PROTO-BALTIC
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Zambrunlaukas

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The "Proto"-Baltic Middle Dnieper & Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures, 3200 -1800 BCE, were Northern extensions of the Corded Ware culture. There were really quite a few Baltic speaking cultures, the Littoral Piemare by the Baltic coast, the Trzciniec culture in the West, the Middle Dnieper in the middle, the Fatyanovo-Balanovo in the East. To the South of these bordered the Milograd culture. Beyond Milograd were the non-Baltic Indo-European Yamna and Proto-Slavic Komarov culture horizons. Excavations between the rivers Orel' and Samara have uncovered burials of a syncretic nature that attest contacts between the spheres of the Corded Ware and Yamna cultures. It may indicate early contacts between polyethnic Proto-Indo-Iranians and the ancestors of the Balts. These cultures migrated from the Strednij Stog culture (4500-3350), which in turn evolved from the Khvalynsk and nearby Samara PIE epoch homeland culture (5500-5000 BCE) on the Volga River. The nearby Finnic Erza / Moksha (Mordvin) language group has loanwords from Indo-Iranian, East Baltic, and Tocharian.*

Most migrations were often due to prolonged climatic changes, or population pressure on natural resources. The migrations by each group resulted in different ethnic assimilations during the migrations, and even more so at the eventual settlement regions. From the Samara culture to the present, the languages were multi-ethnic in various degrees. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages. Europe today is like an unmarked ancient sack of mixed genetic seeds.

The
Sudovians (Yotvingians), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians together formed a closely related Baltic language group
known as the Western Balts (Trzciniec and Littoral Piemare cultures), to which one should also include the ancient Curonians. The languages of both the Western and Eastern Balts (Lithuanian and Latvian) evolved from the Early-Baltic languages that migrated (each differently) from the Strednij Stog culture horizon. These early Baltic language settlement areas of which (the lower reaches of the Vistula, Daugava, the Nemunas basin, the upper reaches of the Dnieper & even to the Urals) - is known to have developed into the (1) Early Baltic Area of Central dialects and (2) Early Baltic Area of Peripheral dialects. The Sudovians and Prussians can be regarded as links in a chain of this latter group, while the Lithuanians and Latvians are considered to be the remnants of a more Central Early-Baltic Area. The Eastern most dialects of the Eastern Early-Baltic area (Fatyanovo-Balanovo) did not survive to be documented beyond hydronyms and archaic loanwords in Finnic languages ( also shaping Russian dialects). From reconstructions from the many loanwords in Uralic by linguists, one might gather that the languages of the Fatyanovo-Balanovo Balts resembled a very archaic ( circa 2,500 BCE) Latgalian. These are the "D" Balts of Mažiulis. Some of these Eastern Balts by the Ural mountains evidently merged culturally with, or extended to the nearby polyethnic Abashevo culture, which became a component of the Sintashta culture, later becoming the more conservative of dialects to Pre-BMAC Proto-Indo-Aryan (Proto-Vedic). Some Abashevo pottery looks quite similar to Fatyanovo/Balanovo, which indicates assimilation of some Baltic culture into it's ethnogenesis. The Southern most peripheral Baltic dialects were the Milograd Culture, which later assimilated with migrating Slavic speakers.

Linguistically speaking, the ancestors of the West Balts were the Pre-Baltic Mazovia-Podlasie / Lublin groups of the Trzciniec culture along the Bug river basin, which bordered the Komarov (Proto-Slavic) culture of the Podolian Uplands further to the South. The Trzciniec ("Streaked" pottery) culture was related to the Komarov culture, but different, as ceramics, metalwork, hydronyms, and burial rites indicate. This difference can be seen in the word for man's best friend, "dog ", where West Baltic had sunis vs. Old Church Slavic pьsъ, or "rock" - Baltic akmō / ašmō vs. O.C. Slavic kamy, and with the disparity of equine or copper words. The older relatedness is illustrated by the word for "name" - West Baltic emenis, Slavic imę, and Albanian emen vs. East Baltic Lithuanian vardas.

