East Slavic tribes. Slavic tribes: the main secrets

Ancient historians were sure that on the territory Ancient Russia live warlike tribes and "people with eight heads". A lot of time has passed since then, but many mysteries of the Slavic tribes have not yet been solved.

1. Northerners living in the south

The tribe of northerners at the beginning of the 8th century inhabited the banks of the Desna, the Seim and the Seversky Donets, founded Chernigov, Putivl, Novgorod-Seversky and Kursk. The name of the tribe, according to Lev Gumilyov, is due to the fact that it assimilated the nomadic tribe of the Savirs, who in ancient times lived in Western Siberia. It is with the Savirs that the origin of the name Siberia is also associated.

Archaeologist Valentin Sedov believed that the Savirs were a Scythian-Sarmatian tribe, and the toponyms of the northerners are of Iranian origin. So, the name of the river Seim (Seven) comes from the Iranian śyama or even from the ancient Indian syāma, which means "dark river". According to the third hypothesis, the northerners (northers) were immigrants from the southern or western lands. On the right bank of the Danube lived a tribe with that name. It could easily be "moved" by the Bulgars who invaded there.

The northerners were representatives of the Mediterranean type of people: they were distinguished by a narrow face, an elongated skull, were thin-boned and nosy. They brought bread and furs to Byzantium, back - gold, silver, luxury goods. Traded with the Bulgarians, with the Arabs. The northerners paid tribute to the Khazars, and then entered the union of tribes united by the Novgorod prince Prophetic Oleg. In 907 they participated in the campaign against Tsargrad. In the 9th century, the Chernigov and Pereyaslav principalities appeared on their lands.

2. Vyatichi and Radimichi - relatives or different tribes?

The Vyatichi lands were located on the territory of Moscow, Kaluga, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Voronezh and Lipetsk regions.

Outwardly, the Vyatichi resembled the northerners, but they were not so nosey, but they had a high bridge of the nose and blond hair. The "Tale of Bygone Years" indicates that the name of the tribe came from the name of the ancestor Vyatko (Vyacheslav), who came "from the Poles."

Other scientists associate the name with the Indo-European root ven-t (wet), or with the Proto-Slavic vęt (big) and put the name of the tribe on a par with the Wends and Vandals. Vyatichi were skilled warriors, hunters, collected wild honey, mushrooms and berries. Cattle breeding and slash-and-burn agriculture were widespread. They were not part of Ancient Russia and more than once fought with the Novgorod and Kiev princes.

According to legend, Vyatko's brother Radim became the ancestor of the Radimichi, who settled between the Dnieper and Desna in the territories of the Gomel and Mogilev regions of Belarus and founded Krichev, Gomel, Rogachev and Chechersk.

Radimichi also rebelled against the princes, but after the battle on Peschan they submitted. Chronicles mention them for the last time in 1169.

3. Are Krivichi Croats or Poles?

The passage of the Krivichi is not known for certain, who since the 6th century lived in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper and became the founders of Smolensk, Polotsk and Izborsk. The name of the tribe came from the ancestor of Kriv. Krivichi differed from other tribes in high growth. They had a nose with a pronounced hump, a well-defined chin. Anthropologists attribute the Krivichi to the Valdai type of people.

According to one version, the Krivichi are the migrating tribes of white Croats and Serbs, according to another, they come from the north of Poland.

The Krivichi worked closely with the Varangians and built ships on which they went to Constantinople.

The Krivichi became part of Ancient Russia in the 9th century. The last prince of the Krivichi Rogvolod was killed with his sons in 980. Smolensk and Polotsk principalities appeared on their lands.

4. Slovene vandals

Slovenes (Itelmen Slovenes) were the northernmost tribe. They lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and on the Mologa River. Origin unknown. According to legend, their ancestors were Sloven and Rus, who founded the cities of Slovensk (Veliky Novgorod) and Staraya Russa even before our era.

From Slovene, power passed to Prince Vandal (known in Europe as the Ostrogoth leader Vandalar), who had three sons: Izbor, Vladimir and Stolposvyat, and four brothers: Rudotok, Volkhov, Volkhovets and Bastarn. The wife of Prince Vandal Advind was from the Varangians.

Slovene now and then fought with the Vikings and neighbors. It is known that the ruling dynasty descended from the son of Vandal Vladimir. The Slavs were engaged in agriculture, expanded their possessions, influenced other tribes, engaged in trade with the Arabs, with Prussia, with Gotland and Sweden.

It was here that Rurik began to reign. After the emergence of Novgorod, the Slovenes began to be called Novgorodians and founded the Novgorod Land.

5. Russ. A people without a territory

Look at the map of the settlement of the Slavs. Each tribe has its own lands. Russians are not there. For all that, it was the Rus who gave the name to Russia. There are three theories of the origin of the Russians.

The first theory considers the Rus to be Varangians and relies on The Tale of Bygone Years (written from 1110 to 1118), which says: “They drove the Varangians across the sea, and did not give them tribute, and began to rule themselves, and there was no truth among them, And generations stood up against generations, and they had strife, and they began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: "Let's look for a prince who would rule over us and judge by right." And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia. Those Varangians were called Rus, as others are called Swedes, and others are Normans and Angles, and still others are Gotlanders, and so are these.

The second says that the Rus are a separate tribe that came to Eastern Europe earlier or later than the Slavs.

The third theory says that the Rus are the highest caste of the East Slavic tribe of the Polyans, or the tribe itself, which lived on the Dnieper and on the Ros. “The meadows are even more called Rus” - it was written in the “Laurentian” chronicle, which followed the “Tale of Bygone Years” and was written in 1377. Here, the word "Rus" was used as a toponym and the name of the Rus was also used as the name of a separate tribe: "Rus, Chud and Slovene", - this is how the chronicler listed the peoples who inhabited the country.

Despite the research of geneticists, disputes around the Rus continue. For example, the Norwegian researcher Thor Heyerdahl believed that the Varangians themselves are descendants of the Slavs.

The complexity of studying the issues of the origin of the Eastern Slavs and their settlement on the territory of Russia is closely related to the problem of the lack of reliable information about the Slavs. Historical science has more or less accurate sources only from the 5th-6th centuries. AD, while the early history of the Slavs is very vague.
The first, rather scarce information is contained in the works of ancient, Byzantine and Arabic authors.
A serious written source, of course, is the Tale of Bygone Years - the first Russian chronicle, the main task of which, according to the chronicler himself, was to find out "where the Russian land came from, who in Kyiv began first to reign, and from where the Russian land began to eat." The author of the chronicle describes in detail the settlement of the Slavic tribes and the period immediately preceding the formation of the Old Russian state.
In connection with the above circumstances, the problem of the origin and early history of the ancient Slavs is being solved today by scientists of various sciences: historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, linguists.

