The peoples of ancient Russia map. "Eastern Slavs: resettlement, neighbors, occupations, social system

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The territory of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs

Representatives of official historical science argue that the settlement by tribes that can be attributed to the Slavic groups of the East European Plain occurred in waves. Thus, the colonization of these territories took place both in the form of one-time resettlement of tribal groups, and through the gradual resettlement of individual families and clans.

At the same time, in contrast to the western and southern directions of the colonization of the Slavic tribes, the development of territories by the eastern Slavs (for the most part, forest areas), according to the research of modern historians, took place quite peacefully, without typical military conflicts with the Baltic population and local residents. It is worth noting that the main enemy in these places was not an aggressive human enemy, but dense deserted forests. Thus, the forest part of the future Slavic territories had to be settled by the tribes, and not conquered.

But in southern lands, forest-steppe regions, the Slavic tribes did not face the people living there, but with aggressive nomadic hordes.

The author of one of the most significant and popular chronicles in the world, The Tale of Bygone Years, in his story about the beginning of Russia, notes several East Slavic tribes that settled in the second half of the first millennium in the territories located between the Black and Baltic Seas. Among these tribes, Nestor distinguishes: Drevlyans, Polyans, as well as Tivertsy, Glychs, Northerners, White Croats, Buzhans or Volynians (remnants of the Duleb tribes), Slovenes, Krivichi, Vyatichi, Radimichi, Dregovichi, Drevlyans.

Most of the listed tribes are known to many medieval authors under their proper names. For example, Konstantin Porphyrogenitus describes the life of the Drevlyans, Lendzians (here, most likely, they mean settlers from the region of modern Lodz), Slovenes, as well as Krivichi and.

The researchers note that the main part of the East Slavic tribes, which settled throughout the territory of the future ancient Slavic state, belonged to the "Slavic" branch of Slavism. The only exceptions were, perhaps, the northerners, Tivertsy and Uglichs.

Also, it is worth noting that those Slavic tribes that once colonized Western European territories and the Balkans sometimes participated in the settlement of Russian territories. This is confirmed by numerous items that were found as a result of archaeological excavations in the forest zone. of Eastern Europe. First of all, historians refer to such objects lunar temporal rings, the origin of which is closely connected with the Middle Danube lands, where these objects acted as popular decorations for local Slavic tribes - Croats, Smolyans, Severians and Droguvites.

Popularity in folklore is most often associated with the actual promotion of the carriers of the described lunar rings, historical period, the "Danubian theme", which was transmitted in the form of epics.

The Danube River and the surrounding territories, in which the Slavic tribes realized their identity and ethnic independence, were forever imprinted in the Slavic people's memory as the cradle of a single people.

Thus, some modern scholars propose to consider the text about the settlement of the Slavs from the banks of the Danube in European territories, not as a literary or scientific version, but as a prehistoric folk tradition ingrained in people's memory for many years.

Settlement map of the Eastern Slavs

Examining the map of settlement Eastern Slavs, you can see that the Slavic tribes of the river were especially attracted, and the mention of the inhabitants of these territories as a “river” people is found in Byzantine writers of the sixth century. This is also evidenced by the Tale of Bygone Years we have examined.

In fact, the general contours of the settlement of this ethnic group, as a rule, fully correspond to the lines of river channels. According to the same chronicle of Nestor, the Polyan tribe settled on the lands of the middle Dnieper, the Drevlyans settled along the banks of the Pripyat River, the Dregovichi tribe neighbored the Drevlyans in the north, the Buzhans lived to the west of the Polyans, the northerners lived to the east of the Polyan tribe, whose neighbors in the north were rodimichi. The author pushes the Vyatichi, who settled in the upper reaches of the Oka, the farthest. The Krivichi settled along the Western Dvina, the Volga and the Dnieper, and the so-called Ilmen Slavs settled near Lake Ilmen.

Procopius of Caesarea and various Arabic sources report the settlement of the Eastern Slavs even further - to the Don basin. At the same time, apparently, they could not gain a foothold there for a long time. So, in the eleventh - twelfth centuries, during the creation of the Tale of Bygone Years, they were ruled by nomadic tribes, and the memory that the Slavs once lived there was lost.

