What are the pioneers in America called? American Pioneers. Sticky earth of the valley

American pioneers

Some pioneers moved to farm with their families. Others were trappers (trappers) or went west to engage in various types entrepreneurial activity, without the intention of settling there forever.

Pioneers in the eastern United States often had to cut down forests for arable land. Most pioneers traveled to the "Wild West" in wagon caravans. The furthest climbers were hunters and trappers, whom the English traveler Fordham described as follows: “This is a brave, hardy breed of people, living in miserable huts ... They are uncouth, but hospitable, kind to strangers, honest and reliable. They grow low-growing Indian corn and pumpkins, raise pigs, sometimes keep one or two cows... However, the gun is their main source of subsistence." These people cut down forests, built log cabins, and drove the Indians off the lands they occupied.

The more settlers arrived in uninhabited places, the more among them there were not hunters, but farmers. The most enterprising people bought plots of land cheaply, and when it became more expensive, they sold it to the next settlers, and they themselves moved on, paving the way for others.

The migration to the West greatly influenced the formation of American socio-political values. It promoted personal initiative, educated people in the spirit of independence without the habit of relying on state protection, and coarsened manners.

The image of the brave and enterprising pioneer has become one of the main images of American culture, including folklore. In particular, such pioneers as Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket became heroes of folklore.

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “American Pioneers” are in other dictionaries:

Monument to Mormon Pioneers. Mormon pioneers (eng. Mormon pioneers) American settlers of the 19th century, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ... Wikipedia

Wright (aviation pioneers)- The Wright brothers' plane. National Air and Space Museum. Washington, USA. WRIGHT, American aviation pioneers, brothers: Orville (1871 1948) and Wilbur (1867 1912). The first in the world, on December 17, 1903, performed 4 sustained and... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

WRIGHT, American aircraft designers and pilots, aviation pioneers, brothers: Wilbur (1867 1912) and Orville (1871 1948). On December 17, 1903, they were the first in the world to make a flight lasting 59 seconds on an aircraft they built with an internal engine... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (from the French pionnier, pion pioneer): Wiktionary has an article “pioneer” ... Wikipedia

Contents 1 History 2 Life at the time of the arrival of Europeans 3 XVII - XVIII centuries ... Wikipedia

- (wright), brothers: Wilbur (1867–1912) and Orville (1871–1948), American inventors, pilots, creators of the world's first airplane. In 1903, they built a biplane glider with control mechanisms, installed on it a gasoline engine of its own... ... Encyclopedia of technology

American Indians ... Wikipedia

The former Wild West. States that are classified as Western by the US Census Bureau are highlighted in dark red; other states west of the Mississippi are shaded, also often included in the concept of the Wild West (English ... Wikipedia

Wright Encyclopedia "Aviation"

Wright- O. Wright Wright, brothers: Wilbur (18671912) and Orville (18711948) American aviation pioneers, aircraft designers and pilots, creators of the world's first aircraft capable of controlled, steady flight. Born in... ... Encyclopedia "Aviation"

Books

The Spy, or a Tale of No Man's Land, Fenimore Cooper. "Spy" is one of the most famous novels James Fenimore Cooper is a classic of American literature. In this novel, written in 1821, Cooper turns to the Revolutionary War period...
Pioneers of air convoys. Little-known pages of the war, Grigory Kiselev. This book tells about the events of 1942–1945 that took place in the northeast of our country. There, between Siberia and Alaska, there was an air route connecting two continents, two...

The “mountain states”—Montana in the north, Arizona and New Mexico in the south—much to the west of the East Coast, slightly east of the West Coast—fit neatly into the concept of the “American heartland.” Sparsely populated, one-story towns with a mostly white population. They don't lock you up here Houses, they say hello on the streets, they work hard and conscientiously. Utah is one of these quintessential “mountain states.” It differs from its neighbors - Wyomyoga, Colorado - in the religion of the majority of its population.
Mormons live in Utah.

I first read about Mormons as a child in The Notes of Sherlock Holmes. The hero of the story “Study in purple tones"Takes revenge on the Mormons who killed his bride in their harems. I almost forgot the plot of the story, but the strange word “Mormon” stuck firmly in my memory, painted in the darkest tones: polygamists, drunkards, conspirators. And of course, it didn’t nest only in my memory. I’ll say right away that Conan Doyle slandered the Mormons in the most shameless way; They seemed too strange to him from afar in Britain. He had never been to the state of Utah - the “Land of Saints” (see A. Conan Doyle).

Many years later I met my first Mormon. A geographer professor, he interned in Moscow for several years. He was very friendly and knowledgeable person, but when I was informed about his religion, I immediately asked: “How many wives does he have? Is he here with everyone?” I was unoriginal to the point of indecency; everyone asked the same thing (in words: everyone!) who found out about it. Well, we’ve read “Sherlock Holmes”! By the way, there was almost nothing else to read on this topic, except for an idiotic editorial footnote in the same Holmes, which harmoniously complemented Sir Arthur’s ignorance: “The Mormon faith is a mixture of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism,” and short notes in reference books.

However, the more we got to know Professor Leon Greer, the more ashamed we became of our first (standard and banal) reaction. He differed from the people we know only in that he did not drink coffee or tea and, of course, did not smoke or consume alcohol.

My old university friend, physicist and mathematician Viktor Privalsky, has been working in Utah for the last few years. In time his next vacation in Moscow, we discussed the plan for my possible arrival in the USA. Dr. Privalsky has established excellent connections with the Hopi Indians in northern Arizona and is ready was to take me there. And the life of the state Utah, where our correspondent has never gone before? Its entire history and current life are closely intertwined with the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints Last Days- this is the full name of the Mormon church. So the meeting with the Mormons was predetermined.

Moreover: it is agreed with them according to all the rules.
Sticky earth of the valley

On a clear Sunday morning, March 9th of this year I got off the plane at Salt Lake City - the state capital Utah. Hotel the minibus picked me up half an hour later, and through deserted suburban streets I drove to the hotel. All time it seemed like we were about to enter the center, but this never happened - the bright bulk of the temple appeared, several huge glass buildings, and then again a completely outlying street where we stopped. And that's it time, While we were driving and when I got out, my gaze rested on the mountain ranges, as if sprinkled with powdered sugar. These were the Rocky Mountains, and wherever I was in Utah, the Rocky Mountains closed the horizon, even when you crossed them: beyond the ridge the next one rose. Mountains - through the powdered sugar - brown and brown-gray - enclose the Salt Lake Valley on all sides. The sky was a cool blue.

The program started tomorrow morning. Friends were due to arrive any minute: the Greer and Privalsky spouses, and right off the bat start introducing me with the city and its attractions. Here in this state, history began 150 years ago, in 1847.

We left the highway onto a narrower, but no less equipped road and, after going uphill a little, we stopped at the monument. Bronze men in boots and wide-brimmed hats stood on a high square column. The lower pedestals were crowned with horsemen, the bas-reliefs depicted huge wagons drawn by oxen, a man and a woman pulling two-wheeled carts loaded with belongings. A boy was pushing the cart. Not symbols were depicted, but real people. The veins are strained on the man’s forehead, the extensive shawl fits the woman’s shoulders, and it is clear that the shawl is sweating; the teenager's rough shoes and thick stockings were stiff with sweat and dirt.