1. Initial settlement and the formation of Slavic branches

The Proto-Slavs separated from the Indo-European group by the middle of the 1st millennium BC.
In Central and Eastern Europe, there were then related cultures, which occupied a fairly vast territory. The tribes of the Eastern Slavs were called. During this period, it is still impossible to single out a purely Slavic culture, it is only beginning to take shape in the bowels of this ancient cultural community, from which not only the Slavs, but also some other peoples came out. At the same time, under the name of "Wends", the Slavs first became known to ancient authors as early as the 1st-2nd centuries. AD - Cornelius Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy, who placed them between the Germans and Finno-Ugric peoples.
Thus, the Roman historians Pliny the Elder and Tacitus (1st century AD) report on the Wends who lived between the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. At the same time, Tacitus notes the militancy and cruelty of the Wends, who, for example, destroyed the prisoners.
Many modern historians see in the Wends the ancient Slavs, who still retained their ethnic unity and occupied the territory of approximately the current South-Eastern Wormwood, as well as Volhynia and Polissya.
Byzantine authors of the 6th century. were more attentive to the Slavs, as they, having grown stronger by this time, began to threaten the empire.
Jordan elevates the contemporary Slavs - Wends, Sklavins and Antes - to one root and thereby fixes the beginning of their separation, which took place in the 6th-8th centuries. The relatively unified Slavic world was disintegrating both as a result of migrations caused by population growth and the “pressure” of other tribes, as well as interaction with the multi-ethnic environment in which they settled (Finno-Finns, Balts, Iranian-speaking tribes) and with which they contacted (Germans, Byzantines).
According to Byzantine sources, it is established that by the VI century. AD the Slavs occupied the vast expanses of Central and Eastern Europe and were divided into 3 groups: 1) the Slavs (they lived between the Dniester, the middle reaches of the Danube and the upper reaches of the Vistula); 2) Antes (Interfluve of the Dnieper and Dniester); 3) Wends (Vistula basin). In total, the authors name about 150 Slavic tribes.
However, the sources of the VI. do not yet contain indications of any differences between these groups, but, on the contrary, unite them, note the unity of the language, customs, and laws.
“The tribes of the Antes and Slavs are similar in their way of life, in their customs and their love of freedom”, “have long lived in democracy” (democracy), “are distinguished by endurance, courage, unity, hospitality, pagan polytheism and rituals.” They have a lot of "various livestock", they "cultivate cereals, especially wheat and millet." In their economy, they used the labor of “prisoner-of-war slaves”, but did not keep them in indefinite slavery, and after “some time they released them for a ransom” or offered to remain in their “in the position of free or friends” (a mild form of the patriarchal system of slavery).
Data on the East Slavic tribes are available in the "Tale of Bygone Years" by the monk Nestor (beginning of the 12th century). He writes about the ancestral home of the Slavs, which he defines in the Danube basin. (According to biblical legend Nestor associated their appearance on the Danube with the "Babylonian pandemonium", which, by the will of God, led to the separation of languages ​​​​and their "scattering" around the world). He explained the arrival of the Slavs to the Dnieper from the Danube by the attack on them by militant neighbors - the “Volokhovs”, who ousted the Slavs from their ancestral home.
Thus, the name "Slavs" appeared in the sources only in the 6th century. AD At this time, the Slavic ethnos was actively involved in the process of the Great Migration of Peoples - a major migration movement that swept the European continent in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. and almost completely redrawn its ethnic and political map.
The settlement of the Slavs in the vast expanses of Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe became the main content of the late phase of the Great Migration of Peoples (VI - VIII centuries). One of the groups of Slavs that settled in the forest-steppe regions of Eastern Europe was called Ants (a word of Iranian or Turkic origin).

Discussions continue around the question of what territory the Slavs occupied until the 6th century.
Outstanding historians N.M. Karamzin, S.M. Soloviev, V.O. Klyuchevsky supported the version of Russian chronicles (primarily the “Tale of Bygone Years”) that the Danube was the ancestral home of the Slavs.
True, V.O. Klyuchevsky made an addition: from the Danube, the Slavs got to the Dnieper, where they remained for about five centuries, after which in the 7th century. Eastern Slavs gradually settled in the Russian (East European) Plain.
Most modern scientists believe that the ancestral home of the Slavs was in more northern regions(Middle Dnieper and Pripyat, or the interfluve of the Vistula and Oder).
Academician B.A. Rybakov, on the basis of the latest archaeological data, proposes to combine both versions of the ancestral home of the Slavs. The tribes of the Eastern Slavs were called. He believes that the Proto-Slavs were located in a wide strip of Central and Eastern Europe (from the Sudetenland, Tatras and Carpathians to the Baltic Sea and from Pripyat to the upper reaches of the Dniester and the Southern Bug).
Thus, it is most likely that the Slavs occupied in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. land from the upper and middle Vistula to the middle Dnieper.
The settlement of the Slavs took place in three main directions:
- to the south, to the Balkan Peninsula;
- to the west, to the Middle Danube and the region between the Oder and the Elbe;
- to the east and north along the East European Plain.
Accordingly, as a result of the settlement, three branches of the Slavs that still exist today were formed: southern, western and eastern Slavs.

2. Eastern Slavs and their tribal principalities

Eastern Slavs to the VIII - IX centuries. reached in the north of the Neva and Lake Ladoga, in the east - the middle Oka and the upper Don, gradually assimilating part of the local Baltic, Finno-Ugric, Iranian-speaking population.
The resettlement of the Slavs coincided with the collapse of the tribal system. As a result of the crushing and mixing of tribes, new communities were formed, which were no longer consanguineous, but territorial and political in nature.
Tribal fragmentation among the Slavs has not yet been overcome, but there was already a tendency towards unification. This was facilitated by the situation of the era (wars with Byzantium; the need to fight against nomads and barbarians; back in the 3rd century, the Goths passed through Europe in a tornado, in the 4th century the Huns attacked; in the 5th century, the Avars invaded the Dnieper region, etc.).
During this period, unions of Slavic tribes begin to form. These unions included 120-150 separate tribes, whose names have already been lost.
A grandiose picture of the settlement of Slavic tribes on the great East European Plain is given by Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years (which is confirmed by both archaeological and written sources).
The names of tribal principalities were most often formed from the habitat: landscape features (for example, "glade" - "living in the field", "Drevlyans" - "living in the forests"), or the name of the river (for example, "Buzhan" - from the river Bug ).

The structure of these communities was two-stage: several small formations ("tribal principalities"), as a rule, formed larger ones ("unions of tribal principalities").
The Eastern Slavs to the VIII - IX centuries. There were 12 unions of tribal principalities. In the Middle Dnieper region (the area from the lower reaches of the Pripyat and Desna rivers to the Ros river) lived a meadow, to the north-west of them, south of Pripyat, - Drevlyans, west of the Drevlyans to the Western Bug - Buzhans (later called Volhynians), in the upper reaches of the Dniester and The Carpathians are Croats (part of a large tribe that broke up into several parts during settlement), Tivertsy down the Dniester, and Ulichi in the Dnieper region south of the glades. On the Dnieper Left Bank, in the basins of the Desna and Seim rivers, the union of northerners settled, in the Sozh river basin (the left tributary of the Dnieper north of the Desna) - Radimichi, on the upper Oka - Vyatichi. Between the Pripyat and the Dvina (to the north of the Drevlyans), the Dregovichi lived, and in the upper reaches of the Dvina, Dnieper and Volga, the Krivichi. The northernmost Slavic community, settled in the area of ​​Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov River up to the Gulf of Finland, was called "Slovene", which coincided with the common Slavic self-name.
Within the tribes, their own dialect of the language, their own culture, features of the economy and idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe territory are formed.
So, it was established that the Krivichi came to the upper Dnieper region, absorbing the Balts who lived there. The rite of burial in long mounds is associated with the Krivichi. Their length, unusual for mounds, was formed because a mound was poured over the urn of another to the buried remains of one person. Thus, the mound gradually grew in length. There are few things in the long mounds, there are iron knives, awls, clay whorls, iron belt buckles and vessels.
At this time, other Slavic tribes, or tribal unions, were clearly formed. Quite definitely, in some cases, the territory of these tribal associations can be traced due to the special design of the mounds that existed among some Slavic peoples. On the Oka, in the upper reaches of the Don, along the Ugra lived the ancient Vyatichi. Mounds of a special type spread in their lands: high, with the remains of wooden fences inside. The remains of the cremation were placed in these enclosures. In the upper reaches of the Neman and along the Berezina in the swampy Polesie lived the Dregovichi; according to Sozh and Desna - radimichi. In the lower reaches of the Desna, along the Seim they settled, occupying quite large area, northerners. To the south-west of them, along the Southern Bug, the Tivertsy and the Ulichi lived. In the very north of the Slavic territory, along Ladoga and Volkhov, the Slovenes lived. Many of these tribal unions, especially the northern ones, continued to exist even after the formation of Kievan Rus, since the process of decomposition of primitive relations with them proceeded more slowly.
Differences between the East Slavic tribes can be traced not only in the construction of mounds. So, the archaeologist A.A. Spitsyn noticed that the temporal rings - specific women's jewelry often found among the Slavs, woven into the hair, are different in different territories of the settlement of the Slavic tribes.
The designs of mounds and the distribution of certain types of temporal rings allowed archaeologists to quite accurately trace the territory of distribution of one or another Slavic tribe.