Table on the topic: Resettlement of the Eastern Slavs

The Old Russian state was formed in the 9th century. in the lands of the Eastern Slavs. The Eastern Slavs are the common ancestors of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples. In the VI-IX centuries. Eastern Slavs settled over a large area from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, from the Carpathian Mountains to the upper reaches of the Oka and Volga rivers (see map). The Eastern Slavs were divided into various tribal unions: glades, drevlyans, krivichi, vyatichi and others. Each tribe was headed by a prince. The power of the prince was hereditary. The princes created armed detachments - squads.
The neighbors of the Eastern Slavs were Finnish tribes - in the north, west and east; Lithuanians and Poles - in the west; nomadic tribes - in the south. For several centuries, the Eastern Slavs fought against the nomads who came from Asia. In the VI century. The Huns attacked the Slavs. Then Avars and Khazars appeared. An important role in the history of the Slavs IX-X centuries. played relations with the two countries. These were Scandinavia in the north and Byzantium in the south. Natives of Scandinavia in Russia were called Varangians.


By the 9th century the first cities appeared among the Eastern Slavs. The largest of them were Kyiv, Novgorod, Chernigov, Smolensk, Murom. By the beginning of the IX century. Slavic tribes united around Kyiv, who lived along the banks of the Dnieper River. Novgorod became another center for the unification of the Eastern Slavs. Tribes united around Novgorod and settled around Lake Ilmen.
In 862, the inhabitants of Novgorod invited the Varangian - Prince Rurik to reign in Novgorod (that is, to rule Novgorod). Rurik laid the foundation for the Rurik dynasty, which ruled Russia until the end of the 16th century.

After the death of Rurik in 879, his relative Oleg became the ruler of Novgorod. He did not stay long in Novgorod. In 882
Oleg and his squad sailed along the Dnieper River to Kiev. At that time, Varangians Askold and Dir ruled in Kyiv. Oleg killed them and began to reign in Kyiv. He subjugated all the East Slavic and some Finnish tribes, and then united the Novgorod north and Kyiv south under his rule. Thus was formed the Old Russian state, which received the name " Kievan Rus". Oleg became the first ruler Old Russian state.
The rulers of the Old Russian state bore the title "Ve-
famous prince of Kyiv". The first Kiev princes were:
Svyatoslav (son of Igor and Olga).

Oleg, Igor (son of Rurik), Princess Olga (wife of Prince Igor) and
Igor Olga Svyatoslav

Activity Kiev princes was sent to:
to unite the Slavic tribes under the rule of Kyiv;
to protect trade routes;
to establish profitable trade relations with other states;
to protect Russia from external enemies.
The prince was supreme ruler in Russia. He issued laws ("statutes"), judged the population, carried out administrative and military functions. However, the prince did not make a single decision without the "princely council". The princely council included boyars close to the prince. Veche played an important role in the political life of Russia. That's what it was called popular assembly. Veche could expel the bad prince and invite a new one. Veche also collected the people's militia.
The main source of income for the prince and his squad was
tribute collected from the local population. Tribute was collected in money or furs. Part of the tribute as a commodity was sent to Byzantium. Traditional Russian goods would be
whether furs, honey, wax, as well as slaves. Russian monetary units were called hryvnias and kuns. Part of the tribute as a commodity was sent to Byzantium. Traditional Russian goods were furs, honey, wax and captive slaves. Foreign merchants brought weapons, cloth, silk, expensive jewelry to Kyiv. The main trade route along the Dnieper River was called the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks." He led from Scandinavia to Byzantium.
The heyday of Kievan Rus falls on the reign of princes Vladimir the Holy and Yaroslav the Wise.

