Timeline 1995-2000. Perestroika - The Russian Federation
How did the books get written?
Winter
1994
​
Spring
1994
Winter
1994
​
​
Winter 1995
Spring
1995
Soviet Ukrainian-born Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Megre chartered a fleet of steam ships for a trading expedition up the Ob River in north-west Siberia. He left in the spring. Megre's lead vessel (pictured) was the Mikhail Kalinin.
​
Megre meets two old gentlemen up the Ob who ask him with his crew to trek 25 kms into the Siberian taiga to chop down then carry out wood from a "ringing cedar" tree. Megre is mystified and intrigued, but declines.
Megre becomes very sick on his return back to the city. He is hospitalized for months. Secretly, one of the nurses gives him a teaspoon of pine nut oil from the Siberian pine. From then, Megre begins to recover. Note: Pinus sibirica or "sibirskii kedr" is colloquially known as "cedar" due to the Russian word "kedr". However, this tree is not a genuine "cedar" in the botanical sense as Dr Leonid Sharashkin explains.
​
During his hospital rehabilitation, Megre reads up as much as he can find about Pinus sibirica and forsees the huge commercial opportunity that is waiting to be tapped. Megre decides to travel up the Ob River the following Spring to have a clandestine meeting with the two old Siberians to find out more.
​
Megre sets out up the Ob with a small fleet of three or so steam ships. His crew is aware something is going on... Megre has one thing on his mind. He leaves his crew behind with instructions and he disappears for three days. "What is Megre up to?"
Russian businessman Vladimir Megre photographed 20 years after his first adverture up the Ob River in 1994.
Spring
1995
​
​
​
Spring
1995
​
Spring
1995
​
​
Autumn
1995
Winter
1995
​
​
​
Spring
1996
Vladimir Megre goes to the same clearing where he met the old men the previous spring and talks to an unremarkable woman in a coat, scarf and rubber gumboots/ Wellingtons. She tells him she is the grand daughter of the two old men and invites him into the wilderness of the Siberian taiga. He is somewhat irritated at the inconvenience of having to walk such a distance, but follows her anyway.
​
On their walk into the wilderness, Megre finds that his guide is a naturally beautiful young native Siberian woman, and most remarkable. She has some extraordinary, scientifically inexplicable abilities. He spends the next three days in her world.
Megre's entire "reality construct" is shattered during the three days he spends with Anastasia - the name of the girl, and her grandfathers. He returns with Anastasia through the forest, climbs back into his inflatable motor boat and catches up with the steamers that have gone ahead. He continutes the expedition but his heart is not in it. Entrepreneur Vladimir Megre is about to become a book author.
​
Anastasia has instructed Megre to write 10 books. She tells him he will become fabulously wealthy and famous. He has to write everythng down to the letter, of all that he has witnessed, experienced and been told. Megre is not a writer and is completely aware of his ineptitude to take up this task. He blunders forward anyway, in faith that what the young woman has told him is true.
​
Megre continues his writing work in poverty. His trading trip up the Ob was basically a failure - he is distracted by his meeting with the Siberian beauty. He is stripped of his wealth. Megre is forced to leave his small apartment and begins to live on the city streets as a homeless man begging for food and hand-outs. He continues his writing.
​
A group of 3-4 students come to his aid. Every afternoon, after their lectures, they receive Megre's hand-written copy which they type up into a manuscript. Finally the book is finished but there is no money to publish. The students pool together what small savings they have and a small print-run of the books is completed.
Megre himself stands on the streets of Moscow selling copies of his book. Within days, people return to the place where he stands asking to buy 5 copies... 10 copies in bundles to give to their friends and family members. A new "revolution" has just quietly and inconspicuously begun on the streets of Moscow - a revolution that is destined to change the entire world.
​
Megre's wildest hopes and dreams have been realised, just as Anastasia had predicted. Megre continues to write. He returns to the taiga to see Anastasia in the spring of 1997. From that visit, more books are written that cover topics around the family and raising of children, and deeply metaphysics topics that dip into the worlds of the quantum field, what "God" is, and the best ways for human civilization to continue.
​
Millions of copies of these books begin to be sold all across the Russian-speaking world. The Megre family business starts up in earnest which sells the books and "kedr" products within Russia and to different countries. Megre continues to write his books, until he'd finishes all 10 books as he was instructed to by Anastasia.
People all over Russia became deeply inspired by the books and begin to implement the way that Anastasia says to live, into their daily life and ways of thinking.
​
Russian people begin moving back to the land to take up residence on 1 hectare properties - 1 hectare per family, just as Anastasia had said. People moved out to the industrial wastelands of the former Soviet Union "collective farms" where "big agri" had destroyed the vitality of the soil. The people began to reinvigorate the soil by the touch of their hands, with their "bright thoughts" as Anastasia calls it, and their desire to see the whole Earth return once again to her "pristine origins".
Summer
1996
​
​
​
​
Spring
1996
​
1996-2017
1996-1999
1999-2000
Timeline 2002-2013. America
- Three English translations
c.2001
​
​
​
​
​
2002
​
2004-2008
​
2005
​
2008
A Russian woman had the book "Anastasia" as essential reading for her yoga class. Her son was an ecology student who would complete a doctoral degree in the USA. She gave him a copy of "Anastasia" in the Russian language and told him he must read it. When he did, he knew he had to translate these most powerful books into the English language. That young man's name is Leonid Sharaskin.
​
Translation of "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" books began.
John Woodsworth is a Russian-English translator who lived in Vancouver, Canada. He was approached to translate "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" books with Leonid Sharashkin as his editor.
​
The Woodsworth-Sharashkin First Edition of the books were published and went on sale. They are now commonly known as the Collector's Edition because of the beautiful covers, seen opposite.
Woodsworth and Sharaskin decided to revise all nine books they had translated and bring it into a more full and accurate translation of the Russian language. This is called the Revised Edition and have the black covers, below.
c.2010-2012
​
​
​
​
c.2011
​
​
​
​
c.2012
​
Dec
2013
​
January
2014
​
Jun-July 2017
Difficulties and misunderstandings arose between the "American" and "Russian" camps. There was a struggle over use of the words "Ringing Cedars" and "The Ringing Cedars of Russia". The Megre family withdrew themselves from the efforts of the Woodsworth-Sharashkin camp and their publisher. The details are not known by me except that an expensive court battle took place and matters between the parties became legally resolved.
​
Vladimir Megre realized that a new English translation of the books was needed that he could sell directly through his own website. He needed to sell the books in English but it was no longer appropriate to be selling his books through the American outlet. He put the organisation of finding a Russian-English translator into the hands of his daughter Polina. Neither Vladimir Megre nor Polina speak English.
A translator was found - Marian Schwartz, who commenced work.
The Third Edition of the English translation of the books was published and went on sale in December 2013. They were sold exclusively through the Megre family business in Russia, online, and through their selected retailers in various countries of the world.
As soon as the Marian Schwartz translations went on sale, people started complaining about them. They were not an accurate translation into English.
​
Vladimir Megre finally withdrew the Marian Schwartz translations. They are no longer for sale on his website nor with his merchants internationally. It is not known what will happen. Current stocks of the Woodsworth-Sharashkin translations are running low. There will be no more print-runs of this translation due to the above-mentioned court settlements.
> History > The books