Temporal decorations of East Slavic tribes
1 - spiral (northerners); 2 - ring-shaped one-and-a-half-turn (Duleb tribes); 3 - seven-beam (Radimichi); 4 - rhombo-shield (Slovene Ilmen); 5 - everturned

The noted features (burial structures, temporal rings) between the tribal associations of Eastern Europe arose among the Slavs, apparently not without the influence of the Baltic tribes. Eastern Balts in the second half of the 1st millennium AD as if "grown" into the East Slavic population and were a real cultural and ethnic force that influenced the Slavs.
The development of these territorial-political unions proceeded gradually along the path of their transformation into states.

3. Occupations of the Eastern Slavs

The basis of the economy of the Eastern Slavs was arable farming. The Eastern Slavs, mastering the vast forest areas of Eastern Europe, carried with them an agricultural culture.
For agricultural work, the following were used: ralo, hoe, spade, knotted harrow, sickle, rake, scythe, stone grain grinders or millstones. Among grain crops prevailed: rye (zhito), millet, wheat, barley and buckwheat. Garden crops were also known to them: turnips, cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes.

Thus, slash-and-burn agriculture was widespread. On the lands liberated from the forest as a result of cutting and burning, crops (rye, oats, barley) were grown for 2-3 years, using the natural fertility of the soil, enhanced by ash from burnt trees. After the land was depleted, the site was abandoned and a new one was developed, which required the efforts of the entire community.
In the steppe regions, shifting agriculture was used, similar to undercutting, but associated with the burning of not trees, but willow grasses.
From the 8th century in the southern regions, field arable farming is spreading, based on the use of a plow with iron fur, draft cattle and a wooden plow, which survived until the beginning of the 20th century.
The Eastern Slavs used three methods of settlement: individually (individually, families, clans), in settlements (jointly) and on free lands between wild forests and steppes (zaymischa, zaimki, camps, repairs).
In the first case, the abundance of free land allowed everyone to cultivate as much land as was possible.
In the second case, everyone tried to have the lands allocated to him for cultivation located closer to the settlement. All convenient lands were considered common property, remained indivisible, cultivated jointly or divided into equal plots and after a certain period of time distributed by lot between individual families.
In the third case, citizens separated from the settlements, cleared and burned forests, developed wastelands and formed new farms.
Cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, and beekeeping also played a certain role in the economy.
Cattle breeding begins to separate from agriculture. The Slavs bred pigs, cows, sheep, goats, horses, oxen.
Crafts developed, including professional basis- blacksmithing, but it was mainly associated with agriculture. From swamp and lake ores, iron began to be produced in primitive clay furnaces (pits).
Of particular importance for the fate of the Eastern Slavs will be foreign trade, which developed both on the Baltic-Volga route, along which Arab silver entered Europe, and on the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, connecting the Byzantine world through the Dnieper with the Baltic region.
The economic life of the population was directed by such a mighty stream as the Dnieper, which cuts through it from north to south. The tribes of the Eastern Slavs were called. With the then significance of rivers as the most convenient means of communication, the Dnieper was the main economic artery, a pillar trade road for the western strip of the plain: with its upper reaches it comes close to the Western Dvina and the Ilmen-Lake basin, that is, to the two most important roads to the Baltic Sea, and by its mouth it connects the central Alaun Upland with the northern coast of the Black Sea. The tributaries of the Dnieper, going from afar to the right and left, like the access roads of the main road, bring the Dnieper region closer. on the one hand, to the Carpathian basins of the Dniester and Vistula, on the other hand, to the basins of the Volga and Don, that is, to the Caspian and Azov seas. Thus, the region of the Dnieper covers the entire western and partly the eastern half of the Russian plain. Thanks to this, from time immemorial there was a lively trade movement along the Dnieper, the impetus to which was given by the Greeks.

4. Family and clan among the Eastern Slavs

The economic unit (VIII-IX centuries) was mainly a small family. The organization that united the households of small families was the neighboring (territorial) community - verv.
The transition from a consanguineous community to a neighboring one occurred among the Eastern Slavs in the 6th - 8th centuries. Vervi members jointly owned hay and forest land, and arable land was, as a rule, divided among separate peasant farms.
The community (world, rope) played a big role in the life of the Russian village. This was due to the complexity and volume of agricultural work (which could only be performed by a large team); the need to monitor the correct distribution and use of land, a short period of agricultural work (it lasted from 4-4.5 months near Novgorod and Pskov to 5.5-6 months in the Kyiv region).
There were changes in the community: the collective of relatives who owned all the land together was replaced by an agricultural community. It also consisted of large patriarchal families, united by a common territory, traditions, and beliefs, but small families ran an independent economy here and independently disposed of the products of their labor.
As noted by V.O. Klyuchevsky, in the structure of a private civil hostel, an old Russian courtyard, a complex family of a householder with a wife, children and unseparated relatives, brothers, nephews, served as a transitional step from an ancient family to the newest simple family and corresponded to an ancient Roman family.
This destruction of the tribal union, its disintegration into households or complex families left some traces in itself in popular beliefs and customs.

5. Social organization

At the head of the East Slavic unions of tribal principalities were the princes, who relied on the military service nobility - the squad. The princes were also in smaller communities - tribal principalities that were part of the unions.
Information about the first princes is contained in the Tale of Bygone Years. The chronicler notes that tribal unions, although not all of them, have their own "principles". So, in relation to the meadows, he recorded a legend about the princes, the founders of the city of Kyiv: Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv and their sister Lebed.