The name of Prince Vladimir is associated with such an important event in Russian history as the baptism of Russia, i.e. the transformation of Christianity into the dominant religion in Russia. Exact date the baptism of Russia has not been established. It is generally accepted that this happened around 988. At the head of the Russian Orthodox Church a metropolitan was appointed, who was appointed from Constantinople. The entire population of Russia was obliged to pay a tax in favor of the church - a tithe.
The Baptism of Russia was an important factor in the unification of the Russian lands. It contributed to:
strengthening the central government;
consolidation of the ancient Russian people;
the formation of a single ancient Russian culture;
the spread of writing in Russia;
the development of the craft;
strengthening international relations of Kievan Rus.
Under Yaroslav the Wise, Kyiv became one of the richest and most beautiful cities in Europe. The city has about 400

churches. The Hagia Sophia built in Kyiv and Nov-gorod became a symbol of the power of Russia. Under Yaroslav the Wise, the first libraries appeared in Russia. The name of Yaroslav the Wise is associated with the compilation of "Russian Truth" - the first set of Russian laws. During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the international authority of the Kievan
Russia. Kyiv conducted extensive trade with Byzantium, Poland, Germany, with the states of the Caucasus and the countries of the East. Many sovereigns of Europe were looking for kinship and friendship with Yaroslav the Wise.
However, after the death of Yaroslav the Wise, the disintegration of the Old Russian state begins and a new period begins in Russian history.

. East Slavic tribes

The Russian part of the East European Plain was settled in waves, by tribes belonging to the "Ant" and "Sklaven" groups of the Slavic ethnos. The colonization of these lands took place in two ways: both in the form of relatively one-time movements of large tribal groups, and through the gradual "spreading" of individual clans and families. Unlike southern and western directions Slavic colonization, the development of most of the Eastern European territory (its forest zone) was carried out mostly peacefully, without any serious clashes with the native Finnish and Baltic populations. The main enemy of man in these places was not a hostile stranger, but deserted dense forests. For many centuries, the forest part of the country had to be settled rather than conquered.

In the southern, forest-steppe zone, on the contrary, the Slavs had to endure a grueling struggle, but not with local population, but with alien nomadic hordes. So, according to the apt remark of one historian, Russian history from its very beginning, as it were, bifurcated: in it, along with European history proper, which has always been the true basis of the national-state and cultural life of the Russian people, there arose an imposed and persistent Asian history, which the Russians need to get rid of. people had for a whole millennium at the cost of incredible efforts and sacrifices ( Shmurlo E.F. Course of Russian history. The emergence and formation of the Russian state (862 - 1462). Ed. 2nd, corrected. SPb., 1999. T. 1. S. 43). But this very work of outliving Asiatic history was truly European work—a slow, stubborn, and extremely difficult overcoming of barbarism through civilization and culture.

The Tale of Bygone Years lists the following East Slavic tribes that settled in the second half of the 1st millennium between the Baltic and Black Seas: Polyans, Drevlyans, Dregovichi, Radimichi, Vyatichi, Krivichi, Slovenes, Buzhans (or Volynians, fragments of the Duleb tribal association), White Croats, Northerners, Uglichs and Tivertsy. Some of these tribes are known by their own names to other medieval authors. Konstantin Porphyrogenitus knows the Drevlyans, Dregovichi, Krivichi, Northerners, Slovenes and Lendzyans (apparently, people from the region of modern Lodz); The Bavarian geographer reports on the Buzhans, Volynians, Severians and Uglichs; Arab historians, giving preference in their reports to the general term "Slavs" ("as-sakaliba"), especially highlight the Volhynians-Dulebs among them. Most of the East Slavic tribes that inhabited the Russian land belonged to the "Slavic" branch of the Slavs, with the exception of the northerners, Uglichs and Tivertsy - the "Antes" of the Byzantine chronicles.

The same Slavic tribes that colonized the Balkans and Western European territories sometimes participated in the settlement of the lands of ancient Russia. Archaeologically, this is confirmed, for example, by the finds in the forest zone of Eastern Europe (in the Dnieper-Dvina and Oka basins) of the so-called lunar temporal rings, whose origin is firmly linked to the Middle Danube lands, where they were a very common decoration of the local Slavs - the Droguvites (Dregovichi), northerners , Smolyans (who were probably relatives of the ancient Russian Krivichi, whose main city was Smolensk), and Croats, who originally lived in the Upper Hanging and on the lands of modern Czech Republic and Slovakia ( Sedov V.V. Lunar temporal rings of the East Slavic area. In: Culture of the Slavs and Russia. M., 1998. S. 255).

