Boris stones

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Boris stone near Cathedral of St. Sophia. Polatsk, Belarus

Boris Stones (Belarusian: Барысавы камяні; Russian: Борисовы камни), also called Dvina Stones (Russian: двинские камни), are nine medieval artifacts erected along the bank of the Western Dvina between Polotsk and Drissa in the 12th century. The largest of the stones has 17 metres in circumference.

Although these landmarks were described in the 16th century by Maciej Stryjkowski, it was Georg von Cancrin who first brought them to scholarly attention in 1818. Cancrin discovered that a boulder near Orsha has the following inscription: "In the year 1171, on the 7th day of March, was completed this cross. Lord, please help your servant Basil, whose other name is Rogvolod, Boris's son".

Subsequently, several other boulders with Boris's name were discovered. In the 1930s, two of these were blown up by Communist authorities as religious objects and their remains used to pave the road between Minsk and Moscow. Another one was thrown into the river, where it had not been discovered until 1988. When they tried to lift it, the stone splintered into three pieces. Three other boulders were removed to be exhibited near St. Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk, in the Museum of Boulders in Minsk, and in Kolomenskoe near Moscow.

The label applied to the stones is somewhat misleading, as one of the stones does not mention Boris at all. "In each case the centerpiece is an enormous cross flanked by abbreviated elements of the conventional Greek legend proclaiming Christ's victory".^[1] It is generally accepted that Boris mentioned in the inscriptions was Vseslav's son, although it is quite likely that such boulders had been venerated by pagan Slavs long before the land was Christianised.