From the 8th century among the Eastern Slavs, fortified settlements - "grads" - spread. They were, as a rule, the centers of unions of tribal principalities. The concentration of tribal nobility, warriors, artisans and merchants in them contributed to the further stratification of society.
The story of the beginning of the Russian land does not remember when these cities arose: Kyiv, Pereyaslavl. Chernigov, Smolensk, Lyubech, Novgorod, Rostov, Polotsk. At the moment from which she begins her story about Russia, most of these cities, if not all of them, apparently, were already significant settlements. A cursory glance at the geographical distribution of these cities is enough to see that they were created by the success of Russia's foreign trade.
The Byzantine author Procopius of Caesarea (6th century) writes: “These tribes, the Slavs and the Antes, are not ruled by one person, but since ancient times they live in the government of the people, and therefore decisions are made jointly regarding all happy and unfortunate circumstances.”
Most likely, we are talking about meetings (veche) of community members (male warriors), at which the most important issues of the life of the tribe were decided, including the choice of leaders - “military leaders”. At the same time, only male warriors participated in veche meetings.
Arabic sources speak of education in the 8th century. on the territory occupied by the Eastern Slavs, three political centers: Cuiaba, Slavia and Artsania (Artania).
Kuyaba is a political association of the southern group of East Slavic tribes, headed by the glades, with the center in Kyiv. Slavia is an association of the northern group of Eastern Slavs, led by the Novgorod Slovenes. The center of Artania (Artsania) causes controversy among scientists (the cities of Chernihiv, Ryazan and others are called).
Thus, during this period, the Slavs experienced the last period of the communal system - the era of "military democracy" that preceded the formation of the state. This is also evidenced by such facts as the sharp rivalry between military leaders, recorded by another Byzantine author of the 6th century. - Mauritius Strategist: the appearance of slaves from captives; raids on Byzantium, which, as a result of the distribution of looted wealth, strengthened the prestige of the elected military leaders and led to the formation of a squad consisting of professional military men - the prince's associates.
At the beginning of the ninth century the diplomatic and military activity of the Eastern Slavs is intensifying. At the very beginning of the IX century. they made campaigns against Surazh in the Crimea; in 813 - to the island of Aegina. In 839 a Russian embassy from Kyiv visited the emperors of Byzantium and Germany.
In 860, the boats of the Rus appeared at the walls of Constantinople. The campaign is associated with the names of the Kiev princes Askold and Dir. This fact indicates the presence of statehood among the Slavs who lived in the middle Dnieper region.
Many scientists believe that it was at that time that Russia entered the arena international life as a state. There is information about the agreement between Russia and Byzantium after this campaign and about the adoption by Askold and his entourage, warriors of Christianity.
Russian chroniclers early XII in. included in the chronicle the legend of the calling of the northern tribes of the Eastern Slavs as the prince of the Varangian Rurik (with brothers or with relatives and warriors) in the 9th century.
The very fact that the Varangian squads were in the service of the Slavic princes is beyond doubt (service to the Russian princes was considered honorable and profitable). It is possible that Rurik was real historical figure. Some historians even consider him a Slav; others see him as Rurik of Friesland, who raided Western Europe. LN Gumilyov expressed the point of view that Rurik (and the Rus tribe that arrived with him) were from South Germany.

But these facts could in no way affect the process of creating the Old Russian state - to speed it up or slow it down.

6. Religion of the Eastern Slavs

The worldview of the Eastern Slavs was based on paganism - the deification of the forces of nature, the perception of the natural and human world as a whole.
The origin of pagan cults occurred in ancient times - in the era of the Upper Paleolithic, about 30 thousand years BC.
With the transition to new types of management, pagan cults were transformed, reflecting the evolution public life person. At the same time, it is noteworthy that the most ancient layers of beliefs were not replaced by new ones, but were layered on top of each other, so restoring information about Slavic paganism is extremely difficult. It is also difficult because to this day there are practically no written sources.
The most revered of the pagan gods were Rod, Perun and Volos (Beles); at the same time, each of the communities had its own, local gods.
Perun was the god of lightning and thunder, Rod - fertility, Stribog - the wind, Veles - cattle breeding and wealth, Dazhbog and Hora - the deities of the sun, Mokosh - the goddess of weaving.
In ancient times, the Slavs had a widespread cult of the Family and women in childbirth, closely associated with the worship of ancestors. The clan - the divine image of the tribal community contained the entire Universe: heaven, earth and the underground dwelling of the ancestors.
Each East Slavic tribe had its own patron god and its own pantheons of gods, different tribes were similar in type, but different in name.
In the future, the cult of the great Svarog - the god of heaven - and his sons - Dazhbog (Yarilo, Khore) and Stribog - the gods of the sun and wind, acquires special significance.
Over time, Perun begins to play an increasingly important role - the god of thunder and rain, the "creator of lightning", who was especially revered as the god of war and weapons in the princely retinue environment. Perun was not the head of the pantheon of gods, only later, during the formation of statehood and the strengthening of the importance of the prince and his squad, the cult of Perun began to strengthen.
Perun is the central image of Indo-European mythology - a thunderer (ancient Ind. Parjfnya, Hittite. Piruna, Slavic. Perunъ, Lithuanian. Perkunas, etc.), located "above" (hence the connection of his name with the name of the mountain, rock) and entering into combat with the enemy , representing "down" - it is usually "under" a tree, mountain, etc. Most often, the opponent of the Thunderer appears in the form of a snake-like creature, correlated with the lower world, chaotic and hostile to man.

The pagan pantheon also included Volos (Veles) - the patron of cattle breeding and the guardian of the underworld of the ancestors; Makosh (Mokosh) - the goddess of fertility, weaving, and others.
Initially, totemic ideas were also preserved, associated with the belief in the mystical connection of the genus with any animal, plant, or even object.
In addition, the world of the Eastern Slavs was "inhabited" by numerous coastlines, mermaids, goblin, etc.
Wooden and stone statues of the gods were erected on pagan sanctuaries (temples), where sacrifices were made, including human ones.
Pagan holidays were closely connected with the agricultural calendar.
In the organization of the cult, a significant role was played by pagan priests - the Magi.
The head of the pagan cult was the leader, and then the prince. During the cult rituals that took place in special places - temples, sacrifices were made to the gods.

Pagan beliefs determined the spiritual life of the Eastern Slavs, their morality.
The Slavs did not have a mythology that explains the origin of the world and man, tells about the victory of heroes over the forces of nature, etc.
And by the X century. the religious system no longer corresponded to the level of social development of the Slavs.

7. Formation of the state among the Slavs

By the 9th century the formation of the state began among the Eastern Slavs. This can be associated with the following two points: the emergence of the path "From the Varangians to the Greeks" and the change of power.
So, the time from which the Eastern Slavs enter world history, we can consider the middle of the 9th century - the time when the path "From the Varangians to the Greeks" appeared.
Nestor in his Tale of Bygone Years gives a description of this route.
“When the glade lived separately along these mountains (meaning the Dnieper steeps near Kyiv), there was a path from the Varangians to the Greeks and from the Greeks along the Dnieper, and in the upper reaches of the Dnieper it was dragged to Lovat, and along Lovat you can enter Ilmen, lake great; Volkhov flows out of the same lake and flows into the lake the great Nevo, and the mouth of that lake flows into the Varangian Sea ... And on that sea you can sail to Rome, and from Rome you can sail along that sea to Tsargrad, and from Tsargrad you can sail to Pontus is the sea into which the Dnieper River flows. The Dnieper flows out of the Okovsky forest and flows south, and the Dvina flows from the same forest and heads north and flows into the Varangian Sea. From the same forest, the Volga flows to the east and flows through seventy mouths into the Khvalis Sea. So from Russia you can sail along the Volga to the Bolgars and Khvalissy, and further east to go to the lot of Sim, and along the Dvina to the land of the Varangians, and from the Varangians to Rome, from Rome to the Ham tribe. And the Dnieper flows at its mouth into the Pontic Sea; this sea is reputed to be Russian.
In addition, after the death of Rurik in 879 in Novgorod, power passed to the leader of one of the Varangian detachments - Oleg.
In 882, Oleg undertook a campaign against Kyiv, by deceit he killed the Kiev princes Askold and Dir (the last of the Kyi family).

This date (882) is traditionally considered the date of formation of the Old Russian state. Kyiv became the center of the united state.
There is a point of view that Oleg's campaign against Kyiv was the first act in the dramatic age-old struggle between pro-Christian and pro-pagan forces in Russia (after the baptism of Askold and his associates, the tribal nobility, the priests turn to the pagan princes of Novgorod for help). Supporters of this point of view pay attention to the fact that Oleg's campaign against Kyiv in 882 was least of all like a conquest (there is not a word about armed clashes along the way in the sources, all cities along the Dnieper opened their gates).
Old Russian state arose thanks to the original political creativity of the Russian people.
Slavic tribes lived in clans and communities, engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing. Located between Europe and Asia, they were subjected to constant military invasions and robberies from the steppe nomads and northern pirates, so history itself forced them to choose or hire princes with squads for self-defense and maintaining order.
Thus, from a territorial agricultural community with professional armed and administrative bodies operating on a permanent basis, the Old Russian state arose, in the foundation of which two political principles of social coexistence participated: 1) one-man or monarchical in the person of the prince and 2) democratic - represented by a veche assembly people.