The popularity of the “Danube theme” in Russian folklore, which is especially surprising in the epic epic of the North Russian lands, is most likely associated with the advancement of the bearers of the lunar temporal rings to the north. The Danube, on the banks of which the Slavs realized their ethnic independence and originality, has forever remained in the people's memory as the cradle of the Slavs. The annalistic news about the settlement of the Slavs in Europe from the banks of the Danube, apparently, should be considered not as a scientific, literary, but as a folk, pre-annalistic tradition. Weak echoes of it are heard in some early medieval Latin monuments. Anonymous Bavarian geographer of the 9th century. mentions a certain kingdom of Zerivani (Serivans) on the left bank of the Danube, from where "all the Slavic peoples originated and lead, according to them, their origin." Unfortunately, this name is incompatible with any of the known state formations early Middle Ages. An even earlier Ravvensky anonymous placed the ancestral home of the Slavs "at the sixth hour of the night", that is, again in the Danube, to the west of the Sarmatians and Karps (inhabitants of the Carpathians), who, according to this geographic and astronomical classification, lived "at the seventh hour of the night." Both authors wrote their works at a time when the Slavs did not yet have a written language, and, therefore, drew their information from their oral traditions.

Rivers generally attracted the Slavs - this truly "river" people - as noted by Byzantine writers of the 6th century. The Tale of Bygone Years testifies to the same. The general contours of the settlement of the East Slavic tribes always correspond to river channels in it. According to the news of the chronicler, the clearing settled along the middle Dnieper; Drevlyans - to the north-west of the glades, along the Pripyat River; Dregovichi - north of the Drevlyans, between Pripyat and the Western Dvina; buzhane - west of the meadows, along the Western Bug River; northerners - to the east of the meadows, along the rivers Desna, Seim and Sula; radimichi - north of the northerners, along the Sozha river; the Vyatichi moved east farthest of all - to the upper reaches of the Oka; settlements of the Krivichi stretched along the upper reaches of the Dnieper, Volga and Western Dvina; Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov River, occupied by the Ilmen Slovenes, marked the northern border of settlement, and the Dniester and the Southern Bug, mastered by the Tivertsy and Uglichs, marked the southern border.

Arab sources and Procopius of Caesarea report the advancement of the Slavs even further to the east - to the Don basin. But they did not manage to gain a foothold here. In the 11th - 12th centuries, when The Tale of Bygone Years was being written, these lands (with the exception of the Tmutorokan Principality) had long and undividedly belonged to nomadic tribes. The memory of the presence of the Slavs on them was lost, therefore the chronicler did not include the Don among the rivers along the banks of which our ancestors "sat down". In general, the chronicle evidence of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs is distinguished by a high degree of reliability and is mainly confirmed by other written sources, archaeological, anthropological and linguistic data.

Two migration flows to the Old Russian lands

So, the East Slavic ethnos did not know either tribal or dialectal unity, or a common “ancestral home”, which, until recently, the Middle Dnieper region was unconditionally recognized. In the complex process of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs, two main streams stand out, originating in vast territories from the lower reaches of the Vistula to the northern Danubian lands. The direction of one of them ran through the Southern Baltic in the interfluve of the Dnieper and the Western Dvina, where it bifurcated: its northeastern branch (Ilmen Slovenes and, in part, Krivichi) branched off into the Pskov-Novgorod regions, and the southeastern (Krivichi, Radimichi and Vyatichi ) “curved” into the Sozha, Desna and Oka basins. Another stream rushed along Volhynia and Podolia to the Middle Dnieper region (glade) and, branching, left to the north, northwest and northeast (Drevlyans, Dregovichi, northerners).

Consider each of these streams, assigning them conventional names"North" and "South".

