A Russian mathematician rewrote world history — and it is bonkers (2025)

If you know enough mathematicians, you might believe almost any story about one. They can simultaneously be brilliant and completely bonkers. (To be fair, we physicists aren’t much better.) Anatoly Fomenko is an accomplished Russian mathematician who also happens to be — in his own mind, anyway — a historian. His version of history, however, is quite different from most.

Fomenko combs through historical records of past millennia, looking for statistical correlations in the patterns of events and their relative timing. Knowing the proper order of events and their relative separation in years helps a historian narrow down the absolute date at which they occurred. This is chronology. Fomenko doesn’t believe that statistically similar chronologies repeat by chance. When two timelines match up too closely, one of them must be phony. This leads him to some eye-popping conclusions.

The synthesis of his 40 years of work: All of written history is merely copying, altering, and repeating a limited set of historical events that have occurred entirely since 800 AD, and mostly since 1000-1100 AD. Nothing in earlier eras truly happened. This is pithily summarized as Antiquity is Middle Ages. It’s a bit hard to imagine, so let’s look at an example.

Fomenko’s parallel universe

Line up a chart of the reigns of the kings of Judah from roughly 0 to 400 AD with a chart of the German kings of about 950 to 1350 AD. You can see that the patterns look similar. This could mean that the Kingdom of Judah was concocted by historians ripping off the real history of the Middle Age Saxon dynasty in Europe.

This is Fomenko parallelism, a method somewhat akin to science. It finds many statistical correlations between historical chronologies; you can see about 20 of them here. In some sense, this could mean that an entire false prehistory of Western civilization was stitched together by repeating more modern history with fudged names, dates, and details — emphasis here continues to be placed on could. Fomenko parallelism also extends to observations of the stars, the physical distances between historical capitals, similarities in names, and so on.

With so much history to re-write, there are many famous casualties. Jesus Christ could have been the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, fused with elements borrowed from the biographies of other historical figures, possibly including a Pope and a Chinese emperor. If that sounds too unbelievable, consider that Komnenos was put to death at the end of his reign with some wounds similar to those of Jesus. Then again, he was also licentious, murderous, and cruel. (But that’s according to the official histories, of course.)

Several historically prominent cities are further casualties of Fomenko’s alternate chronology. It turns out that ancient Troy and Jerusalem were the same city. That city is Constantinople. Ancient Rome, on the other hand, may have been in Egypt, though this “requires additional research.” Rome in Italy was only built in the 14th century.

Enter the Russia-Horde

While all that may sound wild enough, we’re just warming up for the main event. The biggest takeaway from Fomenko’s work may be that much of human history was dominated by the Russia-Horde. This force, led by czar-khans such as Georgiy — Genghis Khan — Danilovichi, conquered most of the world. In the process, they built the Pyramids of Giza and inspired the historical fiction of the ancient Roman Empire.

The exploits of Dmitry Donskoy were repurposed to create the Roman Emperor Constantine. In this version of history, Donskoy was not a Russian leader who defeated the Mongols, but rather a leader of the Russia-Horde. In the following centuries, the Russia-Horde accomplished other feats such as sending colonizers to America who began a Christian empire of American Incans.

Lessons from Anatoly Fomenko

Fomenko’s seven-volume (!!) series contains a vast range of (mis)information, which rewrites nearly all of human history into its alternate chronology. We can barely scratch the skin of this large and juicy fruit. It’s an entertaining read if you’re looking for something unusual and absorbing. Many passages, including several linked above, can be accessed for free on the New Chronology website. Here’s Volume I for starters.

What conclusions can we draw from this work? First, it’s a good thing that people are out looking for truth in unorthodox ways. Uncertain dates are foreign to us in an age of voluminous paper and digital records. However, knowledge of ancient history was only kept alive over several centuries by a small number of literate theologians and scholars. With the channels of information so few and tenuous, it’s conceivable for large portions of it to be altered in some way. Fomenko suspects a few Christian scholars, especially Joseph Scaliger, of pulling the Scaligerian chronology switcheroo. This may be less crazy than it sounds when we consider that it has happened repeatedly within living memory.

Second, mathematics and science are powerful tools, but they are not omnipotent. They have limited value in figuring out history. Statistics is a self-consistent discipline, but when applied improperly — as it often is — the conclusions are worthless. The lack of scientific reproducibility in some modern research disciplines is a testament to this. Fomenko’s work is a fun “what if,” but also a lesson on the limitations of statistical analysis methods.

Tags

history

In this article

history

A Russian mathematician rewrote world history — and it is bonkers (2025)

FAQs

Who is the best Russian mathematician? ›

Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov (born April 25 [April 12, Old Style], 1903, Tambov, Russia—died Oct. 20, 1987, Moscow) was a Russian mathematician whose work influenced many branches of modern mathematics, especially harmonic analysis, probability, set theory, information theory, and number theory.