Summing up what has been said, we note, first of all, that the period of the settlement of the Slavic peoples, the emergence of a class society among them and the formation of the ancient Slavic states, is poorly, but still covered by written sources.
At the same time, more ancient period The origin of the ancient Slavs and their initial development is almost completely devoid of reliable written sources.
Therefore, the origin of the ancient Slavs can be elucidated only on the basis of archaeological materials, which in this case are of paramount importance.
Migration ancient Slavs, contacts with local population and the transition to settled life in the new lands led to the emergence of the East Slavic ethnic group, which consisted of more than a dozen tribal unions.
basis economic activity Eastern Slavs became, mainly due to the settled way of life, agriculture. The role of crafts and foreign trade increased noticeably.
Under the new conditions, a transition began from tribal democracy to a military one, and from a tribal community to an agricultural one.
The beliefs of the Eastern Slavs became more complex. The syncretic Rod, the main god of the Slavic hunters, is being replaced with the development of agriculture, the deification of individual forces of nature comes. At the same time, the inconsistency of the existing cults with the needs of the development of the East Slavic world is increasingly felt.
In the VI - the middle of the IX century. the Slavs retained the foundations of the communal system: communal ownership of land and livestock, arming of all free people, regulation social relations through tradition and common law, eternal democracy.
Trade and war among the Eastern Slavs, alternately replacing each other, increasingly changed the way of life of the Slavic tribes, bringing them close to the formation new system relations.
The Eastern Slavs underwent changes caused by both their own internal development and the influence of external forces, which together created the conditions for the formation of the state.

Where there are morals without enlightenment, or enlightenment without morals, it is impossible to enjoy happiness and freedom for a long time.

If we move along the East European Plain from north to south, then we have successively 15 East Slavic tribes will appear:

1. Ilmen Slovenes, the center of which was Novgorod the Great, standing on the banks of the Volkhov River, which flowed from Lake Ilmen and on whose lands there were many other cities, which is why the neighboring Scandinavians called the possessions of the Slovenes "gardarika", that is, "land of cities".

These were: Ladoga and Beloozero, Staraya Russa and Pskov. The Ilmen Slovenes got their name from the name of Lake Ilmen, which is in their possession and was also called the Slovenian Sea. For residents remote from real seas, the lake, 45 versts long and about 35 wide, seemed huge, which is why it bore its second name - the sea.

2. Krivichi, living in the interfluve of the Dnieper, Volga and Western Dvina, around Smolensk and Izborsk, Yaroslavl and Rostov the Great, Suzdal and Murom.

Their name came from the name of the founder of the tribe, Prince Kriv, who apparently received the nickname Krivoy, from a natural deficiency. Subsequently, the people called Krivich a person who is insincere, deceitful, capable of prevaricating, from whom you will not expect the truth, but you will encounter falsehood. (Moscow subsequently arose on the lands of the Krivichi, but you will read about this later.)

3. Polotsk settled on the Polot River, at its confluence with the Western Dvina. At the confluence of these two rivers, there was the main city of the tribe - Polotsk, or Polotsk, the name of which is also produced by the hydronym: "the river along the border with the Latvian tribes" - lats, years.

Dregovichi, Radimichi, Vyatichi and northerners lived to the south and southeast of the Polochans.

4. Dregovichi lived on the banks of the river Accept, getting their name from the words "dregva" and "dryagovina", meaning "swamp". Here were the cities of Turov and Pinsk.

5. Radimichi, living in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Sozha, were called by the name of their first prince Radim, or Radimir.

6. Vyatichi were the easternmost ancient Russian tribe, having received their name, like the Radimichi, on behalf of their progenitor, Prince Vyatko, which was an abbreviated name Vyacheslav. Old Ryazan was located in the land of the Vyatichi.

7. Northerners occupied the rivers of the Desna, the Seimas and the Courts and in ancient times were the northernmost East Slavic tribe. When the Slavs settled as far as Novgorod the Great and Beloozero, they retained their former name, although its original meaning was lost. In their lands there were cities: Novgorod Seversky, Listven and Chernigov.

8. Glades, inhabiting the lands around Kyiv, Vyshgorod, Rodnya, Pereyaslavl, were called so from the word "field". The cultivation of the fields became their main occupation, which led to the development of agriculture, cattle breeding and animal husbandry. The glades went down in history as a tribe, to a greater extent than others, contributing to the development of ancient Russian statehood.

The neighbors of the glades in the south were Rus, Tivertsy and Ulichi, in the north - the Drevlyans and in the west - the Croats, Volynians and Buzhans.

9. Russia- the name of one, far from the largest East Slavic tribe, which, because of its name, became the most famous both in the history of mankind and in historical science, because in disputes over its origin, scientists and publicists broke many copies and spilled rivers of ink. Many prominent scholars - lexicographers, etymologists and historians - derive this name from the name of the Normans, almost universally accepted in the 9th-10th centuries, - the Rus. The Normans, known to the Eastern Slavs as the Varangians, conquered Kyiv and the surrounding lands around 882. During their conquests, which took place for 300 years - from the 8th to the 11th centuries - and covered all of Europe - from England to Sicily and from Lisbon to Kyiv - they sometimes left their name behind the conquered lands. For example, the territory conquered by the Normans in the north of the Frankish kingdom was called Normandy.

Opponents of this point of view believe that the name of the tribe comes from the hydronym - the river Ros, from which later the whole country began to be called Russia. And in the XI-XII centuries, Rus began to be called the lands of Rus, glades, northerners and Radimichi, some territories inhabited by streets and Vyatichi. Supporters of this point of view consider Russia no longer as a tribal or ethnic union, but as a political state formation.

10. Tivertsy occupied spaces along the banks of the Dniester, from its middle course to the mouth of the Danube and the shores of the Black Sea. The most probable seems to be their origin, their names from the river Tivr, as the ancient Greeks called the Dniester. Their center was the city of Cherven on the western bank of the Dniester. The Tivertsy bordered on the nomadic tribes of the Pechenegs and Polovtsians and, under their blows, retreated to the north, mixing with the Croats and Volynians.

11. Convict were the southern neighbors of the Tivertsy, occupying lands in the Lower Dnieper, on the banks of the Bug and the Black Sea coast. Their main city was Peresechen. Together with the Tivertsy, they retreated to the north, where they mixed with the Croats and Volynians.

12. Drevlyans lived along the Teterev, Uzh, Uborot and Sviga rivers, in Polissya and on the right bank of the Dnieper. Their main city was Iskorosten on the Uzh River, and besides, there were other cities - Ovruch, Gorodsk, several others, whose names we do not know, but their traces remained in the form of settlements. The Drevlyans were the most hostile East Slavic tribe in relation to the Polans and their allies, who formed the Old Russian state with its center in Kyiv. They were decisive enemies of the first Kiev princes, even killed one of them - Igor Svyatoslavovich, for which the prince of the Drevlyans Mal, in turn, was killed by Igor's widow, Princess Olga.

The Drevlyans lived in dense forests, getting their name from the word "tree" - a tree.

13. Croats who lived around the city of Przemysl on the river. San, called themselves white Croats, in contrast to the tribe of the same name with them, who lived in the Balkans. The name of the tribe is derived from the ancient Iranian word "shepherd, guardian of cattle", which may indicate its main occupation - cattle breeding.