In the northwestern lands of Ancient Russia, the Slavic population appeared no later than the 5th century. - it was to this time that the emergence of the culture of Pskov long barrows, scattered along the shores of Lake Pskov, the rivers Velikaya, Lovat, Msta, Mologa, and partly Chadogoshcha, dates back. Its archaeological appearance (things inventory, funeral rituals, etc.) differs sharply from the local Balto-Finnish antiquities and, on the contrary, finds direct analogies in Slavic monuments on the territory of the Polish Pomerania. Since that time, the Slavs have become the main population of this region ( Sedov V. V. Slavs in early middle ages. pp. 213 - 216).

The next wave of the "northern" stream of Slavic migration is archaeologically represented by bracelet-like temporal rings - characteristic female adornments that are not characteristic of any of the Finno-Ugric and Baltic cultures. The center of this migratory movement was the Povislenye, from where the Slavic tribes, carriers of bracelet-like rings, settled the western part of the area of ​​culture of the Pskov long mounds, advanced into the Polotsk Dvina, Smolensk Dnieper and further east in the interfluve of the Volga and Klyazma, reaching in the 9th - 10th centuries. southern shores of Beloozero. The local Finnish and Baltic population was quickly subjugated and partly assimilated by the newcomers.

Almost simultaneously, the Danube Smolensk people came to the same lands, whose hallmark are the lunar temporal rings. These different groups The Slavic population united in a powerful tribal union of the Krivichi. The chronicler noted that the Krivichi lived "... on the top of the Volga, and on the top of the Dvina, and on the top of the Dnieper, their own city is Smolensk"; they were “the first inhabitants ... in Polotsk”, Izborsk stood in their land. The fact that the Krivichi were the border population of the entire Old Russian North-West is evidenced, in particular, by the Latvian name of the Russians - krievs ("krievs").

Another place where the Slavs, participants in the "northern" colonization stream, settled was the northwestern Priilmenye and the source of the Volkhov. The earliest Slavic monuments (the culture of the Novgorod hills) date back here to the 8th century. Most of them are concentrated along the banks of the Ilmen, the rest are scattered in the upper reaches of the Luga, Plyussa and the Mologa basin.

As for the Radimichi and Vyatichi, modern data fully confirm the annalistic news about their origin “from the Poles”. But if the Radimichi, like the Ilmen Slavs and the Western Krivichi, retained the South Baltic anthropological type, then the Vyatichi inherited some racial features of the Finno-Ugric population of the East European Plain.

The "Southern" stream poured into the Central Russian Plain a little later. The settlement by the Slavs of the Middle Dnieper and the forest-steppe zone with its black earth expanses began in the last decades of the 7th century. Two circumstances contributed to this: firstly, the departure of the Bulgars from the Northern Black Sea region and, secondly, the formation in the steppes between the Volga and the Don Khazar Khaganate, which temporarily blocked the warlike Trans-Volga nomads - the Pechenegs and Hungarians - the road to the west; at the same time, the Khazars themselves almost did not bother the Slavs throughout the first half of the 8th century, since they were forced to enter into a long war with the Arabs for the North Caucasus.

However, populating the Dnieper region, the Slavs for a long time preferred to keep to the forests, along the river valleys descending into the steppes. In the 8th century here arises the early Slavic Romance culture. In the next century, Slavic settlements moved even further into the depths of the steppes, as can be seen from the monuments of the Borshevsky culture in the Middle and Lower Don.

Anthropological studies show that Slavic tribes took part in the settlement of the forest-steppe zone, belonging both to the Baltic anthropological type (high forehead, narrow face) and to the Central European (low forehead, wide face).

The resettlement of the Slavs in the ancient Russian lands was accompanied by clashes between the tribes, sometimes taking on a very violent character. The clashes were caused by attacks on neighboring territory, primarily on hunting grounds.

Conflicts of this kind were probably a ubiquitous phenomenon, but The Tale of Bygone Years remembered only one of them: the clearing, according to the chronicler, "was offended by the Drevlyans and roundabouts." To offend a tribe or people means to violate good neighborly relations. Hence, we are talking about some violation of the rights of the glades to the territory they occupy by neighboring tribes.