The Trzciniec culture gave way to the later Pomeranian culture horizon. The West Baltic dialect flowed North with migrations and trade to Coastal Balts. Even as late as the Early Iron Age (600 BCE), the southern limit of the large Sudovian culture territory bordered the Slavic/Scythian Chernoles culture. Scythian (Ossetic) and Slavic isoglosses can be illustrateded in Ossetic terminology of agriculture ( yoke, harvest, reaping-hook ) - in somatic terminology ( ear ), and in kinship ( sister, brother, mother, father, mother and father-in-law ).

According to Herodotus (approx 450 BCE) the Neuri  ( Νέυροι ) were a tribe living North of the Tyres (Dneister river), and the furthest nation beyond the Scythian farmers along the course of the river Hypanis (Bug river). The Bug river meets the Naura (Baltic name for the Narew) river. The Naura river leads one to Galinda and Suduva. Since trade increased recognition, the Neuri of Herodotus were possibly related to the Galindians and Sudovians. Herodotus also mentions the wild white horses nearby that grazed by a great lake, which scholars today suggest are the Podlesie marshes by the Bialowieza Forest. Yotvingian Tarpans from the Bialowieza Forest seasonally faded to near white in Winter. In 500 BCE, Eastern Europe climate was much cooler and wetter. There is still a town in Poland named Nur ( Νυρ) { 52° 40' 0" N, 22° 18' 0" E } along the upper Bug River, near the Bialowieza Forest. The Nurzec river runs nearby, and the local district currently bears the river's name. Balts traditionally take ethnonyms from local hydronyms. The Baltic verbal roots *"nur-" to immerse or *"niur-" to get murky may be sources of the local hydronym. Archaeologists have excavated a fortified settlement and an open settlement near Moloczki Poland, by the Nurzec river. There are probably many more yet unexcavated in "Ziemia Nurska", as the area is known as.


The 20th century BCE marks the progression of tribal dialects (distinct by the 10th century BCE) in the Early-Baltic dialect languages, which was just an increase in the differentiation of the dialects of the Peripheral area. The Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century A.D. mentioned only two Baltic tribal nations, the Γαλίνδαι and Σουδινοί. Romans coins (Tiberius / Caligula) unearthed in Suduva predate Ptolemy's account. Σουδινοί was possibly a typo for Σουδιυοί.  It is of interest to note that such a differentiation of dialects took place in the Central dialects much later, around the 2nd century A.D., evolving Pre-Lithuanian-Latvian.

The Western Baltic dialect that later gave rise to the Sudovian, Galindian,  Pomesanian, and various Prussian languages is one of the dialects of the Early-Baltic Peripheral Area. The 5th c. BCE also coincided with the emergence of yet another dialect (Curonian language) of the Peripheral Early-Baltic Area from the bordering dialects of the Central Early-Baltic Area.

Thus, the Western Balts should include the Sudovians ( Яцьвягі ), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians, and also the Curonians, the former comprising the Southern group, and the latter,  the Northern group. This explains the close similarity between Sudovian ( Yotvingian ), Galindian Pomesanian, and Prussian.

The Old Prussian Sembian dialect, though, exhibits a prolonged influence from the nearby Curonians when compared to the more distant Pomesanian or Sudovian. The Sembian dialect of the Old Prussian Catechisms has "muti, tawas" (mother, father) whereas the Pomesanian of the Elbing Vocabulary has "mothe, towis". The chronicled Sudovian "Occopirmus" similarly differs from the Catechism Sembian "ucka-". Further inland away from coast and Curonians, we do find Prussian "Tlokunpelk" - Bears' Marsh. Galindians did not historically border the Curonians.

Butan

Certain innovations (i.e.,declension) that occurred in the Central dialects are not reflected in the Peripheral dialects. The Peripheral dialects retain a relic archaic declension which gives one a clearer window into both "Proto"-Baltics, and "Proto"-Indo-Europeans, and their evolution. The current Central dialects are more evolved and elegant.