“These places,” Professor Greer began the lecture I was waiting for, “were deserted, but settlers heading to the promising West passed through the Valley. Few have succeeded. In 1846, Donner's group got stuck here: snow blocked the passes and landslides blocked them. And there was no means of subsistence. We had to eat each other. Literally. The remnants of the group were brought out in the spring by a trapper hunter who traded with the Indians in these places. It was easier for single trappers to get here than for immigrants with families and belongings. The Indians appeared here only for hunting in the mountains: places were considered cursed. So the trapper was amazed when the following year he met our Mormon ancestors in the Valley. He was even more surprised to learn that they intended to settle here. And when he found out that they had planted wheat and corn, he was completely cheerful and promised a hundred dollars if something sprouts and ripens. One hundred dollars was a lot of money in those days. For them you could buy a healthy slave.

— Did they trade slaves here? - I asked.

- No. The Mormons were strongly opposed to slavery, and those who owned slaves came to Utah and immediately freed them. There were few of them; my ancestors, for example, had. For everyone, as I said, this was a cursed land. For Mormons, it is the Promised Land, where Brigham Young, the second prophet, who clearly fulfilled the commandments of the first prophet, Joseph Smith, led them. Everything here corresponded to the biblical descriptions of the Holy Land: Salt Lake - an analogue of the Dead Sea (in the Bible - Salt Lake), a river that flowed into it and flowed out like the Jordan from the freshwater Lake Utah (the river was called Jordan), desert arid lands. Smith predicted all this, and it all came true. After a while time discovered copper deposits, exactly like in Israel. Only the sizes are much larger.

Brigham Young looked around the Valley and said that here - on the very spot where we stand - a city would be founded. Exactly according to the plan laid out by Joseph Smith. Young was a fair and tough man who was in charge of everything. He was, like his other co-religionists, a polygamist and the father of fifty-one children. And he abolished polygamy so as not to anger the federal authorities. Relations with them were difficult to establish. Polygamy was introduced by Smith himself: the Old Testament patriarchs and kings devoutly adhered to it, and they were the main example. In addition, men died and were killed more often, and many women were left alone, without support or spousal assistance. Unfortunately, this custom became one of the causes of tension between the Mormons and their neighbors. And one of the persistent stereotypes associated with the sons of the Church created by Smith. But we will talk about the Mormon faith - in its briefest form - below. It’s just that when talking about the Migrant Village - an open-air museum - one cannot do without mentioning Brigham Young.

The wide brown valley, bordered by mountains, was, in fact, the Village of Migrants. Boardwalk replaced the sidewalk, and along it here and there were black huts. Low, made of logs, caulked with white clay (but with good windows), they barely towered over a person of even average height. Behind them stood a church, then a community house - already covered with boards and carefully painted. And quite comfortable, just like residential ones Houses, built immediately after people settled in. There was no point in calling them huts anymore.

And by the end of the street the village had simply become civilized, except perhaps with wooden walkways. This, by the way, was the city of Salt Lake City a hundred and thirty years ago.

Both corn and wheat still sprouted. But the trapper suddenly had a chance to save his hundred: when the ears of grain became heavy, locusts suddenly swooped in - just like in Old Testament. And when it seemed that the work had gone to waste, a miracle happened: clouds of seagulls flew in and pecked the locusts. Since then seagull - state symbol Utah. And the second symbol is a beehive. For bee industriousness is one of the main virtues of believers. And even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not deny this (which at least slightly justifies it in our eyes along with its brilliant plots).

Having listened to the stories of a descendant of pioneers (a true geographer!), interesting and detailed, in which improvisation was based on abundant knowledge, I accidentally stepped off the bridge and stepped onto the brown, seemingly dry ground. At the same moment, my shoe went deep with a squelch, and I barely managed to pull it out - a pound of dirt stuck to it. The ground turned out to be sticky and dangerous. How 17 thousand people walked across this land, pushing wagons, dragging carts! They traveled 1,300 miles from the Mississippi, heading West into complete uncertainty. I, who took just one step, cannot imagine it, but if each of their millions of steps was the same, then it was a feat. Of the ten detachments with carts, eight made it through with losses. Two died.

There was no turning back for them. They have already left, one by one, the states of New York, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois.
Mormons

(the briefest information)

I will say right away: everything I report was taken by me from sources published by the Church itself. I was carefully provided with all this.

Mormons are Christians; they believe in the Eternal God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Here are - verbatim - some basic symbols:

"8. We believe that the Bible is the word of God because it is translated correctly; we also believe that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God.”

"10. We believe in the true reunification of Israel and the restoration of the ten tribes; that Zion (New Jerusalem) will be founded on the American continent; that Christ will personally reign on earth and that the earth will be renewed and receive its heavenly beauty.”

In 1805, a boy named Joseph Smith was born in Vermont. About nine years later his father moved to New York State. The people in those places were extremely religious, Protestants of various sects, very concerned about whose sect was better. Young Joseph was turned away from all of them by the hostility of preachers and believers among themselves. He attended various church meetings but stayed away. And I decided to turn directly to God. At just over fourteen years old, Joseph prayed in a secluded place in the forest. A terrible darkness suddenly enveloped him. At that moment, when he was ready to despair, he saw above his head a pillar of light brighter than the sun and two people standing in the air above him. One of them called Smith by name and said, pointing to the other: “This is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him! They forbade him to join any sect. (All this and what follows is a retelling of Joseph Smith's own story.)

The next vision was year in four. Then a man appeared to his bed at night out of thin air, lighting up the room brighter than the sun. He said his name was Moroni and that God had a commission for Joseph Smith. And he spoke about a hidden book, written on golden sheets and containing the history of the former inhabitants of America. Moroni appeared two more times. And once again - with a voice from heaven. Smith accurately found the place where the book and two stones in silver frames were kept - the Urim and Thummim; these stones (from those that were worn on the breastplate by the high priests of the Jerusalem Temple) were supposed to help him in the translation. But time for retrieving sheets from storage has not yet arrived. You should have come in a year, then again in a year. And again. Permission was not forthcoming for several years; it did not come until 1827, when Joseph Smith was 22. year and he started a family. The gift received could not be shown to anyone. The people chosen for this purpose will be named. When Smith copied the letters onto paper, it turned out that they were slightly modified Egyptian hieroglyphs. — Moroni took the hidden book.

In April 1829 year at the door Houses The Smiths were knocked by a hitherto unknown man named Oliver Kaulerp. He had heard the story of the gold plates and wanted to know everything first hand.

Two days later, both sat down to work: Smith translated, and Cowdery recorded. Sixteen days later the translation was completed. After this, the gold plates were allowed to be shown to three witnesses and again to eight. About which they, with the respect for documents characteristic of the Anglo-Saxons, drew up certificates with signatures and a seal.

This is how the Book of Mormon came to be. And here is the briefest summary of it.

The “Book” tells about the Israeli Lehi, a resident of Jerusalem, a righteous man. God commanded him to leave besieged Jerusalem in 600 BC. Jerusalem was soon destroyed. Lehi “with his children and household” built a ship, guided by God’s will, crossed the ocean and landed somewhere on the American continent.

From him and his sons Nephi and Laman came two powerful nations: the Nephiites and the Lamanites. Moreover, the Nephiites remained God-fearing, while the Lamanites fell into sin and harbored enmity towards their relatives. The Nephiites preserved their culture and preserved the records of the history of the People of Israel until the days when their ancestors left Jerusalem, and the histories of other nations, and their writing. Prophets and priests taught them morals and faith. And the Savior visited this people in America immediately after the Resurrection. What is directly stated in the “Gospel of John”: “I have other sheep that are not from this fold, and these must I bring.” The Savior taught the Nephiites the same things as the people in Palestine and founded the Church.