14. Volynians represented a tribal association formed on the territory where the Duleb tribe previously lived. Volynians settled on both banks of the Western Bug and in the upper reaches of the Pripyat. Their main city was Cherven, and after Volyn was conquered by the Kievan princes, a new city, Vladimir-Volynsky, was established on the Luga River in 988, which gave its name to the Vladimir-Volyn principality that formed around it.

15. To a tribal association that arose in the habitat dulebov, In addition to the Volynians, the Buzhans, who were located on the banks of the Southern Bug, were also included. There is an opinion that Volhynians and Buzhans were one tribe, and their independent names came about only as a result of different habitats. According to written foreign sources, the Buzhans occupied 230 "cities" - most likely, they were fortified settlements, and the Volynians - 70. Be that as it may, these figures indicate that Volyn and the Bug region were rather densely populated.

The same applies to the lands and peoples bordering on the Eastern Slavs, this picture looked like this: Finno-Ugric tribes lived in the north: Cheremis, Chud Zavolochskaya, all, Korela, Chud; in the northwest lived the Balto-Slavic tribes: Kors, Zemigola, Zhmud, Yatvingians and Prussians; in the west - Poles and Hungarians; in the southwest - Volohi (ancestors of the Romanians and Moldovans); in the east - the Burtases, the related Mordovians and the Volga-Kama Bulgarians. Outside these lands lay "terra incognita" - an unknown land, which the Eastern Slavs learned about only after their knowledge of the world greatly expanded with the advent of a new religion in Russia - Christianity, and at the same time writing, which was the third sign of civilization .

The Tale of Bygone Years tells about the settlement of Slavic tribes. At first, according to the chronicler, the Slavs lived on the Danube, then they settled along the Vistula, Dnieper, and Volga. The author indicates which tribes spoke the Slavic language, and which - in other languages: “Se bo tokmo, the Slovene language in Russia: Polyana, Drevlyans, Novgorodtsy, Polochans, Dregovichi, Sever, Buzhan, zane sedosha along the Bug, after de -Lynyans. And this is the essence of other languages ​​​​and others give tribute to Russia: Chyud, Merya, Ves, Muroma, Cheremis, Mordva, Perm, Pechera, Yam, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Norova, Lib. These are the essence of their language property from the tribe of Afetov, who live in the midnight countries. The chronicler also gives a description of the life and customs of the Slavs: “... I live each with my family and in their places, owning each with their family in their places”, etc.

Vyatichi

Vyatichi, an ancient Russian tribe that lived in part of the river basin. Okie. The chronicle considers the legendary Vyatko to be the ancestor of V.: “And Vyatko is gray-haired with his family according to Otse, from whom they are called Vyatichi.” Vyatichi were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding; up to 10-11 centuries. Vyatichi retained the patriarchal tribal system, in the 11-14 centuries. feudal relations developed. In the 9th-10th centuries. The Vyatichi paid tribute to the Khazars, later to the Kiev princes, but until the beginning of the 12th century. Vyatichi defended their political independence. In the 11th-12th centuries. on the land of the Vyatichi, a number of craft cities arose - Moscow, Koltesk, Dedoslav, Nerinsk, etc. In the 2nd half of the 12th century. the Vyatichi land was divided between the Suzdal and Chernigov princes. In the 14th century Vyatichi are no longer mentioned in the annals. The early burial mounds of the Vyatichi, containing cremations, are known from the upper Oka and the upper Don. They contain several burials of relatives. The pagan burial rite persisted until the 14th century. From 12th-14th centuries Numerous small mounds of the Vyatichi with corpses reached.

Lit .: Artsikhovsky A. V., Vyatichi barrows, M., 1930; Tretyakov P. N., East Slavic tribes, 2nd ed., M., 1953.

Krivichi (East Slavic tribal association)

Krivichi, an East Slavic tribal association of the 6th-10th centuries, occupying vast areas in the upper reaches of the Dnieper, Volga and Western Dvina, as well as the southern part of the Lake Peipsi basin. Archaeological monuments - mounds (with cremations) in the form of long rampart-like mounds, the remains of agricultural settlements and settlements, where traces of iron-working, blacksmithing, jewelry and other crafts were found. The main centers are Smolensk, Polotsk, Izborsk and possibly Pskov. The composition of K. included numerous Baltic ethnic groups. At the end of the 9th-10th centuries. rich burials of warriors with weapons appeared; there are especially many of them in the Gnezdovsky barrows. According to the chronicle, before they were included in the Kievan state (in the second half of the 9th century), they had their own reign. The last time the name of K. was mentioned in the annals was in 1162, when the Smolensk and Polotsk principalities had already formed on the land of K., and its northwestern part became part of the Novgorod possessions. K. played an important role in the colonization of the Volga-Klyazma interfluve.

Lit .: Dovnar-Zapolsky M., Essay on the history of the Krivichi and Dregovichi lands until the end of the XII century, K., 1891; Tretyakov P. N., East Slavic tribes, 2nd ed., M., 1953; Sedov V.V., Krivichi, "Soviet archeology", 1960, No. 1.

POLYANES - a Slavic tribe that lived along the Dnieper. “It’s the same with the Slovenes who came and grayed along the Dnieper and swung across the clearing,” the chronicle reports. In addition to Kyiv, the Polyany owned the cities of Vyshgorod, Vasilev, and Belgorod. The name Polyana comes from the word "field" - treeless space. The Kiev Dnieper region was already mastered by farmers in Scythian times. A significant part of the Dnieper forest-steppe, according to some researchers, belonged to another Slavic tribe - the northerners. The meadows buried their dead both in graves and by burning.

RADIMICHI - union of tribes c. Slavs in the interfluve of the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Desna. The main region is the river basin. Sozh. The culture is similar to other Slavic tribes. Main features: seven-ray temporal rings. The dead were burned on the site of mounds on a special bedding. From the 12th century they began to place the dead in pits specially dug under the mounds.

Russian Slavs and their neighbors

As for the Slavs, ancient place their residence in Europe was, apparently, the northern slopes of the Carpathian mountains, where the Slavs under the name of the Wends, Antes and Sklavens were known in Roman, Gothic and Hun times. From here, the Slavs dispersed in different directions: to the south (Balkan Slavs), to the west (Czechs, Moravians, Poles) and to the east (Russian Slavs). The eastern branch of the Slavs came to the Dnieper, probably as early as the 7th century. and, gradually settling, reached Lake Ilmen and the upper Oka. Of the Russian Slavs near the Carpathians, Croats and Volynians (Dulebs, Buzhans) remained. Polyany, Drevlyans and Dregovichi settled on the right bank of the Dnieper and on its right tributaries. The northerners, Radimichi and Vyatichi crossed the Dnieper and sat down on its left tributaries, and the Vyatichi managed to advance even to the Oka. The Krivichi also left the Dnieper system to the north, to the upper reaches of the Volga and the West. The Dvina, and their Slovene branch, occupied the river system of Lake Ilmen. In their movement up the Dnieper, on the northern and northeastern outskirts of their new settlements, the Slavs came into close proximity to the Finnish tribes and gradually pushed them further north and northeast. At the same time, Lithuanian tribes turned out to be neighbors of the Slavs in the north-west, gradually retreating to the Baltic Sea before the onslaught of Slavic colonization. On the eastern outskirts, from the side of the steppes, the Slavs, in turn, suffered a lot from the nomadic Asian newcomers. As we already know, the Slavs especially "tormented" obras (Avars). Later, the meadows, northerners, Radimichi and Vyatichi, who lived to the east of other relatives, in greater proximity to the steppes, were conquered by the Khazars, one might say, became part of the Khazar state. So the initial neighborhood of the Russian Slavs was determined.