"The traditional academic construct of a seven case declensional system for Proto Indo-European
is as
synthetic as it is theoretically convenient." ( Jeannette DeBusk Cox )

The four cases of West-Baltic (Prussian, Sudovian, & Galindian) declension are not an innovation but an archaic feature, uniting West Baltic with Germanic and Greek. Only nominative, genitive, dative and accusative forms have constant intercrossing functions in various Indo-European languages, while forms used for the instrumental or locative cases (traditionally declared to be "Common Indo-European"), have related functions: e.g. the IE *"-ois" may occur in the instrumental case in one language and in the locative case in other ones, or *"-ō" / (apophonically) "-ē " occurs as "-āt" in the Indo-Iranian ablative and as "-it" in the Hittite instrumental. Such intercrossing elements were used for semi-paradigmatic adverbial forms, differently paradigmatized in the various Indo-European languages. (V. Toporov, V. J. Mažiulis)

Some very archaic lexical differences exist between the Western Baltic dialects and the Central Baltic dialects. The word for "fire" is just such an example. The Western Balts used the word "panu", whereas the Central Balts used the word (Lith.) "ugnis".  Another example is the word for "wheel". The Western Balts used the word "kelan", whereas the Central Balts used the word (Lith.) "ratas"These words have cognates in other ancient Indo-European languages. That such archaic diversity of basic terminology existed within "Proto"-Baltic" illustrates the antiquity of the West / East Baltic dialect areas inherited from the late Stredny Stog horizon (4500-3350 BCE) into the Corded Ware horizon.

Another key feature of West Baltic is the nominative singular neuter gender ending in [ -n ]. This is noted in such words as kelan (wheel), azeran (lake), and dadan (milk). There are also many neuter gender words that end in [ -u ], such as panu (fire) and peku (livestock), as well as alu (mead). Lithuanian still has the neuter gender in some adjectives ending in -a, -ia, or -u. For example, "Šalta" (It is cold) [ re: neuter "vaška" beeswax ].

Another feature of West Baltic is the Genitive singular declensional ending in [ -as' ] for words that end in [ -as ] or [ -an ] in the Nominative case. Hittite also shared this archaic feature. This declensional ending also changes the stress of the accent to the end syllable, as in many cognate Vedic words.  This generalized declensional feature is noted in a word like Nominative singular pedan (ploughshare), Genitive singular pedas', or in the West Baltic Genitive singular Deivas' (God's). The above unique features of West Baltic are relics from the Proto-Indo-European Stredny Stog horizon (4500-3350 BCE).

West Baltic has the same four nominal accent classes as does Lithuanian, but it has retained the original accentual state of Baltic ( an acute rising accent and a circumflex falling accent). The first class is the acute barytone paradigm. The second is the circumflex barytone paradigm. Thirdly, the acute mobile paradigm. Lastly, the circumflex mobile paradigm.

klenan

Reading from the archaeological record, one can associate dates of 3,200 - 2,300 BCE with various material artifacts (toy wheeled wagon) and non-native ( hemp and wheat ) plant pollens that appear to indicate the arrival of "Baltic" speaking peoples in the region who appear to have mixed well with native populations. The Central and Eastern Balts had more close contact with "Volga Finnic" speaking cultures than the West Balts. After 2,400 BCE, the agricultural record intensifies, as well as beginning Baltic copper metallurgy near the Ural Mountains. The Fatyanovo-Balanovo Eastern Balts used the lost wax ( vaška ) technique which was an ancient metallurgic process.* ( vaška = Old East Baltic neuter > loaned process ). A polyethnic Abashevo culture by the Urals emerged with early Balts, Volga Finns, and Proto-Aryans using the same process. Migrations often follow climate changes. Each migration would encounter different native ethnic groups, and influence the dominant language during assimilation of those ethnic natives. Indo-European languages have ALWAYS been multi-ethnic.

The high incidence of Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c suggest long term relations and admixture with Finnic neighbors, which may have had a conservative influence on the Baltic dialects and speakers. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages. The contemporary Balt-Finn mixed population reflects the ancient INDO-URALIC Proto-language nicely.


uras

Fatyanovo-Balanovo
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The early Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture ( 3200 - 1800 BCE ) was an eastern extension of the Baltic Corded Ware culture following the Oka river to the upper Volga in what is now Russia. It is here that pottery displays a unique Fatyanovo style with mixed Corded Ware and Globular Amphorae features. Fatyanovo migrations correspond to regions with hydronyms of a Baltic language dialect mapped by linguists as far as the Oka river and the upper Volga. Spreading eastward down the Volga they discovered the copper ores of the the western Ural foothills, and started long term settlements in the lower Kama river region. They brought their "ešva" horse, "medu" honey, agriculture "kanšaras" hempseed, and Dainās.