As long as people followed Christ's commandments, they prospered. But the richer they became, the weaker their faith became. The prophets warned the Nephiites of the dangers of going the wrong way. Among these prophets was Mormon, who kept the records of his people. He compiled them together, wrote them down on gold plates, and gave them to his son Moroni. Fate would have it that Moroni survived the death of his fellow tribesmen at the hands of his kindred Lamanites. And shortly before his death, he buried the sheets in the hills named Cumorah, which ended up fourteen centuries later in the state of New York, Wayne County - not far from the city of Palmyra.

This is brief history"Books of Mormon".

It should be added that the remnants of the Lamanite people became the ancestors of many Indian tribes.
Exodus

Spring 1830 year The Book of Mormon was published - five thousand copies. And thousands of people accepted the new teaching. In April 1830 year six of the Three and Eight Witnesses who saw the gold plates founded the new Church and proclaimed Joseph Smith to be “a seer, prophet, and apostle of Jesus Christ.”

Even more people were hostile to the Mormons. Immediately after the creation of the Church, Smith was arrested. His preaching allegedly created riots "caused by the reading of the Book of Mormon." True, they released him very soon. Then persecution began, which accompanied the prophet until his death.

In 1831, the elders decided to move west to establish a community there; in New York State they would not have been allowed to do this.

They didn't succeed in Missouri either. Here another important circumstance was added to the religious differences: Missouri was a strictly slave state, and the Mormons were said to be strongly against slavery. Nevertheless, the Mormons lived in Missouri for about seven years and built the first Temple in the city of Kirtland until mobs defeated them. Houses. The Prophet was dragged out into the street, beaten half to death, smeared with tar, rolled in feathers and left for dead. The Prophet survived. But it became impossible to remain in Missouri. Them moreover, the governor of the state Boggs ordered the Mormons to be expelled or destroyed.

After crossing the frozen river, the believers found themselves on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi. Here, in a swampy area, they built the city of Nauvoo, which in the biblical language known to the prophet meant “Beautiful Settlement.” Believers flocked here: from the eastern states, from Canada, from England. The Second Temple grew. By 1844, the city of Nauvoo had become the most comfortable and largest in the state of Illinois: twenty thousand residents! Twelve thousand then lived in unpaved Chicago.

The peace in Nauvoo did not last long. Religious intolerance - seemingly strange among the descendants of people who themselves experienced it in Europe - flared up again. Joseph Smith and his brother were imprisoned in the city of Carthage. The walls of the prison were supposed to protect them from the people's lynching. June 27, 1844 year both were shot by assassins with their faces covered in scarves.

The character of a believer differs from the character of an unbeliever in that persecution is so similar to what the Old Testament Chosen People endured! — only strengthen his faith. And what about the martyrdom of the prophet? Didn't Moses die without seeing the Land of Canaan? Were not Christian saints martyrs?

And the number of Mormons has only grown.

The more I read about the history of the Mormon exodus, the more I wondered what was the cause of the hostility that surrounded them in the eastern states? Probably, the dissimilarity of their teachings with those that flourished wildly - sect on sect - in these places. The word “America” was absent from the Holy Scriptures: and for Protestants, the Bible is the basis of everything. For some reason, it began to seem to me that the fact that the prophet was a contemporary and compatriot, as well as his simple surname Smith, also played an important role. The prophet must have some unpronounceable Hebrew, Greek or Arabic name. And what are these miracles? In our time?!

And of course, polygamy was annoying, especially as it provided a topic for gossip and indignation. By the way, it is still present in these gossip to this day.

Brigham Young became the second prophet, and under his leadership 17 thousand people in February 1846 year crossed the frozen Mississippi. The Great-Migration-in-Wagons-to-the-West began. As Joseph Smith prophesied, “in the heart of the Rocky Mountains you will become a great nation.”
Dinner at the Blancherds

Every morning, after carefully polishing my shoes, I went to the administrative building of the Church as if I were going to work. I passed by Levny Houses- Young's former mansion, past his monument. Engraved on the pedestal are the names of all the heads of families who came with him, including three “colored ministers” - black slaves. Gold stars are awarded to those who lived to see the fiftieth anniversary of the city's founding. Among them was one colored man who was immediately freed in the South. At the gates of Temple Square, young, modestly dressed girls, always in twos, smiled:

- Good morning! Do you need help?

Broad-shouldered guys in ties passed by, also together:

—Are you looking for something, sir?

At ten o'clock sharp I entered the lobby, but before I could reach my seat, Don LeFevre from the press department, a trim older gentleman, emerged from the elevator. He looked after me All time in the city: drove to the city of Provo to the university; made an agreement with his neighboring family.

“I would invite you to my place, but you are more interested in a family with children, and ours have already flown from the nest.” We had three, my wife couldn’t give birth later, and we adopted two more. Everyone has already grown up...

There were seven children in the Blanchard family. I found Houses five: the two eldest have already gone to missionaries. Missionary work is a religious duty, and everyone gives it two year. Therefore, in conversations with Mormons, missionary service is the same time stamp as military service for us. When you hear “This was before the missionary” or “I just remember, I returned from the mission,” you immediately understand that the interlocutor was 21 years old at that time. And you also understand that then he got married.

One Blanchard son worked for Philippine island Cebu. The second is in even more difficult conditions: in the South Bronx in New York. The Cebuano son just turned 21 and the whole family gathered to celebrate.

The table was rich and American, and the water—the only drink of the entire evening—reminded me that I was in a Mormon home. Mormons also don’t drink tea or coffee, and I remember that finding coffee in the city, especially decent coffee, remained my eternal concern.

At the end of the evening, we recorded a letter to the hero of the day on a tape recorder. Who sang, who told. It reminded me very much of a carefully rehearsed amateur concert. Asked to tell a couple words and me. I wished the guy well, apologized for his pronunciation and honestly admitted that I felt very warm and good in his family.

We wandered around the local museum for a long time: it contains everything that the short history of Utah has accumulated. The state is quite large - half of France, and the people in total are two and a half million, in the capital - one hundred and seventy thousand.

- And all Mormons? - I asked.

“Not all,” answered Mr. LeFevre, “but most.” But there are only 10 million of us in the world. Let's go to the Archaeological Hall.

At first it did not attract my attention: I had seen richer archeology. Then I began to look with great interest at the finds of the pre-Columbian period: some images of bearded people with simply Canaanite faces, oriental coins. Under each - date. Something about me confused her. I kept trying to understand: what? Found in our century, mostly. In our century? And Joseph Smith had no way of knowing this.
Conversation with the Apostle about miracles

The apostle agreed to accept me. The apostle's name was Jeffrey R. Holland.

Agree, few people can boast of having talked with a living apostle. When I talked about this Houses, Everything was perceived as a joke. In Moscow, they are not accustomed to the fact that these days apostles walk the earth and communicate with people. They walked in other times and in other places. By the way, Muscovites are especially mistaken here: it was in Moscow that Jeffrey R. Holland visited and worked. But the misconceptions of Muscovites are forgivable: where is Salt Lake City, and where is our capital! American acquaintances listened to me too incredulously. They could know the reality of their country better.

But even Americans can be forgiven for being distrustful. It’s just that both we and they don’t think about the meaning of the word “apostle,” which in Greek means “preacher,” “messenger.” And the twelve apostles of the Bible were at first ordinary people - fishermen, for example. But, having become disciples of Jesus, they were called to preach the truth and left their everyday activities. Mormons believe that they have restored Christianity to the form it was in the time of Jesus. That is why their highest body is called the Council of the Twelve Apostles. Above him only President of the Church. He is called the Prophet.

