneously in several countries.
Methods
The theory of the “New Chronology” is based on astronomical data. However, its authors claim that, according to their calculations, all historical texts dated by reference to eclipses, the appearance of comets, meteorites, etc., were actually written no earlier than the 5th century AD.
To substantiate their ideas regarding the fallacy of traditional chronology, the authors of the New Chronology also use the Almagest analysis. It is believed that this most detailed antique catalog was created by Ptolemy in the middle of the 2nd century AD. However, Fomenko and his associates move this date 4 centuries later, based on errors in the coordinates of the stars, taking into account their motion, according to the laws of physics. True, only 8 out of 1000 celestial bodies were analyzed, which cannot be considered a representative sample.
A separate place in the theory of Fomenko is occupied by issues related to the emergence of religions. The new theory believes that Christianity first came into being, and only in the 15-16 centuries Buddhism, Islam, etc.
Criticism
The ideas of academician Fomenko and his theory did not find support from the scientific community. Moreover, most reputable scientists criticized them severely. The main argument of the opponents of the "New Chronology" is that it does not meet the fundamental requirement for any hypothesis - consistency of data from other fields of science.