Fatyanovo cemetaries would sometimes have graves of not only people, but bears and other animals which are also buried with ritual close by in individual graves. Solar designs commonly adorn Fatyanovo ceramics. Livestock includes cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and dogs (North Saami "šūvon"). Excavations indicate hunting and fishing was often practiced. The more metallurgically worked region of the Fatyanovo culture was designated as the Balanovo culture, from a cemetary found near the town. Baltic Balanovo and Finnic Volosovo peoples apparently mixed well without conflict, as they did with steppe peoples with whom they they had contact via trade with the Caucacus metalworkers. Near the Southern edge of the Balanovo region, by where the rivers flow South, another group of the Corded Ware pottery tradition developed that is called the Abashaevo culture ( 2400 - 1800 BCE ), after a nearby village East of Kazan, Russia.

Like Balanovo sites, many Abashaevo settlements were also by the copper laden southwestern foothills of the Urals. Late Abashaevo artifacts were found in Sintashta ( Proto-Vedic ) culture graves. Sintashata ceramics display the influence of early Abashaevo pottery style. The artifacts suggest a unique cultural exchange between mixed Abashevo people into the Sintashta culture of Early Vedic peoples. The nearby Volga Finnic Erza-Moksha Mordvin language group has preserved loanwords from early Indo-Iranian, East Baltic, and Tocharian, which would seem to confirm the probability of such exchanges. Both Abashaevo and Volosovo ( Finnic ) culture pottery are sometimes discovered in sites side by side, inferring close contacts. Songs of the Erza Mordvinic thunder spirit " Pur’gine " parallel both Lith. "Perkūnas" and Vedic " Parjanya " closely. Consider the additional relationship between Pur’gine / Litova " with "Perkaunis / Perkune / Lietava / Liethua " and "Parjanya / Retas" ( पर्जन्य Rig Veda Book 5, Hymn 83 ).

The astonishing similarity of the archaic Central Baltic (Latvian dial. example "Perkaunis" / "Perkune" [*perginija?], and "Lietava") Dainās tradition mirrors the Eastern Fatyanovo / Balanovo Baltic culture mythology as seen with the Mordvinian Finnic (Erza "Pur’gine / Litova") songs. The "L" vs. "R" would imply a early-Baltic loan, since Vedic "vrkah" is associated with the Finnic loanword "vərgas". This same polyethnic early Balt-Finn-Pre-Indo-Aryan group would play a role in the settlement (rcd 2026 BCE) of Sintashta / Arkaim, and later India.

Although Abashaevo pottery resembles Fatyanovo and Balanovo styles, Abashaevo burials also reflect some Poltavka culture customs. This indicates a transitional group of mixed affinities with a probable Aryan elite. This polyethnic Abashevo culture populace may give an insight to the more conservative dialect differentiation of Proto-Indo-Aryan (Pre-Vedic) when compared to Proto-Iranian of the more southern Poltavka culture. The archaeological evidence of early mixed Finnic and Baltic type peoples in the ethnogenesis of the Abashevo culture has provided scholars with previously overlooked linguistic opportunities in phonetic studies of the different early Vedic Sanskrit dialects. The very rare Vedic "Lopāša" is cited as a cognate with Latvian "Lapsā", dial. "Lāps" - or is there more to it? The late Balticist Vytautas J. Mažiulis proposed an earlier Baltic *Lapeša- / *vilpeša- ( Lith. "vilpišys" ). New archeaological evidence continues to unveil the unexpected, as will study of the ancient Latgalian and varied Uralic languages.