I read about all this in advance and was no longer surprised at much of it; for example, that a bishop here, as in the days of the first Christians, is called a person who in other places is called a parish priest. But still... Still, it is not every day that an ordinary person meets a living apostle. In advance, I asked Mr. LeFevre how I should address him: simply “apostle,” “Apostle Holland,” or something else? It should have been Elder Holland, Elder.

At the appointed time time Wearing an appropriate jacket and a dull tie, I entered the reception area. Two assistants were sitting here: the offices of the two apostles opened into the reception area. AND I'll be there in a minute greeted by a middle-aged man in a well-tailored suit. He was kind and friendly. And of course, very busy. Therefore, we immediately agreed that I would take half an hour from him. It was my offer, but I think if I had asked for more time, he would have agreed. After all, it was his job to explain the truth to the ignorant. And by calling: before becoming an apostle, he was professional teacher- President of Brigham Young University in Provo, an hour's drive from here.

We agreed that Elder Holland would begin with some postulates that are especially important for general understanding, and then try to explain what remains for me misunderstood.

“First of all,” he said, “remember: our Church is not Protestant.” Protestantism arose in the depths of Catholicism, but we restored the living Church of Jesus Christ from those times when there was no schism in Christianity. Yes, we know that many consider us one of the Protestant sects. But if you understand our differences, it will be easier for you to understand us.

I felt like a student, and it was a pleasant feeling: a student has the right to ask the teacher any question without fear of seeming stupid and ignorant.

I asked my first question.

“Elder Holland,” I asked, “why were the inscriptions on the sheets that looked like gold, given to Smith, in Egyptian?” Why not in ancient Hebrew or ancient Greek, as is usual in the holy books?

— Interesting question, - approved of me apostle - I tried to explain this myself. And do you know what conclusion you came to? Egyptian hieroglyphs—each a whole word—are much more economical than letters: more can be written on less parchment or metal. And many people could read this. It was the language of commerce of the Ancient East. Abraham, of course, knew him. In Egypt he communicated with the priests. With the family of Lehi, the Egyptian language came to America.

Elder Holland undoubtedly knew and loved this topic.

“I have been researching the Book of Mormon for many years. And I see many miracles in it. She probably looked like this

- He handed me a stack of miniature copper sheets on a beautiful stand - the students gave it as a gift.

Each piece of paper was covered with neat hieroglyphs.

- Look, on each small piece of paper there are several phrases, but everything can be made out. Do you read Egyptian? Neither do I. And you and I are educated people. Smith was fourteen and a half years old. God chooses the young. A farm boy, he went to school for two winters. And he did the translation - from ancient Egyptian! - within 16 days. Isn't this a miracle?

Well, our opponents say, he didn’t translate it, but composed it himself. But even if this were so, how could an uneducated village boy do it?

I am a professor, I have a computer and assistants at my service. Wrote two books. How many of them did I write? And who will remember them? But I’m just analyzing his book. Further. Smith's text is full of Hebraisms and Egyptisms. I assure you that neither Hebrew nor Ancient Egyptian was ever taught in parochial schools. He has a description of the coin system - we still can’t really explain it in English. At 24 year he is married, supports a family, publishes a book. And he creates a plan for the City of Zion - one to one with the current Salt Lake City. As you know, he had never been to Utah, he did not enter it with his people, like Moses did into the Promised Land, but he knew everything for sure: Salt Lake, our Jordan River.

I did not interrupt the apostle, although I did not everything is up to me it came. The issue of miracles is very important in any religion, and there is no religion without miracles. I mean something that cannot be explained by experience or knowledge. By the way, the famous expression “I believe because it is absurd,” which many generations of scientists and not-so-atheists made fun of, should be understood as “if something that exists does not fit into the framework of my consciousness, I can only only believe, and don’t try to explain.”

- And finally. Have you seen Joseph Smith's manuscript in the museum?

I saw her the day before. Clear handwriting, straight lines without blots. It seems to be the most valuable exhibit.

- Now listen. There are no errors in it. So, individual dialecticisms,” Elder Holland’s voice took on a professorial solemnity. “I can tell you that this is a true miracle.” I taught for thirty years English language. And for this time I have never seen a person among the most educated who could express thoughts in English without errors!
Surrounded by mountains

There are so few smokers in Salt Lake City that when they meet on the street (and you can’t meet them anywhere else), they greet each other with a bashful smile: “Hello, O my outcast brother!” The overwhelming majority of non-smokers also greet strangers on their street.

A city where I walked a lot during my free time from work time, turned out to be much more diverse than at the first meeting. As soon as you move away from the two central streets, from Temple Square, you go deeper into neighborhoods that imperceptibly flow into each other. Very clean, sparsely populated, with silvery mountains at the end, they seemed not so different from each other, but delving into the next one, I watched how these differences grew until their quantity turned into quality.

Evenus Quarter - two-story Houses of magnificent brick, scattered among soft hills, shaded with old trees, is a rich quarter in England, and only. Man riding a bicycle in state police uniform Utah - “Hai! How are you?” - reminds that it is far from the Old Motherland - England. And yet the crooked streets here are so European...

And a little further - and Houses good, but a little thinner, and the streets are straight. Further - Houses even a little weaker, one-story and two streets out onto the highway. Everyone you meet is white; you hardly see anyone else. Only once or twice did I meet black people - in business jackets and ties, together, with amiable smiles, they were most likely Mormon ministers. The fact that the city is the capital of the Church of Jesus Christ is confirmed by the bright bulk of the Temple, and the monuments, and even above the City Council - a secular institution - the golden statue of the angel Moroni sparkles, illuminated by a spotlight at night.

However, from a distance I found my way to the hotel along a high spire with a Catholic cross; For some, decent coffee was sold in rare places.

Once, walking along a completely unfamiliar street, I noticed a building of oriental architecture. I even thought that a wealthy Indian could build this for himself. But from the opposite sidewalk I saw an Orthodox cross and a glazed icon of the Mother of God attached above the entrance. This did not really fit in with the oriental appearance of the building. But the Jewish inscription running in an arc along the pediment did not fit at all: “Montefiore Community.”

I crossed over to the other side. The advertisements belonged to the Orthodox: in English and Serbian, but in Latin letters and without the proper icons. An elderly woman passed by on her way to church.

“Excuse me,” I asked in Russian, “whose church is this?”

“I don’t understand,” the lady answered, “my dad knew Church Slavonic well, and I only English.

I repeated the question.

- Whose? - she was surprised. - Orthodox. Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian. There is no difference, but we all speak English.

- And the Greeks come here?

“They are Orthodox too,” the woman confirmed and waved her hand. - They still have their own temple. Although they also speak more English, they like the service to be in Greek. I was born here, it has always been this way.

On the sign at the entrance I read that this building was built as an Orthodox synagogue at the beginning of the century. As the community weakened (either most of the parishioners left or turned to more modern forms of Judaism), the house began to deteriorate. But in Utah, which carefully treats its monuments, not God knows what ancient history, it was restored and then ceded to the growing Slavic Orthodox community.

Like every small city, Salt Lake City cannot be recognized or understood at first glance: its life is much more complex and varied than it seems to a passing guest.
Family history

I think one of the most interesting places I saw in Salt Lake City was the Library family history. It is also called the Genealogical Center.

Even at the Museum, I noticed that the realism of the local painters would be the envy of the visual agitation and propaganda sector of the Main Political Directorate Soviet army. It even seemed to me that I had studied such paintings and posters well in the distant past. time of his army youth. Mr. LeFevre agreed with me: he served in the army of a potential enemy around the same time time. He liked this art.

