History is a science that is more than others influenced by the political situation. The generation born in the USSR was convinced of this from personal experience. And today, all over the world, attempts continue to rewrite textbooks and interpret proven facts in their own way, both to achieve various goals, including redrawing borders, and in pursuit of cheap sensations and dubious scientific fame. One of the scientists who actively promotes the need to revise the entire world history is Academician Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko. This article is devoted to his scientific work and the theory of "New Chronology".
Short biographical note
Fomenko Anatoly Timofeevich was born in 1945 in Donetsk. His parents were educated people (his father is a candidate of technical sciences, his mother is a philologist) and were fond of studying the mysteries of history. By the way, already being retired, the spousesFomenko repeatedly became co-authors of their 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 the years of study at school, he repeatedly became the winner of mathematical Olympiads of various levels.
In 1967, Fomenko graduated from the Mechanics Faculty of Moscow State University. There he was taught by such well-known representatives of Soviet mathematics as professors P. K. Rashevsky and V. V. Rumyantsev.
After receiving his 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's and doctoral dissertations, and in 1981 he received the title of professor at Moscow State University.
After 9 years, the scientist was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and a little later became its full member in the Department of Mathematics.
For many years, the scientist has been a member of the editorial boards of leading domestic journals devoted to problems of mathematical sciences, as well as several dissertation and academic councils.
Scientific activity
The main area of research interests of Academician Fomenko is mathematics. He owns works on the calculus of variations, the theory of Hamiltonian systems of differential equations, computer geometry and other promising scientific areas.
The results of Academician Fomenko's research are reflected in more than 280 scientific publications in mathematics, including 27 monographs, 10 textbooks and manuals. The scientist's books weretranslated into English, Serbian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Italian.
At the same time, the Russian mathematician Fomenko was repeatedly criticized by authoritative colleagues. In particular, the winner of the Abel Prize (an award comparable in terms of its prestige to the Nobel Prize) has repeatedly pointed out that the presentation of results in the introductions of his works has nothing to do with the true content of these articles and monographs.
A devastating article devoted to the mathematical works of Fomenko was also published by the American scientist F. Almgren. The latter accused his Russian colleague of the discrepancy between his declared achievements and real results.
New Chronology Project
Academician Fomenko did not limit himself to studying mathematics. In the 90s, he became interested in the problems of world history and expressed doubts about the truth of the generally accepted chronology of the presentation of events that took place in the world over the previous millennia. On the wave of 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 nothing less than Isaac Newton his predecessors. In the last years of his life, the brilliant scientist tried to subject the historical chronology accepted at that time to a scientific revision. At the same time, he considered religious texts to be the ultimate truth, so any discrepancies in historicaldocuments with the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Church Fathers for him were evidence of a deliberate distortion of facts in order to present certain peoples as ancient as 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 became the subject of study by the Jesuit scholar Jean Garduin, who considered contemporary historical science to be the result of a conspiracy against the true faith. In particular, this medieval philologist was convinced that the native language of Christ and his apostles was Latin.
Development of ideas of rejecting traditional historical chronology in Russia
Among Russians, Nikolai Morozov was the first to revise their views on dating events that have taken place in the world over the past 2-3 millennia.
This revolutionary populist, who had a wide range of scientific interests, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for the assassination attempt on Alexander II. The only book he had 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 the 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, ideasMorozov was revived by Professor of 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 Postnikov's ideas, and he was extremely interested in them. 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 US scientist based on an 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 jumps in the acceleration of the visible motion of the Moon are associated with the inhomogeneity of the rotation of our planet.
By the beginning of the 1980s, a circle of like-minded people formed around the future academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who began to promote 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 relating to the period from the 9th to the 17th century is considered 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 beforethe middle of the 1st millennium AD did not exist.
In addition, Fomenko and his followers argue that non-European civilizations are not as ancient as is commonly believed. In their opinion, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian history has no more than 10 centuries.
The generally accepted chronology is the result of a large-scale falsification that was carried out massively and simultaneously in several countries.
Methods
The "New Chronology" theory 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 about the fallacy of traditional chronology, the authors of the New Chronology also use the analysis of the Almagest. It is believed that this most detailed ancient 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 movement, 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 Fomenko's theory is occupied by issues related to the emergence of religions. The new theory believes that Christianity arose first of all, and only in the 15-16 centuries did Buddhism, Islam, etc. sprout from it.
Criticism
The ideas of Academician Fomenko and his theory did not meet with the support of the scientific community. Moreover, most reputable scientists have subjected them to severe criticism. The main argument of the opponents of the "New Chronology" is that it does not meet the fundamental requirement for any hypothesis - the consistency of data from other areas of science.