The most savage of all the tribes neighboring the Slavs was the Finnish tribe, which constituted one of the branches of the Mongol race. Within the boundaries of present-day Russia, the Finns lived from time immemorial, subject to the influence of both the Scythians and Sarmatians, and later the Goths, the Turks, Lithuanians and Slavs. Dividing into many small peoples (chud, whole, em, Estonians, Merya, Mordovians, Cheremis, Votyaks, Zyryans and many others), the Finns occupied the vast forest spaces of the entire Russian north with their rare settlements. Scattered and having no internal structure, the weak Finnish peoples remained in primitive savagery and simplicity, easily succumbing to any invasion of their lands. They quickly submitted to more cultured newcomers and assimilated with them, or, without noticeable struggle, ceded their lands to them and left them to the north or east. Thus, with the gradual settlement of the Slavs in central and northern Russia, the mass of Finnish lands passed to the Slavs, and the Russified Finnish element peacefully poured into the Slavic population. Only occasionally, where the Finnish priests-shamans (according to the old Russian name "magicians" and "magicians") raised their people to fight, did the Finns stand against the Russians. But this struggle ended with the invariable victory of the Slavs, and which began in the VIII-X centuries. Russification of the Finns continued steadily and continues to this day. Simultaneously with the Slavic influence on the Finns, a strong influence began on them from Turkic people Bulgarians of the Volga (named so in contrast to the Bulgarians of the Danube). The nomadic Bulgarians who came from the lower reaches of the Volga to the mouths of the Kama settled here and, not limited to nomads, built cities in which a lively trade began. Arab and Khazar merchants brought their goods here from the south along the Volga (by the way, silver utensils, dishes, bowls, etc.); here they exchanged them for valuable furs delivered from the north by the Kama and the upper Volga. Relations with the Arabs and Khazars spread Mohammedanism and some education among the Bulgarians. Bulgarian cities (especially Bolgar or Bulgar on the Volga itself) became very influential centers for the entire region of the upper Volga and Kama, inhabited by Finnish tribes. The influence of the Bulgarian cities also affected the Russian Slavs, who traded with the Bulgarians, and subsequently were at enmity with them. Politically, the Volga Bulgarians were not a strong people. Initially dependent on the Khazars, they had, however, a special khan and many kings or princes subordinate to him. With the fall of the Khazar kingdom, the Bulgarians existed independently, but they suffered a lot from Russian raids and were finally ruined in the 13th century. Tatars. Their descendants, the Chuvash, now represent a weak and poorly developed tribe. The Lithuanian tribes (Lithuania, Zhmud, Latvians, Prussians, Yotvingians, etc.), which constitute a special branch of the Aryan tribe, already in ancient times (in the 2nd century A.D.) inhabited those places where the Slavs later found them. Lithuanian settlements occupied the basins of the Neman and Zap rivers. Dvina and from the Baltic Sea reached the river. Pripyat and the sources of the Dnieper and Volga. Retreating gradually before the Slavs, the Lithuanians concentrated along the Neman and the West. Dvina in dense forests the strip closest to the sea and there for a long time retained their original way of life. Their tribes were not united, they were divided into separate clans and were mutually hostile. The religion of the Lithuanians consisted in the deification of the forces of nature (Perkun is the god of thunder, among the Slavs - Perun), in the veneration of dead ancestors and was generally at a low level of development. Contrary to the old stories about Lithuanian priests and various sanctuaries, it is now proven that the Lithuanians had neither an influential priestly class nor solemn religious ceremonies. Each family made sacrifices to the gods and gods, revered animals and sacred oaks, treated the souls of the dead and engaged in fortune-telling. The rough and harsh life of the Lithuanians, their poverty and savagery put them below the Slavs and forced Lithuania to cede to the Slavs those of their lands to which Russian colonization was directed. In the same places where the Lithuanians directly neighbored the Russians, they noticeably succumbed to their cultural influence.

In the course of two thousand years of development, the Slavs settled all over the world. Today they live not only in the Old World. Under the pressure of various circumstances, many of their representatives moved to America, both North and South, they can be found in Australia and New Zealand, in some fears of Asia and even Africa.

But the bulk of the Slavs, compactly and within the states they created, live in Europe. It was here, in the European expanses, that their ethnogenesis took place (a literal translation from the ancient Greek - “the birth of a people”), it is here that today all Slavic states: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and, of course, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia.

But how did the ethnogenesis mentioned above take place? How did the Slavs, and especially the Eastern Slavs, live in the pre-state period of their history? All this will be discussed below.

Origin of the Slavs

Slavic tribes are autochthonous (local, indigenous) population of Europe.

One of the main hallmarks for any nation is its native language.

The emergence of languages ​​is ruined in the darkness of centuries and millennia. Languages ​​arise, develop along with their speakers, and sometimes disappear. All the languages ​​of the peoples inhabiting our planet are divided into language families.

Slavs belong to the Indo-European language family. Where exactly it took shape is debatable. But most scholars believe that this happened somewhere between the middle reaches of the Danube and Vistula in the west and the Dnieper in the east. Hence, wave after wave, the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans (Proto-Indo-Europeans) settled in Europe and Asia, while retaining in their languages ​​the elements indicating the commonality of their origin, and laying the foundation for the tribes of Indian, Iranian, Greek, Italic, Celtic, and many others. Among them - and Slavic.

The ethnogenesis of the Slavs is also the subject of scientific discussions. Someone dates its beginning to the collapse of the Proto-Indo-European community mentioned above (somewhere in the fourth millennium BC). Someone sees the ancestors of the Slavs in the creators of the Tripoli culture. Someone prefers to talk about later times, close to our era, or even about its first centuries.

The name of the Slavic tribes in antiquity

There is a strong opinion that the Slavic tribes in antiquity are mentioned by ancient authors under the name of Venedi or Veneti. Perhaps Herodotus (5th century BC) refers to them when he reports on the amber brought from Eridanus from the Aenetes. Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela (both lived in the 1st century) place the Venets east of the Vistula (Vistula). Claudius Ptolemy calls the Baltic Sea the Venedian Gulf, and the Carpathians, respectively, the Venedian Mountains.

The Tale of Bygone Years derives the origin of the Slavs from the Old Testament Japhet and identifies them with the Norics - the Adriatic or Illyrian Venets. These latter were almost indisputably connected with the Veneti of the Baltic ancient sources, which is also confirmed by the study of the corresponding archaeological cultures.

The name of the Slavic tribes "Veneti" is also kept by other sources testifying to the life of the Slavic tribes. The most authoritative and most indisputable of them is the message of the Gothic historian Jordanes (VI century). In his Getica, he speaks of the Veneti as a populous tribe subordinate to the Ostrogothic king Germanaric in the fourth century.

In Jordanian times, the Venets were already divided according to their place of residence and names. The most numerous for the Gothic historian seem to be Antes and Sclavins. Probably, these were already the first pro-state associations - tribal unions. Strong and warlike, they "everywhere," says Jordan bitterly, "are rampant for our sins."

The area of ​​settlement of the Slavic tribes in antiquity is also extensive.

The Gothic historian places Sklavens (Sklavian tribal union) between a certain Mursiysky lake (obviously Neusiedler See, on the border of modern Hungary and Austria) - in the west, the Vistula - in the north and the Dniester - in the east.

Anty (antian tribal union) are located between the Dniester and the middle reaches of the Dnieper and are part of the Dnieper-Dniester group of the Chernyakhov culture. Its study made it possible in general terms to reconstruct the management and everyday life of the Ants.

Household Ants

Photo by Gleb Garanich from sfw.so

It follows from archaeological sources that the Antes lived in rural-type settlements, sometimes fortified. They were engaged in arable farming. The main crops for them were:

• wheat,
• barley,
• oats,
• millet,
• peas,
• hemp,
• lentils.