“We definitely don’t have Picasso,” he noted, “but it’s understandable and accessible to everyone.” And this is the main thing.

At that moment we stood in front of a vast canvas. In its lower left corner, fresh-looking adults in white clothes extended their hands to an elderly woman and man and children - in the center of the picture, and they, accepting a handshake with one hand, extended the other to the upper right part of the picture. From there, in turn, people of different ages were drawn to them.

— Connection between generations? - I suggested.

- Exactly. We believe that past, living and future generations coexist. And the dead will be resurrected in flesh and blood. The connection between generations is not only spiritual, but also physical, strong. A person must know his ancestors. He is not responsible only for descendants, but also for them.

Everything that has been said could be taken as a declaration (“Return to the roots! Remember the covenants of our ancestors!”) if I were dealing with anyone other than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the Church, genealogy (as, indeed, everything else) is taken seriously and specifically and is put on a grand scale. With the involvement of all the achievements of science and technology.

America is a country of immigrants, the roots of its inhabitants are in the Old World. And Mormon missionaries in all - where possible - countries of the world make copies of church, parish, community and municipal books. Then all the data is put into a computer. Now it contains 2 billion names.

I was interested in the work of genealogy collectors, especially since anyone can use their fruits, but, unlike members of the Church, for a fee. True, quite moderate. Due to differences between Mormons and other Christians, information is not provided to them in all church parishes in the world. Orthodox Jewish communities also do not provide their data: first of all, because a person who accepts the Mormon faith also baptizes all his ancestors.

Church and community books are very useful things. After all, they didn’t write down only who, where and when was born, married and died, but also indicated the reason. And if this is firmly, scientifically compiled in a computer, a most interesting picture emerges - interesting, for example, for doctors who determine the heredity of a disease. By the way, doctors make up a considerable part of the Library’s paid users.

The library was very close - across the street from the administration building. It did not even seem as large as one might have expected from the abundance of stored material. It turned out that two of its floors were underground. But this is what I found out then when I was taken there by a kind and very knowledgeable lady named Mrs. Choquette - emphasis on the last syllable and with the French "sh".

This French surname, by the way, is a husband, and its bearer herself is a Swede originally from Finland, and even with a drop of either Russian or Karelian blood. In any case, the last name of one of her grandfathers was Nifontov. She spoke English, French, Swedish, Finnish. And it’s not bad at all in Russian with very nice old-fashioned turns of phrase. Grandfather Nifontov, judging by her conversation, was an educated man.

We started with computers.

— How do you spell your last name? "Mints" in English spelling? Now let's see how many namesakes you have on the West Coast of the United States.

It turned out that all the telephone books of the States and Europe are also stored in the machine’s thrifty memory. The screen flickered and paper came out of the printer. Half a page of it was taken up by the Mints, who had nothing to do with me. I still looked with hope. What if? After David, Robert and Christopher Mints, who was no longer going anywhere at all, flashed Atanas Minchev and Leonid Minchenko. But the Mintsoulis went in a phalanx: Angelos, Angelos, Angelos, Demetrios. Following Demetrios Mintsoulis came the neat rows of Mintsopoulos: Angelos, Andreas and others. At Mintsopoulos Agamemnon I asked to stop the car. I have Agamemnon there were no relatives, even distant ones.

I don't know the Mormon description of heaven, but for anyone interested in the science of names - onomastics, it is located in the underground floors of the Library. Ms. Choquette works there in the Scandinavian and Slavic department.

There were stacks of books on the shelves. Scandinavian parish books, collections of samples of clerk's handwriting (and not for one century!), directories of typical and atypical errors. It turns out that the simple peasant name Juhan (where can I go wrong?) can be distorted in seven different ways. If we take into account that during its long history, Sweden managed to be part of Denmark, Norway - Sweden, and Finland, being united with Russia by the personality of the monarch, the language of office work, left Swedish, replaced by Finnish, and each settlement had two names (remember: Turku - Abo), and besides, the clerk could have poor command of the prescribed language, you will understand what a vast field of activity Mrs. Choquette has.

“That’s not all,” she clarified. — There were almost no names there. Nielsen, Svensson, Hansen are middle names, go figure it out.

I imagined only the Alexandrovichs and Alexandrovens, whom I know, and mentally thanked that our government, which (also, by the way, relatively recently) assigned citizens various and euphonious surnames.

- But in America it became a surname? - I asked. - But here, after all, the percentage of Hansens and Svenssons is not the same as in their old homeland. So make it easier for you.

“If only,” Mrs. Choquette sighed, “many came with more complex surnames.” And the Anglo-Saxons pronounce foreign word I can't. So many have changed them, or they just took out the middle and went with the rest. The man's name was Grim maldursson - he became Grimson. It’s good if he still remembers this.

She showed me the finished family tree. By God, it looked no worse than those of august persons. Is it possible that instead of the Dukes of Anhalt-Zerbt and the Duchesses of Braganza e Funchal, simple Lindgrens and Rainarsudssons. Last names changed but the family tree remained the same. I traced the changes with my finger: Mrs. Choquette nodded.

“Almost all the vowels were decorated with icons on top, they were removed, and the surname seemed to become bald, and the combinations of letters were so unusual that, having found their roots, a second-generation American would not be able to pronounce them even under the threat of the death penalty.

I imagined how this old man came to her, not a Mormon at all, but simply in his old age who decided to get closer to his roots and was able to pay 200 dollars for it. They compiled a tree for him, the computer gave him the data, and all that was left was to find out what the original name sounds like. He calls himself Mr. Weed.

Mrs. Choquette looks at the piece of paper and says:

- This, Mister Weed, is spelled Askolgrustenvid. But you need to read, you see “a” with a circle, it’s almost “o”: Oshyoolgruushnviy.

- How? - asks the shocked client in a trembling voice. - Oshk... Oshyo... No, this is impossible! What parish are the ancestors from?

“It’s not at all difficult,” answers Mrs. Choquette, “they seem to be from Finland?” Now let's see. Oh, here it is. Vankhaturmosjärvi.

- How?! - The poor guy faints.

Or something like that. I think I made up too simple an example.

I found out almost nothing about myself - for the reasons given above. But we still managed to find out something. And I hope to learn more. In any case, every evening when I returned to the hotel, the receptionist handed me a package from the Library with new details.

I received the last letter from there already in Moscow.

The “mountain states”—Montana in the north, Arizona and New Mexico in the south—much to the west of the East Coast, slightly east of the West Coast—fit neatly into the concept of the “American heartland.” Sparsely populated, one-story towns with a mostly white population. People don’t lock their houses here, say hello on the streets, and work hard and conscientiously. Utah is one of these quintessential “mountain states.” It differs from its neighbors - Wyomyoga, Colorado - in the religion of the majority of its population. Mormons live in Utah.

I first read about Mormons as a child in The Notes of Sherlock Holmes. The hero of the story “A Study in Scarlet” takes revenge on the Mormons who killed his bride in their harems. I almost forgot the plot of the story, but the strange word “Mormon” stuck firmly in my memory, painted in the darkest tones: polygamists, drunkards, conspirators. And of course, this nestled not only in my memory. I’ll say right away that Conan Doyle slandered the Mormons in the most shameless way; They seemed too strange to him from afar in Britain. He had never been to the state of Utah - the “Land of Saints” (see A. Conan Doyle).