Why are there so many Russian mathematicians? ›

Abstract:- Russians have their own distinguished textbooks in addition to their unique way of teaching math and physics. The Russian education of physics and mathematics has priority and paramount importance in formalities and finances, from school education to university and postgraduate studies.

What is the history of math in Russia? ›

Russian Mathematics has been a key influence in global math, alongside Chinese, Indian, Singaporean, and European contributions. Its impact peaked in the 1950s to 70s, as students worldwide studied from Russian textbooks and methods.

What is a new chronology? ›

New Chronology (Fomenko), a proposition by Anatoly Fomenko that world history started roughly around AD 1000. New Chronology (Glasgow) or The Glasgow Chronology, a proposed revision of the chronology of ancient Egypt.

Who is the No 1 mathematician of the world ever? ›

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Regarded by many as the best mathematician of all time, Gauss contributed to the subject through his research into number theory, geometry and probability theory (among many other topics).

Who was the Russian mathematician who turned down the prize? ›

Grigori Perelman (born 1966, U.S.S.R.) is a Russian mathematician who was awarded—and declined—the Fields Medal in 2006 for his work on the Poincaré conjecture and Fields medalist William Thurston's geometrization conjecture.

Is Russian math hard? ›

But Russian math also poses some challenges. The work is demanding, and it requires a substantial financial and time investment for both students and parents.

Why is Russian math so good? ›

Russian Math's emphasis on abstract problem solving also prepares kids better for middle school, where algebraic concepts are usually first introduced in American school curriculums. Gershman says that leap is often difficult for kids who have never seen algebra before.

Which country is best in mathematics in the world? ›

Singapore is the smartest country in the world, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Finland, Estonia, Switzerland, Netherlands and Canada rounding out the top 10.

How is Russian math different from American math? ›

How does math education in Russia compare to that of the USA? In Russia they actually teach Mathematics, even at school (K-12). By teaching Math I mean teaching the concept of the Mathematical Proof, because this is what the mathematicians do. In the US they only teach you to use the existing formulas.

Is Russian taught in schools? ›

Russian is taught in schools in 46 of the 50 states, with the concentration of programs and enrollments greatest in the northeastern U.S., Texas, California, and the upper Middle West.

What is the Russian math theory? ›

“Russian Math” is built on the foundational principle that the cognitive ability of a child—the power to think and reason—is not predetermined at birth, but can actually be developed over time. And that mathematics is by far the best tool for this development.

What is chronology in the Bible? ›

The chronology of the Bible is an elaborate system of lifespans, 'generations', and other means by which the Masoretic Hebrew Bible (the text of the Bible most commonly in use today) measures the passage of events from the creation to around 164 BCE (the year of the re-dedication of the Second Temple).

What is the alternative history theory? ›

Definition. Often described as a subgenre of science fiction, alternative history is a genre of fiction wherein the author speculates upon how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical event had an outcome different from the real life outcome.

What language is chronology? ›

Chronology (from Latin chronologia, from Ancient Greek χρόνος, chrónos, 'time'; and -λογία, -logia) is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time.

What is Grigori Perelman's IQ? ›

Top 10 highest IQ. Grigori Perelman. As mentioned, the most recent title of the highest IQ—238—goes to this incredible mathematician. His greatest academic contribution to date is Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture: the solution to the famously challenging mathematical hypothesis, the Poincaré Conjecture.

Who is the greatest mathematician currently? ›

Ten Most Influential Mathematicians Today
  • Keith Devlin.
  • Terence Tao.
  • Ian Stewart.
  • John Stillwell.
  • Bruce C. Berndt.
  • Timothy Gowers.
  • Peter Sarnak.
  • Martin Hairer.
Mar 25, 2022

Why did Grigori Perelman refuse $1 million? ›

On 1 July 2010, he rejected the prize of one million dollars, saying that he considered the decision of the board of the Clay Institute to be unfair, in that his contribution to solving the Poincaré conjecture was no greater than that of Richard S. Hamilton, the mathematician who pioneered the Ricci flow partly with ...

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Prof. Nancy Dach

Last Updated:

Views: 5459

Rating: 4.7 / 5 (77 voted)

Reviews: 84% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Prof. Nancy Dach

Birthday: 1993-08-23

Address: 569 Waelchi Ports, South Blainebury, LA 11589

Phone: +9958996486049

Job: Sales Manager

Hobby: Web surfing, Scuba diving, Mountaineering, Writing, Sailing, Dance, Blacksmithing

Introduction: My name is Prof. Nancy Dach, I am a lively, joyous, courageous, lovely, tender, charming, open person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.