They also worked in metalworking. This is evidenced by both iron and bronze casting workshops, and finds of products made of bronze, iron, and steel.

The Antes used the surplus of products in exchange and trade with their neighbors - the Goths, Sarmatians, Scythians and the provinces of the Roman Empire.

The complication of living conditions led to the complication of social organization. The first forms of political organization are being created - the already mentioned tribal unions of the Slavs and Antes. Why are the unions of Slavic tribes pre-state formations, and not states? This is explained as follows:

• they were based not on territorial division, but on consanguinity;
• they lacked organized power, cut off from the people;
• power was represented by a "tribal triad" - the leader, the council of elders, the people's assembly, which coincided with the military squad.

Why did the separation of the Slavic tribes occur?

Photo by Gleb Garanich from sfw.so

The isolation of the Slavic tribes was subject to the general rules for ethnogenesis. This is indirectly mentioned already in the aforementioned Getica. There venets differ among themselves in accordance with the territories of settlement. The more separate Slavic clans, communities, tribes separated from each other, the more differences were found between them:

• in ways of managing
• in manners and customs
• in patterns of behavior
• in language.

The Great Migration of Peoples significantly influenced the settlement and isolation of the Slavic tribes. Under the onslaught of newcomers (especially the Huns), the Slavs settled in the northern, western and southern directions. After the pressure eased, they continued to move, including in the east direction.

The result was the division of the Slavs into Western, Southern and Eastern.

Western Slavs

The Western Slavs advanced as far as Laba (Elbe), in places even to the west of it. Among them, four main groups are distinguished (sometimes more are distinguished).

Western Slavic tribes, list:

• polish,
• Czech-Moravian,
• Serbo-Lusatian (Polabian),
• Baltic.

In their development, the Western Slavs were not inferior to their neighbors - the Germanic and Celtic tribes.

South Slavs

The movement of the Slavs to the south, towards the Balkans and beyond Byzantine Empire was one of the components of the great migration of peoples at its final stage.

The result was the settlement of the Slavs in the north and northwest of the Balkan Peninsula, up to the coast of the Adriatic. Part of the Slavs established themselves even in Central Greece and the Peloponnese - on the slopes of Taygetus, within ancient Sparta.

Having settled on such a large scale, the southern Slavs are divided into:

• Serbs
• Croats,
• Slovenes
• tribes settled on the territory of the future Bulgaria.

The neighbors of the southern Slavs were local tribes:

• the Illyrians and Thracians whom they assimilated,
• Greeks who inhabited the borders of the Byzantine Empire,
• Franks and other tribes - the heirs of the Western Roman Empire, with whom they were in a complex relationship of mutual influence and rivalry.

East Slavic tribes and their neighbors

Photo by Sergey Supinsky from sfw.so

The Eastern Slavs are known from archaeological and written sources, the main of which is The Tale of Bygone Years.

The East Slavic tribes, which in the future became the main population of the ancient Russian state, after the Hunnic advance, firmly entrenched in a wide range from the Dniester to the Dnieper, and further north - along the Oka, Desna, Pripyat, near Lake Ilmen. The Priilmensky Slavs later form a tribal union, similar to the union of the Ants.

The names of the East Slavic tribes are presented in the sources quite fully, as can be seen from the list below.

East Slavic tribes, list (from southwest to northeast):

• Tivertsy,
• Convict,
• white croats,
• Duleby (bouzhane),
• Drevlyans,
• glade,
• Radimichi,
• northerners,
• Dregovichi,
• Krivichi,
• Ilmen Slovenes,
• Vyatichi.

Let us dwell separately on the places of settlement of the listed tribes. The East Slavic tribes that lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and the southern Bug are represented by streets. They lived in the steppes of the Black Sea, between the channels of both of these rivers.

The Slavic tribe of the Drevlyans grouped around the city mentioned in the Tale as Iskorosten (modern Korosten).

East Slavic tribes living in the forests are more numerous. These include the already mentioned Drevlyans, as well as the northerners, Dregovichi, Krivichi, Ilmen Slovenes, Vyatichi and, in part, Radimichi.

Sources also report which Slavic tribes lived on the left bank of the Dnieper. These include the Radimichi (between the upper reaches of the Dnieper and the Desna) and the northerners (in the region of the Chernihiv region).

The listed tribes were, in essence, each a separate proto-state association, a tribal union such as the union of the Antes and the Slavs of earlier centuries.

Photo by Gleb Garanich from sfw.so

The largest Slavic tribe was the Polyan tribe. It settled along the middle reaches of the Dnieper, finding itself in the very center of the Eastern Slavs, at the crossroads of the most important trade routes. Passed here and the later famous path "from the Varangians to the Greeks", which united the peoples different cultures and civilizations. It was they, the meadows, who consolidated the East Slavic lands that inhabited their peoples. The capital (at first - the main stronghold, the ancient settlement) became Polyan, founded at the end of the fifth - the first half of the sixth century by Prince Kiy, his brothers Shchek and Khoriv and sister Lybed Kyiv. Over time, its importance has grown so much that it has become a kind of capital of the entire East Slavic world. The East Slavic tribes paid tribute to the Kiev princes because they became dependent on them (as was the case, for example, with the Drevlyans). But the main reason was the natural process of consolidation and unification, the need for military protection from strife and attacks by aggressive neighbors.

The neighbors of the Eastern Slavs on different stages were:

• Sarmatians
• Celts
• Huns
• Avars
• Khazars
• Cumans
• Pechenegs
• Magyars
• Bulgars
• Romans (population of the Byzantine Empire)
• Western and Southern Slavs;
• Finns and Balts.

East Slavic tribes in the 8th - 9th centuries

Photo by Gleb Garanich from sfw.so

The greatest threat to the Eastern Slavs in the 6th-7th centuries was the Avars and Khazars. They managed to get rid of the first only at the end of the 8th century, when the Avars were defeated by the joint efforts of the Frankish king Charlemagne and the Slavic tribes.

Dependence on the Khazars proved to be longer. The glade was the first to be freed from it at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th century. Other tribes had to pay tribute to the Khazars until the fall of the Khazar Khaganate in the middle of the 10th century.

During the 8th - 9th centuries, the forms of economic management of the Eastern Slavs remained traditional. In glades, Tivertsy, streets, all those who were allowed by natural and climatic conditions, agriculture continued to develop, with the cultivation of the crops mentioned above. Along with it, beekeeping was practiced (especially in wooded areas). Animal husbandry played an important role. Numerous finds of utensils, inventory, and decorations of local production testify to the success in the development of handicrafts.

The result of success in management, active exchange with numerous neighbors, cultural and civilizational mutual influences was the emergence of settlements and, ultimately, cities among the Eastern Slavs.

Along with Kiev, Chernigov, Suzdal, Novgorod, Smolensk are formed and strengthened. They themselves turn into important political, administrative and cultural centers, centers of exchange and trade, centers of consumption of goods and services. They are led by a local prince, relying on a military squad.

The social organization also becomes more complex. The community turns from a tribal one into a neighboring, territorial one.

From the combatants and other people close to the prince, the heads of influential families and clans, nobility is formed - the future boyars.

The bulk of the community members were smerds. But they were not the same either. The top of this common people were "husbands" or "howls", able to deliver everything they needed to participate in military enterprises. They acted as the heads of large patriarchal families, the younger members of which made up the "servants".

The lowest cell of the communities was occupied by the “serfs” who had become dependent on their more successful relatives.

differing in their position.

Over the next centuries, the Old Russian state, Kievan Rus, will develop from this socio-political organization.