Many years later I met my first Mormon. A geographer professor, he interned in Moscow for several years. He was a very friendly and knowledgeable man, but when I was told about his religion, I immediately asked: “How many wives does he have? Is he here with everyone?” I was unoriginal to the point of indecency; everyone asked the same thing (in words: everyone!) who found out about it. Well, we’ve read “Sherlock Holmes”! By the way, there was almost nothing else to read on this topic, except for an idiotic editorial footnote in the same Holmes, which harmoniously complemented Sir Arthur’s ignorance: “The Mormon faith is a mixture of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism,” and short notes in reference books.

My old university friend, physicist and mathematician Viktor Privalsky, has been working in Utah for the last few years. During his next vacation in Moscow, we discussed the plan for my possible arrival in the USA. Dr. Privalsky had established excellent connections with the Hopi Indians in northern Arizona and was willing to take me there. And the life of the state of Utah, where our correspondent has never set foot? Its entire history and current life are closely intertwined with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - this is the full name of the Mormon church. So the meeting with the Mormons was predetermined.
Moreover: it is agreed with them according to all the rules.

Sticky earth of the valley

On the bright morning of Sunday, March 9th of this year, I stepped off the plane in Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah. The hotel minibus picked me up half an hour later, and I drove through deserted suburban streets to the hotel. All the time it seemed like we were about to enter the center, but this never happened - the bright bulk of the temple appeared, several huge glass buildings, and then again a completely outlying street where we stopped. And all the time while we were driving and when I got out, my gaze rested on the mountain ranges, as if sprinkled with powdered sugar. These were the Rocky Mountains, and wherever I was in Utah, the Rocky Mountains closed the horizon, even when you crossed them: beyond the ridge the next one rose. Mountains - through the powdered sugar - brown and brown-gray - enclose the Salt Lake Valley on all sides. The sky was a cool blue.

The program started tomorrow morning. Friends were supposed to arrive any minute: the Greer and Privalsky spouses and right off the bat start introducing me to the city and its attractions. Here in this state, history began 150 years ago, in 1847.

“These places,” Professor Greer began the lecture I was waiting for, “were deserted, but settlers heading to the promising West passed through the Valley. Few have succeeded. In 1846, Donner's group got stuck here: snow blocked the passes and landslides blocked them. And there was no means of subsistence. We had to eat each other. Literally. The remnants of the group were brought out in the spring by a trapper hunter who traded with the Indians in these places. It was easier for single trappers to get here than for immigrants with families and belongings. The Indians appeared here only to hunt in the mountains: the places were considered cursed. So the trapper was amazed when the following year he met our Mormon ancestors in the Valley. He was even more surprised to learn that they intended to settle here. And when he found out that they had planted wheat and corn, he was completely cheerful and promised a hundred dollars if something sprouts and ripens. One hundred dollars was a lot of money in those days. For them you could buy a healthy slave.

— Did they trade slaves here? - I asked.
- No. The Mormons were strongly opposed to slavery, and those who owned slaves came to Utah and immediately freed them. There were few of them; my ancestors, for example, had. For everyone, as I said, this was a cursed land. For Mormons, it is the Promised Land, where Brigham Young, the second prophet, who clearly fulfilled the commandments of the first prophet, Joseph Smith, led them. Everything here corresponded to the biblical descriptions of the Holy Land: Salt Lake - an analogue of the Dead Sea (in the Bible - Salt Lake), a river that flowed into it and flowed out like the Jordan from the freshwater Lake Utah (the river was called Jordan), desert arid lands. Smith predicted all this, and it all came true. After some time, copper deposits were discovered, exactly like in Israel. Only the sizes are much larger.

The wide brown valley, bordered by mountains, was, in fact, the Village of Migrants. A boardwalk replaced the sidewalk, and here and there along it there were black huts. Low, made of logs, caulked with white clay (but with good windows), they barely towered over a person of even average height. Behind them stood a church, then a community house - already covered with boards and carefully painted. And quite comfortable, like residential buildings built immediately after people settled down. There was no point in calling them huts anymore.

And by the end of the street the village had simply become civilized, except perhaps with wooden walkways. This, by the way, was the city of Salt Lake City a hundred and thirty years ago.

Both corn and wheat still sprouted. But the trapper suddenly had a chance to save his hundred: when the ears of grain became heavy, locusts suddenly swooped in - just like in the Old Testament. And when it seemed that the work had gone to waste, a miracle happened: clouds of seagulls flew in and pecked the locusts. Since then, the seagull has been a symbol of the state of Utah. And the second symbol is a beehive. For bee industriousness is one of the main virtues of believers. And even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not deny this (which at least slightly justifies it in our eyes along with its brilliant plots).

There was no turning back for them. They have already left, one by one, the states of New York, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois.

Mormons

(the briefest information)
I will say right away: everything I report was taken by me from sources published by the Church itself. I was carefully provided with all this.
Mormons are Christians; they believe in the Eternal God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Here are - verbatim - some basic symbols:

"8. We believe that the Bible is the word of God because it is translated correctly; we also believe that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God.”
"10. We believe in the true reunification of Israel and the restoration of the ten tribes; that Zion (New Jerusalem) will be founded on the American continent; that Christ will personally reign on earth and that the earth will be renewed and receive its heavenly beauty.”
...In 1805, a boy named Joseph Smith was born in Vermont. About nine years later his father moved to New York State. The people in those places were extremely religious, Protestants of various sects, very concerned about whose sect was better. Young Joseph was turned away from all of them by the hostility of preachers and believers among themselves. He attended various church meetings but stayed away. And I decided to turn directly to God. At just over fourteen years old, Joseph prayed in a secluded place in the forest. A terrible darkness suddenly enveloped him. At that moment, when he was ready to despair, he saw above his head a pillar of light brighter than the sun and two people standing in the air above him. One of them called Smith by name and said, pointing to the other: “This is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him! They forbade him to join any sect. (All this and what follows is a retelling of Joseph Smith's own story.)

The next vision was about four years later. Then a man appeared to his bed at night out of thin air, lighting up the room brighter than the sun. He said his name was Moroni and that God had a commission for Joseph Smith. And he spoke about a hidden book, written on golden sheets and containing the history of the former inhabitants of America. Moroni appeared two more times. And once again - with a voice from heaven. Smith accurately found the place where the book and two stones in silver frames were kept - the Urim and Thummim; these stones (from those that were worn on the breastplate by the high priests of the Jerusalem Temple) were supposed to help him in the translation. But the time has not yet come to remove the sheets from storage. You should have come in a year, then again in a year. And again. For several years permission was not received - it came only in 1827, when Joseph Smith was 22 years old and started a family. The gift received could not be shown to anyone. The people chosen for this purpose will be named. When Smith copied the letters onto paper, it turned out that they were slightly modified Egyptian hieroglyphs. — Moroni took the hidden book.

In April 1829, a hitherto unknown man named Oliver Kaulerp knocked on the door of the Smiths' house. He had heard the story of the gold plates and wanted to know everything first hand.

This is how the Book of Mormon came to be. And here is the briefest summary of it.
The “Book” tells about the Israeli Lehi, a resident of Jerusalem, a righteous man. God commanded him to leave besieged Jerusalem in 600 BC. Jerusalem was soon destroyed. Lehi “with his children and household” built a ship, guided by God’s will, crossed the ocean and landed somewhere on the American continent.

Exodus

In the spring of 1830, the Book of Mormon was published in five thousand copies. And thousands of people accepted the new teaching. In April 1830, six of the Three and Eight Witnesses who saw the gold plates founded the new Church and proclaimed Joseph Smith "a seer, prophet, and apostle of Jesus Christ."