It seems that the essence of the conflict is clarified by one of the epics of the Kiev cycle, which has preserved the realities of the "pre-Kiev" era. Once, during the next "honorable feast" in Kyiv, his servants came to Prince Vladimir - and in what form?

All of them are beaten-wounded.
Maces riotous heads are pierced,
The heads are tied with sashes.

It turned out that they "ran into an open field" on a crowd of unknown "well done" - "for three hundred and five hundred", who "beaten and injured" the prince's people, "caught" all the "white fish", "shot deer aurochs ” and “snatched the bright falcons.” The offenders called themselves "Churilov's retinue". Later it turns out that this Churila Plenkovich lives “not in Kyiv”, but “lower than Malov Kievets” (on the Lower Danube), and in his power and wealth he surpasses Prince Vladimir - his yard is “seven miles away”, surrounded by an “iron fence” ”, but “on every tyninka there is a dome, but there is also a zemchuzhinka”. This epic seems to be a folklore version of the annalistic news about the attack of the “drevlyans and rounders” on the lands of the meadows.

Two migration flows independent of each other, which absorbed different groups of Slavic tribes, determined the “bipolar” development of early Russian history. Russian south and Russian north long time went, if not quite different, then completely independent ways. Willingly emphasizing their differences from each other, they too often forgot what united them. And in the end, the historical task of achieving state and national unity turned out to be beyond the power of either one or the other. Therefore, we can say, following S. M. Solovyov, that the Novgorod and Kyiv lands were not two centers, but the two main stages of our ancient history. The true center of the Russian land was not there and did not immediately reveal itself. The grain of its statehood - Vladimir-Suzdal Rus - slowly ripened away from the seething life of the ancient Russian borderlands.

"Slavs" is a formation, the concept is only linguistic, not anthropological. Its basis was precisely the Gothic ethnosubtract. In Polyabye, where the Goths and Gepids ended their campaign by the 6th century, the Proto-Slavic language appeared. The settling of the Slavs on ever larger territories naturally led to the formation of Slavic nations / nationalities, the development of local dialects and the rejection of Slavic-Latin languages ​​as non-folk languages ​​for this country (until the 16th-18th centuries, European countries used two languages ​​as state languages: Latin and Church Slavonic-Thessalonica, both extinct), some of which then underwent transformation into independent languages ​​- official national languages ​​​​are created: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Litvinian-Belarusian, Rusyn-Ukrainian, etc. Church books were translated into national languages .

However, in relation to the ancient Slavs, we would like to know where the so-called ancestral home of the Slavs was located.

The ancestral home (Slavs, and not only Slavs) should not be understood as the original area of ​​\u200b\u200bdwelling a single people with a single language. The ancestral home is a conditional territory with blurred boundaries, on which, as a rule, an intricate and difficult-to-define ethnogenic process took place.

In matters of Slavic ethnogenesis, there is considerable discord: the process of the formation of a nationality is so complex and diverse that it is, of course, impossible to expect complete certainty, the accuracy of ethnic boundaries, and the clarity of ethnic characteristics. Anthropology, which studies the diversity of human physical types, has shown that there is no complete coincidence with linguistic areas, that language and physical type may or may not coincide.

Historical and linguistic materials alone, on which the scientists of the 19th century relied, were not enough to solve the problem of ethnogenesis. Significantly more stable data were obtained by combining linguistic materials with anthropological and archaeological ones. Such a serious generalization was the work of L. Niederle. The ancestral home of the Slavs, according to Niederla (in relation to the first centuries AD), looked like this: in the west it covered the upper and middle Vistula, in the north the border went along the Pripyat, in the northeast and east it included the lower reaches of the Berezina, Iput, Desna and along the Dnieper reached the mouth of the Sula. The southern border of the Slavic world went from the Dnieper and Ros to the west along the upper reaches of the Southern Bug, Dniester, Prut and San. Subsequently, other researchers also preferred the western half - to the west from the Bug and the Vistula to the Oder (i.e., on the territory of modern Poland). The degree of persuasiveness of the arguments of the Vistula-Dnieper and Vistula-Oder hypotheses is approximately the same. Hence the idea arose of the possibility of combining both hypotheses with the fact that the entire space from the Dnieper to the Oder can be considered the ancestral home of the Slavs.