Fatyanovo settlements were left as the population retreated back to the West and / or assimilated with Finnic neighbors. Many Balanovo culture Balts assimilated ( Pur’gine traditions ) and adopted Finnic language and culture, as some had done earlier with the Abashaevo culture. The region's Baltic speakers receded again in the 5th century A.D. as new Slavic type cultural groups filtered in from the South, although in some areas Baltic speakers remained as evident from the historic record. The new Slavs followed the same path into Russia as the old Baltic speakers did more than two thousand years before them. The Old Russian Ipatiy Compilation of Chronicles mentions that in 1147 the Prince of Rostov-Suzdal defeated the Golyad' ( ГОЛЯДЬ ) who lived by the River Porotva. The Golyad' < * Golędь ethnonym was derived from a Baltic hydronym * "galin-" meaning "deep water". For more info, see Marija Gimbutas here
Today, the family of related decendants of all these mixed forebearers can be seen in Latgalians, Lithuanians, as well as in Russians, the Erzya / Moksha Mordvins, and Indians.

SVEIKAS !!!

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A separation of Belarus subpopulations along a North / South line can be demonstrated particularly in distribution of Y chromosomal lineages R1b, I1a and I1b, N3 and G-chromosomes. The uniqueness of the northern Belarusian population is most likely due to the high incidence of Яцьвягі Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c [old name N3] (homogeneous Baltic Яцьвягі substrate with allele DYS19*15 ), which is twice the frequency as in central and southern Belarus. The central and southern Belarusian substratum Baltic Milograd physical traits differ somewhat from Ukrainian substratum Slav/Cimmerian/Scythian traits. The assimilation of Belarus may have been mainly linguistic and less physically ethnical.

The Y-STR variation among Slavs* has given the evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin, which provides a geographic correlation for the Slavic linguistic correlation to Baltic.  During the period (3,400 BCE) of the oxen pulled wheeled wagon revolution, the Yamna culture slowly expanded toward the edge of the Corded Ware horizon of late Strednij Stog culture. The eastern area of the contact zone, near the middle Dnieper, a genetically integrated Slav / Iranian hybrid border culture developed (Komarov > Chernoles culture).

The Komarov complex of the Podolian Upland bordered the Trzciniec and Sosnitsa (early W. and E. Baltic) complexes to it's far North, but appears culturally related to the Montreoru (early Dacian) complex to it's near South in regard to burial rites and pottery. The cultural material may support a theoretical "Daco-Slavic" proto language nicely. With the arrival of the Huns in Europe, Slavic soon became the lingua franca of commerce / trade throughout most of Central Europe and beyond.

A polyethnic unifying ethnogenesis interpretation (Komarov > Chernoles culture) helps to explain why Slavic has partial elements of a dialect of an early Komarov culture language, and yet is distinct from the West Baltic (Trzciniec culture) languages bordering to the North. It also explains the Slav / Iranian religious vocabulary as well as the higher frequency of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1 in many Slavs from the Yamna culture genetics and detection of common Slav / Iranian mtDNA types. The Polish Sarmatians are not merely romantics, as Siberian kurgan genetics bear out.
Does this support the construct of a so-called "Balto-Slavic" group? Maybe. A theoretical "Daco-Slavic" or "Thraco-Baltic" proto-language may prove itself even better. But if there never was a "
Proto-Baltic", how can you ever have a Proto "Balto-Slavic"?  The Baltics and Slavics were already well differentiated but close to one another with the developement of the wheel "kelan / kolo / ratas", but it appears the growing early Yamna and Central/Eastern Baltic dialect areas crowded out the early West Balts, Thracians, Dacians and Slavs, who then drifted West. An earlier hypothetical "Balto-Slavic" dialects area would be at least later-Stredny-Stog era.

For an example of the archaic nature of the Baltic / Slavic relationship, click here.

There never was a monolithic "Proto-Baltic" per se. The West & Central Baltic & Slavic languages represent an archaic continuum of remnants of former Early I.E. dialects, the last Proto Indo-European branches to finally split. The "Proto-Baltics" would be none other than "Proto Satem Indo-European" central dialects. It is more helpful to visualize Baltic as a trunk rather than a language branch.

For a detailed analysis of the archaeological record of Balto-Slavic relations, click here.

In respect to hematological variations in the frequencies of the Landsteiner-Wiener (LW) blood group, the frequency of the uncommon LWb gene was highest in the Central Balts, around 7.5% among Lithuanian Samogitians, and very low among the other western Europeans (0-0.1%). # The LWb Blood Group can be seen as a genetic Tribal Marker of Prehistoric Central Baltic Migrations and Admixture, and perhaps not a West-Baltic marker  Another Baltic migration marker may be a significantly increased frequency of the BanI 2-Hin6I 1 haplotype.