In 1831, the elders decided to move west to establish a community there; in New York State they would not have been allowed to do this.
They didn't succeed in Missouri either. Here another important circumstance was added to the religious differences: Missouri was a strictly slave state, and the Mormons were said to be strongly against slavery. Nevertheless, the Mormons lived in Missouri for about seven years and built the first Temple in the city of Kirtland until mobs destroyed their homes. The Prophet was dragged out into the street, beaten half to death, smeared with tar, rolled in feathers and left for dead. The Prophet survived. But it became impossible to remain in Missouri. Moreover, the state governor Boggs ordered the Mormons to be expelled or destroyed.

The peace in Nauvoo did not last long. Religious intolerance - seemingly strange among the descendants of people who themselves experienced it in Europe - flared up again. Joseph Smith and his brother were imprisoned in the city of Carthage. The walls of the prison were supposed to protect them from the people's lynching. On June 27, 1844, both were shot by assassins with their faces tied in handkerchiefs.

The more I read about the history of the Mormon exodus, the more I thought: What was the reason for the hostility that surrounded them in the eastern states? Probably, the dissimilarity of their teachings with those that flourished wildly - sect on sect - in these places. The word “America” was absent from the Holy Scriptures: and for Protestants, the Bible is the basis of everything. For some reason, it began to seem to me that the fact that the prophet was a contemporary and compatriot, as well as his simple surname Smith, also played an important role. The prophet must have some unpronounceable Hebrew, Greek or Arabic name. And what are these miracles? In our time?!

And of course, polygamy was annoying, especially as it provided a topic for gossip and indignation. By the way, it is still present in these gossip to this day.

Brigham Young became the second prophet, and under his leadership, 17 thousand people crossed the frozen Mississippi in February 1846. The Great-Migration-in-Wagons-to-the-West began. As Joseph Smith prophesied, “in the heart of the Rocky Mountains you will become a great nation.”

Dinner at the Blancherds

Every morning, after carefully polishing my shoes, I went to the administrative building of the Church as if I were going to work. I walked past the Lion House - Young's former mansion, past his monument. Engraved on the pedestal are the names of all the heads of families who came with him, including three “colored ministers” - black slaves. Gold stars are awarded to those who lived to see the fiftieth anniversary of the city's founding. Among them was one colored man who was immediately freed in the South. At the gates of Temple Square, young, modestly dressed girls, always in twos, smiled:

- Good morning! Do you need help?
Broad-shouldered guys in ties passed by, also together:
—Are you looking for something, sir?

At ten o'clock sharp I entered the lobby, but before I could reach my seat, Don LeFevre from the press department, a trim older gentleman, emerged from the elevator. He looked after me all the time in the city: he took me to the city of Provo to the university; made an agreement with his neighboring family.

There were seven children in the Blanchard family. I found five people at home: the two eldest had already gone on missionary missions. Missionary work is a religious duty and everyone devotes two years to it. Therefore, in conversations with Mormons, missionary service is the same time stamp as military service for us. When you hear “This was before the missionary” or “I just remember, I returned from the mission,” you immediately understand that the interlocutor was 21 years old at that time. And you also understand that then he got married.

One Blancherd son worked on the Philippine island of Cebu. The second is in even more difficult conditions: in the South Bronx in New York. The Cebuano son just turned 21 and the whole family gathered to celebrate.

At the end of the evening, we recorded a letter to the hero of the day on a tape recorder. Who sang, who told. It reminded me very much of a carefully rehearsed amateur concert. They asked me to say a few words. I wished the guy well, apologized for his pronunciation and honestly admitted that I felt very warm and good in his family.

- And all Mormons? - I asked.
“Not all,” answered Mr. LeFevre, “but most.” But there are only 10 million of us in the world. Let's go to the Archaeological Hall.
At first it did not attract my attention: I had seen richer archeology. Then I began to look with great interest at the finds of the pre-Columbian period: some images of bearded people with simply Canaanite faces, oriental coins. Under each is a date. Something confused me about her. I kept trying to understand: what? Found in our century, mostly. In our century? And Joseph Smith had no way of knowing this.

Conversation with the Apostle about miracles

The apostle agreed to accept me. The apostle's name was Jeffrey R. Holland.
Agree, few people can boast of having talked with a living apostle. When I talked about it at home, everyone took it as a joke. In Moscow, they are not accustomed to the fact that these days apostles walk the earth and communicate with people. They walked in other times and in other places. By the way, Muscovites are especially mistaken here: it was in Moscow that Jeffrey R. Holland visited and worked. But the misconceptions of Muscovites are forgivable: where is Salt Lake City, and where is our capital! My American acquaintances also listened to me incredulously. They could know the reality of their country better.

But even Americans can be forgiven for being distrustful. It’s just that both we and they don’t think about the meaning of the word “apostle,” which in Greek means “preacher,” “messenger.” And the twelve apostles of the Bible were at first ordinary people - fishermen, for example. But, having become disciples of Jesus, they were called to preach the truth and left their everyday activities. Mormons believe that they have restored Christianity to the form it was in the time of Jesus. That is why their highest body is called the Council of the Twelve Apostles. Above him is only the President of the Church. He is called the Prophet.

At the appointed time, wearing an appropriate jacket and a dull tie, I entered the reception area. Two assistants were sitting here: the offices of the two apostles opened into the reception area. And a minute later I was greeted by a middle-aged man in a well-tailored suit. He was kind and friendly. And of course, very busy. Therefore, we immediately agreed that I would take half an hour from him. It was my offer, but I think if I had asked for more time, he would have agreed. After all, it was his job to explain the truth to the ignorant. And a calling: before becoming an apostle, he was a professional educator - the chancellor of Brigham Young University in Provo, an hour's drive from here.

We agreed that Elder Holland would begin with some postulates that were especially important for general understanding, and then try to explain what remained incomprehensible to me.

I felt like a student, and it was a pleasant feeling: a student has the right to ask the teacher any question without fear of seeming stupid and ignorant.

I asked my first question.
“Elder Holland,” I asked, “why were the inscriptions on the sheets that looked like gold, given to Smith, in Egyptian?” Why not in ancient Hebrew or ancient Greek, as is usual in the holy books?
“An interesting question,” the apostle approved, “I tried to explain it myself.” And do you know what conclusion you came to? Egyptian hieroglyphs—each a whole word—are much more economical than letters: more can be written on less parchment or metal. And many people could read this. It was the language of commerce of the Ancient East. Abraham, of course, knew him. In Egypt he communicated with the priests. With the family of Lehi, the Egyptian language came to America.

Elder Holland undoubtedly knew and loved this topic.
“I have been researching the Book of Mormon for many years. And I see many miracles in it. She probably looked like this
- He handed me a stack of miniature copper sheets on a beautiful stand - the students gave it as a gift.
Each piece of paper was covered with neat hieroglyphs.
- Look, on each small piece of paper there are several phrases, but everything can be made out. Do you read Egyptian? Neither do I. And you and I are educated people. Smith was fourteen and a half years old. God chooses the young. A farm boy, he went to school for two winters. And he did the translation - from ancient Egyptian! - within 16 days. Isn't this a miracle?

Well, our opponents say, he didn’t translate it, but composed it himself. But even if this were so, how could an uneducated village boy do it?