Ancient Europeans and the formation of the Slavs in the II and early I millennium BC

Cloud of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs in the period of origin and their neighbors - c. 1000 BC

Ancient map of Europe → Enlarge .

Areas inhabited by Slavs at the beginning of the Middle Ages on a German map.

Slavs in the High Middle Ages - around 800-950 → Enlarge .

Archaeological cultures of the eastern part of Europe in the 5th-4th centuries. AD

Settlement of tribes in the V-IV centuries. AD → Enlarge .

6th century

Slavic formation and their neighbors

The beginning of a big settlement of the Slavs. V - first half 6th century AD. The map highlights the events that led to the conquest proto-states Ostrogoths by the Huns. → Enlarge .

Kievan Rus in the ninth century.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania XII-XV centuries. AD. See more → .

ON under Gedymin, 1341. See more → .

Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1462 → Enlarge . See more → .

Rzeczpospolita, 1572. See more → .

Ethnographic map of the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) tribe, 1903 → Enlarge .

Territory of Ukraine until 1954 → Enlarge . See more → .

Ethnographic map of the Belarusian tribe, 1903 → Enlarge . Read more → Belarusians are the oldest inhabitants of Europe.

The available historical-linguistic, archaeological, anthropological materials and modern genetic studies, on which scientists rely, do not reducediscussions and disputes concerning formations and ethnogenesis Slavs.

The pulling of everything Slavic and so-called "Russian" by the Horde Muscovy / Russia - the exaltation of the invented "Great Russian" nation, is simply explained: in order to seize the territories of Europe, deprive the Slavic peoples of Europe of their national identity, to guard them from the height of their "noble" position and to assimilate them into the metropolis "" on the rights of younger brothers - the colonial peoples.

It has been proven that the so-called It is impossible on the basis of some Slavic features in the so-called "Russian" language - a mixture of Finno-Ugric, Turkic, and other languages ​​\u200b\u200bwith Bulgarian (Church Slavonic) bookish (brought by religion from the outside, by no means prevailing in the vocabulary and grammar of the so-called "Russian" language), classify it as "Slavic".

No single Slavic community and (or) "Old Russian people" has ever existed. Formation Slavic peoples took place in different territories and with the participation of different ethnic components. There were no "Russians" in the past either. The ideologists of the Horde Muscovy / Russia in the 19th century coined the word “Rusich”, because in reality the belonging of a person to Russia was determined in the Middle Ages by a completely different word: “Rusyn”. It meant not Russians at all (then Muscovites), but only Rusyns (Ukrainians) - residents of the Kiev region, Podolia, Volhynia, Galicia. This scientific fact is not advertised in Russia only because it completely refutes the myth about the “Russian world” and some common origin of the Finno-Finnish and Asian Horde Muscovy / Russia with the historical formation of the Slavic peoples of Europe.

East Slavic union of tribes that lived in the basin of the upper and middle reaches of the Oka and along the Moscow River. The resettlement of the Vyatichi took place from the territory of the Dnieper left bank or from the upper reaches of the Dniester. The Vyatichi substratum was the local Baltic population. Vyatichi retained pagan beliefs longer than other Slavic tribes and resisted the influence of the Kievan princes. Rebelliousness and militancy are the hallmark of the Vyatichi tribe.

The tribal union of the Eastern Slavs of the 6th-11th centuries. They lived in the territories of the current Vitebsk, Mogilev, Pskov, Bryansk and Smolensk regions, as well as eastern Latvia. Formed on the basis of the alien Slavic and local Baltic population - the Tushemly culture. In the ethnogenesis of the Krivichi, the remnants of the local Finno-Ugric and Baltic - Ests, Livs, Latgals - tribes, who mixed with the numerous alien Slavic population, participated. Krivichi are divided into two large groups: Pskov and Polotsk-Smolensk. In the culture of the Polotsk-Smolensk Krivichi, along with Slavic elements of jewelry, there are elements of the Baltic type.