The spread of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1 is associated with the spread of the Indo-European languages, too. Many Latvian plaid weavings are nearly identical to ancient Tocharian plaids / tartans found recently  with Tocharian mummies recovered in Western China. Tocharians were evidently also dedicated hemp farmers, like the Balts and historical Thracians.

A high frequency of the CCR5-D32 allele in Lithuanian populations, at levels of about 16% has been documented. This allele confers resistance to HIV (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).
Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews have also interested geneticists, since they display a number of unique genetic characteristics.

SONGS OF THE FOREST
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Traditional ancient Baltic songs ( Lith. Dainos, Latv. Dainās ) are a vast resource of the Baltic languages. The Dainos are the Rig Veda of the Baltic people. They are usually stanzas about the Native Religion and Mythology, but in contrast to most other similar forms, they often lack earthly heroes. These ancient hymns are superb relics of the pre-Christian Native Religion and the life of the people, especially its' three important events - birth, weddings and death/burial, but also life's infinite experiences.
There are literally millions of verses of these ancient Dainos / Dainās now in written form. So intertwined with the languages and their enormous vocabularies, it is virtually impossible to try to separate the two.

The Sudovian greeting "Kailas" re-affirms that we are all One,
-
with each other, and with the Earth we share.

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- poshka@hotmail.com

Click on Photo for Baltic Log Home Architecture
click here for Baltic Log Home Architecture
The ancient Dual Horse motif found on top of
Lithuanian homes reflects the related Vedic Sanskrit Ašvins.
Similiar ( Ašvieniai ) symbolism was found in the
Khvalynsk and Samara PIE cultures (4700 - 5,500 BCE)




           | Proto Indo European |   | Mažiulis |   | Nostratic Language |          
 

             | Prussian Language Website |    | Janis Endzelins' Baltic Languages |            


| Old Prussian Texts |

 

From
Virdainas
 

~ in memory of Jeannette DeBusk Cox ~

* Erza-Moksha Mordvin loanwords include - " vərgas " - wolf ( Indo-Iran. vrkah ), " peje " - knife ( Lith. peilis / peile ), " kardaz " ( Lith. gardas ).
and " uske, viska " - metal ( Tokharian A. was, B, yasa ). Finnic Mari has "waž" for metal ore. ( see " vaška" / Pāshka below )
The pre-migration Tocharians may have had an unattested word for Maple borrowed as " * wakšter " into Finnic.
Cognates may be Latin "acer" - maple, Old Norse " askr " - ash, Old Lithuanian " akštras " - sharp. The maple's range extends to the Kama river basin.
Perhaps Tocharians originally used maple saplings for livestock prods. Or perhaps it was a Baltic * "akšteras ".
The songs of the Erza Mordvin thunder god " Pur’gine " parallel both Lith. " Perkūnas " and Vedic " Parjanya " ( पर्जन्य ) closely.
Indo-Europeans also borrowed from Uralic languages , as seen in loans words " kara- " - mythical fish ( Avestan ), " kalas " - wels catfish ( West Baltic ), " whale " ( English ).

* The color coding for copper and vaška ( Lith. "vaškas" beeswax ) in the above context is intentional - Pāshka. Old East Baltic " Medu " and " Vaška " were related neuters.

* Genetic portrait of modern Belarusians: mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome perspective.
Alena Kushniarevich, 1Larysa Sivitskaya, 1Nina Danilenko, 2Richard Villems, 1Oleg Davydenko
1Institute of Genetics and Cytology, Academicheskaya Str 27, Belarus, 2Estonian Biocenter, Riia Str 23, Estonia

# The LWb blood group as a marker of prehistoric Baltic migrations and admixture.,
Sistonen P, Virtaranta-Knowles K, Denisova R, Kucinskas V, Ambrasiene D, Beckman L.,
Hum Hered. 1999 Jun;49 (3):154-8

* I appeal to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to help protect and nurture the Ket language speakers of Russia before they are gone.
Ethnotourism throughout Russia will not flourish without the Vision of it's leaders now. It's the biggest Russian Goldmine they will ever have.