I am a professor, I have a computer and assistants at my service. Wrote two books. How many of them did I write? And who will remember them? But I’m just analyzing his book. Further. Smith's text is full of Hebraisms and Egyptisms. I assure you that neither Hebrew nor Ancient Egyptian was ever taught in parochial schools. He has a description of the coin system - we still can’t really explain it in English. At 24, he is married, supports his family, and publishes a book. And he creates a plan for the City of Zion - one to one with the current Salt Lake City. As you know, he had never been to Utah, he did not enter it with his people, like Moses did into the Promised Land, but he knew everything for sure: Salt Lake, our Jordan River.

I did not interrupt the apostle, although not everything reached me. The issue of miracles is very important in any religion, and there is no religion without miracles. I mean something that cannot be explained by experience or knowledge. By the way, the famous expression “I believe, because it is absurd,” which many generations of scientists and not so atheists made fun of, should be understood as “if something that exists does not fit into the framework of my consciousness, I can only believe, and not try.” explain".

- And finally. Have you seen Joseph Smith's manuscript in the museum?
I saw her the day before. Clear handwriting, straight lines without blots. It seems to be the most valuable exhibit.
- Now listen. There are no errors in it. So, individual dialecticisms,” Elder Holland’s voice took on a professorial solemnity. “I can tell you that this is a true miracle.” I taught English for thirty years. And during this time I have not seen a person among the most educated who could express thoughts in English without errors!

Surrounded by mountains

The city, which I walked around a lot in my free time, turned out to be much more diverse than when I first met. As soon as you move away from the two central streets, from Temple Square, you go deeper into neighborhoods that imperceptibly flow into each other. Very clean, sparsely populated, with silvery mountains at the end, they seemed not so different from each other, but delving into the next one, I watched how these differences grew until their quantity turned into quality.

Evenus Quarter - two-storey houses of magnificent brick scattered among soft hills shaded by old trees - is a wealthy quarter in England, and nothing more. A man in a Utah State Police uniform passed by on a bicycle—“Hai!” How are you?” - reminds that it is far from the Old Motherland - England. And yet the crooked streets here are so European...

And a little further - the houses are good, but a little thinner, and the streets are straight. Further on, the houses are even a little weaker, one-story and two streets later they open onto the highway. Everyone you meet is white; you hardly see anyone else. Only once or twice did I meet black people - in business jackets and ties, together, with amiable smiles, they were most likely Mormon ministers. The fact that the city is the capital of the Church of Jesus Christ is confirmed by the bright bulk of the Temple, and the monuments, and even above the City Council - a secular institution - the golden statue of the angel Moroni sparkles, illuminated by a spotlight at night.

However, from a distance I found my way to the hotel along a high spire with a Catholic cross; For some, decent coffee was sold in rare places.

“Excuse me,” I asked in Russian, “whose church is this?”
“I don’t understand,” the lady answered, “my dad knew Church Slavonic well, but I only knew English.”
I repeated the question.
- Whose? - she was surprised. - Orthodox. Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian. There is no difference, but we all speak English.
- And the Greeks come here?
“They are Orthodox too,” the woman confirmed and waved her hand. - They still have their own temple. Although they also speak more English, they like the service to be in Greek. I was born here, it has always been this way.

On the sign at the entrance I read that this building was built as an Orthodox synagogue at the beginning of the century. As the community weakened (either most of the parishioners left or turned to more modern forms of Judaism), the house began to deteriorate. But in Utah, which carefully treats the monuments of its God knows how ancient history, it was restored, and then ceded to the expanding Slavic Orthodox community.

Like every small city, Salt Lake City cannot be recognized or understood at first glance: its life is much more complex and varied than it seems to a passing guest.

Family history

I think one of the most interesting places I saw in Salt Lake City was the Family History Library. It is also called the Genealogical Center.

Even at the Museum, I noticed that the realism of the local painters would be the envy of the visual agitation and propaganda sector of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army. It even seemed to me that I had studied such paintings and posters well in the distant days of my army youth. Mr. LeFevre agreed with me: he served in the army of a potential enemy at about the same time. He liked this art.
“We definitely don’t have Picasso,” he noted, “but it’s understandable and accessible to everyone.” And this is the main thing.

— Connection between generations? - I suggested.
- Exactly. We believe that past, living and future generations coexist. And the dead will be resurrected in flesh and blood. The connection between generations is not only spiritual, but also physical, strong. A person must know his ancestors. He is responsible not only for his descendants, but also for them.

Church and community books are very useful things. After all, they recorded not only who, where and when was born, married and died, but also indicated the reason. And if this is firmly, scientifically compiled in a computer, a most interesting picture emerges - interesting, for example, for doctors who determine the heredity of a disease. By the way, doctors make up a considerable part of the Library’s paid users.

The library was very close - across the street from the administration building. It did not even seem as large as one might have expected from the abundance of stored material. It turned out that two of its floors were underground. But I learned this later, when I was taken there by a kind and very knowledgeable lady named Mrs. Choquette - emphasis on the last syllable and with the French “sh”.

We started with computers.
— How do you spell your last name? "Mints" in English spelling? Now let's see how many namesakes you have on the West Coast of the United States.
It turned out that all the telephone books of the States and Europe are also stored in the machine’s thrifty memory. The screen flickered and paper came out of the printer. Half a page of it was taken up by the Mints, who had nothing to do with me. I still looked with hope. What if? After David, Robert and Christopher Mints, who was no longer going anywhere at all, flashed Atanas Minchev and Leonid Minchenko. But the Mintsoulis went in a phalanx: Angelos, Angelos, Angelos, Demetrios. Following Demetrios Mintsoulis came the neat rows of Mintsopoulos: Angelos, Andreas and others. At Mintsopoulos Agamemnon I asked to stop the car. I didn’t have Agamemnon in my family, even distant ones.

“That’s not all,” she clarified. — There were almost no names there. Nielsen, Svensson, Hansen are middle names, go figure it out.
I imagined only the Alexandrovichs and Alexandrovens, whom I know, and mentally thanked our government, which (also, by the way, relatively recently) assigned various and euphonious surnames to citizens.
- But in America it became a surname? - I asked. - But here, after all, the percentage of Hansens and Svenssons is not the same as in their old homeland. So make it easier for you.
“If only,” Mrs. Choquette sighed, “many came with more complex surnames.” But the Anglo-Saxons are unable to pronounce a foreign word. So many people changed them, or even just took out the middle and went with the rest. The man's name was Grim maldursson - he became Grimson. It’s good if he still remembers this.

She showed me the finished family tree. By God, it looked no worse than those of august persons. Except that instead of the Dukes of Anhalt-Zerbt and the Duchesses of Braganza e Funchal, simple Lindgrens and Rainarsudssons nested in the branches of the tree. The surnames changed, but the family tree remained the same. I traced the changes with my finger: Mrs. Choquette nodded.

Mrs. Choquette looks at the piece of paper and says:
- This, Mister Weed, is spelled Askolgrustenvid. But you need to read, you see “a” with a circle, it’s almost “o”: Oshyoolgruushnviy.
- How? - asks the shocked client in a trembling voice. - Oshk... Oshyo... No, this is impossible! What parish are the ancestors from?
“It’s not at all difficult,” answers Mrs. Choquette, “they seem to be from Finland?” Now let's see. Oh, here it is. Vankhaturmosjärvi.
- How?! - The poor guy faints.

Or something like that. I think I made up too simple an example.
I found out almost nothing about myself - for the reasons given above. But we still managed to find out something. And I hope to learn more. In any case, every evening when I returned to the hotel, the receptionist handed me a package from the Library with new details.
I received the last letter from there already in Moscow.

Salt Lake City
Lev Mints, our specialist. corr. | Photo by V. Privalsky