Slovenian Ilmen- a tribal union of the Eastern Slavs on the territory of Novgorod land, mainly in the lands near Lake Ilmen, in the neighborhood of the Krivichi. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, the Slovenes of Ilmen, together with the Krivichi, Chud and Merya, participated in the calling of the Varangians, who were related to the Slovenes - immigrants from the Baltic Pomerania. A number of historians consider the ancestral homeland of the Slovenes in the Dnieper region, others deduce the ancestors of the Ilmen Slovenes from the Baltic Pomerania, since the traditions, beliefs and customs, the type of dwellings of the Novgorodians and Polabian Slavs are very close.

Duleby- tribal union of Eastern Slavs. They inhabited the territory of the Bug River basin and the right tributaries of the Pripyat. In the 10th century Duleb union broke up, and their lands became part of Kievan Rus.

Volynians- East Slavic union of tribes, who lived on the territory on both banks of the Western Bug and at the source of the river. Pripyat. Volynians were first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 907. In the 10th century, the Vladimir-Volyn principality was formed on the lands of the Volynians.

Drevlyans- East Slavic tribal union, which occupied in the 6-10 centuries. the territory of Polissya, the Right Bank of the Dnieper, west of the glades, along the course of the Teterev, Uzh, Ubort, Stviga rivers. The habitat of the Drevlyans corresponds to the area of ​​the Luka-Raikovets culture. The name Drevlyane was given to them because they lived in the forests.

Dregovichi- tribal union of Eastern Slavs. The exact boundaries of the Dregovichi habitat have not yet been established. According to a number of researchers, in the 6th-9th centuries, the Dregovichi occupied the territory in the middle part of the Pripyat River basin, in the 11th - 12th centuries, the southern border of their settlement passed south of Pripyat, the northwestern - in the watershed of the Drut and Berezina rivers, the western - in the upper reaches of the Neman River . When settling in Belarus, the Dregovichi moved from south to north to the Neman River, which indicates their southern origin.

Polochane- Slavic tribe, part of the tribal union of the Krivichi, who lived along the banks of the Dvina River and its tributary Polot, from which they got their name.
The center of the Polotsk land was the city of Polotsk.

Glade- a tribal union of Eastern Slavs, who lived on the Dnieper, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bmodern Kyiv. The very origin of the glades remains unclear, since the territory of their settlement was at the junction of several archaeological cultures.

Radimichi- an East Slavic union of tribes that lived in the eastern part of the Upper Dnieper, along the Sozh River and its tributaries in the 8th-9th centuries. Convenient river routes passed through the lands of the Radimichi, connecting them with Kiev. Radimichi and Vyatichi had a similar burial rite - the ashes were buried in a log house - and similar temporal female jewelry (temporal rings) - seven-rayed (for Vyatichi - seven-paste). Archaeologists and linguists suggest that the Balts, who lived in the upper reaches of the Dnieper, also participated in the creation of the material culture of the Radimichi.

northerners- East Slavic union of tribes that lived in the 9th-10th centuries along the Desna, Seim and Sula rivers. The origin of the name northerners is of Scythian-Sarmatian origin and is derived from the Iranian word "black", which is confirmed by the name of the city of northerners - Chernihiv. The main occupation of the northerners was agriculture.

Tivertsy - East Slavic tribe, settled in the 9th century in the interfluve of the Dniester and Prut, as well as the Danube, including the Budzhak coast of the Black Sea on the territory of modern Moldova and Ukraine.

Uchi- East Slavic union of tribes that existed in the 9th - 10th centuries. Ulichi lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Bug and on the Black Sea. The center of the tribal union was the city of Peresechen. For a long time, the Ulichi resisted the attempts of the Kiev princes to subjugate them to their power.